The world was dark in the seconds after twilight, Luna smiled as she focused her energy and began to lift the celestial entity beyond the horizon. The moon’s soft light flourished over the land, flowing up the Canterlot streets and up the side of the castle itself. As the full moon began to hold its course, Luna sighed deeply as she released the spell for tonight.
And sighed again as she looked down to the empty streets of Canterlot.
Many things had changed in the thousand years she had been gone. There was certainly more life in the night now that ponies days had become so busy that recreation had to be pushed to such hours, but Luna still felt something missing, and it was the same feeling as before. It was a small and misguided notion, but she still felt that nopony appreciated her work. Sure ponies were grateful for her help when she settled disputes or calmed fears, but she felt quickly forgotten.
Feeling she had the time to stretch before anypony needed her attention, Luna spread her wings and gave a few flaps to rise, and began to glide down towards Canterlot city. If nothing else, these times were an easy way to let herself go in the wind and enjoy herself. She thought of nothing as she came to the cities edge, automatically gliding up to make a wide bank towards the castle, when she noticed a pony looking up at her.
This happens when the Princess of the Night flies over a city, but usually from the street or patio, not the roof. It also struck Luna as odd that the pony in question didn’t seemed phased at all to see her. If anything, they seemed to be looking past her. Luna paused in the air for a second and looked behind her, only to see the open sky.
Curious, Luna made a slow decent to the pony sitting on their roof to ask exactly why they were sitting on their roof. As she approached, she noted it to be a unicorn stallion with a sky blue coat and gray mane. He seemed to finally take note of her as she landed gently beside him.
“I know this is a roof. No, I won’t fall. Yes, I can see myself back inside when I’m done. Thank you very much.” The stallion snapped hastily to Luna, making even her flinch back with his tone. She was about to retaliate for speaking such a way to her when she also took note of the unicorn’s eyes. Pale white with blindness.
Luna bit back her tongue and reformulated her response. “I actually came to see why you were sitting on this roof, sir.”
“Oh? Well that’s a new one.” The stallion chuckled, which quickly turned into a few coughs. He held a hoof up as he hacked a few more coughs out before pounding his chest. “Heh, haven’t laughed like that in a while.”
“Laugh?” Luna asked, concerned for the stallion’s health. It became increasingly obvious to her that he was very advanced in his years, and probably shouldn’t be sitting on a roof at night.
“Yeah, laugh. Ever heard the sound tight-britches?”
“Plenty of times, but none so sickly. Perhaps-“
“I’m fine where I am. And what’s with the formal speak? I’m not that old, despite my grandfoals insistence I’m as old as the princesses. If you’re offerin help, I don’t need none. And as for your question, I’m lookin’ at the stars.”
Luna was slightly lost in the stallion’s flurry of an answer, but when she caught up to the last sentence, she was even more confused. “I’m sorry to sound rude, but aren’t you blind? How can you see the stars?”
“With this thing.” The stallion tapped his horn. “My eyes might not work anymore but that doesn’t mean my horn doesn’t. I can see all the time and effort Princess Luna puts into that sky. It’s one of the last beautiful things I can see anymore.” He sighed. “Used to look up and see so many things. Now it’s all… dots.”
“I’m not quite sure I understand.” Luna said as she sat down on the roof. “How does a horn allow you to see?”
The stallion chuckled. “Just like a pegasus.” He muttered. “Everypony has magic, that’s a given. But every thing has magic as well. And here in the night sky is the clearest and cleanest arrangement of magic I’ve ever seen. And it’s only gotten better with Princess Luna’s return. See over there?” He pointed off to his right. Luna followed his hoof to immediately recognize the constellation of Gemini. “Five years ago that constellation was only observable in the darkest of nights on a new moon. Now, it’s properly lit.” He put his hoof back down, Luna’s eyes beginning to water at his observation.
She had indeed found that the Gemini arrangement had been neigh invisible when she returned, she had in fact thought the stars had died in her absence before the first new moon.
“There can be so many tells in the night sky, all anypony needs to do is look.”
“What’s your name?” Luna near blurted out in his pause. He raised an eyebrow and snorted.
“I see the formalities are dropping. My name is Sky Gazer. May I ask the same?”
Luna almost replied in kind, but hesitated. She knew it was selfish and self-indulgent, but she really wanted to hear Sky Gazer’s true opinions, and her name might make him clamp up or lie.
“My name is… Lulu.” Luna’s cheeks flushed as she gave out her pet name bestowed on her by Celestia.
Sky Gazer chuckled. “All right ‘Lulu’, I’m more than certain that’s not your full name, but that doesn’t matter much. So may I ask, why are you so interested in me now? We’ve obviously come to the same conclusion that sitting on this roof is safe. So what now?”
“Oh, well, you’re theory on Gemini sounded quite interesting.” Luna said as she made herself a bit more comfortable on the thatch roof.
Sky Gazer snorted. “’Theory’ you say. Have you not looked at the night sky lately? There’s so much more thought put into it. More love, more passion, before Princess Luna came back it was methodical, mechanical, as if it were there just for pity’s sake. Which probably wouldn’t be far off.”
“I’m sure Ti- Princess Celestia had much to do before her sister came back. It would be no surprise to keep the rising on a sort of loop to keep it off her plate.”
“A typical defense, but let me tell you, in my… say 45 years of professional observation, the stars never once varied. Why would anypony take interest in something so stagnate? I had to keep this as a hobby with no peer support! And I mean, look at this thing!” Sky Gazer lifted his rump a bit to show off his cutie mark, a telescope on a tripod in front of a cloud, to Luna. “My day job was cloud watching! It was my duty, day in and day out, to make sure not one cloud was out of order. Which, this being Canterlot, is a no brainer that it would never happen.” Sky Gazer sighed as he looked up to the full moon. “Never did like the job, but bits are bits. But enough of my yammerin’, what about you Lulu? What’s got you out here at all hours of the night?”
“Oh! For my job.” Luna said without thinking. Her brain caught up to her mouth to guide the rest of her explanation “I have nightly rounds to make around… Canterlot.” While true that Canterlot was part of her rounds, saying the entirety of Equestria might be a bit much.
“Heh, nice to have a guard stop and talk before shoeing me off.” Sky Gazer smiled. “I think if some more ponies would just stop and look sometime, I think they would appreciate this city more, don’t you think Lulu?”
“Well, as the saying goes, ‘Seen it once, seen it all’, right?” Luna had, of course, come to be quite bored with the city itself. Both ponies ears flicked in annoyance as a song suddenly burst out from a club a few blocks away as Luna saw a pair leave. The silence was quick to return as the doors to the club slammed shut. “And some things need not be seen.”
“Oh sure they’re loud, but it’s just ponies having fun.” Sky Gazer dismissed. “I’m sure given a proper venue, even the princesses would enjoy such a rowdy bunch.”
“Mmm, perhaps.” Luna considered. Her ears perked as she picked a wave of fear coming from a nearby foal, Sky Gazer seeming to catch it as well.
“Poor boy, I hope the Princess can find him soon, that seems like a nasty fear of clowns right there.”
“Clowns?” Luna paused, halfway standing with her wings spread for flight. Even she didn’t know the cause of fears until she was within the dream.
“If I wasn’t mistaken about the bouncing red smile, I’m pretty sure that was a fear of clowns.”
“I’ll get the Princess right on it. It was nice meeting you Sky Gazer.”
“And the same to you, Lulu.” Sky Gazer smiled as Luna took off.
As Luna approached the house further off, Sky Gazer’s gray eyes shifted to yellow and red. His horn split in two, twisting backwards as one curled and the other branched. His body shifted from blue fur to brown, and each leg became its own creature, and one snaggle tooth protruded from his upper lip.
“Don’t lose that faith to quickly now, Lulu.” Discord smiled at his new leverage. “There are more who gaze more intently then me, and they will miss you deeply if you leave again.”