Faculty Meeting Over Lunch (Friendship School Teachers and Staff)

[Dubstep]

Starlight chuckled softly. Stars she was glad that Starlight didn't go into much detail on her! It was one thing for friends to know the sordid details, they were there, saw the growth she had made. But if there had been a file with all of that in there? She'd probably be mortified to death. "Oh! Well I suppose that's in order, sure." the mare would reply with a smile, taking the offered seat with a little nod of her head, it'd be good to learn about the pony who was basically her new boss. "For me there's...well nothing to special to know really! I met Twilight and the girls when they came to Our Town, where I was ah...I guess Mayor you could say." she'd hide a bit of a grimace and continue. "I was in a fairly dark place in my life at the time and had some some. Well we'll just call it a skewed view on friendship because of it. It lead to some disagreements and altercations with the girls. I was jaded to how friendship could remotely be important. And so I went about a petty revenge and tried to drive a wedge between Twilight and her friends..."
 

The mare sighed a little and paused shaking her head and smiling before she continued. "But Twilight never gave up on me! And well, the rest is history I guess. She and the girls taught me a lot about friendship and so has the school." Starlight blushed and cleared her throat a little. "S-speaking frankly, I had thought that I would have been next in line to be Headmare. But, Twilight's always full of surprises huh?" the mare would laugh a little, perhaps a little forced. She'd nod her head though and the smile would return to her face. "But that's fine. She picked you for a reason and I'm sure you'll do a great job!... ...So, how about you? How did you get to know the girls?"

[Blueblood]

Bluebelle listened to Starlight's account of herself with a wry smile.  "You're not alone, at least, in encountering Twilight and her friends while in a state to do something regrettable.  I try to keep that sort of thing in mind when I encounter behavior I consider outlandish, but... well, it just takes a while to learn sympathy at that level.  Celestia knows, we try though.  You- oh, but you wouldn't have heard of the Grand Galloping Gala disaster, would you?"  She laughed at herself a little.  "I keep forgetting not everyone is in the Canterlot bubble.  Suffice it to say, I deliberately made myself unpleasant to be around based on false assumptions, and got caked in... cake for my sins.  

 

"But that was just with her friends, the first time I really talked to Twilight was, well, in her capacity as the Princess of Friendship.  Specifically, to help me with a friendship problem.  There was a particular stallion that I kept running into, that I just butted heads with over and over.  She encouraged me to change my attitude towards him, and, well, he shortly became one of my closest friends.  His whole family, in fact, became very close to me."  She lowered her voice, with a saucy smile.  "His sister's my honor guard, and my honor isn't the only thing she guards, if you get my drift."

 

Laughing, she finished off the last of her meal, lifting the plate up and sending it back to the kitchen with her magic.  She made it look effortless, right up until the point where she let it go and had to take a few breaths.  "Phew, I've been working on magic endurance too, myself.  You wouldn't think levitating the same weight over that distance would get so much harder."

[Dubstep]

 

The mare listened as Bluebelle recounted her meeting with the girls now. It sounded like they had something in common then, neither being terribly great at making friends. Politely Starlight stiffled a giggle at the caking, though she did crack a playful smile. "It sounds to me like we're both quite lucky to have made a friend like Twilight then." Starlight caught that playful tone and saucy smile and met it with a wink of her own. "Glad to hear that you've been able to make such close friends!"

 

Watching as Bluebelle levitated her plate off to the kitchen, Starlight would tilt her head just slightly. She was versed in magic enough to notice that this was juuust a touch out of the other unicorn's comfort zone but she still managed it quite well, bringing another smile to Starlight's face as she spoke up. "If you're looking for any help with that, I'd be glad to offer. I'm, well. Let's say I'm a little versed in levitation." Innocently whistling the mare would light her horn up, moving herself from one seat to the next. A feat she knew most unicorns couldn't manage. Thank you, Twilight, for that little ego boost then. She wasn't cocky about it nearly as much as she was back then, but she was more than happy to help Bluebelle out with magical endurance. From the sound, her honor guard had the physical endurance covered.

[Blueblood]

The element of Luck that entered into friendship was an astute observation, and Bluebelle briefly wondered if there was some magical artifact that represented it, along with Loyalty, Laughter, and all the rest.  Probably not; it was part of the nature of Luck that it was not to be reduced to any material substrate.  Otherwise, all those lucky charms would actually work.  Multiple failed experiments in Los Pegasus had rather confirmed in the unicorn's mind that they did not.

 

Irrelevant reflections along these lines were dispelled at the sight of self-levitation, which astounded Blue so much that she could not even be envious of Starlight's skills.  "I cannot conceive of how you would even do something like that.  It's like... getting into a bucket and picking yourself up by the handle!"  She exclaimed, not without admiration mixed into the incredulity.

[Dubstep]

 

Starlight couldn't help but to blush a little and shake a hoof after having sat herself down. "Well it certainly wasn't easy to figure out. For me it takes a bit of...I guess you could call it cognitive disassociation. It's easier to lift something with magic that isn't the source of said magic. So with enough mental fortitude you can sort of...'trick' your magic into believing that you're not the source." the mare rubbed the back of her neck a little and chuckled. "It's not the most eloquent way of putting it, but a lot of magic is mind over matter as we know. So with enough brainpower, nearly anything is possible. Theoretically."
 

Settling in to her new seat, Starlight would continue. "When I was younger I...didn't have any friends per se, long story on that. So a lot of my youth was spent studying magic and perfecting various spells. Levitation was one of the first ones I worked on diligently."

[Blueblood]

Bluebelle blinked.  This was starting to remind her uncomfortably of a brief stint at magic school, before Blueblood's parents moved his education entirely to private tutors.  "I don't know what it is, but even when the wizard-types state what they're doing in plain Equestrian, I still can't wrap my head around how you do it.  And I'm a unicorn!"  She sighed, trying to find a metaphor that would fit the gaps in her mind like a piece into a puzzle.  "So... brainpower is like money?  Enough will overcome what is conventionally possible?  But I'm pretty sure that you mean something different than what most ponies do by 'brainpower,' which is intelligence."

 

Youthful isolation she knew better, and remarked, "I suppose it's similar with me, though instead of magic, I was working on stellar navigation, court protocol, and obscure aspects of Equestrian Feudal and Constitutional Law.  There's all kinds of things in there that most ponies would be shocked at, but really aren't practically useful.  I mean, it's one thing to say that you've found a scrap of paper that says that you can do something or a Princess can't, but that's not quite how power works in government, you know?"