The Guardian of Harmony

The Tower of Magi had a very unique system and structure in which there were no staircases connecting the 28 floors to each other, but magic circles that were keyed to specified magical signatures drawn off to the sides to allow teleportation to another floor. Each floor, like the magic circles, was also keyed to specific personnel in order to prevent other ponies from entering or wandering around the tower given the chance of entry and each floor also prevented any other method of teleportation to it. In basic terms, the system was very much like a lock and key, and one needed to “knock” as well as ask and be granted permission for entry by either the “master” of the floor and/or the Archmage in order to pass through any of the magic circles. Only the Archmage and Princess Celestia were freely permitted to enter any and all floors of the tower at any notice, but unless in the case of emergency, they rarely did.

The tower also held few windows that were all small in size, just smaller than the size of a young filly or colt to be able to squeeze through. The balcony at the top of the tower did not hold a standard door either. In fact, it looked as though there were no doors there at all, when in fact; there was another magic circle on the wall to allow teleportation inside.

It was safe to assume that these were all safety measures to keep curious minds away from whatever the inhabitants of the tower are studying at the time. But it seemed as though Twilight originally had a different agenda for this. According to Sig, she had merely wanted every member of the tower to be able to study uninterrupted without having to worry about other ponies coming in and out of their floor asking them or looming over to see whatever it was that they were working on. It was also partly for the common pony’s safety as at some point before the safety measurements were placed, a mage of the Dark Branch back then had been fiddling with enchantments and one of the little filly’s of one of the noble’s had been wandering around the tower at that time and swiped one of the enchantments.

Needless to say, that became quite the nightmare for those involved.

Of the 28 floors, 25 of them were dedicated solely for each member of the tower to house them. 1, the very first and bottom floor, was made specifically for those outside the tower to meet with a member(s), whether it be for a scholarly meeting among professors or researchers to a small lecture or presentation to a small group to a meeting with a student(s) from Celestia’s school, in all essence – it was a floor designated for the tower to meet with the public. The second free floor is meant to allow meetings for the entire tower for whatever purpose. And the remaining floor was meant for the members of the tower to relax and participate in leisure activity or even possibly to practice their magic or new spells.

That room was currently where Twilight had been spending most of her time for the past few days, even sleeping there. Celestia had protested at first, insisting that she at least rest in a room and bed, but Twilight stated it would be much more simple for her to stay in the Tower. That way she would be able to practice and research in peace and there would not be too much commotion or questions arising around the palace about the new alicorn resident. Signal Flare had agreed with the Guardian, stating that it would be best if she maintained a low profile. Besides, enough of the palace staff and guards knew of her already from seeing her tour around with Celestia a few days ago, it simply would not do if the nobles got wind of her. So, unless there is illusionary magic casted on her, it would be best if she limited her appearance around the castle as much as possible and kept her identity as Guardian a secret.

Resigned, Celestia reluctantly allowed Twilight to stay at the tower for the time being. But, despite all her initial protests, the Princess and Guardian had not seen each other that frequently since the former had been entirely too busy with politics. So, Twilight was left to her own devices most of the time, all spent either researching or attempting to perform spells.

“Why won’t it cast?!” She grunted in frustration, putting all her efforts into channeling her magic through her horn pointed at the colored marbles from the tests she was asked to do during her bedridden state. But not even a flicker of her magic would shape.

Letting out another shout of frustration, she stomped to one of the many scattered and hazardously littered books around her and narrowed her eyes at the words while occasionally and roughly turning the pages back and forth.

She had been hoping that after a while, she would be able to cast at least a few simple spells in each magical branch. But it was already the end of the week since her awakening and she still has yet to cast any spells. Even when researching for the cause with Sig’s occasional help, they had not found out why she was having such difficulty performing.

“It doesn’t make sense!” She shouted to the walls and shoving the book away from her before she began pacing around in a circle for the nth time since her stay. “I’ve been citing the formula perfectly for Traditional Magic, even triple checking to ensure the weight of the marble is consistent with what Signal Flare told me, and it won’t budge. I’ve envisioned the marble to float and kept that imagery in my mind with no reason, even ensuring I evoke amusement out of it, as necessary for Singular Magic. I’ve asked the magic around me to have the marble float for Celestia so she won’t have to worry about me anymore, as Night Magic would want. Day magic won’t come to me despite my pride of being magic! I’ve drawn the required circle for Light Magic and put enough happiness behind it required to levitate the marble. And I DEFINITELY have put enough frustration behind the Dark Magic circle for this spell! So why won’t they work?!” She ranted, glaring at the differently colored marbles peacefully sitting at the center of her spell casting space.

She snarled at them, as though they were the reason for her misfortune, and began marching toward them with the intention of shattering them. By the time she reached them and raised her hoof to stomp at them though, she let out a long, resigned breath and her body sagged. Slowly, she laid herself down and curled up, her tail hugging around her body as she dipped her head between her fore-hooves and ears drooping as she stared at the marbles.

“Why can’t I levitate you?” She asked the inanimate objects, as though hoping that they would give her the answer.

After a few minutes of silence, she let out a snort of hot air.

“Figures.” She said harshly as she climbed back on to her hooves with flattened ears.

With a flick of her tail as she turned around, she made her way back to her original spot to continue her attempts. She decided she would start with Traditional Magic once again, but by the time she had finished the second stage of her formula, she was interrupted.

“Still working hard as ever Twilight?”

Startled, Twilight jumped a little before turning to Celestia. Irked, a rant about safety around spell casting had begun forming at the tip of the Guardian’s tongue, but dissipated before she could get a word out as she remembered she couldn’t even perform a measly levitation spell. “Yes,” she grumbled instead, her ears and tail flickering in annoyance at the reminder.

The white alicorn winced at Twilight’s annoyance, “Is everything alright?”

“What? Oh! Yes. Wait- No! I mean-“ Twilight let out a growl before exhaling a heavy breath once more, allowing her body to sag, “I’m sorry. I’m just a little agitated. My magic hasn’t been responding to me at all and I haven’t found any reasons or cause for it not to. So I’m just frustrated. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

Celestia gave a sympathetic smile as she trotted over to the small alicorn and wrapped a wing around her. “I understand Twilight, if you’d like, I can reschedule our visit to the school some other time if you’re not feeling up to par.”

The lavender pony turned her head and gave her friend a blank stare. After a few moments, comprehension dawned upon her and a look of horror crossed her face. “The school! The visit! That was today!” She gasped, and if it weren’t for the fluffy white barrier over her, she would have likely jumped 10 feet in the air. “Oh! I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t realize! How could I have forgotten?! Ohhh, we’re going to be late aren’t we?! I don’t even have the illusion casted yet!”

Celestia’s light chuckled filled the air, “No need to worry Twilight, I thought this might happen, so I came 15 minutes earlier.”

“Oh…”

Another chuckle, “Now hold still.” The Princess requested before taking her wing back and making her way to stand in front of Twilight. Lowering her horn to aim toward the small alicorn, it soon began channeling her usual gold magic and just as it did, the illusion had been casted and Twilight no longer had her wings.

“There.” The princess finished with a smile.

The guardian put on a contemplative look, “Since when have you been able to cast Night Magic?”

Celestia’s smile quickly vanished and her wings fluffed nervously. “I have… had my share of practice with Night Magic ever since Luna’s…” she trailed off.

It seemed as though moods turning sour would be an ongoing theme that day as Twilight grimly frowned.

Luna.

The name had popped up a few times in between a few of the conversations Celestia and Twilight shared, but the background and owner of the name had remained anonymous. And any time Celestia was reminded of said pony or spoke of her, the same sad and guilty look would always cross her face, and silence would stretch between the two.

The first few times her name came up, Twilight would simply smile and allow the conversation to continue under the idea that Celestia would tell her soon enough. But it quickly became rather vexing for her as more questions began forming around this mysterious pony.

Who is Luna? Why does Celestia look guilty? What is their connection? What is Twilight’s connection to Luna? Why is she important? Why is Celestia sad that Twilight can’t remember her? Why did Twilight remember Celestia and not Luna? Where is this Luna?

There were no real answers for any of these questions, just skepticism. And to a pony who liked having answers to all her questions like Twilight, it was incredibly bothersome.

But…

She snuck a glance over to the Princess.

Celestia had been worrying on her bottom lip as she shamefully hung her head, ears and wings dropping a little, and magenta eyes glimmering.

And the Guardian quietly sighed.

It was quite obvious that Celestia was not emotionally ready to disclose information about this Luna pony any time soon. And Twilight respected the white alicorn she thought of as family enough to wait until she was ready to speak. Also, it was the least she could do along with brightening up the bigger pony since Celestia had pretty much taken hold of the Guardian’s duties since she’d been sleeping.

Twilight forced a grin, “Well, I’m ready to go to the school when you are! And look!” She rushed over to the side of a room where an overstuffed saddlebag sat. “I remembered to pack ahead of time! Don’t worry; I brought plenty of parchment and pencils. Fascinating things really, I wasn’t aware that the residue left by rocks were possible to erase, but I suppose that’s another discovery made within my absence. Although, I really do wish to learn how these pencils are made… How are they able to get the lead to be shaped in such a way that can be held within wood?” She rhetorically asked as she gave a skeptical look at her bag, or rather… the contents of the bag.

That seemed to snap Celestia out of her dour mood as she began laughing, “Twilight, if I didn’t know any better, I would think that I’m taking you to your first day of school as opposed to your first day of observation.”

It took a moment of thought for her before Twilight gave a bashful grin as she rubbed the back of her neck.

“Come now, we must be on our way.” The princess said with an amused smile, leading the two over to one of the magic circles.

Upon standing over it, Celestia lit up her horn, allowing a bit of her gold magic to flow out. As she did that, the magic circle also lit up in the same color as her magic, and teleported the two onto the first floor.

After reappearing, the Princess and now unicorn disguised Twilight began slowly trotting to their destination, as the school was located near castle grounds, with companionable silence.

During the past few days of Twilight’s near solitude, the Guardian had taken it upon herself to do a bit of studying on some of the establishments Celestia had told her of. Including her School of Gifted Unicorns.

As the name implied, only those gifted were allowed entry. In order to enroll in the school, the young unicorn must show 2 separate traits; talent in one of the magical branches as well as higher and/or faster perchance for learning and critical thinking. The school was also not meant for those who are unable to handle high work loads and long hours of study, as they were not only studying the magic of their branch of talent in depth they were also expected to keep up with the standard Equestrian school curriculum for the average pony.

Twilight had first thought that this would end up being a funnel system, but upon further study, she realized that this system would actually keep power hungry nobles who would try to buy their way into the school, out. By initially stating that magical talent was required, one would assume that a unicorn showing any sort of talent in any of the magic branches would be enough. The notion seems utterly ridiculous as any unicorn, especially young fillies and colts, is capable of performing emotional magic, and Traditional Magic was the most basic and widely used kind to perform.

Fortunately, there were 3 different “inspections” of the unicorn before further consideration could be advised; a magic inspection, a family inspection, and an inspection of character. The magic inspection itself was rather straight forward, the magic inspector would come and ask the unicorn to perform at least 3 spells of the branch they held talent in, any spell would do, just as long as it was from the branch they stated they could perform in. After, the inspector would ask the unicorn to channel magic into a device so they could measure their aptitude for said branch, if it reached a certain number then it showed the inspector that there was enough reason to believe the unicorn was capable of further developing their magic. With a family inspection, a pony would research the background of the family’s financial situation, place of habitat, employment, standing in society, etc. The guardian(s) of the unicorn would also be asked basic questions such as environment of home life, the unicorn’s personality, etc. Finally, with the character inspection, a psychologist would arrive to evaluate the unicorn’s mental health and character values, to ensure that the unicorn would be able to handle high workloads of study and tedium.

Upon passing inspection, the unicorn then had to take an entrance exam, or more accurately, a series of tests with a board of ponies sitting for observation. The examiners would provide different instructions and have the unicorn try to perform the spells. If the performances were sufficient enough and each examiner agreed so, then they passed. After successfully performing every one of the spells required to every pony’s standard, the unicorn had passed and was enrolled into the school. But the examiners would provide a “final test” catered against the pony’s specialties and designed to make them struggle in order to gauge more of the unicorn’s personality so they could assign the right curriculum and/or teacher(s) to the unicorn.

Once enrolled, students were sorted and grouped together depending on grade level and personal standard, to ensure that each student was learning at the speed comfortable to them for the standard courses. It simply would not do to have a pony well versed in math, only to be placed among fellow students and a class where the speed was not up to par. When it came to the student’s personal magical courses though, it then became the unicorn’s responsibility to make and find their way to their magic classes. This was more of a matter of convenience, as it was unlikely for the same group of ponies to share the same magical branches.

“I have to say, the enrollment process for your school was well thought out and put together.” Twilight stated, breaking the companionable silence. “It must have taken you a long time to be able to enforce it.”

The princess gave a low chuckle, “While it is true that it took me a while to have the school built and have the enrollment process pass, it did not take long for me to think of it. To be honest, I was actually inspired by one of your methods.”

The disguised unicorn gave a quizzical glance, “One of MY methods? What do you mean?”

“Yes,” Celestia nodded. “You were the one who had set up the system of selecting members for the Circle of Magi. That system is what inspired me, although I assure you it’s much more formal and complicated than selecting students. The inspections for one are vastly different than the ones prospecting students would face. In fact, I’m certain that many different institutions use your selection process as a base of how to create their own. The idea of having an evaluation for a pony to determine eligibility followed by a voting process to ensure the individual was up to standard is very reasonable and ensures that just about every pony has a chance for selection.”

Twilight gave a low hum as she contemplated on what Celestia said while the two continued trotting out of the castle and toward the school

The idea that she created such an important system was incredibly baffling to Twilight. The mere idea of her doing anything important was perplexing in itself and she had difficulty accepting them as facts. To her, these were mere fabrications and stories of some other important pony that wasn’t her.

It was rather… intimidating when Twilight thought about it, as well as irritating. The idea of her living in her own shadow of grandiosity and now having to live with every pony else’s expectations of what they read or remember of her accounts placed her in a very unique situation that one would not ever think of going through.

Before her thousand-year slumber, all she could remember was worrying about living up to becoming the Guardian of Magic… And then after waking up, she learns that she had already become that and then some… but can’t remember any part of playing her role.

As the two neared the school, a yellow unicorn with a neatly combed purple mane with black and white highlights and a braided tail standing outside the building came to view. Upon seeing Celestia, the pony immediately bowed.

“Princess Celestia.” The pony greeted in a soft alto before rising again.

The princess smiled as Twilight shifted awkwardly on her hooves at the display. The guardian had never been one for formalities, and the few times she remembered accompanying Celestia anywhere, she had always averted her eyes from any formal gestures.

“Good morning,” Celestia greeted. “Thank you for taking the time to come out to show us around. I appreciate it.”

“Of course your highness!” The pony smiled before directing their attention to Twilight. The pony gave a quizzical glance at first before turning back to the princess, “Er. Is this the… friend you spoke of your highness?”

Celestia gave a small nod and wide smile to confirm their question, “Yes. This is Twilight Sparkle, she’ll be joining us on class observations.” She then lowered her head to be more at eye level with Twilight, “Twilight, this is Phrygian Scale-“

The yellow pony piped up, “But please, just call me Phry.”

The princess continued on unperturbed, “They’re the teacher of the Singular division and will be guiding us around the campus and telling us how well the students are doing.”

Twilight gave a curious glance at the teacher, “But… What about your own classes?”

Phrygian gave a low chuckle, “Unfortunately I do not have any students at the moment. The only down side of being a Chaos User I suppose, there is rarely ever any fresh meat, and when there is one, they’re too scared to pursue it any further.”

The alicorn in disguise tried to repress an eye roll, “I see that the negative connotation attached to Chaos Magic hasn’t gone away in the slightest.” She muttered.

Most ponies had this idea that Chaos Magic was an evil force and should never be dabbled in. It was most likely stemmed from the facts of the more destructive nature of Dark Magic, the eccentricities and contradictory rules of casting Singular magic that leave viewers baffled, and the seemingly invasion of privacy that Night Magic is able to cast.

She had thought, or maybe hoped, that with the revelation of having Mages and Magus’s in the Circle that Chaos Magic had been explored and experimented with more often. But, she supposed that was just wishful thinking.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Phrygian asked

“Oh. Um…” Twilight quickly thought of something, “I was just wondering what you do at school then if you don’t have students.”

The pony hummed in thought, “Research mostly, but occasionally I’ll help out the other standard teachers if they let me or substitute for one. It’s not exactly the most ideal scenario I had in mind when I obtained my cutie mark,” They said, gesturing to their flank with 2 b’s and a number sign. “But it’s close enough. Now, that’s enough of that, if you’ll allow me, I’ll take the two of you to the standard classes for observation.” They said, receiving a nod of permission before turning to lead them into the building.

Twilight frowned as she gave a questioning glance toward the Princess, silently asking if this was common among the Chaos users, and was answered with a solemn nod.

“There is only one teacher per Chaos branch here,” Celestia whispered lowly enough so only Twilight could hear. “And only about half a dozen ponies show up every other year that show talent and interest in one of the Chaos branches, but even then most ponies that show up are usually young adults as most other ponies, especially parents, try to discourage interest in the field at a young age. It’s considered to be very lucky if any of the Chaos teachers obtain a young student.”

“I assume that the majority of students here are Traditional users then?” Twilight deadpanned.

The princess nodded, “The number of students learning Day magic is also very close to Traditional users. You can also safely assume that most graduate in the Day branch end up joining the guard while the Traditional graduates typically go into research or other applied science.”

“What about Light users?”

Celestia gave a small shrug, “Emotional magic is still the same as back then.”

Twilight gave a nod of understanding, “A lot of enrollment and a lot of drop outs?”

A nod

The guardian huffed in exasperation.

Emotional magic was the easiest and almost ALWAYS the first kind of magic that is performed, for both Natural and Chaos Magic. It was simply due to little colts and fillies exaggeratedly expressing their emotions and performing accidental magic from extreme bouts of happiness or frustration. But, just because performing it is easy doesn’t make it easy to control and/or maintain. Emotional magic is known to be the most draining and fluctuating of the 3 magic fields, not from magical use though, but just a simple matter of emotional exhaustion. The user is literally putting all of their emotion behind a spell and is not supposed to have any other emotion interfere with the output of the requirement. A rather difficult discipline as it is so easy to lose oneself to and for their emotion to change from Light to Dark in a matter of moments.

For example, compassion was required to be used in just about every healing spell, and while idea of caring for a pony, any pony including a complete stranger, was not an entirely difficult concept for most, the kind of injury could make that compassion waver and be replaced or overwhelmed with; nervousness, fear, sadness, or some other emotion. There will always be pressure in healing, especially if the pony’s life is in danger, so it was normal to experience those emotions. It’s that exact feeling though that can interfere with one’s compassion and could potentially make the injury worse or even cause permanent damage. Which is why it became a fundamental law that healing magic is not allowed to be cast when the caster is feeling or about to be overwhelmed with such emotions. The mere idea of having to try to repress those feelings and force one self to have compassion for the injured pony be the driving force of the spell was already stressful enough, but performing it? Any pony would be exhausted.

Staying focused and maintaining discipline in emotional magic was no easy feat, so it was no surprise for Twilight to learn that there was a number of drop outs in that area. Still, she couldn’t help but feel a bit exasperated about the idea of so many students giving up at the pursuit of knowledge, but at the same time, she couldn’t begrudge them for doing so.

Why, she could remember-

…

She could…

Twilight brought a hoof to her forehead as she felt a migraine setting in.

“Is everything okay?” Celestia asked in concern, but to Twilight… she sounded so distant, replaced with a screeching cry in Twilight’s mind.

The Guardian scrunched her eyes closed, just briefly seeing her own hoof reaching out for some thing… some pony. The wretched sob kept ringing in her ears, but she couldn’t place where the sound was coming from. She furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to bring forth the memory that feathered its’ touch in her mind, but the more she tried to chase it… the further it ran and the heavier her headache.

“Twilight?”

The call of her name broke her out of her respite, causing her to stop her chase of a memory and the headache to immediately cease. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“I asked if you were okay.” Celestia repeated, “You suddenly went quiet and looked as though you were in pain.”

“Oh. I’m fine.” Twilight affirmed with a tight smile.

“Are you certain?”

The Guardian gave a brief glance to the Princess. It would not do to make Celestia worry more over Twilight than she already is. “Yes, it was just a minor headache so there’s no need to be so worried about me. Thank you for your concern though.”

Celestia gave a surreptitious look to Twilight, but didn’t say anything further as Phry had led them to the first class of observation.

It seemed as though either the Princess or Phrygian had already told the teachers of their visit ahead of time seeing as there was only a brief greeting to Celestia before the teacher continued on with their lecture.

The three sat in the back as Phry conjured a spare desk for Twilight’s use as well as spare cushions for themselves and the Princess. (Which Twilight noted caused the instructor to pause in their job and the other ponies in the room to shift around in nervousness before continuing on).

Beside the odd look Phry gave Twilight for using her mouth to write, the three merely sat in silent observation.

All throughout the classes, the Guardian was ecstatic about the learning environment and at the subjects that were being taught. She felt that each student was able to keep up with the rest of the class, and that each student was given the chance and encouraged to raise a hoof in question in the case they felt behind. No pony was left out or ridiculed for asking any question. And Twilight enjoyed that.

“What do you think so far?” Celestia asked in a whisper once students were excused to go search for their magic teachers.

“I have nothing but positive reviews if that’s what you’re really asking.” Twilight retorted. “Although, I have to ask if every student throughout Equestria is so lucky to have a similar learning environment.”

Celestia gave a thoughtful frown, “From what I know. Yes. Although, it has been a while since the council in charge of Education and I spoke.”

The Guardian hummed in thought. “How do you know for certain if you only hear it from others?”

The princess frowned, but before she could say anything Twilight interjected

“But, taking into consideration the amount of work you’ve been doing, if other schools are anything like this one, then I have to say it’s really well done.” Twilight smiled.

Celestia let out a sigh of relief

“Although, I would personally prefer a smaller class for maximum learning efficiency.” The Guardian added, causing the princess to chuckle.

“Princess? Twilight?” Phry chimed in, “Might I ask which magic class the two of you would like to observe?”

“Actually Phrygian, If you don’t mind, I recall there being an examinee coming in this afternoon. Might it be possible for us to sit in on the entrance exam and come observe the other classes at a later date?”

“There is?” The pony asked in confusion, only to be met with a nod of confirmation. They gave a thoughtful frown, “Oh… well I don’t see why not.” They said with a shrug. With a white glow of magic, Phry made their conjurations disappear without a trace before leading the two other ponies out of the class and in the direction of the examination room.

Along the way, the three passed by an open classroom that Twilight stopped to peer in at.

Inside there was only one student, but it was the teacher that held the Guardian’s attention.

A blue stallion with dark curly hair that was covered by a wizard hat with golden bells attached to the rims and tip of it, and a rather long curly beard stood before the student with a soft smile and warm eyes. She couldn’t see his cutie mark or tail as a cape decorated with a few scattered crescent moons and stars covered them. He spoke in a low tone and quiet voice that could only be heard by the student.

He turned toward her and gave a soft smile of greeting before slowly trotting up to her, stopping just a few feet away before speaking. “Hello, can I help you?”

Twilight furrowed her brows in confusion at the sound of the voice, thinking at how wrong it sounded in her ears. Another headache sprang up, although not as strong as the one before, but enough to cause her to feel lightheaded and to shake her head in order to help remove the feeling. When she looked up again, it wasn’t the sight of the previous stallion that greeted her, but a different, albeit similar, one.

The blue coat was still the same, but the stallion was wearing no clothing. He still had dark curly hair, but it was short and neatly combed. And not a speck of long hair was seen on the stallion’s face either to show any growth of a beard.

Noticing the look of concern on his face though, reminded Twilight of his question. “Oh… Uh…” She looked around, only to find Celestia and Phrygian Scale had disappeared. They probably hadn’t noticed her stop and continued on to the exam room without her. The room she didn’t know how to get to…

“Actually, I’m kind of lost.” Twilight stated, “I was with…” She paused, thinking about whether or not she should mention touring the school with the Princess of all ponies, and decided against it. “Phrygian Scale and they were taking me to the exam room, but I guess I got separated from them. If you can, could you possibly give me directions to there? I’d appreciate it very much.”

The stallion scrunched his brows in confusion as he digested the information before realization struck him. “Ah, you must be… Well good for Phry! It’s about time, they deserve this opportunity!” He excitedly said with a smile, causing Twilight to tilt her head in confusion. “Never mind that. Yes, I can direct you to it. Just go down the hall, make a right, and it’s the first door to the left by the stairs.” He gestured with a hoof.

“Thank you very much er…”

“Professor Night Light,” He smiled. “And you’re very welcome…”

“Twilight Sparkle.” The Guardian stated

“Twilight.” He repeated, ensuring to cement her name into his mind. “Well good luck and I hope you come by for a visit every now and then.” He smiled

The disguised alicorn gave another look of confusion before trotting away from the professor with a small wave of good-bye.

As she made her way on over to the exam room, her mind wandered back to the previous pony she thought she had seen… but frowned when she realized she couldn’t remember the image of him. She grunted out of frustration. Of course she would forget.

She had quickly found her destination with a sigh of relief; standing on her hind legs to help reach the door handle so she could open it, but nearly fell over when some pony else performed the action before her.

The pony before her widened their eyes in surprise before narrowing them. “Ah, you must be Trixie… You’re... here...”

Twilight blinked in confusion, “ But… I’m not…” She tried to stammer out

“Never mind then, come on! In you go!” The pony asserted, even nudging the alicorn in disguise into the room.

Once Twilight was pushed to the front and center of the room, the pony trotted over to a row of other ponies that Twilight assumed were the examiners.

She glanced around frantically, trying to find Celestia and Phry, but realized they weren’t anywhere in the room. They most likely noticed her missing at the last minute and went off to search for her.

“All right Miss Lulamoon,” One of the examiners said, magically sorting out paper in front of them. “We understand that you’re here to take the test for Trickster Magic-”

“Singular Magic,” Twilight automatically correct before catching herself. “But I-“

“Yes yes.” An examiner waved their hoof in dismissal, successfully offending Twilight. “Here is your test.” Their horn glowed to magically pull a cart with a rather large purple spotted egg on top into the exam room.

The disguised alicorn narrowed her eyes, recognizing the egg to be that of a dragon’s.

“Hatch the egg.” The examiner proclaimed.

“… You have got to be kidding me.” Twilight deadpanned

“Is there a problem?” One of the examiners asked

“This is a dragon’s egg.” Twilight stated, causing a few of the examiners to raise their eyebrows or widen their eyes in surprise.

And why wouldn’t they be, it was uncommon for the average pony to be able to recognize what a dragon’s egg looked like, much less a filly.

Unfortunately for them, Twilight had read all the books (at least, all of the ones available to her when she was conscious) on dragons, (although she has yet to have the pleasure of meeting one… from what she could remember at least) and was able to decipher what a dragon’s egg would look like. She also knew that using magic to hatch one was unorthodox, and most likely could not even successfully be done! Especially since dragons, dragon eggs in particular, had skin that were naturally preventative to magic. Even levitating them would be difficult! So the idea of having to hatch a dragon’s egg was preposterous and completely impossible for a filly or colt.

One continued on unperturbed, “Astute observation Miss Trixie. But that doesn’t change the test, please hatch it.”

“But the-“

“Hatch it, or you will be rejected from enrollment of this school!” The examiner proclaimed

Twilight narrowed her eyes, nearly growling, at the examiners as realization dawned on her.

They were actively preventing this student from enrolling in Chaos magic.

How many other students did they discriminate against? How many other young eager minds tried so hard to enroll in this school to prove their worth, only to be met with a test that was too difficult to pass?

Another realization dawned on her as she remembered Phrygian’s confusion at learning of the examination today.

How many times did these ponies push away the Chaos teachers from prospecting students? How often did they snatch away their opportunity to teach from them?

“Well? We’re waiting.” The examiner stated impatiently.

Twilight frowned. She couldn’t state that she wasn’t this Trixie Lulamoon now, otherwise they might reschedule her time and therefore push Phrygian away again. No, she’ll just have stall for time and wait until Celestia and Phrygian came in so she could explain the situation to them immediately while the ponies here were caught red handed. Celestia would know after a period of searching that Twilight would try to find her way over to the exam room and wait for them. So waiting shouldn’t be a problem.

Stalling though was a whole different area.

Twilight gave a nervous glance to the egg.

“Miss Lulamoon! We don’t have all day.” Another examiner stated in exasperation.

The Guardian gave a fierce frown, annoyed that these ponies were so willing to put more pressure on a filly that could already potentially be nervous from taking a test. She supposed that the best way to stall would be to actually look like she was trying, besides, with her current condition the chances of her actually doing anything to the egg was very slim. The reminder of her incapability to perform magic further annoyed her and caused her to huff once again. She trotted over toward the Egg, circling it to exam in further and trying to think of how one would even try to hatch it.

Logically, Singular magic would most likely have the highest chance of success since it was the area where the… most illogical could happen.

Twilight gave an amused snort; at least the examiners got one thing right.

But just performing Singular Magic would not be enough… There would have to be some Light Magic, most likely a combination of Love and Compassion, to replicate a maternal feeling to help “encourage” the egg to hatch and feel safe. Along with a bit of Night Magic, as it was unlikely the being of the egg would need to be gently asked and prodded to come out. Singular Magic itself would have to be used to get the egg to crack though.

She backed up, and began to imagine the egg shaking as realistically as possible. But, like when she had been practicing by herself, her magic still refused to form around her horn. Not even a spark would come out.

Growling in frustration at being reminded of incompetence once again, Twilight tried once again, squeezing her eyes shut in hopes that it would help her imagine the egg shaking more vividly.

Still nothing. She couldn’t even feel even just a fraction of magic flowing forth.

She heard a yawn come from one of the examiners, causing her to feel more aggravated and angry at the thought of educators not having patience for fillies or colts and having the audacity to make them feel unwelcome. Just how rude could they be?

“In case you have forgotten Miss Lulamoon, you are here to take a test,” One of them stated. “So act like you are.”

That was the last straw, and something inside of Twilight snapped. She couldn’t take it anymore, the reminder of having forgotten most of her memories, the fact that she couldn’t even if she tried, the constant reminder that she couldn’t perform her magic for whatever reason, and everything else about her situation that was coming forth to the fore front of her mind to feed her anger! But most of all, she couldn’t stomach the idea of these other ponies in the room who are much too willing to prevent a prospective student from pursuit of education all because they didn’t like the branch she wished to study in!

And at that moment, Twilight’s horn sparked just a bit, but she took no heed to it. Instead, she focused on all those thoughts that were flying across her mind and the emotions bubbling up inside her.

She wanted to take her anger out on those examiners and felt that she would be justified in doing so. These examiners were obviously corrupted and biased, so why shouldn’t they be punished in such a manner? They should experience what it was like to be the filly that they would be putting pressure on. They deserved it. Especially when they demanded that hatching a DRAGON’S EGG of all things be the first part of a test!

Thinking about the Dragon’s egg reminded Twilight of her magical incompetence, causing her to give it a fierce glare.

Why wouldn’t the darn thing hatch anyway?! What, her love and compassion wasn’t good enough for it?! The love and compassion of the Embodiment of magic itself wasn’t good enough?! Well fine! In that case, then it doesn’t need her love and compassion, then why should she care if it hatches at all?! It can continue being some test subject for the next century!

Why should she care for anything at all?!

Or maybe she should make it hatch! Just for the heck of it! Because every castle needed a dragon right?! Right! Besides, she’s sure that the Examiners would LOVE to meet the new dragon!

Once again being reminded of the examiners, she turned toward them with a snarl, ready to give them a piece of her mind, but was interrupted by a thunderous sound.

Before long, anger consumed her and magic immediately overflowed out of her and breaking the illusion that Celestia had casted on her, forcing her wings to spray out. The dragon egg hatched, and the baby dragon within it became enlarged, breaking the ceiling of the exam room. The other examiners became suspended in the air and flying all over the room at random, while other objects transformed into other things; a desk became a pig, a ruler into a snake, the lights shattered before transforming into fireflies and scattering all over the place. Twilight herself was floating in the center of the room, eyes glowing white as sparks of lighting flew out from her, barely striking the other ponies while leaving scorch marks on the walls, ceiling, and floor. Everything in the room broke into chaos and Twilight was finding it difficult to bring her magic back under control or calm down.

The doors to the room slammed open as Celestia and Phrygian ran inside. Upon seeing her, Celestia immediately made her way toward Guardian, “Twilight?” she asked in surprise.

“This is- This is unbelievable!” Phrygian exclaimed in excitement, looking around in astonishment. “She’s actually performing everything there is to Chaos Magic and more! Look at the SIZE of that Dragon! I can assure you that that is not a normal shape for one! She must have used Light magic for that thing! And you can see that she’s using Dark magic on the examiners by the way they’re flying around and screaming in fear! From their aura, I can see that she’s projecting fear onto them and- Look! This pig was a desk! This is Singular magic as there is no sense in being able to turn an inanimate object into a living thing! And-And! Over there! She’s using Night Magic to bring forth lightning! And-“

Celestia merely tuned the excited teacher out as she raised a hoof toward Twilight to grab her attention, wincing as she was met with a snarl of anger, but continued to try and make eye contact.

The moment their eyes met, Twilight visibly deflated and calmed down. In response, her magic dimmed and everything in the room reverted back to normalcy, and those that were in the air dropped to the floor.

“I’m sorry.” Twilight solemnly said, “I don’t know what came over me…”

“Sorry?!” Phrygian exclaimed aghast, “Why should you be sorry?! That. Was. AMAZING! You were literally performing 4 different kinds of magic all at once! You had performed CHAOS Magic near perfectly AND Light magic That- That’s never been done before! Not that any pony has been able to perform 4 different kind of magic before… Or even 3! How did you do it?! And-And!!” Their eyes finally took notice of Twilight’s wings, causing their mouth to loudly click shut.

Twilight furrowed her brow at Phrygian’s assessment of her magic, “Wait… I couldn’t have performed all of that though… I… At the most I should have been able to raise a little panic within the examiners… But, I couldn’t have been able to perform all of Chaos Magic and Light magic.”

“But you did!” Phrygian stated

Celestia nodded in confirmation, “It was indeed rather impressive. Although, rather frightening as it usual is when you do something of like this. The last time you had done something similar to this was with Natural Magic.”

“Last time?” Phrygian echoed

Twilight paid them no attention though as she frowned, “But… this doesn’t make sense. I… I didn’t perform any of that magic correctly. I was… I didn’t care for the dragon egg, and even felt offended toward it. I was narcissistic, self-entitled when it didn’t accept my feelings of compassion or love!” She explained frantically, “And I… I didn’t conjure things up for no reason; I did it because it made sense to me! I deducted and reasoned that everything should come for a reason! I- I even felt selfish and justified in my anger! I felt that those examiners deserved what came to them for being discriminated towards Chaos users and-“ She gasped as realization struck her, causing her face to contort in horror.

“My magic… it’s all wrong.”