Sunday was spent like many other days had been back in training; my nose buried in a book. The difference this time was Katty sitting beside me as we worked our way through the essential reading we needed to have done by Monday. Understanding terminology such as a ponies Thaumic System was like a second nervous system throughout a ponies body that conducted magic. "Alicorn" turned out to have two meanings, the fourth tribe of Pony, which consisted of Princess Celestia. I couldn't help but chuckle at the hastily added, "and her sister Princess Luna" in the book. Alicorn was also the name of the material my horn was made from, named in honour of the sisters the book claimed.

The first exercise the book had suggested was learning to sense magic and to see a pony's Thaumic System. Screwing my eyes closed, I started to focus on my breathing, needing to clear my mind as the book said. "The ability to sense magic around oneself is done by opening one's horn to the flow of natural magic around it." The book had said. In all honesty, I'd forgotten about the bony protrusion on my forehead. Not being able to use it had kind of resulted in me ignoring it. Opening my horn to the flow of magic… I had no idea how to actually do that, it wasn't really explained clearly in the book, or maybe it was something so simple that I should have known how to do it.

"Asher, focus on the ebb and flow of power within us. Feel the magic inside our body as it moves through you and even in the air around you. Once you have, move your focus to our horn, use the lightest touch of magic to connect your Thaumic System to the magic around you. You will feel natural magic flowing around you, like an island amidst the tides. The flow of magic around your horn is not the only island; however, concentrate, and you will be able to locate others as well."

I could feel Katty beside me. Even with my eyes closed, I could feel the magic within her. It was utterly Alien to me, unlike when Shadow and I had wielded dark magic. This felt like I had just opened my horn up to receive all kinds of signals. The warm feeling beside me was definitely from Katty. If I turned to look at her, I could see a fuzzy yellow blob with lines running away from it. The blob must have been her horn based on where it was. The lines running away from it must have been her Thaumic System.

"Asher, why is your Thaumic System all weird?" Katty asked, shattering my concentration. The glow around my horn faded as my eyes opened. I cocked my head to the side, wondering what she was asking about. "Your horn is blue but with this black stuff in it, like a second Thaumic System or something?"

"That would be me. I apologise for my lapse in judgement. I didn't anticipate her to pick up on this so quickly. If I am active, others can sense that we share this body. Keep it in mind before calling for assistance."

"That's something lingering from what I did in the forest Katty, Mystic told me there would be some lingering marks." I bluffed, praying that Katty would take the bait without questioning. A moment of silence came closely followed by a nod from Katty.

"Makes sense to me", She confirmed, her eyes opening as we returned to the book. For the first piece of required reading, I'd been preparing for something more technical, to be honest. The welcome surprise that it was actually a fun read had brightened my spirits. If all equestrian school books were like this, I might try to study magic for a career. Weaving stories into the information kept me thoroughly invested, as well as giving more context about this world. Starswirl, the bearded, had seemingly done everything possible when he was alive. The chapter talking about Magic Sense had woven it through a tale of Starswirl having to evade a band of pegasi chasing him. He had used Magic Sense to see through what he was hiding behind and watch his pursuers, so he knew when it was safe to move.

"God, I wish my books had been like this back at Cranwell," I muttered as Katty used her nose to flip the page over. The end of the chapter greeted us with another two pages of exercises, one page helping with learning the sense, the other for mastering it and being able to do it even with your eyes open.

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I pulled myself out of bed, my hooves dragging my body away from the warm sheets that begged for me to return to them. The first day of school, the thing that many children dread, obviously this wasn't actually my first day. Still, regardless it was my first day of school in Equestria.

"I hate Mondays."

"Is this why you insisted on spending the entire time we were in our dreamscape explaining that orange cat? The joke still is not funny."

"You're more talkative", I snip as I manage to get to my hooves, the cold air causing my coat to fluff up slightly to keep me warm. Catching a glance of myself in the bathroom mirror as I entered revealed just how adorable ponies were. It was odd; regardless of gender, ponies seemed to be universally cute. Brushing my teeth was as frustrating as always. Grabbing the toothbrush with my ankle just about worked, but I couldn't brush too hard. My ears snapped to the right at the sound of something sharp clicking against the wooden floor outside the bathroom.

"Morning Tibbs"

The zombie-like groan I received was confirmation that I was right. I reared up onto the sink and spat the toothpaste into it before exiting the bathroom and letting Tibbs enter. He was sporting probably the most impressive bedhead I'd ever seen. Feathers on his head sticking up at all different angles whilst his lion back half was puffed up like He stuck a talon in a socket. The door slid shut behind me, leaving my morning to-do list down to the last two items. I needed to eat something and grab mine and Katty's book bundle to haul to school.

I trotted downstairs, unable to help myself, as a smile formed on my lips, a subtle spring to my every step. I came into the kitchen and busied myself, trying to make myself breakfast. Clumsily using my muzzle to pour oats into a bowl before I bit the rim of it to carry my meal to the table. The sound of hoofsteps came from the stairs as I ate, Maya joining me as she had a bowl of her own.

"You know, you and Katty are gonna be on breakfast duty once you get that whole magic schtick down," She said, grinning at me from across the table. "Can't wait, to be honest. I think my first order will be pancakes? Or maybe a three-cheese omelette? What would the chef recommend?"

Before I could reply, I was interrupted by a damp Griffon stomping down the stairs, his wings shuffling and flicking in irritation. Tibb's angry glare could have melted stone as he fixed his gaze on Maya. Setting himself down on a chair opposite her and beside me. "Who the fuck used up all the feather lather?"

Sensing the imminent interspecies argument, I bravely elected to leave the room. Placing my now empty bowl in the sink before I galloped up the stairs as fast as my legs could carry me. Katty looked confused as I passed her, dashing into my room to fetch our books and hopefully leave the house quickly. By the time I'd managed to get the books back together, Katty was waiting by the door for me. Maya and Tibbs' arguing over shampoo was unfortunately still going. A glance into the kitchen revealed both of them leaning on the table, wings flared out to try and look larger than the other. I shoved the door open and started to leave before Katty tapped me on the shoulder.

"You fine holding the books? I don't mind carrying them," She offered, following behind me as we left the house behind us, with the sound of arguing thankfully silenced by the heavy door swinging shut. Hoofington in the early morning was surprisingly busy on a Monday. A flight of Pegasi flew over our heads, headed towards a large bank of storm clouds over the forest. The mailmare I'd seen on Saturday landed at a house across from us as we walked down the road. Waving to us with a bright yellow hoof before she took back to the skies, she headed into town as we turned to head towards the Academy. The walk towards Hoofington's unicorn Academy wasn't too far. Katty led the way as she claimed to have found a shortcut on Saturday whilst I was at the library.

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I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to Mystic's teaching. He'd seemed cold when we'd last spoken. When I was met with an empty classroom, the crowd of foals, including myself and Katty, filtered in, murmurs of confusion passing through the group.

"Greetings class, take your seats please."

We moved to our seats, looking around to try and find where Mystic was. Katty smiled as I saw her horn light up, her eyes screwed closed. I realised what she was doing and couldn't help but feel impressed. She was using what the reading had taught us as a beginners exercise to try and find Mystic. A moment later and she looked up before her jaw dropped. I mimicked her, craning my neck to look up. Mystic Haze was standing on the ceiling, his horn glowing a gentle orange. The smile on his face suggested that he hadn't expected a student to find him so quickly.

"Congratulations, Katty, I didn't expect anypony to think to use their magic sense this soon. I've done this trick for a few years for my new students to see if ponies actually pay attention." He spoke as he walked over to the wall, just attaching his hooves to the wall before trotting down it to the floor. "First lesson, students, is that magic is as much a sense as your eyes and ears are. Now please take your seats, and we'll get started with some practicals. After lunch, we'll be having a more theory-based lesson. Later today, we'll be covering the fundamentals for magic theory."

Mystic's announcement was met by groans from a few of the other foals in the class. An orange and yellow coated unicorn filly was frantically scribbling down notes already. Another look around the room revealed most of the class seemed excited at the prospect of practising magic. Mystic trotted to the front of the class, floating two bags up into the air, before lifting what looked like small barbels out of them and placing one on each desk.

"These are simple learner's weights like a pony would use to exercise. You'll be using these to learn how to grip something with Telekinesis before working on your strength." He explained, a smile on his face as he looked over the class to make sure he'd distributed the weights correctly. I looked at the weight in front of me, a small five embossed into the material. "Strength is important for your Telekinesis. After all, what good is only being able to float a few pebbles."

Mystic looked at his desk, and I watched as an apple floated up in his magic. "However, you must also learn to control your strength. Can't crush anything you try to hold now, can you?" He said as the apple was crushed into mush in his telekinetic grip. A small part of me recoiled in fear at the casual display, wondering what a trained unicorn could do to another pony. Making a mental note to consult Shadow on that later, I looked back to the front. Mystic's horn shone as the class gasped, the apple reforming from the pulp.

"Thank you for t-" Mystic started before the apple detonated like some sort of hand grenade, splattering itself over Mystic's face and three foals in the front row. A shriek of fright from the note-taking filly I'd seen earlier. With an awkward cough, Mystic turned back towards the class. "Those of you who were hit, you're excused to go clean yourselves up. I'm sorry, Lily." The orange and yellow filly, who I guessed was Lily, jumped off her desk and galloped from the room. I swore I heard her sniffling as she ran out. Two colts headed for the door as well, their manes splattered with apple mush. "And that class is why you test spells out before using them in public. Gold star to whoever can identify in a two hundred word report what failed with that spell."

Across from me, Katty's hoof shot up, a grin I recognised from my days going to school with her sister on full display. Mystic looked a little shocked as he trotted over towards us, one eyebrow raised. I glanced around and saw that all eyes in the room apart from my own were fixed on Katty. She seemed to have either not noticed or didn't care at all. "The spell didn't fail, sir, instead it just didn't linger. It fixed the apple, but when you stopped casting it, there was nothing to keep the apple fixed, so it exploded."

"In laymare's terms, that is accurate, congratulations Katty," Mystic said before turning back to the front of the class. "Telekinesis is not a complicated spell. Focus on your horn, feel the magic within it. Then visualise the weight and surround it with your magic before trying to move that magic up and carry the weight with it."

I took in a breath, following the instructions as best as I could. Feeling the flow of magic through my horn, trying to ignore the other dots of magic around me from the other students. I looked at the weight, keeping its image firmly in my mind as I tried to surround it with my magic. A flickering and faded blue glow surrounding the dumbbell, my horn pulsing as I felt power flowing through it. It took a considerable force of will to not snicker and make a star wars reference to Katty as I increased the amount of magic I used. The small flow of power grew; it felt weird, like a light breeze blowing over my brain and out my horn. Tingles ran down my spine as I tried to lift my magic upwards.

"Yes!" As the weight wobbled and floated upwards, I whispered to myself, my magic managing to hold firm as the weight slowly started to rotate. I watched as it sped up, despite my magic holding it steady. It took a moment until I realised what was going on; the flow of power surrounding it was making it rotate away from me. In theory, I could kill that rotation. Adjusting my horn and the flow of magic, I watched as the weight slowed down before eventually stopping. A triumphant grin adorning my face as I looked right to see Katty floating three weights above her head. Her smile dwarfed mine. Triumph hardly even described the look on her face; the sparkle in her eyes was like Maya's when we'd studied how planes flew. I could tell that Katty had found her calling, which made me wonder, shouldn't this be when her Cutiemark would appear? Wasn't that what Mystic had said? Cutiemarks appear once a pony finds their calling? Or was it talent?

____________________________________________________________________________

Lunch was thankfully pretty soon; by the end of morning class, I'd managed to float two weights with relative ease. Katty had hit Ten before Mystic told her to calm down and not overstrain herself. We walked towards the lunchroom, thankful that Mystic's Academy provided lunch for students for free. The noise and clamour of a lunch hall streamed through the doors to meet us, the clink of cutlery and the dull roar of conversation.

A little pulse of magic pushed the doors open for me and Katty to trot in. We entered the room, and silence fell almost instantly, roughly thirty unicorns turning to look at us. A few whispered to others sitting beside them. Their eyes staring at us from all around the room was unnerving. I felt the fur on the back of my neck rise. Katty was the first to move, ignoring the stares and trotting over to the counter. I followed behind her, trying to ignore the itch of frustration building in the back of my skull.
The lunchmare was professional enough; she raised an eyebrow at us both but floated two bowls of salad to us. Which left the most "important" part of school lunches, finding a table. I rolled my eyes internally, the itch of frustration building as I looked around. Wherever I looked, the table occupants would either block the free spaces or just glare at me.

"Come on Katty", I said over my shoulder, setting out for a table that was barely even a third full. The group of fillies at the far end looked up to see us approaching, and I swore their coats went a few shades paler. It was rather impressive, considering two of them had snow-white coats. Katty was floating our food along, her proud little smile still on display despite our fellow students' reaction. We sat down, and almost instantly, Katty had her muzzle in the salad, pulling back immediately in confusion.

"The dressing is salty?" She whispered to me, raising an eyebrow as she looked up. Why would the dressing be salty? It's unlikely that something was done to our food. Maybe it was like sugar? And salt was essential to a unicorn's diet? Mustering my best shrug, I just started to eat, floating pieces of lettuce to my mouth instead of following Katty's muzzle first method. All around us, the unicorn's stared. I could feel my eye twitch as the urge to demand to know what was going on built. Conversations gradually resumed as we ate, but I could still feel eyes watching me. Flickers of magic washing over me as somepony kept trying to sense if either of us did anything.

"I don't like this Katty, what the fuck is going on?" I whispered, trying to keep my voice low enough that the fillies at the end of our table wouldn't hear. The moment I spoke, the conversations at tables around us died, ears unsubtly swivelling to listen in on our conversation. My eye twitched as the itching sensation only got worse. Out of the corner of my vision, a yellow filly I recognised from our class left the lunch hall. Sensing an opportunity to actually get an answer, I made a move. Excusing myself from the table wasn't exactly hard, "Not hungry. Whatever's left is all yours."

I crossed the lunch hall quickly, my hoofsteps sounding deafening to my ears. As I walked, a wave of silence preceded me, conversations died, and heads turned to watch. My frustration had grown into anger by this point. Who were these foals to judge me? What did they believe that we had done? Had they been through the forest! No, so how could they even try to comprehend. By the time I had reached the door, I was burning up inside, each stare only further fueling the fire burning in my core. I could hear the clip-clop of Lily's hooves to the left, and I followed, catching up to her quickly, small dots of purple swimming in my vision.

Lily turned around ahead of me, her ears pressing to her head as she stumbled away from me. Pressing herself against a wall in an effort to get away from me. "P-please don't hurt me", She muttered, barely loud enough for me to hear her. The fear in her eyes was almost palpable, sending a bolt of horror through my system. What the fuck was wrong with me? Scaring the hell out of a child and sulking like an irritable teenager again.

"Asher, you must calm down. Do you not feel Sombramatic mana flowing within you? I will handle this for now, but we shall be discussing this later."

My anger dissolved in an instant between my realisation and Shadow draining away the dark mana. I was horrified at what I'd even been thinking. Fighting the urge to vomit, I looked up at Lily and tried to fix this situation.

"Hey, my name's Asher. You're Lily right?" I ventured, a sheepish smile on my lips to try and reassure the utterly terrified filly ahead of me. I noticed what must have been a few inches size difference, not enough for me to tower over her, but it certainly wouldn't help with how scared of me she seemed to be. Making a mental note to figure out what was average height for a colt, I waited for her to reply, seconds ticking by as she remained frozen. "A...are you alright? I didn't mean to frighten you. I suppose the cold shoulder from everyone back there was just getting on my nerves."

"Y-you're t-that dark unicorn from the rumours, aren't you? Why else could two unicorns show up like that in town and get the Princess to come all the way out for one of them!" Lily practically exploded as her ears lifted from her skull and pointed forward. Her body language radiated hostility clearly enough that even my limited time as a pony understood she had picked fight instead of flight. Much to my shame, I was startled and a little afraid at the yellow and orange magic-wielding Pony pointing her horn right at me.

"What rumours?" I blurted out, trying to stay calm as I couldn't risk having another Sombramatic build up. My body shivered as the idea of having another build-up ran through my head. Images of an angry mob only making my attempt to stay calm feel justified to me. Lily looked at me as if I'd just claimed to be a bipedal ape evolved creature with no magic. In other words, she was utterly confused.

"You haven't heard? Tumble's dad is a guard and complained about having to rush out of town because of some knights from Canterlot demanding assistance with a dark magic user! The rumour says that it wasn't some evil stallion or mare but a unicorn foal, the child of nightmare moon sent to get revenge on ponykind for killing their mother!" Lily shook in fear as she recounted the story, which thankfully seemed to be pretty far from the truth. She claimed that the unicorn foal had ventured into the forest to revive the dead who had fallen trying to conquer the garrison one thousand years ago. In all honesty, the rumour was so embellished with villainous deeds that the foal had supposedly done. It was obviously some playground rumour. Although the parts it did get right were painfully accurate, from the dark magic-wielding unicorn foal being injured and the Princess arriving to judge the foal.

"Wait, if the Princess arrived to judge this foal, why would they still be around town? Wouldn't the Princess have banished them to the moon?" I Interjected as Lily explained how the dark foal could drain the magic from another pony just by touching them. She opened her mouth to reply, the fire in her eyes burning before she faltered. One hoof raised to object to my interruption before her brow furrowed, and she sat down.

"That's a good point, so if you and that filly are here, you must not be the dark foal. But that doesn't explain why you two suddenly showed up and why the Princess came to see you!" Lily exclaimed as she pointed a hoof at me again. Come on, brain, I'm twenty-five years old. I can come up with an excuse in time. My thoughts ground to a halt as I frantically grasped at straws for an idea before the most blindingly obvious solution presented itself.

"We transferred from Celestia's school in Canterlot. I had an accident on the trip when I nearly fell onto the train tracks, so she came to see me in the hospital whilst she was here to finalise the paperwork with Mystic." I explained in as calm a tone as I could muster, hoping against hope that I had covered every base I needed to. Lily visibly thought over my explanation, mulling it over before she nodded slowly. Her demeanour changed on a dime as she perked up with a realisation.

"What was the Princess like? Was she nice? She always sounded so kind when I heard her speak." Lily practically jumped closer, staring up at me with excited glee in her eyes. Moments later, I realised what I'd just unleashed. I'd just told a fangirl...fanfilly, that I'd met her Idol. Maintaining my best "official officer's business" smile, I started to edge back towards the lunch hall doors to escape.

"She was intense. If I'm honest, the aura of her presence is just indescribable." My hasty description seemed enough to placate the excited filly as she nodded and literally bounced off away from me. I don't think I'd seen a pony literally bounce before, but that was evidently something they could do. Returning to Katty proved to be relatively simple. The cold stares greeted me as I came back into the lunch hall as if I was an old friend. With a heavy sigh, I trotted across the room, ignoring the stares and sitting down opposite Katty. "Turns out there were rumours of some dark magic using monster foal who came from the forest, and ponies in this place probably assume one of us is them."

The room's nervous silence was shattered by Katty bursting out laughing. All eyes turned towards the source of the noise. I felt their stares as they moved past me to Katty. Who was laughing hard enough she had tears in the corners of her eyes, beating a hoof against the table whilst blubbering the occasional word. All I could make out was "you", "evil", "idiots" and "muffins." I had no clue what she meant by that last word as I was brought out of trying to decipher what she meant by the loud thump of Katty falling from her seat onto the floor, laughing the entire time.

____________________________________________________________________________

The end of the school day arrived far faster than I'd expected; magic theory was complicated. Still, Katty seemed to be able to intuit her way through the entire class. We walked out of the Academy's front doors with our books floating along in two colourful aura's of magic. I couldn't help but smile; I was using magic under my own control without any outside help. Something any normal human would probably think impossible, yet here I was doing it. As for Magic theory, it kind of made sense, each of the tribes had its own unique magic. Plus, Chaotic and Harmonic magic were two larger types. Added to that, I knew that Sombramatic magic was also another.

The distinguishing feature was that Unicorn magic was the most versatile, being honed into different disciplines through training. I had to flip to the page to check the list, Pyromancy, Aquamancy, Songcraft, Combat and about a dozen other types. The book even explained that it didn't contain a complete list as each unicorn's magic was different, but they could apply the same techniques to form their spells. Magic seemed to be mostly done through mental constructs and channelling mana through different areas of your horn, no incantations, apparently. I was brought out of my thoughts as Katty stopped in front of me, and I walked right into her, dropping my floating books onto my head as my concentration was broken.

"Jesus! Watch it!" I complained, floating the hardcover textbook off my muzzle before rubbing it with a fetlock. If that bruised, I would practice my magic by dumping water on Katty at two in the morning. My muzzle tingled as it was yanked up by a field of yellow magic, forcing me to look up. Tibbs was lazily hovering above us, grinning like an utter madman. Katty's magic released my muzzle, allowing me to look down, spotting Maya walking along below Tibbs. She was covered in dirt and scratches. She looked pissed, her nostrils flared and ears twitching.

"Flying makes no sense, seriously. How the hell do you keep stable in the air like that?" Maya was the first to speak, glaring up at Tibbs as he locked his wings to glide to the ground. It occurred to me that we were adapting pretty nicely to this whole place, Katty and I were figuring out magic. Give it a week, and Maya would be flying like she was born to do it. Tibbs already was, so I knew she'd figure it out. I floated my books into the bag Mystic had handed me after class before wincing in pain.

My horn was starting to throb like I had a migraine coming on. I guessed it was probably due to overuse after not really using it at all after the forest. Today had raised enough things to ask Shadow about that I wanted to get home away from potentially prying horns. The town itself was seemingly rather calm, foals of all three tribes galloping off home. It was nice, if I'm honest, it reminded me of the photos I'd seen of small country villages in the peaceful years of the 30s. My ears swivelled as behind us; I heard the flapping of wings. It must have been a bunch of Pegasi, I guessed, although the wings had this weird buzz to them.

"Stop showing off Featherhead!"
"Overgrown Chicken!"
"Bird Bucker!"

All four of us paused as what must have been eight of so Pegasi colts flew overhead, glaring and shouting insults towards Tibbs. I glanced at him to find he seemed to be as confused as I was.

"Were those….species slurs? Not sure if I should be offended or laugh." He said out loud, watching as the pegasi landed not too far from us and galloped off. We resumed a brisk trot back to the house with a collective shrug, and Katty and I volunteering to cook tonight. By the time I finally got to bed, my horn ached. I could feel how drained I was. The soft blanket of my bed called to me. With a yawn, I collapsed onto the bed and felt sweet sleep finally overtaking me.

"We have much to discuss, Asher."

Author's Note

Huge thank you to my proofers, without you two I'd not have gotten this far writing this fic.
Galzra
and
RRB1
Both of you guys are absolutely fantastic, and I'm so glad I can call you both my friends.

For my readers, I'm sorry this chapter took so long, it took longer to get right than I planned but I hope you all enjoy!

I've got some ideas for smaller stuff to write (converting some of my greentexts into prose) so they might be coming up sometime soon!