//------------------------------// // 24 // Story: Pearl's Travels 1: Hollow Shades // by Makitk //------------------------------// Making the resin blob spin was one thing, applying different spinrates to it - while it was spinning - was a different one altogether. Rather than having to reimagine it again, pushing it through my horn again, loading up my magic again, and then overlaying the image... again, I just had to imagine the spinrate changing on the object itself. After all, Moonshine claimed, I already had a "connection" with the resin, so my magic would just change it as I needed it to. So I put my focus on the resin blob, made it spin, and then tried to make it spin faster. Instead of doing what I wanted it to do, the blob decided to smash itself into the wall and break itself apart... Moonshine made a fresh blob again, and I went to work on the resin again. Get it to spin, then spin it up faster... and it launched straight out of the hole to break apart on Moonshine's shield! "You're applying force to it at an angle," Breeze muttered idly, rolling over on her side. "Stay out of it, you," Moonshine snorted, then looked at me again. "You're applying force to it at an angle. Try to envelop the whole blob with your magic." "That's what she said," Oval chuckled, apparently having woken up again. "Will you two let me teach?" Moonshine decried, huffing a bit in distress. I thought that over for a moment. Letting the magic envelop the resin... "Think in 3D?" "Yeah, picture the whole picture," Breeze agreed. "I'm going to paste your mouth shut if you keep this up," Moonshine grumbled. I stared down into the hole again, and tried to envision the blob as if it was some three-dimensional simulation on the computer and I was turning my camera around it to see all sides of it. This brought a new problem with it; instead of spinning clockwise, the resin started spinning in a wholly different direction! I tried to correct it... and the expected result happened again. "Damn, this is harder than it looks," I breathed out. "I mean, I get the idea behind it, but now it spun in the wrong direction." Moonshine beat Breeze to the punch and pointed a hoof at the hole. "Use the hole as an anchor. It's effectively a cylinder." I slapped myself in the face with a rather hard left forehoof before I realized what I was doing and almost punched myself knock-out as a result! "Ow! Goddamned... facehoofing is not nearly as pleasant as I thought it would be!" I exclaimed in pain, rubbing at my sore left eye with the same hoof which struck it a moment before. Oval looked up at me from where she was still laying on the ground. "Should we call Matron?" "Feh... no need. Blaze would punch me over this," I returned meekly, blinking my eyes a bit. "Okay, I can still see, so that's something at least." Moonshine was just staring at me as I caught my composure back. "I can see why she likes you lot," she stated flatly, "you're all accident-prone." "Hey, I haven't had a serious accident since I moved to Hoofton," Oval snorted. "Can we get back to the lesson without further interruptions, please?" Moonshine wondered. "Yes, please can you guys stop distracting us as well?" came a call from further away. Moonshine pointed a hoof in the direction of the other Changeling tutor. "See? That's my point here. You're keeping everyone distracted." "Don't look at me; I'm sleeping," Oval remarked, closing her eyes again. I took a breath and resumed my training, using the cylinder to at least make sure I had up and down worked out. When I pushed the picture onto the resin this time, it at least spun in the direction I wanted it to go in, so I had made some progress! With some idea of how I could best manipulate the resin inside the cylinder, I slowly but surely managed to get its spin rate under control. Breeze mainly kept herself quiet, only offering advice if Moonshine forgot to mention something or if I asked her a question directly, but her presence helped me understand the way my magic worked far more than if I'd had to rely on Moonshine alone. Moonshine understood magic on a level I could not mentally grasp at. She experienced it more naturally than I did, and didn't have to think about things which I had trouble with. She just took her magic for granted and had moved on from Changeling magic to Pony magic. I suspected Matron knew that this was a weakness when trying to teach Hatchlings like me, and had picked her from her group just to make sure she learned a lesson in humility... or something like that. Just after I thought I had learned to control the resin fully, Moonshine asked me to try it with my eyes closed. "After all, you know where the hole is. You know where the resin is in the hole," She started. "You also know what you want the resin to do." "Yeah, but how can I aim with my eyes closed?" I wondered. "If you picture the resin ball inside the cylinder, and try to mind the distance factor, you should be fine," Moonshine suggested. "If you say so," I muttered, closing my eyes. "Put a hoof at the edge of the hole," Breeze offered, and I slid my left hoof forward until I felt the edge of the hole. "Okay, so I focus on the resin in the cylindrical hole, with my hoof up above it at the edge," I suggested, doing it as I spoke. "I'm making the resin spin slowly and am pushing the image into my horn." "Don't focus on us. Don't let anything distract you," Moonshine spoke softly. "I'm activating my magic," I continued, feeling the tingle of the imaginary bead of sweat as it ran along the base of my horn. "And I'm pushing the image down to connect with the resin." I just focused on keeping the resin spinning, hoping I had got the location right. I felt a movement to my left and heard Breeze take a few steps. "Hey, Oval, you got to see this," Breeze offered, and now there was movement on my right. I tried to keep my focus on the spinning resin, keeping it going, not letting them distract me. Oval clearly stood up and I heard her hooves hit the ground as she moved closer to the hole as well. "Hm, open your eyes, little sister," she offered. "Just let it spin down on its own." I banished the image of the resin from my head and opened my eyes, spotting Moonshine just staring down into the hole in front of her with a confused look on her face. I could barely see her through the large amount of steam rising up from the hole. Was it my imagination or was there more of it than usual? Breeze was standing off to the left of the hole, also staring down through the column of mist rising from it, but with a thoughtful expression. Oval was the only one looking my way, and she motioned for me to look down as well. As I turned my head to do as I was prompted to, I saw the resin spinning in an otherwise empty hole. Without my magic to keep it going, it was quickly losing momentum. As it slowed down, it also spun out of place, and it rolled along the inside wall for the last few seconds before coming to a stop. A green glow took hold of it, and Breeze lifted it out until it hovered between us all; a perfectly smooth green pearl. Moonshine huffed at it. "Well, that was just a fluke, nothing else." "You forgot to imagine the water that time, didn't you?" Breeze suggested. "Er, yeah," I answered truthfully. "All hail the power of gravity," Oval whispered in awe. "Centrifugal force," Breeze corrected. "Whatever it was that did it, I like the outcome," I decided.