I'd made a lot of progress towards being able to cast the aging spell, but I still had a very long way to go. Luckily for me, I only had to get to a quarter of the spell's power since I could quadruple my magical abilities with a Support Circle. On the other hoof, I would still need the power to age Vesper five point two five years and I could barely age things one point three years before I ran out of magic and collapsed.

Twilight came up with a theory based around casting the one point five years over and over rather than getting strong enough to cast the five point two five. I tried it on the fruit I was testing and practicing on, but the spell seemed to short out after a day and reset back to the original age.

This meant a lot of bad things: First of all; even if I did succeed in aging Vesper back to twenty one, the spell would wear off the next day and she'd go back to being an infant. Two; something I've forgotten at the time of thinking this. Why do I even bucking try? What else am I supposed to do if I suddenly forget where I'm going with lists? Improvise! I did! Yeah, badly! Would I just let me continue?! Fine! Do my stupid thought monolouging! See if I care!

However, Twilight came up with another theory to make that work: If I made Vesper twenty one for a day, she could collect some of her DNA an take it to Zecora to make a transformation potion with the adult DNA (the plan would also work if Vesper took the DNA herself of course). Then, even when the DNA reverted to foal DNA, the potion would be locked onto Vesper's adult form and would finally set her back to normal.

I was in the main room of the library and was about to start practicing when Rainbow burst through the front door and tackled me to the floor.

"Cloud!" She exclaimed, looking frantic. "Co-!"

"It was Luna's fault!" I blurted out. "She was making me have those dreams! Whatever they told you was-! Well, probably true, but-!"

"What are you talking about?" She looked confused.

"The dreams about- Wait, what are you talking about?" She looked frantic again.

"Trixie's back!"

"Who?"

"Trixie!" I thought about it for a few seconds.

"Not ringing any bells."

"She came here about a year ago and started showing off and humiliating Ponies?" I shook my head. "You showed her up by getting Princess Celestia to say that you defeated Nightmare Moon?" I shook my head again. "She had a stupid hat?" I grinned.

"Oh! Now I remember her!" I laughed at the memory of the stupid hat. "She was dressed so stupidly!"

"Well now she's back and terrorising Ponies with her magic!"

"Huh. Okay, I'll deal with her. One thing first though."

"What?"

"Could you get off?" Rainbow's eyes widened.

"Y-You want me to do what?!"

"Get off so I can get up." She blushed.

"A-Are you saying y-you want to-?"

"I can't stand while you're on top of me!"

"Oh! Oh! Right!" She flew off of me and landed next to me. I stood up. I started walking towards the door, but stopped and turned to her.

"Wait, what did you think I was telling you to do?" Her blush deepened and she looked at the floor.

"Uh... N-Nothing!"

"But-"

"Gotta-go-bye!" She whizzed past me and flew off into the sky. The buck was that about?

I arrived at Town Hall just in time to see Rarity get zapped by a laser, creating an ugly dress on her. She said something dramatic and fell over onto the waiting back of Applejack who carried her off. Pinkie followed them. There was a crowd of Ponies around, and not one of them had a stupid hat on.

"So!" I called out. "Which one of you is Trixie?!"

"Well, well, well," snarked the snarkiest snark that I'd ever snarked since snark. What the buck did that even mean?! Trixie was wearing a black cloak and an amulet of some kind. "If it isn't Cloud Calculation!" The crowd gasped.

"Holy shit! I really am me!" Trixie ignored me. Two colts on the crowd started bowing.

"Welcome back," said one of them, "oh great and powerful Trixie!" She turned to them.

"You two!" She barked out. "Quiet!" She fired a laser towards them but instead of hitting them, it hit a Shield Circle I summoned in front of them. She turned back to me with a furrowed brow.

"You seem a little stronger than last time," I observed out loud. "That, combined with the fact that your magic aura's colour has changed, makes me think that you didn't get stronger through normal means. Am I right?" She grinned with her brow still furrowed.

"How very observant of you! It's true, my great and powerful magic wasn't gained through a means any normal Unicorn would usually consider, but don't think for a second that I'm telling you my secret!"

"Uh huh, sure." I cast a magic detection spell. The amulet around her neck was radiating dangerous amounts of magic, most of which was seeping into her. Interesting... I deactivated the spell and charged up my horn. "I'm only going to say this once; stop terrorising Ponies, give me that amulet and apologise for what you've done so far or I'll beat the shit out of you. Or just knock you out with gas. One of those two. Maybe even both."

"How about we settle things with a magic duel? If you win I'll do as you say, but if I win; you have to leave Ponyville! Forever!"

"Yeah okay, that works pretty nicely."

"Excellent!" She stared at me dramatically for a while.

"So are we gonna-?"

"Draw!" She threw a carriage at a group of Ponies in the crowd, who ran off screaming. One mare tripped and screamed as the carriage was about to hit her. I threw a Detonation Razor at it, blasting it away from her. I turned back to Trixie.

"Why are you attacking random Ponies? I thought we were fighting?" She ignored me and threw six pies at me. I held up a pie of my own, particularly one of the Pinkie variety. Pinkie opened her mouth wider than what should be possible and swallowed all six whole. I teleported her back to the crowd. Suddenly, a shadow appeared above me. I looked up to see loads of snow being held by magic. Has she never been in a magic fight before or something? I blasted it with fire and melted it before it could even hit the ground. My turn.

I summoned four Shield Circles around her and one above her, making her trapped. I was about to fill the Shield Cube with sleeping gas but before I could, Trixie pulled a few shiny needles out of her cloak and threw some at every Shield Circle, causing them to- Wait, what?! The five Shield Circles shattered as the needles impacted them. Trixie laughed.

"You didn't think that I'd come here to challenge you to a magic duel without researching you first, did you?" She asked.

"How the hell did you-?!" I counter-asked before getting cut off.

"Half-golden needles!"

"What?"

"Half of the needle is gold, the other half is... Uh... Whatever needles are normally made from!"

"High carbon steel?" Asked Rarity, who had now recovered and joined the crowd.

"Yes! What she said!"

"But why didn't you just use gold plated needles? They're not that uncommon."

"Probably so she can lift them with telekinesis," I answered.

"Quiet, both of you!" Exclaimed Trixie. "Now that I have defeated the concept of your, uh..."

"Arcane Circles."

"Shut up! Now that I've defeated the concept of your Arcane Circles, there is no way that you can defend yourself!"

"You realise that I invented my own version of a force field spell weeks before we met last time?"

"Well if you're so good at magic, then why don't you try and fix this?!" She spun around to Applejack, who happened to be nearby, and zapped her with- Oh buck me. Was there really any other spell that could have been? Applejack sat on the ground as a foal. "If you're so good, then age that dirt kicker twenty one years!" And it's exactly the amount I know I can't do! Amazing! Thanks, universe! I heard a gasp from the crowd and a spangly poof.

"Cloud!" Called Twilight. "I just realised something!"

"What?!" I called back.

"The energy stabiliser! It manipulates energy at the same amount as your Support Circle!"

"You've already established that!"

"Yes! But it works outside of the equation!"

"What the buck does that mean?!"

"If you use it after powering up, it'll quadruple the new answer!"

"So?!"

"Oh for... Think of what the new answer is, times four!" Uh... One point three times four is five point two, making that the 'new answer'. Five point two times four is- Twenty point eight! That's probably good enough! I grinned.

"Where is it?!"

"Right here!" Twilight threw the energy stabiliser (still magically welded to the guard helmet) out of the crowd and towards me. I teleported it into my hooves.

"What were you two talking about?!" Frantically asked Trixie. "What is that thing?!" I turned back to her, my grin still on my face.

"The means to your defeat!" I answered, readying my stance and charging my horn. I summoned a Support Circle and powered myself up, quadrupling my magic power. Then I put on the energy stabiliser, quadrupling it again. H-Holy shit! It feels like my brain's gonna split in half! My knees buckled slightly as the pain got worse. This is bucking agony! Unable to take it for much longer, I fired out my magic towards Applejack, quickly aging her back to near enough her original age. The crowd was silent.

"Now buck off!" I barely managed to say. "And leave that amulet here!"

"I-I don't believe this!" Exclaimed Trixie. "That spell can only be cast by the highest level Unicorns!"

"I am the highest level Unicorn, bitch!" Trixie huffed out of stress. She threw the amulet to the floor and ran away.

The crowd started cheering. It was hard to tell though, since my head was SCREAMING WITH THE FORCE OF A THOUSAND SUNS HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO PAINFUL AAAGGGGHHHHH-

Then I blacked out.