//------------------------------// // Ch. 1: Lesson Plans // Story: Trapped in Slumber // by Megabrick //------------------------------// Month 3, Moon 2, of 0998 N.E. Nine hundred, ninety-eight years after The Banishment. “Twilight!" "AHH!" Twilight awoke with a start, nearly twisting out of bed. She checked her horn with a hoof, and found it to be in one piece. With a relieved sigh, she slumped back against her sweat-drenched pillow. Tears obscured her vision, but she focused on slowing her breathing. Deep breaths, in and out. In and out. It took time, but she finally began to calm down, lingering feelings subsiding slowly. She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, her vision finally clearing as she felt two small claws gently prod her. Twilight turned to see Spike sitting just to her side. Ecstatic, she couldn’t help but reach over, wrap her hooves around him, and pull him close. “Spike! You’re okay!" Spike yelped and pushed against Twilight, attempting to pry himself free. "Not for long if you drown me in your sweat!" After another moment's struggle, he finally gave-in. Begrudgingly, he wrapped his small arms around her. "Oh, I had the most awful dream...,” she began, “There was… there was fire everywhere, and-and I was in the forest, and I-I couldn’t find anypony, except … !” Twilight stopped herself, casting a worried glance toward her young charge. “Except…?” Spike looked up at her with anticipation. She hesitated to respond. “...-Lots of trees!” She finally answered with a nervous grin. “Oh,” Spike’s reply was laced with disappointment. “Well I’m glad you’re awake.” With the lull in conversation, Twilight gently let go of him and sat up, eyes blinking at her surroundings. Her eyes adjusted to find everything was in its proper place. She found herself in bed, in the middle of the room. Her desk sat against the wall, stacked with books, papers, parchment and other assorted school supplies. Beside that, Spike’s bed sat, untouched. Glowing sun rays shone through the window, comfortingly bathing her in warm light. Wait... sun!? In a sharp turn of her head, she glanced at the clock high above. “Eight fourty-three? Oh my gosh Spike, I’m late for class!” Gently shoving him to the side, Twilight leapt out of bed, and rushed over to her desk. Using her hooves, she gathered up all the necessary materials while her horn fetched the saddlebags that hung on the wall. Spike recovered, making his way to the edge of the bed and lowering himself off it. “I’ve been trying to wake you up for a while! I’ve never seen you sleep so well…” Meanwhile, Twilight levitated all of her school supplies into the saddlebags now at her sides. She rushed over to the door and wrenched it open with her magic, peering out into the hallway. “I’ll be back later!” she sheepishly hissed as she hurried out and down the hallway, leaving Spike distraught in the open doorway. “... But what about breakfast!?” The elegant halls of Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns were devoid of anypony else, an unfamiliar sight for Twilight’s usual punctuality. All she could hear was the echo of her hooves as she made a mad dash through the school, breaking the relative silence that otherwise dominated. As she turned down one hallway, her hooves quivered and she stumbled, catching herself against a wall and stopping. For just a moment, her dream came back to her. She shivered, and she could swear that her hoof-tips felt oddly chilly. She had little time to ponder this before arriving at class and wrenching the door open. To her left, rows of filled seats and tables took up most of the room, each one raised off of each other to ensure line-of-sight with the stage ahead. Well-lit thanks to the soft, magically-fluorescent bulbs above, wrinkly, old Professor Inkwell stood in the middle of a lesson. “... Just as it had filled the Griffons’ hearts with pride, so too did it fill their minds with words, just waitin’ to be set to page. During King Grover’s reign, Griffon literature flourished, and that’s what we'll be observing this week.” Once she had finished her statement, she turned to Twilight with a discerning gaze, her one good eye scowling. “Weeell, it hasn’t been since, well, since your first class with me that you’ve been late,” she began. “Take your seat Miss Sparkle, I’ll spare ya’ the trouble of explaining.” Twilight looked away with lowered ears, and quietly made her way up the rows. She heard faint snickers as she passed. Continuing with the lesson, Professor Inkwell turned back to the class. “A lot of their literature made its way to us from many authors, including-” Finally arriving at her usual seat, Twilight was surprised to find the seat to her left had also been left empty. Moon… dancer, was it? She was late, too? That was odd. Nonetheless, Twilight took a seat and began digging through her saddlebags. She retrieved a quill and placed it on the table in front of her, and a not-so-faint whisper grabbed her attention. “What happened to you? You’re not usually late.” “Thanks for the reminder,” A snide remark was the only acknowledgement Twilight offered in reply. She reached back into her bags and grabbed parchment, drawing it out onto the table and letting the ends hang-off either side as something pressed against her shoulder. She glanced over in time to catch a curious side-stare from her troublesome classmate: it was Minuette - an acquaintance, nothing more - leaning over Moondancer’s empty seat. “Seriously, you’re never late, so what’s wrong?” Twilight merely shook her head as she went to retrieve her final tool. She dug through her saddlebags, leaned closer to peer inside, and then slumped back with exacerbation, her eyes wide. She looked around frantically, before her eyes settled on an inkwell on Minuette’s portion of the table. She looked to Minuette, who returned a knowing grin. “Can I use your ink!?” Twilight sharply whispered, desperation in her voice. The other mare’s grin didn’t falter, even as Twilight clenched her jaw.  “Sure! … If you wanna tell me why you’re late, that is,” Minuette offered, leaning back comfortably with a smug look. Twilight held a hoof to the bridge of her muzzle. “Alright, fine! But… later!” she hissed, hovering her quill near the ink with intensity. Minuette shrugged, nodding in agreement. She nudged the ink in Twilight’s direction, who wasted no time in dipping her quill and setting it to her parchment. With that ordeal out of the way, Twilight was finally able to settle in amid this frantic morning. The next several minutes were spent learning and taking notes about Griffon Literature, and Twilight relished every second of it. Sharing the inkwell proved less troublesome than she had expected, even. Minuette seemingly took no notes, meaning Twilight had free range over the ink, aside from when her neighbor chose to doodle, that is. Twilight, unlike Minuette apparently, found the lesson very interesting. Not solely because of her well-known interest in books, but also because Griffon culture - or at least what she knew of it - was very refreshing. Griffons kept a respectable distance from each other, meaning ponies like Twilight could read and study in peace. She liked that; it was a far cry from the far-too-friendly and involved environment of Canterlot, she was sure of it. As if her thoughts had been broadcast to the room, Twilight was promptly interrupted by a quiet murmuring between two ponies behind her. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she didn’t care to, either; it was a rude disruption and little more than that. She simply attempted to tune them out and refocus on the lesson. “One common element you’ll find comin' up again and again this week... is the Moon,” Professor Inkwell began, sketching a rough circle onto the chalkboard and filling it with only a few tiny circles: a perfect representation of the Moon as everypony knows it. Though not to some. Twilight watched her quill dance across the parchment with speedy efficiency, before realization suddenly struck her. She inhaled quickly, and her quill dropped - leaving a large splotch of ink in the middle of her notes. Twilight merely stared, the events of her nightmare playing-out in her mind. The freezing chill returned, as if that same arctic moonlight shone upon her now. A shiver traveled down her spine, leaving her squirming uncomfortably in her seat as the murmuring around the classroom picked-up. Twilight was finally brought back to reality by a scratchy voice, echoing above the murmuring surrounding her. “What’re you all yammering about?” Professor Inkwell began as she cast judgemental eyes around the room, a smirk creeping onto her face. “Something to say about the topic, perhaps? …Care to share your insights with everypony?” Her voice carried a sense of sarcasm that silenced the class swiftly. “No? Well, let’s carry-on then.” Twilight was left to fight-off lingering unease by herself, picking up her quill with her mouth and continuing her notes. “You’ll come to notice that it’s often used to represent a bounty, treasure, or reward,” Professor Inkwell explained, “As a result of the traits it shares with coins - it's round like a coin, and it shines like a coin, in fact-” the faintest of murmurs distracted the Professor, at which point she sighed, raised an eyebrow, and simply asked, “... Are there any questions?” Several hooves went up. Twilight’s eyes widened; maybe her classmates were more interested than she gave them credit for. Perhaps the murmuring she had heard hadn’t been idle chatter, but instead genuine discussion on the relevant topic at hoof. Yeah, right. Twilight took the opportunity to look over her notes, make sure she hadn’t missed anything, and to write-around the blatant inkblot obscuring half a paragraph. Twilight could still hear a pair of murmurs behind her, apparently undeterred by the Professor’s deceptively-competent ears. Professor Inkwell in the meantime pointed a hoof at somepony. “Question?” Twilight didn’t turn to look, she was simply not all-that-interested; she was used to obvious questions. The classmate seemed to have a difficult time speaking, as-if she had been trying to put a sentence together last-minute. “So, um… I know that, like, dreams are used a lot in our books, but… what about Griffon books?” Twilight’s ears perked. Silence fell upon the room like a veil, weighing on everything. even the murmuring behind her was completely silent. Professor Inkwell gave pause, her one good eye scanning the classroom. Looking for something? Her gaze returned to the classmate as she finally answered. “...Dreams? Well erm…, I can’t say for certain. From what I understand, Griffons don’t place as much significance on dreams the same way we do... But, well, we’ll get to that later! Next question?” Twilight frowned with dissatisfaction. As the questions continued, Twilight focused on double-checking her notes. Unfortunately for her, Minuette took this as an opportunity to lean across Moondancer’s empty seat again and whisper something that gave Twilight pause. “You had a nightmare, didn’t you?” Twilight’s eyes widened as she whipped her head to face Minuette, taking a deep breath and whispering sharply; “How do you know!?” The corners of Minuette’s mouth curled in mirth, looking at Twilight with a bemused expression. “I didn’t, not until now,” she replied. She shrugged before continuing: “As if it wasn’t obvious,” she chuckled quietly, “You’ve been a bit of a wiggle-worm ever since the Moon came up. Not like- oh, you know what I mean.” Minuette gave a casual flick of her hoof. “But what does that have to do with-,” Twilight began, prompting Minuette to explain. “My roommate woke up from a nightmare this morning, too. She kept talking about the Moon.” Minuette gave sideways glances at the rest of the classroom. “... And it seems you two aren’t the only ones.” Twilight didn’t understand Minuette’s reasoning, until it suddenly clicked. “Wait, is that why everypony’s been whispering?” She had to admit, they weren’t normally this distracted… most of the time. “My best guess? Yes,” Minuette replied with a quiet giggle. Twilight caught Minuette mutter to herself: “ … Does that count as poetry?” Twilight paid her self-gratification no mind, instead busily working through this new information. If they had had nightmares too, about the Moon no less, that would have been a huge coincidence, but- no… that’s a statistical improbability. There's simply no way...  Psh, she was probably just paranoid - suffering from residual fear, and Minuette definitely wasn’t helping. In fact, Twilight moved to correct her. “That doesn’t mean-” “Miss Sparkle?” Twilight’s heart sank. Turning to look, she saw all-eyes were suddenly on her, including a remorseful Minuette’s and Professor Inkwell’s, who didn’t look particularly pleased on the best of days. Twilight’s breath was caught in her throat, her heart skipping a beat as she worked-up the courage to reply. “... Yes Professor?” She replied sheepishly. She heard a faint snicker from elsewhere in the classroom. Professor Inkwell moved to reply, her voice flat and to-the-point. “I’ve been patient, but I wanna hear why one of my best students not only arrived late, but also carried on whisperin’ after a warning.” Twilight’s mouth twitched as she searched for a reply. She felt the weight of everypony’s gaze on her, though some seemed to be awkwardly avoiding eye-contact as well. She sat stiffly in her seat, wishing she could teleport away right this moment. If only she were better at that. Minuette came to her rescue, holding a hoof out in-front of Twilight’s face. “I asked her about a really interesting dream she had! My bad, Professor,” Minuette nervously laughed before resting her hoof and returning to sit. Twilight looked at her, bewildered, as Minuette only continued to grin nervously at the professor. The Professor gave a faint, breathless chuckle. “Well, I can certainly say I’ve come to expect that from you Minuette, but I don’t understand why Twilight would have entertained the question in the first place. Well?” She returned her gaze to Twilight, who shrunk in her seat. The room was silent as Professor Inkwell cleared her throat. Before Twilight could work up a reply, elsewhere in the classroom a voice spoke-up. “Was yours a nightmare too?” “Mine was!” A classmate replied, standing to make herself known.  Immediately, two very-tired looking ponies in the next row replied. “Ours too. Like, we both couldn’t get back to sleep!” Twilight caught a sideways glance at Minuette, who was looking at her with a pleased expression, proven right. Twilight couldn’t deny it any longer; this was no coincidence. Something like this simply couldn’t happen without some explanation. The Professor seemed uneasy as her eyes leapt between students sounding-off, one-by-one, about nightmares they had. Very few shared much detail, but Twilight easily picked-up the one common element. “That’s enough!” The professor replied with exacerbation, a clear nervousness overtaking her lethargic demeanor. “While the nature of dreams is a mystery, now is simply not the time to be discussing this. Please save it for after class.” Although the class gave quiet agreement, the rest of the hour felt tense, as if a storm cloud hung over the room. Nopony was able to keep focused anymore, and Professor Inkwell’s unsteady irritation seemed to grow by the minute, until finally she ended class early, taking the opportunity to leave in a hurry. For once, Twilight and her classmates were of the same opinion on this. Determination fueled her to pack-up quickly and make for the exit. She had research to do. As she went through the door out into the hall, Minuette squeezed through and walked alongside her. “You’re going to the library, right?” “What gave you that idea?” Twilight replied with a huff, rolling her eyes at Minuette’s apparent seventh-sense. “Because, you may not like talking to anypony, but you’re practically an open book, Twilight. You think something else is going on, so you’re going to do some research. And I’m coming to help!” Twilight stopped and looked at Minuette, exacerbated. “What? Why?” Minuette shrugged with an apologetic grin. “To make-up for getting you singled-out like that,” she explained. “And I won’t take no for an answer! My roommate had a nightmare too, remember? I'd like to figure out what's going on.” Twilight sighed, but nonetheless offered no argument as she continued walking, Minuette tagging-along whether she was welcomed or not.