*CLANG*
The problem with a brain like Twilight Sparkle's is that it required constant stimulation.
*CLANG*
Previously, her mostly free days spent reading at the library had provided that.
*CLANG*
On other days, her mind had been kept busy solving serious problems, learning about friendship, or simply having fun.
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Is it any wonder that the monotony of clanking a pickax against the walls of a coal mine would eventually make her snap?
*CLANG*
"I am sick of this horseapples!" roared a voice inside her head. Twilight had taken to calling this side of her Twilight Prime. "Every day, every single Monday through Friday, we have to come here and strike the pickax and then move a little and strike some more like some kind of, some kind of common slave!"
*CLANG*
"Come on now, it's not so bad," she imagined a second personality reply. This one, closer to how Twilight had behaved for most of her life, was called Twilight Naught. "Sure, we're covered in coal and grime and we have to spend 8 hours a day down here, but we get another 8 hours of time to ourselves. Hours we have EARNED, Twilight. And our weekends are free!"
*CLANG*
"Our weekends are... are you even LISTENING to yourself?!" roared Twilight Prime. "We have ALWAYS had free weekends. AND free week days, too. We used to deal with the occasional library patron; an hour a day at most! We had the rest of our time left over to study, to talk with our friends, or, hay, to relax and take some time to enjoy the beauty of being alive!" she spat. "There is nothing beautiful about coming home with a sore body and a blank mind after hours of this torture, or having to carefully ration out our remaining time for recovery and chores and squeezing a precious few hours of reading on Sunday when there is nothing important to do!"
*CLANG*
"You talk like we've never done a day's hard work in our life!" said Twilight Naught "Do you remember Winter Wrap-Up? Or that time we helped Applejack collect her harvest? Hay, why don't you go complain to HER about having to do some honest living, she has been getting up with the sun and running her farm for most of her life. In fact, most ponies live like this, you spoiled, entitled little brat!"
*CLANG*
"Oh, is that supposed to make me feel better?! 'Gee, Twilight, sure, your life has become a living hell ever since Princess Bitchlestia decided to cut back your stipend and force you to work to make rent into order to help you 'build character', as she put it, but what do you know, virtually everybody else in the planet has it at least as bad as you, so hey, chin up!' Twilight Prime was seething; her non-existent purple mane threatened to burst into a burst of imaginary fire at any moment."
*CLANG*
"Don't badmouth the princess!" Twilight Naught looked like she was about pounce on her mental counterpart. "She's right, you know! All your life, you've coasted on your talent. You were singled out as a child prodigy, and since then you've scarcely done anything but what you wanted to do! You got to read and study, and hang out with a princess, and when the girls sweetened you on the magic of friendship, oh look, your next assignment was to stay in town and spend all your time with ponies whose companies you enjoy. Guess what?! Life is not a bouquet of roses! That's what the princess is trying to teach you!"
*CLANG*
"...it should be," hissed Twilight Prime as she looked down.
*CLANG*
"...what?" asked Twilight Naught.
*CLANG*
"It should be," said Twilight Prime, with more determination, as she lifted her head. "It SHOULD be! Why should anypony be forced to devote most of their time to these stupid endeavors? Why ME, most of all? ME! I am special! I am the princess's student! I led the team that saved Equestria twice! You would think that would be enough to earn my place in this world, but nooooo, apparently I also have to 'work for a living'!"
*CLANG*
"You've lost it." Twilight Naught was horrified. "Do you really hate this job so much that you will latch on to delusions of grandeur in order to rationalize passing the burden over you onto the back of another pony? You know that's what will happen if you find some clever way to avoid this, right? The mining company will just hire some other pony to do this work instead."
*CLANG*
"But in that case..." whispered Twilight Sparkle, as the mental halves of her wandering thoughts stared each other down in mutual hate and mistrust.
*CLANG*
"...what should I do?"
*CLANG*