Diary of the Yet Unknown

Chapter One.
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It Begins

Okay, this is my last resort. I need something hard. Something set. Something that I can look to that makes sense. This empty book and the ink I write into it should serve as that object.
My name is Sherry, I need that to be set too. It’s who I am. Even if it is the name of a drink. I can’t remember what my last memory was before waking up here. I woke up in a wooden room with a killer ache in my neck.

It was light outside, which confused me. I don’t sleep into the day. I just don’t. I’m one of the dreaded morning people, never up after eight. The light was shining through a window pane in a door and the window right next to it. When I looked outside I saw some grass, some buildings and some ponies. All multicoloured. Some were wearing some kind of clothing and at least four were wearing dresses. They all moved around like they had somewhere to be. Interacting with each other. Like people.
That didn't make sense to me. In the world I knew ponies were things that little girls rode when they still weren't big enough to ride horses. They didn't go around like people and their colour scheme was limited to anything between black, white and brown.
Needless to say I did not go outside.

Instead I turned away and tried to gather my thoughts. I still wasn't familiar with the room I was in, so I looked around. There were shelves built into the wall of the room, which was circular, and books on them. I feel that the people that built this room could have been more efficient with the spacing of the shelves.
These shelves only took up about a third of the space on the walls. Judging by the books this was a library. There were two tree trunk tables around the sides and there was a wooden ladder too. One of the tables had an open book on it that I didn't look at and there was a wooden staircase leading up to the second level.
One thing kept me puzzling though. The room was made of wood but it had no floor boards. The wall didn't have any kind of wallpaper on them but it also didn't have any kind of wooden boards, just wood. Then I realised that the building wasn't built from a tree but was actually a ridiculously large hollowed out tree.
That made me pause for a second.

Eventually I gathered myself enough to look upstairs. And luckily not a moment too soon. As I was about halfway upstairs the door started opening and voices drifted through.
I’m not ashamed to say that I bolted up the stairs immediately. After successfully concealing myself from the view of downstairs. I realised that the voices were speaking a language I recognized. Considering that I only knew one language. I was curious.

“That is definitely a library book you found. But why did you have to drag me along?” The first voice asked. It was a female voice that sounded a bit husky by standards.

“Because Dashie.” A second voice replied. This one was also female and much more upbeat. “I made a Pinkie promise to old Bookie to return all library books I found before he left for Manehatten. And after this I want to prank Ditzy.”

I braved a look at the lower floor. There were two ponies. One was pink and had a tangle of hair on her head that defied gravity. The other one also defied gravity, only to a larger extent because it was floating in the air. It took a second of staring to figure out how. It had these really small wings that by rights shouldn't be able to keep it up. But they were. Physics breaking features aside, the pony was coloured blue with a hairstyle that I can only describe as ‘prismatic’.

The prismatic haired pony, that I had paired with the name Dashie rubbed her front hooves together. “Hehe. Now that’s something I’m down for. Pinkie, when do we start?”

The Pink pony, now paired with the name ‘Pinkie’ said “As soon as this book is where it’s meant to be.”

“Give that to me. I wanna prank.” Dashie said before swiping the book from Pinkie, then flying around the room so fast that she generated a light trail and strong winds. These strong winds tore books from their shelves and lasted for five seconds.
When things settled, Dashie was standing triumphantly in the middle of the mess and Pinkie had a book in her hair. I was frozen in my vantage point.

“I put it with the other books.” Dashie stated. “Lets go prank.”

Pinkie shook the book from her hair. “I don’t think that’s what old Bookie said when he said ‘return ALL library books’ buut… Sure!” And she proceed to bounce away. Dashie clip clopped along with her.

As the door slammed shut and the talk of what would happen to poor Ditzy faded I did not move. Any notion to go outside had been shattered by those two. I shuddered to think what the rest of the ponies were like if those two were so destructive. The mess downstairs glared up at me, reminding me of the forces held by that prismatic pony.
Eventually I couldn't sit there any longer, so I went further upstairs. I found a bedroom, a bathroom and the stairs that ended with a double door to a balcony with a view that even I could see from inside. I did not test my luck.
One thing I realised though, from the vantage point of inside a tree, was that every room had a window. Through those windows I had an elevated view of my surroundings. All in all, I was able to get my bearings.
I figured out that on the side of the tree with the door was a township. A township, I assume, of ponies. And it was truly massive, the town went on for ages.
On the other side was a large plain covered in grass that eventually went up in hills.
After all that I didn't really do much. I tried reading some books. But they all had childish titles littered with alliteration with text inside that was equally childish. Or they were about casting spells and were so condensed with information that they put my textbooks at home to shame. So I stopped trying that.
Eventually night fell and I was thankful for the bed in the bedroom. But I slept badly. I woke up feeling more tired than I did when I fell asleep.

That morning I was presented with another problem. Food.
I had grown hungry overnight and I hadn't found anything resembling edible in the rooms upstairs. I went down the stairs and was greeted with the sight of books everywhere.
I sighed. After deliberating on the decision for a few seconds, I started picking the books up. After picking up a few books and carrying them to a bookshelf, I saw a room that I had missed in my initial look around.
It looked like a kitchen.
I bolted in that direction, dropping the books I was carrying. The kitchen had a fridge, a stove, which looking back doesn't make sense, and cupboards galore.
I went into a searching frenzy. Opening the fridge. Opening each cupboard. Getting more desperate each time I found them to be empty. After opening all the things I just fell down. I hadn't found anything, hadn't had food in a day and was tired as hell. Disappointed had just been thrown into the mix too.

So I just lay there for a while before picking myself up and busying myself with picking up the books. I needed something to focus on. I focused on that for hours. I lost count of how many.
I discovered that the books were all completely out of order, which was understandable for the books on the floor but the books on the shelves had no right to be that way. So that added to the task I had undertaken. Along with the fact that some of the books didn't even have the name of the author on them.
It was late in the day when the door creaked open. I had put most of the books into alphabetical order but there were still a dozen or so books still lying on the floor. I had a book in my hand at the time. I took it with me when I ran for cover.
From my hiding spot in the kitchen I saw a white pony with ridiculously curled purple hair enter and home right in on the books that still remained on the floor. It approached, looking around. I ducked right into cover, losing sight of the pony.

“Ruffian that did this is probably gone by now.” I heard it say in a posh voice. “I’ll put these back before looking for that book… yes, I’ll do that.”
I chanced a look and saw that the books were no longer on the floor. The purple haired pony was browsing the shelves intently.

“Oh my. These are far more ordered than they usually are. That means that the book I’m looking for is over here.” It said as it trotted across the room. “Come on, where is ‘Advanced Lace Language’? I need it for my next dress.”
I frowned. I had read that title recently. Realisation, as ever, was slow to dawn. I looked at the book I was carrying. It was titled ‘Advanced Lace Language’.
I froze as the clip clopping sound the pony made as it walked around suddenly seemed more menacing.

I heard the pony say. “Come on, where is it? Where is it?”
I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what would happen if I was found. That scared me. But the pony seemed to need that book. And I liked to consider myself a nice guy. So I slowly, while keeping an eye on the doorway, put the book on the table before dashing to an open cupboard and crawling inside.
After another minute of listening to the pony’s frantic clip clopping, I heard an “Aha!”
The pony came over and had even more dialogue to say.

“Oh, Advanced Lace Language. I’m so glad you’re here. Now I can get back to my dresses.” The pony paused. “Why are all the compartments open?... The ruffian must have been looking for food too. Oh well, I can clean up.” Then the cupboard door slammed shut. Giving me another massive shock.

“I say, Bookie would be proud.” I heard as the pony moved away and the closing of the door could be heard. As soon as I heard that, I burst out of my hiding spot and did that heavy breathing thing that most people do after situations of equal tension. After that I went up the stairs and stayed there.

The next day two sets of ponies came through the library. I discovered that the sink in the kitchen had running water. A fact I was eternally grateful for.
The day after just one set of ponies came through, the day was uneventful. The only other significant event was me finding a blank book, ink and a quill in the bedroom and deciding to write this diary.
Throughout these two days I stayed upstairs in a room with a view of the front door. Or, at least the area in front of it. I only left to go get water. At night I went downstairs and cleaned up any mess left by the days occupants. But my experience with the purple haired pony kept me cautious, and I was rushed with my cleanliness.
I did this not because I’m OCD or anything. I’m just tidy and needed something to do.

On my fourth full day I had to take action. Fear had kept me inside the tree library. But I hadn't had a bite to eat in the past five days. The hunger pains almost drove me mad on the second and third day. On the fourth day the pain faded. But it left me weak, barely able to move. I had to get food.
I’m not a fool though, so I waited for nightfall. While the pit inside me grew deeper.
Three times ponies came through the library that day.
When the sun set and darkness fell. That’s when I pushed the door open.