Clare, beachfront, Los Pegasus:

I awoke peacefully for the second time in a row, this vacation thing was great. I slowly got out of bed and stretched, ‘I’m gonna have to do some laundry today’ I thought to myself as I put on yesterday’s clothes.

I looked to my watch, 6:04am, ‘Not bad’ I thought to myself as I grabbed my remaining laundry and walked into the bathroom. I dropped my dirty laundry into the washing machine then fidgeted with it until I got it to work. It churned and chugged as it began the wash cycle.

I mumbled to myself as I walked into the kitchen and poured myself some cereal, well I suppose soon enough it would be Luna’s cereal but it didn’t bother me all that much. She was so sweet and gentle that I could give up my breakfast for her. I flicked on the TV and began to watch morning cartoons, it was something about a jack rabbit evading a coyote or something but it was old styled humor that kind of reminded me of The Bugs Bunny and Tweedy Show.

I walked over and flopped down on the couch as I ate my breakfast cereal. Luna trotted over and lay down beside me, I handed her my cereal. “You don’t want it?” she asked, I shrugged and she scrunched her nose in curiosity. “What do you mean?” she asked as she mimicked my shrug.

“I don’t know. You have it” I said and she looked down at the cereal then smiled. “Thanks” she replied then began to slurp up the cereal rather than use the spoon, I guess sometimes even princesses don’t use table manners.

I yawned then leaned back in the couch, Luna took a moment from slurping up the cereal to look at me. “Can we go hiking today?” she asked, I looked over to her. “Yeah sure” I said plainly but she gave me a frown. “Yeah sure? Do you not want to hiking?” she asked curiously.

“I’ll do whatever you want, I just want you to be happy” I said casually as I looked at the roof. She set the cereal bowl down on the table and shuffled over to me then rested her head on my shoulder. “I want you to have fun too, it would be selfish of me to take all the fun” she said. I moved my arm then placed it around her and smiled. “Let’s go hiking” I said with a wink and her face brightened up with happiness, I swear when her face brightens up like that it just makes me feel all warm and cuddly inside.

“But after the cartoons and cereal” she told me as she levitated over the bowl of cereal and lay against my body as we watched morning cartoons together. The rabbit was tunneling underground while the coyote poured gasoline down the hole, the rabbit tunneled out behind the coyote and when the coyote lit the gasoline it traveled through the tunnel and all the way to his rear and burned his hind.

Eventually their shenanigans ended and the cartoons were over. Luna and I got up and I went into my room to grab some suitable clothes for hiking. ‘Do I even have suitable clothes for hiking?’ I asked myself as I rummaged through my travel bags. I took my duster coat along with some camouflaged cargo pants.

I put on the shoulder holster and slid my Desert Eagle into the holster along with three extra magazines. ‘Whatta yah afraid of? Colt-scouts?” I thought to myself then chuckled as I walked back into the living room. Somehow Luna always managed to get dressed faster than me. She already had her leather clothes on and was ready to go.

“So… the Los Pegasus forest?” I asked, she shook her head and brought out a map. She had circled the spots in a mountain area she wanted to go. “Alright let’s hit the road Jack” I said, she gave me a strange look. I chuckled, “Sorry, old catch phrase” I informed her as we flicked off the lights in the house and left.

Clare, Los Pegasus forest area:

I slowed the Harley to a stop, parked it and turned it off. I pocketed the keys then grabbed our hiking bags. We had both packed lightly: water, food, maps, compass, that sort of thing. “Couldn’t you just fly to the top of the mountain?” I asked as we began to walk into the forest trails. Luna snickered “Well that would completely take away from the point of hiking wouldn’t it. And besides, I wouldn’t get to spend time with you if I did that” she said lovingly. She trotted closer to me and nestled her head against my neck as we walked along the trails towards the mountains.

“So Clare tell me, have you been thinking much about the future?” Luna asked but I shook my head. “Nah, I try not to foretell future events. It usually stresses me out so I just let it be” I replied as we continued along, there wasn’t a single other pony or human out in the trails, not even a hoof or footprint.

“Don’t you just love nature?” she asked, I looked around. Birds flew about and sang out their melodies, woodland creatures scuttled about. “Yeah… but sometimes it scares me” I replied and she looked to me with curiosity in her eyes. “Why?” she asked curiously, I turned to her. “I’ve been in too many jungle conflicts to be calm in forest environments. But as long as I don’t think about it my nerves stay rather calm” I informed her.

I had a slight sway in my pace and Luna mimicked it almost perfectly. “So, have you been thinking about the future?” I asked her and she looked back up to me. “Only a little, but I don’t like to make hopes and dreams out of it because my future is already set. I am the night princess and that is all I will ever be” she replied rather sadly. “Awe come on, that’s not true” I said positively, she rolled her eyes as if it was a joke. “Please don’t try and humour me” she told me and I stopped in my tracks, she turned and looked to me.

“Come on Luna, you’re so much more than just ‘The night princess’, you bring night to ponies, you help them through their dreams. You’re more than just ‘The night princess’” I reassured her. We continued our walk through the trails, I could tell something was on her mind but I didn’t want to pry at her to find out.

We approached the mountain side, I looked up the mountain and whistled. “Long way up” I muttered as I looked over to Luna. “Sure you don’t wanna just fly up?” I asked but she shook her head. “Let’s do this like most other ponies would have to” she replied and we began the long trek up the mountain side.

The mountains weren’t actually all that bad and the hike only took us a few hours to reach the summit. We sat on a more flattened part of the peak, “Wow, it looks different from up here” I muttered as I sat down. Luna sat beside me, “Yeah, really is something” she murmured as I pulled out some crackers and cheese. “Here catch” I said and tossed her the container of crackers and cheese, she caught them in her magical aurora and opened the container.

I pulled out another container of crackers and cheese and began to munch on the crackers, “I’m surprised that we didn’t see a single other pony or person along the trails” I said, Luna nodded as she continued to eat the crackers. We sat there for over an hour just eating and talking about little things like climate change on earth and what not until she asked something that I wasn’t really expecting.

“Did you ever have children?” she asked, I gave her a strange look. “You mean like did I ever have a child?” I asked and she nodded. I shook my head, “Why not?” she asked and I shrugged. “Who knows, guess it wasn’t meant to be. Besides, I probably wouldn’t make a good dad either” I replied as I took a bite out of a sandwich. “I think you would make a good father” she told me but I shook my head. “Of course you would, you’re kind, loving, affectionate, caring. You’d make an excellent father and a child would be lucky to have you as a father” she told me.

“No, I’d be gone away to the military too much” I told her as I took yet another bite of the sandwich. “Well I still think you would’ve been a good father, had you taken a chance” she replied. “Yeah, I have a feeling that being a dad wouldn’t have been the greatest idea. The kid would barely know who I was, let alone love me” I said sadly as I finished the sandwich. “How bout you?” I asked.

“Hmm?” she replied, “You ever have kids?” I asked and she shook her head quickly. “Star Gazer and I, we… we never really… we couldn’t have foals together” she replied and a tear came to her eye. “I’m… I’m sorry I didn’t mean to” I began but she cut me off, “It’s okay… sometimes it’s good to talk about things” she told me as she stood up.

I looked to my watch, it was just past noon. “Yeah I guess we should be heading down now” I said as I got up with a groan. “Are you hurt?” she asked worriedly, I shook my head. “Just a little tired” I replied as I stretched out and yawned. We nodded to each other then preceded down the mountain side, Luna still said that there was no fun in flying down because it took the point away from hiking.

We finally reached the bottom of the mountain and Luna brought out the map to see which way to go, unfortunately in our lack of attention we had walked down the wrong side of the mountain and would either have to walk all the way back up and over or walk around the mountain. “I’m leaning towards the forest” I replied and Luna nodded but no sooner had we agreed to trek through the forest, a hard gust of wind blew past and took the map out of Luna’s hooves and away into the forest.

Luna was going to try and catch it with her magical aurora but it flew out of sight to fast. “Well this is great, things couldn’t get any worse” I chuckled, ‘So we have to walk all the way around and have no map’ I thought to myself as we began to walk through the forest. Not even five minutes after I said that it started to pour rain, we got soaked nearly instantly, my hair flattened out and dripped as Luna’s leather jacket repelled some of the rain yet I could tell that she was becoming wet as well. The sky was dark from the thunder clouds and the rain was almost thick enough that we could barely see past fifty yards even in the forest trails. “Okay… It’s worse”

Author's Notes:

Sorry for taking a few days just to get one chapte out but I've been getting home pretty late from work and on Monday a baby calf chomped my fucking thumb, stupid thing thinks that I'm its mother and thought my thumb was an utter tit.