(Prompt #512: “Shining, Shimmering, Splendid”)
I didn't really want to go that day. I mean I did, I always wanted to go to the Summer Sun Celebration, it was the biggest carnival sort of event of the year in Canterlot. There was no filly in the entire city that didn't want to go. But the day before, I'd borrowed a particularly exciting novel from the library, and I had been entirely absorbed in it. When my parents first called out to me to hurry along, I almost made up some excuse not to go. But of course, I couldn't lie to my parents, and besides, I really had wanted to attend.
It's a good thing I did, all things considered. Most of the time was spent in pre-dawn nighttime fair, playing silly games about throwing balls at bottles, or eating all kinds of roasted and fried foods that were neither cheap nor healthy. It sounds like fun for a little filly, and it would have been if I wasn't sulking about being taken away from my reading, and if I had been a little more open to talking to other ponies back then.
Canterlot is one of the safest cities in Equestria, and nopony would dare do anything criminal during the Summer Sun Celebration, so my parents were okay with me pushing my way to the front of the crowd. I don't know what drew me up there, I'm tempted to call it fate or destiny or something like that, as silly and presumptuous as that sounds. Maybe it was just simple hero worship, I'm certainly not above that.
When I managed to force my way to the front, I found her, her entrance heralded by loud trumpeters.
Princess Celestia.
I know, it's unlikely. But as a little filly I couldn't help but feel like that half-second that our eyes met was important. It had to be at least as important to her as it was to me, right? Looking back now, I doubt she even remembers seeing me there, I was only another unicorn out of the thousands gathered to watch this.
She was regal. Resplendent in her shining glory and beautiful height and presence. Everything about her demanded focus, but somehow in a quiet, understated, and completely irresistible way. She didn't have to speak to demand undivided attention, it was just who she was. Everypony watched with as much enthusiasm as I did, as Princess Celestia slowly rose into the air to a rising fanfare from the trumpeters, and flared out her wings as the sun broke over the horizon, the only thing capable of out-shining the Princess herself.
There was a moment there, where I thought her eyes met mine again.
It's not hard to see how I became so inspired. Here was the greatest single act of magic that any pony could ever aspire to, and it was done each and every day. Twice, arguably. Nearly all my reading up until then had been fiction, or studies for my schooling. That was when everything changed, and when I started to develop my lifelong talent for magic.
But that was a long time ago. It was years between that first sight of her and the next time I saw Princess Celestia.
It was under less flattering conditions. I'd lost control of my magic. It wasn't the first time, not by a long shot. Studying over one's limits has a tendency to cause that, and my parents were both pretty well aware of how much raw, stupidly uncontrolled power I had in my horn. If I had been able to think at all when my magic was out of control, I would have been in a dead panic about completely botching my entrance exam in the only way worse than failing to do anything.
But then, she appeared. Princess Celestia. Not just standing on a pedestal for a crowd of thousands, but right there, in the room with me, with her hoof on my shoulder. Everything stopped, my spells, my magic pouring out uncontrolled, all the effects I was holding without knowing it, all the terror in the room, and all my hopes and dreams. Not only had I messed up, lost control, and ruined my entrance exam. Princess Celestia, the undisputed and universally adored ruler of all of Equestria, had been witness to it. Besides, I'd destroyed one of the towers in her school.
She spoke my name, and all I could think to do was apologize. But in her infinite mercy, endless patience and, calm, pleasant demeanor, she only complimented me. Told me all about how she'd never seen a unicorn with my abilities. The world swayed and shimmered as this tall, majestic Princess stood there and complimented me, ME, on screwing up so spectacularly that it was worth notice.
That was the day I got my cutie mark. I was proud of it, hugely, amazingly proud that I finally had one, and that it had to do with my love of magic. But the real highlight of the day was looking into Princess Celestia's eyes and knowing that she was looking back into mine.
It was hardly uncommon, after that. I was her personal student, and we met at least several times a week. She was often busy with her royal duties, and sometimes there would be a few days without meeting. But every day I woke up happy that I knew her.
I've seen her fail, especially that one time, with the Queen of the Changelings. I've seen her suffer the occasional indignity. She's not perfect, in the sense of being completely omnipotent or omniscient. She makes mistakes, she makes errors in judgment. She has regrets about things she knows she could have stopped if she'd seen them happening sooner. But somehow, knowing that she is fallible, knowing that she, like any pony, has limits, only makes her shining glory and indisputable reign over all of Equestria that much more inspiring.
I stand here now, watching Luna and Celestia take the stage in Canterlot again. I can look out over the crowd of thousands, gathered before us. Us, because like Princess Celestia, I am a Princess now. She treats me as an equal, not that she ever spoke down to me. But now I share the title with her and her sister, and with Cadance.
Princess Celestia speaks a few words, and Luna flies upward to lower the moon. A moment later, Princess Celestia joins her, with the sun rising gloriously behind her. It's breathtaking, as it always is. The crowd stands in reverent silence, and I can't help but gawk with them. I nearly miss my cue.
But my horn lights, and I take to the air. I can't mess this up. If Princess Celestia, perfect, regal, shining Princess Celestia wants me to even pretend to be her equal, I will do it. I can't fly fast enough to make a real sonic rainboom, only one pony can. But I pour my heart into this spell. I put the full loving adoration of every sacred memory I have with the Princess, the one pony whose opinion of me means more than any other pony in the world, behind this one casting.
Color explodes around me and spreads all across the morning sky, and the crowd erupts into pleased gasps and crooning. But I don't see or hear any of that. All I can do is land, and look into Princess Celestia's eyes, and know that it worked, that she knows how much she means to me.
All I can do is smile.