//------------------------------//
// The Lavender Filly 
// Story: Me, You, and a Library for Two 
// by Dull Mist 
//------------------------------//

                                                                                The Lavender Filly

When one is but a small foal, there are certain things that are expected of them. Things like getting their hooves dirty while playing in the mud with your friends, or playing games and making a big ruckus with their high pitched laughter.  Or even giving the adult ponies around them headaches when they pester them with a torrent of questions as they try to soak up the big world around them like a sponge, trying to learn as much as they can about the smallest and most menial of things. “Why are they called ladybugs? Are they all ladies? Do butterflies like to eat butter? What are rainbows made of? Why do some words sound the same but mean different things? Why does that pony smell so bad? Where do foals come from?” They are also expected to run around all day long with the energy that only the young have and the old dream of having, causing mischief and mayhem wherever they go. They are expected to be laughing and smiling in the innocent euphoria that is only available to those who are too inexperienced to believe that life is anything but absolutely wonderful.   

Silver Quill did none of those things. He was as young and as innocent as any other foal unicorn, but that was where the similarities ended. Some would say that he is antisocial, and others would say that he is depressed or angry. Some would even say that he was replaced at birth with a changeling who looked exactly like the colt, but was secretly plotting the downfall of all of Equestria. However, it would be wise if you didn’t pay much attention to the words of such ponies. Silver Quill certainly didn’t.

The truth was, Silver Quill wasn’t any of those things as a colt. When others thought of him as antisocial, he thought of himself as introverted, and when they thought of him as depressed, he thought of himself as not one to waste unnecessary words. He was the type of colt that nobody understood, largely due to the fact that he didn’t show emotion often, and that he kept to himself at almost all times. This coupled with his appearance, a pale gray coat with a jet black mane and piercing dark blue eyes made him quite the intense looking pony. While he has at some times given some effort at making friends, all of the other children were frightened away from him due to his intense demeanor. If any foal had taken the time to get to know him, they would have found that he wasn’t nearly as imposing as he seemed. They would have discovered that he was an extremely polite and caring pony. If somepony would have done but a little digging, they would see that he was a very intelligent foal with a love of books rivaled only by his love for his parents. But none did, and Silver Quill went through life effectively friendless. 

To some, the concept of not having a single friend was absolutely terrifying. Silver Quill however,  wasn’t too perturbed by it. In fact, there was very little he was perturbed by, because as long as he had a book in front of him or a quill in his telekinetic grasp, he was happy. His love for literature and writing was suggested by his cutiemark, a shiny quill that was dappled with magical sparkles and stars. It was fitting, because Silver Quill considered the magic of words to be the strongest of any other kind, except maybe music. The magic of representing deep feelings and thoughts in tiny squiggles of ink have always enraptured him, and as long as he had that magic, he needed nothing else.

Until one day, that changed.

Silver Quill lived in the grand city of Canterlot, the capital city of Equestria. It is the largest and most impressive city in all of Equestria. It was populated by the wealthiest and most intelligent ponies that the world had to offer. It was a veritable birthplace of inspiration and potential, as nearly all of the most influential ponies stemmed from this city. It also holds the largest schools in all of Equestria, schools where hundreds of young and eager ponies go to learn and discover. It was in one of these schools the Silver Quill’s world was turned on its head. It was in the morning when he first saw her. He was walking through the halls of the school with his nose in a book he was levitating in front of his face. He walked the halls, heading to his classroom, absorbed in the latest exploits of Harry Plotter, the young unicorn who was destined to save all of Equestria from a great and terrible evil.

“The Basilisk's fangs dripped with glistening poison, one that would paralyze Harry at the slightest touch. If that had been the only problem that Harry faced, he may have had even the smallest chance of getting out of this confrontation with his horn still attached. Unfortunately, the monstrous basilisk’s eyes were just as dangerous as its teeth, capable of turning even the strongest pony into stone with just a glance. And to top that off, Harry’s sworn enemy, Voldemare, was just a few meters away. Voldemare smirked at the young unicorn, raised his horn triumphantly, and declared…”

“Ouch!”

Silver Quill was very surprised to find himself falling back on his flank as something bumped into him, or as he bumped into something. Honestly, he was far to engrossed in his novel to tell which scenario actually happened. Whatever it was he bumped into, it seemed to be just as surprised as he was.“Huh? What happened? Who dares interrupt the great Voldemare?”

This was an old problem for Silver Quill. He often got so engrossed in the book he was reading that he had a tiny bit of trouble distinguishing it from reality. Once he got to his senses though, he lifted himself up and noticed that he had collided with a lavender colored filly that seemed to have had her nose in a book as well.

“Ooh, I really need to listen to big bro and stop walking and reading. What was… oh!” 

Once it registered to the young filly that she had collided with someone in her carelessness, she instantly started to ramble out apologies at a breakneck pace, sending Silver's already confused mind into even more of a loop.

“Oh jeez oh jeez, I’m sooo sorry, I had no idea that you were there! Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt did you? Oh pleeaase tell me I didn’t hurt you!”

Silver was a bit shocked at the sudden turn of events, but he wasn’t injured in the least. He tried to assuage the filly by telling her that he wasn’t injured at all. But apparently, his mouth had other plans and decided to hold a coup d’état on the rest of him. 

“Uhh… you… I mean I’m…uhhhh…”

The lavender eyes widened in fear. “Oh Jeez, You’re broken! I can’t believe I broke somepony! I’m going to get in so much trouble! I’m so sorry; you see I was reading my book and I was at an extremely interesting part and I wasn’t really paying attention although I should have been and please oh please don’t tell my parents I broke you!”

The Lavender filly was beside herself with worry, for herself or for Silver Quill, he couldn’t tell. Her eyes started to water and her lip started to tremble, terrified of the consequences of breaking the pony that she ran into. Silver Quill couldn’t answer, even though he wanted nothing more than relieve the fears of the lavender filly. He wanted to assure her he was fine, give her a smile to show that he was alright, but he couldn’t move a single muscle to do so. He was too busy staring at her. Her eyes were impossibly deep with the same strong lavender that made her coat, so deep that he found himself drowning in their color. His head was much too jumbled in order to formulate any coherent thought, and if he had been able to; he would have wondered if this lavender filly actually did break him. But the only thing he could do was dumbly nod. 

The little filly broke into a wide smile that almost made Silver Quill fall over again. Her eyes lit up like the brightest lantern in the Nightmare Night celebration. If he had had any chance of saying a full sentence in the presence of this lavender filly, he most certainly didn’t now. 

“Oh thank you thank you thank you! I’m so glad that…hey, why are you sweating so much? Is it because you’re broken? Do you have a fever or something?” 

The little filly leaned in to closely examine Silver Quill, who was sweating as though he was face to face with Nightmare Moon herself. But to be honest, Silver Quill hadn’t the slightest idea why he was reacting this way to the lavender filly; he most certainly hadn’t been like this with anypony else before.

As Silver Quill trembled under her concerned and mesmerizing gaze, the lavender filly’s eyes widened and her ears perked up. “Oh goodness, where are my manners? I was so frazzled from breaking you that I completely forgot to introduce myself! My name is-” 

Just as the lavender filly opened her mouth to declare her name, the piercing sound of the school bell rang through the halls, signaling to everypony that classes had started. Silver Quill, already quite set on edge over what was currently transpiring, nearly leaped out of his own coat at the shrill sound. But if he was only startled by the bell; the lavender filly became downright terrified. 

“Oh sweet Celestia, classes are starting! I don’t hurry my perfect attendance streak will be ruined!” The little lavender filly scrambled to stuff her book into her bag. If Silver Quills’ mind had not decided that it needed a vacation from working, he probably would have noticed that she was reading the same book that he was, Harry Plotter and the Hall of Mysteries. Fortunately, a few of his mental faculties had returned to him, enough to make him realize that, yes, classes had indeed started and that he better get to them before he gets in trouble. 

The lavender filly, now with her book safely in her saddle-pack, looked at Silver one more time, the panic evident in her eyes. “IgottagonowBYE!” she said all at once, obviously in to much of a rush to use proper punctuation. She took off at a breakneck pace, tearing through the halls while yelling “WAAAAAAIT FOR MEEEEEEEEEEEeeeee…” Silver Quill just stood there, listening to the lavender filly’s cries becoming quieter and quieter until disappearing. He, now with his book safely packed away, slowly walked in the direction of his first class. The book that he was so invested in earlier was the last thing on his mind.

For weeks after that encounter, Silver Quill had seen that lavender filly throughout the school on numerous occasions. He didn’t share any classes with her, so he only noticed her in the halls or at recess. Every time he saw her, his brain would scream at him to go up to her and talk to her, find out her name, kick her in the flank, just do something to get her to notice you! But Silver Quill did none of these things, mainly because the urgings to interact with the nameless lavender filly were so alien to him. He shrugged it off every time it happened, and relied on the slow but dependent flow of time to cure him of his strange curiosity for the lavender filly.

Time however, seemed to have a different idea. Instead of his interest in the lavender filly fading, it remained just as aggravating as it had 3 months ago. Silver Quill had a very creative, but very logical mind. It’s one of the things that made him such a good writer. And now, that logical part of him was at a constant war with his mind. 

“Go up and introduce yourself to her!”
“Why? Why would I want to do that?” 
“Because you just do! Now go!”
“But to what end? There’s absolutely no reason to-“
“Just go already!”
“I’m not going to go and talk to somepony I barely ev-"
“GOOOOOOOOOO!”

By the time that Silver Quill finally broke down and decided to obey the incessant demands of his mind, it was the end of the school year. He had completed the year with fantastic grades, and he had gotten a letter in the mail saying that he was eligible to learn at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, the most prestigious and difficult school for unicorns in all of Equestria. 

This raised some conflicting emotions within Silver Quills young mind. On one hoof, He won’t see that lavender filly anymore, which means he won’t have to continue fighting himself for dominance over his own mind. On the other hoof, he now will have no chance of talking to the lavender unicorn filly, as she won’t be going to the same school as him. He was somewhat disappointed, even if he didn’t know why.

What made this school so hard to enter was the entrance exam. Every unicorn was assigned an incredibly difficult task that they must complete using magic alone. To top it off, every unicorn is assigned a different task in order to make sure that nopony knows what they will be expected to do. The only way that Silver Quill could stand a chance at passing the entrance exam was study as many aspects of magic as physically possible so he would be prepared for whatever was thrown at him.

For 4 days, Silver Quill locked himself in his room devouring books as though he was starving and the only way he could find sustenance was by reading. He read books on transmutation magic, healing magic, magic that altered the physical properties of the world, magic theory, etc. Basically anything that he could find that had the “magic" word in it, he read. 

On the day he was to to take his entrance exam, Silver Quill was ready. He had filled his cranium to the bursting point with scraps of information across as many fields of magic he could find. Because of this, he wasn't nervous. He and his parents were waiting in the main chamber of the school with several hundred young unicorns, all here for the same reason he was. Most of the unicorns were either impatiently waiting for their exam to start so that they could get it over with, or getting some last minute studying done. A few seemed to have cracked under the pressure and were being consoled by their parents as they curled up into a fetal position.

Silver was looking at these ponies because he had nothing else to do, as any more studying he knew would be redundant, as he had gone over all of the rules and principals of magic hundreds of times. But when he noticed a particular lavender filly sitting in a corner with a book in her telekinetic grasp, he forgot about the upcoming test.

At first he thought that the lavender filly trying to reinforce her knowledge, much like the other unicorns in the room, but he soon realized that wasn't the case. Her posture was too relaxed, and her eyes were moving at too leisurely a pace. He concluded that she wasn't actually studying, she was just casually reading to pass the time. She seemed to be fairly nervous however, as her eyes kept darting back and forth from the book to the clock.

Silver grimaced and forced the lavender filly out of his mind. This would not do. If he was too distracted thinking about her, he could mess up big time on his entrance exam. He decided that after the exam, if they both passed the exam it, he would talk to her on the first day of school. He then began to entertain himself by examining the school from the inside. 

He was in a high ceilinged chamber decorated mainly in the schools colors, purple and gold. All around him were massive columns that stretched all the way to the top of the room and dwarfed everything else that was around them. They were intricately carved to show pictures of unicorns casting all types of spells, from simple levitation, to the much more complex teleportation spell. The walls were decorated with large portraits of the schools previous headmasters and headmistresses, and one very large case that held all of the schools acquired trophies and certificates. There were also two great velvet banners hanging down from the ceiling just next to the double door entrance. They were adorned with the official crest of the school, the head of a white pegasus with a long spiraling horn wreathed in sparkles. 

Silver was forced to stop admiring the architecture when he heard his name. He looked to the end of the room at the pony who was calling out the names of the students who were to be tested on a megaphone. "I repeat, would Silver Quill please make your way to room number 103 to perform your entrance exam." With a brisk nod, he and his parents got up  and made their way to the designated classroom. 

Silver Quills' calmness was not shared with his father. He was trying, and failing spectacularly, to give his son a motivational speech. While it wasn't necessary, Silver Quill let him ramble on, more to ease his fathers fears than anything else. 

"Well my boy, now's our big moment. Your big moment, I should say, as I'm not going to be taking the test." He laughed nervously. "Now, the key to this is that you must not let yourself be affected by your nervousness. You must be cool and collected. We all should be in fact. It wouldn't do anypony any good if one of us was nervous, no siree no nervousness here not at a-" his rambling came to an abrupt stop when his mother put a hoof in front of his mouth to stop the anxious flow of words.

"What your father is trying to say dear," she said while smiling warmly at her son, "Is that no matter what happens in there, we will always be proud of you." 

Silver Quill gave his parents one of his rare smiles and simply nodded. His father sighed, his worry only slightly lessened.

"Well, ready or not, here we are."

And there they were indeed. In front of them was the classroom door marked 103. Silver Quill took a deep breath, and opened the door. The classroom was an average university classroom, if a bit more fancy. In the front was the raised stage and podium on which the teachers would stand and deliver their classes. Everywhere else were long tables, each row farther back higher than the ones in front of them. Sitting in the middle of this setup were three ponies who looked to be in their 30s or 40s. The middle one was a light blue pony with a white mane, the one sitting to the left of her was a dark purple pony with a similarly dark blue mane, and on the other side was a dull orange pony with a blazing red mane.   	

The ponies asked his parents to take a seat by the bench next to the door. They then instructed Silver Quill to make his way to the teaching stage. “This makes sense,” Silver Quill thought, “with their elevated position they are can better observe the ponies taking the test.” When Silver Quill got on stage, the middle unicorn spoke.

“Alright then, now before we get on with the testing, allow us to introduce ourselves. My name is Sea Breeze and I teach study of advanced rules and properties of magic. Sitting to the left of me is Silent Night, the head librarian of the school, and sitting to the right of me is Merry Mixture, the head teacher of natural magic minerals and substances. So,” The turquoise colored pony leaned forward and examined Silver Quill with searching eyes. “You wish to learn at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns? I hope you know that it will not be easy, many hours of hard work and study is needed for you to do even moderately well.” 

Silver Quill had been expecting something like this to happen, he had heard a few stories as to what the entrance exam is like. Half of it he heard was about your magical capabilities, and the other was about whether or not you have the mental fortitude to do well in the school.

Silver Quill didn’t so much as blink as he stared straight into her eyes and said with as much conviction as he could muster, “believe me Mrs Sea Breeze, I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

Sea Breeze gave a small smile and nodded. The pale orange pony professor named Merry Mixture laughed heartily.

“Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit," he declared. "The young one may actually have what it takes. But he’s gonna have to prove it first.” As he said the last sentence, he lowered his voice ominously and looked at Silver Quill with a small evil smile with just a hint of mirth in it. 

Sea Breeze nodded and continued speaking. “Your task, young Silver Quill, is to make a piece of art using nothing but your magic. You can make anything you want, and you can do it with whatever spell you want, but it can only be done with magic. You may start when ready.”

Silver Quill nodded and began thinking. There were many ways that he could go about this. He could carve a picture onto a surface using a focused beam of energy, or he could levitate writing materials into drawing a picture, but he wasn’t satisfied with that. Those ways were boring, and didn’t do much to showcase his abilities. He briefly considered making an image in the air using different colored flames, but that had the chance of going very wrong very quickly. But that also gave him another idea. After working through the technical aspects of the spell in his head and making sure that it would work.

Once he was satisfied with his idea, he took a wide stance on the side of the stage, lowered his head and started the spell. His horn glowed with a dull sluggish yellow light. A small trail of this light trailed out of the horn and into the air in a small glowing ball of what looked to be light in liquid form. It went and hovered in the center of the stage as it slowly got bigger as the stream continued. 

The teachers looked on in interest, not knowing exactly what was happening. Silver Quill was trembling slightly, beads of sweat sliding down his coat and falling to the floor. The idea of the spell was to make a picture out of light. But light wasn’t affected by the world around them the same way fire was. He knew that the light would immediately disperse because there wasn’t anything physical holding it down. So Silver Quill decided to change that. He gave the light weight and form, making it into a liquid. 

Once he had finished producing the semi solid light, there was a ball of the shiny substance floating in the middle of the stage, slowly flowing and changing shape, but staying in one consistent mass. Now that the hard part was over, Silver Quill had to focus on shaping and coloring the mass of light. Producing all that light took a lot of energy and concentration, but molding it into the picture he wanted just took basic levitation and coloring spells.

Silver Quill’s horn started glowing different colors as the light started to take on different hues and tones. Once he had the colors down pat, he began forming the picture in his mind. His plan was to make a picture of the school itself viewed from the outside. Sounds simple, but Silver Quill has never been the most artistic, so it was slightly difficult. Once the picture in his mind was complete, cast one more spell, and all at once, the blob of light fell onto the floor without making a sound. Slowly, the light moved around on the floor, forming lines and shapes. Once it stopped moving, the picture was completed.

The teachers were looking at the picture with interest. It wasn’t that impressive looking to the untrained eye; it used simple lines and shapes to make an image of what the school looked like from the outside. But it was accurate, from the crest of the school hanging from the banners above the double door entrance, to the tall towers that dotted the school grounds. But it wasn’t the picture itself that was important; it was how the picture was made. They were very impressed with the young unicorn’s skill and creativity, what he did was quite difficult for someone of his age. They teachers looked at each other and nodded their heads in unison. Sea Breeze turned to Silver Quill and said, “School starts next Monday.”





It had been a weak since Silver Quill took the exam, and school had started. The plan was supposed to be that he would talk the lavender filly today and hopefully calm his restless mind. This was definitely not going to happen. Silver Quill had heard the story at least ten times in the past week. The lavender filly had apparently done so well in her entrance exam that the princess herself was going to tutor her. The story had many different variations, as most rumors do. He had heard that she tried to do a spell so powerful that it blew a hole through the wall in the tower she was testing. He also heard that she summoned a massive dragon and threatened to destroy the school if Celestia herself didn’t teach her.

Whatever actually happened, there was now no chance that he would be able to interact with the lavender filly. Now that she’s Princess Celestia’s protégée, she wouldn’t be going to the same school as him. But maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. Silver Quill would gave to be very focused if he were to do well in this school, and he was determined to do better than well. The lavender filly would just be an unnecessary distraction. Not talking to the lavender filly is probably for the best