[FWM] Backstage: CUT!

[PurityIcekiller]

"Hubris has almost gotten us killed before." She notes fairly. "We're helpless without magic, but we rarely account for losing it. It's probably why Zaros eluded us so often. His skills were already flexible, and far less crude than what we worked with."

"Crude, huh? About magic? And you're saying it?"

"I do try to make my art as beautiful to me as possible, though it's a process. There's an old adage that describes my stance on the matter quite well. 'A unicorn is bought a house, a pegasus has all the proper materials supplied for them, and an earth pony has to craft the whole building from scratch'. When you hone an art from the ground up your entire life, it's going to be at least up to scale with a gift that somepony else simply got naturally, and usually much better.

Blades perked up a bit more. Apparently, that was a good thing to say around her. "'Bout time ya figured that out. Ya've still gotta learn to do things right even if ya've got a few extra things stickin' out of ya. With a lot of unicorns, ya wouldn't believe they could even walk without their spells!"

As for Aurora, it's crafted from life, and damages life. Life magic works in both directions. It literally drains the vitality from you, which is why the leftover scars don't fade. But I know full well the damage more mundane methods can cause."

A sheen curls from Starbeam's horn down to her tail, and where it travels, old injuries appear. Various scar tissue litters her torso, a chunk of her left ear is missing, a mark traces a white line from her scalp down one eye and to her upper lip, and it looks like a large patch of her flank was burned off with acid at some point, among other bits and pieces. Essentially, she looks like she just came out of a horror movie.

Then the marks fade, and she returns to her normal appearance. "Geez, why don't you look like that 24/7? You looked like a batpony out of hell."

"It scares my students." She states simply. "Besides, those have long since healed. It's just a brief flash of Memento's Malicious Memoir, a glamor that shows all of the injuries a pony has sustained over their lifetimes."

Stellar chuckles. "Oh, so basically you flashbacked into a zombie to score brownie points with Blades."

"Brownie points do not concern me." She scoffs. "...That sounded incredibly pompous, sorry."

Blades gave Starbeam a sniff as the wounds appeared. "Huh! Ya've really been through a lot. Reminds me of when 'Vadraa met that nasty wolf. Like I said, armour's a good idea. Maybe I could make ya a special deal?"

"The head's going to be tricky...it needs very fine...ahah." She pulls out Wolfsbane. "Thin lines like from a knife."

"A knife..."

Flare concentrated hard, then drew a chunk of rock from the ground. She used her power to shape it into a crude knife, then set about carving the head.

A few seconds later, there was a tailless snowpony with a very lopsided face standing with them.

Prose flashes a crooked little smile, and sticks out a hoof. "Hey now, no worries. No hard feelings?"

"As this was no more than a misunderstanding, yes." Blueshield slowly accepted the offered hoof.

"Poetry is poetry," Prose smirks. "And Iambic Pentameter isn't basic, per se. The fact that a pony can be bothered to create or recite any sort of poetry - from lymeric to sonnet - is enough to impress me."

"Also, your haiku had proper meter, but a proper haiku focuses on a specific item, typically highlighted or addressed in the first line, like a butterfly, or a thundercloud, so on and so forth," he tells Snow with a cheeky little smile. "Nice try though."

"Also, to offer a retort..."

"Grim mortality,
Always waiting patiently,
Why fear what must be?" he muses aloofly, throwing out another haiku.

"Or, if you'd prefer something more traditional..." he smirks.

"Death shall come for all in due course.
From bravest hound, to meekest horse.
Those who fear it and those who flee,
Can't escape what must always be.
So why fear what you cannot fight?
Enjoy your time, til coming Night."

His poem concluded, Prose gives another crooked little smirk. "Never been to fond of iambic pentameter, personally. More of a tetrameter kinda stallion..."

Blueshield looked a mixture of impressed and irritated. "It seems I have been informed as to the individual to petition should I desire a lecture on the formation of verse complete with demonstrations, should such a thing ever be required to fulfil my duties."

The pegasus laughs. "Impressive or no, I know better than to tangle with a master in his field. You may have to get me some cider first. Hm. Even then, we might end up with just a few off-color limericks."

"You expect to be more skillful at expeditious improvisation of verse when your judgement is impaired?" Blueshield actually looked amused. "I simply must see your attempts." She turned to Prose. "Rest assured that if she does triumph against you, I am willing to avenge your loss. However, should she fail, her loss may be the one being avenged."

Should there be no more discussion, the three would then head to the bar. Otherwise, they would head to the bar in the future, but still continue the conversation at the time.

[Meanwhile, A Short Time Later]

"And what exactly might you intend to reference with that?" came a voice from behind Staccata. By pure luck, the trio had arrived just in time to hear her last comment about "self-righteous paladins", which Blueshield obviously was not ecstatic about.

She took a seat near the guards. "I came as soon as my patrol was finished, per my word. And I see you have found a companion in the meantime." She gave Staccata a wary look.

"I think that was really the major issue....which I feel silly about," Prompter said bashfully, ears pinned back. "But I guess now with just little things, maybe you two can be ushers for patrons, showing them to their seats, we got some cute vest uniforms for that oooh weeee!" Her cheerful attitude returned.

Sandy's ears pricked up. "Y'need ushers? Now that, I know I can handle." A fresh assignment before him, the little stallion was born anew. He straightened his floppy hat authoritatively, tidied up his wooly scarf, and stomped a hoof on the ground as he stood to attention. "Sandy Shores, Junior Usher First Class, reportin' for duty Miss Prompter!"

"Ushers? Of course! It sounds easy enough, and it's not even my speciality." Night Jewel grinned. "I expect Sandy'd look really cute in a little vest, too."