Chapter One: Sleepless Nights
Twilight stared blankly at a cup of coffee she had poured herself. Steam rolled off of the liquid casting the sent across the kitchen. The lavender mare’s eyes were horribly blood shot, with clearly visible bags under each.
“Still having those nightmares?”
Having been startled by the new voice, Twilight quickly turned around. It was her friend Spike. Her rush of adrenalin was soon replaced with a glimmer of joy upon seeing his smiling face.
She shot him a quick smile before replying. “Yeah, same as before.”
The young dragon gave her a compassionate look. “Hey, if you want I could start sleeping in your bed again. It seemed to help last time.”
Though Spike was genuinely honest in the fact that he deeply cared for Twilight, he did have a few ulterior motives to his statement. For one his small bed was growing ever more uncomfortable by the day.
Twilight smiled once more, completely oblivious to Spike’s underlying reasoning. “That’s really sweet Spike, but I don’t want to bother you with this.”
“Twilight, it’s not a problem. You’re my best friend and I want to help you in any way I can. Now would you like to tell me about your dream?”
The lavender mare trembled a little before turning back to the counter upon which her coffee sat. “No, not this time. It was just… No.”
Softly, Spike laid his hand upon her shoulder. “Twilight, what happened?”
The lavender unicorn let out a sigh and was about to begin, but was cut off by a knocking at the door. Spike couldn’t help but let out an annoyed grown.
“You wait here,” he said, as he walked to the door.
As Spike opened the door, he was met with the familiar smile of his friend Rainbow Dash. She was awake unusually early, which Spike found most out of character.
“Oh uh, hi Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?”
“Oh I just wanted to stop by and see if Twi had a good Daring Doo book lying around. I just thought I get a good bed time story.”
The young dragon tilted his head in confusion. “But it’s ten in the morning.”
“Yup, and that my little buddy is why I always sleep in the afternoon. So where is that egg head anyways? I thought for sure she would be up dusting her books of arranging her quills.”
Spike reached a claw to the back of his neck. “Yeah, listen Rainbow, now isn’t exactly a good time. She’s not feeling too good and I don’t think she’s much for company right now.”
Rainbow Dash could feel her eager spirits fall a little. “Oh, okay. What’s wrong with her?”
“She hasn’t been able to sleep for the past few days because of these dreams she keeps having. But don’t worry. And hey, I’ll bring that book to Fluttershy’s place a little later. She’ll get it too you soon.”
The sky blue Pegasus smiled. “Thanks Spike, and hey are you coming with me to see the Wonder Bolts this weekend?”
Spike chuckled faintly. “Are you kidding? Of course I am.”
“Okay, see ya, Spike.”
As the young dragon began to close the door, he waved and replied “See ya, Rainbow.”
Quickly, Spike turned and walked back to the kitchen, hoping this interruption hadn’t upset Twilight. “I’m sorry Twi. It was Dash. Now, what happened?”
The lavender unicorn smiled faintly at her scaly friend. “It’s okay I didn’t mind.” As Twilight cleared her throat, her face took on a more serious expression. “It-it-it started like the others. I woke up and I saw that you were gone. I go looking for you and as soon as I step out of bed, I can’t move. Then…” Twilight’s voice began to trail off.
Spike slowly reached an arm around her and smiled warmly as she looked up at him. “It’s okay Twi, I’m here.”
The lavender mare smiled meekly at her scaly friend, before taking in a breath. “Then I see this… tall, skinny thing walk through the doorway of our bedroom. I try to scream, but I can’t. I can’t even look away from it.”
As Twilight spoke, Spike could easily key in on the distress in her voice. So he tried to reach his other arm around her, but as he did so, he felt a small drop of water land onto his scales.
Pulling her close to his chest, he said “It’s okay Twi. If you can’t talk about it right now I won’t push it.”
Twilight sniffled. “No, maybe getting it out will help somehow.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
Twilight let out another sigh before continuing. “After that, I saw it start walking towards me, but I can never see its face. It’s always in the shadows. All I can see is this grey body, but this time I saw something else.” She made sure to make eye contact with Spike for what she was to say. “I saw you.”
The young dragon raised his brow. “You did? What was I doing?”
“You were in the doorway and you saw it. I tried to tell you to run, but you started yelling and it looked right at you. Then I woke up.”
Spike was a little shocked by this addition to Twilight’s nightmares, but he found himself bushing it off as nothing more than what it was; a nightmare.
“Well, that’s um… interesting. But hey, I promise nothing is going to happen to you or me. Okay?”
Twilight nodded.
“Now listen, I’m going to go tell Rarity that I can’t help her collect gems today. I think you need me a little more than her.”
“What? No, I’m okay.”
The young dragon waved a hand. “Nonsense. I promise she’ll understand, besides you and your friends keep going on so many quests that I hardly get to see you anymore.”
Twilight found herself blushing slightly. “Okay, but just for today.”
Spike smiled. “Okay”
-x-
“Oh of course, Spike. I couldn’t possibly keep you from something like this,” said Rarity as she, ever so casually, went about sewing her dresses.
Spike smiled. “Thanks Rarity, I knew you of all ponies would understand.”
“Oh of course dearie! I would never stand between someone helping Twilight and I would never… Wait a moment. What did you mean by that?”
The young dragon could instantly feel his face become as hot as fire. So he decided it would be best to play it down and escape before he accidentally revealed any more information.
Laughing nervously, Spike began to make his way to the front door, when he accidentally knocked over a vase. As soon as he heard it smash, he knew the subtlety ship had sailed.
“Oh I’m so sorry! Let me clean this up.”
The white pony rolled her eyes, while trying to withhold her irritation, and levitated a broom and dustpan to the mess. “Don’t worry, Spike. I’ll handle this; you just take care of Twilight.”
“Are you sure? I could probably-“
“No no,” Rarity said cutting him off. “I’m quite sure.”
-x-
Twilight paced back and forth in the main room of the library, anxiously awaiting Spike’s return. However this was taking a little longer than she had anticipated, so she came up with an idea. She decided to look in a dream dictionary for the answer to her problems. Most of the time she would just shrug these books off as simply pointless, but at this point, she was willing to try anything.
After a moment of searching, she located one of a dozen dream dictionaries. However, she had one unexpected problem; she didn’t know what to look for. Her dreams were just so odd that she had no idea where to begin, but after a moment of thought, she assumed paralysis would be a good place to start. So, using her magic, she flipped to the P section and quickly found it.
“Paralysis- Dreaming that you are paralyzed could mean you are feeling helpless in some aspects or circumstances of your life.”
This didn’t seem to make sense to Twilight. She felt as though nothing were holding her back, and that she could do anything that she put her mind to.
‘Dumb book,’ she thought.
However, she couldn’t bring herself to put the book back. She felt as though she were missing something, that maybe this wasn’t the right word. Her dreams just felt so weird, so odd, so… alien. ‘Alien,’ she thought. ‘Maybe that’s the right word.
Once again, Twilight went flipping through the pages of her book until she found the word. Yet, once again, the definition only added to her disappointment.
“Alien- Seeing aliens in your dreams show that you are having difficulties adjusting to your new surroundings or home.”
“Ugh!” she cried out in frustration, before launching the book back on to the shelf. “I need to make a mental note never to read dream dictionaries,” she said to herself.
Suddenly, there was a loud knocking at the door. It startled Twilight at first, but she quickly went over to the door and answered it. To her surprise, it was her friend Applejack. She was a little happy, but that quickly faded once she had seen the distraught look on her face.
“Are you okay AJ?” she asked in a rather concerned tone.
Applejack looked up at her, but didn’t make eye contact. “Yeah, hey uh Twi, you got a minute? It’s about Applebloom.”
“Yeah, of course,” said Twilight as she opened the door wider.
“Thanks Twi,” replied the orange pony, with the tip of her hat.
“So, what’s the matter with Applebloom?”
Applejack let out a long sigh. “I don’t know. She’s been acting all weird lately. Like just yesterday, she woke up whooping and hollering saying the monster is coming for her. Took me a whole hour to calm her down. She ain’t been sleeping either. Heh, you look like you could go for a few Z’s yourself.”
Twilight let out an uneasy laugh. “Yeah, you could say that. Hey AJ, what exactly was her dream about?”
The farmer pony sighed. “Well, it’s kinda silly. She said that she woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and there was this tall thing standing in her doorway. The next thing she knew she couldn’t move and it just kept walking towards her.”
The lavender mare could feel a chill run down her spine and goose bumps tighten as Applejack explained the horrifyingly accurate similarities. “D-Did she ever mention what exactly it looked like?”
“Yeah actually, she said it was tall, skinny, grey, and hairless. What the hay even looks like that?”
Twilight tried her best not to let Applejack see just how frightened she was at that moment, but the farmer pony still caught on to a little bit.
Raising an eyebrow, Applejack asked “You okay sugar cube? Ya look like you just saw a ghost.”
“Uh, y-yeah. It’s probably nothing. She may have just watched a scary movie or something.”
Applejack chuckled lightly. “Yeah, these days that sounds about right. Well, thanks for your impute Twi.”
“Sure thing Applejack, but could you let me know if anything else happens. You know so I can tell you what to do about it.”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Well see ya, Twi.”
“Bye, AJ.”
-x-
As Spike crawled into bed next to Twilight he shot her a quick smile. “Don’t worry Twilight, nothing’s going to get past me.”
Twilight returned a grin of her own. “As if there was ever any doubt. After all I have my knight in shining armor to protect me.” At those words, both Twilight and Spike broke out into a fit of laughter.
Still giggling, Twilight added “Well, I guess we should get to sleep now. It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah, I’ll say.”
Trying to be courteous, Spike pulled the sheets up over him and Twilight until he was sure she was nice and warm. “Good night, Twi.”
“Good night Spike and thank you.”
-x-
Twilight awoke to the loud sound of something crashing downstairs. It sounded as though it was several pots and pans, but she couldn’t be sure. Instantly, she sat up in her bed.
“Spike, did you hear…” To Twilight’s absolute horror she saw that the young dragon was no longer lying next to her. She looked around the room; nothing. She could see the bathroom from her bed and it appeared that no one was inside. This left only one other option; downstairs.
“Spike!?” she called out. There was no reply. “Spike! Where are you!?” Again, there was only silence.
Hesitantly, Twilight slid out from underneath her sheets and stepped onto the cold wooden floor. As she did so, she could feel a chill run up her spine. Scared beyond belief, each step she took seemed to echo in her mind.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared on the wall by her doorway. After nearly yelping she assured herself that it was Spike and let out a sigh of relief. “Spike, you nearly gave me a heart a-“
The scream that ensued was so loud it threatened to shatter windows, for standing before her was the thing she had feared most; the tall, dark, thin creature that hid in the darkness. Its grey skin shined in the moonlight as it reached out to her, and as it did so, she could feel all control of her body leave her.
Twilight awoke thrashing and screaming in her bed. Instantly, this awoke Spike.
“Whoa! What’s wrong?! What happened!?” shrieked the young dragon.
Before he could have time to react, Spike felt the horrified mare wrap her forelegs around him. Despite the fact that Spike had no idea what was happening, he did what only felt natural to him and pulled Twilight into a close embrace. Gently, the young dragon stroked her mane as she sobbed uncontrollably into his chest.
“Twilight, it’s okay. It was just a dream.”
“I-I-I know! I just want it to stop!”
Feeling as though it was the right thing to do, Spike leaned in and kissed her on the forehead. “I know, Twilight. I know.”
-x-
By morning, Twilight had managed to somehow fall back asleep, but after that episode Spike was still wide awake. Every now and then he’d stroke the back of her mane; it seemed to keep her calm and asleep. However, the young dragon was beginning to feel that he needed to use the restroom, so he gently laid Twilight off of him and on to her pillow.
After relieving himself and washing up, he decided that he should go and make breakfast for Twilight. He figured that after last night she needed a little something to keep her spirits up. So he made his way into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of orange juice.
He had just taken his first sip before he turned around. What he saw shocked him so much that the glass he was holding slipped right out of his hand and shattered upon the floor. There before him sat nearly every can, dish, and pan from the kitchen stacked in such a way that no pony or unicorn, no matter how skilled could have pulled this off. But this isn’t what shocked him the most; on the ceiling was a reflection of a perfectly geometric triangle with three circles at each of their corners.
“What the hell?”