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// (B'Tween) Magick Craft 
// Story: Blaze the Pony Tale 
// by Wolven5 
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Her ruler rapped against the chalkboard, pointing to the words she'd written as Twilight declared, "Starting today, we shall discuss the various 'Arts of Magic'. Today, let's start off with..."

She levitated a piece of chalk and wrote while saying, "Magick Craft."

Midnight sat at the desk Twilight always set up for him during their lessons, excited for whatever Twilight had in store for him, as she began, "This subject in magical study focuses on the art of spells and the general theory of magic, detailing how to wield magic in a variety of means and methods. 

"A popular way of casting spells is via Spellweaving."

"That sounds both cool and mysterious!" Midnight commented with an excited look in his eyes, almost bouncing on his seating haunches like a colt.

Twilight couldn't help but smile at her student's giddiness and explained, "It is, because Spellweaving, unlike conventional spell casting, is casting spells using rhyming words for an intended purpose. It's actually quite experimental, and like any experiment, it can fail, and sometimes it can backfire if done improperly. 

"Some woven spells caught on, and are used to this day, but some unicorns like to make up their own personal woven spells, for a sense of pride, accomplishment, and so and so. Anyway, Woven Spells have their ups and downs, one of their advantages being because they don't work the way traditional spells do, as a Woven Spell can be virtually anything. This makes them and their effects harder to identify, and more so to dispel or circumvent. 

"However overlaying Woven Spells can be unpredictably dangerous. It's a delicate process because the words must be intricate, each effect and intention of each spell working in concert with the rest without conflicting and igniting an unintended and/or unforeseeable effect."

"Whoa...!" Midnight wrapped his head around those details, respecting and appreciating the intricate and delicate nuances of magic to a much greater level. 

"Besides Spellweaving, Magick Craft also discusses the general theory of magic, such as experimenting with magic's potential in all kinds of fields and situations, the creation of new spells, and of course how to circumvent, dispel, or outright break spells, these sorts of spells being classified as Counterspells.

"Its sister-study is the art of making a subject disappear, such magical methods or spells called Vanishments. Both Counterspells and Vanishments fall under the subcategory of Abjuration."

Midnight couldn't stop taking notes but then asked, "But... where does a subject go when it's made to disappear by a Vanishment?"

Twilight smiled and cryptically answered, "Into nothing! That is to say, into everything!"

Midnight gave her a confused look, but she went on without explaining her answer.
"The opposite of Abjuration is Conjuration! It's making matter appear out of thin air. The art of Teleportation falls under both Abjuration and Conjuration, due to it working initially like a Vanishment and reappearing from Point-A to Point-B via Conjuration!"

"But how exactly does that work?" Midnight asked. "Could you use Teleporation to appear any where you liked? Any where in the world?"

"Yes and no," Twilight clarified, "Teleportation has its limits. Sometimes it requires a conduit, something to help bridge Point-A with Point-B, enabling the Teleporter to magically transport him or herself between the two points without physically occupying any of the space between them.  Such examples is magically creating doors that bridge two locations, such as entering a door on the ground level and exiting a door at the top of a tower! These doors are linked together, enabling instantaneous travel. This type of teleportion is called a Portal. Personal Teleportation like I do doesn't need a conduit but is usually limited to me only being able to teleport to a location I can see, and the greater the distance I teleport the more energy I use. Otherwise, if I can sufficiently visualize a destination in my mind, and if it's close enough by proximity, I don't need to see it.

"There have been documented cases where unicorns attempted to teleport distances so great it literally almost killed them! Otherwise, the teleportation failed and they didn't go anywhere, instead suffering magical feedback."

"I knew Teleportation was difficult, but I wasn't aware it could be so risky!"

"Keep what you've learned in mind," Twilight warned her student, "Our next session will be your first attempt to Teleport."

"You think I can do it?" Midnight asked. "I remember our last lesson about magical levels, and you said only Beta-level unicorns are capable of Conjuration."

"I've seen your magic at work, Midnight," Twilight assured him, "and felt your power. I think Teleportation is within your range of capabilities."

Midnight smiled, and then asked, "What else is there to know about Conjuration? Teleportation can't be all there is to it."

"It's not. There's also Replication," Twilight nodded, and she looked to the wooden bust of the horse head she had in the middle of the library, levitating it over to herself and setting it on the floor.  Midnight watched curiously as Twilight concentrated, her horn flaring, and the bust seemed to wobble as Twilight's mana coated it. 

The bust then glowed and appeared to tear itself apart and the light dimmed, revealing two busts, perfect copies of each other.

"Ooh...!" Midnight was intrigued and quickly wrote down 'Replication' and looked to Twilight, who smiled and explained. 

"Replication is another art that falls under Conjuration, the art of magically copying and creating a physical duplicate of some form of matter. But it's not all that impressive, really. The magic creates a duplicate of the subject but, as they say, nothing compares to the original."

"Why do you say that?" Midnight asked.

Twilight answered by gently tipping one of the busts over and it fell, quickly cracking with bits of sawdust-like particles leaking from the cracks. 
"A Replica can look like a perfect copy, but reflects poorly on a subject's physical properties. If I Replicated a gemstone, it would be flawed and next-to-worthless compared to the real deal."

"So... Replication is good for fooling someony with a copy and not much else?" Midnight pondered.

"Well, you could expend more magic in attempt to make a Replica more..." Twilight paused, trying to find the right words, "authentic? Well, not authentic. But having a greater knowledge of the subject you with to Replicate helps in pulling off a more convincing copy."

"That makes sense," Midnight made sure to jot that down.

"Another art of Conjuration is Animation," Twilight wrote the word on the blackboard. "It's to imbue an inanimate object with a facade of the spark of life. To, more-or-less, animate an object to behave in ways similar to a living creature, sentient or otherwise."

"So... you could bring that bust to life?" Midnight asked.

"Not truly," Twilight clarified, "Remember, the spark of life Animation gives to an object is a facade, an imitation, of the real thing. An animated object, no matter how alive it appears to be or however it behaves, is not and can never really be a living thing." 

"So then, you could make the bust move and even talk, give it a personality, but it's never really alive," Midnight gathered.

"Correct," Twilight nodded. "Now, let's put lectures aside and start some practicing, but before that, can you tell me what a Cantrip is?"

Smiling as he remembered, Midnight answered, "A Cantrip is a very basic and simple spell that any unicorn can cast. Such spells are for small things like... opening a window, magically sticking papers or other objects that weigh next-to-nothing to the walls, making a quick-and-easy lock on something that any unicorn can break or any earth pony or pegasus can forcibly open, and they are also such easy spells they use virtually no energy at all in casting them. It's why even Delta unicorns can use so many of them, often only having trouble with cantrips that don't relate to their special talents."

"That is also correct," Twilight smiled before looking to a closet, and her mana opened it, levitating out a case, and a nearby table scooted over. She set the case on the table, opened it, and brought out an assortment of small objects, such as a padlock, a rope with a knot in it, a pane of glass with a scratch on it, and other such things. 
"Let's go over what cantrips you've learned, and see which of these objects you are able to use them on."

Midnight smiled and his horn flared with his turquoise mana as he got started.