Night Three:
Spike just finished sorting Twilight’s shelves. It took quite a while because of the sheer number of books, but it was worth it. He didn’t have anything else he needed to do until Twilight came back, so he decided that he earned a snack.
“Time for some gems,” Spike said as he licked his lips and rubbed his hands together, eager to finally just be able to relax and enjoy some delicious gems.
He went to the cupboard to grab a few, and set them down in a bowl and got ready to eat them. He picked one up with his fingers, lifted it towards his mouth, and it slipped out of his fingers and fell to the floor.
“Huh,” Spike didn’t understand how it slipped in between his fingers, but it was probably nothing, so he grabbed another from the bowl. Up to his mouth it went- and down to the ground, out of his fingers once more. This got Spike pretty frustrated, and this time he grabbed a handful and they all fell down onto the floor, each one sliding off like an ice cube.
“Come on!” Spike hit the table with his fist, and the rest of the gems rose up out of the bowl and were launched across the room and onto the floor, just like the rest of them. He was beyond frustrated, but he would’ve been even more upset if he didn’t see the gems moving around on the floor.
“Is there some sort of magnet under these floors? Maybe Rainbow Dash is trying to prank me again. I’ll show her-”
He was cut off when he noticed they were now stacking up on top of each other. They were organizing themselves into some sort of strange pattern. At first he couldn’t tell what it was, but then he noticed that they piled together to create a large gem, about the size of his head. If they weren’t different colors, he might’ve thought that they turned into one gem.
“I enjoy eating large gems, but this is just getting weird.”
“You enjoy what!?”
No way. Those gems just…spoke? This wasn’t right, but he heard them. They spoke like it was one voice, high pitched and loud. There was also an opening as if it had a mouth to demonstrate that the gems were…indeed talking. Spike just stood there, speechless.
“So, you enjoy eating us, do you?” The gems accused.
Spike managed to get some words to escape his mouth, despite the shock.
“I would never eat something that can talk!”
“Oh, so now you’re too good for us talking gems?”
“I never said that!”
“Oh, but you were thinking it, weren’t you? We’re rare enough in Equestria. If we’re going to be held prisoners, we deserve to be shown off or given away as valuable gifts, NOT to be eaten!”
“I-” Spike tried to say something but was interrupted.
“Oh, but you dragons just love to eat us. Don’t think we have feelings… hmm? Maybe we have accomplishments we want to make in life, too? But nopony gives a flying feather about what we think! Well we don’t give a flying feather about you either. Hmm…. What does dragon taste like?”
Once Spike heard the word “taste” he started to run off.
The other gems started pouring out of the cupboard to join the giant gem, making it even bigger.
Spike ran out of the door, trying to find somepony to help him out. There was nopony around, except one. Applejack! He could recognize that hat anywhere, and he saw it right behind that apple cart. Surely she would be able to help wrangle these gems, or at least know what to do.
“Applejack, thank Celestia I found you! There are these gems and they’re trying to eat me! I need you to round them up before they get out of control.”
Applejack turned her head, revealing that her face was really only some more gems under the cowgirl hat, just like before.
“Why would you want to round them up?” They said in the same voice.
~ ~ ~
Day Three:
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” Spike yelled as he woke; this was starting to become familiar.
He wasn’t so used to seeing Twilight, however. She was right beside him, and it seemed that she was prepared for Spike to wake up screaming.
“Calm down Spike, you had another nightmare. Here, take this bowl of gems so you can relax and explain everything to me.”
As she held up a bowl using her magic, Spike stared at the gems. They looked exactly like the bowl he had from his dream, filled to the brim and everything. He couldn’t help but throw out another scream, attempting to keep the bowl out of his sight.
“Get them AWAAAYYYYY-mmmp” Twilight covered his mouth with a hoof, more frustrated than confused by his reaction.
“Spike, please! Quit all this yelling! Now take a few deep breaths and tell me what happened.”
Spike breathed in. He saw sunshine streaming through the window. Spike breathed out. It was quiet, and everything was so calm. Spike breathed in. He looked back over at Twilight. Spike breathed out. She looked very sincere and simply wanted to help him out. Twilight was deeply concerned for Spike, and Spike could tell. He had calmed down. It was simply just another nightmare, and if he could explain it to anypony, it was Twilight.
“Where do you want me to start?” Spike asked.
“Tell me everything you can remember from your dream last night,” Twilight said, making sure the gems were out of sight so he wouldn’t freak out again. She pulled out a sheet of paper with a quill, and was ready to take notes.
“Well, I got done working and decided to grab a snack. I poured a bowl of gems and they fell onto the floor whenever I tried to eat them. Then they grouped together on the floor and I heard this creepy voice. It turns out the gems were talking, and it said something about wanting revenge on dragons and getting that revenge by eating me! I tried to run and get help, found Applejack, but when she turned around she was just a group of gems as well! It was pretty scary at the time, Twilight.”
“So that’s why you yelled when I raised the bo- Never mind. What else do you remember?”
“That’s when I woke up. I don’t remember anything else.”
Twilight wrote a few more words down as she replied. “Alright, I guess we’ll have to go by this for now. Do you remember your other dreams?”
“Let’s see,” Spike began to ponder, thinking about his previous dreams. “I was chased by a tornado alongside Rarity in one dream and uhh… I had another one where I was being blown into a giant balloon by Pinkie. The details are pretty blurry, but they were terrifying enou- I mean… dangerous enough to be remembered.” Spike had a nervous grin on his face after attempting to cover his fear.
“Well then,” Twilight continued, ignoring Spike’s embarrassment. “We’ll just have to go by this information. Give me a moment to think about this.”
Twilight walked away and toward the bookshelves, carrying the paper with her. She looked from one book to another, turning page upon page. What could possibly be giving Spike these awful nightmares night after night? There was a load of possibilities, but Twilight had never been in this position before. Sure she had the occasional nightmare, but nothing like this.
* * *
She kept reading, looking at her notes every once and a while, trying to find a connection. Finally, Spike broke the silence.
“Twilight, are you done yet? You’ve been reading for an hour. I’m starting to worry about you and I’m the one with the problem here.”
Twilight lifted her head and looked at Spike, frustrated with a lack of answers. “Well, I have a couple of theories, but none of them seem reliable enough. First off, your dreams lack consistency so we can’t decipher a common problem directly from them.”
After all this time, no results? Spike had been waiting all day… scratch that.. days for some sort of relief to this problem. Every second that passed by was a slight increase in tension. Spike gave Twilight a frown, crossing his arms in the process.
Twilight pondered for a moment, resting a hoof on her chin. A few seconds later, it came to her; there was something else she could do.
“I’ve got an idea,” she said.
“Oh boy,” Spike suggested sarcastically. “This should be interesting.”
* * *
Spike and Twilight were down in the basement. They didn’t actually go down into the basement that often, the lighting was better on the main floor. Spike was sitting off to the side, watching Twilight as she worked.
Twilight was making some modifications to a machine and changing the wiring. Spike didn’t actually know what it was used for, and never really cared enough to ask.
“Run this by me again,” said Spike. “What’s this machine supposed to do?”
“Remember when I tried to study Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense?”
“Yeah, we kept telling you that it was real, but you kept on badgering it for proof.”
“That’s not the point. I built this machine to detect what was causing her reactions throughout her body. If I modify it, I can probably read your brain waves.”
“You mean like…read my mind?” Spike began to look a little nervous. He didn’t want his privacy invaded. Twilight simply giggled.
“No, Spike, but it may be enough for me to figure out what’s causing your nightmares. And…done. That should do it.”
Spike looked at the machine. It didn’t really look any different before, but then again, Spike wasn’t familiar with this type of machinery. What did he have to lose, anyway?
“So, how’s this thing work?” Spike asked.
“Put this helmet on, and stand over there.” Twilight offered Spike the helmet and pointed over to another machine. The helmet looked like a green bowl with some colorful lights on it. He put it on his head and walked over to a smaller machine that Twilight wasn’t working on and stood there just as she asked. Unfortunately, the helmet was too big and kept slouching down into his face.
“Oh,” Twilight responded. “Let me get that for you.” She grabbed a rope with her magic and tied it from the top of the helmet to below his chin, making it more secure. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but getting results was more important than how the rope felt around his head.
Twilight grabbed a wire and hooked it up to the helmet. The lights started flashing and the machine beeped. She also placed his arms in two metal bracers, though they didn’t secure him since his arms were too small. He also noticed tons of paper coming out of the machine with a red squiggle on it, going into a bin.
“Just a little longer and we should get some sort of information on your brain waves,” Twilight spoke.
Five minutes went along by, nothing new happened. Ten minutes, still nothing. What was going on?
“Uhh… Twilight? Is it supposed to be working like this?” Spike asked, nervous about the whole situation.
“Just a little bit longer, Spike, I’m sure that some-”
“Pardon?” Somepony familiar interrupted. Twilight and Spike could recognize that voice from anywhere.
“Applejack?” Twilight asked. “What are you doing here?”
Applejack made her way down the stairs as she continued to speak.
“I was just coming by over to get this book about…what in tarnation are y’all doing?” Applejack took notice of the machine and the oversized helmet on top of Spike’s head. Whatever that machine was, it was clear that she didn’t like it.
“Spike’s having recurring nightmares, so I’m trying to detect his brain wave patterns so we can figure out-”
“Y’all don’t need that crazy doohickey to figure out why Spike’s having nightmares,” Applejack insisted.
“Well then,” Twilight responded in a doubtful manner. “How else could we figure out what’s wrong with Spike?”
“Simple. As the Element of Honesty, I know that when somepony’s having nightmares, they’re hiding something. Whenever I had a nightmare it was because I wasn’t being mah honest self. Like one time when Granny Smith baked a pie I didn’t like, I pretended to like it so her feelings wouldn’t be hurt. Her cutie mark is a pie, after all.”
“So what happened?” Spiked asked, intrigued by the story, it was nice to listen to her after ten minutes of nothing.
“I had this awful nightmare about not being able to buck apples. I was gonna let mah whole family down. It was terrifying.” Applejack shuttered at the thought of it, hating the feeling of being helpless.
“How’d you solve the problem?” Spike asked once again.
“I ponied up and told Granny that her pie just wasn’t as good as they usually were. Ah later found out that she put in salt instead-a sugar by accident.”
“Applejack,” Twilight commented. “I appreciate you trying to help, but I don’t think it was because you weren’t honest. You probably just got sick from eating the bad pie.”
“No Twilight,” Applejack insisted. “It was because I lied. Ah have this kind of intuition ‘bout it. My fears were coming from right here.” She placed a hoof up to her chest, where her heart would be.
“Applejack’s got a point, Twilight,” Spike agreed. “Maybe I just need to make a confession or two. Besides, that machine of yours isn’t giving any results.”
Twilight looked over at the machine. Spike was right, it was giving the same pattern and making the same exact noises at before . Nothing was happening. Even if confessing didn’t help, she could still try and fix the machine or find some other way to solve Spike’s nightmare problem. What was the worst that could happen?
“Alright,” Twilight said hesitantly.
* * *
The three of them went up the stairs and back to the main floor of the library. Spike sat on top of a stool while Applejack sat on the floor in front of the dragon. Twilight stood nearby, quite surprised at how seriously Applejack was taking this whole “confessional” thing. More than any other pony in Ponyville, Applejack was the most appreciative of honesty. Still, this seemed like a bit much to Twilight.
“So,” Spike started off the conversation, not quite sure what to think. “What exactly am I supposed to be confessing?”
Applejack smiled and spoke to Spike in a comforting fashion. “I want you to close yer eyelids. Think ‘bout all the moments you’ve had in Ponyville. At some point you’ve probably wronged somepony. Think ‘bout a recent moment. Yer hiding something from somepony close to you. Figure out what that may be.”
Twilight looked puzzled. Spike seemed to be concentrating hard, but it shouldn’t be that difficult to come up with some confessions. She could name several off the bat, right then.
“How exactly is this-”
“Shh…” Applejack interrupted Twilight, placing a hoof in front of her own mouth to make sure it was quiet enough for Spike to concentrate.
A few moments later, Spike finally responded.
“I’ve got it,” he said with some confidence.
“Alright Spike,” Applejack stated. “Spill the beans.”
Spike exhaled slowly, as he made his confession.
“I lied about Twilight’s new special ordered book being lost. I sneezed and it caught on fire, I’m really sorry, Twilight.”
Twilight wasn’t very happy about hearing that, but as she noticed how genuine Spike was being, she quickly decided it would be best not to hold a grudge.
“I forgive you, Spike… I can always order another.” She then turned her head from Spike to Applejack. “Is that going to be enough, Applejack?”
“Not so fast, Twilight. This here was one of them warm ups. Spike still has a way to go before his conscience is clear.”
“Oh alright,” Twilight groaned.
Applejack glared a bit at Twilight, upset with her impatience, but then looked toward Spike.
“Spike, you ready for yer next confession?” asked Applejack.
“The first one wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I think I’m ready for the next.” Spike nodded as he finished answering Applejack.
“Okay,” Applejack continued as she tilted her hat downwards, closing her eyes. “Close yer eyes again. Take a few deep breaths. Now… You did something unreasonable that could get you in trouble and yer too scared to admit it. You’re afraid of what others will think of you. Just remember that we’re yer closest friends, and you can tell us anything. We won’t judge you Spike. Please, tell us what you did.”
Spike was silent for a moment. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what to confess, it was more of a hesitation. After a few seconds, Spike spoke.
“Alright. I’m not proud of this, but… I once pretended to be you when writing a letter to Celestia!” Spike clinched his teeth together and tightened his eyelids even more. That confession wasn’t easy for him to admit. He felt ashamed; ridiculed, even. The worst part of it all was that he didn’t know how Twilight would respond.
Surprisingly enough, Twilight didn’t respond. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but she was holding her words back. Applejack was glaring at Twilight, almost like Fluttershy giving a creature The Stare.
“W-well,” Twilight stuttered. “That took a lot of bravery to admit, Spike. I’m proud of you for being able to confess something like that to me.”
“You’re not mad?” Spike asked, unaware of Applejack’s influence.
“Upset that it happened, yes. Mad, no. You know it’s wrong and it’s all in the past. Don’t you dare do anything like that again, though-”
“Ahem,” Applejack interrupted. “Pardon me Spike, but could I speak to Twilight in private?”
“Sure,” Spike agreed.
The two mares stepped out the door and started to talk.
“What do ya’ think you’re doin’?” Applejack asked Twilight. “Can’t you tell that poor feller’s had enough?”
“What am I doing? Spike pretended to be me in front of the most important pony in all of Equestria! Not only did he lie to me, but he lied to the Princess!” Twilight really had been holding back her anger. She felt humiliated that Spike would do something so dishonest.
“Listen Twi,” Applejack continued. “You have every right to be upset. Growing up with Applebloom and Big Macintosh, I know how it feels to be madder than a wet hen. Spike might be yer assistant, but he’s also one of your closest friends, if not your closest. He’s going through a rough time, and getting mad at him will only make the poor feller feel worse. You need to let bygones be bygones, Twi. Now it took a lot out of him to make that confession, give him the respect he deserves. Besides, what we need to worry about is that his nightmares will stop. That’s what’s most important. I’m sure they’ll stop after he confessed, but I don’t know everything.”
“You’re right,” Twilight spoke as she nodded in agreement. "This isn’t about me or the Princess. This is about Spike and his nightmares. Thanks, Applejack. You’ve been a real help.”
“You need to be a real help, Twi,” said Applejack as she pointed towards the door with a front hoof.
“Right,” Twilight admitted as she entered the door.
“So,” Spike said as he noticed Twilight come back in. “What was that about?”
Twilight thought for a moment. “We just agreed that you need as much help as anypony can give you. Also, I’m really proud of you for confessing something like that to me. You’ve been there for me, and I’ll always be there for you, Spike.”
Twilight stood on her hind legs, rapping her front hooves around Spike to give him a gentle hug. Spike returned the same, feeling emotional himself.
“Thanks, Twilight.”