Magic Training: Placement Test [open]

[Silvern Gleam]

(( Time to really start it. Everypony wanting to participate, please do so, even if you didn't show up in the drafting thread. Only requirement is that your char is supportive towards the rebellion.

Students I already know about are Steel Strike and Scintillance. Hark is invited as well, but not required. Apart from that there are some NPCs, which I assume are played by Steel since he was the one to mention them the first time^^

I'll proceed with this thread when everypony mentioned is present, until then others can join, after that the group won't be at the HQ anymore.))

Year 4, November 18, approaching 2 pm

Silvern Gleam had been present at the HQ since early morning again to catch possible students, but now the time for the first lesson was approaching. Though maybe lesson wasn't the right word. The target today was to find out what each of her students was already capable of, and which class they would have to go in. She had told them to show up at two pm, and a few unicorns were already present and waiting, but there were still some missing, and still a few minutes to go. Along with time and date she had told everypony to preserve their energy, today would be mentally exhausting for most of them. Silently Sil wondered if she would encounter any surprises in her students' skills, but she already had exceptional ability in Scintillance and another one would already be a statistical outbreak. Thinking of Scintillance... He better showed up in time today, he was the only one actually obliged by Sil to take part in this training if he wanted to keep his new job. While she waited she idle chatted with whoever was already present.

[Lance]

...which just happened to be the very pony Silvern was kinda needing to show up on time today. Funny how that works. "So, what's on today's menu? I mean, if I'm going to be assisting you, it would be pretty dandy to know what exactly I'm doing here." Lance was up and at his cheery self.

[Silvern Gleam]

Silvern smiled when she noticed her assistant arriving. Normally I would need you to demonstrate spells, but for today you won't have much to do, besides what everypony else will be doing, she answered him almost cheerfully. Though it would be hard work for her students, she had an exciting time ahead of her. I have a lot of levitation planned for today, I think everypony knows that.

[Civilian Ponies]

A group of several ponies had just entered the area, of a variety of colors, and shapes. Some big, some small, some light, some dark, all rebellion members. A particularly large unicorn was leading the bunch, and walked up to Silvern as the group dispersed into the crowd. "Hiya There. Was just giving the courtesy of rounding up some of the students for your class, Ms.Silvern." he said, a deep, and slight Manehattan accent. He was a Dark Green unicorn, with a much lighter mane. "Name's Green Tea, though my ring name is 'Knock Block Rock' " he said, with a slight bow to Silvern.

[Silvern Gleam]

Hello everypony, Sil greeted the new arrivals and gave a friendly nod to Green Tea. Counting through the group, she noticed that they weren't complete yet, and decided to get curious about Green Tea. Which kind of combat sport is that you do? Anything involving magic?

[Civilian Ponies]

Green put a hoof behind his head. "Well, Imma usually fightin' in da boxing ring, and they dont allow Magic. That's sorta why I'm here, get my magical ability up, and be physically and mentally more capable ya know?"

[Silvern Gleam]

You're at the right place then, Sil answered smilingly. You should probably visit the combat class as well, if you're not already planning on it. Sil did her equivalent of a look around, in search for one particular student. Now, where is Steel Strike?

[Steel Strike]

"Here I am!" He said just walking in. "Sorry about that. Business to tend to and such." He said with a nod. "So, what's the agenda for today Silvern?" He asked looking to the group of unicorns.

[Silvern Gleam]

Hello, Steel! I'll answer that when we're at the training ground. And I think we're complete now, Silvern answered, and stood up to full height. Being relatively tall, she was in a good position to talk over the group. Her eyes wandered uselessly over the crowd. Everypony here for the magic training, welcome! As most of you already know, I'm Silvern Gleam, your teacher for the spell casting lessons. I hope you're all full on magic and don't need to cast a lot in the evening, because today will be quite exhausting. If anypony is low on power, please tell me in advance so I can take it into account. For now, please follow me! She took up her saddlebags and began leading them outside, out of the inhabited areas.

[Civilian Ponies]

As Sil announced this 4 unicorns raised their hooves, implying they were low on magical power. One of them being Green Tea. The group followed the mare to the training grounds.

[Silvern Gleam]

Only barely Sil noticed Green Teen raising his hoof, and stopped for a moment. One thing: I know it doesn't always seem like it, but I am blind. I don't necessarily notice you raising your hoof, so please speak up if you want my attention.
After Sil got the names of the other three unicorns, she led the group to the training ground, walking as if she didn't exactly know where she was stepping as she always did in public. An old habit that she would possibly lose very soon, since she was already going to make her ability publically known in the Undermarket.

The training ground was - of course - another tunnel, a dead end nopony would traverse through and that wasn't permanently inhabited because there was no source of fresh water nearby. But at least it was dry and more than large enough for the group to practice spells. Torches provided a light that everypony living in the undermarket was used to - not great, but it was possible to see.
In one half of the tunnel stood several poles of various sizes, all with a large ring on top, forming a course for something to follow. Nex to one of the poles lay some iron balls of different sizes. The smallest was surely easy to handle by levitation, the biggest one however looked like none of the present unicorns could bring it through the course successfully.

Turning around to her students, Sil called them to attention again. This is were we'll always be. The next time you can directly come here instead of going to the HQ first, but if you're not sure if you remember the way already, I will be at the HQ anyway to lead new students here.

Today's goal is to find out what each of you is already capable of and place you accordingly into the basic or advanced class. The only spells needed are levitation and the most complicated spell you can cast, whatever it may be.

Before we start I should tell you a bit about myself and especially my special talent. I'm blind, but as compensation I perceive my environment through magic sight, which often only gives me a crude picture of the physical world, but a very accurate one of the magical counterpart. That means that I'll have a direct look at your magical work. That makes finding your mistakes and possible points of improvement relatively simple, so I expect that this training will pay out for you pretty fast.

Now, let's start. As a first step, I need you to cast the most complex spell you can cast at the moment, at the lowest power level possible. If your most complex spell happens to need most of your power, pick the first one that doesn't unreasonably strain you. If that happens to be levitation, that's perfectly fine. One after another, the ones with low power first. Green Tea, would you like to start? Just name the spell and cast it. As soon as Sil addressed the stallion, her silver eyes were instantly pointed at him, and she showed the same friendly smile she had worn during the complete speech.

[Lance]

Lance had heavily considered conjuring his light orb when the group entered the caves, but brushed the thought aside. best not scare the recruits... or show off. after arriving at the makeshift training grounds, Lance was almost giddy with himself, since they were starting with levitation. He's totally going to show off.

[Civilian Ponies]

Green Tea stepped forward, not expecting to be in the spotlight so soon. He pulled some cups from his saddlebags, with some tea leaves inside them. He levitated the cups, and began to move them up and down quickly, causing the leaves inside to rise and fall. Once he got a rhythm, he switced the cups as the leaves fell. The next few times he switched the cups again. Then he threw one cup into the air, the leaves with it, and let the cup almost hit the floor, before his magic caught it and the leaves safely. He then performed a slight juggling act, while keeping the leaves in the cups. After a minute or two of this, he gently set the cups down. "Thats probably the most advanced spell I know."

[Silvern Gleam]

Sil watched closely, a process of closing her eyes and seemingly falling asleep. Only when Green Tea was done, she snapped back into the physical world. That's absolutely enough, thanks. Next up?

Green Tea's magic was as unimpressive as Sil had expected. His most advanced spell was basically a compilation of levitation, and though he apparently was somewhat trained in doing that, his spell construction left much to wish for. On first glance Silvern noticed a large kink that would allow her to temper with the spell in any way she might want to. Not that she actually did it, she only passively let herself sink into the sensation of his spell and the only magical activity she did herself were a few notes written in her crystalline notebook stored in her saddlebag.

One of the other three low powered unicorns turned out to be relatively proficient in spell casting, despite the little training possible with such energy reserves. But in the end, Sil herself was the perfect example that power wasn't all. After she was done with the four special cases, she proceeded with all the others, keeping Steel Strike and Scintillance for the end. Steel, your turn!

[Steel Strike]

Steel chuckled. He'd been practicing his magic slightly since the day before and already figured out what he was going to perform. He made a stance, and his horn lit up, casting the heat dissipation spell. He warned several ponies nearby to stand back, and closed his eyes. Rocks emerged from his saddlebags and began to whiz around him. The faster they flew, the hotter they became. Soon they were a blur and were glowing red hot. As soon as they reached a climax, he shot them into the ground, to cool down, leaving small craters where they went. He then discreetly turned off the dissapation spell without even thinking. He sat on his flanks soon afterwards, exhausted from the spell. "Well...thats the best I got." he said still surrounded by 3 craters where the rocks were thrown in.

[Silvern Gleam]

Not bad, but we'll have to work on energy efficiency,, Sil said as she "wrote down" her evaluation and turned to Scintillance. She already knew his capabilities quite well, but though she couldn't easily see his expression, she guessed he was already eager to show off a bit. Scintillance, show us what you've got.

[Lance]

Scintillance smirked. Time to shine. Quite literally. "With Pleasure. Now, this is a new one, so I guess that counts as my "most complicated" spell..."
Lance closed his eyes and focused heavily. His horn shone his signature bright yellow, and beside him, a bright yellow light had appeared to form out of thin air, though tat wasn't the case. it pulled light from its surroundings, and slowly Shaped into Scintillances' latest conjuration; The Avian. Lances horn kept glowing, but he opened his eyes, and promptly stepped onto the conjuration, bright as heck, most likely hurting a regular ponys' eyes, but Lance needed to reinforce his conjuration beyond the regular extent, as it needed to support his own weight for a slightly longer period of time.

Once on, Lance willed it, and the Avian hovered forward at a decent pace, and he started to circle around the group, grinning all the way. "Anypony up for a ride?" but he only half finished his forst rotation before the spell began to falter; though Lance had trained his magical stamina to redicioulous amounts, the energy he put into forming and maintaining his new Avian was still unpracticed; he had yet to waste his energy more wisely. He loosened his grip on the spell, and the the Avian shattered bellow him, and he finished with a proud trot. He tried not to show it, but he felt drained, keeping the spell out for more than a short glide off a rooftop, or an unachievable jump. "Fillies and gentlecolts..." Lance paused, swallowing a breath he didn't take. if anypony didn't notice he was drained, they should've known by his lack of breath. "...The Avian..."

[Civilian Ponies]

Green Tea rolled his eyes. The latest stallion was a show off. The gray one had a powerful spell but didn't give it a name. THIS stallion gave it a name, and treated it like it was the Bees Knees. He hoped that Sil would call on someone else soon.

[Silvern Gleam]

At first Sil was concentrating and seeming to fall asleep as usual, but when Lance began flying around, she came back to the physical world early, eyebrow raised at the show. Nice trick, showoff. I thought I said something about not straining yourself, Sil said with a smirk that only grew as she continued. The endurance test has yet to come, let's see how well you do then. A bit more informal, she added even more. You also moved too far away from me, I couldn't get a good look at your spell. Luckily I already know what you're capable of, so let's move on.

Silvern raised her voice a bit when she fully addressed the group again. Just now I concentrated on how stable your spells are and how you construct them. Though I have also gotten an impression of your energy efficiency, the real test for that comes now.
She walked to the weights next to the course, and explained the next test. The task is quite simple: Pick the largest weight you think you can easily handle and bring it through the course three times as quickly as possible. Again, don't strain yourself, this is still not about endurance. If in doubt, pick the lighter weight. This time those with low power will go last, and they'll do only one lap. Also, if anypony should feel running out of power, stop early. No need to cast yourself into magic fatigue.
The course was defined by primarily one thing: Turns. The 15 rings were arranged to force many direction changes, and featured few parts to build up speed. Ten weights were there to chose from, ranging from ridiculously light to ridiculously heavy.
Lance, since you just powered yourself out, I'm sure you'll be especially careful with your energy usage now, mind to start?

[Lance]

pretty strained, but not yet drained. besides, this is my strong suit... Since Conjuration was really just a highly advanced form of Telekinesis, Lances' telekinetic abilities were already quite impressive. that, and even if he did spend a good deal of energy on the avian, he still had a lot more energy left than he let on. but, he was hoping for a little time to recover, at least. no... no point complaining. "Sure... sure I got more where that came from."

Lance would've gladly taken the heaviest weight without question, barely caring for how heavy even was. Unfortunately, he felt too wavy to do that, and simply picked randomly from the more middle-weights. only then did he realize that they were quite weighty, but he knew he could handle it. without admitting it, he was glad he didn't pick a larger weight as well. But, he still wasn't going to "power down" completely, something was tugging at him to... well, impress. With a grin. "Silve, if you you got that time crystal on you get it rolling, I'm gonna need to beat this later."

Lance ran the weight through the course, the first time through at a manageable pace, to get the feel of it, the second time through going faster, now that he knew how it went, and the third, sharpening his turns, though he missed the seventh ring, but pulled the weight back to fly through it, correcting his mistake, and finished the course back at speed. He then placed the weight back in its place. "Well, I could've done better... nopony's perfect, right?" he returned to the group, keeping his pride above him, but now he really needed that rest. rather than keeping on his hooves, he settled on his flank, and hoped for the little bit of time he quietly prayed for. But, he quietly whispered among the group, "Who's up for a little race~"

[Silvern Gleam]

Silvern thought a moment about taking time, but then quickly decided in favor of it. Actually not a bad idea. Good way to see improvement. Silvern's horn glowed for a moment when Lance began with the first lap, as well as when he finished it. 45.8 seconds, with 12.3 for the best lap with weight 6. Good energy management already, but I suppose that's one of the reasons I made you my assistant, she said smirkingly and called for the next one. Luckily for lance, she didn't understand what he was whispering. Who wants next?

[Steel Strike]

Steel nodded. "I'll go." he said looking at the weights. He needed to find one of the weights that was a bit heavier than his hammer. After finding the closest appropriate weight, he nodded. "Get ready.." he said, and soon after, the weight took off. It flew fast and accurate, not being much of a trouble. However, the weight was probably the lowest tier on the medium scale, so it wasn't surprising that it was this easy. However, it still flew fast, even despite the light weight. Something this size was something Steel had had to control often, and with great force and precision, making his runs that much better. Finally after the three laps, and hardly any strain, he set the object down gently.

[Silvern Gleam]

Sil visibly smirked at Steel's performance. Okay, there we have a surprise. The other spell was leaking a lot, but your levitation... We'll get that efficiency transferred to other spells as well. 38.2 seconds, 11.9 for the best lap with weight 4. Silvern did also notice that Steel had beaten Scintillance time, but that somepony would manage to do that had been expected. In the end, Lance had taken an over average weight and had broken out of the course. Once she had everything noted down she called for the next one.

The results were... mixed. Steel's time was left unbeaten, but two other unicorns got close. The rest went up to 1 minute and 3.5 seconds by a pony who had overestimated himself with the weight. Eventually only the four special cases were left over. Alright, as I said, only one lap for you. The lightest weights should be no trouble, but if you have doubts about it, please say so, she instructed them and nodded to Green Tea to begin.

[Civilian Ponies]

Green Tea nodded, and stepped up to the weights. Much like Steel his leviation was attuned to a certain weight. Unfortunately, it was the lightest weight on the mat. He lifted it up, did a quick loop de loop and began his run. It was almost blindingly fast, not surprising for it's weight. After his seemingly quick run, he looped the final ring and set the light weight down. "I know it was light, so..feel free to dock a few points for that..." he said sheepishly.

[Silvern Gleam]

I'm not calculating a score whatsoever, this is not a competition, Silvern reminded him smilingly. Anyway, spot landing on 11.5 seconds, that is pretty good. I actually do believe you could have handled a heavier weight, but you're not the first one in this regard. Steel had been the first one, to be exact. But Sil couldn't be entirely sure, sometimes a little more weight could be much more straining for some unicorns, and in this test it wasn't important that they strained himself. Next!

Three runs later it was time for the last part, and again Sil explained it first. Now we come to the interesting part. I already told you that I can practically "see" your spells. What I also can do is tap into and manipulate them. There are subconscious defenses against such an intrusion, and as it is with unconscious processes, they aren't simply turned off. For most of you I'll be bound to only slight manipulations without risking to disrupt the whole spell.

The task is simple again, though straining. Pick the heaviest weight you can levitate for at least ten seconds and keep it in the air as long as you can. Meanwhile I will give your spells the magical equivalent of a nudge, and you move the weight in the given direction, if you sense it. If you don't notice anything out of the ordinary, that's a valid result as well.

The test is over as soon as you have to drop the weight or after thirty seconds. Again: Don't power yourself out completely, cancel the spell early if it gets too straining.

Alright, Lance, you go first. Conscious spell construction, I'll guide you, she finally called out her assistant. What she was asking of him he hadn't managed to do on his own just yet, to cast even such a simple spell as levitation successfully while fully concentrating on the feedback he was receiving. He'd probably need her guidance, but maybe after the spell was standing he might be able to keep it up for himself.

[Lance]

It slightly pained  Lance, on the inside, to see the others score faster than him. levitation was his A-game, telekinesis, the basic end of his cutie mark talent, focused on a telekinetic grip over light itself.  It is a low blow, to see something like that falter. but, he tried his best to keep that quiet, to some success; all he lost was his grin.

when his name was called out, thankfully, after every unicorn had their go the show, it's given him a slight bit of time to recuperate, but he still had no intention of hot-shotting the largest weight. he  simply took the same weight he used on the course from before, and  answered Silvern's call with "This again? alrighty then." the weight was in stasis, no problem but he took a moment to focus that magic sight  Silvern tried to teach him; it was still pretty blind to him, or at least it was without loosening his grip on the spell and allowing it to collapse, but it was enough for him to notice if Silvern would be tampering with his spell in any way, and would follow whichever direction she 'nudged.'' thirty seconds breezed by him without a problem.

[Sponsored content]