//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Defense in Depth 
// by Fon Shaolin 
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             When we first built Canterlot Castle, there was a great deal of discussion about the placement of buttresses, towers, doorways, and windows. The war had only just ended and no one was eager to relive the horror that had been the Battle of Everfree (which was not so much a battle as a flight to escape certain death) and the destruction of Everfree Castle when the beautiful windows had all shattered and the walls had crumbled. Half the architects and builders argued every time we tried to add some structurally superfluous creative flair to the designs, insisting that the new castle should be a citadel with uniform form and obvious function.

             Sometimes I wonder what the final design would have looked like if I hadn’t fought tooth and nail most of the time to get things added. I burned more than a few bridges over silly, pretty things. The princess herself praised my work, but now, in my old age, I wish I had given in to some of the more innocuous suggestions. At least, though, I didn’t lose my best friend over an argument about putting a window in one of the classroom towers. Looking back I can truly say losing a friend is not worth a great view that precious few will appreciate.

             - Memoirs of Ser Ramshackle, Chief Architect of Canterlot Castle
 
The low rumble was fading now, but it had shaken the tower down to its foundation only a moment before. One of the teachers had excused herself to check with the guard, but the other three were still staring down at her from the benches. Their bewitched pencils were picking and scratching at their clipboards like buzzards at a carcass.
Twilight took a deep breath and focused back on the egg again. That boom had startled her so bad she’d nearly lost control of her magic, but she’d felt something. Only for a moment, but some tiny fire had been lit inside her chest. Rapidly, it rushed up to her horn and it ignited in a muted purple glow. Slowly, ever-so-slowly, the egg began to hover over the nest. She pulled with every bit of newfound magic she had at her disposal, trying to crack the shell like the examiners wanted. After such an effort the light blue egg did little than wobble impotently in the air. Twilight let it fall back to the straw nest and nearly collapsed from the effort.
“I think that’s enough.” The teacher who had gone out to check on things was standing in the doorway. He’d seen everything. After a quick look to his fellow administrators, he stepped up to Twilight’s parents. “Your daughter has talent for her age,” he said, glancing in Twilight’s direction. “This test is, naturally, not designed to actually hatch the egg. What we’re looking for in our prospective students is a desire to perform as well as a certain magical aptitude. We feel your daughter would be best served by going through the Canterlot school system until grade school graduation and then applying to our institution for advanced studies and a focused education.”
The world was falling out from under Twilight. Her exuberance had ballooned when the stallion had praised her only to be ruthlessly popped by what amounted to a polite denial of entry. She struggled to her feet and caught the lapel of his tweed suit in her mouth. “You…you said I wasn’t supposed to hatch the egg. W-why won’t you l-let me in?”
“It is extremely rare for a unicorn your age to make it into our school,” he said, leaning down to get eye-level with the filly. “You are a talented unicorn,” he said. Some of the harshness Twilight had seen in his face during the test had vanished, replaced by a well-worn weariness that hung about his eyes when he tried to smile. “We are not, however, equipped to bring that talent out in you. Ponies who study here devote their entire lives to the pursuit of magic. There is little time for playing, friendships, family, or any other interests. It’s not something that the majority of young fillies want.”
But I do! Twilight wanted to scream. Her mother moved quicker than Twilight could find her words, though. The mare swept her daughter up in a tight hug while her father quietly thanked the examiner for his time. She wanted to throw a fit and demand he let her in. She wanted to tell him this was all she'd ever wanted from the second she'd first watched Princess Celestia raise the sun for the first time.
There were so many things Twilight wanted to say but couldn’t because of the choked sobs bubbling up her throat.
             
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“This is the third mark this semester against your daughter. I’m afraid it will have to go on her record.”
Twilight let out a sigh as her mother gasped. She wanted to ask her what made this particular trip to the principal’s office more shocking that the last two, but she stayed silent. The years had taught her exactly how much lip her mother could take before she went up like a smokestack and Twilight Velvet was teetering on the edge.
Her father patted Velvet on the hoof and whispered something in her ear. “Is there any way we can avoid this?” he asked once his wife had calmed. “We know that Twilight has her problems, but a mark on her record will follow her for the rest of her academic life. It could affect what secondary schools she could enroll in next year.”
The principal shifted in her seat to slide a thick manila envelope over the table. “If this were an uncommon occurrence I would be inclined to show leniency, but Twilight Sparkle has been involved in several fights with her classmates this school year. Because of the nature of this latest fight, the school board and I feel it necessary to impose the strictest punishment.”
“The ‘nature of the fight’?”
“She locked an older filly in a locker and somehow melted the lock into the door.” The earth pony shook her head, seemingly at a loss as to how to properly describe the process. “It took an entire class period for anyone to find her and another fifteen minutes for the janitor to take the door off its hinges. The filly was a pegasus. As you know, our school has a zero-tolerance policy for magical bullying.”
That was all Twilight could take. She scoffed and threw her front hooves up. “Curly Cumulous hid my book bag! If I didn’t make her give it back I would have gotten in trouble for not having my books!”
“Hiding your books requires you to lock a young filly in a dark locker for an hour?” The principal pinned Twilight with a flat look. This wasn’t their first argument about problems like this. “And even if in your mind it was, that does not excuse you from getting a teacher and telling them that someone had taken your book bag.”
“And then everyone would call me a snitch and hate me even more,” Twilight countered.
“No one hates you, Twilight Sparkle. We’ve talked about this here in my office and with the school counselor. You simply have to make some—”
Twilight leapt up onto the seat of her chair so that she could see over the tall desk. “No one wants to be friends with the oldest blank flank in the school!” she shouted. “No one wants to sit with me at lunch and no one likes the things I like! Nobody cares about magic! Everyone here is stupid, stupid, stupid!”
Twilight Velvet grabbed her daughter and held her tightly in her lap. “You are in more than enough trouble, young lady! I never want to hear you speak that way to your principal again! Do you hear me?” Ashen, she looked from the struggling filly to the principal. “I’m so incredibly sorry for this, Miss Crabapple. I can promise you that this won’t happen again. Please…please give her one more chance. She only has a few more weeks to go. She’s done so much to get her grades back up.”
Somewhere between Twilight Velvet’s teary face, Night Light’s blatant worry, and Twilight’s indignant squirming Miss Crabapple found her answer. She brought her hoof up to massage what was blooming into a truly throbbing headache. “One more chance,” she whispered, pulling back the manila envelope and removing a sheet of paper from it which she balled up and tossed away in the trashcan under her desk. “I’ll give Twilight Sparkle one more chance to make it through this semester without a permanent administrative censor on her record. Just one more fight, one more failed class, and it’s out of my hooves.”
“Oh, thank Celestia. I can’t tell you what this means for us and Twilight, Miss Crabapple.”
“There will be punishment, however.” She met Twilight’s defiant eyes. “We cannot allow magical bullying at our school. I’m told by Mister Sagecrest that Twilight Sparkle is one of his brightest students in Magical Studies, so the punishment will certainly be fitting. I believe that, to ensure nothing like this happens again, Twilight Sparkle needs to learn that her magic is not a tool to bully others with. Therefore, while she’s on school grounds we will require her to wear a magical dampening ring. Naturally, the cost for procuring it will not fall on the school.”
Twilight opened her mouth to scream at the principal, but her mother’s hoof was quicker and bottled up the reply. “Of course, Miss Crabapple. We’ll pick one up on the way home.” She gave her daughter a stern look and then moved her hoof away. “Twilight, express to your principal your thanks at being given this opportunity.”
The filly didn’t miss her cue. “Thank you so much for taking away the only thing I’m good at,” she said with the sweetest expression she could muster. Night Light groaned at his daughter's words, and Velvet moved to take even more drastic measures, but a raised hoof from Crabapple stopped them. “You’re welcome, Twilight Sparkle.” She stared down the irate filly. “Even if you don’t really mean it right now, you’re welcome.”
The walk home was one of the most uncomfortable ones of Twilight’s young life. Her mother berated her the entire time. Her father picked out the dampening ring himself and, “to get you used to it”, they made her wear it the entire way home. Furthermore, the cost was going to come out of her allowance for the next year or so. Ponies on the street looked at her with varying degrees of mirth – the only unicorns who wore rings like this were the very, very young or the very, very old: ponies who couldn’t control their own magic. It was incredibly embarrassing for a young filly of ten to walk down the street not only missing a cutie mark at her age, but also with a big, ugly metal ring slipped over her horn.
She was sent straight to her room at home. Twilight threw her book bag (the last scrap of pride she had left came from the fact she’d forced Curly Cumulous to tell her where it was) across the room and flopped onto her bed to scream into her pillow. She was a bright filly and knew more than a few choice words for her parents, her school, and her entire stupid life. When she was done her tongue had hair all over it and her mouth tasted like laundry detergent.
Her bedroom door creaked open and Shining Armor poked his head in. Not thinking, Twilight tried to throw her pillow at him but the ring blocked the magic. Only a few sparks shot out from the tip of her horn to show she was channeling anything at all. Shining didn’t miss that, though.
“Nice accessory, Sis. It really goes with your mane.”
Twilight grunted and rolled back over so at least she didn’t have to look at him. “Go away. I’ve suffered enough today.”
Shining Armor didn’t listen. Twilight heard him plod up to her bedside. “I heard you really did a number on Curly Cumulous. Did you have to weld the locker shut? They probably would have let you off easier if all you did was scare her a little.” He pushed her out of the way so he could plant himself on her bed as well. “You could have just gotten me, too.”
“And then you would have gotten in trouble. You’re trying to get into that stupid guard thing. I can’t drag you down with me.”
The colt made a face at his ROTC lessons being called stupid. “I wouldn’t have gotten into a fight with her, Sis. I would have just asked her nicely to give you back your stuff.” He grinned and poked her in the side with his hoof. “You know, like a normal pony. Maybe that’s not exciting enough for my rough-and-tumble little sister? Trying to get into a biker gang or something?” Twilight fought the rising giggles trying to escape. “No, biker gangs are too tame. Tomorrow the head bouncer of the Royal Canterlot Bouncer Academy will come and take you away. ‘There’s a new dragon bar opening on the south end and we need her!’ You’ll be the terror of all dragons trying to dine and dash, Twilie.”
Twilight valiantly held out for another few seconds before her chest started to convulse with the strangled laughs she’d been holding in. Her brother could be such a goofball sometimes. He took a moment to consider the merits of his sister being a dragon bar bouncer before dramatically shaking his head so hard the bed bounced. “Nah, even the dragons would start to get scared of you. No business. You’re too talented for your own good.”
As her laughing wound down, Twilight caught on that last statement. She was talented for her age, but not talented enough. That was her problem. She was good at magic, but not good enough to get a cutie mark for it; good at school and studying, but not good enough to stay interested long enough to keep her grades up; too good at something for where she was, but not good enough to go where she wanted.
Realizing he might have ruined the mood, Shining Armor rolled off the bed. “Come on, come on,” he said, lifting his little sister with his magic. “I know that look. There’s only one thing that will make you smile now.”
They snuck out into the hallway. Shining Armor craned his head toward the stairs for a moment and then floated Twilight out as well. The colt’s room was much different from Twilight’s in that it had pictures and knick-knacks from school lying around. Shining Armor and his friends smiled out from half a dozen picture frames at whoever walked in. Even though her brother had changed when he had started ROTC, he still kept up with his old Ogres and Oublettes chums from grade school. Twilight would never admit it to him, but she envied the way Shining Armor was able to make friends.
Her brother set her down on his bed like a sack of potatoes and rushed off to his closet. “Sorry about the mess,” he mumbled as an avalanche of clutter poured out of the door.
“It’s under your bed next to the box you keep your dirty magazines in,” Twilight helpfully chirped. Seeing her brother burn scarlet was almost as good as the “surprise” he was probably planning.
Almost.
Shining Armor pushed his way into the abyss that was the underside of his bed and returned a moment later with a large, professional-looking case. He held it out for a moment with his magic and Twilight had to remind him that she was wearing a magic dampener. Blushing again, he went about setting up his little surprise. Twilight picked on him further when he had to refer to the instructions more than a few times.
“Well,” he grumbled, putting the last pin in place, “I’m not a professional stalker like you are, Twilie.” The telescope glimmered in the afternoon sunlight coming through the window like a shiny brass trophy. It was cleaned and oiled, just the way Twilight had left it the last time she’d indulged in her favorite hobby. “Can you manage it without magic?”
Twilight hopped down off the bed and pushed a box of spare junk that’d fallen out of Shining’s closet over so she could stand on it. “No problem.” She spun it around so that it was facing the correct direction, ignoring her brother’s snickering, and worked the dials as best she could with just her hooves. Years of practice helped her find her target easily.
Luck was on Twilight’s side today and the familiar feeling of awe chased away the lingering depression that had been holding on as her brother’s telescope captured Celestia on her balcony. The Ruler of Equestria spent many of her afternoons there, gazing out over the city. Shining’s room was perfect for Celestia-watching. It was on the right side of her parent’s tower and his window had an excellent view of the castle. Twilight spent many an hour here watching the ponies at the castle go about their business even when Celestia wasn’t around.
She wanted to be there. Twilight wanted to be one of those ponies so badly one day, working directly for the princess. Being in the castle. Being important. Being so much bigger than a little unicorn that had almost gotten into the Princess’s School. Her parents constantly told her that if she were a good student and stayed out of trouble then one day she might get to be a castle clerk or a steward. Looking at Celestia through the telescope, Twilight knew she’d never be happy with just being some clerk. She wanted to talk to the princess and be confided in.
I’ll give Twilight Sparkle one more chance to make it through this semester without a permanent administrative censor on her record. Important ponies didn’t have marks on their permanent records, did they?
“I can’t do anything right today, can I?” Shining Armor wondered out loud when Twilight pulled away from the telescope with a deep frown.
Twilight flinched. She’d forgotten her brother was there for a few moments. Normally she was alone when she raided his room for the telescope. “Sorry. I’m just thinking about things.”
Shining laughed. “Overthinking probably. Listen, don’t worry about mom and dad. I’ll talk to dad and see if you can’t ditch the ring here at the house. It won’t be so bad then, will it?”             
“I think…I think that maybe I should wear it.” The words were out before Twilight had even thought about them, but they still sounded right. She licked her lips. “Maybe this will help me? I don’t want a mark on my record forever. I want to go there, Shining.” Twilight gestured at the telescope, too embarrassed to look her brother in the eye. “I know it’s stupid. ‘L-Little Twilight didn’t get in the first time, s-so she’s trying to…to get in however she c-can.’”
“It’s not stupid.” Shining Armor’s hoof nudged her head up. He was smiling. “Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s a stupid idea, Twilie. If you really want to do it, I’ll help you however I can.” His hoof snuck up to her head and ruffled her mane, which Twilight grumbled at. “But that means you have to ask me for help! No more welding ponies in lockers even if they do deserve it. Come get me; don’t get into fights.”
“I promise I will,” Twilight replied. She realized that she’d never really lost her friends – Shining Armor would always be there for her. “I’m sorry I called your guard thing stupid. I didn’t mean it. And don’t worry about the magazines – I won’t tell Mom and Dad you’re a pervert.”
As she booked it out of Shining’s room, Twilight felt happier than she had in months. Even being pelted by all the dirty laundry her flustered brother could throw at her was the best feeling in the world. Tomorrow would be a new day and she didn’t have to face it alone.