Twilight Sneaky Sneaky

by gokenshadow

The Teacher

Twilight looked up at the door to her teacher’s office and sighed heavily. It was covered to the brim in many different kinds of stars, which were one of her favorite things to look at. They would’ve looked pretty magical if she were here for any other reason. She cracked open the door and stared inside the room. All she could see from her viewpoint was a small desk with a window behind it. It didn’t look like anypony was in there, so she pushed the door open enough to inch her way into the room, then closed it gently.

“A bit late, aren’t we, Twilight?”

Twilight eeped and quickly turned around. Her teacher stood in the far corner of the room, staring at her with heavy eyes.

“Didn’t I tell you to meet me after school? It’s been nearly twenty minutes since it ended.” he said.

“I…” Twilight couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Have a seat, Twilight.” he said, gesturing toward a cushion at the end of his desk.

She trundled over to it and sat. He slowly walked to the other end of the desk and also sat down. He opened a drawer and pulled out some pieces of paper with his magic. After looking at them for a few seconds, he placed them down on the desk in front of Twilight. She gulped.

“So, these are the tests you tried to cheat on, correct?” he said.

“... yes.” Twilight said.

“And cheating didn’t work very well for you, did it?”

“... no.” Twilight looked away, trying to blink the water out of her eyes. “It didn’t.”

“Do you know why that is?” he said.

“... no.” Twilight said, continuing to look away.

“Twilight,” he said, “You’re a very bright student, possibly the brightest I’ve ever had. Are you honestly telling me that lovely little mind of yours hasn’t come up with some explanation why you couldn’t cheat on the tests?”

Twilight blinked and looked up at him. He was smiling, which was really, really weird.

“Because…” She thought for a second. “... because you put a spell on the tests?”

“Correct,” he said, “and do you know what kind of spell I put on the tests?”

Twilight looked at the ground for a moment, before looking back up at him. “A cheat-detecting spell?”

“No.” he said, shaking his head melancholically, “Frankly, I don’t have much of a problem with cheaters.”

Twilight’s brow furrowed quizzically. He smiled at her.

“I have found in my years of teaching,” he said, ”that the type of pony who cheats tends to be the type that never would have found the knowledge useful in the first place.”

“Then, what kind of spell did you put on the tests?” she said, sniffling a bit.

“You still don’t know?”

She shook her head.

“Tell me something, Twilight. Did you want to cheat on your test?”

“... well, I did cheat, so yeah, I think so.” she said.

“I am not asking you if you did cheat on your test. I’m asking you if you wanted to.” he said.

She stared at him.

“What do you mean? I did it, so that means I wanted to, right?” she said.

“Does it?” he said.

She stood there for a moment, thinking.

“... no.” she said.

Her teacher smiled, stood up, and walked toward the window.

“I have been teaching at this school for around twenty years now, and nearly every class I teach has yielded at least one student like yourself.” He turned back to her. “Ambitious, precocious, eager to learn every lesson and complete every test.”

He walked around the desk toward Twilight.

“And, normally, they do complete all their tests, they learn all they possibly can, and they get the best grades. But every odd year or so, one of them, for one reason or another, misses a class or two. This drives them, shall we say, slightly mad, and makes them do things that they usually regret later.”

He tilted his head toward the pile of papers on the desk.

“The spell that I put on those tests is one that is as old and simple as time itself. All it does is prevent a pony from doing something that they don’t really want to do. If you had wanted to cheat on the test, you would have succeeded.”

“I would?” she said.

He placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“Yes, Twilight, you would, and since you didn’t succeed, I am not going to give you any bad marks for your actions.”

Twilight’s eyes sparkled . “Really?”

Her teacher nodded.

“Just make sure never to cheat again.” he said, winking, “Honestly, if you wanted to retake the test, you could have just asked me.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Really?!”

“Yes, I am not an unreasonable pony.”

Twilight sat there for a moment as he got up, walked around her, and opened the door.

“Now, if you please, I have a lot of business I must attend to. I’ll see you at the next class.” he said.

Twilight nodded to him, got up, and walked out the door. It closed gently behind her. Before walking away she took one last look at the stars painted on it. They looked magical.

Comments

[sniper 1232]

Bum Bum Bummmmmmmmmmmmmm

[RaritySimper44]

Wow that was smart, I never would have thought of that good job.