Ch. 4
I'm learning magic! Twilight's teaching me magic!
"Ow." Derpy said as I lost my focus and the stone I was trying to levitate landed back on her head.
"Sorry, Derpy."
"Oh, no, it's ok." She smiled, far too widely to be convincing. "But... is there any way we could stop and you could try lifting the rock off the ground? It might be easier than doing it while we're walking."
She wasn't the only one losing patience with the training. "We can't stop now." Twilight insisted, stubbornness refusing to allow any changes to her method. "He'll get it. He just has to try harder."
"I've been trying for hours." I growled. This magic was ridiculous. No incantations, no special runes, nothing. The horn just glowed and it happened.
"Try it again." Twilight said, as if it was a helpful tip.
Helpful or not, I gave it another go. A pink light wrapped around my horn as I concentrated on moving the little stone. It jittered, then rose. An inch, two, three. When it got five inches up, the spell failed and it dropped again.
"God Damn It!" I screamed. Before Twilight could gasp at my vulgarity, I swiped a hoof at the stone. It flew into the bushes.
Derpy rubbed the spot where a bruise had formed. I had tried a lot. "Well, he got it to move..."
Twilight levitated a different rock into view. "You're lucky I had another, just in case."
She tried to put it on Derpy's head, but the pegasus ducked away. "Twilight' can we take a break? My head is starting to hurt."
"I'm sorry, Derpy, I didn't think. Of course we can." She lowered the rock.
"No. I'm going to get this, and we're going to keep going until I do."
Twilight turned to me. "Verdant Spark, Derpy's been literally banging her head against a rock to help you. Or, technically, the rocks been banging against her head. Regardless, Derpy deserves a break."
"Why are you so adamant about learning magic?" The Doctor had been quietly staring at his sonic screwdriver for the last few hours, so it was a bit of a surprise when he spoke up. "I assume that's why you went to Twilight first, instead of me and Derpy. Her mastery of magic. So why are you making such a big deal about not being able to do it yourself?"
"I'm not used to not being good at things."
"Don't worry about it." Derpy consoled. "There's lots of things I'm not good at, the trick is to not let them get you down."
"No offense, Derpy, but I'm not you." I immediately regretted saying that.
"Oh, well forget I said anything then. Hmph!" She turned away, in a huff.
"Look, I'm sorry, ok?" I said. "It's just... I've always been able to pick up anything I've tried really quickly. Science, games, you name it." I kicked a stick out of my way as I put words to my feelings. "It's just so frustrating to not be able to do something that a baby unicorn can do."
Twilight changed her pace so that she was side by side with me. "Verdant, you've got to remember that you're not a unicorn. And you're not even supposed to be here in Equestria. It's going to take some time to learn how to do magic, and that's if you're even physically able to do it at all."
I looked at my feet- hooves, whatever. "I know. Logically, I understand that could be the problem. Only... we don't have magic where I come from, at least none that I've seen. Here I am, finally getting a chance to do something I've wanted to do since I read my first fantasy novel, and I'm failing. I'm. Failing."
We were silent for a while, all of us. Then Derpy did what I'm sure was the kindest thing anyone's ever done for me, spotty memory aside. She trotted over to where Twilight was holding the rock and dipped her head under it. When she brought her head back up, the rock came with it, impressively balanced. Though I noticed it was in a slightly different spot. Derpy smiled. "Your horn glows and the rock moves, so you can do magic. That means you're not failing. You just haven't succeeded yet."
"Thank you, Derpy. I'm so sorry. Thank you." I gave her a big hug, knocking the stone off.
Which suddenly became irrelevant as an insistent beeping started coming from the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. "Oh, yes!" The Doctor cheered. He elatedly checked the readout.
"What's going on?" Twilight asked him, physically stopping his hoof-pumping.
He pointed at the sonic. "Before we set out, I set my screwdriver to scan for any trace of the Tardis."
"And it's picking up something." I finished for him.
"Yes, indeed!" He started running towards the signal. "Avante!"
"Avante!" Derpy echoed, this part familiar to her.
I looked at Twilight. "I don't really have a battle cry. Do you?"
She smiled and took off. "Charge!"
I shrugged and followed. "That'll work. Charge!"
Our charging led us to another clearing, a big one this time. If it wasn't surrounded by the trees of the Everfree, I would've thought it was a plain. Seriously, this forest was gigantic.
However, the scenery prevented me from appreciating the scale of it right now. Chunks of the ground was covered in what looked like hardened mucous, giving the whole area a Geiger-esque vibe. The Tardis was off to the side, wrapped in some sort of tentacles leading to some sort of... womb-thing in the center. It glowed as we approached.
I wasn't the only one to notice that. "Why is it glowing?" Derpy asked.
"It looks like it's feeding off your Tardis, somehow." Twilight observed.
"Oh... stupid, stupid, stupid Doctor!" He slapped his forehead.
"What is it, Doctor?" The princess inquired.
"The Tardis! It's full of possibilities! The potential of all that has or could happen!"
"Ok, so it's sucking up potential energy." Twilight prodded. "What's got you so twisted? We'll just disconnect it."
He grabbed her frantically. "Because, it's not just taking it from the Tardis." He gestured around us, and I finally noticed all the dead grass. "It's taking from everything in this clearing! And that now includes a time lord, one of the four most powerful ponies in Equestria, and a human that was ripped from his universe so recently that it's practically dripping off him! We can't stay here!"
Even as he said that, it was already too late. The womb-thing glowed even brighter.
Then it gave birth.