I’d never had a relationship last more than a few moons. Most of the ponies who had proclaimed interest in me were far more transparent about their true intentions than they most likely intended. For a relationship that lasted ten years… I wasn’t quite sure what to do, at first, but it was clear that I had to celebrate the occasion somehow.
I’d just finished the best draft of the only thing I could think of making when a hard hoof rapped gently against my door. After shuffling a few papers stubbornly clinging to the static on my fur, I swung open the door to reveal… Captain Ferros, looking uncharacteristically amused.
“Captain?” I asked, ears slowly tilting back. If this was my sister’s idea of a jest, it was decidedly not funny.
The guard shook his head and gestured to his armored flank, realized halfway through the motion that it was futile, and gave me a sheepish grin. “It’s Doctor, actually, your Highness.”
“Oh, perfect!” I smiled, and he beamed back at me, and just like that, the pony in front of me was the one I had been dating for a full year. His posture, his smile, it was the same pony inside, even if it didn’t match the outside. “You have arrived at the perfect time, for I’ve just finished a gift for us! It has been precisely ten years since we met, and I know for us that isn’t terribly long, but I wanted to surprise you with a song I wrote.” I pulled a lyre into the crook of my wing, gently strumming each string in turn. Perfectly in tune, and the song… I knew he’d like it.
“Really? Come now, I’d love to hear it, dear Princess,” he murmured, settling next to me. “And here I’d forgotten to bring a gift of my own.”
“Your presence is gift enough, Doctor,” I said, setting the page of finished lyrics in front of me before I plucked out the simple harmony and began to sing.
Your eyes shine brighter than the stars
They rain down when you weep
I’d pay whatever price there is
To never go to sleep
Your soft embrace, the last I feel
Before you’re swept away
If only I were strong enough
I’d fight for you to stay
“Luna, it’s nearly sunrise,” came the gentle voice just outside my door. I could just barely see the tip of a pearly-white horn through the doorframe.
“Oh, do go away, Tia, I’m almost done,” I snapped back before entirely failing to play the next chord correctly. My Doctor graciously pretended not to notice the sour note as I finished the last verse.
I’ll search the cosmos for you, love
Through ever-shifting hues
If I could dream, my dearest one
I’d only dream of you
“Marvelous,” he breathed, hooves clapping together once before they fell, transfixed, to his lap. “You absolutely have a talent, my dear. Are you certain you don’t have a second mark for songwriting?”
I giggled, for how could I not? “No, I’m quite sure I only have the one.”
“You are positive, then? Let me see.” He squinted at my hindquarters, and I felt my cheeks go hot. “Nonsense, Princess, it’s right there, tucked into the curve of the moon!”
It most certainly was not, and I found that delightful, and he knew it would amuse me, and that made me even happier. “There is no second mark, Doctor! Look!” I flicked my tail away.
This was the opening he had been waiting for, it seemed. Stealthily, he booped me on the flank. “Ah, it’s there, now, see?” He said with a delighted laugh. “Now there, and there!” His gentle pokes became tickles, and I laughed louder than I had in a long, long time. “Quite a mystery you have here, Princess! It seems I’m not the only one with a traveling cutie mark after all!”
My wings, he’d discovered moons ago, were sensitive to tickling, and he had the audacity to use them to distract me long enough to swoop in for a kiss.
Nopony else would have dared. Not with a Princess. Not with an Alicorn. And most certainly not with Celestia’s sister!
I loved him for it. He was bold, he endured in a way I wished I was strong enough to, and he loved me as Luna the Pony, and nothing more.
It was a gentle kiss, I realized, light-headed. It wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t in the heat of the moment. It wasn’t frantic, as though we were running out of time. It was careful, deliberate, planned, as though we had all the time in the world.
I found myself wishing our moment could last forever.
And as I kissed him back, the thought refused to leave my mind, growing louder and louder. Just one night, with him, forever. It would have been perfect. He would never need to find me again.