Star Fields and Daylight

Sun Horse is so pretty! Also a massive pain to draw with those gradients in her mane, like, wow.

But yes! Sparkles! Celestia! Shiny things!

Celestia is my favourite princess. <3 When I was younger, my little sister and I had a pair of pony toys that we used to play with. I had the pink one, with a cutie mark of a sun (Gen 2 Sunsparkle as far as I'm aware), and my sister had a blue one who had stars (Gen 2 Night Star). Their packaging did not confirm it, but we knew in our hearts that they were the respective princesses of the Day and the Night. Or at least that's what I remember.
Now, these were 'changing mane and tail' toys, which means both of them had two sets of manes/tails each which you could swap out. One of these sets would be standard hair, but the other set was sparkly. So my sister and I used to have Sunsparkle and Night Star go on great adventures to earn their sparkly manes. The transformation involved a lot of shaking of plastic ponies and 'pew pew' noises. The other pony toys I had would gasp in wonder and bow before their rightful leaders.

So when I first watched FiM, it was like a kick in the nostalgia. Here were these two Princesses, Celestia and Luna, rulers of the Day and Night. One pink (sort of) and one blue. And... Celestia had a flowing, sparkly mane unlike any other pony. Luna had a similar one as Nightmare Moon, but reverted to a 'normal' one when her power was low. When she turned up in Luna Eclipsed with a freshly returned sparkly mane... It kind of drove it home. So Celestia reminds me of Sunsparkle.

Celestia also reminds me of another childhood toy - a unicorn plush Beanie-Buddy called Mystic. She was one of my faves, and when I played with her she was always the 'calm, motherly leader who only gets mad if her kids (everyone) are threatened'. She happened to be white with a pastel rainbow mane. Does that sound familiar? Heh. So I guess I've always had a soft spot for Celestia, even before she was made!

Well, anyway, have Big Princess!