Chapters It was an early summer morning in Ponyville and just the early birds under the shopkeepers were already up and about.
Right now Twilight had one of her best, marrying a book, dreams she ever had. She was just about to say I will to an encyclopedia with all the knowledge in the world bound in its covers, when an annoying voice disturbed her dream.
“Twilight. Hey Twilight. Wake up. Get out of bed already lazy ass.”
She didn’t recognize the voice and Knew of no pony in town that would be up and about at this hour for a book. She tried to go back to sleep again, but was disturbed by the voice yet again, repeating what it said before.
“Alright. Who are you and what do you want from me?” she asked, groggily jumping out of bed and stretching her back.
“That’s easy. I want you to get up because you are seven minutes behind your schedule.” The voice said in a laid back manner.
Twilight looked at the clock hanging at the wall across from her bed and over the door to the first floor and public section of the library and saw that she was indeed seven minutes behind her schedule for the day.
“Oh no! Spike! Wake up! We have a lot of work to do today!” She screamed across the room.
While combing it down to her normal flat mane style she also grabbed the toothbrush and paste and began brushing her teeth.
“Ow. That hurt. Can’t you wake me up without me barreling down the stairs for once Twilight? My ass is no pillow if you think that it might be.” He groaned, rubbing his sore behind while getting up slowly.
“No time for that Spike. Today we have to reorganize the books in the library, you have to help me with some magic spells I’m testing out and for the evening we are going to meet up with the girls for a picnic.” The unicorn counted the events for the day.
“Yeah. Don’t you think you forgot the part where I have to clean up the whole place and then give you a massage again?” Spike asked with a raised eyebrow.
“What? I don’t know what ever you are…”
“Gotcha there Twi. Do you really think I wouldn’t see how tense you are and the state of the library? Even though it is not really unclean just a bit dusty. And that’s kind of unavertable for a library.” He interrupted her with a sly grin.
“Ugh. You are right Spike. It’s just that I have so much to study and that claws are working real magic on my back.” She replied sheepishly, blushing a bit.
“It’s alright Twi. I know how much you enjoy my massages and that we get along better when you are relaxed. That’s all.” The young drake replied in a soft tone.
“Thank you so much Spike. I think I’d go a bit looney without your massages sometimes.”
“Yes you would. And there aren’t many ponies here to rub that flank of yours for free.” He replied and directly dived down the stairs to the public section of the library and in the kitchen.
“Why… you… Spike!” Twilight yelled after him.
“Who is there? Pinkie is that you? Hello?”
Half an hour later Twilight was fully absorbed in her reorganizing of the library contents and Spike was somewhere around her dusting off old tomes and newer books and the shelves Twilight freed from books to reorganize them.
A short time later poor Spike had to hold his head in the line of fire for some of Twilight’s new spells. And he didn’t like being wrapped up in an orange as she misfired one of them.
This went on until about midday when the strange voice spoke up again.
“Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. You really have to watch the time. You are later for your magic spell practice. I’m getting the feeling that you are a bit lazy. Maybe even tardy when you continue to slack off like that. It’s already fifteen minutes this time.”
Being so absorbed in her studies, Twilight nearly shrieked when she was addressed like that by the voice and jumped several feet in the air before landing back on her study cushion unceremoniously.
“Y-y-yes. I did. D-d-d-d-do you think that there is a ghost here? Maybe it wants us to leave because we are disturbing its eternal slumber.” The purple drake replied shaking with fear, eyes darting around the room in a fast pattern.
“Don’t be silly Spike. There are no ghosts. They don’t even exist.” The unicorn pointed out. “Now where did that voice really came from?”
“Taaaaardyyyyy” The voice rang out through the room yet again.
“M-m-m-m-maybe we should just go out and meet the girls.” Spike pondered knees shaking. “W-w-we can still come back and see what is causing this after your schedule is through.”
“Alright Spike. But just because we are…” she began, taking a look at a clock hanging near the entrance of the library. “seventeen minutes late!? Oh no! The others are waiting! Come on Spike! We have to hurry.”
Both Twilight and Spike were sprinting out of the door in a hurry, leaving the library behind as they were heading to Ponyville Park to meet their friends.
After a pleasurable picnic with her friends, where she asked Pinkie Pie if she knew anything about the strange voice in her house, to which the party pony only gave a blank stare and babbled something about voice acting, the two inhabitants of the library went back to said building late in the evening.
Soon enough the purple unicorn started reviewing the spells she tested with the small drake earlier that day and had him writing down notes.
As it was late and due to bed time, the strange voice spoke up once more.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk Twilight. You’ll only mess up with your sleep schedule if you pull yet another all-nighter.”
But this time she was prepared. Just before they went back to the library Twilight used one of her newly learned spells that can detect the location of an unseen speaker and cast it over the library.
“Huh? I don’t understand? It was supposed to track down the being that talked to me. Why did it misfire?” she asked herself, looking slightly nervous.
“It didn’t misfire Twilight.” The voice claimed. “I’m the one talking to you.”
“Wha… bu… Clocks can’t talk!” She burst out.
“Oh yes we can. At least the ones in your library. Well. Technically I’m one and the same and just change rooms with you but it counts.” The clock explained.
“B-b-but how? I did nothing to you. You shouldn’t be able to talk.”
“Not knowingly. You remember when you went back in time trying to warn your past self to not think about the future and ignore how you looked? That caused a wave in the time space continuum and woke me up. I just kept quiet for the time being, but I got bored so I thought I might haunt you a bit. You know that this spell was pretty much cheating you spoilsport right?” It explained, leaving Twilight’s jaw hanging.
“I-I-I-I-I… Spike! I need to write to the princess!”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“She already knows. She just wanted to see how it’d turn out.”
She was still gaping when Spike came running in with a quill and a scroll at the ready.
“Hey Twi. Are you there?”
Twilight, brought out of her stupor, shook her head a few times. “The princess knows? How?”
“She can sense changes in the space time continuum and thus knew it a long time ago. And I gotta say Pinkie is really nice. The talks we had were always fun.” The clock answered.
“Wait! Pinkie knew? And she didn’t say a single word to me? Why?” Twilight said, looking a bit over the edge.
“You know her. It’s Pinkie.” The clock replied. “And now I’d suggest you to go to bed. You have a long day ahead of you and we can still talk another time.”
“But I want to know so much more.” She practically wailed at the clock, but got nothing but ticking in return. “Fine! Have it your way. But we are going to talk on that matter.”
With that Twilight and Spike went upstairs to their beds and retired for the night.
It was the middle of the night and Twilight and Spike were sound asleep, when slowly the door to the private part of the library creaked open and a strange light shone in waking Twilight from her slumber.
The next morning the unicorn talked with her clock about all new things she could learn from it, which were a surprisingly big number of things.
She went about her day, meeting with friends, studying and of course reading some books.
In the night thou, she was just sleeping as the strange light shone in her room again and she slowly woke from her slumber. The light just faded as quickly as it came and again the door to the main part of the library closed.
In the morning she woke up and rescheduled everything until she was done, looking through the library to see if anything was missing.
She went back up to the private part of the library where her study and her bed were located. Looking left and right, up and down she found nothing to be amiss. All her books were in order and her ‘private collection of works in the advanced biological studies’ was still safe and sound protected by some spells and snuck away under her bed.
Finding nothing to be amiss in the library and after checking all possible entering points for signs of someone breaking in – which got nothing – Twilight sat at the kitchen table and dug in the freshly made pancakes Spike finished just moments ago, drowning them in syrup.
“Say Spike,” she asked the drake between bites of pancakey goodness, spraying syrup and small crumps of pancake over the table. “have you noticed something strange at night a bit after we go to bed?”
“Nah. I’m always falling into bed after the day and doze off almost immediately. And you know I’m a heavy sleeper. Why?” He answered munching on some haybacon strips.
“I noticed a strange light coming from the door to the main section of the library at night. The door is open and it’s like somepony uses an illumination spell to peer into the room. However, after I realize that the light is there, the door closes and the light disappears. And when I’m at the door and into the overlook there is nothing there. Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing missing. For the love of Celestia I can’t figure out what is going on.” The purple unicorn mare groaned and let her head fall to the table while shoving more pancakes in her mouth.
“So you’re saying that there is a light that you see every night, coming from the door, shining in just long enough for you to wake up and realize it’s there and then whatever causes that light is closing the door and disappearing into nothingness?” the young drake wondered slurping his morning coffee.
“Yes. If you’d be waking up with me you’d see it too. It’s really spooky. I don’t know what it is, but it stays long enough to wake me up but not long enough to be seen. Ugh! Why can’t I figure this out?”
“Ah come on Twi. You’ll think of something. I’m sure of it.” Spike said, setting the dishes aside. “But now you can relax a bit and study some more.”
Thankful for Spikes words and after giving him a hug to thank him, Twilight went to the main room of the library and began to study.
‘I’ll get this mystery solved.’ she though slamming her hoof on a table nearby, toppling over a bottle of ink. “Oh damn!” She sat the inkbottle upright again and walked to the kitchen to grab a tissue to wipe away the mess she made.
“Great. I left an ink trail behind me. Now I have to get a mob. Spike! I need a mob!” she half said half yelled.
“Wait…. That’s it!” she exclaimed just as Spike came by with the required mob and a bucket of water. “Spike! I know how to get the one that is making me wake up with that light every night! I just have to set up a paint trap. So when the one is trying to get away again, he or she will leave an easy to follow track.” She told him, hopping around giddily.
“That’s good to hear Twi.” Spike said rubbing his ear in pain due to the volume of Twilights voice being so near it.
After the ink spots were removed and the general workload for the day was done, Twilight prepared the paint trap just out of her room at the top of the staircase and went to sleep.
Near the middle of the night, just as Twilight predicted it, the door to her room slid open and the strange light appeared once again. By the time the purple unicorn was waking up, the light was retreating already and the door creaked as it shut.
After the first few moments of confusion, her mind caught up to the situation at hoof and she flipped on the light. And sure as Celestia’s weakness for cake the ink tracks lead to the kitchen.
Since there was nothing else in the room and her curiosity was stronger than her either way, she cautiously stepped to the fridge and opened it with a mighty pull of her magic.
“That can’t be. That is against all logic.” The unicorn mare muttered, slowly closing the door of the fridge behind her and turning to go.
“Well, that’s typical.” An annoyed voice called out behind her. “Looking and only looking, but not taking anything. Ugh.”
In an instant Twilight spun around and found herself face to face with … the fridge.
“Huh? I could’ve sworn that somepony was talking to me.” She wondered.
“That’s because I was.” The same voice from before made itself known from the fridge.
“Wha … But how? Why?”
“Well, to teach you a lesson. Why else?”
“Teach me a lesson?”
“Yes. Now tell me how did you feel every time I was watching in your door, just stood there and walked away again without a word?”
“I … Well … I…it felt awkward and it was really annoying and kind of creepy.”
“Ah, I see. Well, apart from the creepy part that is pretty much how I feel every time one of you two open me, stare into me for a minute or two and then close me again, taking nothing out. It just feels wrong and is annoying as Tartarus.”
“Oh. I … didn’t know that.” Twilight stammered, blushing lightly.
“Well, now you know and you can prevent that. And tell Spike too. I don’t want to repeat myself. Now goodnight.”
“G…good…goodnight.” Twilight replied confused and went back to bed.
After the night was over and the sun poked in Twilights eyes, she jerked awake.
“Whew. It was just a dream. A very realistic dream. But whatever.” She mumbled to herself and started getting up, popping her neck and back.
As she went into the kitchen she saw Spike at the stove cooking breakfast.
“What is it Spike?” she asked groggily.
“That wasn’t me Twi. It was the fridge.” Spike answered matter of factly.
The unicorn took a moment to process the given information, but when she registered what her assistant just said, her eyes snapped completely open and her head whirled around.
“What did you just say Spike?” she asked franticly
“I said it was the fridge. I was just as surprised as you when he just spoke up and wished me a good morning, but he assured me that everything is fine so I didn’t bother to think about it anymore. Why?”
“You were nearly jumping out of your scales and screamed like a little filly that saw a spider crawling up her leg.” The fridge retorted.
“Hey! That’s not true!” Spike yelled, blushing and turning back to the stove to finish cooking.
“Eh, whatever. Twilight. I think you wanted to tell Spike here something we spoke about last night.”
“Oh yeah. That was real and not a dream. So Spike. Don’t open him anymore and then just stare inside. Think about what you want to grab and do that. It’s annoying for him that we do that.”
“Ok. Whatever. Breakfast is ready.” Spike called happily and set it down on the table.
A few weeks passed and things settled down again in the small town of Ponyville.
They were peaceful days. Days of tranquility and, for Twilight, learning.
The purple unicorn mare was sitting in the library proper, when she heard a knocking at the front door. She wondered why somepony would knock at the door. It was library hours and the sign clearly said that it was open. Tough nopony walked in. Then there was knocking at the door yet again.
“It’s open!” the studious mare called out to the pony at the door outside, not looking up from her tome.
And yet again somepony knocked at the door.
Feeling rather disturbed by the knocking coming from the door, Twilight got up from her seat and gently put the tome aside. “I’m coming!” she informed whoever was standing on the other side.
As soon as she was close enough to the door to speak rather than yell, Twilight lit her horn and opened the door with her magic. Standing outside was … nopony. Not a single soul was near the library building.
“What? How? Nopony can pull a prank like this. Not even Rainbow Dash.” The unicorn mare mused. “And I can’t find any magical signature that’d imply somepony teleporting away. So how?”
Done wondering why there was a knock on the door and she couldn’t explain it, she learned from the Pinkie incident, Twilight went back to her studies and picked up her tome again.
Later, in the evening hours, the purple unicorn was once again completely exhausted from her schedule of the day and decided on giving herself a little treatment in the form of a long and relaxing hot bubble bath. Not a three hour bubble bath like her number one assistant tended to take, but a relaxing one nonetheless.
As the steaming water nearly filled the tub to three quarters, she stopped the flow of water, remembering the law of Archimaredes wherein each and every mass takes a certain amount of space, which water will flow around of.
A few minutes passed and the door opened. Upon hearing that, Twilight didn’t even bother looking to it and just called out in the general direction of the door, eyes blissfully closed.
“Spike. Not now. I’m taking a bath right now, so can you please leave. I’ll talk to you when I’m getting out.”
The studious mare heard no reply, just the door slowly creaking and being shut again.
“What is it Twi? I heard you call my name.” the drake asked curiously.
“No Spike. I just said that I’ll talk to you later when I’m out of the tub and the bathroom.” Twilight mumbled halfheartedly, a tad bit annoyed to say what she just said again. Normally the purple drake was so good at memorizing what she said, but just now he couldn’t remember a sentence she spoke roughly two minutes ago.
“Uhm, ok. I just heard you calling my name and came here from the other end of the library to see what you wanted from me. Are you sure that it wasn’t just a gust of wind that creaked the door open and then pushed it closed again after you said my name?” he replied a bit puzzled.
“Hmmm… Maybe I just didn’t notice it since I was under water with my body and forgot to completely close the door.” The studious purple mare mused. “I’m pretty sure I closed the door though. Well could be the stress. Anyhow Spike. There was nothing I wanted from you. Just thought you were at the door and wanted something.”
“Alright then. I’ll get back to work.” He stated walking back out and closing the door behind him.
That evening when Twilight was finished with her daily tasks and was lying in bed with Spike in his basket nearby, she heard a knock on the door again.
“Who are you? What do you want?” she asked a bit irritated.
“Knock, knock.” Came a voice she never heard from the other side of the door, but sounding as if the one on the other side was directly speaking in her ear.
Being a bit confused and tired Twilight automatically replied to the strange voice without thinking. “Who’s there?”
Suddenly the voice yelled in her ear all too clear and loud. “The door!”
Several seconds later the door swung back again and Twilight fell to the floor now wide awake with her body aching slightly and not being crushed thanks to her physical nature.
She groaned deeply and stood back up. Turning to the door she took it in her magic and opened it fully.
“Who is there? Show yourself.” She called out in the moonlit library.
“I told you it was me.” Came the voice again right next to her.
The purple mare jumped in surprise. “Wh…Where are you?”
“I’m here. I am the door. I didn’t lie to you when I said it.” It answered truthfully.
“But why would you do this?” she asked being more open about such phenomenon’s since she had already spoken with her clock and the fridge.
“Think about it Twilight. Every time you are upset or can’t win an argument by logic because there is no logic to apply or the one you are talking to won’t see any reason, you go out of the room and slam me shut. That hurts Twilight. Not always physically but mentally every time. So I thought I should teach you a lesson.” The door said a tad bit of annoyance swinging in its voice.
“I’m sorry.” The purple unicorn mare replied.
The discussion of the two lasted about an hour longer and Spike eventually woke up too and they decided to be more careful with the doors in her home from now on.
Author's Note
That's the story for now.
