Applejack nearly broke down Twilight's door. Twilight jumped, and whirled around. "Oh, AJ. You scared me! What do you need?" Applejack was breathing hard. "Rainbow Dash...and Soarin'...room 207...Canterlot-" she stammered. "Oh no. Not Soarin'. Princess Celestia herself warned me about him." Twilight responded. "Well, we ain't separating them now!" Applejack huffed. "The best thing to do in this situation is to call a meeting. Tell everypony to meet at my place, okay?" Twilight answered.
After the five ponies were seated at the large, round, mahogany table, Twilight began with a lengthy presentation of her research on Soarin's history, and what Celestia had told her about Soarin'. "When I came to Ponyville," she explained, "I was told that I should be careful of a pegasus-pony with a cyan coat and navy-blue mane. She told me that he was a fillyfooler, and that it would be dangerous to cross him." Twilight paused to take a drink of water, and Rarity took the chance to get a word in. "Twilight, I'm the most beautiful mare in Ponyville! I know relationships. Ever since Rainbow Dash came to Ponyville, her cutiemark really caught my attention." Twilight was displeased with Rarity's interjection.
"Rarity, I was giving a presentation, not to mention cutiemarks are meant to show your unique talent, not how attractive you are."
"Well, your cutiemark doesn't mean much of anything. It's just a purple star. Maybe your talent is stargazing!" Rarity shot back.
Twilight was angry now. Rarity had insulted her, and interrupted her presentation! "Oh, and your unique talent is finding expensive things and-"
"Could everypony calm down, please?" Fluttershy whispered.
"-Pretending boulders are diamonds?!" Twilight continued.
"Everypony CALM DOWN!" Applejack finally yelled. Twilight slammed her hoof on the table, and said, "if no pony else believes me, I'll go on my own!" Before anypony could object, Twilight made good use of teleportation magic, and teleported herself to Room 207, at the Royal Canterlot Inn.
Twilight was quite satisfied with herself when she appeared in the room, and not in the entry hall, where she expected to pop out. Rainbow Dash casually glanced in Twilight's direction. "Hey there Twiley! Check out this video of this trick Soarin' did yesterday!"
Twilight sighed, and said, "I'm sure Soarin' has some amazing tricks up his sleeve, but right now, we've got more important things to talk about. Soarin' is a fillyfooler. You know that, right?"
"Of course! Do you think I care?" Responded Dash.
"Rainbow, I did my research, and there are over 76 ships online that involve Soarin'."
Soarin' gulped. He knew this was a fact that he couldn't deny, and that Twilight was a pony that he had to get rid of. In a desperate attempt to convince his "special somepony" of how crazy Twilight was, he looked Rainbow Dash in her maroon-colored eyes, and said, "Rainbow, honey, is Twilight Sparkle really your friend?"
Twilight rolled her eyes, and thought, "this won't even be difficult. Her element of harmony is loyalty! She would never leave my side as a friend!" But Rainbow Dash was hesitating far too much. Finally, she blinked, and said something that Twilight Sparkle would never forget: "No. No, Twilight Sparkle, you're not my friend. Why don't you go research how to ruin relationships, because you're making a really bad attempt right now." As Rainbow Dash continued raging, with every word she said, more and more of her body turned to gray.
This was not the first time Twilight had witnessed this phenomenon. Back when the six friends were together, they had a run-in with the spirit of chaos: Discord. Discord had the ability to make any particular pony strongly misrepresent his or her element of harmony, turning the pony grey in the process. This was the same phenomenon, but it drew power from a physical source, not from a spirit. It stated from Dash's hooves, and spread like a virus all the way to the tips of her downturned ears. Twilight couldn't believe how she could have overlooked a situation like this, but it was done, and she had to set things right. Her horn began to glow, and suddenly lit up with purple fire, but before she could use it, she lost control, and began to cry rivers of tears.
Her magic fizzled out, and she collapsed into a pile on the floor. As Twilight was crying, Soarin' clapped twice, and the bedroom door opened, revealing Spitfire, who looked pitifully at Twilight. Twilight stopped crying, and stood up. Spitfire trotted over to her, and whispered quietly into her ear, "sorry, sugarcube," and then loudly stated, "I only kick ponies that Soarin' doesn't like. Soarin' obviously doesn't like you." With that, Spitfire kicked Twilight in her side, sending her flying out the door. Soarin' slammed the door behind her.
Twilight galloped all the way back to Ponyville. She was too depressed to even tell her friends what had happened. She ran straight home, to her library, to sit down and read a good book. As she was rounding a corner, she saw her loyal pet dragon, Spike, arguing with a grayish-white mare.
Twilight trotted closer, and cleared her throat. "Uh...excuse me? What seems to be the problem?"
The gray pony turned, her flowing blonde mane catching the evening sun, her golden eyes glowing, one right-side-up, the other up-side-down. Her eyes reminded Twilight of an old friend, from elementary school in Canterlot.
"Derpy Hooves? What are you doing here?"
Derpy's eyes shone. "I was dropping by to say hi, but then Applejack told me about Rainbow Dash, who was in my class at Junior Speedsters Flying Camp, and I felt obligated to help you out!"
Twilight laughed, which felt good for her, after what had happened back in room 207. "Derpy, there's not a thing you could do to help me. Rainbow Dash has really done herself in this time."
Derpy pouted, and then produced a large sack. "Fine! Merry Christmas, Twilight!" She said, dumping the contents of the sack on the ground. Out fell a familiar mare with a bright yellow coat.
"Spitfire!" Twilight sneered.
"Oh by the way, Soarin' sent this to you, and trust me, it wasn't first class." Derpy said as she was trotting away.
It took Twilight a second to understand what Derpy was implying. When she did, she called for Derpy to come back. Twilight looked down at Spitfire. By the looks of it, she had been kicked, stepped on, and generally beat-up.
She opened one eye, and squealed softly. "I'm sorry I kicked you! I...I...he made me!" Spitfire stammered. With every word, she inched farther away from Twilight.
"Don't worry about it," Twilight said, rubbing the spot where Spitfire had kicked her. "That's not important now. Can you fly?"
Spitfire stood up, and flapped her wings, which proved to be useless due to her lack of balance. Determined to show Twilight she could fly, she tried out one of her latest tricks. Much to Twilight's surprise, she lit her hooves on fire, and shot up in the air like a rocket, leaving a trail of fire and smoke behind her. When she went as high as she could, she gently glided back to where Twilight was standing. "See, I can fly," Spitfire said, beaming at Twilight.
"Uh...yeah. Let's just take the train to Canterlot." Twilight responded.