//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 (part 8): What's Wrong? (Spike) 
// Story: Apple Sleep Experiment (Expanded) 
// by SirVindicator 
//------------------------------//

Cut to a scene of spike in Starlight glimmer's office at the school of friendship. Starlight wasted no time finding someone to talk to, the first creature that she thought of was Spike as he had known Twilight and her friends and a number of their friends for a while now. They also became close friends.

"It's just that I wish Twilight would have told me about this earlier. I could have helped her with this dilemma. Why didn't she send me a letter or something?" Starlight asked.

"You mean Twilight or Applejack?" I responded.

"Both of them at this point." Starlight said putting her face between her hooves.

"Yeah, both of them are always trying to do more than they should. They would have been the same way with anyone else." I paused and then continued, "It's hard to even count the number of times that Twilight overwhelms herself and didn't accept her friends help, especially whenever trying to remodel her castle. Applejack is the same way with her farm work."

"So both of them really do struggle with asking for help? I guess I was more correct than I thought when I made that outburst. At the time I wasn't really sure who I was directing it to. I just felt so bad afterwards saying that about two of the ponies that became my friends when I had no one else. That's also why I try to be direct with creatures when they are acting irrationally or dealing with personal issues and why I like my job as a guidance counselor. It gives me a chance to guide other creatures in the right direction and to help them out whenever they're struggling; being there for them. You know empathy, I want to be there for them and offer some understanding."

"Yeah..."

"And what is worse is that Twilight and AppleJack are going to get into a who's-to-blame situation, and neither of them will admit that they screwed up. And Twilight is also a princess..."

"I see what you're getting at. Twilight could brush this under the rug and not own up to her half of this. This isn't a normal friendship problem hence why the map hasn't said anything. Even after Applejack is cured, there's going to be a lot to repair. Ponies that we will never get back."

"I wish I could just time travel back to that point and stop this from happening. I really wish it were that easy. I know I swore to never used time travel again but several ponies are dead."

"Good intentions but probably not a good idea, what paves the road to Tartarus."

"Yeah." Starlight said with a sad gaggle.

Just then there was a knock at the office door.

"Who is it?" Starlight asked.

"Sweetie Belle." Sweetie Belle said.

"Come in." Starlight said a bit reluctantly.