It was a cool fall day, and a very important one, since today was the day was for the entrance exams for the prestigious E.S.D.E, or the Elemental School for the Defenders of Equestria, which was founded by the elements of harmony to train the next generation of defenders to help deal with the threats to Equestria and its citizens. The stadium in Canterlot was packed with potential students who wanted a shot to help their country and the people inside it.
Among these hopefuls sat two of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Apple Bloom, the taller of the duo, had lightly tanned skin and long dark red hair that reached her back, orange eyes, and wore a simple bright yellow t-shirt, ripped dark blue denim jeans, and a dark pink bow in her hair. To her left sat Sweetie Belle, the smaller of the duo, who had shoulder length curly pink and purple hair, vivid green eyes, and a long white dress, white satin gloves and simple black flats.
"Where the hay is Scootaloo?" Apple Bloom asked, in an annoyed tone, "If I have to sit through this then she should too."
"Maybe she just woke up and is on her way right now!" Sweetie answered with a bit of enthusiasm.
"I hope you're right Sweetie Belle, I'd hate for Scootaloo to miss the entrance exam just 'cause she overslept." Apple Bloom said in a worried tone.
Elsewhere, "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!" cried a certain late teen. "You really messed up now, Scootaloo!" she thought to herself while rushing to get ready. Scootaloo was between Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom's height, with short spiky purple hair, and deep purple eyes. She quickly put on a purple tank top, orange baggy cargo pants, orange high tops, and around her neck was a pair of wonderbolt flight goggles signed by none other than Spitfire herself! She quickly grabbed a slice of toast and ran out the door as fast as she could toward the school.
Back at the Canterlot Stadium, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle noticed that everyone was silent, turning to focus on a thin pale woman with short lavender hair with a bright pink stripe in it, she had piercing purple eyes that looked like she could see your every mistake. Twilight stood in the center of the giant room. She wore a long sleeved blouse with a star pattern on it, a lavender skirt with a giant pink star burst pattern that reached her knees, and in her left hand she held a staff that ended with a pink star like gem that glowed a faint purple glow.
"Greetings, potential students! My name is Twilight Sparkle and I am the Headmistress of this school." Twilight said with a friendly smile. "Now, as many of you know, out of the three hundred and sixty thousand of you here, only sixty-six of you will be accepted. The selection process is very straight forward. First, we will putting you all in groups of 6. Second, you will be tested on your ability to work together by overcoming a challenge. Now before you start panicking..." Twilight went on explaining.
Breathing heavily, Scootaloo tried to stealthily sneak into the stadium, but the people who occupy the stadium looked at her before shrugging and returning their attention to Principle Twilight Sparkle. As she approached Apple Bloom and Sweetie belle, Apple Bloom looked at her and waved her over. Scootaloo then walked over and sat down next to Apple Bloom. "So why are you late?" Sweetie asked in a curious tone.
"I...overslept...whew." Scootaloo explained in between breaths. Scoots was about to explain how she overslept when she was cut off by Twilight.
"Alright. Now that you have been properly informed about the exam, the first team of six to enter the arena is Snips, Snails, Rumble, Featherweight, Peachy Pie, and Sunny Days. Good luck to you six and try your best!" Twilight said with a smile.
"So what do you guys know about how the exam works?" Scootaloo asked her two friends.
"Six ponies are put into teams the teachers have put together prior to today and that team will be tested by seeing their ability to overcome a problem through teamwork." Sweetie Belle, "but I don't know what the problem is. I kinda got distracted from the explanation on that part."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Scootaloo apologized with a sheepish smile.
"It's okay Scoots, we're kinda used to it by know." Apple Bloom said patting her friend on the back, "So we're just gonna wing it once we get to it."
"But what if we are not on a team together!?" Sweetie Belle suddenly exclaimed.
"Calm down! all the teachers know us so they wouldn't split us up, especially Twilight. "Apple Bloom tried to reassure her friend.
Three hours later
Twilight walked onto the stage in the center of the Canterlot Stadium. "Alright, the next team to enter the Exam is Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Peppermint Twist, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon..." Twilight announced. The trio froze altogether once they heard the last two names.
"Why the Hay did they team us up with them?" Apple Bloom exclaimed. "They definitely know that we don't get along at all."
"We haven't seen them in two years. so they probably changed." Sweetie added hopefully.
"Who cares if they did or not! We still have to work with them anyway." Scootaloo said to her friends only to get a look of surprise from both Apple Bloom and Sweetie.
"What!?" they exclaimed.
"We just never thought you would say we should work with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon." Apple Bloom said. Sweetie nodded her head in agreement.
"Okay, but we need to hurry up and get down there." Scootaloo stood up and started heading down to the door that lead to the exam area. Apple Bloom and Sweetie followed. Once through the door the trio found themselves inside a locker room filled with armor of all types. In the center of the room stood a fully armored amazon of a woman with a long blond ponytail with her back turned to them.
"I was wondering when you three would show up. You're ten minutes late!" The amazon said turning to face them revealing herself to be Applejack. Applejack was the largest of Elements of Harmony, standing at 6'3 she easily dwarfs most women and some guys. The armor she wore has an orange tone with a trio of apples stamped onto the breast plate, on her head sat her signature stetson.
"Applejack? Why are you here?" Apple Bloom asked her older sister.
"A'hm here to wish you girls luck and inform you what exactly your test is, so please step in line with the rest of your team so I may begin." Applejack said stepping aside, revealing three familiar looking girls.
Scootaloo stared at the trio in front of her, the one on the far left, who Scoots could clearly identify as Twist, was a small frail looking girl with thick purple glasses, short curly hair wearing a simple white t-shirt and a red skirt. Twist waved at the trio with a big smile on her face. Next to her stood Silver Spoon, who was taller than Apple Bloom. Silver Spoon wore thin blue framed glasses, she was dressed in a dark grey sweater, grey designer jeans, and a pearl necklace around her neck. Silver looked at them with a bored expression. Last but not least there stood the CMC's worst enemy, Diamond Tiara the grade school bully. The trio looked at her in confusion because she wore a friendly smile instead of her usual evil sneer. Diamond wore a light pink hoody, pink shorts, and on her head she wore a silver band instead of her signature diamond tiara.
"Good, now that y'all are here let me tell you exactly what you're exam is. Since you all were told to bring a weapon of some sorts with you for the exam none will be provided. Your exam is pretty straight forward. The six of you will be taking on a pack of timber wolves." Applejack explained. "You will be judged on your teamwork skills, so stick together at all times and look out for one another, okay? Any questions? No? Okay, good luck! Use the locker room to put on some armor. Ya'll are gonna need it," With that, Applejack left.
As soon as Applejack left, Silver Spoon looked at the other five members in the group with an angry look, " I can't believe I'm stuck with this pathetic excuse for a team! We're guaranteed to fail 'cause we have the Cutie Mark Losers who are terrible at almost everything," Silver ranted pointing at the trio. Apple Bloom was about retaliate with some harsh words of her own but someone else beat her to the punch.
"Silver Spoon! Leave them alone," everyone turned to see it was Diamond Tiara that said that! Apple Bloom thought she was hearing things. Diamond would never defend them! Silver turned away and walked into the locker room with an angry growl. Diamond turned to the Crusaders and said, "Sorry about that, she's just really nervous about the exam." with that she too walked into the locker room.
"Am I hearing things, or did Diamond Tiara just defend us instead of joining Silver Spoon in ridiculing us?" Scootaloo asked her friends.
"No, she really did that," Apple Bloom answered.
"That is totally not like her," Sweetie Belle added.
"Well we should go get ready for the exam." Twist said to the trio as she entered the locker room, the trio shrugged then followed.
In the timber wolf pen stood a dark shadowy figure who was smiling at the growling timber wolves. She let out a laugh and began reciting an incantation:
Night time is the shroud of evil,
the harbinger of sleep,
come
to test the hearts of the chosen,
ARISE NIGHTMARE!*
As she finished the incantation, a purple light flooded the room, & the timber wolves began howling. The cloaked figure chuckled to herself and left the pen and headed toward the arena to not draw suspicion.
In the locker room sat Scootaloo in full panic mode. "Scootaloo, how could you forget your weapon at home, you feather brain! Now you have to go through the exam without one!" Scoots scolded herself in her mind.
Sweetie took notice of Scootaloo's panicked state and asked, "What's the matter, Scoots?"
Scootaloo put on an imitation of Rainbow's confident smile, "N-Nothing's wrong, I'm pumped to get this exam started!" Scootaloo let out a fake confident laugh to which Sweetie raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, if you say so." Sweetie said to Scootaloo's odd behavior then walked away to put her armor on. After she left Scoots walked over to the armor sets that the school provided: Heavy knight armor, and light leather armor. Knowing the knight armor would hinder her speed and movements she grabbed the leather armor but also grabbed a set of knight armor gloves.
"Since you don't have a weapon, You'll have to use your hands to fight off the timber wolves," Scoots told herself as she walked into the dressing area and saw the others were already in their armor taking note that everyone but Twist brought their own armor. Apple Bloom wore what looked like a hand me down suit of armor possibly from Applejack. It was a faded gold color with the Apple Family crest on it's breastplate, which is three apples on a shield. Unlike Apple Bloom, Sweetie wore a shiny white dress with a silver chest piece and long gem studded gloves. It was definitely Rarity's handiwork.
Scootaloo had to turn to get a clear look at Diamond Tiara's clearly expensive custom armor with it's solid diamond chest piece, diamond plated boots, and leather gloves with diamond studded knuckles. "You didn't have to show off how rich you were when wearing armor, did you?" Apple Bloom asked sarcastically.
"Oh, it's not for show. I wanted an extremely tough armor so I looked up the strongest stones and found diamonds were at the top of the list so I made my armor out of them," said Diamond. Scoots turned and took a good look at Silver's armor. It was a large dark silver knight armor that looked extremely heavy. Unlike the others she was holding her weapon which was a giant hammer with what looks like a turbine on one side of it.
"What are you looking at?" Silver Spoon asked Scootaloo with a 'I will kill you if you keep looking at me,' look on her face. Scoots turned away from her. She looked at Twist who was wearing the standard leather armor, Scoots saw a white bow and a quiver of red arrows on her back.
Scoots turned to her friends to see what weapons they would be using. Apple Bloom had a basic sword and shield, and Sweetie had a strange looking sword that looked like it was made of tiny blades. Scoots then looked at Diamond to see what weapon she would have but was surprised to see Diamond holding a rusted rapier. "Diamond why do you have a rusted sword? That's not what I expected you to have." Scootaloo asked Diamond.
"You'll just have to wait and see." Diamond answered with a smirk that reminded Scootaloo of the Diamond who used to bully her. Scoots was about to ask her what she meant but was cut off by Applejack entering the locker room.
"I hope ya'll are ready because the exam is starting now! The door behind you is the entrance to the arena." Applejack says as she enters the room. Upon hearing this Scootaloo realized she didn't put on her armor.
"Today is just not my day," she thought as she grabbed the knight gloves and put them on then reached for the rest but was stopped by Applejack who was rushing everyone out the door.Once in the arena the group looked around them taking in their surroundings. the arena was a small forest area surrounded by thirty foot tall walls.
"Wow!" Twist said in awe.
In a classroom sat Pinkie Pie who was doing extremely boring paper work. She was wearing a pink long sleeved sweatshirt with three balloons on it, blue jeans, and a pair of goggles she got from Rainbow Dash atop her head. "Why do I have to do paper work, I'm not even a teacher, so why did Twilight want me to do paper work instead of helping with the exam?" She said to herself as she looked at what was left of the paperwork. "UGH! Why is there so much, anyway? It's all just random questions! What does thi-" She was suddenly cut off as a shiver ran up her spine. "Uh oh, that's not good!" Pinkie said as she leaped up from the desk she was sitting at and ran out of the classroom toward the arena.
"Alright, the test begins now." Twilight said as she used her magic to open the timber wolf pen. But instead of timber wolves a woman walked out who was dressed in revealing black armor. Her hair was blue fire that raised toward the heavens, her eyes were completely white & on her back stood a pair of large bat wings.
"Who in the hay are you and where are the timber wolves!?" Applejack yelled at the woman drawing her sword and jumping into the arena. the woman looked at Applejack and laughed as Applejack collapsed onto the ground unconscious. Then her gaze landed on Scootaloo and the others and she smiled.
"The chosen shall be tested," The woman said with an evil laugh.The woman looked at the group in front of her and smiled, "Chosen ones I will be your opponent." The woman said as she materialized a sword out of nowhere. "Begin!" She yelled then charged the group reaching Apple Bloom first.
The woman swung her blade in a downward movement Apple Bloom barely raised her shield in time to block the attack. The collision knocked Apple Bloom a few feet away. Silver used the moment to swing her hammer at the woman only for her to get knocked back against the wall as the woman dodged the swing and brought her foot straight to Silver's chest.
The woman looked at Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon as they both were on the ground. "Pathetic I thought the chosen would be more of a challenge." She said as she turned to Scootaloo raising her sword preparing to strike but was startled as an arrow flew past her face causing her focus to shift to Twist, who drawn another arrow preparing to let it loose the woman attacked her before she could grabbing her arm. "You are not a chosen one so I must incapacitate you sorry." She said as she tightened her grip on Twist's arm going to break it, but was stopped before she could do permanent damage by Diamond tackling the woman to the ground.
Sweetie Belle ran to Twist to make sure she was okay, while Scootaloo ran to join Diamond Tiara who has drawn her rapier. Scoots put her hands into fist as she got ready to help Diamond fight the woman. The woman got to her feet and lunged at Diamond who brought her sword up to parry the attack. but the attack didn't even reached Diamond as the woman was knocked out of the sky by something fast.
The woman got back to her feet. "Show yourself whoever you are." The woman commanded.
"Who said I am hiding." a voice said from up in a tree, everyone turned toward the voice to see Pinkie sitting on a branch with a huge grin on her face. "Hi my names Pinkie Pie what's yours?"
"I am the NIGHTMARE, and I will not allow you to interfere with the test." Nightmare said to Pinkie as she charged at Pinkie only to miss, and get kicked in the stomach causing Nightmare to get stagger back. "I will not allow you to hinder my test any more!" Nightmare Screeched at Pinkie as a dark aura surrounded her body her eyes began to glow red. Nightmare swung her sword and caught Pinkie in the shoulder with the tip of her blade. Which distracted Pinkie long enough for Nightmare to grab her by the head and cast a dark magic spell to show Pinkie her greatest fear. Letting go of Pinkie who then collapsed onto the ground unconscious, the Nightmare turned to the group and smiled. "Now where were we."
Apple Bloom and Silver Spoon picked themselves off the ground just in time to see Pinkie's defeat at the hands of the Nightmare. "How are we going to beat her? She beat Pinkie easily." Silver asked the others.
"We do what Applejack said work together, then we can beat her." Scootaloo answered." And I have a plan." She then whispered it to the others. "Alright let's do this."
"I hope your plan works because if you fail you die." Nightmare called out to them.
"Alright let's go then." Silver Spoon said as she and Apple Bloom approached Nightmare. Apple Bloom lunged at Nightmare swinging her sword Nightmare blocked the swing, Apple Bloom jumped out of the way as Silver's hammer swung passed her hitting Nightmare in the head sending her Flying toward Sweetie who swung her sword which extended into a whip like sword that wrapped around Nightmare's throat. Using her whip like sword she swung Nightmare toward Diamond who was in a tree letting Nightmare go she flew toward Diamond who brought her gold plated boots to Nightmares jaw sending her higher into the air.
On the ground Apple Bloom had Scootaloo in her arms and then threw her at ceiling of the arena. once Scootaloo's feet touched the ceiling she kicked off of it and brought her foot to Nightmare's chest with all her might as both she and Nightmare crashed to the ground below. Scootaloo picked herself up from the ground slowly everybody ran to Scoots and helped her up and began to celebrate Nightmare's defeat. But it was short lived as Nightmare rose to her feet with an angry look on her face, the group was shocked to see her get up. " I am going to kill you all!" She yelled and raised her sword but was grabbed by Pinkie before she could swing it.
"You will not." Pinkie said in a serious tone, her hair was straight her eyes showed anger. "Now have a taste of your own medicine." She said as she placed her hand on Nightmare's face. Nightmare started screaming as she saw her worst fear. Pinkie then grabbed a small amulet from her pocket and shoved it onto Nightmare's forehead the amulet glowed and caused Nightmare to disintegrate.
"Is she dead?" Scoots asked in a shaken tone
"No I just sent her somewhere else in Equestria and she will be back." Pinkie answered as her hair returned back into it's original untamed style.
"where am I?" Applejack groaned as she picked herself up finally recovering from the sleep spell Nightmare used on her. "Where is that woman I have a gift to give her." She added with an angry tone.
"Ooh, what kind of gift? " Pinkie asked in a happy tone causing Applejack to let out a sigh. The force field that surrounded the arena faded. Twilight teleported down into the arena next to Applejack.
"Are you girls alright?" Twilight asked in a worried tone.
"we're fine, but Twist needs to go to the doctors." Apple Bloom answered.
"I'll take her to the hospital down the road." Applejack said as she approached Twist, picked her up and carried her outside and toward the hospital.
"All right you five are to return home, tomorrow we will reveal if or if not you made it." Twilight said but looked like she was struggling to contain her composure, but failed as she excitably exclaimed. "I can't stop myself you six are definitely accepted."
"Really?" Sweetie Belle asked excitably, Twilight responded with a nod.
"Yes!" the entire group cheered.
"Okay enough celebrating for now, you six go home and I will see you all in six weeks." Twilight said with a smile.
In the northern mountains Nightmare was throwing a tantrum destroying boulders and forming caves. "THEY WILL PAY FOR THIS!!!" Nightmare screamed into the horrid winds.
END OF CHAPTER ONE.