Prince Blueblood CIX sat silently in his seat gazing down at the floor, torn between feeling apprehensive or feeling nonchalant. The Spring semester auditions for Queen Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns were, in his humble opinion, distressingly easy.

At first he wondered if he was merely over-prepared for the exams. He did, after all, spend weeks studying text after text and practicing relentlessly with one of the best tutors the princess could find. But then again, this was Queen Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Maybe the tests were supposed to appear easy so as to root out the not-quite-so-gifted unicorns.

He flicked his tail.

Blueblood either passed with flying colors or had failed miserably.

Not even the gods could save him from the wrath of the princess if it was the latter.

Still, it was the end of the day, and he along with another number of students had been pulled aside for one more test. Maybe the proctors were trying to find sift out the best of the harvest. Or maybe this was their last chance to make it into the school.

Blueblood watched as one by one, the fillies and colts were called into the examination room. They came out either crying, furious, or despondent.

The third to last pony was called and she marched ahead to her doom, trembling all the while.

Now, the only other pony in the hall was a little filly. She looked very young, like she was in level 0, and she had a golden coat with a red and gold mane and tail. The filly was also a blank flank (not that that was surprising for a five/six-year-old), so Blueblood couldn’t even get a hint as to what her magical specialty was.

“Hi,” she said, when she finally his met gaze.

“Hello,” he answered back.

“My name is Sunset Shimmer. What’s yours?”

“My name is Blue Heart,” he responded.

“How do you think you did?” she asked, smiling nervously.

He shrugged. “I wish I knew. What about you?”

“I think I was okay on magic theory, but I’m not sure how well I did in the levitation parts of the test.” She huffed. “I can do all that stuff okay by myself, but it’s hard to levitate stuff with ponies watching.”

“I understand the feeling,” Blueblood agreed.

“Really?” Sunset asked. “You look so, so normal!”

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. “I do?”

“Yeah! Everypony looks like they want to go hide in their beds, but you? You look like this is nothing!”

Hm. Maybe he had mastered the art of composure. “Well, believe me, I’m scared. If I don’t get in, well…”

“Are your parents mages?” she questioned.

Blueblood rolled his falsely-colored eyes with a scoff. “No, my mother’s terrible with magic: she only knows the basics, and always calls somepony else to do more complicated— er, harder spells,” he quickly rephrased his statement. “My father’s pretty okay with it, but he’s nowhere near as good as a mage. Are your parents mages?”

Sunset shook her head. “My parents are businessponies; they’re good at math and meeting ponies, but not that good at magic. Say, Blue Heart?”

“Yes?”

“After the test, do you think you could show me how to get out? They gave me a map, but I don’t understand it.”

He shrugged. Sure. Why not? “Yeah, okay. I’ll be right here if they call me first, or just wait for me if they call you first.”

Just then, the door opened. The filly who had just taken the test was in tears.

“Blue Heart!” a proctor called.

“Good luck,” Sunset whispered.

“Thanks,” he mumbled back as he made his way into the room.

He swallowed nervously, feeling his heart pound at a rapid pace. ‘I went through a coronation, I can go through this, I went through a coronation, I can go through this, I went through a coronation, I can go through this.’ Blueblood chanted in his mind over and over again.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Blue Heart,” one of the three examiners greeted him cordially. “This will be the final test you’ll be taking for Queen Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.”

The colt nodded, trying to quell his nerves.

“You have seven minutes to complete the test. Starting…” another proctor pulled the blanket from the object in the room, revealing a small crate with a large lavender-colored egg with even darker violet spots. “Now.” And another proctor began the timer.

He looked at the instructions and fell back on his rump.

Hatch a dragon’s egg? Hatch a dragon’s egg?! How in the darkest and more wretched pits of Tartarus was he expected to do that?!

He closed his eyes and began to do breathing exercises to calm himself. Getting flustered would solve nothing, what he needed to was think about how he’d hatch the egg.

Blueblood stood and began to circle around the crate. He started to reach for the egg with a hoof before a proctor spoke.

“Please refrain from touching the egg with your hooves, young sir. You may only touch it with your magic.”

Blueblood nodded and levitated the egg, examining it from all angles. He then held up in the dying afternoon sunlight trying to see the dragon inside. He couldn’t see through the shell.

Perhaps he could try smashing it, but then again the object was to hatch the egg, not just get the dragon out. Besides, he doubted Queen Celestia would ever approve of killing a life (or a potential one at that) just for some test.

“Four minutes,” a proctor stated.

Blueblood let the egg back down and thought. Dragons were said to be as magical, if not more so, than ponies and phoenixes. Maybe he needed to feed the egg with all the magic he could to spur the dragon into coming out.

Blueblood moved to a position where he was facing his examiners. He took a deep breath…

‘In twenty years, I will be king of Equestria.’

…and let go.

‘In twenty years, I will battle a god.’

The proctors narrowed their eyes as they watched him feed his mana to the egg. They had seen this test done dozens upon dozens upon dozens of times, but very rarely did they see something like this.

‘I. Must. Do. This.’

The colt, Blue Heart, was not like the other foals. Though the children had all been either desperate or determined, Blue Heart was not desperate and determined, at least not like the others.

‘For Equestria!’ he thought as his knees buckled from the sheer magical force he was pouring out from his horn and into the egg. ‘For the world!’

It was like they were watching a stallion who had everything to lose.

The magical aura around his horn became white with concentration and he grit his teeth. Never in his life had he done so much magic as he was doing right now.

“Time’s up,” a proctor informed him.

But it was not enough.

Blueblood stopped feeding his magic into the egg, feeling tears prickle his eyes. He had failed. Never mind Princess Blueblood’s fury. He had failed his nation.

He wobbled up onto his hooves. His head, particularly around the base of his horn, pounded from the exertion.

Blueblood fell forward on both knees and bowed till his horn tip touched the floor. “I’ll do better next time,” he murmured into the tile.

The proctors scribbled something down on their clipboards.

“Do not speak about this exam to anypony else,” the head examiner stated, not looking up from his sheet. “If you do, you, and the pony you have spoken with, shall be immediately disqualified from ever reauditioning to Queen Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Even if you are accepted, you may not speak about this exam, lest you be immediately expelled. Am I understood?

Prince Blueblood stood up. “Yes, sir,” he mumbled, keeping his gaze on the floor.

“You can expect your exam results in two days. You are dismissed.”

“Thank you, sir,” he said. "Good bye, sir.”

He walked out the door and collapsed on the floor across from Sunset Shimmer’s seat. He kept his back to her.

“Are you okay?” she asked with worry. While none of the test-takers looked particularly overjoyed after coming out of the classroom, none of the other test-takers looked anywhere near as awful as he did.

“Good luck, Sunset Shimmer,” he mumbled. “I’ll take you out just like I promised.”

“But—”

“Sunset Shimmer!” a proctor called.

The little filly glanced back and forth between Blue Heart and the examiner before she finally went through the door.

Maybe she’d come out crying. All the younger ones did.

Prince Blueblood could feel the pounding in his head slowly subside and he sat up. By the gods, what was he going to do? Sure, he could continue working with a tutor and studying texts, but would it have been the same? The princess had told him that he needed to be in a competitive environment to truly push his limits. His tutoring and study sessions were difficult, but they didn’t carry the same challenge as trying to compete against other students.

He bit his lip, trying to organize his thoughts.

BANG!

A bright, almost blinding flash exploded from the classroom door where Sunset Shimmer was taking her test!

Prince Blueblood scrambled onto his hooves and ran to the classroom.

What he saw made his breath hitch in his throat. Never before had he seen something so beautiful. The dragon egg and Sunset Shimmer were in the center of the classroom. She was levitating off the floor, head tilted up to the ceiling, and horn and eyes glowing white with power.

She was surging, and what a surge it was.

Flames of all colors were engulfing the room, as vibrant and as breath-taking as the sunset filtering in from the window. The room was warm, yes, but the fire did not burn with the same intensity as that of a true fire. The flames licked up the walls and proctors, caressing them with a warm Summer’s breeze. Prince Blueblood felt the fire run up his leg and go all the way up to his horn tip. It was… nice, like a welcoming kiss from a mother.

But then, Sunset Shimmer’s magical surge subsided, and her enchanted flame was slowly extinguished as she gently floated down. When her hooves touched the floor, she collapsed, unconscious by the sheer magic she had poured out from her horn. Blueblood couldn’t help but notice the red and gold sun now adorning her flank.

“Mr. Blue Heart,” a proctor addressed him, pushing her glasses back into place. “I thought we dismissed you.”

“I’m sorry,” he answered. “After my test, I was really tired and needed to lay down. When I heard the noise—”

“Good bye, Mr. Blue Heart,” she cut in, in no mood for excuses.

“I’m sorry,” he quickly apologized again before leaving.

Perhaps it would be best to let the adults escort Sunset out of the school…

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

He once again found the princess in his apartment. She sat at his desk with her back to him, scribbling away in her diary by candlelight.

“I failed,” he stated bluntly.

“And you know this?” she asked, not even bothering to stop writing.

“Yes, I couldn’t do the last test.”

Blueblood the Elder scoffed. “The school never releases exam results until two days after the auditions are done. You know nothing at this point.”

“But I—”

“I’ve been alive for a long time, nephew, and even back when I was a filly, that was how the school conducted their business. Just wait and see.”

He threw his panniers at the foot of his bed and climbed in. “I watched a filly surge today,” he informed her.

“Indeed?”

“Yes, she cast all this colorful, non-burning fire everywhere. It was as beautiful as a sunset.”

The princess paused in her scribbling. “Even for a surge, that is delicate and intricate magic.”

“I know, I’ve only had a couple of surges, but when I did, all I'd do was knock things down. She created art. She even got her cutie mark from it: a red and gold sun.”

Blueblood the Elder exhaled through her nostrils as she closed her diary. “Have a good evening.”

“Where are you going?” he called after her.

“That is none of your concern," she stated she closed the door behind her.

Author's Note

Please point out any typos.

Hey, it's Sunset Shimmer! Hi, Sunset!