The Magic of Reading

Chapters

The Magic of Reading Part 1
The Magic of Reading Part 2
The Magic of Reading Part 3
The Magic of Reading Part 4
The Magic of Reading Part 5
The Magic of Reading Part 6
The Magic of Reading Part 7
The Magic of Reading Part 8
The Magic of Reading Part 9
The Magic of Reading Part 10
The Magic of Reading Part 11
The Magic of Reading Part 12
The Magic of Reading Part 13
The Magic of Reading Part 14
The Magic of Reading Part 15
The Magic of Reading Part 16
The Magic of Reading Part 17
The Magic of Reading Part 18
The Magic of Reading Part 19
The Magic of Reading Part 20
The Magic of Reading Part 21

The Magic of Reading Part 1

It was yet another nice day in Ponyville, thanks to the Pegasus ponies. At Twilight's house, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack were all waiting for Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, as they were all to meet up at Twilight's house so the older ponies could spend some time with the fillies.
"I still don't understand why you're here, Rainbow," said Applejack, "Scootaloo isn't even your sister; even though she sure seems like she could be."

"Hey, that little twerp looks up to me; plus, she thinks I'm the coolest pony in Ponyville, so that seems like a good enough reason to hang out with her."

Applejack sighed, "Whatever you say."

Rarity was getting impatient, "Where are they? I can't spend all day waiting. I have work I have to get done. Ponies are counting on me to make them fabulous clothes!"

"Cool it, Rarity! You're getting more upset than a swarm o' hornets!"

"That's easy for you to say, Applejack. You never have anything important to do for anypony."

"Excuse me? I have to work hard picking apples to every day so I can sell 'em to other ponies, so don't act like you're the only one who does any work in this town."

Rarity was getting frustrated with Applejack, and likewise with Applejack. Twilight then intervened by pushing them both away from each other, "Girls! You both are equally hard workers! And nopony has something more important to do than the other! So stop this foolish arguing!" Rarity and Applejack looked at each one time more, then both turned their heads away from each other in arrogance. Twilight sighed.

Suddenly, there is a knock on the door. "Oh, that's probably them," said Twilight. She walked to the door and opened it, and Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo.

"Hey there, everypony!" Apple Bloom said cheerfully.

"Sorry we're late!" Sweetie Belle added.

"Where have you girls been??" Rarity asked, rather perturbed.

"Well, uhh, we were..."

"Oh, hold on!" Apple Bloom interrupted. She reached off to the side and held up a package.

"What is that?" asked Rarity.

Apple Bloom put the package on the ground, "It's for Twilight. I think it's from Princess Celestia."

"The Princess??" Twilight said excitedly, "That must be the book she said she was going to send me! "The Book of Advanced Magic Spells" Now I get to learn even more magic!" she then used her magic to pick up the package and carried it back to her desk, where opened the package and began reading the book.

"Jeez, what an egghead," Rainbow Dash laughed.

"Well, you know how she is about getting things from the Princess," Rarity said, "Although it is mildly amusing seeing somepony get so excited over getting a simple package."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, "This came for you, Sis!" she reached behind her and took out a magazine, "It's your latest fashion magazine from Canterlot."

Rarity suddenly burst into excitement, "Oh, fantastic!! This issue features Hoity Toity's newest choices for spring colors! I'm SO glad it's finally here!!" She took the magazine with her magic and took it over to Twilight's podium and began reading it.

"Boy, both of you sure go crazy over such little things like that," Rainbow Dash said mockingly, "I suppose if either of you got a letter from any of those ponies, you'd go even crazier!" she then started laughing.

"Speaking of letters," Scootaloo said, "I've got some letters for you, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash stopped laughing, "Letters? From who?"

"From the Wonderbolts."

Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped, "The...Wonderbolts...sent...me...letters?" Her voice sort of squeaked when she said the last word.

"Yep!!"

Rainbow was so wound up that she ran over and snatched the letters from Scootaloo, "Oh my gosh!! These are from the Wonderbolts!"

"I guess they remembered how awesome you are."

"Well, why wouldn't they?" Rainbow said smugly. She then flew up into Twilight's bedding area to read the letters in privacy.
"Well, Cutie mark Crusaders," Scootaloo said to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, "I think we delivered their mail perfectly."
"We sure did!"
"Yeah!"
While the fillies were feeling proud of themselves, Applejack walked up to them and asked, "Uhh, girls? May I ask you something?"

"Sure!" The girls replied in unison.

"Well, I was wondering: Where did you get that mail from?"

"Oh, we got it all from this mail bag," the girls them moved apart from each other to show a mail bag behind them.

"Where in tarnation did you get that from??"

"Well, we were walking here as we planned," Apple Bloom started to say, "But then we noticed this bag behind a bush near the center of town."

"Wasn't there anypony around that it might have belonged to?"

"We didn't see anypony," Sweetie Belle continued, "So we wondered if we should try and find who it belonged to, or just leave it there."

"But then we decided that it would be a great idea to try and deliver the mail ourselves, since we might get our cutie marks for delivering mail!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"Actually, it was your idea," Sweetie Belle said to Scootaloo.

"Well, you two didn't seem to mind," Scootaloo said gruffly.

"That's because you always make us do what you want to do!"

"If it means getting our cutie marks, then why does it matter?"

"Well, maybe we don't want to do what you want to do!"

"Well, excuse me for—"

"HOLD ON!!" Applejack interjected, surprising the girls and making them turn their attention towards her, "Are you girls saying you took somepony else's mailbag? As in, stole it?"

"Uhh..." The girls were unsure of how to respond.

"What in Equestria makes you think you can take something that doesn't belong to you, and do somepony else's job for them?"

"Well," Apple Bloom stuttered, "As long as we deliver the mail right, it shouldn't matter, right?"

"That's not the point, Apple Bloom. The point is that you fillies took something without asking, and didn't even try to find the owner of the bag."

The girls all became saddened, "We're awfully sorry, Applejack," said Apple Bloom.

"Yeah, we just wanted to help out." Sweetie Belle added.

"And we wanted to get our cutie marks," Scootaloo added, "But it seems that delivering mail isn't any of our talents."

After hearing them apologize and seeing their sad faces, Applejack felt bad for them, "Well...as long as you learned your lesson, it's okay."

The fillies lifted their heads back up and smiled lightly. "Thanks for not getting too upset with us, Sis."

Applejack smiled back at them, "I could never stay mad at you girls," Applejack then patted Apple Bloom on the head, "By the way, did you girls deliver anypony else's mail before you got here?"

Suddenly, the happy faces of all three girls disappeared. "Well," Apple Bloom started to reluctantly say, "We sorta only knew the addresses of the mail we had to deliver to Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash."

"So, when we delivered the mail to the addresses of the ponies we didn't know, we MAY have gotten some of them wrong..."

Applejack raised an eyebrow, "How many addresses do you think you got wrong...?"

"Umm..." Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo all stuttered.

But suddenly, before any of them could answer, a voice shouted behind them, "There they are!!"

The fillies turned around and saw the site of angry crowd of ponies gathering around them!

The Magic of Reading Part 2

The crowd of angry ponies around the girls grew, all of them very mad and frustrated. Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash all heard the noise coming from the crowd. "What is that noise?" asked Twilight.

"I'm not sure," Rarity added.

"Me neither, but it's distracting me from seeing what great things the Wonderbolts have to say about me!" Rainbow Dash responded irritably. She, Twilight, and Rarity then quickly went to the door to see what the commotion was. They were all shocked to see such a large crowd of angry ponies outside the library.

"What the hay did you girls do?!?" Applejack asked in an angry tone.

"It...seems that we delivered the wrong mail to everypony except Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash..." Apple Bloom said, humiliated.

"You're darn right you did!"

"This isn't what I wanted at all!"

"Who let those fillies deliver the mail, anyway??"

"I want this fixed now!"

The other ponies shouted their angry words at the little fillies. "Boy you girls really messed things up this time," Rainbow Dash said.

"Rainbow!" Twilight exclaimed, "Don't make them feel worse than they already do for making this big mistake!" Unfortunately, Twilight's remark made the girls feel even worse.

"You mean like that?" Rainbow Dash retorted as she pointed at the girls.

"Ohh..." Twilight then felt embarrassed along with the girls.

While the girls were being chewed out by the citizens of Ponyville, a larger Pegasus pony suddenly flew down and landed in front of Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, "I assume you are the girls who are responsible for all this."

"Who are you, sir?" asked Rarity.

"I am the Postmarester General," he replied, "I am in charge of the post office up in Canterlot. From there, Pegasus ponies deliver mail ALL over Equestria. Although today, I started getting complaints from this town that everypony was getting the wrong mail, so I rushed down here to see what was going on. I heard from several ponies that three fillies were delivering the mail of this town instead of a proper mail carrier; and it is apparent that you three are those same three fillies, am I correct?"

The girls were silent for a few moments, but then Sweetie Belle stepped forward and said, "Yes, it was us. We're awfully sorry, sir."

"We just wanted to help out everypony," Apple Bloom added, "So we decided to deliver the mail ourselves."

"We also wanted to get our cutie marks," Scootaloo also added, "And we thought delivering mail might be our talents."

"Well, that still doesn't excuse you from messing up the whole mail system. You girls need to know that."

"Yes, sir…" the fillies all said miserably.

The Postmarester General sighed, "Well, I'm not going to see you three punished, since I see you three already feel bad enough. Just let the mailpony have their mailbag back, and I'll go and fix everypony's mail orders." The girls nodded in agreement. "Okay," He turned his head to the left and motioned it towards the bag. Then, Derpy Hooves flew over and picked up her mailbag. She looked at the girls with a mad, walleyed look, and scoffed as she turned and flew back to the General. "Well, now that that's been taken care of," said the General, "we should all get to work fixing this mess," he turned around to leave, but then stopped and turned his head back towards the girls, 'By the way, little fillies like you shouldn't be delivering mail. It's really more of an "adult" thing.'

"What?!" Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all shouted.

"You should stick to something little kids like you can do, like playing, doing your schoolwork, or minor household chores."

"We're not babies!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle added.

"We can do anything you older ponies can do!" Apple Bloom shouted in frustration.

"Just like how well you three handled delivering the mail?"

"Yeah! Just like—oh..." Apple Bloom said, feeling bad all over again.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," he turned back towards the other ponies, "Let's go now. We've got a LOT of work to do." Then he and the other ponies all left to get their mail orders fixed.

Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all felt the crushing blow of failure more than ever this time, so Twilight and the others felt quite bad for them. "Listen, girls," Twilight said. "I know you feel really bad about all this trouble, but you shouldn't be so hard on yourselves. It was an honest mistake, and one would expect young ones like you to not always know what you're doing."

"We're not little babies!" Scootaloo shouted as she turned around to face Twilight, as did Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, who both agreed with her.

"Just because we did something wrong this time, doesn't mean we can't do anything you older ponies can do!" shouted Apple Bloom.

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle agreed.

"Come on, girls!" Scootaloo said to the others, "Let's go and show everypony what we can do!" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle agreed with her, and the three of them started to walk away.

"But we were supposed to spend the day together!" exclaimed Applejack.

"Well, we wouldn't want to mess that up, either!" Apple Bloom shouted back at Applejack. Then she, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all quickly walked off in a huff.

"Oh dear," said Rarity, "It seems the girls have gotten pretty riled up by being made to think they can't do anything."

"Well, we do seem to treat them that way," replied Applejack.

"And Twilight's speech sure made them feel even more that way…" scoffed Rainbow Dash, after which Twilight gave her a nasty look.

"Oh Rainbow Dash! Don't blame this all on her!" exclaimed Rarity, "All of us have treated them like babies at some time or another in the past. And now I've think they have taken all they can from everypony."

"What do you reckon they're gonna do now?" asked Applejack.

"I don't know," said Twilight, "But I just hope it's nothing too brash."

"In that case, it's hopeless," Rainbow Dash said irritably with a hint of sarcasm. Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity then all gave her a nasty look like before.

The Magic of Reading Part 3

Later, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo were in their clubhouse, mulling over the events that had just occurred. "I can't believe they treated us like babies!" Scootaloo exclaimed as she paced back and forth.

"Well, it's not really that unlikely that they would," said Sweetie Belle, "I mean, this isn't the first time we messed up trying to get cutie marks."

"Well, we've just got to prove them wrong!"

"Well, how do yah suppose we go about doing that this time?" asked Apple Bloom.

"I...don't know..."

"Yah don't know?? But you're the one who comes up the ideas for how to get our cutie marks!"

"Even though none of them are ever any good," Sweetie Belle said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh yeah?!" Scootaloo snapped, "Then how about you come up with an idea, then??"

"Umm..." Sweetie Belle suddenly regretted what she had said, as she had no idea of what they could do.

"Well…?" Scootaloo said,

She started to think as hard as she could of something they could do.

"C'mon, Sweetie! Yah can think of somethin'!" Apple Bloom said to her.

Sweetie Belle put her hooves on the side of her head as she tried hard to think. Apple bloom and Scootaloo watched her as she strained to come up with an idea. "Come on, Sweetie Belle! Think of something!" Sweetie Belle thought to herself. She thought harder and harder. Scootaloo looked so sure that Sweetie couldn't think of anything, until she saw something that surprised her. As Sweetie was trying hard to think, the tip of her horn started to slightly glow. As it started to glow brighter, Apple Bloom noticed it and was equally surprised. "What in the hay—Sweetie Belle, your horn is glowing!"

Sweetie Belle instantly opened her eyes and stopped trying to think at the sound of Apple Bloom's words, "WHAT?!?" she shouted, and her horn suddenly stopped glowing.

"Yer horn! It was glowing for a few seconds!"

"It was??" Sweetie Belle frantically felt her horn, but didn't feel the magic energy being given off.

"Yes, it was!"

"You never told us you could use magic!" Scootaloo shouted.

"I didn't know I could either! I was just thinking of an idea for how we could get our cutie marks, and—"

"That's it!!" Scootaloo shouted, "That's how you were able to use your magic! From thinking hard!"

"You mean, me thinking hard caused me to finally be able to use magic?"

"Yes, of course! This is great!"

"Yeah! Everypony will be awful proud of yah for finally being able to use yer magic!" Apple Bloom said with delight.

"No, that's not why this is great!" Scootaloo said irritably, "It's great because now we can use Sweetie Belle's magic to get us our cutie marks!"

"Hey, yah'll are right! That really is great!!"

"But, how is my magic going to get us our cutie marks?" Sweetie Belle asked.

Scootaloo smacked her hoof to her face, "Because now we can get cutie marks for using magic!"

"Oh, yah mean like Twilight?"

"Yeah, except ours will be much cooler!" Scootaloo boasted.

"How much cooler could they be if they're the same talent?" Sweetie Belle whispered to Apple Bloom.

Apple Bloom shrugged, and then Scootaloo said to her and Sweetie Belle, "Come on, Cutie Mark Crusaders! It's time for us to get our cutie marks!!"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle didn't look as enthusiastic as Scootaloo about this new turn of events, "Umm, Scootaloo?"

"What now, Sweetie Belle?"

"Well...not that we don't want to get our cutie marks, but, I'm not sure if we can get cutie marks for magic now, since I just used magic for the first time."

"She's right, Scootaloo. Don't yah think she should practice it first?"

"Ohhh, but that'll take too long!" Scootaloo whined as she stamped her hoof on the ground.

"Look, it's the only way we might be able to get our cutie marks for magic, so I think it's worth it to spend some time practicing instead of just jumping right into doing magic," Sweetie Belle responded.

"Sweetie Belle's right, Scootaloo," said Apple Bloom, "Besides, remember what Twilight told us a while ago about doing things in areas we're not familiar with? Well, if we make ourselves familiar with magic, then maybe we'll finally be able to get our cutie marks!"

Scootaloo pondered this idea for a few moments, and then she said, "Okay, girls! Let's go practice magic so we can get our cutie marks!"

"Yay!!!" both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom shouted.

Then, all three girls gathered together, and they all shouted as loud as they could, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MAGIC PRACTICE!!!!!" They shouted so loud the windows rattled and the nearby birds flew away in fear.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the farm, Applejack had just gotten home when she could hear the faint sound of the CMC shouting, "Did yah hear something, Big Macintosh?" she asked her brother.

"Eeyup," he replied to her.

"Hmm, ah think ah know where it's coming from. Come on, Big Mac!" she and Big Mac then ran off in the direction of the noise.

The Magic of Reading Part 4

Sweetie Belle was sitting down in front of a stump outside of the CMC clubhouse, with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo standing on the other side of the stump, and an apple was placed on top of the stump. "Okay, Sweetie Belle!" said Apple Bloom, "For your first magic practice, use your magic to lift this apple into the air."

"What, that's it?" Scootaloo complained, "Can't she do something cooler, like making the apple explode or something?"

"No, no! She has to start off small first, so this seems like the perfect way for her to start practicin' her magic."

"Okay, fine," Scootaloo said, rolling her eyes back, "Let's just hurry up so we can get our cutie marks faster."

"Okay then, Sweetie Belle. Lift the apple!"

"Okay," Sweetie Belle replied. She pointed her horn at the apple, and started concentrating on lifting the apple. Tiny sparks of magic came out of her horn, but they didn't affect the apple at all.

"Come on, Sweetie Belle! Yah can do it!"

"Yeah, come on! I wanna see some magic!"

Sweetie Belle kept on trying to lift the apple. She put her hooves on the side of her head like before as she tried to concentrate. Then, her horn started to glow brighter.

"Hey! Ah think it's workin'!"

Sweetie Belle kept thinking harder and harder, and her horn glowed even brighter. Suddenly, the apple started to glow.

“It is working! Keep going Sweetie Belle!”

Sweetie Belle kept using her magic, and the apple started to lift into the air. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom both watched in awe as this occurred.

"You did it, Sweetie Belle!"

"Yeah! Take a look!"

Sweetie Belle eagerly opened her eyes to look at the levitated apple. Unfortunately, when she did this, she stopped concentrating on lifting the apple, so the magic went away and the apple fell back down onto the stump. “Awww…I didn’t even get to see it for that long.”

“Don’t worry! Yah can do it again if you already did it once!”

“Yeah! But this time, try to do it so you can see the apple while you’re lifting it!”

"Okay, I'll try," Sweetie Belle focused her concentration and she lifted up the apple with her magic again.

"Okay, you got it. Now try and concentrate while looking at the apple this time."

"Okay," Sweetie Belle slowly started to open her eyes, even though it was quite hard for her to concentrate this way.

"C'mon! Yah can do it!"

As Sweetie tried harder, the magic around the apple started to convulse a little bit.

"Come on, Sweetie Belle!"

The magic convulsed more and more, until, suddenly, the apple exploded, scattering apple parts all over the girls.

“Well, that didn’t work too well,” Sweetie Belle said as she wiped some of the apple mush off her face.

“No, but yah were close!” Apple Bloom said encouragingly.

“Yeah, and besides, you were able to make it explode like I wanted after all!” Scootaloo said, laughing. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle didn't laugh at first, but then they joined Scootaloo after realizing it was all in good fun.

Just then, Applejack and Big Macintosh came up to the clubhouse. "What in tarnation is going on around here?" Applejack exclaimed.

"Oh, nothing's going on, Applejack,” said Apple Bloom, "We were just practicin' gettin' our cutie marks.

Applejack noticed the apple parts splattered all around, "What were ya'll practicing? Getting yer cutie marks in fruit mashin’?”

“Oh no, Applejack. That was just an accident from Sweetie Belle trying to lift the apple with her magic.”

“Magic??”Applejack said, astonished, “Are you sayin’ that Sweetie Belle can use 'er magic??”

"She sure can!" Scootaloo exclaimed, "You should have seen her explode the apple with her magic. It was so cool!"

"Well, that's just downright wonderful, Sweetie Belle! Congratulations on finally learnin' magic!"

"Thanks!" Sweetie Belle cheerfully replied, "But I do need to learn how to control it better."

"Aww, don't worry! Ah'm sure you'll be able to learn how to do magic just fine!"

"She's right, Sweetie Belle!" said Apple Bloom, "You just havta practice, is all!"

"Yeah!" Scootaloo added, "And then you'll be able to do even cooler stuff with magic!"

"Yeah! And then we'll get our cutie marks for magic!" Sweetie Belle also added.

"That's the spirit!" said Applejack, "But promise me you won't go too overboard, okay?"

"Sure! We promise, Applejack!" Apple Bloom responded, and then she turned her heads towards Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, “Don’t we, girls?”

"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both replied in unison.

“Well then, Ah guess I should leave yah to yer magic learnin’! Have doing it, girls!”

“We will!” The girls said in unison, and then they all shouted together, “ONWARD WITH THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MAGIC PRACTICE!!!”

Applejack and Big Macintosh looked a bit blown away by their yelling, so when Applejack recouped herself, she said to Big Macintosh, “Ah hope they’ll be practicin’ a bit quieter than that, though.”

“Eeyup,” he replied. Then he and Applejack went back to the main part of their farm.

The Magic of Reading Part 5

For the next few days, the Cutie Mark Crusaders practiced magic using Sweetie Belle's magical skills. After she mastered lifting single objects, she started lifting multiple objects at once. She then moved on to moving single objects around in the air, then multiple objects. After one month, Sweetie Belle seemed to have mastered the beginning basics of how to use magic.

After the month of training, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom were walking through Ponyville, ready and willing to showcase Sweetie's magic abilities. "This has been an awesome month!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"Yah! Sweetie Belle has learned so much!" Apple Bloom added. "We'll git our cutie marks fer magic in no time!"

Sweetie Belle blushed. "Awww, thanks, you guys. I hope the others will think I'm just as good at using magic as you do!"

"Ah'm sure they will!"

"How could they not?"

Sweetie Belle smiled at hearing her friend's encouraging words.

The girls then arrived at the town fountain, where Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight were talking with each other.

"Hey, sis!" Sweetie Belle shouted. "I'm finally done with my magic training! Now I can show you and everypony else how good I've gotten at magic!"

Rarity slightly turned her head towards Sweetie Belle, but her eyes were still fixed towards Rainbow and Twilight. "Yes, Sweetie Belle, that sounds marvelous, but I'm busy conversing with Rainbow and Twilight about our plans for the day."

"Awww, come on! It won't take that long! I really want to show you how great I am at using magic now!"

Rarity sighed and then turned around and faced Sweetie Belle, "Look, Sweetie Belle, I'm sure you use magic fairly well, but—"

"I don't do it "fairly well", I do it great!"

"She's right!" Scootaloo added. "We've seen her use her magic, and it's really cool how good she is at it!"

"Yeah! She's one of the best unicorns in Ponyville!"

"Now hold on, girls," Twilight said as she walked up to them, "Don't you think you might be getting a bit ahead of yourselves?"

"She's right," Rainbow Dash said. "Just because you three say Sweetie Belle is really good at magic, it doesn't mean she's one of the best."

"Indeed," Rarity added. "After all, Sweetie Belle, you are just a filly, so you can't be expected to be that good at magic already."

"Ohhh! You never give me a chance to prove I'm good at something!" Sweetie Belle then stormed off, along with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

"Well!" Rarity said, exasperated. "That seemed like a bit much! I mean, we all know that they just aren't good at trying to get cutie marks, right?"

"Exactly," Rainbow Dash replied. "And they especially can't get ones for magic."

"I hate to sound pessimistic," Twilight added. "but I have to agree. They are much too inexperienced. Especially after that whole incident with the mail."

"Well, I'm glad you both agree," Rarity looked back at Sweetie Belle and the others still walking away. "I just wish that they would, too."

"It's not fair!!" Sweetie Belle shouted as she, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo were still storming through Ponyville.

"I know!!" shouted Scootaloo.

"They don't think we can do anything just because we're so little!" shouted Apple Bloom.

"They don't even give us a chance!"

"Well, we're just going to have to show them that we can use magic just as good as any unicorn!" Scootaloo exclaimed.

"But how are we gonna do that?" asked Apple Bloom.

"I'm not sure..." Scootaloo sat down to think, and the other girls stopped walking so they could think, too. "It has to be something that will impress them."

"Somethin' that nopony here in town has seen before."

"Something that will show them what we can really do..."

Suddenly, Sweetie Belle's eyes lit up. "I got it!" she exclaimed.

"What?" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom both asked in unison.

"...well, I don't know a spell to impress everypony, but I do know that we can find one in one of Twilight's books!"

"Hey, yeah, you're right!"

"We should git on over to Twilight's right away!"

"Okay! Let's go!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed; then she, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom then raced off to Twilight's house as fast as they could.

The Magic of Reading Part 6

When the girls arrived at Twilight's house, Scootaloo knocked on the door. Spike answered the door. "Oh, hello. Are you three here to do more crusading? Because I don't think Twilight wants to reshelf her books again."

"No, no, we're not doing that kind of crusading anymore," said Scootaloo.

"We're doing something new!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah! You see, Sweetie Belle finally learned to use magic, so we came here to ask Twilight if we could see one of her spell books."

"Exactly!" said Apple Bloom. "So, where is Twilight?"

"Well, she's still out with the others, so I stayed here to do my chores."

"Oh, well then, can we ask you if we can borrow a spell book?"

"Well, the thing is, Twilight might not like it if I let other ponies borrow books without her knowing. You can ask her when she gets back, if you want."

Sweetie belle cringed a little. "Umm, hold on a second," she then turned around and huddled together with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. "We can't wait for Twilight to come back!" she whispered loudly.

"I know!" whispered Scootaloo. "She would never let us use the book because she doesn't think we'll be able to do any of the spells!"

"So what'll we do??" asked Apple Bloom.

They all thought for a few moments. "I got it!" whispered Sweetie Belle. She then turned back towards Spike. "You know, Spike, we passed by Twilight and the others on our way over here, and Rarity said she needed your help with something."

"She did??" exclaimed Spike as his eyes perked up.

"Yeah! She's over by the fountain if you want—" Spike bolted away before Sweetie Belle could finish. "—to know where she is..."

"Great thinking!" Scootaloo said as she patted Sweetie on the back.

"Yeah!" Apple Bloom agreed. "Yah really know how Spike thinks!"

"Yes, well, it wasn't hard for me to learn," she giggled along with the other girls, and then they all went inside Twilight's house.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders all looked in awe at Twilight's large collection of books. "Which book should we choose?" asked Apple Bloom.

"Whichever one has the most impressive spells!" said Scootaloo.

"Right!" Sweetie Belle responded. "Let's do this!" They all then split up to find the best spell book to use.

Apple Bloom looked at the books on the bottom shelves of one bookcase. "How 'bout this? Teleportin' 101?"

"No," Sweetie responded. "Twilight does that all the time. Nopony will be impressed much by that."

Scootaloo used a ladder to look at books in the higher shelves of one bookcase. "Here's one! Weather Control by Magic."

"Hmm...I think that might be impressive, but I don't think I'm one who should mess with the weather." Scootaloo rolled her eyes, then she put the book back and started searching for another book.

Sweetie Belle used her magic to take books off of all the shelves of another bookcase so she could see each one. "Hmm, I'm finding a bunch of spell books, but none of them sound good enough to use."

"Well, there's gotta be something here we can use!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Or else we'll never show anypony how good we are at magic!"

"And Sweetie Belle might not get her cutie mark for magic if she doesn't learn better spells!" Apple Bloom added.

Sweetie Belle then started to feel really bad. "If we could only find the right book...but who knows what book that would even be??" she then propelled all the books she was lifting with her magic away from her in frustration, causing them hit the walls and bookshelves, which in turn knocked some of the other books off the shelves.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom came next to her. "Don't give up now, Sweetie Belle," said Apple Bloom. "We'll find somethin' soon, Ah'm sure of it!"

Sweetie Belle looked at her friends, and smiled, but it was not a very confident smile.

"Yeah, that's it! Just keep your chin up!"

"She's right!" Scootaloo said. "I mean, there are still plenty of other books around!" she then ran over to a pile of books on the floor. "Let's see..." she started looking through the pile.

While Scootaloo was doing that, Apple Bloom patted Sweetie Belle on the back. and smiled at her, saying without words that everything would work out. Sweetie Belle smiled back at her, feeling a bit more optimistic than before.

"A-HA!!"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom instantly turned their heads towards Scootaloo in surprise.

"I've got it!" Scootaloo picked up a book with her mouth, then carried it back to the others and put it on the ground. "This book looks perfect!"

Sweetie Belle read the title out loud, "The Book of Advanced Spells...do you really think this is the book for me?"

"I'm sure of it!"

"Me too!"

"Well then...I think it's time to learn a new spell!" Sweetie Belle said enthusiastically as she used her magic to raise the book above her head. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo cheered, and then three of them put their hooves together, and then they loudly shouted, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ADVANCED MAGIC PRACTICE!!!"

"Now let's git on to it!"

The girls started running to the door, but then Sweetie Belle skidded to a stop. "Wait!" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom stopped running and turned towards her. "I think we should clean up Twilight's house before we leave," she said as she glanced back at all the books scattered on the floor.

"Oh, right," Scootaloo said, embarrassed. The girls then went back to reshelf Twilight's books.

The Magic of Reading Part 7

After cleaning up Twilight's house, the CMC were back at their clubhouse with their new spellbook, eager to get started on it. "Okay, Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Let's learn some great new spells!"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both cheered, and Sweetie Belle used her magic to open up the book to search for a spell. "Now let's see...which spell would be best to learn...?”

"It should be something awesome!"

"Somethin' that'll really impress everypony!"

Sweetie belle kept searching, saying the names of spells out loud as she read them, "Hmm...Using Nature to Make Music...How to Give Wings to Non-Pegasi...Teleportation...we've seen all of these before!"

"Just keep looking! You're bound to find something cool that we or anypony else hasn't seen before!"

Sweetie Belle kept looking, and then she saw something that caught her eye. "Ooh! Now this spell looks interesting!"

"What is it??" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo asked as they both tilted their heads forward.

"How to Bring Characters from a Book into Reality...that sounds really interesting to me."

"I think it sounds way cool!!"

"But ah don't entirely git it," Apple Bloom contemplated. "What exactly does it mean?"

Sweetie Belle read the information on the spell. "It says that unicorns can use their magic to turn characters in books into real live beings."

"Woooooow..." Apple Bloom and Scootaloo said, amazed.

"That does sound really interesting," Sweetie Belle said cheerfully.

"Interesting??" Scootaloo responded. "That's the most awesome spell I've ever heard!"

"It really is a fantastic spell!" Apple Bloom added. "This'll show everypony how talented you really are!"

"It'll knock 'em right off their seats!"

"Seats?" Sweetie Belle asked, confused.

"What seats?" Apple Bloom asked, also confused.

"No, I meant that...oh, never mind. The point is that this spell is guaranteed to impress everypony in Ponyville! Then our talents will finally be recognized!"

"And we'll get our cutie marks??" Sweetie Belle asked enthusiastically.

"Absolutely! I don't see what could go wrong!"

"Why does that not make me feel more confident with this idea?"

"Awww, don't worry!" Scootaloo said as she put her hooves around Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom's necks and pulled them next to her. "I'm sure that we'll get it right this time! I mean, sure, we messed up a bunch of times before, but it's different this time, because we know what we're doing!"

"Well, she has a point," Sweetie Belle said.

"Yeah, you're right," Apple Bloom replied. "We do know what we're doing. We've been practicin' magic for a month now, so we can't possibly mess up this time!"

"Yeah!"

"Exactly!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Now come on, Cutie Mark Crusaders!" she shouted as she let go of the others. "Let's teach Sweetie Belle that spell!"

"All right!" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both shouted enthusiastically.

"So, what book should we use?" Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo paused for a few moments. "...I'm...not sure.."

"Well, what books that we've read would be good to use this spell on?" Sweetie Belle asked.

All of the girls sat down and thought this over for a little bit. Apple Bloom was the first to speak, "Actually..ah don't think we've really read that many books."

"Yeah," Scootaloo added. " And any of the books I've read don't seem interesting enough to use."

"Yeah, you're both right," Sweetie Belle added. "I don't know much about interesting books, either."

"So, what are we going to do?" Scootaloo asked.

"Well, we'll just have to find a new book to use. That means we'll probably have to go back to Twilight's."

"Are you sure about that?" Apple Bloom asked. "Ah mean, we did sorta take her book without asking, so Ah'm not sure if she'd let us use another one."

"Well, we weren't going to keep it!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Besides, this is important. It's for the good of the Cutie Mark Crusaders that Sweetie Belle learns this spell, and her best chance of learning it is to get a book from Twilight's, since she has the best books in town."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because she's Twilight, duh! You know how much she cares about books, so that obviously means she has a lot of good ones she'd want to read!"

"She's right, Apple Bloom," Sweetie Belle said. "Twilight would definitely have some good books for us to use this spell on, so we have to go back there."

"Exactly. And besides, she might not even be back yet, so it should be easy."

Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo, and then at Sweetie Belle. "All right. Let's go get us some books, Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle cheered, and the three of them raced out of their clubhouse and back to Twilight's house as quickly as possible.

The Magic of Reading Part 8

When Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom arrived at Twilight's house, Scootaloo went right up to the door to open it, but Sweetie Belle stopped her. "Wait! Don't you think we should check to see if anyone's inside?"

"What are the chances that anypony came back yet?" Scootaloo scoffed. She then opened the door, and was shocked to see Twilight and Spike inside, rearranging all the books in the library.

"I told you we should have checked," Sweetie Belle said to Scootaloo, making Scootaloo have an embarrassed look on her face.

While rearranging the books, Twilight noticed the girls standing in the doorway. "Oh, girls! I didn't expect to see you here. I'm sorry about the mess. You see, when me and Spike came back home, we noticed that almost all of my books were in the wrong places. Which was strange, since this has never happened before."

"I know!" Spike added as she was placing books on the shelves. "I always put all the books in the right place, so I don't' know what could have happened."

"It's like somepony came in and put all the books in the wrong order, but I don't know why anyone would do that."

"Yeah, that is strange..." Scootaloo said, with all the girls nervously looking back and forth at each other.

"Yeah...anyways, is there something I can help you with?"

"Well," Sweetie Belle started to say. "We just came to see if you had any good books that we could read."

"Well, of course I do! What kind of book would you like?"

"Actually, we think it would be better if you could give us a bunch of books so we could read them all."

Twilight looked baffled. "Umm...why exactly do you want so many books?"

Sweetie Belle looked nervous, trying to think of an answer.

"Because we really want to get into reading books!" Scootaloo interjected.

"Uhh, yah!" Apple Bloom added. "We don't read books that often, so we thought it would be a great start by readin' a bunch of yer really great books!"

"Exactly!" Sweetie Belle also added. "So we hoped you would be able recommend some really good books since you're so good at picking out the best books!"

Twilight blushed. "Oh! Well! I'm happy to see your girls doing something so constructive with your time. Of course I'll help you out! Is there any specific kind of books you're looking for?"

"Well, do you have any books that have really good and interesting stories in them?"

"With cool characters, too??"

"Because we wanna start off on the best stuff!"

"I know just the ones! "Hold on just one second!" Twilight then used her magic to take a bunch of books off of the shelves.

Just as Spike had finished placing back a row of novels, Twilight took them all back off the shelf to give to the girls. "Ohhh..." Spike groaned.

"Well, these books should be adequate for you girls; they aren't too advanced, but they aren't too simple, either. I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do!" Sweetie Belle used her magic to take the books from Twilight.

"These should work out just fine," Scootaloo said as she winked to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.

"Yah! Thanks a lot Twilight!" Apple Bloom said.

"We'll make sure to bring them back when we're done!" Sweetie Belle added. She and the girls then turned around started off towards their clubhouse.

"Take all the time you need to enjoy them!" Twilight shouted.

"We will!" Sweetie belle shouted back.

Twilight sighed happily. "It makes me feel good to help out some fillies on the proper way to higher reading," she then went back inside her house and shut the door. "So, Spike," she said as she walked up to him. "Are all the books in their proper places?"

"Well, all except one."

Twilight's face suddenly went blank. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, besides the books you gave to the girls, one other book is missing: The Book of Advanced Spells."

Twilight suddenly became horrified. "It's missing?! But I was going to go over it a fifth time! We have to find it right now!"

"But we just finished putting back all the books and I didn't see it anywhere."

"Well then we'll just have to double-check every single book again!" twilight then used her magic to pull every book off of the shelves and onto the floor. "I'll search through the book on this side of the room, and Spike, you search through the books on that side of the room. Now let's go!" Twilight began to frantically search every book, and Spike gave a big groan.

The Magic of Reading Part 9

Back at the clubhouse, the CMC had laid out all of the books Twilight had given them.

"Okay, Cutie Mark Crusaders," Scootaloo said. "We've got our books, so which one are we gonna use?"

"Well, we havta make sure that whatever character we bring out of the book isn't anything that's bad or dangerous," Apple Bloom said.

"Right," Sweetie Belle responded. "We'll have to look at each book until we find the right one for me to use the spell on."

"Okay, then let's get to it!" Scootaloo picked up one of the books and placed it in front of Sweetie belle. "How about this book?"

"Moby Dick. Hmm, that sounds familiar."

"Ah've heard of that! It's about some pony who's trying to hunt down some big ol' monster whale!"

"Well, if it's about a monster whale, we probably wouldn't want it in Ponyville."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Let's keep looking," Scootaloo placed Moby Dick away from the other books, so as to not mix them up.

Apple Bloom then picked out the next book. "What about this one?"

"The Old Pony and the Sea," she looked at the summary on the back of the book. "It says that this book is about this old pony who isn't' making any money and goes out to sea to catch fish so he can make money. That doesn't sound dangerous to me."

"No, but it doesn't sound interesting, either. If you bring a boring character out of the book, nopony will be that impressed."

"Well, I don't want to take any chances with that, so let's keep looking," she placed the book with the other checked book and the other girls continued looking. Again and again they picked out books to show Sweetie Belle, and each time, something or other occurred that made her not use the book. The pile of checked books started to get bigger and bigger.

After about a half hour, the girls had looked at every book Twilight gave them without deciding on a single one. "I can't believe we went through all that for nothing..." Scootaloo said, disheartened.

"Yah'd think we woulda picked at least one book," Apple Bloom sighed. “But I guess we’re all just too picky…”

Sweetie Belle sighed, too. She then sadly looked at Apple Bloom, then at Scootaloo. Then, her eyes caught something. Behind Scootaloo, there was a crate. From where Sweetie was sitting, she could see something sticking out from behind the crate. Curious, she used her magic to move the crate and revealed that a book was what was behind the crate. "Oh my gosh, look!" she shouted as she pointed at the book.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom quickly turned their heads towards where Sweetie was pointing. "Hey, there's another book!" Scootaloo exclaimed. Sweetie Belle then used her magic to bring it in front of herself.

"How do yah think that one got behind the crate?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Hmm, I think I know," Sweetie Belle said as she flashed back to earlier.

Earlier, when the CMC arrived at their clubhouse, Sweetie Belle went through the door first, using her magic to hold the books in front of her. But then, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom quickly came in and bumped into Sweetie Belle, causing her to drop all of the books. One of the books had fallen behind the crate, but none of the girls noticed it because they had all fallen on the floor. After they all got up, Sweetie picked all the books back up and placed them all together on the floor, with the exception of the one they missed.

"...that's probably what happened," Sweetie Belle said as she finished telling the others her flashback.

"Makes sense to me," Scootaloo said.

"Me too," Apple Bloom agreed.

"Well then, let's see what book this is," Sweetie Belle lifted up the book with her magic and read the title. "I've never heard of this book, but I do like the title," she turned the book around and showed the cover to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom.

"That does sound like a pretty cool title."

"But what does it mean?"

"Let me read the summary," Sweetie looked at the back of the book. "Hmm, that's strange. There's no description of the book on this one."

"That is strange," Apple Bloom said. "Ah guess we'll havta read the book instead."

"What??" Scootaloo exclaimed. "We don't have time to read an entire book! Let’s just pick this one!”

“I don’t think that that’s the best idea,” Sweetie Belle said. “We don’t want to accidentally bring out anything bad, remember?”

“I’m sure that whatever you summon, we can handle it! Especially with your magic to help us!”

Sweetie Belle thought for a few moments. "Well...maybe...what do you think, Apple Bloom?"

"Well, ah still don't know, but Scootaloo's right about us not havin' enough time to read that whole book. Ah mean, we don’t want to be branded as fillies who can’t do anything by everypony else in town, do we?”

“No, we don’t. You’re both right. Let’s just use this book.”

“All right!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “I still doubt that whatever comes out of this book will be all that bad, anyway."

"Right," Sweetie Belle then placed the book next to her spell book, and started to read the instructions. "Let's see: First, I have to—"

"Hey, wait!" Apple Bloom suddenly yelled. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo both jerked their heads towards her in surprise.

"What? What is it??" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Well, ah just thought of somethin'; we might want to do this spell outside instead of in the clubhouse."

"Why?" Scootaloo asked.

"Because whatever Sweetie belle brings out of the book might be big, and it would destroy our clubhouse if it come out of the book in here."

"Oh, that's right!"

"Yeah," Sweetie agreed. "Let's go do the spell outside; far enough away from the clubhouse."

The others nodded and agreed, and then they took the spellbook and the book to use the spell on and left the clubhouse. The Crusaders searched around Sweet Apple Acres for an open area to use the spell.

The Magic of Reading Part 10

Later in the evening, they were finally able to find a large clearing on the east side of Sweet Apple Acres, and they all agreed it was the right place. "Phew! I'm glad we finally found someplace."

"Yah! My hooves are killin' me from walking through every orchard on our farm!"

"Then let's hurry and do this spell before it gets too late! Sweetie Belle! Get the books out!"

"Right!" Sweetie Belle said. She then used her magic to take both of the books out of her sidebag and placed them next to each other on the ground. She then opened up the spellbook and went to the spell. "Now then, let's try this again," Sweetie's eyes scanned the words in the book, reading them over in her mind until she understood how to do the spell. “Okay, I think I got it!”

“Okay! Now let’s finally do this!”

“Yah!”

“Let ‘er rip, Sweetie Belle!”

“Let what rip?” Sweetie asked.

“She’s supposed to rip somethin’?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I meant start the spell!”

"Oh! Well, why didn't you just say that?"

Scootaloo sighed in frustration. "Never mind...let's just hurry and start the spell."

"Umm, sure..." Sweetie Belle then starts focusing her mind on the spell she memorized in her head. It was much more difficult than any other magic she had tried already, and she was having a hard time controlling it. Nevertheless, Sweetie continued using the spell as hard as she could, with Apple Bloom and Scootaloo watching in awe at the incredible power brought on by the magic spell. Suddenly, the spell started to work; the magic swirled around into a vortex, and the bottom part of the vortex touched the book, which made the book open, float upwards a small amount, and spin around with the vortex. The vortex kept growing bigger and bigger and spinning faster and faster.

"C'mon, Sweetie belle! You almost got it!"

"Yah! Just hold on a bit longer!"

Sweetie Belle was still trying as hard as she could to control the spell, but she was still having a lot of trouble. She kept telling herself in her mind to keep at it, and not give up. As the vortex grew bigger, it started taking on a more spherical shape.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were astounded by how big the vortex was getting. "I wonder how big this thing is going to get?"

"Ah don't know, but it does worry me a bit. Do yah really think we can handle this?"

"Sure we can! We're the Cutie Mark Crusaders, after all. And having Sweetie Belle's magic on our side makes us better than we ever were!" Scootaloo's optimistic words had made Apple Bloom feel more confident in she and her friend's ability to handle this.

Then, suddenly, Sweetie Belle shouted. "I'm almost done!! Get ready for this!" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were both excited, but as they saw the giant spherical vortex looming over them, they backed off a short distance to avoid and magic energy that might disperse. "All right, here it goes!" Sweetie Belle then made one final burst of magic to finish the spell. When the magic hit the vortex, a small shockwave came out, blowing Sweetie Belle backwards and knocking Apple Bloom and Scootaloo onto the ground.

"Sweetie Belle!" Apple Bloom shouted. She and Scootaloo then got up and ran over to Sweetie Belle to see if she was all right. "Are yah all right??"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sweetie said as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo helped her back up. "But what about the spell?? Did I do it right??"

The girls all turned around to see what happened with the spell. The vortex had been slowing down since Sweetie Belle's last burst of magic. it got slower and slower until it finally stopped spinning, as did the book underneath it. Suddenly, the entire vortex exploded, with the magic energy flying off in all directions. The girls all ducked to avoid being hit by the energy. The girls then slowly lifted their heads back up, and saw an incredible sight. A giant, dark, figure, about 30 feet tall, loomed over them, and down by its feet, the book lay open.

"You did it!!" Scootaloo exclaimed as she jumped up off the ground.

"Yah really did it!" Apple Bloom shouted as she got up off the ground.

"I really did do it!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, completely overjoyed. She also got up, and all three of the girls started hopping around, cheering for themselves.

"This is great!"

"We knew yah could do it!"

"No, we all did it," Sweetie Belle said as she hugged Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. "I couldn't have gotten so good at magic without you two, so you deserve the credit, too," Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were very happy, and they hugged Sweetie back.

"Just wait till everypony sees what we did!" Scootaloo said.

"They'll certainly be impressed!" Apple Bloom said.

"Speaking of which, we should introduce ourselves to who I just brought out of the book," Sweetie said. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom agreed with her, and they all turned towards the giant figure, who was still standing in the same place. "Hello there! It's nice to meet you!" Sweetie shouted. The figure looked down at her. "My name is Sweetie Belle, and these are my friends Apple Bloom and Scootaloo!" she pointed out who was who. "I'm the one who summoned you from that book down by your feet! Me and my friends brought you out of the book to show all the other ponies in our town that we can do magic without screwing up! And if you come with us to Ponyville, we can show everypony! What do you say?"

The girls stood where they were, smiling with eagerness of waiting for the figure's response. Then, suddenly, the figure reared back its head and let out a huge roar, causing the girls to cover their ears from the loud noise.

"What was that?!" Scootaloo asked after the roaring had stopped, even though she and the others were still covering their ears with their eyes closed.

"Ah don't know! Why would he roar like that??"

"I don't know, either!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. She then looked up at the figure. "Excuse me! Why did yo—" Sweetie stopped in mid-sentence when she saw the figure's foot about to stomp on her and the girls! All three of the girls screamed and jumped out of the way just before the foot hit them!

"He's tryin' to stomp on us!" Apple Bloom shouted.

"Of course he is!" Scootaloo shouted at her.

"But why is he doing it?? What did we do to him??" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

"I don't know, but we have to get out of here before he really does stomp on us!" The figure then used its other foot and tried to stomp on the girls again, but they avoided him.

"What do we do??" Sweetie shouted.

"We havta go to Ponyville! Maybe Twilight can stop him!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.

"Then let's go!!" Scootaloo shouted.

The girls ran off in the direction of Ponyville while avoiding the dark figure trying to stomp on them again. Sweetie suddenly stopped running and turned herself around. She saw the spellbook and the book that she summoned the figure out of, and she used her magic to pull the book towards her. She placed both books in her sidebag then got out of the stomping feet of the figure again. Sweetie Belle heads after Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and the figure follows the three of them right towards Ponyville.

The Magic of Reading Part 11

Since it was getting late, most of the ponies in Ponyville were at home. Twilight, Spike, and Owloysius were also at home, preparing everything for the next day's schedule.

"Are you sure you can stay up long enough to finish preparing for tomorrow's schedule, Spike?" Twilight said. "You know Owloysius can help me out just fine."

"No, don't worry. I can do it," Spike yawned. Twilight then gave him a look that showed she wasn't convinced. "Well, maybe I can go to bed now. But don't expect to fall asleep that fas—" Spike then collapsed onto the ground and fell asleep.

Twilight then used her magic and to pick Spike up and take him back to their room. She placed him in his bed and patted him on the head. "Good night, Spike," she then tiptoed down the stairs, quietly opened the door, went through, and then closed the door. "Phew...glad I was able to get back without making any noise." But then, suddenly, the whole house was shaken by a loud roar. Books fell off the shelves, Owloysius was startled and he flew into the air, Twilight fell onto the ground, and in the other room, Spike woke up in a panic and fell out of his bed.

After the shaking had stopped, Spike burst through the door and saw Twilight on the ground. "Twilight!" he shouted as he ran over to help her up. "Are you okay? What happened? What's going on??"

"I don't know! That roar came from outside! We have to go see what it is right away!" Twilight then used her magic to place Spike on her back, and she ran out the door with Spike holding onto her, and with Owloysius following behind them.

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo had just ran into town. They then ran into Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. "Sweetie Belle!" Rarity exclaimed as she ran up to Sweetie. "Are you okay??"

"Yeah, I'm fine! And so are Apple Bloom and Scootaloo!" Sweetie replied as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo came up next to her.

"What in Equestria is goin' on?!" Applejack shouted.

“Umm…we sorta did something…” Sweetie said as she scratched the ground with her hoof and hung her head in disgrace, with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom also hanging their heads.

“WHAT?!?” All of the other ponies shouted in unison.

“What did yah do?!” Applejack shouted.

"Well...we were trying to practice magic, and I wanted to do an impressive magic spell, so we borrowed a book from Twilight's to find a spell to use."

"You did WHAT?!?" Everypony suddenly turned their heads to see Twilight, Spike, and Owloysius, whom had just arrived. Twilight was in total shock. "You used one of my books??"

"That must have been the book that was missing from the library!" Spike exclaimed.

"You took one of my books without asking??" Twilight shouted at the girls. "Why would you do that??"

"Well, we wanted to find a really good magic spell to use!" Sweetie Belle said.

"We didn't think that anything bad would happen!" Apple Bloom added.

"Well, that's no excuse!" Applejack scolded the girls. "Just see what yah've done!"

"Actually, what did they do?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"She's right," Applejack said. She then turned her head towards the CMC. "What magic spell did yah girls use??" Everyone else leaned in to hear what the girls had to say.

The girls looked too discomfited to say anything at first, but then Sweetie Belle built up some courage, and then took a deep breath. "The spell we used was to bring characters in books to life," She turned to Twilight. "That's why we all came to your library to get all those books earlier, Twilight. We wanted to find the right book to use."

Twilight still looked in shock from all this, but then she shook it off. "W—what book did you use??"

Sweetie Belle used her magic and took the book she used the spell on out of her sidebag. She placed the book in front of Twilight, who then used her won magic to take the book. Twilight put the book close to her face and read the title. She then gasped with an extreme sense of horror. "The Call of Cthulhu?!?" Twilight moved the book to the left side of her head and turned the cover towards the girls. "Are you telling me that you summoned Cthulhu into the real world?!?" The girls felt too horrible to say anything, but the looks on their faces showed that they indeed summoned Cthulhu. Twilight stood there with her eyes widened and mouth wide open. She then dropped the book on the ground and fell down on her rear end, which made Spike fall off.

"Wait, wait, now hold on a second," Rainbow Dash interrupted. “Who’s this Cthulhu guy?”

Twilight took a deep breath, still feeling horror-struck by all this. “To put it simply…he’s a giant monster.”

"A monster? What kind of monster?"

"He isn't," Fluttershy gulped. "Like a d-d-dragon, is he?" she said, cowering.

"No, Fluttershy. This is going to be much worse than any dragon," Twilight said, her eyes still widened in horror during this whole time.

"Well, I'm not going to be afraid of any monster!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "I mean, how bad could this guy possibly be?"

Then, suddenly, everyone heard a noise. The low sound of stomping. Other ponies around all stuck their heads out windows or came outside, all listening to the stomping as it got louder and louder. Twilight's face became more full of fright as she could tell Cthulhu was getting closer. Then the sound of screaming was heard, and ponies came running from behind a nearby building. The stomping was the loudest now, and then, a giant leg came out from behind the building and stomped on the ground, stopping in place. The CMC, Spike, and five of the Mane 6 looked in horrified shock at what they saw. Twilight then slowly turned her head around to see, towering above the building behind her and the others, the horrible, terrifying, and repulsive monster, Cthulhu!

The Magic of Reading Part 12

"Th—That's Cthulhu?" Rainbow said as she pointed at Cthulhu, her eyes widened with fear and horror.

"Yes," Twilight said with a whimper in her voice. Cthulhu then turned his head and looked down at Twilight and the others. "And now would be the time to ruuuuuun!!" Twilight shouted as she ran away as fast as she could. Cthulhu roared at hearing Twilight's shouting, and everyone else then ran in the same direction Twilight did, screaming and as they ran from Cthulhu. Cthulhu raised his left arm and smashed through part of the building next to him, and then he started stomping after the ponies and Spike.

As they were running from Cthulhu, the whole group turned right around a building, then right again into an alley between two buildings. Cthulhu went past the alley without knowing everyone was there. This finally gave everyone a chance to catch their breath.

"This is so so bad..." Twilight panted.

"You're...telling me??" Rarity exclaimed while panting. "That...despicable monster...is going to wreck...the entire town!" Rarity stopped talking to take a breather. "And now...all this panting...has gotten me all frazzled...and my mane is completely slipshod...all because he made me run so much!"

"Enough with your hair, Rarity!" Applejack responded in frustration. "We've got much bigger problems to deal with!"

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “What are we gonna do about that ‘Kithooloo’ guy?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know!” Twilight said with worry. “We’ve never come across a creature like Cthulhu before because no creature like him actually exists, so I don’t know how we can stop him!”

“Well, I for one am not going to let that monster destroy Ponyville! I know we can stop him if we work like a team!” Rainbow then held her hoof out. "Who's with me?" The others looked at each other, and then their looks of worry turned to looks of determination, and they all put their hooves in with Rainbow's, and Spike put in his hand. "That's more like it," Rainbow said with her own look of incredible determination.

"You can count us in, too!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed as she, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo put their hooves in with the others.

Everyone else looked at the girls, and they all took their hooves away, and Spike took his hand away. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” Rarity said irately.

“But we wanna help!” said Apple Bloom. “So we can fix what we’d done before!”

“Fix?” Rarity scoffed. “If you three hadn’t been messing around where you didn’t belong, none of this would be happening!”

“But…” Sweetie trembled. “We just..”

“Girls,” Twilight said with the slightest sternness in her voice. “I'm sorry, but you really have caused quite enough trouble already. It's better for everypony if you just stay here."

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo looked so heartbroken to hear those words. Their eyes started to tear up. Apple Bloom looked at Applejack, hoping she would say different. "It really is for the best that you girls stay behind," Applejack said. The girls now felt completely dejected. The then hung their heads, silently accepting that they had to stay behind.

Twilight and the others then turned towards each other. "Okay, now we need a plan!" Twilight said.

"I think I've got one!' Rainbow Dash said smugly. "And I'll need everypony's help to do it!"

"Umm, excuse me!" Fluttershy asked. "But, I was wondering if we really needed everypony's help," Fluttershy started to tremble. "Because...well...Cthulhu kinda scares me, and..."

"It's okay, Fluttershy," Twilight said as she put her hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. "I understand that you don't want to go, and you don't have to."

"Oh, thank you so much Twilight!" Fluttershy exclaimed as she fell down on the ground and hugged Twilight's legs.

"You're...welcome, Fluttershy..." Twilight said, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Anyways, I have a job more suited for you; I want you to watch Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, ad Scootaloo so they don't get into any trouble, okay?"

"Oh, don't worry, Twilight," Fluttershy said as she got back up. "I'm sure I can handle that."

"That's good, and Owloysius will be here to help you, too," Owloysius then landed on Fluttershy's back.

"Thank you for helping, Owloysius," Fluttershy said. Owloysius hooted back, and Fluttershy smiled.

"But—" Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo all said at the same time. But then Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack all looked at the girls with angry faces, even though Pinkie did not. Their angry faces made the girls stop what they were saying and resume looking and being gloomy.

"So," Rainbow Dash said as she looked around at the others. "Are you all ready to try out my plan?"

"Absolutely!" Pinkie exclaimed as she saluted.

"Of course!"

"You got it!"

"Let's get movin'!"

"I want to hear the idea first, but count me in!" said Twilight.

"Okay! Let's go!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed, and then she flew out of the alley with Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie following behind her.

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, And Scootaloo were very sad to see the others go on without them, and they all hung their heads again. Fluttershy then walked in front of the girls. "I'm very sorry that the others wouldn't let you help, girls, but I'm sure they know what's best," Owloysius hooted in agreement. The girls looked at each other again, and they all sadly sighed.

The Magic of Reading Part 13

Cthulhu continued to stomp through Ponyville, smashing his hands through buildings and terrifying everypony in sight. He then came to the water tower, grabbed the base of the tower, and started to shake it back and forth to try and tip it over.

While he was doing this, Twilight and the others showed up a far enough distance from Cthulhu. They all then huddled together. "Does everypony know the plan?" Twilight asked, with everypony agreeing that they knew the plan. "All right, then. Let's do this!"

"Are you absolutely sure this plan will work?" Rarity asked in a doubtful way.

"Of course it will!" Rainbow replied. "Especially after Twilight changed my plan from being just a full-on attack on Cthulhu, so now it'll work out better than ever!"

"Yes, I have to agree," Rarity added. "Since there was no way I could be part of a plan like that!"

"Well, you won't have to worry yerself this time, Rarity," Applejack said. "With Twilight's plan, Cthulhu won't know what hit him!" she exclaimed in with determination.

"Well, he'll know when it does hit him!" Pinkie Pie responded, which made the others look at her with condescending stares, to which Pinkie Pie just kept smiling.

"Anyways," Twilight said. "Let's hurry and get everything ready before Cthulhu destroys all of Ponyville!" The other ponies agreed, and they all ran off to their designated places.

While the others were getting ready, Cthulhu finally managed to tip the tower over, with the water container smashing onto the ground and flooding water all over the ground. Cthulhu roars over his victory.

“Hey there!” Cthulhu turns his head and looks down at the ground, where Pinkie Pie is standing, waving at him. “That was a really great roar! You must practice it a lot to get it to sound so great!" Cthulhu stood where he was, not sure how to react to Pinkie. "I can also roar pretty, good, too! Listen!" Pinkie then started making her own awkwardly-sounding roar. As she roared, Cthulhu started to look irritated. Her roar was annoying Cthulhu a whole lot, and he couldn't take it anymore. Cthulhu walked over to Pinkie Pie and reached down to grab her. Pinkie saw him coming, stopped roaring, and got out of the way of his hand just as it smashed into the ground right where she just was. “Oh! You wanna play tag now?” Cthulhu reached for her with his other hand. “And you want me to be it? Okay then!” Pinkie zipped out of the way of Cthulhu’s other hand. “You’ll have to be faster than that if you wanna beat the tag champion!” Pinkie then started running, and Cthulhu chased after her.

Not far away, Applejack was waiting with her part of the plan. She had lassoed a pole on one end of the street and wrapped the other end around a pole on the opposite side of the street. Applejack was in an alleyway behind the pole, and she had the end of the rope in her mouth, waiting for Pinkie to come by with Cthulhu so she could spring the trap. Applejack then stuck her head out of the alley and looked down the street. "Where is that pony?" Suddenly, the sound of stomping could be heard, and Applejack quickly ducked back inside the alleyway and readied herself.

Pinkie Pie was far ahead of Cthulhu, who was still running after her. Pinkie ran over the rope, which was lying on the ground. When Applejack saw Pinkie run by, she quickly pulled the rope with all her strength, lifting it up into the air across the street. Cthulhu did not see the rope, so when he ran by, he tripped over the rope, and started stumbling forwards down the street. Pinkie ran around another building to get out of the way of Cthulhu. "Missed me!" she shouted out to Cthulhu.

As Cthulhu was stumbling forward, he kept trying to steady himself back on his feet. While stumbling, he had gotten himself turned around, so now he was stumbling backwards towards Twilight and Rarity.

"You ready, Rarity?" Twilight said.

"Perfectly ready!" Rarity replied with confidence. "Although I still find this part of the plan a bit crude and distasteful, but if it must be done, it must be done!”

Twilight nodded in agreement, and then she turned her head towards Cthulhu. “Okay then, Rarity; now!!” Twilight and Rarity then used their magic to pick up a bunch of broken pieces from a building that Cthulhu had partly smashed and they placed the pieces into the ground where Cthulhu was stumbling towards. The pieces they used were large pieces of broken wood and glass, which all had their pointy ends pointed straight up out of the ground. Cthulhu, unable to get himself balanced again, finally tripped and landed on his rear end, and he landed right on top of the pointy fragments in the ground. Cthulhu’s eyes widened, and he leapt high up into the air with a loud screech of pain. He landed back on the ground on his feet and started running around in circles, clutching his rear end in pain.

"Ohhh..." Rarity grumbled, turning her head away and lifting her hoof up where Cthulhu was. "I really wish I hadn't seen that just now," she turned her head towards Twilight. "I still can't believe I agreed to go through with this unpleasant scheme."

"I know I didn't have much time to make the plan better," Twilight said. "But we need to do whatever we can to stop Cthulhu!"

"Well, I'm not sure if annoying him, tripping him, and putting pointy objects into his—," Rarity paused for a few moments while trying to think of a non-revolting way to say "rump". "—bottom area is going to be enough to stop him."

"Well, don't worry, Rarity, because my plan's not over yet!" Twilight exclaimed with a confident face as she pointed up in the air. Rarity turned her head and saw Rainbow Dash, whom was speeding towards Cthulhu.

The Magic of Reading Part 14

Cthulhu had finally stopped running around in circles and was pulling the pieces of wood and glass out of his rear end. Right after pulling out the last one, he lifted his head up to see Rainbow Dash, whom had just flown in front of his face. "Hey there!" Rainbow said as she waved to him while keeping a smug look on her face. Cthulhu lifted up his hands to try and grab Rainbow Dash, but she flew out of the way right as they clasped together. She then flew back in front of Cthulhu's face. "Now you see me!" she then started flying in circles all around Cthulhu, with him trying again and again to grab her, while getting even more frustrated. Rainbow then flew right in front of his face again. "And now you don't!" she shouted as she turned around and bucked Cthulhu right in his right eye. Cthulhu reared back as he gripped his eye and screeched in pain. He looked at Rainbow Dash with his other eye. "You'll have to be quicker than that to keep up with me!" she said in a taunting voice, and then she sped off down the street. Cthulhu took his hand off his eye and started chasing after Rainbow Dash, running as fast as he could. Rainbow Dash looked behind her to see Cthulhu, whom was catching up with her. "I think it's time to take this to the skies!" She waited until Cthulhu was about to grab her, and then she zipped up into the sky just as his hand grabbed where she just was. Cthulhu came to a stop and looked up at Rainbow Dash, who was flying around above him. "What's the matter, Cthulhu? Too heavy for your wings?" Cthulhu got angry once again, and he spread open his large wings. He slowly began to flap them, and slowly ascended up into the air. He then went after Rainbow Dash, who flew away from him, faster than before. The two flew all around in the air above Ponyville, with Rainbow Dash keeping herself barely ahead of Cthulhu.

As Rainbow and Cthulhu flew around Ponyville, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo watched them from an alley. Fluttershy and Owloysius were standing behind the girls, with Fluttershy trying her best to watch them and not be scared.

"That monster sure is tryin' hard to get Rainbow Dash!" Apple Bloom said.

"But he'll never do it!" Scootaloo responded smugly. "Rainbow's way too fast for him!"

While those two were talking, Sweetie Belle sat behind them, looking very saddened. She sadly sighed, which caught the attention of Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, who turned around to face Sweetie Belle.

"Awww, don't feel bad, Sweetie Belle," Apple Bloom said. "Ah'm sure the others can take care of that ol' monster."

"She's right," Scootaloo added. "They can handle anything!"

"Well, they wouldn't have to do anything if we didn't summon him in the first place," she placed her hoof over her eyes. "This is all our fault..." she said as she shook her head back and forth.

"Hey, it's not all our fault!" Scootaloo exclaimed in frustration. "They're the ones who wouldn't give us a chance to show them how well we can use magic! If anything, this is all their fault!"

"Yah!" Apple Bloom added. "We all deserved to be given a chance after how hard we all worked! It really is their fault!"

Sweetie Belle sighed sadly. "Look, girls. I agree that they should have given us a chance, too, but this all really is our fault," Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked shocked by Sweetie's words, and they exchanged looks of disbelief with each other. "We shouldn't have tried this hard to impress them. That's what went wrong."

"What do you mean by that??" Scootaloo asked, sounding confused.

"I mean that we shouldn't have tried something that was out of our league. The magic spell I used was an advanced spell, which meant it was not supposed to be done by beginners like me," Sweetie plopped down on her rear, still looking sad.

"But yah were still able to do the spell!" Apple bloom said. "Doesn't that mean yer advanced enough?"

"I know I was able to do the spell, but the real problem was that we assumed we could handle how the spell turned out, which we couldn't at all," Sweetie shook her head. "That's why this spell was for more advanced learners. They knew what they were doing and knew they could handle it—unlike us..." she hung her head in shame.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other with sad faces, both now feeling responsible as Sweetie Belle did. Apple Bloom then walked over to Sweetie Belle and put her hoof on her shoulder. "Yer right, Sweetie Belle," Sweetie lifted her head up and looked at Apple Bloom. "Me and Scootaloo were just feelin' hurt by what the others said, but it was really more out fault than theirs for tryin' somethin' when we just weren't ready for it. And ah made it worse by sayin' we should use the book without checking it first," Apple Bloom then hung her head like Sweetie Belle did.

Scootaloo was feeling guilty as well now, and knew she had to take the blame, too. "No, it's really my fault that this happened, Apple Bloom," she said as she walked up to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who both looked back up at her. "It was me who said we should use the book without checking it to see if it was safe," she sadly sat down on the ground. "I just wanted so hard to show the spell to everypony else that I didn't think anything so bad could happen that we couldn't handle it. And now we've caused the worst disaster ever!!" she shouted in anguish as she placed her hooves in front of her eyes.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom felt bad for Scootaloo, and went over to comfort her. "Don't feel all bad, Scootaloo," Apple Bloom said.

"She's right," Sweetie added. "All three of us share the blame for causing this huge mess, and that's why we have to fix it," she said with a determined voice.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at Sweetie in surprise. "Us? Fix it?" Scootaloo asked.

"How in Equestria are three little fillies like us going to stop some huge monster?" Apple Bloom added.

"We'd just get in the way and mess things up again," Scootaloo said, feeling sad again.

"That's no excuse to stand by and do nothing while our friends are out there, putting themselves in danger for what we did!" Sweetie exclaimed sternly, which snapped Scootaloo and Apple Bloom to attention. "Whether we're capable or not, we're still responsible for this! And we have to do whatever we can to fix everything and save Ponyville!"

"You're right, Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo responded with determination. "We have to help!"

"And we will help!" Apple Bloom added. "We're all in this together, and we'll fix it together!"

"Then let's go help our friends, Cutie Mark Crusaders!" Sweetie exclaimed, and then she and her friends high-hooved each other. The girls then turned around to run out of the alley, but were immediately stopped by Fluttershy, whom had flown down from above them and landed right in front of the girls. The girls all skidded to a halt.

"Where do you think you three are going? Fluttershy asked in a suspicious way as Owloysius landed on her back.

"Well, uhh..." Sweetie said, feeling too nervous to talk.

"I'm sorry, girls, but I cannot allow you to leave this alley," she said as she pointed down at the ground in the alley.

"But..!" the girls all said at the same time.

"No!" Fluttershy snapped. "No buts, or anything else like that! My friends told me to watch you three, and I have to keep my promise to my friends!" she looked down at the girls, who all looked a little afraid of her. "Oh...sorry if I was a bit mean..." Fluttershy said softly.

The girls exchanged looks, and then stopped cowering. "It's okay, Fluttershy," Apple Bloom said. "We understand," the other girls nodded in agreement.

"Oh, thank you, girls. I was afraid I hurt your feelings," Fluttershy made a sigh of relief.

"Don't worry about it," Scootaloo said as the girls started walking towards the sides of Fluttershy.

"Yah! It's perfectly fin—" Apple Bloom was suddenly cut off when Fluttershy instantly opened her wings, blocking the girls from going around her.

Fluttershy lifted her head back up. "But I still can't you let you leave. It's still too dangerous for three fillies like you," she said in her normal soft voice. Owloysius hooted in agreement.

The girls then exchanged looks, wondering how they can get past Fluttershy. Scootaloo's face then sparked with an idea. "Say, Fluttershy; don't you think you should check to see if your animals are okay? I mean, it's possible that Cthulhu has been there already, right?"

Fluttershy's eyes then opened and widened in horror. "Oh my gosh!!" she exclaimed as she jumped up into the air. She then turned and flew off in an instant. When she did this Owloysius fell off her back, and he started hovering in midair. Fluttershy then came back, grabbed Owloysius by the wing, and sped off once more.

After the girls watched Fluttershy speed off, Apple Bloom turned her head to Scootaloo. "That was some clever thinkin', Scoot."

"Yeah! You did great!" Sweetie Belle added.

"Thanks!" Scootaloo replied. She then made her determined face again. "Now let's go save our friends!" Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle agreed in unison, and the three of them ran out of the alley to right their wrongs.

The Magic of Reading Part 15

Rainbow Dash was still flying around Ponyville with Cthulhu hot on her trail. During this whole time, Cthulhu had been consistent in keeping up with Rainbow Dash, but now when Rainbow looked back at him, she could see he was getting tired from the constant flying. "Looks like it's time to put the final part of the plan into action!" Rainbow flew over to an open area of Ponyville, and when she was right in the middle of that area, she immediately flew upwards. Cthulhu was a bit surprised by this sudden change, but then he gave chase, flying up after Rainbow Dash. Rainbow kept going higher, and higher into the sky, getting a few hundred feet above Ponyville. She looked back at Cthulhu, who was struggling with having to fly up so high. Rainbow knew that now was the time. She suddenly turned completely around, and sped straight down the same way she had came up. She zoomed right past Cthulhu's face when she went downwards, catching him by surprise. Cthulhu quickly recovered from this surprise and went downwards after Rainbow Dash. Because of Cthulhu's heavy weight, he was gaining speed quickly as he was going down, so he was quickly catching up to Rainbow Dash. Unbeknownst to him, that was exactly what Rainbow Dash wanted. Rainbow waited until Cthulhu was close enough, and, right when he was about to grab her, Rainbow turned herself around and faced Cthulhu, with her back parallel with the ground. She then made a "goodbye" salute, and zipped out of Cthulhu's face. Cthulhu watched her fly off, but when he looked back down, he saw that he was coming down really fast, and was about to crash into the ground! Cthulhu panicked and immediately opened his wings to slow himself down, but he was going much too fast, and Cthulhu smashed into the ground with full force, sending a giant dust cloud that covered the open area he had crashed into. The crash rattled buildings near and far, frightening many ponies who were hiding in their homes.

Twilight and Rarity arrived at the crash site from one side, and Pinkie and Applejack arrived at the side opposite. They all looked in awe at the large dust cloud still looming over the area. "That was sure some crash!" Applejack said.
"I know!" Pinkie replied loudly. "It shook everything!" she exclaimed as she stood up on her hind legs and waved her front legs around in the air. She then got back down on all fours. "Although I do like it when I shake around like that. It's really fun!" Pinkie smiled at Applejack, who rolled her eyes at Pinkie.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the crash site, Twilight and Rarity were overlooking the area. "Do you think it worked?" Rarity asked Twilight.

"I know it worked!" Twilight replied enthusiastically. "Nobody could be conscious after a crash that big from a height that high."

"Yes, I suppose you're right," Rarity replied. Then, some of the dust floated up to Rarity's face, and when she inhaled it through her nose, she sneezed. "I really do hope you're right," she said as she rubbed her hose. "Because I don't want all this revolting dust to have been spread all over town for no reason."

"Don't worry, Rarity. I wouldn't let something that bad happen for nothing," Twilight replied with a hint of sarcasm. Rarity smiled in response.

"Well, I just hope you're right," Twilight and Rarity both turned their heads to the right and saw Spike, who was standing next to Twilight.

"Spike??" Twilight asked. "What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be helping the other ponies get out of Ponyville?"

"Well, I was helping them do that but then I heard the big crash and saw the giant dust cloud, so I ran over here to see if everypony was okay."

"Well, that was very sweet of you, Spike," Rarity said. "And we're all doing fine. Twilight's plan seems to have worked out perfectly," she said contently.

"I thought it would," Spike said in a slightly brown-nosing way. "I never doubted one of Twi's plans for a second," he said as he extended his left arm out with his palm facing out and waved it from the right to the left.

"Thanks, guys," Twilight said, smiling. But then she made a more quizzical look on her face. "Although, I'd like to be one hundred percent sure my plan worked out right," Twilight then looked up and saw Rainbow Dash, whom had just flown in and was hovering high above the crash crater. "Hey, Rainbow Dash!" Twilight called out to her. "Go scope out the crater to see what condition Cthulhu is in!!"

"Right!" Rainbow Dash replied as she saluted. She then flew down to the crater, which was still covered with a dust cloud. She landed on the edge of the crater and looked inside, even though she could not see well. As she looked, she squinted her eyes and could make out the silhouette of Cthulhu's body, which was lying on the ground, not moving at all. "Looks like he's down for the count!" Rainbow shouts enthusiastically as she strikes a cool pose. "Cthulhu didn't stand a chance outflying me! Because I'm Rainbow Dash! And nobody is fast enough to catch Rainbow Dash!"

Then, all of a sudden, one of Cthulhu's arms reached out of the crater and grabbed Rainbow Dash, taking her completely by surprise. Cthulhu's other arm then reached out and pushed against the ground on the edge of the crater, pushing Cthulhu back up onto his feet. As Cthulhu stood up, he spread his wings, which blew away the rest of the surrounding dust, and everypony could see him clearly. Everypony around was in shock at seeing Cthulhu still standing after that large crash, and they were also horrified.

Cthulhu then moved his right hand, which was holding Rainbow Dash, close to his face. He stared at Rainbow with extreme anger in his eyes. Rainbow stared back at him with much fright in her eyes. "I know I don't normally say this," she said with a very calm expression and tone. "But I could use some help!!"

Twilight looked more shocked than anypony. "I—I don't believe it! Cthulhu is still conscious?? My plan didn’t work??"

"Well..what was supposed to happen??" Spike asked in anxious horror. “I was busy helping to evacuate the town, so I didn’t hear the plan!”

Twilight began to explain, still sounding shocked and horrified. "Well, when I thought about Cthulhu's size, I knew we could not beat him physically, and when I thought about his wings, I came up with a plan. Rainbow was to have him fly high up in the sky," she said as she lifted her head up and looked up at the sky and lifted up her hoof towards the sky. "And when they got high enough, Rainbow would lead him back down," Twilight lowered her head back down and looked down, and she pointed her hoof at the ground. "She would then quickly move out of the way, and Cthulhu would crash into the ground hard enough to knock him unconscious, making it so we could subdue him without anypony getting hurt," she finished as she turned her head towards Spike.

"But didn't all that happen?" Spike asked, to which Twilight nodded in reply, still looking worried. "So why isn't he unconscious??"

"Well, it seems that I made an error in my plan," Twilight started to say, talking in a worried tone. "Cthulhu is far more resilient that I had originally thought!"

"So..what do we do??" Spike frantically asked.

Just then, Cthulhu had started roaring, with both his arms stretched out at his sides. This made Twilight, Rarity, and Spike turn their attention towards him. When they were looking at him, Rarity looked at Cthulhu's right hand, which was holding Rainbow Dash, and Rarity could see Rainbow was looking very terrified."I know what we must do!" Rarity said, making Twilight and Spike turned their heads towards her. "Above all else, we must rescue Rainbow Dash from that horrid beast!" she sternly exclaimed as she pointed at Rainbow Dash.

Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash, then she gained a look of determination on her face. "You're right! Saving our friend is most important right now!

"Right!" Spike added, also sounding determined. "So, what's the plan for saving her, Twilight?"

Twilight's face slowly turned blank. "A plan? I don't have a plan!"

"What??" Rarity and Spike exclaimed in unison.

"I didn't expect this to happen! That's why I don't have a plan ready!" she exclaimed with much worry and fright.

"We must do something!!" Rarity also exclaims with worry and fright.

Twilight frantically looked around as she tried to think of a plan, but the situation was not one where she could come up with one easily. She looked up at Rainbow Dash, who was looking very terrified. Cthulhu was staring at Rainbow as he held her right up in front of his face. Cthulhu then raised his mouth up to Rainbow Dash and roared loudly in her face, making her actually yell with fear. Twilight, Rarity and Spike were all horrified by the sight of this, as they were too scared themselves to think they could help Rainbow Dash. Everything looked absolutely hopeless; but then, as Cthulhu was still roaring at Rainbow Dash, a piece of wood flew through the air and struck Cthulhu on the left side of his head. Cthulhu stopped roaring when he was struck with the wood, and he turned his head in the direction it had came from. Twilight, Rarity, and Spike looked in the same direction Cthulhu was looking, as did Rainbow Dash, and also Applejack and Pinkie Pie. They were all shocked to see that the one who threw the piece of wood—was Sweetie Belle!

The Magic of Reading Part 16

Everyone stared in shock at Sweetie Belle, who was standing two buildings to the left of where Applejack and Pinkie Pie were standing. Sweetie looked angry, and she was holding up another piece of wood with her magic.

"Is that..?" Applejack said in surprise.

"Sweetie Belle!" Rarity exclaimed in shock. "What in Equestria do you think you are doing here??"

"I'm here to help, and I'm not leaving no matter what anypony says!" Everyone just looked in shock at Sweetie Belle, totally speechless. While everyone was stunned at Sweetie's actions, Sweetie looked back up at Cthulhu and squinted her eyes in anger. Cthulhu was the only one not shocked. Instead, he looked quite angry. "Hey, you big dumb monster! Down here!" Sweetie shouted as she waved her left leg around; and when she placed her hoof back down on the ground, she used her magic to throw her piece of wood at Cthulhu, hitting him on the left side of the head again. Cthulhu was getting even angrier now.

"Sweetie Belle, stop!" Twilight shouted. "You can't stop Cthulhu!"

"I'm the one who brought Cthulhu here, and it's my responsibility to send him away!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

"But you can't! You don't how to stop him!"

"..I know more than you think..." Sweetie said in a slightly irate tone, not loud enough for anybody to hear. She then looked up at Cthulhu. "C'mon, you big ugly monster!" she shouted as she jumped up and waved her front legs in the air. "Come and get me!" she then got back down on all fours used her magic to pick up a nearby rock and throw it at Cthulhu's head.

This time, Cthulhu was so angry, that he was going to go after Sweetie Belle now! As he started walking towards her out of the crater, he threw up his left arm, which was holding Rainbow Dash, and he threw her away, as his anger was focused on Sweetie now.

Cthulhu had tossed Rainbow Dash with much force, and she was flying through the air, much too fast to be able to stop herself. Rainbow looked ahead of her, and saw she was heading straight for a building. Rainbow panicked and covered her eyes with her hooves. But then, all of a sudden, Rainbow Dash stopped. She removed her hooves from her face and could see she was only about five inches away from the building she was about to hit. Rainbow looked very confused for a few moments, and she looked around, wondering what made her stop.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash!" Rainbow turned her head to the right and saw Twilight, Rarity, and Spike running towards her. She also noticed that Twilight's horn was going, as Twilight has used her magic to stop Rainbow Dash before she collided with the building. Twilight then lowered Rainbow Dash to the ground.

"Are you all right?" Rarity asked.

Rainbow still felt a little scared from all that happened, but then she struck a confident expression on her face. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said smugly.

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked, sounding a little worried. "Because you really looked scared when Cthulhu had you," Twilight said.

"And especially when he threw you," Spike added.

"Nahhh," Rainbow said as she moved her hoof in a "no" motion at Twilight, Rarity, and Spike. She also had her eyes closed. "I wouldn't be scared of something as little as that," she said in a less smug way then before. After a few moments of silence, Rainbow opened her left eye and looked at Twilight, Rarity, and Spike, who were all giving Rainbow Dash looks showing that they weren't convinced with what she said. Rainbow's smug expression then disappeared. "Uhh..." she said as she blushed with embarrassment. "Maybe I was a little scared..." she said as she smiled to try and hide her embarrassment. They continued to give Rainbow those unconvinced looks, so Rainbow needed a way to make them think about something else. "...hey! Don't we need to go after Sweetie Belle now?" She exclaimed

Twilight's face instantly changed to a more horrified expression. "Oh my gosh, you're right! We have to stop Sweetie Belle before she gets hurt!" she exclaims as she looks around at the others.

"Oh my goodness!" Rarity said in fright. "I can't believe I forgot about her!"

"Then let's hurry up and go!" Rainbow exclaimed. The others nodded in agreement, and they all ran off to catch up with Sweetie Belle.

While they were all running to the entrance to the road where Sweetie and Cthulhu had run off, they saw Applejack and Pinkie Pie, who were both running to the same location. "Pinkie Pie! Applejack!" Twilight called out to them. Everyone then arrived at the road entrance. "Are you both okay?"

"Yeah, we're both fine," Applejack replied, sounding a bit tired.

"We saw the whole thing!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "It was totally crazy-nutso!" she exclaimed as she stretched her front legs in the air, but then she fell backwards onto the ground.

After watching Pinkie fall down, Applejack turned her head towards Rainbow Dash. "Are yah okay, Rainbow?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Rainbow replied. "But right now we have to go after Cthulhu!

"And we have to rescue my dear Sweetie Belle, too!" Rarity added in a fearful tone.

"Then let us make haste!" Twilight exclaimed. Everyone then started running down the road after Sweetie and Cthulhu. But after only running a few feet, Apple Bloom suddenly runs out in front of everyone.

"Stop!!" Apple Bloom shouted, making everyone stop in their tracks.

"Apple Bloom??" Applejack said in confusion and surprise. "What in the hay are yah doin' here??"

"Me and the other Crusaders wanted to help fix what we caused, even if none of yah think we can!" she exclaimed in a slightly angry tone.

"Apple Bloom, this is serious!" Twilight exclaimed. "Sweetie belle's in trouble, and we have to stop her before she gets hurt!"

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash interjected. "We don't have time to mess around!"

"Ah'm not messin' around!" Apple Bloom shouted angrily. "Ah'm here to keep yah'll from gettin' in the way of our plan!"

"Plan?" everyone asked in surprise.

"What plan?" Applejack asked, perplexed.

"The plan me, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo came up with! We're gonna send that monster back where he came from!"

The other ponies and Spike exchanged looks on confusion. with each other.

"What in the hay are you talkin' 'bout, Apple Bloom?" Applejack asked in confusion.

"Well, yah see, me, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom were tryin' to figure out how we could stop Cthulhu. After watchin' him chase Rainbow Dash around, Sweetie got the idea to check the spellbook to see if it had the answer, so she got the book out of her saddlebag and checked the page with the spell we used to bring him out with. That's when we found that there was a reversal spell in the book!"

"A reversal spell??" Twilight said in surprise.

"Yeah!" Apple Bloom replied. "When we found that spell, we started coming up with a pla—"

"If there's a reversal spell," Twilight interjected, cutting Apple Bloom off as she talked to the others. "Then I'll be able to use it on Cthulhu!"

Apple Bloom looked a bit surprised at Twilight's interruption, but then she tried finishing what she was saying. "Hey, ah'm tryin' to tell you 'bout—"

"That's a great idea, Twilight!" Applejack said.

"It's super-great!" Pinkie added.

"Well, I'm going to need to know the spell in order to enact my 'great' idea."

Apple Bloom still tried to finish what she was saying. "But ah—"

"Oh you're absolutely right, Twilight," Rarity responded. "We simply must get the book before Sweetie Belle gets hurt or causes more damage to the town," Apple Bloom looked pretty mad at Rarity for saying that. Rarity then turned her head towards Apple Bloom. "Apple Bloom, would you be so kind as to provide the spellbook to us?"

"Ah don't have the spellbook!" she shouted irately.

Rarity and the others gasped. "Why in Equestria do you not have it??" Rarity asked in fright.

"Ah was tryin' to tell you; me, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle already came up with a plan, which is why Sweetie Belle had Cthulhu chase her. Once she gets the book from Scootaloo, she's goin' to do the spell herself."

"Oh my stars!!" Rarity exclaimed in horror. "Sweetie Belle can't possibly get that spell to work right by herself!"

"She will to!" Apple Bloom exclaimed with anger. "She's better than yah think if yah'll would just give her a chance!"

"That's not a chance we're willing to take," Twilight said. "Come on, everyone! We can't waste any more time!" Twilight and the others then ran past Apple Bloom and down the road after Cthulhu and Sweetie Belle.

Apple Bloom looked distressed by their actions. "Ah hope Sweetie and Scootaloo will be able to do our plan before the others get there," she said to herself in a slightly saddened way.

The Magic of Reading Part 17

Cthulhu had been chasing Sweetie Belle during the whole time Twilight and the others had ran into Apple Bloom. Unfortunately, Sweetie Belle was not that fast of a runner, and she was already getting tired, causing Cthulhu to gain on her. She looked back at Cthulhu, seeing he was getting closer, and then she turned her head forward again. "Don't give up now, Sweetie Belle. You're almost there. Just keep running!" Sweetie ran as fast as she could, but it was getting harder for her to keep moving. She then eyed a nearby alley between two buildings coming up on her right, and she quickly turned and ran towards the alley. Cthulhu tried to chase after her, but he got stopped by the buildings. He watched as Sweetie Belle ran all the way through the alley and out the other side, and then she turned left and ran out of sight of Cthulhu. This made Cthulhu even angrier. He backed away from the buildings, spread open his wings, and flew into the air. He started flying around over Ponyville, trying to see where Sweetie Belle had went.

Sweetie Belle had seen Cthulhu fly into the air, and she panicked. She looked around to see if there was something she could hide behind. Sweetie then saw a wagon nearby, so she hurriedly ran over to the wagon and dove under it. Cthulhu flew around overhead, scanning the ground for any sign of Sweetie Belle. "I really hope this doesn't ruin our plan," Sweetie said worriedly as she lie on the ground underneath the wagon. Sweetie then scooted herself to the edge of the wagon and peeked up at the sky. She watched Cthulhu flying around in circles for a little bit, and then he flew off. "Now's my chance!" Sweetie Belle quickly got out from under the wagon and ran off, making sure to stay close to the buildings just in case she needed to hide again.

Cthulhu was still flying over Ponyville, searching for any sign of movement, but he hadn't seen anything since he started flying, which was making him frustrated. But then, suddenly, Cthulhu heard something. It was a whistle from below him, and it made him stop in midair, where he began hovering in place. He looked down on the ground, where he saw Scootaloo next to a building, and she was on her scooter.

"Hey, Cthulhu! Down here!" she said as she waved her hooves in the air. "Betcha can't catch me!" Scootaloo then started flapping her wings rapidly and steered her scooter around, and then she rode behind the building she was next to.

Cthulhu got mad, and he flew down towards the building and went around it in the same direction Scootaloo did. When he went around the corner, he was shocked to see Scootaloo was nowhere in sight. Cthulhu stopped in midair and looked around, but didn't see anything. He then landed on the ground and began searching around the buildings for Scootaloo.

Unbeknownst to Cthulhu, Scootaloo was hiding near a partially smashed building that was further ahead of Cthulhu, and Sweetie Belle was with her. Scootaloo looked through one of the intact windows from inside the building and saw Cthulhu searching for her. She then turned around and faced Sweetie Belle. "You sure you're ready for this, Sweetie Belle?"

"Absolutely. If we don't stop Cthulhu now, we might never be able to stop him. It's time to put our plan into action," she said with confidence.

"Okay, then; let's do this!" Scootaloo replied with determination.

"Right!" Sweetie Belle said in the same tone.

Scootaloo quickly went over to the left side of the room she and Sweetie Belle are in, and Sweetie Belle uses her magic to pick up pieces of debris and place them in a pile outside of the large smashed hole in the front wall of the room, which was left of the window Scootaloo had looked through. Scootaloo then came back, rolling her scooter over to the hole in the wall. When she stopped at the hole, she took her helmet off of the handlebars of her scooter and placed it on her head, fastened the strap, and then she stepped onto the scooter.

Sweetie Belle walked next to Scootaloo. She then turned her head towards her saddlebag and used her magic to open it up. She then used her magic to pull "The Call of Cthulhu" out of her bag, and she floated the book over to Scootaloo, who took the book and placed it between her left front leg and her body, making sure it was held tight. Scootaloo readied herself on her scooter, with her eyes filled with determination.

"Hey, Scoot," Scootaloo turned her head towards Sweetie Belle. "Be careful," she said, with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Don't worry, Sweetie Belle," Scootaloo replied. "That monster's not gonna be fast enough to catch me!" she said as she winked at Sweetie Belle, whom smiled back at Scootaloo. Scootaloo smiled at Sweetie Belle, and then she positioned her head forward and squinted her eyes, and began rapidly flapping her wings. After charging herself up, Scootaloo sped of quickly on her scooter, heading straight for Cthulhu with the book in hoof.

Sweetie Belle watched her ride off. "Now that Scootaloo's done her part, it's time for me to do my part," Sweetie Belle turned towards the pile of debris, and used her magic to pick up pieces of wood, glass, and stone. She then turned her head towards Cthulhu, and readied herself.

The Magic of Reading Part 18

Scootaloo was racing towards Cthulhu very quickly. When she got close enough, she shouted to get his attention," Hey! Down here, ugly!" Cthulhu heard Scootaloo and turned towards her. He was about to walk towards her, but was suddenly struck in the face with a piece of stone. Sweetie Belle had begun using her magic to throw a barrage of debris at Cthulhu. Cthulhu was repeatedly getting hit in the face with wood, stone, and other debris. This caused him to raise up his hands to try and shield his face, and he also started to back away a bit. "It's working!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "I got this in the bag!" she said confidently as she continued towards Cthulhu. But then, as Cthulhu waved his arms in front of his face to reflect the debris, his left hand struck a piece of stone, sending it flying in the opposite direction, and straight towards Scootaloo! Scootaloo looked up at that point, and became overwhelmed with shock and fear. Ina split-second, Scootaloo swerved out of the way of the stone, it just narrowly missing her. But because of the sharpness of Scootaloo's swerve, the book was forced from her grip and landed on the ground. Scootaloo looked back, looking distraught over losing the book. She then turned her scooter to the side to make it slow down. After she skidded to a stop, Scootaloo revved up her wings and went back for the book.

When Sweetie Belle saw Scootaloo drop the book, she became consumed with terror. "Oh no!!" Sweetie looked at her pile of debris, which was almost empty. "There's not enough things for me to throw to distract Cthulhu for much longer!" Sweetie Belle began thinking frantically about what she should do. At this point, Scootaloo had grabbed the book off the ground and was now riding towards Sweetie Belle. When Sweetie Belle looked at Scootaloo, she suddenly got an idea. "Hey, Scoot!" Sweetie Belle shouted. "Turn around!"

"What??" Scootaloo skidded to a stop. "What do you mean 'turn around'?? I can see that you can't hold him off for that much longer!"

"Trust me! I've got an idea!"

Scootaloo was reluctant to obey Sweetie Belle's plea, worried what might happen to herself if anything went wrong. She pondered for a few moments about what she should do, and then she decided that she could trust her friend; and with that, Scootaloo revved up her wings, and swerved back around towards Cthulhu.

Sweetie Belle kept her eyes on Scootaloo, waiting for the right moment to enact her new plan. She looked over at a nearby large piece of wood, then back at Scootaloo. She squinted her eyes in readiness. The closer Scootaloo got to Cthulhu, the more Sweetie Belle squinted her eyes.

Then, when Scootaloo got halfway between Cthulhu and Sweetie Belle, Sweetie used her magic to lift the remaining debris and clump it together into a rectangular shape. She then lifted the large piece of wood with her magic and threw both items in Scootaloo's direction. The debris blocked landed right in Scootaloo's path, a short distance ahead of her. The piece of wood then landed on the block and flopped onto the ground.

Scootaloo was astounded, but also glad as she could see what Sweetie Belle's plan was when she saw this debris made into a ramp right in front of her. Scootaloo increased her speed and dashed towards the ramp, going as fast as she could. Scootaloo zoomed onto the ramp and went flying through the air, heading straight for Cthulhu!

Scootaloo felt so incredible, as she felt like she was actually flying for the first time. This feeling made Scootaloo flap her wings harder to give herself more lift as she flew through the air. She looked ahead, seeing she was quickly closing in on Cthulhu, and was filled with an even greater sense of determination. But then, her confidence melted into fear as Cthulhu moved his hands towards her to try and grab her!

Scootaloo's mind raced, unsure as to what she should do. Scootaloo looked at the top of Cthulhu's head, and then down at her scooter. That is when concocted an idea, but was dreading what she would have to sacrifice in order to make her plan work. But, Scootaloo knew what she had to do.

Just when Cthulhu was about to grab her, Scootaloo sped up a bit, zooming past his hands. Right after that, she leapt off her scooter. As she was going through the air, she threw the book down towards the ground, where it landed right between Cthulhu's feet. Her scooter then smashed into Cthulhu's eye, making him screech and rear back with pain.

Scootaloo landed on top of Cthulhu's head and tumbled to a stop. Cthulhu felt Scootaloo on his head, and he reached up to grab her. Scootaloo looked at his hands closing around her, so she slid down and stopped between Cthulhu's eyes. "Sweetie Belle, now!!"

Down below, Sweetie Belle was standing in front of Cthulhu, with him not having noticed her run up since all his attention focused on Scootaloo. "You're going back where you belong!!" Sweetie Belle then pointed her horn at the book, charged up her magic, and zapped the book with her spell.

Cthulhu looked down at the book, which started to glow. Cthulhu seemed to be entranced with the glowing from the book, which was getting brighter and brighter, and then the book began to spin as well. With Cthulhu's attention on the book, he completely forgot that Scootaloo was on top of his head.

"Good, he's not paying attention to me. Now I just have to find a way down from here before the spell really gets going!"

The Magic of Reading Part 19

Twilight, Spike, and the other ponies had abruptly arrived on the scene, and they were all taken aback when they saw Cthulhu several houses in front of them.

"Okay, we found him. Now what?" Rainbow asked as everyone looked at Twilight.

"I'm not sure," Twilight responded. "If only I had that spellbook, than I would know what spell to use."

"But Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo have the book, and we don't know where they are," Fluttershy added.

"Well, our only chance to stop Cthulhu is to find them and that book. I just hope they haven't done anything foolish."

"Yah, me too¬—" Applejack turned her head towards Cthulhu as she was replying with Twilight, but then she stopped her sentence when something caught her eye. "Hey, what's that?" Applejack pointed at the top of Cthulhu's head, and everyone else looked.

On top of Cthulhu's head was what looked like a tiny orange object moving around on the back of his head. Unfortunately, because it was so small, nobody could make out what it was.

Rainbow Dash flew higher and closer to get a better look. She then shockingly realized what it was. "It's Scootaloo!" she said in horror. Everyone else became just as horror-struck as Rainbow was.

Rainbow's attention was purely focused on Scootaloo, but then her eye was drawn away by the flashing of the book. When Rainbow looked down, she noticed something else, which also filled her with shock. "And down in front of Cthulhu! It's Sweetie Belle!"

"Oh my goodness, what are they doing??" Rarity exclaimed frightfully. "We must rescue them!"

"Right! Let's go!"

Just as Twilight and the others started running to save the fillies, they were stopped in their tracks by a very large flash of light that had came from the book. IT was so bright that it made everyone shut their eyes so as not to be blinded by the light, including Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.

When Cthulhu saw the light, he was almost blinded by it, but quickly raised his hands in front of his face to shield his eyes. Right after the flash had dissipated, a vortex rapidly emerged from the book, going straight up into the air. Because Cthulhu was standing so close to the book, when the vortex came up it made Cthulhu stumble backwards in surprise and fall onto the ground.

"Woah!" Scootaloo began wobbling around on Cthulhu's head, unable to keep her balance. She stumbled all around on Cthulhu's head, and when Cthulhu fell down on his bottom, she was forced off of his head, and began plummeting towards the ground!

Prior to when the vortex had came out of the book, Fluttershy had arrived with Owloysius, having taken her animals to a safer location outside of town. After which, she heard loud noises coming from close by, so she hurriedly flew over to source of the noises, thinking that her friends might be there, as she was worried for their safety.

When she arrived at the spot, she saw Twilight and the others about 10 feet ahead of her. Unfortunately, they didn't notice her, as they were all fixated on Cthulhu, whom Fluttershy didn't notice because from where she was standing, Cthulhu was blocked by a building Fluttershy was right next to.

Right before she was about to call out to her friends, the vortex burst from the book, surprising Fluttershy with its noise. Unsure of what had just happened, she moved to the left to see what had happened, and became even more shocked to see both Cthulhu and the vortex, making Fluttershy even more baffled as to what was going on.

As Fluttershy tried to get her head together, she saw Cthulhu fall down onto the ground. Right after that, she saw an orange spot fall off of Cthulhu's had, and soon realized it was Scootaloo!

"Oh my gosh!" She exclaimed in terror.

"Don't worry! I'll save—" Fluttershy abruptly zoomed past Rainbow Dash in mid-sentence. "...her?"

Everyone else gasped in surprise to see Fluttershy come out of nowhere; and they were all even more surprised to see her do something she would normally be scared to do.

Scootaloo was truly terrified when she saw herself falling towards the ground. She desperately flapped her wings to try and fly. "Come on, wings!" But, it was to no avail. She then covered her eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Fluttershy quickly flew in the path where Scootaloo was falling and outstretched her front legs to catch her. "I got you! I—oof!" Scootaloo collided with Fluttershy and was caught by her at the same time, but the force of the collision made Fluttershy fall down and backwards, making a crash landing on the ground.

Scootaloo leaned up, looking a bit dazed from the fall. She looked around, confused as to what had just happened. She then looked down and was shocked to see she was sitting on Fluttershy!

She quickly jumped off of Fluttershy. "Oh my gosh! Fluttershy! Are you okay?"

"Oh, yes, I believe so..." she said, sounding even more dazed than Scootaloo.

"I'm really sorry, Fluttershy."

"It's okay...you were...just heavier than I...thought."

"Well then maybe you should let me do the rescue next time," Scootaloo and Fluttershy both looked to see Rainbow Dash, whom had just arrived with the others.

"Oh, sorry, Rainbow Dash. I just panicked when I saw Scootaloo fall and felt like I had to do something."

"Aww, it's fine. Besides, it was still pretty gutsy of you to try, and you did save her, after all."

"Ah'll say! It was downright heroic of yah to save the filly all by yourself!"

"Indeed! You should be quite proud of yourself, Fluttershy!"

"You should be super proud for being so superly super-brave!"

Fluttershy blushed from all the kind and supportive words from her friends.

"Excuse me!" Everyone looked at Twilight. "I'm sorry to interrupt this shower of compliments, but aren't you all forgetting something?"

Everyone was suddenly drawn towards the sound of a loud roar. Cthulhu was backing away from the ever-growing vortex by sliding backwards on the ground. When the vortex reached its peak, it pointed its top down towards Cthulhu. Cthulhu became even more afraid when he saw this, and in a panic turned around to try and run away.

But, as he was crawling to try and get up off the ground, the vortex began sucking him in. Cthulhu tried his hardest to hold his ground, but the vortex's power was growing stronger, pulling him towards itself with its ever-increasing speed. The suction then became too powerful, and Cthulhu was ripped from the ground and pulled into the vortex!

After inhaling Cthulhu into its funnel, the vortex turned itself upright again. Cthulhu was shrieking in terror as he spun around more and more rapidly.

The powerful gusts of wind being given off from the vortex were blowing towards everybody, forcing them all to shield their faces from the intense wind. They all also had to hold their ground as best they could to keep from getting blown away.

After repeatedly spinning for a short time, the vortex now began to shrink as it spun faster and faster, with horror draped Cthulhu's face all the while. As the wind died down more, everyone uncovered their eyes and watched as the vortex shrank back into the book. Then, just as the vortex finishes shrinking, the book opens wider, then slams shut hard, generating a large flash of light in all directions, making everyone have to look away again.

After a few moments, everyone uncovers their faces and looks back at the book, which is lying motionless on the ground. Curious, Twilight motions everyone to follow her. She and the others arrive at the book, along with Fluttershy, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle. They all looked down at the book, and saw that "The Call of Cthulhu" was once again whole.

The Magic of Reading Part 20

"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.

The Magic of Reading Part 21

It was now that the fillies were finally feeling good about themselves, having made the others feel dejected for how they treated the girls. After feeling this level of accomplishment for a short time, the girls looked at the faces of the other ponies, and suddenly their proud expressions faded. The ponies looked to be feeling genuinely remorseful about their treatment of the fillies, and this in turn made the girls start to feel bad themselves. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all looked at each other, each knowing that treating the ponies the same bad way they themselves were treated was not right. Nopony should have to be treated in such a harsh way, so the crusaders knew they had to set things right.

"Hey," Scootaloo started. "I know we said this was all your guys' fault, but it's not," the other ponies perked their heads back up at the hearing of those words. Now the girls had everyone's undivided attention.

"Well, now that we've had some time to think about it, we really did make some pretty bad decisions."

"It was really thoughtless and irresponsible of us to bring Cthulhu out of this book without checking what the book was about first," Sweetie said as she pointed down at the book.

"No, it was my fault, really," Scootaloo said. "I'm the one who was too impatient to check the book. I said we had to try the spell right away, so if there's anypony to blame, then blame me."

"But ah'm the one who agreed with yah. Ah know that didn't help make this go any better," Apple Bloom said in a faster voice.

"But I'm the one who had to perform the spell. I shouldn't have decided to go along with you guys so hastily," Sweetie also said quickly.

"Look," Scootaloo cut in. "Let's just say it was all three of our faults," Scootaloo said, with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle agreeing with her.

"Anyways, it wasn't right for us to treat you like you had treated us, and we're sorry for it," Sweetie Belle said, and the three fillies hung their heads in sorrow.

Nobody was saying anything. So much had been said, that nobody knew what to say next. Twilight, on the other hand, was thinking more deeply about all this than the others. She thought about the harsh words and accusations exchanged between the ponies and fillies. But, who was really to blame? It was apparent that most ponies here were at fault, but nopony liked taking the blame for themselves; it made everypony feel such anguish and misery, and that was something that nopony wanted. Twilight knew it was time for the callousness to stop, and there was only one solution that would cease all of this despair.

"Look, everypony, I know a lot has been said here. Harsh words have been exchanged, and fault has been placed on everypony involved with this catastrophe, and I do not think that doing such mean things to each other is the best way to resolve this," Everyone had their attention on Twilight, waiting to hear what she had to say. "You see, I don't think any one group here should take the blame for themselves; it is my proposal that everyone shares in the blame."

Everyone looked astonished by Twilight's suggestion. "What are you talking about, Twilight?"

"I'm saying that all the ponies who inadvertently played their part in causing this pandemonium should agree to accept fault themselves, because I'm sure we can all agree that nopony likes having all the blame placed purely on themselves."

Everyone exchanged looks with each other, feeling influenced by Twilight's colloquy. It seemed that everyone was finally in agreement that the cruelty towards one another was to be put to an end.

"Twilight's right," Applejack said, being the first to agree.

"We have all been acting in such a cruel way towards each other," Rarity added.

"But that wasn't right at all," Sweetie Belle said, completing Rarity's thought.

"None of us wanted to be blamed ourselves," Scootaloo said.

"And neither did any of us," Rainbow Dash said. "So we just tried to pin the blame on the girls."

"And that wasn't right, either," Apple Bloom finished. Everypony involved felt sorry for what they did for each other, so the ponies and fillies came to each other and hugged, accepting each other's heartfelt apologies.

Twilight smiled contentedly as she overlooked this flourish of warmth and kindness amongst everypony. "It looks like we've all learned a lesson here today."

"Those of us who needed to learn one, anyway," cut in Spike, to which Twilight gave him a nasty look, making him shut his mouth.

"You got that right," Applejack agreed.

"Ah'll say," Also agreed Apple Bloom. "Me and the other girls learned that we shouldn't try things that are too out of our league, 'cause we might end up making things bad for other ponies; especially the ponies we care about," she looked over at Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who both smiled and nodded in concurrence.

"Well, you're not the only ones to learn a lesson," Applejack said.

"Indeed, as we've learned to give ponies a chance to show their capability, regardless of how young they are," Rarity added.

"Or how many times they've messed up in the past," Rainbow Dash finished. The Cutie Mark Crusaders felt glad to hear the other ponies say this, knowing how much better things were going to be for them now.

Twilight was feeling particularly proud to see her friends learning so much more than they usually did. "It's great to see everypony learn such valuable lessons today."

"Yeah; two for the price of one disastrous event," Spike responded jokingly.

Twilight chuckled along with spike, but then ceased her snicker as she came to a sudden and astounding realization. "Wait...two lessons...that means...two friendship reports!!" she said, astounded. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" she began cavorting around excitedly, with Spike looking quite nonplussed from her actions. "Celestia will be so pleased to hear about this!" she then ceased her merriment. "I'd better get this done right away! Spike! Run back to the library and get the supplies I need to write my two letters!"

"Err..right!" Spike then quickly ran off to the library to acquire Twilight's letter materials.

After he had left, Sweetie Belle yawned. "Boy, I'm tired after such a long day."

"You said it," Scootaloo added as she yawned as well.

"Ah think it's time for everypony to get some sleep," said Apple Bloom.

"No question here."

"Me neither," Sweetie said in addition to Scootaloo. The fillies then began walking away so they could finally get a good night's rest after such an elongated, difficult, and strenuous day. But, they didn't get too far before they were called.

"Hold it," Applejack called to the fillies as she and the other ponies walked towards them.

The girls turned and faced the ponies. "What is it, Applejack?"

"You didn't think you were gonna get off the hook that easily, did ya?" Rainbow Dash said.

"What do you mean?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Well, girls," Twilight started. "Since you three are partially responsible for causing this chaos, you have to help clean up the town."

"What?!" they all responded in alarm. "But...!!"

"Ah ah ah," Rarity disrupted. "Remember, girls; you agreed to share the blame with the rest of us, so that means you share in the cleanup," The fillies exchanged concerned looks with one another, then looked around at all of the wreckage, not looking too happy about how much work was ahead of them.

The next day, all of Ponyville was working together to fix up their wrecked town. The Mane 6 were organizing the piles of debris by placing specific debris into the right piles, such as wood into the wood pile, glass into the glass pile, etc. Spike was standing next to Twilight with the checklist as she oversaw the work being done. "Good thing I thought of organizing the debris, or this might have taken longer," Twilight said with pride. "After all, just because everything's a mess doesn't mean it can't be an organized mess."

"It doesn't?" Spike asked, to which Twilight shot him a mean look, making him cower a bit. Twilight then proceeded to laugh it off, and Spike joined in with the merriment.

Although this fun was going on, things weren't all merry in the rubble. Not far away from where the ponies and Spike were, the crusaders were doing their own part in the cleanup by picking up the collected debris and putting them into wagons for transport.

"How much longer is this going to take?" Scootaloo complained.

"Well seeing how much damage Cthulhu caused, it should take a while," Sweetie Belle replied, making Scootaloo groan. "Well, this is partly our fault, so let's just clean everything up the best we can," she then used her magic to lift up pieces of broken wood and place them in the wagon holding the other wood rubbish.

"At least you're showin' everypony what yer magic can do now, Sweetie Belle," Apple Bloom said.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Sweetie Belle replied with a smile.

"But I know there's a cooler way to show them than this," Scootaloo said with a mope.

"Hey, don't let this get you down," Sweetie said, trying to comfort Scootaloo. "In fact, you know what we could do?"

"What?" Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both replied simultaneously.

"We can clean up Ponyville the best we can so we'll earn cutie marks in sanitation!"

"Do yah really think we can do that?" Apple Bloom queried.

"Sure we can!" Sweetie replied joyfully. "Cleaning up isn't hard to do! And besides, we won't cause any damage by cleaning!"

"Yah know, ah think you're right, Sweetie Belle! We're sure to clean up the town better than anypony if we work as hard as we can!"

"That's the spirit!"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom placed their hooves together. They both then looked towards Scootaloo. "Whattya say, Scoot?"

Scootaloo looked to be pondering the idea in her head. "..all right; let's do it!!" she exclaimed with fortitude.

Scootaloo placed her hoof in with the others, and the three fillies threw their hooves up into the air as they shouted, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SANITATION PONIES!!!"

"All right; you guys ready?" Scootaloo asked

"We're ready!" Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both replied fortuitously.

"Okay then, Cutie Mark Crusaders; let's clean house!" she responded with much vigor.

Upon hearing Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom's faces became blank. "Clean house?" Sweetie Belle asked in puzzlement.

"We're not cleanin' up a house. We're gonna clean up the whole town."

"Well, there are some wrecked houses we're going to clean up parts of, but still, we're not just doing one house."

Scootaloo made a sigh of dissatisfaction. "You two really need to learn more phrases."

THE END