ELove❤Less
MLP: FiM
Drama
Luna visits Cadance with an important question on her mind. Cadance is always happy to help out a fellow princess, especially if that princess is her friend, but she isn't sure why Luna of all ponies would need her help, if she can help at all...
Luna
Cadance
Ice Star · 3k words · 70 6 · 2.3k views

Revised for Print: LoveLess · 4:14am Sep 7th, 2020

Another story revised for print! This one was always one of the most important to me. Unfortunately, it never got a lot of attention. For a story related to LGBT topics, it is still alienating even within that niche. Of my many one-shots, this is still probably one of my favorites. I wanted to show off the leap in quality. The original story was scribbled down in a notebook at some point in early 2017 and published not long after with minimal revisions. Now in September of 2020, it's gotten quite the lift. Future characterization of Luna is given more emphasis and I've pulled the story from being lost in the realm of 'too subtle' by outright stating a few things, since the topic is particularly important to me.

Get the excerpts below the break.

March 2017

Eventually, she smiled. "There's nothing wrong with that. Not everypony wants the love I have with Shining Armor, to raise a foal like our famlies, or to be a mentor like Auntie Celestia. Sometimes, ponies are like Twilight. They won't get the answer they want, but that's okay. Love isn't easy, Luna, and there's nothing wrong with not wanting it. I guess that love is a lot like ice cream. There's plenty of different kinds of it, but not everypony likes it. Some have never even had it, which is depressing either way. Still, there's no way I'd hate somepony for that."
"Really?"
"Okay," Cadance sheepishly admitted, "if you don't like ice cream, there's a chance that we might not get along, but I'm not going to hate a pony for not wanting that. I don't think I've ever hated anypony in my life so far, but I don't think it would be too hard to hate somepony who made the choice you did - wanting to 'live instead of love' - if they decided that meant they should be unspeakably cruel because they decided to become a monster."
Finishing with a smile, Cadance levitated a tissue box over from a different corner of the room, offering it to Luna, bumping her with it. Looking up, Luna gratefully accepted the box, shrouding the object in her own aura.
"Are you going to be alright?"
"I think so," Luna said, bobbing her head in a nod she only bothers to complete halfway.

September 2020

Eventually, she smiled. "There's nothing wrong with that. Not everypony wants the love I have with Shining Armor, to raise a foal as our families did, or to be a mentor like Auntie Celestia. Sometimes, ponies are like Twilight. They won't get the answer they want, but that's okay. Love isn't easy, Luna, and there's nothing wrong with not wanting it. I guess that love is a lot like ice cream. There's plenty of different kinds of it, but not everypony likes it — and some ponies are lactose intolerant. Some have never even had it — which is depressing using this metaphor, but you get what I mean. Still, there's no way I'd hate somepony for that."
"Really?"
"Okay," Cadance sheepishly admitted, "if you don't like ice cream, there's a chance that we might not get along, but I'm not going to hate a pony for not wanting that. I don't think I've ever hated anypony in my life so far. I don't think it would be too hard to hate somepony who made the choice you did — wanting to 'live instead of love' — if they decided that meant they should be unspeakably cruel because they decided to become a monster. Just because you don't love anypony — romantically, that is — doesn't mean you get to hurt others, or that there is anything heartless about being aromantic."
"Aromantic?" Luna whispered, her throat clearly tight.
"Yeah, um, ponies that don't feel romantic attraction — that's what you are, right?"
"...No," Luna murmured, "I... I do not think so. Or, rather, I am not truly sure. 'Tis hard to think of lasting loves when nothing pulls you toward those loves, to begin with, and that as an Alicorn I must rule over a species so unlike myself, which gives ponies a dullness that a mortal like you would find too esoteric. Yet, I do not possess anything close to the xenophilia of my elder sister. I... I think that there is just so much already that exists to separate me from the common compulsions that drive one to romance in the first place. I am already aware that I... that I have the state where I am not plagued with physical desires where fullness and intimacy should be—"
"Asexuality," Cadance said, humming.
Luna nodded, her mane shaking slightly and her forehooves folded shyly. There was an obvious bob to the way she swallowed. "Yes, that. I... I-I can't fathom why others see it as so lacking, yet modernity had the will to give this a name at last. Why must ponies have such subtle, two-faced cruelty?"
Giving the distraught goddess a kind smile, Cadance levitated a tissue box over from a different corner of the room, offering it to Luna. She even went as far as to bump her with it. Looking up, Luna gratefully accepted the box, shrouding the object in her own aura.
"Are you going to be alright?"
"I think so," Luna said, bobbing her head in a nod she only bothers to complete halfway.