Book two of "Who We Become".
Being a princess means always worrying what everypony thinks about you. So when Twilight overhears a private conversation, she has to come to terms with how she feels about herself, love, and a certain somepony, all whil...
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"Princess? We're running late."
"Just a minute, we're almost ready," Twilight answered through the door.
In actuality, they were sitting on the hotel bed while Fluttershy panicked at the thought of the crowd forming at the convention center. "It'll be okay, Shy. Remember, they're all there because they support us."
"I know," Fluttershy said. They were in Canterlot, which was expected to be the biggest stop of their tour. It was also the first real stop. They had made an appearance in Ponyville before leaving, but it had been much less formal, since they knew most of the ponies in town. It turned out that almost everyone back home did support them, but they had been so focused on the negative reactions that they never even noticed the positive ones. But Canterlot was home to the Virtuous Equestrian Society, which put both of them on edge.
Fluttershy took a deep breath, mimicking Twilight's breathing technique. She stood up and put on her most worry-free smile. "I'm fine. We should get going, we don't want to be late."
As soon as they left the room, they were flanked by guards. Twilight had complained about them, but apparently Princess Celestia had insisted. It was an official publicity tour by Equestrian royalty, after all, and even if Twilight could protect the two of them by herself, the guards did add an air of authority to their presence. So they let the guards escort them down to a chariot to ride through Canterlot, Twilight awkwardly adjusting her crown the whole way.
They stopped before they could reach their destination. "What's wrong?" Twilight asked.
"Some ponies are blocking the road," a guard answered. "We'll take care of it."
They waited for a few minutes, but nothing happened and eventually Twilight grew restless. "It's got to be the VES. Wait here, I'll go check on things."
"No, I'm going too," Fluttershy said. She was nervous about facing them, but that was part of why she wanted to go. She had been terrified of Stormy Skies, but since she stood up to him, all of her nightmares had stopped. She wasn't going to let her fears stop her, especially from standing beside Twilight.
When they stepped out, they saw hundreds of ponies blocking the way. The guards were trying to reason with them, but they weren't moving. A few of the guards started making threats of imprisonment, but they did little good. Pretty soon things were going to get forceful unless somepony backed down.
Although a lot of the protesters were shouting angry slurs or carrying signs with hateful messages, Fluttershy didn't want anything bad to happen to them. After what Silver Spark had told them about why the VES was formed, she wondered how many of them were just afraid of something they didn't understand. She had faith that Twilight would be able to resolve things peacefully, but when she turned, she found the alicorn staring wide eyed into the crowd, which easily outnumbered their escort twenty to one.
"It's okay, Twi," Fluttershy said.
"I know, it just looks like a lot. There's lots of ponies who accept us. Everypony in Ponyville was happy to see us in town again." Twilight spoke more to herself than to Fluttershy. "There's seventy-eight thousand ponies in Canterlot; this is only a small fraction. It's not as bad as it looks. There are just a few hundred ponies here, and they're all here because they hate us." She started backed up towards the carriage.
