Early Start
"Aaaah!"
Twilight Sparkle sat up in her bed, panting heavily. "Ugh, nightmares again?" Twilight had had trouble sleeping for weeks now, with all her night terrors and waking at un-godly hours of the morning. Twilight had no idea what was causing this, however. It was 6:00 in the morning, and Twilight knew she could never get back to sleep after the nightmare she had just endured. She got out of her bed and brushed her mane, and finally went downstairs for some breakfast. Since she was up so early, Spike was still in a deep slumber.
"He is a baby dragon after all," Twilight told herself, "I can make my own breakfast."
Twilight went to the kitchen and got herself a box of Pegus-O's, got the bowl, poured the milk, you know the drill. She returned to the main library and took a seat on the sofa in the centre of the room. She sat there thinking about the picnic she and her friends were having this afternoon. She couldn't wait, but she needed to pass the time with something. It was only 6 o'clock in the morning, and he couldn't simply twiddle her hoofs in an attempt to spend her time. Then, an idea struck her, she could read! What better way to pass the time than a good book to delve into? Twilight picked a random book from one of the bookshelves, and levitated it down for her to read. Twilight had read all of the books in her library, and she enjoyed each and every one of them immensely. Therefore, she came to the conclusion that whatever random book she picked out, she would enjoy. However, when she saw the cover of this particular book, she couldn't recall reading it. This was odd because Twilight knew absolutely EVERYTHING about the books in her library. If someone were to ask her for example, 'Is there a book that can teach me about the entire history of Northern Equestria?', Twilight would just respond with, 'Spike, fetch me the book called 'Equestria: Go North'?' Trust me, she knew em' all.
This was not the case. This certain book had an eerie feel about it. The book in question was a black-as-night, notebook sized, dusty tomb that owned the title of:
"Sleep Tight? Nope, I definitely haven't read this one before!" This excited Twilight greatly, since she could finally read a book and not know what the next chapter was going to be about after she got 2 pages in.
What Twilight saw next made her excitement shrivel and die in the blink of an eye, and replace it with unbridled fear. She opened up the book to the very first page, which read:
This Is Not For You, Princess Twilight Sparkle
These words were printed square in the centre of the page. The book was obviously printed recently, since she had turned a princess not too long ago. Twilight knew deep inside her that maybe she should put the book down and start her morning studies early, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. It was like the book was calling out to her, sucking her in, beckoning her turn to the next page. As Twilight lifter her hoof to flip the page, she-
"Uh, Twilight? Is that you? Look, I'm sorry I overslept again! I was just so tired and I thought Owlicious could do a few of my chores before I got up and-" Twilight shrieked and jumped so high she hit the ceiling of the library. She landed with a thud and adjusted her pupils on Spike. He had obviously heard her coming downstairs a few minutes ago. She put the book down on the table next to her, and said, "Oh, sorry Spike, did I wake you?" said a slightly delirious Twilight. "I couldn't sleep, so I came down early. I'm going to start my morning chores soon!" She was still a little freaked out by Spike making her jump like that. "Morning chores? Twilight, look at the clock." Spike pointed to the clock near her bed upstairs. Twilight was shocked and a little bit frightened to find out it was, "12:30?! How can it be 12:30?! I was only up for about 10 minutes, Spike! I got up at 6:00! It should be ten past six!" Twilight's eyes were small dots as she was thinking how the time had passed so quickly, so unnaturally quickly! She must have fallen asleep! That was the only logical explanation. "Well, I'm sorry I'm late. Also, didn't you have a picnic with the gang at 12:30?" Spike said with a tilted head.
Oh, Buck!
The picnic! She had forgotten all about the picnic with the gang! Twilight zoomed into her bedroom and re-combed her hair, brushed her teeth, and dashed out the door. Spike was left standing there wandering what had gotten into Twilight today. He was just glad that he didn't get yelled at for being late...again. That was the third time this week that he had overslept, and he never overslept! Not once! Okay, maybe he overslept sometimes, but not as much as several times a week! Spike went downstairs and spotted a spilled bowl of cereal on the couch she was sitting on a moment before. "Hmph, typical Twilight, leaving a mess for me to clean up!" At that moment, Spike heard a faint rumbling sound coming from the small table next to the couch. He lifted his head over the arm of the couch, and saw a small black book named Sleep Tight laid there. Spike knew Twilight must have read this once or five times before like every other book in her library, but what could be so interesting about this book that she could read it from six in the morning to 12:30 in the afternoon? Spike's curiosity got the better of him, and he flipped the book open to the first page, which read:
This Is Not For You, Spike