Canterlot Academy Trials

“AGH!” Zesty Gourmand awakened from her afternoon nap in a cold sweat, and rubbed her head as she sat up in bed. “...What…was that dream? Was that…me?”

She paused and glanced at herself in a mirror. "...what have I done?"

POOF!

The entire group re-appeared in the real world in Canterlot behind the penthouse building. It was still the middle of the day, meaning that not much time had passed in the real world ever since they had entered the Mindscape.

“Ow…” Nebula groaned as he picked himself up off the grass. “That was…rather painful,” he huffed as he rubbed his horn. The strain from being in someone’s mind for so long had hit him all at once. “Everyone okay?”

“...yeah,” Grimrose muttered while flexing her wings. “But my head…I can barely stand.” Given that she was the one who had to form the connection into someone’s mind in the first place, it made sense as to why she was dizzy.

“...I’m alright,” Mei sputtered after shaking her head. “Can anyone see Blue?”

Both Nebula and Rose paused, staring at her in silence for a moment.

Mei tilted her head, “What?”

The ponies’ eyes traveled downwards…

And there, they would see Blue’s entire face nearly been engulfed, and crushed by Mei’s massive butt cheeks.

“AH!” Mei gasped and got up off of him, blushing profusely with her entire face red. “I’msosorry! Ididn’tmeanit! I’mnotapervertIswear!” she squealed apologetically while standing over the blue dragon.

“Urgh…” Blue had a slight smile on his face as he opened his eyes and sat upright. “...I’ll…let it slide this one time,” he replied with a snide grin while poking his tongue out at her.

“T-that doesn’t help!” she anxiously pranced in place with a stutter as Blue started to snicker. “I-I won’t let it happen again, I promise!”

Nebula stood up and flicked his tail. “...come on, guys. Let’s head back and take a rest. We’ve been through a lot.”

“Yeah,” Rose followed him with a yawn. “...nothing to do now but wait and see what’ll happen.”

“Pleaaaase don’t tell anyone what just happened,” Mei pleaded to Blue as he started to get up. “I’ll do anything…”

The dragons scratched the back of his head. “Don’t worry about it…come on, let’s get back to the dorms and get some rest, yeah?”

And rest they would.

Our team of heroes would return to Canterlot Academy and retire to their dorms for the day. With nothing left to do but wait and see if their efforts bore fruit, they needed to relax after the tremendous mental undertaking they endured by going in someone else’s mind. Grimrose especially, given how much she had to focus to maintain them there.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Academy…

Luster Dawn was in her independent study lab working on various magical texts from archaic books from the library’s restricted section.

“Need to get this exactly…” she muttered while copying the sigils she had found and replicating them on another scroll…

“HEY!” Princess Twilight Sparkle appeared, pushing the door open by force via magic and startling Luster, causing the latter to set her scroll on fire!

“HEEEGH!” she let out a horse-like whinny as the parchment wet up in flames.

“How’s my favorite student doing?” Twilight trotted over to greet her, as her personal guard, Flash Sentry rolled his eyes from where he stood.

“...you could’ve knocked, ya know,” he remarked from the doorway with a roll of his eyes.

Twilight scoffed and stuck out her tongue. “Oh pshaw, don’t worry yourself.”

Meanwhile, Dawn had leaned against the table with her cheek resting and squished against her hoof. “I was in the middle of creating a breakthrough for a runic engine.”

“Oh c’mon, Luster…” Twilight put a hoof around the pink unicorn whose expression remained neutral and unamused. “You won’t learn anything cooped up in your study all day. What have I told you about what happened with Moondancer?”

Dawn gently pushed her teacher’s hoof away from her body. “That…was a bit different if I recall correctly. That was mostly on you…because you left her without saying anything, right?”

“Sharp as ever, huh?” Twilight replied with a nod, “But yes. I made a mistake that I needed to rectify with her when we got older. I just don’t want you to fall into the same position, Luster.”

In spite of this, Dawn wasn’t so easily moved by her teacher’s words. She may have been the Princess of Equestria itself, but it didn’t mean Dawn would snap into what her teacher would desire for her.

“I won’t end up in that position,” Dawn insisted as she levitated a new piece of parchment via her magic, “I’m not really…interested in hanging around others, Twilight. I know Princess Celestia made you go to Ponyville to learn, but…”

Thankfully, it seemed as if Twilight was more understanding than her own teacher was. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to force you to go anywhere you don’t want to,” she explained with a kind smile, “...but all I’ll say is that I recommend that you…” She paused and looked upwards for a moment before finding the correct words, “...at least find yourself some allies.”

“Allies, huh?” Dawn asked in a snarky, rhetorical tone, “Not ‘friends’?”

“Just trying to make it more approachable for you,” Twilight giggled as she got up and backed away from her table, “Even Starswirl the Beared and Clover the Clever needed help when their backs were against the wall, Luster.”

“Hrm…” Dawn sighed as she idly tapped a quill on the table. “...what I’d give to have a guy like Clover the Clever helping me out…he’d know what to do.”

Twilight’s ear flicked as she raised an eyebrow at what she had heard. “Ooooh? Does my favorite student have a type?”

“N-no!” Dawn blushed profusely and started to push the snickering Twilight Sparkle out of her room with her magic. “L-listen, I’m very busy right now so just leave me be, please!”

And with a slam, she shut the door with her magic as well, leaving Princess Twilight on the outside with Flash Sentry.

“...that went well,” he commented off-handedly, earning a small glare from Twilight. “Hey, I’m just calling it like I see it.”

Twilight’s expression softened with a sigh as she started to walk through the hall with Sentry in tow. “Argh…I just want her to get out a bit more is all.”

“Can’t rush these things,” Sentry added as he caught up next to her, looking upward to his tall princess’ face, “After all, it took you about…what, ten years or so before Celestia decided you were ready to rule this place?”

“...Fair enough, I suppose,” she shook her head. “...So much is going on now. The yaks are looking for aid, the dragons are trying to offer rare minerals, and a member of the Monkey King’s court is here in one of the dorms!”

“...calm down,” Sentry urged her, “Come on. Let’s go get a hayburger, huh? Calm your nerves a bit.”

“Icouldgoforthat-”

Meanwhile, around the corner that Twilight and Flash Sentry walked passed, a certain dalmatian was leaning against the stone wall. "...how curious."