Rainbow Dash never really did understand the reason for the Summer sun celebration. Sure, it was the longest day of the year and all, and even she understood that ponies looked for just about any reason to celebrate, but still, it was just... dumb.
Too much fluff and random garbage, and not enough real reasons to do it.
Sure, the sun was up longer than normal. Woopty doo. Like it really mattered. Just another reason for ponies to go and celebrate things that didn't matter.
"Mom, why are we here, again?"
Dash's mother turned to the questioning filly and smiled the same smile she always did when Dash asked a stupid question. But for the life of her, Dash couldn't figure out what she said that was so stupid.
"Well, me and your father figured that you'd want to see the Princess. She's at every single one of these, after all."
Oh.
Oooooooh.
That changed everything, and at that realization, Rainbow finally let herself smile in excitement. Alright, never mind. Seeing the Princess was, like, the best reason to celebrate. Sure, it still made no sense for the whole "Sun is up longer" thing, but still, now she could see pony's reason as to why they showed up. At least to Canterlot.
As such, Rainbow Dash happily followed her mother through the crowds without a single complaint, pointedly ignoring her surroundings and the ponies around her as she worked through her own excitement. She would get to see the Princess. And not just a picture, but the actual Princess!
Why didn't they tell her this before? She would've complained, like, a whole lot less if she knew the Princess was gonna be here. If anything, she actually felt a bit guilty about it.
Oh well. She'd just have to clean up her room a bit when she got home without being asked. Never let it be said that she was completely thankless.
"Did you hear? I heard that this year's celebration was organized by the Princess' daughter!"
Rainbow couldn't help but tilt her head towards the talker with interest, all while making sure that she kept sight of her mother. She, along with all of equestria, had heard of this mythical, magical filly. And from the sounds of it, she was awesome.
Only eight years old, and already organizing whole festivals by herself. Sure, it was kinda what one expected from a princess, seeing as they were all supposed to be totally awesome beyond any normal pony could achieve, but it was still really impressive. Dash couldn't even organize her bedroom, let alone a royal festival. And she was nine!
"Yeah! I heard she was even gonna be introduced by her mother this year!"
Wow. Now Rainbow was totally glad that she gave into her mom's pestering, and resolved to clean her entire room. The Princess was infamously protective of her daughter, and because of that, nopony had ever seen her before. Well, supposedly. According to that one foal in her class, anyway.
He was pretty legit, though.
Dash now found herself wondering if she'd get a chance to talk with her. The filly had to be awesome, if her mother was the stinkin' Princess of equestria.
And she had so many questions. Like what the palace was like, or why they still had summer sun celebrations, when her mother was the princess of the moon.
Rainbow Dash found herself wondering if the young princess liked flying, too. The young filly had to be an alicorn like her mother. It'd be weird if she wasn't. Heck, and she was probably awesome at it too. Not as good as Dash was, but still, better than just about everyone else.
She could even be her... what was the word? Underwing?
That's it. She could be her underwing. In fact, Dash found herself resolved. She would make this little magic filly her underwing, come tartarus or high cloud-cover.
Hay, never mind waiting for the princess to introduce her, Dash was gonna find the filly right now. She couldn't just wait around, when her potential best friend was out there, being awesome on her own, and not being awesome with her!
She just had to get rid of her mom, first. She definitely wouldn't be happy about her sneaking off. Or where she was sneaking off to. Mom's were weird like that, never understanding the costs of doing what needed to be done.
"Dashie, come on! We don't want to miss the main announcement!"
Her mother's tone was excited, A.K.A her normal tone when they did stuff together, but Dash ignored her. So... where would a Princess be?
It took Rainbow a couple seconds, before she face-hoofed. Well, duh, she'd be somewhere regal and stuff. Probably the nicest tent, surrounded by the scariest looking guards.
Like that big dark blue one, in the distance. Surrounded by, well... the scary looking guards. The Bat pony ones that were supposedly the best of the guards, like ever, too, reserved only for the palace, the Princess, and the most dangerous of jobs.
Lunar knights. Of course, that was to be expected for the Princess; her guards would have to be the best, especially if she was bringing her daughter with her.
Easy as hay.
Rainbow Dash smiled to herself at the thought, and the instant her mother looked away, dove into the crowd. Being nine, and, well...tiny for her age worked in her advantage, as no one could easily see her through the crowd of hooves. It didn't take her long, crawling through the crowd and avoiding the occasionally careless step, and after a moment, she found herself staring at it from behind a nearby garbage can. Yep, this was definitely it.
But now she had to figure out how to get herself in the tent.
The young filly' mind immediately went to work. The tent had, like, a ton of guards, so flying in or just going through the front door wouldn't work. She'd have to be sneaky.
Super sneaky.
Maybe she could hide in a crate? No, that's how mom said ponies got foalnapped. Act like she was supposed to be there? Nah, that might work at her dad's job, but not on the Princess' personal guards. She'd probably get arrested for even trying.
Maybe she could go around the back, and try to just find another way in?
That would work. At least better than her other ideas.
As such, Rainbow snuck sneakily around the tent, weaving in and out of the crowd until she finally came to the back of the large, nay, massive tent.
"Now, uh, where can I sneak in?"
The question was a valid one, in Dash's opinion. It wasn't like there was an obvious backdoor, er, flap that Rainbow could enter. Nor was there a window or anything like that, either.
The rainbow maned filly sighed at the realization, and shook her head. Why did she think she could just sneak in? These were the Princess' best guards. They wouldn't be the best if a filly could just sneak in and-
Oh, Wait. She could just go under the tent wall. It wasn't even part of the ground.
Rainbow couldn't help but smirk to herself, and quickly shot over to the nearby wall, and lifting it as high as she could. It was awfully well staked down, however, and Rainbow Dash barely managed to lift it up enough to scoot under, using her head to hold up the flap. Sure, it meant that she had to go in backwards, but that was the price she had to pay.
But, once she managed to get about 3/4ths of the way, she hit a snag. The rest of the tent flap pulled down, and her head got stuck before she could properly pull it out, pulling her head down to the dirt, and covering her eyes.
Great.
"Oh... Uh, Hello?"
Dash froze at the words, her head still stuck on the outside of the tent. She was so dead, caught sneaking into the Princess' tent. She would be drawn and quartered, keel hauled, lashed with a reed and all of the other scary sounding punishments she heard of in history class. She'd probably even get kitchen duty!
""Please don't arrest me!" The blue filly suddenly felt exposed. Her fanny was stuck out, defenseless, with her head still caught under the tent flap. Whoever had caught her would probably give her a swat to the flank like her mother did whenever she had got caught doing something bad.
She couldn't have screwed this up more. Not only did she get caught, but she got caught with her flank literally hung out to dry.
"Oh, Uh... Don't worry, I won't."
And, like that, Dash's fears were gone, and her normal attitude returned. Well, if she wasn't gonna get in trouble... "Oh! Great! So, uh, could you help me... ya know, get unstuck?"
There was a sudden bright purple light, and the pressure from the tent wall lessened on the stuck filly's head as it was pulled up from over her head. "Ah yeah! Thank ya, uh-"
Rainbow Dash turned around, about to give her savior a proper thanks, but froze immediately when saw her. A small purple alicorn. Now, Dash never claimed to be an egghead, but she wasn't dumb enough to misunderstand what that meant.
"Oh, wow! Are you the Princess' daughter?"
The tiny Alicorn seemed a little shocked at Dash's forward question, but never got the chance to answer as Dash rushed forward to look the tiny Alicorn over. She had good, strong looking wings, expertly preened, and a nice, long horn that was probably super powerful to boot. But, while those two bits looked normal, nay, almost impressive, the rest of her seemed... mismatched, her body and legs looking a tad scrawny. In fact, she almost looked like Fluttershy for how skinny she was. And her mane. Dash never really put much stock, alright, she put no stock into how one did their mane. But the Princess had a hairstyle that looked like it had been cut by a slide-ruler. Boring, practical, and low maintenance.
She looked like... well, a scrawny egghead. The thought surprised her for a bit, her mental idea of a strong, brave Princess dying rapidly.
The Princess was a nerd.
Dash rolled that fact around her head for a moment, before sighing. Ah well, not even a Princess could be perfect right off the bat.
Besides, it wouldn't do for the Princess to be totally cooler than her right off said bat. What would she even teach her?
It was at this time that the small scrawny princess managed to recover from her surprise, and answered Dash's question. "Well, Yea- Er, wait, that's not right. *Ahem* Yes, I am the Princess' first born, Twilight Sparkle. It is a pleasure to meet you."
The purple filly then made a small bow, and dipped her head low. "May I ask... Ummm... Why you're in my tent?"
Dash just gave the filly a smile. It was a legitimate question. But Rainbow Dash was here to blow her nerdy little mind.
"I'm here to claim you as my underwing!"
The young and very purple Princess sat still for a moment, as if trying to understand the statement, before her expression morphed into one of understanding. And, once she seemed to get over it, she jumped up, and punched a small hoof in the air before doing a small little dance. It was awkward, clumsy, and frankly, downright adorable.
"Ha! I told mom that the stories were real!"
Alright, that was a new one. She understood the happy bit; after all, she was Rainbow Dash, and she was offering to be best friends. But that other part...
"Uh... Stories?"
The tiny alicorn just continued grinning, before doing a small butt wiggle. "You know? The stories where a Prince would fly in, and whisk the Princess away!"
At that, the blue mini-Pegasus froze. She hadn't thought of that. Was that what she was supposed to do? Just... take the young Princess away?
Heck, she didn't know any stories, besides one about a pegasus soldier beating a dragon. She didn't even know what the Princess was talking about. Was there some sort of way this was supposed to be done? Was the whisking required, or heavily suggested?
And where would she even whisk her away too? Her house? Sure, her mom might not have a big problem with it, but her dad was a member of the Cloudsdale guard. He definitely wouldn't be happy if he found that she had brought a Princess home. Especially if she didn't ask said Princess' mom first.
Or did she mean whisk, as in the cooking thingie?
Was she supposed to cook for her?
She had to figure this out. She couldn't just go into this without knowing what was required.
What if she needed bits? Or had to slay a dragon? She couldn't slay a dragon, even with how awesome she was! She'd need at least a few months before she got to that level of awesome!
"Umm... huh?"
The tiny Princess stopped dancing in place at her questioning tone, and looked at her in irritation before looking her over in return. But, unlike Dash, she only took a second before seeming to make up her mind.
"So, I don't mean to sound... choosey, but I kinda expected a colt."
Oh, so that's how it is. She wanted a colt best friend.
Dash felt her chest swell in indignation for a moment before she scowled. Well, too bad. She wanted a colt? Now she was stuck with Rainbow Dash, and they were gonna be besties forever. She didn't even have a say in it anymore, Princesshood or not.
"Nope! You're stuck with me, Twilight Sparkle."