All for One - One for Luna (MLP)

03: Frustration, Conversation, and Observation

     Twilight was frustrated.

     Last night, or day rather, had been wonderful, horrible, and blissful-yet-stressful. It was wonderful to be able to sleep without pain. At least, it was wonderful until she tried pulling a blanket over herself and was shocked back to full consciousness by the burning pain from blocking out Luna's moonlight. Blissful-yet-stressful? Well, that was when Luna moved to lay next to her and wrapped her in a wing. It felt so good to be held by the beautiful mare, but it was so hard to convince her heart and stomach to calm down - it was just a friendly gesture after all, nothing more.

     So, she didn't sleep as well as she'd hoped. Additionally, she'd finished the two books Luna had provided with nothing useful to show for it, and now Luna wouldn't let her visit the library to search for more.

     Twilight was frustrated. And now she found herself almost yelling at royalty.

     Well, I'm royalty too, so maybe this doesn't count.

     "I'm telling you I need to visit the library myself, I don't know what specific books I need yet, that's what I need to look through them for!"

     Luna appeared to be getting frustrated herself, though she was much better at hiding it. "And I have told you that we cannot risk the possibility of infecting others. If you could just write down what it is you are looking for we can have the archivist search for likely books."

     Twilight was pacing, just to be doing something, while Luna simply reclined on her favorite cushion. "I don't know what I'm looking for. This isn't like anything I've encountered before. I need to research, and the best way to do that is hooves-on. And we're not risking infecting other ponies: the library is always empty at night - I know, I've spent plenty of time there. Just have a servant or guard check before we go, then have them make sure others stay out while we're there. Besides, it's unlikely that this spreads through normal means, if it can spread at all. If it could, nearly all of Ponyville would already have it considering how many parties Pinky threw that first week after defeating Tirek."

     She finally stopped pacing and just watched as Luna lay staring out the window, apparently thinking things over. Twilight was rapidly coming to the conclusion that it is very difficult to stay annoyed with someone while simultaneously appreciating how beautiful they are. It's just not fair, she thought sadly.

     "You have made your point. I will send a scroll to the guards that we will require the library to be cleared within the hour. Though your point is a good one, we still don't know how you became affected and aren't going to risk contact with others based on the fact that nothing bad has yet happened."

     She ran over and hugged Luna, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

     "You are welcome," said Luna as she briefly returned the hug. "It does not make me happy to lock you away like this, nor to be locked away myself. I am just worried by what has happened to you and what could happen."

     "I know," Twilight said quietly as her eyes turned to the moon. "I am too."

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     Luna was frustrated.

     It hadn't even been two full days and she already could feel the stress of being restricted in what she could do. She had hoped to never have her independence restricted again. She owed much to Twilight and would have done much more than what she was if needed, but the restrictions still chafed. Then there was the semi-argument over the library visit, and having to sit around with nothing to do while Twilight rapidly scanned through the books for anything of potential use.