Twilight Sparkle was not happy.
She was being levitated through the halls of the palace like a sack of potatoes by a guard who simply refused to listen to a word of her thoroughly logical arguments at the behest of a tutor who also refused to listen to a word of her thoroughly logical arguments. She flailed her hooves frantically in a valiant, if utterly futile, bid for freedom. Attempting to override the guard's spell with her own magic had proven fruitless so flailing was, logically, her best option.
“You are only making this more difficult for yourself, Miss Sparkle,” the tutor, one Final Draft, said in a voice as dry and flat as a painstakingly preserved seven hundred year old, illuminated manuscript page. He was a pale turquoise stallion who wore the crimson, high collared cloak of one of Canterlot's academic elite, and had the faded, salt and pepper mane to go with it.
“But--! But--! I have note cards!” Twilight protested. “I've drafted an entire presentation to back up my case!”
“That may be. However, the Princess specifically forbade any lectures on this subject. Her decision has been made.”
“But she might not have considered all the evidence! I can't let her act on incomplete data! The theories are completely sound!” The trio rounded the corner that brought them into the final hallway, at the end of which Celestia's chambers lay. She was running out of time. “The spells are safe and well tested.”
“They are also not intended for extended use. Nor are they for over-eager fillies to use for all night study sessions.”
“But how am I ever going to learn everything about magic if I keep having to stop to sleep!? I've run the numbers and the results are alarming! At this rate it will take me until I'm well into my teens just to get my first diploma!”
“Imagine that. You might have to graduate alongside the rest of the students your age.”
“Exactly!”
“That,” Final Draft stopped before Celestia's door and turned on the spot to fix his errant student with a pointed look, “was admonishment. Not endorsement.”
“But I'm Celestia's personal student! She's expecting me to excel! If I'm only keeping pace with everypony else how can I possibly live up to her expectations!?”
“The Princess has expressed her satisfaction with your progress on multiple occasions. Do you recall the incident when you attempted to use the speed reading spell?”
“I just needed some more practice,” Twilight grumbled. “I'd have gotten it right.”
“Or your effort to eliminate the need for bathroom breaks.”
“That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me.”
“And the portal incident.”
Twilight finally cringed. “Okay, that was a bad idea.”
“Indeed,” Final Draft's dry voice somehow became drier.
“See? I can admit to a bad idea when I have one! That means you can't dismiss this idea out of hoof!”
“They were all bad ideas.” A flare of bright orange magic to match Draft's eyes took hold of the door handle and swung the entryway open. “You are a bright student, Miss Sparkle, but you need to learn to restrain your enthusiasm and your anxiety. Look before you leap.”
“But I have to impress the Princess!”
“Then I suggest you try doing as she asks.”
“But-!” She was set back on her hooves inside Celestia's chambers by the guard. “But-!” Her saddlebags were lifted off her back and levitated to Final Draft's side by his own magic. “But-!”
“Classes are over for the week and you have completed all your assignments. By order of Princess Celestia, you are to take the weekend off. Her Majesty also asks that you spend a little time looking after young Spike. She and Princess Cadance are otherwise occupied.”
Twilight's lip trembled, her eyes shimmered with barely restrained despair. “But how can I study while watching Spike?”
“Don't.”
The door snapped shut just shy of whacking her in the muzzle.
Don't study. Don't study!? How could she not study? Studying was the one thing, the one solitary thing she was good at. Being Celestia's student was her everything ever since she'd passed her entrance exam. She wasn't athletic, she was no artist and, Celestia help her, she was certainly no cook. Studying magic was her passion, her purpose. It was right there on her flank for anypony to see!
Besides, she wasn't allowed to do much else. Ever since the exam her magic had gotten… touchy. Celestia had her doing mostly basic exercises in her practical lessons to learn to focus and control her power rather than learning to cast a lot of spells like other similarly gifted unicorns did. Control, control, control, study, study, study, that had been her mantra for the past several years.
A miserable sigh later she was seated on her haunches with her back to the door. Now she was stuck on foalsitting duty. Why? Why didn't Celestia want her to study? Had she done something wrong? Had she broken some kind of school rule she wasn't aware of? She'd read the rule book cover to cover her first week, so that seemed unlikely. Maybe Celestia was going to adjust her curriculum? She'd changed the syllabus before. Of course, she'd also told her to stop studying before, usually to spend time with her BBBFF, the best foalsitter ever, or her parents and Spike. She'd never been called off of studying just to look after Spike though.
She got back up on her hooves. The sooner she found Spike the better. The little dragon was usually very good and well behaved… until he got an idea in his head. Get him excited and he became a scaly little disaster area. He destroyed furniture, burned books, shredded carpeting and drapes, burned books, or got ash everywhere after deciding to nap in the fireplace. If she was lucky the little terror would be safely asleep in his basket and would stay that way until Celestia or Cadance showed up.
Celestia's suite was a fairly simple affair. A sitting room in the middle with a study to the left and the bedroom suite (with luxury en suite bathroom) to the right. If Spike was napping he'd probably be in his basket in the bedroom. Twilight walked across the luxuriously furnished sitting room, skirting the chairs, lounges and coffee tables arranged throughout.
The bedroom door was ajar, easily swung open with a light push of a hoof. Twilight's heart sank when she saw that the basket was empty.
“Okay, not the end of the world,” she said in a tone that suggested that she was already starting to suspect that it was, “he's probably just napping somewhere else! No need to panic. Nothing is on fire so he can't be causing too much trouble.” A deep, steadying breath bolstered her enough to calm her nerves.
She turned about and trotted back out into the sitting room, this time banking towards the study. The study door was unlatched as well. He'd probably wandered into the study and fallen asleep on Celestia's chair. Nothing to worry about.
...Why was there a black splotch on the floor?
And the door. And the door frame.
Twilight's magic grabbed the door handle and pushed.
“Sweet… Celestia...” Eyes wider than the door took in the scene before her. The slightly battered scroll looped and sprawled on the carpet, the bottle of ink toppled at its side, the papers and quills scattered around the desk. The ink. Sweet merciful Celestia, the ink! “Ha… hwa… heee… huu...”
Spike had gotten into the writing materials. He'd spent what had to be hours doodling and scribbling and in the process, somehow, had gotten ink everywhere. Based on the black little foot and claw prints, that included all over himself. Twilight's half glazed eyes followed the line of splotchy footprints she'd failed to notice before across the floor, out the door, and into the sitting room where they faded away towards the bedroom. Her hooves carried her along the same path into the center of room. Her gaze drifted up towards the ceiling and her jaw drifted down towards the floor at the sight of the faint wisps of steam snaking out from above the bathroom door.
The only thing that stopped her from galloping to the bathroom was the fact that she got there before she could build up to that much speed. The door crashed open so forcefully that the handle embedded itself in the wall behind it.
Spike had been asleep, head and arms draped over the side of the bathroom sink overflowing with hot water and bubbles, but he didn't stay that way for long. The sound of property damage jerked him awake and sent water cascading over the edge of the sink to join the sudsy puddle already covering the floor.
“Huh…? Mommy?” He sat up, shook his head to free it of suds and fog, and blinked down at Twilight. “Twilight! You're… er, are you okay?”
“What are you doing?”
“Um-”
Raspberry sparks sizzled around the tip of Twilight's horn. “What. Are you. Doing!?”
The little dragon shrank away from the edge of the sink. “Bath time?”
Twilight's right eyelid twitched. Before she could launch into the diatribe welling up her throat, she was interrupted by the sound of a hoof knocking on the main door three times with the measured precision of one of the palace servants.
“Stay. Put.”
She turned on the spot and trotted almost mechanically back out to the sitting room to answer the door. A tan, auburn maned pegasus mare on the other side sank into a shallow bow as soon as it opened.
“Good afternoon, Miss Sparkle. I'm just informing everypony that we seem to have run out of hot water.”
“Run… out...?”
The mare straightened and rubbed a hoof against her opposing fetlock. “I'm afraid so. Given the season, the water we have left is very cold so I'd advise against trying to bathe for the next few hours. Prince Blueblood got a nasty shock when he tried to take a shower a few minutes ago.” The corner of the mare's mouth twitched ever so slightly but she otherwise kept up her guise of professionalism. That is, until she met Twilight's twitching eye. “Are… you alright, Miss Sparkle?”
Twilight's fur stood on end. “Fine! Yes, fine. Everything is fine and wonderful and definitely not a disaster!” Twilight put on what she desperately hoped was a casual and friendly smile.
“Er, yes. Do you… need any help?”
“NO! Er, no, no everything's fine, everything's good here, now. How are you?”
The servant stared down at the filly in bewilderment. “I'm… well? Thank you for… asking?”
“Great! That means everypony is fine and there's definitely nothing at all that you need to be concerned about going on here.”
Twilight's smile took on a certain... unnatural quality when the sound of cascading water echoed behind her.
“Are you certain there's nothing wrong? If there's been a mess of some kind I'd be happy to-”
“Thankswe'regoodgottagobye!” Twilight shouted over the sound of more water splashing and the door slamming shut.