Surprisingly, waking up this time didn’t feel like it did the last few days. No burning eyes, muscle response was back to normal, and you were starting to think clearly again. It felt as if you had an entire night’s rest, which by the look of the shadows cast and the sun being shown through the library window meant either you slept for twenty five hours, or just an hour off.
That idea was ridicules at first, but the logic was sound since you’d had hour long naps before and by now the tired would start to creep back in which it wasn’t. At the same time you knew you’d still be tired if you did sleep that long. But most of all you wanted to have slept past a day. It both gave you an excuse to avoid Scootaloo after what you slowly recall as something very much facehoof worthy, and it gave Pinkie time to get all her work mostly done at Sugar Cube Corner and hopefully get information on a new job to take some of the stress off you. Neither seemed likely.
A quick scan around the room showed quite a few books of various types. You had been here before with Pinkie when she was going around properly introducing you to her best friends, but this was the first time you actually got to look at it without work paper everywhere or a mare hastefully hiding her pictures of some stallion you didn’t know along with some rather confusing pictures you didn’t even wanna think about since it led into more flashes of Applebloom and Scootaloo in the same positions and made you feel weird. All in all it wasn’t the best first impression considering you only saw them by wondering off and snooping around the basement when Pinkie and Twilight were having a long conversation that didn’t appeal to you.
Getting out of the bed you walk over and put your ear to the door first. The company on the other side was disbanding with a loud, “On it!” before slowly drowning out and the sound of many hooves and a scratching sound left the building. Only then did you push open the door to look at the purple mare. She looked lost in thought for a moment before noticing you and pulling a smile that you were hard pressed to tell if it was genuine or not. Considering the way she came off with Pinkie before you decided it was likely real.
“Welcome back to the world of the living,” she chuckled. “I take it you enjoyed my little spell? It makes one hour of sleep worth eight. I came up with it after finding a few incidents where it would be useful. Downside is of course your internal clock gets messed up and your muscles will still be sore if you worked too hard so I can’t really use it all the time.” She trotted closer to you and whispered in your ear, “Just don’t tell anypony you were actually sleep deprived. The last thing I need is other ponies, especially Applejack, to come to me for this and get too used to it.”
“What did you tell them then?” you asked backing away a little. It was a bit overwhelming, you never imagined Twilight Sparkle being THIS powerful.
“Oh a half truth of sorts I was told when I was your age and had nightmares too,” she chuckled at the thought. “I figured you’d already know magical back up didn’t exist so I didn’t bother with you, but it may have been too cruel of me to add what my mother did. I ended up telling them that you were going to inflate like a balloon and then pop because you hadn’t used magic. But it did get them out of the way long enough for us to get this time so why don’t we get started hmm?”
You found yourself lifted by magic to a couch as Twilight suddenly sat beside you, her hair now in a bun with glasses perched on her head and a notepad. You had the feeling she had done this before if she was able to get this done so quickly. “Now then tell me, what is on your mind?”
It felt like a weight had been lifted from you. After telling Twilight about the dreams, all of them thanks to a spell you didn’t consent to but the ends justify the means was her defense; you were relieved when Twilight didn’t just laugh at you and actually started seeping through books she thought was related to your case.
“Ah,” she finally exclaimed after some time skimming through twenty books at the same time and dropping the read ones in a pile. “Here we are, ‘Dream spells and Symbolisms’. I’m sure this will be able to tell us what all your dreams mean. I mean they can’t be prophetic since you still can’t use magic yet so…”
“Actually I can,” you correct. “It was only once though, and I mean besides when I was a baby and was likely using it like crazy.” Twilight peered back at you as you recounted the tale of your first conscious wink out. You tried to avoid recalling the way your mom looked, but your mind wouldn’t let that nugget out of your head once you fished out the memory of the wink since it went hoof in hoof with it.
The entire time you noticed the purple mare switching between scanning the book in front of her and looking at you as you told this tale. Surely Pinkie must have explained all this before hand, but Twilight’s attention was as focused as it could ever be by the time you had finally gotten to the point of the feeling after you winked and the panic in your mind from what you had seen.
You hear the smack of her licking her lips, a long pause. Finally her attention returned to the book as she continued reading. You tried to speak up to her but found she had made a sound proof bubble around her on instinct as she finished up.
Before anything else could be said the door to the library burst open. Pinkie, and all you classmates that had helped you in class came rushing into the large room. While everypony was wearing a face of worry, none was more so than Pinkie. She had once again gotten straight haired and it took her a minute after rushing it and nearly slamming her head into Twilight’s bubble and popping it for her to notice you.
Before you knew it you were in that hug you had grown to love and hate from the pink mare as she squeezed the life out of you before frantically checking everywhere on your body. Random outbursts of “Your okay” and “Nothing wrong” came before she finally calmed down enough for her hair to suddenly inflate again. One of these days you had to figure out what that was about.
“It’s okay Pinkie,” Twilight finally said when your caretaker had returned to normal, great timing there. “I’ve done a preliminary examination of him and he’s perfectly fine. He’ll likely need to come by a few more times for me to be sure but I think I know what the problem is.” Pinkie and your friends were about to go on a rant before Twilight magiced another silence spell that muted them all but kept her own voice clear.
“Now then,” she continued, “As I have said he is fine. Dreams are made up of memories and your own imagination so he’s basically having these nightmares since he magic is actually starting to come in to maturity for him to use.”
Your eyes grew wide with realization and Twilight nodded as she must have guessed you understood, “Exactly. Cog’s magic is linked to his father since your cousin was an earth pony like yourself Pinkie. Combine that with the stress he just told me he’s been under lately since Applebloom left and everything got mixed up and caused insomnia.”
Your eyes darted to Scootaloo who seemed to be going through a rather darker set of emotions at that last bit of news. There was no denying she was the cause of it as well but Twilight knew better than to say that in front of everypony. Still he made your heart sink and you suspected she would get the wrong idea out of it before you could even know what the proper idea was.
Twilight continued, “I can’t really recommend anything but you had better go to a doctor for him Pinkie. The sooner he gets his magic under control the better and proper therapy would be best. I can be a pseudo replacement for him till you can afford it though since I know your sort of in a bind right now for bits. Plus I can help train him a bit. Everyone understand?” A room full of foals and the pink mare nodded. “Good, now please go for now. Cog, I’ll see you the day after tomorrow since I’m…..sorta busy tomorrow.”
You couldn’t help but notice she trailed off and blushed for a second. She had a date and with it being Hearts and Hooves day couldn’t exactly reschedule if it wasn’t an immediate need. You agree and everyone started to file out of the library. Sweetie, now relieved you were okay, went rushing out first; likely to go meet Featherweight one last time for planning her own day with him. Snips and Snails waved out of sight too.
Scootaloo kept her head down as she trotted slowly till she noticed you coming up behind her and rushed away again as fast as she could. Your own eyes found the ground now. You were not sure what to do. If you did go after Scootaloo it would lead to something you were not sure of since Applebloom still lingered over both of you. You cared far too much for Applebloom to do anything that you knew even if it didn’t really mean anything special could come off as it while she was gone. And Scootaloo would hate you for it too. Completely stuck.
A Pink hoof found its way around your neck and you lifted your eyes to find Pinkie’s smile. “Hey now,” she said softly, “You heard Twilight. You can’t be all sad and mopey right now or you’ll get more nightmares. We gotta get you super happy and stat.”
You’re not sure where the nurse’s hat came from but why question it. Pinkie put you on her back and gave an even bigger grin. “I got just the thing,” she laughed. “But first I gotta make sure we get all the prep ready for it. You up for watching the new movie starting Princess Luna, The Feather Fairy, Slash, The Tooth Mouse, and the Reester Bunny fight Slendermane?”
You blinked, “That sounds like a pretty good movie idea actually.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Pinkie exclaimed galloping off. “We gotta get some dinner first though. How’s –“
“Griffoni’s?” you finished. It was her new favorite place and you enjoyed it a lot yourself.
“You know it,” she exclaimed galloping faster.
That night you still had a dream. Nothing was going to stop that. But thanks to Pinkie and Twilight, for just a moment you forgot about your troubles. Like all boys do, and that dream was one that didn’t wake you. It was simple as in it you gave Scootaloo a party and she was smiling just as wide as Pinkie had that night. Perhaps that was your brain trying to tell you something. Something you could use for when you woke up. All you know however was that with Scootaloo’s smile also came Applebloom and the two of them playing and running off happily together.
For a moment, you thought they had left you, but they turned and invited you along. You followed, and for once you were woken not but something back, but by the pain in your mouth. The pain of doing something it had not done it years in earnest. The pain of a full on and true smile.