explicitly stupid adventures of orange OC in the kingdom of darkness

The next afternoon I went to the library. I knew I needed to find information about a spell that uses an orb, a scepter, and some sort of circle dug in the ground, as well as anything of use about summoning spells that use a magic which manifests as blackness...or something. The library clerk was happy to help, although I didn't tell him about the latter part. He looked like one of those ponies that are so obsessed with positivism that they attract lightning without a thunderstorm.

After a couple of minutes of browsing through the records on spells with a plastic grin on his face he told me that any knowledge pertaining to spells with a scepter was stored exclusively in the royal Canterlot magic library. I thanked him and went and hid between the library shelves, trying to gather my thoughts together. Was I going to go to the Canterlot library, just out of this small snippet of information? Perhaps it would be wise to see if I could find any books on darkness or blackness, first. A couple of hours of sifting through books on primarily orb magic and struggling with my potential future proved fruitless, so I decided to go up to the clerk and ask to see the records. Sure enough, there were just a couple sentences under the "scepters" entry that assured me Canterlot library was the only option.

Next, I went home and fried up a couple eggs while I thought about what I was going to pack for my journey. At length I remembered that I can eat grass, so the only object I deemed of value was a large water flask I could tie to my neck.

I opted out of taking the train, deciding to walk the dirt roads all the way to Canterlot myself. Little did I realize that I had nothing to think about.

At length the sun started to reinforce its presence by beaming at me with its ugly face. Legend said that the sun's face was so ugly that staring directly at it for more than a few moments could turn one blind. It settled itself in between the forest trees to either side of the road and always managed to make an area void of shadows that I had to walk through as the road snaked along. I had long since passed the confines of any landscape that looked familiar. Soon I started to worry about not bringing enough water to the trip. Previously I'd assumed that I'd just stop by a house or fill it up at a well somewhere. Now I questioned my ability to be able to walk far enough without the water running out.

A few hours and a couple rest stops later I finished off the flask and sat on a mossy log crying about how hard life is. I said sorry to my father because now I knew how much everything sucks, but I still made sure he knew how much of a dick he was. I promised myself it was the last time I'd talk about it. At this point I decided I was closer to getting some water in the direction I was going, as opposed to going back all the way to Ponyville for it.

Shortly afterwards the road led out of the forest into a landscape of tall, grassy hills and run down farm buildings. Some of them were still in use. The area had an unfamiliar and yet still somehow cozy air of some kind of simplicity about it.

A unicorn struggling on some sort of two-wheeled contraption with a tiny saddle slowly struggled past me. He had a reddish-brown cowboy-looking hat and a dark blue wizard's cloak with little many-sided white stars dotted over it. When he passed the cloak waved behind him in the breeze, followed by the faintest stench of magic. It may also have been cum, I couldn't quite tell for sure. I jogged after him.

"Excuse me, sir. Do you know anywhere where I can fill my flask?" I called.

"Why certainly, there's a well not too far from here."

He kept riding.

"Well, where is it?"

"Why, it's just down the road."

I jogged next to him for a while.

"So what's the wheely thing?" I asked, trying to initiate conversation.

"A bicycle! I've seen it many times in my inter dimensional travels and I suspect it has magical properties. This one has been reconstructed purely from memory."

"And where are you going on such a fine day?" asked the cowboy wizard. He seemed to be more interested in me after my show of curiosity.

"Just...walking to Canterlot."

"To Canterlot? For what?"

"Some magic books." I mumbled.

"Magic books? What kind of magic books? Speak up, son. I can barely hear you over the wailing of this wad of refuse from the nether world."

The bicycle indeed made a lot of metallic moaning noises.

"Just something to do with some stuff I saw recently."

"Some stuff, eh?" The wizard grunted. "In that case...you simply must have a cup of tea. This is my farm right here."

He turned off the road and rode towards a slightly weathered dull orange wooden building. At the entrance he got off the bicycle and threw it across the yard into a pile of hay in a fit of frustration. He stood in the doorway momentarily, until I followed him, and then disappeared inside.

Past the entrance the building immediately presented a dining room with a wooden table and an ornate chandelier that made the medium sized room feel a little cramped. The dining room had a piece of the wall missing where it joined the living room. I sat down on a chair next to the table with my back to the wall-less opening. One of the chairs at the table was a couch. I wasn't in the mood for looking around and absorbing unnecessary information about the livelihood of other ponies, so I just stared at the table. I heard the wizard put a kettle on the stove and make his way back through the house.

After some short introductions he started pestering me about my future plans, which I was still in the process of coming up with.

"Now what the blazes do you need to go to the Canterlot library for?" He demanded. "What spell are you looking for that the Ponyville library didn't have it?"

"Well, it's more of an object that I need some information on."

"What object? Have you asked princess Twilight about this?"

"No." I answered, realizing that I may have been able to save myself a lot of walking.

"Shouldn't you go back and ask her about it, then? Instead of walking all the way to Canterlot and troubling the royalty? You think they're gonna let you into the library just like that?... Why didn't you take the train?" The wizard mused out loud to himself while I sat in silence trying to figure out why I hadn't thought any of this through and then attempted to make up the distance on the fly.

"I guess I just want to see what Canterlot looks like."

"Then why not take the train?"

"I could use a walk, I think; just to relax."

"Relax from what?"

"I don't know, there's just some really weird stuff going on lately." I mumbled.

"STUFF? Speak up, boy. What kind of STUFF? What the blazes are you going to the ROYAL, MAGIC, library for, DAMNIT?!" The unicorn yelled, pounding the table.

"There's some magic scepters I wanted to find out about."

"SCEPTERS!" Exclaimed the wizard. The tea pot had begun to whistle in the kitchen.

"Scepters." He said, more calmly. "The tea's ready. One moment."

The wizard walked out of the room while I wondered briefly why I was going to Canterlot to find out about scepters on foot, other than the fact that it felt necessary. The wizard came back with a tea tray and put his cowboy hat on the table.

"Now, tell me everything you know about magic scepters." He said.

I skipped the part about the ritual and started describing the sorcerer I ran into the night before. The wizard stopped me half way through the story.

"I don't think you ought to be bothering yourself with going to Canterlot." He said.

"Why not?"

"Hm..." He stopped, contemplating closely to how I had several minutes before. "How can I explain this without giving away anything...harmful...give me a moment." He got up and paced the room for a couple minutes, then sat back down in the chair to my left.

"Listen here. Equestria is more than it appears at first sight. A deep power struggle goes on behind the scenes while the commoners go about and enjoy their lives. The strong often suffer to protect the weak, is this a world you want to become a part of?" He asked ominously.

"Nope." I said, folding my arms.

The unicorn facehoofed himself.

"I'm saying there's no other choice. There's evil forces out there that hunt ponies like you just for their potential to learn something. You're either part of the battle or you aren't, and I fear you've pulled yourself in too deeply already."

"You make it sound all black and white, if there's forces that go around and hunt, why aren't there forces that go around and protect? Do they spend all their time on maintaining the scenery? Maybe I'm just looking for a passive observer role."

"Step outside." Said the unicorn. He led the way out of the dining room, through the living room and out the back door. I followed reluctantly.

Outside it was still a bright summer day. There was a large, well kept lawn with some farm buildings to the side. The unicorn had teleported to the edge of a fence in the distance. He motioned me to come. I jogged over slowly.

Out in the field you could see a forest to either side of the farm, with open grassland running over the edge of a couple of long, low hills. The unicorn was looking down at the uncut grass behind the sparse wooden fencing. I followed his gaze, wondering if there might be something interesting.

"What do you see?" He asked.

"Bunch of...wild grass." I said.

"Watch closer."

He summoned a ball of fine mist that spread in every direction and slowly settled over the lawn. At that moment I decided that I could forego showering at the end of the day.

"Now, what do you see?" He asked.

"Bunch of wet grass."

"What are the little white things all around?"

There were indeed small patches of white cocoon-looking things littered all over the hill where the moisture had highlighted them.

"Spider webs." I said.

"Look how many there are. Are there any this side of the fence?"

I looked back at the lawn.

"Almost none."

"Good." He said, gazing at me. "If you go to that library, you're like a fly flying off to see what's over this hill. You can go as far into the field as you want. We mow as far as we can manage. Sometimes I fear I haven't done enough. Sometimes I see ponies fall because they've done too much. Think about that."

The gazing continued.

"All right." I said after a while. "I think I understand now."

I didn't want to tell him that everything he said sounded like rubbish. Now that I thought about it, the sanity of a pony who rode around on a bicycle was somewhat questionable. If anything, he was massively lacking a little drama in his life. His countenance quickly brightened at my response, however, so I thought I'd go along with it.

We then went inside, had some tea, chatted about some things I'd seen in the Everfree and one thing led to another, which led me to spending the night there. I opted to sleep on the couch.