A stage had been set up outside of Ponyville’s town hall especially for the princesses, and all creatures were now starting to gather before said stage as the time to raise the sun drew near. The outer streets quickly became vacant for the first time since the start of the festivities, while the centre of town was becoming more packed than ever before, to the point of being almost unable to move due to the sheer numbers of participants.

Some winged creatures seemed to have had the foresight to shift a few tufts of cloud to sit on instead, so a smaller group of pegasi, griffons, hippogriffs and changelings all looked down at the stage from a more comfortable aerial view.

And Avia saw it all as she peeked out of the town hall’s front entrance, excitedly peering out into the crowds. She spotted Carduus, Panacea and Iuvenes among those in the cloud seats, and they had been joined on their personal tuft by Soronis and Puellula a short while thereafter. A small distance from them was another tuft of cloud that held Avia’s father, holding the fort while waiting for the rest of the family to hop on up.

Speaking of family, when Avia cast her gaze downwards she could see the rest of hers had favourable positions right at the front of the crowd. Her grandparents stood close by, and right there with them was Avia’s Aunt Cadance and Uncle Shining, and where would they be without Flurry Heart. Not far from them, also at the front of the crowd, she spotted the Element Bearers and their own families. Avia couldn’t help but smile at seeing Apple Surprise, Sapphire and Awesome Blitz with their parents, the night’s previous terror’s replaced with jubilation at the coming event.

Spike, meanwhile, sat atop a nearby building alongside the few other dragons that were large enough to be in such a position. Avia swore she saw his eyes make contact with her own, the only one of the crowd so far to spot the young filly. Spike gave her a wink, and Avia giggled before pulling back through the door and gently shutting it behind her.

The inside of the town hall was much calmer, only a few ponies and changelings inhabiting the space at the time. The princesses were talking with the Mayor of Ponyville and a middle-aged unicorn mare with an inkwell cutie mark, a notepad held in the latter’s magical aura. Queen Twilight looked on from nearby, standing with a small compliment of guards that included Vladimir, Broad Sword and Valiant Snow.

“Well, I think the crowds would riot if we made them wait any longer,” the Mayor said as he checked a pocket watch. “And I do believe it’s around time for the raising of the sun, your highnesses.”

“He isn’t wrong,” the unicorn mare agreed as she peered at her checklist. “All other criteria have been met, we’re ready to go when you are.”

“Thank you, Raven,” Celestia replied with a nod and that iconic motherly smile. “Go and join your own family. We can take it from here.”

“The same goes to the rest of you,” Luna spoke, looking at the guard ponies near Queen Twilight. “Those who are not assigned specific positions around the stage, or are on crowd control, you can all join your families as well.”

“You sure you don’t want us there with you?” Captain Broad Sword asked.

“It is alright, Captain,” Celestia gently rebuked. “We have a steady escort already, and more than enough in and around the crowd between us and the changelings.”

“She’s right, stop worrying,” Vladimir agreed. “Besides, if something goes wrong it’s not like we’re not there to step in.”

“We should find Mum, stand with her,” Valiant suggested to his father. “We might even be able to grab a cloud seat.”

“I hope she remembers that cloud walking spell,” Broad Sword chuckled, before turning back to the princesses. “Very well, if you’re certain.”

“It’s all be arranged to perfection,” Raven claimed proudly.

“I checked it over, she’s not wrong,” Twilight supplemented, causing the unicorn to lightly blush.

“Come on, before there’s no more room on the ground or the skies,” Vladimir said, nudging his counterpart. “Guards, you heard the princesses. Dismissed.”

The ponies around the Queen began to disperse, with the exception of those meant to accompany the alicorns onto the stage. So too did Celestia’s assistance depart alongside the Mayor, and in this moment, Twilight approached the alicorns as Avia watched on.

“I should also take Avia and return to our seats, Façade is keeping the cloud warm,” Twilight said to them. “After you’ve done your bit I’ll put my daughter to bed, and then I’ll tell you about her little misadventure earlier.”

Celestia tittered. “I look forward to it. She is very much like you, you know. Always some scheme or plan to enact.”

“It must be the changeling in us,” Twilight joked. “But not exactly like me. She had friends to do it with.”

“And yet your example made it so,” Luna pointed out. “To be sure, that might make the troublesome nature of the child all the worse.”

Twilight chuckled. “Probably. But I can handle it, why would I not?”

After all, as Twilight mentally noted, every moment with her was a memory Avia had that Twilight was denied with my own mother, even if they had formed around Velvet and Celestia instead.

Still, a part of Twilight felt she still owed Chrysalis in a way. Owed her to raise and cherish Avia in a way the late queen had long dreamt about but been out of reach of for so long.

Twilight lit her horn, and Avia gave a small chirp of surprise as she was lifted in the air and brought into her mother’s prepared hooves. Twilight hugged her close, Avia giggling as she returned the embrace happily.

After the embrace was done, Avia was levitated onto the Queen’s back. The filly who was the Queen’s very world and soul, the future of the Equestrian Hive itself. Before becoming a mother, she’d known of Chrysalis’ protectiveness. Celestia too, the fire within that would rage out to consume any who would try to claim the one she thought of as her own child. Even Velvet, always worrying about Twilight’s safety well into the Queen’s reign. But she’d never truly understood it, not really. The rage and emotion that came with the safety of one’s own child, not until Avia had been born.

And not until earlier that very night, where that had so very nearly ended.

‘I will always be here to protect you, Avia,” Twilight proclaimed within, even as she bid the princesses farewell and moved to depart the town hall. ‘Always.’

“So, everything ready?” Façade asked his wife as the Changeling Queen gently settled down onto the cloud he’d kept ready for them, Avia being lifted from her back and nestled between both parents. “Or are we waiting for another hour of admin?”

“Nope, Celestia and Luna will be coming out any second now,” Twilight informed her husband. “Are our guards all in position?”

“Blending in and keeping an eye out for troublemakers,” Façade confirmed. “Let the ponies be the visible presence, but I think the very idea that the griffon or pony next to you might be a changeling is enough to keep any punks quiet.”

“Not that there’s much room for hecklers to operate, look at the crowd,” Twilight noted, impressed. “The Summer Sun Celebration that brought Luna’s return wasn’t even close to this size. Just a gathering of ponies in the town hall.”

“There’s more than ponies, though,” Avia muttered from between her parents.

Twilight hummed in agreement, glancing down at her daughter. “I suppose the world has become larger.”

“That’s silly, the world doesn’t grow,” Avia responded with a frown.

“She’s got you there,” Façade joked.

“Smarty pants,” Twilight teased her daughter, playfully nuzzling the top of her head and causing the filly to giggle.

Once the nuzzle onslaught ceased, Avia was able to calm herself and take one final look around as the final few moments of waiting passed them by. The nymph saw two armoured pegasi emerge from the crowds and plant themselves on an unoccupied cloud, a unicorn carried between them who they gently settled down onto the condensed pile of water vapour.

Avia gave a small ‘huh’ as she saw that the unicorn didn’t fall through it like it wasn’t there, the first time she’d seen the cloud walking spell in action for herself.

Scarlet Snow then proceeded to gingerly sit down onto the cloud as her husband and son took seats either side of her. Broad Sword was quick to drape a wing around his wife, while Valiant just gave his parents a small smile before offering his full attention to the presently empty stage.

Avia’s eyes too drifted towards the raised platform, and then slightly away from it back towards her groundside friends. Awesome Blitz, standing by Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash, happened to glance upwards over her shoulder right in the direction Avia was sitting in. Her eyes momentarily brightened, and she budged Apple Surprise and Sapphire who all turned to look up towards the cloud. The three fillies all gave jubilant waves up at Avia, who quickly returned them with a giant grin that betrayed the presence of her fangs.

Avia caught her mother’s glance and smirk, but she had no time to blush as a giant spotlight set up on a building opposing the stage suddenly cracked to life and illuminated the town hall.

The Mayor trotted onto the stage, bringing with him a microphone stand that he somewhat awkwardly placed down before him before the pony cleared his throat.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, I would welcome you all to the one thousand and thirty second annual Summer Sun Celebration!” A round of cheers echoed around the crowd, the Mayor holding up a hoof and waiting for silence to return before continuing. “It is such a pleasure to have so many species from so many backgrounds with us tonight. Changelings, dragons and griffons to name a few. Your presence is a symbol of the world’s growing unity and friendship that has occurred over the past three decades; and on behalf of the princesses we thank you all for making all of this a reality.”

Another round of applauds, the Mayor once again waiting for things to quieten.

“But you aren’t here to listen to me ramble on about politics. So, on that note, everycreature prepare to give your best cheer for… Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!”

The cheers did indeed erupt, and the Mayor made himself scarce as the two regal alicorns all of them were waiting for emerged from the interior of the town hall and took their places on the stage before the entirety of the crowd. Luna stood to the right as Celestia took left, both standing a couple metres from one another as they observed the people all gathered before them.

Celestia’s gaze moved upwards to the clouds, lingering on that of a certain Changeling Queen before she looked to the side at her sister. Luna returned to look and nodded to her solar counterpart before her eyes moved back towards the crowd and her gaze hardened.

The Lunar Princess then kicked off, spreading out her wings dramatically as her horn lit up a fantastic blue.

The crowd instantly silenced itself.

Avia’s jaw hung agape as the entire moon seemed to shimmer and turn a distinct blue hue, before it began to slowly sink into the horizon at a pace that seemed completely unnatural to the filly’s developing mind.

And then, as if her jaw couldn’t go any lower, Celestia too kicked off from the ground. The alabaster alicorn’s wings spread wide and her forelegs were raised high into the air as a sudden orange glow permeated the air all around them. Avia had to shield her eyes with a leg as the sun began its swift and yet equally unnatural climb into the sky. The stars were obscured as the darkened sky very quickly shimmered into a bright wonderful blue as the closest star, their sun, came into the perfect position above Celestia’s horn from the crowd’s point-of-view, bathing their entire side of the planet in the glow of a new day.

Everything, and everyone, seemed to glow with the start of the longest day of the year. The crowd erupted once more into cheering and whooping, hooves stamping and claws clapping as the princess came into land back on the stage. Each gave the crowd and beaming smile as Avia too managed to pick up her jaw from the surface of the cloud and starting to cheer the princesses on.

For all that had happened, to see that wondrous sight that only came once a year…

In Avia’s view, totally worth it.