Sunlight filtered through the classroom windows, highlighting the chalk dust floating through the air as it danced in circles around each breath. A murmur of young voices filled the room, chatter like a fog settling in one's eyes as much as their ears. Fillies and colts laughing, gossiping, bragging, planning for the weekend.
Some were quiet, though. Not that they had no one to talk to, but that they were lost in their own thoughts, floating boats above the sea of noises, searching for shores on which to land and explore.
Short taps cut through the room, clearing the fog, emptying the ocean, and channeling the focus of everyone to the chalk board, next to which the teacher stood with a piece of chalk.
"Alright class. My name is Mrs. Founder, and welcome to Magic 101," she spoke in a pleasant tone.
A short murmuring responded before she cut through it again.
"Today, I would just like to-"
"Is your first name Lilly?" A student interrupted with curiosity.
Mrs. Founder chuckled lightly, nodding in the direction of the overeager filly. "It is. You know about me?"
The filly squirmed a bit in her seat under the newly imagined pressure to know a lot about the teacher. "I think you won the Starswirl Award last year, right?"
Mrs. Founder blushed a little. "Indeed, but I wouldn't say I deserved it. I pursue science for the sake of science, not for an award. I simply discovered something. I didn't invent anything."
"What did you do?" Another student spoke up.
Mrs. Founder tilted her head side to side as she pondered how to simplify the complicated subject of atomic magnetic moments for her students. "I found a way to control magnetism in metals using magic. It's useful for making certain kinds of machines like computers."
"OOOooohhh..." the class chimed together.
The teacher smiled at the interest of her students. And now that she had their attention... "Alright, let's get going on the subject of today. Since it's only the first day of class, I won't be giving out any homework today. I'll just be giving a nice little introduction to magic."
Moving over to the desk at the front of the room, she set the piece of chalk down on the front edge for all to see. "Now, some of the things we're going to go over in this class you may already know through practice, or perhaps your parents taught you, but for the most part, this is all going to be new.
"I believe that each of you has more magic than you think you do, and I'm going to prove it right now."
Looking out over the class, she sought a random victim to first embarrass then embolden. Finding a shy looking filly with red hair, she sprung. "Ruby, I want you to stand at the back of the class room and try to lift this chalk."
Ruby looked around as if pleading for her fellow students to defend her against the sudden spotlight, but all she met were expectant faces. Standing up, she headed to the back of the room and focused on the chalk.
"Are you sure? The chalk is so far away."
"Yes it is. The farther away something is, the harder it is to lift, but I'm certain you can lift it."
"I'll try," she said meekly. She lowered her head and lit her horn. A thin aura surrounded the piece of chalk at the front of the classroom.
Ruby strained her neck as the chalk began to wiggle around. Grunting, she lifted her head a little higher, trying to find a more comfortable lifting position. The chalk however, simply skid across the desk and fell onto the floor.
Ruby stopped, panting. "I-... I can't."
"That's okay. You tried, but I want you to try again, but this time I want you to do something different." Mrs. Founder lifted the chalk back onto the front of the desk. "This time, instead of pushing with your horn, push with your hooves. Try to feel the connection between your hooves and your horn, and then reach out to the chalk with it. When you get the chalk, push down on the connection with your hooves.
"Now try again."
Ruby tilted her head at the teacher but assumed the position. Closing her eyes, she began feeling around in herself and her horn began again to glow. She opened her eyes and focused on the chalk, wrapping it in magic. She crouched low then pushed down hard with her hooves, causing her to do a small hop.
The chalk shot straight up, ripping a hole in one of the foam ceiling tiles.
Many students gasped while others used words to express their surprise, but Ruby stood in awe with a huge smile on her face.
"See Ruby?" Mrs. Founder bubbled with a bright smile. "You're a lot more magical then you thought!"
"I did it! I did it!" Ruby cheered, looking around at the rest of the class.
"Yes you did. You may sit down now."
The mist of voices had returned, but this time it was bright and excited. A few items on students desks began floating short distances amazing the fillies and colts that lifted them. Mrs. Founder basked for a short time in the sense of discovery as she walked to the chalk board ready to put up some notes.
"Now, does anypony know how that happened?"
After the chatter died down a little, one of the students in the front spoke up. "The chalk was, like... uh... it pressed down on her hooves instead of on her horn, and because her hooves are stronger than her horn, the chalk went faster."
Mrs. Founder nodded. "That's right, Silk. Do you remember from physics that every action has an equal and opposite reaction?"
The class nodded and mumbled positively.
"That's right. So when you lift something with magic, it's going to push down as well. All magic does is change what it presses down on. A lot of you are used to trying to lift things with your horn because that's where magic comes from right?" A few more scattered nods showed that the class was hanging on her every word. "However, your horn doesn't have to do all the work. It's just there to connect things. We call these connections 'leylines'."
She began writing on the board 'Laws of Magic'.
"Now there are a few laws of magic that are good to know about," she said as she marked a number '1:' on the board.
"This first law is similar to the law that Neighton gave us in physics class. 'Every magical action requires the same energy or force as its non-magical form'." On the board, she wrote 'E|F = E|F' next to the '1:'. "When you're lifting with your horn, your horn has to take all the weight and force of lifting, which can be really bad for your neck. Your hooves are much better at holding weight. They hold all of you up all the time and sometimes more. By transferring the weight to your hooves, you're taking the weight off your horn and making it easier for you to lift things. Make sense?"
More nods.
"Perfect. That brings us to the next law of magic: 'The greater the distance from the pivot point, the more work will be required on the opposite side'." A neat '2: (Fd)1 = (Fd)2' appeared on the board. "This is exactly the same as levers. If you remember levers from physics class, the farther away something is on one side, the harder it is to lift from the other side unless you add more force, or put the pushing force farther away.
"When using magic, your horn is acting as the pivot point. So when you lift with your horn, your lifting really close to the pivot point and will have to use more strength. But when you lift with your hooves, you're lifting far away from the pivot point which makes it easier." As she spoke, she held up a meter stick, tilting it side to side while floating pieces of chalk on either end, increasing and decreasing the distances to show the difference. "See?"
While the nods quietly rolled, a student in the back lifted their hoof. "But what about other magic, like freezing spells and stuff?"
With a smile, Mrs. Founder responded. "Do you know how to do a freezing spell?"
"Well, no..."
"It's actually really easy when you know what temperature is. You see, when you were learning physics, you were learning magic as well. Can anypony tell me what temperature is?"
Ruby lifted her hoof, much ore confident than she was at the beginning of class. "It's the energy that's in the particles."
"That's right, Ruby. Temperature is just how much the particles are moving around. If the particles are moving really fast, then it's hot. If they're moving slow, then it's cold. A freezing or heating spell is just connecting leylines to the individual particles, or at least small groups of them, and either slowing them down, or moving them around really fast." A small flurry ball appeared next to her, then suddenly burst into flames before fizzing away.
"But because of these laws here," she pointed toward the board, "when you freeze something, you have to heat something else up, and when you heat something, you have to freeze something else. See?" She lifted one of her now frost covered hooves. "I used my hooves because they're very resistant to temperature."
The class began to mumble around excitedly. At this point, she could tell that she was losing attention to the imaginations of her students. She needed to call them back before their imaginations led them too far.
"Now class. These kinds of spells can be really dangerous and really difficult. They take a great deal of concentration and understanding, so don't go around trying to freeze things or catch things on fire because you might hurt yourself.
"Aww..." some of the students sighed.
"But not to worry, we will learn how to do these things. It will just take a lot of practice and a lot of attention from each of you.
"There's a third law of magic that I made up, but it's a law nonetheless. 'In order to perform a magical feat, you must understand the science behind it'."
A final line scrolled across the board under the other two laws: 'Knowledge = Power'
"So, the more physics, math, and science you learn, the more magic you can do!" She said with a smile.
Looking over the class, she could tell that the magic of the moment had dissipated for the most part. While some of the students looked excited to learn, others looked preemptively tired, as if they've become exhausted by the simple realization that there would be a lot of work in their future.
Overall, Mrs. Founder thought that the lesson went wonderfully.
Suddenly the bell rang, jolting the students out of their chairs, into their backpacks, and out the door.
"I'll see all of you tomorrow! Have a good day! Stay safe!" Mrs. Founder called out with a smile as the herd stampeded away.
Mrs. Founder felt a small poke on her foreleg and looked down to see Ruby standing in front of her with a smile.
"Thanks for helping me with magic, today," she said with a pleasant smile.
Mrs. Founder's heart fluttered a little bit. Ruby was just too cute, and she would clearly prove to be a very good student. Leaning down, she returned the smile. "You're very welcome, Ruby. If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask me okay?"
"Yes ma'am!" Ruby nodded confidently.
"Alright, it's time to head home now. You have a good day now! I'll see you tomorrow!"
"See you tomorrow!" Ruby called back as she made her way out the door.
Mrs. Founder sighed, taking her little thought boat and casting it off amidst the ocean fog of sounds and chatter spilling in from the hallway. Looking up at the hole in the ceiling, she smiled.
"Well," she said, "this is going to be an interesting adventure for sure."
The chalk dust floating through the air glowed a light orange as the sun set beyond the mountains in the distance. Mrs. Founder wondered how many of the floating specks were ceiling foam.