My Little Pony: Friendship is Bothersome

“Not again!” Princess Celestia shouted at the top of her lungs as she caught the spectacle before her. The Captain of her guard had rolled into the throne room along with her student, locked in a struggle.

Gleaming Shield sat on top of her little brother, one leg wrapped around his neck, the other around one of his arms. She had both arms pulling his right leg backwards, trying to make it touch the back of his head.

“Sorry, Princess… Didn’t mean to interrupt you.” Gleaming said.

“Oh yes, we wouldn’t want to interrupt her daily staring down at Canterlot below…ow… it might mean something interesting in her life happens.” the captured stallion replied, wincing at the jerk his older sister gave him.

“Shut up, Dusk. You’re being rude.” Gleaming said.

“Yeah what else is new?” The lavender stallion managed to click his fingers, and in an instant, he was teleported out from under his sister and knelt beside her.

Celestia looked at the two unicorns with a calm but disappointed demeanour. She spotted a look on Dusk Shine’s face that signified he wanted to speak to her privately.

“Thank you Captain, you may go now. Dusk, a moment, please?” Gleaming Shield mimicked her brother’s posture and bowed to Celestia before leaving her brother in the Alicorn’s presence. The doors closed and Dusk rose to his feet, taking his place at Celestia’s side. The two of them looked out at the city together.

“I thought you had class today with Mr. Caster.” the princess began, leaning against the stone window sill. Dusk huffed and joined her.

“Lessons prove useless when you’re correcting your supposed instructor. I swear that guy’s gone senile. He thinks teleportation’s an advanced form of magic.” Celestia smiled and a chuckle followed.

“It is an advanced form of magic, Dusk. You’ve just got an affinity for it. And levitation–.”

“And creation, and healing, and destruction, I’m the whole package wrapped up into one purple anti-social foal prodigy.” Dusk interrupted. “My special talent is magic; of course I’d find it easy. I don’t need teachers, Princess, I just need the books. Once I wrap my mind around the theory, I can more or less perform the spell.” Celestia remained silent for a moment.

“So if you don’t need teachers, I guess that includes me?” she asked. Dusk was as silent as the stone in the walls and pillars. Once again, his mouth had led him too far astray.

“I never needed to be taught magic; I needed to be taught how to control it. You were there the day you accepted me as your student, you saw that I was out of control. I trusted you, I still do. But I thought that being called your student meant exclusively yours, not in name only and being taught by others.” Celestia saw that he was still disappointed by that.

“But you never needed me to teach you to control your magic, you learned how all on your own. What you needed was for me to teach you how to interact with the rest of the world. A lesson you’ve yet to learn to its entirety.” she replied.

“What do you mean? I talk to others.”

“You condescend other students, you use sarcasm around Nobility and you act higher and mightier than my nephew Blueblood… whom you stole fifty bits from.” Celestia said, with little to no conviction towards the last part.

“I didn’t steal those bits, he lost them to me in an ill-considered bet.” Celestia sighed and shook her head.

“I should have known better. What was the bet this time?” she asked. Dusk huffed in amusement.

“To not talk about himself for ten minutes; he didn’t last three.” Celestia tried to stifle a similar chuckle as she made a judgement call.

“Alright then, Dusk. I’ll overlook my nephew’s claims against you once again. Fortunately, I have an assignment for you that you must attend. Fail to do so, and I’ll have no choice but to denounce you as my student.” she teased. Dusk said nothing for a good long moment. Celestia thought he was actually considering whether the class was worth remaining on as her student for. This upset her more than she cared to admit.

“What’s this assignment? It better not take too long, I have something I’m looking into here.” he said after a good long minute.

Celestia waited for him to explain this research to her, but he said nothing on the matter. “I want you to go to Ponyville and oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Festival that I’ll be attending.” she told him. Dusk seemed to exhale through his nose with great annoyance poorly hidden within.

“Hardly worth my time, if you ask me. I’m supposed to be your Student, not your errand boy.” he complained. Celestia just smiled at him with an evil glare to her eyes.

“That’s not the assignment. That’s the punishment for fighting with your sister in front of me again.” Dusk let out a low groan almost inaudible even to Celestia’s sensitive ears. “The assignment itself is for you to make some friends while you’re there.” she added. Celestia looked out at the city below, smiling uncontrollably at the sound of Dusk’s neck cracking as he turned his head slowly and systematically like a machine.

“You can’t be serious.” he stated.

“I’m dead serious, Dusk.” she deadpanned, turning to give him a look she knew he hated. He closed his eyes in submission and nodded half-heartedly.

“Very well… when do I leave?” he asked, breaking eye contact with her. Celestia looked back out to the city once again, her sun’s rays picking up glare from the windowed ceilings as it rose into Midday.

“Immediately.”

Dusk Shine Slumped along the seat of the carriage as he and his assistant were taken to Ponyville. For some reason, Celestia hadn’t allowed him enough time to gather anything as his basic necessities had been packed and carried onto the carriage during their conversation.

“Placed me in bloody Checkmate without me realising I was playing the game.” Dusk grumbled as he tried to catch some Z’s to calm down before arrival. He knew it wouldn’t do well for him to arrive in an even worse mood than he already was in.

“Cheer up, Dusk. Just look at it as a way to do what you want while you’re out here and not get scolded… at least until the Festival ends.” said a young dragon baby with a feminine voice.

“That’s hardly a helpful thought, Barb. What I want is to do more research into that Nightmare Moon thing. I’m positive that there’s a correlation between that story, the mare shaped crater in the moon and that missing passage in the Princess’ history. I swear she’s been keeping something from me from day one. That annoys me more than anything.” he replied, sitting up. He knew that with Barb talking to him, sleep would never come. Instead, he tried to clear his mind of negative thoughts and go into a mild meditative state. It worked for all of five seconds before some turbulence made him hit his head on the roof.

“OW!” he cried, growling afterward. He threw his head out the window and addressed the guards.

“Hey! Fly slowly. I’ve got a big enough headache without you two shaking me like a maraca in here!” the guards growled at him, adjusting their flight ever so much to throw him back into the carriage.

“No backseat flying, Dusk.” Barb said casually, examining her claws for imperfections. Dusk gripped his face and clawed his way down, trying to tear the stress out.

“I’m going to chew my sister’s ear out when we get back. She needs tolerable guards working for her. NOT SHODDY DRIVERS!” he called out to them.

“It was one bump, Dusk, and it just so happened to happen at a bad time. You shouldn’t condemn them as failures for making one little mistake.” Barb tried to calm him down, but Dusk wasn’t going to have any of it.

“Just one little mistake can mean the difference between life and death.” he mumbled, crossing his arms.

Stepping off the carriage, Dusk found himself crawling along the ground. Barb followed behind, staggering around before falling alongside him.

“You had to piss the guards off…” she complained, groaning. Dusk fell onto his side and shook slightly.

“I’m gunna… kill Gleaming when we get home.” he stifled a hurl as he thought about level ground and normal, non-rotating landscapes.

“The guards left with our things too.” Barb added.

“…And her little dogs too!” Dusk added to his previous comment. “Please tell me we at least have the checklist for the preparations?”

“Oh hand, literally.” Barb replied, tossing the scroll to him. Dusk felt the scroll hit his face and he sighed.

“I want you to burn this moment into your brain, Barb. So you will never again ask me such a stupid question as to why I hate other ponies.”