The Round Bark Tree Time of the Foals
Mar. 7th, 2015 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twilightponyScootaloo, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were over this afternoon for tutoring again. This "Twilight Time" I thought I'd start with teaching them focus using Zecora's breathing exercises. I got the idea in my head that I'd demonstrate breath release by humming. That had mixed results.
Sweetie Belle turned it into music. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were bored. We moved on.
Scootaloo brought a bag of odds and ends which she dumped out on the floor and began trying to fit together. I asked her what she was trying to repair. She wasn't fixing anything, she was "building a contraption". What kind of contraption? Scootaloo: "I don't know yet".
I was distracted by Sweetie Belle up-ending Applebloom's saddlebags and dumping all the glassware out. I barely caught it in time, some of those vials smelled really vile. While I tried to again teach Sweetie Belle to focus, only to get rewarded with chromatic scale humming and not much telekinetic control, Apple Bloom stuffed an acorn into a pot and set up a series of glass tubes, burners, flasks and condensers.
Scootaloo's contraption was beginning to look like abstract art, like one of Alexander Coltdeer's Stabeels, with spiral horn amplifiers sticking out of two hoops. "Neat huh? Granny Smith gave me some of her ear horns! She has a whole closet full of them! The loopdehoops were Apple Bloom's idea!" Scootaloo opened up another small bag and dumped several dozen metal wafers out on the floor and began screwing those to random spots on her contraption.
Several of Apple Bloom's flasks were bubbling merrily, I caught a vial Sweetie Belle had sent hurtling just before it would have smashed against the wall. I convinced her to carefully lift six of Scootaloo's extra metal wafers at once. Scootaloo's hooped construction was now as tall as she was. She was fitting rings containing little metal balls to the pivot points.
Sweetie Belle squinted in concentration and I could see the six wafers starting to vibrate. I told her to focus on her breathing. Scootaloo gave her abstract hooped thing a satisfied swat and it started to spin. Applebloom's condenser was dripping on the acorn. I forgot to ask her what compounds she had combined, at that moment Sweetie Belle's six wafers rose off the floor and she started to hum. And everything happened at once.
The acorn sprouted. The wafers on Scootaloo's device started to glow and hum in tune with Sweetie Belle. It spun faster. Sweetie Belle was focused on her six wafers, coaxing them to fly in a figure "8". Apple Bloom's acorn was now a tiny tree, but it wasn't growing straight. The tiny trunk had divided itself into six branches, and the branches were weaving through each other and leaving a big space in the middle, like they were cradling an invisible orb. Sweetie paused for breath, Scootaloo's gyrating hoops slowed down, the tiny tree branched out sideways. Sweetie dropped the wafers and beamed. "How was that?", she squeaked. The tree unfurled tiny leaves on six horizontal branches and stopped. Scootaloo's contraption wobbled to a stop.
All three looked at the tree, then Scootaloo's round metal thing then at Sweetie Belle's wafers. Did you get one? Did you get one? Did you get one? They looked at their flanks. Still blank. Oh well.
That was enough for today. The three dismantled the apparatuses, picked up their things and ran off show the tree to Fluttershy. It could make a nice bird house. Or mouse house.
Sweetie Belle turned it into music. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were bored. We moved on.
Scootaloo brought a bag of odds and ends which she dumped out on the floor and began trying to fit together. I asked her what she was trying to repair. She wasn't fixing anything, she was "building a contraption". What kind of contraption? Scootaloo: "I don't know yet".
I was distracted by Sweetie Belle up-ending Applebloom's saddlebags and dumping all the glassware out. I barely caught it in time, some of those vials smelled really vile. While I tried to again teach Sweetie Belle to focus, only to get rewarded with chromatic scale humming and not much telekinetic control, Apple Bloom stuffed an acorn into a pot and set up a series of glass tubes, burners, flasks and condensers.
Scootaloo's contraption was beginning to look like abstract art, like one of Alexander Coltdeer's Stabeels, with spiral horn amplifiers sticking out of two hoops. "Neat huh? Granny Smith gave me some of her ear horns! She has a whole closet full of them! The loopdehoops were Apple Bloom's idea!" Scootaloo opened up another small bag and dumped several dozen metal wafers out on the floor and began screwing those to random spots on her contraption.
Several of Apple Bloom's flasks were bubbling merrily, I caught a vial Sweetie Belle had sent hurtling just before it would have smashed against the wall. I convinced her to carefully lift six of Scootaloo's extra metal wafers at once. Scootaloo's hooped construction was now as tall as she was. She was fitting rings containing little metal balls to the pivot points.
Sweetie Belle squinted in concentration and I could see the six wafers starting to vibrate. I told her to focus on her breathing. Scootaloo gave her abstract hooped thing a satisfied swat and it started to spin. Applebloom's condenser was dripping on the acorn. I forgot to ask her what compounds she had combined, at that moment Sweetie Belle's six wafers rose off the floor and she started to hum. And everything happened at once.
The acorn sprouted. The wafers on Scootaloo's device started to glow and hum in tune with Sweetie Belle. It spun faster. Sweetie Belle was focused on her six wafers, coaxing them to fly in a figure "8". Apple Bloom's acorn was now a tiny tree, but it wasn't growing straight. The tiny trunk had divided itself into six branches, and the branches were weaving through each other and leaving a big space in the middle, like they were cradling an invisible orb. Sweetie paused for breath, Scootaloo's gyrating hoops slowed down, the tiny tree branched out sideways. Sweetie dropped the wafers and beamed. "How was that?", she squeaked. The tree unfurled tiny leaves on six horizontal branches and stopped. Scootaloo's contraption wobbled to a stop.
All three looked at the tree, then Scootaloo's round metal thing then at Sweetie Belle's wafers. Did you get one? Did you get one? Did you get one? They looked at their flanks. Still blank. Oh well.
That was enough for today. The three dismantled the apparatuses, picked up their things and ran off show the tree to Fluttershy. It could make a nice bird house. Or mouse house.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-08 03:34 am (UTC)Glad to hear they're doing well in their studies!
And that you seem to be doing well in keeping some order!
no subject
Date: 2015-03-08 04:56 pm (UTC)That synergy between the three and how that shaped the tree was interesting.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-09 01:26 am (UTC)It is interesting how well they worked together! Especially in producing a tree with such an odd shape!