That day, when she had told Mac that she had heard him, Luna was not merely being poetic, or speaking in some generalised or romanticised way. She had HEARD him, as clearly as she might a pony in the same room as her, but only if she tuned her ears to listen.

Over the years she’d come up with many ways of describing it. The most common she used was that it was like standing beside a riverbank, listening to the sounds of the water, or in an orchard with the wind blowing through the trees. A sound you barely registered consciously, but if you tuned your ear to it all the myriad subtleties would become obvious; the creak of the branches, the gurgle of the water as it pooled and eddied through the rocks and most importantly, the occasional splash of the fish within.

She heard all of them, every night. Every prayer, every wish, every secret, whispering in the back of her mind like the water of the stream or the wind through the trees and it had been his midnight prayer to the moon that had drawn her to him.

Tonight, though, it was time to tend to the needs of her other subjects. She doubted Mac would feel the need to speak to her tonight and she was reluctant to peek into his dreams following their date. She raised a hoof to her lips, smiling to herself as she remembered the kiss, the cheering, the look of surprise and then delight on his face as he bent close to kiss her again.

She sighed contentedly as she levitated the porcelain cup to her lips and sipped at the coffee within. There would be time enough to lose herself in memories once her nightly tasks were done, for now she could hear some of those distinct ‘splashes’ in the back of her mind that let her know there were ponies staring at her stars and wishing on them.

There was, in reality, little she could do for many of them. She and her sister were many things but they were not Djinn of myth, nor were they omnipotent though neither of them went out their way to rein in the more excessive claims that were made about their power. It never hurt to let your enemy think you were more powerful than you actually were, after all. That said, there were times, Luna mused to herself, that she wished she really COULD banish ponies to the Moon as easily as clicking her hooves together.

Well, those were thoughts for another time. For now she closed her eyes and reached out with her senses, her ears perked as her horn began to gently glow. Long years of doing this had taught her that you could not simply click your hooves together and hear all the prayers and wishes as plain as day. No, every day was a little different and some days it took her longer to tune her inner ‘ear’ than others. Today, though, the voices came easily to her. Sipping again from her cup, her horn glowed brighter still as she lifted a quill and parchment to make notes.

‘Please bring him back safely to me.’

Ah. One of the most common of prayers and, sadly, often entirely outside of her ability to assist in any way. Though as she listened it became clear that this, however, was a special case. She focused more intently on the voice and the thoughts and feelings behind it, the glow around her horn strengthening further as more details came to her. A young Canterlot filly, expecting her first foal, the father with the diplomatic corps and currently assigned to negotiations with the gryphons over mineral rights in Northern Equestria.

A mild abuse of her position, perhaps, but the stallion had no idea he was about to become a father. Eyes still closed, the magically supported quill was dipped neatly into the inkpot and a note was made on the parchment, a reminder for herself to ask that he be rotated home as soon as a replacement was available. She smiled to herself as she dotted the end of the note, pleased to start the night off with something she could actually influence for the better.

‘Please bring him back to me.’

Oh, there were so many of these. Not like the first, these were pleas for lovers taken by time, taken by misfortune, taken and gone to where no pony’s power could reach. There was nothing she could do for these poor tormented souls, no matter how many times they prayed or wished or pleaded for it to be otherwise. When she had first started, a night of listening to these lost souls had near destroyed her; she had fled to Celestia’s chamber in tears at the end of each night, finding solace in her sister’s embrace and whispered reassurances, somehow finding the strength to get up and do it again in all the nights that followed.

Now she accepted that, even for an alicorn, there were some things that could not be avoided, only endured, and death was still the heaviest burden of them all. The most she could do for the lost, hurting ponies such as this was send them gentle dreams of better times and give their troubled minds some brief relief from their sorrow.

“Princess Luna?”

It took her a moment to realise that the soft voice was not in her mind but beside her, which could only mean it was one of the Night Guard. No-one else would dare enter her chambers unannounced, not even one of the Solar Guard. She held a hoof up to forestall any further comments as she tilted her head a little to catch the next voice, a habit built up over the centuries even though it had no real effect.

‘Dear Luna, Celestia, please. I need to qualify tomorrow. My family will be destroyed if I don’t pass the entrance trials for the royal guard this time.’

Well, he certainly wasn’t doing himself any favours being up until this time of night worrying about it! With a gentle nudge of her power she urged the frantic colt to rest, granting him the boon of a restful, dreamless sleep so he would awake ready and refreshed for what awaited him.

“Yes, what it is?” she asked without opening her eyes, her focus still turned inward to catch any more of those elusive voices.

“You have a visitor, Mistress. She was quite insistent.”

Luna finally opened her eyes, sighing softly as she turned her head to, indeed, find one of her batponies bowing low before her, his head near pressed to the ground.

“Emberfire,” her voice was chiding now. “Thou hast been our guardian long enough to know that we are not to be disturbed during these hours. This must be something of great importance for thee to…” Luna trailed off as she looked over his back to the door to spot a familiar pink muzzle peeking around the door. She pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing a little as she stifled a sound of surprise. How in Equestria had she got here so quickly?

“Thank you, Emberfire. You are excused,” as the batpony rose and started to turn she added, “and you have our apologies for being short with thee. Thou hast—You have acted correctly, as always.”

Emberfire paused long enough to flash his Mistress a soft, appreciative smile before trotting quickly to the door, “Announcing Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, ruler of the Crystal Empire.”

“Oh foo, just Cadance is fine, Ember,” the Princess of Love chuckled as she stepped in to Luna’s chambers. “Hello Luna. Sorry if I’ve dragged you away from your duties but this really couldn’t wait till morning. Do you have a moment to chat?”

Luna nodded in dismissal to the guard who stepped outside and closed the heavy door behind him. “I always have a moment for thee, Cadance.”

A heartbeat after the door thudded home, Cadance was across the room and had seized Luna’s shoulders, face mere inches from her own. “Who is he?” Cadance demanded imperiously.

“Who is…. What?” Luna was so startled that, for a moment, she completely forgot that she had asked for this particular mare’s assistance.

“Your letter!” Cadance gave Luna’s shoulders a little shake. “You SO don’t get to just send me that sort of announcement in a LETTER! Luna! You have a very special somepony! This is—“ She broke off, peering suspiciously at the starry-maned mare. “Have you done something different with your mane?”

Luna shifted a little in place. “We do not know what thou art referring to,” she muttered, turning her head a little to try and hide the bright red hibiscus still tucked behind her ear but Cadance was too quick for her, leaning in closer still as she caught the sudden flash of colour.

“Wait, is that—Ooooooh! That’s Night’s Kiss! I didn’t think anypony still knew about those! You must be chasing a scholar, is it a scholar? It’s not Twilight, is it? I don’t know how Celestia would take that given… Er, nevermind. It’s not purple, so it couldn’t be her anyway. Who is it? Who?” Cadance advanced further and further with every word until Luna was near pushed back down onto her haunches beneath the barrage of questions.

“Enough, niece!” Luna snorted and jerked her head away. “I will tell thee if thou wouldst give us a moment to speak!” She sighed and fussed a little with her mane while Cadance pretended patience, barely able to keep one hoof from tapping on the floor. Luna swore she could already hear an ecstatic squeal building in the pink alicorn’s breast.

“McIntosh Apple,” Luna finally admitted and Cadance blinked, her head tilting to one side as her eyes first widened, then narrowed as her brow furrowed.

“McIntosh Apple. The Ponyville farmer? Applejack’s brother?” Cadance sounded sceptical and Luna sighed, bracing herself for the disbelieving questions. What happened, instead, was something akin to the whistling of a kettle, rapidly building to near ear-shattering volume as she found herself snatched up into the pink alicorn’s forelegs and swung in a rather undignified circle.

“EEEEEEEEEEE!” Cadance burst out, hugging Luna fiercely to her. “Congratulations! He’s quite the catch! Applejack talked about him when they were last in the city and I got to see a picture of her family. I didn’t know you liked them so...muscular!” Cadance gave a flirtatious wiggle of her eyebrows that had Luna rolling her eyes. “I always figured you for more of a pegasus fan, all sleek and toned. I could totally see you and Rainbow Dash together. Hey, maybe Mac would let Dash join his herd. I don’t think she’s seeing anypony.”

“Cadance! That is quite enough!” Luna pushed the overly enthusiastic mare away and snorted irritably. “We have had only one date so far, it is far too early to go speculating on who Mac might invite into his herd. You do not know, he may be satisfied with only me.”

“Well, you are mare enough for any three stallions…” Cadance drawled, “Or so the story goes.”

“That is a vile falsehood!” Luna snarled, her wings flaring out as her voice rose angrily. “It was two stallions and a mare and...I really should have just kept my mouth shut.”

Cadance did her best to look abashed but that mischievous smile just refused to stay hidden despite her best efforts, even in the face of the Princess of the Night’s wrath.

Luna facehoofed in despair and took a deep breath to settle her nerves once more. This was her own fault, after all, she had brought Cadance into this, she might as well try and make the best of it. “Let us focus on the here and now, yes? For the moment there is only Mac and I. We have had one successful date but we are far from discussing herds, second mares or anything beyond a promise to see one another again.”

“And that’s what I’m here for. I’m here to make sure that there is a a second date, a third date, a marriage proposal, a herd and a happily ever after!” Cadance giggled enthusiastically and clopped her forehooves together in delight. “But first you have to tell me everything that happened on your last date. Was it something romantic? Please tell me you didn’t take him to somewhere dark, spooky and dusty.”

“Well it was dark…” Luna started, Cadance already groaning in despair. “But it was far from spooky and dusty. We went out dancing at a venue in Ponyville. A strangely Discordian affair, a room full of ponies in thrall to a single unicorn with sunglasses and an electric blue mane. It was most unlike anything we had ever experienced before.”

“Wait, you took Mac to a DJ PON-3 gig? And are you using the royal ‘we’ or was Mac just as surprised by this as you?”

“Mac did seem quite startled at first, but then he plunged onto the dancefloor with the same sort of look we have seen on ponies charging into battle for the first time,” Luna mused, her lips curving in a soft, fond smile as she remembered how tense he had been at first, comparing that to the way they moved together in harmony by the end of the night. “It took some time, but I believe he began to, how you say, loosen up.”

Cadance resisted the urge to squeal again and contented herself with a nod. “So you danced together. Did you talk? Did you drink? Did he KISS you? I don’t know if many stallions would be so bold as to kiss their princess on the first date.”

“A precedent was set earlier in the evening when I kissed him,” Luna admitted.

Cadance blinked. “I can honestly say that’s not something I expected to hear. Here was me thinking I’d have to coax you into it, or go and reassure Mac that you wouldn’t banish him to the Moon if he tried to kiss you.”

“In fact he was more concerned that Tia would send him to the Sun,” Luna helpfully clarified. “I decided it was necessary to demonstrate to him that he was quite safe, from solar immolation at least.”

“So what did he do when you kissed him?”

“Nothing, for a moment or two. I think I had taken him quite by surprise. In truth the look of shock on his face was most pleasing.”

“Was he a good kisser?” Cadance leaned in a little closer, her expression mischievous.

“A lady does not kiss and tell, niece,” Luna chided. “A Princess, on the other hoof, can state quite categorically that there shall be many a disappointed mare in Ponyville for allowing such a stallion to escape them.”

“Twilight never really talked about the stallions in Ponyville, I don’t think she really sees them in the same way as other fillies do,” Cadance sighed. “She always was a little oblivious to such things. So Mac hasn’t dated much?”

“We—I do not believe so. He struck me as quite unsure of himself at first.”

“You don’t think he’s a virgin, do you? I mean there is that other rumour…”

Luna gave an exasperated sigh. “Really? Is that old chestnut still doing the rounds? We do not devour the souls of virgin ponies!”

“No, I imagine you’d rather devour other parts of them,” Cadance added with another lewd, suggestive eyebrow wriggle.

Luna’s expression darkened and Cadance eep’ed softly as the ceiling above them began to swirl, the glittering stars that had dotted it snuffed out one by one till the two sat in near perfect darkness; the only light left the foreboding glow of Luna’s eyes and horn as she rose to all fours and loomed dangerously over the now-silent pink alicorn. “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, you presume too much, far too much indeed. We are not our Sister, we do not tolerate your quirks of character as she does. If you have come here to mock us with innuendo and hearsay than you can return to the Crystal Empire, your services are no longer required or desired here. I am the ruler of the night, Princess of Equestria and you WILL treat me with respect or you will be absent from my presence. Are we clear?”

“As crystal,” Cadance squeaked, bowing low before Luna’s wrath, her head almost pressed to the floor, nose buried in a rug. “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to suggest anything about your character.”

Luna sighed as she reined in her power, the stars again glittering peacefully in the strange, ever shifting roof of her chambers. “Your apology is accepted, Cadance. It was I that asked you here, I should not be so quick to lash out. We fear that the years have not been entirely kind to our temperament.”

“Does Mac know you have, uhm, a bit of a temper?” Cadance ventured, ever so diffidently.

“I suppose he does, in part. He was there that first time when I proclaimed that Nightmare Night would be forever banished.”

Cadance dared to lift her head up and, at Luna’s curt nod, rose to settle back on her haunches, fidgeting a little with her elaborately styled mane. “So what is it you need from me, exactly? Dating tips? Mane styling advice?”

“We need to understand…” Luna hesitated as she fumbled for the right word. “The rules.”

Cadance blinked, her head cocking to one side in confusion. “The rules to…?”

“This,” Luna waved a hoof in a vague circle. “All of it. How does one woo a stallion in these times? When we were younger there were rules to be followed, a certain rhythm to a courtship, almost like a checklist to be completed before you could officially be together, but now? Now it seems that ponies go as quickly or slowly as they like. They date one or two or three at one time, colts and fillies or anything in between. There are no chaperones, no formal dances, no walking out together! How is a filly supposed to know how to keep a colt’s interest? How will I know if I pursue him too eagerly or not eagerly enough? I do not wish to seem overly diffident, nor do I wish to frighten him away by seeming obsessive!”

Luna finally paused to take a breath and Cadance chuckled quietly. “Oh. Is THAT all?” she deadpanned as she stepped past Luna to sit on the balcony, levitating a cup into her hooves and filling it with the still warm coffee from the pot. Luna hesitated, then moved to join her, the two of them sitting together and gazing out over the spires and rooftops of the slumbering city. Luna nodded regally to two of her batponies as they paused in flight and saluted her before returning to their nightly patrol. She sipped at her own coffee, making a face at finding it cold. A quick flash of her magic remedied that, steam coiling upward from the cup a heartbeat later.

“The truth is these days there are no rules,” Cadance began. “You can woo a stallion any way you like. Some stallions are even taking the initiative and pursuing mares rather than letting them follow tradition and make the first move. I’ve even heard of some ponies who forego herds and only take one lover for their lives. Mares and mares, colts and colts, mares with two colts, colts with five mares, the dynamic of what Equestria considers the family to be is always changing, and with that comes as many different ways for ponies to fall in love as there are stars in your sky.”

Luna planted a metaphorical hoof hard on her welling frustration. “But then how are we to know what the right thing to do is?”

“You don’t. The answer to that is there is no RIGHT thing to do at any given moment, there’s no playbook to follow here, it’s not a game of hoofball. The only real rule is that you do what feels right and what feels good as long as you both want it. It’s like the ancient rede ‘An it harm none, do what thou wilt’. As long as you and Mac are having fun together and you’re not hurting anypony else, who am I to tell you that you’re not doing it right?”

Luna fidgeted with her cup, rolling it between her hooves as she stared down into the inky liquid, watching the reflections of her stars skittering and flickering across the surface. “What if I drive him away?” she finally whispered her true fear. “You’ve seen them. How some of them still look at me as something to be feared, to be approached only warily, less put on a pedestal and more in a cage.”

“Of course you’re talking about the Canterlot nobles,” Cadance’s voice was flat and emotionless. “Do you know why they say those things about you?” She paused long enough for Luna to give a slow shake of her head. “Because you won’t play by their rules. Celestia, for all her wisdom, knows that sometimes she needs to accommodate the nobles’ plotting and scheming for this place to function, but you? You’re the one that ponies come to when they need somepony who has no ulterior motive, somepony they can be sure has nothing else influencing their decision. Celestia’s court, I’m sure you’ve noticed, is mostly full of the nobles, all jockeying for position, each one out to further their own interests. Half the bills and petitions Celestia has to deal with are veiled attempts at power grabs. Your court, though? You get the common folks, the ones who know they’ll get justice, no matter how harsh, who know that you won’t pander to anypony’s interests for the sake of keeping the peace.”

“You make me sound naive,” Luna grumbled.

“Principled.” Cadance replied firmly. “And that is what the common pony needs. Someone not willing to bend their principles, regardless of the potential consequence and THAT is why the nobles are afraid of you. They know two things about you, Luna, and both of those things terrify them. They know you won’t tolerate their petty posturing and, whether it’s true or not, they know that if you wanted you could reach into their dreams, pull out all their most hidden secrets and use that knowledge to ruin them. It’s far safer for them to deal with Celestia than with you.”

“Well put, niece. Perhaps a little more harshly phrased than I would have put it, but accurate nonetheless.”

Both alicorns looked up in surprise as a third voice chimed in on their discussion, finding Celestia descending towards the balcony in a graceful arc, wings flaring wide to brake her flight as she landed with a gentle clatter of hooves. “My guard informed me of your arrival, Princess Cadance. It was not difficult to conclude what might have brought you here.”

Luna stifled a growl of annoyance; was there no secret she could keep in this place? “This does not concern you, sister. This is a private matter between Cadance and myself.”

“Oh I beg to differ, Lulu. Everything about this situation concerns me whether you wish it or not. Your first date may have gone off without a hitch but I assume there will be a second, and a third and the longer this goes on, the greater the risk that it will be found out. Eventually you will need to go public with your choice of lover, or the news will leak and it will be made public anyway. I have no wish to meddle in your love life, but you cannot be blind to the ramifications of what you are doing.”

“Enough, Tia. You have made your feelings as Equestria’s ruler quite plain. If you have come here to lecture me and warn me against indiscretion then you can consider your point made and you can leave us in peace.“

Celestia held up a hoof and Luna paused. “Peace, Lulu. I’m not here as anypony other than your sister, and I certainly didn’t come here to berate or fight with you,” she chuckled softly, “I didn’t even bring my crown with me.” Only then did Luna notice that, indeed, the pristine white alicorn was devoid of any of her usual royal trappings and felt slightly ashamed at lashing out before she’d even given Celestia a chance to say what brought her here.

“Like I said,” Cadance wryly added in the uncomfortable silence that followed, “does Mac know about that temper of yours?”

A date in Ponyville. Well, that explained where she had disappeared to.

Sitting in the shadows above Luna’s balcony, a single batpony leaned forward a little, pupils in his eyes constricting in the light of the moon. Moving slowly he carefully extended his leathery wings, stretching them out and then tucking them back snugly to his sides, long ears perked as he listened to every word of the three Princesses gossiping just below him.

He’d warned Luna time and time again that the balcony was no place to discuss matters of state, that it was too easy for someone to overhear them but she never paid any attention to the warnings, chiding him for being overcautious, too suspicious, but for now he was glad of her stubbornness.

Well, and it seemed he wasn’t the only one. A twitch of the curtains further down in one of the other towers showed that he wasn’t alone in doing a little late night Princess-watching. Blueblood’s chambers, if he wasn’t mistaken. He leaned forward a little more, hoof sliding slowly along the slates of the roof so he could get a better look.

Another twitch of the curtain and this time his gaze was met by two wide, blue eyes staring right back at him and he cursed, realising too late that he’d moved out and into the full light of the moon, exposing himself to this mystery eavesdropper. He darted back into the shadow, an angry snarl curling his lips. It was bad enough that Luna was persisting in this relationship but it seemed now his interest in it had been noted.

He would have to be far more careful in future. There was still too much to be done and, it seemed, so little time. Slipping carefully down the other side of the tower he took to the air to complete his patrol route, pausing only for a moment to gaze back at the home of his Mistress, his expression blank.

She would hate him, he was sure, but he only had her best interests at heart. He hoped, in time, she would understand that, even if she never forgave him for what he knew had to be done.