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A New Friend1,041 words
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A Brewing Storm

It had been a few weeks since the first day of school, and the trio of unicorns were as busy as ever. Sunset and Twilight each received three days of after-school detention for disorderly conduct, which neither filly considered too harsh now that they were friends again. Although friendships had been rekindled and repaired, none of them had really advanced. Everypony remained in their separate ways, until a particular fateful day that would begin a chain reaction when the time was ripe.

Starlight walked in to her classroom and took her respective seat next to Sunset. both fillies looked across the room and nodded to their purple coated friend, who nodded back. Before any filly had a chance to speak, Miss Honey Sparkles softly cleared her throat, gradually silencing the conversations of the class.

"Now that I have your attention, it's about time for the school announcements to begin." As soon as she spoke, the loudspeaker in the room crackled to life, revealing the headmaster's voice. Professor Dumbearddore, who all three unicorns agreed looked oddly like Starswirl the Bearded, began with the usual announcements, the countdown to progress reports, important test dates for certain students, and birthdays for the day. Starlight at this point was zoning out most of what the headmaster was saying, until he let something pass his lips that seemed to make the whole school snap into attention.

"Also, I am pleased to announce that Princess Celestia is looking for one lucky unicorn from our First Years to take under her wing as her personal student. if anypony from our First year wishes to take part in this wonderful opportunity, please see our deputy headmistress Miss Winnieva Winnienogal to collect the application that must be filled out and signed by you and a legal guardian. The applications are due by the end of the month. A week after the due date of the applications, rosters will be posted throughout the school showing who's applications have been accepted. If you are selected, you will be assigned a date, a time, and a specific room within the school at which you will be subjected to a series of both written and practical evaluations overseen by a panel of judges sent from the University of Canterlot. At our Fall semester award ceremony, the princess shall announce the winner. That pony will from then on be pulled from regular classes and taught by the lesson plan set out by the princess. if you have any questions regarding this event, please ask your teachers. have a good day."

When the speaker switched off, it was about fifteen seconds before the class erupted in eager conversation regarding the news that was just made aware to them. a lot was at stake here. If they were selected, they would be taught and practically raised by the princess herself! It took Miss Honey Sparkle ten entire minutes to regain control of her excited class. When all was quiet, she spoke once more in her soft, sweet voice.
"Now, I know that you all are very excited about this news, but we still have things to do in this class." When groans and shouts of protest erupted from her class, the mare rolled her eyes and quickly added "But keep in mind that the closer you pay attention, the better prepared you'll be for the exams, thus increasing your chances of winning." With this statement she quickly quieted the class and had their attention once more. "Good. Now, everypony take out their Magic Theory books and open them to page 65..."

Like everyday, the lunch bell rang throughout the school, and ponies eagerly grabbed their packs and made for the classroom doors. Starlight, Sunset, and Twilight took their lunches to their respective spots under the big tree in the corner of the schoolyard.

"Wouldn't it be cool if the three of us were selected the be Celestia's prized students?" Sunset wondered aloud.

"It would, but remember what professor Dumbearddore said? Only one First year student will be selected." Twilight added. True, she thought, all her dreams would come true if she was selected, but the odds of that happening were close to impossible in her mind. Even worse, if she was the lucky one, she would have to leave her friends behind! Sunset turned to her other friend.

"Well, what do you think of the competition, Starlight?" Starlight heard Sunset, but wasn't listening. On the outside, she quietly chewed on her apple, but in her head, she was panicking. She knew that her parents would sign her up right away, no questions asked. They would also do everything in their power to ensure that she won. She winced at the horror that her mother would unleash if she didn't get accepted.. That's it! Her eyes lit up. All she had to do was ensure that her parents never heard about the competition for the rest of the month. She smiled at the thought of not being punished for failing... "Well, you know what? I'm marching in there and signing us all up! That way, if we all do the best and get the same scores, They'll have to keep us together!" Sunset exclaimed, standing and preparing to trek down to the office. Starlight paled. There goes her plan to keep her parents in the dark. She watched in horror as the orange unicorn's distance from the tree grew farther.

Later, when Starlight was preparing her desk area for class that afternoon, she was startled by a hoof slamming down on the surface of her desk with a packet several pages long. Regaining her bearings, Starlight looked up at the excited face of Sunset Shimmer.

"Here's your application, delivered as promised. She noticed Starlight's frightened face. "Oh, don't worry, I gave Twilight hers a few minutes ago." When that didn't ease the pink filly's facial expression, Sunset was about to speak when the bell signalling the end of lunch rang. The filly quickly sat down next to Starlight and took out her things as their teacher walked in and began the lesson. Starlight looked down at the application sitting on her desk and felt sick. She took a deep breath, sighed, and placed her textbook over the offending paper.

The bell rang at the end of the day. Miss Honey Sparkles attempted to slip a few final statements in as the class rushed to pack their things and escape into the freedom of the outside world. Starlight had picked up her last book that was to be placed in her saddlebags when a packet fell to the ground. Weary from the day and bracing herself for reentry into her stressful home life, Starlight just scooped up the packet and stuffed it in with all her other schoolwork, not once examining the content of the stapled papers. Starlight swung her bags over her back and made her way out the door with the last trickle of students left in the room, not ever stopping to think about what she was bringing home.

Author's Note:

Hey guys, I'm so sorry for stranding you all for so long! I have been plagued with both schoolwork and a nasty case of writer's block. Every time I thought of a decent way to play out the details, I would scrap it and go back to the drawing board. Also. I need your opinions. Do you want me to make rapid updates of shorter chapters, or longer chapters with more wait time in between? Let me know in the comments. Also, I'm going to be posting concept art for this story soon on my deviantart account. I'm still fluffinthepuff over there as well, so you can go check that out. As the story progresses I will continue to post concept art on that account. Until then my Friends!

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