Even if Applejack isn't worried about being caught by Apple Bloom, I'm still fretting about it. Who knows what she's been up to in the past few weeks. Probably learning tips and tricks from Luna, on how to torture somepony for information.

Still, I smile weakly at Applejack, knowing it's only a matter of time before the plan comes to fruition. I can't help but think that it's going to come sooner than I want it to. The luxury of time to plan a retaliation is lost to me, more than likely. Without my magic, it's not like I can do much, either. I'm not much of a fighter, and I have no way of trying to win Apple Bloom over with my charm. If I have any assets, it's only my smarts, and I've had that taken from me, too. No libraries around Sweet Apple Acres, that's for sure. Apple Bloom's IQ is proof of the lack of books on the farm. To think, she's trying to take over Equestria. Then again, it could very well turn out that way. Since the Elements split, I guess it was only a matter of time before chaos erupted. It was foolish of all of us to turn a blind eye to it.

By the time Applejack speaks again, my stomach is already in knots, and I feel sick to the very pit of my core. Somehow, I know this is all my fault.

"So, uh, I don't mean to pester ya but, do ya have any plans on what we should do?" She asks.

I swallow my shame and shake my head, tossing my mane around. "Nope. It'd be easy to dupe Apple Bloom and Big Mac if I had my magic, but I don't." I sigh, and rub my hoof against my horn longingly.

"Oh," Applejack says, sighing in unison with me. "I wonder how Fluttershy and Pinkie are doing?"

I shrug my shoulders. "It's too bad I don't have Spike anymore. I could send word to them and Apple Bloom wouldn't be able to intercept it."

All at once, Applejack starts, and she jumps up to stand before me, legs spread apart slightly as if she's ready to wrangle a calf to the ground, grinning wildly. "That's it!"

I jump at her sudden movement and, after quelling my heart's sprinting, narrow my eyes at her. "What's it?"

"Spike!" Applejack says, her eyes lit up like a Hearth's Warming tree.

I frown at her. "What about Spike?"

"We need to get him here."

I gawk at her. "Are you serious? He's not exactly a baby dragon anymore, and that's not to mention how we'd even get him here. I'm stuck here, remember?"

Applejack nods fervently, now pacing around the room. "Yeah, you are, but I'm not."

She's completely ignoring the fact that Spike has grown since the good old days. I feel like my frown is getting deeper. "What happens if you manage to get him here then? Apple Bloom would notice a purple dragon lurking around the barn. Not to mention, Spike probably wouldn't go along with it, anyway, because he and I aren't exactly on the best of terms right now."

The smile is slowly melting off Applejack's face as she nears me. "Well, Twi, that's the best plan we've got right now, isn't it? You're just gonna have to work out your differences for Celestia's sake."

I snort. "Yeah, try telling that to him. He doesn't care what happens to me, or the Princess..."

Applejack goes quiet, deflated a bit by my negativity. She hangs her head and resumes pacing.

I feel like my frown is now permanently etched into my face. It's true. Spike wouldn't care about me, or the Princess, or Applejack, or Dash, Pinkie, or Fluttershy...

All at once it dawns on me. My head snaps up, and I pound my hoof into the ground. "Rarity."

Applejack starts, but tilts her head at me in confusion. "Huh?"

"Rarity!" I hiss, trying to keep my voice down. "He'll buckle for Rarity." If there's one thing that I'm sure of, it's that Spike never got over Rarity. She moved on, but even when she was miles away in Canterlot, Spike was still fawning over her. It became painstakingly obvious in his teenage years, where I would perpetually find pictures of her hidden beneath his bed.

Applejack's smile is back on her face. "Well, I'll be." She says, amazed. "I thought he was over her."

I shake my head. "Far from it. But I know that he's still mad about her. If he has a chance to save her, he will."

"So this is our plan, huh?" Applejack says, coming toward me and sitting on her haunches at my side.

I shrug my shoulders. "It's the best we can do right now. I still haven't figured out what we're gonna do with Spike once we get him here." Ideas have been swimming in my head ever since I came to the Rarity conclusion. "He's a pretty good liar." A trait he had picked up from Dash. "Maybe you could pretend to recruit him for Apple Bloom and Luna?" That only left Applejack. A terrible liar.

I can see her bite down nervously. She knows that it's all hinged upon her success or failure if we do it that way. "I dunno Twi," she says, shifting in her spot.

"It's the only thing I can think of that wouldn't fail right away. There's no way we can hide him, he's too big, and he's loud. He'll have no problem pretending to hate me, and he can be used as a spy when he's around Luna and Apple Bloom." It's all coming out now. This is the only way we can do it.

Applejack is silent for a few minutes. I can tell that she's going over it in her mind, trying to look for an out where she doesn't have to lie. She comes up fruitless after a couple minutes and sighs, defeated. "I'll try my best," she says.

I raise my hoof toward hers. "Shake on it." I say, not giving her any choice but to lock eyes with me and do it.

She manages a tiny smile and then drops it, putting her hoof to mine as we shake. "I promise I'll give it everything I've got."

Now that we've got a plan, Applejack gets up off of her haunches and dusts herself off, pulling herself together. Her game face is on, and she looks at me sternly. It must be around the time where she'll swap off shifts watching me with Big Mac. "Get some sleep," she says, her stern face faltering for just one second to let me know where her loyalties lie.

I smile tiredly at her, not having noticed until now, that the sun is just about to set, and make way for the night.

Patting down the hay pile, I try to smooth it out so it resembles a flat bed. How I'm going to miss getting restful sleep on my soft bed. From here on out, I don't think I'll ever get a restful sleep again, though, so what does it matter?

I curl up on the middle of the hay bed I've made, tucking my hooves up and under my belly, and wrap my tail around my body. It's going to be a long, cold night. I can suffer through it, though... because if I don't, all of Equestria will be swept up in a long, cold night forever.