Activated plugin is stored as an object, rather than as a path

You should just not add code outside of actions (callbacks attached to hooks and filters). Else your variables might conflict with global variables. The default/first action for a plugin bootstrap would be (depending on the type of plugin): plugins_loaded or muplugins_loaded.

Attach hooks from there on to wp_loaded if you want stuff to run on init (but make it multisite save – init has other drawbacks as well).