Morning
“It’s,” Silver Spoon’s frozen, blue lips slowly uttered those words.
Everypony jolted at the sudden words coming from her mouth. Then a wave of excited whispers moved through the room.
“It’s what?!” Diamond Tiara tilted Silver Spoon’s head to look her in the closed eyes. “Silver Spoon! It’s what?!”
“Working,” Silver Spoon managed, slowly. Then she went silent again.
“We’re doing it! Everypony! Come here!”
Snails jumped forward to hug her from the other end. Twist and Gloria moved close next and soon the whole crowd was around Silver Spoon.
She warmed slightly and then–
A pulse! Diamond Tiara felt a pulse! Silver Spoon still felt like she was made of ice, but she really might make it now!
“No!” The dream demon shouted. “I wanted you so badly!”
As a last effort to kill her off, the demon made the world infinitely, unbearably cold. The once powdery snow had become harder than concrete. Silver Spoon imagined that one step out into this cold was all it would take to finish her off.
Diamond Tiara was a constant source of warmth, just enough that Silver Spoon was unsure if she would survive or not.
She had never been this cold before. Even the tiniest motion felt like risking her life, exposing her to that unbearable cold. Almost an hour passed like that until finally, a new light emerged.
To her surprise, it was Snails who appeared on her next. He didn’t shine as bright as Diamond Tiara, but it was still enough to nearly protect her on his own.
Maybe he really did appreciate getting to hang out with the two of them. Silver resolved to be slightly kinder to him from now on.
Gloria and Twist appeared next to Silver Spoon, not even a fifth as bright as Snails or a twentieth of Diamond, but anything was appreciated right now.
Soon, all the other fillies in the party surrounded her, some brighter than others, though most of them were too dim to make out their identity.
It was nice to have an objective measure of how much each of them cared for her. Maybe Twist and Gloria were just riding high off their appreciation from earlier. They were the only surprise.
She now had a wall between her and the demon. Any attempt at violence would be ridiculous and futile now.
She began to warm up! Even buried underneath them, Silver Spoon was far from warm. But this amount of cold would never kill her.
The dream demon yelled and cursed. it blew terrible gales at her and clenched its misshapen jaw.
“Diamond Tiara will stay here all morning,” said Silver Spoon. “It’s too late. You’ve run out of strength.”
“Fine!” It finally lifted the cloak. Nothing but a normal pony now. “Fine. You win.”
It waved its hoof and an image of Diamond Tiara appeared.
“The sanctuary to your fears.” It huffed at the barrier. “Was your friend after all. You could have built a little straw doll of her and that would have worked… you know… if you were smarter.”
He was probably telling the truth. She probably could just leave.
But no. There was something Silver was still curious about. There was a possibility here.
“Why?” Silver asked.
“Why?!”
“We can stay here until dawn? That’s another way for the dream to end.”
“Do you have any idea how long that would take with how much I’ve distorted time?”
“Comparing how long it took me to say ‘it’s working’ to how long I waited for a response?” Silver Spoon looked it in its eyes. “It’d take almost one hundred days.”
“What could you possibly gain from–”
“Unless your strength fails at some point,” Silver Spoon cut it off. Finally, it understood her plan. It shook its head and crawled back. “Well? You have no reason to be afraid, do you? You can turn back time to ‘normal’ whenever you feel like it. It takes a lot of energy to keep this up, so why not do it now?”
“Please! Don’t!” Its breathing grew heavy. Already
“Because you can’t,” said Silver Spoon. “I’m going to predict that you’re stuck like this, hemorrhaging energy until I either wake up or you collapse. And if that happens, you won’t have the strength to do this again for a long, long time. Am I wrong?”
“You – of course you’re wrong! You can’t simply assume something like that is true! You’re wasting your time! You’ll see!” It didn’t rage or thrash or anything, just slunk back into the darkness.
The distortion effects ended, the buildings snapping back together. Maybe that was all the strength it could save.
“Then I’ll wait a few hours more and see if you’re wrong.”
Even if she was, she could leave whenever she wanted now. Silver ran her hoof along Diamond Tiara’s back.
“Stay like this,” she whispered. “I have a plan. See you tomorrow.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be tomorrow for Silver Spoon. But she could stay here for a few more days at the least.
She watched the snow gently falling. This place wasn’t so bad once you knew there was nothing out there. That there was a way out.
Silver Spoon opened her eyes, rejoining the world of light.
She was still on the foam rolled out on the floor, most of the other fillies still asleep as light poured through Diamond Tiara’s bedroom window right into her face, making further sleep impossible. She hadn’t thought of it until now, but she was positioned to get the first rays of daybreak.
She’d been in that dark, cold world for so long that this much light was closer to a miracle than a luxury to her now. To be able to just see things this easily. To have a source of warmth to bask in. To be sheltered from the wind. To have a buffer of ponies around her, a ring of protection.
In that moment, she couldn’t understand how a pony could ever let such gifts fade into the background, never remembering to appreciate something like the sun. And even now, she knew she’d go back to being so ungrateful in just a few months.
But until then, the sun, even light bulbs, would be a wonder to cherish.
The now-familiar coldness that had dimmed into the background was slowly fading, mercifully devoured by that ray of sunshine. That and something else along her back.
One thing she got used to was Diamond Tiara hugging her, so it was little surprise to see the real one, at long last, holding her tight.
Silver didn’t even need to look to tell she was awake. They’d slept in the same bed enough times for her to know the difference in DT’s breathing. She glanced around the room to find everypony else had fallen back asleep, save the two of them and Gloria who stared out the window as though still watching for that creature.
“Silver Spoon,” Diamond muttered with the enthusiasm of a zombie, like she’d been doing it all night. “Are you awake yet?”
“Yes.”
Diamond Tiara craned her neck around to look Silver in the eyes, her look dumbfounded, unable to believe her eyes were open again.
“Wait. Really?!”
Her mouth hung open a moment longer. Then she rolled over, releasing Silver only to give her a new hug. Just from a different angle.
“You made!” Diamond rocked Silver Spoon back and forth, tears washing away all her weariness. Then she opened her eyes and gave her a more indignant shake. “Do you have any idea how worried you made me?! I stayed up the whole night hugging you non-stop! You never got warmer no matter what we tried!”
“I waited a lot longer to see you again, DT.” Silver Spoon pressed her muzzle against Diamond Tiara’s withers and that calmed her down some. Though still angry, she couldn’t resist the instinctual urge to give Silver Spoon a quick nuzzle back.
DT puffed out her cheek and looked away, embarrassed Silver ‘got’ her so easily.
“Hey, everypony!” DT called out to the slumbering army. “Silver Spoon’s awake!”
Not one of them was happy to receive the news at first. But as they began to stir and the words registered in their minds, they all changed their minds about that.
A crowd rushed around Silver Spoon. Too many ponies and too many questions swirled around her.
Silver was shivering even now. That was the most exhausting nap she’d ever taken, and she doubted she’d have the energy to even walk home at this point, let alone deal with all this.
Thankfully, DT picked up on this and got the crowd to back up. They brought her some hot chocolate. It was the good one too, the thick kind with whipped cream and sprinkles on top and melted chocolate chips forming a third layer at the bottom.
The hot chocolate gave her just enough strength to finally recount a brief version of events. A round of hot drinks had been brought out for everypony else by the time she’d finished.
“So that one probably won’t have the strength to harm anypony for centuries,” Silver Spoon finished, her rush of energy already receding. “I suppose I was in there for another eight days until his strength gave out.”
“So now nopony can get the nightmares for a long time?” Snails folded his forelegs and thought. “But then what if we stop being so on edge? And it starts killing ponies when they’re off guard in three hundred years?”
“That was just one of the dream demons,” Silver Spoon corrected him. “There’s a bunch more out there. Maybe they’re not as stupid.”
“And we’re immune to all of them, yeah?” Diamond Tiara asked. She already knew the answer, surely, but her ears betrayed her worry.
“Yes.”
“Good! Then the important thing is that we never have to deal with it again!” Diamond Tiara raised her mug to the other ponies. “The other dream demons are somepony else’s problem!”
One last wave of cheers sounded before they drank their cocoa.
Gloria was next to approach Silver Spoon.
“Your heart stopped for a long time,” she said. “Did you hear anything unusual?”
Silver Spoon weakly shook her head.
“That’s too bad.” Gloria looked out the window. “It would have been nice if you could understand.”
Part of Silver Spoon wanted to understand too. The image of the tomb, that one portrait, still seared in her mind. She didn’t blame Gloria for not being able to sleep that night.
“Thank you for helping me in the tomb.” Gloria bowed her head, eyes closed. “I know we don’t always get along, but I don’t think I’d have survived without you.”
“What else is new?” Silver asked.
Gloria smiled.
“But I should thank the two of you as well.” Silver closed her eyes.
“It’s not like we were going to leave you there,” said Diamond.
“Not just for that.” Silver Spoon looked down at her empty mug. She’d had enough of emptiness.
Another thing she had a new appreciation for was company. Maybe in a day or two, she’d go back to hating it, but that vision of total solitude she’d had…
It really was a corrupted sanctuary. Corrupted because Diamond Tiara wasn’t there.
“Just thanks for being around.” Silver pressed her muzzle to Diamond’s neck once again.
She didn’t hesitate as long to nuzzle Silver back this time.
“I called your mother hours ago,” said Mr. Rich. “By the time we got through, you were already stable and she seemed to think you’d be fine from there. How are you feeling, by the way?”
Her mom was right, of course.
Silver’s body warmed up, but a deep chill lingered in her spine. She knew her body well enough to understand this meant she’d gotten sick.
Though the warm drink helped loosen it up, her nose ran too heavily for her to ignore any longer.
“Oh no!” Diamond Tiara picked up on this at about the same time, feeling up Silver Spoon’s forehead. “I think you got the flu! Your eyes are all puffy.”
Silver Spoon could say the same thing about DT. She smiled, then laughed. DT pointed her ears to Silver Spoon, confused.
“I told the demon a cold was deadlier than him.” Silver Spoon sniffed some mucus back in. “I guess I’m moving up to the next boss monster.”
Nopony else seemed to get the joke. Maybe Silver was too tired and sick after all.
“Can you call my mom and let her know I’m spending the day over here?” Silver asked, knowing full well none of the adults would object. “I don’t want to go back outside like this.”
“Alright,” said Mr. Rich. “I’ll get a doctor to come over later just to be safe.”
“Come on!” DT got to her feet and started nudging Silver with her muzzle until she did the same. She continued nuzzling Silver forward, towards her bed.
Once there, Diamond practically lifted her up and dropped her off onto the bed. Then she quickly tucked Silver Spoon in under the covers. It was a lot nicer than that foam rollout thing. Silver wondered how much a bed like this cost.
“I’m beat too! I got one hour last night,” Diamond whined. She jumped up on the bed next to Silver Spoon. “Let’s get some actual sleep.”
“I might get you sick,” Silver warned.
“I’ll take the chance.”
This time, the two of them lay barrel to barrel underneath her thick comforters. Diamond Tiara put her head on Silver Spoon’s neck, determined to use her as a pillow.
The rest of the party shuffled out while they fell back asleep. Neither of them got up until after noon.
This time, Silver Spoon had a nicer dream, one where DT really had built a zip line connecting their rooms.
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A 24k word horror comedy? Now that's something I'll happily sink my teeth into!
Awesome story! Thank you!
Two mares huddling for warmth, because it's cold and they're totally not gay.
WHat a wonderful NOT-A-SHIP fic to add to my collection.
In all seriousness, I truly and duly did anjoy the comedy and horror. You have a talent for mixing the genres together in an organic way that has both feed into one another.
11408676
It's just a different society where it's okay to sleep in the same bed! I swear! Any similarity to shipping is purely coincidental.
But thank you.
11408688
AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED.
I love your work. If you ever get hardcopies going of your work, definitely buying one.
As somebody who really enjoyed Silver Spoon and the crew in Broad Daylight, it was a nice little horror story for Halloween, great work!
11408676
DT is for Applebloom.
11409307
there's a reason why ponies have four hooves. WHy have angsty pining when you can HAVE THEM ALL!
This setting always takes you by surprise. The concepts are usually all parody and references, but the execution is so high quality, with high stakes, creative fights, and the real monster slaying being the friends you made along the way (as Celestia intended). Loved the climax in particular for this story.
11408688
Hey it's consistent with Rainbow and Twilight sharing a bed! Totally normal in pony culture. Not shipping at all.
The portrait bit was the creepiest part for me. That vagueness gets under my skin much more than an actual description could.
That was a good story.
Outstanding work, with a great arc from farce to genuine horror to triumph. Thank you for an engrossing Halloween tale.
So demon is still with her and they can mess with it even more next night? (also, isn't it a good idea to have already immune folks in shared dream?)
Well, if there's only 7 of them how are they able to do 80% of population?
11429734
I'll say they actually go to a huge number of dreams each night due to the time-distortion effect. Snails was just the last one from the previous night.
Great fic! I love it!!
This was a fun tale full of twists and turns. I particularly love the demon’s reaction when it realizes they’ve ganged up on it.