The Power Within

My oat milkshake tasted amazing. Twilight had bought it for me after we stopped by the small coffee shop, ordering herself the same thing. I didn’t want to owe her anything but figured she wasn’t in a mood to argue with me right now. She was awfully quiet anyway, no doubt she was thinking about the incident at the town hall.

I’m not sure who was more surprised by the turn of the events, me or Mayor Mare. But one thing was for sure, neither of us saw that coming; or should I say, none of us? Guess I can kiss a goodbye to my new home, even if it wasn’t technically my fault.

Then again, Twilight was the second pony to offer her home for me to stay in, so I wasn’t completely homeless. Although I’d still need my own place at some point. Why did she drag me out of there? I was just about to accept the offer, none of the explanations I could come up with made any sense. Maybe it wasn’t too late to patch things up with the mayor though. I wanted to take the chance in the end, but it almost felt like Twilight was protecting me; protecting from who or what exactly? She didn’t want my past to be revealed? Why would she even care? I was a complete stranger.

Twilight herself was sitting right in front of me on the outside dining area of the coffee shop; the place being more than ideal for a date if the situation was different. I took another sip of my drink while eyeing the purple unicorn who didn’t even seem to notice it, being too deeply buried in her own pile of thoughts.

“Twilight?” I ask timidly, still managing to sound somewhat nervous.

The unicorn before me slowly raised her gaze from the table and came to a stop upon meeting my amber eyes. Hers were purple, matching the rest of the colors perfectly.

“Yes, Shimmering?” she responded quietly, apparently having no clue what I was about to say.

“Why did you do it?” I asked, deciding to go straight to the point while trying my best to not make it sound like an accusation. Just wanted to know why that’s all.

Twilight looked at me for a moment before sighing.

“Well... I know that something terrible has happened to you and that you are not ready to talk about it, so I didn’t want anypony to dig it up themselves... I know you need a place to stay, but it shouldn’t cost you your privacy. Whatever happened, you don’t have to share with others before you are ready; you need time for yourself, but also a lot of support. If you ever need to lighten your heart, you can trust for me to be there. You seem like a real nice guy and I will do everything I can to help you out,” Twilight ended melancholy, her voice literally dripping compassion.

Speechless, I was absolutely dumbfounded. The kindness and care I got from her simply made me want to cry my eyes out and hug her tightly. Somehow she understood me perfectly, even if she didn’t know the whole story; she still had my back and really wanted to help me. Never in my life, had I felt like this, the happiness she made me feel was absolutely unreal.

Tears poured from my eyes while I so much as stared at her in disbelief, wondering if I was actually dreaming. If I was, I wanted this particular dream to never end. I saw a delicate smile forming on her face, as she tilted her head cutely. Her eyes were locked on mine, while she let out an adorable giggle, still softening her smile. Having the look one would have upon seeing a new baby for the first time.

“Aww, come on Shimmers, you are going to make me cry as well,” Twilight teased playfully.

“I can’t help it, you are just so nice to me,” I whimpered, smiling widely while shuffling my hooves under the corner of the table.

“That’s what friends are for,” she replied.

“Thank you, Twilight. You have no idea how much that means to me,” I said, wiping off the tears with my wing, and reached my right hoof over the table towards her.

Twilight looked a bit puzzled at first but soon reached her hoof as well, putting it gently on top of mine. My heart was beating faster by the minute, as I saw a beautiful shade of pink dancing on her cheeks. After a while, I pulled my hoof back and took a steady hold of my drink, sipped it a few times and noticed Twilight still looking at me.

“What?” I semi-smirked at her while sniffling.

My ever so blushing friend, simply giggled before sipping her drink and continue staring at me; while I gave her a questioning glance back.

“You are pretty cute, Rarity was definitely right about you; you are a true gentlecolt,” Twilight revealed suddenly.

Not only did my poor heart skipped a few beats again, I also inhaled a whole lot of milkshake in the process; causing me to cough wildly. Honestly, I didn’t expect her to laugh, but she did. We got more than a few stares from the ponies around us, but I hardly cared. I felt as if my whole face was on fire anyway, I couldn’t get any more embarrassed than this. So now she was flirting with me? For some reason I had no intention to join in, not that I thought she wasn’t pretty by herself; she was a very beautiful mare if I had to say it.

“Uh, thanks, I guess,” I muttered, scratching my neck awkwardly. That probably wasn’t helping.

Suddenly her horn started to glow as she lifted a small napkin from the table and levitated it in my direction. The napkin momentarily stopped in front of my muzzle, before starting to wipe off some oat milkshake that was spilled all over my face and table. I couldn’t help but blush even more for the act, while Twilight seemed to enjoy this, probably more than was actually necessary. She even hummed a little bit. Wait, why was I suddenly enjoying this too!?

“You are welcome,” she smiled, “Ready to go? We should head to the library now,” my purple companion continued.

“Library?” I repeated confused, I thought she was taking me to her home now, not continuing the tour.

“Yeah, I live there,” she grinned sheepishly.

Well, that explains a few things, I guess... but.

“You said; ‘you’ll stay with us’ earlier, who’s us?” I inquired hesitantly.

“Oh, with me and Spike of course,” she replied nonchalantly like that’d tell me anything.

Deciding not to ask any more details about her roommate, I dropped the subject and nodded to her.

“Okay, let’s go then,” I said, and stood up, stretching my wings and legs. Twilight watched me amused and came walking right next to me as we left the place.

We walked toward a familiar looking tree, I recognized from the last night. It was the place where I had met Fluttershy. Peeking at Twilight, I saw her happily walking toward the place, humming something as she went. That was the library then?

There was a red sign in front of the house with a picture of a book on it. I must have missed it last night in the dark I guess.

“Here we are, this is the Golden Oak Library,” Twilight presented the place with an enormous amount of pride in her voice and demeanor. How could one pony actually be living in the library, though?

“Yeah, it’s huge,” I muttered through my lips while eyeing the buildi.. I mean the tree...

“Huh?” Twilight frowned and shot me a questioning look. Oh, right... She didn’t know I had already been here.

“Um, I saw this place last night when I came here.” I clarified to her, earning a knowing; ‘ah’ reaction from her. It was a rather cute act, but she kept looking at me as if wanting to hear more.

“How did you find the hospital?” she asked.

“I met somepony here last night, and she showed me where it was,” I recalled shortly, not revealing her name, thinking it as an insignificant detail. Was bumping into an Element of Harmony an insignificant detail, though?

“Who?” Twilight inquired further. Damn it, she was persistent.

For the slightest moment, I thought to lie to her by not knowing who the pegasus was, but abandoned the idea just as fast. Getting caught lying wasn’t the best way to start a new life.

“Uh, Fluttershy, I think,” I muttered, still adding an extra layer of hesitation to the end. In case I was actually somehow wrong and Fluttershy was just her codename or something. I was being totally paranoid, I thought as a mental facehoof sealed the deal for me.

“Fluttershy? What was she doing outside so late?” she questioned, sounding concerned now.

For that, I didn’t have the answer. She was literally the only pony I saw outside that night. Oh? She seemed to know her as well, I noticed... Was she actually friends with one of the Elements of Harmony? She knew some important ponies it seems.

“No idea,” I shrugged and shook my head, causing a section of my mane to fall to my face. I looked up and tried to blow it back behind my ear with another little shake.

Twilight just giggled. Was there something wrong with my mane, apart from the glowing; but I doubt she noticed. I snorted and peeked at my cutie mark instead; A storm cloud shooting two lightning bolts and few shimmering stars around them. Nothing wrong there, what the hay was she laughing at? I shot her a questioning glance to find out.

She got serious, however, before actually trying to look at my cutie mark. Against my better judgment, I let her inspect my flank for a while; feeling a slight tingling in my cheeks suddenly.

“What does your cutie mark mean?” she asked curiously.

To be completely honest, I had no idea. For me, it was just a butt tattoo that appeared one day while working. I mean, my name came pretty much from my shimmering mane and tail. But like for the weird phenomenon in my mane and tail, I had no explanation for the cutie mark either.

“I don’t know, it’s just a cutie mark,” I stated shortly.

Twilight gasped and looked at me utterly shocked.

“It’s not just a cutie mark, Shimmers. It’s your special talent! It’s about who you are, what you do, and what makes you different from others!” Twilight exclaimed, spinning around me and looking at my flank even closer now; while scribbling some notes on the paper she got from somewhere.

“My special talent?” I repeated puzzled.

“Yeah, how did you get it? Tell me!” My friend exclaimed merrily, jumping up and down in front of me excited. I hated to break the news for her, but...

“Look, Twilight, I don’t want to talk about it now, okay? I’m really tired,” I grunted.

Twilight stopped in mid air before landing, seemingly disappointed. She lowered her ears and gave me the puppy dog face look, her eyes big as saucers while rippling with tears. ‘Damn it!’ It should be illegal to be so darn adorable.

“Uh, you can eye my flank later, don’t worry,” I smirked, being actually proud I had the courage to say that.

Twilight went completely red as she rapidly turned her head away from me. Now I actually got a good look at her cutie mark too. It was some kind of a star with few more stars around it. Huh.. No idea what it was supposed to be, just noticed that the stars were pretty similar to mine. Maybe that’s why she was so excited?

“Okay then, let’s go inside. I’ll prepare the guest bed for you,” she suggested and trotted towards the door opening it.

I took a look behind me as the evening was slowly turning into a night, thinking about Redheart suddenly. Was she worried about me? Things didn’t go exactly the way we planned them. ‘Don’t worry, I found a place to stay, at least for now,’ I thought and trotted inside as well.

Once inside, I froze on the spot. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but there was an actual dragon in the main room. Well, a small, kind of cute looking purple dragon, who was lying on his stomach on the floor, flailing his feet in the air while humming and drawing something on a paper with crayons. But it was a freaking dragon nevertheless!

“T-Twilight?” I stammered anxiously while keeping my eyes on the fierce creature. “W-why there’s a dragon in the library?”

The mentioned carnivore then raised his head from the drawing and looked at me surprised.

“Why shouldn’t I be here? And who are you?” He asked suddenly, blinking his eyes confused. Wait a minute, he could talk?

Some dragons had caused us serious problems in Whitestone. Doing things such as stealing our food and even damaging our homes, but they never talked. Maybe things really were different in here.

Twilight watched me for a moment before starting to laugh.

“Calm down Shimmers, that’s just Spike. My number one assistant, and dear friend.”
Spike got up and bowed to me, much to my surprise, while accidentally knocking over a box of crayons. “Spike, This is Shimmering Thunder and he’s going to stay here, well... For a while,” Twilight said.

That sounds... Interesting. Did she mean like one night, or like a week or something? I had no idea. It kind of sounded like a longer period of time to me. Oh well, the dragon seemed like a nice guy at least. No way a mean dragon would bow like that, especially for a pony; not to mention he was living with one, now with two.

“Nice to meet you,” said Spike and eyed my bandages before asking.
“Mind me asking what happened to you? Is moving really that dangerous nowadays?”

“It’s a long story, and I don’t really want to talk about it today, sorry. All I want is to get some rest,” I replied drowsily.

“Ah, I see,” Spike muttered, scratching his neck.

Twilight walked next to us and gave Spike a warm smile.

“Let’s get the guest bed ready for him,” Twilight then gestured for Spike to follow; as I spotted a pleasant looking sofa in the corner and headed towards it.

I took off my saddlebag, placing it on the floor near the sofa and climbed on it. Opening the saddlebag from the sofa, I took out my now couple days old lunch. It was a double sandwich wrapped in the big leaf, to protect it from damage and getting spoiled while working. The leaf was also edible and gave the sandwich some extra crunch. Placing the lunch between my hooves while lying on the sofa, I took a bite and looked around the room for awhile.

There were a lot of shelves, all crammed with books. Just what you could expect from a library, though I had no idea what kind of books they were. A small table also stood in the middle of the room, along with little chairs and desk. I guess Twilight was the librarian then. She seemed to enjoy the books at least, so it wasn’t just a job to her I assumed. Who was Spike then, other than her assistant? It was an odd couple in any case.

Taking another bite of my surprisingly tasty lunch, I decided to do some quick preening. My wings were in terrible condition, I noticed. A trip through the forest sure left its marks. A bath would also be nice, as I was dirty and still had some dried blood on my fur; reminding me from the attack once again. All that blood wasn’t even mine... They had cleaned me a little bit in the hospital, but not all of it was removed.

After being satisfied with my wings, I curled up some more to bring my tail closer and started to clean that as well. It was slightly tangled, and dirty too. The more I cleaned it, the more it started to shimmer. It was still easy to miss unless some pony looked at close range. I then tried to clean my mane, but could only reach so far with my muzzle and decided to give up after a while.

I turned my attention back to the delicious sandwich between my forehooves and took another bite out of it.

“Aww, isn’t he just adorable, Spike?” Was suddenly heard from the nearby doorway with a whispery voice.

‘Uh, what?’

I stopped chewing and raised my gaze to see Twilight peeking out of the doorway, Spike standing next to her. The unicorn then lets out a light gasp and came to me with a pretty blush on her face.

I simply stared at her, my mouth still full of bread. If I wasn’t completely out of my mind, I’d say this particular blushing mare in front of me, liked me more than just as a friend... I let my jaw chew once more before swallowing, giving my brains a minute to process the idea.

“Everything alright?” I ask Twilight.

“Yes, our guest bed- I mean, your guest bed is ready now,” she stammered awkwardly, making me blush as well. “Do you need anything else?” she continued.

“Uh, I’m fine, thank you. I’ll just finish this sandwich and hit the hay, I’m really tired,”

Trying to steer the conversation away from the awkwardness was definitely the right thing to do, I guess. I mean, she was a really beautiful mare and all that, but I wasn’t actually seeking a fillyfriend right now. My life was a complete mess right now. I just couldn’t concentrate on such things as love at the moment. Twilight then again seemed to have a huge crush on me. Oh, pony feathers... I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but I wasn’t ready to answer them either.

“Okay, we’ll be upstairs if you need us, good night, Shimmering,” said Twilight as she went upstairs.

I munched the last piece of my sandwich and rummaged through the saddlebag to find out what else was there. The apple fritter smelt good, so I decided to eat that as well, and boy did it taste good! Applejack was one hell of a baker. I needed to thank her again for the ‘free sample’ at some point.

The next thing I found from the saddlebag was the purple ribbon, that actually belonged to my sister. She had probably dropped it and I happened to find it on the ground, never getting an opportunity to give it back to her. Sniffing it, I recognized the aroma of her mane still holding on to it.

“Good night, Cres,” I whispered while watching out of the faraway window. “Good night mom and dad,”

Moonlight created a kind of relaxing atmosphere in the room, as well as in my mind. I put the ribbon back in my saddlebag, closing it, and sidled off the sofa heading to the guestroom Twilight came out earlier. I dragged the saddlebag with me as well, wanting to keep it close to me. Not that I thought anypony would steal it, but to keep the ribbon close to me as if it was my sister.

In the room, I saw a small bed and even more books. Well, this was a library, not a hotel. There was also a small nightstand in the corner and a window on the wall, letting some light in.

I climbed on the bed and let out a heavy sigh, after getting under the blanket. My eyelids felt heavy as I pressed them shut, allowing myself to drift on the faraway lands of pleasant dreams...

“Good job, Shimmering. You are just as good as your dad, even better if you don’t mind me saying;” the sky blue stallion complimented my work.

“Thanks, Sky Hoof. It’s nothing really, it just comes naturally,”

“That’s because you are a natural talent. Nopony else can handle those storm clouds like you do,” He continued to flatter me while correcting his multicolored mane, colors varying from deep cyan to an almost frost white.

“Heh, I guess. Want to do another round?” I ask.

“Sure thing, you go right and I go left this time. Try to gather as many storm clouds as you can,” my co-worker briefs.

We bolted in our different directions, both flying with blurring speed and spinning around those black storm clouds; binding them together. Clouds shot few lightning bolts towards us, but we were used to dealing with them. I somehow withstood those strikes better than anypony else.

We then sprinted through our piles of clouds, pulling them together as one huge storm cloud. The next step was a bit more dangerous though. We needed to build up our speed and pierce the cloud from below, making it explode and turn into a subtle rain. The danger lies in the strong lightning bolts that could easily fry somepony if not careful.

I flew high above the cloud, Sky Hoof mirroring my moves, as we dived past the huge storm cloud and made a sharp U-turn below it. The move was always hard on your guts. But you didn’t want to do it from above, as that would cause the cloud to explode downwards; shooting bolts all the way to the ground and possibly hurting somepony.

With increasing speed, we flew through the storm cloud forehooves first and wings closed, maximizing our aerodynamics. The cloud exploded into a million pieces with a huge rumble, as those bolts shot up into the sky and rain started to pour down. There was even a pretty rainbow this time.

“That was amazing!” Sky Hoof exclaimed, “You really showed to those clouds Shimmering.”

“You did great too,” I complimented back. He just smirked at me knowingly.

Sky Hoof was always such a pleasure to work with, always so happy and kind. Not everypony around here was like him. Most of the villagers were just hard working plow horses, who never knew what the word fun or friendly meant. You could still do your job and enjoy it at the same time.

My dad was a living legend on the cloud control, but he had to retire after a serious accident, or so I was told because it happened before I was even born. Fortunately, there were other workers to take his place. As soon as I was born, my dad taught me everything he knew about his job and wanted me to continue in his hoof steps; and so I did.

Sky Hoof was one of my foalhood friends. We used to play all the time, and it was only natural that he chose the same profession as me since he was a pegasus.

“Hey, did you hear that?” He suddenly asked.

“Hear what?”

“Like somepony was screaming,” Sky Hoof said worriedly.

Then I heard it too. We looked first at each other, then gazed down to see what was going on. We saw nothing out of ordinary, mostly because of the clouds below us obscuring our view.

“I think we need to check it out,” he said, earning a confirming nod from me.

We dived down and stopped above the houses, and we saw a group of heavily armored black soldiers marching in our village. Everypony was running around and screaming as if trying to escape. What the hay was going on!?

Soldiers tried to capture a few ponies, but they fought back; unfortunately. Soldiers hit and threatened them with their weapons and tied them up. Some of them had spears, and some bows and arrows.

“Come on, we need to find them!” Someone shouted in the distance.

I looked up and saw the gray unicorn mare with black stripes, shouting commands to the soldiers. She had a huge white-gray mane and tail, and some armor as well. This wasn’t good.

As if by instinct, I flew straight to my house and saw it was on fire! So was many other buildings too all of a sudden.

“Mom! Dad! Are you there? Cres!” I shouted after landing at the front door, but nopony answered.

I looked up to see Sky Hoof, but he was nowhere to be found. I hit the door, but it was either locked or jammed.

“Calm down kid, or you’ll get hurt,” was suddenly spoken behind me.

I spun around and saw one of the soldiers looking at me threateningly; forcing me to take few steps back towards the burning home behind me, as he aimed his spear at me.

“What’s your name kid?” he asks, but I can’t bring myself to answer. Not that I’d tell him anything anyway.

“Leave him alone!” somepony said behind the soldier.

I recognized the brownish earth pony with a red mane as one of the villagers but didn’t actually know him by name. Particularly brave this one was, though.

“Shut it if you don’t wish to die that is!” the soldier said and tackled the pony to the ground.

‘Oh please stay down, please stay down, it’s not worth it,’ I thought, staring at the pony on the ground, who grinned from the pain and tried to stand up again.

He watched me for a second and gave me a weird smirk. The pony then launched himself towards the soldier, trying to hit him with his hoof.

The earsplitting scream caused me to wince, as I saw the spearhead penetrating the pony right in front of me; coming through from the other side.

“NO!” I yelled as loud as I could, tears flying from my eyes.

The soldier twisted the spear and yanked it out with one quick motion, ripping his guts out and splashing blood everywhere. Some of it landed on my face and forehooves, as the spear swung through the air. I watched in horror as the poor pony fell to the ground, twitching and shaking violently while coughing blood and trying to gasp for air. Blood gushed out of his wound like it was a fountain. His eyes shrunk to tiny spheres, as I saw the life force leaving his body. The last thing I saw, was his eyes rolling back as his lower lip waggled, before coming to a complete stop; he was dead. I just witnessed somepony’s death for the first time in my life. The soldier laughed and grinned mischievously while turning to me.

“What’s.. your.. name?” the soldier asked again with a menacing voice.

I was shaking like a leaf on my spot, while slowly backing up, paying no attention to his words. I just kept my eyes on the bloody spear he was holding, while other soldiers apparently continued his work on the background. He came closer to me, closing the distance I’d gained when I backed away from him. His eyes narrowed as he pointed the bloody weapon at me again.

“Tell me, or you’ll end up like your friend right there,” he threatened, pointing the bloody corpse to his right. I couldn’t get any words out of my mouth, even if I wanted.

I glanced at the body quickly, before shaking my head and turning around. Just to find three more soldiers behind me; I was surrounded.

“See, you have nowhere to go, running is useless,” one of the soldiers said ominously while approaching me.

He was right... I wasn’t going to outrun them, but I had my wings. Quickly inspecting the situation, I opened my wings and leaped over the first soldier. It was a bad call, though. He raised his bloody spear and sunk it into my left side, causing me to fall down; spear still hanging on my side. I howled in pain, as the soldiers laughed at me. Adrenaline rushed through my body as I kicked the spear off, causing blood to fly out of the wound. The pain was so immense, that it actually stopped hurting for a brief moment.

“You stupid little prick,” soldiers huffed at me, “You thought you could escape from us? Well, think again.”

I was laying on my right side, panting and grunting heavily from the burning pain and gritted my teeth as the soldiers walked closer. No doubt left in my mind that they were going to finish me off. Why were they doing this!? We never did anything to anypony! Tears poured from my eyes as the group got closer and closer. Was this it, was this my end? I thought about my family and wondered if they had escaped. Then I saw the spear lying on the ground. I closed my watery eyes while taking a deep, controlled breath.

‘Mom, dad, Cres.. if this is the goodbye... I love you all,’

I got up, grabbed the spear with my mouth, and took off with my wings as fast as I possibly could. I flew straight into the soldier who murdered the pony earlier and drove the spear through his throat, forcing it to come through from the other side. ‘Take that, you son of a bitch!’ I then flew over him and took to the sky, blood still dripping from the wound. I flew higher and higher, trying to get out of their sight.

After a short flight, I felt drowsy as my vision started to blur; I was losing my altitude. Neglecting the pain, I simply pushed forward, faster and faster as long as I could. I don’t know how long I managed to stay in the air. But after seeing treetops closing in, I just tried to glide with the last of my power as I blacked out, and crashed to the ground.

“Shimmering, are you alright? Shimmering, please answer to me!”

The weird sound echoed from somewhere far away, kind of like it was underwater. To be honest, I didn’t even recognize the voice. Weird bubbling sound, like I was underwater myself too. It was dark as well, I couldn’t see anything.

Another muffled voice spoke something that I wasn’t able to hear properly. It sounded like a male’s voice, first one being female I guess.

Then I felt something touching my right foreleg. I cracked my eyes open and saw nothing but a black blur at first.

“Don’t worry, Shimmering, everything’s okay, It was just a bad dream!” Twilight spoke; I now recognized her voice as reality started to kick in. The other voice must have been Spike then.

A blur started to sharpen up as I saw the purple dragon staring down at me from above my head, poking my muzzle with his claw. Why the hay was he upside down?

“I think he’s finally waking up!” Spike exclaimed.

“Thank Celestia, are you alright, Shimmering?” asked Twilight, now also coming into my field of vision - upside down as well.

I blinked a couple of times before asking, “Why are you all upside down?”

Spike laughed. “It’s not us silly, it’s you!”

I then realized my position on the floor.. I had fallen out of the bed, head first onto the floor. Apparently, I was lying on my back, while my hind legs were still in the bed somehow. The cover was also semi-drooping over me on the floor.

Shaking my head, I slowly and carefully turned to my left side on the floor; staring at Twilight and Spike dumbfounded.

“What are you doing here?” I ask timidly, probably knowing the answer already.

“Why? You were screaming and shouting like a maniac! I thought somepony was here and trying to hurt you. We ran here and found you kicking and swinging in the air like you were fighting for your dear life,” Twilight recalled anxiously. Oh how right she was... “I was so worried about you that I, I..” she tried to continue, but was about to burst into tears.

“Shh, shh, Twilight, everything’s okay now, please don’t cry,” I said while standing up. I walk next to her, gently nuzzling her neck with my muzzle; and covering her with my wings. She was shaking.

The act might have been a bit inappropriate, but I didn’t know any other ways to calm her down. She twitched slightly from the sudden contact at first, but then pressed her head against my neck.

Spike watched us quietly.

“Thanks for taking such a good care of me, Twilight,” I smiled softly at her and pulled away; our muzzles still being mere inches apart.

She just stared at me in the moonlight. It was still night, we hadn’t been sleeping all that long, unfortunately. This was going to be a long night.

“That’s what friends are for,” Twilight said, eyes glimmering from tears as she threw herself at me and hugged me tightly.

“I’m okay now, Twilight... It was just a bad dream, but it’s over now,” I comforted my purple friend.

“You need to tell me what happened, Shimmering, I want to help you, I can’t stand to see you suffering like this,” Twilight pleaded against my neck.

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” I ask softly.

“Tomorrow? How do you think I’m going to sleep when you are torturing yourself like this? Please, let me help you!” she cried against me.

Poor Twilight... I’d have to tell or she’d never get any sleep. Though my story was sure going to give her nightmares as well. I couldn’t hide anything like I did with Nurse Redheart. She’d want every little bit of detail, not just some vague summary of my journey. For some questions, I didn’t even have the answers myself.

I let out a heavy sigh, as I pull away from her hug.

“Okay, but I want to share it only with you. Sorry, Spike.” I turn to him, apologetic, but still with a determined look on my face.

“Oh, it’s um, okay, I guess,” he stammered and glanced at Twilight concerned.

“Don’t worry Spike, I’ll be alright,” she says and gives the dragon a reassuring smile.

Spike nods and exits the room, closing the door behind him. Twilight turns to me and lights up a few candles to lighten up the room.

“I’m ready when you are,” Twilight says.