Prim Rose's Redemption

by Hope

Chapter 14

The ringing of a bell in the distance was all that got Prim Rose to open her eyes, and she had to blink several times to clear the haze from her vision. But once her eyes were as clear as they would ever be, she took in the sight in front of her.

Princess Luna.

Most would say she was unchanged by the many years, but Prim knew her better than that. Luna had been a rowdy filly when Prim first met her. No wonder they got along so well then that she’d been so young. Luna had been rebellious even of her crown and the ponies that served her. She’d hoarded the loyal and the rare like a dragon seeking the brightest gems, oblivious to the rising lava that would soon encase all of it’s pretty treasures.

But now… Now a true Princess sat before Prim Rose.

She’d grown into the status of a ruler. Her eyes bore it most clearly to Prim. Even now, even in the crux of love and death, her eyes stayed unreadable. She was calm, serene, and solid. A rock even in the wildest of storms, and what was Prim going through but a particularly final storm?

She wore her crown with pride, just so on the top of the head and just the perfect angle behind the horn to reflect it’s light in the gleaming silver and brighten the black scrollwork into blue-grey among the tiny gemstones that studded the crown’s edges. Her boots fit her hooves so tightly she could wage war in them without a slip.

But Princess Luna also sat with poise, and stood with grace to move closer. Her neck back to hold her head high, her forelegs almost straight and hind legs bend just the tiniest bit to shift her whole body into a more commanding position. Her wings were held slightly away from her body, as if ready for flight at any second, each feather preened with care. After so many years there was also the recovery of her astral mane, the flowing mass of the night sky rippling and shimmering even in the light.

“This,” Prim thought with an irreverent and greedy smile, “is what the great poets must have spoken of when they mentioned Lunacy. This piercing delirium that strikes a pony and leaves them ready to fling themselves into the sky beneath the summer moon, laughing all the while.”

But those words were fleeting, and her mind held not tight enough to bring them to her lips, so instead she just said one word.

“Luna.”

“We are by thy side, as always,” Luna said, her stoic eyes betraying a misting of tears yet to come.

“Why didst thou become so angry when I dressed thee?” Prim asked curiously.

If Luna had not seen that Prim was still smiling, she may have begun to cry at that memory in particular being called up, when there was so little time left for Prim to call memories forwards.

“We were but a fool back in that time, Prim,” Luna said as she stepped even closer and drew Prim to her under a wing, her hoof stroking Prim’s cheek.

“Even fools have reasons. Even if poor ones,” Prim pointed out, chuckling a little.

Luna sighed, hanging her head. “Thou shalt not relent until an answer is given?”

“When have I relented but in the face of a direct command?” Prim asked, her eyes turning to refocus on Luna now that she was closer, her smile becoming more thoughtful.

“We were distraught… Furious with what had happened and broken hearted with our sister’s actions. But deep down there was a pride. A joy in us that… We had not succumbed to whatever flame stole away our sister’s mind. That pride and the sudden realization that we then bore all of Equestria and the power of it, we were conflicted. Not just sorrowful but… Darkly joyous. When thee dressed us, it was in the clothing of a funeral. It only made us feel more artificial, more like a liar. Then, our anger took hold of us.”

“You weren’t that frightening,” Prim scoffed.

“Thy nightmares held our image on many occasions for years from then,” Princess Luna pointed out, seeming unamused.

“Not half as often as skeletons or old apple trees would be the subject,” Prim pointed out with a giddy laugh.

Luna, despite her inclination to take her past crimes seriously, could not continue berating herself in the face of Prim’s joy. She felt the pressure of time weighing down on her like lead chains. She felt the time approaching when that laugh might never be heard again, and she couldn’t break this moment in the risk that it would be one of few remaining.

Like a starving pony, she rationed out her last few morsels to sustain her, careful not to consume them all at once.

“Do not look so sad, Princess Luna. Thou art loved.”

The causal certainty of the declaration cut through all of Luna’s careful facade, and she began to cry. She climbed into the bed and the old mare in it shifted to better wrap her forelegs around the alicorn, still smiling peacefully. Luna cried and held her beloved Prim Rose close, and it took nearly an hour for her to find that Prim Rose had fallen back into her deep sleep, her energy again not enough to sate Princess Luna’s desire for more time.

So the princess stood and tidied the bed, making sure that Prim was comfortable. She then tidied herself, caring for the damp coat on her cheeks and her tousled appearance before standing and leaving the room.

Outside, two night guards were posted, their dark armor and pole weapons seeming unchanged in the spanning years between the foundation of the diarchy and the modern day. It offered a strange nostalgic comfort to Princess Luna, that she could imagine the same night guards roaming the castle after so long.

“She is resting, please ensure none but the healers disturb her,” Princess Luna said, her voice leveled and calm.

“Yes, your highness,” one of them said in reply, snapping to a salute.

Luna had become well versed in the formalities of her position, and knew there were many ways to respond to a salute, not just the dismissal salute she’d become used to using for so long. She’d been more a general, she realized, than a princess. She could nod to them, state their dismissal, or a dozen other ways of acknowledging the formality, but she instead thought of the pony who had helped her compose a list of all those options. The pony who she was trying not to think of.

Luna barely nodded at all before turning and walking past the library, and through the halls. She crossed the great hall with barely a nod to Princess Clear Spring, Verdant Spring’s daughter. Princess Spring clearly was worried for Luna, but she said nothing, did nothing besides return to her discussion with her assistants as Luna passed into the Lunar wing of the castle, which had expanded significantly.

The war room and Vault of Relics were the most notable additions, but several other rooms now graced the once familiar area. Prim Rose had encouraged Luna to have her own library, in addition to the one designed and built by her sister. Princess Luna paused outside it’s doors and looked at the sign, still fresh after twenty years.

Another thing that pressed in on Luna, made her feel as though she wasn’t doing enough to save Prim, to preserve her life and memory. As though she was failing her closest and possibly only true friend.

It was all too much, and so Princess Luna turned and walked back into the great hall, and then out of the front gates. Two of her honor guard followed at a distance, but she took none of her retinue with her, none of her many scribes, mares in waiting, or the new Castalian and Seneschal. She left them all behind and strode across the drawbridge and into the city.

She didn’t think she had a goal, but her firm hoofsteps betrayed her aim, and she knew where she was headed long before she knew why.

The grand monument was named “The fallen star.”

It was where she’d landed, upon deflecting the three meteors, and it had been turned into a small pool with her figure in black marble standing defiantly, looking upwards. It was supposed to signify her strength in defending her ponies, but it did not go unnoticed by the princess that it had been financed by all the nobles she’d hated so very much. In the end, it was not as much a monument to her bravery and strength, as it was a physical representation of a failed plea by the rich. A plea that Luna had not listened to, but she could still practically hear when looking at it.

“Please let us remain in power over the poor.”

It had been actually put to her more delicately, of course, but even in that memory, Luna found Prim had been by her side, listening to it all with the same incredulity that Luna had held. Luna hung her head and let a few tears fall.

She could not focus on her work, on the conflicts and threats of the new era that was dawning, and all she could think of was missed opportunities and meanings unexplored. Now, as Prim Rose was setting like a new moon, all Luna wanted was to go back and do it all over again.

For an immortal, many assumed it was a feeling she’d experienced many times, but in fact it was rare even for her. The all encompassing obsession with a pony only occurred when that pony had changed her life significantly. Maybe Prim could have been any pony and Luna would have been so connected to the pony in her position due to the cataclysm that had struck during her lifetime, but there seemed to be a unique vulnerability and earnestness to Prim that Luna had always appreciated, even in their first meeting.

It made the loss of such a pony so much more crushing.

She looked up at the area around her. What had once been the public baths were expanded, and though public were used more for socializing than cleaning oneself. The restaurant that Prim had gone to and first tried wine in was a shop that sold glassware and jewelry, but curiously the shop next to it that had been a jewelry and silversmith shop was now a restaurant.

It all felt wrong, and it seemed like there was so little left in this place for her.

She turned away and returned to her castle with a new determination, a new more bitter fire in her that briefly overcame her depression. She strode up to her throne and sat, giving Princess Spring a bit of a start at the breech of protocol, but she knew better than to press the issue with Luna, and let her stew for a moment while she finished her work and dismissed the ponies involved, finally turning to face her co-ruler.

“Luna, may we assist thee?”

Princess Luna nodded and looked to Princess Spring.

“We wouldst seek to move the capital of Equestria to another city. One more central to our nation, along trade routes, and more independently economically sound.”

Princess Spring’s mouth hung open in shock.

“It may take time,” Princess Luna conceded. “But we have the good of our nation in the future to think of.”

Spring narrowed her eyes suspiciously, crossing her forelegs.

“This is due to thy former Chamberlain!” she declared. “We cannot move the center of a nation to avoid painful emotional reminders,” she said with all the firm authority of somepony who was raised a princess, and thought they were in control.

But Princess Luna just smiled a little and looked off towards the room where Prim Rose was laying.

“That she plays a part, we shall not deny. But there is more pain here than those memories alone.”

She gestured to the elements of harmony, spheres of stone embedded in the hall floor. No matter how beautifully accommodated that was what they were.

“This place was our sisters and ours together. No matter how noble thy family, it is beyond it all to no longer have her here. We hath attempted justification, we hath tried to make it a home of ours, but it comes to this in the end: We cannot make a future for Equestria while burying ourself in it’s past. We shall move the capital, and it shall be the Canterlot, the largest city in the nation. But do not worry on some short schedule.”

She stood and sighed, before starting back towards Prim’s room.

“We do not wish to flee until all the good has left this place.”

Comments

[Seven Seas]

It seems like not many people have found this story yet, but I'm so glad I did. This is bittersweet and beautiful.

[Hope]

8407439
Thank you so so much for the compliment. It's a story I've been putting a lot of heart into, and every comment thrills me.

[mishun]

Outside, two day guards were posted, their dark armor and pole weapons seeming unchanged in the spanning years between the foundation of the diarchy and the modern day.

I'm a bit confused: shouldn't it be "night guards" here? Or does "day" only means that they guarded the room during daytime?