//------------------------------//
// Bonus Happier Ending 
// 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. Maybe there was something in the coffee, or something in the fact that I had been up all night thinking about it.

The problem had been me.

There had been something about the idea of Spike having a special somepony that hadn’t seemed right to me, especially if it wasn’t Rarity. I had also thought that it would be somepony I wasn’t best friends with if it wasn’t Rarity. Then there had been the fact that I had heard so many rumors surrounding Rainbow Dash, some of them also involving Applejack. I really shouldn’t have thought about any of that at all, but those thoughts hadn’t been able to be squashed fast enough.

All of that made me seem like a silly-head.

I looked at the clock, then back to the door. This was something that needed to be in a letter, and it needed to be sent to Celestia. I knew that she enjoyed it when I sent her a letter. I wasn’t sure whether it was the letter itself, the less inside, or something else. Maybe I should have asked her, but it never seemed important enough. Another look to the clock, and I realized that this day was going incredibly slow.

A look around made me realize that the library wasn’t looking so good.

I really hoped that Spike showed up soon. Part of me wanted to start cleaning right now, but I had a feeling that he was going to show up soon. I wasn’t the one with Pinkie-Sense, but it was still a feeling that I couldn’t shut down.

~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, too.” I wasn’t sure I knew where this was going. Why wouldn’t she have wanted me to come by yesterday? “I had some time alone, after I got into an argument with Rarity.” That was something I would normally have said something about, but I knew better today. Right now I had to focus on making sure that this entire problem was solved. I saw her turn to Rainbow, a sad look in her eyes.

“I don’t deserve a friend like you.”

That was the line that took me aback. It also seemed to do the same for Rainbow, who quickly moved over to try to hug Twilight. I wasn’t entirely sure about this, why she would have said that, but Rainbow stole the question before I could have asked it. “Why would you say that? Yeah, you kind of overreacted... okay, you really overreacted.” Maybe she had seen the fact that I had glanced over to her.

“But nothing. You didn’t deserve that, either time.” Twilight seemed to really be beating herself up over this. “I mean, at one point I had thought that this might have been some big practical joke, or maybe Cadance made it happen.” Her voice was shaky. “She can’t even do that!” I heard her voice crack, which was something that hadn’t happened in a long time. “And all because there was something I couldn’t understand.”

I had to ask. “What do you mean, something you couldn’t understand?”

When she tried to look at me, she quickly looked away. “I didn’t understand how the two of you could be together. It didn’t make any sense.” I knew I had to let her finish her thought. “You like Rarity, and Rainbow … I don’t know anything about Rainbow liking anypony like that. And that’s not even going from the rumors about…”

Rainbow cut her off. “I’ve heard ‘em all, and they’re all wrong.” She let Twilight go, and backed up a couple of steps. “And the reason I didn’t show it was because I hadn’t realized it myself initially. But when I think about it, it just sort of fits.”

This seemed to take Twilight aback.

“I can’t believe you’re forgiving me after what I’ve done.” She looked at me for a moment. “And you, either. I made a big mess of things.”

I walked over to her, and I gave her a big hug. 

“Why do we fall, Twi?” That was something that I had read in a motivational book once, minus the name. It looked as though she understood what I was going to say.

“So we can learn to pick ourselves back up.” She finished as I did. “You two are the greatest friends I could ever ask for.” I could see that she was tearing up, and I wiped it away. “I promise from now on to never overreact like that ever again!”

Rainbow looked at me, then back to Twilight, and we all shared a laugh. 

We all knew she would eventually overreact about something.

“So… would either of you like to join me for lunch?” I looked as Twilight moved over to the window. When she opened it, I looked over to see that Applejack was outside. “You’re more than welcome to join us.”

“That’d be mighty kind of ya, Twi.”

“I hope you all like sandwiches, that’s the extent of my cooking prowess.” When Twilight said that, I couldn’t help but chuckle. 

“Don’t worry, I know just what to make.”

She looked at me surprised, but I waved it off.

“What are friends for?”

~

By the time that I had finished cooking, I noticed a finished letter that was just about to be rolled up. That obviously meant that she was going to ask me to send it, just like she always did. “Mind if I read it?” 

“Go ahead.”

Dear Princess Celestia,

Sometimes I feel like these lessons have helped me to become a better pony. Other times, it seems to take me more than one go at it before I figure it out. Over the course of the last few days, I have learned that my number one assistant, no… my best and closest friend Spike is in love with Rainbow Dash. And instead of being happy for the two of them, I threw it in their face.

I made a big mistake.

Today I learned a few things. I learned that love isn’t something that goes by conventional logic. While I hadn’t been able to see it before, that doesn’t make it any less real. Another thing I learned is about the capacity for forgiveness. It astonishes me how amazing my friends are, how they were willing to forgive me after everything I have done.

I feel as though they’re making me a better pony, just by being around them. 

Your faithful student,


Twilight Sparkle

A fear tears welled in my eyes as I sent the letter to its destination. Today had turned out exactly as I had hoped it would. Today had turned out perfect. I pulled the two of them in for a hug. I couldn’t ask for anything more than this.