Twilight Sparkle sneezed. This particular corner of the library really needed a thorough dusting.

"Circle spells," she muttered under hear breath, momentarily removing her glasses and rubbing her short snout against her sleeve. It didn't help matters that Equestria was currently in the thick of a sticky summer, when the rolling hills encompassing the school were carpeted in ripe dandelions, wreaking havoc on Twilight's allergies. Couple that with the inordinate amount of time she had been spending in the dustiest section of the library ...

"Aaaahhh-kerchoooo!"

Twilight reached into her pocket and fished out a well-worn handkerchief. It smelled of ink and parchment and the spice of the love-potion she had been asked to brew in class last week ... the cinnamonesque aroma was known to linger, though even she had not anticipated it hanging around her this long. Maybe she had given her potion too much kick, she thought as she buried her snout in the handkerchief. Maybe she had been distracted from the actual formula ... she could recall her mind wandering a bit during class, especially when the door had burst open twenty minutes in, admitting a windswept and panting Sunset Shimmer, all lopsided robes and too-long limbs. The upperclassman had spewed apologies as she hurried to her seat, just a few rows ahead of Twilight, and sat down with a bounce of shining, scarlet and gold curls.

Twilight caught herself blushing at the recollection. She blew her nose hastily and stashed the handkerchief back in her pocket, returning her attention to the bookshelves.

"What did Headmistress Celestia say again? Oh, right-- circle spells, circle spells ... "

She followed the brittle spines down to the end of the shelf, her bright, purple eyes flitting through gilded titles such as Hexes of the Bleakest Variety, A History of Necromancy, Finding Your Familiar, and White Arts for White Wizards, before lighting on her target: a thin, largely unadorned volume, bound in limp, maroon leather, titled Circle Spells and the Casting of Them.

"There you are!" Twilight said with a grin, snatching the book from the shelf with gusto-- only to be immediately enveloped in another puff of dust, this time accompanied by bits of abandoned cobwebs.

"Aaaaaaaaahhh-KERCHOOOOOO!"

* * *

Twilight found Headmistress Celestia haunting the Observatory once again. She seemed to be engrossed in study, having unrolled one of the old starmaps; she had begun tracing its coordinates vigorously, a magnifying lens balanced on the bridge of her snout. At the sound of the door creaking open, she peered up at Twilight; the wide brim of her peaked, plum-colored hat flopped over her eyes.

"Back so quickly!" she exclaimed, reaching up to push her hat back into place. Immediately, her long, pink hair slipped from underneath, and a large portion fell liquidly across her face, causing the frazzled headmistress to scowl with annoyance. She brushed it aside, a little more viciously than her usual temperament would have allowed. When she had most of her hair piled unobtrusively over one shoulder, she took a small breath; then smiled and motioned briskly for her student to approach. "Well, come on, then! Let's see if you got the right one, shall we?"

Twilight hefted her satchel across the room to the desk at which Celestia was half-sitting, half-perching like a slender, gawking owl. The desk was cluttered with compasses and rolled-up starmaps, as well as a few cracked picture-slides Professor Luna had used in an Astronomy lecture not too long ago ... unfortunately, they had not survived the pyrotechnic finale of the lecture itself. Luna could be a very theatrical teacher.

"Ah, yes, Circle Spells and the Casting of Them." Celestia smiled, cradling the little volume as if it were some furry, woodland creature asking to be lulled to sleep in her arms. "This book proved to be of endless use to me when I was in school ... good grief, that was a long time ago." She gave a small shudder. "Anyway ... Twilight, what do you know about circle spells?"

Twilight shifted a little on the flagstone floor. "Well, Headmistress, none of the professors have really gone into circle spells yet ... I assumed that was something we would learn in Final Year."

"Yes, yes," Celestia waved a dismissive hand. "But from your own study ... come now, Twilight, don't think I haven't noticed the types of recreational reading you've been doing all these years ... What would you say you understand, thus far, about circle spells?"

"Um ... " Twilight cleared her throat. It was always awkward for her to admit how many non-curricular books she took out of the library over the course of each semester. Anytime she had told one of her classmates, they had called her an over-achiever ... which, she supposed, she was ... not that she was trying to over-achieve. She just had a lot of interests. And ... the library had a lot of books.

"Well," she started again, blushing just a little. "From a theoretical standpoint, I understand circle spells are intended only to be used in the most dire of circumstances ... they are, primarily, summoning-spells; and, as we've all been taught from Year One onward, summoning-spells are among the most delicate and, potentially, deadly of spells."

"And why is that?" Celestia asked, leaning her elbows on the desk and looking genuinely intrigued.

"Because their nature hinges entirely upon the caster's intent," Twilight answered. "If a summoning-spell is cast with the intent to help others, the wizard's sense of duty must be strong enough to communicate his intent to the spell with complete clarity. Only then will the spell be able to affect the wizard's good, selfless purpose. However, if a summoning-spell is cast with little to no solid intent-- such as, if a young startup were to try casting it out of curiosity-- then there's no telling what might happen. He might summon a demon or an antigod without even trying, or bring about an onslaught of terrible weather, or bad luck."

"Hmm," Celestia nodded. "Theoretically, he could also end up summoning a downpour of chocolate rain, or simply an extremely annoying imp that bounces from town to town playing the bagpipes non-stop."

Twilight chuckled. "Yes, that could also happen."

"And what if a wizard casts a summoning-spell with malicious intent?"

"Annihilation," Twilight replied without pause. "Once the spell is cast with an intent to destroy something-- or someone-- not even the wizard who cast it will be safe. Once called upon, whatever enters this dimension via a summoning-spell cannot be controlled. It will go where it pleases, do what it pleases ... destroy what it pleases."

Celestia's expression had shifted from intrigue to grim understanding. She nodded. "Very good, Twilight." Her mouth twitched into the slightest of sad smiles. "Well, I can see you've done your research. Granted, I'm surprised you wanted to delve so deeply into a rather unpleasant subject ... but, in my way, I'm glad you did."

"You are?"

"Yes. It shows your passion for coming to understand every aspect of life as a wizard, from simple self-control to your responsibility as a keeper of this type of knowledge."

Twilight wasn't sure if she should be flattered or embarrassed that her inner over-achiever was so obvious to Celestia. "I suppose so ... to be fair, I haven't read Circle Spells and the Casting of Them before ... I didn't even know there was such a book."

"That just shows good character," Celestia tossed her student a wink. "It means you don't take books out of the By Permission Only section without asking." Her expression turned dark. "Which, by the way, is punishable by expulsion."

"Oh," Twilight shuddered, her flesh going as cold as death. "I'm ... very well aware, Headmistress."

Celestia laughed, and the usual quirky sparkle was back in her eyes. Her hair tumbled slightly into her face again, to be swept roughly aside once more. "Very good, Twilight! However, as it is, you did have permission to take out Circle Spells, and now your assignment, for the next few weeks, is ... well, to read it!"

"Read it? Is ... the rest of my year going to read it too?"

"Nope," Celestia shoved the book back into Twilight's hands with gusto. Her eyes were bright with an enthusiasm that made Twilight just a little uneasy. "Just you. Don't ask too many questions, all right? I want you to try and answer them for yourself. That is your full assignment."

Twilight bit her lip, gathering the book anxiously against her chest. "Read about circle spells ... and answer my own questions?"

"Well, try."

"I'll ... do my best, Headmistress," Twilight said, and tucked the volume safely back into her satchel. Her mind already raced with questions she had no idea how to answer: Why had Celestia decided to give her an assignment like this? Why hadn't she just waited until next year, when the whole class was surely going to be introduced to this type of material? Why had she chosen Twilight and not ... well ...

Twilight could think of many a classmate who would have jumped at the opportunity to attack dark material like this ahead of the rest of their year. Trixie, for one. She would have eaten this stuff up (though Twilight wasn't too sure their headmistress ever wanted Trixie Lulamoon to get her hands on a book about summoning-spells).

Or, she thought, why not an upperclassman? Sunset Shimmer may have held the school's record for tardiness, but she still had some of the best grades. She would have been thoroughly equipped to handle this assignment.

But Twilight?

Who could say?

"Oh, Twilight!" Celestia leaped suddenly to her feet, her eyes bugging out at the silver pocket-watch she held in her hand. "We're both about to be late for Potion-Brewing class! I'm supposed to be filling in for Professor Snuff today!"

She blew past Twilight and left the Observatory, door swinging slightly in her wake.

Blinking and resettling her glasses on her face, Twilight shouldered her satchel and hurried after the headmistress, trying her best to clear the clutter of questions in her mind to one side, to make room for potion-brewing. She had heard tell they were going to tackle an alternative formula for love-potions today ...

Between Headmistress Celestia's mysterious assignment and Sunset Shimmer's windswept curls, she wondered if she'd be able to focus on the instructions at all.

Author's Note

Hey, all! Shelly here :)
For more about this AU, I invite you to visit my tumblr blog: https://ask-the-wizard-ponies.tumblr.com/

I will most likely post random snippets of story regarding this AU... a little scatterbrained over here I'm afraid, but hopefully you will enjoy what you read here :) Thanks for stopping by!