Chronicles of Equestria I: The Tome, the Stranger and the Book Club

“Expectations are among the few things that can still baffle me. They are honest lies we tell ourselves and even more, they are often so convincing that when reality falls short on them, we rather blame reality than ourselves, for fooling us.” reads a passage from Volume 49 of “Equestria”, the historical, philosophical, sociological and scientific “says-it-all” account book that was written by the legendary author Deep-Word, who aimed - and arguably succeeded - to document everything that was known about the world in his time.

Despite the hundreds of years of advancement since the final volume was published, despite the occasional scientific shortcomings and despite the lack of certain historical facts that were only later discovered; this is still considered one of the greatest pools of knowledge. As such, it was also among the ever growing list of books that Twilight distinguished with the privileged of having an eminent place in both her personal collection and her mind.

The earlier quote in particular was among her most treasured quotes, one she often repeated in herself. After all: Only fools should be blind to their own shortcomings. She should know that when something goes wrong, it is her who should be inspected first. Such as in the current situation.

Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie and herself spent most of the past three hours in her quarters. She felt honoured to have friends who would show her this much support in her hour of depression, friends who would offer their own time to make her feel better and turn a dream of hers into a reality... But her feelings on the past hours were mixed. While she enjoyed her friends’ company and was pleasantly surprised by their interest in books, there were a few things that didn’t feel quite right.

As she half expected, the books the other three read didn’t all fit into her definition of a good book. Pinkie mostly read adventure stories that featured stereotypical heroes who end up in ridiculous situations and escape only due to a constant flow of luck, while of course cracking bad jokes acting as if they already knew that - being the heroes of a comical book - they are mostly out of harm’s way.

Applejack was slightly better, the books she could recall were actually very cleverly written, full of wise thoughts and hidden messages that one could enjoy once delving into them fully. The problem with her was that she didn’t recall these books from direct experience. Instead she came to know them from Big Macintosh, who - if Applejack didn’t exaggerate too much - was surprisingly well-read. Twilight found it a bit difficult to imagine that the always quiet and distance keeping work horse would be this much into literature. Imagining him being more talkative with his sister seemed a little less hard in comparison.

Fluttershy didn’t change much from what she imagined earlier. She did have a lot of experience with good books, but - as always - didn’t wish to talk too much. Twilight would have liked to imagine that Fluttershy sees her silent criticism of the other two’s preferences and that the pegasus simply didn’t want to upstage their friends. What was surprising to the unicorn though, was how Fluttershy explained the source of her knowledge. Apparently the reason she began reading fine literature was to entertain her pets.

Now, if imagining her pets carefully listening to a book penned by Ink Weave seems difficult, then it is very understandable why Twilight took a curious look at Owloysius when Fluttershy mentioned cooperatively solving a puzzle book from Swift Quill (“The Chess Mysteries of Crystal Mane”) with one of her owls.

The owl - who seemed to correctly guess this glance as a sign of disbelief, towards the concept of an owl solving complicated puzzles - sent an angry ‘whoo’ to the librarian, on behalf of all his kind.

In the end of course it didn’t matter whether Twilight believed that Fluttershy’s pets have a deep admiration of literature or not. Though she had to admit that it would open interesting options for the book club. What mattered was that she has an understanding of the art and finds joy in it. Ergo: At least one of them understood the long speech she gave earlier, in which she recounted her experiences from the meeting in Canterlot and established what kind of structure she had in mind for the meetings.

“But come on!” Pinkie argued earlier. “If we read the whole book back home, then only talk about it’s morals then it will be so boring!”

“Well I’m sorry!” Twilight replied, hurt by Pinkie’s words. “But this is just how this kind of things work!” And she was right. She knew she was! She watched some very esteemed intellectuals do exactly what Pinkie just accused of being “boring”! Well maybe it’s not a party but it is still fun! Sharing each other's thoughts on an important subject... Right?

Why wouldn’t it be? After all... Well to be perfectly honest she did feel a little bad about the reaction, when she brought up “The Sackless Regicider” to demonstrate her point to Pinkie. The tale being among the stories taught in school, all three of her guests knew it well, but it felt strangely negative when the others started to speak their mind about the book.

While Twilight herself saw the story as a tale of misdirection and the misuse of magic, her friends seemed to bypass what she considered the core of the story and instead seemed to look more at the relationship of the protagonist, the poor young stallion and the witch who fooled him into killing his monarch.

“Well Ah don’t know about magic too much.” Applejack explained her thoughts. “But what stood out ta me is that somewhere deep down the witch herself grown to love the colt, as if regretin’ that she fooled him.”

“Are you kidding?” Pinkie disagreed. “She’s evil! She couldn’t have loved him! She just put him in a trance and puppeteered him like a vile... Well, witch! An evil, dark, vile, dirty, magicy witch!” she added while gesturing wildly and even mimicking a marionette.

“We-well... She did try to make him run away and went to this hearing.” Fluttershy would add.

Twilight was unsure what to make of this. On one hoof she knew she should be glad that her friends are discussing a fine book, but it felt like they were doing it the wrong way. Or were they? As Applejack brought up the possible, subtle love in the background, the unicorn had a realization that felt completely new to her: She missed it.

She knew the story, every little detail, every last little fact about it. Her mind just worked like that. Most books she needed to read but once, and months, even years later - even if not word to word - she could retell them with ease and without missing any important plot point or forgetting a single symbolic icon. But it never crossed her mind, that one of the characters could have feelings for another, if it wasn’t said openly. One thing she definitely did not expect was that her friends would show her something new.

Then again why should she care? The way characters feel about each other secretly is not going to change the message of the story!

'I’ve got it!' Pinkie’s voice from downstairs suddenly interrupted Twilight’s train of thought, pushing her back from the contemplation of past hours to the present.

The pink pony hopped into the room just seconds later, climbing the stairs with admirable speed. In her mouth she carefully held a copy of “North Wind and The Marble City of the Silent Sea” the first book in a surprisingly successful series of adventure stories. Twilight didn’t care too much for the whole lot of the collection, in fact she took a habit of not reading anything from its author, Scarlet Pen.

Today however, she had to make an exception to this rule - no doubt one that will later just strengthen it - because her friend insisted that it is one of the best books she have read so far. A statement Twilight found hard not to roll her eyes over. Never the less her friend insisted on reading this book and she owes her this much.

'So then you’re going to read it up?' asked Twilight, poorly hiding her lack of interest.

'Ahctually,' interrupted Applejack before Pinkie could even nod. 'Ah was thinkin’ that this being your club and all, you should be the one ta read it.'

Pinkie paused after what Applejack said, but only for a moment.

'Hey, yeah!' she agreed. 'It could be our thing, where we bring books and Twilight would be our reader and we’d all listen and then discuss it and then...' she continued, jabbering.

'Ehm,' Twilight started. At first she wanted to reject this “privilege”, but then again... 'Alright.' She gently took the book from Pinkie and flew it to herself.

Opening it at the first chapter she recognized the sentences as she read them earlier. She never did get past about the fifth chapter though, as the constant, pointless banther of the equally point- and weightless characters just bored her too much.

She took a deep breath, as if preparing to jump into a pool and looked at her friends if they are ready. Finally, she started reading.

The first chapter was exactly the way she remembered. It did little beyond describing a small town “somewhere near the borders of Equestria” and having some witty but not very clever characters have a duel of words with each other. North Wind, the protagonist herself did little, she simply established herself as a general low life who happens to travel a lot and thinks she’s somehow better because of this.

When she reached the end of the chapter Twilight put down the book and shared her disappointment with the others.

'Are you kidding?' Pinkie looked at the unicorn as if she said something very stupid, which didn’t sit well with Twilight.

'Well, were you listening?' Twilight defended. 'North Wind goes into this bar like she owns the place, gets into an argument with some random pony and boasts how great an adventurer she is!'

'But that’s not just some random pony!' Pinkie seemed somewhat hurt about her purple friend’s statement. They are obviously old friends!'

'Friends?' Twilight couldn’t believe her ears. 'What sort of friends would insult each other on every turn?'

'Well Ah think they’re obviously rivals...' joined in Applejack, then paused to gather her thoughts. 'but they sure do know an awful lot about each other. Ah don’t see why they would be around each other if those were words of hate.'

'Yeah!' Pinkie nodded. 'She totally went to the bar to meet him! I mean you READ how slimy the bartender looked! Who would drink something that pony makes? Ew!'

Twilight remained in a state silence for a few seconds, wondering. Now that her friends pointed it out, it was really there. It did make sense that the two ponies would be old rivals, sharing a mutual respect for each other and using witty insults to only kid around, even if she personally didn’t ever act this way. The question is: Why didn’t she notice it?

She just sighed and picked up the book once more, continuing at chapter two. Twilight decided to put extra attention to everything the characters say from now on and strangely enough, going through the chapter it felt as if she was reading a whole new book. The witty dialogue that made her roll her eyes upon the first read, that didn’t really lead to anything, now seemed to somehow give a kind of depth or atleast a back ground to the characters that Twilight never looked for previously.

She would always look forward in a story, searching for the solution of the problem as if it would be just another big puzzle. If nothing important was mentioned in a scene that would move her closer to the logical conclusion of the story or a deeper meaning then she simply acknowledged it as a pointless scene. In fact this series was the crown jewel of pointlessness in her mind up to this point.

Now however, as she read the banhter of the characters and even their mood-swings as they are chased across a town in a very unlikely manner; she felt less offended by the sheer stupidity of their enemies, who let them escape on every turn by but an inch; and instead paid attention to the way North Wind co operates with a couple of ponies to make her escape.

It obviously held no philosophical weight when she winked at a local barber before jumping out his window and into a different house across the street. But the fact that said barber opened the window for her and was wearing a necklace, eerily similar to one worn by the “random pony” from earlier, now made her think what sort of history they might have had. She remembered the last few chapters of the book, that she didn’t even bother to read; and thought that perhaps somewhere in those, the necklaces will be explained to be some sort of secret group’s symbol. Or maybe they are treasures a group of ponies found once and kept as a symbol of their brotherhood?

Twilight was completely surprised by her own feelings while she was reading the second chapter. It didn’t declare a single fact other than that North Wind has some mysterious enemies, it didn’t move the plot ahead any more than putting her on a train and it generally didn’t have any interesting thought about anything that may come back as a lesson in the future. Yet she somehow wanted to go on. There were so many small things she previously just glanced over like the medallion, and all of them told her that there is something in the background here that’s not being told, something not pointing to the future but rather to the past; and she wanted to know what it was.

'Are you ahlright Twi?' asked Applejack, interrupting the unicorn’s thoughts. Twilight had to realize that she was sitting in silence for at least half a minute since finishing the second chapter.

'Huh? Oh, yes. Yes, I’m alright. I was just thinking.' replied Twilight. 'I’ve noticed a few things that I didn’t before.' she explained then unconciously fell into silence again.

'Um, Pinkie?' Fluttershy started. 'You read the whole series, right? I just mean that, um I’m curious if there’s a reason why there’s constantly a pony in a black cape, following North.'

It took for a moment, but Twilight’s mind quickly realized that Fluttershy’s right. North Wind ran into a mysterious caped figure in both the bar from first chapter and at least three times here, everytime just as if she’d pass by some random pony.

'Oh, oh! Yeah!' Pinkie chirped. 'That’s Mr... Hey, no Spoilers silly!' she said wrinkling her eyebrows a little, which was enough to make Fluttershy pull back her neck a bit.

Curiosity started to make Twilight itch. She simply needed to know what’s going on in the background now. She couldn’t care less before, but now that she had a taste of this new mystery she had to find out what was happening. The unicorn cleared her throat and was just about to continue the story when Applejack interrupted:

'Ah’m sorry sugar cube, but would you mind if we’d talk about what happened so far? Ah think Ah’m a little lost, about what’s going on.'

The purple pony paused before answering. She really wanted to read on and find out everything but then again, she made this whole group for her friends so...

A bit hesitantly, but she put the book down, nodding at her orange friend who then started asking a few questions which were then quickly answered by Pinkie who seemed to be a real expert at this series. Twilight used this time to think for a bit.

Obviously she was wrong earlier. She thought this was a terrible book, good for no more than passing time, void of all interest. Then again on a level she was right. This was nothing like the works of Swift Quill, Ink Weave or any other great and legendary author. Yet it had something very different that perhaps in turn those books lacked: A charm.

She was right, as that there is nothing grand to learn from this, but there is so much to see! So much small details that perhaps, if not glanced over, can show a much richer world than any “meaningful” story. Details that can explain not a message but a character.

She was so terribly wrong. How could she think that characters in a book are but tools? Props to convey a message? Sure often they are that, but does that mean that this is all they should be? A character with a deep history, a vivid personality and a real view on the world around it is perhaps nothing less than a real pony. Perhaps the best messages to be found in a story are not something that deals with big things. Perhaps they are messages about the smaller bits of life, messages one can overlook if not caring enough to watch for them. And maybe it can be the other way around aswell? Maybe the reason other ponies don’t enjoy the books she does is that they turn a blind eye on the bigger picture to enjoy the smaller one? Or maybe she’s just over thinking it.

Still, it should be important what a character is like, as that is why they do what they do and perhaps, just perhaps that itself is something she can learn from. Something through which she can learn to better understand strangers... Strangers.

Twilight looked at the nearest clock and noted that it was now over four hours since her friends came over to cheer her up. If everything went according to plan then the teal unicorn arrived in Canterlot many hours ago and is probably with Princess Celestia right now, trying to get his book back.

Her eyes moved over to the cabinet on which she placed the unopened letter and her heart sunk down a bit. She shouldn’t have just put him off like that.

'Um, we’ve been here quite long.' she said, interrupting Pinkie Pie who was jabbering again, trying to explain what a strudel is; though frankly, Twilight had no idea how her friends’ conversation made its way, from the bar in the first chapter, to a careful detailing of the meal eaten by one of its customers. 'Don’t you think we should stop for tonight?'

Her friends looked at the clock and after Pinkie protesting a bit that ‘they just can’t leave the story when it’s about to get interesting’ and ‘it isn’t even that late’ they agreed that it’s time to wrap up the first session.

The unicorn’s mind already locked on to the envelope on her cabinet and she didn’t pay much attention to when Pinkie started listing ponies who she would invite to next meeting and just nodded automatically. She walked her friends out and said her good-byes as a drone, then hurried back up to her room as soon as the door was closed behind them.

How could she just put off that stallion’s letter like that? The least she owes him is reading his letter and as it is, for better or for worse this will be the last thing she hears from him. She stepped to the cabinet and lifted the sealed envelope from its place. Taking a deep breath, unsure as what to expect, she opened it and took a folded piece of paper out. Unfolding it, she started to read.

Dear Miss Twilight Sparkle!

First of all, excuse me if I neglect the use of proper language or mannerisms (should they even exist) when writing this letter. This is the second one I wrote in all my life after all!

I didn’t have the fortune to know you previously, but I suspect that the closed, almost depressed expression I saw on you these past days was something exclusive to me. I’m terribly sorry if I have upset you, Miss Sparkle. I’m unsure of the reason though, I suppose it is either my unlikely history or the coldness I’ve shown after you admitted to sending my spell book to the Princess.

Please, let me reassure you that any negative feelings I may have shown are not against you personally. In fact you are one of the most wonderful creatures I came across in my travels. You possibly saved my life, asked one of your friends to accept me as a guest, another to make a splendid suit for me and then you even sat with me and allowed me to speak my mind last night.

For these acts I am more grateful than the written word could ever explain. So I’d just like to say this: Thank you Miss Twilight Sparkle.

With gratitude and respect;
- Oakleaf ‘The Vagrant’ ~ SP

Twilight had absolutely no idea what feeling she was experiencing when she put down the letter. As a matter of fact she wasn’t sure it was even a proper feeling. She felt happiness on her face, a gladness that the teal stallion after all of this does not hate her and does not believe she has wronged her. On her back, she felt a cold gust of doubt, after all the stallion may not have known that the reason she sent him to Applejack of all ponies was to have him under watchful eyes. Halfway in between, on the back of her head reason built a heavy, uncomfotable blockade, fending off the cold, saying that this is a very clever pony, he probably knew it all along just didn’t feel it necessary to mention. Down near her stomach a small protest claimed that he might have been sarcastic in his letter. But the final word was her mind’s.

“It’s over.” It was that simple. She did try to do her best and even if she failed there is nothing left to do about it. The stallion seemed honest in this letter and he didn’t blame her for anything, perhaps out of ignorance or not, it doesn’t really matter anymore. The best she can - and should - do is to wish good luck to the the teal unicorn whereever he may end up.

The cold slowly melted off of her back by the soothing of her mind, reason retreated from the back of her head as it no longer had anything to fend off and doubt found itself without a target. The only thing still lingering was the warm, glad smile on her face.

Somehow she didn’t feel like throwing this letter out, so after a bit of hesitation she packed the letter back into its envelope, then opened one of the other cabinets, where she kept her old mailings with the Princess and flew it in there, aside from the rest.

With the stallion’s weight finally off her chest, she lifted Scarlet Pen’s book from the floor where she left it and walked over to her bed. She found it funny really, there was one thing she was completely sure of some time ago: That there will never be a day when she’s more eager for starting a Scarlet Pen book than finishing one by Swift Quill. And she just shattered that belief to pieces.

Then again, that is the wisdom that keeps Deep Word’s legend alive. That is why she knows, that even if she missed out on books like this, she can be glad she read the ones she didn’t miss out on.