Dream's End

by zaleacon

Chapter I - Passage 2

Dream’s End
~ Chapter I – Passage 2 ~
Twilight’s Dream ~ The Silent Library

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It had been quite a while since Twilight had walked past the burning tree, and longer still since she had looked at the nearby books. Her hooves continued to press against the threadbare, gray carpeting as the lights flickered sporadically overhead. Down the hallways she walked, turning at each corner and choosing each junction with all the precision she could muster.

Twilight stepped along the corridors, not looking back and not looking aside. She could check the books eventually, but she wanted to make sure there was visible progress before she did; she figured that, eventually, they would reach a point where counting each individual word would no longer be practical.

How long had she been walking? Two hours? Three? Eight? Even she knew not. All she knew was that she had gone too far into the silent library to turn back now. Even as she trembled a bit, worried of the beasts that undoubtedly lay in the quiet darkness, Twilight had to forge on.

She came upon yet another junction – one path faced forward, one path faced right, and one path faced left. Relying on her instincts, Twilight took the leftmost route, turning into it and walking down yet another hallway lined with dozens of dust-coated bookshelves.

Dozens of them, Twilight reminded herself in awe. Who had written so many books? How many of them had actually been written, and how many had never been finished? She wondered if – as was the case for many stories – some of the books in the library had been started, but never came to an end.

Such a sad fate.

Twilight shook her head and continued on. The hallway ended with a sharp turn to the right, which she followed just as dutifully as she had done so many times before. But as she did, thoughts and questions plagued Twilight’s mind.

Who had built this magnificent library? Who had designed it as a maze, and for what purpose? Even if she had lived in it her whole life – ever since her parents had tragically passed away in a factory accident, of course –, Twilight still did not know the place at all.

But as she was quick to remind herself, it hardly mattered. Her quest was not to discover every nuance of the silent library. If she were so fixated on that, she felt her entire life would be spent just looking at the cracks in the shelves or trying to understand every one of the hundreds of billions of books within the massive walls. No, her goal was far simpler, and she was going to attain it no matter what.

Twilight grinned to herself. Now she sounded a bit like Rainbow Dash. “Getting things done no matter what.” It was pretty funny, actually.

She stopped suddenly and placed a hoof on her chin. Rainbow Dash? Who was that? And why did she know that name in the first place? She was probably a character in a book Twilight had read once. Yes, that seemed likely. Twilight did love all those adventure stories, after all.

But something still felt wrong to her. It almost felt as though she was forgetting something incredibly important, but she could not quite place what it was supposed to be. Was that also part of the library’s influence?

Twilight shuddered. The silent halls were not right. There was something completely and noticeably wrong about them. Twilight could not quite place exactly what it was, but they just felt wrong.

She began walking a bit faster, once again feeling her heart rate spike in a mixture of fear and apprehension. Twilight paused for a moment and grabbed a book from a nearby shelf, taking the time to read how many pages it had.

Twenty pages? How long had she been walking? The last time she had checked, there had been barely more than a single page, so how was it increasing so quickly? Perhaps it was exponential. Yes, that made sense. If it rose at an exponential rate, Twilight would probably see another hundred pages the next time she checked. Maybe even more.

She closed the book and confidently stored it back in its shelf. Yes, she could do it. She could find a full story, read it over, and finally return to her little box. Maybe she could even grab three or four to keep herself from having to come back to the maze.

It was a flawless plan, and now it was finally nearing its end. A few more hours of walking and Twilight would be completely finished. All she needed to do was keep moving.

Twilight began to walk again, focusing on the end of the hallway, which seemed to once again veer off sharply to the right. It did not appear to be a junction, so all she had to do was keep going and she would be fine.

Twilight turned right at the end of the hallway and kept going. Come to think of it, she had not found any more hidden doorways since she had entered that big room. Was it just a gimmick to keep potential explorers out, or had she simply not gone along any passages that had those doors?

Come to think of it, was Twilight going the right way at all? The question sent a shiver down her spine. What if she had been going the wrong direction since the beginning? And where did the maze even end? Did it end?

Was she doomed to wander around forever?

Twilight’s breath quickened. Her heart beat faster in her chest and her vision started to go red. She had never even contemplated such a possibility before, but what if it was true? What if there was nothing at the end? What if she was just wandering endlessly?

But as she was thinking of such a horrifying, terrible fate of endlessly walking amongst the identical bookshelves, hoping for some reprieve, something even more horrifying happened.

The lights flickered out.

The entire hallway – and the rest of the library, most likely – was plunged into a deep, unremitting darkness that showed no sign of going away soon.

Twilight’s heart leapt into her throat. No. No.

Her jaw had dropped, her eyes were wide, and there was a very noticeable sheen of sweat starting to form around her face. She quivered and shook like a leaf in the silent darkness, mentally begging the lights to come back on. They did not.

Twilight suddenly heard something. Heard something? No, that was impossible. Sound did not exist inside the library. Was she going mad?

No, she did not hear it – she sensed it. She could feel it. Something was there. Something was nearby.

Was it behind her? Was it in front of her? Twilight rapidly spun in the tight enclosure of the hallway, desperately looking for what was nearby.

She saw nothing. She heard nothing. But she knew it was there.

Without a second’s pause, Twilight took off like a rocket down the unexplored area of the hall, not wanting to look behind her and not wanting to stop for anything. Her hooves crashed against the carpet as she fled the unknown pursuer. Her breath was fast and uneven, her eyes were wide and panicked, and her hooves began to ache as she fled, but Twilight could not stop. She did not dare to.

A junction loomed ahead of her. Left or right? Left or right? Left or right? Her mind raced as she approached it, questioning which way was most likely to get her away from the thing in the darkness.

Twilight veered down the left hallway, not thinking about what could lay beyond it as she sprinted. Even the books around her were given no mind. All that mattered was that the thing in the darkness did not catch her.

It was there. She knew it. She felt it. It was behind her. Or was it in front of her? Was it even in the same hallway, or was it outside the library altogether? Twilight did not know, but she was not going to stop and find out.

Twilight ran faster, just as she had before when that hydra had attacked her and her friends in the swamp. The swamp? No, she had never seen a swamp before. And what friends? What was she even thinking? She had no friends.

Twilight brought her mind back on track just in time for another junction. Forward? Did she dare just go straight? That was not a good idea; the thing in the darkness could easily follow a straight path. But what if she ran right?

She took the rightmost path and started racing again before looking back over her shoulder to make sure she was not being followed. She saw nothing, but she was not about to stop.

Twilight suddenly became very aware that looking over her shoulder was probably not a very good idea when she tripped over something in the path and began to fall downward.

Not “towards the ground” downward, either – Twilight had somehow blundered her way down a set of stairs leading even further into the library’s depths. She rolled down the steps, feeling each part of her body collide painfully with each one on the way down before coming to a complete, silent stop at the bottom.

Twilight raised her head off the ground and let out a groan of pain. Or she would have, at least, if sound existed inside the library. She stood up slowly and shook her head, stumbling forward a bit in the process.

Where was she? The library’s basement?

Twilight blinked as she realized that the area was incredibly well lit. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, from which dozens of luminous crystals hung. Its light seemed to reach every corner of the room, giving it a very welcoming, beautiful glow that Twilight had never seen before.

The rectangular room was lined, of course, with bookshelves, although these ones were far nicer than the ones upstairs; they were made from a dark-colored wood and had been polished to the point that they reflected the chandelier’s lights beautifully.

The carpet was a light gray that looked and felt very comfortable beneath Twilight’s hooves. A large desk sat by the wall, which was covered with papers, quills, and other items, while a similar chair sat nearby.

But what drew Twilight’s attention more than anything else was the massive door on the wall opposite the staircase. It looked like it was made from the same material as the bookshelves, but contrasted harshly with them due to its size and the way it was indented against the wall.

Twilight stepped over to it cautiously. Something about the doorway screamed at her, telling her to turn around and never look at it again. For a moment, she was almost inclined to listen to these urges.

But at the same time, the more academic part of her mind was fascinated by it. Something was on the other side, and Twilight knew it was not something small. Was it the thing in the darkness that had chased her upstairs? No, that was unlikely. How could it have made it behind the door before she had even reached the basement?

What if it was there all along?

Twilight shuddered at the thought. What if it had been there all along and was just drawing her towards it? Maybe her instincts were right – she should just ignore the door and read the books around her. Maybe they were actually finished.

Curious, Twilight grabbed a random book from a nearby shelf and examined it. The cover was black with white and blue markings, and read “Truth” in bold but graceful letters.

Truth? What could it possibly contain that was true?

She opened it slowly and flipped through the pages, not reading their actual content as she looked to see just how filled out the book really was. To Twilight’s surprise, it was over three hundred pages long.

And it cut off halfway through a sentence.

Twilight stared at the book, dumbfounded. Had she not gone far enough? Was there still more to this strange labyrinth? Would she only find a completed book if she wandered beyond the massive, ominous door?

She turned to it slowly and swallowed. It was wrong. Something bad was beyond that door, and Twilight knew that fact without a doubt. Was it worth it just to find a book with an ending? Was it worth it just to indulge her own selfish cravings for completion?

Twilight stepped back and looked at the door as one would a living nightmare. It was not right – no, it was very obviously wrong. Whatever was beyond that door was not something she wanted to see. It was not something she should see, and the thought disturbed her even more than the thing in the darkness.

It was one thing to know something existed; it was another to face it. Did she even want to see the thing that had been chasing her? Was it worth it, even if only to satisfy her vicious curiosity?

Twilight swallowed and stepped towards the door. The dark wood reflected the chandelier’s light with a sort of terrifying beauty. Did she open it? Did she leave it be? Either way, she knew she would regret her choice.

She swallowed deeply and continued to stare at the door. It was almost like earlier, when she had refused to step down those stairs to the labyrinth. Now she wished that she had just stayed in her little room and lived out her life surrounded by the empty books. At least then she would have been safe.

But now she wanted to go forward. Her hooves trembled, her breath was quick, and her heart beat quickly, but she wanted to go forward. She had to go forward; she had to see what lay beyond the doorway. No matter the cost to herself, Twilight wanted to see just what truly lay in the heart of the labyrinth.

The library’s silence drowned out any dissenting thoughts as Twilight slowly reached towards the doorway. Her hoof shook, but she did everything she could to steady it.

Twilight bit down on her lower lip and breathed deeply. She had to be calm. She had to steel herself, just as she had before. She did not know what lay beyond the door, but she was not going to deny herself the sight of it.

With an odd sort of newfound courage, Twilight pushed the massive door open. As was to be expected, no sound came from it, even as it opened with what would have undoubtedly been a loud creak.

Twilight closed her eyes and breathed in again. She was almost there. She could do it.

And then, with that bit of mental prompting, Twilight opened her eyes and stepped forward into what she knew was the end of the silent library, and the final part of the accursed labyrinth.

Author's Note:

We're almost at the end of the first chapter. Next time, we'll get a bit more insight into what's going on, and see just what lay at the end of the library.

Once again, please point out anything I might have missed while editing this chapter.

Comments

[MustacheMerlin]

Wait, why would she be stupid for not looking where she was going in pitch blackness? Dream logic is so fun.

[Magic Song]

OH GOSH I HAVE TO KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM WITH CELESTIA THAT INVOLVED DISCORD?!?!?!

You are one of the best writers on this site, for real!

[Kowhaifan]

Dozens of them, Twilight reminded herself in awe. Who had written so many books? How many of them had actually been written, and how many had never been finished? She wondered if – as was the case for many stories – some of the books in the library had been started, but never came to an end.

Wow seem familiar? This is like super ironic.