Fluttershy didn’t know how she was going to pass her English class, starting down at the assignment she was given―red lines all across it like Ms. Cheerilee had taken it out back and stabbed it repeatedly. She couldn’t ask her friends for help, either, because she didn’t want them to know how stupid she was. Sure, she was a whiz at math and science, especially biology―her favorite subject. But grammar was as much of a mystery to her as how Sunset’s touch telepathy or Twilight’s telekinesis worked. She’d even asked for assitance on this assignment―and she still had failed. She grunted. [i]I’ll never trust that puma again. Even if they [/i]are [i]adorable.[/i] Fluttershy looked at the current assignment―write five hundred words about somebody important in your life. She reasoned this should be easy enough, but looking back at her previous bloodied assignment drained her of all resolve. “It sounds like someone needs assistance.” She sighed. “Yeah, but I don’t think anyone could help me.” [i]Wait, who said that?[/i] Fluttershy looked up and around at the room, spotting her rabbit, Angel, Midnight Sparkle in the mirror, her stuffed animals, her laptop― … Midnight Sparkle in the mirror. Fluttershy’s eyes popped open as she shakily pointed at her mirror. “Y-you’re not supposed to be here.” Midnight chuckled. “I’m never where I’m supposed to be.” She clasped her hands together. “Now, what do you need help with?” Doom covered Fluttershy like a steel blanket. “I don’t know if I should trust you.” “Now, why wouldn’t you trust lil’ old me?” Midnight said as she flexed a wing. “P-probably because you tried to destroy everything I care about.” Midnight waved a hand. “[i]Details[/i].” She opened her arms magnanimously. “I’m in the middle of rebranding, and I figured a shy young woman like you could use my assistance.” Fluttershy bit her lip. “T-this isn’t some kind of trick, is it? Like, if you help me I have to like, kill one of my friends, right?” “Ah.” Midnight wagged a finger. “I see you’ve read up on your demon tropes.” She then sighed, the mirror giving it a tinny timbre. “It’s just, I’m not so much a demon as a wayward spirit,” she said while gesticulating, “and I’m actually more of an [i]aspect[/i] of Twilight―[i]this [/i]world’s Twilight, not the other Twilight. That one’s incorruptible, you see. So, it’s like, I’m [i]Twilight [/i]but [i]not Twilight [/i]but also [i]not Twilight[/i], so, uh, by the transitive property―” Midnight smiled “―we’re already friends!” Fluttershy blinked. “I don’t… I don’t think that’s how the transitive property works.” She hummed, too.  “Also, I think you lost your train of thought somewhere in there.” “See?” Midnight clasped her hands together. “You’re already learning!” Fluttershy tapped the desk with her pen. “Right, but, that’s logic. I don’t need help with logic, I need help with English.” “Ah, but you see,” Midnight said as she tapped her horn, “English [i]is [/i]a form of logic!” “I just don’t see it, unfortunately.” Fluttershy looked away. “Especially after my last assignment.” Midnight rotated her jaw. “Well, uh, everyone has to start somewhere. Let me just look at”―Midnight’s eyes looked over the sanguineous essay―”holy shit who let you hand that in that’s awful.” “I’m just worthless, I know.” Fluttershy buried her face into her hands. “I’ll never graduate High School at this rate.” “I’m surprised you got [i]this[/i] far in High School, honestly,” Midnight said before she looked up and noticed tears dripping off of Fluttershy’s chin. “Wait, wait, wait a second that came out wrong.” She cupped her hands around her mouth and took a breath. “What I [i]meant [/i]to say is―” “Exactly what you said.” Fluttershy pulled her hands away to reveal red-stained eyes. “I’m going to be in school forever.” Midnight tapped her chin. “Okay, let’s refocus. What’s the current assignment about?” “It’s about,” Fluttershy said as she looked over it again, “we have to write five hundred words about someone important in our life.” “That’s great!” Midnight said as her eyes glittered. “You could write about me.” “I’m not sure that―” “Come on, who’s more important in your life than the demon―” “You said you were a wayward spirit―” Midnight groaned. “Whatever, fine, [i]wayward spirit[/i] who tried to destroy reality?” “I’d say someone who reinforces the concept of a life well-lived would be more important in the long run.” Fluttershy pursed her lips. “Not everyone identifies with trauma.” “I’ll tell you who does, though.” Midnight chortled. “Twilight Sparkle!” She looked off to the side. “Why, I tried this same routine with her and she literally pissed herself!” Fluttershy leaned in. “Now when you say literally, do you mean [i]literally[/i] or…” Midnight leaned in herself and winked, which caused Fluttershy to recoil. “Okay, I didn’t need to hear that.” She clenched her jaw. “And I certainly don’t appreciate that you found pleasure in terrifying her.” “I mean, I don’t find [i]pleasure [/i]in it,” Midnight said as she presented a hand, “but you have to admit it’s a little funny, right?” Fluttershy’s stone-faced gaze admitted to Midnight that there was no humor in accidentally ripping open a trauma scar, which filled the air with an expectant pause. Midnight whistled awkwardly. Fluttershy licked her teeth. “Hm.” Midnight looked down. “Well, uh, who were you thinking of writing about?” “I haven’t decided yet,” Fluttershy said as she leaned her head into her hand. “I was thinking Sunset.” “Whatever works, I guess,” Midnight growled. “So, I’m going to walk you through this: Say your first sentence out loud.” “Well, uh, uhm…” “Come on, I don’t have all night.” Midnight giggled. “Well, [i]I [/i]do, but [i]you [/i]don’t.” Fluttershy waved her hand. “Look, I don’t work well under pressure. Uh…” she trailed off before taking a deep breath. “‘I find it a pleasant surprise that I now look up to Sunset, considering that for the longest time I wanted to slit her throat.’” Midnight clapped her hands and pointed at Fluttershy. “Look, I’m right there with you, but I’m pretty sure you can’t write that without getting a trip to the guidance counselor.” Fluttershy’s grimace was framed by a blush. “Well, it’s the truth. I don’t like talking about it now, or even bringing it up because we’ve become such good friends, but she was so [i]cruel [/i]to me at first that I felt awful that I [i]couldn’t [/i]bring myself to kill her.” “That’s a beautiful sentiment, and I’m sure we can bond about that later,” Midnight said as she ran her fingers through her hair, “but try to rephrase that less… [i]murderously[/i].” Midnight shuddered. “I can’t believe I just told you that.” “Well, um.” Fluttershy tapped her lip with the pen. “How does ‘considering that for the longest time we didn’t exactly get along’ sound?” Midnight looked up and rubbed her hands together. “Not bad, but maybe something like ‘especially since we didn’t start out on good terms’ would work better?” “That could work.” Fluttershy wrote down the sentence and showed it to Midnight. Midnight blinked. “How are you even able to dress yourself?” Fluttershy pressed her lips together and snapped her eyes shut. “Wait, that came out wrong.” Midnight tapped on the mirror. “What I [i]meant [/i]to say is, read the sentence out loud, and put a comma where the pause comes naturally. Also, capital letter at the start of the sentence. Always.” Fluttershy glared at Midnight, rewrote the sentence, then showed it to Midnight again. Midnight grinned. “Much better.” “Hmm…” Fluttershy looked at the sentence she wrote correctly. “It doesn’t seem that hard when you explain it like that.” She continued writing wonderful things about Sunset. “Earlier you said you were trying to reinvent your image.” “Rebranding, yes.” Midnight nodded. “I’m just curious as to why that is. You didn’t seem too insistent on changing before.” Midnight licked her lips and flexed her wings. “Well, I ran the logistics through my head, and I came to the conclusion that you can only destroy everything once, and then after that, there’s nothing left to do.” Fluttershy nodded. “That’s generally what would happen, yes.” “And I was just so wrapped up in asserting my dominance over reality that it, uh”―Midnight fingered her horn―”it slipped my mind at first that you can’t be [i]dominant [/i]if there’s nothing left to [i]dominate[/i].” “So.” The sounds of pen on paper filled the air. “You’re expressing your dominant impulse through… tutoring high schoolers.” Midnight shrugged. “Yeah, it’s a bit of an orthogonal step, but when you’ve got Twilight’s brain,” she said as she tapped her head, “it pays to think outside the box.” “I’ll bet,” Fluttershy said before she showed the rest of what she had written to Midnight. “How does this look?” Midnight cringed, opened her mouth, then thought better and closed it. “We’re, ah, gonna be here a while.” Fluttershy grunted. “At least you’re more helpful than that puma I asked for help.” “Why did you.” Midnight cocked her eyebrow. “Why did you ask a puma for help with an English paper?” “Because the parakeet was busy,” Fluttershy said with a pout. [hr] Fluttershy entered the school bathroom and made sure the door was closed, then walked towards the mirror. “Midnight?” The visage of the destroyer-cum-tutor appeared, rubbing her eyes. “Yeah, w-what’s going on?” she asked as she looked around. “You, uh, don’t need help on how to pee, do you?” Fluttershy shook her head and presented her assignment to Midnight, a smile on her face. “I got a perfect score!” “Hm.” Midnight briefly touched her nose, then grinned. “Congratulations. I knew you could do it!” “I couldn’t have done it without you,” Fluttershy said as she reached out and touched the mirror. “Thanks to your help, I should be able to get through this semester.” “… Why are you talking to yourself?” Fluttershy and Midnight both turned their heads to face Rainbow Dash, who had a look on her face that suggested that she just saw one of her friends talk to herself in the mirror of a public bathroom. Fluttershy glanced at Midnight. “Okay, um,” Midnight said while pinching the bridge of her nose, “tell her that, uh, Self-love is―” “Self-love is…” Fluttershy repeated. “Self-love is an important part of the process of actualization.” “Self-love is an important part of the process of actualization.” Fluttershy beamed. Rainbow Dash traded glances between Fluttershy and the mirror. “Doesn’t that have to do with gears or something?” Midnight buried her face in her hand. “Tell her she’s a fucking retard.” Fluttershy glared at the mirror, then looked back at Dash. “The word you’re thinking of is actuate. [i]Actualize[/i] has a completely different meaning, relating to―” “Um, Flutters,” Rainbow said, “I’m just going to let you be a weirdo and use another bathroom.” With that, she left in a rainbow trail. Fluttershy glared at Midnight again. “You do [i]not [/i]use that word when referring to my friends.” She grunted. “Or anyone, for that matter.” “Just calling a spade a spade,” Midnight said with a shrug. Fluttershy covered her eyes with a hand. “What you did was more along the lines of calling a hole a [i]toilet[/i], and I will [i]not [/i]stand for it.”  A grin crept onto her face. “I think I’ve figured out how to repay you.” Midnight groaned. “What could I [i]possibly [/i]stand to learn from you?” Fluttershy turned towards the mirror and pressed her hands together. “I figured that seeing that you come off as initially rather abrasive, I could teach you how to apply proper social decorum.” “I see no use for that.” ‘You’re trying to help people, right?” Fluttershy asked. Midnight nodded. “Yeah?” “Right.” Fluttershy nodded. “And a few nice words can help more than you think.” Midnight bit her lip and looked around. “You got that off of a tea cozy.” “I did, and I use that tea cozy because I believe in the words written on it.” Fluttershy hummed. “And besides, being an apocalyptic expert, would it really be the end of the world if you learned how to be nice, in your opinion?” Midnight blinked and took a few breaths. “… It might.” Fluttershy groaned. “You’re horrible,” she said as she left the bathroom. “[i]Tried and tested![/i]” Midnight shot back.