Chapter 3: The Test
"Twilight Sparkle!"
Twilight felt her blood turn to ice in her veins when her name was called by the testing administrators. She glanced up at her parents, each of whom gave her their widest and proudest smiles before nodding for her to go. She did her best to swallow her fear, then looked to Saphira, who was standing just beside her. Saphira raised a questioning eyebrow, as if surprised Twilight was even asking her for help, before nodding the same way her parents had.
Twilight took a deep breath to steady herself before trotting up to the door, where a pony with a clipboard was waiting.
"Name?"
"T-Twilight Sparkle!"
"Age?"
"Eight years old!" Twilight had practiced these questions at least a hundred times. Her parents could have answered for her, but they'd all agreed it would give a better impression if she answered, herself.
"Which program at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns will you be applying for, Miss Sparkle?"
"A-Advanced Thaumaturgical Studies! The one taught directly by Princess Celestia!"
"You and every other filly..." the pony with the clipboard muttered. "Physical and magical examination results?"
Twilight reached into her saddlebag, producing a manila folder the family doctor had given them. The pony didn't bother looking inside, slipping it into a stack of several dozen identical other folders.
"Have you taken any kind of magical supplement in the past forty-eight hours?"
"No!"
"Have you experienced any of the following symptoms in the past forty-eight hours: lightheadedness, involuntary magical discharge, fainting, loss of vision, involuntary glowing, fever, shortness of breath, or involuntary teleportation? These may be signs of a possible overabundance of mana or a rare-but-possible negative reaction to the charms placed around the school." He read the list in a total monotone, and Twilight wondered just how many times he must have done this today to sound so bored.
Twilight decided that the lightheadedness and pounding of her heart due to nervousness probably didn't count. "No, none of that!"
"Final question: Are you bonded to any familiar, spirit, magical item, or other aide which you believe should be present at your test? This will impact the task presented to you, so please answer truthfully."
"N-" Twilight stopped as a thought occurred to her. She glanced back at her family, glancing over the three of them and letting her eyes linger on Saphira. Their eyes met again, and Twilight could tell that, even at this distance, the two of them were thinking the same thing.
"Y-Yes! My dragon partner, Saphira!"
"Dragon?" This finally seemed to break through the haze of boredom the administrator had cloaked himself in.
"Saphira, come on!" Twilight turned around and waved for Saphira to join her. Saphira didn't hesitate, bounding the distance in a matter of seconds and taking her place by Twilight's side with her head held high (nearly higher than Twilght's own head, she noticed. Saphira was definitely growing faster than she was...).
"Okay... One dragon familiar... noted." He marked the last few notes on his clipboard before the page disappeared in a puff of smoke. "Go ahead inside, your parents will be right behind you in the viewing area."
Twilight took a deep breath, trying to drink in as much of Saphira's confident aura as possible before she pushed open the doors and entered the classroom. It was empty, aside from a blackboard, several ascending rows of desks and seats for the students, and four sharply-dressed, tired-looking judges standing at the very top, with a perfectly unobstructed view.
On the other side of the room, another pair of doors opened and a pony silently wheeled in a cart with a single object placed on top of it: a metal sun, crafted from polished bronze and in the shape of Celestia's famous heavenly cutie mark. The pony wheeling in the cart reached into a drawer on the cart and retrieved a small piece of stiff white thread, which he inserted into a small hole at the top of the metal sun. Fastened on the side of the cart was an illustration of what was expected of her: the same sun, with a flame burning where the thread had been inserted.
Light the lamp... Is it that simple? Twilight marveled, blinking several times. That's basic fire magic! They even gave me a wick!
Beside her, Saphira growled, and Twilight agreed: there was no way that the test was this simple. However, they had to start somewhere. Twilight looked up at the administrators, one of whom gave her a curt nod.
"Well, Miss Sparkle?"
The test had begun.
Twilight stepped up and examined the lamp, but couldn't find anything odd about it. A brief feel with a levitation spell certainly felt like it had enough weight to be filled with fuel, and when the judges all raised an eyebrow and began writing notes, Twilight felt her heart beating a mile a minute. She stepped away, forcing out a chuckle to pretend she wasn't intimidated.
She decided to try the simplest answer first: a firestarter spell. Her father had taught it to her ages ago, when her mom had insisted on a week-long camping trip as a whole family. It would work in wind, in rain... if there was fuel, it would light. She closed her eyes and focused her magic to a point at the tip of the wick. There was a spark, a flash of orange flame... and then it snuffed itself out, leaving only a wisp of smoke.
Twilight tried again, and the flame snuffed out just as quickly.
Twilight glared at the lamp, trying not to let her nerves get the best of her. Her brain started trying to break the problem down. Fire required three things: oxygen, fuel, and a spark. The room clearly had oxygen, the lamp was filled with fuel, and she had provided the spark! What's wrong? Does it need a particular trigger?
She tried changing tactics. How else could one make a spark?
She did her best to build up a charge in her horn before pressing it close to the wick. She couldn't help but feel satisfied as a spark of electricity jumped from her horn to the wick, producing a spark. She gritted her teeth and held her breath as she pushed harder and harder to keep the arc going. Just as she felt that her eyes were about to pop out of her head, she let the spell taper off and took a deep gasp of air.
"Did- Did it work?" she breathlessly asked herself once her head had stopped spinning.
The wick was blackened and smoldering, but still without a flame.
It's shaped like the sun... is that a clue?
Twilight had spent many a long night studying the more arcane and conceptual elements of magic, but that didn't mean she'd shirked the basics. She looked around the room until she spotted a nearby window. She cast a quick glance at the judges, feeling her panic rising higher as they all continued scribbling notes on her every move. This wasn't the time to hesitate.
According to Magical Crafts and the Rise of Arcane Tradesponies Volume 3, glassblowers had been using magic to enhance their methods for centuries, including making the glass in the Royal Castle stronger and more tenacious. If her theory was right, then she had everything she needed around her, she just needed to be more resourceful.
A more forceful use of the levitation spell was enough to pull a pane of glass out of the moulding from the window leading outside. She flinched and looked nervously up at the judges, who had all stopped writing to watch her closely.
"I- I'll put it right back!"
She brought the glass closer, eyeing it closely as she pushed it with her magic. The glass was still glass, but it had just the tiniest amount of give and flexibility. Twilight focused, trying to ignore her building headache. She pushed on the center of the glass, forcing it to expand out. She held the now-curved glass up to the light, catching the sun's rays and focusing them to the singular point of the wick.
"Come on, come on..." she whispered, praying that she wasn't about to embarrass herself AND vandalize a classroom for nothing. After several seconds of adjusting, Twilight found the sweet spot that aligned the focal point of the lens with the wick. The thread started to glow red and smoke, clearly trying to ignite, but fire still eluded her. One of the judges yawned and another checked their watch.
"We don't have all day."
This was the single most important day of Twilight's life, and she was blowing it.
This was more magic than Twilight had ever used in a single day in her entire life, and she was really starting to feel the strain. Her head was pounding, her eyes were watering, and her knees were threatening to buckle. With a tearful sigh, Twilight set the glass down on a nearby desk. She sat back on her haunches to try and catch her breath, casting a glance at Saphira.
"Any contributions? I know you can't breathe fire, yet, but..."
Twilight watched Saphira step up to the cart, sniffing at the lamp. After a moment, her eyes widened and she pulled back in surprise. After a moment, Saphira turned to the judges, giving them a soul-searing glare. Most of them seemed unaffected, though one of them DID squirm slightly under the dragon's harsh judgement.
"What is it? What's wro-"
KRA-KA-KOOOOOOOM!
"YIPE!"
Twilight's entire body seized as the sound of an explosion ripped through the air. In that second, everything in her that had been holding back her fear and panic disappeared. Her head began to spin and the rest of the world faded away, leaving her with only her own thoughts and fears.
I'm going to fail! I'm going to FAIL! This my only chance to get into Celestia's School and I'm going to fail! This is my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I'm letting it slip through my hooves! And I even ripped apart one of the windows! I'm a vandal! Is that going to go on my permanent record? Does that mean I'm a criminal? Are the guards going to take me away to the dungeons? What would Princess Celestia think? I'm never going to be allowed in schools again! Are they going to take my library cards? WHY WOULDN'T THE LAMP STAY LIT?
I just need the lamp to be on fire, for that fake sun to actually give off REAL light!
"Twilight... Breathe in." A calm voice spoke in her mind.
Twilight obeyed out of sheer instinct, taking a deep breath and holding it.
"Breathe out. Breathe in... Breathe out. Be still."
The voice sent ripples of calm traveling through her soul, and something about it was familiar enough for her to instantly trust it. It was like throwing a stone into a calm lake, but played in reverse. All of the alarm bells and sirens and screaming in her mind began to adjust. They didn't disappear, but they approached the same, single tone. As the pounding of her heart and her hyperventilation both came back down to a reasonable pace, Twilight's awareness of her surroundings began to return.
Blue.
The first thing she noticed as a deep, calming blue hue all around her. Saphira was standing in front of her, wings spread protectively and looking straight into her eyes with an almost-hypnotic fixation. The only thing able to tear Twilight's eyes away was the sight of light streaming through the membranes of her wings, turning everything in the room the same sapphire shade. In spite of the cool color, Twilight felt like the room had risen to a sweltering level of heat, and sweat was already beginning to run down her forehead. She realized that the light was coming from the direction of the cart.
"Did I... do it?" She whispered, trying to arch her neck to look past Saphira.
"Don't. Unless you WANT to go blind?"
"Why would I-" Twilight's entire thought process came to a halt. "Did- Did you just TALK?"
"Were you expecting Princess Celestia?" Saphira tilted her head and smirked at her. Her voice was feminine, but deep, almost already sounding like an adult. It was a voice that rumbled up from deep at the base of her skull, rattling around inside of her head instead of being spoke aloud. Saphira's telepathy magic had grown.
"YOU CAN TALK!" Twilight jumped forward, wrapping her hooves around Saphira's neck and hugging her as tightly as she could.
Around them, the temperature in the room began to drop and the blue light dimmed. After a moment, Saphira seemed to deem it safe for her to lower her wings, but Twilight wasn't certain that she could trust her eyes.
The room was half-destroyed. Every exposed surface was either scorched or covered in soot, and every pony present had taken some kind of cover. Notably, a few of the judges were still desperately trying to pat out burning embers in their manes and tails, and her parents had clearly only barely managed to dive behind a turned-over desk in time. The cart had been reduced to a pile of charcoal topped by a coating of melted bronze, and standing over it was... Princess Celestia.
It was her. She was here, really HERE! Twilight felt herself starting to panic again, but the feeling of a wing draping itself over her stopped her from spiraling into another mental descent. Instead, her jaw dropped out of shock when she saw what Celestia was keeping contained in a bubble of dark-tinted magic: a miniature sun. It was a ball of nuclear fire no larger than an orange, but it was clearly the source of the near-incineration of the classroom.
"Well, I must say I'm impressed, if not flattered..." Princess Celestia smiled as she examined the fireball she was keeping contained. "A perfect mimicry of the same sun that I raise and lower every day."
"Wait, did I..." Twilight turned to look at Saphira, who nodded.
"Then this..." she gestured to the destruction of the entire room, and Saphira nodded again.
Twilight suddenly wished more than anything to curl up into a ball and bury herself under Canterlot Mountain right then and there.
"I- I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"
"Twilight Sparkle..." Princess Celestia held up a hoof to ask for silence. "You have a very special gift! I don't think I've ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities!"
"Huh?" Twilight couldn't quite understand. Was there a reason she wasn't in the dungeons for destroying an entire room in the castle, yet?
"But you need to learn to tame these abilities through focused study," Princess Celestia continued.
"HUH?"
"Twilight Sparkle, I'd like to make you my own personal protégé here at the school!"
"HUH?" was all Twilight could manage as Celestia looked at her expectantly.
"Well?"
Twilight glanced back at her parents. If Princess Celestia was actually asking her what she SEEMED to be asking her- and this wasn't some dream- surely something this monumental required her to ask permission, right? Permission from her parents, from the universe, SOMEONE. The sight of both of her parents nodding as enthusiastically as possible seemed to finally cement the moment in reality, and Twilight leapt as high as her body could take her.
"YEEEESSSS!"
Celestia smirked and raised a hoof. "One other thing, Twilight!"
"MORE?" Twilight asked, still scarcely able to believe what was happening as she returned to the ground in a heap of clumsy excitement.
Celestia didn't say a word, merely pointing to Twilight's flank. Where there had once been plain lilac-colored fur, she now sported a constellation of six-pointed stars, still glimmering with the magic that had caused it to appear.
"MY CUTIE MARK!" Twilight cried, unable to stop herself as she began to prance around the room. What had at one point seemed like it was the worst possible day of her life had somehow turned into the best, and Twilight knew that every detail of it would stay burned into her mind forever.
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While she was still occupied, one of the judges stepped up to Princess Celestia and reached to whisper in her ear.
"You highness, we're going to have to put the rest of the day's exams on hold to move everything to another room."
The unicorn flinched back slightly when the dragon that had accompanied the young filly turned to glare at them again. Even at her modest size (she looked to be only an inch or two taller than the young Twilight Sparkle), she commanded an air of nobility that made her disapproval sting more than it should have.
"Well, perhaps next time you'll put actual FUEL in the lamp, instead of water..." she held herself with a haughty air, looking down her nose at the judge harshly enough for them to hide slightly behind the princess. With the unicorn dealt with, she moved on to examining the Princess.
There was a brief second as Celestia and Saphira seemed to be sizing one another up. Saphira was lacking in both size and power if she wanted a confrontation, but she didn't seem to care. Celestia was simply trying to determine how the situation had even come to this moment.
"I've met many dragons in my time, but I cannot say I've ever seen one quite like yourself, Miss..."
"Saphira."
"Are you from our southern neighbors? Dragons are hardly a common sight in Equestria."
"No."
There was a long pause, with Celestia clearly expecting more of an explanation. Saphira didn't give any, walking away to watch Twilight leaping with a satisfied smile. Celestia turned to look at the teacher-turned-judge with an expression of clear disapproval.
"I know that I said to give them tests that would push them to their full potential, but that is NOT what I meant."
"The goal isn't to do the impossible, just to see what solutions and spells they can come up with under pressure..." the judge responded sheepishly. "Technically, she'd already passed well enough to be accepted."
Celestia gave a dissatisfied hum. "I'll inform the parents that the rest of today's tests have been delayed, myself. The entrance committee will have until tomorrow morning to think of more appropriate entrance exams..." She turned to the tiny replica of the sun. It would have burned itself out long ago by now, but she was keeping it fueled on her own power, mostly out of fascination with her new protégé's results. "And perhaps don't give the fillies you ask to make fire their own supply of hydrogen to fuse."
"D-Duly noted, your highness..."
Celestia nodded, turning to watch Twilight and Saphira as the two of them seemed to be congratulating one another. According to the filly's file, Saphira was her familiar.
This should have been impossible, and she would normally have attributed it to clerical error or a misunderstanding of what a familiar was. Dragons, while possessing a little innate magic, were NOT capable of forming that kind of bond at all, lacking both the magic power and the scholarly study to do so. Familiars were linked to their mages at a level as deep as the soul, deeper than blood or even traditional magic, and no filly SHOULD have been able to cast a bonding spell at this age. The question of whether or not applicants had a familiar was purely to cover their bases on the questionnaire, never intended to be answered in the affirmative.
But this "Saphira" was clearly different. Not only could Celestia sense a true bond between her and Twilight Sparkle, but she clearly had a vast reserve of magic power at her disposal. When Twilight's spell had triggered an explosion of heat and light, Saphira had moved to shield Twilight's body with her own. At the same time, the scales of her body had shifted, becoming more crystalline until they were almost transparent and refracted away most of the light. She had protected them both in that moment, and managed to avert tragedy through magical means.
That kind of transmutation magic, especially of her own body, presented two options. First was the possibility that she was actually much, much older than her size would lead one to think, and had studied magic longer than most ponies would live... or... like Twilight, she had acted on instinct, and the magic that had flowed through her in that moment was the kind of wild magic that had not been seen in modern Equestria in centuries.
While the thought of such wild magic came with its own set of worries and concerns, Celestia couldn't help a smile and and some inward giddiness. Life could be so boring at times, feeling as if the crown brought with it a prison of routine and expectation.
These two would certainly provide a healthy dose of excitement in her life.
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So, someone in here was looking for more bureaucracy?
She can talk!
It's like I always say, there's nothing that you cannot set on fire if you're willing to put the effort in.
Famous last words, Celestia
Aah, this was good.
I kinda dread the chapters with the magic exam whenever I read AUsn or even 'canon' renditions of early Twilight.
So damn many of them seem to throw in objectively unnecessary narrative of the examiners being evil/stupid/nobility and otherwise holding malicious intent with the test...
"Test how the foal does under pressure" is a perfectly valid reason for the Dragon egg exam!
A little idiotic, insomuch as making foals overly nervous is not a very sensible thing to do (mainly for their mental health), but it doesn't need any "the ponies who did this, did it because they are bad ponies!"-narrative.
I am equally as happy to see decent exam scene, as I am perplexed to what, exactly, butterflied the Spike scene away.
If Sapphire's entrance into the setting is the starting divergence point, then...
Was it Twilight's "connection to the familiar" that made the examiners think "yah, better not give her an impossible dragon-related test"?
Celestia is well-done, too, for what little we've seen of her.
...Though to be completely fair, my standards are a little low.
Don't be a Lines and Webs "Secretly a Tyrant/Evil!Dumbledore", and you're already better than too damn many :V
Do a "bored immortal, with morals, who genuinely loves her ponies, and does a prank or two every now and then", and you're basically on-point with the show's (admittedly a little limited) characterization.
:P
The "make a small sun" is as much as should've been expected of Twilight.
And since cutie-mark's the same...
Harmony, uuh, finds a way.
Now, the only big question is:
Wut with muh boi Spike?
:o
10732029
Inb4 whole Canterlot castle is on fire after the first lesson.
I would say the only thing I don't agree with is the admonishment of the examiners because of the test.
No way you can look at this other than a massive irregularity.
I am loving every chapter of this eith every release. Please keep it going!
Interesting magic test. I like how Celestia is written there. I sense Saphira will be of great help to prevent Twilight from future panic attacks. Great chapter!
No Spike?! I am sad...
10732147
He will likely show up in some fashion later.
Interesting take on the entrance exam but i am sad that you removed spike. I was interested in the possibility of spike and saphira growing up together and feel this is a missed opportunity now.
Will twilight and saphira end up in alagaesia further down the line?
10732201
The commissioner was very explicit that Saphira's departure be a clean break from her history, with none of that drama following her to Equestria. Alagaesia is on its own, I'm afraid.
That being said, since this IS a commissioned piece, an AU where her past comes to haunt them is perfectly possible if someone were to request a commission of their own! There's been a lot of comments asking for something like that, so multiple people could probably chip in to make it happen!
Idea, you can give Spike to Lyra! She passed the test
10732267
Stop that train of thought right there mister, madam or ambiguous interdimensional being.
10732307
I am a chiken with an axe, and why?
You know... I was actually wondering what you’d have for the test.... I can’t wait for other dragons to meet Saphira! That’ll be.... something.
Have a great day!!!!!
Why not? It’s not like it can explode or anything. Without, you know, the force of a nuclear fission detonation to kickstart it, or something as strong.
Alas, looks like no Spikey. Unless he’s been given a new storyline in Eragonland or whatever the place was called.
Really liking the story so far and looking forward to more chapters!
Though, I am a tad confused. It read like Saphira addressed Celestia directly, which I presume was through telepathy. I would expect this to be unusual but no one seemed to remark on that besides Twilight, and only briefly at that. In the original stories I don't recall Saphira often directly addressing others, though that could have been because she was supposed to be a secret for most of her early life (Ie. book one).
10732360
Spike with a little guitar making the accompanying of Lyra s Lyra, Hands adventures , Spike crushing on one of Lyra's friends ..... O boy I wish I was a good writer, this is a gold mine!
This is pretty interesting, like it a lot, just one question, ¿will there be no spike?
10732468
Afraid not. He's been substituted with Saphira...
10732504
What's with so many readers here fixating on Spike when this story is explicitly about a different line with Twilight instead getting Saphira?
Also, art source :
Thank-you-for-nothing-you-useless-reptile
10731524
Not quite sure actually, Didn't get started much on Eldest yet... but even still, I've seen the movie and read the first book. So I'm pretty sure, that if eragon doesn't find the egg, bad things are going to happen!
10732065
It was Saphira's presence as a "familiar" that did it. An important part of risk-management is never giving the risk an opportunity to appear in the first place, so they opted to go with a test that wouldn't have a chance (however small) of saddling Twilight with two familiars.
I can tell, this is going to be a great story!
10732617
I can't help but wonder if this means that Spike is going to show up elsewhere. I can think of a few possible places, with one of the more interesting ones being Sunburst.
10732537
People have their heads shoved up their flanks about the idea that Spike has been removed from his usual spot. And possibly from existing at all.
And has been replaced by an infinitly better friend, family, and dragon, in Sapphira.
10732656
Haven't really considered it honestly. In the time-honored tradition of butterflies only one thing has really been changed, namely Saphira's appearance. Thus Spike's egg has to be rattling around somewhere, but considering Celestia just told the proctors to knock it off with the impossible tests I'm not sure where/how he'd end up being hatched.
Glad to have you by the way, I hope you're enjoying our little project.
10732537
Because it's a possible element that could show up later on, or could not show up later on. And a character that many people like, so they wonder if there are any plans for him.
10732684
I know the feeling.
One idea that seems honestly kind of fitting is for the subject to come up at whatever point an official contact is next made (on-page, at least) with the dragonlord.
Or maybe I'm just amused by the idea of Spike as Ember's (or Smoulder's) baby brother?
Only thing I’d critique saphiras comment about it being filled with water didn’t make filly twilight go Wait what do you mean by it was water?
Well now, isn't that interesting
Yikes, well done Twilight
I am so glad I started reading this.
It's really nice to see the full nature of dragons recognized.
then the great and powerful Trixie hatched spike the brave and glorious
although a junior brother and sister to shining would have been nice
I was slightly disappointed that it was not Spike's egg at Twilight's exam. Perhaps Fate deemed having two baby dragons in Canterlot was too much for anyone's piece of mind.
But since she made a minisun, the lack of sufficient distance and the missing mass of 70 miles of atmosphere might cause a small problem for any living thing in the room, namely a severe case of gamma and x-ray poisoning.
At least, I hope Saphira's instincts for magically shielding took care of that for both her and Twilight. Too bad for her parents and the test examiners.
my this chap was very fun
Is it weird that I love this test?