Magic, at its most rudimentary of forms, is simply the extension of one's mind onto the world around them. The honing and perfecting of the mind is the truest conduit of magic in its base form, and will be the cornerstone of any mage's studies. Although this is only a generalization that will be delved into in greater detail later, the mind (and, by extension, magic) can be organized into twelve separate categories, hereafter referred to as Schools. Numbering twelve in all, these fundamental traits of any mind are a necessity of their respective School of magic. Not every fundamental part of the mind is a positive aspect, however.
Some of these schools reflect different weaknesses of the mind. Each is incredibly powerful in its own right; so powerful that even at their most basic level they can wreak havoc on the mind of the caster and that of those around him. These schools, six in all, have been deemed by the Highest of Council Sages Forbidden Schools of Magic. Tapping into these parts of the mind is dangerous and life-threatening. Experimentation in these artes should never be attempted, even in the most dire of straights.
The six Practical Schools of magic are broken down into two categories: Common Magic, which can be performed and perfected by any race of pony, and Unicorn Magic, which requires a level of magic attunement that does not exist amongst Pegasi and Earth Ponies. The three schools of Unicorn Magic originated from the three schools of Common Magic, when all the races of Ponies had a deeper connection with the magics of the world. After experimentation with the schools of Common Magic, Unicorns discovered inherent abilities of their own that made them unique from the other Pony races. Magic was to be what separated the Unicorns from the stoic Earth Ponies and the powerful Pegasi.
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Practical Unicorn Magic Conjura (The School of Conjuration) - Conjuration is the arte and school of creating and changing physical objects in the world. The most elementary of spells of the school Conjuration is the ability to mend objects using magic. Because magic is an extension of the mind, the quality of craftsmanship of these spells is based upon the skill of the caster to create (or mend) the object in question. This being said, this is one of the easiest schools to learn, but one of the most difficult to master. It takes an incredible amount of patience to learn the intricacy of each and every item that is created or mended. Many mages who specialize in conjuration as a school choose a type of object as well (clocks, as an example), and branch off of this into other spells in the school of conjuring.
Practical Unicorn Magic Evocies (The School of Evocation) - Evocation, not to be confused with Conjuration, is the ability to manipulate energy with the mind. Evocation specifically manipulates energies (kinetic, potential, intramolecular, etcetera), as opposed to Conjuration, which deals with objects, items, and trinkets. Evocation is the most popular form of Unicorn Magic, and the most widely used by masters and novices of any school of magic. Perhaps one of the oldest of forms of magic, every unicorn is inherently an Evoker, with the most common of spells being levitation. With a fundamental understanding of levitation (the process of giving an object enough kinetic energy to move in a way it would not normally), Evocation can be applied to any number of scenarios. Fire, ice, and the most honed of arcane bolts are at the horn-tip of any unicorn who has the intellect to understand the complexity of such energies.
Practical Unicorn Magic Scryx (The School of Scryomancy) - Scrying is the magical arte of extending one's consciousness to become aware of living things around oneself. With proper focus and training, scryomancy can identify individuals in a crowd, locate objects at extreme distances (legends tell of planet-wide scryomancy of objects and individuals), and alert the caster to even the most subtle of movement and esoteric of changes in objects or living things the caster is focused on. Scrying requires an innate amount of awareness - mental awareness is at the base of any scrying spell.
Practical Common Magic Alchemica (The School of Alchemy) - Alchemy is the use of the innate magical energies of herbs and plants to create potions. Although anyone can learn and practice Alchemy, it is users are few and far between in the common eras due to the uncanny amount of diligence required to perform Alchemy. Based on rigorous and precise formulas and recipes, mishaps and miscalculations can be lethal. In addition, experimentation is seldom practiced in Alchemy (for obvious reasons stated above), and the same collection of tested and well-used recipes and formulas are often passed down from generation to generation, creating unique cultures centered around the practice of such artes.
Practical Common Magic Meteon (The School of Meteomancy) - Contrary to popular belief, the ability to control and manipulate the weather (a practice known as Meteomancy) is very much magic. Often practiced by Pegasi who gather ingredients rapidly by virtue of their apt mobility, Meteomancy serves its greatest use in the maintenance of suitable living standards for ponies worldwide. Great laboratories and colleges of Meteomancy pepper nations, creating, regulating, and monitoring weather. There is a dark side to Meteomancy, however. The greatest disasters of the known world are caused by weather, and the tapping into such powers creates a formidable and terrible weapon. This being said, self-control is the greatest asset to a practitioner of weather magic.
Practical Common Magic Phyllia (The School of Phyllomancy) - The final and most powerful school of practical magic is Phyllomancy, the magic of friendship. Friendship, and by extension love, has the greatest influence on everyone around the caster. Friendship can dominate any other school of magic because rather than the mind of the solitary caster, Phyllomancy draws upon the powers of every individual that shares a special connection around the caster. As such, Phyllomancers are very delicate when solitary. Caring, above all, is the greatest tool a Phyllomancer needs to draw upon their allies to defeat the greatest of evils.
The Forbidden Schools of Magic (sometimes referred to as Black Magic), are the source of casualty and catastrophe of legend. These artes have long been left untouched and undisturbed for each of their respective reasons. Only the wariest of eyes should proceed further. In recorded history, the only Ponies to have ever experimented with these schools have been Unicorns. It is said that only Unicorns are capable of conducting these greater artes, but any mind is capable of these weaknesses, and therefore theoretically, any pony is capable of delving into Black Magics.
Forbidden School Necronomica (The School of Necromancy) - Necromancy is the manipulation of the life-energies of living things. The spells of a Necromancer vary from the raising of the dead and controlling of undead thralls to the communal with spirits of long past. These spirits, having found closure with the mortal coil, often return to haunt and torment the living they have been thrust back into the world with. No one pony has the capacity or authority to command the base energies of others, and as such, Necromancy has been forbidden since the beginnings of the study of magic. Within the heart of every Necromancer lies fear of some kind. Be it fear of their own mortality, fear of loneliness, or fear of any sort, it is always at the root of these dark artes.
Forbidden School Geome (The School of Geomancy) - The invisible channels that bind magic to the known world are known as Ley Lines, which contain within them magic in its purest and most undefined form. The tapping into and tearing of these Ley Lines is known as Geomancy. Geomancy has the potential to give one a power greater than any single pony, but at a dire cost to the very planet on which we live. Any spell cast using Geomancy has permanent repercussions on the planet as a whole. Disregard of these consequences drives Geomancers to make an ultimate sacrifice of the natural balance of our world.
Forbidden School Chronos (The School of Chronomancy) - Time, the enigmatic power to change anything and everyone, was never meant to be controlled by any mortal living thing. The manipulation of time, even at its simplest with gazes into the future, warps and destroys the mind with confusion and doubt. The caress of time energy on a Chronomancer often causes changes in perception for that individual that lead to insanity and exile from normal thought. Perhaps one of the most complex of the forbidden schools, its roots and potential are shrouded in a mystery that should never be uncovered.
Forbidden School Nixes (The School of Nixiomancy) - The Nix is the manipulation of magics so they feed into themselves, creating infinite loops of swirling energies. It is this forbidden school of magic that creates cursed artifacts and hexes that loom over ponies for generation after generation. The bending of spells so they feed into themselves is not only difficult, but taxing on the body of the caster. Often, Nixiomancy creates scars upon the caster that are as permanent and immutable as their spells. This can vary from simple cuts and burns to the deformation and distortion of entire limbs. More than once has a Nixiomancer given their very life to loop greater spells. Surely, their hearts and minds are riddled with spite upon others in order to wish pain and suffering on them eternally.
Forbidden School Entropy (The School of Entropomancy) - Entropomancy is the magic that bends and breaks the rules that govern the universe. Referred to simply as Chaos, these energies are the physical manifestation of havoc and unrest. Even Entropomancers often have no idea what their spells can lead to, as knowing Chaos is knowing nothing at all. The desire to dismantle even the most basic of laws of physics requires dissatisfaction so strong that life often appears to be a long, cruel joke to Entropomancers. Their intimacy with uncontrollable energies often causes what is referred to as "drift", which changes the body in a most unpredictable manner. Ponies who dabble in the magic of chaos have been known to sprout appendages of odd animals and sometimes change into new species of creature altogether; neither living or dying, wishing forever that the world around them was less whole.
Forbidden School Daemonia (The School of Demonology) - Layered upon our planes of existence resides other Ill-Begotten Realms in which fantastic and dangerous creatures reside. Through Demonology, Summoners can create Ley-Gates that allow them to commune (and sometimes, travel) with beings of these Ill-Begotten Realms. They, of ageless bodies and unknowable power, often take contract with Summoners, exchanging pieces of the Summoner's soul for magical advantages in our world. What the Daemons of the Ill-Begotten Realms do with said pieces is still a mystery, and often Summoners disappear from our dimensions, never to be seen by living things again. To summon the courage to communicate with such creatures, to be willing to give away the purest piece of one's soul, must require nothing short of desperation to achieve their goals.
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Caramel Twist's eyes were heavy as he pored over his textbook. Magical Studies had to be one of the most boring subjects in the history of subjects. There seriously had to be a somewhat more interesting way to spend an aftern--
"Caramel Twist!" The tawny unicorn leapt from his chair in surprise, making most of the class giggle. "Did you hear a word I said?"
"Uh..." Caramel searched his mind for an excuse.
"Before you tell me how riveting your textbook was, could you please tell me what Starswirl the Bearded's preferred school of magic was?"
The color drained from Caramel's face as he realized every face in the auditorium was on him. He needed an answer. Anything. Anything at all that would make him sound like he was paying attention. His breath became heavy in his chest, and his tongue began to taste like felt. There had to be something in the book he had spent the past half hour idly browsing that would help him.
"Starswirl the Bearded was a Sage; he didn't have a preferred School of Magic." Caramel blurted out before stuffing his head back in his book.
The professor, a beige unicorn whose mane hung in coils around her head and neck not unlike snakes, paused for a moment to adjust her glasses. "That is... correct."
Class may have resumed as it did for the past four months, but Caramel's head swirled like a bowl of tapioca.
Where did that come from? Did I make that up? Was that luck? Everyone must think I'm a nerd now; a freak who spends all his time reading some stupid textbook. Deciding that burrowing his head into his book wasn't helping his case at all, Caramel put it down and scanned the room. Nopony was staring at him. No jeering of faces... maybe... maybe that little outburst went entirely unnoticed. Caramel slumped against the backrest of the bench in relief.
"Psssst..." A soft voice next to Caramel made him rocket out of his chair in surprise.
Shivering in his hooves, head buried in his arms, Caramel could feel his distress whipping around him. He could feel every bruise, every wound he'd ever endured sear his flesh as fear ran through his veins. He never wanted to go to a fancy Canterlot school for magic, he never wanted to be the prodigy of his family or make a name for himself. What was wrong with wanting to stay home and make candy all day? He was good at that, and ponies couldn't beat on him from behind a counter.
"Caramel Twist!" A distant voice called to him. It was different than the voice that scared him.
"Go away!" Caramel shouted from under his arms.
"I will! I promise! Nopony is going to hurt you! Just come away from the edge!" That last part made Caramel look up, confused. Wind whipped around his mane as he looked around to see all of Canterlot. Clay shingles beneath Caramel's hoofs made an odd noise as he caught his footing.
The far tower? How...