The full moon was bright that night as Luna walked through the quiet streets of Vanhoover. She looked up at the scattered arrangement of stars in the sky, imagining them in the shapes of famous scenes. A cool breeze blew past her, filling her with a feeling of relief and relaxation. The darkness barely obscured her view, allowing her to enjoy the beauty of the night to its fullest. She walked to the local soup kitchen, but found it to be closed when she reached it. Luna then proceeded towards the toy store, which was thankfully still open. Inside, she grabbed four stuffed animals, three action figures, and six dolls. Paying the tired owner, she carefully placed the toys into her saddle bag and left. One or two ponies walked along the street as Luna made her way to the orphanage, each of them in the same sort of hurry most ponies were in at night, trying to get back to the safety of indoors. The night never scared Luna. She felt more alive than ever basking in the starlight and gazing at the glorious moon. She couldn't understand the other ponies' fear, but often shrugged it off, as it rarely had an affect on her.
She entered the dimly lit orphanage after knocking and Chrysalis opening the door. Luna smiled at her and gestured towards her saddle bag. Chrysalis grinned hugely.
"My little ponies!" Chrysalis called out. "Luna's here again!" At that, a rush of excited fillies and colts ran and gathered around them, chatting among themselves about what toys they might have gotten. Luna took off her bag and lifted out one toy at a time, presenting each to its new owner. Everypony was overjoyed at their new plaything, and ran back to their bedroom right after saying a chorus of "thank you"s. Chrysalis sighed and turned back towards Luna. She was a tall unicorn mare, and one of the few ponies Luna knew with a real cutie mark. It was a parasprite, an odd cutie mark for anypony, but one nonetheless. At least the colors of the parasprite complemented her long, straight blue mane and grayish-black coat, making it fit in a little more, even though parasprites were the opposite of what Chrysalis was like. Chrysalis was probably the sweetest pony Luna knew, and she was glad she looked after orphans.
"So, find anymore of them in the streets?" Luna asked her.
"Not yet," Chrysalis sighed. "Most days when I go out to look for them, they're hard to distinguish, and at night I have to stay here by policy. I got a little more nighttime to explore ever since I hired a mare to work some night shifts, but she always comes late, giving me less time to search."
"Are you sure you don't want me to search for you at night?"
"No, you already give so much, I can't ask you to do more," Chrysalis said. Luna nodded her head and walked towards the exit.
"Be careful out there." Luna turned back to look at Chrysalis, who had a worried look on her face. "Things here up north have really been falling apart since the founding of Equestria." Luna smiled at her concern and walked out the door. She trotted through the streets, trying to find somewhere to sleep for a bit. The dim streetlights lit the pavement through the trees lining the sidewalk, making delicate patterns on the ground. Luna was distracted by these shapes, which never failed to inspire and amaze her, when she bumped into a hooded pony.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Luna apologized. "I didn't see you there." The pony rubbed their head, and in doing so, removed their hood. She was a unicorn mare, with a cream coat. She had a green, straight mane and green eyes, and her cutie mark was a purple six-pointed star over-lapping a white six-pointed star which were both surrounded by five other white six-pointed stars. After taking a second to process, Luna realized who this was.
"Clover?!"
"Luna!" Clover shouted. The ponies embraced happily. Luna smiled at Clover as they separated, and immediately had tons of questions for her.
"I haven't seen you in forever! I've missed you," Luna said.
"I've missed you too!" Clover agreed. "And all our friends! How are they, by the way?"
"Well, Celestia's working for the queen, which is pretty cool," Luna began. "I don't know about Amethyst, since I haven't seen her since the orphanage shut down."
"Yeah, I heard about that, that's too bad," Clover said. "What about Onyx?" Luna hesitated for a second.
"Actually, Onyx died three years ago," Luna explained. Clover's smile faded, and she bowed her head down. Luna gave her another hug, hoping to help, and Clover lightened a little at that. She pulled away, and Luna could see tears forming in her eyes, making her instantly feel awful.
"I'm so sorry, I should have told you earlier. It's just that the postal service here is terrible, and there wasn't a funeral or anything, and I've been so busy with work," Luna said.
"Lu-lu, it's fine," Clover assured her. "Truthfully, I should be apologizing. I left you guys to learn at a fancy-pants school, but didn't ever write or try to contact you. I was so wrapped up in and busy with my studies that there wasn't any time, but I should have made time, I should have been there for all of you when the orphanage shut down and Onyx died and - "
"Clover!" Luna cut her off. "You don't need to apologize." Clover smiled at that. "Besides, we're here now and are seeing each other after all these years. Let's make the most of it."
"Yeah, good idea," Clover said, and they started walking down the road together. Luna brought Clover to her favorite 24 hour café, and they both sat down at an outdoor table after ordering some food and drinks.
"So, what's this I keep hearing about you being one of the Mane Founders of Equestria?" Luna prompted Clover. She smiled bashfully and nodded.
"Yeah, it happened during the brief time I was working for Princess Platinum. It was a very strange ordeal. I did make some new friends during it though." Clover smiled at that, and Luna could see the love in her eyes. For reasons she couldn't quite fathom, she started to feel jealous of these new friends, wondering if they meant as much or more to Clover than Luna did. Luna didn't understand it, but she inwardly hoped that these "friends" were nothing more than that. Realizing what she was thinking, she pushed her feelings back down, trying to conceal them, and not to feel them.
"And you?" Clover asked, jolting Luna out of her thoughts. "What do you do these days?"
"Not much," Luna admitted, "just a daily routine of working at a cupcake shop for pay, then volunteer at the soup kitchen when it's open, then getting something to bring to the orphans at the Orphanage of Love and Care. Sometimes I search the streets for homeless children, even though my friend Chrysalis says I don't have to. But that's it. I don't make the kind of impact on ponies' lives like you do."
"Are you kidding me?" Clover sputtered. "You're doing more good for Equestria than I ever could!" Luna blushed and shook her head, which only led to Clover nodding her head more insistently, making Luna smile. Their food then arrived: a daisy sandwich and applejack for Clover, and tomato soup and fruit punch for Luna. They ate in silence for a little while, until Clover caught a glimpse of Luna's flank when the latter bent down to get her dropped spoon.
"You got your cutie mark?!" Clover gasped. "What is it?"
"Oh, no, this is a tattoo," Luna explained. "Everypony without a cutie mark gets them these days, since ponies are more likely to hire you if you have a cutie mark, even if they don't know what it is."
"It looks like a black blob."
"Yeah, this was the cheapest one."
"It's so stupid that only some ponies end up getting their cutie marks," Clover grumbled.
"A lot of things are stupid and messed up these days," Luna said. "You know, my sister's always talking about how we need to find a way to harmonize Equestria."
"So does Starswirl!" Clover said. "He finally came back to his 'Destiny Spell', and is almost done with it. He's probably going to cast it pretty soon."
"What would that be, his 150th spell?"
"214th," Clover said. "The thing is, though, that I'm pretty sure I know how to finish it, and even cast it, but he's not letting me work on it. I can tell this spell could blow up in his face if he does it wrong, and I obviously don't want that to happen. You see, there's something about it that has to do with true friendship, which I understand much better than him, who's only become sort-of-friends with some creature named Scorpan. This whole thing is not going to go over well, I can tell, but he won't let me do anything about it! It's very frustrating." She bit into her sandwich roughly, and Luna put a hoof to hers to calm her. Clover set the sandwich down, looking up to Luna in weakness.
"Sorry, I just don't want anypony to get hurt."
"I understand," Luna said. "Hey, want to visit the orphanage with me? It might make you feel better, and I think you and Chrysalis will get along pretty well."
"Sure, I'll take this to go." Clover levitated her food and they left the café, having already paid. They trekked along the empty road in silence, simply listening to the sounds of the night. Crickets chirped in a soft chorus, with bull frogs belting out notes every so often. A few lights in the shops and houses lining the street flickered on and off, some ponies finally getting to bed after a long night. Luna was used to this atmosphere, being practically nocturnal. Her job started at 4:00 in the afternoon, giving her the entire morning and noon to sleep. She loved these peaceful walks out in the dark, with nopony to bother her. The absence of ponies still did confuse her, though, not understanding how they could stand to sleep through such beautiful nights. She suspected that if the night had a mind of its own, it would feel very lonely, always being so unappreciated. Still, these were minor problems in the grand scheme of things, just thoughts to dwell on, and Luna shook them away as she and Clover entered the stone building.
"Luna, you're back," Chrysalis whispered, approaching them, then noticing Clover. "Oh, hi! Who are you?"
"Chrissi, this is Clover, my old friend from my fillihood," Luna said. "Clover, this is Chrysalis." The two ponies shook hoofs and smiled at each other.
"Clover...the Clever? One of the Mane Founders?" Chrysalis asked.
"Yes," Clover said. "And you run this whole orphanage?" Chrysalis nodded, and Clover looked at her in amazement. The three started talking about Starswirl and other events in Equestria, re-stating facts Clover and Luna had already discussed so as to inform Chrysalis. She gave some tips to Clover on how to convince Starswirl that she should cast the spell, and they debated ways to harmonize Equestrian society. Their conversation was cut short as a pink pegasus mare with a short, sky blue mane, blue eyes, and double-heart cutie mark entered the building.
"Sorry I'm late," she gasped. "I had to work overtime at my other job."
"It's fine. Can you take over for the rest of the night?" Chrysalis said.
"Of course."
"Sweet, now we can continue this talk outside," Chrysalis said. "Oh, girls, this is Rose Quartz. Rosy, this is Luna and Clover the Clever." After a round of greetings, the trio left the orphanage and entered the night's endless blanket. Luna could see a hint of light from the sun over the east horizon, knowing that the most powerful unicorns were working together to lift it, and lower the moon as well. She suspected it must be a tough job, moving a celestial body.
"Hey, do you guys mind if I pick up a pastry or something to go real quick? I haven't eaten in hours," Chrysalis asked as they were passing by the café again. The other mares nodded, and she went in while they waited outside.
"Luna?" Clover started. "After the whole incident at Starswirl's School, was Celestia okay? I know she wanted to get in as much as me, if not more, and that before she had been a little jealous of my magic skills, and I really don't want to have made her sad."
"Oh, no she was fine!" Luna said instantly. Thinking about it a bit more, she restated it. "Of course, she was a little jealous and confused, but she got over it quickly, and she was really proud of you. Mostly, you getting in just helped to motivate her more."
"That's good," Clover said, smiling. "I mean, I was a little confused as well. Celestia was just as good as me, yet they only accepted me in because I went all freakish on the place. Is that all they were looking for with the exam? A burst of magical energy?"
Luna thought on this a while, and she could see Clover doing the same. It was odd that out of plenty of talented ponies, they only chose ones who had un-harnessed god-like power. Maybe they were specifically looking for that. It was possible, though another possibility was that he hadn't originally planned on accepting orphans, since they were considered low-class citizens. Luna would have voiced these ideas, but she knew that Clover really idolized Starswirl, or at least looked up to him, and that thinking of him in that way could break her vision of him.
"Hey, Luna? You know how ponies say that the power of friendship blew away the Windigos that night in the caves?" Clover asked. Luna nodded, and she continued. "Well, something weird happened that night. As Smart Cookie, Pansy, and I were about to freeze, we did tell each other that we didn't hate each other, like the stories say. But then, once we had been completely frozen, except for the tip of my horn, a burst of magic surged through me, powered by what felt like love and tolerance. It had a warm, yet almost burning sensation to it, and it melted the ice around us. I have no idea how it happened or what triggered it. It was different than the one that happened during my entrance exam, since that one was fueled by the shock of the Sonic Rainboom. This one came from nowhere, and it was fast, and unexpected, and...powerful. I didn't quite understand it, and I could tell it had good intentions, but it felt so out of my control, like if it had been fueled by hate it could do damage to ponies. I know Celestia would say just to be thankful for the raw power I have, but sometimes I feel like a time bomb just waiting to explode and destroy everything in my path. I don't want to hurt anypony! I...I'm scared."
"Oh, Clover." Luna hugged her friend tightly, trying to comfort her. "I know you would never hurt anypony intentionally, and if this happens without your control, it at least seems to be fueled by your emotions. I'm sure as long as you strive for good, your magic will do the same."
"I guess that is true."
"Look," Luna pulled away from her, "if you ever feel like hate or any kind of bad emotion is building up inside of you. If you're ever worried that you might be destructive or hurt other ponies, you can always come to me. I promise I will help you work through your struggles and will not ever judge you for anything you feel or do." Clover smiled.
"Thank you, Lu-lu. You're the best." They stared at each other for a while, then started to move towards the other. Their eyes shut slowly as they got closer and their lips touched. Luna felt a tingling in her stomach as she kissed Clover, the love she had for her growing every second. They pulled away slowly after what felt like hours of happiness and smiled at each other. Their moment was cut short by Chrysalis coming out of the café. The trio kept walking along the road in a peaceful silence, and Luna thought back to Clover. She hadn't really realized before that she had felt that way about her, and was gleefully surprised that Clover felt the same way. She guessed it must have been in that moment when she swore to help her, be there for her, and not to judge her that she realized she was saying those out of romantic love. Luna grinned into the dawn, feeling a calm wash over her like she had never felt before. She felt like skipping, prancing, galloping along the road; not going anywhere in specific, just moving gaily about. These new feelings almost overwhelmed her when their walk was stopped by a spark of fire in the air, through which a scroll appeared. It landed in Clover's hoof, and she read over it, her eyes widening the farther she read. When she finished, she started running in the direction of the train station, with Luna and Chrysalis following behind, struggling to keep up.
"What's wrong?!" Luna shouted.
"Starswirl's about to enact his spell!" Clover yelled back. "We have to stop him before it's too late!"