Tick, tock. There were no less than a hundred foals when Twilight arrived and tens more to come. Even as the competition seemed enormous, Twilight wasn't moved. She knew she would crush it and that was enough. The only downside was that she needed to wait for the hundreds of other ponies that came ahead of her, but she was thankful as her hooves were aching from the long walk that it took to get into the waiting room in the School for Gifted Unicorns. Twilight immediately shook her head, that was unacceptable! Her hooves, aching! At this exact moment, Twilight realized that two years of study nonstop took a toll on her body - who would have guessed - thus a training regimen was in order!

Maybe she could get her parents to get some weights to wrap around her hooves and concoct some potion to promote strength growth. Or just outright create an endothurgy spell for the perfect body- "Nonono." Twilight shook her head, that would take time to figure out what the perfect pony body for magic would be, but she had a guess it was the shape of an alicorn.

"Don't be nervous sweetie, just remember to smile when your turn comes up." Velvet said whilst rubbing Twilight's mane. Velvet herself had to reign her galloping heart from affecting her voice, she was honest to Celestia nervous, even more than when she had to defend her thesis on graduation. Thankfully, it didn't seem that Twilight noticed.

Twilight noticed, not only her but everypony in the room noticed. But Twilight didn't blame her mother, she didn't have the same confidence as her because they didn't see what she was doing these past two years. Well, they did but didn't understand. Night Light was sweating buckets and his hooves seemed restless while Velvet began nibbling on her hoof, if Twilight was a normal filly she wouldn't be really reassured. Thankfully she isn't normal, she is the best! And those that are grading these ponies will be absolutely admonished, shaken to their very soul by her genius!

As they first entered the school, Twilight had a small peek at the classrooms and laboratories they had and it was amazing! Sure, the architecture, fancy paintings, and pleasing patterns on the walls and tiles were nice but were nothing compared to a nice laboratory where alchemy could be practiced safely! Oh, how many recipes Twilight could've learned if she only had the right flask, or a good ember stone, or a laboratory chapel for more dangerous alchemical reagents, or-or..!

"Twilight, it's your turn," Velvet said, nudging Twilight out of her Twilighting.

"Ohwhuh- My turn?" Twilight looked at the many vacant chairs then smiled brightly, "My turn!" She hopped out of the chair and trotted with her head held high and with a flick of her magic the door shot open, the exam inspectors instantly turned their gaze to Twilight who didn't even bathe an eye at them until she was the very center of the stage, her parents following anxiously behind with very uncomfortable smiles. Finally, at the center she gave a good look around, the way the room was organized made her feel anxious with all the inspectors sat up at the back chairs, watching her down like some sort of circus animal. But that didn't bother Twilight. Four windows behind her brought some sunrays inside. The walls were just as fancy as outside and the blackboard filled with basic trigonometry, what a good way to intimidate younglings.

"Miss Sparkle?" The oldest of the three inspectors spoke, his voice sounding like old cardboard, his blue face barely holding his skin was the pure manifestation of the word old, his muzzle looked to be perpetually stuck in a frown, and his mane barely clung to his scalp.

Of course, Twilight wasn't bothered by the bit about this. "Yes?" Twilight finally gave them the appropriate attention. And boy, was she surprised to actually see a young face up there - the previous high jujutsu society was fully made out of old farts, her mistake to think it would be the same, "What is the test." The old man frowned at her words.

But then he smiled "Bring it in!" The oldest stallion said, and at his request the door at the opposite side of the room burst open, and in came a cart with an odd purple egg. Old Fart was sure this would teach a good and valuable lesson about respecting the elders at this youngling. And the expected result came in, the little filly eyes slowly widened as the egg came.

Twilight felt something familiar from the egg, just looking at it made a name come to the tip of her tongue, "Uraume?" Twilight muttered as she slowly approached to touch the egg but the one who brought it in slapped her hoof away and groaned a loud 'hmph!' before rushing back to the door he came.

"The test will be quite simple, you see? Just hatch the dragon egg." Old Fart said, his peers raised their eyebrows but quickly took their pencils and began noting down something.

Realizing her time was ticking, Twilight began by... Cursing her luck. "Frickin' heck. Okay, you can still do this." Her thoughts were about how eggs chickens develop inside an egg, which gave the idea of just tackling into a plant growth spell. The inside of an egg and plant seeds are very similar after all, aren't they? "Okay, here goes nothing..!" Twilight lit her horn and began setting the Direction of the spell by creating a magenta sphere encapsulating the egg, slowly the sphere reduced in size until it perfectly overlayed the egg, next came the potential which slowly gave the egg a clock shape at the very front of the egg.

Twilight wiped her brows as her breaths slowly became more labored, stabilizing the spell so it didn't break was harder wasn't the hard part... But pumping more and more mana in to keep the spell from breaking was exhausting. Without further delays, she released the spell and the clock began ticking, at first second by second. Twilight pumped more mana and hours passed in a few seconds.

More mana, day went by in seconds, still not seeing any result, Twilight gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, her horn glowed as bright as the sun and her magenta glow moved like flames, weeks passed by the second. Each inspector gasped in awe and even Old Fart's eyes was wider than anypony would think it was visibly possible with his forehead skin almost covering his eyes, "How much aether is this..?" Still not hearing any cracks, Twilight decided to pump it all- "Wait-" And the entire room grew into a blinding white, as the light slowly dimmed the cart that once held the egg was gone, and so was the hay that surrounded the egg, but the egg itself was safely on the ground. "Holy Celestia." Old Fart and the other inspectors stood up.

Twilight was covered in sweat as she stared at that cursed egg, if she could crack it with her hooves at this moment she would but she simply couldn't even find the will to stand up, the sound of hooves moving toward her - Night Light and Velvet hoofsteps, made her slightly comforted. She could shut her eyes right now, safely.

That is, if the egg had hatched. Twilight reignited her horn and then it happened, a huge explosion outside and then nothing, when Twilight opened her eyes she found herself in an old Shinto shrine, just on the other side of the torii. Inside the shrine, there was the sound of something being cut and the burning of flames, the smell of freshly cooked meat - it was near dinner by how the sun shone down through the trees. Of course, Sukuna remember this place, he was born into this cursed shrine, beaten to a pulp until his very mother threw him into the wilderness. The shrine morphed, mouths began to grow and skulls of bulls began to rise only to stop. "That's enough." Twilight shrine won't ever be like that, and Twilight will never walk the same failed path again. The shrine morphed, pony maidens began to take care of a small purple pony inside, and soon ponies began to appear in the distance, a small family of three came to pay their prayers.

That was more like it.

Twilight woke up and- Holy Celestia! "C-Celestia!" She barely paid any attention to the room, at the hundreds of slashes that covered the walls, shattered windows, and the very floor. Although there was no blood and no hurt pony. And a clueless baby dragon.

Celestia had a stern gaze that gradually faded into a gentle smile, "Say, are you interested in being my disciple?"

Twilight eyes widened as she fully comprehended the sentence, "Is that even a question?!"

Author's Note

Aether is another measure system but for magic only. Cool am I rite?

Anyhoo, feel free to tell when and where this chapter sucked and how do you think it should be done to improve, I'm all ears to suggestions.