Author's Note
While going through my old boxes as I’m moving into my new place, I happened across one of my old journals. When I’d originally written these, I had no intent of sharing them with anypony. However, given the circumstances of my sudden appearance in Ponyville, I thought it might be a good idea to share my story with others. I hope it helps you understand me a little better.
Entry One
Welp, today was a good day. It was pretty fun, especially since it was my last day at school; and by fun, I obviously mean terrible. Let me explain; It all started when I ran out of pages for my second journal, so I had to run to the bookstore for another one. In doing so, I was late to my conjuring class, which meant that I had to wait in the corner. After what felt like an eternity, I was finally told to return to the class and begin practicing for my final conjuring test of that year. On top of all of that, I forgot to grab my breakfast waffle on my way out of the house this morning, so I was starving.
Great… another conjuring lesson... I am not good at these classes at all. Need I remind you, in my first week with my conjuring teacher, Mr. Mould Break, I teleported his pet chameleon to the palace steps by mistake. Of course, I was the one sent to find him. It took me nearly the whole day; pets aren’t like the statues we were supposed to be practicing on. Okay, I was supposed to be practicing on them, but that’s beside the point.
Conjuring is like my ummm... “bane,” you can say, and because of that, it’s pretty annoying when circumstances arise where I have to use only conjuring to solve an issue or problem. That just leads to several weird and awkward moments for me, especially when I try to do it next to my sister. Whenever I fail, she steps up, and everytime she does, I don’t even know how, but it looks like there’s a halo or some light around her and some aura, like music. Don’t even ask, journal, I myself don’t know.
Anyways, that was a whole other tangent of my life, which has nothing to do with today’s final conjuration class. Let me tell ya, journal, it was a horrible experience. The test in question oh boy was a teleportation exam, and shockingly, I didn’t pass. I failed spectacularly. Let me explain. The test was supposed to be an easy three-step process which Mr. Mould Break explained to us as follows: “Step one, focus on where you are. Step two, visualise where you wish to be. Step three is to move yourself, through magic, to the point where you want to go.”
Sounds simple, right? Yeah, if an earth pony like Mr. Mould Break can explain all of the steps so smoothly and easily, you’d think it was easy, and yet, I was still somehow capable of messing it all up. Firstly, I took stock of where I was; the classroom. The test parameters told us to go into the next room, so I visualised the room next to us. I channeled enough magic to move me there, only to find that I visualised wrong and ended up on top of the northeast spire of the school. It was only after ten minutes that I was found, and Mr. Flare had to pull me down. You can imagine that Mr. Mould Break wasn’t too pleased with me, telling me in front of the whole class that I would need to retake the test if I had any hope of passing and showed me the door. This was the first of my many reasons as to why this was my last day here.
So, returning to my “bane.” Or perhaps “banes” is what I should say, as conjuring isn’t my only weakness. Transmutation also has its problems with me. I just don’t understand; how exactly is that useful? Okay, nevermind, I can think of many reasons why this subject is useful, but no matter how useful it may be, I am terrible at it, so, yeah.
I remember my first ever class of transmutation. We hadn’t even started, and I somehow managed to blow up my quill! (Ha ha ha!) Yea, that was a good memory for me. For my teacher, however, not so much. She gave me detention; not so fun. I believe it was after that class that my teacher, Ms. Orchid Delight, told me to see her after her class for a talk. Let’s just say that it was not a good one. Not a terrible one, but she did berate me a little. She said something about me having an innate ability, and that I was likely to do something great. Judging by my skill, I was unlikely to meet her expectations.
I underestimated how stupid my ego could be on my final test. I didn’t change the potted fern to a hibiscus flower as instructed. Rather, I turned it into a plunderseed vine plant that snagged up the entire class and nearly took my teacher along with them. However, Ms. Delight was quite agile, maneuvering past the vines and taking out the root and stem, quite easily eliminating the threat.
This event didn’t sit well with my teacher. Since my turn was the last for the day, she made me clean it all up; literally everything from torn up books and scratched tables to the smashed windows and dessicated vine remains that were splattered all across the walls and floors. That wasn’t the only punishment I was given, either. She also told me that I would be re-taking the test until I passed, which in my mind led to sort of a brain malfunction. I really had no desire to repeat this experience whatsoever. I was left standing there with the broom, just staring into space. That was the second strike leading to this being my last day here.
After that “fun” experience, I headed to my evocation test. Upon entering the class, I started having memories of my first day here. My evocations teacher, Mr. Flare, came running into the class completely engulfed in flames and flailing around. I remember how the entire class started freaking out. Heck, some of my classmates even climbed onto desks, jumped onto cabinets and one of them even managed to hang from one of the chandeliers. However, amidst all the commotion, he just chuckled and extinguished himself like it was nothing. “That's exactly what I don't want to see happen,” he laughed. “Lesson one of evocation: Safety always comes first."
That was a good memory. However, as fun that memory was, the others weren’t. They were more a mixed mess of events than anything else at times. I remember, when we started on simple levitation, we were supposed to lift a small stack of books. I so desperately wanted to do it right on my first try that I ended up propelling them across the room, knocking over a bookshelf. That wasn’t fun to clean up. There was also the time when I did well in the class, setting one of the target marshmallows on fire instead of, well, all of the targets. So yeah, that memory was a win-win as, in accordance with Mr. Flare’s instructions at the time, I did pretty average, plus I got a sweet treat! Mhm.
Well, today was not like those memories at all. Then again, those memories were not finals for the various magic classes that determine if ya move on to the next year. So yea, with that being said, my evocations final exam could’ve gone better. The goal was to knock at least five bottles off of a stand at the far end of the room with different forms of evocation magic. I managed to knock the first one off with a fireball and the second with a bolt of lightning, but my frost bolt missed and hit the wall. I sent a gust of wind, but it just blew right past the bottles without knocking any of them over. I’m still not great at levitation. The pressure to perform caused me to accidentally apply the magic upside-down, actually crushing the bottle, but it counted, according to Mr. Flare. Raising a small strand of earth knocked over the fourth, and I managed to create a small sound shockwave that, after a few attempts, managed to vibrate the bottle off the stand and onto the floor.
Mr. Flare wasn’t the happiest and stated that my attempt was sloppy. However, it was better than my other work, so that was pretty good in my mind. Deep down, though, I felt the disappointment in his tone. I was a bit shattered too, this being my third reason as to why this was my last day here.
After evocations, it was time to head to divinations. My teacher, Ms. Vichyssoise, was a very scary, yet intriguing teacher. I remember so well my very first day in the new year, when we were being guided to each class so as to better understand where we were supposed to go and to not be late. It was like a tour for us students and in the middle of it... well... a small scuffle broke out between a couple students. One was a unicorn slightly shorter than me in height, the other student a changeling.
Ms Vichyssoise, well, she pulled both parties out from the line and, in front of all of us, asked them what happened and what caused them to act like savages and so uncouth. They both gave different reasons, and nopony could tell who was telling the truth and who was lying. Their stories seemed seamless. After they stopped speaking, she looked at both of them sternly and immediately locked eyes with the changeling. She took him aside and told him that, rather than rejoining the line, he was to follow her once they continue for aggressing a fight. The changeling looked at her with a stunned and dumbfounded look. She placed the young unicorn back in line and continued the tour as the changeling just followed her with his head down.
Now, you may be wondering why this makes ponies scared of her, or even intimidated by her. Well the reason is simple. How could she know who was telling the truth, lying or even if this was all staged? Somehow, she could do that so easily. I’m sorry, but I was not ready to end up on her bad side. Nope, not ready at all.
So, after I reached class and my mind returned to the present, my teacher was waiting and ready for us. The doors closed as we filed in and she stated that the final test for divination had begun. The test was a simple but very mentally taxing one, which saw us looking five minutes into the future using a complicated spell with several steps that would allow us to do so. Now, several students did very poorly and some did exceptionally. As for me, well, I did okay. Yup, dead average, and to be honest, I was fine with that. Especially considering the fact that the first time I tried doing this, I somehow managed to temporarily blind myself. Ms. Vichyssoise sent me to the clinic and I was fixed up in a day or so. Because of that, I had to stay back for extra classes, and after all of that extra time, if I was able to do this well, I count it as a win. My teacher believed so, too.
Now my last class and challenge faced me; my enchanting exam. To be honest, in my entire final day here, this class was by far the one I was most looking forward to. The teacher, Mr. Wild Dream, well, he was an inventor and a bit of a weirdo. In one of his classes, he spent thirty minutes telling us about his most successful invention, the squeak-proof hinge. Whilst the other students dozed off, I was always in awe by his inventions. I remember in my first few classes with him, he showed us an invention of his that had fire protective enchantments on it. He then proceeded to dunk the whole thing in molten rock, and after a minute had passed, he raised it back up. It was exactly the same! No burns, no singed hinges and no bits on fire! That was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen!
After that first class, instead of leaving for the day, I stayed back and helped him sort and stow away his paperwork and equipment. As I was leaving, he told me that while I was sorting, I was also mumbling under my breath possible improvements to some of his inventions. Some of the plans were displayed on the wall. I’d correctly stated proper tooth structures and alignments without having to see the specifications, he’d said. Every single piece outside of my view, I could pinpoint. He was impressed, and told me that I had a talent, a hidden skill and a great eye. After saying this, he told me that, if I wished, I could ask him for tips and additional lessons on not just enchanting, but the art of inventing, too.
After he said those words, he patted me on the shoulder before closing the doors to his class on me, slowly and gently. I was left so flummoxed, did I really have a gift? Was I really talented? All I did was sort things and just think aloud. By the time I returned home for the day, my mind was racing. I decided to try and make a new type of telescope by breaking down the one I had. I aimed to make it simpler and more functional, and in the course of doing so, I earned my cutie mark. I took that as a sign that I was meant to follow; it showed me with absolute clarity that I was destined to be an inventor.
So, I decided to take him up on his offer and after the second day of class, I went with him to his workshop. I was there every day after every class, and as time went on, I only became better and better. One day, when Mr. Dream had decided to go and buy us some lunch whilst I continued tinkering, I reworked and fixed an old invention of his. It was an instant pie maker. By the time he came back, I had made two cobblers with it, and I even applied fire resisting enchantments to the inner barrel rings. My teacher hadn’t yet considered that to be a possible issue and he was very happy to see the device finally working properly. He was so happy that he told me that I didn’t have to use his full name outside of class, and I could just call him by his nickname, as his friends do. I was rather nervous in doing so at first, and to be honest, I still am, but the option is there if I ever want to call him WD-40.
With those happy memories, I returned back to the present and faced the challenge before me. This challenge was an easy one; I had to apply an enchantment of unbreaking on a sculpture of glass. It was to be tested by striking it with magic, after which I had to return to it the property of shattering, taking away its enchantment. After that, it will be tested again. Since it was my turn last, I went for it. Mr. Wild Dream struck it, and after it vibrated, resonating deep within my core, true to the enchantment, it stayed in one piece. I then returned it to its natural state. My teacher struck it again and it shattered into thousands of tiny pieces. He looked at me and gave his congratulations, stating that I had passed to an exceptional degree.
I was in shock, still staring at the shattered sculpture, not even focusing on my teacher or the room full of noise and celebration as the exams and tests were finally over for the year. However, this is where I was faced with a decision that would change my life.
After all the other students had left to enjoy their time with each other now that they’ve finished their tests and completed the year, I went to see my teacher and I asked him a question. Just one question. Was I ready to be an inventor with how much magical knowledge I have attained thus far?
He looked at me and simply smiled. He said that the art of inventing doesn’t depend or hinge entirely on magic; that it depended on your creativity, imagination and determination. If you had that; if you were strong in those fields, you were ready. He told me that in the one year that he has taught me, he had never seen anypony as committed or creative as me, and with that he smiled at me and put his hooves on my shoulders and said the three words that helped me decide my path. I remember them very clearly.
“You are ready.”
I smiled back at him, I hugged him and I thanked him for all his guidance and support. After hearing those words, I left. I ran straight to my room and immediately wrote my letter of withdrawal from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. I sent it just minutes before writing this entry and I believe I have made the right choice for my future.
With that, I will begin packing my belongings from here. It’s time to leave this place for good. Until next time.
Yours truly,
Starjack
