Loss Part 2
Character Tags: Princess Luna, Princess Cadance
Content Tags: Character Death, Sad
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Atop the highest room, in the tallest tower of Canterlot Castle, a lone alicorn stood as the sun was set uneasily with her power. Composing herself against the strain, she set to work raising the moon into the night sky.
"I could help you, you know," Her fellow princess said from the entryway.
"You have your own grieving to do," the lunar alicorn answered stoically, "For nigh a thousand years, our sister raised both the sun and moon whilst we were lost in madness, we can do no less than the same while she is lost in her grief."
"But you're still on the mend from your return, Aunt Luna, you could still have me or Blueblood help you."
"Peace, young Cadance, though our strength is not yet returned to what it once was, we have the strength to do this," Luna assured her, "Our sister is not the only one who mourns, you should be with those who share your sorrow so you might ease one another's suffering."
"And what about you?"
Luna stood still, her back to her niece, "We will handle our-self as we always have."
"And that's worked out so well for you before," Cadance deadpanned.
"You forget yourself, Cadenza," Luna growled.
"And you forget as well, Luna!" Cadance snapped, "It's not just you and Celestia anymore, you have me, you have Blueblood, we are family and we support each other. Bottling up whatever it is you're feeling will only make it fester and make things worse." The Princess of Love stepped close, draping a wing over her aunt, "Please, Luna, you have every right to mourn with us."
"Do we?" Luna asked, her composure falling to a look of melancholy, "We feel the sting of lost family, but do We truly have the right to mourn someone We never knew? Someone of whom our clearest memory is his look of fear upon seeing the monster we once were?" the moon princess raised her eyes to the symbol of her dominion, "We first met Spike when he visited, nary even a fortnight hence. We were reserved, guarded even as he extended his claw in friendship and familial love. Celestia introduced him as her child, and it shames us so greatly to admit, in the depths of our heart, we felt the jealousy of old spring forth again, that our sister would have a child, a family, whilst we were away."
"We smothered such feelings, but that longing lingered, that thought again, after a thousand years, of 'Why Celestia?'," Tears formed in the eyes of the nocturnal alicorn, "We had such jealousy towards our sister yet again, and lo, so soon afterwords her son is torn from her, and her happiness with it. And the horrid thought that plagues us, was it our doing? Did our jealousy once again call forth some cruel fate and rip from us kin we never had the chance to know? Did our foul and envious heart visit this horror upon so many and free a new nightmare unjustly upon them?" Sobbing, Luna finally collapsed to the ground, "Were it better that we stayed as we were upon the moon, or better still, perished and spared so many the ill fate of our unwanted existence."
*SMACK*
Luna's tirade stopped as a hoof-mark began to bruise on her cheek, Cadance looking angrily down upon her, tears falling from her face.
"Don't you dare say that again," the pink alicorn growled, "Don't you ever, EVER even think that again! I already lost my cousin, I won't lose my aunt as well." Lifting her senior princess from the ground, Cadance pulled Luna close, wrapping her in pink wings. "We love you, Luna, you aren't some horrible omen, you aren't the Nightmare, you are Celestia's sister, you are mine and Blueblood's aunt. We are family, Luna, and you don't have to feel like any of this anymore."
After a few moments of silence, something finally broke as Luna melted into her fellow alicorn's embrace and cried as she never had before.