//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Mare With a Dragon Tattoo // by RDDash //------------------------------// 10 years before Season 1. The year is 990 of Celestial Raign. Sparkle Manor. Twilight Sparkle blinked, the new day started. She had been preparing for this for weeks. Everything needed to be perfect. Getting into Princess Celestia School For Gifted Unicorns was her dream, and now it's going to become true. "Young mistress, your parents would like a word with you. They are waiting for you downstairs. " "Very well, please let them know that I will be there soon," said Twilight Sparkle dismissing their family butler. Twilight Sparkle's family belongs to the old and respected bloodline, as well as, to the old house of nobles, specifically to the House of Starshine Starlight Rosewood Starbuck Sparkle of Unicornia. It would only make sense for them to have all the bells and whistles that went with it. Fun fact, as part of the deal the House of Sparkle is entitled to the employment of mark 11.56-4 changeling servitude drone, modeled after Earth pony. Changeling servitude drones required very little maintenance and sleep as long as they were being provided with background empathic energy. Their lifespans were on average longer than of ponies and can be replaced when needed. They are also are bound to the family by a magic circuit, that ensured perfect obedience. Twilight Sparkle let it out the breath she didn't know she was holding. She only has about five minutes before she had to go downstairs as per request of her parents. 5 minutes later. "Here you are, are you ready to go?" said Twilight Velvet. "Of course, " said Twilight. "Where is the father?" "I am so sorry sweetie, but he is very busy today! Now then shall we go? You wouldn't want to be late on your first day." Princess Celestia School For Gifted Unicorns. Princess Celestia School For Gifted Unicorns was the very prestigious school in Canterlot. It was founded by Princess Celestia in the year 213 of Celestial Reign. Since then, it's served as a gold standard in the education system of Equestrian Kingdoms. "Welcome! Welcome! We are so excited to invite the young Ms. Sparkle for the chance to be accepted to the most prestigious school in the Canterlot. Perhaps even in the whole country of Equestrian Kingdoms," said the Professor Sunflower excitingly. "Yes, very exciting indeed." They went into the next room, it was quite large, and lots of light shined from outside. In the center of the room, there was a small table. On the table, there was the dragon egg. Twilight Sparkle went inside the room, she waited for a bit. She then trotted to the table and noticed a letter on it. Dear, Twilight Sparkle... Your task is to Incubate or if you prefer to hatch this dragon egg in a duration of sixty minutes. During the whole challenge, you will be observed. It would be preferable for everypony including yourself if you could use magical solution to the problem. Professor Sunflower. Well, nuts! What do I do now? Twilight Sparkle started to pace across the room. This wasn't happening, this can't be happening. She was scared now. There is no way she could do it. There must have been some mistake. The whole thing had to be a prank right? She attempted many spells and so far the result was unsatisfactory. Her horn did light up with bright light during each incantation. "Incubation!" she screamed. "Incubation!" she tried again. "Incubation!" and again. This routine continued for a while. The final minute is going to arrive soon, yet no visible changes have been made to the egg. No! No! No! No! No! No! Twilight Sparkle did one last thing she could do, she gave up. Sitting on the couch she waited until the time would run out, and then she would be kicked out as the worst failure to date. The sky exploded with the shock wave of rainbow colors. The smell of ozone filed the air. Twilight Sparkle's magic overloaded, and time stopped for a split second, but this was more than enough. "Make a contract with me," Twilight heard the strange but calm voice. . "Contract, what contract? I don't understand," Twilight Sparkle heard herself saying. "I know what you want Twilight Sparkle. Right now you want to go to this school. Don't you? In order to do so, you need to hatch me, to Incubate me. I am the egg, I am what inside of it." All of this was a bit too creepy, but whoever it was it knew her perfectly she did want to go to the school after all. "Alright, I'll accept." Time returned back to normal, the sharp cracking sound can bee heard. Twilight winced, feeling slight discomfort that had been spreading across her hoof. Twilight looked at the table, she saw a small a purple green dragon. Taking a glance at her hoof Twilight discovered the small tattoo of a dragon that has been imprinted on it. She doesn't know what exactly this was, but she sensed a whiff of powerful magic from it. This could be a problem. Since she could sense it then some others could too. That could attract unwanted attention. Even more then a little filly with a small dragon, who just bought an express ticket into the most prestigious school in Equestrian Kingdoms? , she thought. Also how am i going to explain this to my parents. There is no way they wouldn't notice a tattoo on a body of her own daughter. Even if she could find some way to hide its magical nature, it would still be very scandalous for a noble pony to express herself in such a way. Twilight remembered all of those nights when proper rules of etiquette had been drilled into her by a tutor. My brother would understand, right? Twilight remembered her older brother Shining Armor. He was a lot more reasonable about those kind of things. Just recently he applied to be transferred into Guard Academy. Which while guaranteed upon graduation for a pony to be in a Solar Guard, it also provided the basic standardized education, as well as all the skills that Solar Guard needs for their career "Master, I sense your current dilemma. May I recommend a hibernation technique Frozen Flame." Twilight heard the calm voice in her head. "Just a heads up, Master, in about two minutes you are going to be visited." Twilight did have her her two minutes and she is going to use it to the maximum. "You are speaking in my head, and I reply with you vocally," she said. "The room is monitored, so won't they hear me." "Not quite master, when you hear me talk, In reality, I'm using your vocal cords. If they even hear anything which is impossible by the way, the only thing they would hear is the ramblings of the filly under a lot of mental stress." "Impossible! What do you mean?" "About 1 minute ago the Equestria wide magic boom overloaded all the spells, that includes monitoring spell craft that was in this room." " Who are you?" she said to the voice in her hand. "Are you...are you that dragon?" "In a way," the voice said calmly "He and I are separate entities to the point that he isn't aware of my presence. Think of me like an intermediate to be in service too you." "And he?" "He? He is just a normal dragon hatched from a normal dragon's egg." "But!" Twilight was confused "But you said!" She then looked at the tattoo again, her brain clicked. Reading her mind the voice calmly replied "I assure you, my Master, there is no hidden malice. Simply put it I have combined the representation of both your mind and that dragon's mind. I do live to serve" "To serve?" "Yes, my Master. Now then forgive me, but I can't answer any more questions, for now, two minutes are up" Twilight Sparkle felt that the Frozen Flame technique had been activated, and she was ready now. The door opened, two ponies came in. One of them was Professor Sunflower, the other one was. "Hello, my little pony. I've heard from others that your name is Twilight Sparkle, would that be correct?" Twilight was in slight shock, now she was grateful for IT to be hidden from somepony like the princess. She made a mental note to give It a name later. She quickly nodded to the Princess "Yes, your majesty." Celestia smiled "Well, the reason I am here is that I am interested in finding a personal student. It just so happens that you pass all the need its requirements. However, I can't force you. Instead, I would like to ask you a question. Would you like to be my student?" Twilight thought A student, me? There was some strange story about Sunset Shimmer, her previous student. Princess Celestia student runs away, they said. Maybe she wasn't dedicated enough, me, however, I am up for the challenge. "I would like that very much, Princess." "That's wonderful to hear Twilight, Now then, let's go I have so much to teach you. Oh, I almost forgot, congratulations Twilight on your new cutie mark." For a moment Twilight thought Princess Celestia is going to cackle with the sinister giggle "Good! Good!" Twilight would hear Princess say. Twilight, focus! , she ordered herself, and with that banished that ridiculous idea. That movie about the demise of ancient unicorn order of Lunar Knights was way too entertaining. She smiled to Princess Celestia, Princess Celestia smiled back. Yes, everything is just going to be perfect.