Seashell (print rewrite)

SEASHELL

Excerpt VI
From the journal of Sunburst, May 30, YS 1329:

The other day I wrote about how alone the Princess seems to be.

Maybe I should also fill in the picture with more nuance and write about the exception to be found in her personal student. She’s a little unicorn filly with a white coat and powder blue mane named Azure Sky. I made her acquaintance soon after I got here when our paths crossed in one of the hallways. When she spotted my cutie mark, she smiled up at me with her big pale purple eyes. She’s such a cute kid.

I remember our first conversation vividly.

“You have a sun cutie mark!” she exclaimed. “Like Celestia.”

See what I mean? How could I forget that? What a comparison to bring up just off the cuff!

I struggled for a second to respond. “Oh... not really,” I ended up saying. “It’s smaller and the design’s different. I think Celestia’s is a bit more important. I just got this one by clearing away clouds over my mom’s garden when I was a kid. She needed more sunlight for her flowers, that’s all.”

“Hope you didn’t fly too high toward the sun,” she giggled. “You wouldn’t want to make Icarhorse’s mistake.”

For the second time in under a minute, I was surprised by this little filly. I couldn’t believe she knew about Icarhorse, the ancient pegasus story of a pony who flew so close to the sun that the feathers on her wings burned up and she fell to her death. From a pegasus, I might have expected it. My dad told me the story as a foal. Cloudsdale pegasi still tell it to their kids because it helps warn naïve young fliers about ascending too high too quickly and meeting tragic consequences, but I’d never heard of it being told among unicorns. I guess she must have read it on her own. Sharp kid.

I laughed a little. “No, I’m not worried,” I assured her. “No pegasus can fly that high.”

“Nah, I guess not,” she agreed with an enthusiastic nod. “Hey! Were you in the Wonderbolts?” she asked suddenly.

“No.” I shook my head. “The Wonderbolts are a bit much for me.”

“Oh.” She looked a little disappointed. “I thought you might be the one I saw on some of their posters.”

Yep. There it was. Of course she would come up. Honestly, though? This happens often enough that I’ve gotten over being embarrassed and now it’s kind of amusing.

“That’s Spitfire,” I said. “I guess I look like her. But I’m not her. Sorry.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’m Sunburst.”

“I’m Azure Sky,” she responded.

Then we just sort of looked at each other blankly, the way it happens when two ponies suddenly hit the wall in a conversation. Or I did, anyway. Azure had a knack for finding more.

“Captain Dash is in some of the posters too,” she said. “Sometimes I try to ask her what it was like to be a Wonderbolt, but she won’t say anything. She just kind of freezes up a little bit and goes to do something else. Isn't that weird? And Princess Twilight seems really sad but she won't tell me why. She just tells me to keep studying.”

“Azure?” Princess Twilight’s voice suddenly sounded from nearby as she rounded a corner and found the two of us. “Come on, kiddo. Time for today's lessons.” She smiled warmly at her student.

“Okay!” The little filly smiled back. “I just met, umm, Sunburst.”

“Pleased to meet you.” I nodded.

“I see.” The princess nodded to me briefly. “I hope Azure Sky here wasn't any trouble.” She turned and started walking. “Come on, let’s not bother the guards anymore,” she said while her student fell in next to her.

“No, princess,” I said. “She's no trouble at all.”

“Did you see her cutie mark? It’s the sun, like Celestia’s!” Azure said to the princess. I cringed a little bit. Being compared once again to our illustrious solar princess, and in front of another princess of all ponies, was embarrassing. “I hope mine is something cool like that. When do you think I’ll get one?”

“Well, you’re about that age.” The princess smiled down at her student while they kept walking away side by side. “It’ll be soon…” Their voices faded down the hall as they moved further away.

It’s clear that the princess regards her student warmly. Maybe there’s even a permanent bond solidifying between them, seeing how the princess is basically raising that filly. Even that, though, has limits. There has to be a clear delineation between student and teacher, and besides, there’s things adults can’t just talk about with a child. At the end of the day she still seems alone.

And the things Azure said? I don’t know. She’s a very curious filly, but she’s just a child. Still… now I can’t help but wonder.
 
 
But that’s enough wondering for today.