No Forgiveness for Anyone
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were inside of the Principal's office of the School of Friendship. They had no idea why they were brought back here considering Princess Twilight had just banned them for making Cozy Glow fail her test. Even when they pleaded that they didn't intentionally trick Cozy into failing, the Princess of Friendship still accused them without hearing them out. The CMC then heard the doors open to see their sisters and Twilight's other friends enter the room. The fillies feared that they were going to get yelled at by not only Twilight but also from her friends as well. Twilight turned her chair to face the CMC from behind her desk. Her face didn't show any signs of anger.
"We didn't do anything wrong, we promise!" Scootaloo pleaded.
"I know that, now." Twilight said with a smile. "Which is why I wanted to talk to you."
"Wait, so we're not in trouble?" Sweetie Belle said in confusion.
"Just the opposite," Starlight said as she and Cozy Glow approached the fillies. "Cozy Glow, is there something you like to say?"
"This was all my fault," Cozy confessed. "I messed up my test on purpose so we could all go to school together, I'm sorry." The CMC's jaws dropped when they heard what Cozy said. For some unknown reason, anger started to build up inside all of the members of the CMC. They just couldn't believe that Cozy would pull such a stunt like that. Twilight was about to say something until Scootaloo spoke out.
"Are you kidding me?!" Scootaloo yelled, which caught the attention of everyone in the room. "You got us kicked out of the school!"
"I thought you would know better than to do something like that to us!" Sweetie Belle added.
"B-but it was for good intentions," Cozy whimpered as her eyes formed tears.
"Good intentions or not, that doesn't change the fact that you took our trust for granted." Apple Bloom said sternly. "What you did was so darn despicable! That is the exact opposite of what a friend would do!" Cozy couldn't take it anymore as she cried out and flew out of the room in sadness.
"Cozy, wait!" Starlight said as she galloped after Cozy. Twilight marched up to the CMC as she didn't like how the fillies yelled at Cozy.
"Girls! She didn't mean to-" Twilight said before she was interrupted.
"Don't think you can lecture us as you had a part in this!" Scootaloo said while pointing a hoof at Twilight. This caused Twilight and her friends to gasp in response.
"Yeah, you just blamed us for making Cozy fail her test! We thought you were better than that!" Sweetie included. "I guess we were wrong about you! You're no Princess of Friendship!"
"We thought there was a lesson of your's about listening to a friend and not falsely accusing anypony without accurate proof! Guess that also shows that you're not a mare of her word and you only care about running your stupid school!" Apple Bloom concluded as she and the rest of the CMC stomped their hooves while exiting the room.
"We're done with this place!" Scootaloo hollered. "We don't want to be in a school that is run by a complete hypocrite!" Sweetie used her magic to slam the door behind them. There was complete silence in the room as everyone was in complete shock from what happened. Spike didn't know what to do as he held a pillow that had three rolled-up scrolls on it. Twilight just stood where she was as tears streamed down from her face. She once again felt like she had failed friendship.
After a long time, Twilight sat on her desk while feeling really depressed. Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow went to find the CMC and talk some sense into the fillies. Fluttershy and Pinkie just went back to teaching their classes. Spike went to substitute for one of Twilight's classes to allow Twilight to cope. Twilight levitated the three rolled-up scrolls that Spike had. The scrolls were the CMC's diplomas for graduating from the School of Friendship. It was suppose to show that the CMC didn't need attend the school since they were already so good with friendship. Now, the scrolls no longer held any purpose. Twilight felt like ripping apart the diplomas, but she couldn't as she wasn't in the mood. She couldn't get over the recent memories of the CMC yelling at Cozy and her. Twilight also remembered how she just yelled at the CMC without hearing their sides of the story. Twilight's guilt grew as she realized that she really didn't hear out the CMC. The door slowly opened to see a frowning Starlight entering.
"Well, that went south quickly." Starlight said as she entered the room. "Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow are trying to convince the Cutie Mark Crusaders, but it's a working progress."
"What about Cozy?" Twilight asked as she was worried since Cozy left while crying. Starlight levitated a rolled-up scroll on Twilight's desk.
"What's this?" Twilight said while looking curiously at the scroll.
"I found this inside of Cozy's room." Starlight answered. Twilight used her magic to open the scroll to read what it said:
Dear Princess Twilight,
I think that it's best for me to leave this school as I messed up big time with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I still have a lot to learn about friendship after what I did. Good luck running the school and please tell the Cutie Mark Crusaders that I'm extremely sorry for the actions I have made.
From Your Former Student,
Cozy Glow
Twilight just threw down the letter and cried in her hooves as she felt like a failure. Twilight thought things were escalating for the worse thanks to her recent actions. Starlight took a look at the letter and placed a hoof on her mouth in shock. She then approached Twilight to give her some pats on her head to cheer her up.
"It's alright, Twilight." Starlight said as she comforted Twilight.
"No it's not!" Twilight yelled back, startling Starlight. "I screwed things up big time! I was supposed to be the Princess of Friendship! A pony who cares about friends getting along with friends! But I forgot all of that when I blamed the Cutie Mark Crusaders! I was just as bad as Chancellor Neighsay when he falsely accused the other creatures of using friendship as a weapon! Who knows how long until things get worse!" It was then Twilight collapsed on her desk and cried her eyes out. Starlight simply gave Twilight a hug in attempts to calm the princess down. Starlight stayed silent while hugging Twilight until the princess's crying slowed down. It was complete silent in the room as it was needed for Twilight.
"Feeling better?" Starlight whispered. Twilight just nodded although a large part of her wasn't. She was able to sit back up on her desk and just stared down in shame. "Look Twilight, what's done is done. You made your mistakes and so did the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It is best to move on from this."
"But how?" Twilight asked in desperation. "I doubt that the Cutie Mark Crusaders will forgive me or Cozy."
"The least you could do is formally apologize to the Cutie Mark Crusader. Maybe that might help convince the fillies to finally forgive you and Cozy." Starlight suggested.
"But what happens if they keep rejecting my apology?" Twilight asked before she began to think of worst case scenarios. "What if word gets out that I was terrible to those fillies!? What if Princess Celestia hears about this and removes my title as a princess!? What if friendships start to crumble as nopony will listen to what I have to say!? What if-" Twilight was interrupted when her head was bopped by Starlight's hoof.
"If the Cutie Mark Crusaders keep denying your apology, then learn from this and do better next time. Listen to what other creatures have to say before you start making conclusions. And if your other scenarios start to happen, work harder to show everyone that you really do care about friendship." Starlight then got up and made her way to the door. "Those are all I got for suggestions, Twilight. It's up to you to decide what to do." Starlight then left the room and shut the door. Twilight tried to think of her next plan of action in hopes of making things right with the CMC.
Author's Note
I felt like I needed to write this fic as Marks for Efforts was such a harsh episode to me. Mostly because of Twilight as she just accused the CMC without hearing them out.
