After 1117 years, of ruling on her own, Celestia finally retired. Trusting her sister to rule over the island worlds of their system. That way Celestia could at last rest, back on her sun.
Luna had to return to her moon, once every 7 years, and should only come back for 3 years at a time.
So she just moved the capital to her moon, and ruled from there. Only able to do so, because of the ponies' Space Galleys, making it an hour's trip, at most, to the moon.
For the most part, this let Luna come and go as she wished. But Luna was younger, and healthier, then her sister.
Celestia had been away from her true body, for too long. She could barely afford to leave it for more then a few days at a time. Choosing to use her time to enjoy Equus Holidays, and her family's birthday parties... once a year, she could leave for an entire month, but that was really pushing the fragility of her Avatar. Often choosing to oversee a personal project.
This allowed Celestia to go on, without too much strain on her health. While still letting her interact with her ponies.
• 1 week into Luna's rule, 3 months into the space age, a year into Ponyville's standing as a City State.
"You wanted to see me grandmother," Blue Blood kept the nervousness out of his voice.
He still didn't know what to make of Empress Luna... she didn't embody kindness, as Celestia had, nor generosity, nor Laughter... none of those virtues, which Bluey had frequent exposure to, growing up in his great great aunt's care.
However, Luna was his great grandmother, the progenitor of his line... so Bluey WANTED to get to know her. To have just as strong a relationship with her as he had with his Auntie Celestia... they just weren't there yet.
Luna wielded the elements of Honesty and Loyalty... which she failed to live up to, when it mattered most... but she was also Knight Elemental Friendship... and never faltered from such a role.
It was why her rule focused more on the needs of the individual. Where she largely left the governing of the state to the Senate. So long as their laws didn't disregard an individual's rights, she could care less what the Senate did.
"Greetings, Son of my son's son," Luna smiled, still not getting the hang of modern dialogue. "How met?"
Blue Blood tilted his head, "I am doing well grandmother."
"That is not what thy Stallion confides," Luna eyed him.
Blue Blood wilted.
"He came here, asking for thy hoof in marriage," Luna explained. "He dost believed, thee would finally accept. If thou progenitor gave art blessing."
Bluey looked down in shame, "I'm sorry he bothered you."
"Thou should be sorry, thy has been stringing along thy colt friend for 200 years. If thy does not wish to marry him-"
"That's not it!!!..." Blue adamantly interrupted her... but them lost his nerve to continue.
"Then twats?" Luna fumbled the modern saying. Blue Blood would have smiled... if the topic wasn't so grave.
"I don't wish to cause a scandal for you," he confessed. "... Auntie would never have stood for it..."
Luna stared at her great grandchild... and sighed. "Art sister still leaves scars on our bloodline, after a bakers dozen centuries."
"That's not-" Bluey tried to insist.
Luna waved off, "We know, we know. A finer mother, thou could not have hoped for. She never had you doubt her love. Yet we see, in thy quest to raise you proper, she passed down her obsession with other perceptions. Thy has been cursed with her need to present a royal front."
"That was actually my birth parents doing..." Blue Blood shifted, uncomfortably. "They wouldn't let me play with toys, or read comic books... and I didn't until I was 18... when I came into Auntie's care."
"So it twas they dead parents, that forced thou to ignore thy Stallion, during every great ball, and entertain the mares?"
Blue Blood hung his head. Of course Fancy would tell her about THAT!
Luna spoke sternly, "Thy lovest comic books, and colt games, yet thou art scared to speak of them in public's eye. Thou keeps them locked away in thy chambers... and thou lovest Fancy Pants, but thou treat him as if he too, is something shameful and childish... that thy hides in thou room."
Luna stepped off her throne, and came close enough to touch, pulling the Stallion into an embrace. "there is nothing scandalous about love. Don't be scared to show the world who you are... Thy can start, by publicly apologizing to thy Stallion. Perhaps give him a kiss at court... prove to him thy art not ashamed. And then maybe... one day... you won't be... I love you, Bluey. I see nothing to be ashamed of."
After a long few minutes, just hugging. "... grandmother..." Blue dared ask, finding this the perfect moment to do so. "There is something I have wanted to ask... but I've been worried of your reaction."
"Thy need not fear me," Luna insisted. "Speak thy desires for knowledge."
Blue Blood gulped, "I heard you had... early into your rule, there are rumors you took the orphans of Equestria, and turned them into the first Bat ponies."
"Aye... tis true," Luna looked away. "Against art sister's wishes, we took foals whom lost thy parents in the war with Discord. We brought them to the caves of Canterlot, and thus raised them to be proud Warriors, as well as the skills of nobles.
"We used dark magics, to infuse the foals with traits of a Vampire Fruit Bat. We told art Sister it was to help them. But twas a lie. A lie to art selves. We merely did not wish to spend eternity alone. So we made subjects that could never die. We live thou lives in art darkness... and view art moon as a blessing... twas a most shameless thing... to manufacture love. Yet so many generations past, it would do more damage to remove thy curse."
"So... you... you could do it again?" Blue Blood asked.
"Dost not worry," Luna eased... or thought she did. "We have learned from art sins. Though walt not play as thou we art a proper diety, not again."
Strangely Blue Deflated... "Would you... maybe... consider doing it to me?"
Luna let out a small gasp, and Blue Blood flinched. For several long moments she said nothing. Then she spoke, her voice hard. "Is it immortality thou seeks? For We canst assure thy, Bat Ponies die just as easily as any pony. Tis merely old age which cannot claim them."
"That's not it!" Bluey yelped.
"Then Twats?" Luna butchered the saying again.
Bluey sighed. "Celestia never hid from me what my ancestor was... that your consort was a Bat Pony, some generations apart from the ones you raised... nor what she did to your unborn child."
"Twas an innocent," Luna sighed back. "Yet Celestia bound art foal in a mortal shell... so thou ancestor would not be born Subpony..."
"She regrets that you know," Blue Blood urged her to believe him.
"I know," Luna finally lost the formal speech pattern... but only for a moment. "As she did tell us many times. But such apologies dost not bring back the child we had to watch wither into old age... the child we hast to bury... nor all his descendants we never knew."
Blue Blood hung his head.
Luna sighed, "Art wanst a connection to thy ancestor?"
Blue Blood sighed, "That's not it either... I was never too overly concerned with my denied heritage... until I learned... male bat ponies can get pregnant?"
Luna smiled. "So that's it. Thy wish to marry thy Stallion, free of prejudice. Not realizing, being subpony, will come with all new prejudice."
Blue Blood strangely looked determined, "I want to give Fancy a proper family... I want to have children of our blood. And watch them have children. I want to have the life I always should have had!" he accidentally yelled the past bit.
"Seeing Clockwork flirt with Stallion after Stallion, and the nobles actually pushing their sons towards him. Just because, as a Time Pony, he can get pregnant, meant the nobility were okay with him flirting with everything that moves... Well I was a shameful secret in the family."
"Thy art Jealous?" Luna smiled.
"Of course I'm jealous!" Bluey roared. Completely forgetting his formal training. "I want to live openly with Fancy, openly without shame. Not from the Nobles and not from myself!... but as you said, I am ashamed... and I don't want to be..."
"... we would love... more then anything, never having to watch another child with art blood die... but Thou's reasons art born from insecurity..."
Blue Blood's eyes began to water, as he realized his grandmother was going to say "No". "I just want a proper family... without feeling like there is something wrong with me..."
"Tis nothing wrong with you," Luna insisted... seeing how without hope, the child of her child's child was... "Tis not the healthy thing to do... but... we don't want to watch thou die some day, and tis a better reason then thou searching to cheat the Reapers as well... speak with thy stallion. If all agree, both of you shall be remade as Bat ponies... but it Twonts be by our hooves."
"What?" Blue Blood blinked.
"Bat ponies can turn others into bat ponies... is a talent we gave them... so they would not suffer alone in their long lives. We shall find thy pair a mentor. Whom thy canst learn from... and whom can watch over thee in eternity. Thoust shall receive the full bat pony experience. And learn of thy culture and gifts. Thy wish to be a bat pony, then thou shall live as a bat pony."
Bluey smiled, "Thank you."
Luna smiled back, "Tis not the healthy thing to do, but if thou wanst tis, and thy colt friend agrees, thou shall be indoctrinated into thy bat pony society... the right way, no short cuts."
Bluey gave a firm nod, showing he understood. "I'll make you proud, Grandmother. I'll listen to everything my mentor says, and make the best Thestral I can." He wouldn't even say anything about being 200 years too old for a mentor.