05: Taking a Risk
Luna woke feeling slightly stiff and a bit woolly headed - not uncommon after crying oneself to sleep. However, finding herself curled up under another's wing, head tucked between their two bodies like a filly hiding from an imagined monster, was most certainly unusual. Her sister was the only one she could remember holding her as such - perhaps their mother had, but she couldn't recall - and she was a bit embarrassed doing so with Twilight. And yet...
Twilight was perhaps the closest friend she'd ever had outside her sister, and she felt just as safe letting down her guard with either. And it was certainly comfortable. Briefly she considered putting off getting up, but quickly set the thought aside to straighten and stretch.
Surprisingly, Twilight had awakened before her again. Possibly by a fair margin given the number of books sitting open to various points on the bed in front of her. As Luna gave signs of being fully awake, Twilight flipped her wing back and shifted the books away.
"Good morning... err, evening… I guess." Twilight rubbed the back of her head with a slightly sheepish look on her face. "I'm still not used to that."
Luna smiled. "It is fine. Many common phrases to not convert well to a night schedule in any case. Had you trouble sleeping?"
"Oh no, I slept great. Really great..." If she hadn't been so close to her fellow alicorn Luna might have missed the slight blush that appeared on Twilight's cheeks, and she wondered at what had caused it. "I guess I'm just not used to so much sleeping. I usually run short and just sleep in late once or twice a week to make up for it. I woke an hour or two ago, but you looked so comfortable-" and Luna felt her own cheeks heat "-that I didn't want to disturb you. So I just decided I'd read a bit here. How are you feeling?"
"I... You are right that I was comfortable. I do feel better now." She briefly wrapped her own wing around Twilight and nuzzled her cheek. "This morning helped. Thank you."
Twilight's blush deepened and she opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the meal announcement - which also reminded Luna it was time to take care of the moon. That broke the moment and they slipped into what had begun to feel like their regular routine of getting started for the night.
Saved by breakfast.
Twilight couldn't believe she'd almost spilled the beans on her crush there. All this alone time was really eroding her control. Luckily the arrival of breakfast had snapped her out of the trance Luna had put her in with that nuzzle and she used the morning routine to get her guards back up. Which was a good thing: she was certain to need her wits about her to talk Luna into going along with her plan.
She wasn't mistaken. As soon as she mentioned her desire to study live Ursa she was met with an exclamation that put the Royal Canterlot Voice to shame - or maybe it was just because they were indoors instead of outside it sounded so loud. Either way, Twilight's ears were ringing and she fully expected all the guards on duty in Canterlot to be swarming the suite at any time.
There was, in fact, a sharp knock from the outer door and a muffled, "Princess?"
To Twilight's relief, Luna maintained enough presence of mind to keep the guard out with a quick call back of "We're fine. Hold your post."
Hoping to keep things from getting out of hand, Twilight remained quiet as Luna calmed herself. She was startled to see a smirk form shortly after. Directing the knowing smirk directly at her Luna commented, "Ah, I see now. It was a joke. Very amusing, I quite fell for it for a moment."
Twilight felt her jaw drop. "Wha-? Bu-..." Deep breaths Twilight, deep breaths.
As Luna looked on in curiosity, and a bit of amusement, Twilight carefully went through the breathing exercise Cadence had shown her. Three times.
"It wasn't a joke. I need to study a live Ursa. No one has ever studied what I need to know, so I have to find it for myself."
The amusement died in a flash. "You can't do that Twilight! There's a reason such things haven't been studied. It is far too dangerous!"
The argument lasted for some time, Twilight fully expecting the guards to interfere again at several of the louder points. Finally, she simply got tired of trying to argue the reasons why it was necessary to study an Ursa herself and blurted out, "Why does it matter if I risk my life to study them!?"
Luna looked like she'd just been struck in the face. "What do you mean? You're a princess, my sister and I's friend, and an Element of Harmony. You cannot risk your life pointlessly."
"It's not pointlessly." Twilight stared hard into Luna's eyes, willing her to understand. "I'm dead if I don't try - you must see that! We can't live like this forever. At some point you will have to take back up all your duties and without your support I will die. Unless we can find another solution, and to do that I need to study an Ursa. So what if I might be risking my life by doing so, when I’d be forfeiting my life if I don’t?"
She continued to hold eye contact as Luna opened and closed her mouth several times as though about to speak. It was Luna who finally looked away with a quiet, "You win, Twilight Sparkle. It's just... I dread the thought of something happening to you and facing my sister with that news."
Twilight sighed, a bit in relief and a bit sadly.
"Luna..." She waited for those beautiful eyes to meet hers again, "I have no plans to die. Between the two of us I'm sure everything will be fine. Teleportation magic is useful for running away." She tried a shaky smile and received an equally shaky one in return.
"Very well. I suppose the next step will be finding out where an Ursa lives then."
Twilight chuckled involuntarily. "That's the easy part - one lives not far from Ponyville."
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I really enjoyed this chapter hope to read more soon
I enjoyed it a lot. You said you're not looking for an editor, so I'm going to keep my mouth shut on this one. I tend to get itchy when I see something out of place or it doesn't look all that right. Oh well, I'm going to stay as quiet as possible now.
5173317
I don't mind people pointing out how to correct things when I don't get the grammar/syntax/punctuation wrong. I just don't want a lecture in the process that focuses on telling me I'm not making proper use of them when I already know that's likely. I wouldn't have said anything about it, but between my last chapter and this one I've seen a few one-shots and a fair number of comments on making proper use of en-dash and em-dash.
So, to sum up: I'm all for people commenting or messaging to point out how I can fix something I did. Just skip the lecture.
A nice read so far, nice little twist to the regular and somewhat stale Twiluna i've read through recently.
Fave'd and awaiting next chapter.
Grammar is just a guideline for getting the story across clearly. If you can break the rules without interrupting the story, and it improves the way it comes across, by all means do it.
5173462
That can help. But I'm still gonna stay quiet.
5173615
Glad you're liking my take. Hopefully won't be left waiting long for that next one.
5174479
There's a lot of grammar sensitive sort out there (I'm a little twitchy myself too - just lack knowledge in some areas). I'll take the occasional liberty, but I am trying not to go too nuts.
5174973
Well, nice of you to stop in regardless. I'll try not to make you wince too much.
This keeps getting better I hope there is more soon
5175139
Yep. I may pop in with something in the near future. More than likely just because. Or maybe I noticed something. But, I will be coming in every time you update it. So be on the lookout.
Good plan, short chapter.
As an avid user of em dashes, I won't correct anything, but offer some simple explanations, if it doesn't offend. Em dashes are the longest type of dash, specifically '—'. In general terms, they signal an abrupt change in thread of a sentence, which can take several forms.
Interruption, either self-imposed or from an external source.
In pairs to mark an aside, similar to parenthesis.
As a strong pause, less than a period and similar in use to a colon. This usage is itself is somewhat discouraged, as it—more than the others—can lead to overuse.
As you can see, most usages of em-dashes are optional, and can be avoided if one desires to do so. Some would say that this means they should be avoided, as they can easily lead to overuse, but colons and parenthesis are not common in prose and cause their own problems. Parenthesis in particular should be avoided in dialogue, as they can confuse the reader as to what was said and who heard it, so em-dashes definitely have their uses, and I, personally, am rather fond of them.
Or, you know, do what you want.
5253068
Huh, thanks for the English mechanic lesson. I've been wondering about my own use of em-dashes, so it's nice to know I've been using them correctly.
When the Ursa Major sees Luna, why do I get the feeling it's gonna recognize her and then Luna will recognize the Ursa Major? I think the Ursa Minor in Luna's memory is the same Ursa Major near Ponyville.