Prim Rose's Redemption

by Hope

Chapter 32

Prim woke, dizzy and confused. She sat up a little too quickly, nausea bubbling up and competing with a headache. But a steady hoof kept her from falling out of bed. Looking up, she saw stars in a dark blue sky, and blue eyes.

"Compass?" She whispered, trying to place the face, and where she was that she could see stars.

"Luna," the shape corrected. The shape with those beautiful eyes.

"Silly name," Prim mumbled as she struggled to stand on the bed.

"Why would it be a silly name?" The shape asked as Prim was magically lifted and placed carefully on the floor.

"Well, it is simply Prench for moon! If thine name shall be Moon, just call thyself Moon!"

There was a soft chuckle, patient and amused.

"There was a time when Prench, or a language similar, was the one of greater use. It was then that we were named."

"We?" Prim asked as she blinked around at the haze of color, only to abruptly be granted sight as a pair of glasses were put on her nose.

"It was then that I was named," Luna corrected herself, as Prim looked up at her with a bit of awe, and confusion.

"Compass, you look so different," Prim finally said.

Prim felt a pang in her heart as the alicorn lost her smile, but Prim knew not why, so much was a blur.

"I am not Prim, I am Luna," She finally replied after a nervous pause.

"Right, right... if you say so," Prim nodded. "Luna. It may be silly, but it is pretty. Where am I?"

"The castle, the castle of Equestria."

"Oh my, how did I get there, that is such a long ways away."

"You worked here for many years. So now this is your home."

"Many years..."

Prim shifted to look at her hoof. There was something vast she could not recall, like an ocean just vanishing from sight, it left her feeling adrift and uncomfortable. Surely, there was some way for her to understand what had gone, understand those beautiful eyes that her mind told her were Prim's despite looking so different, understand why she felt so scared.

"Prim?"

"Just thinking, your Majesty," Prim replied on reflex, standing and walking to the door.

But the door did not open when she pushed, her horn sputtering yellow sparks that scattered across her nose before winking out. A blue glow grabbed the door and opened it for her.

"Where would you like to go?" Luna asked her as she walked up to stand beside the old mare.

"I don't know," Prim sighed, a frightening admission to herself. "Anywhere but here."

Luna put a wing over Prim's back, and that fear faded just a little. She took a step out into the hallway, and immediately the two royal guards saluted her. Not Luna, who came after, but Prim.

Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes as she smiled, bowing slightly to the guards to acknowledge their respect, before she took another few steps. She did not know where she was going, really, but she knew that she was pointed towards something too bright, too lit up with candles and lanterns. So she turned about and led Luna through the halls to a narrow corridor, all dark and quiet, which she slipped into.

Soft music played in the distance, some party Luna hadn't bothered to go to, but Prim paused and sighed happily.

"Do they play for me?"

"Just for thee," Luna nodded, coming up behind her in the thin hallway.

Prim hummed along to the song as she resumed her walk, moving on until she came to a blind balcony. It was a common place for servants to go to rest, unseen by the courtyards below and by the towers or great hall windows. Two dim candles burned, lighting the warm night with the music drifting up to them above the distant drone of crickets and birdcall from the forest all around the tiny city.

"Come here, Compass. You will have to learn how to dance some day," Prim said with a proud and commanding tone, getting Luna to come over to her, mane billowing in the night air, generating a soft breeze around her. "I learned to dance from... I learned..."

Prim shook her head and smiled sadly. "It escapes me. Now, here, you face me, nose to nose, and... It was..."

Luna took the lead silently, without asking Prim, she walked through the circular stalking motion that she knew had been inspired by the mating rituals of the deer, a noble race nearly wiped out in Equestria by war, but whose culture still remained in subtle ways. Luna's mind went back to the one time she'd met their people, and how she'd interrupted a ritual of grieving for some urgent matter or another, something that now so long after did not even reserve a place in Luna's memory. But she remembered the look of serenity on the face of an elderly doe, and she suddenly desired for Prim to have that same peace in her last nights.

"Like this?" Luna asked Prim as she led her to rear up and rest against eachother.

"Y... Yes," Prim whispered in reply, closing her eyes and taking a moment to collect herself, her heart racing.

They swayed, Luna almost holding Prim up, wings spread so that Prim didn't have to support any weight at all. Prim slowly looked up at her, teary eyed and smiling just a little.

"Thou art not Compass. No matter what my mind tells me, thou art... Thou art somepony I love."

"Thou art most correct, Prim Rose, and somepony that loves thee," Luna replied, wrapping herself gently around Prim and pulling her into the air, cradling her oh so carefully.

Prim's soft gasp, a slow realization of what was happening, offered a thrilling feeling of accomplishment to Luna, as she took the elderly unicorn into the starry sky.

The courtyards and streets below them were cluttered full of ponies going about their night's business, but despite the chance of being seen, they felt private up above them all.

Luna knew that six of her guards were nearby, watching to ensure Luna's safety, but those guards were thestrals. They knew of Prim in a different light than the ponies. They knew of Luna's love for her, and they watched over the last flight of the lovers with respect.

"I've loved thee for so long, Prim," Luna whispered as they turned and kept rising above the castle.

"Tell me thy name again, please, my mind may not hold it but please..."

Luna's magic turned Prim's head up to take in the source of the silvery light that covered all of Equestria, and she sighed, smiling.

"Luna," Prim whispered as her mind felt just a little clearer. "Luna, thou art in love with me."

"And thee, in love with me," Luna nodded, before softly kissing Prim, enjoying the lingering and calm intimacy, the closeness that they had put off sharing for so very long.

Comments

[Skyfall_Blitz]

I'm not crying...nope...

[Patchwork Dreams]

I.. I'm not gonna lie, this hurt to read. But it's a good hurt. Cathartic, in a way. Amazing story, as always.