//------------------------------//
// Twilight 
// Story: Remnants of Equestria: SSTT 
// by chillbook1 
//------------------------------//

	I’m not special. I’m really, really not special at all. Honestly, I’m just an average, typical, run-of-the-mill student who happens to kill monsters in her spare time. I have flaws, just the same as everyone else. I’m extremely forgetful, and I often lose myself in a book and ignore a whole day around me (though that hardly worked against me and was, in fact, often a benefit when dealing with Trixie). Sure, my grades were slightly higher than most of my peers (actually, they were absurdly higher than literally everyone else in the school). On the reverse, I was a bit on the raw side when it comes to combat (although, to be honest, I’ve gotten a lot better from watching Sunset). What I’m trying to say is that, despite the glaring evidence, I’m really not that special.

My dad disagreed.

That’s why he taught me how to fight, about history, and, more importantly, about Grimm. As a teacher, my dad had a talent for seeing potential. He saw something in me, some little spark of greatness, and he wanted to help me grow it. I wish he could’ve seen how much I’ve grown. 

Both of my parents were huge nerds, just like me. As a child, family time meant statistics and history trivia. I knew everything there was to know about Remnant, Dust, and the intolerant bigots of the White Fang. To dispel the rumor now, no, my dad did not join the White Fang. The fact that people keep asking me is, frankly, very disrespectful. And a little bit racist. I could go on and on about my parents, especially my father, but that’s not really what I was getting at.

I’m not special. Anyone can achieve anything I ever accomplished. Which is why the constant cheating and shoddy academics of my Team was so baffling to me. All of them, especially Sunset, would copy my homework and sneak peeks at my tests. It was fairly annoying, but not altogether something I felt the need to bring up.

Until the Vytal Exam. The most important test I could take this year. 1,000 questions and ten essays, all in one day. It would likely be the most challenging academic event in my entire life.

Naturally, I forgot about it until the week before.





“Sparks!”

Whenever I looked up from a book, I was prepared for the scene to have changed dramatically. Luckily, this time, I was in the clear. The library was still more or less how I left it. A stack of books to my left (the ones I wanted to read), a stack to the right (the books I already read), and a bottle of water that mysteriously and periodically made its way to my mouth without much conscious effort. The only difference was my read book stack seemed to have shrunk a bit, no doubt by some fellow Huntsmen in the pursuit of knowledge. Oh, and there was one more thing new.

A very, very irritated Team leader.

“Hm?” This was normally the most complete thought I could form while easing myself out of the realm of my book. Sunset glared at me, and, judging by the grip on her guitar and the look on her face, she was only a step or two from swinging her axe into my neck.

“I’ve been yelling for, like, ten minutes,” said Sunset. 

“Oh? Well, this is a library,” I noted. “You shouldn’t be yelling at all.”

“I just wanted to make sure you were prepared for the Exam.” I peered at her in confusion. “The Vytal Exam.” Still nothing. “Are you serious?! How could you have forgotten about the Vytal Exam?!”

“Er… Vytal Exam?” I racked my brain in thought, tiny details coming back to me. “Oh, we need that to register for the tournament?”

“We need that to participate! Seriously, Sparks, what’re you doing?!” demanded Sunset. I pulled out my Scroll and searched the Vytal Exam. Within seconds, I had a list of likely topics it’d cover.”We’ve got to pass it, or we don’t get to compete in the Vytal Festival Tournament!”

“Okay,” I said.

“Are you ready?”

“Sure.” I returned to my book, the memoir of one of the first Faunus who thought to rebel against the humans. It was truly fascinating.

“Don’t just go back to reading!” Sunset yanked my book from my hands and closed it. Luckily, I memorized the page number. “What do you mean ‘sure’? Like ‘Sure, I am ready and could pass the test right now’ or ‘Sure, give me a couple of weeks, and I’ll have it down’.”

“Well, a little of both. I’m sure I could pass it right now, but I’d like a few weeks to study to see if I can ace it,” I said. “When is it?”

“Next week!”

“Oh. Alright, sure.” I drew Dusk and flipped it into its wand form. With a flick of the wrist, a thin lasso of purple light shot forward, grabbed the book, and returned with it in tow.

“Seriously?” asked Sunset.

“Seriously,” I said, flipping open my book.

“You’ll be able to pass the test?”

“Sure.” By this point, I was just responding to questions I assumed she was asking. I wasn’t really paying attention.

“And what about us?” asked Sunset. I flipped my page, shrugging while I did.

“I dunno. What about you?” I heard Sunset pull up a chair and sit down. Two soft thuds told me that she kicked her heels on the table.

“Well? You gonna help us?” I could tell by the way she spoke that I was irritating her. I begrudgingly closed my book, giving up on the notion of reading for the time being.

“Help you how?” I asked.

“Yeah, me, Glim, and Trixie are trying to decide where we should sit,” said Sunset. “Hey, and try not to write so small, it’s hard for us to see sometimes.”

“You… You want to cheat?” I asked. The look on Sunset’s face would have given the impression that I had disrespected her deeply, or brought a plague unto her house.

“No duh, Sparky. What, you think I’m gonna be able to retain any of this test content?” Sunset scoffed. “Be real. We’re obviously gonna cheat off of you. It’s the only way for us to pass.”

That annoyed me a great deal, for two reasons. Reason one being that they shouldn’t have assumed that I would let them cheat off of me. I wasn’t just a cheat sheet. I was a legitimate Huntress, and I would not be contained to the simple task of passing tests and baking treats for my Team.

The second reason I was irritated was that Sunset said that I was her only chance of passing, and that simply isn’t true. Not to say that I had especially high expectations of my Team or anything. I don’t think any of my Team was stupid, or anyone in all of Beacon, really. There may well be very few students who could go toe to toe with me in an academic decathalon, but everyone had the potential for improvement. Anyone could pass this test.

I decided to prove it.

“No,” I said. “You three will not cheat on this test.” I stood up, pulled out my Scroll, and sent out a three-way call to Trixie and Starlight.

“What are you…” began Sunset. I cut her off with a wag of the finger. Shortly, the lines connected, and the two best friends were talking over each other.

“What do you want, Sparkle?”

“Trixie is busy, Twilight Sparkle, this better be good!”

“Yeah, busy working to beat Pinkie, which will never happen.”

“Starlight, Trixie cannot help that you’ll never have-”

The receiver on a Scroll reacted very poorly when exposed to Dust crystals. Something about the frequency of the waves emitted by the crystal greatly interferes with the CCTS waves from the Scroll. They clash together like cymbals, clanking against one another and bouncing to and fro. So, when an exposed crystal of Dust, like the one at the bottom of my dagger, the Scroll created a loud, screeching feedback that was very useful at shutting up a yappy Team. 

“Are you two done?” I asked, ignoring the ringing in my ears.

“What?” said the other three in unison.

“Good. Meet me at the edge of the Emerald Forest,” I said. “I’m going to tutor you three so you can pass without cheating.”

I had already began formulating a lesson plan that should cover everything on the Vytal Exam. History, mathematics, battle strategy, Dust physics, and, my personal favorite, Grimm studies. Honestly, I was getting excited. This was what my dad must have felt like, that ecstasy you could only really get from sharing your knowledge with another. 

I was prepared to teach my students all that I knew, just as I knew they were prepared to accept my teachings.





“So the maximum of seven times sine of four times x-pi divided by six plus one is…” Sunset stared at the sheet of math problems with a strained expression on her face.

“Er… The Faunus Rights Revolution was… How many years ago?” asked Starlight.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t understand why she must study this… this nonsense!” Trixie slammed her fist against her Scroll angrily. “Burn, burn uncut, burn twice-cut, cut unburned, what’s the difference?!”

“Burn means the Dust was melted and reforged into a crystal,” I explained. “Uncut means that it wasn’t cut from the quarry and perverted with another Dust type, twice-cut means it was cut with two types of Dust, and cut unburned means it was cut with at least one different Dust but used raw and not reforged.”

“Why do you know this?!” demanded Trixie.

“The Faunus Rights Revolution was fifty-three years ago,” I said to Starlight. “Remember the date, it lasted ten years.”

“You have too much time on your hands, Sparkle,” said Starlight, marking notes on her Scroll. 

“It’s my heritage,” I said with a shrug. “And, Sunny, the max is 8. That’s pretty basic math.”

“Only if you’re an Atlesian Knight,” grumbled Sunset. 

“Seriously? This is some simple stuff, guys,” I said. We had been sitting outside of the Emerald Forest for about an hour, just like we had met the day before, and the day before that, for five days. Two days was all we had left to cram everything we needed for the Exam, and my Team wasn’t looking like they would make it. But I refused to quit. I was my father’s daughter, after all. I could teach anyone anything.

“This is absolute trash,” said Starlight. “We’ll never be prepared for the Exams. I was beginning to look forward to the Tournament.”

“We’ll pass the Exam,” I promised.

“No, Twilight Sparkle.” Trixie threw her Scroll down angrily. “You will pass the Exams. The rest of your Team, however, will struggle and fail!”

“If we haven’t gotten it yet, what makes you think we’ll get it anytime soon?” asked Sunset. “Face it, Sparks, we’re just not as good as you are. Not everyone is able to do what you can.”

“Nonsense. You just need to try harder,” I promised. “Let’s move on to something a bit more your speed; Grimm Studies.” The girls groaned, hanging their heads in defeat. “What?”

“That’s more of your thing, Sparks!” complained Sunset. “We know the basics we need to kill the damn things. We don’t know or care to know how they get along or what they eat or how they breed!”

“Oh, I know. That’s why we won’t be covering any of those things. Not how you would expect,” I said. I dialed my locker on my Scroll. “You guys might want your weapons. We’re going to be killing some Grimm.” My Team eagerly called up their lockers with their Scrolls. A few seconds later, four large, rocket-propelled lockers shot from the east, impacting the ground a few yards from us. 

“Now we’re talking,” said Sunset, practically canoodling her precious guitar. “Let’s kill some stuff!”

I chuckled as I dug through my locker, pulling out my dagger and several devices necessary for the next exercise. I planted a large box just next to my locker, then typed in some last second settings and configurations.

“What’s that?” asked Starlight.

“Negativity Emitter,” I said nonchalantly. “My dad was working on a way to easily attract Grimm to a specific location, and he left me his notes. I recently finished it and I thought now would be as good a time as any to test it.”

“Cool.” Sunset Shimmer nodded in approval. “How does it work?”

“Well, basically, the NE records the frequency of our negative energy,” I explained. “Then, it tunes itself to mimic that negativity, and increases it if necessary.” I hit the start button, which caused the machine to hum. “Grimm should be here in a few moments. Everyone ready?”

Sunset wailed on her guitar, throwing her head back and raising a fist to the sky. Starlight twirled her staff and slammed it against the ground, causing a ring of fire to burst around her. Trixie waved her hand over her head, causing little fireworks to explode around her head while she adopted her favorite pose of pointing forward confidently.

With all that confidence, I probably didn’t even need the NE.

The Grimm trickled in, a Beowolf here, a small Ursa there. We dispatched them easily. When the numbers started to increase, and my Team actually had to start focusing to avoid being hurt, I started quizzing them.

“Which of Equestria’s villages were the first to declare war against the others?” I asked. Without skipping a beat, Starlight Glimmer answered.

“Mistral!” She dodged an Ursa’s paw and set him ablaze.

“Good! Now, someone else, what was the first Dust-based weapon?”

“A hand-cannon!” answered Trixie, igniting one of her cards before flinging it at a Beowolf. Sunset rammed the same Grimm with her shoulder, then swung her axe into its neck.

“Eight plus x over negative-four equals five.” I blasted the Beowolf with one of my light daggers. “Solver for x.” Sunset bobbed and weaved for a while, a grin spreading wide on her face when she found her answer.

“X is twelve!”

This went on for several hours, and I realized that this was the best way to study with the girls. They all excelled at fighting, while I excelled at academics. It only made sense to combine the two. I smirked internally. It seemed that I had indeed inherited my father’s knack for teaching. We would all pass the Exam, and we would all do it honestly.





“What do you mean, you cheated?!” I demanded.  Sunset shrugged, collapsing onto her bed. 

“Geez, shout it a little bit louder,” said Sunset sarcastically. “I have family in Atlas who may not have heard you.”

“Don’t patronize me, just explain yourself!”

“Sure thing, Team Leader.” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “We were gonna do the test legit, but we forgot everything we went over. So, instead of failing the test, we just cheated off of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Glim is getting our scores right now.” I groaned, burying my face in my palm.

“You guys failed… Why would you copy them, of all people?” I groaned. “If you weren’t confident in your abilities, you should’ve just-”

My train of thought was interrupted by the ringing of Sunset’s Scroll. She answered it, and put it to her ear.

“So, how’d we do?” she asked. “Oh? We passed? I see, so Rainbow and Pinkie cheated off of Fluttershy and Rarity? That makes a lot of sense, actually. Yeah, I know we thought about that already.” She stared at me expressionlessly. “I’m just proving a point. Get over here, we need to celebrate.”

I groaned in defeat. I guess some of us are good at some things while some of us aren’t. Maybe some people are just smarter than others, and no amount of studying or effort could change that. Could that mean that I’m destined to be a weaker Huntress than my peers?

“Wait, what?” said Sunset suddenly. “I aced the essays? We didn’t cheat on the essays, did we? Then how…? Huh. I guess some of what Sparks taught us did stick… Who’d have thought?” I smiled brightly. It wasn’t perfect, but teaching them something was better than nothing. 

Now, if only I could get them to stop copying my homework…