Dark Horizons

by Thespurgin

Rating: teen
Tags: Spike, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 11267

In the aftermath of the wedding, Twilight has found that her friends have grown... distant, and to make matters worse, she cannot rest for fear of a dream that she cannot remember. When it all comes crashing down, the night will fall.

It is three months after the Royal Wedding, and normalcy has returned to Equestria... for the most part. Pinkie is the same old Pinkie, Rainbow Dash is still addicted to the Wonderbolts, Rarity is still trying to learn Prench... but for Twilight, things are not the same. Ever since the Wedding, she's noticed an almost unnoticeable distance from her friends and from Celestia. This alone would be enough to bother her, but to make matters worse, she has been tormented by a dream that she cannot remember and physically cannot rest for fear of.

The tension is building, and something is bound to snap. If you've felt death and loneliness... what would you do to keep your loved ones from suffering the same fate?

Hello, this is your author speaking.
I know you're anxious to get to reading the story with the cryptic description would just like to point out a couple things before you get reading.

First of all, this is my first MLP fanfic, and it is set as an AU beginning just after the S2 finale, so I would appreciate constructive criticism. Not flaming or silent downvotes; give me criticism!
Secondly, it is important to understand that the AU tag seen above possesses two meanings. Not only is it an AU in the literal sense as it utilizes my own expansive worldcanon (dubbed Nidus) but in addition to that, it is an AU in that it does not accept the events of season three as canon. This is due to it chronologically beginning only 3 months after season two. The events of season three may appear, but they will likely be warped.
Lastly, I need to point out that I will probably be editing the tags and characters as this story goes. This being my first story, I'll need time to get a handle on the nuances of the submission system.
Thirdly, Please tell me if any of the fonts I use in the story go wrong. There are bound to be a few errors even with my prereading, so if you find them do say something.
Finally, I'd like to thank RoseyTail for her permission to use this marvelous image as my cover.

Thank you, and enjoy the story of Dark Horizons.

Published 2012-05-28 05:24:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-10 04:49:50 UTC

Foreboding

Chapter 1: Foreboding

Twilight was running in panic, though why she couldn’t remember, and for once she didn’t care. The forest around her blurred into a dark sinister mass through the cutting rain as lightning illuminated the sky, painting the silhouetted foliage in stark lines for a moment before the shadows consumed them again. Mud exploded under her hooves as she galloped pell-mell through the rain, the waterproof saddlebags on her back shaking forth a torrent of water and sweat with each hoof beat. She was hurt, probably bleeding somewhere, but couldn’t tell where or why. She also couldn’t see more than twenty feet, but these things didn’t register on her fevered mind at the moment, it was to otherwise occupied. Where was she? How did she get stuck out here in Everfree Forest, for indeed it could be nowhere else, in the middle of this downpour? How long had she been running? She didn’t know, she just knew she had to run, to find shelter from this storm.

The lavender unicorn was soaked to the skin and the winds bit into her like timberwolves, tossing her once straight navy blue mane with its magenta streak every which way. The grit and debris dancing on the wicked currents kept getting into her eyes and made them smart. Oh Celestia she had to find shelter! This wasn’t just a storm, it was an Everfree Hurricane!

Twilight had first heard of the legendary storms of the Everfree Forest back when she was a filly and Princess Celestia’s personal student. She’d been reading as she always did, but when she found a book on weather patterns she’d gotten nothing but a legend. She’d asked Celestia about it, and found out that the reason the book couldn’t offer any actual detail was because no one had ever actually managed to perform weather experiments and measure the incredibly rare phenomenon. Regardless, it was common knowledge that being out in one of the legendary storms for long was suicidal. Those that didn’t vanish without a trace were discovered mangled by flying debris and ripped to shreds. She’d read one autopsy report from about thirty years ago, and it had left her unable to sleep for a week straight. The nightmares… she’d managed to forget them after the longest time…

Now she was living out those nightmares. She’d die out here! Shelter… shelter… she had to find shelter! Stopping for a moment in the lee of a rock on the edge of a clearing, she squinted and tried to get her bearings. Around her, the wind whipped the sleeting rain into a scything frenzy that knifed across her skin like razors. Every inch of her body seared with agony, as if she’d been covered in paper cuts, but something drew her attention away from the pain. Something desperately trying to penetrate the wind’s frenzied screams.

Was that a voice?

Twilight listened intently, wobbling from the strain on her body, and through the deafening roar of the gale and the cracks of thunder, she heard something. It was a voice, a female voice, probably a pony’s, crying for help. What was anypony doing out in this storm?! Was that why she was out here? Was Rarity or Applejack out here? She had to help them!

She scrambled to her hooves, ignoring the pain as best she could, and dashed out into the open air again. Instantly, she was lashed with vines and twigs and rocks picked up by the winds, and she cried out in agony but continued to run. She couldn’t leave a pony out in this… she wouldn’t! She was almost across the clearing now... there! She’d made it back into the partial cover of the woods, and ran on to find the voice, to help.

The forest melted away as she ran, and a part of her, the part that wasn’t focused solely on the voice and finding it, noticed that she was running on a kind of rough path. To her left was a wall of gnarled trees, but to her right… to her right was empty space. The wind was impossibly strong here, callously ripping across her already ragged skin like sandpaper. It was hard not to scream with every step. The trees to her left started to rise up as she ran. The trail had sunk halfway down the cliff she’d been running along. She wondered how long she’d been running, how far could that voice possibly be? She must be hearing things. At the same time, she’d come so far, and if she wasn’t imagining things and that pony got hurt out here because she gave up…

Abruptly, Twilight's hoof snagged on a large tree root, ripping her out of her thoughts as she pitched forward and fell with a cry. She rolled a couple times from the momentum before finally bashing against a particularly hard rock sprouting up where the path merged with the rising cliff again. Her head spun, and absently she wondered if she’d gotten a concussion. Everything was a blur, but Twilight shook her head and staggered to her hooves. She took one step, then screamed and fell again as fire shot up her soaking limb. She lay in the mud for a moment, trembling against the pain, but managed to summon up the will to crane her neck and look at the leg in question.

It wasn’t as bad as it felt. Even with the mud caked onto her hoof the mare could see it wasn’t more than a small gash, maybe with a small stone stuck in the wound.

“Well,” she chuckled mirthlessly, “Now I know how that Manticore felt…” It was a bit ironic, but now wasn’t the time to laugh. She was hurt, lying in the mud on a trail cut out of a steep incline, in the middle of the Everfree Forest during the worst storm she’d ever imagined, and she was all alone. A bitter taste filled her mouth. Why was she in Everfree alone?

Alone. The word rang in her head, more deafening than all the roaring thunder and howling rain in the world. She was alone. She’d never hurt this much being alone before… why did it hurt now?

The beleaguered mare rose again, careful to avoid putting too much weight on her leg. Even then, it burned cruelly, but she’d suffered worse. Pinkie Pie and her quest to explain her ability to predict the future came to mind. Carefully, she stepped out, and again, then gently broke into a walk along the trail. Everything ached now, but nothing more than the feeling gnawing on her heart. She was truly alone… cut off… isolated. Had they all abandoned her, or had she abandoned them? Why had she come into this forest in the first place? What was going on?!

Twilight slowly continued on her miserable march, practically numb now to any pain of the body. No one should have to suffer this. This was how it felt to be completely abandoned… completely alone. Her tired hoofsteps slowed imperceptibly as her mind sank within itself, working like a computer to make sense of something, anything, that had happened to her. The chilling wind was null to her, so deeply was she lost in her own thought.

A familiar sound, louder now but still faint, shook Twilight out of her thoughts, and she cursed softly under her breath. How could she just let herself stand out in the storm like that!? As if in response to her actions, the storm flared again with greater force and in an instant she found herself lashed by branches torn from the trees up the slope. She sunk down. What else could she do, and weathered it while she sought an escape. In her panic, the mare half wondered if the storm was consciously trying to kill her, but that thought was banished by her rational side as quickly as it came. Even exhausted, she wouldn’t let herself fall apart like that again. It was a disgrace to her teacher!

The voice came again, and Twilight’s head snapped around to find it. Where was it coming from?! Her eyes were everywhere at once, trying desperately to pick out details through the whirling debris, but she couldn’t see anything! There was nothing, nopony out here! Now she was going to die all alone because she’d been stupid and not sought shelter sooner! Suddenly, a dark spot against the cliff face not far up the trail caught her eye, and she fixed on it. “Wait… is that a… a cave?” She stammered, only just realizing how severely chilled her body had become.

A faint glimmer of hope sparked. That was it! It had to be a cave! Perhaps somepony was hiding there, the source of the voice she kept hearing! Even if there wasn’t, it would be the shelter she needed so badly. With her rational mind back in control, she could start to pinpoint the effects of hypothermia and exhaustion, possibly a concussion and blood loss as well. If she could get to that cave, she could hunker down and wait for help, maybe even patch herself up and get a fire going! She was going to make it!

Twilight took off at a limping run along the trail, her saddlebags shaking wildly. Dang, they must have finally started to come loose from all the excitement. The only thing on her mind was “Get to the cave get to the cave get to the cave…” but fate decided otherwise.

A black shape lanced across her vision, but before she could react it struck her, eliciting a scream from the battered equine’s throat, a raw and hoarse thing that echoed even in the fury of the storm as a massive branch whipped through the air and broke over her face. She could feel the crack as it fragmented over her horn, then everything was pain. She couldn’t see! Her horn seared with agony… the branch must have cracked it. But then why couldn’t she see? She fell from the impact of the branch, lifted up and thrown several feet simply from the force. She lay there for a moment, simply in shock. There was a metallic taste in her mouth. Blood? She didn’t know. All she could do was howl her panicked questions in her mind. Why was this happening!? Why?! How did she even get here?! It was enough to make her break down into sobs there on the ground, and she did for a time… but a surge of defiance brought it up short.

Taking a moment to rub her eyes, Twilight managed to clear her vision enough to get some small modicum of sight back. Staggering again, she spat whatever was making the taste in her mouth into the wind. She wasn’t going to fall to this storm. She refused! She was the bearer of the element of magic and friendship itself! She would not die here! She would not die alone!

The mare rose shakily to her hooves again, spiting clouds above her. Throwing herself into a desperate sprint, she saw the cave growing as she came closer; closer to shelter, to survival. She was so close! Another branch whipped towards her, but she threw herself out of the way just in time. She stood to run again, slower this time. How she even found the will to stand was something not even she knew, then suddenly an impossibly loud sound, something she could only describe as an earthen explosion, cut the air above her. She spun to look, and her eyes widened.

The cliff loomed over the pony as a torrent of wood and earth cascaded down like some kind of chunky waterfall, but she didn’t stay to admire the view. Driven by the raw inequine fury of one hellbent on life, she ran. She ran like no pony could run. She ran like one possessed, praying that she’d be able to make it out of the path of the splintery avalanche in time.

She didn’t make it. A tree crashed onto the path next to her, one of its branches ripping off her saddlebags as if they were nothing by scraps of paper, and then it swatted her like a fly. All she had time for was one final scream of agonized terror, and then she was swept off the trail.

Falling…

Falling…

Falling…

Alone…

She was going to die all alone.

It hurt.

Falling…

Alone…

Falling…

Pain.

Darkness.

Alone.And then she knew nothing.

Twilight shot up in bed with a stifled scream, cold sweat dripping from her bedraggled mane. Panic was etched into her features as her eyes roved the room, then reality managed to set in again and she finally managed to relax. Again… she’d had the nightmare again. She shivered, though whether it was a remnant of the dream or the soft draught of night air from her open window it was impossible to tell. It was still the middle of the night, maybe 3 AM from the position of the moon. It was the same… every night it was the same... She’d gone to sleep, and tried to rest, but every night that nightmare came back. That first night, she’d woken up screaming so hard she’d sent Spike into a panic.

At first, she’d merely slept and woken up more tired than before. She hadn’t even remembered the dream… but as time passed, it got worse. Even now, all she could remember were vague impressions of it, and the sensations. How strange was it that she could feel the sensations from a dream but not remember the dream itself?

Twilight shuddered to herself trying to shake off the ache and chilling wetness that clung to her memory, and slid out of bed. Pacing softly so as not to wake up Spike, her poor assistant had suffered enough from her inability to sleep. She knew… even if he didn’t want her to know, she walked gingerly over to her dresser and looked in the mirror. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Her eyes were sallow and her hair a disaster worse than that bird’s nest she’d tried to build back during her first Winter Wrap-Up… she looked like she was half dead. “Three months… She whispered softly, “it’s hard to believe it’s only been 3 months since my brother’s wedding.”

Spike mumbled something in his sleep, rolling over in the little basket he had been sleeping in for a long time. The sound brought Twilight’s head around, with a worried expression, but at the sight of Spike smiling in his sleep she let out a breath. Thank Celestia he wasn’t having bad dreams too. She couldn’t bear it if her little brother was having nightmares because of hers. As it was she’d troubled him enough… he was still so young.

The mare turned back to her dresser and softly opened the drawer. Inside was a single book with her cutie mark, a dazzling magenta six-pointed star with smaller white star behind it of the same shape, both irregular and surrounded by a quintet of smaller, white stars much like the one hiding behind the magenta brand.

Her cutie mark

The thing that was most deeply hers

The thing that represented her entirely

Her skills, her hobbies, what she was meant to do…

Twilight shook her head forcefully. This was no time to let her thoughts wander! Opening the modest book, she skimmed over the pages written in her own handwriting. It wouldn’t do to call it her diary. A diary is the chronicle of everything in a mare’s life, her deepest secrets, her fears, her feelings. No. Twilight had a diary to be sure. She had several actually. Blame it on being an obsessive note taker, but ever since she’d been a filly the gifted mare had kept a diary, of everything… and it kinda used a lot of ink and paper.

Celestia had been kind enough to arrange a supply for her when she’d moved to the castle, but before that her parents had given her one a month and enough ink to cover it… it had limited how much she could record.

Her mentor had changed that. Perhaps she’d spoiled her even, considering how much she used in a week back then. Nowadays, she contented herself to one every two weeks… but she was wandering again. The book that sat in front of her, gleaming in the moonlight, wasn’t a dairy, but a journal that was even more special to the mare, for it was hers; it was a journal of her dreams.

Twilight smiled faintly, a half-hearted smile that would no doubt have failed to fool even little Poundcake if he had been there. To say she was troubled was an understatement. This book, this tome of hers, was no less sacred to her than her diary or any of the journals she used for research. There were dreams in this journal from before she’d been Celestia’s student… childish, innocent dreams that probably sounded ludicrous to most people, but to her they were precious things.

Other dreams… her foalhood nightmares and her more *ahem* embarrassing dreams as a filly… they were here too. She’d managed to keep it hidden for a long time, even from Spike, but it wasn’t that she didn’t trust him to keep a secret. This was just… something that was hers alone; a chronicle of her subconscious, for her to contemplate and try to understand. It had happy times wrapped up in its pages, good memories of those times; times all from the past.

The present was another matter. The lavender equine’s most recent entries were all the same… two weeks in a row of the same horrible dream night after night. She didn’t know which was worse… the fact that she couldn’t actually remember the nightmare, or that she could feel everything from it. Gritting her teeth, she silently cast a spell and a purple aura rose into existence around her pen before lifting it gently into the air. Carefully, she dripped the quill in her inkwell so as to not disturb it and risk waking the sleeping dragon, and set the tip to the paper.

As she wrote, chronicling again everything that she could think to say about the incident and any other thoughts regarding it. It hurt to do it, and not metaphorically either. Even thinking about it brought the ache back into her heart, one she could practically feel in her chest and ache that grew worse and worse each time the terrible dream came. She was afraid. She’d already poured over her library’s contents at least twice searching for possible sleep aids or studies on dreams, but all her efforts had proved fruitless.

The sound of the quill scratching on the now partially full page seemed so very loud to her in the silence. Thank Luna for the especially bright moon. It gave her plenty of light to write by through the window so she didn’t have to find a lamp and risk waking Spike.

More than once she’d considered asking Spike to write a letter to Princess Celestia asking for help, but the Royal Patron of the Sun was busy as Twilight well knew. She couldn’t bother the princess for something as trivial as bad dreams! The same thing went for her friends too. They all had busy schedules, and she had no place imposing on their carefully laid plans or happiness with her personal problems.

Twilight had made up her mind by the second day. She wasn’t going to drag anyone else into this. She’d already deprived her little brother of far too much sleep, and they both knew that there wasn’t much more he could really do, aside from take over more of the running of the library when she was down. Bless the little scaly rascal, he’d tried so hard to help her when the nightmares had first started, but even he had to admit after exhausting all his options and she’d refused to tell anyone else about it.

The quill’s quiet scribbling ceased as she finished her notations. Looking at the page, she sighed the sigh of a tormented soul. To the moon with this dream! With each recurrence, she recalled more of it, but it was still so vague! She hated this. She wanted to sleep peacefully through the night like she used too when she wasn’t on a study-spree. She was tired, worried, aggravated, and simply fed up with it. She’d had enough. By Celestia, she was going to get to the bottom of this and put an end to that blasted dream! Another purple glimmer shrouded the tome, closing it without a word and drifting it gently into the drawer of her dresser, which she closed with a single hoof.

Twilight knew she’d get no more rest that night. She may as well try to read through some of the books she’d recently received on order from the Canterlot archives. With any luck, one of them might hold the clue to solving this mysterious affliction- for yes that was the only thing she could think to call it, before it started to have a serious impact on her health. She made no jest in assuming anything else; as it was, she was unique among the population of the town in that she was capable of running for twelve days with practically no rest, but even she needed to rest, and anyone could tell the signs of sleep deprivation on her face. Any other pony would probably be in the hospital already. Maybe she should too…

That thought made the mare grimace. “No.” She hissed lowly, again so as not to wake up the baby dragon but a few feet from her. “I can’t start thinking like that now. My dreams are my own problem, and the last thing I’m going to do is check into the hospital over a dumb nightmare. I’m a grown mare not a foal.”

The lavender equine shook her head to clear any remaining such thoughts, and walked softly over to her little dragon companion’s bed to kiss his forehead. “Sleep well Spike. You deserve the rest.” She whispered, and then quietly made for the stairs to start reading. She needed to take her mind off that dream. Outside the window, the moon shone softly as if applauding her determination, before an ominous flotilla of clouds swallowed its light, and even the stars grew dimmer.

To Be Continued…

Wounding Words

Chapter 2: Wounding Words

Twilight Sparkle was many things. The personal student of the princess of the sun, magical prodigy, bearer of the lost 6th Element of Harmony, and the one individual capable of claiming (regardless of her humility) to have saved the world from lunatic megalomaniacs three times in as many years, was falling apart. What's more, she knew it. Ten days; it had been ten straight days since the exhausted mare had had a decent night’s sleep. A week and a half since her nightmares began. She’d been through all the books in her library twice, and she’d found nothing that could help. The bedraggled equine didn’t know if she was looking for a cure anymore… heck, she didn’t even know if whatever was doing this to her qualified as a disease!

More than once, Twilight considered going to her friends or even the princesses and telling them about everything. At least then she wouldn’t be alone in her problem. The mere thought of being alone was physically painful to her, like the ache you felt after getting bucked in the chest. Yet... on the other hand, in the three months it had been since the wedding and Chrysalis’s defeat, the studious unicorn had noticed that the others had been… what was the right word? Withdrawn? Yes, that was it.

It wasn’t that they were avoiding her per se; she still ran into them as much as any other pony in Ponyville and they still got together every now and again, but… something was different. She felt it more than saw it, but it was during conversation that whatever had changed became most obvious. They were still her friends, but they were holding something back. Not lying... just not letting themselves open up. It was like she was a stranger to them. Even Pinkie.

Twilight had considered this strange distance in her friends quite a bit between explorations of the medical section. She didn’t know what it was that had made all her friends withdrawn like they were… but it only made sense that it was something to do with her. Perhaps they were mad?

'Is this my fault?' She wondered in a hint of despair. 'Did I drive them away...?'

Perhaps she’d let them down somehow? Had she hurt their feelings? It must be something like that if they couldn’t bear to just say it. Still, was that any reason to keep from telling them about her own problem? What kept her from just telling them, and then working to fix things? If she’d done something wrong, she could fix it! There was no reason at all to be afraid of anything, least of all telling her friends about having a bad dream!

Yet that was exactly what Twilight was, and she couldn't deny it. She was afraid. Afraid of their reactions, of disappointing Celestia, of her nightmares… She’d sent a letter to Celestia requesting some books from the Royal Archives, but even then she hadn’t been completely truthful as to why she needed them, and now that she thought about it, the princess had been a bit distant in her letters as well...

In truth, Twilight did feel a bit bad for not just telling her mentor about her problem, but that led back to that same fear she felt towards her friends. She’d long since given up trying to find a loophole, a way out. Every time she tried her mind ended up derailing. She never lost her train of thought! Could it be… was she losing her mind?

More than once, Twilight’s thoughts had wandered from her fevered examination of a tome on ailments to the impressions that lingered from her dream, and in the last couple of days it seemed she was getting worse. Sometimes she found herself crying for no reason, and other times too exhausted to move. She didn’t tell anypony about it, and had chosen to keep in relative seclusion in since the dreams had gotten worse, but it was obvious that at the very least Spike knew. How could he not? They were practically family after all, though exactly what kind of family relation was unspecified.

They both knew why it was happening as well; Twilight’s sleep deprivation had reached the point where it was beginning to affect her body on the psychological level, to say nothing of the physical aspect. In the past few days, the exhaustion seemed to weigh especially heavily on her. Twilight didn’t even bother to do her morning routine. What was the point if she no longer slept? Her haggard appearance was a testament to that, though considering she usually looked like that on a study binge it no one could really see the real problem… besides Spike.

It was a gentle summer day outside the window of the library. Twilight had left the window beside her and knew that much firsthoof. More than once a gentle breeze would try to turn the page she was reading, only for her to stop it. That same breeze carried with it the smells of baking and activity, things that managed to take her overstressed mind off her research just when she needed them most.

“I just don’t understand,” The mare muttered, closing the book before her and levitating one of the discarded tomes up to her face. A Physician’s Desk Reference stood out in bold letters under her nose, almost mocking her. How many of these books had she read in the past few days? A hundred? Two hundred? She’d lost count. The sheer amount of medical terminology bouncing around in her head was giving her a headache, one made all the worse by the fact that not a single book in her library and as of yet any of the ones she’d gotten on loan from the Royal Archives had what she was looking for. Even Supernaturals had nothing, and that was the book that had carried information on Poison Joke when no other book she had even treated the plant as anything more than a myth!

“There’s nothing in any of these books that explains this… this nightmare syndrome! Nothing!” Twilight’s aggravated proclamation was punctuated by the book in question being hurled across the library and narrowly missing Spike as he came down the stairs. The book slamming flat into the wall before dropping to the steps with a dull thud, and Spike winced involuntarily. This was bad. Twilight never harmed books… least of all library books!

“Uh… Twilight?” Spike called hesitantly. Twilight’s head snapped around like lightning at the unexpected voice, and there was a wet snap, making the young dragon cringe. For a moment, neither moved, as if frozen in their respective poses; Twilight with a surprised expression plastered on her face while her neck was contorted like an owl’s, and Spike cringing behind the horsehead statue on the center reading table of the library with an equally terrified expression on his face.

Twilight’s eye twitched, a faint groan eliciting from her lips, then she fell sideways off the window seat and toppled into a chaotic pile of books. Shaking himself, Spike rushed over to the pile, seriously worried for Twilight’s health, but gave a sigh of relief when she breached from the pile.

“Ow…” she mumbled, wincing a couple times as she felt the condition of her muscles and began massaging her neck.
Spike began pulling books out of the sizable mound and stacking them off to the side.

“Are you okay Twilight?” He asked, moving to put a hand on her withers from where she kneeled amid the tomes. “I’ve never seen anypony turn their neck like that short of Pinkie Pie! Here, let me help you up…”

As the young dragon’s claws touched the overtired mare’s fur, Twilight tensed and jerked away with a stifled growl. Spike recoiled at the downright feral behavior of his caretaker, but thankfully she relaxed a moment later.

“Oh, I’m sorry Spike…” she whispered weakly in an attempt to apologize. “I just… my temper’s been going crazy and I can’t find…”

Spike silenced her with a single hand, taking a deep breath to calm himself in turn. “It’s alright Twilight. I know you’ve been researching like crazy to find an answer to your in- your insim-

Twilight just cracked a bemused grin. "Insomnia?

"Yeah, that." The dragon replied. "Anyway, you’ve been really worn out for the past couple days really, so I should have seen it coming. Are you okay?”

“Nothing serious, but I think I did something to my neck when I twisted it like that…” She replied, forcing a smile across her face, in an attempt to hide the pained expression underneath.

The dragon didn’t buy it. He knew Twilight too well. It came with the territory of being her number one assistant for so long. He also knew Twilight was getting dangerously close to snapping. Celestia’s mane, it was a miracle she hadn’t snapped already!

Careful to keep his tone light, Spike buried the worried expression he knew would be on his face and nodded once. “Okay, then I’ll get some ice for your neck, and then start organizing this mess. You should lie down.”

The mare’s worn amethyst eyes narrowed slightly, and she shuddered. “No. No way Spike, not gonna’ happen. Not until I have a cure for this. I can’t.”

“Twilight… you have to rest. You’re going to study yourself into a grave at this rate! You should have checked into the hospital a week ago when this all started! I don’t care if half of Ponyville thinks you’re the creature that never sleeps and I don’t care if you did stay up for twelve days straight in a panic attack and still managed a something as draining as that time travel spell, you are still a pony! You have to rest!”

“I said no. Spike, I still have books to look through, and this won’t wait. I have to understand this! This isn’t just about studying dreams in my spare time to impress the princess, and don’t tell me you haven’t been thinking that’s what this is about either. This isn’t just something I just want to study; it’s something I need to understand. I can’t explain why. I’m close to the answer, I can feel it. Do you understand? I can’t let this go. Not now.” The mare said, her voice trailing into a whisper as she looked at the young dragon’s expression.

The face of the unicorn’s #1 assistant was unreadable. His eyes, however, were far from it. They were narrow and hard. One of his eyebrows kept twitching slightly. Twilight winced and closed her eyes, waiting for him to explode, and for a long moment nothing happened.

Suddenly, the mare felt arms around her neck, holding her tight. Her eyes snapped open to see Spike practically hanging from her, eyes squeezed shut. “I understand Twilight. Really, I do.”

The mare shuddered, and relaxed visibly. “Thanks Spike. I’m s-”

“However,” He continued with what appeared to be honest concern and more than a little sternness in his voice, “I can’t let you keep doing this anymore. I’m your number one assistant! What kind of assistant would I be if I let you keep hurting yourself like this?”

There was a momentary silence as Twilight stared speechlessly at the purple-scaled dragon.

He looked down at the floor sadly. "Yet... yet you are hurting yourself, and I am letting you do it." He sniffed. "I'ma terrible number one assistant..."

"Spike..." Twilight whispered in more than a little shame. It was one thing to be chastened by a princess, or even by her friends, but to have her own assistant; a baby dragon that her own magic had hatched… it was like being reprimanded by your own foal!

The mare shook her head fiercely at that, killing that particular line of thought with impunity. She and Spike had been together for a long time, but it was pretty clear that regardless of the admittedly sizable role she had played in his hatching, it was Celestia that he viewed as a mother. It was Celestia that had taken care of raising him when he was little, since Twilight herself had been far too young to take care of a child, especially a baby dragon, at that age, and the princess’s fathomless lifespan meant she’d be around to help him far longer than Twilight ever would be. She wasn’t even worthy of being called his mother, she was his babysitter, his friend, hay maybe even his sister, but there was no way he could view her as a mother, and she had no right to view him as her foal. All these thoughts flashed through her head in a half second, and she returned to herself to see Spike looking at her with that same concerned expression, and the hint of a tear in his eye.

“Spike,” she repeated, wrapping her forelimbs around him in a hug. "Don't ever say that again. You're the best assistant I could ever ask for. Nopony would ever stick around with me and the girls on our adventures or work half as hard as you do. Even Owlicious, for all the help he is, can't help like you can. You're my number one assistant, and more than that you're my friend, like a little brother. None of this is your fault or something you should blame yourself for okay? Now wipe that tear away and don't lie to yourself like that again okay?"

Spike wiped his eye obediently and tried to smile as Twi sat back, releasing him from her embrace. "Okay Twilight... It's just, seeing you work yourself so hard and go without sleep for so long... and I'm here just letting it happen... I feel like I should never have made that Pinkie Promise about this!"

He felt a warm brush, like a silk handkerchief, as her forehoof brushed his cheek and rested softly on his shoulder, and the second, even warmer brush of her voice, so low it was naught but a whisper. "It's gonna be okay Spike. If it puts your mind at ease, I promise that if I collapse, I'll tell everyone what's going on and if they think I should, I'll check into the hospital. Okay?"

Spike nodded furiously, and leapt forward to hug her again. "I'm really scared Twilight... what if this ends up leaving you really hurt, or worse? What would happen to me, to the library, to Peewee?" He asked, referring to the newest addition to their household, the baby phoenix they'd rescued from the dragon raid. The expression on his face turned sour. "I'm so selfish..." he muttered bitterly, "Here you are studying without rest and I'm worried about what will happen to me..."

Twilight just chuckled. "No Spike, you're not being selfish at all. You're worried about Peewee, and more importantly I'd be more concerned if you weren't worried. As it is..." she continued, her voice dropping away to a gentle whisper again, "the fact that you care about Peewee and this library shows that you've become so much more mature since the dragon migration... My little Spike is growing up so fast."

"H-hey! Twilight!" He stammered as she nuzzled him affectionately. He leaned away to escape the embrace, but regretted it instantly as Twilight grunted and returned to her original position, gritting her teeth at the return of the sharp pain in her neck.

"Oh I'm so sorry Twilight I forgot about your neck! Let me get some ice!"

"No!" Twilight exclaimed. She didn't seem angry, but for an instant, it was like being blasted by the Royal Canterlot Voice. He couldn't understand what emotion that was in. Had she been taking lessons from Luna?! She'd never yelled like that before, even when she was angry! He froze at the thought. Was she mad? Had he already messed up? Thankfully, any further panic he could cultivate at her unintentional outburst was cut short.

"No Spike... please." she repeated, quieter this time. "Can you... Can you just stay with me for a bit? It hurts to be alone."

Spike hesitated only for a moment, unsure what to do, but the desperate undertone in her voice was real. "Yes Twilight. I can." He whispered, then he hugged her again.

They stayed like that, just hugging each other in silence, for a long time. Exactly how long Spike wasn't sure, probably a couple hours. Twilight was silent in his arms, but even in that silence... he heard plenty. She was scared, more than scared, she was terrified, and he could understand why.

Twilight had always been a mare of science, of understanding things. She discovered how something worked, then went from there. When she had a problem, she learned as much as she could about it, then worked to solve it. It had worked for everything previous save Pinkie Sense, and it went unsaid that that instance hadn't been her finest moment. Taking that into account this time the whole situation was far, far worse.

When Twilight had researched Pinkie Sense, she'd done it of her own free will. She wanted to understand it. What's more, the lavender pony had continued despite her run-ins with causality out of an undying stubbornness. In the end, there had been no external compulsion or palpable personal stake in it at all. This "dream curse" though, it was an entirely different matter. The studious mare hadn't been given a choice, she'd simply had to research it and find a solution, because it wasn't something she could ignore. This wasn't Pinkie Sense, where you could just accept it as it is and keep going on with little difference to your life, this was something that could very well kill her.

That brought the dragon to a very important conundrum. If this was so important, then why wouldn't she let anyone help her? He wasn't still foolish enough to believe that the fact that she'd told him was for any special reason other than sheer necessity. He lived in the library, so it would have been impossible to keep him from realizing it eventually. She'd simply done the logical thing and preempted his discovery with a direct revelation, and made him keep quiet about it with a Pinkie Pie promise. She obviously didn't want anyone else to know about the problem, despite it being so serious, so... why?

He knew the problem had something to do with her dreams. Her lack of sleep, her outright aversion of rest, and the fact that he'd noticed her writing into the book he knew was her dream journal despite never managing to read it said as much. It had to be her dream journal. She'd enchanted that tome on a level that made it impossible for anyone to read, save maybe Celestia or Luna, and Twilight would only put that much effort into something extremely personal. He'd already found her diary, so that left only the dream journal.

Twilight quivered a bit, almost shivering. Was it cold? It didn't seem cold...

Okay, so it was something to do with her dreams. What about her dreams could make her want to face down a life-threatening problem on her own and do her best to keep others from learning about it?

Twilight quivered again, and it was then that Spike realized why. It wasn't cold, he knew that, and she hadn't quivered from exhaustion recently... was she sobbing?

"Twilight?" His voice was barely above a whisper.

"Spike... the truth is... I'm scared too."

"Twilight... if you're scared then why-?"

"Why won't I tell anyone besides you and Owlicious?" She asked softly. Spike only nodded. "Well, I gue-" Suddenly, Pinkie Pie.

"HiTwilight!OohhhhwhyareyouandSpikehugginglikethat?"

It was as if you'd struck the two of them with a lightning bolt. Twilight's mane stood up on end as she shot straight into the air and slammed into the ceiling with a scream, scattering the books they had neglected to clean up in favor of conversation and clipping Spike, who in turn toppled head over heels across the room into the kitchen hiccuping fireballs all the way. By the crash that followed, he'd apparently found the wall just below the self were she kept the pots and pans. Another muffled hiccup, then silence.

"Pinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnkieeeeeeee!!!!!!" Twilight howled, causing the mare in question to look up. The lavender mare hung from the ceiling by her horn, flailing her legs like an octupus at a dance party, and by Celestia was she ever mad. "Didn't your parents ever teach you to knock?!"

In the background, there was another clatter as the unseen calamity in the kitchen suffered a few aftershocks, and Spike's muffled voice could be heard.
"I'm okay guys!"
-crash- rollrollrollroll
"I'm still okay...!"

After a moment of thought at Twilight's question, Pinkie Pie just pulled her body out from under that miserable horse head statue on the reading table (why did she even have that stupid thing? More than that, why was it flat on the table when Pinkie was under it!?) by her downright cartoon neck, and smiled. Curse that smile. How could she be so totally oblivious to everything!? "Oh silly Twilight, I didn't use the door! I used the bath tub!"

"..."

There was a long pause as the beleaguered equine's all too stressed mind forgot the first rule of Pinkie Pie and pushed itself into the redzone to figure out what she was saying. The reflex was powerful, stopping her failing dead and leaving her hanging like a limp rag with her jaw hanging open. The silence hung literally in the air for a long time as Twilight mentally sputtered to get something cognizant out of her mouth in reply, but her difficulty working said part of her anatomy only mad her angrier. In the end, it produced something monumental. A new language was born that day, one that would be used in future to replace all foul language wherefore previously acknowledged. They called it "angrish."

"I...! You...! Piepipespinkie... huduvuweeving...! Ceiling when I...! Pie Pinkie I'm going to!... AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!" It was a comical sight, thanks to Twilight's hair physically smouldering as she gibbered in outrage.

"Uhhh... Twilight?"

Pinkie and Twilight turned to the source of the familiar voice, and beheld Applejack standing in the somehow open space where the locked front door should have been with a concerned expression on her face.

"Uh howdy girls... I hope Ah'm not interruptin' anything?"

Applejack's expression alone spoke volumes and what was on her mind would have been painfully clear to anypony else, but not Ponyville's friendly neighborhood head case. Pinkie looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled. "Oh no silly! You're just in time! Twilight was creating a new language and I'm so glad you get to be here for it!" -Gasp- "Oh this is the language's birthday! This calls for a-!"

"Yeah I saw that..." The braided-maned cowpony interrupted, "Sorry Pinkie but I don't think you can throw a birthday party for a language, if that even was one. Besides, we have previous plans remember?" Pinkie paused, tilting her head in a thoughtful manner again at her reliable friend's reminder, and the pony turned her southern-drawl on Twilight, who was still hanging from the heartwood ceiling. "And Twilight, you should know better than t' try to make sense of Pinkie Pie. Remember Froggy Bottom Bog?"

The dangling mare raised a hoof to protest, but AJ cut her off. "And I don't want to hear another word about Pinkie Pie and how she got into the library. We both know you can't keep that pony out of anything if she wants in. Jus' let it go."

Twilight obeyed the command reluctantly, and sighed heavily. "Just get me down from here so I can assess the Pinkie-related damages..." She grouched, crossing her forelegs sulkily. "I swear I'm going to find out if this library's insurance covers damaged caused by lunatics..."

For the briefest moment, the cowpony's expression shifted to a hurt expression, but she masked it with a half-smile at the pose Twilight was unintentionally making as she went for her lasso. "Ah' doubt it Twi'light," she replied with a vaguely forced chuckle. "What with the number of crazies making Ponyville home, the companies would be bankrupt in a month."

"Point taken." Twilight sorted sourly, her disposition darkening at the interruption of her previous activities and unwelcome presence of her friends. "Just get me down."

"Unhhhh... well the kitchen's a disaster." Mumbled Spike as he staggered back into the room with a pot mostly obscuring his head. "Fantastic... another mess to clean up. Oh wow Twilight, Pinkie really did a number on you didn't she?"

With a toss of her head, Applejack nicely curved the lasso so it floated through the air and went tight around her friend's dangling back legs. "Hang on sugar cube, I'll have you down in a jiffy!"

"Whatever."

"We're here everypony!"

For the third time in less than ten minutes, everyone present turned in eery unison towards the source of the sudden and familiar voice. Sure enough, a familiar ivory-furred pony sporting a mane that could only be described as 'violaceous spirals of perfection' (anything less verbose would be an insult to the amount of effort the mare put into that thing every morning) stood in the doorway. Behind her were a pair of familiar pegasi, one with an unmistakeable rainbow mane and the third and finally one hiding behind the collective tails of the others. Still, the strands of pink mane that were visible made it obvious who she was, and indeed the all three of them were obvious at a glance.

They were Rarity Belle, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, respectively. Her fellow bearers of harmony and her friends... or at least she'd thought they were friends. The way they'd been almost avoiding her since the wedding was not lost on Twilight. She'd even considered that they could be changelings for a while, but logic had killed that line of reasoning quickly. Still, there was something definitely strange about...

Absently realizing that she was zoning out, Twilight put those thoughts on hold and tuned back into the present, a part of her subconscious dutifully filing away the fact that that somehow that entire flashback happened in less than a second. Pinkie had said something, but she'd (thankfully) missed it. She couldn't handle any more insanity today.

"Good Gracious Twilight! Darling whatever did do to get stuck up there?" Rarity gasped demurely. The fashionista had to have been practicing that darn expression... every time she used it it managed to be more and more dramatic. Maybe hobnobbing it up with the nobles at the wedding was the reason she seemed-?

"Howdy Rarity!" Applejack exclaimed, her resounding southern twang shaking Twilight out of her tangent thoughts once again. "Twilight's kinda hung up at the moment, so I was gonna get her down."

Rarity's eyes rolled as she stepped inside, trailed by Fluttershy. "I can see that she's hanging from the ceiling Applejack, but how did she get up there?" For a moment, Twilight could have sworn that Rarity's voice quivered, like she was straining to keep it neutral, but it vanished.

Whatever the orange pony's answer to that particular question would have been, it was left unsaid on account of Rainbow Dash barreling into the room and hovering up in front of Twilight's face. She stared at her for a moment, then looked her up and down, before finally opening her mouth.

"Haha wow Twilight I didn't know you could hang from the roof like that! You must have really wanted to get up here! Tell me... do you come here for the view, or just because you like the wood?"

There was an awkward silence, then the cackling started. First Rainbow Dash, then Pinkie, then Applejack, even Rarity began to laugh. Spike just looked on sadly, the pot still partially covering his head, while Fluttershy looked ashamedly at her hooves, hiding behind the pink curtain of her mane.

Twilight couldn't bear it. How could they? Didn't they understand? How would they feel if they were stuck hanging from the ceiling?! She ground her teeth silently, holding her tongue. Didn't they know how much that hurt? Couldn't they see...? Couldn't they see that they were stabbing her heart?

It is common knowledge that one of the elements of harmony was laughter. Laughter can be a salve to wounds medicine cannot touch, a warm blanket to the soul on a chilly night. However, laughter can also be forged into a blade that cuts deeper than any craft of the hoof. When laughter is directed at someone, instead of alongside them and with them, it becomes a thing of cruel power. That, albeit unwittingly, was what four of her dearest friends had turned on her.

Twilight was silent. Every fiber of her, be it sinew, muscle, bone, or nerve, was as taught as a whip. The purple unicorn was on the verge of snapping. However, it was not anger that kept her so tightly wound, but a desperate drive to keep from breaking down into tears.

'I thought they were my friends...' She sobbed in the turbid environs of her distraught mind. It was like a knife had been driven into her heart. 'After all we've been through; Nightmare Moon, the hydra, Discord, the dragon migration, the changeling invasion... We were so close. When did we become so distant?' She wondered, the harsh merriment of her friends rung in her eyes, only twisting the imagined blade deeper.

It took them a while before they finally managed to stop, apparently not even fully cognizant of the effects of their amusement. That was when they finally realized Twilight wasn't laughing. An awkward silence settled on the library again, and Spike could feel Twilight's tension building. That was not good. In her condition, there was no telling how far she was from cracking under the strain.

Twilight rarely cracked, but the two more memorable times in recent history she had had been during her studies of pinkie sense and when she was panicking about her friendship lesson due dates to Celestia. Respectively, the "Froggy Bottom Bog" and "Smarty Pants" incidents, as they were called, showed just what Twilight was capable of if pushed to far. Knowing that, it was a miracle in hindsight that Discord's machinations hadn't... okay maybe they did, if you figured the the stress from the battle with Discord might have something to do with the smarty pants one...

But enough of all that! If Twilight snapping from conditions far less serious than her insomnia had caused those things, what would happen if she snapped now!? That didn't bear thinking about. He had to do something... but what? How?

Spike's mind would probably have run onto a few dozen more questions if it had had the time, perhaps enough to figure something out. Unfortunately, the overworked little dragon's mind never got the chance.

"Soooo... Twilight?" Rainbow Dash spoke up, hazarding the question needed to break the awkward silence. "Really Twilight, why are you up there?"

Both Applejack and Spike facehoofed (or faceclawed in the dragon's case) and groaned in unison at their mutual friend's 'impetuousity' as Twilight would have said. At that moment, the face of the mare that shared that name could have been carved from stone. Meanwhile, Rarity was watching Pinkie Pie take a swan dive into the veritable pool of literature on the floor; the one from the aftermath of Twilight's adventures in medical texts.

"Silly Dashie! Twilight's just hanging around!" Called Pinkie as she breached from the sea of paper and ink to vanish again in a splash of magazines. Another massed groan at the pun echoed through the now disorganized room. Twilight didn't want to answer the question. She wasn't sure what would happen if she did. Applejack, noticing Twilight's long silence, decided to answer for her.

"Well Rainbow, as far as ah' know Twilight's stuck up there." The apple-flanked cowpony shrugged. "Pinkie isn't something good to have on your brain y'know, so she kinda... freaked."

All present winced at the unmistakeable sound of Pinkie gasping, and braced themselves. Good thing they did, because that earth pony hits you like a train. "Oh-my-gosh-I-was-standing-on-Twilight's-brain-I'm-so-sorry-Twilight-I-didn't-mean-to-" There was a momentary pause in the unending river of discourse as the bubblegum mare tilted her head at a 90 degree angle in what was generally agreed upon by the others as the 'ponderous pinkie' position. Everyone waited patiently for the synchronized rolling of her eyes to stop. Even Twilight had learned rather quickly that you don't interrupt the mare when she was loading.

"Objection! Applejack, Twilight's brain is in her head! I didn't stand on her head, so I couldn't have been on her brain! " Came the triumphant declaration as the party pony took an epic pose on top the horse head statue with a hoof thrust at Appelejack. No one bothered to comment on the suffering of physics in this regard. With Pinkie Pie, you just acknowledge that all laws of science and common sense had surrendered to her long ago.

This time, Rarity and Rainbow Dash joined in the concerted facehoof. "It's an expression deary. Don't overthink it."

"Okay Rarity!" Pinkie nodded vigorously, then belly flopped into the book pile.

"Anyway," Applejack cut in. "let's get you down Twilight. Rarity, Rainbow, mind gettin' your hooves dirty for a bit?"

"Are you kidding Applejack? My hooves are always up for grime!"

"Ugh, no thank you dear, I'd rather just use my horn." The alabaster-furred dressmaker replied with a toss of her mane, gesturing to the ivory spire rising from her forehead.

Applejack was silent for a moment, then sighed in defeat. "It's an expression prissypants... let's jus' get her down?" Rarity nodded, showing no annoyance whatsoever at the earthpony's quip, Twilight noticed absently, and they went to work while Pinkie frolicked in the pile.

Spike pulled the pot off his head, and let out a groan, drawing Fluttershy's attention. "Oh dear! Spike are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so. I just got hit with a frying pan, nothing serious to a dragon. Just a bump."

Fluttershy gasped softly. "A bump? Oh dear Spike you don't want that getting infected. I'll take a look at it, I mean if you don't mind..."

Spike hesitated, then sighed. He may as well let her look. He needed to keep an eye on Twilight for now. The cleaning could wait. "Okay Fluttershy, if you insist."

About a half an hour later, they were all stuck in the same situation, albeit generally more irritated than before. Despite their concerted efforts and some varyingly useful tips from Pinkie Pie between her frolickings (that mare had to be the only pony capable of literally swimming through books), they'd failed to so much as budge Twilight. Spike and Fluttershy had finished their little medical examination, and with Spike's head swathed in bandages had moved to cleaning up the kitchen. Having long since given up on trying to simply loosen her, the three ponies attempted one final desperate yank... and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

After a long moment of silence "Uh Twilight darling?"

"Don't say it Rarity... just don't."

Rarity fell silent immediately, but the incorrigible pegasus currently in a jumbled mess of feathers and limbs against the wall beyond her was not so obliging.

"Man Twilight, you're stuck faster than a palm tree..." Rainbow Dash muttered, still a bit dazed from her date with the tree trunk.

Applejack winced at their mutual friend's characteristic lack of tact, and shushed her with a skillfully tossed lasso to the lips before adding her own voice. "You alright Twilight?" She asked, helping the others to their hooves.

It was the wrong question. All of them knew it immediately. Twilight twitched, and leveled a distinctly cold gaze at them. " 'Am I alright' you ask?" She repeated flatly. The venom in her tone was enough to make them all flinch... something not easy when you're in a heap on the floor. "Let me see, eyes bloodshot and showing obvious signs of physical and mental exhaustion and possibly minor trauma..." She began, counting off with her hoof as one would with fingers. "....reclusive behavior and extreme studying, lack of sleep approaching my eleventh day, disorganization of the library left in my care while I am present, increasing lack of emotional control, and to top it all off I am hanging from the ceiling of my own library and home by my bucking horn as a result of a surprise entrance by the pink stalker! Those things considered, no, I am most certainly not alright!"

The stunned silence at the beleaguered mare's utterly anvilicious statement would have taken a chainsaw to cut through, it was so thick. Pinkie hung frozen in midair with a consummate look of what could have been horror or shock on her face. Everypony else's jaws just hung limply on the ground... well save Rainbow's. She was still getting the lasso off her face.

Twilight held that cold gaze in the silence and Rarity actually shivered. Then it vanished as Twilight shrugged and attempted a smile that may or may not have been forced. "But that aside, I'd rather know what made all of you come here to interrupt my studying. I haven't seen you anyone of you in over a week, and you all suddenly show up without a word of warning and with total disregard for the fact that I have been studying like mad on a subject of quite literally life-altering importance? What, may I ask, is so urgent that you had to go visit me with no prior warning whatsoever?"

The three victims of her less then gentle inquisition hesitated, uncertain how to respond, as a bandaged Spike and Fluttershy watched on from the safety of the kitchen doorway. Pinkie Pie had vanished back under the books when her comedic license against reality ran out, and Twilight hung silently.

"Well Sugar-Cube..." Applejack began, trying to find... well if not the best words than at least the safest ones, but wouldn't they be the same in this instance? "Th' thing is, we all noticed that you haven't been out much recently, so we wanted to get together with you. Pinkie suggested a party, so..."

"A party."

"Yeah! Parties make everything better! Even lonely-pants staring contests with books!" Came Pinkie's happy reply.

Twilight was not amused. If anything, her ire multiplied. "You interrupted my study of a topic of unrivaled importance, to invite me to a party?"

Rarity and the others braced themselves, but Pinkie Pie... she didn't even see it coming. She just kept going. "Yepperooni! It's been a long time since we had a party all together and you really need a party and..."

There was a flash of light as Twilight's anger sparked into a conflagration, and she teleported herself (and a part of the ceiling, they noticed) to the floor and then a second time to appear nose to nose with Pinkie, her eyes blazing. Smoke poured from her smoldering mane as she ground her teeth audibly. Fluttershy cringed at the sight, backing up.

"Pinkie Pie?"

"Yep Twilight?" She asked.

"Get out."

The cotton-candy colored mare's smile wavered for an instant. "Twilight...?"

"I said get out! I have had enough of your foalishness to last me a lifetime, and I am insulted that in spite of the fact that you all knew I have been researching something at a pace that would kill the average unicorn, and in spite of that chose to interrupt me for something so utterly a waste of time as a worthless party! Get out of my sight and let me finish my studying in peace! I don't want to even see you again until I'm finished!" She howled turning her fury on all five of the mares present. All of them cringed under the raw power of her exposition. Pinkie's smile vanished like a mirage, and Fluttershy, the poor mare, cowered behind Applejack.

Spike winced sympathetically and moved to stop her before she did more damage. "Easy Twilight... "

She spun on him, the curling grey-black cloud rising from her hair scything in her wake. "Easy! Easy?! I haven't slept in ten days, have to reorganize the entire library, and just spent the last hour hanging by my horn and you want me to take it easy?!"

Her long-time assistant withered under the onslaught, recoiling from her anger and smoldering mane. "No! But..."

"But what!?" She roared.

Spike flinched back, only slightly hurt by the anger in her tone. He, of all the people there, understood what was going on. He couldn't let her destroy her friendships in a moment of wild emotion. "Twilight, they just wanted to cheer you up. You don't have to be so hard on them. On top of that, if you keep shouting like that, you're going to end up hurting yourself!"

It was a logical argument, but unfortunately, the furious equine was far to incensed to see it. Her mane ignited like a bonfire, making everyone shrink away in fear and, in the case of Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash, gape in horrified awe.

"If that's how you feel about it, then you can go too!" She yelled.

Everyone gasped in shock. Spike's eyes watered. She couldn't mean it! she couldn't! He was her assistant! Her Friend! Her...! He paused. What was he to her? Why didn't he have an answer? He used to know exactly what Twilight was to him, and what he was to her... When had that changed? Why? How?!

Twilight looked away, still seething and trailing a raging inferno of smoke and licking flame.

"Get out. All of you."

Spike looked up, tears forming at the corners in his eyes. "But what will you do without your number one assistant?" He whispered.

"I'll tell you what I will do, I'll be able to work without interruption! I'll be able to do more research since I won't have to worry about caring for a baby dragon! I never even needed an assistant!" Twilight spat.

That did it. Spike flinched. Anyone could have seen how deeply that blow struck him. He sniffed. "If that's how you f-feel Twilight..." he choked out, then turned, and fled out the open door. Rarity and the others watched him go in shock, their mouths hanging open. Pinkie's mane hung like a limp dishrag, and Fluttershy was practically crying outright. Rainbow and Applejack turned to Twilight, their faces angry, but she spoke before they could. "That means you too!" She snapped, her mane blooming in a burst of flame for emphasis. "I don't want to have to even look at any of you until I've finished this project no matter what you have to say to me, and that goes double for party invitations!" She howled, casting a look at Pinkie who withered in response.

Rarity turned and left without a word, but not to spite Twilight. She ran after Spike, worried about what he might do. Applejack and Rainbow Dash cast looks of disdain at Twilight, who returned them with glares that could have scorched them like trees, literally. Each of them taking one of their distraught friends and leading them towards the door. As the Rainbow led the miserable looking Pinkie Pie out the door, she turned back to give one final parting statement. "I don't know what happened to you Twilight, but when you find the mare that had the heart to forgive her friends, freed us from Discord's magic, and led us against him and all his insanity, let me know. Tell her to get back soon, because the one currently taking her place isn't worthy of calling any of us friends." She snapped, then trotted out, slamming the door.

Twilight's mouth hung open for a moment. "Oh yeah?!" She howled at the closed door "Well if you find the friends that fought a changeling horde with her, you let me know, because the one's I've been talking to are strangers!" She took a step forwards, then slipped on a medical pamphlet and crashed to the floor. Her mane went out like it'd been doused, pooling in a charred mess around and on top of her. She lay on her side for a second, curling into a fetal position and holding back tears of her own, just long enough for her magic to draw the blinds shut and lock the door.

Silence fell on the library, broken only by Twilight's muted sobs. "I'm sorry. Oh Girls... Oh Spike... I'm sorry... So sorry... Please forgive me... I'm sorry!" She whispered.

Then her words broke into babble as she wept brokenly.

[Thanks to all the prereaders I've had thus far (you know who you are), especially AB for being willing to tackle this much larger chapter solo.]