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// Letter 6 
// Story: Sincerely, Ragamuffin 
// by Homage 
//------------------------------//

Dear Princess Celestia,
I have given up.  My weekly attempts for the last 10 months to find my special talent have all failed miserably.  My final attempt on my "cutie mark crusade" was today.  I wanted to try my hoof at marksmareship.  It ended terribly, with me not only missing the target completely, but also shooting Jackfruit in the rump.  He wasn't seriously hurt though.  Mom was able to dig the bullet out and bandage the wound.  I'm feel horrible, though, because Jackfruit wouldn't talk to me and kicked me out of the kitchen, yelling, "Stop your talent-searching mission before you kill somepony!"  This was only my most recent buck-up resulting from my quest for my cutie mark.  It hadn't hurt anypony else before (besides myself), but Jackfruit's tirade made me realize that it would only be a matter of time.  I did the only sensible thing and halted my crusade.  Maybe I'll be lucky and my cutie mark will come on its own, but with my current situation and the recent turn of events, I doubt that fortune would ever favor me.  Speaking of bad luck, there is a terrible drought now in Coltistan.  The bandits attack like crazy, looking for food.  We have driven all of them away so far, and none of my family has been hurt.  However, one of them threw a bottle of fire that burned over an acre of cactus.  All that food went up in in flames, much like my dream of finding my cutie mark.  My hopes reduced to ashes, I dream only about cactus now.  There is one nightmare that keeps coming back.  The dark green coated pony with a black mane made of cactus spines and white needles for teeth chases me through the field.  I  try to hide behind various giant-sized objects, only to have them turn into cacti.  The cactus pony laughs, "You can't hide from me, Ragamuffin!"  I keep galloping away from him, between two rows of cactus.  The cacti on either side begin to close in on me, and I gallop as fast as my hooves will take me.  I reach a clearing, where I see Mom, Dad, Jackfruit, and Prickly Pear standing together.  I throw myself at them and cry for them to save me.  However, instead of helping me, they coldly stare ahead.  I frantically try to get their attention, when suddenly they all look at me.  They say, in unison, "Ragamuffin, join us."  I scream as they turn green and grow black spiky manes and needle teeth.  They circle around me as I collapse on my haunches.  I refuse to give in, but they continue to trot around me, chanting, "Ragamuffin, you must become one of us.  It is your fate; you cannot escape."  I look down at my forelegs, and see the dark green color spreading to my hooves.  I feel a sharp pain in my head, and feel needles puncturing through my skin.  I open my mouth to scream, and realize that my teeth have turned into needles.  Then I wake up.  The first time I had that nightmare, I was terrified and galloped away from the cactus pony.  But now when I have the dream, I don't run anymore.  He always catches me, anyway.  Why should I bother trying to escape the inevitable?

Sincerely,
Ragamuffin