Night Light and Twilight Sparkle trotted through the flowing streets of Canterlot, ponies with their noses held high in the air were common like trees in a forest, which made Twilight wonder if this city was made up of feudal lords and run by slaves. Or whatever feudal lords would call their slaves. Besides the extravagant architecture the city had, it was very, en, westerny. Ponies aside, the few shops either sold clothing or food. Fancy tasteless food. The saddlebags on Twilight's back hurt a little due to the heavy books but she denied any help from her father even if her brows were wet with sweat.

"Good afternoon, Night." One of the snoot-in-the-skies spoke without batting an eye.

"Afternoon." Night spoke in an equal tone.

Then another greeted Night, then another, and another. Night was as casual with his greetings as unbothered he was by the high-class greeting him - of course, he was, this happened every time he walked outside after all. However, that left a certain purple pony a little too bothered, "Dad, why... Why do they know you?" Twilight spoke taking a brief stop to catch her breath, faint concern leaking from her voice. Connections with feudal lords were always two-edged swords unless said connection was forged with fear. Twilight's father didn't seem the type to pursue the latter.

"We met once at Land Four Us. A real state agency." Night Light said, Twilight further raised an eyebrow, "I work there." Then Little Twilight's eyes widened.

"You met them only once?!" Twilight said, she plumped on her haunches with heavy breaths.

"Yes..?" Night Light spoke, "It's not that big of a deal." Twilight hurriedly got up and began trotting anew, to catch the attention of a feudal lord was already a big deal! A farmer could live a comfortable life if they caught the interest of a feudal lord, this was the biggest deal! It was- "We're here. Don't forget to make friends, cupcake." Night Light ruffed Twilight's mane before leaving.

All around Twilight the same scene happened, parents leaving their foals to the hands of education - said education that looked extremely silly, a structure straight out of a children's coloring book. A big, curvy sign written in fancy cursive spelled out 'Magical Kindergarten,' somepony had drawn a smile on the bell right on top of the school, and the gate had two unicorn caricatures as decoration... And a huge colorful explosion just so happened behind the school. That sure is... Magical. "Just get this over with," Twilight muttered as she trotted inside, and when she did something clicked. She knew where to go.

The school has six classrooms and Twilight, as a four-year-old foal, is designed for the fourth. "How convenient." Twilight's voice was barely audible by the crowd of other foals eagerly talking. The interior was white alabaster with the tiles being blue, the hall toward the classrooms had its walls decorated with drawings of either plants or ponies with their parents. At the fourth door to the right, Twilight entered.

Twilight wasted no time and picked the first class that was in her sight, the one closest to the door at the front, as the foals entered one by one into the classroom Twilight took the time to look around, the alphabet was glued above the dark board, Star Swirl Five Paths of Thaumaturgy written around a... youthful drawing of the great mage himself, at the very back of the classroom were the atomic models of Bored and his other atomic pals.

With the foals setting in and grabbing their notebooks, the fresh scent of new pages filled the room and Twilight couldn't help but enjoy it, sure the chatter around was a tad bit annoying but nothing worth cleaving. The teacher, a torn yellow unicorn with a butter mane soon got up from her table and began writing, "Today, hm, we're doing a quick recap about the five basic elements then a debrief of natural and innard mana. Mhm." Miss Goofy Ball said while his chalk gave away for perfect cursive, "Okay. The five magical elements that a unicorn can use, first comes exothurgy, the ability to manipulate the outside. This is the most..." Twilight opened her book and began to doodle a few advanced exothurgy magic, mass teleportation magic circle... A sigh unanimously escaped her mouth, what was the benefit of memorizing and understanding such advanced concepts if she can't even control her telekinesis? Carving a few simple runes was all she could do. Maybe if she applied her prior knowledge and experience of cursed energy she could have some better results - it can't be that different, after all, right? Twilight began doodling a cooling zone spell next... "Now, a bit less used by modern mages comes Endothurgy, the ability to manipulate our own bodies, this one was most used on..." Why least used? Twilight recalls reading a few advanced endothurgy books that taught how to make the caster temporarily smarter, have better deductive skills, or overall become stronger and faster temporarily. Sure, it was complex and a whole different school from exothurgy but it shouldn't-

Twilight's line of thought was interrupted when a paper ball hit her head and fell on her table, she stared back and a minty green unicorn was waving at her. Twilight opened the paper ball, "If five units of mana are used to cast telekineses per second how many would be used in a... Son of a-" The mare behind her didn't do her homework! And now she was- and this was such an easy- gah! If she could, she would definitely cleave her. Twilight grabbed a pencil with her mouth and wrote the answer before passing the paper back to her minty colleague.

"Then comes an obscure one, alchemy! It was popular back in the day when modern medicine wasn't-" Teach continued writing on the board, and Twilight became even more confused. There were potions capable of rendering mortal wounds meaningless in seconds, healing and regenerating entire organs- there is no way modern medicine in a place that looks less advanced than the modern era would be this good! Sure, it'd take tens of years for an alchemist to become knowledgeable enough to make said potions, but that's meaningless! That is one of the few arts earth ponies could-

And once more a paper ball hit her head, when Twilight stared back the minty unicorn was blowing a whistle. She groaned and opened the paper ball either way. "After eating a chocolate bar with five hundred calories, a pony needed to levitate a small broken wooden carriage, with the mana obtained by the bar of chocolate the pony was able to push the carriage twenty meters... Oh my Celestia." Twilight didn't even bother reading the rest and just wrote one hundred Swirls then passed the paper back.

"Now, this one is only on the registers as modern mages don't use it anymore: Chanting Magic! A type of magic that uses the horn to overcharge the vocal cords and..." As Teach said more about 'forgotten' magic Twilight further shook her head, chanting can be used to empower cursed techniques- Ahem, to call the spirits of the world to empower magic, besides the possibility of making somepony else kneel with just words-

Another paper ball scored against Twilight, "Celestia-" Twilight turned around and this time the minty unicorn pointed to a pony behind her, a unicorn with a red mane with streaks of purple... Twilight unfolded the paper ball, "Do you want to play together later?" Two hearts were drawn with either yes or no. Twilight grabbed her pencil and promptly wrote, "This isn't a homework question." And sent it back. She had advanced magic books to read and no time to play outside, after all.

"Finally, back to a more popular style of magic: Creation Magic! This is what makes the roads, buildings, and architecture incredibly durable and..." Teach said, although not forgotten, this type of magic is, in Twilight's honest opinion, not used to its fullest potential. She read a few books about making paintings with their own little world inside, or artifacts of great power, or simply a magic pen that can write anything it's told. Creation magic has great potential that Twilight will surely use in the future to earn a few bits. "Now, we're onto the main topic of today's class! Direction and Potential! Everypony is born with a certain amount of both Direction and Potential, however, unicorns are those who can use most of it, with pegasi only being capable of endothurgy mixed with creation magic, and earth ponies with their endothurgy and exothurgy focused on earth, unicorns are not limited by it. We have the capability of enforcing a Direction and Potential towards anything to create a spell. That and each of us has a certain amount of Direction and Potential inside of us, some more, some less. That Direction and Potential is what we call mana!" The teacher finished a drawing of a pony on the board, with a cartoony nerve system, "Or, specifically, interior mana. interior mana grows with age and finally stops growing when somepony reach the age of twenty. That inward mana is converted by what we eat, mainly glucose. It's what the body uses to..." She began to tap the board with chalk, "Grow the magic root and our magic core. Now outside mana is the Direction and Potential of everything else." The teacher trotted to her desk and grabbed a stone, "This rock for example. It has its own mana but as long as I put enough Direction into it I can..." Teach began to coat the stone with green telekinesis, "Levitate it! And with enough Potential..." Her telekinesis dropped the rock onto the ground and it... Behaved like a slime, "I can surpass the rock's original potential to be 'sturdy' and give it the new potential of 'slimey.' This sort of transmutation is done through brute force and telekinesis, and is considered as exothurgy..."

Twilight noted everything down and further stopped paying attention once what she deemed interesting passed. Eventually, recess came and all the foals rushed outside, some eager to eat their snacks while others were simply happy to not be inside the class anymore, among the many foals Moondancer was the last to leave with a low-hanging head.

After recess, Twilight paid no further attention and simply delved herself into a history book to take a break from all the advanced magic she had been reading about, and even if Miss Goofy Ball noticed she wasn't paying attention she still approved of Twilight's self-study and didn't stop, that is until the bell rung and everypony rushed out, Twilight father came back to pick her up and lead the way back home.

Author's Note

My brain melted halfway through this. Sorry.

Also, Swirls are their version of Newtons.

If you find any mistake, don't be shy to point out? Oh! And if you think there is a way to make the story better, please do tell!