"So, as you can see, we ponies pride ourselves on our mastery over the mysterious art of Magic. This painting was the first one ever crafted solely by magical means and, as such, is archaic in nature, but if you look closely, you can..."

The crowd of ponies leaned in closer as the tour guide droned on. The unceasingly repeated words were dull, especially to those who were really not interested. The crowd of ponies had really stopped paying attention to the guide as he lazily repeated his script, but they all leaned in to see one of the most ancient artifacts in Equestria. The painting in question was little more than a couple blurbs of color splattered upon a rock, something that made some ponies, particularly young ones, bored.

"Mother, do we really have to do this?" a filly whined, "Why did you say this was something I had to not miss?"

The tour guide, a cream colored stallion with a blueberry colored mane, rolled his eyes at that. He had been a tour guide for seven years and had to put up with all sorts of dumb questions, particularly those of fillies and colts. His love of history had drawn him to this position, but he learned early on that he was the only one who actually cared about it. Most ponies didn't really appreciate what these stood for, the markers of how society had advanced, and came solely to be considered 'cultured'.

"Mama," the young voice whined again, "Do we have'ta--"

A loud shushing came from the crowd as an older zebra mare spun to face her child. The mare was pretty for a zebra. Her mane was draped onto one side of her neck, a very fashionable style of the time. Her white pelt nearly sparkled against the grayish stripes across it, making them very prominent. Her sky blue eyes and gray muzzle bore an angry look down to the young filly standing next to her.

The filly was almost an exact copy of her mother. Her mane stood up in a natural mohawk while her coat was just starting to show it's gray stripes. The only real difference between the mother and daughter was that the younger one had a set of wonderful teal eyes, which now looked up at her.

"Mommy, this is soooo boring!" she complained, "I thought I even heard a pony snoring."

"Shush, little one, a few more minutes and we will be done!" the older mare hissed at her.

"But mommy!" the young one whined.

"Enough, Zecora!" her mother whispered wit an edge to her voice, "Behave or you will get no flora!"

Sighing unhappily, the filly known as Zecora looked around the room with a frown. The room was pretty, to be sure, with large windows reaching up to the ceiling and rich colors on the walls. Thick red curtains hung around the windows, barely skimming the checkerboard floor. Golden busts of various ponies stood on pedestals between the windows, acting like lookouts for the hunk of painted rock.

The room was pretty, but it was also stuffy to Zecora. Everything in the room seemed to be too rich, like a slice of cake that filled you up after three bites. It all looked dusty, dank and old, just like the tour guide standing next to the rock. The sun poured in from the windows, revealing a very inviting garden behind them.

Zecora sighed again, wishing she was outside where she could run around and study the plants. She had always been fascinated by the flora that grew where she lived, back in the Marengetti, and had even started learning from the village's voodoo doctor on how to use them.

The subject was absolutely enthralling to Zecora. The young zebra had already learned how a variety of plants could be used for helpful purposes, like healing wounds or feeding a pony for a day with a couple leaves. She had even begun to experiment with her own concoctions, finding a few peculiar mixtures that either exploded, heated objects incredibly fast or even helped ponies remember things. Her mentor was not so impressed with the first two things, mostly because the first blew up half of her hut while the other nearly burned the rest of it down, but was extremely interested in the third.

Thinking about this, Zecora drifted off into her absent minded state as the tour group went into the next room. The young zebra started to follow, but something else caught her attention. There was a doorway leading into the hallway outside the room and within the hallway were three unicorn fillies, each fidgeting nervously. They were about her age and looked like they expected a manticore to bust through the door at any second.

Curious, the young zebra began to trot over to them when, as soon as she exited the doorway, the door the three fillies were standing at flew open. The door slammed against the stone wall, scaring all the ponies as another young unicorn filly ran out, crying hysterically. The filly tore off down the hallway and rounded the corner, sobbing the whole way. The zebra filly turned back to the three as they glanced nervously to each other.

Without warning, a large and imposing looking mare entered the doorway. She wore her brown mane up in a tight bun and wickedly pointed black framed glasses on her nose Her manilla pelt was covered up mostly by a tight looking dress of faded forest green that covered up everything but her head and hooves. Little white buttons marched single file down the chest of the dress while a sharp white color sat at the neck. Her unimpressed glaring green eyes stared intently at a clipboard she was levitating in front of her.

"Next!" she called out in the most stern voice Zecora had ever heard.

The three fillies looked at one another before turning around and running away as fast as they could. The mare moved the clipboard so she could see them and made an indignant noise.

"This is what they call the best and the brightest?" she sarcastically spit out before returning to the clipboard.

A magically levitated quill flew up to the parchment on the board and began to scribble furiously, making some very uncomfortable scratching noises that Zecora cringed at. The mare wrote for a few seconds before her eyes shifted over to the young zebra. The quill stopped as the mare spoke.

"And you are?" she asked impatiently.

Zecora looked up at the mare before turning around to see if there was anypony else next to her.

"Me?" Zecora asked, turning back to the mare.

"Yes, you," the mare spat to her before her quill started scribbling again.

"Oh, um, my name is Zecora," the young zebra stated brightly, "I am named after our tribal word for a dish made of grass and the oils of the remora!"

"Empty...minded...and...talks...too...much..." the mare murmured as she regarded the quill.

Zecora's friendly smile she had put on slowly started to melt as the mare turned to her.

"And what school did you come from?" the mare demanded.

"I... uh... do not attend what you call a school. I am instead educated by a zebra who teaches me about our tool..."

"Will...not...give...a...straight...answer..." the mare mumbled.

"Now wait just a minute!" Zecora cut in, "You asked me a question and, an answer, I gave it!"

The mare turned to her and narrowed her eyes even more.

"Do you want to take your entrance exam or not?" she asked harshly.

Zecora remained silent, unsure of what to say. Entrance exam? Entrance exam to what?!

The mare turned back to her clipboard and her quill scribbled a few more times before both items lifted high into the air. The mare turned her gaze to the filly and was about to say her introduction when she noticed something odd about the filly.

"Where's your horn?" she asked.

Zecora tilted her head at the mare before answering.

"What horn are you referring to? We zebra's do not grow such things like you ponies do."

"Then how do you cast magic?"

"We do our special magic called voodoo. It's really cool, it's true!"

"Voodoo...?"

"Yes, it is our special magic only we can use! It come from within us, deep down in our shoes!"

The mare was speechless at that. A pony practicing magic without a horn to guide it? Something didn't seem right here, but the filly was of the age that Princess Celestia was looking for and in line to be tested. Maybe the princess wanted a challenge in teaching her next pupil? Sunset Shimmer was quite a hooffull for the solar princess, but who was she to question what Princess Celestia wanted?

"Alright, come on in," the mare said cautiously as she stood aside.

The young zebra's face lit up as she saw the room. Finally, something interesting was going to happen! The filly strode confidently by the mare who watched walk in before shutting the door with magic.

Inside, the room was huge, slightly bigger than the entrance hall Zecora had seen coming into the castle. Three ponies stood at one side of the room, eyeing her like she was a criminal. They each had a clipboard and quill at the ready, as if they were going to document everything the young filly was about to do.

Zecora ignored them and trotted happily to the center of the room, head held high and a large grin on her face. She wasn't intimidated in the slightest by the death stares she was getting, mostly because she had no idea of what was going on. The room filled quickly with silence once the manilla mare joined the three, all staring at her.

Just as Zecora was about to ask what was going on, the manilla mare cleared her throat.

"Alright, Zecora, your exam is about to begin. Your challenge is to..."

The door off to Zecora's right opened as a cart magically wheeled its way out to her.

"... Make this dragon egg hatch," the mare continued, "Your test begins... now."

Zecora peered over at the cart to see a rather large purple egg nestled in a soft red velvet pillow. The egg was much bigger than a chicken's, but smaller than a manticore's. There were smaller dark purple spots all over the egg, spread out into some kind of irregular pattern that the young zebra had never seen before.

Deciding it would be to her advantage to physically inspect it, Zecora lifted the egg with her forehooves. The egg was moderately heavy, meaning there was either a still developing or fully developed baby inside. The shell was thicker than most, even more than manticore eggs, and had a coarse texture around it.

As Zecora examined the egg, the four ponies began to scribble onto their clipboards. She was obviously showing some smarts by checking the egg over before attempting to cast a spell on it, but she had not shown any magical abilities yet for them to evaluate.

While they scribbled, Zecora noticed some irregularities with the egg. There was a slight depression on one side, as if the egg had been dropped or smashed into something. There were faint cracks near the tip obviously not made by an outside source and the side opposite the depression was heavier than the rest, indicating the baby's back was to that side. After making some mental notes and thinking up one of her voodoo potions, Zecora set the egg down and turned to the ponies.

"There are some supplies I will need if I am to hatch this egg," she stated to them, "I will need a violet, toad slime, extract of a hibiscus flower and the hair from a dog's leg."

The four ponies looked up at the filly like she was crazy. The young zebra merely smiled at them when they turned to look at one another.

"Is she allowed to use outside items?" one asked.

"Well, the test is to complete the task by any means..."

"But isn't that cheating? She's supposed to use magic to hatch the egg!"

"Well, she doesn't have a horn, so she can't conduct the magic like normal unicorns,"

"But isn't it the school for gifted unicorns?!"

"Well, Princess Celestia did say she wanted to branch out the school to include more ponies..."

"But... what?"

Zecora cleared her throat at that, gaining the attention of the four ponies.

"I thought the test was for me to hatch the egg, not to sit here and beg. If you want to see my kind's magic, I need the supplies, or the results will be most tragic."

The four ponies stood on silence as they stared at the filly. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room for several minutes until one of them finally spoke up.

"Well, this is highly unorthodox, but I suppose we can get you the supplies..."

"Are you crazy?!" one of them shouted, "She has to pass the test like every other filly! She can't cheat and use other means to hatch it!"

"And if we fail her because we don't get her what she requests, we can all lose our jobs!"

"The guidelines of the test are to demonstrate a pony's magical abilities!"

"Through any means necessary," the one pony finished.

"What?! That's not-- I mean, that doesn't mean we allow her to cheat!"

"It's not cheating if she uses objects to help her. You allowed that one filly to smash the egg with the cart!"

"That didn't matter! She still failed!"

"But you let her use it to aid her in her test, didn't you?"

"Because I knew she was going to fail!"

"So you are assuming this filly will fail?"

Silence struck the room as soon as the question was asked, giving Zecora's ears some much needed peace. There were still some grumblings coming from the evaluators, but eventually Zecora was brought the items she needed to complete her task.

Smiling to herself, the young zebra set herself to work, arranging the various ingredients in specific ways. First, she coated the egg in a mixture of toad slime and the hibiscus extract before sprinkling the dog hair around it. Once it was set, Zecora took the violet and placed it atop the egg in a perfect line. Once that was complete, the young zebra closed her eyes, emptied her mind and concentrated on the violet.

To the evlauators, the sight of this was rather silly. The egg, which was now covered in a smelly and sticky concoction, would have to be cleaned after the exam and the cushion replaced. For about two minutes, nothing happened, causing the one to get impatient.

"Do you have any magical ability whatsoever?!" she asked harshly, "If not, stop this ridiculous charade and leave!"

Inside Zecora's mind, however, she didn't register a sound as she focused. Her mentor had taught her that in order to fully harness and manipulate her natural magical ability, concentration was key. Many times, Zecora would spend all day meditating at her mentor's request. Once she proved she could easily handle the concentration required to perform voodoo magic, then she would teach her about using the right materials to get the desired effect.

Just then, Zecora felt an uncomfortable pull in her stomach. The feeling was small at first, but she concentrated on it more, feeling it get worse. Instead of causing her pain, however, she felt energy surge through her body, travelling like lightning around her limbs.

As she prepared to release the magic, a deafening explosion shook the castle. The evaluators screamed at the noise and Zecora's concentration broke, releasing her grip on the magic. Usually, if her concentration on her magic was broken, Zecora would lose all the energy that had built up and would have to start all over again.

This time, however, was different.

Instead of losing the energy, the power seemed to amplify. The lightning in her limbs began to become more frequent, causing her to spasm. When her eyes opened, they were no longer pearly white with teal irises. In their place was a harsh yellow light that filled her eyes. The yellow light wasn't confined to just her eyes, though. They gray stripes on her back began to glow as well, shining like the sun.

An instant later, a beam of light struck the egg, causing it to erupt in blue flames. The evaluators screamed at that and even more as the flames formed a phantom dragon in the air. The flames began to spread quickly from the cart, snaking their way across the floor and eventually up the walls. The young zebra, however, was protected by a faint yellow bubble of magic that the blue flames licked at.

The whole place was in utter chaos for a few more seconds until a piercing white light bathed the room. Zecora, who couldn't see anything, simply felt the energy flowing through her get brushed away like cobwebs. Squeezing her eyes shut, the young zebra felt herself hang in the air for a second before crashing to the floor.

Blinking, Zecora's vision slowly returned to her as she looked around. She thought she was hallucinating when she saw an extremely tall white pony with a rainbow mane striding towards her, but soon realized she wasn't seeing things whe a hoof touched her back.

"What is your name, young one?" a soft voice asked her.

Zecora was speechless for a few seconds before she could make her voice work.

"It is Zecora, like the dish made from the remora..." she mumbled back.

From her still hazy vision, Zecora could see the mare smile at her.

"Nice to meet you, Zecora. My name is Celestia, and I would like for you to be my new personal student."