The Nightmarish Nightmare Night!

Dear Princess Twilight,

Last time I told you about the ups and downs between me and Flaming Star to get our project done and that we ended up being the best group. It got us an invitation to Boneyard Mansion, a place that I had never heard of. The invitation was for this world’s Nightmare Night which is a few days from now.

Excuse me for venting, but the mark that we earned from our project was supposed to be our final grade for the term. Although Prof. Skull Mustache felt that in this way many would fail history, guess what he did instead. He decided to give us an exam anyway, which we were not supposed to take considering that we changed our teacher and that the last one didn’t teach us anything! That wasn’t even the worst part yet: he put the exam at the end of the week!

I decided to study, but there was not much time to study at all. So I was looking for other options.

It was Wednesday and we had just left the math class. I was talking with the girls so I could distract myself from the whole problem that I was going to face soon.

“Does anyone else think we’ve been practicing Flaming Star’s songs for a while now?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Uh, yeah, so what?” Applejack replied.

“Nothing, I just think we should practice our own songs more.”

“I agree, we shouldn’t forget about our own songs,” I said.

“So, should we practice after school?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh darling, that’s a wonderful idea!” Rarity complemented Fluttershy’s opinion and got close to her, and then Pinkie Pie jumped in and wrapped her arms around both their necks.

“Yaaaay! Let’s do it!”

“I’m down with that too; what about you guys?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Ah reckon so. What about you, Twilight?”

“I’m actually free this afternoon, so I guess some extra practice couldn’t hurt. Sunset, you are coming too, right?”

“Actually, no, I can’t.”

“Awww, why not?”

“I wish I could, Pinkie, but I’ve got a killer final in History on Friday and I need all the help I can get.”

“Whoa, whoa! You said there wasn’t going to be a test and that project you and Flaming Star were working on was going to be your grade.”

“Skull Mustache changed his mind, Rainbow Dash; now he wants to punish the entire class!”

“But we can’t practice with one of the members being absent!”

“Pinkie Pie’s right; we can’t do it without you!” Rainbow Dash added.

Twilight came near to me. “I’d like to help you with it if I can.”

“Thanks, but I have to bear the burden of studying for this on my own.”

“But you will come to the party tomorrow night, right?”

“Wait, what party, Pinkie?”

“The Nightmare Night party, silly!”

Just when she said that, I remembered the invitation from Prof. Skull Mustache. I leaned back against a locker and slid down to sit on the floor.

“Sorry, Pinkie, prior commitment.”

“Aww! But everybody’s coming to that! Even Fluttershy is coming!”

“Well, um, I haven’t really decided yet.”

“WAIT!” Pinkie shouted. “The rest of you guys are coming to the party, right?”

The girls assured her that they would be there, even though it looked like I and Fluttershy were going to be no-shows.

The group broke up a short time afterward. I thought maybe some time alone to think about my situation would help, but there weren’t any other options. It was then that Flaming Star showed up.

“Hey, Sunset!”

“Oh, Hi. How is everything?”

“Not ideal, but we can do something about it!”

“What do you mean?”

“OK, do you remember I told you Steely has access to Vice Principal Luna’s computer?”

“Yeah, and if your next question has to do with hacking into it and looking for Prof. Skull Mustache’s test, then you can turn around and walk away.”

“Keep your ethical attitude to yourself. Besides, we tried looking for the history exam file but couldn’t find it.”

“So why are you telling me this?”

“Because Skull Mustache will probably prepare the Exams himself and bring them to class the day of the test.”

“It seems to me I remember that on his first day here he ‘tested’ us, and he had brought the exam papers himself.”

“Well, I for one ain’t gonna study for that exam.”

“Studying isn’t one of my favorite things, either, but what choice do we have?”

“What if you had a choice?”

“Well, here’s a riddle for you: Who has two thumbs and is in no mood for riddles? This girl!”

He then showed me the envelope that Prof. Skull Mustache gave us. “Have you read what’s in here? Have you thought about it? He has invited us to his home! Just in creepy, weird words.”

“So?”

“So we go there tomorrow night, search around, find the exam paper, and leave!”

“He invited us to a dinner, not to some kind of mystery treasure hunt where first prize is getting a failing grade and possibly being expelled!”

“Just read it again. And use some of those mad critical thinking skills you learned from Twilight.”

I read it again. I have to admit I thought I was looking for another way out of this dilemma, but it seemed it was looking for me all along.