The next day came, and classes progressed uneventfully. Summer and I didn’t discuss the school’s real purpose…at least, I knew I didn’t. What Summer did when in her room with Hannah, I had no way of knowing. If she did, neither of them said anything about it over breakfast or through our first two classes.

As I was making my way to Applebloom’s office, I came across Professor Sweetie Belle in the hall, escorting some unfamiliar ponies.

“You see this paneling? It was installed a hundred and four years ago, after the fourth changeling invasion. A large part of Canterlot burned at the time, and the school suffered severe damage. Darkquill Inkwell, mother to our current Raven Inkwell, helped lead the charge to retake the school, and was in charge of repairs afterwards,” Sweetie Belle was saying to the ponies.
The group following her included five stallions and two mares, all unicorns. One of the stallions, a dark yellow stallion with a brown mane and a bandana, yawned widely. One of the mares, an older, teal unicorn with a purple mane and glasses, frowned.

“It was a hundred and three years ago, young mare,” the older mare with glasses said in a haughty voice. “Please get your facts straight. I know I taught you better. You are embarrassing me.”

Sweetie Belle gave a sheepish smile. “My mistake, Headmare Cinch. I meant a hundred and four school years ago. I should have clarified. Oh, and thank you for calling me young. I worry I’m going to out-age my older sister sometimes.”

“You two are roughly the same when it comes to raw magical strength, so you needn’t fret about that,” the glasses-wearing mare said. “You’re at least two decades away from having noticeable gray in your mane, maybe three. You could dye a gray stripe, it might make you look more like a figure to be respected.”

Sweetie Belle’s ears flattened. “I’ll keep that advice in mind.”

The stallion yawned again. “Blah blah blah. I’m not really interested in paneling. When do we get to see the classes? I want to know what you Equestrians are teaching.”

“Brazenly admitting you want to gather intel on the competition?” asked the final mare, a violet furred mare with earrings, necklace, and a braided yellow mane.. She seemed younger than the others, about Headmaster’s age, although it was always impossible to tell for sure due to how magical power could prolong youth.

Another stallion, a gray one with a white mane, chuckled. “The islands need to have some advantage over someone. Let them get their little leg up on the Equestrians. Tell me, do the earth ponies, pegasi, and humans pat you on the head and rub your ears, telling you what a good job you did, whenever you do even the simplest of tasks? You brushed your mane all by yourself! Who’s a good boy? You are! Yes!”

The bandanaed stallion sneered. “Unicorns are a very important part of the islands. We contribute a great deal to our nation.”

“Of course you do. Keep on brushing your pretty mane and get dressed in your pretty headwear. Good boy,” the gray stallion chortled.

“Can you be civil, Arcane?” a bearded stallion asked.

The gray stallion looked at him with a smirk. “Yes, I can be.” He looked at the bandana wearing stallion. “Isn’t the right, good boy?”

“We will get respect,” the bandana-wearing stallion snarled. “Yet even the Equestrians disrespect us. Their headmaster just up and decides to take off right before we arrive, leaving us with his vice headmare giving us this snore-worthy tour? The disrespect is never-ending.”

“You should be honored to walk these halls,” Cinch said, nose in the air. “It’s a shame that the current administration of this school seems to have less respect for them than you.”

“Everypony, please!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “You will get to see the classes in due time. I am very sorry Headmaster is away.”

“I’m not,” Cinch said. “I don’t want to have to endure seeing a human in charge of the school that I dedicated decades of my life to before being cast off by him and his reforms.” She then seemed to take notice of me. “And here we have evidence of the nonsense the human headmaster has brought to this school. Behold, an earth pony student in what should be a unicorn institution.”

I took several steps back as all eyes turned towards me.

Sweetie Belle hurriedly put herself between me and these headmasters and headmistresses. “Headmistress Cinch! You will not behave this way towards my students! These are foals! I know Flurry Heart would never tolerate that kind of behavior if she saw you doing it.”

Cinch looked down briefly before turning her gaze to Sweetie Belle. “Excuse me, you are quite right. It was wrong of me to put your student on the spot in such a manner, and for that, I apologize. I’m sure the colt is doing the best he can do in a school that is not made for one such as him, and considering he is here he may have a head for understanding the concepts, which is commendable. We still must face the hard truths that this school cannot help him in any meaningful way, considering he lacks the ability to cast spells. I can deal with the school’s decision to admit kirin, considering they have spellcasting ability. My administration had even been considering admitting them—if we could resolve the fire issue, but the admission of earth ponies and pegasi is absurd.”

Well, I knew at least one pony out of this group that I didn’t like. Was she the old headmistress of this school? I was glad she was gone.

The gray stallion shook his head. “You are too quick to judge. We who live in Skytree know the power of earth ponies. The idea of admitting the earth ponies and pegasi may be a radical idea, but if we wish to push the boundaries of magic then radical ideas must be tried.”

“No one doubts the power that earth ponies can reach,” the bearded stallion said. .”With our vast numbers on earth, we have many earth ponies of great power that can do things the average earth pony could only dream of doing, but what if we have been underutilizing earth ponies all along? What if even the average earth pony is capable of so much more with proper training? Shouldn’t it be we, the school’s of magic, that help them realize their potential?”

The jewelry wearing mare shook her head. “I like the sentiment, Bob, but the problem is that we don’t know enough to do that. We need more time directly dealing with those powerful ones to know what is and is not possible, and how they do the things they do. We don’t need an average earth pony student, we need one that is exceptional—at least until we have things figured out. There may be many of those earth ponies, but not so many that we can just find good candidates easily.”

The bearded stallion, Bob, raised an eyebrow at me. “Maybe this school has. You know who their admissions officer is. If anyone can find one that meets those criteria, it is her.”

The jewelry mare blinked. “I was not aware you had any interactions with Charlotte Newman.”

Bob chuckled. “Oh, far more than you know. Her old employer and I collaborated on a major project once. It was nice meeting the mare face-to-face after she had been pillaging my ideas for years. I’m not even angry that mare stole so many of my ideas. They were all ones I had abandoned, but she used them to advance our knowledge and saw potential where I didn’t. If knowledge is advanced, then I’m content. I don’t need the fanfare for coming up with the basic concepts. I’m not that arrogant and prideful. Anyway, Newman entered her service during our collaboration, so I am very familiar with her and her capabilities. She’s a formidable and capable woman who is very good at finding diamonds in the rough.”

So, Newman had a reputation that went beyond the school. I already suspected Newman had specific reasons for admitting each student, and this just reinforced that idea.

“I don’t know this Charlotte Newman person, but I do know who you are talking about when discussing her employer,” Arcane said. “I worked for her, back before the Cataclysm of Riverview. That one knew how to take chances and push the boundaries. Professor Sweetie Belle, you wouldn’t happen to know what became of her, would you? Or perhaps this Newman person knows?”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Vanished without a trace. Not even Professor Newman knows where she is, and that human can seemingly find anypony. I’m sure the princesses know where she ran off to, but they’ll respect her privacy. Sometimes ponies just want to retire in peace.”

“Pity,” Arcane lamented. “I so wanted to speak with her again.”

“Just as well,” a gold colored stallion with a red mane said, speaking up for the first time. “Her research led to the Cataclysm of Riverview, and she started preaching far more radical cultural ideas after that. The world would have been better if she died in the Cataclysm.”

“I’m not shocked that a pony from China would say such things,” the jewelry wearing mare said.

Chinese? Did they have anything to do with the diplomats?

The Chinese stallion smiled. “And I’m not surprised the mare that was gifted her home and that place’s secrets by that loose canon is coming to defend her. What would you be without what she gifted you? I predict some reading teacher in a secondary school that nopony would even care about.”

The jewelry-wearing mare’s eyes narrowed. “Watch yourself, buddy, and don’t you dare look down on regular school teachers. Yeah, I had planned on being one, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It is something to be proud of. I opened my school because some of her work deserved to be shared with the world. I’m an educator. I didn’t open my school for fame. I opened it to instruct students and help give them the tools to make a better world. I would have been giving them tools to do the same as a reading teacher. Chance just gave me something to teach that no one else could.”

Some of her work? That was interesting phrasing.

“My mistake. I had assumed you had a higher opinion of yourself and expected others to bask in it due to your regalia,” the Chinese stallion said, dipping his head. “If you are interested in sharing her secrets with the world, I would be very interested in doing a deeper tour of Wabash Manor.”

“Not on your life,” the jewelry-wearing mare growled.

“I think we should deescalate a bit,” Bob said. He then looked at me. “Professor Sweetie Belle, would you be opposed to us asking this young colt a few questions about his time and education here? I’m sure all of us are very interested in hearing his opinions about these things, and I’m confident we can all keep civil with a student.”

“I’m supposed to be heading to Professor Applebloom’s office for class,” I informed them. It was the only thing I could think to say. I was more than a little intimidated, and I wanted to be away from all these ponies as soon as I could.

Sweetie Belle sighed. “I’ll give you a note to cover your tardiness. I won’t let them grill you too hard.”

“Okay,” I said, gulping.

Bob stepped forward. “I suppose I should start this off, considering I was the one to proposed it. What’s your name?”

“Turnip Jones, sir,” I said, dipping my head slightly.

The stallion smiled. “You are from Earth? Jones is a common last name on Earth.”

“Yes, sir. I’m from Kansas,” I answered.

“That’s not too far from me, or Headmistress Gillmore. I’m based in Pony Hope, and she’s based in Denver, so we are only one state over from you,” Bob said amicably. “Tell me, what prompted you to apply to this school?”

I raised my head. “If I stayed in Kansas, all I would ever grow up to be is some farmer. I wanted more than that.”

“Ambitious, I see. Nothing wrong with a little ambition. Ambition drives us forward,” Arcane commented.

“Drives some of us forward, true,” Bob remarked. “You didn’t completely answer my question. Why this school, and what do you hope to gain by learning here? Surely you could have pursued other careers. Earth ponies don’t have to be farmers.”

“I read about Applebloom learning alchemy from a zebra, and realized that was magic an earth pony could do. When I found out Professor Applebloom was going to be teaching here, I had to apply,” I answered, standing a little straighter.

Bob looked at Cinch. “Would you say alchemy is something he could reasonably expect to do after getting an education here?”

Cinch gave a reluctant looking nod. “I suppose so. The most acclaimed alchemist in history was Mage Meadowbrook, and she was an earth pony. Applebloom is the most acclaimed of the currently living alchemists, even if she is nowhere near Meadowbrook’s level, and if she is teaching here it is reasonable for any student wishing to pursue that field to attend here. I still think he isn’t benefiting from the majority of the classes. Perhaps some specialized junior study program might work best for students like him, not a full magic education.”

“He wouldn’t be learning that stuff on Earth,” the bandana-wearing stallion said. “We don’t have the right materials. That’s fine by me. I don’t want to have those featherbrains or farmers having any more power on the islands than they already do.”

Were unicorns second-class citizens in the Caribbean Confederation? Specifically unicorns? That just seemed weird.

Arcane gave an amused snort and smirked, but didn’t taunt the island pony any further.

The jewelry-wearing pony smiled. “You’ll all be surprised to know I have actually secured an absolute prodigy in alchemy.”

Cinch gave her a doubtful look. “An Earthling school secured an alchemy prodigy for it’s staff? I don’t see how.”

“Oh, you misunderstood, I have a prodigy student in alchemy,” the jewelry-wearing mare clarified. “She’s only in her first year, but she is a true marvel. I can’t wait until next year’s games so I can see how she matches up against Applebloom’s students.”

“And who is teaching her and where are you getting the materials?” Arcane asked, sounding confused. “You surely don’t have any alchemists that can compare with Applebloom.”

“She’s a self-study, at least as far as the alchemy goes,” the mare answered. “As for the materials, that’s a secret.”

“You aren’t engaged in some high-level illegal black market dealings, are you, Gillmore?” Arcane asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

The jewelry-wearing mare shook her head. “I promise you, I am not, and no one at my school is. You’ll just have to wait and see until next year. I have several prodigies in this year’s new class, and they are going to push Wabash Manor to victory in next year’s games. This year I think we still have a decent chance, even if my best still aren’t ready to compete. I’ve got a few good combat magic students.”

There was a student of alchemy my age at Wabash Manor, and she had access to materials while still on Earth? Prim might be my rival, but was there someone out there that could be my real academic rival?

“But you don’t have what I have,” Arcane said, smirking evilly at her.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “And what do you have?”

“I have Tempest Shadow instructing my combat students,” Arcane said, grinning broadly.

“YOU WHAT?!” Gillmore screamed. “That’s not fair!!”

The bandana-wearing stallion hung his head. “Crud. Guess I know what area my students aren’t going to be pulling first place in.”

“It can’t be that bad,” Cinch said, sounding skeptical.

All the other adults stared at her as if she had just said something incredibly stupid. Twilight Glow had mentioned Tempest Shadow before. Was she really that good? Better than Luster Dawn? Wait…wasn’t she supposed to be human? An Equestrian who turned human?

“….or maybe it is,” Cinch corrected, glancing back and forth at all the eyes looking at her and seeming to reassess her position. “Combat magic is so barbaric and violent anyway. It figures that an Earth-based school would excel at it.”

The Caribbean stallion looked at the one stallion who had not said a word through this entire exchange. “What do you think, Ivanoff? Do we have any hope of taking down students trained by Tempest Shadow? She’s a legend.”

Ivanoff, a brown-furred stallion with a dark purple mane, shrugged. “In Russia, we think it is better to listen and watch than express our mind. Speaking too much only reveals your weaknesses for others to exploit or reveals your strengths so others can prepare for them. It is like poker, you cannot win if you reveal too much. I shall keep my thoughts to myself. Russia’s greatest asset is silence, but please, keep speaking.”

“Hmm, so mysterious,” Gillmore said as she batted her eyelashes at Ivanoff. “I wonder what the Indian school is like. They need to hurry up and field a team.”

“They’re a mess. They’ve yet to have anypony step up and give a clear guiding hoof. They’re just a bunch of random nobodies, who have never contributed anything significant to magical discourse, teaching with no overarching vision or philosophy. It’s disgraceful. It will be some time before they can participate. I wouldn’t be surprised if some South American, Western European, or Mexican school was ready for a big stage before they are, maybe even some school in Africa,” the Chinese stallion sneered.

“Someone with a European accent might be nice,” Gillmore said wistfully. “An African might be interesting. If I were born human, African-American would have been half of my heritage. I never had much interest in it, but it might be interesting to reconnect with that.”

“Are you seriously only interested in new schools from elsewhere so you can find a potential husband with an accent? Are you so shallow?” Arcane asked in disbelief.

“A mare has to have personal goals. Is that so wrong?” Gillmore asked mirthfully. “I’m just having a little fantasy. It may be unrealistic, but it is nice to dream. Don’t mind me. Do you have any cute young stallion professors at your school?”

“You’re not going to have any trysts with my faculty! There will be no making out with the competition!” Arcane declared.

“Lighten up. I probably won’t flirt with your faculty,” Gillmore groaned, rolling her eyes.

“Probably?!” Arcane shouted in dismay.

She ignored him and looked at me. “I have a question; do you have any significant magical power or aptitude in anything?”

I looked down. “Well ..I aced the magical fundamentals test that was used for admissions, and I was told very few students managed that, but I don’t have any significant magical power. I’m pretty average.”

“Aced it?” Cinch asked in disbelief. “It must have been a very dumbed down version of the test if an earth pony managed that.”

“Newman doesn’t give easy tests, and she’s in charge of admissions here,” Bob interjected. “That displays a talent and dedication to study that is admirable.”

“Perhaps,” Cinch conceded. “I still question the usefulness of it for a student such as him. Surely he doesn’t need to understand all the fundamentals for alchemy.”

“The fact there have been few truly great alchemists suggests the opposite,” Bob disagreed. “Perhaps they need better understanding, and what better place to gain that than in an institution dedicated to the study of all magic.”

“Almost all magic. There are forbidden arts,” the Chinese pony corrected.

Bob rolled his eyes. “Of course, of course.”

“Not that you are as concerned about that as you pretend, given you’re so interested in touring Wabash,” Gillmore muttered.

The Chinese pony gave a stony look at Gillmore. “So, do you confirm the rumors are true? Wabash Manor houses forbidden magic?”

She smiled sweetly at him. “Oh, we just have armed guards, strong technological defenses, strong magical defenses, no fly zones, magic free zones, high walls, security cameras everywhere, and death traps because we get a kink out of it. No other reason. What happens at Wabash Manor, stays at Wabash Manor. Don’t worry, I know no forbidden magic to cast on you and your students, nor does anyone at my school, and we don’t yet have a body count when it comes to people who want to go snooping where they shouldn’t—I hope to keep it that way. I may have been personally trained by Tempest Shadow, but I dislike violence. I like quietly sipping coffee while watching my students refine their skills, enjoying a good meal with friends, or curling up with a good romance novel, not listening to the cries of pain from intruders who thought they were clever enough to get through our defenses. That always ruins my day—worse, it upsets my students, and nobody makes my students scared and afraid and gets away with it. Understood?”

The Chinese stallion grunted. Did she just threaten him? She talked about intruders like she had dealt with them before, and it hadn’t ended well for the intruders. Her saying yet to body count meant no one had died trying to invade Wabash Manor, but the possibility was there. She also pretty much confirmed Wabash Manor had access to forbidden magic. I didn’t know that there was magic that was straight out forbidden. What made it forbidden? It had to be dangerous somehow. Newman’s old employer had been tied to the Cataclysm of Riverview. Was it magic like that? Magic that could level an entire city? What kind of school was Wabash Manor? She had mentioned teaching just some of Newman’s old employer’s magic, but was very clear in saying some, not all.

There was one thing I pieced together listening to all these ponies talk. The schools weren’t just schools. They were points of political power within their nations, each possessing secrets and resources that they guarded. I knew our school had Headmaster and his truestone holding staff, along with the other truestones, and whatever hidden goal we were being prepared for. Wabash Manor clearly had secrets and resources that they were guarding. The Russian school revealed it had secrets by refusing to say anything. The Chinese school was clearly interested in learning the others’ secrets, and I got the impression the Skytree school was too, even if they weren’t so obvious about it. Bob and his unnamed school seemed nice enough, but he’d been involved with Newman and her employer at some point, which looped back around to the forbidden magic. That also meant our school had connections to forbidden magic because of Newman. Lacking any magical ability, she wasn’t able to perform it, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t familiar with it and how it worked, especially since she had served under its main practitioner for so long. Did she share any of those secrets with our faculty?

There were some other common threads. All the schools except Crystal Prep Academy…which I assumed Cinch was now headmistress of…seemed deeply interested in combat magic. The only reason they would be interested in that was if they expected open fighting at some point in the future. Fighting what? Were they all working towards a goal of fighting off the same threat or were they preparing for clashes with each other? Some of the schools seemed friendly with one another, but others seemed openly hostile to one another. Was that just friendly competition between schools, or was it something deeper? Gillmore’s way of speaking to the Chinese stallion implied something deeper. Suggesting the Chinese snooping around her school could lead to a body count was about as hostile as you could get, yet she seemed friendly enough to everyone else. We didn’t seem that friendly with the Chinese either. The closest to friendly anyone seemed to be when it came to the Chinese was that Bob guy, but he was friendly to everyone.

There were a lot of pieces and I wasn’t sure how they went together. I needed one or two more pieces to see the entire puzzle.

Sweetie Belle lit her horn and a quill and parchment appeared, floating in the air a short distance from her face. She quickly wrote a note and then both the quill and parchment vanished.

“Turnip, I just sent a note to Applebloom excusing you for your tardiness. I think you should be hurrying to class,” Sweetie Belle said firmly, but with a smile. She then looked at the various other school leaders. “And we need to get on with the tour after this minor sidetrack. We have a lot to see before the lunch period. I also want to briefly check on my class to make sure everything is going well with the substitute. I left a detailed lesson plan, but the substitute isn’t a mage, so he might struggle answering some questions about the assignment.”

“You’d have available substitute mages if your headmaster hadn’t dismissed us all,” Cinch said critically.

“Are we going to get a name for him?” the bandana-wearing stallion asked. “I am not referring to him as Headmaster. We are all headmasters!”

Gillmore gave a polite cough. Cinch raised an eyebrow at him.

“Or headmistresses,” he amended.

Sweetie Belle raised a hoof. “You can direct that question to Headmaster when he returns late tomorrow. Headmistress Cinch, I understand you have some resentment about what happened, and I sympathize with you—I honestly do. However, that was not a decision that I made and it happened before I was hired. If you wish to express your feelings about the matter, please wait to do so with the responsible party. I will ensure you get time with him to do so. For the record, I am very impressed with how quickly you got the new school going and I hope everypony there is doing well.”

Cinch unclenched her jaw a little. “Yes, they are doing well, considering the circumstances. They are a very resilient group of foals, and I know they will be eager to display their capabilities during the games. Thank you for your warm words, professor,” She looked at me. “I believe I heard your professor give you an order, young colt.”

I instantly took off at a light gallop down the hall. I had wanted to overhear what Headmaster’s actual name was, but it seemed like that was going to remain a mystery.

Author's Note

Ballad of the Magical Schools

Verse 1:
In halls of ancient magic, where secrets long have dwelled,
A young earth pony listens, as stories old are spelled.
Of changeling invasions and paneling so fine,
But whispers speak of mysteries, beyond the school's design.

Chorus:
Oh, the schools of magic, more than they appear,
Combat spells and alchemy, and secrets we should fear.
Earth ponies and unicorns, in halls they never shared,
What future are they building, what battles being prepared?

Verse 2:
Headmistress Cinch remembers, the old ways set in stone,
While Sweetie Belle leads forward, to paths yet unknown.
And Turnip stands between them, an earth pony so keen,
Observing all the pieces, of this mysterious scene.

(Repeat Chorus)

Verse 3:
From Wabash Manor's stronghold, to Skytree's combat lore,
Each school guards its secrets, behind a gilded door.
The Chinese seek forbidden arts, the Russians stay so still,
While Caribbean unicorns, fight for respect and skill.

(Repeat Chorus)

Verse 4:
Newman finds the diamonds, hidden in the rough,
But who's her former employer, with magic oh so tough?
The Headmaster remains unnamed, a shadow in the night,
What plans does he envision, beyond young Turnip's sight?

(Repeat Chorus)

Verse 5:
So gather 'round young students, and listen to this tale,
Of magic schools and mysteries, that make the bravest quail.
For in these halls of learning, where knowledge is the key,
The greatest lesson might just be, what we can't yet see.

Final Chorus:
Oh, the schools of magic, more than they appear,
Combat spells and alchemy, and secrets we should fear.
Earth ponies and unicorns, in halls they never shared,
What future are they building, what battles being prepared?
What future are they building, what battles being prepared?