Rōnin

Akira sat kneeling in front of a cherry tree outside the city on the side of the mountain. He looked out on the great mountain range, the forests and peaks, seeing the peace to be found there. A cherry blossom petal fell in front of him and he looked up at the tree, and spied something he never expected to see. He stood up and looked at it intently.

He heard footsteps from behind him and turned to see Luna come up behind him, smiling gently. He nodded at her, a smile on his own face, and looked back up at it. Luna came up next to him and tried to see what it was he was looking at.

"What are you so intent at seeing?" She asked once she gave up looking.

"That," He says gesturing at the trees branches, "The perfect cherry blossom. Back home, one could spend their entire life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life."

Luna looked at him amused. "You samurai are so difficult to understand. One minute you're teaching ponies how to kill others and the next you're talking about flowers. It's strange."

"Where I come from it would be strange to say such things." He says looking back at her, "Strange is such a fickle thing is it not?"

"I suppose so." Luna said sighing, My goodness he would be able to outwit Celestia if he wanted to!

Akira looked down from the tree and knelt as he was before and looked out upon the mountains. Luna knelt next to him, in a more ladylike fashion. He had his legs apart and sturdy with his hands resting firmly on his thighs, she knelt with her legs together and her hands neatly folded in her lap.

"I want to know, what are you doing so far outside the city?" She asks.

"I would ask the same of you." He states. "I came out here to seek tranquility, calm."

"I am no stranger to that." Luna told him, "Oddly enough this is the exact place I come to when I feel overwhelmed and need a place to breathe."

Akira nodded. Luna noticed a small piece of parchment in front of him as well as a paintbrush and an inkwell. "What are those for?"

He looked down at them, "Ah, I came here with the intent of writing a poem. However nothing has come to mind yet."

Luna nodded, "I didn't know you were a poet."

"All samurai study poetry among other things." He says. "A haiku is the most common form of poetry where I come from. And all samurai study this, and more."

"So a warrior and a romantic eh?" She teases, earning a chuckle from him.

Luna stood and bowed to him, as was his custom, and he was her teacher. "I wish you the best of luck with your poetry."

Akira watched her leave, then his mind suddenly hit a stroke of sensational inspiration. He began to write his poem.

Akira was wondering through the central city at random. His mind, once clear, was now plagued with an issue that he felt should have had an obvious answer. He paced endlessly, his poem in his hand. What was he thinking!? He wasn't supposed to write such things! Especially not in something so important and heartfelt!

He was so irked that he barely noticed one of the guards come up behind him. It was one of his own students. He tapped Akira on the shoulder to get his attention. Akira looked up at him, and the two exchanged bows.

"Sensei, you look troubled." He says. "What puts you on such an edge?"

"Nothing too serious." He says reassuringly. "I just need to decide something of a personal matter."

Akira did not realize he had dropped the poem when he turned to face his trainee. The trainee picked the piece of paper up and read it. He looked beyond shocked, but then smiled up at his sensei. He shook his head in an exasperated way.

"Sensei, if this is what troubles you, it shouldn't. She'll love it." He says giving the poem back to Akira.

"You don't know whom it is this is intended." Akira says taking it back.

"I'm pretty sure I do," came the reply as he glanced up at a balcony on which Princess Luna paced.

Akira held back a blush, knowing he had been caught.

"Why are you so troubled about this?" The guard asks.

"Because such things are not for me to think. It is forbidden!" Akira says forcefully.

"Maybe where you come from, but not here." He says back. "Go to her, the most she can say is no."

"That is all that would be said." Akira says trying to get out of this predicament. "She would never accept such a thing from me!"

"And why not?" He challenged.

"Because I am not worthy of someone of such status. I am just a samurai from another land. She is the monarch of an entire empire. How could I possibly approach someone like her?" Akira demands.

"The same way you would any other mare." He says plainly. "Go up to her, give her the poem, and go about your daily business. She will give you her answer when she decides."

"Nonsense! She is far to great of a woman for me to approach! The sheer audacity it would take would be so great that the gods themselves would smite me for it!"

"Not true, if anything you would impress your gods beyond anything anyone ever has before."

"You don't know my gods, they are very strict on what is supposed to happen and to whom it happens too."

"Either way, from what you have told me of your ways, it is you duty as SAMURAi, to present this to her." He says. "I thought that fear was something you did not know. Yet here I find you scared of telling a mare you love her, I wonder what your samurai senseis would think." He says with finality.

Akira couldn't say anything to this, because his student was right. It WAS his duty to tell her, to give her the poem, to let her know what his opinion of her was. He took several deep breaths, before he finally decided to dive into the deep end, and hope for the best. He turned and left for Luna's chambers, hoping beyond hope that this would go well.