//------------------------------//
// Final Exam 
// Story: The Magic Exam 
// by Rathbane 
//------------------------------//

The swirling blue vertex reappeared in another location and unceremoniously dumped Twilight and the others on the ground.  To add insult to injury, the book Golden Fleece had used popped out of the portal just as it was closing, hitting Twilight in the head.
The group groaned as they got to their feet.
“What the heck were you thinking?!” Twilight shouted in anger at Golden Fleece, “You were dealing with forces you had no control over.  You could’ve hurt or killed somepony!”
“My leg!” Ebony Darkness shouted in pain, as she clutched her front right leg, blood oozed from a gash.
“Don’t worry I’ve got you,” Healing Touch said, as she rushed over.  She levitated some gauze out of her saddle bag and wrapped the wound before she began casting her healing magic.
“Thanks! That feels nice,” Ebony Darkness said, as a shower of green sparkles appeared over her leg.
Once she saw that Healing Touch had taken care of Ebony’s injury Twilight said, “I stand corrected.”
“It’s not my fault the baby doesn’t know how to stick a landing,” Golden Fleece.
“Just…just go stand over there,” Twilight said, pointing towards Sweetie Belle and the others, not wanting to deal with her.
“Um, Princess Twilight, where are we?” Dinky said.
“I have no idea,” Twilight said, as she looked around.
They were standing in a clearing.   All around them a forest of giant mushrooms spread as far as the eye could see.  The strangest thing about them was that the mushrooms seemed to be made of candy and ice cream.  They all turned at the sound of a child’s laughter.  It continued to ring out across the forest and grew steadily closer.   Once it got close enough they could see a small figure bouncing along the tops of the candy mushroom.
“Is that Pound Cake?” Sweetie Belle said.
“I think it is,” Twilight said.
She levitated the book and opened it up to the page Golden Fleece had used to cast the spell, She dog eared the page, why am I not surprised she has no respect for books, she thought, as she read over the page, Oh no, it’s like I feared.
“Girls we’re in the Dream World,” Twilight said.
“What?!” the others said in shock.
“Don’t worry, I’ll work on a way to try and get us out of here,” Twilight said, as she read over the book, “It must be naptime and that’s how we ended up Pound Cake’s dream.”
While Twilight worked on a way to get them back the waking world Healing Touch continued to work on Ebony’s wound, while Sweetie Belle and the others glared at Golden Fleece.
“What’s wrong you losers?” Golden Fleece asked.
“Why on earth did you cast a spell that tossed us into the dream world?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“One, because I’m awesome. Two, you should be thanking me for spicing up your dull lives, and three, shut up,” Golden Fleece said, before crying out after something struck her, “Hey! What the?”
She looked down and found one of Dinky’s practice arrows sticking to her side.
“Sorry, I was practicing,” Dinky said.
Golden Fleece pulled the arrow off and snapped it in half.
“I know you don’t like using your magic, but do you think you could practice it on her?” Sweetie Belle whispered to Blissful Trance, “Maybe give her a new personality?”
“Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I could.  She didn’t get hypnotized when my magic went haywire.  I think she’s immune,” Blissful Trance whispered back.
“Darn,” Sweetie Belle said.
A loud screeching sound halted the conversation as they all pressed their hooves against their ears.
“What is that?” Dinky asked.
Before anyone could answer the sound of breaking glass echoed across the mushroom forest, followed by the entire forest being enveloped in a spider web of cracks.  Sections of it started to fall away leaving nothing but a white void.
“I think Pumpkin Cake woke up and her cries are waking up Pound Cake,” Twilight said.
“What if she wakes up while we’re still in her dream?” Healing Touch asked nervously.
“I’m going to get us out of here before we find out,” Twilight assured her.
Dinky screamed as the ground she was standing on fell away.  Sweetie Belle and Blissful Trance acted quickly enough though, and wrapped their hooves around hers.
“I’m slipping!” Dinky cried fear filled her voice.
“And we’re losing ground up here,” Blissful Trance said, noticing more sections of the Dream World falling away.
“Let me try something,” Sweetie Belle said, as she began concentrating.  Her horn glowed and a magical aura surrounded Dinky.  Slowly Sweetie Belle levitated Dinky over the lip of the cliff and back onto more “stable” ground.
Sweetie Belle wiped the sweat from her forehead as she panted heavily due to pushing her levitation abilities to the limit.
“Thank you so much!  I didn’t want to fall into nothingness,” Dinky said, running over to hug her.
“That was amazing,” Blissful Trance said.
A large section of the ground falling away interrupted their celebrations and they rushed back over towards Twilight and the others.
“I’m sorry, I can’t find a way to get us back the waking world yet,” Twilight said, as the dream began to collapse around them even faster, “So the only thing I can do is send us to another dream.  Get ready.”
The girls braced themselves to be sucked up as Twilight read the spell to summon the vortex.  The blue vortex reappeared and sucked them all back in just as the last bit of ground fell away.


The vortex reappeared in another location and once again spat them out, though their landings went a little better now that they were expecting it.
They looked around in shock at their new location.  The world had a red hue to it.  All around them buildings were either demolished or on fire.  The devastation spread as far as they could see.
“Why…why would anypony be dreaming about this?” Sweetie Belle asked, sadness and horror filled her voice.
“I don’t know,” Twilight said, “I don’t like this one bit…wait where’s the book?!” 
She and the others scoured the landscape around them looking for the spell book, but it was nowhere to be found.
“We’re stuck here aren’t we?” Dinky asked.
“Not yet, I’ll think of something,” Twilight said.
“Look, somepony’s coming our way,” Ebony Darkness said.
They all turned to look.  Through the smoke that hung over the landscape, they could see two silhouettes approaching them.  Once the silhouettes got close enough, they burst through the smoke.
“I’m sorry Lyra!” Bon Bon shouted, as she and Lyra ran past Twilight and the others, “I’m sorry I put you in so much danger.  Don’t stop running!”
“I guess we’re in Lyra or Bon Bon’s dream now,” Twilight said.
“But what were they running from?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“I don’t think we want to know,” Dinky said, just before a demonic roar sounded across the landscape.
“You had to say it,” Golden Fleece said.
The smoke that Lyra and Bon Bon had ran through dissipated, revealing the source of the roar.
It was large multi headed monster with the body of a bugbear.  Each head seemed to be a different type of monster: a dragon, a manticore, a squid-like abomination, a moray eel like head, and finally another dragon head, this one resembling a Chinese dragon.  It opened its many mouths and prepared to shoot fire and energy blasts at them.
“Girls get behind me!” Twilight shouted.
Once she was sure they were all safely behind her, she created a purple magic shield around them just before the multiple attacks hit them.  The beast never let up, and eventually the shield began to crack under the pressure.
No! Twilight thought, just before the shield shattered.
The backlash of energy from the shield’s failure and the attacks hitting it caused them all to go flying.

Sweetie Belle landed on her side and she winced in pain as she stood up.
“Is everypony okay?” she asked, looking around at the others getting to their feet.
“We are, but Princess Twilight is hurt,” Healing Touch said, as she stood next to the unconscious Twilight. 
The multi-headed beast let loose another demonic roar that caused them all to cringe.
“It’s coming this way,” Blissful Trance said, terrified and on the verge of tears.
“Do you think you can heal Princess Twilight?” Dinky asked Healing Touch.
“I’ll do my best,” Healing Touch said, as she bandaged a wound on Twilight’s head before she began casting her healing magic.
“While you work on helping her, we’ll distract that thing,” Ebony Darkness said, as she ran off towards the monster, favoring still injured leg.
“We will?!” Sweetie Belle and the others said in disbelief over having been volunteered.
They watched in horror as Ebony Darkness continued to run towards the monster.  She barely escaped a blast of fire by shadow jumping.
“She won’t last long alone,” Sweetie Belle said, her voice trembling, “We need to help her; it’ll only come after us next.”
She steeled herself before she ran off after Ebony Darkness.  Dinky let out a sigh of defeat and followed her.  Blissful Trance stood there for a few seconds before finally working up the nerve to follow them.
“Aren’t you going to help?” Healing Touch said, turning towards Golden Fleece.
“Nah, I think I’ll let them do their own thing,” Golden Fleece said.
Healing Touch looked away in disgust and began focusing on healing Twilight once more.

“Good to see you guys,” Ebony Darkness said, upon seeing the others arriving by her side.  She then levitated a shuriken out of her saddle bag and threw it at the monster, but it promptly bounced off the dragon head’s heavy scales.
“Where the heck did you get those?” Sweetie Belle asked, seeing her pull out another one.
“My mom gave them to me as a Cutecenara present,” Ebony Darkness said happily.
I wonder what other presents she got? Sweetie Belle thought in disbelief, as she and the others began a full assault against the monster.
Ebony Darkness lobbed more shuriken at it, while Sweetie Belle and Blissful Trance opted to hurl bits of rubble at it.  Dinky had formed her bow and loaded a piece of rebar into it as an impromptu arrow.
Aim away from where I want to hit, she thought, remembering her one on one session with Twilight.  She fired the rebar at the monster and even though it found its mark it still bounced off harmlessly.
The monster prepared another multi-head energy attack and they all ran for cover in a burnt out house.
“Nothing we hit it with worked,” Dinky said in disappointment, as they huddled inside the barely standing structure.
“I think we just made it angrier,” Ebony Darkness said.
“Maybe if we could calm it down, it would be less dangerous,” Sweetie Belle.
“But how would we do that?” Dinky asked, before she and the others realized the answer and they turned their heads towards Blissful Trance.
“You don’t think…” she said to them.
“We won’t know unless we try,” Sweetie Belle said, “And this is your chance to use your magic for good.”
“But if it doesn’t work that thing will fry me in an instant.”
“If it looks like you’re in trouble, I’ll shadow jump you away,” Ebony Darkness said.
The monster let loose another demonic roar and turned towards the house.
“It’s coming this way,” Dinky said.
“I’ll…I’ll…I’ll do it,” Blissful Trance said, her quiet voice filled with mix of confidence and fear.
“We believe in you,” Sweetie Belle said.
Blissful Trance gulped as she walked out of the burnt out house.  She slowly walked towards the monster and paused when she reached an elevated piece of ground.  She closed her eyes and her horn glowed aqua.
Focus. Concentrate. Project, she thought, before opening her eyes.
With the red and grey spirals now in her eyes she turned to face the monster.
Its numerous heads focused on the tiny unicorn standing before it.
“Um, Mr. Monster, please look into my eyes,” Blissful Trance said.
Amazingly the monster paused and seemed to focus its attention on the spirals.
“Please look into my eyes and relax,” Blissful Trance said.
The monster let loose a low growl as its breathing slowed.
“Please relax and calm down,” Blissful Trance continued, “And please stop trying to hurt us.”
“I think it’s working,” Sweetie Belle said, as they watched from the house.
“Please relax and go into hypno..oh no!” Blissful Trance shouted in terror.
The monster’s tail had curled itself around to the front, revealing itself to be another monster, this one an eyeless horror.  Since it was immune to Blissful Trance’s spell, it readied an energy blast.
“I’ve got you!” Ebony Darkness said, as she popped out of a shadow and dragged Blissful Trance back into it with her.
The two of them emerged from Sweetie Bell’s shadow.  Blissful Trance was trembling in fear due to the trauma of nearly getting blasted and then experiencing the Shadow World.
“Run!” Sweetie Belle shouted, when she saw the monster had shaken off the effects of the hypnosis and was getting ready to blast the house.
They ran as fast as they could, but the shockwave from the house’s destruction knocked them off their feet.
When they got back up the monster had made its way over towards them.  They all huddled together as it prepared to blast them.
“No!” they all cried at once.
Before the monster could fire its attack it disintegrated into a cloud of blue smoke.  When the smoke cleared they saw Princess Luna standing there, her horn glowing.
“And this time don’t come back,” she said to the vanquished monster.
“Princess Luna!” the fillies happily shouted, as they ran up to her.
“Oh my goodness, what are you doing here?” she said in confusion.
As they made their way back towards Twilight, they explained everything to her.
“I came here because I felt the two disturbances in the Dream World; I had no idea that children were involved,” Princess Luna said, still in shock over the story they had told.
When they got back to Twilight she was back on her feet.
“Luna! Boy am I glad to see you,” Twilight said happily.
“It is good to see you too Twilight, though I wish it was under better circumstances,” Luna said.
“Right, because somepony decided to play around with magic she shouldn’t have,” Twilight said, pointing to Golden Fleece.
Luna glared at Golden Fleece like she was some sort of disgusting creature.
“I see,” Luna said, “Now let us leave the Dream World.”
Luna’s horn glowed and a portal opened up in front of her; a room in Canterlot Castle appeared on the other side of it.
Twilight and the others happily stepped through the portal and into the castle.
“We made it!” Sweetie Belle said, relief filling her voice.
“Let’s not do that again,” Dinky said.
Luna was the last one to step through the portal.  Once she had closed it, she turned to the trio of guard ponies in the room.
“Guards, arrest that pony,” she said, pointing to Golden Fleece.
“Isn’t that a little extreme?” Twilight said, “I mean her actions today were terrible, but she’s still a filly, shouldn’t her parents be the one to discipline her?”
“That would be the right course of action, if she really were a filly…or a unicorn for that matter,” Luna said.
“What!?” Twilight and the others said in shock.
“Your secret is out, reveal your true self,” Luna commanded.
Sweetie Belle and the others backed away as Golden Fleece began cackling.  A field of green energy surrounded her and once it cleared a violet eyed changling stood in her place.
“Heh heh heh, how did you know?” the changling asked.
“Ponies often dream about themselves being transformed into some sort of animal or being turned to stone.  So in order to help them, whenever I am in the Dream World I can see through all illusions, even your foul disguise,” Luna said, “So what is Queen Chrysalis planning?  You will tell us eventually, so why not answer me now and you might receive some leniency?” 
“Queen Chrysalis had nothing to do with this.  I acted on my own,” the changeling said, “I am Vespa, the shammed one.  I was kicked out of the hive for daring to suggest that impersonating Princess Cadence might end badly for us.”
“So what were you doing impersonating Golden Fleece?” Twilight asked.
“I thought maybe if I took out the newest alicorn princess Queen Chrysalis would let me rejoin the hive,” Vespa said, “So I waited around until it was time for the unicorn fillies to take their little test and when I found one that was taking the test with Princess Twilight, I turned into a messenger pony and gave her a note saying the test had been delayed by a week.  Once she wondered off, I took her place.   I didn’t have time to copy her personality so I just made one up.”
“What were you planning to do if somepony realized that Golden Fleece wasn’t acting like herself?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, I had a lot more dangerous things to throw at ponies in my saddle bag then wadded up paper if that happened,” Vespa said, as she flashed an evil smile at Sweetie Belle and the others.
“So how were you going to ‘take me out?’” Twilight asked.
“I didn’t know at the time.  My first chance came when her magic went haywire,” Vespa said, pointing at Blissful Trance, “Even though I’ve been kicked out of the hive, I’m still connected to the hive mind so her powers don’t work on me.  I figured if I could convince her to give you some commands, she’d be distracted and I could knock her out and take her place.  I’d then lead a hypnotized princess and four young unicorns back to the hive as my own personal welcome home presents.  Of course she since she didn’t play along, I had to come up with another plan.  When you told us to go have fun and pick out a spell book, I rooted around and found the one that could suck you into the Dream World.  I didn’t plan on getting sucked in myself.”
“Well your plans failed,” Luna said, “Now before we take you to the dungeons I have one final question.  Where is the real Golden Fleece?”
“I have no idea,” Vespa said.

The real Golden Fleece sat in her booth at the Rainbow Falls Flea Market selling blankets.
“The ones on the left are knitted, but the ones on the right are crocheted,” she happily explained to a customer, “And don’t forget, a portion of all sales today go towards helping those affected by the Las Pegasus sandstorm.”

Back at the castle Twilight and the others watched as the guards led Vespa away.
“So what happens to her now?” Twilight asked.
“My sister and I along with the Canterlot Law Council will determine her fate,” Luna said, “But you shouldn’t worry about that, you should be getting your young charges home.”
“Right,” Twilight said, “Thank you so much.  I don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”
“Let’s not dwell on it,” Luna said.
Twilight had Sweetie Belle and the others join hooves before she teleported them all back to Ponyville.

The six of them reappeared in the library of Twilight’s castle.
“Boy am I glad to be back here,” Sweetie Belle said.
“I just wanted to say how proud of all you I am,” Twilight said, “You went through an experience no other filly should have to and stood right by one another to help each out and get through things.  You are a remarkable group of ponies.”
Sweetie Belle and the others didn’t say anything and blushed at the high praise.
“I feel bad for the real Golden Fleece,” Dinky said, “Now she has to wait for the next time she can take the test.”
“I’ll definitely be making an exception in her case,” Twilight said, “The fake message said the test had been delayed by a week so I will honor it for her.”
“We should all come by and wish her luck,” Sweetie Belle said, as the others nodded in agreement.
“I think she’ll appreciate that,” Twilight said, “I have no doubt all of you will pass the test with flying colors and have your natural limiters removed.  However, it’s my turn endure a test of my own…telling your parents what happened today.”
Sweetie Belle and the others laughed nervously, not sure if she was joking or not.
“You are officially dismissed,” Twilight told them, “Enjoy the rest of the day.”
Sweetie Belle and the others thanked her and said goodbye before stepping out of the castle.

“What a day,” Sweetie Belle said, as she stood outside with the others.
“We should definitely hang out again sometime,” Ebony Darkness said, “Just without the monster attacks and changlings.”
The others agreed with her and they soon started to walk their own separate ways.
“Bye guys!” Healing Touch said.
“Bye! Thanks again for healing my leg,” Ebony called after her.  She said goodbye to the others before jumping into a shadow.
“Bye Sweetie Belle, I’ll see you soon,” Dinky called over to Sweetie Belle.
Sweetie Belle waved by to her before turning to Blissful Trance, “Well I’ll see you later.”
“Bye…Sorry again for what happened earlier,” Blissful Trance said, feeling the need to apologize one last time.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sweetie Belle said, “It was an accident. I’ll focus on remembering the second time you hypnotized me.  That was a lot more pleasant and fun.”
Blissful Trance perked up at the comment and waved goodbye as Sweetie Belle began walking back towards Carousel Boutique.


Later that night Blissful Trance sat around the dinner table with Octavia and Vinyl.
“My goodness, that was quiet the ordeal you and those other fillies had to go through,” Octavia said in astonishment.
“Wow! You charged into battle against a multi-headed monster and nearly hypnotized it.  You really are one of the coolest ponies there is,” Vinyl said, bursting with sisterly pride.
Blissful Trance blushed at the comment.
“Ah…ah..choo!” she sneezed without warning.  Her horn crackled with energy and her eyes flashed into spirals for a split second before returning to normal.
Vinyl and Octavia rubbed their eyes as they shook off the split second exposure to Blissful’s hypno magic.
“Hey, you’re really starting to get some control over that Bliss,” Vinyl said.
“Thanks, but Princess Twilight said I’ll need to keep practicing….and that’s what I’m worried about.”
“You can practice when you’re ready,” Vinyl said, “And when you are, I’m sure Octi won’t mind volunteering.”
Octavia immediately began coughing and sputtering on the water she had been drinking upon hearing Vinyl unceremoniously drafting her into helping Blissful Trance.  Once she was done she glared at Vinyl.
“What?  I’m just trying to help out my cool little sis,” Vinyl said, grinning sheepishly.