Just Weep

by Ice Star

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Luna, Drama
Length: 1119

[Poetry] Celestia wakes up in the dark.

Celestia wakes up in the dark.

The first poem previously appeared as a chapter of Missing Pages & Scrawled Footnotes. This story is a stand-alone connection and the prequel is not required reading. Contribute to the TVTropes page!

Published 2024-04-04 22:30:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-04-04 22:30:00 UTC

The Sky Falls Apart

Every night—
the sky falls apart
Every day—
the world starts
to fray
How will you comfort her
now that they have gone away?

Yet—
every time you reach out
a single forehoof to
gently touch
your only companion
it is your hoof that
needs to be
held—
your eyes that duck
from the sight of distant galaxies
and your smile
that is for another
not hers

Something Did This

You do not know—
how to be homesick for a place
with no parents waiting there
The whole world yawns—
no creatures are falling out
to greet you
anywhere

Every cycle of the heavens
on a planet that your parents used to tilt
is now a time for sleeping
and waking
wondering—

Will any but her ever be there?

You used to have a family beyond the limits
of one enchanted forest
in a kingdom belonging to four
and an empire
with aunts, uncles, cousins, and
others of your race—
All before it became one neglected garden
crying out with
naught but winds and silence—

Something did this—

Something
far away
from here
ripped every town
citadel
wandering soul
and talking creatures away
leaving only two fillies
and a promise
to not disappear

Hollering, Emptiness

Hollering, emptiness
must have gobbled up all of the skies' cities
unpaved all of the roads
snapped up all of the
solitary magic folk
leaving not even a cloak
or scroll to testify that
they too had been here

Long ago before
all of the roads turned to
dust
and hinterlands stretching
into forever—
You could hear something louder
than rain like chatter that birds
could not fly through
and
all of the things that made
your little sister
cover her ears and
retreat
to the very edges of
the real world that you recall
back before everything became
thick with
something so vast and lonely
that no amount of you
standing at the highest peak
letting out all of the screams
and tears you must always hide
could ever replace the sound of winds
over empty praries—
or canyons so full of lonely thoughts
and the sound of
two fillies laughing against forests—

Your heart could not
move mountains
no matter how much
hollering
you unloaded at the
emptiness

Just Weep

Like clockwork—
awaken,
rise from the dirt, fallen star—
alone in the sky that is your world
except for one
brush the vibrant pink veil aside
so you might see her
lying there,
form softened with slumber
white hooves— caked with the world's broken flesh
hide your coveted status
reel within,
at what you've become, sleeping no longer
in the dirt
reach out for your blue companion
and wake her as well
she is not as scared as you
smile upon her, and bestow this light in the dark that you fear
her face is smudged with the dust that cakes her quilts
little child, as bright and alone as ever,
she reaches into the bags next to her—
pulling a brush from the tattered brown fabric,
buckle dull with mud
you do not tell her your fear
little voices whispering in the depths of you,
you smile shakily, having yet to master
perfect composure
and in the dark you count the strokes the brush makes in pale blue
that always finds a way to shine true
unlike, little child — princess no longer — unlike you
you build your mask with care with whatever you can gather
from the world that you feel is hollow
of all but dirt
your smile is as dazzling as the sun that hides the night that you alone fear
and upon your head, as if marking your troubled mind
is dirt caked in the shape of the sun
little child, unmarked and forsaken
lie no longer to yourself
just weep

Author's Note

Originally published on September 28th, 2016.

Shadowing

She looks at the long shadows—
sees how they skip with her
and says she made a friend

You look only for another—
one whose eyes would
reflect yours
in order to claim the same
to mark the journey's end

Two Stargazers

All the stars
you cannot stand
to see
are truly
worlds away
that—
you have yet
you do not want
to know
and you might just deny
even as you see
the way her eyes
light up like they have
her own whole sky—

She is the one who
manages to get
brighter in the dark
and still treasure
that
which you fear
for itself
as though
it could be
something—

more

You—
who will
never
find the way
to tell her
how much
that part of her being
makes you feel
unraveled

Most Wishes are Quiet Now

You wish
on shooting stars
mostly because
she points them out first
as Luna always has

You do it
this wishing together
because she has asked
you to
she has to remind you
now
and does not
realize it

But when you try
and make your wishes
it is always done with
more silence than usual
and lately
you have had a hard time
making any wishes
for yourself
or something greater—

So you make every single
one
all about your sister
and it still gets
harder each time
or so
you think

Washing Up

You could lay at the bottom of a meadow
forever
trying to recreate every city
and estate that burdened the clouds
from the time before
you had to fetch your own food
and the wilds became your kitchen

Or you could let out the tears
that sit in an overwhelming lump
waiting at the back of your throat
to pounce and choke you
breaking the cheer
that you so carefully assemble
and smear—
on your face the way
you used to wear
mother's makeup—
after you wash your face off
in a clear brook
each morning you have stayed here
searching

Often
you swallow it
somehow
that only makes
it grow
and your chest
feel tight
for a little while
longer
than you think it should

But imagining is what
Luna fills her head with
not you
not now
not sooner
nor later

And Celestia Wept

Luna and you
both wash up alone
and always
stray from each other
to use the bathroom
as is sensible

Whenever she leaves
you often manage
to find a few
tears leaking
out of
where you lock them up
and you force yourself to
stop

You are not
always sure
who or what you may
be crying for

Only
that every time
you
just weep—

Your body usurps
your head
and
traitorous heart
telling you that
it was
never enough