Twilight Sparkle ducked under the first boulder, sidestepped around the second and used a pair of magical shields to deflect the third and fourth.
“No, no, NO! You are still too defensive, Twilight Sparkle!” yelled Princess Luna, “you are supposed to be practicing using your natural magical alignment!” Princess Luna paused for a moment, taking a few deep breaths, before she continued on. “I am sorry, Twilight Sparkle. I did not mean to yell. Regardless, my point stands. We brought you here so that you could practice Destruction, so that you could learn how to control it. For if you do not, if you ignore it too long, your magic will take matters unto itself again, Twilight.”
Twilight nodded. Luna and Celestia had explained it to her shortly after she had woken up from the events of last month. Every alicorn developed a natural alignment, a mastery over a specific school of magic, and Twilight had inherited the Art of Destruction, to her great chagrin. It functioned like a minor addiction, Celestia had said. She needed to feed her now inborn need to destroy something, or the events of a month ago would repeat. So, she had taken to having Princess Luna throw boulders at her, while she destroyed them-or tried to, anyway.
“Again,” said Twilight, planting her hooves into the grass of the feild. This time, when Luna hurled the boulders toward Twilight, she did not move. Her horn lit up with a corona of purple flame, and thin beams lanced out, slicing the first two boulders in half. Thicker beams then destroyed the next three, reducing them to little more than gravel.
“Good, Twilight!” called Luna, as she levitated more ammunition from the pile behind her. “Remember, you are the master of your magic. Ignore what your instinct says-do just enough to prevent harm coming to yourself.”
Twilight nodded, as her magic materialized as a giant, ethereal hammer, knocking the boulders left and right, and the itch at the base of her horn gradually faded to a dull roar, then a loud whisper and finally nearly disappeared. Disintegrating the final rock that Luna had, she dug her hooves out from where they had settled into the earth.
“You are progressing well, Twilight,” said Princess Luna, as the two began to fly back toward Ponyville proper. “I realise that it is difficult now, but only because you are not used to your body’s new urge, your magic’s new instinct. Remember to push back that first reaction if you are startled.”
“Was it difficult for you, Luna?”
“Not as much. My natural inclination is Restoration, Twilight Sparkle. Yet I was always the better at warfare of myself and my sister. It seemed horribly ironic to me when I found out that I, the Warrior of the Two Sisters, would be the one skilled in healing. I pushed myself towards mastering the destructive arts, in the vain hope that I could change my alignment. Instead, what happened was that my spells began healing my enemies upon contact. Embrace your alignment, Twilight Sparkle. There is no way to change or get rid of it. Do not reject it, do not ignore it. It never results in good things for you.”
“But can I still master other schools of magic?”
“Oh, yes. But it will take effort, far more than you think, to subvert your unconscious instinct for destruction, but it can be done. But we have talked on this long enough.”
Twilight Sparkle flew on, still sometimes losing momentary control of her flight. So many things had happened since she had earned her wings, and then the event with Tirek. Her discovery of her new-found affinity for her least-favourite school of magic was just the latest in a long line of things that she had had to learn to deal with. Still, her event a month ago had pushed this right to the front of her list of things to do-Twilight Sparkle hated hurting ponies, and her magic could have done just that, so getting it under control was her number one priority.