There are very few library oak trees remaining in Equestria, and likewise only one remaining elderly Oakleaf to care for and tend the vanishing species. When the Ponyville library is destroyed by Tirek’s rampage, the last of the Oakleafs is called to attempt the impossible. He must try to bring life back to the dead with what little life he has left himself.
It is an impossible task. However, this is Ponyville, where the impossible happens every day.
Editors: Irrespective, Pascoite
Winner of the Everfree NorthWest Scribblefest 2018 Applejack Award
Picture credit: Favoriteartman] at Deviant Art
Now on Equestria Daily!
Chapters (1)
First comment reserved for the author. Originally I had the boring beetle comment in as a footnote, but it 'broke' the tension of the section, so I moved it down here.
Won the Applejack Award in Scribblefest 2018, which I'm very proud of.
Second!
I have yet to read, but this so far looks to be interesting.
Pre-emptive response: This fic is proof that the Golden Oak Library was taken too soon... #treeforlife
A lovely tale of the power of hope, love, and possibly a bit of cheating by a crystalline castle that isn't quite as cold as some might think. Though there does seem to be a bit of a contradiction: The library was apparently as ancient as every other library oak in the country... yet it was too immature to have viable acorns?
Aside from that, wonderful stuff. Thank you for it.
Oaks are awesome. Glad to see that they now have a future!
This is what I'm scared of. Dying (old hopefully) but not doing anything useful. I'm scared of being forgotten. Hopefully I can get off my fat ass and do something about that...
Wow. Bravo. What a story! You have an amazing talent to create intriguing characters in only one chapter. Hope to possibly see something else come from this.
Leaf and Pea Pod are going to have so many children over the years.
I love the concept that there are other trees across Equestria, and that it's even a specific species of tree (which I shall call Quercus Libraricus) that can be repopulated.
Another fantastic story! It's always a pleasure to have my horizons broadened by the written word of Georg.
♪ In a crooked little town, they were lost and never found
Fallen leaves, fallen leaves, fallen leaves...on the ground ♫
Nothing though matched the unsightly spoor left behind by an infestation of Literary Critics. They would digest selections of texts (fiction was a popular genre) and leave unsightly "A rousing tale!", "Two time Manehatten Times Best Seller!", "Action packed and leaves you breathless for more!" galls on the covers of new books. Particularly egregious is the Quinque Stellae species that has jumped genres and run rampant through the film industry after being carelessly introduced by publicists and marketers.
8772770
Now I am imagining Flim and Flam trying to breed a comic-book store cultivar...
Very touching story got me right in the feels!!!
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Join the club.
I'm curious if "paperbark book" was a deliberate typo or some new bit of head cannon that I need to adopt? Now I've got an idea of the very first Oakleaf, Journey Acorn. She traveled Equestria when the world was young with a cooking pot on her head and a burlap sack full of acorns. (edit) If you do make a child's story out of that, then I'm sure it would be awesome.
OK, this is beautiful, and distinctly part of my head canon now. I hope you won't mind if I allude to this in my own stories in the future.
All the best houses are libraries.
Also: favorited, and strongly recommending to others!
8773790 Heck, Mocha Star is going to make me write this one yet
In the center of Ponyville, under the light of the moon and stars, a tree dreamed of times long past. Of storms and summers, of patrons walking quietly among her shelf-lined walls and the loud cries of the young. Of books, lined and straight, filled with the knowledge of ponies long dead and awaiting a chance to live again in the hooves of an interested reader. Of rain and sunshine and wind, the droning of bees in her leaves, and the touch of the snow upon her crown. She was the queen of all she surveyed, ruler and guiding hoof, a refuge for weary souls battered by the world and a beacon of learning for the hungry masses. But once, long ago, before she had bark and leaves to surround her precious treasure, she was something else.
Something smaller, and more frail.
Libris dreamed of when she was a pony.
Another Georg masterpiece with intriguing OCs. You never disappoint.
I'm guessing this is an entry for the EFNW Scribblefest?
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I think you should. I'd read it.
I am /so/ following you now.
It's a hard thing to get me to care for a original character in just 4,000 words, but you managed to pull that off in grand fashion. I tip my hat to you.
I loved this story... you totally need to send this to Hasbro so they can turn it into an episode!!
Amazing story.
Always a pleasure to read your stuff Georg.
8772540 8772770 It takes many years of dragon and alicorn droppings to mature a member of habilis ficus, or the Convenient Hollow Tree outside of the Everfree Forest. The domestic version is quercus bibliotheca, the Library Oak, and quite rare, requiring much more magical fertilizer in order to produce viable offspring. Celestia needs a Mare of the Stool
8774465 Actually, for legal reasons, Hasbro is *very* hesitant to take on a writer who reads or writes fanfiction.
8773825 Yep. Guessed it by the label, "For Scribblefest 2018" right?
8773831 ColdInGardez does that kind of poetic no-subject stuff so much better than I do.
8773272 Nifty idea for a name. I may use that for a Kids Story.
8773079 I'm not happy unless I get a few readers bleeding out on my doorstep where I've ripped their heart out. (Or so some of my readers seem to think.)
8772518 There were a *lot* of Library Fanfics that came out right after that episode. This one has been perking around in the back of my mind for a few years now.
8774463 Dude, I'm but a child at the feet of masters. The intro to S1E1 managed to build the entire basis of Equestria, from the world to the rulers, to the concept of having the sun and moon at the control of Celestia and Luna, to Nightmare Moon's rise, the Elements of Harmony, to setting up the two-part episode in one minute and forty seconds flat.
Plot twist: Library Oaks as a species actually exhibit a rare, specialised form of thaumic necriscence serotiny. Like a lodgepole pine or a eucalyptus, they require the parent tree to be destroyed by magic before the seeds they have released and spread (through borrowing and inter-library loans) actually begin to mature. Ironically, the former Golden Oaks is actually the only healthy tree in Equestria...
I am now emotionally invested in Leaf and Pea Pod, and would like to know more about their lives and adventures together.
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"Let me see. Avacados, spinach, broccoli, almond butter sandwiches on whole-grain bread, and a can of assorted nuts. This is, quite possibly, the most random meal I've ever been served, my Bean."
"Not at all! Everything here is loaded with healthy nutrients. Just make sure you chew thoroughly, otherwise it won't do any good. Oh, and Wysteria has the ... um, the you-know-what ready."
"This is not in my job description, I'll have you know!" Wysteria offered with a snap of her pooper-scooper tool, but her voice was muffled by the gas mask she was wearing. "I'm demanding a twenty percent raise for this!"
8775150 Japan doesn't have the same concerns about hiring upstart writers.
Hence we end up with such magnificent things such as "One Punch Man".
Alondro touches the dry wood, and fresh, dew-flecked leaves burst forth, "I am the resurrection and the life..."
Oakleaf face-hooved, "No, you're not God. Just stop it."
Alondro awwws, "But I wanna be!"
"No. Bad Alondro! No blasphemy!"
Alondro :C
8772540
Wrong time of year would make more sense, eh?
8775150
To be completely honest, I had a total brain fart and glossed over that line.
*claops hoofsies*
Yus! I just read this and I love it. You can find Falling Leaves of Oak among the recommended section on my profile page.
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Okie-dokie. Well it was definitely worth the wait, and I'm no stranger to those fanfics that just sit in your head for a year and a half before you're able to write them.
Now I wish Library Oaks were a real thing. Thanks a lot for making me want something that doesn't exist.
I've already read this story earlier but wasn't about to leave on a comment due to some error (I'm currently on my laptop). What I really liked in here is that Leaf and Pea Pod would be willing to accompany Oakleaf to help plant new library trees, a concept I really adore.
8775155
Come on, the author got it right, you can do the same: Golden Oak.
I like the idea of Library Oaks, and a sapling one sounds cute. I can imagine Twilight caring for one like AJ and Bloomberg.
8775537
Keep in mind One Punch Man is a parody, written and originally drawn by an amateur who wasn't really looking to become a professional, not exactly an upstart.
8781226 Point is, in this country, Disney would just steal the idea, sue the original author, and win. (Da Maus!)
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Nah they'd buy it for a rip off price then sue him for having posted the original online manga.
8782102 And then have his genitals mutilated by rabid sea lions.
...
HOW CAN YOU BE SURE THEY DON'T DO THAT??!!!
and plant a new library in every town we visit.
That's sweet. And If I had any creative or compositional spark, I'd start writing a variation of Benet's Johnny Appleseed right now. Love that old poem.
Of Jonathan Chapman
Two things are known
That he loved apples,
That he walked alone.
At seventy-odd
He was gnarled as could be.
But ruddy and sound
As a good apple tree.
For fifty years over
Of harvest and dew,
He planted his apples
Where no apples grew.
The winds of the prairie
Might blow through his rags,
But he carried his seeds
In the best deerskin bags.
From old Ashtabula
To frontier Fort Wayne
He planted and pruned
And he planted again.
He had not a hat
To encumber his head.
He wore a tin pan
On his white hair instead.
He nested with owl,
And with bear cub and ‘possum,
And knew all his orchards,
Root, tendril and blossom.
A fine old man,
As ripe as a pippin,
His heart still light,
And his step still skipping.
The stalking Indian,
The beast in its lair
Did no hurt
While he was there.
For they could tell,
As wild things can
That Jonathan Chapman
Was God’s own man.
Why did he do it?
We do not know.
He wished that apples
Might root and grow.
He has no statue
He has no tomb.
He has his apple trees
Still in bloom.
Consider, consider,
Think well upon
The marvelous story
Of Appleseed John.
This fic left me with a wide grin on my face. Thanks for it.
I always know I'm in for a good time of some extraordinary sort when I find time to read your works.
Being wrong feels good doesn't it?
This was a wonderful read. It can be difficult to breath life into an original character in under the typical length of a single chapter, but when left to the reader's imagination, following the usual rank of establishing details, some fantastic ideas can take hold. It makes daydreaming all the more enjoyable.
Excellent work!
Eh.
I am not sure what to say. The idea and execution was not bad, by any means. But this is not what I was expecting after reading the synopsis.
I also was not hit by the feels as much as some of the other readers apparenly did, but that might me on me.
Fuller review here, but in brief: I really enjoyed the world-building here, the characterisation was very nice, and as I'd expect from you the writing is very fine. However, it does feel a little like a fic out of time -- all the stuff about how hard-edged Twi's castle is reminded me of stories written in the S4/S5 hiatus. It's still an easy upvote, but I can't help thinking I'd have been more affected by it if I'd read it in 2015.
9193494 Well, the *concept* dates from that time, but the number of tree-related fics that poured out from that time suppresed me some, and coming up with a good ending similarly discouraged me. It took EFNW's pressure to force the letters out onto the page, and some TLC from editors to polish it up to a gleaming oak table.
Huh. A typical Earth pony story. It really, truly captures what they're all about. Traditions, secret knowledge and rituals, unspoken beliefs, crippling superiority complex. A pegasus might bluster and threaten, a unicorn might raise their face skywards and project imperiousness and superiority, but they can come around. An earth pony will quietly nod along, and all the while KNOW without a shred of a doubt, they're BETTER, they just humor the pitiful morons around them.
An old relic of overspecialised magic. A typical bit of near-forgotten Earth pony culture. Life is passing them by, and it's everyone else that is at fault. The gleaming monument of the power of Friendship to everyone, to him, to them - it's 'modern times'. Bad, because it's not earth ponies who made it.
Perhaps everyone would be better off if the story ended like poor deluded Oakleaf expected it to.
interesting. though like there would ever be any sort of question that Twilight would fund it.
I really liked how you handled this one. It's a shame that Tirek destroyed the Oak tree so thoroughly. What is good is in time it will be replaced and that Oakleaf will have apprentices to carry on and Library Oaks will not become a thing of the past.