//------------------------------// // Studies // Story: The mage, the inventor, and the explorer // by Jonny Bench //------------------------------// The rest of the day passes by quickly, with Jonny walking about to check up on the studies of all his students and answer any questions they might have. Whenever he wasn’t walking around, he was sitting with Scootaloo and Pipsqueak inside and tutoring them in safe usage of the magic they have chosen. “Alright Pip for the most part, everything you will need to know is located in that book I gave you. Before you leave today I will make sure to get an extra copy of it for you to keep and study at home. My rule for you though is to not try and make the magical archway at home unless you have your parents permission, and I am there to help make sure you set it up correctly. Until then, there is one here at school I will let you use starting next week. I will be showing all of you the different facilities that are available here, and explain how to use them all tomorrow though.” “Woah, I’ll get to use cool magic stuff this early on! I can’t wait to try it all out.” Pip replies with a gleam in his eyes, and tail swinging back and forth excitedly. Scootaloo’s ears perk up at this too, intrigued at what there could be on the many floors above her. “Guessing you’re providing this much stuff because nocreature else has access to it?” She asks cautiously. “That is partly right Scootaloo, I am providing resources no creature has seen in what seems to be hundreds, if not thousands, of years. However, I am also doing this to make sure magic is practiced and understood safely before I let you all work on it on your own. Speaking of going on your own, it seems like school is almost over for the day. If you two want you can leave your books here and we start back up on this tomorrow, or you can bring them home with you and keep going. If you go with the second option, make sure to write down a few questions if you have any to ask me about tomorrow. Oh and Pip, could you go and get the others from the garden? I want to ask them how their studies are going before they leave for the day.” “I’m on it Jonny!” Pip says as he stuffs some of his books into his saddlebags and bolts out of the room. Once Jonny and Scootaloo are alone in the room again, Jonny slips Scootaloo a small slip of paper that’s folded in half and bears a wax seal with the image of a wand and a sword crossed over each other on it. Scootaloo looks at it curiously before Jonny speaks “That is a letter to your parents explaining what sort of magic you are studying. It details the specifics on what it is used for, safe practice and how to make sure you are staying safe. Keeps them from worrying and makes it a bit easier to talk about it with them.” Scootaloo looks up at jonny, slightly confused as to why he would help her with something like this and slowly slides it into her bookbag. No sooner than she had finished doing this, Dinky, Ruby, Tender, and Silver all walk into the room and stand in front of Jonny and Scootaloo. “Well kids, I’d like to hear about how productive your day was today. Did you all learn much on your own?” “Yeah, Ruby and I read a lot about witchery and botany, and it’s all really cool!” “What Dinky means, is that we have both learned about the basic plants and tools needed to practice witchcraft and botany, and plan to continue to do so after school today as well.” “That sounds like excellent progress for your first day. I forgot to mention this to Pip earlier, but you all are welcome to come and sit in the garden any time you wish. It’s a nice quiet place to study. Just make sure to let me or Ms.Cheerilee know when you drop by.” “Thanks a ton Jonny! I love how peaceful it is, it’s perfect for studying.” Silver Spoon replies “I thought some of you would enjoy this, now how did your day go Silver?” “I don’t really know. I can’t figure out these aspects of magic the book keeps referencing. I did read up on magical crops but also have no idea what these minicio seeds are.” “Alright, we can talk about it once I’ve heard from everyone. The aspects of magic can be a bit tricky the first time around. Now, how about you Tender?” “This totem stuff is weird but cool. The book is showing me designs i can cut into a log and it gives off different effects. I definitely want to keep going with it.” “That sounds good Tender, glad to hear you’re enjoying yourself. Now then, all of you are dismissed for the day, and are free to go home or stay here and study for a bit. Later on this week I will be showing you all around the tower and what resources and structures will be available to you all. Have a nice day class!” Jonny says as most of the ponies exit the room except for Silver Spoon. “Now then Silver, have a seat here and I’ll show you a trick or two about magic.” Jonny says as he gestures towards a long dark table with an inkwell and paper on it. Silver sits down in front of the inkwell as Jonny pulls up a chair to the right of her. “There are six primal aspects to magic, water, air, earth, fire, order, and entropy. Each aspect combines with other aspects to create something new, such as air and water combine to form storm,” jonny says as he draws out symbols for air, water and storm. “Everything has aspects, and everything is able to be broken down into the six primal aspects. You can see the aspects an object has using something called a thaumometer.” Jonny then pulls out a strange object from his robes. It is a golden hexagon with glass in the middle. Along the rim of the object are runes, and six different colored spheres. He then holds the thaumometer out to Silver Spoon for her to pick up. As she does so, she looks through it and starts to look around. Everywhere she looks, the thaumometer highlights the aspects everything has, from the earth and entropy in the stone bricks to the knowledge in the books. She then turns to look at Jonny, who then says “You can combine two thaumometers and make a band to connect them in order to create a pair of glasses or goggles that are able to be worn. They function the same way the standard thaumometer does, but they also replace the need for conventional glasses, and allow you to see magic being cast by a unicorn on an object. We can make a pair of them for you right now if you want.” Jonny says as he pulls out a second thaumometer and a few pieces of metal and cloth. Silver Spoon thinks about it for a moment before agreeing, knowing that it can only be to her benefit. Over the course of half an hour, Jonny and Silver worked together to shape the small pieces of scrap metal to fit over the top of Silver’s muzzle, and reach all the way back over her ears. Then, Jonny welded the pieces together, and double checked to make sure everything was fastened snugly and securely. At the end, they worked together to stick a small tube of fabric together, and fit it tightly over the ends of the glasses, so that if they fell off of Silver’s muzzle, they would have a way to catch themselves and not hit the ground. “Alright then, looks like we’re done. Go ahead and put them on Silver.” Jonny says as he hands the new glasses to his student. Silver gingerly removes her glasses, and sets them down on the work table she and Jonny had been using, before reaching out and taking the new pair from Jonny’s hands. Carefully, Silver puts the glasses on her muzzle and has Jonny fasten the cloth around both ends of her glasses to ensure they don’t fall off and break. Silver slowly looks around the room, taking in everything in breathtaking detail. Everything is crystal clear to her, from the writing on the chalkboard to the fine print on the spines of the books in the library. She is amazed to see everything in such high quality, and can even spot wisps of magic float off of some of the stone and plants in the room. She turns to Jonny with small amounts of tears in her eyes, and asks him; “Why are you being so nice to me?” This question puzzles him for a second as he thinks about what Silver has said to him. “What do you mean Silver?” “No one is ever this nice to me. I don’t understand why you want to help me so much.” She replies, her voice cracking slightly. Jonny sees this, and starts to clue in to why she is becoming so emotional towards him “Silver, I care about all of my students a lot, you included. I want to see you all succeed, and for you all to become the best possible you that you are able to be. Life isn’t about who or what you are, it’s about what you are able to become and how you get there. I am here to help you, and nothing is going to be able to change that.” Jonny says as he pats Silver on the head. In response to this Silver leaps forwards and gives Jonny a hug, happy that he is willing to help her through some of the problems that she faces. As they embrace, Jonny looks out the window and spots the sun starting to set. “Seems like we’ve lost track of time. Don’t worry, I’ll walk you home to make sure you get there safely.” He says as he breaks away from the hug. “Great, my parents are gonna kill me for coming home late.” Silver replies as they both start to walk back towards the Celestial Gateway. “Don’t worry Silver, I’ll be there to explain to them why you’re getting home so late in the evening.” Jonny replies as they go through the celestial gateway, unaware of a small intruder lurking within the garden. Watching and waiting for them to leave.