The Library was vast, with a glorious bronze floor to complement the alabaster ceiling, painted with many great images of epic events and beautifully carved mahogany shelves. Seemingly infinite rows and columns with tomes on every subject ever written and every subject not yet conceived. Knowledge, truth, wisdom, understanding…all the secrets of reality seemed to now be patiently planted at her hoof tips.
Here Twilight Sparkle sat at a single, out of place desk made of stainless steel. On it were stacks of books as high as her withers, at bare minimum. Before her lay a book detailing the effects varying levels of Cosmic Energy had on the evolutionary process. Before that, she had read a book on the nature of Preons and the relationship between their subparts and the Planck particle, otherwise known as the subatomic black holes that were partially responsible for the existence of gravity. Next she would look into groups of greater astronomical groupings, such as Universal Clusters and the Void Hole.
She paused, something she did every now and then. She didn't hunger, thirst, or tire so she didn't have a real reason to stop in her research. Nor did she feel the desire to question how she arrived here or where she came from. The Quest for Knowledge took precedence over all. Still, after every few books, she would stop and look down the hall of shelves and feel, briefly, that something was missing…this sudden pang in her barrel always brought a scowl to her muzzle. But what could be missing? She had all the knowledge she could ever want at her hoof tips. What else was there?
And at that, she always shook it off as having forgotten a topic she wanted to look into soon. With so many, she was bound to lose track of a few before she got through them all.
She hummed to herself as she read the passage regarding the Eosapien race of Darwin IV. She trotted down the halls in search of a more detailed book on their race and planet, to satisfy the confusing description in her head of a floating squid-like creature- and privately musing on what to call a legless race that floats. Nopedal? Nonpedal?
She walked for what, to any other sentient creature, would feel like hours. To Twilight Sparkle, it was a brief walk to stretch her legs and ponder her newest knowledge. A lack of Cosmic Energy, or raw magic, tended to make a world of creatures that were more cunning and adaptable, but also more suspicious and often specist. Magic didn't really change that until a certain level of enrichment, where it made it easier for living beings to connect with one another subconsciously and making the need for new purely technological innovations more rare.
She made a sigh of accomplishment as she found the book, the encyclopedias on Darwin IV. After finding the E's and briefly skimming over the details to satisfy her curiosity, she smiled and placed the book back. She'd look deeper into those creatures another time.
The unicorn blinked as she caught something out of the corner of her eyes. There, on the otherwise perfect floor, was a light blue feather. She tilted her head as she approached it, levitating it up to examine it. The feather wasn't long, just a bit more than a hoof. Still, it struck her as interesting; she didn't know she had a fellow patron in this place. Maybe she could find them, even discuss different topics. At the very least, studying what creature this feather came from would prove an interesting side project.
Still curious, she looked up and down at the books right in front of where the feather laid, wondering what they had been searching for here. She surprised to find another encyclopedia: namely because this one had a shimmering title in golden letters, "The...Encyclopedia of Equestria? Immortals, Artifacts, and Other Things of Interest?" She read off slowly, frowning at the foreign familiarity of the words.
Equestria? That was a single letter away from Equestrian, a term for activities relating to riding an equine. Of course, on a planet of intelligent equines that lacked riders, it was likely that the root Eques came to mean "belonging to Equines" rather than relating to horseman.
It was only after looking down did she remind herself that she was an Equine, of the caballio magicum variety in fact. Perhaps this book was about her...birth place, she supposed?
Strange, she never thought about the past, but now that this book was staring her in the face, her lack of remembrance was starting to bother her.
She glanced back down the hall, feeling that the desk was suddenly too far away. Putting the feather behind her ear, she sat on the ground and opened the tome, "Equestria, a nation located on a planet with high Cosmic-Energy enrichment. The planet currently has no formal name by natives, but will one day be named Gaiqus," She read off the opening description, "The nation was conceived one-thousand two-hundred fifty-eight years ago by a tribal union of the three majors Caballio, or Pony, subspecies: Caballio Magicum, The Unicorns, Caballio Volatile, The Pegasi, and Caballio Terram, the Earth Pony.*
However, the society only came to realization under the diarchy of two Alicorns: Celestia Sunnoniz Dagasis and Luna Meniniz Nahtu, dubbed the Princesses of Equestria.
*Later known as the Gaian or Terrans."
Twilight frowned deeper as she reread the names, "Cel-es-ti-a. Lu-na," She sounded out, not sure if she liked the familiarity of those names on her lips.
Her ear flicked at the draft going through the library, but ignored it as she turned the pages until something caught her eye.
"The Alicorns: Caballio Superum, the highest state of all Caballio kind. Alicorns are rarely born, with the majority of the lesser species of ponies having to "attain" this state, causing the growth rate of this subspecies population to be very low. In truth, Caballio Superum is the evolutionary end point of the Caballio race: Immortals with the potential to be considered God-Class. The Cosmic Energy will enrich their physical forms to the point of self-sustainment, keeping their minds from deteriorating and bringing them each to their own perfect state of being with a mixture of the three major subspecies. Some of the first verified members of this race were Celestia Sunnoniz Dagasis, Luna Meniniz Nahtu, Mi Amore Cadenza, and..."
Twilight scrunched her eyes as she felt a headache coming on before rubbing her eyes with her hooves. She blinked her eyes open as the pain cleared, scowling as she found the draft had turned the page, more than once if she had to guess. Still, while she couldn't remember the page number, the new page did look interesting.
"The Elements of Harmony. Six items that are often mistakenly identified as gems. They are in fact crystalline fruit from the endangered Crystal Tree. A very magically rich one at that, making them impossible to be consumed by gemmavores. These six fruit carry over a million years of steadily collected Cosmic Energy, refined into six elements. The Ponies of Equestria dubbed them as Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, Honesty, Laughter, and Magic.* These items, when used in conjunction, can do seemingly impossible things. However, a single entity using this is ill-advised as it may cause a backlash that will temporarily petrify the Fruits. Unfortunately, as the fruits are connected, so too must be the users. This makes their effectiveness limited, more so by the lack of training and experimenting with them.
*For more on the true nature of these fruits, please look up Tree of Harmony.
The most famous use of these objects was against a being known to them at the time as Discord the Draconequus, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.
The Diarches of Equestria were two known wielders of the Fruits, but they are more famously known as being used by six mares that would-"
Twilight stopped and backtracked, "Dis-cor-d," She repeated intently. Another name that seemed so familiar. And Draconequus? She had never heard of a Draconic-Equine hybrid ever classified as that. She had heard of the Longma, but not Draconequus.
The feather slipped from her ear, floating down and curiously slid its tip between two pages. Raising an eyebrow, Twilight pulled the feather and caused the pages to turn.
Discord The Draconequus.
Who or whatever he was, Twilight decided he must have been very important if the encyclopedia had an entire section dedicated to him, with the first page being nothing but his name over an image of himself.
It was strange though, to call this being a dragon-horse. For one thing, his body didn't have anything that was distinctively draconic or equine to it. One leg was reptilian, but not necessarily a dragon's. The leather wing looked more like a bat's and his tail could belong to any number of creatures with spikes along their tail. The overall shape, however, did convey a similarity to a Long, the divine serpentine dragons, but that was it. His wing could be from anything, his hoof was cloven and his head looked to be of a Capra rather than an Equine.
Odder still was the pose. It was not intimidating or grand or anything else that one would expect. He was just floating, his body curved about in the air, with his taloned limb out stretched, as if he was reaching to something. There was a knowing, amused look to his red orbs that made her ask "What?" What did he know? What or who was he reaching to? What was he offering? What was he at all?
Now she was intrigued, bookmarking the page with her feather as she headed back down the halls of books with a smile on her face: her desk suddenly didn't feel so far away anymore.
Within no time at all, she was back at the steel desk. Humming happily, she sat back into her chair and opened the book again, back to the image of Discord.
Then she went wide eyed in shock. The image had changed, subtly. The tail was pointing a different direction, his grin showed more teeth now and his lion's paw was...pointing to the bottom left? She looked towards the center of the book, trying to see what he was pointing at on the page. She didn't find anything, but something else did catch her eye.
She never noticed it before, but this desk had drawers…locked ones at that.
Now she was puzzled, having never remembered those being there the entire time she had been using this desk and that was a long time. Back when she read about why bipedal forms were such a common thing in the various evolutionary chains of the multiverse, even for non-ape creatures. She didn't remember if she read up about the Primordial Universe before or after that though. Still, it had been a long time.
Pulling on them experimentally, she found that they were indeed locked and frowned. She found she was frowning a lot today, for some reason. She glanced at the feather, the lone item she knew of in the entire library that wasn't a book besides her and placed it into the keyhole. She had studied various transformation techniques, but didn't put them into practice…until now.
With a surge of magic, the feather warped and twisted into a key as she molded the key to fit. She turned it and at the click, she felt a rush of giddy energy that almost made her want to jump around in success, for some reason. Keeping herself together, she opened the drawer to find to find...a book.
It would have felt anticlimactic to others, but it made her more curious. Why lock up a book?
And as she opened the cover, she found something even more curious.
"Property of Twilight Sparkle."
It was personally written, not typed or copied with magic. It was her own writing, curly and flourished, "Twi-Ligh-T Spar-Kle," She sounded off.
Why did her own name sound so odd in her ears?
What was that bubbling feeling in her chest?
When did she write this?
Where did it come from?
Who put it here?
She didn't have any answers. Strangely, all of that felt like it could wait. What she wanted to know, right here and now, was the contents of the next page.
Her heart almost leapt in her chest. It was...a photo book.
She blinked, slowly, as she took in the first image. There was a grey-white mare with a purple and white striped mane, her cutie mark a triplet of stars. Standing next to her was a blue stallion with a dark mane, with a mark of a crescent moon inside a larger crescent moon. Both were unicorns and they looked so...happy together. Then there was a young colt, white coated and blue maned. For some reason, his ear was against the mare's stomach, the elder two looking on with love and amusement.
Twilight felt her mouth forming a small O shape as she went through the pictures, watching the mare's belly swell with child until finally...
Her breath hitched at the image of the little filly held in the exhausted mare's hooves. A little purple thing with bits of a dark violet mane, staring up at the world with bright eyes.
She started to pant lightly as she watched, through still images, as the filly had her first cereal…took her first steps…had her first booboos. And she saw all the love in the faces of those three ponies.
The pain in her barrel sharpened, almost making her hunch over and stop. But she didn't dare close her eyes.
The filly read the first of many books to come at an early age. And yet, a time with those three ponies was worth more than all the pages. The colt left more often, with a helmet that looked like a soldier's. The parents watching on in wonder at the filly's first acts of magic.
Twilight tried not to notice how familiar the filly looked...
Then there was this picture that made the pain burn pleasantly.
The filly was there with the parents, in a classroom of some kind. On the floor was a purple egg of some kind or the remains of one with a similarly colored baby reptile in it. The strangest thing was that the filly looked so happy, so excited, as she danced around this very large and white pony with wings and a horn, a sun for a cutie mark: An Alicorn. One that looked amused yet pleased by the filly's enthusiasm.
"...Celestia...," Twilight whispered numbly.
Twilight nearly jumped out of the chair when a stack of books on the desk fell onto the floor in a non-ceremonial pile. She quickly jumped down find out what stack that had been. She sighed in relief that it was the pile she had already finished. Still, she wasn't about to leave these poor books in a mess. Though, this time she stacked them down next to the desk in smaller stacks. She absently began to move more of the ones she had already finished down from the desk, hoping to prevent another accident with a mental note to return more of these soon.
She sighed contently, feeling the discomfort leave her barrel. Why had it bothered her so, looking at a silly book of pictures?
She almost giggled to herself as she returned to the book before blinking as she saw the blue feather had returned, lying next to the image of an impatient Discord. Didn't she turn that into a key?
Glancing down, she did indeed find the key was gone...and that the photo book was hanging on the open drawer. When had she...?
Absently, she picked the book back up, careful not to lose the page it was opened to. The feeling returned, but she once more felt like she had to see this...
She saw the filly as she quickly became a young mare and learn under the alabaster Alicorn. And in time, find herself becoming the acquaintance of several other mares, if only by prolonged contact. Twilight wouldn't say the mare and them were friends, really, since she looked like she was never interested in being there...
She also saw the dragon grow up a bit and become one of the only ones the mare seemed close to.
Then, something changed; suddenly, instead of a grand castle on a mountain-side city, the unicorn was in a small town...with a timid yellow Pegasus she almost didn't notice had wings, talking to birds...an earth pony with a hat, kicking a tree...a rainbow Pegasus sleeping on a cloud...another unicorn that seemed to be making clothes...and a pink earth pony that was...bouncing, she supposed?
What a strange group.
Then another Alicorn appeared, briefly, with a black coat and a starry ma-
*THUMP*
Twilight blinked at the book that fell from her "Soon-To-Read" pile.
"Nightmares and Their Implications? I read this over three dozen books ago," Twilight murmured as she levitated the book over to the stack beside the desk...and blinked as she saw the photo book on top of the stack now, the feather bookmarking a page. She levitated it back up, scrunching her brow in confusion, placing the book on top of the image of a particularly smug Draconequus.
The page opened to the six mares floating in midair, their eyes glowing as they were surrounded by a rainbow light.
Now she did hunch over, face against the page as she stared at it and saw how...happy those mares looked as a bond formed between them.
She shuddered and whimpered as she righted herself and...
After that, it didn't feel like she was staring at photos anymore. It was more like she was actually watching them happen. How they became friends, went and wrecked the gala, faced down Discord himself, stopped an invasion, saved an empire and so soooo much more.
It wasn't until the very end that she realized she was crying, the tear drops falling from her muzzle and staining the pages.
"Luna...Applejack...Rainbow Dash...Rarity...Fluttershy...Pinkie Pie...Spike...Shining Armor...Mom...Dad..." She muttered to herself as she buried her eyes into her hooves, wiping away her tears.
She took a shuddering breath as she looked around herself.
The library was in ruins. Shelves collapsed, the ceiling caved in at certain spots, the walls dark and faded, books all over the place. It had nearly destroyed itself trying to get her attention again.
She looked back to her desk. The photo book was gone, again. But something else was gone too.
The image of Discord was missing from the page, leaving only the blue feather across the open book.
Still feeling her tears dampening her fur, she picked up the feather and examined it one last time. As little as she understood now, it still made perfect sense. She knew who this belonged to. The only one it could belong to.
She wasn't at all surprised when a set of talons reached out and grabbed the feather, putting it back into his feather wing.
She sat there, looking up at him with her sad eyes, sniffling as he watched her. He was floating there, just as he had in the picture, reaching out to her. Only now his smile was more sincere and in his lion paw he held the photo book.
Neither one of them said a word for the longest time.
Finally, she slowly raised her hoof to take his claw.
*Skreeeeee*
Twilight glanced behind her with wide eyes. In the distance, she could see the library repairing itself, returning to its pristine glory.
Her eyes went wider, as if struck by the realization that she might not be able to resist that.
Without a second thought, she jumped at Discord, clutching to him with all of her limbs, "Don't let me forget! I don't want to forget anymore! Please, Discord, help me!" She begged, her eyes closed tight as she held onto every memory she could.
The Lord of Chaos smiled down at her, chuckling a bit as he wrapped his talon and paw around her, "All you had to do was ask, Twilight Sparkle," He assured gently as the photo book dissolved in his grip, turning into specks of violet sparks that phased into Twilight's head, "After all, what are friends for?"
Author's Note
Well...that was something. You know, I could say something, ask some questions or hint at what the HELL is going on, but you know what? I'm not. I'm just going to sit here and let you all say what you think you just read.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Twilight didn't so much hear the water dripping as read it…as if the sounds only registered to her as words.
She opened her eyes and did not see the hallway of cold metal, dripping water, and creeping darkness. Instead, she heard it. She heard it in creaking metal, in water droplets and in whispering shades beckoning her forward.
Her senses all turned about, she could only follow, feeling as though she were a marionette pulling its own strings: in control, but the movements were artificial and unnatural on her frame that refused to show the confusion or unease she felt.
She came to a split in the hallway, shaped like a v, with a sign on the wall of each. The left said library, the right said paradise.
Both sounded appealing, yet something about this seemed wrong, leaving an odd taste in her mouth.
She turned around and hoped to find a better idea of where she was.
She would have blinked but felt she couldn't. There was another, identical split in the opposite direction. Had it been that short a distance she traveled? Time smelt odd to her now.
Why did time smell? How did it?
Crossing back across the short distance, she saw the two other signs: Eternity and Dream Come True.
They did not register as ludicrous or strange. Those destinations didn't seem strange at all to her.
That bothered her, immensely.
She took a step back and turned.
There was another split to her right now. It shouldn't be there. It was never there before. Yet it was.
Where You Belong and Best Place Ever.
Her puppet was rattling, her terror mounting as some memory mounted in her mind.
She needed to get out.
She needed to get out.
She Needed To Get Out.
Turning, knowingly, she saw another split where the other wall should also be and now was not.
Home? And Back.
Back where? Why did home have a question mark?
She did not have the ability to whimper.
Wrong wrong wrong wong wrong wrong. This was all so very wrong!
Shut it shut it shut it shut it. Even if it was just in her mind, she needed to stop panicking, to be calm.
She lifelessly sat down, not knowing which way to go. Eight directions, all were bad.
She had only one solution.
Find a ninth.
She looked up.
She had no mouth and had to scream.
There were two large and finely crafted oak doors forming a single passage way. They were disturbingly inviting.
They were high up.
They were lowering.
Her eyes widened and she swore her sight cracked.
In the crack of the door, there was a feather; A blue one.
It fell, waving back and forth in the air before falling to rest on her nose.
She sneezed. The feather was gone, but she could taste it now.
That taste was not just a taste.
There was something in her mouth.
Bringing her hoof up, she found something sticking half way out. She pulled and saw it in her hoof.
A key.
To those doors above? No, those went right back THERE.
But so did all these other ways. Right?
Nine bad ways. Find a tenth.
Down.
She looked down and saw something at her hooves. An image of a door. A painting? A drawing? Either way, it was normal and plain.
Against all logic, she put the key into the two-dimensional key hole.
It slipped in and fit perfectly.
The door flung open.
Below she saw herself, lying in a thin pool of water.
Sleeping, peaceful, breathing.
Real.
That was her and what she was now was not herself.
Yet she was here and not there.
She looked up again and wanted to glare.
The doors loomed just above her horn-height.
Go away go away go away GOAWAY!
She looked down and crawled into the image.
It was heavy, hard. Something was pulling at her, trying to keep her back, wanting her to stay.
She did not want to stay.
She fell through and into herself.
Twilight shot up with a desperate gasp for air. She rolled onto her back, not caring for how wet her mane was getting. In fact, she reveled in it. She wanted it, that feeling of being real and here and not going back THERE.
"Took you long enough."
Twilight shot up, staring at the Draconequus with an awed look, as if she had never seen him before in her life. "Dis...Discord?" she asked hesitantly- and sweet Celestia how good did her voice feel on her tongue, in her very throat.
He floated above the liquids, raising an eyebrow at her. "You were expecting somepony else?" he asked sarcastically.
Only to be met with a hug…a desperate, grateful hug to his furry serpentine body.
"Thank you!" she whispered into his fur, "I...I don't understand what's going on, but thank you!"
Discord paused for an instant before returning the hug. "Thank me when you're back home."
"O-okay," Twilight whimpered, sniffling as she released him to observe her new surroundings. It was like a swamp, an unbroken mist over a seemingly infinite reach of water. But there was no stone or foliage breaking the surface. And whatever surface was below her hooves was flat and firm, not at all like mud. "Where...where are we?"
"It's more a matter of How are you," Discord answered mysteriously.
"What do we do?" Twilight asked, rubbing her head. "I...want to go home."
"I can take you home any time now, Twilight," Discord assured neutrally.
"What? Then why-" Twilight asked in shock, turning to stare at his patient expression. "You're not just here for me, are you?" she realized uneasily.
Discord nodded solemnly. "All six of you are out here. I can try and get the others back on my own," Discord explained, clearly waiting for her to figure something out herself.
"Back in that...place, that library. You didn't just take me out of there," Twilight realized with a scowl as he raised an amused brow. "You couldn't. I...I had to want to leave, to ask."
"And so do the rest," Discord added on grimly.
Twilight took a shuddering breath as she looked across the realm of impossibly still water. "What happened to us? Are...are we dead?" she asked, looking to Discord with a scare look.
"Not just yet," Discord said grimly. "You can go now, or help me find the others."
"...Some of them still don't like you a lot," Twilight murmured with a small smile. "They probably wouldn't like you interrupting their own...paradises."
"No, they wouldn't," Discord acknowledged with a shrug. "Why do you think I went after you first?"
Twilight sighed heavily before looking to him with a tired but brave smile. "Lead the way."
Discord smiled with something akin to pride as he flew forward, just slow enough for her to keep up as she trudged through the waters. An overwhelming silence came over them as Twilight searched all horizons for something, anything to act as a land marker. But there was nothing.
"What is this place?" Twilight ultimately asked.
"The Doldrums of the Unborn," Discord answered simply. "This is where the souls of those that were never born, all those that died in the womb come to rest."
"The Unborn?" Twilight repeated with a scowl. She didn't want to believe it, but all logic was meaningless here. "Then that library-"
"Was your playpen," Discord answered with a scowl, flying down for his talons to scrape the surface of the waters.
Twilight gasped as the waters parted, revealing that every inch of the stone floor had the faint impressions of infantile skeletons of any number of creatures. It would have been more horrifying if not for every skull somehow giving the hint of a soft smile. "This place, isn't a prison or trap?"
"No more than any daycare is," Discord answered, the waters pooling around Twilight's hooves once more.
Twilight blinked. "Discord, this water? What-"
"Try not to think about it. You'll only make yourself sad," Discord advised as he came to a halt.
"What's wrong? Did you find one of them?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Two, actually," Discord answered as he tapped his chin. "Twilight, we're not abandoning anypony, but...who do you think we'd have an easier time pulling out of this? Rainbow or Applejack?" he asked idly.
Twilight eyed him strangely. "They're both very stubborn, but-" Twilight froze, biting her lip. "Rainbow. Now, Discord, Rainbow."
"You seem...very alarmed all of a sudden," Discord noted with interest.
"Discord, if I'm right about Applejack's paradise, she might not want to leave even if we prove to her it's not...exactly real," Twilight answered with a grimace.
Discord eyed her before his gaze softened in understanding. "Right. Egomaniac first."
Twilight followed him off to the side, wondering how he could possibly see in all of this fog, before she spied something at the edge of the fog's visibility. It was blue, light blue- "Rainbow!" Twilight declared, racing over to the body. She took the pegasus mare in her arms, her figure limp and unresponsive. She paled before trying to squash the primordial instinct to think she was dead. This wasn't a traditional body though, and if it was, this place worked on a whole new set of rules. "I don't suppose anything I do here will wake her up?" Twilight asked solemnly, glancing back at the draconequus.
"I would have just sent you home if it was that easy," Discord answered with a snort as he floated over, descending to their level. "Ready?"
Twilight didn't answer, holding her loyal friend in her hooves for a moment. "Discord? Why CAN'T you just wake her up?" Twilight asked with interest.
"I could," Discord admitted calmly, glancing out across the waters. "But do you really want me to disturb this place?"
"I...don't know," Twilight answered honestly. "After being in there, I'm not how if it would be a good or bad idea."
"Well, let me simplify this issue: If I force one of you awake, it's going to be very hard to get any of the others that are still stuck in their fake-paradise," Discord explained with a small smirk. "And let's just say this place won't be too happy about that."
Twilight swallowed as she received the message. This place was alive in some capacity, or something else in it was. "How do I help?" Twilight asked curiously.
Discord smiled, placing his hand on her head. "We'll figure that out once we know what we're dealing with. Now, into the depths!" Discord declared, placing his other hand on Rainbow.
Twilight's world turned white before she braced herself for whatever she might find.
Author's Note
Hello! I know ,this is a rather surprising update. I was myself when I randomly started writing for this again. Not much to say, hope you all enjoyed this long overdue chapter.
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