Twilight pored through the book laid down in front of her.
Her choice of book this night was an action-romance novel.
“I sure do love to read!” she said silently to herself.
She kept her eyes scanning the page whilst she moved a hoof and adjusted the oil lamp beside her to provide better lighting. Shadows flickered across the room as the dancing flame lit up the room. A cool draft breezed through her open window, which revealed the sky in all of its glory.
It was a sight to behold. A crescent moon shone slivers of light down upon the awaiting lands below. To read at night was one of Twilight’s favorite activities. No one to bother her, no distractions from the outside world. Just total, silent peace.
Sighing in relaxation, Twilight flipped another page. The main character in her story had too much to drink and accidentally admitted to a mare that he had some feelings for her whilst he was carrying her home.
Yawning, Twilight squealed in delight, “Finally! I’ve been waiting for him to do that! I just love the way the author set it up!”
Onwards she read, till a knock resounded from the door before Spike opened it and stuck his head inside. His eyes had dark bags under them as he wearily stared at Twilight.
Urgently, Twilight slammed her book closed and put her hoof over the title, embarrassed that she was caught reading a romance novel as she often makes fun of Rarity for talking about them so much.
Really not caring, Spike glanced at the part of the title that was still exposed, -Flames of-. He sighed and pointed a claw at one of Twilight’s pillows.
“Fluff it and go to bed. You’ve been squealing all night about Private whatever-the-buck.”
A slight blush crossed Twilight’s face as she realized Spike was able to hear her from the room next door. She shuffled her hooves over her book as Spike stuck his head back out the door and left.
Vying to complete her book before she slept, Twilight reopened the book and counted how many chapters she had left. She had already read through the first eight chapters and was prepared to continue until the morning to finish it if she had to.
“One, Two, Three, Four…”
Resisting the urge to spot keywords in the story of actions or thoughts from the main character, Twilight counted the number of remaining chapters. She finished the count at nine, but did not decide to recount in case she accidently skipped or duplicated a chapter in her excitement to finish her novel.
“I spent the past five hours reading up to now… so I should be able to finish by dawn!”
To act on her conclusion, she flipped back to the end of chapter eight and started off where she had been interrupted.
Eternity is a long time, right? Well, not if you’re Twilight. She could sit down with a book and read it through the apocalypse and even then through the revival of equinity.
She leaned closer into the book and practically had her muzzle grazing the thin paper pages within. Her heartbeat quickened as the main character and his squad started fighting another group of ponies. The main character’s squad won, but not without a casualty.
“Through the forest! Follow me!” Twilight repeated as the main character took control of his ragtag squad.
Ordinarily, Twilight would read silently to herself, but the author engrossed her in the story so well that she forgot that she wasn’t the main character.
Reality, however cruel it is, let Murphy try to wake her from her spell.
Yawning again, Twilight was oblivious to the oil lamp slipping off her bed and crashing onto the floor. She simply unconsciously cast a spell to create a floating light over her head as the lamp shattered across the floor and its fuel burst into flames.
Still, she laid on her bed reading whilst the flames encroached her session. The flames grew and flickered to life as the wooden structure of her library started to burn despite its natural magical resistance to heat.
Only when the smell of smoke intruded her senses did she realize something was wrong. She sniffed again without her eyes leaving the book and immediately assumed it was Spike’s fault.
“For Celestia’s sake, Spike! You better not catch whatever you’re cooking down there on fire again! I’ve had just about enough of you not paying attention to things around you, especially when you are right next to them!”
Oblivious, still, to the flames licking the side of her bed, Twilight scrunched her nose up and continued powering through her story. The smoke faded from her thoughts as she mentally blocked it out. She let out a sigh of relief as her sense of smell was ignored. However, she did seem to grow uncomfortable from the sudden heat she felt. However, the lighting got better.
“Lucky me,” Twilight grumbled, “Spike bucked up the thermostat again. Spike! I know you like cooking! But come on! It’s the middle of the night!”
“-light? Twilight! Get out of your room! I smell smoke! There must be a fire!” Spike yelled from outside the door.
“Oh, really? You’re cooking and y-” Twilight looked up from her book to glare at the door when she finally took notice that her entire room was on fire.
“What the buck!? Spike, what have you done!?”
“Me?! No- Just get out of there! I don’t know where the fire is, but I can smell i- ahh! Twilight the door is on fire!”
Even Twilight’s bed failed to stay safe and the fire spread up the sides and onto the top where Twilight had been laying down. She encased her book in magic and teleported herself outside of her room.
Spike was backing away from her door and had yet to notice her behind him.
“Twilight! You hav-”
Twilight ran forward, scooped him up in her magical embrace and teleported outside their home. Smoke was rising from the library as the flames spread across the house. The two of them watched as their house lit up the night.
“I refuse to see how this is my fault, Spike. You were the one cooking, not me.”
“But-”
“No buts. Just be lucky that Applejack is letting us stay in her house for the time being until Celestia poofs us a new house.”
The morning’s light shone through the window as she pushed her finished book to the side. She had finished reading it some time after realizing she could start reading again between when her house was burning and when Applejack came over after waking up to part of the tree collapsing.
Spike held up a newspaper paper in front of Twilight, which she read out loud, “Oblivious mare starts fire in home accidently. She sat in her room while it caught aflame. We tried to interview her, but she only mumbled something about her favorite book. We asked her why she kept reading it even while her house was burning, she responded: ‘Because I like it.’
“Wait a moment... I did not start that fire!”
