The day had finally come. After a week of interruptions varying from notebook destruction to arbitrary award ceremonies for minor feats, Twilight and Cloud were finally undisturbed, at least enough so that they could finally move on to telepathy.

“Alright,” began Twilight, “you understand the basic theory of casting, but I would like to do multiple tests: We still don’t know much about your Support Circle, but this could give us some idea of how much mental power can be converted to magic.”

“I agree,” Cloud replied, “I doubt I can cast telepathy by myself, so this will be a good way to gauge its power.”

The two of them were, as usual, in the lobby of the library. The centre of the room had been cleared as to give them space while Spike stood off to the side, ready to take notes for them.

“Okay, Cloud,” said Twilight, “please begin by trying to send me a telepathic message without the use of your Support Circle.”

Cloud steadied his breath, changed to a stance more suited for spellcasting and began channeling magic into his horn. Cloud tried to cast the spell, but his magic simply wasn't powerful enough. No!

Cloud gritted his teeth and redoubled his efforts, pouring as much magic as he could into his horn, desperately trying to fuel the spell. After a full minute of this, his horn fizzled out and his magic was expunged. He fell into a sitting position, gasping slightly.

“Dammit...” he muttered.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Twilight walked over to him and helped him up, “that was a… cute effort. In a few millennia, you might even be as strong as I was when I was twelve!” Cloud frowned.

“Oh, yeah, because it’s so easy to be Professor Neighvier!” He said snidely. Twilight snorted.

“Yes, actually…” She lit up her horn and, with very little effort, sent him a telepathic message: It really is. Cloud rolled his eyes.

“Show off.”

“Uh huh. Take a ten minute rest and try again.” And then turn my head and cough...

Four more failed attempts later, Cloud was exhausted.

“I think…” he gasped, “I think that’s about all I can do right now…” Twilight tutted.

“Amateur…” She mumbled. “Alright, go get some rest. Tomorrow we’ll begin testing with the Support Circle.” Cloud rolled his eyes before dragging himself towards the stairs. “Cloud! How many times do I have to keep telling you?! You need to use magic more! Teleport, dammit!” Cloud made a rude gesture before going back to dragging himself.

The next day, the testing continued. Everyone was back in position and ready to try again.

“Okay, Cloud,” said Twilight after doing some final checks to make sure everything was the same, “fail whenever you’re ready.”

“Eat dicks,” he casually replied, once again readying his stance. Once again, he steadied his breath, but, this time, summoned his Support Circle.

Now being boosted by the Circle, Cloud blasted magic into his horn. The telepathy spell exploded out of the end of his horn, slamming into Twilight and sending her the message: You’re a smug bastard! Twilight was pushed back slightly by the power of the spell, having not expected to succeed at all in the first place.

There were a couple of seconds of silence as Cloud dismissed the Support Circle.

“Well then,” began Twilight, “clearly that’s stronger than we anticipated.”

“Yeah,” Cloud agreed, breathing a little heavily. “That makes me much more powerful.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Twilight scoffed, “that’s still fairly basic compared to essentially anything I can do.”

“Wonderful.”

“Rest quickly, we need to see if we can reproduce the results.”

Like before, they tested it four more times. Unlike before, Cloud succeeded every time. None of the attempts were quite as violent as the first, though that was intentional.

“Looks like that confirms it,” Spike announced, writing down the results for the final test.

“Yes. You are stronger with your Support Circle boosting you,” Twilight analyzed, “however, it took you a second try to properly calibrate the boost to a level which helped you rather than hindered you.”

“Practice would fix that,” Cloud replied. “I’d need to try with a variety of spells, that way I could figure out how much to boost in any given situation. Problem is, I only know four and a half spells.” Twilight scratched her chin in thought.

“In that case, I’ll teach you a wider variety of simple, moderate and complex spells next.” She smirked. “Relative to you, of course." She chuckled at herself before returning to a serious expression. "Joking aside, this should also help build the power of your magic.” Cloud smiled.

“Good. How soon can we begin?”

“I’ll give you a book for simple spells,” Twilight continued, walking over to Spike and taking the notebook he was holding. “Before I can teach you anything stronger, I need to analyze this data and send Princess Celestia a progress report. It shouldn’t take more than a few days.”

“Wonderful.” Cloud glanced out of a window and noticed it was getting dark. “Well, I’m gonna get some sleep. I need to learn as much as I can tomorrow, not knowing many spells leaves you feeling very… defenseless.” Spike let out a quiet, dry laugh.

“And I thought I was supposed to be the baby here…” He muttered.

Cloud awoke the next day to find a dusty children’s spellbook on his bedside table. After brushing it off, he flicked through it and made note of a few spells:

Simple fire and water conjuring spells, very useful, a basic disorientation spell, okay, and a teeth whitening spell, very nice. Goodbye, dental hygiene! This doesn’t seem to affect health, it seems purely aesthetic. Maybe it’ll help me stop talking shit.

After his morning routine, Cloud went for a walk through Ponyville. He took the book with him, reading it as he walked. I’ll need to use Spike to test the disorientation spell, so I’ll save that for later. The fire and water spells seem like the most immediately useful to me, I should start with those.

As he walked, Cloud didn’t realise he was accidentally casting the fire conjuration spell as he was reading it. Why does my forehead feel so tingly? Wait- Oh shit! He managed to stop himself at the last second, but a couple of embers still escaped his horn. They fluttered through the air harmlessly, burning up after a couple of seconds. Hey! I stopped myself! Progress, woo!

“Hey!” Shouted a voice nearby. Cloud turned towards it to see a Gryphon. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“Uh…” Cloud wasn’t sure how to reply. “Almost doing something stupid but then stopping it and causing no harm in the end?”

“You almost set me on fire, dickweed!” The Griffon continued shouting.

“No, I didn’t actually. Not even slightly.”

“Fuck you!” The Griffon shoved him backwards. Cloud sighed.

“Really? We’re doing this? Wouldn’t you rather just stop being an idiot and get on with your day?”

“You wanna start something, you stick-headed freak?!”

“Not particularly,” Cloud replied simply.

“Too late, asshole!” She went to punch him, but was almost immediately stopped by Cloud slapping her brain with the disorientation spell. The Griffon blinked a few times. “I… Huh…?”

“Stop being an idiot or you’ll get Applejack’s attention,” advised Cloud. “Nobody wants that.” As he walked away, the Griffon tried to go after him, only to stumble and fall. I wonder what would happen if I tried that on Pinkie? Nothing pleasant, I imagine.

Author's Notes:

Mostly just SCIENCE(!) this chapter, but it's laying the groundwork for later stuffs.