Twilight Sparkle has a lot of difficulty getting a good night's sleep. She has to keep it a secret from the ponies who care about her, because they might disown her. Worse, they might try to help...

WARNING: The first five or so chapters are, on reflection, properly grimdark. If this makes you run away like a puppy that just laid a brown egg on the new carpet, that's your prerogative entirely. Please don't tell me that I'm objectionable for having written it, though, because that's not very nice. Or accurate. At all.

The shiny new art is a commission by this lovely person, so do feel free to check her out for all your creepy-pony needs.

When Applejack's nailed by a falling rowan tree whilst taking part in the Running of the Leaves, she thinks it's bad enough being, well, nailed by a falling rowan tree. But when a raven lands on her windowsill and tells her to go somewhere that sort of doesn't exist in two days or she'll snuff it with a fairly sizeable explosion, and Ditzy Doo gets dragged into the mess, everyone's favourite orange farm pony has to go a-questin'. This can only end well...

I hope to get this into Equestria Daily. If you're reading, ED Prereaders, please send me a note on this account telling me where and when to meet you with the fifty thousand in non-sequential used notes.