Within You - [Twibra]

Seven

The unicorn with red eyes and gray fur looked attentively at the book he held between his front hooves, doing his best to appear too focused not to notice what was happening around him.

Unfortunately for him, the violet-furred alicorn didn't have much trouble deciphering this 'technique', so she didn't give in to him and continued trying to get his attention, just as she had already done three times before.

To go into a little more context, since the day he had received his first friendship lesson, the alicorn had asked him-forced, actually-that every time he came down to breakfast he would greet all the creatures present, regardless of if he only said a simple 'good morning', but as if that weren't enough, she had also asked him that every time he finished his meal, he thank whoever had prepared it-which most of the time was Spike-to which he, of course, refused; However, to his bad luck, the princess always ended up finding a way to persuade him and make him reluctantly agree.

Now a few minutes had passed since he had finished his meal, which meant that, just like the previous two days, he had to comply with the order to "be polite and grateful", just as the princess had said.

"Sombra, I know you're listening to me." She repeated once again with skepticism and a frown. "It's not that hard, you just have to say thank you, the world won't end just because you're thankful for something."

The aforementioned did not lower the book, he kept it at his eye level in an attempt to avoid the face of the pony in front of him; Even so, his annoyed gaze shifted slightly in front of him, making him meet the one he was trying to avoid.

There was a short silence of about ten seconds while both ponies seemed to have a staring battle, which the stallion could not sustain.

"Ugh! I already did that yesterday," he lowered the book somewhat abruptly, "and the day before yesterday too!" He continued to complain.

"And you will continue to do it every day." She pronounced the last three words more firmly, looking at the unicorn in this same way. "This is just a small exercise for you to learn to at least be polite, is that clear?"

He just huffed and rolled his eyes as he crossed his front legs.

"I don't understand why you're so grumpy, I'm literally just asking you to say 'good morning' and 'thank you', stop complaining, you're acting like a baby." She stood up from her chair. "If I hear one more complaint about something as simple as this, I swear I'll make you sing and dance with flowers on your head outside the castle so you can complain about something real." She warned as she looked at him harshly, at the same time that she took her plate and took it to the sink.

She wasn't so serious with her 'warning', of course she wasn't going to make the unicorn dance at the entrance to the castle-even if it made for a funny scene-in fact, she wasn't even that upset that the stallion was so moody and complaining, but sometimes it irritated her greatly. She had even already tried to convince him in a softer and friendlier way, and apparently it hadn't worked either.
Therefore, she had ended up deciding that she had no choice, maybe she had to be a little tougher on him.

The unicorn released the crossing of his front legs and turned to look at the princess with some disbelief at what she last said.

"You wouldn't dare..."

"Test me."

The stallion narrowed his eyes and began to feel some insecurity growing inside him, the way she had turned to look at him and had not hesitated to respond warned him that she was most likely being serious.

He wasn't afraid of the alicorn, of course not, but just imagining the humiliation he could go through if he didn't follow her instructions made him alert and think twice.