Luna scanned the cityscape before her, noting surprisingly little damage. Canterlot looked unusually picturesque, considering how little time had passed since the changeling invasion. This was partly a virtue of the dim evening light masking minor imperfections with the veil of darkness, but even in the harsh light of day there wouldn’t have been much to see. Nothing drove construction quite like a desperate want to reestablish normalcy. The sooner a collapsed roof was fixed, the sooner the bakery operating beneath it could reopen. The sooner a broken window was replaced, the sooner the bedroom beyond it could be used. Most importantly, the sooner Canterlot looked like its old self, the sooner its residents could forget running for their lives from changeling drones.

Ponies nowadays were so willing to forget. With only a few decades separating birth and death, Luna could hardly blame them. Life, especially mortal life, was too short to harrow oneself up with grief and worse. She knew that with absolute certainty.

None of that explained why there was a pegasus standing under her private balcony.

From her vantage point, dozens of stories above the city but only three above the gardens that bordered the castle walls, the figure below her looked more statue than pony. The black plate armor girding his azure frame guaranteed that his stillness was merely part of his training as a Royal Guard. What wasn’t clear was why he was essentially guarding the doorless wall beneath her chambers.

“Guard, why are you stationed there? Surely there are more important places for you to be than the castle gardens.”

Night’s cool, still air carried his stoic voice to her ears, despite his not turning to face her. “This is where I’ve been stationed, Your Highness. It isn’t my place to question it.”

Luna leaned over the balcony’s stone railing, even though the view from three inches closer was largely the same. “Need I remind you that it is highly improper to remain facing away from a Princess when she addresses you?”

He didn’t move. “You need not, Your Highness.”

Her wings flared out to their full length. “Then explain this continued insolence! I demand that you face me at once!”

“You yourself ordered me and all other on-duty guards not to, Your Highness. It’s part of our increased security measures in light of the changeling threat and the… incident last week during the wedding.”

Luna vaguely remembered issuing such an order, but continued to glare down at him all the same. “Do you expect praise for adhering to the letter of the law, even when it makes your Princess look the fool?”

“I’d settle for not being a suspected changeling spy.”

Luna caught herself before she uttered a distinctly unprincesslike snort. Any changeling spy, as well as any Royal Guard who valued sleeping in a room without bars on the windows, would have more sense than this silver-tongued miscreant. “Very well. Carry on.”

With that she returned to her chambers, intent on writing a very stern letter to the Royal Staffing Agency.

Day was once again giving way to night. Luna paced across her balcony, never taking her eyes off the guard standing far below. Returning for a second evening’s watch instead of seeking out a new assignment said something about his mettle, and possibly his stupidity. Tonight she’d find out for certain. Her ultimate weapon, the barely polite letter she’d sent to the Royal Staffing Agency, wouldn’t be answered for several nights. For the time being, she’d adopt a different approach. “Good evening.”

As before, he remained perfectly stationary with a gaze fixed on the garden’s outer wall. “Good evening, Your Highness.”

“I assume you intend to keep this post for the foreseeable future, Guard?”

“As long as I am ordered to keep it, Your Highness.”

“Then you may refer to me as Luna. This supposedly modern age has dispensed with nearly all formality; I might as well throw out the remainder. Or would you prefer Princess Luna The Dragon’s Bane as I was known in a bygone era, or Luna The Petunia Devourer as my elder sister once christened me in our youth?”

She craned her neck over the balcony’s edge. He continued to stand there, an armored statue among the flowers and topiaries that didn’t move a single feather. Seconds of perfect silence passed, during which she couldn’t even hear his breathing.

Finally he let out a deep breath. “I humbly request to refer to Your Highness as Princess Luna… Princess Luna.”

Luna’s triumphant smile nearly gave way to a laugh. “A most respectable choice. You may do so, provided that slanderous Petunia title is never repeated.”

“Is that an order, Your High—I mean, Princess Luna?”

“Must I really say so?”

“What about the other one?”

“Dragon’s Bane? In truth, it is merely the name of a potent spice found in the Dragon Lands, one that few ponies other than myself were able to bear the taste of when it was first brought to Canterlot.”

“Ah… I see.”

She could sense something in his monotone voice, something that lacked the albeit-muted enthusiasm of the moments prior. “Are you disappointed?”

“Never.”

“Then pray tell us your thoughts.”

“I… know what Dragon’s Bane is. My grandma puts it on crackers with cheese.”

Luna groaned and held a foreleg over her eyes. “Truly nothing is sacred anymore.”

“I swear I almost burned my lips off the first time I…”

She returned her gaze to his unmoving form. “Must I bait you further to loosen your tongue?”

“I-I don’t want to take up too much of your time, Princess Luna. Unwanted fraternizing is frowned upon. According to the Royal Guard Code of Conduct, I shouldn’t—”

“Do you assume that we Princesses aren’t ponies as well, that we don’t eat, breathe, and, stars forbid, enjoy a good palaver from time to time?”

“Of course, Princess Luna, I just—“

She leaned against the railing and smiled down at him. “And why are you so quick to dismiss our conversation as ‘unwanted fraternizing’? When the time comes for my nightly duties to commence, I will take my leave. For now, while the sun’s greater light still touches the sky, I am without anything better to do than to pass the idle moments with the guard inexplicably stationed beneath my balcony.”

“Wait, your balcony? Do you mean I’m right under—”

“My bedchambers, yes. I intend to have a very long discussion with your commanding officer over what is and isn’t appropriate placement for members of the Night Guard.”

“My apologies, Princess Luna! If I’d known—”

“You are fulfilling your assigned duty. Provided you continue to keep your respectful tone, and you continue your earlier story about your first experience with Dragon’s Bane, I see no reason for blame to fall to you… You do have a name, don’t you?”

“It’s… Rain Shadow.”

“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Rain Shadow of the Night Guard.”

“A-and I yours, Princess Luna.”