Chapter 1
It was a lie.
It was a complete, fabricated, disgusting, horrific lie that she made of her life.
Twilight Sparkle knew that all too well, and she hated every bit of it. Every second. Every minute. Every hour. Every day.
She lied to her friends, she lied to her parents and family, she even lied to the princesses.
One could only know when this inhibited rage, this jealousy, this fear, could overcome her.
As the day eventually sank into night, Ponyville slowed down its activity, as the tired inhabitants made their way home and into their beds.
Not Twilight Sparkle.
“Twilight, you haven’t slept for days!” Spike said, worried as ever. “You look like Dr. Frankenstallion! Well, I mean, you’re not crazy, but-”
“Spike,” Twilight groggily looked up from the book she was reading, Of the Calibration of the Quantum World of Magic: Advanced Edition. The bags under her eyes drooped, her eyes itself were bloodshot, and her mane was ragged and disordered from lack of bathing. “Don’t worry. I’m perfectly fine.”
“Fine?” Spike threw his hands up in the air. “You’ve been reading Celestia knows how many books, you haven’t taken one single bath for the past three days, and you’ve eaten hardly anything!”
“Spike,” Twilight’s tone grew somewhat hostile. “I told you, I’m fine. Go to sleep.”
“I’m not going to bed unless you tell me why you’ve been staying up for days in a row!” Spike, naïve as he was sometimes, knew Twilight’s sleep schedule wasn’t healthy. The only problem was that this particular schedule was unsettling, to say the least. Something he didn’t know about was bothering her.
“You wouldn’t understand, Spike.” Twilight was near her breaking point. Total lack of sleep, hunger, and constant reading deprived her for the past few days.
She wanted to get away from it all.
She wanted no thought of the little machination that was the lie her life.
“Twilight, of course I would understand!” Spike slowly walked over to his best friend.
“No, you wouldn’t!” Twilight had snapped, like she did a few times before. “You wouldn’t know what’s been going in my head, what’s been driving my nightmares to my sleep, what I can’t tell anypony! You wouldn’t know what it’s like to hide something for your entire life, never to speak about it to my friends and family and console with them about my little problem! YOU DON’T KNOW!”
Silence crept the walls of the Golden Oaks library after Twilight spat out her words. Spike regained his composure, after being nearly scared to death from Twilight’s fury.
“Twilight…” Spike came up to her and embraced her. By this time, the purple alicorn was now crying, her tears flowing like rapids.
She broke the embrace, and dragged herself to her room. Only Spike was left in the main foyer, left to ponder what she meant by “little problem”.
“I need to talk to the others about this,” Spike cautiously said, before climbing up the stairs to his room and into bed.
As Celestia raised the sun and all its magnificence, something troubled her mind, even at the hour of dawn. Twilight hasn’t been herself lately, and it was continuing to trouble the monarch.
If only she knew.
“Good morning, sister,” Princess Luna walked out to the balcony where her sister raised the celestial body. Luna saw the look of tiredness on Celestia’s face. “You look troubled.”
“It’s Twilight,” Celestia responded. “She is…not herself. She has been like this for the past weeks, and it’s been growing steadily.”
“I have noticed,” Luna sighed. “Her dreams are become frequently disturbing. And the content is…unsettling, to say the least.”
Celestia turned her gaze to her sister. “What is it?”
Luna sighed once more. “Sometimes things are better off not spoken. But now is the time to say it, dear sister. I will tell you, but consider yourself warned. Her dreams reveal…very disturbing things. Things many would be frightened by.”
“Are you sure we should just barge in? It’s not the proper thing to do, after all,” Rarity questioned. Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Spike were outside the Golden Oaks library. Needless to say, they were quite worried.
“She’s losing her mind, I tell you! We need to get her to the doctor!” Spike stated. He was probably the most worried of the group, even more so since last night.
“Well, what are we waitin’ for?” Applejack started to trot toward the door. “We need to get her some help!”
As Applejack opened the door, and as the group walked in, they started to understand the extent of Twilight’s health. Books were spread across the carpet; salads and sandwiches were left uneaten, and in the middle of it was Twilight herself, casually reading a book like the disaster zone of her library was no problem at all.
“Told you!” Spike and the others rushed over to Twilight, her eyes now red as King Sombra’s. “Twilight! You okay?”
Before Twilight could respond, she collapsed onto the floor, completely exhausted and drained of all energy.
“Rainbow, get the hospital crew!” Applejack ordered Dash. She quickly swooped out of the library, heading to the Ponyville Hospital.
“Sugarcube, I hope y’all right…” Applejack and the others gathered around their tired friend, waiting for her to wake.
Hello, Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight looked around her current location. Darkness and obscurities lingered the area, with no light to be found. She was alone, nay a pony insight.
At least, that’s what she thought.
You know why you are here. A shadowy pony, wit the same figure and features of Twilight, save the black mane and coat, emerged from the blackness.
I know what haunts you.
“No…” Twilight’s breath became shorter.
I know what you long for, what you lust for.
“No!” Twilight recoiled from the sight of her shadowy counterpart.
And it will always be there, no matter if you like it or not. Oh, wait. You do like it. You, in fact, love it.
“NO!” Twilight fell to the floor. Her fears have finally surrounded her.
Believe it, Twilight Sparkle. There is no escape from what you desire.
Never.
