Luna didn’t need to glance over the balcony’s edge tonight, nor had she needed to for the past week. Instead, she reclined on the stonework, watched the stars in the heavens above, and spoke to the only pony who could hear her. “Good evening, Rain Shadow.”
“Good evening, Princess Luna.”
If she closed her eyes, she could imagine he was next to her. But she didn’t want to do that. Not yet. “And what deeds of bravery and conquest have you accomplished this fine day?”
“Does surviving yet another ‘surprise inspection’ in the barracks count?”
“Provided my staying awake through a four-hour sermon on tax reform counts, then most certainly.”
“Does that mean I’m getting the withheld part of my paycheck back?” Rain asked.
Luna swept her hoof across her view, momentarily eclipsing whole constellations. “Nay.”
“Then what’s there to reform?”
“I sincerely hope I find out during tomorrow’s riveting installment. But enough about the travails of royal disinterest. What is this inspection you mentioned?”
“Everypony’s still jumpy about changeling spies, especially the new captain of the guard. These days I keep getting asked where I was five minutes ago, or what’s today’s code word, or what my mother’s name is. I get that filling Shining Armor’s horseshoes is a big job, but at least he knew how to handle a crisis.”
“And what if said role should one day fall to you?”
“Me?”
“Rain Shadow, Captain of the Guard.”
Rain gave a long, slow sigh. “Yikes.”
“That is hardly an attitude befitting a pony to whom I am supposed to entrust my very life. Surely you aspire to be more? Surely you… dream?”
“I dream about being a painter sometimes, but that’s different.”
“Enlighten me.”
“My dad was a Royal Guard. My grandfather was a Royal Guard. My great grandfather… you get the picture. If there’s one thing I heard again and again growing up, it’s what a Royal Guard is supposed to be.”
Her eyes slid shut, a little sliver of midnight big enough only for her and the voice in her ears. “Ah. The noble knight. The great hero…”
“Not really.”
“Oh? The dreams of your comrades say otherwise. What if a giant, ravenous manticore were to leap over the castle wall that you watch so intently?”
“Okay, so maybe being a Royal Guard lets me pretend to be a hero sometimes, but… How do I say this… When I was little, I asked my dad why the Princesses even needed guards if they’re powerful enough to move the sun and the moon. He put his helmet on me and said that’s what the guards are to the Princesses. We’re not here to be monster-fighting heroes saving damsels in distress. We’re here to be like the helmet. I’m here to be a shield for you. I’m here to keep that pony-eating manticore busy so you can blast it.”
Luna frowned. “Do you think being cannon fodder is somehow noble? In centuries past, there would be no shortage of peasants who would fulfill that role purely as an act of worship.”
Rain’s smile was audible. “I never said I’d just lie down and let the thing eat me. If I’m the helmet, then you’re the spear. I do my job and you do yours.”
“Hmm. It would be a shame to waste a perfectly good helmet, especially one that I’ve spent many a pleasant evening conversing with. I concede you the point, but I remain in the lead.”
“The point?”
She batted her eyelashes at the balcony’s edge. The thought of him standing down there, attempting to unravel her latest turn of phrase while keeping perfectly still was positively delicious. “A conversation is its own battle, is it not? A game of wills and words between two worthy combatants.”
“Hah. I don’t see how I’m a ‘worthy combatant’ for a Princess.”
“More than you know,” Luna whispered.
“What was that?”
She blushed. “I-I merely was rehearsing my next conversational assault, but I’m afraid it must wait for the morrow.” She rose to her hooves and adopted a much more dignified tone, devoid of her earlier playfulness. “Night is upon us, and my royal duty calls.”
She turned towards her chambers, but didn’t manage to take a single step before his voice floated up from the gardens below.
“Goodnight, Princess Luna.”
She replayed his three words in her mind, omitting the suddenly insufferable title in the middle. “Goodnight, Rain.”
---
Luna stepped onto her balcony, sat down, and stared at the high wall separating the manicured gardens from the wild trees beyond. “What would you like to paint?”
Rain Shadow chuckled. “Good evening.”
“If given the finest supplies in the land and free reign over the wall you are duty-bound to stare at, what would you paint?”
“Flowers.”
Luna frowned. “Flowers? On the wall of the royal gardens, in full view of a Princess’s private residence, surrounded by flora from the far reaches of the known world… you would paint flowers?”
“I like flowers.”
“So much that your current field of view does not contain enough of them?”
“Painting one is different, and I’m not talking about the smell or the taste.”
“In what way, then? Do you suppose that you can improve upon nature’s own designs?”
“No. It’s more about the experience, the act of painting and then looking at the finished product to remember what it was like… how tough the red petals were, how strong the green paint smelled… It’s all about reliving the act. But I guess I should pick something different if it’s going on a castle wall.”
“As opposed to your private collection?”
“Yes… if you can call a single wall in a small apartment a collection. I’ve only painted for me before, stuff I never expected anypony else to see. But if I was going to paint a castle wall… hmm.”
Luna inched closer to the balcony’s edge until his helmeted head entered her view. “Scratch your chin in artistic contemplation if you must.”
“Hah, that’s okay. Do you ask all your guards stuff like this?”
“Only those who demonstrate wit enough not to simply say ‘the moon’ or ‘thy radiant beauty,’ a list that thus far includes only you. Consider yourself honored.”
“I am.”
“Your lineage aside, what possessed you to become a guard instead of pursuing a career in the arts?”
Rain sighed. “Because I’m not very good at it. If I was going to paint that wall… I’d want to paint us how we are right now, talking. Except I’d look like a blue blob surrounded by green blob trees in front of a messy grey background and… You deserve a better portrait artist than the likes of me. I’m good at painting flowers, though. I’ve had years of practice with those.”
“I would imagine the duties of a guard allow little in the way of free time.”
“Yeah… Sometimes I stay up late to paint—err, early. Whatever. I knew what I was getting into, though, and I’m fine with it.”
“You would abandon your dreams so easily?”
“It’s not my only one. I like being a guard. I like getting to protect ponies, and pony society. And I really like… this.”
Luna bowed her head and shut her eyes. He couldn’t see her cry, nor would he ever, she feared. “As do I.” Alas. As do I.