//------------------------------// // Part 2 // Story: Welcome to Pony Vale // by iisaw //------------------------------// Listeners, I have breaking news! Despite the best efforts of the Sheriff’s Secret Police. we have received confirmation that over 100 citizens have apparently willfully experienced the punishable hallucination, and have also... Wait! I've just received a note from station management. It is a dark clay tablet incised with strange and disquieting runes and sigils from some inhuman language. Luckily, there’s a post-it note with a translation stuck on the back! Let’s see… It says, “Keep her away! To be befriended is to be subsumed. Go. Go to the library. This creature from another dimension must be stopped! A sacrifice is needed.” Isn’t that just like management? I’m right in the middle of my show and they want me to run errands. Well, intern Eric hasn’t returned from the Mayor’s office yet, so I guess I’ll have to go. It’s too bad Tamika left during the weather; now there’s a girl who knows how to handle librarians! But don’t worry dear listeners; I have my portable audio equipment and will be able to continue broadcasting. = = = Outside the station now, and I just ran into John Peters (you know, the farmer?). He was humming quite a catchy tune and occasionally doing a few dance steps as he walked along. When he caught sight of me, he ran over and gave me a big hug. “You’re a good friend, Cecil,” he said to me. “I don’t tell you that often enough! I’m going to go get some ice cream now. Wanna come?” I checked his skull for large, pulpy brain parasites, of course, but found nothing. I am continuing toward the library. I see more people on the streets, all smiling and humming. Honestly dear listeners, this is starting to creep me out. Ah! There’s the library now, and… oh no! The barricades have been removed! The razor wire is gone! The doors… the doors are open! And there before them stands a defiant Tamika Flynn. Oh, I am so relieved that at least she isn’t smiling! She’s calling out toward the open doors of the library. I don’t think my equipment can pick up her words from this distance, so I will repeat them for you. “Come out, librarian!” she growls in a determined voice. “I’m ready for you!” What a brave little girl! I’ve never had the nerve to get that close to the library even when it was sealed… oh it’s Carlos! Hello Carlos! He waved to me from across the street! He’s setting up what looks to be some very complicated scientific equipment. He seems distracted, and he must have carried all that stuff a very long way, but his hair is still perfect. I just don’t know how he does it! Maybe he will want to go get ice cream together when all this extra-dimensional librarian/hallucination stuff is over with. Now he’s focusing intently on something… oh, the library! Yes, it seems that something is stirring in the Stygian depths of the tomb-like interior. Slowly, slowly a figure is revealed. A hideous entity that is too horrible to… well… Actually, she’s kind of cute. The hallucination blinks in the bright sunshine and looks down the steps to where brave Tamika braces herself for battle. “Oh, hello!” the monster says, in an inappropriately lovely voice for a horror from another world. “What do you want here?” Tamika challenges the purple (or is it lavender?) winged unicorn pony... thing. “I won’t let your nefarious scheme succeed!” The creature blinks in confusion. “I just came for a book,” she replies. Tamika straightens up slightly from her fighting crouch. “Really?” “Uh-huh,” the hallucination says cheerfully, and her horn begins to glow. From out of the hideously open library doors floats a book enveloped in a pale aura. It’s… yes, it’s Italo Calvino’s If on a winter's night a traveler. The book drifts through the air and stops a few feet in front of Tamika and the front cover opens. Oh, dear listeners, I can barely watch! What eldritch horror will be revealed? It… it… it seems to be a small manila card. Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting that! “See?” the frankly adorable abomination from another world says. “It’s correctly checked out and everything.” Tamika stares at the card for a moment and then gives a slight “huh” of surprise. “Well… I guess that’s okay then.” She sheepishly replaces her battleaxe in her backpack. “Sorry,” she continues. “I thought with you being a librarian and all… it’s just not how things usually go around here.” “Oh, no problem!” comes the terrifyingly cheerful reply from the creature. “I wasn’t ever officially a librarian. That’s a common misconception a lot of ponies have.” This… Tamika is right. This is all so wrong. Cheerful conversation… smiles… and absolutely no blood anywhere! What is happening? Now Tamika and the monster are walking together, side-by-side toward the Ralph’s. Oh no! The creature… she… she just turned and glanced at Carlos! He nods and smiles at her, oblivious to the terrible danger! She bares her teeth in a twisted expression that… oh… I guess that’s a smile, too. She nods to Carols and says in a bright cheerful voice, “Nice hair!” Carlos says, “Thanks! I like your mane.” Huh. Well, obviously this horror from another dimension has pretty good taste in hairstyles. Now the monster turns her gaze on me! What will… Oh. She just told me that she and Tamika are going to get ice cream and asked if I’d like to come along. I glance at Carlos, who is already packing up his equipment. He nods encouragingly. "Well, if my friend Carlos can come along?" “Of course!” the monst… uh, the pony says with a beautiful smile. I… I am going to turn off my portable broadcaster now, listeners. I am alright. I will be back. Somehow I know this. Suddenly, I feel like singing. Stay tuned next, for the sound of a heavy, many-legged creature, scrabbling at the ceiling above your bed. Goodnight, Night Vale. Goodnight. = = = =