The Observations of a Librarian

by BiniBean

Canterlot Fanfiction

In Canterlot, and probably in the surrounding cities and towns in Equestria, ponies who were lacking excitement in their lives imagined their lives if they lived in Canterlot Castle. Those foolish ponies always assumed the castle was filled with excitement. Usually revolving around the Princesses. Most of these ponies with deluded imaginations decided they needed to vent their imagination by writing small books. Even Novels. A small amount of those ponies even sent them to the castle to be read by the castle staff.

Why?

Bini filters, the Head Librarian of the Canterlot Royal Castle Library had yet to figure that out since her first day. She suspected, for the sake of at least having a little bit of an answer, that they were hoping their "brilliant" writing style would be read by the Princess bringing them fame and fortune. Eventually, they would move into the castle and would fall in love with the Princess of their choice.

Which is how the storylines mostly went. Sometimes there were creative ones but somehow she had read the same basic plot over and over. Written in at least a hundred different ways. Each is more cringy than the last.

Bini adjusted her red scarf around her neck. Straighten her small round glasses. Flared up her unicorn horn to grab hold of her large mug filled with Hot Chocolate and whip cream. She sat in the middle of the Library, leaning heavily against the large fancy table that wrapped itself around the Large Hourglass in the middle of the room.

She paused briefly before she took a sip of her Hot Chocolate. Happily ripping her eyes away from the disgusting tale she was being forced to read by some pony in Trottingham to look up to the Hourglass as it began to magically reset the sand. Spinning the hourglass to reset the sand for the night. She looked up to the glass dom above her and the large windows in front of her facing the grand sight of Canterlot to quietly watch the sunset for a moment.

Her blue eyes drifted to the books surrounding her.

Fanfiction is what the guards referred to it as.

When she asked why she had to read them as part of her duties. They replied with;

"To make sure no pony is sending us a warning about a terrorism attack in those books."

Which made her even more confused and left with more questions. It only got worse when the former head Librarian informed her there was an entire section dedicated to the works of those ponies and they needed to be stored and documented for records' sake.

By the fact she often saw guards, servants, Nobility, and even diplomats reading books from that section often made her doubt the sincerity of that statement.

Bini took a large gulp to prepare herself for the next sentence of the book. She didn't care the drink burned her mouth, she welcomed it. It distracted her from the trash she was currently reading at that moment. She carefully set the mug down and adjusted the fire on the three candles surrounding her for more light as the moon rose higher into the sky.

The current story she had been reading about was nothing special. The story was about a pony from Applelosa that had gone to the castle to sell apples. He had been trying to win the Princess of the Sun's heart for the last five chapters. How he managed to get into Solar Court to sell apples and then live in the castle within three days, Bini didn't know. She sort of started getting lazy and skipped a few parts. The book just kept going.

She flipped another page. Now Discord was in the scene. Trying to be a rival. It was so dumb that Bini almost cracked a smile as the main character tried to defend himself.

"As Ashen stood with his chin high. Ready to defend himself against the Lord of Chaos in the grand Throne Room of Canterlot. Being assured that his soon-to-be love, sitting on her throne behind him would be waiting when he destroyed the ugliest creature in all of Equestria. A creature of pure evil."

Bini let out a loud snort of amusement of the writer's inflated ego. She checked how much she had left. Three chapters. She groaned but continued on. Not willing to admit she was mildly curious to how a simple earth pony would defeat pure chaos. But they always did. The main character was always the winner. But how could he possibly win that?

"The creature mocked and taunted him. The words had no effect on the humble Apple farmer as he steadied his stance. He knew Discord's words were nothing but lies. Lies designed to tear him apart from his goddess."

Bini wanted nothing more than to gag. You would think after reading thousands of those types of stories she would have not been affected by now but she was a weak soul. Easily broken by disgusting writing that made her want to chuck it into the fire.

"The Lord of Chaos raised his claw and did a loud snap. A snap echoed across the room. filled with ancient magic. The Farmer moved to prepare himself to attack before he could be hit but he found himself snapped from existence. As if he was never born. Because he never was. Thanks to Discord, Ashen's entire history was gone in a blink."

Bini stopped breathing. She forgot how to breathe for a few seconds before she managed to force herself to take deep breathes and leaned into the book. Not quite believe she read that correctly. Her eyes moved to the next phrase.

"Finally, the enemy was gone."

THE ENEMY!?

THE MAIN CHARACTER WAS NOW THE ENEMY!?

"Princess Celestia smiled from her throne as she rose. She titled her head slightly as she stared at where the former Apple Farmer once stood. Discord shot her a very happy look back. Quite proud of himself for what he accomplished."

Bini let out a strangled laugh of disbelief at what she was reading.

"She flew down to Discord and lightly pecked him on the lips. Pulling back with a blush."

Bini's mouth was hanging wide open with shock. This was so far different than what she had read before.

"Thank you, Discord." She said softly. "He was becoming desperate and annoying."

Bini chuckled. Then she dissolved into giggles that sounded like she was mad. She leaned against the table as her body shook from laughter. Maybe she was just too tired to act like a mature mare. It was only a story.

It was only the best twist in all the stupid fanfictions she had ever read so far.

It was still stupid. Don't get her wrong. The thought that Discord and the Princess could get together was wrong on a whole new level but for him to wipe the main character out of existence was brilliant. She was still chuckling when she pulled herself back up to read the rest of the story.

After that, it ended pretty quickly. They talked about morals and relationships, then lived happily ever after. Blah, blah, blah. She yawned and closed up the book. She looked it over once more. Considering the twist before she dumped it into the small chart filled with other fanfiction next to her. She doubted she would ever read it again but it was fun while it lasted.

She drained the rest of her Hot Chocolate with a few large gulps before grabbing one of her many candles. She hitched the chart to her back and began walking towards the dark areas of the Library. Where the moonlight could not reach. She disappeared deeper into the Library. Stilling chuckling as she privately made fun of that foolish main character.

She gained a new respect for fanfiction writers that day.

-The End-

Author's Note:

Despite how I have written this story, Fanfiction is awesome and Dislestia is my main ship. I will probably be cancelled for that last part and many (Hopefully) will agree with me on the first part.

Also, I did create the cover, if you want to see more of my art (Mostly MLP art) please go to my Deviant Art:
deviantart.com/unknownfilters

To everyone who writes fanfiction and reads it, thank you. :) You are doing a great job.

Comments

[Scribblestick]

As someone who once specialized in reading bad fanfic, I related to Bini’s frustration and mild insanity. “It’s not good, but at least it’s different” indeed!

As far as this story goes, I thought it could have used a little more build-up. For example, Bini could have read a few other cliched stories before getting to the apple farmer. It would help to build her frustration and diminishing mental stability leading up to the twist. Of course, that gets difficult on an actual fanfiction site because there’s a good chance you’ll end up calling someone’s favorite trope trash, so I understand why you didn’t.

Anyways, it was a nice little story. Keep it up!