Maddock didn't know where to begin. He had never written anything apologizing to anypony before. He had never had reason to. So, after a few minutes of writer's block, he decided to go and seek advice from the pony who had punished him this way. Even so, he felt the punishment was unfair. How was I supposed to know she was the guidance counselor of the school and Twilight's friend? He grumbled to himself as he walked along.

He checked Twilight's room, but found nopony there. He did, however, find the young dragon. "Um…excuse me?" Maddock said softly. He didn't want to insult the dragon and have Twilight punish him even more, so he decided to make things very professional. The dragon turned and regarded him with a stern look. "Oh, it's you," the dragon said, "what do you want?"

Maddock scoffed and his professionalism went out the metaphorical window. "Oh, come on. I say one little thing to Starlight, and now everypony and dragon in the castle has turned against me. That's some friendship Twilight's teaching."

The dragon whirled around. "Look, man, I know you're new to the whole 'friendship' thing, but what you said to Starlight was completely unacceptable!" Here the dragon slowed and took a deep breath, "but, I am honor bound to help guests of the princess. By the way, my name's Spike. I don't want you referring to me as 'dragon,' or anything like that."

"Oh, no. I'd never call you anything like that. Really, the only ponies I have anything against are unicorns."

"But why have anything against them at all?"

Maddock gave him a vicious look. "They took everything from me!"

Spike recoiled a bit. "Yeah, Luna mentioned that you had a rough experience with a unicorn when you were young. She didn't explicitly state what it was, but…it must've been awfully traumatic to have you behaving like this."

Maddock stopped short as he realized that the dragon was absolutely right. His behavior was a direct result of the exacting trauma he had experienced as a colt. But none of that mattered now. His family was gone, and it was all a unicorn's doing because she was showing off. To him, the narcissism of unicorns was absolute. They could never be changed. Call it delusion or simple ignorance, but he had gotten to the point where he felt unicorns were just born as self-absorbed ponies.

Quickly, Maddock changed the subject. "I'm looking for Princess Twilight. I need help…writing my apology letter." He blushed heavily in embarrassment. Here he was, a grown stallion, having to grovel at the hooves of another pony because he couldn't write a letter. He was absolutely mortified.

Spike pointed out the window, "she's already gone to school for the day. Her class is in session right now. But I'm sure if you wait in her office, she'll be there right after she gets through teaching."

So Maddock left the room and went outside. He crossed the stream that divided Twilight's property between the castle and the school. The first thing he noticed was how beautiful the school was. It wasn't so much a school as it was one of those peaceful, serene, retreat like places he had seen advertised on some posters back in Canterlot.

Upon entering the school, Maddock was quickly clobbered in the face by a griffon racing past. "Oh, sorry, man," the griffon said as he helped Maddock back to his hooves, "I'm late for Professor Dash's class, and I didn't see you there. You OK?" Maddock nodded. "Good. Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around, then." With that, the griffon raced away.

School of Friendship, eh? Maddock said to himself, well, that griffon was friendly enough…I guess. Oddly enough, Maddock held no prejudices against other creatures. The only creatures he thoroughly hated were unicorns. It was an odd mentality, but it was the mentality he held. He was sticking to it and nopony could stop him from it.

He walked up some stairs and consulted a small directory that was hanging under a big picture of Twilight. He noticed that there were smaller pictures of other ponies hanging next to her. With an angry grunt, he realized that one of the ponies pictured there was the white unicorn that he had fought with earlier.

There's no time to think about that, he thought as he looked at the directory. It had the names of all the different rooms in this maze of buildings that somehow functioned as an educational institute. Hm…Twilight's office…room 31. Now that he had that information, he proceeded up the hall towards the office.

When he arrived, the door was open. A sign said, "Twilight is available for friendship advice at this time," and the Princess's cutie mark was stamped underneath it. Slowly, he made his way into the office. Twilight was sitting at her desk, grading a test she had just administered. She noticed the young stallion slowly come in with his head hung low.

She put down her quill and smiled at him. "Hi, Maddock," she said, "are you finished with your letter to Starlight?"

At this point, Maddock didn't know what to do. He was so thoroughly embarrassed that he couldn't write the letter. He didn't want to admit to Twilight that he was as big of an idiot as she probably thought he was. It wouldn't do him any good and it certainly wouldn't score him any points with the young mare seated in front of him.

"Well…truthfully, Twilight…no."

She gave him a stern look. "Maddock, are you skipping this?"

"No, no! I…I just…I…I don't know what to do!" He finally sputtered out.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked and then added tentatively, "…do you know how to write, Maddock?

"Of course I know how to write!" Maddock said before shutting up. He probably shouldn't have used that tone of voice with Twilight. She gave him another stern look. "You really need to learn how to control your voice," she said, "but, no matter. I'd much rather have you yell at me than at one of my friends. Now, I'm trying to help. I'm not trying to insult you. I'm gonna ask you one more time. Do you know how to write?"

Maddock answered in a more respectful tone, "yes, I definitely know how to write. It's just…I don't know what to say."

"Well, what are you trying to say?"

"I have no idea. I've never apologized to anypony, and especially never to a unicorn." Just saying those words made him want to empty the contents of his stomach all over the floor. Didn't Twilight understand that unicorns were nothing but trouble?

"Well, now's as good a time to start as any," Twilight said. She got up from her desk and maneuvered to where he was standing. "I'm glad you asked for my help, Maddock," she said, "after the way you treated Starlight, I was afraid you wouldn't talk to me because of this," she pointed to her horn, "but maybe you are learning something after all. Come on. I'll give you a little extra time to finish it. I'm going on lunch, so I can help you. It's easy once you get to it." With that, she and Maddock left the office and returned to the castle…