Author's Note

I wanted to play around with some of the Animus touched objects in the Wings of Fire series, specifically Dreamvisitors, and figured Spike would be the perfect candidate. I won't be including anything else from the books besides Dreamvisitors, so there aren't going to be any spoilers for the series.

1

"Spike! There are some gems over here once you're done digging all those up!"

Spike's green ears twitched as Rarity's voice reached them, his hands hovering over the dirt that he had been about to push to the side. He should hurry, it was taking him longer than usual to get all the gems from this pocket of dirt.

His nose pressed into the soil, inhaling deeply to see if he could tell how much further the gem was and how much longer he had to keep digging. Spike was getting closer, but was now starting to pick up on a second scent on top of the sickly sweet aroma that gems usually had. It smelled bitter, though he wasn't able to place exactly where he was recognizing it from. His hands dug deeper, tossing a decent sized green gem into the wagon that he was pulling for Rarity. He leaned his head forward and sniffed at the dirt again, then frowned as the bitter scent remained. Surely there had to be something there, or else the dirt wouldn't be smelling like that.

His head lifted to glance over towards Rarity, watching her walk around with her horn to the ground as she searched for more gems. Surely she wouldn't notice him digging for something that might not be a gem. His claws were soon back to raking the dirt away from the hole that had been made, his curiosity pushing him forward to find out where the smell was coming from. And once Spike reached it, he knew that he had been right to keep digging.

Spike had found a blue gem, and it was one of the most beautiful gemstones he'd ever laid his eyes on. Its cobalt blue hue sparkled in the light, almost begging him to devour it. His mouth was watering as he reached for it, tongue lolling out of his mouth as his claws drew closer. However, as soon as the gem was in his claws, Spike hesitated. This gem felt wrong. He couldn't quite tell why, but itdidn't feel like a normal gem. Spike brought it to his nose and inhaled deeply, his snout immediately crinkling up. He had found what bitter scent was coming from, and while it still had the sweet smell that other gems had, it was muffled by something.

The dragon's gaze shifted over to Rarity as he lowered his hand that was holding the gem, a thought popping into his head. Maybe he could keep the gem for himself and try to figure out why the gem felt so off. Slowly, he raised the gem back up to his face, his mouth opening slowly. He placed the gem under his tongue, where it would stay until he was back in the library and alone.

It wasn't until sunset that Rarity would call it a day and Spike could finally take the cart full of gems back to Rarity's boutique where she could handle the rest. The blue gem was still in Spike's mouth, and the sweet taste of the gem was making him produce more saliva than he was happy with, but it was easy enough to manage. He was worried that Rarity would notice and tell him to spit the gem out and give it to her, but she didn't. As Spike said his goodbyes to Rarity, he didn't try to make any excuses to stay as long as he could, his mind preoccupied with the blue gem pressing against his teeth to stay.

Spike hurried home, the only thing keeping him from sprinting the whole way there was the worry that is he started panting he might swallow the gem. He didn't want to hold the gem in his hand either, not ready to let anypony else know that he had this. Spike wanted a chance to try and figure out something on his own with no help from Twilight, or anypony else for that matter. As he got back to the library, he would say a brief hello to Twilight as he headed up the stairs to the room that the two shared. He knew that Twilight would be heading up for bed soon, as there wasn't much else that she had to do around the library for the day.

Spike curled up in his bed, tugging a blanket up over his head and covering his body completely before he reached into his mouth and pulled the gem out of it. He wasn't sure what to make of this now that he was back in his bed and staring at this gem. Maybe it really was just a normal gem and there was nothing out of the ordinary about it, but then what could possibly be causing it to smell so different than any other gem he'd seen before? Was there something inside of it? Spike wasn't sure he was ready to bite into this thing and test that theory out just yet. It didn't taste too different from other blue gems, so surely whatever was different with it must be inside of it.

Spike wasn't sure how long he had been staring at the gem for, but by the time he popped his head out of the blanket again the room was dark and the sound of Twilight's deep breathing was the only thing that he could hear. He must have spaced out if he had been under the blankets long enough for Twilight yo come upstairs and fall asleep. It had probably been two hours, and yet he still had no idea what was wrong with this gem. Growling softly in frustration, Spike pressed his hand that was holding the gem against his forehead, letting out a slow sigh. What would Twilight do if she was the one trying to decipher this gem?

The room around Spike began to shift away from him. A yelp of alarm left his mouth as he turned his head around quickly, the gem falling onto the blanket that was still covering the rest of his body. As soon at the gem was off of his forehead, the room had stabilized back into the bedroom that he was used to seeing. Was he just imagining things? His left hand patted around on the blanket to find the gem, his head turning towards Twilight. It looked like she was still sleeping, so once again he picked up the gem and pressed it to his forehead, only for the room to stay still this time. The corners of his lip twitched downwards, confused as to why nothing was changing. He knew that Twilight wouldn't give up after one failed attempt.

The room blurred around him, but he was closing his eyes to concentrate on trying to feel what was different about the gem. When Spike opened his eyes again, a bewildered expression found its way onto his face. This wasn't the bedroom. Spike was in the Everfree Forest, and he could hear Twilight crying out for help from a little ways away.

"Twilight? Where are you?" Spike hurriedly stood up, running over towards the sound of Twilight's voice, pushing past vines that were in his way. When Spike found Twilight, his eyes widened in horror.

Twilight's body was bound tightly by black vines, preventing her from moving more than in inch in any direction. Even as she struggled, the vines only tightened around her, and two tendrils inched their way slowly closer to her flank and face. Her panicked expression mirrored Spike's as he rushed forward, reaching out for the vine that was aiming for her mouth, only for his hand to go right through it. A the vine shoved its way into Twilight's mouth, Spike's vision began to blur. He blinked a few times, shaking his head and trying to see clearly again. His vision darkened, and as he looked around he found that he was now sitting up in his bed again, the gem still pressed against his forehead.

As Spike pulled the gem away from his forehead, he heard Twilight whimper in her sleep on the bed a few feet away from him. She was squirming around under the blankets, almost as if she was having a bad dream.

Spike's body froze.

Twilight was having a nightmare, and he was pretty sure he got to see part of it.