After a good day of taking inventory in the library, Twilight had a small conundrum. Everything seemed to be in place when she arrived—books were in good shape, nothing was on the floor and she had seen to it that Spike had any dust and dirt swept away.
Her conundrum was that there was a curious lime-green book on the top leftmost shelf, one that she had never seen before.
‘Spike?’ Twilight called out, keeping her gaze fixed on the mysterious tome. ‘Spike, do you know if we got any new books for the library recently?’
After a loud, startled yawn came from the top floor, a voice replied in a groggy, half-asleep tone, ‘Uh... no? I think the last book you got was that plant one from last month.’
Puzzlement filled Twilight’s mind as she continued to stare at the book, bewildered at how a book could sneak past her watchful eyes. It wasn’t just yesterday that she had begun keeping the library in form.
‘Why, what’s the matter?’ Spike called out from above, leaning his head over the top floor’s edge and rubbing his bloodshot eyes. ‘Something happen in here overnight?’
‘No—well, I don’t know,’ Twilight replied, unsure of the answer herself. ‘I’m not sure why, but that book up there—the lime-green one on your right—wasn’t there last night. I really don’t know what to do with it.’
Spike groaned and lifted himself back up, beginning his walk back to bed. ‘Really, Twi? You could’ve just...’ Spike yawned and climbed into his basket, crumpling up the sheets as he settled down. ‘...You could’ve just used your magic to bring it down. I’m going back to bed...’
Before she could protest, Twilight’s mouth was shut tight by a snoring sound coming from the top floor. ‘Ugh. It could be a trap, Spike,’ she said under her breath. Maybe if I carefully edge it out of the shelf—’
In the time it took Twilight to blink, the book had moved the slightest amount forward from the shelf, which didn’t go unnoticed by the meticulous Twilight. After a few more blinks—this time in disbelief—she frowned, kept her eyes open and stared at the book.
Am I going crazy? Twilight thought, furrowing her eyebrows as she stared intently at the book, which did not move even under her piercing glare. No, Twilight. You’re fine, it was just a trick of the light.
After she allowed her eyes to blink once more, Twilight noticed the book had gone out a considerable distance from where it was at originally. Before she could form a reaction, though, the book began to shake and shudder all on its own—everything else in the room remained still.
Twilight simply continued to stare at the writhing, lime-green text that she had only discovered minutes before, standing as still as a stone. She had never dealt with a book that was alive before; waiting it out to see what would happen was judged as the best plan of action.
A few moments later and the book was unshelved, still moving on its own. Twilight recoiled and took a step backwards, trying to shake her attention off of the book. Her jaw hung loose as a small black dot appeared on the book’s cover, slowly extending into a sharp, jagged extension.
Twilight was petrified as the book grew seven more of these, stopping only to continue writhing until it stood with the book as its torso and the eight extensions lifting it as legs. The legs were separated into two groups of four, lined up just as a spider would.
This was further confirmed as a furry ball of grey grew from the front of the book—which was normally the top of the book when stood upright.
Twilight had to watch and analyze as this all took place, only prompting a reaction when four red eyes appeared on the head.
‘AHHHHHHH!’ Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, finally recovering control of her speech and hooves as she darted up the stairs towards Spike. The dragon, who had been awoken once more by the screech, shot out of bed in a panicked frenzy.
‘Whozat? What’s going on?’ Spike questioned, alert and ready for danger. When he looked up at Twilight’s horrified, panic-stricken eyes and trembling lips, he sighed and began calming down. ‘Twilight, is this about that book? I told you, just—’
‘S-S-Sp’ Twilight sputtered, unable to finish.
‘A spider? Was there a spider in the bookshelf?’ Twilight nodded her head quietly, but as she opened her mouth to protest, Spike cut her off. ‘Scared of a spider? Wow, it’s either really big or... you need some sleep. I’m guessing it’s the latter.’
‘B-But Spike, the spider—’
‘If you really want,’ Spike interrupted, sighing, ‘I’ll go take a look. I’m not sure why one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria is scared of a night crawler, but I’m sure it’s nothing a little rest can’t help.’
Spike walked over to the same edge he had been leaning over previously, taking a peek down below at ground floor. His eyes glazed over the floor to find anything of note, but nothing besides a lime-green book lying squat in the middle was any different from usual.
‘There isn’t even a spider, Twilight. You really need some rest.’ Spike drew himself away from the edge, yawned and began walking back to bed. Before he crawled into his basket, he turned and rolled his eyes to Twilight. ‘I don’t care if you go to bed or not, I’m really, really tired and I don’t want to argue with you. Good night, Twilight.’
Twilight once again regained feeling in her body, but confusion began replacing where the fear used to be. Without acknowledging Spike’s comment, she trotted over to the edge where he had stood and looked over the edge.
Sure enough, the book was just lying there, without any insect legs or spider head creeping out of it.
‘Huh,’ Twilight said to no pony in particular, ‘maybe it really was just me acting crazy. Maybe the book just slipped my mind earlier.’
In a much calmer, soothed mood than she had been in prior, Twilight went down the library’s stairs to deal with the misplaced book.
‘But why, then,’ Twilight said aloud again, ‘is the book lying on the floor? How did it get out of the shelf—’
Twilight once again stopped in her tracks as she took a look at the text; the legs that had come out before were back, along with the furry grey head and crimson red eyes. This time, though, it had company—nine other books were either finished spouting legs or were in the process of growing them.
The ones that were finished stared angrily at her.
‘AHHHHHHH!’ Twilight yelled out again, and darted back up the stairs away from the spider-books. ‘Spike, the spider is back! And this time there are more of them!’
Spike stirred, but a quiet comment of “go away” could be heard under his breath.
Ugh, it’s pointless to get him involved anyway! He wouldn’t be able to do anything against those spiders! Twilight snuck a quick look over the edge and noticed that all of the spiders were scuttering around where they were, seemingly lost in whatever mission they were trying to accomplish.
This time, though, several flowerpots, a few more books and even the doormat had begun sprouting legs. None of them were looking at Twilight, choosing instead to focus on growing their heads and legs.
Screeching would be a waste of energy—Twilight had already seen this happen, and a few more made no difference to her mental instability.
‘I’ve got to get out of here, maybe get some help so Spike doesn’t get eaten!’ Twilight concluded, grabbing the attention of the spiders. ‘If I don’t leave now, there will be too many to escape from!’
Swallowing her fear for a few moments, Twilight bolted down the remainder of the stairs and creeped along the wall towards the door while the crawling creatures began approaching her. Her screech had not gone unnoticed before, and now that they knew where she was, they wanted vengeance.
At least, that was what Twilight believed.
‘No!’ Twilight yelled out as the spiders were mere inches away from her hooves. ‘Not like this!’
Right before the original lime-green book-spider could reach her, though, she was at the wide open front door, having already been opened by her magic along the way. Wasting no more time, she bolted outside to search for aid.
‘Anypony? Is anypony out there?’ she called out, receiving no reply in answer. With what little she could see from the moonlight shining down on Ponyville, there were no ponies in sight. ‘Where is everypony?! I need help!’
Still no response was heard, but a faint scuttering sound could be heard all around.
Can I really hear those spiders from out here? How many could there possibly be made from all of that stuff? Her questions were answered by hundreds of red eyes popping out from different buildings all around her, slowly growing in number as the seconds passed by. Oh no...
The eyes began moving away from where they were, descending down from the buildings’ walls slowly onto the ground. Although the area was dimly lit, there were many slices of bread, umbrellas, scarves—anything that you could find in a household, they had eight legs, a furry spider head and they were coming straight towards Twilight.
Instinct kicked in for Twilight before she could react rationally. Her hooves carried her away from the encircling crowd of creatures and into the only direction she could go on—straight back home.
It’s the only thing I can do. I guess I don’t have a choice...
When she tried opening the door with her magic, though, she found that an old Equestrian instinct for fear seemed to have stopped her magic from activating. As the spiders slowly approached her in the night, anxious to attack the pony who had awoken them from the various buildings around Ponyville, Twilight became more and more panic-stricken.
‘No!’
With a final, desperate attempt to use magic, Twilight yelled out at the top of her lungs. The spiders stopped for a second, reeling from the screech’s pain, and Twilight found that her magic was flowing from her horn as normal. although fear was still present, she was able to quickly open the library’s wooden door.
Escaped the fire and into the frying pan... still not a great place to be. Better brace myself for my doom.
Twilight darted inside, closing the door behind her with her magic before shutting her eyes in anticipation for her assault.
Any moment now...
Nothing attacked her. Not even a sound was to be heard in the library besides Twilight’s hyperventilating and a deep snoring sound coming from the upper floor.
Twilight allowed herself a peek out from her closed eyelids, when she was surprised to discover that all the spiders were gone; everything was in place, no sound of scuttering could be heard from outside and the lime-green book was back on the floor, motionless and without any spiderlike characteristics.
‘W-’ Twilight began, unable to find the right words to say. ‘I-I don’t know what just happened.’ Before she could think, she lifted the book with her magic, opened the door and flung it outside. Sure enough, there were no spiders outside; this did not stop her from immediately shutting the door to prevent anything from coming in.
Without another word, stone-faced and disbelieving, Twilight blew out the oil lamp at the front that lit the room. She trotted up the stairs, lay on her bed and said nothing.
She wasn’t sure what had just happened, whether it was real or whether she was dreaming or not.
For several minutes, Twilight lay exposed on her bed in the dark, waiting to shoot right out of bed at any sign of the spider hybrids. It’s alright, Twilight. You were just a little tired. Go to sleep and everything will be alright.
As Twilight pulled the bed covers over herself, a curious sight was visible even in the darkness of night. Lying right on top of the sleeping Spike was a small, familiar little creature—albeit without the characteristic household object as a torso that she had grown accustomed to seeing.
It had a grey body, long and sharp black claws and red eyes staring back angrily.
But it was just a normal spider. There are no such things as book-spiders.
