Chapter III

Classes

After his little chat with Cadence Mantis decided to walk around the school a little. There was a large courtyard at the front of the school that lead up to the front steps. He admired the old castle style architecture the school had. It reminded Mantis of old stories he read as a child. He could make out a figure near the steps of the school. She had red hair with streaks of yellow that reminded him of fire.

As he drew closer he could see that the woman was struggling with her luggage cart. The stranger let out a frustrated groan and just laid down in submission. While the spectacle was fun to watch the Changeling’s conscious was acting up. “Need a hand?” He said as he offered the woman his hand to help her up.

“Thanks.” She said brushing the dirt off her black leather jacket and blue jean pants.

“Rough day?”

“You have no idea. First my train was delayed because of a crazy passenger, the people at the baggage claim almost lost all my stuff and I have no idea where I’m going.” She gave a huff and took some deep breaths. “I’m sorry. Here I am ranting and raving. You probably think I’m crazy.”

“Everyone’s crazy to some extent. My name’s Mantis. Yours?”

“Sunset Shimmer.” She smiled. “I don’t suppose you know where the dorms are do you?” She said as she looked around at the different buildings.

“Yeah they’re over there.” He pointed to the building he came from. “What’s your room number?”

“D13.”

“Well, that makes finding it easy.” He chuckled a little and Sunset looked at him not understanding the situation. “That’s my room. It appears we are roommates.” The woman blinked and looked at him in surprise.

“At least you look somewhat normal.” She chuckled.

“Oh you have no idea how wrong you are.” Mantis chuckled. “C’mon roomie I’ll show you the way.” Mantis walked beside the girl and put his hands behind his head. “So are you a mage?” The woman gave a nod.

“I specialize in fire magic.” She snapped her fingers and a small flame appeared on her finger tip. “I know it’s pretty basic.” The woman said as the flame went out.

“Basic, but useful. Elemental magic is always handy no matter the occasion.” The two continued through the halls of the dorm room until they reached their destination. The blonde opened the door and held it as she stepped inside. “Welcome to paradise.” Sunset looked around the room and saw that Mantis had already claimed the room on the right. “Need a hand with your things?”

“No. I can handle it. Thank you.” She went inside the room on the right and started un packing her things. She set a few spell books on the shelves along with some novels. She pulled out an Immersion Visor and a copy of Fantasia Crusade. There was a knock on her door and she called for it to be opened.

“Hey I was thinking we should head down to the cafeteria soon for some dinner?” Mantis then noticed the game on the desk. “You play?” A soft hue of pink flashed across Sunset's cheeks.

“Yeah. I know I’m kind of a dork when it comes to anything having to do with magic. Including video games.” She adverted her eyes from the man.

“No it’s cool. I play myself and magic definitely is an interest of mine.” Sunset let out a happy sigh and followed the man towards the cafeteria. They walked through the halls idly chatting with one another. As they sat down with their trays of food Sunset asked something that was on her mind.

“What kind of magic do you use?” Mantis snapped his fingers and a stack of cards appeared before him.

“I use card magic.” He picked up one of the cards that had a decorative back print. He flipped the card to show a spell circle on the other side. There was a faint magic emanating from the card that Sunset could sense.

“Card magic?”

“These cards hold spells that I’ve cast before hand. All I have to do is run some magic through it and the spell can be used.” He said as he made the deck vanish.

“Why don’t you just cast them normally?” She took a sip of her water after asking the question.

“The really powerful ones take to long to cast or too much magic to use on the fly. This way I can still cast them quickly without sacrificing either.” He said taking another bite from the food. “The downside is I can only use each card once and have to recast and re-seal them in the card later.”

“So they’re like grenades? Use them when the time is needed?” Mantis nodded as he took a bite of his food. “That still leaved my question unanswered. You told me that you used cards to store your magic, but you haven’t told me what kind of magic was in them.”

“Very perceptive.” He smiled. “My real magic is-” He was cut off as he saw a familiar pair of girls walk by with four more girls about their age. “Hey Twilight.” Hearing her name, the indigo scholar turned and smiled as she saw the man. She and her friends went to get some food before joining them at the table.

“These are my friends. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and you’ve met Rarity.” The fashionista smiled at the man while the rest greeted him in their own way. Applejack and Rainbow Dash gave him a nod, Pinkie gave him a big smile while Fluttershy hid behind her pink bangs.

“Nice to meet you all. My name’s Mantis and this is my roommate Sunset.” The fire mage hid her gaze from Twilight. The purple haired scholar looked at Sunset and sighed.

“I didn’t realize you’d be here Sunset.” Twilight said in a flat tone.

“I was asked to come here by Princess Luna.” Sunset stated. Mantis looked at the two girls and sat quietly. After finishing his meal, Mantis headed back to his room and saw the knight sitting on his bed.

“Those two mages.” It began in a gravely voice. “Their magic is not normal. Be cautious around them.”

“Twilight definitely, but Sunset seems harmless.” Mantis said in a flat tone.

“You take things too lightly. Her magic is unusual.” It crossed it’s arms and huffed. “Should anyone discover your true identity then they must be dealt with.”

“Knock that off. You’re being paranoid and if anyone does then I, not you, will deal with it. Besides, we're the last ones who should be criticizing weird magic.” He heard the door to the main dorm room open and he signaled the knight to hde. The armor vanished as it stepped into another swirling portal. There came a knock on his door. “It’s open.”

The door opened to show Sunset. “Were you talking to someone just now?” Mantis shook his head and played innocent. "Must be my imagination. Sorry.”

“It’s alright. So you know Twilight?” Sunset bit her lip and sighed at the question.

“Sort of. It’s complicated.” Mantis saw a small shine of regret mixed with sadness in her teal eyes. Mantis felt it best to not press the young mage about it. Mantis turned in early that night s he’d be ready for his first day of classes.

Mantis and Sunset had a few classes together that included Literature, History and Advanced Magic. He would have his special lesson with Cadence after his last class was over, which he was looking forward to. His first class was Literature with Professor Cherilee instructing. He was surprised to see that Twilight along with her five friends were also in the class. They would be covering a multitude of books during the semester.

The next class after that was science. Thankfully Mantis saw a friendly face and paired up with Rarity for the lab portions. After that was History that Mantis, Rarity, Sunset and Twilight had. At the end of the day he headed to advanced magic. The classroom was actually a large lecture hall that could seat over two-hundred people despite the class only being around twenty or so students. Mantis took a seat between Twilight and Sunset. The professor was five minutes late before the door opened to show the professor in question.

Her lime green hair was a mess and her round glasses were crookedly resting on the bridge of her nose. Her green blouse and matching skirt were wrinkles. She looked as if she just rolled out of bed. She adjusted her glasses that sat in front of her yellow eyes and sighed. “Alright, alright settle down. Let’s get introductions out of the way.” Twilight raised her hand. “Yeah?”

“How should we introduce ourselves?”

“I don’t know. Your name, your magic, things you like, things you hate, hobbies. Plans for the future. Whatever you want.” She said in a flippant tone. Many of the students were wondering if this lady was the real deal.

“Why don’t we get an example?” A girl with short lime green hair said. The woman huffed and stood up from her desk.

“Fine.” She took a moment to adjust her hair by putting it in a bun and adjust her glasses. “My name is Professor Viridian Thorn. I suppose I like a lot of things. Same with disliking them.” The whole class seemed to roll their eyes at the bland answers. “My plans for the future is to get through this year as easily as possible. As for my magic,” She waved her hand over the potted plant on her desk and a red spider lily grew from the pot. “I can do that.” The woman sat back down in her chair and crossed her legs.

She started going through the class list who followed her example. There was a girl named Lyra who’s specialty was sound magic, next was a girl with shoulder length dark blue hair and fierce green eyes that were behind a pair of purple rimed glasses. “My name is Lapis Papillon. I’m an ice mage.” She said before sitting back down.

“Next is-” The door to the classroom opened to show a student with well groomed blonde hair and had an arrogant look about him. Mantis saw Twilight groan and roll her eyes as she saw the man. “Who’re you?” The woman asked.

“I should need no introduction.” He said in a snarky tone.

“Yeah well unless you’re on the list, beat it.” She tapped her finger against a clip board. The blonde man’s eye twitched as he glared at the woman.

“I am Prince Blueblood.” He said crossing his arms. The professor looked at the list and sighed.

“That’s nice. Now go sit down somewhere.” The Prince huffed and sat down in the back of the class. Thorn kept going through the names and eventually called on Twilight who was all too happy to introduce herself. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I love to read and learn about magic.” She smiled before sitting back down. Sunset was up next and she tentatively stood up.

“Hi. My name is Sunset Shimmer and I use fire magic.” She sat back down and waited as the rest of the names were called.

“Mantis Xanthous? Am I saying that right?” Mantis sighed and stood up.

“Yeah. Well, I use spirit magic.” Twilight and Sunset both shot him a confused look. As he went to sit back down the bell signaling the end of class rang. As he stood up, the teacher called Mantis to hold him back. Once the last student left, the woman took off her glasses and sighed.

“Nice job keeping a low profile brat.” She hissed with a hint of sarcasm to her voice.

“I could say the same thing about you. How and why the hell are you here?” He said crossing his arms.

“I’m here to make sure you don’t get your head blown off and as to how....well, I’m not called an infiltrator because it sounds cool.” Mantis only rolled his eyes a t the woman's remark. She closed her eyes and opened them again, but the white of her eyes turned black and her yellow pupils became like a cat’s. “Bottom line. Watch your back, because if something bad happens to you then everything bad will happen to me.” Her eyes shifted back to their disguise mode.

“Yes mom.” His tone was dripping in sarcasm. The woman snarled as he walked out of the room. Mantis sighed as he walked through the halls to meet Cadence in an empty classroom for their lesson. he opened the door to see Sunset, Twilight along with the three Princesses inside. “Well we’re all here. Didn’t know this would be a group lesson.”

“Mantis? What are you doing here?” Sunset asked as Cadence stepped forwards.

“I selected Mantis as my apprentice.” The Princess of love stated. The two young women looked at the pink haired woman. Sunset then looked at Mantis.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“And miss your reaction?” He chuckled. Sunset scrunched her nose and pouted. Awe, she looks cute when she's pouting. He thought with a smile on his face. Celestia then stepped forwards.

“Twilight said that you use something called spirit magic. Care to elaborate?” Mantis sighed and scratched his head.

“The short version is that I can summon beings from the spirit realm.” That made the women in the room look at him in surprise. “Now before you go and call the guards let me explain. I do not study necromancy.”

“But you summon spirits from the dead.” Twilight said. Mantis pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

“Let me explain the difference, necromancy is when you forcibly rip a spirit from the spirit realm and force it into a corpse or another vessel. This process makes the spirit go rabid and lose all sense of who or what they were.” Twilight nodded her head. “My magic is similar, but also different. I make a contract with a spirit and bring it into the physical realm without having it sacrifice it’s sanity.”

“But your still bringing the dead back to life.” Sunset added.

“Kind of. These spirits are bound to me and are for the most part friendly. I can bring one forward if you want.” The Princesses looked at one another unsure if they should allow it.

“Very well, but if something goes wrong then it’s your head.” Luna stated. Mantis pulled out his deck of cards and started looking through the cards. He found one and pocketed the deck. He threw the card on the ground and muttered some words. The card glowed bright yellow and soon began to take shape. The light faded and a woman wearing a white and blue shrine maiden outfit appeared. Her light yellow hair was loose and flowing.

On each of her wrists were shackles with broken chains at the end. In her right hand she held a parasol in her right hand. The woman had a smile that could melt the harshest winter and a calming aura around her. “You summoned me master?” She said looking at Mantis.

“Ladies this is one of my contracted spirits. Virgo the Maiden.” The woman curtsied at the new faces.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Luna still kept her guard up around the spirit. “What did you call me for master?”

“Just trying to explain to them that I am not a necromancer. You see I didn’t force Virgo to come here. We worked out an agreement and she comes when I call her. She also has her free will intact.”

“But what about her physical form? How does she manifest herself?” Celestia asked.

“I use my own magic to give myself a body. My master’s magic keeps my door open until I return.” Virgo commented.

“Door?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, it is how I come to this plane of existence. Master uses his cards as a sort of conduit for the spell.”

“Why do you keep calling him master?” Cadence asked.

“It’s just what she calls me and refuses to call me anything else.” Mantis said with a sigh. “You can go back now Virgo.” The woman nodded and vanished back inside the card. “See? No dark magic or anything like that.”

“Magic like that is incredibly dangerous.” Celestia stated.

“All magic is dangerous in one way or another. Mine just happens to be more so than normal magic.” He shrugged. “I’ve been doing this for years. I know what I’m doing.”

“Just be sure to be careful.” Cadence said. “Anyway, shall we get started?” Celestia cleared her throat and nodded at her niece.

“I welcome you three to becoming our apprentices. You three have show an increased understanding of the magical arts that few others have done. We will be going over many forms of magic and I encourage you three to explore several different possibilities and broaden your horizons.” Twilight could barely stand still as excitement welled up inside her.

The rest of the small class was mostly spent going over the different subjects they would be covering. They were dismissed afterwards and they each returned to their rooms. Mantis decided to get online and complete a few quests. His Avatar spawned in the Town of Dawn and looked around at the simple starter town. There were a few players buying new equipment.

Mantis received a notification that LavenderTwilight was online. He figured he should go clear up as to why he left her and her group so abruptly yesterday. He walked into the local tavern where he saw the purple clothed mage sitting at a table with the group he saw yesterday. He sent Twilight a party invite and alerted her of his presence. Twilight joined and invited the rest of her friends.

“Hey, sorry about yesterday.” Mantis stated. “I had an unexpected guest that I couldn’t ignore.”

“It’s okay. Not like you meant to leave.” She said. Mantis looked to see that the rest of her group had reached level five.

“So Mr. Expert, why have we stopped leveling up?” Rainbow said in a snarky tone.

“Because you haven’t dedicated your character to a specific line yet. You’re still using the undeclared class.” He looked at the other members of the party to see they were in a similar situation. “You need to pick either a warrior, rogue or mage to continue onwards.” The flyer groaned not understanding the game’s stupid rules. “You guys do know the strengths and weaknesses of each class right?”

“Twilight was trying to explain it, but she goes off on rants and gets too complicated.” The flyer said as the lavender mage scrunched her nose and pouted. “What? It’s true.”

“To be fair dear it went over my head a bit.” Rarity admitted. Mantis sighed and pinched the bridge of his mask and stood up.

“C’mon. I’ll show you what I know.” The rest of the group followed him out of the tavern and walked through the town streets. Most of the buildings were made of stone and wood. The man lead the group out towards a forest. “Okay so I’m going to explain the three different types of character classes. Now access your inventory. There should be three tarot cards.” The girls opened their menus with a swipe of their arms. They scrolled through their items and found the three cards.

“Those cards allow you to swap between classes until you’re ready to choose a class before you reach level six.”

“We know that already.” The rainbow haired woman said.

“Before you go ahead and make your decision you should know that once you make a choice, you cannot access the other two. It’s also good to choose a class that works with your personality.” Mantis looked at the yellow winged flyer. “You said you don’t like fighting. Is that correct?”

“Y-yes.” She peeped out.

“I think a support mage would work better than an archer class.” He pulled out a staff to show the girl. “You stay in the back and support your combat teammates. Such as healing, increasing their strength and speed long with curing bad status effects.” The girl tentatively smiled.

“Twilight said you could raise animals in this game. I like animals.” Mantis scratched his chin and thought for a moment.

“Yes you can. The Druid subclass in the Enchanter branch. It allows you to summon animal familiars that can attack your foes or heal your allies, but you can only access subclasses when you reach level twenty.” He said before putting his staff away. “Let’s get back to the basics shall we?”

“Sometime today would be nice.” Rainbow said in a frustrated tone. Mantis rolled his eyes at the remark and held up three fingers.

“As you know there are three main classes; Mage, Warrior and Rogue. Think of them as three different trees with many branches that cover a large range of abilities.” He closed two of his fingers. “I’ll first go over the warrior class. Partier, Kicker. Step up.”

“You can call me Pinkie!” The woman said with a smile.

“AJ, is fine for me partner.” Mantis nodded at the words and told them to take their weapons out. Pinkie pulled out her large battle axe and Applejack did the same with her sword and shield. He folded his arms behind his back and got ready for the lesson.

“Warriors are frontline combatants. They’re the ones you want to send into the fray to take up and deal the most damage. There are three paths or branches to take, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Guardian, Champion and Barbarian. Guardians have a large amount of defense and health, but do the least damage in the warrior line.”

“Think of them as a wall made to soak up damage and get your enemies’ attention. They usually have a large shield with them and a one handed sword, axe or mace.”

“Spike is Guardian.” Twilight commented. Rarity and the others giggled at the thought of the small boy holding such a large piece of equipment.

“Next is the Barbarian. They’re the opposite of the Guardian. Instead of using a sword and shield they typically have a large weapon that needs two hands to hold, such as a war hammer, great sword or battle axe.” Pinkie looked down at her large weapon. “They could also duel wield two single handed weapons.”

“They do the most damage out of any class and have a large amount of health, but have little defense and are very vulnerable to long range attacks like spells and arrows. Their job is to take out large amounts of the enemy’s health and armor.”

“Finally, the Champion is in between the two, balancing both defense and offense. They use a shield in one hand and a one handed weapon in the other. The Champion is also the quickest out of the warrior tree. All warriors use heavy armor and stamina.”

“Stamina?” Applejack asked.

“On your hud there should be a second bar underneath your health bar. For mages the color should be blue, warriors and rogues should be yellow. That bar allows you to use special abilities unique to each class.” He pulled his staff out again and saw a level five Goblin. He pointed the top of the staff towards the Goblin and a bolt of yellow lightning shot out.

The creature curled up and shattered. “Watch my status bars.” He pointed to the floating bars above his head. Mantis then stabbed the ground with the bottom end of his staff and muttered a few words before a yellow aura swirled around beside him. His magic then took the likeness of the goblin he’d just slain.

A small amount of the blue bar was chipped away, but was slowly filling back in. “The ability I just used called resurrection, used some mana to resurrect the goblin as my servant. Normal attacks from a staff, slashes from a sword, or simple shots from a bow don’t cost any mana or stamina and they’ll regenerate over time. To speed up your recovery time you could drink potions.”

“My brain hurts.” Rainbow said clutching her head. She didn’t really understand all tis complicated stuff. She just wanted to kill stuff. The goblin beside the man vanished and turned to ash.

“Moving on to the Rogue classes. Like the warrior, there are three main branches; Assassin, Archer and Ranger. Assassins use small weapons like daggers, stiletto knifes and brass knuckles. They inflict critical damage on their opponents and inflict bad status effects; like poison or bleeding and do the most damage out of the Rogue tree. They take the enemy by surprise, hit them fast and hit them hard.”

“Awe yeah!” Dash said with a fist pump.

“They also have the least amount of health and defense. They’re classified as a glass cannon.” Dash’s enthusiasm took a small hit. “The Archers use a bow and arrow along with a multitude of tricks like smoke bombs, caltrops and grenades. Distance is a must for this class and tend to kill their targets over a long period of time and hopefully before it gets too close. They can detect flaws in armor and can sense enemy movement. It’s their job to see everything on the battlefield.”

“That’s a lot of pressure.” Rarity said with a hand on her hip.

“Lastly, theres the Ranger. They can use either a single dagger and have a pistol crossbow or wield two of the same. Their dagger attack isn’t as damaging as an Assassin’s and their crossbow isn’t as accurate as an Archer’s bow. They can still give bad status effects and cause problems for the enemy with traps and grenades.” Rainbow looked at her twin daggers and sighed. “Rogues usually wear light or medium armor to help with their stealth and speed.”

“Finally, there’s the Mages. Arcane Warriors, Sorcerer and Enchanters. Arcane warriors are the damage doers. They call in heavy spells that can burn, electrocute, freeze and do all kinds of crazy spells. Enchanters are mostly in the rear, keeping an eye on everyone’s status, healing them and boosting their abilities. Sorcerers, which is what I am, are in between. We can provide support to our party and can make things difficult for my opponents. I personally consider it the most versatile class.”

“The major flaw for mages is that they take more damage than rogues and are terrible in close quarter combat. Mages also can only wear light armor which do not grant a lot of protection. It’s preferable that they are with a warrior to protect them at all times.”

“Wait, your title says Necromancer.” Rarity pointed out.

“After you reach level twenty you can select a subclass. Necromancer is under the Sorcerer branch.” Mantis said. “Also keep in mind what your party needs to do missions. It’s preferable that you have a balance.” Pinkie had a large grin plastered on her face.

“A party? I love parties!”

“Party as in who you’ll mostly be playing with.” Twilight clarified. “It’s important to have a cooperative and balanced group.” Dash only groaned at the words.

“This isn’t a game where you can charge in blindly and come out on top.” Mantis stated. “You need teamwork and careful planning. If you do not, then you’ll surely die. I know that’s not a big deal in a video game, but still.” The man received a message and sighed. “Sorry ladies that’s all for today. I need to go help a friend of mine.”

“Can’t we come?” Mantis chuckled at Pinkie’s question.

“Sorry, but it’s a real world issue” He chuckled. “We’ll go over weapons and equipment next time and think about what class you lot want.” He accessed his menu and vanished in a flash of light leaving the group of girls to themselves. Twilight then took the stage.

“So did you all understand that?” Twilight looked at her friends and saw their gears turning.

“I think so.” Fluttershy peeped out as she looked at the tarot cards. “I think I want to change to a support mage. I’m no good at fighting and I want to see the animals.”

“Ah’m no good at shoot’n or those fancy spells.” Applejack said. “Besides, ah like this sword and shield.”

“We need someone with good aim to be an archer.” The group all looked in the direction of Rainbow Dash. Out of all of them, she’s played the most games usually involving some form of shooting. Her usual kill death ratio was at least ten kills to every death.

“Fine, at least I can be a sniper and blow things up.” Dash swapped her class to an Archer and pulled out her bow. Pinkie opted to keep her barbarian class. She loved smashing things with the large hammer.

“Hmm, well we already have two warriors and two mages.” Rarity said as she put a finger to her chin. “I suppose I’ll choose the assassin class.” She selected the tarot card and traded her staff for two daggers. “I can make due with these.”

“The more you level up, the better equipment you can use.” Twilight checked the time and sighed. “Sorry girls, but we should get off and do our homework.”

“Ugh, we just got started.” Rainbow whined.

“No complaining Dash. Twi’s right.” AJ said before the group started logging off one by one.

~~~

Mantis set his headset aside and looked at his right hand to see that it was glowing a golden color. "Another one huh?"

Author's Note

Sorry this took a while. I'm in the middle of my last semester at college and have been hammering down the details for my graduation and what not on top of looking for a job so I can have some $$$ to spend.
In case those of you who don't know, Virgo is one of the twelve Zodiac spirits. The other eleven and a few more, will make an appearance later on.

Here is a red spider lily.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!