Twilight Sparkle was very angry with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and asked to see them in her office at the School of Friendship.
“I can’t believe you’d do something like this!” she scolded, “You tutored Cozy Glow, and you’ve been setting her up to fail?!”
The Crusaders were most confused. “What are you talkin’ about?” asked Applebloom, and Twilight angrily showed them Cozy Glow’s failed exam. Surely enough it was filled with horribly incorrect answers.
“What are the six Elements of Harmony?
“Five turtlenecks and a cheese grater…?”
“Who is the princess of Friendship?
“Your mom…?!”
Now the crusaders were so confused, their heads ached. “I don’t understand.” said Sweetie Belle “We didn’t teach her those answers.” But it was in vain for them to try to explain. Twilight was either so mad that she couldn’t think straight, or felt the issue was clear enough.
“I can’t believe you three would do such a thing. I know it upset you that would key you come to the school, but teaching Cozy Glow all the wrong answers so she’d fail her test out of spite?!”
“But we didn’t…” cried Scootaloo “We taught her--”
“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT!!” snapped Twilight, and she opened the doors motioned for the girls to leave “I’m going to have to ask you to stay away from my school and my students.
Now, please leave!”
Broken-hearted and with tears in their eyes, the girls walked sadly out of the office, and out the school doors, which Twilight slammed shut.
Cozy Glow saw them walking sadly away, and she felt really guilty about something, “Oh, no! What have I done?”
When Twilight took a Lunchbreak that day, she normally sat with her friends in the teacher’s lounge. “Hi every pony.” she said politely to the others, but the girls gave her a sour look, and scooted away from her.
Twilight was confused, and scooted in closer, only for the girls to scoot away from her again. “Is something wrong?” Twilight asked “Why are you all avoiding me?”
“I heard what you did, Twilight.” Rarity said “I was standing around the corner on my way to my sewing class when I heard how you spoke to Sweetie Belle and her friends.”
Twilight sighed softly, “Look, I know I sounded a little harsh, but I can’t have them messing with our students.”
“That’s exactly what we mean!” snapped Rainbow “Do you HONESTLY think the girls would do such a thing? I mean, sure… they’ve done some really crazy stunts, especially in the last few days, but I don’t think they’d ever try to sabotage Cozy Glow just to get back at you!”
Twilight was starting to lose patience, and showed them all Cozy’s test, “Then how do you explain all this?”
Applejack checked the answers, and she giggled “Your mom?!” she held in her laughter, and resumed her disappointment “Look, Applebloom would never do such a thing. I know this because I saw what they were doin’. Big Mac told me everything the way they helped Cozy help him with his chores so he could be on time for his date with Sugar Belle.”
“I saw them too…” said Pinkie Pie “Mrs. Cake was thrilled with the present the girls helped Cozy make.” She held up a cupcake from her lunch that Mrs. Cake baked for her, with Rainbow Sprinkles.
Twilight was still unconvinced! “That may be nice, but that’s no excuse that Cozy filled in all the wrong answers! The girls were obviously setting her up to get back at me for not letting them attend The School of Friendship.”
Despite the compelling evidence, the girls still refused to believe the Crusaders would do such a thing. “Let’s go eat outside, girls.” suggested Rainbow.
“We’re right behind you Rainbow Dash.” agreed Rarity and the other girls all left, even Fluttershy turned angrily away from Twilight and walked away with her back turned.
“Not you, too, Fluttershy?” cried Twilight.
“Sorry, Twilight… but even I have standards. I think you need to do some serious thinking.”
Twilight was alone, and she was feeling a mix of sadness and anger.
For the remainder of the day, none of her friends would talk to her. Not even when they passed by her and she gave them a friendly “Hello…” they would just hold their heads up high and ignore her…
Pinkie even went to stronger but silly methods; wearing a blindfold over her eyes, and a clothespin over her nostils. “What are you doing?” Twilight asked.
“I can’t SEE or SMELL you either.” replied Pinkie. Of course, since she couldn’t where she was going, she walked right into a tall flower vase in the hall. “I’m good.” she called.
Twilight was starting to feel her friends were being unjust with her, but she spent her time alone in her office grading other tests and sighing softly.
Spike came in with a stack of tests and reports. He just put them on her desk and didn’t say anything to her.
“Oh, come on, Spike… not you too?”
“Eeyup.” Spike said and turned away from her.
Twilight had taken enough of this cold-shoulder. “Spike, I’m the head mare of this school, and it’s my job to make sure that all our students are well educated without any problems. I had to ban the crusaders from the school, and nothing you say or do will make me change my mind.”
Spike still didn’t even look at her. Just rearranged books on the shelf and said, “Then you’re going to get the cold shoulder for longer!”
Twilight was furious, but before she could say anything, Spike turned and glared at her, “Don’t you get it, Twilight? We’re not angry that you were doing your job, we’re mad at you because you misjudged the crusaders!
You didn’t even give them a chance to explain themselves. You just yelled at them, and banned them from the school with a cold heart.”
Twilight wanted to argue, but she suddenly reflected back to her scolding the girls and not letting them explain. “I guess I did get a little carried away. I was just so angry.”
“That… is no excuse, Twilight Sparkle.” growled a familiar voice. Twilight’s blood turned cold as she looked over at the doors to her office, “Princess Celestia…”
She didn’t look a bit pleased. “Your friends wrote to me about the situation, and imagine my surprise, not to mention disappointment in you.”
Twilight stuttered and stammered trying to find words to defend her, but the feeling of guilt and shame were creeping up on her. “I was just trying to look out for the school, and Cozy Glow’s future here.”
Celestia sighed, “Twilight, here at this school you teach friendship lessons, and you’ve forgotten one important thing any good friend does… and that’s to “Listen!”
Now Twilight felt awful, and couldn’t excuse herself anymore, for not even bothering to hear the crusaders out, and Celestia was right. She DID know the girls better than that.
Just then, there was a knock at the door and in came Starlight glimmer with a nerve-wrecked Cozy Glow. Both of them were surprised to see Celestia there, and they both bowed so suddenly.
“Sorry to interrupt…” said Starlight, “But Cozy has something she’d like to share with you, Twilight.”
“I’m certain Twilight would love to hear you out.” said Celestia.
Cozy twiddled her hooves, and finally confessed, “The Cutiemark Crusaders just wanted to go to this school so badly, and I thought that if it looked as if they didn’t know much about friendship you’d let them join the school…
…So I… failed my test… on purpose.”
Twilight was shocked… but more at herself than just at Cozy. “I can’t believe you would do such a thing!” she scolded.
“I know it was wrong…” cried Cozy “But the Crusaders helped me so much, and I really wanted to pay them back for helping me.”
Celestia looked down at Cozy, “Well, even I can’t condone purposely failing an exam like that, but your intentions were out of pure friendship, and I’m proud of you for that.”
Twilight slumped into her chair and her head lay flat on her desk, “I misjudged the girls…” she cried with tears coming to her eyes, “…Badly.”
She began to invision horrible things, like every pony in Ponyville finding out how badly she judged the girls, and she would be treated like a pariah…
He friends would never talk to her again…
All store owners and stand vendors would have huge signs banning Twilight from any services.
Worse than that, what if other parents found out about the scandal? Would they pull their students out of the school, leaving Twilight with no choice but to close down?
“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Twilight screamed, snapping herself out of her nightmare, and realizing the others were all gawking at her with concerned expressions.
She blushed in embarrassment, and then decided, “I’ve got to try and make it up to the Crusaders.” Suddenly, a huge idea came into her head, “I’ve got it…!”
The others were all curious to know what she had in mind.
The next day, the Crusaders were pulled from school and brought to Twilight by Starlight.
“Are we in trouble again?” whimpered Applebloom.
“No, just the opposite.” said Starlight with a smirk.
Twilight approached the crusaders and bowed her head, “Girls, first of all… I want to apologize to you all. Cozy Glow told me something she’d like to tell you.”
Cozy confessed her misdeed to the girls about flunking her test, “I’m really sorry I got you in trouble, but I was just trying to help you.”
The girls didn’t know what to say, they were touched by her honesty and willing to help them, “But… that was kind of a silly move.” said Scootaloo.
“Yeah, even we wouldn’t do something as low as that.” agreed Sweetie Belle.
“Well… maybe not.” said Applebloom, and she and the other two remembered the crazy stunts they tried before.
“Ahem!” Twilight said “Honesty is one of the mighty pillars of friendship, but you girls already knew that.”
The crusaders blushed.
“So, in addition to my apology, I want to present you girls with these honorary diplomas from The School of Friendship, making you graduates here.”
The girls looked at their diplomas, and could believe their eyes. “We graduated from this school without even studying.” said Scootaloo.
The girls then danced and hopped all over singing, “WE GRADUATED! WE GRADUATED!”
They all then hugged Twilight showing that they forgave her and accepted her apology. Twilight hugged them all back, “And that’s not all…” she said “I’ve done a lot of thinking, and it seems to me we could use a few private friend tutors on staff at this school, and you girls are perfect for the job.”
The girls squealed with joy, showing their acceptance.
“Come on, girls… let’s go get turtoin’.” said Applebloom, and she and the others hopped off together, eager to get to work in their new jobs.
Twilight looked out the door and watched them all skip merrily along, and her friends stepped out from around the corner smiling at her for the noble act she had shown.
Spike and Starlight smiled at her as well, and Twilight never felt so at east, especially when she looked out the window and saw Princess Celestia smiling proudly at her before flying off in a glowing light.
Twilight sighed “Sometimes, I really love this job.”