//------------------------------//
// What they don't talk about when they talk about love 
// Story: The Choice of Each Other 
// by Penguifyer 
//------------------------------//


The Choice of Each Other


By Penguifyer


Luna didn’t get it. Everything she knew told her that this shouldn’t be this hard.
The issues began about two months into the relationship. Twilight's royal duties ramped up as Celestia relegated more responsibilities to her. Multiple dates each week turned to just one, and then to once every other week. To make matters worse, most of Luna’s work among pony dreams was at night, often ensuring one of them was working while the other was sleeping.
Then after two weeks of not seeing each other, Luna sent a letter to Twilight asking if they could go on a date this weekend. It took over an hour for Twilight to get back to her, something uncharacteristic of her. As soon as a green puff of smoke flew in through her window and materialized into a scroll (probably from Spike), Luna snatched it from the air with her telekinesis. Ripping off the seal, she hesitated for a second before unrolling the scroll and mumbling the message inside.
“Dear Luna, I’m sorry…”
It was already bad news.
“ …but I can’t make it this weekend. There was a crisis between the Yaks and a new pony settlement in the mountains and they need me to help bring tensions down. I know I’ve been really busy lately. I’ll make it up to you.
“Love, Twilight.”
Luna sighed and set the scroll on her desk. She hated it but part of her saw this coming. She’d admit she wasn’t the best communicator and sometimes waited too long to reach out. But something here felt wrong. She needed help.


—	—	—


“I just… I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
Shining Armor looked into Luna’s eyes and let out a faint “huh.” His disheveled mane screamed "I work too much" along with his shaggy coat as dark circles peeked out underneath his eyes. His neck slouched forward and hung heavy over his body.
Luna continued. “I know I wasn’t around for a while and there’s much that I don’t understand because of that. But I was hoping that understanding you and Cadance would help me better understand Twilight and myself.”
Shining tilted his head “I’m gonna be honest, that’s a tricky question. I’m not sure…”
“Daddy!”
Luna and Shining turned towards the door as a teary-eyed Flurry Heart stumbled through it. In her mouth was her favorite Snail plushie with a massive rip along its neck, its head hanging only by a thread. 
Shining sighed, forcing a smile. “What’s wrong, Flurry?”
She stuttered a tad over her tears. “I-I was playing with Mr. Snail by the fireplace and he got caught on a hook. When I tried to pull him down, this happened.” She dropped the plush on the ground in front of them, the tear on full display.
“Flurry, I’m speaking with auntie Luna right now, can you give me a minute?”
She nearly cut him off. “But what am I gonna do?”
“I’m sure he’ll be okay. We’ll send him to aunt Rarity and she’ll fix him up.”
Tears swelled in her eyes again. “But last time that took a week.”
“It’s why we need to be… actually…” His horn lit up, prodding at the various drawers and shelves in the room. “Cadance doesn’t use this often, but I think it might be… there it is!” A drawer opened up as a needle and a spool of twine floated to him. Magic engulfed the plush too as it levitated in front of Shining. After threading the needle with the twine, Shining brought the seams of the plush’s neck together and stabbed the needle through the fabric. The needle shook as it passed in and out of the fabric, its accuracy passable at best.
A minute of tense threading later and Shining tied and cut off the twine, floating the plush down to Flurry. He let out a huge sigh. “Now, Flurry, Mr. Snail is not all better yet and you need to be gentle with him. Next time we see Rarity, I’ll make sure she makes him all better.”
“Thank you, Dad!” she squeaked, grabbing the plush with her mouth and darting out of the room.
Shining collapsed into his chair as Luna smiled. “How long does it usually last?”
“Almost a week now, she’s getting better at listening,” he chuckled. “Did you get it? I think that answered your question.”
Luna raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”
“Let me explain. The day before my wedding, my father sat me down and was very clear to me: ‘Son, someday the romance will die, and when it does you’ll have to choose your wife and family.’ I didn’t think much about it at the time and honestly, my wedding was a bit of a blur.”
Luna chuckled at that.
“Then my wife became ruler of the Crystal Empire and then I had a kid. I could’ve said no to Flurry right there, and I might’ve been justified in doing so. But I didn’t, and I think that’s important.”
He shuffled in his chair after glancing at the clock. “I’m not sure if that answers your question, but it’s the best I got right now.”
Luna smiled. “Actually, I think that’s exactly what I needed.”


—	—	—


The first letter Twilight received from Luna asking her for a date caught her a little off guard, but she should’ve expected it. The last time they tried long-distance teleportation, they learned that the spell’s accuracy decreased a little more than expected. She didn’t want to blow Luna off, but she had to put Equestria first. The whole situation was frustrating and a mess. And in the time since she messaged Luna, another diplomatic crisis occurred in Saddle Arabia. At that point, she wanted to rip her mane out. So when Luna sent her another letter that weekend, it felt like stabbing herself in the gut saying no again.
It was the third letter, however, that surprised her. She expected Luna to be much more upset and probably not speak to her for a week or two. Yet, nothing in the letter indicated any negative feelings. She still had to say no since she was invited to a charity fundraising event with several of Equestria’s highest corporate executives and owners. She still felt bad, but she was also a bit confused. She couldn’t tell if that was a problem or not.
When the fourth letter came, confusion overtook her surprise. On one hoof, there was no reason Luna should still be nice to her. On the other hoof, she finally had a free weekend. She agreed as turning down this kind of persistence would be truly selfish.
All of this brought her to the present, the two of them sitting across a table from each other at a nice restaurant in Canterlot. Yet they were utterly silent.
Twilight, knowing it was time to come clean, decided to speak first.
“So, um… I’m…”
“Isn’t it nice to see each other again!” Luna burst, shaking the table and almost knocking over the wine. “I mean, it’s been so long. I’ve experienced many fascinating dreams from our little ponies since. Some of which might pique your interest.”
Twilight leaned back and turned her head. “Yeah, sure. Elaborate.”
“Well, there was this one colt who dreamed about finding a sort of dream-catching artifact deep inside a hidden tomb within a cave system.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. Was Luna stalling or something?
She continued. “It seemed odd at the time so I took what I could remember of the artifact and looked for anything similar in one of Starswirl’s Book of Artifacts. Pecularliarly, I found one strikingly similar to that which I saw in the dream. I hypothesize that it might actually exist. I'm planning on returning to his dream later and see if I can find any details that would allow me to locate it.”
And she didn’t look like she was stopping.
“I’m thinking you could probably help…”
“Okay, are you just gonna ignore what happened the last several weeks? Like, I blew you off for crying out loud.”
Luna paused and lowered her head. “Sorry, I wanted to get us on the right hoof first.” 
“It’s my fault, actually. I just don’t want this kind of problem to fester.”
Luna looked past Twilight. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t angry, even if you had greater responsibilities to Equestria. However, we’re thinking of the whole thing wrong.”
Twilight settled down. “What do you mean?”
“We need to fight.”
“Wait, what?”
Luna shook her head. “Let me rephrase that. We need to fight for us. Like it or not, your responsibilities are not going away anytime soon. If we want this to work, we need to make it work. We need to choose each other.”
Luna slid out of her chair and walked up to Twilight, wrapping her hooves around her and whispering into her ear.
“And I’m gonna start by choosing you.”
Twilight slid her hooves around Luna and returned with a squeeze. “I’m sorry. I want to make it work too. I just wish I wasn't so busy quenching every fire that pops up in Equestria.”
Luna gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before pulling away and staring straight at Twilight. “Then let's start with choosing each other now and as much as we can.”
Twilight smiled. “I think I… you know what? Yes."


—	—	—


Hearths Warming came up fast, almost catching Luna off guard. Within two months, snow blanketed much of Equestria, lights dangled from the trees, foals played in the snow, and Luna found herself cuddled up to Twilight on a sofa by a fireplace on Hearth’s Warming Eve. At first, setting up more than one date a week frustrated her with Twilight’s packed schedule. The royal duties increased with the season, making finding an open evening or afternoon rather difficult. Not every date worked out, but they made sure to schedule a new one as soon as they could. But after a few weeks of persistent dates (even if some of them were a sacrifice to make), something sparked in Luna. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of each date and just seeing Twilight made her feel cozy inside.
It puzzled Luna, she wasn’t physically more attracted to Twilight than she remembered. She was attracted to something else.
Twilight shuffled around, Luna pressing up against her more in response.
“You know,” Twilight noted. “I didn’t think it’d go this way.”
Luna shook her muzzle out of Twilight’s mane. “Hmm?”
“Honestly, I didn’t think we’d work out.”
“Oh ye of little faith,” Luna giggled.
Twilight let out a long breath, her muscles relaxing in Luna's forelegs. “I wish it’ll always be like this.”
“It won’t. It’ll get hard again.”
Twilight paused. "Then what?”
Luna moved her muzzle to Twilight’s ear. “We’ll choose each other.”