The early dawn sunrise marked the start of summer. It cracked through Twilight Sparkle's curtains. She attempted to look into the light, a bad idea as always. It shocked her awake, as she had intended. She got out of her bed, and prepared for the busy summer holidays ahead. She had it all planned out and ready to go! It lasted seven weeks, and she had ideas for each one of them. In the first two weeks she was going to reshelf every single book in the library, first in category order, and in each category, alphabetical order by last name of the author. She was beyond ecstatic; it was like taking a combination of all medicinal and illegal drugs in the world at the same time. Weeks three and four were for revision to keep her grades high and her overprotective and stubborn mother, Twilight Velvet, impressed. Five was for socialising, and the last fortnight was free time. She heard her mother moving about downstairs in the kitchen. Then, the 'KLANK!' of the letterbox. She decided to walk out of her bedroom and halfway down the stairs, silently as usual. She made herself comfortable and sat on a step. Her mother read the back of the scroll-style letter and joy came into her eyes.

"TWILIGHT!!!" She called up the stairs.

"Yes?" Her daughter responded almost immediately. As always, it startled Twilight Velvet.

"Geez. How do you do that?" Twilight said as she held her hoof to her chest.

"Who's it from?" Twilight Sparkle asked.

"It's from Canterlot University! It's the results of your entrance exam." Twilight Velvet unrolled the letter, and began reading aloud so her daughter could hear.

Dear Parent/Guardian of Twilight Sparkle,

We are ever so grateful that your daughter, Twilight Sparkle, has attended our entrance exam. We also appreciate your insistence on enrolling her to none other than this university, which is why we sincerely regret to inform you that...

Twilight Velvet stopped reading halfway through. Her eyes darted around the text, looking for a reason to appeal the adjudicator's decision. She released hold of her magic, and the scroll-style letter dropped to the floor with the sound of hollow wood, breaking the poisonous silence.

"Tha-tha...that's impossible!" Twilight Velvet stood on all fours, as her legs began shaking. Twilight Sparkle became concerned. "What is it Mom?" She stood now on her hind legs only.

"You failed the entrance exam!" Her eyes shot across the paper once more. "Ninety-eight percent? This doesn't make any sense!" Twilight Velvet was outraged by this controversy. Her daughter had never failed a test in her life, she had been a Straight-A student from her first test in school! I mean for Celestia's sake, she ended up going to Canterlot Private School with three full scholarships: Maths, English, and Science - biology specifically!

"I'm going to walk over there right now and sit down with the headmaster if that's what needs to be done." Twilight had seen this kind of behaviour from her mother before, often when she was paranoid about her daughter getting less than a ninety-seven percent score for any exam.

"Mom, it's ok you don't have to..." At that moment, Twilight had completely given up. Given up on herself, given up on everything, even life itself! "I'm clearly not the right type of pony to deserve this opportunity. If they said I failed, then I failed." She said as she looked down to the floor."

Slowly, she walked up the stairs, and into her bedroom. She closed the door behind her, fell lifelessly on to her bed, and stared up at the ceiling, focusing on nothing in particular. A teardrop fell from her eye and rolled down the side of her face.

Canterlot Castle - The Throne Room:

Dearest Princess Celestia,

I'm writing this at a time of personal sorrow, and I'm sorry if I come across as grievous or depressed. I had my heart and soul set on getting into Canterlot University, I really did. I I (Sorry, I'm a little bit shaky) I failed the entrance exam! Yet I scored 98%! I don't know what I'm going to do next. I really wanted to become a biologist, but now my only options are to continue running the library for the rest of my life, or join the Equestrian Defence Army.

I really need somepony to light this path of eternal darkness for me, even if it's just a flicker of hope, and I know that you and Princess Luna will be the ones to guide me.

Your trusted student,

Twilight Sparkle

Celestia looked up from the letter she and her sister were reading.

"She is depressed, and needs a helping hoof," Celestia commented. Her sister spoke up.

"This is not the first time she's been like this though." Luna responded.

"We should reply. No?" Celestia suggested. Luna thought for a moment.

"I better go see her in person." Celestia agreed with her sister's approach. She just then thought of something very important.

"On the topic, how are relations with us and Monfoalia?" Luna was confused by this statement.

"How does that have anything to do with Twilight Sparkle?" She said.

"She would make a fine General or Lieutenant, do you not think Luna?" Celestia was actually considering this.

"Either you've lost your mind in the last five seconds, or somepony spiked your tea with a drug." Luna's remark was perfectly justified for.

"Luna, wait just a second... hear me out." Reluctantly, Luna kept listening.

"Go on then." Luna said.

"If we had somepony as smart as Twilight Sparkle as the General of a battalion she would win battles with just her strategic planning and knowledge. She would be a great asset to Equestria!"

"How do you know for sure that she would be able to handle the responsibilities of being a General?"

"Perhaps there is only one way to find out, sister." Celestia said plainly.

"Are you suggesting we enrol her in the Equestrian Defence Army? No. No! She is but a foal, seventeen years of age." Luna was right, Twilight was still a teenager. Celestia refused to let up though; she was going to get her point across.

"Correct but she has the best magical abilities of any student of her age! Remember when she was in the eighth year, she got into a fight with a bully in eleventh year, and she picked him apart using the most powerful illusion spell that a unicorn can at that age group." Celestia still couldn't grasp how her student managed this feat. How could a teenage filly use such a powerful spell.

"Our army might need her much more than we think right now, especially with growing tensions between us and Monfoalia.

"Starlight Glimmer is the same age as Twilight, yet she has diplomatic power on par with our own; that with the fact that her advisors take advantage of her age, makes for her being the most corrupt monarch on Equis at this current time." Luna nodded, thinking about what her elder sister was saying.

"As well as her being taught by that rotten bastard Chrysalis, which doesn't go well for any of us. There are 3 possible violent scenarios:

1) Monfoalia and Japony join forces against us, leaving us in ruin with no way to rebuild, this obviously goes against us,

2) Starlight Glimmer becomes so powerful she's able to overpower and overthrow Chrysalis,

And 3) Chrysalis manipulates Starlight into making such a bad series of decisions, she's the only one who can 'help' her student... she'll most likely ask for Starlight's money, soldiers, or land in return, this uses Starlight Glimmer's trust in her mentor to dig her out of sticky situations." Luna took all this in, thinking long and hard.

"So we need to have a contingency plan for all three possibilities, right?"

"Exactly. Now, we have a reserve army, the most plentiful but the least experienced; we have the Royal Army, which consists of both our personal guard battalions; but we have no Specialist Unit, and if we truly want to be able to protect everypony, we need at least four specialist candidates.

"We already have one, don't you agree?"

"You mean Twilight Sparkle, Don't you?" Luna smirked.

"Ya think?" She said sarcastically.

"You have anypony else in mind right now?" Luna actually wanted to hear her sister's personal choices. Celestia closed her eyes, and fell into a trail of deep thought, pondering her mind for ponies she thought were mentally and physically accomplished enough to become Specialists.

When Celestia finally reopened her eyes, well one of them at least, half an hour had passed. (Then again, if you're immortal and have already been alive for thousands of years, thirty minutes isn't long at all). Celestia quickly thought over her choices once more, and smiled.

"Yes, I've got a few." Luna smiled.

"Perfect," The dark grey mare spread her wings, and prepared to take off. "Just tell me their names." She levitated a map in front of her face, and pulled out a quill, dipped in ink that was infused with her own magic. Celestia spoke the names.

"Twilight Sparkle," Luna began to write. When the words 'Twilight Sparkle' were fully written the ink turned lavender, and collected into one spot.

"Rainbow Dash," Same again. There were now two dots on the map: One lavender, one cyan.

"Pinkie Pie," The ink turned bright pink and drew towards a single point. 3.

"Rarity," A pure white dot this time.

"Apple Jack," A crimson circle. 5.

"Finally, Fluttershy." When Luna finally shook her quill off and put it in her saddle bag, there were six points on the map, each a plainly different colour. Some points were moving slowly across the map. These were evidently their locations. There was a navy blue point on the map located in Canterlot, this was obviously her. Luna smiled.

"Wish me luck Tia!"

"You may need it Lu!" Luna winked at Celestia, and flew out the window, creating a gust of wind where she was standing before.

"Especially with the Pegasi... both of them... and the pink one."

Ponyville:

Luna had only been airborne for about ten minutes, but Ponyville was already in sight. The point representing her sister's loyal student, Twilight Sparkle seemed to correlate with the Golden Oak Library. Luna chuckled to herself.

"Still the bookworm we taught." She descended and casted an illusion spell, making her appear like a normal earth pony. She had copied this ability from a changeling using the Mirror Eye - this *ability* makes it possible for the user to learn any other spell instantly on sight, and even suit and adapt it to the user's needs - . She walked up to the library and opened the door.

As expected from Twilight and her mother, it was organised and peaceful. Luna walked up to the main desk, she almost used her magic to ring the gold coloured service bell; if she used her magic or spread her wings, the illusion would be broken. Abnormal to her behaviour as an alicorn, she used her hoof to ring the bell. After a few seconds of waiting in awe at how many books this library had, and how busy it was, a fully grown mare with white fur and a purple mane with two white streaks came to the counter.

"Hello, how can I be of service today?" It was Twilight Velvet at the counter, Luna deduced this from the mare's height and stature. Twilight Sparkle must have been in the back.

"Yes, I'd like to speak to the manager of this library please." She looked more concentrated now. "Oh, well that would be me and my daughter; in private or right here?"

"In private please."

Luna followed Twilight Velvet into the printing room, where Twilight Sparkle was working out budgets for the Golden Oak Library. Luna peered over her shoulder. She had perfectly balanced the budget between investment, income, repairs, and quantity, according to the importance of each. Luna was impressed. Twilight Sparkle would make a good Lieutenant; her abnormally high intelligence would aid the Equestrian Defence Army in many more ways than one. Twilight coughed, drawing her daughter's attention. She sat up and handed her mother the surprisingly disorganised sheets of paper.

"As I expected, excellent work," Twilight Sparkle started to walk away to her room, but her mum stopped her.

"This mare would like to see us about an issue that has recently surfaced in regards to our library."

"Oh... ok then. What's the problem? Luna, still in disguise, walked to the door and locked it, which slightly worried the Twilights.

"Enough with the disguise." Luna said to herself. A dark blue aura swirled around her as the illusion was deactivated. Both Twilight Sparkle and Twilight Velvet jumped, as they were unprepared for the presence of royalty.

"P-princess Luna, what are you doing here??! Don't you have a summit with Manegola's leader, Desert Arch?" Luna laughed... for some reason.

"Cadance is taking care of that, besides, I know you haven't been yourself lately. Talk to me Twilight. Why is this one, single entry exam upsetting you so dearly?" Twilight's body language and mood changed immediately.

"So that's why you're here. I see that Celestia couldn't be bothered to get her behind off that God damn throne." Both Luna and Twilight Velvet were shocked at her use of foul language, even if it was only something as low-key as 'God damn'.

"Is it really that bad?" Luna asked in shock. "You never been in the slightest way rude to neither my sister nor me." Twilight went into an uncontrolled rant.

"Yes it's that bad! I fucked up the one opportunity I had at getting into Canterlot University, and now the only reasonable options I've got are running this library for the rest of my life, or joining the Equestrian Defence Army!

"Twilight," Luna attempted to speak, but Twilight either didn't hear her, or was choosing to ignore her.

"I mean come on! I don't want to get killed on the battlefield, I'd rather rot in Tartarus' pits for eternity than be left in a pile of corpses in the middle of nowhere so no one ever finds us!!"

Luna was getting slightly annoyed now. "Twilight," she made sure to speak with a firmer tone than before, and this time it worked.

"Oh. Sorry about that. I get quite worked up when it comes to the University.

"Twilight, there is a reason the University failed your test." Twilight was curious now.

"Yes, what was that farfetched reason?"

"Because we asked them to.

Author's Note

This is chapter one of my latest story. Hope you enjoy, and I'm always welcome to constructive criticism.