//------------------------------// // The Exam // Story: All the Difference // by Tavi n Scratch //------------------------------// It was about fifteen years ago. I was just a nervous filly, waiting outside of the classroom. It was almost my turn to take the entrance examination for Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted unicorns. A minute before I was waiting out here with another little filly who introduced herself as Twilight. I was quite a bit older than her, almost three or four years I’d say. At that moment she was testing, a couple examiners were observing her magic ability. I had hoped she would’ve done well, but a couple minutes after she walked out of the room, the frown of a young foal sat on her face. For some reason I felt obligated to comfort her, it just seemed like something I needed to do. I walked up to her and spoke, “It’s okay, a place with meanies like those doesn’t deserve somepony as special as you.” I turned to a vase sitting on a table and picked up a flower from it and laced it through her hair using my magic. “If you keep practicing then someday you’ll turn out to be a great and wonderful unicorn, you don’t need this place. You know what, here take this.” I took the wizard’s cap off my head and gave it to her. “That was a gift from my dad, and I know that it will help you.” She put on the cap and a huge grin spread across her face. "Take this too." I removed the cape from my shoulders and placed it over her. "Never stop trying." She trotted off, happily dancing about in the clothes that were too big for her. Her parents then approached me. “Thanks, I wasn’t sure my wife and I would be able to cheer her up after all this.” He gestured to the classroom. “You didn’t have to do that, thank you.” “It’s really nothing, I just saw a unicorn with potential and gave her the little bit of support she needed. You two just make sure she practices, She seems like something special.” The support I never got. The two nodded at me and walked off after their daughter. I wish I could have parents that were that supportive of me. I wish I could have parents. I was there under the watch of a couple guards. They picked me up off the street with the intention of taking me to the orphanage, but when I fought back with magic they thought I might be a good candidate for the school, so they took me here. I walked into the testing room, a few unicorns sat in the back rows of the class, writing on clipboards. One of them speaks up, “Please state your name and age.” “Trixie, Trixie Lulamoon, eleven years old.” “Alright Miss Lulamoon, your task is to hatch this dragon’s egg,” he gestured to a multicolored object sitting in a cart. “You may begin.” I turned to the egg and began to muster up everything inside of me, I couldn’t fail. If I did I would be sent to the orphanage. I shifted the energy from within me to my horn and expelled it onto the egg. I could feel it shifting and moving under my magic, then I felt the tiniest crack, followed by a thunderous crack. The explosion tripped off something inside of me, the magic was flowing out of me at an insane rate. I had to put all of my effort into just not losing control. Chairs in the room began to levitate, a monstrous dragon came crawling out now hatched egg. Everything went so wrong so fast, until something in me cracked. At that moment I had control over that infinite power, and it was terrifying. I placed the chairs back down and returned the dragon inside the egg and sealed it. Everything returned to how it was, and then I turned to see the princess herself. “Oh your majesty, I’m so sorry.” At the moment I had no idea what had just happened, I was just terrified. I felt as if I had made a mistake. “I’ve never seen anypony so young able to control that much magic, that was astounding.” I stood there with my mouth agape, my young mind couldn’t process all of this at once. “What was your name again?” I try to talk, but at first I just squeak. I clear my throat and respond, “Trixie, my name is Trixie. Am I in trouble?” I remember my knees trembling as I stood before Celestia. “Not at all little one. Hold on, where are your parents?” One of the guards that had escorted me there explained my situation to the princess. “Oh, I see. Follow me” “Where are we going?” “We are going to your new room, here in the palace.” “What?” I was beyond confusion, keep in mind I was only a child at the time. “I’ve been looking for an apprentice, a unicorn with untapped magical potential, and here you are. You will be my personal student, and will reside here in the palace.” It took me a second to process, but once I understood I reacted like a filly on Hearth’s Warming. “Really!?” She nodded and I began to hop around in joy. I latched myself onto her leg, hugging her with all my might, and the princess laughed. The moment was interrupted by a loud grumble of my stomach, it had been a while since I last ate. “How about some lunch first,” I nodded and my new mentor lead me out the door. Thus began my new life.