I sighed and shut my eyes as I tapped my quill against my open notebook.
Inside my journal were my notes on the legend of a phantom library, buried somewhere deep within the Everfree Forest. I had been researching this library for some time, yet I hadn’t physically found anything to lead me to believe it existed.
Historical records said the library held strange books and tomes, originating from a time even before the two sisters had been born; and within them were anomalous spells that had never been cast, let alone castable. There were claims that those books had a life of their own, and that the spells would drive a pony mad if they ever tried casting one.
I shuffled through my notes before withdrawing a volume from a crystal shelf and placing it on my desk. Then I opened it and scrutinized the text. I read it in my head. A guardian watches over the lively tomes and scrolls, and that that guardian would consume anything that ever tried to gain whatever knowledge was within those writings. But there’s no such thing as supernatural entities, right? I would be foolish not to believe that, given what I have seen.
I sighed, pushing the book to the side before gazing away from my desk. Outside, the moon and cosmos shone brightly in the night sky, illumining every which way. Shafts of moonlight pierced through the crystal clear windows of my castle. The small, comforting sight muted my frustrations just a little.
For years, I had been researching this so-called phantom library. I examined the maps of the Everfree Forest with the greatest care and attention, but guess what. Know what I found? Absolutely nothing. I had stepped hoof in that forest countless times, looking for the thing, but I found nothing. I even went as far as looking into the forest’s dumb antiquities. Still nothing. At some point, I went to Celestia and asked her if she knew anything about this ghostly place; but, according to her, she had never heard of such a place, and forbade me from searching for it any more.
I wasn’t convinced.
That was when I payed a visit to Zecora. She said the same thing Celestia said to me, and forbade me from ever speaking of or searching for it.
But I refused to listen to any of them. I couldn’t. And I wouldn’t. I had to find the library, because the enigma of it was so alluring. Some nights I would lose sleep just thinking about finding it, seeing the being for myself and obtaining the knowledge within. And then I realized that sometimes we had to take a leap of faith and do what our minds tell us to do; and if we don’t, we’d never get resolution.
So here I was now.
I got up from my seat and paced around the curved bookcases, filled with information, scrolls, and papers. There had to be a hint or clue in one of these books to how I could find the library.
Realizing that I already had the book I needed, I drew it up from my desk, and went through every page until I found something that could help me with this quandary. And I did.
Hm…it says here that the library moves when the cosmos and a full luminous moon is out, specifically on the fourth cycle within the year.
Eyes darted to the calendar that hung on the wall.
It’s that time…hmm. It also says that before the library moves underground, a coloured wisp will appear and create a small yet safe sinkhole that will lead to strange caverns. This is my chance. I have to go right now, or I’ll never find this place.
I closed the book, teleported to my chamber, and packed my saddlebag with essentials: Blank scrolls, ink and quill, and a pair of binoculars. Packed and ready to go, I slipped past Spike’s room to see if he was still asleep; and without a doubt, he was. That was, until I accidentally kicked a crystal stone that was on the ground. He stirred around in his sleep and rubbed his eyes, only to roll over. I smiled at him. I’ll be back Spike. I promise. Always.
When I got outside, the warm, humid night air impaled me, and it made me feel more at ease. My body loosened, and the frustrated tension I had experienced trying to find the library dwindled. Taking a deep breath, I made my way to the Everfree Forest.
The town was desolate, and suppressed by the anomaly of sleep and dreams. It seemed I was the only conscious one in town—something I was grateful for since I was going to the Everfree Forest; and the last thing I want would be for ponies to become suspicious of me. I took the high-road, and soared into the clear, radiant, star-painted sky. My flight wasn’t long or tiring, but it was anxious. My body kept shaking, as if it knew I was going to find something I shouldn’t. The mind kept telling me I had to do this, but my heart kept telling me to turn back, that it was unsafe and unearthly. I listened to my mind.
The Everfree Forest was warmer than ever, but it was like a remedy to calm my nerves. From the putrescent, mute trees twisting grotesquely and aloft— as if they were trying to make themselves appear as alien as possible—to the eerie sounds by nightly creatures, they all made this place way more unsettling at night. Did I forget to mention that?
As I pushed through the dense, damp vegetation, I heard something shift beneath me. I looked down, but there wasn’t anything moving, as far as I could tell. I cast an amplifying spell and listened. Sounds of movement and falling objects resonated through the ground, and I couldn't believe it. My brain must had been playing tricks on me. I ignored it, and followed the sound.
Within seconds, it terminated, leaving no trace of anything. At first I was disappointed; but then a circular spring, rotating with divine energy, appeared, and two spherical, radiant blue-flickering wisps manifested themselves from the swirling energy below. The wisps moved on their own, and they illumed an atropa belladonna bush.
I teleported myself to the wisp, and it kept moving on its own. Before I could do anything, it vanished into nothingness.
I knew something was off. I could feel it as I sat down—amidst the weedy and clammy ground. Taking a leap of faith, I headed where the wisp had emerged.
And that’s when I began to fall.
I frantically flapped my wings, but for some reason—regardless of how hard I swayed my wings up and down—I was only forced further down into the pit. I lit my horn aglow and saw the bottom, and I suppressed my fall, stopping myself from becoming a pancake.
After regaining my senses, I sat down and opened my saddlebag, but the items I had packed were gone. I knew for certain I had packed them before I had left. And they couldn’t have been lost in my fall, or else they would’ve landed by my side by now.
I got up and cast a brighter illumination spell, hoping that it would lead me to where I so desired. In the dank cavern, I trailed along the worn walls, formed of aging stone. Runic symbols were engraved on them—and they were unlike anything I had ever seen. I stopped mid-way on the path and brushed my hoof against the symbols; yet I felt only the friction from smooth rock and not from the glyphs. They weren’t etched, but rather made from the stone. Thereafter, the markings began to glow a pale blue, then dimmed down.
Without thinking or realizing, I made my way down the path until I came to a set of stone stairs that were leading up. And I was sanguine I could get out of this place. The cave I was in was eldritch and sinister, with voices echoing throughout the interiors, the voices calling out to kill and for blood. There were bats, too, that made zero noise when flying, and the stalactites, dripping a weird ooze, didn’t make me feel welcomed or comfortable. So I ascended the stairs until there was nothing more to climb. Another dead end.
I felt my head touch something solid, and I knew it had to be either a roof or a floor since I was going up. I challenged the barrier, but it was immoveable. Without question, I cast a spell and forced it open with my magic, after which I crawled out from the debris and found myself in a strange room with green, ghostly bookshelves, filled with old, lifeless tomes.
I brought myself to a shelf and fumbled for the idle books and scrolls. Dust covered them, so I blew them clear and examined the titles. They were written in those runic symbols again. I placed the book down and grabbed another, by which point I felt something hard strike the back of my head.
I wondered about what I could expect as I delved deeper into this place; this was only the start of it, after all. I dragged myself away from the shelves to an ajar, creaky door. Pushing through it, I found more vast shelves of marble, bearing odious oblong boxes of disturbing size. There were windows on the outer edges of the room, and I hurried to them; and when I gazed outside, I saw a full moon and the giant trees within the Everfree Forest, as well as a magical barrier that surrounded the perimeter.
So that’s how this place hides itself…somehow, with the use of magic, it cloaks itself in the forest, but what exactly is doing that? I have to find out.
Looking one last time at the array of the uncanny things around me, I bid farewell to them, and traversed up another stone staircase that was in the room. Strangely my body grew tense as I left the room I was just in. My body, specifically my legs, began to shake furiously, and there was this tingling that electrocuted my body on a cellular level; leaving me paralysed and unable to move.
It was like the room I had just left was the last safest place I was as there were familiar things like Luna’s moon, the stars, and the ever so scary Everfree Forest. Given that my castle would be way safer, but even going up this staircase was a curse. Soon I was out of that hex, and I found myself in something beyond the idea of spectacular: Floating tomes and scrolls—all of which glowed in different colours and flew in rhythmic direction, placing themselves on the bookcases that were covered in green slime.
I ran into the middle of them, amazed to see it for myself. None of the books took notice of me, which I was somewhat glad of, though I cast a protective veil spell in case some of them decided to go haywire and attack me.
Fear crippled me, freezing and contracting every muscle in my body, even though I could tell I was trembling on the outside. I felt beads of sweat stream down my forehead, like an icicle melting, and a bastion of warm comfort dripped down my leg in a moment of primal terror. A pungent odour of something unpleasant permeated the air. I could sense that it originated behind me. It was the aroma of pages and rotting wood that filled my nostrils, and it made my stomach churn. And the thick green slime coating the walls, to the living tomes making rattling noises every time their pages flapped, and the bleary greenish-grey lighting made the place eldritch to me, leaving me more frightened.
Nevertheless, I jumped up, with the help of my wings, and grabbed a tome from the air. It immediately decolourized and died. All the other tomes didn’t respond, so I went on to what I would normally do with a book: Open it and cure my thirst for knowledge. Every line of text was decipherable to me, and that made my insides boil with contentment and gratitude since, for once, I had found something that I had been told would be impossible.
And it was at that moment when I felt contented, as I had achieved the impossible, making me feel as if I were in a dream—a reality of unconsciousness. My body felt lighter than usual, and a tingly quiver shivered through me, rising my heartbeat and breathing in anticipation for what more I could find within this place. And when I finished reading the book I had picked up a while ago, I snatched another one out of the air—hoping that nothing would disrupt my happiness.
I wished I hadn’t.
All the tomes and scrolls fell to the ground, and there was nothing but silence that hardened like obsidian. Their glow dimmed down to nothing; and to the untrained eye, they were nothing more than ordinary volumes one would find at the local library. My teeth gritted and grunts escaped my mouth. I grabbed a dead tome and tried opening it, but it wouldn’t budge; as if it were a magical force of some sort preventing me from opening it and reading its contents. I tried casting a spell on it to get it open, but it was in vain.
I threw the volume at a wall in rage, and its pages rustled and swooshed as the air made them move as it was airborne. I got up and tried to pick up a scroll this time, but there was a terrible scream that left me paralysed and scared. It was as if one thousand banshees screaming horribly and wildly as they emerged from whatever place they derive.
I stood, shaking frantically, all the while feeling my pupils dilate.
I followed the source of the scream. I ran and ran, trampling on the books, which dug into my skin, as I made my way thence, only for the screams to become louder. Instinctively, I cast a muffle spell on myself. I could still hear those violent, dismaying ululations, but they were much quieter and less intensive.
Eventually, I pinpointed the source of the sound. It was coming from a gigantic, tall bookshelf, far taller than my own castle.
A dull-green ghostly figure—wide, tall, and translucent—emerged from the bookcase. Its appearance was unearthly: It had what looked liked a dress made of damaged books and torn pages; and its eyes were non-existent—with only a void in the eye sockets. Its claws were long and sharp, glowing with what looked like magic.
The ghost across from me continued to stare at me. Nothing else. I felt my pulse beating in my ears, blocking out its barbaric screams. My breath was raggedly moving in and out of my mouth; and soon I, too, was staring. I couldn’t take my gaze away from the phantom: I had seen many things and creatures throughout my adventures with my friends, but I had never seen something like this in my life. I knew that nothing else mattered. I had found the phantom. I had found the supernatural guardian.
The connection had to be held; because if it broke…if it broke I might just die; no pony would know where I was or how I had stumbled across this forbidden place. It might be hard to believe, but I had never felt more certain than I do now. I could no longer control my hooves from quivering; nor could I control my urge to blast the ghost with a magic spell. Yet still I stared, willing myself to stay put until the connection was broken.
As time passed with me staring at the ghost, it soon became something out of this world: Its form started to decay and change, revealing black and carious bone; and its once empty eye sockets began to bleed red, and its face, rotting with the red ooze, became warped and distorted. Its flesh appeared as rotten, decaying away at the grotesque plague that attached to its bone. I was paralysed, making a feeble, accidental backward tumble on a tome.
Slowly and carefully, I backed away from the supernatural being. It followed me and a sinister smile suddenly crossed its face; and as the ghost neared the dead tomes and scrolls, they revitalized and glowed with a red aura. They followed the ghost. I turned around and ran. I used my magic to throw objects in front of the being, but it only made it angrier. Still, I did everything I could to block the thing off.
But then I tripped and tumbled face-first, leaving me vulnerable. I turned around and I frantically backed away by crawling, but it did no good. The ghost collided into me and shrieked the piercing sound of a thousand souls being tortured.
I found myself in the Everfree Forest, where I had found the wisp.
Flying through the endless array of trees in the dark night, I raced out of the forest before glancing back at the ghost that floated at the edge. The phantom disappeared seconds later.
I collapsed on the ground and felt the grass brushing against my body. Then I gazed up at the stars and moon, wishing that I never followed or listened to them.
Despite my later investigations, I had never since been able to find a coloured wisp at night in the Everfree Forest; but I wasn’t sorry for that—or for the losses of the countless tomes which alone could explain the truth about the phantom library.
