"This is a story about you," said the dog on the radio, and you were pleased. Because you always wanted to hear about yourself on the radio.
Welcome to Pony Vale
This is a story about you. You were in Twilight's castle along with many other ponies. You were all scared. You were all scared because of the hungry, soul sucking spirits that waited outside the castle walls. Twilight and her friends comforted the residents of Ponyville and you helped. You helped keep them calm. You wondered if Twilight had a plan for all of you. But you mostly wondered if you would ever live to see the light of day again. You thought of all of this as you stared at the radio tower from the window. The station's lights blinked the color red on and off as you thought of these thoughts. A tiny flurry of sentient activity against the implacable backdrop of stars and void. You wondered if you would ever make it out alive. This story is about you.
A couple of hours passed until you and the citizens of Ponyville slept. Twilight provided blankets and pillows for all of you, and you were thankful. As you lay your head in the comfortable pillow, you thought about writing in your journal. So you pulled it out and wrote, I am sleeping on the floor, but at least I'm not dead. You then erased it and wrote something else. And then you closed it and put the journal in a drawer. And no one would ever read it, because they aren't you.
Then suddenly, as you put your head down on the pillow, a vision came to you. You saw a tree of awesome size, lit by darkness. A darkness that blinded you, but didn't. The tree was blacker than night, and it didn't bare fruit. Instead, books grew from the tree. The books opened up and whispered things to you. You couldn't understand because you didn't speak the language of the books. But you knew you could if you tried. The tree stood among the black, thick forest that surrounded it, and white fire was its leaves. It was so frighteningly dark. Then you did it. You got up from your uncomfortable bed and walked outside, the night was now visible to you. But not until you got your satchel with pictures of your friends and a radio. You left the castle and walked into an unknown direction. You walked for a very long time, and eventually you ended up in Appaloosa. And you stopped walking. You have been haunted ever since on how easy it was to walk away from your life. You never heard from your friends ever again. They never looked for you, but that is because here, in this world, no one can look for you. This terrifies you. This story is about you.
You have a new job in Appaloosa now. Every day you come to meet a stallion with a hat and a basketball jersey. You come a mile from your new home, walking, and greet him. He nods and points to the pile of bricks on the desert ground. Each day you stack them on top of each other, hoping that they don't fall. You don't want them to fall. You do this everyday as the stallion in the basketball jersey watches you. It is a different stallion each time. Sometimes the bricks growl. Mostly, they do not. When you are done the stallion will nod and give you an amount of bits, it is different every time as well, and you go home. It is the best job you've ever had.
Except today, it was different. You stacked the bricks as usual, the stallion watched you from a far, a stranger. But then, as had never happened before, his hat rang and he put it on his ear. He walked farther away and made ticking noises as the hat ticked back at him. He also responded "Yes sir" and "No sir" to it. He sounded afraid. But you weren't at all interested with him. You stacked the bricks, but then an impulse. An awful impulse came over you. And for no other reason in life you are trapped from being able to do anything. You weren't holding a brick. It was a book. It was a dark red with golden designs on it, and a strange lock. It was terrifyingly gorgeous. So you put it in your satchel. By the time the stallion came back from his hat call you were already done. He nodded, gave you the bits, and you walked home with the book in your satchel.
When you got home, you put the book on your table. The book did not make a growling sound. It made no sound at all. You then cooked dinner, you always cooked dinner, the red light in the tower blinked on and off. A message that was there and then wasn't. You couldn't quite understand what it was saying. You wondered how long it would take them to miss the book. You didn't care who they were, some mysteries aren't questions to be answered. Which finally brings us to now. To this story. This story about you. You are listening to the radio, the announcer is talking about you. And then you hear something else. A gut shattering howl in the distance. The book's absence has been discovered. The book, it sits on the table where you last left it, but it's warm. Warmer than the hot chocolate you just made. It smells like brimstone, and it irritates your nose. And when you put your ear against the rough, meaty cover, you hear muffled screams and an unknown melody. It doesn't seem hard to open it, all you need to do is flip the cover to the other side after unlocking the lock. You do not dare to open the book.
You decide to go to the Everfree forest, because that is where the Night Mare Bar and Cafe is. You walk there with the book and your radio in the satchel. You walk there to go and have a slice of cake. There is no wind, but you feel as if something is breathing behind your neck. It's probably just the wind. Night is your favorite time. The day brings despair to you, but the night gives you joy. An excitement you cannot contain. As you walk, you turn off your lantern, for a moment. In that moment, you feel again, the presence of the tree of awesome size; lit by no light but blinding darkness. An invisible monster, covered by dark and thick forests, and jagged mountains, and huge gusts of gray wind. The books are whispering louder now, and you can understand it. Not all of it, but you understand what they want to say. You agree with them. You know the tree is out there, and it seems to be closer than you think. The moment passes, you turn your lantern back on and all you see is a road leading to the bar and cafe. Just a small dirt road.
The moonlight's radiance is now purple. You swear you saw the moon as an eye for a moment, but you are imagining things. In front of the cafe's enterance, there is mare rolling around in the ground. She chants, "MUDWOMB," over and over again. You don't have enough to tip her, see you walk past her. You enter the cafe and sit down on one of the booths. You order a slice of chocolate cake, and the waitress indicates with movements that it will be brought out soon. The dog on the radio speaks soothingly to you from staticky speakers. It is a story about you. Your story at last. Just then, the rhyming zebra, Zecora, comes to your booth. She sits down and looks at you with a serious face. She gives you a piece of paper that says,
0101010001101000011001010010000001100011011100100110010101100001011101000110111101110010001000000110100001100001011100110010000001110010011001010111010001110101011100100110111001100101011001000010000001110100011011110010000001110000011000010111100100100000011101010111001100100000011000010010000001110110011010010111001101101001011101000010000001100010011101010111010000100000011011100110111101110111001000000110100101110011001000000110111101101110001000000110000100100000011011010110100101110011011100110110100101101111011011100010111000100000
You nod, and she only smiles, but only for a second. She then speaks in a different language that you are unfamiliar with.
"On nablyudayet za kazhdym vashim dvizheniyem, on khochet nauchit' vas uroku."
You cough and stare back at her.
"I think my cake is here now," you say as you both look down and see the cake there. You pick up your fork and use it to take a bite from the cake. Zecora shakes her head and writes a number in the table.
1987
"Pomnite etot nomer, eto mozhet pomoch' vam pozzhe."
What a faker that Zecora is.
As soon as you finish with your chocolate cake you put your lips to the coffee mug and whisper with a raspy voice, "Check please."
Your check appears under your plate, and you put some bits on the table. As you leave the cafe you saw the waitress nodding. But she wasn't nodding at you. She nodded to music that you couldn't hear, it was beautiful music. The moon no longer shone purple, it was normal now. The night seemed to be normal. As you walked out of the Everfree forest, the dog on the radio said something...about...the weather.
The book is in your satchel, where you left it, as you entered your home. Then you sit down and take it out. The book is warmer then it was before, it's still not growling. It had taken you no time to get back home, now that you think about it, did you ever leave? Did you ever leave your home? The bar and cafe, was it even there? Did you ever eat cake? Your heart hurts. You suddenly grab the book and throw it in your satchel. You run outside into the night, and your radio comes alive with a pop, just as the announcer says that your radio comes alive with a pop. You hear them calling, so you run to the Everfree Forest again, and you pant as sweat begins to trickle down from your forehead. There are ponies following you. You panic and run faster, but they seem to be gaining up on you.
Just then, you trip and fall onto your face. Your satchel drops onto the ground in front of a tall stallion in a black suit. You look up at him. He has no face. Just then, two mares come and take a hold of you. The Mare Who is Not Too Short is to your right, and the Mare Who is Not Too Tall on your left. You sigh and ask,"How did you find me?"
"Everything you do is being broadcast on the radio for some reason. That made it pretty easy." Says one of the mares, the one that isn't tall.
"Yeah," you say, "I see that now."
"You have the item?" The Mare Who isn't short asks.
You say nothing. The mare who is not tall tells the faceless stallion to pick up the satchel. He picks it up and stares at it. You don't know what to say. The tall faceless pony takes out the book, and stares at you. Was he staring? You couldn't tell, he had no eyes. He then takes out a key and opens the lock. He slowly opens the book, and a phone is in it.
"Reveal your destiny," says the faceless stallion who gives you the book. Suddenly, it's there. The tree is behind the tall faceless pony. It is darker than you imagined, and the books reveal themselves to you. You smile and take the phone. You then here it growling, and you called your old friend. You can't remember the last time you've spoken to her. Was it last week? Ten years ago? Or did she ever exist in the first place. The dog on the radio is saying all of this as it happens. You can't stop smiling. The phone stops ringing, and you're on the line. You take the phone...
