The Basics of the Equestrian Magic

by MirroredHawk

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, My Little Pony Comic
Length: 8323

Lecturer explains to students nature of magic and various existing schools of magic.

Lecturer explains to students the nature of magic and various existing schools of magic.
This story is written as an attempt to systemize the Equestrian magic world in a bit more interesting reading format. It draws some limits and gives examples, trying not to contradict the laws of physics and common sense.
Use it at your own discretion.
Events happen in the world that is heavily based on IDW comic issues #17-20 in "Equestria at War" setting.

This is my second story written for the Fifth Equestria at war Write Off: "Magic making way for technology". (2022)
(*It literally got translated by accident)

Cover is taken from Equestria at War mod files.

Published 2022-06-09 20:30:00 UTC
Last updated 2022-06-09 20:30:00 UTC

Lesson 1: Magic sections

“As you all already know, Equestria is filled with various magic. We, unicorns, use it every day to manipulate various objects. Nopony is even able to imagine our world without it. During these lessons I am going to present you the nature of magic, its essence. You will learn everything what is known about it so far in order to function as a valuable part of pony society.

“All magic has the same nature, even though it appears otherwise on the first glance. Unicorn magic, Princesses' magic, magical creatures, places, phenomena... – all of it comes from the same source and is able to covert from one to another. But for convenience we divide it onto such categories:

Creatures' magic.

Environmental magic.

Enchantments.

“As I already mentioned, a bond exists between these categories, but we are still unable to move magical energy between them without dramatic losses of energy into the undesired category or to the environment. Very rarely we're able to find a combination of actions which will allow us to do such manoeuvre.

“You might be wondering: ‘Can't we enchant objects?’ – and I'll answer... Yeah, it's an old practise, but you are not walking around with enchanted jewellery, aren't you? Here comes the problem. We face a dramatic loss of energy or a need for a complicated ritual. Various brightest minds and best mages of Equestria have tried, to no avail, to systemise enchantments, make it possible to foresee the ritual conditions. Even the unscrupulous and cruel Star Swirl wasn't able to do that, usually getting the conditions by coincidence.

“Now, with the categories out of the way we can elaborate on its kinds. You all, probably, know about the dark magic. Why we call it that way? Answer is simple: We need to experience negative feelings as a catalyst to certain spells. Or do some vicious or unacceptable in our society actions. I think I won't be breaking down all the possible ways to use it. The same applies for the other side, which we are more familiar with – white magic.

“Kinds of magic characterise what emotions and feelings, as well as moral attitude of our society are used for its spells. The line between them is blurred and nowadays we can stumble upon two different interpretations of that. In first case it is divided into black and white, as it was in the past. Second interpretation appeared in the Order of Belladonna and was warmly received in there. Magisters in Hedgewards decided to add grey magic, which doesn't corrupt its user, but demands negative feelings.

“Finally, getting kinds out of the way, we can talk about types. In order to raise an object, it is enough to concentrate on it and on a place where we want to move it. I'm sure that every unicorn, who at least once have seen the use of such spell will be able to recreate it. But not all spells can be used so easily. Some of them require certain combination of actions, thoughts, feelings. Different verbal charms, incantations and images help us to cast such spell, but our mind is the basis. Such phenomena appear in the other categories of magic as well. Enchanted objects can have instant effect, they can affect an object overtime, and also have a trigger to start working. Environmental magic is somehow similar to that. So, the magic types are simple and accumulative.

“Later these terms will cause a little confusion after going through the nature of magic, but they were decided in the Order of Belladonna in year 604. Simple magic can serve as a source for the release of accumulative magic. Our horn is the one of those sources of simple magic. Imagine it as a converter of simple energy into the magical. You, probably, know that young unicorn foals have uncontrollable bursts of magic from time to time. This happens because our horn is unable to hold large amounts of accumulated magical energy and their horn involuntarily disposes the surplus.”

Lesson 2: Nature of magic

“Today I will tell you about the nature of magic, where it comes from. During the physics lessons you learned about the abstract energy. Such as kinetic, potential and internal. Magic is placed as a fourth type, which, kind of, can be considered a part of internal energy, but it won't be correct to the full extent. Magical energy exists everywhere. Every cell, one way or another, creates some magical energy, spending some internal for it.

“But, unlike earthponies or pegasi, we are able to create way more magical energy and store it. Our horn is the main tool responsible for the magical manipulation in our bodies. There is a joke that in order to catch a unicorn you need to break his horn first. In every joke there is a bit of truth. Yeah, unicorn loses the ability to cast directed spells with broken horn. But all magic accumulation happens in the horn base, thus unicorn is still able to use magic, though it will demand gigantic amount of training to be able to control it. This happens because horn acts as a platform to direct the flow of the accumulated magic energy.

“Enough side-tracking. How I already mentioned, magic is created and accumulated in everything. But not every creature is able to accumulate the same amount of it. Even fewer – are able to actually use it.”

“What is the difference between the enchanted object and the environmental magic?” asked one of the students.

“Good question. Practically, there is no difference aside of one thing. Enchantment is created artificially by the creature. In fact, there is a heated debate within the Order of Belladonna as to whether or not enchantment should be identified as a separate category of magic, but for now, enchantment is considered a separate science, and enchanters try to separate themselves from researchers of the environmental magic. Personally, I'm more inclined to believe that enchantments are part of environmental magic, even though enchanted objects interact with creatures more often.

“Back to the nature of magic. Thus, everycreature or object has its own limit of accumulated magic energy and a way to release or absorb it, meaning, converting it back to the physical energy. For example, after the battle for Cloudsdale there was a terrible magical storm. In the ruins of the city every object got overfilled with magical energy and it is still released even to this day making it dangerous even to pass by the ruins, not talking about entering. Only the skilled magicians are able to control the magic flow around them in such place saturated with magical energy.

“By the way, we're lucky. A healthy unicorn is able to block the external flow of the magical energy. But, as you can guess, use of the magic in such place will result in the contact of the external and internal magic and our horn simply won't be able to release magic in such conditions. Even now, concentrated, you will be able to sense the background magic. Thus, our horn is able to sense the external magical energy. Usually, we don't pay much of attention to that, but you surely felt sometimes kind of unusual, when it was harder to use spells. It happens due to the magical storms. Air isn't transporting much of magical energy, but still, it's sometimes enough to feel it. For example, South-West wind comes with the over-saturated magical air from Cloudsdale to Canterlot, making unprepared unicorns dizzy.

“Cloudsdale is the great example of the magical conversion and thus it will be mentioned more than once during our lessons, be sure of that. Conversion from the magical into the environmental as well as into the creatures' magic happens in its ruins. Once I have seen a unicorn, who was sick with the magical permeability, who was brought from there. That was quiet a horrific sight, his face was disfigured and he constantly was mumbling. His horn flashing as crazy even though they put a horn restrictor on him. So, be very careful. It is possible to step over yourself and use magic through force, but you may end up with irreversible consequences. Cloudsdale is far from being the only dangerous magical place on Equus.”

“But why there is so much magic in Cloudsdale?” somepony asked, but before lecturer opened his mouth other student answered:

“Magical tools and machines. Cloudsdale was the only weather equipment producer on all of Equus.” The teacher continued after that:

“Moreover, Cloudsdale was founded on the magical cloud, which was able to create rain and snow on its own. Later with help of unicorns they were able to utilise its power in order to create devices for the weather control. This is a great example of the enchantment school used on the environmental magic. Enchantments were very different from the environmental magic earlier, weren't they? It changed overtime and now we are able to enchant objects without using different machinations or, Luna forbid, sacrifices.

“It was a short introduction for the nature of magic. Nowadays it's mostly studied by many scientists in the Order of Belladonna, which is the foremost player in the matters of magic.”

Lesson 4: Creatures' magic

“Creatures' magic is the largest category of magic, divided into various subcategories and schools. Whether it's a basilisk or somepony of us, we all are using magic in a similar way: converting internal energy into the magical and releasing it with a simple magic.

“Methods of release are already different. For example, basilisk is unable to release its magic in any way other than attempt to turn other creature into the stone or back. For them such, let's call it "spell", is easy to use due to the brain structure. For any unicorn a petrification spell demands practising and learning. And it's interesting, but our counterspell is unable to remove basilisk's petrification, which shows the difference between our spells. Though, there are some stories about unicorns who were capable to do that, but, I'm afraid that we won't be able to teach you such things. You always can try to create you own spell or counterspell, we surely will provide you all needed support.

“Anyway, primitive creatures' magic has very narrow scope of use. Their magic is not so primitive though, but for them it is as easy as manipulative levitation spell for us. Thus, we divide creatures' magic into the subcategories:

Passive magic.

Natural magic.

Spellcasting magic.

“Let's start from passive. All creatures have it. It's very hard to use and even harder to study. Even the oldest and wisest unicorns usually are unable to affect it. One of the good examples of such magic will be our Princess Luna's dream walking. Nopony knows how she actually does it, but at least it was scientifically determined that Princess creates a connection on the passive magic level via the spellcasting.”

“Is it possible to protect from that?” a question came.

“I told you, it's not studied. In theory if you will create some kind of magical field around yourself then Princess won't be able to find you. At least it is what happened during the tests. But we shouldn't be afraid of our Princess, aren't we?

“Let's continue. Next is natural magic. I already mentioned basilisk as an example. Another good example will be dragons firebreath, deer's magic or the changeling shapeshifting. In the past our manipulative magic also was a natural one, but as the time past our horn changed a bit and now, we can use spellcasting magic much easier than our ancestors could, but we had to sacrifice our natural manipulative levitation for that. Every foal has to learn how to lift objects today, but still, it is very close to natural due to the bare simplicity. But unlike other species, we are leaned towards spellcasting magic, which we will talk about right now.

“Spellcasting. It's what all our spells are. Levitation, fire, blast, magical projectiles, healing, illusions, smoke, water, all what you'll be able to remember. Here we have a huge variety of different schools, all of which demand studying and practising. School of manipulation, elements, illusions, healing, protection, martial arts and other less known ones. I hope you all heard about spells, which allow to temporarily change age, enchant object to do a certain action and so on. These are the highest-level spells that even the best wizards might not be able to cast.

“Let's change the course a bit. Since we are talking about us then we need to clarify our aptitude to the certain schools. Why aren't we equally capable of studying and using magic?”

“Because we cannot hold the same amount of magical energy.”

“Correct. The amount of stored magic varies from unicorn to unicorn and depends on the age. It increases with us getting older. Thus, old wizards are able to use powerful spells, but their stored magical energy restoration is very slow. While the unicorn is young, his internal energy swiftly converts to the magical, especially when he needs it. Over time the speed of this conversion decreases, making our fatigue more perceptible. It's not the only factor though. We also spend more magic on the simple spells than needed because this action basically becomes automatic. This is true even for the manipulative levitation.

“But still, it doesn't explain our aptitude to certain school. Where this comes from?” Total silence. “I guess nopony read recent scientific research on that topic. Well, scientists hypothesised that it depends on our ancestors and schools they studied. If, for example, you grandfather was a healer, then healing spells can be easier for you to cast. Of course, there are always some exclusions.”

“And how Princess—” somepony wanted to ask a question, but lecturer continued this question himself.

“And how Princess powers aren't limitless, right? Let's say first that she is not a unicorn, she's an alicorn. Yeah, she is capable to use magic the same way we are, but there are not so much alicorns to be able to study them. Alicorn princesses are one of the mysteries, which we still have to solve.”

“And what about King Sombra?” another student asked.

“King Sombra is a more interesting case. Sombra explains his age by the unique artefact on his neck. His necklace is considered to prolong his life. If King will take it off then, in theory, he's going to immediately die. Sombra is not getting older, thus his magical energy is not changing. He's only able to hone his skills of the spellcasting. Almost the same can be said about Princess Luna, though we have no idea on whether she's aging or not.

“Now, that we dealt with our dear exclusions, we can continue with the enchantments next time to finish categorising the magic.”

Lesson 6: Different creatures

“Let's elaborate on some details about the creatures' magic. Mostly I've told you about us, unicorns, forgetting to talk about the others. Let's fix that. As I already mentioned, changelings, deers, dragons also have their own magic, which they are able to control.

“Dragons have only their natural magic. They are able to breathe fire, which has some different purposes. But that's all. Deer's catalogue is more interesting. Their natural magic is deeply intertwined with nature. Some deers are able to use spellcasting, but it's more of an exclusion for the rule.

“And changelings, maybe, are the closest ones to us. They are able to use spellcasting, not to our extent of course, but still. With the right amount of training and practise changeling will be able to use even average-level spells. They cannot master the complex ones, but still, changeling can replace a unicorn if needed.

“Let's not elaborate more on this, you can study more about different creatures from the specific researches done by the specialists. Other high creatures have poorly-studied passive magic, which is out of scope of our abilities for now.”

Lesson 7: Mastery levels

“I guess you already understood that it is impossible to learn any spell without some practise or years of training. Formally, spells are divided by the difficulty of their mastering and use, from beginner to grandmaster as follows:

Beginner – these spells can be mastered almost by any unicorn. Levitation, fire, light, simple illusions and so on. The simplest spells you can think of.

Adept – spells which require some amount of training. Object detection, teleportation of the object, simple healing, growing of small plants, illusions and lots of others. Many spells are considered to be adept level, which you usually see in your everyday life.

Specialist – these are the spells which you learn in the end of you studies in the simple Equestrian university. Teleportation spell, simple attack and protection spells, some transmutation and transformation spells, complex healing spells, stun, warming, cooling and so on... It depends on the unicorn specialisation.

Master – such spells demand years of training and practising, as well as masterful ability to control the magic flow. Unicorn gets full control over levitation only on this level. Such spells as group teleportation, sedation, self-levitation and other hard and complex spells. Achieving this level of mastery unicorn is able to create his own spells and experiment with the variations of the existing ones.

Grandmaster – the hardest spells unicorns are able to learn. The amount of practise needed for their use is enormous. Some unicorns spend their lifetime to learn them. Only the older unicorns are able to master these spells simply due to the amount of stored magic needed for their use. Temporary time freezing, temporary age change, shapeshifting close to changeling's one and so on... Very few unicorns are able to reach grandmasters level. Star Swirl was one of those. Nowadays our Princess is able to cast the most complex spells and adjust them in some ways, but, unlike Star Swirl, she's struggling with the creation of new ones.

Special – spells, which can be used only by certain creatures. Princess Luna's control over the daytime as well as dream walking, for example. The nature of such spells is unknown to us and to Princess as well. These spells cannot be classified as natural, since Cadance is unable to dream walk. — Lecturer stopped a bit and scenically whispered, — It would be a disaster if she could. Anyway. Princess told, that it has very natural scent to it, though she still had to learn how to use this spell. Due to the clear exceptional state of such spells, they are considered to be "special".

“Yeah, a long path awaits you, young unicorns. You all will learn at least specialist level spells, be sure of that. Nowadays specialists in healing are exceptionally valuable, as well as martial arts. Pay attention to this. Also, I have a friend-healer, who can arrange special lessons for you to see how it is done on practise. But now you really should concentrate on learning simplest spells. Practise, study, read, enlighten yourself. In most cases if you are able to control your feelings and thoughts then you are able to control magic. And in order to control your feelings and thoughts, you have to be erudite, wise and smart.

“All next lessons will be describing certain schools of magic.”

Lesson 8: School of Manipulation

“School of manipulation – the first school that is introduced to the unicorn. Its name is pretty ambiguous. It includes not only the manipulations with objects but with time and distance as well. The simplest spell of this school is the manipulative levitation, of course. Even the feathers that you use for writing my words are held by this very spell. But it's not the only simple spell in this school. There are some transitional-difficulty ones, such as teleportation of an object, which will require some training but it will soon appear to be very convenient spell to use. After learning this spell, you can try to learn teleportation, which jumps straight to the specialist level. Later the special levitation spell for lifting heavy objects. Yeah, you really shouldn't try to lift heavy objects with the manipulative levitation through force, because you risk to end up in a hospital otherwise. There is a special spell for lifting heavy stuff that won't put you at the risk.

“If we will dive deeper into this subject then we will find out, that manipulative levitation puts the weight of the object on you from the side opposite to the direction you try to move the object. From the physical perspective the object stays on its place and moves from side to side, but its weight affects you directly. Special levitation spell creates a barrier compensating the weight affecting you. Its power isn't limitless though, it only supports you. I assure you that if you will try to lift the train, you'll feel that.

“Another interesting spell is the transformation of an object into something else. It is possible to do only with somehow enchanted object, so it requires knowledge of the enchantments or environmental magic. There is a special study plan which includes transformation and some parts of enchantment school for the unicorns, who decided to study the transformation. There is an easier spell though. Transmutation allows you to change the metal. For example, turn iron into gold. Even though it is simpler than transformation it's still very hard to master, and you still are unable to escape from the enchantment school.

“I often get a question, is it possible to lift yourself? Well, let me try.”

Light-brown pastel-dotted unicorn stood up in the centre of the auditorium. His horn illuminated with the green light and his rear-legs suddenly lift up in the air. Poor lecturer barely managed to lift his head in order not to hit the floor with his snout. Some students laughed.

“Professor Sense, are you alright?” asked some student.

Fire Sense slowly pulled his legs down on the floor, managing to stand up on four hooves once again.
“Yeah, I'm fine,” he answered.

“I tried to lift myself. Don't get me wrong, it is possible. I manage sometimes to make it right, it's not the case of lifting yourself, the problem comes from controlling it. It's enough to get distracted for a moment from the spell and you will lose balance. Lifting yourself up involves some very weird manipulations as, for example, controlling the space around you in order to support your movement. There are so many small details that it's very hard to pay attention to everything. So, pegasi or thestral wings are still the only natural way to get yourself up in the air. For the record, I'm already a master of the manipulative magic, but this specific spell is still too hard for me to get right.

“Let's continue. Grandmaster spells of freezing time and changing age are also part of manipulative magic. But only several unicorns on all of Equus are really able to use them. The only unicorn grandmaster of this school is the magister of the Order of Belladonna. Also, Princess Luna and Cadance can be considered grandmasters of the school of manipulation, but they are alicorns, which makes matters a bit more complicated.”

Lesson 9: School of Elements

“Last time we stopped on the school of manipulation. Today we are going to talk about school of elements. Often, we need to heat something up, or cool it down. Or do something with the flora. From the simple ice and fire to the complex manipulation with the temperature, plants and rocks.

“The best example of the strong elemental magic user is” — Fire looked to the sides and said, lowering his voice — “Celestia.” After that he exhaled and continued, “She masterfully controls the fire and temperature. Elemental magic can be studied during practise because of the obviously perceptible result. Ice and fire spells are for the most part beginner's and adept's level. Direct manipulation with the temperature considered to be already specialist level.

“Also, elemental magic incudes gardening. Speeding up plant growth, hybridization, direct plant manipulation, mostly these are the adept, specialist and sometimes master level spells. Such unicorns help earthponies with growing or breeding crops. Due to the need to control the temperature all gardening was included into the elemental magic in year 713 in the Order of Belladonna.

“It also plays an important role in the weather control. Most of the spells and enchantments affecting the weather come from the school of elements.

“Elemental spells are often used for combat or for the enchantments, but only as a part of the spell. Some combinations are, of course, grandmaster's level.

“Also, I forgot to mention manipulation with the rock. Such spells usually require specialist level skills, for example rock-breaking or rock-transformation. Combined with the object detection from the schools of illusions it allows to detect minerals, making ore and mineral exploration way easier.

“In general, school of elements is very often combined with other schools of magic, but sometimes there are ponies, who decide to fully concentrate on it, using elements to their full potential.”

Lesson 11: School of Healing

“Today we are going to talk about the school of healing. Nowadays it is in great demand and is the most studied. While it is possible to replace a unicorn with the machine on the construction site or in the workshop it is impossible to replace him at the operating table or in the field.

“A medic can safe many lives being in the right place in the right time. As for today, there are many developed specialist and master-level complex spells for healing serious wounds and diseases. For example, already mentioned magical permeability can be cured with the long medical treatment, including the grandmaster-level spells.

“There are many examples of the spells from this school, from the simple stopping blood to the complex ones, able to affect some body part "during the setting sun"... All in all, I'm not a medic or healer, so I cannot tell you much. Some greatest healers reside in the Order of Belladonna, I'm quite sure it will be pretty interesting to read what they have studied.”

Lesson 12: School of Protection (Informal lesson)

“So, not much left. Today we are going to cover protection. Let me warn you, it surely is not on the easy side. Protective spells are quite abstract making it hard to really understand what you need to get. Also, it is vital to know other schools at least to some extent. It is especially important to know elemental magic and magical martial arts if you don't want to get yourself immediately killed, of course.”

There was a knocking on the door. Lecturer smiled, “Here comes the greatest example of the protection school grandmaster.”

Door has opened and King Sombra in his blue robe entered the auditorium.
“Morning students, Fire Sense,” Sombra leaned his head forward a bit.

Fire bowed and said, “It is an honour to see Your Majesty in our school.”

“It is a pleasure to participate in the opening of another such school. Even with all the hardships we have to endure during wartime, at least something good happens,” Sombra glanced at the students, “As I heard, today's lesson is about the protection school, am I correct?”

Some students nodded still quite not believing their eyes. Sombra hummed and continued, “Would you mind if I will take it from here?” he asked not looking at the Fire.

“How can I, Your Majesty,” answered lecturer and stepped aside.

“Very well,” said Sombra and stood in the lecturer's place, he coughed, his horn lit up and close to him yellow magical shield appeared, reflecting light across the whole auditorium. “It is an example of a simple magical shield, which you will mostly see during any combat involving unicorns. Its most important advantage is its versatility. Such shield is able to deflect directed spell. Fire Sense, could you demonstrate our students it in action?”

Fire hesitated a bit. Sombra noticed that, “Do not worry, I will be able to handle any of your spells. But, for the sake of safety try to hit me with the lightning,” he smiled.

Lecturer, still unsure, stood in front of Sombra. His horn lit up with the green light and a violet-white flash hit the shield with the electric sound. Some students on the front seats shuddered.

“Well, I told you, there is nothing to worry about,” Sombra said triumphantly, “If I'm called a grandmaster then I, probably, can handle one small controlled lightning strike, am I not?” he smiled, “So, you just witnessed how magical shield suppressed the lightning. It is a more professional method to eliminate opponent's spell. Magical shield allowed me not only deflect the projectile, it absorbed the energy, converting it back to the magical for the shield sustaining.

“Let's continue our informal lesson. Protection magic is not easy to use, you need good reflexes, vision and magic wielding. During our small demonstration Mr. Sense telegraphed his actions and I had plenty of time to think on the response. In a real battle, of course, everything is way more complicated. Strong wizards, mastering martial arts can fake their attacks, use complex magical attacking spells and more. It becomes a real duel even before flashes start to fly in every direction.

“But enough of this dry theory. I would like to show you what a real duel looks like. You will see how complicated it is on practise,” Sombra questionably glanced at Fire.

“I don't know, it can contradict with the study material...” Lecturer answered ambiguously.

“Then I demand to change it. Practical demonstration is important for the understanding,” he turned to the students again, “remember, without practise your studies can be held up by a single spell, which you won't be able to cast due to the lack of the memory strong enough to cause right emotion to trigger it. Protection magic demands full control over your emotions, because it is almost impossible to keep calm when something threatens your or your loved ones. And considering the complex spells; you need to have such strong connection with somepony, which just cannot be described with words,” he slowly turned his head to the side, quickly turning it back and changing his voice to a more playful one, “So, are we going outside or what?”

“If you will order, then...” Fire still was hesitant.

“Then I order you to duel with me in the schoolyard!” Sombra said, still playfully. He called everypony with his hoof and left the auditorium with students, while Fire, still completely confused and now quite anxious followed.

Lesson 12: School of Protection (Duel)

Whole class lined up in the schoolyard. Sombra magically got rid of the grass, drawing two bare circles on a certain distance from each other and a line connecting them. Fire stood up into one of the circles. Sombra hopped to the other.

“Are you ready?” the King asked.

Lecturer cautiously nodded, placing his hooves to a more convenient position. Sombra spread his hooves apart, slightly lowering his head.

“The stage is Yours, Mr. Sense,” Sombra shouted smiling and staring at the hesitating lecturer.

Ten seconds passed. Suddenly, Fire's horn shined and three flashes of lightning started their way in the Sombra's direction. Right before his snout they all shattered hitting the quickly raised magical shield, which instantly disappeared.

“It is the invisible guard, which doesn't show itself until needed,” Sombra explained what happened to the students. Then he turned his head to Fire, “Try something else! I'm sure that your arsenal is not limited by the lightning,” he teased, grinning.

Fire shook his head from side to side. Well, if he wants to play... unicorn thought to himself, spreading hooves apart and slightly lowering his head. Fire's horn again flashed, firing green "fireflies" into the Sombra from different directions. Sombra quickly reacted to that, teleporting to avoid being surrounded. All "fireflies" changed direction still approaching now appeared King. But, to the students' surprise with the flash of the King's horn they started to hit each other until the last "firefly" reached Sombra and shattered hitting the invisible shield.

“Well, that's how I like it!” Sombra commented, smiling and returning into his circle, “Your lecturer used pure magic to control his fire projectiles. Quite dangerous spell to encounter if you don't know the suitable protection.

“Let's explain what happened. First, I used the teleportation spell to get the view of all projectiles. Mr. Sense was concentrating on keeping them in the air so he wasn't able to react. After that I used pretty complex protective spell with a combination of protection, manipulation, illusion and martial arts.

“As you noticed, your lecturer used pure magical energy. It's a spell from the school of martial arts, which mostly concentrates on the combination of different schools for combat purposes. With this knowledge I came up with a formula to take control over the magical energy and point projectiles into each other.

“Elaborating on it more... I noticed that your lecturer hesitates, he certainly feels anxious. This allowed me to take control of his magic by imitating his feelings using the illusion” — most students' faces looked confused — “Yeah, do not be surprised, school of illusion can do way more than that. So, then everything was pretty obvious. I used the knowledge of this spell to control the projectiles and let the last one hit my shield.”

“King deserves applause for such performance!” Fire shouted, being quite impressed by the sophisticated way Sombra decided to deal with his spell. Students erupted in their hooves beating the ground.

“Oh please, it wasn't so impressive,” Sombra answered, “it's far from being the limit of the skilled unicorn mages. Your lecturer hasn't even tried to trick me.”

Then Sombra asked Fire Sense to continue their duel. And after several good but trivial Sombra's defences Fire got quite heated up. He started to unleash different spells at Sombra. Fireballs, magical arrows, strong lightning strikes and even the dust storm. King gracefully deflected every spell directed into him, freezing the dust in the air and lowering it back to the trails. But that's where Fire caught Sombra and used a stunning spell on him. King even flinched in surprise, but deflected the spell directing it into the Fire. Lecturer fell unconscious. Sombra rapidly gazed at the fallen lecturer, realising what just happened.

“Oh. I didn't mean to—” he was a bit ashamed. Then Sombra turned his eyes to the shocked students, “Don't worry. He will be fine. After a day or two... he used a stunning spell and I had little to no time to react. My reflexes did everything for me, deflecting the spell into the caster. I haven't expected such manoeuvre from him, very few unicorns are able to use such non-trivial spell after combined series of attacking spells,” he was out of breath, but still looking calm, though a bit frustrated.

“I guess your lecture for today is over,” he approached the unconscious Fire, his horn flashed and the lecturer suddenly opened his eyes, quietly moaning. “Please, be so kind and help you lecturer to get to the hospital,” Sombra said, and then added, “here is a valuable lesson for you. Remember, magic opens a lot of possibilities for a unicorn, but you are responsible for its use. Always be careful... and sober,” with these words Sombra said goodbye to the students and trotted to the unicorn-guard waiting for him at the gates.

Lecture continued the next day. Fire still felt a bit dizzy, but it wasn't excuse to miss the class.

“I apologize. I made mistake yesterday and paid for it. Remember, magic is strong and dangerous, even for the user himself. Well, let's finish this. Yesterday King Sombra have shown you rather unusual protecting spells. For example, his last spell was a deflecting one, which reverses the target of the spell. If a unicorn is unprepared for defence, and I wasn't; then he gets hit by his very own spell. And, being honest, I haven't thought how strong my stunning spell is... My head still aches...

“But let's get back to the topic. For the effective defence you first have to learn the attacking spells. King Sombra demonstrated to you simplest magical shields and the grandmaster's custom protective spells. Let's not forget that school of protection is also widely used for the creation of the enchanted amulets and artifacts, which can save pony's life. They aren't very stable and hard in making, but our scientists are constantly working on making more reliable protective amulets.”

Lesson 14: School of Enchantments

“Alright. It's our last lecture introducing you the basics of the Equestrian magic. School of enchantments. I've mentioned enchanting many times before, already, but I've never got to explain how exactly it is done. Let's fix it today.

“Object enchantment is a very hard and complicated process. First the object must be able to absorb the magical energy and there are several methods of achieving it:

An object is able to store large amounts of magical energy and slowly spend it.

An object is able to absorb magical energy from the environment and maintain its functionality by doing this.

An object, which receives some amount of magical energy to trigger only once in certain conditions.

“... And other variations of those. Currently we often see the first and the third type, but even they often require some forbidden practices. Very simple example of such enchanted object will be the enchanted flying chariot. You surely have seen some officials being carried in such chariots by the pegasi and asked yourself a question, how is this even possible. Easy! – I will answer. Enchanted chariot lines up horizontally by itself, passengers don't even feel that they are far up high in the air. Wind and cold are blocked by the chariot. Of course, such artifact is very hard in making. Our ancestors made an easiest and effective way to create such chariot. Just 13 rituals, half of which can be done only during the particular days of a year, but it doesn't require any sacrifices, dead relatives or the lost love. Yeah, school of enchantments is the darkest, most cruel and complex of all, as well as the least studied one.

“It took 13 generations of unicorns before the Celestia's banishment to find a way to make objects vulnerable to transformation spells without resorting to any rituals or sacrifices. Moreover, Stygian is the unicorn, who developed the vulnerability to transformation enchantment. He stumbled upon it due to the pure luck, taking pity on some failed apprentice whose name he chose to conceal. Adding pity to the formula made an ideal combination of feelings, which we use even today. Just to think of it, this formula contains so many different emotions and feelings that an unprepared unicorn can simply go crazy. I can’t understand how he felt himself while developing it, it’s hard to imagine how Stygian was capable of such a thing without the illusion spells.

“But let’s get back to the school of enchantments. To this day unicorns already for quite a while tried to find a consistent series of rituals to create an apotrópaios, the protective amulet, which will be able to save a wearer from death. All those attempts failed so far. It’s always a life for life exchange, you need to take somepony’s life to save your own. There was one famous attempt to break this rule recently done by my friend, Golden Robe, with the series of 55 rituals. The created apotrópaios teleported the user 5 kilometres into the sky. Thanks Luna there were pegasi to save the poor stallion.

“I think these examples were enough to get the point. School of enchantment is complicated, but it creates priceless inventions. All schools of magic are hard to learn in their own way and you cannot concentrate only on one of them. I can only wish you luck in your studies. Choose your program wisely and focus on those schools which you are more leaned to. Nopony will return you the wasted time, even the time freezing spell won’t be able to,” Fire smiled.

“So, I think it’s time to part and finish our short introduction into the world of magic. I hope to see some of you on the elemental or manipulative magic lectures later,” he winked. “Good luck young ponies and have a nice day.”

Students started to get up from their places creating lots of noise in the auditorium. Fire closed the study material on the lecturer’s desk and sighed. Well, it wasn't a half as bad as I expected, he thought to himself looking at the chatting students leaving the auditorium.

“Professor Sense,” a young mare's voice distracted him from his thoughts, “Could you tell me more about the weather controlling spells from the school of elements?”

Fire got a bit confused, but then remembered how little he told about it, “Well, it's kind of a thing of its own in the elemental magic—” Fire started telling to some curious students, who haven't left the auditorium, about the debates around the weather controlling spells and how there are developed and used. Next time he will surely make some of his own corrections to the study material.

Lesson 3: Environmental magic

“During the last lesson I've given several examples of the environmental magic, which affects creatures in the certain area. This can be both, obvious or imperceptible. Unicorns, usually, are able to sense even the imperceptible magic emission thanks to their horn. Other examples of the magical environment will be: Everburning Forest, Ponehenge, field around Crystal City as the city itself, Yak's Groove near Mörön, Well of Shade in Hollow Shades.

“All these places are magical with their own characteristics. In the Crystal barren there is a magical storm circling around the city which can get you if the cold won't beforehoof. Crystal City is shielded with its own magic from the external cold, but we cannot study it due to the obvious reasons, considering Cadance's regime. From the rare sources we can conclude that unicorns are still able to use their magic there so it seems that it's not affecting ponies much. At least not to the extent that unicorn would be able to sense.”

“What are the timberwolves then? Are they created by environmental magic? They are not alive, aren't they?” student asked.

“I always get this question. Not so early though. Anyway, timberwolves are not creatures, to the full extent. They are better described as a special kind of tree, which uses magical energy in order to mimic the shape of a creature like wolf or bear. We still cannot determine if that tree has any intellect behind its actions or it's just so aggressive by its nature. But they are a wonderful example of the environmental magic. You know that not every forest is inhabited by timberwolves. Usually, they are aggressive only towards high creatures, such as ponies, griffons, deers, changelings and others, but they leave simple forest inhabitants unharmed. Magic scientists think that timberwolves and timberbears are a security mechanism for magical forests, which are able to create such trees somehow. It's kind of synergy that is left to be studied further.

“Timberwolves and bears are not the only ‘non-creatures’ which are able to convert internal energy into the magical. Magical crystals, which you have seen during geography lessons or just in various mechanisms. These crystals are a phenomenal container for magical energy. Properly set up they are able to power a magical device instead of a unicorn, which is priceless for the industry. Sadly, their use is very limited by the bare inability to extract the magical energy in an easy way. As a side note I can tell you that some scientists are very close to discovering the crystal mystery and maybe in future we will be able to use them for the better purposes than weapons, tools or rituals.”

Lesson 5: Enchantments

“Well, enchantments are part of the environmental magic. But the book requires to mention it as a separate category of magic. Everything enchanted by a creature for some specific purpose is called an enchantment. It is a transferred accumulated magic. Why then artifacts can work for so long or even for the indefinite duration? Answer is simple – they are the hardest to make, especially those which are permanent. During the creation of such artifact, it receives the ability to absorb magical energy from the environment, or the ability to hold gigantic amount of magical energy or any other method that allows an artifact to be autonomous on a large time scale. Many artefacts, created in ancient times, were created using dark magic making them very durable or even eternal.

“Nowadays, creation of the artifact isn't straightforward. On the contrary it is very hard process, especially without dark magic. But, as I already told you, such artifacts are, kind of, part of the environmental magic. They just are too noticeable, unnatural and usually much more aggressively affect their surroundings, absorbing and releasing magical energy; while the environmental magic is unnoticeable and natural. But, as you probably noticed, magical catastrophes are considered to be environmental magic even though the reason for them were our mechanisms, thus, the line between the two is blurred. Being honest, there is really not much reason to keep them separated, but Equestrian scientists are too hesitant to do it before the Order of Belladonna.”

Lesson 10: School of Illusions

“Illusions! First, what comes to mind are various magical shows, copies of yourself and similar stuff. Being honest, there is much more to the school of illusions than this. Different tricks are but a small part of it. Stunning spells, sedation, object detection, mind manipulation, they all are a part of this school.

“Of course, grandmaster spells of the school of illusions are magnificent, like shapeshifting or age changing, but it requires terrifying amount of practise and studying. Changelings, obviously stand out in the mastering this school. It is way easier for them than for us to study and use illusion spells. If you will visit Equestrian South-West then you will surely stumble upon a changeling-illusionist at least once.

“Great illusionists are Changeling Queen – Chrysalis and King Sombra. Again, we are talking about exceptional cases. There are some grandmaster unicorn-illusionists around, but they are called that way since there are no true grandmaster unicorn-illusionists left.

“Simple illusions are pretty easy.” Fire's horn lit up and his copy appeared to his side, which bowed to the students and disappeared. “But it's hard to control it over large amount of time. Mages-anaesthesiologists can tell you that. So, bear in mind, studying this school includes many tries without getting any result. But mastering it is highly valued in the Equestrian society.

“This school is often combined with others: martial arts, healing, protection. Unicorn, wielding illusion spells is an irreplaceable specialist, be it anaesthesiologist, battle mage or combat engineer. And yeah, this school is often used for various performances, but it's mostly just a waste of its potential.”

Lesson 13: School of Martial Arts

“Let's continue with combat magic. These spells are the most spectacular and dangerous ones. This school studies the control over spells and their use in combat. For example, elemental magic becomes a deadly weapon in hooves of a unicorn wielding both schools. Ice projectiles, fire storm or whirlwind, evaporating every living being on its way... Especially spectacular are magic rays, which mages sent to each other in order to see the opponent's reaction, to study their opponent and pick tactics against him.

“Starting from the simple sparkles for beginners, which can harm only small mouse, unicorn starts his long way, which leads him to the spells, able to erase a small village. But even the deadliest spells are nothing in comparison to the danger awaiting you during the creation of new ones. Any experiment can end with the self-immolation or something way worse than that. One my acquaintance was trying to make an earthquake spell less demanding, he ended up falling into the created crack, burying himself alive. Nopony else dared to continue his studies, since the original spell of an earthquake comes from the dark side of magic and it needs some horrible feelings and, basically, experience to be able to cast that.

“Yeah, martial arts are at the border with the dark magic. Overtime unicorns were able to find many ways to avoid bad and sinister feelings while casting these spells. But all researchers of combat spells usually have to break the rules and use the dark magic for the sole purpose to make the spell less, let's say, "evil". For example, Princess Luna contributed a lot to the studies of combat spells, she has found many unexpected ways to use powerful and harmful spells without the need to feel negative emotions. For the purpose of being clearer, usage of the magical weapons, which is used very rarely nowadays, earlier needed genuine anger for the cast, thinking about striking your opponent or victim with it. Princess Luna found the other way. This a bit resonates with the school of protection. You need to think of a weapon for the practise, for disarming your opponent, for your or the other's protection... Any motivation will do, just the casting itself is done in a bit different way.

“This way this school has many different ways of casting the same spells with a bit different side-effects. School of martial arts is a must for the unicorn called to service, so be ready for studying it... especially in our disturbing times.”