Demonstrations In Magical Manipulation (Private)

[Gerrard]

The cheers of children filled the cool winter air of Canterlot on an other wise uneventful morning. A black unicorn patiently waited on one of the many small bridges that sprawled over the numerous ponds that painted the green landscapes with beautiful streaks of blue. The tall mare was shrouded beneath an equally dark and heavy cloak, her crimson eyes searching the sky for persons unknown as she cocked her head up towards the heavens. After a brief search, her endeavor seemed fruitful, the somber looking pony lowering her head to ground level as a black winged griffon landed in front of her. The pair of dark individuals spoke about topics unknown, the griffon laughing heartily while his associate stared back at him with an ever static expression on her face.

After a moment of awkward silence between the pair, the griffon nervously rubbed the back of his silver feathered head with an obsidian talon before the unicorn spoke a few parting words to her friend. With a deft use of magic, the shrouded pony slid an unknown item out from beneath compartments equally unknown. The object was bound in a sturdy wrapping to guard the identity and the content of the package from unscrupulous eyes. With a few quick sleights of talons and magic, the pair of shady looking individuals exchanged goods and bits. And as quickly as he had arrived, the griffon waved farewell and flew off to parts unknown in the capital of the pony world. Her client gone, the mysterious unicorn readjusted her form fitted cloak and nonchalantly started walking towards the exit of the surprisingly large park.

[Pretzelparty]

A few yards away from the park exit was a young mare who sat in front of an easel and canvas beside a bed of flowers. Her horn was lit up and showing a bright, icy blue aura that also engulfed her paint brush which was painting out a lovely landscape of the park... although every once in a while she would pause and her muzzle would scrunch up. upon closer inspection the mare's eyes were slightly cheery and as she painted she would stop to wipe her eyes.

"Ah..." soon she stopped completely as that quick shallow breath escaped her and her eyes drifted closed, her jaws hanging open.

"Ah..." her horn soon shined brightly and her paintbrush bobbed around in midair as if it was held by a string.

"Ah... Ah-tchiew!" the mare let out a sneeze and her horn burst a bright blue light and her brush shot away and tore a hole through her canvas and shot past Asteria like an arrow and then slammed into a tree and left a mark on one of the poor tree's trunk before falling into a bush. Presteza hung her head and rubbed her hoof against her nose with a sigh, her hat's brim hiding her annoyed and sadden eyes as she looked up and kicked the easel down and pushed it over to a trashcan muttering,"Bloody hay... that's the third one taday..." she said with a sniffle before taking each piece of her now demolished easel and canvas and jammed them into the can.

Heading over to the area she was sure the paintbrush flew she saw a mare attempting to leave,"Oi! ma'am wait a sec... um did ya see a uh... a paintbrush fly by here?" she said with a slightly embarrassed smirk.

[Gerrard]

The form of a young mare entered the cloaked figure's vision as she neared the exit of the fancy park. She could see that her lighter coated counterpart was painting something, the content unknown from her perspective as the back of the easel stood defiantly against the tall cloaked figure. Her keen crimson eyes spotted the horn of the artist glow intensely, signalling a great discharge of magic for reasons unknown. Her mind raced with reasons as to why an artist needed to use so much magic, and all logical reasons eluded her. The artist's sneeze filled the air, signalling a loss of control in her magic! The cloaked unicorn knew that something dangerous could happen, but a deadly paintbrush sneak attack was not on her list of things that might happen. Regardless, the alerted unicorn was able to vaguely track the paintbrush as it whizzed past her at an alarming speed, her expression remaining stoic even in the face of danger!

The cowled mare followed the trajectory of the paintbrush and saw the clear indent in the tree where it suffered a powerful strike from the otherwise safe object. She was surprised to see such a dent and quickly realized that this stranger was capable of very powerful magic, although she knew outbursts of magic weren't great gauges of one's personal power. The vaguely concerned mare turned her attention back to the artist only to get asked a question about the location of her lost brush. "Your paintbrush attempted to pierce the tree but lacked the pressure to penetrate it's exterior. If your intent was to pierce the tree, I would suggest you use an object with less surface area. I believe that was probably not your intent though, so allow me to retrieve your item," she explained in a vaguely alluring voice that had a faint trace of Canterlot accent that was well disguised. The black unicorn lowered her cowl to reveal her shortly trimmed scarlet mane while she fished about in the bushes for the paintbrush with her deep red magic aura. In a matter of moments, she plucked the paintbrush out of the shrubbery.The object was indeed the one she lost, probably hoping to be treated better in the future. She carefully levitated the object back to it's rightful owner, the spectacle a bit odd as the item didn't seem completely enveloped in a powerful magic aura as one might expect. "Here you go, may I ask for your name stranger? You may call me Asteria or any other moniker that you prefer," she calmly remarked, her odd tone and expression seeming stagnant.

[Pretzelparty]

The mare laughed a bit as her brush was levitated towards her, blushing slightly as she noticed the indentation in the tree nearby. "Hehe... I guess tha's wot I get fer painting near a bed o' daisies. Sorry about that, Miss Asteria." said the mare with one last faint sniffle before enveloping her brush in her own aura and placing it in her bag.

"Here you go, may I ask for your name stranger? You may call me Asteria or any other moniker that you prefer," she calmly remarked, her odd tone and expression seeming stagnant.

Her odd tone and overly calm expression was a bit unusual in the young painter's mind, "Oh uh... I'm Presteza, my friends call me Pressy though" The mare took a moment and pushed the odd conical hat she wore off her head with her hooves and let it hang by it's string off of her neck. With her hat gone Asteria could get a good look at the seemingly magically inept painter, her mane was silvery white and long, with several locks of it having some small rings around them that gave her mane a sort of paintbrush motif as the ends of her mane seemed to have been died a faint grey. Her eyes, or at least the one that was visible to Asteria were a bright icy blue that seemed to have an unusual vigor behind them.

[Gerrard]

Asteria listened to the response of the clearly embarrassed painter but showed no sign of disapproval. The black mare studied the new face in front of her for a brief moment, formulating something meaningful to say the sniffling artist. "Lady Presteza, I would suggest you avoid using magic while you are sneezing. Sneezing is a primary cause of loss of focus during use of magic, and losses of focus can be rather dangerous as you can see. Perhaps it would be best to simply sneeze as much as possible until the sensation passes, holding back such a reflex only amplifies the reaction further," she explained objectively, showing no problem with sneezing at all.

She watched her new acquaintance lower her unusual hat to better show off her face and mane to the world. Asteria silently took in her appearance like a probing robot but made no immediate comment on how the younger unicorn looked, simply because she wasn't qualified to say anything particularly positive or negative about her. "May I ask for additional information about your hat? I haven't seen many like it in my years of traveling Equestria and Aquellia, or in my years at the university," she asked inquisitively, giving a few subtle hints about herself as she spoke to the potential new friend in front of her.

[Pretzelparty]

Asteria listened to the response of the clearly embarrassed painter but showed no sign of disapproval. The black mare studied the new face in front of her for a brief moment, formulating something meaningful to say the sniffling artist. "Lady Presteza, I would suggest you avoid using magic while you are sneezing. Sneezing is a primary cause of loss of focus during use of magic, and losses of focus can be rather dangerous as you can see. Perhaps it would be best to simply sneeze as much as possible until the sensation passes, holding back such a reflex only amplifies the reaction further,"

The mare chuckled a bit,"Well that's kind of a problem... since every time I sneeze I wind up casting a spell, It's been happenin' ta me since I was a foal." she said with a slightly embarrassed grin. "So sneezin' as much as possible might be ... problematic, y'know? Like I said though sittin' next to a bed o' daisies wasn't my best idea... but the perspective from there was so great..." the mare hung her head sadly before sighing.

Hearing Asteria ask about her hat she perked up a bit. The hat, while not the original, had quite a few happy memories attached to it,"Oh well ta be honest it was supposed ta be a sunhat like my teacher used to wear but i kept messing it up and wound up turning it into this! One day I'm gonna get it right though!" With that the mare puffed her chest out slightly in pride of what she was sure was going to be a future accomplishment,"Oh? yer a traveler too?"

[Gerrard]

"You cast a spell every time you sneeze? From my experiences, magic usually requires some kind of focus to cast spells. Perhaps you are subconsciously focusing your magic without realizing Lady Presteza? This is of course assuming that I am not mistaken in my broad hypothesis," Asteria theorized in an unusual manner, the seemingly melancholy mare offering some advice to her younger counterpart. Her choice of words were a bit unusual though, leaving open the possibility that she was wrong, even without having any concrete reasons to suspect she might be incorrect in her assumption.

Asteria could tell that there the artist appreciated her hat for sentimental reasons, especially when she puffed her chest out in pride, something her griffon friend often did whenever he spoke of himself. When asked about her travels, Asteria nodded, pausing awkwardly for just a moment as she gathered the appropriate words to explain her travels. Her crimson eyes drifted down from the hat and back towards the face of her new associate. "Yes, I often find myself traveling between the cities of this continent on hoof. You could say that I am a marathon runner of sorts," the tall mare explained, her form seeming appropriate for such a task, although the details of her physical condition were hidden beneath her heavy cloak.

[Pretzelparty]

"Normally I'm jus' focused on what I love about painting in general, spells are usually the farthest from my mind. " The mare thought a moment before giving a shrug,"'sides Like I said I been doin' that since I was a foal and I probably wouldn't 'ave been too focused on it then." Most of what Asteria said had pretty much flown way over the Trottingham pony's head. Presteza, while she had been given an excellent education was not the most articulate or well read. She had pretty much left her thoughts on any magical theory back at the study in her parents manor when she went traveling to hone her skills as a painter.

The silvery maned mare shuffled a bit in place and gave slightly awkward smile,"Oh you do alot o' runnin' too? I'm pretty fast myself... plus I'm pretty good at buckin' trees" the mare gave a more genuine smile before bucking the the air behind her, showing very good form and energy for such and activity.

[Gerrard]

Asteria quickly found that her efforts to discuss magic with this mare seemed ineffective as her use of magic seemed primarily instinctive and reactive, quite the opposite of the calm and collected courier. "I have spent a great deal of time studying magic and my own personal limitations. I am highly cognizant of my own abilities and their limitations. After spending a great deal of time experimenting, I am familiar with what spells I am capable of using, and the extent at which I can execute them. I have also learned of ways to minimize the amount of magic necessary to use those spells," she explained broadly to her new friend as she talked a bit about her own abilities while not saying much about what she actually could do.

When asked about her running, Asteria blinked, seeing a small oversight in her own words. "I apologize if my words mislead you in anyway. While the activity is called marathon running, there is very little running at all. In marathons, it is not feasible to run the entire distance of the trip. The key is in fact maintaining the highest speed possible that your body can sustain. While I can run very fast, relative to other ground based runners, that is not my specialty at all. In regards to bucking trees though, I believe that magic is more efficient for the gathering of fruit from trees," the black mare clarified, not wanting to mislead the younger unicorn about marathonists. While she was not technically a marathon runner by trade, she did similar things often enough to be familiar with them. It was clearly becoming obvious that this unicorn put a high value on efficiency, never seeming to understand the subtleties of life like relaxing or having fun.

[Pretzelparty]

The painter chuckled a bit wryly,"Well I'm stuck with buckin' stuff .. my horns only good fer messin' up and levitatin' these brushes o' mine." the mare with a sort of empty pride before poking a hoof to her horn and sighing.

"As fer uh... bein' ... uh cognizant o' my abilities and limitations... I don' really know 'em, I jus' stick ta my painting." she said before walking over to a nearby tree and giving it a powerful kick and waiting as an apple feel from one of it's branches. Rearing up on her hindlegs she caught the apple in her teeth and began to munch away and chuckling,"No' bad... nowhere near as good as one o' the apple families apples, but decent. Want one?" she asked before carefully placing her hat back on her head to shield her eyes from the sun once more.

[Gerrard]

Asteria watched closely as the unicorn explained her limited magical abilities. She soon realized that this wasn't the type of pony that she was qualified to help. Any magic lesson would need her to be able to perform a spell consistently and that seemed out of the question as she explained her ailment further. "I understand Lady Presteza. It is improper of me to assume we are all similar enough to be taught in the same manner. I believe that the mastery of magic isn't important regardless, it is merely a hobby unless your job requires it. Artistry doesn't require much magic at all, some artists don't even use magic at all," she explained, thinking back to her classes in art at the university.

When offered an apple, Asteria blinked at the remark, looking up at the tree. "I would gladly accept any apples you are qualified to give me Lady Presteza," she commented in an unusual manner. While not particularly hungry for an apple, the unicorn had learned that refusing offers often lead to conflicts of their own. Still,apples were a great source of energy and she could adjust her diet later when she got home.