The mage, the inventor, and the explorer

Chapters

The beginning
First encounter
Impressions
Guest speaking
Students and curriculum
Declaring majors
Studies
the board of education
tour of the workspace

The beginning

Author's Note

Welcome to yet another fun idea I've had yet, will probably go for a few chapters before going inactive for a few weeks because i forget to work on it. Even so, I hope you enjoy and get inspired to be better than me by going out there and writing stories that last longer than my own. Still, I'll be seeing you all, in the next chapter.
(P.S. This server is the reason why I rarely update. Feel free to drop in to yell at me for being a lazy bum. :pinkiehappy: )

The beginning

It was a bright and cheery day on the minecraft server. Three friends were playing together, trying to get an old portal that they found to work again.
“Thank you so much for helping me to find a new one Him, all of the ones I find tend to be looted already.”

“Happy to help Jonny, although I don’t get why you didn’t just want to scan my primordial pearl.”

“I haven’t cleared this dungeon before Him, so I wanted to do it legit instead of cheesing the research. I just wouldn’t feel like I earned it.”

“I understand that Jonny, I haven’t done this before either but I definitely want to try it at least once. So we got a game plan for this?”

“Yeah, I need all of you to fan out and look for an old tablet lying on the ground before the clear lag deletes it when we go in. If it’s deleted, i have a few ideas as to how we can get into the boss room, but one may not work, and the other would require time, and we wouldn’t be able to do it today.”

“So in other words, find the key, don’t get distracted.”

“Yep, that’s about right Lucifer. So let’s get going!”

All three players jump through the portal, into the great expanse of the outer lands.

Once all of the players are through, they split up to search for the boss room and the key, rushing since none of them remember how long it had been from the last clear lag.

Him encountered many swarms of head crab like creatures that latched on, causing him to struggle and slash about violently to prevent them from draining his health. Meanwhile Lucifer was cornered by a group of ender triplets and ender guardians, not knowing how they got there in the first place and regretting not having brought a ranged weapon.

Jonny, on the other hand had been making good progress through the maze like structure, shooting the headbiters and ender triplets from long range using his frost wand focus. However, he started having problems once he ran into a shadow wraith that blasted him with primal magic. Suddenly, the minute warning for the clear lag pops up in the chat, causing him to panic. He knows that the others must be in a fairly tough spot, especially if they had run into a bs extreme mobs boss type mob. He grits his teeth and pulls out his thaumium cleaver that he made specifically for clearing the dungeon, and rushes the wraith, slashing at the magic bolts at speeds not normally possible for someone with a cleaver. Soon, he is right on top of the wraith and begins to hack away at it, melting through the shield in seconds before rendering the creature dead. However, the 20 second warning pops up in the chat, causing him to realize that his efforts were in vain again due to poor timing. He decides to keep looking for the boss room to attempt his second plan though, not quite ready to give up.

Meanwhile Him had decided to light the floor on fire using flint and steel to clear out the mobs, disheartened at the fact that the clear lag was about to run its course and render the trip pointless. After a few seconds, all of the mobs around him have burned away, leaving xp orbs behind. Suddenly more of them spawn in, causing him to facepalm. Remembering what to do, Him breaks two mounds that are in the ceiling and one that’s in the floor using his cobalt pick As he walks over where the old spawner used to be, he falls through the hole and instantly starts to take damage. Thinking quickly, he tries to fly out of the hole, and barely makes it before dropping to the ground and having the words pop up in chat,”you feel heavy and are pulled to the ground.”
“Great, completely forgot you can’t fly with most items in here.” Then the clear lag runs and deletes all ground items
“And now this is pointless, guess we should meet up at the portal home.”

Meanwhile, Lucifer hides from the ender triplets as they barrage him with blasts. He peeks over the top of a makeshift cobblestone barrier to try and spy the location of the triplets. He ducks behind the barrier again as a fireball goes zooming past his head. Seconds later though, he hears the sound of one of the triplets dying. He peers back over the barrier to see two ender guardians trying to attack the remaining two ender triplets. Apparently they had been hit during the barrage and wished revenge upon their flying counterparts. Thinking quickly, Lucifer rushes the two now distracted triplets and dispatches them both using a thaumium longsword he borrowed from Jonny.
“Well that could have gone better.” He says as the clear lag runs. “Great. Guess we’ll have to try again some other time.

“Well isn’t that swell, looks like we’ll have to use plan B. Meet up with me, I’m at the boss room.”
Jonny asks in the chat.

Lucifer and Him both run the teleport command and pop in next to McLovinnn in front of a large locked door.
“Now what?”

Lucifer asks, causing Jonny to smirk as he explains
“Alright guys, here’s the other two plans. The first one is to let the moderators know about this to try and get the key from them. That may take a while though, and I want to do this today. Also I never got the key last time i tried the dungeon”

“And the other plan?” asks Him, curious as to what his friend may do.

“I’m glad you asked. On another server I used an item called the transvestic displacer to move unbreakable blocks around when they were in the way.”

“Not sure I understand where you’re going with this, but continue”

“I brought one with me, and I bet it’ll be able to move the gate out of the way .”
He says as he places it down next to the lock.

“Jonny, are you sure about this? It doesn’t seem safe.”
Him says worriedly

“It’s not supposed to be safe!”
Jonny says as he finishes setting up the device, places a lever on it, and activates it. The gate moves immediately , and a strong suction starts to pull the three players towards a dark hole.
“That’s not supposed to happen.”
Jonny says as he grabs the displacer and puts it back in his inventory.

“No shit Sherlock!” Him screams at Jonny as he tries to fly, failing to do so just like before.
He is quickly pulled into the hole, soon followed by Lucifer. Jonny braces himself next to the door with a warded block of cobblestone, contemplating what he should do next. After a few seconds, he comes to a conclusion most dedicated researchers would. He jumps into the portal after his friends all the while shouting

“Allonsy!”

First encounter

It was a normal day in ponyville. The daily monster attack had been easily warded off, the market was packed with ponies, and school was in session. Everything was as peaceful as can be, that is until a strange light appears over the Everfree forest and drops three objects into the forest below. Twilight not only saw it, but also felt it, leading her to believe that a strong magical foe had been unleashed upon Equestria. Without Celestia warning her. Again. Hearing the sound of hooves rapidly approaching from her left, she turns to see Starlight come running towards her with a serious look on her face only aided in confirming her fears.
“Twilight, did you feel that?”

“I did Starlight, we have to get the others if we want to get the situation under control.”

“I’ll get Applejack and Pinkie, you get Rainbow and Rarity. We can meet by Fluttershy’s.”

“Agreed. We have to hurry, with a magical presence this strong, I doubt whatever that thing is won’t take long to start to attack.”
(One Plot device due to lazy writing later)
“Alright everypony, you know the drill. There’s some kind of magical threat out there and we have to stop it. I take lead, Starlight’s will teleport us out in case we need to regroup. Any questions?”
Twilight says, gaining only grim faces in return.
“Alright. In that case, let’s move out!”
________________________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, in the forest

“Ugh, my head. What happened” Him says as he stands up with a start. “Wait, why do I have a headache, that’s not a potion effect, and I’m actually talking? Something’s fishy’s going on.”
Suddenly, from a bush, Him hears something

“Yo, little help hear?” In a deep voice he can only assume belongs to one of his friends.
“Hold up, what the hell is going on here. I shouldn’t need help getting out of a bush, and i definitely shouldn’t be able to hear either of our voices right now. Is this some kind of prank dude?”

Lucifer says as Him helps him to his feet.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but we should find Jonny.”

“Dude, up here!”
A voice calls from above them
“Seems like we can fly again here. No clue where we are though.”

Him and Lucifer start to look around, noticing that actual leaves were falling from the trees and that their armor looked far different. Him’s armor had lots more spikes than before, and each one looked razor sharp instead of blocky. A light shimmer emanated from the armor’s surface.Lucifer’s armor, on the other hand, had dark pants, boots and helmet and the chest piece was a vibrant yellow with a glowing gem in the center. A light hum came from it. They both look at their friend, noticing his robes billowing in the wind, and… a shadow being cast beneath him?
“Okay, something must be going on. I know I didn’t install any shaders.” Him says

“Agreed, although this looks more realistic than shaders. Just look at the trees, they don’t look blocky whatsoever and they have branches.” Lucifer agrees

“Guys, I’m pretty sure we aren’t in minecraft anymore.” Jonny says

“What makes you think that?”

“Because my celestial recall wand focus won’t work and my wand is fully charged.”

“Well then, looks like we’re stuck here until we can find a way back. We need to gather resources to start up a base. What does everyone have?” Lucifer asks

“I have my draconic armor, staff of power, charm of dislocation, two charged capacitorsand golden bag of holding, which is filled with food.” Him says

“I have pretty much the same, what about you jonny?” Lucifer replies

“Lets see. I have my ichorium wand, fully charged, glass, slabs, obsidian, my alchemical capped tainted wand, also charged, all of my wand foci, my thaumonomicon, a bucket, six enchanted golden apples, my awoken ichorium armor and pick axe, my osmotic enchanter, a healing axe, some magical crops seeds, my thaumium cleaver, my bottomless pouch and of course my transvetic dislocater.” jonny replies

“You carry all of that around with you?!?” Him shouts

“Not usually the glass, slabs, second wand, or obsidian. I only have them from the time i captured a hungry node, definitely not worth the trouble unless you can contain it. Oh yeah, i also have a stack of cryostableised flux ducts and three charged resonant energy cells.”

“Why do you have those!” Lucifer screams

“You guys haven’t seen my base recently, have you?” Jonny asks, being met with two shaking heads. “Looks like I’ll need to show you around when we get back home.”

“Still doesn’t explain the enchanter.” Lucifer replies with a stern look

“I was moving things around before your told me about the portal. I’m glad I have it now though. We get to start off with better enchanting at least.” Jonny replies

“Alright then. You do have a point, we’ll need every advantage we can get while we’re here. We better get going though, I don’t want to be stuck outside in new territory at night. We don’t know what lives out here.” Him says to his friends. They nod in agreement as they start to head out and gather resources. However, before they get very far, a loud rustle is heard coming from the bushes to their North. Suddenly, seven multicolored ponies jump out in front of them, causing jonny to realize where they were. Before he can introduce himself however, the purple horse with wings and a horn starts to speak to them.

“Alright you ancient abominations of evil and darkness, surrender or be harmonized.”
Jonny tries to speak again, but is cut off by Lucifer as he says

“Holy shit, a talking technicolor horse. What the hell is going on here!”
Jonny face palms as the horse, seemingly mad, says

“Alright girls, we gave them their chance. Lets beat em!”

Suddenly, the midget horses are enveloped in a bright light, with rainbows shooting off of them in every direction. Jonny, knowing what may happen next, rushes in front of his friends and places a small barrier made out of obsidian and wards it with his wand, rendering them indestructible. Immediately after he does this though, the ponies fire a large rainbow colored beam right at them, however it doesn't penetrate the barrier that jonny set in place. When the ponies stop their attack to see what effect they had, they are surprised to see a wall of obsidian blocking their path. Starlight fires an explosion spell at the barrier, but nothing happened other than a large noise. Suddenly, the barrier disappers, revealing the three players to them. When this happens, a blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane rushes directly at them, hitting them with extreme force. To the pegasi’s surprise however, the creature she hit doesn’t budge an inch, causing her to worry. The creature pulls out a huge weapon double her size and prepares to swing it at her, all the while holding onto her hoof. However, before she is hit, jonny shouts

“Enough already! This is obviously a humongous misunderstanding, so let’s talk this out like adults before someone does something stupid that they’ll regret for the rest of their life!”

This outburst startles everyone, causing Lucifer to let go of the pony and back away from her.

“Sorry about that, now all us to introduce ourselves.” Jonny says to the ponies who are currently watching hesitantly.

Author's Note

Yes, i do tend to make the first encounters in my stories more violent, but then again, not everything is fun and games, even in Equestria. Let me know if it seems like I'm rushing the story along also, it's nice to have feedback and I'll do my best to slow things down. Anyway, I'll be seeing you all, in the next chapter.
(P.S. I actually do usually carry all of that stuff in my inventory. Don't want to leave home without it!)

Impressions

“And that's exactly what happened” jonny says.
“Let me get this straight. You three are characters from a videogame and got brought here by some freak accident?” Twilight asks

“That pretty much sums it up.” Lucifer replies “now, do you think you could get all of us home?”

“Hold up dude, I don't want to go home. This place is amazing! So many new things to research!” Jonny interjects “just think about all of the advances in thaumaturgy we can make here! All of the new materials for machines, the new biomes and dungeons to explore!”

Lucifer and Him both start to smile, thinking about all of the new possibilities that they have available to them. All of the new discoveries waiting to be made excited the group and they all reach the same conclusion.

“Actually, on second thought, we would like to stay here, at least for a while. We could benefit both of our societies from this. Think of it as a cultural exchange.” Lucifer says, causing Twilight to smile.

“Alright then, how about we make you a deal. We’ll give you materials and a place to live if you’ll teach the fillies and colts about your culture. Do we have a deal?”

“I’ve always wanted an apprentice or two, you can count me in.” Jonny says as Lucifer and Him nod in agreement. Twilight squees in delight before Rainbow Dash asks
“Wait, why do we want them to teach the foals at the school? Shouldn’t we be having them work with our top scientists or something?”

“No Rainbow, even though that would be more beneficial now, if we educate the kids instead of us, they’ll be able to do more with the knowledge over the course of their entire life while we might only be around for another couple decades. Also, it’ll be hard to teach our top mages to disregard everything they know to learn something entirely new, they’d get into an argument and nothing would get done.” Twilight responds

“Well then, guess we’ll need to have a little meet and greet, won’t we.” Jonny says in an amused tone.

“The high school’s going to be setting up class schedules next week. I can clear it with the teacher and make it so that the students can spend a semester or two with you to learn.” Twilight replies

“Hey, if I can get the materials I can make one of those builders from buildcraft to set up bases for all of us.” Lucifer says

“How about we demonstrate our capabilities to our new friends then?” Him says mischievously.

“That’s a fun idea, alright let’s go. If you can get me iron and lead, we can really get going from there.” Jonny says with a grin as he goes over to a tree and starts to punch it, while Lucifer and Him reconfigure their staffs of power. The mares have a shocked look on their faces as cracks appear on a small section of the tree before a square log pops out and a section of the tree seemingly breaks, leaving the top half of the tree floating in the air.

“But but but, that’s impossible! There’s nothing holding it up, how is that tree still standing!” Twilight shouts in a confused voice. Then she notices the monstrous hole that appeared in the ground where Him and Lucifer were standing. As they go over to the hole and look down, they see vast amounts of ore floating in mid air while Him and Lucifer continue to dig, before hitting a dark grey colored rock.

“That is bedrock, a virtually indestructible entity that prevents us from falling out of the world.” Jonny says as he walks over to the edge of the hole and puts down an odd looking table with an assortment of tools hanging off of it. Twilight continues to watch as he puts logs into it and turns them into planks, then the planks into slabs. Then he puts three slabs along the top and one plank under the left and right slab, causing multiple tables to appear on top of the table. The new tables have a slimmer base and no tools hanging off them. Jonny then destroys the first table and places the second one down before turning to look at Twilight with a smirk on his face.

“I bet you haven’t seen this kind of magic before.” As he puts his wand on the table, causing a green tablecloth to appear on it and the base to widen. Twilight’s jaw almost hits the ground as she witnesses the transformation of the table.. Not long after, Lucifer and Him appear in front of them before placing multiple furnaces and throwing coal into them all, soon followed by ore and wood.

After waiting for a little bit, jonny walks up to the furnaces before pulling out some of the newly made charcoal, iron and lead. He then puts some of the charcoal on top of sticks, causing torches to appear in his hand before combining a piece of flint and iron, creating flint and steel. Then he walks up to the new table, and puts seven pieces of iron in a large u shape on the table, causing a cauldron to appear, and then does the process again with six pieces of iron and a smaller pattern, making two buckets appear. He then walks over to a stream and fills the buckets, before placing them in a two by two area, creating an infinite water source. Placing the cauldron down near the water, he taps it with his wand, causing it to change into a crucible, fills it with water before digging out an area below it and lights a fire.

“Now then, let’s show you some real magic. If I put in two pieces of coal and three torches, before placing a piece of glowstone that the others found while mining, i get a piece of nitor. This acts like a flameless fire, providing heat and light without the risk of burning something down. Now i can put it under my crucible and it will never go out.”

“What? That’s physically and magically impossible!” Twilight shouts in protest. “It cannot and should not be able to function without burning something and it most certainly should be putting off heat!”

“Well Ms.Sparkle, as you can see there is more than meets the eye when it comes to thaumaturgy.”

Author's Note

In this chapter i know i focused it more around jonny and twilight. Personally i will be doing that later on but i will not be shipping them. Meant to post this chapter ages ago, but better late than never. I'll be seeing all of you in the next chapter

Guest speaking

The week goes by and the three bases are built, Lucifer’s near Sweet Apple Acres, Him’s over by Rainbow Dash’s cloud house, and jonny’s near Fluttershy’s cottage. Lucifer’s base looks like a castle made out of stone bricks and oak logs. There are four large towers each with six floors, four above ground and two below. In the main courtyard, there are many desks set up along with a celestial displacer at the gateway. On the west wall of the courtyard, there is an end portal and on the east side there is an array of machines set up.

In Him’s base, there is a small classroom as well as a large room filled with assorted weapons and training dummies. A few machines are scattered about, some spawning in monsters, others making a pounding sound or shooting off particles in different directions. Outside of the base, there is a large obstacle course that is filled with mud pits, rope ladders and a large race track. Every so often, a trap is scattered about, a spike pit here, an arrow launcher there everything and anything that could be seen. At the entrance to the base, there is a celestial displacer.

Jonny’s base is a large tower like structure filled to the brim with items both mundane and magical. There are seven floors to it, six above ground and one below, as well as a large garden area filled with a countless amount of flowers and plants. On each floor there are rows of desks as well as various items unique to each floor. On the top floor, there is a large structure surrounded by crystals and skulls. On the fifth floor there are many cauldrons spread about as well as purple liquid on both the floor and ceiling. Each cauldron has an arcane crafting terminal at it. On the fourth floor, there is a large assortment of metal and warded glass set on the teacher's desk, as well as a small golem made out of straw. On the third floor, there are multiple chests set up with large assortments of wood and metal in each one. On the second floor there are many vents and magical trinkets upon the teacher's desk, each one more curious than the last. On the ground floor, there are many bookshelves lining the walls and instead of the standard desk, there are writing tables strewn about the place. In the basement, there are many dark and mysterious things (partly because of the amount of gaseous tenebrae down there.) outside of the base, there is a celestial displacer
____________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, at the schoolhouse.
“Class, I have a special announcement!” Ms.Cheerilee says, immediately capturing the attention of all the foals present. “Princess Twilight has started a cultural exchange program with some visitors from a far away land. It is my pleasure to be able to say that our school has been chosen to participate in this event. There will be three separate classes you all can choose from. Now I’ll let the guest speakers come in to tell you about the classes. Come on in boys!”

Then, Lucifer and Him both come walking into the classroom wearing their draconic and dark steel /flux plate armor, causing all of the foals present to gasp in amazement.

“Wait, weren’t there three of you?” Ms.Cheerilee asks.

“Give him a second, he might just be running late.” Him replies

suddenly, jonny pops into existence right behind the teacher's desk, wearing his signature ichorium robes and holding his ichorium wand in his left hand and his thaumonomicon in his right. This causes everypony present to jump in shock while Lucifer and Him both roll their eyes at him

“Ever the one for theatrics aren’t you?” Him says

“The cooler the entrance you make, the more someone might want to take your class. I’ll go last though since I got here late.”

“Then who’ll go first?” Ms.Cheerilee asks

“I’ll go.” Says Lucifer Good afternoon everypony, my name is Lucifer. The class I will be teaching shall focus on technology. In the class, I shall be showing you how to build and operate various types of machinery as well as craft tools and generate electricity. We will start with the basics of tool smelting and work our way up to the cooler aspects such as the safe handling of laser rifles and robot programming. I hope to see some of you there. Also, no, I am not Lucifer, the lord of the underworld either. I was just very unfortunate with my name.”
The young fillies and colts eagerly start whispering to each other about what Lucifer said, expressing great joy at the idea of robots and laser rifles. After a few minutes, Ms.Cheerilee calms down the class before Naruto begins to speak

“Hello, I’m Him, and yes I was also given a poor name. In my class, we shall be exploring the world around us, through field trips to visit cities and learn about how the business world works, to trekking through abandoned ruins in the middle of a rainforest filled with traps and treasure. As you may have guessed, my group will be focused on improving your body’s natural strength as well as teaching you about the world around you. I look forwards to seeing some of you there.”

This brings about another round of whispers followed quickly by Ms.Cheerilee quieting down the class before jonny steps forwards to speak

“I am jonnybench, but you all may call me jonny. If you wish to be in my class, we shall be working on magic through studying and carefully supervised practice. You will not need to be a unicorn to take this class and there will be homework. I must say now that once you start the class, you will be expected to participate for the entire semester. If you do not think that working on study skills and tests on what you learned are for you, then you may not want to choose my class. I do hope to see some of you there.”

The foals mumble to themselves for a moment before quieting down as Ms.Cheerilee asks for questions.

“How much will this program cost?” Derpy whooves asks

“The program is free for any foal to take and will run the course of a full year, not a school year.”

“Are adults able to join in the program or help supervise?” Rainbow dash asks

“That is up to the instructor, however Him’s class will require chaperones for their field trips. Especially the more lively ones.”

“Why should we send our children to these monkeys to be taught about their obviously primitive way of life?” Spoiled Rich asks

“Don’t worry Ms.Cheerilee, I got this one.” Jonny replies before an answer could leave her mouth. “We are doing this to further expand upon the knowledge that both of our species come from, and we do not appreciate being insulted by someone who is looking a gift horse in the mouth. Now, if i may suggest this, would you kindly refrain from asking redundant questions that only sour our relationships?” Suddenly jonny’s Face turns dark black as the tip of his wand changes from white to a dark green. Seeing this, Filthy Rich quickly escorts his wife out of the room before the situation could escalate any more.

“Well then, sign up sheets are with Ms.Cheerilee and I wish you all a wonderful rest of your day.” jonny says as the tip of his wand turns to a white blue before he teleports away.
_________________________

Author's Note

Hey, long time no see. So a few things i need to say, if any of you feel like this is rushed, I would like to know. Either pm me or leave a comment about it and let me know what you'd like to see more of. I will go into greater detail about the other two bases later, it's just that this story will focus more on jonny than the other two (seeing as he is my player character). Also, the server i had been playing on was shut down and i am currently playing crundee craft on the kookykraft server if any of you would like to join me.( this means I am no longer able to play with mclovinnn and arrowsnaruto). I may post more in a blog post later, but for now, I will see you in the next chapter

Students and curriculum

The Next Day.

Lucifer, jonny and Him walk towards to school house, all hoping that at least someone took them up on their offer. When they entered Ms. Cheerilee’s office to check on the sign up sheet though, they were all surprised by what they saw.

“What!? More than half the class signed up for my class!” Lucifer shouts, trying to think of how he could get the resources needed to run a class of 14 students smoothly.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be covering magical crops early on and can give you a few seeds to start farms with so you don’t need to worry about buying materials. I can also help you set up a couple of systems to automate a few things if you want.”

“What do you know about automating? You almost never use machines!” Lucifer replied

“I created a system in my old base to automatically craft resonant energy cells. Of course I know how to automate things! Automation is easy!” Jonny says, causing the other two to look at him in awe. “Ah it looks like i only have about six students. That’s a splendid number, lets us cover more material than if we had a large group.”

“Is that why you made your class sound so difficult?” Him asks

“Yep, I only want people who are dedicated to the subject, whether it’s from parents making them or them wanting to work hard. Magic is, for the most part, studying and thinking before trying new things, just like science.”

“Huh, that’s pretty smart. I guess it’s good that I got about six kids too, easier to keep track of them and focus on what they need to improve.” Him says

“It’s nice to do things in small groups. Now, how about we go and meet with our classes.” Jonny replies as he walks out of the room towards the main classroom to meet his students
____________________________________________________________________

“Good morning class. As you learned yesterday, I am jonnybench, your teacher for the next year. Please call me jonny though, formalities are not needed here. Now, let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves. Go ahead and tell us your names and a little bit about yourself.”

“Hi, I’m Dinky Doo. My mom’s Ditzy Doo, but everyone just calls her Derpy. I’m here to learn more about magic cause I’m pretty bad at it.”

“It’s nice to meet you Dinky. I’m sure that you’ll fit right in here.”

“I’m Silver Spoon. I’m here because this seems like more of an academically challenging class than the others. I’m not an athlete and I hate working with my hooves.”

“Ah, a scholar! You will make an excellent mage Silver.”

“I’m Pipsqueak. I’m here because it’s a once in a lifetime chance. After all, who wouldn’t want to be one of the first earth ponies to be able to use magic!”

“You make a good point there, all six of you will be making history as the first ponies to learn a foreign magic. This will be a great advancement for all of ponykind!”

“Hi, I’m Ruby Pinch. I’m here because I want to be the best pony I can be. Why should I sit around and do nothing when I could be out helping others.”

“That is a very good reason to take this class Ruby. What you learn here can be used to do great things, whether they are good or bad is up to you.”

“Hi, I’m Tender Taps, I’m here because I want to try something new.”

“New things can be very fun, but only if you let them. I’m glad you decided to try this class.”

“I’m Scootaloo. My mom’s making me go because you said that this class teaches study skills. No offense teach, but I wanted to be in Him’s class.”

“None taken Scootaloo, and I assure you we will be going on a few field trips this year, including ones with Him’s class. After all, exploring ruins is a foolish move without the ability to counter any magic you may encounter.” Jonny replies as the class looks at him in confusion.

“Jonny, no offense, but you are acting way differently than you were yesterday. You looked all crabby and impatient then but now you’re calm and nice.”

“Ah, but how else could I find potential! If I made it sound cool then more ponies would have joined, and that would make it harder to run the class. Do you think it would be easier or harder to work with a class of 12 instead of a class of six Dinky?”

“It would be harder sir, you’d have to divide your attention between more students and then things would get out of hand.”

“Exactly Dinky! If we were working on a potion or transmuting an object,, and somepony needed my attention, then I might not notice if somepony else accidentally dropped something hazardous on the floor. In the case of magic, smaller numbers always helps. Now then, this course shall be going over the different forms of magic other than unicorn magic. Can any of you name some of them?”

“Oh I know! Witchery right?”

“Very good Dinky, and do you know where you draw your power from when using witchcraft?”

“It comes from nature. The more plant life and growth in an area, the better the place is for witchcraft.”

“Excellent Dinky, you seem to know quite a bit about it already. Anypony else?”

“Aren't there magical crops?”

“As a matter of fact there are Silver Spoon. Can you tell me what they are used for?”

“Magical crops are grown as a renewable source of resources, from coal and color dyes to silver and platinum.”

“Ah, I see we have another pony who did some research. Now, can anypony else name a type of magic? Yes, Scootaloo.”

“How about blood magic? Doesn't it come from your own life force or something?”

“That is correct Scootaloo. Blood magic uses a person’s own blood or the blood of another to change an item into a more potent one, however it is very dangerous and it shall not be used unless I supervise it until I deem you ready to do it on your own.”

“If it’s really that dangerous, than I will definitely not do blood magic.”

“Don’t worry Scootaloo, we’ll be using it later on in the year, after we’ve gotten major healing abilities mastered. Anyone else?”

“I heard that some creatures like griffins are able to create powerful spells with some kind of special gateway” Pipsqueak answers

“Is indeed true pipsqueak, some creatures can uses something called ars magica that allows all creatures to cast certain spells.”

“Oh, isn’t there magic completely based on botany?”

“There is indeed ruby, and it is separate from witchery, I will be teaching it alongside witchcraft. They benefit each other greatly. You all have done a great job at naming types of magic we shall be using, however, the main type of magic I shall be teaching is called Thaumaturgy. It is comprised of many different parts, alchemy, scholarly, wand based, and artificing. As I said during the lecture, there will be homework every night, but I promise that it won’t be anything too difficult. There will be four assignments in all, one per quarter, and they will all be there to see how you are coming along in your studies. The better it is, the more likely I am to deem you ready for more advanced magic. You can come to me for help whenever you need it and I will do my best to prepare you for what’s to come. Now then, any questions?”

“Where are we going to be working? I know that Apple Bloom said Lucifer has class on her farm and that Him set up his classroom by rainbow dash’s cloud house.”

“Well ruby, I found that the best place to set up, especially for witchery, is out by Zecora’s hut in the everfree forest. However, instead of heading directly to the classroom, you will instead come here first.”

“Why’s that jonny?”

“Well pip, I think it’s about time that I show you your first bit of new magic.

Author's Note

I’m back, and since it’s the end of the year, I finally have time to work on my stories. I know it’s been a while, and I found new people to play with. Still trying to get back into story writing though, so expect to see some improvements over time.

Declaring majors

“This, class, is called a celestial gateway. It is connected to a second gateway in the classroom through celestial pearls. When you step onto it, options of where you can go pop up, allowing you to teleport to any celestial gateway around, so long as you have a celestial pearl bound to the gateway you wish to go to. After you’ve selected a location, you simply say the word teleport and you are sent to the chosen gateway.”

Jonny explained as he points at the celestial gateway in front of him.

“These, however, are quite difficult to make and as such, it is unlikely any of you will be making one this year. Should you wish to hook your house up to the system though, I will gladly make one for you and show you how to set it up. There are other forms of teleportation that I will be teaching you all how to use by the second quarter of the school year at most. This, however, is my preferred method of teleportation. Now, who would like to go first?”

All of the fillies and colts present raised their hooves at this and started to jump up and down a bit, hoping they would be picked first. After looking at his students for a minute, Jonny decided to let Ruby go first. Ruby stepped onto the celestial gateway and immediately a black screen popped up for her. There was a small icon showing her current location and it was connected by a small line to another dot. After looking at the second dot for a second to read the name of the location, she tapped on it with her hoof and disappeared. The rest of the class became even more excited at this, and eagerly tried to get Jonny’s attention so that they could be next in line. Pipsqueak was picked next and followed the same steps Ruby did, causing him to disappear as well. The process repeated itself for the rest of the class and eventually Jonny as well, all of them having been teleported to the tower they would now call their school house.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once Ruby had been teleported with the celestial gateway, she found herself in a large garden filled with plants she had never seen before. There were, of course, a few that were native to her such as garlic and artichokes, but also many strange crops such as a few various purple flowers strewn about, a plant that was as white as snow, and a tall yellow flower that stood out boldly in the crop plot. As she continued to look around she noticed a large variety of colorful plants, one for every color she had ever seen, and other crops that all looked similar except for the design that appeared on the largest plants. As she was inspecting the flowers, Pipsqueak appeared behind her.

“Wow! Look at all of these cool things! I wonder what that is!” Pip says as he approaches one of the purple flowers in the garden.

“Hold on Pip, we shouldn’t touch this stuff until Jonny gets here. He wouldn’t want us to mess around with things we don’t know about yet.”
Ruby replies to Pipsqueak as he looks at her with disappointment and annoyance in his eyes.
“You’re right, we don’t know what any of this stuff does and it would be bad to mess with it.”
Not too long after, Dinky appears through the gateway and looks around with the same awe Ruby had of the garden.

“Wow! Look at all of these plants. I’ve always wanted to see some of these before!”

“You know what these are Dinky?” Ruby asks

“Yeah! That’s a belladonna, they’re poisonous but have some interesting magical properties. Those are mandrakes and over there are snowbells and water artichokes.”

Dinky explains happily. However, as she notices the tall yellow flower she squeals with delight and rushes over to the plot it is planted in.
“Wow! It’s wolfsbane! This stuff would be super helpful to keep timberwolves in the forest! It messes with their senses and can be quite deadly to them!” Dinky announces as the rest of the class appears along with jonny

“Ah, I see you already know a bit about these plants Dinky. Very well done.” Jonny says, causing Dinky to shake her tail in excitement and joy. “Now then, let us be off to our classroom!”

At this, jonny walks towards the large tower and his students follow close behind. They all look around the garden as they walk, and can’t believe how different it was. There were no fences separating the garden from the everfree and instead there is a large border of wolfsbane and odd looking stones acting as a border line. In the center of the garden there is a large grove of trees, surrounding a white alter with a red tablecloth. There are other devices in the grove but none of the students are able to tell what they are as they move along.

As they approach the tower, more odd plants are able to be found. What Dinky describes as ember moss, and spanish moss, plants commonly used to make poppets and other defensive items. The entire side of the tower is covered in spanish moss, giving it a more old and secretive look. The tower itself has walls made from stone bricks, and jungle wood logs. It looks fairly simple from the outside, aside from a few carvings along the stone at the very base of the tower. Once everyone walks into the tower though, all of the foals are surprised at the sheer amount of odd looking contraptions, items, and papers lying around on Jonny’s desk. As they continue to scan the room, they notice a few large bookshelves in the back of the room stocked to the brim with books. Near the shelves there is a door that seems to lead into a smaller room. There is a set of stairs that lead up to the second story and a dark brown and purple trapdoor underneath the staircase. There are six desks in the middle of the classroom, all stocked with quills, paper, and a few books. While the students are taking in their surroundings, Jonny sits down in his desk and calls to them

“Alright class, it’s time for us to begin. Could you all please take a seat and settle down.”

Everyone takes a seat, and start to look at the covers of their books. Many of them have witchery in the title and mention a specific aspect of that school of magic. There is one book labeled “The Lexica Botanica” and a few books that delve into plant care, and handling. Lastly there is a single unlabeled book with an unusual design on it, and when the students flip through the pages, most of which are blank.

“These are the main books you will all be using for your coursework. The way I have structured this class is to be more of an independent study sort of schedule. I’ll help you find something you want to work on and then it’ll be your job to research it. All of your research will be put towards a large project that you will present at the end of the quarter for a grade. That will be the only grade in this class as well, so make it count! Should you need help with something feel free to talk to me or look for books in the back of the classroom. When you think of a subject that you wish to study, raise your hoof and announce it to the class.”

The room goes dead silent as the students stop looking around the room and start to think about how the course is set up and what topics they want to pick. Jonny walks up to a chalkboard behind him and writes the names of all the different magical schools so that his students can see the list once again. However, this time he adds one more onto the list.

“Sorry class, I forgot to mention one more school of magic that I can teach, although my knowledge in it is a bit limited. It is called totem magic. It is another form of connecting with nature magic, but this form uses woodcarving, music and ritualistic dance. I should have a few books on it back in the library.”

At this Tender Taps immediately raises his hoof, knowing what he wants to do.
“Um, sir. I want to try to use the totem magic you mentioned. It sounds like something I might be good at.”

“Very well, I’ll put you down for totem magic. Once everyone has picked their topic, I’ll make sure to help you find the books for it.”

Tender nods his head in agreement and the class goes silent again as the foals decide on what they want to do. Not too long after, Pipsqueak raises his hoof.
“I want to work with that Ars Magica stuff. Making spells sounds like it could be cool!”

“Alright then Pip, I’ll help you get started with that in a bit okay? For now, let’s sit quietly and let the others think.”

Then Ruby and Dinky chime in
“Can we work together and do Botania and Witchery at the same time?”

“You two can do that, but I expect to see either two separate projects from you or one project that involves both schools of magic, okay?”

“Can do Mr.Teacher sir!” Dinky replies

After another ten minutes, Jonny can start to see a look of frustration on Silver Spoon’s face and Scootaloo looking hesitant to ask a question. Thinking about what to do for a second, he comes up with an idea.
“Alright class, I’m going to get you all the books you will need for today from the library if you don’t already have them. I want you to either stay in the classroom or in the garden, and study for a bit. You can write notes in that unmarked book, or in any of the books that are not from the library. I’m going to take some time with anyone who is undecided and help them figure out what they want to do.”

Jonny says as he moves towards the back of the room. Dinky and Ruby grab their books from their desk and immediately walk outside to the garden to read, while Pip and Tender head towards the back of the room. After a few minutes of searching, Jonny finds a beginners guide to totem magic, and a book that describes the basic aspects of spellcrafting. Tender heads out into the garden while Pip sits back at his desk after they receive their books. Jonny then turns to look at Silver and Scootaloo and motions for them to follow him into the back room. They follow and after they enter, Jonny walks in and shuts the door.

“So girls, having trouble making up your minds?”

Silver is the first to reply
“Well, I want to work on that thaumaturgy stuff you mentioned, but I also want to work on magical crops too. I can’t decide which one to do and it’s frustrating!”

Jonny nods in understanding and thinks for a minute before responding
“I understand. You want to try a few new things but just don’t know where to start right?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Magical crops could help my family out at home, but thaumaturgy seems so much more interesting.”

“Why don’t you go do both then? You can work with the others out in the garden to learn how to take care of the crops, and study thaumaturgy on your own?”

“Sure, if that’s okay with you.”

“It’s no problem with me, but your workload might be a bit more intense.”

“I can handle it, thanks Jonny!” Silver responds before bolting out the door and slamming it shut behind her. Jonny then turns his attention to Scootaloo, who is looking nervous and slouching into her seat a little bit, a sheepish grin on her face. Jonny sighs quietly to himself and then starts to speak to the young pegasus

“So, let me guess. You wanted to work with blood magic but didn’t want to bring it up with the others around.”

“What? No… I was just… having a hard time deciding what to pick?” Scootaloo replies, starting defensive but quickly becomes unsure of what to say next. She tries to come up with something that can get her out of saying yes, but ends up with nothing. As a result, she slumps down further into her seat, her head resting on her desk and her body sitting on the floor instead of in the chair.

“Do you want to know why I decided to change up the course schedule a bit Scootaloo?” Jonny says as Scootaloo’s ears perk up. “I figured that it would be better to let you all pick what branch of magic you all wish to study and explore it on your own. I may be able to teach you magic, but a creature grows the most when they learn something on their own. While my job may be to teach, I will serve more as a mentor than a teacher in your time learning here. Therefore, I want everyone to study what they wish to study. While Blood Magic may be dangerous, it becomes far safer to learn when someone is there to guide you. Since the others are going to be studying on their own most of the time, this gives me the free time to assist any students with dangerous aspects of magic until you learn how to safely study their own. While there will be a few rules I expect you to follow, you are free to study blood magic if you choose to do so.”

Scootaloo looks at Jonny for a minute, contemplating what he has said and attempting to formulate a response to what he has proposed.

“Are you sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble for you? I don’t want to be a burden for you to have to deal with.” Scootaloo mumbles back, attempting to mask the hopeful tone in her voice.

“Scootaloo, I will never consider any of my students to be a burden for me. I have been wanting to teach someone how to wield magic for years, and there is nothing that will bring me more joy than helping you and your classmates grow and learn arcane arts the likes of which haven’t been seen in Equestria in hundreds of years. As long as you are willing to learn, I am willing to help you.”

At this Scootaloo starts to tear up a bit and replies with a soft, shaky
“Thank you.”

Before wiping the tears from her eyes, gives Jonny a brief hug and exits the room.

“Well then, going to want to keep track of her. Never know if something is going on at home or with bullies.” Jonny says to himself before walking out into the classroom.

Author's Note

For the record, no I am not dead or inactive. I am just very lazy and have only just now gotten around to doing this. I have also been doing field research with the mods I will be using for this fic, and decided to add totemic to the list for tender. So, I am going to be trying to update more now, my seinor year is set up to be very easy coursework wise, and I have a deeper understanding of the mods to allow me to write more about how they work now. Any comment is appreciated, I will do my best to answer them, and if any of you have more pressing concerns, then send me a DM or check my blog posts on site. I tend to put info into them about fics and where I want them to go. There will be bits about the lives and studies of all ponies involved, and the more fun bits with actual magic will be coming up in a few chapters. Hope you all enjoy!

Studies

The rest of the day passes by quickly, with Jonny walking about to check up on the studies of all his students and answer any questions they might have. Whenever he wasn’t walking around, he was sitting with Scootaloo and Pipsqueak inside and tutoring them in safe usage of the magic they have chosen.

“Alright Pip for the most part, everything you will need to know is located in that book I gave you. Before you leave today I will make sure to get an extra copy of it for you to keep and study at home. My rule for you though is to not try and make the magical archway at home unless you have your parents permission, and I am there to help make sure you set it up correctly. Until then, there is one here at school I will let you use starting next week. I will be showing all of you the different facilities that are available here, and explain how to use them all tomorrow though.”

“Woah, I’ll get to use cool magic stuff this early on! I can’t wait to try it all out.” Pip replies with a gleam in his eyes, and tail swinging back and forth excitedly. Scootaloo’s ears perk up at this too, intrigued at what there could be on the many floors above her.

“Guessing you’re providing this much stuff because nocreature else has access to it?” She asks cautiously.

“That is partly right Scootaloo, I am providing resources no creature has seen in what seems to be hundreds, if not thousands, of years. However, I am also doing this to make sure magic is practiced and understood safely before I let you all work on it on your own. Speaking of going on your own, it seems like school is almost over for the day. If you two want you can leave your books here and we start back up on this tomorrow, or you can bring them home with you and keep going. If you go with the second option, make sure to write down a few questions if you have any to ask me about tomorrow. Oh and Pip, could you go and get the others from the garden? I want to ask them how their studies are going before they leave for the day.”

“I’m on it Jonny!” Pip says as he stuffs some of his books into his saddlebags and bolts out of the room.

Once Jonny and Scootaloo are alone in the room again, Jonny slips Scootaloo a small slip of paper that’s folded in half and bears a wax seal with the image of a wand and a sword crossed over each other on it. Scootaloo looks at it curiously before Jonny speaks

“That is a letter to your parents explaining what sort of magic you are studying. It details the specifics on what it is used for, safe practice and how to make sure you are staying safe. Keeps them from worrying and makes it a bit easier to talk about it with them.”

Scootaloo looks up at jonny, slightly confused as to why he would help her with something like this and slowly slides it into her bookbag. No sooner than she had finished doing this, Dinky, Ruby, Tender, and Silver all walk into the room and stand in front of Jonny and Scootaloo.

“Well kids, I’d like to hear about how productive your day was today. Did you all learn much on your own?”

“Yeah, Ruby and I read a lot about witchery and botany, and it’s all really cool!”
“What Dinky means, is that we have both learned about the basic plants and tools needed to practice witchcraft and botany, and plan to continue to do so after school today as well.”

“That sounds like excellent progress for your first day. I forgot to mention this to Pip earlier, but you all are welcome to come and sit in the garden any time you wish. It’s a nice quiet place to study. Just make sure to let me or Ms.Cheerilee know when you drop by.”

“Thanks a ton Jonny! I love how peaceful it is, it’s perfect for studying.” Silver Spoon replies

“I thought some of you would enjoy this, now how did your day go Silver?”

“I don’t really know. I can’t figure out these aspects of magic the book keeps referencing. I did read up on magical crops but also have no idea what these minicio seeds are.”

“Alright, we can talk about it once I’ve heard from everyone. The aspects of magic can be a bit tricky the first time around. Now, how about you Tender?”

“This totem stuff is weird but cool. The book is showing me designs i can cut into a log and it gives off different effects. I definitely want to keep going with it.”

“That sounds good Tender, glad to hear you’re enjoying yourself. Now then, all of you are dismissed for the day, and are free to go home or stay here and study for a bit. Later on this week I will be showing you all around the tower and what resources and structures will be available to you all. Have a nice day class!” Jonny says as most of the ponies exit the room except for Silver Spoon.

“Now then Silver, have a seat here and I’ll show you a trick or two about magic.” Jonny says as he gestures towards a long dark table with an inkwell and paper on it. Silver sits down in front of the inkwell as Jonny pulls up a chair to the right of her.

“There are six primal aspects to magic, water, air, earth, fire, order, and entropy. Each aspect combines with other aspects to create something new, such as air and water combine to form storm,” jonny says as he draws out symbols for air, water and storm. “Everything has aspects, and everything is able to be broken down into the six primal aspects. You can see the aspects an object has using something called a thaumometer.”

Jonny then pulls out a strange object from his robes. It is a golden hexagon with glass in the middle. Along the rim of the object are runes, and six different colored spheres. He then holds the thaumometer out to Silver Spoon for her to pick up. As she does so, she looks through it and starts to look around. Everywhere she looks, the thaumometer highlights the aspects everything has, from the earth and entropy in the stone bricks to the knowledge in the books. She then turns to look at Jonny, who then says
“You can combine two thaumometers and make a band to connect them in order to create a pair of glasses or goggles that are able to be worn. They function the same way the standard thaumometer does, but they also replace the need for conventional glasses, and allow you to see magic being cast by a unicorn on an object. We can make a pair of them for you right now if you want.”

Jonny says as he pulls out a second thaumometer and a few pieces of metal and cloth. Silver Spoon thinks about it for a moment before agreeing, knowing that it can only be to her benefit. Over the course of half an hour, Jonny and Silver worked together to shape the small pieces of scrap metal to fit over the top of Silver’s muzzle, and reach all the way back over her ears. Then, Jonny welded the pieces together, and double checked to make sure everything was fastened snugly and securely. At the end, they worked together to stick a small tube of fabric together, and fit it tightly over the ends of the glasses, so that if they fell off of Silver’s muzzle, they would have a way to catch themselves and not hit the ground.

“Alright then, looks like we’re done. Go ahead and put them on Silver.” Jonny says as he hands the new glasses to his student. Silver gingerly removes her glasses, and sets them down on the work table she and Jonny had been using, before reaching out and taking the new pair from Jonny’s hands. Carefully, Silver puts the glasses on her muzzle and has Jonny fasten the cloth around both ends of her glasses to ensure they don’t fall off and break.

Silver slowly looks around the room, taking in everything in breathtaking detail. Everything is crystal clear to her, from the writing on the chalkboard to the fine print on the spines of the books in the library. She is amazed to see everything in such high quality, and can even spot wisps of magic float off of some of the stone and plants in the room. She turns to Jonny with small amounts of tears in her eyes, and asks him;
“Why are you being so nice to me?” This question puzzles him for a second as he thinks about what Silver has said to him.
“What do you mean Silver?”

“No one is ever this nice to me. I don’t understand why you want to help me so much.” She replies, her voice cracking slightly. Jonny sees this, and starts to clue in to why she is becoming so emotional towards him

“Silver, I care about all of my students a lot, you included. I want to see you all succeed, and for you all to become the best possible you that you are able to be. Life isn’t about who or what you are, it’s about what you are able to become and how you get there. I am here to help you, and nothing is going to be able to change that.” Jonny says as he pats Silver on the head. In response to this Silver leaps forwards and gives Jonny a hug, happy that he is willing to help her through some of the problems that she faces.

As they embrace, Jonny looks out the window and spots the sun starting to set.
“Seems like we’ve lost track of time. Don’t worry, I’ll walk you home to make sure you get there safely.” He says as he breaks away from the hug.

“Great, my parents are gonna kill me for coming home late.” Silver replies as they both start to walk back towards the Celestial Gateway.
“Don’t worry Silver, I’ll be there to explain to them why you’re getting home so late in the evening.” Jonny replies as they go through the celestial gateway, unaware of a small intruder lurking within the garden. Watching and waiting for them to leave.

Author's Note

Who could this mysterious infiltrator be? How will Silver’s parents react to her tardiness? When will the next chapter be? That’s for me to know and you all to find out. Also there will be more developing on characters in the future. Might do a side fic about the tales of the other two classes, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

the board of education

Once Jonny and Silver had left the garden, a small rodent like creature scurried over to the door of the tower. Seconds later, it was engulfed with dark green flames and replaced with a pony sized creature. It was a dark black and had a smooth, hard, body. It’s legs were riddled with holes of various sizes, along with it’s electric blue frill like mane and wispy tail. Something shifted on the creatures back to reveal tattered, bug-like, wings that shifted slightly, as if being stretched. A few sparks shot off of a gnarled horn on top of the creatures head, and its eyes opened up to reveal two bright blue orbs in their place. The creature steadily approached the door, not bothering to look at the plants and other entities within the garden. It moved quickly, constantly casting glances back to where the pony and strange creature had disappeared, expecting for some creature to appear at any moment.

The creature jumped in surprise at the touch of something hard before realizing it had walked muzzle first into the door by mistake. Sighing to itself in relief it tried to open the door, only to find that it refused to budge an inch. Puzzled by this, the creature tried to cast magic on the door, hoping to unlock it or move it. When the intruder enveloped the door in it’s magical grasp though, the door still wouldn’t move. As it’s frustration built, the creature decided to try and either blast the door down or the wall next to it, and cast a repairing charm on it once through. As he fired a bolt of magic at the door though, the door stood resilient and bounced the spell back at the creature. The creature was feeling drained at this point, and started to think about retreating to think about what to do next.

After deciding that it would be best to regroup and return with a plan, the creature attempted to fly off into the forest. However, it found itself unable to do so as the protective runes around the garden flared up and kept the creature trapped inside. Without the ability to escape the garden without risking being found, the being shape shifted back into a small mouse like creature and hid in the magical plants, waiting for night to come so it could escape through the celestial displacer unnoticed. The information the creature held would be of great use to it’s queen, and it smiled in delight knowing this.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Next Day)

Jonny rose with the sun, as many teachers do, to get ready for his students to arrive. As he was starting to head down the stairs of the tower to the ground floor to make sure the library area is clean, a knocking is heard coming from the door.

“Just a second!” Jonny shouts in reply as he hurries his way over to see who could have arrived this early in the morning.

“Hello there, how may I be of service this morning” he says as he opens the door to find a grey unicorn stallion with a black mane and goatee while wearing a purple robe. On the robe is a small badge with a hoof print and ribbon hanging off of it.

“I am Chancellor Neighsay, from the EEA and your school is not in compliance with standard EEA regulations! I am here to tell you to either make an appeal to the board of the EEA or to close your school immediately!” the newcomer barks out to Jonny

“I am aware of the fact that this school isn’t in compliance with the EEA, and would also like to point out that the curriculum I am presenting to my students is not actually covered by the EEA. since my school deals with teaching new forms of magic that have not been seen in Equestria before, there are no rules in the EEA handbook that talk about the material I have to offer and therefore there are no guidelines for me to follow. As such, there is no need for me to conform to your standard of teaching due to your lack of experience in the subject.” Jonny replies with a short speech he had prepared in advance.

“While this may be true, the students that are attending your school will be lacking in other subjects that foals their age would normally be proficient in, such as reading, math, science, foreign languages and standard equestrian magic. On top of this, you are attempting to teach magic to earth ponies and pegasi, whom are unable to use magic in the same way as unicorns!”

“While earth ponies and pegasi can’t cast spells in the same way as a unicorn, that does not put them at a disadvantage when it comes to learning and applying the magic that I am teaching here, chancellor. On top of that, everything that is taught in a normal school is incorporated into my curriculum. Science and math are both needed for deciphering the magic I teach. Alchemy is chemistry with extra steps for example, and to grow the flora that is required in the application of the magic takes a good understanding of geology and botany so that you can have a flourishing crop when it’s time to harvest. Of course, reading is easily developed through studying the books I provide and should my students need help they can easily consult either me, their parents or a dictionary. Writing is also used heavily, and their penmanship, as well as their quality of essay, shall develop easily due to the difficulty of their assignments increasing as time goes on. Lastly, there is plenty of magic that can be used to overcome language barriers, so foriegn language shouldn’t be an actual problem.”

Chancellor Neighsay’s right eye twitches and his teeth grind in frustration as Jonny explains how his school either meets the standards of the EEA or aren’t even covered by the current guidelines of the EEA at all. Once Jonny finishes his explanation, Neighsay goes silent for a second before pulling out the last card he has up his sleeve.

“The Everfree forest is a part of Equestria and as such, you must comply to the EEA regulations in order to stay in operation. All schools in Equestria require EEA certification in order to stay in operation.”

Jonny smirks, having expected this from Neighsay and counters with another prepared counter argument
“Actually Chancellor, the Everfree was excised from Equestria shortly after Princess Luna’s banishment over 1000 years ago, Celestia didn’t want to have the sight of her biggest mistake as a part of her nation. The Everfree is actually considered to be an independent nation, albeit a small one, due to the fact it has not been ruled over by anyone since the time of Luna’s Banishment. As such, after a discussion with the other inhabitants of the forest and surrounding area, we have come to the decision of establishing Princess Twilight as the ruler, and making the forest its own nation official. Therefore, you have no jurisdiction here, and no power over my students to keep them from attending school here since the town of Ponyville is actually considered to be a part of the Everfree due to how close it is to the edge of the forest. As such, there is no reason for you to have business in the area of the Everfree unless you are specifically requested to help.

Upon hearing this Chancellor Neighsay is flabbergasted, having not expected for Jonny to have a way around all of his rules and regulations. After taking a second to regain his composure, Chancellor Neighsay starts to head back towards the celestial displacer, calling to Jonny over his shoulder

“You are a clever being, I’ll give you that. Perhaps we can work on amending the EEA regulations together at some point.”

Before Jonny can respond, the chancellor disappears through the gateway and leaves the area.

“Heh, guess I managed to knock some sense into him. Hope he won’t stay this mean forever.”
He mutters to himself as he heads back into the classroom, leaving the door open behind him.

Author's Note

been a while hasn't it. I've been meaning to come back to writing and I get sidetracked easily. gonna try to have more of this done soon. hope you all enjoy!

tour of the workspace

“Good morning class! I hope you all have had a good night’s rest last night. Today is going to be the full tour of the tower.” Jonny says as he greets his students once all of them had arrived.

“Jonny, why didn’t you show us everything yesterday? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to see everything before we picked a form of magic to study?” Dinky asks

“Excellent question Dinky! The reason I didn’t show you everything yesterday is because I felt it would make the choosing process harder. Picking a form of magic to study tends to be easier when you go off of the description of it as opposed to the end product. For instance, a friend of mine was prejudiced against witchery because he could only see it as farming and not as attempting to draw out the magic hidden within the plants that are being grown. Likewise, some of you may not have wanted to study the magic you have chosen if you had seen the way it is practiced. Do you understand what I’m trying to say, Dinky?”

“Yeah, I think so. It makes sense that somepony wouldn’t want to do something if it looked more like a chore than an adventure.”

“Alright then, without further ado, allow me to show you the rest of the tower! If you all would please follow me.” Jonny says as he walks towards the staircase leading up. The class follows Jonny as he walks up the steps to the first floor.

“This, class, is the refinery and alchemy room.” he says as he gestures to the entirety of the room. The class looks in to see an assortment of different brewing stands and cauldrons with flames underneath them. There are chests that seem to be overflowing with various ingredients and shelves filled with both glass and clay bottles. Some of the bottles contain glowing liquids, while most tend to be empty. On some of the clay jars there are various markings, ranging from a small plus sign to the blurry image of what appears to be a goat. On the opposite side of the room from the brewing supplies is a wall of machines.

“Those machines are used to break down and smelt ore that you obtain from the magical crops you harvest. As you can tell, there are seven sets of machines there. Each one of us, myself included, will get our own set of machines. If you want to know how they work, we could go sit in on one of Lucifer’s lessons on the inner workings of machines. I’m sure he won’t mind”

After letting his students look at everything in the room for a minute or so, he continues the tour on to the next floor. On the second floor, there is a large furnace up against the western wall, a dark purplish black with a metal grate on the front of it. On the eastern wall, there is an oddly shaped furnace with metal cylinders stacked on top of it. Each of the cylinders has a pipe coming off of it that leads to a large assortment of labeled jars along the northern wall. In the center of the room is a large stone structure made up of four stone pillars and a floating piece of stone that has various runes inscribed upon it. Under the floating stone is a pedestal, along with multiple other pedestals around the structure. On the ceiling there is an assortment of crystal clusters of different colors, with six clusters being solid colors and a seventh cluster being a combination of all six colors.

“This is the thaumaturgy room. All of the devices you see here are used for different parts of thaumaturgy. While they might not make sense now, they will in the future.”

Once the class is ready to move on from the sight of such foriegn objects, Jonny leads them up to the next floor. On the third floor, there is a strange, small altar on the ground that. The altar is white and has a small groove in it for gathering liquids. Apart from the altar, the room is mostly barren, aside from a few small desks to lay equipment down on.

“Alright class, this is the blood magic room. Since this is a risky form of magic, I will need to be with any of you who wish to practise blood magic to keep accidents from occurring. While the room may seem empty now, it definitely won’t stay that way for long!”

Without there being much to see, the class is ready to move on far faster than they were on the previous floors. On the fourth floor, there is a black table that has a red cloth on it and a book floating above it. The edges of the table are a light blue. The table itself is surrounded by shelves of books, and as students try to approach it, the book turns towards them and opens on it’s own, the pages turning quickly. Most of the students are taken aback by the table, except for Silver Spoon.
“Let me guess, this is a room for enchanting right? I read about it in one of the books you gave me last night.”

“You got that spot on Silver, this is the enchanting room. Enchanting an item is able to make an item stronger, such as making it more durable or able to do it’s intended job more easily.”

Silver blushes slightly at the praise Jonny gives her as her classmates look at the table curiously. After a few seconds though, everypony is ready to move on to the next floor.
On the fifth floor, there is a large stone gateway on the northern part of the wall. Along the eastern and western walls there are chests and shelves, all of which seem to be empty, save for some books, quills and inkwells.

“This is the last of the classrooms, kids. Here we have the Ars Magica room. Of course, the gateway isn’t able to function yet, you’ll have to learn what’s missing and fix it as part of your lessons.” Jonny says as he winks at Pipsqueak, who looks at the gateway with a mixture of awe and disappointment.

“What about that door, Jonny?”
Ruby asks as she points to a door blocking a flight of stairs that lead upward.

“That is the way to my bedroom, and before you ask, no it is not a part of the course material!”
He replies as the foals snicker at his comment.

“Now then, that covers everything in the building for now. For those of you working on witchery and other more nature based magic, everything you will need is outside and ready to be used. Now then, let’s go ahead and get to work! We have a good day of studies ahead and I’m sure it’ll be productive!”

Author's Note

This is a layout of what the tower looks like. more will be added on in time, but for now this is it. Also, I am going to do a bit of a time skip to a point where the magic being learned is able to be used. if you want to have more detail on the studies, make sure to let me know. input is always appreciated. Hope you all enjoy!