Luna sighed to herself as her carriage, pulled by her loyal night guard, flew closer to Ponyville. She knew her sister wanted her to go there to make friends, but she had this unshakable feeling that they were not going to welcome her as Celestia claimed.
The thought continued in her mind as the guard began to make their descent into town. She could hear the ponies having fun beneath her and a small smile grew on her face. As she was about to land however, a few flashes of lightning and the clashing of thunder brought the attention of the happy ponies below.
After a short moment of them all gazing up to look at Luna in her carriage, they began to scream and run in all directions. Luna, watching them all scatter, looked down with a disheartened expression. ‘You were wrong sister, they do still fear me.’ she thought to herself as she down from the chariot and walked into the center of town.
“My subjects, do not fear me!” she said in the Royal Canterlot Voice, causing everypony to stop and bow down to her frightfully. “’Tis I, your Princess Luna!”
Luna looked around at all the shivering, cowering ponies and saw a group of young foals. She had always held an affinity for foals, finding them easier to talk to than more grown up ponies. She moved closer to the group and stopped in front of one especially small colt wearing a pirate costume.
“Young one!” she said, trying to make her voice comforting while still using the Royal Canterlot Voice. “Why do you cower? You have nothing to-“
“She’s going for the children!” a pink pony yelled and quickly ran over to snatch up the small colt. “Everypony run! Nightmare Moon is going to gobble us all up!”
At this, all the ponies ran into houses, down dark alleyways, or anywhere that wasn’t where Luna was.
“What? No! I am not Nightmare Moon, I am your Princess Luna! Please come back!”
Luna began to sob as nopony was showing signs of reemerging from their hiding places.
“I just wanted to make friends,” she mumbled as she walked out of town, her head hanging low and tears falling from her eyes.
Twilight had just come trotting down the street, shocked at having heard the Royal Canterlot Voice booming through all of Ponyville, to find Luna walking away. She smiled and shouted, “Princess Luna, what are you doing here? Princess? … Luna, where are you going?”
Luna wasn’t paying attention, she was lost in thought. ‘You lied to me yet again sister. The ponies here were not as welcoming as you said they would be.’
Twilight began to follow Luna, unsure as to what was going on. Nopony was out on the street, thought it was obvious that they had been not too long ago, they left party streamers and confetti on the ground and there were games left unoccupied.
Luna walked out of the town towards the dark park, finally stopping on the middle of a stone bridge overlooking the small river. She looked over the side at her reflection in the water. It looked even sadder than she felt, if that was even possible.
“Princess Luna?” a tentative voice asked from behind her.
Luna jumped, she had not expected anypony to follow her or even sound concerned when saying her name. Though the voice didn’t fit, she half expected to see Celestia standing behind her. She was even more shocked to see Twilight standing there, giving her a small, comforting smile.
“Twilight Sparkle, what are you doing here?”
“I came here to ask you the same question.”
Luna looked at her reflection again, it made her a little happy that at least one pony wanted to talk to her. “Celestia informed me that I could make friends if I came here. She stated that the ponies of Ponyville were the most accepting ponies in all of Equestria. But never have I gotten a reaction quite like the one I just received from them.”
Twilight walked over and stood next to Luna, concern etched on her face. “What happened?”
Luna sighed and looked at Twilight. “After my entrance into town was met with quite a bit less... enthusiasm as I would have hoped, while I was attempting to speak to a young colt to convince them of my sincerity, I believe it was Pinkie Pie, claimed that I was going to eat them and shouted for everypony to run.”
Twilight turned away, growling a little as she thought, ‘Pinkie, you idiot.’
“I only wanted to make friends, but they all ran from me, calling me Nightmare Moon,” Luna started to sob again.
Twilight moved closer and put her hoof around Luna. “You have at least one friend, right here,” she said in her most comforting tone.
Luna felt her heart thump hard and looked up at Twilight again. She just realized how beautiful Twilight was when she smiled. She felt her cheeks burn and quickly looked down at her reflection again before Twilight could notice. She liked how they looked together in the water’s reflection, she smiled at it for a second before shaking the thought out of her head, after all, she hardly knew Twilight. She did however, believe in love at first sight, though this was hardly the first she had seen of the lavender mare.
Twilight only saw Luna looking away and took it as an unenthusiastic response, so she continued, “But if you want to make more friends, you just need to know how to talk to them. I can help you with that.”
“Really? You would help me to make friends?” Luna asked excitedly, jerking her head up to look at Twilight.
“If that’s what you really want,” Twilight replied with a chuckle.
Luna nodded with a big smile, she was just happy that Twilight was so willing to help and she wanted to spend more time with her, partially to revel in the fact she had made a friend, but also to confirm if her curious feeling could indeed be love.
Twilight smiled and led her back into town, introducing her to the ponies who had run in terror not that long ago. Pinkie was still being a problem though. Luna didn’t mind it too much, she enjoyed Twilight’s company too much to take that much notice. She was just happy that she had a friend and that many of the other ponies were calmer around her now that she was with Twilight.
After Luna had left, Twilight had begun to send her letters telling her of fun little stories of what was happening between her and her friends. Luna enjoyed the letters and always replied with a story of her own, usually about pulling pranks on the castle staff or some adventure in the gardens. The letters began to slow after a couple of weeks, and after a month, to Luna’s dismay, they had stopped completely.