MLD: Through Time

by Nerdz

Nightmares

The first time she fell asleep around him, they’d been in his office. He had been sitting at his desk, and she’d been on a couch against the wall, waiting for him to finish some paperwork so that they could leave for a date. Over the course of a few minutes, she had begun yawning and her eyes and ears drooped lower and lower. By the time he looked up from his work to tell her he was ready to go, she’d fallen sideways on the arm of the couch. Her back legs and tail were curled up as if protecting her stomach. Her left foreleg was used as a pillow, and the right one was tucked underneath her chin. He almost felt bad about waking her up.

The second time was only a day or so later. She came into the office carrying her bag of art supplies. “Lady has Sci over for a study date.” she’d told him, “They’re currently arguing over some Starswirl The Bearded quote, and I can’t concentrate, and this piece needs to be turned in by Monday. Mind if I work in here?”

He of course had nodded and gestured to the couch. She plopped down and pulled her sketchpad and a pencil from her bag with her magic, but she used her mouth to draw. He’d commented on that once, and she had replied that it was simply a force of habit.

This time, she lasted nearly an hour before she fell asleep. He jumped when he heard her sketchpad hit the floor, and smiled softly when he saw her curled up in the same position as before.

She fell asleep in his office a lot after that, and each time she came in she looked more and more exhausted. It got to the point where, some days, she barely made it to the couch before she was out, always subconsciously curling into the same position. He began to wonder if she subconsciously was trying to protect her stomach. The thought worried him.

The third time she walked deliriously into his office and fell onto the couch, out in seconds, he resolved to ask her roommate about it. As luck would have it, he ran into her in the hallway later that same day.

“She made me promise not to tell you,” Lady sighed, “but I’m starting to get worried myself. She hasn’t really slept in a while. Her nightmares’ve been getting worse-”

“Nightmares?” Will asked, “Do these nightmares happen often?”

Lady gave a sad smile. “We all have them. You don’t grow up on the Isle and not have nightmares. Usually only once or twice a week, but she can’t seem to get more than one or two hours a night, and then she’s up the rest of the night.” Lady sighed, “I’ve tried to talk to her, but she won’t even tell me what they’re about. And Sci and I can’t study in his dorm because his neighbor is in a band and holds practice in his room, and if we’re not in mine, it’s because the debate club is meeting right outside the window. She can’t even get a nap most days, unless she’s with you.”

The next time she stepped in his office, he stood up, grabbing his papers, and steered her out of the room and down the hall to his dorm room.

“My bed’s a lot more comfortable than the couch.”

“No, I’m okay, really.” she protested.

“It’s alright. Lady told me that your room is usually too noisy during the day, and I don’t have a roommate. Perks of being royalty” he smiled warmly.

She cast a longing glance at the fluffy pillows. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I don’t mind.” he gestured at a small desk in the corner of the room, “I’ll even work in here and keep you company.”

She finally relented and was out before her head even touched a pillow. He smiled simpathetically and used his bagic to pull the covers up to her shoulder. He then made his way over to the desk, settling into his work. Every few minutes he’d raise his head to look at her, studying her face, ready to wake her at any sign of a nightmare.

But the sign never came. He’d expected the usual, thrashing or whimpering at least. That wasn’t the case with her, however. She was asleep, seemingly peaceful in one moment, then jerking awake with a gasp the next. Did that mean she’d had nightmares around him before, and he just hadn’t noticed? The thought made him feel sick. Once she was awake, like with Lady, she refused to say anything about a dream.

This was the routine the next few days. She’d fall asleep in his bed, and he’d study her, teaching himself to recognise her night terrors. He figured out eventually that she’d tense up slightly, and her jaw would tighten, but the information was practically useless. The change was so subtle that he didn’t realize what was happening until seconds before she jerked herself awake.

Until, finally, five days into this new routine, she tensed up, but didn’t wake. For the first time, she rolled over, as if she was trying to wake up, but couldn’t escape whatever terrors that plagued her mind. He hurried over to the filly, leaning down next to her and gently brushing a lock of purple mane from her eyes.

“Nyx, wake up. It’s just a nightmare. Wake up.”

At his words she jolted awake. She met his eyes for a second, then forcfully looked away, pulling herself into a sitting position against the headboard. He crawled onto the bed next to her and wrapped a foreleg around her shoulders. He didn’t speak; he didn’t press her to tell him. He didn’t have to.

“She used to lock me in a box.” she said quietly, earning a jolt from the colt.

“What?!” he asked, horrified.

“Nightmare. When I really got her mad, she’d lock me in a box. Well, I guess it was more a chest than a box, but still.” she drew a shuddering breath, “The first time, it was because I was clumsy. I don’t even remember what I tripped over, but it must’ve been something sharp. It cut me when I fell on it.” she rubbed idly at her right foreleg, and he could see a long, thin scar beneath her coat.

“She...she punished you because you tripped?”

“I ‘should’ve been watching where I was going.’” she mimicked Nightmare’s cold, cruel voice.

“How old were you?”

She shrugged. “Three, four maybe.”

He tightened his grip around her shoulders.

“The worst time, I had gotten jumped on my way home. Never figured out who it was. They ripped my clothes, stole everything they could get off me, and beat me pretty bad. I’d never seen her so angry. She couldn’t believe I’d been stupid enough to let myself get caught.” she swallowed thickly, “I couldn’t even fit in there anymore, not really. I couldn’t tell how much time was passing while I was in there, but when I got out, Shade told me I’d been gone for almost two months.”

He couldn’t hide his sharp intake of breath as he stared at her, wide-eyed. She shifted a bit against him, adjusting her left wing.

“This still hurts sometimes. It was so cramped in there, I doubt it ever healed properly.”

“When did that happen?”

“She let me out a month or two before you brought me and the others over from the Isle.”

His jaw tightened as he fought tears.

“I was looking for something in my closet a few weeks ago, and the door shut behind me. I wasn’t even in the dark that long, but for a split second, I was back in that chest.” her chest heaved with the effort to keep the tears already welled in her eyes from falling, “I keep dreaming about i-it.” her voice cracked and she turned and buried her face in his chest.

He wrapped his other foreleg around her, holding her tightly. “I promise you, nothing even remotely like what she did will ever happen to you again. I won’t let you be trapped like that.”

“...Will?”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t let go of me, okay?”

He wrapped his wings around her tightly, completely surrounding her in a comforting embrace before lowering them both into a lying position as she started silently sobbing.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Author's Note:

So, this wasn't announced anywhere, unless you count a blog post from God knows how long ago about how I wanted to do a series of one-shots in the MLD universe. Well, here it is. This thought popped into my head while working on Aftermath and refused to go away, so I wrote it a one a.m. I hope you're proud. There's no schedule to this. Title is subject to change. Also, there's probably not going to be any cover art. Unless someone want's to draw fanart. Then I might use that.

You know the drill. I love comments. They cure writer's block!

Comments

[Night Frost 18]

Interesting showing how nightmare normally deals with these nicely done

[EverfreePony]

So, I was lured here by your story promotion. So far, I don’t regret it This has been an interesting Slice of Life read, with a little bit of mystery sprinkled it. The characters were quite enjoyable and despite reading about them for the first time, I still got grasp of who is who quickly. By the way, is Nyx somehow related to Pen Stroke’s pony of the same name?

The only recurring issue I noticed was some badly placed punctuation and capitalization in direct speech. When there is a speaking action present in the dialogue tag (said, replied, asked, commented etc.), the tag starts with lowercase letter. You write that correctly However, direct speech in such case cannot end with a period. A comma has to be in its place. (Question and exclamation marks, as well as ellipses, are alright there as well.) On the other hand, when the tag contains a non-speaking action (nodded, blushed, sighed etc.), the tag has to start with an uppercase letter and the direct speech cannot end with a comma. Period or other punctuation mark has to be there. Phew... a little bit of a lecture, sorry for that

Anyway, I’m curious what the other little stories will hold!

[Nerdz]

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Thanks for the feedback! And yes, Nyx is the same character! I wrote to Pen Stroke to ask permission to use her in my stories.