Star Ponies: The Original Series

Twilight Sparkle sat in her quarters meditating. Her thoughts drifted from everything she needed to do aboard the ship. Scans, analysis, crew reports, for anyone else it would be an overwhelming lot of duties to put on a single being. For Twilight Sparkle, she could do these things while taking two tests of high intelligence and reading, “Rise and Fall of the 2nd Great and Bountiful Griffon Empire”, a book noted to be over 2,000 pages long. Suffice to say, she was intelligent and very powerful. She thought back to when she first tried to get into the Academy.

10 Years Ago...

Twilight Sparkle was a young filly when she first tried for Starfleet. She often fantasized about being a scientist finding new ways to lead the planet of Equestria into a new age. But first she needed to take an entrance exam. She of course passed the written exam with flying colors, all she did was sit and study all day and eat and exercise only when necessary. But she also needed to take an exam showing her magical ability. This was by far the toughest part of the exam, only ponies that were truly gifted in magic passed, all others were either passed off to the Engineering section of Starfleet or got new jobs. Twilight was unsure of herself, but her father, Dusk Light, a famous ambassador expected her to pass. Her mother, Moonlight was supportive and tried to tell Twilight that she was so bright and that any future she wanted awaited her. From Twilight's point of view, this was it.

In the exam room was Twilight and the board of the science academy. The board was composed of two unicorns, a dragon, and an avion. An Avion was a bird like creature that had the qualities of a bi-pedal creature. Twilight was as nervous as could be, but there was her father, staring at her with a frown on his face. It wasn't that he was angry, he always had that face on. The first part of the test consisted of advanced telekinesis, basic medical magic, and advanced engineering. That was the easiest part. The second part had Twilight discuss the fundamental parts of magical theory and how it applies to scientific analysis. The third and final part had her face her greatest fear and try to conquer it. While doing this, her magical potential could be unlocked.

“Alright Twilight Sparkle,” said the avion. “Show us some magic.” Twilight looked to her mother who gave a warm smile. Her father sat there with the same expression. Twilight was first given a metal known as “Sliptonum” that resisted her magic. It wasn't impossible to lift it, just really hard. She breathed in, her horn shined, and she was able to lift the metal with relative ease.

“Hrrrrrmmm,” said the dragon. “Very goooooooood, Ms. Sparkle.” The dragon then took out a knife and held it in front of Twilight. She stepped back from it. The dragon laughed and cut his hand, leaking a small amount of blood. “Repair this wound Ms. Sparkle. However, I should mention that dragon wounds are notoriously hard to repair.”

Twilight sighed and activated her magic. “Because of the magic that dragons give off?” The dragon gave an affirmative grunt. Slowly, Twilight worked the wound repairing the skin cells and creating new ones to close up the wound. After a good fifteen seconds, the wound was fixed.

“Ha!” He turned to the other board members. “I think that's a pass.” He went back to his seat. One of the two unicorns got up and walked over Twilight.

“Alright, let's talk some engineering Twilight.” Twilight gulped. She never really liked Engineers, they always seemed to have some superiority complex towards those of the science wing. “Do you know anything about quantum warp theory or multi-spectral subspace engine design?” Twilight sat there puzzled.

“I know something about quantum warp theory, but was that second part supposed to mean anything?,” she asked. The other board members kept a straight face. “Ships don't run on Rainbows sir.” The engineer smiled.

“Right, what do they run on?” Twilight stared right into the unicorn's eyes.

“They run on dilithium crystals, and they need to be in constant alignment. Otherwise the energy coming from the crystals won't run the ship's power or create a stable warp field.” The engineer nodded.

“Okay, this one knows her stuff. Takes 1st year engineering students two years to understand that by heart.

“Very good Ms. Sparkle, we shall begin with the second part of the exam,” The avion flipped a piece of paper on it's back and looked right to Twilight. “Tell me, where does magic truly come from? Where does it truly, get it's power?”

“From emotions sir.” For some creatures in Equestria, their powers came from how they felt. Some relied on happiness, others sadness. Many rely on anger to get to their true power. Twilight never relied on one place for her magic, it was always from all over the emotional spectrum. The happiness to get achieve what she had always dreamed about, the sadness that came from the disconnect she had from her father, the anger that came from failing, and many other things that Twilight felt.

The discussion got Twilight thinking about her own magic, and how much she used it, and how it truly was a defining characteristic of her. Twilight passed the discussion and was ready for the final phase.

“Twilight, you are about to experience a great fear, one that you will truly have to conquer,” a unicorn said. “Use everything you have learned, good luck.” With that the board members activated their powers flashed and blinded Twilight with a great light. When she got her vision back, she saw that nothing had changed.

“Um, I don't think the spell worked sirs.” Twilight said sheepishly. The avion rolled his eyes.

“It would appear we have another failure,” he flapped down to Twilight. “If you can't connect to our spell then what's the point of you Ms. Sparkle?” The dragon landed next to the bird.

“He's right you know, just another thing we get to fail.” Twilight got on her knees.

“Please! Give me another chance!,” the small filly pleaded.

“Maybe we should send her back to kindergarten,” the engineer remarked. “it's a good place for failures like this one to get a level that's at least insulting.” The other unicorn joined in.

“Honestly Twilight if you came her unprepared and if you're not going to take the test seriously, why should we take YOU seriously.” Twilight thought she had everything prepared. She went through her checklist an infinite amount of times. The board members continued their rude remarks. She looked to her parents, her mother was absent but her father remained. She looked to Twilight who could only say,

“You disappoint me.” With that, Twilight let out a cry of a creature that had lost everything. Her eyes turned white, and she was engulfed in magical energy. The world around her shattered, and before her was the board in the regular seats, her parents still there, and faces of fear on them.

“Twilight! Stop!” Yelled the dragon. She couldn't hear him. The pain she felt was just too great. The board members were trying their best to contain the magic, but it was too much, and the room they were in started to break. Dusk Shine rushed to his daughter using his own magic to get close to her. He got close enough that he touched her horn with his horn.

“Twilight you have to calm down. It's okay.” The magic kept coming out of Twilight like a water out of a waterfall. Dusk then touched his horn and Twilight's. “My mind, to your mind. My thoughts to your thoughts.” Dusk went into Twilight's head and began to suppress the emotions coming off of Twilight. Slowly the magic started to die down, and eventually it ceased altogether. Dusk held the tired filly in his forearms. Moonlight rushed over to them and hugged Twilight. The board members breathed sighs of relief.

“That power was just biblical,” said the dragon.

“True, but she's far too emotional to have any rational control of it,” the engineering unicorn concluded.

“But that power can't go to waste, there has to be some way to-” before the avion could finish, Dusk spoke up.

“There is, the region my family is from has unicorns with very strong emotions. We have learned to control it through suppressing our emotions to the point of them being hardly there.” Dusk tapped Twilight on the nose lightly. “If you accept her into the Academy, I will teach her the ways to control her power.” The board members nodded in agreement.

Present day...

Twilight contemplated what it all meant. How that was the beginning of her journey, and where she was now was all over actions before now. She analyzed every step.

BEEP

“Bridge to Commander Sparkle,” the call box said. Twilight tapped the send button.

“Yes?,” she asked.

“Your presence is needed on the bridge Commander. I know you're off duty for now but-”

“I'll be right there.” Twilight got into her uniform and made her way to the bridge.