Luna lay in her bed, eyes locked on the newly risen moon through the balcony doors, but she was not truly seeing it. Her attention was instead captured by the steady breathing on her neck as Twilight remained asleep against her. There was nothing particularly different about how they were laying now as compared to the last week, but it felt different. Whereas previously she would have simply gotten about her business upon waking, she found herself loathe to leave the warmth of Twilight against her - and was doubly loathe to wake her.
She rubbed a forehoof lightly against the fur of Twilight's back where it lay and felt a stronger exhale against her neck as Twilight snuggled deeper against her. An inner warmth seemed to spread throughout her body from the breath on her neck and she wrapped her own wing more tightly against her new marefriend.
Marefriend...
She knew that she needed time to think on precisely what this relationship would mean. Not to rethink her decision to enter a deeper relationship - far from it. The peace that cocooned her in this moment was enough of a sign of rightness of the choice as far as she was concerned. No, she had no intention to second guess her decision, but still needed instead to consider the difficulties to come.
They both came from different times and different experiences. That was certain to result in conflict and misunderstanding, though the events of that Nightmare Night were proof enough that they could work through those cases as they arrived. More difficult to work out would be how to carry on a relationship when one of them lived in Canterlot and the other in Ponyville. Not that travelling between the two locations was difficult given their combined abilities, but they each had duties which needed to come first. They also had very different schedules.
She closed her eyes and curled herself more securely around Twilight. Of course, with Twilight involved and having been considering a relationship like this for some time it was quite likely the perpetually prepared purple pony already had a shelf full of plans on how to proceed. A smile played upon her muzzle as she imagined a carefully segregated section of Twilight's new library full of charts, scrolls, and books on the topic of making long-distance relationships work - and prepared schedules for when they could most easily meet.
Absently, she moved her hoof up and began stroking at Twilight's neck, not only hearing but feeling the murr-purr as it started, and her smile grew.
At least I no longer need an excuse for this, she thought as she let go of all other thought and sensation beyond the two of them in this moment.
It was some undefined time later that the purring stopped and she felt Twilight shift against her.
"Luna?" The voice was barely more than a whisper, as though afraid of waking her if she were asleep.
She responded with a simple "hmm?" as she continued the gentle stroking.
Twilight burrowed harder into her. “This morning wasn’t a dream was it? You did… I mean, we…”
“It wasn’t a dream. I said yes.”
A relieved sigh accompanied the younger alicorn going limp as muscles which had tensed in nervous anticipation relaxed. They lay there like that in silence for a while before Twilight spoke up again.
"This feels really nice…” A pause. “Luna… stroking me like this this week... was it really just to wake me up? I kept thinking it might... I wanted to think it meant more."
Without pausing in the petting, her reply came out slowly as she considered how best to answer. "No... It was never my intention to wake you any of those times..."
Twilight twisted a bit in place and Luna could feel the younger alicorn's gaze on her, though she kept her own eyes closed.
"Then, did you feel...?"
Luna heard the unspoken end to that question and let her mind roam backward as she examined her actions, thoughts, and feelings over the time they had known each other. As time passed with no answer, Twilight gave a soft, sad sigh and settled back into the bed again.
"My excuse for doing so had nothing to do with my feelings for you," she finally responded. "But I think I have likely had feelings I did not recognize. I’ve always assumed the comfort and warmth I’ve felt around you as simply a sign of us being great friends as I never experienced a romantic relationship with which I could have compared my feelings. But, when I saw you channeling moonlight that first time... you were so beautiful that I couldn't help but to reach out to you..."
She again felt Twilight's full attention and finally opened her own eyes to meet the vibrant purple ones a short distance from her own.
"I may have had an alternate excuse for my actions after that, but those unacknowledged feelings were likely why I felt no desire to fight my urge. I would never have allowed myself to take such a liberty with any random pony. Beyond yourself, my sister is the only one I am close enough that I would consider doing so with. I could not even imagine myself petting any of your friends, or even a duty-bound maid or guard, simply to hear them purr."
A smile slowly grew on Twilight's face as Luna spoke, but then she froze and blinked a few times. "Purr? Your excuse was to make me purr? That was the real reason?"
Oops... didn't mean to mention that...
Luna felt her cheeks suddenly erupt with heat and was somewhat surprised the bedding didn't ignite with how hot they felt. "Umm... yeesssss? I mean- I didn't know you would purr the first time, but then you did and it was so adorable that I had to keep petting you, and then I couldn't keep myself from doing it again the last few nights when it was time to get up, and..." She rapidly attempted to explain herself as Twilight continued watching her with an unchanging expression, but broke off as a predatory grin suddenly appeared on her marefriend’s face. She gulped and shifted slightly backward as Twilight leaned forward until their muzzles were almost touching.
"So," and Luna felt her mouth go dry at the feel of Twilight's breath caressing her lips, eyes still locked together, "if I understand this right, you can't keep yourself from caressing me oh so wonderfully when it means I'll purr?"
She nodded her head a fraction of an inch and managed to croak a tiny "yes" out despite the dry mouth.
"In that case," Twilight murmured before moving her lips up next to Luna's ear and whispering, "What are you waiting for?"
With only a brief pause as the words sank in, she brought her hoof up to resume her forgotten stroking from earlier and shivered as Twilight began purring directly into her ear. She smiled and felt an answering hum of her own start in response.
Oh, I can definitely get used to this!
5990646
Thanks, it's a good point you make. The entire point when I started this was to practice and learn, not to try and win some popularity contest. Best I can do is just do what I feel is the right option and people can tag along or move along as they desire.
Sorry for oldmeme, I have to borrow a page from Royal Sketchbook...
Hey Twilight, does Luna purr too?
... SHE DO!
6055573 she treats celestia like an equal, not as her mentor. just watch the show
Awwwww. This chapter was adorable. It's also great to see Twilight take charge a bit in there relationship.
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Glad you enjoyed. Last two chapters will include fluff as well...but what do you expect from a new relationship?
6056064 Heh the awkward learning to kiss part of there new relasonship should be fun. And you know Celestia and Cadence, not to mention the other mane 6, are going to have a field day teasing those two.
love this story it makes me smile even when i can not seem to find a smile. ^_^ only sad thing is that it will end :(
6056764
At least stories have the advantage of being re-read.
And it's always possible there will be a continuation done by myself or someone else in the future.
So cute!
omg that is so cute I can't even.
And then tia walks in wondering why her sister was late to lowering the moon and she sees the scene of twilight purring as luna stroked her.
likely had feelings
I’m in the middle of re reading this
This chapter is tuna gold
This got the biggest smile out of me. Thank you for making this wonderful gem. My only regret is that I didn't read it sooner because the description had me thinking this would be heavy on the heart. Beautiful, I'm gonna have to put this in my favorites.
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Great to hear you enjoyed it. And fret not over the delay in reading - it may have taken time, but the internet can be patient and you found it in the end.
Perpetually Prepared Purple Pony Princess!
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An alicorny alliteration almost always adds an agreeable atmosphere.
Adorable!
Although I do have 1 quastion, why does she "purr"? That doesn't sound natural. I'm probably thinking way to deeply into this but I am curious if Twilight is the only one who does this.