One week of practicing simple spells was enough to make Cloud feel less defenseless. It hadn’t been difficult at all for him to master the entire book, meaning that he now knew a fair variety of spells. These included basic fire, water and electricity conjuration, a teeth whitening spell, a disorientation spell, an illumination spell, a heat detection spell and a voice amplification spell. While he didn’t see uses for all of them, he had figured that it was a better idea to know and practice them, though not needing them, rather than not knowing them, getting less magical practice and needing them.

It was the day after Cloud had finished learning the basic spells Twilight had given him. He had just teleported downstairs to the kitchen and had begun making breakfast when Twilight, sitting at the table with a newspaper, a mug of coffee and a plate of toast, greeted him.

“Good morning, Cloud,” Twilight called over.

“Good morning, Twilight,” Cloud replied.

“No sarcastic comment? I’m surprised.”

“Too early,” Cloud said, slightly groggily, shaking his head. “I finished learning those basic spells yesterday.”

“It took you a week?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow. Cloud rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, joke’s getting old. Anyway, the electricity conjuring was the easiest by far.”

“Then you probably have a magical unbalancing towards electrical magic.”

“Magical unbalancing…?” Cloud paused for a moment. Where have I heard that-? Oh! “I think I read about that a while ago - the book referred to ‘magical flavouring’?” Twilight snorted somewhat snobbishly.

“A childish term,” she began, “but yes, that’s what I’m talking about. Imagine a colour wheel, if you will.”

“Alright.”

“The centre is white; a mixture of all colours. If you go any distance from the centre, you will end up with some kind of tint. Magical purity is similar; pure magic is a mixture of all magic. Everything cancels out something else, so you end up with neutral magic. Ninety nine percent of Unicorns have a ‘tint’ or ‘flavour’ of some kind, so their magic is slightly more of one element than any other. Yours seems to be electricity.”

“Good to know,” said Cloud. “What’s your ‘flavour’?” Twilight smirked.

“I don’t have one, obviously,” she bragged, “my talent is pure magic, so don’t have, and have never had, any kind of tint.” Twilight closed her eyes, feeling proud of herself. Cloud made a rude gesture. I saw that, she thought at him telepathically.

“Any interesting news?” Cloud asked, trying to change the subject as he made breakfast.

“There’s still a big deal being made about those supposedly counterfeit storm clouds,” Twilight said after taking a gulp from her coffee. “Personally I think it’s an insurance scam, they still haven’t cleared them yet.” As she talked, Cloud poured himself a bowl of HorseBalls™. “There isn’t much else going on; the Canterlot ‘riots’ have decreased somewhat and there are some monster migrations happening close to Ponyville.”

“You really have to question why people would build a town directly next to an incredibly dangerous forest,” commented Cloud, opening the fridge. “Ah, crap, we’re out of milk.”

“There’s a bag of money in my room,” said Twilight, not looking up from her paper.

“Thanks. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Have fun.”

Cloud left with money to get some milk.

On the way to the grocery store, Cloud spotted Spike talking to a couple of young Unicorns. Approaching them, he overheard some of their conversation.

“They say that she’s got more magical powers than any other Unicorn ever!” Exclaimed one of the Unicorns.

“What?” Spike asked. “That’s impossible! There’s no way she’s stronger than Twilight.”

“Hey, Spike,” Cloud greeted. “Who’re you talking about?” Spike looked towards him.

“Hey, Cloud. Apparently there’s a new Unicorn in town that knows more than three spells.”

“I heard she knows four!” Exclaimed the other young Unicorn.

“That’s… nice?” Cloud replied. He looked back at Spike. “Are normal Unicorns usually that bad at learning spells?”

“Not really,” said Spike. “Most just don’t bother to study magic.”

“Huh.” He looked to the Unicorns again. “Where is this Unicorn?”

“She’s in the town square!” One of them exclaimed. “Come on!” He ran past Cloud and the other quickly followed. Eh, what the hell. Cloud ran after them, Spike not far behind him

Cloud and Spike reached the town square and saw a Gypsy caravan surrounded by, what else, a crowd.

“Come one! Come all!” Announced an amplified voice from inside the caravan. “Come and witness the amazing magic,” as the voice spoke, the caravan unfolded into a stage, “of the great and powerful Trixie!” There was a loud bang, a cloud of smoke and a sparkle before a mare in a wizard’s hat and cape appeared. “Watch in awe as the great and powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by Pony eyes!”

“Oh,” said Cloud, somewhat disappointed, “just a magic show.” I’m not sure what I was expecting, thinking back on it. Back to buying milk. He turned to leave, but one of the young Unicorns Spike had been speaking to earlier decided to yell something that stopped him.

“Trixie truly is the most talented, the most magical, the most awesome Unicorn in Ponyville!” The Unicorn yelled. Cloud turned back around to see the Unicorn on stage looking extraordinarily proud of herself. Yeah, no, the idiots in this town will believe anything, I’m not letting them believe that.

It seemed that he was wrong, however, as other Ponies muttering in the crowd didn’t sound so sure.

“Don’t believe the great and powerful Trixie?” She asked the crowd, chuckling. “Well then, I hereby challenge you, Ponyvillians: Anything you can do, I can do better! Any takers? Anyone? Hm? Or is Trixie destined to be the greatest equine who has ever lived!?” She laughed, setting off fireworks planted backstage. As the fireworks finished, Cloud teleported onto the stage.

“Yeah, okay,” he answered.

“Oh!” Trixie exclaimed. “A challenger! Well then, Sir! What do you think you can do that the great Trixie can’t?!”

“I can fly.” Cloud summoned his Support Circle and hovered a metre off of the ground.

“Hah! Pathetic!” Trixie focused for a moment, then lifted herself into the air with telekinesis. “This simpleton thinks he can best me with the simplest of tricks!” The crowd laughed. Cloud sighed. Fine.

Cloud channeled his magic and cast his disorientation spell, but Trixie cast a counter spell. The two spells clashed, both Unicorns fighting for power. Cloud was about to boost himself using his Support Circle, when Trixie pulled some dirt out of a pocket and threw it into his eyes. Agh! What the crap?!

The dust broke his concentration and Trixie countered his disorientation spell, sending it right back at him. Cloud felt his brain be slapped by magic, making him completely lose focus. What happened next was something he didn’t expect: Instead of being dismissed in its usual way, his Support Circle shattered underneath him, breaking into pieces which dissolved into sparkles of magic and vanished. He didn’t have time to think about it, however, as he immediately fell to the ground and smacked his head against the ground. Fuck! Ow!

Trixie laughed, still hovering in the air.

“You see?!” She asked the crowd. “There’s nothing the great and powerful Trixie cannot do!” Cloud grit his teeth in anger, losing control of his emotions.

“Oh yeah?!” He shouted as his horn began to glow red. “Try countering this!” He was about to fire a magic bolt at her, but he suddenly found himself inside the library. W-What? Twilight quickly teleported in front of him.

“Dammit, Cloud!” Twilight growled. “What the Tartarus were you about to do?!”

“Vent anger!” He shouted. “In what kind of magic show does the host laugh when an audience member get concussed?!”

“A terrible magic show that barely involves magic!” Twilight shouted back. “But that’s no excuse to attack her! You could have done some serious damage to her!”

“I know! That was the intention!”

Twilight slapped him.

There was silence that felt like an eternity.

“You need to stay in control of your emotions!” Twilight shouted, breaking the silence. “You’re going to seriously hurt someone if you keep being so reckless!”

“Fuck you, Twilight!” Cloud bellowed. “You’re just as bad as that bitch out there! You act all high and mighty now, but you brag just as much! Hell, you brag more!”

“So, what, are you going to attack me now?!”

“I was only going to attack her because she attacked me first!”

“Bullshit!” Twilight pushed him. “I saw what you were doing! You were trying to do the exact same thing to her! I bet you would’ve acted the same way if you’d succeeded too, you goddamn hypocrite!”

“Oh, so I’m the hypocrite?! You keep going on about me attacking her, but what have you been doing this whole time?!” Cloud pushed her back. Twilight snarled before blasting him with a wave of telekinesis, powerful enough to send him flying into the bookcase behind him. She suddenly calmed down somewhat, realising what she’d done.

“Oh my god, Cloud, I’m so sorry!” Twilight rushed over to him, trying to help him up, panicking as she saw he was bleeding from his right temple.

“Get the fuck away from me!” Cloud snarled, pushing her away and getting up himself. He stormed towards the front door before turning back to her one last time. “You’re a fucking freak!” He turned back and left, slamming the door behind him and leaving Twilight alone.

Author's Notes:

Drama!