Act by Instinct

Beginning of Chapter 5

Darkness was all that consumed her vision, everywhere she looked it was just a long everlasting sea of black. She rubbed her eyes - making sure that she had them open or if her mind was playing tricks.

Her eyes were open so she was in a very dark place (again).

Not knowing what to do next, Georgina instinctively started to walk forward in a straight line, hoping to come across any sort of light.

The ground felt like a very cold, smooth stone floor, like when you go to a castle bear-footed and realise how chilling the ground was that sent chills up your spine.

Seconds felt like hours, days felt like months, years felt like decades, this endless strode to nowhere was starting to slowly melt away at her sanity. How much longer will this last for?

*BANG*

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden noise and a bright flash from behind her. Turning around - only to immediately regret it by a blinding white light that pierced her eyes like a bullet through cloth.

Forcing her eyes tight shut. She brought up her hands to block out the godlike light, it was like staring right at the sun but five times brighter.

The light then started to fade away, leaving a burning light mark in Georgina's sight. The blinding light got a normal brightness for her eyes to adjust, but something was off.

Her sight still fuzzy, she could see the outline of something that was in front of the light source, something that was...moving!? it seemed so familiar, like she has seen it before from somewhere back home. In fact that looked just like-

"Diabla!?" Georgina gasped with wide open eyes. It couldn't be, it was impossible!....right?

No, something's wrong. If that was her sister then they would be in each other's embrace, she would be comforting her younger sister like she always had before time and time again.

But this "Diabla" didn't even flinch, instead she stood there, still as a statue, eyes closed, face emotionless - the light from behind her shadowing most of her body.

Was she even breathing?

"Stop messing around Diabla, it's not funny." Georgina laughed nervously.

Again, she didn't move a muscle. Just continuing to stand there blankly.

"Sister, it's me: Georgina." She stated, this was really starting to scare her now, Diabla stood there like a soulless body that didn't know how react to the world around her.

Georgina was now sweating nervously, her heart beat now starting to race as she made her way in front of her sister. She reached out a hand to see what was wrong. Her hand was inches away from her was, only for her wrist to be grabbed violently with cold grasp.

Flinching to the sudden move, she looked down to see Diabla's hand around her wrist, getting tighter and tighter to the point that Georgina was in allot of pain.

Now in tears, she looked up to her face - still emotionless like the rest of her now sinister body. "Diabla! Please stop, this hurts and you're scaring me! Please!!!"

Georgina tried everything to free herself, but the cold grasp was only getting tighter. She could not move at all, like her body decided to disable itself. All she could move was her neck - which was wet from all the tears.

"Diabla" then raised her head up to meet Georgina's, a sinister creepy smile appearing on her face. Then her eye lids shot open.

Georgina could only breath heavily in fear at what was looking at her, this was not Diabla, it's eyes - what was left of them, were pitch black with blood red veins sporting all over, the pupils were a eerie white.

"Diabla" giggled evilly. her smile getting wider by the second. By now Georgina was just whimpering to herself, she wanted to shut her eyes, but now she lost control of her entire body. She was left staring wide open eyes at this monster.

"Hello Sister "

*Gasp* Georgina shot upwards, sweating enough to fill buckets, breathing rapidly like she ran a marathon.

She then looked around, she was sat up in a bed on the floor still in her clothes. The morning sunlight lighting up the room while birds tweeting outside could be heard.

*Sigh* "it was just a nightmare, nothing serious." She started to calm down, her breathing pacing back to normal with each contented sigh she let out.

The bedroom door burst open, revealing a very concerned purple alicorn.

"Georgina, are you alright? I heard crying and a scream." Twilight asked while she trotted up to her guest and checked to see if she was harmed in any way.

"Yes, I'm fine thank you Twilight. Just a bad dream." She said while rubbing her forehead with the back of her hand to wipe of the cold sweat.

Twilight then sighed with content, knowing that her friend was unharmed. "Oh thank Celestia, I thought something terrible happened. But if it was a dream that caused you to cry and scream, it must of been a real nightmare..."

Georgina shivered while some scenes from her nightmare came rushing back to her mind. "It was indeed a 'real nightmare', I just hope that it doesn't happen again."

Twilight nodded, she then returned to the door, but before leaving she looked back and saw that Georgina was still sat down on her bed. She was no doubt still recovering from the nightmare. It was best to just let her replenish and get ready for the day ahead.

"When you're ready, breakfast will be downstairs for you." Twilight stated.

"Thank you, I will be down in a minute."

Twilight smiled in return and left - closing the door behind her.

Why did I have that nightmare, it was the most terrifying dream I had in a long time. Getting off the makeshift bed, she stood up straight and readied herself for breakfast. I do hope Diabla is okay...

Recovering from her thoughts, she got ready and headed downstairs, following the smell of cooked food from the kitchen. It smelt odd for her - not bad, but strange. She reached the kitchen doorway and saw a small purple and green reptile creature standing on a stall who what seems to be...cooking!?

"Excuse me" The reptile immediately jumped from his stall - landing on the floor with a audible thud. He then got up, turned around - expecting a pony or something he recognised, but instead there was a tall bipedal cat creature with black and white fur, odd clothes, and some very notable weapons that would excel in self-defence, or even hunting.

"What are you? get away from me! I'll umm...uh.." He picks up a wooden cooking spoon from the side. "I'm armed, and I'm not a-afraid to use it!" He then begand waving the spoon like a sword, attempting - and utterly failing, to scare off his opponent.

"You better leave while....what..w-what's so funny!?"

Meanwhile, Georgina was struggling to breath while she burst out into a huge fit of laughter. It was probably the most funny thing she has seen in her whole life - and she has seen some weird, strange and hilarious things before, and for her, nothing compared to this.

A dragon - the most feared and deadly creatures to ever exist, is cooking some sort of mixture on a pan with a chef hat and an apron on. While humming a song to himself, decided to do a double barrel-roll in the air and landed ass first on the ground, then proceeded to get a wooden spoon and 'threaten' her like she was trespassing.

Seriously though, if you were there it would be allot more funnier to watch than to read it.

Spike could only just stand there and stare at this strange laughing creature and wait for her (he assumed she was a female, due to the feminine-like giggles she was giving off) to calm down - which took like 3 minutes.

After catching her breath, Georgina regained herself and stood up straight, still attempting to suppress the odd giggle that tried to excape.

"My apologies young one, I *giggle* I just couldn't hold back, I am truly sorry for laughing like that."

"Umm....sure." was all he managed to reply with, thoughts like 'what is she?', 'why was she here?' and 'How in Luna's moon did she just talk?'

They both stood there in silence staring at each other with different emotions planted on their faces. Georgina had a mix of a warm smile with giggles while the dragon just had a jaw-dropping expression, showing how confused he is right now.

"Uh, is that meant to be on fire?"

Spike didn't even need to turn around to see if his cooking was in flames, you could literally smell the smoke from upstairs.

"Oh scrap!" He immediately rushed for the cooker, turned the gas off to prevent it from burning any further and went for a bucket on the shelf.

But there was one problem, he couldn't reach, and the stool was too heavy for him to carry - even if he could, it would take too long before the fire quickly spread.

"C'mon, almost...there..." He was soo close, just a claw away.

But he was making no progress.

Georgina, seeing this as an opportunity to make up for what she did (it was sort of her fault that Spike was distracted and the food caught fire) went over to help the young dragon.

"Allow me" She easily grabbed the bucket, used the tap to fill it up (She didn't have taps or cookers back in Falcorth, but the Harani had similar contraptions so she recognised them and half knew how to work them) and went over to the roaring flames.

With one toss, the flames were doused which left nothing but steam and a blackened 'breakfast'.

Georgina felt guilty about distracting the dragon from his cooking - even as silly as that sounds, but she was in a world of magical, bright coloured ponies that can talk. She wanted to repay him if possible.

"Well, there goes breakfast." Spike stated with a disappointed sigh.

"I am terribly sorry, it's my fault and I wish to make it up to you."

Surprised by the sudden offer, Spike turned back to Georgina with a 'It's alright' expression.

"Naa don't fuss over it, it was just a small pancake anyway, and I can make new ones easily. Also thanks for putting out that fire."

"No problem, but it was still my fault that it happened in the first place. If I hadn't been here then you would be eating your....what are pancakes by the way?" She never heard of a 'pancake' before, since when do people cook cakes on a pan?

"WAIT! You never had pancakes before!?" She nodded. "Well you're missing out big time miss...."

"Just call me Georgina."

"Georgina, cool name. But yeah, why don't you go and sit down and I'll show you a real breakfast!" he said while making his way over to the cooker, replacing the burnt pan with a clean one from the cupboards and lighting the cooker. Getting back onto the stool and purred some mixture into the pan which started to sizzle.

Georgina made it over to the dining table, it was a simple oak table with four oak chairs, they were pretty small and quite awkward, but she handled it none the less.

"I never got your name, mind telling me?" She called over to him.

The purple dragon looked over his shoulder while his right claw still on the pan handle. "The name's Spike, and I live here with my friend Twilight."

"Yes I already met her yesterday, just so you know before you panic, I'm not trespassing. I was invited by Twilight."

Spike, surprised - but not surprised enough to distract him from his cooking this time. Gave Georgina a questionable look.

"Wow, how did you manage to convince her to let you in, or even Ponyville?"

"It's a long story, I'll tell you after breakfast, don't want the same incident to happen again." She chuckled.

"Yeah good point." And with that, he turned back and continued cooking.

That smell came back to her, but now it was allot stronger and this time it smelt delicious. Like that time when someone makes you a cake but you have never it before, and it smells absolutely amazing!

"Wow that sure does smell great Spike, I wonder if the taste is only as good." She joked and gave him a funny grin.

"Just you wait." He replied with a grin of his own.

Suddenly a familiar pony trotted into the kitchen, the second she noticed Georgina sat at the table (even if it was small for her) she gave smiled, then turned to Spike and noticed the smell.

"Mmm Spike, that sure does smell good, pancakes again?" Twilight asked with a giggle

"Of course Twilight, what sort of breakfast doesn't have pancakes?"

"Cereal?"

"Well besides from that, but you get the point."

Twilight chuckled at Spike's 'breakfast logic', if his breakfast didn't have pancakes in it then he wouldn't eat it. She knew this the hard way many times before.

She turned her attention back to Georgina - who was just staring with anticipation at the frying pan. Maybe it was just her cat instincts taking over and she wanted her food, or maybe it was because she has nothing else to do but just wait.

Twilight cleared her throat, gaining Georgina's attention. "So Georgina, I see you have met Spike, he wasn't able to meet us yesterday because he was out with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, how did it go?" She asked, but then sniffed the air around her a bit more. "And why do I smell burning?"

Georgina's smile vanished, knowing what she will say might enrage Twilight for nearly burning her house down - especially that it is a tree. But she was a individual who prefers 'harsh truth over false paradise'.

She was about to speak, until Spike jumped in before her.

"It went fine Twilight, but while we chatted I completely forgot about the pancake so it caught fire." At this Twilight face turned from curious to concerned, Spike noticed this. "Don't worry though, thanks to Georgina we was able to put it out completely before it could spread and cause any damage."

Hearing this, Twilight calmed down from her concerned look to a content look, knowing that nopony or nothing was hurt or damaged. She then looked over at the firran at the table - who was rubbing the back of her neck with her right hand and had a half guilty half sheepish look.

Twilight smiled at her. "Thank you Georgina, you were able to save our home from burning down and kept Spike safe."

"But the reason for the fire is because I was distracting Spike, If I hadn't-" She was cut off by Twilight putting a hoof up.

"Accidents happen, and we learn from them to not make them again. Your accident was distracting Spike, but you made it up by helping him putting out the fire, and for that I thank you."

Georgina smiled from Twilights reassuring words. She felt allot better now that was over with.

"All done!"

They both turned to the dragon to find him putting pancakes onto a plate, then carrying them over to the dining table. he placed them in front of Georgina - who looked at them curiously.

Georgina smelled them - and boy did she not regret anything. That one smell reminded her how hungry she was.

"Go on, try one." Spike commanded.

Georgina picked up her cutlery and stabbed some pancake on her fork, she brought it to her mouth and ate it.

After she swallowed, her eyes went wide and a wide smile creped on her face, she then proceeded to eat another bite, and another, and another...

"Wow you seem hungry." Twilight stated next to her while eating her salad.

Georgina finally paused after already eating half of the pancakes on the plate and looked over to Spike. "These are amazing! where did you learn to cook these?"

Spike stood up with his chest puffed out with pride while inspecting his claws in admiration. "Well you know, I guess I'm just a natural."

Georgina giggled at his pride, She then continued to finish her breakfast - allot more civil this time.

Something then popped into her mind. "Twilight, when did you say the princesses will arrive?"

"Around 02:00pm, it's only 07:30am right now so we have plenty of time to get ready." She answered while finishing her salad. She then grabbed the empty plates and levitated them over to the sink to be washed. Opening the cupboards she grabbed out a glass.

"Do you want a drink Georgina?"

"Please, water will do just fine."

"And you Spike?"

"No thanks, I'm fine."

Twilight nodded and grabbed out a second glass and filled one up with cider and the other with water.

Once done, she levitated Georgina's drink over to her - who accepted and downed the entire drink in one go.

"Thank you."

"Your welcome, now that breakfast is done, do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

Georgina didn't see anything wrong with this, she had nothing else to do and she needed to wait for the princesses arrival later in the after noon anyway.

"Of course, but questions that are too personal I don't feel like answering."

Twilight nodded and went to the other room to grab a notepad and quill, once she was back she went over to the dining table - where the other were sat, and cleared her throat.

"So, what is your home called?"

End of Chapter 5