//------------------------------// // Ch 3: Clouds of Deception // Story: Worlds of Literature // by SergeantShenanigans //------------------------------// ‘How far away is this thing?’ Twilight wondered, sitting to take a break. Right after getting off of the beanstalk she began running as fast as her legs would take her. That was about an hour ago, now the castle only seemed to be getting bigger, but she didn’t feel any closer to it. The only indicator that she had traveled at all was that she could no longer see the beanstalk. A sudden realization ran though Twilight’s head ‘I only cast a thirty minute cloud walking spell, why am I still up here?’ Curious, she reached down and scooped up a bit of cloud. ‘I don’t get it! Clouds are made up of water vapor, how am I standing on it and holding it without magic?’ she wondered examining the puff of cloud. Completely forgetting her purpose on top of the clouds in the first place she began to test the clouds. First, she picked up a bit with her telekinesis, molded it into a ball, and threw it at the cloud ground. To her surprise, it bounced high into the air, slowly arcing forward as it became but a speck in the sky. ‘These clouds are really bouncy,’ she noted. Testing this further, she took a minute to prepare herself mentally and, bracing herself, jumped as high as she could. The result was not what she was expecting, instead of bouncing, as she had thought she would, she simply landed, exactly how she would have if she were on the ground far below. Twilight rubbed her temples as this information processed through her mind ‘Note to self, I am in a book, real world logic does not apply.’ With a sigh she looked around, trying to remember what exactly it was that she was doing up on clouds in the first place. “Aha! I remember!” She exclaimed “I was trying to reach that castle all the way over there to find the golden goose!” With a renewed vigor, she began another quickly paced run towards the seemingly infinitely growing castle. * * * Again, Twilight found that she had been traveling for quite some time and had seemingly made little to no progress towards the castle. Sitting and deciding to take another break she sat down on the soft cotton like clouds. Twilight’s eyes idly wandered the cloudy infinite expanse before her, when she noticed something a little off. There was an indent in the cloud just in front of her, and it was no normal indent. Scanning it confirmed it; this small hole in the cloud was made by her magic. ‘Wait, that can’t have been made by my magic, I haven’t been here yet!’ she thought incredulously. Deciding to make sure that it wasn’t her magic she designed a test, she quickly made a significantly larger hole just to the left of the first one. Turning back to the castle she began to run as fast as her legs would take her. After a moment she tripped on something. Inspecting what she had tripped on she found the large hole she had just made in the cloud floor moments ago “What?!” Twilight shouted “It doesn’t make any sense! I was running towards the castle! How am I still in the same spot?” She took a moment to collect her thoughts “Okay, okay, I could be wrong about this. There’s still a possibility that it’s all just a coincidence.” Deciding on one final test she turned away from the castle and began running, this time at a steadier pace. After only three seconds of running, Twilight let out a groan of frustration. She had quickly ended up right where she started, in front of her, was the beanstalk. “There must be a spell that’s making me go in circles! That’s the only reasonable explanation,” she decided, turning back towards the castle and returning to the holes she had made. ‘Is there something from the story that I’m missing? Was this even part of the story?’ She wondered. Thinking back through the story as she remembered it the only difference she could think of was that Jack walked instead of ran towards the castle. Coming up with no better explanations for it, she began walking towards the castle at an infuriatingly slow pace. Much to her surprise and annoyance, walking seemed to be working. Instead of seemingly making no progress towards the castle, it seemed to be getting closer at a lot faster pace than it had been originally. Twilight was speechless, walking, instead of running had gotten her to her destination at an impossibly faster pace. Her shock quickly turned into amusement ‘Rainbow would have a heart attack.’ Shaking her head and clearing her thoughts she continued on her quick approach to the castle. * * * It had taken Twilight about three hours all in all, but she had finally reached the castle ‘Now, to find that goose.’ Twilight quickly found herself confronted with another problem; she had no way to get inside the castle itself. Inspecting the castle she quickly found a solution to her problem, there was an open window not very far above her. She quickly teleported up to the window sill, but not paying attention to where she teleported to, she hit into a large glass bottle and knocked it to the ground below. After a large shattering sound she braced herself, expecting to immediately see the ferocious dragon that was supposed to be guarding the castle and its treasures. Moments passed, her eyes clenched in anticipation, but nothing happened. Hesitantly, she began to peek open her eyes, to see if it was just waiting for her, but there was nothing there. Scanning the room she found it to be an ordinary looking kitchen, except for the broken bottle on the floor. ‘Maybe there really isn’t a dragon…’ she wondered. She almost wanted to search around the castle for the dragon, just to see if it really existed, but she decided on getting that golden goose, and finding her way home. ‘Wait, why don’t I just use the spell again and see if it sends me back home?’ she realized. Scanning her mind she quickly remembered the spell and, eyes closed in concentration, she cast it. Moments passed and just like the last time she had cast the spell, nothing seemed to happen. She quickly opened her eyes to find herself still in the castle, nothing had changed. ”Why isn’t it working?” She panicked, casting the spell repeatedly. Yet as many times as she cast the spell nothing happened, unless finishing the book as it ended normally sent her back home, she was stuck here, forever.