Author's Notes:

A quick not about the geography in this story:

Magi is basically just like Earth with the locations of continents. Most places are just the same but with pun names (Bullgium, Germaneigh, Eagland, Japone, etc). Equestria replaces America and the Crystal Empire (along with its surrounding arctic tundra) replaces Canada.

Minotaur currency is drachmas.

The next day (and a few carriage rides later), the two of us arrived in Taureau Hommes, the capital of Bullgium. There were way more Minotaurs than Ponies. Obviously I'd expected there to not be many Ponies, but seeing it was different to imagining it.

First, we headed over to a hotel to drop our things off and-

"Wait," said Vesper, "did God-Horse give us any money?" Shit.

"No," I replied.

"Mother bucker! What do we do now?!"

"Uh... What's the exchange rate for bits to drachmas?"

"Twenty bits to a drachma."

"What?! That's terrible! What do we do for money?!"

"I don't-!" Something behind me suddenly caught Vesper's eye. I turned to see what it was. It was a poster about the Colosseum. More importantly, written at the bottom of it was the reward money. I looked back at Vesper and we both grinned.

"One thousand drachmas should be enough, right?"

After leaving our things somewhere and covering it with a force field, we headed to the Colosseum for some fun. Signing up took no trouble, the only requirement was the knowledge of the rules; preferably don't kill, you must remain inside the Colosseum at all times and if your opponent stops moving, you win. We were soon sitting in a waiting room of sorts.

"So," I started, "when we inevitably fight, we probably shouldn't kill each other. That would be bad."

"Yeah," agreed Vesper, "we should just fight until I knock you out."

"Wait, what?"

"Cloud, you might think you're strong, but trust me, I'm way stronger than you."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. It's just fact, I know all of your patterns and you know none of mine."

"And who taught you?"

"Sky."

"Right, me from another universe. The me that has a different attack patterns."

"So? Even if your attack patterns are different, you're still much weaker than me."

"We'll see, Vesper, we'll see..."

After a couple of hours of waiting, we were separated and led into small booths similar to changing rooms. There was a selection of different weapons and armour. This gives me a pretty good idea of what I'll be going up against. Okay, how do I fight against these? Gold absorbs magic and will be hard to fight against, the best idea is to either find a gap in the armour or create one. Physically, it's weak, so hopefully that's a good deterrent against anypony (or anyone in this case) using it. Platinum armour reflects spells and is incredibly strong. Spells will still do a little damage, so I won't be powerless. It's ridiculously heavy, so anyone using it will either have to be really strong or just use a very small amount.

I won't need any weapons, my spells and my Arcane Circles will be enough for me. While on the subject of weapons, it's important to note about different speeds. Swords are faster than axes, axes are faster than maces, maces are faster than two handed swords, two handed swords are faster than two handed axes, two handed axes are faster than hammers and hammers are faster than giant clubs. Iron is good for physical defense, so I'll use a little iron body-armour for main defense. Leather would be better for me. I'm not wearing another creature's skin, that's bucked up. I strapped on some armour and stretched out my legs and neck.

The way battles worked in the Colosseum was fairly simple; two opponents would fight one-on-one in a large circular arena, the only way to ring-out was to leave the Colosseum entirely. There were no rules against using magic, but it was heavily looked down upon. If you won a match, you would continue fighting. If you lost, you would be kicked out. Simple.

Eventually, it was time for my first match. I wandered out into the battleground. There were a few blood splatters here and there, but overall it was pretty empty. On the other side of the ring approached a Minotaur covered in iron armour wielding an axe. Upon seeing me, he let out a roar and charged. As soon as he got close, I grabbed him with magic and created a little sleeping gas. He was quickly unconscious. I gently placed him on the ground and walked back into my waiting area, with the crowd yelling insults at me as I went. Seems easy enough so far.

It was finally time for my first match. I didn't have any of the shitty armour they'd prepared, all I needed was my magic. My first victim opponent was a heavily armoured Minotaur. Steel amour and a hammer. He rushed towards me. I grabbed him in a telekinetic hold and let out a torrent of fire. His armour melted and burned any flesh that the fire didn't get to first. His screams echoed through the Colosseum. After a few seconds I dropped him and trotted back to my waiting area. This'll be more fun than I thought!

The next few fights went the same general way until I went up against a Griffon wearing golden armour. He flew towards me like lightning, talons outstretched. I teleported behind him and focused my magic on the ground just in front of me, feeding it energy but not letting it release yet. The Griffon gave a mighty flap of his wings and flew towards me again. When he was in the right position, I let go of my hold on the ground beneath him. Gold may be able to stop magic, but it can't stop a stalagmite exploding out of the ground to stab you in the guts!

Every single 'fight' had gone the same way; my opponent was hit in the face with a cloud of gas and fell unconscious. You'd think at least one of them would use face protection. Even if they did, the gas would just leak past it. Oh yeah... At some point I'd taken off the armour. All it did was slow me down.

Hours later, it was time for the final battle. Unsurprisingly, it was Vesper. Who was coated in blood. For Realta's sake, Vesper...

"Here we are then," I called to her as we approached each other.

"Yep," she replied.

"Time to find out who's stronger."

"Yep. Time for you to see how much weaker you are than I am."

"We'll see." We reached each other and stopped walking. Vesper sneered.

"Even if this isn't to the death, don't expect me to go easy on you, dad." I nodded.

"Let's do this."

Vesper teleported as I summoned a Support Circle. I spun around to see a magic bolt flying towards my face. I flew upwards to avoid it and unleashed an electric beam towards her. She summoned her own Support Circle and flew around me to avoid it. I deactivated the beam and turned, only to be punched in the face. I recovered quickly and blocked her next hit with a Shield Circle, then fired my own KC punch at her. She tried blocking with a hoof, but she underestimated the power behind a Kinetic Circle. Her entire leg snapped, but even then the punch kept going to connect with her face.

Vesper's Support Circle shattered with her concentration and she fell towards the ground. Just before smashing down, she covered herself in a force field to land somewhat safer. I zoomed down to her as she healed herself. I started charging up another KC punch early, but as I went to release it she threw up a Force Barrier. Even with a Force Barrier as powerful as hers, the strength from a KC punch was far too great; my hoof effortlessly sped through it, once again meeting her face. Her head smashed into the ground, creating a pool of blood.

Quickly summoning a Support Circle, Vesper sped away from me to heal up again. She looked pretty pissed by now. She used a spell I was unfamiliar with to cover herself in blue flames, then rocketed towards me like a living fireball. A simple Shield Circle should have been plenty, but... Hm... I just had an interesting idea. Kinetic Circles can power up anything using a kinetic force and I can move Shield Circles the same way as Support Circles, so... I summoned a Shield Circle, then I summoned a Kinetic Circle in the exact same place, forcing them to merge together. I started charging the Kinetic Circle. Let's see what happens when I move a Shield Circle with the power of a Kinetic!

The fire ball was about to hit me when I released the Kinetic Circle's charge, hitting Vesper in the everything with a Shield Bash! Her magic evaporated immediately and Vesper flew back across the Colosseum, landing breathless in the dirt. I flew down to her as she barely managed to heal herself one last time, and sprayed her with sleeping gas.

Author's Note 2:
Did their fight turn out as you expected?
Was Vesper crueler than you imagined?
Do you like Cloud's new fighting move?
Say so in the comments below!