//------------------------------// // Starswirl // Story: Script // by Chemtest //------------------------------// It’s a bright and sunny day in the small village of Ponyville. A warm summer breeze blows past the forms of fillies and colts, playing joyous games of tag together, mares and stallions, haggling for prices at the local marketplace, and past the forms of birds, squirrels, and all the other peaceful animals in parks, on roofs, or on walks with their owners. Every so often, a stray cloud would move in front of the sun, providing a brief respite from it’s brightness, before then moving on, allowing the surface light once more. Days like these are indeed beautiful, a true example of the ideal Equestrian day. The type of day every mare and stallion should be out enjoying.And they should be thankful for them. But, for Twilight Sparkle, it had might as well been the dead of night outside, her entire focus dedicated to the ancient book in front of her. She had spent days reading it over, decrypting the meanings of many ancient sayings and struggling to understand the oftentimes confusing writings of Starswirl. The spell contained within the book, not finished before the brilliant wizard’s demise, was never finished, and not once in the book did it mention the purpose of the spell. In fact, Starswirl’s writings seemed intent on never spelling out the purpose in the least, leaving nothing but hints and methods that formed the winding path to understanding. Twilight sighs as her eyes scan a blank page of the book, her scholarly patience drawn almost entirely to it’s end. Not for the first time that day, and certainly not the last, she turns her eyes to the letter which came with the book. ‘Starswirl, my dearest mentor in ages past, passed before he could finish this final and greatest spell. For millennia, ponies have looked over this book, not one being able to finish his spell. The greatest of each era, even Starswirl’s own descendants, have denounced this spell as impossible to finish, and a few even have made remarks of his madness while writing this spell. However, where ponies of the past have failed, I believe you, my most faithful student, shall succeed. You are the most brilliant pony in Equestria, the most brilliant mage to bless this world since my dearest mentor’s untimely passing, and I have faith that you can succeed where others have failed. Finish Starswirl’s spell, my most faithful student, I believe that you can. Celestia.’ Twilight sighs, burying her head in the book, muttering, “I don’t get it… who even writes spells like this?! Why wouldn’t he just write what the spell did!?” From behind her, Spike, the unicorn’s pet dragon, pats her back, offering a small smile. Twilight raises her head, looking over at him, smiling back, “I know, Spike, I know, I’m getting too emotional and invested in it, aren’t I?” Spike smiles and slightly shrugs, “Well, I wasn’t going to say that… I was just going to say we should get lunch. Pinkie said she was going to bake the strawberry cupcakes.” As he mentions cupcakes, a rumble comes from her stomach, causing Twilight to sheepishly smile. Spike grins, “Sounds like we’re getting strawberry cupcakes, then. And maybe some ice cream after?” Twilight smiles more, “We’ll get cupcakes. But no ice cream, you know that’s unhealthy.” Spike frowns slightly, “Aww, come on, Twilight, I’m a dragon, I’m fine with a little bit of unhealthiness.” Twilight grins slightly, patting his head with a hoof, “You’re still a baby dragon, Spike. Trust me, when you’re a big dragon, you’ll regret every pint of ice cream you ate. You know, I remember reading somewhere that there was a dragon who couldn’t breathe fire because he ate so much ice cream, it turned his inner heat into inner cold.” Spike blinks, “So… if I eat too much ice cream I can’t breathe fire anymore?” She grins, “Theoretically.” Spike pauses, tapping his scaled chin with a claw, only to grin himself, “So if eating ice cream turns my inner fire into cold… maybe if I eat more, I can breathe ice! And if I eat more and more ice cream, I’ll grow more and more powerful!” Twilight laughs lightly, “Alright, Spike, let’s not test that hypothesis of your’s. I don’t think ice cream would make you more…” She trails off, “Powerful…” Spike looks up at her, waving a claw in front of her face, “Twilight? Twilight? Hello, home to unicorn? Anyone there?” Twilight quickly spins around, floating up Starswirl’s book, smiling widely, “I get it now! The spell makes you more powerful!” Spike walks up to her, poking her side, “But… but strawberry cupcakes.” Twilight glances at him, “I’m sorry Spike, but I need to capitalize upon this realization! I finally understand it, why it was all so vague, it’s because this spell is supposed to ascend a pony into a… a Spirit, like Discord! It’s not supposed to make sense because only a pony capable of understanding it is worthy of casting it!” She flips back to the beginning of the book, “Go get the cupcakes by yourself, Spike, I’m sorry but I need to read this all over again, I finally understand it!” Spike slowly nods, and then smiles, “Well, good, maybe we can finally move on to something else. I’ll be right back!” He walks to the front door, exiting the library, leaving Twilight alone. Now she can ascend, and all that juicy magic will make this world so much more… tasty. The unicorn mare flips open the first page of the book, setting to it with new understanding in mind. Before she can make it halfway down the page, however, a loud crash comes from behind her, a prismatic and blue blur crashing into her. She’s sent flying by the collision, hitting into a bookcase, with it falling over and spilling books everywhere, leaving her looking at the offending Pegasus, Rainbow Dash, surrounded by a broken table. Twilight frowns, “Rainbow, how many times do I have to tell you to not do that?” What. Rainbow grins, “Yeah, yeah, I know, ‘oh no, you always cause so much collateral damage when you enter like a totally awesome Pegasus’, which I am.” She stands from the broken table, not noticing the broken book halfway up her leg, impaled by said leg, “Look, you said that if you ever got too obsessed with something to-“ Twilight interrupts her, her eyes locked onto the book, “My book! You… you destroyed it!” She… destroyed the book. Rainbow flinches, looking down at her leg, and then winces, “Yikes, umm… I’m sorry, I didn’t even realize, I… geez, I’m so sorry Twilight, that was uncool.” Twilight sits, grabbing the sides of her head, “This can’t be happening, this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening! That was Starswirl’s last spell! His unfinished spell, older than the Princesses themselves! The Princess trusted me with it, and-and…” Rainbow looks down, slowly removing the book from her leg, “I… I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize I would… I didn’t know it was so important…” Sorry? Sorry isn’t going to cut it, you… you insignificant speck. Sorry isn’t going to cut it. Twilight looks down as well, “The Princess put her faith in me that I would solve it… now I need to go tell her I failed, that I got it destroyed…” Rainbow steps forward, “No, Twilight, you aren’t going to be doing that. I destroyed the book, I’ll tell Princess Celestia. This is my fault, and I’m not going to let you get punished for it. I’m sorry, and I know being sorry isn’t enough, I should have thought before I crashed inside. But I’m going to take responsibility for this.” With those words, she spreads her wings, taking off through the window, headed to Canterlot, leaving Twilight behind, over a ruined book. Does she think she can get away with this? Does she think this… this disobedience will go unpunished? She’ll learn. This whole world will learn. No going off script.