By The Brush

by KillerSteel

First published January 1st, 1970 00:00

You know, I've always wondered. What would it be like to build a land from the ground up? Swipe a brush and create rolling hills, dots in the sky become stars, add some blue for water, red for lava, maybe some yellow for liquid sunlight.

What would it be like to simply take a white space, drop a pony in, and see what happens when you give them the tools to be a God? Perhaps through the ramblings contained within, we might find out.

Chapters

Chapter 0: Null

Chapter 0: Null
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By The Brush

Chapter 0: Null

How to begin? How would every other story begin? Often with a nice, sunny day, the golden orb of the resident white Princess sitting high in the sky, basking everypony in its warm light. But there was a problem with this beginning.

There was no sun. The sky lacked its blue, beautiful hue, instead being a stark white. This white never shifted, never shaded, never left, no matter where one would look. Solid white for miles, millions upon millions of miles away.

Though that wasn't entirely true, for within this blank, white expanse, sat a single being. The being was the color of the grape she happened to be eating at that point in time, a nice purple. She didn't seem all that perplexed, or even panicked about her world being an empty void; silence and peace were all she wanted in life. A way to get away from it all and exist within a place nopony could ever reach. How she got there, how she'd leave, what she'd even do, none of it mattered.

"Ahhh." The being sighed, two wings flitting at their sides. "Quiet time with my favorite snack. Feels like something's missing though." They rubbed their chin with a hoof, violet eyes turning off to the right in thought. "What goes well with a favorite snack?"

The question perplexed the creature, perfectly symmetrical bangs hanging down in front of her confused expression, barely managing to hide her eyes. What did go well with one's favorite snack? "Hmmm... aha!" The being grinned as her eyes closed, and the coiled horn on her forehead shined with an ethereal light. Before long, a large tome appeared out of nowhere, though not with a typical burst of light. Rather, it faded into existence, piece by piece fading in as if painted in the air. "My favorite book, of course. Almost forgot about it."

The tome opened with a quick flick of the being's head, her wings twitching with anticipation. Her smile faded, however, as the page revealed to her was blank. "Wait. Huh? Why's it blank?" She raised her eyebrow and flipped another page. Then another. Then another. The page flipping went faster and faster as every single page was just as white as the void around her. "Ugh. Seriously?" She sneered as her voice dripped with irritation, a groan running right out after it. She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly, before flipping back to the start of the book. "Weird... it does have a title, doesn't it?"

The book closed with a 'clap' as pages met cover, and the being's eyes scanned the cover. On it was simply the golden shape of a pony's head, much like her own head, with a horn that looked a lot like her's. By that similarity, it wasn't too far fetched to call her a pony. "No title? And all the pages are blank, too." She looked up from the book and out to the blank expanse in front of her, then back down to the book. "Maybe nopony's written in it? But it's my favorite book, so there's gotta be a story in here. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough."

She went back to her search, scanning every single page with a scrutinizing eye as she looked for even the slightest trace of ink. She looked through the book from left to right. From right to left. Top to bottom, bottom to top, even diagonally, even using scanning magic. She even offered it a drink, food, prayers, anything to make words appear on its stark pages, but nothing worked. Her jaw dropped a little as a single hair sprang up from her mane. "But, but this isn't right! How could my favorite book be blank!?" Another annoyed groan rumbled out of her as she leered at the book. "Book! I command you to fill up with words!"

The book didn't respond to the order. It didn't really respond to any of her other demands either. Didn't even acknowledge the prayers; such is the way of the book.

"Rrrrgh!" The pony stamped at the space below her, something pushing back against the hoof, yet no sound coming out. Kind of like punching a pillow, only the pillow was the only thing that existed. "Why won't you listen to me?! I hate blank books! They don't have any kind of knowledge, or theories, or stories or fantasies or history or anything!" A few more hairs sprang out of place as she stood up, glaring at the uncooperative tome. "I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, and I will be acknowledged!"

Upon the words, the cover of the book lit up, and much like its own creation, a title slowly faded into existence. The pony known as Twilight Sparkle blinked at the strange occurrance, tilting her head as she watched the letters form words, the words form a full title. "'Princess Twilight Sparkle'...? Well, yes, that's me. Thanks for listening. I guess?" The glittering golden letters caught the light, flashes racing across the polished surface as the book slowly tilted. "Maybe... maybe it's got a story in it now? I guess my favorite book could be about me. Oh, maybe it's an auto-biography!?" The thought sparked her excitement, and she quickly opened the book again, a gleeful grin on her face.

Only to find the first page wasn't a list of nicely organized chapters numbering in the hundreds, every one detailing her achievements with mind-numbing accuracy. The confused look returned as she scanned the white page, blinking. "Wait, only a title? But... where's the story? Where are the words behind that title?" A few more pages flipped by revealed nothing but more white. Ugh, all this white is hurting my eyes... bah.

Met with only blank pages, Twilight simply shut her eyes, the white replaced with black. Much better. Maybe I can just remember the story... let's see. 'It all started when—'

A flare caught her attention through her shut eyes, and she opened them to find something being burned into the page.

Words!

"What the heck is—?" She stopped to find the words 'It all started when' drawn on the page. "Wait... is this thing reading my mind?" A few more blinks didn't do much to cast away her confusion, staring at the bewildering page. Can it?

The page shimmered, the words vanishing and replaced by a single response.

'What is your greatest wish?'

"Woah." Twilight simply blinked again, moving back a bit from the mysterious tome. "Ok, that's weird. My greatest wish? Why should I tell you? If you even are a 'you', and not a... a thing? It? Object?"