Fluttershy awoke with a gasp. It happened again.
Fluttershy hurriedly made her way to her dream journal, a quill at the ready. When she got there however, she paused. The contents of the dream were still fresh in her mind, yet she couldn't bring herself to put them to paper. Fluttershy pulled away from the journal. Rather than attempt to document all that had happened she sat and let it wash over her. Fluttershy felt overwhelmingly... comfortable. It was a very jarring sensation. Just a second ago she had felt awash with panic, anxiety and fear, but thinking about it. Really submersing herself in the feeling, made it come full circle in some strange way.
She remembered back. The trees and the butterflies, both of which distinctly uncomfortable, yet not. She remembered the gaunt forest. There were more details now, in this briefest moment before the day came after her. It was snowing, this much she was sure of. Yet the ground bore no snow, and no flakes graced her fur. The butterflies, they weren't just inhabiting the forest, they were controlling it. They swarmed it. Yet, swarm wasn't the right word. A swarm implies chaos, destruction. The butterflies were graceful. They moved as one. Dancing and swaying in the still air. They were thousands, maybe millions strong. Yet not a single one fell, from the pack. Not a single one moved even a fraction of a millimeter from where it's place was. It was beautiful. Fluttershy blinked.
And just like that the moment was gone. Fluttershy was confused and upset. She couldn't remember what she dreamed of but she remembered the feeling. A wonderful comforting feeling. And Fluttershy was barred from feeling it, at least for now. Why had it gone in an instant anyways? Aren't dreams supposed to fade? Fluttershy dispelled this line of reasoning. This was no ordinary dream after all.
All Fluttershy had to go on now was the written accounts and the feelings in her gut. Maybe she should have written it down? Fluttershy quickly removed herself from the writing desk. Her rapid exodus from her bed had left quite the mess, which was promptly ignored. It would be dealt with later.
As Fluttershy made her way down the stairs she remembered the situation. The book, that's right! Now that Fluttershy was rested with no other plans, she was ready to get stuck in to that book. To unlock it's secrets. Unfortunately for her life isn't that simple and her mortal needs required attending to before she could begin. It is why Fluttershy reluctantly started breakfast.
Breakfast was to be done as rapidly as possible. As such two slices of toast. There would be no distractions today. The toast was popped in cooking begun. As the toast cooked Fluttershy looked around her home. It looked off. Yet Fluttershy couldn't place it. What was she missing? Or rather, what was her house missing?
This question would not remain unanswered for long. Angel bunny made his presence known. Hopping over to Fluttershy rapidly he immediately delivered a kick to Fluttershy. Who turned, getting a glimpse at his facial expression. Whatever it was, he wasn't happy.
"Oh, I'm sorry Angel, what's wrong?" While Fluttershy knew that Angel was at best uncaring, he wasn't usually immediately physical with her. So he must be very upset. Did she mix up his food?
Angel hopped to the front door, making a gesturing motion. Follow me, it said. Fluttershy looked to the toaster, then to the book then to Angel then repeated the process. She reluctantly followed Angel out the front. She idly wondered what would be distracting her today. Hopefully nothing stressful.
When Fluttershy arrived she saw Angel attempting to fight a bag of bird seed. Clearly this was time for another game of charades. "Angel, what are you doing?" Maybe this would clue her in?
Angel simply pulled on the bag. Fortunately for the rabbit it wasn't a massive bag so it came down after a fight. The top portion of the bag split open, revealing its contents for all too see. The effect was immediate.
As soon as the bag opened birds, previously hidden from view jumped into the fray. Hunting for something to eat. They were mostly Fluttershy's birds. At least, the ones that lived near her or that she was caring for. Still though, Fluttershy wasn't seeing the point. It should be clear that Angel wanted to feed the birds. Unless he just wanted to make a mess. But why? It wasn't as if the birds needed feeding, she had fed them yesterday. Hadn't she?
Fluttershy with a panic realized that no, no she hadn't fed the birds. Or the bunnies or the bears. Or any of the other creatures under her care. Angel wasn't upset that she mixed up his food, she hadn't given his his food.This added weight to her guilty conscious, this isn't something you do. You don't just forget to feed those who are dependent on you. Fluttershy pictured herself in a hospital, wasting away because the nurses forgot to bring her food. Not something she wanted to happen, and now she had caused it. She addressed Angel.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so so sorry Angel, I forgot!" Fluttershy picked up the rabbit. "It's just that I've been so busy and that I really needed to read that book and Twilight's been stressing me out and-" Angel, who had migrated to Fluttershy's hair put a paw over her mouth. The reasoning was obvious. Shut up and calm down. Fluttershy needed that.
Fluttershy took a deep breath and squinted her eyes. "I'm really very sorry, Angel I'll make it up to you, I promise." Angel had a devilish grin on his face and nodded his head. Fluttershy would come to eat those words. She knew it, but she wasn't going to dispute it. She had left him and all of her other creatures hungry, because she was too caught up in her mess of a dream.
Fluttershy heard the ping of the toaster, from inside the house. She still needed to eat of course, but as soon as she was done with that she would feed the animals. Fluttershy walked inside. She did feel guilty about eating first and then letting the animals eat, especially after she had starved them. But the toast was ready now, would be no good to let it waste.
The toast was prepared quickly and automatically. As Fluttershy sat down to eat her meager breakfast she looked to the book. It was with disappointment Fluttershy realized that this would put off her research by a few hours. her compulsion to learn hadn't gone away. In fact in the time since waking it had gotten all the more intense. Yet Fluttershy knew there was no way around it. she had to feed her animals. She had done too many bad things already and such a selfish act would break her. Yet it didn't get rid of the desire. No, need to read that book. She would just have to live with it for now. It should only take her an hour or so to feed the animals properly, so it wasn't as if this was cutting into her day. Yet unconscious desires like this are not so easily swayed.
Fluttershy's breakfast was finished with no fanfare. Dishes were ignored, of course. It was time to get to work. The tome mocked her from it's perch.
---0---
"And there you go Mr. Squirrel, again, I'm so very sorry." Mr. Squirrel simply took the peanuts he had been fed and raced up the tree. Fluttershy looked on with a small smile.
That was it, that was the last of them. Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief. It had taken Fluttershy far longer to feed them all than expected. The struggle was finding them. With the animals all missing a meal, many had gone out to find their own food. Meaning that Fluttershy had to track them down and assure them that yes, She will keep feeding them, that was a fluke. What should have taken her an hour had stretched into two and a bit because of that.
This also meant that Fluttershy was just about bursting to go read that book now. The need had scratched at the back of her mind. Consuming all thought until only thought about it remained.Meaning that Fluttershy was quite frankly desperate to read it now. She spent no time waiting, heading straight inside. She knew what the problem was now, also. All the animals had left. Many had returned now. This calmed Fluttershy to an extent. Not enough to stop her from reading the book right then and there. She grabbed it from where she had left it on the coffee table and headed for her room. Many of the animals watched her as she went. She didn't stop once.
Fluttershy threw the book onto her bed, following after it. She considered studying it proper, using her dream journal as a place to take notes, but thought better of it. She wasn't Twilight, she likely wouldn't get much out of the deal. So instead she opted to read it casually.
Fluttershy got herself comfortable. She got good and snug, closed the door and fluffed the pillows. It was all distraction really. As now that she had the book in-front of her, with no other responsibilities requiring her attention she felt great trepidation. This book had so much backed behind it now. It had the strange dream from her dream, her gut feeling telling her to read it, the royal seal and the fact that it was uncovered from some ancient temple from somewhere. What if she read it and it was nothing important? What if it's in another language? What if reading it causes her to unleash an ancient evil beyond her comprehension? Fluttershy knew that she was going to read it, there was no way around that. But she did delay it now that she was here. Like going last in public speaking.
Fluttershy started with the royal seal. It was the real deal as far as Fluttershy could tell. Which wasn't much admittedly. It also served as a reminder that this book should not belong to her, causing a pang of familiar guilt. Despite being a bearer of an element, Fluttershy never got anything royal shipped to her. Fluttershy eventually cut through the trepidation and cut the royal seal, causing the bow to fall undone. The card came loose. It gave Fluttershy another excuse to hold off on reading the real deal.
The card was clearly new. Added on as extra information to give context to the book itself. Fluttershy certainly wasn't going to ignore it. Flipping the card over it too bore the royal seal. It covered the opening of the envelope. Fluttershy's guilt deepened when she saw written on this side 'For Twilight Sparkle'. This card clearly wasn't meant for her either. This was worse though. While the book itself was a gift for Twilight, which she had taken out of necessity. This card was meant for Twilight only, it's contents specifically created for Twilight to view. Not her. Fluttershy thought about not opening it. It was the polite thing to do. However, she had gone this far and it wasn't like she could just give the card back with no book.
Despite her moral compass telling her not too, Fluttershy gently broke the royal seal. Fluttershy split open the envelope and held it upside down, the card came spilling out. Which was swiftly collected.
Fluttershy looked the card over. She was surprised how... tacky it looked. This card came within a royal seal yet was clearly bought at some post office. It had all the trappings of a tourists post card. The front cover had a tasteful rendition of a small traditional Saddle Arabian town. The picture showed the sun setting over the town, creating a beautiful kaleidoscope of colour. This lovely photograph was ruined however. Some pony with no sense of art had slammed huge block letters over a large portion of the photograph. It simple said 'Greetings from Saddle Arabia!'. It wasn't even original. The back cover held all the important information. Mail source, mailing address, post code, to and from. Fluttershy saw the 'To: Twilight Sparkle'. It had a lessened effect the second time. Fluttershy saw that it was also from a Dr. Bones, the name itself seemed strange to Fluttershy but was even more strange was that it wasn't from the princesses? Yet it had the royal seal? Fluttershy didn't know much about how it worked however, so she didn't give it much mind. No more interesting information showed itself from the outside, meaning that she'd have to read somepony else's mail. Fluttershy really hoped that it would be worth it.
Looking inside Fluttershy was struck by the impressive calligraphy, whoever wrote this knew what they were doing. There were no images or diagrams of any-kind. After a short internal debate, Fluttershy got reading.
Dear Mrs. Twilight Sparkle.
Greetings! Assuming that all has gone well you should be expecting this letter. My name is Dry Bones though I would prefer Dr. Bones. I am the head researcher behind the ongoing research of this archeological site. As I understand it you are something of a mare of science yourself so allow me to elaborate. My role is too oversee the excavation and exploration of this site. The site itself is truly something to behold but I won't spoil it for you. Something tells me that I'll see you here soon enough. But I get ahead of myself. You are probably more Interested in the book bundled with this message.
The book was discovered approximately a week ago. An excavation team was exploring a tunnel when it ended in piled sand. It was discovered that the sand had been stuck there for thousands of years and hardened. This happened when one of the team members leaned too hard on it and fell into an atrium of some sorts. The book before you was found in that atrium. Whatever it contains must be of vital importance, There has been no other book at all located within the site and furthermore the level of preservation indicates that it was greatly cared for. I implore you to examine it closely, one wonders why it was so cared for. I should also give fair warning that the book is written in old Equestrian. Do know that while Equestrian hasn't changed much over the centuries, this will make detailed study more difficult. Something I understand you have a fondness for.
That should be everything you will have to worry about now. If new developments arise I will keep you and our princess informed. I also ask that you show me the same courtesy. Any new information you are able to find from the book will help me dearly.
Best of Luck! Dr. Bones.
P.S - The Book has a magic dampening spell around it. We don't know where it originates from but be wary of using magic around it. Results so far have been unpredictable.
Checking for consistencies sake Fluttershy reread over the letter, just in case she had missed anything. She hadn't. Fluttershy was disappointed with this. The letter felt so insubstantial. The only really important information she could glean from the document was that it may not be written in the Equestrian that she knew. Though to be fair that was a pretty major piece of information. She was going to be quite upset if she went to all this trouble for this book just to find out that she can't read the thing. But aside from that the letter held nothing else of value to her. Dr. Bones spent far too much time rambling about himself rather than giving any useful information. Say, a guide of the books contents. Plus, for obvious reasons there wasn't going to be any more correspondents so it wasn't like she could ask Dr. Bones for more information. There was the information on the dampening spell, but what did she know about spells? Fluttershy couldn't exactly cast on the thing.
Fluttershy spent a few minutes analyzing the letter. Maybe she had missed something, at least, that was her hope. However as much as she checked and rechecked and rechecked no new information presented itself. She tried everything. Reading it backwards, reading the first letter of each line, reading the last letter, none of it worked. Fluttershy soon was defeated, placing the letter along with the discarded bow. Which left her with one final source.
The reason that Fluttershy analyzed the letter so intently was so that it would give her a clue. An insight for what was in that book. For while she did feel the desperate need to read it, rise the feelings of anxiety rose with them. She had good reason behind her anxiety as well. This book was supposedly ancient, discovered from a lost temple some thousands of years old. Yet it didn't have a scratch on it. With the modern looking binding it looked like it was printed a week ago. Didn't ancient civilizations use scrolls? There was more than that however. Fluttershy focused on her desire to read it. Why did she feel it so badly? She definitely did want to read this book, but she did more than that. She stole from one of her best friends for this book. She had kept it hidden from Rainbow, even when she knew she was hiding something. Why? It didn't feel right.
However, Fluttershy wasn't going to get to the bottom of this by thinking at it. Action was needed. Fluttershy sucked in a breath. Rather than open the book just yet she would look it over. Yes that's the right course of action.
Fluttershy scrutinized the front cover. A soft light purple greeted her. It covered the whole book, top to bottom. The cover was minimalist at best. There was no title, no author, no publisher. No text at all. It wasn't needed. The only draw on the cover was that tree. It was barely a drawing really. Rather than being drawn on with any marker or anything, the tree was just indentation of the front cover. You could only really make out the tree if the light hit it just right. Fluttershy had the right light however, so the tree was obvious to her. It was strange, the trees from her dreams were supposed to be gigantic. Supposedly they twisted in unnatural ways. Yet this was bound to the confines of a book. Bound to the laws of the mortal world. It looked just like a tree. Yet Fluttershy knew that it wasn't the case. How did she know that? It added to her anxieties.
Fluttershy flipped the book around, maybe more information could be gleaned here. It was not to be however. There was absolutely nothing on the back of the book. Just that same monotonous purple colour. Typical. This meant that there was no where to hide now, Fluttershy would have to get stuck into the book itself. All of her anxieties came to a head as she slowly opened the book to the first page.
Fluttershy let out a bated breath. Contrary to what her psyche showed her, Fluttershy survived opening the book. Furthermore she didn't even go mad from immortal knowledge. Not yet anyway. In fact the page revealed to her looked like the beginning of any book really. Well. Not really. To Fluttershy's knowledge most books opened with a table of contents or maybe a note to thank family members for sticking it through. This book however... just sort of begun. Right here on the very first page of the book was information. No credentials.
Fluttershy noted that there was one exception to this. The author. Printed on the back of the cover in a simple black font read "Written by Vigenère, the First". How strange. It was certainly the strangest name that Fluttershy had ever heard for a pony. But it didn't have to be a pony did it? Who knew what creature wrote this. The book being so old that literally anything could have written it. Fluttershy shook her head. She was getting distracted, she aimed for her prize.
And immediately hit a wall .Fluttershy really wanted to give Dr. Bones a piece of her mind right about now. The letter simply said that the old Equestrian made 'detailed study more difficult'. But it wasn't just that. It was completely and utterly incomprehensible. Fluttershy was pretty sure some of this stuff wasn't even Equestrian characters. The letter said that Equestrian hadn't changed that much as time moved on. Did this guy know what language he was speaking? Maybe it was an academia thing. Fluttershy then bitterly realized that Twilight probably had a translation for this somewhere in her study. If she couldn't just translate it instantly with magic.
Fluttershy's despair was mitigated somewhat when she saw that the next page had pictures. Maybe she could get a clue out of this after all. Fluttershy desperately hoped that was the case. If she didn't then who know what would happen? She might be stuck with restless nights for the rest of her life. Fluttershy shuddered. Take your mind off of it, You have the pictures. Fluttershy studied the first picture she saw closely.
It was a small picture. Jammed between two paragraphs of doubtlessly crucial, but unknowable information. Fluttershy marveled at its quality. For while it was clearly drawn with simple markers and maybe a bit of crayon, their application was flawless. The picture oozed detailing. Fluttershy knew that this was drawn by a professional artist. Which was why its content was so jarring. The picture showed tentacles. Many of them. The depiction showed them all flowing upward, seemingly pointing them at one central point. What, if anything, they were pointing at was not shown. Disappointing. A splash of pink seemed to indicate that there was something amongst the feelers. Whatever it was could not be made out. Again, disappointing. The picture made Fluttershy's skin crawl. It was the combination of the high quality artistry with the vaguely esoteric imagery that did it for Fluttershy. Content this strange should not be done this well.
Fluttershy just as she was about to move on, noticed something strange. A flap of paper, no larger than an ant had folded itself up. Pulling the fold all the way revealed that the page wasn't broken. There was still paper underneath. Then what was the fold then? Pressing her hoof against the page, Fluttershy felt a tiny bump. So small it could barely be felt at all, yet it told her all she needed to know. This was a separate piece of paper! Somepony had glued this picture over something else in the book. It made Fluttershy immediately curious. what were they trying to hide? Fluttershy applied more pressure to the picture. Maybe she could pull it off. Yet the adhesive proved stalwart in its defense. Fluttershy soon gave up pulling the image off. Anymore pressure and she was likely to tear the whole page out. She didn't want to damage the book that wasn't technically hers.
Fluttershy spent the next few minutes flipping through the book. Aside from the curiosity from the source of the pictures, this whole book was turning out to be a bust. Which was very frustrating to Fluttershy considering the lengths she went to acquire it. She done those bad things, and for what gain? Each page revealed more unusable information and creepy imagery, all superbly done and none being originally from the book. How strange. Fluttershy was tempted to just throw the book away at this point. So far she had gained nothing out of it aside from unrest and stress. Consciously Fluttershy knew that she couldn't throw it away. Even if there was only a one percent chance of the book giving her anything useful, she wouldn't live with herself if she didn't try. Eventually, Fluttershy's perseverance would pay off.
It was about two thirds of the way through the book. Fluttershy had all but zoned out at this point. Thinking about her life stuck with the dreams. How she would apologize to Twilight so she could handle this and she could go back to tending to her animals. She took notice of something as she automatically flipped the page. Focused fully on the book now, she threw the page back. There! The picture was larger than the average. Still beautifully created, yet not upsetting like the other pictures, at least, not in the same way. This picture was somepony's cutie-mark. Yet it wasn't just somepony's. It was hers.
Fluttershy quickly darted her head around the room. To Fluttershy's immense surprise and relief there was nopony there. Fluttershy's gaze lingered on the door for a moment before returning back to the book. Right there, in front of her in that book was her cutie-mark. The same three yellow and pink butterflies, arranged in the exact same locations. Fluttershy nursed a deep unease. How? How could that possibly be there? This book was ancient, how did it know what her cutie-mark looked like? Better question, why was her cutie-mark in there? Fluttershy felt ready to vomit. This- this made no sense. At all. It was all just a massive coincidence, it had to be. Fluttershy knew her reasoning was paper thin.
Fluttershy took a moment to recenter herself, as questions swirled in her mind. Fluttershy thought back to one of Iron Will's techniques. It was quite simple. Fluttershy closed her eyes and breathed. deep.
Fluttershy counted to three, she let out the gathered air.
One, two, three. Another breathe.
One, two, three. And there it went.
A breathe in.
A breathe out.
Fluttershy repeated this process for several minutes. Allowing the dangerous thoughts to flow from her mind slowly, like from a tap, just barely turned. Fluttershy was soon at peace with herself. Few thoughts caressed her mind. Slowly and surely she allowed her eyes to open again.
The book still lay in front of her. Her cutie-mark still was still impossibly presented to her in this ancient text. Fluttershy's controlled breathing hiccuped for a moment. Some more gentle breathing exercises calmed her down enough to the point that Fluttershy could rationally deal with this terrifying information.
Despite her best however, Fluttershy still could not make heads or tails of the image. The two big how and why questions tormented her with questions that could not be answered. This picture was attached with all the other images after the printing of the book. But that didn't really answer how nor why. This whole book was turning out to be one giant mystery. Fluttershy laughed silently to herself. Why did she expect any different?
With nothing else that could be done Fluttershy reluctantly moved on. Flipping the book over to the next page. Instantly Fluttershy recognized the next image. It was her dream again, artfully brought into the real world. Specifically those grand yet gaunt trees. The picture was much like the one on the page previous. Taking up the majority of the room on the page single hoofed.
This image raised a few questions of its own. Though nothing compared to the one found the page previous. Fluttershy felt that she would get the answers from this book, but never realized how the book would provide those answers. How did her dreams correlate to the information in this book? If only she could read it. Then she wouldn't be in this problem.
Yet the sad truth was that Fluttershy couldn't read it, no matter how much she desperately wanted too. Fluttershy wasn't about to abandon what she had found either. This so far is the only find of any significance she has found. Fluttershy very quickly flipped through the rest of the book, a hoof tracking her page. She had a feeling that this would be the only thing of interest for her. Her quick search revealing little of interest. Though she didn't exactly scrutinize the continuing pages. But she didn't care, she had what she wanted.
Fluttershy flipped back and fourth between the relevant images as she thought. What was it about these two images in particular that shouted out to her. She stopped and stared into the depiction of her cutie mark. Any hidden symbols? She picked up the book and held it against her window. Maybe a messaged revealed with light? No such luck. Fluttershy flipped back to the trees. Performing the same process. No help there either.
Fluttershy flipped back to her cutie-mark. She knew she was missing something.
Back to the trees. But what? there wasn't anything left to scrutinize.
Back to the cutie-mark. It wasn't a coincidence that these two images were next to each other, this much she was sure of.
Back to the trees. Maybe it had something to do with that fact?
Fluttershy stopped. Slowly she turned to the next page. More unusable text and uncomfortable images. But that wasn't why she was here. Fluttershy slowly turned the page back. Bringing her to the trees. Then back again. Back and forth, back and forth she went. A small smile graced her lips.
These two pages were different. Somewhere in her subconscious she knew exactly how these pages were different, it just hadn't reached her conscious mind yet. Fluttershy performed more testing on the two pages. Involving much flipping of them. Trying something different, Fluttershy moved the book to her side. She unfurled a wing and performed the same action with her wings. The far more sensitive flight muscles were easily able to discern the weakness. Her smile grew larger.
These pages weighed differently! But how? Actually no, not how, why? Fluttershy very carefully flipped the page between the trees and her cutie mark. This was the heavier page, this much she was sure of. Fluttershy thought carefully, why would this page be heavier? She thought to other oddities she found within this book. Her first thought went straight to the images. Rather the fact they're glued on. Whoever the author of this book was had made some seriously last minute changes. They could have done the same here.
The book was not Equestrian. Despite what Dr. Bones assured her, however the same did not hold true for the page numbers. They were all in the Equestrian she knew. Looking to the page with her cutie-mark showed a number '212', Fluttershy checked back a page to ensure that this was the page numbering. '211'. She skimmed all the way back. The numbering checked out. The book got stranger when she got back to the first page. '9'. Fluttershy was baffled, where had the first eight pages gone? Did they even exist? Fluttershy didn't dwell on this, she quickly returned to page two hundred and twelve.
She flipped the page over, her hunch was correct. There on the next page. '215'. These two pages had, for some reason been glued together. That's why they were heavier!
Fluttershy looked at the page. Now that she knew what she was looking for, it was much easier to spot. The job had been immaculately done. With nary a crease to be found. But it wasn't perfect. Squinting her eyes as best she could Fluttershy could see the line where the two pages intersected, proving her theory rigorously and finally
This left her with another question. Why was this page glued together anyways? It was almost certainly hiding something. That much she was sure of. But, if they didn't want to let her see something, why include it in the first place? Just tear out the segment that she wasn't meant to see and she would never be able to see it. Very strange.
Fluttershy with no other leads to go on attempted to separate the pages. For all she knew all she needed could be right on that page. This drove her to try harder. Fluttershy started by simply attempting to peel the pages apart. This gave Fluttershy more headway than she anticipated. that is to say she made any at all rather than nothing. The pages parted at the edge just a tiny amount. No more than a few millimeters, yet it was the confidence boost needed to bolster her efforts. Fluttershy continued to peel, small amounts at a time. It was slow work. But it worked none the less. Assumedly the larger the piece of paper the less effective the glue was. Clearly whoever had done this hadn't thought of that. It made Fluttershy feel clever. Briefly overtaking the other emotions bubbling underneath.
Due to the speed of her efforts Fluttershy began to zone out . Fluttershy was snapped back to reality when she saw something fall out of the crevasse. Fluttershy stopped peeling. It was a small piece of paper, no bigger than a library card. Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief. The trail didn't end here. Her efforts weren't for nought.
On first inspection the page was completely blank. At least, on the front. Turning the page over revealed text. Fluttershy hungrily read it.
jz rhy nndf ui dgsn rzpf fblxvs njpmx zs kt qmvlmxie htpsol uslqptblw tx vclaufr mie ysgsnr iq fs eff mxoieys mg mxixvrmcs bbwi ptfp jxxgxzyj yox xgwlwp rium rsl fcc oim yscqzufx
rhy rwp amilx
"I... what?" Fluttershy had been so excited, so sure that this would hold her answer. Instead she got this. Fluttershy didn't even have it in her to be angry. Fluttershy simply deflated, falling flat on her bed. She wanted to cry. This whole book had been nothing but a slog, but she accepted that. After opening it and seeing its contents, Fluttershy knew that this was going to be tough. And tough through it she did. But she was supposed to be done here. She did it. She found the secret that would lead her to her enlightenment. And she was denied it. At the last moment. Fluttershy flopped to her side. Away from the book.
Fluttershy remained like this, unmoving. The emotional toil that the book itself had put on her, let alone recent events left her emotionally exhausted. So she laid there and brooded.
Sixty seconds passed. No movement.
Two minutes passed. No movement.
Five minutes passed. A hoof twitched.
Eight minutes passed. An ear swiveled.
Twelve minutes passed. Fluttershy flipped over, facing the book.
Fifteen minutes passed. Fluttershy sighed.
Fluttershy raised herself from her bed. She sat up now looking back into the book. As much as she wanted too Fluttershy couldn't quit, not yet. The need to know gnawed at her, what with her being so close to the source of information. She tried and failed to ignore it. So she sat, looking at the book and the note.
But what could she do? She had already read through the majority of the book, and she had a feeling the remainder wont be much different. She already read the letter that came with the book, it was all but useless to her. The note was in complete gibberish. Fluttershy realized she had yet to finish prying the pages apart.
Fluttershy quickly opened the book, flying to the page or rather pages that were stuck together, Fluttershy continued the prying process. In her excitement to get another clue Fluttershy performed the action with far more gusto than previously. This was a poor idea. Fluttershy normally knew that excess speed would tear the paper. However with current state her wisdom was discarded. She was punished for it with an agonizing ripping sound.
Fluttershy immediately cringed at the sound. Squinting her eyes shut. Over a moment, Fluttershy slowly reopened them, dreading the damage. It was heavy. A clean tear cut straight from the edges of the paper to the middle. Only a small section of paper in the center was undamaged. Fluttershy berated herself, this wasn't her book.
Fortunately for her, the tear, while all but catastrophic for the integrity of the page, did little to prevent reading from it. Extra bonus, the rapid splitting had damaged the page but still had still done the job quickly. The pages were fully separated at this point. Fluttershy looked in and saw... nothing.
There was absolutely nothing between the two pages. No text, nor images, completely blank. Fluttershy meekly whimpered at this. She should know better than to get her hopes up. This book loved to disappoint.
This brought Fluttershy back to her original problem. Namely, where to go from here? Fluttershy breathed deeply. She needed to be clever about this, consider all her options. Make a logical decision. Her head already hurt from thinking about it. Fluttershy was not used to this much planning.
After much deliberation on how she would do it, Fluttershy got to work. She first brought together all the things that she had amassed thus far. Putting them in a neat line. Once this was done, Fluttershy looked over the assorted mysteries. There was the book itself, obviously, the little note that she had found from within the pages, the letter that had come with the book, and even the bow that the book came in. It was a small selection. What next? Then she would eliminate the irrelevant pieces. The bow was the first to go. Unless there was a secret inside the royal seal itself, the bow would be useless. Fluttershy doubted that, so it was discarded. Next to go was the letter. This had nothing to do with the book, just something the archeologist sent through separately. This left her with the book and the note. She didn't discard either.
So now she had the valuable pieces but why were they valuable? The answer was obvious. They held secrets that she desired. So what are the secrets then? Fluttershy felt a headache coming on. She pushed through it and started with the book. There were three things that were mysterious about the book. The illegible text, the strange images and her cutie-mark. Fluttershy went through them one by one.
The text was definitely the most frustrating thing about the book. All she needed was technically in-front of her yet she had no way of obtaining it. So what could she do about it? Well the obvious answer was translate it. But that meant a visit to Twilight, something she hoped to avoid. Plus, this was a whole books worth of information. Fluttershy's head already hurt from just this. Translating it was way out of her league.
Okay so what about the images? Well they were creepy that much she knew, but what information could they hold. Fluttershy flipped though the book, browsing them as they went. She noticed that the images weren't really related to each other. In fact very few had anything to do with anything at all. Only a hoof-full of them were related to her dreams at all. Fluttershy took this as a sign to ignore them. Well not all of them.
There was still the image of her cutie mark. It's implications haunting her. What could she get from this picture? This book was ancient, but maybe someone tampered with it? Is that why all the images are glued on? That would make sense for how her cutie-mark got on it. It would also mean that it would have to be somepony she knew. But of anypony she knew, who would want to put her cutie-mark and a whole bunch of weird images in an old book in an old temple. It didn't add up. There was only the note left. She would return here if nothing else came up.
Fluttershy looked the note up and down. What was it trying to tell her. Well the simple answer was that she didn't know. It was nonsensical. But then why would they make the note in the first place, and go to all that trouble to hide it? It had to mean something.
Fluttershy's head was truly throbbing by this point, but she pressed on. She looked closer at the message. There was an order to the chaos, for despite the gibberish that the text itself was, there was still spaces between them like normal Equestrian. Now that she had lead, she looked closer. Some words were longer than others, with two letter ones between the bigger ones.
She was reminded of her days at Flight Academy. Bullying policy was enforced well at that school so her tormentors would get creative once the old tricks stopped working. They would whisper to her as she trotted by and 'accidentally' knock into her when she held things. They would even disguise notes with other words so they could write her all sorts of atrocious things. Then it clicked.
This wasn't gibberish, it was a cipher.
Now that she knew, Fluttershy felt like an idiot. Of course it was a cipher! Any other pony would take one look at that and know without hesitation. As much as she berated herself she still needed to think. As much as she didn't want too. If it was a cipher then she needed to crack it. But how would she do that? She treated animals, not crack codes. She knew nothing about them. It was with a sinking feeling Fluttershy realized she did know a pony who would have an idea.
She would have to visit Twilight, again.
Fluttershy put her head in her hooves. Sighing deeply.