The first thing I see is her eye, her beautiful lavender eye, looking out of the glass viewing port. Then, noticing that I am a regular, she stands slightly more upright, allowing me to see her face. She bears an expression of curiosity, as though wondering why a library regular should be calling at this time of night; and it would be a very good question for her to ask.
But the responsibility to instigate that conversation would be mine, not hers. She would likely stay out of my way as I searched for my book of choice - why indeed would she assume that her late-night guest be in fact interested in meeting her, instead of meeting her unabridged written history of the world? To her, the latter appeared far more interesting. But the story of a young girl who seemed to be afraid of making friends - now there was a story I would rather like to hear.
She slowly opens the door, and with a flourish of her free hand, silently offers me the vast selection of her personal collection. I am quite tempted to take her up on that offer, as I have been known to enjoy a fair bit of reading myself, but I choose instead to focus on the task at hand.
I am not sure where to start, so I select a small comment to thread the conversation.
"Beautiful night, isn't it?" I blurt out, "I absolutely love a cool winter evening. A bit frigid, but one can't have it all perfect, I suppose."
She nods and smiles at me, before running off with a stack of books tucked under her arm. I attempt to follow her path, but before I can discern which direction she's headed, she is already lost, well out of my sight.
This is going to be tougher than I suspected.
I grab a lamp from a nearby table and head off in the direction I suspect she had gone. The library is very desolate, but outside the world is still rather active. I nearly flinch when the headlamps from an automobile flash through the large stained-glass window of the dark hall. Waiting for my eyes to re-adjust, I begin scanning through titles from the nearest shelf. The Life and Death of Starswirl the Bearded...One-Thousand More Ways to Start a Thesis Essay...The Equestrian World Atlas......why, these books had all been written by her! Every last one of them! My jaw nearly drops as I skim further titles and see her name stamped into each and every binding.
Surely, I think to myself, she merely stamps them, to indicate that they are part of her personal collection. How silly of me, to believe that she wrote all of them...
But as I continue scanning, it occurs to me that none of the books have author names... nor have I seen any of these books outside of this library. Could they actually be...? No, it is a silly thought. I push it aside.
My attention remains on the innumerable shelves of books, all emblazoned with her name. In fact, I take so little notice of my surroundings that I nearly do a double take when a book approaches me from the side. Actually, it is not a book at all, but is, in fact, several books stacked on top of each other. The stack of books yelps as I collide with them. The heavy volumes meet the wood floor with a dull thud, followed by a slightly louder thud that sounds human.
Twilight! I ran right into her without even noticing. Instinctively, I reach out and offer her my hand.
"Are you alright?" I ask her, "I'm terribly sorry, I didn't see you."
She hesitantly takes my hand, and I pull her upright. She smiles meekly at me. There is a long and awkward pause as we both watch each other carefully.
Finally, crouching down, I say, "here, let's get these books picked up."
"Yeah, alright," she says softly. I almost freeze. This is the first time I have ever heard her speak. Her voice, it's like a thousand tiny pianos all playing in concert. I feel my heart ache for a moment. This feeling I have for her could not get any stronger. I need to act, soon.
"Hey, so umm... who wrote these books? I only see your name on them."
She turns her head in my direction, eyes wide. Her face flushes, and without any further comment, she runs off down the corridor. I follow after, as quickly as I can.
"Hey!" I shout, "what's the matter? Why are you in such a hurry?"
But she doesn't stop. She doesn't even slow down. Even with those heavy volumes in her arms, she can run quite fast. Fortunately, I'm not carrying any books. I run faster. Twenty feet. Ten feet. Five feet. She is right there, within arm's length. I thrust a hand out and reach for her shoulder. If I can just catch up with her, get her to slow down so we can talk, maybe I could-
And then my hand clasps thin air. A flash of violet light shakes my eyes, and before I can tell what has happened, Twilight Sparkle has vanished into thin air.
this is pretty good actually!
IM LOVING IT!
...well dont just stand there doing nothing!
KEEP GOING!
Good start. Interested to see where this is going. I only have one issue: the chapters are too short! fix this! also, shouldn't her magic be purple, not green?
Faved and liked.
I very much like what I see so far.
Thumb and track; I look forward to MOAR.
I think I see where this is going, but that's not necessarily a bad place if done correctly.
I'm interested. You have a good style of writing. Looking forward to coming chapters
You have my interest.
966270 When I was writing the chapter, I guess I sort of imagined in my head that she teleported green. Maybe describing a flash of white felt too generic/cliche/bleak/flat? I don't know. I just wrote what I felt.
Also, the short chapters are deliberate - faster updates. Short bursts of story work better for me as an author, and tend to produce better results in my stories. The longer my chapters, the weaker the editing. In smaller segments I have a much stronger control over my domain, and I can get everything in its proper place faster.
Oooh I likey a lot! Can't wait for more!
Your Latin is flawed. "Cantamen" is neuter, so the first such one would be "cantamen primum," not "primus." Second, as "hiems" is the object of "in," it should be in the ablative ("hieme") — unless the library is into or against winter, rather than in it, in which case it would be "hiemem." You also misspelled "expositio."
966932 I thank you for your help! Perhaps I may consult you on future chapter titles? I have not been studying Latin for very long (as you have already ascertained) so this is tricky for me.
If only you had made this longer. The thing is, it's short but it really doesn't feel short. I love how you use few words to describe practically everything And as a complete nerd, that's awesome to me! But it would be better if maybe you combined the two chapters?
966990 Thank you for the complements! But the answer remains no - I will stick to smaller chapters. I am writing this series in individual stories, and each story is written in three parts - an exposition, confrontation, and resolution for each. Bibliotheca in Hieme ends with "III Pars - Malefica".
Trust me - at the speed at which I currently produce chapters of this series, I will have at least one new chapter daily. You will get plenty of it. It will add up. And some chapters will be longer - but this particular story has short chapters, because it is the first encounter between the two of them.
Go on, make me love this fic.
I need that gif that says, "...Go on..."
Very interesting so far. It's some sort of fusion of her pony self and a human form, huh?
....that ending....
WAT
But seriously, I like this. I am watching it......watching.....waiting....
967337 24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqkaa0cc7Z1r25534o1_500.gif ?
Anyways, yeah. That was awesome, and I want more really badly. Really the only problem I can see with the story is that there isn't enough of it yet!
966939
I'd be willing to help, though my knowledge of Latin doesn't go far past the subjunctive mood. (Also, upon further reflection, I think it'd be more appropriate to drop the "in" and just say "hieme," using the ablative of time when.)
img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire4/5e390e1937bc410b3e9c99a442f5aa3f1244734891_full.jpg
Yes, very good, cann't what to next one.
973489 Yes, yes you can wait, on account of I tried releasing the next one today and it was the shoddiest and most hurried piece of work I have ever done. I quickly retracted it. From now on, for this story, I will take my time and make each event worth your time, rather than sacrificing quality to give you quick updates.
973803 Dude, screw quick updates. I walked that road with my first fic I did so long ago... Not only was it rushed, but I lost all motivation to continue the story and I had to put it on hiatus for a few months before I even tried writing again. That's rule number 2, don't rush it! That said, this story could shape up to be extremely good, so hurry up!
966539
Green magic is changeling magic. I(and quite a few others) would like to think that we are not talking of changelings in this story, ergo, I strongly advise green magic is a poor idea. Personally, I would have used something like a 'faint lilac flash', as this would be easier for your OC to rationalise in the next chapter, as he would not have to imagine a necklace that did not exist. Big changes, but then again it is just a matter of opinion.
Anyway, this is great work, and there will be smiles every time I see this story in the updated box. I love it when I find awesome new stories on the front page like this one.