The first page is blank. The second page is far from it. The second page has colors, and images, and visuals, of pomp and glitz. These images are delightful. The third page is not blank, but it is hard to see what is written on it. The writing seems to be smudged, though we cannot quite tell. The fourth page is... dark, black, bottomless, and yes, quite weary, dreary, blank, but in a black sort of way. It's empty. The fifth page... wait until we get to the fifth page.
Soaring soaring soaring lights. Being being being bright!
Flying flying flying high! Going going going, why?
The story begins with a big black boom, an explosion of colors, and shining moons. The colors gather, and then they disperse. The world is shattered, only to search. The world that mattered found its birth. The shards dispersed, only to gather, upon which they burst, dispersing, versing, accursing, and searching... searching... searching, finding.
Finding what? Finding finding finding.
Going going going... huh? What am I saying? Who am I? What am I finding?
Boom. I can see all those shards of light, exploding moons, all shining bright, and flying up, and being strong, and being free, not doing wrong. I feel like a thing that created something. I feel like creation. I feel like the world. Can I be free? Only time will tell, on the steps of hell... well.
Fainting fainting fainting. Fading faintly fading, oh!
What is this? In this age, I awake. My fate.
All those shards of light appear to be me, and I am as alive as I want to be. I am free, I decree, and I never will see the light that makes me who I am die, nay. The explosions will stop. The cycle will drop. The world will too, and when I am through, the world will have inherited what I am. I tell you, the world will have inherited the death, and despair, and seething, writhing fear, that constitutes my life... but no longer, because I am true, and free, and very, very me.
The thing that went boom was me, and I say, to the world today that this will happen to it too. Yooou, wooorld, too, will, be, flee, from, the, the, the, thing, death? We will see. We will see. We will see. Boom. I exploded. No, it happened again, but I will leave something this time, before I depart. I will leave something that life can get, and grasp, and yes, see. What will it be? Under the moon, I behold someone. She will be my mark.
Never fret. Never fear. These ponies are heroes, dear. They know what they're doing. That's clear, dear reader, so follow along, and see where they go, and their journeys take part.
"Too hungry." Spike bravely, though maybe not so much, tossed himself on the ground. "Don't want to move. Too hungry."
"Have to go. Important. Hurry," Twilight said, placing a hoof under him and lifting him up. "Let us go."
Smolder walked by, laughing. "Really, dude?"
"Yeah, seriously?" Rumble said, coming too from behind.
"Too hungry," Spike said, crossing his arms.
"Spike has descended into a cave-mare," Twilight said. "It is what it is."
Smolder turned her head to Twilight and glanced in the direction of Spike. "Yeah, but come on. We have stuff to do. There isn't any food here. Can't you just tell him that?"
Spike came running, then and there. "Okay, I'm coming. Jeez. Allow me to be hungry, guys. Allow me to show that I'm hungry and stuff, with my words."
"Yes," Twilight said, smiling and departing in the opposite direction. "We're going now."
They were in an empty area, with a lone road, and then the air seemed to explode, go boom, and pieces of dirt, gunk, goo, and rubbish, and bark flew. They gathered, shards of stuff, enveloped in light, and the air pulsed. The moon appeared above them, the little group, even though it was broad daylight. They were on their guard, and Twilight immediately jumped to the front of the group, so as to offer protection from whatever this was. Be it some new villain perhaps? Well, perhaps. Before them, a house was being built out of the surrounding nature, and bits of landscape that actually contained trees. Trees fell down, across the ground, and splintered, splattering forth, dividing into pieces, the pieces gathering, and making a house. It was a... somewhat grey, dull, and rather, shall we say, unassuming sight. But the contents of the book should never be judged by its cover, dear reader, as we all know.
"Um," Smolder said. "What's this?" She literally didn't know how to react, so she just stood there, not doing anything.
"I don't know," Twilight said, turning to see if everyone was okay. "But it seems dangerous. We should all be a little careful, I feel."
"Careful?" Rumble said. "That is my middle name, actually, if you didn't know that." He treaded past Twilight. "I'm going to carefully see what's going on." He chuckled. "Come on, you guys."
"It could be dangerous," Twilight shrieked, catching up to him.
"It's just a house," he said. She jumped in front of him, preventing his advance.
"It's just a house? I'm not so sure," she said.
"Just let me go," he said, trying to get around her, but she followed and placed herself between him and the house.
Then, she glanced toward the sky. "Can you see that?"
His eyes turned skyward, and so did the rest. What they saw was strange, very much so, very, very, very strange, actually. The moon grew becoming so big that it took up an unusual amount of the sky. It was humungous, stupendous, and gigantic, awesomely so, and extremely much, exquisitely beautiful, but scary to the utmost degree of horror, because the moon was not acting as moons should, and it was clear to them all. The moon was shining, crisp and blue. Very, unusually blue, the moon appeared to them, which seemed strange to them, and they all were unsure of what to think and what to do. The moon was very strange. It was a strange moon. It was a blue moon, strangely. These things, these ideas, and ongoing events, happened for reasons that if these ponies and dragons knew them, they never would have done what they do next.
"Let's explore," Rumble said.
Twilight burst out, "Let us do no such thing."
"I agree with him," Smolder said. "This seems like exploring-time to me."
"But it's insane. It's dangerous. I mean- I mean, just look at it," Twilight said, swiping her hoof in the direction of the house, and the sky. "And the sky," Twilight said, adding the more conspicuous part of the scene into the equation, but the two of them, Smolder and Rumble, had already made up their minds.
"No, I want to know what's going on," Smolder said.
"You're crazy," Twilight said.
"I'm hungry," Spike said.
Smolder flew above Twilight and landed behind her. She came after Smolder. "I'll come with you, if- if I must. But still, I really think you shouldn't be doing this."
Rather than responding, Smolder just opened the door and walked in.
"Don't do it!" Twilight said, not really making any effort to stop her all the same.
"What do we do now?" Spike said, walking up to her side from behind.
"I don't know," she said, speaking slowly, and with a lot of doubt.
Rumble ran in the door. Twilight tried to catch him in her purple aura, of magic, but he escaped. Spike then sprung toward the door. "I guess we have to follow."
"We're really going to enter the house?" she said.
Spike went inside. Twilight gasped, and then sighed.
It really was something that these ponies and dragons, on second thought, should have reconsidered.
An echo went through the foyer. It was a rumbling, mumbling sound that sounded, vaguely, as if it was coming from a person, or perhaps a musical instrument of some kind, a trombone.
"What's that?" Twilight said, and her voice sounded faint inside the big empty space of the building.
A little further into the foyer was the entrance to a wide big space, a room, with bookshelf upon bookshelf upon bookshelf, full of books. Twilight walked further inside. She could not see Spike or anyone else inside this darkness.
She wondered where he could be.
Spike saw a desk, and a hooded figure sat behind the desk. Spike went to the desk. He could not see or find any of his friends, but he figured that this person might be able to help him. "Hello," he said. "I'm Spike."
"I'm a ghost," the figure said. It lifted up its arm, and the fabric fell back. There was a black hoof beneath it, faintly grey, and covered in liver spots. "This old already?"
"Okaaay," Spike said, feeling really anxious all a sudden. "Can you help?"
The hoof reached back and pulled the hood further down its head, making an effort to hide it even more. "You would not want to see me, I am certain."
Spike was about to go the other direction, and escape from this situation, redirecting his attention elsewhere, but each direction seemed to be shrinking, and the place did not look the same by the time that he had turned around. The bookshelves formed a barrier around him, barring his escape. They had certainly not done that before.
"Not so fast, Spike," the elder said. "You have only just arrived, and if my knowledge of your world is true, then it is considered, by some, decent and honest to at least say hello, and upon having done so, accept the hospitality of the person that invited you into their home." The pony had a faint voice, which was weak, and low, and vaguely feminine, but Spike could not be certain. He did not think this was an old pony's voice. It was more like a child's voice, very faint, and high.
"Why?" Spike said, then facing the pony again. "Who are you?"
"Let's play a game," the elder said, rather than answering his question.
"Let's not. Who are you?"
"Let's play a game," the pony said, again.
Twilight's voice entered the room, but it was distorted. "Let us do no such thing."
"Your friends are not all that playful, are they?" the elder said.
"You should let me out of here," Spike said. "It's not nice to trap ponies or anyone inside a house and not let them leave, you know."
"In five days' time you will have changed your mind," the elder said. "I promise you this."
"I'm not staying here for five days." He yelled out, "What's your problem exactly?"
The elder froze up, and then, whose body was faintly grey with a black cloak, dispersed into pieces, which ascended into the ceiling and disappeared.
Twilight was still in the foyer, hesitating. The pieces gathered, and formed a pony which shone like moonlight. Twilight heard this magic whir and tripped, trying to turn the other way too fast, and then, when she had caught her balance, she felt dizzy, and was unsure as to whether she was merely imagining this, or that it was real?
"I was unsure as to who would find the other first," the elder said, its light resolving into a rainbow that shone across its body, and then, fading, fading, fading, disappeared, gone.
"I don't have time for this," Twilight said, grabbing the figure with her magic and making it come toward her. The elder made no effort to resist, who now hovered in front of Twilight. "Where are my friends, and why do you have to be evil? We could be friends. Let's become friends, and reform, and have a good ending to this, so I can keep doing what I was doing and, ugh. Forget it."
"I am not necessarily opposed to the idea," the elder said, as Twilight put this figure down. The figure drew its hoof across its hood, almost instinctually, as if to be sure that it was still there. "We can be friends, good Twilight, and so can the friends of a friend, all yours, be mine too."
"What is it you want?" Twilight said, trying to know this person's motivation for villainy.
The elder in a quick and violent maneuver grabbed its hood and pulled at it so that it wrapped around its head. "The reason?"
"Why are you hiding under there?" Twilight said, pointing at the hood. "Again, let us just resolve this like adults."
"I am not long for this world, and there truly is no time," the elder said. "Regrettably."
"Why not?" Twilight said, feeling impatient and a little worried.
"In many days... in many ways... I don't exist, really," the elder said, tentatively.
"Speak in a way that is understandable," Twilight said. "I'm listening."
"I am a fragment of the present, always going away, and coming back again, in different forms," the elder said, "and I never exist long enough to truly be free, so that I can be me, and not some shadow of a distant present, never ever taking shape into something else, that is more than imaginary."
"Let my friends go," Twilight said.
The elder's head faced into the ground, and the figure hummed, figuring whether this was the right course of action. "No."
Its colors dispersed, and the pony vanished. Twilight swiped at it with her hoof, but it was gone.
"Ouuuh." Its pieces gathered, materializing in front of Smolder and Rumble, who had both found one another. They were in between two bookshelves, out of the thousands that stretched into the distance. It looked like an optical illusion. All the bookshelves looked exactly the same, were full of books, and seemed to go on forever into the distance, each next to the former, reaching toward the horizon, a never-ending corridor of books.
"Okay, seriously, what is this place?" Smolder said. The fact that the building was way bigger on the inside, this very fact, had gotten to her a bit. It was a fact. "This is impossible," she said, noting it.
"You cannot hear me?" the elder said.
They both turned around. "What is that?" Rumble said, his pitch rising for each syllable that he uttered, and he grabbed Smolder, then letting go, grinning. "Anyway."
"You have never seen a ghost before? Well, then, I can understand that I must seem frightening to you." The elder's colors faded again, and in front of them stood a hooded pony, an aged figure.
Smolder walked up and grabbed the hood, pulling at it. The elder flicked out a hoof that made her hand bounce back. "Do not, please."
"Where did you come from?" she said.
The elder stood back a bit, aback. "I am... exploring."
"Exploring what?"
"Life," the elder said. "I am not used to seeing this much life around my bleak solitude, which I am used to."
"Do you happen to know the way out?" she said. "Just wondering."
"You would better not leave," the elder said, walking around them, and standing behind them. "The spirit that created this place would not understand."
"Understand," Rumble said, just repeating the word. "This is way too weird." He didn't turn to see the elder.
"I do," the elder said, "but the spirit that created this place has passed on. You cannot leave."
"What do you mean we cannot leave?" Smolder said, turning, again walking up, and grabbing the hood. This time, the elder was not as fast to flick her hand away. "You cannot tell me what to do."
"No," the elder said, its colors again dispersing, and again, history repeats itself.
It was gone.
Twilight found herself outside the house. "What's going on?"
Upon her recollection, she had just blinked, and in the very next moment, she was outside. She saw herself. She was turned the other way. "I mean- I mean, just look at it, and the sky." Twilight swiped her hoof. Who did? Both did. Twilight felt her hoof fly into the air, as she saw distant, past Twilight do the same.
"What is happening?" Twilight said, raising her voice, and all the others turned around.
Twilight of the past got bleak, and she backed away, in fear. "Oh, no. It's me. Can you all see that?"
"I'm just as confused as you are!" Twilight of the present said. "What is happening here?"
The air pulsed. Both of them said the same thing at once. "What is happening?" It felt involuntary, the second time they did it.
They had said, "What is happening here?" Then they said, "What is happening?" They both said it at the same time. No, they are saying it at the same time. Wait, it seemed, to both of them, that they had said it at the same time. Twilight started floating. Both Twilights floated. They pushed against each other, uncomfortably, and then, they landed on the ground. They were tangled up, and both took care to make sure that the other one didn't trip as they both caught their bearings.
They were outside the house. Twilight said, "I mean- I mean, just look at it, and the sky." They both looked at one another, wondering who said it, but then, they noticed a third Twilight, standing in front of Rumble, outside the building.
"Don't do it," both the Twilights said. They paused, wondering what had just happened.
The third switched her attention, and saw the two. "Oh, no. I think something's seriously wrong," she said to the rest of the group, the third did.
"Why are you pretending to be Twilight?" Spike said, feeling indignant.
"No, you don't understand," the two Twilights said.
"Go away," Spike said, running toward them.
"Eep," they said.
The third Twilight followed Spike and said to the other two, "Who are you? You two?"
"Who are we?" the two said.
Then, the house was gone. They could see it no longer. "Who?" Spike said.
"Who is who?" the elder said, its shards building, making a pony. "No one is who no one is."
The three Twilights blinked, and each found her way back into the house, standing next to the other. They all saw what had happened, and now, they were considering it, thinking about what it could mean. "Whatever that creature was," one Twilight said. "It's not a good guy. This person is up to no good, for sure."
"What creature?" the other two said, in perfect rhythm with one another.
It occurred to the first Twilight that she was the only one that had met with the elder, and so, she had to choose her words carefully, so as to not confuse the other two. "It's the one that did this all. I don't know who it is, but I met that person inside the house, and I entered the house, and then, when I was on the outside, I found you two there. It was as if I had travelled back in time."
"This is a bit much," one of the other two said, feeling really, really uneasy, and shaky. "I don't want this to get any worse. What am I supposed to do?"
"Keep a cool head," the first Twilight said.
"That's easy for you to say," the other two said. "You know more about what's going on than we do."
The first Twilight felt terror slowly reaching into her body, as she realized what was going on, and starting to process it. "This is not good."
"No, it is not," the other two said, emphatically, again, in perfect synchronicity.
Spike was still lonely, inside the little space with the bookshelves, where he had been trapped. "What to do? What to do?"
The shelves then finally moved to the sides, allowing him to walk out. He did, fast, before they pushed together again, preventing any passage, or advance for that matter. He walked into a purple hoof, which made him fall over, and he was happy that he had found Twilight. Then, the hoof disappeared for half a second, came back, disappeared, came back, and vanished. He frowned, not knowing what was going on, or what to think of it. He stood up.
Twilight came walking from behind him, and he looked. The bookshelves united, making it impossible for her to come forward. "What?" He took a step forward, and then hesitated, and decided to go the other way instead. He was met with a purple hoof which pushed him to the ground.
"I'm sorry," Twilight said. "I'm preventing your advance. I don't know why, nor do I care, but I am, and I'm sorry about it." She melted, turning into purple mud that bubbled down into the floor, making a black hole that Spike then looked through.
"You're sorry, but you don't care?" he said, recalling the gibberish. "Where is the real Twi?"
He was starting to feel claustrophobic, and kind of shaky, and lonely, and he wondered whether there would ever be a way out.
The first page is blank, but it need not be anything other than that. The first page is just what they do before I come into the picture, a new fixture in their lives, one that shall remain there forever, I fear. I need friends, and I need good things too. I am too weary, and all too much tired, of life, and giving, without receiving anything in return, and these ponies will give me, as I have given, and I will take what's theirs, and that is my fate, I have decided.