As future me had requested, I looked more into my theory on willpower controlling the Arcane Circles. It hadn't taken long to test and it turned out that I could control the Arcane Circles through sheer willpower. They weren't very strong yet, but that would hopefully improve over time. However, there were two problems; I only had two Circles (Support and Kinetic) and had no idea how to learn more. I'd planned to try creating some myself but I couldn't yet since I wasn't anywhere near powerful enough to try.

Future me had really given me a beating, meaning every day I was waking up to aches and bruises. It was incredibly annoying, so I had learned a healing spell and was about to test it. I stared deep into a mirror, concentrating my magical energy onto my black eye. I activated the spell, causing intense heat to surround my eye. After a few seconds the heat went away, leaving me with my eye fixed and good as new. Yes!

I fixed up the rest of me and headed downstairs to get lunch. A haycon sandwich would be so good right now. As I reached the bottom of the stairs I saw that for whatever reason, the library was in a huge mess. Spike and Twilight were trying to clean it. Or rather Spike was trying to clean it while Twilight went crazy with a feather duster.

"Hurry up, Spike!" Exclaimed Twilight, "this place isn't going to clean itself!"

"It also didn't mess itself up..." Spike murmured to himself. Neither of them noticed me, so I went straight to the kitchen to make a sandwich. I got out some haycon, opened up the bread bin and- Holy shit! We're out of bread! I sprinted to the front door, crashing into it and startling the other two. "Uh... Hey, Cloud."

"Cloud, what are you doing?"

"There's no time to explain!" I yelled frantically, "there's a bread related emergency!" I fumbled with the door handle.

"What do you mean 'bread related emergency'? There's plenty of bread."

"There's only brown bread, Twilight! Brown bread!" I tore the door open and sprinted towards town square to find a bread stall.

About five hours later I returned to the library with a literal tonne of bread. White bread of course. It was already getting dark and I was tired from my bread related adventure, so I decided to go to bed and make my sandwich tomorrow instead. I stored the bread away and headed upstairs, opening my bedro- OH REALTA, GIANT INSECTS! I may or may not have shrieked, attempted to run, tripped up and fallen down the stairs.

"Cloud?" Twilight called from her and Spike's room, "what in Tartarus are you doing out there?"

"The bug lord has come for my soul!" I screamed, "hide the mares and foals!" I ran to the kitchen and yanked open the fridge. I grabbed whatever I could with my hooves (I was too panicked to use magic) and locked myself in the basement. I quickly put up some anti-insect wards on every surface I could find. If they got past the ones in my room, what good will these do?! Twilight bashed on the door.

"Cloud! What are you doing? What do you mean 'bug lord'? The only thing in your room was one of the cute creatures Fluttershy found today. I thought you'd like one as a pet, so I left one in there for you. I had to disable your anti-bug wards, sorry about that."

"Dammit, Twilight! I'm entomophobic!"

"You're what?"

"Entomophobic! I have a bug phobia!" Twilight gasped.

"Oh my Celestia! I'm so sorry, Cloud, I didn't know! I'll take it out of your room right away!"

"It doesn't matter anymore, now I know it's been there! I'm spending the night down here!"

"Okay. I'm so sorry!" Twilight went back upstairs.

It took me a long time to get to sleep that night.

The morning of the next day seemed like it was going to be good. Twilight would have gotten rid of the freakishly huge bug, I had bread to make a haycon sandwich and I hadn't even woken up bruised. So when I opened the basement door to see billions of the freakishly huge bugs eating everything, I was more than justified for passing out.

"...Oud? Cloud, are you okay?" Twilight was shaking me awake. I curled up into a ball and started crying.

"So... Many... Bugs..." I sobbed to myself.

"Oh, Celestia, I'm too late... Cloud, it's okay. They're gone now." I continued sobbing.

It took about an hour for me to calm down. There was one shining light that kept me going. One reason I could think straight. One reason to regain control of myself. There was a haycon sandwich waiting to be made! I shakily made my way to he kitchen, opened the door, saw that the bugs had eaten the bread and haycon, curled back into a ball and went back to crying. Today is the worst day...