Written by RandomString Proofread by Knight of Cerebus

"Girls, I would like to call the second Elements of Harmony and Friends Afternoon Tea and Committee for the Wooing of Princess Luna meeting to order."

This did not quite have the desired effect, as almost every other pony present was currently distracted by one of the members of the committee.

Li'l Twi's bonding with Pinkie Pie had gone ahead without a hitch, despite Pinkie hearing about Li'l Twi's dreaming ascension magic ritual and insisting in turn on a 'Li'l Twi / Pinkie Pie Bonding Party'. Twilight declared that casting delicate soul-bonding spells while participating in a conga line was impractical, but agreed on a compromise with Pinkie.

Twilight did surprisingly well at the game of 'pin the filly dream construct onto the pony', partially because Li'l Twi gave helpful hints ('Warmer... warmer...'), partially because Pinkie moved a little to help and partially because Twilight cheated and put some holes in the blindfold.

Now supported by Pinkie's manic energy and with her general upkeep supported by the dreaming, Li'l Twi could now occasionally visually manifest in front of ponies who were not archmagi, goddesses or Pinkie Pie. She insisted on joining in on the committee meeting despite it being extremely early for her and was now lying sleepily in front of the Golden Oaks Library fire, being fawned over by her new friends whenever she yawned.

Twilight cleared her throat, slightly louder than required, and managed to get the attention back onto the real Twilight. She was showing some signs of the strain that she was under, with bags under her eyes and slightly unkempt mane, but she was still strikingly similar to the cute little filly resting by the fire.

If pressed, Twilight might have confessed to being annoyed at losing a popularity contest with her younger self, but she could console herself that she, at least, could pour buckets of cold water over the heads of her friends. Twilight wasn't above making use of gentle reminders of this fact to get their attention. As Arbitage the Backstabber said, 'It is better to be feared than loved...'

"Thank you. Right. Our topic for today’s meeting: Impressing Luna. As mentioned previously, Luna explicitly cited several feats that demonstrated that I was not her equal, and I've done some work to see how I can match these achievements."

Twilight flipped over the page on the presentation beside her. On it was a short, numbered list:

1. Goddess

2. Fought Discord

3. Nurtures Equestria

4. Raises the moon

5. Wielded multiple elements of Harmony

6. Can survive on the moon

"Now, things do look bleak, but I think I can work on this. Let's start with number one. I am not an alicorn, and no-pony has become one in decades, so I decided the next best thing would be to borrow the Alicorn Amulet from Zecora.

"This has the added benefit of possibly corrupting my soul a teensy little bit and turning me into a megalomaniacal evil overlord, requiring my friends to cast me down and redeem my soul through the power of friendship. Luna did want me to have more empathy with her evil past, and what better way to do that than to have one of my own? On top of that, it would make for a great friendship report to send to Princess Celestia."

Twilight beamed triumphantly at her friends, delighted at her brilliant solution to the problem. One of her eyes twitched a couple of times.

"Uh, Twilight, I don't think that that would be a good idea..."

Twilight surveyed the horrified faces in front of her. She sighed.

"You may be right. I spoke to Zecora about my idea, and she wasn't very encouraging either. Incidentally, it's amazing how many words can rhyme with 'nincompoop'," Twilight pouted, "Okay, let's skip number one. Number two. Fight Discord."

Rainbow Dash perked up at this point and helpfully chimed in, "I spoke to Discord this morning while he was out playing with the foals. He said that he'd be happy to fight you again. He suggested a 'cage fight' with 'bat'leths', whatever they are. He's a big softie these days, so I'm sure you can take him."

"Thanks, Rainbow Dash! That's bound to impress Luna. I just need to find out what these 'bat'leths' are and what a 'cage fight' is. Maybe it's a race to see who can capture some dangerous beast in a cage?" Twilight made a happy little note in her research schedule.

"Right, number three. Nurture Equestria..."

Applejack spoke up, "You've already done that. Ah'm sure that we can get Bloomberg to tell the Princess how nurturing you are."

"Thanks, Applejack! One down!"

A bright and cheerful tick appeared against line three of the chart.

"Number four. Raise the moon. Okay, I have a very elegant plan for this..."

Twilight flipped over the page. The next page showed a moon being levered upwards by a very long plank, with a mountain being used as a fulcrum and an elegantly-drawn stick-figure unicorn with a stripy mane jumping up and down on the other end of the plank.

"It's going to take a lot of effort to make a spell-wrought plank long enough for the job, but I'm sure I can do it with a bit of practice.” Twilight beamed at her wide-eyed audience.

"Okay, number five. Wielding multiple elements of Harmony. I tried to wear both my Element of Magic and Pinkie's Element of Laughter as a starter. As you know, it, uh, didn't go well. Although, on the positive side, we're now well equipped to handle any spork-based emergencies, and I got to test the efficacy of seventeen different headache remedies, so it isn't all bad. I'll keep trying.

"That brings us to number six: survive on the moon. This one was easy. I've now cast a contingency spell on myself, and if I ever get stuck on the moon, I should be able to survive indefinitely. The only real problem is getting there to test it. I will discuss options for very short-term lunar banishment with Princess Celestia in my next letter. I'm sure she'll be sympathetic."

Princess Celestia had indeed been very sympathetic on the day after Luna left. Twilight had sent a calm, collected and hopeful letter to Princess Celestia explaining the situation. There really hadn't been that many tear-stains, and while the prose may have drifted into melodrama in places, it was all ironic, to show that Twilight was viewing the experience with a sense of humour. At least, that's what Twilight told herself. Twilight was therefore a little startled when Princess Celestia immediately dropped everything and rushed over to comfort her.

"Now, as you can see, unless I can persuade Zecora to let me become evil, I'm going to be one major achievement short. Any ideas?"

"Well, it is very romantic to go to Tartarus and back for one's true love..."

"Thanks, Rarity, but I've already done that. Well, I did it to lead Cerberus back to his home. Hmm. I know, I'll do it again for Luna, just to make sure. I think I can free up some time next weekend. Any other ideas?"

"Oooh, how about you summon a big, huge, ginormous, fiery demon and fight it on the top of Mount Canterlot? It’s gotta be fiery, ‘cos it needs to look all awesome at night. Luna would love that."

"Luna might like it, but I don’t think Princess Celestia would be very impressed if I endangered her home city and all the Canterlot ponies, Li’l Twi."

"But that’s the awesomest thing about it! You get banished to the moon, Luna comes out and joins you there and then you and she can spend lots and lots of time making kissy faces to each other. No interruptions!"

"Let’s call that ‘Plan Z’."

"Awww."

"Oh! Why don’t you rummage through the Canterlot Archives and find the last unfinished spell written by some long-dead pony that will let you ascend into goddess-hood, and complete it?"

"Uh, thanks, Pinkie. I’ll, um, check out the archive, the next time I’m in Canterlot."

"Talk to her?" offered Applejack.

"Oh, no no no no no. I can't do that. Not until I'm ready. Even if I can resolve the spork problem, I'm still an evil amulet, a very long plank and a lunar banishment short of being up to scratch–" Twilight paused, mid-speech, as realisation struck, "I’m being stupid!" Every head turned to Twilight expectantly, "I can use the power of the amulet to conjure the plank and then I can walk along the plank to the moon after I’ve raised it! I don’t need to get banished at all!"

Twilight smiled happily at her friend’s disappointed faces.

"Girls, this plan will work," she said confidently, "With the help of everypony here, I can create a portfolio of accomplishments that are sure to impress Luna. I just don't want to waste any second chance she might give me. I'm not going to move until I'm positive that I'm ready."

Twilight's friends really were being very supportive of the whole situation. The duration and frequency of her crying spells was going down at a significant rate, driven away by their love and care. Twilight had started writing a report on the impact of friendship on emotional trauma to Princess Celestia, but had been waiting for the symptoms to be entirely alleviated before publishing.

"You should go to Luna, Twilight," said Fluttershy, "Kisses will make everything better. Just you see." Fluttershy gazed lovingly at a deeply embarrassed Rainbow Dash. Rainbow may have been deeply embarrassed, but she wasn’t showing any signs of letting of Fluttershy off her lap, either.

Twilight had been horrified by her temptation to deliberately sabotage Rainbow Dash's and Fluttershy's relationship. Doing so would have gotten her two more datapoints for her study, but that hadn’t been the reason for the thought; seeing the two ponies together brought painful memories of her own lost joy. The ideas that came to her in her darker moments were not thoughts that she wanted to have. She tried to be happy for them, and not think of Luna.

"I will do, Fluttershy, when everything is ready. I promise. All right, if anypony has any other ideas, please let me know," said Twilight.

The meeting continued pretty much according to schedule. There was a slight delay when the tea brought Twilight memories of Luna; the ensuing cry and subsequent recording of the same did slow things down a touch, but Twilight was able to get the time back by cutting short some of the time reserved for discussing the weather.

---------------

When the tea party was done, Twilight said goodbye to her guests and wandered amongst the library bookshelves, looking for a book titled ‘Cage Fighting for Dummies’. ‘Cage Fighting for Eggheads’ would be too much to ask for. It was a quiet time for patrons, and with Spike out playing with the crusaders, Owlowiscious asleep, and Luna gone, Twilight felt the quiet more than she usually did.

This explained her panicked leap and yelp when a Nocturne mare dropped her invisibility cloak and appeared right in front of her. The mare looked up at Twilight as she teetered precariously on the horsehead bust in the middle of the room, her grin revealing her fangs.

With an embarrassed cough, Twilight teleported down to ground level, facing the mare.

"Sorry," said the Nocturne matron, looking far more amused than remorseful, "I have a message from my mistress." She held out a scroll, bound with a black ribbon, which Twilight took cautiously. She watched impassively as Twilight looked at the scroll, almost afraid to open it.

"A message? From Luna? Really? What does it say?"

The nocturne mare raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, right." Twilight steeled her nerve, removed the ribbon and read the scroll. She read it again. She was having a hard time parsing the words, so she read it again, taking it slow, one paragraph at a time.

"Luna's apologising and wants to get back together with me?"

Twilight didn’t notice her hyperventilation. She just tried to read the scroll again, to make absolutely sure that she hadn’t made any mistakes, missed any words or misunderstood what it said. It was harder to read it this time, due to the tears in her eyes.

"Luna wants to get back together with me! She wants to meet with me tonight in my dreams! Luna wants to get back together with me!"

Twilight darted forward and hugged the surprised messenger, but released her before she could object.

Twilight started bouncing around the room.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

Twilight’s eyes opened wide with alarmed realisation, and she froze in mid-bounce.

"Oh no! This is terrible!"

Silence.

"Problem?"

"My study on the impact of friendship on emotional trauma is ruined!"

---------------

The dream Crystal Kingdom ice caverns were as cold as before. Their beauty was likewise unchanged, soft and diffuse blues and whites sparkling in the depths beneath the ice. Not everything was the same: the howling cold wind passing through the tunnels now sounded almost cheerful.

Twilight felt the nervous butterflies in her stomach as she approached the entrance to the caves. She had thought about bringing flowers, but wasn’t sure if Luna would be taking care of the dining arrangements. Worrying about the flowers, what to say, and what Luna was trying to tell her by arranging the meeting in this cold place kept her from falling asleep for some time. This in turn added the worry of being late to her woes. In the end she managed to relax and drop off using Cadance’s breathing exercises and one of Zecora’s meditation techniques.

Twilight was met at the entrance by a figure in a formal suit. Closer inspection showed it to be a distinctly uncomfortable gibbering ice monkey. Twilight was fascinated by the beast, which she had only previously read about. Unfortunately, the creature did not like close attention, and sped up in an attempt to escape, causing Twilight to press closer in order to examine its strange gait. This in turn caused the nervous monkey to lope faster, requiring more sped from Twilight, and so on until they were both practically galloping when they burst into the ice cavern-cum-banquet room where Luna was waiting.

Princess Luna had long found food and drink to be excellent distractions, allowing her to hide her nervousness behind cups and glasses and muffle awkward conversation with knife and fork. There was a lot to be nervous about with this meeting and wine had its own way of fortifying courage, so she had a generous glass of the stuff held close to her lips when the gibbering ice monkey waiter rocketed past as if chased by the hounds of Tartarus. Thousands of years’ experience ensured that Luna didn’t lose a drop.

With simian grace, the monkey used the table as a springboard to launch itself onto the ice shelf high on the cavern walls where its tribe made their home. Twilight did not have ancestors who climbed trees. The table did not have much food left on it after the collision.

"Twilight! Are you alright?" asked Luna as she rushed to the mare's aid, off-hoofedly righting the table and restoring its burden with her magic as she did so.

"I'm fine, thanks, Luna. The monkey got away, though."

"Do you want one? I can get you one if you want."

"No, no, thank you. I just wanted a closer look. It couldn’t seem to make up its mind whether to run on four legs or two. Very strange form of locomotion."

"It's probably for the best: I don't think Spike would react well to having even more competition for your attention."

Both ponies laughed, and Luna relaxed a little. The gibbering monkey had broken the ice, as intended. Luna put aside the now empty wine glass, turned to face Twilight and knelt on her forelegs.

"Twilight, I am so very sorry for slighting you the way I did. You freed me from the Nightmare, you freed me from my loneliness and your achievements outshine my own at your age. While I do not hold myself worthy of your love, I want nothing more than to dedicate the next century to making you happy, by your side. Can you forgive me?"

"Oh, get up, Luna. Of course I forgive you."

Twilight grabbed Luna in a tight embrace, tears in her eyes. Luna tried to get up so that she could hug Twilight back, but broke free of Twilight's grip whilst doing so due to the difference in their heights. The embrace she returned was somewhat one-sided.

"I think we need to sort out the mechanics of our relationship," said Twilight dryly from somewhere inside Luna's arms.

"We can make this work. Bide a moment."

Luna gently lifted Twilight onto the fruit-laden table. Now Twilight was above her, but not too much, and now they could embrace properly, as equals.

The tears of happiness welling in Twilight's eyes were nothing to the stream coming from Luna's.

-----------------

"So, what were your greatest achievements at my age?" asked Twilight, munching on a pear as an ice monkey waiter refilled her wine glass.

"Hmm, well, I had yet to achieve true mastery of the night – that was some years away yet. I believe my greatest achievement was winning the area around where Vanhoover now stands from a tribe of minotaurs."

"A warrior princess, hm? I'm sure it was an awesome battle."

Luna blushed and looked a little awkward, loathe to banish the admiration in Twilight's eyes. She gave a little cough.

"As it happens, I won the tribe's lands through beating the chieftain in a drinking contest. It was a sore fight, and I was incapacitated for days afterwards."

Luna smiled indulgently as Twilight laughed.

-----------------

Luna was looking relaxed, happy and satisfied, nibbling on a small bouquet of flowers as a dessert after a full meal and pleasant conversation. Twilight was feeling full and toying with whether or not to order a bouquet from one of the monkeys for herself, when a much better idea occurred to her. She got off her chair and started circling the table towards Luna, a wicked grin on her face.

"So, Luna, what are your plans, now that you’ve wined and dined me?"

"I had intended for us to tour the ice plains. The night sky is quite magnificent on a dark, open plain. We could discuss the future as we look upon the heavens," said Luna.

"That sounds lovely," said Twilight, stalking her prey.

"Twilight?" asked Luna, suddenly a little nervous at Twilight’s expression as she approached.

"Yesss?" said Twilight, crouching low and sniffing the air as Luna backed away a step.

"While I appreciate your attention, Ifeelthat–" Luna danced away as Twilight leapt at her, "We need to talk!"

"So talk," said Twilight, turning again to face Luna, seemingly unperturbed by missing her target.

"I regret to say that I cannot live in Ponyville. The Night Court is in Canterlot, and the lack of ‘nightlife’ is difficult for me," Luna was backing away as Twilight made another approach.

"Uhuh. And I can’t move to Canterlot. We may have to have a long-distance relationship. Dreams. Weekends. Tonight."

"Twilight, if we continue as we did before, our relationship may likewise end the same way," Luna had backed some distance away from Twilight, who was crouching low but not moving any closer.

Twilight sighed and straightened.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yup," said Twilight, walking normally to Luna, "we can take it slow. Dream dates. Astronomy. Talking."

"Thank you, Twilight. I really want our relationship to blossom."

"No problem, Luna," said Twilight, now standing next to her smiling marefriend, "I want just the same thing. We can go topside and look at the ice plain, just as soon as I punishyouforbreakingmyheart."

Luna was nearly caught off guard by Twilight’s attack, but successfully evaded her yet again. Luna raced for the ice tunnels, followed by Twilight in hot pursuit.

"Get back here, Moon butt! I need to tickle you into submission!"

Luna almost made it to the exit before Twilight tackled and tickled her. The ice tunnels echoed with the sound of her laughter as the gibbering ice monkeys feasted on the remains of the banquet.

This time it was going to work.