Twilight Sparkle was in her library, sitting on the most comfortable seat cushion she had sat on in her whole life. She was reading a book to the small fillies and colts who had gathered around her in the room. As she read the story to them, they would frequently ask questions by raising their hooves. Twilight would then stop reading to answer whatever questions they had in store.

The parents of the foals were sitting further back in the room, supervising their children while also listening to the story. As Twilight read the story to them, the adults in the room couldn't help but feel like the story sounded strangely familiar to some of the town's rumors going around recently. A rumor about a rude pony who seemingly disappeared without a trace. But the adults in the room chalked this up to false speculation and just decided to enjoy the story with their children. They didn't want to scare them with ghost stories that might not be proven true in the first place. The parents sat closely with their children and listened in as Twilight neared the end of her story.

"The princess of the sun soon brought the pony to the castle of friendship where she was forced to confess all of the mean, nasty, and hurtful things that she had said about the princess of the sun to the princess of friendship. After a long and stern talk about what to do next, the Princess of the sun gracefully left the duty of reforming the vocal pony in the hooves of the princess of friendship. Eventually, with the help of the princess of friendship, the pony learned that there was more to life than just herself, and that the words we speak can have unexpected consequences that we may learn to regret later. The pony then went on to live a happy fulfilling life full of friendship and fun. The end."

Twilight Sparkle said as she closed the book she was reading to the small fillies and colts in her library. The children in the room all clapped with their hooves and cheered at the end of story time. Twilight smiled at the applause she got from reading her story time book to the growing ponies of Ponyville. She then got up from her seat cushion and handed out a small piece of candy to each of the foals as they left the library with their parents.

"Thank you all for joining me for Twilight time. I look forward to seeing you all next week for another wonderful story."

Twilight said as she waved the small fillies and colts goodbye as they left. After the final parent left and was out of hearing range, Twilight let out a big, exhausted sigh and lit up her horn. The seat cushion that she had sat on during the duration of her story time was then immediately transformed back into the form of a pony. The pony in question was Vocal Point. She laid there awkwardly and clumsily, getting her bearings back after being transformed into a seat cushion and being sat on for over an hour while listening to the questions of small annoying children. Twilight Sparkle then turned around and spoke sternly as she slowly approached Vocal Point.

"You know, it's getting pretty tiring having to put up with your nonsense all the time. I thought you would've learned your friendship lesson by now, but you're as stubborn as a mule when it comes to actually getting anything through to you. You know you can't leave until Princess Celestia deems you as reformed right? I would love nothing more than to let you leave and go on with your life, but legally, you are under house arrest with me until that reformation condition is met. Do you want to stay here for the rest of your life? Because with the way you've been acting, that's the road you're heading down."

Twilight tilted her head downwards to look at the pony laying on the floor as she got her bearings. Vocal Point then snapped out of her dazed state and quickly met Twilight's gaze with a look of defiance as she got up off the floor. Vocal Point then raised her hoof and pointed at twilight as she began to speak.

"All these lessons you've been putting me through have only proved my point! Equestria's justice system is corrupt, and you haven't been helping me at all! All you've been doing is giving me needless punishments for no reason! Saying I've been whining, or complaining about things, or whatever other nonsense you wanna make up! This whole experience has been nothing but torture! Torture at my expense for your pleasure!"

Twilight rolled her eyes at the pony in front of her. She had come to expect this type of response from Vocal Point. Ever since Celestia dropped her off at the castle of friendship and asked Twilight to help reform her, she has proven time and time again to be nothing more than a pain in the flank. Every time Twilight would run a practice session with the pony to help out her social skills, she would just end up complaining the whole time. At this rate, she would never learn her lesson, no matter how hard Twilight tried. Twilight decided it was time for her to change her methods. Perhaps try a more drastic approach.

"Those punishments were meant to give you discipline. To teach you that the words we say have consequences. But no matter what I do or say, that point just can't seem to get through to you. You always act like a victim of circumstance, and I've had it up to here with it."

Twilight then turned around and began trotting slowly towards the exit of the library. Vocal Point considered this behavior from Twilight strange. For the two weeks she had been forced to stay at Twilight's castle, she was always kept under tight supervision by the Alicorn herself. Vocal Point began following Twilight as she approached the door to the library. Vocal Point then opened her mouth and began speaking in a very condescending tone of voice.

"Where are you going?!"

Twilight then stopped in place right by the door of the library. As she stopped, an idea suddenly appeared in her head. It was the type of idea that came across as a stroke of brilliance in a time of need. The idea in question was definitely going to be seen as a mean trick to play on a pony in retrospect; but if this idea didn't work, she couldn't see anything else that would. Twilight secretly smirked to herself for just a second before then immediately turning around slowly and replacing her smile with a tired exhausted stern expression.

"You've been here for over two weeks Vocal, and in that time you haven't changed. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep you around with your behavior. As such, I'm thinking about renegotiating our deal with Princess Celestia. Maybe she'll consider a short time in Tartarus a more suitable option for you."

Vocal Point's eyes went wide upon hearing that. The thought of her being in Tartarus, locked in a cage with the most evil, wicked, and vile creatures ever known in Equestria. If there was a road that she didn't want her life to go down, it was this one. Almost immediately, Vocal Point bent down on her hooves and began begging and pleading to Twilight like a small foal. Vocal's eyes were filled with tears as she sobbed uncontrollably.

"NO! Please don't send me there! I'll do anything! ANYTHING! Just please, anything but that!"

Twilight Sparkle looked at Vocal Point's expression sternly. Twilight's eyes were like daggers piercing into Vocal's soul as she stared into them. After a few moments of silently staring, Twilight then spoke one final word to confirm if Vocal Point means what she says. If she was truly willing to accept any form of reformation in order to avoid such a terrible fate. A fate that would obviously never actually happen to her.

"Anything?"

Vocal Point then nodded her head frantically in response to Twilight. Vocal Point was scared for her life and the possible horrors awaiting her should she not accept Twilight's proposal. Twilight thought it over for a few moments before letting out a sigh and raising her hoof towards Vocal Point as she began to speak once more.

"I'll give you one more chance Vocal. But after that, there's not gonna be any more chances. Don't make me regret giving you one more chance to redeem yourself. You act up one more time and I'll have no choice but to report this to Celestia; and I'm sure I don't need to explain to you what'll happen after that."

Vocal Point shivered at the thought of being brought before Celestia and being banished to Tartarus. Despite how scared Vocal Point was, Twilight could see the desperation in her eyes, which opened up the possibility of her finally taking the practice sessions seriously. Twilight was secretly happy to finally be making progress with Vocal Point; but there was still one last thing that she needed to do. She needed to test Vocal Point's loyalty.

Twilight lit up her horn, and within a flash, Vocal Point found herself wearing a maid's outfit. Upon looking down and seeing the frilly garments upon herself, Vocal Point blushed profusely in embarrassment. Twilight internally giggled at the pony maid before her. Before leaving the room, Twilight turned her head to the maid pony and said one last thing to Vocal Point.

"Go ahead and clean the library while I'm away. Consider this a test of your loyalty. If it's not spotless by the time I get back, I'm reporting your behavior to Princess Celestia. If you perform the task well, I may even be more lenient with you in the future during our lessons. Oh, and the dress stays on, Rarity worked hard on it so be sure to thank her the next time I invite her over for a practice session. Now then, I'll be back in 4 hours. Make sure this library is spotless."

After saying that, Twilight closed the door of the library behind her. She stayed behind for just a few moments to listen in and see what Vocal Point would do. Not even 20 seconds later, she could hear frantic scrubbing and dusting of the library's surfaces. Twilight smiled to herself as she finally left the library and began trotting down the halls of her castle.

Twilight was happy at the prospect of finally being able to make some progress with the reformation of this stubborn pony. The last thing she wanted to do was report to Princess Celestia on how to deal with the situation at hoof. If this was finally the push that she needed to start making some progress, then so be it. When this was all over, Twilight would have to thank Vocal Point for all the free time Spike has gotten to himself thanks to her being around to do all his chores for him as punishments for her non-compliance during the lessons. Something told Twilight that in the near future, Spike would be back on his regular cleaning duty schedule.

Author's Note

Causally munching on popcorn as the credits to the episode roll. I then look over at my computer and see you already finished with the fanfic. I then immediately rush over and start typing on my keyboard.

Oh, I see you are done reading the story. So how was it?

I decided to make this story as a bit of a side project to the other bigger stories I have going on in the background at the moment. I wanted to practice writing more dialogue heavy scenes in a story. The fanfics I have currently in the works feature a lot of scenes with dialogue; so I wanted to practice a bit and get a story out there to see if my current approach was working or not.

As always, leave your feedback in the comments below, and don't forget to give the story a thumbs up if you liked it and want to see more.

Have a great day, or night. I can't tell the time over there.