The winds howled in protest while the snow beat itself against the windows, but the students within the walls of the classroom had far more to worry about than the blizzard outside. For it was test time, and the students under the tutelage of Diana knew that her tests were ones to be feared. Her tests were crafty and most of the time the questions had more than one answer.
So, as Diana walked down the rows of seats with a smile on her face, handing out the sheets of paper to the students, they all felt a chill go down their spines when they stared down at the last test for the year. All except for Twilight, who relished the challenge that Diana's tests gave her.
"You should all know the rules by now. You have until the end of class to complete the test. Work hard and no talking. And if I catch any of you cheating...well...I'll let your imaginations take care of the rest," Diana said with a small chuckle, chilling the room further. "Now then, the test begins...now."
Every student turned their attention to their tests and began to scribble away, allowing Diana and the owl on her desk to gaze out across the room and see which students had studied and which were in for a rough time.
'Poor Crush, seems this test might be the one that causes his brain to stop,' Athena said with a shake of her head. Diana gazed over at the student to find him banging his head against his desk in a desperate attempt to recall what he had learned.
"Crush, please keep the noise down. You'll disturb the other students," Diana advised. Crush obeyed her words immediately, but Diana could see that he was almost on the brink of tears. "Crush, I've also found that meditation and deep breathing can be helpful in recalling information. If you are willing to bash your head against your desk, then perhaps you would also be willing to give this a try."
With nothing to lose, Crush closed his eyes and began to softly breath. Diana smiled before turning her gaze to the rest of the students. Diana gazed over Fluttershy quickly, seeing that her face was a pale color and she was chewing nervously on her pencil. But then Diana glanced down at her test and found that she was doing well.
'She doesn't need any advice,' Diana decided while gazing at the only empty chair in the room. With the injuries Sunset had received, she had fallen behind a few weeks in terms of classwork.
'It was very kind of you to allow her extra time to study so she wouldn't fail,' Athena said after seeing where Diana had been looking.
'Somehow, I get the feeling she would pass even with the missing time,' Diana smirked. 'But I do not wish to push her too hard. She already does that to herself. Between her training and "helping" me with finding solutions to Hades, I figured she could use a little more time for school.'
'Diana, you're not showing favoritism because Sunset is your prized pupil, are you?' Athena asked in a joking tone.
'Of course not. I'm simply taking into account what Sunset has gone through and adjusting accordingly. It's not her fault that one of Hades' lackeys attacked her,' Diana thought in reply, before a smile crossed her face. 'Besides, Sunset wouldn't be happy if I went easy on her. That's not the kind of person she is. She works hard and given the chance, she'll soar even higher.'
'Yes, she does. Now if only every student you gave that chance to would take it,' Athena muttered. Diana glanced at the back of the room towards a rainbow-haired student, knowing full well at whom Athena was looking. With her enhanced eyes, Diana was able to easily see the sweat forming on Rainbow's forehead while her face had a look of absolute terror upon it.
'Seems that she didn't know about the change to the final section. That's what she gets for missing the tutoring you tried to offer her,' Athena chuckled while Diana simply shook her head with disappointment. 'That's right, this test is her last chance to get her grades up so she can play on her team. What does she need to get on the test to make that happen again?'
"At least an A-," Diana muttered. Her focus was taken away from Dash and to Twilight, who was walking up to her desk with a smug smile on her face.
"That was a pretty tricky last question, but only for students who forgot the little hints that you dropped at the end of the last class," Twilight said as she handed her paper to Diana. Diana and Athena both rapidly glanced over the test. A large smile crossed Diana's face when she finished looking it over before she raised her eyebrows at Twilight.
"One hundred percent again, Twilight. You never fail to impress," Diana said as she grabbed her red pen and wrote the letter grade at the top of the paper. "With brains such as yours, you have many doors open to you. I am curious to see what you decide to do in the future."
Twilight made a squeaking sound as she took the test and raced out the door, Diana smirking when she spied Twilight do a fist pump on the other side. She then glanced up at the clock to see that there was still plenty of time left and went back to watching the students like a hawk.
One by one, the students came up and handed their tests to Diana. They waited before her with nervous looks as she gazed over their tests, deciding their fates. "Good job Fluttershy, this is a B. You've put a lot of work into this. D+ Crush, a far better score than your previous test. See, you are learning. Seriously, Lightning Dust? You drew on your test?"
The students filed out of the room after Diana graded their tests, until the only people left in the room were Diana and Rainbow Dash, who was still staring down at her paper in the back. Rainbow Dash dared a glance up at the clock to see that she had only a few minutes left, causing her face to fall...as she slammed her head onto her desk.
"Do not worry about the time, Rainbow," Diana said, causing Rainbow to snap back up. "You can go until you finish." Rainbow visibly sighed in relief before turning her attention back to her paper. Athena raised an eyebrow at Diana's words before the door opened and the face of Sunset peeked in. Diana held up a finger to signal that she needed more time. Sunset nodded and closed the door after giving Rainbow a worried look.
Ten more minutes passed before Rainbow Dash slowly rose out of her chair and walked towards Diana's desk. Both Diana and Athena noticed that her legs were shaking as she approached the teacher, and when she handed her test to Diana she couldn't look the teacher in the eyes. Diana raised an eyebrow at Rainbow's behavior before she and Athena glanced over the test.
'Well, she did better on this than I expected,' Athena admitted. 'Ah, but there we go. There's the errors in the section she missed out on. Well I've done the math Diana and I believe the both of us know what she got on this test.'
'Yes. B,' Diana agreed before glancing up at Rainbow Dash, who looked like she was going to throw up. Diana then removed her glasses as she glared at Rainbow Dash with a stern look, a look that nearly made Dash hurl. "Rainbow Dash, I can't help but notice that most of the points that you missed came from the last section, a section that I went over in great detail during our morning tutoring--tutoring you were not there for that day."
"I-I know that I missed that day, but something really important came up that I had to take care of!" Rainbow Dash argued.
"That's fine. But then why didn't you come to me afterwards and see if you could have made up what you missed?" Diana asked. Rainbow's response was to stare at the floor with a look that Diana couldn't place. "Rainbow Dash, what was so important that it took up days of your time, time that you could have been using to study for this test?"
"I...can't say," Dash finally admitted. Diana and Athena both shared a look at her response.
'It had to be something related to the vortexes that have been opening up recently,' Diana thought. 'Sunset told me that they started to appear again.'
'As sad as that is, Rainbow still failed to get the grade she needed. Perhaps if she had taken learning seriously from the beginning, then this wouldn't have happened,' Athena said with no compassion in her voice. Instead of responding, Diana chose to glance down at Rainbow's test once more.
'With the grades that she was getting at the beginning of the year, it is still impressive that she was able to get such a high score,' Diana noticed before glancing again at the two bonus questions. 'She even figured out acceptable responses to my riddles, something only Sunset managed to do in the past. She really devoted herself, didn't she?' Diana then crossed her hands and thought for a long time. She glanced up at Dash with a stern look, one that nearly brought Dash to tears.
"Rainbow Dash...I'll talk to your coach and get you put back on the team." How quickly Rainbow Dash went from nearly having a breakdown to euphoric surprised Diana, and a moment later Rainbow Dash was dancing around the room yelling as loud as she could.
"You mean I passed?!" Rainbow Dash asked Diana when she had finally calmed down enough.
"Your test showed me that you have learned. You also showed me how dedicated you are to your friends and helping others," Diana explained, though her explanation only caused Rainbow Dash to stare at her teacher with confusion. "The bonus points are what saved you. But to put it simply: yes, you passed."
Dash let out another victory cry while Diana stood up, marking down a few things on Dash's test before handing it back to her. Dash grabbed the test and held it tight, before racing towards the door with the largest grin on her face.
"However," Diana said with such authority that Dash was stopped dead in her tracks, "if you stop studying or your grades fall once more, then not only will I take you off the team once again, I will personally drag you to the tutoring lessons with Sombra and make sure that you attend each one. Am I clear?"
"Yes Ma'am!" Rainbow Dash said as she saluted Diana. Diana then smiled and waved Dash away with a chuckle. The student raced out of the room, but as Diana cleaned up her desk she could still hear Rainbow Dash celebrating in the halls.
'I am not happy with you, Diana,' Athena said with some heat while Diana finished packing up. 'Dash did not deserve to pass. You and I both know that. Yet you chose to give her a higher grade than what she deserved. I am disappointed.'
"Didn't you hear me, Athena? I gave her bonus points," Diana responded as the door to her room opened once more.
"Um, can I come in now?" Sunset asked.
"Of course, Sunset. How are you feeling?" Diana asked her student while ignoring the looks of anger and rage that Athena was giving her.
"Much better, actually. And I'm ready to begin training again!" Sunset said with confidence, gaining a laugh from Diana.
"I have no doubt that you are, but I would prefer if you rested a little longer, just to be safe," Diana replied as she headed for the exit. Sunset pouted for a second before following Diana out of the room. "However, there is something that you can do for me."
"What's that?" Sunset asked.
"You said that your friends in Equestria are skilled at magic, correct?"
"Well, I'm skilled as well, but yes, they are."
"Good. Because I've been doing some thinking and an answer to a question continues to elude me. Care to take a guess at what the answer might be?"
"Of course!"
"Good. My question is, why hasn't Hades himself come to your world and tried to steal the magic himself?" Diana asked. "All he has done so far is send in minions of his that he knows stand no chance against me. Now if he were to come himself, even I couldn't guarantee that I would keep all of you safe. But he hasn't yet. And my question is why?"
"Maybe...because there's a magic here that's keeping him out?" Sunset answered.
"An excellent idea. In fact, that is right along the lines that Athena and I were thinking," Diana praised with a smile.
"But I thought you didn't have an answer."
"We don't. That's just our hypothesis for now," Diana answered. "But say there is a magic that is keeping Hades out, but not his forces. What do you think we should do next, then?"
"Well, I would modify the magical power so that it would keep both Hades and all of his..." Sunset trailed off, catching onto Diana's plan and gazing up at her with a smile. "You want me to see if my Equestrian friends can figure anything out about this magic and help us with creating a shield that will prevent Hades from getting to this world?"
"And my star student strikes again," Diana said with a laugh, but as she laughed she didn't see Sunset's eyes light up at her words. "Yes, if we can make that barrier even stronger, then perhaps not only would we be able to keep Hades out, but maybe that nightmare that wants to end your life. If we could do that...then I would no longer need to protect you and your friends."
"So then...you would go home, right?" Sunset asked as she looked away.
"I have to eventually. I am needed on my world."
"Yeah, I figured," Sunset whispered sadly before glancing up at Athena, who was glaring at Diana. "Um, why is Athena so mad at you? I've never seen her mad at you."
"Do you mind if I answer your question with a question?" Diana asked in reply, getting a confused look from Sunset. "Can you tell me what Rainbow Dash was doing during the early morning last Tuesday?"
"That's easy. A three-headed serpent came through a vortex and attacked Rarity on her way to school. Rainbow Dash got her call for help and raced to her from the school. If Rainbow hadn't shown up, Rarity might not have made it," Sunset explained, though she was confused a moment later when Diana gave a smug smile to Athena.
"So, she missed class so that she could save her friend and stop a monster. I'd say that's worth some bonus points, wouldn't you Sunset?" Diana asked. Sunset could only nod her head in confusion once more, not knowing why Athena then let out a scoff and flew off on her own.
"What was that about?"
"Don't worry, gods just have a hard time admitting defeat," Diana laughed as the two reached the front doors. "Come on, it's the last day of school for the year and I want to teach you a few tricks to fighting in the snow. Need to make the most of the time we have left, after all."