Pinkie saw only empty darkness all around. Even though she could see nothing, she sensed the vast size of the space. No sound reached her ears. Not the slightest breath of air disturbed the stillness.
Not again, not this again, no, no, no— Her thought was cut off as a painfully bright spot of light appeared on the ground a short distance away. It had no source and it illuminated nothing, as though the black void was swallowing the light. Like a marionette dragged by its strings, she moved toward it. As she passed the perimeter of the circle, she hunched defensively—the light burned as though it were a waterfall of liquid nitrogen. She cringed under its assault for long moments before another circle of light appeared a short distance away. She moved forward.
After an endless time, there were no more lights. She kept walking because she had to. She knew she had to, even though her stomach was sickly knotted with fear and her head whipped from side to side as though she could delay the inevitable by not looking where she was going.
Her hooves stopped walking. Instantly, her fear turned her legs to water, and she collapsed. She screwed her eyes shut against whatever she was about to see. Whatever it was, she knew she didn't want to see it, didn't want to own the memory of it. Her eyes opened against her will, and she looked around. At first, she saw nothing but the same black void. Then little by little, she saw silhouettes separate themselves from the inky background, visible despite being black on black.
She recognized the silhouettes immediately, and her heart lifted. She looked up from the ground at her best friends. They were there with her, they'd found her, they'd come to get her out of this place. Then she noticed the sound, and her heart clenched into a lump in her chest.
“Heh.”
“Ha!”
“Ha ha ha!”
No, no, no. The girls wouldn't ever laugh at her, especially not when she was this afraid. They should be helping her, comforting her. Why would they do this? Didn't they love her anymore?
They didn't love her anymore. She became aware of tears rolling down her cheeks, but she felt nothing, as though the void surrounding her had filled her up and emptied her out.
They don't love me.
She saw more silhouettes separate themselves from the background, then more, then more. She closed her eyes against it, but even without sight, she knew that she was surrounded by all of her friends, all the hundreds upon hundreds of creatures who filled her heart every day of her life. And the laughter rolled forth from them like a tsunami, breaking over her and crushing her under its icy weight.
She lay limp and passive on the ground and stared at the unicorn silhouette with the square-cut mane as it laughed uproariously at her fear and her pain, and she experienced the absence of emotion. It felt like being dead, and a far-off part of her mind envied the dead—death would be preferable to this.
As one, the legion of silhouettes stopped laughing and turned away from her. Emotion returned in a flood of panic. No no don't leave me please don't leave me here alone laugh at me I don't care oh please don't. . . She felt a wrenching, burning sensation on her flanks, and she knew with absolute certainty that her cutie mark was gone.
The shadows of her friends disappeared all at once, and she screamed, wild-eyed with terror and grief, all alone in the void.
She jolted, a powerful full-body shudder. Her scream continued, now a voiceless exhalation rising to her bedroom ceiling. She kicked her arms and legs in the motions of running, trying to get away, only gradually becoming aware that she was awake.
She felt something warm and strong wriggling between her shoulder and the mattress, and she recoiled in instinctive terror as it snaked around to her chest. She stared down at a lavender arm and mercifully realized at last that she was awake and in her own bed.
Twilight folded her arms across Pinkie's chest in a reassuring hug. Pinkie felt the mattress shift and then a warm pressure all along her back as Twilight spooned with her. She raised quivering hooves to meet Twilight's, and heaved a ragged sigh.
Twilight squeezed Pinkie tighter and nuzzled the back of her head. “The dream again?”
Her answer came out as a croak, so she only nodded.
She heard the knitted brow and the downward set of the mouth in Twilight's voice. “That's twice in two months. I wish you'd tell me about it. I hate seeing you like this, and maybe I could help.”
Pinkie shook her head, the scratching of the pillowcase loud against her ear. “I can't.” She couldn't bring herself to talk about her greatest fear, not even to Twilight. And her life was built on making her friends happy, so she couldn't make them sad by telling them about what made her sad. No, she just had to live in such a way that that dream couldn't possibly come to pass. Pinkie felt her mane stir as Twilight breathed a frustrated sigh.
Then silence fell, and Pinkie thought Twilight had fallen back to sleep. She stared at the wall of the darkened bedroom, knowing that she would not sleep again tonight. She never did, after the dream. She began the work of pushing the dream out of her head, her heart still slowing down from the terrified staccato she had woken with.
Her eyes widened as an aurora of magical light rippled against the bedroom walls. “Twilight?”
“Shh, shh. Let me help at least this much.”
Pinkie felt magical fingers gently stroke her forelock right where she liked it best, and her eyes drooped in comfortable pleasure. More magical fingers brushed and massaged her sensitive neck, and she responded by arching it back towards Twilight. Twilight's teeth closed around a hunk of Pinkie's mane and she began grooming her, and Pinkie's eyes drifted fully closed at the deeply pleasurable tugging.
Twilight continued both the magical and the mundane attention for a long while, and Pinkie felt her heartbeat slow and slow until at last it had returned to normal. Pinkie lay languidly in Twilight's arms and was distantly amazed to note that she was drifting toward sleep. She felt her conscious mind coming loose as sleep rose up for her, and then all at once, the silhouette of the square-maned unicorn was in her mind's eye, still laughing at her. Pinkie tensed like a coiled spring and snapped back to wakefulness.
Twilight stopped grooming and her arms tightened around Pinkie's chest. “What's wrong?”
“Nothing. You know I can't sleep after. . . you know I can't sleep.”
“Oh, Cupcake.”
Pinkie lay tense and rigid in Twilight's arms. She felt Twilight lay her muzzle by her ear, and Twilight's small breaths tickled her. A stretch of silence passed. Twilight hummed a familiar tune, then began softly singing right into her ear. “It's true, some days are dark and lonely, and maybe you feel sad, but Twilight is right here to show you that it isn't that bad. There's one thing that makes me happy, and makes my whole life worthwhile, and that's when I cuddle with you and get you to smile.”
Twilight returned to humming, and Pinkie rolled over in her arms until they were laying nose to nose. Pinkie stared into Twilight's eyes with wonder, a pulsing tightness in her chest spreading warmth through her body in waves. Twilight sang again, and Pinkie breathed her in. “Come on, little Cupcake, smile, smile, smile; You fill my heart with sunshine, sunshine; All I wanna see's a smile, smile, smile; From this Pinkie Pie of mine.”
For a moment, the tightness in Pinkie's chest threatened to overwhelm her, but then it burst and she felt the warmth cascade through her, tingling in her limbs and buzzing in her head. She felt safe, and loved, and that there was no place she would rather be than in Twilight's arms. Her eyes burned suddenly, and she blinked and blinked again, surprised to feel the pillow becoming damp under her cheek. She opened her mouth, expecting to speak, but a wail tore itself from her throat instead.
She curled in on herself and sobbed as the tension and fear of the dream rushed through her and out of her, and Twilight kissed the tears from her cheeks and eyelids. Twilight held her close and nuzzled her between the ears and murmured to her, and after a long while, Pinkie's tears ceased and she gusted out a shuddering sigh as she uncurled in Twilight's arms. Twilight tucked her head under Pinkie's chin and sniffed her own tears away.
She loves me.
Pinkie raised Twilight's head with a hoof under her chin, and she gazed into her eyes. Pinkie wanted to thank her, to tell her how grateful she was for her caring and love, but no words would come. Instead, she smiled, and Twilight broke into an ecstatic grin, relief plain to see in her eyes. She looped her arms around Twilight and softly pressed her lips to Twilight's. They lay in each other's embrace for a long time, kissing tenderly.
Finally, they slept.
