Chapter six: REST IS FOR THE WEAK!
Twilight vaguely remembered dreaming. She couldn’t remember what it was she dreamed, but she knew she dreamed something whilst she was asleep. It was frustrating, and she spent a long time in a half doze, wondering, trying desperately to remember what it was she had dreamed about, getting more and more frustrated as time wore on.
Or perhaps time did not wear on at all. Perhaps she only spent minutes in sleep, perhaps only seconds. Perhaps she was never asleep, or dreaming. Was she asleep? Had she dreamed? Was she still dreaming?
It was a mess of complicated and useless thoughts and emotions, a powerful frustration she wasn’t sure she was feeling at all. It was strange and new to her. To the mare who was normally so organized, so compartmentalized and so bluntly straightforward, it was certainly something to feel scared of.
Until there came a whisper in her mind.
Twilight…. Twilight please wake up….
It was melodious and full of an undeniable power. She found the voice familiar, but strange all at the same time. It was sibilant, but full of blunt honesty, soft, but full of power.
Wake up Twilight Sparkle… your friends fear for you.
~*~
Twilight swam into consciousness slowly, the world around her swimming and distorting in her view. With a few quick blinks her vision began to clear and she found herself in her bedroom. It took a moment for her senses to catch up with her sluggish mind and she slowly became aware of the blanket covering her and the feeling of her own bedsheets. She was in her bed, in her room, in her house. These were her favourite sheets. Her motor skills came soon after that and her eyes were treated to more angles of her bedroom as she moved her head. Yep, definitely her room. Her window on the raised part of her room which held her bed. It was all familiar.
She was never so glad to see her own room before in her life.
And then she looked to her left and couldn’t help but smile.
Sitting in a chair next to her bed, head down on his chest with his fringe hanging over his eyes, was Talisman. He looked like he hadn’t moved from the spot in hours and there was a large bottle filled with water next to him. It was untouched and Twilight couldn’t quite tell if it was for her or for him. Sitting up in bed, she yawned and rubbed at her eyes, causing a spike of pain to lance through her head and she hissed. After a moment the pain faded and she eyed the bottle.
Oh… I’m sure he’d understand, even if it is his. I can always apologise and get him some more.
It took her a moment to get her magic in order to pull of the spell. The involuntary sickness, or whatever it was, seemed to have left her entire system disorientated and Twilight’s mind filed the information away for future reference. With only a sip from the bottle, Twilight started to feel a little better. Gulping down a few mouthfuls made her feel significantly better and she’d downed half the bottle before she could stop herself. With an embarrassed flush she returned the bottle to it’s original position and smiled at the stallion at her bedside once more.
He didn’t have to be there the whole time…
Without thinking she leaned over and nuzzled him gently and he murmured in his sleep, making her giggle softly. Moving carefully so as not to wake him, Twilight slipped out of her bed, making sure the covers were perfect before leaving her room and walking downstairs. To her surprise, Demonheart and Fluttershy sat in the downstairs library area, back to the doorway. Demon had one big wing draped over Fluttershy, his ebony feathers contrasting strongly with her yellow coat. He towered over her, as usual, but his quiet demeanour and gentle touch always offset that, and the way his wing was so tenderly hanging, almost as though Fluttershy was made of china instead of the flesh and blood she was, was adorable. Shy shivered and whispered something fearfully to Demon, who shook his head.
“Don’t say that, I’m sure she’ll be just fine. Twilight is strong, she’ll pull through.”
She whispered something again and Demonheart chuckled softly.
“Now now, there are things that aren’t serious that take a week or two to heal as well. Just because she’s been out for a week doesn’t mean it’s serious.”
Twilight started at the revelation and almost made a noise, stopping herself at the last second.
A week!? I was out for a week!? No wonder I’m so hungry.
“Ahem.”
Demon and Fluttershy both turned to face Twilight, pleasantly surprised. Fluttershy squeaked and rushed over to her friend, hugging her tightly.
“Twilight! You’re okay! I mean… you are okay… right?”
Twilight giggled softly and hugged the zealous Pegasus back.
“Yes, I’m alright Shy. I’m a bit hungry… okay, that’s a lie, I’m really hungry, but I’m okay.”
A shadow loomed over her and she looked up to see the tall form of Demonheart towering above her. Fluttershy pulled back as Demon stepped in and engulfed Twilight in a hug of gargantuan proportions. Surprised, it took Twilight a moment to hug him back. It was rare that Demon showed affection to anypony except Fluttershy, let alone the bookish Twilight.
“Don’t scare me like that.”
Twi coloured and giggled nervously.
“I promise I won’t. It wasn’t exactly intentional.”
The big Pegasus squeezed her gently and Twi could have sworn she heard her ribs creak.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
It was then that Spike decided he’d had enough of waiting outside of his room and stomped by, muttering about going to bed. He headed upstairs and slammed the door as he went. Twilight and Demon separated and watched the door as, a bare minute later, the door opened again and a tired looking Talisman stepped out, his mane a tangled mess hanging over his eyes. Even so, his obvious smile of relief as he saw that Twilight was alright broke over his face like a tidal wave.
“Twilight. It’s good to see you up,” he said happily as he trotted downstairs. Twilight smiled back at him.
“It feels good to be awake. I trust you didn’t sleep as long as I did?”
Talisman hesitated and Demonheart chuckled softly.
“He didn’t leave your room. He’s been in there since he carried you in. He’s had about as much to eat as you have. If it wasn’t for Shy and I giving him water, he probably would have died of water deprivation.”
Twi gave him an unimpressed look and Tal smiled sheepishly.
“What? I was worried!”
~*~
It was almost an hour later. Demonheart and Fluttershy had left, satisfied that Twilight was, in fact, okay and that, even if she wasn’t, Talisman could take care of her. Twilight and Talisman had finally eaten something, giving their rather disgruntled stomachs something to process and were now sitting in the library proper. Talisman was currently running a brush (Due to Twilight’s lack of a comb) through his tangled mane, trying to fix it up and was, to a point and very slowly, succeeding.
“So, what actually happened out there? I remember walking through the Everfree with you and Demon and then… I guess I blacked out.”
Talisman frowned, trying to remember the words of Redheart the day she’d came to the library after being made aware of the situation with Twilight.
“Well, to be honest, I didn’t understand everything the nurse said, but it had something to do with the electrical receptors in your brain. Apparently, your entire nervous system had a moment where it just shut down, and the receptors in your brain went haywire. It kept your heart beating so you stayed alive, but not much else was actually functioning.”
Twilight frowned.
“But that doesn’t even sound possible.”
Talisman laughed softly.
“You really like that phrase don’t you? That and questioning the possibility of something being impossible.”
Twilight pouted and shook her head.
“No! It’s just that the pony body has limitations and those limitations can’t simply be ignored! I suppose with the assistance of dark magic it’s possible for the soul to have no limitations, but in order for the brain to keep the heart beating for a week without sustenance on its own would require electrical impulse frequencies way above normal and way, way above and I’m not sure that the brain would be able to continue functioning with such massive electrical impulses at such high frequencies. I’m almost positive it’d short out the brain completely.”
Tal smiled, chuckling softly.
“Well, it didn’t, and I for one am glad it didn’t.”
Awkward silence suddenly reigned through the room as what Talisman said hit home to both ponies and they both blushed and looked away. After a while, Tal stopped brushing his mane and looked over to Twilight. Telekinetically, he removed his hairs from the brush, the tan strands finding their way into a bin close by. He then stepped forward to Twilight, brush in hoof, and raised it to her mane. She flinched away.
“What are you doing?”
“Your mane is a mess Twilight Sparkle, I’m going to fix it.”
She actually looked offended at his remark and flicked her mane.
“I am perfectly capable of brushing my own mane thank you!”
He chuckled softly.
“I know that, but we don’t know if you can use magic without backlash yet. So, I’m going to do it for you tonight and we’ll have Redheart look at you in the morning.”
Twilight pouted and let him start brushing her mane. It was a minute or two into it when she spoke again.
“You know that was a really weak reason to brush my mane.”
“I know,” came Talisman’s smug reply.
There was a moment before she spoke once again.
“And this never happened either.”
“I know.”
“And why are you brushing my mane with the use of your hooves instead of your magic?”
“My magic is too imprecise and I’m better with my hooves.”
“Point taken.”
And so it was with a smirk that Talisman brushed Twilight Sparkle’s mane with a hoofbrush before carrying her to bed after she’d fallen asleep and, once again, fell asleep beside the bed.
~*~
It was a nightmare. Some sort of nightmare, but not one that would be considered normal by any stretch of the imagination. For starters, there was nothing to see. Even in her mind’s eye, Twilight couldn’t see anything. Like sight, she heard nothing. There was nothing to hear at all. Similarly, she could smell, feel and taste nothing at all. It was almost like she wasn’t even dreaming at all, if not for the oppressive pressure being forced upon her. It came from everywhere at once, squeezing her, trying to crush her. Like she was deep, deep underwater without a pressure suit or a spell to protect her from the crushing depths. But there was no real pain either.
It was torturous.
Her mind couldn’t rationalise it, couldn’t understand it and it screamed out in protest at the illogicality of it all. Just as she was about to break down, there came a light. A single pinpoint of light in the darkness, and she rushed towards it hopefully, begging it to be a way out when a tan hoof stepped through. Slowly, as though passing through a semi-solid mass, a vaguely familiar stallion stepped through and into the void and, as though it were but a cobweb, his horn burst into light and flicked the darkness and the oppressive presence away without even breaking a sweat.
She didn’t know who he was, nor why nor how he got here, all she knew was that she was glad he was there, and she threw herself into his hooves, sobbing. He let out a small, surprised exhalation as she collided with him and hugged her back, a rich, melodious laugh slicing through the air.
“Calm down Twilight, it was just a dream. An interesting one, but a dream nonetheless. I wouldn’t let anything hurt you here.”
The voice was terribly familiar, but she couldn’t quite place where from. She looked up at her rescuer and saw he was smiling softly down at her. His mane was pulled back into a ponytail and was several shades darker than his tan coat and his coat was pristinely maintained. It was the eyes that gave him away and Twilight gasped.
“Talisman?”
He nodded slowly, still with his hooves around her.
“I won’t let anything hurt you here Twilight. This is my domain, and dreams, whether they be pleasant or nightmares, cannot defeat me.”
He smiled impishly down at her and for a moment she considered pushing him away before she stuck her tongue out at him and pulled back, turning away with a pout. He laughed again and she felt herself dragged back until she was on her rump, her head and neck resting against his chest as he held her from behind, that cheeky smile still on his face.
“Hey, I’m not that ugly.”
At that moment, Twilight had no inclination of being anywhere else.
She was content.