Winter watched as the adults moved quickly, with movements that not only contained the urgency of the situation, but the smoothness of one well practiced in making glyphs. With the mare’s attention off of the group, they had all devolved back into a low din of hushed whispers. Whispers that were filled with worry and fear, only kept from escalating from the tenseness in the air.
A soft rumble made every occupant of the room stop for a moment, the same wave of pressure from earlier pulsing through the cave system once more, causing some younger foals to panic, while the adults began to pick up their pace. He soon found himself next to an older student with an off white coat, tapping one of her hooves out of nervousness, biting on her lip. Her wings twitched a bit as he got closer, noticing she seemed to be mumbling a bit to herself. He softly poked her leg to try to get her attention. She jumped a bit as her head whipped towards him in surprise, her deep purple eyes locking with his as she took a deep breath to calm down from being startled. “D-Did you need something?” She asked, shaking her head to shift her soft pink ponytail back into place.
Winter shifted a bit. “You looked like something was bothering you… I wanted to check to see if you were okay.” He looked up at her as she gave him a soft smile.
“Well… we’re awfully close to a leyline, and high powered spells like this can easily cause disruptions to the local magic flow even if they’re casted perfectly. But at the same time, they catalyze those same spells as there’s more abundant residual magic in the area to draw from. Of course, all of this depends on the method of casting they decide to use in the end.” She stopped explaining after a moment, realizing that Winter probably hadn’t reached some of the advanced lessons quite yet. “Sorry, I’m Mauve Skies.”
Shaking his head out of the slight sudden information overload, Winter refocused on her. “I’m Winter Blast, though it sounds like you know a lot about magic.”
Mauve let out a small chuckle as she smiled more. “Regardless of tribe, there are some fundamentals of magic that should be known if you want to really want to understand how to more efficiently use your magic. Even though a leyline is in the ground it affects everything around it.” she continued, seemingly forgetting that he was behind her in studies, and continued on, despite having been tuned out by the young unicorn.
He gave himself a bit of space from her as she seemed to get more animated on what sounded to him like an impassioned recital from a textbook, figuring she would eventually snap out of it on her own. He slowly inched his way towards the ponies that seemed to be finishing up on their portions of the glyph and moving around to make double check neighbors work to make sure everything flowed smoothly together.
He did the only thing he could think of doing, the bane of any foal on the best of days, the dreaded sit and wait. He watched materials get passed, tried to listen in to the hushed whispers as they made calculations. It was all a lot to take in as time seemed to pass slowly. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there until the mare from earlier came back and demanded their attention with another shout, her patience obviously short.
“Well now that nearly everything is ready, let me explain how this will work. You will all separate into smaller groups. I don’t really care how you do it. No more than five of you. Someone will come get your group and take you to the center of the glyph. You’ll feel a tug when it activates. Do not fight it. You may feel a few lurches, you may not, it's hard for us to say. Just be calm.” And with that, she turned back around to ensure final preparations continued smoothly as the foals began to split up into small groups.
Mauve poked him, breaking his focus. He turned and looked towards her, noticing two others behind her. “Why don’t you join us Winter? Doesn’t look like you have a group yet anyways.” She smiled down at him as he decided.
After a few moments of hesitation, Winter nodded his head. “Okay… Think everyone else will be fine?” He was worried about those that were outside the large schoolhouse, and it showed on his features.
Mauve nodded and smiled. “I’m sure everyone is just fine and that they’ll be back with us soon. Besides, it looks like they’re about to start sending groups out.”
Winter turned to look back at the giant array, wondering how long it would take for them to all be moved through the array as the first few groups were beginning to form a line. Their group eventually fell into the line as they looked around, wondering where they would wind up as every few minutes, the sharp crack of teleportation would ring out in quick succession as the groups were moved to a location unknown to them.
“Don’t be nervous. It’ll all work out fine.” The mare that directed the foals walked up to them. “Don’t act surprised, this kind of thing makes most ponies nervous. I figured a small reminder that everyone else has gone through safely and will be waiting.” She did her best to give her a reassuring smile before walking down the line as yet another crack of magic sounded.
Winter took a deep breath as they closed in and moved to the center of the circle, taking a deep breath as the magic slowly began to pull at him, and then with a flash, the small group was gone in another loud crack of magic.