It had been 15 minutes since Magneficient Brilliance left Dreamy Gaze in his dorm room and he was finally picking out everything he wanted. He chose the middle bed, it being on the far side of the room against the wall. The bed on the right side was the only one with a window near it, and the bed on the left side was directly adjascent to the bathroom wall.

As the young colt opened his dresser, he was suddenly drawn to the fact that he hadn't packed anything for the trip, save for the clothes on his back! He face palmed when he realized that in his excitement, he forgot to grab his bags and made a mental note to ask his father to mail him some additional supplies later.

"I suppose if I really need to, I can just make some new clothes in arts and crafts." He mused, rubbing his chin in thought. He was soon caught by surprise when the door to his room burst open and in strolled a rather loud and brazen young unicorn.

Dreamy went stiff as a board from the unexpected outburst, and slowly turned to greet the newcomer.

"You must be one of my roommates, my name's Spell Slinger, this is my bed, get your own, you can't have it!" He spoke quickly and without pause as jumped onto the bed near the window and rested his head on his hands.

"Uhh, hello?" Dreamy said, "My name's Dreamy Gaze." he tried to introduce himself, relaxing his body when he realized what had happened, "Are you... okay?" he asked, confused by Spell Slinger's rapid method of speech.

"I'm fine, but this is my bed, if you touch it, I'll kick your ass, don't touch my stuff!" The energetic colt replied just as quickly as before, making Dreamy stare at him dumbfounded.

Spell Slinger looked to be around Dreamy's age. He had a bright orange coat and dark brown mane and tail. His hair style appeared frazzled and stuck out in fuzzy tufts as if an electric current were passing through him. He was dressed in a set of what looked to have been robes at some point, but they were charred black and had several rips and tears throughout the fabric. The sleeves were completely blown off, leaving his arms exposed.

"Could you please talk... slower?" Dreamy requested, sitting on his own bed as Spell Slinger sat up and scratched behind his right ear. Dreamy was finding the fast paced student increasingly less comfortable to be around. He hadn't expected someone as loud and energetic as him to be rooming with him.

"Huh? Oh yeah..." The fuzzy colt responded, "I'm just a bit over charged." he explained, pointing to his flank, "My cutie mark appeared a couple weeks ago, turns out my special talent is magic. But I've got too much power stored up, I have to vent it about once every few days or I show side effects." he went on, seeming to have regained control of himself.

Just great, so one of his roommates was a ticking time bomb of magical outbursts, and he already had his cutie mark too! Dreamy was seriously praying his next roommate would be easier to deal with, and no sooner had the thought passed through his mind than the door opened again and in walked another young student. Only this one wasn't a unicorn, but a caribou.

Although he was probably around the same age, his species made him naturally larger than than either of the young ponies. He was starting to show signs of muscle tone, indicating that he was more of an athlete than the academic researcher. His fur was a dusty gray, along with a black mane and tail, and he had a pair of nubs growing from his cranium, indicating his first pair of antlets were growing in with his coming puberty. He was dressed in a red kilt and vest, traditional roman style for many Caribou citizens.

"My name is Stalgar, and looks like I'm your roommate for the year." he introduced himself, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked the two over. Spell Slinger immediately began to respond with the same warning about touching his stuff, but Dreamy stopped him by holding up his hands and gave a more intelligible warning.

"Welcome, Stalgar." His greeted, "My name is Dreamy Gaze, and that's Spell Slinger." he introduced the two of them. "Slinger over there apparently gets agitated very easily if anybody messes with his belongings, so I'd advise against it." He warned. The caribou passed a glance back to the fuzzy unicorn and then nodded slowly before approaching the last remaining bed.

He had been carrying two duffle bags on his back and dropped them on top of the mattress. Judging by how the landed, Dreamy guessed they were quite heavy. Stalgar unzipped the two of them and the first bag contained various wads of clothing. The second bag carried personal belongings.

"Is that.. a sword?" Dreamy asked in shock when the caribou pulled one of the items from the second bag. A shiny steel handle and pommel stuck out of a package that was wrapped in red velvet. Stalgar carefully unwrapped it to reveal a matching colored scabbard. The sword didn't look too large, it was probably a gladius, judging by the width of the scabbard and the shortness being only about 2 feet in length.

"My father wants me to join the military as a battle mage so he made sure to pack some... additional school supplies." He answered, placing the sword carefully on the bed. Dreamy watched as he continued to pull more and more weaponry out of the second bag including an axe, a war hammer, a collapsable spear, and a full suit of reinforced leather armor!

Dreamy decided not to question why a first year student would be allowed to carry a collection of deadly weapons, and instead turned his attention back towards getting to know the school. Rising from his bed, he stretched himself out before heading towards the door, remembering to grab his map on the way out.

"I'm going to have a look around the campus, either of you want to come?" he asked, pausing with his hand on the door handle. Spell Slinger was already up and following within moments of finishing the question. Stalgar passed a glance between his equipment and the door before shrugging and following after them.

" That sounds like a good idea." the caribou agreed. With that, Dreamy opened the door and the three new roommates headed out to explore the grounds together!

It soon became apparent to Dreamy that Stalgar was much more tolerable than Spell Slinger. The unicorn was giddy and full of exuberence, the caribou was more calm and collected, while Dreamy was a combination of the two. He was definitely excited about learning magic, but at the same time, he wanted to make sure he was leaving a good impression on the faculty. The thought that he might be expelled for failing to measure up to their expectations was constantly present in his mind now that he was finally here, and nervous anxiety was starting to creep its way inside.

The school's architecture was quite beautiful. The 4th grade dormitory hall way had the same red walls and carpet with white ceiling as their room, but when they reached the main hall way, Dreamy noticed that further inside were other color variations for different grade levels. Maybe that would make it easier to tell where he was supposed to be if he ever got lost?

Looking at his map, Dreamy noticed that the North Wing of the academy was for Combat and Defense, Public Showers, Arts and Crafts, and the Doctor's Office. Clearly it was reserved for the extra curricular activities, and he could only guess that maybe the arts and crafts they designed could be used in combat and defense

Meanwhile, the West Wing contained Home Economics, Science and Theory, History, and the Teacher's Lounge. Apparently it served the more intellectual study sessions the academy had to offer, as well as a resting area for teachers to stop and collect themselves when stressed from work.

Finally there was the South Wing which contained the Cafeteria, the Front Office, the exit to the Campus Gardens, Security Officer, and the Head Master's Office. This was apparently where all the administrative duties would be handled, and the students would have little need to come hwere except to eat, or get a bit of fresh air.

He decided that inspecting the North Wing first would be the best step, as it was closest so far and the Southern Wing didn't really interest him right now. He folded up the map and looked for the sign in the main corridor that read North Wing before heading off. Stalgar and Slinger following behind him.

As they walked, Dreamy continued to admire the architecture of the place. It had undergone some renovations since being repurposed, there were no longer any statues paintings, or banners depicting females having attended the school. Instead they were replaced by popular stallions, and any sections that were lacking in a popular idol were instead mounted with famous caribou wizards, a sign that both species attended the academy, not purely unicorns.

At the end of the hallway, they stopped when they came upon a large portrait that had originally been used to depict Celestia back when she ran the kingdom, but now the image depicted a large, winged caribou male sitting on his throne. In front of him him were former Princesses Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Cadence, and Luna kneeling in submission as he looked out triumphant over the throne room. To call it a portrait was perhaps inaccurate, it was more like a mural. The painting covered from floor to ceiling and spanned the stretch of the wall. Whoever had painted it must have taken weeks to paint something so huge.

"I'm guessing that's the new king?" Dreamy asked, "This is the first time I've ever actually seen him." He commented, his eyes skimming over the painting multiple times to take in the imagery.

"Well Canterlot is the location of the royal palace, maybe we'll see him in person some day." Stalgar spoke up before looking to see that the hall now split left and right.

The right hallway had two signs saying Showers and Combat and Defense. The left hallways had signs reading Arts and Crafts, and Doctor's Office. Of course, they decided to take the right path first and quickly noticed that the sounds of shouting were growing increasingly louder.

Eventually coming upon a set of double doors, Spell Slinger opened them to find that they had arrived at a large gymnasium, the loud shouting was being echoed off the spacious room, making it seem louder than it actually was. Even though it was orientation day, there were already students getting accustomed to the training equipment scattered about.

Some unicorns were trying to lift weights by using telekinesis, with varying degrees of success on their part. Others were trying to fire bolts of magical energy at bulls-eyes lining the far wall. Most of them needed to work on their aiming, they seemed to be hitting the wall more than the targets, but thankfully the bolts weren't powerful enough to blast holes in the wall.

The students also seemed to have been from various different age groups. There was almost nobody from 4th grade practicing on the equipment, which meant the students who were doing so were 5th grade and higher. Already being trained in some form of magic and were now testing their skills from the previous year to see how much thye had improved.

Slinger looked towards the center of the gymnasium and saw who looked like the coach in charge of giving out the lessons. He was a huge caribou, packed with muscle and standing a foot and a half taller than any adult stallion he had seen before. The caribou wore a leather plated kilt, bracers, and shin guards, but left his upper torso exposed as he folded his arms over his chest and watched the students work on their techniques.

Slinger's mane and tail bristled as a jolt of magic sparked between them, taking the image of a violet colored static bolt. Dreamy quickly hopped away from him, unsure of what was going on, and Stalgar turned to him curiously.

"Gotta take care of this." Spell Slinger muttered before striding his way up to the over sized teacher. Dreamy and Stalgar watched from a distance, so they couldn't hear the conversation, but when Slinger pointed to the targets, the coach nodded, and the fuzzy unicorn hastily made his way over to them. What happened next made Dreamy go slack jawed in disbelief!

Spell Slinger stood a distance away from the target as his hair stood up and crackled with more of the static bolts. The other nearby students noticed this and quickly began to back off before Slinger unloaded a high speed barrage of magical bolts from his horn in a sweeping pattern across all the arrayed targets. The bolts of energy peppered both the wall and the target alike, leaving black scorch marks in both by the time he was done.

When the barrage of magical energy faded, Slinger's main and tail began to lose their fluff as the magical build up was drained out of them. His hair now hung limply in smooth strands, and he seemed to slouch in posture, no longer pent up with excess levels of energy. The coach approached him and clasped a meaty hand on his shoulder, obviously very impressed with his ability. After the two of them shared some words, Slinger walked back over to his dumbstruck friends with a pleased smile on his face.

"Coach said I should think about tryouts for the sparring team." he said. This time, Slinger was far more calm and relaxed in his speech, talking like normal instead of the fast paced and jittery way he had been before.

"So that's why you're called Spell Slinger?" Stalgar asked, "You seem to care more about speed than precision." he rubbed his forehead, noticing the large amount of scorch marks that had been left behind Slinger's little display of fire power.

"Uhh, right, we should probably go before we cause any more property damage on our first day." Dreamy suggested as they closed the double doors behind them and continued on their way.

End of Chapter 3

Author's Note

It has recently come to my attention that in addition to Poprocks and Smudge Proof, another named Not_A_Creepy_Nickname was also involved in the creation of this series. I have gone back to edit the first chapter to reference him as well