Today was the day. Not just my birthday, but the day of my entrance exam into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. However, it was slightly soured by the fact that Dad had work at the same time of my exam.

“Are you sure you can’t come?” I said as I rode on my father’s back while he was preparing himself for work. “I don’t want you to miss out.”

“I’m sorry, Bud,” he answered, his sadness easily visible on his face. “Ever since you practically introduced a new food commodity, I’ve been quite busy hunting, helping keep the general supply up.” Dad chuckled a bit. “And to think, a primarily herbivorous society and race get so excited about meat consumption that you’d think they became omnivores.”

I laughed as well, sliding off of his back and plopping my rump on the ground. “That is rather funny,” I said, giggling all the way. “Well, I hope you have a good day then.” I stood up, bipedal, and gave him a hug.

Dad raised one of his legs and hugged back. “I hope you have a good day too, son,” he said. “And remember, pass or fail, you mother and I love you. Kay?” To that, I nodded with vigor. With a smile, Dad stepped out to do his job.

Turning back towards the main interior of the house my family lived in, I heard Mom working in the kitchen, seemingly slaving away cooking more food than an average pony family could consume. The keywords being: ‘average pony family.’ When I had pretty much introduced the ability to eat meat to ponies, they pretty much jumped at it like it was the next best thing since sliced bread. We received a lot of money from Dad hunting and butchering the stuff, which we saved. When my human memories and appetite came ‘back’ to me last year, it added an additional expense for the family so I can eat as well as my body should, so that saving came in handy. Thankfully, comparing the amount spent on my appetite against the money Dad makes, it isn’t too big of a deal. Besides, if all goes well and I get into the school, my bigger lunch portions will come from the school, meaning that the money that goes to feeding me a big lunch can go into savings or into little splurge moments for Mom and Dad.

Back to reality, I fell down to quadruped and trotted into the kitchen. I took a whiff of the cooking fumes and gave a content sigh. “Finishing up my last home lunch, Mom?” I asked, trotting up beside her.

“You are correct...mostly,” she said, pulling the large spoon out of the pot she was working on. “Your last home lunch was yesterday. Today, either before or after the exam will be your first school lunch.” She added a few chopped carrots and celery to the pot and went back to stirring. “This is your victory feast.”

“Slight disappointment, but good things come to those who wait,” I said, standing up and hugging her. “I was hoping for either you to be there, or the possibility of having my stew for lunch, but hey, I can’t have everything that I want.

Mom giggled at my nonchalant response to the disappointment. “While it is scary, it is also relaxing that you turning eight was also a maturity beyond your years,” she said.

“I thought I made it clear in the therapy that the maturity came from those memories that are mine, yet aren’t,” I said, falling back down to quadruped and giving her a slight bump. “Besides, if you want, I can whine and complain like you probably expected.”

“Please don’t?” She asked, while kissing my forehead. “Now, be careful as you head to the school. I love you.” She went back to cooking as I trotted to the door and left the house. As I started trotting towards the school, I met up with one of my friends, Sour Sweets.

Sour Sweets is a bright yellow unicorn with cherry red mane. He is also a very unique pony. Outside of being one of the bullies when I was younger, his taste in candies are different from most ponies. He prefers his candies to be sour, and with how few ponies agree, he learned how to make candies of the sour variety. When him and I became friends, he got me “hooked” on lemon hard candies.

“Hey Sweets!” I called out to him, waving with one of my paws. He trotted up to me and gave me a bag of those lemon hard candies, which I instantly ate right there. “You know, I’m not sure why, but I think you’re trying to spoil me.”

Sweets looked away with a ‘I didn’t do it look.’ “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, whistling a bit afterwards.

“You’re worse than my grandparents,” I said teasingly while nudging him with my elbow. “I mean it. You give me those candies every chance you get, and they borderline stuff every bit of food they can get a hold of.”

“Teasing aside, what have you got planned for your birthday today?” He asked, pulling out another bag of lemon hard candies, which disappeared as quickly as the last bag.

“Primarily, the entrance exam for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” I said through the candies. “Secondarily, doing as I always do. Eating more food than an average pony goes through in their lives and generally be a fat and happy hybrid.”

“Of which you are the best at,” Sweets commented, giving me another bag of those addictive candies.

“What about you?” I asked through that bag of candies.

“Oh, I’m going to be doing the entrance exam for a cooking school that is oddly right next to the school you’ll be going to,” he said.

“Maybe that school provides the lunches for my soon to be school,” I guessed. “If so, I hope I get more of your candies with my lunch.”

“If that is the case, I’ll see what I can do, but no 100 percent guarantee of that happening,” Sweets said as we arrived on the street. “Well, pass or fail, I’ll see you after our exams.” He then trotted to his school while I stood up and walked to mine.

Entering the school lobby, I was greeted by the receptionist. “May I help you young sir?”

“I’m here for my entrance exam,” I told her. “My parents couldn’t be here to support me, but they told me to tell you that my application code is (51042).”

The receptionist picked up a clipboard and looked through it. “Moonshadow?” I nodded to her inquiry. “Welcome to the school then. I’ll guide you to the exam rooms.” She lowered herself from her chair and trotted down a hallway, with me following behind. “Before we get there, tell me a little about yourself.”

With a shrug of my shoulders, I humored her. “Well, I’m the first and probably only wolf/unicorn hybrid. That itself comes with a lot of health firsts and oddities,” I told her. “Of course, if you’ve read any of the news at the time, roughly four years ago, I ‘discovered’ the fact that ponies can eat meat.”

The receptionist did a double take in shock. “So you’re that colt?” I nodded. “Well, I have to say, what you did, regardless of purpose, shook the world. When I’m not busy helping lost students or keeping track of records, I look into politics and the fact that many ponies are willing to hunt and/or eat meat changed the Griffin Confederation’s view of ponies.”

“What did they think of them previously?” I asked, actually curious.

“They thought that we ponies are spineless herbivores, more likely to run from a fight than embrace it,” she said. “After many ponies seemed to conform to an omnivoros lifestyle, they’ve actually started look upon us with respect. Now, I don’t believe myself as an expert on politics, but from what I could read, you prevented a war between Equestria and the Confederation.”

“Wow!” I said, legitimately surprised. “Small and simple acts bring about great things.”

“Huh?” The receptionist said in confusion. “What was that?”

“Oh, I’m not sure if my application mentioned this, but my psychologist believes that I’m a reincarnated, 20-something individual in a youngster’s body,” I explained as simply as I could.

“Is that even possible?” She asked.

“We live in a world where magic is an everyday occurrence,” I said, levitating a random piece of garbage I found as I walked behind her. “I’m pretty sure reincarnation exists in some way, shape, or form. And no, Dark magic wasn’t used. Last thing that happened before I was reborn was me wishing on a star?”

She looked at me with a skeptical look, then shrugged. “Well, if you believe that, I won’t tell you any different.” She then stopped, almost getting me to trip over her. “We’re here. Just step inside and wait for when your name is called.” I walked in and sat down on one of the waiting seats, right next to a lavender filly with her mussel in a book.

While waiting, I took a moment to examine the filly beside me. Well, in actuality, I examined the book she was reading. The cover said, ‘Magical Theoretics and Facts.’ I chuckled a bit at the advanced book being read by the young filly. “I don’t mean to offend you miss, but aren’t you a little young to be reading such an advanced book?” I asked her.

She looked up at me, slightly annoyed at being interrupted, which quickly turned to curiosity. “What are you?” She asked, genuine curiosity in her voice. “And isn’t being that big unhealthy?”

I burst out laughing, falling out of my chair in the process. “Oh, I like how you turned that one on me,” I said, standing up and wiping tears out of my eyes with my paws. “Oh, while you would be right for an average 9 year old colt, I’m not average. Also, I’m a wolf/pony hybrid.”

“Wow!” She said in excitement and interest. Just as she was going to start asking questions (as I’m sure she would have), I placed my paw over her mouth, keeping her quiet.

“If you read advanced magic theory books like an average foal reads picture books, then may I recommend a few medical articles?” I said to her. I told her the articles in question, then said, “By the way, my name’s Moonshadow. What’s yours?”

“Twilight Sparkle,” she said.

“That’s a nice name. It sounds fitting of a filly of your caliber,” I complimented.

Twilight blushed at the compliment I gave. She went to speak, but two doors in the room opened, a voice calling on a hidden intercom. “Twilight Sparkle, Room A. Moonshadow, Room B.”

Walking away while Twilight lowered herself from her seat, I said, “Well, I hope to see you again after our tests.” She nodded and trotted to her test room as I walked to mine. Upon entering, I saw a setup of an unbloomed flower in a flowerpot on a small table in the center of the room. Just off to the side was a long table with three unicorn ponies sitting at it, like a panel of judges on a cooking show.

“Hello, Moonshadow,” the right judge, a middle aged, grey stallion, said. “I’m Professor Theory, and these are Professors Greenhouse and Photon.” He gestured to the green mare and white stallion, center and left respectively.

“It’s nice to be here,” I said with a respectful bow.

“Now each test isn’t required to be admitted into Celestia’s School,” Professor Photon explained. “It is just to show us how much each applicant has yet to learn and can learn about magic use.”

“And your test is to make this moonflower bloom in broad daylight,” Professor Greenhouse said, pushing the room’s curtains aside, flooding the room in sunlight from outside. “You may begin,” she said, turning over an hourglass.

After I recovered from the sun shock, I examined the flower up and down. I wasn’t an expert in botany, or gardening, or whatever it’s called, but I could tell something about the plant by looking at it’s shade of green. Moonflowers are meant to bloom at night, meaning that their leaves were slightly darker to catch the moonlight. However, that meant that if it was in direct sunlight, it could absorb too much light and be overwhelmed, killing the poor thing...if magic wasn’t a factor.

I took a deep breath and charged up my magic, carefully structuring a type of light filtration spell over the flower’s surface. My hope was that I could filter the light that touches the plant so it can simulate moonlight. Afterall, moonlight is just reflected sunlight of a limited scope. I felt a slight tingling on my flanks as I was finishing the spell and the flower started to bloom. Fate, however, decided to play a prank on me.

I heard an explosion far outside the window, startling me and causing my nose to hit the flower center as I jumped and looked out the window. I saw a rainbow streaking across the sky as I looked out the window. Another explosion sounded off, this one came from the other testing room.

“The school needs to be evacuated!” A school staff member yelled out from the door. “Another student is suffering an accidental and overpowering magical surge!” The professors rushed out of room as fast as they could, with me running behind with the moonflower and it’s pot in my paws. Once we were outside, I collapsed at the edge of the gathered student crowd, never having ran as fast I did in bipedal fashion.

As I was catching my breath, I started to feel a bit funny. It started at my nostrils and seemed to spread through the insides of my body until it reached my rump and then the feeling spread to the outside of my body. When the feeling stopped I took a little sigh of relief.

“Oh my gosh!”

“Is he blowing up?!”

“What in Celestia’s name is happening to him?!”

I tilted my head to the side in confusion at these comments that the students made. It wasn’t until I looked at myself that I understood their comments. I was swelling up. I quickly laid down on my belly, not wanting to get stuck in an uncomfortable position if I got so big that I was immobilized.

The swelling kept going until I was about four feet around (by my estimate, compared to my ‘standard’ two foot frame), and my arms, legs, and neck were sucked into my body up to my paws, hooves, and chin (all respectively). When my swelling was done, I did some experimental movements, exercises, and even a magic scanning spell I picked up at one of my doctor appointments.

From my personal testing, I found out that my swelling was a result of an allergic reaction, and despite how ‘violent’ the reaction was, the only harm (if it could be called that) was general immobility and limited movement of my paws, hooves, and head. Much like with my above average weight, my swollen state wasn’t harmful either. I heard more comments from the crowd, now with more than just students and staff of the school.

With some difficulty, I turned my head towards the crowd and said, “Don’t worry about me! Just an odd, allergic reaction!” Almost immediately after those words left my mouth, a few paramedic ponies came up to me, looking me over and scanning me. Their frantic scanning and worried faces eventually evolved into simple questions and only a few odd looks. After all was said and done, the paramedics administered a dose of allergy relief potion, which almost instantly ‘slimmed’ me down to my ‘normal’ size. The whole ordeal got me exhausted really fast. With no visible or heard objections from the paramedics or any of the crowd, I laid down on the ground and fell asleep.

I started hearing some voices at the edge of my consciousness. That started to get the rest of my senses working and I felt like I was laying on a carpeted floor, and I recall falling asleep on a cobblestone road. I jolted awake, only to be greeted by a loud, “SURPRISE!!!” I ended up jumping up in fright with a scream and I grabbed the ceiling lamp.

It took me a few seconds to calm down, but when I did, I got a better look around the room and I’m not sure what two national celebrations had a party child and left it at my house, but it looked awesome. After getting myself off the lamp, I was told that the party was a triple victory celebration, a triple cutie-cinera, and my birthday party. Me, Twilight Sparkle, and Sour Sweets had all gotten top marks in our entrance exams and all of us had gotten our Cutie Marks in the process. My Cutie Mark is a crescent moon on a flower stem. Twilight’s is a pink starburst with seven small sparkles around it. Sour Sweets’ is a candy swirled lemon/lime dripping onto a pile of sugar.

As for our academics, well, Princess Celestia herself gave us the good news and much more. I was offered to be tutored by Professor Greenhouse, personally. Twilight was to be taught solely by the Princess. And Sour Sweets was offered an apprenticeship from the head chef at the castle.

Overall, life was good.

Author's Note

This took me a while to get written. Hopefully you notice, but I tried to make sure the points of time when Moonshadow was walking as a biped and was trotting as a quadruped was conveyed in the way I was writing.
For example: If it says he was walking, he's in biped position. If it says he was trotting, he's in quadruped position.