Nighttime in Equestria
The night. The ever so beloved night, what a sight, the night, right? The night, brought to you by our fair princess, Princess Luna, a.k.a. The Princess of the Night.
Nighttime in Equestria symbolizes the end of the day and the beginning of the night. Almost everypony falls asleep during the night and it is Princess Luna's job to watch over her subjects during the night in their dreams. However, there is one portion within Equestria, a secluded, tiny portion, that sleeps all day and is up throughout the night. This portion and its citizens refers to themselves as the Children of the Night.
The Children of the Night is wide awake all night, something that Luna loves. Often times, Luna would visit the Children of the Nigh and spend time with them. Today, rather, tonight proved to be no different.
After the moon was risen, many of the subjects went home and flickered off their lights, on their merry way to Dream Land. Luna had waited for her sister to fall asleep before opening up her windows and quietly flying out into the nighttime sky, towards the Children of the Night. She loved seeing the ponies that come out and play during her beautiful nights.
Luna flew over Baltimare and slowly worked her way to the Evergreen Forest, a forest located just outside the city of Baltimare. Deep inside the forest, near a wide open field, was the Children of the Night, already playing in the serenity of the nighttime sky. She touched her hooves on the ground and was greeted warmly and with hugs from the little fillies and colts that were frolicking in the field.
"Princess Luna!" One filly shouted, running over to give the princess a hug.
"Good evening, my little ponies!" Luna replied.
"How are you, Woona?" A young colt asked.
Some of the fillies and colts nicknamed the princess "Woona" since some of them couldn't pronounce their L's correctly yet. Luna didn't mind it at all; she had a playful nature while she was here.
"I'm fine, as always, Evening Star." Luna answered the colt.
"What do you want to do tonight?" The first filly asked.
"How about I take you on a nice flight through the skies, Dusk?" Luna replied. "Would you like that?"
The young children beamed with delight and jumped up and down at Luna's suggestion. They hugged her as Luna used her unicorn powers to delicately create wings for each of the little fillies and colts. After the delicate wings were created and attached to all the fillies and colts, Luna gazed back, smiled, and started asking them-
"Does everypony remember how to use your wings?"
"We do, Woona!" The children replied.
"Ok," continued Luna, "everypony start flapping their wings, like this."
Luna then flapped her wings in the most elegant way imaginable. The children idolized the way Luna was flying and all tried to do the same. Some of the colts were over-flapping their wings, so Luna kindly told them to flap more gently.
"You don't want to hurt yourselves." She kindly warned.
"Wike this, Woona?" Evening Star asked.
Evening Star then gently flapped his wings and elegantly flew in the air, resembling the way Luna flew in the air.
"Perfect, Evening Star." replied Luna.
Evening Star's eyes grew wide as he received the appraisal from the Princess of the Night. Luna turned and faced everypony else.
"Everypony ready?" She asked.
"We're ready, Woona!" The children replied.
"Then let's fly in the sky!" Luna said, gently flying off into the nighttime sky.
The children closely followed Luna, who was flying slower than usual since the fillies and colts weren't used to flying just yet. The children laughed and enjoyed the flight Luna gave them and Luna enjoyed the laughter of the children. She looked back and started playfully challenging the little fillies and colts.
"Bet you can't catch me!" She said, slightly increasing her speed a bit.
The little children giggled and laughed as they started to catch up to Luna. Luna knew that she could easily lose the children, but for the sake of laughter and play, she allowed the children to catch her.
The fillies and colts soon caught her and hugged her all around. Luna then touched hooves on the ground and started to play with them a bit more. It was only midnight and she had about five, six hours tops left to play with the Children of the Night.
"What do you want to do next, my little ponies?" Luna sweetly asked.
"Can you tell us the time of when you got your cutie mark, Woona?" Dusk asked.
Luna smiled, then looked at her cutie mark. Her mark was a crescent moon, symbolizing her job with the raising and lowering of the moon. She admired her cutie mark very much and loved everything about it, even the story.
"Well," Luna started, "my cutie mark, as all of you adorable children know, is a picture of a crescent moon. It appeared there one day after I rose the moon by myself."
"Oh, pwease tell us, Woona," Evening Star pleaded, "pwease?"
Luna smiled, then happily agreed to explain further about how she got her cutie mark.
"Luna, I want you to know that this is a very big responsibility."
Luna's father, Night Sky, was outside with his daughters, Celestia and Luna, showing them the correct way to lower the sun and raise the moon at day's end. Dawn Chaser, their mother, and Night Sky both arranged themselves to lower the sun and raise the moon.
"Ready, honey?" Night Sky asked.
"Ready, dear." replied Dawn Chaser.
The two alicorns then lowered the sun and rose the moon as delicately as possible. Upon completion, Night Sky walked up to Luna and Celestia, addressing them both.
"That's how you do it." He stated. "You have to delicately and gracefully lower one and raise the other in order to get the perfect transition from one to the other."
Dawn Chaser then approached the two filly alicorns.
"Tomorrow," she started, "I want both of you to raise the sun and lower the moon. You have to get used to doing that on your own for your father and I won't be here forever."
Luna and Celestia gazed at each other. Celestia was excited for the job that was given to the two of them while Luna worried.
What if I cannot do it? She questioned herself.
Luna tossed and turned all night, wondering if she would be able to handle something of such importance. Her father made it look easy, but she doubted herself greatly. The filly alicorn couldn't sleep at all throughout the night.
The next morning (hypothetically speaking, the time for the sun to rise), Night Sky and Dawn Chaser woke their two alicorn fillies.
"Time for you to accept your destinies." They both said as they led their daughters outside and up onto a little platform.
Celestia was all set to raise the sun and lower the moon while Luna looked weary.
"Father," the blank flank started, "I don't think that I can do this yet."
"Luna," replied Night Sky, "if you believe hard enough and keep telling yourself that you can do it, then you will be able to raise the sun and lower the moon together with your sister."
"He's right," Dawn Chaser added, "nothing is impossible, Luna. Impossible is simply 'I'm possible.' You can do it!"
Luna gulped. She was still unsure whether or not she could raise the sun and lower the moon. Her older sister comforted her by putting one of her wings around her. Celestia brought her head closer to Luna's, whispering to her-
"I know you can do it, little sis."
Luna gazed up at her sister, smiling at her. Both filly alicorns then stepped onto the little platform Night Sky built for them. A pale yellow aura surrounded Celestia's horn while a magnificent indigo aura surrounded Luna's.
"You can do it, Luna!" Night Sky encouraged.
Luna tried very hard. The magnificent indigo aura widened and, alas, the moon was lowered and the sun was risen. It was hard work, but Celestia and Luna were both able to pull it off, together. Suddenly, a little white light appeared on the flank of both alicorn fillies. When the light dissipated, on the flank of each pony were their cutie marks; a sun for Celestia and a crescent moon for Luna.
Both fillies jumped up and down out of joy; they had never been happier. They were embraced by their parents in a family hug and, eventually, carried on. That night, the fillies performed the same duties, performing them with a little more ease this time.
"And that, children, is the story of how this little symbol became a part of me."
The fillies and colts of the night were in awe by the story Luna told them about how she obtained her cutie mark, inspired even.
"Do you wike it, Woona?" One of the children asked.
Luna smiled, looking back at her cutie mark.
"I do love it very much." She answered. "It is because of it that I get to make the beloved night each day."
"When will we get ours?" Evening Star asked.
Luna wrapped a hoof around the young colt, bringing him closer to her.
"When the time is right," Luna started, "you'll get yours. It may be tonight, it could be tomorrow, or it could even be in a year. Patience is key when it comes to your cutie mark."
Evening Star smiled at the answer, but deep in the back of his mind, he took I'm the answer as "forever."
Luna looked up at the positioning of the moon. Based on the position, she knew that it was time for her to be heading on back to Canterlot to lower the moon and start the day.
"Children," started Luna, "I must be going."
The little children all became sad, wrapping around Luna and embracing her.
"Pwease don't go, Woona!" Dusk pleaded.
"I must, children," replied Luna, "but I promise that I'll come back tonight."
Luna felt sad as she left the children for the night. She flew back to Canterlot as quickly as she could, for she was running a little bit late. Once she arrived back at Canterlot, Luna's older sister was waiting patiently for her to arrive so that they could start the day together.
"How was your night, Luna?" asked Celestia.
"It was one of the best nights I've ever had, my dear sister." replied Luna.
Celestia smiled as her and Luna started to raise the sun and lower the moon together, starting the day.