//------------------------------// // Family // Story: Twilit Blood Pact // by Ink Stroke //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Family An obscure shadow oozed its way through the streets of Ponyville, completely avoiding everypony else's attention as it passed a group of dressed up foals. The anomaly had been patrolling the streets of Ponyville for the entirety of the day, and one of nature's needs had finally caught up to it, signaling its presence through a loud rumbling noise. 'I'm starving~.' its hungry whine was put to a end once it noticed a light in the distance, or, more specifically, the buckets scattered around it, 'I guess grandpa wouldn't mind if I took a teeny little break.' The shade moved silently towards the fireplace the small group of ponies were sitting at, completely ignoring the magnificent stories being told by a female zebra as it closed in on its target. In the blink of an eye, a small bucket filled with confections sunk into the black spot taking up the ground, which proceeded to slither away before anyone noticed that their candy had just been swiped. The thieving shadow crept into a small alleyway, dropping the spell it was using once it was out of sight. As the magic faded away from the entity, the black smudge on the floor began to rise up, taking on a more physical pony form. With a mouth that could now be used, the shade devoured the sweet candy with enthusiasm that only the young of age could summon, humming contently as it stuck its face deeper into the pail.. "Child? What are you doing with your head stuffed in a bucket?" The shadow equine was startled by the sudden voice in the alleyway, jumping away a little, but relaxed slightly as it discovered the source. A small puddle of water nearby shone with the light of a scrying spell in effect, beckoning it to get closer . Peeking into the liquid, the shade could see the familiar face that had assigned it the mission it was supposed to be working on. "Uh...I got hungry, so I went to look for a little bit of candy to eat." the little shadow pony tried to hide the bucket that once held candy behind its back, but it was no use trying to evade the stallion's excellent eyesight. "Now now, what have I told you about eating too many sweets? You wouldn't want all of your teeth falling out, would you?" a faux tone of disappointment laced his question as a equally fake look of disappointment grew on his face. "I know, grandpa, but I got really hungry while I waited for that mare you told me to look out for. I'm sorry." the shadow equine pouted its lower lip as shame coursed through his body, prompting remorse from the figure in the puddle. "Do not fret, little one, everyone succumbs to the desires of youth Still, I must ask if you have made any visual contact with the mare I asked you to search for?" the young pony snapped out of his sad stupor quickly in order to respond to his grandfather's question. "Not a single peep, or at least I think so. It would really help if you would just tell me who she was." "Ah, but that would be much too easy for you, child, I expect you to challenge yourself to be the best you can be. Beside's, the reputation this mare carries will probably lead her to find you before you even figure out who she is." "Fine then, I'll keep looking for her, but are you sure you want me to 'Get rid' of her?" "As I've said before, I want you to give it your best shot. The only thing I don't want is to hear that you held back any punches." "Okay grandpa, I won't let you down, bye!" just as the small equine was going to shrink back into the ground, the voice in the puddle called out to him again. "Forget it for now, child, enjoy Nightmare Night with the rest of the children." "Really, you're letting me go to play!?" "Of course, little fillies and colts should always celebrate the holidays. Just don't think too much about the mare you have to find, and you're bound to bump into her." "Thanks granddaddy! I'll see you later!" The shadow equine drained some more of the darkness surrounding it, willing it to aid its magical abilities in creating a disguise. With the scrying puddle disabled and more energy than what could be spent in a single night, the small pony dashed out of the darkened alleyway, into the festivities going on around decorated town. What it didn't know was how close it was to its target, who was holding a personal meeting of her own. ______________________________________________________________________ "Hi Spike." Two words. Two words meant nothing to him in his everyday life. Two words were what one would use to greet, and dismiss. Two words would bless the day, and wish a good night. But, these two words weren't a part of everyday life, they weren't useless parts in the universal puzzle. These weren't coming from a random pony coming to his doorstep to check on how he was doing, they came from her. Spike stared at the sheepish lavender unicorn at his doorstep with shaky emerald eyes that threatened to unleash the torrent of tears behind them, wondering who in the holy name of Princess Celestia he was looking at could possibly be. He couldn't convince himself to grasp a hope that had died long ago, not again, it was impossible. Twilight returned the stare, not sure why her assistant was acting so strangely. Everything seemed to be in the norm, as far as she could tell, so she couldn't decipher what could cause her best friend to look at her as if she were some type of ghost. Funny, considering it was Nightmare Night. The unicorn's intellectual brain was so focused on finding a way home that it failed to take into account that the last time she remembered being awake was a time long before the holiday was anywhere near the date it was set to be celebrated on. "Spike, are you feeling okay? Why are you looking at me like that?" Her voice, it was something that broke and reassembled the dragon's heart in a paradoxical spike of emotions. She wasn't like all the other Twilights he had seen before, this one wasn't blurry or oddly shaded. The mare it his doorstep was exactly as he remembered her, albeit looking a lot fitter, not to mention the pair of fangs. No words found a way to escape clearly from the prison Spike's throat had become, instead they came out in incomprehensible nonsense. "I-I...bu-, how di-...who, Twil-?" Nothing made sense anymore for the purple drake, all because someone who looks like Twilight, talks like Twilight, and acts like Twilight, turned up at his home. So, like any other normal living thing would do, he began to back away from the source of his confusion. The lavender unicorn looked at Spike as he started to walk backwards, and a look of worry crossed her face a split second before he tripped on a pile of books laying on the floor, which would probably explain the noise made before the door was answered. The young dragon looked at the mysterious mare that had appeared at his doorstep, burning her image into his memory just as his head collided against the corner of a nearby coffee table. ______________________________________________________________________ "Agh!" Spike bolted upright on his bed, gripping the night-themed covers in between his claws as he tried to calm his erratic breathing. He was alone again, same as always. The familiar feeling of cold sweat trickled down his pounding forehead, mixing with the salty tears lining his face before he wiped it clean with one of his arms. It took him a couple of minutes to fully recover from the adrenaline coursing through his veins, nightmares always seemed to pump his body full of the stuff, and he never felt up to the task of actually using it. Spike reached out towards one of the nightstands beside the plush bed, flinching lightly as he switched on the small lamp placed on it. With deep, steady breaths, the dragon looked around his bedroom. Not much had changed about it ever since he decided to take up residence, the walls still had the occasional star chart, and the telescope was still keeping its gaze locked on the night sky. He didn't want to alter the house too much, it was the only thing he had left as a memento about...her, and he wouldn't dare defile the memories left behind by changing the place. Trying to get his head back on track, Spike walked over to the master bathroom to splash some water on his face in hopes of easing the throbs. The cooled liquid did wonders against the mild pains, and it also served to snap him back to a full-awakened state of being. Just like every other night in which he suffered nightmares, which had begun to lose their frequency lately, the dragon began to make his way downstairs to serve himself a cup of herbal tea. On his way downstairs, he took out a book from his dresser, cradling its smooth leather in his claws as he journeyed to the kitchen. He had been taught how to deal with the night terrors through remedial exercises, which meant that he could mostly keep his head away from the depression that accompanied each of the twisted dreams. Spike hated the method itself, but the results it would yield were the only things keeping him from curling up into a heaping mass of tears. Like he had been instructed to do so in the past, he cleared his mind of any obstructions, making space to drill in the words that would reassure reality, even if it was a reality he wished he didn't have to live through. "Twilight Sparkle, my ex-caretaker, is not alive anymore. She is not capable of walking here to the library. She is currently buried within her crypt in the Melodic Prairie. She won't come back because she can't come back. All of this is true because Twilight..is not...alive..?" Spike found himself in a double whammy case that consisted of extreme cottonmouth with a side of mental breakdown. He saw the impossible. Emerald eyes stared in shock at the very mare their owner had just told himself was dead, buried alive, and never coming back into his life. Twilight, with a daffodil sandwich and a first-aid manual in her telekinetic grasp, turned to face her lifelong friend after hearing him come down the stairway. "Spike! You shouldn't be walking around so soon after your head injury, sit." the lavender spellcaster's command was not up for debate, something the dragon was about to learn. The bemused purple drake had no more than a single second before he was lifted into the air by a powerful red aurora that tried to set him down on one of the soft red couches in the living room. 'Tried' being the keyword of the aforementioned tactic. Spike thrashed like a lunatic as he hovered in the air, dropping his book in the process, and causing Twilight to think that she was somehow hurting him. So, out of worried fear, the mare set the draconic resident down on the wooden floorboards again. The dragon looked at her with piercing eyes that conveyed how irritated he was on the inside, irritation born from the sheer amount of times that the same nightmare had repeated itself. All of the pent up frustration was released as he dashed furiously towards the unicorn with the ferocity of a manticore, only to grip on to her left foreleg and start bawling his eyes out. The lavender spellcaster's maternal instincts kicked into overdrive at her surrogate son's tantrum, urging her to wrap her free leg around his back to pull him closer. Spike hated that moment, he had been forced to live through it so many times in the past after all. It was the same thing every time, as soon as he would let himself believe she was still alive, reality would reel him back in and beat him with the stick of truth. Still, as much as he hated the depression that would follow one of his nightmares, he loved the feeling of at least believing that Twilight was still there with him, that the closest thing to a parent he knew hadn't left his life. But, this time he didn't just wake up shivering in bed. No, instead of the torturous chill of dejection he always experienced when he snapped back into reality, Spike felt a cheek brush against his own tear soaked one in a tender act of affection he hadn't felt for the longest of times. The purple drake didn't try to figure out why his night terror was lasting longer than usual, he honestly didn't care anymore. He let himself become consumed by the almost alien feelings being introduced to him, ready to take the throes of insanity in stride like he had done once in the past. Spike knew that everypony would look at him with pity, some even with fear, but it didn't stop him. All he wanted was to feel loved, to feel the presence of the being that had brought him into the world, no matter the cost. His sullen sobs died down as he allowed himself to become fully immersed in the experience of seeing Twilight again, relishing the comforting nuzzle as it washed away his pains and reignited lost hopes and dreams. The mystic voice that had both haunted and blessed his mind wove together a soft, delicate question, as if its lavender owner was afraid she would break the little dragon if she spoke any louder. "Spike, please tell me what's wrong. I can't stand seeing you like this. Did something happen while I was off on Princess Celestia's assignment?" the purple dragon barely managed to process the words that were spoken to him before Twilight began to pull away a little, trying to get a better view of her assistant's face. "NO! Don't leave me alone! Not again, PLEASE!" the traumatic dementia that seemed to drip off of Spike's desperate pleas cut deeper into the unicorn's heart than she ever thought would be possible, akin to blade being twisted in her chest. Somepony, or something, was going to pay severely for hurting her little dragon. She genuinely feared for any living thing that could be responsible for the current pain, if she could beat a giant carnivore into the ground with nothing but her hooves and a simple teleportation spell then nothing she could think of stood a chance. "Shh, don't be afraid Spike, I won't leave you, not now, not ever." Twilight managed to maneuver herself along with the smaller entity so that they could both look at each other face-to-face, "I love you Spike, you're the closest thing...no, you are my son, and not even Death would be able to rip me away from you." That was exactly what the draconic baby wanted to hear, and she didn't even know how fitting the ending to her declaration was. It was no mystery that the two library-dwelling companions were extremely close, as any fool with eyesight could tell just by looking at them. But many of those who know the duo don't know how overly-complicated their relationship actually was, chalking it up to them just being best friends. No, friends were there to add some fun into the usually boring cycles of the day, and to help you whenever they could spare the time. Family on the other hoof, was a completely different story, and was a word much more fitting for the pair Family wasn't reserved to bloodlines or the meaningless titles in one's name, but it was a category Twilight and Spike had never put themselves fully under until that moment. Now that she had though, it felt right. It lined up perfectly with the lifestyle the two had lived together, an aspiring mother with a unique child, both equally susceptible to the depression that was bound to be unleashed if either one of them was to leave the other on their own. Twilight coming out and bluntly declaring that she considered Spike as her son was not only unexpected, it was what made him realize that that was the one thing he always wanted...needed to hear from her. A secret that would never see the light of day was that he often lay awake at night thinking, questioning his place in the world as a dragon among ponies. Now, the shreds of doubt were gone, receding into oblivion much like the traumatic trance he was being snapped out from. With sanity restored once more, Spike took a single step back, taking in the form of the mare in front of him, but he was still close enough to keep a claw on her hoof.then now it was a done deal. Nothing had changed about the lavender spellcaster, except that she was looking a lot more fit and that a pair of fangs were just barely poking out of her mouth, but the unique cutie mark adorning her flank was what let him know that he was truly looking at Twilight. "H-how is this possible." the dragon was afraid that his question would cause the mare to disappear again, but it escaped him before cowardice could stop him. "What do you mean by that? Did someone hurt you while I was gone on my mission? It was probably that stallion from down the street calling you names again, wasn't it?" Twilight shook her free hoof in building fury as her mind began to set itself on the accusing assumption, "Oh when I get my hooves on him I'll-" "You mean you don't know!?" disbelief was written all over Spike's features as he began to put two and two together. The drake figured that the intellectual mare hadn't the slightest idea of what had happened up to that very day. The horned mare was taken back by her little dragon's outburst, not expecting it at the time. "I'm sorry Spike, sheesh, it's just that today has been really weird for me. For starters, I woke up in a coffin, heavens know why I was in there." the drake looked as if he were about to speak upon hearing of the burial place they had left her in, but didn't get the chance to before she continued her ramble, "Then, I hiked through the Everfree Forest with a pack of meat-eating lizards on my tail, and I ended up having to fight one before I finally found my way over here." "You don't know..." Spike's words railed off as he began to formulate a way to simultaneously keep himself from breaking down again and to explain the current affairs to his companion. "Okay okay, I'm sorry for not leaving you a babysitter while I was gone! But please, just tell me what's wrong already." her response came not from the dragon's mouth, but from the trembling finger he pointed towards a wall on the far side of the room. Twilight stood and walked towards a sheet of paper posted on the wooden surface, which proved to be a little difficult with Spike still grabbing onto her leg. Then again, she didn't have to walk too much, having frozen as still as a statue upon reading the information shown on the piece of paper. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -1013- October 31 HAPPY NIGHTMARE NIGHT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 'Whoa, damn, what the motherbucking hell is going on?' Potential made an unnecessary appearance, and even her rhetorical question fell on deaf ears. Twilight was a little too preoccupied in maintaining as much mental stability as possible, partially failing, for the record. "Nine years...but that's impossible! I remember being here yesterday, I had made blueberry pancakes before the sky chariot came to pick me up!" the dumbfounded mare sought out what would surely help her, as they always had throughout her life, books! Or more specifically, the way they were organized, "No no no! What is Starswirl's autobiography doing next to the herbal remedy guides, I had just reorganized them before I left!" "Uhm...Twilight?" Spike was dragged along, still gripping the mare's leg as she began to survey all of the bookshelves, finding nothing where it should be. Instead of simply speaking, the drake accompanied his question with a poke on the pony's side, "Twilight? Are you alright?" "Alright? Me? Of course I'm alright Spike!" he didn't like the weird look growing on her features, especially not now that her new fangs looked much more intimidating when she was grinding her teeth together, "Wait...Spike, that's it! You can tell me what's going on! Right!?" Do not let our sanity slip now, we require this conversation to be as efficient as possible Twilight shook her head, clearing herself both from the foreign voice and the lunatic look on her face, much to the silent joy of the small dragon. The mare looked down at her assistant, still in the search of answers, but feeling more composed than she previously was. "Sorry about that Spike, but could you please try to explain to me as to why our calender is nine years ahead of date." "How about we take a seat Twilight? I'm sure that we're both going to need to be relaxed while we tell our sides of the story." With a nod from the unicorn, both library-dwellers moved to one of the plush couches adorning the living room. Amazingly, Spike still hadn't loosened his grip on the mare's leg, even as they both sat next to each other. He enjoyed how calm it felt at the moment, just like it used to, but he knew that he was in for quite the interesting conversation. Twilight simply processed all the information available to her at the moment, which wasn't very much on its own, but it was enough for her to draw one conclusion. Needless to say, it was the one she feared the most, yet it was the highest in likelihood. "What's happened Spike?" "Well, what do you remember?" the smart little dragon found a way to answer her question more accurately while, at the same time, satisfying his own curiosity. "Everything, except as to how I ended up in a coffin. Yesterday I finished reorganizing the library before the two royal guards assigned to escort the girls and I towards the site we had to explore. The last thing I remembered before waking up in the casket was that I was investigating a rune marking on the cavern's floor, aside from a couple of shouts, but I couldn't make out what they were trying to say." Spike rubbed the back of his neck, not sure how to break the ice in this particular situation. After all, how could anyone prepare to tell their friend that they've been dead for the past nine years. "Twilight, uhm, how do I put this lightly?" 'We both already know what he's going to say' the unicorn silenced the voice inside her head with a mental 'Shh!', not wanting to misunderstand the explanation to all the nonsense going on. "You've been...gone, for nine years." "What do you mean 'Gone'?" 'Will you quite being stubborn and look at the obvious!?' Twilight knew that Potential was right, all the evidence pointed towards the conclusion that she had been declared deceased, but she needed to hear it to believe it. "From what I was told, the rune that you were documenting activated itself when it sensed magic nearby, releasing a...what did they call it? Oh, right, it released a golem that attacked all of you. Applejack was stuck inside the cave as it began to collapse, and she would have been crushed by a boulder if you hadn't...taken her place." twin shudders were given off by the mare and the dragon, one from realization, while the other was spawned by the memories of the multiple times he had imagined the scenario in his sleep. 'Told you so.' Twilight barely registered her neurological partner's childish statement, too busy locking itself up too keep itself safe from the mental tantrum she would have if it were to be exposed. It was a tactic she had resorted to in the past, but it always failed for the same reason. The problem was on the inside, in the form of memories that began to resurface, many of which included her getting buried by a ton of stone. Nine years had been stolen from her life, three thousand two hundred eighty seven days that she wouldn't get to spend alongside those she loved. She considered crying, she really did, greatly liking the idea at the moment, but some shifting next to her drew her attention. Her sights fell on her little draconic assistant, and her selflessness overpowered her desire to take the easy way out by falling into a tantrum attack. Spike needed her, she couldn't just sit around and mope like the foal she used to be. Of course, Spike had apparently lived on his own for some time now, but he was still a baby, both in body and mind. He was her baby, and she wouldn't fail him. "T-Twilight? You still here?" the purple drake had prepared himself for a bout of lunacy from the mare, basically a reflex built over the many years he had lived with her, but his perceptions were put to shame as the lavender mare reeled him in with the hoof he was grabbing onto, wrapping him in another warm hug. He felt a single tear drip onto his back, the only one that managed to escape from Twilight's willpower, and he wasn't sure what to do other than to snuggle up to the steadily beating chest of his mother. "Yes Spike, I'm home now. How have you been doing?" "I've had my ups and downs. After your...funeral, Fluttershy took me in. She was really helpful with cheering me up, but it just wasn't the same, it never was after that day." "I'm sorry for all of this Spike, I should have thought about you before I threw myself in harm's way. It's just...I couldn't let Applejack get killed. As I pushed her out of the way I could only think of her family, her enormous family, and I imagined how much it would hurt them to lose one of their greatest members. Shining and you are the only two actual family members I have left, and I felt like I had to work towards the greater good, no matter how much it hurt me to leave all of you behind." at this, Twilight pulled her son in closer, nuzzling the harmless spines on his head, finding a hard time holding back her tears. She hadn't noticed it before, but the feeling of his smooth scales felt almost alien to her, giving her the idea that although her mind didn't recognize the nine years of absence, her body did. Twilight pulled away from the embrace to speak to her baby dragon, a remorseful frown on her muzzle, "Can you ever forgive me?" "Just as long as you do me one favor, Twilight." "Anything you want, Spike." "Just don't leave me again, okay?" the purple dragon smiled an honest smile, sadly, it was something that he didn't get to do much recently. "Of course, little Spikey." Nothing stirred in the library after that, nothing but the steady heartbeats of two beings brought together again, and the quiet whistle of the wind outside. The drake simply reveled in the new addition to his household, not wanting to know how Twilight was back anymore out of fear that she would disappear again, while the mare sorted out how she was going to settle back into her normal life. She was having an increasingly difficult time calling her life normal anymore, considering that she was dead for little under a decade, and now here she was, fixing things as best as she could with her child. The library-dwellers were snapped out of there thoughts by multiple bangs against the door, mocking the very meaning of the work 'knock'. Spike groaned when the sound hit his ears, instantly recognizing those responsible for it, and he wasn't exactly in the mood for their games. "Darn, give me a sec' Twilight, I'll get it." the drake hopped off the couch he was relaxing on, trudging over to the door with all the haste of a sloth. Twilight felt an itch in her eyes, so faint it could almost be overlooked, but she couldn't ponder it much further than that before a voice rang out in her head again. Keep our revival undisclosed to the public eye "Spike, don't let whoever is at the door know that I'm here." before the dragon could ask why she wanted to maintain secrecy, or why her voice sounded so different, Twilight propelled herself off of the couch and towards the ceiling, activating a gravity reversal spell around herself. The draconic baby could hardly see the lavender mare once she moved into the shadows caused by the angles at which the lighting was placed. Returning to his current task, Spike gripped the door's handle in his claw, only to be pushed aside as it burst open on its own accord, allowing four others to tumble in. From her point of view, Twilight spotted a orange pegasus with a purple mane, a yellow earth pony with a red mane, a white unicorn with a double-shaded mane, and a small brown colt with a black mane. Everypony in the group bore a cutie mark, save for the small colt. "What's up Spike!" as if the ringing from the head injury wasn't bad enough, three young mares from the group shouted their greeting in unison. The recovering drake actually chuckled a little as he took the 'What's up' literally, seeing only the slightest indications of the pony stuck to the ceiling. "Well I was relaxing before you guys decided to bust down my door. What're you all doing here anyway, aren't you supposed to be celebrating Nightmare Night along with everypony else?" "We could ask you the same question, but it'd just be the same answer every time, 'No girls, it's okay, I'm really busy running the library and I can't waste time on the celebrations'." the pegasus with unusually small wings spoke up for the group, and her voice was still a few notches too high for Spike's liking. Her comeback earned a jab to the ribs from the yellow earth pony, who fastened her signature bow before speaking in her southern drawl. "Ah'm sorry 'bout that Spike, you know how Scoots here can get whenever things don't go according to plan." "Hey!" the winged pony got up in the yellow mare's face, slight anger building inside of her from the teasing apology. "Break it up you two," the white unicorn lit up her horn in it's blue aurora as she levitated her hot-headed friends apart, "let's not forget why we're here. We were wondering if you had some botany books that we could borrow for a couple of days, preferably one on simple garden plants. We want to try that out to see if it'll get Color Palette his cutie mark, poor thing has been trying for quite a while now." the colt blushed at the sudden attention towards him, scampering away towards the reading area of the library. The aforementioned child caught Twilight's attention for some reason, and she unconsciously blocked-off the conversation between the young mares and the baby dragon as her slitted scarlet eyes followed the little colt. She didn't know why, but her mind began to register the various subtle details that were exhibited from the particular young one. Stuff like the fact that he wouldn't go near any of the family pictures that lined the wall, he seemed to sway slightly as he trotted, a pair of saddlebags that seemed nearly invisible due to its uncanny resemblance to the coat which it was perched upon, and that he too seemed to be completely ignoring everything else in the world surrounding him. Just as she was about to turn her attention back to the mares, who had begun an argument on which book was best suited for the job they had in mind, the brown colt pulled out a sheet of paper from one of his bags. He then went on to put it down on a desk by fictional section of the library. "Thanks Spike, Ah'll be sure to return this here book before the due date." both the mare in the shadows and the lonely colt turned their heads towards the boisterous farm pony, with the latter trotting back to his group's side. The white unicorn noticed that the dragon kept shifting his eyes towards the ceiling and that he kept fumbling with his claws, causing her to speak out of concern. "Spike, maybe you should come out and enjoy the night. It's been so long since we've actually seen you around your friends, and it worries me." "I'm okay Sweetie, maybe some time soon, but you don't have to worry about it." "No, I do have to worry about it. I'm sorry for what happened Spike, we all are, but she wouldn't want you to shut yourself out of the world like this." the high-pitched mare felt a if she had crossed some sort of line with the drake, so she attempted to soften up her lecture, "Just...please think about it, okay?" "Yeah, you can count on me. I've got a feeling that things around here are about to start to get better, you'll see." "That's the spirit! Well, I hate to leave you alone, but Color Palette won't have an easy time earning his cutie mark on his own." "Bye girls! And you too Color!" "See ya' later Spike!" the farewell shouted out in perfect synchrony by the trio of mares drowned out the colt's own goodbye, and they soon escaped from the dragon's line-of-sight. As soon as the door shut, a thud sounded out from behind the purple drake, who spun around to find a pair of amethyst eyes looking at him intently "She's right you know." "Who? Sweetie Belle?" "Yes, Sweetie Belle. You shouldn't have locked yourself away from society just because of my supposed death, it's not healthy for you." "I know, Twilight, I know! I know that doing that isn't good for me, but...it hurts, it really does." Spike walked passed the lavender pony with a forlorn look on his face, going to the kitchen to serve himself a glass of warm milk, "I tried to move on after your accident, to leave it all in the past, but I couldn't do that with everypony around me reminding me about it. And by the time I disconnected myself from the outside world, the wounds were too deep for me to just forget." "How long have you been locking yourself away?" Twilight understood why her assistant chose to do what he did, even without the explanation he gave her. Besides, she couldn't get mad at him over this, she had done the exact same thing in the past and Spike was there to help her all the way. "About since the time the mayor let me have the library as a condolence gift, so that's like four years ago. Like I said before, the first five years I lived out with Fluttershy." the mentioning of the butter colored pegasus alerted the spellcaster that she hadn't the slightest idea of how her friends were doing. She wanted to ask earlier, but personal affairs come first. "Speaking of Fluttershy, how are the girls and her? I mean, you have been isolating yourself, but I think you would know about them anyway." "Oh, right, yeah I know about them. Applejack still lives at Sweet Apple Acres and manages it as the head pony. The deed to the farm fell to her hooves after Granny Smith passed away from natural causes." "Poor AJ, she loved her grandmother very much." "She was pretty down in the dumps for a while after her passing, but she let her work flush out her problems, like she usually does." Spike started to gulp down the warm milk he had served himself, enjoying how it calmed him down, "Next there's Fluttershy. She's pretty much the same as before your accident, but she has become more reserved than usual, only rarely coming into town." "Do you know why?" "That brings me to my next point. Rarity finally saved up enough bits to open up a shop in Canterlot, the Sparkling Diamond Boutique, and she moved away like three years ago. Without her around, Flutters didn't have somepony to take to the spa with her, and the only other close friend with the time to spare to visit her is Rainbow Dash." 'Interesting, don't you think? Remove one pony from the equation and it results in a chain reaction that affects everyone.' "I don't have the time to talk with you right now, Potential." Twilight muttered her response under her breath, almost catching Spike's attention, but said dragon simply continued his report on the Bearers of Harmony. "Rainbow Dash became almost as secluded as Fluttershy after something happened to her. She moved her cloud home closer to the cottage Fluttershy uses, and those two are only seen in town about once a month." "What do you mean 'Something happened to her'?" the lavender mare couldn't believe that her brash friend had begun to hide herself away near the outskirts of the Everfree, it simply wasn't her style. "I...I can't tell you Twilight, she asked me to never tell anypony. I'll just say she feels ashamed of it, and if a gossip pony were to catch wind of it, her life would be ruined." "I understand, but I'll have to see her soon enough. Wait, that leaves Pinkie Pie, what happened to her these past nine years?" Spike shuddered for some reason she couldn't explain, but her observations were cut short as he began to speak again. "A better question would be what didn't happen to her. I don't know how to explain it to you, Twilight, but you should avoid going anywhere near Sugarcube Corner, it's not what it used to be." She didn't know why, but the mare could almost taste the dread in the air, as if the very subject of her pink friend dropped a cloud of gloom into the library. Spike decided to slice through the emotional smog with a question of his own. "What about you Twilight, from what you told me earlier you've had quite the day. Are you hurt?" the little drake started to inspect the mare with his eyes, seeing no visible injuries whatsoever on her body. What he did see was that his caretaker was...buff. Not at all the physic you would expect from a bookworm who spends more time with her nose in a book than her hoof on the ground. "No, I outran the velociprey before they could do anything to me. Although I did have a little scuffle with a velocidrome, but it seems to me that there's nothing wrong." 'Except for the fact that you drank the blood from a giant carnivore who intended to turn you into a egg hatchery after giving it the beatdown of a lifetime.' Twilight knew her mental partner was right, again, but she couldn't just go out and say that. No, she would have to research the matter further before she could speak of it to anyone. "A velocidrome! How the hell did you manage to survive that!?" "Spike! Watch your tongue or I'll clean it with a bar of soap!" 'Where have I seen that before?' "I'm sorry Twi, but come on! Nopony ever escapes from a fight with a velocidrome." "Well I did, and it'll think twice before messing with me again." Spike almost laughed at how Twilight thought she could intimidate the top predator in the Everfree Forest, but it died halfway through his throat as soon as he made eye contact with her. They were dead serious, as if she actually would beat the living hell out of anything that intended to do harm. After a short discussion on how it was possible to escape from a velocidrome, the dragon and the mare regaled each other with tales of the past and the future that the lavender mare had missed out on. Their conversation stretched out through the nightmare-themed night, never stopping until the point in which both of them were on the brink of passing out. And so, with most of the current affairs known, Twilight trotted up the wooden stairway towards the master bedroom with a drowsy drake on her back, only to stop as soon as she reached the doorway. "Spike?" "Yeah?" "There's only one bed here, and I don't see your basket or the guest bed." "Uhm, I turned the guest room into a study, heh, and my basket is in storage." "Do you mind if we both just squeeze into this bed? I don't want to sleep on the couch and I know you don't want to either." A 'Sure' from the dragon was all the prompting Twilight needed before she collapsed onto the sweet plushness she would slumber on. Spike crawled into his caretaker's reach, snuggling up to her just as a foal would do, and the world slowly began to fade from his eyes. The mare, too, began to fall into the joy of sleep, but a soft voice kept her awake for a couple of seconds longer. "Twi? I want to ask you one more thing." "Go ahead." "Will you be here when I wake up?" so may tears had been shed on that day, but his scared question somehow managed to summon more from the mare's eyes. "Forever, Spike. As long as you want me to be with you, I'll be there." "Thank you, for everything. You know, even if this is just a dream, it's everything I ever wanted to hear from..you...mom." the little dragon trailed off as he slipped into the dreamscape, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts, and a smile that refused to leave her face. She felt as if she was forgetting something, but it didn't matter at the moment. 'I think I'll let you dream on your own tonight, co-pilot.' Potential received silent gratitude from the mare, just as she slipped into the throes of the night herself. All nightmares that so much as attempted to access the dragon's mind were banished by the reassuring forelegs in which he was wrapped in. Some part of Twilight's mind began to formulate a dream of her own, a dream of a peaceful future that she could live out with her child, a dream in which she could see all her friends smiling down at her. It was a dream in which no evil existed, and one where harmony ruled absolutely. But, as a great mastermind once said... "Dreams are meant to be broken." ______________________________________________________________________ The predator opened her red eyes, inspecting the sleeping chambers it was in with excruciating detail, finding nothing but average furniture and a infantile purple dragon. She could hear his steady heartbeat, feel the precious red liquid it filtered pulsing throughout his small body. It was so tempting, but no. She didn't need to feed at the moment. and it would undoubtedly cause problems in the future. Without a sound, the lavender creature slipped out of the bed it originally lay on, deftly making her way over to the storage room in the lower levels of the oaken residence. Before it could leave the room, however, a whimper arose from the small figure laying one the plush bedding, causing her to look back at it. Her scarlet eyes flickered with amethyst for a second as she saw that the little dragon had begun to twist and turn in his sleep, disturbed by the nightmares arising due to the absence of his parent. The lavender being moved closer to the purple drake, hearing more of his distraught whines before she touched her horn against his forehead. Nightmares were a form of dreams, and dreams were a subsection of magic, so a simple draining spell would be enough to liberate him from the curse of unrest. With the terrible dreams banished, the dragon hugged one of the pillows near him as he slipped back into a peaceful sleep. She didn't know why she did that, but it was done already. Seeing how she got sidetracked, the ingenious predator continued its journey to the storage room. The room itself was composed of a large, square room filled to the brim with cardboard boxes. The silent mare actually had to cast a spell on the room itself that increased the space inside without altering its external appearance. Once inside the aforementioned chamber, she acquired a dusty cloak from a box that contained a horde of clothing that was rarely used. It was a ugly shade of brown, and it seemed to have ripped in some spots somehow, but it managed to conceal her cutie mark along with most of her facial features. On her way towards a open window, the night mare spotted a couple of forgotten objects from earlier that night. There was a daffodil sandwich that didn't have a single bite in it, and a sheet of paper resting on a table. Deciding that the food shouldn't go to waste, she ate the sandwich in three bites before inspecting the paper closer. Upon flipping it around, she discovered it to be a oil painting of the dragon upstairs, and it wasn't at all bad. Realizing she was getting sidetracked again, the cloaked pony made her way to the window placed near the ceiling. Without the slightest of noises, she landed on one of the branches outside of the window, getting a good view of Ponyville and the celebration it was hosting. She pondered how badly the events going on would stall her work, but the cloak she picked out would be able to conceal her enough so that she wouldn't attract too much attention. With yet another mighty leap, the creature of the night landed inside the darkness of an alleyway, completely avoiding being spotted by any of the ponies roaming the street. With a poker face that would rival that of the Royal Sisters, the cloaked lavender pony walked out into the light cast by the street lamps. Nopony heeded her appearance much, simply moving past her in search of confections to fill their buckets with. The fanged being began to trot through the decorated streets of the city, ignoring every event available to participate in as she strode towards her destination. On her way to the library a few hours prior she had spotted a shop that appealed to the unicorn nature, and she was interested in what she could acquire from such a place. Her journey was stalled for just a bit longer as she saw a peculiar building come into view, one that was oddly shaped to look like the very things it sold. Sugarcube Corner stood silently in the night, and nopony seemed to even take the road on which it rested. That little fact would help the lavender hunter greatly, but she couldn't hold back the low growl that escaped her throat by instinct. Something was going on in there, and she didn't want to find out what it was anytime soon. As it turned out, the very store she was looking for was situated right next to the pastry shop, but it didn't seem as if there was anypony handling it at the moment. The 'Closed' sign was useless in its attempt to stop the spellcaster, who simply teleported through the wall after looking through a window. The inside of the shop was simple, just a couple of shelves lined with writing equipment, horn polish, a couple of gems locked away inside a glass display case, and a register. The cloaked creature browsed the shelves containing the books, finding nothing but cheesy romance novels and a couple of guides for foals on how to control your mana flow better. She shook her head at the poor selection offered and was about to leave when a door in the back of the building caught her attention, mainly because its label said it was restricted and required an employee escort. She attempted to open the door, only to find out that it was locked, as if that would make a difference. She lit up her horn in its red aurora, clicking open the locking mechanism in a matter of seconds. The hinges connected to the door squeaked as it swung open, granting access to the uninvited guest. A grin that fully exposed her pearly fangs grew on the trespasser's face as she took stock of what was inside the room. She picked up a random spell book from the shelves, skimming through the various battle spells within. They were amateurish compared to her high degree of skill, but they were the only thing she had since she never actually delved into the offensive side of magic. The spellcaster moved back to the main room, where she picked up a blank black book in her telekinetic grasp. Her horn shone even brighter for a couple of seconds as she cast an enchantment of her own design onto the hardcover book, one that would grant it an infinite number of pages on which she could enact the second phase of her plan for that night. With the enchanted book in tow, she moved back into the restricted area of the shop. The horned creature levitated a variety of combat spell books in her aurora, flipping them all open to the first page. Next, she cast a scanning spell on the pages, one by one, copying their writing onto the blank book she had enchanted. This process continued for about ten minutes before all the books had been copied over onto the master spellbook she was crafting. Covering up her tracks, the lavender intruder put every single book back in its place, making it seem as if a creature of the night hadn't just stolen all of their secrets. The unicorn grinned a little more at how easily her plan had come together, tempting the universe to try and screw up her day, so it did. A little bell chimed as the front door to the shop was opened, causing the trespassing mare to shift her efforts on exiting into overdrive. Without the faintest of sounds, she disappeared from the shop with her nifty teleportation spell, leaving no sign of her invasion save for the missing hardcover book she had hidden under her cloak. With the spells she needed secured, the lavender being allowed herself to relax on the rooftop she was on for a few seconds. After the outstandingly long break of five seconds, the mare began to scan through the book she had inscribed the magical sequences onto, and a frown began to grow on her face as she realized something most of the spells had in common. They gave off quite the commotion, so if she were to practice them at the library they would attract way too much attention, and the little dragon she woke up next to wouldn't be able to cover that up. She needed to find someplace where she could train without outside interruptions. Someplace where meddling ponies wouldn't stick their noses in. It had to be a spot that could both conceal the results of the spells, and that was far from society's eye. Only one place popped into her mind, and she loved it. She hopped back down to the street where nopony would see her fall, and she then began to wade through the thinning crowd of ponies out and about. The moon continued its progress through the sky as the night went on, causing a couple of ponies here and there to retreat to their homes to rest, but it did nothing to stall the energetic cloaked mare, already at the outskirts of the town. What did stall her, however, was a flank in her way that she didn't notice due to how lost she was in her own mind. She tried to move along is if nothing had happened, but the second pony had another idea. "Ah, forgive me for bumping into you, it is a mistake I wish I could undo." the rhyme caught the lavender one's attention due to its familiarity, and her suspicions were proven correct when her sight fell on the striped mare in front of her. But, as always, she reacted quick enough to avoid suspicion. "No, the fault is mine. I seemed to have drifted off for a minute there." "You are forgiven for your collision. I go by the name Zecora, and I manage to help those in search of knowledge on flora." the magical being would have preferred to avoid any contact with the other ponies, but she had to play along for now. "It's a pleasure making your acquaintance Zecora, my name is...", the horned mare looked up at the sky as she formulated a false identity, seeing the onyx of the night sky illuminated by the shining moon, "Midnight Sparkle, and I'm here to explore an ancient structure within the Everfree Forest." the two ponies began to move away from the town again,getting closer to the treeline that marked the dense woods. "You plan to trek the Everfree at night? Do you not feel fright?" "I would if I didn't know that fear is the very thing that attracts the predators of the woods. The increased heat signature, noise, and pheromones released into the air make you a easy to find target. Besides, I've done it before, I can do it again." "I would urge you to wait until daylight, but you seem intent on journeying tonight." "Thank you for the concern, but I'll be able to manage myself in a fight if it should come to that. From what I know, the castle I'm searching for isn't too deep into the forest." "I believe I know of the building which was abandoned long ago. I Insist that you follow the path I grant you in my attempt to assist." "Very well, Zecora, but time is of the essence so we should move quickly." After receiving a nod of understanding from the striped pony, the two late-night trotters continued down the dirt path leading into the dark recesses of the Everfree Forest. Zecora pointed out various plants that contained interesting properties, and the lavender spellcaster managed to listen carefully while, at the same time, keeping her guard up. It didn't long before they stood in front of the tree that housed the zebra, marking the point in which they parted ways. "I wish you luck, Midnight Sparkle, and be careful not to get stuck in some muck." "Will do, Zecora. We will meet again." The fanged creature watched as the zebra retreated into her hut, wondering if it should continue avoiding society or if it should try to blend in better. She didn't think too much about it, mostly due to the fact that most of her attention was focused on reaching the area she would be using as her training grounds. On the way to her destination, she came across a still river blocking her path. Of course, she could just teleport across, but she decided to make it a little more interesting. Her horn lit up as she applied a technique she had never had the chance to field test in the past. It involved taking hold of a liquid of any kind and compacting the atoms it was made up of to the point in which it would temporarily become a solid object. A path in the water illuminated as it was compacted, prompting the mare to set her hoof upon it. It was as solid as the grass her three other legs were on. With a mirthful grin at her success, the night pony walked across the river's surface and continued her stride through the life-threatening forest. Upon reaching a clearing in the woods, she spotted a rouge timberwolf feeding on a rabbit's carcass. The wooden bio-form turned its blood soaked mouth towards the mare intruding on its territory, not at all liking her presence. It began to growl at her, signalling that an attack was imminent, but it died away as it locked eyes with her. Just as the velocidrome had, the wooden wolf couldn't move ever since his golden eyes linked with the scarlet ones of the pony. The unicorn gave it some thought to destroy the beast, maybe spoil herself a little with a gluttony sip of its plasma, but she decided not to do any of that. Instead, she spoke to it, never letting her eyes trail away from its own. "Sleep." With that, the timberwolf collapsed on the ground, snoring loudly as the mare walked past it without as much as a glance back. The forest began to thin away as she approached her target, which was only a rickety rope bridge away. Said bridge seemed to be in the worst possible conditions, so the magic pony simply teleported across, not wanting to die anytime soon. She could see it closely now, the Palace Of The Royal Pony Sisters, in all its antique glory. She galloped towards the entrance with unusual speed, basically bursting the double doors apart as she made her entrance. The old structure had obviously succumbed to the effects of time, but it still held together for the most part. It was perfect for the experimentation she would be doing, due to how the sturdy walls would be able to resist most of the spells she would be practicing, and its distance from Ponyville would prove to be a helpful detail as well. Now that she had established a training ground, the stealthy mare decided to take the time out of her empty schedule so that she could explore her new territory. The deeper areas of the castle were completely intact, if not overly dusty, but nothing of importance was found in most of them. The ponies who used to run the place must have taken everything with them when they left. Before the spellcaster could practice her new set of potential abilities, a shining window caught her attention. Said window was near the top of a spiraling tower that protruded from the area near the back of the castle. Curious as to who could possibly be in the abandoned structure, the lavender mare sped through the empty corridors in search of a way to access the tower. The staircase to the top was completely intact, much to the mare's joy, and she quickly found the door leading into the room from which the light originated from. The red, mahogany double doors parted with but a small push from the unicorn, granting her entry to the elegantly decorated room within. The chamber itself was a semi-circular shape, with the door resting on the square end of the room. A fireplace crackled directly across the room, lighting up the black-trimmed red couch in front of it along with various bookshelves lining the room's walls. The floor had plush red carpet covering it, silencing the clop that would result whenever the mare's hooves hit the floor. The fireplace intrigued the horned creature due to the fact that there was nopony around to light it. After deciding to take a closer look, the unicorn stuck her hoof into the flame, pulling it back out without a single burn. She could tell it was a magically fueled flame due to the extremely faint heat signature it gave off, but she couldn't figure out what powered it. Chalking it up to magic just being magic, she moved on to a closet she hadn't noticed upon entering. Her horn tingled as she got closer to it, signalling that there was something powerful behind that door. Sadly, the door was locked, and it wasn't exactly as easy to break as the lock at the shop she robbed earlier. The lock on the door before her was composed of a series of magical seals, all of which would take time and careful precision in order to break. She vowed to open it eventually, but she had more pressing matters to attend to. The magical mare moved back to the fireplace in order to carve a copy of her cutie mark onto the wooden frame. She then cast a linking spell, binding that spot so that she could teleport to that specific area from anywhere in Equestria with minimum energy consumption. The creature of the night moved to the window that she had spotted from the ground below, looking out across the old castle and the Everfree Forest. A feral grin grew on her muzzle, the night would hold much work for her, what with all the new magic diagrams she acquired. But, for that one moment, she allowed herself to enjoy what she could easily take. "This is my castle now, my forest, and my territory, all of it. Now and forever."