Let's Take it From the Top
Apr. 18th, 2015 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twilightponyToday I was back again at where my Ponyville home once stood. I didn't have time to dwell on that, I had three excited fillies to coordinate, and somehow, a small crowd of onlookers. I had invited Fluttershy and Zecora, but it seems that word had spread of this magical experiment and the entire foal population was watching as well. They were a bit noisy at first and I was afraid they would break the fillies' focus, but Cheerilee also dropped by, and between her and Zecora's pointed looks, they kept it down to a low buzz.
Zecora was there for the potion aspect and she was interested in seeing how her breathing exercise had become humming scales. Fluttershy's interest is in the reforestation potential and building a better bird house.
All three fillies marched into the center of loose earth where the Golden Oak had once stood. Dressed in their lab coats, hard hats and safety visors, they started setting up their demonstrations. Although they had been hamming it up for their friends in the crowd, they were starting to look nervous now that the moment of truth had arrived.
They had brought their materials, but with some differences from the last time Applebloom had sprouted an acorn.
Applebloom's glassware had an added distillation and titration stage that didn't look necessary to me. She also had many more flasks, some containing liquids that looked suspiciously like apple juice, pond water and mud.
Sweetie Belle came equipped with twelve sparkling sapphires and this time Scootaloo's large mound of odds and ends included forks and pinwheels. I was beginning to think the experiment was going to fail. But the lesson would not be lost.
Applebloom was busy connecting glassware, Scootaloo was rapidly building a base out of her eccentric collection of odds and ends, and Sweetie Belle was already gritting her teeth as she attempted to levitate all twelve sapphires at once.
I stopped Sweetie Belle to remind her to find her focus first, and to levitate the sapphires one after the other, as if they were on a string. Breathe in. Breathe out. Clear. Focus.
My focus was broken by Apple Bloom searching madly for an acorn in her bag and flinging flasks into the air. I caught those before they smashed. Some fillies in the crowd were laughing (cut short by a stern look from Zecora). I had brought an acorn. Apple Bloom took it sheepishly. She made a mud, apple juice, pond water puddle and stuck the acorn into it.
Scootaloo's scrap sculpture fell over, making us all jump, including Sweetie Belle. She had been counting her breaths. I tried to explain the breathing exercise again. Many of the foals in the crowd had become bored and had run off.
Apple Bloom's potion, or potions, were bubbling, condensing, getting titrated, combined, and filling the collector poised above the acorn. The foals left in the crowd pressed closer.
Scootaloo's contraption was now looking quite a bit more sturdy with extra spokes on the inside loopdehoop and with a fork attached to each ear horn. She was screwing metal wafers to the outer hoop. It really looked like abstract art made out of junk.
Sweetie Belle was starting to get the hang of the breathing. A first sapphire twitched and rose up, followed by another. A third twitched.
Applebloom watched the color of the potion in her final condenser darken, her hoof poised over the valve.
Scootaloo took a step back, looked at what she had built, put a few drops of oil on a pivot, and gave it a gentle push. The pinwheels caught the breeze and twirled.
Sweetie Belle had all twelve sapphires following each other in a circle in mid-air. They wavered a bit, then moved into a figure-eight pattern. Sweetie Belle remembered to breathe.
Apple Bloom opened the valve. A big dark green drop of liquid fell onto the acorn. It sprouted immediately.
Scootaloo's metal hoops turned lazily and silently.
Sweetie Belle started to hum as she made the sapphires spin while they carved a figure eight in the air above her head. A chromatic scale. Scootaloo's hoops picked up speed, going faster with each note and echoing them. In the crowd, all eyes were on Applebloom's sapling oak. Some of them were humming too.
The oak sapling was growing fast and round, as it had in the castle hall. This time the tree grew as large as a barrel before a collective gasp and cheer from the foals sent three branches growing up like corn stalks five pony lengths into the air. Distracted, Sweetie Belle dropped her sapphires. The tree stopped growing and a single leaf sprouted from each branch. Scootaloo's hoop-thing went silent but kept spinning.
The roots on the barrel tree were so shallow that when Scootaloo leaned on it while posing for pictures, it fell over and smacked Zecora and Fluttershy over the back. The barrel is hollow.
The experiment was a success. The fillies have already put it behind them. We'll do something else next time.
Zecora was there for the potion aspect and she was interested in seeing how her breathing exercise had become humming scales. Fluttershy's interest is in the reforestation potential and building a better bird house.
All three fillies marched into the center of loose earth where the Golden Oak had once stood. Dressed in their lab coats, hard hats and safety visors, they started setting up their demonstrations. Although they had been hamming it up for their friends in the crowd, they were starting to look nervous now that the moment of truth had arrived.
They had brought their materials, but with some differences from the last time Applebloom had sprouted an acorn.
Applebloom's glassware had an added distillation and titration stage that didn't look necessary to me. She also had many more flasks, some containing liquids that looked suspiciously like apple juice, pond water and mud.
Sweetie Belle came equipped with twelve sparkling sapphires and this time Scootaloo's large mound of odds and ends included forks and pinwheels. I was beginning to think the experiment was going to fail. But the lesson would not be lost.
Applebloom was busy connecting glassware, Scootaloo was rapidly building a base out of her eccentric collection of odds and ends, and Sweetie Belle was already gritting her teeth as she attempted to levitate all twelve sapphires at once.
I stopped Sweetie Belle to remind her to find her focus first, and to levitate the sapphires one after the other, as if they were on a string. Breathe in. Breathe out. Clear. Focus.
My focus was broken by Apple Bloom searching madly for an acorn in her bag and flinging flasks into the air. I caught those before they smashed. Some fillies in the crowd were laughing (cut short by a stern look from Zecora). I had brought an acorn. Apple Bloom took it sheepishly. She made a mud, apple juice, pond water puddle and stuck the acorn into it.
Scootaloo's scrap sculpture fell over, making us all jump, including Sweetie Belle. She had been counting her breaths. I tried to explain the breathing exercise again. Many of the foals in the crowd had become bored and had run off.
Apple Bloom's potion, or potions, were bubbling, condensing, getting titrated, combined, and filling the collector poised above the acorn. The foals left in the crowd pressed closer.
Scootaloo's contraption was now looking quite a bit more sturdy with extra spokes on the inside loopdehoop and with a fork attached to each ear horn. She was screwing metal wafers to the outer hoop. It really looked like abstract art made out of junk.
Sweetie Belle was starting to get the hang of the breathing. A first sapphire twitched and rose up, followed by another. A third twitched.
Applebloom watched the color of the potion in her final condenser darken, her hoof poised over the valve.
Scootaloo took a step back, looked at what she had built, put a few drops of oil on a pivot, and gave it a gentle push. The pinwheels caught the breeze and twirled.
Sweetie Belle had all twelve sapphires following each other in a circle in mid-air. They wavered a bit, then moved into a figure-eight pattern. Sweetie Belle remembered to breathe.
Apple Bloom opened the valve. A big dark green drop of liquid fell onto the acorn. It sprouted immediately.
Scootaloo's metal hoops turned lazily and silently.
Sweetie Belle started to hum as she made the sapphires spin while they carved a figure eight in the air above her head. A chromatic scale. Scootaloo's hoops picked up speed, going faster with each note and echoing them. In the crowd, all eyes were on Applebloom's sapling oak. Some of them were humming too.
The oak sapling was growing fast and round, as it had in the castle hall. This time the tree grew as large as a barrel before a collective gasp and cheer from the foals sent three branches growing up like corn stalks five pony lengths into the air. Distracted, Sweetie Belle dropped her sapphires. The tree stopped growing and a single leaf sprouted from each branch. Scootaloo's hoop-thing went silent but kept spinning.
The roots on the barrel tree were so shallow that when Scootaloo leaned on it while posing for pictures, it fell over and smacked Zecora and Fluttershy over the back. The barrel is hollow.
The experiment was a success. The fillies have already put it behind them. We'll do something else next time.
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