//------------------------------// // Early mornings // Story: Then We'll Run // by maxxxxxx //------------------------------// It was dark, it felt like it should have been mid day but it was dark as night. Her heart raced. There was no sound, not even as she felt herself cry out in pain. She was surrounded, hundreds of faceless ponies circled around her. Then, a single rhythmic sound penetrated the silence. A powerful, rapid beating sound. It was a heart beat, no. It was two heartbeats, one quickly fading. She screamed again, still no sound came out. She felt a hoof wrap around hers, it was weak and shaky. Then all went silent. She felt the most powerful sadness she had ever felt in her life and the barely visible ponies faded away completely. Leaving only herself, and the figure that lay beneath her, clutching her hoof. Then, she to vanished, leaving only a lonely void. “No!” She cried, though the sound seemed only a whisper despite the force with which she projected it. She was still alone. She sobbed, she could barely breath through her pathetic sobs, she felt her tears pooling beneath her hooves. She was sinking into them. She struggled with all her might, but it would never be enough “No! no! “Twilight!” She shot up out of her bed, drenched in sweat, tears clinging to her face. She stared at the wall, the details of her dream quickly fading from her memory, but the bleak feelings remaining. She wiped her eyes with her foreleg. Her heart rate beginning to slow as she focused on taking deep breaths. Once she had calmed down sufficiently, she got up out of bed to wash her face. She returned from her bathroom and took a look at the clock on her wall. It was three in the morning. She sighed as she made her way into bed, hoping that she could sleep the rest of the night peacefully. “I'm Rainbow Dash! Since when do I get nightmares?” She joked to herself, now having all but forgotten her dream, she fell back asleep. ******************************************************************************************************* “Spike, come on! It's time to get up.” She nudged her sleeping baby dragon, who in response simply rolled away from her and grumbled. She rolled her eyes, her horn beginning to glow a light purple. The glow then enveloped the dragons blanket and suddenly flew off his body, jolting him awake. “Spike, you have to help me reorganize the library today!” she pressed, but the dragon only glared in response. “I thought you like to do that yourself with”-He made quotation marks with his claws for emphasis- “Limited interruption.” “You're not going to be helping me reorganize. I need you to unpack and sort through all the new book that were delivered just a few minutes ago.” Spike sighed again as he stretched and followed twilight out of the room and down the stairs to the library. “So how many new books did we get?” He ventured it had to be more than usual for twilight to need help sorting them. Instead of responding with words she simply motioned with her hoof as they reached the bottom of the stairs. There, piled in front of the door were at least a dozen large boxes, the smallest of which was still at least three Spikes tall. Spike stared at the mountain of boxes and simply said. “Oh.” “Oh, is right! I had ordered them to come on separate weeks but there was a mistake and they all got delivered today. So I need you to sort through these while I try to make room for them all.” “Yes ma’am!” Spike gave a salute before diving into the mountainous stack of boxes. Twilight smiled, thankful to have such a great assistant. She made her way over to the book shelves before turning back to spike. “Oh, and spike. If the new copy of Daring Do is in any of those boxes could you put it aside on my desk. Dash and I were going to read that when it came in. I'm fairly certain it was among the orders I placed that got mixed up.” Spiked popped out of a box with several book in claw. “Sure thing Twi!” “Thanks spike!” She giggled. It had been a few months since she moved back to Ponyville from Canterlot. Being a Princess really didn’t suit her. She found that she had missed her friends too much to stay, and she really wasn't too fond of all the attention she was getting everyday. Princess Celestia had understood but said no matter what she would always be a princess. For right now though, she was content being Ponyville's librarian and a good friend to all her friends. She has missed so much time with them when she was away in Canterlot. After she returned she set up a new schedule so that she could maximize her time with her friends. Something didn’t quite sit right with her though, something Princess Luna had said. It bothered her because she insisted on being alone to say it. Though princess Luna had a habit of being cryptic what she had said almost made twilight shiver. She had said, it was best that I leave, before the shackles of the royal title were bound too tight. To this day she still had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Twilight had guessed it was a metaphor for how much time she was losing with her friends due to her royal duties. Hours had passed and they were almost complete with the daunting task of sorting and placing all the new books, only one box remained. “Phew!” Spike sighed in relief. “Almost done!” Twilight came in and reaffirmed his sentiment. “Did you find Daring Do?” Spike shook his head. “Well, if it's here at all it will be in this one.” She engulfed the box in her violet aura, un-taping the box and levitating the books around her. She quickly scanned each title, sending the books flying into their proper places on the shelf, as each book went by, her face became more and more disappointed. “It's not here.” She said sadly. Turning around she began heading for her room. “Wait Twi, you missed one!” He reached into the bottom of the box and pulled out... “Daring Do!” Twilight raced over to spike, snatching the book from his claws with her magic. “Ya, It was at the bottom of the box! What are the odds right?” He smiled, proud of his discovery. “Well, given the dimensions of the boxes, the average dimensions of the books and the number of said books and boxes we can figure that the odds are” Spike interrupted, putting his claw over her muzzle. He was not up for a math lecture after all the work he had done. Twilight blushed lightly and gave a nervous laugh. “Oh, right. Rhetorical!” The two giggled together as they began to clean up after they're organizing session, but not before Twilight placed the latest Daring Do book on her desk.