The morning light shone through the large castle window, illuminating the small office space in a golden glow. Sitting quietly at her desk, Twilight Sparkle sighed deeply, taking a sip of her coffee while inspecting the mountain of paperwork that had been brought in by Spike and Starlight. She eyeballed the pile with bloodshot and tired eyes, frowning as nearly all of it was from a single incident from the previous night. In truth she had been reading all of it for the past few hours and a picture of the incident had formed in her mind. The incident was small and over in less than a minute, but given the fact that hundreds of ponies were watching at the time, she had to read through all the witness testimonies thoroughly.
The incident? Trixie and a stallion got into a verbal altercation that ultimately ended up with said stallion getting shipped off to Ponyville hospital with two fractured ribs just below his chest, courtesy of Trixie herself. At first Twilight was shocked and confused as to why Trixie would recklessly attack somepony, but after reading her side of the story over and over, Twilight couldn't help but give more sympathy to Trixie, thanks to more discreet details about her...
The office door opened up, breaking Twilight’s attention away.
Turning her tired gaze to the door, Twilight weakly smiled as an equally tired Starlight Glimmer walked in. At her side a fresh pot of black coffee floated in tow, and draped across her back was a saddle bag with what Twilight assumed was more stuff for her to read. Her face showed the same level of fatigue Twilight showed, thanks to her and Spike running all over the place so they could help Twilight throughout the early morning.
“Got more for you,” Starlight grumbled.
“More testimonies?” twilight grumbled back, before flaring up her horn and taking the coffee from Starlight.
“No,” Starlight replied with a very annoyed tone, as she focused her magic on the saddle. “Just the hospital report."
“What’s the damage?” Twilight asked hesitantly.
“Initial damage was two broken ribs, but now after a few x-rays, the doctors found that the guy has a sternum fracture,” Starlight responded, causing Twilight to wince and feel an uncomfortable tightness in her own chest.
“He’s going to have trouble breathing for quite some time,” Starlight added, anger raising in her voice as she spoke. “I know what he did was very wrong and deserved to be punished for what he said to her, but I just can’t believe Trixie would act so brash and violent without coming to me… us… first. I thought she was better than this, Twilight. I thought we are good enough friends that we could rely on each other without making stupid decisions.”
Starlight stopped speaking and Twilight quietly looked on as an angry scrawl appeared on Starlight’s face. Thankfully it was momentary and giving her head a shake, Starlight took a deep breath and handed Twilight the medical sheets.
“Sorry, about that,” Starlight spoke quietly, almost like she was embarrassed. “I just… I really need to talk to Trixie.”
Before Twilight could give a response, Starlight flared her horn once again, and in a brilliant flash, she teleported herself out of the room.
Another sigh left Twilight’s mouth, and another mouthful of piping hot coffee got swallowed down in response. It was a momentarily blissful respite from the throbbing headache that was plaguing her mind, but as quickly as it came, the headache came back just as hard.
Flipping through the papers, she went back and forth comparing everything she had to read. It was a tricky situation for Twilight to address. She knew the stallion was in the wrong for interrupting Trixie’s show and making threats like he did - he would have been detained for it otherwise - but the fact that Trixie nearly bucked a hole through his chest and injured him, is what really upset Twilight and made the matter infinitely worse than it had to be.
Don't respond to words with violence
Words echoed in her mind from her early days studying under Princess Celestia; a lesson that was taught to her at a kindergarten level and reinforced throughout her teachings. Words that had been etched into her mind and helped her grow into a responsible mare and community figure within Ponyville. Violence wasn’t the way to deal with petty issues like this. Violence was a last resort when all else failed. Even if words failed, there were alternative approaches. Re-education, re-evaluation, therapy… heck, Trixie could have been the bigger mare and told Twilight herself so she could have handled it like a proper adult.
Instead, now Twilight had to deal with an upset and confused town. Now she had to deal with an injured stallion that may end up with post traumatic stress disorder that he would need to be compensated with, a potential lawsuit where Trixie got sued, and even have to serve time in prison, or at the minimal, a few hundred hours of community service.
“Starlight is right… I thought you were better than this, Trixie,” Twilight mumbled to herself, finishing up with her reading, before pushing the last bit of papers to the side. “You have friends that could have helped you address this problem properly.”
Twilight stopped speaking and placed her chin on the table, groaning with discontent as her eyes looked up to the window. She wasn’t looking forward to this day at all. She would have to enact both parties punishments and knew very well how Trixie would react. That ego of hers would try to convince Twilight that the stallion was in the wrong and Trixie was only acting in self-defense. But words can only be accepted at face value when all facts are present and laid out. Facts don’t care about feelings, and with that thought, Twilight groaned louder and sank her face into the wooden desk.
“We need to be better than this.”
