//------------------------------// // Spells and Speeches // Story: I Wasn't Prepared for This // by canonkiller //------------------------------// THWACK Discord's head lurched into the shelf as a book flew away from the purple Alicorn with a brief burst of magic. "No no no no no!" "Could you be a little more careful?" He growled, glaring at her and her teetering pile of books. "They're all gone! Every spell with anything to do with dragons! Gone!" She threw herself down on the pile, pages and a few smaller editions flying up in her wake. "If you ate them, I swear to her holy flank I will strangle them out of you." He stuck out his tongue, taking out a random book from the shelf and changing it's cover. "I don't want any of your educational junk. Tastes like school and roadkill." "Did you have anything to do with this?" Twilight cast a glance along the shelves she hadn't ransacked, seeing nothing but familiar covers. "I assure you," he tapped a shelf, turning the spines of the books on it into a bound rainbow, "nothing I've seen says anything about your particular problem." Twilight pounced from her tower, blocking another set of color-changes with a hoof. "Stop that!" Discord promptly turned her green and vanished. "Ugh!" She shook her head in a vain attempt to get the color off, but only got dizzy. ----- Halfway across the castle, Discord appeared behind the latest Griffon Ambassador. Celestia gaped at him from the other side of the table. He grinned. "Let's fly to the castle~ teeheehee!" ----- "I wonder why the Princess wanted us all together today." Applejack stumbled, looking everywhere but at Rarity. "Ah - don't - quite - reckon - either." Rarity glanced over. "Applejack, dear, are you alright?" "She's fine." Rainbow interrupted, flying up between the two ponies. There was the loud noise of breaking glass, and a small flurry of off-white pages exploded out of a window nearby. Pinkie and Rarity gaped as the rest of the group exchanged glances. "Um, girls, there's something you should know." Fluttershy whispered. "Tw-" "Get back here!" A breeze started up, sending pages drifting away over the castle gardens. Two green hooves scrabbled at the windowledge before hauling out a Kirin's body. Twilight spread her wings and growled at the breeze, watching countless spells flutter away on the wind. "That stupid draconequus. When he get's back, I'll-" "Um... Twilight?" "Fluttershy?!" Twilight jumped, bumping into the other side of the window and falling back on her rump, draconic talons waving in front of her belly. "Uh, girls. Girls! Hi!" Rarity fainted. Pinkie stared at her in wonder, her pupils growing steadily larger. "I knew my twitchy-tail-jumpy-feet-ear-flick when I got here had to mean something!" Twilight hopped down from the window and embraced her friend, sighing as she noticed her color hadn't faded. "I'm not normally green." "Of course not!" Pinkie snuggled into Twilight's shoulder. "Then I would have had a nose itch too!" None of them really noticed the draconequus being tossed from a balcony above, nor the angry yells of a Griffon as he watched him fall. "Girls, I... I'm so sorry." Twilight backed away from Pinkie, ducking her head. As if in recompense, her color was beginning to return to normal. "I left all of you, and... and..." "Twilight, don't worry about it! You're here now, and that's what counts." Pinkie smiled. "I'm sure everyone else feels the same way." "Rarity's unconscious." Twilight pointed out. Pinkie shrugged, hugging her friend again. "She does that." ----- Rarity snipped through a series of stars with a grimace. Twilight shifted slightly under the fabric, awkwardly shuffling her wing into the gap created. "That's much better. Thank you." "It's the least I could do, darling!" Rarity folded the rough cut, resewing it for a much softer edge. "You could have come to me sooner, before all of this got out of hoof." "I know I should have. I was just so scared of everybody, so scared of... scared of myself. I was afraid I'd hurt somepony." "It's okay, Twilight." Rarity placed a hoof on her friend's shoulder, smiling. "I'm just glad that you still picked me to alter your gala dress, even though you could have had anypony in Canterlot!" "What, and have some random mare ruin your hard work?" Twilight smiled, stretching out her wings. "I wouldn't dare!" ----- "My little ponies, you have all witnessed the fate befallen Twilight Sparkle." Celestia's gentle smile seemed earnest as ever, a true happiness shining through on the five ponies below. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" "I'd never forgive myself if I didn't." Applejack tilted her chin up, smiling, an orange glow shining around her. Rainbow puffed out her chest, a red halo shimmering over her. "I couldn't leave my favourite Alicorn hangin'. Uh, sorry, Princess." "Of course! Twilight shouldn't have to be all sad!" Pinkie beamed, a soft blue light radiating from her coat. "What greater gift could we give her than ourselves?" Rarity replied, white luminescence filling the air around her. Fluttershy hesitated before meeting the Princess's soft gaze. "I said a lot of horrible things about Twilight while she was gone." A dim pink glow started to blossom over her coat. "I judged her by what I saw, not what she was. I... I'm ready." Celestia nodded, looking to Princess Cadence and Princess Luna on either side of her. They lit their horns as one. "Well then, my little ponies, it's time to fulfill your destinies." ----- "They said they'd be here!" Twilight whimpered, scuffing a hoof. "I can't do this without them." "Princess Twilight Sparkle?" She turned, her altered gala gown fluttering at her heels as she faced the Guard. "Yes?" "It is time for you to speak. The crowds are getting anxious." She took a deep breath, turning back to the large door ahead. "Of course." With a second pause for courage, she pressed her front hooves to the door and pushed. The bright light from the risen sun blinded her momentarily, spots fading into the distant faces of tens, hundreds, thousands of ponies looking back. The crowd stilled with an eerie hush. Twilight walked to the edge of the balcony, spreading her wings and tilting her chin to some point in the sky above. "Ponies of Equestria!" She jerked her head down, jumping from face to face, halting occasionally to stare into news cameras. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am Princess of the Stars! Months ago, I was transformed and outcast by an accident, followed and predated by hate for my ascension." She surveyed the crowd again, finding the wondered, terrified stares of foals mixed into the increasingly disturbed faces of older ponies. "I was told that I was not worthy. I was told that I, personal student of Princess Celestia and Element of Magic, was not worthy! Tell me, who would you rather have? Discord? Nightmare Moon? Queen Chrysalis? Tell me, ponies, what is worthy?" The crowd remained silent, and Twilight took a moment to let the echoes of her voice fade. "You have been lied to of my demise. I have lied, stolen and snuck my way back to Canterlot, where I have recovered. I am not proud of my failures, but I had no other ways to return. I was never perfect." Mutters had broken out, cameras were flashing. Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat. "I am just like you." The predicted yelling and turmoil broke out. Foals cried as older ponies yelled around them. Cameras flashed, words were jotted down. Twilight turned her head sideways, turning her scales to the crowd. She was to bear through, as Celestia had instructed. She was to wait, and hold on. Screams broke out. Ponies were charging, Pegasi taking to the air and racing towards the balcony. Guards took from their posts, tackling most of the attackers back to the ground. A single stallion got through, rage filling his eyes and speeding his wings. Twilight faced him with dignity, making no move to flee or defend himself. Only a few seconds of doubt crossed his face before a pair of dragon's wings filled the space between them, despite the fact Twilight had not moved.