"I'm sorry I wasted your time..."

I watched her head sink down as she admitted defeat. It was heartbreaking. She'd put so much time and effort into studying magic to prepare for this moment, it was almost too much to see it taken away from her. I couldn't bear to look, so I closed my eyes. That's when the boom happened.

I was startled enough that the very first spell I thought to cast was a shield spell, which not only got me my cutie mark, but also saved my life. When I opened my eyes the first thing that struck me was the utter chaos around the room.

A giant dragon was sitting where the egg had been moments before, the observers were all floating in a levitation aura and my parents had been replaced by potted plants. And in the middle of the room, surrounded by a sphere of magic was my little sister, here eyes were glowing white with raw energy.

I turned, hearing the door open and saw Princess Celestia standing there in disbelief. Unfortunately my sister saw her too.. and panicked, a bolt of raw energy flying from her horn and slamming the princess through two walls and out into the sky.

She closed her eyes in shock and curled into a little ball, still floating in the middle of the ball of magic.

My shield was pelted with chairs that were ripped up from ground and flung around like they were caught in a tornado. I was scared. but I managed to will myself to start trotting forward, my shield began cracking as I got closer to the maelstrom's center. It wasn't much longer before it gave out and shattered, I was nearly blown away by the magical winds that were buffeting me but I was within forelegs reach, so I reached out and pulled her close to me.

Her eyes shot open and looked up at me, she was terrified, but I just smiled at her. That was all it took, she wrapped her forelegs around me and hugged me tight as she could, and just like that everything returned to normal... mostly. I looked over at our parents, expecting them to be relieved. Mom was, she was a little disoriented, but just looked happy to be back to normal. Dad however... he stormed out, he looked... angry.. scared. I couldn't tell.

My sister had fallen asleep in my hooves. She was still sleeping when Celestia came back in.

Now I was scared again, scared she was going to take my sister away, have her locked in a lab that looks like a normal house with little siphons around to drain out her magic and keep it at reasonable levels.

"No." My mouth had moved before I could stop it. The princess just looked at me, amusement painted across her face.

"I beg your pardon?" She asked, the slight grin she wore was worrying me.

"You're not taking my sister to use as some lab rat." I told her. I was terrified of defying her, and on some level I knew it was pointless. If she wanted my sister, she'd just order her guards to come knocking at our home and take her. But I was a big brother, it was my only job around the house to make sure she was safe. "And if you're going to send your guards come to take her.. they'll have to go through me."

I watched as mom chose that moment to go looking for dad.

"You care deeply about your sister don't you?" She asked before looking at the test overseers. "Leave. I wish to speak with these two privately."

The three of them bowed and scurried out of the room. I only watched them with my peripheral vision as I never took my eyes off the princess.

"My little pony, what is your name?" She asked me.

"Shining Armor." I answered immediately. "Son of Night Light and Twilight Velvet."

She raised her eyebrow. "Ah, so you're one of the newest class of royal guard hopefuls. And the filly in your hooves?"

I hesitated. "She's my little sister."

"So you're only doing your duty as an older sibling to protect her..." The princess's voice went quiet. "I had no intention of taking your sister from you."

"You...didn't?" I asked her. I was confused. She had been blasted through two walls by a scared little filly and she wasn't going to whisk her away?

She shook her head. "I was going to ask her to become my personal student, with that much raw magic power she's going to need a lot of help to keep it under control and avoid a repeat incident."

"A repeat incident..." I parroted softly before shaking my head. "W-well... it's not my place to decide but seeing as our parents aren't here right now... I think... that would be for the best..."

She smiled, it was a gentle, reassuring smile. It helped calm me down a touch. "That's all I need." She told me. "As a guard trainee your permission and word is all I need, I'll send a letter to your parents letting them know."

"B-But.... our parents... shouldn't they be the one to decide this? I'm only fifteen, I'm still in the screening process, not a trainee." As much as I was relieved, it still didn't feel right.

"You are now trainee." She smiled at me again before turning to trot out, motioning for me to follow, so I did. "I understand your concern for your parents reactions, but you've proved already that your little sister means a lot to you. Enough for you to risk your life trotting into a magical vortex so strong that even a pair of my archmages would have trouble keeping it active. That is something I respect greatly Shining Armor."

"A desire to protect others?" I asked her.

"Yes that too, but a bond between siblings is what I was talking about." She gave me a quizzical look. "How well versed are you in history my little pony?"

"Fairly well up to about five hundred years ago." I told her. "My sister is the family scholar." I shifted slightly to keep her from falling off my back.

"I see. Well it's all myth nowadays, but I have a younger sister myself. The reason she isn't around... well we needed a bit of space..." She gazed sadly at the horizon as she said that. "I don't have the same power as my niece, but I can tell you and your sister have a powerful and pure bond."

I was about to say something when we heard a tired groan.

"B-BBBFF?"

I stopped immediately and moved her into my forelegs to hold her, up ahead I saw Celestia stop as well, turning to her side to watch. "Twily! Are you okay?"

"B-big brother..?" she asked as she slowly opened her eyes, a tired smile gracing her face as she did. "Shining Armor..." she leaned up and hugged me as close and as tight as she could. "I-is everyone okay?"

I nodded before remembering that she couldn't see me with her face pressed against my chest. "Yeah... everypony's fine." I felt the tension in her body fall away at that.

"That's good... where are mom and dad?"

I bit my lip. "I.. I don't know. Dad stormed out and mom went to look for him."

"O-oh..." she yawned, sounding disappointed. "I want to go home and nap..."

"Pardon me." Celestia said softly as she leaned in, I felt my sister grip me closer in fear. "But what is your name my little pony?"

"T-Twilight Sparkle...." She murmured into my chest. "D-daughter of Twilight Velvet and Night Light, younger sister to Shining Armor and twenty third generation house of Starcatcher..." I watched the princess raise an eyebrow at that.

"House of Starcatcher, that makes your family nobles." She looked at us, I thought I saw a trace of confusion flicker across her muzzle. "Neither of you needed to take the exams, you could have requested your enrollment into both the guard and my school and gotten instant admission."

I cleared my throat softly. "Would it have been worth it then your highness?"

"I'm sorry?" She answered my question with one of her own.

"What good is a position in either if a pony doesn't earn it themselves?" I asked her. "We want our spots, but we want to earn them. There's no point in something if you don't earn it."

The princess smiled at me.. us.

"A good question and a great answer, I must admit." She turned her attention back to my sister, I could feel her breathing was getting slower as she got ready to fall back asleep. "Twilight Sparkle, I have no intention of doing anything to you, under the threat of an act of brotherhood." I felt Twilight nuzzle my chest thankfully at that. "I would simply ask that you become my personal student in the field of magic."

I watched Twilight slowly pull away and glance at Celestia, confusion and awe spread across her face. "R-really?"

"Absolutely." The princess smiled gently at her. "You have amazing raw power and talent at your disposal Twilight Sparkle, the likes of which I haven't seen since a young colt came to me for tutelage, his name was Star Swirl. I want to see you harness that power and talent and use it to redefine magic like he did over eight hundred years ago."

Twilight looked at me, there was a small amount of trepidation in her purple eyes. "B-but what about mom and dad... don't they have the final say?"

"The princess has assured me that my permission as your sibling is all she needs." I told her, giving her barrel a gentle nuzzle.

Her face lit up at that, and she quickly turned her head to nod vigorously at Celestia.

"Y-yes... of course I'll be your student." She proclaimed before yawning heavily. "b-but first... I want to take that naaa...." she trailed off before she began snoring lightly.

---

The others yawned around me, even Spike had curled up in his basket a few minutes ago.

"Maybe we should break for sleep then." I suggested, which was met with a chorus of agreement and good nights as everyone filed out.