A flash of purple in the dead of night, and a mare stood in front of the entrance of Ponyville. Twilight stayed at the entrance of the sleeping town, unable to bring herself forward; at the end of her stay in the library, returning to Ponyville was what she dreamt of and yet she couldn’t bring herself to do, it was almost as if she was treading on some sacred grounds she didn’t belong to, at least not anymore.
Once upon a time Ponyville was her home temporarily, but then that bastard book sent her to that damned library, taking Ponyville and her life away from her.
“The library, Olak do faal Voroha, if I recall its accursed name correctly”
The library was something Twilight neglected to tell Celestia about, she never planned to ever tell her, not for the fact that no one could ever comprehend the horrors that went on in it, not even Celestia, but for reasons that nopony needed to know what atrocities went on in there.
Twilight eyes glazed over, tears forming at them, probably the only ones she would shed in a longtime and only for herself, as she recalled her stay in the library and its infamous guardian. She lifted her hood over her face as an attempt to hide them and prepared to remember the library of the lost, in the pony’s language, but Olak do faal Voroha in the dragon’s tongue and a more accurate translation of that in the Equestrian language would be the Library of the Mad.
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After months of research she finally did it.
“I finally did it…” Twilight thought excited as she continued to breathe heavily, thinking about what just happened.
“I just tore my own eyes out!” The blood continued to drip down through her coat, some off her face, giving her a crazed look, ponies weren't meant to be seen with glistening blood on them or draconic eyes, it was grotesque to most but to the great stone doors of the library in front of her it was a sign of worthiness to enter. The ancient letters on the massive arch overlooking the entrance of the library now had a meaning, before it just looked like neatly placed scratches, and now it said “The library of the Mad”. To any normal or completely sane pony, that would have mostly warded them off, but the fact that Twilight just sacrifice her eyes to gain entry to a mythical library, let alone taking months to find its location proved she wasn’t in the least normal.
The great stone doors of the library slowly creaked and groaned, the doors opened inward with a certain eerie feeling to them. Once again any pony that didn’t turn around already would have just ran by now, Twilight did the opposite and walked forward, unknowing sealing herself in and making the biggest mistake she ever made in her entire life, nothing ever came out of this library, she was walking into her own grave, for that was why ponies called it the library of the lost and why it was erased from common history.
The doors opened to let black mist slowly seethe out, it smelt of death and decay, stinging her eyes and clenching to her coat on the first instant she walked into it, the fog was so thick and heavy at times that while walking through the endless hallway Twilight felt like she was suffocating, When the edges of her vision blackened and her breathing grew hoarse did she finally break though the rotten wall of blackness, the sight was astonishing.
The celling soared up hundreds of hooves into the ‘sky’ which also had a layer of darkness, stalagmites cut and dangled through faintly illuminating the celling with light crystals, the shelves themselves soared up to incredible heights and as far as the eye could see, each housing millions of books, the floor of the library was a smooth and polished stone. To say the library was massive was an understatement; the only to even grasp its size was to say it was its own world, a world in another world, a world that held its own horrors.
Time passed here quickly, it was already a week before Twilight even moved, shocked by the library’s size, she walked up to the nearest book she could see and picked one out of the thousands she was trotting to, using a levitation spell she grabbed it and brought it to her face and opened it.
Just as the text said, the eyes offered the ability to live the books, and so she did. Every emotion, act, thought, and pain she felt, within moments Twilight was on sprawled all over the ground twitching in pain, book to her face in another world.
Glimpse of a great war flashed before her eyes, ponies dying and Celestia leading them to their death against a threat presumably what looked like a crazier, if that was possible, Discord. But before Twilight was able to fully register she had just seen the book had ended. Strangely Twilight felt a feeling of success, and grabbed another book.
This book was about some spell casting by some old powerful pony Twilight never heard of, while reading about and then learning it proved to be a successful technique to learn there wasn’t anything like actually being there, and Twilight was currently experiencing it.
Soon the book was done; she practiced the spell while in the book. As she lifted her head from the finished book to grab another, Twilight noticed something.
“Is it me or is it darker in here?” she thought to herself. The room didn’t actually look any dark to the naked eye; only because of how sensitive Twilight’s new eyes were; did she pick up the minute difference in the level of lux in the library. It was if the Library actually heard her though because a sense of comforting came upon her. “It was probably a trick of my mind” With that Twilight let go of her suspicions and indulged herself in another book, not even noticing the library once again darkened, too lost in her own book.
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Whenever it was weeks or days Twilight no longer noticed, to her time was no longer a thing that existed, it was books; that was her life, she had long ago eaten through all the rations she packed with her and even then she barely noticed she ate them. Breathing was no longer a thing either, on multiple occasions Twilight almost died from suffocation because she forgot to breathe. As the she read on every book finished meant a darker Library and a weaker Twilight, things started to appear. The library grew sinister until one day Twilight heard something though the black fog that now encased her. It sounded like hoofsteps.
“Hello…” Twilight rasped, she had not used her voice in weeks and it was almost painful to speak. The sound got closer and closer “Wh...who..who's there? Stay back!” she said painfully raising her voice, yelling into the blackness.
What walked out of the blackness could only be something from a book written from a mentally disturbed pony, it was pony but it was all bones, what remained of its flesh was stretched against its frame, its familiar draconic eyes were bloated, lips pulled back shriveled, mane dull and grim, this was a walking corpse, and a victim of the library. Yet it just walked past her never acknowledging it even knew Twilight was there. Minutes later when the shock that froze her thawed off and the scream that was lodged in the back of her throat released itself.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!” the force of the scream cracked her parched throat open, as Twilight began to cough up blood she quickly grabbed a nearby book and dove into it, drowning out the pain and fear as she escaped with her mind into another book.
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The walking dead had become a common sight, increasing in number every few book she finished, in fact Twilight took the time to look at herself for the first time since her arrival and her current gaunt appearance didn’t look any better than theirs. The black fog of the library was so thick now it was impossible to see in any direction outside of 10 hoofsteps except for up, where the light of the ceiling still shined strong, piercing the blackness that attempted sallow her whole.
It could have been weeks, perhaps even months before she finally noticed how the library had changed, how she changed, but it was too late she no longer had any strength, standing up to walk left her sweating and panting for breath. Books were no longer her priority; living once again was…..for now.
“I have to find out what’s going on” Twilight decided, as tempted as she was to just grab a book and spend weeks to find out, books were currently the worst poison. So she struggled and slowly stood up, clenching her teeth in pain, possibly moving for the first time ever in weeks.
Another corpse walked past her, and she walked past it, they went by like ghosts, passing without stopping, no acknowledgement of each other existence once again.
Twilight’s sudden use of her body made her aware of it again, and along came the pains of hunger from the pitiful stomach within that probably no longer existed. Starvation was something Twilight never experienced before and in simple words it was torture. As Twilight continued to stroll down the aisles of the library she walked past several hillock piles of ponies. Sadly she no longer cared, the walking corpses that walked past her over the past few weeks desensitized her, indifference deadened what remained of her soul, decaying her mind into a permanent state of emotional withdraw.
The farther she walked into the library; she unknowingly was walking into the lion’s den. Each step further the more bodies became visible in her limited sight and her strength withered, still it didn’t stop her from going on, even the floor was lathered with bodies of the dead, she limped on them.
At one point the mountains of dead she was walking on started to moan and groan by the thousands, trying to torture her mind and make her run the opposite direction. But still she persisted forward, a thought forming in her head.
“Almost there….whatever the library is hiding it must be here, I just know.”
She almost reached the location her body pulled her mind to until the cries of the dead suddenly stopped, and out of the silence, just hoofs away from her, hiding in the blackness came a bloodcurdling screech.
Twilight’s instincts told her to flee with whatever strength she had left, but the screech and potent amounts of curiosity she felt forced her to stay. The black fog pushed itself, opening up for something and out from the black fog came a hideous creature that could only be characterized as a living nightmare.
Calling the creature massive was an sad understatement, it stood at least thirty times that of her mentor, Princess Celestia and more than a hundred times longer than any Alicorn. The creature stood on two powerful legs with the full length of its tail hidden by the black fog, two torn up wings pressed down against its back. The smell of decaying flesh, and death came from it, filing her nostrils with copious of the unpleasant smell. The creature was a dragon, but a dead shriveled one, its chest was torn where a red sphere was visible, its entrails hanged from a gash on its stomach, rivers of a black tar-like fluids cascade from its eyes and muzzle, along with the gash on its stomach too. It quickly puddled up and flowed past Twilight, sticking to her hooves. The head of the dragon held no flesh it was a bare skull; cracks ran along it, exposing little bits of its too large brain that pressed against its skull, threatening to shatter it if enough force was pressure was applied. The color of the dragon was a sickly white, with streaks of yellowish infected cuts running throughout its whole body but one of its most noticeable features was the lack of an eye, it had one draconic eye and the other was just a black hole..
Twilight would have screamed if it not were for the fact that this was the guardian of the library and she had intruded on its private grounds.
Twilight quickly tried to stammer out a courtesy with her tied tongue to the great beast. But before she could speak, it spoke; its voiced sounded that of several thousands of ponies, the voice of the victims with a deep overlay to it.
“Ponies rarely ever walk into my den, most die while reading, and then their dead bodies drag themselves to my den, so I ask you, how did you escape my gift, my trap?” The dragon stopped for a second and then went on “Since you took the time to break from your studies and seek me out it would be my pleasure to tell you who I am. My name is Nev ahrk Mirdah, which translates roughly to the dragon of decaying knowledge or preferably Nev for short” A grin of excitement grew on the dragon’s face “and you Twilight Sparkle my prisoner, are my new prey, it’s been a while since I had a live one, so I recommend you run, and give me some fun.” Nev’s words trigger something in her head, a hidden reserve of strength because the next thing she knew was that she was running into the blackness and that a giant dragon was now hunting her with the intent of her being it’s next meal.
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It could have been a minute, an hour, a day, perhaps even a year but at one point, not knowing when but when at one point she just couldn’t go on and the jaws of death closed on her. She had joined the dead beneath her, she was another that died under the general indifference of the library, forgetting her existence because the dead here no longer needed them, Nev and the library claimed them all, and she was one of them, but at least she was free from the mind shattering library, another minute and she knew she would have gone mad.
“Another minute….wait how was she still alive? She swore she felt the jaws close on her, tearing her apart….No! No! No! I’m supposed to be dead!”
“No you don’t Twilight Sparkle; you don’t get to escape me with death.” A familiar voice laughed. Twilight opened her eyes to see the dragon’s face in her field of vision.
“Please just let me go…” Twilight rasped, lying on the ground with her broken body.
“Not just yet, you played my game, but I let you live so you’re now in my debt and fortunately for you, you have something I desire.”
“Anything please… just kill me or let me go.” She begged a pool of blood forming under her, sticking to her dull coat.
“My proposition to you my dear Twilight, is to exchange a piece of our soul with each other, nopony ever broke out of the books alive and remained mentality attached. I want that strength you have Twilight, why do you persist to live on? What drives you? Exchanging a piece of our soul is they only I can have what you have along with some desired attributes you also have. Just to be nice I’ll also throw in free reign in the library without the fog of the lost, just think about all that knowledge you can have. So what do you say Twilight?” Nev said in a snake’s tongue.
Twilight knew deep down that the right decision was just to die, but living on and the ability to explore the wonders Nev’s library held was just too tempting to give up, she was too selfish to die, yet possibly the second largest mistake Twilight ever committed just happened. She gave Nev her answer.
“Ok I accept…”
“Wonderful!” Nev cheered “This may feel a bit strange because to do this we will be exchanging an eye each.” Nev opened his maw and several shriveled up tendrils came out of it, they slowly made their way to Twilight and wrapped themselves around her tightly and raised themselves up to her face, with one swift jab they plunged themselves into Twilight’s eye socket and warped around her eye, with a strong jerk they removed the eye from Twilight’s face. Fortunately Twilight had run out of screams and just twitched in response. The tendrils lifted the eye to Nev’s empty socket and placed it into his skull, with another set of tendrils he torn out his own eye, and let Twilight’s take its place, the eye quickly faded from the violent color to white. Taking one of his he, Nev shrank it down to a pony’s size and placed it into the now unconscious Twilight, the white eye resumed Twilight’s former violent eye color.
“Oh how easy you ponies are to fool.”
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Twilight moved from the entrance of Ponyville, the part of the deal Nev never told her was that while he did adopt some of Twilight’s traits, she adopted his, mostly his strength, a size increase but unfortunately also his madness, and a handful of his flaws too. They turned her into what could be bordering on insanity and that major problem was that Twilight was now on her own path of decay and only the elements of harmony could save her but for now she tried her best to play the sane pony and keep her bouts of madness in check.
“Damn you Nev…”
But thinking back the 498 years or so she spent with Nev were quite good, he was the closest thing to friend in the library, it was because of him that Twilight even remember her friends. At times she really just wanted Nev dead for not telling her the whole deal, but was also grateful for the companionship he offered. The two were very similar, even before they took on traits of each other. Maybe one day maybe Nev could be her friend, if all else failed she would return to that library, she had an eternity to live and Nev did too. Twilight a feeling that by the end of all this that she would no longer be allowed in Equestria. While Celestia could make friendly pardons not even she could account for the actions of a mad pony and say they were justified.
With that thought Twilight’s horn flared up and she teleported to Appleloosa.