There's a moment of silence while Twilight processes the scene, and you decide now would be a good time to interject with an explanation.
"This isn't as bad as it looks! See, Pinkie was tickling me, and-"
"Uh-huh." Twilight's voice is quiet, but there's an edge to it and it cuts you off mid-sentence. "Pinkie, why are you on the floor?"
"Raindrops and I were fighting over the book and I lost!" Ugh, Thanks a bundle, Pinkie. You've got to explain right now!
"See, that sounds like I was trying to take the book but I wasn't, I swear! I was trying to- what are you writing?"
Twilight's just penned a hasty message on a scrap of parchment and levitated it over to Spike.
"Send that to Shining Armour right now, Spike."
You see the letter consumed by Spike's flames as Twilight charges her horn up for a spell. Pinkie's waving goodbye at you and doesn't seem to have any idea how much trouble you're in.
"See you soon!" she shouts, and everything disappears in a flash of violet.
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tele
por
tation
is
really
dis
orientat
ing
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Your eyes hurt. That was really purple! The ground's changed under your hooves, turning from the wooden library floor into damp flagstones, and there are a lot of voices. As your vision clears, you can see that the one standing right in front of you belongs to a large unicorn stallion reading the same note you saw Spike incinerate a moment ago. So he's some sort of flamethrower mail delivery dragon. Well, that makes about as much sense as anything else that's happened today.
"Assault on a Bearer of the Elements!?" he reads aloud, to the shocked gasps of the armoured guards around him. Actually, the unicorn's wearing some armour too- this is probably a guard station!.This big fella must be the captain or something, the 'Shining Armour' that Spike sent the letter to. The letter that appears to explain, without context, that you just had a fight with Pinkie.
Oh dear.
"Seize her!" he shouts, and about half of the guards in the room rush to comply.
"Wait!" you shout back, and precisely none of them do.
The next few minutes are full of incident, and nopony listens to you all the way to solitary confinement.
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THE NEXT DAY
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You can hear voices coming up the corridor outside your cell and at least one of them belongs to Twilight freakin' Sparkle. Oh, this ought to be good- you practically cried yourself to sleep last night, you had to spend the night in this cold cell with only a scrap of blanket and "breakfast" consisted of you shouting to see if anypony could hear that you wanted some Celestia-feathered breakfast. You can hear the conversation as they get closer, and you have a sneaking suspicion as to who the stallion speaking with her is.
"Again, I'm really really sorry!" says Twilight.
"Well, sorry doesn't quite cover it, Twily. She's been held here overnight! It makes us look incompetent. It makes me look incompetent. And it could have been entirely avoided if you'd taken five seconds to-" replies her companion. It's that Shining Armour stallion, you're sure of it.
"Not to stop you, Shining, but you're going over the same speech you gave me when I came here. Again."
"It's still serious!" he snaps. "You are going to need one Tartarus of an apology to even get her to speak to you, let alone-"
"I can hear you!" You snap, from inside the cell, and they go quiet for a second. There's the clicking of a key in the lock and the door swings open; both unicorns have the same sheepish expression. Before you can say anything, Twilight starts burbling.
"Raindrops I'm so sorry! Pinkie explained things and as soon as I found out I came straight here. I've been trying to get you out all night but I couldn't get an appointment with Shining because somepony-"
"-somepony who is now on latrine duty for half a year-" interjects Shining Armour.
"-somepony didn't know he was my brother and just thought I was your lawyer and that I was trying to get to see you illegally and then they were about to arrest me when Shining found out and that was about twenty minutes ago and you would not believe the amount of paperwork we've had to fill out." She smiles awkwardly for a second and finally breathes in.
"So it's all cleared up?" you ask. Shining answers you.
"Yes, ma'am. No charges, no record and an official apology from the captain of the guard which I've signed, notarised and had delivered to your home in Ponyville. Along with a box of chocolates and two tickets to this year's Grand Galloping Gala. I am sorry, Raindrops, but she's my sister. I had to act when she sent me that letter."
"I understand," you say with exasperation. It's a fairly solid apology from him- the whole situation just got out of hand. You'd act the same way on word from your family.
"I'm sorry too," Twilight says. "I really am. I thought you'd hurt Pinkie and I got angry about it. I acted very foolishly. I've organised train tickets for us back to Ponyville and I couldn't stop Pinkie from planning you a 'welcome back' party because she thinks this is all her fault. Your cousin's been making noises about suing me and I think-"
"Twily-" her brother says in a warning voice, but Twilight presses on.
"I think you've got good grounds to do so. I'm so sorry for all this," she says. She scrapes at the ground with a hoof and looks away from you.
"It's alright," you say, and as soon as you do you realise it kind of is. Yeah, you missed the wrap up, but you've got tickets to the gala to look forward to now. Twilight looks up, and you can see that she was on the verge of tears.
"I'm not suing anypony," you say. "This was an honest mistake and you were looking out for your friend. You say she's throwing me a party?" Twilight smiles.
"Yeah. A really big one."
"Well, let's not be late. Mister Armour, may we leave?"
"Absolutely," he says. He smiles and indicates the door. Yesterday was a total bust- but today might actually be a pretty good day.
THE END
You received a Good Ending! Raindrops gets a party and tickets to the gala, and has not been significantly mentally scarred by her wrongful arrest. Hooray!
To go back a step, Click here for Chapter 23.