"Spiiiikkkeee!"

That was most definitely Twilight screaming, and Spike knew it for two reasons. First of all Spike could easily recognise the purple unicorn's voice considering he had lived with her since birth. Secondly, Spike knew Twilight was going to be mad considering he had made a mistake earlier, and it had been a bad one.

However, before divulging the information Spike would one day be giving when answering the question 'So why did Twilight castrate you with a shard of broken crockery', context was needed.

Princess Celestia didn't usually set Twilight assignments that weren't on the subject of friendship nowadays, but that didn't mean such an event was impossible. One of the dragon's scroll-belches cemented this fact while he and Twilight were eating last night. The dragon had initially been chided for his lack of table manners, but when Twilight saw it was a letter from the Princess; the unicorn had just chided him again.

Apparently, the fact that the scroll landed in the dinner Spike had thoroughly been looking forward to was his fault for not being more prepared. Considering he was letting Twilight and her teacher turn him into an ungodly hybrid of post-box and reptile; Spike expected that he be given some sympathy regarding the fact that he wasn't actually aware to when he was going to vomit forth Twilight's mail.

The purple dragon didn't get any dinner that night, what he did get was a mop, bucket, and a stern order from Twilight to clean up the mess 'he' had made. If you liked getting blamed for things that weren't your fault, being shouted at and you weren't hungry, then that was probably better than having dinner.

Unfortunately, Spike didn't like those things, he was hungry and so it wasn't better than eating at all. What it was, was completely unfair, a brutal miscarriage of justice, and something Spike probably wouldn't be able to take Twilight to court for. So when the little dragon had finally cleaned up someone else's mess he had joined Twilight, and she had been dancing.

Her limbs had been flailing in a way not unlike a daddy-long-legs on ecstasy. When he had asked what had got her so worked up; it turned out that the princess had asked her to prepare a thesis on celestial bodies. Excitement was the reason for her spasms, and not demonic possession as Spike had initially thought. He had still insisted this was just as feasible though; because at the end of the day she was essentially partying over getting homework.

So the next day Twilight had gone out to buy some parchment, quills and ink, whereas Spike had been left in charge of the library. He was eager to get back on Twilight's good side so when she had given him the job of gathering all the books she would need for her assignment; her reptilian assistant had jumped at the opportunity.

One by one he pulled each tome from its place on the maze of shelves. It hadn't taken him long at all, and soon he had only one more to get. He snatched the book from the shelf and went to pile it with the others on Twilight's cluttered desk. Now one thing he had forgotten to take into account was this one simple rule of thumb, libraries accumulate dust. That fact was a complete staple of the whole industry of the printed word.

Spike wasn't sure why gathering large quantities of ex-trees and ink caused the insufferable build-up of pollen, hair fibres and dead pony skin cells, but it did. So when he popped the volume onto the now-teetering pile of textbook-goodness he had assembled; it was hardly surprising that a small plume of grey powder was sent forth.

What was surprising though was how all of it managed to get up Spike's nose. How unfortunate it was that he had been situated directly next to a large pile of dry, old paper. Suffice to say that it's not only in the films that paper is liable to set on fire. Oh no that stuff really does burn, and it burns very, very quickly. Spike sneezed in a burst of green flame that encapsulated the books and turned them into a literary blaze.

Owloysius was driven into a panic; while the inferno raged he began hooting, and flying up and down like a madman's yoyo. By the time Spike had managed to run into the kitchen and fill a basin with water it was too late. The books were nothing but a smouldering pile of ash, and throwing the clear liquid over them only served to coat Twilight's now charred workplace with a clump of black, foul-smelling sludge.

Spike immediately began opening all of the windows to banish the pungent odour of smoke. However they were in a library, a fact that was causing Spike endless turmoil today, and the fragrance clung to every book in the old oak. The effect was that now Twilight's home smelt not unlike that one teenage stallion in Ponyville; the one who seemed to always have bloodshot eyes and often snickered at things that weren't very funny.

So that was the second reason that assured him it was indeed Twilight shrieking his name. In retrospect hiding under the unicorn's bed was a poor choice. He always hid there when he had done something wrong, and he always made it worse for himself when his spines poked through the underside of Twilight's mattress.

"It's okay Spike, she can't hurt you. She'd go to prison, and everyone knows what happens to smart ponies there." His pep-talk slightly alleviated the worry, but this didn't last long. Hearing the sound of Twilight thundering up the staircase was quite reminiscent of the sound of the buffalo herd in Appaloosa; only it was ten-times as heart-attack inducing. The door opened and then slammed shut. Spike heard his guardian take a breath as if to say something, but then stopped.

"Spike if you come out and tell me the truth I promise I won't be mad," she sighed. The baby dragon took a deep breath; Twilight's offer seemed fair enough to coax him out from under his fortress of bedding. After doing so Spike immediately cursed himself for not remembering what a good liar Twilight was. Her breathing was ragged, and one of her eyelids was twitching madly. If one didn't know any better they may have thought she had just escaped from Broadmare.

"Remember what you promised," Spike said shakily.

"You almost burned the house down Spike!" he winced.

"Yeah, but it was an accident," he pointed out in a flimsy effort to ease Twilight's verbal assault.

"Oh that's good because I was busy thinking my assistant was a pyromaniac!"

"What's a pyromaniac?" Twilight let out an exasperated groan.

"It's somepony who repeatedly sets things on fire…do you even read any of the books I give you?"

"Why did you give me a book on pyromaniacs?" the unicorn considered this for a second.

"That's not important right now, what is important is that you did something very bad Spike, it could've been a catastrophe if Owloysius didn't put it out!" Spike suddenly felt a small twinge of indignation.

"Firstly I put that out, and secondly I only did that to try and save your books. It's not like the fire could have spread," Twilight looked at her assistant like he had two heads; prompting him to explain further.

"Dragon fire is magic, so it only burns what the dragon breathes, or in my case sneezes, on." Too late did Spike realise correcting Twilight Sparkle at a moment like this was basically signing his own death warrant. He backed away as the angered academic started trotting toward him menacingly.

"Well I suppose that makes this perfectly okay then does it?!"

"I didn't mean it like that-" he was cut off.

"I suppose you're not at fault here, are you?" at this point she seemed beyond reason.

"No, that's not what I'm saying, but it was just an accident, and it's not like it hasn't happened before. I've asked you so many times if we can dust the library, but you always say 'there's no time' or 'we don't need to'."

"Oh, so you're saying it's my fault?" Spike massaged his temples trying to put aside his frustration.

"You're not listening to what I'm saying! I'm just saying that this could have been avoided. I know I should be more careful but you never listen to me when I say we should dust the library. You never listen to me Twilight, and you're not listening to me now!"

"Oh no I hear you loud and clear; you think it's totally my fault that you set fire to my books that I need for Princess Celestia's assignment," before the vexed dragon could formulate a reply Twilight had scooped him up in a magical grasp.

"So if it's not your fault Spike, I wouldn't dream of making you clean up this mess," she hastily trotted downstairs and dropped him outside the front door. She promptly slammed it and ignored his final plea,

"That wasn't what I was saying!"

Spike dusted off his scales and tried to wrap his head around what had just happened. Well at least Twilight didn't completely twist his well-made argument into him having a go at her and get angrier than she did originally…oh, wait. That was quite literally, exactly what just happened. Spike trudged into Ponyville, while drawing many unnerved glances due to his irate grumbling. He knew that leaving Twilight alone for the day was best; the downside to this plan was that he was left in Ponyville with no bits, and nothing to do.

He made his way into the town square; his reptilian eyes scanning the various groups of ponies for familiar faces. He found them in Snips and Snails, both perched on a rooftop looking down onto a creaking wooden ramp.

"What are you two doing?" Spike shouted up, prompting the two to look at him and smile in greeting.

"Hey Spike, we're gonna jump off the roof on this skateboard onto that ramp," Snips replied as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"Umm... why?" Snails laughed condescendingly at the dragon's question.

"Because it's mid-October," the manner in which he spoke implied that should have been obvious. Needless to say, it wasn't,

"Why does that mean you have to leap of a roof?" Snips sighed becoming frustrated at Spike's queries.

"Did you even look at the sky when you got up this morning?!" Spike gawked at the two for a moment and they reciprocated. It stayed like this until Spike decided that was as good an answer as he was going to get.

"You do know it's not going to work right?" they both scowled.

"And why do you say that?"

"Because you've put the ramp too far away from the roof, plus the ramp is too flat. So even if you manage to get to the ramp you'll just hit it painfully." They both considered what he had said for a moment, until Snails whispered something in Snip's ear. They both giggled and shouted back,

"Spike, you're only a baby dragon, so why don't you leave this to the grown-ups?" Spike crossed his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow.

"You know, dragons live for thousands of years, so my 'baby-stage' lasts longer than yours. Twilight hatched me when she was eight, meaning that I'm 14 now which is twice your age." Spike shot them a smug look as they tried to process what he said. The purple dragon could almost visualise tiny hamsters in wheels, running frantically in their heads.

"Huh, saying something really smart and complicated, that's just like a baby!" Snails retorted, Spike simply shook his head and began to walk off. However he tapped a pony on the side before leaving the square.

"Hi, I just wanted to say I think those two colts on the roof are about to hurt themselves." Sure enough there was a rolling sound, followed by a painful sounding thump and two squeals. A multitude of ponies ran over, including the one Spike had just informed, but not before snapping,

"Why didn't you try to warn them instead of me?" The scaly librarian didn't get a chance to protest as the pony galloped over to join the concerned crowd. A few of them must have heard, since Spike received a couple of undeserved dirty glances.

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The purple dragon sat on a wall, his head in his hands. Two injustices he had suffered today, two too many.

"Penny for your thoughts darling," a voice that simply emanated style rang out. Spike looked up to see a white unicorn staring at him. Normally he would leapt with excitement whenever seeing his crush, but today he really didn't feel up to it.

"Hi Rarity," he huffed gloomily

"What's got my Spikey-Wikey feeling so blue today?"

"I accidentally set a few of Twilight's books on fire and now she's mad at me," Rarity blinked a couple of times.

"You set her books on…fire?"

"They were dusty, and they made me sneeze. You know what happens when I sneeze."

"Was it… by accident?" she enquired nervously.

"What…yes of course, it's not like I'm a pyromaniac!" he allowed an internal smug grin, take that Twilight.
"Well, in that case I'm sure she'll come around, but you know Twilight dearie. It's probably best just to let her simmer off for the day."

"I know, but she never listens to me Rarity, I've asked her if we can dust the library so many times and she always says no," Rarity listened to the baby dragon's problems; however she knew there was nothing to do to solve them.

"Well how about you come and help me at the boutique, I was just heading back?"

"Um…I don't know Rarity, I'll probably just mess things up."

"Oh pish-posh darling, my boutique isn't dusty, plus I could use a handsome young dragon's assistance." Spike allowed a small smile, and leapt from the wall to join the white unicorn. He never could resist her, and at least he could be useful to somepony.

"OK dearie, just hold that position now, there you go!" Rarity gave Spike an affectionate pat on the head with one of her immaculately kept hooves. Well at least she went to, however the unicorn realised that doing so would upset the delicate balancing act that Spike was having so much trouble sustaining. It had started off with him holding the odd spool and textile, his claws were useful for cutting threads here and there, but it was definitely a more than manageable job.

However Rarity, being caught up in having a helper more enthusiastic that Opalescence, had gotten rather excited and had begun to pile the little dragon with more and more implements of fashion. And so, omitting a pat on the head she gave her newfound helper a smile, which was just as good. It wasn't really just as good, of course physical contact would have been better, when it boils down to it everyone knows that a pat on the head is better than a simple smile. But still, '…which was just as good' is just something ponies say, or in Spike's case thought, without almost ever meaning it. Still it was nice to be of use, even if it meant freezing like a wax statue.

A ribbon was untangled from Spike's coil of limbs with an aura of blue magic around it. The action tickled his stomach, and if it weren't for his thick scales he probably would have dropped his various payloads by now.

"So what're you making Rarity?" there was no reply, until from a deep concentration the unicorn shook herself slightly.

"I'm sorry did you say something dear?"

"I was just wondering what you're making,"

"Oh how nice of you to ask, well do you know Spitfire?"

"From the Wonderbolts, or course!"

"Well Spitfire's friend is a mare called Octavia who plays at Garden Parties and Spitfire has asked me to make her an extravagant dress for the Wedding,"

"Spitfire and Octavia are getting married?!" Rarity blinked a couple of times,

"No, they're both bridesmaids,"

"Oh," Spike replied, trying and failing to hide his disappointment at the gown's banal purpose.

"Sometimes we get to make dresses for five star events dearie, sometimes we just make them for your average pony," Rarity chuckled. She stuck out her tongue in concentration, an act which against all odds she managed to make look elegant, and with a surge of blue magic and a flurry of needles the dress seemed to be completed.

"There we are, quite lovely if I do say so myself, Spikey darling, you can drop that equipment now." Spike let out a throaty sight of relief and delicately placed the apparatus upon the ground.

"Now dear, could you be a peach and take these down to the washing room." Rarity didn't need to wait for Spike to answer in the affirmative. With a flash of her horn a couple of dresses levitated into the dragon's claws. He turned to leave the room, but there was another flaring sound and more intricate looking attire found its way into the growing pile. Spike began to feel the pressure build up on his claws, his strong, sharp claws.

"Rarity I don't think-" his would-be intervention fell on deaf ears, Rarity had already began drawing out a new design.

"Rarity…my claws, they're going to be ripped!" he tried to shout, but the skyscraper of fabric muffled him.

"That's nice dearie," the unicorn replied absentmindedly.

"Rarity they're going to tear!"

"Just a few more Spike," if Rarity was even listening to him, she apparently didn't care about her helper's persistent warnings.

"RARITY NO MORE!" Spike gave a last shout, and finally it seemed to break her concentration. However, to the dragon's growing misfortune breaking Rarity's concentration also seemed to interrupt her flow of magic, and there had been one last gown hovering above him. The garment fell and landed on top of his bundle, and doing so had brought the fabric onto Spike's claws with enough force to tear through them. He immediately tried to stop it but the damage had been done. Of the fifteen dresses he had been carrying, eight now lay on the floor in shreds; unfortunately one of the ruined gown's looked like it was for a bride…of particularly expensive tastes.

"I'm sorry Rarity," he felt saying such a thing was quite a pointless effort at this point. The alabaster unicorn's eyelid twitched in a way not at all unlike Twilight's earlier today. She took stock of the destroyed, well, stock.

"Spike," she sighed roughly, obviously in a war to keep her temper in check, "If you couldn't carry anymore dresses why didn't you say?" If Spike's jaw hit the floor earlier, it broke through it now.

"Rarity, I did warn you, about five times, but you were drawing and you….you wouldn't listen to me," he felt nervous to say the least, today it seemed ponies enjoyed blaming Spike for things that weren't entirely his fault. Rarity had a hoof to her head; she muttered something venomous sounding and took a moment to compose herself. Once she had done so, she looked up again with the most forced smile Spike had ever witnessed.

"OK dearie, I need to sort this, you can go home now." Spike wanted to protest, but the white pony put a hoof to his back and more or less bundled him to the door. This was eerily reminiscent of Twilight kicking him out only few hours ago.

"Rarity I want to help-"

"NO! I mean, that's alright darling…you've done enough." She gave him a quick farewell and the door was promptly slammed in his face, Spike hadn't even realised he was outside.

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Celestia's sun was hanging low in the auburn sky, shadows were elongated and ponies were heading home for the evening. Spike took the scenic route, scenic in this case simply meaning longer. Word of the book-burning, colt-hurting, dress-destroyer seemed to have spread.

Hushed whispered followed the dragon down Ponyville's darkening streets, and at the marketplace, where ponies were packing up their portable stalls, he drew a number of sour glances. Applejack was nudging her apple stall down the old dirt road to Sweet Apple Acres, and even she seemed to have the time to stop and shake her head at Spike. His fists were clenched; he bit on his forked tongue a number of times. Retaliating would only make things worse, and yet his patience was wearing thinner and thinner.

Finally, after a high amount of lamenting the route he took, the library was in sight. Despite the fact that it housed a socially/sexually repressed, anger prone bookworm, who happened to be both furious at Spike and currently the most powerful living unicorn, he still let out a shaky sigh of relief. It was at that time that the two ponies Spike would want to avoid like an airborne form of the bubonic plague that had a 140% mortality rate and zombified your remains appeared. The two fillies were snickering at nothing in particular; Spike remained perfectly still, hoping they would pass him by. By the time he realised that their vision was not based on movement like the Tyrannosaurus Rex from Jurassic Park, the more dominant of the duo spied his stationary form. With the grin of a thousand Satans she started towards him; her grey friend carried on her conversation, apparently unaware Diamond Tiara had found someone new to torture. Silver Spoon noticed and trotted briskly to join her friend/master. The pink filly, in a tone perfected by several years practise of passive-aggressive verbal torture of others, obnoxiously said,

"Oh my Celestia Silver Spoon, we better watch out, we don't want the psycho dragon to hurt us."

"Oh come on!" Spike threw his claws up in the air, "You're young foals, why are you even out here at this time?!"

"Wait, he might shred our clothes!" They let out a chorus of harpy-like laughter.

"That was only twenty minutes ago, how did you find out?!"

"Ooooh, you gonna set us on fire like you did with half of Twilight's library?" Silver Spoon chuckled at this comment, it was a forced gesture and clearly only to earn her friend's approval. She then agreed with Diamond Tiara; whereas most ponies would simply chime in with 'yeah' Silver Spoon elongated the whole process by inserting several thousand 'Like, totally's.

"By whole library you mean nine books?" Spike deadpanned.

"Whatever dragon-boy, maybe you should burn more of Twilight's books, at least then she'd get some sun." Spike felt the red mist descend, she may had screamed at him today, but nopony makes fun of Twilight except him.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"She's such a loser, always reading, I've had more coltfriends than her!" Silver Spoon giggled, immediately after finishing her sentence she looked to Diamond Tiara, who seemed to approve of her words.

"So you've had more coltfriends than a fully grown mare? Are you sure that's making Twilight look bad and not you?" His comment fell on deaf ears, the first rule of their little bully-routine was to immediately disregard anything their target said, and Spike was no exception.

"Whatever, I bet she's a filly-fooler anyway," Spike considered this for a moment, he had found some pretty dubious looking magazines under Twilight's bed once, but that was irrelevant…sort of.

"And so what if she was? She's only saved Equestria twice, why don't you just show some gratitude?" Their spat had gathered a small crowd. In this time before bed, but after the day's activities ponies often got pretty bored, and such a scene was liable to turn a few heads. One pony who decided to investigate happened to be the current subject of the quarrel. Ponyville's resident librarian trotted into the small throng of ponies to find the source of the minor commotion. Spike's aggressors saw her first, and with grins that could curdle milk they rushed over to her.

"Twilight, Spike has been saying he's gonna burn the rest of your library!" trilled Diamond Tiara,

"Yeah, he said you should get some sun, he even called you a filly-fooler." Twilight looked up at her number one assistant with her eyes full of…Spike had been expecting anger, but it was much worse. Spike was on the receiving end of Twilight's 'I'm very disappointed in you' look.

"So you burn my books and then go around using hurtful and intolerant terms?" Spike gave her a flat look,

"Does that really sound like something I would do? They were the ones that called you a fill…well they said that and said you need to get some sun, I've was sticking up for you!" Everyone's eyes were trained on him; the dragon met their glares, and tried to appeal to the ponies who had witnessed the argument.

"Seriously, you're not gonna say anything, you're just gonna let this happen?" there was no reply. "Twilight, you've known me for fourteen years and you know that these two lie and pick on ponies, remember what they did to Applebloom?"

"Well Spike, from what I've heard today you put Snips and Snails in danger and damaged some of Rarity's work, is this true?"

"Well I tried to warn Snips and Snails and they wouldn't listen, when I told an older pony they already had leapt a roof on a homemade skateboard." She didn't seemed swayed, he gaze was still fortified with disappointment. "And with Rarity she was piling my claws with all these gowns, I tried to tell her and she wouldn't listen. I'm sorry her work got damaged and I'm sorry Snips and Snails got horn fractures, but nopony would listen to me Twilight, just like-" he immediately clamped his jaws shut upon realising what he had said, but the damage had been done.

"Just like who Spike, just like me?" there was no point in lying now,

"Well…yeah," for a moment her eyes softened, well moment was a bit of an exaggeration, it was more like a second… probably less. Her gaze softened for a millisecond, and that could very well have been, and probably was his imagination, but while it lasted it was nice.

"Spike, you've upset a lot of ponies today, you've really done wrong, what do you have to say for yourself?" Spike was about to apologise, he was about to admit what an evil creature he had been and throw himself before Twilight to lick the dirt from her hooves. However, something suddenly clicked,

"Why should I have to say something? Nopony listened to me today Twilight, not you, not Rarity and none of these," he gestured now growing crowd. "And after all of this, you believe Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon over me, the fillies who had been bad-mouthing you two minutes ago. Everyone blamed me today and no one gave my side of the story a single thought, so why don't you apologise Twilight?" There was a murmur of shock, along with a few disapproving tuts. Twilight took a deep breath, and replied,

"The only one in the wrong is you Spike," the dragon looked at her in disbelief, he looked at the two smirking fillies in disbelief, he looked at the whole crowd in disbelief. For the first time ever, it was Spike who gave the purple unicorn a look that said 'Twilight, I'm not angry, just disappointed'. With a shake of his head Spike moved through the crowd and toward the road to Canterlot.

"Spike where are you going?" Twilight spoke as if she was talking to a petulant child who had been denied some sweeties.

"Away from here!" her assistant yelled over his shoulder, the crowd slowly dispersed and Twilight trotted back to her home, confident that Spike's anger would simply peter out, and he would return home to apologise. Spike on the other hoof, or rather claw, had different ideas.

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The purple dragon was sat in a field, definitely not sulking, not sulking at all. OK he was sulking a little bit, only a tiny bit though. Ok so he was sulking completely. He had his head in his hands and was making a point of facing sharply away from Ponyville. His sulking was completely justified though, all day nopony had listened, nopony had appreciated he had tried to help Rarity, and Snips and Snails. Everypony just blamed him. It seemed the only time Twilight said thanks anymore was when he went to a stupid amount of effort. Like last hearts and hooves day when she didn't have a special somepony. Twilight had said she didn't care, but Spike could tell she did. It was the way that she sighed quietly and how she made too much effort to establish correct eye contact, Spike could read the books she loved so much.

So since it bothered her, and it so obviously had, Spike had stayed up all night. Using his unrivalled dexterity he forged around fifty different cards, an endeavour which was prolonged by having to imitate a pony's messy hoof-writing. He didn't have any bits so he picked what must have been an Everfre- rivalling bulk of flowers and constructed enough gifts to make even Nightmare Moon smile. Finally he had made her breakfast in bed, consisting of heart-shaped waffles, heart-shaped pancakes and heart-shaped cereal in a heart-shaped bowl with heart-shaped milk, something which against all odds seemed to exist.

Twilight had seen straight through the fact that everything was from him, and yet she had pretended to be surprised. Spike, considering he could read her like a book, knew Twilight was only playing along but he had appreciated it. They had eaten out at a restaurant and spent the evening in front of a couple of Morgan Freemare films. Of course everything was simply platonic but he had really tried, and she had been grateful, but that seemed to be the last time in recent memory she had even said thank-you for anything.

Spike got as comfortable he could on the grass, spending a night in a field wasn't the most elegant of ideas but there was a chance it would make Twilight see how much she needed him. The dragon wrapped his tail around himself for warmth, and looked up at Luna's night. There were twinkling stars in the sky, how Spike wondered what they were, up above the world so high, like rough-cut pieces of polished quartz in the sky. He settled on a particularly bright one, and stared for a moment, and then, despite the act being ridiculous, he made a wish.

"Please, just let ponies appreciate me, let them see that I am really a good dragon, and make it that I don't have to stay up all night making lovey-dovey cards for them to realise it." His eyelids fluttered and closed, eventually he drifted off into an uneasy sleep. Not even a bright technicolour flash from the sky awoke him.

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"Oh ah'm sure he'll be just fine Twi'," Applejack tried to reassure the nervy unicorn, but it was to no avail, she paced up and down the library's ground floor frantically. She only ever interrupted this flow to peek out of the window in hopes of seeing Spike.

"He's out there Applejack, all by himself; he's been out for three hours! What if he gets kidnapped by a Diamond-Dog, or Nightmare Moon, or a…a DRAGON!?" Rarity sighed,

"Twilight, Diamond-Dogs live underground, we got rid of Nightmare Moon, and Spike's a dragon himself,"

"Oh…right," the librarian chuckled nervously, and promptly resumed her bookshop marathon. After Pinkie Pie had walked past the library and saw Twilight losing her mind through the window, she had called the rest of their friends to come and help. However their presence seemed to be doing nothing in the way of alleviating the unicorn's burden, and their verbal soothing attempts harmlessly bounced off her self-constructed shell of worry.

"Twilight, Spike's a tough little guy, remember when he stuck up to those dumb dragons in the migration? He'll be fine," Rainbow Dash reassured, Twilight seemed not to listen, or at least not to hear. She stared out of the window for a slightly longer period than she had been doing previously.

"We argued girls, he said that no-one was listening to him, and that no-one appreciated him. I didn't care at first, but I think he might be right."

"I have to say, I was so mad at the time, but thinking back I do think Spikey did try to warn me with the whole dress fiasco,"

"Exactly, what if I've been mistreating Spike, what if…what if he hates me?"

"Ah, don't be a silly filly now sugarcube, you treat Spike great, Ah'm sure he'll be back soon and the two of you can both apologise as much as you want," the librarian smiled at her farmer friend,

"Thanks AJ, I just hope…" Twilight never finished her sentence; through the window all of the library's occupants could clearly see a large multi-coloured burst in the sky. They stared for a few seconds, and suddenly everything just seemed…fuzzy. The purple unicorn turned and saw her friends,

"Oh…hi girls, when did you come around?" the other five ponies seemed to be just as confused.

"Hey…Twilight when did we get here?"

"I sure don't know, does anyone else suddenly feel tired, like really, really tired?" Pinkie Pie queried, there was a sequence of groggy nods from everypony.

"Well I think you guys should probably head on home, thanks for the visit," Twilight was swaying now; it was a visible struggle to remain on all four hooves. One by one her friends filed out of the door giving bemused goodbyes; when they walked out onto the streets they looked around, seemingly confused by their surroundings. In fact the other ponies out were doing the exact same thing. She closed the door and immediately forgot what was happening outside, the only thing on Twilight's mind was how completely tired she was. It was like somepony had just sucked all of the energy out of her. So great was her exhaustion that the stairs were too daunting an obstacle to conquer. She chose to unceremoniously flop down on the settee and, almost instantly, her lead-weight eyelids snapped shut. Twilight slipped into a dreamless slumber with no care for the new dawn coming, and the changes it would bring.