Expectations
When Luna arrived at Canterlot Castle it was almost midday, it was way past her usual bedtime, but she wasn´t particularly tired, as she had gotten a nap in the woods. The night princess was getting hungry, as she had missed dinner/breakfast (depending on who you ask.) So instead of going straight to bed, she headed for the kitchen.
As the night princess was walking down the long hallways, she started thinking.
Celestia would be in the throne room now, holding court. A time where everypony in Equestria, regardless of wealth or social standing, could voice their trouble to the ´ruler of the day´. Opposite of Luna´s night-court sessions, that – just like a thousand years ago - had had zero attendance, the day-court was always full of visitors, from all over Equestria. Then again the ponies had never liked her, why would they start now?
The worst thing was the mask she had to wear in front of her sister. She could not let her elder sister see her frustration. The last thing she needed was for Celestia to hover over her. Any undue attention would just make her plan more difficult. Every time she forced a smile she thought “This is only temporary, I shall be rid of her soon enough.”
The night princess knew that soon, might be rather optimistic word. Gathering the necessary books on dark magic, was taking longer than expected. It wasn´t easy to sneak such delicate material out of the hight security department, of the royal library, without anypony noticing.
With the speed of her progress, it could easily take a few more years, before she was ready. She would just have to keep the I-am-so-happy-to-be-back-and-I-don´t-mind-that-nopony-likes-my-nights mask on, until then.
While she had been lost in thought, her legs had carried her all the way to the private royal dinning hall, here her and Celestia ate their meals in peace from all the obnoxious nobleponies. In a thousand years, there was one thing that hadn´t changed, the snooty Canterlot elite was still a massive pain in the ass.
Luna used her hoof to push open the large oak door, and entered the dinning hall. It was a fairly large room with a long table in the middle. At opposite ends of the table were two large chairs, one was white and trimmed with gold and the other was a deep purple with silver trim. The tablecloth was a bright white, at the eastern end of the room was a huge glass mosaics depicting the sun, in the form of Celestia´s cutiemark. The coloured window cast a soft yellow light over the room.
The dining room was generally decorated in white and gold, Celestias trademark colours. The architect who had designed the room, had designed a spell that made the décore change according to the movement of the sun and moon. When the moon was up, the colour theme would change from white and gold, to various shades of purple, blue and silver.
After seeing how well it worked, the spell had then been cast over the entire castle. It was quite an impressive sight, to see the interior change so drastically in mere seconds.
At the sound of the princess´ hoofsteps a waiter appeared from the kitchen. The earthpony mare walked to the chair were Luna was now seated, and asked for her order.
Luna ordered her usual salad. The alicorn ate her salad enjoying the silence, before eventually going to her room for a good days sleep.
That day the princess of the night slept like a baby, having sweet dreams about a certain white filly, who had warmed her cold heart.
After a portion of the best pancakes her hungry stomach had ever ingested, Sweetie Belle was off to school. The filly had gotten strict orders to return directly home after school. When she was grounded she was only allowed outside to go to school. Luckily Rarity had been mercy full and only given her two days.
It was a beautiful autumn morning, the sun was shining from a near cloudless sky, the morning air was still chilly, so Sweetie Belle was grateful for the red scarf she had around her neck, as she trotted through Ponyville carrying her saddlebags, her destination was the Ponyville Elementary School.
Despite her punishment Sweetie Belle was smiling, she couldn´t wait to tell her friends what had happened the night before.
In the recess after the first two lessons, Sweetie Belle met up with her fellow crusaders at the school playground. She spoke up, and said. “You guys will never guess who I met last night.”
Sweetie Belle finished her recollection of the events of the previous night. The two other crusaders stared at her in disbelief.
Apple Bloom broke the silence, saying “waaw... visitin´ eh´ princess.” Scootaloo spoke, “I have an idea.” The other two turned their heads and looked at her. “You should totally ask her how she got her cutiemark... I bet her story is really cool, maybe almost as cool as Rainbow Dash´s.”
“Ya´maybe she´s even got an idea t´ how we ca´ get our cutiemarks” Apple Bloom added enthusiastic.
“Great idea Apple Bloom.” Sweetie Belle said.
“Yay awesome!” Scootaloo shouted.
Ring ring ring...
Their conversation was interrupted, when the bell rung for the next lesson, and all the fillies and colts ran in for class.
Two hours later, the school bell rang once again, indicating the end of the school day. Sweetie Belle said goodbye to her friends, and then – following Rarity´s orders – she went straight home.
Sweetie Belle was getting bored, she would have loved to run out and play in the sunlight, but being grounded, she could only look out the window and watch the ponies outside, go about their business. At least she had something to look forward to. Tomorrow she was going to Canterlot, to visit none other than, the immortal ruler of the night.
As she sat there staring out the window, she got an idea to beat her boredom. Normally unicorns would develop control over their magic, at about her age. As Rarity had explained last time Sweetie asked. The mind had to mature to a certain degree, before being able to control and manipulate the power, as opposed to the raw uncontrolled outbursts that unicorn foals sometimes experienced.
She had also been told that the maturing process could be accelerated with practise, she had tried a few times, but quickly given up when she didn´t accomplish anything, after all, crusading for ones cutiemark, was more fun than fruitless attempts at magic. Now there was no potential crusading to distract her, so why not try again?
The most simple form of unicorn magic was levitation, something most older unicorns could do in their sleep. Her older sister was particularly skilled in this art. Rarity was able to lift and control an unusually large amount of items simultaneously, a talent developed through many years of working scissors, fabric and sewing machines, all at the same time.
Sweetie Belle decided that this was as good a time as any, to practice. As she had nothing better to do. And, she was going to spend the weekend with one of the two most powerful spell casters in existence, - or so Sweetie Belle assumed, after all not just anypony could lift the moon, – and it could be a little fun, to have something to show.
Oh.... and maybe she would get a magic cutiemark.
She opened a drawer in her night stand, and used her mouth to lift out a small rubber ball, it was about half the size of her hoof, and had a dark red colour. When training levitation, she would try and lift the ball off of the ground, so far she hadn´t had any luck.
She dropped the ball on the floor, where it jumped twice before rolling to a halt in the middle of the room. The young unicorn stood with the rubber ball in front of herself, pointing her horn at the red half-hoof sized ball.
Sweetie Belle closed her eyes and focused on the object in front of her. At first nothing happened, but then she started being able to feel the target object, and her horn was enveloped by a faint blue light. – much the same colour as Rarity´s – The ball was now encased in an aura of the same blue colour, it started to wobble slightly, but didn´t leave the ground. Sweetie Belle smiled as she could hear the ball moving, she assembled more power in her horn. Sweetie Belle shut her eyes tighter and furrowed her brows, as she worked harder to control the flow of magic. The ball began to wobble faster, and sweat was now running down the filly´s forehead, as she pushed herself to the limit. The round object steadily rose from the carpet, Sweetie Belle could feel the ball rising, as it defied the laws of gravity. The rubber ball stopped it´s ascend about ten centimetres of the floor, Sweetie Belle held it there for about three seconds, before she had exerted all her strength. Sweetie Belle could feel her legs failing, and she fell flat on her belly, next to her, she could her the ball landing with a satisfying “thud”
After her success, Sweetie Belle was content with just laying there on the floor, a big smile plastered on her face. Certainly Rarity would be proud, she thought.
Sweetie Belle was woken be the sound of her older sister, calling for her from downstairs. The white filly rubbed her eyes, she looked around and realised that she was lying on the floor, “I must have dozed off.” Shaking her head, the little unicorn got up on her hoofs. The filly´s legs shook slightly, and she got dizzy. Sweetie Belle shook her head to clear her vision, she was still both physically and mentally exhausted from her first time using magic.
After eating a decent meal, and happily telling a proud Rarity about her magical adventures. Sweetie Belle went to bed early. The unicorn filly´s head only just hit the pillow, before she was fast asleep.
Friday morning, when Sweetie Belle woke up, the sun was already high in the sky, a quick glance at her clock radio told her that it was almost midday. Rarity had let her sleep in, as there was no school today.
Ponyville elementary was a rather small school, with only one teacher. So because of the limited resources the school – like most other village schools – ran four-day school-weeks.
Sweetie Belle jumped out on the floor, landing on all four. Not bothering to make the bed, despite the scolding she would likely get from Rarity, for leaving such a mess. The younger unicorn hurried out of her room and down the stairs, to get some much needed breakfast/lunch.
Downstairs the younger unicorn, found the dressmaking elder unicorn, currently being busy putting the finishing touches on another one of her magnificent creations.
“Good morning sis” greeted Sweetie Belle, in her cheerful little voice.
“Ah... Good morning Sweetie” Rarity said happily as she turned away from her work, to look at her sister. “If you can still call it morning, that is.” Rarity said with a smile.
“I left some bread slices in the basket on the kitchen table, you can help yourself to some butter from the fridge.” Rarity said as she turned back to her work, picking up a needle with her magic, she started stitching the dress together.
As she went to the kitchen to eat her late morning meal, Sweetie Belle could hear the dressmaker humming a cheerful tune from the room next door. Sweetie Belle couldn´t stop smiling herself, today was going to be a great day. In a few hours the royal chariot would arrive to pick her up, and take her to, Equestria´s capitol... Canterlot.
The little unicorn, let out a content sigh, as she prepared her breakfast, consisting of two slices of buttered bread and a glass of milk.
After enjoying her simple meal, Sweetie Belle went back into the fashion-pony´s workshop. Rarity had insisted on making Sweetie Belle a set of formal attire, for her meeting with princess. Sweetie Belle had protested, and argued that, Luna didn´t seem to mind her not looking fancy, last time they met. But Rarity was having none of it, and eventually the younger sister had given in.
As a result Sweetie Belle now found herself standing on the boutique stage, surrounded by various measuring equipment.
After a painstakingly boring two hours, Sweetie Belle was turning around in front of a large mirror. She was wearing a dress fit for a princess. As unnecessary as she found it for the occasion, Sweetie Belle still loved her new gown.
“It´s lovely big sister” Sweetie Belle said happily, jumping down from the stage, and hugging her sister.
Rarity happily returned the embrace, and said. “Now go pack your things, your ride will be here in an hour.” Rarity grabbed the dress with her magic, and hung it on a mannequin, so it woudn´t be curled.
The filly went up the stairs to pack the few belongings she believed she would need, for a weekends stay, at the castle.