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// The First Semester Congratulatory Dinner 
// Story: Just As I Once Was 
// by Matthias Ramsey 
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The inaugural semester of Twilight's Academy was drawing to a close, punctuated by a Congratulatory Dinner for the students and their guardians where Twilight would present the results of the aptitude tests she had put them through. As usual, Winesap sat at Twilight's right hoof, with the students arranged in no particular order along the sides.
About half an hour into the dinner, Twilight tapped her glass to get everyone's attention.
"All right, everypony. As we reach the end of the first half of our school year, I'd like to reveal why I created this academy in the first place."
Winesap smiled slightly. She knew what Twilight was doing. After all, she had given Twilight the idea.
"At the end of the school year, I'll administer a comprehensive exam to all of you. Then I'll take the results, from the exam and from the rest of the year as a whole, and select one of you to be my personal apprentice."
Audible murmurs of surprise rippled through the room.
Twilight's goal in this was simple. They would be moving on to much more advanced magics in the second half of the year, and she wanted to put the prize in sight of them so they wouldn't lose hope when they inevitably encountered issues with the advanced magics.
"Now for the results of your aptitude tests. Winesap, the lights." Twilight turned on the projector at her left while Winesap killed the lights.
"There were two main categories, each with two subcategories. The categories were Basic Aptitude and Intermediate Aptitude. Here are the results for the BLWAE, the written portion of the Basic Aptitude Exam." She flipped the slide to a chart with each student's score.
The scores were all within six percent of perfect, but what really stood out was the minuscule gap between the top score and the second place score.

Sweetie Belle-100.00%
Dinky Hooves-99.84%

Sweetie Belle gasped and clapped her hooves to her mouth, and Rarity looked amazed.
Dinky's rage was practically visible. She was shaking, and practically impervious to her mother's attempts to calm her down.

"You all did very well on the written test. The practical test wasn't too bad either." She flipped the slide. Dinky climbed up to first, whereas Sweetie Belle sat comfortably in third. Dinky's visible rage dissipated almost instantly.
"Now, the results get a lot more unique when we get to Intermediate level." Twilight flipped the slide again.
Dinky actually pounded the table when she saw the results. She had dropped from second to seventh.
The one in second, somewhat surprisingly, was Swarvoski.
Still in first with a perfect score, Sweetie Belle was guardedly ecstatic.
"Those are the written results. Now, the practical results..."
Dinky screamed in frustration when the results came up. Sweetie Belle and Rarity sat in shocked silence.

Sweetie Belle-49.62/50 points
Dinky Hooves-47.84/50 points

"I must say, these results bode well for you all. I can't wait to see how you'll all handle the final exams."




After the dinner, Dinky walked out with her mother Derpy, muttering angrily to herself.
"I won't lose to that stuck-up, prissy little whorse. She's not better than me. No one's better than me. I will be Princess Twilight's apprentice. Me! Not her, me!"