The Devil in Me

by Sleep Sonata

Minor Inconvenience

A hard day’s night I believe is the proper term. Every inch of me ached from my flank to my horn. That said, it merely meant that I had put my heart and soul into crafting the previous night, something I was all too happy to suffer for. That was what I kept telling myself as I attempted to stand up.

“Goodness, I didn’t realize I would take such a heavy toll on you.” Were I not so focused on my ‘left hoof, right hoof’ routine, I might have said something back, but all I cared about at the time was getting to breakfast. We hadn’t eaten when we returned from crafting the night before. Both of us simply collapsed into bed upon arriving back at the castle. Hopefully that wouldn’t happen again when I was supposed to be awake. That day Tia wanted to go and inspect Cloudsdale’s various weather factories, leaving us in Canterlot to our own devices.

But what to do? I had purposefully scheduled no responsibilities for myself on this day, knowing that I would be exhausted from crafting the night before. Since I had nothing to do, and nothing was supposed to happen, I reasoned that the best thing for me to do was nothing.

Mulling it over, I noticed the bath out of the corner of my eye. Perfect! A hot bath would be perfect for relaxing my aching muscles. I could stave off the hunger for a little longer. This felt much more pressing.

I began to run the bath, and the sound of the rushing water immediately started lulling me back to sleep. I couldn’t slip away just yet. The bath had to actually fill first, but my impatience told me to go ahead and sleep anyway. And so I went, off to my own little world.

In all honesty, I don’t remember the dream itself vividly at all. I’m not sure I even had a dream. What I do remember was waking up, and the bath water being frigid. “Heavens above!” I exclaimed aloud, the now ice cold water having sent a chill through my already heat starved body. “How long was I asleep?”

“About two hours, give or take.” It was Nightmare.

“TWO HOURS!? And you didn’t think it reasonable to wake me?!”

“Pardon me your Royal Highness, but I have business to attend to as well.”

Suspicious. “What do you mean? What could have possible had to do while I was aslee…” It was an uncomfortable epiphany to say the least. “What did you do with my body?”

“Nothing heinous, I assure you. I simply had some chores that I needed to tend to, much as you do Princess.”

“You don’t take control unless I explicitly consent to it. Was it so urgent that you had to rob me of my bath?”

“Of course. I didn’t realize it would rob you of your leisures. Forgive me.”
I didn’t really forgive her, but drawing another bath was not the biggest inconvenience she could have caused me. “Now you know. Don’t do that again.” I ran the water again, this time making sure I was conscious for the entire time. Two hours less I now had, and I still didn’t know what exactly she had done. I didn’t think much of it at the time. After all, she’d never done anything terrible before.

Author's Note:

Just a small update. I would have worked on more, but as you all know, writing is slow and math is hard.