There it stood, the barn. Her destination. Faded red paint and the partly with moss overgrown black roof were symbolizing the structure’s age. Sunset hoped she could still remember everything important from her time as a student of magic.

She opened the doors… and didn’t expect to find their pseudo classroom to be this occupied.

Chairs and little hay cubes were placed in rows with old looking tables in front of them. Not only Twilight, Moondancer, Fluttershy and Pinkie were there as expected. No, Luviel, Night Light, Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, Cadence, Sugarcoat and Lyra looked back at her, too. Spike was sleeping in a corner.

It made her even more nervous that so many had probably high expectations, “You got this Sunset. You were once the prized pupil of Princess Celestia,” she cheered herself on.

Hopefully it would help.

Everybody was sitting on their chosen place. Of course the first two mentioned girls sat in the first row, pencils and paper at the ready. Eagerly awaiting the lessons.

They even prepared a big blackboard, chalk in multiple colors and a dry sponge for her!

Sunset walked up to the front, took a piece of white chalk into her hand and glanced over her class, butterflies in her stomach. Once more she took a deep breath, metaphorically. OK, her she came, “Good morning everybody. I’m glad to see that so many of you took the offer. I hope in the end of the day I could give you a better understanding of magic for future endeavours concerning this to you new and unknown force.”

“Good morning, Sensei Shimmer!” Lemon and Pinkie exclaimed happily at the same time.

Sugarcoat rolled lightly with her eyes, “Great. Now there are two of them.”

Sunset smiled awkwardly. “Alriiiight. Well, let’s start this easy before we go into the heavy stuff, with a question. What is magic to you? Just tell me the first thing that comes to your mind if you think about it. There is no wrong answer,” the amber teacher stated in honest interest.

Twilight waved enthusiastically with her right arm, like her life depended on it.

“Could you maybe, you know, not be a dork every few seconds? Just for one time in your life if it comes to learning something new?” Midnight questioned dryly.

The Phoenix Magic user chuckled a little before she pointed with her chalk in the lavender girl’s direction, “You don’t need to raise your hands. Twilight?”

“Pure energy!” she shouted excitedly.

“Other guesses?” encouraged Sunset.

“Explosive!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed joyfully.

“Unfathomable,” Moondancer commented with a sigh.

“Useful,” Sunny Flare stated with a grin.

Even Fluttershy gave it a try, “F-frightening…”

“Awe-inspiring,” Night Light said simply.

Luviel added her own two cents, “Fascinating.”

“Dangerous,” Cadence gave to consider.

Sunset thought it was good enough, “You are all right.” She turned to the blackboard and drew a sphere with blue spikes, it looked like a ball of energy. The word ‘magic’ under it, “Magic is just a common term for most who are in touch with it, but its effects can be observed everywhere. Without it, there is simply no life possible. What makes us unique, our personality, our thoughts, our talents, everything is made possible by a power higher than us. Scholars speculate that even a soul is made of magic. Without it we wouldn’t be able to be what we are. For example a birth is known as the Magic of Creation.”

“At least there is nothing religious behind it,” Lyra muttered silently. Night Light and Sour Sweet heard it and had to smile a little at the relieved tone.

They could understand her. Mankind’s history couldn’t show much positive when it came to past transgressions when the church was still in power, to put it mildly. And it was highly unlikely that it was much better somewhere else.

“Interesting, it seems there exist similarities between our worlds. But that isn’t much of a surprise, I guess, seeing how they mirror each other to a certain point,” the Emerald Elf pointed out, “I can confirm that I feel magic in even the smallest culm.”

Cadence was perplexed, “You can do that?”

Luviel facepalmed, “Right, I never told you about it. Yes, my kind has a connection to nature, trees even listen to us to some degree.” Then she added proudly, “For example I can open every door made of wood. No matter if shaped to something else, it will obey, still.”

Moondancer absorbed hungrily every bit of information, she switched her attention back to her new magic teacher, “You said ‘most’. Are there other terms?”

Sunset nodded in confirmation, “Yes, you have to understand that Equus is inhabited by many sentient races, not only Ponies. Gryphons have so called ‘seers’ in their rows and-”

“You have talking Gryphons in your world?! How amazing is that?” Lyra interrupted gleefully. She blushed immediately afterwards, “S-sorry.”

The amber magician waved it off, “Don’t worry, it’s fine. As I wanted to say, the seers call it ‘aether’ instead of magic. The Zebras, much like Zecora, call it ‘mojo’, the Minotaurs name their driving force ‘grace’. These are three examples for different terms. Or dragons call it magic as well.”

Lyra had to contain herself from fangirling that there were dragons in Sunset’s homeworld.

Next, the teacher in learning drew a human and a Unicorn body besides each other with white chalk, very well-made.

“Since when can you draw like that?” Twilight wondered.

“Well, look at that. Shimmer can draw better than most humans we know. Not too shabby for a supposed-to-be equine,” Midnight agreed mildly surprised.

Fluttershy, Lemon, Lyra, Pinkie and Cadence were swiftly taken by seeing an Equestrian Pony for the first time, even if just as a drawing, “Awww!”

Sunset smiled sheepishly, ignoring the gushing reactions about her kind, “Well, it’s kind of a requirement to draw precisely for some spells. But I’m already ahead of myself. As you can see, I drew both, Unicorn and human, to make comparisons between them, if appropriate, and to give you a helping hand in understanding the similarities and differences between our worlds.”

She drew branching structures, like nerves, over both bodies, a green heart in the middle of the chest and outlined the Unicorn’s horn and the human's hands red. “Now we come to what magic is made of. As you might have expected, magic isn’t some untouchable source or something you could use without restrictions. I’m sure all of you, who can use magic at least, felt exhausted at one point or a strain on your body after using magic, correct?”

Sunny Flare snorted, “Are you kidding? After the fight with these spiders I felt like I could sleep for a week.”

The amber magician smirked, “Exactly. Every spell needs to be supplied by enough magic in order to be used in the first place.” Sunset pointed at the vein-like structures, “Our bodies have so called ‘mana pathways’. They are invisible to the naked eye, but function like the veins which transport blood through our system. Mana is the very basis of magic. Without it, you can’t use it, simple as that.”

Sugarcoat looked up from her notes, “And just how will it regenerate exactly?”

Sunset took a blue piece of chalk into her hand and drew a small bed, an Apple and a clock, “In general there are three possibilities. You can regenerate your mana with a good sleep, nutrition in form of food or you let your reserves recover by playing the waiting game, though it is the slowest option. It really doesn’t matter. In my world exist tonics which speed up the whole process as well, but I’m a fan of a more natural way. Using them is like taking drugs or stimuli.”

Fluttershy slowly raised her hand, much to Sunset’s amusement, “Uhm. I’m not sure if I understand it correctly, but is mana for magic something like the ATP in our body cells that gives us the necessary strength and endurance for sports?” She squeaked at the raised eyebrows, “I-I’m sorry. I always liked biology.”

Her future dream was it to become a veterinarian for a few reasons. The inner mechanisms of the body, humans and animals alike, were things she was very interested in.

Pinkie laughed triumphantly and raised her arms in the air, “That explains so much!” The party planner put a hand around the meek girl, causing her to shriek lightly, “Now we know how you put even Shimmy and Twi to shame in Mrs. Life Circle’s classes!”

Twilight gave it her best to smile. She got an ‘A-’ in the end, same as Sunset. Fluttershy had an ‘A+’ in the subject.

Her pride of having a perfect score to this point suffered a huge blow this fateful day. Her eye twitched at being reminded of her failure.

Midnight grinned sadistically, “Don’t be sad Sparky. We can’t all be as smart as her.”

The lavender teenager’s eye twitched a second time.

Cadence and Night Light couldn’t help themselves but chuckle a little, knowing Twilight’s competitive spirit when it came to knowledge.

Sunset missed her friend’s turmoil and nodded proudly, “A good analogy. Yes, you are right. Mana is what fuels us in the magical sense. It explains furthermore why you feel tired when using too much magic. Think of it like training a muscle, the more you practice your control and abilities, the more spells you can use, but at one point exhaustion hits you.” A slight grimace made itself known on her face, “Then there is a phenomenon known as ‘magicus defatigatio’.” She wrote the term on the blackboard.

Night Light had to voice his opinion about it, “Your kind speaks Latin?”

The Unicorn in human form thought briefly about giving her audience a short introduction in Pony history and that the language she was thinking about was Old Equish. A language used in times before the founding of Equestria.

But it was much easier and less time consuming to simply go with it.

“Crazy, right? Another similarity between our worlds, it seems.” Sunset cleared awkwardly her throat, “But to go back on our topic, it describes the state a magic user finds himself in when the own mana reservoir is empty. And it’s pretty dangerous, too. If you use too much and your body isn’t strong enough to handle the stress, you might die.” Some gasps echoed through the barn. “Sorry, but there is no sugarcoating it.”

A certain glasses wearing girl had to fight the urge of being offended. Her friends giggled.

Sunny Flare’s eyes widened in shock after thinking about their encounter in White Tail Woods, “So after fighting Arachne… you…?”

The Phoenix Magic user blushed. “Yeah, my bad. That never happened to me before in my life. It’s pretty embarrassing to be honest, now that I think about it. And I should have known better, but I couldn’t afford to hold back. You and Shining Armor were in danger and I had to act fastly,” she tried to justify herself.

Cadence smiled gratefully, “For what it is worth. I would like to thank you for saving them in this case once more.”

Sounds of agreement supported the former dean.

Now Sunset’s cheeks took the color of her hair for entirely other reasons, “N-no problem. It was nothing.” She looked at her drawings and pointed at the green hearts. “Mana pathways exist to carry mana into every part of your body, but its center, its container, serves like an invisible second heart. Our entire mana reservoir is contained in the ‘core’ and the entire volume of somebody’s mana is known as the ‘manapool’.”

Connecting lines were drawn between the words and the hearts before she remembered something important, “Oh, and you should know that somebody’s natural talent for magic determines the depth of the core. Training alone can only get you so far, at one point you will reach the limit of your own core’s possible expansion. Of course, the greater it is the more spells you can use regardless. This principle of gaining training effects still counts.”

“So some magic users will naturally be much better in casting spells than others? Of course there had to be a catch!” Sour Sweet exclaimed in mixed emotions.

Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow at her friend, “Isn’t that kind of obvious? Some people will always be much better in a certain department than others. That’s normal.”

Luviel’s eyes roamed over the group, “There is no need to worry about such things now. Should we meet a strong opponent in the future we may very well have the chance by then to defend ourselves or react accordingly otherwise. It doesn't always need to end in a fight.” The Emerald Elf put her focus on Sunset again, “Please continue.”

The young woman shrugged mentally with her shoulders, “Anyway, there are two ways to fuel a spell with mana. The first one is obviously your own manapool. The second way is something I don’t recommend until you have a certain amount of experience on your belt, namely knowing your own limitations, strengths and weaknesses when it comes to magic and body.” Sunset drew blue waves around the figures, “I am talking about converting the residual magic in the atmosphere around us. Think of it as harmless radiation, it’s everywhere, but only magic users can actively use it.”

“How does it work?” Night Light asked, fascinated.

Their teacher in spe drew another heart, waves around it, “Your core doesn’t only function as a container, but a converter as well. Of course it’s just a theory, but I think it could be applied here. We have all our own brand of magic, specialized so that it fits us, right?” Positive head movement, “And we can’t use any other type of magic, what supports my hypothesis that a human’s mana is unique to the caster. In fact it’s similar to a Unicorn.”

“Oh? How is that the case?” Moondancer inquired eagerly.

Sunset thought about her words, “When we Unicorns use our magic our mana emits special light properties. Because of that our horn glows in a color that represents, well, us. If we Ponies have for example a magic duel it’s not only about dodging and shooting spells at each other, but adapting as well. With the right timing I could convert the mana of my enemy into my own and fuel my core with his mana or even use his own spell against him.”

Lemon Zest, who listened to her music with one hear the whole time, had her own first question, “Dude, you said that magic has an affinity fitting its wielder, but this atmosphere magic stuff, has it any special characteristics we should know about?”

Sunset denied it, “Not really. Raw magic and raw mana are completely neutral, they didn’t develop any special traits, yet. But if we convert it into our own it will be the same as ours.” A much more somber undertone colored her voice, “And there lays the risk. If you don’t know yourself well enough, then it can happen that you draw way too much mana into your system and overload the core. We call it ‘melting’. If your core can’t contain anymore of the mana you try to absorb from your surroundings, then your body will slowly be ripped apart.” Fluttershy whimpered. “Not in the ugly way, but it causes a still not very well known reaction and flesh and bone will be turned into raw mana. You literally fade from existence in this case.”

“T-that’s horrible!” Lyra shouted fearfully.

The amber magician sighed, “No kidding. That is the reason why you shouldn’t try to fuel your core with neutral mana as long as you are not certain about your own limitations. Same goes for casting spells. If a spell of your choice is above your level and your core isn’t able to provide the necessary amount of mana, then this is the limit. In our history were three documented cases where a Unicorn tried to force the success of a spell with this method of converting raw mana. It... didn’t end well.”

Cadence frowned strongly, “This is a very important piece of information. We have to tell the others about it as soon as we see them.”

“Why does it even matter that raw mana is converted by the core before you can use it? Isn’t magic just magic?” Sunny wanted to know.

Their elf answered this time instead of Sunset, “Actually It makes a lot of sense, especially when you think of an analogy between mana and blood. Like a blood type, I think mana is not only unique to the caster, but it needs to be your own that fuels your magic. I couldn’t use any of your abilities, no matter what I try, because my manapool hasn’t the right affinity to cast the same spells as you do.”

The Unicorn-turned-human agreed, “Luviel is right. And your core has a third function, besides converting and containing mana. It acts like a second immune system for your body. If mana not of your own making comes in contact with your core it will try to remove it by force. Imagine it like a fever when your body creates high amounts of heat to kill off germs. This ‘hostile’ mana will be seen as a foreign body, not belonging into your system. But instead of ‘fever’ the term for expelling foreign mana is ‘thaumatic excretion’. It looks a little like you are bleeding out magic and your body will show the same symptoms as fever, coupled with a feeling of paralysis.” Many pairs of eyes widened, Sunset noticed immediately, “Don’t worry. You wouldn't be paralyzed in the sense of the word, but it sure feels like it.”

Fluttershy mumbled to herself before she spoke up, “Uhm. If foreign mana invades your body, can the results be like what happened with Applejack? For example if a magic using animal has poison that prevents you from casting spells or turns you into stone?”

She remembered what Mr. Magic had told her and hoped that Sunset could confirm it.

The Phoenix Magic user faced her friend, surprised by this question, “That’s... awfully specific. But yes, for example manticore poison nullifies any attempts of using magic or a cockatrice’s stare contains poisonous mana that results in being turned to stone.”

“I see. Thank you,” the druid replied quietly.

Twilight groaned internally, “I can’t believe my sheets are full!”

Midnight mock-gasped, “Don’t tell me you came… unprepared.”

“Of course not! But I didn’t have as many sheets with me as I hoped! I knew my checklist lacked something when the others bought supplies in Ponyville!” the lavender girl answered hotly.

Moondancer shared her own supply of paper and whispered kindly, “Here you go.”

Twilight smiled in gratitude, “Thanks Moony,” she said in the same volume.

Sunset turned back to look at the blackboard, “Alright. Now we come to the topic of ‘Foci’.” She gestured to the reddishly outlined limbs, “It is fairly simple. A focus is what we need in order to perform the task of casting spells in the first place. A Unicorn uses a horn to cast spells, whereas bipeds like humans and elves use their hands.” She created a little flame in her palm, “Our mana obeys us, it bends and takes the shape we desire, but it can only leave your body through a focus, never anywhere else. The exception are spells which express themselves in form of magical breath-like abilities. In these cases the mouth is another focus, but such are very rare from what I know.”

Pinkie Pie scribbled like a mad girl on her own sheet before shouting, “I think I got it!”

Fluttershy blinked a few times, “Is that a fire breathing... Unicorn?”

“Isn’t it great?! I call it ‘firecorn’!” the hyperactive teenager explained happily.

This got a reaction out of the magic teacher, “Pinkie?”

“Yes?” came the innocent counter question.

“Why?” Sunset could have asked why water is wet.

Pinkie took a deep breath and so it started, “Well, if you are asking why I am here, it’s because I asked Maud to take my share of the work, so that I can sit here with you. But if you want to know why Indigo ran out of the room yesterday during the party like she was on fire, that happened, because Dashie pranked her and switched her drink with hot sauce.”

Lemon laughed, “It was the most hilarious thing I ever saw!”

The party planner continued without fail, “If you want to know why the animals on the farm behave so well despite our situation, well, Fluttershy here bribed them all with more fruits for being calm in exchange.”

The animal lover blushed and frowned at her friend, “T-that was a secret.”

Pinkie Pie thought about it, “Oh. Whatever! Now, if you want to know why-”

“PINKIE! Just…” Sunset shook her head in defeat, “Nevermind.”

“Is there perhaps an existing system to divide magic in finer categories? Just calling everything ‘magic’ sounds so… simplistic,” Twilight commented, unsatisfied.

The young amber woman crossed her arms and hummed to herself, unsure of the best course in order to answer, “To be honest? We do have a system to classify magic, but I wasn’t sure if I should mention it in the first place.”

Night Light was confused, “Why not? It isn’t like we would know better ways to define spells.”

Sunset grimaced a little, “I know it will probably sound stupid, but I didn’t mention anything until now, because I don’t want to force all my knowledge down your throats. This is, even if similar, another world after all, with its own rules, history and cultures. I don’t want to give you the feeling that you have to use all terms we Ponies use to understand magic. You can come up with your own concepts at any time, should they make sense to you and can be verified by experiments. Then there is of course the risk that what I have to say has not to be valid for Terra.”

Cadence’s bell-like laugh attracted attention, “Is that all? How about this? You can tell us how your kind sees magic and we can decide for ourselves if we like what you say, or if we want to come up with our own concepts and terms. Nothing you say has to be set in stone.”

The former student of the sun princess felt stupid for worrying so much about nothing, “I guess.” She took another piece of chalk and wrote on the right side of the board, ‘Clover’s Caste’, with multiple lines distributed around it, before she turned to face her attentive class again, “Clover’s Caste is a system we Ponies use to assign magic into single families known as ‘tiers’.”

“Clover? Like Clover the Clever?! She was the only female student of the great philosopher Star Swirl the Bearded himself! He invented the first hand pump in history!” Twilight exclaimed in pure excitement.

This man lived during the times of the Roman Empire, when Greece and Egypt still counted to the greatest civilizations of old. He understood principles, physical laws and concepts way beyond his time, a genius through and through. The lavender girl was his biggest fan.

She even dressed as him during Halloween when she was younger. Nobody recgnized her custome though.

Sunset had to prevent herself from snorting. Two of the greatest Unicorns of ponykind were just mere philosophers in this world. Somehow it was disappointing, “Yes, she was a Unicorn and one of the greatest scholars of our kind. Clover tried to classify the different types of spells to bring order into a badly organized system to this time. There are seven tiers.”

She drew at the end of the first line a red brain with blue circles symbolizing magic around it, “First we have Domination-”

Pinkie held up her arm, waving wildly with it, “Oh! Oh! You mentioned it when we were chasing this nasty chimera in the Everfree!”

The last part was said in a less happy tone.

Sunset still couldn’t decide what to think about it. After their talk Princip-Celestia told her that the chimera named itself Nova now and that they should tell her. And why did they even show themselves in the first place?

It was confusing.

“Right, Pinkie.” She spoke to the whole ‘class’ again, “Domination is known as the Tier of Mind. Many unique spells fall under it. From reading a person's thoughts to mind control, even enslaving the free will counts to the realm of possibilities. But Domination can also be used to ‘convince’ dangerous animals that you aren’t a threat, nor prey, so that they will leave you alone.”

“Huh. I guess this strange mass mind control magic those warlocks used to control the citizens of Ponyville could be counted to this tier,” Sunny said thoughtfully.

Luviel agreed, “Indeed. But think about the more positive aspects. If you are in dire need of finding important informations and you have to interrogate enemies in order to obtain them you could just take a look. Especially if time is of the essence.”

A sour expression crossed Night Light’s face, “That may be true, but personally I have ethical issues with such spells. The mind is a sacred place and shouldn’t be violated lightly, no matter the reason. Of course there are no laws against using such abilities, but it’s a dark zone, if you ask me. Morally speaking.”

Sunset nodded in understanding, “I know from where you are coming from, but all magic can be misused if you think about it. For example every Unicorn can use levitation to pick up things, it’s the most basic of spells. Young foals are taught about it from early on. But in theory I could levitate a boulder above someone’s head or toss sharp objects at said person. It really depends on the magic’s wielder.”

Cadence gave a small smile, “What you are doing and what you are able to do are two different pairs of shoes. Power means responsibility, even when it sounds strange at first.”

The amber magician drew a human head and question marks around it at the end of another line, “Aberration, also known as the Tier of Illusion. As you might expect, this tier focuses on confusion creating spells. It ranges from fooling all of the five senses to making simple distractions.”

“That sounds like the best pranktastic tier ever!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed gleefully.

“Totally!” Lemon supported, equally joyful.

Sugarcoat nodded proudly, ignoring the duo’s antics, “My magic has its own tier. Who would have thought.”

“Next up is Conjuration, the Tier of Summoning. It’s one of the two oldest forms of magic. It stands for the calling of familiars or leading your own golems and constructions bound to you. But I don’t know about anypony who knows about Conjuration these days, except maybe the princesses. Perhaps you find something about it in very old tomes, probably.” Sunset created a simple looking circle and a big creature made of earth in its center at the end of the third line.

“That would be very helpful if we could somehow call for aid in form of a summoning,” Luviel commented in great interest.

“S-Sunset? Is it maybe possible to have an animal as a familiar? If you don’t mind me asking. I just wondered, because… well…” Fluttershy mumbled to herself, not sure how to explain herself.

The Unicorn-turned-human had to giggle at the innocent, but still very eager question, “I’m sure it’s possible. I read that some animals could form a special bound that granted the magic user the ability to summon them. But I never saw it myself, sorry.”

A big smile graced the young druid’s features.

“The fourth field is Divination, the Tier of Premonition,” Sunset chose her next streak and drew a card with stars in it, a detailed human eye above it, looking at the card below.

Twilight groaned, “Seriously?” She refused to believe in such fakery.

Sunset could just grin at her friend’s ignorance, “What’s the matter Twilight? Did you meet a creepy diviner in the past?” Short laughs lightened the atmosphere, “In all seriousness though, it’s not what you are thinking. Divination is not only smoke and mirrors, but real magic in my world. There are a few different examples I can name you. Like the Zebras, whose witch doctors brew potions out of special ingredients, which make it possible to get glimpses of the future or the past, depending on the components. Or the Gryphon seers, who can see a few seconds into the future of a person they look at, it comes very handy in battle. Or so I read. But the best example I can give you is my former mentor.” A small amount of sadness creeped into her voice when she mentioned Princess Celestia.

“What has my aunt’s counterpart to do with it?” Cadence queried calmly, but visibly curious.

“The princess has the ability to see glimpses of somebody’s possible future. That’s how she found out about my potential when we first met, same goes for Princess Twilight long before her ascension. She has to be close to you to see it, but sometimes her sixth sense tingles if the future of many could be shaken in its very foundation.” Sunset buried her face in her palms and shook her head in shame for a few seconds before looking up again, “And here we have another reason why I acted like a brat in the past. At one point I saw it as my destiny to be better than others because of her premonition.” Her cheeks heated a little.

There even seemed to be more, if Sunset understood correctly. Princess Twilight once wrote her a very detailed report about the incident with Lord Tirek. They were only aware of him, because Princess Celestia’s ability extended to dreams sometimes and she was warned during her sleep.

“You know, it still sounds surreal that your counterpart and our former babysitter are little pony princesses,” Midnight added out of the blue.

Pinkie stroke her chin, like there was a not existing goatee, concentrated, “My sisters and I have a sixth sense, too.” Her eyes widened in childish glee, “Does that mean we are like gypsies with superpowers?!”

“Pinkie-” before Twilight could go on why saying something like that was wrong, the teenager was already fully into it.

The second youngest of the Pie Sisters pulled a fake glass orb out of her hay seat, put it onto her desk and stared intensely at it. Then there were the strange arm movements, “Aha! I see it! My little friend here told me that something unexpected will happen soon! It has spoken!” she dramatically screamed the last part.

Moondancer rolled with her eyes, “That’s ridiculous. Why should-”

The barn door opened forcefully and a very angry BonBon stomped into the class, looking around frantically until she spotted the target of her ire, “Lyra! There you are!”

“H-hey Bonnie!” the mint colored girl replied sheepishly, “How is the farm doing?”

“You said you would be gone for a few minutes! I know you want to listen, but I told you we need your help and that you can ask questions later,” came the immediate reply.

“But-”

“No buts! I won’t cover for you, again,” BonBon interrupted in annoyance

“I just overslept like three times,” Lyra mumbled quietly.

But loud enough for her friend to hear, “Exactly!” She started to pull the mint colored teenager out of the session, “Now move, Applejack is waiting for us.”

Of course Lyra took it all in stride and dignity, “Noooooooo!” all the way out.

Pinkie blinked, and again, lowering her head until her eyes were on the same level as the fake crystal ball, “You are gooood.”

One of the Shadowbolts ended the resulting silence, “You were a bully once? Good to know that our fearless leader had her share of weak moments as well!” Sour Sweet teased mercilessly.

Playfully rolled eyes were Sunset’s only response.

She took this time colorful chalk and made a picture of six small leaves in slightly shifted positions, filling them in various combinations with green, yellow, red and brown to show their life cycle. “Transmutation, or Tier of Transition, includes all magic that causes changes. Be it a change of environment, the appearance or matter of things, even age.”

“Whoa! Time magic is a thing?!” Sunny exclaimed, not sure if she heard right.

“Like time travel?!” Lemon added in awe.

Their teacher sighed, knowing that it had to come up, “This is really something where science fiction pulled wool over your eyes. Time is a powerful, unbending force, one of the oldest concepts of creation. Even magic can’t just undo it. You can’t just change it permanently either, it will always return to its original state. Think of time like a living, strong river with currents, the more you try to work against it the more it tries to force you into submission. Until it succeeds.”

“Hmm, it is difficult to imagine the possibilities of such spells, if not for the obvious. Could you name us examples, please?” Luviel asked politely.

“Of course. It is possible to slow time down or to speed it up, but merely for very short frames and only around the target of your will. There are a few factors which will make it already much harder. Does your target move or not, is it just a lifeless object or a living being, its proportions like girth, height and mass. For example slowing down a living being requires to slow down time for every cell at once, meaning you need great amounts of mana at your disposal. Only the most skilled Unicorns could pull off such feats and even then only for seconds to maybe two minutes. At best,” Sunset explained seriously.

Lemon Zest leaned back in her groaning chair and pouted, “So no time travel?”

The Phoenix Magic user was unsure how to explain it, “I didn’t say that. There is a spell which should make it possible to go back in time, if nothing else. But documented experiments claimed that the caster could only go back a week for a few seconds, but then you would be forced to return automatically to your own timeline. I never tried it out myself.”

Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow, “Seriously? That sounds pretty ineffective if you ask me.”

Sunset shrugged with her shoulders for real this time, “What can I say?” She wrote the words ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘future’ onto the board and addiotionally ‘time field’ under every word, “It is theorized that time has its own rules and domains. We all live in the same time field, where time flows in the same speed for every being on this world. Imagine you want to go back in time, that may be the case, but in the end your existence is anchored to your own time field, the point of your origin. Each moment of time has its own unique time field, or so most scholars think, that is why it is able to feel it if somebody of another time field appears in its domain. In other words it will try to reject you and to force you back into your own, where you belong. Or in the moment you try to change the time field it will try to repair itself, that is why even a mere change of time’s speed will only last for seconds in most cases.”

“You said that Transmutation works with age as well, what do you mean?” Moondancer inquired vigorly.

“Well, a very talented mage is able to change the time field around his target to such a degree that he could force someone to grow old or to be turned back into a child. I saw once how a professor of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns could bend the time field around an egg strongly enough, so that a living bird hatched out of it,” the magic teacher elucidated nostalgically.

Such experiments were one of the reasons she always loved learning about magic. Good old times.

“H-he created life?!” Cadence shouted, completely dumbfounded.

Sunset had to laugh at such a ridiculous thought. She was positive that Professor Star Note wasn’t a deity in disguise, “No, not really. As I said, he only changed the time field. That means he forced the egg into a moment when it would have hatched already. Same goes for aging or rejuvenating someone. It all lasts so long until time will correct its cause and everything returns to how it should be once again.”

Night Light had another question, “In relation to the Tier of Transition… do you know the concept of the Philosopher's Stone? It’s something mankind always dreamed about in the earlier ages.”

The former Unicorn nodded slowly, “I read about. But Transmutation doesn’t count to the most difficult areas in Clover’s Caste without a reason. You need to understand of what a mineral or any other material is made of in order to transmute an object. If you want to change wood into gold, then it doesn’t matter if you are the most powerful magic user in history. You won’t be able to complete the task as long as you don’t understand what wood is and what gold is.” She grinned slyly, “Chemistry, biology and physics have their places in my homeworld as well, you know? Living in a world of magic doesn’t mean we are stupid when it comes to these subjects.”

Luviel stretched herself, “That is certainly a lot to take in, I think we should take a break when you covered the last two tiers.”

“I agree. I will go and ask Mrs. Smith for some refreshments,” Cadence said, stood up and left the barn.

Now that she thought about it, Sunset had to admit that her throat felt a little dry, “That sounds good, I don’t mind.”

She drew a strange looking symbol at the end of the next line, a rhombus with a two layered circle around it, touching the edges and beautifully made symbols in the outer layer. In the rhombus itself was a little red flame, “This is a fire rune and the reason I learned to draw with such precision. Epigraphy is the sixth family and the oldest form of magic that exists in general, also called the Tier of Enchantment. Some call it Magic of Rune Script, but it isn’t a commonly used term. It is furthermore related to Divination, because the old oracles of Unicornia used runes to read the future or to determine the fate of things.”

The hyperactive party planner laughed, “Oh, I get it! Unicorns, Unicornia, good one!”

Most in the room groaned.

Sunset’s right corner of the mouth twitched, “Of course Pinkie Pie. To explain it further, Epigraphy covers a few topics. Like enchantments of all kinds to strengthen a chosen attribute, endurance for example. And runes in general can be used in many different ways, preparing traps was one of the most common options in the past, because runes, in opposite to normal spell casting, aren't restricted by time. No spell is made to last forever to our knowledge and ends at one point, but runes have something we call a ‘perfect thaumatic balance’. It means that they will serve their purpose as long as the rune itself is intact and not damaged somehow.”

“That sounds delightful! These runes are certainly interesting. As long as you aren’t an archaeologist and run into the next ancient death trap!” Sour Sweet voiced her opinion.

“It certainly appears to be a major flaw that they are practically useless in the moment they are damaged,” Luviel pointed out, “Are there any other features we should know about?”

The amber woman thought about the question, “Well, drawing them with utmost perfection is absolutely necessary. In the moment you make a mistake when drawing the rune it won’t work anymore, or worse, it overloads and reacts volatilely in form an explosion or with an effect you never aimed for. Missing a small hook of a Rune Symbol, the letters you see in the fire rune here, is already enough.”

Twilight felt like she discovered science heaven, so much previously unknown knowledge, and even better, magic wasn’t as frustrating anymore, because it seemed to have a lot of rules as well and didn’t ignore reality as much as she feared.

“I swear if you get wet thoughts I will haunt you in your dreams forever,” Midnight warned threateningly.

The lavender scholar ignored her conscience for now, it became easier in the last passing days, “Are runes only symbolizing effects, enchantments or elements?”

“Mostly, but Epigraphy existed once to make life easier for all Ponies in times following the foundation of Equestria. Sadly after the Age of Discord the knowledge of how we could create them was lost to us. There were runes which made it possible to walk on clouds so that Earth Ponies and Unicorns could visit the old cities of the Pegasi, teleportation runes for non Unicorns and with Rune Symbols inscripted so called ‘Rune Gates’, which served as portals between two places of choice.” The Unicorn-turned-human was saddened that so much knowledge disappeared because of the God of Chaos.

“That sounds awful. I’m sorry that this happened to you,” Fluttershy commented in honest sympathy.

Sugarcoat observed the fire rune on the blackboard with great suspicion, “You draw everything how it should be, right? Is this fire rune dangerous?”

“Huh?” Sunset turned around to look at the rune and back to the Shadowbolt before she understood, “Oh, you mean if it will do something?” She waved it off, “Nah, don’t worry. Drawing a rune alone won’t have any effect, first you need to infuse it with the necessary amount of mana in order to activate it, and then you have to implement the right matrices to make sure the rune won’t activate by accident or when the wrong person comes by. Otherwise it will always be a simple picture, nothing else.”

“Picture… only… alright!” Moondancer exclaimed excitedly, staring at her notes, more a small book by now, as if they were her biggest treasure. “One tier left!”

Scientific passion could be seen on the redhead’s face, “Now to the most compelling and biggest tier, the Tier of Soul. Enigma. Ms. Celestia uses Solar Magic, Ms. Luna has Lunar Magic, Rainbow Dash, Cadence, Indigo, every single one of us. We all have in common that our abilities focus on one particular concept or element. Ice, lightning, healing, water, earth, fire, light, darkness, wind, poison, arcane, emotion, love, nature, it doesn’t matter. They are all counting to Enigma, because they represent aspects of magic unique to our soul, our very being. Even in Equestria It happened that Pegasi were born, every now and then, who could command lightning and wind like nopony except them was ever able to do so, Earth Ponies with affinity to fire and earth or Unicorns who were specially gifted in a certain aspect of magic.”

“So the seventh tier is called Enigma, because you don’t know why these forms of magic exist?” Luviel asked dryly.

Sunset countered with a question of her own, “Isn’t that exactly why it is so interesting? Why is somebody born with a talent in magic nobody else has? There is not really a scientific answer to that and you will most likely never find out why. But the Tier of Soul is divided in many under categories. Fluttershy’s Druid Magic could fall under ‘nature’, whereas my Phoenix Magic counts to ‘fire’. Necromancy or blood magic are declared to the vilest of arts under the term ‘Dark Magic’, which in turn counts to the element of darkness. Enigma isn’t a collective term for things we don’t know, but forms of magic unique to the caster, because nobody can simply copy it.”

Night Light nodded in understanding and glanced at every human caster of the class, “It makes sense. There are forms of magic every caster could learn theoretically with enough practice and then there are unique talents like yours which can’t be copied. Indeed, until now we didn’t find anybody who can use the exact same magic as you.”

The breather announced itself in form of the former dean of CPA, Granny Smith, Twilight Velvet and Cheerilee. They carried plates with food and drinks.

“Alright y’all, it’s time to give yer noggin’s a break! A good piece of apple fritter always does the trick,” the Apple Family’s matriarch declared enthusiastically.

“It’s good that we still have so many leftovers from yesterday’s party,” Cheerilee added gladly, trying to balance her full plate.

Pinkie Pie teleported, or so it looked for most, “Dibs on the cupcakes!”

They took a break for over half an hour. Cadence was updated on what she missed and the other three women left afterwards with much less weight to carry.

Velvet made it clear to Twilight that she was grounded if she went overboard with their experiments later or caused any lasting damage, much to the teenager’s embarrassment. What Twilight didn’t notice was her mother’s playful grin.

Their class received two additions with Rarity and Indigo Zap, who entered the barn shortly before class started for the second part. It was their turn to observe the south of Sweet Apple Acres in the early morning before they were replaced by Maud and Limestone. Most were surprised that Rarity wanted to do something where she could ‘get dirty’ at all, but the teenager assured that she would do her part, even if it demanded ‘great sacrifices’.

“I know it is quite rude to interrupt a session in action, but I have to admit that I am curious. Sunset Darling, do you mind if we participate in your lesson for the last part?” the fashionista inquired with an apologetic smile.

Indigo occupied already a seat besides Lemon in a relaxed sitting position, “Yeah, yeah. What she said.”

The Phoenix Magic user saw no problem, “I don't mind. It won’t go for much longer anyway.”

Moondancer seemed to be disappointed, “Oh… what is left?”

“Long ago a Unicorn mare defined certain characteristics of magic in general. They are accepted to this day by our society, so I think it’s a good way to end today’s lesson. We name them ‘Aurora’s Theorems’” Sunset wrote the term on the blackboard, “Let’s start with the first theorem: ‘Magic can never be destroyed, nor be created, only converted’. It’s fairly simple, magic is like energy in this regard. It can be changed into something else, like from its original neutral state into light based magic. But you can’t create magic out of thin air or eliminate it, it just exists and will continue to do so.”

“It is similar to the laws of thermodynamics,” Twilight noticed immediately.

Sunset acknowledged her friend’s statement, “You are right.” The next followed suitly, “The second theorem says: ‘Magic will always demand a prize’. It means that every spell you cast has its costs. As I explained in the morning, a spell won’t work if you don’t have enough mana. And you can’t cheat to make it work either. The needed amount of power is predetermined and if you can’t pay up, to put it crudely, the consequences of failure can be fatal for the caster.”

Indigo gulped nervously, “Sheesh. That sounds harsh.” She looked at the other Shadowbolts, “You have to tell me everything after this.”

Sugarcoat corrected her glasses and replied monotonically, “Calm down. We got you covered.”

“Aurora’s third theorem: ‘Magic is neutral and pure’. In other words, raw magic and raw mana can be used by anybody and it really doesn’t care if you are ‘evil’ or ‘good’. Magic doesn’t know such categories, nor does it judge you for your actions in its purest form.” Sunset explained it a little more at the confused expressions of some of her students, “It is fundamental to understand that, because many magic users in history thought of it as some holy power that could only be used by beings with a pure heart. What is obviously not true.”

The amber magician remembered grimly her history classes under Princess Celestia, when the Alicorn told her about times before the founding of Equestria. Like that the Unicorn elites thought themselves as much superior than Earth Ponies or Pegasi, because they could use magic in a more active way in comparison to the other tribes and tried to enslave them.

A reason why Commander Hurricane waged war against Unicornia for many years.

Sunset wrote down her last piece of information, “The fourth and last theorem: ‘Magic seeks balance above all else’.”

“What?” Lemon queried plainly.

Sunset never liked the last theorem, it made it obvious that you were responsible for your own shortcomings in the very end, “It is more a philosophical observation about it. Magic gives us the ability to use it, an unspoken choice, but its not responsible for how we use it. You know how I turned into a raging she-demon during the Fall Formal. It created a demon half of me to give all my more negative traits a form. My mind wasn’t able to cope with so much pain, power and hatred, so that the Element of Magic turned me into a being fitting my state of mind in this moment. It protected me in this way. But I was still there, somewhere inside, trapped. The same happened with Twilight when Midnight Sparkle was created or with Princess Luna when Nightmare Moon came to be. We were all caged into our own body and mind so to speak, aware of what we did in our power hungry forms, but we weren’t really in charge anymore. I know it sounds confusing.”

Cadence was visibly displeased, “I think I know what you mean. It is cruel, but perhaps necessary at the same time. Magic shows you what you have become because of your own decisions in life and that they have consequences.”

“You hear that Sparky? I saved you from ending up as a vegetable,” the dark angel said proudly, adding a coy wink.

“I don’t think you had an active part there. But I… never thought of it like that,” Twilight admitted regretfully.

Midnight rolled with her eyes. Her twin was sulking again.

Moondancer looked up from her manifest of magical theory. Impressive 23 pages of notes, diagrams, questions and annotations, “I-I think I’m ready. Should we start then with our experiments?”

The amber magician nodded, “If you are sure. I think that’s a good point as any to call it quits.”

Pinkie Pie tried to get Rarity’s attention, “Psst! 10 bucks say that Twilight will cause the first accident.”

The Duelist Magic user reacted with dismay, “How can you say something like that? They are our friends and we should support them with our utmost conviction.” She looked shortly over her shoulder to make sure that nobody listened in, “Make it 15, I say Sunset messes up first.”

“Deal,” came the happy reply.

With faith into their friends’ abilities, the duo shook hands.

Author's Notes:

Greetings my avid readers!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

I just wanted to implement this chapter to give you all an idea how magic works in this universe. I think it worked out fairly well in the end.

Thank you very much for reading and stay tuned!