Prologue
The little Pegasus looked up at the imposing building. Canterlot’s magic school was the second largest building in the city, with only the Princess’ Castle dwarfing it by a large margin. Rainbow Dash gulped and cautiously walked towards the front doorway.
“And just what is your reason for visiting us?”
Rainbow Dash was pale, staring up at the face of the school’s headmaster. “I wanna enrol.”
The Unicorn blinked. “But...y-you do realise this is a..magic school, correct?”
Rainbow grinned wide, nodding enthusiastically. “Of course! I mean, this is only the best magic school in all Equestria!”
The stallion was still incredibly confused. “Then...why? Y-you’re a Pegasus...”
“I’ve always thought magic was way cooler than anything us Pegasi can do! Levitation, teleportation, transmogrification...Who wouldn’t wanna learn that!?” The filly grinned widely.
The headmaster finally decided that tact was working and decided to be blunt. “Only Unicorns can perform magic!”
“That we know of.” Rainbow replied. “I just know that if I study hard enough, I’ll be able to learn and use magic!”
The stallion shook his head, causing Rainbow’s excited grin to fall. “I am sorry to tell you this, but that is impossible. You just are not physically able to use magic like us Unicorns. Just go home and prepare yourself for weather studies like all Pegasi...”
“But I don’t wanna be like the rest!” The cyan pegsus cried, tears falling. “I wanna be me! I wanna follow my dreams! I wanna learn magic!”
“I am deeply sorry...but I just can’t...”
“I don’t see why not. Let her try if she feels she is able.” A third voice spoke up, causing Rainbow and the Headmaster to gasp and stare with wide eyes.
“A-are you serious!?” The Unicorn shouted, flabbergasted, at the other unicorn.
Cadence smiled and nodded. “Of course. If a student wishes to learn, let them. At the very least, it would be very interesting to see what studying magic could do for a Pegasus.”
Rainbow smiled wide, gazing up at the unicorn. “Y-you mean it?”
Cadence nodded and the headmaster looked like he was ready to pass out. “A-alright, if you say so...” The headmaster said shakily, turning to the blue Pegasus. “Ok, young filly, what is your name?”
“Rainbow Dash!” The filly in question grinned, flapping her wings.
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Rainbow Dash was very surprised by how much reading she had to do just to learn magic, and was not all that into reading herself, however the moment she realised it was necessary to accomplish her dreams, she dove into every textbook, trying her best to memorise the methods inherent in performing magic.
The students and faculty however were not impressed. An upstart Pegasus decided to sully the reputation of their fine academy of magical arts, and even seemed to believe that she could actually one day learn how to perform magic despite being a non-unicorn. Bullies would target her, sometimes calling her names, knocking her books out of her hooves, using their magic to harass her; the teachers meanwhile would ignore her questions or (in the case of the harsher/meaner ones) force upon her very difficult tasks and errands. Rainbow Learned to ignore it, for it didn’t matter what they thought, she would prove her worth in no time.
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Almost a year had passed and she was barely getting through her studies, still unable to figure out a method to use magic herself. She hadn’t given up, not yet, but she was starting to feel down, especially due to being almost constantly harassed by her newly made rival and arch enemy, Sunset Shimmer. She was always top of the class, always the first to complete an assignment and in all every teacher and student loved her. And Sunset Shimmer knew it, and was always quick to rub it into Rainbow’s face, along with the Pegasus’ failures.
Sunset Shimmer smirked smugly as she and Rainbow walked the halls. “Are you ready to fail, Featherbrain?”
Rainbow had learned to live with the derogatory nickname as it caught on; but still raised a brow at her rival’s comment. “What do you mean?”
“Oh? You mean you don’t know?” The Unicorn tittered mockingly. “Why, it’s only the most important test of the year. This past year has only been the practice stage, now comes the final test to prove whether you can stomach the real studying.”
“R-real...studying..?”
“What, you honestly didn’t think it’d take a single year just to learn magic, did you? Today is the final entrance exam, a simple test of magical power. But, of course you’ll do fine...” She exclaimed with a mock gasp and false expression of surprise as her horrid smirk went wider. “Oh, but that’s right, a stupid featherbrain like you CAN’T use MAGIC.” She laughed mockingly. “At least you tried!”
“Oh yeah!” Rainbow called out to hide her nervousness. “I’ll show you! I’ll ace this test, no sweat, ten seconds flat!”
Inwardly, she was starting to doubt.”
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It was now Rainbow’s turn. She was to hatch a dragon egg using pure magical power alone. She looked around: every student and teacher watched her with eager anticipation, most with looks of disdain.
She clenched her eyes tight, tried to control her breathing, and concentrated as her books said.
She recalled every failure, every pony who mocked and harassed her in one or another. She thought of the bullies back home, of her only friend she had ever made, of her family.
Then, she found it.
She opened her eyes and her wings began to glow, surrounded by an rainbow aura. The same aura covered the egg and it started to shake and convulse and suddenly burst, spraying a large multicoloured mass of pure magic which spread out and shot out every door and window throughout the school and flew off into the horizon. As the magic cleared, where an egg had was now a small baby dragon.
The students stared, aghast, while the teachers also looked visibly shocked. Sunset Shimmer was shaking, her eyes pinpricks. The proctor in charge of the test gulped. “Rainbow Dash...passed.”
Rainbow grinned triumphantly. “Awwww yeah! I told you all I could do it!” She started to fly around happily, whooping in joy, not even noticing the new mark on her flank: a large, rainbow coloured star surrounded by five smaller white stars.
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Rainbow Dash, top graduate of Canterlot’s Magic Academy, hummed happily as she and her number one assistant, Spike the baby dragon she had hatched so long ago, were packing.
“Spike, check the list!” Rainbow cheered happily. “Books?”
“Check!”
“snacks?”
“Check!”
“Other books?”
“Check and check!”
“map of the area?”
“Check!”
“The rest of the books?”
“Check, check and checkerooni!”
Rainbow grinned. “Then, by Celestia’s mane, we are ready!”
“Yeah!” Spike blinked. “Uhh...you...didn’t quite tell me where we are going, or why.”
“Oh.” The Pegasus blinked a few times. “Well, you see, I got a letter, and it said that I have been given the honour of overseeing preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration on behalf of the princess herself, which will be held at the small quiet town of Ponyville.”
The dragon raised a brow. “Why would the princess want you of all ponies to oversee one of the biggest events in Equestria? Doesn’t she have official staff for that sort of thing?”
Rainbow shrugged. “She probably just thinks I’m so awesome I can do a better job than anyone else who had the job. After all, I AM the first and so far ONLY Pegasus to learn magic and also top graduate of the academy.”
“Rainbow, you’re getting full of it again.”
“Oh, Spike, that’s not me getting full of it.” She flapped her wings in a wide arch. “Hay, you should’ve seen me when i was younger. I was always going on and on about how ‘awesome’ I was and how i was dead certain to achieve anything easily.” She sighed wistfully. “Magic school really taught me to not be such a jerk.”
“You still get a little arrogant, Rainbow.”
Rainbow shrugged and sighed. “Yeah, but still, at least I’m not doing stupid stunts like when I was a little filly.” She helped her assistant carry the luggage as they walked to the chariot that would take them to Ponyville.
“So you say...so what you think Ponyville is like anyway?”
“Oh, nothing as fancy as Canterlot I bet. It’s just a small town, I doubt there’s anything really remarkable there.”
Spike shrugged as they placed their luggage down in the chariot and sat comfortable, the Pegasi pulling the chariot flying at a comfortable pace.