ACT THREE
Once back home at the castle, Twilight was weeping most miserably. She still had a few bits of mud on her face. Her long stream of tears seemed to help wash some of it off, dirtying her face.
“Twilight, come on.” said Spike.
“Let us at least wipe the mud off.” added Starlight, and she levitated a wet cloth and gently scrubbed Twilight’s face clean.
“They were booing me.” she sobbed “They were sneering at me, like I committed a serious crime.”
“That’s ridiculous.” said Spike “Every-pony is overreacting, and I intend to find out why.”
Spike then marched straight out of the castle to begin his quest, and he didn’t care if he had to go door-to-door all night. He knew Twilight didn’t deserve this treatment.
Starlight decided to stay and keep Twilight comforted.
“Are you going to be okay?” she asked.
Twilight sadly looked up, “I don’t know, but I’ll try.”
Starlight put a hoof on her back, “Don’t worry, we’ll fix this.”
Twilight smiled sadly and wiped the tears from her eyes, and Starlight left her to go make her some tea to help calm her.
All Twilight could do was slump onto the sofa, and she honestly didn’t know what she felt more upset about; the fact that she made a mistake and misjudged the Crusaders, they wouldn’t talk to her, accept her apology, or have anything to do with her, or the fact that now every-pony in town was treating her like a pariah because of her simple error in judgment.
She began to sing a soft and sad song to herself lamenting it all, and remembering how well she got along with the girls.
How has it come to this, we used to have so much fun
But now we’re at such odds, is all of that friendship done
Why can’t we just look up and beyond and start all over again,
Why does it have to be this way, all this fussing and pain?
We all make our mistakes and we learn
To be better friends that we yearn
But now I… don’t know why
It’s all crashed and burned
I try to make good but it wasn’t enough to go
Now every-pony hates me more than I know
How do I let it be known, how do I make them all see
…I’m sorry.
I just want to make things right
I don’t want to yell or fight
How do I let it be known, how do I make them all see
…I’m sorry.
The poor pony lay down miserably and fell asleep.
Soon, she was awoken by the faint sound of yelling coming from outside, and it got louder and louder.
“What’s that?” she wondered.
She looked up at the window and noticed an ominous glow coming from the darkness.
She got to the window and saw a huge and very angry mob calling to her, holding up signs badmouthing her, and holding flaming torches as well.
“There she is!”
“The so-called Princess of Friendship!”
Boos, hoots and hisses were thrown at her, and the ponies began throwing rocks and tomatoes at the window, forcing Twilight to put up a small barrier.
She then shouted through the sparkling magic, “What is all this?”
The Cutiemark Crusaders then stood at the head of the mob.
“It’s called punishment!” called Applebloom.
“Sometimes in life,” added Sweetie Belle “A pony’s got to answer for her errors!”
Twilight gasped, and then she saw Scootaloo signaling in a bunch of pegasi who were all working together to bring in a large tree-trunk they intended to bust through the castle gate with.
“HO!!!” Scootaloo shouted, and the pegasi charged forth to smash the gate.
Twilight yipped and quickly powered-up to conjure a barrier around the entire castle, knocking the ponies and their rammer back hard.
“Your little stunts won’t save you this time!” shouted Sweetie, and she motioned for a bunch of unicorns to gather together, and enchant the rammer with their magic.
“HO!!” shouted Scootaloo.
The pegasi began to ram again, and with the magic enhanced on it, it was able to make cracks in Twilight’s barrier, much to her horror.
“Where are all my friends?!” she cried, but then she realized “Why am I even staying in here?”
She teleported out of the castle and began to soar off into the night.
“After her!” shouted Applebloom.
The Earth ponies began to stampede, and throwing their rocks and vegetables up at her, forcing Twilight to fly even higher up.
“Please, can’t we just talk about this?” she begged and pleaded, but the ponies continued to chase her, and soon the pegasi were all on her tail.
She tried to teleport anywhere to safety, but found ponies, ponies, and more angry ponies everywhere she went, and it wasn’t long before she was captured and bound with magical bindings and solid chains with iron balls, and anti-magical seals that prevented her from using any magic.
Worse than that, she was brought the edge of a cliff overlooking a large body of deep water, like an ocean, which Twilight had never seen before and never knew there was, and she thought she knew all the lands.
Twilight got the idea of what was coming now!
“You wouldn’t?!” she cried “You can’t!”
“We can…” hissed Applebloom
“We would…” added Sweetie.
“…And we’re going to!” snickered Scootaloo.
The massive crowd of ponies cheered them on, and Twilight was then strapped onto the pole of a raft on the water, and all her friends were all bound and strapped in with her, all with anti-magical seals to prevent them from using any special abilities.
“We tried to reason with them!” cried Rarity “But they deemed us as traitors for trying to help you after what you did to them.
Trai-hay-hay-tor-her-hers!”
Applejack looked sternly at Twilight, “That’s what we get for trying to help YOU out!”
“Thanks a lot, Twilight!” sneered Rainbow.
Pinkie stuck her tongue out at her, and Fluttershy wept, “I don’t want to be cast out to sea!”
“We won’t!” said Twilight.
“And what makes you so sure?” asked Starlight.
“Because, I’m sure Princess Celestia would never allow this to happen.”
“Um… Twilight…!” peeped Fluttershy and she motioned with her head at the crowd, where Twilight could see Celestia there, and looking down at her ever so crossly.
“It can’t be!” she cried.
Celestia stepped atop a large rock and declared, “Princess Twilight Sparkle, for your heinous crime of misjudgment, and you defiance and disregarding of the very friendship you were crowned for, I hereby strip you of your title, and banish you and your cohorts out to sea and away from Equestria, FOREVER!!”
The crowds shouted with joy.
“This… this isn’t happening!” cried Twilight “My friends didn’t do anything, it was my fault!”
The crowd didn’t care, and Celestia gave the Crusaders the honor of launching the raft off its ramp, and she then used her powers to force the craft far, far away over the waters.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!!” screamed Twilight.
It was no use!
Still tied tightly to their posts, the seven ponies floated further and further out to sea, rocking back and forth against the waves.
“Ugh! Oh!” groaned Applejack “I feel greener than Granny Smith with a stomach-ache.” Then her tears began to fall “…And I’m never going to see her again, or Big Mac, or the animals!”
“I’ll never get to play with the Cake Twins again!” cried Pinkie.
“You’ve really ruined our lives now, Twilight!” snapped Rainbow.
All the others looked at her ever so angrily, and Twilight, she couldn’t have felt more sick to her stomach than ever.
She and her friends were homeless, and lost out at sea with no food, and nowhere to really go.
“What else could go wrong?” she asked.
“…SHARKS!!” screamed Rarity.
A group of sharks, with their fins sticking out of the water began to surround the raft, and one of them jumped over the group, roaring and snapping its large teeth, just barely missing them all.
The other sharks began to bite and snap away the raft, piece-by-piece, and the ponies, still bound tightly and unable to use magic or any abilities, were hopeless!
The sharks made a great big leap, heading straight for the gang.
All of them, especially Twilight, screamed in terror as the view zoomed into the darkness of Twilight’s mouth and her scream echoed in the darkness!