Chapter 10 - Comfort in the Night

Chapter 10 - Comfort in the Night*Nyx's P.O.V.*

"Did you say the Crystal Empire?!" I ask feeling my excitement build up.

"That's right!" Twilight said.  I suddenly begin bouncing around yelling out "Yes!" over and over again, excited to see my Uncle Shining and Aunt Cadance again.

"What's the Crystal Empire?" Joshua asked.

"It's one of the most beautiful places in all of Equestria," Twilight says, "And it's where my brother Prince Shining Armor and my sister-in-law Princess Cadance live."

"Is that what the letter is about?" he asked.

"Sort of.  Cadance sent this letter to Celestia asking to send it to me.  She and Shining want to have a chance to meet you."

"How do we get there?"

"We take the Friendship Express," I tell him.

"A train?”

"Yep."

"Sounds fun!  I really like trains!" he said.

"We're going to have to leave early tomorrow morning if we want to catch the first train there," Twilight tells us, "so we'll have an early dinner and go to bed early."  She then heads to the kitchen and Spike followed to help.

"So little brother," I say to Joshua, "You excited?"

"Uh-huh!" He said nodding his head.  “Excuse me a minute, I need to use the bathroom.”

“Okay,” I said.  He then hurried upstairs to the restroom, while I went to the kitchen to help Twilight and Spike with dinner.  When I entered the kitchen, I could smell my favorite, celery soup, and I could also see the ingredients for daffodil sandwiches too.  A few minutes later, Joshua came into the kitchen.  After Joshua came back into the kitchen, we all sat down and started eating.  Joshua found the sandwiches and soup delicious.  After dinner, we packed some things together for our trip tomorrow, brushed our teeth, and got ourselves to bed early.

In the middle of the night however, I woke up and heard slight whimpering.  I looked over to my right and saw Joshua shaking and making the sounds.  I could tell he was having a nightmare.  I started to gently shake him.

“Joshua,” I whispered, “Joshua, wake up.  You’re dreaming.”

Joshua quickly yelped, shot his eyes open, and started breathing heavily.

“Are you okay?”

Joshua shook his head and started crying.  I brought up one of my fore hooves around his back and pulled him closer to me.  He then wrapped his arms around me and sobbed into my shoulder.  I then brought my other hoof around him and started rubbing his back.

“What happened?” I asked him.

“I-I-It was awful,” he said, “What happened back on my home after I went through the thing that brought me here, it happened to Ponyville!  And it took you all away!”  He started crying harder.

“Shhhhh,” I said trying to calm him down, “It was just a bad dream, Joshua.  That’s all it was.”

“What happened?”  We turned and saw Twilight awake with a sleepy look in her eyes.

“Joshua had a bad dream,” I told her.

“Come up on my bed for a minute, Joshua,” Twilight said.  Joshua still had tears falling out of his eyes as he left our bed and walked over to Twilight’s.  She then lit up her horn and brought Joshua up onto her bed.  She quickly embraced him in her hooves and wings as Joshua hugged her neck still crying.  Joshua then retold his dream to Twilight.

“It’s okay Joshua,” she said rubbing his back, “It was all just a bad dream.  I promise nothing bad like that will happen again.”  She then started nuzzling Joshua’s cheek.  Joshua seemed to calm down a bit a little while later, but was still sniffling.  By that time, I had also hopped up onto Twilight’s bed and placed a forehoof on Joshua’s back to rub it.  Eventually Joshua had calmed down completely.

“Feel better?” Twilight asked keeping him held in her hooves and wings.  Joshua pulled back a bit and nodded his head.

“Thank you,” he said, “Mommy used to do that for me whenever I had a bad dream.”

“It was no trouble at all Joshua,” Twilight replied, “I was happy to help.  Do you want to sleep with me tonight?”

“Yes please,” he said, “Can Nyx sleep with us too, please?”

“Sure,” she said.  I carefully walked over as Twilight placed Joshua to her left keeping one wing on him.  I then lay down on Joshua’s left as Twilight used her magic to pull the covers over us.

“Sweet dreams Joshua,” Twilight said nuzzling his cheek once more.

“Good night Twilight,” Joshua said drifting off.  He then turned to me and said, “Good night Nyx.”

“Sweet dreams, little brother,” I said to him placing a hoof over him.  Soon all three of us fell asleep.