Luna breathed in deeply, relishing in the light saline scent that touched her nose with every crash of waves upon the shore before her. She stretched out on her beach chair, extending her forehooves up until a light trill of cracks emitted from between her wings, and she relaxed with a hearty sigh.
This was a wonderful idea, she decided, magicking a wonky looking glass over to her face without looking. Her eyes were closed, shielded behind sunglasses, and she clumsily smacked her lips about until she found the elusive curly straw, then slurped up a cool mouthful of the icy coconut drink.
She took a moment to savor the pineapple aftertaste of her beverage, and while doing so she cleared her mind and listened. Wind gently teased palm leaves behind her, their thick foliage hissing quietly as if a symphonic band of snakes had gathered just to play their song for her. Accompanying the soothing shatter of the lapping waves, there would be another hint of misty salt water to coat her freckles and tickle her nose.
Her indigo coat baked in the noon sun, and in the blanket of warmth Luna suspected she might be hot enough to fry daisies on. She opened an eye and glanced off to her right, where a pegasus stallion was also laying back on a beach chair, sipping silently from a wide-brimmed glass filled with a mint green slush. The royal guard had shed his galea in favor of a tacky straw hat--picked up from a beach vendor for far too many bits--that covered his two-toned blue mane. A smile touched Luna’s face as she looked, thinking about her circumstances. She definitely felt hot, and while her companion might use a more sensitive or elaborate phrasing, she knew he would agree. Not about the ambient temperature, of course.
She laughed, very quietly. It was hardly more than a giggle, comically close to a ‘teehee’ even, but the guard’s head turned at the sound, and he beamed at her.
“Something you find humorous, your Highness?”
Luna took a large gulp from her drink while she laid her head back down. “I was just thinking about how upset Sister would be with this whole scenario.”
The guard’s face creased with embarrassment before changing to one of stoicism. “Well, Princess, a vacation is not unheard of. Princess Celestia herself had taken a couple vacations even whilst you were gone, I’m told. Equestria is well protected and well organized to survive a week or two without the entirety of its leadership.” He nodded stoutly, the emphasis diminished by his straw hat sliding forward to cover his teal eyes.
“Certainly, Vigilant, this is all very well and good, but as I understand it Sister usually gave the staff and government adequate notice. We just, rather abruptly I might add, left.”
Vigilant reset his hat, sipped from his margarita, and then set it down on the blindingly white sand. “This is true, your Highness. But seeing as I have not seen any bands of roaming guards, or sudden appearances of Princess Celestia’s protege with her friends, I suspect she isn’t too upset.”
“Well,” Luna scoffed playfully, “she would only have herself to blame if she was. She was always telling me that I needed to get out more often.”
“Not to be pedantic with you, your Highness, but I believe she meant taking care of public appearances more often.”
“Nonsense. She would have said as such. But you are correct, Vigilant. If she were indeed upset or worried, we would have been swarmed already. There isn’t anything for her to worry about, anyways. I do have a guard with me, of course.”
“Also true!” Vigilant perked up, his hat dropping down again. He laughed and lifted it back up. “Although she might be upset about the fact that you stole me from her personal guard.”
Luna smiled deviantly at the sky, but did not reply. She did indeed take one of Celestia’s guards. She sucked at the curly straw one more time, absentmindedly drinking until the telltale slurps and pops of an empty glass told her she had finished it. She blinked slowly, and while her eyes were closed she felt a wave of looseness and freedom drape over her. It was a gentle thing, more a hint than anything, as if she was on the shore and being lapped at by the ocean itself.
“Princess Luna?”
“Mmm?”
“I was actually wondering about that,” he said, turning from his back onto his side. He propped his head up with a hoof, looking quizzically at the midnight mare. “Please don’t mistake this for me questioning anything, o-of course! I am a member of the Royal Guard and respond obediently to any order from the Crown, you have as much authority over me as Princess Celestia, no, definitely not anyth-”
Luna held up a hoof, and Vigilant stopped speaking. He cringed just a little, and gave an awkward smile, which Luna replied to with a warm grin of her own.
“...Sorry,” Vigilant continued. “I just meant, why myself, Princess? You have your own personal guard, and having trained alongside them, those ponies are just as dedicated and talented as myself. It could have been any of them. I hope it’s not something personal between you and your sister…?”
He left the question hanging, taking the time Luna took to reply to grab his drink and swirl it, breaking up the frozen chunks into the rest of the melted slush. When he looked back up at her, she was grinning with a squint that told much of a playful nature very few knew she possessed.
“Vigilant, you know I see dreams. It is one of my major responsibilities.”
He gulped hard and rolled onto his back quickly, staring up. His coat was already lightly damp from the sweltering heat, but he felt a new wave of moisture roll over him. He could feel the fabric of his beach chair starting to pool with sweat.
“W-well, your Highness, I uh, I had hoped, that is to say I didn’t expect rather, that--” he stopped stammering, and then looked at her helplessly. “Do you see everypony’s dreams?”
Luna stood up from her chair and approached the white stallion, who looked away nervously as she approached.
“Fear not, Vigilant. First I must make clear. I do see all dreams, but not all at once. I have access to any one currently happening, and it is up to me to identify and respond to damaging nightmares. It was quite by chance I came across yours on a slow night.
“Secondly,” she said, reaching his chair and turning his head back to meet her eyes with a caressing hoof, “I take no offense for the contents of any pony’s dreams. Nopony produces them at their own will. They are a byproduct of our lives and goals, our most fantastic hopes and paralyzing fears, facets of our subconscious that we must confront and understand. We dream to fight the ‘us’ we wish not to be, and to learn from the ‘us’ we desire to embody.”
She leaned down, paused, smacked the stupid hat off his head with a flash of magic, and then kissed Vigilant lightly. His eyes snapped open wide when her muzzle touched his, but a second later he closed them, and pressed back with his own kiss. They stayed connected for a moment, the tropical beach around them seeming to take advantage of this break in conversation to assert its presence with a gust of wind that shook the palm trees like tambourines and pushed the waves onto the sand together like cymbals. When Luna finally broke the kiss and swayed back to her chair, Vigilant looked on after her, looking pleasantly dizzy.
“...Princess,” he whispered.
“Hmm?” Luna replied with a giggle.
“Is this one of my dreams?”
Her reply came in the form of a mirthful chuckle, and then a sigh. “No, Vigilant. I apologize, of course,” she said while rolling onto her side to face him. “I did not pry on your dreams any longer than was required to make sure they were safe. Suffice to say I learned much from but a glance.”
He blushed hard, but she continued speaking.
“I did not wish to be forward about the reason for this impromptu vacation before we left, either. I did need to get out; as you said, Sister and I both are due time off on occasion. But nights can be lonely, Vigilant, and I found myself needing companionship. Even in dreams I could see the respect you held, respect contained in the most core of your being. Having spent this time with you, I feel confident now to say that the care you put into your training and responsibilities is the same you put into sharing time with others who matter to you.”
She shuffled back up her chair, teleporting a brand new frozen drink from the distant beach bar to in front of her, and took a light sip.
“And you’re adorable,” she concluded.
Vigilant didn’t respond. He didn’t need to. The phantom touch of Luna’s lips were still on his mouth, and rather than risk losing the feeling he had long since hoped for since he first signed up to the Guard, he simply closed his eyes and smiled.
The sun had moved from right above them and was starting to trend towards the ocean, though it’s intense rays still cooked the beach they lay on. Somehow, Vigilant found--amongst the crashes of waves and hissing of leaves--the world had become more crisp and vibrant, a louder and more beautiful place.
“You aren’t upset, are you?” Luna asked, with a hair of apprehension breaking through her youthful voice.
“Princess, as I’m sure you’re aware,” Vigilant finally replied, opening his eyes to give a deviant look much like ones he had seen from her, “this is quite literally something I have always dreamed about.”