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// Chapter 9 
// Story: Prim Rose's Redemption 
// by Hope 
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Princess Luna entered the room, and paused as she observed her loyal Prim in her bed.

The little unicorn was asleep, curled up with her back to the wall and legs all askew, her braided mane greyed and tattered. On the bedside table, a wooden cup held untouched water, and a jar of ointment made by the most skilled herbalists in Equestria. The single jar likely cost as much as Prim Rose had earned in her first month of service.

But it wasn’t enough.

Prim was nearly a hundred and twenty years old. She was long lived for a unicorn, owing possibly to her grandfather being an earth pony. But age was still catching up to her, even though Princess Luna was not ready for her to go.

As always, Luna carried with her the heavy book that held Prim’s life. As she had for the last ten years, she sat next to her loyal servant’s bedside, and touched the unicorn’s cheek.

“Oh, my little rose…” she whispered.

But Prim did not stir. She breathed, her eyes moved behind their lids as she was lost in some dream, and her hooves twitched with half remembered trots through the castle gardens. But she did not wake this evening, as Luna had expected her to.

Luna only paused for a moment, but reminded herself that Prim would wake. Perhaps later in the day and perhaps later in the night but she would wake, at the very least one more time.

She’d promised her Princess that she wouldn’t let go unless she was awake, and holding Luna’s hoof tight.

It was a promise that Luna was unsure could be kept, but she cherished it more than any diamond in her crown, or any knight in her army. So she chose to believe in it.

With one hoof on Prim’s side, she laid the book down and spread the pages open. She looked at the recounting of Prim’s painful dream, and shook her head. It was followed by months of slow progress, gradual learning of the ways of court and the skill of Chamberlain, and though it was all precious it was not the time for precious plainness.

Luna had read through the book so many times, she knew it by heart, but she knew which part she should read to Prim next.

Princess Luna’s darkest moment, and the moment that Prim Rose had made herself a companion beyond reproach, beyond compare, beyond replacement.

It had been the dead middle of summer, the solstice approaching, and tainted by the darkness in the heart of a Princess.