In the northwest, there was a great lake named Starfall Lake… so massive that it was shared between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom. During the summer it was a popular tourist destination for citizens of both countries for the warm weather, calm beaches, and even more, the reason said lake received its name: the abundance of meteor showers visible in the often clear summer nights above. Ponies and griffons alike would lay back along the fine sand during the temperate evenings and watch as, when planned, the stars would seemingly rain down and fall upon the horizon, almost seeming to land in the lake itself.
This held true for hundreds, even thousands of years in the past and would continue in the future.
On a particular autumn afternoon in a particular year, there was nary a single pony nor griffon to be seen swimming or lounging around the lake. The afternoon sun and blue skies were veiled by a wall of white clouds and low, hovering fog that floated like a massive river inland. The wind was mild, yet produced gentle ripples in the water that seemed to originate from well beyond the horizon. The earth itself, at this time, seemed drab and feeble… yet, there was an innate sense of calmness that lay omnipresent over the entire area.
Even though the air around the lone couple sitting on the beach by the shoreline was heavy, calm still prevailed. One figure, clearly larger than the other, appeared quite young in age, but she was well known to everypony else in the nation and beyond and Princess Luna, the alicorn of the Moon and protector of the Night.
“A shame we could not come during the summer… but I suppose this will have to do,” the Lunar Princess, clad in a heavy cloak and foregoing regalia, continued their conversation softly. Her words were just able to grace the ears of the elderly stallion leaning back into her chest, and held securely in the embrace of her front legs. She sat on the sand, though it was cool to the touch. All that mattered, though, was that her companion was comfortably secure in her hooves.
“As beautiful as always…” the older stallion, named Halo Crescent, replied with a weak yet excited tone of voice. Wrapped in a large blanket himself, his once cobalt coat had long since faded to a grayish blue, his mane having aged in kind. Strong muscles which carried him for miles on gallant runs had atrophied. His hazel eyes were beginning to fail him, as was his body, but he knew well it would not matter soon. All that mattered at the moment was being here, his favorite place in the world, bundled up with the love of his life.
He wrapped both of his front legs, trembling, around Luna’s to hold her where she was, and the jitters sent sharp pangs of sadness straight into the alicorn’s heart.
Still, she spoke with only soft emotion.
“Personally, I prefer this place in the summer, as do much the rest of the Equestria,” she added, to which Halo chuckled.
“I was talking about you, My Princess…” he countered, laughing gently in good humor as he was known, but quickly devolved into a coughing fit. Luna held him that much tighter and did all she could to soothe him.
“Sixty years with you, Halo, and yet you still refuse to never say my title,” Luna added with her own jesting inflection, though laced behind it was a profound sense of sorrow, betraying her feelings of not wishing to hear the word ‘Princess’ come out of his mouth again.
It was too soon for her.
“It always suited you perfectly, Lulu… ever since the first day I laid my eyes on you. And to me, you haven’t aged a bit, my love,” Halo commented, stroking Luna’s leg weakly with his now-fragile hoof. Luna, of course, was well aware of the implicit joke Halo put forth, and she only sighed at being reminded that she herself didn’t age… well, she technically did, but the past sixty years were but a drop in the bucket of her entire lifespan yet to come. Even by an alicorn’s standards, she was still quite young.
“You know I hate that joke, right?” Luna reminded him, resting her head gingerly atop of Halo’s and sighing out yet again. Halo chuckled but did not follow up, so the two sunk into another silence. The only sounds were of the gentle winds stirring up the water in front of them, and said winds occasionally struck their faces with the right amount of gentleness, being sure to keep them cool.
Halo leaned into Luna’s embrace further, and the alicorn was more than happy to reciprocate. They shared their warmth between each other, letting their eyes rest while they listened to the earth remain still around them. No life other than the couple revealed itself, and that was just alright with them. This allowed Luna to mull around in her own thoughts, something she really did not wish to do but had little choice. Her mind was awash with an amalgamation of emotions that had plagued her for the last couple of weeks when she had come to accept the inevitable.
Luna also noted that Halo was much colder than she was, despite being wrapped up.
“Lu…” Halo croaked out after a small eternity, clearing his throat which led to another coughing fit. Soon enough, his voice returned to normal. “I’m… I’m getting tired, My Princess.”
Luna’s lips pursed on their own, and suddenly, the backs of her eyes felt bloated, welling up. She caught a hitch in her breath just in time.
“Is it time to…” she stopped herself again, her words stoic as always. “...to take a nap?”
“No,” Halo replied, shaking his head softly. “Five more minutes.”
“Okay, my love,” Luna agreed, nuzzling his cheek lovingly, and the stallion returned the gesture with equal tenderness.
The wind picked up just a little bit, and Halo held onto both of Luna’s hooves, much tighter than before which surprised her… especially with how his strength gradually waned. Halo, much to his dismay, caught the slightest tremble from his protective mare, the one he so willingly shared his life with.
“It’s okay to cry, Luna…” Halo piped up again, his voice noticeably more breathy.
“This is about you right now, Halo. Not me,” the Princess responded with a little more curtness than she intended. She made it up with another nuzzle, but she still could do nothing about the sorrow welling up inside of her, getting harder and harder to suppress. Halo always hated to see Luna sad, and he would do everything in his power to bring her back to happiness. What he did not know, however, was that she had been crying each and every night on her lonesome, rueing the fact that Halo’s time was and would forever be short compared to her life. Celestia had been comforting and supportive, but sadly had to remind her that this was the price of loving a mortal. She had made the same mistake as well.
This time, however, there would be nothing Halo could do if she broke down now, so she refrained from losing it. Instead, she opted to run one of her hooves through his mane, just once. She could feel each and every gray follicle's rough and dry texture, and delicate to the point where she feared pulling it out with the softest of tugs.
“Always so strong in front of those you hold dearest… never change, Luna.”
Silence reigned yet again, and before Luna could open her mouth to say something she truly wished to say, Halo beat her to it.
“Lu… My Princess… thank you.”
“Pray tell, Halo, F-For what?”
“For giving me a small part of your life, and for allowing me to spend mine with you. It may have been an infinitesimal part of your existence, but it was everything for me,” he confessed, a lone tear falling down his face, which he would never let his Princess see. Truth be told, he was terrified and regretful of the idea of never seeing Luna grow into a better, stronger leader with each and every passing year beyond this day. Nevertheless, he knew what had to happen.
Despite Luna’s angry pleas to possibly try every avenue to extend his life, even through magical means, he knew well that it would not stave off the inevitable.
“You’re not just a part of my life, Halo. You were—are my life,” Luna confessed as well, her lips pursed harder and she had to rest her eyes and take a few deep breaths to rein her emotions in.
“As you were mine,” he concluded, happy to have said his peace. “I love you, My Princess.”
Luna furrowed her brow and bared her teeth strenuously, holding herself at bay even still.
“And I love you, Halo. So much…” Luna replied strongly. “I’ll… You’ll always remain in my heart, for all of eternity. I promise you this...”
“All of eternity is a long time, Luna. Even for you.”
“Maybe. But I’ll always remember you, no matter what,” Luna affirmed sternly, as if she was doing her best to convince herself of that reality. While she would not live forever, nearly innumerable lifetimes would pass before she, too, would lay down for her final rest. Memories have stood for decades, even over a hundred or two hundred years in her case.
They have not been tested for thousands… or tens of thousands.
Still, Luna knew that as long as Halo’s memory remained locked away within her, he would never truly die.
Halo let out a lengthy sigh and slunk back further, and Luna adjusted herself (if a bit awkwardly), so he could lie comfortably by her lap. Dialogue was clearly not abundant, but to Halo, that didn’t matter. All that he was concerned with, was that he was with Luna.
Nothing more.
“Luna…”
“Halo…?”
“I’m tired,” he weakly said those fateful words, eyes slowly but surely lidding. As for Luna, she was not entirely sure what to say to that, as all words failed her, or seemed in appropriate. Internally, she was teetering on the balance, and as if reading her, Halo spoke up once more.
“Can…” he grunted in a little bit of pain. “May I have one last kiss from My Princess?”
“Of-Of… Of course you may,” Luna replied with extreme difficulty, looking down upon Halo, who met her gaze with his own. Within that shared exchange, their eyes communicated volumes of information, novels of the same feelings that they had expressed to each other for the last sixty years.
Undying love.
Luna leaned her muzzle down, and the two nuzzled each other for the last time; he was becoming frigid.
“I love you, Luna…” the stallion voiced barely above a measurable whisper, his eyes almost completely lidded and closed.
“I love you, Halo…”
Their lips softly pressed together in what Luna knew full well was their last kiss, and she put every bit of her love into that chaste intimacy. Holding him tightly against her, his lips were cold and dry, yet he kissed back with all the remaining strength he could muster. The wind seemed to pick up during those moments and run through their manes, chilling their coats in kind, but never affecting their resolve to share one of the purest forms of love one last time. Luna no longer counted the time that passed, all that mattered was the embrace that she knew she never, ever wanted to end…
...even when the Princess knew full well that Halo had stopped kissing her back.
Only when she finally separated did she realize her eyes were damp, and they began spilling tears without her permission. Looking down upon the lifeless form of Halo, she saw that he had a peaceful smile on his face, yet she hoped with every fiber in her being that the soft wind which rustled his coat and his mane would wake him up, so he could complain to her how annoying the weather was.
He never did.
Luna stared down at him for another immeasurable amount of time, her tears dripping of the edge of her muzzle and falling onto what remained of Halo… and she finally allowed herself to crumble. What started as a few silent sniffles cascaded into a flurry of pent-up, pained sobs and powerful cries to the heavens. There she let loose the torrent of emotions over the corpse of her lost love, where the water met the land under the overcast watch of Starfall. In her cries to nopony, she swore time and time again that she would never forget him, that his memory of all the happiness and love he brought her would live on until the day that she also died.
But as the days turned to weeks, the weeks to months, the months to years, the years to decades and the decades to centuries, her memories of him began to wane. First were little details about his favorite foods and hobbies, then went the color of his eyes. Even as those centuries passed, one thing Luna never forgot was that last kiss that they shared.
By the time centuries turned to millennia, however, even that detail was not spared. Slowly but surely, Princess Luna forgot the details of that fateful embrace of lips, commenting to herself once in a while on how long ago it was. Eventually, it slipped away completely, and with it, the residual chains of Halo’s death wilted away.
And perhaps, that was for the better.
