Her mother’s sun slowly rises into the sky to lighten Equestria’s skies once again. A now teenaged Sunlight arisen from her mound of blankets and yawned ever so tiredly. Her pure white insectoid wings fluttered as Sunlight rose from her sleep. Her straight down rainbow mane was in a rat’s nest style and covering her eyes. She jumped out of her bed and trotted over to her mirror.
“Mirror Mirror on the wall, who likes to wake up so early in the morning?” She moved out of the mirror’s way so it showed nothing but her room in it’s reflection. Giggling and getting ready for the day she combed her mane into the way she liked it, admiring the way it shined and its mix of her mother’s mane colors. Now with her eyes visible they were her mother’s shade of pink with the white of a normal’s pony eye replaced with a darker shade of pink which she liked, but couldn’t show anyone but her…
Just then a sudden knock came from her door. She removed herself from the mirror and checked through the eyehole that her mother insisted she get for it. Sunlight saw Vanilla, her royal bodyguard and off time, on time nanny. Vanilla was a bright blue mare with a braided mane of brown and dark blue colors. Along with her royal guard armor she replaced the helmet for a single flower in her mane that smelled like vanilla ice cream.
Sunlight opened the door for her bodyguard and Vanilla stepped right in with a fine, “How do you do?”
Sunlight closed the door back up and hugged her ‘nanny’. “Hey Vanilla!”
Vanilla herself just patted the teenage halfling’s back and smiled. “Do you remember what day it is today?” Vanilla was hoping she would remember this time.
Sunlight tapped her chin then smiled. “It’s my birthday!” Sunlight started to bounce up and down like her godmother whenever she got happy.
Vanilla rolled her eyes and stopped her bouncing. “It’s not your birthday, that was last week. Today is when Princess Celestia shows you around the town for the first time.”
Sunlight’s expression changed from a one of happy to a one of most unexpected confusion. “Why would I need to see the town? I got everything I need right here in the castle!”
“Well you're going to need to learn about Canterlot if you're going to take over the kingdom some day.”
“But I already know all about governing and princessing stuff.” Sunlight frowned. “And I had a magic lesson with Godmother Sparkle today…” The halfling’s frown turned into a full on pout.
“Don’t try that stuff with me, young miss. You are going to have a fun day with your mother around the town and you will like it,” Vanilla said, then turned to the door. “Now get changed so we can meet your mother.” Sunlight groaned and shifted her appearance to look more like a normal alicorn. Her pure white insect wings formed into normal wings with snow white tips. Her pink carapace vanished from her back entirely and the extra pink from her eye turned to white.
“Alright, where is mother right now?” Sunlight asked, trotting back over to Vanilla.
“She’s at the castle gates waiting on you. I was asked to make sure you got there in one piece and didn’t get lost again on your way there.”
Sunlight merely rolled her eyes. “Psshh! That was only one time Vanilla. I can handle myself.”
Vanilla raised her eyebrow.
“...Okay twice.”
It went higher.
“T-three times…”
Can it get higher than that?
“Four, I’m sure its four!”
Yes! It! Can!
“Fine, I got lost many times, happy that I can say it openly?” Vanilla nodded and trotted out the door with a smirk on her face, and Sunlight was right behind her with a scowl pointed to her nanny’s head.
After a few wrong turns made by Sunlight, and Vanilla dragging her back on course to the gates, they finally arrived and there was Celestia awaiting her daughter on the chariot. Sunlight climbed on and looked up at her mother with a worried face.
“Is this going to be long? I want to be able to get to my magic lesson today.”
Celestia looked down at her child. “We will be visiting all of Canterlot today. So I already sent a letter to Twilight saying that your lesson was moved to tomorrow so we could have this opportunity to share this moment together.”
Sunlight sighed and slouched in her place in the chariot.
Celestia placed a reassuring hoof on her daughter’s back and smiled at her. “I’ll make this as quick as possible and as enjoyable as possible for the both of us.”
Sunlight slightly smiled and nodded as the chariot started to move and their tour of Canterlot started. Celestia explained many of the places they passed as being resturants and other odd buildings called “tailors”. Sunlight thought that they only had tailors in the castle.
Many of the rich and no so rich looking ponies they passed bowed to them in respect, and if she was being honest to herself, Sunlight felt a bit overwhelmed and in some dark way loved the… love she was getting from these ponies. It was almost intoxicating…
She knew she couldn’t feed off of love like the other changelings she read about, but she could still FEEL the love from the subjects. Sunlight had to shake her head to keep herself from going love crazy. This was one of the reasons she didn’t like coming out of the castle and into town. This feeling was always too much for her to handle without her shaking it off quickly.
Celestia noticed her daughter’s weakness. “Is it the love again? We can go back to the castle if you want.”
Sunlight shook her head again and looked up at Celestia with a weak smile. “No Mom, I can handle it.” Celestia nodded and continued to tell her daugher about the sights and sounds of Canterlot.
Sunlight rarely got to the town as much as a ruler-in-waiting should have, but the castle was good enough for her. The love in there wasn't overwhelming and the library was something to die for. Godmother Sparkle taught her the wonderful meaning behind books when she was younger and she couldn’t stop loving them since. Thinking about them helped her keep her focus off of the love messing with her senses.
“Say mom, what are we going to do after this?” Sunlight asked her mother, interrupting her ramble about the town.
“I have some documents to get done tonight concerning the…” Celestia almost said something Sunlight was not ready to hear and cleared her throat. “Just some documents…”
Sunlight looked confused for a moment then shrugged and went back to looking at the town.
The time of the sun’s setting was near so the duo returned back to their home to prepare and to make sure Luna was awake for it.
“Sunlight, could you make sure your aunt is awake?”
Sunlight nodded and traveled across the vast hallways of Castle Canterlot to Princess Luna’s room. Sunlight gave the door a brief knock. “Aunt Luna? Aunt Luna are you awake?” There was a lack of response from the door so Sunlight checked to make sure it was unlocked and then lightly pushed it open.
As soon as the door was open, Sunlight’s aunt became more and more visible with her imposing stare that always made Sunlight feel smaller around her aunt.
“I heard you the first time Sunlight…” Luna spoked with a annoyed tinge to her voice. Sunlight looked down at her own hooves and let out a “sorry” to her aunt. Luna merely shook her head and trotted past Sunlight and to a place for her to raise the moon.
Sunlight watched her moon baring aunt leave and sighed, leaving her head hung low and returning to her own chambers. Vanilla was there waiting for her and spotted Sunlight with her hung head and trotted to her.
“What happened this time?” Vanilla asked the sad looking halfling.
The soon to be princess looked up at her nanny with a face of small sadness. “Oh, you know….Luna.” Sunlight trotted past Vanilla and into her room, quickly reforming into her natural look. “I just don’t get it… ever since I was a kid she always gives me this look… like… She has to tolerate me or something.” The halfling climbed into her bed and layed down, her head placed upon her own hooves. “I really wish I could know what makes her act like that…”
Vanilla sat down in front of the bed and put on her best reassuring face for Sunlight to see. “Maybe she’s just jealous.”
“Jealous? Over what?”
“Well…” In truth, Vanilla knew the real reason why Luna felt the way she felt for her niece but she was under orders not to tell Sunlight about anything about “that” topic. “Luna and Celestia are close sisters… so she just feels like you're cutting into her time with your mother.”
Sunlight thought about it for a second or two, no longer than 5, then understood what Vanilla was getting across. “Ooohhh, I see now! Thanks for telling me, Vanilla.”
Vanilla felt bad for taking advantage of her gullibleness but it had to be done. After a mental sigh of relief, Vanilla spoke up. “Anything else you need Sunlight?”
Sunlight just shook her head.
“Well if you need me just send a letter, okay?”
A quick nod from Sunlight.
“Alright, stay safe, kiddo.” Vanilla lightly bowed and trotted out of the room.
Sunlight looked out of her window and up to the now night sky of Equestria. Sunlight wondered how her mother was doing right now or how her aunt was going to spend her night.
Then the ever powerful tidal wave of sleep washed up against Sunlight’s eyes, and with a quick yawn and a rub of the eye, Sunlight covered herself up and cuddled into her bed to sleep.