Canterlot Academy Trials

After the excitement of the preliminary battles came to a close, everyone left the stadium for the day. The next set of prelims followed by the first set of finals would take place. For the moment, everyone was on their way back to the dorms to rest up in preparation for the next day.

Nebula and Blue were busy getting themselves cleaned up in the men’s showers.

“Whew…” Blue huffed as he scrubbed his arms aching biceps, “I’ve never seen a changeling pull off crazy shit like that. You had your work cut out for you, bud.”

“Me?” Nebula scoffed as he ran his blonde mane under the shower to get rid of the sweat, restoring it to its brilliant gold sheen as it went flat against his head and neck, giving him the appearance of a stallion model for a brief moment. “That minotaur dude was something else. Even though he was blind, he could somehow see all of your attacks coming!”

“Right?” Blue replied as he rubbed his muscular, scaly thighs with soap, groaning from the strain after the fight he was in earlier that day. “Aaagah...the only reason I won was because my scales are just that durable enough to resist oncoming damage. Any longer and I would’ve had my ass tossed out.”

Nebula sighed as he shook his head under the water and added shampoo. “...I feel bad for Mei though. That water-mare was something else if she was able to piss her off like that.”

“For real,” Blue replied as he started to scrub his tail, “Was she a kelpie or something?”

“I don’t think so--she didn’t have full control over water. Just mist. I think she’s a different breed from somewhere around there,” Nebula thought about it for a moment, tapping his hoof on the floor, “Might be a Glashtyn actually. A more goblin-like mare than anything.”

As soon as Nebula mentioned ‘goblin’, Blue was able to put it together rather easily. “That explains her mischievous nature and willingness to fight dirty by making Mei angry on purpose. I hope she’s alright after all that energy she expended from her anger…”

“Let’s check up on her later,” Nebula suggested. “She might wanna talk. Though, then again, I’m not no sure if she wants to. She might wanna chill after all that.”

“Wouldn’t be surprised if she’s asleep right now,” Blue mused, “That was a lot of fire magic she expunged. Speaking of which, I wonder how Rose is doing too. Her body got…purged almost.”

“Yeah no kidding,” Nebula replied with an audible shudder as he finished cleaning himself up and turned off his shower. “That guy’s holy magic was something else. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that stuff before. Think he yielded because he knew he was about to lose or because he might’ve had some other tricky stuff up his sleeve?”

Blue had also stopped his water and begun to dry himself off. The steam against his pectorals and abs caused him to trill slightly from the comforting feeling of the extra hot water. “Hrrrr…probably? That deer guy and the arcane is fulla creepy shit that we don’t know about. Just like Grimrose with the occult.” He opened his mouth wide to let out a yawn. “...aagh. Yeah it’s all starting to hit me. I think I’m gonna turn in, bud.”

“That’s fair,” Nebula replied, yawning as well as he levitated a towel with his magic to dry off his mane, neck, then backside. “I’m feeling it too…these exams are no joke.”

Everyone went to bed in their respective dorms for the evening. However, Luster Dawn watched as Nebula walked off with Blue and chatted on their way to their rooms.

‘...he’s got a lot going for him,’ she thought to herself, ‘Wish I had half as much confidence as he does…’

The next morning…

Nebula and Mei were the first members of their group to awaken and trot into the halls. They greeted each other and decided to take a walk around Canterlot to see what they could find for breakfast that morning.

But what they weren’t aware of…was that their efforts against Zesty Gourmand’s reign of terror were finally about to bear fruit.

As soon as they stepped outside and headed towards Restaurant Row…

“Man, that was rough yesterday,” Mei lamented her loss against Dewdrop, “I can’t believe I let myself get that angry.”

“Me neither,” Nebula replied and tried to encourage her, “But I guess it was a good learning experience, huh? Can’t let what other people say cause you to get so angry you lose sight of yourself. I just hope you can still pass after losing your exam battle…”

Mei nodded in defeat. “Yeah yeah, I know…” she huffed as she thought about the statements that Dewdrop made against her. Maybe it was finally time to let go of her bitterness towards the Monkeys of the East.

Then she pushed up her glasses while prancing along at a confident pace, “Meh, I’m not worried about my performance there. I’m certain that my test scores are high enough to get me to Paladin rank--oof!”

The kirin mare hadn’t been paying attention and bumped into someone who appeared to be standing in a line. A well-dressed Canterlot mare.

“Oh! Uh…sorry, ma’am,” Mei apologized with a bow, but the mare didn’t even seem to notice her. “...huh?”

Nebula looked ahead and found that the mare Mei had bumped into was standing at the back of a line that stretched from there…all the way into the Tasty Treat.

“...No way,” he muttered in disbelief at the sight. “We gotta check this out, Mei.”

“Well well well...looks like our little ‘mind game’ worked,” Mei replied with a devious smile in Nebula’s direction.