The figure remained still, almost as if merely a statue, but the shallow breathing destroyed that illusion. Dull grey eyes stared into Twilight, not blinking or losing a moment of focus. It’s face seemed to be split straight down the middle. One half was smiling like a foal receiving candy. The mane and tail were both styled much like Pinkie's, even down to the coat of the smiling half seemed to carry Pinkie's strange perkiness. The very essence of the smiling side seemed to be a stark contrast to its mirror. A grim sorrowful visage consumed the other half of the pony. The body of the mare followed the same deathly tone that face held, a dull flat mane and tail accompanied by depressing coat. However, a single similarity of the two sides was universal, both seemed to be a dull pink. The dullness almost seemed like an infection across the body, centralized within the eyes themselves.
Twilight remained paralyzed by both a sense of fear and wonder. The creature looked as if it were Pinkie yet not. Unbelieving of what she was seeing, Twilight rubbed her eyes in an attempt to look away from the abyss that was the other pony's gaze. She remained there for a moment with her eyes shut, taking deep breaths. Slowly Twilight opened her eyes. The picture in front of her was only more of a shock to see the pony still there. Her eyes and body completely unmoved. Twilight decided to talk to the strange pony.
"Um... hello."
She was meant only by silence from the double-sided pony.
"This might sound strange... but... have you been following me around all day?"
Only silence emerged from the creature.
"Are you okay?"
"I...am..." It spoke with two voices in unison.
"You are?"
"Exactly..."
"Exactly what?"
Before the creature could speak, a familiar voice rang out from behind Twilight, "Hey Twi! Whatcha up to?"
The disturbance caused Twilight to turn around to face the source of the voice. An orange mare approached at a calm trot. It took only a moment before she reached Twilight.
"Oh, Applejack! I'm just talking with this pony." Pointing behind herself.
"Um... Twi? There ain't a pony behind you."
"What are you talking about? Of course there is, I was just talking to her." Twilight turned and looked at the pony.
It remained still, keeping its eyes fixated on Twilight.
"Twi, there isn't anything there."
AJ began to trot to the location of the mysterious pony. It was as if she couldn't see the mare yet she was in plain sight. Trotting closer to an inevitable collision, Applejack seemed completely ignorant of the mare's presence. Twilight felt worried about her friend offending the strange pony and probably losing her chance to learn why she was following her. Yet, Twilight remained stiff as if frozen in time, she watched Applejack proceed. With one final step, Applejack was sure to collide with the mare. As soon as AJ touched the fur of the mare, it seemed to disperse into dust. Applejack gave a quick look around the area before returning her gaze to Twilight.
"Twi, unless that pony you were talking about can teleport, then there isn't any way for them to vanish without me have seeing them leave."
"No... she was... a... uh... earth pony..."
"You alright, Twi? You look like you just saw a ghost."
"No... I just... have a lot to process..."
"Here, lemme walk yah home. I'll make sure yah don't begin conversin' with the air again."
"Thanks, Applejack..."
"No problem, Twi. Now let's get yah home."
The two ponies began to walk to the large tree library. The streets remained calm as they usually are in the afternoons. Singing happily, the birds flew throughout the small town. Rational thoughts began to fill in the gaps created by the mysterious mare that had followed her throughout the day.
"Well, Twi here yah go. I'd love to stay and chat with you but I got some chores at home." The words fell short of Twilight as she attempted to wrap her head around the enigma.
From her body to her voice, it screamed strange yet the strangest thing was the fact it just dispersed into nothing. There was no scientific way that should be able to happen to an earth pony. Even if there was some manner for her to teleport without a horn, it still had none of the usual signs of a teleportation. No blinding flash or even build up for the spell just her vanishing into thin air. This thought consumed Twilight's mind as did the question of why didn't Applejack see her. The silence between the two ponies grew the longer Twilight pondered this problem. Soon the two companions reached the library, only silence and darkness seemed to reside within.
“Twi?”
Snapped away from her train of thought, Twilight looked towards Applejack. “What?”
“Here are, back at home. Try not to start a conversation with nothing when yah get inside, ok?”
"Alright, I think I can handle myself now. At least I can handle not talking to thin air."
"Heh, ok then I best be off. Take care!"
Trotting off, Applejack returned to her home leaving Twilight to her solitude. The door creaked open as Twilight walked into her humble abode. Giving a large sigh of relief, Twilight began to walk towards the stairs to her room when a voice rung out.
Should I tell them? Can I tell them?
Her heart stopped from the voice. Her entire body became petrified with fear. Slowly she turned around to the direction of voice. Twilight turned her gaze to the door of the library. Directly in front of the door was a mare. Dead eyes met with hers, sending shivers through her body. For a few moments, they stood there only looking at each other. Snapping herself out of the trance, Twilight began to inspect the rest of the pony. It's appearance was much like Applejack, brown Stetson on top of an orange mane and coat. Unlike her friend, each bone was clearly visible, the skin seemed to cling to it. The eyes were sunk back into the skull creating darkness around them. Even the Stetson seemed to be affected by the condition of the mare. It was as if this pony hadn't eaten for months.
"W-w-who are you?"
"...Why do you want to know?" It's voice was dry.
"Well... um, maybe I can help you if I know it."
"Help? I don't... need 'help'. "
"Can you at least tell me your name?
The mare opened her mouth in time for a childish voice to fill the empty silence. "Spike."
"Spike?"
The mare burst into magical dust as the door to the library swung open. Twilight blinked a few times from the display of light created from the dust. She stood there looking at the dust for less than a second before the dragon spoke again.
"Yah Twilight, my name is Spike. You must had less sleep than I thought if you forget that." The little dragon walked into the library slowly shutting the door behind himself.
"I...uh...think you might be right..."
"You sound a bit out there. Are you alright Twilight?"
"I just,uh... think it's sleep deprivation, is all. My brain too tired and can't keep up." She tiredly attempted to convince the dragon and herself.
"Well, alright, I'll make you a sandwich for when you wake up tomorrow. Sound good?"
"Yah..." She began up the stairs before stopping and looking back at the dragon. "Don't stay up too late, ok?"
"I know."
"Ok."
With a brief sigh and warm smile, Twilight proceeded up the stairs to her bed. The closer she got to the bed, the more her mind seemed to just relax. All of the illusions were just products of her imagination in combination of her sleep deprived state and nothing more. Once she had more sleep, they thought for sure that no more of those bizarre and horrifying would appear to here. With these thoughts in tow, she reached the top of the stairs.
Who is she to me?
Twilight froze at the sound of the voice in her ears. Turning her head slightly to the side, she looked towards the voice. With one last gulp, she looked directly at the direction of the voice. Standing on top of Spike's bed was an almost exact duplicate of the dragon. It's eyes were different than the other hallucinations that she had before. It's eyes retained the same coldness but there was something different in each of them. Each eye kept a solid image of a flower within them. Both flowers were similar yet they both held a very distinct air from one another. Each had a yellow center where the buds connected to. The buds themselves were similar in shape and size. Yet the quantity and color of the buds were different. The flower in the left eye carried with it, white buds while the flower had buds tinted in a yellow hue. The flowers were clearly a daisy in the left and a chrysanthemum in the right eye. Beyond the eyes, it appeared as if the apparition was just a copy of Spike.
At first, the creature didn't seem to acknowledge Twilight standing in front of it. It just blankly stared forward like it was looking at the bookshelf behind her. Eventually the focus of the creature went towards her. It smiled happily when it saw Twilight. Left arm reached out kind of like a half hug only for the right arm to grab it. Only the right side of the mouth moved when it said.
"No, she is not that to us."
"Yes, she is and you know it." The left side retorted.
"She is our friend, and we will keep it that way."
Twilight couldn't help but interrupt the conversation obviously about her. "What are you fighting about?"
Both sides stopped bickering and looked at Twilight. Neither side reacted for a while simply staring at Twilight. The left side broke the ever-growing silence.
"We can let her decide."
"No, we already know how she feels. There is no need."
"Is there something I can help you with?"
"Yes!"
"No!"
Both sides shouted the words at the same time completely opposed to what any normal thing could do. Twilight unable to understand what was happening simple looked at the two halves worriedly. Both seemed to look at her with care but each a different type. The left held a loving gaze while the right seemed to give a much less passionate one.
"See? You scared her and now she won't even feel what either of us want."
"No, you can't break a bond like ours."
"Yes, you can, because the bond you think we have doesn't exist!"
"Who are you?"
Once more, both sides stop arguing and turn their attention to Twilight. "You don't remember me?"
"I... don't know."
"It's me! Twilight, don't you remember! It's me, Spike! We're..."
"Friends, and that's all." The right side interrupted.
"Spike," She said, putting special emphasis of the little dragon's name, "is downstairs and he doesn't act or talk like you."
"Twilight! Who are you talking to?" Spike's voice echoed from down the stairs.
"I don't know Spike!"
"Should I get the police?"
"Um..."
The left side looked at her with despair-filled eyes. "Twilight?"
"That's alright, Spike... it was... uh... just Owlowiscious!"
"Alright, if you’re okay. I'll be going to be soon!"
Twilight sighed a breath of relief while maintaining a constant supervision of the thing in front of her. The creature also seemed to share her relief. Both side visibly relaxed.
"What are you?"
"Spike." Both said in unison.
"Don't lie; I know you heard him downstairs now tell me what are you?"
"I told you, she doesn't even recognize us. How can we possibly have that kind of bond when she doesn't even know who we are?"
"Maybe she lost her memory?"
"Yes, because she looks like she has no memory."
"Well, I know she knows it's us."
"Oh really? How are you going to prove that? Friends are lost in time constantly, but what you suggest would never leave her mind. So explain why she doesn't think we are Spike?"
"I just said she lost her memory!"
"Come up with a better excuse than that!"
Both voices bickered against each other. Both the same voice sounding like a single pony was shouting at himself. The yelling eventually grinded against Twilight's nerves. Eventually the annoyance that was generated by the creature was too much to bare. Extending her magical grip over to the bookshelf, she grabbed a solitary book from it. With one swift motion, she shouted when she threw the book.
"Shut up!"
The creature barely had time to see the object before it collided into them. The book passed through the creature with all her anger. Just like the many times before the creature exploded into a wondrous display of glitter. The book landed with a large thud against the wood floor of the library. After the sparkles in the air dissipated, Twilight was left alone in the darkness trying to get over what had happened. The pitter-patter of Spike's feet against the steps echoed in her ears.
"Twilight!"
Spike soon appeared in the doorway to the stairs. The little dragon carried an expression of worry with him. Pushing back all the thoughts of what had happened, Twilight moved towards the edge of the stairs and looked down. She breathed in deeply in order to calm down.
"Are you alright, Twilight? I heard you shouting and then a large bang noise."
"Yah...uh... just, uh... I really need to sleep in tomorrow..."
"Are you sure that's it?"
"Yah, just... go... go clear my morning schedule tomorrow. I think I'll just take it slow tomorrow..."
"Ok... I'll go clear the day planner."
"Thanks..."
Spike smiled a little at Twilight. "Not a problem for your number one assistant."
"Yah... um... Spike, you can talk to me about anything. You know that right."
"I know, Twilight, you're always there. Now go to bed and I'll go clean the day planner."
"Ok..."
Twilight moves over towards her bed. The bed almost seems to beckon to her. Slowly getting into bed, Twilight was absorbed by the comfort of the bed. The sweet lullaby of the night played into her ear as she drifted off into unconsciousness.