It was early the morning of the Summer Sun Celebration. So early that it was still dark outside when the alarm clock rang. Night Light groggily smacked the clock's alarm off. He rolled back over to see that Velvet was still very much asleep. He crawled under the covers to wake his sister in the usual way.

"Mmm," Velvet moaned as she felt her own 'alarm clock' happily licking away between her legs. His tongue probed deeply into her and flicked her clit. "Morning," she groaned. He moved up along her body. She felt his morning wood bobbing against her as he tried to part her legs. She put her hoof to his chest, pushing him away. "No, stop. Not today. We have to get going," she said. "I got enough last night."

"Liar," he teased. "We have time." She looked under the blanket at his massive erection.

"Ugh, fine! But I get to be on top!" she said, pulling him down to the mattress by his mane. She rolled over on top of him beneath the blanket and slid back onto his shaft. He had done a good job of getting her quite wet. She slid completely onto his length. It vanished inside her as she sat straight upright on his lap, just enjoying the fullness inside her.

"Mom! Dad!" Twilight and Shining Armor yelled as they burst into the room, yanking the blanket off of them. "It's time for the Summer Sun Celebration!" Night Light froze. His eyes were wide with panic, even though Velvet's tail was well placed to hide their deed. As far as an outsider could tell, she was just sitting on his lap. Nothing strange about that at all. Her head whipped around at them and her horn glowed, snatching the blanket back from them. She wrapped it around their lower halves.

"Knock!" Velvet yelled instantly. "How many times do we have to tell you!? Knock!"

"But it's a surprise!" Twilight said.

"Surprise!" Shining said.

"It sure fucking is," Night Light muttered.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked. "Why are you on top of Dad? Are you trying to wake him up?" she asked climbing onto the bed.

"I'm up!" Night said. Velvet could feel Night's cock throb inside her at the innuendo.

"Are you doing CPR?" Shining asked, "I know CPR!" he said climbing onto the other side of the bed.

"I don't need CPR! Go away!" Night said, unable to move.

"Oh! Are you wrestling!?" Shining asked. "Did Mom pin you? Tag me in! I'll help get Mom off!" Night felt Velvet's pussy clench at Shining's inadvertent innuendo.

"No!" Velvet said. "Go away!" Twilight grabbed the blanket again.

"Why do you have the blankets like-"

"GET OUT!" Night yelled. Velvet's horn glowed and her magic picked them up and pushed them both out into the hallway, slamming the door closed and locking it.

"Go have breakfast! We'll be right down!" Velvet yelled through the door. Shining and Twilight stood in the hallway looking at the bedroom door.

"Sheesh, they are not morning ponies," Shining said.

"Wow, look at this crowd!" Night Light said as he led his family through the festival grounds. "I don't think we're going to be able to get much closer to the stage."

The stage was a raised platform lined with massive trumpets and Royal Guard ponies. At the back of the stage was a tall spire with a crescent sun at the top. The space in the middle of it was where the sun would appear behind it that morning when Celestia raised it.

"I want to get closer!" Twilight whined. Before Night Light or Velvet could react, she was off. The small filly easily ducked and weaved between the ponies of the crowd until she was nearly at the front. The massive trumpets blared as Twilight looked up at the stage. And that was when Twilight saw Princess Celestia.

Celestia had agreed to Velvet's desires for a normal life. After Twilight was born, she didn't visit the family. Although Velvet did have her meeting with the Princess, it was always low key, at the castle. But Twilight had heard about the Princess. She had seen pictures of her. She had always wanted to see her in person.

Each of the many Guard ponies were many times larger than the filly. But Celestia absolutely dwarfed them all. Not just with her height, but also her massive wingspan, and her billowing, ethereal mane. The pictures didn't do her scale justice. She larger was in life. She was larger than life.

As the bombastic music from the trumpets rose to a mighty crescendo, Celestia's horn glowed and she lofted into the air. As she flew higher, the sun rose above the horizon behind her. And then, when both she and the sun were aligned in the spire's top, all Twilight could see was the Princess's silhouette. It was the most amazing, most wonderful thing that she had ever seen. But just like that, it was over. Celestia completed her spell, setting the sun onto its course across the sky. She drifted back to the ground and smiled as her eyes scanned the crowd. For a moment, Twilight felt like the princess was looking right at her. It was tough to tell with the sun in her eyes. There was a glint of recognition in the Princess's expression. But it might have been for the white stallion just behind Twilight. The Princess bowed and turned to leave the stage.

"There you are!" Shining Armor said, putting his hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Don't run off like that! Mom and Dad are probably freaking out right now! Come on, let's go." He led her back out of the dispersing crowd to their parents.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Velvet cried, spotting her ponies coming back out of the crowd.

"Don't ever run off on us like that again!" Night Light said.

"Dad! I saw the most amazing, most wonderful thing that I've ever seen!" Twilight said. "On the way home can we stop by the library?" she asked.

"Whatever for, dear?" he inquired back.

"I want to learn all about magic!" she said proudly.

"Alright, we can make a short stop," he decided.

It turned into a three hour long literary odyssey, culminating in Twilight pushing a cart of twenty three books to the checkout counter.

"Dear, are you really going to read all of those?" her father asked.

"Yes," she answered with the surety of the sunrise.

"Really?" he asked her again.

"YES!" she said, a bit frustrated.

"Huh. All right. We'll take these," he told the clerk.

Twilight poured herself into learning everything she could about magic. Starting, of course, with basic levitation. It was a staple skill for any unicorn to possess. She sat down at her father's desk in his basement study. He had given her the space to read in a quiet environment. She opened the book to the first page.

"Chapter one: Levitation Theory," she read aloud. "When levitating an object, a unicorn must apply a magical force, N, to counter the force of gravity, G. The object at rest will remain at rest until acted upon by a net force..."

Twilight tore through the book. She had read the theoretical application of magic and was ready for practical field study. But first she needed to turn the page. She lifted her hoof to flip the page over, but instead placed it back on the desk beside the other. "Not this time," She decided. This time she was ready. She remembered the chapter on magic philosophy.

Your magic is an extension of yourself. Lifting an object with magic is as simple a reaching out with you hoof... in your mind.

Twilight closed her eyes and focused.

She focused on the page she wanted to lift. She focused on the texture. She felt its weight, its essence in the world. She could feel the wood that the paper had once been. The tree the wood once was. The seed that the tree had once been. She felt the forest it once called home. She could hear the birds that nested in the tree. She could smell the air in the leaves. She could taste the water raining on the branches. She could feel the earth that the roots held on to. She could feel the earth upon the stone. She could feel the stone upon all of the world, drifting through time eternal.

She experienced all these things at once as she tapped into the magic realm for her very first time. Her corporeal body struggled and groaned in profane pain, tied to a mind trying to ascend beyond the physical world. And, just like all unicorns, she promptly forgot the experience. Not that the forgetting was intentional. Far from it. The unbridled exposure to the magical vortex is one of the most beautiful and profound experiences possible for a pony. But it was far too much for the conscious mind to bear. And so it is mercifully, if regrettably, repressed into the subconscious. But it is there for life, in the very soul of a unicorn, tying them forever to the magical coil.

The beginning arcs of magic sputtered from the tip of her horn.

Twilight's portal to magic opened.

Her horn glowed.

The page turned.

Twilight gasped with joy at her success. But that was the limit of her jubilation. While she could appreciate the significance of the first time a unicorn did magic, her excitement was tempered by her knowledge of the long road ahead of her. It had required great effort for her to do this, the most basic of spells. She would not be satisfied until she had it mastered. Along with other spells. Thus began Twilight's path down relentless self-improvement. She finished the book and moved onto the next. And the next. Until she had read every word of every book.

The next morning, at breakfast, she focused on the spoon on the table beside her cereal bowl. She closed her eyes and reached out with her magic. An invisible appendage in her mind extended and touched the spoon. She felt the cold metal in her mind. Her subconscious linked to the magic vortex. Deep in the recesses of her mind, she felt the metal of the spoon. The iron ore that it been smelted from, that had once been embedded in stone, deep underground for the eons of the life age of the world, until it had been extracted from a pony in a mine.

Consciously, Twilight simply experienced her magic grasping the spoon, and with an effort of will, lifted it from the table in a soft, magenta glow. Twilight's focus wavered as the aura vanished and the spoon clattered on the tile floor. Twilight huffed and gasped. The effort had taken a lot out of her in that moment. She was disappointed with herself. She was so sure she would have been able to hold it longer. Her parents were both very impressed though, and that made her feel better.

"Twilight that- that was amazing!" her mother cheered, sweeping her up in her hooves, hugging her tightly.

"Well, not really. It was just-" Twilight complained.

"Twilight! I can't think of any other unicorn who had taught themselves magic nearly overnight! You are quite a talented little filly!" her father praised.

"Yeah, Twilie!" Shining said. "Way to go!"

"Really? Wow!" Twilight hugged her mom back even harder. "I can't wait to see what else I can do!"

"Neither can we!" her parents said.

That night, after the little ones were asleep, Night Light sat beside Twilight Velvet at the dinner table. She filled out the form for the 'Have a Princess be Your Foalsitter!' contest.

"So this is how we get Cadance back?" Night asked. Velvet nodded.

"Yes. But it's just for the summer," she said. "That's the deal. Celestia gets to give Cadance some good press with a responsible public service. And She gets to introduce Shining to Cadance to 'plant the seeds of love', before he becomes her personal Royal Guard," Velvet explained. "It's a 'lottery', so nopony will think that it's weird that we have an alicorn princess for a foalsitter." She finished filling out the form and sealed it in an envelope. "And we get to see our daughter early."

Princess Celestia stood on the stage beside the young princess, Cadance. A large barrel full of envelopes rolled in place beside them as the crowd of ponies murmured excitedly. Velvet and her family were among the crowd.

"So what do you think of Princess Cadance?" Night Light asked Twilight Sparkle.

"She's pretty," Twilight said.

"Yeah... pretty!" Shining agreed with a bit more enthusiasm.

Princess Celestia stopped the turning barrel and opened a small door. She reached in and grabbed the envelope that had been intentionally wedged in the barrel seam. She pulled in out and gave it to Cadance. The ponies in the musical accompaniment began a drum roll as Cadance opened the envelope.

"And the lucky pony, whose family that I get to foalsit for this summer is..." Cadance took out the paper inside and read the name, "Twilight Velvet!"

"Mom! That's you!" Twilight said.

"We won!" Shining said!

"Oh my goodness!" Velvet said. She was prepared to feign surprise. But she could not keep the genuine excitement from her voice as she and her family moved towards the stage. The crowd of ponies parted, letting the lucky mare through. Some were clearly disappointed, but most clapped their hooves for the family. Velvet didn't take her eyes from the pink pony as she got closer to the stage. They walked up the stairs to 'accept their prize' and pose for the newspaper. They stopped and stood in front of Cadance and Celestia.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Princess Cadance said to Velvet and her family. She spoke with practiced poise and inflection, just as a princess would. "I'm looking forward to getting to know each and every one of you."

"I..." Velvet couldn't speak. She felt her throat closing up. To be so close to her after all this time. She felt the tears at the corners of her eyes. She wanted so much to just lunge out and hug her. Celestia watched Velvet's face intently, her magic at the ready. She would not allow the unicorn to make a scandalous scene of the event.

"We're all very excited!" Night Light said, jumping in for Velvet, defusing the tention.

"Yes!" Velvet managed at last. "Excited!"

"You're pretty!" Twilight Sparkle said. Cadance smiled.

"Why, thank you," Cadance replied. Her fur and mane were groomed to perfection for the event. Her makeup was flawlessly applied. She was clearly prepared for such compliments. "What's your name?"

"Twilight Sparkle!"

"Well, that's very sweet of you to say, Twilight Sparkle. You are quite pretty, yourself."

"Thank you," Twilight said, gaining an 'aww' from the crowd.

"I think you're pretty, too!" Shining blurted a bit too loudly. Night Light elbowed his son in the ribs. The crowd chuckled at the forwardness of the awkward colt. His white cheeks turned crimson enough for everypony to see. But only the ponies on stage were close enough to see the applied blush makeup on the young princess get just barely a shade darker as well. Everypony had a cheap laugh and smiled. Even Princess Celestia smiled. Everypony smiled but Shining.

And Velvet.

Oh sure, the muscles of Velvet's face stretched her cheeks back and her lips showed of her teeth. She knew how to fake a smile. She needed to in order to hide her face of worry. She looked up at Celestia, smiling at Cadance and Shining's little moment. But she knew her mentor well enough to know that smile she was wearing. She could see it at the corner of the white alicorn's eyes. That smug glint of a pony in complete control. It was a smile that said, "Just as planned!"

Velvet felt an invisible hoof pulling invisible strings, moving her as she gathered with her family and the princesses to pose for the newspaper photographers. Princess Celestia said, "Smile!" Velvet smiled as she was told. Like a good little puppet. After several photos, Princess Cadance departed and the event dispersed. Celestia pulled Velvet aside.

"Okay, so the first day is going to be a bit of a circus, I'm afraid," Celestia explained. "There are going to be ponies from the newspaper and photographers who are going to want to take pictures of Cadance's first day of 'work'. So I would recommend tidying up the house. But I promise that after that, you will be kept from the public eye as much as possible. Officially anyways. You may still have passer-by ponies that will want to gawk. But we will try to keep that mitigated. Cadance's guards will maintain a perimeter around your residence."

"Okay," Velvet said, absorbing the information. Celestia smiled.

"Right then. We will see you tomorrow."

Velvet and her family waited just outside their front door to greet Cadance. First the press arrived and set up their cameras. Then the Royal Guard arrived and fanned out onto the lawn. Lastly, the Royal Carriage arrived. Princess Celestia stepped out, followed by Cadance. Camera's flashed as Cadance greeted the family. Again.

"Your Highness! Your Highness!" one of the press ponies called out. "What sort of a foalsitter does Princess Cadenza make?" he asked. She turned and patiently addressed the press.

"My niece is a fully-qualified foalsitter, second to none!" she said with pride. "She is well trained in foal care-giving, first aid, and mortal combat!"

"Combat... Your Highness?" the pony asked with confusion.

"But of course," Celestia said. "A foalsitter's ability to protect her foal from all dangers is paramount. And I can assure you that no foal is safer than one left in her charge." Celestia's horn flashed. "Manticore!" she yelled as the beast materialized before Cadance and the filly. Cadance's horn flashed and turned the manticore to stone. Celestia levitated the statue into the air and threw it high into the sky. A moment later it began to return, burning bright as it fell back toward the ponies.

"Meteor!" Celestia yelled. Cadance planted her hooves and her horn glowed brightly as a wide swath of alicorn magic beam blasted from her horn, obliterating the projectile to dust in the wind. She turned to the guard beside her. "Corporal, I want you to try to kill the foal!" she commanded.

The Royal Guard pony did as he was told. He charged at the filly and threw his spear with true aim. Cadance's horn flashed and a shield surrounded herself and Twilight beside her. The spear deflected harmlessly off of the glowing dome. The guard continued to close the distance as he pulled the sword from his sheath. He leaped at them with his weapon at the ready. Cadance grabbed him in mid air with her magic. In a flash, his sword transformed into a bouquet of flowers.

"For me?" Cadance said with a smile, taking the flowers from him. "Thank you... Good bye." In a flash of her magic the Corporal vanished. Princess Celestia took the steno pad from the shocked reporter and quickly wrote up a Royal Pardon, passing it to the Sergeant.

"Go pick up the Corporal from the castle dungeon on your way back to the barracks," Celestia said. She gave the pad back to the reporter who was still in awe. She motioned to the guards around the edge of the property. "As you can see, these guards are for the protection of the encroaching public from the foalsitter. Not the reverse. Now then, make haste with whatever photographs you need, and be on your way. I recommend that you leave my niece a wide berth to work in peace. And I suggest that your news article advises the public to do the same," she said. He nodded and made a note of it, underlined it, and circled it.

"Cadance," Celestia said, "Why don't you do something cute with little Twilight for the nice news ponies? Perhaps teach her the ladybug dance song?"

"Okay!" Cadance said. She stood in front of Twilight and showed her the song and dance. "Sunshine sunshine. Ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake," she sang as she shook her flank at the end. Twilight watched closely. As did Shining Armor from the front steps. He especially liked the 'do a little shake' part. "Now you try with me," Cadance said. Twilight joined her an mirrored the dance as they both sang the song.

The news ponies said 'Aww' and took a few pictures from a safe distance before they departed. Celestia walked over to Cadance and nodded in approval before she turned and boarded the carriage to depart. Only the guard ponies remained, scattered at the perimeter of the property. They would only be needed for the day. Once the newspapers were out tomorrow, nopony would be bothering the foalsitter.

"Wanna see my room?" Twilight asked.

"Sure!" Cadance said as Twilight led her inside the domicile. Night Light and Velvet tried to keep their expressions neutrally positive as they followed. Happy to have a princess as a foalsitter, but without the overbearing joy of being reunited with their long-lost daughter.

"This is my room," Twilight said. Cadance looked at the piles of books.

"Wow, you sure do like to read, I see," she said. Twilight nodded.

"After I saw Princess Celestia raise the sun at the Summer Sun Celebration, I wanted to learn everything there was about magic. So read these books and now I can do this!" Twilight said, focusing on her quill on her desk. Her unconscious mind experienced the entire lifespan of the bird that the feather had come from. But she was unaware of the connection as her horn sputtered for a moment but then it glowed and lifted her quill. She held it in the air for a moment before her concentration faltered and it fell back onto her desk.

"You read all these books and taught yourself magic that quickly!?" Cadance said. Twilight nodded. "That's amazing!" she said. Twilight felt very proud, receiving the complement from a princess. "So, what would you like to do next?" she asked.

"Let go play on the swings!" Twilight said. Cadance smiled and chuckled.

"Why not," she said as she followed the filly outside, where Shining Armor was, already. Twilight's parents followed after her. Cadance could feel their eyes on her. She was no stranger to attention. But her sensitivity to emotion magic told her that this was different. It wasn't the usual starstruck onlooking of common ponies, or the lecherous stares of stallions with ill intent. It felt more... loving, parental. She chalked it up to her being in such close proximity to their daughter. Emotional magic wasn't an exact art, and she was hardly an expert at it, in any case.

"I have everything well in hoof," Cadance said to Velvet and Night Light. "You don't have to stay. You can run errands, or go out on a date or whatever you like."

"That's okay," Velvet said. "We just want to..." Velvet trailed off, not wanting to say that she just wanted to watch and be near her estranged daughter after such a long time.

"We're just happy for the help, and having a break." Night Light said. "But we're not quite up for going out today." Cadance had a flash of understanding.

"Ah, I see," Cadance said. "If you two need to go... 'take a nap' up in the bedroom," she said with a wink, "I can ensure that these two stay outside for... at least an hour?" she said. Night Light and Velvet blushed. "There's no need to be embarrassed. I know it can be hard for parents to find time for... themselves."

"Yes, a nap does sound nice," Velvet said. Night Light grinned. "An actual nap," she said, glaring at him. His smile went away. Cadance gave him a look that was sympathetic and... vaguely flirtatious?

He must have been seeing things, he decided, as he pushed the thought from his mind. Cadance left them behind as she headed outside. Outside, Twilight trotted past Shining Armor, sitting at the bottom of the stairs. She walked over to the swing set and sat on one of the swings. Cadance followed shortly after. Shining watched as she walked by. Cadance pretended not to notice. She walked over behind Twilight on the swing and started pushing her.

"I am so lucky to have you as my foalsitter!" Twilight said.

"I'm the one who's lucky, Twilight," Cadance said.

"But you're a princess. I'm just a regular old unicorn."

"You are anything but a regular old unicorn," she said, still impressed with the skill of the self-taught pony.

Velvet watched from her second-floor bedroom window as the two ponies did the ladybug dance again outside. Night Light sat on the bed nearby.

"So... no nap, or what?" he asked. "I got a little lost in the euphemism downstairs."

"I can't," she said.

"If you're tired, you can be on bottom this time," he said.

"No, it's not that," she said, never looking away from the window. "I mean, it is. Sort of. I'm not... in the mood. But I can't sleep right now either. It's so strange to have her so close like this and yet..."

"She still feels like she's so far away?" he asked.

"Yeah. I just want to hug her and tell her everything. But I know we can't. I mean, she wouldn't even believe us. She'd think that we're crazy ponies."

"I know. It's tough. But this was what you wanted, right? To have her here like this?" he asked. She nodded weakly. "You can't think of her as our daughter. She's just our foalsitter for the summer."

Velvet didn't respond at first. She actually did feel tired. In fact, she felt very tired.

"I think I will take a nap actually," she said getting into bed.

"Really?" Night said, growing visibly excited.

"A real nap," she said, discarding the euphemisms. Outside, Cadance continued play with Twilight.

"Maybe you can come see where I live, sometime," Cadance said to Twilight.

"You mean I'd get to visit you in the castle!?" Twilight said.

"Well, sure, if it's alright with your parents," she said.

"I'll go ask them!" Twilight said. Cadance stopped her.

"Wait! I promised that we would stay outside for an hour," she said.

"Why?"

"Because sometimes grown-ups need a break from foals," Cadance said.

"Why? Don't they love me?"

"Well, what is your favorite toy?" Cadance asked.

"My Smarty Pants doll," Twilight said.

"Do you play with it all the time?"

"No."

"But you still love it, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, parents are the same way. They still love you. But sometimes they want to do other things besides spend time with you."

"Like what?" Twilight asked. Cadance glanced up at the bedroom window and smirked.

"Boring grown-up stuff," she said, spotting a scooter leaning against the house on the porch. "Is that your scooter?" she asked. Twilight nodded.

"It used to be Shining's but he doesn't use it anymore," she said. She trotted past Shining up to the porch to get it but couldn't quite lift it to carry it back down the stairs. Cadance walked up the stairs to help. Shining turned to watch her pass. Her tail swished from side to side as she stepped. At the top, her tail snapped firmly in place to hide her modesty. She turned and looked at him. He looked like a foal with his hoof caught in the cookie jar.

'Naughty colt,' she silently mouthed at him, her expression was a confusing mix for him, of both scorn and teasing allure. He quickly looked away. Cadance grabbed Twilight's scooter and they both walked back down the stairs together for her to ride it on the walkway. Shining made sure to keep his eyes on the ground as she passed.

Twilight stepped onto the scooter and pushed herself along while Cadance watched, keeping a mental note of the time. On a particularly sharp turn, Twilight fell from her scooter and scuffed her leg.

"Ow!" Twilight yelped.

"I'll get a bandage!" Shining said.

"Stay out here!" Cadance said. "I've got it covered." She opened her bag and took out a first aid kit and put a bandage on Twilight's scrape. Then she dried the tears from her eyes. "All better?" she asked. Twilight nodded. "Alright, let's keep playing." Twilight quickly forgot about the scrape as they played. "So I heard your dad was in the Royal Guard?" Cadance asked with a smile. Twilight nodded. "Tell me more about him."

Each day that summer, Cadance would come over to the house and foalsit for the family. Even though Shining insisted that he didn't need her to foalsit him. He was 'almost as old as her', he said. Nevertheless, he seemed awfully keen to 'let himself' be looked after when she was around.

Velvet and Night Light took the opportunity that summer to run errands, go out on dates, and even get new jobs. After Night Light had opened Velvet's eyes to the world of fiction, she had become quite passionate about the genre. Going so far as writing her own in her new-found spare time. Night Light was able to get some of her writing published inexpensively by working at the book-binder's place.

Cadance spent the majority of her time with Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn had a thirst for knowledge and learning unlike anything she had ever seen. And Cadance realized that Twilight had a natural talent for magic that nearly rivaled her own. Cadance gave Shining Armor freedom from being foal-sat at the simple request that he merely refrain from getting into trouble while she focused on Twilight, and her training.

"How has your summer been, my dear?" Princess Celestia asked Cadance as she arrived back at the castle after a day's 'work'.

"Wonderful, Aunt Tia!" Cadance replied. "Twilight and her family have all been so nice and kind. I've been very lucky to have been assigned to them for this. Twilight is a very talented little filly."

"Oh?"

"Yes! She practically taught herself magic overnight! And she's been learning more by leaps and bounds. You should have her join your School for Gifted Unicorns."

"Does she still not have her cutie mark?" Celestia asked. Cadance nodded. "You know the rules. A pony must have their cutie mark before the start of the semester in order to attend the school. It is not a place for little foals."

"But the semester doesn't start for another two weeks. She could still apply, and do the entrance exam. And if she gets her mark before the school year starts, she would be able to attend!" Cadance said.

"Consider it considered, if she gets her mark," Celestia said dismissively. Twilight Sparkle was of no consequence to Celestia. She was more concerned with, "What of the young stallion, Shining Armor? I understand he intends to join the Royal Guard Academy and follow the hoofsteps of his father. He's quite a handsome gentlecolt, would you not agree?" Cadance was careful to not let her aunt see her roll her eyes.

"He's alright," Cadance said. In truth, she was more interested with the older stallion of the house. "If you really want to know about him, you should ask Twilight."

"Why is that?" Celestia asked.

"She's practically obsessed with him. When she's not talking about magic, or books, she's talking about her B.B.B.F.F."

"I beg your pardon?" Celestia asked, confused.

"Her Big Brother, Best Friend Forever," Cadance explained, earning a raised eyebrow from Celestia. "Yeah, she made an acronym out of it. You should hear her go on and on about him. Those two were inseparable before I got there." Cadance thought back on her time there. "Come to think of it, they still are." Celestia's lips made a thin line.

"Does Shining not interest you?" Celestia asked, nudging the conversation. Cadance shrugged. Even though she was less than two years older than him, she'd had to grow up quickly into a young adult very early. As a princess, she'd had the luxury of everything except a long foalhood. She understood perfectly well what Celestia was implying.

"He just seems a little... immature," Cadance said. "He's nice. But I think he'd rather spend time with his sister than me. He's more at home with raiding the cookie jar with her than going out on a date with anypony..." she said as her tone trailed off a little. "I'm rather quite envious of their relationship."

"Oh?"

"I've oft wished that I'd had a brother or sister to play with, and just be foals together. Somepony besides the foals of visiting dignitaries." Celestia frowned a little. "But I know that would not have been possible. I'm special. As you've told me so many times," Cadance said, looking up at her own horn and fluttering her wings.

"And it's always been true," Celestia said. "Colts like Shining will notice you more soon enough. He just needs to have some more space to discover who it is he wants to be. He needs to spend more time around ponies closer to his own age," Celestia said, thinking to herself. She came to her solution. All it meant was moving up the timeline for everypony. "Go ahead and have Twilight's parents apply to enroll her in the school. I'll make sure she gets an early entrance exam appointment. If she's as talented as you say, she should have no difficulty. And I'll enroll her this fall. Cutie mark or not."

Not long after, Twilight's parents enrolled her in Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. They smiled brightly as her father presented Twilight the approved acceptance letter. Twilight hopped up and down in joy. It was a dream come true for young Twilight, except for one thing. She had to pass an entrance exam!

Twilight could feel her hooves getting sweaty and clammy as she and her family walked down the hall of the school to the audition exam room. Her parents were close behind her, there for support. They arrived at the door to the auditorium. Twilight paused, took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Her parents followed her in.

"Remember to smile. Charisma is key," Velvet whispered.

On shaky legs, Twilight took her place in the center of the room. She looked around nervously, trying her best to keep her nerves calm, or at least, hidden. The four judges sat up in the back of the room, quietly judging her. She looked to her parents standing by the room's entrance. They motioned for her to keep smiling. Twilight turned back to the judges, all a-grins. An attendant rolled in a cart with a pink and purple spotted egg, nested softly on a bed of hay.

Her instructions were simple. Use her magic to hatch the egg.

But it was far from simple. Unbeknownst to the filly, the egg had been a part of the school very nearly since its founding. The egg itself was ageless. Dragon eggs were inherently extremely resistant to pony magic. It was part of their ability to protect themselves. Only the innate magic of dragons themselves would hatch the egg. Besides that, only Alicorn magic was powerful enough to hatch it.

The acceptance of Twilight's application was already enough to ensure that she would attend that fall. The entrance exam was always a farce. The egg served one singular purpose. It was to teach new students to cope with failure. As Celestia was fond of saying, 'If you can survive disappointment, nothing can beat you.'

But Celestia had selected this particular test with specific intent. To find out if maybe, just maybe, a unicorn applying to her school was born with the ability to wield alicorn magic. The odds were better for somepony to be struck by lightning while winning the Equestrian lottery. But for Twilight's pedigree, her odds were one in four.

"Well Miss Sparkle?" One of the judges prompted impatiently.

Twilight walked over to the egg, inspecting it closely. She laughed nervously, still forcing out a smile for the judges. They made no effort to hide their condescension. They scrawled a variety of comments on their evaluation clipboard. Every tap of punctuation on the pads was a thunderous hammer in Twilight's ears. She began sweating profusely now. She could feel beads rolling down her cheeks. It would help to hide her tears when she failed.

FAILED

"No! I must not fear!" she thought to herself, "Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

She began mentally preparing for the task at hoof. She reared up and focused all of her will into her horn. Tiny sparks sputtered from the tip. She groaned and huffed from exertion. But the stress had caused her to crack under the pressure, leaving the egg failing to also do so. One of the reviewers yawned. Another looked at her watch.

"We don't have all day," the judge heckled. It was not their desire to be needlessly cruel. It was simply a part of the test for the unicorn's resolve and temperament. An angry, cynical unicorn, spiteful of a judgmental world could be great trouble with the school's teachings. The students must be humble, but determined.

Twilight tried again. She knew it was the most important day of her life. That her entire future would be affected by the outcome of that day. And she was about to blow it! Her whole world fell down around her. All her hopes, her dreams, began to crumble before her eyes. All because of one stubborn egg. She tried a final time, forcing every last ounce of will she had, trying to mentally pry open the door to her magical ability. A tiny spark from her horn fizzled out again. She felt her stomach fall, her heart sink. Doubt overtook her. At least she could still keep her dignity. She tried not to cry. Maybe she wasn't meant for this after all.

"I'm sorry I wasted your time..." Twilight whimpered her apology in defeat.

The judges took positive notes of her effort and mature attitude. She would be an acceptable, if mediocre student. As they made their notes, something extraordinary happened.

Outside the exam room window, the sky exploded with concentric circles of rainbow rings. The silent display reached the school with its thunderous shock wave. The blast shook the entire school and scared the living daylights out of everypony. The blast caught Twilight in the midst of trying to access her magic. The tenuous new portal linking her mind to her magical essence was blown wide open. It shook loose the tiny door in her young mind shielding her fragile psyche from the magic vortex. Raw magic raged freely from the powerful unicorn.

A powerful rush of magic traveled up her horn, erupting in a beam of energy, crackling with arcane lighting as it struck the egg, hatching it at once. The egg split in half and the baby dragon rested comfortably in the bedding of hay. But it was not enough of an outlet for the poor unicorn.

Twilight screamed as her eyes became pools of iridescent white. Her entire body floated into the air as raw magic radiated off of her in concussive blasts. The school staff were held captive in her arcane levitation. Her parents were turned to plants. The exam dragon hatchling was transformed into an enormous, building-sized full grown dragon, his head smashing through the roof of the school.

Twilight's mortal mind was held hostage to all of time and space flowing through her.
All that was. All that had ever been. All that would ever be. All things that could never be.
The smell of the number seven. The color of infinity. Impossible things. She knew all things, and no thing.
Her mind was burning up.

Outside of the school, Princess Celestia saw the same rainbow blast, and the following rush of magical energy blasting from the exam room. Something had gone wrong with one of her students. After all this time, she recognized it. There was a great disturbance in the horse. A student had alicorn magic. Celestia ran into the auditorium.

Celestia gently placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, mercifully closing the door in the mortal mind that it could have unmade. The magic ceased. The teachers were released. Twilight's parents were ponies once again. The dragon returned to its normal, hatchling size.

"Twilight Sparkle." Celestia greeted her. Twilight only now just barely realized what she had done.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean-" Twilight began to apologize.

"You have a very special gift. I don't think I've ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities," Celestia praised.

"Huh?" Twilight was still barely recovering.

"But you need to learn to tame these abilities through focused study," The princess continued.

"Huh?"

"Twilight Sparkle, I'd like to make you my own personal protege here at the school."

"Huh?"

"Well?" Celestia asked. Twilight looked to her parents for their consent. They nodded enthusiastically. It was more than any of them could ever have hoped for.

"YES!!!" Twilight exclaimed, leaping into the air.

"Oh, and one other thing Twilight," Celestia, said, halting her mid-air celebration.

"More!?" Twilight asked. Celestia pointed at Twilight's flank.

"My cutie mark! Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!" Twilight leaped about in circles around the princess. Celestia's own internal celebration was invisible. But it was equally enthusiastic. Twilight's ability to ascend, or not, would have been determined by her magical ability as a unicorn. There could be no mistake. Celestia looked at Velvet in the exam room doorway and smiled. Velvet could see by Celestia's smug expression that she had her answer.

Twilight Sparkle had the X Factor.