"Foals, your performance was miserable. Your parents will all be receiving letters instructing them to love you less." The elderly schoolmare adjusted her wire-rimmed glasses before looking down at the painfully neat stack of papers on her otherwise bare desk with distaste. Aged wooden paneling and a stone floor made a sharp contrast against the bright coats of the unicorn foals seated opposite her, but the riot of warm colors did nothing to warm the classroom against the chilly regard of their teacher.

"As not one of you managed to even accidentally answer half of the questions correctly, you will each have the privilege of answering one for me now." Turning her gaze on the mint green filly in the first row, the teacher's tone shifted from disapproval to poisonous sweetness. "Lyra, could you please tell the class the proper spell formulae for moving an object via levitation?"

As Lyra gave her teacher an overly bright and obviously forced grin and began to recite what she hoped was the proper spell, the purple coated unicorn three seats down did her best to appear calm. Inside, however, Twilight Sparkle's thoughts raced with growing panic as she realized that she didn't remember any of the test questions.

"That will do Lyra." As the schoolmare turned her focus to the next colt in line, Twilight's desperation suddenly gave way to an idea. Sliding down in her seat a bit, she ever so quietly slid her notes out of her desk, scanning through them furiously as the teacher questioned the next in line.

Line after line of nonsense in her own handwriting flying before her eyes, Twilight felt a hard lump of fear growing in the pit of her stomach, alongside the desperation rushing through her veins as she read and re-read the paper, willing it to tell her what she needed to know.

"Twilight. Twilight Sparkle!" The terrifically loud slap of a yardstick landing in the middle of her notes startled Twilight out of her search with a muffled squeak of fear. Timidly, she looked up through pink and purple bangs into the stern glare of the teacher towering over her desk.

"Y..yes, Ms. Rose?" Her voice was the quiet squeak of a terrified filly, but inside her head Twilight's thoughts were screaming in panic.

"The answer, Miss Sparkle?" Cabbage Rose's impatience was clear, and the rest of the class huddled in their own seats, silently thankful that they were not the target of her baleful stare.

"Um…" The lavender filly smiled awkwardly up at her teacher, queasy with panic. "What was the question again?"

A few muffled snickers from the back row were quickly silenced by a glare from the teacher, which was turned back on Twilight as well. "See me after class, Miss Sparkle." Turning to the one of the colts who had chuckled, Ms. Rose began her next question.

For Twilight, the question was drowned out by internal panic. She had completely blown it, in front of the entire class, and now she was going to have to stay after class and face one of Ms. Rose's infamous lectures. Embarrassment, shame, and fear roiled inside of the young unicorn as the rest of the period crawled by, and the other foals filed out towards their next class, leaving her alone with the teacher.

With the rest gone, Cabbage Rose settled behind her desk, seemingly having forgotten entirely about the small purple lump of unicorn-shaped misery left alone in the front row of the room. As the teacher began sorting through the test papers, minutes dragged by like hours for the filly as she waited for the other horseshoe to drop.

At length, the elder unicorn set aside her papers and gave Twilight a long and considering look. "I was there for your entrance exam, young lady, and while you managed to pass by some fluke, I begin to think this is not your place."

"But… I..." Twilight could only stammer in response, staring wide-eyed at the older mare.

"This is a school for gifted unicorns, Miss Sparkle," Ms. Rose continued, favoring purple unicorn filly with a stern look, "And clearly you lack the focus required."

Her vision swimming with tears, the young unicorn stared speechlessly at her teacher, desperately afraid of what was going to come next. Stepping out from behind the desk, the schoolmare headed for the door, leaving her last words to echo in Twilight's mind.

"Princess Celestia will be so disappointed..."

***

Gasping, Twilight Sparkle sat up in her bed, clutching at her blanket as her teacher's words echoed in her mind. Blood pounded in her ears as her heart raced along with the panic in her mind, and then began to quiet as she recognized the familiar outlines of her own bedroom in Ponyville's library-tree.

With a sigh, the lavender mare fell back against her pillows, waiting for her racing pulse to calm as she stared out one of the high windows at the calming velvet expanse of the night sky, scattered with twinkling stars. Twilight's eyes wandered until they caught sight of the moon high in the sky, shining bright and pure, unmarred by the signs of Nightmare Moon's imprisonment.

The remembered brush of a warm coat and the sweet words of a beloved mentor brought a soft smile to Twilight Sparkle's face as she settled back down to peace and quiet.

"She's not disappointed."