The Faults in Our Bindingby PolarracChaptersA Passage to EquestriaThe Brony Without QualitiesOf Mages and Med (Student)sPrologueA Passage to Equestria"What was that?" Twilight Sparkle jumped, spinning on her hooves in an attempt to find the source of the disturbance. As the purple unicorn spun about, her draconian assistant watched from the top of a ladder with confused amusement. He quickly made his way down the ladder with a book clutched between his claws. "Here's that copy of- MMMPPHH!" Spike was suddenly cut off as a purple hoof made it's way into his mouth. "Quiet Spike. Can't you feel that?" Twilight narrowed her eyes and looked about the library, as if trying to see the intrusion. Spike removed Twilight's hoof from his mouth. "Feel what?" he asked, deciding not to complain about the rude interruption. "It's as if something is watching us. Observ-" You quickly shut the book. "No way," You tell yourself, "That's impossible." The book is obviously messing with you, the author of this piece of fan fiction must be a complete troll. You attempt to rationalize the coincidence in any way you can, until you recall that the writing itself could be messing with you. To make sure, you thumb a different section of the book later on. But you can't get to the page. You can't open the book. Your muscles wouldn't obey the command and you find your thumb discreetly making it back to where you left off, resting there once it reached its destination. You never did like spoilers. You open the book. "Observing us." Twilight finished, and then shook her head. "What just happened?" Spike looked around him. "What do you mean?" "You didn't notice anything? It felt as though everything just...stopped." Noticing the confused look on Spike's face, Twilight elaborated. "Me, you...time. It felt as though the entire world was in stasis." "Um, perhaps you should get some rest Twilight. It seems that you've been reading too much again. Or maybe it's just the lack of sleep that comes from you reading so much." Spike ushered the unicorn towards her room. "No, Spike." Twilight twisted around to get away from her assistant's pushing. "I have to know what's going on." Twilight paced around the library before deciding to levitate a book on her shelf towards herself. Surfacing to her consciousness, Spike's belief in the supernatural gave her an idea. Ever since he had mentioned curses and hexes when Twilight and her friends first encountered poison joke, she couldn't deny that she was intrigued by the notion despite on her insistence that the supernatural did not exist. Of course magic was the force that dictated natural law in Equestria. But what about other territories, such as the Everfree? If ponies had unsuccessfully attempted to gain control over the Everfree forest for centuries, wouldn't it make sense that it did not abide by Equestrian rule? That meant anything that didn't happen in Equestria isn't necessarily nonexistent, and could actually occur in other places. So Equestria could be real? Was it like so many other fanfiction pieces suggested? Perhaps your world is in one dimension, and Equestria exists in another. But what could create a link between the tw- You shook your head. The book was starting to mess with it, feeding you crazy ideas about colorful ponies existing in alternate dimensions. This work of fanfiction must be really well written if it made you believe such things. You continued reading. "Spike, I need you to bring me 'Orb's Guide to Paranormal Influence'," Twilight called out. The dragon shuffled through an old pile of stacked books that were stored inside a cardboard box. When Twilight had moved into Ponyville, they had brought a random variety of recently donated books with them from Canterlot. While the Pineville library had been well stocked, there were still a few empty shelves here and there. Twilight organized as many of the donated books as she could, but was not able to fit all of them on the remaining shelves. So she left the ones she thought were least important (such as the ones on the supernatural and the paranormal) in the boxes, favoring records of ancient magical research over them. It seemed odd that Twilight now wanted to read something from what she considered a work of fiction. Spike found the requested book near the bottom of the stack. Its pages were old, yellow, and awfully thin. It looked as though they could rip very easily. He carefully carried it to Twilight. She took hold of it in a magical field and opened it. The pages flipped rapidly as a Twilight skimmed through the book for why she was looking for. "Twilight, don't!" Spike tried to warn her. But it was in vain. As soon as he had spoken, several consecutive pages ripped out of the dog eared book and floated to the ground. Twilight looked absolutely horrified. She set down the old guide, and nervously picked up the sheets in between her hooves. "Oh no, oh no, oh no," She moaned, "what have I done?" She levitated the six ripped pages in front of her. Quickly skimming through contents, Twilight nodded her head and placed them in a neat stack next to their source. "I have good news and bad news," she announced. "Tell me the good news first," Spike requested. "The good news is that the pages that were ripped out maybe what we are looking for. I would have missed them if they hadn't been ripped out." "And the bad news?" "I need to find the rest of the chapter in order to understand the concept clearly. The only problem is, the pages in this book aren't numbered, and this book is string bound, so we can't simply look for ripped sections. It will be difficult matching these pages in the right location." Spike took another look at 'Orb's Guide to Paranormal Influence. It was very thick, had clearly had over a thousand pages in it. This wasn't going to be easy. "There is one thing I can safely say. Whatever is watching us, it isn't Equestrian," Twilight said. You close the book, having reached the end of the chapter. You turn off your miniature flashlight and pocket it. Shifting over in your bed, you open a nearby drawer and place the book inside. You had a feeling you should finish it before anyone else read it. After a few minutes in, you drift off to sleep. The Brony Without QualitiesYou trudge through the snow, every step a huge effort. It has been few days since you last read the book, life had gotten in the way. It was a pain to have to walk through the cold weather all the way home after classes and work everyday. But it was a necessary sacrifice, since you planned to do something with your life, and your part-time job payed for the flat you lived in. Without it and your flatmates, you wouldn't be able to afford the apartment. It was a routine life at best. The only thing you had to look forward to now was the book the mysterious brony gave you. It still sat inside your drawer, unopened since you had first started reading it. Finally besting the bitter winds and icy temperatures, you make it to your apartment. As always, it is empty. You are usually the first one who makes it home, mostly because everyone else actually had a social life. All because you decided to pursue the medical field. Locking the door to your room behind you, you make your way to your bed and lay down. Without looking, you open your clothes drawer and feel around it. Sure enough, your hand hit the white book, Pulling it to your chest, you flipped to the page where you last left off. Twilight was startled from her sleep. She kicked the night sky themed blankets away from her body before sitting up in bed. Spike stirred in his basket, but did not wake up. Twilight looked around her room before lighting a candle and leaving her bed. She narrowed her eyes as she grasped the candle in her magic. "It's back," she murmured, "It's watching us again." "So she could sense whenever I started reading." You thought to yourself. "Nothing seems to get past Twilight." Twilight descended down the steps into the library, the candle floating directly in front of her. Setting it down on a table, she pulled out the six sheets from "Orb's Guide to Paranormal Influence". In the past week, she hasn't been able to determine the original location of the pages in the book. However, she had read them front and back, taking notes of everything she was able to comprehend. The list of what Twilight learned was as follows. First, any paranormal influence making a connection between two worlds was created by a sentient being. Second, the paranormal connection had two sentient anchors in this case. Namely, Twilight for Equestria. "Myself for Earth," you thought to yourself as you paused. The thought made you laugh. An everyday college student who was mediocre in every way possible. A brony who didn't animate videos, produce music, or even write fan fiction. Nothing special. "Me, representative for Earth in first (although subtle) contact with another dimension." You snickered to yourself. The third and final piece of knowledge that Twilight highlighted from the book's excerpt was that the connection can be altered. In what ways, she had no clue. The rest of the chapter would have told her more about paranormal connections, how they were made, and how they were changed. She had long ago decided that the safest way to find the original location of the ripped pages was to read the book front to back. It would take a while, considering there was over one thousand pages. ~~~ "Eros!" You were snapped out of your daze by an angry man with a silly looking hat. John Smith, your the employee manager was standing over a grill topped with many burnt burger patties. Smith looked like he was about to explode. You quickly shook off all feelings of dissociation, and turned to face him. "You were daydreaming again." Smith snapped. "Get your head out of the clouds. " "So I was. You can't expect a med student to focus on flipping burgers," you said before you could stop yourself. Clapping both hand over your mouth, you looked at Smith with fear. He glared at you dangerously for several seconds before finally speaking. "Is that so, Eros? In that case don't let the doors hit your overqualified ass on your way out." ~~~ "Fuck!" You threw your paper employee identification card (now stamped 'VOID' with red ink) onto the floor before stepping onto it and grinding it against the wet concrete. You had no idea how you were going to pay for your part of the flat now. With your only source of income gone, it was only a matter of time before you would have to pack up and leave the flat. You trudged slowly through the snow. The wind had begun to pick up, and the white flurries assaulted your face. Your thoughts returned to the white book. It was silly now that you thought about it. There was no way in hell that you could possibly be affecting events in a non-existent dimension. None of it could be real. Else everything else he knew was an illusion. The very principles that he based his perspective of the world on was that of a scientific basis. Atoms made molecules. Molecules made proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, amongst non-organic matter. The carbon based molecules made cells, which made tissue, which made organs, which made organs systems, which made organisms. There was nothing that could create a connection with a non-existent universe. Not atoms, electrons, quarks, neutrinos, or bosons could create such a connection. It should be impossible. Where did reality end and the illusions begin? It couldn't be at the opening of the book. It couldn't be the reading of the book. It couldn't be the text in the book. ~~~ So where was the connection? Twilight flipped through 'Orb's Guide' skimming the pages as fast she could. It would have been easy dismiss the feeling of being observed as a trick of the mind. But her instincts told her that something larger was at play. She could sense the magical properties of the connection. It had undermined her assumption that magic and the supernatural were mutually exclusive. But trying to scrutinize the connection was like trying to take hold of water with hooves. 'Or fingers,' You thought to yourself, before stopping. Why are you reading the book? It had just cost you your job! Before closing it, you impulsively read one more line. Twilight looked upwards slowly as she felt the strength of the connection begin to fade. ...shit. So there is actually something going on. It wasn't just a troll author who managed to predict that people would start reading at the beginning of a chapter. He was convinced of it before because Twilight had sensed the link when he began reading the second chapter. But there was no way the author could know you would stop in the middle of a chapter. However, what struck you most was what Twilight had said when you began reading again. You had pulled out the book from your bag during your train of thought and began to read. She had been contemplating the exact same thing, even to the point where she completed his thought for you. You shivered as you recalled that the force joining you two could change. Twilight's third point. Was the connection growing stronger? Did you do something to change it? Just what did you get into by opening that book? Of Mages and Med (Student)sThis wouldn't be the first time you had rifled through the library's bookshelves with such desperation. Memories of studying among stacks of Kaplan's, Princeton, Barron's, and various other review books rose to the surface. You could barely see through the excessive amounts of books that were piled on your desk. All of the cramming had been an effort to pass the MCAT exam, the notorious assessment that had allowed you entry into medical school. Needless to say, you weren't a fan of it. Hell, nobody was. But right now, you weren't throwing books off shelves to find the perfect review book for some last night cramming. Instead, you scoured the library's selection for the arcane and supernatural, making sure to leave no book unchecked. Everything that looked as though it might have had a reference to inter-dimensional link was inspected. If anything seemed useful, it was added to the pile. At the checkout, the librarian peered at you over the large of stack of books. She must have thought you were one of those Ghostbuster freaks, or a crazy mystic of some sort. Silence reigned as every book passed through the demagnetizer. You hauled all of your study materials to your flat. It was going to be a long night. ~~~ The train departed from Ponyville only a minute ago, but Twilight had already managed to take up the entire compartment in books and notes, along with six pages. Her friends had waved her off, but Twilight payed little mind. As soon as she was done waving, she had returned to her investigation. Spike looked on with concern. The supposed 'connection' Twilight had felt over a week ago was all that she went on about for the last few days. He didn't take that to be a very good sign. The last time he had seen Twilight this stressed over something was when she couldn't think of anything to report to Princess Celestia. 'Lesson Zero,' you thought. The baby dragon quietly waddled over to where Twilight was sitting. He could see her concentrating intensely. Deciding he would attempt to make her relax, he poured out a glass of apple juice from a nearby cart. PrologueYou never thought the you would be able to see the world with ponies, much less influence it in any way. "It's only a cartoon." You told yourself. "It can't actually happen." Yet, when you receive a small, white, hardcover book from a fellow pony enthusiast with specific instructions to read it only when you're alone, you catch yourself questioning previous assumptions. "What's this book about?" You had asked the brony. "That's up to you and the mare to figure out." Was his only reply. You wonder what the brony meant, the story was up to you "and the mare." He couldn't have possibly meant a pony, could he? Was the mayor going to come over and read the book as well? You knew that the thought was ridiculous. The brony even said to read it when alone. You enter your home, waving hello to your flatmates, and go directly into your room. Making sure to close and lock the door behind you, you sit down on your bed, and open the white book.
A Passage to Equestria"What was that?" Twilight Sparkle jumped, spinning on her hooves in an attempt to find the source of the disturbance. As the purple unicorn spun about, her draconian assistant watched from the top of a ladder with confused amusement. He quickly made his way down the ladder with a book clutched between his claws. "Here's that copy of- MMMPPHH!" Spike was suddenly cut off as a purple hoof made it's way into his mouth. "Quiet Spike. Can't you feel that?" Twilight narrowed her eyes and looked about the library, as if trying to see the intrusion. Spike removed Twilight's hoof from his mouth. "Feel what?" he asked, deciding not to complain about the rude interruption. "It's as if something is watching us. Observ-" You quickly shut the book. "No way," You tell yourself, "That's impossible." The book is obviously messing with you, the author of this piece of fan fiction must be a complete troll. You attempt to rationalize the coincidence in any way you can, until you recall that the writing itself could be messing with you. To make sure, you thumb a different section of the book later on. But you can't get to the page. You can't open the book. Your muscles wouldn't obey the command and you find your thumb discreetly making it back to where you left off, resting there once it reached its destination. You never did like spoilers. You open the book. "Observing us." Twilight finished, and then shook her head. "What just happened?" Spike looked around him. "What do you mean?" "You didn't notice anything? It felt as though everything just...stopped." Noticing the confused look on Spike's face, Twilight elaborated. "Me, you...time. It felt as though the entire world was in stasis." "Um, perhaps you should get some rest Twilight. It seems that you've been reading too much again. Or maybe it's just the lack of sleep that comes from you reading so much." Spike ushered the unicorn towards her room. "No, Spike." Twilight twisted around to get away from her assistant's pushing. "I have to know what's going on." Twilight paced around the library before deciding to levitate a book on her shelf towards herself. Surfacing to her consciousness, Spike's belief in the supernatural gave her an idea. Ever since he had mentioned curses and hexes when Twilight and her friends first encountered poison joke, she couldn't deny that she was intrigued by the notion despite on her insistence that the supernatural did not exist. Of course magic was the force that dictated natural law in Equestria. But what about other territories, such as the Everfree? If ponies had unsuccessfully attempted to gain control over the Everfree forest for centuries, wouldn't it make sense that it did not abide by Equestrian rule? That meant anything that didn't happen in Equestria isn't necessarily nonexistent, and could actually occur in other places. So Equestria could be real? Was it like so many other fanfiction pieces suggested? Perhaps your world is in one dimension, and Equestria exists in another. But what could create a link between the tw- You shook your head. The book was starting to mess with it, feeding you crazy ideas about colorful ponies existing in alternate dimensions. This work of fanfiction must be really well written if it made you believe such things. You continued reading. "Spike, I need you to bring me 'Orb's Guide to Paranormal Influence'," Twilight called out. The dragon shuffled through an old pile of stacked books that were stored inside a cardboard box. When Twilight had moved into Ponyville, they had brought a random variety of recently donated books with them from Canterlot. While the Pineville library had been well stocked, there were still a few empty shelves here and there. Twilight organized as many of the donated books as she could, but was not able to fit all of them on the remaining shelves. So she left the ones she thought were least important (such as the ones on the supernatural and the paranormal) in the boxes, favoring records of ancient magical research over them. It seemed odd that Twilight now wanted to read something from what she considered a work of fiction. Spike found the requested book near the bottom of the stack. Its pages were old, yellow, and awfully thin. It looked as though they could rip very easily. He carefully carried it to Twilight. She took hold of it in a magical field and opened it. The pages flipped rapidly as a Twilight skimmed through the book for why she was looking for. "Twilight, don't!" Spike tried to warn her. But it was in vain. As soon as he had spoken, several consecutive pages ripped out of the dog eared book and floated to the ground. Twilight looked absolutely horrified. She set down the old guide, and nervously picked up the sheets in between her hooves. "Oh no, oh no, oh no," She moaned, "what have I done?" She levitated the six ripped pages in front of her. Quickly skimming through contents, Twilight nodded her head and placed them in a neat stack next to their source. "I have good news and bad news," she announced. "Tell me the good news first," Spike requested. "The good news is that the pages that were ripped out maybe what we are looking for. I would have missed them if they hadn't been ripped out." "And the bad news?" "I need to find the rest of the chapter in order to understand the concept clearly. The only problem is, the pages in this book aren't numbered, and this book is string bound, so we can't simply look for ripped sections. It will be difficult matching these pages in the right location." Spike took another look at 'Orb's Guide to Paranormal Influence. It was very thick, had clearly had over a thousand pages in it. This wasn't going to be easy. "There is one thing I can safely say. Whatever is watching us, it isn't Equestrian," Twilight said. You close the book, having reached the end of the chapter. You turn off your miniature flashlight and pocket it. Shifting over in your bed, you open a nearby drawer and place the book inside. You had a feeling you should finish it before anyone else read it. After a few minutes in, you drift off to sleep.
The Brony Without QualitiesYou trudge through the snow, every step a huge effort. It has been few days since you last read the book, life had gotten in the way. It was a pain to have to walk through the cold weather all the way home after classes and work everyday. But it was a necessary sacrifice, since you planned to do something with your life, and your part-time job payed for the flat you lived in. Without it and your flatmates, you wouldn't be able to afford the apartment. It was a routine life at best. The only thing you had to look forward to now was the book the mysterious brony gave you. It still sat inside your drawer, unopened since you had first started reading it. Finally besting the bitter winds and icy temperatures, you make it to your apartment. As always, it is empty. You are usually the first one who makes it home, mostly because everyone else actually had a social life. All because you decided to pursue the medical field. Locking the door to your room behind you, you make your way to your bed and lay down. Without looking, you open your clothes drawer and feel around it. Sure enough, your hand hit the white book, Pulling it to your chest, you flipped to the page where you last left off. Twilight was startled from her sleep. She kicked the night sky themed blankets away from her body before sitting up in bed. Spike stirred in his basket, but did not wake up. Twilight looked around her room before lighting a candle and leaving her bed. She narrowed her eyes as she grasped the candle in her magic. "It's back," she murmured, "It's watching us again." "So she could sense whenever I started reading." You thought to yourself. "Nothing seems to get past Twilight." Twilight descended down the steps into the library, the candle floating directly in front of her. Setting it down on a table, she pulled out the six sheets from "Orb's Guide to Paranormal Influence". In the past week, she hasn't been able to determine the original location of the pages in the book. However, she had read them front and back, taking notes of everything she was able to comprehend. The list of what Twilight learned was as follows. First, any paranormal influence making a connection between two worlds was created by a sentient being. Second, the paranormal connection had two sentient anchors in this case. Namely, Twilight for Equestria. "Myself for Earth," you thought to yourself as you paused. The thought made you laugh. An everyday college student who was mediocre in every way possible. A brony who didn't animate videos, produce music, or even write fan fiction. Nothing special. "Me, representative for Earth in first (although subtle) contact with another dimension." You snickered to yourself. The third and final piece of knowledge that Twilight highlighted from the book's excerpt was that the connection can be altered. In what ways, she had no clue. The rest of the chapter would have told her more about paranormal connections, how they were made, and how they were changed. She had long ago decided that the safest way to find the original location of the ripped pages was to read the book front to back. It would take a while, considering there was over one thousand pages. ~~~ "Eros!" You were snapped out of your daze by an angry man with a silly looking hat. John Smith, your the employee manager was standing over a grill topped with many burnt burger patties. Smith looked like he was about to explode. You quickly shook off all feelings of dissociation, and turned to face him. "You were daydreaming again." Smith snapped. "Get your head out of the clouds. " "So I was. You can't expect a med student to focus on flipping burgers," you said before you could stop yourself. Clapping both hand over your mouth, you looked at Smith with fear. He glared at you dangerously for several seconds before finally speaking. "Is that so, Eros? In that case don't let the doors hit your overqualified ass on your way out." ~~~ "Fuck!" You threw your paper employee identification card (now stamped 'VOID' with red ink) onto the floor before stepping onto it and grinding it against the wet concrete. You had no idea how you were going to pay for your part of the flat now. With your only source of income gone, it was only a matter of time before you would have to pack up and leave the flat. You trudged slowly through the snow. The wind had begun to pick up, and the white flurries assaulted your face. Your thoughts returned to the white book. It was silly now that you thought about it. There was no way in hell that you could possibly be affecting events in a non-existent dimension. None of it could be real. Else everything else he knew was an illusion. The very principles that he based his perspective of the world on was that of a scientific basis. Atoms made molecules. Molecules made proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, amongst non-organic matter. The carbon based molecules made cells, which made tissue, which made organs, which made organs systems, which made organisms. There was nothing that could create a connection with a non-existent universe. Not atoms, electrons, quarks, neutrinos, or bosons could create such a connection. It should be impossible. Where did reality end and the illusions begin? It couldn't be at the opening of the book. It couldn't be the reading of the book. It couldn't be the text in the book. ~~~ So where was the connection? Twilight flipped through 'Orb's Guide' skimming the pages as fast she could. It would have been easy dismiss the feeling of being observed as a trick of the mind. But her instincts told her that something larger was at play. She could sense the magical properties of the connection. It had undermined her assumption that magic and the supernatural were mutually exclusive. But trying to scrutinize the connection was like trying to take hold of water with hooves. 'Or fingers,' You thought to yourself, before stopping. Why are you reading the book? It had just cost you your job! Before closing it, you impulsively read one more line. Twilight looked upwards slowly as she felt the strength of the connection begin to fade. ...shit. So there is actually something going on. It wasn't just a troll author who managed to predict that people would start reading at the beginning of a chapter. He was convinced of it before because Twilight had sensed the link when he began reading the second chapter. But there was no way the author could know you would stop in the middle of a chapter. However, what struck you most was what Twilight had said when you began reading again. You had pulled out the book from your bag during your train of thought and began to read. She had been contemplating the exact same thing, even to the point where she completed his thought for you. You shivered as you recalled that the force joining you two could change. Twilight's third point. Was the connection growing stronger? Did you do something to change it? Just what did you get into by opening that book?
Of Mages and Med (Student)sThis wouldn't be the first time you had rifled through the library's bookshelves with such desperation. Memories of studying among stacks of Kaplan's, Princeton, Barron's, and various other review books rose to the surface. You could barely see through the excessive amounts of books that were piled on your desk. All of the cramming had been an effort to pass the MCAT exam, the notorious assessment that had allowed you entry into medical school. Needless to say, you weren't a fan of it. Hell, nobody was. But right now, you weren't throwing books off shelves to find the perfect review book for some last night cramming. Instead, you scoured the library's selection for the arcane and supernatural, making sure to leave no book unchecked. Everything that looked as though it might have had a reference to inter-dimensional link was inspected. If anything seemed useful, it was added to the pile. At the checkout, the librarian peered at you over the large of stack of books. She must have thought you were one of those Ghostbuster freaks, or a crazy mystic of some sort. Silence reigned as every book passed through the demagnetizer. You hauled all of your study materials to your flat. It was going to be a long night. ~~~ The train departed from Ponyville only a minute ago, but Twilight had already managed to take up the entire compartment in books and notes, along with six pages. Her friends had waved her off, but Twilight payed little mind. As soon as she was done waving, she had returned to her investigation. Spike looked on with concern. The supposed 'connection' Twilight had felt over a week ago was all that she went on about for the last few days. He didn't take that to be a very good sign. The last time he had seen Twilight this stressed over something was when she couldn't think of anything to report to Princess Celestia. 'Lesson Zero,' you thought. The baby dragon quietly waddled over to where Twilight was sitting. He could see her concentrating intensely. Deciding he would attempt to make her relax, he poured out a glass of apple juice from a nearby cart.
PrologueYou never thought the you would be able to see the world with ponies, much less influence it in any way. "It's only a cartoon." You told yourself. "It can't actually happen." Yet, when you receive a small, white, hardcover book from a fellow pony enthusiast with specific instructions to read it only when you're alone, you catch yourself questioning previous assumptions. "What's this book about?" You had asked the brony. "That's up to you and the mare to figure out." Was his only reply. You wonder what the brony meant, the story was up to you "and the mare." He couldn't have possibly meant a pony, could he? Was the mayor going to come over and read the book as well? You knew that the thought was ridiculous. The brony even said to read it when alone. You enter your home, waving hello to your flatmates, and go directly into your room. Making sure to close and lock the door behind you, you sit down on your bed, and open the white book.
