Sweetie Belle, Dinky and a few other young unicorns are set to take The Magic Exam, a milestone in every unicorns life. Of course this being Equestria it can't help be more then just a simple test
Sweetie Belle, Dinky, and a few other unicorn fillies are ready to embark on a big milestone in unicorn life, taking The Standard Unicorn Magic Exam. With test giver Twilight, several unique magics floating around, and the general rule of Equestria being that nothing can simply remain mundane it will prove to be a most interesting test.
Octavia stepped out of the cab, and walked around to pay the driver.
“Thank you sir,” she said, handing him some bits.
Once the cab had pulled away, she breathed a sigh of relief.
It’s good to be home, she thought, Being on tour is nice and all, but it’s wonderful to be home….wait what’s that sound?
Looking up at the sky, she saw the source of the sound, and it was getting closer.
Oh no, is it that time already?! No! No! No! I’m not ready, she thought, as she wrapped herself around her cello case to protect it.
The object grew even closer, revealing itself to be Derpy in a freefall. Once she hit the ground, she skidded along it towards Octavia, stopping just short of her.
“Hi Octavia!” Derpy said happily, “Hey, I didn’t crash!”
“Oh, hello Derpy, good job,” Octavia said, not sure how to react.
“Well, here’s your mail,” Derpy said as she reached into her mail bag.
“Thank you,” Octavia said, taking a couple of envelopes from her.
“And here’s Vinyl Scratch’s mail,” Derpy said, pulling out a few more envelopes.
“I’ll make sure she gets them,” Octavia said.
“And here are Vinyl’s noise complaint’s and noise level violation citations,” Derpy said, pulling out a large stack of envelopes that had been bound together with twine.
“How did all those fit in there?” Octavia asked, eying Derpy’s relatively small mail bag.
“Oh, this bag’s bigger on the inside. It was a gift from Dr. Whooves,” Derpy said smiling. “Well, I gotta go. Bye Octavia,”
After watching Derpy fly off, Octavia struggled to carry both her cello case and her newly acquired stack of mail, Octavia eventually was able to make it inside the house she shared with Vinyl Scratch.
“Hey Tavi, welcome home,” Vinyl said upon seeing her enter.
“Thank you for the warm welcome,” Octavia said, slightly annoyed that Vinyl hadn’t offered to help her.
“What’s all that?”
“Your mail. Derpy just delivered it, it’s mostly noise complaints.”
“But there’s so few of them,” Vinyl said, eying the large stack that Octavia was struggling with, “I must be slipping up.”
“Heaven forbid,” Octavia said, “And this is your regular mail.”
“Hey, a letter from home,” Vinyl said, levitating the envelope on top of the stack. She quickly tore it open and began reading it, “Let’s see here. ‘Dear Vinyl, how are you? We are fine. Yada yada yada. We’re going on a trip. Yada yada yada. It’ll last all summer. Yada yada yada…oh wow, she’s coming to stay with us! I’d better get things ready.”
“Wait, who’s coming to stay with us?” Octavia asked, but Vinyl was already walking away further into the house.
“Vinyl, wait up!” Octavia said, following after her.
Vinyl had already made her way to her equipment room, where she was hard at work rearranging everything so it was neatly stacked against the walls. Once she was done with that, she pulled one of the mattresses that she used for sound proofing off the wall and set it on the ground.
I wish she was this meticulous when it came to keeping the house clean on a regular basis, Octavia thought as Vinyl threw some blankets on the mattress.
“Um Vinyl, you didn’t answer me when I asked who was coming.”
“Oh yeah, sorry Tavi. I just got excited that the coolest pony in the world’s going to be staying with us.”
“And that is?”
“Bliss, of course,” Vinyl said, smiling.
“Your sister’s coming here?” Octavia asked.
“Yup! Mom and dad are leaving on a trip, so she’s going to be living with us for the summer.”
“Wonderful,” Octavia said.
All this talk about how she’s the coolest pony in the world. That means there’s going to be a mini Vinyl clone living here…for three months, Octavia thought in horror.
“When…when does she arrive?”
“Let’s see here…in an hour. We better head to the train station,” Vinyl said.
“She’s arriving today?! Why did your parents wait so long to tell you?”
“Probably so I couldn’t say no, but why would I? Bliss is the coolest pony in the world,” Vinyl said, as she walked out the door, as Octavia trailed behind her.
A short while later Octavia was standing on the train platform waiting for Vinyl. Off in the distance she could see Vinyl returning, a filly was walking along beside her. The young unicorn’s coat was the same off-white as Vinyl’s, her eyes were red, her blue mane was mussed up, with the vast majority tapering up into pointed spikes whose tips were aqua. Her cutie mark was a red and grey spiral that overlapped a trio of wispy and wavy rainbow colored lines.
I can see the familial resemblance from here, Octavia thought, Looks like crazy mane styles runs in the family.
The two continued to approach Octavia and stopped once they were in front of her.
“Bliss, this is Octavia,” Vinyl said, “Tavi, this is Blissful Trance.”
“Uh…um, hi. It’s nice to meet you,” Blissful Trance said, her voice quiet.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Ocatvia said.
She’s so quiet. Are they really related? Octavia thought.
“We’re gonna have to throw you the biggest welcoming party ever,” Vinyl said, excitedly. “Oh wait, sorry I forgot. You don’t like parties do you?”
“Th…that’s okay. You can have one if you want,” Blissful Trance said quietly.
“And that’s why you’re the coolest sister ever,” Vinyl said, as she pulled along Blissful’s trunk as the two of them walked towards the train station entrance.
There’s no way they’re related, Octavia thought, as she stood dumbfounded.
Later that night the three of them sat around the dinner table.
“So Blissful Trance, what do you like to do for fun?” Octavia asked.
“I like to listen to music and sit by the lake in the park,” Blissful Trance said, in her usual quiet voice, “I also like to…ah…ah…ah…”
“Hit the deck!” Vinyl shouted.
“Hit the what?” was all Octavia could ask, before Vinyl grabbed her and dragged her under the table.
Above they could hear Blissful Trance let loose a quiet sneeze.
“Sorry about that,” Vinyl said, “Sometimes when she sneezes her magic goes a little haywire.”
“It’s okay…false alarm,” Blissful Trance said, sadness filled her voice.
“Don’t worry about it Bliss,” Vinyl said, as the two of them returned to their seats.
“But what if it happens tomorrow?” Blissful Trance said, “If I sneeze and things go wrong during the magic exam, I’ll surely fail.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Vinyl said, “I’ve seen unicorns pass that test after they’ve done some pretty crazy stuff.”
“Like when you cast that sonic bass spell and broke every window in the castle as well as, temporally deafening Princess Celestia and the other test takers,” Octavia asked.
“Hey, Princess Celestia asked me to demonstrate what magic I knew. I still got the third highest grade, behind Rarity and Twilight Sparkle.”
“I wonder if the other unicorns are as worried about the test as I am,” Blissful Trance said.
“I doubt it. Like I said, there’s nothing to worry about,” Vinyl said, smiling at her.
In the darkened Carousel Boutique, Sweetie Belle was cowering in fear behind one of the pony shaped dress forms. She peeked around it and saw a figure lurking in the shadows.
“Sweetie Belle, where are you?” the giant anthropomorphic pencil said, as it stepped into the moonlight. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to erase you from existence.”
Sweetie Belle let loose a small squeak of fear, but quickly covered her mouth. She remained huddled in her hiding spot a little while longer until she noticed something landing on her head. Looking up, she realized that it was eraser shavings landing on her head-the pencil was erasing the dress form.
“There you are,” it said once it was done, “Time to get erased!”
“Nooooooo!” Sweetie Belle screamed, as the pencil’s eraser came towards her. She was relived however, when the pencil exploded into a puff of blue smoke.
Once the smoke cleared she saw Princess Luna standing there, her horn still glowing.
“It would seem even after a thousand years, some things remain the same,” Princess Luna said.
“Princess Luna! Boy am I glad to see you,” Sweetie Belle said happily, “Thank you for stopping that pencil from erasing me.”
“It was my pleasure,” Princess Luna said, “That was actually the fifth pencil I’ve stopped tonight.”
“What’s going on?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Young Unicorns all over Equestria are having stress induced nightmares,” Princess Luna said, “They’re all worried about their Magic Exams tomorrow. I always see a spike in nightmares whenever it’s time for a new group to take the test.”
“So I’m not the only one,” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Of course not, it is perfectly reasonable for you to be worried about the test; it is a big part of a unicorn’s life. Just don’t let the fear consume you. I’m sure you’ll do fine tomorrow and I’m sure Princess Twilight Sparkle will be a fine test proctor. Since this is her first time administering the test, I imagine she’s just as nervous about it as you are. Now I must go, sleep well Sweetie Belle.”
“Bye Princess Luna, thank you,” Sweetie Belle said, as Princess Luna vanished from her dream world.
I wonder who else dreamed about that giant pencil, Sweetie Belle thought.
“Shouldn’t you head to bed Twilight?” Spike asked as he watched Twilight rearrange the six desks that had been set up in the castle’s library for the fifth time.
“Just a little longer Spike, I’ve almost got everything perfect for the test tomorrow,” Twilight said, “I just hope I bought enough extra quills for the test takers.”
“You bought every quill at the quills and sofas store, so I think you should be good,” Spike said.
“Just think-all these years after I took my magic exam I’m going to help give one to a new generation of unicorns! I can’t believe I get to be a part of this major milestone in their lives,” she said excitedly.
“Are you sure things won’t go haywire? I mean, you’ve told me about what happened with Vinyl Scratch during your test.”
Twilight smiled as she finally found the ideal placement for the desks, “I doubt it Spike, this’ll just be a nice normal test.”
Sweetie Belle and Rarity walked through the center of Ponyville, towards Twilight’s castle.
“Now Sweetie Belle, there’s no need to worry about the test,” Rarity said, “Especially if you remember these three things: Be polite to the test giver, keep your eyes on your own paper, and if you don’t know the answer to a question on the written portion, nine times out of ten it’s: Star Swirl the Bearded.”
“Got it,” Sweetie Belle said.
They continued to walk along until Sweetie Belle noticed that Rarity had stopped dead in her tracks.
“Why’d you stop?”
“Because I don’t know how meticulously Twilight is following the ‘Test takers only beyond a certain point,’ rule. For all I know she could’ve thrown up a magical barrier of some sort and I have no intention of walking face first into it. So this is where we must part ways. Good luck, Sweetie Belle.”
“Thanks,” Sweetie Belle said, slightly annoyed at Rarity’s paranoia.
She walked up to the castle and wandered around aimlessly a bit, unsure of where the test takers were supposed to stay at. She soon stumbled across Blissful Trance standing at the side of the castle.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Sweetie Belle said, “I haven’t seen you in Ms. Cheerilee’s class before. Are you in one of the other classes?”
“No…I’m not from around here,” Blissful Trance said, “I’m staying here for the summer with my sister, Vinyl Scratch.”
“Wow! That’s so neat, she’s an awesome DJ,” Sweetie Belle said, “I’m Sweetie Belle, maybe we can spend some time together during the summer, when we’re not worried about this test.”
“R…really?” Blissful Trance said, shocked that somepony would want to be friends with her, just like that.
“Sure.”
“O…okay, sounds like fun. I’m Blissful Trance.”
Before their conversation could continue it was interrupted by a loud crash, they both turned to find the source to be Derpy, having crashed into a tree.
“Are you okay?” Dinky asked.
“I’ll be fine, good luck on the test Dinky!” Derpy said, before freeing herself and flying off.
Once she was gone, Dinky noticed Sweetie Belle and ran over to her.
“Hi Sweetie Belle, ready for the test?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Congratulations on getting your cutie mark again,” Dinky said, pointing to Sweetie Belle’s newly acquired cutie mark.
“Thanks! Congratulations to you too. Oh, before I forget here’s your invitation to my Cutecenera,” Sweetie Belle said, pulling out an invitation.
“Thank you, and here’s yours for mine,” Dinky said, pulling out an invitation for hers.
The two then noticed that they had been ignoring Blissful Trance.
“And here’s your invitation!” they said simultaneously, holding their invitations in front of her with their magic.
“Are…are you sure you want me to come?” Blissful Trance said, unsure of the whole thing.
“Of course,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Hey, where’s mine?” a voice from behind them asked.
The three of them turned, and saw a unicorn filly with a yellow coat, curly silver hair and copper eyes, sporting a cutie mark of a bar of gold being covered by a blanket, staring at them.
“Sorry, we didn’t see you,” Dinky said, as she and Sweetie Belle levitated a pair of invitations towards her.
“I was just messing with you. Golden Fleece, is much to awesome of a pony to attend parties held by a couple of former blank flanks,” Golden Fleece said, as she used her magic to tear the envelopes in half.
“Golden Fleece needs to learn to stop talking in the third person,” Dinky said.
“And we’re all former blank flanks, even you,” Sweetie Belle said, annoyed that the insult had found a new form.
“Yeah well, I’ve had my cutie mark for a couple of months so I have seniority,” Golden Fleece countered.
“I’ve had mine for six months, so does that mean I have seniority over you?” a new voice said.
The fillies turned to see that the source of the voice was a white unicorn filly with short light brown mane, green eyes, and a stethoscope cutie mark.
“My awesomeness transcends time and space, so no you don’t. Why don’t you join these other losers in basking in my awesomeness,” Golden Fleece said.
“Just ignore her,” she said, walking over towards the others, “Hi, I’m Healing Touch”
The others happily greeted her and they started to talk about the test until they were interrupted by wads of paper hitting them in the back of their heads.
“What is your problem?” Dinky said, as she and the others turned to face Golden Fleece.
She responded by throwing more wads of paper that they were able to easily dodge.
Great she’s like a worse version of how Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon used to be, Sweetie Belle thought.
“My problem is that I have to take this test with a bunch of losers like you,” Golden Fleece said, “There’d better not be anymore of you coming here, or my awesomeness might begin to be affected.”
Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes at the comment.
Before the situation could escalate further, it was broken up by another unicorn filly literally jumping out of the shadow cast by the castle.
“Whoa!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed, as she and the others backed away from the new arrival.
The filly was charcoal grey and had her black mane tied back in a messy ponytail that was supported by a pair of criss-crossed chopsticks, her cutie mark was of a trio shuriken. She stared at the others with her blood red eyes, as her horn glowed with a black magical aura.
“Hi there!” she said, smiling happily.
“Where did you come from?” Healing Touch asked.
“The cherry fields, they’re in full bloom and beautiful,” the new arrival said.
“But how did you get here?” Dinky asked.
“Oh, I just jumped into one of the tree’s shadows and came out through this one.”
“Jumped into the shadows?” Sweetie Belle said in confusion.
“Yup, I do it all the time.”
“That sounds really cool,” Dinky said.
“Hey! No pony is as cool as Golden Fleece and that includes….whatever your name is,” Golden Fleece said in annoyance.
“I’m Ebony Darkness.”
“Did I say that I cared what your name was?” Golden Fleece asked.
“Is she always like this?” Ebony Darkness whispered, as she leaned over towards Sweetie Belle.
“As long as we’ve known her,” Sweetie Belle said, “And that’s only been a few minutes.”
“Hey!” Golden Fleece shouted.
Before Golden Fleece could launch into another insult filled tirade a voice shouted, “Attention all test takers! Please report to the front of the castle!”
The six fillies quickly ran around to the front of the castle, where they found Spike waiting, holding a megaphone. Twilight soon stepped out of the castle behind him.
“Don’t you think that was a little much Spike?” Twilight asked.
“Hey it worked didn’t it?” he asked.
“Hello everypony!” she said happily, “If you’ll follow me we’ll go to the testing area and I’ll explain everything.”
She led the group through the map room and down into the castle’s library.
“Have a seat,” Twilight instructed, as she walked over and stood by a table sitting at the front of the room.
The fillies did as they were instructed and sat at desks Twilight had set up the night before.
“Welcome to The Standard Unicorn Magic Exam!” Twilight said excitedly, “With this exam you will show that you are ready to embark on the next milestone of unicornhood, the removal of the natural limiter placed upon your magical abilities when you were born. The test will be divided up to four parts: Now you may have already met each other so this first part may seem redundant, but you will be introducing yourselves and demonstrating what magic abilities you possess. Just because you know some unique or rare form of magic, that doesn’t make you better then anypony else, it is one of the many parts of what helps make you who you are. That being said, please forgive me if I get a little excited during your demonstrations, I love seeing magic in action and learning from it. Next, I will be meeting with you one on one to help you out with any issues you might be having a magical ability, be it a control one or not knowing how to properly utilize it, or just to help you improve upon the basics. Third will be the written test. After that we will look into one of the methods of non-unicorn based magic, in this case it will be spell books. Any questions?”
The test takers sat in stunned silence due to both the sheer amount of information they had been bombarded with and because of Twilight’s enthusiasm towards the test itself.
“Alright then, let’s start with the introductions. We’ll go from left to right,” Twilight said, “Step to front of the room when you’re ready.”
Dinky nervously got up and walked to the front of the makeshift classroom.
“Um, hello my name is Dinky Doo and I know levitation and Weapon-casting, specifically Bowcasting,” Dinky said, demonstrating her levitation ability by lifting a pencil that sat on the table.
“I’ve heard reports about your family’s abilities from the royal guards. Spike, go grab a target for her to demonstrate on.”
“You got it!” Spike said, as he ran off.
“I must warn you, my aim isn’t that great,” Dinky said.
“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Twilight said.
Spike returned shortly with a dartboard.
“Ooops hee hee,” Spike said sheepishly, as he tore a photo of Opalescence off it.
“Here goes nothing,” Dinky said, as her horn glowed and crackling ball of energy formed in front of her, it soon elongated into an arched beam before another beam of energy formed the “strings” of her bow. She then levitated a suction cupped practice arrow out of her saddle bag and lined up her shot. Once she let the arrow fly, it veered to the left of the target, before bouncing off a large globe, several book cases, Sweetie Belle’s desk, and the floor several times before it hit its mark: Spike’s backside.
“Sorry about that,” Dinky said blushing.
“That’s okay, it could’ve been worse,” Spike said, pulling the arrow off and handing it back to Dinky.
With her turn completed, Dinky sat back down and Healing Touch took her place at the head of the class.
“Hello, my name is Healing Touch and I know levitation, level one healing magic, and low level poison removal spells,” Healing Touch said.
“Healing magic is a great skill to have,” Twilight said, “Sadly it’s not really something that can be demonstrated in a setting like this, since there aren’t any hurt ponies and I don’t want that to change.”
“I don’t want it to either,” Healing Touch said, as she walked back to her seat.
Golden Fleece, who had been pretending to doze off during the other demonstrations got up and walked to the front of the class.
“I’m Golden Fleece, and I know triple levitation, making me more awesome then anypony in this room,” she said, as her horn glowed with a dark green aura that she used to levitate a pencil and book sitting on the table, as well as Spike, turning him upside down in the process.
“First of all, what did I just say a few minutes ago,” Twilight said in annoyance, “And second, put Spike down.”
“Sure thing,” Golden Fleece said, as she halted Spike’s levitation, resulting in him slamming into the ground.
“That’s not what I meant!” Twilight shouted, shooting her a death glare.
“Sorry Twilight, but I think I’ll sit out for the rest of this before something else happens to me,” Spike said, getting to his feet and holding his head.
Before Twilight could respond, a shower of green sparkles formed around the bump on Spikes head, he looked over to see Healing Touch’s horn glowing with a white aura.
“Thanks, that feels a lot better,” he said, flashing her a thumbs up.
Once he had left Sweetie Belle stood up and faced the class.
“Hi, my name is Sweetie Belle and I know levitation magic,” she said with little enthusiasm, as she lifted the book from the table.
And that’s it; I don’t know any other cool magic, she thought, feeling slightly inferior to the others.
Her spirits were lifted when the others, minus Golden Fleece, applauded her.
Ebony Darkness flashed a smile at her as they passed one another.
“Hi there, I’m Ebony Darkness and I know levitation and shadow jumping,” she said, happily demonstrating her levitation skill.
“Shadow jumping?” Twilight said, cocking an eyebrow, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that before.”
“I’m not sure what its real name is, that’s just what I call it. Let me show you,” Ebony Darkness said, as her horn glowed with a black aura and she jumped up and disappeared into the shadow cast by the table. A few seconds later she jumped out of Twilight’s shadow, startling her slightly.
“It..it definitely lives up the name you’ve given it,” Twilight said, regaining her composure.
I’ve never seen that before or read about such a thing…she’s discovered some form of new teleportation magic, Twilight thought.
“And I can even take a pony with me,” Ebony Darkness said, her horn glowing black once more. She jumped into Twilight’s shadow and out of the one cast by Golden Fleece’s desk. She then wrapped her hoof around Golden Fleece’s.
“Hey! Wait! Whoa! What are you doing!” Golden Fleece shouted, as she and Ebony Darkness sank back into the shadow.
A few seconds later they emerged from Twilight’s shadow. Ebony Darkness was smilingly broadly, but Golden Fleece was trembling in fear.
“What was that place?! It was like swimming through a nightmare!” Golden Fleece shouted, fear filled her voice.
“Oh, I just call it the Shadow World. It’s where I go whenever I enter a shadow. Isn’t it neat?” Ebony Darkness said happily.
“No! It was horrifying….I mean, it wasn’t all that great. Just don’t drag me to your loser alternate world again,” Golden Fleece said, returning to her seat.
And things get even more complicated, Twilight thought.
“Alright one more. Step on up,” Twilight said, beckoning Blissful Trance.
“H…hello,” Blissful Trance said in a quiet nervous tone, “I’m Blissful Trance. I know levitation and hypno magic.”
Her horn glowed aqua and she lifted the book from the table but stopped when she noticed Twilight staring at her.
“Hypno magic? That’s quite impressive, it’s one of the rarest forms of magic there is and you’re probably one of the youngest users of it too,” Twilight said excitedly, all the while thinking of things to ask her about it.
“Can I not demonstrate it? I don’t have the greatest control over it, and I don’t like getting into other pony’s minds like that,” Blissful Trance said, wanting to veer away from subject of hypnosis.
“Chicken!” Golden Fleece shouted.
“Of course you don’t if it makes you uncomfortable,” Twilight said, as she and the others shot Golden Fleece death stares.
“Thank you….oh, I also know this, my sister taught me it,” Blissful Trance said, as her horn glowed aqua again and she summoned a magic bubble that had several music notes suspended in it. The notes dissipated one by one and played a tone as they faded away.
Aww that’s cute…kinda familiar, like that movie I saw in the human world where they tried to play music for those aliens, Twilight thought.
Blissful Trance smiled sheepishly as the others applauded her impromptu concert. However, she was soon filled with dread as she felt a sneeze coming on.
No..not now, she thought.
“Ah…ah…ah…achoo!” Blissful Trance sneezed, causing her horn to crackle with magical energy before it shot out a grey and red colored orb. The stress of the spell she had cast caused her to then collapse to the ground.
“Don’t worry it’s just a case of magic drain,” Twilight said, as she ran over to her.
“Um, Princess Twilight, that sphere thing she summoned is following you,” Dinky said.
“What?” Twilight said in confusion, as she looked up to see that the red and grey orb was now floating in front of her.
What in the world? Twilight thought.
The orb began to expand before splitting of into six copies of itself, each one position itself in front of a different target.
“Girls get away! I don’t know what these things are capable of!” Twilight shouted.
Before anypony could react, the orbs flattened themselves into spinning red and grey spirals.
What are they doing now? Twilight thought, as her eyes locked on the spiral in front of her, It’s so pretty. I…I can’t look away. No! What’s happening to me? I…feel so relaxed. I can’t…think. I…I…I am hypnotized. I must obey.
The orb faded away as Twilight’s eyes morphed into red and grey spirals.
“You command, I obey. You command, I obey,” Twilight said in a monotone.
Blissful Trance shook off the effects of the magic drain and got to her feet.
Ugh, what happened, she thought, before she noticed Twilight standing before her and Dinky, Sweetie Belle, Healing Touch, and Ebony Darkness walking towards her, all of them had red and grey spirals in their eyes.
“You command, I obey. You command, I obey,” the hypnotized ponies said in unison.
No! No! Not again! Not again! Blissful Trance thought in horror, as the ponies that had fallen under her spell surrounded her.
The hypnotized ponies stopped chanting their mantra and stood before Blissful Trance awaiting commands.
“This can’t be happening again. This isn’t real, this isn’t real,” Blissful Trance whispered to herself.
“Hey, that hypno magic is actually pretty nifty,” Golden Fleece said, walking over to her.
“Huh? How come you’re not hypnotized?” Blissful Trance said in confusion.
“Just lucky I guess,” Golden Fleece said, “You even got the princess…let’s make her do stuff.”
“No! Why on earth would you want to do that?!” Blissful Trance shouted in horror, “Everypony, please wake up right now.”
Responding to her command the spirals faded from the entranced ponies’ eyes and they began to shake off the effects of the hypnosis.
“Spoil sport,” Golden Fleece said in disgust.
“Is…is everypony okay,” Twilight asked, once she had recovered enough.
“I…I think so,” Sweetie Belle said, “That was weird…but kind of familiar.”
“You’ve been hypnotized like that before?” Blissful Trance asked, concerned.
“I think so…maybe it was from that time Princess Twilight cast that ‘Want it, need it spell’ on everpony,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Yes, that’s probably it…now let us never speak of that again,” Twilight said.
“That was spooky. I was ready to do anything she asked me to, no matter what,” Ebony Darkness said, “Interesting, but still spooky.”
“I’m so sorry everypony,” Blissful Trance said, hanging her head in shame, “I shouldn’t be here. I’m too dangerous.”
“Don’t say that,” Healing Touch said.
“Yeah, we’re all fine now,” Dinky chimed in.
“We forgive you,” the fillies said in unison.
Blissful Trance flashed as shy smile at them, but went back to hanging her head.
“There’s no need to worry,” Twilight said, “This is why the next portion of the test is so important, to help you one on one with your magic to help you develop it, contain it, and someday master it. So why don’t we break off and I’ll meet with each of you and while you’re waiting your turn, you can do some last minute studying or something to that effect.”
The fillies nodded that they understood and scattered to various parts of the library.
Twilight approached Healing Touch first.
“Thank you for helping Spike after he hurt his head.”
“It was the least I could do,” Healing Touch said.
“I guess you got to demonstrate your healing magic after all.”
“Yeah…I guess so.”
“I just hope it stays to just that one incident.”
“Me too.”
“And I really hope we don’t need you to use your poison removal magic…how did you come to learn that at such a young age anyways?”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” Healing Touch said, looking away.
“Fair enough,” Twilight said, “Now like I said, with hopefully there really being only one case of you demonstrating your magic I can’t really help you develop your individual skills with healing magic in a setting like this. However, you shouldn’t worry about anything going wrong with it since it’s one of the more stable magics out there. There’s no risk of it backfiring. Since it really has just one function, it can’t really be used in other circumstances, and there’s almost no side effects outside of its intended use. Its strength is that it can only become stronger. I think I have an idea that might be able to help you though.”
“What’s that?” Healing Touch asked, perking up.
“I think I’ll talk to Nurse Redheart about you maybe shadowing one of the unicorn nurses at Ponyville Hospital to learn more about healing magic.”
“Really, you’d do that for me?!” Healing Touch said excitedly.
“Of course.”
“Oh thank you so much. I want to learn as much about healing magic as I can so I can help other ponies,” Healing Touch said, as she ran over and hugged Twilight, “Ooops is hugging the test giver against the rules?”
“If it is, I won’t fault you for it. Also you can’t forget one of the most important resources…books!” Twilight said, as she happily levitated some books over to her.
“Healing Magic 101, Basics of Healing,…Ow that hurts?” Healing Touch said as she read the titles aloud, the last title resulted in her raising an eyebrow.
“Sorry that’s all the ones I have on the subject right now,” Twilight said, grinning sheepishly.
“I’ll definitely look at them,” Healing Touch said, as she stealthily pushed Ow that Hurts behind her.
“Great!” Twilight said smiling, “Do you have any other questions?”
“Um, is it okay to use healing magic repeatedly on ponies?” Healing Touch asked, “The rest of my family is in Ultra Pony Roller Derby and I help heal them up after their done. My magic won’t stop working on them if I keep doing it will it?”
“It shouldn’t. I’ve never heard anything about healing magic losing its potency. Like I said, its strength is that it can only grow stronger. How did you end up being the odd pony out anyways?”
“I wanted to help other ponies not hurt them,” Healing Touch said happily.
“And that’s a great thing to want to do,” Twilight said smiling at her, “Any other questions?”
“None that I can think of.”
“If you do, don’t hesitate to ask,” Twilight said as she walked away.
After stopping to do some quick research from an old book, the next filly she approached was Ebony Darkness.
“Hi Princess Twilight,” Ebony said happily.
“Hello Ebony,” Twilight said, “I’ve done a little research and I think I found what might be a similar magic to what you were using.”
“Really what’s it called?”
“It’s called shadow blending. It was used by ninja ponies long ago in Neigh-pon. They would literally become one with the shadows, but they weren’t able to move around like you do. Did you try becoming one with the shadows when you discovered you could use your shadow jumping magic?” Twilight asked.
“Nope,” Ebony Darkness said sheepishly, “I like shadows, they’re neat. I like the way they change in the light and all the spooky shapes they can make at night, but I was just goofing around one day thinking ‘what if I could look at the underside of a shadow’ so I focused my magic on a shadow to like I was going to try and lift it up and tripped and fell into it. That’s kinda how I developed my shadow jumping magic.”
“Since you discovered it by accident, do you ever have any trouble with your shadow jumping? I’d hate for you to get trapped in between worlds,” Twilight said.
“Nope,” Ebony Darkness said, as she her horn glowed black and she jumped into Twilight’s shadow, popping out of several others in rapid succession, “I…can…do…it…without…any…trouble.”
She popped back out of Twilight’s shadow and smiled at her.
“I can see that now,” Twilight said, smiling, “So does the distance you can shadow jump have a limit.”
“The farthest I can usually go is to the cherry fields outside of town. Wanna come with me?”
“Er, um…sure I guess,” Twilight said, slightly nervous.
Ebony Darkness wrapped her hoof around Twilight’s and her horn glowed black again and the two of them sunk into a shadow.
Twilight soon found herself in a strange new world. The whole place was sepia toned and below her she could see several dark shapes that looked like trees, and they seemed to be trying to reach up towards her. Several other black patterns faded in out at random. The whole time she was drifting along, almost as if Ebony Darkness was pulling her along through the thick atmosphere. Since it almost felt like she was underwater Twilight was afraid to take a breath.
In another instant though, she found herself flying through another shadow and she now found herself in the cherry fields outside of Ponyville, the pink blossoms littered the ground. Ebony Darkness took the opportunity to flop to ground and make an impromptu snow angel in them.
“So how did you like the Shadow World?” Ebony Darkness asked, “Isn’t it neat?”
“It…it certainly has character to it,” Twilight said, still slightly shaken up.
“Should we go back now?” Ebony asked.
“Sure, but I think I’ll stick with normal teleportation if that’s alright with you.”
“Okay,” Ebony said, as she dove into one of the cherry tree’s shadows.
Twilight’s horn glowed and she vanished in flash of light, only for her to reappear back at the castle.
“I won!” Ebony Darkness said playfully from behind her.
“Wha…but…how?” Twight said in shock, “It took us five minutes to get over there.”
Ebony Darkness smiled as she laughed a little, “No, it only takes five seconds.”
“I guess it just seemed like longer,” Twilight said.
Maybe that Shadow World experiences some sort of time dilation and she’s built up an immunity to it? Twilight thought.
“Do you think if I lose my natural limiter I’ll be able to increase my range?” Ebony Darkness asked.
“You’ve developed a whole new style of magic, so we’ll just have to wait and see,” Twilight said, “Do you have any another questions?”
“Nope.”
“Alright then,” Twilight said, before she stepped away.
The next filly on her list was Golden Fleece.
“Thanks for stopping by,” Golden Fleece said, “But I don’t really need a one on one session. My awesomeness will help me through anything. Maybe you should spend some extra time with those other losers.”
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something important,” Twilight said, “Today you’re not just being graded on the results of your written test but your attitude as well, so I can see if you’re mature enough to take on the responsibility of having your full magical potential opened up. Considering how you’ve acted today, as of right now you would need to answer every question right, plus five more to receive something that even remotely resembles a passing grade.”
“Eh, I don’t have to worry about that. My awesomeness is so great I can transcend time and space, so I’ve already gotten infinity correct answers on the written test.”
Twilight stared at Golden Fleece in utter befuddlement before she said, “Whelp, looks like our time is over.”
“See ya,” Golden Fleece said, as she watched Twilight walk away.
Dinky was waiting patiently for her when Twilight approached her.
“Sorry about hitting Spike earlier,” Dinky said.
“That’s okay, it was an accident,” Twilight said, “And it was just a suction cup too. Does that happen often when you shoot arrows?”
“Almost all the time,” Dinky said, “I can hit the target after thirty, sometimes a hundred tries but I miss a lot. Uncle Blazing Sword thinks my natural limiter might impact my aim.”
“Well let’s give it another try,” Twilight said, as she levitated the dart board so it was closer to them.
“Okay,” Dinky said, as she created her bow once more. She took out a practice arrow and took aim. Letting the arrow fly towards the dart board it veered to the right, hit a railing before bouncing off several bookshelves, and off one of the desks, before flying out the window.
“That’s not good,” Dinky said.
“I still don’t see how they’re able to do that,” Twilight said, “It’s like they’re violating the laws of physics.”
At that point Rainbow Dash flew in through the open window and landed in front of them. She wordlessly pulled the practice arrow off her side and glared at Dinky. She then dropped it to the ground before flying off.
“Ooookay,” Twilight said, “I’m guessing that’s not the first time you’ve hit Rainbow Dash with an arrow.”
“I think it was the twentieth,” Dinky said sheepishly
“Well let’s make sure there won’t be a twenty first today,” Twilight said, as she magically closed the window, “Maybe the way you can counteract this is to aim where you don’t want the arrow to go. Perhaps that could help compensate for all this randomness.”
“I’ll give it shot if you think it’ll help,” Dinky said, as she loaded up another arrow, this time aiming to the far left of the dartboard. Surprisingly the arrow veered to the right and hit the far left edge of the board.
“I hit it! I hit it on my second try!” Dinky said excitedly as she jumped up and down.
“Good job Dinky,” Twilight said happily, “We’ll see if your Uncle’s theory about your natural limiter is correct, but if it’s not it looks like we’ve got a solid alternative to fall back on.”
“Thank you so much,” Dinky said, smiling at her.
“You’re very welcome,” Twilight said, “Perhaps we should avoid shooting off any more arrows for now though.”
“Right.”
“Do you have any other concerns?” Twilight asked.
“Nope, you’ve helped me a lot,” Dinky said.
“That’s what I’m here for,” Twilight said.
A short while later Twilight approached Sweetie Belle.
“Hi Sweetie Belle, how are you doing today?” Twilight asked.
“Okay, I guess,” Sweetie Belle said.
“What’s wrong?”
“Every other pony here today has some special magic and all I can do is levitation. Even Golden Fleece has triple levitation,” Sweetie Belle said, sadness filling her voice.
“Sweetie Belle I want you to remember what I said at the start of the test, just because they know unique forms of magic doesn’t make them better then any other pony, it’s just a part of them that makes them, them. Right now you might only know levitation, but it’s just a small part of what you that makes you who you are. Do you understand?”
“Yeah I do,” Sweetie Belle said, perking up, “I guess I just needed to hear it again.”
“Happy to help,” Twilight said smiling, “Speaking of levitation how is yours coming along. Remember the fundamentals of levitation: sand, pebble, rock, stone, boulder, and beyond. Each level represents how easily you can levitate something without straining yourself. So where do you think you’re at right now?
“I think I’m at the stone level since I was able to levitate Pipsqueak a little bit,” Sweetie Belle said.
“That’s great, you’re coming along nicely,” Twilight said, “You’ll be able to levitate Rarity before you know it.”
“I don’t think she’d want me to even if I could,” Sweetie Belle said, smiling.
“Good point,” Twilight said, “Now the best thing to do for now is to just let your levitation develop naturally, don’t force it. You’ll be lifting bigger things and multiple things in no time.”
“Yay!” Sweetie Belle shouted, getting into the pep talk.
“That’s the spirit,” Twilight said, “Like I said, don’t worry about a thing. Enjoy being who you are and have fun out there.”
“What about in here?” Sweetie Belle said, jokingly.
“Of course you can have fun in here. I always had lots of fun taking tests when I was your age,” Twilight said.
“Uhhhh sure,” Sweetie Belle said, rolling her eyes slightly.
“I’ve got one more one on one session to go, so if you feel you need to brush up on anything, now’s the time to do it,” Twilight said.
“Right,” Sweetie Belle said, as she watched her walk away.
Twilight approached Blissful Trance and smiled, since she saw the sad look in young filly’s eyes.
“I’m sorry about what happened,” Blissful Trance said her quiet voice filled with remorse, “I’m not in trouble am I?”
“Of course not,” Twilight said, “It was an accident, and you showed great maturity in bringing us out of hypnosis right away.”
“R…really?”
“Yes, for somepony who had unlimited access to our minds, you immediately focused on doing the right thing, and not, to quote Golden Fleece ‘have us do stuff.’”
“That’s why I don’t like being able to take control like that,” Blissful Trance said, “Being able to have ponies do what I ask no matter what, it just seems so scary.”
“I know it seems like it, but really one of the primary reasons hypnosis is used is to help others,” Twilight said, hoping to lift the young filly’s spirits.
“I read a little about it, but since I’ve always had trouble with it going out of control I just always think about hypnosis turning ponies into zombies,” Blissful Trance said, the sadness in her voice returning.
“Does what happened today happen a lot?” Twilight asked.
“Almost every time I sneeze. I had to stay home from school when my allergies were bad.”
“Well don’t worry, I’m here to help you now,” Twilight said, “Now from what I could tell your version of hypno magic is some form of projection magic, but like most projection magic it needs to actually be projected over something or else it can go haywire, like what happened earlier. That’s also why it probably gets cast when you sneeze, since in its current form it isn’t restrained and therefore can manifest itself whenever you’re under some sort of duress or intense distraction.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Blissful Trance said, trying to wrap her head around Twilight’s lecture.
“That also explains why it’s so powerful, even with your natural limiter still active, with the hypnotic projection being unrestrained it’s able to bypass it and tap into raw unicorn magic and that’s why it can hypnotize any pony it targets, even alicorns. So our first step will be getting it under control by finally giving your hypno magic something to project over.”
“Okay,” Blissful Trance said, her confidence growing a little, “Um…what should I project it over?”
Twilight stood in shock for a few seconds since she couldn’t think of anything either.
“Hmmmm, how about….your eyes,” Twilight said, after some deliberation.
“My eyes?”
“Yes, they’re perfect!” Twilight said, getting excited again, “That way in order to utilize your hypno magic you’ll need to look your subject in the eyes so that way it’ll become a more personal experience.”
“I like the sound of that. It makes it less scary,” Blissful Trance said.
“Okay then, now go ahead and try it out.”
Blissful Trance turned around so she was facing the mirror on the wall behind her and closed her eyes. Her horn glowed aqua as she began to cast her spell.
After a few seconds she opened her eyes and saw that they were now red and grey spirals. She let out a surprised gasp.
“It worked Princess Twilight! Look!” she said, as she turned around to face Twilight, before immediately looking away after realizing what she had done, “Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Twilight said, shaking her head, “It just made me a little woozy. Now that the hypno magic is being cast properly it’s a little weaker, so that means you probably won’t be able to hypnotize any alicorns for awhile.”
“I’m okay with that,” Blissful Trance said, as her eyes returned to normal.
“Now that was just the first step,” Twilight said, “You might not like this next part, but to help increase your ability to contain the magic you’ll need experience in utilizing it properly, that means practicing it on another pony.”
“I was afraid you’d say that,” Blissful Trance said,
“Also hypnosis is all about relaxation. The spirals in your eyes alone will be enough to put ponies under your spell, but if you mention to them about relaxing a little the experience will end up being a lot less trama…I mean intense for them,” Twilight said, catching herself at the last possible second. “But who would let me practice on them after what happened earlier?”
“I would,” Sweetie Belle said walking over.
“You…you will?” Blissful Trance said in shock.
“If it will help you, of course I will. After all if we’re going to spend time together this summer I don’t want you to worry about hypnotizing ponies every time you sneeze,” Sweetie Belle said, smiling at her.
“Are you sure about this Sweetie Belle?” Twilight asked.
“Absolutely,” Sweetie Belle said, “I’m ready when you are.”
“O…okay…let’s get started,” Blissful Trance said, after she nervously paced back and forth a little.
Blissful Trance turned to face Sweetie Belle and closed her eyes. Her horn glowed aqua again.
Focus. Concentrate. Project, she thought, repeating the mantra from earlier.
She opened her eyes and Sweetie Belle found her eyes locking on the spirals.
“Um, Sweetie Belle I want you to please look into my eyes and relax,” Blissful Trance said in a quiet tone.
“Yes…I will relax,” Sweetie Belle said.
“Please relax and go into hypnosis for me,” Blissful Trance said, hoping what she said was enough to make the experience more pleasant for Sweetie Belle.
“Yes, I will go into hypnosis,” Sweetie Belle said, as her eyes morphed into red and grey spirals. A slight smile spread across her face.
The spirals faded from Blissful Trance’s eyes as she stared at Sweetie Belle in awe.
“Is…is this what actually is supposed to happen when I use hypno magic on a pony?” she said in shock, “She’s not talking about how much she wants to obey me, and she doesn’t look scared, she looks….happy.”
“See I told you that you could make it a pleasant experience for other ponies,” Twilight said.
“Sweetie Belle, are you okay?” Blissful Trance asked.
“Yes…I feel wonderful,” Sweetie Belle said, her voice quiet.
“I should wake her up,” Blissful Trance said.
“I know you’re not really comfortable with this, but perhaps you should try giving her a few suggestions to get a better feel for how your hypno magic works overall,” Twilight said.
“O…okay. Um, Sweetie Belle please raise your right hoof,” Blissful Trance said.
Sweetie Belle wordlessly obeyed and raised her right front hoof into the air before setting it back down.
“Maybe try asking her to do something she wouldn’t normally do,” Twilight suggested.
“Um, Sweetie Belle I want you to please….think you’re a cat,” Blissful Trance said, practically blurting out the command.
“’Think you’re a cat?’” Twilight said in confusion.
“It was the first thing I thought of.”
“Meow! Meow!” Sweetie Belle said as she walked over towards them. She rubbed her head against Twilight and purred.
“At least she’s not acting like Opalescence,” Twilight said, as she absentmindedly began scratching Sweetie Belle’s head.
The spirals in Sweetie Belle’s eyes faded away and she shook her head a couple of times.
“Wow! That was a lot different. I felt like I was floating and happy the whole time, and I felt like I wanted to do what you told me, not like I had obey you,” Sweetie Belle said happily.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Blissful Trance asked.
“I’m better then okay. I feel like I just woke up from a nap, and I’m not nervous about the test anymore.”
“I’m glad I could…help,” Blissful Trance said, still in shock that her hypno magic had actually benefited a pony for once.
“Thank you for volunteering Sweetie Belle,” Twilight said, before turning to Blissful Trance and raising a pepper shaker with her magic, “Now that you have a feel for how a proper hypno magic session works let’s try something.”
She’s not going to, Blissful Trance thought in shock, as Twilight sprinkled pepper in front of her.
“Ah…ah…choo!” Blissful Trance sneezed, though this time her horn only sparked a little and when her eyes opened, the spirals briefly flashed in them before they returned to normal, “Hey it worked, I could feel myself holding back the magic…..um please don’t do that again.”
“Sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Twilight said, grinning sheepishly.
“Thank you so much for helping me,” Blissful Trance said.
“You’re very welcome,” Twilight said, “Now to help maintain this control and even perfect it, you will need to continue practicing.”
The library soon filled with a soft chiming sound as the clock struck 11:00
“Alright everypony return to your desks, it’s time for the written portion of the exam,” Twilight announced.
The six young fillies returned to their desks as quick as they could and Twilight stood before them.
“Like I said, it is time for the written portion of the exam. This test will test your knowledge of magic history, magic knowledge, and give hypothetical examples about how you should use your magic in a situation,” Twilight explained, as she set an exam in front of each of the girls, “Keep your eyes on your own papers….and…begin.”
There was a flurry of rustling papers as they all turned to page one.
You enter a bank. Do you use your magic to a. lift a pen and endorse the check you wish to cash. b. rob the bank. c. lift the pen and use it rob the bank? Healing Touch thought, as she read the question, raising an eyebrow at the last option.
Maybe this’ll be easier then I thought, Dinky thought, as she answered ‘a’ for number one, Number two, in what year did the magic council deem that magic blasts and magic rays were to be considered two separate categories of magic…uh oh.
Which of these plants is known to dampen a unicorns magic? a. the saimin orchid b. the spider fuzz fern c. the greater mulapot d. the dark geranium. Mom told me about having to use the greater mulapot on her missions when she was in the stealth forces so I think it’s ‘c’, Ebony Darkness thought.
There is a small rock. On top of it is a boulder. How would you remove the small rock from its position without letting the boulder fall the ground? Golden Fleece thought, before she began writing, Easy, blast it to bits, it’s no longer a boulder so it can’t fall to the ground. P.S. I’m awesome.
True or False Star Swirl the Bearded created the Teleportation Spell in the year 21 ANM? It’s definitely false, Star Swirl the Bearded lived way before that, Blissful Trance thought.
The third chairpony of the Grand Clydesdalian Academy was Neighheart Brown, but who stepped in as a temporary chair when the staff disbanded due to fears of a Changling infiltration? Uhhhhh, Star Swirl the Bearded? Sweetie Belle thought, remembering Rarity’s advice from earlier. She put it down as an answer, and moved on without worrying due to her post-hypnotic de-stressing still being in effect.
The test continued on like that for another 98 questions before Twilight signaled that time was up. Once they handed in their papers she faced them once more.
“Alright now for the final part of the test, well since it won’t really affect your grades it’s not really part of the test, it’s more of a fun extracurricular learning activity where young unicorns learn about alternate forms of magic. Like I said at the beginning, we’ll be dealing with spell books,” Twilight said.
“Isn’t using ‘fun’ and ‘learning’ in the same sentence an oxymoron?” Golden Fleece asked.
Ignoring her, Twilight continued, “Now I want you all to fan out and find a book with a low level magic incantation to try. The books to choose from were marked by Spike last night so they should be easy to find.”
Sweetie Belle and the others once again broke off and wondered around the library, flipping through the pages of the books, looking for a spell they felt they’d be able to easily cast. The books were easy enough to find, since Spike had placed a cartoonish picture of himself flashing a thumbs up as he stood next to Twilight by them. Once they had found the spell they wanted they all returned to their desks.
“So who wants to go first?” Twilight asked.
Golden Fleece started to get up, but Healing Touch was faster, resulting in Golden Fleece shooting her the stink eye.
Healing Touch opened her book to the proper page and her horn glowed white as she read, “Obsecro vos vires volo.”
Once she was done with the incantation, a small glowing circle with an arrow in it appeared in front of her for a few seconds before fading.
“Good job!” Twilight said, “That was a nice low level global speed rune you summoned. Next time remember to include the activator. Why did you choose that particular spell?”
“I was trying to do a localized speed rune. I read in an article by Lixie Twulamoon that if you cast one over a wound it will heal faster. I want to be able to use that along with my healing magic,” Healing Touch said.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Lixie Twulamoon is Trixie’s pen name, and that article’s been proven false already,” Twilight said.
“Awwww,” Healing Touch said, in disappointment.
“Don’t feel bad, your intentions were good,” Twilight said.
Twilight’s encouragement caused Healing Touch to perk back up as she made her way back to her seat.
Golden Fleece practically ran up to the front to take her long awaited turn. She opened up the rather old and worn book she had chosen and began to read as her horn glowed dark green.
“O magnum ad ostium mundo somno. Dolores inferni cirumdenderunt aperire.”
Wait that sounds way too complicated, Twilight thought, her concern building, What is she doing?
“Golden Fleece! Stop right now! You don’t know what you’re dealing with!” Twilight shouted, as the other fillies looked on in horror.
“Somnium aperire mundi salva nos!” Golden Fleece shouted, finishing up the spell.
Once she had finished a blue swirling vortex appeared in front of her. It immediately began creating a strong field of suction.
“What did you do?!” Twilight shouted in both fear and anger, as she tried to not only close the vortex, but keep herself and the others from being sucked in. Her attempts were in vain, as Sweetie Bell flew into it followed by Dinky and the others. Rather then abandon the fillies by teleporting away Twilight then proceeded to dive head first into the vortex, which closed behind her.
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.
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.
