Ever since summer, a sense of foreboding has been haunting Twilight Sparkle. This is her account of what happens when she starts having recurring nightmares that seem to be intimately linked to this eerie feeling, and of her battle to understand where it all stems from. My submission for the 2012 EQD Nightmare Night fanfiction contest

Twilight Sparkle has a big day coming up, and a dragon around to remind her of it in no uncertain terms. But her heart doesn't seem to be entirely in the swing of things, and she can't understand why. Sometimes, it might not be such a good idea to listen to your heart.

Having failed to make her fillyhood dream come true, Rainbow Dash flies away heedless of direction or intention and ends up in Fillydelphia. In the twilight of the city she finds a place to hide, and half-way down a glass of cheap rock salt she finds some wholly unexpected pleasures.

After years of occult and magical studies, sifting through tomes of arcane lore and obscure history and myth, Twilight Sparkle arrives at a conclusion to her journey: an ancient, reconstructed ritual to try and penetrate the veil between her and the ultimate truths of the universe. Proposed background story fic for a picture by Equestria-Prevails