Words. Words, words and words.
And more words.
Very tired, Twilight tried to remember what she had just read in the book between her hooves, in vain. She quickly glanced at the cover to cheat and find out what the book was about. Turned out she had been reading the accounting record of the equestrian royal treasure for the last three thousand years.
Twilight yawned, as it was already very late into the night, and closed the book.
Without really thinking, she then slowly walked to Spike’s bedroom. She looked inside and saw the dragon in his little bed. He was peacefully sleeping, waiting to wake up only to discover the dawn of a new day, completely unaware of the situation.
Twilight kept on looking over her small assistant for a while. Everything was so quiet it was feeling like no living being actually inhabited the room. A whole world frozen into the shadows of the night.
Twilight envied the sleeping dragon so much it was almost hurting her. She would have loved to be sleeping too. She would have loved to be like all the others. That she had to be the only one still awake was feeling extremely lonely.
She chose to change her mind with some food and went to the castle’s kitchen that Applejack had decorated. She smiled, because every time she came into the kitchen, she was reminded of the great friends she had. And how lucky she was to live in such a beautiful castle.
She opened one of the sideboards and got greeted by different types of hay, carrots, celery, some spinach as well as a rest of chocolate cream from the supper. She thought of trying the spinach, but couldn’t find any appetite. The same thing happened when she thought of eating a carrot and even when she considered finishing the chocolate cream.
It just wasn’t time to eat anymore. She was too tired to want to eat. In fact, she wasn’t sure how long she had been awake at that point.
She left the kitchen and reached the living room where she found the great clock of the castle, with its long immobile pendulum. Twilight looked at the time: it was eleven o’clock.
She went to the window and from there onto the balcony looking down on Ponyville and sighed as the fresh air was surrounding her. The town was asleep just as the dragon was. And she should have been as well.
Deciding there was no point to think about it, Twilight went back to the library room, chose a book and began to read.
It was a story about a mare who was fighting a huge conspiracy to save love or something. Twilight immediately understood she wouldn’t find any answer there too. Still, she kept on reading, because she wasn’t really searching anymore. She was just reading: it was enough.
And the words kept on parading under her eyes, losing all meaning as they did to form only one huge mass of concepts colliding with each other in a huge chaos.
Words. Words, words and words.
And more words.
Twilight yawned. She was too tired to keep on reading. She thought she had fallen asleep at some point, but a quick look on her right and another quick one on her left made her understand she was still in the castle, where everything was standing still and quiet. The only thing slightly disturbing the silence of the night was the beating of her heart as it was slowly simmering down.
Twilight pushed the book away from her.
Without really thinking, she then slowly walked to Spike’s bedroom. The little dragon was still there and was still staying still. The idea of making huge noises, shaking him by the shoulders or pour a bucket of water on his head to wake him up came into Twilight’s mind, to be immediately chased away. There was no point. Spike was sleeping. All of her friends were sleeping.
It was feeling extremely lonely.
Twilight chose to change her mind and went wandering into the castle. She eventually ended up in the throne room where the map was laying, inactive. The map reminded her of all the challenges she and her friends had had to face to come as far as they had. Twilight wouldn’t have been able to say if it had been incredibly easy or incredibly hard. It had just been and they had had no other choice but to cope with what life was throwing at them.
The map was the embodiment of that journey they had made together.
That big lifeless piece of rock standing in the middle of the dark, cold and silent room for ponies to contemplate and remember.
Twilight shook her head. It was filled with void and voices, but it was also feeling heavy and she couldn’t understand a word of what was being said. She was just way too tired: she had been awake for too long.
She made her way to the living room, looked at the clock and its immobile pendulum and saw that it was eleven o’clock.
She went on the balcony to take a breath of fresh air, take a look at the lightless town under her, only to return back into the library room and choose another book.
It was the official goof-off rules and regulations manual.
As was to be expected, not much of what was written in that book made much sense. Twilight let her mind wander off through the maximum numbers of shoes a pony was allowed to swallow in a given amount of time and the minimum height and weight that a pie should be given to be thrown into another pie.
“It doesn’t answer anything” said a well known voice.
Twilight looked at her side and saw another Twilight Sparkle with a concerned look directed right at her.
She was back, as was to be expected.
“Let’s go to bed Twilight.” said the other Twilight with a caring tone of voice. “It’s late: you need sleep.”
But Twilight ignored her and went to Spike’s room to find out if anything had moved. Anything at all.
It hadn’t.
“Come on Twilight. How long do you intend to keep on staying awake? You’re barely standing up anymore.”
Twilight consciously chose to ignore the mare and her voice. In order to change her mind, she went to a corridor and looked at one of the walls.
The stones were magnificent. She knew magic had created her castle and it was therefore to be expected for it to be so superbly engineered, but still, it was impressive. Even with all her knowledge and her mastery of magic, there would have been no way for Twilight to replicate such a result or even come anywhere near. She was feeling very little compared to the wall, not because it was so high, or because it was so solid, but because it was so perfectly made.
She was feeling like such a small little pony.
“Twilight, please… stop running away.”
But twilight had already left the other mare behind and had reached the living room. She looked at the clock and saw once again that it was eleven o’clock.
Then, the clock got surrounded by a purple magical aura and suddenly, the minutes’ clock hand went one minute forward.
“Stop that!” Twilight, activating her own magic and forcing the clock to go back to eleven o’clock.
Furious, she went on the balcony to simmer down in the fresh air. She tried to ignore as the other mare joined her there.
“You are going to catch a cold.”
“I don’t care.”
“Don’t you want to sleep like everypony else? Wouldn’t you be happier asleep than awake?”
“Leave me alone!” Twilight ordered again.
And she left the balcony to reach the library room where she picked the first book she could put her hoof on and began to read it.
She could hear the hoof steps of the other mare entering the library, but she just kept on reading.
“Is it interesting?”
She didn’t answer. But yes, it was incredibly interesting. And important. She had chosen the best most interesting and most important book of the whole library. With a lot of words in it.
“You do know it’s a cookbook, right?”
It was. And Twilight knew it. It didn’t matter really, because it could have been any type of book and the result would have been the same. She was so tired, all she could see was an amalgam of inked shapes on the paper, words, words, words and words without any meaning anymore.
“You are exhausted Twilight.” said the other mare. “Everypony else has accepted to go to sleep. You shouldn’t try to resist so much. I am really worried about you.”
“Tomorrow won’t come! Tomorrow won’t come!” repeated Twilight, as a mantra, as she tried to ignore the existence of the other mare.
“It is normal to be afraid, Twilight Sparkle. I understand.” said the other mare.
“Tomorrow won’t come!” kept on repeating Twilight to herself.
“This battle you can’t win. It is already too late: look at the light.”
And as she had said those words, the other mare moved a bit to the side, freeing a space from which a light came that blinded Twilight’s tired eyes.
The alicorn tried to resist one last time. She put all she had in that last effort, even if she had no chance whatsoever to win. She suddenly felt her last strength abandoning her and understood it had all been in vain, then collapsed onto the ground as her whole mind stepped from the real world to one of dreams and illusions.
“Sleep well, dear princess.” said the other mare through the veil of dreams Twilight’s mind had put on. “Tomorrow will come, and it will be a better, brighter and happier day. I promise.”
Twilight’s mouth moved to form a little smile, or a grin, and, in a last whisper, she subconsciously replied:
“Liar.”
THE END
Author's Note
It's late... I should better go to bed now instead of watching pony videos or writing weird pony stories.
