//------------------------------// // Sweet Dreams Aren't Made of These // Story: My Little Heartbreak: Meanwhile, Back at the Farm // by Jet_Black1980 //------------------------------// Chapter 10 Sweet Dreams Aren’t Made of These The bell rang in Twilight’s ears and suddenly she found herself in a crowd of faces. Hundreds of faces. At least they looked like faces. They certainly weren’t pony faces though. “Where am I?” she asked out loud among the swarm. Then a slight creeping feeling ebbed at her. The fear of being late for a class. How could she forget that she was at school? She looked through the sea of moving beings, and with a sudden burst of speed, she took after to it. A couple of the beings stood in an alcove near two double doors of the school wing. They were leaning against the wall and laughing at some prior joke when they spotted her. “Run, Forrest! Run!” one of them called out. Twilight glared at them for a second, but continued on to her classroom. After all, she wasn’t here to talk to other students. She was here to learn. And right now, all these...kids, they were in the way of that. She paused and looked at the blurred images of the others around her. They were the same monkey-like creatures that she had seen once before. But, they were more juvenile, less matured. Many of them were in conversations of their own, gesturing and huddled in small groups near what looked to be lockers that lined the walls. “Is this the place she is from?” Twilight asked, momentarily pausing. Then the feeling of fear tugged at her. The fear of being late for class. It pushed her forward and to her final destination. She walked into the classroom and was met with a strange sight. Odd boxes with screens were sitting on rectangular tables. The tables were set up in a ring around the edge of the room and a ‘U’ shape in the middle of the room. The students hadn’t arrived yet and the teacher was sat at her desk looking somewhat surprised at Twilight. “Where do I sit?” Twilight asked, looking at the teacher. An older female with greying hair. “Seeing that you are here first, you can take whatever computer you like,” she responded. Twilight took a seat at the lower right side of the ‘U’ shape. There was a rectangular board in front of her with little buttons that were way too small for any hoof to tap. There was a heavy thumping sound on the ground and she looked over and saw what appeared to be a backpack that was practically over stuffed with books and papers. Had she been carrying that with her? A group of students started filing into the class and began to take their seats. She reached forward almost absent mindedly and her hoof flicked a switch. The screen in front of her started to come to life. White words in long instructions scrolled over the glass window before her. There were a series of beeps, clicks, and whirrs that accompanied them. Finally, the screen turned a faint sky blue and there were tiny images on the right of the screen. They read ‘computer,’ ‘desktop,’ ‘files’ and ‘trash’. Twilight started to feel antsy about the device in front of her. The school bell rang and the teacher started talking. “Today class, we are going to learn how to make a header for letters.” Twilight blinked. Normally anything dealing with a letter would have excited her, however, a different set of emotions were bubbling to the surface. Boredom and impatience were the primary ones. As this teacher kept talking, her attention began to wane and the slight feeling of her intelligence being insulted by the assignment began to grow. She glared at the computer screen in front of her. It flickered with an almost dull light. “What is the point of taking a class about things I already know about?” she thought, eying the contents of the backpack next to her. As the teacher finished talking, the students around her placed their...hands. Yes, those were hands on their keyboards. Delicate, thin fingers began to type away at the keys. She wondered how her fellow students could even find any joy or interest in such a boring assignment. Then an idea struck her. A rather horrible idea, a terrible idea. She leaned forward to the computer screen and set her hooves near the keyboard. She stared at that glowing one eyed square in front of her. There was a flashing black bar near the top the screen and an assortment of little letters. She looked around and wondered if she should even do what she was going to do. It was so out of character for her to feel this way about an assignment or even about a teacher! But an excitement went through her as she heard the clitter-clatter of the keys in front of her. What was exactly happening? She looked down, her hooves sat at the base of the keyboard and yet the sounds kept coming. “How am I even doing this?” she wondered. But by the time she had finished that thought. Her horrible deed was done. The letter head was in large font and clearly readable from her screen. The sudden thrill of what she was going to do was now filled with shame and fear at what she had done. “The Instructor of this class is an Ignominious” Twilight felt the presence of something even worse behind her: Her teacher. Turning around, she felt the unnerved and rather wary smile creep on her face. “You think this is funny?” the teacher asked. “No I just thought that-” Twilight sputtered. “It doesn’t seem to me like you were thinking at all. I want you to see me outside in the hall. Now,” the teacher said in an authoritative manner. Twilight squeaked and walked out the door. As she did so, the classroom and hallway seemed to fade into a nothingness. ============================================================== I must be dreaming again. Several factors are cluing me into this little fact. One: I’m human again. Two: I am in a classroom setting. Three: I am sitting at a desk. I have only been in Equestria for nearly a month and a half and May is quickly approaching. So technically, I’ve seen three months. That is if you want to get technical. This point doesn’t seem to be very important to what is going on around me at the moment, but dreams are funny that way. I’m the type of person who dreams vividly. I remember most of my dreams and all of them are in colour. The whole last March and April was consumed by nightmares with pepperings of few pleasant dreams. All of my nightmares were haunted with images of Celestia standing before me and telling me that I wasn’t worthy on some level. In each one I would start out as a perfectly normal human and then something would happen, a perception shift, a transformation, or something and suddenly I would be on all fours; begging the Princess to let me live. The pleasant dreams - if you care to call them that - were more or less just me in the library. However, as I stated before, the thing that is tipping me off to this being a dream is that I am at school. I am seated at the front of the classroom, which is normal. It makes it easier for me to get from class to class. There is a murmur of the students around me talking about various subjects, ranging from if they got their homework done to what they are doing this Saturday and the like. Unimportant things really, then the teacher walks in. Alright, now I know for sure that I am dreaming. My teacher is an orange-ish unicorn with a blown back white mane dressed in a lab coat. “Today class, we are going to be working on our understanding of proper alchemical safety. About what magical ingredients are safe to keep together, and which are highly volatile,” he says, picking up a piece of chalk. Notes start writing themselves up on the board and he continues to give his talk about what compounds do what, why it’s not a good idea to mix dragon’s blood with arctic brine. My attention fades from what he is talking about and I find myself eying the clock on the wall. “So, for this lab, you will need to partner up!” Those words are like a shock of cold water to my face. A sudden rush back to the reality of the classroom setting. Almost instantly some young purple unicorn zips up to my desk. “I call her!” he announces loudly. Frowning, I see that once again, my hands have warped into hooves. And once again, there is a horrible twitch that crawls over my face. I have no idea who this stallion is, but already he’s irritating me. “Can’t you go find somep-p-pony else?” I ask, my dream voice squeaking up to meet my waking voice. “What about him-” I begin to ask the question, but some pony partners up with them. He gives me a smarmy look. “What about-” Again, I try to point out a different student, but almost instantly, they get partnered up. “Grrrr! What about that one?” I point out a rather clumsy looking colt over in the corner. He smiles at the purple pony. The return colour on his face is a priceless squirming. “I-I’d rather not, besides!” another unicorn pairs up with the clumsy looking one. “He looks like he already has a partner. And every other pony is taken.” his smarthy grinning makes me feel ill as he points out that little fact. “My name is Ash Charmer.” he attempts to kiss my hoof as some form of greeting. I quickly pull it away and glare at him. “Right. Charmer. ‘Charmed’ to meet you. But seriously, we’re classmates. And I intend on keeping it that way.” “I didn’t mean it like that,” he says, looking hurt. “I am a foreigner as it were. Where I am from, we greet all mares like so.” His eyebrows waggle a bit. “Whatever,” I reply, looking at my desk. “Are you all paired up?” the teacher asks the class. “Good, alright, let’s begin by opening up our books to page 377.” “And what do they call an enchanting mare like yourself?” Ash asks me. A familiar face leans forward from behind us. “Early bird!” Ugh, what was her name? Pearly White or something like that? “Mind your own business,” I tell her. Ash turns up his nose at her and lets out a ‘humph!’ noise. “I’ll have you know that punctuality is one of the best qualities that any student can strive for. And a quality that only the smartest, most intelligent and quite frankly, enchanting mares can possess.” A sudden flush comes over my face and I attempt to scoot away from the both of them. I do not need another Ghost Writer in my life and I certainly don’t need one in my dreams. “Awww! Look! She’s blushing!” Pearly says, raising her voice to the point where all the other students start to stare at me. Their giggles start spreading through the room. I can see them pointing and making funny faces at me. “I am not!” I state in protest. Ash just smiles a gentle smile and speaks. “Don’t mind them. They’re just jealous. After all, the smartest mares are always the cutest ones.” I back away from him even more. But a questioning look is painting my face. “D-d-did you just call me ‘cute?’” I ask. The flush in my face starts to feel like it is spreading through my body in the form of a rather odd feeling. What is this feeling? “Where I am from, we always speak the truth,” he says proudly. “So if I say something, I mean it!” I swallow hard and realize what the feeling is: Attraction. I am feeling attraction to this stallion. “So will you be my partner?” he asks. My thoughts are starting to race and new conflicts are arising in my mind. “No! This isn’t right, this isn’t what I want! Get it out of my head! Stop feeling this feeling! Wake up! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE. UP!!” Ash’s voice interrupts my panic-filled thoughts. “Well?” “NO! Get away from me!” I shout at him. The whole of the class is looking at me now in a befuddled manner. “NO! This isn’t right! All of you! Get away from me!” Ash is taken back. “I was just-” he reaches forward. “NO! I. DO. NOT. WANT. THIS!” I scream at the top of my lungs. My hoof lunges forward towards Ash, but instead of hearing the thudding sound of hoof on flesh, I hear the sound of shattering glass. Looking up I see black cracks in the world. Confused, startled, and afraid, I just continue to send my hooves flying in every which direction. Each time is met with a satisfying glass shattering noise. Ash attempts to say something, but it is only met with one final blow that causes the whole dream to crumble around me. And into a black inky void...