As I flapped my wings, the only thing I could focus on was trying to stay balanced.

"You've gotta really flap 'em hard!" Instructed Rainbow Dash. I nodded, and did as she instructed. I flapped them as hard as I could and- WHOA! -Forgot about balancing. I sat up on the branch I'd crashed into, dazed and winded. "Uh... Maybe not that hard..."

The girls had come to Canterlot for a visit and Rainbow Dash decided to start teaching me how to fly. I charged my horn to teleport down- No, I need to get used to flying. I uncharged my horn and attempted to glide down gracefully.

It went about as well as expected.

I spat out the mouthful of dirt and lay still, dazed. Why do Pegasi make it look so easy...? Applejack walked over to me.

"GRAPE," she complimented as she pulled me up.

"Applejack, you know you don't have to have to call me that," I replied.

"Why do you protest so?" Asked Rarity. "You've already given up wearing your crown all the time. The least you can do is embrace your new title."

"That's because having my crown with me got it stolen. Anyway, if other ponies want to address me that way, I suppose it's fine, but... Not my friends. It just doesn't feel right." I sighed. "And neither does all this flying business. The Summer Sun Celebration is only two days away, and I'm never gonna be ready to perform my part."

"Not if you spend all your time down here, you won't!" Exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "Now get up there and show everypony the big finish!" I smiled and nodded before erecting my wings. I took off and flew through the sky! Before the minute was up, I was back on the ground in pain again. Ugh...

"Wow!" Squealed Pinkie. "That was a big finish!" I groaned, my face in the dirt. Why does flying have to be so difficult...? I stood up.

"I think that's enough flying for today," I said, the world spinning a little. "And maybe the whole week..." The girls laughed. "So how are things in Ponyville?" They all answered with variations of 'good', varying from 'fine' to 'gnarf'.

"Although I don't think Cloud has left the library since we got back from the Crystal Empire a few days ago," said Rarity. He's taking it so badly...

"So Vesper's-?"

"Yeah," replied Rainbow Dash before I'd finished.

"You would be the first to know otherwise, darling," added Rarity. I sighed sadly.

"Is he even eating?" I asked.

"After Cloud let him out, Mr Watcher has been bringing him food," replied Fluttershy. I frowned in confusion.

"Who's 'Mr Watcher'?"

"Vesper's... Y'know..." ...Oh...

"Wait, how do you know?"

"I talked to him. He said he leaves trays of food by Cloud's bedroom door every few hours in the day and he finds them empty later."

"Well..." I sighed, not able to find a bright side. I did, however, find another question. "How's Watcher paying for it?"

"I gave him a job," answered Rarity. "Just as an assistant, really, but it gives me a way to help, so..." Generous as always...

"That's good..." There was a moment of quiet. "Have any of you tried to talk to him?"

"I did," said Rainbow Dash, "but he wouldn't answer the door. I even tried breaking in, but he must've done something 'cause I couldn't get in no matter what I tried." I sighed yet again. I hope he's okay...

"Come on, girls, let's head to the castle." We began walking towards the castle. If none of us can talk to him, then he'll just get more depressed... He might even... I gulped. His magic might be too strong for me to get past, so there's really nopony who can help him... It would have to take a miracle of some kind to- The idea struck me like lightning. That's it! I grinned. I know exactly who can help him!

The demon took a swing at me which I easily dodged before sliding between its legs. I spun around, threw myself into the air with a Support Circle, grabbed my golden knife with a hoof and opened up a huge slash across its back. The demon roared in pain before turning to me at a surprising speed and knocking me through the air with a mighty punch. I crashed to the ground.

I couldn't move, the pain was too unbearable. I managed to look up long enough to see the demon running towards me, its fist already prepared to finish me.

The gargantuan fist collided with my body, crushing me beyond my limit.

"Show me from a third person perspective," I ordered. The images rewound and paused on Vesper slashing the demon with a knife. They began to play and the scene was reenacted once more. The demon was about to punch Vesper. "Pause it here." The scene froze again. I walked up to the demonic fist and took a much closer look.

"This will not help," explained Dick-Horse for umpteenth time. She/he rolled his/her eyes. "Stop being an arsehole in your thoughts." I didn't answer. "And I did not even roll my eyes. If you would face me, you would know that." I ignored her and kept inspecting the fist. She sighed. "So be it." A few minutes passed as I checked a few things around the scene. I finally turned to Luna. "Princess Luna!"

"That's enough of that for now," I said, ignoring Luna's outburst.

"Oh you son of a-!"

"Explain to me again about why demons send magic replicas of themselves to the mortal realm." She sighed and rolled her eyes before explaining once again.

"A demon will pour all of its energy into creating a sentient copy of itself. The demon has little to no control over the copy, due to it being made from pure magic rather than organic matter. The copy will then go out into the mortal realm and kill as many magical creatures as it possibly can. Whenever it is successful in killing, it will absorb the energy from the creature and automatically teleport it down to Tartarus, back into its true body. The demon feeds on this energy and grows stronger from it. Demons use this method as they do not feed on chemical energy such as food and water as we do.

"As you know, a Unicorn can only hold a certain threshold of magical energy in their body and a separate, and much smaller, threshold in their horn. These thresholds can be increased by very specific training like frequently using powerful spells, charmed objects that force their threshold to increase by dangerously charging them or anything similar such as your Arcane Circles.

"A demon can increase its threshold much more easily. For example; imagine a demon that has five units of magical energy as its maximum. It is at maximum, five out of five, and it takes in one more unit of energy. A Unicorn would simply feel energised as if they had just drunk an energy drink and afterwords would feel more exhausted. A demon, on the other hoof, would immediately increase its maximum to six. From that point on, that demon would always regenerate up to six units of magical energy.

"When a demon creates a copy of itself to harvest energy, it must halve its magical energy threshold to sustain it. This makes it very risky for a powerful demon, but on the flip side, the copy would be immensely powerful. The higher a demon's magic threshold, the more psychically and magically powerful it gets.

"Only a demon's true form can be killed, a copy will break down and the demon magic will seep back to Tartarus through the ground. No, you did not break the promise to yourself when you stopped the demon in Canterlot." I scratched my chin. It all lines up, but there's one more thing I need to recheck... "What do you need?"

"There's a few books in the royal library," I explained, "some of Starswirl's; Transmutation Alpha, Beta and Delta. I need to read through them." Luna frowned slightly.

"Will they help? Could the theory you are working on truly be... Well... True?" She sounded uncertain. I nodded. "Very well. I shall have them sent to the Ponyville Library with instructions to your slave to give them to you."

"Thanks." Oh, also... "There's one more thing I need."

"Name it."

"I need you to recreate our fight a year ago." She waited before answering, as if concerned about something.

"I will not be able to greatly recreate it myself. My memories of that night are shaky as my mind was unfocused. It will most likely have large blank spots during it, just like when Ms. Overcast was... Defeated." She paused again. "However, I may be able to tap into yours to piece everything together and finish the memory."

"Do it." She nodded, the worry sliding off of her face.

"Very well. I shall send the books to you soon. For now, awaken."

I opened my eyes. I was lying on my bed exactly how I'd been before I went to sleep. The books will take some time to arrive. I should work on my Arcane Circles while I wait. I teleported my research log in front of me, holding it in the air with telekinesis, and flipped to my most recent entry. I've made a lot of progress with this log, considering I only started it about a week ago.

I had been thoroughly testing and researching all of my Arcane Circles any time I wasn't asleep. I'd made some very good improvements: My Shield Circles, rather than just blocking it, now fully absorbed any magic attack which restored my own, I could summon Razor Circles anywhere in my general vicinity now and launch them with a small Shield Bash, and finally; my Support Circles took extremely little energy to summon and sustain, flying or not.

They could still only increased my magical output by four times, but I wanted to do some testing on Earth Ponies since the time I used one on a Pegasus. When I had boosted Rainbow Dash, her Pegasus magic had only been increased by three times. It also made me curious what effects it had on other species like Diamond Dogs, Alicorns, Minotaurs and the ones I do not speak of.

Most importantly, I was working on a new Circle, one much more complicated and powerful than all of the others combined. I had the idea for it from how limited I was as a Primotaur and all the other times my regular Unicorn magic had been cut off. This Circle would give me the ultimate Arcane attack, and its name was blatantly obvious based on what it's supposed to do: The L-

A sharp knocking on my door cut off my train of thought. Most likely one of the girls again. By the process of elimination- -I can make determination on who just that might be! It's Bri-! Shut up! It should be either Pinkie or-

"Cloud?" Asked Twilight from the other side of the door. -Or Twilight. "Cloud, can you come out here?" I rolled my eyes and charged up my horn to cast a sound blocking sp- "I brought you a visitor." What? What's she talking about? I heard Twilight with somebody else mutter to each other.

"Should I just-?" Asked a voice too quiet to recognise.

"Yes, please," Twilight replied. The other Pony cleared their throat before speaking up.

"Cloud? Can I come in?" Violent? "I brought cider." Welp, can't say no to that. I took down my wards and enchantments before opening the door. Sure enough, Violent stood next to Twilight on the other side of the door with saddlebags packed to near bursting with cider. "Hello, Cloud," she greeted.

"Hey, Violent," I greeted back. "How come you're in Ponyville?"

"Princess Twilight bought me an express ticket and told me you were depressed. I wanted to talk to you about it, so... Can I come in? And talk about it?" I glanced to Twilight with a raised eyebrow. She grinned sheepishly.

"Well, since you've come all this way..." I stepped aside and motioned for her to come in, which she did, followed by Twilight. I closed the door after them and Violent handed hoofed me a cider. Bucking Primotaur terminology... I took it and took off the cap with magic. "Thanks."

"Er, can I have-?" Started Twilight.

"How are you coping with your daughter being... Y'know?" Asked Violent.

"I've been better," I sighed.

"Have you decided... Where the funeral's going to be?" I frowned in confusion.

"Why would I need a funeral?" It was Violent's turn to be confused.

"Because your daughter's... Y'know... Dead." What?

"Uh... No she's not."

"Yes she is, Cloud," said Twilight, "you're going through the first stage of grief, but you need to understand that she's... Gone."

"Twilight, stop being a dumbass." Twilight glared at me.

"Hey!"

"Vesper's not dead, she's just missing."

"Yes, but she went missing after fighting a demon."

"I know how it looks, but I've nearly solved it. I just need to check a few things about transmutation and then I should be able to figure out where she is." I took a gulp of cider.

"Cloud, you need to accept that she's-!" Violent screamed, startling us both. She was looking out of the window with a horrified expression.

"L-Look at the sky!" She cried. I looked and- Oh... Oh shit...

Author's Notes:

Demon magic spiel tl;dr:
On a very basic level, same rules as Tirek.

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Fallout 4 is released tomorrow.
It's installing right now so I can play it immediately.
Expect me to disappear for a while.
OHMYGODI'MSOEXCITEDIT'SFALLOUT4IT'SFINALLYHEREWHOO!

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The story has been updated with the new tags.