That Eternal Question...

by jcel4569

Rating: everyone
Tags: Random, Slice of Life
Length: 658

A series of shorts where various ponies get thrown into "the situation", and must ask "Why?"

Written as a philosophical collection of takes on the same situation. This situation is not unique, everypony and everyone has been in it before. The situation is never predicted, but instead, the party who finds themselves in this situation will not know what convinced them to get into it in the first place. What could bring the character to be at this place, at this time? Is there a reason they are partaking of this action during this rather specific time slot? For each chapter, join a new character as they ask themselves, "Why am I still up at 2am? And why am I making ramen noodles?"

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-02-20 09:22:36 UTC

Twilight Sparkle: Too Much Reading

Tonight was not that much different than most nights for Twilight Sparkle.  After closing the library, she and Spike had a simple dinner of daffodils, hay, and bread.  The conversation mainly revolved around the shipment of novels from Canterlot which had come in that morning.  It was no different than any other regular shipment.  It contained books from seven different generas, and the two had managed to get every last book into place before closing time.  Following dinner, they took their plates to the kitchen to clean them.  As to why the library had a kitchen in the first place, neither of them knew, though Twilight planned to ask the Mayor about it at some point.  Once the dishes were clean and the library was generally tidied up a bit more, Spike plopped down on his mini-bed and fell fast asleep, with only a "Night, Twi." to send him off.  Twilight could not help but smile at her assistant's inherent laziness.  She floated a second blanket on to him, as it was rather cold tonight, and  whispered "Goodnight, Spike."  After blowing out all the candles, save the one next to her bed, she crawled under the covers and picked up one of the new books with her magic.  It was a surprisingly thick tome, totaling about 2300 pages.  On the cover was a armor-clad pony holding a spear, looking across a massive chasm to a similar-looking pony.  She knew she was judging a book by its cover, but this one looked more promising than some other books she had recently read.  From the inside flap, it seemed to be about stories in one book, with the viewpoint switching from chapter to chapter.  Settling in, she opened the book to the first page, and began reading.

*** Five Hours Later ***

Anypony who reads before bed can tell you it is very easy to lose track of time when the book is particularly good.  Many a morning plan has been ruined by the mental swirling vortex that is a good book.  Some ponies were resistant to this pull, but some just let themselves get drawn in until the dawn.  Twilight was sucked in to this book as the unicorn could be.  Having lost track of time in her reading frenzy, she continued to devour the story at an impressive rate until around 2 am.  At this point, due to a force we will only call rather convenient timing for this story, unnoticeable vibrations in the Equestrian crust caused a plate to fall off the edge of the counter and shatter on the floor.  The noise was great enough to snap her out of her book-induced trance and jolt her back to reality.  Rolling off the top of the bed, Twilight went to investigate the strange sound.  Along the way to the kitchen, she happened to notice the wall clock showing 2.

It's not 2 in the morning already, is it?  I wasn't reading that long, was I? she thought, confirming her suspicions by checking a second clock.  Seeing the fruits of her reading, she began to talk to herself, "Well, it appears yet again I have read the night away.  Hmm...I'm hungry."  Noticing this fact, she trotted down to the kitchen to grab a snack.  She looked high, she looked low, but she could not find anything she felt like eating or making.  That is, until she saw the unmistakable red packaging of a small crate of ramen noodles.  "Ramen, the perfect midnight snack!" she exclaimed.  After starting to heat the water, she sat down at the table, starting to think.  In these thoughts, she not only realized how unlike her this was,  but also how normal it was.  She decided to study this effect later.  When she was writing her notes down, the shock hit her.  She had asked the eternal question, "Why am I up at 2 am?  And why am I making ramen?"

***  In The Morning ***

When Twilight woke up, she did not recall the previous night's sudden realization.  Nopony ever does.  It is an event shrouded in mystery, no matter how many times one partakes in the situation.