//------------------------------//
// Lesson 8: School of Manipulation 
// Story: The Basics of the Equestrian Magic 
// by MirroredHawk 
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“School of manipulation – the first school that is introduced to the unicorn. Its name is pretty ambiguous. It includes not only the manipulations with objects but with time and distance as well. The simplest spell of this school is the manipulative levitation, of course. Even the feathers that you use for writing my words are held by this very spell. But it's not the only simple spell in this school. There are some transitional-difficulty ones, such as teleportation of an object, which will require some training but it will soon appear to be very convenient spell to use. After learning this spell, you can try to learn teleportation, which jumps straight to the specialist level. Later the special levitation spell for lifting heavy objects. Yeah, you really shouldn't try to lift heavy objects with the manipulative levitation through force, because you risk to end up in a hospital otherwise. There is a special spell for lifting heavy stuff that won't put you at the risk.

“If we will dive deeper into this subject then we will find out, that manipulative levitation puts the weight of the object on you from the side opposite to the direction you try to move the object. From the physical perspective the object stays on its place and moves from side to side, but its weight affects you directly. Special levitation spell creates a barrier compensating the weight affecting you. Its power isn't limitless though, it only supports you. I assure you that if you will try to lift the train, you'll feel that.

“Another interesting spell is the transformation of an object into something else. It is possible to do only with somehow enchanted object, so it requires knowledge of the enchantments or environmental magic. There is a special study plan which includes transformation and some parts of enchantment school for the unicorns, who decided to study the transformation. There is an easier spell though. Transmutation allows you to change the metal. For example, turn iron into gold. Even though it is simpler than transformation it's still very hard to master, and you still are unable to escape from the enchantment school.

“I often get a question, is it possible to lift yourself? Well, let me try.”

Light-brown pastel-dotted unicorn stood up in the centre of the auditorium. His horn illuminated with the green light and his rear-legs suddenly lift up in the air. Poor lecturer barely managed to lift his head in order not to hit the floor with his snout. Some students laughed.

“Professor Sense, are you alright?” asked some student.

Fire Sense slowly pulled his legs down on the floor, managing to stand up on four hooves once again.
“Yeah, I'm fine,” he answered.

“I tried to lift myself. Don't get me wrong, it is possible. I manage sometimes to make it right, it's not the case of lifting yourself, the problem comes from controlling it. It's enough to get distracted for a moment from the spell and you will lose balance. Lifting yourself up involves some very weird manipulations as, for example, controlling the space around you in order to support your movement. There are so many small details that it's very hard to pay attention to everything. So, pegasi or thestral wings are still the only natural way to get yourself up in the air. For the record, I'm already a master of the manipulative magic, but this specific spell is still too hard for me to get right.

“Let's continue. Grandmaster spells of freezing time and changing age are also part of manipulative magic. But only several unicorns on all of Equus are really able to use them. The only unicorn grandmaster of this school is the magister of the Order of Belladonna. Also, Princess Luna and Cadance can be considered grandmasters of the school of manipulation, but they are alicorns, which makes matters a bit more complicated.”