“Now students as we have learned, every action has an equal but opposite reaction,” Iron Knight said as he dropped a sledgehammer on the ground. Just in front of his students’ desk, waking him up with a startle and possibly a much needed trip to the colts’ room.

All around the room those that were awake, being the rest of the class, tried their hardest to keep their faces straight, but it soon became too much and in a second the whole class was a bust with laughter.

Meanwhile Iron rested calmly at his own desk, wiping away the dirt and grease from a previous lesson from his emerald coat. Slicking his short brown mane away from his horn, the teacher with probably multiple personality problems, picked the hammer up in an aura and stowed it back on the shelf.

“This is Introduction to industry and Magic application… or Glorified shop class if you prefer, not your bed back home,” he watched as the student fully came around in to consciousness, “Now that I have your much needed attention, Mister Ash,” Iron eyed the grey colt with his own hazel irises, “please tell me where we left off, and explain to me how magic in modern day society can coexist with that of old time hooves on work.”

Dumbfounded, just as he expected, the student sat for several moments as he tried to sift through his old notes on the matter to make at least some sort of answer for the teacher. Not that Iron didn’t like him, Ash simply had a long night last night with the soccer game that went over schedule.

“I… ahh…” with that and nothing more, Mr. Knight silenced him with a single hoof.

“Save it Ash, just stay awake, I heard about the game taking longer than expected,” he eased the student down. Before Iron flipped up the black board on to the other side and cleared away the notes from the last lesson. Levitating the chalk in his grasp, Iron went on to spill his own mind to the students, “as it would have you, magic has its obvious advantages over good old fashioned elbow grease. You can get a job done sooner, and arguably better than any pony working with just their hooves at their disposal.” He drew a simple Venn diagram outlining the two topics and their perks of each.

“In one circle you have magic…” he pointed out, “duh… anyways, a unicorn working on a project can get their aura wrapping around the individual components and use that flow through them to make a final product.” Iron added on to the list, before he brought out examples, “we usually see that sort of thing when it comes to mass producing simple everyday items… come on I’m not going to be the only one here, what in this room would you think could be made quickly with magic? And tell me why,” he waited for some of his students to answer, but at first there was nothing, “we aren’t going anywhere till I get an answer…”

After that, pretty much every hoof and claw shot up from his rather diverse classroom. Sense the school district of which he resided in to teach opened its doors to any young citizen wanting to learn, there was a sudden influx of gryphon teenagers and young zebras who desired to attend the high school for which he taught. Heck even several dwarf drakes had started to attend the school, after their parents had set up residents in the area. A new face was always welcome by the teacher, just another mind for them to instill some sort of lesson in as far as he was concerned.

“You there, Axton,” Iron called out to a dragon youth, “give me something, anything.”

“Well… the desks I would say,” the drake started off, “they are mass produced like you said, and the design isn't that complicated.”

“Excellent there Axe,” Iron encouraged him before writing it down on the board. Peering his eyes around the room he caught another, the only female gryphon in his class, “Syllia, what do you got?”

“The black board you're writing on, sir,” she finished, fluttering her eyes at the unicorn, “it too is simple to make.”

“How right you are!” he replied overzealously, “and what am I writing with?”

“Chalk!” one student called out.

“Good show,” he finished the three examples before looking at the other circle, filling it in with only the word Hooves, “Okay there, now when I say hooves, I don’t mean it has to be made with hooves.” Iron started to account all of his students’ species, “I simply mean it as a general statement. Though what is something that would require a little more in depth work to make, something magic couldn’t take care of on its own? And the ever important part, why?”

Instantly a hoof shot up, from one of his brighter students, “Misty Skies?” he called on her.

“Fireworks, Mister Knight,” the rather visually appealing unicorn answered, as she subtlety winked at Axton next to her and made even the dragon blush, “after all anything that deals with… fire, or heat of that magnitude you have to work it with your hooves. Otherwise with the energy you put in, it could blow up in your face.” She purred as the words rolled over her tongue, causing all of the class to bite down on their lips and try to maintain their composure.

Something that Iron, and a particular dragon in the crowed, found themselves struggling over, “Misty…” the teacher cleared his throat to get rid of any chuckle, “while you and Axtons’ infatuation with one another is clear as day. Please keep that out of my shop,” he watched as the mare pouted for a second while she lowered her head to the desk, “now if you moved it to behind the bleachers by the activity field after school…” he winked at the two of them, “well that’s not my concern anymore.”

He watched as both the dragon and mare perked back up, “duly noted, sir.” Axton answered for her.

Though as Iron drug his eyes off the pair flirting back and forth, he noticed a single hoof rose up in the air while he jotted Mistys’ response in the proper circle on the board, “yes? Onyx Gem, what do you have to add to this?”

The sixteen-year-old unicorn leaned back in his chair, “I don’t get it Mr. Knight, why can’t you just make everything with magic?” Onyx opened with, “I mean sure somethings require a little more skill, but shouldn’t you be able to train to the point that you can acquire the skill needed?”

Iron simply nodded, he did have a point after all, “you’re right there Onyx, some unicorns have learned to do complex tasks with their magic, and it is from doing so over and over again. However, somethings you should learn to do by hoof as well. In case you lose the ability to control your magic.”

“How would that happen though?”

Iron merely rubbed his hoof to his temple. Onyx had been a rather privileged child growing up, he didn’t expect him to understand the finer things in life. Like going outside and playing, or building things in one’s basement, or being able to cook on your own. No, no… Onyx was sure to get a rude wakeup call when it came time for him to move on from his parents dwelling and in to the real world… at least Iron could try to get him to understand.

“Let me tell you a story there…” Iron stood up on his hind legs for a second before plopping backwards on to his chair and crossing one leg over the other. Something that many of the males in the room still wondered how he could be so comfortable doing, “when I was younger I crawled my way up on the roof of my parents’ house. My magic wasn’t strong enough to levitate myself up there, after all I was only ten, but my legs were more than strong enough to do so,” he recalled the vivid memory of that day. The wind blowing across the roof top, the sun against his back… or was it in the middle of the evening? Whichever the case, he remembered it very well. Mostly because what happened afterwards.

“Why did you craw up there?” one of his students asked.

“I got really bored one day…” he rolled his eyes, “so I got on my roof, went to the edge and thought it didn’t look that high up.”

“You fell off didn’t you?”

“Na… I’m too smart for that,” Iron chuckled at the other student, “I jumped off,” he said flatly. Watching the expression of all his students’ to scream at him ‘what the hell is wrong with you’, he finally stopped with the silence and continued, “What? I thought I was a Pegasus.”

“Did you break a leg?” another mare called out.

“No, but my pride was hurt… and also my horn,” Iron fired back at her without a thought, “you see when I landed it was legs completely straight, though I didn’t break any bones. When collapsed afterwards though, my head collided with the ground and somehow I managed to crack my horn.”

A simple gasp repeated itself through all those present as that sunk in with them. Many had their eye sockets full of pupils as they dilated to their max, though some who have been in the class longer would expect nothing less from the ever out of the ordinary teacher.

“It cracked along the middle, didn’t break off though,” Iron corrected himself as he progressed through the story, “while it was still attached. The crack did stop me from being able to use spells for about a month till it was fully healed. Any unicorn in here who ever took Introduction to Magic theory 101, which that should be all of you, should know that the magic from my body couldn’t flow through the broken conduit properly, and thus fizzled when it tried to come out.”

Taking a much needed breath after that mouthful, Iron thankfully saw another claw raise up, “How did you handle it?” Syllia asked.

“Oh I was upset at first,” he admitted fully. After all a unicorn not able to use their gift was like taking the venom from a cobra, “but after about a week of doing things with my hooves and using my teeth, I learned to adapt…” Iron explained.

As if by instinct Iron moved back to the chalkboard and picked up piece of chalk in his teeth. All the while he continued to fill out the center of the diagram without even speaking at first, as he wrote down his own notes on the matter.

Turning back to them, he could see the hint of surprise in all their eyes from seeing a perfectly capable unicorn write like an earth pony… and so well too. “Over time I learned that to work with ones’ hooves is an art, while using magic is not an entitlement, it’s a gift that can be taken away,” Iron continued while he paced around the front of the room. Looking up at the clock, he noted that he would have to finish this up soon, after all it was Friday and they were all eager to get out of here just as much as he was.

“Okay students… the bell for dismissal will be ringing here any second,” he watched all their eyes dart to the clock on the wall, and heard the silent squeal of delight come from each of them, “however, you all have a homework assignment.”

The many different types of sounds commanding horror and disgust echoed throughout the room, though they were all silenced the moment the bell struck three in the afternoon and they all immediately started to pack up ready to leave. Not before though Iron got his two cents in.

“BEFORE YOU GO!” their ears rung from the booming voice, forcing them all to turn to their teacher currently holding a megaphone in his hooves. ‘I knew that thing would come in handy,’ Iron noted to himself before setting his toy down, “Two things… don’t worry they are both simple…” he silenced any more groans of displeasure, “that middle section, fill in at least three examples of things that could be made with both magic and by your own sweat, tears, and possibly blood.”

“Will we be graded on it?” Axton asked out of curiosity.

“Only to see that you’ve done it,” Iron answered, “second part of the homework… those of you with little gifts. Whether it is magic, flight, or the ability to breath fire,” he looked around the room to ensure he covered all his bases in terms of species, “for at least one day this weekend, try to go the whole day without using your gift. Not once, not even for a second…” he watched half of them wonder in the back of their minds if they could, “get a feel for how it would be, then Monday tell me, would you be able to live like that… now go on,” Iron waved them all off, “get out of here and enjoy the weekend.”

In less than a minute, Iron was all alone in his class room. The seats were empty, the windows were closed, the personal lockers locked. All was right in his little home of the high school, as it should be. With that, Iron Knight got up from his desk and slung the satchel across his side holding his students’ work that he had to grade later on that evening. That way he would be able to relax this weekend, possibly even work on his own project.

“However, for now,” he said to himself as he locked up, “there's a drink waiting for me at the pub.”