“I had never had cheese before,” Prim said softly from her bed.
Princess Luna smiled just a little and set the journal down for a moment as she looked up to Prim.
“Wine was new to thee as well, but it seems thee preferred cheese.”
“Oh, I could not be off drinking. I needed to take care of thee!” Prim laughed breathily.
“Not all the time,” Luna protested playfully. “I am quite the responsible mare I think.”
Prim smiled, but she didn’t reply, her gaze distant.
Luna moved a little closer, and touched Prim’s cheek with her hoof. The elderly unicorn refocused her gaze on Luna and sighed.
“I’m so sorry.”
“No time for that,” Princess Luna said as gently as she could, her voice catching in her throat. “No time for regret, little Rose.”
Prim sniffled and closed her eyes as she leaned against Luna’s hoof.
“I should have left. Thou wouldst have been so much happier for it.”
“No, I would have been a lesser mare for it,” Luna said firmly.
They were quiet for a moment, but eventually Prim Rose looked up at Princess Luna, pleading.
“Princess… May thee help me recall? From the beginning?”
Princess Luna smiled and nodded, as she reopened the journal to the page she had stopped on.
“As the sun rose low on the horizon, and my first meeting with HRH Princess Celestia drew near, I approached the Wilds bathhouse in the futile hope that it would afford me some dignity and privacy while accomplishing its purported goals.”
Really enjoying this story so far keep it up <3
8379985
Thank you very very much! I've actually already got 17 chapters written, I want to edit them for matching style of speech, but I'm going to be updating once every other day until I run out of pre-prepared chapters.
I see you've turned game of thrones down a bit (at least for now). Real pleasure to read nevertheless --- it has the same recognizable charm. Little details telling about world's political/economical system (like the lack of earth ponies among candidates, mention of recent annexation, Prim Rose's walk around the city) are very nice addition.
I should have probably mentioned this earlier, but naming story after Prim Rose seems a bit confusing for guys who don't already know who she is from previous story.
8380630
Yeah, Prim Rose isn't recognizable, but I wanted to clearly make the story about her rather than focus on Luna. I thought about naming this story Redemption in Moonlight like the previous story, but I felt there was a risk of readers being disappointed in finding that the story did not feature Luna as the main character.
I did vastly retone the style of the story after the last one. Despite enjoying writing big dramatic scenes, the last story fell flat largely because I was playing at drama without the history that makes the drama have impact. This story is going to ratchet up the emotional impact dramatically, while paying a little less attention to chewing on the setting.
Thanks for your comment! I'm looking forward to continuing this story for quite a while. I'm writing the rough draft for chapter 18 now, after bawling my eyes out reading chapter 17 out loud to my wife. Definitely a story I'm proud of.