hollyverse 26. Whispers could deafen me now

high in the halls of the kings who are gone
jenny would dance with her ghosts…
the ones she’d lost and she ones she’d found
and the one who had loved her the most

The last days of Princess Luna, so called by her people in olden times, gentle ruler of the evening and lady of the stars, were sad and lonely ones. All over the country, the dust stirred by the War for the Crystal Empire began to settle, and as the period of mourning ran its course, life in Equestria returned to its calm normalcy. Tasteful touches of color returned to the dresses worn by highborn ponies at court, and cheerful songs of hope and love and praise to the sol aeterna soon returned to grace Everfree Capital and neighborhooding towns.

And all around the Palace of Starsgrace and its villages however, a mantle of somber mourning settled like an overcast sky. Her anger spent, the Dreamwalker had no choice but to confront her grief, and so it was that ten lifetimes worth of sorrow overcame the immortal ruler, pressing its weight upon her feeble shoulders. The Alicorn of Night was attended at all times by a small army of maidservants, chefs, queensguards, dressmakers, singers, poets and whatever small role there was to play at a royal palace; the batponies would come in and out of Starsgrace like restless bees do their hive, endlessly fretting over their queen. They would do their best to console her, but Luna would rain down on them like a waterfall of tears, and her children could not help but soak in her waters. The Goddess’ grief was palpable, thick and heavy in the air, and the batpony colony wept to see their Mother a victim of heartbreak. Acting as one, they seemed unsure of what to do; one day cleaners would throw open every window, to let the bright moonlight rush in and bathe the royal chambers in its revitalizing, silvery glow… And another they would bow their heads and give in to Luna’s sadness, letting the castle grow dark and stuffy, as batponies of all ages and ranks cried as one, wailing their woes and tearing their garments.

Luna was inconsolable. Be it empathetic company or stubborn cheerfulness, nothing seemed to draw the young queen out of her pit of sadness. She would walk the halls of Starsgrace like a ghost through the midnight mists, looking over her lands through eyes rimmed with red, and during the day she retreated to the slender Altalune tower, to shield herself from the Sun’s garish light. The dusky Alicorn had taken a dislike to her sisters’ light, and so even as she refused to sleep, the thick courtains were to remain closed for as long as Celestia’s heavenly beacon illuminated the heavens.

During this time, Queen Luna would eat little and dream less…but she would sing. By the water gardens and the marble statues, the small plaza where the Sisters once held court; halls and keeps and kitchens, yards and chambers did the goddess stir with her voice, soft and mournful. She’d sing of bygone eras, of her stolen youth and what little she remembered of her first life too, of the good times she’d shared with her sister once and victorious battles fought long ago…and she’d sing of her lover most of all, the Princess Amore.

During no other time in history ever or since has either of the Sisters ever produced so much art. Celestia would occasionally dabble in wood carving and sculpting, but it was Luna who was truly passionate about the muses’ gifts. Her children of the night would gather around her to lay down their weary heads and weep as Her Majesty recited soft-spoken poems on the vanishing of the Light and the deaths of kings, of lost loves and forgotten names. A famous batpony would-be writer who was present for this period would write in his diary that, as Princess Amore’s shards had scattered like so many ashes in the breeze, Queen Luna sang her grief and love to the four winds in hopes of her voice reaching her beloved, wherever she had gone.

Many of such songs, poems and hymns as Queen Luna produced through her time of mourning are lost to this day. Some claim Queen Celestia deemed them too personal, others that they filled her with too much regret and pain after the Banishment. Others theorize that it was Solar loyalists who censored Luna’s touching writings after the War of Sun and Moon, to prevent future generations from empathizing with the feral, vile creature of nightmare and shadow history knew the dark Alicorn as. And yet some survived through the years, the final legacy of the Crystal Knight and her Dark Lady, and the tragedy that followed.

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the last days of princess luna as we’ve known her, spent in mourning for everything and everyone she’s lost. i hoped to make his picture soft with almost dreamlike blurriness, to add to the Vibe