> Ophidiophobia; the Slithering Terror
>  by charyoshi
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Poison of the Mind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight's mane fluttered about in the warm spring air, the soft sound of grass rustling beneath her hooves went unnoticed by the lavender unicorn as she trotted along the outskirts of Ponyville. In front of her levitated a picnic basket filled with all sorts of things to eat along with a large blanket to sit on. Perched on the young mare's back was a disinterested looking purple dragon. Spike yawned and stretched his arms high into the air.

"So what are we doing here Twilight?"

Twilight thew a slight bounce in her step, causing Spike to hold tightly to Twilight's sides to stay on top of her.

"Whoa! Twi, what are you doing?"

"Keeping you awake! Spike you've been cooped up in that library for too long. I appreciate all the extra help, but you've been letting it get to you."

Spike narrowed his eyes at the back of Twilight's head. "Whaddya mean it's getting to me? I'm fine!" 

Twilight shook her head and smiled to herself. "You've hardly said anything at all the past few days, you're not eating much and I've seen you yell at Owlowiscious no less than 3 times yesterday!" 	

"He was mocking me! Always giving me that creepy stare and all he ever says is 'who' when I ask him a question!"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Spike, all he can say is 'who'! And he looks like that at everyone!"

"Yeah, well uh.." Spike rubbed his chin in contemplation, then snapped back with a victorious smile. "Right, last night he almost hit me with that stack of books!"

"You mean the one that you fell asleep next to overnight because you were so exhausted that you couldn't re-shelve them all?"

Spike gulped and looked back and forth, but then regained his composure and looked at the back of Twilight's mane accusingly.

"Y-yeah! He flew right on top of them and tried to knock them on me!" "You know Spike, he probably just thought it was a perch, and then it fell over when he tried to sit on it."

"Oh sure, take his side! We'll just see who's laughing when I get squished in the middle of the night!"

Twilight slowed her trot to a walk as she spoke to Spike in a motherly tone. "Spike, you know that Owlowiscious would never do something like that. But all of that aside, it doesn't even matter."

"It doesn't? Why not?" Twilight closed her eyes momentarily and thought back to her studies.

 One of the most deceptively effective methods of angering somepony is to simply present the fact that they're getting angry.

Twilight stopped and turned to look at Spike with narrowed eyes and a self-righteous smirk that could only be matched by the Great and Powerful Trixie. "You seem upset."

Spike blinked and glared at Twilight. "Did you just bring me out here to pick on me!?"

Twilight giggled both at her jives at Spike garnering their desired effect and the fact that studying up on 'The Egghead's Guide to Trolling' had paid off. "I'm sorry Spike, just proving a point. You need some time out of the library. You've got cabin fever!" Spike huffed and spun around on Twilight's back, not even dignifying the back of Twilight's mane with his glare.

Twilight continued her lecture as she trotted on. "You've got all the symptoms. Getting grouchy, being unfocused and tired all the time, it's not good for you Spike! But it’ll all be ok, because I've got a surprise planned out for you!" Spike remained silent on Twilight's back, watching Twilight's tail swish back and forth as she trotted.

Twilight waited for Spike to respond, but heard nothing from the irate baby dragon on her back. "Aw, c'mon Spike, don't be like that! Are you suuuuure you don't wanna know what it is?" Thin trails of smoke rose from Spike's nostrils as he did his best to restrain himself from saying something at Twilight that he might regret. 

Twilight scanned the ground ahead of her and saw a large shady oak tree off in the distance. "That looks like a good spot! Spike I know you're still mad but hold on ok?" 

"Hold on? What ar-" Spike's question was cut of as the pair of them disappeared with a loud pop and reappeared a second later at the base of the tree. Spike held the sides of his head as his new found dizziness subsided. "Ugh... I'll never get used to that feeling..." 

Twilight gently floated Spike off of her back and onto the soft grass, then proceeded to set up the picnic. In just a few seconds, Twilight had completely laid out the blanket, set up an assortment of plates around a bowl with a large salad in it, a couple of blueberry muffins, two bottles of orange juice and finally a jar filled with a strange green powder in it. Spike sat in front of his plate and picked up the jar, eyeing it suspiciously.

"So what'd you put in this?" Twilight perked up, excited to finally be able to show him. 

"That's your surprise!" 

"Green powder?" 

"Give it a taste!" 

Spike quickly set the jar down. "Whoa whoa whoa, no way Twilight. You've been messing with me the entire walk over here, how am I supposed to know if this isn't just another trick!?"

Twilight sighed. "I'm sorry Spike, you're right. I was picking on you and I apologize. You really will like that though, pinkie promise. Can you forgive me?" Twilight stretched her hooves out towards the baby dragon who gave her a skeptical look, then stepped forward and sighed into her chest returning the hug. 

"Allright Twi, you win. I'll try it, but this better not do anything to me!" Twilight levitated herself some salad onto a plate and munched quietly on a leaf of spinach as Spike undid the top to the jar and sniffed at it. Slowly, he snaked the tip of his tongue lower into the jar until it tapped against the powder and brought it back to his maw. Spike suckled on it for a moment until his eyes shot open with surprise. "Emerald! It's a powdered emerald!?"

Twilight grinned. "Yep! I read something about it the other day so I took a quick stop by the Carousel Boutique this morning and ground up a few emeralds into dust! What do you think?"

Spike greedily plunged his tongue into the jar once more, the dry flavorful powder instantly coating his tongue in a thick shade of green.

Back towards Ponyville, Twilight watched as tiny colored specs in the distance pushed heavy looking storm clouds towards the center of town. "Ooh.. better enjoy the sunlight while it lasts Spike. Looks like we'll be in for a big storm tonight. Spike looked up from his now half empty jar, a glimmering green mask of gems covering his lips and nose.

"Mmhmmn." Spike immediately dove back into the jar, whipping his long ribbon-like tongue back and forth, coating it with a thick layer of emerald dust before pulling it back into his mouth and suckling on it.

Twilight peeled back the protective paper away from the bottom of her muffin and took a bite out of it as the tip of Spike's tail brushed against Twilight's hoof. She squirmed and pulled her hoof back, trying to escape the tickley sensation as she took another bite. Again Spike's tail brushed against Twi's hoof, and she set her muffin down looking at Spike accusingly. 

"Spike, cut it out!" Spike had been laying on his back, filling his mouth with the last of the emerald dust as he sat up and looked at Twilight questioningly. Twilight glared at Spike until she realized with a creeping fear that Spike was sitting up and his tail was behind him, and yet her hoof still had something on it! She whipped her head around and ripped her hoof back, dragging it hard against the ground. It was then that she saw it. 

Its 2 foot long slender body gleaming in the springtime sun, its green rounded scaled head being crushed against the ground, trapped against her hoof as it ripped back towards her. Time seemed to stand still momentarily for Twilight as she saw it's head open wide exposing two pale white curved wicked looking fangs and its every wriggling movement as it lunged into the side of her leg, plunging its fangs deep and hard into the lavender unicorn's flesh. Twilight had just been bitten by a snake.

Seconds began to tick by once more and Twilight let out a shriek loud enough to rival the royal canterlot voice. 

Spike jolted up from the last of his emerald and set the jar aside, trying to figure out what had just happened. Only a few seconds later did Spike see the wriggling creature attached to Twilight's leg, and he jumped back in fear. Twilight screamed and thrashed her leg around like it was on fire, the serpent staying attached firmly into her skin as a trickle of blood began to run its way down to her hoof. Tears streamed down Twilights cheeks as she ran up to the oak tree and bucked her hind-legs against it so hard it rattled the branches. She could feel the snake's bite loosen from her hoof and bucked it again as though (and she truly believed that) her life depended on it. Finally the pair of fangs were dislodged from Twilight's leg and the snake fell upon the roots of the tree in a heap. The snake quickly began to slither away but Twilight's horn began to glow and the snake was lifted into the air.

With a commanding tone of voice Spike had never heard from Twilight before, Twilight ordered Spike to throw her the emerald jar. In a low serious tone, she muttered to herself as though she were reading something out of some invisible book. 

When bitten by a poisonous animal or insect, it's always important to be able to identify what kind of a creature it is; doing so will help doctors find an antidote faster. 

She quickly lowered the snake into the jar and sealed it tightly. Twilight sniffled and took a deep breath, trying to ignore the stinging burn that she was certain was moving up her hoof. "Alright Spike, I need you to listen carefully. I'm going to take the snake and go to Ponyville Hospital. Hopefully they'll be able to take care of the poison."

Spikes eyes began to water as he looked back and forth from the snake to Twilight's bleeding hoof to his own claws. "P-poison? Hopefully..?" 

"Spike I need to stay calm and start moving. If I panic, my heart rate will go up and the snake venom will spread faster. Can you get back home on your own?" Spike swallowed back tears and nodded. Twilight put on a brave face and took a couple steps towards Spike, pulling him into a tight hug that Spike returned wholly.

"I'll be alright, okay Spike?" Spike sniffled and nodded as Twilight stuck the snake jar on her back and teleported away towards Ponyville.

Twilight's thoughts began to race as her seconds left alive began to tick by. She tried to calm herself by lecturing herself about the facts of the matter. "Remember Twilight, snake venom travels through the bloodstream into the heart, and from there every vital organ in the body. The calmer I can stay, the less my heart rate will rise and the more time I'll have to get to the hospital."

Twilight focused on the details of the horizon, trying to gauge how much energy and magic it would take to teleport from each casting. She focused magic through her horn, quickly enveloping her body in it as well, then once again disappeared in a bright pink flash. "If I can just stay calm and focused and get to the hospital as fast as possible I should be ok."

Twilight ignored the growing sting of the bite marks in her leg, and tried her best to measure the height and distance of the closest house that she could see. Equations about curvature of the ground and the trajectory of the sun raced through Twilight's mind, but she found trigonometry a bit hard under the constant sound of her pounding heartbeat, resonating in her mind like the timer of a bomb. She shook her head and teleported half the distance, then broke out into a gallop towards the house, jumping up and teleporting to its roof a second before slamming headfirst into the wall. 

The height of her teleportation was off a couple feet and she landed hard on her stomach. The glow of her horn dissapated and the jar fell alongside her, quickly rolling down the side of the roof. Twilight shook her head from side to side and focused once more, lifting the jar just as it was about to fly off the edge of the houses gutters. She heaved a sigh of relief and brought the jar to eye level, inspecting the seal of the jar. 

The snake inside writhed about slowly, the poor thing dazed after going through the unique and taxing process of teleporting directly followed with being flung off of a roof. The jar's seal still looked fastened tight so she levitated it near the side of her head and gazed upon the buildings of Ponyville, trying to pick out the silhouette of Ponyville Hospital in the distance. She quickly spotted the large building among the other smaller houses and once again teleported from the rooftop she was on to another rooftop a block away. 

She gulped as the storm clouds that looked so far away before now blotted out the sun, slightly draining the unicorns already dismally low optimism. Taking a deep sigh to re-focus her mind, she put all of her focus on the position of the towering building in the distance, then mentally played a game of connect the dots with rooftops leading to it. Having planned out a pathway to her destination throughout the rooftops, she took a deep breath and steadied herself as she began one of the longest teleportation sprees that she had ever done.

Ponies both above and below the rooftops of Ponyville in the corner of their eyes saw mysterious purple flashes amongst the rooftops. Others swear they saw the silhouette of a pony. Others still claim that it must have been a trick of the eye, or a premature firing of a lightning bolt from the storm front. Twilight made one last teleportation down to the emergency entrance of Ponyville Hospital and ran inside.

She was immediately greeted with the sight of a long hallway fraught with many a door on either side and a green earth pony behind a desk, who stared at Twilight with a look of concern.

"Excuse me miss, this is the entrance to the emergency ward. Do you need help?" 

Twilight gulped in air, sweating a bit as she stepped forward, a thin trail of partially dried blood imprinted on the front of her hoof. "Please, I need a doctor! I was bitten by a snake! I don't know how much time I have left!"

The receptionist gasped then got a serious look on her face. "Don't worry, help is coming!" She slammed her hoof on a red button on her desk connected to a small microphone. Her voice echoed out through a collection of speakers hooked up along the hallways. "Dr Stable to the emergency ward! I repeat, Calling Dr Stable to the Emergency ward!"

Twilight merely sat down on the floor, her heart beginning to race as she saw her feet beginning to shake underneath her even as she sat. “Shakiness..” Twilight thought to herself. “It must be another side effect of the poison...” Her eyes glanced over the two small bite marks on her hoof, and they stung as though she had just been bitten again. How much time did she take getting here? How potent was the venom? Twilight gulped as she finally asked herself the inevitable question.

"What would happen if I were to die?"

Twilight sat and lowered the snake jar to the ground as tears began to well in her eyes. Her focus was drawn to a rapidly-approaching sound coming from down the end of the hall. A Yellow-tan Unicorn in a doctors coat with a thick brown mane was running alongside a stretcher being pushed by a pure white unicorn with a pink mane tied up behind her in a bun. Twilight levitated the snake jar and ran towards them, tears beginning to stream down her face as her heart began to race from fear. Twilight swallowed back a sob and called out to the pair. "Please, help! I...I don't know how much longer I have left! I don't wanna die!" Twilight sniffled as the pair reached her and lowered the stretcher down to just a few inches above the ground. 

The Tan unicorn spoke to her in a strong yet calming voice. "Can we get your name please?"

"T-Twilight Sparkle."

"Don't worry Twilight, just lie down on the stretcher and tell us what happened." Twilight lied down on her side as instructed, trying to keep weight off of her hurt hoof while taking a deep breath trying to calm herself. 

The unicorn's horn glowed a faint yellow as did the base of the stretcher as it was lifted a few feet off the ground to a proper pushing height. Twilight wiped away her tears and tried to focus on what had happened just a few minutes ago. After everything she had gone through it felt like hours had passed. 'The venom must be reaching whatever part of my brain keeps track of time...' Twilight thought to herself. Her thoughts raced as she fought against herself to focus.

"I was having a picnic earlier today and the snake in that jar bit my hoof. I tried to get here as fast as I could, but I don't know how strong it's poison is..."

The tan unicorn spoke to Twilight in between huffs and puffs as they sprinted down the long hallway, taking a sharp turn at the end of it following a red sign pointing towards the emergency room. "You did good to catch the snake and bring it here. Try to relax alright? We'll figure out what kind of snake it is and get you an antidote for the venom in no time." 

Twilight sniffled and meekly smiled as a tear streamed down her cheek. "Th-thank you.." The cart suddenly came to a stop in a room filled with other stretchers, some of them occupied with strange machinery and monitors everywhere. 

"Nurse Redheart, prepare Twilight for the antidote while I figure out what kind of anti-venom we need!"

"Right away Dr Stable!"

Dr. Stable set the jar on a counter and studied the shape and coloration of it intently. Nurse Redheart quickly pulled on a pair of gloves over her hooves and poured a few drops of a strange liquid into a rag. "Can you show me where exactly you got bit?" Twilight extended her quivering hoof towards the mare, a tear finding its way across the side of her muzzle as she realized that she couldn't even keep her hooves still.

"This is gonna sting a bit, but it will disinfect the wound." She gently pressed the rag against Twilights hoof and held onto it tightly as Twilight reflexively tried to jerk it away and shrieked with pain. Twilight could swear that the nurse was grinding acid into her leg, but let out a ragged breath and held it still as best as she could. "You're doing great, I've just gotta wash off the blood now alright?" Twilight sniffled and nodded as she quickly brought the rag to a sink and rinsed it off, then went back to her hoof and wiped away the dried trail of blood. 

Twilight's hoof looked completely clean, the pin-pricks of the snakes teeth barely visible against her lavender coat. Dr. Stable's voice suddenly shot out from across the room over the beeps of heart monitors. "I've got it! I know what to do!" 

Twilight heaved a sigh of relief and turned towards the doctor as he walked over, levitating a tiny strip of paper behind him. "Is that the antidote? I've never seen medicine like that before." 

The Doctor cheerfully replied "Nope!" and pulled the strip of paper apart revealing it to be a bandaid, which he promptly stuck over Twilight's bite wound. "There you go, good as new!" The good Doctor gave Twilight a beaming smile as Nurse Redheart and Twilight both looked at him like he'd gone insane. 

Nurse Redheart spoke up first. "Doctor? Are you sure that's all she needs?"

"Positive!"

Twilight's look of fear crept back onto her face as she began to think that her doctor might be completely insane. "B-but the poison..! I-" 

"You were never poisoned Twilight. It's a harmless garter snake!" Twilight's face went flat and her ears drooped at the news.

"Huh..? But I.. WHAT!? How can I not be poisoned?! The last 5 minutes have been a race against Tartarus, I've experienced everything from dizziness to burning pain to not even being able to hold my own hooves still and you're telling me it was all because of nothing!?" 

The good doctor sat down and calmly explained to his patient. "Twilight, you didn't experience nothing, you experienced fear! Haven't you ever heard of a placebo effect? You were legitimately fearful for your life weren't you?"

Twilight looked down and rubbed the back of her head while blushing. "Well... yeah... I didn't know if it was a poisonous snake or not, so I thought that I might as well err on the side of caution.."

Dr. Stable Shook his head. "Perhaps you might benefit from studying up on snakes a bit first Twilight. If you knew what to look for, you'd know fairly immediately that he wasn't poisonous." The doctor presented Twilight the snake in the jar, hoping that she would be a little less scared of it now that she knew a bit more about what had happened.

Twilight carefully took the jar and studied the snake's scales and coloration. "So how could you tell that this wasn't a poisonous snake?

"Well there's a few ways to tell, but the main way is to look at the shape of its head. See how it's not that much larger than the rest of its body? Poisonous snakes have triangular shaped heads due to poison glands in their cheeks to make and store poison for biting. This one however has a small head, barely larger than the rest of it's body." 

Twilight quickly chimed in, excited at having realized the doctors logic. "So since there's no room in the head for the venom! It's not poisonous!"

"Exactly!"

Twilight lifted the snake jar up with her magic as she flung her arms around the Doctor and pulled him in a tight hug. Twilight smiled as one last tear streamed down her cheek. "Thank you so much doctor!"

Dr Stable looked to nurse Redheart, who merely shrugged. Seconds passed as Twilight blinked and gently pushed herself away from the doctor, a slight blush on her face. "Eh heh, sorry.." Twilight muttered as she wiped her eyes.

Dr Stable merely chuckled and shook his head. "No problem Miss Sparkle. Just try to be more careful in the future alright?"

Twilight nodded. "Of course! Thank you again Doctor, and you too nurse!"

Nurse Redheart simply smiled and nodded, while Dr Stable replied "Of course! Anything else we can do for you while you're here?" 

Twilight paused and tapped her hoof against her chin. "Actually, could I maybe take that snake with me? I'd like to study it a bit."

"Well, I suppose thats alright. Just don't leave it in that jar too long!"

Twilight levitated the jar to eye level, inspecting the seal of the jar once more to make sure that it was shut tightly, then stuck it on her back and trotted away waving at the two medical staff. 

Twilight heaved a sigh of relief and trotted towards the entrance to the emergency ward which she had just came in from. The receptionist glanced up from her desk as Twilight walked by, then did a double take as she realized she looked so calm and cheerful. "What happened in there?" 

"False alarm, turned out the snake wasn't poisonous after all!" 

"Ohhh. That must have been embarrassing."

Twilight rubbed the back of her mane. "Well, maybe a little, I'm just glad to be alright."

"Oh I'm sure. Take care on your way back home!"

"I will, thank you." Twilight heard thunder off in the distance as she walked out of Ponyville Hospital, noticing a few sparse raindrops falling from the dark clouds above. "That looks like quite a storm...I hope that Spike got home alright." Twilight gasped. "Spike! He's gotta be worried sick about me! I need to go show him that I'm alright!" Twilight galloped off towards the Golden Oak Library, the poor snake on Twilight's back being jostled around hard in his jar once again.
> Tranquil Tempest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight raced back to her home, the scent of ozone and rain soon to fall wafting around her in the humid spring air like a thick miasma. Ponies all around her were finishing their preparations for the coming storm. Doors and shutters were sealed tightly, carts were covered up, and the last of the clouds were brought into place by the weather pegasi. As raindrops slowly began to fall around her, Twilight quickly plotted out the fastest way to get back to her home. Twilight dashed around the corner of a house and found herself standing in the middle of an almost completely barren street. She focused her magic and closed her eyes, disappearing and reappearing in the blink of an eye at the end of the street.

Twilight landed squarely on her hooves out of the first teleport and built up magic in her horn for another. Before she could cast it, however, her concentration was interrupted by a muffled hiss coming from her back. Shivers shot down Twilight's spine as her mane and tail stood on end for a split second--until she remembered that the snake she was carrying on her back was safely sealed inside a jar. She heaved a sigh of relief and brought it around front of her to inspect it.

The thing inside moved about in a way that seemed strange even for a snake. It coiled itself around its own head only to unwind itself again a moment later and writhe about without actually moving anywhere. Twilight cocked an eye and, trying to determine it's motives, spoke more to herself than the snake:

"What are you doing? Are you hurt?" The snake turned it's head towards Twilight and flicked its tongue towards her. Twilight continued her monologue as she trotted forward. "Is he sick? Is it even a he?" Twilight brought the snake to her head and looked it straight in the eyes. "Are you a he?" The snake merely flicked it's tongue out towards Twilight once more and raised its tummy upwards along the side of the jar. Twilight carefully inspected its underbelly, almost becoming mesmerized by the multiple horizontal blade-like scales. She shook it off and smirked at the trapped reptile. 

"You know, when you can't bite anypony, you guys are actually pretty cool looking. Hold on now, we're gonna teleport again!"

Twilight stuck the snake on her back once more and concentrated her magic as a powerful gust blew her mane and tail back. With a flash of bright pink light and a loud pop, Twilight poofed once more, ending up further down the stormy road. The situation repeated: she landed on her feet and heard a faint hiss coming from her back. She sighed and inspected the snake once more. It was writhing and coiling much in the same fashion it was before.

The gears began to turn and Twilight cried out triumphantly; "Ohhhh, you don't like to teleport! I suppose you did just ride through a pretty intense trip to the emergency room. Sorry!"

Twilight gently replaced the snake jar on her back and took a deep breath, focusing a different magic into her horn and created a faint pink bubble of force around her--just in time for the storm to really take hold. Raindrops pattered in the village streets, and Twilight carefully trotted down the cold road, trying to not jostle the snake too hard. To occupy the rest of her attention, she stared at the patterns the rain droplets made as they trickled down her barrier in ornate twisting streams.

She suddenly realized that the state of tranquility in Ponyville was stronger than usual. She glanced in the windows of houses she passed and was greeted with pleasant scenes such as ponies quietly curled in blankets near fireplaces, snug with books and hot chocolate. Under those windows, newly sprouted plants and flowers were growing from neat and well maintained gardens, a few early spring blooms popping out brightly against their dark surroundings.

In the upper story of one house, two matching indigo fillies sat next to each other, their violet manes swaying gently. The twins sat with their elbows on their windowsill, sharing the same expression of apathy towards their gray, wet town. Their eyes followed Twilight as she slowly trotted along below them--as she must have been the most interesting thing to cross their path in a while.

The soaked ground soon sent dull shivers up Twilight's spine with each step; but inside her force field, the air was still thick and humid. A bead of sweat grew on Twilight's brow, and the lavender mare realized she was growing uncomfortably warm. Looking up to the dark skies above her, she sighed, closed her eyes, and let her forcefield quick dissolve away. Though she braced herself as she let down the shield, she was still shocked by the gust of cold crisp air that whipped over her and the torrent of rain that quickly soaked through her coat and mane. The sky flashed brightly in the distance, sending a loud low echo rumbling throughout Ponyville and far beyond.

It was welcome, though. Twilight drank in the crisp spring air and shivered gratefully at the sudden temperature shift. She gently brushed her mane aside with a hoof and took a deep slow breath. Her shoulders fell as she relaxed for the first time since that afternoon. The cool rainwater dripped down her body and took her worries and cares along with them. A powerful squall blew Twilight forward a couple of steps, making her leap forward unexpectedly. The forced, impromptu motion caused Twilight first to giggle then to burst out laughing wholeheartedly as she jumped and splashed about in puddles like a schoolfilly.

"Ha! No wonder Pinkie bounces around all the time!" Twilight magically held the snake jar steady at her side while bounding forwards. "I'm alright! It wasn't poisonous! Hee hee! It wasn’t poisonous!" Twilight cried out happily as the low rumble of a thunderbolt echoed in the distance. "This is the best storm ever!"

A few minutes earlier, Spike had barely managed to reach the Golden Oak Library as the storm had begun to fall. He had panted heavily and slammed the door behind him, trying his best to stay calm. All sorts of different thoughts were darting back and forth through his mind.

"Will she be alright? I know Twilight said that I should stay here, but is that really what I should do? How poisonous was the snake?" Spike gently set the picnic basket down by the door, flipped on the lights and began to pace back and forth. "Where did that snake even come from!? Don't snakes know any better than to sneak up on ponies!? Oh if only I had seen it coming! I could have grabbed it, or- or maybe I could have scared it off! No way a snake as puny as that could bite through my scales, but it got Twilight! Why did it have to get Twilight?" Spike sighed and plopped down on the bottom step of the library staircase, burying his head in his hands.

Spike's self-accusing rants were interrupted by the airy sound of fluttering wings from overhead. Spike was treated to the sight of Owlowiscious as his large brown wings effortlessly cut through the air.

"Oh.. it's just you." Spike sniffled and wiped his nose with a claw. 

"Who." replied Owlowiscious.

"..It's you. You know, you?"

"Who."

"You! Agh! Just go away, Owlowiscious, I'm too worried to play guessing games with you." 

Spike buried his face in his knees, drooping even more and letting out another sigh. Owlowiscious descended onto the step Spike was sitting on and gently stretched his wing out across the melancholy dragon's back. Spike looked up again to see Owlowiscious's piercing brown eyes seeming to stare through him. Spike sighed and leaned into the screech owl's feathery chest, hugging him back with a claw.

Spike rose from Owlowiscious's side, sighing again out of both relief and worry. "It's Twilight, Owlowiscious. When we went out today, she got bitten by a snake, and she teleported away to the hospital. She said it was poisonous, and..." Spike swallowed back tears and continued, trying his hardest not to cry in front of his would-be rival. "...she said that she wanted me to wait here for her. I just wish I could have done something! If only I had noticed it before it got to her, or if it had found me first! I just-" Spike was once again interrupted, this time by the sound of a muffled scream coming from outside. Or... was it laughter?

Spike ran to the nearest window on the library's ground floor with Owlowiscious close behind. Owlowiscious perched himself on Spike's head as Spike moved the curtain aside. Down the street was Twilight, a look of pure happiness painted across her face, laughing so hard she was snorting. She had a hoof wrapped around the base of a lamppost, and she was twirling around it. Her other hoof stretched out into the rain as the snake jar slowly revolved around her in the opposite direction just beyond the reach of her hoof.

"Who!" Owlowiscious beamed.

"It's Twilight!" Spike cried. "She's alright!"

However, relief quickly turned into confusion. "Uhh, Owlowiscious? You're seeing this too, right?"

Owlowiscious stared along with Spike and responded with a slow (and somewhat disparaging) "Whooo."

"Maybe the snake venom was causing her to... but no, that was impossible. She'd gone straight to the hospital, and she wouldn't be back here unless they'd cured her! So she was alright! ...Right?" Spike blinked and rubbed his eyes, making sure the Twilight in front of him wasn't a hallucination, or some other pony. 

Twilight sped her revolutions slightly and jumped away from the light post, landing hard in a big puddle. An explosive torrent of water shot out from under her feet soaking her even more. Panting, Twilight took a break and looked up to the rainy sky, beaming with an eccentric smile, happy to be alive. Fortunately, she spotted Spike and Owlowiscious staring at her from a window. Twilight locked eyes with Spike and gasped. 

"Oh no! I spent so long getting home that I forgot about telling Spike!" She sprinted towards her front door as hard as she could with the snake jar in tow. Twilight ignored the sting of the wind and rain hitting her eyes as she trotted up to her door panting slightly. Spike rushed over to let her in with Owlowiscious still on his dragon spike perch.

Once under the natural eave atop the Golden Oak's entrance, Twilight violently shook the rainwater off herself. Spike opened the door only to be met with a cold spray of water, causing him to fall back and Owlowiscious to jump off of his head to avoid it. Without a single 'who', Owlowiscious quickly flew off upstairs. Twilight gasped even louder when she looked up this time, seeing Spike soaking wet on the ground. 

Twilight leaped inside and pulled the door shut to stop the wind from howling loudly throughout the library. Twilight stepped up to Spike and offered him a hoof up. "Sorry, Spike, I didn't see you there!" Spike didn't even have time to process the words. He grabbed the offered hoof and scanned over Twilight's bitten hoof, noticing the bandage in place over her snakebite.

"Twilight! Why are you here!? What about the snakebite? Are you ok?!"

"It was a false alarm, Spike; it turns out the snake wasn't poisonous- thats right! I almost forgot!" Recalling Dr. Stable's advice, Twilight carefully undid the lid of the snake's jar to give the snake air, confident that the snake couldn't climb up that vertical, glass wall. She set it down on the windowsill behind her and faced Spike again, who was about to jump out of the shoes he wasn't wearing with fret.

"I-it wasn't..?" Spike gasped. "...but you said that-"

"I know that's what I said," mumbled Twilight, hanging her head, "but I didn't actually know at the time. I kind of freaked out and assumed the worst. I'm really sorry I worried you so much."

Twilight pulled her best assistant into a tight hug--which he wholeheartedly returned, just glad to have his best friend back. He pulled himself hard into Twilight's wet fur, not even minding the strong scent of wet pony fur. He gratefully nuzzled her chest and smiled. Twilight giggled and returned the affection for as long as she could stand before she had to push him away:

"Spike, stop! That tickles!"

Spike blushed and looked to the side, fiddling with his thumbs for a second. "...um... so now that you're alright, can I ask, well ...what exactly were you doing out there?" Spike gestured towards the lamp post with a claw as a fresh towel fell on it from above. "Oh! thanks, Owlowiscious!" Spike gave a happy nod at the fluttering owl as Owlowisious draped the other blanket over Twilight.

Twilight gulped and gave Spike a nervous smile, shifting her eyes from side to side. "What, out there? ....You saw that?"

Spike crossed his arms and looked at her flatly. "Uh huh. With the lamp post. Don't try to get out of it."

Twilight gulped, and a rosy blush spread in her cheeks. "Oh! Um, that! Yes... you see... I was... kind of.. pretending to be a solar system?" 

Spike gave Twilight several nonplussed blinks. "...But why?"

Twilight grinned sheepishly. "Well... I don't know. It was fun, though!"

Spike blinked again. "You? Having fun for no reason?" But then he continued seriously: "...Well, whatever. I'm just glad to have you back, Twi."

Spike leaned into Twilight once more and wrapped his arms around her neck, hugging her stronger this time. He carefully turned his head to the side, staying mindful of his Spikes as he rested his head against her chest and listened to her heartbeat. Twilight smiled and hugged him close, realizing that this was the real reason she was happy to still be around. To have the love of her friends.

His affections were cut short by the sound of glass being tapped on. The purple duo turned to see Owlowiscious pecking at the side of the jar. The snake inside coiled up and hissed, it's pinkish-purple tongue flickering towards the owl. Owlowiscious pecked at it once more, causing the jar to rock slightly. The snake lunged at him, the same sickle-like fangs protruding outwards in a mossy colored flash, and knocked his tiny head against the glass, augmenting the jar's momentum.

Twilight magically caught the jar as it was falling from the sill and carried it over to the wider table. "Alright, that's enough, you two!" Twilight set the jar down, turned around, and gave her chestnut owl a stern glare. 

"Owlowiscious, this snake is a specimen for academic research, and you will leave him alone. Understood?"

Owlowiscious glanced at the jar sitting on the table behind Twilight then back to Twilight and nodded, giving a melancholy "whooo" before flying off to his perch in the dining nook.

Spike stood at Twilight’s side. "Uhh, Twilight?"

She turned to him. "Yes, Spike?"

"Why exactly do you still have the snake?"

"Ah! I'm glad you asked. Spike, if there's one thing I have learned today it's that just being afraid of something doesn't mean you shouldn't study it." Then Twilight blinked and brought a hoof to her chin in contemplation. "Actually, now that I think about it, that might make a good letter to the princess!"

Spike expression quickly brightened, and stood saluting at Twilight's side. "Should I go get a scroll and quill?"

"Maybe later, Spike. There's studying to be done of this little guy!" Twilight glanced at the jar once more with a smirk.

Spike's grin fell once more. "You're going to study that ...thing? What good would that ever do? It's just a snake in a jar! What do you think you'll learn from it?"

"The doctor at the hospital said this was a garter snake, so I suppose I'll start there and read more about them. C'mon Spike! There's studying to be done!" Twilight escaped without really answering the question. She ran up to her room, a smirk on her face and a sparkle in her eyes, carrying the jar in front of her as if to get a head start on studying it. Spike groaned and dejectedly followed Twilight upstairs, bracing himself for the duties of one of Twilight's all-day studying sessions.

Within a matter of minutes Spike had procured four different books that were likely related to the 'leçon du jour'. He had placed them in a neat stack in front of Twilight on her reading desk, just within Twilight's view so she knew they were there but not so much so that they would be distracting while reading. Spike knew Twilight's studying habits by now. He had also organized the books according to the order in which she would want to read them. Twilight magicked up the first book and set it in front of her. "A Guide to Common Household- and Garden Animals." She opened to the short section on snakes. Twilight kept the jar to her side, glancing to it in between short periods of reading.

"Thank you, Spike; these should work just fine. Would you please make me a studying snack?" Spike jumped right on the chance for escape, lest Twilight require more reading materials. He saluted Twilight, and Twilight buried herself back into her book.

"Ah, here we are. Garter Snakes! Lets see..." She frowned. There was barely more than a page on the entire species! What kind of valuable information could there possibly be in just over a page?! Unimpressed with this book, she skimmed the information, mumbling. "Most common reptile in Equestria... highly adaptable and can live almost anywhere, some even nearing The Crystal Mountains... Diet consists of insects and small animals... This is it? This can't be all there is." 

She quickly opened the next book. "Snakes and Serpents; Then and Now." Twilight smiled as she skimmed over the table of contents before moving to a chapter about early species of snake and their evolution over millenia. Twilight read on through ancient ecologies and food chains for a couple hours before finally reaching the book's section on modern day garter snakes. It was just another page long snippit of text! Twilight was now slightly more knowledgeable about ancient snake ecology, but her knowledge of garter snakes was still lacking. Twilight closed that book and dove straight into the next, finding yet another short basic chapter on garter snakes that didn't tell her anything that she didn't already know. 

She finished the third book's short section and looked up, sighing. "All things considered, I barely know more about snakes than this morning! There’s gotta be more!" Twilight turned to the index and skimmed through the listing, double checking that she had read everything. Twi was about to close it and move on to the next when she turned the page and noticed four peculiar words she had overlooked before, words which she had originally regarded as irrelevant.

"Mating Habits, Garter Snake."

Twilight blushed brightly, feeling like she was about to intrude into sacred territory--or at least the snake's private business. She glanced up from her book, ensuring that she was alone, that no one would be watching her reading the embarrassing entry. Seeing nopony but the snake, Twilight hungrily dove back into her book, driven by the pursuit of this devious knowledge.

She carefully read the valuable words: "Garter snakes go through a process called brumation before they mate, which is essentially a two-week fast. Once their stomachs are completely emptied, they will emerge from brumation and look for pheromone trails from female snakes. Females contain powerful mating-specific pheromones which can attract males in droves, leading into mating balls which can end up with twenty-five males per female snake." 

Twilight's blush deepened without her really being sure why. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to imagine what life would be like for ponies if they mated in the same way. She quickly shook the image out of her mind and turned the page, only to be greeted by a far worse one.

It was what must have been a rare photograph of a horrible, writhing mass of breeding snakes. It was more than Twilight had ever seen before, and she nearly slammed the book shut in fright and disgust that so many would gather in one place, but she didn't. She couldn't! Her eyes were irrevocably glued to the page. Her ears drooped, and her eyes widened. Her heart began to race, and sweat beaded on her forehead. Entire portions of the ground were blotted out as thick layers of snakes slithered on top of each other. The image started swirling in front of her as she imagined them jumping out and biting her.

She desperately pushed the book away, too stunned to even jump out of her seat. She tried to regain her composure and forget about the image--to think about something else, anything else! Her efforts only cemented the image of the living net of snakes in her mind.

Her mind raced out of control, contemplating every horrible snake-related thing that she could possibly imagine. "What if I were falling into a pit of snakes like that, or if somepony dumped them on me from a giant bin as a prank? Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie wouldn't do that to me, right?! What if somepony locked me in a room filled with snakes?! What if another unicorn like Trixie turned me into a snake?! What if a snake crawled in my bed while I was asleep?!"

The thought of waking up from a relaxed sleep to scratch a faint tickle on her nose only to find that it was a giant snake's tongue, his poisonous fang filled mouth mere inches away and ready to strike at any time, pushed her over the edge. Twilight leaped up from her chair, bucking and knocking her chair over backwards, scanning the surrounding area for snakes apart from the one safely in its jar.

Twilight gulped, sweating, and tried to relax, remembering to practice her deep breathing techniques.

"C'mon now, Twilight," she murmured to herself, "n- nothing to be afraid of; it's just a book, a book about snakes, which are just a part of nature! It's all natural, it's all natural..." Twilight glanced over to her captive who was wrapped tightly in a coil, its forked tongue flicking outwards occasionally. Twilight glanced to the jar for the umpteenth time, eying the open top nervously. Twilight sighed and laid her head on her desk, her eyes tracing the detailed lines in between his scales.

"Y- you guys aren't all that bad, right...? I-I mean this picture is just what you do, right?" Twilight's inquiries were just met with a blank stare from the snakes beady eyes. "It's not your fault that you're a snake or that snakes are just so..." Twilight shuddered and wrapped her hooves around her head.

Twilight moaned loudly into her hooves, then pushed herself up onto her haunches. "No. No! This is getting ridiculous! I am Twilight Sparkle, and, with Celestia as my witness, I will never fail to study a book!"

Twilight stomped the ground and took one last deep breath, steeling her nerves for the trial at hoof. She set her chair back upright, sat back down, quickly pulled the offensive book to her, and pinned it to the table. She stared down the diagram as though she might be able to make the book give up trying to scare her. Her resolution held and she read the fist paragraph underneath the image, and then the next. With Twilight's focus and dominance re-established, she brought herself to study through the remaining page on the mating habits of garter snakes.

"Ha!" Twilight triumphantly closed her book and shoved it aside before grabbing the last, which was significantly thinner than the others had been. She opened to the table of contents and read aloud: "Equestrian Snakes: A Guide to Identification and Behavior." Twilight glanced down the catalogue of chapters; though it seemed like the shortest book on the table, everything from "Basic Identification and Sexing" to "Pet Care" was in here. Twilight cocked an eyebrow at that last header. "Pet care? Who would want a snake as a pet?"

Twilight mentally lectured herself on where she should focus her studies. "Today's incident happened because I didn't know what kind of snake I had been bitten by or how to identify it. What's more, if it had been poisonous, I wouldn’t have known what to have done about it."

Twilight flipped to the identification guide and was greeted with a collage of detailed illustrations and diagrams of snakes of all different kinds. The book detailed some of the main species of poisonous snakes in central Equestria and their physical traits.

"Solid-colored snakes are generally safe, but snakes with pointed heads are poisonous. Some venomous snakes will also have a small indentation between the eye and nostril called a pit (hence the term 'pit viper'). The pit augments their vision, allows them to sense heat in their prey. Finally, if the snake is swimming, check its body. Non-venomous snakes swim with their bodies underwater and heads poking out while venomous snakes swim with their whole bodies at the surface of the water."

After about 3 hours of dedicated study, Twilight sat up proud of the fact that she was now well on her way to successfully identifying any snake that crossed her path. Twilight rubbed her back and stretched out, glancing at the snake on her desk once more. "You know, once I get to know you, I bet it'll turn out you guys aren't that bad after all!" Twilight levitated the jar from her desk to eye level and peered at her captive, a tiny smile growing across her face.

Cautiously, Twilight turned the jar onto its side causing the snake to flop over onto its back. It lazily straightened itself out and slithered towards the end of the jar, poking its head out and looking at its surroundings. Twilight slowly inched closer, observing the snakes almost mesmerizing flicking of it's tongue back and forth. Twilight's nose was only a few inches away from the snake's as the unmistakable feeling of scales brushed up against Twilight's back leg.

Twilight screamed almost as loudly as she did as when she had been bitten earlier that day and bucked her rear hooves violently. Her magic instantly dissipated and the jar fell to the ground with a loud clank; its lid lying to its side. Spike didn't even have time to blink before Twilight bucked the muffin he was holding hard, sending it careening against a wall with a muffled splat. Spike glanced at Twilight with shock, and even more shock when he realized that his claw was empty. Twilight whipped her head back and forth between the jar and her surprised assistant, blinking momentarily before she charged towards the jar.

The snake's tongue was flickering around curiously as it's head crept out of the edge of the jar and it began to slither out. It's efforts were for naught as Twilight grabbed the snake and jar with her telepathy, holding them both in place midair until she was confident that the snake was in the bottom of the jar and couldn't escape. Twilight heaved a sigh of relief and set the jar back down on the desk, placing a hoof over her pounding chest.

Spike watched Twilight's swift movements in a dumbfounded state, his arm that held the muffin still being held up until Spike glanced towards it and lowered it to his side. He glared at the unicorn, who looked at her hooves guiltily and shifted about nervously.

"Twilight! What gives?!"

"Spike! I'm so sorry! I... You... Are you okay!?"

"Yeah, barely!" Spike dusted himself off pretty angrily as he stood up. "If I was about two inches to the left, I don't think I'd have a head right now!"

"Well, I'm sorry," criticized Twilight, "but you should know better than to sneak up on ponies!"

"Like I had a choice! You were so deep in your book that you didn't answer the first fifteen times I called your name!"

Twilight gulped and gave Spike a nervous smile. "Well... you know how I am once I get in a good book."

Spike crossed his arms, stared at her, and snorted, unimpressed with her excuse. "You're worse than Rarity when she's making a dress! At least she doesn't try to buck me in the head!"

Twilight sighed and frowned, realizing she'd broken the innocent dragon's trust. "I really am sorry, Spike. You know I'd never try to hurt you."

Spike looked away indignantly.

Twi gave a sheepish smile and tried to change the subject. "What did you want anyway?"

"You asked me to bring you a snack, remember?"

"Huh..?" Twilight didn't remember asking him for that, and she was about to protest, but her stomach betrayed her, rumbling loudly as if on cue. Twilight blushed upon realizing that she had been acting foolish--for what seemed like the hundredth time that day. "Forgive me, Spike. I guess I just haven't been myself since-"

"Since you thought you were bitten by a poisonous snake?" Spike approached her and put his hand on her side. "I understand."

Twilight sighed and smiled meekly. "Thank you Spike. You must be starving too. Lets go out and get something to eat."

Spike's frills perked up. "Right behind you Twi!"

Spike ran up to Twilight and jumped on her back, balancing himself as Twilight smiled and began to walk down the stairs. She barely managed to take a few steps before a blinding flash of lightning erupted outside followed by an enormous blast which shook the library to it's roots. The two screamed and tried to hold themselves steady as best they could. Spike almost fell off of Twi who in turn almost stumbled down her own staircase. 

Twi panted. "T- today seems like the day for sudden frights. Are you alright, Spike?"

Spike scrambled fully back up onto Twilight's back and steadied himself. "Yeah, I think so. This storm is insane! Why did the weather ponies let it get so bad?"

The low rumble of the thunder echoed out into the distance. The library's electric lights flickered for a second before going out, leaving the pair standing in the dark. Spike's face drooped, but Twilight calmly lit up her horn and trotted into her kitchen.

She glanced what of her kitchen she could see by the gentle, lavender glow of her horn. Owlowiscious stared at Twilight from his perch, greeting Twilight with a soft "Whooo." Twilight smiled to him and levitated a few logs onto each other in a loose pile. 

"Spike, could you start a fire for me while I make us some dinner?"

"We're having a fire?"

"I can do it if I have to, but sustaining a light spell gets a little annoying after a while."

"Good point."

Spike climbed down from Twilight's back and kneeled in front of the fireplace, taking a deep breath and bathing the logs in bright green flames. The fire turned from green to orange as it caught on the logs, and the kitchen was illuminated by the dancing flames. Spike sat back from the fireplace and admired his handiwork. 

"Starting fires was kind of fun!" Though Spike. He smiled as Twilight sat down next to him, levitating two plates in front of her. She set her a plate of grass and dandelion salad in front of her and gave spike a muffin with a topaz on top. Spike unwraveled his tongue and wrapped it around the gemstone before suckling on it, then biting it with a loud crunch. He repeated the process again with the muffin, eating the entire thing in one bite before snuggling up against Twilight's side as she quietly munched on her food.

He laid an arm across her side in a loose hug watched the dancing flames. He yawned, soon becoming drowsy. He glanced up to Twilight as she bit off a particularly large dandelion.

"Hey, Twilight?"

"Yes, Spike?"

Spike yawned again. "Don't you think you're going a little overboard with all this snake stuff?"

Twilight swallowed and lifted up a small clump of grass, using her magic to squish it into a tight ball which she rolled around in midair. "Not particularly. What do you mean?" She popped the ball of grass in her mouth and began to repeat the process with a dandelion.

"Well.. It's just strange is all. You're scared of snakes; you get bit by one; and now, all of a sudden, it's the only thing you can think about! Not to mention that you've still got that snake trapped in your room. Remind me why you're doing all this again?"

Twilight sighed and let her dandelion ball fall back into her plate of grass. "Because I'm still afraid of snakes, Spike. I'm trying to get myself used to seeing one first-hoof so that maybe, if I see another one, I won't panic as much."

Spike looked up to Twilight, trying to empathize and gently rubbing the unicorn's side as they spoke. "But why are you even afraid of them in the first place? You're way stronger than any snake, Twilight! Even without your magic!"

"I guess I... It's called a phobia, Spike. They don't make sense, they just fill you with fear once you come into contact with the thing you have a phobia of. They're irrational by definition!"

Spike didn't understand, but he sighed and glanced down at the floor, disappointed that he couldn't help his best friend. Twilight took another nibble of her salad as Spike laid his head down against Twilight's side feeling slightly defeated. His eyes drooped as he watched the flickering flames' dull reflection in his stomach- and leg scales. Spike slowly dragged a claw across his stomach, feeling the ridge of each armor-like scale ever so closely connected to the next. Spike sat up and looked to Twilight again as she ate up her dandelion ball.

"Twi, why, exactly, are you afraid of snakes?"

Twilight cocked an eyebrow at her young assistant. "Spike? Didn't I just explain this?"

"I know you said it was a phobia, but what about snakes is so scary to you?"

"Oh." Twilight swallowed and gazed at her half eaten salad in contemplation. "Well, I guess it's mostly how they move."

"How they move? What do you mean?"

"It's just not natural looking! It's like they try to squirm out of their own body!" Twilight shuddered at the mere thought of a snake slithering away, flailing it's entire body in fluidly moving coils.

Spike opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Twilight with another sudden outburst. "And their mouths!"

"What about their mouths?"

"They're full of fangs! Poisonous fangs!" Twilight gave Spike a fearful look while waving her hooves back and forth for dramatic effect.

Spike stared at Twilight, unimpressed. "Is that all?"

Twilight blinked at Spike's reaction and stopped her waggling hooves long enough to take a breath and collect her thoughts. "They're also pretty hard to spot; they can creep right up under you, and you wouldn't know. I don't even want to think about the different effects the bite from an actually poisonous snake could have." Twilight quickly went back to her salad to spare herself from having to continue her thoughts lest they grow out of control.

"So why aren't you scared of me?"

Twilight looked back down at Spike with the last of her salad in her maw. "Whufgh?" She swallowed and tried communicating once more with an empty mouth. "What? Why would I be scared of you, Spike?"

"Well, I'm kind of like a snake."

"No you're not; you're a baby dragon!"

"I know, but, when you think about it, I’ve got the same skin, the same eyes, and even the same tongue!" Spike let his long, ribbon-like, forked tongue slither out and touch Twilight's nose before quickly snapping back into his maw like a measuring tape. He giggled a bit, which elicited a similar giggle from Twilight. 

Twilight sat up and looked at Spike with a smirk. "Alright, you win, Spike; you're a snake."

Spike laid on his stomach and looked up at Twilight, doing his best snake impression as he flicked his tongue out towards her. Spike crawled on his belly towards Twilight's face, letting out a quiet hiss as he crawled onto her back. He lay draped over her side, keeping his arms and legs as straight as he could while he swayed his tail back and forth against Twilight's haunch.

Twilight laughed and looked back at her assistant with a lighthearted grin as Spike flicked his tongue into the air once more. "Oh no! Somepony save me! I'm trapped under a massive Spike-scale snake!" Spike attempted to worm his way up to Twilight's neck but lost his balance and flopped onto his ground on his side with a thud. Twilight looked at her assistant and did her best to keep a straight face but failed miserably. Twilight laughed so uncontrollably, that it grew contagious. Spike joined in with a giggle fit of his own, which caused him to roll over across the ground, holding his sides.

Eventually, Twilight heaved a sigh of relief and sat up, wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye. "Oh boy, Spike, I think I needed that." Spike calmed down too, and he straightened back out from the giggling ball he'd rolled into at her side.

"Heheh, so do you think that snakes can be alright now?"

"Yes, Spike. Thank you." Twilight leaned forward and pulled Spike into a hug that let both of them catch a much needed breath.

"So what now?" Spike asked.

Twilight yawned and watched the fire begin to reduce itself to warm embers. "I think that we should head to bed Spike."

"Aw, already? We can't add even one more log to the fire?"

"No. It's getting late, Spike."

Spike looked down slightly downcast and disappointedly scuffed his right foot back and forth across the floor. "Well... I guess..."

"What is it, Spike?"

"I don't know. What if that snake was poisonous? What if that was really the last time I'd see you!?"

"Oh, Spike..." Twilight wrapped her leg around him, brought him close, and smiled. "I guess we could spend a little more time together. I never get to show you how much I appreciate you when I just study all the time. Besides, I think there's a little fire left."

Tears began to well in the corners of Spikes eyes as he was hit with the full force of how scared and worried he'd been all day. He nodded thankfully and swallowed back tears until he couldn't anymore. Spike buried his face into Twilight's side, quietly sobbing into her coat as he clutched at her short fur with his claws. Twilight sat quietly, listening to her assistant's sobs and the low crackle of the embers as the foul storm outside continued on.

Twilight gently rubbed Spike's back and asked him in a quiet motherly tone. "Spike, is that what you were thinking the whole time I was studying?"

Spike nodded again, whimpering a bit as he managed to stop his tears. He backed up out of the embrace and wiped his face with a claw. Twilight leaned forward and gently, meaningfully kissed Spike on the top of his head. "Spike, I promise nothing's going to happen to me."

Spike gulped and faintly nodded at her through watery eyes. Twilight smiled softly as Spike sat back down and leaned against her in the warmth of the dying fire, his sniffles eventually turning to quiet snoring. Twilight used her magic to snuff out the fire out before giving Spike one more hug and lifting him gently onto her back with her magic.

Up in their room, Twilight laid Spike down lightly in his bed and pulled his blanket over him before climbing into her own bed. She closed her eyes and listened to the dull roar of the wind and rain outside battering against the outside of the library. Twilight began to muse over the wording of her next letter to the princess, and what exactly she had learned. After a semi-conscious brainstorm, she had managed to come up with the subject of her letter; sometimes neither facing your fear nor studying it will make it go away. But a good friend always will. Twilight quietly muttered something about "sounding good" before drifting off into a deep sleep.
> Slithering Terror
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Twilight’s eyes flicked back and forth slowly, her eyelids only half open, to shield from the blinding late-morning sun. She was approaching the middle of a large, grassy meadow, where her friends were picnicking on the usual checkered blanket. Quite the assortment of food was laid out; several bowls of fruit were carefully stacked around a large plate filled with sandwiches and cupcakes. Twilight’s friends were all talking, eating, and laughing with each other--except for Pinkie Pie. She was sitting unusually still, her eyes fixed on the skies above.

“Oh... Twilight!” Fluttershy smiled cheerfully but awkwardly as her eyes darted from Rarity to her. “I wasn’t sure you’d make it.”

“Yes, Darling. You said you had pressing matters to attend. We were wondering if you were really planning to join us at all,” Rarity said as she took a petite nibble of her sandwich.

“Always good ta see ya, Twi!” Grinned Applejack as she tilted her hat towards the sunlight.

Twilight smiled and had to look around the group before she noticed that somepony was missing. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?”

Pinkie pointed her hoof up at a stout, rounded cloud almost directly overhead. “She’s been up there the whole time!”

Twilight scanned the skies, looking for a fast-moving, rainbow-colored speck among the sea of blue overhead. Twilight frowned and turned back to Pinkie.

“What--is she taking a nap?”

“Give her a second...” Pinkie’s tail began to violently twitch back and forth just as Rainbow Dash burst down through the cloud they were watching.

Pinkie nearly jumped out of her skin in sudden excitement: “Here she comes!!! That was so cool!”

Rainbow Dash kept falling slowly toward the ground, hooves and wings spread out flat and wide, thin trails of cloud vapor streaking off of the sides of her body. She carefully waited until the last moment before tilting her wings, slowing her descent just before landing next to the picnic blanket. 

“Hey, Twi. Glad you could make it!”

Twilight smiled. “Thank you, and thanks for clearing the sky too!”

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow in a moment of confusion. “What? …oh, right, you haven’t seen it yet! Wait there!”

 Rainbow zoomed back up to the cloud she had just fallen through and carefully lowered it to the ground. Twilight’s eyes widened at the perfectly Rainbow-Dash-shaped hole through the center of the cloud. In fact, it was better than perfect. The shape of Rainbow Dash’s body was portrayed like a painting in every detail: the curvature of each feather, the shapes of her ears poking through the top of her mane--even the split ends of her tail were perfectly preserved in the fluffy pillows of the cloud.

Rainbow let the cloud go--and it floated gently back up into the sky among the others like it was in a Rainbow-Dash-themed exhibit at the art gallery--before the pony herself touched down lightly next to Twilight and struck the same pose she’d left in the cloud.

“Whaddya think? Did it capture my good side or my awesome side?”

Twilight blinked and rubbed at the back of her head nervously, unsure of how best to answer.

“Ahhm… both…?” Twilight gave an anxious smile, hoping that would satisfy. 

Rainbow turned to inspect her handiwork once more, rubbing at her chin with a hoof.

“Heck yeah! How could anypony go wrong with this form? Artistic genius!” Rainbow stomped her hoof into the ground triumphantly. Then: “Thanks, Twilight.” She smiled warmly at her friend.

Twilight giggled and sat down on the picnic blanket. “Honest. I’m surprised the cloud didn’t just fall apart.”

Rainbow’s ears perked up even more, eager to show off her knowledge. “True! Most clouds do just fall apart once somepony bucks them, but these are a bit tougher than usual. I rolled them up to make a heavier cloud, and I’d say I’ve finally got the technique down!”

Applejack tossed an apple core over her shoulder and grinned from across the blanket. “Rainbow, we know. You’ve been doin’ it all day! I’m surprised there’s even any clouds left!”

Twilight glanced up at the skies once more. Now that Applejack mentioned it, the sky above them did seem unusually clear.

Rainbow scoffed. “I guess nopony would expects a farm filly to have an appreciation for the fine arts. I, on the other hoof-”

In the background, Rarity brought a hoof to her mouth and coughed lightly, covering up her growing urge to laugh.

        Applejack tapped her chin thoughtfully before responding. “Now that yah mention it, it reminds me of the snow angels me an’ Applebloom wer makin’ last winter.” 

        “Eh, snow angels are alright, I guess… though I’ll bet it didn’t have wings like my cloud- angel- Dash!”

        Rarity lowered her hoof from her mouth and spoke sternly with recently regained composure. “Ladies, please. Twilight has arrived at last; let’s not ruin our picnic with petty squabbles.” Her demeanour brightened, and she turned to Twilight with a warm smile. “It really is wonderful that you could take a break from your studies to join us, Twilight.”

Twilight smiled awkwardly and rubbed at the back of her head with a hoof. “Well... I’m just glad I could be here with my friends after all!”

“Picnics are always better with more friends!” exclaimed Pinkie as she flung the cherry on her nose high into the air and caught it in her mouth on the way down. “And now that the show’s over; lets eat!” Pinkie swallowed the cherry whole before tossing another cherry even higher into the air, wavering carefully back and forth underneath it, and letting out a short whine after it bounced off the side of her mouth. She quickly snatched it up and threw it in her mouth, looking back and forth, shifty eyed.

“Mmmn…” Pinkie savored the small fruit for a long time. “Cherry-ey!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at Pinkie. “Uh, Pinkie? You do know that’cher not supposed’ta eat the seeds right?”

“Well, duh! I’m not eating them, Silly. I’m saving them!”

Applejack’s expression deadpanned as she tried to make sense of what she had just heard. “...whut?”

“Yeah! You eat a bunch of cherries, save the seeds in the corner of your mouth aaaaaaaaand….” Pinkie spun around and braced herself in the dirt, spreading her hind legs. Her tail and usually poofy mane rose and straightened out as though she were a hound on a scent. Then she took a deep breath and spat out a surprising number of cherry seeds in a row like a gatling gun, pelting a dandelion about ten feet away with amazing accuracy. Its seeds blew freely away in the breeze as proof of the remarkable deed.

Applejack sat dumbfounded. “Well, I’ll be. That was some fine shootin’, Pinkie!”

Pinkie sat proudly on her haunches and responded with a put-on drawl of her own. “Ah learned it o’er the good ol’ days back on the farm!” Pinkie and Applejack shared a chuckle as a loud crunch came from Twilight’s side.

“Dig in, Twi! Everything’s great!” Spike said as he crudely gnawed on the side of a sapphire the size of his arm.

“Huh? Spike? Where’d you come from?”

Spike pulled the oversized gem from his mouth and wiped his mouth off with his arm, leaving a trail of drool. “What--you didn’t think I’d miss a picnic, did you? Why aren’t you eating, anyway?”

“I... think it’s a little rude to show up at a picnic and eat without adding to the party a bit… isn’t it?”

Pinkie Pie’s crosseyed gaze, locked intently on the cherry tenuously balanced on her nose, shifted over to Twilight as soon as she’d cutely rolled it down into her mouth with her tongue. “Take whatever you want, Silly! It’s your dream.” She started playing with yet another cherry from the bowl, rolling it around the edges of her hoof without letting it fall.

“Well... alright…” Twilight giggled nervously, “I mean, after all, it’s a picnic, right?” She reached out for the plate on front of her, snatched a cupcake, and bit in.

“Oh! Eww! Pinkie! What happened to these cupcakes!? Did you get Applejack to help you again or something?”

Instead of giggling as expected, Pinkie tilted her head, looking honestly confused. “Cupcakes? What cupcakes?”

“Oh, I don’t know, the ones right in front of you?! They’re the most bland tast- AUUGH!”

The odd lump of cupcake suddenly sprang to life it in Twilight’s mouth, thrashing around violently. Twilight gagged and spat as hard as she could. The color faded from her face as she realized she had just spat out the head off of a snake, the body of which was coiled on the blanket in front of her. Twilight suppressed a sudden urge to vomit. She wiped her mouth with the side of her hoof, smearing it with a bloody red stain. She could only stare in horror, panting, trying to catch her breath.

The decapitated snake’s body writhed back and forth unnaturally, spattering blood everywhere, all over itself and the picnic blanket. For whatever reason, Twilight felt more tense and disgusted than frightened. Her gasps for breath were interrupted by Pinkie’s familiar bubbly, infectious, giggle. Twilight turned gawked at her.

“Pinkie! How could you even think of laughing at me like that!?”

Twilight’s pained indignance only made Pinkie laugh harder. Before long, she was doubled over in joy and pain. Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes while she began gasping for breath. “Snake! What are you talking about? It’s just a muffin, Silly!” Pinkie fell on her side, curled up in laughter. 

As Twilight stared, horrified, at the dead snake coiling and  uncoiling right in front of her, Pinkie dropped her muffin, going wide eyed and making loud, choking gulps for air. Pinkie reached to Twilight for help, her eyes desperate and pleading. Twilight tried to get to her and help her spit out the muffin stuck in her throat, but she couldn’t move a muscle. The snake had bitten her while in her throat, causing paralysis. Twilight stared in terror and disbelief while Pinkie gagged loudly and collapsed on the picnic blanket, no longer breathing. Pinkie’s dead eyes stared up at Twilight as if still trying to ask for help. The sound of her laughter from only moments before echoed in Twilight’s ears.

Twilight could barely let out a sob before a monstrous crash erupted all around her and daylight turned to smoky, roiling shadows. The food on the blanket was replaced by emptiness. The rest of her friends were soullessly staring off into the distance with expressionless faces. Nothing moved except for the writhing snake. The blanket had lost all color, and the grass around it--what little she could still see of it--looked sparse and dead. Shadow closed into a near solid wall around them.

When the snake stopped writhing and died, Twilight could move again. She shook her head, tears pouring out of her eyes. “Pinkie!” She crawled to her friend and shook her. She knew it wouldn’t work, and it didn’t. So she dashed around the blanket from pony to pony, shaking them. “Rainbow Dash? Rarity? This isn’t funny! I don’t like this!” Her voice got higher and more desperate with each one. Fluttershy was last, her face covered by her mane. She started reaching a hoof towards her friend but stopped and tensed when she heard a soft, sobbing whimper from her side.

“T- Twilight… don’t leave me alone…”

“Spike!” Twilight gasped happily and turned to her assistant, glad there was someone left. But when she saw him…

Spike crawled to her inch by inch slowly from the other end of the blanket, leaving a dark stain from the fatal gash across the front of his neck. The color faded from his body as he bled out--from its usual purple and green to dull grey before crumbling to ashes at her feet. Twilight instinctively pulled her hoof back as the pile of dust that used to be her best friend dissipated in the wind. She screamed, choking out his name over and over as she tried to gather up his ashes, but not even her magic could get a hold of any of them.

“No!!! Spike! Pinkie! I didn’t want them dead!” She cried out, sobbing uncontrollably as the spiraling clouds of shadow closed in around Twilight herself. Tears poured out of her eyes as she just stared at the spot where her best friend had just collapsed. “Oh, Celestia… Spik-!” She fell to her haunches and covered her mouth with a hoof, swallowing her vomit.

Two sickle-like fangs bored their way into the side of Twilights rear right hoof. The decapitated snake’s head firmly attached itself to her leg. This time, a tingling, warm sensation spread from the bite as the snake’s venom began to course through her veins. Twilight beat the snake head with her front hooves and tried to rip it off of her leg, but it remained firmly attached. She screamed uncontrollably until she suddenly had a brilliant moment of clarity:

“Fluttershy! Fluttershy can talk to it and get it off!”

Twilight pulled herself along the blanket back to Fluttershy, grabbed as high as she could reach on her flanks, and shook her, trying to wake her. Twilight screamed at her friend to save her.

“Fluttershy! Help me! Fluttershy, please! PLEASE! Wake up, Fluttershy! Fluttershy, help me; I’M GOING TO DIE!”

Fluttershy finally turned to Twilight, the faint glistening of tears rolling down her cheeks under her hair when she lifted her head to speak. Instead of words, a long, forked tongue shot out of Fluttershy’s mouth followed by one large, brown snake slithering from her throat. Forgetting her pain, Twilight gasped and scrambled back, and Fluttershy opened her eyelids to reveal the twisted, mangled heap of snakes that had balled up in her eye sockets. Fluttershy’s skin wriggled and squirmed before snakes were ejected from every orifice. They slithered off in every direction once they hit the ground, leaving her body an empty husk, digested from the inside out.

Twilight’s mind went absolutely blank; she jumped up despite her fear and pain and ran as hard as she could. Her body moved almost on its own accord like it was willing itself to escape death. She pummeled her way through the wall of black fog surrounding what used to be her picnic and ended up on a dusky but straight cobbled road. The darkness loomed on either side of the road, determining her path for her. The hospital shone in the distance at the end of the road; she before she took off toward it.

Ghostly silhouettes of buildings, the remains of Ponyville, phased in and out of existence in the surrounding darkness as Twilight ran along the road. Nondescript pony figures stood in front of the houses chatting noncommittally, but their colors were listless. Her panic-fueled dash brought her no closer to the hospital. Twilight slowed to a dull trot, dripping sweat, the venom starting to overcome her. She reached her shaking hooves toward the blurring vision of the hospital.

The same wall of black smoke or shadow that had surrounded the picnic always followed the same distance behind her, extending up to the now midnight sky, rolling over Luna’s bust in the silver moon watching her. Twilight had almost slowed to a stop when she saw she was leaving a trail of light-purple liquid. Her eyes widened in horror as she followed it along the ground to the bite mark. It had turned into a giant, festering hole with a light-purple liquid seeping down her leg.

“The poison...! No! NO!”

She felt so weak, she almost gave in, dropped to the ground, and wept as the end approached. But she wanted to live. She summoned the last of her strength and ran at the hospital harder than she’d ever run. The tears she was trying to hold back welled in her eyes as she ran. Rain began to fall from the black sky above, soaking everything with a murky, black liquid. The wind whipped at her face, making her wince, making her struggle to keep her eyes open, fixed on the hospital. But she knew she wasn’t going to make it. The harder she ran, the more desperate she became, the more it faded into the murky distance, growing grayer and less real. In the end, she tripped and landed hard. She shakily stood back up--only to tilt and immediately fall again, slipping in what she thought at first was mud. But when she looked behind to her right back hoof, the one the snake jaws had attached themselves to, it had melted up to her flank into a pile of lavender goo.

“No!!! Help me! Somepony! I… I can’t… do… it...”

Twilight’s calls for help turned into quiet sobs as she dragged what was left of her along the ground with her front hooves. With one last panicked look, she turned around to find that the whole lower half of her body was a purple pile of mush. Crying hard now, she pulled herself forward--hoof after hoof--as more of her body liquefied. The ground began to rise to Twilight’s eye level; her upper body was liquefying as well. The sound of rainfall and the dull roar of thunder echoed around Twilight as the dark rainwater fell around her, melting all but her head and turning her surroundings to pure, empty blackness.

Next thing she knew, she was whole again. She gasped in relief to see her body intact. The sound of rushing air whipped past Twilight’s ears. She couldn’t be sure, but it felt like she was falling. Her surroundings were completely dark; nothingness surrounded her from all sides. Twilight mentally braced herself for an impact she hoped wouldn’t come. The deafening whoosh of air raced up past her faster and faster. She could feel her mane and tail whipping around violently as she fell. She flailed her hooves around wildly, trying to grab at anything that might slow her fall.

“If only I could be back home… in my bed with Spike, reading him a good book…”

Twilight closed her eyes and felt a single tear fall down her cheek.

“Spike… My friends…”

The dark walls of the shadowy tunnel closed around her, constricting to the point where she wasn’t falling anymore. Instead, she could hardly move. She struggled, kicking the walls of the tunnel, which gave against her kicks momentarily but then tightened back in place around her. They got smaller and smaller…

Twilight sat straight up in bed, heaving for air. The covers were so tangled and knotted around her she could barely move. Before she realized where she was, her blankets were strewn on the floor from her flailing her hooves wildly in every direction. But she soon came fully around to a gust of icy air in her face.

The window across from her bed had blown violently open in the storm; the crack of the round, wooden window frame against her wall had thankfully woken Twilight up before the situation had gotten any more dire. The regular echoes of thunderclaps against the hills pounded in her ears like the strange crashing sounds from her dream. She threw off her remaining blankets as hard as she could and climbed down off her moist, chill mattress.

Twilight shivered, blinking her heavy eyelids. “Ugh… so that’s why I couldn’t move at the end… must have been tossing and turning really hard… …Can’t see a thing, but I’ve got to get that window shut… I hope I’m really awake and this isn’t another dumb nightmare… Wow, the storm’s right on top of us. Good thing I remembered to enhance the magical ground for the lightning rod. This night could have been a big disaster already.” Twilight gently pressed a hoof against the side of her temple and stumbled, feeling physically exhausted. “To top things off, that was anything but a deep sleep.”

She gulped, having reminded herself of her nightmare--then took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief that she wasn’t really melted or falling forever. She silently thanked Luna for lending her the strength to see her through it all. She had managed to catch a glimpse of Luna in the moon, had she not?

Regardless, now that her eyes had more or less adjusted to the dark, she was going to try to get across the room quietly enough that she didn’t wake Spike. Then she halted as the realization hit her.

“Wait, shouldn’t the window blowing open have woken him up too?”

“...Spike?” She called out quietly, hoping to hear him groggily reply--nothing came.

Maybe she wasn’t fully awake yet. She started to feel nervous again, the anxieties from her dream creeping slowly back up on her in the dark. Taking a slight, shaky breath and focusing a tiny surge of magic up her horn, she bathed the room in a pale, pink-purple glow. Spike’s bed--and the Spike that should have been in it--were both missing. Twilight tensed up, gritting her teeth. But first things first. She crossed the room with quick, loud, worried hoofclops to shut the window, looking around the rest of the room for her baby dragon as she did so.

“Spike…?!” Twilight called, loudly enough that he’d be able to hear her downstairs in the study bathroom just in case. When no reply came still, she felt a shiver run through her.

“Oh no…” Twilight whispered to herself, “maybe this really is the start of another nightmare…”

Twilight ran down the stairs from her loft to her study, scanning the area, almost tripping because of the dim lighting. "Spike! Spike!!! Where are you?" She needed his voice to make her feel secure again. “Am I having another nightmare?!” She gulped, brought a hoof to the side of her head, and smacked herself firmly across the cheek. Nothing. No pain whatsoever. She stared at her hoof under her dim horn light, confirming that it was still solid. She started to freak out.

The sight of her desk made a chill run down her spine. That snake! If yesterday really happened, there should be a jar with a snake in it on her desk. She grit her teeth and slowly walked closer to the desk so her light would reach, scared to reveal the answer.

There was indeed a jar on it. She squinted at the jar, trying to make out the shape of the snake beyond the refraction grain of her table in the glass. In the minimal light, she couldn’t tell if the snake was in it or not.

“It’s got to be in there,” Twilight reassured herself nervously. “It’s pretty small. Even if it could climb up glass, it wouldn’t be able to get past the lid… that’s… gone?!”

She felt her whole body tightening as she stared at the top of the jar. There was definitely no more lid. “This is real, and there’s a snake loose in the library!”

She let out a piercing scream and fought back the sting of tears in the corners of her eyes. But it was far and away too late. Breathing hard, she tried to talk herself down from an anxiety attack:

“Okay. Just think, Twilight. Spike and the snake are both missing. Maybe Spike took the snake. Find Spike. Where would he be..? He’s not in the bathroom. Maybe the kitchen getting a midnight snack? No, no, those don’t make sense anyway! What would he want with a snake in those places!? And where did his bed go? Is this some kind of prank?! Relax, Twilight… you don’t know if they’re even in the library. What if Spike released it outside? Yeah! That- good job, Twilight! That makes sense!”

She did relax a little at that possibility--then tensed back up two seconds later, her irrational mind taking an unusually large amount of control. “But, if he didn’t, then that means he could be right behind me and I wouldn’t even know!”

Twilight reflexively whipped her head around and glanced at the ground behind her. The ground--as far as she could see--was bare.

“No, no…” she continued shakily, “just because there could be a snake loose somewhere in the house doesn’t mean that it will hurt me. ...unless it’s mad that I’ve been keeping it in the jar!”

Her eyes darted back and forth across the room even though she couldn’t see for more than a couple feet in any direction.

“Okay… okay… you can do this, Twilight. If the snake is loose in the library, all you need to do is find it and put it back in this jar. That’s all.” She was just going to pick it up when a flash of lightning and an immediate, deafening roar of thunder made her shriek and lose control of her magic as if stepping on a tack and dropping a stack of dishes.

The purple glow jumped off her horn and danced all around her desk, knocking everything off--flinging the heavier items across the room, including the snake jar. The thick glass smashed magnificently against the wall to the right of the doorway leading downstairs, sending shards of glass exploding in every direction, rendering her floor a minefield.

Twilight grit her teeth, literally about to collapse under the pressure, her legs shaking and her stomach in knots. She gulped and weakly sat down, placing a hoof over her racing heart as she tried to gather her composure. She mentally lectured herself for her lapse in control, recalling one of the most basic magic-kindergarten lessons.

“Come on Twilight, get a grip! If you can’t even control your emotions then how are you supposed to control your magic?” Her ears and tail drooped as she looked from the raging storm outside her windows to the glinting shards of glass scattered across the floor.

“I usually have no problem with that. There’s a snake loose, I must have gotten no sleep at all… This isn’t a normal situation, so maybe I should just try to use as little magic as possible instead. It’ll be hard to get around, but a magic surge like that on the main floor of the library could… really… destroy everything. Thank goodness it didn’t catch on a book and start a fire this time.”

A little calmer now after talking with herself--after she’d made up her mind about something and counted her blessings--she carefully stood back up and levitated the larger glass shards into a neat pile on her desk, only using the glow from the levitation to navigate.

After a couple minutes, she gave a louder sigh than before--this time about the mess rather than the situation. Mindless, repetitive tasks did often help her focus, she remembered. “It’s probably not perfect, but it’s enough that I shouldn’t step on any if I’m careful. I’ll get Spike to finish it up tomorrow. Can’t get through that scale armor,” she chuckled, fondly picturing her friend recklessly stepping all over the glass while sweeping it up.

Twilight nodded to herself. “Okay, I can do this. I’ll need to find another jar to seal the snake when I find it, but the goal now is to get downstairs. Cross bridges as you come to them, Twilight.” She carefully, slowly stepped across the dark, oak floor in the dim moonlight from her upstairs windows. After a few tentative paces, she reached the staircase leading down to the main floor, only identifiable by the step down and the deeper shade of black threatening to swallow her up. She gulped once. Never before had her own house seemed so alien. She was straining to see anything at all.

In the end, she found herself feeling her way down the stairs, going down each step slowly, getting all four hooves down on each step then feeling her way along the wall with one hoof to make sure she didn’t lose her balance before stepping down again.

Though relieved that at least the walls of her own library hadn’t shifted around her, she still felt, at the least, apprehensive. She took one last look behind at her room before she descended so far as to lose sight of it. Everything was still as she left it, bathed in the dim illumination of her windows with the muffled roars of the wind and rain above.

She nervously started up talking to herself again, inspiring confidence with a lecture.

“You’re not in a dream, Twilight; everything’s okay. Nothing’s going to jump out at you. It’s just the library. My library! I like my library, it’s safe and calm and quiet. I’ve got friends here--like Spike! Spike can take care of himself. He’ll be completely fine when I find him, and we’ll be able to find that snake together if he doesn’t already have it with him. And then we’ll release it, and it can live its happy snake life far, farfarfarfarfaaaaaaar away from me.”

She ran out of breath from how far away she wanted the snake to live. The moment she stopped talking, she realized how much louder it had gotten even halfway down the stairs; the bulk of the storm’s noise was blocked by the tree’s canopy, which only surrounded the upper floors. The sound of the rain slapping the ground was loud enough that it might as well be raining indoors all around her. The ambient glow caused by the light through the windows was also getting brighter, as the few streetlamps around the library shone proudly in spite of  the storm. She relaxed her hoof against the wall a little now that she could see better, letting the tension of of her shoulders.

She suddenly jerked her hoof off the wall. “Snakes can climb!”

Twilight shook, her teeth actually chattering as cold chills ran up and down her spine with the realization that she could have been bitten several times over by now.

“I… can have just a little more light, can’t I?” Twilight focused onto her horn once more and increased the illumination around her. Dim outlines of shelves desks and book stands began to stand out from the darkness and throw long, dancing shadows. Letting loose a small sigh of relief upon seeing the familiar details of the downstairs main room, Twilight brought her hoof down to the second-lowest stair before a long, brown snake slithered up the wall next to her.

Twilight screamed and jumped away from the serpent but tottered and lost her balance without her hoof on the wall. Her back right hoof went off the edge of the step she was standing on, sending her crashing down into the floor below headfirst. She didn’t even stop screaming as she scrambled to her hooves and tried to levitate it off the wall and capture it, teeth grit, desperate, eyes wide. No! How could I have missed it?! she panicked when she saw the snake was not inside her magic field.

Freaking out, Twilight charged a surge of magic into her horn and fired the huge bolt of magic, aiming at where she thought the wall was, eyes shut tight. She missed, of course. With a huge crash, the second-lowest stair blew to pieces. Realizing a moment too late that perhaps that hadn’t been the best way to deal with even something so dangerous as a snake,Twilight shielded her eyes with a hoof as wood fragments flew everywhere. The second stair to the bottom, where she had been standing when she saw the snake, had been blasted in two. More precisely, a little under one half of the stair was now a smoking, splintery board on the floor. The stair above and the stair below it had received deep scorch marks. And there was no sign of the snake.

“Did I hit it? Did I miss? There’s no way that could have missed! I can’t have been seeing things… right? Oh, Celestia! So much for holding off on the magic! It’s going to take a whole day to prepare the spell to fix that!” As if adding insult to injury, she spied her target still on the wall: a brown striation in the wood that she had hastily mistaken for a snake.

Twilight groaned and pressed a hoof against her forehead for but a moment before ripping it back away due to a sharp jolt of pain. The left side of her head was now home to a sizable, tender bump.

“Eugh… that’s going to swell even more unless I get ice on it right away,” she said to herself, coming back to her senses again--which, unfortunately, always seemed to require some small disaster.

Twilight carefully set her hoof back on the side of her head, pressing gently against the bump, trying to ignore the throbs of her pulse in her temples.

“Calm down, Twilight… The snake, the storm, Spike missing: it’s all getting to you. You’re letting it get to you. First you broke that bottle because of the lightning; now you’re destroying your own library because of a snake you thought you saw… It’s just a Garter snake; it can’t even hurt you. I’m just… instinctively so afraid of it. Even the way it moves is just… eugh.” Twilight shuddered unable to finish her thought.

Twilight sighed, looking at her newly cracked and smoking stairs, and lowered her shoulders. “I’ll just have to leave this all here until tomorrow. There’s nothing I can really do about it now. ...it’s not like anypony but me and Spike goes up there anyway, and he’s gone. I’ll just set it back in place so I don’t trip over it on accident.”

Twilight carefully used levitation to replace the step as best as she could, giving up on the failed idea of getting by without magic. In this situation, she was clearly very much prone to letting her magic go out of control whether she was trying to avoid using it or not--and, if that was the case, there was no reason to struggle to survive without it. The chunk of stairboard lay crooked, its left end almost rising to the level of the next step up; but it was the best she could manage, as she was starting to contract a splitting headache from the bump. She quickly headed for the kitchen to get herself an ice pack.

The moaning gales outside of the Golden Oak Library grew louder as Twilight neared the kitchen. The sound was reassuring, actually: an element of regularity in what felt like unfamiliar circumstances. To help matters, the faint rustle of feathers rose from the ground as she passed through the doorframe.

“Owlowiscious! I almost forgot about you!” Twilight let out, relieved.

Between her horn and the window, Twilight could indeed make out the round feathered silhouette of her pet owl flying back up to his perch, occasionally nipping at his talons and tilting his head back and forth. Her horn light didn’t reach up that far, but she could still tell it was his shape concealed in those shadows.

“Owlowiscious, am I glad to see you! Spike and the snake went missing; did you see what happened to them?”

Owlowiscious clacked his beak in a way that she had never heard before then stood silent and still, not even answering with his characteristic hoot.

“Owlowiscious? Are you ok...?”

Twilight paused nervously for a moment, giving her pet a longer chance to respond, but the screech owl remained silent. As Twilight crept closer the dim illumination of her horn crept up the wall.

The darkness outside lit up with a blinding flash, illuminating just enough of Owlowiscious to show his beak and talons dripping with blood. Twilight let out a piercing, tense scream at what she saw and clumsily floundered backwards away to the slow, eerie roll of thunder.

She stopped, shivering, when her rump met the wall. She could barely see a thing; the world around her was a shadowy blur as her eyes tried to adjust to the sudden flash of light--and her head was sore and spinning. She grit her teeth as the shock of what she’d seen turned slowly into deep, biting fear. …Was the roof leaking in the storm…? No… The decapitated head of the snake, propped up by bits of its own carcass, stared up at her from the middle of the pool of blood was standing in.

Twilight’s breath left her the moment she tried to scream. All she could do was back up against the wall on her hind legs, as high as she could. She could feel her own heartbeat over the hammering rain. The mental image of Spike from her dream, the gash across his neck, about to die in a pool of his own blood flashed through her mind. As it all went wrong again, as Twilight shook, her eyes trailed back up to her blood-stained owl, his dim form bent over and pulling at whatever was between his talons. She froze up, back stuck to the wall, her eyes going wide, her breath coming short, shrieking. She knew what he had in his talons, and she didn’t want to see it.

She tried to run, but dropping back down on all fours caused her to nearly step on the snake’s head. She shifted hard at the last second and slipped in blood instead, falling to the ground on top of the head. Her body froze up as a twinge of sharp pain shot up her spine from her belly. Adrenaline and fear coursed through her veins as she tried to make sense of what she was experiencing. The dead snake had bitten her?! Maybe it wasn’t dead! No, the very concept was absurd! Impossible! She could see, hear Owlowiscious eating it! But the impossible was happening to her!

The next thing she knew, Twilight’s instincts had kicked in, focusing a powerful surge of magic into her horn and teleporting her to the main room of the library. The force of her adrenaline-fueled teleportation sent her careening backwards into a bookshelf. A small avalanche of literature rained down on Twilight, burying her. Twilight immediately shot up out of the pile, shaking around like mad, sending books flying to and fro across the room. “Get it off! GET IT OFF!”

Not realizing it wasn’t even attached to her anymore, Twilight charged her horn with a great deal of magic; enough to bathe the library in a bright pink glow. She raced out of the pile of books towards the exit. She grabbed the handle of the door and shoved it as hard as she could--with enough force practically pushing it off of its hinges. Even so, the door barely budged more than a few inches. Another shove, and the wind caught it, making it fly open and slam into the side of her house. Twilight realized just a moment too late how harsh the storm had really gotten.

Like the blast of cold air from her window when she’d just woken up, the cold rain shocked some sense back into her, and she brought up a hoof to shield her eyes from the torrential rainfall while it soaked her and everything within a few feet of the door. In a sudden flash of lightning, she could see the shadow of the canopy of her house violently swaying. Thunder followed immediately after.

Twilight stepped back from her door just in time; the wind quickly changed direction and slammed the door shut a mere inch from the tip of her snout. And that was it. Something inside her snapped under the pressure. Like a filly afraid of the dark, she started running back up to her room to hide under the covers until everything wasn’t scary anymore. She had barely run two steps up the stairs, however, when she heard an ominous crack. Her front left hoof predictably dropped through the board she had blasted before, tripping her and sending her facefirst into the front of the fourth stair up. She shrieked, watching the stair get closer, and closed her eyes. Smack. Twilight groaned in agony as a warm stream of liquid began flowing down her nostril over her lips.

Twilight covered her nose as best as she could with a hoof and desperately hobbled her way up the rest of the stairs to her room as fast as she could, nearly crying with frustration, fatigue, and pain from her two injuries now. Her desperate eyes locked on her good old bed.

There it is! No, wait! She froze up again, anxiety taking over and making her totally forget that she wasn’t in any real danger--not from the dead snake or the storm. Covers aren’t good enough. Bathroom? Maybe…! ...no. Nonono. Too many places for a snake to hide. It’s gotta be small and secure and… yes! Closet!

        * * * *

“Mmmn...ahhhhh!”

Spike hopped out of bed after a good night’s sleep. He reached his arms way up in the air and puffed his chest out, taking a long and much needed stretch.

“I gotta say, the basement was even quieter than I thought it’d be! No storm, no Twilight snoring… I should sleep down here more often. I wonder what time it is? Heh, I hope Twilight didn’t need me for anything important, heheh.”

Spike grabbed his bed under an arm and awkwardly walked up the stairs to the kitchen while counting his usual tasks on his fingers.

“There shouldn’t be too many books to reshelve… I hope. Unless Twilight went on one of her late-night learning benders. Let’s see… There weren’t too many dishes yet either, I think. Maybe the floor could use a sweep, or... wait, Twilight brought home that snake, didn’t she? Maybe needed help studying it! Oh, no.”

He began running up the stairs. Then, reconsidering, he stopped in place when he reached the top of the stairs and started to drag his bed behind him lazily with one claw as he walked to the door.

“Spike, Spike, Spike, what are you talking about? Since when does Twi need help studying? She gets so into it sometimes she forgets to eat, which means I really won’t need to do dishes for a while. Wait, I’ll make her breakfast to make up for sleeping in!” Spike skillfully tossed his bed up in the air and stretched out his neck, smirking to himself. The edge of his bed caught on the tip of his spikes for easy carrying.

“I guess I should ask her if she’s hungry first, though. Then, if she doesn’t need me for anything, I can visit Rarity!”

Spike paused with his claw on the handle of the door as he dreamily pictured Rarity. It didn’t matter what she was doing; from relaxing at the spa to working on her dresses, she always managed to maintain an air of grace and beauty. Truly, Spike thought to himself, he must be a lucky dragon to be allowed the privilege of her presence.

A happy sigh escaped the young dragon’s lips as he walked into the kitchen. Bright morning sunshine was beaming in from the window. Almost immediately, he was greeted by a loud “Whooo” from Owlowiscious.

“It’s just me, Owlowiscious. Crazy weather we had last night, huh? I almost can’t believe you’re still awake. How bad does it look out there?”

Owlowiscious didn’t make a sound; just watched as Spike set his bed on the floor and climbed up a stool in front of the kitchen window.

“Wow, look at all those branches! I hope the library wasn’t damaged too badly. At least everything looks ok for the most part.”

Owlowiscious turned his head completely around on his perch, giving a few small hoots, awaiting the inevitable as Spike shuffled across the kitchen.

Spike gasped and ran to the bright crimson stain on the floor. The smudged imprints of hooves were clearly visible in the pool of blood.

Spike gulped and looked back to Owlowiscious looking slightly pale. “Owlowiscious, is this what I think this is?”

“Whooo who.” Owlowiscious slowly turned his head back to Spike and nodded.

“You don’t know whose blood this is? What happened last night? Where’s Twilight? Is she ok?”

“Whoo.” Owlowiscious extended a brown feathered wing to the main study, probably thankful that he couldn’t explain his role in Twilight’s mishaps.

Spike responded, worriedly looking at the hoofprints instead of Owlowiscious. “Twilight! Is she ok? What happened in here!? Was there a fight?!”

Spike gaped as his eyes moved from one side of the study to the other. Each detail that he noticed looked worse than the one before. A swarm of books peppered the floor and an entire shelf got knocked loose! There was a huge puddle of water on the floor in front of the door. There was no way she’d gone out in last night’s storm, right? Maybe she was forced! As he reached for the handle on the door, he saw it was indeed adorned with a bloody smear partially washed away in the rain.

“The attacker tried to cover up his hoofprint as he ran out! Wait, no! Did he just forget about the blood in the kitchen? And where are the hoofprints leading out into this room, anyway?” Spike gulped and continued his investigation at the stairs. The second stair from the bottom had been blasted clean off!

“Oh no… whatever Twilight was fighting had to have been really strong!” Spike marveled at it for a split second before getting even more worried. “Oh no... I hope she’s ok… wait, is that more blood!?”

There was a huge smack of it on the fourth stair from the bottom and then several unmistakable drops of it on each next stair up--as well as faded, bloody hoofprints on all the stairs. Tears welled in Spike’s eyes as he ran back to Owlowiscious.

“Owlowiscious... i-is Twilight ok? Where is she!? Help me find her, please!”

Owlowiscious leapt from his perch and flew up the stairs to Twilight’s room with a series of quick, short hoots. Spike followed as fast as he could, doing his best to not step on any of the blood on the stairs along the way.

Twilight’s study was only slightly better than the main room below. An entire wall was littered with glass shards, launched at the wood and books with such force that they stuck in them. Owlowiscious had perched himself on a bookshelf next to the broom closet on that level. The floor in front of it was littered with several brooms, mops, and a bucket--all of which were thrown on the ground in a heap. Once again, Owlowiscious attempted to point Spike in the right direction with his wing. Spike tentatively marched himself up to the door and grabbed the handle, cowering in fear at what he might find on the other side.

Crrreeeeaaaaaaaaak.

The smell of blood immediately washed over Spike, making him flinch even harder. Spike eventually brought himself to open his eyes, gasping in horror at what he saw.

“T...Twilight?” Spike uttered, barely louder than a whisper.

Twilight’s lavender coat was stained dark red with multiple, snaking streaks of dried blood under her nose. She sat hunched over herself in a corner. Her mane and tail were a damp mess only made scarier by the slightly awkward angle her head was laying at. Her face and hooves were coated with blood and she had a painful looking bump on the side of her head. She looked like a corpse--all except for her fluttering eyelids. 

Tears of relief welled in the corners of Spike’s eyes when he realized that Twilight’s chest was rising and falling. She was still alive! He gasped as that tremendous weight was lifted from his heart.

“Oh, thank Celestia! Twilight, It’s me! Wake up!”

“Uuugh… where am I…” Twilight moaned as she slowly opened her bloodshot eyes. “Oww... I’m sore all over...”

Twilight turned her head sluggishly toward the sound of Spike’s voice, slowly opening her eyes--before turning away and shutting them again from the pain throbbing in her head from her injuries. Groaning, she curled up in a tight ball.

“Twilight? Are you ok? Sh-should I get help?”

“Rrgh! No! I’m fine!” she let out irritably, still hunched over, “...just… just give me a minute.” Twilight lifted her head and rubbed her eyes as they gradually adjusted to the light. Then she held her head with both hooves, moaning, as her movements brought on the pain again. Spike awkwardly watched Twilight slowly roll out of the closet on her side, making more pained moans as she stretched out her back, trying to stand up.

“Twi! What in the world happened?!” Spike asked anxiously, watching Twilight rise to her hooves in what looked like the most painful way possible.

Twilight opened an eye partially at Spike before answering as best as she could. “Therwus a snage an…” Twilight lowered her head in what looked like deep thought.

Spike blinked as an awkward moment of silence passed between them. Twilight’s head remained low to the ground in deep contemplation as Spike’s eyes trailed over the massive, swollen bruise on the side of her head. He winced slightly. Could that be what that splat of blood on the stairs was from?

Finally, Spike spoke up. “Twilight, were you attacked? Are you ok? If there’s something really bad going on, I can write a letter to the princess asking for help or-”

Spike’s inquiries were interrupted by a loud snore from Twilight as she stood in front of him, head still tilted down to the ground. Spike blinked in disbelief.

“You’re asleep?”

Spike’s jaw dropped as Twilight’s breathing became slow and rhythmic. He quickly shook off the disbelief and cupped his hands around the sides of his mouth.

“Twilight! Wake up!”

        Spike’s shout was immediately answered with a brief, incoherent mumble. He glanced to Owlowiscious for help, hoping in vain that the owl would be able to give him some clue. Owlowiscious merely shrugged his wings and tilted his head back and forth.

        Spike grit his teeth and took a step forward. Cupping his claws around his mouth, Spike shouted as loud as he could.

“TWIIIIIIIIILIIIIIIIIGHT!”

“Wuah!”

Twilight jolted backwards from where she was standing with startling speed, wobbling a bit on her feet as she stopped herself from crashing into the side of the broom closet she had been sleeping in. Twilight blinked, trying to remove the haziness from her eyes.

“S-Spike? Is that you...? Oh, thank goodness you’re okay!” 

Spike was unamused. “You just now figured out it was me? ...What do you mean, ‘I’m ok?’ You’re the one who’s-”

Twilight squinted at him, taking a step towards Spike. Spike nervously held his claws out towards her, ready to catch her if she were to fall on him. 

“Spike! I’m so glad you’re okay!” Twilight rushed forward to Spike, quickly overcoming his defenses and wrapping him in a tight hug. Spike smiled awkwardly and blushed, returning Twilight’s affections as best as he could, though he was confused and a little nervous about Twilight’s condition. Just as Spike finally got comfortable in Twilight’s embrace, Twilight shoved him away to hoof’s length and kept her front hooves on his chest, staring straight into his eyes with a mixed look of fear, fatigue, and desperation.

“Where did you go last night!? I was so worried about you!”

Spike winced at the pressure Twi was putting on his chest and gently grabbed onto the sides of Twilight’s hooves, moving them to his shoulders. “I... just couldn’t sleep last night because of the storm, so I took my bed to the basement… And why are you worried about me, anyway? What about you? Why’s the library torn apart? What happened to your head? And your nose?”

        Twilight gulped and shifted her eyes away from Spike as she tried to piece together the nightmare she’d managed to live through last night. “I… I woke up from a nightmare. You… and the snake… were both missing, so I went looking for you and… things… just… happened! Or I happened to them… or…”

        Spike raised an eyebrow as he gently helped Twilight take her hooves off of his shoulders and put them around his back. “You… beat yourself up or something? On purpose?” 

        Twilight flung an accusing hoof towards the stairs. “No, it wasn’t on purpose! It was dark and scary, and I was worried about you! But then Owlowiscious ate the snake, and the snake’s head attacked me, and… Spike! Oh, Spike! I’m so sorry I let you turn into dust. I’m so sorry!” Twilight grabbed Spike and pulled him into another tight hug. Twilight sniffled loudly and held back tears as Spike awkwardly returned the hug, not sure what to think or do.

        “Whoa… Twilight, what? I’m not dust. Are you sure that bump on your head isn’t serious…?”

        Twilight mumbled against the side of his head. “No, but in my nightmare you were! You died, and I couldn’t save you… And all my friends died too, and then I did… And it was all because the snake…”

        “Twilight…” Spike smiled. “It was just a dream. I’m not gonna die!”

        “Thank you Spike.” Twilight looked him in the eyes and smiled.

        Spike chuckled. “You really need a good night’s sleep.”

        “No, I… um, think I’m okay now.”

        “Yes you do, Twilight. I’ll help you get to bed.”

        Spike turned around in Twilight’s embrace and walked her forward carefully, holding her front hooves against his chest. They slowly managed up the stairs together, going one step at a time. Twilight smiled to herself; Spike was so dependable and loving. She awkwardly followed him halfway across the loft before climbing off of Spike’s back and onto her bed.

        “Spike… when I wake up, you’ve gotta remind me… Snakes! I’ve gotta…  study ‘em! There’s still lots more to learn!”

Spike would have responded, but Twilight’s sudden snoring alerted him to her already somnolent state. He chuckled at her instead, shut the curtains, and got all the way down the stairs from the loft before he buried his head in his claws at the sight of the glass-shard minefield. He’d almost forgotten he would have to spend the rest of the day picking up broken glass and mopping up bloodstains.

Still, Twilight’s words “thanks, Spike” kept echoing in his ears. He grabbed a broom from the floor and started sweeping up the glass with a big smile on his face.

* * * *

When Twilight opened her eyes again, she was sitting at her desk on the second floor of the library. She gasped and looked around. Everything was where she remembered: Spike sleeping soundly in his bed upstairs in her loft, the snake in its jar on her desk, her study books splayed out in front of her. She heaved a sigh of relief then rubbed her eyes.

“Did I… fall asleep here after studying too late? Oh, thank goodness it was all a dream. A nightmare, mostly, sure… but at least it had a happy ending! Oh, Spike,” she smiled, ”I don’t know what I’d do without you. …In fact,” she yawned, “I think it’s about time I joined you.”

Before Twilight could even get up, she spied an odd book partially buried under the notes she had been taking earlier. “What’s this? I don’t remember ever seeing this one…” she said to herself as she brushed her notes to one side. The title brazenly announced itself: Spikescales.

“Wait, I thought we didn’t have any books on specific breeds of snake...” Twilight narrowed her eyes at the detailed calligraphy on its cover. The more she stared at it, the more alluring it was. “Spike must have found it while I was sleeping and stuck it in here!” She put out her hoof to open the cover but drew it back as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of her head. She stared at it again. It drew her in with a strange, intense lure. The rest of her world faded away into shadow, the only remaining light coming from the candle on her desk. She put both her front hooves on the book.

Twilight opened straight into the middle of the book where the pages were thicker due to a color insert. It was a two-page spread, an anatomical diagram of the Spikescale. The snake in the picture was lifting the first few feet of its body straight up in a striking position with its jaws open. There were annotations to both sides of the drawing. Twilight skimmed over the left one, reciting the facts it bore for memorization.

“12 feet long… sharp, spiked back… extremely territorial, carnivorous, easily agitated, a threat to both ponies and animals.” Twilight grit her teeth; something was watching her. She looked back and forth, seeing only the calm shadows outside the reach of the glow of her reading candle. She turned back to her book, still on edge. Something just wasn’t right… She closed her eyes, trying to ease her mind through the anxiety. The bookcase behind her formed the open, hissing jaws of the snake. The giant Spikescale lunged out from behind her and coiled itself around her.

Twilight’s desk was knocked over, tipping forward and hitting the floor with a crash. Her books and notes went everywhere, and her candle lay on its side unextinguished on the floor. Twilight stomach suddenly tightly constricted, a twelve-foot-long slab of living muscle wrapped around her with deadly pressure. It was already too late by the time she’d recovered from the shock and started struggling. She beat at it with her hooves, arching her back, her eyes closed in fear; but it only tightened its embrace, squeezing the air from her lungs, while the candle’s flame spread to her notes, her books, and the desk itself.

The next time Twilight opened her eyes, she found herself face to face with the green, beady, slitted eyes of the gargantuan Spikescale snake from the textbook. Its thin row of tall, green, smooth spikes protruded out of the back of its head, trailing halfway down its neck. Its back was adorned with tiny purple scales while its underbelly was made of large, segmented, light-green, armor-like scales. It’s tail was barbed like the end of a spear.

Twilight managed to get out a single scream. “Spike! Help! Where are you…?! Help me! Please…” But the glimpse she managed to catch of her loft, shadows dancing in the flames of her burning library, revealed that his bed was empty. He must have escaped on his own. Even though she knew that was what he was taught to do in a fire, she still felt in her heart that he’d betrayed her as she faced her own death.

The snake slowly, deliberately opened its maw, revealing a long pink tongue flicking rapidly in the air between its rows of needle-sharp, curved fangs. It lowered its head toward hers, seeming to grin in terrible triumph. A drop of clear poison liquid accumulated and hung from each fang, glinting in the light of the fire. Twilight gasped for breath as the massive coils tightened around her, her heart pounding. She couldn’t move at all anymore; she could only watch herself about to be consumed. Her heart echoed louder and louder in her ears before everything came to an end.

* * * *

Twilight shot up in her bed, breathing hard and sweating. Midday sun pooled under the curtains.

“Spike… That snake… looked like… was… Spike…”