Teros

Something tugged at my tail, and a foal's voice squeaked something.

"P-Princess?  Are you awake?"

A groan and a twitch, and I sat up, stretching my limbs.  Stifling a yawn, I lean over the bed to find a tiny violet filly staring up at me with wide, teary eyes.

"I am now, Twilight.  And please, you know you can call me Cadance."

She sniffles, and says, "I know, but I figured since I'm sleeping over at your room in the castle, I oughta be all polite.  I read that Princess Celestia is really big on stuff like that."

I can't help but giggle at that, a few memories of my auntie insisting I didn't need to dress so needlessly formal every day.  "Maybe she is, maybe she isn't," I tell Twilight, "but right now you're with me, and I'd love it if you'd call me Cadance."

"Uhm... O-okay, Cadance," she whimpers.  Twilight is holding her Smarty Pants doll so tight that it may burst a seam.  I can feel something wrong with her, something I feel hidden in every stuck up noble pony I meet.

"So what's wrong, Twilight?" I ask, patting my bed so that she'll climb up.  "Had a bad dream or something?"

"Y-yeah, I did..."

I smile at her and stretch my left wing over her tiny body.  "Why don't you tell me about it?"

As she recounts to me a tale of monstrous scaly hydras somehow clambering out of her closet, I can feel the room grow colder.  Twilight shudders with each sentence, whimpering out more and more gruesome details than any filly should be able to speak of.  All the while, the tips of my hooves turn to ice, and with every blink, the world grows darker.

My head grows heavy, and I realize I'm shuddering along with Twilight—only she's no longer there.  I'm alone, naked in a black void that stretches and hisses, the chill spreading like a poison through my body.  I hear each beat of my heart as time appears to slow down, until something soft squeezes my neck.

Twilight is holding me, tears leaking from her closed eyes and leaving wet trails on her cheeks.  She whimpers, terrified and comforted all the same.  I stare down at her, blinking, and ultimately lay my head down next to her, as if nothing had happened at all.