Friendship, Magic Of

My name is Twilight Sparkle. Not to toot my own horn, but I've done a lot of pretty amazing things. It was sort of an 'all in a day's work' type deal. Something went wrong? It was up to my friends and I to fix it.

And by 'my friends and I,' this somehow always meant me. And I was fine with that. The spotlight wasn't bad, it was nice. My friends were by my side and, even though it was me in the end, I was happy to share the glory with them.

Now, I'm not especially pretty or talented. But I always thought that the six of us, together, meant something really special. I thought we were destined to follow our dreams. Rarity was going to be famous someday, Rainbow was going to join the Wonderbolts, Applejack was going to make her family proud, Fluttershy was going to conquer her fears, and pinkie was going to spread joy wherever she went.

As for me, I had a secret dream to follow in Celestia's hoofsteps. I wanted to be a princess.

It seemed like that was going to happen, too. All signs pointed to yes.

And what did my 'destiny' wind up being?

Well...

~~~~~

Honestly, the day could have gone better. All in all, though, not bad.

Started with a song. A nice song out of nowhere with a random back-up dance crew. That was good.

Then, the whole musical, mystery spell, destiny-changing thing. That was stressful and unnecessarily difficult, but still interesting.

Lastly, the worst bit. I saved my friends, fixed their cutie marks, finished writing this spell, and... nothing happened. Just... nothing. I had re-written history, practically, and Princess Celestia didn't even bother to show up.

It was disappointing, to say the least. Celestia was my hero; a role model and a friend. I wanted her approval so badly. But she had completely ignored me.

At least, that's what I thought.

A week or two passed, and I'd fallen back into my usual groove. In fact, nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all in that time. I spent the whole two weeks in the library, reading and studying.

Don't worry, the story starts soon. And, like most stories, it begins when something changes.

I was deep into a book on theoretical space travel when there was a gentle knock at the door. I, being an expert at blocking out fellow ponies, ignored this and several more after. Eventually, the pony let herself in, resting a hoof on my shoulder.

I jumped, almost throwing the book through the ceiling, and turned to look behind me.

There stood Celestia, the pony I had been waiting for a word from for fourteen days. "Hello, Twilight."

"Well, it's about time!" I set the book down. "Did you come to talk to me about the spell?"

Celestia chuckled lightly. "In a way. That spell was your final exam. I didn't tell you on purpose. I know how you worry. You passed with flying colors!"

You have to understand that, for all my life, I'd been trying to become a great unicorn. I wanted to have all kinds of skills and tricks, and I wanted to go down in history alongside Star Swirl the Bearded. And now, my teacher had come to me to tell me I had achieved my lifetime goal. My heart felt so light I thought it would fly away.

Of course, at a time like this, only the greatest of words would do. "R-really?" What can i say? I'm not much of a public speaker.

"Yes, really. Now it's time for the next step?"

Next step? What could that mean, other than--

"I'm taking you to the job office!"

"Wha? You mean... I'm not a princess?" I probably sounded like a tiny filly, but I wasn't exactly thinking straight.

Celestia looked severely confused. "Where did you ever get an idea like that? You're going to do what all other ponies do: they find a skill, and follow it through their lives, honing it carefully, then get a career in that area and live out the rest of your life happily."

"B-but..."

"And your skill is magic! Now that you've finished your schooling, you're going to get a job!"

"A job... in what?" I asked.

"The magic of friendship, of course!"