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Oldnew Luna

by arandompenguin

Chapter 17: Chapter 15: Report

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Twilight and Luna had spent the afternoon working on the report, it would have taken less time, but as they were writing by hoof, they had to be especially careful in their movements or the words would be nigh on illegible. As the sun gradually set, the two read through the report for the third time, eliminating the majority of the errors with a swift strikethrough and a careful rewrite of the erroneous word above it. Once their need for a check was sated, they set the report down and stared at it, the accumulation of their work, their journey and their research all down on paper with a hardback cover and a neat title on the front, ‘The Rediscovery of the Ancient Elemental Magic Part 1’ and then below it, ‘A report by Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna’. The title left it open for a continuation for when, or if, they found the other parts. Twilight let out a smile, now that the report was finished, the main part of their work was complete and ready for presentation. This would be the first time, however, that Twilight had presented anything this major to the princess, on the other hand it was the first time she would ever present it alongside another princess.

Princess Luna put her hoof around Twilight’s neck and pulled her in close.
“Nice work Twilight, I’m sure Celestia will find this great.” Luna said, rubbing Twilight’s shoulder reassuringly.
“Yeah, I think we should show her this, before telling her about us.” Twilight agreed with a smile, Luna gave a small laugh in reply that turned into a yawn. Luna gave a shudder at the memories that were conjured by the tiredness. Now it was Twilight’s turn to give a shoulder rub of encouragement.
“Come on, we need the sleep if we’re going to talk with Celestia, and besides, we’ve done it once we can do it again.” Twilight said. Luna nodded and gave Twilight a quick, unexpected kiss that made her blush before standing up. Luna led the way towards the bedroom and they hesitantly got into bed. There were no comforting words this night, both knowing the horrors that awaited, and they both knew that no amount of words could lessen them.

Darkness came, and along with it came a new night of horrors. Nightmare Moon appeared to be pacing herself, letting the fear of each horror fully take its toll on the mares, before moving onto the next one. Luna attempted to keep up the comforting words to Twilight, but they ran dry, Luna choking up as fear enveloped her mind. The night passed, and the sun arose; and with it came awakening. They took longer to recover this time around, Nightmare Moon’s passing comment reverberating around their minds, promising horrors to come.
“I’m not even started yet...” Nightmare Moon had stated with a malicious grin, as the waking world took the pair away from her. Once they had shaken the nightmares off, they set about with a new resolve, feeling slightly better in the knowledge that the nightmares held no sway over them in the daylight. Then of course, there was the matter of meeting up with Celestia later in the day. They had woken around mid-morning thanks to their exhaustion from the prior day, and so only had a few hours to freshen themselves up enough to be presentable to a princess. Even though it was likely going to be an informal meeting, it would still be a meeting with royalty, and even other royalty should be appropriately clean. Twilight was still brushing her mane back from its unruly state, when a sharp rapping on the door interrupted her, their carriage had arrived.
“Coming! Hang on a minute!” Twilight called back, swiftly finishing with the brush, she certainly didn’t want to be tardy. Luna met her in the main library area and together they went to the door, where two royal guards were waiting for them, strangely reminiscent of when Celestia had called Twilight to the castle before to help Luna, but now Luna was here with her.

Luna spent the chariot ride leaning up against Twilight, pointing out various places in Ponyville that they flew over and asking about them. She had her head close enough to Twilight’s, that Twilight didn’t need to shout to be heard, but eventually they passed over Ponyville and their view below became swathes of trees, so their conversation turned to other things. She wasn’t sure how, but Twilight found herself stroking Luna’s mane as she rested her head against Twilight, staring up at the sky. Twilight looked down at Luna, who had a faint smile on her face, like that of somepony who was thinking of other things, and not of the world around her. They were nearing the castle, as it could now be seen in the distance, Twilight decided that it would be best to bring her back to reality. She leant down and planted a quick kiss on her forehead, Luna sat up in surprise before giving out a small blush and a quick glance at the stallions at the front of the chariot, luckily they were staring resolutely forward towards Canterlot castle. Luna looked back at Twilight, who had a mischievous smile on her face, seemingly very pleased with herself, Luna decided she would have to return the favour. She gathered Twilight up, and firmly pushed herself against the other mare, who in turn let out a small involuntary moan. They were almost at the castle, and the royal guard not driving turned back to check that their passengers were alright, he found the princess and the other princess’s prized student locked together in an embrace. He quickly span back around the face the front, a blush on his face, certain that he had caught them doing something they shouldn’t be.
“What is it?” The driving pony asked, unable to turn around without crashing.
“Nothing.” The other replied quickly, cutting off the conversation, the driver gave a shrug and focussed on their upcoming landing.

Luna pulled away before anypony down below could see them, knowing that even though they planned to tell ponies, the best way to do so probably wasn’t to demonstrate. Their landing was smooth, and the two mares in the backseat quickly climbed out of the chariot. There was another royal guard to meet them in the courtyard. Presumably, Celestia was already at their meet up location.
“Greetings Princess Luna and Miss Twilight Sparkle, I’ve been sent to escort you to the private dining hall where Princess Celestia is currently waiting your arrival.” The guard declared in a formal voice and without waiting for a reply, he swiftly turned 180 degrees to face the exit and began to trot away, expecting the two ponies to follow. Luna and Twilight glanced at each other in a bemused way, before following after the pony guard. The walk took them to an area of the castle that Twilight wasn’t familiar with, and judging by the guards posted at regular intervals, it was probably a place that not many ponies could go. The guard leading them took a sharp left turn and abruptly stopped, the two ponies following behind him almost smacking into his armoured flank.
“We’ve arrived.” The guard stated redundantly, before stepping to one side to allow them access. Twilight and Luna nodded their thanks to him as they entered, he shut the door behind them with a bow.

The room was sparsely decorated with simplistic designs placed on the walls regular intervals, small sun symbols that glowed softly. There was a varnished oak table that sat in the centre of the room, it had room for no more than four, and it was obvious that it was not a royal hall in any sense of the word, it looked more like a normal citizen’s dining room. Princess Celestia was sitting calmly at the far side of the table, a pot of tea set in neatly before the mare with her cup levitating in front of her. She took a small, regal sip and set the cup down, taking a look at her visitors. Celestia broke into a warm smile and greeted them, it was just the three of them so Celestia was sitting a lot more informally than normal.
“Sister! And Twilight! How nice to see you once more.” Celestia greeted them genially. Twilight and Luna took seats on the opposite side of the table and greeted her back.
“Nice to see you too Tia.” Luna responded with a return smile.
“Erm, hi princess.” Twilight replied awkwardly, not sure how to address Celestia anymore.
“Please, just call me Celestia, there’s no need for formalities.” Celestia said with a raised hoof and Twilight was reminded of Luna when she was in the defence spell bubble.
“Okay then, hello Celestia.” Twilight said, unused to the wording. Celestia gave an encouraging smile in return.
“Now then, I understand you wished to talk with me?” Celestia asked, the pair nodded, Luna bringing their report out of her saddlebag and setting it on the table between them.

Celestia picked up the handmade report and flicked through it,
“Ancient elemental magic? You sure have been busy, I knew that under my sister’s tutelage you could achieve great things, I never thought you would do something on such large a scale, especially not in the space of a week.” Celestia said with a slight laugh as she skimmed through the tome. Twilight and Luna let out matching guilty smiles, that wasn’t all they had accomplished in that week. Celestia finished reading and set the book down.
“Well, I must say that I’m impressed, I don’t suppose you have the artefact with you?” Celestia asked, glancing at Luna’s saddlebag, Luna gave a proud nod and handed the metal shard over to her sister who examined it much the same way that the other princess had, looking long and hard at the surface, the rough edges and the inscription. When she was satisfied she passed it back and asked them another question.
“So what are you going to do with it.” Celestia asked, Luna and Twilight froze, they hadn’t thought about this. Scientists had a tendency to forget about what they planned to do with their results, they put all of their focus on the results themselves, making sure they were both valid and reliable before they even considered what the results could be used for, that was the case here. Eventually Twilight spoke up.
“Well uh, I guess we’ll try and locate the other three parts, and connect them back in order to fully study them.” Twilight said, Celestia gave a nod, expecting that answer.
“Okay, but remember that Luna is meant to be recovering and you shouldn’t exert yourself too much.” Celestia replied with a pointed look over at her sister. Luna defiantly grinned back, and Celestia rolled her eyes, Twilight was amused at their antics, she never thought that they would act like siblings around each other, but apparently they did.

“Now then, did you just wish to talk to me about your findings, or was there something more?” Celestia asked, this was the moment that they were waiting for, how would Celestia react?
“Yes, we -” Twilight began, but was cut off by the arrival of a cook carrying a tray with his magic who set it down, bowed and exited.
“Ah, lunch. You can tell me whilst we eat.” Celestia said, tucking into the small sandwiches laid out on the silver platter with relish. Twilight took a sandwich, but didn’t eat it while Luna took small nibbles at hers, both of them nervous about the news they were about to bring.
“Right. Well there was another reason why we came here. We wished to tell you something about the two of us...” Twilight trailed off, Celestia looked up from her sandwich.
“Is this about the magical frequency bond you have? Is it affecting you?” Celestia asked concernedly when Twilight stayed silent.
“No, well yes, but that’s not we wanted to tell you. It’s more of a, uh, personal matter.” Luna supplied, Celestia nodded at them to continue, still eating her sandwich, but now with a look of worry on her face.

Twilight swallowed to clear the lump in her throat before continuing, Luna giving her an encouraging nod.
“Well, Luna and I have, err, developed feelings for each other.” Twilight said hesitantly, not looking Celestia in the eyes. Celestia choked on the piece of cheese and watercress sandwich she was chewing on, and spent about half a minute coughing. Both Twilight and Luna stood to help her, but she held up a hoof and waved them back to their seats, her other hoof hitting her chest to dislodge to foodstuff. It eventually came unstuck and flew out of her mouth, landing rather un-royally on the table in front of her, she looked disdainfully at it, before collecting it in a napkin, and throwing it into the bin behind her with her magic. The offending sandwich bit dealt with, she turned back to her sister and her protégée who were looking at her expectantly and nervously.
“Well, that was rather unexpected.” Celestia replied, before breaking out into a wide smile, “But it was welcome news, I really can’t think of anypony better to accompany my sister than my personal protégé, or vice versa!” Celestia told them happily, she suddenly seemed several years younger, Luna smiled back, and Twilight released the breath she didn’t even know she was holding. “So tell me, when did you discover these feelings?” Celestia said, leaning forward conspiratorially, looking for all the world like a regular mare gossiping with her sister and friend. Luna answered the question, and set into the story of how she and Twilight had realised and revealed their love.

Together they spent the majority of the afternoon chatting about mundane things that were forgotten quickly, but at the time seemed hugely important. They told each other stories, and shared around rumours and laughed at jokes, but eventually it was time to get back home.
“Well, I must be off, I’ve cut down on my duties a lot as it is.” Celestia admitted with a sigh, it was obvious that she longed to just take a break, but knew that she couldn’t.
“I’m sorry Celestia, I wish I could help.” Luna said consolingly.
“No, it’s not your fault, it was Nightmare Moon.” Celestia said, standing up to leave, Twilight shared a glance with Luna, but Celestia didn’t notice.
“Farewell, it was nice meeting up with you again, I hope we can do it again sometime.” Princess Celestia said opening the door to the room.
“Goodbye sister.” Luna said.
“Bye Prin-, uh, Celestia.” Twilight called, Celestia gave them a regal wave and departed. Luna gave a sigh as her as her elder sister left.
“Ponies don’t appreciate just how much work she does for them.” Luna said sadly.
“Yeah, but did you see how happy she was when she told her about us?” Twilight said excitedly, emboldened by Celestia’s enthusiasm.
“Yeah.” Luna replied with a smile, but inside she was thinking about the future, though Celestia had asked them about their relationship, it was mostly to find out how it had happened and who else they had told, they had talked nothing of what future plans they had. This got Luna thinking, what did they plan on doing? Her thoughts were cut off, however, by a royal guard walking in, the same one that had escorted them here.
“I have been ordered to escort you back to the chariot which will take you back to Ponyville.” He stated in a clear, stoic tone that offered no option for rebuttal. The mares nodded, and got to their hooves, before following him out of the room and towards their waiting chariot as the late afternoon sun cast its golden rays over the land.

Next Chapter: Chapter 16: Fight Back Estimated time remaining: 46 Minutes
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