//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - A Librarian's Shame // Story: Twilight Discovers Comics // by nyycuh //------------------------------// “What are you reading Twilight?” Spike's face loomed in Twilight's face just when she looked up from the comic book. “Ga!” Twilight quickly hid the comic book behind her. “What are you doing here?” “I should be asking you the same question. You've barely done any tidying up ever since I left for lunch.” Twilight gulped. The shame, oh the shame! She shouldn't have allowed herself to peek at his comics, now she was compulsively reading them one after another. After everything she said in the past that novels were superior to all comics! How could a princess be reading something as pulpy as superhero comics? “You – you’re the one to talk! You never offered to help me tidy up the room!” she stammered. “You told me I can't touch my comics until I turned in my book report, remember?” “Well, I – that was just a figure of speech! But since you're not interested in helping, why are you still here?” Spike's eyes narrowed at Twilight. “Have you been reading my comics?” Panicked, Twilight teleported herself and the comic book out of the room. Spike gave chase, shouting, “Twilight, I'm serious! You promised you won't throw them out!” Spike chased after Twilight as she teleported around the tree house in rapid succession. Somehow, Spike managed to find her in every hiding spot she teleported herself into. In the wardrobe, under her bed, on the balcony, even in the canopy of the tree, Twilight just couldn't escape from his wrath. Spike finally caught up with Twilight when she mistakenly teleported right in front of him in the bedroom. Spike charged into her, and they rolled into Twilight's personal bookshelf, knocking down all the books and raining them on their heads. “Ooh, my head,” Twilight said groggily, pushing off a bulky volume of War and Conflicts Of Pre-Equestrian Era off her head. The comic book lay undamaged and opened in front of her. Spike popped out of a pile of books. “Ah ha! I caught you in the act! You're trying to get rid of all of my comics all along, aren't you?” “No, that's not what I'm doing!” Twilight protested. “Then why are you trying to hide my League of Heroes issue nine with the limited-edition variant cover drawn by Swirly Paint? Reading it? You don't read comics! You said so yourself!” Twilight threw her hooves up in the air in surrender, yelling, “Alright, alright! You want to know the truth? I READ IT! I've read your comics for the past hour and a half, and I actually ENJOYED IT! Are you happy now? I've brought great shame to myself!” Twilight covered her face. She felt unbearable shame. A librarian reading comics! After lecturing foals and fillies all over Ponyville about the virtues of reading proper books, of learning grammar and vocabulary from written words, how could she face any pony in Ponyville now? Princess Twilight Sparkle, comic book dork, reading the same comic books that gave rise to literary abomination like Vondork and his creepy harem of skinny mares! “Hey, it's no big deal. I don't think it's shameful,” Spike said slowly. Twilight uncovered her face. “Of course you'll say that, you're not a librarian.” “Twilight, you like novels with good stories, right?” “Yes.” “You won't read books that are bad, will you?” “No.” “That didn't stopped you from reading novels altogether. You've read some good and bad comics, haven't you?” “Oh yes, I've read some truly awful ones.” “But you've read good ones too, right? At least, the ones you enjoyed reading?” Twilight looked down at the comic book. The comic book opened to a full-page spread of Star Storm. She was levitating in mid-air, her eyes glowing white, unleashing a storm of lightning on the winged minions surrounding her. “Yes, I admit it,” she said slowly. “See? I told you comics can be good. There is nothing embarrassing about reading comics.” Twilight climbed out of the book pile. “I – I think you're right Spike. I shouldn't have dismiss them all just because of a few rotten apples.” “So, you finally ready to admit it now Twilight? Just say it,” Spike teased. Twilight smiled. “Oh alright Spike, I admit. I was wrong to think all comic books are bad.” “So, can I have my comics back now?” Spike asked hopefully. Twilight thought for a while. “Well alright, you can have them back-” “Yes! Woo hoo!” Spike yelled out. “-after I'm done tidying up the back room-” Spike stopped smiling. “Oh, barnacles.” “-and reviewing them all. In the meantime, you can keep reading that book I lent you. Okay, I'll be nice. I won't need the book report from you anymore.” Spike sighed. “Oh alright, as long as I still get my comics back.” “Also, I want to have a serious word with you about those bad comics.” “Which one?” “Vondork. Those books are repulsive. I don't think they're even suitable for your age.” Spike sighed. “Yeah, Vondork's comics used to be good, but everything went downhill when the publisher canned the old continuity and rebooted all the characters.” “Reboot?” “Basically, they're rewriting all of their characters' back stories. They said they want to make them more 'grown-up'.” Spike said the last word sarcastically. “But, why would they do that?” “Beats me, they said readers have become older and they like more matures stories, so they want to make them all 'dark and gritty'. To be honest, I don't really like what they've done so far." “I don't need to be a die-hard fan to see why.” In her mind, Twilight had already started penning a stern letter of complaint to the culprit publisher. They would definitely listen to complaints from a princess. “By the way, do you know that the writers behind League of Heroes used to write the award-winning Vondork And The Amoral Vigilantes series? They left their jobs when it got canceled, formed their own comic book company and started writing League of Heroes. They're real-life comic book legends! Isn't it amazing?” “Wow, who knew? So you won't mind if I get rid of the really bad comics?” “No! I still want to collect them. Who knows, they might become valuable one day!” Twilight rolled her eyes.