The Fashion Folly

When they got to the Golden Oaks Library, Applejack bucked the door open and all 8 ponies searched everywhere for her (Pinkie Pie even tried looking inside books). However, Spike knew where Twilight was, and went upstairs to their bedroom where she had her face inside her pillow sobbing. Her mane and tail were back to normal and her horseshoes were off, but she still had mud all over her. Spike slowly went up to her, quiet enough to not scare her, but loud enough to let her know that she was there.

"Hey Twilight", he said to her. Twilight stopped sobbing and turned to face him. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying and her face was muddy, but at least she didn't look any worse than that.

"What is it, Spike", she asked.

"Those street ponies are back and they want to apologise to you", Spike gleefully said, hoping to lift her spirits a bit. "Let me repeat that, they want to apologise to her", Spike called out downstairs, only to find everypony at the top. Filly Billy, Sal and Lee all came closer to Twilight.

"Why did you control me like this?", Twilight asked them, "What sick thrill did you get from it?"

"I have no idea", Filly Billy answered honestly. She knew that Twilight was no longer under their command because intense trauma was enough to break her spells, and it seemed as though Twilight had undergone some intense trauma indeed.

"We're so sorry", Sal added.

"And if there's anything we can do to repay you…", Lee continued.

"We'll do it", all 3 gang members finished in unison.

It was in Twilight's nature to be quick to forgive anyone that did her wrong, for better or for worse, and their apology seemed genuine and sincere enough for her. She wiped the tears from her face, smiled a bit and looked to Spike.

"I think you know what do you", she said to him.

"Do the same thing to them?", Spike asked enthusiatically. Everypony stared at him with an annoyed glare expect for Pinkie Pie, as it was in her nature to be cheerful about everything, and Twilight, who wanted to savour this moment of joy for as long as possible. Then Spike realised what Twilight meant is that she learnt a Friendship Lesson and wanted Spike to write it down.

"Oh, heh heh, right", Spike sheepishly replied and reached for a parchment and quill and began writing what Twilight said.

Dear Princess Celestia, accepting a new gift is a real honour, and in the best of situations can further your friendship exponentially, but you have to be careful who you're accepting that gift from, if it's safe to use, and most importantly, if you really want it. If you don't want it, don't force yourself to like it, as that would be dishonest to the person who's giving you the gift.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.

Spike sent it away, but which time Twilight had cleaned herself up a bit, but Rarity knew that such a dirty pony would be in need of some shower time.

"Boy, that's a relief", Rainbow Dash exhaled.

"Yeah!", Pinkie Pie agreed, "Why don't we all go to Sugarcube Corner and celebrate with Hundreds and Thousands-covered cupcakes!?"

Everypony agreed and headed off, but right as Billy's gang was about to go downstairs…

"Where do you think you're going", Twilight called out to them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sometime later, Billy's gang was writing on seperate chalkboards "I will not cast spells on strangers" multiple times. Twilight, now cleaned up, was watching them to monitor them.

"How many more times do we have to write this same line?", Sal asked.

"Hundreds and thousands of times more", Twilight replied, which made all of them moan. What they didn't know was that Twilight actually meant just 2,200 (two sets of 100 lines and two sets of 1,000 lines). Whatever the case, Billy's gang knew it was going to be a long afternoon.