//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 - Power Drain 
// Story: Magic on Sweet Apple Acres 
// by Blade Star 
//------------------------------//

To say I don’t like Tirek, is a gross understatement. I don’t hate him, that would be far too kind. I do however, dislike him, intensely. He is, to me, nothing more than a common thief, with a serious inferiority complex, sociopathic tendencies and a real short temper.

Not so long ago, he got loose from his cell in Tartarus. He took magic from half the ponies in Equestria. That included me. I didn’t go quietly of course, but given that he had the magic of well over a hundred ponies by that point, there wasn’t much I could do, even resorting to dark magic in an effort to fight fire with fire. I lost my magic for a short time, and it was the worst feeling in the world. In all honestly, I’d rather have been dead at the time.

In the end it all worked out of course. All the magic of Equestria combined was no match for the Elements of Harmony. To them, power isn’t really an issue. He took a rainbow of friendship to the face and went back to his box, this time tied down more securely. Still, if he got out once, he could get out again. Heck, for all I know he may even try to pull something from within his confinement. He may be nuts, but he’s far from stupid. The siphon spell he used allowed him to overpower weaker beings and drain their magic. Only Twilight, with all the princesses magic combined could stand up to him.

But what if there had been a way? You see, normally, if you want to stop a spell being used on you, you need more magic than the other guy, or more nous at any rate. I couldn’t have the same amount as magic, but I could use my head. Every spell has its counter spell, and I knew there had to be one for Tirek’s little party trick. I just needed to find it.

For the next month or so, that became my pet project. I was going to find a counter to that spell if it was the last thing I ever did. If nothing else, I’d love to see the look on that bastard’s face when he realised he couldn’t hurt us.

It was slow going though. My own memory of the process was limited. It was so fast and so damn painful. Imagine having your teeth pulled out one by one. Pulling back just hurt you and accelerated the process, and doing nothing just allowed your magic to be removed. I’d tried the former, out of instinct. I’d tried to force my magic down, wrap it around something and tie it down to keep it from being taken. But the pull of the spell had been too strong.

It wasn’t until about a month or so down the line, that I finally realised what ought to have been staring me in the face the entire time. I was sitting in Twilight’s castle, pouring over old tomes and so forth. The farm was quiet for the time being; cider season was still a couple weeks away, so I found myself spending more time in the library.

It was so obvious in hindsight. You can’t beat it by pulling, and you can’t stop it by inaction. So, why not push back? Instead of trying to resist, why not actually channel more power into the spell. I was partly inspired by Thorax’s actions during the second incursion. He defeated Chrysalis, even though she was forcibly draining the love from him, threatening to leave him nothing but an empty husk. Resistance proved futile, so Starlight told him to give his love freely.

Now, in that case, it was the act of sharing love that triggered the metamorphosis and subsequent magical overload that blew up the throne and took the Hive’s roof clean off. The principle was the same. Think of it like a water pipe. You can try to reverse or block the flow all you like, eventually, the water will flow. But force too much through at once, and the pressure blows the pipe.

That, would work. Pumping too much magic would cause the spell to overload, and do some serious damage to the pony, or whoever else it might be, casting it. Even better, in theory, even a modestly powerful user could do it. Granted, the more powerful the pony, the greater the effect, but if I could do it, then the common or garden unicorn would stand a fighting chance.

I don’t think I ever galloped down those crystal hallways faster.





Tearing into the map room, and causing the double doors to bounce back on their hinges, I found Twilight, Starlight and Trixie sitting together. Any and all excitement quickly dissipated as I realised that I’d just stepped into a minefield of issues.

It’s no secret that Twilight and Trixie do not see eye to eye. While the magician may be reformed and has greatly atoned for her past deeds, she and Twilight still have a serious rivalry going on. At present the two of them were glaring at each other across the cutie map. And there was poor Starlight, stuck in the middle between her former teacher and her best friend.

“Blade Star!” she exclaimed, desperately seeking an exit from her present situation. “I didn’t realise you were studying here today.”

She quickly got up from her seat and trotted over to me.

“Erm...yeah, Ah just had a bit of a brainwave and wanted to pitch somethin’ to Twilight,” I explained, a little awkwardly. Twilight and Trixie were practically staring at each other, gnashing their teeth. Starlight turned back to the alicorn.

“Twilight?” she called. The alicorn didn’t move and continued with her staring contest. I sighed.

“What is it this time?” I asked wearily. It seems that whenever you put these two together they get into arguments.

“Twilight may or may not have found out about what happened when I tried to teach Trixie teleportation,” Starlight explained. Ah yes, Trixie had inadvertently teleported the cutie map away to parts unknown due to being distracted at the moment of casting. Well, I guess they couldn’t keep it under wraps forever.

Luckily, my arrival did eventually cause Twilight to break out of her little staring contest, and she trotted over to join Starlight.

“Hello, Blade Star,” she said brightly. “So nice to see a capable and responsible magic user around here for a change.” She cast a leer in Trixie’s direction, who only huffed in response. I did my best to distract her with my new hypothesis.

“I think I’ve finally found a way to override the siphon spell,” I explained. Twilight frowned, a little hesitant. To be fair, I’d told her this about a dozen times now, and each and every time, she’d knocked my theory down in ten seconds flat, to quote a certain pegasus. Still, like any good scientist, she was willing to entertain new theories.

“Okay. What’s the idea this time?” she asked, now more focused on me than Trixie who was still sitting at the table, and now examining the miniature map of Equestria that it projected.

“Pour more energy into the spell,” I explained. “Instead of trying to resist it, override it, or cast a counter spell, we simply overload the spell on its own. Too much energy flowing at once would blow the whole thing. Heck, that kind of energy discharge could blow a unicorn’s horn clean in half.”

I half expected Twilight to simply shake her head and tell me that such a simple solution had already been tried unsuccessfully. But to my surprise and delight, she looked to be deep in thought, and a moment later, her eyes went wide.

“Blade Star, you’re a genius!” she exclaimed, suddenly hugged me and lifting my front hooves off the ground. Sometimes she forgets the earth pony strength that comes with being an alicorn.

“Yeah, I get that a lot,” I replied, struggling to get air in. Luckily, she soon released me. “But how do we prove it works?” I asked.

“Simple,” Starlight said, jumping into the conversation. “We do a practical test.”

“But you two can’t help too much,” I replied. “You’re both more powerful than I am. In order to prove that this idea works, I’d need someone more at my magic level; a touch above the norm, but nowhere near you two mares. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to know for sure if the spell worked, or if it was just your own magic overriding it when I tried to remove your magic.”

At that moment, somepony cleared her throat, and all three of us turned to face Trixie.

“Perhaps I can help?” the showmare offered, lounging in one of the thrones. “Great and Powerful as I may be on stage, my magic is nowhere near as much as Starlight’s. And purple smart just cheats by being an alicorn.” Twilight snorted in annoyance. Starlight nodded.

“Trixie’s right,” she agreed. “You two have similar magic power levels. If you could prevent her from taking your magic, and vice versa, then we can prove the spell works.”

“Trixie won’t be losing her horn will she?” the unicorn asked with some concern.

“Don’t worry, Trixie,” I replied reassuringly, more than happy to not be on the receiving end of my new spell. “You won’t be trying to take all my magic, just a bit. Any overload will be no worse than a botched levitation spell. But are you sure you’re up for it?” The unicorn leapt to her hooves and, despite presently lacking her cape, struck a pose.

“Of course! The Great and Powerful Trixie is always happy to further the cause of magical science.”

“Great!” I said with a smile. “Try casting a siphon spell then and Ah’ll try and overload it.” There was a pause, followed by an uncomfortable silence. Off to the side, I saw Twilight grin at Trixie.

“Er...how?” Trixie asked. I facehooved.

“Oh for the love of…”





So, my experiment was somewhat delayed as I spent the next hour or so, carefully explaining the workings of the siphon spell to Trixie. Twilight, oh so helpfully, took a seat on her throne and giggled at the unicorn’s ignorance. I swear to Celestia that Trixie brings out the worst in Twilight at times.

Starlight also offered to help me out, as she had some experience of teaching Trixie spells, having taught the unicorn showmare a couple more advanced spells such as transfiguration and teleportation.

The real problem though, was Trixie herself. She’s not exactly what you’d call an ideal student. Between her pride and her overinflated ego, teaching her was more than a challenge. Don’t get me wrong, she’s very gifted when it comes to illusion magic, but I don’t think her talents really lie with this sort of thing.

Still, I wasn’t about to show the poor girl up like that. She could do the spell, I was sure of it, it would just take a bit more effort. I was reminded of the time when I was younger that I tried to learn how to use contact lenses instead of glasses. Of course, I never mastered that either.

I found myself pinching the bridge of my nose, or at least as much as I could with a hoof, in an effort to dispel my growing headache. But at least Trixie was still confident and enthusiastic.

“Alright, Trixie,” I said, opening my eyes and turning back to face her. “Let’s try this one more time and then we’ll take a break.”

Trixie was standing opposite me, a few feet away, but near enough for the spell to latch onto my magic once she finally got it working.

“Trixie is ready once again!” she declared. Ever since we started, partly to boost her confidence I think, she’d fallen back into her stage habit of talking in the third person. I sighed to myself. At least she wanted to learn.

“Okay,” I said. “Now, just like last time. Ah want you to reach out with your magic, just like a levitation spell.” Trixie powered up her horn, which glowed a soft pink colour. “Good, now close your eyes and try to focus on the magic around you. There’s three real sources of magic in this room, Twilight, Starlight and me. Ah’m the nearest, so I should show up more easily. Can ya see me?”

Trixie had her eyes screwed shut, with a look of concentration on her face.

“Yes,” she replied, sounding a little strained. “I can feel your magic.” Good, it had taken us an age just to get her senses attuned to do that.

“Now,” I went on. “My magic should feel like a coil of rope, tied down deep within me. Look for the end of the rope. The loose end.”

This would be finding my horn with her magic, as that would be the point from which the magic would be pulled. It could be done just through the body, but this was a much easier method.

“Trixie has it!” she declared after a few moments. Now we were at our present roadblock; picking up the magic and drawing it out into herself. If it wasn’t pulled directly into her, it would just blossom outward before returning to its rightful owner.

“That’s good, Trixie,” I said in an effort to sound more encouraging. “Now remember, ya need to pull my magic towards you. It’s gotta go into you, or it’ll just return to me like last time.”

At this point, Twilight, who had been reading one of her many books, joined our little lesson again. She’d been pretty quiet ever since we became bogged down at this point of the spell.

“Blade Star, are you sure you don’t want me to call my friend Moondancer?” she asked. “I’m sure she’d love to help with your experiment.” I don’t think she truly meant to be insensitive, but Trixie took that as an insult and went scarlet, and Twilight is still Twilight at times.

“Trixie is more than capable of accomplishing this spell!” she shot back, catching Twilight by surprise. And causing both Starlight and I to look shocked.

“She has already mastered taking hold of a pony’s magic. All that remains is to remove it.”

With that, she lit up her horn and, at long last activated the spell. I suppose, being a variant of dark magic, an amount of negative emotion was required in order to fully power the spell. It was something I really ought to have considered before.

In any case, Trixie finally got the hang of it. Her horn glowed brightly for a moment, before, without any command from me, my magic began to leave me. On instinct, I pulled back. Just as before, the process was painful and did little to slow it. Mind you, Trixie wasn’t drawing it nearly as quickly as Tirek had.

Recalling my own counter move, I began to willingly part with my magic, forcing it out of me, and into the beam of hot white light that was now streaming from my horn. The move seemed to work, as I heard Trixie cry out in surprise. Any moment now, the spell would overload, blow out, and shut down, and my magic would return to me.

Of course, that wasn’t what happened.

I was running on empty, my magic was almost gone. Any second now and my cutie mark would begin to fade. Even though this was only a test, I felt perfectly real fear. I can’t describe it, unless you’ve experienced such a thing, you can’t understand what it feels like to have your magic, your very soul, ripped from you.

Much to my relief, I felt the spell beginning to overload. The beam between us pulsed angrily, and Trixie’s own magic was beginning to falter as she tried to control the spell. A moment later, and it all went off. The spell overloaded and blew. There was a bright flash of light and a strong force of wind. It sent me flying backwards and I wanged my head on the cutie map. I saw stars for a moment and then the world went black.





The next thing I knew, Twilight was standing over me, with Starlight by her side. Both looked deeply concerned.

“Blade Star?” I heard Twilight say, although her voice seemed somewhat far away. “Blade Star, are you alright?”

The world slowly slid back into focus. My head was pounding and I felt pretty weak. My back certainly hurt, as did my head, both of which had taken the brunt of the impact with the map table. I blinked a few times and put a hoof to my still pounding head.

“Urgh, what happened?” I asked blearily, doing my best to sit up.

“It seems your idea worked,” Twilight explained. “But Trixie couldn’t control the cascade reaction and her magic exploded outward.”

I looked down at myself. I had no obvious injuries, and my cutie mark was still there. But I still felt quite weak. A quick check confirmed that I only had a small portion of my usual magic. Shouldn’t my spell have send it all back to me?

“My magic,” I said weakly. “I’ve only got a fraction of it. Why didn’t it flow back to me?” Twilight frowned and turned to Starlight, who in turn looked to Trixie. I was surprised by what I saw, to say the least.

The light blue unicorn was sitting there. She looked a little worse for wear. Her mane was a mess and her horn had the slightest of singe marks on its tip. At first, I didn’t even notice the change in her. It took a few moments for me to realise what had happened.

She was bigger.

Even sitting down, I could see that Trixie was now noticeably larger; around the size of Princess Celestia. Even more strangely, every now and again, her horn seemed to spark slightly, emitting a faint burst of what looked like electricity. I quickly got to my hooves, which took a bit of effort with such limited magic. I felt like I’d just run a marathon.

“What the hay happened to her?!” I exclaimed as the unicorn got up, revealing her full size and height.

“I’d say it’s an effect of taking on your magic, Blade Star,” Starlight explained. “Her body couldn’t cope with all the magic, and so the magic itself altered her to compensate. We saw the same thing happen with Tirek as he took on more and more magic.” I frowned.

“Ah always just attributed that to him bein a centaur,” I replied. “Besides, Twi here didn’t change that much and she had the magic of the alicorns coursin’ through her.”

“But Twilight is an alicorn,” Starlight explained. “Her body is designed to take on incredible amounts of magic; a unicorn isn’t.”

All three of us looked over at Trixie. She seemed a little caught off guard by the change, but seemed none the worse for wear.

“Well, in any case,” I said. “At least we know the counter works, sort of. Even if it knocks both sides down, it might give other ponies a fightin’ chance. Trixie, Ah’ll be happy to relieve y’all of your extra magic now, if ya please.” Twilight however, stepped in.

“Actually, Blade Star,” she said, “If you don’t mind, I’d like to study Trixie for a little while. I never really got a chance to experiment when I had my own magic augmented with the princesses’. I know it is a little disorientating to have such limited magic all of a sudden, but I think it would help us understand both how this spell works, and the effects of magic removal on a pony.”

I frowned at that. Trixie, at the end of the day, was not a pony I’d trust with too much magic. More to the point, I wasn’t too happy about having my own magic kept away from me. On the other hoof though, Twilight did make a couple of good points. We were very much in unknown territory. We would be foolish to not try and learn all we could from this odd mistake.

“Okay, Twilight,” I said at length, getting a wide grin from the alicorn in return. “We can try your little plan for the rest of the afternoon. But Ah don’t want to spend any longer than that without the rest of my magic. Ah feel weak as a kitten as it is.”

“Agreed,” Starlight jumped in. “We don’t want to risk harm to Trixie or Blade Star.”

“How about I take Trixie down to the park. We can do some magic practice there without being disturbed?”





Spike was kind enough to make a packed lunch for the pair of us. It was getting on for lunch time, and since Twilight wanted to run something of a long term experiment, it seemed daft to leave the castle without having something to eat. I stowed it all in a pair of saddlebags, and myself and the slightly enlarged Trixie headed out into town.

The moment we stepped out, ponies started staring. I was in two minds myself. Okay, this was a temporary issue, and Trixie still wasn’t all that powerful. But I also knew that this kind of dark magic could get addictive fast. And let’s not forget, the mare doesn’t exactly have a good record when it comes to having more power than she’s used to. I also couldn’t help but think back to that weird Inspiration Manifestation spell that had somehow got loose. Twilight had to spend ages with Princess Luna undoing all the damage it did, and we never found out who was using it.

Still, as Twilight had said, it was also an interesting opportunity, for the both of us. For myself, I felt tired, like I’d been up for a day or so. Even keeping my head up took a conscious effort. I looked over at Trixie. Walking alongside her, I was eye level with her muzzle.

“So how are ya feelin’, Trixie?” I asked as we headed for the park. The unicorn glanced down at me.

“Quite good now that you mention it,” she replied. “I feel energised, invigorated. Your magic must be quite strong. I’m sure I’ll be much better at magic now.” i nodded in agreement. Still, at least she seemed okay.

“Just promise me you won’t go mad with power or anything, okay? Twilight will have my head if this goes wrong.” Trixie let out a laugh.

“I can assure you, Blade Star, I have no intention of going on some insane rampage through town. As soon as that annoying purple smart is satisfied, I’ll be happy to return your magic to you. I’m sure this isn’t exactly comfortable for you.”

That caught me off guard. Trixie thinking of other ponies. I must be delirious from the lack of magic.

“Ah’m basically feelin’ the opposite to you,” I explained. I took a breath. Just keeping up with Trixie was difficult. “Say, do ya mind if we stop for a minute?”

The two of us stopped and I sat myself down on a nearby bench. This was damn near intolerable! Trixie’s face was one of concern.

“Are you alright, Blade Star?” she asked, sitting next to the bench and laying a comforting hoof on my back. I nodded as I struggled to catch my breath.

“Fine,” I replied. “My reduced magic means Ah’ve got much less stamina than normal. Heck, Ah bet even little Apple Bloom could pin me down now.” Trixie thought for a moment, before an idea seemed to pop into her head.

“Well then,” she said, activating her newly improved magic. “Allow Trixie to offer you some assistance.”

All of a sudden, I felt my body encased in her magic, and with little effort, she lifted me up into the air. My hooves pounded air for a moment out of reflex, before I found myself safely deposited across her back like a saddlebag.

“What the hay, Trixie?!” I exclaimed in some consternation.

“A test of my new magical potential,” Trixie explained. “Increased strength both physically and magically. You feel as if you weigh no more than a loaf of bread back there.”

Well, I certainly couldn’t self levitate myself any more, my magic was far too weak for that. I couldn’t even push myself off her back. So I resigned myself to my fate, reflecting that this was what Spike got to enjoy whenever he went anywhere with Twilight. Luckily, for the rest of the walk we didn’t run into any ponies, so there was no one to see how utterly ridiculous I looked draped over Trixie’s back like a coat.





About five minutes later, and we arrived at the park. Trixie picked out a spot by the lake, under a large oak tree. AJ and I sometimes come here with Winona when the girls organise one of their pet playdates. The collie loves bounding through the park, playing fetch. And being a collie, she never gets tired of it. Or gets the hint that I don’t want to play any more after three hours.

Trixie once again lifted me up in her boosted magic and set me down under the tree, lying down next to me a moment later. At least I didn’t feel tired any more, and I’d come up with a couple of spells for the magician to try out; ones that were typically beyond my reach, never mind her own. But with our magic combined, they ought to be possible.

Still, before that, there was the matter of lunch. Trixie informed me that she was absolutely starving. I could certainly do with the energy boost too, so we both broke out the daisy sandwiches. It certainly made me feel a bit better, although the fog didn’t lift.

As for Trixie, she actually exposed an interesting side effect of the siphon spell. We’d just finished our lunch. I was feeling somewhat better. Trixie though, seemed a little off, and scowled as the empty saddlebags which had previously held our sandwiches. As if on cue, her stomach grumbled.

“Urgh, I’m still hungry,” she complained. I looked up at that.

“Ya shouldn’t be,” I replied. “All that extra magic should’ve reduced your need for food a bit, at least for the meantime.” Trixie’s stomach grumbled again.

“We can go get something to eat from the Hay Burger if ya really want,” I offered. Trixie shook her head.

“It’s strange,” she said. “It’s not as though my stomach feels empty. I’m quite full. But I’m still hungry.” I frowned at the odd contradiction. The only thing similar to that was Prader-Willi Syndrome; an odd condition that stopped the brain receiving signals from the stomach that it was full. The symptoms Trixie was experiencing though, didn’t really match up.

A possibility occured to me as to what was causing this. And so, like any good scientist, I attempted to test my hypothesis.

“Try taking a little more magic from me,” I suggested. Trixie looked down at me, aghast.

“I can’t do that. You’ve virtually no magic left as it is.” I pressed her.

“Just activate the spell for a moment; take a drop of my magic. See if it takes the edge off.”

Trixie hesitated for a moment, before complying. This time, it wasn’t nearly as painful, since the process lasted less than a second. It didn’t have any effect on Trixie’s size either. But it did seem to prove my theory.

“That...actually helped,” Trixie said in surprise. I nodded.

“Ah thought it might,” I replied. “That there spell is dark magic; highly addictive and corruptive if overused. The hunger y’all are feelin’ is a need for magic. It sure as anythin’ explains why Tirek wanted all magic. And why the guy was completely nuts.” Trixie got to her hooves.

“Then I have to get your magic back to you as soon as possible,” she declared. “I let myself get corrupted by dark magic before. I won’t do so again!” She certainly seemed sincere.

Lifting me up in her magic, she helped me walk back to Twilight’s, rather than putting me on her back again. The brief period of novelty from this spell had entirely evaporated. Sure, we’d miss out on getting some more insights, but there was no way I fancied risking losing somepony to dark magic and end up having to banish them to Tartarus. One magic stealing lunatic was quite enough for me.





The two of us soon got back to the castle, and found Twilight organising her personal library along with Spike. The little dragon’s eyes went wide at the noticeably larger Trixie; he barely came up to her knees.

Between the two of us, we explain the risk we’d identified. Trixie needed to return my magic now, or she may well lose the willpower to do so. Twilight quickly agreed with our decision and we set to work reversing the spell; something Tirek certainly never thought about doing.

It took some work, particularly with Trixie’s new hunger getting worse all the time. But we eventually found a way to invert the flow of magic. Twilight taught Trixie the same spell the princesses had used when they temporarily gave their magic to her for safe keeping.

The process was quickly completed. The beam that previously took my magic now returned it to me, allowing me to feel alive again. My strength came back and I felt normal at last. Trixie on the other hand, had a bit of a rougher experience.

I knew something was wrong as soon as the spell finished. The poor showmare, now back to her normal size, instantly doubled up on the floor in absolute agony. I ran over to her, as did Spike and Twilight, her slight animosity towards the magician instantly forgotten.

“Trixie what’s wrong?” I asked, placing a comforting hoof on her in an attempt to get her upright.

“It hurts!” the poor mare exclaimed, clutching her stomach with both forelegs. Twilight and I looked at each other in bewilderment. It was Spike in the end who came up with an explanation.

“She’s still got that whole hunger thing from using the siphon spell,” he said. “And giving back Bones’ magic must have been like losing your lunch. She must feel like she’s starving.” Twilight quickly teleported the lot of us straight to Ponyville General.





Trixie eventually recovered about a week or so later. Still, it wasn’t pleasant. And I couldn’t help but feel responsible for her suffering. With my magic removed, she became desperate for more magic, and Twilight had to restrain her a few times just to get her into the hospital bed. They had to knock her out for the first couple of days.

Twilight said it was like a magical version of withdrawal. Her body had become accustomed to the extra magic, and with it now removed, she felt empty with just her own reserves. The spell manifested this as hunger. The only viable treatments were either allowing her to take somepony else’s magic, not something we were about to allow, since it would most likely just temporarily sate her desire if Tirek was anything to go by, or wait for her body to readjust.

And so, over the course of a week, she slowly recovered. After four days, she was awake and talking again, with only some pain. And by the end of the week, Twilight and Doctor Horse were happy for her to be discharged, under the condition she never use the siphon spell again, as withdrawal would be worse. Trixie readily agreed.

I met her when she was discharged with a few flowers from the garden back on the farm as an apology. I’d wanted to understand that spell, and try and overcome it. I never wanted to put anypony in harm’s way; certainly not what Trixie had to go through.

She was understanding though, and quite forgiving really. I’d expected her to be pretty mad at me. But the first thing she did when she saw me was hug me. And then eat the flowers I’d brought. I’ve really got to remember that ponies don’t ascribe the same meaning to them.

“It’s good to see you, Trixie,” I said as we broke apart. “I’m sorry for what happened.” Trixie smiled.

“Think nothing of it, Blade Star,” she replied with a wave of the hoof. “Trixie said she was willing to further the cause of magical science. And together, with the help of that annoying purple smart, I think we have.”

And that was when Beatrix Lulamoon and I became friends.