"Ughhhh." Twilight groaned, pacing back and forth in frustration. "I can't figure this out. What does it mean?" She stopped her pacing and picked up her front right hoof, turning it over to examine the bottom. There was a number on the bottom of her hoof, emitting a sickly green glow. "What does the number 53 have to do with anything?"
"I was hoping you'd be able to figure it out and tell me." A voice said, from behind her. Twilight turned and watched a thin black cat hop down from a luggage compartment above a row of seats.
"Shouldn't you know what it means? You've been on this train all your life, and I've only been here for a week." Twilight glared at the cat. "Is there something you aren't telling me?"
The cat sat down and licked at his paw. "I keep telling you, I've already told you everything I know about this train." The cat purred.
Twilight scowled. "You don't know very much, then." She grumbled through gritted teeth.
"Don't you trust me, Twilight?"
"No." Twilight replied in a huff. "But I guess I'm stuck with you. You don't have to follow me, you know."
"No." The cat said, simply. "But I am curious to see how this plays out."
"Didn't curiosity kill the cat?" Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.
The cat chuckled, and replied, "didn't satisfaction bring him back?" This warranted an eye roll from Twilight.
The unicorn packed her frustration into a box at the back of her mind, and turned her attention to her surroundings. This train car was fairly small, and far more normal than some of the cars she'd been through already. There were six rows of benches on each side of the car, all facing the forward direction of the train. Above the windows were overhead luggage compartments. At the back of the car, beside the door, was a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall. It all looked so normal and empty that Twilight wasn't even sure where to begin to solve the puzzle. There was nothing obvious. It just looked like a normal train car.
"Arrrrgh!" Twilight yelled, stomping a hoof in frustration. "We've been in here for hours and I don't even know where to begin!" She exclaimed, stomping her way to the front of the car. "It's like there's just no puzzle in here at all! It's not like the door's just going to be unlocked!" She grasped the door handle in her hoof and turned it to prove her point.
The door swung open easily.
"UGGGH YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME." Twilight smacked her face into the doorframe and let out a heavy sigh.
The cat chuckled and skipped ahead of her into the next car. "I think that's the train telling you not to overthink things." He said, cheerily.
Twilight scowled and followed the cat into the next car. "The train has a funny sense of humour." She growled to herself. Her grouchy mood evaporated as she took in the car. "A library!" She exclaimed happily. "About time! Now I can really find some answers!"
The cat stretched and yawned. "Well, have fun with that. I'm going to go take a nice nap in that sunbeam over there." He purred contently.
"Oh no you don't." Twilight said, stepping into his path. "You're going to be my assistant. You probably won't be as good as Spike, but I suppose you're better than nopony."
"Assistant?" The cat said, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think so." He sidestepped around Twilight, heading for his sunny destination.
"Come on, Wash, don't be a brat." Twilight said. "Help me look for any books that might have anything to do with..." She thought for a moment, fishing for whatever she was actually looking for.
"Infinite puzzle trains?" Wash yawned, curling up in a sunny spot on the floor. "No thanks."
"You said you wanted to find out what's with this train, too." Twilight said. "If you'd help me for once, we'd get answers faster." She coaxed.
Wash didn't answer.
"Wash?" Twilight asked, then shook her head in irritation. "Wish I could fall asleep that quickly. Darn insomnia..." With a quick but determined huff, she strode up to the nearest bookshelf and started reading titles.
The library car was quite large. It was actually around the same size as Golden Oak Library, back in Ponyville. But in terms of how many books it held, this was much larger. Not only were the walls of the car lined with ceiling high bookshelves, but there were also tightly spaced rows of double sided shelves throughout the length of the car, which was much wider than the last one. That was the thing about this train. Some of the cars were wider, longer, or taller than one would think logical, or even possible.
"Trains and Magic." Twilight read aloud. "Well, that should be just as good a starting place as any." She reached up with a glowing hoof to pull the book down. It didn't budge. "Huh." Twilight said, turning her head to the side and studying it skeptically. "Must be packed in there pretty tightly." She activated her horn. "Well, good thing my magic isn't disabled in this car." She enveloped the book in her magic grasp and tugged it firmly, but it still didn't come loose. She pulled harder and harder, until she was pulling with all her magical and physical strength. Panting, she released her hold on the book.
"What the..." She whispered between heavy breaths. Turning to the shelf opposite the one with the book she wanted, she selected another book at random and tried to take it off the shelf. Once again, she failed. She ran to the other side of the car and pulled at another book, and another, and another. All her attempts were met with the same result.
"What kind of library doesn't let you read it's books?" Twilight sighed, sitting down, staring at the bookcase in front of her and it's illusive books. Glancing at the titles, she found herself back in the T section again. The gears of her mind ran, looking for ideas. Research was clearly off the list of strategies that would help her. She skimmed the titles, hoping she would see something that inspired a brilliant idea.
"Thallium: 18 Unorthodox Uses..." She muttered under her breath, then continued along, reading in her head. It was quicker that way. She read for a minute, then doubled back. One of the titles was different. There it was. That? Twilight asked. "What kind of book is just called 'That?' It makes no sense." Curious, Twilight reached up and took the book in her hoof. It shifted when she touched it. Her heart leapt, and she pulled the book from the shelf.
"Yes!" She yelled, triumphantly.
There was a groan as the black cat woke from his slumber. "Would you mind keeping it down?" He said, irritated. "I'm trying to nap."
"I've got a lead!" Twilight shouted at him.
"That's nice." He grumbled, shutting his eyes to try and resume his nap.
Twilight eagerly flipped the book open. There were two blank pages in front of her. She frowned, flipping through the book. All the pages were blank. Twilight sighed. "I should have known it was too good to be true." She studied the hardcover binding of the book. It was dark red, and had no illustrations, markings, title, or author's name anywhere on the front or back. The only thing that voided it's existence as a plain, empty journal was the word 'that' on it's spine.
With a sigh, Twilight dropped the book on the floor and paced across the library, to the door she sought to open. She supposed she ought to check out the door first, to get hints on how to open it. It would be the most logical approach. She guessed she was just excited to see a library. At least, she was when she thought that it was a normal library.
The door looked like any other door from any normal train car, except that it had a single shelf across it, with two stationary bookends. There were no books on the shelf, nor was there anything else. Studying the wall space around the door, she found nothing but the ceiling high bookcases, filled with immobile books.
"So much for clues..." Twilight grumbled, disappointed. Thinking of the last car, and how the door was already opened, Twilight tried the handle. It was locked tight. She tried various spells she knew that could unlock locks, even enchanted ones, but none of them worked on the door.
"Maybe I am thinking too hard about this." Twilight muttered. "I need to think outside the box." She studied the carpeted floor for clues. She studied the ceiling. Then she counted the shelves, the bookcases, looking for some sort of correlation between the numbers. Nothing turned up. She started counting books on a shelf, when another book caught her eye. This one was green, and was a small but very thick tome. There was one word on the binding: 'Of.' Twilight removed it from the shelf. Like 'That,' 'Of' had come off the shelf with ease, even though the other books were stuck tight.
"This has to be the puzzle." Twilight said. Like 'That,' 'Of' had blank pages and no other markings other than the two letters on it's spine.
With the two books in mind, Twilight headed to the A section and began reading through the titles, looking for single words that made no sense as titles at all. When she reached the Bs, having found nothing she was looking for, she facehoofed.
"Oh, duh. Why am I doing this? My magic works in this car." She shook her head and activated her horn, pulling at chunks of books at a time, walking along the shelves. When she got to the E section, one book out of a cluster she tugged on fell out of the bookshelf.
"Ends." Twilight read. "That, of, and ends." She hummed to herself, and continued pulling at books and walking through the library. When she got to the I section, two books adjacent to each other fell out.
"Is, It..." Twilight thought. "This must form some sort of password." She thought, excitedly. She was getting close to an answer, she felt it.
Quickly continuing her route throughout the car, careful to be thorough, she found three more books that were loose. By the time she finished tugging at the last of the library's books, she had found eight that were able to be removed from their shelves, each blank and with a single word on their spine.
"Wash, come check this out." Twilight called to the cat. Sure, she didn't like the cat much, but any company was better than none. She wouldn't admit it, but she was sure she would have gone crazy without him by now. Wash didn't respond, but Twilight didn't harass him about it. She carried the eight books to the shelf on the door and placed them all on the shelf. The eight books, all of different sizes, fit perfectly on the shelf. She tried the door. It didn't budge.
"I think I have to put them in a certain order." Twilight said to herself, reading the titles of the books. "That... of... ends... is... it... life... meaning... the..." She made a connection and rearranged some of the books. "Well, these four have to be in order." She said, arranging it so that the first four books now read 'the meaning of life.' Looking at the remaining four books, she grinned, knowing the answer. She rearranged them to form her answer, the tried the door handle. It turned and the door opened.
"Yes!" She cheered. "Wash! I got the door open!" She shouted back over her shoulder. "It was a password! The meaning of life is that it ends!" She announced with triumph. She quickly looked down at her hoof, hoping that the number would have gone away, or at least changed. It was still a stubborn 53.
She didn't have time to be disappointed. A gust of wind blew through the open door, tossing her mane. Turning her attention to the next car, she saw a gaping hole in the ceiling, and underneath was some sort of monster. And thanks to her shouting, it heard her, and was coming towards her. The thing was a bundle of severed cords, with a mask-like face. Some sort of android, Twilight thought, before common sense seized her and she scooted backwards, trying to shut the door before the thing got to her. It's frayed tendrils shot into the doorway, keeping Twilight from shutting it fully, and it forced it's way into the library car, looming over Twilight.
"Return to your seat." It said in a voice that wasn't male nor female, nor belonged to any living creature Twilight had ever seen.
"What's all the fuss?" Wash yawned, walking around from behind the bookcase. "Did you get the door open?"
The thing looked up at Wash and gave him a hard glare before retreating into the car it came from. Twilight struggled upright to watch it, and saw it fly out the hole in the ceiling.
"What was that thing?" She asked, incredulously, her heart still pounding.
"I'm not sure." Wash replied, calmly licking a paw. "It was certainly interesting, though. What did she mean by 'return to your seat,' do you think?" Twilight didn't answer. "Twilight?" Wash asked, looking up at her.
Twilight was staring at the bottom of her hoof. The number was changing.
49.
"Huh."
