What Lies in a Moment

by PaulAsaran

Snowybee: Les Nuits

Les Nuits
By Snowybee

Deep in the Lunar Terraces, ruled by the Princess of Night, a sweet sound danced over the land. A tiny pebble that bounced upon a lake, lost by the eye to the dark waters but survived by its ripples.

The first of her sister’s grand spires shimmered on the Canterhorn up above, even in the night. Platforms and pulleys and airships swaddled the infant city, but the glory pierced through it all. Deep in the Lunar Terraces, Luna sneered.

The beautiful flute at her twisted lips shone brightly in spite of its bearer.

The alicorn longed for her home. Everfree Castle, invincible to all evil, built by the hooves of her family. A forest of nightmares had swallowed it whole, but no danger should have been too great to reclaim one’s home. The cowardly, disingenuous, naive…

Luna’s lips shifted with each curse that played in her head, and she spat sour note after sour note. The instrument felt alien in her magic. She adored the sound it bore in skilled hooves, but found no true joy in the practice.

She had nothing better to do anyway.

The Princess knew not a single song in a technical sense. She recalled lovely passages, delectable trills and the like from her days attending concerts. They sounded so perfect in her head. Yet, the instrument did not respond kindly to her glum breaths. In frustration, Luna refused to change her embouchure. Her eyes read the floral wreaths resting on the stone facing her. The petals looked something like quavers, she felt. She focused on them. Ignored her own playing. Luna did everything in her power to simply breathe life into the song.

Flats and sharps swiped their rodent claws all over her ears. The song taunted her, refused to emerge from her mind as she had remembered it.

At last, with a curse, she set the flute beside her. A bush not far from her rustled. She smiled dimly.

“I’m done for now, dear Augustus. You won’t suffer my playing for a little while.”

She watched the shy creature poke his head from the brush. An opossum, ordinary at that. A simple scavenger who happened to visit her every night. Not a word did he say in response to her. He had no hobbies, no insights.

Augustus scurried to her side, quick to nuzzle her leg. That was all she really wanted from him.

After patting the opossum on the head, she eased herself onto her back. The sea of stars twinkled up above. Every night, the world found itself submerged in the majesty for just a little while. Cool airs, free of the harsh sun’s torturous warmth. Air which could nearly quench one’s thirst. The fine waters lead to a peaceful night, a reprieve from a hard day of life.

However, the insomniac stars found themselves lonely once they sent so many of the souls to sleep.

Few ponies were nocturnal. Augustus’s little movements gave her company in the stargazing. She longed for more, however. Between the opossum and the embellished stone, her mind could not pick out anyone else who kept her company at night.

Well, besides the vespers. But they were still in the North, picking up the pieces. Deserving not the absolution of lending her aid, Luna cowered in the terraces. A small part of the Princess felt relief in keeping her distance.

The North filled her with dread.

Rage.

Emptiness.

She sighed quietly. One too many nights of paroxysm and grief had taken the life from such emotions.

The sound of claws on metal lured her mind back from the deep, deep hole it had wandered into. She craned her head upwards, and found Augustus inspecting the newborn flute. Her eyes suddenly burned with shame.

“I suppose I should actually try to learn — learn the instrument you loved. You were right, Marine. I do tend to be impatient.”

Her eyes rested upon the stone. She did not look consciously. Something screamed from it, silently and in her head. The wreaths were beautiful. An exotic flower from the North. Few adored it for some reason she didn’t understand, but adored did the few.

She had sniffed the flower enough times to recall it. A sweet, nearly cloying scent. It left an after-scent for at least a couple hours. It dominated one’s senses with a single encounter.

Perhaps the Northern ponies simply encountered it at a bad time? Just like the night, it offered much beauty. Yet, no matter how they both reached out, their curse robbed them both of friends that could have been.

The Princess fluttered her eyes. She had been staring vacantly at her own hooves. She couldn’t be sure how much time had passed in thought. Noisy thoughts, trying their best to fill in the time.

Curled around her hoof, an opossum’s tail lightly flicked. She traced the length to Augustus, who stared at her with a curious expression. Her smile waned.

“If I don’t take the time to learn the ways of this instrument, I would learn it incorrectly. My knowledge would be subpar, hard to change. I should know better. Bad practice does great harm.

“Isn’t that what I told you when we first met?”

The flowers, just as lifeless as who she spoke to, blazed in wordless color. A bundle of memories and nothing more.

Little paws tickled her side. The princess missed stifling a giggle. Poor Augustus stuck his face in up in hers, sniffing. He seemed worried.

She gave him a slow, gentle nuzzle.

“The night is a lonely thing, isn’t it? We’re from such different walks of life, Augustus, but it brought us together.

“Tell me, what do you think? If the day walkers met us, would they be afraid?

“If they just took the time to understand us, would they appreciate the night more?

“Would I be s-so… alone?”

A silence descended. The stone, lifeless, continued to speak the same thing over and over. Words, which had been carved into it.

The eternal farewell reminded Princess Luna, again and again, how quiet her nights had become.

Comments

[mustangdrew4]

8579457
No prob. I really enjoy most of your stories. So thank you for sharing them.