The Gentle Fortress

by Visharo

Rating: everyone
Tags: Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Science Fiction, Slice of Life
Length: 1986

In a futuristic world where being fast is the premium, there lies an old forgotten library.

Equestria. A city the size of a country. Technology is the norm. Time is precious, it is not wasted. Transportation, food, thoughts, socializing, everything has been refined to be as fast as it possibly can. Then, upon one fateful day, Chin-mae, a business stallion in his own right, finds a little library nestled in a forgotten part of town.

Inspired by a book called Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. I love the book to pieces.

Published 2024-09-03 21:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-09-03 21:10:01 UTC

정성 (Jeongseong)

Author's Note

I do not know any Korean so I apologize wholeheartedly for anything wrong.

정성 (Jeongseong)

Chin-Mae. A Kirean name. It means Truth. He's never thought about the meaning all that much. As, once you are born, you are immediately thrust into a world of fast. Fast is the name of the game in Equestria. Too slow and you will get pulled over and beaten up or beaten up and then pulled over or mocked or pelted or anything really. Equestria is the city where anypony who is anypony, which is everypony, can do anything, unless if you are slow, then you are nopony. Nopony wants to be a nopony, so they become fast, they learn how to be fast, to be fast with everypony else.

Chin-Mae had your average upbringing. Born into a wealthy family but not too wealthy that they could live by doing nothing, no sir, both of his parents needed to go to work. Work to bring home the bits that will in turn feed them, him, and his two other siblings. Here is their introduction from eldest to youngest, first of all we have Dae-Hyun, which is Chin-Mae's father, that means Show Off, which can be so far from the truth, maybe that's why Chin-Mae's named Truth, to compensate for his father? Moving on, his mother is a mare just like all the other mares, isn't that an interesting fact, which is actually not the most interesting thing about her, no sir, actually it's her name which is Bo-Bae which means Precious Treasure, that one Chin-Mae could see as his mother really radiates a preciousness. The eldest child is actually Chin-Mae by two years, he is now currently considered to be middle aged with no spouse which is quite rare in Equestria which by then, you are considered to be single forever, the records of somepony finding a spouse at age 30+ is nigh improbable, hence his labeling as Forever Single. His sister, who is the middle child, is named Hae-Won which means Graceful Garden and there could never be a name as accurate as this one, she practically exudes gracefulness and became a dancer because of it, that's where she met her spouse and together, they already have three children of their own, the eldest already in high school. The youngest in their family, only one year younger than Hae-Won, her name is Sae-Byeok which means River Dawn, a name befitting her Kirean heritage which she took personally as she aspired to become a mare all about culture and the preservation of diminishing religions and beliefs, which really tugs on Mother's heartstrings, she's quite successful now, married into a throuple complete with four children.

This is all running through Chin-Mae's head as he rides the mag-train back to his apartment where he had set up base a few years ago because it was relatively close to his job which at the time was a company specialized in juicebox adverts. Despite the weirdness of it all, Chin-Mae was making money off of it, however, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and the building quite literally blew up as the owner had to sell it off to pay off some debt and the new owner blew it up because he needed space to build a hotel, that was six years ago and the hotel was already demolished and a casino has now taken its place. Chin-Mae's new job is located near the Appleloosan Prefecture which is only a mere twenty minute train ride, it can be quite a bit long for some ponies but for Chin-Mae it could never be as perfect as it is the perfect amount of time to admire the beauty of the San Palomino Prefecture, which, history says it used to be a desert, now it's just like everywhere else, urban civilization moving as fast as it can.

Chin-Mae steps off the train at the Basotho Train Station and begins walking, his destination none other than his humble abode where he had left a delightful salad in the fridge, just waiting for him to consume. He became lost in his daydreaming, but in his defense, the daydream was really good as it consisted of that exact salad which had various scrumptious amounts of leaves that went down his throat quite easily and it also paired very nicely with the orange juice box he had placed next to the salad bowl the night before, just for this moment. There was one slight problem, however, with reality and such, is that it was nowhere close to the time in which it is acceptable to consume such a salad, so he turns to the left as he now has plans to make as much detours as he possibly could so when he arrives at his house, he could eat to his heart's content and then immediately go back outside because he needed to go the supermarket to buy ingredients for his next delectable salad.

The thought just made his mouth water as he walks and walks and walks, around the roads that made up the San Palomino Prefecture in which a near 20 million ponies live. And to really keep in scale, the San Palomino Prefecture is the size of what used to be that big island, whatchamacallit, in Itaily, yes sir, the population really wasn't all that much considering the space they've got. Those thoughts run through Chin-Mae's head on the regular but that never stopped him as he allows them full unfettered access through every brain canal he had because he likes the feeling of thinking as it allows him to feel smart.

He makes a turn, and thinks that he was close to that fancy restaurant that sells fried spinach on a stick, very delicious that one time Chin-Mae had it, but he never went again because of how expensive it was. Before Chin-Mae registers the route he had taken, a little flash caught his attention. A building inside of another building, not uncommon, but still bizarre sight to see as this building was not as large as it normally is here in Equestria, no sir, this building looks more like those diners back in ancient modern times? With nothing better to do, in which Chin-Mae tripled checks in his head while walking, he goes to look at this interesting building as it might contain something that might be helpful in some way or another.

He comes closer and closer, until he sees legible words all around the building but Chin-Mae didn't bother as his mother always used to say, 'if there is a pony, it is faster to talk with them than to read' and so far, she had never been wrong so Chin-Mae came over to see if there is any ponies around in which he found an answer quite quickly, there is a mare inside.

He entered.

"Hello."

"He...hello."

"My name is Soon-Bok. How may I help you?"

"Uhmmmmm..." Chin-Mae had never felt this before. "What...is this place?"

"This is Jeongseong, it roughly translates into Gentle Fortress."

"But...what is it?" Chin-Mae looked around. Wooden shelves everywhere. On those shelves were peculiar looking objects. Box-like with a weird groove.

"A library." The mare lifted her head deliberately and looked into his eyes.

"What...is a library?"

"A library is a place that stores books." The mare got out one of those weird boxes. "This is a book." She cracked open the box and inside where thin little white strips. "Here."

"Oh. Thank you." Chin-Mae carefully cracked opened the box...book Soon-Bok gave him. What startled him were the abnormal amount of words. It made his brain hurt looking at it. A little something caught his eye. Numbers. He knew numbers. He worked with numbers at his job. He turned a fragile slip and on there, once again, was a number. This one being two higher than the one he was looking at previously.

He gasped in awe as he realized that each little slip, so fragile that it could be ripped with a hint of strength, had a little number that measured the amount of slips the book had. This book, though, seemed to start at seven. He went over to Soon-Bok and asked her about it. She said:

"Some pages are just not numbered."

"Pages...?"

"The paper."

"Paper...?"

She smiled at him and pointed out that every book that was printed was bound around stacks of paper which then became pages. When he asked about printing, Soon-Bok explained that there used to be this ancient technology that allowed for documents on a terminal to be turned into a piece of paper, like pages in a book! It fascinated Chin-Mae to no end.

"And uhhh, a book. What do I do with a book?"

"You read."

"...I read. Surely you must be joking?" Despite all these revelations, Chin-Mae drew back at the absurdity of the suggestion, if it was even a suggestion.

"No, I am not. To read a book is a perfectly natural thing. In fact, it's the intended idea behind a book."

"But why!? Why would I read a book!" The idea was so unfathomable, Chin-Mae just couldn't let it go.

"Because it holds Truth, it holds Ideas, it holds Peace, Trials, Tribulations, Heart wrenching, Tearjerking, Gut Punching, Fictional, Non-Fictional, Fantastical, Dramatic, Inspirational, Horrific, Comedic, Boring, Enrapturing...stories."

"Stories."

"Stories."

"And uhhh...what do these stories entail? I mean, I know what a story is, but what is a story that comes from a book?"

"Anything and everything. Do you want to read one?"

"...maybe." Chin-Mae thought on this. She did say Truth, did she not? My name means Truth. Maybe I could find my own Truth. He decided to steel himself against this ridiculous idea of reading and made a suggestion. "Can you recommend me one?"

"Well, we have many here. Of Mice and Mares is a good one. Faring Height 451 is about pegasi in a dystopian world. To Hug a Mockingbird is an acquired taste, I think. Catcher in the Pie or maybe Poneo and Filliet? There are too many to choose from." Soon-Bok chuckled and shook her head. "Why don't you pick a book off a shelf and give it a read. Any one of them. The chairs here are for sitting."

"Ah...I guess I'll go do that." Chin-Mae got up and wandered the aisles of shelves. Books of all shapes and sizes, colors and textures. It was mesmerizing. A small one caught his interest, he pulled it out and looked at the cover. He chose it because the uhhh...spine, he thought it was called, had many creases on it. The cover on the other hand looked quite simplistic, something that appealed to Chin-Mae quite a lot. He nodded softly to himself and wandered back to where Soon-Bok was reading. She looked up and nodded with approval at his book choice. He sat down in a chair and began to read.

***

Chin-Mae put the book down.

"Did you like it?"

"I...I did."

"That's good. Come again sometime?"

"I think I would like that."

"Mmm."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Chin-Mae exited Jeongseong and entered the real world.

Chin-Mae looks at his watch and groans with sudden apprehension as his strict time limit had been broken by over five hours and it is now quite late and he let himself ponder on whether or not his salad was still good to eat, so while he did that, he walks in the direction of his apartment. He looks back one last time before he turns around a corner and smiles at the sight of a small little building he now know is called Jeongseong, the little Fortress of Gentleness, where books are abound and the fast world of Equestria is left behind and fizzles away, leaving him in an entirely new world. He decides he will visit tomorrow.