The Faults in Our Binding

You 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?