//------------------------------// // Late Night Disturbance // Story: The Nightmares That Form Bonds // by Ty The Draco //------------------------------// "Hmm...Spike...could you go see who's at the door making all that noise...?" sleepily asked Twilight. It was the middle of the night and everyone in Ponyville was sound asleep. Even Twilight, who usually stayed up pretty late reading, was asleep from everything that's happened in the past few days. But she was woken up by the sound of something downstairs and she waited for Spike to roll out of bed sleepily to go see who it was. However, she didn't hear the sound of small feet on the floor and it made her get a bit irritated. "Spike, please...I'm trying to sleep..." Twilight waited for a response from her roommate, but didn't get a response. She finally rolled over, her eyes barely open, to look at the basket the young dragon always sleeps in, but to her surprise, Spike was not in his basket. "Spike?" asked Twilight, her eyes more open now as she wondered where Spike was. After hearing more noise downstairs, Twilight figured now that she was up, she might as well go see who was making that sound. As she opened her bedroom door, she looked in the main room of the Golden Oaks Library, only to find no one there, except for Owlowiscious. "Hi Owlowiscious, have you seen Spike? He's not in his bed." Twilight asked her pet owl. "Hoo." Owlowiscious pointed at the door to the basement, where the sound seemed to be coming from. Now Twilight was curious. Was Spike the one causing all that noise? And even so, why is he up this late at night in the basement? "I guess there's only one way to find out." said Twilight as she opened the door to the basement and walked her way down the stairs. The further she went down, the louder the sound got. Eventually, she saw Spike working on her own machine, as if he was trying to do something with it. "Spike!?" questioned Twilight loud enough to startle the young drake, who quickly turned around with a look of fear. "T-Twilight!? W-what are you doing down here?" asked Spike. The alicorn approached the baby dragon with a bit of a stern look across her face. "I could ask the same thing. What are you doing up this late at night? And why are you messing with my machine?" asked Twilight with a hint of anger in her voice, assuming that her own assistant was down here to wreck her machine and ruin future studies for neglecting him ever since the moment they had at the Crystal Kingdom, which made her feel guilty inside as well for not paying more attention to the drake. "I'm sorry Twilight...you see...I..." began Spike, trying to think of a way to tell Twilight the deal he and Rarity made without revealing the secret only they knew. "Well?" Twilight asked again, wanting a answer. "...Okay, I'm going to be honest with you Twilight. When I went to Rarity's home earlier, I saw her feeling guilty over the whole incident not too long ago and thinking she might have been able to prevent it if she had been stronger. So I told her I would help her get stronger with her magic and I thought I could probably modify your machine to help unicorns or even alicorns get better with magic." lied Spike. In a way, he did agree to help Rarity, but not with her magic, but controlling her Nightmare form instead. Fortunately for him, Twilight seemed to buy it as a smile soon appeared on her face. "Is that so? Well Spike, I'm glad you're trying your best to make her feel better. But you're going about this all wrong." said Twilight as she stepped beside Spike and started showing him all sorts of things about the machine and other things. Spike seemed more interested in this then he's ever been before since this was the first time he and Twilight spent some quality time together in a long time. He didn't care if this stuff was boring or not, he was glad he could spend time with somepony close to him. Twilight also felt the same way. She had been feeling guilty for not being able to spend that much time with Spike ever since she became an alicorn. The pain in her heart that she had been feeling seemed to be at ease for now, but she still felt like something seemed off. She shrugged it off for nor as she continued helping Spike with modifying the machine. Before they knew it, the sun was starting to rise and Twilight made the final touches to the modification. "Alright that's it. We're done Spike...Spike?" Twilight looked over at the baby dragon, only to find him asleep on the floor. Twilight giggled as she lifted Spike off the floor and put him on her back before going back up to her bedroom to put the young drake in his bed so the two could make up for staying up almost all night. However, just as soon as she exited the basement, a thought crossed her mind. She began to wonder why Rarity wanted to get stronger in magic. Spike did say it was to help her in case they had to deal with another incident like the one they were in not too long ago. Twilight decided to write a quick note and, not wanting to wake Spike up, used her magic to send the note to Rarity's home instead. "Alright, time to get some sleep." said Twilight, who yawned just shortly after saying those words. She trotted up to her room and started to bring Spike off her back, but she felt a small tug on her wing suddenly. She looked behind and saw Spike holding the tip of her wing close to him. She didn't know how Spike managed to do that without her noticing, but a smile soon spread across her face as she no longer cared. She quietly got in her bed and gently put Spike next to her, having her wing wrap around the baby dragon to keep him comfy as she closed her eyes and joined her assistant in slumber.