Chapter 1:
Insomniac
Although her room was enveloped by the shade of night, Twilight Sparkle found no rest. This was not the first time insomnia had gripped her, nor did she believe it would be the last. For several days now, regardless of just how tired she truly was, sleep simply would not come.
Sighing deeply, Twilight sat up in her bed, its warmth providing comfort, but also seeming to mock her with promises of pleasant dreams and much needed slumber. Rolling sluggishly off her bed, she began to go through what had become a nightly ordeal. Trodding slowly towards her mirror, she viewed herself with a sense of displeasure.
The moon’s pale-white light illuminated Twilight, and in turn, her reflection. Running a hoof through her mane, she began to realize just how unkempt she actually was. Her mane, usually straight edged and organized (much like herself, she thought) was now knotted and filthy, its signature pink and purple stripes were faded, weaved in with the rest of her deep blue hair in absolute disarray. Even her coat, usually a soft, even purple, was faded and stained.
“I need a bath,” she groaned, turning around slowly to begin her descent down the stairs, and towards the bathroom. She took every step carefully, her body shuddering from pure exhaustion. Her head felt foggy, her sense of equilibrium seemingly non-existent as she made her way to the bottom, slowly swaying back and forth.
When she reached her study, she decided she needed a break. The stairs were much more draining than she had thought they would be. Seated in the middle of the room, she examined her surroundings once again.
The moon was especially bright tonight, and as its light filtered in from the study’s picture window, thick shadows were cast upon nearly everything that Twilight set her gaze upon. She set her glance towards the wall, where portraits of her and her friends were hung. Usually, Twilight would come here to help put her mind at ease during her insomnia-fueled walks, but something just didn’t seem right about them tonight.
Twilight pulled herself up to inspect them more closely, a sense of increasing dread filling her the closer she got. Finally, the realization hit her; the shadows had to be playing a macabre trick on her mind. The way that the shadows fell across the paintings made it look as though her and her friends were coated in thick, dark blood. Twilight was filled with an intense feeling of terror, her heart pounding inside of her chest. “This is what happens when you don’t sleep, Twilight,” she reassured herself, backing slowly away from the pictures, “it’s nothing more than your mind playing tricks on you!”
As much as she wanted to turn and run, she couldn’t bring herself to remove her gaze from the portraits. She watched on with horror, her eyes widening with disbelief as the shadows began to move, causing the -blood- to flow from the paintings, dripping down onto the floor and pooling there. Twilight screamed and shook her head, closing her eyes as tightly as possible. When she opened them again, the shadows were back to normal, the portraits no longer seeming to ooze blood. Twilight breathed deeply, hoping that what she had just seen was a figment of her imagination, and also hoping that she didn’t wake Spike up with her sudden outburst.
Holding her breath, she listened carefully for anything said by the little dragon. Satisfied that she had not seemed to have awakened him, she proceeded into the bathroom. She slowly reached up and turned on the light, closing and locking the door behind her.
With her bathroom’s light eliminating all of the room’s shadows, she heaved a sigh of relief. What happened in the study, or more likely, had happened in her mind, could not possibly occur in here without any shadows. She moved toward the bathtub, turning the lever and allowing hot water to spill through. Steam quickly began to fill the room as the tub filled, and Twilight began to relax. She breathed deeply, hot steam filling her lungs, and as she exhaled, she felt as though some of her tension left as well. Turning off the tap, she slowly slipped into the water, sighing as the heat began to work its magic, relaxing her muscles and soothing her mind. She let herself get lost in the moment, her eyelids feeling unbearably heavy as she slowly began to fade out of consciousness.
Upon opening her eyes, she saw only darkness. As panic set in, Twilight began to thrash about in terror, only to realize that she was still in her bathtub due to the splashing of water and heat over her body. A sense of relief washed over her, believing that she must have just nodded off in the bath. But that didn’t explain why the lights went out, and if she had just fallen asleep, how could the water still be so hot...
In an attempt to find an explanation, Twilight began to summon her magic to light up the room, but could only bring forth a mere spark. “Come on, Twilight. Focus!” she cried, forcing herself up and out of the tub. Drawing from her deepest reserves of power, Twilight’s horn began to shine a brilliant pink light, illuminating the entire room. “That’s better,” she stated, feeling quite proud of her accomplishment. Still quite soaked from the bath, she trotted over to the bathroom mirror and began to dry herself off with a towel.
Her reflection was quite different than the one she witnessed in her room. Her colors were clear, her mane was clean and neat, and her horn’s pinkish glow seemed to make her purple irises sparkle. Twilight smiled, feeling better than she had in quite a while, regardless of what had happened in the study.
However, Twilight began to notice changes in the mirror. While her horn’s glow stayed the same hue, her reflection’s glow seemed to be getting darker, becoming more of a deep red than a pink. “Please, don’t let this be happening!” she begged, beginning to shake in fear. Her resolve began to wane, causing the steady light of her horn to spark and fizzle.
As she watched, frozen in terror, her own reflection began to change. Her skin became increasingly darker, and her eyes began to shine a deep crimson. Her reflection donned a horrifyingly wide smile, gazing directly into Twilight’s eyes. As Twilight stared on, the smile turned into an open maw, with nothing but pure darkness inside of it. Slowly, the reflection began to move outside of the mirror, drawing closer and closer to Twilight. She could do nothing but watch helplessly, absolutely paralyzed with pure terror, as her own warped reflection swallowed her whole. Twilight’s world became a canvas of red and black, her horn’s glow slowly dwindling, and just before she could bring herself to utter what would have been a truly blood curdling scream, darkness overtook her.
