Twilight Learns Insomnia!

by Apogee

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Thriller
Length: 1156

Rarity accidentally prompts Twilight into an experiment that challenges her own intelligence. Does her being smart mean she doesn't need sleep?

Twilight is a mare of science, and she prides herself on her intelligence. When Rarity brings up something read in a tabloid whose name was long forgotten, Twilight begins a series of experiments meant draw out the limits of her own physical body, even if it nearly kills her.

- - - # - - -

Just some writing practice that I had tucked away since forever. The GDocs file was created back in 2014, so consider this short bit nearly seven years old. The writing is very flowery, and thus the pacing's all off, but nevertheless I hope someone likes it!

Published 2021-04-06 05:20:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-04-06 05:20:00 UTC

Sleep Disorder Powers Go!

Twilight felt the first tinges of consciousness brush her mind. Surrounded by warmth and drowsy senses, Twilight’s psyche began to slowly process its existence. Even after Twilight became fully aware, she remained as still as she could.

Sleep was always something that Twilight enjoyed as much as she could, and she regretted the fact that she would have to relinquish it in a few short moments. She had endured enough years of late-night studying for schoolwork to understand that every hour of sleep was a blessing.

As Twilight opened an eye to the sunlight illuminating the lazy specks of dust floating in the air, a happy smile met her lips. The thought of a new day, full of exciting events was motivation enough for her to jump out of bed and trot to the window. Pushing it open, she bathed her face in Celestia’s sunlight. After a moment, Twilight made her way to her bathroom.

Twilight sat on one of the couches in Fluttershy’s home. Having been invited for tea, she and a few of her closest friends sat in the living room. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were sitting on the floor, trying to convince Angel Bunny to eat a leaf of lettuce unsuccessfully while Rarity told Twilight of her recent endeavors, of which Twilight was only giving a portion of her attention to.

Applejack, however, was still absent from the meeting for an unknown reason, despite her promise to be present.

By the time Fluttershy had returned from the kitchen with tea, Angel Bunny had already abandoned their company and Rarity had begun to converse of subjects more meaningful to Twilight. After passing out the tea, Fluttershy took a seat next to Twilight and everypony took a moment to enjoy the savory drink. Rarity was the first to break the silence.

“Fluttershy, this is a lovely cup of tea!”

“Yup, it tastes perfect,” said Pinkie. Twilight ignored the fact that Pinkie had mixed countless sugar cubes into the drink, and assumed that her statement was made in good heart.

The tea itself was well made, and Twilight found great pleasure in drinking it. While what she identified as Earl Grey was not her favorite, it was tea nonetheless. And tea was something that Twilight found calmed her. Twilight found herself in a serene moment, listening to Fluttershy try to respond to her friend’s praises and— the gentle knocking on the door.

“I wonder who it is,” Twilight asked, more to herself than anyone else.

Putting her tea down, Fluttershy made her way to the door. As soon as her hoof touched the door, the door opened to reveal Applejack. Apologizing Fluttershy for startling her, she turned to her friends.

“Sorry, y'all. I was awake for most of the night buckin' trees. I think I might go hit the sack after this get-together.”

“You look absolutely dreadful, Applejack!” Rarity cried. Twilight saw that it was true in every sense of Applejack’s being. Applejack had bags under her eyes and carried herself with a uncertain gait. Twilight found herself thinking back to how she looked when Big Mac was unable to buck trees to help fill the quota.

“She’s right, you know,” Twilight said. “Do you need any help on the farm? We’re always just a call away.”

“Nah, that’s alright, Twi. I’ve finished what I needed. I’ve had worse, anyway.”

For the first time upon Applejack’s arrival, Rainbow Dash spoke, a curious expression on her face. “How bad was worse?”

“Probably ‘bout two nights without any sle—”

“Applejack, that’s really unhealthy!” Twilight interrupted. While she herself had witnessed her own share of allnighters, never had she found herself at a point when she couldn’t sneak a nap in.

“I would like to disagree, Twilight,” Rarity said, putting down her tea. “A working mare has to sacrifice her sleep every now and then!”

Rainbow Dash was quick to one-up them both. “Nah, Twilight. I’ve gone a whole week with naps!”

“Rainbow Dash! That’s all you do!” Twilight said, scorning at her friend.

“Hey!”

Pinkie suddenly jumped up onto one of the couches, to Fluttershy’s shock. “I’ve gone a whole week without sleep! That was the time I had eighteen ponies with birthdays in the same week. Who knows how Long Knight had so much stamina!”

Twilight gagged. “Pinkie Pie! First off, that’s really weird, secondly, you can hurt yourself doing that! Your body needs sleep to—”

“Well, they do say that smarter ponies can stay up longer.” Rarity’s statement was made as a passing comment, something that was meant to be forgotten by the end of the night. Twilight, however, heard it.

“What was that, Rarity?”

Rarity seemed to shrink under Twilight’s curious gaze. Her friends were all too aware of what Twilight was like when she was pursuing a goal. “Nothing, dear. I heard from my time at the spa that ponies with a higher IQ can resist sleep for longer! Nothing special, just a myth, even.”

“That doesn’t make sense!” Twilight said, everyone wincing at her rough objection.

“I didn’t say it did, Twilight,” Rarity explained carefully.

“No, no, not that. It doesn’t makes sense, but what if it was true?” Twilight pondered, hoof stroking her chin. By now, her forgotten tea was cold, abandoned in favor of a more interesting subject. “If it was true, that shows some correlation between sleep and intelligence. It means that there is some handle on sleep that we can grab on to! Sleep can be controlled!”

“Can we talk about something else?” Fluttershy’s voice was soft, but it easily penetrated the silence that followed Twilight’s spiel.

“Oh. Oh, of course. Sorry for jumping at that,” Twilight said.

“No, no, Twilight. It was an interesting topic,” Rarity said, taking up her tea. “However, I have something that I think you will all love.”

The rest of the conversation was lost in Twilight’s convoluted mind. Sleep was often a subject debated by scholarly ponies. No one knew why it was, but knew that it benefited the mind and body. No one knew why ponies had to take hours from their time to rest, to sleep, to stop everything and halt all productivity. Sleep was something that Twilight often took little notice to, only something that was a nuisance to her and only hindered her life, despite her enjoyment in it.

In Rarity’s statement, however, there was some basis. If the mind of a pony was strong enough to be considered smart, would it be strong enough to resist sleep? After all, exhaustion is only in the mind. Your body telling you that you needed rest. If the smarter a pony is, could it ignore those messages? If what Rarity said was true, however…

Does it mean that Pinkie Pie is smarter than me? Twilight thought to herself as she lifted the cup of cold tea to her mouth and took a sip mindlessly.