Sleep Tight

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Chapter 01
Comatose

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A sudden, frantic knocking startled a certain purple alicorn from her slumber. As she sat up, she realized that an open book was stuck to the side of her face. Shaking her head to remove book and her sleepiness, she realized that she must've fallen asleep in the middle of her studies late last night. Or was it early this morning? She couldn't remember.

Another rapid series of knocks at her door reminded her just why she had awoken in the first place. "Um… Coming!" she announced as she tried to free her mind of sleep's fog.

Trotting over to the door and opening it, she found nothing. At first she was confused, but then a bit of motion caught her eye as she looked down to see a tiny unicorn. "Sweetie Belle?" she recognized the white unicorn filly with the purple and pink mane. "What are you doing here?"

"It's my big sister, Rarity!" she desperately explained. "There's something wrong with her! She's not waking up!"

"What?!" the alicorn exclaimed. The subject of "not waking up" could be any number of horrible things—even the most horrible thing of all. "Are-are you sure?" she tried to ask reassuringly, but only sounded worried.

The filly nodded emphatically. "I tried everything I could think of! Please, Twilight! I don't know what to do!"

"Spike! SPIIIKE!" Twilight Sparkle shouted as she ushered the young unicorn into her library.

"Guh," a groan echoed from upstairs. "Five more minutes!"

"Not now Spike! I need you to watch Sweetie Belle!" the purple alicorn scolded. "There's something wrong with Rarity and I need to get over there RIGHT NOW!"

Spike was down the stairs in an instant. "What!? Rarity!? What's wrong!?"

"She won't wake up!" Sweetie Belle screeched. "Something is really wrong with her!"

"Oh no!" Spike fretted. "Twilight, you gotta do something!"

"I know, Spike," Twilight Sparkle asserted as she grabbed her saddlebags with her magic. She quickly placed a first-aid kit, a book on first-aid, and a book with curative magic spells into the bag. "I'm going right now to check on her. Spike, you stay here with Sweetie Belle, all right?"

Spike withered a bit about not being able to go, but the seriousness of Twilight's voice kept him from protesting. "G-got it," he muttered. "You can count on me."

"Sweetie Belle," the alicorn started in as soothing a voice she could muster. "I'm going to go make sure your sister is okay, all right? I'll be back soon."

"O-okay."

With that Twilight was out the door and running full speed to the nearby boutique.

Bursting through the door, she frantically searched for her friend. I hope she okay, she worried as she found not a trace of Rarity in the store or workroom. Please let her be okay.

The kitchen was empty too. Having cleared the first floor, Twilight headed up the steps. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she began to panic. Heading straight into Rarity's room, she found the fashionista in her bed.

"Oh my goodness!" Twilight fretted as she raced to the bedside.

Rarity was lying in her bed and she seemed to be writhing in agony. Her legs would occasionally twitch and jerk, her face was contorted in anguish, and she was mumbling incoherently.

Putting a hoof to her friend's forehead, Twilight found that while Rarity was soaked with sweat, she didn't seem to have a fever. "Rarity?" Twilight gingerly prodded as she gave her ailing friend a nudge. "Rarity, can you hear me? I need you to tell me what's wrong!"

Rarity seemed to mumble something in response, but the purple alicorn just couldn't make it out. Twilight had never seen anything like this. It was almost as if…as if Rarity was suffering from a horrible nightmare. She carefully drew the sheets back and placed her head against Rarity's chest. Her heart sounded like it was beating strongly, if a bit rapidly. She also seemed to be breathing all right.

Could she really just be sleeping? Twilight wondered. She opened her saddlebag and regretted not grabbing a book on equine illnesses. Pulling out the first-aid kit she found the item she was looking for: smelling salts. She used her magic to bring the vial next to Rarity's face before opening it. Rarity stiffened and pulled away from the noxious fumes, but she didn't stir. Twilight tried to get her to awaken for several seconds before resigning and capping the smelling salts. She then replaced the vial in the kit and put the kit in her bag.

"This…I'll go get help!" Twilight Sparkle surrendered. She didn't have a clue as to what was wrong or what she could do to help her ailing friend. The hospital wasn't too far, but she wasn't sure if she could carry Rarity in her magic for that long or if it was even okay to move the elegant unicorn.

I have to go get a doctor! she decided as she pulled the covers back over the suffering unicorn. In a flash, Twilight was down the stairs and out the door. Twilight continued to rush through the streets of Ponyville as she headed towards the hospital.

A shout nearly loud enough to shatter windows caused Twilight Sparkle to come to a skidding stop outside of Sugarcube Corner. Normally, she'd chalk up any ruckus to Pinkie Pie being…Pinkie Pie, but the words she had heard made her blood run cold.

WAKE UP! Pinkie's voice echoed in Twilight's mind as she turned and entered the cake shop.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," the purple alicorn muttered over and over as she looked about the empty shop. A cacophony of noises drew Twilight to the twins' room where she found Pinkie Pie beating a drum while blowing on a trumpet. Nothing abnormal, if not for the Cakes lying sprawled out on the floor in their clothes. Both of them seemed to be afflicted with the same thing Rarity had.

"It's spreading," Twilight said in little more than a whisper as she looked to Pinkie Pie, panic running wild through her. "Pinkie! When did this happen!?"

The pink pony didn't seem to notice as she gave up on the musical instruments and moved to her party cannon. She fired the deafeningly loud device, spreading balloons and streamers all over the room. It had no effect on the sleeping Cakes.

"PINKIE PIE!" Twilight shouted, finally getting the party pony's attention.

"TWILIGHT!" Pinkie shouted back, though Twilight wasn't sure if she was just matching her own volume or if she was having trouble hearing after all that noise. "Thank Celestia you're here! Something's wrong with everypony!"

Pinkie grabbed Twilight and dragged her over next to the sleeping Cakes. "They went to check on the twins and-and… THIS! Fix it!" she shouted as she literally pressed her face against Twilight's.

Twilight shoved Pinkie away as she shook her head. She dared a peek into the crib to find that the twins were not spared this fate. Both of them seemed to be having nightmares, too.

"I-I can't do anything!" the bookworm of a pony admitted. "I was just now heading to the hospital to find a doctor! Pinkie, the same thing's happened to Rarity!"

"WHAT!?"

"Come on," Twilight urged as she headed towards the hallway. "I could use your help!"

"First you need to help them!" Pinkie asserted as she pointed to the Cakes.

Twilight shook her head. "There isn't anything I can do. That's why we have to go! You can go to the hospital and tell them what's going on while I go and see if I have any books that might tell me what in Equestria is happening to everypony!"

Pinkie looked between the beckoning Twilight and the suffering Cakes. With a little whimper she started to follow her friend. "Are you sure it's okay to just leave them there like that?" she worried as she fretted about.

"We don't have much of a choice," Twilight reasoned as the two headed down the stairs. "We will get them help. One way or another," she boldly claimed.

Pinkie let out an exaggerated yawn before replying, "If you say so."

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the shop. The fire was gone from Pinkie's voice. She whirled around to see Pinkie swaying a bit as her eyelids threatened to overpower the pink pony's ability to keep them open. "Pinkie Pie?! Pinkie Pie stay with me!"

The normally energetic party-pony yawned again. Twilight had said something to her, but she couldn't seem to focus at all on what it was. It was strange. At the top of the stairs she'd been wide awake, but she found it hard to think about that at all as her eyes finally closed. "Just…a little nap," she muttered as she collapsed right there and succumbed to sleep's siren song.

"Pinkie! Pinkie don't fall asleep!" Twilight Sparkle uselessly urged as she moved over to her friend and picked her up. Not receiving any reply other than a light snore, Twilight began shaking her. "Come on! Wake up!"

A still-sleeping Pinkie suddenly frowned. Then she began to whimper. She'd started to have a nightmare. Twilight set Pinkie gingerly on the ground and sat next to her. She'd lost Pinkie Pie to whatever plague was sweeping through Ponyville. Literally just a minute ago Pinkie was awake and full of her normal vigor. Now her friend was on the floor twitching and moaning as some unseen force tormented her.

"Pinkie Pie," Twilight mourned as tears welled up and spilled over, falling onto Pinkie's sleeping form. "I-I'll get you help, everypony help! I promise!" she vowed as she tore herself away from Pinkie's side. She trotted over to the door before giving one last glance at Pinkie.

She willed her tears to stop as she stepped back out onto the street. That's when she noticed it. The bustling town of Ponyville had practically turned into a ghost town. Most of the shops were closed and there weren't but a few ponies out on the streets.

This is bad! Twilight thought as she took off in the direction of Ponyville's hospital. This is very, very bad!

Twilight Sparkle didn't make it far before a zooming rainbow crashed to a stop in front of her. The alicorn coughed at the dust stirred up. As the cloud cleared, she saw a rainbow-maned pegasus standing in front of her wearing a panicked expression that she assumed mirrored her own.

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight greeted with a thinly veiled sense of terror in her voice. "Don't tell me…"

Rainbow Dash didn't hear a word. "Twilight! You gotta come with me right now!" she urged as she pointed a hoof. "Fluttershy didn't show up when she said she would and I went to go check on her and-and just come with! She needs your help!"

Twilight shook her head as she looked away from Dash, "She…Fluttershy's asleep, isn't she? Trapped in some kind of nightmare."

Rainbow's jaw dropped. She couldn't find any words, so she settled on nodding enthusiastically.

"The same thing has already happened to Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and all of the Cakes!" Twilight warned. "I think it's happening all over Ponyville! We've got to figure out what's going on and how to stop it.

The cyan pegasus nodded again. "Just tell me what to do!"

Twilight Sparkle pointed a hoof in the direction of the Ponyville hospital. "You go to the hospital and find out if any of the doctors there know what's going on. I'm going to go back to the library and see if I can't find the solution in one of the books there." The purple alicorn had a sense of déjà vu as she recalled a very similar situation with Pinkie Pie. "And whatever you do, don't fall asleep!"

"Got it!" Dash acknowledged as she took off with a dizzying speed.

Twilight hesitated a bit before heading back towards her library. She really, really hoped that Rainbow Dash would be able to make it to the hospital and back without falling asleep.

By the time she staggered back through her library's door, Twilight was completely exhausted. Running through town after staying up all night was anything but a pleasant experience—not to mention the whole bizarre sleeping plague that had her in a tizzy.

"Spike! I'm back!" Twilight hollered as she used her magic to close the door behind her and set her saddlebags aside.

"T-Twilight?" Spike choked out as he looked pathetically to the alicorn he had served so diligently. "I-I don't know what happened… I'm so sorry!" he apologized.

It took the purple pony a moment to make sense of Spike's words before she remembered that she had left Sweetie Belle in his care. "Oh, no," she breathed as she looked around for the filly. "Don't tell me it happened to Sweetie Belle, too!"

"If by 'it' you mean she's asleep and I can't get her to wake up and it looks like she's in pain and I don't know what to do and—"

"Where is she, Spike?" Twilight cut off the baby dragon's rambling.

He pointed up. "I put her in the guest bed," he claimed. "I didn't know what else to do!"

With a sigh and a nod, Twilight turned to her bookshelves. After all, there wasn't a thing she could to help Sweetie Belle. It was a sickening feeling, knowing that everypony was suffering and that she couldn't help them. The only thing she could do was to ignore their suffering and figure out just what the cause is. And this bookshelf was her last bastion of hope of solving it herself.

"Okay, Spike. Whatever this is, it's not just affecting Sweetie Belle and Rarity. "It's all over Ponyville!" she quickly explained. "Find me any books on sleep disorders, equine disease, or magical afflictions!"

"Right!" Spike saluted as he ran into the adjacent room while Twilight plucked books from the shelves with her magic.

In no time, they had an impressive pile of books each of which may or may not hold the answer to the crisis. While Spike continued to scrounge the shelves for any other book that might help, Twilight began quickly sifting through the books for anything that was even close to the crisis that had befallen Ponyville.

The dedicated student had the art of skimming books for useful information down to a science. In a matter of only a minute or two, she would lift a book with her magic, check the contents and the index, then flip through any sections that might be useful before setting the book down and grabbing another. So far, she'd gone through a couple of dozen books and, so far, she was just as clueless as when she'd started.

Just then, the window burst open as a rainbow-accented blue blur zoomed into the library. "Rainbow Dash!" Twilight greeted with a hopeful smile. That smile instantly vanished once she got a good look at the pegasus.

Not unlike Pinkie Pie, the normally energetic Pegasus was swaying on her hooves and seemed to be struggling just to keep her eyes open. With a big yawn, Dash turned to set her bleary eyes on Twilight.

"You were right," Rainbow Dash muttered as she fought against the overwhelming desire to sleep. "It's…*yawn*…all over Ponyville. The doctors that are still awake," she explained, taking a break to yawn again, "they don't have a clue what's going on or what to do about it." Rainbow then shook her head in a desperate attempt to wake herself up.

"I-I'll get you a cup of coffee!" Twilight offered as she stepped away from her piles of books.

"W-wait," Dash halted her. "Just, do me a favor? Whenever you…*yawn*…f-find out what's behind this…kick their flank for me." With that said, Rainbow Dash collapsed to the floor and was instantly asleep.

Twilight watched in muted horror as Rainbow fell into a fitful slumber. She began to twitch and moan just like all the rest. It was only then that she realized the horrible truth. It was likely only a matter of time before she was trapped in a world of nightmares, just like all of her friends.

Equestria's newest princess quickly decided on what needed to be done. "Spike, write a letter to the Princess! Tell her about everypony being trapped in their nightmares," she ordered as she brought her saddlebag to herself with her magic and put it on. "I'm going to go see if Zecora knows what's going on. If I'm not back soon, or if you start getting really sleepy, send the letter."

"You want me to just hang onto it?" the purple dragon questioned as he grabbed a quill and parchment.

Twilight considered it a moment before nodding. "If I can solve this on my own, then we don't need to get Princess Celestia involved. It might be risky for her to come here, not to mention she would be so disappointed in me that I couldn't do it on my own," she explained herself. "I'm a princess now. I should at least be able to protect Ponyville."

The alicorn let out a long sigh before heading to the door. "But if I fall asleep, then there's nopony left to save Ponyville. If you fall asleep I can't get in touch with Princess Celestia. So, if I'm not back soon or you start getting sleepy, send it."

"Right, got it," Spike acknowledged as he began to pen the letter.

One frantic trip into the Everfree Forest later and Twilight arrived at Zecora's hut. The purple alicorn stopped in front of the door to catch her breath. This was her last hope of find a way to save Ponyville short of admitting her failure to her mentor. Twilight really, really hoped the wise herbalist would know something.

Drumming up her courage, Twilight rapped on the door. After several seconds…nothing. Not only did the door fail to open to Zecora's smiling face, there were no hoof steps. No voice. Nothing.

Warily pushing the door open, Twilight stuck her head into the hut. "Hello? Zecora?"

Still not receiving a response, the alicorn tentatively stepped inside. Her eyes were drawn almost instantly to a mass of black and white on the floor. Rushing over, she confirmed her fears—even Zecora was not spared from the mysterious plague!

"Not you, too," Twilight Sparkle lamented as she nudged the suffering zebra with a hoof. "How can you be affected by it way out here?"

A sudden, horrific thought struck Twilight. If even Zecora wasn't spared, what if this…whatever it was, wasn't just in Ponyville? What if all of Equestria was afflicted? Her mind's image of the princesses suffering in an eternal nightmare made Twilight's stomach turn.

What if I'm the last pony awake? she desolately thought. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened in horror. What if I'm not awake?!

Desperate for confirmation that she wasn't trapped in a nightmare herself, she spread a wing and brought it close to her muzzle. She stretched out and grabbed a sole feather in her teeth and gave it a good tug.

Instant regret.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" she cried out in pain as the feather dropped from her mouth and her hooves moved to her aching wing. That hurt more than she had expected, but at least she wasn't trapped in dreamland. After cradling her wing a few moments, she got up with the intent of getting back to the library as soon as possible.

The purple alicorn made it all of half a step. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she forgot Zecora was right underneath her. As she began to trip, she struggled to prevent herself from accidently stepping on the slumbering zebra. Somehow, she ended up slamming into the nearby counter and scattering herbs and jars about.

"Sorry!" Twilight shouted as if Zecora could hear her. Not thinking to use her magic, the purple alicorn continued to apologize as she tried to clean up the mess with her hooves. It certainly didn't help that she didn't have a clue where any of it was supposed to go.

As she was picking everything up, Twilight suddenly realized that Zecora must've been working on some kind of potion when she had succumbed to sleep. Now that she was thinking instead of reacting, she effortlessly scooped up everything with her magic and set it neatly on the counter. Underneath the spilled powder, leaves, flowers, and stuff she was pretty sure she didn't even want to know what it was, Twilight found an aged scrap of parchment.

Bringing it to her face in her purple aura, she read the title of the page aloud, "Bedbug Banishment Powder."

The rest of the parchment seemed to be a recipe. After mulling the possible implications, she used her magic to roll up the parchment and stick in her saddlebag. Twilight Sparkle didn't know if this "bedbug" had anything to do with the crisis at hand or not, but it was the closest thing to a lead she'd gotten all day.

Arriving back at the library, Twilight struggled to breathe as she opened the door to her library. After all this running back and forth she was definitely going to do better at the next Running of the Leaves. That is, if there was another Running of the Leaves, or if they even let princesses take part. With a weary sigh, she retrieved the parchment as she closed the door and put away her saddlebag.

"Twilight! You're back!" Spike enthusiastically greeted. "I was so worried!"

"I'm fine, spike," Twilight assured. "I'm really tired but…" she trailed off as she was stunned silent by Spike holding out a letter and preparing to send it off. "Hey! Wait!" the alicorn urged as a purple aura snatched the letter away.

"What'd you do that for?" Spike asked, bewildered.

"Not that kind of tired," she clarified, "I meant that I was exhausted." Putting the letter away, she steered the conversation back in the right direction, "Anyway, I think I might have a lead."

The tiny dragon clasped his claws together as he smiled. "I knew Zecora would come through! Now you can save Rarity and everypony else!"

Twilight shook her head as she turned to her books. "It got Zecora, too," she solemnly explained. Then she floated the parchment she got from Zecora's hut over to her number one assistant before continuing in a very somber tone, "I found this. I think she was working on it before…before she fell asleep."

"Bedbugs?" Spike wondered as he stared at the aged page. "What's that?"

She barely registered Spike's words as she scanned the shelves for a book on magical pests. "I don't know, Spike," the purple alicorn admitted as she found the book in question. "Hopefully this can shed some light on the situation."

Scanning through the pages, she quickly found the entry she was looking for. "Aha!" she exclaimed after skimming over the page. "Listen to this: a bedbug is a dangerous parasite no larger than a flea that preys on ponies. Their painless bite inflicts a powerful somnolence on the host. Once the victim is asleep, the bedbug enters their dreams and conjures nightmares to beset the host. The bedbug then feasts on the anguish and terror of their victims."

"That's just…awful," Spike muttered as he looked to Rainbow Dash. The poor pegasus was still in the middle of the floor, suffering.

"Yes, it is," Twilight sadly agreed as she turned the page. "Oh! There's a spell here to banish them from the dreams! It says it will let the victim wake up!"

Twilight studied the page for several minutes before she could be confident on just how the spell worked and how to properly use it. She wasn't about to blindly use magic ever again after the cutie mark mix-up fiasco. Having committed the spell to memory, she put the book aside.

"If I understand the spell correctly, it will purge whatever bedbugs might be plaguing a pony's dreams," she announced with confidence. "We still might need that banishing powder, though. Spike, would you mind going and getting all of the ingredients?"

"I don't mind, Twilight, but how can I get this stuff?" Spike asked. "Everypony is asleep."

Twilight Sparkle frowned. She hadn't considered that. Using her telekinesis, she brought a sack of bits over to Spike. "Even if I purge all the ponies in Ponyville there's no telling how many more of these bedbugs there might be and nothing else can stop them from affecting everypony again. Just get whatever you need and leave some bits. This is an emergency, Spike."

"O-okay. If you say so, Twilight," the purple dragon reluctantly agreed.

"Get as much as you can," the alicorn urged as she approached Rainbow Dash. "We will likely need enough to facilitate everypony in Ponyville."

Spike grabbed his wagon and tossed the bag of bits in before heading to the door. "You're sure you'll be okay?" he hesitated.

"I've been just fine so far," Twilight assured as she sat down next to Rainbow Dash. "Maybe they don't like alicorns," she joked in an attempt to assuage Spike's worries.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Spike promised as he left.

After the door closed, Twilight's horn began to glow with a purple aura. She carefully concentrated and performed the spell as she had memorized it. Rainbow Dash didn't stir. Her nightmares didn't seem to subside, either.

Did I do it wrong? the purple alicorn wondered as she pulled the book over in her aura and set in front of her. Lying down, she flipped to the page with the spell. Twilight didn't notice anything that she might've done wrong. Sighing, she followed the spell precisely as she tried again to purge the bedbugs from Rainbow Dash's dreams.

Nothing happened.

"Why isn't it working!?" she shouted as she jumped to her hooves. The sudden movement made her dizzy. A shake of her head didn't really clear her mind. It was then, with no small sense of terror, that Twilight realized she wasn't dizzy. She was sleepy. Very, very sleepy.

Realizing she'd been bitten by a bedbug, Twilight Sparkle started to desperately search her hide for the tiny, magical insect. It was no use. It could be anywhere on her and already she was having a very hard time staying awake. The fact that she got next to no sleep last night only exacerbated the problem.

"I guess you'll have to send that letter after all, Spike," she muttered as she fell back to the floor.