The Mare Behind Our Nightmares

The Mare Behind Our Nightmares

Chapter 2

The Snake Won’t Give You The Answer

“…I think it is impossible to make Rainbow Dash read even a kinder garden math book…” my assistant said as he put the last items inside of the saddlebags “but at least she is READING something. Plus, Daring Doo is pretty cool!”

“Yes… I guess you are right, Spike… It seems some things aren’t supposed to change” I sighted and looked at the clock hanging on the wall. It said it was eight o’clock, and about time to get ready for sleep. Usually, we went to bed around nine, but since tomorrow I had to wake up earlier, I needed to go earlier to bed as well. I didn’t want the Princess to see me with baggy eyes…

Right, about that, earlier in the day, after Rainbow Dash came to see me for some books, a letter arrived from Princess Celestia. As always, I started to worry…

Changeling invasion, Discord returned, Nightmare Moon returned, the castle is on fire, the dragon or griffin kingdom is attacking Canterlot, a catastrophic prediction, the end of days is near, a new enemy that Celestia or Luna cannot defeat and the Elements of Harmony were the only hope, but the enemy destroyed them (again) and we can only await for our deaths, or revive Celestia’s parents so they can help us find an nonexistent solution and… nevermind…

As soon as Spike read the letter, my fears left... almost. She only wanted a normal get together… but, wait, that’s not even normal from her, but it didn’t mean that it was bad. A small part of me told me I had to stay alert, and I obeyed it; I had put a defensive and offensive spells book in the saddlebag, between other books regarding the subject. The letter also said a chariot was coming to pick me up at seven, it was actually the time I usually wake up, but I needed time to get ready.

“So, is everything ready?” I asked Spike.

“Everything is ready, Twilight!”

“Good!” I smiled “so… I was thinking. Instead of taking care of the library tomorrow, you can go spend some time helping Rarity!”

“REALLY?”

“Of course! We can just close the library while I'm out!” I started walking up the stairs while levitating the saddlebags “but we should really go to sleep”

“Okay!” he started following me.

As soon as we got to our bedroom, Spike got inside his bed. In a matter of minutes, he was happily snoring and in the land of dreams. After kissing his forehead lightly, I also got under my bed’s covers. I was a little nervous; I didn’t know what to expect from tomorrow. As I got lost inside my thoughts, I could feel how I faded into a peaceful sleep…

…peaceful…

I was inside of a classroom, sitting on my chair. Over it, I had the basic needs of any student; a pencil, an eraser, a bottle of ink and a quill. I saw how Princess Celestia distributed the…

Science exam…

Though it was kind of weird… why the Princess? Maybe she wanted to check up on me, I was her protégée, anyways. Aside from that, everything was normal, including the fact that I had studied three days before the exam; I was always ready for anything thanks to my check lists.

After receiving my exam, I started reading the instructions for each part before answering. I was very relaxed and confident, and had a big desire to make the Princess proud… but there was something weird… why was I feeling someone’s breath next to my right ear? Maybe is another foal that didn’t study trying to cheat in the exam…

…The Princess is going to take care of him… I just have to cover my page…

But curiosity got the best of me. I looked at my right side as subtly as I could, so that the Princess didn’t think I was trying to cheat… oh, and speaking of the Princess… it was her I saw sitting right next to me, staring right into my sheet… and there went all my confidence…

...She is expecting me to write something foolish… or maybe… she thinks I’m gonna cheat! But I’ve never cheated before! And she saw me studying!

I saw a smile forming on her lips… was that good or bad?

“Is something wrong Twilight? Do I make you nervous?”

“N-no Princess! I’m fine!”

WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE ME?!

“That’s good” she giggled “well, good luck!” I thought she was leaving, but she never moved from her position.

I took a deep breath. I now knew it was another one of her tests… and I had to pass it. I regained my focus and answered everything in my sheet. When I was sure everything was perfect, I handed it over to the Princess.

…Well that was easy…

She stood up holding my paper with her magic. As she left, she gave me a smile and a wink like saying “good work”. I returned the smile. I sighted and thought of how lucky I was, and of how special the Princess could make me feel sometimes.

When the bell rang, Celestia left with the exams and another teacher entered. It was a pink unicorn mare with black short mane that carried a saddlebag. She carried her exams with her magic. She put the exams in her desk and started talking about some incidents that had been recently happening in the school about students spotting snakes in different places. This time, she talked about one a student found in the rooftop. As she spoke, she took out a dead snake out of her saddlebag… only pranksters should bring that to a class…

She handed over the test. Fortunately, this time there was nobody staring at my page, so I was relaxed once again… but there was a greater inconvenience… I did not know the first part of the exam… but I didn’t panic, surprisingly. Instead, I closed my eyes… but nothing turned black, in fact, I could still see, but everything was blue. I mentally looked inside of my saddlebag for a strange device I had in it and looked for the exam answers. When I had memorized everything, I began to copy them… I was, in fact, surprised by my own actions; I had just cheated on a test, for the first, and hopefully, the last time… but I would have time to cry about it later… but there was something else I also realized; I could control things with my mind, without the use of magic.

While filling the page, I heard how the teacher went outside for a moment. I lifted my gaze to see how a random mare took out a… snake… but it was alive… It was brown with two vertical yellow lines on its body, from head to tail. The mare placed it on the floor… and I lifted my legs when I saw the snake slowly approaching me…

“…Get it away from me…” I said, the mare ignored me, busy chatting with her friends “get it away from me” still, she ignored me “GET IT AWAY FROM ME!” and yet, even if the snake was about to bite me, she still ignored me.

Before I could feel its fangs penetrating my coat…

…I woke up…

“SNAP OUT OF IT!!”I mean, Spike woke me up.

“SNAKE!” I jumped out of bed, landing on the floor. I rubbed my head in pain “ugh… what happened?”

“You were screaming ‘GET IT AWAY FROM ME’ the whole night!”

“Uh… I’m sorry I woke you up…” I looked at the watch, feeling a little tired “…four thirty…”

“There’s still an hour to go...” he scratched his head. I looked at him; he looked tired also.

“…Go back to sleep, Spike. I doubt I manage to do the same… so I’ll be getting ready…” I stood up

“But Twilight!”

“Don’t worry about me, I…”

“You have circles under your eyes!”

“Oh no…” I went to look at myself on the mirror… Spike was right… “…I’ll go see Rarity later to see if she can fix this with some makeup…”

Chapter 2

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