//------------------------------// // The Test // Story: My number one dark knight // by Angelus Alvus //------------------------------// In the capital of Equestria, Canterlot, the sun shone brightly which indicated it would be a great day. Except for one particular unicorn filly. She had a purple fur and her mane was a darker shade or purple with a stripe of pink. She was named Twilight Sparkle. The filly slowly walked beside her parents towards the great castle, where their ruler lived. The father had a blue fur and a darker blue mane, while the mother had a grey fur and her mane and tail had light purple and white striped. Their names were Night Light and Twilight Velvet, respectively. And both were also unicorns. The couple was going to the castle to take their five year old daughter for a test. If the filly manages to pass, she would be admitted in the Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. The young filly had always displayed interest in learning more about her magic and they thought this would be the best place for her to hone her skills and become a talented unicorn. There was a problem, thou. The school had a famous strict entrance exam for all new students. The test was the same every year. However, what worried the young girl the most was that princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, always supervised the exam herself. The little filly did well on the written exam, her parents were amazed by how much their daughter studied and learned, but Twilight was obviously nervous for encountering her sovereign, just like Night Light and Twilight Velvet were, but the couple did their best to remain calm to tranquilize their daughter. When they got to the castle, there were two guards at the entrance. One was a grey Pegasus and the other a yellow earth pony, both wore golden armor and carried spears. “State your business.” The Pegasus asked with a firm stare. Night Light then used his magic to take a scroll from a saddlebag he was carrying and showed the guards. “We’re here to take our daughter to the exam in the castle. Can you tell us which room is it?” After examining the document’s authenticity, the Pegasus said “You can fold it now.” And as Night Light folded the scroll and placed it inside of his saddlebag, the Pegasus continued “From the entrance of the castle go straight, then pick the first row of stairs on your left and near it’ll have another row going up. From there go right and it’s the second door to your left.” Night Light nodded and replied with a smiled “Thank you. Have a nice day.” The Pegasus merely nodded in reply as the earth pony opened the door for them. The family followed the instructions they were given as they trotted through the castle. Twilight’s jaw dropped in awe with the beauty of the castle. They walked on soft red carpets with golden details, crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, the walls were white and decorated with paintings, crystal lamps and even the windows were beautiful. There were a few statues near the walls and many stained glasses with several ponies displayed on them. Twilight couldn’t recognize most of them. She saw one stained glass, divided in half, with two tall mares. On one side there was a white pony with wings and a horn. On her side there was a Sun and it was quite bright. On the other half there was a black alicorn and above her there was a moon and stars. While her side was a bit darker to contrast, it was very beautiful to look at. She recognized the white alicorn as Celestia and by her side another alicorn, but her fur was dark like the night. She wondered who she was. The young unicorn also wondered why some of the windows’ glasses were common transparent glasses. ‘Maybe the princess wants some ideas for pictures.’ It didn’t take long until they found the correct door. It had a sign saying ‘Tests for the School for Gifted Unicorns inside’. Night Light opened the door and there was a quite big waiting room. It had some wooden bench rolls and sitting on them there were many young fillies and foals alongside their parents waiting for them to be called. The family sat on the bench provided. “Thankfully, we got here early. Does the letter say when it’s Twilight’s turn, dear?” Twilight Velvet asked. Her husband promptly picked the letter once again and after re-reading it “They’ll be calling the children alphabetically and only one will take the test at a time.” he replied “Oh” Twilight Sparkle said swallowing dry. It meant that she would be one of the last fillies to take the test. This made her even more nervous. “Look at your future classmates, dear. You’ll be making many new friends.” Velvet said trying to calm her daughter. Sadly, it didn’t work. The young filly hopped out of the bench and started to walk in circles in front of her parents. The couple looked at each other and Velvet levitated her daughter near her and wrapped her around her forelegs. “Relax, sweetie. You’re going to be fine. You studied and practiced a lot. You’ll be great” She said nuzzling her daughter’s face. “But, what if I fail? What if the test is too hard?” she whimpered while looking down. Night Light approached and used his right foreleg to raise his daughter’s chin and said “As your mother said, you’ll be fine, Twilight. If you get too nervous, it’ll get in the way” She looked at her father and said again “But what if I fail? I don’t want to…” He smiled softly and nuzzled her as well. “Look, Twilight, even if you fail everything will be alright. There are many good schools you can enroll. Just try to calm yourself, okay. As your mother said, you can’t think straight if you get all nervous” She relaxed a little at her father’s words, but she tensed once again when an adult male unicorn with light blue fur and white combed mane wearing a suit came out of another door. He was using his magic to levitate a long piece of paper and after he scanned the people inside, he said with a monotonous tone “We’ll now begin the evaluation of the candidates. Please come as we call for your name.” he then looked at the paper next to him and called “The first one is Ascending Star. Please come forward. The family can accompany as well.” Then a young foal with brown fur and shiny grey mane got out of the bench and went inside of the room. After twenty minutes, he got out and he looked very happy. Seeing the foal and his parent’s happiness, Twilight Velvet whispered to her daughter, who still was being hugged “See, dear. It doesn’t seem to be very complicated” The same blue unicorn then got out and summoned the other candidates one by one. After a couple of hours, Twilight returned to be pacing around nervously, especially now that she was the last filly in the room. Twilight Sparkle wondered why it was taking too long for them to call her into the room since the previous foal had left some time ago. She started to worry that she had been disqualified already, but her parents assured her that it was probably some issue that had showed up and they were fixing it before calling her. She almost jumped when the door opened and that same unicorn called her name. Twilight Sparkle breathed deeply as she walked to the door. The instructor of the exam simply raised an eyebrow at the filly and said nothing, while the couple looked at each other nervously. The room was quite large. There was a small stairs that led to a series of row of chairs. Twilight then understood that the room was some kind of classroom given the existence of a blackboard on the opposite side of the chairs. “Stay next to the crystal in front of the board” informed the instructor as he closed the door behind them, climbing the stairs to join the other instructors. All unicorns wore formal clothing and had stern expressions. It was then that the lavender unicorn noticed over a desk in from of the blackboard, a big red crystal. Twilight Sparkle did as she was told while swallowed dry and feeling her legs tremble. She then gave a nervous look towards her parents who tried to make her remember to smile a little bit with a gesture. The filly ended up giving a quite disturbing forced smile which quickly disappeared when she saw that the instructors weren’t amused by it. Suddenly, a burst of light appeared right next to Twilight, making her sit startled. “Sorry for taking so long. I should have remembered to get more ink for my quill before the exams started. I apologize for the inconvenience” Said the voice of a beautiful mare who was very tall and had not only wings, but also a horn. She then placed her ink and quills over a desk on the first roll and then realized that she had startled the young filly next to her. “P-Princess Ce-lest-ia!” Stuttered Twilight. The alicorn smiled softly and said “I’m sorry if I scared you.” Then she noticed that the filly was nervous to the point of trembling. She then continued “Don’t worry. Just do your best” The Princess of the Sun then pointed to the crystal and explained “Make your magic channel through the crystal and we’ll see how it reacts to it. If you make the crystal shine brightly, you pass” Twilight slowly nodded and got on her hooves and walked towards the crystal. She then gave another look to all the ponies in the room and started to try to channel her magic through her horn, but it frizzled a little and a couple of sparks came out of it. Her parents cringed seeing that their daughter was letting her nervousness overcome her. They knew that Twilight could levitate some light objects. They feared how their daughter would feel if she failed the test. The filly then tried to make several gestures and run around the crystal, trying to make her magic to come out, but it was futile. The four unicorns on the chairs gave her a disapproving look and when Twilight looked at them she knew she had failed. She looked down at the verge of tears as she spoke “I’m sorry for wasting your time…” Princess Celestia wanted to comfort the young filly when suddenly she saw a rainbow-colored shockwave through the window. However, her attention quickly went back to the child when she saw that Twilight’s eyes started to shine brightly and her body was enveloped with raw magical power, making her float a couple of feet above the ground. Everypony there looked aghast by this, but couldn’t do a thing as Twilight fired magical beams. One of them hit her parents turning them into plants in a jar. Another hit the four instructors who were encased in a magic bubble and started to float. Other beam hit the crystal making it shine like a lighthouse before shattering. And the last one was about to hit Celestia as well, but the princess managed to shield herself in time. The alicorn looked with wide eyes as the young filly’s magical surge slowly died down and settle down on the floor. The lavender unicorn blinked a few times trying to understand what had just happened. But her attention was diverted to another thing. Her flank started to glow and a big purple star surrounded by a white one and with five smaller stars around it appeared on her flank. She couldn’t believe she had just received her cutie mark. Celestia somehow felt the same. ‘Could she be the…’ the princess wondered. But then she quickly shook her head as she realized she had to fix the damage the young filly had just caused. Her horn emitted a golden glow creating a shockwave of her own. She reverted Twilight’s parents transformation, who were feeling quite dizzy, and destroyed the bubble trapping the four other unicorns, who were rightfully confused by what had just happened. It didn’t take long for Twilight to realize she was the one responsible for doing all that and also for destroying the crystal. “I’m sor…” She started saying at the verge of tearing. However Celestia smiled and interrupted “I guess miss twilight Sparkle passed with flying colors.” Twilight’s tears streamed a little bit and she asked confused “Huh? But I…” Celestia lowered her neck to look straight into Twilight’s eyes. The princess had a serene and peaceful look as she spoke “You just displayed a magical surge. All unicorns are susceptible of having one when they’re young. You have an amazing talent, twilight. It would be an honor if you became my student. I’ll personally give you some private lessons after school to help you further develop your talent. That is, if your parents agree. I won’t force you to anything” She finished looking at the couple. “Me…your personal student…But what about the crystal?” twilight repeated not really believing that her sovereign chose her for this position among all other fillies and foals. The princess chuckled and replied: “Don’t worry about the crystal. It can be replaced. Also, there are no more candidates after you. So fear not, child” The couple looked at each other worried a little bit and after briefly discussing it between them, Night Light asked “When we enrolled Twilight, we read that the School was during 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Which time would your lessons be and what kind of lessons she’ll have with you? We don’t want to put too much weight on our daughter. She’s just five years old” Celestia nodded and said “I understand your worries. I’ve seen your Daughter’s written test exam and she got the highest grade and she displayed a huge magical talent. My private lessons will be as light as possible and they’ll be for just a couple of hours per day after lunch.” She then thought for a while and decided to clean her schedule a little bit to adjust to her lessons “They’ll be from 1 p.m. To 3 p.m. I assure you that your will be in good hooves and after my lessons, I’ll have her escorted back to your house by my guards” The couple looked at each other, still thinking about refusing it, when their daughter rushed to them jumping in joy as she repeated: “Please, mommy, daddy. Let me have those lessons! Pleaseplasepleaseplease!” The filly was very excited to learn and hone her skills. And the princess herself was offering to teach her personally. Twilight was in heaven after hearing all this. The couple looked at each other and murmured between them for a while once again. They decided that if Twilight can’t handle all this, they would gladly take her out of the school and enroll her in another one. This time Velvet said “We agree. Just, please, don’t push her too hard. She’s just a young filly.” “Yaaaaayyy!” Twilight exclaimed in join. “You have my word your daughter will be well taken care of” Celestia assured them truthfully. The instructors on the chairs, however, felt like Celestia had trampled over them a little. Before the surge, they had given twilight an ‘F’. And they thought Twilight’s power to be a little bit too much and if she couldn’t control it, she could hurt the other students. But then, they thought that Celestia decided to have her as a personal student to prevent any unfortunate accident. So they decided to leave the matter at Celestia’s hooves. The princess personally accompanied the couple and their giddy daughter to the exit of the castle. The three unicorns bowed respectfully before they headed back home to celebrate. Celestia’s smile then was reduced to a simple outline on her face as she returned back into the castle. That night, at a balcony that was connected with her personal chambers, she looked straight at the moon sighing heavily. She missed her sister so much, but she dreaded the day she would leave her prison. But then, her hopes started to arise with the young filly whose limits were unknown even to Celestia. The Princess of the Sun then levitated the shards of the red crystal and looked at it in admiration. No foal could have the magic strong enough to destroy this crystal. Celestia herself grew this gem and molded it to be resistant and to react to magic, somewhat like a dragon’s egg. The thought gave Celestia a sad expression. She had promised Fire Storm she would rescue her eggs at that fated day, but when she got to the nest, all eggs had been destroyed. ‘I should have been faster…’ She thought as she closed her eyes. It has been over sixty years since some rogue gryphons attacked her only dragon friend after her hoard. She had received a distressed letter, but she got there too late. She could only beg for forgiveness for not being able to help them. However, unknown to Celestia, one egg did survive. It had been taken by one gryphon in secrecy from the others hoping to make some good money from selling it. However it fell from his bag as he flew over a desert. Thankfully, he wasn’t flying too high and the egg didn’t smash upon impact.