Tired, I’m so tired.
Down in the Palace laboratory, my body and my brain fight a bitter little war- one wants to sleep while the other needs to stay awake. It takes every bit of willpower I have to maintain the stalemate between them.
Shaking my head, I blink, rub my eyes and force myself to keep reading. This book is the last one I have on interdimensional phenomena; if I study it hard enough, I may just find an answer to my little dilemma. I have to keep reading.
Normally, forcing myself to study would be like Spike forcing himself to ogle Rarity, but right now, reading is the last thing I want to do. As I study the page, words come loose and jump around, turning perfectly legible text into gibberish before my eyes. My head feels like it's been filled with cotton. My muscles have turned to jelly.
Tired. I’m so tired.
As I read, I can hear my bed calling to me like a Siren to a lonely sailor.
Come to me, Twilight, it croons. “Lay your sleepy head on my pillow. Cover your aching body with my comforter. Give in to the darkness and let your mind rest…”
My eyelids start to droop. Rest. Sleep. Yes. A little rest. That’ll be nice…
Tired, I’m so tired...
No! Slapping myself again, I drag myself over to a nearby coffee urn and pour myself a cup of steaming black coffee, swish a teabag through it, then crush a few caffeine tablets into the brew for good measure. Plugging my muzzle, I chug the piping-hot slurry and grimace. Much as I hate it, at least it’ll keep me awake for a few more hours.
Keep me safe for a few more hours.
I rub grit out of my eyes. How long has it been since I left the palace? Days? Weeks? I don’t know. Down in this windowless lab, time doesn’t exist. Even with the clock hanging above my desk, minutes, hours, and days all blur together. I’m not even sure if there’s still an Equestria anymore, or if ponykind still exists. Before I cast the forcefield around the castle, all of the staff were sent away, even Spike.
I'm sorry Spike, but I can't let that thing find you too.
I shudder. Even the thought of the Thing seems to get its attention. The moment I even start thinking about it, I can feel its presence; a rat scrabbling behind the walls of reality. Watching me. Waiting for me. Infinitely patient. Infinitely alien.
Infinitely evil.
I scour the book on my desk, frown, then hurl it against a wall, cracking the magic-infused crystal. Nothing. Five hundred and fifty pages of extra-dimensional phenomenon and I still have no idea what I’m dealing with!
Scowling, I sit up and trot over to the mirror in the center of the lab, weaving my way through an obstacle course of discarded scrolls, crumpled-up notes, and candy wrappers. Like its cousin back in the Crystal Empire, it’s a pane of magically-doped glass in a horseshoe-shaped frame, accompanied by banks of blinking lights, tape reels, and power crystals. On its side is a crude dial marked “destination.”
I see more than myself in the reflective pane; I see the bloodshot eyes and greasy mane, the heavy eyelids, and unkempt fur. I hate it. More than I have hated anything in my entire life. Countless hours scouring Starswirl's’ work for clues on how to build it. Thousands of bits and hundreds of hours spent constructing the horrible thing. And what great, world-changing discovery do I make? That sometimes it’s better to leave the multiverse alone.
I trot around the mirror, alternating between studying it and rubbing my chin. Should I destroy it? The mirror was deactivated right now- I hadn’t used it since the first nightmare, but it was possible that the thing was using my creation as an "anchor" of sorts, allowing it to extend its conscious into our universe. Destroying it could break the connection...or make things exponentially worse.
What choice do I have? Already, I can feel the energy leaking from my body- my alicorn physiology had already metabolized the caffeine. The world starts becoming heavier and heavier as if a gaggle of imps was stacking barbells on my back. My thoughts become fuzzier, looser.
I have to do this now.
A ball of magic forms on my horn, growing larger and larger while I pour my will into it. With a mental flick of my fetlock, I hurl the destructive sphere at the mirror. There’s a flash of blue light, a whiff of ozone, and when the light fades, all that is left of my grand project is a pile of molten glass and charred rubble.
For a moment, I feel a sense of deep, deep peace. The weights fall off of my back. That did it. It’s over. Now, to get some sleep. I trot towards the stairwell leading out of the laboratory. Hello, bed, my old friend. Sorry to keep you waiting for so long.
Tired, I’m so tired.
I stop. Might as well clean up my mess before I go to bed. No use making Spike clean up more than he already will. A broom and dustpan float out of the supply closet in the corner and take position beside me.
I turn to face the pile of wreckage that used to be the mirror. The broom and dustpan fall to the floor, along with my jaw.
It’s fixed.
I rub my eyes, blink a few times, then rub them again for good measure. I trot over to the mirror, running a hoof over its frame.
What…?
How?
How could this…?
It’s in perfect condition! No chips, no cracks, not even a single scratch! It could have been fabricated just yesterday!
I pull a forehoof back and slam it into the mirror, breaking it into a thousand pieces, each shard emblazoned with my face. I turn my head for a few moments, then look back. It's still there. I twist it into pieces with my telekinesis. Still there. I crush it into a sphere the size of a marble. Still there. I slam it against the walls of the lab. Still there!
As I destroy the horrid device again and again, I feel the Thing.
It’s laughing at me.
After a while, I slump to the floor, hot tears trickling down my cheeks. I can’t move. The energy drain is too much. Pitifully, I stretch a hoof towards the coffee pot and try to pick myself up. Slowly, my eyelids shut. My breathing slows. Just a few seconds. Reality blurs. The universe fades…
Tired. I’m so tired.
-
When I come to, I’m a very long way from home.
Hoisting myself off the ground, I pluck bits of razor-sharp gravel from my coat and shiver. On both sides of me are walls of jagged obsidian higher than the highest mountain stacked atop the second highest mountain. There’s no sun in this bizarre version of Equestria; no clouds, no wind, not even a sky. The only light sources are these patches of glowing red slime dripping from the walls.
As I shiver in the frigid, flinty air, the Thing approaches. I don’t see or hear anything. There’s no sound whatsoever, save for my terrified heartbeat, but somehow I can feel that it’s approaching.
Fast.
The prey animal inside me kicks in. I rear up on my hind legs, whinny, and gallop down the canyon. Frantically, I scan my surroundings. I spot a warm, white light with the same horseshoe shape as the portal. Quickly, I charge towards it. Each step pushes jagged, glassy rock into the frog of my hoof, but I grit my teeth and push myself forward. I’m a princess of Equestria. I can do this!
The feeling grows stronger by the second. Whatever the Thing is, it’s catching up. I hurl myself through the canyon. Sharp outcroppings slice up my sides. One takes the tip off of my left wing Another takes a small chunk out of my right hoof. My teeth clench. Pain is pushed aside. All that’s left is will. Nothing else matters but the portal.
The friendly light grows larger with every hoofstep. I’m nearly overcome with joy from just looking at it. Home. Sweet home. It’s been so long! Much too long!
Something catches my left foreleg. I yelp and stumble face-first onto the canyon floor. Every vertex, every edge is a blade, slicing my body to ribbons. I scrabble desperately on the slick stone to try and regain my footing, only to slice myself up even more. Blood wells up from countless cuts, turning my coat dark purple. It’s a miracle, or a curse, that I haven’t blacked out yet.
The feeling crescendos. Something grabs my body and locks it into place like I was suddenly encased in a block of glass. Against my will, I’m slowly rotated away from the portal and back towards the darkness. I hear a sound like a mountain-sized bell tolling. Something materializes from the darkness.
It’s a door. Larger than a hundred Canterlot Castles stacked atop each other. From what I can see in the dim light, it’s made of a featureless material resembling polished basalt, with are no markings of any kind, no visible hinges, only a thin seam running straight down the middle.
One look at the thing and I instantly forget about my horrible pain. My stomach turns to ice. Tears of pure fear trickle down my cheeks.
It found me.
This Thing is no rat. This...this… is beyond anything I have ever experienced. It’s like I’m a dust mite staring up at the hoof of an alicorn, trying to comprehend what it's looking at. Only I’m the dust mite, and the alicorn is looking back. And it's laughing.
There’s a sound like a planet screaming in pain. A thin line of light appears where the seam once was. Harsh, unnatural light, of a color that I can’t even begin to describe, sapping what little will I have left. Slowly, the line grows wider The light pierces through me, burning me from the inside out. I slam my eyes shut, but the light pierces right through me. Growing brighter. Hotter.
Finally, it fades. Blinking away spots, I open my eyes.
I instantly regret it. Behind the door is a wall. An infinitely tall, infinitely long wall.
Made of bodies.
My bodies.
Beyond the Door’s threshold, are hundreds of Twilight Sparkles; slender, elegant alicorns, shriveled up crones, blank-flanked fillies, colts, even newborn foals, still attached to their umbilical cord and covered in birth fluids. All welded together into a squirming, screaming wall.
I swallow my gorge. Urine trickles onto the rock below me. Some of the Twilights resemble my mirror universe counterpart, some are covered with scales, others have multiple heads. Some have no heads. Some have heads in nooses or heads with horrific wounds.
All are in pain
The wall bends in my direction. A thousand Twilights reaching out towards me, welcoming another sister to the fold. A hole opens up on the wall, exactly my size and shape. A spot on my left shoulder suddenly flares with pain. I look down to see a bulge of liquified fur and flesh stretching towards the niche in the wall. Several more flares of pain follow, and more bulges pop out of my skin, stretching themselves into hair-thin ribbons of liquid pony. Lavender fluid starts to ooze into the depression like molten candy into a mold…
The sight of liquefied flesh triggers something in me. With a strength I never knew I had, I break the Door’s control and stagger back towards the portal. Long streamers of blood and liquid flesh trail behind me Ignoring the pain of being simultaneously melted and sliced apart, I drag myself towards the portal. Closer, closer, closer….
The world grows dim. I slump to the ground. Just give up, let the wall take me forever. There’s no point in fighting. No matter what I do, it will get me. After all, look at the countless other Twilights it caught? They tried. They failed. Why would I be any more successful?
NO! Shaking off the treacherous thoughts, I reach a hoof out towards the glowing outline. There is a jolt and a flash of light…
Tired, I’m so tired...
-
I’m back. Laying flat on my stomach next to that accursed mirror.
Wobbling, I pick myself up. I hurt. Everything hurts. Somehow, my body is completely untouched, but I can still feel the wounds, still feel the disgusting tug of being drawn into the wall.
I’m alive! I can’t believe it but I’m alive! I drop to my hooves and start kissing that dusty, scuffed-up floor. Oh, sweet beautiful reality!
Then I remember the Wall. Something hot and bitter shoots up my throat.I run up to the lab’s tiny bathroom and expel my recently-drunk coffee.
Once my stomach finally calms down, I spit sour bile out of my mouth, race to the coffee pot and chug straight from the spout. The hot coffee burns my lips scalds my throat. My stomach screams in pain. I don’t care. Tossing aside the pot, I throw myself at my writing desk and crack open a book. Maybe there was something I missed. I hope there is. I’ve got to keep trying.
I have to find an answer. Soon.
Because I’m tired.
I’m so very tired.
