Ponies All Day-Writing Challenge

by ThunderTempest

17:30-18:00 "Promotional Product"

The black bound tome lay on the bench between the two ponies. It had arrived in the mail, addressed to both of them. And since neither one could ever remember ordering such an item anywhere, it just sat there, waiting for one of them to put hoof or magic to cover, and open it.

“Flip you for it,” said Vinyl Scratch, pulling out a single bit coin.

“Sun.” Replied Octavia, and Vinyl’s magic flicked the coin up into the air. Four eyes watched as the coin tumbled and landed on the table, coming down Moon side up.

“Dammit,” muttered Vinyl, placing the bit back in her bag, and then grasping the cover of the black book with her magic.
“If this turns out to be a Tartaric cursed demon book, I’m eating your brains first.”

“Charming, Vinyl. Absolutely charming.”

Vinyl flicked the cover open, and held up the book in front of her, as if reading it.

“Huuuugh...neeed brains,” moaned Vinyl, dropping the book, her eyes completely wall-eyed and her tongue lolling out. As Vinyl began to slowly climb over the table, Octavia gave Vinyl’s horn a sharp flick, and Vinyl fell backwards onto the floor.

“Ow! Tavi!”

“Behave. What was actually in the book?”

“Nothing.” To prove her point, Vinyl levitated the book up to Octavia’s eye level. The pages were blank. Octavia grabbed the book with her hooves, and began flicking through it. Vinyl was right. All the pages were blank.

“Very Odd. Who’d send us a blank book?”

“I dunno. I get some weird stuff thrown at me during gigs, but never anything like this, and certainly not mailed to me. Where’s the packaging?”

Vinyl retrieved the packaging from the trash, and was inspecting it for anything that might tell either of them what it was.

“Oh, here we go. To Miss Scratch and Miss Octavia, curtesy of the Liner Paper Company. This is our newest magic aural bound notebook, blah blah blah, we hope you find a use for it.”

“So...you can summon it by saying a key word?”

“Looks like. Lemme try. Keyword is...integrate.” And just like that, the note book vanished from Octavia’s hooves and reappeared in Vinyl’s.

“Ok, that’s kinda cool.”

Author's Note:

Written for Prompt #167: “The Tome”
The Black Book.