//------------------------------//
// Misuse of Magic 
// Story: Canterlot Nights 
// by Pony Sigma 
//------------------------------//

	From her perch by the window, Twilight Sparkle could see the whole of the palace library's magic wing. Below her, on the carpeted floor, Flowershine, a tall pink unicorn with a cutie mark in the shape of a piece of chalk, taught a class on advanced spells, writing on a wheeled blackboard. A few older students, working on projects commissioned by the Princess herself, searched through books at the back of the room, taking notes on pads of paper with glowing quills that hovered by their heads. A librarian walked along the edge of the room, the basket of books she carried glowing faintly as she shelved them in their proper places. As it always did when busy , the room buzzed with magical energy.
Twilight stared intently at a volume of obscure spells. Her project today was to test their effects on various objects. Lined up before the unicorn were a stone, a block of wood, a bowl of water, and a tasty-looking tall pink flower in a pot of soil. She read over the notes on a simple color-shifting spell.
The book said this particular spell had been crafted by the ancient wizard Star Swirl the Bearded when he found his royal quarters too drab and tried to brighten them up. It seemed a pretty basic charm to initiate. Getting the spell to stick was the hard part, however. Twilight had spent the previous evening reading and rereading volumes of magical philosophy, planning this experiment. Layering spells was an important lesson for any unicorn. It wasn't cutting-edge research; she still had many things to learn before that would be a possibility. For now, she dutifully completed each new assignment. The Princess had told her that if she could solve the day's puzzles early, she could have the next book in the Daring Do series. It would have been a birthday present if Twilight hadn't finished the first one far earlier than Celestia had expected.
The unicorn stared at the spellbook for a few last moments, checking and double-checking the spell's instructions. Twilight's horn glowed with energy, and she directed the spell over the stone, which turned a bright blue. Satisfied, she released the magic, and the stone's brilliant color faded back to a boring gray. Twilight frowned and flipped through the book, dust rising from the pages; a moment later, she cast the spell again, overlaying it with a stasis charm. This time the color remained. With a small smile, she turned to the wood and cast the same spell. She held the magic in place for a few seconds as it permeated the block, the color slowly brightening.
On the library floor, the teacher was wrapping up her class. After writing a last few notes, she lowered her chalk and magically erased the blackboard with a quick cleaning spell. The students packed their notebooks away in saddlebags and ambled away, some pulling books down from shelves and starting work on their papers. Others left the library in search of a meal.
Giving the students no more than a brief glance, Twilight returned to her experiment. After checking that the color still held on the stone and wood, she took the time from a clock hanging on the wall and neatly entered it into the perfectly-ruled table she had drawn in a fat notebook. Once this was done, she lifted the rock into the air and levitated it over the bowl of water, slowing lowering it towards the surface. With all her focus on this motion, she didn't notice the blue unicorn filly approaching from behind. The unicorn strode towards a bookshelf, shoving Twilight aside.
Twilight yelped and jumped backwards. Her concentration broken, she dropped the magically-held stone. It splashed into the bowl, knocking it onto the spellbook and sending drops of water flying over Twilight's mane.
“What are you doing?” she choked out, glaring at the filly, “This is a very valuable book! If the Princess finds out it's damaged...”
"Whatever. I don't care,” the filly said, giving Twilight no attention. She continued walking, stopping at the shelf and staring up at the titles. She pulled one down from its place.
Grumbling, Twilight looked back to her book. The water had soaked into the pages, leaving them wrinkled and translucent. She tried not to panic and thought for a few moments. A burst of light later, she was carefully drying the spellbook with a flame spell modified for heat. The other unicorn fastened the strap on her saddlebags and turned to face Twilight.
“Keep going with your crazy important experiments, bookworm. I'm sure turning rocks blue will totally be useful someday.” She stepped towards Twilight's setup. “And I'm sure you don't need this anymore.” She leaned over the line of objects and bit the flower clean from its stem.
“Stop that!” Twilight jerked her head up, lashing the heat spell across the unicorn's flank, a little stronger than she had meant. The blue pony yelped in pain and coughed on the flower in her mouth.
“Twilight Sparkle!”
The ponies turned to the teacher's stern voice. Flowershine glared up at them from the library floor.
“Both of you, come down here now!” she ordered. Twilight stepped fearfully on the stairs, the blue pony smirking at her the whole way down. The other students in the room had turned to stare at them, and Twilight shrank under their curious gaze. The unicorns reached the floor.
“Sea Star, stay here,” Flowershine ordered the blue unicorn, whose smirk faded somewhat. She rubbed at her side where the spell had hit; a red line had started to form on the burn. “And you, Twilight,” the teacher continued, “You're not my student.”
“Yes ma'am,” Twilight confirmed, nervously.
“Therefore I shall refer this matter to the Princess.”
“No!” Twilight gasped, “You don't need to bother her with this! I'll keep working. I'll be quiet!”
“This is serious, Twilight. Magic is never to be used to harm others.” Flowershine levitated a sheet of parchment and a quill from a desk at the edge of the room. Twilight watched helplessly as the quill dashed across the page, then flew back to the table while the paper curled into a scroll. The teacher's horn glowed brighter for a moment, and the letter vanished in a burst of light. Within a minute, a response letter flashed into existence. The teacher unrolled it and scanned the contents.
“Twilight, you are to meet Princess Celestia in her study. Now.”


~~~


She had never been in trouble before! What if she was punished, or expelled? Twilight shivered at the idea of having to leave the school she had worked so hard to get into. This school, this life, learning magic and history from the goddess of the sun herself: these were the only things that mattered to her. She stared at the details of the beautiful palace around her as she passed through the hall, trying to memorize every painting and doorway before she was forced to leave forever. But that time was over all too soon; she reached her destination. Shaking, she turned the corner to the white-painted door of the Princess's private study. The stentorian gray pegasus guard at the door raised an ear as she approached.
“Miss Sparkle?” he asked, not unkindly.
“I... F-flowershine told me to c-come here...”
“Yes, Miss Sparkle.” The guard nodded and knocked a silver-clad hoof on the door. Celestia's voice answered him.
“Twilight? Let her in, Slipstream.” Twilight could not tell from her voice whether she was angry, but suspected she was. What else could be expected after her own student had broken such a basic law of magic? Twilight prepared herself for the worst and walked into the room.
The Princess sat behind a desk piled high with letters and documents. She was reading from a curled paper that hovered in front of her eyes, suspended in a soft yellow glow. Behind her, a  flame-colored bird slept on a perch, its head under a wing. Bookshelves and a tall window completed the far side of the room. On another wall, a soft round rug lay before a large fireplace. The hearth was empty, unused in the hot summer months. Celestia lowered the paper, and Twilight saw that it was Flowershine's message.
“Sit down, Twilight. I would like to talk to you,” she said. The unicorn hurried to the center of the room and sat stiffly, avoiding Celestia's gaze.
“Could you tell me what happened in the library?” she asked, her voice calm as always. “I have Flowershine's accounts of the events, but I would like to hear your side of the story.”
Twilight decided it would do no good to stay silent.
“I was working on the experiment you assigned me, the one about layering spells,” she began, her voice barely above a whisper, “and I had just managed to change the chromatic expression on the samples. Sea Star interrupted me and....insulted my studies.” Twilight's ears shot up in alarm. “The book!”
“What's this?”
“The book for the new spells! Sea Star startled me and I knocked over the water for the immersion experiment! I tried to dry it with a heat spell...” She shrank back in fear. If hurting Sea Star wasn't enough to get her expelled, ruining a book certainly was! She shuddered as the Princess began to speak:
“That can be easily remedied,” Celestia said. Twilight relaxed slightly. “I assume that was the heat spell you hit Sea Star with?”
Twilight stared at her hooves. Her ears drooped as she tried to disappear into the floor.
“Yes.”
The Princess sighed quietly. “Twilight, recite to me the First Law of Magic.”
Twilight took a deep breath. “ 'Magic is to be used only for good and never for harm.' “
“Correct. And quite frankly, I am disappointed that you would so blatantly disregard that law, as well as any common sense on the matter. I thought I taught you better than that. It was wrong to hurt Sea Star. Do you understand?”
Twilight nodded. “Yes. I'm sorry.” She lowered her head sadly. “I'll pack my things.” She stood up to leave.
“Stay, Twilight,” the Princess ordered, “I'm not going to expel you.”
Twilight turned back, looking Celestia in the face for the first time. “Huh?”
“You shall stay my student at the school. However, the fact remains that you have attacked a fellow student. In matters such as these, “ the Princess said calmly, “punishment is left up to the teacher.”
The filly sat back down.
“I will not have you write a paper on the First Law, as you would enjoy that entirely too much.” Twilight gave a sheepish grin at that. Celestia continued: “Instead, you will help teach the magic kindergarten classes for two weeks, in addition to your existing studies.”
It was certainly better than the alternative, but having to deal with young unicorns who were still learning the simplest of spells? Twilight inwardly groaned at the idea. But at least she was still in good graces with the Princess.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said, “you are a wonderful student with much potential. But you need to use your powers for good reasons. I expect that something like this will never happen again.”
“I understand. Thank you, Princess.” Twilight rose.
“Report here tomorrow morning before classes.”
“Yes, Princess.” Twilight bowed politely and left the room.


~~~


Once the door closed again, Celestia turned to the phoenix on her perch. They shared a sorrowful, knowing look. Such a powerful pony, the Princess of the Sun knew, must have the strictest rules regarding her behavior. She and Philomeena had both seen what could happen if a pony used powerful spells in anger. 
The Princess stood and prepared to raise the moon.