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// Walk of Shame 
// Story: Dear Cuz' 
// by theNDinspector 
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Dear Babs,

That is so awesome how Roller got her cutie mark!  I wish I was there to see it, because it certainly sounded pretty darn cool.  By the way, you wouldn’t believe how excited Scootaloo got when you mentioned Pony Hawk.  It seems like she can talk about him for days.

It was really sweet what you said to Roller when she was upset too.  I never realized just how alone a pony could feel.  I mean, I though I was alone when it looked like I was the only pony without a cutie mark once Twist got hers.  Then I met Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.  But it’s nothing like what Roller went through.  So that was awesome what you did for Roller and letting her stay, even with a cutie mark.  I would certainly never turn my back on a friend…well, now I wouldn’t.

As for letting Twist into the Cutie Mark Crusaders…yeah, we ran into a bit of a problem.  

You see, over the past few weeks we’ve been hanging out at Princess Twilight’s place where she would teach us stuff.  I was working on potions, Scootaloo was trying to put a unicycle back together and Sweetie Belle was practicing her magic.  We called it Twilight Time.

It was fine on its own, but then Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon came into the mix.  One day at the playground, Diamond Tiara had her butler do some tricks for her and she took the credit, and everypony cheered.  I was disgusted, and so were my friends.  Scootaloo said that we could be the big shots and do it by ourselves.

Then Diamond Tiara came over and gave us a hard time since they were going to Manehattan to hang out with some celebrity and would invite us if Rarity had any plans on taking Sweetie Belle there, which she didn’t.  Then Sweetie Belle said we didn’t need to hang out with a celebrity since we already spent time with Twilight.  That got Diamond Tiara’s and Silver Spoon’s attention and they started becoming nice to us and would do things if we let them come along to see the princess.  I didn’t think it was a good idea at first, but Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle talked me into it, and it was pretty good to have Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon to treat us nice for a change.  So they came along.  It was awkward, but it wasn’t too bad.  

Then Diamond Tiara told everypony at school what we were doing and that they could all have a chance to meet with Princess Twilight.  It didn’t seem right to do, but Sweetie Belle said she could handle it.  So we had lunch with Twilight and the fillies and colts got to see Twilight.  She ended up giving autographs and thanked us for inviting her to eat at a place she normally doesn’t hang out at.  Then ponies thought that Twilight thought things were cool based on what we did.

We were then invited to Pip’s lemonade stand opening and got some free lemonade.  We also got our hooves shined and my bow bedazzled.  I didn’t like just taking this for free, so I offered to pay, but they wouldn’t accept it.  Then Diamond Tiarra invited us to her place for a pool party.  It was just the three of us with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, everypony else was kept out.  Again, it felt wrong.  Diamond Tiara asked to come to Twilight’s place again, but we forgot to ask and it didn’t seem possible to take everypony.  We also wanted that time for ourselves.  Then they all started to get angry and shouted “Twilight Time!”

We got out of there and ran to Twilight’s place to try and explain, but some colts on scooters beat us and we were surrounded.  They knocked and Twilight came to see nearly all of the school on her doorstep.  We tried to explain, but Twilight was willing to let everypony in if we were willing to share our time with others.

So it seemed like we were safe, but then Twilight asked what everypony wanted to learn.  Pip said that he wanted to learn how to be a Cutie Mark Crusader so that he could be cool and have ponies do favors for him.  We were so busted.  Twilight asked if this was truly how we thought of our time.  We honestly came so we could learn, but then Diamond Tiara put us on the spot so we could prove it.

We didn’t have our stuff, and no time to practice over the past week.  Sweetie Belle said she could handle it and so we improvised.  Obviously, it blew up in our faces, not to mention the apple I poured a potion on grew ginormous and actually exploded.  Diamond Tiara then mocked us saying that we didn’t come here to learn at all.  Twilight turned the tables and said that they didn’t either.

So everypony left and we apologized and gave Twilight some parting gifts.  We thought we would never come back, but she decided to give us a chance.  So we got to stay and learn some more.  I can’t believe just how friendly she is, but she does bear the element of friendship.  We also got to eat after cleaning up.  I think I’ll be avoiding nachos for a while.

The point is that things are very complicated between us and the other colts and fillies.  Most of them hate us now, and others are still too eager to try and get in on Twilight Time.  Twist was forgiving, but I’m not sure if I can invite her to join the Cutie Mark Crusaders after what happened.  She's made some other friends though, so I’m happy for her.

Maybe things will calm down again soon and we can expand our club, but for now it’s just the three of us in Ponyville and the five of you in Manehattan.  At least we have each other.

Your Cousin,

Apple Bloom