Normally, Twilight Sparkle did not wake up with Celestia’s daily sunrise. Though by no means a late sleeper like Shining Armor had become lately, she enjoyed rising an hour or two later than usual after secretly reading books or trying to talk with Smarty Pants into the wee hours of the morning.

However, today was not a day just like any other.

“Today’s the day for the Gifted Test!”

Normally, Nightlight was the first to get up in the morning. As the stallion of the house, he would prepare a pot of coffee for his wife Velvet and perhaps go down and pick something up from the deli for the family’s breakfast.

Today however, Nightlight woke up not to the usual quiet household, but to a repeated bouncing feeling from somewhere on the bed.

“Mmh, Twilight? You’ll wake your mother,” he mumbled.

“Hmm? What is it honey?” asked a now conscious unicorn mare.

“But today is the day is the day is the day!” Twilight loudly declared to the sleepy duo.

“Twilight…”

Twilight Sparkle’s bouncing slowed down from a quick tempo to a more occasional beat and then, finally, ceased altogether. Twilight didn’t want to make her parents grouchy, especially since they had gone through so much trouble to help this happen.

“Honey,” said her mother, “maybe you should practice your magic brushing your teeth and getting washed up before breakfast.”

Twilight Sparkle gasped. She hadn’t used her magic yet today at all! What if she forgot how to levitate things overnight? Then she would have gone to be tested, have been humiliated by the teachers, and have embarrassed her parents. There was not a moment to lose! In a flash, she was in the bathroom, furiously brushing away.

Nightlight looked over to his wife.

“Do you ever worry that she’s a bit too intense about this sort of thing?”

“It’s a Twilight family trait. We get intense about everything. Looks like my genes won out this round.”

Minutes later, Twilight and her family, including her parents, big brother, and Smarty Pants were gathered at the table. As today was a special day, Nightlight had prepared haycakes with syrup. In retrospect though, this was a bad idea. It turned out that Twilight, though theoretically aware of Smarty Pants’ status as a doll, still insisted on trying to feed him an oat cake covered in syrup. As for her brother, despite being the greater part of a decade older, he was scarcely more mature. Before the parents could take control of the situation, the haycakes became the center of a speed-eating contest.

In the end, Twilight Sparkle was the winner, but the victory was shallow and short-lived. For one thing, her best non-brother friend, Smarty Pants, had come in dead last, having eaten barely anything save for some syrup in her fabric. For another, part of the collateral damage was her cleanliness. Twilight Sparkle, usually a neat filly, was now messier than she had been for ages. This required a trip back to the bathroom, with parental assistance to make sure they wouldn’t be late.

As her mother helped clean out her syrup-stained fur, Twilight Sparkle heard her father lecturing Shining Armor in the other room. Her mother had only given her a look of modest shame, but the disapproval combined with her brother’s trial made Twilight a very remorseful filly.

An hour later, Shining Armor had gone off to school, while his sister and parents were just approaching the gates of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

Inside the school, the trio passed through hallway after hallway. At a glance, it seemed like an ordinary enough school, albeit a well kept one with the occasional monument. But to the well trained eyes of Twilight Sparkle, she was stepping on the grounds of the greats, regularly passing by national treasures.

“They say that this is where the very best unicorns learn and teach magic! I heard that Savory Sweet the Wise founded the biology department in 277! She was the inventor of lupobiology! And this is where the Equestrian National Medal of Technology and Innovation is given every year! They’re usually just called the ‘Buggies’ though, because back in the old days, a bunch of buggies carried the new inventions and stuff here! And-”

The little pony’s parents had learned nothing new from this lecture. After all, Twilight had shared everything she learned about the school ever since she heard that they had signed her up for testing. But they didn’t mind. This could end up being one of the greatest days in their daughter’s life. And even if their talented little genius were to somehow end up having trouble… well, they already had some new Smarty Pants accessories wrapped up back home as a prize for her doing her very best.

Twilight Sparkle and her parents had been waiting outside the testing room for what felt like forever. It couldn’t have been that long: the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns Gifted Admissions Test was notorious for having merciless proctors, and stories about foals leaving the exam in tears, regardless of their outcome, were far from unheard of. Twilight, through an accident in alphabetical ordering, was the ninth of ten foals being tested that day.

As she looked at another filly going into the room to take the test, a lonely blue thing with a silver mane and a magnificent hat, Twilight reflected on something she had read. Out of the ten of them, there was a chance that none of them would pass the test. In fact, it was almost as likely as not that none of them would pass. Admittance rates based on this test were roughly 12%, and even out of those select few, many students simply couldn’t keep up with the sheer load and complexity of the coursework.

According to that book, only 4% of ponies applying via the test would be able to not only pass but stick out the intense years of schooling that followed.

And as Twilight Sparkle saw the blue filly quietly leave the room, hat covering her expression, she began to doubt that she would have what it took.

“Twilight Sparkle”

It was her turn. Twilight’s parents went in with her, as Twilight knew they would be allowed to. In the room were four proctors. Oddly enough, they didn’t seem as tall and intimidating as she was afraid they might be.

Then they stared at her.

Twilight Sparkle was no stranger to being stared at. As the resident bookworm in magic kindergarten, other foals stared at her all the time. And even the occasional parent of said foals would stare at her, sometimes in disapproval.

But teachers, librarians, scholars… they had never stared at her like that before. They might be surprised that such a young filly knew so much and was so eager to learn. But they would soon smile, and help her learn her fill.

These four proctors stared at her, not only with disapproval, but with disregard. It was as if they were saying “You have already wasted our time by bothering to show up today. Just hurry up and fail so we can go on our lunch break.”

In years to come, Twilight Sparkle would come to realize that those four ponies were not villains. They probably weren’t even being hostile. If anything, they were slightly bored.

But as a filly, Twilight Sparkle felt betrayed and terrified by such looks. It was almost as if failure was the only option they’d accept.

How could she possibly succeed?

Half an hour later, Twilight Sparkle was feeling… not confident. No, she was definitely still far from confident. But that feeling of imminent doom had subsided somewhat.

The oral section of the test had been simple enough. Magical auras, uncontrolled magic, the differences between telekinesis and other natural magic versus spells, the magical color spectrum, and enchanted artifacts were easy as pie to remember and recite information about. Sure, Twilight stumbled a bit when asked about wild magic, but was able to recover quickly enough.

The practical section was slightly more difficult, but still manageable. Twilight’s telekinesis proved to be more than strong enough to lift most of the objects presented to her. Oddly enough, one of the few things she had trouble lifting was a shard of stone resembling obsidian. However, her ability to levitate three small books and levitate them independently did seem to impress the proctors.

As one of the proctors pulled a distant switch with his telekinesis, a pony came into the room via a second doorway. He was towing what appeared to be a small wagon, with some large object covered by the sheet.

“Twilight Sparkle,” said the proctor, “for the last portion of your practical exam, you are tasked with channeling your magic into another object.”

The sheet was pulled off of the wagon. Twilight Sparkle’s mouth dropped at what she saw.

“This is a statue of a creature called-“

“The Crying Human!” Twilight squealed with glee.

How could they not think that she’d know what this was? The Crying Human was an ancient piece of pony artwork, portraying a mythical species of the pre-Equestrian era. It had been the property of Celestia’s School for centuries, and was the best surviving artifact portraying the original interpretation of the mythical species.

Looking at it now, Twilight saw just how well the Crying Human had been made. Although its bipedal figure was strangely alien, it was obviously curled into a fetal position. Its face, though carefully carved, was mostly hidden underneath the figure’s arms. Scholars had been debating how ponies were able to carve such intrinsic details as individual hairs such a long time ago.

“Ahem!” said the proctor, upset at having been interrupted. “As I was saying, the final part of your test is projecting your magic into The Crying Human. As you can see, the surface of the Crying Human is currently jet black. However, when enough magic is projected into the statue, it will temporarily change colors. That is your goal. If you succeed, we’ll be glad to accept you into our school.”

Twilight gulped. Magical projection? She’d only read a few books discussing the practice. In theory it was simple enough, but she was not prepared.

Turning to her right, Twilight saw her parents. They did not seem the least bit afraid. In fact, they were both beaming. Had Twilight been a bit older, she might have recognized those grins as being at least partially forced, made to comfort her. However, Twilight was still just young enough so that a smile from a loved one could convince her that she had everything she needed.

For the next two minutes, Twilight circled The Crying Human. She did everything in her power to put some magic into the statue. Her horn flickered on and off as she repeatedly tried to push the magic out.

But it was in vain. The Crying Human showed no reaction to any of her efforts.

From behind her, Twilight Sparkle could hear pens and pencils scratching away at paper.

“Sorry for wasting your time…”

And there was light.

Twilight Sparkle only had a moment’s warning, a flash of rainbow out of the corner of her eye, before her surroundings disappeared. The world around her was covered in fog, except for her and the statue.

I need to put magic in the statue.

Drawing from wells she didn’t know she had, Twilight poured gallons of magic into the statue.

It’s not enough.

The fog around Twilight started to clear a bit, but instead of the room she was in, there were lights. Dull ones scattered about, bright ones shining like the sun, in an array of colors.

But the statue was dull. For all the light shone on it, not a single particle seemed to be reflected off of it. If anything, it seemed more dull and colorless than ever before.

If only I could spread that light to it. Then it will have magic.

And as soon as the thought occurred to her, Twilight Sparkle noticed that small speckles of light in the area, almost timidly, approached the statue.

Yes! C’mon…

Twilight focused again, not just on her own magic, but on the lights around her. Using her own magic as a net, she drew the light towards the statue. As the statue flickered for a moment though, it almost immediately went dull.

No! I need to get more of it…

And so Twilight cast another net with her magic, pulling the light from around her, and pulling it into the statue, magical net and all. And this time, the statue had a hint of color for another moment longer. But was it enough to pass the test?

Another net, and for the first time, Twilight saw that she was starting to overdraw from the light around her. Some previously sparkling spots were bare, and the shining pillars here and there were far less radiant than only a few moments ago.

The little filly suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion. Her legs threatened to collapse beneath her. Looking down for the first time, Twilight saw that she too was a source of light, at least as bright as any of the others in sight.

Maybe if she pushed a bit more of her own light into the statue?

Twilight created a final net, one that not only covered the surrounding area but also herself. With it, she slowly dragged the net, leaving as little behind as possible. Entire swathes of space were left dull, their shimmering sparkles caught by the net. Something trickled down her neck, but now was not the time to look down to see what it was. The net slowly surrounded the Crying Human statue, until it was only a foot away... six inches away… barely apart…

And then the statue finally, slowly, began to shine. Not brilliantly, especially compared to Twilight herself, but as the moments went by, it continued to gain strength and glow.

But before Twilight could see the final result, all went dark.

Author's Notes:

So yeah, I'm writing fanfiction again. This time it's a HiE, but I plan on adding a few twists.

Feel free to point out anything that bothers you. Other than that, I hope you have as much fun reading this as I am having writing it.