ACT FOUR
Twilight didn’t sleep very well that night. She had never felt so embarrassed, not to mention outraged from Stone threatening her the way he had.
She had filed a complaint to Princess Celestia for it. It was a serious crime to threaten royalty; enough though Twilight was really that sort of royalty.
Unfortunately, she got an instant answer. Stone was left off with merely a severe warning, because Twilight was provoking him into threatening her.
If he tried that again, he would be prosecuted, but for now he was totally left off, and Twilight was cautioned by Celestia to leaving Stone be as well.
The next morning, there was a knock at her hotel suite.
“Alright! I’m coming!” she groaned in a groggy voice.
There, much to her surprise, “Stone Heart?”
Starlight sat up in her bed, “What’s going on?” she groaned as she rubbed her eyes.
Stone sighed softly, and held out a letter he had written to Twilight, “By order of Princess Celestia, I was told to give you this; an official apology for my attitude the other day and for threatening you.”
Twilight blinked once, but she accepted the note.
“I was also told to give you this other note.” said Stone, and he held up another parchment, which indeed had Celestia’s seal on it, proving it was not forged.
Twilight read the note, which told her that Celestia had gone easy on Stone Heart-- ordering him to write the apology letter to Twilight-- because the incident was caused by her and the others constantly harassing him the other day, and that they were not to interfere with Stone’s life anymore.
Starlight leapt out of bed at the mention of such an order and looked at the note herself, and before the ladies could even try to talk to him, Stone had already gone.
“I can’t believe this is happening!” cried Twilight “How can some-pony hate friendship this much.”
“Um, I believe he covered that yesterday.” said Starlight.
Even though Twilight was ordered not to bother with Stone anymore, she still remained determined to prove to him that friendship was a good thing and could get really far if you knew where to find it and how to use it properly.
Later that morning, after she got the rest of the gang up and they had a quick breakfast, they strolled into town, but Spike was getting a little sick to his stomach from fluttering up so much.
“Remind me, again, what we’re doing?” he asked.
“We are trying to help Stone Heart realize the virtues and values of friendship.” Rarity reminded him.
Twilight could see Stone dropping off yet another unwanted check from his “Change of Heart” story to a charity donation.
As usual he seemed pretty aggravated, and would you believe, one of the ponies was a fan of his book.
“Can I have your autograph?” she asked.
“Ugh!” Stone grumbled, and just walked off with a pack of flyers on his back, which he was to hang up all over town.
The fan looked upset, but her partner was amazed at the money they got. The cheque was worth more than five times what they already had made.
Twilight saw them, and came over to apologize to the ponies, “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“Go through what?” the fan asked.
Twilight felt confused, “Stone Heart treating you like dirt when he could’ve learned from your friendship.”
“Friendship?” asked the fan “I just asked for his autograph. That doesn’t make us friends.”
“What?” asked Twilight.
The fan’s partner spoke, “Princess, we don’t even know him. We can’t just become instant friends just like that.”
Twilight was starting to feel shocked, and starlight approached the ponies, “So it doesn’t bother you that he gave you that money in anger and spite?”
She explained why Stone gave them his paycheck, and the ponies didn’t seem to care at all.
“This is a fundraiser. You know-- collecting donations, not judging others.”
“We don’t care how we got the money. We got it, and that’s all that matters.
What, we should just throw away a vast amount or not accept it because some pony has a temper?”
Twilight was speechless, but then again they were correct.
“Obviously these ponies are the wrong sorts to be dealing with.” suggested Rarity.
“Are we?” the fan giggled “Even we aren’t friends with each other. We just work this fundraiser together.”
Her partner nodded, “Being partners is not the same as being friends, but we don’t have to be friends to get a job done.”
“They’re right…” said the foreman of the foundry, as he made a donation himself, “Every single pony on my workforce aren’t friends with one another.”
“What?!” snapped Twilight “But, they work together. They help each other out.
I saw your employee save another employee’s life!”
“So what?” said the foreman, which shocked the entire gang.
“Look, here’s the thing,” said the foreman “They’re not my friends, they’re just my employees.
When they come to work, they come to make money, not friends.
The truth is, Slammer only saved Steelia from that burning liquid because she’s a good worker, and it would save me the trouble of finding a new employee.”
Rarity choked on her breath, “You mean… they mean absolutely nothing to you, or one-another.”
“You just let them get hurt or worse?!” added Starlight.
“Well, that’s a bit too harsh,” replied the foremen “But hey, some of us ponies just don’t believe in friendship. We don’t want it or need it; we’ve got a good beat on things. As long as we have our comfort and our health, we don’t need it.”
Twilight felt like she was going to be sick and she called out, “Doesn’t any-pony anywhere here believe in true friendship to guide them?”
“I do,” called a voice “I have five best friends.”
Twilight turned, and saw a rather wealthy looking pony, dressed in a suit, a monocle and seemed rich.
“Oh,” Rarity said, feeling herself falling into a loving daze, “Well, I certainly wouldn’t mind being… your friend.”
She fluttered her eyes, but the pony pointed to the other pony behind him, who was the actual owner of the voice, and Rarity gasped.
This other pony seemed to be a lowly garbage picker, like Stone was,
“I’m afraid I didn’t get too far in life.” He confessed “I guess friendship alone really can’t get you all that far, but I can sure appreciate the irony.”
And he went straight back to his work without a care in the world, and Rarity just fainted on the ground.
“Rarity!” cried Spike, and he began to fan her with his wings.
Twilight never felt so shocked in her life, and finally conceded to defeat. “I guess some-ponies are just different than others.”
“That’s exactly what I was trying to tell you the whole time.” said Stone.
He was only standing near them sticking some flyers to the lamppost.
“And that’s exactly what I’ve tried to tell every-pony every day: we don’t need to do as you say, and we don’t need help if we’re fine just the way we are.”
Twilight looked up at him, and said nothing. After what she had just seen and witnessed, though she didn’t approve of many ponies attitudes, she felt he was right.
“Oh, please,” grumbled Milles “That’s just more retardation, more hypocrisy, and more stupidity from a talentless hack that will never succeed in anything.”
Some ponies still laughed with him, at Stone, further proving Stone’s earlier points of others being mean and nasty to him.
Still, Stone said nothing and began to walk off, when suddenly his bag and his flyers were levitated off of his back.
“Hey!” he thundered at Milles, who was doing it just to provoke him some more, and he threw them all to the ground.
“What’s the matter?” he taunted “I thought you loved garbage, like the trash you are!”
Stone finally was beginning to lose his patience and looked rather infuriated.
“Oh, did I strike a nerve?”
“You’ve gone too far this time, Milles!” Stone growled at him.
“Don’t kid yourself.” sneered Milles “I’ll flatten you like a pancake, which is exactly what you deserve, you good-for-nothing waste of space!”
Something inside of Stone finally, snapped, and then…
WHACK!!
Milles was on the ground, and every-pony, Spike, and even Stone gasped at Twilight for swatting him across the face like that.
“That is quite enough!” she growled at Milles.
“Twilight!” cried Starlight.
Twilight was in disbelief herself at what she had just done, but she was too angry to care!
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”
Milles angrily got up, rubbing his sore face, “You’re going to pay for this!” he threatened her. “I’m going to write to Celestia, and she’ll strip you of your tittle, and make Stone go in the street where he should be!”
“I will do no such thing to either of them!” sneered a voice behind him.
Many ponies gasped and gawked, and Milles turned round sharply, “Who asked you!” only to realize whom he was balking at, and his features suddenly changed to nervous, “Princess Celestia…!”
“What are you doing here?” asked Starlight.
“I had come to donate to some charities in town myself, until I noticed the commotion over here.”
She looked grimly at Twilight for smacking another pony the way she had.
Twilight got down on the ground, “Forgive me! I didn’t mean it, I was just so outraged.”
“Well,” said Celestia “I can’t approve of what you did, and I do expect you to make up for it, but I do understand what provoked you into doing it. Perhaps I myself wouldn’t have acted any different.”
Then she glared grimly at Milles, “When Stone Heart wrote his apology to Twilight, he included a small story of why he acted the way he did, including refusing my book club invitation.
At first I thought he was overreacting; now I can see he was being sincere.”
Milles couldn’t believe this, “What are you defending him for? He’s a retard; a worthless, miserable waste that refuses to improve himself or contribute to society properly!”
Stone stepped forth feeling very livid, “I pick up your garbage to keep the streets clean!
I make steel and steel products so other ponies can build things and do other stuff to help the world.
I hang up flyers for other businesses so they can get some attention and maybe increase their work.
…Looks pretty proper to me!”
“I agree!” Sandy said as she came up “Stone may not be the nicest of ponies, and an attitude to boot, but now that I see it, I can’t blame him.
That still doesn’t mean he’s not productive, and he still donated to a whole bunch of charities, which help the poor, regardless of what he does.”
Many other ponies around who heard her began to see and agree, but Milles was still being as arrogant as ever. “He’s a jerk! A hypocrite and a loser who should’ve been thrown in the streets long ago!
His parents should be ashamed for birthing him!”
Finally, even Celestia had heard enough, and she approached the rude pony, “Just because you have personal and rather petty and pitiful issues with him do not give you the right to say such things!
It’s true, I cannot and do not approve much of Stone Heart’s attitude himself, but you have been far worse.
You may be a good writer, Milles, but you are horrid pony, with baffling issues for those who are not like you.
For this, I strongly suggest that you get help, and this is not a request!”
Milles cowardly nodded, “Y-Y-Yes your majesty!”
Celestia then turned to Stone, “As for you, like I said: I hardly approve of your behaviour either…”
Stone looked ashamed.
“However, given the circumstances, the reasoning, and the fact you have apologized to Princess Twilight, as ordered, and also the fact that you do not wish to truly harm anyone…
…I will let you off, this time.”
Stone showed actual respect and bowed to her thankfully.
Celestia even used her magic to gather up the flyers on the ground, shake them clean, and pass them back to Stone so he could go about his way.
Suddenly, Stone’s eyes lit up, and he got a great idea, and just ran off.
“Where’s he going in such a hurry?” wondered Spike.
“I don’t know.” said Twilight.