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// Not Everypony will be Happy 
// Story: Not everypony will be happy 
// by Lenora Goff 
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~Spike~ 

There was a part of me that didn't want to get up, didn't want to move from where I was at. I was comfortable, and I had Rainbow with me. It was dawn, the time that I had almost been trained to wake up over the years. The sheer fact that I was comfortable was only one of the reasons why I didn't feel like moving much. Another one of the reasons had more to do with what had happened the day before. 

My wings were still sore. 

Still, there was no way that I could just sit there. There was a mare out there that we needed to go talk to. I knew that it would have to be both of us, that I wouldn't be able to talk Rainbow out of going with me even if I wanted to. Of course, it could only be the two of us, I wasn't sure if any of the others should actually be brought in to deal with the problem that had been caused by our little fight. 

I wasn't sure I wanted to bring them into it even if they wanted to be, their friendship with Twilight was likely something that meant a lot to them. I didn't want to be the cause for something like that to happen. Part of me was already starting to feel guilty that I might have ruined a friendship as is. It had really dawned on me the night before, hit me hard, that nothing would be the same between Twilight and Rainbow even if they were able to talk things out. 

A pony didn't get zapped and just forget about it.  

That wasn’t even taking into account the fact that Rainbow was the bearer of the Element of Loyalty. She didn’t seem to be taking this too hard, but I kind of wondered if it was just something that she did. She didn’t seem like the type that let others know about her problems. That was something that we would have to work on, if it turned out that I wasn’t overthinking things. 

There was always the chance that I was just overthinking things. 

I really hoped I was. 

Regardless, it was time for the two of us to get up. "Hey, Rainbow, wakey-wakey." As I kissed her cheek, I heard the tell-tale signs of somepony who didn't want to get up. To most ponies, though, it would sound like incomprehensible grunting. To me, as somepony who had dealt with Twilight when she was smaller, I was able to translate it out to a want to stay asleep for at least five more minutes. If it were any other day, and there wasn't any other reason to wake up, I probably would have been the same way. 

Today, though, was going to be an important day. 

By the end of the day, I was going to have fixed my relationship with my big sister. That was enough by itself to make sure that I nudged Rainbow again. “I’d give ya another five minutes if I could, but this is important. We need to go meet with Twilight today.” This time, the response that I got was a yawn and a stretch. That had been enough to make sure that she had gotten up. 

I gave her another kiss on the cheek. “Good morning.” 

“It’d be an even better morning if I could have slept another five minutes…’ 

I couldn’t help but chuckle. Rainbow turned to me for a moment, her expression couldn’t hide the fact that she was still tired. I didn’t know if five minutes would be enough to change that, but I couldn’t tell her no now. There was something about that expression that I just couldn’t say no to. I didn’t do well with pouty expressions at the best of times, and she was just so cute when she did it. 

“Okay, fine, five more minutes.” I really couldn’t let her know it was that pout. If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to get anything. Then again, there were worse things that I could lose on. I nuzzled her cheek as she went back to sleep. I stayed awake, obviously, because I knew that I would need to be the one that woke her up in those five minutes. If it were up to her, she’d probably have slept all day. 

~Rainbow~ 

I didn't think today was going to be great at all. It might have just been a bit of paranoia, but the last few times I went to see Twilight hadn't ended all that well. The first time had been better than the second, with my cloud house being a lot more comfortable than the ground had been. Of course, the worst part about the second time was that there was a second time at all. It had been bad enough once, but I could have put that one on her worrying about what had happened to Spike. 

I still couldn't figure out why the second had happened. 

The best question was what would happen this time. I knew that this was something that had to happen, it just had to. Spike didn't want to leave Twilight for good, regardless of what had happened. The two of them were family. Twilight was my friend, or at least she had been my friend. I didn't know if she considered me a friend anymore, since she was the one that decided to assault me with magic. No, that was understating, she had decided that the best course of action was to attack one of her best friends twice. 

I wanted to be there for Spike, though, so I was going to be.  

"I'm awake, I'm awake. Let's just get this thing over with." Even though I was going, that didn't mean that I was going to make it seem like I was looking forward to this. There was a chance that it would end well, but there was just as equal of a chance of this ending with me being sent somewhere by a certain lavender unicorn. No, no, don't be paranoid Rainbow. The same thing won't happen three times, that would just be horrible. 

Spike shot me a glare, and my response was to yawn. "I'm just a little worried, that's all. I got attacked twice, after all." 

"I'm sure she thought she was looking out for me." 

This was something that I hadn't expected. Out of everything that I expected Spike to say, the idea that he would be coming up with an excuse had actually been the furthest down on the list.  I really didn't know how to respond to that. It did make a little sense, though. The little guy … no, I didn't think I could call him that anymore. The fact that he was a little taller than me shot that down. Regardless of how tall he was, Spike saw her as family. This meant he was going to do anything to try to make his life iron itself out.  

Right now, that seemed to mean that he was going to try to excuse Twilight's behavior.  

I really hoped that this turned out well for him. Even if things didn't end up working well between Twilight and me, I hoped it worked out well for Spike. He needed as much of his family as possible, or at least it was obvious that he wanted them. Spike had a lot of love, and he liked to share that love with those that were close to him. That might have been the worst part about all of this, I definitely could see some signs that it wasn't exactly easy on him. 

Maybe I was overthinking things. 

"You're probably right." I knew that I had to be supportive. This was going to be the day that changed everything between the three of us. The best case scenario was that we all became closer. The neutral option was that Spike and Twilight became as close as before, but she still didn't want to have anything to do with me. The worst case scenario was … I didn't want to think about the worst case scenario. It wasn't going to happen anyway. 

Spike had said that she had acted out of worrying for him, and there was a great chance that he was right. Twilight always came across as somepony who worried far more than she should. This could have easily been a situation where her worries just had negative consequences. If that was the case, then we just needed to be there for her and talk to her. The alternative was that our friendship had ended, that she wouldn’t talk to me ever again. 

I really didn’t like to think about that possibility. 

And that was me also using the same excuse for Twilight. It turned out that Spike wasn’t the only one who was going to do that. “Well, we might as well head over. The sooner we start this, the sooner everything gets resolved.” With that, the two of us rolled off the cloud and glided down to the ground. This wasn’t going to be something easy, we both knew that, but it was something that we both knew needed to be done.  

Not only that, but it was something that we both wanted to do. We both wanted this to end. 

It was weird, though. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw some orange. It was only for a split second, and when I turned I saw nothing. Maybe it was just in my mind, maybe it thought that I needed to have something else to focus on for a moment. I turned for a moment, that couldn’t have just been my imagination. Then again, I didn’t see anything, or anypony. That meant that it had to be. 

Maybe this would have been a perfect excuse to stop for a minute and say something. “I know that we have to go there, we have to get this done, but I was wondering something.” I knew that it would have sounded paranoid, and the orange that I saw wasn’t even the only thing that had just entered my mind. There had been something else in the back, something that I knew I needed to get out into the open before the two of us went to see Twilight. 

Spike stopped, and looked at me. “You can ask me anything.” 

I rubbed the back of my head. “Actually, it’s more than just one thing.” I looked back where I had thought I had seen something, and pointed. “Did you see anything while we’ve been walking? Because I really coulda sworn I saw something." I looked at Spike, who shook his head no. “Alright, that’s a relief. The next thing is more… about what we’re going to go do. You’ve been with Twilight your entire life, I feel awful coming between you two.” 

Why did that thought have to pop into my head right then and there? It should have been something that I talked to him about before we went to go talk to Twi. Spike looked at me, a concerned look on his face. Part of me really didn’t want to know what he was thinking, but I knew I needed to know. Not only that, but I knew he was going to tell me. 

The first thing he did, though, was take a single step that put him in front of me. That was weird enough, but then he wrapped me in a big hug. “She’ll always be family, Rainbow, and I will always love her like family.” So far, I still didn’t know where this was going. “But she has to know that you’re the most important mare in my life now. Even when everything works out with the talk, I’m still going to spend as much time with you as I can.”  

When he stopped, I realized how silly I had sounded. I couldn’t help but nuzzle him, planting a kiss on his lips. “I should have known you’d say something like that. You’re an awesome guy, ya know that? I’m pretty lucky.” I winked. With that little problem out of the way, I knew we couldn’t slow down any more. The two of us had to go see Twilight. 

At least now, though, Spike had out my mind at ease. 

~Twilight~ 

It had taken the entire night. Rarity had left, Spike hadn’t shown up yet, and I was stuck by myself. Several things happened that night, a few of them amazing. I had come up with how to travel in time and do something, I had discovered cloning, and I had finally discovered the problem that need to be solved when Spike finally showed up again. I knew that he would, I had always known that he would eventually show back up. 

The only question had been when, but that didn’t matter right now. 

Everything had become crystal clear after a night of thinking, and some coffee. I had thought that the problem was Rainbow Dash, and then maybe that Spike had just made a mistake, and finally myself. The thing that I hadn’t thought about was the most obvious thing. I actually felt a little foolish right now, knowing that I actually hadn’t been able to figure it out initially. With the history that I had with Celestia and Cadance, it only made sense that it had to do with them. 

Celestia was always testing what I had learned and Cadance was the Alicorn of Love. 

The glue that held it together was just how random it seemed to me. There had been no reason for me to think that Spike loved Rainbow Dash. He had always seemed to have a crush on Rarity, but that was all it had ever been. Then the night that he goes to ask Rarity out, he just happens to run into Rainbow Dash and just happens to realize that he loves her. That didn’t make any sense to me. Part of me had initially thought that Luna might have had something to do with it, but the idea had been shot down just as quickly as it had come into my head. 

That was just crazy to think she would have done that. 

So, now the solution. I had to tell the two of them what I had figured out. I would have to apologize to Rainbow about what I had done, of course, but the important thing was to let the two of them know that they were being used. Neither of them likely had feelings for the other, it had all been a test for me. If the two of them saw this, then there was still the chance that I hadn’t failed. Everything was going to be alright after today, I just knew it. 

All I had to do was wait for Spike to show up. Then I would have to wait until he had gotten in touch with Rainbow Dash, unless I was lucky enough that the two of them showed up at the same time. That was the only part of my plan that relied on luck. Then again, I would have ended up talking to them both eventually either way. Luck would have just helped to make sure that I didn’t have to wait for the other one to show up. 

I really needed to stay up more often, it obviously made me brilliant.  

Right now, it had become a waiting game. While I knew that Spike would show up, I still had no idea about when he would show up.  If only there was a spell that would allow me to see into the future. Of course, that didn’t exist yet. Maybe after all of this, Spike would help me out with some research about what I needed to do to make that possible.  

First, though, he had to show up. 

~Spike~ 

It was a nearly silent trip as we went there. I didn’t know what Rainbow was thinking, but something told me that it was going to come out when we finally got there. I wished she would have told me more about how this was affecting her, I really did. I looked at the door, the open sign seemed welcoming enough, and then I turned back to Rainbow.  

“This will be fine.” I don’t know if I was trying to convince her or myself, really. Maybe it was a little bit of both. “We’ll just go in there, lay out our positions, and then we’ll all do a group hug.” That seemed a little cliché, and it didn’t really sound like something that was going to happen, but I said it anyway. It was almost as if I hoped that saying it would make it happen. That wasn’t really how life worked, but that wasn’t important. 

I said it, so at the very least I could tell myself that it might have been the end of this little discussion. 

“Yeah, that’s right. I’m sure of it.” Rainbow didn’t sound any more convinced than I was, but maybe she had the same hope that it might end like that. She looked at me, almost waiting to see if I was going to be the one that opened the door, and then she moved to push the door open. As she did it, there was a split-second when it looked as though she was watching out for any stray magic that might have been coming her way. 

When none came, she pushed the door open more. I quickly moved to take the first steps into the library. This wasn’t because I thought that something bad was going to happen, I really hoped that nothing but good things came from this little discussion, but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to be careful. If anything happened to Rainbow because I hadn’t taken the lead, I would have felt terrible.  

Nothing happened. 

I saw Twilight stand up, a gleeful smile on her face, as she rushed over toward us. There was something off about her. It only took a second for me to remember when I had last seen her like this, or at least something close to this, and that was when she didn’t sleep for long periods of time. I normally fixed her some coffee when she needed to stay up to study. Maybe she had stayed up, got a lot of work done, and she was happy about that. 

There was something I noticed about Rainbow, though, out of the corner of my eye. When Twilight started to move toward us, she flinched at first. Maybe it took a second to realize that she wasn’t going to do anything if she was rushing toward us. If she was going to do anything, she probably would have done it laying down. 

“Oh my gosh, I missed you two so much.” Those words didn’t register for a moment, but I was soon being hugged. It was pretty obvious that Rainbow was just as shocked as I was, but neither of us really were going to say anything about it. In fact, both of us did the only thing that it seemed like we could do. We both hugged her back. “And you’ve gotten bigger, mister.” 

I was starting to get worried, she might have lost it over the past couple days. 

“Err… it’s nice seeing you too, Twilight. I did miss you.” I looked over to Rainbow for a moment, I had no idea what she thought of all of this. “I would have come by yesterday, but I lost track of time learning how to use these.” With that, I flexed my wings. That wasn’t a complete lie, I had lost track of the time when it came to the flying. It had been fun, really, it had taken my mind off of what I had assumed was going to be a difficult thing. 

Maybe I had worried too much. 

“It’s probably a good thing that you did.” I wasn’t sure why she would say that. “After all, learning is a worthy endeavor. Besides, if you had showed up yesterday I might not have figured out the thing that I figured out last night.” Another thing I wasn’t quite sure of was whether or not I had just seen what looked like an eye-twitch. It was probably just my imagination. 

“That’s awesome, Twi. Why don’t we go sit down and you can tell us all about your discovery.” Rainbow vocalized what I had thought about saying right then and there, though she didn’t seem as worried about this as I did. I remembered some of the times when she had come up with something that eventually had to be cleaned up by me. I wasn’t looking forward to that again, definitely not. 

~Rainbow~ 

“You’re right, Rainbow. I can get the two of you some coffee to drink while we talk.” I didn’t know how Twilight could stand the stuff. It was bitter, and it wasn’t really that good for you. I shook my head. 

“No thanks. Never drank the stuff.” 

“I could use some, though.” Maybe I needed to convince Spike that the stuff was bad for him, but that wasn’t what today was about. I looked back to Twilight, and she was already moving to fix two cups of coffee. Since I wasn’t going to drink any, obviously that meant she was going to be drinking another cup while she told us about whatever it was that she had discovered. 

The three of us were soon enough sitting. I looked over to Spike. Part of me wanted to just run out of there as quickly as possible. There was just something about the way that Twilight had been acting this entire time that freaked me out. At the same time, though, I did my best to not show that. There was no way that Spike should have to see that I was freaked out by a mare that had obviously had a little too much coffee and not enough sleep. 

“So, Twi, what’s this big discovery?” I looked at Spike, who had just taken a sip of his drink, and then back to Twilight. Obviously I wanted to know too. “It’s gotta be big, you didn’t take too well to Rainbow when you first saw her with me.” Then again, I thought back to what she might have learned. Twilight might have gone to talk to Celestia, or Cadance, or maybe even Luna. If she had gotten good advice, maybe there was nothing to worry about. 

I was just being paranoid. 

“I figured out that this isn’t either of your faults, and that I had completely overreacted due to not having all of the facts.” That made sense to me. Twilight had a history of overreacting. It wasn’t as if love could be blamed on any one thing, either. Love was just something that happened. I hadn’t even known that Spike had cared for me before our date.  

“That’s good, Twi, because Spike and I-“  

It was then that I got cut off. “Actually, Rainbow, I’m going to have to ask you to let me finish.” I had thought that she had been finished already. Apparently the gap of time was just meant to ensure that we were listening. “After that, I tried to figure out what else it could have been. I mean, there had been no indication that the two of you loved each other before that night.” 

“Act-“ But it seemed as though I wasn’t going to be given much of a chance to talk yet. Twilight glared right at me, cleared her throat, and continued. This was already starting to go downhill, but this needed to be done. This wouldn’t be the first time somepony had glared at me, or told me to quiet down. This was the first time that somepony had accused me of not knowing how I felt, though. I wondered what Twi was going to come up with. 

I was sure it wouldn’t be good. 

“With all of that information, I realized that the only possible reason that all of this happened was a test.” 

It was more than just ‘not good’, this was one of the worst things she could have said at this point. I didn’t know what to say, but I quickly moved as close as I could to Spike. The closer I got, the safer I felt. I knew that nothing would happen to me while he was around, he just wouldn’t let it. I wondered how Spike was going to react to this, my eyes mobbing to look at his expression. 

That expression didn’t look happy. 

~Spike~ 

It had been bad enough when she had cut off Rainbow, multiple times, but this was just getting ridiculous. I didn’t know what she could possibly mean by a test, the only way that I could figure it out would be to ask. At this point, though, I didn’t have much hope for what was going to be said. At this point, I just wanted to let her get through her little explanation before I told her how wrong she was. 

It had been a couple of days since I had been this angry, and surprisingly enough it had been because of Twilight that time as well. 

My eye twitched as I said the next words. “So, what is this test you’re talking about?” 

“I’m so glad you asked, Spike.” I wasn’t, but it had to be asked. “See, all of my lessons so far have been about friendship.” I noticed that she shook her head, as if she was trying to regain her focus on something. “But the thing that she hasn’t done is actively play a role in those lessons. And so the best way of having a hand is to see if I have learned lessons about accepting the decisions that my friends make.” 

I felt conflicted at this point. This was obviously a lesson that she needed to learn, but this felt wrong. I didn’t like the idea that she was trying to brush all of this aside as some sort of lesson. That would have cheapened what she had done, if she really believed it. What was I thinking? She probably believed completely what she said. The only thing that I could hope for was that she learned from the experience and grew. 

“That’s why she did the only thing she could think to do, and she sent Cadance to make the two of you fall in love.” 

That was it. That was seriously the thing that caused me to question whether or nor any of this was real. I didn’t think I could have followed such strained logic even if I wanted to. According to this weird logic, nothing could have possibly happened to where the two of us fell in love. It had been bad enough when she had initially said that the decision had been some sort of a lesson, maybe she could have said that Celestia had pushed us into doing something we were already going to do. That was how my mind had started to rationalize this. 

And now that rationalization died. 

Part of me wanted to yell, to scream, to let her know that everything she had just said was wrong. I didn’t really think that would help a lot, though, so I just simply looked over to Rainbow to see if she had anything to say. The look in her eyes was one of shock, that she couldn’t believe what had been said either. I had come here with the idea of trying to talk to Twilight, but that idea might have just been killed in front of us. 

I really didn’t want to just walk out, though. I had to say something. “”That has to be the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. Why would mom get Cadance to do something that would affect two of your friends just to teach you a lesson? That doesn’t seem like her at all.” At the mention of the word mom, she seemed to reel back a little. I didn’t get it, really, but maybe it had been something else. Maybe she had just finally figured out how silly she sounded. 

“She sent me to go save the Crystal Empire as a test, Spike. She seems to have really big tests.”  

“But they’ve never hurt your friends, or me.” I had to do something to do something. Without thinking, I walked up to her and gave her a hug. Then I said a few words to try to get to her. It wouldn’t be about just trying to convince her. “Think about it, sis. She cares about us, she wouldn’t do something to hurt any of us.” Of course, that probably wasn’t going to be enough on its own. “I love Rainbow, that’s just how it is.”  

A bright flash, and she was a little ways away. “Nope.” I didn’t expect that response. I had tried to make her seem how silly it was, then I tried the more sincere sounding way. I had figured that if I called her sis instead of just ‘Twilight’ or ‘Twi’, then she would realize I was being serious. “There’s been nothing to make it seem like you even had any interest in Rainbow, and it didn’t seem like she had any interest in you. According to the talk around town, she is interested in Applejack.” 

This felt like it was just going to be a circle, no progress was being made. 

There was nothing more that needed to be said. I had moved away from Rainbow for a moment, but within half a minute I was standing beside her. I didn’t know what she was thinking of, but right now I needed to be where I was. I turned to look at Rainbow, not sure how to explain what her expression meant. Maybe she was as confused as I was when it came to how this trip was turning out.   

It had started off ad what might have been the simplest trip. The idea, when I had come here, was to try to talk to Twilight. I didn’t feel like I was going to make any progress, though. I had seen Twilight be a lot of things, and react a lot of ways, but this sort of thing was completely new. It was like she was refusing the reality around her and trying to substitute her own.  

It was like that because it was exactly that. 

There was nothing else for us to do. As soon as I turned, Rainbow followed suit. I knew that neither of us wanted to just leave, but this was how it was going to be. Neither of us even said anything else as we walked out, leaving a stunned Twilight just standing there again. The last time I had left, I had heard her beg me to stay. This time, it seemed as though she was too stunned to do anything other than simply stand there gawking.  

Out of the corner of my eye, as I walked out, I noticed that Applejack was standing there. I didn’t know how long she had been there, and in a way it didn’t matter. The only thing that really made it matter was one hope. Even if I wasn’t getting along with her, I hoped that the rest of her friends would. I even planned on trying to get Rainbow to make up with her.  

“So, Rainbow, how would you feel about me staying at your place from now on?” 

“Sounds awesome to me.” She put her hoof out, which I took with my hand. With one final glance at Twilight, the two of us flapped our wings and flew off toward Rainbow’s home. Wait, not, we flew off toward our home. 

~Twilight~ 

None of this made any sense. 

I had figured it all out. There had been no way that I could have been wrong. And not only did they just walk out, but there was something worse. It was even worse than the repeated idea that I was wrong. In fact, it might have been the worst thing to happen to me in a long time. 

Spike demoted me. 

I wasn’t just his sis, I had never been just his sis. That role was one that hadn’t been filled, and possibly never would be. I took care of him. Celestia had helped when I was younger, but eventually I was his primary caregiver. Then he called me his sister, and he had called Celestia his mom. He hadn’t even referred to himself as one of my friends at the end. 

What did it all mean? 

There had to be some sort of lesson that I was supposed to learn from all of this. Everything so far had been a lesson, this couldn’t be any different. As I continued to try to think of what it might have been, I kept going back to the word sis. 

How had everything gone so bad so quickly? And why had they just left? Everything I had said to them had made perfect sense, they just hadn’t been paying attention.  

Did that even matter now? I was all alone.