Chapter 12

Magic 101

The day after adopting Weiss into the family, dad decided to disappear for a bit. I just assumed he wanted to explore the town, so I left him to his own devices. Meanwhile, I was being bored to death by Twilight blabbering on about the history of magic, rather than the practice and application.

"Um, Twilight? I get that history is an important part of many things in society, what with not repeating the mistakes of our ancestors and all, but I absorbed some seriously BOMBASTIC power, and I'd rather get a handle on it BEFORE I accidentally blow something up when I sneeze, okay?!"

She was a little taken aback by my outburst, but continued to what I was hoping to hear. "I was just about to get to that. From what you told me yesterday, it looks like we'll need to skip a few steps in order to get this new power of yours under control, and to do that, we'll need to do some tests."

After she said that, I pulled a lab coat and goggles out of nowhere. "FOR SCIENCE!" I yelled while pointing dramatically into the air before jumping out the window again.

"Travis! I just replaced that window!" She yelled as I ran toward the outskirts of town. Turning around on the spot, I stopped and yelled back at her. "It was sacrificed in the name of SCIENCE!"

(5 Minutes Later)

"Are you calm now?" Twilight asked me. I sat in my lab coat on the ground with my hands folded neatly in my lap, indicating that I had indeed calmed down.

"Alright then. Now, considering the nature of your magic, I'd expect it to be something like Discord's. In retrospect, this actually matches your personality pretty well, considering all the random stuff you pulled off since you got here. But at the same time, you have something Discord lacked. Natural balance."

She began to pace around me, like a predator observing her prey. "Princess Celestia told me that Discord was naturally chaotic, his magic allowing flagrant disregard for the world around him, and the laws of physics. And you once told me that humans were either chaotic, lawful, or both depending on many different variables in the singular lives of others." It was here that she stopped and just stared straight into my very being. In all honesty, it was kinda nerve-wrecking.

"So now we just need you to focus on what it is that you want your magic to do. Starting from scratch, we'll work on levitation and go from there. Now pick up that stick." Twilight pointed a hoof at a nearby piece of broken tree arm. Honestly, with what I had done earlier in my battle alongside Bedlam, I should have felt a little insulted; but the fight had happened in my head, so I really shouldn't complain. All those cool things we did were fueled by my mental creativity and will to win, but now I was in the physical world, so practice makes perfect.

Taking a deep breath, I stared down the stick and thought of lifting it up, and before I knew it, it floated into my hand. I honestly thought it would've taken more effort on my first try, so I gave Twilight a deadpan look. "Maybe we should try something a little harder."

Next, we headed to Sweet Apple Acres, hoping to get some old cans from Applejack for a little target practice. Luckily, she had a few empty Cream Corn cans, which Twilight promptly set up on one of the farms many fences. "Now all you need to do is gather your power into a single point, aim, and release. Simple, right?"

She said that, but after blasting the cans into oblivion after one shot, getting blown back by the force of the explosion, and Applejack landing on my face after flying through the air, I couldn't help but be a little snarky. "Any other bright ideas, Ms. Twinkle Butt?" I mumbled into Applejack's belly, causing her to giggle before I perched her on my shoulders like I would for Applebloom or her friends. At first she was a bit put off, but being so high up kinda changed her mind. "Hoo-wee! Applebloom was right. This is a pretty darn good view from up here!"

I instantly remembered something about being paid to have ponies on my head and shoulders, and my eyes changed to bit signs before a fez dropped onto my head, cutting off AJ's view slightly. "Giving ponies a princess height eye view? I could sell this!" But before I could think about making money for being taller than everypony else, Twilight cleared her throat, making me break out of my fantasy of swimming in a pool of bits.

"Let's try something else, shall we?"

After helping AJ repair the part of the fence I blew up, we were on our way again. While lifting and blowing things up had been an experience and a half, Twilight thought a little more "control" was necessary, and so she decided to head back to the library, hoping to find a book on reigning in overwhelming power. Though it was highly unlikely, I was hoping she would find something, or anything at all that could help me NOT blow up something on accident.

After watching Twilight search for the right book, I decided to do a little reading of my own and came across an interesting graphic novel that was wedged between some encyclopedias. It was called Draco Iron-Claw: Blacksmith for Hire. The art was a little rough at first, but as I read on about this Dragon and his adventures across another world, I couldn't help but crack a smile at the humor, wonder about who killed the butler of his half-pony sister-in-law, or gasp in horror when he lost his leg fighting a rival blacksmith atop an enormous airship. But even the loss of his leg didn't keep him down for long. Draco had fashioned together a prosthetic replacement, and it looked amazingly realistic; though he still needed to use a cane when he walked.

I was so caught up in the story that I almost missed the idea that was buzzing around in my head. Luckily, Sigma was on it as she analyzed the idea and measured the chances of a positive outcome based on the current knowledge I had about magic. And THAT was when I heard the ding in my brain. "Twilight! I've got an idea!"

She turned to look at me, and put a hoof to her mouth to stifle what I assumed was laughter. "Well, you certainly know how to show it."

"Whatchu talkin' about, Twilight?"

She pointed above me, making me look directly into the brightness of a lightbulb, floating over my noggin like it owned the airspace above my thinking box. I quickly grabbed said lightbulb by an attached chain and turned it off before throwing it into a nearby waste basket.

"What I need is a focus! Unicorns have their horns, which was specifically designed by natural evolution to channel magical energies. All I need is something to focus my magic through; which begs the question of what, right? Well how about…"

But as the words left my mouth, Fluttershy slammed open the door and ran in, causing Weiss to jump and hide behind my leg. "Oh goodness! I'm sorry, but you won't believe what I just found outside Ponyville!"

My snark came back at just the right time. "Good! Thanks for the heads up."

"No, really! It was huge, fluffy, and-" She didn't get to finish, as a huge snout lodged itself in the library doorway, sniffing inside like an invasive pig who found your private truffle bucket. But this was no pig snout. Twas canine in nature, and I knew only one dog big enough to have a sniffer that big. Weiss was curious of this large invader, so she decided to walk up and poke it with her paws, the result being a clear doorway, followed shortly by dad coming in. "Hey guys! Guess who I brought with me?!"

Twilight ran outside with myself, Spike, and Weiss close behind. Towering over us in all her fluffy glory was Millie; still giant, and still a Malamute. A crowd soon formed around the library, wondering and murmuring about the giant dog that walked into town out of nowhere. I gestured to Millie with one hand and looked at dad with a face that said "Why?"

His answer was not what I was expecting. "I wanted my fluffy cuddle buddy back!" He exclaimed with tears streaming down his cheeks, before burying his face in her fur.

A childish response, but I had a stuffed fox I slept with, and I'm technically too old for that sort of thing, so I didn't have much room to talk. Still, watching a grown man crying into the side of a dog taller than most of the buildings in town wasn't something you see every day. By the time he was done, I had already set a soap box up for him, knowing that theatrics probably ran in the family, and I was right.

"Gentlemen…BEHOLD! Millie!" This exclamation was followed by Millie making a cute whining noise, which caused the gathered crowd of ponies to respond in varied expressions of awe. Fluttershy was just having a field day after getting Millie to lie belly up. Of course, I couldn't blame her with how fluffy the dog was. Anyone would fall prey to Millie's unexplainable charms and temptations of belly rubs.

As nice of a distraction as this was, I had to get back to work on the whole 'Catastrophic Magic' issue, so time to shut down the impromptu show.

"Okay everypony, nothing to see here, just another giant creature of another species, nothing to see here, move along!" As I shouted, I couldn't help but do an impression of Officer Barbrady from South Park.

After the crowd dispersed, I began to head back inside, but was stopped by a hand on my shoulder. "What, no hug for your old man?"

"I'm not quite at the stage where I'm ready to give out hugs all willy-nilly yet. And how the heck did you get through the portal back to Earth without me? I'm basically the key that keeps it locked in a pocket dimension."

"Heh…well between me and you're mother, you're made up of combined traits and DNA from both sides, and apparently, that's enough to trick your fancy magic to let me through without you being involved."

I couldn't help but face-palm at his attempt to make logical sense. "That is the most bull explanation I've ever heard…of all time."

"Hey, it advances the plot, so suck it up, junior."

Without warning, Millie gave me a big sloppy dog kiss, causing everyone present to laugh at my body now looking like I had come out from a faulty carwash. "And while we're on the subject, how did you get Millie back here? She's too big for any door in the house or the tram. What, did you use a Shrink Gun or something?"

His reply showed me where I get my snark from. "Does a man in an orange afro kick people in the groin?"

I wasn't sure how to answer that, so I just sighed at the ground in defeat. His laughter brought me back from the edge of self-pity. "Anything else you would like to surprise us with, oh 'father of many tricks up his sleeve'?"

Once again, without warning, dad had climbed atop Millie and threw a large case my way, knocking the wind out of me after toppling me to the ground. "Yeah, would you mind looking after my cane collection while I'm gone? I only needed this one, and the rest would have been dead weight!" He yelled from atop his fluffy steed, holding an eerily familiar cane aloft. "Anyway, I'm off to find the pony in charge and see if I can find some work! See you in the funny papers! Hi Ho Millie, AWAY!" And with as much class as a giant dog could muster, Millie slowly padded her way across town, heading to Canterlot.

"Your dad is weird." Said Twilight. I was inclined to believe her. I opened the case to find several canes of varying designs, and a note was attached to a 3 foot long white one, accented by three black dots atop the handle. The note read as such:

Dear Travis,

In case you are wondering why I have a cane collection in the first place, well…I just fancy them, and they can be pretty useful in a lot of different situations. THAT, and the fact that my hobby inspired an old friend of mine to create a game series inspired by yours truly. I even let him use our original family name for the main character! Now comes the part where you take a wild guess, but considering you're my son, you've probably already put two and two together. Anyway, I'll be gone a while, so feel free to borrow one or two of these bad boys for yourself. Take care!

Love,

Dad

Picking up the aforementioned cane, I thanked my lucky stars that opportunity had dropped a present my way; not to mention my family name turned out to imply a lot more about my dad than I thought I knew. Turning to Twilight, I silently led her back inside the library. If my theory was correct, this cane would be just what I needed to keep my magic under control without any nasty surprises.

Thus continued my first day training as Travis Cooper.

AUTHOR'S NOTE!
I'm not Dead! Just being busy job hunting is all. I should have the next one done by the end of the month or the middle of the next, if time permits.