Tests.

There had once been a time when that word would elicit a different response. Hokey Smokes had been the type of colt who studied, and that had translated out into tests being easier. That was actually something he had been good at, taking tests, and it had helped him graduate. It might have been better if he had tried a little harder, done a little more work. He was, by no means, the one who had graduated with highest honors. Second place wasn’t his spot, either, you’d have to start heading down. Out of a class of seventy-eight, he was fifteenth. It might have been fourteenth if he had put in more effort, or it might not have been. None of that was important right now, as those same tests would be impossible for him to pass. Everything had been so much easier before the events with the Ursa. Everything had been so much better for him, even if he didn’t like looking back at how he had been. What was more important to him, though? Was it more important to be magical or more important to be somepony that he could stand to look at? None of that could really be decided yet, though, he had to focus on the tests that were coming forth.

“What kind of tests?” He finally asked, bringing himself out of his own thoughts.

“We’re going to head downstairs and hook some wires up to your head. Then I’m going to examine you while you try to perform basic spells.”

Yep, today is going to be horrible. Thoughts were already going through his head about what could happen. If he failed at the basic spells, she wouldn’t be happy. If she was friends with everypony in town, his failure might spread around. This wouldn’t just end with him being out of a job, which was definitely a good thing to fear, but it would end with his graduation being nullified. All of his hard work would be for nothing; he would have to go back to the beginning. His eyes went wide at the thought; he had disliked the earlier grades. Tests were one thing, but dealing with the ponies that were in classes was another. There were a lot of rude ponies, a lot of them who were actually more skilled than him, and that had been back then. What would happen now? Hokey Smokes was an adult, it would be the most terrifying thing that he could possibly think of. The thoughts came with a widened expression, and of course a lack of paying attention to everything that was around him. How did any of that matter when he was going to be sent back all the way? How could today get any worse? Hokey Smokes just knew that he was going to be forced to take the entrance exams again, too. He would-

*smack*

That was one way to get him out of the fear. “I’m awake!”

“I told you it would be the easiest way to get him to focus.” The young dragon said, going over to pick up the apple that had been thrown.

“And that is why you’re my number one assistant!” She gleefully said, and then turned back to Hokey Smokes. “Don’t worry, the wires won’t actually be attached. It won’t hurt at all, I promise.” With that, she turned to start walking. It was almost as if she knew he would follow, even after he had frozen up only a few moments prior. The only other possibility was that she wasn’t thinking about that at all.

Should I tell her that it has nothing to do with the wires? I probably should. “If I don’t do all that well today,” he said as he started to follow her. “You’re not going to get me sent back to magic school, are you?”

At that point, she stopped and looked at him. He stopped as well, though it was only a moment before he would have run into her. Unexpectedly, after a few blinks, she reacted in the least expected way. Twilight Sparkle started to laugh. She wasn’t thinking, obviously, about the fact that he really meant it. Instead, she reacted in way that only caused him to worry. He averted his gaze, not knowing what he should do. Another few moments passed, and then she saw that it was bothering him. “Oh. You meant it. Why would I do that? Just come on, we have to get those tests done.” Once again, she turned to walk away with the knowledge that he was going to fbe following closely behind. It wasn’t a hope, it was a fact. He didn’t waste any time to start walking again; the slight fear of being sent back was something that had stopped him from wanting to do any of it. The day might still be bad, but there was the knowledge that it wasn’t going to be too horrible. I still have this feeling that it’s going to end with me passing out. That seems to be something that happens a lot lately, especially when I try to do anything major.

How many tests will I have to do?

“Alright, so just sit in the chair while I get everything set up.”

By the time, he was just doing as commanded. There was a chair, not a comfortable chair, that he soon found himself sitting in. Eyes moved around the room to find that it was a rather full room. The machines took up a decent amount of space, and then the chair in the middle, and that didn’t even take into account the wires that had strange suction cups attached to them. And that’s how it’s going to be attached. Wait, I wasn’t afraid of that anyway. Keep it together, Hokey, you have a lot of work to do today. If you do good, she might even tell you so. But… something tells me that it isn’t going to happen. Call it what you want, but I know when a day is going to end in pain. One, two, three, and finally four of the suction cups were placed on his head. There was a hum of machines that were being turned on, and Twilight Sparkle was looking at him with a smile on her face. This was going to be one of those moments of truth, the moment where he was able to show her that he was able to do a lot of powerful magic.

“The first thing I want you to do is…” A book was lifted, with her magic, and sat in front of him. “Lift this book. It shouldn’t be that difficult, and it can set a baseline for what should be happening with the rest of your abilities.”

This won’t be so bad; all I have to do is lift a single book. Then again, this is only the first thing. This is where the easy ends, after I lift this book. There was no time to just sit there, though, and he focused on the book. A few moments later, he could feel the energy flowing through his horn as it started to glow. There was nothing abnormal, or really difficult, about lifting a single book. The book wasn’t even that large book, possibly half a pound with a grand total of one hundred pages. Hokey Smokes didn’t look at the title; it hardly mattered to this little experiment. The only thing that mattered was that she was getting the information that she desired. He could hear the sound of the machine as it scribbled out something to Twilight. It would have been nice to actually see what had been said about him, or if it was even something that he could understand. She’ll tell me something when there’s something to tell me, right? This is just the baseline, this is just the thing that tells her how hard she should push me and what it should look like. I have nothing to be afraid of, nothing at all.

Then why am I so worried…

“Interesting.” That was all Twilight had to say about it. “I’d like you to do that again, but this time I’d like you to lift this one as well.” Another book was lifted, and then sat down in front of him.

It didn’t take a genius to realize what the test was.

Out of everything that he had learned in school, this idea had been one of the more difficult ones. Hokey Smokes had been able to lift one thing easily, as had a good number of his class. It was only when a second thing was added, and the focus of the magic split, that things became more difficult for younger unicorns. It had taken him almost a month to figure out how he was going to do it, practicing until he could finally lift multiple objects. At that point, it had started off with two. Today, he should have been able to lift those two without much trouble. They didn’t look like they were heavy books, that didn’t seem to be the test. If he was right, the test was to split the focus that he had onto the two separate objects. This was something that he had learned back in school, something that had been difficult until he had practiced. Back then, he had built up the strength required to do the thing that he was now being asked to do. Today, it should have been something that came to him as easily as it did to almost any other unicorn.

Why was he worried?

A deep breath was taken, and Hokey Smokes glanced at the two objects. He focused on the two of them, the energy started to surge through his horn. It was almost like when he had tried it the first time. One object started to lift, the second one barely moving. His horn started to glow more, more energy being thrown at the problem. That, as he would soon discover, wasn’t the solution. Within a few moments, both objects stopped moving. The machines stopped doing anything when that happened, and he started to breathe in more heavily. He had known that the day wasn’t going to be any good, and it was happy to oblige him. The worst part was that the day didn’t even seem to be over; it might not even be close. A defeat expression took hold, and he looked up at Twilight. She looked shocked, but only for a moment. Soon enough, she had buried her head in another book to try and decipher why it was that something like this had happened.

Yep, that day was not going to end well.

“Well, that wasn’t what I expected.” Twilight finally said something, and it was said in a baffled tone. What did she actually expect to happen? “Try it one more time; I just want to get a little more data about this before we break for some lunch.”

Alright, just one more attempt. This time, I have to do it. I can’t fail. With that, he looked down at the two objects again. All of his energy was poured into his horn; this would be the time that he would succeed. It started off just as before, with one of them lifting while the other merely started to wobble. This time, however, he didn’t stop. He knew that he couldn’t stop, not until he had finally done it. The headache, the one that he experienced when he was pushing himself too hard, came back. Like almost every other time, he ignored it and pushed on. There was no way that he would let something as small as a book, or even two books, defeat him. The same thing happened that had happened before, though, with consciousness leaving him quicker than he wanted. In his mind, though, he could still see himself trying. People only know they're dreaming when it's obvious, when something happens that just wouldn't happen. He wasn't even aware that he had lost consciousness, it had happened much quicker than usual. The only thing that told him he was sleeping was when Twilight Sparkle came up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Then he woke up.