Nova and Sunshine stretched out their wings along with a dozen other foals their age. It was Flight camp. Some of the foals were from their class in school while others were from other primary schools. Both would have preferred to have their whole class with them because Nova had been getting a lot of unwanted attention. Dash, Fluttershy, and Gilda had ended up in another group which also included Hoops, Score, and Dumbbell who by the tone of his bravado hadn’t learned much from his stint in juvenile detention.
Cadance was off in another group and security was heavy.
One saving grace for Nova was another winged fox pony in the group who would inform the ignorant that it wasn’t entirely unheard of for fox types to have both wings and a horn. The fact that it was rare wasn’t something she had any intention of sharing. Her name was Aria Rain Showers and she had already come to Nova’s defense several times. She was a feisty silver black roan with a black mane, tail, the back of her ears like Nova as well as her boots and the end of her tail.
Fortunately, after both security personal and Princess Cadance intervened on several occasions over the first and second day of camp, word got out to back off. Putting Spitfire in charge of their group helped too.
“All right, let's do some laps!” Spitfire shouted encouragingly. A moment later they were all in the air. “Stay together, not too close! Give that filly some wing room.”
“Not my fault her wings are so long!” The colt shot back.
“You get your wing clipped it’ll be no ponies fault but your own,” Spitfire called back. “And in case you hadn’t noticed, my wings are just like hers.”
Silver Lining flipped over to fly right above the colt inverted and informed them, “Watch yourself, they are sisters.”
“Hey, what?!” The colt protested as Silver flipped back over and returned to her spot. “But?”
“It’s complicated.” Sunshine offered as they flew along.
“OK, I get it. My family is kind of complicated too.” He admitted and decided that spreading out a little more wasn’t such a bad idea.
“Hey look, it’s another alicorn!” Indigo shouted.
“What, where?” Sunshine asked. The fact Indigo hadn’t named the alicorn had caused a pit in her gut to form.
Sure enough, it was Princess Twilight, just standing about with Spike the dragon on her back.
“Shit!” Sunshine spat out and started climbing and racing away from the group while looking about frantically.
“Sunshine?!” Nova shouted racing after her. The two had gotten far better in their flying technique and were now racing away from the group.
“Hey, where are you two going?” Spitfire shouted. “You lot, stay together.
“I think Dash is in trouble! Where is her group? Look for a unicorn! We have to stop her without any pony noticing!” Sunshine shouted.
“I see her, the unicorn!” Nova shouted. Nova saw the unicorn looking out from a small cloud, her horn starting to light up, Nova’s horn lit up – Crack!
Pap!
Nova had teleported, dived on the unicorn, wrapped her hooves around the unicorn’s head and neck locked her horn against her target’s horn, and began to pump magic from her horn into the stranger’s horn.
It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough for the unicorn to lose concentration and break her spells.
And now they were plummeting while Nova held on.
Elsewhere dash was racing Dumbbell, hoops, and Score oblivious to the drama going on.
“You stupid little filly you’ll kill us both!” the unicorn protested and forced back Nova’s magical assault resulting in a feedback explosion of magic. The two parted flying uncontrolled away from each other, Sunshine raced down to arrest Nova’s out of control flight and caught her just as the shock-wave and color from a sonic rainboom hit them, sending them flying while clinging to each other.
“No! I’ll kill them! I’ll kill them all!” Shouted the unicorn, she attempted to power up her horn only to have it sputter out. She had no magic and was still falling.
Spitfire’s priorities were on the two falling fillies and swooped down in an effort to catch them. She turned her head just in time to see the mysterious Alicorn swoop down, catch the falling unicorn, and then vanish under a bell-shaped magical form.
“Summer, you owe me a big explanation,” Spitfire demanded as she raced after the fillies.
“Sorry, can’t… spoilers.” Summer said just as a Wonderbolt with a rainbow mane went zipping past.
“Who was that? I don’t know that flier?” Spitfire protested.
“That’s Rainbow Dash,” Sunshine shouted spreading her wings out just a bit to slow her descent. They were only a few hooves apart now.
“What?!”
“Like I said, spoilers.” Sunshine offered as Spitfire closed the gap.
“We are going to have a long talk.” And then Nova and Sunshine were gone in a flash of brilliant light. “Sunshine! Nova! What the actual buck is going on here!! Where are you!!”
🌈
“Shit!” Sunshine said as she looked around. The entire place was filled with stars as far as the eye could see, the floor not but an ethereal sparkling mist.
“Where are we?” Nova asked as she too looked about in utter astonishment. "Did we die?"
“But I can’t be here?” Sunshine said quietly. “I didn’t even do anything? You don’t even have a cutie mark yet?”
“Would you like to may…. Wa?!” suddenly Nova was enveloped in light and lifted up into the air.
“Oh my gosh!” Sunshine exclaimed and suddenly found herself being lifted up.
Light blazed on Nova’s flank.
“I’ve got my cutie mark!” Nova shouted joyfully as she pranced in the air. Never mind that she was half convinced that they were dead.
“But, but, but!?” Sunshine exclaimed as a horn formed on her forehead. “What’d I do?”
“Oh my gosh, now we really are sisters!” Nova exclaimed, reached over, and hugged sunshine. A moment later they set back down onto the strange landscape.
“That’s just great,” Sunshine said sarcastically.
“You sound like you aren’t happy about getting a horn?”
“But I don’t want a horn! I don't want to be an alicorn!!” Sunshine protested. “No pony can find out! I have to hide this somehow! We have to get out of here before Princess Celestia comes. This is going to screw up everything!”
“Screw what up? Where are we?”
“It’s the Ascension Zone! Not to be confused with the Twilight Zone even though they look a lot alike. Come on, you’ve got to get us back to the house. I can’t have any pony see this horn! Gah! Now I look even more like Shimmer!!”
“But??”
“Teleport us?”
“But I don’t know how?”
“Do what you did when you jumped that unicorn. Hurry!”
“Alright. I’ll give it a shot but if we end up inside of a bulkhead it’ll be your fault.”
Crack!
Crack! Princess Celestia looked about the ascension zone. “Darn it, they got away.” She then pulled up a screen depicting a giant baby dragon head protruding from a tower where the entrance exams were taking place. “What the Tartarus?!” And then with another loud crack, she was gone.
Later that afternoon princess Celestia called three of the admissions test proctors into her office, Top Marks, Crystal Clear, and Neighsay.
"Mr Marks, Mrs Clear, Sir Neighsay, care to explain to me why you failed Twilight Sparkle?" Princess Celestia asked in a cold tone devoid of any compassion. "Her written test shows a knowledge base that is years in advance of a filly her age."
"Well, it just proves that she obviously cheated." Mrs Clear cut in.
"Indeed." Princess Celestia commented coldly. "Care to explain how? When I quizzed her myself she proved to be a very knowledgeable young filly. Now, care to explain the dragon egg?"
"Well, that was obviously outside help," Top Marks boldly proclaimed.
"Indeed, a filly like that has no business in our school," Neighsay said haughtily.
"Outside help?" Princess Celestia said softly. She then rose to her hooves, slammed her front hooves on her desk, and shouted, "Since when do we require little fillies to hatch dragon eggs!!!"
It had been a while since any pony had heard the Canterlot voice.
"I have a little filly who now has a baby dragon bonded to her. A little filly who is going to have to take a big part in that baby's upbringing because of that bond." Princess Celestia said in a very dangerous and frightening tone. "And as it looks like I need to remind you who's school it is, the three of you are suspended pending an inquiry into your actions. Guards!"
"Princess." Two guards say as they enter the room. There are more guards out in the hall.
"Escort these ponies off the premises. They are not to be allowed access to their offices or any of the classrooms. They are barred from the school and from the castle grounds unless summoned by myself. Is that clear?"
"Yes, your highness," both guards replied sharply.
Princess Celestia sat down and watched as the three ponies were escorted out of her office. She still didn't know who was interfering with Cadance's mail, but at least it gave her a little satisfaction. Still, though, it troubled her. Why had they tried to block Twilight's entry into the school, and it begged the question, was some pony trying to control who would be allowed to attend her school?