//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: A Tale for Twilight 
// by Simon S Borderline 
//------------------------------//

	
A Tale for Twilight





It was midnight, the full moon was shining bright as it hung high atop Twilight's library. Princess Luna had especially made sure there were extra stars in the night sky as a favor for Twilight. Inside the library a small mouse scampered across the floor in search of a crumb of food to feed his starving belly. It's nose sniffing constantly to detect any signs of danger, which to his senses were nonexistent.
Death came on swift wings as Owlicious wrapped the small creature in her razor sharp claws with a vice like grip. She turned silently throughout the main floor before returning to her perch and landing as softly as she took off. The mouse disappeared in two quick gulps while upstairs Spike snored quietly in his basket. He turned slightly as he dreamt whatever dreams a dragon dreams after consuming a meal big enough to fill his belly and warm enough to warrant a happy heart.
Twilight observed all this from under her blanket after a muffled bump distracted her from her literature. She had not known how Owlicious spent her nights without her until now. After crediting the mouse with knocking over a small object in the room below she retreated back under her covers with a sigh of relief. She used her magic to turn her lamp back on and flipped through the book pages until she found her place again.
It was quite a thrilling read at times, at others scary, and still others exciting and suspenseful. She refused to put it down until she was done. Twilight looked forward to these weekends when she was free to binge on reading marathons and cranberry muffins, with regards to Pinkie of course. She also had to thank Luna for providing her the perfect atmosphere for this book. It was so perfect in fact she found herself unable to hold her eyelids open for much longer. But that was earlier, and that mouse had spooked the sleep right out of her, now she was prepared to keep going.
Twilight started at the top of the page again just to reread her favorite caption in the story thus far. She smiled with tired eyes as she started reading again. She did not get past a third of the page before her eyes started to droop again. She instantly jerked her head off her warm mattress and blinked her eyes open and shut to rid herself of her ailment. When she was confident she could power through her grogginess she returned to the top of the page to start over.
Her eyes shifted from side to side and from up the page downwards to the bottom where she was sure was the best part. With each new line she read her eyes skipped down the page. When she finished a sentence she grew eager for more and dragged her vision lower and lower. It wasn't until she  saw the words running together that she realized her eyelids betrayed her and carefully slipped their way over her eyes as she continued.
Again Twilight jerked her head up from the under the covers, though this time more than she had meant to. She nearly threw herself out of bed and struggled to get back in position. Twilight shook her head and even slapped herself to clear her head. With new found determination she covered herself 
again and stared down the page that refused to let her go any lower this time than halfway. Twilight took a deep breath before continuing her read yet again from the top of the page. She refused to be defeated by a simple piece of paper.
She began reading the same line for the third time when she started to feel the true warmth and comfort of her bed. Her belly was filled near to the brim with sweets that radiated love and affection from one of her best friends. Twilight closed her book.
“Who am I kidding?” She said as she shifted under her covers and set the book to rest on her nightstand along with the lamp she slowly turned off. The warm golden glow it cast about the room gave way to the silver moonlight that cast shadows against the cold darkness. All in all a good night for Twilight Sparkle, and a good night's sleep lay ahead. 
Twilight leaned back into her pillow and yawned widely stretching every muscle in her body as she...
THUMP!
Twilight jumped up in her bed as the loud noise reverberated throughout her house. She pulled the covers up to her face and sat shivering in her bed. Instantly her mind wandered to the book, though she knew it was immature to do so and she imagined, it, coming up the stairs to get her. She recovered quickly from her thoughts however, assuring herself there was nothing to be afraid of. 
'It was probably just Owlicious who knocked over a book. I'm sure she's sorry and putting it back in its place.' She thought. “Spike are you awake?”
Twilight flashed back to when she was a filly and ran to her parents room whenever there was a storm.
“Owlicious? Is that you?” Twilight asked the empty doorway in front of her. After several moments of silence Twilight calmed down and lay back down to bed a bit exasperated, but otherwise fine. Twilight tried to clear her head of the nonsense that piled up from her little spook. She closed her eyes and tried thinking of her friends and all the things they did together. She tried thinking of her favorite childhood memories and reading Daring Doo as she grew up.
'Daring Doo, I bet Rainbow Dash wouldn't mind dreaming about her tonight.' She smiled at the thought just to push that little noise out of her head. It was probably just her imagination, but if it was then why did she hear it again. And again...the sound of creaking floorboards seemed to be getting louder. No, not louder. Closer. Twilight remembered the loud thump she heard earlier and her mind wandered to a more realistic threat, perhaps a burglar. 
As she heard the creaking again she sat up in an instant and cast a powerful glow from her horn to reveal the perpetrator of her thoughts. But when she opened her eyes she found nopony in sight. She lowered the light as Spike snorted and turned over. She felt absolutely childish being afraid.
'But a perfectly natural fear of course. Darkness hides threats we can't see so it's really not all that childish but in fact rather rational.' She thought as a cold draft made its way into her room and under her covers. She shivered as another less frightening possibility occurred to her. Twilight made her way downstairs, walking down creaky steps. 'Mystery solved'
On reaching the bottom Twilight found an unlocked window swinging just a bit in the cool night air. She breathed another sigh of relief when she noticed Owlicious was gone. Normally this would worry her, but upon reflecting on her midnight routine earlier Twilight figured she was probably still hungry and stepped out. A sudden gust of wind surely blew the window against the rafters.
Twilight closed the window and started back up the stairs in deafening silence. Halfway up she noticed a  stain on one of the floorboards and felt a warm trickle of something down the side of her cheek. She rubbed it off with her hoof and inspected it in the darkness, it smelled rather bad too. She looked up and saw what appeared to be a larger stain, like the one below on the ceiling above. Judging by its size and smell she decided it was most likely a mildew stain she just had never noticed before. The previous owners must've not looked after the roof very much.
Just as she was about to step away Twilight grew entranced by the stain. As she continued to stare at it she grew positive she could see something, but every time her eyes darted in one direction or the other the darkness melded into whatever she had seen and prevented the full image coming together. At one point she thought she saw movement, but then another drop of the questionable liquid dropped into her eye and she had had enough. 
Walking back into her bedroom she uncovered her eye and tried inspecting the liquid in the moonlight which to her eyes appeared brown in color. In texture it was rather sticky but in composition it was runny. Twilight sighed and lifted a polishing cloth from nearby to clean her hoof and eye. Twilight thought about maybe not starting her reading marathons before bedtime if she wanted to avoid more of this same nonsense. She crawled into bed and shut her eyes determined to fall into a deep sleep.
Just before she did however she slipped one of her eyelids open to look at the basket next to her bed. Why did she keep it there again?