Taking a deep breath, Celestia closed her eyes and dove beneath the water’s surface.

Gently kicking her hooves, she propelled deeper into the ocean, embracing the cool water washing away all of her cares and concerns. The emotional uproar within subsided as Celestia used this opportunity far away from her royal responsibilities to slowly come to terms with the fact that she had the day to herself to spend as she saw fit and should embrace this rare break.

With a flap of her wings, Celestia propelled herself towards the surface and launched into the sky where the sun shone brightly. It was that sun, her sun, illuminating the sky and bringing joy to everyone who gazed upon it that encouraged Celestia to begin each day anew and perservere until the milinium’s end; well, both her sun and a particular lavender-colored filly who was currently on the shore reading a book on architecture as her magenta aura carefully held a plastic shovel.

Celestia watched silently from the water as her apprentice summoned a bucket of water, containers of various shapes and sizes from the abyss with a carefully executed teleportation spell before leviatating the surrounding sand, molding it into a gigantic pile.

Once done, Twilight dumped the bucket of water swiftly onto the sand pile, ensuring the sand malleability. Next on the filly’s list was the summoning of an array of colorful measuring tools within a trio of containers. After double checking she had all the appropriate tools, she used measuring cups and a testing kit to calculate the sand-to-water ratio, checking if the consistency and compounds aligned perfectly with the expectation of proper sandcastle-building material.

Apparently, the ratio didn’t meet Twilight’s expectations, because after a quick glance at her book, she teleported her bucket to the ocean and back so she could dump it onto the sand pile again. Another round of testing commenced, and the results seemed to satisfiy Twilight because she returned to reading her architecture book.

It was of great amusement to the sun princess how seriously her apprentice took her studies, going so far as to reference a scholar-level book of architecture and design for a task so simple as sculpting a giant blob of sand.

In all seriousness, though, Celestia admired the filly’s initiative and hardworking nature; it often reminded Celestia of a younger version of herself, always so determined to learn and advance in the world. However, Twilight was still quite young, but she seemed determined to take on as many responsibilities as possible. The white alicorn hoped today would be a chance for Twilight to slow down. Was using a university level text on architecture to build a simple sand castle what Celestia had in mind? No, but that’s Twilight for you.

Celestia sighed, smiled, and slowly made her way to the shoreline. As her hooves touched the sand, the weight of a saturated coat and mane made walking out of the water slightly challenging. Violently shaking her body to rid herself of the remaining water, Celestia trotted over to an area near Twilight where there was a lovely sunny spot where she could lie down and rest her weary bones.

Celestia may have been a powerful alicorn, but she was still old and prone to the physical and emotional ailments that came with a millennium of aging. The physical side effects were minimal and easily dealt with through various healing and aging spells alongside natural alicorn anatomy, but the emotional toll of ruling a nation for over a thousand years, especially alone, was a different story.

It was quite the challenge to rule a nation for as long as Celestia had, seeing countless subjects live and die, the rise and fall of empires, all while struggling to maintain order and harmony. The worst part? Celestia has to do it all alone with no pony knowing what all those struggles truly meant because the one pony who understood was a million miles away.

A lifetime of memories threatened to unleash themselves, and Celestia felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. Quickly, Celestia cast a spell to whisk those tears away. Putting aside the intrusive thoughts wasn’t easy, but today was not the day to get worked up about something that happened so long ago.

Redirecting her attention back to Twilight, Celestia was amazed to see how far along the sand castle was. Twilight was carefully using the flat edge of the ruler to level out one of the outer walls.

“I see you finally put your book away to focus on the task at hoof,” Celestia said warmly, her voice slightly raised from its normal inside volume.

Twilight finished leveling out the wall before turning her attention to her mentor. “Yes, Princess. I’m confident I read enough to understand the proper strategy for erecting the castle while accurately calculating the correct dimensions needed to maximize the building space and design with the sand and other materials allotted.”

Of course, Twilight sounded like she swallowed an encyclopedia, but that was one of the many traits Celestia adored about her protege. Twilight stood up and took a step back to admire her handiwork. “I still need to ameliorate some of the finer detailing,” she murmured, “but I feel like my dream sand castle is missing something significant… Any suggestions, Princess Celestia?”

Celestia directed her attention to the sand castle in question, humming as she assessed the different elements of her apprentice’s masterpiece. “I think it needs some flair. The carvings you’ve done are wonderfully detailed, but what I think this castle could use are some colorful seashells.”

Twilight pondered that for a moment before grinning and bouncing with excitement. “Yes! That’s exactly what’s missing! Ooh! Ooh! Let me grab my bucket, and we can go looking for some!”

Chuckling, Celestia nodded and Twilight bounded over, grabbing her plastic bucket. Together, the two ponies spent the remainder of the afternoon combing the shoreline for the perfect seashells to finish the perfect sand castle.

Author's Note

Ok! My first story knocked out and just in time for the contest! There are a few things I would've liked to fix/smooth out, but couldn't quite do with the world limits. Anyways, a big shoutout to my editors! Thanks to you for your help!

https://www.fimfiction.net/user/360307/JinxTJL

https://www.fimfiction.net/user/338193/TheAncientPolitzanian