At last, Twilight Sparkle had managed to get to rest. Other nights, she could be away from home for hours longer, celebrating the fact of life itself in yet another party with friends. She could spend it submerged in books until the sun came to relieve her candles. She could be on the hill just out of town, gazing up at the same bright moon that still dominated the sky. Other nights, she would have scoffed ponies for wasting such a clear night with sleep. This night however, she did not care much for any of it. She was just glad that the day had come to an end. For all she did care, the next one could take its time to arrive. Perhaps a quick letter to Princess Celestia could arrange matters. Twilight decided against it when she considered the natural and political consequences, as well as that it would involve getting back out of bed. She knew only one thing for certain, that was not going to happen. Nothing could still stop her on her way out of Equestria and into a brighter place.
At least, until she heard rumbling and scratching from below. She almost had a mind to blame Pinkie Pie or another vermin and ignore it; Few home intruders were going to turn on the downstairs lights. However, she pulled herself back from the brink when she noticed that Spike was also missing from his basket. Her mind filled with curses and darkness, she climbed out of bed and down the stairs. The moon's delicate glow lit the way as if to provide a gentler counterpoint to her own thoughts.
The round main room was cloaked in darkness. Neither moon nor stars were strong enough to penetrate the magicka weaved onto the windows. The room's glorious immaculacy existed only in a tiny sliver of light projected through the kitchen door. She took a moment to reconsider entering it. Perhaps instead she wanted to lie down on the couch and reflect on how beautiful the room looked at daytime. It was her last bastion of order in a world where nopony else believed in organisation, after all. Still she had to press on. If not for great justice and Equestria's good, then at least for her own sleep.
Pushing the door open, she found Spike staggering by the sink, clutching a glass of water. It wasn't a disturbing sight under most circumstances, of course. However, she was somewhat swayed by it happening in the depth of night. In addition, Spike's time remaining on his feet seemed to be numbered in seconds. "What's going on?" she asked coming into the room.
"Twilight! I'll be alright, just needed a drink. You can go back to bed." Through a cruel rebuttal of fate or pure coincidence, Spike hunched over, grabbing his stomach with both arms.
The glass he had been holding would certainly have shattered if not for Twilight's vigilant magic, but now was not the time for scolding him. "This doesn't look alright," she said after setting the glass down. "I can probably fetch a doctor if you need." More convulsions followed. "Oh dear." She barely managed to lift Spike up to the sink before his stomach's contents overtook him. Expelled this way, they contained far less flame than could be hoped. Rather, what he released into the drain consisted mostly of half-digested orbs and acid still trying to dissolve them. "We really need to work on being honest with each other."
Spike had no real answer. For one, he was busy catching his breath laid flat on the table. For another, his mouth was already occupied by an emergency toothbrush there to clean and protect his teeth.
"You're not ill, are you? No, unlikely. What's this?" She bent over the sink before flushing it for good. "Where did you get that much candy? No wonder things went this way. Should've known you can't handle it all at once."
"Pinkie Pie," mumbled Spike in between moans of pain and his mistress passively suffocating him. "Helped her make a new kind of candy. She gave me a bag of it as thanks." He curled together once more, but only released a bit of sparkling air.
"Did she?" Twilight wandered over to the window. From this side, the moon couldn't be seen. At most, its light was visible in the peaks of trees reaching out of the surrounding buildings' shadows. Above them the stars burned bright still. Earlier, she would have turned to them for guidance, but she had since realised the pointlessness of such an act. Thus, she turned back around with a grudge still growing inside of her. "I will need to have words with that pony. Regardless, how are you doing? Feeling better? Want some water now?"
"No... thanks. I really am alright this time." With his best efforts, Spike managed to sit straight by himself. "This shouldn't have happened."
"It did. No point in mourning after it now. I expect that you learned from this time, 'present' Spike." Despite the risk of provoking his stomach, she laid him flat across her back. "Shall we go back to bed, then?"
"Do I have much choice?" breathed Spike as Twilight carried him up the stairs. "Just want to go to sleep, anyway."
"Reasonable." Another small burp followed. Twilight rolled her eyes at it. "Oh, away with the basket. If it makes you feel better, we can share the bed tonight. No thanks, I know what my assistant needs."
"She really did change you since we first came here." Spike had given up on ever moving again and let himself melt into her fur.
Already standing by the bedside, Twilight paused, her magic fiddling with some corner of the blanket. "Didn't she. Well, we move on." In one fluid motion, she slipped under the cover without visibly disturbing it. Only then did she pull in Spike to her, much like one would handle a plush toy. "Is this alright?"
"Yeah. Glad you're there." Spike was in no position to complain. Whether or not there was an aura of cold realism around Twilight's speech didn't change the compassion he knew was there. Before long, his pain had vanished and his mind was lost in the comfort between the two of them.
"I will always be, my little dragon baby," whispered Twilight, gently stroking his head even though she knew him to be asleep. As sleep approached on her, her eyes fell on the voidstone pendant lying on the nightstand. Lit by the light of the moon bearing down through the window behind it, it glimmered with all colours imaginable. "Infinite. Immortal. Always there, for as long as we live on."
