This is a digital drawing I made titled, “Twilight’s Ascension” which depicts Twilight Sparkle in four significant stages of her life and how she ascended from being just an ordinary filly to being the leader of Equestria. This was done in Adobe Photoshop and it took over 32 hours to complete.  
The first is Twilight as a small filly when she first got her cutie mark. After witnessing Celestia raise the Sun, Twilight decided to devote her life to studying magic and her parents enrolled her in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. After passing the entrance exam(thanks to Rainbow Dash’s sonic rainboom), Twilight earned her cutie mark confirming that magic was in fact her destiny.  
The second is Twilight as a grown unicorn(or possibly an adolescent as her exact age has never been established) when she discovers the Elements of Harmony. As intelligent as Twilight was, she never cared much for friends - with the exception of her BBBFF, Shining Armor. Recognizing this problem, Princess Celestia sent Twilight off to Ponyville to meet new friends and ultimately realized that friendship is just another form of magic for her to study.  
The third is Twilight from the season 3 finale as an alicorn. After solving an ancient spell by Starswirl the Bearded, Twilight was able to bring her friend’s cutie marks back to the ponies they belonged to. For this accomplishment, Twilight quite literally earned her wings and was crowned the Princess of Friendship.  
The fourth is Twilight from the season 9 finale when she overtakes Celestia’s position as the new ruler of Equestria and becomes the new tutor for Luster Dawn, one of her top students. After becoming the new ruler, Twilight grows into a giant with a body similar to that of Celestia’s and she’s greeted by Luster Dawn. Much like Twilight when she was much younger, Luster devoted her life to studying magic and cared very little about friendship. Recognizing these parallels between Luster and herself, Twilight decides to send her off to Ponyville to make new friends much like what Celestia did with her. This starts the cycle all over again and “the magic of friendship grows”…..
 
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