It was just your average night. The stars were shining, the moon hovered brightly in the night sky above, and there was a cool, pleasant breeze wafting through Ponyville. Twilight was out on the library's top balcony, enjoying the night sky, when she heard a loud crash from downstairs, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin.

Quite peeved, Twilight got up from her prone position and made her way downstairs, to find one of the library's many bookcases knocked over, its contents spilled all over the floor, and Spike sitting there, rubbing his head. The sight was enough to make her left eye start to twitch in anger.

"Spike! What happened!?" Twilight demanded angrily.

Spike looked over to where Twilight's voice came from. When their eyes met, a expression of horror spread across the young dragons face. "W-well I-I was j-just-" Spike began to stammer out, but noticed Twilight holding up her hoof, signaling him to stop talking.

"You need to be more careful, Spike. Now clean up this mess!" Twilight ordered. Normally, Spike would eagerly follow said order, but he did have something to tell her something first.

"Wait Twilight! The bookcase wasn't-"

"Quick making excuses and get to work!" Twilight bellowed, completely ignoring what Spike was trying to say. Spike visibly shrunk at her outburst and turned around, muttering words of compliance as he started to pick up the books that were strewn about the place. Satisfied with the dragons compliance, Twilight made her way back up to her room.

"Don't even get to say a single thing..." Spike muttered as he picked up a particularly dusty tome. Spike examined it for a few seconds, before blowing the dust off. Before he even had time to realize his mistake, Spike noticed that he suddenly needed to sneeze. He tried to angle the sneeze away from the tome he was carrying, but it was too late. The moment he sneezed, a gout of green flames shot out of his nose, instantly incinerating the tome in his claws.

"Uh oh..." Spike said to himself, before the fire alarm went off and the sprinkler system activated, spraying water all over the library.

It wasn't even a few minutes after getting back to the balcony when Twilight heard the fire alarm going off.

"Oh what now?" Twilight asked nopony in particular as she got up from the floor and made her way downstairs. The sight she saw shook her to the core. The room was now half flooded due to the emergency sprinkler system, the bookcases were soaked with water, and Spike was running around frantically, trying to fix the damage some way or another.

"SPIKE THE DRAGON, FRONT AND CENTER!" Twilight shouted at the top of her lungs, causing Spike to fall over into the water. He then felt himself get picked up by Twilight's telekinesis and found himself floating in front of her, before she dropped him in the water in front of her.

"What happened?!" Twilight demanded, looking like she was about to lose her sanity.

"I sneezed." Spike answered.

"What the heck Spike?! I thought I told you to dust those cases!" Twilight shouted.

"You know, you don't need to shout..." Spike muttered.

"Why don't you ever listen, Spike?!" Twilight demanded, "if you just dusted the bookcases like I told you to, this wouldn't of happened."

"What do you think I was doing when that bookcase fell on me?!" Spike shouted at Twilight.

"Don't take that tone with-"

"No! Shut up! I'm done! All I ever do is work all day to please you, to make you happy, and all you do is bitch, moan, and yell at me. Is a simple thank you enough?!" Spike demanded.

"I don't ask a lot of you Spike." Twilight pointed out.

"Don't ask a lot of me? Don't ask a lot of me?! Twilight, I'm like nine! Yet, you have me working like I'm Cinderella! I never get a break around here, and you won't even lift a hoof to help me! You say I'm your number one assistant, but personally, I feel like I'm your number one slave..." Spike said.

"But-" Twilight began to protest.

"Don't but me! You're too much of a mule to see what you do to me. Ever since I got appointed as your assistant, you treated me like dirt. I remember every little thing you have done to me. Don't you think there was a reason beyond jealousy I ran away that one time? Speaking of that one time, I've noticed Owlowiscious hasn't really done much recently, which makes me have to do even more work!"

"Don't start-"

"And it doesn't even seem like you care about my safety. You didn't even bother to ask if I was okay earlier. Nope, the books are more important than your 'number one assistant'. And that's not the first time either. I remember that when you hit me a door that one time, you acted like I was goofing around. And then when I fell from a ladder getting your stupid fairy tail book, you didn't even bother to check on me."

By now, Twilight felt like she about to have an aneurysm. "I had to save-"

"Twilight, you are an immature, selfish, lazy, pathetic excuse for a pony. How Celestia deemed you fit to care for me in the first place in beyond me. And I've put up with it for long enough. You want this mess cleaned? Then get off your lazy flank and clean it up yourself!" Spike shouted, before stomping out of the house.

Twilight stood there in shock, absorbing everything that Spike had just said. First, she felt absolutely livid. Then, she had a realization.

"He's right..." Twilight muttered, looking down at her hooves, "Dear Celestia, he's right. I treat him like he's no better than dirt..."

"No better than a slave... " Twilight muttered. The mare collapsed to the ground, weighted down by her sorrow as tears rolled down her cheek. Heavy sobs choked her as she cried.

She hadn't lost an assistant.

She had lost a son.