//------------------------------//
// Legacy Prompt #43: Overload 
// Story: Ponywatching 
// by ThunderTempest 
//------------------------------//

It was a fine day in Ponyville, though it stopped just short of shimmering. So, naturally, Twilight Sparkle was outside, experimenting with her magic. Now that she was an alicorn, a whole new class of spells were available to her for experimentation and study. She couldn’t wait to get started, and so decided on something simple to start with, just to make sure that she still had a handle on her magic. Something to burn off a bit of magic, giving her a bit more control over whatever she cast next.

*******

Ditzy ‘Derpy Hooves’ Doo flitted around town, delivering various small packages and letters. Not that she blamed them; the incident a while back with a piano and an anvil falling on Twilight Sparkle had not cast her in a positive light for most of Ponyville for a while, and ponies were still a little nervous about giving her heavy objects to shift. 

Gliding into a slightly awkward landing, Ditzy slipped her muzzle into her bag, and extracted a couple of letters, and shoved them into the letterbox. Just as she was about to turn around, there was an impossibly loud hum, and for a couple of seconds, Ditzy felt really warm. But it faded quickly, and  Ditzy turned around to take off, but her mouth dropped open instead.

In place of the street, there was now a several meter deep channel, a perfect semicircle, which was still smoking. All along the sides, Ditzy could see ponies hovering at the edge of the new crater, some still shaking from their mad dash to get out of the way of whatever this had been.

Instantly, Ditzy spoke up.

“It wasn’t me! At least, I don’t think it was.”

********

Rainbow Dash was giving her standard ‘here’s your job in five minutes’ speech to a few new members of the Ponyville weather patrol when the hum caught her ears.  It passed below her soon enough, and she shrugged, and moved on.

It was only when she noticed the new ponies were staring at her with open mouths that Rainbow Dash looked down. Directly below her was a new street-wide channel, and whatever had caused it had also singed off most of her tail. Rainbow traced the channel back to its source, and slapped a hoof over her face.

“You lot, start clearing the clouds over town hall. I have to go talk to Twilight. Again,” grumbled Rainbow, flying towards the crystal castle at the edge of town.

By the time that Rainbow Dash had arrived, Twilight Sparkle had retreated into her castle, most likely because of the small mob that was already forming outside the main doors. Fortunately, Rainbow knew that Twilight never locked the top window.

“Twilight, you mind telling me what the heck that was?” called Rainbow Dash, floating down into the central chamber.

“It was supposed to just be a little something to burn off some magic!” said Twilight, her voice echoing around the corridors.

“A little magic?” asked Rainbow, “Twi, you burnt a hole from here to the Everfree forest. Straight down Main street.”

“I don’t know how it happened, okay?” said Twilight, her voice getting less and less echo as Rainbow made her way to Twilight’s bedroom. “It was like my magic got into a positive feedback loop, and then I couldn’t contain it anymore.”

“And what’s that mean for the rest of us non-eggheads?”

“I was using more magic than I could safely control. I just don’t get how that happened. Did I cast the spell wrong?” asked Twilight, as Rainbow opened the door to Twilight’s bedroom.

“I don’t know about that, but right now you have a whole load of ponies out there who need to know what happened. And Twi? I suggest you keep it to small words.”

“But what do I say?” asked Twilight.

“Just say that you were experimenting with some ancient spell or something, and you got something a bit wrong. And then you’re going to go and get Applejack and the rest of us, and we’ll fill in the new hole that was the street,” said Rainbow Dash, “and promise that the next time you do something like this that you’re pointing your horn in the other direction.”