A flutter of feathers, a rush of air, and she's off.

Luna looks back down for a moment. The fading sunlight stains the cold tiles of the observation tower's balcony a bright yellow-gold. Her telescope remains where she left it. Several open books lay nearby, contents presented nakedly outwards.

Beyond them, the tower itself. Slim, proud and tall, it stands arrow-straight, reaching out defiantly towards the sky from the city far below. Faint swirls of color spiral up the base, like miniature rainbows.

She frowns a little. That tower is her place. As Princess of the Night, it is her duty to serve as steward of the kingdom, watching over her ponies while they sleep. They love her now. Maybe not as openly as Celestia...but certainly more than before. Or, she wonders, maybe they always did, and she just couldn't see it.

Luna searches the sky. It's nearing that time again, when ponies all across Equestria begin their nightly rituals.

She loves this time, that sudden moment as the last inch of sun dips down under the horizon.

She can feel their prayers, faint whispers on the edge of her hearing. She can sense their dreams, flickering in an out of her mind's eye. The night is her time, and they've come to know it. Her ponies ask her for safety, believe in her to guard over them while they sleep. And even then, she shepherds them through the darkness of the dreamlands.

They've given her so much, her ponies. Their love and adoration, their trust and respect.

Perhaps...perhaps it is time to give something back? she muses.

She pauses, hovering above the Canterlot skyline.

But what?

Her eyes turn towards the sky, and she knows.

Princess Luna smiles a little, before her wings suddenly extend as far as they can possibly go. Her bones creak in their sockets. It's been a long time since she did something like this.

With one, powerful downstroke, the alicorn exercises muscles unused for centuries.

Like an arrow shot from a bow, she rockets straight up into the stratosphere, the single stroke propelling her through several clouds with such intensity that they vaporize into rainfall.

Now high above the world, Luna brakes hard, her midnight-blue feathers dragging at the wind. Up here, ouside of the shadow of the mountain, the sunlight is still present, staining her in its glorious golden hues.

She gazes around. Towards the horizon, towards the end of the day, the sky is a riot of color, fading purples and oranges clashing violently with red and yellow.

Luna shakes her head a little, laughing softly to herself at her sister's work. Celestia always knew how to make an impression.

My turn, big sister, she smirks.

She turns. On the opposite horizon, the waning violet of sunset gently blends into the deepest, darkest of blues. She can see it, if she squints. That silver crescent, peering over the curve of the world like a shy neighbor over a fence. Like always, her moon needs a bit of a push to get going.

Luna's horn is surrounded by a soft glow as she concentrates, condensing her inner power until she can feel it burning behind her eyelids. Her eyes shine white-hot.

The alicorn lets out a whoop, before folding her wings and dropping like a rock.

She slims out as she falls, spearing through the air like a fish through water. The spiral grooves along her horn hum with energy, emitting light-blue trails of her aura, swirling around her until she's covered in the stuff, a cone of star-studded magic that trails behind her like a comet.

Luna continues to plummet, gaining speed. The tip of her observation balcony whizzes by her. She skims a silver-shod hoof along the edge of the stone tower, emitting a trail of sparks as she falls alongside it. She laughs with delight. The ground is growing ever closer.

At the last possible moment, the alicorn dissolves in a smoky blue vapor, plunging through the cobblestone street below.

Seconds later, it emerges, ten blocks away and traveling just as fast, solidifying in the gleeful figure of Luna, wings now outstretched as she lets the momentum of her fall catapult her forward, tearing along barely inches above street level.

The late-closing market stalls are in for a surprise, when Princess Luna whips by at near-supersonic speeds.

A stallion looks up from his cabbage stand.

"What in Celestia's mane was th-"

He doesn't get much further.

The terrific blast of air following her shuts the windows closed on stalls, flips 'open' signs to 'closed, and somehow rearranging the goods formerly for sale into artful pyramids, ready for the next days business.

"...My cabbages," he eventually murmurs, his mane blown straight backwards and his face stretched back around his neck. His wares are tastefully sculpted into the shape of a proudly-rearing alicorn.

And in the air, Princess Luna laughs long and hard as the wave of force tucks her city into sleep.

She pumps her wings for the second time that night the instant she clears the lip of the city, where the mighty river spills over the edge into the valley below. The mach-cone that had been forming around her horn suddenly explodes outwards as she bends the sound barrier to her will.

The resulting blue flash that cuts through the twilight air sliced the Canterlot Waterfall clear down the middle.

Luna grins wildly, her eyes watering from the air. Another titanic flap of her wings, the third of the night, and she's angled upwards, accelerating so fast that the sky explodes again. A second pulse breaks and shatters before her hornpoint. Still she soars onwards, higher, higher, higher still!

Ice begins to form on the very edges of her wingtips, crackling away as fast as it appears. She glances back and grins at the sight of a long beam of silver light trailing out from behind her.

She can see more of her moon, now, gingerly edging its way upwards.

Time for a little push, she decides.

Luna yet again gathers her power, guiding her energy into her horn until the tip is literally spewing crackling sparks. She then casts it outwards, like an invisible fishing line, lassoing the moon itself. The link pulls taunt, but Luna merely gives another mighty heave.

The moon is abruptly jerked into the sky, popping out of the horizon like a jumping bean. Luna spins and loops -never slowing, never pausing- sending a ferocious whiplash through the link, before severing it.

The shining white orb slingshots across the sky, before coming to a halt at the absolute zenith. Luna giggles with wonder at it. The moon always needed a little nudge, but once it got up there, it shone like nothing else. It was silly like that.

Luna gives yet another pump of her wings, blasting forward with such force that she leaves a faint impression of herself hanging mid-air. She twitches her wingtips, flicking the bits of ice away high into the void above, where they eventually settle.

Luna flexes her magic yet again, and these cold flecks of white explode into brilliance and warmth, studding the sky with a trail of stars.

The princess looks down as the land flies by, far below her. From way up here, its just a smudge of vague, shadowy color, dotted here and there by the luminescent, clustered spiderwebs of cities. How strange...that they almost resemble my constellations, from up here. She marvels at that, for a while. Two night skies, and she is Princess of them both.

She gives everything she's got into her next stroke.

Her vision streaks and dims as she approaches her very top speed. Behind her, the silver band of starlight chasing her around sky drops away, unable to keep up. It shivers and trembles, before tearing apart into a roiling fabric of colors, spreading out far and wide.

All around the dark side of the world, creatures stop what they're doing.

Ponies stir in their slumber. Some wake, and stare out into the night to see the vortex coloring the starscape above. Foals rush to their windowsills, gasping with the true awe and wonder that only a child can experience...

...And back in Canterlot, with a flutter of feathers and a rush of wind, Luna returns, grinning like a madpony and heart hammering in her chest.

She gazes up at her night with pride. From behind her come the soft sound of hoofsteps.

"Luna, you've outdone yourself tonight," Celestia murmurs, eyes wide in astonishment at the light show on display. "This is spectacular!"

Luna, for her part, simply sits by her telescope and smiles softly to herself.

"It is a start."