And There Was Nothing Left To See
“Well, goodnight, Spike!” Twilight called out to her number one assistant, yawning. The day had been long and tiresome, yet it had been a day well worked. It was a day she was sad to see end, honestly.
Nighttime was always the worst for Princess Twilight Sparkle.
She stood at the edge of her bed, all four hooves planted on the ground, staring at the sheets. She had made the bed just perfect, so perfect, the sheets stretched over the mattress perfectly, and the pillows were plumped just perfectly. Everything... perfect.
Twilight sighed, and slowly set a hoof on the wooden frame of the bed. Staring into the carefully made bed, she sighed, knowing that she could not put sleep off any longer. Already, she had postponed drifting away for three nights, and she could no longer think straight. She was frazzled, frayed, and tired.
Oh, she was so tired...
Twilight swallowed hard, and barely heard Spike respond to her. “Goodnight, Twilight! Glad to see you’re finally getting some sleep, I thought you’d never go to bed!”
Twilight turned her head to see Spike laying a blanket over his little bed that was stationed at the foot of her bed. The dragon was humming to himself, and though he was blurry in Twilight’s fatigued gaze, she could still see the contented smile on his face. Poor, poor naive Spike... he did not know what horrors weighed down his princess.
Twilight crawled slowly into her bed, using her magic to levitate the blanket ever so slightly out of alignment with the sheets and pillows, so that she could crawl under and nestle in. She lay there, staring at the ceiling, her lantern still flickering with light, casting creepy shadows over the room.
They didn’t scare her though; nothing scared her much after her dreams started.
It had been months, at least; or had it simply been days, ones that dragged on forever, seeming as though they were months due to a mixed lack of sleep and increasing paranoia. She was a princess, though; she couldn’t let on what was happening. Twilight considered writing to Celestia, but... every time she tried to write about them, her body shook and her magic faltered.
So she had to live like this; wishing every night would never pass, wishing that she never had to sleep. Her tired eyes began to droop, and she cast a wary glance at Spike, curled up and happy in his little bed.
“Spike?” she said softly. Spike opened an eye and looked at Twilight.
“Yeah, Twilight?”
“Do you want to sleep up here with me tonight?”
Spike opened both his eyes, and raised his head slightly. “What? Why do you ask that, Twilight?”
Twilight did her best to smile, but it felt painful and forced under the layers and layers of tired and scared skin that clung to her. “No reason, Spike. Just... come up over here and snuggle with me.”
Spike slowly got out of his little bed, and crawled up onto Twilight’s. Twilight lifted her blanket, and the little dragon squeezed down next to her. His scales were cold, but Twilight cared little. She slide a hoof under Spike’s head, and brought him closer to her. Spike gave Twilight a confused look as she hugged him.
“Twilight... what’s going on? Is something wrong?”
There is no way he could know.
“No,” Twilight lied, the words butter sliding down a piece of toast. “Not at all Spike. I just guess that I needed someone besides me tonight.”
Spike shrugged, and sank into the covers a bit more. “Well, your bed is really warm, Twilight...” He yawned loudly. “Thanks for inviting me up here tonight.”
“Not a problem, Spike,” Twilight said. The little dragon was already asleep however, and Twilight was left there in the bed, eyes heavy. Turning her head, she blew out the bedside lantern, and closed her eyes, knowing that whoever was in her bed, there would be no comfort from what was next. She could be sleeping besides the entire town, and yet, she would still end up trapped in the same dream.
She was sitting at her desk, scrolls of parchment lined before her. She was staring at her hooves blurrily, the tired feeling still following her into her dream. She was in many different locals every time she had the dream, from her bedroom to the Canterlot Royal Library, but more often than not, she was sitting at her desk.
The alicorn slowly turned around, bracing herself for when the dream would truly start. This was the calm before the storm, the introduction; the horror would truly begin in a moment.
Staring at her bookshelves, she watched as the air shimmered slightly. This was no symptom of fatigue, however; this was the first sign.
A small little patch of black, like someone had poked a hole through existence itself, was on the very corner of her vision. Her perception could not pick up exactly where it was, as it was clever, fooling her weak, mortal eyes. It was simply there in the corner of her vision, a little pin prick that had been stabbed through the fabric of being.
Except it was no longer a pin prick. Tiny little tendrils of the non-existence were spreading from it, and the pin prick was growing into a swirling black vortex. More and more pin pricks were appearing around her, first in the corners of her eyes, but slowly they were spread across her vision.
She didn’t scream though. There was no reason to scream anymore.
The black had almost completely filled her vision, with simple shreds of reality left dancing inside the void that was growing around Princess Twilight Sparkle. In the instant before the black became everything, there was a burst of horrible, eardrum-rending noises: metal being scraped against bricks, bones being crushed, sinew snapping, and books spines tearing.
This was the sound of dying.
Everything became black as the last shred of reality flickered away, consumed by the void.
Twilight Sparkle was dead.
And everything was gone.
It was all gone.
This was the part after.
Princess Twilight Sparkle was in the void. The empty, dark expanse in which there was nothing. Nothing except her, and The Next.
She floated softly through the void, drifting towards The Next. She was impossible, all ragged muscle and bones, thousands of teeth and eyes that hungered for anything that it could get. Princess Twilight Sparkle drifted ever closer to her, and she felt nothing, for she was dead.
As The Next brought her closer and closer, Twilight could still feel the dream, even though she had long since died. She felt as The Next began to rend her flesh away from her bones; her bones were the only thing of use to The Next. Everything else was tainted, mortal; from her useless skin to her frivolous organs, right down to the worthless sinew. Only the bones could remain.
Twilight was dead, but she could feel everything. This was a dream, but she could feel everything.
And The Next was pleased.
Yet it wanted more.
Twilight Sparkle’s head shot up from her pillow. Her entire brow was covered in sweat, and indeed, it had left a mark on her pillow. She looked to her side, and Spike was not there. She slowly put a hoof to the place he had once been, and came up with nothing.
She felt just as tired as she had when she had fallen asleep.
Slowly sitting up, she could hear noises coming from downstairs. The clanking and clattering of dishes, the sound of Spike’s voice singing to himself. She smiled; even though her dreams were haunted, the real world was still as peaceful as she had remembered it.
She blinked.
And her heart stopped.
For in the corner of her eye, there was a black pin prick. One that was slowly getting bigger and bigger.
It wanted more.
For the first time in weeks, Princess Twilight Sparkle screamed.
