When it came to solving magic based problems, there was really only one woman for the job. With my infantile grasp of using my chi and my lackluster knowledge of the mechanics behind magic I had no hope of coming up with a way of dealing with magical opponents on my own. So it was I found myself in the familiar setting of Twilight Sparkle’s castle/home. Upon entering I soon ran into a certain scaled member of the Sparkle household.

“Morning Spike,” I greeted.

“Hey Ranma,” He returned, “What brings you here this early?”

“I was hoping to get a moment of Twilight’s time. I’ve got a problem related to magic and no one does magic better than Twi,” I replied and he nodded in understanding.

“Well, let’s go see if she’s snapped out of her coffee fugue state,” Spike joked and I knew better than to voice my opinion on the disgusting bean water. Not if I wanted help today. So I held my tongue and followed Spike to the kitchen and found Twilight there clutching her cup of coffee like a life preserver.

“Morning Twilight,” I said.

“M-morning Ranma,” Twilight replied around an impressive yawn.

“Long night?” I asked and Twilight nodded as she yawned again before taking a sip of her coffee.

“I’ll be fine,” Twilight assured me before taking a bigger swig of her bean water, “So, what brings you here Ranma?”

“It’s come to my attention that Chi isn’t a suitable replacement for the passive magic inherent to natural born denizens of Equuis. I got hit with some kind of enfeebling spell during my tournament and I couldn’t do anything at all about it. I either need to find a way to train my Chi to be able to better throw off magic or some other solution,” I told her, her ears pricking up as I explained my dilemma.

“Well, I’ve been meaning to ask you over to examine your Chi anyway, so this works out perfectly!” Twilight said happily as she gulped down the rest of her caffeinated beverage. Without ceremony, she dragged me down to her laboratory. In short order I found myself connected to all sorts of equipment and sensors of all kinds pointed at me as Twilight sat down at her computer.

“Alright Ranma, if you would summon your Chi,” Twilight requested and I did so, willing a small orb to manifest in the palm of my hand.

“How long do I need to hold this for?” I asked.

“Ten minutes should suffice,” Twilight replied as she typed away at her keyboard.

Ten minutes later and I was fairly bored of standing around with my hand out maintaining the chi ball.

“Alright, you can stop now Ranma,” Twilight finally told me. I let the Chi dissipate and my tired arm fell to my side.

“So what’s the news, doc?” I asked as Twilight unhooked me from her machines.

“Chi appears to have a similar wavelength to magic, however it is much less energized. An orb of magic the same size as your orb of chi would typically hold about five times the energy,” Twilight answered.

“Well if the energy density is that low and the energies are roughly synonymous then that explains why I wasn’t able to offer much resistance,” I sighed, “My Chi just got completely washed out.”

“That seems to be the case, yes,” Twilight agreed.

“Is there any way to increase the energy density?” I asked.

“Maybe…Chi isn’t exactly like Magic, so I can’t say anything definitively without going over all the data I collected,” Twilight admitted.

“Is there anything I can do?” I offered.

“Come back in a few days. I’ll probably have more tests to run on you then,” Twilight replied and sat back down at her computer and started typing away again. Taking the dismissal for what it was, I left.

Now I had to wonder what I was going to do with myself for the next few days. Patience was not one of my strongest qualities. Typically if I was waiting for something I tried to forget about it until the time came. Unfortunately, much like trying not to think about the pink elephant, the more you try not to think about it, the more it appears in your thoughts.

Well, this was Ponyville. I’m sure something interesting will happen sooner or later. I just have to find it.

Just as one problem seems to be resolving itself, three more take their place. I've learned that I'm heavily Vitamin D deficient, have straightening of the neck, and for some yet-unknown reason these past two weeks when I'm sleeping suddenly my feet and toes start spasming, waking me up.

At least the Vitamin D is easy enough to take care of with vitamins and I'm scheduled for physical therapy for my neck.

At the very least, I've gotten more work done on Standing United.