Whoosh~
Clunk!
"Huh?! What was that?!"
Twilight shot up in bed, drearily blinking the sleep out of her eyes. She narrowed her eyes as she swept her gaze across the room, allowing her vision to adjust to the dark of night. Something had woken her up. Something loud and close. Stifling a yawn, she rolled over to her left and climbed to her hooves beside the bed. Her foreleg brushed against something. Something familiar.
"What? Wait, is this..." Twilight lit her horn, bathing the room in a soft, violet glow. She kept the brightness toned down slightly so to not wake up her faithful dragon assistant, who continued to snore faintly from the other end of the room. Satisfied that he wasn't going to stir, she glanced downward at the ground.
Her bedside lamp lay on its side beside her bed.
Twilight blinked in surprise. At first, it appeared rather silly. Her lamp was just sitting there peacefully, as if sleeping on the ground beside its owner. She pondered how it could've even gotten there; sure she sometimes fidgeted around in her sleep, but never to the extent to which she'd knock something over.
Then the sight became a bit more alarming. If she didn't knock it over, then who did?
She quickly looked around her room for whatever might have knocked it over, but found no obvious perpetrator. Spike's quiet snores continued to fill the air, the soft, muffled sounds of crickets crept in through her open window, followed by the gentle rustle of leaves in the wind outside her-
Wait a minute...
Her open window.
In a panic, Twilight bolted for the window and slammed it shut, wincing at the loud impact. She froze, her ears flicking towards any discernible sound. Other than her own breathing and Spike's snoring, she couldn't make out any foreign sounds throughout the library. She stood there for what seemed like an eternity before sighing to herself. Maybe she really did knock the lamp over herself, or maybe she lashed out with her magic in her dream. First time for everything, right? And it's not like Spike hadn't forgotten to close the window before heading to sleep before.
With a tired yawn, she trotted over back to her bed. With a soft wave of her horn, her violet aura wrapped around the lamp and lifted it gently back to its place on its wooden bedside throne. With a quick spring of her hooves, she leaped onto her bed and nestled herself back into the cover. Closing her eye, she nuzzled into her pillow and prepared to let the bliss of sleep take her once more.
Whoosh~
Clunk!
"What the hay?"
Twilight's eyes shot open and instinctively flicked to her left, searching her bedside table for the familiar sight of the lamp. No such sight greeted her. With a gasp, she scrambled to the left side of her bed and peered over at the ground.
There sat the lamp, peering back at her as it lay unmoving on its side.
"Okay, this is getting ridiculous..." Twilight spared a glance at Spike's basket, where the young dragon continued to snore peacefully curled into a tight little ball, seemingly blissfully ignorant of Twilight's conundrum. This was the second day in a row something ended up somewhere it shouldn't be with almost zero explanation. And the first time was due to Spike's little fire experiments. At least, that was what he claimed anyway.
Slowly, but carefully, she crawled to the end of her bed closer to where Spike was and leaned in closely, her ear flicking gently. Just like how she'd grown accustomed to when he was hiding something from her, her sense of hearing had been sharpened to a point with regards to telling when her little dragon was faking sleep. A statistically anomalous intake of breath here, and more forced exhale there, and a couple of audible irregularities in that last snore. Yep, he was faking it.
"Spike!"
"Gah!" Spike spazzed in his blanket as he fought to escape the blanket he'd wrapped around himself. Once he'd disentangled his body, he looked around to spot the source of his awakening, only to find Twilight narrowing a suspicious glare at him. Immediately, his eyes drooped down in a farce display of exhaustion. "Oh, hey Twi, what's up?"
She rolled her eyes. "Come on, Spike, I can tell when you're fake sleeping. Out with it."
His secret exposed, Spike's shoulders dropped as his eyes opened to their natural, alert size while glancing off to the side. "Yeah yeah, I was staying up late reading my comic when you woke up, sorry Twilight."
Twilight tilted her head. "So that wasn't you?"
"What wasn't me?"
Twilight sat on her haunches on her bed, gesturing with her head towards her empty bedside table. "This." Using her magic, she once again floated her lamp back to its spot. "I woke up twice now to my lamp knocked to the ground. There's nopony else here except the two of us, so it's gotta be you."
Spike waddled over to her bedside table and stared at the lamp sitting atop it. "Are you... sure you didn't just knock it off yourself?"
Twilight exhaled in exasperation. "Yes, Spike. Come on, almost your entire life you've slept beside my bed. We both know I don't normally move around that much. I was fine with the possibility the first time, but the second time, I barely had my eyes closed for like ten seconds before it fell over again!"
Spike stared at her, blinking obnoxiously slowly. "Maybe it-"
"No! It was not my magic either. Again, the second time I wasn't even asleep yet!"
"But you said you woke up twice?"
She blinked, then groaned. "Ugh. Semantics, Spike. And I'm tired. And really, really, really confused." She drooped her head down in exhaustion. "Is this your doing, Spike? Again, I won't be mad, it'd just save me the headache of figuring out who's behind this."
Spike put up his claws defensively. "Hey come on, Twi, why would I go do something like that?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Because yesterday, you put a brick in my shower, and tried to be all sneaky about it. So I'd say anything goes right now."
Spike opened his mouth, but paused. "Mmm... fair point. But I swear, this time it's not me!"
Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Well, again, there's only two of us here. And if it wasn't me, it's gotta be-"
Whoosh~
Clunk!
"HEY!" Twilight whipped around just in time to see her beloved lamp spinning on its side beside her bed, as if somepony had knocked it down just a second prior. She stared intensely at it, half expecting it to grow legs and start dancing. No such event occurred. She turned around to face her dragon assistant. "Did you see what did that?"
Spike only offered a shrug. "I just saw the lamp topple over by itself, nothing else."
She glared back at him. "You're awfully calm about this."
Spike shrugged again. "Hey, I vomit out scrolls from Princess Celestia once a week, and every other day there's like some horrific undead monster trying to take over Ponyville. A lamp falling on its own is like foal's play."
Twilight rolled her eyes and wrapped her magic around the poor, abused lamp for the third time, carefully placing it back to where it should be. She faced Spike once more. "But aren't you worried that somepony could have broken in?"
This time, it was Spike that rolled his eyes. "Twilight, we know pretty much every pony in town. Not one of them seem the type to break in and steal something. And even if somepony did break in, first, they'd be no match for your magic. And second, if it's somepony from town, most likely they either forgot something super embarrassing at the library during working hours and didn't want to confront you to ask for it. And lastly, if it was somepony from out of town looking to steal something, come on why would they head to the library out of all places, there's nothing but books here! They'd probably go to somewhere that has something actually valuable, like Rarity's boutique since she keeps a lot of gems stored there."
Twilight began to open her mouth to lecture Spike on his labeling of the hundreds of wonderful, knowledge-filled books that filled her library as "not valuable" when-
Whoosh~
"OH NO YOU DON'T!"
Twilight spun on the spot and quickly wrapped her aura around her lamp, saving it from a fourth impact on the ground. Her eyes darted across the room and open area of the library, but spotted no trace of movement. Her heart raced as her ears flicked frantically, desperate to soak in even the weakest of door creaks. "Who's out there?! Hello?! Why are you doing this?!" A single hair from her mane sprung upward with a twang!
Spike backed away in worry. "Hey, calm down Twi. Maybe whatever is doing this just likes to have the lamp on the ground?"
"Well, I don't want my lamp on the ground! I want it. On. The. TABLE! Where it BELONGS!" With a little less care than before, she plopped the lamp down hard on her bedside table, pushing it down a few more seconds necessary before relenting. She stared hard at it, as if to dare it to move, her chest heaving as she panted hard through her nose. The lamp stared back.
She stared back.
The lamp stared back.
She stared back.
The lamp stared back.
Her eye twitched and she blinked.
The lamp was gone.
"Wha- wha- I don't..." She backed away in shock, only for her back hoof to brush against the all too familiar feel of cold metal. Her eyes widened in horror as she turned around slowly, her eyes meeting the sight of her lamp laying on its side on the ground. "No... what... this isn't possible, what..."
Her ears flopped to the sides of her head as she again lifted the lamp in her magic and brought it close to the bedside table. She gently placed it atop its wooden surface once more, but kept her magic wrapped around it. She stared at it fiercely as she slowly began to crawl back into bed.
"You okay, Twi?"
"Yes, yes I'm fine Spike. Just let me..." Finally she got all four hooves off the ground and into the comfort of her soft mattress. Once settled in, she began to debate whether she should dig up her old construction kit and nail the darned thing to the bedside table.
Something rustled deep within the library.
Twilight's ears flicked towards the source.
She blinked instinctively.
In her magic grasp floated a hardbound tome, titled A Guide To Intermediate Magic Spells: Volume 3. She gasped and almost dropped it out of surprise. She floated it over to her bed and practically dived off the bed to glare at the ground.
Her lamp glared back at her from the ground.
Standing upright.
"Wha- no. Nononono. What is this??" Twilight whimpered and covered her head with her hooves, as if to hide away from the improbably absurdity of her situation. "Who's doing thissss? Come on, I just want to sleeeep."
Spike chuckled to himself and pulled out a pair of ear plugs. "Welp. Whatever is doing this doesn't seem to be evil or anything, so I'm going to head back to sleep."
Twilight's eyes widened in disbelief as she turned to face her dragon assistant, who was already in the process of tucking himself into his basket. "What?! Nonono, you can't just leave me like this, Spike!" She pleadingly reached a foreleg out to him.
If Spike heard her, he showed no sign of it. "It looks like you got this handled, Twi. Besides, you know baby dragons need more sleep than the average pony." He slipped the ear plugs in and curled into a comfy little ball in his basket.
"But I-"
"Good night, Twilight."
"Spike, noooooo ho ho hooooo..." Twilight moaned in defeat as she watched Spike let himself be taken by waves of sleep.
Whoosh~
Clunk!
"Nooooo, what nowwww..." Twilight looked back down at the ground where her bedside lamp was laying on its side. "How?! Come onnnn, let me sleeeeeep."
Twilight hung her head down in defeat as she crawled back into her bed, only to freeze upon her foreleg brushing against the horrifically familiar chill of cold metal under her blanket. She threw the blanket aside and stared in shock at the lamp now resting atop her pillow. She threw a glance backwards at the ground behind her, seeing the lack of aforementioned lamp on the ground.
"Whyyyyy... why are you doing thissssss..."
In tired defiance, she wrapped all four of her legs around the accursed lamp and held it tightly against her chest as she drew the blanket over herself and squeezed eyes shut, ignoring the uncomfortable feel of metal against her fur. As she chased sleep in the depths of her mind, she prayed that the lamp in her grasp wouldn't suddenly become a book again the moment she stopped thinking about it.
Spike walked down the library steps and stretched his arms up, groaning in satisfaction as he felt a few cracks throughout his body. A blissful smile adorned his face as he scratched the back of his neck. Finally reaching the bottom, he turned the corner and spotted Twilight standing in the kitchen, a white mug of steaming hot coffee hovering in her magic.
"Hey Twilight! Looks like you took care of that thing last night?"
Twilight turned to him, and he recoiled upon seeing her bloodshot eyes, dark circles resting beneath them. "Ughhh, hey Spike. Ehmm not really, I just mmmm ignored it until I could fall asleep."
Spike chuckled to himself. "Sounds good, Twi! Hey, I gotta take care of something real quick before breakfast if that's alright."
Twilight blinked painfully slowly before nodding. "Alright Spike, just..." She paused as she let a yawn slip out through her muzzle. "... don't be out too long, okay?" She offered a weak smile, to which Spike responded with his own.
"See you, Twi!"
Spike ran out through the front door of the library, then paused and waited to make sure Twilight wasn't following him. Once he was certain, he rushed around the library to where there were no windows and whistled loudly.
A certain, cyan colored pegasus with a familiar prismatic mane peaked her head out from a nearby cloud and zipped down to his location, landing softly beside him. "Hey Spike, that was awesome! I didn't expect her to react that crazily!" She lifted a hoof to him.
Spike chuckled. "Hehe, you were amazing, Rainbow!" He reached out and bumped a closed fist against Rainbow's hoof. "I couldn't even tell you were there at all!"
Rainbow snickered and whipped her head back, letting her mane fly behind her in an arc of color matching her namesake. "Hey, they don't call me Dash for nothing!"
Spike chucked a small pouch at her, which she caught in her mouth, the bits inside clinking together. "Here ya go! That's for staying up so late for this prank."
Rainbow tucked the pouch under a wing and winked at Spike. "No problem, Spike, you know I can't turn down a challenge like that. Why'd you want to do this again?"
Spike looked away, a distant look in his eyes. "Two days ago, Sweetie and I slipped out with some magazines our older caretakers have been hiding from us. We saw... such terrible things there, Dash... didn't sleep at all that night... one sleepless night for another sleepless night..."
Rainbow stared at him in confusion before it dawned on her. "Ohhhh, dang Spike. Yeah, that's gonna haunt your dream for a longggg time hehe." She reached out with a foreleg to rough up his spines. "Well, I've got to help some of the other pegasi with a rainstorm scheduled for later today, so I'll catch you later! But come find me if you got another prank idea like this!"
With a final wave, Rainbow spread her wings and took to the air, zooming out of sight faster than Spike could blink. Spike shook his head to clear away the traumatic memory.
"Oh I will, Dash... Believe me... I will..."