Prim Rose's Redemption

by Hope

Chapter 12

The sun rose, bringing light through the windows and the many holes in the ceiling as the many ponies crowded into the castle seemed to pause all at once. They all looked up into the brightening sky, and they seemed to take in what had just occurred for the first time. Some ponies burst into tears, wailing at the sun and the pain of what had just happened. Some stared into the sun directly, until they could see Daybreaker’s sneer, and look away with spots seared into their vision. Others turned away from the sun, as if to refuse acknowledging it would somehow preserve them from the pain of what it’s Princess had done, keeping her image pure in their memories. A few did not notice the moment passing at all, as they remained unconscious or so damaged that they were unaware.

Some did not bear witness, as they no longer could see, or no longer lived.

Prim paid them all no mind as she strode, level headed and with a steely gaze, to Golden Sparkle’s bedside.

“Can you walk, Lady Sparkle?” she asked quietly as she sat next to the cot.

“No,” Sparkle said sharply. “And I would prefer to be alone.”

“If I could honor thy wish, I would. But a new solar diarch has been crowned. We must attend the castle, as Her Highness is now unconscious from the strain of raising the sun.”

Sparkle closed her eyes, curling up a little more and wincing in pain as she did.

“What do you need of me?”

“Where is the duty roster for the solar court? We must start an accounting of survivors,” Prim said quickly. “I also need to know where any documents may be that detail Princess Celestia’s dealings, so we may begin moving them over to Prince Spring.”

Sparkle sighed. “Prince Spring… How could… No, do not listen to me. The duty roster and my ledger are both buried beneath the rubble of my room, from whence I crawled. The records would have been largely in her chambers, though some were kept in the library and the sitting room.”

She levitated her own set of keys from her mane, where she apparently kept them hidden, and chose one of them, a smaller key.

“This accesses the sitting room, They key must be used on the leg of the right chair, and then that chair tipped back, away from the table. The hidden doors then open.”

Prim nodded, committing the directions to memory before turning to leave. She hesitated though, looking back at Sparkle.

“Thou hast my deepest sympathies for thy loss,” Prim said cautiously.

But Sparkle turned her head away from Prim, and Prim could only leave.

She gathered a pair of day guards, and together they cleared the larger pieces of rubble from Golden Sparkle’s chambers. The roof had partially caved in when Princess Celestia’s chambers had exploded, and the bed was so damaged that Prim could only marvel at Sparkle’s survival.

After a brief search, Prim found the ledger and roster, both in the remains of a shattered table. Once she had both in her bags, she took the two day guards into the library and right up to the chair she’d been told about. The guards both seemed nervous, stopping near the doorway as she continued.

Prim paused, looking back at them with a questioning hum. The senior officer cleared his throat, shuffling his stance a bit.

“The sitting room is an… open secret. Guards and staff are not to enter unless invited. It was a place her Highness could go to be alone.”

Prim looked back at the chair with a new understanding of what she was about to do.

“Ask for Prince Spring’s presence, if he does not mind.”

The guards both rushed away, returning a minute later with the prince. Spring was not wearing his crown, and for all purposes looked like a normal stallion. Prim frowned, but did not raise the issue. The stallion had become royalty but an hour ago, and surely he was adjusting. She could not expect him to act as a prince should act so quickly.

“You had called for me, Lady Rose?” Spring asked softly.

The weight of the night was clearly catching up to him. He looked defeated and near to tears. But Prim felt a sort of cold certainty. The weight of Equestria rested on her back at the moment. Not Princess Luna, not Prince Spring, not Golden Sparkle. She understood the roughness that Sparkle had displayed on that first day. She understood how she must be firm as granite under the weight she carried, or ponies could die. Cities could fall. She acknowledged the pressure and firmly set aside the panic and fear. She had a job to do.

“Your Highness. We must begin gathering all the knowledge of thy wife’s affairs, to put things in motion. To properly induct thee and prepare for the future--”

“My wife?” Spring said, raising his head to look at Prim with an incredulous glare. “Celestia is not just… Not my wife. She is our Princess! She is the leader of our nation! She--”

Prim stepped up nose to nose with the Prince.

“Then surely she can lead the nation now, and I am not needed,” Prim said firmly.

The prince stepped back in shock, and the two guards looked to eachother, uncertain.

“I did not intend to be so cruel, but now is not the time to honor Princess Celestia’s memory. Right now the image of Daybreaker is still bright in the sky, and Equestria must go on. So. We must gather all of the knowledge related to the solar throne. Within the sitting room is much of that information, and to honor the importance of that room, we would all rather that thou enter it, rather than us, the uninvited staff.”

The prince nodded, silent as Prim went to the chair and unlocked it, pushing it back and triggering the two nearest bookshelves to grind out of their positions and begin rolling to the sides, revealing the chamber within.

Prim was surprised by how similar the room was to the great chamber she cared for. An exact mirror to it, down to every detail except the books on the bookshelves and the table in the center.

On the table in the middle, a single ornate book lay, but Prince Spring did not touch it or even look at it. Instead, he began removing the many books from the shelves and putting them on the library table.

“What is that?” Prim asked the older guard, gesturing to the book on the center table.

“The princess’s private journal,” he replied quietly. “They kept it together for many years, but in the last decade only Princess Celestia wrote in it.”

“I shall have to ask Princess Luna what to do with it,” Prim sighed as she began sorting the books.

It took almost an hour to sort every book into various categories. Official records, private journals or other books written by Celestia that were not official, externally created fiction and reference books, and a few private books of Luna’s.

They returned everything but the official records to the bookshelves, but as the last were returned, Prince Spring hesitated at the doorway. He looked at the soft lounge chairs, and the room as a whole.

“For today, I would like to stay in this room, if it is acceptable,” he told Prim as he took one of Celestia’s personal books from the shelves and held it to his chest.

“Of course, your Highness. I shall return if there is more I need from thee,” Prim said, before bowing and taking the two dozen record books with her, floating in her yellow magic.

She went back to her room before calling two of the solar scribes to her. They showed up nervous and downcast but willing to help.

“We must transfer all of Princess Celestia’s official titles, contracts, and other dealings over to Prince Spring in order to understand where we lay.”

“Well… Much of it is held by the solar throne,” one of the scribes offered. “So by his royal highness’s appointment, he would inherit them. Not all of Princess Celestia’s matters will need to be transferred so long as the solar throne is maintained.”

“Good! Good, that will simplify things. Much of Princess Luna’s dealings are to her by name, not to her throne, so I had assumed…”

The scribes shuffled nervously, looking away.

“Is... what she has been doing not proper?” Prim asked more gently, concerned.

“Well.. She does not keep scribes, that alone is odd. Those she treats as scribes are more… Personal assistants. But it all should be owned by the throne, not by the Princess.”

Prim nodded, thinking it over.

“Very well. I will speak with her on that point then, but for now, may thee begin the process of officially assigning the solar throne to Prince Spring? Then we may begin finding what else must be addressed.”

The both got to work and Prim relaxed, leaving them in her office while she left, gathering two night guards to go with her.

They began the grueling task of gathering names and crossing them off a copy of the duty roster. Too many names were missing. By the time she had accounted for every pony in the castle, half were still absent. Many, she hoped had run or been away at the time of the fight, but the bodies were too numerous to hope that many had escaped in time.

After double checking the living, she finally went to the courtyard, where the bodies had been laid out under plain white sheets. Guards stood watch and various shamans and healers were going to the side of each fallen pony, closing their eyes and giving their spiritual respects.

“The names,” Prim said quietly as she approached one of the guards.

The guard gestured toward the guard on the other side of the courtyard before going back to staring at the ground in front of him. Guarding the dead was a ceremonial duty, and one that gave the guards plenty of time to dwell on what had happened, concerned only with keeping eachother company.

Prim felt she should say something, but there were no proper words that she could find, so she just nodded to him and continued to the other guard, a mare who was speaking in hushed tones with one of the pegasus healers that was standing near the bodies of some fallen guards, still in their damaged and bloody armor.

“It’s customary to leave the armor on, to show… their service. I understand that Fletcher was a member of the church of providence but considering that he fell in the line of duty, could he be buried with his armor at least, of not wearing it?”

The robed pegasus nodded solemnly.

“We shall wrap it in cloth, like a personal belonging, if that is acceptable?”

The guard relaxed, nodding quickly as she backed away from the healer a little as she saw Prim, but Prim did not interrupt.

“Yes, thank you. I simply… I feel they should be honored for it all, if that is understandable?”

The healer stepped closer again and put a hoof to the guard’s chest, and the guard closed her eyes, head lowering slightly as the healer began a soft prayer.

“In Harmony’s light, both sun and moon bright, we all mourn the passing of those before their time. But rejoice in the knowledge that their memory will never truly fade.”

“Amen,” the guard said quietly, as the healer let go and stepped away to resume tending to the dead.

Prim stepped forward and nodded to the guard.

“Lieutenant, I’ve been told thee possesses the list?”

She nodded and produced a scroll, but didn’t hold it out, narrowing her eyes as she examined Prim.

“Some of my mares tell me that thou wert present in Princess Celestia’s chambers this past night. What happened?”

Prim noticed for the first time that the guard was armored in gold, a day guard.

She stood taller, knowing that she had to be truthful, and had to be complete.

She recounted to the guard the story of the secret she'd been asked to keep. Her reluctance, and her response to Princess Celestia, swearing to keep it, but declining to join in the conspiracy. As she spoke, other guards and priests gathered, listening. Before long, she had a crowd of two dozen.

“I had no choice in that moment but to reveal to her Highness that the plot was real, but that her sister had sought to dismiss it, rather than allow or encourage it. Princess Luna wished to settle it all, and strode quickly to the other side of the castle and the solar chambers, wherein Princess Celestia sat, at work in the governance of our nation…”

Her mouth grew dry, and she looked out on the crowd. Half of them served the solar court, and would be hearing for the first time what had happened from an observer. If they believed her at all.

“When Princess Luna began to explain how she had discovered the petition, both from myself and from her investigation, Princess Celestia turned her eyes to me, and began to choke me with her magic.”

Her voice trembled, and she looked down at the grass rather than at the shocked ponies before her, some of whom had gasped and covered their muzzles in shock.

“She would never--”

“Well she did!” Prim shouted over the solar guard who had spoken, her hooves trembling, tears in her eyes. “she then justified herself on the threats Princess Luna had given in the past to her staff, and my betrayal of her trust, before she brought fire to bear on the papers in her chamber, and brought the sun out of its sleep. Declaring herself no longer Princess Luna's sister, and no longer our Princess, she abdicated the throne and renamed herself Daybreaker,” She finished quickly. “Princess Luna flung me into a teleport to the gardens outside her chamber window just before the eruption, and from there I know as much as thee.”

After a moment, the lieutenant gave Prim the list of names, shaking her head.

“Had I not seen her in the skies myself, I would not believe it,” She said before looking to the other gathered ponies. “We've troubled lady Rose enough this day, and I am certain she is weary. Let us all do our part in this recovery. Quickly now, go.”

They all dispersed, carrying the story with them, as Prim tried to steady her breathing. Retelling the story had brought back the searing heat and choking tightness to her chest, and she felt all at once too hot and too cold.

“Lady Rose?”

One of the night guards had stepped up next to her and shaded her with a Bat - like wing.

“Apologies, I am… recovering, as we all are. Please, if you could verify the names?”

The guards nodded quickly and began comparing the two lists, narrowing it all down to fourteen names that were unaccounted for. Quickly, they returned to the inside of the castle, and then to Prim's chambers. She drew her curtains against the bright sunlight, and sat for a moment among her more familiar bookshelves, while the guards stood watch outside and the scribes worked tirelessly.

Once she had calmed herself, Prim buried herself in her work. She composed official letters stating who was missing, and a single letter to be copied and sent to each family that had lost a loved one in the attack. It was emotional work, but it was work that she could focus on rather than her own pain. She also wrote down her thoughts on how they would be moving forward, and how to accommodate Princess Luna's dislike for nobility. Ways to strip them of political power while maintaining the appearance of importance. They would all have to be evaluated by scribes who knew more of the law than her, but she needed something to do.

A guard knocked on the door near midday, shaking Prim’s focus.

“Come in.”

She entered with a nervous looking Pegasus colt, who bowed to Prim. The guard stepped up next to him.

“This is June Bug, messenger from Canterlot. He flew here to deliver a message to Princess Celestia.”

Prim took in the colt in a new light. He was lean, with wide wings and a fit physique. A messenger, sure, but a young and practiced one.

“What is this message?” Prim asked.

He drew a scroll from his bag and passed it over, letting Prim open it and read it herself.

“The mayor of Canterlot had been pressuring Princess Celestia to process the petition to remove eleven cities from Princess Luna's domain,” Prim concluded, rolling it up with her magic.

“Come with me, all of you.”

Prim marched her four guards, two scribes, and messenger through the halls, drawing stares with the cold and determined look on her face. They got to the library and entered, as Prince Spring looked up, surprised by the sudden entrance.

Prim walked up to the doorway of the reading room and stopped, dropping the scroll on the table in front of him.

“Though the petition to effectively remove Princess Luna was destroyed in the fire, it still stands to be evaluated, and the nobility will likely still press to execute it,” She stated simply, as Spring struggled to keep up.

“Petition?” He asked, looking from Prim to the guards.

“She didn't tell you?”

He simply shook his head, and with a heavy sigh Prim recounted from memory almost exactly what the petition had meant to do.

“And this was destroyed in the fire?” He asked, as he pondered the idea.

“Correct, though we may in time find another copy.”

“I deem, by the royal power granted to me by the solar throne, that Princess Luna is fit to rule,” Spring said simply.

Prim hadn't expected a simple declaration, and hesitated, looking to the scribes.

“Does that fix it?”

They both seemed uncertain, but one of them finally nodded.

“He may need to say ‘we declare’ and sign a written version using the proper royal plural, but… yes. I believe that it nullifies the basis of the petition.”

Prim grinned and gave Prince Spring a quick nod.

“Very well, your Highness, we shall have a written version for thee to sign shortly, thank you for resolving that.”

“I'm… we? The royal plural, I am supposed to be saying ‘we,’ correct?” He asked, one of the scribes nodding. “We would much rather have Princess Luna at our side, running Equestria as the diarchy it was meant to be, than letting some group of wealthy ponies get rid of the lunar court.”

“I just wish that Princess Celestia had felt the same,” Prim said, her smile fading to a bitter frown.

“She may have. She might have been planning on using her authority as a last resort,” Spring said firmly.

Prim looked at him and realized that he really did still love the mare that had tried to kill her. She would have to be careful not to let her resentment show. Instead she just nodded.

“She might have. If we need anything else, I shall return,” Prim said, before turning and leaving.

She went back to her chambers, and while the scribes wrote out the declaration, she wrote out a step by step account of the events of the night. Once it was done, she wrote a second shorter letter that explained the current state of Equestria, Prince Spring’s induction, and the lists of the missing and dead.

She then had more scribes make many copies of them all, before bundling up a single set of all the information, along with a copy of Prince Spring's declaration, and gave it all to June.

“Take these back to the mayor of Canterlot. I expect another messenger will arrive in the following days to request the attendance of the mayor in a court session once Princess Luna has recovered.”

He bowed again, and was quickly gone.