1 1/2 Months before the incident---
Spike awoke from his sleep, his eyes opening slowly. His body begged him to stay horizontal but the need to clean out his mouth from the taste it had accumulated overnight was unbearable. Stumbling to the bathroom he and Twilight shared, he found his toothbrush, and started working at his mouth, choosing to stick with the left over paste from last night. He brushed vigorously, ridding the stale taste from his mouth.
As he brushed he noticed something: a new toothbrush. He'd never seen one like it before, pink, grey, and no bristles. He assumed it is was one of those removable types. It even had a weird screen on it. Twilight must have done some experimentation with it. Oh well, it wasn't his business anyway. Finishing off with a quick wash of his face, Spike exited the bathroom and headed downstairs. He found Twilight resting among her books, sound asleep.
With a snort, Spike started cleaning up the books and laying a pillow under Twilight's head. He placed books in their rightful places. As he did so, however, he noticed a pattern. Most of the books were on Pony anatomy and time spells. Spike chuckled at the idea of Twilight reading a book on the bodies of ponies. He just couldn't see her doing something like that.
"Hey Spike."
Turning around Spike could see Twilight rising from her reading place. She seemed more tired than usual. How long did she study last night? After a yawn Spike surmised she'd been too late and that was the end of it.
"Twilight, How about you go up to bed. I'll clean up and you can sleep in."
Twilight looked at Spike, a somewhat worried look in her eyes, "Oh, there's no need Spike. I can stay awake. I just..." another yawn, "...needed a little wink. Besides I have way too much work to do."
Spike frowned and grabbed her by the hoof, "No you don't." he began pulling her upstairs. Due to her sleep deprivation
"What do you mean? Yes I do."
Spike looked her dead in the eye and repeated with finality, "No. You. Don't."
Twilight sighed allowed herself to be taken to her room and onto her bed, where Spike tucked her in. As he did so, Twilight looked at him sadly, as if something were hurting from inside.
"Twilight? Is something wrong?" Spike asked earnestly.
The purple unicorn thought for a second before answering, placing a smile on her face. "No, nothings wrong. I'm just...very tired I guess. Thank you Spike." And with that Twilight closed her eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep. Spike merely stood there for a few seconds, wondering how things had gotten this far. How had he become the adult in these situations?
2 weeks before the incident
"Twilight are you sure you're okay!?" Spiked demanded a little louder than he wanted. "You've been throwing up all day now. That isn't normal, especially with your diet."
"I assure you Spike, I'm fine. I've probably just caught a bug or something. Ulp." Twilight ran off with her hoof over her mouth, her cheeks bulging. Spike groaned a kicked a book at random in frustration. He was frustrated with Twilight, she knew what was happening but she wouldn't tell him. She was treating him like a foal, or baby, depending on what species you want to concentrate on.
Staring down he noticed the book he had kicked. It was a romance novel: The Notebook. That wouldn't be strange in and of itself, but Spike knew that Twilight wasn't one for Romance novels. She didn't enjoy them and even on more than one account mentioned how useless they were. Why would one be laying in the multiple piles of books of previous reads?
Spike picked it up and scrolled through the pages, as he did he noticed some of the words were circled. Sometimes it was letters, other times it was words, and a few times it was punctuation. Unsure of what it meant, Spike set the book back down and continued to worry about Twilights health. She was going through something, and he couldn't stop it. It wasn't something he could hit or stand in front of. It was something deeper, and he couldn't understand it. What was happening that he couldn't see?
Three days before the incident
Spike hugged Twilight tightly. He didn't want to let go.
"Spike, it's only going to be three days, you'll be back soon."
"I know, I just...I don't want to go. Why can't I stay? Am I being too troublesome? I promise I'll stop asking if you're sick."
Twilight giggled and stroked his spines with her hoof, "Oh Spike. You haven't done anything wrong, I just feel you haven't gotten to visit the dragons for so long. Ember really wants to talk with you again, even if she doesn't admit it. She likes having friends, especially another dragon."
With a reluctant sigh Spike smiled up at Twilight, "Okay. I'll go. Love you."
"I love you too. More than you know." After one more squeeze, the two of them parted and stepped into the carriage that would take him away for a while. He sat down and waved at Twilight as it took him off into the clouds.
The day of the Incident
Spikes carriage landed late at night, around 10:00 in the evening. He'd have been there sooner if Ember hadn't started showing him her collection of weapons. The weapons by far enormously large, likely due to the whole "we're dragons so everything's bigger" rule. Spike wasn't all that interested. True, he got to keep one for himself, which was like totally awesome, but he still wanted to hurry home. Twilight needed her Number One Assistant.
He bolted down the dirt road as fast as he could. He passed houses, only visible because of his night vision. Seeing the Library, he couldn't help but think about all the great times he had there. Rushing in doors he yelled, "I'm home!"
But he heard nothing but his own echo in return. It took Spike a second, until he realized, the lights were all off, the books weren't strewn about, and the Teapot was almost boiling over. He fixed it quickly and started upstairs.
"Twilight? Are you here?" he asked into the vacant rooms. As he made his way to the balcony on the highest place of the tree, he noticed something. A book lay on the ground. It was notebook, completely empty. After glancing around Spike looked over the edge of the railing...
...and his heart stopped. Time slowed down to seconds becoming days, and minutes, centuries. there on the ground was the form of the only mother he'd ever known: Twilight Sparkle.
Spike looked down at the floorboards of the train. That memory always hurt. That moment was one he hated revisiting in his mind. He wished he could just delete that memory, or even better, make sure it never existed in the first place. Spike looked over to Dark Shades who could only look at him in sympathy.
"Well, after that I ran inside and called for an ambulance. I went and cradled her in my arms. She was gone before I'd even arrived. Heh. I guess you could say we were both late." Spike chuckled, though it wasn't genuine.
Dark Shades put a hoof over his shoulder, the only thing she could think of that would help him. He felt broken, like something wrong. A cog in the wheel that hadn't operated properly, a feather out of place. The thoughts began to drum down on him, so at one point the drake asked for some time alone. Dark Shades obliged and exited the compartment saying she needed to get a bite to eat.
For a few seconds the small room was quiet. Only for a few second though.
"Hey buddy! Why so down!?" A cloud of pink could be seen bouncing in front of Spike, a smile on her face, and heart ready to hug, possibly literally.
"Nothing."
Pinkie crossed her hooves, "Hey, Applejack told you to never lie. Now spill the beans.". She attempted to scowl determinedly, barely pulling off a pouty face. Spike chose not to point it out.
"I'm just thinking about whether or not I could have gotten there soon enough. Maybe if I'd stayed home I would know what had happened. Maybe if I hadn't stayed to check out what Ember had in store I could've...I don't know...stopped it?" Spike glanced down past his Suede Jacket, on his left hip, where a second holster was, holding a small Ebony dagger. Symbols were etched into both bolsters and the handles, symbols in dragon tongue. One phrase: Krif Gah Fah Drem.
Pinkie hopped onto the seat beside Spike and put a hoof over his shoulder. Though he couldn't actually feel her, a sense warmth came from the gesture. "You can't beat yourself up over something that could have happened. Just think about the stuff I didn't get to do: Eat Snozzberries, jump out of a plane, throw paper at Rainbows pet turtle. All things I wanted to do but didn't." Pinkie's face went solumn for a second, "Of you keep thinking about the wrong in life, there won't be any room for the good. Rather than think about what could have been, think about what will be." And with that her form slowly disappeared.
Spike thought for a minute about those words. How could he possibly look back on that and not think about what went wrong? How could he? Simple answer - he couldn't. It was his fault that Twilight died. He just should have been there sooner. Pinkie was right about one thing though, he had to find out the truth. That way Twilight could rest in peace.
Suddenly the door opened, Dark Shades standing there, her leather jacket donned.
"We're here" she said.
The train whistle blew, long and loud.