The Basics of the Equestrian Magic

by MirroredHawk

Lesson 13: School of Martial Arts

“Let's continue with combat magic. These spells are the most spectacular and dangerous ones. This school studies the control over spells and their use in combat. For example, elemental magic becomes a deadly weapon in hooves of a unicorn wielding both schools. Ice projectiles, fire storm or whirlwind, evaporating every living being on its way... Especially spectacular are magic rays, which mages sent to each other in order to see the opponent's reaction, to study their opponent and pick tactics against him.

“Starting from the simple sparkles for beginners, which can harm only small mouse, unicorn starts his long way, which leads him to the spells, able to erase a small village. But even the deadliest spells are nothing in comparison to the danger awaiting you during the creation of new ones. Any experiment can end with the self-immolation or something way worse than that. One my acquaintance was trying to make an earthquake spell less demanding, he ended up falling into the created crack, burying himself alive. Nopony else dared to continue his studies, since the original spell of an earthquake comes from the dark side of magic and it needs some horrible feelings and, basically, experience to be able to cast that.

“Yeah, martial arts are at the border with the dark magic. Overtime unicorns were able to find many ways to avoid bad and sinister feelings while casting these spells. But all researchers of combat spells usually have to break the rules and use the dark magic for the sole purpose to make the spell less, let's say, "evil". For example, Princess Luna contributed a lot to the studies of combat spells, she has found many unexpected ways to use powerful and harmful spells without the need to feel negative emotions. For the purpose of being clearer, usage of the magical weapons, which is used very rarely nowadays, earlier needed genuine anger for the cast, thinking about striking your opponent or victim with it. Princess Luna found the other way. This a bit resonates with the school of protection. You need to think of a weapon for the practise, for disarming your opponent, for your or the other's protection... Any motivation will do, just the casting itself is done in a bit different way.

“This way this school has many different ways of casting the same spells with a bit different side-effects. School of martial arts is a must for the unicorn called to service, so be ready for studying it... especially in our disturbing times.”