Darkly Familiar

Dear Journal,

Twilight’s sure been acting weird lately. She always sleeps weird and talks in her sleep when she’s got something to worry about, but I swear to Celestia she’s never looked happier or less stressed when she’s awake than she has recently. I don’t get what could be causing her to have such bad night’s sleeps then. It’s just weird…

On the bright side, she started giving me gems for doing any chore yesterday! She used to only give me small ones if I did a really good job on tough chores, but now she gives me decent sized ones just for doing as little as making her breakfast! They taste really good too!

Peewee tried to take a few gems away from the pile she gave me for dusting the Library today, but I stopped that pesky little phoenix. I deserve a reward every once in a while! I don’t get what he was squawking about either, but he looked really nervous.

He probably just wants to fly. I’ll let him out later. Anyway, off to get more gems! I mean off to organize the West Wing!

-Spike

***

“Hey Twilight? Sweet Belle invited me to go Crusading with her, Scoots, and Apple Bloom. Is it okay if I go?” Spike called across the study, where Twilight had situated herself with numerous odd books for the past 3 days.

Twilight tilted head minutely to detach herself only as much as was necessary from her book to answer Spike. Spike thought he saw a dark green flash through her one visible eye for a moment, but he blinked and it was gone.

“Of course Spike! Make sure you don’t forget to eat though. In fact, take these!” Twilight levitated a small pouch over to Spike, and then levitated a tray of gems over to the pouch, pouring more than 3/4 of the tray into the pouch.

“I don’t want one single gem left in that pouch when you get back okay?” Twilight smiled at Spike as he eagerly grabbed the pouch, and took 3 small gems out almost immediately.

“You got it! Bye Twilight!” Spike waved as eagerly charged out of the Library, munching gems eagerly along the way.

Twilight smiled motherly for a moment as she fully redirected herself back to her book after the Library’s door closed, grimacing for a moment as she got yet another headache and the smile was wiped from her face.

Twilight continued reading as she had done for the past 3 days for more than 4 hours with no form of break at all in between books. When she at last got up from her seat, it was as she put the last book from her “To Read” pile onto her “Finished” pile. The last book was entitled “Farming Across Equestria: Unicorn Spells vs. Earth Ponies”.

Twilight smiled darkly as she walked down to her basement, to the enormous pile of gems she had created for Spike the other day. Twilight sat down firmly at the chair she had set in front of the pile and slowly raised up each jewel one at a time with her magic. Whenever the gem looked unrealistic, Twilight threw it behind her, quickly dividing the pile in two.

When the last gem was sorted, Twilight moved the ones that had passed inspection into the far right corner of the basement, and dropped all the others into a bubbling cauldron nearby. While the gems slowly bubbled into a rainbow hued liquid, Twilight went over to her broom closet and removed a scale set along with a burlap sack full of large jewels.

Twilight carefully measured the weight of each gem from the sack against each of the gems she had placed in the corner of the basement. When she was satisfied with what she gleamed, proving that these gems were as close to actual gems as possible, she crushed 4 of the largest gems into a fine dust with a press she had magically enhanced to handle gems the other day.

Twilight shovelled all the dust from the actual gems into the cauldron where the melted gems were still boiling, and slowly extracted globs of the liquid and shaped it into a gem while freezing it with her ice spell to solidify the shape. Once all the melted gems had been reformed into solid shapes, Twilight examined them yet again.

This time, only a dozen gems seemed unrealistic. Twilight simply dunked these back into the cauldron and formed them into 3 immense jewels instead. When she had set the last gem in place within the now immense pile, Twilight returned the scale and remaining true gems to the original place within the basement. She left the cauldron and press as they were, since their new purpose was impossible to know without all the other things Twilight had just hidden away and secured. Twilight then teleported half of the pile upstairs into the pantry, and then left the basement for the time being, making sure to both magically and solidly lock the door that lead to it.

Twilight made Spike a gemstone salad, a gemstone cake, and several gemstone sandwiches with the gems she had just created. She left each part of the meal out in the open for when Spike would return, and left the kitchen to retire to bed for the day.

When Spike came back home late that night, making sure to fortify himself with many of the gems Twilight had left out for him as was now his habit, and he finally went to sleep, he saw that Twilight was having yet another nightmare.

***

Dear Journal,

Ugh. I’m sick.

Twilight says I probably caught something when I went rock climbing with the Crusaders the other day, but I don’t know. None of them are sick. Twilight says that it might just be delayed for them, or that it could be a dragon exclusive illness. I’ll have to trust her on that one.

Twilight’s been extra nice to me since I got sick. She even made me gem soup. And it’s hard to make good gem soup. It’s so nice and warm…

Peewee won’t leave me alone since I got sick, and he freaks out whenever Twilight comes by now. Maybe I should take him to the Vet.

Got to go. Twilight’s back and she says I need my rest. She has more soup. It smells so good…

-Spike

***

Spike fell flat on his face as he struggled to walk towards the door. He tried to claw his way up, but he didn’t have enough strength left in his body anymore after making it downstairs. Suddenly though, he was up shakily on his feet and purple clouded his vision. Spike felt his eyes widen with fear.

“What are you doing up Spike? You need your rest. You’re sick. Oh so sick…” Twilight darkly cooed from behind Spike, teleporting directly in front of him and entirely blocking his view of the door.

“I…I should exercise. If I go for a walk, that should kick this…” Spike spoke quietly as he shook from his spines to his tail.

“Oh no Spike. You’re talking silly. You forgot to eat your soup didn’t you? Maybe you finally need the medicine I got for you then.” Twilight darkly taunted Spike as he froze in place.

Twilight suddenly levitated a vial full of bubbling dark purple liquid into Spike’s vision. Spike felt himself break into a cold sweat as he saw it.

“Drink up Spike. I even made it your favourite colour; Purple.” Twilight smiled maniacally as she rushed the vial forward and poured it down Spike’s throat before he could begin to fight her.

Spike immediately knew something was wrong. He doubled over in pain, and burped out a huge burst of black fire, which burned his own mouth. He felt blood drip down between his fangs. Spike immediately began to cry afterwards, and he placed his forehead against the cold wood floor of the Library.

“Why would you do this to me Twilight?! I thought you loved me!” Spike wailed, tears flowing and mixing with his blood as he burped the black flames again.

“I….do love you Spike. I’m so sorry….I’m so sorry…I tried to make your last days restful….I tried to give you plenty of gems…..But I couldn’t stop it…..I’m sorry…” Twilight cried as much as she could, though her hooves did not move an inch from where she stood.

Suddenly, Twilight froze, and she shivered for a moment, with her face pointed down at the floor. When she raised her head up again, Twilight’s eyes were now a vile green colour surrounded by black.

“Goodbye Spike. Your pain and suffering end now.” Twilight flared her horn black for a moment, and Spike screamed.

Spike was entirely engulfed in the black flames, which burned him quickly to nothing but ash. All he had time to do was look at Twilight with his heartbroken eyes one last time. Twilight surveyed the scene, then levitated Spike’s ashes off the ground and secured them all in an ornate jar she teleported from the basement.

As Twilight teleported the jar back to its original place, she heard a faint hoot behind her. Pivoting her head, she saw Owlowiscious stare at her, strange understanding in his eyes. Twilight smiled darkly at her pet.

“Congratulations Owlowiscious. You’re the new Spike. Your first job as my new Number One Assisstant is this; Dispose of that annoying phoenix upstairs.” Twilight smiled at Owlowiscious as she again flared her horn black with magic and Owlowiscious hooted one more time.