Twilights' horn hurt.

Now, this affliction wasn't from an excess of magic passing through the delicate organ. Nor was it from a profusion of blood rushing through it due to an elevated excitement.

It hurt due to direct force trauma.

Or, more accurately, because the little brat of a filly had thrown an acorn at it.

Where had she gotten the acorn from? Who knows, Twilight hadn't seen her carrying it anywhere. She would have almost assumed she just picked the nut off the ground, but they were inside! And the arm that little filly threw behind the accelerated nut, some foals were simply too rambunctious.

Suffice to say, Hazel it seems hadn't taken too kindly to Twilights' attempted explanation as to why the young colt might not want to be viewed as a sexual object. Well, she didn't quite put it into those words, but she was sure she was doing a remarkable job getting her point across!

Sadly not, apparently.

While it had gained a giggle from the Princess and the old goat, it had done little to provide Twilight with any source of merriment. In the end, the point she had been trying to get across was ignored, her mentor seemed to find little to no reason to assist her in her endeavors, and HE was still talking to her.

Him, Starswirl? It... Well, it was certainly a possibility, magic worked in strange ways at times. But... he was so... normal looking! Old, grey unicorn. Long, wizard looking beard, but certainly nothing as long as was touted to the moniker 'Starswirl the Bearded'.

The Maestro. That was what Celestia had called him. Not the bearded. But that was preposterous, in all her texts it was always 'the bearded this', 'the bearded that', and 'the bearded thusly.' Not a single one spared even a paragraph on Starswirl the Beardeds progenitors. It was almost like he had sprung up from the aethos fully bearded, ready to change the world of ponies for the better.

To have a new piece of information spring forth from her own mentors mouth that didn't match anything Twilight had ever read in her books? It was almost unthinkable. It also didn't help that Princess Celestia seemed to almost be...fawning over the old goat. It was with a pang of displeasure that Twilight full well realized that she was feeling jealous of this stranger, this old stallion that had seemingly come from nowhere to steal her teachers affections.

Twilight drew her hoof to her barrel, ignoring the dull throb that persisted in her horn as she carefully breathed in, then out. Thrice more and her irritations seeped away, leaving her feeling miffed. It wasn't mature of her to act like a spoiled foal, and yet the Princess had seen fit to ignore such transgressions so far.

'"Can you... please not do that again?" Twilight asked, trying to keep her tone cordial.

Her only response from the squirrel turned filly was a tongue outstretched, accompanied by a wet raspberry carving its way from the shapeshifting fillys lips. Twilight didn't know why she had expected otherwise.

"She won't!" the foal insisted, pulling the filly back a step.

"Hmph," came from the filly, seemingly willing to abide by the colts demands, and by proxy Twilights' own.

It just didn't feel fair. The chance to socialize with her teacher seemed tainted, stolen by somepony she hadn't even heard of before. Inspecting the current situation closer bore troubling fruit for Twilights' preconceptions. The stallion appeared for all intents and purposes to be nothing more than a normal unicorn. Subpar physical appearance -which was one point towards his claim, if he really had been alive for the period of time he said he had been-, he didn't have the right kind of hat!

Instead of the proper wizards hat, with a wide brim and a crooked peak -Twilight wasn't even going to get started on the fact that there should be bells, if he wasn't going to pay attention to tradition then who was she to?-, the hat he wore upon his head was a weathered cone of towering fabric, almost like a sock in its construction.

It wasn't even the right shade of blue.

'Wrong Starswirl', Twilight chided herself, shaking her head slightly. Princess Celestia said this was Starswirls father. Wait... that would mean... Regardless of his long life, he still probably couldn't compare to the real Starswirls power and abilities! So why was she getting so bent out of shape? It wasn't like the elderly stallion was trying to replace the real deal, as it were...

Was he even in the same weight class as the one she knew of? It would be quite a feat, seeing as not a single mention of this pony had been passed down over the years, whereas his son was known and lauded. Books that had nothing to do with magic liked to put in references to Starswirl the Bearded! It was actually surprising seeing as most of Ponyville hadn't been able to suss out the pony behind the costume she had made for her first nightmare night in Ponyville... Well, a precious few of them actually indulged in pleasure reading, as it were. A grievous shame.

"Excuse me?" Twilight mustered up her courage, stepping forward once a lull dipped into the conversation between her teacher and the old stallion.

"Yes, Twilight?" the Princess prompted, gesturing with a hoof. The filly gave her a short glower, looking as if she were about to hiss. She eventually decided to finish off with a simple act of disrespect, sticking out her tongue instead.

"Well... I was just wondering," she stuttered, uncomfortable under the sudden attention of the entire group. "You say you knew... this Starswirl back before even the one we all know of," Twilight eventually fell into her stride, refusing to note that most ponies wouldn't know a reference of Starswirl the Bearded from an ad regarding hi-quality toilet paper. "So... he has to have picked up a few tricks from his... 'prodigious' extent of age, yes?"

"Why yes indeed, my dear," the stallion blustered, sticking his chest out as he adopted an embarrassed expression. "One does tend to pick up a trick or two on the journey of life..."

"Wonderful!" Twilight exclaimed, pointedly ignoring the Princesses disapproving look. She was always going on about acting in independence apart from her, so if there was a time for it this was better than most.

"Well then... Maestro," she focused a predatory grin towards the bespectacled stallion, "would you mind to terribly if we did a little... 'friendship' building exercise! Yes! Just a friendly little match between us, displaying our knowledge of magic?"

He looked momentarily confused, before a disturbingly wide grin creased its way across his muzzle.

"Oh, of course! By Jove, a wizards duel sounds absolutely spledniferous at the moment, nothing better for loosening ones joints, don't you know."

A... wizards duel?