Twilight Sparkle awoke with a scream.

She shot up from where she lay -- her eyes wide and terrified, her breathing quick and heavy, and her entire body shivering violently. She found herself trying not to be sick right then and there.

She frantically looked about the room as if expecting some horrible thing to emerge from the shadows and attack. The only thing she saw however, was the familiar interior of her bedroom in the Castle of Friendship dimly lit by the soft glow of the moon outside her window.

Twilight sat there in bed for another few moments as she tried to get her heartbeat back under control. Closing her eyes, she raised a shaky hoof to her chest and stretched it out as she took several calming breaths.

She repeated the process a few more times until she felt she was calm enough to think rationally. She opened her eyes once more and turned to stare out the window and up at the night sky, her mind racing to understand what had just happened.

A dream?

She frowned and closed her eyes once more, gasping in shock as sounds and images came unbidden to her mind.

A dark forest.

A desperate wordless cry in the distance.

A bipedal creature charging straight for her, only to trip at the last second as a terrifying beast closed in.

And then...

Her eyes snapped back open and she shivered again at the thought of what had happened next. Bile started to rise up in her throat, but with a concentrated effort, she pushed it back down and brought her hooves up to her face, staring at them in horrified shock.

"That... couldn't have been a normal dream," she muttered aloud, "not even my worst nightmares were ever that horrifying... and I can still remember..."

Rather than fade in seconds like a dream normally would, this dream... this vision only grew clearer in her mind as time passed. While she could only remember bits and pieces of what had occurred and the setting had been too dark to make out anything clearly, the fragments remained vivid in her memory.

"Whatever that was, it felt like I was really there..."

A sudden knock on her bedroom door caused her to start and yelp in surprise. She whipped her head towards the door and breathed a sigh of relief when she heard who was behind it.

"Twilight?" the door opened and a bleary eyed baby dragon poked his head inside, his drowsiness warring with his worry, "is everything okay in here? You shouted so loud it woke me up from my room."

Twilight bit back her trepidation and gave the little dragon an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about that, Spike," she replied, "I just... had a nightmare..." she lowered her gaze and frowned slightly, "...a really bad one."

"It must've been some kind of nightmare," came another voice behind Spike, "you woke both of us up with that shout."

Spike pushed the door open further to reveal Starlight Glimmer standing in the doorway looking just as tired and worried as Spike did. The two of them stepped inside the room, eyeing the lavender mare with no small amount of concern.

"Are you sure you're okay, Twi?" Spike asked with a frown, "do you wanna talk about it?"

"Trust me, Spike, I'm fine," Twilight answered with a shake of her head, "you don't need to worry so much. It was just a silly dream," as Spike got closer, she leaned over and pulled the dragon into a hug, "see? Perfectly fine."

"But--"

"Spike. I'm okay, really," Twilight said, exasperation creeping into her voice, as she set Spike back down, "now go back to bed, we have a lot to do tomorrow and we all need to be well rested."

"Technically, it is tomorrow," Starlight commented with a yawn, "but we've still got a few hours left, so I'll just take your word for it and get back to sleep," with that, she turned and trotted back out of the room, "good night, you two."

"Good night, Starlight," Twilight called back as Starlight stepped out of the room. She turned to see Spike still standing at the foot of the bed looking unconvinced for the most part. She sighed and frowned at the worried dragon, "Spike, I--"

"You're all sweaty and shaky," Spike stated bluntly as he crossed his arms and furrowed his brow, "it's painfully obvious that was more than just a 'silly dream', Twilight."

Twilight's eyes widened in surprise and she raised a hoof to her forehead to find that her mane and fur were indeed matted with sweat. She lowered her hoof and looked at it briefly before letting out a resigned sigh and turning back to Spike.

"You're right, Spike," she conceded morosely, "it wasn't just a silly dream... in fact, I'm not even sure it was a dream at all."

"What do you mean?" Spike asked, his worried frown once again in place, "what was it about?"

Twilight bit her lip and looked away from Spike and towards the window, staring out at the quiet, darkened Everfree Forest in the distance. After a moment she looked back to Spike.

"I can only remember a few things," Twilight began, "but from what I do remember, I think I was in the Everfree Forest at night."

"You went into the Everfree Forest alone?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I... don't think so," Twilight replied uncertainly, "I think the other girls were there... and... I think we were looking for something, but," she furrowed her brow, "I can't really remember that part very well, but I think we got separated... and that's when I heard something."

"What did you hear?" Spike asked, "was it a monster?"

"I heard... I heard a scream, and laughter," she shuddered and clenched her eyes shut, "the laughter sounded wrong, Spike... very wrong... a-and that scream..."

"Whoa, Twilight!" Spike cried, hopping onto the bed and resting a claw on one of her quivering hoof, "calm down, everything's okay now."

Twilight opened her eyes and turned to the baby dragon next to her, tears streaming down her face as she pulled him into another, tighter hug.

"It's not okay, Spike!" she cried, "i-it was horrible! There was... there was a monster, a-and... and it was chasing something... s-somepony," she hiccuped and sniffed before continuing, "a-and they... they fell in front o-of me... and then the monster came and... a-and..."

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't say anymore than that, and with a shuddering gasp, she broke down into heavy sobs. Spike set his confusion aside to comfort the mare that the closest thing to an older sister he had.

He stroked Twilight's mane as she cried into his tiny frame, muttering words of comfort and encouragement even as his own mind filled with countless questions about just what could've happened in that dream.

It was clear that whatever had happened was bad, bad enough to bring Twilight to tears just from the memory alone. In all the years that Spike had known Twilight, he had only ever seen her cry like this a clawful of times.

As troubled and confused as he was, Spike knew one thing for sure. Twilight needed the reassurance, comfort, and understanding of her friends, and he needed to send a letter to a certain Princess.

He didn't know what was going on with Twilight, but he had a strong feeling there was something more to this than just a bad nightmare.

Chapter's a bit shorter than I would've liked, but I'm already roughly halfway done with the next one, so hopefully I'll have that out within the next day or so.