The day had slipped by like water.
To recap, she had nothing much to do today. Spike had made a side of hay bacon and eggs, and tried his claw at waffles instead of pancakes for the morning. The coffee was very good, and just like she wanted every day. But now it seemed like she had to go to bed again.
The weather had been fair, mostly sunny and partly cloudy with a few intermittent moments of an overcast sky as a cloud would cover up the sun. There was a brief amount of catch-up time with Pinkie Pie and Rarity when they'd gotten together at the Sugarcube Corner. Rarity got something light for herself, which was then passed to Spike (Something along the lines of being a slim and proper lady). She just wanted some help moving some things around, nothing too exciting. Spike was happy to help, although visibly struggling, and she was happy to be away from the library for a while.
But now she was in her bedroom again.
And again she couldn't sleep at all.
She could feel it, the general need for sleep after a long day with her friends. A sense of emotional exhaustion propped up on caffeinated supports. But the coffee she drank was on its last legs, and sooner or later she'd finally drift off to dreamland in her fortress of pillows. Ignoring the very dim lamp she was using a night light. Maybe she could think about things with her eyes closed.
Last night's nightmare was still so vivid. She told herself it was a nightmare- after all, if it was a... A Not Changeling, then it clearly would have replaced her, she wouldn't have had a whole day out with Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and she honestly wouldn't have a clue what that thing would have done to her if it was real. But there was nothing to worry about, it was still just a nightmare, and she cozied up to the blanket some more and tried to get some sleep. Tomorrow probably would be better. Celestia probably didn't need anything from her for a while- she was letting them all take some time for themselves after the real wedding was being planned and done.
Her mind went blank, as she was certain of tomorrow being just another day.
Twilight Sparkles eyes shot open. It was cold. So cold. It wasn't supposed to be this cold yet- Winter might be coming but she didn't expect it so early!
Her blanket. As she ruffled her main free from a mountain of pillows, she realized her blanket was nowhere to be seen in the dark room. She must have kicked it off in her sleep. The stars were up, and it was what she saw from the window as she looked around for the blanket.
No monster. No real monsters. Just a nightmare.
But... Who turned off the light? She couldn't find the blanket. Not in the dark, too dark to see. The lamp turned on with a simple spell as the chain was yanked gently down. Still no blanket. And she still felt unnaturally cold.
In an instant, the light burned away the strange darkness, and she still couldn't find it. But she did find something else.
It was in here. With her. Next to Spikes basket.
It wasn't a nightmare. It wasn't a nightmare. It was inside her library, it was inside her home. It was whispering something. Not to her. To Spike. She could see the lips moving, making the beginnings of vowels and consonants, but no sound. It hadn't even focused on her yet, or even the light having been turned on.
The coat was off-color and patchy. Too saturated, too gray, but the cutie mark was different this time, curiously and stupidly, she stared at it. It was her cutie mark. Her star, her element, incomplete, missing colors and pieces of its design, but it was recognizably intended to be hers. It turned abruptly to face her, and she pointed her eyes downwards as she kept the chain of the light in her magic. She had to stay calm and focused. Don't look. Don't blink. Don't let it leave.
Why was it hovering over Spike? She couldn't see anything wrong with him. Her peripheral showed him still in his basket, possibly sleeping. Then the legs of the creature blocked what little she could see.
It was tall. She thought it to be taller than her. The proportions were worse this time. It loomed over Spike, the dragon having no idea of the danger either of them were in.
She didn't even know what the danger was.
Twilight thought for a moment that she could feel it smiling at her, as a limb began to scoot and drag the basket away, slowly, taunting her.
She took the bait. It was obvious- but she could never live with herself if something had ever happened to him. Especially not like this. She yanked the chain down, and the light went out, and the sound of wicker sliding on wood stopped. She couldn't see a thing, but for the first time she heard hooves walking towards her. Step. Step. Step.
Stop. It stopped somewhere in front of her. Looking at her. Why was it inside? How had it gotten inside? It clearly wanted her. It was trying to be her, trying to get inside her head. Clearly it succeeded, in some way. The two of them knew they cared about Spike.
So why target him?
Why can't it speak?
She stared at where the head of the false pony would be, and she... She swallowed her fears, and tried to speak to it.
"W-What are you?" Twilight uttered. Her voice was quieter than Fluttershy when they first met, but it felt louder than anything else in her ears.
"WHAT ARE YOU?" It parroted back. It's voice was scuffed, like a broken record, and made her wince. "T-WHA-E-T ARE-T." It copied. Her voice echoed back, mixed, chopped up and restitched in something else.
"TWI-WHITE. ARTKLE."
"...That's my name." She whispered. It was trying to say her name with her voice. It wanted her name. It knew her name. It was taking her voice. Don't say your name. Don't say you're Twilight Sparkle. She... She possibly had it distracted, it was thinking. She thought it was. The both of them were thinking. She had to be fast. Quietly she tried to slink away to Spikes bed, she had to run away, call for help. It was dark, possibly dark enough neither of them could see- It was weak hope and stupid reasoning, but it was all she had.
She brushed up against the braided basket, she could hear Spike breathing, and prepared to make her escape. A minute, maybe less, just enough time to cast a spell if it walked towards her. Her horn flared with a sharp inhale, then s-
"THATS MYNE." It gurgled. Her parroted voice was a torrent of sharp nails as she stopped in her tracks, her heart skipping a beat. In the black abyss she saw the basket slide paces away from her, and her mind was filled with horror. Her head peered back at her, stretched and twisted facial expressions in an attempt to display discontent. Rage. Resentment. Anger.
Dominion in the shadows.
She closed her eyes and pressed herself to the cold wood floor, plugging her ears and focusing on the light as possibilities of dark and terrible fates tried to work their way into her brain.
Click.
Light filtered in through her squeezed eyelids. It wasn't the light of her lamp, and she waited for it to attack, to scream at her or for her to simply stop existing or to open her eyes and Spike would be gone instead-
A minute of silence. Deep breathing.
Her ears twitched. Shallow breathing. In front.
Blindly stepping. Only one other is breathing.
Her hoof stretched out precariously, and she felt something soft wrapped around something firmer. Indentations of scales. Steady rise and fall.
Twilight Sparkles eyes opened to reality. Sunlight trickled in through the bright room as she saw Spike, blissfully unaware of what she'd seen for another night. Relief washed over her. He was safe. They were safe.
For now.
The blanket wrapped around Spike was tucked and curled in ways she knew she didn't do, in ways that Spike couldn't have done, in a colour she knew now that she didn't own. She carefully disarmed the blanket, unwrapping Spike from the tightly curled cradle of bundled fur he was lightly clinging to. She set Spike down on his pillow, and promptly threw the balled up blanket faster than she could see out the window.
Exhausted, she collapsed in a heap shortly after.