The Downfall of Harmony

The sun shone through Twilight Sparkle's bedroom window, its rays beaming right down on the unicorn's face. She groaned groggily and hoisted herself up, sitting upright on her bed, spreading her jaws in a large yawn. Blinking a few times, Twilight looked out her window, still half asleep.

It was bright and sunny out, birds chirping and fluttering around. She sighed. The beautiful scene mocked her.

Ever since the first though entered her mind, the first thought on the question of her friends' loyalty to her, she couldn't stop thinking about why she had the thought or what it even meant. It just didn't make sense, for Twilight knew that her friends were always honest and truthful to her, aside from some slips and mishaps.

The purple unicorn sighed once more and hopped down from her perch, stretching. Glancing at a small basket in the corner, she saw her dragon companion, Spike still curled up asleep, his scaly thumb lodged inside his mouth.

Twilight smiled faintly at this and started slowly for downstairs, stopping at her vanity to comb out her mane and slip off her robe. On her way down she told herself that today would be a good day. If the sun was shining and birds were singing, then it must be good, right? Maybe today she'd find out what her thought meant. Yes. Today was going to be go— She suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, staring around in horror.

The library was a mess! Books were scattered everywhere, bottles of ink were knocked over, their black contents splashed all over the floor, a few chairs were overturned, and the windows broken. It looked as if a tornado or two had zipped past here.

Still in shock, Twilight shakily stepped down from the bottom step, rage suddenly starting to boil underneath her coat. "Spike!" She shouted, "Get down here, now!"

Moments later, the small purple dragon came running down the stairs, tripping over his own feet in his hurry. "Wh-What is it, Twi? Is everything alright? What happened?" He gushed, halting beside her.

"Look at this mess!" She snapped.

Spike turned his attention to the trashed library, then back at his magical friend. "Yeah, I know."

"You know?!" she raged, glaring at him. "What do you mean, you know?! How did this happen?! Clean this mess up, Spike!"

Spike had stepped back, fearful of her rage. "B-But Twi! I was going to clean it up, y-you wouldn't let me! Last night you told me to just leave it and that you'd take care of it in the morning!"

"What? When did I say that? And why would I tell you to leave the library a mess?" She confronted, calming down. "Who did this, Spike?"

"Don't you remember? You did, Twilight..." He told her. "Last night, you seemed to be really upset. You just snapped and went berserk, destroying everything." He continued when he saw the puzzled look on her face.

"I-I... did...?" She glanced around her library. Had that thought really taken such a powerful effect on her? Or was it something else? No, that was impossible. She was pretty good at keeping herself calm in times of despair, and there were many moments on where the question of her and her friends' loyalty were at stake. For example, when Discord escaped from his stone imprisonment. He had nearly succeeded in flipping her's and the girls' personalities and harmonies around completely, as well as destroying Ponyville, and better yet, the whole of Equestria. Even then she had somehow managed to stay calm during it all. But there was something different about this particular thought. She actually felt... depressed thinking about it. The thought of her possibly separating from her friends wasn't exactly a pleasant one. Yes, they had their ups and downs with each other, but they were still the best of friends and would never split up completely over something as silly as most of their quarrels.

Twilight sighed and looked back at Spike, nodding upstairs. "You can go back to bed. I'll take care of the mess." The dragon stared at her with a slightly surprised look. "Are you sure, Twi? I can take care of it." She shook her head. "No, Spike. I made this mess, so I'll clean it up. Go back to sleep. It's still early." Without another word, the unicorn first made her way over to the spilled bottles of ink, using her magic to set them upright before materializing a bucket of water and a mop and starting to clean the black liquid.

"If you're sure..." He started, but didn't press any further when he got no response. Instead, he climbed back up the stairs.

Twilight sighed as she mopped. Well her plans for a perfect day had just backfired. It was then she made a mental note on never to trust the weather and scenery of the outside world to predict her day.

After an hour or so of tidying up, Twilight walked over to one of her large bookshelves, scanning for a certain category. Once she found it, she quickly skimmed over the sections and titles before one caught her eye. Using her magic, she slid the book out, staring at its cover. "Mysteries of the Pony Mind." She read the book title aloud, "Perfect. Maybe some of these experiences will trigger a reasonable answer to why I'm feeling so depressed."

She trotted over to her couch, settling down with the book in front of her and opening it. Before she actually started reading, she pondered on the question she was asking.

A few weeks ago, she had thought about what it would be like without her friends, how she would of turned out and if she'd still be alive and happy. That wasn't the problem though. After that, she wondered what would happen if they all somehow separated forever. If they all turned on each other, finding out that every one of them had been keeping secrets and pure hatred behind everypony else's back. She wasn't sure why she had thought of something so horrible, but it somehow reminded her of Discord, like he was using them as puppets on strings. She wondered if just the thought of them splitting up is what made her feel depressed, or on how she thought they would split up—if they ever split up, that was.

She thought for another moment. Her question was why was she getting such saddening thoughts on her and her friends when there wasn't a reason to. That seemed to work. Twilight glanced down at her book and started reading.

There was suddenly a knocking on the door, and the purple unicorn looked up, blinking. "Now who could that be at such an early hour?" She glanced at her clock. "It's only... half past eight..." She then realized it wasn't as early as she thought it was. The cleaning must have took longer than she thought.

At another knock, she stood up, leaping off of the couch and walking over to the door. "Coming!" She used her magic to open it, finding Applejack standing on the other side. Twilight was a bit surprised. Applejack never really came to visit her unless something was wrong. "Good morning, Applejack. Is everything okay?" The unicorn greeted.

"Howdy, Twilight." The orange mare replied, "Everythin's fine, Ah was just wond'rin' if Ah could talk t'ya 'bout somethin'."

Twilight nodded, stepping to the side so her friend could enter. "Of course, anything for you girls." Applejack nodded in acknowledgment as she walked past her purple friend, seating herself on the couch. Twilight trotted over, using her magic to levitate the book before Applejack sat down. She didn't really feel like explaining to her friend what she was doing with a book that was meant for mentally ill ponies who had bad thought-processing problems. She moved it aside and sat down in front of her friend. "What's up?"

"Well," Applejack began, "Ah'm not really sure how t'put this, an' it's not a diss or anythin', either." She added. "It's just Ah've been feelin' a bit strange lately, Twi."

Twilight tipped her head to the side, "Strange how?"

"Well, not too long ago, Ah got a strange thought."

At this, Twilight sat completely straight, her ears pricking. "A strange thought?" She echoed. Did Applejack have the same thought as her? Was she starting to question the thought of them separating for good, never having a chance of reuniting again as well? "What kind of strange thought?"

"A few weeks ago Ah was out on the farm buckin' apples, nothin' new, but afterwards, Ah just got a funny feelin'. Ah thought; What if we all stopped trustin' each other? Would our friendship survive? And how would be if we didn't have each other's friendship from the start?"

Twilight said nothing, just stared at her friend in bewilderment. Applejack had the same problem? It was just slightly tweaked. She wasn't questioning on them staying together or separating, she was questioning on them being honest or dishonest to each other. The cowpony blinked at her, waving a hoof in front of her baffled friend's face. "Twi?" But Twilight Sparkle paid her no heed. Instead, she looked at her hooves, trying to think. Applejack was having thought issues too, yet hers was about the opposite of her Element. She wondered, did the others have this thought too, only the opposites of their Elements as well? She wasn't sure, but it was a possibility. It was either that or her and Applejack's shared thoughts were just a coincidence. No, that didn't make sense. Applejack said she had had her thought a few weeks ago. That's exactly when Twilight had hers. Not to mention that both thoughts were basically the same thing, just in a different manner.

"Twilight!" Applejack said loudly, shaking her friend's shoulders roughly. The purple unicorn snapped back to reality, staring into the orange pony's green eyes. "Are you okay? What's the matter?" Twilight shook her head. "Nothing, everything's alright..." She insisted, looking away.

Applejack removed her hoofs from Twilight's shoulders, settling back down comfortably in her seat. "Twilight?"

She didn't respond.

"Twilight! Speak to me, dang it!" The orange cowpony suddenly snapped, a firm but gentle hoof gliding across the unicorn's face.

Twilight stumbled back, blinking in surprise and nearly falling off the sofa. She brought a hoof up to her now pounding cheek, looking at Applejack afterwards.

The Earth pony's own green eyes were widened, her completely shocked by her actions. "T-T-Twilight... A-A'hm so s-sorry..... A-Ah don't know wh-what came over me....."

The magical pony said nothing, rubbing her cheek. She only stared blankly at her friend, her dark purple eyes seeming a bit dull.

"Twi...?"

"Get out." The unicorn whispered, her voice barely audible.

"Wh-What?"

"G-Get out!" She snapped.

Applejack only stared at her, her ears flattened back, her taken by surprise at her usually sweet friend's furious tone.

"I SAID GET OUT OF MY LIBRARY!" She roared, causing her farm friend to back away and slip off the couch, tumbling onto the floor. Applejack cowered onto the ground, her green eyes wide and full of fear as she slowly inched backwards towards the door.

Twilight only glared at her as she cautiously backed out of the tree-like building.

When she was close enough, Applejack quickly stood upright and galloped out the door, it slamming closed behind her, her thundering hoofsteps fading into the distance.

Twilight Sparkle was now panting heavily, filled to the brim with unexplainable rage. She started to calm down shortly after, carefully stepping down from the sofa and upstairs to her bathroom. Her face hurt, and she could already tell it was swollen. There was no doubt it would be bruised by sunrise the next day.

She closed the door behind her and stared into the mirror, a giant red mark on her lavender face.

Applejack hit her. Did that mean her nightmare was coming true? The Element of Honesty was already losing her touch. She sighed and wondered who'd be next.

Twilight turned on the water and splashed a bit in her face before shutting it off and exiting. She walked slowly towards her bed, ignoring a confused looking Spike as she passed. The poor dragon had been arisen from his nap at all the commotion downstairs just moments before.

Twilight climbed onto her bed, nosing her way under the sheets and curling into a ball, shortly drifting to sleep.