Celestia found herself plodding through an empty Solar Hall, gazing around at the windows gleaming with the morning sunlight and the air filled with a perfect tinge of heat radiating from the sun, and the painted walls around every corner - blue with a golden line cutting through the middle with a much paler blue just below the line - were brightened by the rays sent off by the gleams in the windows.
She looked up at the ceiling, the image of the sun painted in gold completely dominating the entire, large space above.
The morning was near perfect, as if the day was blind to the looming threat of the alicorn and his minions, as well as the early soon-to-be arrival of her little sister.
I hope the magic barrier will hold those creatures off. Maybe they won’t be able to break through it and just give up.
She sighed and passed into a Mid-Day Room, which was the combination of night and day that opened to the Lunar half of the castle.
She was near the library.
The Mid-Day Room was a similar design to the previous corridor, with a thin golden line splitting through the middle of the wall and a plain dark blue painted just above, and a pale - almost cotton-candy like - shade of blue below.
The shades gradually dimmed into a dark, navy color as Celestia neared the end of the room, with the golden line reduced to gray which was patterned with stars, and just above the line was the midnight blue, and a dark violet-purple color residing on the opposite.
Then something caught her eye. Just in-between the representation of night and day, where the two intersected in a blurred color that began to shade from a bright blue to a darker, was where two symbols made their home.
A golden sun, just like the one on the ceiling in the former room, and a half-moon just below it. As Celestia closed toward the exit of the room, she kept her eyes locked on the two symbols - which was obviously dangerous considering she could bump into something while not paying attention to where she was headed, but she was far too interested to care - and felt that they had something to do with her and her little sister.
Maybe they were what the sun and the moon represented.
Finally, Celestia entered the hallway that retained the library, and was the prior to the room where Celestia had watched Starswirl practice his spell.
Somehow it felt like that important little moment in her life had happened a long time ago.
The interest in the scenery of the rooms around her having disappeared, Celestia picked up the pace and bolted half-way across the hall into the library and skidded to a halt, searching around for Starswirl and Skim Branbury, the librarian.
“Swirlie?”
She called out, immediately relishing the use of the nickname she’d only just come up with three seconds ago.
“Swirlie and Skim? Where are you?”
Her heart skipped a beat when she heard a reply.
“Would you not call me ‘Swirlie’?”
She sighed in relief at the familiar, irritated voice of her friend. She followed the direction it had come from into the corner of the ‘Fiction B15’ section, just behind a large section of teen fiction books.
She found Starswirl sitting with his arms crossed and his face twisted in a pout next to Skim Branbury, who was reassuringly patting his pale blonde mane with a dull orchid-colored hoof, her friendly smile wrinkled with age.
She was a simple earth-pony with fraying, white hair and pale, beige-colored eyes. Celestia figured she had been very pretty as a younger pony. For a moment she glanced at the kind old librarian’s cutie mark - a pale blue heart with the same-colored flame atop of it, with two wisps of flame rising above it, and a sheet-white book in the middle of the heart, another pink heart on its cover.
Celestia craned her neck to look back at her own flank, never really having payed attention to the blankness of it before. For a moment she felt a tinge of jealousy, but then reminded herself that the day she discovered her destiny was only another hoof-step closer to the day she’d take her mother’s place on the throne.
I still have a while yet, Celestia reassured herself, I want her to be around as long as possible.
“Cellie, dear,”
The librarian murmured, breaking Celestia out of her thoughts. Starswirl let out a quiet snort and muttered, “Who’s got the stupid nickname now?”
As Skim sternly glared at him for a moment, Celestia only blinked, unaffected, and met the gaze of the librarian who continued in a lilting voice,
“Not to be rude, but - why are you here? I would assume your parents would want you with them during …. such a time as this.”
A small smile broke upon Celestia’s face, the kindness of the old mare's tone proving to have a contagious effect. “Well, I guess they didn’t want me to watch Vibrant giving birth while she was in so much pain, so they told me to join you here,” Celestia shrugged and added, “I don’t know what the big deal is.”
A vaguely concerned look flashed on Skim’s face before being replaced with gentle amusement.
“Oh… I don’t think you’d want to see that,” She breathed.
Celestia pursed her lips and furrowed her brows, mimicking her mother’s indignant expression.
“But I’m excited to see my sister,” She huffed, “I don’t get why-”
“That’s enough of that now, deary,” Skim cut in, her eyes glinting with affection, “why don’t you come over here and sit by Starswirl while I read this….” She squinted and held the book closely to her face then continued, “‘The Flowerydale’s Expense’... Ah, yes. Where did we leave off, Starswirl?”
Starswirl’s eyes were still narrowed grumpily. He turned to look at Skim and growled, “We had just finished the first sentence,” Then added quietly, “Somehow.”
Celestia plodded over by her friend’s side and flopped onto the floor and booped his nose.
“Be nice,” Celestia said.
“No, no, it’s quite alright,” the librarian murmured, her eyes warm, “It's true, I tend to doze off when I read... besides, I’ve gotten used to this little one. He’s really grown on me.”
Celestia tipped her head to one side and smiled at Skim.
“Thanks again for looking after him while his dad’s out with the other soldiers.”
Skim nodded with understanding and replied, “It really is no problem.”
Celestia wrapped a hoof around Starswirl’s shoulders, grateful for the gift of the librarian’s warmth toward Starswirl. Celestia knew very well that with her own family occupied, Skim was the only one who would be willing to look after her friend.
For a moment she felt within her a flash of irritation.
I wish ponies could see past the fact that his mother married a soldier. Starswirl is probably going to be one of the greatest ponies that ever lived; just watch.