The Basics of the Equestrian Magic

by MirroredHawk

Lesson 10: School of Illusions

“Illusions! First, what comes to mind are various magical shows, copies of yourself and similar stuff. Being honest, there is much more to the school of illusions than this. Different tricks are but a small part of it. Stunning spells, sedation, object detection, mind manipulation, they all are a part of this school.

“Of course, grandmaster spells of the school of illusions are magnificent, like shapeshifting or age changing, but it requires terrifying amount of practise and studying. Changelings, obviously stand out in the mastering this school. It is way easier for them than for us to study and use illusion spells. If you will visit Equestrian South-West then you will surely stumble upon a changeling-illusionist at least once.

“Great illusionists are Changeling Queen – Chrysalis and King Sombra. Again, we are talking about exceptional cases. There are some grandmaster unicorn-illusionists around, but they are called that way since there are no true grandmaster unicorn-illusionists left.

“Simple illusions are pretty easy.” Fire's horn lit up and his copy appeared to his side, which bowed to the students and disappeared. “But it's hard to control it over large amount of time. Mages-anaesthesiologists can tell you that. So, bear in mind, studying this school includes many tries without getting any result. But mastering it is highly valued in the Equestrian society.

“This school is often combined with others: martial arts, healing, protection. Unicorn, wielding illusion spells is an irreplaceable specialist, be it anaesthesiologist, battle mage or combat engineer. And yeah, this school is often used for various performances, but it's mostly just a waste of its potential.”