Chapter 10 - The Test
"Wake up, Cady, wake up wake up!" Cadance groaned, eyes cracking open just enough to take in the bouncing bundle of energy filled filly that was currently using her side as a trampoline. The sun barely peaked through the windows, and she used her magic to deposit Twilight on the bed next to her.
"Twilight... it's early still, there's plenty of time before your test," she quietly said, tilting her head to meet Twilight's eyes. The twin lavender orbs pleaded with her, and with a resigned sigh Cadance rolled to her feet. Her mouth opened wide in a yawn as she stretched, her wings fully extending at the same time. A giggle filled her ears, and as she finished Cadance stared at Twilight. "What's so funny?"
"You looked just like a cat when you stretched, Cady!" Twilight exclaimed, carefully hopping off the bed to the floor and walking to the door. She paused a moment and turned to look over her shoulder at the still tired alicorn. "C'mon, hurry up, I'm gonna go wake up Blue!"
Cadance laughed to herself as Twilight disappeared out the room. She hopped off the bed, momentarily looking around the room before settling on the bathroom for a quick cleaning. After all, a princess must look her best in public, and Cadance was not going to miss Twilight's entrance exam for the world.
As Cadance showered, she smiled as the past six weeks came to mind. It had seemed like just the other day that they had all gone to the Fields of Elysium for the funeral, proving the adage that time does indeed fly by. At first, Twilight had been down, nearly shutting everything out. However, after meeting Blueblood she had quickly opened up, and her smile widened as she thought of the changes it had also wrought on her brother. Even now he no longer demanded things of the castle workers, instead asking politely anytime he needed something. The guards were also warming up to him at last, a thing Cadance had marked off as futile.
She stepped out of the shower and used magic to quickly aid the rest of her morning preparations, a smile on her face the entire time. Thoughts of Shining entered her mind, and not even they could remove the fixture from her face. He was busy preparing to go to his school, which also involved moving into the dormitories situated on the campus. Cadance knew that she was going to miss him, but it was going to affect Twilight even more.
Laughter greeted her ears as she walked into the dining room, three other ponies already present. Twilight was laughing as Shining fought to keep a straight face, and Blueblood was quietly eating a bowl of oatmeal, eyes glancing towards the siblings every few seconds. "Good morning, everypony." Cadance greeted as she took a seat next to Shining, quickly pecking him on the cheek.
Shining pulled her into a hug, letting his head rest against her neck. "Morning, Cady..." he quietly said, pointedly ignoring the fake gagging sounds coming from the two children at the table. He rested there a few moments, slowly pulling back and taking his seat again. Shining looked around the table, letting out a melacholic sigh. "I'm going to miss all of this."
Cadance noticed as Twilight and Blueblood went back to their food, each one of them quietly exchanging a word or two on occasion, then turned to face him. "I know, Shiny. But don't let it get you down, okay? I know we've already talked about this, so I'm just going to say that it's something you've got to do, right?" Cadance smiled, leaning into him slightly as she filled her plate. "Sides, once you're done, you can be my own, personal guard!"
They both laughed, exchanging one quick kiss, and then focused on their food. The minutes slipped by as everypony focused on their meal, each one thinking about the test that would be taking place in the next few hours. Twilight's horn was finally free of its cast, and she had been declared healthy enough to take the entrance exam to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.
Everypony paused as Celestia walked into the room, a radiant smile beaming from her muzzle. Cadance noted that even her aunt had changed in recent weeks. Although her actions could be awkward at times, in private Celestia was slowly showing more of herself that Cadance had never before witnessed. In public, her demeanor never changed from that of The Princess of Equestria, but that was to be expected.
"Good morning," Celestia said quietly, her voice carrying to all corners of the room. "I understand that two of you are taking the entrance exam to my school, yes?" Twilight and Blueblood both smiled and lifted a hoof, each one making a small amount of noise as well. "Good luck to you two, I'm sure that you will both do well. Would you both like to show me a little bit of magic?"
As Celestia took a seat, Blueblood focused on his horn, a pale amber color slowly sputtering into being. Moments later, a fork slowly lifted from the table, encased in the same aura. It rose six inches above the surface, Blueblood's eyes squinting in concentration. After holding it there for a few seconds, it slowly dropped back to the surface before the aura vanished from it and his horn.
"Very well done, nephew." Celestia warmly smiled and then turned her attention to Twilight. "What about you, Twilight? Do you have anything to show me?"
Twilight furiously nodded, words escaping her for the moment. Instead, she focused her attention to her horn and concentrated, her brows scrunching in concentration. After a few moments, her horn sputtered to life, a warm lavender glow that encased the plate and surrounding silverware around it. It jerkily wobbled its way into the air, each piece at a different height.
She let out a small cry as her magic sputtered, leaving each piece of levitating diningware to its doom. However, a warm golden aura surrounded them all, gently setting each item back on the table's surface. "Twilight." Celestia calmly spoke, causing her to turn her head away in embarrassment. Celestia chuckled before addressing her again. "Twilight, please look at me." She waited until she had her attention. "Something you must always remember with magic is that you have to start out small. It was most impressive that you levitated so many objects at once, but you didn't have the control that Blueblood showed with just his one. Control is very important, okay?"
"Y-yes, Princess." Twilight quietly stammered out, hiding her face slightly behind her mane. A hoof on her shoulder nearly made her jump, and she turned to see Blueblood, a reassuring smile on his face. She slowly drew herself back up, doing her best to keep from blushing further from embarrassment.
"I must commend you both though, that was an excellent display of magic. I'm certain that you'll both do just fine at the test today." Celestia turned her attention to Shining, still with the same warm smile on her face. "And I understand that you're about to leave for the academy. I wish you the best of luck, just keep the reasons for you being there close to your heart and something tells me that you will succeed."
Shining let out a weak smile and nodded. "Thank you, Princess... that means a lot to me." Cadance nudged his side, and he followed her hoof to the time. He nearly jumped out of his seat as he saw how late it was and began to hurry up Twilight and Blueblood.
Cadance walked to Celestia, a beaming smile on her face. "I wish that you could come with us, Auntie." Celestia surprised her with a quick nuzzle to her cheek, letting out a small sigh.
"I wish that I could, Cadance. However, I fear that the squabbling masses would forever ruin my Court were I to not attend to it." Celestia let out a wry laugh, faint lines of weariness etched at the edges of her face. "Somepony has to do it, I'm afraid. Be safe, and ensure you take Night Blade and Morning Glory with you. They'll be meeting you at the gates."
Cadance returned the smile, chuckling as she saw Shining chasing Twilight from the corner of her sight. "I will, Auntie. You know that you could always not have court for a day, I think it wouldn't hurt them." They both laughed at that, sharing another few moments before Cadance intervened in the chase, using her magic to stop Twilight.
Twilight let out a surprised squeak as Cadance brought her to rest on her back, gently setting Twilight down between her wings. "Now, come on, weren't you the one who wanted to wake me up early so that we could get to the test in time? We've got to leave now, Twilight."
"Okay, Cady!" Twilight exclaimed as Shining and Blueblood came to either side of her. They said their goodbyes to Celestia before heading out of the room. They carefully navigated through the winding corridors, the castle gates quickly looming before them.
"Good morning, Princess and company! We have the illustrious task of–" Night Blade grunted as Morning Glory dug a hoof into his exposed ribs. "Umm, I mean, good morning, everypony. We'll be your guards today." he finished with a smile, glaring at Glory from the corner of his eyes.
Cadance laughed, nodding to each of them as their group walked up to them. "Thank you, Night, Glory. I take it you already know where we're going today?"
"Yes, Cadance, the Captain filled us in this morning. We finally get to take a walk around town, the castle is nice and I'll, but it's nice to have a change of pace." Glory spoke, a small smile gracing her otherwise serious demeanor.
"Glad to hear it, Glory." Night took the lead in front of the group, while Glory remained at Cadance's side. "You know, you might just be getting out of the castle a bit more in the near future," she quietly whispered to Glory, who slightly turned her head and raised her brow in return. "Yup. I asked Celestia about having a guard take Twi and Blue to school, since they are living in the castle, and she said it was a good idea. I saw how well you two already got along with them, so I recommended you two for it!"
Glory let out a small laugh. "That might just be fun. Those two can be a handful, but they make for good experience." She wryly smiled, nodding her heads towards Night.
Cadance drew upon her unique magic, examining Glory and Night closely under her rose tinted view. She let out a small squee of delight moments later, fixing a large smile on Glory. "That's wonderful news!"
Shining chuckled as he listened to Cadance ramble on with Glory, his attention focused more on Twilight and Blueblood. He seemed to be dealing with the upcoming test fine, but Twilight was visible showing signs of anxiety, and had Shining a little concerned for her. He had only gotten to spend a short amount of time working on her magic, and she was still prone to buckling under pressure. Shining had done his best to get her over that, but there had not been enough time to do so.
They approached the entrance to the school, mingling with the multitude of ponies. Parents and foals were together, some animatedly chatting away, while others were dour and quiet. Faculty members directed the flow of traffic, pointing them towards a desk to sign in. The gathered ponies parted before them, the combined presence of the guards and Cadance giving them a wide berth and causing muted whispers all around.
Shining did his best to keep Twilight focused on him as they quickly moved through the registration process, a faculty member directing them towards a small and private room close to the auditorium. Shining let out an audible sigh of relief as he helped Twilight off Cadance's back; she appeared to be a little nervous, but not enough to hinder her spellcasting.
"Now remember, Twily... exactly as we practiced, okay? Don't worry about anypony else in the room, just look at the task they give you and work your hardest to accomplish it." He hugged her tightly, a smile on his face. "And no matter what, I'm super proud of you."
They both looked up as an attendant entered the room. "Blueblood?" Cadance smiled at them briefly before following Blueblood and the faculty member out of the room. He turned back to Twilight, who was becoming more nervous as time passed.
"I'm scared, Shiny... what if I fail? What if I can't do what they ask me to do?" she began, pacing in place as her nerves began to get the better of her. Shining stopped her by wrapping his hooves around her again, drawing her in close.
"Don't worry about it, Twily. You'll do just fine." He broke off the hug, smiling at her as their eyes met. He playfully bopped her on the nose, drawing a gasp of indignation from her. The next few minutes flew by as they played around, anything to keep Twilight from dwelling on what was about to happen.
The knock that they had been waiting for sounded out, a pony opening the door moments later. "Twilight Sparkle? Please, follow me." she turned her head towards Shining, an indifferent look on her face. "Family is not allowed on the testing floor, but you'll be allowed into the stands to watch. Please follow that hall down, the first turn on the right will take you to them."
Shining paused a moment, resting his hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "You'll do just fine. I'll be watching with Cadance and Blueblood, okay?" Twilight nodded her head and watched his back as he began walking down the hall.
"If you could continue following me, please?" she asked, this time with warmth underneath her voice. Twilight ripped her attention away from Shining and followed her through a set of double doors into the auditorium. Seated at the far end behind podiums were multiple unicorns, each one rustling through papers on her desk.
"Are you Twilight Sparkle?" Twilight nodded her head in reply to the unicorn on the far left, who then turned to his colleagues and began quietly discussing amongst themselves. After a minute, a consensus seemed to have been reached, as he cleared his throat and refocused back on her.
"Your test today is to hatch this egg." He motioned to a set of doors that opened, revealing a straw-filled cart with a large egg resting inside. It was brought to the center of the room, and then the ponies pulling it removed themselves from the examination room. A few quiet gasps and murmurs were heard as he continued talking.
"Dragon eggs are somewhat unique, in that it only takes magic for you to hatch them. Twilight Sparkle, you have thirty minutes to funnel as much magic as you can into this egg in an attempt to hatch it. Your time begins... now."
Twilight gulped as she slowly walked up to the egg. When she was close enough, she slowly stretched out a hoof, bringing it to rest lightly on the surface. The leathery texture felt alien underneath her touch, and the warmth pulsed at a steady pace. A determined look on her face, she slowly called on her magi, doing her best to ignore everypony else and focus exclusively on the egg in front of her.
As she felt the magic building up inside her, she noticed the harsh stares from the proctors and gulped again. She released her magic all at once, but only sparks fizzed out from the end of her horn. Her nerves began to get the best of her, and Twilight became increasingly frustrated as her horn continued to fizz, no matter what she did.
Somewhere over the skies, a young filly was tired of it all. She wanted to prove once and for all that she had what it took to be the best, and nopony was going to get in her way. Not anymore. Fillies and colts alike gasped as she dove off the edge of the clouds, her speed increasing at an unrealistic rate.
Seconds later, a chromatic burst of color filled the sky, radiating outwards from her speeding form. A massive explosion of sound filled the air moments later.
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Right before Twi's kaboom.
so good
Oh stopping there wasn't very nice at all. Fluttershy would be ashamed of you. More please.
assets.diylol.com/hfs/809/fad/866/resized/cliffhanger-meme-generator-hanging-on-to-a-cliff-for-dear-life-let-me-just-check-my-survival-manual-d1434e.jpg?1312683254.jpg
I HAVE GREAT INTEREST IN THE COMING EVENTS
And then the room had a sky light installed by our lovely Twilight Sparkle.
That filly at the end. .... MUST BE FLUTTERSHY
MOAR!
Things are about to go boom.
That sonic rainboom pushed me of a cliff and now I'm hanging on for my life... meanie.
3481057 lolololololol
I'm curious. Besides Twilight befriending Blueblood, how does this story deviate from canon? Does it simply show relationship between Sparkle and Celestia more in depth, or are there going to be different circumstances surrounding Twlight's rise to becoming the element of magic.
See, I always interpreted that scene as presenting the prospective student with an impossible challenge to see how determined they are, how they handle problem solving, and how easily they become frustrated.
Why? Because hatching dragon eggs is so esoteric that it's you would never expect a child to know about it beforehand. This is further supported by Spike's status as the only dragon living with ponies in either Ponyville or Canterlot.
If this was a test they gave where they expected students to pass then he would not be alone, and judging by how Twilight was assigned to raise him it seems clear they would do so in general.
If it was passable but Twilight was the only one given the egg test, what made her special BEFORE the test?
Neither of these answers fits the evidence available, thus we can conclude they are unlikely. By process of elimination we are left with only one scenario that makes sense: There was never any expectation that a student could hatch the egg, but Twilight did it anyway.
This makes more sense in general anyway, as it makes her potential even more dramatic.
There's supposed to be an earth shattering kaboom...
3481744 "I was promised an Earth shattering kaboom."
3480881>>3481242 ♪Cliff Hanger, hanging from a cliff. And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!♪
Sh*t's about to get real
the cliffhangers, i am most displeased
Just two typos I noticed:
" the castle is nice and I'll,"
"Don't worry about it, Twily. You'll do jut fine."
Excellent work!
A promise of inbound Momlestia in the near future?
Consider me pleased.
Aww.. I just can't get over how cute Twi and Bluey are!!!!!
This sentence probably could be made into two separate ones with some added detail.
Maybe "Sides" should have an apostrophe at the start to indicate it is besides? Also, I can see this playing out like a porno...
Cadance: "Oh, guard could you please check my room for assassins?"
Shining: "Yes, of course my lady."
Aaaaannnnnnd I shouldn't have to go any further, that dialog is stupid easy to come up with.
"and all,"
Comma or capitalize.
I think that first period should be a comma, the underlined comma shouldn't be there, and there is some word repetition at the end.
"just"
Twilight is playing a fantasy RTS game. Micro that shit!
The ending felt a little tacked on. Could possibly expand it a little bit, give some more detail.
Ok when I first read you AN I thought it said Molestia and was trying to figured out why you were going to go that direction, was kinda weird for a sec
3481513 her parents are dead
3480881 did he ever actually get down?
3484718 that just reminds me of google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fknowyourmeme.com%2Fphotos%2F529455-my-parents-are-dead-batman-slapping-robin&h=0&w=0&sz=1&tbnid=1BeSg6lwbxSB8M&tbnh=221&tbnw=228&zoom=1&docid=NzjJ3JUVAk1ovM&ei=PhWEUqfqFIzisASfy4CwAw&ved=0CAUQsCU
3484905
cdnimg.visualizeus.com/thumbs/a7/96/demotivationalposter,meme,sceptics-a796d1856b292b9765c5ee9d2a0c9c50_h.jpg
3484905
Eeeeeeeh...
Nope.
Good 'ol wikipedia, i tell ya what.
3481521
Ah yes, that is my headcanon as well. We'll see if the author decides to take that route, as from what we've seen so far it could all be a ruse to make the testee believe this is possible, and that they should be able to do it.
3480868
Ack, you cut if off right before the really good stuff started happening! I demand the next installment post haste!
I think I should reserve judgement here, since you do promise to really get into the proclaimed central emphasis of the story in the next chapter, which is how Twilight effects the Princess and, I would assume, impacts and changes her. That's good, because I really want to see how Celestia is changing/will change, as opposed to just being told so, and getting a teensy bit of interaction between her and Cadence, which I assume is supposed to be warmer than usual (I guess I could compare it to conversations earlier in the story?).
I was a little bummed about the six week jump, since last chapter I had figured Celestia would start interacting with Twilight on a regular basis, now that she was living at the castle, and I thought I had missed that because of the jump. But I suppose she didn't. And now with Twilight soon becoming her student (unless you change it up) she has no excuse!
Looking forward to more!
3488689
Truthfully, I caved a little bit here. I wasn't going to get to this point for a few more chapters, mostly so that I could build up the relations a bit more and give a better baseline. However, I got extremely tired of all of the PMs and IMs over Skype about how 'This isn't what you claim it is' and 'where's the Twilight x Celestia interaction.' Really, I could've done a few more 2.5k word chapters before moving forward, but I caved. Eh, just means I'll be getting back to the severe Slice of Life after the next chapter.
Might also be upping the word count, I wanted to see if the 2,xxx word range would work well, and I think it's starting to hold me back. Also, the telling will be replaced with showing soon enough, promise. Sadly, in order to keep it brief to get the point across with the time skip, it was easier to tell in a few words that would've taken a ton more to show. Anyways, glad you've enjoyed it so far.
3488993
Ah okay, that sheds some light on it. Well don't hold it against yourself, because I would have likely done the same thing, faced with enough emails expressing dissatisfaction. And who knows, when it's all said and done, you may be happy it turned out this way. I mean, yeah, extra chapters building up the character relationships would have been nice (for me, anyway), but if something didn't at least start between Twilight and Celestia, it probably would have just exacerbated people's impatience.
And yes, I would definitely encourage exceeding the current word limit--you don't want something like that to hold you back. Two-thousand-and-some words isn't a whole lot to really get into things. And as far as show vs tell, don't hold to it like a religion, because the way I see it, it's best to mix both--showing and telling.
Oddly enough, I'm more curious about Blueblood's test result than Twilight's. If he fails to get in, I could see that start the process of turning him into his usual adult self.
There are some mistakes, I would go through and proofread this chapter if I were you.
3509888
Then it's me who read to much grave scene to be sensitive
Well, things should hopefully be speeding up now, maybe one other chapter or so dealing with the younger years before getting into a time skip. Nicely done, and I look forward to more :)
i hope you update this story soon
nice and all
____________________
This story is pretty good. Although I can't wait to see the Momlestia action come to play.
visibly
Assuming you meant, 'she'? Or were you trying to say that Shining had only gotten to work with her on her magic for a short amount of time?
Was that intentional?
That's about all I saw. Sorry if I found something already noted, I tried to cut ones that I saw in the rest of the comments but I probably missed at least one.
more soon pleas!
this really is a good story, I cant wait for more of this!
"Yes, Cadance, the Captain filled us in this morning. We finally get to take a walk around town, the castle is nice and I'll, but it's nice to have a change of pace."
I believe you meant to say all. Excellent story thus far.
MOAR
Well, yeah. There's really not more to add, except "Excellent story!"
The title reminded me of the song, along comes Mary by bloodhound gang.
At one point it says I'll instead of all. I can't quite remember where,must I think cadance was talking.
Another thing I feel it must point out, you made it sound like the only reason rainbow was trying to go fast was to prove she was the best, when she was defending fluttershy's honor
Anyway, I look forward to the currently last chapter. I can't remember if this is incomplete so. I'll find out next, won't i?
Yeah, but that's kind of the point to stopping where he did. In prime time line, T failed because she choked, it was never a question if she could do this. This time, the big question is DID she choke, or is she too damaged to handle the flow?
Where is the Earth shattering kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth shattering kaboom!
Also, IF there is an Earth shattering kaboom, the question arises :Will BB be glad his friend got her Cutie Mark so soon, or jealous?