Chapter three: The chosen ones
"Hey Daffodil! Misty! Over here!"
Mint waved her hoof at Daffodil and Misty, motioning for them to sit down. She and Heart Dot were just about to start eating when Daffodil and Misty entered the cafeteria, looking for a place to sit down. Placing their food trucks at the table, Daffodil and Misty sat down next to Heart and Mint. They proceeded to eat their food and chat about homework and assignments when suddenly....
*Boom*
The doors to the cafeteria were slammed open by five stressed and anxious looking teachers who entered the room, followed by an even more stressed and anxious looking principal.
The principal walked in to the middle of the room. With a voice that probably was meant to sound calm and controlled but only got her to sound more stressed, she said:
“Her majesty Princess Celestia is coming to visit the school in five days to announce something important!”
A quiet mumble spread throughout the room. Princess Celestia herself was visiting to announce something important? In only five days?! No wonder the teachers looked so stressed and anxious! How were they supposed to get everything ready for a royal visit in only five days? It was suicide mission at best!
Switching places with the principal, Mrs. Flower Season called upon the attention of the students in the cafeteria before saying:
“We think that the Princess is going to announce which six students will be flag carriers during this year’s summer sun celebration."
"As you all know by now, Princess Celestia is coming to our school in five days to announce something. What it is she's going to announce, we do not know yet, but we suspect it might be which six students will be the flag carriers at this year’s Summer Sun Celebration. Due to the short notice, there won't be any ordinary lessons until after the visit. You will instead help prepare the school for her visit."
Mr. Read A Book walked around in the class and distributed notes that told them they need to wear formal clothes during the princess’s visit, dress for fillies and costume for colts. Some of the colts in the back row frowned, complaining about how only coltcuddlers wore costume. Upon hearing these complaints, Mr. Read A Book gave the colts who had been complaining detention. "And", he added. "I'll be sure to find some nice, thick books about ponies equal worth and stereotypical assumptions about homosexual ponies."
5 Days later....
"I can't believe this is happening! We'll see Princess Celestia herself in real life! Oh, but what if...."
Mint tuned out Daffodils nervous rant, knowing that she was only repeating what she already repeated at least six times that day. During these five days that had passed since the announcement of Princess Celestia’s visit, Mint had learned to know Daffodil better and discovered that she was a very divided pony. Glancing at the still rambling Daffodil, she thought about this.
On one side, we had the socially anxious mare that right now was ranting about everything that could go wrong in the near future and had been doing so for the past two hours with a couple of minutes break in between each rant. On the other side, we had an almost hyperactive mare that would keep on talking and talking until she didn't even know what she'd been talking about to begin with, an ever present smile plastered on her face. Which side she showed mostly depended on the situation. In class, there was the socially anxious that wouldn't stop thinking about what could go wrong. On their free time, or when they were alone, there was the hyperactive mare who couldn't stop talking.
Mint was snapped back to reality as a group of fillies across the hall started to giggle, whispering among themselves and pointing their hooves at Mint and her friends, or more exactly, their dresses. Inspecting her dress and looking at her friends’ outfits, she tried to find the reason for the hoof pointing and whispering.
Mint was wearing a delicate mint dress with blue details and her mane was held together by a mint bow. Heart was wearing a cute turquoise dress with pink details and she had stuck a couple of roses into her extremely carefully fixed mane. Daffodil was wearing a slightly old-fashioned yellow dress with orange details. Misty was wearing a simple yet beautiful silver dress with black details that covered her flank and her forelock was held up by a small, silver bow on each side of her head.
Mint hadn't have time to think about their outfits for long when a Royal Day Guard shouted:
“Bow for her majesty, Princess Celestia!”
They all bowed as Princess Celestia herself passed through the room and entering the stage in the middle. Motioning for the crowd of students and teachers to be quite, she started to speak:
“Dear subjects, like you know, I'm here to announce something important. I'm here to announce the flag carriers at this year’s Summer Sun Celebration!”
Picking up an envelope with the sun and moon symbols on the back in her magic, she opened it and read the letter inside.
“And the six lucky students that get to be the flag carriers on the Summer Sun Celebration this year are....Mint Letter, Heart Dot, Misty Moon and Daffodil Spark from Canterlot high, and Hypie Tech and Bright Sky from Manehattan High!”
The crowd cheered loudly and the four friends was forced up on the stage where Princess Celestia congratulated them and gave them each an envelope containing all the necessary information about practises and such.
Yes, they were truly happy. They were going to be Flag Carriers at the Summer Sun Celebration, one of the most prestigious tasks you could be assigned to do as an Equestrian student.