Save vs. Friendship

There was a knock at the door.

"Coming!" Twilight yelled, quill hovering above the paper as she reviewed her letter. With a flourish, she signed it:

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

"Spike," she called. "Could you send this?"

Spike's head popped out from one of the alcoves that dotted the main reading room of the library. "I thought you wanted me to rearrange the section-"

"Oh, yes, well. Could you send this first?"

"Hold on." Spike frowned, chewing on a claw. "She's engaged right now. But I'll do it as soon as she's free!"

Twilight smiled. "Thanks." She turned to the door, then looked back. "How do you know, anyway?"

"Hmm?"

"When she won't take messages."

Spike grabbed a stack of books, placed Twilight's letter on top, and carried the pile back to the shelf. "Remember that time I accidentally messed up the order in the book-filing checklist?" he said, as he started slotting books into place.

"Last March?"

"Yeah. And you came rocketing down the stairs like there was a changeling in your bedroom?" He shrugged. "Some part of me just knows." He filed the last of the books, picked up the letter, and carefully slotted it between two of the spikes on his back. "As soon as she's free," he confirmed.

Twilight trotted over to the door. Applejack was standing there, saddlebags bulging with a variety of autumn fruit, inspecting the abandoned planter boxes that sat under the windows of the library.

"Af'noon, sugarcube," she said. "Fluttershy says she'd awful sorry, but the local beaver population has an outbreak of toothache or some-such and she's workin' double time. Don't you have anyone taking care of your flowers?"

Twilight peered at the planter boxes. "...should I?" she said. "It's autumn. Stuff dies in autumn."

"Stuff's at it's best in autumn!" Applejack entered the library, dumping her saddlebags on a nearby table. "Ain'tcha wondered why I've been so busy?"

"You've been doing...farm stuff, right?"

"Everything's ready to pick! Me an' Big Mac are up from cock's crow to sundown just making sure we bring everything in. S'why I've got all this fruit. I figure anything's better than that junk Rainbow Dash brings. You doing this Foes and Fighting thing down here, or are we up in your study again?"

"Well..." said Twilight. "About that."

"You don't wanna run another game?" Applejack opened one of the saddles and pulled a brace of pears out. "To be honest I can kinda see why. Tricky enough running one person in that game. I dunno how you can cope with all the organising stuff."

"Oh!" said Twilight, "No, no, it's nothing like that. It's just...well, let's wait until everyone's here, shall we?"

"You wanna do what?"

"I just thought that after our game last time, we could branch out a bit."

"Does this mean new rules?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I hadn't even got the hang of the old rules."

"Ah!" said Twilight. "That's exactly my point! Fiends and Firearms may have been the state of the art ten years ago, but we've moved on since then. A number of these games are supposed to be much more intuitive than F&F. It said so in the reviews."

"Hold on," said Rarity. "A number? How many other games do you have?"

"Well," said Twilight, "I felt I needed to get a representative sample of the industry. If you'll just..." She frowned in concentration, horn glowing, and an imposing stack of books floated from the floor onto the table.

There was silence from the group.

Finally, Rainbow Dash said, "I don't think I've read that many books in my entire life."

"We don't have to go through every single one of them," said Twilight dismissively. "We just need to find the right one for us. Like this one." She pulled a couple of books from the top of the pile. They were big thick rulebooks, not like some of the skinny volumes further down the pile. Rainbow's face fell.

"Here we go!" Twilight said, giving the cover of the top book an affectionate rub with her hoof. "H.O.O.V.E.S.: the Holistic Objective-Oriented Virtual Environment Simulator."

"The what now?" Applejack asked.

"I think they just wanted a fun acronym." She turned the book over to read the back cover. "It says it's dedicated to providing a realistic experience at the gaming table. The reviewers have said it's very detailed. And thankfully, I happened to pick up a little pre-made adventure for us as well." She grabbed the second book and waved it at the group. The cover proclaimed: FREE TRADER SHADOWFAX: Adventures in the void.

Pinkie Pie snatched up the adventure book and opened it to a random page. "Ooh!" she exclaimed. "It's set in space."

"Yes. Now, give that back." Twilight snatched the sourcebook back and held onto it protectively.

"Space?" Applejack said. "Really? I thought this was supposed to be realistic."

"Shadowfax is set in the far future," Twilight said. "It makes some assumptions about the passage of magical progress - which I think aren't too far fetched actually."

"Still doesn't sound far off fantasy to me," Applejack grumbled.

"I think it's a wonderful idea. Ponies need to be made aware that magic isn't just this unchanging thing - we're doing research and every day we're getting better. One of these days, we will put a pony on the moon, just you wait and see!"

"Yeah," said Applejack, "because it went so well last time we did that."

"Well, that was an extreme example," said Twilight seriously, "and I'm sure we can agree that we don't want to see that happen in our lifetimes. But," she said, perking up, "that's just it! It's doable. We just need to work out what to do."

"Yeah, just turn all the scientists into alicorns, that'll do it," said Rainbow Dash, rolling her eyes.

The conversation stopped. The pegasus blinked. "What?" she asked.

Twilight ruffled her wings.

Rainbow's eyes widened. "Oh," she said. "Ah. I'll just sit in the corner and remove hoof from mouth, OK?"

The airlock hissed open. Sun Blaze peered around the corner, horn-mounted snub pistol covering the far entrance.

"All good," she said.

At the other end of the connecting tube, her three hardsuit-clad companions kicked off from the wall of their ship and floated to join her.

"I don't like this at all," said Bright Spark, as they drifted towards the other ship. "No damage? No signals? Something here isn't right."

"Maybe it's monkeys," said Floppy Top, flechette rifle swinging wildly around as she tried to cover all angles. "Wicked-sharp space monkeys with swords. They get in through your airlock and then wham with their opposable thumbs and their funny grippy feet things."

"Why did we have to bring a needlepoint expert along?" Cloudburst said from the front of the pack.

"Hey! I can do crochet as well!"

"Why did you even take ranks in needlepoint?"

"Just concentrate on what's ahead of us," said Sun Blaze, covering them.

They landed on the hull of the abandoned ship next to Sun Blaze. Bright Spark's horn glowed as she interfaced with the ship's hatch.

"Pegasus make," she said, "crude, but servicable."

"Hey!" Cloudburst said. "Who're you calling crude?"

There was a click, then a smooth whoosh as the door of the airlock opened. Sun Blaze entered first dropping to the floor as the ship's gravity field enveloped her. "Auxiliary magic's intact," she said. "Must still be collecting solar rays." Cloudburst followed her in, with Bright Spark in the middle and Floppy Top bringing up the rear.

"Did you have to bring that thing?" Spark asked.

"What thing?" said Cloudburst, attempting to turn around. The barrel of her body-mounted plasma cannon clunked against the bulkhead.

"That thing," said Spark.

"This thing?" Cloudburst asked. "This thing packs a terawatt of power into an area the size of a hoof print." She stroked the barrel lovingly. "Wait 'til we hit trouble, then we'll see much you want it around."

"Girls," said Blaze at the front. "Don't want to interrupt your conversation, but...you might wanna check this out."

The four of them filed into what looked like a cargo hanger. The place was vast - bigger than any of the stables at Sweet Apple Acres - and it was littered with crates.

"Spark," Sun Blaze said, "you have any schematics on hand for this sort of thing?"

"Cockpit should be somewhere to our right," Bright Spark said, consulting her hoof-mounted readout. "Engineering to the left, and any cold berths straight ahead."

"OK," said Sun Blaze, checking over the room. "You head to engineering then. See what's worth salvaging off this hunk o' junk. Cloudburst, you go with. Me an' Flopple Top-"

"Floppy Top."

"...yeah, that, will take the cockpit, see if we can work out what caused this thing to- what was that?"

"What was what?" said Cloudburst, describing a complicated about-turn and setting the cargo hanger echoing as her plasma cannon bounced against her hard-suit.

"Stop movin' and I'll try to work out!"

Cloudburst stopped, one hoof raised. The echoes slowly died out, but a skittering, scratching sound kept going.

"Is it spiders?" Floppy Top said. "I hate spiders."

There was the sound of a faint buzzing, and up from behind the nearest crate rose-

"Parasprites?" Bright Spark said. "In space?"

"OK, spiders are fine!"

"Floppy Top! Bright Spark!" Blaze barked. "Get to the cockpit. Grab what you can! Cloudburst and I'll hold 'em off!" And she let out a burst at the nearest-

"Hold on," said Twilight. "You're attacking?"

"That's what I said," said Applejack, dice already in one hoof.

"Did you aim?" Twilight asked.

"What?"

"Did you aim? There's a bonus if you aim."

"Idunno. Did I have time to aim?"

"Probably not. OK. Were you bracing against anything?"

"Was I-? Look, I'm just shooting the thing!"

"Well," said Twilight, frowning at her book. "OK, I guess..."

And she let out a burst at the nearest parasprite. Low-velocity slugs ripped through the air, caroming off the nearest one. Spark and Floppy Top galloped past them, leaped a stray container, and were down the door to the cockpit. Blaze gave a swing of the head, dislodging the spent magazine and pulling another out of her utility belt as she brought up a magical shield. "A little support'd be real handy right now," she yelled as she jammed in a new magazine, backpedalling wildly as a swarm of enraged parasprites threw themselves on her.

Cloudburst was having her own problems. She'd got clear of the pack to get a good shot, but run into another swarm that was emerging from the engine room. She was bucking and kicking furiously, but the plasma rifle was causing her no end of pain.

"Drop it!" said Blaze from across the room.

"Hells no! I spent all my starting cash on this thing!"

Blaze's next burst took out a bunch of the parasprites and gave her some breathing space. "Fine!" she yelled. "I'll do this myself!" She whirled, kicked with her back legs, jumped onto the nearest container. From there she jumped from one to another, a swarm of angry parasprites on her tail. She galloped along one, gaining speed, and then leaped.

Cloudburst was far too busy keeping herself from getting mobbed to see this. The first she knew was when she looked up and saw a hundred seventy pounds of armoured space-pony flying towards her.

The two of them collided and rolled down the engineering corridor, the combined swarms of angry buzzing space-faring insects following them into the cramped confines of the hallway. Finally, they rolled to a halt, Cloudburst lying on her stomach facing back towards the cargo bay with Sun Blaze sprawled on top of her. With a shake of the head, Blaze staggered to her feet and dove out of the way. "Now, Cloudburst!" she yelled.

Cloudburst looked up. A snarling, buzzing morass of insectoid malice, bunched up into one dense mob, was barreling straight for her. She grinned.

"I've been waiting all afternoon for this," she said. Her rear hoof kicked the safety on her plasma cannon, and she opened fire.

"Here," said Twilight, passing Rainbow Dash a hoof-full of dice. "Roll these for damage."

"Which ones?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"All of them."

Rainbow's eyes widened. "So cool," she mouthed.

After a bit, the fire died down. The buzzing did not.

Bright Spark and Floppy Top cantered back into the cargo bay. "We've got all the- what happened here?"

Sun Blaze and Cloudburst emerged from the smoke. Cloudburst had a look of glazed awe on her face.

"She happened," said Sun Blaze. "There's more of the blighters. Let's make like a tree."

"Hold on," said Spark. "There might be ponies in the cold berths."

The intensity of the buzzing increased. One of the containers, blown aside by Cloudburst's earlier shot, shifted slightly.

"And we might be in immanent danger of getting overrun!" Blaze retorted.

"Sorry," said Bright Spark, "I'm not leaving without checking the berths". The door to the container swung open, and several multicoloured bodies crawled out. Floppy Top swung around and nailed two with her flechette rifle.

Blaze rolled her eyes. "Well, come on!" she said, galloping towards the low berths. The others followed, Spark keeping the parasprites at bay with a well-timed hail of lead. As they entered the corridor, she grabbed at the edge of the hatch and started to pull it closed. Blaze charged back, grabbed the top of the hatch, and together they managed to close it. Angry parasprites flung themselves against the glass of the window.

"Uh, guys?" said Cloudburst, peering into a side room. Six coffin-sized canisters lined the walls: cold berths, capable of magically suspending a pony's life for deep-space travel.

Two were broken. Two were open. The nearest one - still closed - was buzzing ominously.

"OK," said Spark. "Maybe the berths are a lost cause." She backpedalled as the buzzing crescendoed, accompanied by a long drawn-out crack as the glass in the nearest one fractured. "OK, the berths are definitely a lost cause!" Then the glass fractured, and a multicoloured swarm emerged from the berth.

"Tactical withdrawal!" yelled Sun Blaze, gun echoing off the narrow confines of the room. Floppy Top's flechette rifle added to the cacophony as parasprites fell left, right and centre. Bright Spark and Cloudburst galloped to the hatch, whose window was by now crawling with parasprites.

"Girls," said Bright Spark, "not to alarm you, but we may be the slightest bit trapped."

Floppy Top and Sun Blaze galloped up the corridor. "Well," said Floppy Top cheerfully, "I'm out of ammo!"

"And I'm out of ideas," said Sun Blaze. "What next?"

Cloudburst took a deep breath. "Everyone hold tight to me," she said. And then she pointed the gun at the ceiling.

"You're firing on the ship?" Twilight asked.

"Yep."

"OK. Um. Hold on." She leafed through her book.

"So," said Rainbow Dash to Rarity. "Wanna buy me one of these things for my birthday?"

Rarity gave the pegasus a look. "You know we don't actually have plasma cannons in real life, right?"

"Yeah, but I was holding out in case we did and you guys had just been keeping it a secret from me."

"Even if we did have plasma cannons," Applejack said, "fat chance we'd give one to you. We like Ponyville intact, not a smoking hole in the ground."

"Aw, c'mon! You just assume that if I got my hooves on one of these things, I'd accidentally fire it on Ponyville."

"Well, what would you use it for?"

"Oh, you know. Scaring off Celestia's Witnesses, cooking toast-"

"Aha!" said Twilight.

Rainbow Dash leaned in. "Does it work?" she asked.

"Let me check...yes. Yes, it works."

Rainbow Dash punched the air. "Yeah! Strike two for the plasma cannon!"

Twilight looked up. "Now," she said, "where were we..."

Air rushed out of the gaping hole blown in the ship. Four hardsuited ponies found themselves flailing about in the vast coldness of space.

"Great plan, smart-ass," Spark said over the intercom. "Now rather than dying from parasprites we're going to die from oxygen starvation."

"Hey," Cloudburst growled,  "these suits are good for an hour! And I didn't see you with any smart ideas."

"Crude," muttered Bright Spark under her breath.

"Hey," said Sun Blaze, "we're not dead yet, right? These things have some sort of magic-jet-thingy, right?"

"Sure," said Bright Spark. "But not enough to get us back to the ship."

"You sure about that?"

Rarity turned to Twilight. "How far can they go?" she asked.

Twilight's eyes locked on the middle distance. "I..." she said. "Hold on." She grabbed the rulebook and started leafing through it.

There was a quiet tap at the door.

"Busy," said Twilight peremptorily.

"Twilight, it's me. Spike. She's headed this way."

"I said I- wait, she is?" Twilight's head whipped up from the book. With a muffled pamf she blinked over to the door, hauled Spike in, and shut it behind him. She whirled around to the rest of the table and held a hoof to her lips.

There was a knock at the main door of the library. The ponies upstairs waited in silence, Twilight poised by the door like she was ready to make a getaway.

"Ma'am?"

Silence. Everypony watched Twilight. Twilight watched the door.

"Ma'am, are you in there? We need to talk."

Applejack opened her mouth. Twilight whipped her head back, gaze settling on the earth pony. She closed her mouth again.

Then they heard the sound of hoofbeats headed away from the Library. Twilight let out a breath.

"What's she bugging you about?" Applejack asked.

"Oh, just a neverending stream of business," Twilight said flippantly.

"And that's enough of a problem that you have to hide up here?" Rarity asked.

"Well, uh," Twilight said, staring at her hooves. "I may have avoided her for the past week."

"Twilight, do you really think that's-"

"Oh hey!" Twilight said, trotting back to the table, "I just remembered where the rules for those suit jets were."

The group scrambled back to the table. Twilight was far too busy leafing through the rulebook to notice a glance pass between Spike and Rarity as the dragon excused himself.

"Here we go," said Twilight. "Suit-mounted jets have a very limited range. With the velocity you have, you might be able to bring yourselves to a stop relative to the Shadowfax and your ship..."

"...but no further," Spark said. "Also, I hate to point this out, but we're getting further away every second."

"Oooh," said Floppy Top. Even the dead of space couldn't dull her enthusiasm. "I have an idea! Everyone jet over to me and hang on tight!"

"A hug ain't gonna get us anywhere," said Sun Blaze. She'd clipped the wall as she was sucked out the ship, and it had given her just enough angular momentum that she was slowly spinning head-over-tail. Every few minutes her visor came around and she was facing the rest of them: the rest of the time, they were treated to her back, side, or tail.

"Got any better ideas?" asked Bright Spark. The intercom hissed slightly as she ran one of her jets.

"Spark's got a point," said Cloudburst. There was another hiss, followed by a couple of muffled oofs as the three other ponies collided.

"Coming your way!" said Floppy Top. The three of them gently rolled into view, their combined momenta pushing them into Blaze's path. She gave one of the buttons on her belt a gentle nudge with a forehoof, and she was jetting towards them on a collision course. As soon as they were in reach she hooked a foreleg around Floppy Top's leg.

"So what's the plan now?" she said.

"We're going to grapple our way to victory!" Floppy Top said.

"We're going to what now?"

"Floppy," Cloudburst said, "we're in space-suits. This isn't a western."

"And this pony took a grappling gun. If I can just...reach it..." Floppy Top craned around, trying to get at her belt.

Bright Spark was watching the Shadowfax. "It's still getting smaller," she said.

"Everyone, jets, now!" said Sun Blaze, hitting the button on her belt. Even Floppy Top stopped her acrobatics to run jets.

"I'm out," said Cloudburst. "Those things are weak!"

"They're not designed to push you around space," Sun Blaze said, fumbling at the tiny grapple gun attached to Floppy Top's belt. "They're not supposed to go outside at all. We're lucky they're vacuum proof."

"We've slowed," said Bright Spark, "but I think we're still drifting away."

"That's OK," said Floppy Top as Sun Blaze handed her the gun. "This thing will get us back." She brought the thing up to eye level, aiming down the barrel.

"Floppy," said Sun Blaze, "you can't think you'll actually manage to grab anything at this range!"

"Don't need to," Floppy said, her tongue sticking out of her mouth in a comical manner as she lined up her target.

"Then what're you aiming for?" Bright Spark asked.

"...yeah, what are you aiming for?" Twilight Sparkle repeated.

"The connection thingy!" Pinkie Pie said with a grin.

"The connection thingy?"

"She means the airlock tube," Applejack said.

"You do realise you're a couple of furlongs away?" Twilight asked. "Spearing your grapple through that from this distance would be like..."

Pinkie Pie leaned forward. "Say it..." she said.

"Huh?"

Pinkie grinned. "C'mon, say it!"

"...like...uh, threading a needle?"

"Yes!" Pinkie shrieked, rocking her chair backward. Applejack caught the edge before she fell on the floor. "It was worth it!"

Twilight frowned. Then recognition dawned, and she sighed. She passed the dice to Pinkie Pie. "Fine," she said, "roll needlepoint."

Rarity was the last to leave, again.

"Well," said Twilight with a sigh, "how did it go?"

"It went splendidly!" Rarity said, clearing food wrappers and apple cores from the table. "And it was very nice of Applejack to bring over snacks. Although I did have to wonder at some of the apples."

"I told you," Twilight said, "those are wear marks. It's where the apple rubs against the branch. It happens naturally."

Rarity sniffed. "They never have anything like that when I buy them from the market."

"That's because they know ponies like you will buy blemish-free fruit for three bits apiece," Twilight said. She gathered up the character sheets and slotted them inside the rulebook, before putting it neatly on top of the stack of books she'd piled on the ground.

"Rarity?"

"Yes, dear?"

"You don't think I'm going a bit...overboard, do you?"

"Whatever do you mean, dear?"

"With the games. With the rulebooks."

Rarity pulled up a chair and sat down at the table. "I think we all have our own ways of going about things. You just like to be thorough, is all."

There was a knock at the door. Spike sidled into the room.

"Hey guys," he said, "I saw everypony else had left, and I thought I'd just come in to see how everything's going."

"Oh, don't mind us," said Rarity. "The others are pretty easy to clean up after. We were just discussing Twilight's insecurities about the game."

"Rarity-"

"Oh yeah?" Spike said. "And how did it go?" he asked Twilight.

Twilight gave Rarity a glare. "Well..." she said. "Yes. Well. It went well."

"Although you really do need to do something about looking everything up in those books of yours," said Rarity.

"There's a lot of detail, OK?" Twilight said. She tapped her head with her hoof. "I can't keep it all up here."

Rarity grinned. "Oh, of course," she said, "I thought you did a marvelous job of keeping everything running. And for your second game? Brilliant."

"So, uh," Spike said, climbing up onto one of the chairs. "About Folded Quill..."

"Hold on," said Twilight, "I thought we were talking about today's game."

"And now we're talking about Folded Quill," said Rarity.

Twilight glanced between the two of them, unicorn and dragon, both of them focussed on her. "Look, I know what I'm doing, I swear. But she just gets in the way of everything and if I need to get anything done I need to get rid of her first."

"Twilight," Rarity said, "didn't Celestia personally appoint Folded Quill to your staff?"

"Yes, so?"

"Do you think she'd just give you some dead weight to lug around? When you're just learning how to be a princess?"

"Oh," said Twilight, "and you know Princess Celestia so well?"

"Well," said Spike, "I think maybe-"

"I think I know her well enough," Rarity said, eyes narrowed. "I know her well enough to know that she wouldn't want you hiding out in your library because you can't face the one pony she could get to help you."

"Oh," Twilight growled, planting both forehooves on the table. "Is this a me-and-her thing now? Because let me tell you, she's not the only around here with wings any more, and having these things-" she paused to flare out her own set of wings, "-doesn't make you any better than any other pony, get it?"

"Now girls," said Spike, claws raised in placation, "maybe we-"

"Shut up!" the two unicorns said in unison.

"OK," muttered Spike, "forget I ever said anything."

Rarity turned back go the table. "I think, Twilight," she said, keeping her tone level, "that you're in serious danger of losing perspective here. I'm warning you - as a friend - that you really need to sit back and take a good look at what you're doing."

"Oh yeah?" said Twilight. "Well, I think I've got all the perspective I need." A faint glow enveloped her horn, and her wings flared. The dying daylight leaking through from the window behind her started to dim; the only light in the room was her horn, a weird sickly purple-black half-light emanating from it. "I'm a princess now," she said, "that means I run things. I have perspective. And it's bad enough trying to do all this without having petty little ponies like her and you interfere all the time."

Rarity swallowed a lump in her throat. "Oh, that's all I am to you?" she retorted. "A petty little unicorn, with her petty little concerns? Like what happens to her friends?" She put both forehooves on the table, bringing herself eye-to-eye with the alicorn. "I thought you said the wings didn't make you better than everypony else, Twilight Sparkle."

"Out!" The walls rattled. The floor rumbled. There was a crack as a jagged fracture ran through one of the window panes. Everything in the room was cast in a weird violet glow as magical energy coruscated along Twilight's horn. Wings spread, she towered over Rarity. "Both of you! Out! Now!"

Spike got out the door before Rarity, but only just. The door slammed behind them, and as soon as it hit the frame, the weird rumbling stopped. In its place, silence.

Rarity leaned against the wall, hoof over her heart.

"Are you OK?" Spike asked.

"Sure...I just...need..." She took several gulping breaths. "I, uh-" she laughed nervously. "I didn't quite expect that. Remind me never to make Celestia angry." She cast a look back at the door. "Ever."

Spike walked up to the door and cupped his ear. "She's silenced it," he said. "She does that sometimes when she gets angry."

"So..." Rarity asked. "She can't hear us?"

"And we can't hear her, yeah."

The two headed down the stairs in their own cloud of silence. The library was closed: it was close to dusk outside, and Spike had shut everything a good while ago. The dragon walked over to the mantlepiece and picked up a gas lamp. Opening the valve, he breathed a tiny whisp of flame onto the wick, and the room was bathed in a soft glow.

"Has...has Twilight done this before?" Rarity asked.

"The silence thing? Yeah. The...other thing?" Spike sighed. "Not like this. Not this bad."

The lamp flickered slightly as he put it back down on the mantlepiece. Rarity raised a hoof, let it drop, and cleared her throat. "Is there, uh...is there anything I can do?"

Spike shrugged, still looking at the lamp. "She'll probably calm down best on her own. When she's like this, being around other ponies just makes her worse."

Rarity walked over to the dragon's side. "Spike," she said in a strained half-whisper, "this is bad. I don't know if we can just leave her alone and hope."

"Trust me," Spike said. "She goes through these phases where she thinks no one else is on her level, where she just can't take help from anyone. It's happened before. Every time I've tried to help, it's just driven her further in on herself. She'll sort it out, I swear."

"She's supposed to be a princess, Spike. She's ruling a kingdom-"

"Domain."

"Huh?"

"Technically, a princess rules over a domain."

Rarity shook her head. "Whatever it is, Twilight's supposed to be ruling over it. How can she do that if she's shuttered herself in her room? Worse, what if she needs to make some sort of important decision when she's in one of these moods?"

"But...what can I do?" said Spike, turning to face Rarity.

The unicorn put a hoof on Spike's shoulder. "We can we do, Spike."

Spike put his claw on the hoof. "Thanks," he said, smiling. "But still," he continued, "what can we do?"

"We wait," Rarity said. "You said yourself that other ponies would just make her worse right now. So I guess we wait until she's better."

"And then?" Spike asked.

Rarity sighed. "I don't know. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

The two of them stood in silence for a moment.

"Uh, Spike?" Rarity said.

"Hmm?" Spike said. Then he looked down, and blushed. "Oh. Sorry." He let his claw drop.

Rarity trotted over to the door, pausing at the mantle. "You'll keep in touch, won't you?" she said, hoof on the latch.

"Yeah," said Spike. He gathered up a couple of stray books, grabbing the lamp in his other claw. "I'll let you know when she's better."

"Don't worry," Rarity as she turned to go. "We'll fix this. You'll see."