//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Prim Rose's Redemption // by Hope //------------------------------// “Your Highness…” Princess Luna looked up to see Prim approaching her. Prim looked scared, and clearly concerned about the state of her Princess. Luna looked up at the sky, the sun and the moon splitting the sky in a way that made her skin crawl. She knew what she had to do. She reached out with her magic, immediately feeling the moon, waiting for her like an old friend. But the moon was where it was supposed to be. Instead, she kept searching until she felt a flame in her mind. The sun. It burned to the touch, but Luna steadied her grip and began forcing the sun down beyond the horizon. It hurt terribly, and a certainty grew in Luna's heart that the sun would never obey her willingly, and that pain would be her burden to bear for a long time to come. “What hast thou done? Where is she?! Where is Princess Celestia?!” Luna and Prim both turned to look at Golden Sparkle, who had just limped into the great hall. She was bleeding from a cut along her side, and one of her forelegs was fractured or possibly broken judging by how she held it limply off the ground. Princess Luna lowered her head as the sun was once again in place, and the sky returned to star filled blackness. With the moon as the only light, it was easier to see the flames eating their way through the scorched rubble, and the mage lights that still shone even when they had been knocked out of their sconces, or when they had become nothing but shimmering dust spread across the fractured floor. “We hath failed her,” Princess Luna said sorrowfully. Golden Sparkle limped towards Luna, tears streaming down her face and grimacing in pain, but Luna shook her head when Prim went to stop the unicorn. Luna let Golden reach her, and pound her good hoof against Luna’s side in anger. Ineffectual, but Luna took every blow without complaint. “Bring her back! Bring Princess Celestia back!” Princess Luna slowly put a foreleg around Golden, holding her gently and making sure not to put any pressure on the mare’s broken leg. Golden sobbed into Luna’s coat as she held her. Prim moved closer and put a hoof on Golden’s back, trying to offer some comfort. As they were silently mourning the loss they had suffered, the sound of hooves approached, not just one set but many. The day guard, the night guard, and every still living member of the castle staff poured from the rubble and still intact rooms, bearing witness to their remaining leader, and their sorrow. Slowly the two captains of the guard approached. Night Fury, the bat-winged mare that served as night guard captain, approached and bowed low before Princess Luna. Braced Bridle, the unicorn stallion that had served Princess Celestia, approached and only inclined his head slightly, keeping his eye on her with suspicion. “Your Highness, thy orders hath been seen to. The city of Everfree has begun evacuating to the edge of the forest, as fires spread. We hath pegasi in the sky, bringing in clouds to douse the flames. The solar guard is in disarray, though Captain Bridle has gathered all he could in admirable order, many of their number are missing,” Fury said quickly. “Begin securing the perimeter of the castle. Bring all injured here, and begin recalling the citizens once the fires are out. We shall need four of each guard to assist us in rescue attempts within the castle. Golden Sparkle is still Castellian, and Prim Rose is still Chamberlain and seneschal. Once the flames are extinguished, send fliers to Hoofnia and Canterlot with request for immediate aid, and send fliers to Hoofnia, Canterlot, Trothnicum, and New Prance in request for their mayors and delegates to attend an emergency court session in one month’s time.” Fury bowed low again as one of Princess Celestia’s scribes quickly recorded what she said. But Fury hesitated. “What shall we tell them has happened?” She asked. The small crowd fell completely still as Luna hung her head. “Tell them that Princess Celestia fell under the pressures of commanding Equestria alone, and has been sealed away in the sun. Princess Luna, knowing she is at fault for the tragedy, takes up the reins of power, and shall endeavor to be as fine a princess as her sister hath been for five hundred years.” In mute shock, Night nodded and turned away, before starting to direct ponies where to go and what to do. Within an hour, the great hall was filled with the groans of the injured and the sharp hoofsteps off doctors and nurses tending to them. Even the mayor of Everfree was among them, setting broken bones and soothing pain with the skills she had as a zebra shaman. Meanwhile, Princess Luna was lifting rubble with delicate precision, finding bodies and occasionally living ponies trapped below. It was dreary and painful work. The bodies outnumbered the living, and Princess Luna felt she had to acknowledge, identify, and recognize every single one of them, even when she needed magic to recreate their faces. “Princess.” “Hmm?” Luna hummed as she shifted a heavy stone to reveal the empty space beneath. “There's something wrong with thy mane,” Prim said as she stepped closer. Already suspecting what she would find, Luna reached back and pulled some of the cloud of stars closer so she could better see it. Individual strands of dark hair were visible, with stars glimmering inside them. At the edges, her mane had grown smaller and slightly lighter in shade. Princess Luna sighed and let go of it, before grabbing another stone and lifting it out of the way. “What is it?” Prim asked, her insistence briefly irritating Luna as she tried not to think about the body she’d just found, and how it was one of the castle maids. She couldn’t remember the mare’s name, but she gently lifted her and laid her on a cot, telling one of the guards her post before she was taken away. “We hath consumed so much power this night, we hath depleted our reserves far beyond what is typical for an alicorn. We shall likely lose consciousness upon raising the sun in four hours time. The drain may further change our appearance, but we hope it does not begin to affect our physical stature. Draining one’s earth pony magic takes much longer to replenish than the other two races’ magics.” “If thee were to rest, it would be no shame. Let the rest of us complete this work,” Prim urged, but Luna just shook her head, lifting a massive stone and setting it aside. As she did, Prim could see her mane fading into pastel blue at the tips. “Princess, I am ordering thee to go lead thy ponies, not to perform menial labor that any pony could do and exhaust thyself in the process,” Prim said with a confidence and force that Princess Luna had not heard from any of her staff in hundreds of years. Slowly, Princess Luna turned to look at Prim. The unicorn didn’t flinch or back down but stood tall and pointed at the great hall. Slowly Luna nodded and sighed. “My thanks to thee, Prim. We needed a firm hoof. Guards, please continue. We shall be nearby if our power is needed.” The guards sprung into action as Princess Luna followed Prim back into the shattered castle, observing the many injured ponies laid out on cots. One of the servants approached Princess Luna, bowing low and waiting for her to let him rise before speaking. “Your Highness, a Verdant Spring is demanding entrance to the castle grounds. He is uninjured, but claims to be Princess Celestia’s consort,” he said quickly. Princess Luna, confused, looked around for Golden Sparkle. Gesturing for the servant and Prim to follow her, she went to Sparkle’s cot. “Golden…” “What dost thou wish of me?” Sparkle said quietly, not looking at Luna. “A stallion named Verdant Spring is claiming to be our sister’s consort,” Princess Luna said simply. “Is this true?” Sparkle looked up at his name, before nodding. “He is. It was official five months past, though done quietly. He did not wish for the public to treat him as royalty.” Luna nodded and put a hoof to Sparkle’s side. “We give our thanks to thee, Golden. Now rest.” They walked away from the cots and Luna nodded to the servant. “Allow Spring into the castle, guide him to the grand chamber, it is undamaged. We shall be with him in minutes.” The servant ran off and Princess Luna took Prim back down the hallway towards the shattered portion of the castle, but she stopped at the first door on the right. Prim pulled the keys from her bags and unlocked the treasury. They stepped inside and Prim locked it behind them. Luna then took a pair of large keys from a hidden compartment in the stone decorations near the ceiling, and they descended into the vaults. Prim had never seen them before, having no reason to enter the lower reaches of the castle. The vaults were reached down a deep spiral staircase, which ended in the middle of a chamber with a single vault door on each of its four sides. Each vault door was made of solid metal, forged by earth ponies and unicorns working in concert. Luna went to the vault door which had a sun etched on its surface. The key opened it and Prim was allowed to see the wealth of the solar treasury. Gold bits wrapped in paper labeled with amount, golden bars and bags of gemstones, three crowns and two torcs with their matching boots, as well as a small bookshelf with the rarest oldest books in equestria, except perhaps the ones in Luna’s neighboring vault. “A key to the royal vaults was just… hidden in the stone?” Prim asked incredulously. “Only us and our sister knew of these keys until today. They were made and hidden as a last resort. If there was revolt or our staff somehow lost all of the keys for the vaults, we would still be able to access our treasured memories and wealth before fleeing. Four hundred years ago we had less trust for the tribes of ponies we had united,” Princess Luna said as she picked up and judged the three crowns. She set down the most heavily adorned of them, and then decided that a thinner lighter crown would be better than the heavier one which Princess Celestia normally wore. The crown she chose was a fairly thin band of woven silver and gold scrollwork with diamonds set across its upper edges and a gradual peak at the horn which held a star-shaped arrangement of yellow diamonds. It was likely more expensive than Princess Celestia’s normal crown had been, but it would be easier to reshape. “What is our purpose here?” Prim asked as she looked around at the vault’s contents. Princess Celestia’s mementos and secrets were here. It felt like standing in someone’s bedroom while they were absent, an invasion of a private space normally granted only to a select few. “The Diarchy must remain. As our sister has left us, there must be an appointment of her successor.” “Thou art planning to appoint Verdant Spring?” Prim asked, looking back at the stairs up. “We know nothing of him, he could be dangerous, he could hold us at fault for Daybreaker!” Prim’s hoof went to her neck, but Luna just nodded as she gathered a set of Torc and boots, and closed the vault once they were in the middle chamber again. “Perhaps he shall. But are we not at fault? Not thee, but I. We put the burden of the state on her, and she collapsed. That is our fault in every way. Royalty is not assigned by skill or how much they are pleased by our presence, but by right. When Celestia chose Spring as a consort, she chose him as sufficient enough to rule in a catastrophe.” The lock clicked into place and they began to ascend into the treasury, the keys hidden again before they exited and Prim locked the door behind them. “We would say this is a catastrophe.” “I suppose,” Prim sighed, before seeking out a pair of scribes and all of Luna’s mares in waiting that she could locate, which ended up being five. Finally, they all together went to the great chamber. Prim opened it first, nodding to the guards outside, before standing aside and looking to Verdant Spring as Princess Luna entered. He was a green coated earth pony with a rust mane with pale yellow highlights and teal eyes, average build and mostly unremarkable except for the stance he took. He sat tall and did not react to the presence of royalty except to deepen his scowl. His cutie mark showed a bouquet of flowers with the sun above them. “You monster.” Everyone froze, even Princess Luna, as Verdant stood. Slowly, Luna took another step forward, looking down at Spring, focused and carefully neutral. She then nodded and sat, letting the rest of the ponies file into the room. The scribes set up in the corner and Princess Luna sipped a bit of water once Prim delivered a glass. “At fault, we shall accept. We shall even accept that we hath been negligent in the past, and our sister suffered for it. But becoming Daybreaker was not our doing,” Luna said as gently as she could. Spring just narrowed his eyes, waiting for Luna to continue. She gestured to a scribe, who raised a quill and began recording what they said. “Verdant Spring. On this night, I, Princess Luna of Equestria, must perform a rite which no ruler ever wishes to perform,” she said gravely, looking down at her hooves. “But in moments of endless pain, the nation looks to its leaders, and we must never fail that harmony.” She took a deep breath and looked up to meet Spring’s eyes. He looked uncertain, scared. “Our sister has, through a breaking under the pressures of her post, abdicated the solar throne.” Spring seemed about to object, but he looked to the scribe, aware of their purpose, and that his words would be recorded far into the future. “As her consort, and with no other heirs to the throne available, thou shalt take up the crown of the sun, to maintain the Diarchy.” Before he could back away or shout, the crown was raised and placed onto his head. “May thy presence grow our country and prevent such a horrible tragedy from ever happening again,” Luna said before touching her horn to his forehead. “By the power of harmony and by the grace of past royalty I, Princess Luna of Equestria, grant to thee, Verdant Spring, the station of Prince until such a time as your predecessor may retain the post you shall protect. In this post you may never allow Equestria to fall, you may never allow for evil to claim the hearts of our ponies, and you may never allow for power to lure you to greed. By these tenants do you so swear?” “I so swear,” Spring whispered shakily. “Thus we declare thee to be His Royal Highness, Prince Verdant Spring of Equestria.” “Long live the Prince,” the guards in the room said in unison. The scribe finished writing, and the scroll was passed to the other scribe to make a copy. The first scribe then galloped out of the room to fetch further paperwork as Spring reached up to touch his crown. He then looked to Luna. “I never wanted this.” “Neither did we. We had hoped to heal the divide between us and our sister, we had hoped dearly that the Elements of Harmony would cure her of the Daybreaker, but instead they banished her.” “Daybreaker… Banishment, where… Please, explain to me what happened,” Prince Spring begged. Prim shifted nervously as Luna began to speak. Just the memory from hours ago of what had happened was enough to make her feel sick. The cruelty and apathy in Celestia’s eyes when she’d held Prim’s throat tight with her magic still swam in her mind. Prim realized that there was a hoof on her back, after a few moments. Princess Luna had stopped talking and had turned closer to Prim to comfort her. Prim had been hyperventilating, and even Spring looked concerned. “I suppose I can see how… she may have caved under the pressure, but… She was always composed with me, never letting me see how difficult it was to rule. There was the Celestia I knew, and then the Princess on the dias, and they never shared the same face… Is she alright?” he asked finally, gesturing to Prim. “Prim? Thou art safe,” Luna said gently, drawing Prim close and letting her drink from her cup. “I’m sorry… Your Highness… your Highnesses, I just… I’m sorry.” “It is quite alright,” Luna said firmly, holding Prim with a wing. “Thou hast stood by our side this day, the darkest of days. The pain thee struggles with is the pain I feel, and it is no minor thing.” Luna steadied herself and turned back to Spring. “We suppose our sister did not let us see this… true self, then. We knew only of the Princess. The ever certain and righteous figure. It is a shame, we’d known her for so very long, yet did not detect the growing darkness in her.” “Where was she banished to?” Spring asked after a moment of silence. “The sun. ‘Tis too bright for most ponies to see, but we could see it, her image upon it’s surface.” Spring hung his head, before quickly hiding a tear he had shed. “Is there a path back from such a place? Is she gone forever?” “We do not know,” Luna admitted. “But we shall seek such a way to return her. Some way to safely bring her back to us. Then we shall do so. But thou must know that the Elements of Harmony do not seem keen to enact temporary solutions. Discord is still frozen in stone, after all. It may be some time until we are able to retrieve our sister.” “I understand,” Spring sighed, looking out of the windows into the gardens, his eyes glossy with tears. Princess Luna, meanwhile, seemed distracted, looking down at Prim several times, and encouraging her to drink more water. Finally, she stood. “It is nearly time for the sun to rise. We shall be incapacitated once we have done so, and Prim Rose shall assist thee in the operations of the castle until we awake.” She lowered her head to be next to Prim’s, and Prim nodded quickly. “I can do this. With Golden Sparkle’s help, we can do this, your Highness. I just needed a moment to recover,” she said with a timid smile. “We had no doubt in thy skill,” Princess Luna said, before nuzzling Prim and leaving the room, leaving Prim and Prince Spring to figure out what needed to be done.