//------------------------------// // Twilight Sparkle // Story: A World Without Rainbow Dash // by inacti //------------------------------// It was the day of the Summer Sun Celebration. The day where Princess Celestia would raise the sun. A young filly with a lilac colored fur and mane, by the name of Twilight Sparkle, stood at the front of the stage. She was enthralled at the event and wanted to be just as magically talented as Celestia. She did her very best to learn everything she could about magic to become like her dear hero. Her parents enrolled her in The School For Gifted Unicorns, where rules stated that young unicorns must pass an exam before entering. Twilight Sparkle smiled nervously at her parents as she stood in front of the judges waiting for her exam. Her challenge, to hatch a dragon from an egg. Twilight gazed fearfully at the egg waiting for magic that never seemed to come. She laughed and concentrated her energy on the egg. The judges, unimpressed, wrote down their rulings as she gazed at the egg. The young filly, covered in sweat concentrated as hard as she could, but nothing more than a spark emerged from her horn. She knew this was important, but she just couldn't pull together the power. After failing several more times she accepted defeat and collapsed. "I'm sorry I wasted your time . . ." she sniffled standing up to leave. The judges wrote their comments down. Twilight turned to go, glancing at the window as she left. "I'm sorry Miss Sparkle, but you just are not going to cut it," one of the judges said. Twilight Sparkle sniffed and rushed to her parents. "Twilight, we're sorry, we really are, but maybe we can try again next year?" Velvet Sparkle, her mother, suggested, giving her a tight hug. They exited the building, trotting slowly. Her father giving her a ride on his back to give her comfort. Celestia stood near the castle gates thinking of her sister; she would need a protégé but alas no such pony had been found. Twilight's family trotted back to their small house. Twilight ran up to her bedroom and sobbed into her pile of magic books. "I guess, this isn't my talent after all . . ." she sniffed pushing them all aside. Years later Twilight Sparkle cleared the last of the spell books from her old library. Her cutie mark, an inkwell, showing easily under her robes. She was a librarian, the head librarian of Canterlot. She needed to move these books to the new location quickly, before nightfall. She had only mastered one major spell, levitation, she held the books aloft into the air and trotted to the Canterlot library to work. Upon reaching her destination she sat upon her desk and waited for patrons who would never arrive. The library was failing. Twilight sat up and dusted off the shelves once more. "Sorting, sorting, nothing but sorting, but for what? Nopony ever comes here anymore," she griped, clenching her teeth as she dusted a very hard to reach spot. Twilight Sparkle was an introvert, she had no friends, nopony had ever really spoken to her, she was known as the book lady across Canterlot and never saw anypony except the occasional gifted unicorn student come in to her library. Her books WERE her friends, and that's all she needed. Since her brother had gone to work in Canterlot castle as a guard, Twilight hadn't even spoken to him. He was always very lonely since he spent most of his time comforting her when he was young, he never met anypony special. Twilight walked back to her seat at the library desk, hoping somepony would come and give her something to do.