Plan

Twilight’s horn sparked with fizzling energy as she sent her magic into Luna’s intricate web of laser beams surrounding her disks. Her magic threaded through the formidable defense, and Twilight managed to pierce Luna’s remaining shield, Luna’s attack narrowly missing her own disk as she pulled it out of the way.

“Five to three!” Rarity said, raising a hoof.

“I’m catching up!” Twilight said, grinning at Luna, who was standing a few meters away.

They had adjusted their distance after a previous match when their spells had collided in a huge explosion which had resulted in a few burnt hairs on Twilight’s coat. It had been hard for either of them to resist playing more rounds after Twilight had first gotten all of Luna’s disks with a well-placed burst of magic that might have been way brighter than it should have been, and distracted Luna, allowing Twilight to claim victory. To her dismay though, Luna’s attention was not diverted so easily the next few rounds and soon pulled ahead.

At least I’m spending time with her – and learning things of course! Normally she would have wanted to take a break if she had been using intense magic for a prolonged period of time though it would be more out of boredom than fatigue, but with another pony (Just Luna, more specifically, but she pushed that thought down) it was just so easy to keep on going. And back in the Academy nopony even wanted to be my sparring partner anyway.

She had to be grateful for what she had now, she repeated to herself again, and turned her attention back to the real world. Now that Luna was a bit further away from her it made it easier to peek at her and while seeming like she was just looking at the distance.

“Twilight? Are you ready for another round?”

Rarity’s voice provided a good reason to turn her head back, and she nodded.

“You’re not going to win again this time, Twilight,” said Luna with a smug grin, and as much as that smile made Twilight want to just look at Luna’s face forever, it was still a challenge.

Twilight smiled back, although she was sure it looked goofy. “We’ll see about that!”

“That was amazing!” Twilight beamed at Luna and Rarity as they trotted back from the field. They had played for hours, finally ending the session when it was almost time for Luna to leave for Canterlot, their score a hundred to a hundred and two, with Luna two matches ahead. If it had been somepony else Twilight knew she’d be more worried about whether or not she had given her best, but as Luna was the one princess who controlled the moon she was oddly satisfied with her score, still – if only she could have won two more matches…

At least she had acted more or less normally during the matches, perhaps because she had spent the days leading up to Luna’s visit thinking and making herself learn acceptance. Whether it had worked or not she couldn’t say for sure, but she knew it had helped her keep herself together when she and Luna were face to face again. She could handle it, even though things would not be the same again, with what had happened between them.

They entered the library, and Twilight looked up to find Luna looking at her. “I had a wonderful day, Twilight, thank you.”

Twilight smiled, looking slightly to the side before facing Luna again. “I’m glad you did, I really enjoyed it too.”

Luna looked to the door; there was a nagging feeling there was something she had to do before going back to Canterlot, and after thinking hard for a few seconds she remembered. “Oh yes, may I place the linking spell on your dragon scribe?” Luna grinned. “I nearly forgot again.”

Twilight nodded, trotting to the doorjamb leading to another room of the library. “Spike?” she called.

“I’m here, I’m here!” She heard a scraping sound, before her assistant tottered out from behind a pile of books.

“Great, Luna wants to put a linking spell on you so she can send you letters directly.”

“Oh yeah, sure!”

Spike nodded and Twilight smiled at him before trotting back to the front room with Spike following behind her before sitting beside Luna.

“H-hello, princess,” said Spike, biting his lip as he stood before the alicorn.

“Nice to see you again, young scribe,” said Luna.

“Um, I guess you could call him that, but I see him more as an assistant, Luna.” Twilight chuckled.

“Oh, of course.” Luna looked surprised, but since Twilight echoed what Spike had referred to himself as, there was no reason to not alter her vocabulary a bit, even if she didn’t fully understand what was wrong with the word ‘scribe’. “You do agree to this, yes… young assistant?”

“Yes, princess!”

Twilight chuckled upon seeing Spike more at ease. That was probably the first time anyone has called him a scribe.

Luna lit her horn, and shaped her magic into the shape of her crescent moon insignia, letting the glowing energy sink into the dragon’s chest. It kept shining for a few moments, before fading away.

“There, it’s done.”

“Thanks, Luna!” said Twilight. Luna smiled at her, and Twilight felt the ache slowly forcing its way to the surface again. Despite being happy that Luna was making the effort so that they could correspond more easily, and despite the day going well, there was just something holding her back now she had to act like she only thought of Luna as a friend. She shook her head infinitesimally, looking at Luna.

“Thank you again, Twilight, I really enjoyed the game.” Luna paused for a moment. “But I have to go now, royal duties do not resolve themselves sadly, and my sister is counting on my help.”

“Yes, of course,” Twilight said hesitantly, getting to her hooves. She walked with Luna out the door, with Rarity and Spike standing near the doorjamb. “Is your chariot going to pick you up?”

“Ah, no. I’ve decided to test myself tonight so I will be flying back on my own.”

“Okay… it’s kind of dark out there though,” Twilight said worriedly. The many matches they had played had taken a lot out of her, and if anything it was an indication of Luna’s stamina if she was still feeling up to flying the whole way back to Canterlot.

“Don’t worry, I will be fine.” Luna leaned closer and Twilight felt her breath catch, but then Luna moved back as if she had thought better of it. “See you next time, Twilight.”

“Yeah… write me, alright?” Twilight stepped back.

“Goodbye princess!” said Rarity, and Spike echoed her, waving a claw as Luna spread her wings.

Luna waved a wing in their direction with a smile before turning to Twilight, looking into her eyes. They held contact for a few seconds, before Luna blinked, brow furrowed. Then she leapt up, flapping her wings. And just like that, she was gone. Twilight could see her still of course as she rose up in the air, the sound of her wing flaps slowly becoming more inaudible, but gone was even the slightest possibility of Luna loving her that way.

Luna landed lightly in her room. She had used a spell that kept the cold air from touching her coat, and the flight had been much more comfortable than her first trip. She still had a few minutes before her night court began; it was something Celestia had suggested, and while Luna never really liked holding court she had promised her sister to give it a try again. So far there had been zero ponies for the two weeks since she had started (apart from one that had apparently gotten lost), and she was quite ready to give up on the whole thing but Celestia said that more ponies would start coming eventually and that Luna would have to be ready for them then.

Or you could just take over day court for a couple of days, Celestia had said, but Luna had refused. In the old days they would switch places sometimes or sit together for night or day court – they had ruled together. Sleep not a necessity but a luxury for them, they’d even done both day and night side by side for a few years, before Luna complained that it was boring and needed more free time. She smiled weakly at the memory, yes she knew she’d always been the more restless of the two of them, and she knew deep down were it not for her sister Equestria likely would not have survived her thousand year absence.

She trotted out the door and down the stairs, glancing over her shoulder every now and then. Celestia should probably be at her study at this time, but it couldn’t hurt to be careful. The guilt that she had outright lied to her sister and was even avoiding her for it gnawed at her, but she forced herself to gulp it down. As long as she doesn’t find out, it’ll be fine – right?

She turned the last corner to the throne room, and standing right there, beaming brightly, was the source of her discomfort.

Ugh. Luna wanted nothing more than to plant her head into the wall.

“Luna!”

Celestia was as close to squealing as Luna had ever heard, and Luna was reminded once again of an excited filly as she stared at her sister. Keep calm Luna, you’ve done this before, and you can do it again. She had no choice but to school herself lest Celestia find out that something was wrong, but she was doing it so often now she was becoming numb.

“Yes, Celestia, what is it?”

“Come, Luna, you know what it is,” said Celestia, trotting up close with her smile ever brighter. “How was your… date?”

“Well, I -” At the word date Luna couldn’t help but feel heat creeping up her cheeks, but it was helpful at the very least. And the sooner she tossed together an answer the quicker Celestia would leave her alone. “Well, we played a game called Diskus – attacking the opponent’s disks while defending our own.”

“Ah yes, I am quite familiar with that game.” Celestia tilted her head. “How’d it go?”

“Well, I won by two matches.”

Celestia nodded slowly, still beaming though thankfully it seemed her normal demeanor had begun inching its way back into her. “How many matches did you play?”

“Oh, we played two hundred and two matches, and Twilight won almost half of them.”

“That’s interesting. What interesting spells did you two come up with? They must have been spectacular I’m sure.”

“Well,” Luna did a mental rewind of the afternoon’s events. “I was quite impressed when she started surrounding each of her disks with a magical globe while moving them around, that was very precise magic and they were hard to get through.”

Celestia’s smile turned somewhat smug, though Luna knew that the normal pony wouldn’t be able to tell; it was hard enough for her to decipher her sister’s expressions but that was the minute change in Celestia’s smile when it was reserved for Twilight.

“And how about you? You must have found some way to cut off her attacks, right?”

“Well, the most fun I had was with a laser web that I kept moving very quickly, she had a hard time dodging those.”

Celestia eyes twinkled. “I would really like to go against you two as well – why don’t you invite Twilight over next week? Some rest would do me good and I haven’t seen her in a while.” She winked at Luna. “But don’t worry, I’ll of course leave a lot of time for you two to be alone.”

She is just unbelievable. Luna shrugged weakly; she couldn’t refuse, as it would make Celestia suspicious. “Yes, of course. I’ll tell her in my next letter.”

“Wonderful!” Celestia gave her a quick hug with a wing before stepping aside. “I’ll let you be now, have fun at court!” As she trotted off Luna heard her mutter to herself, “Maybe I’ll invite Twilight to help her with night court as well, it would be helpful for the both of them…”

Luna sighed after she was sure Celestia had gone, and entered the grand hall, sitting down on her gilded throne. The night felt long whenever she was on this seat, and nopony would come anyway. Maybe someday she could permit herself to enter other ponies’ dreams again, but not until she was ready. She had hours of time – time that she was not going to let go to waste.

I shall have to come up with a plan to stop Celestia from seeing Twilight when she comes over next week.

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Poco

Poco #1 · Feb 21st, 2013 · · ·

Wheeeee update! with the promise of MORE updates! some of my favorite things from Twiluna's! After the adorkable Twiluna that is.

Avid Reader

Avid Reader #2 · Feb 21st, 2013 · · ·

Commence read.

Scribe. I like scribe. I would be okay with this as a title, if it fit.

Ragingturtle72

Ragingturtle72 #3 · Feb 21st, 2013 · · ·

IT LIVES! Day made!

Comment posted by RF and AG deleted Feb 21st, 2013

Starburst

Starburst #5 · Feb 21st, 2013 · · ·

*yay*
It's always nice to read a story that hasn't updated in a while!

q97randomguy

q97randomguy #6 · Feb 21st, 2013 · · ·

Yay! This isn't gone! And more with in a week?! This is great!
There's never enough TwiLuna. Never.

If it had been somepony else Twilight knew she’d be more

Comma.

I’ve decided to test myself tonight so I will be flying back on my own.”

Comma.

“Goodbye princess!

Comma.

flaps slowly becoming more inaudible

That might sound better as "flaps slowly becoming inaudable" or "slowly fading away"

and while Luna never really liked holding court she had promised her

Comma.

Sleep not a necessity but a luxury for them, they’d even done both day and night side by side for a few years

Two options here. 1 Add a "While" to the beginning or... 2 Change the comma to a semicolon.

Keep calm Luna,

Comma.

That’s interesting. What interesting spells

Perhaps change the second one to "novel" or something? If you want to...

emrlddrgn

emrlddrgn #7 · Feb 21st, 2013 · · ·

Wow, I completely mixed this up with another story. Curse of having the same cover art, I suppose.

There were some grammar problems (see 2157929 for most of them) including

Twilight could see her still of course as she rose up in the air

which is just awkwardly phrased, but for the most part I liked this. I think. I'll have to go re-read and make sure I actually remember what was going on...

Kage no Brony

Kage no Brony #8 · Feb 21st, 2013 · · ·

2158093

That's actually grammatically incorrect.

"Twilight could see her still, of course, as she rose up in the air"

That's an acceptable fix, as 'of course' is interjecting into the statement "Twilight could see her still as she rose up in the air".

emrlddrgn

emrlddrgn #9 · Feb 21st, 2013 · · ·

2158154

I wasn't intending to imply it wasn't grammatically incorrect (triple negative, woo!), though I can see how you would read it that way. I meant that by resolving the awkward phrasing, one could reduce the need for such complicated grammar and probably resolve the problem.

The 10th Doctor