It takes Two to Tango

by Mevpone

Between The Lines Part One: The Night Before

~ The Night Before ~

Twilight watched as Luna happily danced along in the center of the room. Twilight felt ridiculous, following Luna’s every motion. The two ponies continued to giggle at each other, realizing how silly this would seem if somepony else had been watching. Twilight and Luna continued to dance for almost an hour. Neither of them seemed to have noticed the time as it offhandedly flew by. All they knew was that they didn’t want to stop dancing.

Neither of them could remember having this much fun since the royal wedding. Watching Luna enjoy herself, Twilight was reassured of her assumption that Luna could dance. Sure, the dance they were dancing was one Twilight had never performed before, let alone actually witnessed any other pony carry out. But she was sure it was acceptable as far as other ponies these days would be concerned.

Twilight closed her eyes, focusing on the tune in her head. It was a song Vinyl Scratch had played just earlier that night at Pinkie’s bakesale party. Twilight recognized the song as a new version of Pinkie Pie’s Smile Song. Pinkie even sang along to it, bouncing around the room from one pony to the next. She bounced from side to side with each beat. She couldn’t help but grin as she reminisced Pinkie singing to her and all the other ponies to smile. She loved to see everypony smile, there was no doubt about it. And no pony could resist smiling around her singing.

The music in her head ended, and she opened her eyes as she continued to bounce back and forth. Luna wasn’t dancing anymore. She was standing still, her head tilted slightly forward as she stared blankly towards the ground. Twilight stopped bouncing and looked at Luna with a concerned look. “Princess Luna?” she asked. No response. Twilight slowly walked over in front of Luna’s eyesight and waved a hoof in front of her. “Are you okay, Princess?”

The tune in Luna’s head was that of one she hummed to herself while on the moon. It in itself was a very catchy, cheerful tune. Remembering all the times she played it in her head while on the moon was what brought her down. She reminisced one time she found a large rock. Maybe not large by Equestria standards, or any other land for that matter, but it was the largest rock she had yet to find on the moon. She picked it up with her hoof to observe it. She rarely used her magic anymore. Whenever she tried to put something together with the dust of the moon it collapsed like ash. With nothing to manipulate, she found little use for all the spells she had learned over her lifetime. She observed the rock, noting that its shape resembled that of a face. It was the first face she’d seen in over a couple hundred years. “Will thou be our friend?” she asked the lifeless figure.

“Princess!?” Twilight yelled, worried to the bone that this was all her fault. She put her hooves on Luna’s shoulders and shook her, careful not to be too forceful. Luna’s eyes widened as her thoughts returned to reality. She brought her head up and froze. Twilight’s eyes opened, shocked by what just happened. What was still happening. Luna’s and Twilight’s muzzles were touching.

Neither of them knew what to do. Luna couldn’t move or she would have caused Twilight to fall forward. Twilight couldn’t move simply because she literally had no idea what to do. She had studied nuzzling before. She had even studied the procedures for accepting and rejecting an invitation to nuzzle. But she had never studied what to do if someone of royalty nuzzled you. They both stared at each other blankly. Twilight noticed Luna slowly pulling her head back, and she did the same on instinct. ‘Oh my gosh... Oh my gosh...’ Twilight didn’t know what to think. She took her hooves off of Luna and slowly took a few steps back.

They both stood still in the quiet room. Their eyes expressed the shock they were both experiencing. The sound of the flames from the candles lighting the room filled their senses. That, and the mare standing right in front of them. “I-... I’m-...” Twilight began. She didn’t have any words to say, no matter how hard she tried to bring something to mind. ‘Something... Anything...’

Luna’s shock slowly diminished as she continued her thoughts. She pushed aside the thought of what had just happened, a greater worry occupying her mind. “Will you be my friend?” she asked. Her voice lacked the confidence Twilight was used to. Twilight felt as if she was witnessing an untruth.

She was well beyond confused. This had to have been the most confusing night of her life. She leaned her head to the side slightly, trying to comprehend what exactly Luna had just asked. ‘Is Princess Luna.. surely she just means friends? Nothing more? But we just... What?’ “What?” she repeated out loud, feeling it was the most appropriate response she could come up with at the time. She felt as if all her studies were useless at this moment. Twilight never expected to see Luna open up to her in any way like this. She didn’t know how to take it.

“Will you be my friend? We-... I... haven’t had many friends other than my sister. I want you to be my friend.” Luna’s eyes began to sparkle as they water’d up, threatening to turn into tears. She used to know how to hide her sadness, but not anymore. She had spent thousands of years in depression and anger, it wasn’t something she could hide anymore. She did however manage to keep herself from tearing by focusing on the thought of Twilight accepting her request. Nothing would make her happier at that moment.

Twilight took a second to gather her thoughts and think of the best possible thing to say. Thinking back to Nightmare Night, she came to a rightful conclusion. “We’re already friends,” Twilight replied. Twilight winked her eyes and grinned towards Luna. She knew how it felt to feel like you had no friends. Aside from her studies, she felt as if nothing was important. Her friends showed her just how amazing friendship could be, and she was more than ready to now share its magic with Luna. The thought of being the Princess’s goto pony also filled her with glee.

She was quickly engulfed by a hug from Luna, sending them both to the ground. “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle!” Luna, overly ecstatic with Twilight’s answer, felt joy take over her entire being. Twilight had already helped her in so many ways, and she was now officially her friend. They may have been friends before, but now it was official. Luna lost herself in thought about all the things friends did together, and how now her and Twilight would be doing them together.

It had been a crazy night, for both of them. Twilight’s brain began to hurt as she tried to apprehend everything as it happened all too quickly. She stopped trying to understand and closed her eyes, feeling relaxed in her current position. She didn’t remember being so tired, but suddenly that’s all she could think about.

Luna thought back to when she brought her muzzle up to Twilight’s. She wasn’t sure what to think about it. From what she could recall, nuzzling was only shared between two ponies in love. The same with a kiss. She had to admit, she had never actually nuzzled with anypony until now, but she never expected it to happen like it did. Her sister had occasionally nuzzled her neck to cheer her up or encourage her, but it didn’t feel like that at all. It felt... special.

“Do friends nuzzle?” Luna questioned towards Twilight. Luna turned her head to see Twilight’s reaction. Twilight was asleep, cuddled up in her embrace. Her hair was carelessly slightly messier than usual. Her eyelashes highlighted her closed eyelids. He body expanded and collapsed slowly with each breath she took. Of all the ponies Luna had seen asleep, her new friend was definitely the most adorable sleeper.

Luna looked around the room, not wanting to disturb the sleeping beauty wrapped in her arms, but unsure what she could do. The night rarely needed attending to aside from the rise and setting of the night sky. She readjusted herself onto her stomach, careful not to move her arms that were covering the mare now beside her.

She wished to herself that every night could be like this one. Eventful, joyful and, well, new. She thought about what tomorrow would be like. And then it hit her. ‘What shall us friends do tomorrow night?’ She scanned the library, seeking ideas from the many topics conveniently labeling each and every book. ‘The Elements of Harmony... The Adventures of Daring Do... Test Taking for Foals...’ Maybe they wouldn’t be so helpful after all. And then she noticed the tan and green coated book she had browsed earlier that night. She used her magic to bring it off the wooden shelf and down in front of her. ‘Dancing With Ease...’ She opened the cover, reviewing the first dance taught in the book. It showed illustrations for each step the leader and follower made. ‘Perfect!’ she thought to herself as she paged through the book, studying each dance closely.

As the candles began to die out, the room began to feel colder. Luna covered the lavender pony with her wing to keep her warm and turned her attention towards the nearby window, realizing the night had only a quarter of its time left. She would need to attend back to her duties soon to prepare the skies for the new day. Her magical aura surrounded her wing, lifting its contents up above the ground. She kept the sleeping pony under the blanket of her wing as she carried her up the stairs and placed her into bed, using more magic to pull the covers down and over her. She tucked Twilight in, the same way her sister had always done for her when she was younger.

“Good night, Twilight Sparkle,” she quietly whispered. She began to walk out the room, cautious not to make too much noise. As she reached the outside of the doorway, she turned around to look at her friend once more. ‘Tonight was amazing,’ she wanted to say. ‘I shall make sure tomorrow is just as special.'

Comments

[Tamara Bloodhoof]

I cried. That was beautiful. The words were a bit sloppy here and there, but it still was just beautiful.

[Leggy the brony]

Woooh update!
This is frickin amazing
Also first :3

[Dark0592]

a double update?
not even I've done that in a while. you sir just made my morning awesome

[gezzerwerp]

Nice very cute and simply fabulous

[Wyvern1998]

I love how you still have Luna being insecure and unsure of her surrounds and relations with other ponies, as she was in the show. Most times when people write about Luna they say that she's mostly adjusted to normal life in Equestria. I just love that, and this story.