"Let me begin by telling you about my life before I became THE Princess, the oh-so-revered alicorn."
"Mother! W-where are you?" I quaked under my blanket.
"I'm right here child, don't be frightened. there is nothing to fear in the darkness." I could hear her quiet, soothing voice.
"Yeah, come out, Tia! Come play with me!" My little sister Luna called to me from outside, wanting me to come out and play.
"But it so dark out, and it's too cold. Can't we wait until the sun comes out?" I asked.
I'll admit it, I was scared. I knew the sun wouldn't rise for several days yet. Still, nopony should be awake and playing when the only light came from Luna's moon and it constantly felt like winter out. you could barely see one hoof in front of your face! There was no way I was going outside. But... maybe.. If Luna can raise the moon, why can't I raise the sun? I was older than her after all, I thought. I heard familiar hoofbeats outside and my mother's face poked in.
" Come on, Celestia. There is no reason to be afraid. Come out and indulge your sister."
I slowly slid out of bed and stepped out, immediately shivering as the icy air blasted around me. Luna was very happy to see me up, and began to bounce around me, clearly eager to play cloud-tag.
I ignored her and concentrated very hard on the sun, how it looked, how it felt as its warm rays caressed my coat. I used a levitation spell and my horn glowed pale yellow. Luna hadn't noticed so far and was still begging me to race her to the stars and back. I almost immediately began to sweat with my efforts and grunt under the strain. Luna, who had been running towards me skidded to a stop, eyes open wide as my body convulsed and I was surrounded by a brilliant golden aura. My own eyes were open as wide as they could go, and wider, and a pure white as my eyes rolled back in my head. My pale pink mane and tail were jerking around me and I was off the ground a few inches.
I must have looked like I was in great agony, but honestly I was in a Paradise; warm and floating in perfect comfort and bliss. And power.. I had never felt so powerful, it was surging through my every pore, like a fire that could never burn. the moment I felt this, a golden glow appeared on the horizon and the sun appeared in a glorious halo of warmth, banishing the night like a bad dream. My magic released me and I dropped to the ground. My mother was almost in fits herself, bursting with pride and praising me endlessly for bringing the sun back so soon.
But all I could see was my little sister's navy blue face.
Full of envy.
And this, is where it all started.
It was several days after I raised the sun, but still the townspeople were celebrating the return. It was at this festival that I first saw him, a young stallion not much older than myself. The thing about him that first caught my eye was his coloring, because he had a natural coat and even back then those were oddities. He was what was called a palomino- pale gold coat and creamy white mane and tail. I walked up to him, and asked about his cutie mark for an excuse to talk. He told me his talent was magic, in general(sound familiar?). I was intrigued by this, I had never heard of a unicorn have Magic as a talent before.
I struck up a conversation with him and found to my surprise that he was a good conversationalist. Most stallions can't form a decent sentence, let alone an entire speech of them. When it was time for me to lower the sun to the horizon, I permitted him to watch. By this point I was tired of doing this for all the eager faces, so I let Golden Dusk(that was his name) watch as long as he promised not to gush on about it for hours.
He gave me his word as a noblestallion.
Once I finished, he stared quietly at me and asked what spell I used.
"I'm not talking about it for hours! Just one question." Was his defense. I sighed and told him "It's just a levitation spell."
He seemed surprised but, true to his word, did not inquire further. He instead grinned mischieviously and said, "Like this?"
And thus levitated me about a hoof off the ground. He smiled and set me down and the race was on. For a regular unicorn, he was pretty fast, but my long legs ate up the ground and I caught him in under thirty seconds I pinned him down and stared down into his deep blue eyes, laughing as he panted.
"No fair! You used your wings!"
"I did not, you were just too slow!" he, rather foalishly, stuck out his tongue. I couldn't resist; I leaned down and nipped it. I laughed and this time I did use my wings, and flew up so he definitely couldn't catch me. Yet once again, he surprised me, and gave himself a pair of wings made from spiderwebs and feathers that were found often on the ground. He flew up and this time we chased each other across the red and orange streaked sky. I was the happiest I'd been in... Well, ever.
Just then a blue comet came speeding up beside me, deliberately clipping Golden on his shoulder. He lost his balance and fell into a tree before I could do anything. I stopped and looked beside me, furious and ready to harshly reprimand whoever it was that had done it. It was Luna. I stopped short but still said, loudly, "LUNA!! Watch where you're flying next time you clumsy alicorn!" I would have said further but I had to see if Golden was alright. I flew down and peered between the branches, trying to glimpse his yellow coat or his white mane or tail. I found him wedged between a fork in the branches, cut and bruised and his wings were gone, but perfectly okay. I helped him out of the tree and nudged him to a nurse, despite his constant "I'm fine, really!" and " I don't need a nurse, Tia!" I ignored that and left him in good, capable hooves while I went to talk to Luna about clumsy flying and it's dangers.
I found her at our house, in her bed, rather lazily flipping through the pages of a book. I marched up to her and slammed its cover shut. "What did you think you were doing! You're not some ignorant foal in flight school! You know better than to fly that close to another pegasi at the speed! What were you thinking?!" She stared coldly back at me, boredom and distaste written plainly across her face. I recoiled and blanched slightly- what had happened to my sweet, if slightly obnoxious, little sister?
"Well if you hadn't noticed, he's a unicorn, and a commoner. We're like royalty now, Tia. You can't go around and frolick with peasants. You'll give us a bad reputation!"
I stared at her with something akin to horror. She sounded more uptight that my mother!
"Luna. We are NOT like royalty. Do you see a crown on your head? Do you see a throne room? No! We're just r-..."
"We're just what, sister? I hope thou weren't about to say REGULAR, because how many other unicorns can raise the two biggest celestial bodies? How many Alicorns can? How many Alicorns do thou even seest?"
I was confused for a moment. "Why are you speaking.... Oh." I suddenly realized she was attempting to speak like a royal.
"Very funny, Luna. I'm going to go get Mother and tell her what you're saying, And what you did to Golden." I glared at her and turned to go out and find her. As I neared the door, though:
"She already knows." I stopped. "Excuse me?" I snapped.
"Mother. She already knows what I did to thy.... Friend, " she sneered, "Actually, it was her who told me to find thee and make sure you weren't out with any 'riffraff'... And it is her who is starting my speaking training. And you'll be starting soon too!"
I didn't believe a word of it and I let her know as much. But she wasn't lying. That night, Mother and Father told me that the ponies had demanded me and Luna become proper rulers, Princesses, since we would need training. So starting that morning we were to begin learning how to be royalty.
And Luna also told me(very smugly) that I would never be permitted to see my 'friend' ever again except on formal occasions when I would have to meet EVERYPONY.
I was heartbroken..........
But then I saw him.