//------------------------------// // Amethyst Star and the Magic School // Story: Amethyst Star Isn't Prepared For This // by MagicS //------------------------------// “Alright everyone, settle down, class is now in session!” Amethyst Star stood in front of the chalkboard in the classroom after writing her name on it, her eyes wandering over all the young unicorns looking up at her with rapt attention as they filled in their seats and got ready to begin their lessons. The adult unicorn found herself substituting for the usual teacher today at the Magic University in the City of Opportunity. Unicorns and other creatures with magic came here to study, other creatures without magic were allowed to attend as well but there weren’t as many. Non-magical creatures still liked to learn about magic but without the ability to use it themselves there simply wasn’t as much interest as with those that could actually strengthen their magical ability and apply it to things. The class Amethyst Star was teaching for the day was a class for young unicorns just beginning to learn magic more complex than simple telekinesis. They were the ones who would likely be in “Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns” if this was Equestria, Amethyst Star had no doubt. Already all of them were capable of and had a knack for the general application of their own power. Now it was the time for them to start learning actual magical spells. What qualifications did Amethyst Star possess for her to teach this class? None. But she said she was really good at magic and knew a lot of spells and magical lore. So in her mind if anything went wrong the fault was really on the administrators for not checking to make sure if she was actually telling the truth or not. I mean who just lets any random mare teach students about potentially dangerous magic without making sure they know what they’re doing? Really this should be a learning experience for the school more than anything. “Unfortunately because I was a last minute hire I don’t know exactly what the lesson plan is or where you are in your studies. Would anyone like to fill me in?” She asked all the eager fillies and colts. A multitude of hooves rose in the air. Smiling, Amethyst Star picked out a yellow filly in the middle of the front row to answer. “Mrs. Ruby Glow was teaching us about firework spells. We have an upcoming festival in the city and she wanted our class to show off what we had learned and perform the fireworks ceremony,” the little filly answered with a slightly lispy voice. She then pointed at the desk of Mrs. Ruby Glow that was in the corner of the room to Amethyst Star’s right. “Her textbook should be in there.” “Thank you,” Amethyst Star smiled at the filly and trotted over to Mrs. Ruby Glow’s desk. It was a very clean and orderly desk, the desk of a pony that would quickly get on Twilight Sparkle’s good side, that held two drawers on each side. Pulling open the right one, Amethyst Star was rewarded with a stack of textbooks. The top most one having a number of sticky notes in it and dog-eared pages for her to follow. She pulled it out and started flipping through the pages. “Do any of you know what page you were on? Do you have copies of this textbook?” In response to her question about thirty little unicorns dug into the cubbies under their desks and pulled out their own personal textbooks. The same filly who answered her earlier responded again: “Page 72, Miss Amethyst Star.” “Thank you again,” Amethyst Star quickly found the page since it was one that had a multitude of sticky notes on it with various notes and reminders quickly jotted down on them. As she read through the section and the material she quickly realized that she didn’t understand anything about magic theory or how to teach this stuff. She tried to keep her emotions from appearing on her face but irregardless of that it seemed the best she would be able to do for these students was just tell them to read the text and follow any examples and work out any of the problems on their own. Independence and self-reliance were good, right? It would probably be a good exercise for these kids. “Okaaay,” Amethyst Star said as she shut the textbook. “How often do you kids work in groups and do projects on your own?” “Every now and then,” an orange colt with glasses halfway back in the classroom said with a shrug. “Perfect! That’s what you’re going to be doing today too. Get in groups of—er—five, and go through this section of the textbook and try to figure out how to do the spells together,” she told them. The kids seemed fine with that, scooting their desks together and easily getting into groups of five while Amethyst Star just stood back and watched. If these kids were at a school like this they were probably already pretty smart and mature, she hoped she didn’t have to worry about any fights and the groups just formed up around pre-existing friendships. But yes, this idea of hers was certainly the best. She was a unicorn that had almost no magical ability or knowledge outside of the most basic telekinesis and even in that she wasn’t strong… not that she would admit that. So even though she was amazing these kids were just as well-off learning like this. Amethyst Star nodded. Yep, I guess I am technically a good teacher. Since a good teacher should know when to let her students be freethinking. I could totally teach a general magic class just fine too. Definitely good enough at magic to do that. She took a seat behind Mrs. Ruby Glow’s desk and kicked her legs up on it, relaxing. Of all the things she had done recently this was the only place where it looked like she’d really be able to just sit back and settle down. Whether that’s what she should be doing or not was another matter. Amethyst Star yawned and was even thinking of nodding off when a student called for her. “Teacher? Can you help us with something?” Her eyes refocused as she turned her head to look at the student who had spoken. A light-red filly with big, lilac eyes and a messy mane in various shades of pink. “What is it?” Amethyst Star asked as she got out of her comfortable position and walked over to the filly’s group. She held up her textbook for Amethyst Star to see, pointing to a paragraph with her hoof. “This part. Where it says to try practicing the spell, turning your inner magical energy into fireworks that come from your horn. We understand the magical theory behind the spell but none of us can get it to work. Can you show us how?” “Oh,” Amethyst Star inwardly gulped. Outwardly she tried to seem like everything was fine. They wanted a demonstration, of course they did. That was only natural. Only fair. It was certainly helpful to see someone else perform the spell you were trying to do and then describe in detail how you did it. Yep. Amethyst Star had to agree there. So of course the question was; can she show them how? Can she? “Of course I can!” Amethyst Star grinned. “Class, watch me, I’m going to give you a firsthoof demonstration of how to perform this spell.” Her horn lit up as she flooded her magic into it. “So you can understand why after the fire at the University and the various other lawsuits that I’m forced to let you go and can never have you work with us again, correct?” Guru said to her as Amethyst Star sat in front of his desk, everyone else in the office this time paying very close attention to their conversation. “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t fire me sooner,” Amethyst Star shrugged. “Yes, yes, that was definitely something I should’ve done in hindsight. Especially considering all the trouble I’m in now as well,” Guru nodded. “Yeaaahhh, sorry about that,” the unicorn had the decency to look guilty, shifting in her chair and avoiding eye contact with her now former boss. This was probably the last time she would find herself inside Guru’s Internship. Failure after failure had led her to this outcome and she really had only her own lies and poor decision making to blame. She had repeatedly tried too hard and reached for something she shouldn’t be reaching for and now that was all blowing up in her face. Perhaps if she had taken things easier in the City of Opportunity she would have found something. Instead she tried to force an adventure, or quest, or encounter, not understanding that sometimes things just naturally happen. Especially to the special ponies she said she was no different from. “Furthermore, you’re not just being fired.” “Huh?” Amethyst Star’s head swung back to look directly at Guru. “What do you mean? Do I have to pay for that stuff or help fix things somehow?” “Certainly not, no one wants your help. If you could even call it that,” Guru grimaced. Amethyst Star frowned. “Oh, well forgive me for even asking.” Guru ignored her. “What’s happening with you is that I’ve been speaking with some city officials as well as several other people of influence in the city. And we’re banishing you from the City of Opportunity by tomorrow.” “What?!” The stallion nodded again to make sure she understood. “You’re being banished. You’ve caused too much trouble and have gained the ire of many people in the city, many important people. We’ve never had a case like this before where one pony has caused so many problems and gotten on the bad side of so many people in such a short amount of time. This is new for us too.” “So, what? You’re just going to throw me out of the city or something?” Amethyst Star asked in sheer disbelief. “Yes, that’s exactly what we’re doing. Unless you leave by your own will sometime before tomorrow morning we’ll have a constable toss you outside the city walls. And that will be that,” Guru shrugged. “B-But,” Amethyst Star sputtered. “You’re seriously just going to force me out into the desert again?” Her former boss bit his lip and scratched his scraggly beard, obviously uncomfortable with having to be the one to tell her about this. But it was only fair that he was put on the spot after enabling her for far longer than he should have. “It’s not like I feel good about it but you’ve kind of given us no choice. You’re a menace the likes of which this city hasn’t seen in years.” “Oh come on! That’s crazy!” The unicorn threw up her hooves. “It’s really not when you look at your list of deeds...” “Grr!” Amethyst Star’s face flushed in anger. Wasn’t this the City of Opportunity?! How could they throw her away like some trash and bar her from reentry? How could they deny her what the city promised to give everyone? It’s not fair! “So I can’t even appeal this or defend myself?” Guru minutely shook his his head. “No. Certainly not. It’s not up for debate, the decision has already been made.” “Well you guys are just a bunch of jerks then!” Amethyst Star angrily stood up from her chair, knocking it over in her haste. “And I don’t care what you say but I’m not letting you throw me out of this city. The other workers at the internship were looking pretty worried now too. All of them had heard of Amethyst Star and her misadventures in the city and they all wanted her out just the same as everybody else. It wasn’t even about her not obeying the edict, they were worried she might accidentally set fire to their office too or something along those lines. It was a reasonable thing to be afraid of when looking at the limited evidence they had. “Miss Amethyst Star, please-” Guru sighed. “Don’t make this difficult. You’re leaving one way or another, just spare everyone some grief and head out right now.” She sat down on the floor and defiantly crossed her forelegs in front of her chest. “You’re just gonna have to make me.” “WAAAAGH!” Amethyst Star yelled as she was literally thrown onto the ground right outside the entrance of the city by the large constable. “And stay out!” The constable yelled at her before wiping his hooves and walking back into the city. Amethyst Star coughed and groaned as she got up, covered in dirt and winded from the painful throw. She wiped some grime off her face and turned around, glaring at the city and the retreating constable in anger. This might be her most singularly miffed moment on her entire trip thus far. How dare they be so rude to someone just trying to help! “Fine!” She yelled back at him and the rest of the city. “You won’t be hearing from me again cause I never want to come back to this awful place! But you better watch out cause I travel a lot and I’m not gonna say a single good thing about your city to anyone else I meet! Hah! How’s that gonna do for your tourism business?!” And with that the unicorn from Ponyville turned and began her slow march around the city, still going into the northern parts of the Undiscovered West like she was before coming here and looking for whatever adventure and quests those unknown lands might contain. It would be a long day and probably a long several days, but she still hadn’t given up yet. Her adventure was not over yet. Not until she really did something worthy.