Preview #3: Unrelated to Anything Else · 10:10pm Dec 28th, 2017
This is the third, and final, preview of MLP writing projects in my mind. A full list of my current options will be on my Patreon on Dec. 30 for discussion and debate, and that's where my decision will be made, since I really need the income.
https://www.patreon.com/KrisOverstreet
The following is based on a comment I saw on another fanfic (Georg's, I believe, though I'm not certain without hunting it up). The concept behind this intrigues me, though I don't know if I want to try doing this all myself or if I'd rather throw it open as a collaborative work.
I'm tagging "Orderly Transfer of Power" because, like that one, this would be an epistolary work, entirely told by multiple limited viewpoints using first person. However, this is NOT likely to be a comedy. (Also, to get tons of attention.)
Reference
by Kris Overstreet
Chapter One - Starlight Glimmer (Princess's Post-it Note: Read Me First)
Oh! Hello there!
So you're Twilight's student! I was her first, you know- her first student. But you probably knew that, since my name is the only label on my cover.
This is the first time you've been allowed into this section of the library. I know that because... well, this will take a bit of explaining, so let me begin at the beginning.
I was Starlight Glimmer. You don't need to know the details of my shameful early years right now, but I was Twilight Sparkle's first friendship student. She was with me for my early triumphs and my mistakes- and I did have an awful lot of mistakes.
But nothing lasts forever except alicorn princesses, and maybe not even those, so after a long and full life I ended up here. Turn my page and I'll explain why.
Thank you. To explain how I got here and how I work, let's begin with Haycartes' Method, the spell that allows a unicorn (or alicorn) to enter a book. (Twilight loved to play little jokes with the spell, claiming it was a teaching aid... ah, the things I could tell if you were interested, but you're not.) Anyway, Twilight figured out a way to invert the spell, so that instead of putting a pony into an existing book, the pony would become the book. And unlike Haycartes' Method, in which the pony is still free to move, communicate, and even leave the book, the new spell more or less freezes the pony as they were when the spell was cast.
Yes, you're holding one of those books now. Everything I knew, every memory I retained, every bit of knowledge I possessed at the time the spell was cast is between your hooves right now. And whatever you need to know from it appears on these pages when you turn them. (The pages are technically infinite, by the way, so don't count them or
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Oh! Please don't do that again! I may not be alive, but it's still a bit disorienting!
No, I'm not dead, but I'm not alive, either. I only have awareness because the spell links the reader's mind to the book, pulling what you need to know to the surface. When you close me I'll be as inert and lifeless as a non-magical book, and if somepony else opens me I won't have any memory of anything that happened when you were reading me.
By the way, that mental link plus my lack of self-will means I can't lie to you in any way. Which isn't to say that what you read here is true- all ponies lie to themselves at least a little and believe things that just aren't so.
Yes, the spell can be reversed. If you really feel you need to know, I'll provide the instructions and charts for Haycartes' Method and for Twilight's Reference. (That's the name I gave her spell when she made it, but she hates it, so don't use it around her.) But please don't use it on me. I was very old and very sick when Twilight cast the spell, and if it's reversed I will be very old again and very sick again for a very brief period of time... and then everything that's in this book now, that's in me now, will be gone forever. Twilight said she'd find a way to restore us, but I think there are some things that just have to be, and this is one of them.
I'm not surprised that there are other books on this shelf. Twilight used this spell on two kinds of person, generally; her very closest friends, and the most dangerous enemies Equestria has ever had. (Which makes me both in one cover! Ha ha, I kid... not. Come back when you need to know more about how I almost totally destroyed the world a couple times.)
Anyway, Twilight already had most of a shelf full of these books when my time came. Read them with caution. Each and every one of them has a friendship lesson, even the most evil. And all of them have a warning- even Twilight's closest friends.
If you're Twilight Sparkle's student, you'll probably do well.
You're curious to see some of the other books now, so I guess this is goodbye for today. Enjoy reading the others, and I'll be here on the reference shelf when you need me.
Oh- Do NOT remove me or any of the others from this room. Horrible things could happen if we fell into the wrong hooves.
Yes, I'm still here. Satisfied? Now go read one of the others like you want to.
So, what lessons would Twilight's friends and enemies have for a pony from the distant future? That's what this story would explore, one volume at a time. And there might be more to the reader than just a filler... why is the reader in the reference section at all? Is this worth going forward with- as opposed to other things?
Fascinating. I love seeing throwaway ideas extended to their full potential. Looking forward to this one.
This reminds me of that comedy story that got featured where changelings were hiding in Twilight's library disguised as books.
A very, very interesting idea. I would love to read where this could go.
I would also love to be creative and non-shy enough to write it, but... I have too many ideas to fiddle with already.
OK, now taking votes for what I should work on next month! https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/788937/ok-voting-time-for-what-im-writing