//------------------------------//
// Anger 
// Story: Beyond Me 
// by Boopy Doopy 
//------------------------------//

Celestia had never felt more embarrassed in her whole life.
She couldn’t believe that she had just been told off about the way she rules, by a filly, no less, and in front of her student. It was embarrassing, and it took all her self control not to show anger in front of Twilight. Had the two been more alone, she would have certainly quipped back at Asher, but in this situation couldn’t. She was forced to let her get away with it for now.
She didn’t waste any time going back outside to find her sister so she could bring her to the mayor of Ponyville for a public apology, but before she got outside, she was confronted by Asher's guardian, Lofty, near the doors to the building.
“Um, e-excuse me, Princess Celestia?” she stuttered before remembering to give a quick bow.
“No need to bow to me, my little pony,” the princess said politely. “What ever may it be that I can help you with?”
“Um, I- I was just wondering, Princess… why- why were you going to see Asher?” Lofty asked. “I mean, I know he’s not from Equestria, but he said something about how what happened last night, with Nightmare Moon, I mean… he said that was your fault, and I was wondering if that was true… if- if that’s okay to ask.”
“Don’t make a face,” the alicorn told herself as she closed her eyes and took a breath. “Don’t make a face. You can express your anger later, but not right now, not to your subjects.”
As she opened her eyes again, she replied, “That is a very good question, and I’m glad you asked it. I always love to see that my little ponies want to know the why of things. However, I don’t have time at this moment to delve into that. If you’d like though, I could send you correspondence with all those details on there for you to read at a later date?” As she said it, she made a note to make official correspondence just in case word of last night’s events spread beyond Ponyville. A small chance, but a non-zero chance. She would make sure to get that taken care of.
“Yes, that- that would be nice, please. Thanks.”
“Was there anything else I could help you with, Miss Lofty?” Celestia asked as she tilted her head, sounding more like a secretary than the Princess of Equestria.
“No, no that was all. Umm, thank you… I really didn’t think you’d be this approachable. I thought you’d either just ignore me or just brush me off. Th-thank you, really.”
“No trouble at all, my little pony. If you do ever have any concerns, don’t be afraid to make the trip to Canterlot to speak to me directly. My court is always open to any pony who feels the need to discuss something with me. As well, you can send a letter to me detailing your concerns if you wish. I do make sure to read each and every letter every one of my subjects sends to me.”
“O-okay. Th-thank you princess.” With that, the mare bowed again as Celestia gave her a kind smile and went on her way, fuming internally about how the whole holiday had turned out.



The air was thick between Twilight Sparkle and I when Celestia left. She did the introductions for us, explaining who we were to each other and that I would be staying with Twilight until further notice. But after that, she quickly headed out, seeming like she was in a bit of a hurry to get away. I didn’t say one word the entire time she introduced us, and the librarian hardly spoke either. I could tell she was interested in me and had about a hundred questions she wanted to ask, but it seemed like she wanted to save face in front of me and play it cool.
“So…” she finally started once it was just the two of us left, completely alone. “Are you gonna explain why you thought you could talk to the princess like that?”
“Nope,” I answered, not feeling much like talking after all of that, and especially not to her.
“You know, she could charge you with contempt, and you’re very lucky she didn’t,” she continued, clearly not getting the hint that I didn’t want to talk to her. I started to walk away and she followed behind me, going on, much to my deep frustration.
“I mean, she’s the highest authority in Equestria! If you don’t respect her of all ponies, who do you respect? I know she said you’re not from Equestria, but clearly you know by now just how important she is! Do ponies where you come from just not care about respecting their superiors? How can a society like that even run?”
I marched right past Lofty and company, too upset too even acknowledge them. I could tell she wanted to say something, but opted not to, letting me walk out of the hospital with Twilight right behind me.
“I thought you said you were an adult, too!” she criticized. “What adult speaks to somepony like that? You know, for somepony who says they’re not a little filly, you certainly are acting like one.”
That made me stop abruptly so I could take a breath to keep myself calm. Twilight bumped right into my tail as I did so, but I didn’t notice much as I tried to keep myself from turning around and telling her off. I clenched my jaw to keep myself from screaming, taking a few deep breaths for a minute before starting off again, doing my best to ignore her. She started off behind me again to follow, but this time stayed silent, giving me time to cool off just a little bit as I headed back to Lofty and Holiday’s house.
“What are we doing here?” the mare asked. “Celestia said you were living with me, remember?”
“She said we were living together, yes,” I responded, making a point to phrase it that way so she knew she wasn’t in charge of me like she likely thought, “but I do have stuff I need to get.”
“Oh, well, don’t take too long, little filly. I know we just met, but want to get home and go to sleep after last night.”
“Then go home and go to sleep,” I responded, much more aggressively than I had intended, not turning around to look at her as I entered. “I’m not your son.”
With that, I stomped into the house, using all my willpower to not slam the door behind me. I was shaking with how angry I felt, both about how that mare had treated me and about the conversation we had with Celestia. I could officially say I didn’t like either of them or how they acted, and hated that I largely couldn’t do anything about it. I hated knowing that my life in this world was basically going to be dictated by those two, and that one of them was almost certainly working against the ponies they claimed to protect.
And these emotions. I hated how much I cried so far, how I was threatening to cry now. I hated my lack of emotional maturity, or at least emotional control, that I had. Even worse, I had no outlet to push my frustration to. Nothing to read or write or a job to work every day or real people to vent to who weren’t kids or adults had that patronizing tone with me. It was grinding me down, that much I knew.
“I hate this place,” I found myself thinking as one or two tears dripped down, even more frustrated that I didn’t have any hands to clench. “I. Hate. This. Place. God, why is this happening to me?”
“Asher?” I suddenly heard Holiday say as she caught sight of me and made her way over. “What are you doing back so soon? Did you see Princess Celestia? What’s wrong?”
“She’s what’s wrong!” I screamed, unable to stop myself. “That princess and her student acting like there’s nothing wrong when there is! You can’t treat people like that and expect everything to be okay!”
I briefly wondered to myself that if me and that librarian’s positions were reversed, would I have treated her the way she did me? It only took me a second though to decide that I wouldn’t have. She, Twilight, was being spiteful for spitefulness’s sake.
“How were they treating you?” Holiday asked with concern. “Asher?”
“Celestia’s acting like there’s nothing wrong with letting her sister try to hurt me when she dropped me from the ceiling and Twilight’s intentionally calling me ‘ma’am’ and ‘little filly’ and stuff because she knows that it’s going to get to me. I hate it!”
“Wait, is she doing that on purpose? Have you told her you don’t like that?”
“She’s absolutely doing it on purpose!” I yelled. “She needs to stop! And I know it’s not very adult-like to yell about it, but it’s pissing me off, and she’s not gonna do what I want or listen to me because of how I look!”
“You don’t worry about that, Asher,” she assured me, placing a hoof on my head and patting me. “I know it’s not exactly what you want, but you go get your stuff while I take care of this. Okay? Just give me five minutes.”
I was a bit upset that she would have to deal with this for me because of how ponies looked at me, but figured that it wouldn’t matter much so long as it was indeed dealt with. With that in mind, I went to get my stuff, which wasn’t much. Only a few books and a notepad, along with my hoodie, which I very much considered leaving here because of how feminine it looked. Despite that though, I placed my things on my back and headed back down to the living room, waiting for Holiday to come back inside and tell me it was okay to go out again. I assumed she was explaining to Twilight about me even though the princess had already told her to be respectful to me, and didn’t want to interrupt her.
It was a while that she was out there, less like five minutes and more like twenty. I couldn’t hear what the two were saying, but just a glance out the window showed me that the two were going at it. It didn’t look like they were yelling, but they were clearly arguing, that much was certain. I only watched for a little while before going to sit down and look through the translation book until she was done.
When she was, she came back inside quieter than I expected, almost sneaking up on me. I watched her close the door gently and face me, wearing a largely calm expression on her face, able to wipe the anger she had from her whole face except for her eyes, which looked like they wanted to burn holes in everything around her. It was a strange sight to see from a pony like her and what I knew about her in my time living there, and while I did feel a bit bad for getting her involved, I was more glad to see that she was angry. It meant she was on my side, which I appreciated. 
“I know you spent time getting them, but you can put your things away, dear,” she told me in an even, flat voice. “You’re not going with her.”
I didn’t question her at all, happily following her request to put my stuff back up.