Twilight awoke once again, jerking back to life as if she had just survived suffocation, which she had pretty much done. It was then that she felt cold steel against her throat and became aware of the sharpened knife pressed firmly to her neck. Her self-preservation instincts took hold and she backpedaled immediately, to which the response was, surprisingly, the closing of the pocket knife. She followed the claw back to its owner, the thing behind the mask. Realizing this meant he didn’t intend to kill her yet her heart slowly fell into normal rhythms.
Instead of leaving her to be as it had before though, the creature instead bent over the young mare and looked into her eyes from behind his opaque lens, as if searching for something. “You could probably leave her be, Lucid.” The creature looked over his shoulder to the mare who owned the voice before stepping away from his close examination. Taking his place was the worried face of Trixie, her missing leg hindering the show mare from hugging her. As well as the tight white cloth that had recently been used to bind the wound she had suffered at the gravesite.
“Twilight? Is it you?” The voice was a mixture of curiosity and fear, while the owner of the tone began to collect magic just in case she needed it.
“Yes Trixie it is. But... I don’t know if.. I’m me.”
“You aren’t.” Trixie said looking at the librarian, visibly relieved. “You won’t ever be either.”
“I don’t...”
“You’re one of them Twilight. A plague-ridden. But you kept your mind, mostly, for reasons that neither me nor Lucid can seem to guess at.”
Twilight’s gaze shifted to the creature that stood a fair distance away, swirling a concoction in a broken bar glass. “A-are you sure? I won’t ever be a full pony again?”
“No, I can conclusively say that you won’t.”
“Conclusively? You sound more like a magic sage then you did last time we met. A lot less bragging.”
“Yes, well,” Trixie’s gaze moved to the floor. “I never did enjoy my talent. I always wanted to be a travelling magician, to see as much of Equestria as I could, but now...” The silence hung in the air, executed before it could fully form, leaving the air empty.
“We’ll fix this Trixie, I’m sure of it.” Twilight wasn’t sure where her optimism came from, just that it sounded right.
The mare’s eyes lit up at her words and she looked once again at the librarian’s face. “Do you have a plan then? Because I must admit, I’m quite stumped. We’d need something to reset the world essentially, and that is something that I can’t quite manage to believe in.”
A sharp inhale of air came from Twilight, her mind running once more at full gear now that her body had sorted itself out. “The elements! That would set it back to normal if we found the source of the illness and hit it.” Her expression dropped once more though, Lucid turning in his chair to look at the mare. “But we need the other’s for that. We would need to at least get them to my level of consciousness.” Her depressed expression was mirrored by Trixie, but not by the biped.
He stood from his chair hurriedly, a small glass containing a bubbling liquid in his hand, and approached the closet. Not bothering to position himself in between Twilight and the door again he swung the door wide, revealing a purple and green dragonling within.
“Spike!” Her words woke the reptilian and it turned to face her, then was still for a moment before lunging at her, murder in it’s eyes. A chain snapped taut, bringing the corrupted assistant to his knees as the metal held him. Seeing her helper in such a position hit Twilight hard but she was not allowed long to grieve his passing. Almost immediately the man stepped on the claw of the dragon, causing his mouth to open in a cry of pain.
Taking his moment the creature tossed the liquid into the maw and clamped it shut with his hands, forcing the plague-ridden Spike to swallow the concoction. For a moment nothing happened, then he fell to the floor, writhing in a pain that only he could feel. Both unicorns moved forward, shoving Lucid backward and away from the dragonling.
“What did you do to him?!” Twilight shouted, her eyes darkening while her coat began to shed lightly. The being remained silent, watching the now unmoving reptilian. The librarian turned her attention toward him as well and watched the body until the eyes slowly began to flicker slightly. Remembering the previous actions of the creature that was not the Spike she knew she backed away, Trixie following her actions.
The eyelids flickered open once again, though the pupils were strangely distorted. “Spike?” Twilight hesitantly asked, not sure what the biped had done.
His ears flickered slightly at the noise, recognition clear in the actions. The familiar voice caused his eyes began to move about the room. “Twilight?" His eyes drifted over each of the beings present but continued to wander. "Twilight is that you?”
“Yes, Spike. It's me.” Tears of joy were beginning to fall down Twilight’s face as she saw the small dragon get to his feet somewhat clumsily.
“Are we in heaven?”
“No Spike, we aren’t in heaven.” A small smile began to start on Twilight's face as the joy of Spike's life came to her.
“But then... why is everything so white?” The dragon's gaze never stopped wandering, never settled on anything in the room. The joy in her heart was replaced with worry as Twilight glanced toward the man who stood at the corner of the room, his hands busily writing upon a sheet of paper. Then to Trixie whose eyes reflected a degree of sadness that answered the mystery that Twilight's mind had refused to accept.
Spike was blind.