The First Test.

Twilight sat up from her bed, giving a yawn as she did so. She had been up late studying for her test today. Moonjumper said that the test would simply be to cast the spell that they had been looking at for the last few weeks. The theory made sense to her, and she knew that she had the magical ability.

Despite knowing that, she still felt terrified of failing. The only difference was that her fear was not solely based on getting a bad grade, but moreso came from not wanting to disappoint Moonjumper. Ever since Twilight had come to terms with her feelings for Moonjumper, she had started trying to subtly probe the other mare about the subject. So far Moonjumper had not noticed, or if she had, she was not acknowledging it.

“Twilight!” Moonjumper voice rang out in her mind.

“Yes Moonjumper” Twilight asked after recovering from the slight shock she felt at the still slightly foreign thoughts.

“I have everything we need for the test, feel free to come down whenever you’re ready.” Moonjumper said.

“Okay.” Twilight replied. She left her room and began walking down the hallway toward the bathroom to freshen herself up.

When she finished her normal routine, Twilight looked into her mirror. She took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves.

“You’re gonna do fine Twilight, there is nothing to worry about. Moonjumper won’t think any less of you if you can’t do this, and she will be there in the room in case anything starts going wrong.” Twilight repeated to herself as she left the bathroom.

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“What is taking her so long?” Moonjumper asked nopony. She had set up the testing area and had even went to pick up the volunteer for Twilight’s test, Fluttershy, who was now sitting in the kitchen.

Moonjumper and Twilight had asked all of Twilight’s friends if they had time to help with Twilight’s test last week, after the party, and the only one who did not have plans at the time was Fluttershy. Moonjumper then further explained what her role would be, while assuring her that the entire time she would be safe.

“Sorry I’m late, I didn’t want to come down while I still had bed head and morning breath, so I stopped in the bathroom.” Twilight explained before crossing the room and sitting at the table with Fluttershy. She picked up a few pieces of toast and a sliced apple that had been left out for her breakfast and scarfed them down quickly.

“It’s no problem Twilight, are you ready for the test today? If not I’m sure we could schedule another time with Fluttershy.” Moonjumper asked genuine concern in her voice as she thought of the test and what it entailed.

“I’m ready, I know I can do this.” Twilight said firmly.

“I know you’ll do great Twilight, I do wonder what this will feel like though?” Fluttershy said in her normal, soft voice.

“If reports are to be believed, it should feel no different than the disorientation one feels when awaking from a dream suddenly.” Moonjumper explained. “Now, if Twilight is done with her breakfast?” She asked, receiving an affirmative she continued. “Fluttershy could you come stand over here please? Twilight I want you to stand opposite her. Moonjumper said, motioning to the desired places on the floor for her disciple and their volunteer so that she could see everything clearly.

“Alright, Twilight, you may commence casting the spell. Fluttershy, just relax.” Moonjumper said. Twilight and Fluttershy nodded and both closed their eyes, Twilight’s face becoming one of concentration, and Fluttershy’s a look of total ease.

Moonjumper was watching with her eyes but also through the link she had with Twilight’s magic. So far everything was going fine, the tendrils of magic were weaving around Fluttershy’s body in an intricate pattern that invoked images of a spider’s web. At the same time Fluttershy’s body was going slightly limp, her head drooping down slightly more every second.

Suddenly Fluttershy was standing straight as a board again with her eyes open. There was something different about them though. Instead of the light blue irises she normally had, hers were now purple, the same purple as Twilight’s. Fluttershy looked over to Moonjumper and then back to Twilight.

“I did it, Moonjumper, I actually did it!” Fluttershy said, her voice the same as always, but the pony speaking was clearly not the normally shy pegasus.

“Yes Twilight, you did it, you successfully cast a proxy spell and in doing so passed the te-”

*Thunk*

Suddenly, Twilight’s body was on the floor passed out.

“That isn’t supposed to happen, right Moonjumper?” Twilight asked with Fluttershy’s voice.

“No, in fact you shouldn’t be able to continue casting if your body is rendered unconscious.” Moonjumper said looking for any sort of reason for what was happening while preparing to stop the spell manually.

A flicker seemed to pass over Twilight’s unconscious body, and Moonjumper nearly froze.

“Twilight I’m ending the spell now, you’ll be fine once your body wakes up, just trust me please.” Moonjumper said as she removed all the meticulously placed strings of intangible magic from Fluttershy’s body. After that was done she turned back toward Twilight’s body which was beginning to stand up again.

“Hahahaha. It is so nice to see you again my dear Luna.” Twilight said, her tone sinister. When she opened her eyes they were no longer the friendly purple they normally were. Instead they were an Icy turquoise with catlike pupils.

“What are you doing to Twilight, Nightmare Moon?” Moonjumper demanded.

“Twilight wasn’t using her body at the moment, I thought I might procure it.” Nightmare Moon said. “But the process was less easy than I thought it would be, and that small inconvenience gave you the chance to stop me. I feel my control slipping already.”

“Then I did my job.” Moonjumper said feeling happy that she had avoided the potential disaster.

“Oh yes, I’m sure it was your sense of duty as a teacher is all that motivated you to such swift action.” Nightmare Moon said, her voice drenched with sarcasm.

“what do you mean?” Moonjumper asked.

“Really… you know that you have deeper feelings for Twilight. Those thoughts are always present in your mind, it makes me sick.” Nightmare Moon deadpanned. Moonjumper looked at Twilight’s body. Her body was slowly going slack, Nightmare Moon was leaving her body.

“I have no Idea what you are talking about.” Moonjumper said, her eyes looking everywhere but at Twilight’s body, Nightmare Moon just laughed. There was no humor in that laugh, only malice.

“Oh yes I’m sure you don’t,” Nightmare Moon began. “I’m sure that if Celestia had been in your situation, bound to Twilight and needing to recover, she would have opted for the ‘we are a couple who decided to live together’ approach. Give it up, the only reason that you agreed was because you already felt something for Twilight, and this was a convenient excuse.” Nightmare Moon said, shooting Moonjumper a dirty look. Moonjumper refused to make eye contact.

“This is not the last time you’ll be seeing me, Luna, and next time things will be different.” Nightmare Moon said. And with that, Twilight’s body went slack and fell to the ground.

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Twilight’s eyes fluttered open, she had no idea how long she had been out. The room looked the same, so not much time could have passed. Fluttershy was still unconscious as well.

“Twilight, are you alright?” Moonjumper asked from right beside her.

“Yeah, I think so. What happened there?” Twilight asked.

“I’ll tell you after Fluttershy is up again. She should probably also leave before we talk about it.” Moonjumper said, refusing to look at Twilight.

“Alright Moonjumper, I’ll trust you on this. Looks like we won’t be waiting long though, Fluttershy looks like she is waking up.” Twilight said.

Fluttershy roused herself from sleep faster than one would expect. Her blue eyes sparkling as they normally did.

“Oh, is it over. Did Twilight pass her test?” She asked

“Yes she did, and you did your part flawlessly. You are free to leave anytime.” Moonjumper told Fluttershy, her voice calm, betraying nothing of the panic she felt inside.

“Alright. I should probably get going then, Angle bunny gets kind of upset when I make him watch the house for to long. I’ll see you two later.” Fluttershy said as she walked out of the library door.

Twilight turned back to Moonjumper, waiting for her to begin talking. Moonjumper turned away slightly, not able to meet her eyes in that moment.

Moonjumper took a deep breath to steady her nerves.

“Twilight, there are some very important things we need to discuss.”

Author's Notes:

I have no clue if this chapter is actually better than the last one, but it at least was easier to write. I'm sorry that I stopped right before they were getting to talking but I think the conversation warrants its own chapter because I could see it being a long one. After the next chapter is done I will be going back over the older chapters and editing them a fair amount. If anyone knows how to get some one to help with that I would appreciate the advice because this is my first story and I haven't really looked into it all that much.