Twilight landed with a thud on the floor, having off the sofa, and a blanket fell over her head.
She frantically got up and brushed the blanket off to reveal she was in her own castle, and it was morning as the sun was starting to shine through the windows.
Starlight and Spike rushed into the living room, having heard her fall and move around.
“Twilight, are you okay?” asked Starlight.
“We heard you, you were yelling in your sleep.” added Spike.
Twilight slumped into the sofa and sighed heavily in relief. “It was all a dream. There was no angry mob!”
Starlight and Spike gawked at one another with strange expressions.
Starlight then spoke to Twilight, “Spike found out why the group of ponies were mean to you the other day.”
Spike stepped forth, “It turns out that the girls told Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon about what happened, and Diamond told her mother what happened.
Naturally, Spoiled Rich and her gossiping and blowing it all way out of proportion is never a good thing.”
Starlight felt just as upset about it when she found out, and she personally wrote to Princess Celestia and asked the whole thing be straightened out at once.
“Every-pony felt really bad about the way they overreacted at you,” she then motioned over at a table where sat an open mail sack of apology letters from every-pony who was mean to her yesterday.
Twilight felt warm inside.
Just then, there was a knock at the doors of the castle.
Twilight answered it and found Snails and Snips, and they looked very sorry and very ashamed of themselves.
“We… we’re very sorry for throwing mud at you yesterday, Princess.” said Snails.
“Our folks sent us to apologize,” added Snips “But we were going to come anyway, and they said if there is to be any punishment, we’ll accept it, and we will.
We’ll do anything!”
Twilight felt touched by their sincerity, and she decided to go easy on them, by having them help her prepare her lesson plans for the school of friendship that day…
Fetching books, and getting parchment and ink, and reading to her aloud from scripts and scrolls so she could write them down as part of her lectures.
Then when it was time to open up the school of Friendship, Twilight was very relieved as students passed by her and bid her “Good morning” and no one was the least bit scornful to her.
Twilight was really feeling her luck was starting to change, but then she looked sad again.
“What’s wrong now?” asked Spike.
“I just still wish I knew how to make it up to the Crusaders, but I don’t know if they’re still too mad at me.”
Starlight thought, and remembered about what the girls had done that started all this in the first place.
“I’ve got an idea.” And she whispered to Twilight, which made her smile widely “Yes, I’ll do it. I owe it to them.”
Spike was confused, “You’re not actually going to let them into the school are you.”
“Nope, something even better…”
It wasn’t long before the Crusaders were brought before Twilight in her office, and they surprisingly didn’t seem as mad at her as they were before, thanks to Rarity, Rainbow and Applejack.
“We all had some long talks last night.” said Applejack “The girls admitted that maybe they were a bit harsh on you.”
“And when we told them of how horribly you we’re treated by all those other ponies,” added Rarity, and then she sniffled “They cried…!
Well, at least I did.”
The girls actually stepped forward towards the desk.
“We were mad at you, Twilight,” said Sweetie “But we told Diamond and Silver we wanted to handle things on our own.”
Applebloom nodded, “We weren’t speaking to you, but you didn’t deserve all that you got last night, and we’re… well…”
“…We’re really sorry that you got hurt.” said Scootaloo.
“You’re apology is not accepted, girls.” said Twilight.
The girls felt downtrodden, but then Twilight informed them “…Because you’re apologizing for something that you didn’t do, and believe me I know you better than that.”
The girls looked up at her, and of course it was true. They didn’t tell other ponies to hate on Twilight, and they were not the ones who threw the mud at her. Though they did tell Diamond, who told her mother, who twisted and turned a whole bunch of gossip to make it look worse, it still wasn’t their fault.
“But why are we here?” asked Sweetie.
Twilight grinned and said “Cozy Glow retook her test today, and this time she did it properly, and she got a straight A-plus, all thanks to you girls.
For this, I’d like to give you these.”
She levitated three large parchments at the girls.
“They're honorary diplomas,” said Applejack “Makin' y'all official graduates of this here school.”
“You've more than earned them.” said Rarity.
“…Without even having to study!” added Rainbow.
The Crusaders were speechless, and didn’t know what to say, but Twilight said to them. “And if you're interested, I think Starlight has a place for you at my school after all.”
“We could use some friendship tutors on staff. And I hear you're the best out there.”
The Crusaders were beaming, as they leapt about cheering and hollering. To them, this was even better than being students at the school, it was practically a job!
“Um, just one last thing…” Twilight said, and she approached the girls and looked them ever so deeply in their eyes. “Girls… can you ever forgive me?”
She gazed at them so deeply that the girls could see their reflections in her remorseful and sincere eyes.
They looked back and forth at one another, and agreed.
“If there’s one thing friends do…” said Applebloom.
“…It’s forgive one another.” added Sweetie.
“And we forgive you.” said Scootaloo, and they hugged her warmly, and she hugged them back with tears rolling down her face.
The other ponies all were teary-eyed too, and Spike gave the girls a thumb-up.
Then Twilight led the girls off to meet their first students whom she felt could use their tutoring.
Starlight could only sigh, “I love being councillor here at this school.”