//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Goodbyes 
// Story: Oldnew Luna: After the Dawn 
// by arandompenguin 
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Chapter 2:

They surveyed the paper in front of them, a series of letters set out and ready to deliver. There wasn’t just the letter to Princess Celestia, they also had prepared letters to Twilight’s parents and also one for each of the other elements of harmony wielders. Princess Celestia’s message was a short note informing Celestia that Luna had regained her astral powers, the one to Twilight’s parents read that Twilight would be once more living in Canterlot from now on and they needed to meet up. And finally the letters for their friends told them to meet at the library as soon as possible.

Twilight and Luna glanced at each other and gave a quick nod to indicate their readiness before turning back to the table. A violet aura grew from both their horns and spread over the assembled letters, with a poof they disappeared, hopefully to be received by the respective recipients. Twilight cast her gaze over the library, though she had been here for just over three years now, the quaint library and Ponyville itself had grown on her, everyone seemed so much more accepting and fun than the ponies of Canterlot, not to mention the fact that she had made friends for the first time here in Ponyville and she was loath to leave them. But she knew it was necessary, she had made the decision when she had changed her magical frequency to Luna’s years ago. She gave a sigh and leaned against the mare beside her to await their friends’ arrival.

Luna was looking at nothing in particular, though she now called the library home, it was the ponies she had met in Ponyville that dragged up memories. In all of her long lifetime she had only had a smattering of friends, but a lot of the time they weren’t in it to be friends with Luna, but for some other gain. Here though, even if it had taken a while, she had made friends of the element bearers. It was well over three months of them meeting up with Luna before they had started to treat Luna like a friend and not like a princess. And then there were the thoughts of Twilight. Ever since Luna had started living with her, they had been together, neither of them leaving each other’s company for any length of time. Once Luna took her duties back though, there would be times when she would have to leave Twilight alone for almost the entire day. Though Luna was of course caring about Twilight, there was also the guilty part of her that said that Luna needed Twilight beside her. Luna lifted a foreleg and placed it around Twilight’s neck before resting her head on the other mare.

It wasn’t long before ponies started arriving, and there was little time between each arrival. It seemed like each of the letters had found their destination. Once everypony was settled and Twilight and Luna had taken their place opposite from the other mares. Twilight took a moment to look at each of the ponies in turn, they all wore matching expressions of worry and confusion, even Pinkie Pie.
“You must be wondering why we called you here,” Twilight began, there was an assortment of nods from around the room, “don’t worry, nothing bad has happened.” A couple of relieved sighs arose but they remained looking serious, “I called you here because of Luna, namely the regaining of her alicorn magic.”
“You’re leaving, aren’t you.” Rarity said sadly, it wasn’t a question. Twilight nodded before launching into an explanation for the ponies that hadn’t worked it out yet.

“You guys remember when I told how Luna was only staying here until she regained her magic? Well that happened today. Luna has to go back to Canterlot in order for her to take up her duties again, and-” Twilight’s voice cracked slightly. She gulped and took a deep breath before continuing. “And that means that I have to go too.” Twilight looked down at the floor, blinking back tears. The assembled ponies stayed silent for a while before Rainbow Dash spoke up.
“How long will you be gone for?” She asked slowly, it was Luna who answered.
“Forever, most likely.” The Princess replied solemnly.

Rainbow Dash turned towards Luna with a glare on her face and anger in her eyes.
“You!” She shouted as she jumped to her hooves and pointed a foreleg at the princess accusingly. “This is all your fault!”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said disapprovingly, taking a step forward, but Luna stopped her. Twilight looked at her confusedly.
“No. She’s right.” Luna started, looking deep into Twilight’s eyes, Twilight stared back. “You’ve shown me nothing but kindness, and the only thing I give in return is to take you away from your friends. I- I’m not worthy.” Luna said, a single tear running down her face. She bit her lip as if she wanted to say more but couldn’t, she turned and walked away into their bedroom.

Twilight looked after Luna longingly, wanting to go and comfort her but knowing she needed to stay and explain things to her friends. Applejack turned to the cyan pegasus that was still standing, though now the anger had dissipated, leaving confusion and not a little shock behind.
“Now look what you did!” Applejack frowned, “Not only did ya get Luna crying, you’ve gone and got Twilight off too!” It was partly true, Twilight was indeed crying, though it was not because of Rainbow Dash, it was empathy with the pain and sorrow Luna was feeling.
“I...” Rainbow Dash began, but she didn’t know what to say so she just stopped and sat herself back down on the couch. 

Applejack shook her head and moved next to Twilight, placing a comforting hoof around Twilight’s neck.
“Listen here Twilight, me an’ the gang are going to be fine, you go attend to yer mare.” Applejack said, rubbing Twilight’s back consolingly, Twilight nodded distractedly. She took one last look around the room. Fluttershy looked like she was trying to shrink into nothing, Pinkie Pie was uncharacteristically still and her mane seemed flatter than normal, Rainbow Dash looked shocked, Rarity looked determinedly neutral though you could see the emotion in her eyes, and Applejack was smiling sadly at Twilight, urging her on. Twilight braved a small smile was more like a grimace before departing to the bedroom and shutting the door behind her.

Pinkie Pie slowly got up from her perch on the side of the couch and walked out of the library door in silence. Rarity watched her go and worriedly trotted after her. Rainbow Dash glanced at Fluttershy before pointing to the sky, indicating she wanted to speak to the other pegasus privately, Fluttershy nodded and they flew out. This left Applejack on her own, standing there in the middle of the library. She sighed to herself and left, closing the door behind her.

In the bedroom Twilight had her forelegs around Luna’s head and was holding it to her chest as the blue mare sniffled and tried, largely unsuccessfully, to hold back tears. Twilight gently stroked Luna’s mane soothingly.
“I- I’m sorry.” Luna managed to get out, Twilight nodded slowly.
“It’s okay.” Twilight replied, stuck for what to say. Eventually though she decided she should assuage some of Luna’s fears. “I don’t think you’re unworthy.” Twilight continued, but she inwardly winced at her words as they made it seem like Twilight was all high and mighty. Luna didn’t seem to take notice of that though and just shook her head, face still buried in Twilight’s chest.

They sat like that for an indeterminable amount of time, Twilight feeling really awkward. She had next to no knowledge on how to console someone, and she doubted the small bit she had read would be much use in this situation. Especially considering that the titbit she could recall was from ‘How to tell your filly that their has pet died’. Finally Luna seemed to calm down, at least, calm down enough to lift her head away from Twilight. She looked straight into her eyes, searching them for any signs of ill will, there were none.
“I’m sorry.” Luna repeated with a final sniffle, though this time she was apologising for her breakdown. Twilight nodded in understanding, sometimes you just had to get things like that off your chest.
“You okay now?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah.” Came the reply, with a small smile.

Just after Luna replied a bright yellow flash heralded the arrival of a letter from Princess Celestia. Twilight caught it as it fell and unrolled it in one, well practiced, movement. She held it so that Luna could see it too and they both read it.

‘Dear Luna and Twilight,
I received your message and will make preparations for your return and stay. If there is anything in particular you want can you please reply, also can you tell me when you want to be picked up?
From Celestia’

Over the two years that Luna and Twilight had been living together, they must have sent hundreds of letters back and forth between them and Celestia. To begin with they were formal, written like a princess might write to a subject. Though as time wore on, the formality barrier dissipated, Celestia acting more like a friend instead of a teacher. Twilight didn’t mind, though she still felt a pang over the memories of Celestia teaching her as a young mare.

Twilight and Luna glanced at each other and Luna gave a small nod, they both knew what to write. Twilight quickly jotted out the reply and Luna sent it after checking it through a couple of times.

‘Dear Celestia,
We would like it if we were picked up tomorrow in the early morning, that should give us enough time to prepare and hopefully the same for you. Also, we would like it if me and Luna shared the same bed.
From Twilight and Luna’

Luna seemed mostly back to normal now and fairly composed so Twilight got her to follow. Twilight led her towards the basement and opened the door. After Spike hit his teens, he decided that he would like a room to himself instead of sleeping in the kitchen. Twilight had readily agreed but the question remained of where they were supposed to fit him. Eventually they managed to move enough stuff around in the basement to create enough room for a growing dragon. Also in recent times Spike had become more reclusive, spending a lot of his time either in his room or out with Applebloom. Their relationship had grown in the years past and was now stronger than ever with rarely a day going by where they didn’t meet up. Twilight didn’t try to stop him, in fact she encouraged him. She knew from her limited knowledge of dragons that they had to learn to be independent or they would forever rely on its mother (or in this case, Twilight). And when said mother died, the dragon would be helpless. She hoped that as morbid as that was, she could apply that to the situation at the moment.

Twilight announced her arrival like she did each time she went into Spike’s room, it was just one of the many unspoken rules that had been created.
“Spike? It’s me.” Twilight said as she carefully manoeuvred herself down the steps with Luna in tow. She reached the bottom and looked around the room. It was illuminated by a glowing orb that hung just above the bed that took up the majority of the room. Her eyes then fell on the dragon that was sitting on the bed, apparently just awakened. Spike had grown in the couple of years past and was now just smaller than Luna, initially Twilight thought this might become a problem for him and his relationship but Applebloom didn’t seem to mind. Also, it wasn’t like Applebloom hadn’t hit a growth spurt either now she that was getting into the age of puberty.

Spike rubbed his eyes blearily and focussed on Twilight and Luna.
“Oh, hey guys. What’s up?” Spike said as he stretched various limbs, his voice cracked slightly half-way through, his normally quite high pitched voice giving way to a deeper one. Twilight smiled at him, but it was tinted with sadness. Luna hung back in the shadows, content with letting Twilight dealing with this, she was after all almost a sister to the dragon.
“Spike? I have something important to talk to you about.” Twilight sat herself down beside Spike and looked him in the eyes to convey the seriousness of the situation, Spike nodded. “It’s about Luna’s alicorn magic.” Another nod, “Namely the fact that me and Luna will have to leave to Canterlot.” Spike stopped half-way through his nod, suddenly getting what Twilight was talking about.
“When are you leaving?” Spike asked.
“Tomorrow.” Came the reply, Spike chewed on his lip in concentration.
“Am I coming?” The dragon questioned.
“Well, that’s the thing. From what I know, it’s around this time that dragons usually start living on their own, like those dragons you met during the dragon migration. That means that I’m going to have to give the decision to you.” Twilight neglected to add ‘no matter how much it pains me’ to her words, letting that go unsaid.

Spike was silent, no longer looking at Twilight but instead at the floor as he pondered his answer.
“I-” Spike began, but stopped.
“It’s okay, we can leave and come back tomorrow or something if you need some time to think.” Twilight replied, reassuringly putting a foreleg around the young dragon. Spike shook his head.
“No, it’s fine. I... umm.” He took a deep breath and frowned. “I’m going to stay here.” He told her quickly with an air of finality, as if trying to get it out before he changed his mind. Twilight nodded, a small tear appeared at the edge of her left eye, but it was ignored. Spike smiled sadly at her and gave her a hug, holding her tight.
“I’m going to miss you.” Twilight told him as they pulled apart, it was a massive understatement.
“I’ll miss you too.” Spike replied, obviously fighting back tears of his own.
“I’ll get Applejack to check up on you every so often.” Twilight decided, Spike nodded. He wanted to argue against it but he knew it would be best if he agreed for now. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She continued as she got off the bed and moved over to the stairs.
“See you.” Spike replied.
“Bye, Spike.” Luna said, speaking up.
“Bye, Luna.” Spike said, he went back to staring at the floor, deep in thought.

Luna gently closed the door behind them.
“You okay?” Luna asked, Twilight shook her head sadly.
“No. But come on, we need to prepare.” Twilight said, her words melancholy. Luna nodded and they went into the bedroom to pack.