Twilight and her friends had done it. The Storm King was nomore, and Tempest Shadow was (hopefully) on the path to redemption. And now the friendship festival could proceed as it had originally planned.
But for one little dragon, things just didn’t feel right. Spike knew he should be happy, full of cause to celebrate. His friends had repelled the greatest threat to Equestria in the entire history of its existence, and hopefully added another ex-villain to the list of threats they had redeemed. Yet he felt empty inside, where his heart should be filled with joy and laughter, there was only sorrow and misery.
This didn’t go unnoticed by some of his friends, namely the ones who knew him best. Twilight in particular, seemed worried about the little dragon.
“Spike, is everything okay?” She asked him. She was never really good at handling these delicate situations, she had to walk a fine line between being the responsible voice of authority, and a caring figure. Such a balance was hard to pull off, and difficult to maintain.
Spike only replied in a flat tone. “Yeah, I’m okay. Nothing for you to worry about.”
“Spike, you know you can always tell me if something’s troubling you,” Twilight offered. She really struggled to resist the urge to wrap her number one assistant and close friend in a tight wing hug. But she didn’t know what was going on with Spike, and a wing hug might only make things worse. “We’ve all been through a lot the past few hours, dealing with the invasion and its aftermath. If there’s something you want to talk about, I’m here for you.”
Spike just shook his head, and walked away. “I’ll be fine, Twilight, I promise. I just… need to be alone for right now. Okay?”
Reluctantly, Twilight decided it was better for her not to pry. Spike would tell her whenever he felt ready (or tell one of Twilight’s friends, they tended to be more nosy about Spike’s personal feelings, some more than others). “It hasn’t even been a day since the traumatic experiences we all suffered,” She thought to herself. “Give him some time to cope. If he’s not back to his normal self by the time we go back to Ponyville, then we can try to talk things out.” And so, against her better judgement, the princess of friendship left her number one assistant to his own devices.
Meanwhile, Spike was just walking around the festival grounds with no particular destination in mind. He recognized some familiar faces, including Starlight Glimmer and Trixie, who had apparently been among the lucky few to escape the clutches of the Storm King’s forces. But even though he waved to them and they waved back, he didn’t bother to say anything to them. He wasn’t sure what was up with him, but he didn’t want to ruin everyone else’s good mood. He’d deal with this on his own. “Dragons never cry.” He told himself.
Then, as he looked into the distance, Spike saw the three other princesses, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance, all simply smiling at him. To Spike, they weren’t just princesses, they were three of his best friends. Three friends who were always there for him. All of a sudden, Spike found his emotions overpowering him! With tears streaming down his face, he rushed past the crowds and made a beeline for the castle.
Unknown to Spike, the princesses had seen everything. Spike had caught their attention, and they weren’t about to just ignore a creature in need. Besides, it beat the hay of just smiling and waving for the duration of the festival.
Spike ran inside the castle, not caring who saw him. He had to get under control before anyone at the festival had a chance to ask him what was wrong. The dragon didn’t really know himself, and he felt stupid for not knowing. Why was he so upset?
It was only after several minutes of running and trying in vain to calm down a little, that Spike even bothered to look up. And what he saw, only made his stomach churn, and the empty feeling in his heart became filled with dread.
Surrounding him were a series of stained glass windows that depicted all the other threats Equestria had suffered up to this point. They included: The royal sisters triumph over Discord, the fall and subsequent banishment of Princess Luna when she became Nightmare Moon, the defeat of Nightmare Moon upon her return, Discord’s defeat at the hooves of the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony, the repeal of the changeling threat from Canterlot, the defeat of King Sombra in the Crystal Empire, and even the triumph of Twilight Sparkle and her friends over the seemingly unstoppable Lord Tirek.
All of these threats had been defeated (and in the case of Discord eventually reformed), and never once had Spike felt the same way he now did about the Storm King’s invasion. But he’d been there to witness all of these events, he’d even played a direct role in defeating and destroying King Sombra. Never had he felt so unhappy and sick to his stomach. Without saying a word, he looked back down at the floor, and let his tears flow without end.
Just then, the hallway doors creaked open, and Celestia, Luna, and Cadance all entered. Immediately, the sight of Spike greeted their eyes, the little dragon all but looking down on the floor with water dripping from his cheek. Sharing perhaps the closest connection to him, Cadance broke the uncomfortable silence and asked. “Spike, is everything alright? Why are you crying?”
Spike looked up. When his eyes fell upon the princesses, a new emotion washed over him, and he rushed straight into Cadance’s now open arms as the tears flowed freely. Normally, a hug from Cadance would be just what was necessary to calm him down, it had worked wonders on him when he was younger, and Cadance was foalsitting Twilight, but that wasn’t going to be the case this time around. Instead, he buried his face into Cadance’s chest and began to sob quietly.
This continued for some time, until at last he looked at the princesses with tears in his eyes, and said in between sobs. “I missed all of you...The whole time I was with Twilight and the others...trying to find the hippogriffs and save Equestria, I was worried about you.” He then looked towards Celestia, Luna, and finally back to Cadance, as he added. “I missed Celestia’s soothing voice, how’d she talk to me...making me better when I was upset...I missed whenever Luna helped me out in my dreams...And I missed your soft, warm hugs, Cadance.”
“Oh, Spike,” Cadance continued to hug Spike as he continued sobbing.
Celestia and Luna didn’t say a word, they simply joined Cadance in sharing a big hug with Spike. Celestia also stroked Spike’s scales for a bit, and then Luna did the same, hoping that it would calm the little dragon down.
It did, at least a little. His sobs decreased ever so slowly, and when the group hug ended, Spike looked up at Cadance and sniffled. “I’m sorry...”
Cadance’s face contorted into one of confusion. “For what, Spike?” She asked him.
“Because I’ve never had this problem before,” Spike explained, still sniffling. “I never broke down and cried any of the other times Equestria was threatened. I didn’t cry when Discord corrupted Twilight, I didn’t cry when the changelings lost, I didn’t even cry when-”
Spike stopped when Cadance put her hoof to his mouth, making him stop.
“There is nothing to apologize for, Spike." Cadance spoke as she wiped a tear from Spike’s eye.
Luna just looked at Spike and calmly told him. “This is perfectly normal, dragon youngling. Everypony goes through this at least once in their lifetime. We all have our moments in which we just break down.”
“I felt much the same way you do now, Spike,” Celestia somberly confessed. “On the day after I banished my sister,” That statement caused Luna to not so subtlety raise an eyebrow and adopt something of a smirk. Celestia sheepishly apologized. “No offense, Luna.”
“None taken, sister.” Luna delivered the last line with a playfully exaggerated hint of malice. That caused Spike to chuckle. Cadance smiled at Spike finally looking a bit happy and nuzzled him.
Celestia looked directly into Spike’s eyes and told him in that motherly voice of hers. “Know this, Spike. Even with a breakdown like the one you had, you can always count on the friends and loved ones who will give you closure. That is something that will never change, and it’s part of what makes friendship such a magical force.”
Wiping the last of the tears from his eyes, Spike sniffled once more. “Thanks, guys.”
Cadance smiled, and she and her aunts shared another big hug with Spike, all of them now at peace.
Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, Discord was entering Fluttershy’s cottage in his usual way, through a portal he’d produced out of nowhere.
“Helllooooo!” The witty creature of chaos called. “Fluttershy, are you there? Sorry to drop in unannounced, but I just got back from a wonderful vacation! Oh, you really should’ve come with me, you don’t know what you were missing out on!”
But as the chaos maker set his heavy suitcases down on the floor of the cottage, he heard not a sound. Glancing around, he could see that there was not a trace of his pegasus friend anywhere. That was most ood.
“Hmm, what do you know about that?” Discord remarked to himself. “Ponyville seems pretty empty today. I wonder why? Did I miss some kind of holiday or something?”
