Canterlot Academy Trials

“Grimrose!” Blue shouted as he forced the pegasus mare’s door open. “Didja find anything yet?”

“...nnnope,” she bemoaned her lack of progress into finding the culprit behind the one who crippled Nebula. “Nobody’s willing to tell me anything. I can’t even find an inkling of a rumor.” She slumped over, and fell back onto her bed. “...Atomic would hate me…”

“Wait, for real--hang on…” Blue flew over and sat next to her. “Why would you say that about yourself, Rose?”

“I can’t even do something that simple for him…” she turned over with a frown on her face as her eyes welled up with tears. “...figure out who wronged him so he can recover in peace. Some friend I am…”

Seeing her on the verge of crying caused Blue to take a moment to himself. ‘...I’ve never seen her like this before. This is new to me.’

It had given the dragon pause as he tried to come up with some way to make her feel better. “I…well…hey. I’m sure he’d want you to…I mean he’s…he’ll get better soon…”

“I guess you’re right,” Rose replied with a sigh as she sat up and held her hoof against her abdomen. “I just…I’ve never felt like this before. Atomic is super important to me and watching him suffer like that is…it makes my heart hurt, Blue. What the heck is this…this feeling?”

Blue scratched the back of his head and tried his best to make sense of it. “Well…it’s your love for him, probably. Nebula’s important to you, yeah?”

“Important is too small a word…” Rose went on, “He was the only one that didn’t treat me differently throughout highschool.”

About 7 years ago…

“Ugh. It’s the weird goth mare.”

“Better steer clear of her or she’ll curse you.”

“I heard she comes from a family of demons who eat other ponies.”

Grimrose simply ignored these comments and with each passing day, let go of more and more of her emotions until she no longer had them. It got to a point where it was easier for her to put on a face of stone instead of confronting what annoyed her.

That is, until someone approached her. A stallion with a slightly bad case of acne who was also teased behind his back…but somehow, he didn’t let it deter the pep in his step.

“...hey, need some help?”

“Yes. I’m lost.”

“Don’t worry. I got lost when I first came here. I can help you. My name’s Atomic Nebula.”

And for the first time since she could remember, the gloomy pegasus felt her heart beat. “...Grimrose Orcus.”

“...wow, I feel bad for ponies,” Blue spoke once Rose had finished her story. “Dragons don’t get pimples. We molt, but that’s something entirely different.”

Grimrose glared at him with a small whinny.

“Sorry! Getting back on track here…it sounds like he did quite a bit for you too, huh? Guess we have that in common.”

“He inspired me to accept myself,” she replied with a sigh, “...I’m still having trouble with that, but I’ve been getting better.”

Blue folded his arms and smirked. “Heh. Me too, I’d like to think. I owe him a ton. All the more reason why figuring out who did this to him is so important.”

“...I’m still at a loss as far as that goes, unfortunately.”

That’s when Blue replied with his proposal as he snapped his fingers. “Ahaaaaa--but here’s the thing. Do you have a way to enter someone’s mind?”

“...Uh…maybe? It’ll require a lot of power but…I can try it.”

“Good. I want us to jump into Gaea’s head. She’s our prime suspect, and if we can see what she’s thinking and get her to confess from the inside…”

Grimrose’s eyes grew wide upon realizing what Blue was saying. “...then she can finally face justice for the pain she’s caused Atomic.”

“Yup,” the dragon smirked as he put his hands behind his head in a casual manner. “Came up with that one all by myself. No need to thank me.”

“No…I will. Thank you, Blue,” Rose commented with a shaky tone as she threw her hooves around him. “...but I’ll need to run a test first to make sure it’ll work.”

“Ah! Hey, it’s no problem,” he replied as he pat her on the head. “Since this was my idea, I don’t mind being the test drive for it.”

Rose let him go, and flew over to the empty space in the middle of the room. “Alright. I’m going to need a bit of your blood to make this work.”

Blue got up and followed her over. “Shit. We’ll need some of Gaea’s blood too, huh?”

“Don’t worry, I can nick some off of her no problem,” she replied as she beckoned him forward. “Now stand in the circle. Your scales are a bit thick so I won’t be able to draw blood with one of my feathers.”

“Oh I got that,” Blue stood in the pentagram symbol on the floor and bit into his thumb-claw, causing a bit of blood to leak out. “Eegh! That enough for you?”

“Yes,” Rose confirmed and caught a bit of the blood on her quill. “Now do me a favor and meditate for a bit. I should be able to activate a curse that lets me get inside your mind once you’re not fully conscious.”

“Okay…”

Blue sat down with his legs crossed and shut his eyes. It wasn’t long until he was in a sleep-like state and Grimrose was able to write the symbols down for the curse in her spellbook. From there, she shut her own eyes as well…

Poof.

And the next time she opened them, she found herself in the middle of nowhere…until piles and piles of gemstones started to appear, alongside memories of a small blue dragon and a unicorn colt.

“...I think I’m inside your mind.”

“Ho-lee-shit! It works!” Blue shouted from nearby as he flew down to meet the pegasus. “You’re actually inside my head! I guess this is what I’m thinkin’ about right now, huh?”

“Memories of Atomic…and food,” she gave the slightest, sarcastic snort, “Yup. This is your mind alright.”

“Heeeey--what’s that supposed’ta mean?”

“That it works,” Grimrose replied, “Now try and wake up.”

“Okay…”

POOF!

As soon as the dragon awakened in reality, the curse was lifted and Grimrose found herself back in her own body.

“Just as I thought. It can be broken if our target awakens.”

“Dammit…” Blue muttered as he stood upright. “Now what?”

“It means we strike in the dead of night when she’s fast asleep and less likely to wake up,” Rose went on with a more determined tone, “An intelligent rogue attacks neither the mind nor body alone. We’ll also have to attack her heart if we want to win. Just be aware of how potentially invasive and damaging this could be...”

“...sounds freaky as shit,” Blue muttered in awe before smirking once more, “I’m in. If we find that she's innocent somehow, then we'll leave her alone. Let’s do this tonight.”

And Grimrose would agree. “Tonight it is.”