//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 // Story: Destination: Equestria // by Zervziel //------------------------------// It had only been a few hours since the pony known as Applejack had left her with an insane unicorn to teach Mayberry the ways of magic, but it felt like an eon had passed. After the initial shock of meeting her new magcal mentor, the mint green pony had pulled her off towards one of the log cabins before trying to inspect her more closely. It had been then that she learned that the crazy unicorn known as Lyra believed Mayberry was human. While technically accurate, the former-human believed it was a better idea to deny it until she had a better idea of how humans were viewed as a whole by ponies. Now however her first lesson in magic was starting. Pacing back and forth in front of Mayberry Lyra launched into her introduction to magic. "Ok, listen up, horse-monkey! Magic isn't just some tool like your spoons and hammers! It takes finesse and practice to even so much as lift a pebble!" Mayberry's good-humor at watching Lyra march back and forth in front her like a pony-sized drill instructor evaporated at the horse-monkey remark. No matter how adorable that had looked, it wasn't cute enough to justify being called that. Before she could object, Lyra pointed a fore hoof at a series of different sized rocks resting on the cabin floor. "All right. First exercise. Speaking of pebbles, let's see how well you can pick up one of those stones. Now remember the key to learning magic is concentration. When ponies are first learning about magic, it really helps if you are capable of hyper concentration." A quizzical look from her student halted her explanation. "Ok, what is it?" Mayberry wasn't sure how to voice her question at first. "It's just that….all I have to do is concentrate? There's no tapping into power hidden deep within? I mean this thing didn't really have an instruction manual, so how do I know when I've got the magic flowing?" She asked, tapping her horn with a hoof. Her teacher looked thoughtful for a moment. "Concentration is certainly a large part of it. And before you ask, no, merely thinking about something will not cause it to burst into flame." Mayberry put down the hoof she had raised in the air. The green unicorn continued on. "Magic comes when you enforce your will onto an object. Think of your horn as an extension of your will. You reach out and grab things with it just as you would as a human." Mayberry awarded her a flat, unamused look at that last part. Grinning sheepishly, Lyra hurried on. "Ok new first lesson. We're gonna make your horn glow. No lifting rocks, we're just going to see if you can channel magic. Now just concentrate and focus everything on your horn." Mayberry nodded once before starting. Now it was the horse-monkey's turn to shine! Practically crossing them to do so, Mayberry locked her eyes on her own horn and began to concentrate on her own horn. Studying every detail of her own horn, she committed each to memory; every groove, the angles of the spiral, the faint pearlescent shine that was only visible in when the light hit it in a certain manner. She concentrated on all this while visualizing a mental image of a fist closing with as much force as humanly possible. So intent was she on pouring her will into her horn, her legs started to quake as she clenched all her muscle in her zeal. All through out this, Lyra watched on with a grin, barely suppressing her giggles. The look of concentration scrunching up her face, eyes crossed staring at her own horn, body tense. Lyra could barely stop herself from laughing. The mare in front of her looked all the world as if she was suffering from a truly horrendous case of constipation. Completely unaware of this revelation of Lyra's, Mayberry continued on. Slowly but surely the very tip of her horn began to spark and fizzle. At the very tip, a small faint pulsing light appeared. Encouraged, the unicorn threw even more of her will into the effort. Eventually it became a constant glow, an icy blue in color that soon traveled to the base of the horn. "Now you're getting it!" Lyra exclaimed clopping her hooves in appreciation for the herculean effort put forth by her student. "Now that you've gathered your magic, now try lifting up one of those stones." Mayberry nodded once, before wrenching her eyes from the blue glow eminating from her horn. She was already ecstatic at just making her horn glow, but now she wanted to see if she could actually use magic to accomplish tasks. Glaring at the smallest stone, she imagined it lifting up. Nothing. Not discouraged so easily, she tried again, imagining the rock lifting into the air. The pebble resolutely stood its ground against the unicorn's rather wimpy magical assault. Seeing Mayberry's troubles, Lyra interjected with some advice. "Remember, when unicorns pick up or manipulate objects, the objects always glow with that unicorn's same magic. So before trying to lift it up again, imagine the glow of your magic enveloping it first." "Right, become one with the pebble. Be the pebble. Got it." Mayberry was oddly proud to see Lyra stumped by a human reference she had no chance in hell of understanding. The mare quickly turned her attentions to the pebble once again. "Alright, rock, it's just you and me." "And me!" Lyra piped up not wanting to be left out. Mayberry awarded her with a flat look, her horn still glowing, before turning her attentions on the rock. Lyra's advice in mind, she imagined the glow from her horn molding itself around the stone. To her delight, the pebble started glowing the same icey blue as her horn. The soft glow quickly grew in brilliance almost becoming blinding. "Right. Now that you've got it, imagine it lifting in the air as if you were using your hoof." "Got it!" The tiny, gray stone soon started wobbling then slowly but surely rose into the air. Mayberry tried to stop herself from jumping with joy. After a brief mental struggle, she simply let it happen. "Whoohoo! I've done it!" Her magic dissipated from the stone, but her horn remained lit up. Scooting over to Lyra, she raised a hoof in the air. "Come on, Lyra! High-five!" The mint unicorn actually looked blank for a moment before breaking out into the biggest and most genuine smile Mayberry had seen on her yet. Only then did the unicorn realize what she had just said. Her right hoof still in the air, she facehoofed with the other. "I don't suppose you'll be forgetting that any time soon?" She asked the ecstatic unicorn. "Nope!" Then she stopped, looking at Mayberry's still raised hoof. "Why are you doing that?" Mayberry looked at her hoof. "Oh, that. I asked for a high-five and you left me hanging. Come on, might as well do it now." Lyra looked at her own hoof a second before enthusiastically clopping it against Mayberry's. The human-turned-pony considered asking for one down low before dismissing it. Bizarre, obscure human greeting rituals could wait she had just performed magic! "So what else can we learn?" She asked enthusiastically. The mare couldn't wait to add more magic to her repetoire. Lyra stood up and stretched. "First we learn the special lesson of dinner!" "Wha-Why?" Mayberry asked, surprised at having her magic lesson getting cut off so soon. "Because, silly-filly," Lyra teased her in a sing-song voice. "magic isn't learned over night. You have a good start so far, but I wouldn't even say we've scratched the surface of teaching magic. Speaking of which you need to power down your horn sometime today" Mayberry looked down at her hooves. She was still maintaining the glow on her horn mainly because she didn't want to lose the feeling of using magic. The mare wanted to argue with the other unicorn to keep going, and even opened her mouth to say such when her stomach unleashed a vicious growl. Lyra giggled at the shocked expression on the cream-colored unicorn's face. One downside to using magic constantly when first learning is you burn through a lot of energy before you learn to control how much magic is needed to lift something. That's something only experience can teach." Lyra paused for a moment. "For example, you almost blinded both of us when you went to pick up a pebble. You don't need that much magic to do that." She picked up the pebble in her own magic. The faint mint green glow around the pebble was just strong enough to be seen as the rock floated into an upraised hoof for illustration. Mayberry blushed beneath her fur. Lyra certainly knew how to make a point. "Ah, I see" was all she was able to say. Lyra was pacing by the front door to the cabin. "Come on. We need to grab something to eat. Plus we need to grab our work assignments." Finally powering down her horn, Mayberry shifted several stubborn strands of her navy blue mane out of her eyes. "Work assignments?" She asked. Given Lyra had just shown her how much she didn't know about magic, the unicorn fervently hoped she wouldn't be assigned any tasks where she would be expected to use her magic. "Yup! Work assignments! You didn't expect to earn your keep by sitting around, learning magic do ya?" Mayberry answered Lyra's question with a roll of her eyes. "Good girl! Now let's go-" "LYRAAA!" At that moment the door to the cabin flew open, practically burst off its hinges as a new mare, similar to Mayberry in coloration except with a pink streak in her mane stomped into the cabin. The earth pony was similar to Lyra in size, but now seemed to soar over the two frightened unicorns as she stormed over to the pair, the cabin shaking each time the angry pony stabbed a hoof down. "Lyra, where in Celestia's flank, have you been all day?" She shouted. The mint unicorn quailed under her glare. "I've been tea-" The earth pony didn't let her continue. "I was out there bucking apples all day! I was hoping you'd do the same, but some of the other ponies said you went galloping off with another mare this morning! Explain yourself!" The unicorn turned to her pupil for aid in this sticky situation, but the other mare had vanished into thin air! Trying to still her pounding heart, she tried her best to explain the morning's events to her friend. "Bon-bon, I got recruited by Applejack to help another unicorn out this morning!" She blurted out, raising her hooves above her head. Bon-bon merely stared at the strange display of defense. "What do you mean 'help out'"? Bon-bon practically growled. The hidden Mayberry marveled at the concept of a growling pony. "I was helping her learn magic! She didn't know any when she showed up on the train earlier." By now Lyra had curled herself up into a defensive ball. "A unicorn that didn't know magic? You're pulling my tail aren't you?" Bon-bon asked the green furry ball with a horn poking out off to the side. "And stop doing that! By Luna's Mustache, you act like I'm going to hit you or something." Lyra slowly uncoiled herself. Glancing around the sparely decorated room, she wondered where her apprentice had gone off to. Turning her attention back to the newcomer, she answered. "I'm not kidding. This new pony rode the train in from Canterlot this morning and didn't know a lick of magic whatsoever." The earth pony's expression softened. "How'd you find this out?" Lyra chuckled as she remembered. "You know the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 8000?" Bon-bon nodded, recalling having seen the mechanical monstrosity puttering around town as the two brothers performed tests to see if it had any problems after the ride. "Well when they went to unload the thing, they came up short on ponies. Long story short, AJ recruited this unicorn to help them move the thing and instead of using magic, she tried doing it the earth pony way." Bon-bon winced. That machine was not exactly a lightweight. "She's lucky she didn't herniate an organ or something." Nodding, the unicorn soldiered on with her story. "Applejack saw everything and thought she was clowning around. And then it came out in front of the whole town, that she didn't know magic." Bon-bon's mouth dropped open. She knew Applejack was about as direct as a pony could be, but there was such thing as tact. On the other hoof, how was she supposed to know? For all the farm pony knew, it was just some full-of-themselves Canterlotian making fun of earth ponies. She shook her head and skewered her friend with a withering glare. "If all of this is true, then where is this pony that you're supposed to be teaching?" Lyra opened her mouth to say the unicorn had disappeared when Bon-bon had first shown up, then shut her mouth when she realized how stupid it sounded. It was unneeded however. As Bonbon stared at her, silhouetted by the open door, a large shadow descended quietly from the ceiling behind the earth pony. "So?" Bon-bon prodded, suspicion growing in her voice. "Where is she?" The earth pony jumped as a new voice responded. "Right behind you."