The Gift

Four unicorn mares and an earth pony stallion occupied one room in the Royal Castle. The bedroom was quite wide; its walls bore a soft blue coloration.  A huge bed made out of oak wood was placed against one of them; soft mattresses and cushions equipped it. Opposite the bed sat a polished glass desk at the left of the door and a ceiling-tall closet embedded into the wall at its right; above it, a window opened, flanked by crimson red curtains, offering the sight of the palace gardens that extended all over that side.

Sweetie Belle, Rarity and their parents basked into the magnificence of the sights, which the Element of Generosity hadn’t had the opportunity to appreciate properly; their visits were always brief, and the room in which she had stayed when she came to Canterlot didn’t offer such a memorable view, besides all that transpired in that moment.

Twilight elected to let them take in the landscapes for some minutes before taking a hoof to her mouth and coughing affectedly, which Rarity caught note of.

“Oh, excuse us, dear. We certainly have something important to discuss,” said the purple-maned unicorn, gesturing for her family to come around. They all complied, approaching Twilight. Once they were all reunited, she looked around at each one, while speaking.

“Princess Celestia has made a very generous offer. Entry in the School for Gifted Unicorns is usually a very complex process; many applicants come every curse but only a few of those are considered and accepted for enrolling. Getting an invitation offered by the Princess herself is a circumstance triggered only by very special cases,” said Twilight, her cheeks burning briefly. She directed her gaze at Sweetie Belle, her eyes serious and fixating; the little filly held back a gulp at the intensity with which she was being seen.

“Receiving this invitation is such a honor that I would not think twice if it was offered to me again. The choice is ultimately up to you, and you’d do good discussing it properly with your family. The Princess awaits us at dinner time, please considerate this and come to a conclusion. I know it is sudden and too fast, but as I said, they are special circumstances. I’d be happy to help you with your magic lessons, Sweetie, if you are so inclined.” Despite her words, there was a slight dryness present in Twilight’s voice that was not lost in any of the presents. She excused herself of their presence and left the room, closing the door behind her calm but firmly.  Sweetie gawked at the closed door.

If any of the adults had noticed Twilight’s strange behavior, they didn’t give such a sign. Instead Rarity turned to her and beamed.

“Well, Sweetie, what do you think? Mother, father and I are sure this is a great opportunity for you and we’ll all be supportive.”

Her parents and sister looked at her expectantly; once again she suppressed a gulp.  She cast a look at her two-colored wings, flapping them, and then lowered her eyes to her recently acquired cutie mark. It all seemed too unreal at this moment, perhaps she was dreaming a uncharacteristically long dream and she would soon wake up and find herself with her two friends on another spectacular escapade to gain their cutie marks. Lifting a hoof, she bit into it as strongly as she could. It was definitely no dream, she determined, shaking her pained limb. There would be no more crusading for her. A song echoed in her head.

We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders

On a quest to find out who we are

And we will never stop the journey

Not until we have our cutie marks

Her eyes went all the way again down her flank, observing the musical note that adorned it. She had come all the way up to this point. What was there now to follow?

She glanced at her family again, a resolute look on her face.

“I’m doing it.”

A grey-coated, black-maned earth pony guided Sweetie through the Castle. Rarity had asked the stallion to help her locate Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who were being given a tour of the palace by a member of the staff; her sister and her parents would return to the Main Hall and they would reunite at dinner. It wasn’t too long before they caught up with the two loud fillies that were being led through a corridor filled with colored crystal panels. Upon reuniting her with her friends, her escort took off.

“Hey Sweetie, how did it go?!” both of her friends asked at the same time. The glass panels vibrated with the strength of their voices.

She relayed to them what had been spoken in the reunion, and her final decision. Both fillies fell silent, looking at her; both wore unreadable expression on their faces. There were some moments of silence, the tension in the air heavily weighting over them until Scootaloo broke the silence.

“You have to make us proud, ok?  You’ve gone beyond us and now you have to keep going. Just don’t forget about us, right?”

“Ah wish you the best of lucks, Sweetie.” Apple Bloom caught her in a strong embrace, which, after some moments of hesitation, the orange pegasus joined.

“Thanks, girls. You’re the best friends a filly could wish for.”

Just after they separated, small smiles etched across all their faces, an unicorn mare approached them, a broader smile showing all over her face.

“You must be Sweetie Belle, right? Your friends have told me so much about you.” The newcomer lingered on Sweetie for a moment, looking at her, but her smile did not disappear and she saluted her. This unicorn was just a little bigger and older than the Crusaders, had a bright red hide, deep black eyes and a two colored mane and tail: dark red and green, her hair tied into multiple braids of each color, covered by a black bandanna. Her cutie mark was a silver needle with black thread flowing around.  She gave the impression of an old, but well played with, filly’s doll.  Somewhat, Sweetie felt a pinch of sympathy for the colorful mare before her. The red unicorn approached her and introduced herself.

“My name is Patchwork Needle. I’m one of the Castle’s maids, and I was tasked with showing you around here. Nice to meet you!”

The Crusaders and Patchwork Needle kept exploring the castle. Surprisingly, the older unicorn seemed to have a knack for keeping the rambunctious fillies on check, without having them go bored. She had plenty of stories to share with them; so much in fact, that when the time of going back to the Dinner Room, they were absolutely distraught with having to separate.

Only after Patchwork promised to share with them some stories when they came back to the castle did the young ponies separate from her and enter the room. All the adults were already present, including Princess Celestia. As they approached the table they were received by the alicorn’s warm, all-encompassing smile.

“Good evening, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle.”

The addressed unicorn could not help noticing that the Princess had lingered a little longer saying her name. Or was it all her imagination?  The three fillies sat at the table. Celestia looked at Sweetie directly.

“I’ve understood that you’ve accepted my offer, Sweetie?”

She didn’t dare look at the Princess, instead fixating her eyes on the table and giving a subtle nod.

“I see. Those are very good news.  Then, my dear, I’d like for you to come with me now for some moments. We’re going to proceed with the test.”

She lifted her head so fast that a sharp pain crossed it. Closing her eyes waiting for the pain to alleviate, she replayed Celestia’s words. Was the test to be performed right now?  She trembled, opening her eyes and sweeping the table with her eyes. Everypony looked at her expectantly; her family and friends insisting at her to go, Twilight’s expression was unreadable. Celestia came around and lowered her head to push her side softly.

“Come on, Sweetie. Everything will be fine.”

Her body jumped from the seat and followed Celestia as if pulled by strings, despite the fact that the royal mare showed no signs of performing magic; right at that moment, Sweetie was over-conscious of herself. Her heart pumped fast and loud and could get out any moment now.  She followed Celestia through a door at the back and found a room smaller than the bedroom she had been earlier in. and much simpler.  Across a long black desk at the end of the room, sat three bored looking unicorn stallions clad in black robes with paper blocks and quills. Celestia sat at a side of the room. In the middle, there was a small stool in which a wooden cup had been put. The door shut itself behind her, causing her to look back and gasp.

One of the unicorns addressed her, his voice slow and boring.

“Miss Sweetie Belle, your test to access the School for Gifted Unicorns will be to have this wooden goblet disappear. You may begin now.”

It took some time for her to register the instructions she had just been given, and even then, her gaze only wandered, blank, between the goblet in front of her, Celestia and the examiners.  She could’ve sworn the Princess had winked at her.

Concentrating in the small cup, she inclined her head, pointing her horn at it.

Disappear… Get lost… GO!

Despite closing her eyes and putting all her effort into having the test object vanish from the room, all she was achieving was exhausting herself and the beginning of a headache.

Once and again her horn shone briefly and weakly, shutting itself down before anything could be done. Sweat dripped down her forehead and followed through her cheeks. Opening her eyes, she saw the unicorns moving around on their seats, clearly hoping for this to be over. What a stupid idea she had had, believing that she could pass something that even a genius like Twilight had needed the Sonic Rainboom’s help to achieve. Tears began to stream down her cheeks. She looked down at the white linoleum floor, closing her eyes, musing quietly to herself.

“I don’t want to be here anymore.”

A library was being swept by strength winds, in the middle of which a small white unicorn filly floated, having just sprouted two chromatically mismatched wings. Terror filled the filly’s mind until she could not bear it anymore. ‘I don’t want to be here anymore’ had she thought; after that a bright white flash had taken her far from the place.

Suddenly, unannounced, the scene changed.

After having walking during quite some time, the exhausted unicorn filly paused and looked at the sky. Letting everything from her mind go, she erupted into a hearted song, which brought her calm and peace.

The shiny green eyes were opened once again. She focused her gaze on the small object in front of her and took a deep breath. Slowly, she emptied her mind, rejecting all the superfluous thoughts that wandered around. Reaching again into her head, she lowered her horn and pointed it to the test cup. A pink glow slowly began to cover both her horn and the goblet, until it vanished from sight with a “pop” sound.  Sweetie let the magic disperse, and sighed, relaxing.

The three instructors scratched their notes quickly and talked in hushes between themselves.  The same one that had addressed her earlier did so now.

“Congratulations, Miss Sweetie Belle. You have been accepted.”

Falling down to the floor, she felt a warm nuzzle in her cheek.

Cold water ran down her throat. She shook her head and looked around; it was the Dinner Room and smiling gazes were directed at her from everywhere.

“Congratulations, Sweetie!”

She glowed brightly on the inside. A smile crept again to her face, and she ran to embrace her parents and sister. The atmosphere was much more lighthearted and she was much happier than she’d ever been since before the incident. In fact, she wasn’t sure she couldn’t recall a time in which she had felt like this; besides finding out she had gained her mark.

Celestia’s voice flew over, returning them from her thoughts

“You can have one week free from today, to prepare yourself. In that day, Twilight and you will come and she will give you the basic pointers of magic for two weeks so that you can join the School without having too much trouble. After that, Twilight will come once every two weeks and check on your studies, also helping you with what you need. She’ll be a fine tutor, won’t you, Twilight?”

The lavender unicorn nodded, smiling to the Princess.

“I’ll do my best, Princess. I’m excited and nervous at the same time, having a pupil of my own!”  the studious mare seemed the more spirited that Sweetie had seen her lately. Rarity poked at her side with a hoof, a ringing laughter leaving her lips.

“Be patient with my poor sister, will you, dear? I swear, you scare me silly sometimes.”

“I’ll try, Rarity, don’t worry.” Twilight blushed, looking at her empty plate.

Celestia smiled, clapping her hooves; the service ponies around hurried out of the room.

“Well, I think that settles it for now. Let us enjoy this delicious meal, shall we?”

Night was almost upon as the small group parted from the Royal Palace. As they climbed to the carriages that would take them back to Ponyville, Sweetie could feel the chilly wind that blew through Canterlot, and pressed herself against her sister, who looked at her with a warm smile.

“I’m going to have to design new clothes for you, dear…”

A soft chuckle came from the winged unicorn’s lips, and she prepared herself for what would come.