Veil of Shadows

The sun’s golden and warm rays slipped between the sporadic, milky white, cloud coverage and down onto the School of friendship. Casting the school in a brilliant golden yellow hue that was in sharp contrast to the crystalline blue sky that surrounded it. Making it a beacon not just in the metaphorical sense, but in the literal too; as the light's reflection made the majestic structure visible for miles around. It was quite the eye-catching beacon too, as its majestic glow brought in a tidal wave of students. Their giddy smiles were plastered across their faces and their excitement encapsulated their very being. Their passion and excitement was an all consuming fire that was unable to be doused. To them it was as if they were in a pleasant and distant dream. So far from the worries and problems of the world. So close to the promises and hopes of tomorrow.

If not for a few of the faculty directing the students, they'd have likely toppled over one another, in their rush of excitement, just to get in. But fortunately for every creature involved, things went as smooth as silk and everycreature managed to make it through the regal front gates without issue. Though still a disorganized mess, even with the aid of staff, every creature was still happy just to have arrived. Even if it meant standing cramped in shoulder to shoulder rows.

Happy faces were greeted in kind with new unfamiliar ones. The excitement of one student fueled excitement in another. Formal introductions had yet to even begin and yet creatures large and small already knew their four year stay would be fantastic beyond compare. But as the sun began to wane and make room for it’s nocturnal counterpart, the sky transformed into a velvety lavender. With the vanishing of the sun beneath the horizon, so to did the tidal wave of students vanish to their rooms. Now all that remained was the trickle of students who yet to receive their supplies. Near the back of that stream of students stood a navy blue unicorn.

Everstone, disgruntled and in line, slouched forward letting out a huff of tepid air in disapproval. As a result of the juvenile tantrum, he netted himself with a face full of mane. The backlash, causing his cheeks to turn a embarrassed, rosy pink as his horn lit with the cool and familiar tingle of magic. Then like a breeze, his blue aura swiftly combed his salt grazed mane back up; meticulously placing each strand where he had wanted it. Every individual hair was treated with the utmost, attentive, care as they were gently put into neat and uniform rows across his head. The whole process took several minutes of work and yet despite his great care, a few strands remained dislodged in defiance. However, having noticed he was next in line he was forced to quickly tuck what few strands remained behind his ears instead of in their proper place.

Everstone made his way up to the small wooden desk which was littered with sheets of paper and half opened scrolls. In the center a lone placard weighing down the mess, read “Headmare Starlight Glimmer'' in large gilded letters. It just so happened that the same Starlight Glimmer sat behind that desk; while she did look a little more worse for wear than usual, she was still unmistakably Starlight. Everstone’s eyes darted between face and placard as if the name would remind him of the face he was looking at. But, it didn't. Which was to be expected, as they never did. Everstone and names simply did not mix.

In fact, Ponies and Everstone in general didn't mix. Mostly due to Everston’s aversion to social contact as a whole. Typically social interactions just left him clueless on how to respond. It was for this reason Everstone preferred the arcane arts; to him they were both structured and predictable. But most importantly they didn’t require a lengthy and exhausting conversation. Ponies on the other hoof, were all far too, “chaotic”, and, “disorderly”, for his liking. Tip-tap. It was for these reasons he disapproved of being sent to this school. Tip-tap. Friendship, and all the interacting that entailed, were simply too far out of his comfort zone. Magic was a silent companion that went along with however Everstone poked or prodded it. Ponies however, talked, replied and expected a reply in return. They also became upset if a wrong answer were given to them. All of these problems were compounded by the fact he had no way of accurately predicting what answers he needed to give to avoid said outcome. Yet despite this dread brought by other ponies, his mother forced him to come all the same. Tip-tap.

There it was again, the sound that drilled its way into Everstones skull, making him cringe with discomfort. The sound was like a foal smashing the wrong end of a key at the end of a divine melody, just to spite the listener. It was both unplesnet and distracting from the piece as a whole. With great reluctance Everstone blinked as he wormed his way out of his mind to investigate the source of the disturbance. Only to realize it was Ms.Starlight tapping the table; trying to get his attention, with a rather concerned look on her face.

Though banging would have been a more apt description of Starlight's last attempt. The Stallion had zoned out when shed had asked for his name. At first she thought it simply due to his nerves. But after she repeatedly tried asking his name with no answer or reaction, she became worried. She then attempted trying to snap him out of his stupor, repeatedly, yet he remained locked in his own fantasy. Starlight thought for a moment that something terrible had overtaken the stallion. However, her fears were put at ease when the stallion finally snapped out of it on her last attempt. A surprised and sheepish expression spread across his face as he seemingly realized what he had done. After taking a moment to gain his bearings he flashed her an embarrassed smile as a token form of apology. To which starlight accepted with an amused smile.

“It’s okay,” starlight assured him “What's your name?” she asked as her purple eyes began to scan her piles of paperwork; quill encased in her magic grip. Though in her peripheral vision she could she the stallion shift in place, as if unsure how to answer.

“Oh, it's uh, Everstone ma’am.” The stallion answered as he watched her work. His gaze rapidly darted from name to name on starlights plethora of papers. The search took Starlight several seconds flipping through a dozen pages before finally stumbling across his name.

“Ah! here we are! Everstone, unicorn... born and raised in Starport...age sixteen.. Mother Jackpot, father..” she bit her lip and stopped as she saw the black ink across the paperwork. She quickly glanced up at the stallion in worry. But If he was upset,he didn't show it, or she at least didn't notice. Starlight let out a mental sigh of relief; happy that mentioning him didn’t stir a negative reaction. She then took a moment to collect her own thoughts before continuing her brief confirmation check.

“Is all of this correct?” she glanced back up at him with an inquisitive look.

“It is.” Everstone confirmed with a slight nod.

“Great! Then you'll need to take these!” Starlight levitated a stack of textbooks, a welcome bag and a room key with an elegant inscription of “Floor: four room: six” marked on its side in ink. The key itself was of peculiar make. While it in shape looked like any ordinary house key, the key itself was made of the same crystalline material that made up the castle. The rest of the items were mundane and uninspired, especially compared to the unique key. Worst of all none of the books were on magic, aside from the magic granted by friendship, but rather what builds and makes a strong friendship; intermixed with a few student guides. in total there were ten of the books he'd received most of which looked to be nearly a thousand pages long. Finally the welcome bag contained a glossy apple that looked as if they'd been picked that morning. As well as a dozen quills and parches with one journal. While admittedly the apple did catch his eyes, and his stomach, for a few long moments it was the journal that he found himself staring at the longest. A casual flip through it revealed the page's contents to be blank; he began to speak up to ask if the journal was for personal or academic use, but stopped himself as Headmare Starlight continued. He'd simply figure it out later.

“Meet back here at nine for the introduction assembly and dinner! don't be late either but most importantly meet your roommates!” She instructed, trying to urge him to move on, so he could attend to the next student.

Evertsone held back the urge to roll his eyes. He knew Headmare and the school meant well but, it didn't change the fact that all of this was the last thing he had wanted to do. In either case he was ready to get to the isolation of his own room and recharge anyway. He’d need the time to recover before going into a room full of strangers for Twilight knows how long. Up until then Everstone had managed to largely ignore the fact he'd been surrounded by other creatures. But this assembly was a nauseating reminder of the fact. His head began to ache; causing the items in his magic grip to falter briefly. Fortunately, The Headmaster caught them before they hit the floor and levitated them back over to Everstone. He secured them in his magical aurora once more, thanking her with an apologetic nod.

“Yes ma’am” Everstone compiled before quickly slinking away into the crowd. He carried the supplies with his magic a foot above his head, as to ensure they didn't bump into any creature on his way out. It took a few minutes of uncomfortably crawling through bodies before he was finally in the clear. But once he was he let out a breath of air, relieved to be finally alone. From the looks of it not too far from the dorm rooms either. A tired simple crossed Everstones face as his magic began to rest them inside his saddle bags.

The weight of the textbooks alone was an encumbrance for sure, but it was manageable. At least that's what Everstone believed until he reached the stairs. Suddenly his body ached with the exhaustion of lumbering these bricks about. Surely they could not have expected a pony to carry these things, to the top of the school. Everstone did a double take to make sure he was seeing things correctly, only to become truly irked when he realized he was. Up till this point the school was more of an uncomfortable inconvenience, but not unmanageable. Seeing this however simply pushed him stress over the edge. Full blown irritation swept his body like raging fire. He began shifting uncomfortably; letting out a groan of annoyance as though it might relieve some of his pent up frustration. It did not however. He lightly tossed his saddle bag to the side as he stared up at the mountainous stairs.

“We’re students not Sisyphus!” Everstone bemoaned to himself as his head fell back in annoyance.

“Better start climbing.” He sighed as he begrudgingly looked to his personal mountain. After a moment longer of gripping he picked up his things and began his ascent up the stairs. But as his fore hooves hit the fourth step a snow white earth mare stopped him.

"You know there are mail boxes that are enchanted to send things to your desired destination. Its how I got my things there." The mare gave him a faint but friendly smile. Everstone gave an embarrassed nod of gratitude. But internally he mentally scolded himself for making a scene in public.

"If I may ask, " Everstone began, "How did you know-" he was cut off as the mare started to answer before he could finish.

"Page twelve of the student handbook." She answered with a slight giggle.

"I-uh, oh, thanks" Everstone rubbed the back of his head as he looked around for said mailboxes. It took a moment of searching but he found the small, red, rectangular box built into the wall. It looked more akin to an abstract, piece of art rather than a mailbox. But, the sign above insisted this was indeed the correct place. So he awkwardly beagin stuffing his saddle bags in place. Yet after a few moments of waiting nothing came of it. A small scowl formed across his lips.

Everstone began to think to himself that this was some elaborate prank, at which he was to play the fool. He took a moment to take a sharp inhale and subdue his growing annoyance. After collecting his thoughts he turned with a displeased look at the mare who was now covering her muzzle, and doing her best, to suppress a growing laughter. Everstone’s brow twitched before furrowing into a distinct “V” shape. He then opened his mouth to tell the mare off, but the mare beat him to it.

"You have to give it a room number as well. For instance if I wanted it to go to mine. I'd pack my things and say 'floor: three room three, please.’ " the mare informed as she swept back her mane with an effortless flick of the hoof.

He was the fool, but not at the hooves of the mare. Rather at his own hooves. While normally this would only feed into his frustration, the mare's innocent and calm disposition caused only a slight chuckle to escape his throat instead. Everstone was unsure what about the situation caused him to laugh, but he wanted to end the interaction before he made a worse fool of himself. So he didn’t dwell on it, instead he cleared his throat and turned back to the magical mailbox.

“Um, floor four room six” As Evertsone spoke his bags were encapsulated in an emerald green blaze. Yet instead of incinerating to ashes, the objects seemingly vanished with the fire as a breeze scattered the flames. Everstone’s eyes briefly widened in surprise at the efficiency of the enchantment. He was intrigued, so much so, he decided to investigate the enigmatic enchantment. Internally, part of him squirm like a foal at the chance to examine a proper enchantment, as back in Starport most things were done by hoof. Meaning most of his interactions with magic were self experiment or the town library.

His horn began to faintly illuminate as his magic reached out to the box. The box in turn answered back by giving Evertsone’s horn a small reverb. The energy continued out across the school; interviewing and interconnecting with every room teacher, student and classroom alike. It was like an ant's nest with dozens of small pulses traveling in between the links. To Everstone the pulses seemed to be mail being sent to and from; traveling at incomprehensible speeds around the school. Though their speeds made it hard to know for sure. In fact if not for the small buzz he got from each passing one he probably wouldn't even have noticed their existence. It was like a whole new world to him. One of actual
It was mesmerizing to explore and study as one link led to dozens more and that one even more before reconnecting to an old set. While it was not the most cutting edge or flashy magic compared to what he'd read of, it was by far some of the most intricate. He could have spent hours examining each path way and mapping it and still not have even scratched the surface. But before he could study the web further the mare shook his fore leg.

“Are you alright?” The mare inquired worriedly. Her head slowly titling to the right as her eyes did a quick look over.

“You zoned out there.” She informed.

“Yes, I'm quite alright. I was just, curious, about... This.” He answered as he waved his hoof in the general direction of the mailbox. His horn's glow now vanishing; taking with it the familiar tingle of magic and causing Everstone to lift that same hoof and rub it.

“Care to share with the class?” The mare inquired; watching his magic dissipate into the surrounding air.

“It's kind of hard to explain and might take a while.” He replied hoping to deter their conversation from continuing.

“Well I got time.” The mare smiled as she sat down. Everstone’s hoof lowered to his face as he gave a reluctant nod. Despite wanting nothing more than to go to his room the mare’s request kept him captivated there. His head simply complied with a nod before a further thought could be given. Yet despite the involuntary response, the mare’s pure smile and placid demeanor, kept his temper subdued.

“Well how much do you know about magic?” Everstone asked as he slowly reclined back as well.

“Unicorn magic?” She shot him a confused look. To which Everstone shook his head.

“No Unicorn magic is just regular magic. That ‘unicorn magic’ is all around us; it is more common than air and more free flowing than water. This omnipresent force interconnects everything. Plants, ponies, animals, you name it and it's tied together by magic. In turn this allows the world to work in harmonious tandem with one another. Most creatures can only use what magic they are given. Whereas creatures like unicorns possess the ability to gather and manipulate magic with our horns. While this is theoretically possible for any creature to manipulate magic in its raw form, it's too diluted and weak to meaningfully manipulate. Which is why creatures without horns are forced to use a 'focus' of some kind if they want to do the same thing. Typically a crystal will work best for this; as it's a singular point capable of holding a large enough pool of magic to do something meaningful with. In the case of a unicorn, as alluded to earlier, our channel is our horn. However, this means a unicorn’s ability to cast and use spells, the refined form of magic, is limited by our own innate pools of magic. Each pool is not only unique in size but as well as its capability. This is why unicorns are only capable of spells unique to themselves. In fact in my studies, I've come to believe no creature even manipulates magic in the same way either; as magic reacts differently depending who's pulling its strings. This is why, and keep in mind this part is speculation, unicorns spells are limited to their cutie marks. As they are only capable of manipulating strands of magic close enough to their own being. As anything else requires too large a pool of magic for them to be able to use. Making magic deeply personal to each unicorn.“ Everstone explained like a giddy child explaining his crude drawing. While he normally disliked talking to other ponies, the joy of explaining his ideas, to a willing audience no less, outweighed the fatigue that normally came with conversation. Furthermore, the mare's amusement left him oddly reinvigorated and at ease as he talked.

“So what's your ‘deeply personal magic’ then ?” The mare pointed to the purple flame located on his flank.

“Fires?” she guessed with a small snicker.

“Magic actually,” he corrected, “ Truth be told I would have preferred the princess’ royal school for gifted unicorns. But, my mother refused to help foot the bits if I didn't learn to be more ‘sociable’ first; so here we are.” The mare’s grin only grew at this answer.

“You seem sociable enough to me.” she teased as she teasingly mimicked his cavalier tone and stiff, up tight posture. Everstone felt his cheeks become warm once more as he was flushed with embarrassment. Though admittedly she and his mother, he supposed, were right. He could do with a bit of socializing, at the very least so he stopped acting a fool in public spaces.

“Yes, I suppose you're right,” he admitted with a sigh,” I could do better.” He gave her an awkward but genuine smile.

“Winter Frost.” The mare finally introduced. Her hoof outreached as she arose back onto her hooves.

“Everstone.” He greeted back as he shook her hoof. His body slowly relaxed as they shook on it.

“While we’re getting introductions out of the way, you haven't told me what your cutie marks for.” Everstone pointed out as he glanced to the blue megaphone across her own flank.

“You know it's rude to stare at a mare's flank.” Winter quipped; her laughter returning but not from her joke but rather Everstone’s quick flick of his head in embarrassment. His eyes going from flank to wall in a heartbeat.

“Yes, I know but really what is it?” he insisted, trying to ignore her teasing. Winter seemed to ponder the question for a long moment, much longer than Everstone would have liked. He mentally prepared himself for another joke at his expense; so he prepared to leave as he'd become fed up with the friendly ribbing. But to his surprise winter didn't reply back with another joke.

“Tell you what, let's sit together at the assembly and I'll tell you after.” She offered. Everstone’s heart nearly skipped a beat as he had to do a double take to make sure he heard correctly. He wasn't looking forward to the assembly, but at least with a familiar face to sit next to, it might have been bearable. Furthermore the mare seemed nice enough, if not a bit bubbly, so he agreed.

“Great!” she beamed, “Meet outside the assembly hall at eight thirty? so as to find one another before the crowd arrives?” Everstone agreed to the plan as they went their ways. As he climbed the stairs a smile came to his muzzle on his own.

Maybe it wouldn't be that bad here, he thought to himself.