We stayed like that for a while. She calmed down and stopped crying into my shoulder and we took a seat on the couch to talk.
“I'm sorry. I'm just so sorry.” She kept mumbling as she sat next to me.
We continued to hug for a while. She fell asleep in my arms. I laid her down on the couch, afraid of moving her.
“Spike, where are you?” I walked into her room.
“What do you want?” the basket he was sleeping in moved as he got out of it.
“Twilight’s asleep on the couch and I'm starving.” I told the little dragon.
“Can’t you make your own food?” he asked rolling over.
“Yes, but yours is so much better.” I told him as I levitated him out of his basket and downstairs.
“Fine.” He sleepily walked over to the stove and turned it on.
“Thank you.” I told him as I went back to the library to watch Twilight sleep.
-----
Twilight was so beautiful. Her purple mane cascaded down her back and over her shoulder like a violet waterfall. Her sleek frame was just a little smaller than an average mare. Her eyes made the stars stop sparkling. And may I just say, DAT FLANK! but seriously, she was the most beautiful mare in all of Equestria. I felt like the luckiest stallion who ever set hoof in her life.
I was quietly watching her body rise and fall as she slept through what I could only think was a peaceful dream when the worst. Possible. Thing. Happened.
Silver came home.
And no, he didn’t just walk in, hang up his coat, and pass out on the couch. No, he slammed the door against the wall, leaving a nasty dent, and yelled at the top of his lungs “WOOO!! I'M HOME!!”
Of course, this woke Twilight up and enraged me beyond belief.
“What is wrong with you?!” I yelled as soon as I got my bearings.
“Nothing, unless being with Applejack is wrong.” He said smugly.
“Welcome back, Silver.” Twilight said from the couch while she rubbed her eye sleepily.
“Well you don’t need to be so loud about it!” I yelled at him.
“Don’t be so harsh on him.” Twilight scolded me for scolding him! What has our world come to?!
“Why?! He woke you from your dream!” I told her.
Her face grew grim “it was more of a nightmare.” She said slowly.
“What? Why?” I galloped over to her and held her hoof.
“Because you weren’t in it.” her eyes were half closed and she was smiling sweetly.
Another one hit, the third in the past few hours. I fell to the floor remembering. I saw images of her in bed. She was sleeping like before, but I was in bed with her. I couldn’t get much else out of it, but when I came to I could recall… certain activities I- or Dillon rather- had done with her in the past.
“Dude, are you ok?” Twilight was on top of me while Silver was standing worriedly over her.
“Yeah, I'm fine.” I told him as I got up; Twilight rapped me in a hug… again.
“I’ll never get used to that.” She whispered in my ear.
“It shouldn’t last too much longer.” I assured her.
“So… what was that just now?” asked Silver.
“I was recovering an old memory.” I told him.
“Oh, that clears everything up!” he exclaimed sarcastically.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize nopony had told you anything.” I sat on the couch, Twilight still hugging me, probably fighting tears.
I told him everything that had gone down over the past few days, how we learned that I was part of Dillon, how we were retrieving Dillon’s memories, how every time I get a memory flash I spasm like that; the whole shebang. By the time I was done Twilight had regained her composure and was leaning silently against my shoulder. Her face was obscured by my brown fur so I couldn’t tell if she was awake or not. I decided it would be best not to find out.
When I was finally finished we sat there for an awkward few seconds until Silver spoke up.
“She’s been so tired lately.” He practically whispered.
“Yeah, I think seeing Dillon again riled up those sad emotions again.” I said at the same level.
“whelp, Ima go see what Spike has cooking, it smells done.” he whispered a little louder, she moaned and moved, but didn’t wake; all I did was give him a dirty look as he walked into the kitchen.
“Ok, Twilight, I gotta go make sure they don’t burn the house down. I’ll be back soon.” I whispered to her as I laid her down.
She gave some incoherent mumbles and twitched her ear, but nothing more. I left for the kitchen.
-----
EQ had had a total of three flashes today. This was a sign that the other stallions were doing a good job. We hadn’t done much today, I didn’t want him to have a spasm attack during a piece and damage his instrument. So we just talked all day. We talked about each other, the memory flashes and what they were about, what he could remember afterwards, so on and so forth. We took short breaks now and then to eat and stuff. Sometimes Vinyl would come down and have a short chat, but other than that we didn’t really do much.
Presto, like EQ, wasn’t doing much today. He was up in Vinyl’s bed supposedly sleeping, but I'm skeptical.
Finally EQ couldn’t take it.
“I need to play something.” He told me.
“I thought we went over this, you could harm your instrument if you fall on it.”
“Yeah, but I just feel the urge to play something. Like music withdrawal.” He said as he looked at his hooves with a crazy look in his eye.
“I know how you feel, me and vinyl both, but you need to wait.”
“No.” he got up and grabbed his bass and started to play the first thing that came to mind.
Eroica by Neethoven. I worried, but when he didn’t fall immediately I waited patiently. He finished the song, leaned his bass against the wall and took a deep breath.
“That felt good.” He said in a blissful tone, and then fell to the floor in a spasm.
-----
I saw images of Dillon playing a bass, it was a familiar song, but I only knew that because of the music in front of his face, it was Eroica by Neethoven. The same song I had just played for Octavia. When I woke up she was looking down at me with a ‘you idiot’ look on her face.
-----
I facehoofed as he got up again.
“I warned you.” I told him.
“Yes, but it was worth it.” he said as he sat next to me.
“I'm glad.”