(Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns, Examination Hall. Nine hundred and ninetieth celestial year fourteen day's after the summer sun festival.)

Once upon a time, In the magical land of Equestria.
There were two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land,
to do this the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn,
the younger brought out the moon to begin the night,
thus the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects all the different types of ponies, but as time went on the younger sister became resentful.
The pony’s relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth,
but shunned and slept through her beautiful night.
One fateful day the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn,
the elder sister tried to reason with her,
but the bitterness in the younger ones heart transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness Nightmare moon, she vowed she would shroud the land in eternal night.
reluctantly the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to Ponydom, the elements of harmony. Using the magic of the elements of harmony she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently in the moon.

The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon.

“… for both sun and moon. And harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since.”

“Twily? Are you reading that old mare's tale again?” Shining Armor chided as he walked through the gold leaf doors of the entrance hall. “I really doubt it’ll be in any of their questions.” He chided in a mock serious tone.

Twilight sniffed contemptuously at her brother as he alighted his way over to her “Common BBBFF! you never know what they could ask I have to be prepared.” She finished, smiling at her small verbal victory, and returned to finish reading her book, however her brother had other ideas and swiftly wrapped his forelegs around Twilight pulling her into a headlock while rocking back onto his hind legs to get a better position for which to attack his little sister.

“Exactly, which is why you should study something that is likely to be asked” giving Twilight a fierce rub on her lavender mane.

“H-Hey stop that!” she exclaimed. He relented after a few seconds tussling her mane in the finale. She gave him a sharp glare from her seat next to the entrance to the exam hall, then let out a loud snort to calm herself down. “I already studied the entire library at home, twice over, I even read the books that weren’t about magic.”

“Hmm…” he put his hoof to his chin as if to contemplate his next words while sitting down, he then flicked his foreleg as if coming up with an idea only to pull his other hoof from his back carrying with it a tan colored book with several cutie mark symbols on its back. He opened his muzzle only to be interrupted by an energetic squeal.

“Eeee oh Shining Armor you didn’t!” then she takes one quick glance at the spine of the book, that one glance telling her everything she needed to know. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…” she paused while bouncing and landed on her hind quarters intense fires of burning embarrassment touching her lavender cheeks, turning them a fierce scarlet. “Umm…, just pass it over.”

“Sure.” Shining Armor barely spoke while passing the book to her before breaking down into howls of laughter at his sister’s embarrassment. “I knew you‘d want to read something we didn’t have in the library so I pulled some strings with my fellow guards and well… I have about 3 days to return it to the Canterlot castle library. I thought you might want to take a look at it first.” He stretched his lips into a wry grin ”At least now you have something new to study rather than the same books over and over again. So whaddya think little sis?”, he quirked an eyebrow as if to venerate his words.

Her lips melted into a warm smile “Thank you BBBFF I never thought I’d see this particular volume.” She took another glance at the symbol on the binding to reaffirm her assessment of the article. ”Teleportation and Rituals by ‘Starswirl the Bearded’, how much did it cost you?” Her eyes rounded with the realization of how much her brother must have gone through to get the tome of knowledge within her grasp.

“Actually it didn’t cost me much. Just a few extra days of polishing equipment, and what not, however knowing you I think the effort was well worth it. Now don’t let me down and let me know the results of your exam.”

“Wait, you have to leave already?” she asked disbelieving.

“Yes., Wouldn’t want to be late to my post now, would I.” he grinned “‘Sides I’ll get to see you after this is all over.”

Twilight crossed her lavender hooves over her chest and glaring at the floor before speaking up “Fine but you’d better be home later.”

“Don’t worry I will!” he responded rolling his eyes at his sister’s foalish pouting.

After he left she relaxed a little, lifted the book with her magic, and opened it to the first page. She looked at the directory and spotted a particular spell that she wanted to try, quickly skimming through the content, she squinted her eyes searching for her wayward target. Finally after a few paragraphs she spotted the spell she was looking for.

Quickly she began concentrating on her horn focusing her energies as the spell instructions said, her horn tip glowing furiously as she concentrated deeply upon the spell, and then thought of the item she desired in that moment. With a sudden flash and pop trailing at the end, her magic ceased and immediately an object fell in her lap a small doll in the shape of a pony with one button for an eye and the other a crossed patch. Twilight took a look at the doll for a second before her mouth stretched into a beaming smile. “It worked. I can’t believe it I cast the spell the first time and it worked!” she continued smiling as she picked up the cerulean stuffed toy “Oh I knew you would make it.” She murmured to the cobalt toned doll stroking it with her lavender hoof lovingly, in circles, holding it to her chest like a treasure. “I knew you would make it Mrs. Smartypants.” She reaffirmed with a smile. She turned to go back to reading the book. However before she could study the next spell…

“Mrs. Sparkle? It’s your turn now, we are ready.”

She froze and could feel her tongue shrivel up as her mouth dried in anxiety, her heart rate skyrocketed as thoughts about how horribly she could fail the test and oh how she wanted more time to study. Twilight desperately wanted to hide and forget about the test but… ‘No!’, she stood on unsteady legs to support her small petite frame. She gazed at the mahogany portal in contemplation as she unconsciously closed the tome, opened her saddlebags placing it inside, and then walked through the entrance to the exam hall. Upon entering she noticed four judges behind a cedar desk watching patiently as she entered the room, she also noticed her parents on the other side of the room on plush cushions waving to her as she continued toward the center of the expansive room.

“Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Midnight and Dream Sparkle. If I am not correct?” spoke the female judge in the third seat from the door.

She flinched “Y-yes” she responded timidly.

The judge picked up her papers and straightened them out but instead of her the cyan stallion to her right raised his voice “Alright first we’ll start with a verbal quiz then we’ll see how much magical potential you have, if you fail the magic exam then there will be no entry to the academy, however if you pass both then where we place you will be based on how well you do on the intelligence portion of the exam. Is that understood?”

Twilight nodded softly. “I-I think so.”

The stallion interrupted before she could say more “Good then now that we have that little triviality out of the way. Let us begin the questioning. You first Professor Quill.” He nodded to the cream colored unicorn mare to his right.

“Thank you Professor Etiquette.” She responded then turned her attention to the lavender foal before her “Now Twilight I have three questions I want you to answer, one which ink is preferable for taking notes or writing a book? Linseed or reed?”

Twilight perked up a little at such a simple question being asked. ‘I know this one!’ she thought “you can't write with reed ink because it runs too much and would ruin your notes however linseed oil dries fast on paper making it the preferable choice.” She smiled up hopefully.

Mrs. Quill nodded her head in agreement “Alright now tell me the definition and purpose of an exclamation point…”

They spent the next hour grilling Twilight with many questions covering a wide field of subjects and Twilight was able to answer them all with confidence born of pride in the fact that she knew the answers before they even finished leaving the examiners lips. Still giddily smiling waiting for the next question when the lead examiner Professor Etiquette raised his hoof to stall anymore questions. “Alright young Twilight you have now finished the extent of your knowledge exam now to put some of that knowledge to the test in the magic exam.” At those words the doors on the side she entered opened wide to invite a unicorn stallion pushing a cart with an egg in it. But not just any egg. ‘A dragon egg what do they expect me to do with that…’ as if to answer her thoughts Professor Etiquette continued “We simply want you to hatch the dragon egg and that will pass the magic entrance exam. You have fifteen minutes. Starting… now!” He called as the worker finished exiting the room and the doors closed again.

Twilight immediately went into full panic mode and rushed over to the egg. ‘Ok I can do this I just need to figure out how to open it.’ She thought frantically her mind working overtime. ‘Ok so the sign on the front says open it down the center… no no no that would never work ok. Try something else o hay how could I be so stupid.’ She thought bitterly as she realized one of her major errors and already five minutes has passed by. Immediately she illuminated her horn with a quick scanning spell which returned positive for a baby dragon inside. She also figured out how the shell was designed. Sadly there was no trick to opening it no magic quick fix to this particular problem. But she still tried and put strain into her horn as she poured magic into her spell and transferred her energy into the egg trying to grow the unborn hatchling and immediately she felt as if she were being sapped of her energy. Five minutes left ‘Oh no it can’t be it’s almost time.’ “Please hatch” she asked under her breath pouring more energy into the spell hoping against hope that this succeeds. She began banging her head against the egg making poses to see if that would intensify her magic all for not though as it reached thirty seconds. She quietly bowed her head not daring to stare at the judges as she spoke “I’m sorry I wasted your time.” With that she walked over to her parents completely dejected shuffling her hooves as she went not paying any attention to the goings on around her.

As she reached the door the lead judge spoke up. “Mrs. Sparkle we regret to tell you that you are hereby banned from the academy and that you are not a magically gifted unicorn please leave the premises post haste. Good day… Trix…” his voice faded out as she crossed the threshold into the mahogany hallways and continued to the entrance with her parents behind her asking her to move on and that there’s always other paths to learning. She pulled herself together she wasn’t going to cry just because she failed entering into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

As she continued gloomily down the streets towards her home she began to think about her future ‘Ok maybe I didn’t succeed at making it into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns… it doesn’t mean the end of the world it just means that I won’t be able to go that route towards learning… maybe … hmm well if Starswirl could do it without an education system helping him along then maybe I can do it too.’ she finished her internal monologue just as she reached the bright canary yellow hovel that was her home with the light of new hope shining within her eyes. ‘I will study and learn magic faster than ever before maybe after a few years I’ll even be able to solve the puzzle of hatching the dragon egg. But first…’ she gulped dreading having to deal with her brother who surely would not be happy that she failed to pass the entrance exam. However as she entered the home she lived in her thoughts were interrupted by a soft cough behind her. She turned only to gaze straight into her father’s eyes.

“I’m glad to see your in a better mood, I’m sorry you had to go through that sweetie I really do wish the best for you.” He lifted the right side of his lips into a little half smile which immediately turned back into a frown. “However because of this disappointment you will not be allowed outside for a week and you will have to study twice as hard then after all of this you will show me the hardest spell you learned and managed to accomplish… is that understood?” he finished with a small inflection to emphasize the seriousness of the statement.

She nodded sadly “Alright daddy, I’ll go and continue my studies.” She went inside and headed for the study at the end of the lime painted hall. Upon entering she dropped her saddlebags with Mrs. Smarty Pants and the precious tome of knowledge from Shining Armor onto a chair next to the wall. Then She headed over to the grand bookcase on the left side of the room, picked out a book and began reading.

Cloudsdale same day

“Nice Going Clutzershy they ought a ground you permanently” laughed the brown stallion.
“HA. My baby brother could fly better than you” snarked his smirking olive toned companion as they started laughing at the canary yellow pegasus with a bubblegum pink mane before them.

Then a shadow crossed above them from above causing the two colts to pause in their jeering. Then instantly from behind the cream colored pegasus came a cyan filly with a prismatic mane and tail stopping in between the two parties facing the two colt bullies yelling “YOU leave her alone!”

The ocher pegasus smirked “Oh what you gonna do, Rainbow Crash!” he retorted cruelly.

“Keep making fun of her and find out!” returned Rainbow Dash defiantly, with her wings splayed out in an aggressive manner prepared for a fight.

“Think you’re such a big shot!” raged the brown colt as he started walking towards Rainbow Dash. “Then prove it!”

“What do ya have in mind then Quarterback?!” she asked with a smirk.

He then turned on his back legs as he got close enough then shifted his weight to his fore hooves for balance as he prepared to spring his back legs in the arrogant fillies face. “THIS!” he yelled as he shot his back legs forward, missing Rainbow Dash by centimeters as she rolled to the side.

Having spent time with a griffon Rainbow Dash had built up necessary reflexes from having daily sparring and racing matches with her olive toned roommate. She’d also developed some skills in fighting that most ponies wouldn’t even know outside of the Equestrian Celestial Guard including the buck she was about to deliver to the sternum of the foolish colt that dared challenge her to direct combat.

“Oh so that’s how it’s gonna be” she spoke with a tone laced heavily with furious contempt as she quickly finished her roll to her hooves facing away from the foolish colt. She quickly pushed back with her front legs aiming carefully at the colt as he was still trying to balance himself after the unexpected miss, she bucked Quarterback at full power not holding anything back right underneath his wing, unexpectedly ripping the appendage out of its socket and shattering the rotating cup of the front right leg as her hooves collided with the joint. As a side effect of the powerful kick she jarred him rendering him stunned as he was launched off the side of the lower level cloud bed.

Rainbow Dash feeling the solid hit didn’t hear the bones snap or the slight wet sound of tearing flesh as she inflicted the severe wound on Quarterback. She turned around as soon as she got back on all fours and turned around expecting to see the foolish bully colt on his side gasping for breath instead she saw Fluttershy cowering in a ball having heard such horrible things, the olive toned pegasus colt backing away from her as if she just grew dual horns and razor sharp teeth, and watching the last seconds as Quarterback finished his fall over the edge of the cloud bed. ‘Oh buck’ she thought. Then without thinking she ran to the edge hoping to see Quarterback on a cloud just below them only to realize as she reached the edge that there were no lower clouds and she watched as Quarterback freefell with his lame wing and leg still too stunned by the strike to even formulate a thought as he descended closer and closer to his demise.

Rainbow Dash instantly realizing the implications of what she had just done immediately fled toward her cloud home passing Fluttershy, nearly brushing the filly with her wing causing her to fall off the cloud as she passed heading straight for the apartment for the comfort safety and advice of her avian friend.

Reaching her cloud apartment she immediately flew through the cloud door, almost hard enough to break it off its permafrost hinges. Bucking the bits of cloud that followed her inside back onto the door, She turned back towards the room and quickly surveyed her surroundings she was currently in the living room. Immediately she had to know one thing so she took a deep breath “GILDA! ARE YOU HERE?” she hollered as loudly as possible. Immediately a coppery brown blur came shooting out of the left most door, leading into the kitchen immediately crashing into the Cyan mare sending them both tumbling onto the couch.

“Yeah of course I’m here pipsqueak, I ain't about to spend any time hanging around a boring lecture hall!” stated the brown blur that was beginning to clear in Dash’s sight as she continued reorienting herself.“So anyway what’s got you so riled up all of a sudden Rainbow Dash?” asked the brown feathered creature on top of her.

Her vision finally clear enough to see properly she took a long look at her would be assailant realizing that she was just giving her usual greetings, responded by smirking having forgotten for just a second what she was worrying about then it all came slamming back like a freight train, her grin being almost instantly replaced by panic. “Oh no Gilda, Quarterback. I didn’t mean to. It just happened too fast. I didn’t know what went wrong, he attacked first.” She was sputtering and she knew it.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa their, hold up for a second” Gilda held up her palm pointing it flat outward toward the terrified mare, completely halting Rainbow’s rant. “Alright, start from the beginning and tell me exactly what happened” she explained in an authoritative voice, Rainbow Dash nodded her head eyes no longer frantic as she calmed down in the presence of her powerful roommate.

“It all started when I was ditching boring old Feather Quill’s class, I was flying on one of the lower levels heading towards our place when I saw a couple of bullies making fun of Fluttershy, I decided to tell them off but they kept taunting us eventually I threatened them that if they didn’t back off I’d make them.” She shivered as she remembered the next part. “Then Quarterback decided to challenge me. I asked him what he was up to then he turned and tried to buck me I dodged out of the way and kicked him in the side like you showed me.” Gilda flinched at the mention of one of her combat moves knowing full well how much harder a pony’s hooves are compared to a griffons paws having been on the receiving end of plenty of Rainbow Dash's bucks. “But when I turned around to see him on his knees from the attack instead I saw him flying over the edge of the cloud with blood flying everywhere. When I went to check and see if he was ok I only saw him falling towards the ground at terminal velocity. Now I don’t know what you think but I think I just killed a pony.” She looked at Gilda hopefully “I don’t know what to do I need your help desperately. What do I do, I don’t want to go to prison or get banished forever” She cried frantically.

“Quiet dweeb!” Gilda almost yelled, “I’m trying to think” she spoke then began looking into her claws as if they might hold the answers to her friends questions then it came to her “Hay dash you said you wanted to visit my homeland didn’t ya?” Rainbow Dash only gave a slight nod somewhat getting at what Gilda was saying. “Well, if you want to escape the heat, then pack your things we’re leaving for Griffica in two hours, we’ll also want to make it by sundown. So don't get slow on me.” Gilda grinned then “Though you’ll have to stay for a bit, possibly two years till the heat dies down.” Rainbow Dash nearly cursed under her breath at this statement then hardened her resolve and nodded giving her own smirk in return. “Oh and one last thing get used to the smell of meat because where we're going there’ll be plenty of it and not all of it will be fish.”

The prismatic filly gagged at the thought, but realized it was the truth no matter how much she wanted to deny it; griffons were carnivores and needed to eat meat. “Alright I really don’t have much to pack so I should be ready in ten seconds flat.” She spoke with conviction and confidence born from experience; she then immediately set to proving her statement. True to her phrase she was finished packing her saddle bags in ten seconds flat. And then closing the cloud marble door they were of towards Griffica to see what new adventures awaited them.

Author's Notes:

Xaldon Ajide:
Comments are welcome from anyone even preferred if they are constructive criticisms and can help with my writing thanks.

Edited by Ebonysdagger
Proofread by janushyde