Earth. What a beautiful place. The skies are palettes of blue and white, the calm colors resonating throughout the entire world. Even the occasional precipitation allows Earth to rejuvenate and restore natural order. Wide pools of water fill nearly two-thirds of the world, encasing the land they live on, providing habitats for aquatic creatures to wander around. On land, tall and majestic tress called forests fill nearly half the space, with high peaks and low valleys filling one-fourth of its land mass. The remaining one-fourth of it bursts with rich and vibrant energy; ponies are seen gathering in tiny living quarters they call 'home'.
At least they like their home. Sigh.
In the past, with an invisible spell, I've gone sneaking inside some homes, curious about what happens in their daily lives. A typical home consisted of a mare, a stallion and some tiny little foals. Why they had decided to squeeze inside a home the size of my room still puzzled me. Despite the small space, they seemed to love the company they gave each other. Every night, they would retire back in their rooms, sleeping right next to each other, holding each others back and hugging themselves to sleep under a warm, comfy blanket. It felt like something I would enjoy, but as a Princess, I'd never had the chance to experience it. I wonder how it would be like to have somepony sleeping beside me.
I've heard of this term before. Love.
But what is love? I've been told that when two ponies love each other, they live together in the same house and have foals. But how do you experience love? Over the years, I've always read about the same thing happening throughout history, but I've never quite understood what love was. I even asked Celly what love was, and all she can do was to reply “Love is a feeling that when you would put all your efforts into, and make sure it runs well, just like our castle. I take care of it with all my heart, so you can say I love the castle.” Her answer didn't help me at all.
My thoughts of a nice, comfy 'home' eluded me from the present situation at hand: Discord had to be resealed. Sure, it was what I needed to do- no, must do, in order for the world to stay away from calamity, but I had a nagging feeling Celly was up to something no good. Nevertheless, with my driver that pulled the carriage, as well as the two escorts that flew side by side in front of the carriage, the four of us rode from our 'home' and approached Earth at a terrible snail's pace. The journey seemed forever, and I was getting sleepier. Yawn, I'm tired. Time to take another nap.
I then proceeded to lie down on my warm, cosy seat, my carriage slowly dragging me towards our destination. I loved my carriage: It's a place where I could really feel comfortable and relaxed at without fear of any trouble arising.
It's also a place where Celly couldn't touch me.
Painted in light pink, the same colour as my hide, my carriage was designed to not only make me feel comfortable in it, but function well. The two doors on my left and right were decorated with big, uncut, shiny jewels that I found on Earth whenever I had to be down here. The frames, spokes and axles were made out of enchanted gold, making them unable to take a scratch or break. The wheels were also enchanted with magic, disallowing them to ever tear or break. At the front, the chains my driver pull were all enchanted so that they wouldn't feel a thing when they pulled the carriage. Basically, my the whole carriage was enchanted.
Other then that, it included custom modifications, like Sylph, that I personally, but sneakily, implemented. Modifying the carriage was disallowed for various safety reasons, so Celly would have flipped a table over if she knew about it, which she wouldn't. All my modifications were internal, so only an experienced mechanic would be able to figure out what I placed inside. As far as I knew, Celly was the opposite of a rough, rugged mechanic, so for now, I was confident about it.
On my left laid two levers. The first one would activate a pedestal that would pop up in front of me, revealing a bowl of fruit, a cup of iced water and a small fan designed to keep me cooled for hotter climates I sometimes had to go visit. The second one would remove the hood of my carriage, allowing me to have a clear view of everything that was around me. The two levers were originally designed to open my left and right doors, but since when was it hard to open doors? Using a bit of magic, as well as a bit of luck, I managed to de-circuit the wires, 'borrow' a pedestal from the castle, and unscrew the hoods of my carriage, before reattaching the wires to the pedestal and the hood. Then I hid all the wires and made it look like nothing had been changed.
“Are we there yet?” I moaned, my patience slowly deteriorating away from me. I was getting way too impatient. There were other things I want to do back at the castle, like sleep. Nothing could beat the soft, warm, comfort of my own bed. Come on, come on, come on, get there faster so we can finish this fast and go back to sleep.
“Not yet Princess. Just another few more hours left and we'll land.”
"Buck." I hope no one heard me when I cursed silently under my breath. Few more hours? I didn't like the sound of that.
With an exasperated cry, I flung myself back onto my seat, and closed my eyes. There was no way I was staying awake for the rest of my journey. A few more hours?
No. I am going to sleep on my second best bed: my carriage.
“Urgh, wake me up when we reach there!” I cried out to the guards as I shut my eyelids.
Might it be will, but I dozed off within matter of seconds. My carriage seemed too nostalgic at that moment, reminding me of a 'home' I once dreamed of. In that dream, a stallion of white and I were lying on top of the same bed. We were facing each other, giggling like little foals as our eyes locked onto one another, our hooves wrapped around each others back. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but it sounded happy. I felt happy in that dream too, because when I woke up, my face was unusually flustered with a bright shade of red, and my heart started beating faster and faster. It was a sense of excitement I've never felt in my life, not even when I pulled a prank on Celly.
I wanted to go back so badly into that dream, and figure out what he said. Maybe it was of great relevance to the puzzling idea of love.