All around in the library, it was quiet. Spike was already long asleep and Owlowiscious outside to catch some mice. The only sounds in the library came from the reading table in the corner.
Twilight was sitting there, a book in front of her and a candle to her left. It was one of these nights where she should have been asleep already and yet stayed awake anyway to catch up on some of her studies.
The candle flickered slightly as Twilight turned a page in the book. She began to read the first lines as she suddenly felt a sharp pain flinching through her head. She grimaced, stopped reading and leaned back in her chair. Slowly, she moved up her hooves and began to rub her temples. "Seems like I have overdone it a little with reading this night," she thought to herself.
Twilight knew that it wasn't wise. Especially not after she had already put her studious muzzle in various books for the whole day. And yet she felt determined to read on anyway and to finish this one particular book in front of her. "Come on, Twilight!" she said to herself, sharply. "You know how important this book is. You're going to need the knowledge tomorrow!"
Twilight stopped rubbing her temples and directed her eyes on the flame of the candle, resting her head on her right hoof. She observed the slight movements of the small fire on top of the piece of wax and followed them with her eyes in hope it would put her brain enough at ease for her to be able to finish the book. She knew that she just couldn't go to sleep now. Too important was the task that lied in front of her. She had to prepare herself in the best way possible.
Continuing to follow the flame's movements, Twilight felt her mind slowly drifting away. Her eyes followed the flickering automatically now. She suddenly felt like she was in trance. And after some minutes – her mind seemed to have coalesced with the flame now – a single tear ran down from her left eye. For a moment, the flame was flickering more violently, like a strong breeze was waving through the library. "I'm going to miss this place once it's gone....." she found herself muttering suddenly. A sob escaped her throat the moment after. And all of a sudden, the mare was out of her trance state. What did she just say? She shook her head and leaned back again.
"What's happening?" she asked herself quietly.
A very strong, bad feeling began to spread in her body. It started in her chest and mere seconds later, she could feel it everywhere; from the bottom of her hooves to the tip of her mane. It felt cold and threatening. A feeling Twilight never felt before. Another sudden sob escaped her throat, followed by some more tears flowing out of her eyes. She moved her hoof over them and eyed the wet coat for a moment. "What's happening?" she muttered again. It was all that she could say. For a reason she couldn't explain, she felt like she was completely out of words.
Twilight began to look around in the library. Her instinct told her to look if her strange condition was caused by any outside influences. Slowly, her eyes wandered over the floor and the interior, scrutinizing every corner. She couldn't see anything. But she felt something. Suddenly, every spot in the library seemed to radiate something. To Twilight, it felt like a dark energy that threatened to wrap itself around her throat and to strangle her. And at the same time, it felt sad.
Twilight's friends and all of her family were still alive and yet, the only way Twilight could describe it as was the feeling that one had over losing a close friend. And while she pondered what this feeling meant, she suddenly heard a whispering voice in her ears.
"Goodbye!"
Immediately, Twilight got up from her seat and started to look around frantically. "Okay, who is there? Show yourself!" No answer came. Twilight looked around attentively and listened for any suspicious sounds. But nothing happened. She could not see anyone. She could not hear anything and no more words were spoken. The library was dead silent. The Alicorn shook her head again.
Now she felt frightened and started to worry. Something like this never happened to her before when she stayed up late to read a book. But now she had to admit that she overdid it a lot this time.
"That's the first time I heard voices from exhaustion after reading so much. I better stop and go to bed. This can't be healthy."
She walked back the few steps to her reading table, put a bookmark into the book and closed it. Then she bent over to the candle and blew it out.
Now the room was shrouded in complete darkness. Twilight lit up her horn and made her way up to her bed, silently, to not wake up Spike. As she had arrived there, she lit up her horn a little more and looked around a last time to make sure everything was really okay. As she couldn't find anything suspicious this time either, she turned her attention to the bed again and climbed in.
As soon as she had rested her head on the pillow and covered herself with the blanket, she noticed that the dark energy was still radiating around her. It even seemed to come out of the walls. But now she shrugged it off as product of her tired and exhausted condition. No thoughts about a threat that was after her crossed her mind anymore.
Twilight nestled into the pillow and closed her eyes. It wasn't all that much time anymore before she had to get up again and she hoped that the few hours of sleep would be enough for her to get rested up for the travel tomorrow. Celestia had personally invited her to greet the Duke and Duchess of Maretonia on their visit of the Crystal Empire tomorrow and she did not want to disappoint her mentor during the visit of these important delegates.
As she slowly drifted away, she heard the word "Goodbye" resounding in her ears until she had finally fallen asleep completely.....
