It seems that things are slowly getting better after that thing with me killing Pinkie. No, it’s okay... I’m gonna be okay.

“Hey, we haven’t really talked much. You’re looking less depressed. So did you really talk with the constellations? What did they say? Wh-” I cut off the tireless torrent of chatter.

“Shut up, Twilight.” I notice that the makeshift bandages are off and Twi’s neck isn’t bleeding or damaged. “I really don’t know why you think I want to talk to you.”

“Why? I... oh are you still on that? I mean, it was weeks ago. I get that you needed to vent and all but-”

“No, that wasn’t venting, that was trying to explain something to you, but clearly that didn’t help!”

“Anthony, I know you’ve been through a lot lately, everyone’s still a little on edge, let’s just calm down, okay?”

I glare at her. “You really don’t get why I hate you so much, do you?”

“Y- you don’t mean that, you’re just exaggerating-”

“Am I? Do you want the list?”

“List...? What list?”

It seems she’s expecting me to actually hand her a physical list. Sigh. “I hate you because of how goddamn perfect you are.”

“Wha- what does that even mean?”

“It means I’m sick of how privileged and supposedly flawless you are! You do nothing at all, but you act like you’re this big shot important person!”

“But-”

“You are a paid student! You don’t do any real work, for the community or yourself! You’re a layabout! You don’t make your own food, Spike does. You don’t clean your own house, Spike does. The only thing you do is shelve books and act as the librarian, two things you occasionally drop on others for them to do! And you get paid to do that by Celestia! You get money from the crown for sitting down all day and giving no contribution at all! Sure, I don’t work and I’m lazy, but I deal with being broke! If I need money, I get a job! But not you, you’re just given money! There are others who work more than you do but don’t make as much. Heck, I bet there are prostitutes that make less money for more work than you put in!”

“Surely you’re exaggerating. Prostitutes may not be rich, but they offer important services... for some ponies. I doubt that whatever Celestia gives me is anywhere near what any real, hardworking pony makes.”

“Actually, Honey Dip makes, like, a third your daily wage in a week, Twilight.” One of the Pinkies say, and I turn to see we have a bit of a crowd gathered. “And she’s, like, one of the biggest earners in town. She’s also the cheapest... No offense Honey!”

“None taken!” I hear a mare call from the crowd, seemingly happy for the plug.

I return attention to Twilight, who is blushing furiously. “I rest my case. And you know, that’s not the end of how overprivileged you are. You were born and raised in Canterlot. I doubt you’ve ever had any real money issues, considering you were able to attend the best school in the country until you moved out here. You’re still technically a student, so you’re not even an integral part of society. You just skated right by! You were born with a silver spoon in your mouth and got everything else just as easily. And you are an asshole! You clearly only got any social skills by reading, and anyone who lived a normal life and then read those books knows how full of crap they are. Supposedly, you didn’t get any real social interaction until you came to Ponyville, and as a result your actions and morals are ambiguous at best! I know your OCPD pisses off more than just me, and you act like you can do whatever the fuck you want! And nobody corrects you! Whenever you say or do something questionable, everyone shrugs it off and leaves you alone even though it clearly ticks them off, but every -and I mean every- time I’ve ever tried to get you back to reality or try to explain something to you, you get all defensive, as if I’m the bad guy! I tried slapping you until half your face was a different color but you still don’t get it! If trying to convince you with facts doesn’t work, and beating you senseless doesn’t either, what does it take Twilight?” I pause to take a breath. “And you have had an absolutely perfect life on top of all of this! Life just handed itself to you on a silver platter! You never had parents that got divorced. You never had a sibling that hated you simply because you were born. You never had to depend on others in order to eat the next day. You’ve never wondered if you’d ever be able to live in your own home again! You just got to sit on your ass all your life and do whatever you wanted. You’re a parasite living off of association with your parents and the god-queen of the country! And whenever I try to snap you out of the idea that you can still get your way all the time in the real world, I’m at fault for it! You are so fucking smart that everyone believes you even if you are clearly spouting bullshit, telling people that I didn’t just leave, I died! That’s what you saw and therefore it’s a fact, and nothing is ever your fault and you are never wrong about anything, simply because you’re Twilight fucking Sparkle!”

Dead silence meets my ears, and Twilight looks too shocked to respond. In fact, all the ponies watching look shocked.

I turn to the crowd. “What, you all gonna crucify me for yelling at little-miss-perfect?” The ponies I’m facing collectively take a fearful step back. “I don’t really care what you do now Twilight, because I’m just done. I told you why once and I told you why again just now. If you still don’t get it... then that’s your fault.”

Twilight doesn’t respond, she just takes a short step back, then turns and runs away. I have a few more things I could say, but I think that’s enough for now.

I could also go and give Celestia hell for basically being an enabler of this behaviour and such... But I’d rather just stay here for today.

None of the ponies move or say anything, the other five Element Bearers clearly having a hard time deciding what to do. Screw this, I’m going back to sleep.

“So who’s gonna wake him?”

“I’m not gonna. What if he blows up or whatever again?”

“He wouldn’t do that, would he?”

“He said he hated Twilight... Like hate hate.”

“Maybe this isn’t a good idea after all.”

I sigh, giving up on trying to sleep through the chatter. “I’m up now. Whaddya want?”

The other Element Bearers go quiet and seem to be having trouble using their tongues correctly.

“D- did you mean all that stuff you said? Like, really mean it?” Fluttershy asks first.

“Look, sugarcoated lessons doesn’t get through to her any more than physical pain. If those two fail, I go with a ‘reason you suck’ speech. If that fails... well, my RYS speeches haven’t failed yet in my experience.”

“That really hurt her, you realize...” Rarity says, cautiously. “We don’t even know where she went. She didn’t tell Spikey, and she didn’t go to the library.”

“Hey, I’m just trying to get her to wake up and stop living like a child.”

“So... you just told her every single way she was flawed and said you hated her.”

“Not every way, but I didn’t make any of that up. She has been a pain in my neck for most of my time here acting like she’s the boss of me, pulling all kinds of garbage and acting like nothing is ever her fault and that all the problems are someone else’s fault.”

“She doesn’t...” Rainbow starts, rushing to defend Twilight, but realizing that, again, I’m right. “Okay yeah, but she isn’t that bad. She doesn’t make mistakes on purpose!”

“But she also doesn’t learn from those mistakes, and she lacks a certain level of empathic foresight. She assumed that, despite my multiple protests, that she should just turn me into a pony for a day without warning or asking. Want an example? What if Twilight thought that you would be so much happier as, say, a raccoon and just turned you into one while you were asleep after you told her many times you didn’t want that?”

“But raccoons are cool! They have thumbs.”

“Congratulations, Twilight has turned you into a raccoon. Until you turn back, nobody can understand a word you say aside from maybe Fluttershy, and you have no wings so you cannot fly. But you have thumbs...”

“Cool! I can do so many pranks with thumbs...” I facepalm, though it looks like everyone other than Rainbow understands what I was trying to say.

“Alright, different scenario. Twilight firmly believed I was dead and then started telling people I was, even though she had no real proof I wasn’t dead and simply asking Celestia would have let her know I was still alive. Instead, she just told people I was dead because... that’s what she thinks, and therefore is true until proven false.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s just ‘cuz nopony else knew what happened. She said you were yelling, then you looked like you blew up, and I think everypony else kinda assumed that means you actually did, and died.”

“Still, that isn’t all Twilight has done. Don’t tell me her constant scheduling obsession hasn’t gotten on anyone’s nerves but me. She does all kinds of things that just grate on me and I tell her what she’s doing wrong, and yet since I’m pointing out a flaw in her, I’m considered a jerk.” The semi-circle of ponies looks awkwardly away from me, not meeting my eyes. It seems they can’t disagree, even if they don’t want to agree, either. “Until Twilight realises how much of a jerk she is and grows up, she’s not going to change. And if it’s taken until just then to get her to realize that she has problems, she clearly can’t help herself and just talking to her doesn’t do a thing. She may not have officially lived in Canterlot for a long time now, but she acts like she’s still in a place where sitting around and reading rather than doing any real honest work is perfectly acceptable. She makes money for doing nothing and doesn’t see anything wrong with that. I find it a bad mindset that laziness is rewarded.”

Applejack shifts in place. “Ah guess Ah’ve been kinda jealous of her sometimes ‘cuz of that. I work the orchards ‘till I’m plum tuckered and the Apple family still don’t get a ton o’ money fer it...”

“Maybe Twilight doesn’t see how easy she has it, but that’s just from living in Canterlot for most of her life. She didn’t really experience anything, just read about it and seeing the world through the lens of words on a page may as well be a blindfold. I can’t fault her for the way she was raised, but I can fault her for acting as though the potential thoughts of others isn’t important if you think you are helping them. Causing someone misery while thinking you are helping is a sign of actual insanity, girls. I know Twilight is eccentric, but she’s not totally crazy so she has no reason to act the way she does. She doesn’t notice her shortcomings or mistakes, which means she will never learn from it, so she’ll just do it again. If nothing tells her what she’s doing is not okay, she’ll keep doing it. She’s smart, I’ll give her that, very very smart, but not exactly wise. She lacks foresight and insight and that does not help her live a social life, which is her entire goal for coming here, to be social and make friends.”

“So... you think she’s going back to Canterlot?”

“I don’t know, but right now that’s not the best place for her while she sorts herself out. The way I see it, she hasn’t lived a real life yet. She needs to find a place where she can’t just act however she wants. She has to deal with problems as they come, because she hasn’t had any real problems so far. Mistakes and adversaries yes, but real life-changing problems... I doubt that. She needs to learn to see things from more than just her perspective, and that takes empathy, which she seems to lack. She doesn’t think about other peoples thoughts and she doesn’t think about the negative consequences or implications of what she says or does and until she starts thinking ahead and considering others’ feelings she’s not going to change her ideal that if she sees something having a positive outcome, it’s the best thing to do. I’m not saying I’m better than her, I’m not. I’m saying that she has real issues to deal with and continuing with what she’s been doing will just make it worse for everyone. ”

“But... you really hurt her, you know?” a Pinkie says, sadly.

“Yeah, I know, but only through trial and error do we find strength and wisdom. You need to make mistakes and learn from them, and Twilight isn’t learning from her mistakes. When she does and she starts learning about life through experience, not books... I will welcome her back and we can try to start over. I was extremely harsh, yes, but I had to be or she wouldn’t have paid attention. This is a fact I have proven already. I hate what she does and how she acts, and that’s how you begin to hate someone personally. She’s not incorrigible, she can get better, but it’s not something that will be quick or easy or painless, but if she truly wants to be accepted then she’ll push herself through it no matter what. It’s up to her to choose her path, I just showed her that the path she’s on now is an easy one but not a good one. There’s a easy way to do things, and a right way to do them.”

“Ain’t that the truth!” Applejack exclaims, agreeing. “Last time Ah tried th’ easy way out of a mess... well, it jus’ got messier.”

The other Element Bearers agree with that, having similar experiences. “So, we let Twilight sort this out herself. She needs to think about herself, and if she decides we’re worth the difficulty she’ll go through... we’ll see her again, hopefully more considerate.”

“I hope we do see her again. She’s not perfect but... she does have her moments.” Rarity says. “But you are right that there are certain lessons I don’t believe she got to learn.”

I nod. “I hope we see her again too, for better rather than worse.” Next Chapter: A Nice Cream Dream Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 46 Minutes