To Gaze Upon Starlight

The train ride to Canterlot was uneventful, yet pleasant. I decided to bring the camera Starlight bought me for my birthday last year. It was like one of those older cameras that printed out the picture after you took it. Outside the window were trees of all different colors, creating a red, yellow, and brown static of sorts across the mountainside. But the best view in my opinion was the bundle of pony laying on my lap, snoozing away.

Ammo? Ammo. Smirking to myself, I brought up my camera and took a picture of the sleeping Starlight. She had her mouth open slightly, allowing a trail of drool to escape and run down her chin. Perfect. I thought, still grinning, as I looked at the newly printed picture.

“Anyone sees that and I’ll send you to a different dimension.” I heard a familiar voice say from below me. I glanced down to find a slightly open eye peering up at me.

“Do your worst, I’ve already been through a change of dimensions.” I replied smugly.

Starlight gave me a malicious look. “Then I guess you could adapt to the tentacle dimension discovered a few years back.” My mouth betrayed me and let out a muffled whine. “That’s what I thought.” she said as she laid back down on my lap.

Unable to help myself, I reached out and began to gently pet her mane. Her soft smile grew slightly and her breaths got replaced by soft snores.

The sound of the trains whistle drew the two of us out of our impromptu nap. With groggy vision, we managed to grab all of our bags before the train stopped completely.

Starlight stepped off the train and as she looked up, adopted an expression of wonder, not unlike a kid in a candy store. I stepped off the train and instantly understood her reaction. Hundreds, if not thousands, of kites flew high and low all across the Canterlot sky. There were so many you could see gusts of wind as they were pushed around.

“Excited?” I ask after she stared for about a minute.

She flicked her ear as she snapped out of her trance. Then she turned to me with a slightly annoyed expression. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go!” She tugged on my shirt with her magic and briskly trotted away in the direction of the hotel.

I chuckled at her enthusiasm and followed my... date… Oh, this is going to be fun. I won’t lie, it’s rather unreal in my head to think of Starlight as my girlfriend, or marefriend, but I could feel myself warming up to it quickly. My mental hesitance not because she was a pony, but because we’ve been close friends for so long.

My mind snapped back to the present and I began attempting to recall the little snippets of the festival’s activities I read in the article. The Kite Height Contest was one of them, Kite Construction Race another, and the last one my brain allowed me to remember was something that especially excited me. Kitechella. I guess the puns don’t stop at horse puns.

I reached the hotel about fifteen seconds after Starlight, as that’s how far ahead she remained. I walked up next to her in line for the front desk. “Is this the line?”

She stopped her excited hoof tapping and looked up to me with a curious look before one of realization took it’s place. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! I totally just left you!” Her wide eyes darted everywhere except your face. “I was just so excited and I didn’t want us to wait in line too long so we could get our room and explore sooner!” Her face fell and she looked down at the floor. “Some date I am...”

“Hey, hey,” I started as I knelt down and used my index finger to point her chin up so she’d look me in the eyes. “I get it, you’re just hyped up. I’m not mad, I’m glad you’re so happy about the trip.”

With a nervous blush, she smiled apologetically at me. “Thank you.” She nuzzled my hand before turning to stand in line next to me. “Alright, let’s check in.” I smile and nod in response.

After checking in and dropping our stuff off in the room, we decided to explore what the festival has to offer. We stopped by a festival info booth to grab a festival pamphlet for each of us. The pamphlets contained a map, schedule, and unavoidably, ads. Kite themed stands littered the nearby streets, varying in size, color, and stock. I never thought kites could be so in-depth, have so many types, nor require so many upkeep products.

While Starlight made tiny gasps, swiveling her head so fast and so often that a part of me feared she might give herself whiplash, I was checking out the complete schedule in my hand. It appeared that the Highest Angle Kite contest would start in about an hour in the South Canterlot Garden, and in the description, it explained to arrive early to sign up.

Starlight might as well have been a human teenager walking in a supermarket with family, looking at their phone. She continued her attempt to look at everything she could, using her peripheral vision to maintain her pace and location beside me as we walked. I used this to my advantage and steered us towards the contest location.

When I first arrived in Equestria, I made my fair share of visits to Canterlot to answer questions for the Princesses, and during those times, more than once I would stand on a castle balcony and stare at the fantastic view of the land it provided. But I never looked down at the city itself. Part of me wishes that I did, but the other part was glad I didn’t because walking up to the open fence gate of the South Canterlot Garden was a visual experience.

Carefully crafted arrangements of domestic and exotic flora twisted and turned, creating maze-like pathways that draped over the hills along what I estimated was around 20 acres of land. Trees were scattered about, the larger ones laying spots of protection around more popular areas. A rainbow of kites of all shapes and sizes flew above along the edges of the park, framing the clear sky and sun above. Ponies of all ages were scattered about, casually making their way across the garden. Families, groups of friends, couples, most with their own kites, smiled and laughed with each other.

Not long after passing the front gate, Starlight noticed the lack of street under her hooves and took a more collected look around, finally taking note of how far we walked. “Uh, Seth, where are we?” she asked, taking more looks around.

“I figured we could sign up for the Highest Angle contest.” I say, taking the pamphlet out to show her. “Each pony gets two-hundred feet of string, and the kite with the steepest angle wins!”

Her eyes lit up, looking at the pamphlet as if I just showed her a winning lottery ticket before smirking deviously at me. “Oh, those other ponies are going down!”

I can’t help but grin at her enthusiasm as we continued our trek through the garden, making our way to the two table setup facing outward away from a large open field, devoid of anything but grass.

The mare behind the table noticed our approach and lifted her gaze from the paper she was reading from, beaming. “Hi! Are you two here to sign up for the contest?”

“We are.” I answered.

“Wonderful!” She tapped her hoof on a piece of paper on our side of the table. “Just write your names down here, please!”

Using her magic, Starlight picked up a pen from the table and jotted down her name in the next available space. She set down the pen and gestured for me to do the same.

Grabbing the pen, I put my own name next to hers in the same space, causing Starlight to look at me confused. I rolled my eyes with a smirk. “Like I’d want to enter a kite contest against you. You’d kick my ass any day.”

She briefly returned the smirk before adopting another confused expression, albeit less pronounced. “Is that even allowed?” she asked, turning to the mare behind the table.

The mare nodded. “Mhm! While only one pony is allowed to fly the kite, we get couples and families entering together all the time. It’s more about moral support, really.”

“Then it’s settled.” I say. Then, raising both fists in the air, I shouted, “Team Glim! Woo!”

Both mares giggled at my display as Starlight nudged me with her head as she began trotting away. “Alright cheerleader, let’s go explore some more while we wait.”

“Alright, alright.” I conceded, chuckling slightly. I turned back towards the mare and gave her a quick “Thank you” as I walked alongside Starlight, heading back into the city.