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Post by Watermark on Jun 15, 2011 17:32:36 GMT -5
"Yeah, that'd be good, you'd probably need more though." Watermark instructed calmly, pacing around while waiting for her to finish. "I'd say about 8 would be fine, should be big though." He sat down again, watching her.
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Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on Jun 15, 2011 17:54:54 GMT -5
Trixie sighed and split the first two clouds, and then split them again, forming eight small-ish clouds. She ran another stream of water through them to make them larger, and converted each to a storm cloud one by one, each one harder than the last.
Trixie decided to not give her all in making the clouds this time, figuring it wise to keep some of her power to use on the illusion part of the spell, insofar this was just a repeat of earlier drills.
Trixie finished electrifying each one and levitated them all in a neat line for Watermark's next instruction. Holding the eight clouds was still hard, but not as hard since she had a good idea of what she was doing this time around.
"What next?"
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Post by Watermark on Jun 16, 2011 17:02:53 GMT -5
"Next you do it again! And then you make MORE and MORE and AGAIN!" Watermark grinned happily, "AND STRONGER STORMS TOO!" He called out, extending his hooves to his sides happily, before landing on them with a loud clop again, his perpetual grin never leaving his face.
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Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on Jun 16, 2011 17:27:13 GMT -5
Trixie rolled her eyes and made her existing clouds larger and darker, then started to add new ones. By the time she had reached 14 sufficiently large, black, rumbling and flashing balls of water vapor, she had essentially reached the height of her potential.
Trying not to be rude, but also intensely curious, Trixie couldn't help but ask, "How exactly does making tons of clouds help with an illusion spell, I'm just curious here." She maintained all the clouds with some difficulty, but she was intent on making this specific lesson work out, she was tired of failures and problems.
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Post by Watermark on Jun 16, 2011 17:28:36 GMT -5
"Illusion spell? What illusion spell?" Watermark asked curiously, "Wonderful! Now clear them up and cast them again!" Watermark instructed, clapping his hooves excitedly.
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Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on Jun 17, 2011 14:22:22 GMT -5
Trixie was outraged, but she held in her outburst, tempted to dump all the clouds right on Watermark's head. Deciding not to incite his wrath, She simply let the clouds puff out of existence while she managed in the calmest tone possible, "Of course.. Watermark..."
Trixie grumbled to herself as she brought another stream of water into the air, forming one large cloud and then splitting it once, twice, three times, to form another eight clouds. She ran the water through each one again, making them dark and stormy.
By the third cloud she electrified, Trixie got incredibly bored. When would she be doing some fun stuff? Or get sent on another mission that would almost result in her getting eaten by a massive spider? She had no idea, as all she could do right now was make some clouds. She routinely filled up the other five with energy until they flashed and rumbled like the others.
"What now?" Trixie said in a casual, uninterested tone.
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Post by Watermark on Jun 17, 2011 14:41:41 GMT -5
Watermark laughed, wrapping Trixie in a one hoofed embrace, as he pointed upwards at the unseen sky,
"Don't worry, little filly, being impatient is just silly. The world will not be moving, until you get yourself to grooving! SO why don't you kick back? And cut yourself some slack!
Because practice makes you great, don't be such a drag! Practice brings your bestest part, right out of the bag! Practice can make you what you really wanna be! Practice will make sure you destroy your enemy!"
As he finished his short song, he began bouncing around some more, getting several water golems to join him, transforming one of them into a pony replica of himself. At which point he began to talk from it, and to it in rhythm.
"I say, what is this racket?" "Trixie's feeling down!" " Why don't you cheer her up?" "Do I look like I'm a clown?"
The pony replica stopped, and looked him up and down, giving a weak smile before being dispelled.
"Bah, fillystine!"
"SO! Practice makes you great, don't be such a drag! Practice brings your bestest part, right out of the bag! Practice can make you what you really wanna be! Practice will make sure you destroy your enemy! TA DA!"
At that Watermark finished his dancing, hopping right in front of Trixie with his arms outstretched to his sides.
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Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on Jun 17, 2011 14:53:54 GMT -5
All of Trixie's clouds just disintegrated during Watermark's performance. She was wide eyed, and had no idea what to think. This kind of thing coming from a performer was expected, but from her teacher? What in the wide wide world of Equestria was she listening to? And why did it make perfect, unbroken sense? She had no idea. And it was Watermark, what should she expect?
When watermark jumped in front of her at the end of his song, all Trixie could do was stifle a laugh and say, in her most matter-of-fact tone, "So this means I have to make more clouds, right?"
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Post by Watermark on Jun 17, 2011 14:59:39 GMT -5
"Well yeah, but this time there's a twist!" Watermark winked, "I want you to make the clouds move around!" He said, "In an outward spiral, until they get from..." He looked around, "That hut!" He pointed at the farthest hut, "Over to that torch!" He then, instead of turning to point at the torch on the other side, he simply raised his hind hoof to point instead. "Alrightie?"
After that, he quickly turned back and sat down, grin ever present on his lips, staring at Trixie as though she was the most interesting pony in the world.
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Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on Jun 17, 2011 15:24:16 GMT -5
Trixie just rolled her eyes and she turned back to the bog, her horn glowing in preparation to make more clouds. She nonchalanty whipped up one large cloud again, noting that he wanted it to be an outward spiral, spltting a large cloud into smaller ones that spin around in a circle, the diameter of which would get larger as time goes on.
She hummed at her large creation, and then made it stormy with some extra water and a touch of electrical energy. Only after she had moved the cloud over the shack and split it apart did she realize that this was a lot harder than before.
Trixie could handle the clouds when they got close, but the ones spinning farther away were threatening to dissipate and knock the others out of balance. She also noticed that the diameter was barely the size Watermark wanted it to be.
Trixie shut her eyes and focused on her magical abilities, now strained from the amount she was exerting to keep the clouds together. She willed them to hold, and kept them spreading apart from the center. She couldn't see how far it was to the end, but she figured Watermark would say something, so she continued pushing the clouds apart.
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Post by Watermark on Jun 20, 2011 6:53:49 GMT -5
"Focus..." Watermark coached, "Focus... No! Aww... Come on, that's not ENOUGH." He said, as her clouds dissipated less than half way. "See? That's why we're practicing, so when the time comes, you'll be ready!"
"Alright, I figure I might as well demonstrate where practicing can get you, if you are diligent enough."
Watermark coughed, before raising a hoof, instantly massive torrents of bogwater rose up into the air, spiraling into a massive storm cloud, darkening the entire area, before splitting into dozens of large storm clouds spiraling away and within on three different altitudes. The amount of control Watermark displayed was incredible; the clouds all moved in perfect rhythm, and they made Trixie's clouds look like cotton candy. They were moving farther and farther away, much more than Watermark asked Trixie to make them, before dissolving into rain drops.
"I've been practicing spells to exhaustion for years." He said, "Master Red Charge's training is far harder than mine. If you hope to learn under him, you're going to have to do the same."
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Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on Jun 20, 2011 9:47:30 GMT -5
Trixie couldn't help but be impressed at the clouds Watermark made. Yes, they were much larger and it was a more impressive display, but Trixie had gotten used to him doing something ridiculously better to trump her when she failed. Showing her what he can do only gave her a glimpse of what she could become, it didn't actually help her much with her training except to maybe motivate her.
"I understand that, Watermark." Trixie grumbled at his reference to Red's harder training. There was a lot more ground she had to cover if she was going to get any better.
Trixie summoned up another large cloud and split it again, making the eight Watermark wanted for the exercise. She began to spin them and move them farther apart, closing her eyes and focusing more on keeping them together than anything else at this point.
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Post by Watermark on Jun 20, 2011 10:19:27 GMT -5
"Well, considering one of your clouds is about to go straight into my hut, I think we should take another breather..." Watermark instructed with a smile, putting a hoof on Trixie's back. "You have your training schedule at your hut, I made it so it won't take up too much of your time and you can still go around and familiarize yourself with everything." The Hydromancer explained, waiting for her to disperse the clouds before continuing.
"Also, I decided to skip today's alchemy lesson, considering you already succeeded at making that Poison Joke serum. So, you have the next couple of hours off, I'd advise reading up spells you think I should teach you." The unicorn stopped suddenly, apparently getting a feed from one of his golems. "That's... interesting. I better talk to the master." He said, his face now stern.
"It looks like we have ourselves a little issue in Hoofington. But don't worry about it, go over your study books, memorize and train, you have your schedule. I'll have to take a rain check on our other lessons today." The tattooed pony said seriously, walking off quickly towards the pyramid.
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Post by The Great and POWERFUL Trixie on Jun 20, 2011 11:32:06 GMT -5
Trixie quickly puffed the clouds away at the mention of a break. She needed one, badly. All this magic casting was making her head hurt. "I understand." She bowed as Watermark explained the situation, and she tried not to blush at the mention of the Poison Joke serum.
She stood back up as Watermark walked away, and she too left for her own hut. Even though training was difficult, she would much rather be doing magic than studying up in her hut, but it would still be beneficial either way, so she kept pace for her hut.
Trixie also remembered that Red mentioned that she may get a few roommates, and was curious to see if there was anypony new to meet and talk to when she got back.
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Post by eclipse on Jun 21, 2011 15:27:59 GMT -5
Willow sighed and looked around the hut again, for the third time in the past half-hour. She was grateful that someone had found her, but she wasn't used to being bedridden. She wasn't used to staying still at all, really; she had always been kind of transient, and when she had left her apartment in Canterlot she had given up all sense of tying herself down to one place. She missed the stars, more than anything.
She still had no idea where she was, beyond "Somewhere in Froggy Bottom Bog." She had been taken to this hut, had her wounds bandaged, and told that she should be courteous to her bunkmate when they showed up, and that had been that. No one had come in yet, at all, and she had gotten bored fast. She shook her head, exasperated. She should be trying to rest, but her mind was racing; she had nearly died, and the adrenalin was still pumping.
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