The morning sun rose quickly over the small town of Ponyville, signalling the start of the brand new day. While many a stallion, mare, filly and colt began to emerge from their homes to greet the dawn, there was one place where things were less quick to embrace it. The imposing, crystalline form of the Friendship Palace. This impressive stronghold, home to the Princess of Friendship herself, glistened in the morning rays, but within, one person alone grumbled and grunted with the rising of the glorious sun. Spike the dragon, within the confines of his room within the palace, slowly cracked one eye open, immediately groaning at the sight of rays of light entering his window. Try as he might to cover himself in his bedsheets, he couldn’t hide from it forever. And so, rather reluctantly, he threw off his sheets, frowned at the sunny horizon outside of his window, and got out of bed, grumbling all the way.

Letting out many a loud yawn, the young drake began to make his way out of his room and downstairs, heading straight for the kitchen. There, he searched cupboard after cupboard, eventually happening upon a box of his favourite gemstones, which, at the very least, elevated his mood a little. However, as he took a seat at the kitchen table, happily munching on rubies and emeralds alike, he was struck with the sudden realisation that he was alone here. Looking all around the room, he found that the castle’s other occupant was nowhere to be seen. Feeling just the tiniest bit unnerved by this, he carefully picked up his bowl of gems, hopped off his chair, and instead began to make his way over to the adjacent room. Again, no sign of his lifelong friend. Eventually though, and after much searching, he found her, sitting at the now-famous cutie map in the central chamber.

“Twilight?” he called out.

Twilight Sparkle, the newest and youngest of the alicorn princesses of Equestria, looked up from the table as she heard her assistant’s voice. Smiling at the sight of him, she waved a hoof, silently inviting him to come over to her. Spike nodded, feeling more than a little relief at having found her at least. But, upon drawing closer to the map, he found, to his confusion, that it was covered in a number of open books, as well as numerous sheets of notes, which had been hastily scrawled from the looks of it.

“Um…you okay, Twilight?”

Smiling, the young princess nodded.

“Oh, I’m fine, Spike. How are you?”

The dragon raised an eyebrow, somewhat taken aback at the perky way in which is friend had replied. But, as he stood there, watching her, he found, to his dismay, that there were a few noticeable differences to Twilight’s appearance this morning. Somewhat dark circles under her eyes, and, more importantly, a few strands of hair from her mane, which now stuck up in multiple directions. Clearing his throat, he worked up the nerve to speak up again.

“Er…how did you sleep?”

But Twilight waved him off, letting out a brief scoffing sound before replying.

“Oh, I didn't sleep last night, Spike. I had way too much work to do!”

Raising an eyebrow, Spike knew that what he was planning to say was a dangerous path, yet proceeded regardless.

“Okay. I know I’ll probably regret this, but…what work is that exactly?”

Then, to Spike’s surprise, Twilight’s expression changed, almost immediately. Gone was her chipper smile and overall happy gaze, replaced instead by a look of utter seriousness, complete with narrowed eyes. As if to emphasise the point, she slammed a hoof against the table, causing Spike to jump slightly, before giving him the answer he wanted.

“Spike! We have a problem! A big problem! A problem that defies all reason and logic in the way it persists!”

Now, Spike was well aware at this point in his life that Twilight often spoke this way about many things that, quite frankly, he didn’t think were major issues. However, he had also come to learn that there was little chance of swaying her once she was convinced something was a problem, so, after letting out a sigh, he shrugged his shoulders before reluctantly saying the obvious question.

“Alright…what problem?”

Looking down to the table, Twilight used her magic to move aside several sheets of paper, which revealed that, underneath, there seemed to be a photo of some kind. Spike couldn’t get a good look at it from this angle, but that soon changed when Twilight reached out with her hoof, picked it up, and held it out in an almost accusatory manner.

“The problem…is him!”

Looking to the photo, Spike saw now that it was a picture of no pony, but rather, a human, the native race of the world beyond the magic mirror. But this was no ordinary human. Bearing distinct spikey-blue hair and a somewhat goofy grin, this was one Spike actually knew personally.

“Um…Flash?”

Maintaining her frown, Twilight nodded, after which she held the photo up to her own face, narrowing her eyes further still as she began to speak in an almost seething manner.

“Yeah…Flash. He’s the problem, Spike. And it’s a problem that must be solved!”

As one might expect, the young drake was completely dumbfounded by this behaviour, looking around for a while, almost as if he were looking for somepony to explain what was going on. In the end though, after letting out another sigh, he raised a clawed hand and rubbed the side of his temples.

“And how, exactly, is your not-so-secret crush a problem?”

Putting the photo down, Twilight turned to her assistant once more.

“That’s exactly it, Spike! I have a crush on him! I mean…don’t you see?”

Folding his arms, Spike shook his head.

“No, but I’m sure you’re about to tell me.”

Looking down to the table again, Twilight used her magic to levitate several open books and sheets of notes in front of her.

“It’s a problem because it makes no sense! I had a grand total of five minutes with the guy during my time in that other world, and I’m including both visits by the way. I know barely anything about him, what he’s like, and yet…”

Looking back to the photo, Twilight began to develop quite a fierce-looking blush upon her cheeks.

“…yet every time I saw him…it was like I’d lost all sense of reason and logic! I became this nervous, stuttering wreck!”

Dropping all of the books and notes, Twilight regained her earlier look of annoyance.

“I’m an alicorn princess for Faust’s sake! But this…this boy…when I was around him, I became a literal lovesick schoolgirl! And that…”

Again, she slammed her hoof into the table, which actually served to wake Spike up after he’d almost fallen asleep during her rant.

“…simply will not do!”

The young dragon rolled his eyes a little before speaking up again.

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that you probably already have a plan for this…problem, I assume?”

Almost like lightning, Twilight’s expression changed to her earlier, more upbeat one, as she flapped her wings and leapt right to the other side of the table, right in front of Spike, causing him to take a step backwards.

“Indeed I do, my dearest assistant! I’ve been up all night, trying to figure out how it makes sense that I like this guy I only just met. I mean, if nothing else, how does it calculate that I, having never had an interest in males before, would suddenly develop such an interest now? And towards a member of a species I didn’t even know existed until then?!”

To that, Spike frowned slightly.

“Hey! Don’t go knocking cross-species love! I’m still trying to get Rarity to notice me, remember?”

This time, it was Twilight’s turn to roll her eyes.

“Sure thing, loverboy. But, back to the task at hand. This has been bothering me for too long now! And I came to realise that, if I’m going to solve this problem, I can’t just stick my nose in books all day!”

Hearing that, Spike stifled a brief chuckle.

“Really? Because it’s worked so well for you in the past.”

Ignoring his obvious sarcasm, Twilight stamped her hoof down, a look of sheer determination upon her face.

“Spike, I am the Princess of Friendship! I will not let this…this nonsense get me down! I’m going to solve this Flash problem, even if it kills me!”

Before Spike could react, he watched as his friend lit up her horn once more, causing a near-blinding flash of light, which led to him shielding his eyes just in time. When the light died down, and Spike lowered his claw, he found that Twilight was now carrying a pair of heavily-filled saddle-bags. And, as before, she looked more than a little pleased with herself.

“Any real scientist knows that, to truly understand a problem, you have to observe it! And that’s exactly what I’m going to do, Spike!”

Those words caught the young dragon by surprise, and he turned his head, looking to the other side of the chamber. There, still glowing as always, was the magic mirror itself, which had been moved here per Twilight’s instructions some time ago. Putting two and two together, he turned to his friend, an incredulous look upon his face.

“Seriously?! You’re going to the other world?! Over this?!”

Giggling slightly, Twilight placed a hoof gently upon Spike’s head, carefully patting him there.

“Don’t worry, Spike. I already sent word ahead to Sunset. So it’s not like it’s going to be a sudden surprise or anything.”

Spike opened his mouth to speak, only to find himself fumbling his words.

“That’s not what I…ugh!”

Slapping his forehead in frustration, the dragon took a few calming breaths, after which he looked to Twilight with a more serious look.

“Okay, fine. But if you’re gonna go over there, at least take me with you.”

Although initially surprised by this request, the young princess soon gained a more prideful look as she gazed down at her young assistant.

“Ah! Hoping to see a full-on scientific experiment in action, eh?”

Letting out a dry chuckle, Spike shook his head as he began to make his way towards the mirror.

“Nope. I just want to make sure you don’t end up doing crazy tests on the guy in some basement or something!”

Following close behind him, Twilight rolled her eyes at that.

“Ugh! I swear, I do one test to find out about Pinkie Sense, and suddenly I never hear the end of it!”