Nightlight sat in front of an ornate, full-length mirror, her pitch black reflection running a golden brush through its gold and white hair. With each stroke of the brush, her hair seemed to sparkle, as if I had been laced with stars. Her silvery eyes, though shining brightly, seemed dull and lifeless in her reflection.

With a sigh, she dipped further into her pool of magic and picked up a quill, dipping it in ink and bringing it to the wall. Almost every inch of her room was covered in parchment paper, and scrawled across the paper were pictures. But these pictures were made of tiny dots, with faint lines connecting them. She concentrated on making the quill move, placing dots round the faint outline of three alicorns, with long horns and wings outstretched. She wondered if she would be able to complete her task in time for Princess Twilight's jubilee. Never before had she attempted something of this magnitude.

There was a knock at the door, and Nightlight dropped the hairbrush and the quill, knocking things off her desk in a scramble for another piece of parchment paper to cover her most recent drawing. “Enter.” She called out, rearranging her desk to hide the aftermath of her panic. As the silvery glow of her magic subsided, Princess Luna walked into the room, her eldritch mane flowing freely behind her. Nightlight stood and bowed deeply, the spark of life and happiness returning to her eyes.

“Princess Luna.” She said. Luna lowered her head somewhat and Nightlight stood up, proud and tall.

“My dearest apprentice.” The Princess said with a slight smile. “My night is almost upon us. Do you have tonight's constellation ready?

Nightlight nodded furiously, turning to the far wall of her room and pulling down a piece of parchment paper with a dotted sketch of a fiery phoenix arcing across the page. A dark blue glow surrounded the page as Luna pulled it towards her, examining the sketch. Nightlight scraped her fore hoof across the ground, nervous under the scrutiny of her teacher.

“I thought that, since it was Philomena's birthday, Celestia might appreciate a picture of her in the sky tonight. So I made this in her likeness as a… gift…” her voice trailed off as Luna lowered the picture and stared into her eyes. After a tense silence, Luna smiled, spreading out her wings.

“You are most kind to my sister, Nightlight. I'm sure she will be happy with your act of generosity. Come, let us begin.”
Nightlight beamed, practically glowing under her mentor's praise. She knew some ponies thought that she was a suck-up, trying endlessly to please her teacher, but she didn't care what they thought. She knew that they were jealous they would never walk side by side with the Goddess of the Night, never extend their magic into the very cosmos and paint the sky. She looked up to Luna with respect and love, and she knew the blue alicorn loved and respected her back.

Princess Luna led Nightlight up a spiralling staircase, which opened up to a vast and open roof-top terrace, showing the most amazing view of Equestria. Nightlight relished in the feeling of being up so high, and always felt as if she could reach out and touch Luna and Celestia's sky. Sometimes, she would come up to the terrace and stand on the edge, feeling the wind blowing through her mane and pretending she was an immortal alicorn like her teacher, flying through a vast and endless sky with wings as black as shadow. Celestia had once caught her doing so, and after much light-hearted teasing, had promised not to tell Luna. The last thing Nightlight wanted was for her mentor to think her odd.

The sky above the terrace was a fierce orange, and in the centre of the platform, Celestia stood, bathed in a shimmering, golden light. Her sun was slowly sinking beyond a curved horizon, going to sleep as Celestia's day made way for Luna's night. When the sun had disappeared, Celestia turned and smiled her sister and the young unicorn.

“Good evening, my sister. Young Nightlight. Have you come to set up the night sky?” She asked. Luna walked over to the Goddess of the Sun and bent her head over her shoulder in a hug.

“Yes, my sister. Nightlight has offered to create the constellations for the night, and she has a surprise for you.”

Celestia tilted her head quizzically, but Luna merely gave a mischievous smirk and walked to the centre of the terrace. Her wings spread into their full grandeur, and her horn began to glow with a dark blue light that shimmered with flecks of silver. Nightlight felt her breath catch in her throat as she watch Luna's incredible display of power. With a burst of indigo energy, a silvery orb was brought up into the sky, shining a luminescent glow onto Equestria. When the moon had climbed to its highest point, Luna dismissed her lunar energy and turned to Nightlight.

“Are you ready, my pupil?” she asked. Nightlight walked over to Luna's side and looked up into the sky, stretching out her black neck.

“I don't know, princess… I've never made this many stars before. What if I can't do it?” she whispered, trying to keep her voice from carrying to Celestia. Luna smiled at her student and nudged her gently with her head.

“I believe in you, Nightlight. You have the power to do it.”

Night Light bit her lip and nodded. “Alright. I'll try.”

Luna stepped over to her sister, giving Nightlight the space she needed to cast her magic. Taking several deep breaths, Nightlight felt her magic welling up into her horn and building. A silvery light enveloped her horn and started to slowly swirl around her body like stardust caught in the breeze. Her whole body tensed in concentration, and she grit her teeth as sweat began to cover her hide.

Each star Nightlight created was like a small sun, and each one took incredible power to ignite, let alone keep burning for the night. Nightlight wasn't an alicorn, so she did not have an immense and almost limitless supply of power to use like her the princesses. She had to train her magic hard each night; building the amount of stars she could create at a time. This amount was a stretch for her, and the magic felt as if it were pulling energy from her life force, but she wouldn't give up. She refused to. She had to do this, for Philomena, for Celestia, for Equestria.

For Luna.

With a final burst of arcane energy, she let out a short scream as her magic burst from her horn, streaming upwards and exploding into small drops of starlight in the sparse sky, forming the shape of a phoenix bursting from its flames. Nightlight lowered her head, panting heavily. The exertion of the celestial energy had taken a lot out of her, and was still draining out of her to keep the stars alight. She felt feathers covering her back, and looked up to see Luna standing with her, a wing around her shaking form in a comforting hug. Celestia came up on her other side, looking up at the glowing constellation with sparkling eyes.

“Nightlight,” she breathed. “It's wonderful. Thank you, young filly.”

Luna grinned at the sky, magic enveloping her horn once more as smaller, duller stars filled the sky. Nightlight closed her eyes and leaned against her teacher. She had done it.

She had made Luna proud.

Author's Note

Hello. How does this thing work?
Um, okay so I guess I explain what I plan to do with this story? So, um, I created the character Nightlight because I thought, "Celestia had a student, why shouldn't Luna?" So, I wanted to use a unicorn that didn't have magical potential, but rather an affinity for celestial energy. Twilight became an Alicorn through magic, but I want Nightlight to work hard if she wants to become an Alicorn. None of this, "You're the magicest, have some wings", more like, "You've worked hard and journeyed far". So, the start is a bit slow, mainly character introduction, minimal progression of storyline, etc etc. Hope you enjoyed!
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Did I do this right..?