A/N Chapters will be alternating between night and day.
The shadow moved itself around inside the mind of the young drake, relishing in the pain that the drake experienced with each and every new fantasy that the dragon was forced to undergo. The creature kept probing deeper and deeper into the mind of the wretched purple beast, searching for new pieces of knowledge that could be used to further torture the vile little dragon. The shadow could only laugh as the little dragon, in his sleep, writhed in pain and agony. But this served to only further the lust for inflicting pain that the shadow felt, and it searched deeper and deeper, for the little piece of information that would finally break the wretched thing that had wronged him.
The shadow could feel itself drawing closer and closer to the core of the dragons secrets, when all at once, light seemed to pour in from all directions. Then the screaming began. But this was not the screaming of the young drake, no. This was the screams of the shadow that came as it was once again assaulted with that horrible buzzing it had felt when it was in the tundra. The darkness screamed and tore itself from the mind of the purple creature, hoping to get away from that awful buzzing, but alas it was of no use!
The burning agony caused by the buzz did not end when the creature left the mind of the young drake, instead it only served to multiply. The shadow tried to get away, somewhere far away from the buzzing, but it wouldn’t end. It tore its way through the town and felt itself only get weaker and weaker as each second garnered another scream of agony from the shadow. The creature felt itself get weaker and weaker and knew that this would surely be the end when it saw in the distance, a small patch of salvation. Amidst all of this horrible burning light, sat one wondrous piece of darkness.
With all of its strength, the creature threw itself upon the patch of black and felt its coolness wash away the wretched burning sensation of the light. The shadow slowly lifted itself up, careful to stay away from the horrible buzz that was still a lite hum in the distance. The creature cursed itself for allowing itself to be drawn away from torturing the piece of filth, but the little drakes troubles were far from over. It would return and it would have its revenge.
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At the library, Spike slowly opened its eyes, fearful of what he might see next what had come to torture him. When nothing met the dragons gaze however, he gave a small sigh of relief. It was finally over. Turning himself over, the drake saw that Twilight wasn’t there. Upon sitting up further, the drake saw that the lavender mare was nowhere to be seen in the room at all. Fearful of some sort of trick being played by his mind again, the young drake stood up slowly and dropped himself to the floor. In the corner, his regular bed sat with dried blood in the sheets from when he had awoken late last night.
Spike felt a burning every time he blinked, and his legs felt ready to give out from underneath him as he walked down the stairs into the main library where a note sat waiting for him on the table, letting him know that Twilight had left to help Fluttershy and didn’t want to wake him. There were no chores for the dragon to do, and even if there were, he wasn’t sure if he would have had the strength to do them. However, that in it of itself was a problem as well, because without something to busy, and distract his mind, his thoughts turned to contemplating his horrible nightmare. Although to call such a horrible thing a nightmare would be to put it lightly. What he had experienced was as vivid as any waking moment, and more horrible than anything that he could have ever imagined.
Then there was that laughter. The young dragon felt his blood go cold as a shiver passed through him at just the thought of that voice. Had that really been Sombra? No, surely it was impossible. Spike had seen that horrible creature die just like all the other ponies in the Crystal Empire. But such a vivid dream surely couldn’t have simply been all in his imagination, could it? As the drake turned these thoughts over and over in his mind, constantly weighing argument against argument in his head, he felt the beginnings of a headache grow in the back of his mind.
With a shout of frustration the drake kicked the wall of the library and felt the pain center itself on his foot. He needed to get out. The drake quickly pushed his way out of the library and into the street, making his way towards someplace he could think clearly.
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The dragon eventually made its way to the calm shade of an apple tree, away from the overcrowded town. A light breeze carried itself across the orchard, bringing with it the soothing aroma of apple blossoms, and touching the leaves in just the right way to make the harmonious sound of a light rain. With all of this to ground his thoughts, Spike returned to pondering the nightmare, but soon found himself in the same endless loop that he had been in before at the library.
Was he just putting too much thought into this nightmare? After all, it was just a nightmare, he’d had plenty in the past after staying up late eating ice cream despite Twilights insistence that he do otherwise. But he’d never had a dream to this degree. This was more than just a simple outlier in a set of data, this had been worse than anything the dragon could have ever imagined! Ah! There, was that conundrum again. Was the occurrence a product of his own imagination or was it the work of some menevolent being? Everything led back to that one question, no matter how he tried to approach it.
But, before the dragon could lose himself in another round of ceaseless debates, he was interrupted by a light cough from the owner of the orchard in which he sat.. Startled, the dragon turned to find himself staring directly into the eyes of the orange mare. Several moments passed, the only sound being that of the rustling leaves in the breeze. It occurred to the drake that she was waiting for him to speak first but he wasn’t sure whether or not he should tell her about the dream. Would she think him crazy? What if she were to talk to Twilight about it, how would she react? Once again, he was quickly caught up in another unending circle of debate with himself, but with the mare staring straight at him, he couldn’t hesitate this time.
The drake finally decided upon a simple greeting and a smile; although it was a forced one. The mare responded in kind, and once again the two were surrounded by the silence. Spike knew that the mare was aware that something was off with him, but was going to wait for him to speak on the matter first. Finally, he gave her a small nod, which she reluctantly took as her cue to leave, albeit with a small amount of hesitation. She would most likely tell Twilight about the incident out of her concern for him, but at the very least Twilight wouldn’t be as concerned as she would be if she knew the full extent of why he sat there.
As the drake watched her walk away, he felt a sudden chill pass over him, and he was overcome with the feeling that he was being… watched somehow. Looking around, there was nopony in sight other than the quickly disappearing figure of the farm mare. To his left however, sat the Everfree Forest. The young dragon knew that he shouldn’t look, but alas, his curiosity got the best of him and he peered into the murky gloom of the woods. Nothing stood out at first glance, but as he peered deeper into the sombre woods he could have sworn he saw something staring back at him, but a moment later it was seemingly gone.
All at once, the once warm air of the orchard seemed to of have gone cold, and the drake realized how exposed and alone he was sitting in the middle of the orchard with nopony nearby. As fast as the little dragon could manage, he picked himself up off of the ground and charged back towards town, unable to stand the dreadful feeling of being watched any longer. The moment his back was turned though, that horrible feeling returned, serving only to have him run faster back towards the town.
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After the incident at the farm, the young drake spent the remainder of the day locked away in the library, attempting to do anything but think of what he had seen. Or thought he had seen. Was this too a figment of his imagination? Was his mind just playing some horribly sick and twisted joke on him? Or… or had that actually been… him? No. No, it surely was not… it could not have been him. Yet the more the drake tried to shake the notion from his mind, the more it nagged at his brain. It came to the point that he was nearly ready to break down into tears by the time Twilight returned later that evening.
Luckily for the drake however, he was able to quickly regain his composure so as not to worry the lavender unicorn. Granted, she had asked a few questions about what had transpired the previous night, but thankfully she was exhausted enough to simply accept his assurances that everything was alright. But that was far from the truth. She knew it and he knew it, she just didn’t have the strength to say otherwise.
Once settled into bed however, he knew it would only be a matter of time before he fell asleep. Then, only a matter of time before… he came. Yes, he could argue to himself that it was just that one night and the same thing wouldn’t happen again this night… but he knew that was a lie. No matter how much he tried to deny it, he knew what he had heard that morning, and he knew what he had seen that afternoon. Sombra would return.
Far away however, within the Everfree Forest, the shadow waited. The wretched buzzing was gone now, and all that remained was for the little dragon to fall asleep...