Spike closed his eyes as he jumped from the edge of the gorge. As he was falling, he ended up hitting a jagged rock head first about half way down. Then when he made impact with the ground, he felt all his bones snap like the twigs of a Timberwolf. As he was lying in agony, he couldn't scream, couldn't cry, and was breathing irregularly. After what had seemed like an eternity he finally blacked out.

Twilight was crying her eyes out as she cradled his broken body in her arms. She carefully put her ear on his chest to see that he was breathing, although abnormally. Her friends weren't doing any better with their eyes blinded by tears (and in Rarity's case, her mascara).

"Oh Sp- Sp- Spike... Im so sorry." Twilight said as she hiccuped.

Fluttershy knelt down to Twilight's side, rubbing her back.

"It'll be ok Twilight, I promise you. But right now we have to take him to a hospital so he can be treated."

"Ok" Twilight answered solemnly "Dash! take Spike and fly towards the hospital, but be carful, we don't know how bad his injuries are yet."

"Im on it!" replied the rainbow maned pegasus, as she gently took the mangled dragon from Twilight, and took off to Ponyvile General. As the ponies looked on with hope for the baby dragon, Twilight was still in shock, seemingly paralyzed. Pinkie trotted over and gave Twilight a tight but reassuring hug. Applejack walked over to as well and put her hoof on Twilight's back, making her look up.

"Listen to me Sugarcube, I'm just as confused and worried 'bout him too. But right now we need to be there for Spike. youneed to be there for him, okay?"

Twilight rubbed the tears out of her eyes, and gave her a small smile. "You're right. Thank you girls, I don't know what I would do without you." She then teleported everypony out of the ravine and back to the top of the cliff where they all ran towards the hospital. Silently praying that Spike would pull through.

Rainbow Dash soon reached the hospital where she spotted Nurse Red Heart walking down a long hallway. Rainbow Dash ran carefully towards her with Spike on her back, barely clinging to life.

"Nurse Red Heart, We nee your help!" Dash called out. Startling her in the process.

She turned around and was about to reprimanded Rainbow Dash for shouting inside the hospital. but when she saw Spike's, bleeding, broken body, her eyes went wide and immediately took Rainbow Dash to a gurney and carefully lifted him onto it. Then wheeled him to the ER with Rainbow left behind and escorted to the waiting room as Red Heart kept asking herself questions as to what happened.

At the time that Red Heart was taking Spike to the ER, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie had just came up to the hospital and wasted no time heading inside to find Spike. Inside they saw Rainbow Dash sitting in the waiting room with a glum look on her face.

"Rainbow, how's Spike? Is Nurse Red Heart here?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah she's with Spike in the ER."

Rarity came over with a look of concern on her face. "Will Spikey Wikey be... okay?

Rainbow Dash was about to answer when a unicorn doctor with an orange coat an dark red mane came into the waiting room. "Twilight Sparkle?" he called

Twilight nearly pounced on the doctor when he arrived but was held back by Rarity's magic. "How's Spike! Is he gonna be ok?!"

"He's about to head into surgery" the doctor replied bluntly

The six ponies felt their heart skip a beat when they heard that word.

"When can we see him?" Twilight asked while trying to remain calm.

The stallion shook his head. "My guess is in about 6-7 hours. We'll get you as soon as were done." the doctor the shut the double doors behind him.

Twilight and the others then sat with Rainbow Dash talking amongst themselves to try to distract hem from the time. Rarity and fluttershy were quietly sobbing, Pinkie Pie's mane looked like a deflated balloon, Rainbow Dash paced around the room trying to block out the mental image of what she had seen today, and Twilight was rocking back and forth in her chair, hyperventilating as Applejack slowly rubbed her back with her hat over her eyes, crying on the inside. After about four and a half hours later everypony except Twilight was asleep.

Finally at around 11:00pm, Nurse Red Heart came into the room and gently nudged Twilight, who was starting to nod off to sleep. Twilight slowly opened her swollen red eyes to see Nurse Red Heart smiling softly at her.

"Twilight. you and your friends can come and see Spike now if you're up for it."

The purple alicorn yawned and stretched her wings and thanked her as she woke up the rest of her friends as well. They all made their way to Spike's bed, and the sight of him lying there was depressing to say the least. Bandages were wrapped all around his body, an IV stuck in his left arm, his neck was in a brace and an oxygen mask was placed over his mouth. Fluttershy gently held his claw while the others were surrounded his bandaged body with love.

Twilight was soon asked to speak with Nurse Red Heart privately about how did he get injured like that. to which Twilight told her the whole story from the beginning. The way he was isolating himself from her and everypony else, to finding the scroll with his suicide note written on it, and to finally finding his body at the bottom of Ghastly Gorge.

"And that's where we are right now." Twilight concluded.

Nurse Red had a mix sympathy and horror on her face when Twilight was done talking. "Oh that poor baby dragon, suffering from suicide ideation no less. It must of been horrible seeing Spike in that condition." She came forward and wrapped her forelegs around the alicorn giving her a hug to which Twilight returned. Pulling her away from Twilight she began to tell her about Spike's condition.

"Spike is extremely lucky to be alive. He has a concussion, internal bleeding, severed arteries, broken jaw, five cracked ribs, with one that ended up puncturing his stomach, and his vertebrae was dislocated. After doing a CAT scan we hypothesized that Spike must of hit something on the way down through the gorge, like a branch or something else sticking into the side of the canyon."

Twilight's face and mood was seemingly normal on the outside. But on the inside she was screaming and wailing about what she had just heard from Red Heart. But that was only the tip of the iceberg.

Nurse Red Heart sighed in sadness as she continued. "We also saw red markings that looked like they were made with a straight razor. Judging by how many scars he had we could only assume that he had been doing this for around six months or so."

Twilight stared at her wide eyed hoping that she misheard what had just been said. But she knew that Nurse Red Heart was serious. "How many?"

Red Heart tilted her head in confusion "hmm."

Twilight felt like she was gonna throw up. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and asked again. "How many... scars from him cutting himself were there.

Red Heart couldn't look Twilight in the eyes so she turned her heads towards the floor "...About a dozen." She said while blinking back tears. "And those were only the ones we could see from eye level."

Twilight couldn't take it anymore and ran back to Spike. Collapsing by the foot of his bed and crying her eyes out. Her friends remained close but as not crowd her. Nurse Red Heart stood by the door watching the sad scene fold in front of her. Twilight stayed like this for ten minutes until she finally spoke.

"I failed as a big sister."

Her friends turned to face her with a bit of surprise. Fluttershy came up to Twilight and tried to reassure her. "That's not true Twilight. None of us could've predicted that he would be suffering from depression."

"I could've asked him if he was okay, or maybe payed more attention to him. Instead I was more invested into reshelving my books for the umpteenth time!"

Twilight broke down crying again. "He's just a babydragon. But I make him clean the library, cook our meals, do every single chore around the castle!" Twilight was barely holding herself together as she was trying to think of anyway that she could be a better big sister to him.

Nurse Red Heart finally made herself known as visiting hours were way past overdue. She hated to send visitors back home, especially Twilight and her friends. But she had to let the patients rest and the night staff to do their jobs. So after a heartfelt an tearful goodbye, especially from Twilight and Pinkie, the main six departed the hospital and headed back home to get even a wink of sleep.

It was past midnight when Twilight returned to her castle and she was exhausted from the long day she had. As she walked through the corridors leading to her bedroom the underwhelming silence in the castle made her realize how much more lively everything was with Spike around.

When she got to her room she passed out on her bed having exhausted all her energy crying her eyes out. As she slept, she pondered to herself about Spike and how to give him the love and care that he so desperately needed from her. When suddenly a shadowed figure came through a portal of light, and Twilight knew exactly who this could be.

"Princess Luna? I thought that you only enter somepony's dreams when there is a nightmare happening." Twilight asked confused.

The Lunar Princess gave a small smile as she came forward. "Hello Twilight Sparkle, the reason i've been called to your dream is that you seem to be contemplating something of great stress. that's why I'm here as clearly something- or should I say someone is keeping a restful night at bay.

Twilight stared at Princess Luna in surprise. "You know about what happened?"

Luna closed her eyes and nodded her head slowly. "Yes. Your friends are all having nightmares about Spikes injuries. And I'm deeply sorry to hear about what happened to him. But your dreams are in a connate state of unwanted flux. So tell me, what are you thinking of in relation to what have befallen on young Spike?"

The Purple Alicorn sighed as she told Luna her worries for when or ifSpike would make a full recovery and what she should do to make Spike feel safe and loved. Luna listened to her fellow princess with understanding as she felt she had an idea to make sure Spike would be loved and cared for like the baby dragon that he is.

"I think I have an idea that would make sure that little Spike would never have to fear if he wasn't loved and cared for by you." Luna said with a sincere smile.

"Really?" Twilight asked with hope. She would do anything to help heal Spike's mental and physical scars. "What is it?"

"Remember when you and your friends helped free me from Nightmare Moon's control? Well during the months that followed I was essentially regressed into a filly as I had not aged during my imprisonment in the moon for a thousand years. So when I returned with Celestia to Canterlot I was scared of what pony's had thought of me during the millennium that I was gone. So I hid myself from the rest of Equestria Inside the castle walls, only letting my sister see me. She saw that I wasn't thinking I was cared for around here anymore, so she sought to ease my fears by taking care of me when I was a foal. After a few months of being nurtured and protected by my sister I felt as if I was truly loved by not only Celestia, but by the rest of Canterlot as well.

Twilight wasn't following though. "But how does that help Spike?"

"I think that you should Regress him. Back to before he hatched from his egg. This will reassure him that you care for him like a parental figure, he'll grow up know that you'll always be there for him and he won't ever feel like he was neglected all his life. Plus you were possibly the closest choice to his real mother."

Twilight understood now what Princess Luna was talking about as she smiled and nodded her head in agreement. Slightly blushing as she never really parented Spike when he was a hatchling. Usually her mother or Princess Cadence took care of him when he needed to be feed or changed. But Twilight never lest understood that Princess Luna was right. He needed a loving mother to care for him.

Twilight went and gave Her fellow Princess a hug and thanked her for the idea as she knew that this is what Spike needed most right now. "you're a lifesaver Luna."

The dark blue alicorn smiled and left through another portal, leaving Twilight all alone as she finally let her worries leave her and had a peaceful slumber as she thought about Spike and hoped that her friends would support her through this life changing decision with only thought remaining.

'Momma will be here for you Spike. Momma will be right here.'

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait, this was originally finished in August but I decided to include Princess Luna to give Twilight a more valid reason to regress Spike. Anywho hope you enjoyed and have a great rest of your day folks.