//------------------------------//
// The Magic of Reading Part 20 
// Story: The Magic of Reading 
// by Creative Charmer 
//------------------------------//

	"Is it over?"
"Is he back in the book?"
Twilight bent her head down and used her horn to scan the book, and she did not sense any sort of magic inside it.
"I don't sense anything. Cthulhu has indeed returned to the book, and the book itself has returned to normal once more."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hoo doggy, that was one heck of a doozy."
"It indeed was."
"It was a super-duper doozy!"
"Well, I'm just glad it's finally over," Twilight said.
"Boy, you said it," Scootaloo said as she grouped together with the other crusaders.
"It sure couldn't have been any more of a doozy," Apple Bloom added.
"At least our troubles are over now," Sweetie Belle said, with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom agreeing with her.
After a few moments of silence, the three fillies looked up from the book, and saw that everyone was glaring at them. "What?" Sweetie asked.
"What do you mean 'what'?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "The only reason all this happened is because of you three!" The faces of the fillies then turned to shock.
"She's right!" Applejack added. "This all never would've happened if you three never started it in the first place!"
Apple Bloom looked particularly shocked from hearing her own sister utter such remarks. "But..sis!"
"There will be no buts from you three!" Rarity interjected. "Just look at all the destruction you've caused!" she exclaimed as she pointed out all of the nearby destroyed buildings.
Sweetie Belle's eyes began to tear up. "R-Rarity...I-I..."
Feeling awful from hearing the harsh words  of the ponies and seeing the tears from her friends, Scootaloo tried to put in her own word. "But...but we didn't mean to—"
"I'm sorry, girls," Fluttershy interrupted. "But I have to agree with my friends."
The girls felt even more taken aback to hear Fluttershy agree with the others.
"Don't feel sorry for them, Fluttershy," Twilight said. She then turned her eyes towards the girls. "It was grossly irresponsible of you to not only take my book without asking, but to use it and unleash this chaos upon Ponyville!"
The fillies looked around at everyone's accusing faces, feeling as bad as they possibly could be for causing so much harm to everyone in Ponyville. But, then, Sweetie Belle stopped cowering. A thought came to her mind; a thought that made her stop feeling like this was all the fault of her and her friends. She knew that this all didn't happen just because of what she, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom did, and prepared to speak her mind about it, as hard as it was going to be.
"Well," Sweetie belle stuttered through her tears. "We never would have even brought Cthulhu out of his book if you all would have given us a chance to show how much I've learned with my magic!"
Suddenly, everything became silent, with everyone looking at Sweetie Belle in total astonishment, her face looking quite firm with what she had just said.
"What in the hay are you talking about?" Applejack asked, breaking the silence.
Apple Bloom felt moved by Sweetie Belle's standing up to the others and speaking her mind, and was now motivated herself to let her own words be heard. She stood up as Sweetie Belle did, although hesitant at first when trying to speak, but still remaining strong.
"She's sayin' how you didn't pay any attention to us! None of yah! All three of us worked really hard to make Sweetie Belle really good at using her magic, and not one of yah would take even a little bit of time to watch!"
"Y—yeah! She's right!" Scootaloo joined in. "So we knew the only way we could show you Sweetie's talent was for her to use a magic spell that was really big and awesome so you'd all see how good she is for yourselves!"
"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "And none of this would have ever happened if you just gave us one little chance!!" Sweetie Belle sounded quite adamant with what she said, as did Apple Bloom and Scootaloo with what they said. The three Crusaders stood together as one, standing up for one another and holding each other back up after each of them fell to the harsh words of the ponies.
Everyone else, on the other hand, looked completely speechless. They didn't expect such a response from the fillies, and felt unsure of how to respond themselves. A long silence occurred, with everyone waiting to see who would talk first. Twilight was the first one to try and speak.
"Girls...we had no idea we made you feel so bad," she said, sounding quite sorrowful. "We just weren't confident that you could do something that seemed so difficult; especially for a first-time magic user."
"Yeah," Rainbow Dash agreed. "But it wasn't just that; we didn't think you could do something like this because of all those times you messed up before. It didn't seem like you would be able to pull it off this time."
"But it was quite wrong of us to treat you in such a harsh way," Rarity said. "Regardless of if you could use magic well or not."
"And it was just downright disgraceful of us tah not give yah the tiny bit of time yah wanted from us," Applejack said.
"We're all very sorry, girls," Twilight said, and she, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity all hung their heads in shame.
"Hold on a second!" Pinkie Pie blurted out abruptly. "Nopony told me they were practicing magic! I would have loved to see them try! I know it would have been a whole ton o' fun!" This caught everyone's attention.
"Actually, I didn't know about this, either," Fluttershy added. "I know they may be new at magic, but I would have been willing to see them give it a try," Everyone sounded surprised to hear this as well.
"Come to think of it, I didn't even know about what they wanted to do," Spike said.
With all these new circumstances having arisen, Twilight began to ponder over them, and she soon came to a realization. "Girls, did you ever ask anypony else if they wanted to watch you demonstrate your magic skills?"
All three of the fillies' faces became blank. "Uhh," Sweetie Belle uttered, not knowing how to respond. She began looking around as she tried to think of what to say, as did Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. All three girls were now stammering from nervousness.
"Well...?"
"...well...actually, we got so mad from you guys not thinking we could do magic that we immediately tried tah do the better spell without thinking of asking anypony else," Apple Bloom stated, not sounding pleased to say it.
"Yeah," Sweetie Belle added, also sounding discontented. "So I guess we really can't blame everyone..."
The ponies couldn't believe what they heard. "What?? You say it's all our fault for making you mad when you didn't even talk to everypony??" Rainbow Dash exclaimed irately.
"Hey, now wait a minute!" Sweetie Belle retorted. "We still wouldn't have done this if it wasn't for the way you guys treated us!"
"Yeah! You're still the ones who started it!" Scootaloo appended.
The ponies thought about this. "You know, they're still right," Twilight said. "We were still the ones who made them feel bad in the first place, and it wasn't right of us to do so. "We're still quite sorry, girls," Twilight said sorrowfully, with the others looking the same.