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 Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 5:39 pm
HONESTY  "Alright, alright, alright, alright," Perfect Purl softly chanted to herself. This was her long-awaited magic lesson with Starlight, and the other mare had stepped briefly from the room. Purl was going to show her how perfect she was and nail this exercise while she was gone! The objective was relatively simple: extinguish a candle from across the room. She stared at the candle and the flames reflected in her eyes strangely. There were many ways to do this. Her horn glowed. A sheet of paper floated towards the candle, its edges flapping warily. It waved in front of the candle, but the same breeze it produced did nothing. Purl concentrated; her horn glowed more and more fiercely and the piece of paper suddenly spun and landed.... directly on the candle's flame. It burned quickly, charred bits floating to the ground. The flame grew larger and danced merrily as the light scent of smoke drifted to Purl's nose. Crap. She had to fix this before starlight came back! Hurriedly glancing around, she saw a glass full of water. Panicked, she levitated it tot he candle and dumped it. The small stream of water...missed the candle entirely, instead turned the burnt bits of paper into a soggy mess. Purl's eyes went wide. This was not perfect. In fact, this was as far from perfect as it could be. And it just didn't make sense... Why wasn't this working? Purl was perfect. She tried one last thing. The fan she chose only flung bits of wax around, it did nothing against the candle's stubborn flame. A thin, high-pitched noise of distress filled Purl's mouth as she stared the candle down. Finally, she broke eye contact. Oh no oh no oh no. Seizing a richly patterned throw in her teeth, she dragged it over to the sopping mess. Purl twisted it around the base of the table, covering the bits of paper, the water. Finally, she clapped her hooves together over the flame. It fizzled and died between her hooves and Purl scurried back to her place, ignoring the burning sting. Oh god, what was she gonna say?
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 6:20 pm
It was always a delight to have new students. Starlight didn’t really have a main job, per-say, but she gladly tutored young unicorn fillies and colts in magic, helping them master their first ‘spells’, as t’were. Not true magic, they were artificially created, but the technology that created them allowed for magic-like abilities that it didn’t make too much of a difference. There were all basics, of course, that each unicorn could perform, but each unicorn often had magic that was a bit more special to their gift in life- which could make things frustrating for a little unicorn learning their magic.
Really, she’s been doing this long enough to have seen quite a few, ahem, ‘disasters’. Starlight knew when something was off when she stepped into a room- suspicions were aroused, but no proof was readily evident just yet, so the mare smiled at her new student.
“You put the candle out, wonderful job Purl.” The mare sat down beside the filly, long tail trailing behind her and mane twisted up and out of the way. “Would you walk me through how you put it out?”
Oh dear, Starlight saw that pillow at the base of the table, and she could start to guess what had happened. Bu t still, no move was made to accuse the filly, nor point out that the pillow was not where it should be. She knew a teaching opportunity when she saw one.
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 7:14 pm
Purl stiffened when Starlight walked back into the room. Her golden eyes darted briefly to the hidden mess. Oh how she ached to just straighten out a corner here or there, something, anything, to cover up how glaringly obvious it was! Her smile faltered as a stray thought wriggled into her brain. C-could her failures have been because she had a bread horn? Tossing her mane, she dismissed the thought, Couldn't be. "Wellllll...." Starlight's question had caught her a bit off guard. Purl hadn't expected the gorgeous mare to ask the hows and whys! Purl coughed delicately and use those precious seconds to compose herself. She swept her tail gracefully around behind her, subconsciously mimicking the effortless style of Starlight. "It was actually quite simple," she said, her voice growing sure with false bravado. After all, with lies it was 'in for a penny, in for the pound' and what else could she do but lie through her teeth? "I levitated that fan - the one now at the base of the candle. And I used it to waft a strong breeze to extinguish that f-flame! Just so." She flipped her man again cheekily. There was no way she was going to tell her teacher, her lovely, poised teacher, that she had made a bungle of things,.... that maybe Perfect Purl wasn't so perfect after all.
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 7:51 pm
The older unicorn nodded through the explanation- a very nice one, but suspicious. Starlight only smiled as Purl flipped her mane at the end of her little story.
"Excellent!" Her voice was cheerful- she remembered what it was like that that age, the stress to succeed in academics. Never mind Perfect Purl's personal disposition, Starlight had known going into this that her new student did not tolerate failure. A unique challenge, but one that Starlight felt capable of handling.
"Now- let's try it again." The candle was relit in a moment, Starlight having crossed the room, horn tilted towards the wick for precision. The fire ignited blue before settling down into a gently flicking yellow. She figured it a wise move to cross back towards Purl, making no hint that she had noticed the little smears of water left on the floor or the smell of burnt paper.
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 11:24 am
"Ah... try again?" Purl looked at the candle and swallowed delicately. Of course Starlight would want to see. She was a teacher, after all. "V-very well," she said finally, a slight quiver marring the syllables. The orange filly took a deep breath. Her mind was focused, sort of. A certain sort of chant, no, a plea for success. You can do this, Purl. You can. Accept nothing less! She turned her head decisively, staring at the candle. She could do it! Her yeasty horn began to glow. The fan lifted, shuddered and wobbled, and finally hovered steadily near the candle. Purl's eyes narrowed and it flapped once, twice, and careened straight into the candle! With a muffled fwump, the entire candle fell onto the sodden mess underneath the table. Luckily, it seemd as though it extinguished on impact. "Err... do you have ghosts or something?"
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 2:03 pm
Oh dear. The candle tipped, tipped and toppled right off the table. Starlight didn't do anything but watch it, magic at the ready, but proved unnecessary. Casting magic while panicked caused the sort of... misfires Starlight was fairly sure her young student was suffering from.
"No, no ghosts. Or if there are, I haven't met them yet." Gracious as ever, the mare smiled at the rather absurd question, before once again crossing the room to set the candle back up.
"Never fret though, we will simply try again." And again the wick was lit and Starlight was back at her pupil's side. "Try to flap the fan just once, but harder, visualize moving it as you would without magic, or how it feels to blow out candles on a cake."
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 1:34 pm
Purl gulped. The fact she had lied was making her antsy, nervous. And Starlight was so nice and sweet and understanding! Purl felt lower than the ground. She tried to focus, really tried. Her horn glowed gently, the fan moved... and fell to the ground. "I-I... I'm sorry! I lied earlier; I didn't put it out at all on my own! I c-cheated. I'm n-not perfect enough." Her lip trembled just a little bit. It hurt to admit it, but maybe it would've been worse to keep it inside. She lowered her head, tail drooping in shame.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 1:52 pm
Poor little thing- Purl's guilt was far more punishment than Starlight would have given at the cheating. The little filly clearly regretted it, so Starlight would sit beside her and ponder the right way to approach this. Finally her horn lit, lifting the one of the delicate boxes she had on a side table to place in front of them, ornate glimmering jewelry peeking out before she even opened the lid.
"Have you ever seen a raw gemstone?" One of the necklaces lifted, large pink stone glimmering when it caught the sunlight, surrounded by perfect pearls that reflected the pinkish light. "They look nothing like this. They're dirty from where they were in the ground, strangely-shaped lumps that don't sparkle in the light at all." The necklace's chain unclasped, drifting around Purl's neck to reclasp. "It is only with patience and a gemcutter's experience that it is shaped and polished into something perfect. So maybe you're a bit of a diamond still in the rough right now, just as I was when I was your age, but with patience you will also sparkle in the light."
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Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:14 am
Purl looked up, eyes luminous with shame. When the necklace drifted over to her and settled around her neck, she sniffed loudly, ducking her head to look at it. It was pink and gorgeous, beautiful, perfect. Maybe, one day, she could be like that, too... But, Purl wanted to live up to her name now and it was so hard to accept anything less. "I... I feel like I should be perfect already, though," she said in a small voice. Purl was never going to be exactly perfect, not with her croissant for a horn, her waxy flank, her yarn tail, despite all the times she told herself she was unique. Imperfections. Slowly, trembling, she smiled at her teacher. Purl would try - it wouldn't be easy, but she would learn to accept that she was learning, right now. That maybe it could be ok to not be perfect just yet, although the thought still caused her stomach to twist. "I guess you're right; you are my teacher, and you seem so.. well, perfect." She stretched out an elegant leg, ducking into something resembling a bow. "I.. I hope you forgive my- my lying, and will still be my teacher?" She swallowed anxiously. Luafien gurl the way to my heart is paved with cheesiness 8D. I think we might almost be done too!
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Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 9:17 pm
The mare shushed her little student, leaning in and wrapping a foreleg around her.
"Shh, of course dear, of course. Just remember, no one is born perfect. Gems must be cut to sparkle, and even pearls start out as a little grain of sand before they grow to be beautiful and perfect. And me? I think I have some choice pictures to show you. Ones where my hair is caught up in sticks and mud- before I could magic this mess up into a bun!"
Starlight hoped that Purl would understand sooner rather than later, but she would be there for her dear student even if it took her until becoming the beautiful, perfect mare she wishes to be to realize that everything she did now was what was making her into that wonderful mare.
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 8:23 am
Purl left out a small, nearly watery giggle. It was hard for the filly to imagine her teacher as anything less than perfectly beautiful. "Thank you," she said, a small smile playing at the corners of her lips. She sighed and squared her shoulders, before looking up at her teacher. "I think... I'm ready to try again."
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Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:52 am
"Excellent!" The mare lit up with a smile, standing once again and lighting the candle from the far room. She watched the wick flick to life, little light dancing before her. The light had always been so easy for her to focus on, but with Purl....
"Let's try this. See that the wick is crooked? Don't try to extinguish the flame. Instead concentrate on making the candle stand up straight instead of being all warped and slumped as it is." As far as Starlight was concerned, her student's distress was more her own fault than the filly's. Being a good teacher means beng able toa dapt. The Semblance of Unity I believe we are! Though let's get Purl to succeed a little for the feel-goods ;3
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