//------------------------------//
// Lesson 1: Magic sections 
// Story: The Basics of the Equestrian Magic 
// by MirroredHawk 
//------------------------------//

“As you all already know, Equestria is filled with various magic. We, unicorns, use it every day to manipulate various objects. Nopony is even able to imagine our world without it. During these lessons I am going to present you the nature of magic, its essence. You will learn everything what is known about it so far in order to function as a valuable part of pony society.

“All magic has the same nature, even though it appears otherwise on the first glance. Unicorn magic, Princesses' magic, magical creatures, places, phenomena... – all of it comes from the same source and is able to covert from one to another. But for convenience we divide it onto such categories:

1.  Creatures' magic.
2.  Environmental magic.
3.  Enchantments.

“As I already mentioned, a bond exists between these categories, but we are still unable to move magical energy between them without dramatic losses of energy into the undesired category or to the environment. Very rarely we're able to find a combination of actions which will allow us to do such manoeuvre.

“You might be wondering: ‘Can't we enchant objects?’ – and I'll answer... Yeah, it's an old practise, but you are not walking around with enchanted jewellery, aren't you? Here comes the problem. We face a dramatic loss of energy or a need for a complicated ritual. Various brightest minds and best mages of Equestria have tried, to no avail, to systemise enchantments, make it possible to foresee the ritual conditions. Even the unscrupulous and cruel Star Swirl wasn't able to do that, usually getting the conditions by coincidence.

“Now, with the categories out of the way we can elaborate on its kinds. You all, probably, know about the dark magic. Why we call it that way? Answer is simple: We need to experience negative feelings as a catalyst to certain spells. Or do some vicious or unacceptable in our society actions. I think I won't be breaking down all the possible ways to use it. The same applies for the other side, which we are more familiar with – white magic.

“Kinds of magic characterise what emotions and feelings, as well as moral attitude of our society are used for its spells. The line between them is blurred and nowadays we can stumble upon two different interpretations of that. In first case it is divided into black and white, as it was in the past. Second interpretation appeared in the Order of Belladonna and was warmly received in there. Magisters in Hedgewards decided to add grey magic, which doesn't corrupt its user, but demands negative feelings.

“Finally, getting kinds out of the way, we can talk about types. In order to raise an object, it is enough to concentrate on it and on a place where we want to move it. I'm sure that every unicorn, who at least once have seen the use of such spell will be able to recreate it. But not all spells can be used so easily. Some of them require certain combination of actions, thoughts, feelings. Different verbal charms, incantations and images help us to cast such spell, but our mind is the basis. Such phenomena appear in the other categories of magic as well. Enchanted objects can have instant effect, they can affect an object overtime, and also have a trigger to start working. Environmental magic is somehow similar to that. So, the magic types are simple and accumulative.

“Later these terms will cause a little confusion after going through the nature of magic, but they were decided in the Order of Belladonna in year 604. Simple magic can serve as a source for the release of accumulative magic. Our horn is the one of those sources of simple magic. Imagine it as a converter of simple energy into the magical. You, probably, know that young unicorn foals have uncontrollable bursts of magic from time to time. This happens because our horn is unable to hold large amounts of accumulated magical energy and their horn involuntarily disposes the surplus.”