It's Princess Day!

Princess Day is the best day ever, because we all get to meet the Princess of Friendship! It only happens in Ponyville, and it always happens on the first day of school after Winter Wrap-Up, but only if you just started school. You get to meet Princess Twilight and talk to her all alone, and it's really special and it's finally here!

My big brother Oaks tells me when you meet the Princess, she casts some funny spell on you to see if you're gonna get your cutie mark extra early, like when you're still five. Most ponies never met anypony who got a cutie mark that early, but my brother did! He was special so she had to cast another spell where she got to see the future through his eyes, just far enough to see what his cutie mark would look like! It's kind of embarrassing because she sees all the weird and bad stuff you do too, like going to the bathroom. But you have to do it because she's a princess. If you're sick or something she'll come to your house and you can do it there. I get sick a lot, so I thought that might happen, but I'm okay today. I was sick over most of the Winter but I got better on Tuesday.

You always get to meet the Princess no matter what, even if you're too old for her to cast the spell. She only needs to do it if you're still five when you start school, but that means she has to do it to me because I'm still five, like most foals in Grade One. I used to be scared about meeting the princess, because even though nopony gets a cutie mark as quick as my brother, what if I'm like my brother because he's my brother? Then she might have to see all the weird stuff I do. But my brother says he's not the only pony who had the special spell cast because a few other ponies got their cutie marks early too. My brother's eight years older than me, so he knows about a bunch of stuff. He says the Princess does it for the see-cure-tee of Equestria because she's worried about something secret. I'd be worried about lots of things if I was a Princess, so I guess that's okay.

I'm sitting here in class and I'm real excited when it's my turn! A filly nopony talks to much because she's shy comes back from meeting the Princess and it looks like she's cried maybe, but she's also smiling so I bet it was still good. Teacher calls my name and I race right into the room faster than she can!

Inside the room it's Princess Twilight! She's talking to an old unicorn lady in a nice dress who is taking notes on some papers. I'm standing right there in the room and watching.

"Put her down for a possible, threat rating two. No cause for alarm," says the princess. I don't get it, but she has a nice voice. She kinda sounds like me I think, even though I'm a colt, but I'm young so my voice is still kinda girly.

"Prophecy or not, there's never been cause, darling," says the old lady.

"Hopefully it will happen long after your time, old friend," says the Princess, and she rubs the lady on the cheek with her hoof for some reason. Maybe she had a smudge on her cheek, but it makes her cheek turn a little red.

"Twilight, please. You know these old bones would stand with you in a heartbeat if any threat to Equest—"

"I'm sorry Princess, he got away from me!" says my teacher, cause she just got to the doorway. I'm really fast for an earth pony, but I'm not s'posed to run a lot because I can't breathe so good all the time.

Both ladies stop talking and see me. I'm standing real still because I forgot what I was gonna say! My mouth is open and I'm just staring at the Princess and how big and pretty she is! Her mane is waving like there's wind even though there isn't any wind, and it sparkles like nighttime. Even the old lady is pretty too, for being an old mare I mean. I bet being pretty is part of your job if you work for a princess.

"Please, call me Twilight," she says to my teacher, and she smiles real nice like Mommy. Then she looks right at me! "You can call me Twilight, too," she says, and smiles again. Now I know I was worried for no reason, cause princesses are super nice.

"We'll be fine," says the old lady, and my teacher nods and shuts the door so we're all alone.

There's a little chair, just for me I bet, but I'm too excited to sit. "P-Princess Twilight, I mean Twilight, hi my name is Daylily and I'm a colt and I'm almost six years old and you're both really pretty," I say really fast. I start to gasp so I pull my Special Buddy out of my saddlebags I gotta wear and I squeeze him and take a deep breath from him.

The old unicorn lady sits next to me and reaches around me with a leg. "Are you okay, dear?" she asks real soft.

"Yeah I just can't breathe good when I'm excited and she's a princess," I whisper but I bet Twilight can hear me because she's a princess, and I didn't say it real soft either.

"It's okay. I'm pleased to meet you, Daylily," she says my name and everything, and she reaches out and I shake her hoof. She's not wearing shoes like the princesses in picture books but I don't care.

The old lady still has her leg around me and she smells nice like flowers. "You know, I have a friend who uses an inhaler too," she says to me, and I don't get it but she points at my Special Buddy and then I do.

"Oh wow!" I say. "Really?"

She smiles at me again. "Yes. She's my niece, and she is a darling young mare," she says.

"Do you like foals?" I ask. While I'm talking, Twilight (the princess) is looking at some papers.

The old lady laughs. "I do! Though back when I was a young mare, I didn't used to like being around colts and fillies at all. However, I had a very close friend who did, and after spending some time with her foals I discovered what I was missing," she says. Then she says something else that I think is really smart, "Friends and family are what make life full, and worth living."

I nod because I already ran out of words, and then Twilight looks at me again. "Alrighty," she says, which doesn't sound like a princess word, but she is a princess. "I'm going to cast a spell now to see if you're really close to getting your cutie mark."

"Like how close?" I ask.

"Before you turn six!" she says.

I giggle. "Like my brother!"

"Really? Maybe you'll get lucky then," she says.

Then Princess Twilight's horn glows a really bright pink, and then everything glows pink, and then the glow goes away and she nods to the other mare.

"Very well, then," says the old mare. "It looks like you're in luck! According to the spell Twilight just cast, you're due to get your cutie mark extra early. Now, do you know what this means?"

"It means she gotsta look into my future, right? My brother did it too," I say. "That was a loooooong time ago."

"That's right. Now, don't worry, it won't hurt," says the lady. "You wouldn't even know we were doing it if we didn't tell you, but you have a right to know, even though you're very young."

"That's right. I'm going to get to see private things from your life, because I'll be seeing things through your eyes in the future," says Princess Twilight. "But it's okay, because I promise never to tell anypony anything embarrassing I see, and everypony has embarrassing things happen to them, even me. I just want a peek at the moment you get your cutie mark, and that's all I need to see. Are you ready?"

"I guess. What do I do?" I ask.

"Just sit back and relax. You won't even feel anything," says the Princess, motioning to the chair. I go over and sit up in the chair and try to relax but I'm real nervous so it's hard.

Then her horn glows pink again and a spot above my eyebrows glows pink too I think, and Princess Twilight's eyes glow white. Princesses can make a lot of stuff glow.

"He's close to six already, so I'll start by moving forward by one week at a time," says Twilight. "Once I overshoot, I'll do a binary search to find the exact moment he gets it."

"Let me know when you see it," says the unicorn lady.

Suddenly, the princess gasps and her mouth opens real wide and she shivers in place.

"Twilight? Darling, is everything alright?" says the unicorn lady. She sounds worried, and I'm worried too. She stands in front of the princess and waves her hoof in front of her face but Twilight keeps staring like she's looking all the way through her and then right through me and maybe right through the floor too.

But the Princess doesn't say anything, and then she starts to drool a little bit. The old lady starts getting upset probably because if you're a princess you're not supposed to drool, but I wasn't gonna tell anypony.

"Twilight! Come back to me," says the lady, and she starts shaking the Princess by her shoulders. Her neck wobbles back and forth but her horn and her eyes keep glowing anyway, and so does that spot I can barely see over my eyes. Finally, she slaps Princess Twilight really hard on the horn! The pink glow goes away and Twilight falls to the floor. She holds her hooves to her mouth and it sounds like she is screaming but she does it with her hooves over her mouth and nose so you can't hear it hardly, and that's good because I'm scared somepony would think I did something bad.

"Did I do something bad?" I say.

"No," says the unicorn lady. "Twilight, what is it?"

Twilight lays on the floor panting and staring at nothing for what seems like forever, but it was probably only a minute. I'm way too scared to say anything.

"I... I slipped past the threshold," she says, as her front hooves rattle against the flooring.

"What thresh—oh no. The poor dear, you don't mean?"

The princess nods without looking up.

"But then why..."

Twilight looks up at her friend. There are tears running down her cheeks and she looks like she just saw a real scary movie, like I saw a scary movie with my brother once but this must've been scarier because I didn't even cry that much. She and the lady keep talking while I don't move or say nothing no more.

"I can't cast this spell ever again. I can't risk a repeat experience."

"The prophecy?"

"It doesn't matter. I can't do it. I can't. I can't."

"I don't understand, dear." The older lady leans down to nuzzle at Twilight's cheek kinda like Mommy does. I wonder if she's the Princess's Mommy but I don't think she is.

"It was horrible," she whispers. "So cold, so painfully empty. Not like darkness or real cold, though. It... it was unbeing. Emptiness as a concept, a thing beyond reason, but horribly, terribly real. Disconnected from everything, even from the sensation of being disconnected."

"It's just the spell, Twilight. I'm sure it has to have some way to work when you cross a line like that."

"No. It was real, more real than joy or pain or friendship. It was too real. I could tell."

"Twilight, what are you saying?"

"It's worse than Tartarus. It's worse than the mind can imagine. It's impossibly horrible. You can't die, Rarity. Nopony can die." Princess Twilight is shivering like it's really cold inside but it isn't, and she's looking up and down really fast.

"Well... everypony dies, darling."

And then the Princess screams real loud.

That was the last Princess Day ever. The other kids think I did something bad even though the teacher told them I didn't and it wasn't my fault. But it's okay, because I'm sick a lot so I don't go to class anymore. My parents talked to the nice lady and they got sad but they gave me lots of ice cream later. I eat ice cream almost every day now!

I don't know why they stopped Princess Day, but at least I'll get my cutie mark real soon.

My birthday's in just two weeks!