Celestia always ate lunch at the same place. The bleachers by the field. It wasn't terribly comfortable, and no one else was there, but it was the only place she could watch the pegasi's flight practice.
Flight entranced her, probably because it was unattainable for her. She was a unicorn. One of the most outstanding unicorns in her class, but still just a unicorn. What she had always wanted to do was fly, so she watched the flight practices religiously. After so much time, she had memorized the team and their skills, which, in those days before cutie marks, was no small accomplishment.
Still, even in the face of all this knowledge, the one pegasus that always caught her eye was the blue one. Dark blue, like the night sky. She found out from a friend that her name was Luna, and that, like her, she was quickly distinguishing herself as one of the school's top flyers.
They were currently practicing a routine for one of the games. Celestia was never, as the other ponies were, impressed by raw displays of speed, and thus was always unimpressed by the beginning of this one. It mainly consisted of them flying around the field in circles until they became a blur. But then the good part came. They would start flying amongst each other in complicated shapes, forming a beautiful mass of bright colors. She always waited for this part. It was awe-inspiring. But also terribly difficult, and once again someone flew off course, violently knocking every member of the team to the ground in the process.
"This is too hard!" someone yelled, nursing their bruises. "We should do something simpler! And cooler!"
"Like what?" Luna said with the venom of someone who had gratuitously crashed for the 20th time that day.
"Like flying down from the stratosphere and breaking the sound barrier!"
"If you want to disintegrate yourself and a good portion of the field on reentry, be my guest," the coach said. "Now let's take 10 and try that again!"
The team begrudgingly scattered, knowing all they had to look forward to was more inevitable pain. Only Luna and a couple other pegasi remained. Celestia felt suddenly vulnerable now that almost everyone had left, and tried to nonchalantly eat her sandwich.
"Hey," Luna's teammate said, "look up there." She looked up to the bleachers.
Celestia shrank back.
"What's up with her? She's been watching us every day. It creeps me out."
The other teammate laughed. "Watch. I bet she has a crush on one of us. Just like that girl last year."
"What?" Luna said. "But we're an all girl team."
"And?" The teammate stared at her. "Don't tell me you're that naïve."
Luna blushed. "T-That's ridiculous. And wrong."
"How do you know?"
Luna didn't want to admit why. She had, like them, noticed the unicorn, but once, she looked back. Her eyes were wide with envy, not lust. But she knew her teammates would never believe her, so she lied. "I know her. She's just here to watch me."
"If you say so," the teammate said. The rest of the team started coming back, and everyone did stretches and mentally braced themselves for the next attempt.
– – – –
Later that day, Celestia saw Luna outside of class and approached her.
"Thanks," Celestia said. "I heard everything."
"Oh," Luna said. She sheepishly scratched her head. "It was nothing."
Celestia fidgeted. "Do you think you would mind… actually becoming friends?"
Luna gaped. She didn't want this to get out of hand, but she wasn't quite sure what to do either. "I'll think about it," she stammered, and quickly flew off.
Celestia expected as much. Luna was her idol, after all. How could she ever really get close to her?
It wasn't possible… right?
– – – –
As usual, the team just barely managed to perfect the routine the day before the game, and after that they started practicing less and less. After all, the jousting season was ending soon, and after that the flight team would hardly be needed for anything. Celestia knew she would eventually have to find something else to do during lunch, but decided to put that thought off and continue eating. Even though the field was almost completely empty, she had nowhere better to go.
She heard some footsteps behind her, and turned to look.
"Hello?"
Celestia's eyes widened.
"Hi," Luna said. She sat next to Celestia. "Don't you have any friends eat lunch with?
"Some," Celestia said, "but I prefer watching the flight practice."
"What on earth is so exciting about it?" Luna said. "We must've crashed like, 70 times."
"56," Celestia corrected, then gained some fervor. "But watching the process is the fascinating part! When it's finished it doesn't seem real. It's so rehearsed and perfect that it really doesn't capture the essence of flying." She paused, looking embarrassed. "I'm rambling."
"No, it's okay," Luna said. She tried to break the awkward silence. "But isn't magic fascinating? I mean, you can lift things with your mind."
"Not really," Celestia said. "When you're a unicorn it's so normal. Most of the time you just use it to grab things." She looked down. "These days, the only thing that keeps me interested in it is the possibility I could use it to fly."
Luna looked up, then down at Celestia. "You don't need magic to fly."
"What?"
Luna grabbed Celestia. "Don't be scared," she said, then started flying upwards at horrific speeds. Celestia didn't have the guts to look down. They quickly burst through the clouds, giving Celestia a good look at the city. On the ground it seemed huge, but in the air it dwarfed in comparison to the the the rolling fields and mountains that surrounded it. Luna rocketed towards one of the mountains, prompting Celestia to hold on tighter for dear life. From a distance it was impossible to tell, but this particular mountain was covered in forest, and Luna flew low to the trees. Celestia was struck by the beauty of it all, but she kept getting distracted. Her mind kept wandering back to a class she had years earlier. She kept thinking back to something about altitude changes, but she couldn't figure out why.
Then she realized her ears were constantly popping, she had a splitting headache, and was extremely short of breath. Suddenly she remembered that pegasi, because of their frequent flying, had biological defenses against altitude sickness. They could fly up and down to their heart's content without any ill effects, but anyone else had to take precautions to avoid becoming sick, like casting a altitude sickness prevention spell on yourself. Something that, in the heat of the moment, Celestia forgot to do and was dearly regretting.
The panic of realizing this did not help, and Celestia could feel herself becoming nauseous and losing consciousness. She tried to say something, but vomit caught in her throat and she just ended up coughing. She ended up having to hit Luna lightly before she noticed anything.
At first, Luna looked down confused. Then the realization dawned on her and she became panicked. She looked back and forth, wondering whether to land here or go back to school. Eventually she decided the school.
"Close your eyes," Luna said. "We'll be back on ground before you know it."
Celestia obliged. She could feel strong gusts of wind as Luna flew as fast as she could back to the school. Celestia realized this was her actual speed, and before, even when it appeared she was going at supersonic speeds, she was holding back significantly for Celestia's sake.
Finally, they stopped. Celestia expected the nausea to go away instantly, but it didn't, and if anything she felt sicker. She could feel Luna awkwardly shifting.
"We're here," she said. "You can let go now."
Celestia opened her eyes. She looked up to Luna, her eyes half closed, staring at her for an inordinate amount of time. Luna couldn't quite tell if she was staring at her or just into space. Then Luna remembered what her teammates said. Was she—?
Then Celestia swallowed and leaned in closer. This prompted Luna to take decisive action and quickly set a startled Celestia down.
"Look, I-I need to say, I don't," she said, blushing, "you know."
"Oh, no, I wasn't!" Celestia stammered, leaning against a railing. "I was… just about to hork, honestly, until you scared it right out of me."
"Okay. Yeah," Luna said. She looked incredibly embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I didn't even think… and then I just assumed…"
"It's okay," Celestia said with a twinge of guilt.
They stared at each other for a bit.
"We should hang out more often," Luna said.
Celestia's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Yeah. I don't have much to do during lunch."
"Don't you have, like, tons of friends?"
"Mostly teammates. Bunch of meatheads. I could use some better company." Luna smiled. "So what do you say?"
"Yeah!"
And that was the start of a beautiful friendship.
At least until they were both drugged and kidnapped on the way home.