Craig slumped into his beanbag chair, the burden of his day job all but vanished for the day. A faint electronic buzz hummed through the air for a moment as Twilight's image rematerialized beside him.

"Hey." The man began, setting the TV remote down, "I thought you were gonna stay away from magic?"

Twilight's image shook her head, a faint fizzle flashing through the translucent mirage. "No, you said that. I only agreed to it temporarily."

Craig frowned. "Aren't you worried that whatever... uh, magic you still have might eventually fade away though?"

Once again, Twilight shook her head. "I don't believe that is able to happen, even in this form." She began, "My magic naturally replenishes itself over time, so all I require is a long rest after each time I use a powerful spell."

"...Oh. Oh yeah." Craig nodded, reaching again for the TV remote. "So... any specific reason why you reappeared just now?"

"Eh, it just feels more natural to have your own physical representation than it is to be cooped-up in somebody else's mind."

The man nodded again, aimlessly flicking through channels as he stifled a yawn.

"Tired?"

"Yeah." He yawned again, settling on a news channel. "A day's work does that to you."

Training

Author's Notes:

At this point, the heavily slice-of-life plot of this story is pretty much breaking down. This'll likely be one of the last chapters before I wrap things up for good.

Craig awoke to a blazing lavender fireball in the middle of the room.

"Ah," he yawned, "it's time to wake up, isn't it?"

As he braced himself for a self-inflicted pinch in the arm, Twilight's projection materialized before him. "Craig, you're awake," she assured, "you don't need to panic. I'm just doing some training exercises."

"Training exercises?!" Craig shouted, motioning at the fireball, "That's a freakin' training exercise?!"

"...Yeah?"

Craig stared back at the fireball, mouth agape.

"It's not so much of a fireball, so to say..." Twilight began, cantering towards the spell and sticking a hoof in. "It's more of a dimensional gateway of sorts. Y'know, so that I can go back home?"

"Home?"

"I can't stay here forever, Craig. You know that, don't you?"

Craig nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I do."

Silence in My Head

Craig yawned loudly as he lazily tossed the messy sheets off his body. The sun was still hanging low in the sky, and the alarm was ringing quite loudly.

"Urk." He groaned, rubbing his eyes as he sat up in bed.

Wait... I'm in bed?

He turned to the alarm blaring beside him.

Only eight o' clock?

His eye fell upon a note sitting on his nightstand.

Craig,

By the time you are reading this, I will already have returned to Equestria. You fell asleep on your couch again last night, so I moved you to your room before leaving. I have also set your alarm to go off earlier, so that you'd hopefully avoid any future problems with your tardiness at work.

-Twilight

Craig yawned again, scratching his side as he stood up.

He had a long day of work ahead of him.