Chapter 10: Magic 101

Drax shook his head at the Sun Goddess. He had been trolled by Trollestia. Talk about canon fodder! "Dammit, that's not funny Princess. These damn pheromones are causing way too many problems. It's hard to know if anypony is thinking straight around me if they all wanna jump my bones the moment they get near!"

The Princess was still chuckling. "Hate to break it to ya champ, but you are wrong again. If it were pheromones, I would smell them."

"Really? You too eh?" He flopped back into his chair with a sigh. "I admit I never have been able to smell myself, only others. But then what is causing it, and why does everyone say I smell nice? Y'know, before they start acting weird around me."

"Well, while I cannot smell anything unusual coming from you, I can detect a very strong aura emanating from you." She pointed a hoof in his direction. "This may be causing the effects, and the brain interprets it as a smell. I only know about the smell thing from the letter that Twilight Sparkle sent me, since the aura does not seem to effect me." She stifled another giggle with a hoof. "I apologise, but the joke was too good to pass up."

Drax rolled his eyes. "Hmm.. makes sense. Kinda like aromatherapy, in reverse?" Pounding a fist on the table, he made a frustrated noise. "That explains why my try at changing my smell didn't work. But then, how do I control it?"

The alabaster mare shrugged. "I really can't be sure. Its magic I have never encountered before. In fact all the magic you have been doing is something I haven't encountered before."

"Yea, I keep hearing that. My theory is, since I am unaware of the rules here, this world is letting me make my own. Just as you once did when you arrived. Now you are bound by those rules, but I ain't."

She pondered, a frown crossing her muzzle. "That would make you a creator, like me." Her frown deepened. "That can't be good. I came here without a body, just a mind. You came here fully intact. There could be... consequences to you having that sort of power."

He tilted his head at her, not liking where this was going. "What kind? I mean, it's not like I'm some evil being trying to destroy the world. Although.. there is the prophecy."

The mare perked up at this, her eyes going wide. "Yes, I recall that in the letter. Something the grey pegasus pony said."

Nodding he went on. "Yes, Ditzy Doo. She said something about walking a path, and choosing to save the land or destroy it. I still dunno what it means, but I don't like it either way."

"That is strange. I have met her before, and while a bit strange, she seemed harmless enough." She pondered the ceiling as she talked, recalling the event. "She was newly made mailpony of Ponyville, and delivered her first letter to me, from the mayor. Nearly crashed through my window trying to reach the balcony. She was such a sweet thing. I offered to fix her eyes, but she refused. She said something about muffins seeing better this way."

The human chuckled at the story, remembering his own cryptic muffin message. "Yea, that sounds like her. In my world, everyone loves her, and she doesn't even have an official name yet. They only just made her a main character, because of the popularity."

"Yes, Twilight mentioned that as well. They brought back the show, and now it's about me and my new ponies." She shook her pastel mane in disbelief. "It is just so hard to grasp that."

"Meh, if it's any consolation, the new show is massively more popular than the old one." He snickered. "Although the bad news is, not everyone likes you after some of the pranks you pulled."

She merely blinked in astonishment. "Pranks? What pranks?"

Oh, well, sending your sister to the moon for starters. It's become a running gag that if anyone pisses you off they get sent to the moon." Shrugging, he went on. "And then there are things like you setting up Twilight and her friends to make a disaster of the Gala. That would have been pretty mean spirited, if it hadn't turned out like it had."

She Sun Goddess looked down at the floor, blushing. "Oh, that. Yes, I admit it was a bit cruel at their expense, but I felt it taught them a valuable lesson about friendship, and tempering your dreams with reality. " She looked back up, her abashed look gone. "As for my sister..."

Drax held up a hand. "Say no more, I understand that one. And I am sure both of you suffered for that decision." He threw his hands up. "I'm not here to judge you, Princess. In fact I don't know WHY I am here. But I know it's not to second guess how you run your kingdom." He grinned back at her. "That is, unless your next order is to send me to the moon..."

She shot him a look. "I'm not making any promises, mister!" but there was a smile behind her words, and they both laughed at the joke.

Sobering a bit, Drax was suddenly curious. "I gotta ask, was that what you tried to do to me in Ponyville?"

She suddenly looked a little scared, remembering her earlier rage and the complete lack of effect the spell had on the human. "Oh, that.. No. I actually was trying for disintegration. But it was like you just absorbed it."

"That's a bit harsh, isn't it?" he grimaced. "I mean, you are supposed to be the gentle ruler and all."

The mare sighed. "Yes, I admit, I was scared. I acted rashly to protect my ponies from what I thought was a horrible monster. The last human to visit Equestria made a mess of things. He didn't have any magic, but still managed to cause many deaths. It took a hundred years to purge the land of his memory, so my ponies could sleep in peace again." She shook her head sternly. "I was not about to allow that to happen again."

"Ouch. Sorry to hear about that. Makes me glad I am a good guy." He smiled brightly.

However the Princess was still looking at him with a grave face. "Yes, you are a good person. But I still sense a great darkness in you." She pointed a gilded hoof at his chest. "Just as your power is great, so is your darkness. And both seem to be growing." She threw her hooves wide. "I can sense the power flowing towards you. When my spell hit you, it was absorbed into you, and when you hugged me, I could feel my power being leeched away into you."

"Ugh, so what am I? A magic vampire?" He looked down at himself in disgust.

"I don't know what you are, and it will take time before we know. The power seems to be gathering very slowly. Even when you sapped my power, I could barely detect it. It may take years before anything manifests." She sighed again, seemingly weary. "In the meantime, you must be careful. Learn to control whatever it is you wield. And don't hurt anypony, or I WILL send your ass to the moon!"

Drax looked up. This time she wasn't smiling. "Umm, Yes M'am."

She nodded. "Good. As long as we understand each other, there is no reason we cannot be friends." Her smile and friendly nature reasserted itself, and she returned to the normal beloved ruler that everypony knew. "So, what do you plan to do first?"

Drax thought about this for a minute, still not sure himself. His mind and emotions were in an uproar over the recent events and he wasn't sure he could trust his own judgement at the moment. Finally he came to a decision and looked back at the waiting princess. "I want to go back to Ponyville."

She smiled brightly. "Back to your new friends? That's a good place to start."

It was his turn to look abashed, as he stared hard at the tabletop. "There's more to it than that." Pausing to formulate how to say what came next, "Last night. Something.. happened. I've only once before felt like this, and I'm still coming to terms with it."

Celestia tilted her head, a concerned look on her face. "Was it one of the ponies? What happened?"

"Well.. last night I did something rather drastic. I tried to help Pinkie Pie. In order to help her break out of the shell she had trapped herself in, I made her break down and see that she was trapped. We.. kinda bonded."

He stopped, not sure if he wanted to go on, his own feelings still in a tight knot around his stomach. "I hate when this happens. It's one of the gifts, or curses I have. Depends how you look at it. I have some small empathic ability. I can sometimes sense the emotions of people that are close to me. And sometimes, if I am very close to someone, I bond. Call it love, call it whatever. Now I am forever connected to that person. It will never go away, and all I can do is bury it deep inside me. Even if they hurt me and leave me, it stays with me forever."

The princess was still looking at him with a worried expression. "So, you mean to say?"

Letting out a massive sigh, he bit the bullet. "Yea. I think I'm in love with Pinkie Pie."

The mare burst into laughter. It was not the cruel mocking laugh he was expecting, however, but the clear merry laugh like a crash of silver bells. He looked up to see happiness, and joy in her expression.

"Soo... yer not weirded out by this? I sure as hell am."

"Why on earth would I be anything but happy?" She beamed at him "Love is not always easy to come by, and needs to be cherished when it is found. But does she feel the same?"

The human gave a wry grin. "Well ya see that's the thing. I'm pretty sure she does, because I can FEEL it. And it's her love that's partially responsible for my feeling this way. We are feeding off each other now."

She came around the table to put a hoof on his shoulder, leaning down to whisper in his ear. "And how does that feel?"

He started grinning like a maniac, and replied. "IT FEELS FRIGGIN AWESOME!" Then he threw his arms around her in a massive hug. They both enjoyed the embrace as friends, tears of joy running freely.

After a moment they separated. The Princess gave him an appraising look. "I think she is one lucky filly to have somepony like you. And I am lucky to have you as a friend in my realm. I would like to officially welcome you to Equestria."

"Thank you Princess, that means alot to me."

"Please, in Private, call me Celestia. There's no need to be so formal among friends, is there?"

"Whatever you say Celly!" He grinned.

In response, she stuck her tongue out at him and gave him a punch in the arm. "Don't go there buddy, only Luna gets to call me that!"

"Ha! So there is a button I can push! MUAHAHAHAHAHAAH!" he let out an evil laugh.

She shook a hoof under his nose, "I'm warning you! One of these days Drax, one of these days!"

Drax laughed and chimed in, "Bang! Zoom! Straight to the moon!"

They both laughed so hard they had to hold each other up.

Afterwards, he decided to demonstrate some the tricks he had invented. First he changed into his pony form. Celestia mock swooned over him and pretended to flirt. "Woohoo, what a stud you are!" She giggled like a filly as he posed and strutted. "Although, if you are going to do magic, you really should give yourself a horn. It would seem less conspicuous."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh yes, I will be one of three alicorns in the world. Not conspicuous at all! I will be lucky if they don't start addressing me as Prince Drax."

She just shrugged, "I never passed a law that there could only be two alicorns. And believe me, a unicorn with wings will draw less attention than a pegasus doing magic. It's just how ponies think."

"Well if you think so Celestia. Let's see what I can do." He concentrated a moment, before giving out a startled yelp as a large purple horn burst forth from his forehead. "Ahh.. dammit to fuckin hell, that HURT!"

Celestia snickered at the outburst, rolling her eyes at him. "Such a baby! It looks nice on you. But why purple? You are taking the color scheme a bit far aren't you?"

"Whats wrong with purple? My mane and tail are purple, and so is the underside of my wings."

"Well most unicorns have a horn that matches their coat."

He sighed and concentrated again. Suddenly the horn glowed and then seemed to fade out, to be replaced by an identical one in a gleaming onyx hue. It looked to be made of Obsidian, and glimmered slightly in the light. "There, happy now?"

"Much better, and so sexy! You make a fine looking alicorn, Drax." She thought a moment. "You better stay clear of Luna though, she might try to vamp you if she sees a male alicorn around!" She laughed again at this, ignoring his groan of disgust.

After a while showing off some other tricks he had been thinking about trying, they decided it was time to return. Most of the day had passed and it would be getting late in Ponyville soon.

Choosing to fly back to Ponyville, Celestia gave the dark stallion some pointers on flying. Not much instruction needed to be given however, as he seemed to be a natural in this form, whether in the air or on the ground. They arrived in the town just before dusk, and walked toward the library. As they knocked on the door, the portal swung open to reveal a newly arrived Spike, once again having resumed his position as Twilight's assistant.

He jumped back in shock at seeing the Princess and a dark stranger in the doorway. "Holy guacamole! Uhh.. welcome Princess, and uhh.. Hi guy-I-dont-know. My name's Spike!" Turning to yell he called up the steps of the library. "TWILIGHT! Yer gonna wanna come see this!"

The princess walked in, the dark alicorn close behind her. "Hello Spike! I hope things are treating you well. This is my new friend, Drax. I believe Twilight already knows him."

At this the purple unicorn in question came down the stairs. "Princess Celestia! Drax! What a surprise! I heard about the incident outside Sugarcube Corner this morning, and we were all worried that something terrible had happened." She looked at the dark pony. "Is everything ok Drax? I am so sorry I got the princess mad at you. If I had only known, I would have gone myself to tell her you are a good person."

The alabaster mare intervened at this. "Everything is perfectly fine, my faithful student. You did well in telling me about our guest. I, however, acted badly, and for that I am ashamed. It was ill befitting a ruler to be so harsh with visitors without first meeting them" She leaned down to nuzzle the lavender unicorn. "I hope you can forgive me for making you worry so about it."

Twilight was at a loss for words. Her teacher was apologising? "Uh ah.. that's ok Princess. I guess we all make mistakes, and it seems everything turned out fine." Here eyes went round in sudden realization. "Oh no! We need to tell Pinkie Pie! She has been crying all day, thinking you did something horrible to Drax!"

The three ponies exchanged looks, and Spike just looked confused. Drax spoke first. "Yea, I need to go to her then. Umm.. if you guys don't mind... I think I need to do this alone."

Celestia gave him a caring nuzzle, setting his eye twitching. He still wasn't used to this intimate contact, and from a god no less. She nickered at this. "Go on dear, you have alot to talk about with her. And I have alot to talk about with my student here. Especially about dangerous portal magics." she finished, with a touch of frost in her voice. Behind her, Twilight and Spike both gulped.

Drax nodded and ran out of the door. Night was beginning to fall, and he blended into the falling shadows as he sped through Ponyville. He remembered his wings, and took to the air, increasing his speed. Several pegasus ponies saw him and dodged out of his way, unwilling to interfere with the pony on a mission.

He landed in front of the bakery, seeing the lights still on, yet the store appeared closed. The sign was out, but the door was still unlocked. He let himself in, and saw there was nopony in the shop, yet he could hear sounds coming from upstairs, so he headed that way. As he approached the pink pony's room, he heard sobbing, and voices. He opened the door to see the pony of his heart sobbing into a multicolored mane belonging to Rainbow Dash.

Looking up, the two ponies set tear stained eyes on him, and merely stared for a moment. The moment was brief as the earth pony erupted off of the bed and launched herself at the startled stallion.

"DRAXY! Oh you're back! I missed you so so so so so very much! I was so worried that the princess had banished you to the moon like Luna. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come back. I was falling to itty bitty pieces afraid I would never see you again!" She stopped and returned to sobbing, as he tried to once again hold her until the crying had stopped.

Rainbow Dash had still been sitting on the bed, staring in shock. She finally snapped to, and launched her own attack on the beleaguered alicorn. "You idiot! You stupid, stupid idiot!" She punched him in the flank, making his gasp at the sudden impact. "How dare you go and make the princess angry like that! You could have gotten killed, and then we would have lost a friend!"

Drax didn't say a word, just holding out a hoof to the enraged pegasus. She threw herself into his embrace as she started to bawl as well. Together the three just held each other until the pain had passed and the tears were all shed.

Later after tears were wiped away, he finally spoke up. "I'm sorry to have scared you girls like that. The princess and I had alot to talk about, and she was none too happy that I was here." He looked into the red eyes of the two mares, staring up at him. "I didn't have time to warn anypony, and we had to go far away to talk. But everything is fine now. Me and the Princess are friends, and I am going to be staying in Ponyville awhile."

Rainbow Dash backed out of the embrace. "So everything is cool now? You arn't going home to your world?"

At this the earth pony gripped him harder, burying her face in his chest. "Nooo! You cant go Draxy waxy! We just became friends!"

He lifted her face up to look at him. "I'm not going anywhere Pinkamina. I have everything I could want right here." He pointed to his head. "And the Princess even let me wear a horn!"

At this she giggled and cheered. "Yay! Draxy is staying! We need to throw another party!"

The blue pegasus was looking at the pair in confusion. "Pinkamina?"

Drax looked up at her, "Long story. Might ask Pinkie here to tell you some time."

Dash shook her head, "Oh no, I hate long stories. But I'm glad you are back. Pinkie here was a wreck since you left, and I have been trying to make her feel better all day." She suddenly put on a serious face. "I think the two of you have some things to talk about."

He sighed. "Yes, we do. But I want you to be here to hear it too. This impacts all of us, not just me and Pinkie." He paused and looked at the party pony, who had stopped bouncing and was now looking at him with a nervous expression. "Pinkie, my dear Pinkamina. I have a confession to make. Please hear me out." He paused and the pony just nodded at him. "I have been around awhile and seen a great many things. But one thing that has been very rare and hard to find in my life, is love. There have only been a few I have ever given my heart to, and every one has hurt me for it."

He paused, very nervous. "So, umm.. what I am trying to say is, Pinkamina Diane Pie, I think I am in love with you. I don't know if you feel the same, but I feel you need to know." He looked at the earth pony, who's eyes were now big as saucers, and brimming with unshed tears again.

Once again he was tackled suddenly, and pinned to the ground as she savagely kissed him. It was several moments, which felt like and eternity as they shared their souls in the embrace of newfound love. Finally Pinkie relented, and the both came up for air. The dark pony gasped, and laughed. "Wow, I guess that would be a yes!"

Pinkie grabbed his face in her hooves and started to knead it like puddy. "Of course I love you, silly billy, Draxy Waxy poo! After you helped me, my heart was finally whole. I didn't need to act happy anymore, because I was happy. And I was happy because of YOU!" She embraced him again, and he returned the hug, stroking her kinky magenta mane.

He heard a throat being cleared, and looked up to see Rainbow Dash grinning at him, tears in her own eyes again. "Yep, still here guys."

Drax grinned back. "Yer not jealous, are you Dashie?"

The pegasus puffed up, "Who me? Hell no! Two of my friends are happy together. And besides, you may be good for a roll in the clouds, but I am too busy to be tied down with all that lovey dovey stuff. I am the best flier in Equestria, and I wont stop until everypony knows it!" She stopped and became very serious suddenly. "But if you EVER make Pinkie Pie cry again, I will BUCK you up BIG TIME mister!"

"Yea, yea. You say that now, but then you get a headache, and its yer time of the mo...OUCH!" he yelped, as the rainbow maned flier smacked him in the back of the head with a wing.