It was Saturday. The sun had long gone beyond the horizon, the celestial canvas was painted in a dim white light of the moon, stars blinking.
Twilight’s study was light by two candle flames, placed conveniently on the work desk. Night light tried entering the chamber’s space, but was rudely stopped by a pair of extended curtains.
The room was still, save for the dancing candle flames that cast a shadow on the nearby objects. A faint ticking sound echoed around the study’s walls, as the clock’s needle moved about. Minutia aside, the room itself was pretty cal—
“Ughhh!”
Oh, and there was also Twilight trying to focus on a piece of old parchment.
“Buck! I can’t believe it’s almost midnight!” quietly shouted Twilight Sparkle, taking her gaze back to the study desk from the clock’s dreadful face of 11:41 PM.
~ ~ ~
Spike was long since fast asleep, tucked comfortably in his bed; he had plunged into his best of dreams.
A grown-up Spike sat at a table for two, food long eaten, holding one of two glasses of red wine at the tip of his claws. Vis-a-vis stood in her seat the exquisite fashionista; the date of his life, Rarity.
“Darling, Spike, you’ve got one of the best of tastes I have seen for picking such a marvellous place as this one!” Rarity glanced about the restaurant for emphasis.
“Only because I have the best taste for picking beautiful mares like you!” said Spike, his face drawing a foreboding smirk.
Rarity waved a dismissive hoof at the implied compliment; she smiled as she thought about it.
“Oh, sweetheart, you’re going to make me blush,” she responded, her cheeks already cherry red, ears dragging down on a whim, hoof raised to her muzzle. Before long, Rarity’s gaze returned to her date.
“You are quite the gentlecolt, Spike, if I do say so myself, and I do say so.”
“Only the best for you, Rarity, my love.”
At that, a flock of frenetic butterflies soared in Rarity’s core, her heart beating ever so faster, sending blissful waves of passion through her entire being, the world around her vanishing from view.
Spike found himself in a similar situation. To Spike, time seemed to cease its progression. His mouth was mere inches from Rarity’s muzzle, his heart overwhelmed with building anticipation.
No words needed be said, for the mere act would make up for their apparent absence.
The couple closed their eyes.
This was it.
Smooc—
BUMP!
~ ~ ~
“Aghh!” shouted Spike as he bolted upright from his bed, his heart racing Rainbow Dash fast.
A second, yet noticeably weaker, wooden sound was heard as Twilight’s forehead reached its target again in resignation, oblivious to the awakened.
Spike glanced around, taking in the present situation.
Realization.
Reality Couldn’t have hit harder.
“No…” he trailed off, his breathing ceasing in utter shock.
“No, no, no no no NO!” reverberated about the chamber. Twilight, finally, took notice of her flustered roommate. Spike gazed furiously at Twilight, formerly known as the Princess of Friendship, now earning the well deserved title of… the Princess of Contempt.
“For Celestia’s sake, what in Tartarus has gotten into you, Twilight!?” emphasizing the dream killer’s name with as much venom as Spike could muster.
Twilight Sparkle focused on the enraged baby dragon, acknowledging that she might have just awakened him from the best of dreams.
“Spike, please liste—”
“No, Twlight, YOU listen!” countered Spike, as he envisioned a beam of vicious daggers heading towards the rattled mare. “You either call it a night right here and now, leaving whatever you’ve got there for tomorrow, or I swear that this is the last night I share the room with you. Ever!” Spike whiffed a puff of smoke from his nostrils as he finished his ultimatum.
“I’m sorry, Spike, but this is really important! Celestia herself entrusted me with this old complex spell, that once fixed, could teleport a pony anywhere in Equestria and beyond! Think of the transportation opportunities!”
“Can’t it wait till tomorrow, Twilight? You could even ask the Princesses’ help for once!”
“Well, uhm—”
Spike was tired of hearing half-baked justifications, quite literally this time.
“I’m outta here.” He proceeded.
Twilight glanced at the baby dragon as he was about to leave the room, seeing as he was far beyond changing his mind.
“Okay, fine!” said Twilight as she snuffed the candle lights, then trotted towards her bed, tucking herself between the mattress cover.
“Are you happy now?”
Spike stopped midway through opening the door. He looked back to see Twilight finally giving in to his terms; he grinned in self-satisfaction.
“That’s more like it. Now I can hopefully try revisiting the best of dreams.” If there had been light, Twilight would have seen Spike’s victorious walk, back towards his bed.
Silence fell upon the room, save for the ticking sounds of the nearby clock.
“Yeeeah, dreams, sweeeet dreams,” thought Twilight as she mentally sighed.
“Sudden teleportation to another place—” her mind trailed off, putting the last puzzle pieces together. Then it all clicked in her head.
“Yes! That makes sense! How did I not think of this before?” Twilight shot up, and out of her bed, teleporting. The next second, she popped up at her desk, the purple flash of her blinking spell startling Spike once again.
Spike muttered some uncivil words under his breath, which he heard from Rainbow Dash one day.
Twilight lit her horn as she began modifying the spell to her mind’s contentedness.
A few moments passed, and before she knew, she had done it: she fixed the spell — hopefully. There was only one way of finding out.
Eager to see its capability, she gave no second thought at the consequences of using a modified ancient spell involving teleportation that she didn’t even memorize.
Twilight cast the spell. She vanished in a bright bubble of white swirling light.
Spike winced once more, this time blind spots welcomed him in the center of his slitted green eyes. Fortunately for him, though, he saw the sleep disturber no more, changing his mind about leaving the room… for now.
With a heavy, tired sigh, Spike gave in to the sleep’s embrace, uttering one final sentence before his departure towards the dream realm.
“Your dear and handsome Spikey-Wikey is coming back, Rarity.”
~ ~ ~
Twilight Sparkle felt a little giddy herself. This spell had a noticeably different propagation pattern, in contrast with the usual directional one. The most prominent differences being a more costly drain of her magical reserves, the time between the transition from one place to another, and the blinding sun-like white light that emanated from its enveloping whirlwind.
The same light would make itself present the moment she popped up to her desired place, attracting attention of anypony near enough.
Except this was anything but her desired place.
When Twilight Sparkle appeared into existence once again, she immediately figured out that she wasn’t at Ponyville's Town Square, it was rather—
“Celestia’s bedroom!” she whispered, almost letting out a shout. In her frenzy panic, she stumbled down to her hooves on the soft carpet, her heart beating like a drum at a rock concert; thankfully, the carpet absorbed most of the noise. That was good.
Except that there wasn’t anything that could absorb the lightning brightness.
“Lulu,” Celestia paused for a moment, eyes half opened and adjusting, “is that you?” she finished, bringing her forelegs to rub her eyes.
Twilight, in her frenetic state, quickly called on a conventional teleportation spell, but to no avail. She didn’t have time to ask or wonder why, looking for any escape opportunity she could seize.
Twilight glanced back and forth around the bedroom, something catching the view of her right eye.
The piece of parchment lay beside her.
“This will have to do.” thought Twilight, the faintest of hopeful smiles dawning on her frightened face. She channeled her magic towards the parchment, as she cast the unusual blinking spell.
What followed was a fulgent flash, which lit the entire chamber for two heart beats. Celestia was startled by the fleeting light, wincing reflexively.
The awakened quickly glanced around the room, searching for any trace of a fugitive intruder, yet she noticed that nothing had been disturbed, save for her sound sleep.
Silence fell upon the chamber, as Celestia found no trace of foreign magic lingering around. The menace detection spells were as active as ever, yet they didn’t go off at what had appeared moments ago.
With a resigning sigh, Celestia decided to put off her worries for tomorrow morning, as she tucked herself between the covers. Whoever or whatever it was, it seemed that it had no ill intent for the time being.
Sleep would embrace her agai—
THUD!
“Celestia! Art thou alright?” exclaimed Princess Luna as she burst open through the bedroom doors, gold hall light violating the bedroom’s darkness.
Grateful that she saw her sister well and unharmed, Luna lowered her voice.
“I saw a flash coming from thine bedchamber. And the second we saw that wicked light again, we've thought that thou could be in danger,” Luna voiced her nagging concerns.
“I am fine, Lulu. Thanks,” Celestia assured with a soothing voice.
“I am unsure of what came to pass, though. All things considered, I recommend that you stay vigilant for the rest of night.”
“We will as always, dear sister. We want nothing but to ensure the safety of our beloved subjects, as well as thine, throughout our nights,” Luna admitted with a calmer voice.
Luna turned to leave the bedroom, but stopped at the threshold as she felt a throbbing emotion that demanded to be voiced. It would wait no longer, not another month, or night — not even a second heartbeat.
Luna returned a content look at her sister, opening her mouth to speak.
“We love you, Tia, truthfully, for everything thou hast done for us: for giving us a the light we previously snuffed, oh, so many woeful years ago, thus we may shine again. Thou art everything a younger sister could ask for, Tia.
“We love you.” Luna’s heart beat with as much power as the first time she rose her moon into the sky, keen on hearing Celestia’s response.
Celestia felt a pair of silent tears trailing down her reddened alabaster cheeks, ears pulled down in unison. She would no longer hold any tears for her little sister, not after a thousand years of emotional restraint.
Celestia would let Luna, nay, Lulu know of what she had always felt for her sibling since the dawn of time.
“I love you too, Lulu.” Celestia didn’t notice when a smile had happened to grace her lips.
The doors closed behind Luna, enveloping the room in a tranquil darkness.
Lulu trotted towards Tia, hopping in the most blissful of hugs, as both of them draped a caressing wing over one another.
The night was still young.
Especially for Twilight Sparkle.
~ ~ ~
Twilight found herself in a pretty dark and tight space. She could guess that she was in a closet of some sort. She weakly bumped into its door, lightly opening it in the process. Light penetrated the confined space; its door was made of crystal.
The sound of nearby fondling also breached the closet’s silence.
Twilight heard a series of recurrent moans coming from beyond the threshold.
“Oh, no, no no no no,” she frantically said in her mind, gasping as she mentally intertwined the implications of the situation. Shining’s Armor sister dared not imagine what he was carrying out beyond the door, failing miserably. The details would forever haunt her, whenever she would see her bigger brother and or her sister-in-law again.
On a whim, Twilight tried casting a teleportation spell, but to no avail once more, faint sparks poking out of her horn.
As a peculiar scent found its way into the closet, it henceforward flooded Twilight’s nostrils with every breath she took, completely inappropriate images centered around her penetrating her mind.
Before the pheromones could intoxicate her any further, she found the cursed parchment besides her right flank, immediately reading to cast its spell.
Twilight found it difficult to regain her focus, distraught by the rising heat of her body. She harnessed her last ounces of concentration into the spell, hopefully succeeding. She strongly hoped that she would appear anywhere else, save for another bedroom in Equestria.
After a successful bright flash, Twilight blinked away from the filthy situation she had dropped into minutes ago.
The two lovers had been completely oblivious to Twilight’s accidental spectatorship, lost in their world of intense pleasures, and love for one another, nonetheless.
~ ~ ~
Well, it wasn’t another bedroom from the land of Equestria this time, nor any sort of four-walled chamber, to Twilight’s relief. It was quite outside and up in the air, and Twilight spread her wings , hovering conveniently above a… gathered crowd of clothed bipeds who shot bewildered looks at her apparition.
Oh, and it wasn’t Equestria either.
The crowd let out a gasp in unison, turning all its attention towards the still airborne equine creature.
Twilight glanced around dumbfounded, trying to process where she ended up this time. She heard several indiscernible utterances. Almost each and every one held a lit candle of some sort, lighting around the surroundings darkened by the overcast night sky.
“An un ger!” shouted one of the smaller ones from the vast gathering.
The crowd stood still, murmurs ceasing.
Twilight corked an eyebrow, realizing that they were speaking totally another language. Shortly after, she conjured a translation spell to try communicating with the beings before her.
The crowd was left in awe, as Twilight’s horn lit up a purple brilliance.
And then she spoke their language.
“Uhm, Hi!” Twilight awkwardly said to the expectant gazes.
The large conglomeration of people gasped in shock. Then one who seemed to be the chief of this gathering, took one step towards her reading himself to speak.
“Did God almighty sent you down upon this wretched Earth to let us know that He is coming? That Salvation is coming?”
“Who and the what now?” Twilight mentally questioned, before trying to come up with an answer; she found none. She noticed that the piece of parchment lay down next to the chief bishop.
“No, I don’t know what you’re talking abou—”
“She is The Devil’s apprentice in disguise!” roared the bishop in apprehension. It all made sense to him, that’s how The Book stated how the Apocalypse would begin: not with the angels, nor with the all-mighty God — but with the Grudged Serpent, the Father of All Lies, the Devil Himself.
Twilight was beyond bewildered at this point, unsure of what to expect.
“Get her, in the name of The Lord!”
As Twilight registered what was about to unfold, she thought of appealing to reason, but rapidly decided against it. She would have to retrieve the parchment, and blink out to Celestia knows where, before any of the individuals could compromise the scroll.
She conjured a spell which rendered her completely invisible to the world and shot herself right towards her target.
Chaos reigned through the crowd, most people trying to run away from the creature, dispersing it in the process.
A fellow bishop noticed a peculiar parchment on the ground, picking It up for a curious inspection. Twilight, in her momentum, crashed into him, plummeting both of them in the dirt. The bishop lost the item from his grip as he was knocked out unconscious .
Twilight stood up, and looked around to find the paper in question on the unresponsive person before her. She took hold of it in her magical grasp at a moment’s notice, relieved that she was about to escape this madness, and hopefully not entering another one.
She cast a barrier spell to ensure victory, surrounding herself in a purple dome of repellent force. Lastly, she undid her invisibility spell to save more of her magical reserves for the teleportation spell.
And before anyone else knew, she was gone in a instant like a lightning.
The knocked-out bishop rose up in a sitting position, as he rubbed at the headache cause by the surprise attack of before. He saw his fellow priest turning to him, coming to check if he was alright.
“Send a letter to the Patriarchy, and tell them that He is coming, that the Tribulations are close.” told his fellowman, half-speaking and half-grunting the words.
~ ~ ~
FLASH!
“Agh!” screamed Spike, as the light made him jump out of his bed, and on the floor. He quickly realized, to his dismay, that he had been dreaming, and worse, that he had been woken up again by a particular lavender mare who now sat by her bed. She turned on the lights with a flick of her horn.
She saw Spike, angrier than ever with her; Twilight couldn’t be more happy than not to see him again.
“Twiliiig—” he shouted, before his muzzle was shut by a wall of purple fur, which encompassed him whole. Twilight hugged Spike as though she was holding for dear life.
“Oh, Spike, I am so glad to see you again!” Twilight told, ending the sentence with a squeak.
“Yeah, me too.” mumbled Spike, rolling his eyes in the process.
“What?”
Twilight let go of the tight hug.
“I said, me too, Twilight,” repeated Spike, an ever so present tint of sarcasm in his voice.
“Okay now, can we go to bed an tell me what you’ve been through, in the morning?”
“Yes, Spike, let me turn off the light for you.” With that, Twilight let the light fall pray to the darkness around the bedroom one more. No candles, no moonlight whatsoever.
Twilight would really have to consult Princess Celestia on the questionable nature of the spell and perhaps ask her why she couldn’t teleport anymore.
Twilight let out a soft sigh, and closed her eyes. Letting go of her worries for the time being, and fell into sleep’s embrace.
Author's Note
What that child cried out at the gathering was "An angel!" for anyone curious.
