"Stop. Please...stop." Spike's words were completely distraught right now, and the tears that welled up in his eyes matched his feelings. Before him were his friends, his family, yet not as he so often saw them. No, this gathering was not pleasant, or happy, or welcoming in any way, shape or form. There was anger here, and resentment, and bitterness from all in this room, and it was all turned against each other.
"None of you even care how well I do in my career! I honestly don't know why I bother talking with any of you about fashion!" Rarity bellowed.
Rainbow frowned to her. "Why should we care?! We're ponies! Do you really think anypony really cares all that much about clothes?! Seriously?!" She scoffed. "Why can't you be obsessed over stuff that actually matters?!"
Rarity scowled right back to her. "Oh? I suppose obsessing over Wonderbolts would be better, Rainbow?"
Rainbow pointed her hoof straight at her fashion-loving friend. "Don't you go there, Rarity! I'm warning you!"
Rarity rolled her eyes. "What, are you upset I'm saying what everypony has been thinking all this time?"
Rainbow's eyes narrowed. "Not...one...more...word!"
But Rarity wasn't listening. "The Wonderbolts are useless! There! I said it! They're nothing but a bunch of glory-seeking daredevils who contribute nothing of value to this nation!" She smirked. "So I suppose it's fitting that somepony like you admires them so much!"
Rainbow landed right down on the ground, approaching the unicorn with clear intent to hurt, only to be halted by Fluttershy, who stood between them.
"Both of you! Stop it! We're all supposed to be friends here! This is not how friends behave!" She grimaced. "Why do I always have to be the one to keep the peace between all of you? Can't you act like adults for once?!"
Applejack, now entering the scene herself, seemed amused by that. "Oh yeah? Well an adult would probably be able to learn a lesson and keep it! Not keep learning it over and over and over again! I mean, what, y'all learned ta overcome yer fears how many times before it stuck?!"
Fluttershy walked a few feet closer to her, seeming far angrier than she usually was. "Oh, you want to talk about how annoying it is to hear the same things over and over? Well how about apples?!"
Applejack too looked enraged now. "Y'all wouldn't dare!"
But Fluttershy did indeed dare. "Apples, apples, apples! That's all we ever hear from you! What, did your parents just stick a book with nothing but 'apples' written in it in front of you when you were a foal or something?"
Applejack seemed just about ready to attack, only to be stopped just shy of that when Pinkie suddenly burst into view. "Hey now! I go to so much trouble to try and make everypony smile, and here you all are just spoiling it! Don't you ever think about me?!"
Applejack slapped her own forehead. "Pinkie, all ya ever want is fer us ta think about ya!" She pointed to her. "Whenever we want somethin' even a little bit different from what ya want, ya go an' get all depressed. It's like ya never learned how ta take a 'no' when somepony tells ya!"
Pinkie seemed offended by this. "I do not act like that!"
"Yeah, you kinda do. You just have to look at that silly Yak instrument of yours to prove that," Starlight commented, earning the attention of all the rest of the group, prompting her to shrug. "Hey, don't judge me for calling it like I see it."
Rainbow scowled again. "Oh, what wise wisdom from the student of friendship right there...who can't go more than a month without messing with ponies' heads!"
Starlight looked to her with irritation. "Hey! I said I was sorry!"
Rainbow shrugged. "Sorry doesn't cut it! You just can't help but be a screw-up, can you? If you're not leading creepy cults, you're swapping cutie marks of royalty or something!"
"I supposed you'd rather me do something like go around trying to act all like a superhero and make my friends bring me down a peg behind my back?!" Starlight snapped back.
Rainbow's head rapidly turned towards the others. "You told her about that?!"
But the others didn't care, instead continuing to bicker among themselves. Spike was crying now, doubly so when he turned to see that Twilight was arguing not with her friends, but with somepony else. It was Celestia, who towered over the younger alicorn in a manner so imposing that Spike was shocked that Twilight wasn't cowering like he was. But the Princess of Friendship was not displaying fear right now, but anger. Anger and a feeling of betrayal.
"You did this to me, Celestia! You made me an alicorn without my consent! You put me as a leader of the nation! Did I want any of that? No! You decided my entire life for me!" she practically spat out.
Celestia looked down to her defiant student. "I did what was best for you, Twilight. I gave you an opportunity ponies would only dream of. Because of the decisions I made, you have friends you'd never have been able to meet, gone on adventures you'd never have considered. And why do all I get for this is grief from you?"
Twilight snorted angrily. "It was my life! You had no right to make those choices!" She chuckled dryly. "Oh, but what am I saying here? This is Princess Celestia we're talking about here! Of course she had to make a new Princess! She's so incapable of running the country that she probably had no choice but to get some extra help!"
Celestia's eyes widened. "How dare you speak to me like that, you ungrateful child!"
This carried on, moment by moment. Spike watched as friendships strained and shattered, with years upon years of bitterness and grievance pouring out as if there was nothing to hold it back. No happy memories of their time together, no feeling camaraderie was staying their hooves. No, all they wanted was to let everypony else know just how angry they were at one another. And as all of this played out, the tiny dragon felt worse and worse, curling up in the corner while shouts and bellow echoed around him. His tears poured down his cheeks now, and his sobs were drowned out by the argument before him. In time, he could contain himself no longer, and he shut his eyes tightly, his voice cracking as his pent-up dismay finally burst forth.
"Stop...stop...STOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!"
"Spike! What's wrong?!"
The youngster's eyes snapped open. All was different now. This wasn't the vast chamber of the cutie map, and he was not looking at all of his friends together. Instead, he was in his room, in his bed, the place still dark from the night-time outside. His eyes darted left and right, trying to make sense of what was going on, but before long all he could focus on was the one face right in front of him. It was Twilight kneeling beside his bed, looking to him with the same overwhelming worry that a mother would when looking to a hurt child.
"You were crying in your sleep, and when you called out, I...I came as soon as I could!" She reached out, gently placing her hoof onto his shoulder. "Were you having a nightmare?"
Spike looked to the hoof, then to her again, and with eyes still filled with tears he leapt out of bed, embracing her tightly. Twilight could feel how upset he was, and reciprocated immediately. Through the corner of her eye, as she held him close, she could see Starlight peering into the door, no doubt also having been woken by all these noises. She nodded to her, silently letting her know that things were under control. Starlight nodded back, making her way back to her room afterwards, leaving only the two in there to deal with this. Sniffing, Spike parted slightly from her, but never once took his eyes off her.
"Twilight, I...I was watching you and Celestia and Rainbow and all of them...you were yelling at each other! You kept saying all these terrible things and...and...and it was horrible!"
Twilight gently patted him on the head. "What kinds of things?"
Spike, in typical childlike fashion, used a finger to wipe away some moisture from under his nose, before starting to answer that question. "You...you were angry at Celestia for making you into an alicorn. Applejack was angry at Pinkie for getting depressed when we don't like the things she likes. Rarity was insulting the Wonderbolts right to Rainbow's face." He grimaced again. "It was like you weren't even friends anymore! It was like you felt nothing but hate for each other!"
Twilight looked to him softly, and spoke in like-fashion. "Spike...none of us feel that way about each other. Not once do we ever resent one another for the things that have happened, or for what passions we may not agree with. Why would you feel we did?"
Spike shook his head vigorously. "I don't know! I don't know, I don't know, I don't know! It was the worst thing I'd ever seen! You weren't you! They weren't them! They were like totally different ponies! Ponies who just knew how to be angry and nothing else!" He shut his eyes tightly again, another tear falling down his cheek. "Why did I have to dream that?! Why would I ever think any of you were like that?!"
In spite of everything, Twilight offered a gentle smile, patting him on the head again and causing him to look back to her. There was a moment of silence between them, which ended when Twilight finally spoke. "Spike...you're right. We're not like that. The kind of bitterness and anger and resentment you saw? That's not us. Being an alicorn may have surprised me, but I'd never hate Celestia for it. The Wonderbolts may not mean as much to us as they do to Rainbow, but we'd never try to make her feel bad about it. I say again, that's just not us. And I promise you..." She leaned forward, bringing her forehead to his. "...It never will be."
That seemed to be all Spike needed to hear, as his tears returned and he flung himself forward to hug her a second time. Twilight smiled to him, holding him close, as she'd so often done before. She could hear his occasional sobs, and she stroked his head-spines every time he did, comforting him with every passing moment. After a while, her lifelong companion again parted from her, looking to her with eyes reddened by his crying. "I'm so sorry for thinking all that about you."
But Twilight shook her head. "You don't need to apologise, Spike. A nightmare isn't truth. I don't know why you might have conjured those thoughts, but you're not a terrible person for thinking them. Everything's fine now, okay?"
Spike nodded, but said nothing as Twilight smiled wider to him. "Now then...how about we get you a glass of milk to help you sleep?"
Her little dragon companion, for the first time tonight, finally smiled back. "Yeah...I'd like that."