Rules of Magic

[Deleted]

Star Swirl nodded slowly, looking at the young human without expression. While being limited to single type of magic had plenty of drawbacks, a master of fire was not to be underestimated. Not even by themselves, as was common.

"Whatever the case may be, there is still much I can teach you," he said, before turning with a faint jingle of bells, and striding back to his desk. Thick eyebrows furrowed as he turned to face his class, sweeping across them all, pausing to gaze into their eyes one by one, a challenging look on his face.

"I won't waste my time trying to teach anypony who can't keep up with my class. Many of the spells you are going to learn here can be dangerous to those who lack the power to control them. That being said, no student of mine won't be able to defend themselves if I have anything to say about it," he stated, a faint glow appearing in his eyes as a white aura surrounded his horn.

"Defend yourselves!" he commanded, firing four beams of brilliant white magic, leveled to deliver a mild, burning pain if they connected with flesh, at his students. He watched them, curious to see how they would protect themselves against his assault. He fully expected they would be caught by surprise, but the sooner they got used to reacting quickly, the better. A single second could mean the difference between success and failure, when dealing with some of the spells he intended to teach them.

[Twilight Sparkle]

As beams were fired, Twilight gave a start and her horn began to glow brilliantly. It wasn't long before the mare had summoned a protective shield much like Shining Armor could. It was a bubble going all around her, and not nearly as big as the one she had once used to keep the Cutie Mark Crusaders out of the library or the shield Shining Armor had used to protect Canterlot, but it was a shield. She could protect herself quite easily, it seemed. The beam fired at her bounced off of her shield and back from wince it came.

"Protection spells... Check," Twilight murmured. She could only hope the others around her had been able to protect themselves too.

[Kevin Price]

Starswirl MIGHT have been surprised when he saw the agility in Gaffer's moves. A frequent target of bullying before AND after his cutie mark appeared, Gaffer had mastered the art of protecting himself. His ears flicked up as he watched the unicorn speak, eyes narrowing as he watched the male move subtly. Gaffer'd spent his foal-hood playing with toy unicorns and pretending he was Starswirl the bearded among his friends. Lazy unicorn bullies would use a similar spell to hurt him, paralyze his or even tickle him when they were feeling super lazy. He'd developed a spell alongside Shining Armor to protect 8-Bit & Poindexter, as the Pegasus and earth pony couldn't do it themselves.

A green echo of magic flashed out of his horn and put of a very medeivil and nerdy looking shield in front of himself to get the magic to bounce off of it and protect his flank.

[Trixie]

Quickly, Trixie thought of a spell, her horn glowed purple and a bubble appeared around her, making the magic disappear. "Too easy." she said with a smile and turned her gaze to the human with pink hair and strange mark on his shoulder. What would he do? 'Show me how unique you can be fire-wielding human.' she thought, anyone that was weak did not deserve to be in HER circle.

---
Natsu waited until the light came closer to him before throwing a wall of fire in front of him. He wanted to catch the light, and show the other students how strong he could be. But he knew that the teacher would be angry with him, the pink haired wizard didn't want to be on a teacher's bad list...at least not yet. He gave the unicorn with blue horn a confident smirk as if to say ha, i am better than you Trixie.'

[Deleted]

Star Swirl's expression didn't change as his students all blocked or deflected his attack. The deflected blast simply faded from existence as it approached him. Their reaction times were adequate enough for him, at least right now. And their were flaws in each of the spells they conjured.

"Adequate," he stated, eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he saw the look that passed between Trixie and Natsu. They would have to be watched. A healthy rivalry was one thing, and not necessarily a bad one. But clashing egos was another thing entirely.

"The next time I test your reactions, I want to see different forms of protection. An attack can be altered, and the same defense won't protect you against everything," he stated. "And now, so I have some idea of just where to start, what is the single greatest magical feat each one of you has performed? And do not attempt to lie to me, or to downplay your accomplishments. The simple truth, nothing more, nothing less, is what I want."

His stern gaze swept across them all, eyes boring into theirs one after another, lingering briefly. He could sense, vaguely, how much potential power they might have, but potential was different from reality. After a moment, he added, "And I do not mean what you have accomplished while wielding the Elements of Harmony."

[Natsu]

Natsu had to think about the magic. There were so many things he could think of. The time he stopped the evil guild from releasing the demon Lullaby, and then stopping that demon. Or would it have to be the time that he stopped Deliora, or breaking the magic spell on the moon? He frowned, and struggled to think of a good one. All of them showed how great he was. Happy would certainly know his best magic.

---
Trixie almost wanted to bring up the Ursa Major, however with Twilight in the class, she knew that the purple unicorn would say straight out it was a lie. She couldn't afford that. The teacher seemed to be testing their capability to think off the top of their heads. No wonder why he was the best. Her purple eyes furrowed in frustration as she thought about her magic skills and their importance.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Greatest feat without the Elements? Twilight had to wrack her brain for a few long moments while she tried to think of something. Anything! What had she done that was of any great importance without the Elements? Her teleporting spell might have counted, but at the same time she had her doubts on that much. What about how she had used it to keep the Parasprites from eating all the food in Ponyville? ...No, that had backfired on her and the creatures had resorted to eating everything else. Time travel? While it had been quite the feat, Twilight had only been able to stay back in time for a very limited period and hadn't even been able to deliver her message to her past self. The want it, need it spell? Definitely not. That had backfired even worse than the Parasprite spell. There also was the spell she'd used to restore her friends' memories after Discord had gotten to them.

Finally, though, Twilight thought of something she thought had been particularly impressive.

"Well, I did use my magic once to calm an Ursa Minor. I was able to lull it to sleep and sent it back to the cave it had come from," Twilight said. The spells had taken a lot out of her, and at the time she'd been afraid of what her friends would think after they had reacted so badly to Trixie showing off. Now she knew better.

[Trixie]

Trixie frowned, now she really couldn't bring up the Ursa Major story. She frowned thinking of things she could use as an example. "Trixie supposes that that her best magical feat is when she learned how to make fireworks for crowds." she said. "It might not be impressive to me, but learning it as a filly was quite a feat for me." she was very proud of it.

---
Natsu almost wanted to smack the blue unicorn. "What's an Ursa Minor?" he asked the purple unicorn. "Is it like a giant monster?" His eyes went wide at the thought of the young unicorn defeating a monster. "As for me, my greatest feat, I think would have to be the time I helped defeat an ancient demon who could send the world into eternal sleep."