Twilight was smiling, leaning up against Luna's side, looking down at the lobby far below them where a cart was pulling up. "Is that Scootaloo and her friend?" Luna asked, looking down at the cart as it pulled to a stop.
"Yeah, apparently they are not just friends anymore," Twilight smiled as they climbed out. Scootaloo helped Applebloom out from the cart as Rainbow ran over, wrapping her hooves around Scootaloo's neck. They talked for a moment, sharing a few more hugs before Rainbow looked up at Twilight's room far up at the top of the hotel, waving her hooves around in the air, telling them both to come down and greet the arrival of Scootaloo and Applebloom.
Applejack had Applebloom off to the side, petting her mane with a smile, seeming very happy to see her little sister again. Big Mac had refused the immortality spell, and thus died off over one hundred years ago, leaving only Applebloom and Applejack to carry on the family. "The yellow one is cute," Luna said looking down in curiosity.
"Yes," said Twilight with some sarcasm. "The yellow one, Applebloom, is cute," Twilight tried to subtly remind her that she needed to use names, as sometimes Luna strayed from social consciousness.
"Should we go see them?" Luna asked.
"I believe that's what Rainbow wants, yes," Twilight answered, motioning toward the door as she stepped away from the window. Luna followed soon after, her wings flittering restlessly for a moment before settling down. "Something wrong?" Twilight asked looking back at Luna's rather large wings.
"No no, just been a while since I preened them. I should get on that tonight."
"Or ......." Twilight mumbled, worried Luna might have heard her.
"Or what, darling?" Luna asked, looking down at her as they stepped through the doorway into the hall.
"Nothing I just... I once had Rainbow preen my wings for me and it well... to be honest it was a mixture of embarrassment and pleasure." She said it like a confession, as if it was a wrong thing to do.
"Having another pony do it for you is always a more pleasurable experience. Unfortunately, my sister would not allow me to use my servants for such acts.... they are now deemed inappropriate apparently," Luna scoffed, having missed the experience.
"Well, I'm not very good at it, so both Fluttershy and Rainbow have offered to do it for me. Needless to say, Fluttershy does it the clean and simple approach. Rainbow however...." she giggled. "Well, that's what's the inappropriate part" she joked.
"I don't understand how," Luna said in confusion.
"Well it's just... Rainbow likes to, um, use her tongue a lot more than usual."
"Oh really? Perhaps I should ask her to help me," Luna said, with another flitter of her wings. "I could use that kind of treatment after so long of having to do it myself."
Twilight, who was a bit jealous at hearing that Luna might be resorting to someone other than her for what she had learned can be a very intimate process, immediately spoke up in a rather concerned tone, something she did not intend on using. "Princess, can... can I do it? I'm not as skilled as Rainbow Dash but..... Seeing as we’re..." she hinted, but did not say what she wanted to.
"Seeing as we are what child?"
"Well I..." she stopped for a moment in the hall they were walking in, Luna stopping right beside her as she looked over at the princess with a serious look and tone. "Can you not use the word child please? I know it's natural for you and I'm not taking offense. I just... it's kind of weird to be reminded I'm with a pony who's more than two thousand years older than me."
"With?" Luna asked confused.
Twilight's paranoia immediately set in, afraid she had thought something different of last night then Luna had intended. She immediately lost control of her ability to control her nervousness around the princess and bit her lip stepping back a little. "I mean like.... last night you... I thought you meant we were getting together... dating?" She asked looking away now, all her confidence now quickly stripped from her voice.
Luna frowned, noticing Twilight's nervousness in the way her tail was now twitching slightly. "Oh, darling, of course, forgive me. I simply misinterpreted what you were trying to say," Luna said, placing her hoof on Twilight’s neck. She pulled the mare into a hug for only a moment before letting go and looking back down at her. "There is no need to panic like that," she frowned, having quickly grown great concern for Twilight in seeing how she reacted.
"I know, I'm sorry," Twilight said holding her head down. "I was just afraid that... I don't know I'm sorry, I just get like this sometimes," she sighed, turning back to the doors a few feet in front of them. "Come on, we have to go see Rainbow and the others," she said trying to get away from this conversation.
Luna nodded, keeping a hoof around Twilight's shoulder as she led the mare to the elevator where they sat in silence for a moment as it rode down. "What did you want to do?" she asked thinking back at the conversation before Twilight had panicked.
"Oh," Twilight blushed, biting her lip again. "I just meant... I could preen your wings for you? I might not be as good as Rainbow but... I would like to have that honor." She tried to make it sound as professional as possible despite several other intentions.
"Of course darling, but not until late tonight. Today we must deal with our guests," Luna motioned to the elevator doors which would soon open to the lobby full of friends waiting for them to arrive.
"Luna, there are two things I need help with today," she said simply, looking up at the princess.
"Oh?" Luna said in a questioning tone.
"First... Rarity is very angry with me and I don't know how to fix it, can you please speak with her? She's going to be here and... she hasn't even seen me in more than a couple weeks. She won't even talk to me," Twilight said in a stressed voice.
"Of course, I'll pull her aside tonight at some point," Luna assured her. "And the second thing?"
"How do we tell the others about what's going on with us?" Twilight asked, having never dealt with relationships before, let alone one with a pony as influential as Luna was, which she knew would create a lot of attention for them from the media.
"If they ask, tell them," Luna said simply, both of their eyes now trained back on the door. "Or if you simply want to flaunt your relationship with me, you can just blurt it out," Luna said, holding back a small laugh waiting to see what Twilight might say.
Twilight bit her lip as she let out a small giggle, swaying her body to the side giving Luna a light shove as if to tell her to behave. "Maybe I will," she said with a surprising amount of energy in her voice.
As the doors opened to the elevator, and the view of the room set in. Luna got her first real glance at how the ponies were interacting with each other now. Pinkie with metal bars used to hold her hooves at a straight angle. Applejack with a hoof around her younger sister, obviously even more protective over her then previously. Scootaloo, who had grown somewhat taller than Applebloom at this point, was now at the same height as the rest of the group, with the exception of Twilight, Luna, and Rainbow who had all gained extra height from their immortality.
Everypony in the group immediately turned to greet them, but as Twilight dove into the group to greet everypony, Luna held back to watch. She carefully examined how Twilight was acting. First, Twilight had greeted the two young mares Scootaloo and Applebloom, who were by now adults and had both grown up to be quite beautiful mares. She quickly turned her attention to Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and finally when she came to Rarity, she stopped for a moment looking down as he bit her lip.
"Hey, Rarity," she said nervously.
Rarity had no reply. She looked around the room as if Twilight was not there attempting to make conversation. Her gaze fell on Luna rather quickly where she quickly received a concerned gaze from the princess. Twilight held silently there for a moment before turning away and returning to the group, bringing her mood back by interacting with Scootaloo and Applebloom instead.
Luna decided her presence would only stop Twilight from having fun with her friends, so instead she made her way over to Rarity, who sat somewhat outside the group. She stood next to Rarity looking down at her with a frown. "Child, can you come with me for a moment?"
"I am not a child," Rarity said with a rather venomous tone.
"Would you prefer subject?" she asked, knowing Rarity would like that even less. "Come with me." This time she demanded it, making her way to the front lobby doors hoping Rarity would be behind her.
As she made her way out to a shaded area of the garden that had been created out front of the castle she turned around, glad to see Rarity had indeed followed her and took a seat carefully watching Rarity as she too sat down.
"What is your issue with Twilight?" she asked with a frown.
"Oh come now, you know the story, already must I really repeat it to you?" Rarity said, as if trying to speak as officially as Luna had once done.
"I just don't understand how it escalated like this," Luna replied with a concerned look.
"She let my sister die," Rarity replied, looking down at the floor.
"She tried everything she could to get Sweetie to agree to take the spell. I'm sorry, but your sister simply knew better then to take it."
"Knew better?" Rarity replied confused.
"Rarity, you've only lived for around two hundred years, so I do not expect you to understand, but when you have lived as long as I have you will come to understand your sister took the easy way out of this. She made the right choice in deciding that she was better off living a short and good life than a long and grief-stricken life."
"Yes, but in leaving us behind, she gave us grief," Rarity replied in frustration.
"I know, and I realize losing her like that was not how you intended things to be. You did not expect to outlive your sister nor should you have. You did not plan for this, I understand, but you can absolutely not punish Twilight for your sister’s choices."
"I don't know what else to do," Rarity said, looking very fragile now.
"And I can't tell you what to do.... but Twilight is my responsibility now, and her happiness is now my concern. So I need to somehow help you two fix this."
Rarity ran her hoof across her eye, not cleaning away a tear but seeming to just need to freshen herself up from all the emotions running through her at once. "This isn't very generous of me is it?" she asked with a frown.
"Which is why I need to help you, you can lose your element if you are not careful."
"Lose my element?" she said confused and worried.
"It's what happened with all of us, the previous hosts of the elements. In your case, Generosity. Sombra held that element for some time until Starswirl fell victim to mortality, which ironically is the problem here as well. After Starswirl, who was a good friend of Sombra died, the confidence Sombra had fell away and he ran off to his kingdom to essentially hide. Somehow during this time, he lost himself and turned into a tyrant. This, of course, is the opposite of generosity and his element abandoned him in search for another host."
"You mean we can just... lose our elements? Just like that?" Rarity said concerned.
"Unfortunately, yes. Celestia was not as honest with you as she should have been, and Twilight was told not to share her knowledge of the elements past what she needed to."
Rarity sighed, looking back at the door for a moment, still confused as to what she had to do. "So you're saying if I don't forgive her for this, then I could lose my element?"
"It's unlikely," Luna said honestly. "But... as I said, her happiness is now my concern, and if you become a source of distress for her, I will need to send you home. I simply cannot allow you to put stress on her like this."
"Okay.... I understand," Rarity said still holding her head low.
"I think it would be best if you returned to your room to think. Think about all that has been said here and figure out where you want to be. I can only hope where you want to be is with your friends," Luna said with a frown, giving Rarity a respectful silence as she walked away from her back into the main lobby of the hotel, leaving Rarity to think about what she might do next.