Princess Luna, monarch of the night sky and protector of the nocturnal sighed as she closed the last of the files from the mountainous stack she had received from Princess Celestia all those months earlier. Not as single one of the changelings captured by the guard had harbored hostile intentions. It was as she had expected; the hive of Queen Chrysalis had been forced out of Equestria completely by their informal (but very effective) exile at the horn of the princess of love. How fitting, Luna thought, that a story that began with a species that survives by stealing love should end with a Hearth’s Warming celebrating that love and tolerance have saved the ponies from themselves.
Slowly, as life returned to normal for the lunar princess, the world continued on. Now, though, Princess Luna was once again feeling herself to be closer to Celestia’s equal, as she had been a thousand years ago. As she had recovered her powers and authority, her mane and tail had returned to their ethereal star-spangled selves and she was getting closer to her sister’s size. More importantly, more ponies had started to attend her night court. There were some, at least, who had decided she was worth trusting. It was a step in the right direction. There was still a long way to go; Luna’s attempted visit to Ponyville during Nightmare Night showed that her reputation and that of her alter ego would not die out for a generation or more. To Luna, though, her return to power was another chance as well. There was an opportunity here to return to some of the older traditions that had fallen by the wayside; not any of the harmful ones of course, but night-bound traditions that had slowly vanished as the princess herself had done.
She had started one of those back in motion again this year; when the three fillies (what did they call themselves? Oh yes, the "Cutie Mark Crusaders") had wanted to ask her about the history of Hearth’s Warming for their class ("Cutie Mark Crusader historians! Yay!"), Princess Luna had told them of the story of the first wishing star and of how foals all over Equestria used to watch the night sky on Hearth’s Warming Eve to wait for a single star to shine brighter than all the others. It was believed that if a foal spotted that special star, if he or she wished upon it, that wish would come true, especially if the wish was one that would help others as well as the wisher. The three fillies had joined the night princess up on the balcony to watch for a wishing star after the pageant. They had watched for a quarter of an hour before Scootaloo had spotted the wishing star. All three fillies had closed their eyes and wished; unbeknownst to them, Princess Luna had wished too. I wish that the night be more beautiful and more welcoming to all those living in Equestria than in the past. I wish that all may feel safe under the light of my moon again. Afterwards the group had returned inside to hot cider and cookies before all had returned to their rooms to await the bountiful generous gifting of the next day.
As such things often went, the foals were up early. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom’s cheery dispositions helped the adults grin and bear their way through the chaotic shredding of wrapping paper and ribbon. At times like this, Luna had thought, Coffee is a blessing. Among the gifts the lunar princess had received was a bag of Horsican coffee and a small bag of gingerbread cookies labelled "Cookie N Cream's Hearth's Warmers: best eaten warm!".
The Ponyville crowd had been joined by the changeling hive, who were jubilant at the gifts they had received from the princesses in anticipation for their new roles as resident players in Canterlot. Queen Maricopa Elytra had sat and watched the show with the appearance of a benevolent mother as her hive, from the oldest drone to the youngest nymph, exclaimed over their gifts. To Princess Luna’s surprise, Spear Shaker and Quick Chance had elected to have a quiet Hearth’s Warming Day in their quarters rather than join in the large group’s festivities. When Luna had asked one of the servants what they planned on doing, she had received only a conspiratorial wink and a suggestive tilt of the head. It did not take Starswirl the Bearded to figure out that there may be a new member of Spear Shaker’s Players by next year. The pair did make an appearance when the group went en masse to the Great Hall for the annual Hearth’s Warming Feast.
Luna had brought back another tradition, in which the palace staff ate at table with the princesses as equals, with each pony busing his or her own plate to be cleaned by the princesses’ magic and put away. The most impressive part of the meal was a pair of cakes. To no pony’s surprise, there were two of them, one Celestia’s angel’s food cake, the other Luna’s black forest cake. The biggest surprise here was the decorations. Both cakes had been frosted with ornate fondant icing and the two cakes combined looked like Canterlot Castle and Canterlot Mountain, respectively. Tiny marzipan ponies of various tribes decorated spun sugar balconies and hard candy stained glass windows caught the light in a myriad of different colors. Most interesting of all was an addition to Canterlot Mountain: a cluster of little cottages inhabited by more tiny marzipan creatures, both ponies and changelings. A small slip of paper next to the confectionery masterpiece read “Dedicated to Princess Luna in thanks for her efforts in the creation of the Royal Changelings’ Artists Guild Colony.” The note was signed by two dozen of the changelings. Luna had never considered that one could turn cake decorating into an art form of its own, but this was certainly evidence to the contrary. The confection was almost too beautiful to eat; no pony seemed to want to touch it and mar the edible creation’s beauty until Pinkie Pie brazenly took a bite of one of the towers and squealed that it was "Cookie N Cream’s super duper secret cake frosting recipe that was only used for super uber special cakes". Her subsequent faint from apparent sugar overload made every pony and changeling in the room interested in sampling the enormous dessert. Fortunately, there was more than enough to go around without sending anyone into a food coma. All left the meal satisfied and full. The next day, the guests departed and everything returned to normal.
Almost everything, that is. Just as Twilight Sparkle wrote to Princess Celestia every so often, Princess Luna began to receive mail from her own pen pals. All across Equestria, changelings who had been granted citizenship and the ponies who had supported them sent their princess of the night letters that told her what they were doing, what went on in their lives, and notices of when other changelings appeared in their home towns. It appeared to be that these changelings would be Luna’s responsibility, as Celestia showed no interest in immigration reform and Luna was inclined towards granting most citizenship requests. Not long after the end of the Hearth’s Warming festivities, Luna had received her first non-changeling citizenship application: a zebra colony that had washed ashore near San Franciscolt had asked for and received permission to create their own enclave within the city. Now a well-established part of the City of the Bays, these zebras had requested citizenship. After some investigation into the enclave by Luna’s Night Guard, that request had been granted. It was a benefit to all parties; Luna got to take another small step toward having official power back in her hooves; Celestia no longer had to deal with the horn ache of tedious immigration paperwork, and the immigrants seeking citizenship had their waits cut by half or more. When a reporter had asked Luna about why she granted so many citizenship requests, she had answered, “Because I have been an exile, I know what it is like to live apart from the wider world and how lonely it can be. It takes courage to say ‘no, I do not want to stay on the outside forever, I want to be a part of something more’, especially when that something more is a group that is very different from what you are used to.”