The Joker said to the Thief

by Spell Bound

Chapter 3

Levitating in a turquoise aura, the chalk quickly scrawled on the chalk board as Spell Bound talked. “Good Morning Class. I am Spell Bound, and I shall be your teacher for this course.” He looked over the class. Many were seniors; about the age he had been when he started the course. A few were advanced students, ponies in the younger years who progressed quicker than their counter parts. Inwardly he frowned; it could be a problem seeing as students like them would not be happy with the basic text books he could suggest from the Library. Still, that would be a bridge to cross later. “And this Course is Nature Magic, both practical and theory, mainly practical as I bet many of you would like a hoof’s on approach. But don’t be fooled, there is still plenty of Theory and you will have to know both if you want to pass. Now, who knows the basic idea of Nature Magic?”

A few hooves were raised into the air as he asked the question. He looked across the class and chose one of the older students. She was a light blue unicorn mare with her long strawberry blonde mane tied up in a pun. A few strands that had escaped had pink highlights, and her eyes were a deep purple. “Sir, the basic idea of Nature Magic is sometimes considered a branch of white magic. It can be used to grow and manipulate general plant life at a basic level, while at an advanced level it can be used to create plant life where there was none, and to decay other plant life and have a finer manipulation of it. It is said that those who are at the mastery level can manipulate the plants so they are like an extension of themselves.” Spell smiled at the student and nodded.

“Gold star Miss…” He consulted his register which had pictures next to each name. “Mystic Aura. Well done. But there are other applications to it. Within Nature Magic lies the path to alchemy, and healing magic. As you said, it is indeed a branch of white magic, much like Pyromancy is a branch of Dark Magic. Do not let the names fool you though. White Magic can still be used for ill. It is possible to use Nature Magic as an offensive magic, but I will not be teaching you that. I’m not training soldiers, I’m teaching students.” For the next 45 minutes he talked, asked questions and scribbled notes on the chalk board. Many of them consisted of what they would be covering over the year.

“Right, before I let you all go; are there any questions?” He was slightly surprised when quite a few of hooves went into the air. “Well then, a curious lot aren’t you? Well that’s good. Very well, first question from you Mister Bass Fortune.” Bass was a tall skinny colt with a dark maroon coat. His hair was cut similarly to the famous DJ Pon3, except it was a dark purple outer layer and a light turquoise inner layer. His eyes were a dark penetrating blue. “Sir, are you a former student?”

Spell Bound smiled. He liked this class very much; they would be enjoyable to teach. “Yes Bass, I was a student here. I come from a local orphanage and my carer enrolled me and I was allowed into the practical examination, which I thankfully passed. Yes Miss Steam Amethyst.” Steam was one of the lower class students who were advanced enough to be moved up. Her eyes were very green, and her mane was slightly messy and purple. Her coat was sky blue. “Yes, sir. Um..are you the Spell Bound who wrote the book Nature Magic: The practitioner’s guidebook and The many uses of Poison Joke?”

There was a slight murmur around the room, and Spell stood slightly surprised. He hadn’t expected anyone that young to bother reading his books. He felt proud almost and quickly smiled at the young filly. “Indeed I am. I wrote those two and a few others entailing the uses and theories of Nature Magic. You are all very welcome to check them out of the Canterlot Library, as well as the Collective text books about the subject. Well, I think that’s all the time I have for today. All of you off to your next lecture or break or whatever you young colts get up to with your free time now days. Just don’t burn down the big tree in the park. The grounds keeper might think it was me. Again.” He smiled in remembrance of when he accidentally set the big oak tree on fire while demonstrating what he had learned in his Pyromancy course to Cotton Needle. Needless to say, the grounds keeper was not happy with the young colt.

He waited for all his students to file out before wiping the board of all its notes and packing away his own personal notes and books. With his own personal effects tidied up, he left the room, locking it behind him so no students would be tempted to play in there during a free study period. As he walked through the halls into the teacher’s lounge. Once there his already present smile widened even more as he saw his old Pyromancy teacher. “Flaring Inkwell! Well I never thought I’d see you in this school again!” The pony turned to face his former student and returned the wide smile.

“I could say the same thing about you, you rascal! I thought they’d never let you back in after that tree incident. Burnt the whole thing to the ground! The grounds keeper was demanding your expulsion.” Both of them laughed at this.

“Well, he was always demanding some student’s expulsion for some accidental slight.” Spell said with a smile. He gave his old teacher a hug giving him a pat on the back, before moving away slightly. “So, what ever happened to retiring?” Flaring brushed a hoof through his mane. It was a fiery red, though years of being around exploding spells and experiments had left a permanent soot layer in his mane, which only helped add to the fiery and professor look. His coat was a darker red, and his eyes blue as water. He chuckled at Spell’s question.

“Well I was about to, but then I heard they were bringing your sorry flank in as a teacher, so I just had to stick around a bit longer.” They both laughed once more a talked with each other. Spell saw quite a few familiar faces amongst the staff in the lounge. A few were old teachers while others were fellow students who had also become members of staff. After a while though both teachers had to go. Flaring to teach a new class about the health and safety rules about Pyromancy, and Spell to head home. He was done for the day, and needed to regroup his notes for the next lesson as well as get some lunch.

Later in the day

Spell sat in his room eating some more of the fudge he had bought the day before, looking over his calendar. He marked down to visit the Orphanage in which he had grown up in three days. He figured it would be best to wait till after the royal wedding before visiting his ‘family’. As soon as he had this thought he smacked himself in the head slightly, only just figuring out why there was so much added security and all the preparations in the castle. “God Spell, for a smart pony, you can be a real idiot.” He said aloud to himself before shaking his head with a sigh. He finished up planning his week before calling it a day. Luna’s night was already rising and he felt tired.

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Night was in its early hours, and on a summer’s evening, shops would still be open and ponies would be walking the streets. In one such shop, the Bearers of Harmony sat around talking about the wedding preparations while enjoying their drinks. That is, until Twilight walked up and plonked her drink on the table. “I can guess what you’re all thinking.” She said in a sing song voice. “Cadence is the absolute worst bride to be ever!” Everyone else at the table looked at her kind of shocked, as if she had just grown and extra horn out of her left nostril. Spike looked at her shocked before lifting up a tiny porcelain Cadence and said in a high pitched voice “Who? Me?”

“Spike!” Applejack said sternly. “That goes on the cake!” Spike looked ashamed and put the figure on the table in front of him and AJ, before chuckling nervously. Twilight at this time was drinking from her milkshake. “Twilight whatever are you talking about?” Rarity asked before smiling happily at her. “Cadence is an absolute gem!” Twilight stopped drinking and pushed the drink away looking sternly at her friend.

“Rarity, she was so demanding!” Rarity simply rolled her eyes and waved this away. “Well of course she was. Why shouldn’t she expect the very best on her wedding day?” Twilight pulled a quizzical face that had traces of confusion and anger mixed in with it, before turning to AJ. “Applejack, did you know after she told you how much she just ‘love love loved’ your hors d’ouvres she just threw them in the trash?”

Applejack looked at Twilight dumbfounded for a brief second before smiling. “Ah she was probably just spare my feelings.” She then went back to drinking her drink. “No, was just being fake and totally insincere!” Twilight said waving her arms around. Everyone at the table fell silent looking around slight confused and uncomfortable. Fluttershy after a few seconds raised her hoof as she spoke.

“She did raise her voice at one my birds during rehearsal.”

“See! Rude!” Twilight said triumphantly as she crossed her hoofs and nodded to herself.

“But he was singing really off key.” Fluttershy finished, raising up her hoof again with a bird on it, who warbled off key, loudly and horribly. Everypony at the table cringed and covered their ears. Twilight turned to her pink bubbly friend looking for support. “Pinkie Pie, you had to have noticed how Cadence treated-” she stopped midsentence at seeing Pinkie and Spike playing with porcelain replicas of Cadence and Shining, making them kiss each other while making kissy sounds and giggling. “Never mind.” Twilight said rolling her eyes.

“Well Rainbow Dash, you’re with me right?” She asked as she stood up. Rainbow answered by flexing her arm and stretching her wings before answering. “Sorry Twi, been too busy prepping for my Sonic Rainboom to pay much attention to the brides bad attitude.” Twilight, who had returned to sipping her drink slammed it down back onto the table and growled in annoyance. Rarity quickly placed a reassuring hoof on Twilights arm. “The princess is about to get married, I’m sure any negative behaviour she might be displaying is simply the result of nerves.”

Twilight brushed Rarity’s hoof off of her as she stood up once more growing more frustrated by the minute. She slammed her hoof down on the table, causing her drink to jump as she spook. “And I’m it’s the result of her being an awful pony who doesn’t deserve to even know Shining Armour let alone marry him!” Her friends stared at her once more before Applejack spoke up. “Think maybe you’re being just a tiny bit possessive of your brother?” The other girls and Spike at the table nodded with an hmm-mh sound.

“I am not being possessive! And I am not taking it out on Cadence! You’re all just too caught up in your wedding planning to notice that maybe there shouldn’t even be a wedding.” She finished her sentence with slamming her hoof down on the table knocking all the drinks over and breaking a few of the glasses. Finished with her rant, she turned and stormed off away from her friends, leaving them all in a confused state.

Author's Note:

What's this? Two updates in one day? I know! Crazy! Today was just a good writing day. Words came fairly easily. Now, I am going to sleep. Because it's 12:37am here and I am tired! I hope you enjoy. Soon things shall be gooood

Comments

[Zeydaan]

Nice, although a few spelling areas, I'm looking forward to seeing where this is going!