Blink and Miss It
BLINK AND MISS IT
by Ponydora Prancypants
I wish I wish I wish ...
I wished to be a part of the plan, et voilà. I wish this wasn’t happening, but there he stands, as existential as life, and he turns, and he sees me. I made a terrible mistake, and have no more than a second to spare.
I wish—teleportation always involves a heavy-hooved pinch of wishful thinking—and half a half-second ticks away, and I’m gone. Blink and you’d miss it.
As I panic-stricken slide through the crazed panes of dimensions I see a steep slope slanting toward me and know I am slipping into an inevitable lifetime of self-recrimination. Because I thought to look through my telescope.
To gain perspective. To plan. To recover my stolen breath.
To wish.
I wasted the first half of the half-second comprehending the ramifications of my tactical error. His nose for magic is sharklike now; he could have detected a drop, and I am a boiling ocean. I was marked before I lit on the platform and set my eye to the eyepiece. But the irresistible homing pigeon directive that took me here didn’t consider the consequences. Home, it cooed in my breast. Home. Home. Take me home. Country roads. Ponyville. Home.
Stupid pigeon heart. My mind is racing with avian celerity.
In the West of Trottingham lives an earth pony,
He says, ‘I don't fly, but my pigeon does.
And when I open his crate,
I forget my natural state
And soar on pegasus wings.'
These purple feathers came complete with a bird brain, or I would have resisted the primordial urge to retreat to my knothole, and transcended my inner foal’s desperate need for security. A tattered, patched-up old security blanket that was blue once is already wisps of ash scattered in my memory-cluttered head. Ashes, ashes, we all run out of time in the end. Time to fly when I’m not having fun. Half a second is what I’ve got. Must remember that.
He’s twenty ponies tall and colored like the fire department. Did I really need to go home to look at him through my telescope?
Sometimes when my body is scattered across the interstices between realms my thoughts get scattered too, especially when I’m anxious.
A champagne cork pop as the spell dissipates, and I’m in the bosom of hearth and books, where Rarity popped the first cork of many at my post-coronation celebration, not so long ago. Didn’t drink the hot sauce that time.
The heady aroma of binding adhesive and musty parchment welcomes me. Smells like books. I know what a burned book smells like. The acrid memory is gravid with horrible inevitability.
Have you ever seen a dragon sneeze?
Have you ever seen a horsefly?
He gave me a new copy of The Astronomical Astronomer’s Almanac to All Things Astronomy. Well, a new old copy. It’s been out of print for ages. He tracked it down, because of course he did. I can see it, shelved in its proper place. Catalogued.
I often find myself cataloguing things subconsciously, especially when I’m anxious. Making inventories. Tallying. Mental checklists. And I don’t want to think about the smell of a burned book in this singular sub-second.
My bust of Belleropone is in its place, the old stallion maintaining his dignity to the end. Forget his illustrious years of service, how many Rainbow Dash near misses had he survived, after taking seven hundred years to find his way to a library reading table?
Check.
A bevy of birch besoms. A bantam basket for a baby drake. A bottle of brownish balls from the Bizarre Bezoar Bazaar.
Check. Check. Check.
The antique lectern sagging under the heft of the complete unabridged dictionary of modern Equestrian. Alicorn, it says. 1. noun. al-uh-corn. A winged unicorn, such as the royal Princesses of Equestria. An etymological amalgamation derived from the Old Unicorn words ala, meaning wing, and cornu, a horn. The spelling has inexplicably morphed to match that of the completely separate word for the substance comprising the core of a unicorn’s horn. 2. noun. A chump, a naif, a doe-eyed ingenue who, in her zeal for more, always more, heedless of her qualifications, arrived at the present situation wherein an important municipal resource cum personal residence cum trove of every meaningful object in a young, foolish pony’s life is about to be shivered to splinters. See also Princess Twilight Sparkle.
An alewife is a fish, and a fishwife probably drinks too much. It doesn't make sense.
The plan.
Take the magic. Hide. How could I hide? Keep it secret, or your friends will be in danger. Or? How could they ever have kept safe, with Discord against us? I used to ask questions first. It's a little late now, don't you think? Well excuse me, Princess.
A new plan: get the owl, and get out.
But the checklist is growing, as is a checklist's wont. The chalkboard with my latest work on Fermare's Last Theorem. Check. Check. Check. Testing. One. Two. Three. Prepping Rainbow for her test. One. Two. One. One half-second. Time keeps on slipping.
Suddenly I can think of a better use for Starswirl the Bearded's one-time-only time travel spell than telling myself not to worry.
Gala dress.
Birthday dress.
Frilly cuteceañera dress.
Silly costume princess dress.
Spike would always clear the mess.
Not this time.
But I didn’t start the fire.
Check.
My starry night bedspread. Telescope. Zoetrope. Magilectroencephalograph. Photographs. Epitaph. The girls. Spike and his little phoenix. Yellowed damareotypes of my grandparents. My brother. The lights are low and the entire library is a camera obscura with a pinhole projecting my memories upside down for one fleeting moment longer. The heretofore life and times of Twilight Sparkle. I don't dare blink and miss it.
Smarty Pants got out. Good girl. She is always so on top of things.
Most of the chemicals in the basement are flammable.
And so are books.
Check.
The scoundrels on my overdue list are now heroes.
Check.
Time to check out.
Get the owl and go.
He is sleeping peacefully on his perch, of course. This is just another day at the office.
The blast has connected, and the walls are suffused with a blood red glow, highlighting the subtle differentiation in the vascular cambium of the tree, reminding me that it is alive. Was.
At least fifteen-hundred years removed from the acorn. Before we ponies were even strangers in a strange land.
The Apples found it here, already strewn with scrolls that fell to dust when touched. Who left them? Who compiled the hidden book of lore that led me to the Mirror Pool? How many other secrets will never be uncovered. Mysteries for another Twilight Sparkle in another corner of the multiverse. I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely.
Time's up.
The world is bursting around me and the ringing in my ears sounds like singing. I must go to him. I won’t look back. Yes, I will.
And when I open his crate,
I forget my natural state.
I wish.
Fly home, Your Majesty,
Make my wish come true.
Je suis la princesse des pigeons.
I squeeze a startled mass of feathers against my breast.
Too late now for anything else.
Time to shoot first, and ask questions later. Like a Princess.
Still
I wish I wish I wish ...
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Wow - that was fantastic. Great read. Thanks.
well that was... Huh... That was... Painful. And chilling.
I read this out loud, with all of the appropriate pauses and emotions, just to savor the feelings and intent behind the words. The monotome and at times emotionless voice I used served to just magnify an already encapsulating story.
I still weep for BookTree.
You have made it no easier.
Bravo.
Well, I think the best way to sum up this story is with a single word: surreal. I've heard of having a a hundred thoughts rushing your head, but this one-shot probably describes it the best. To be honest, I was left confused and lost most of the time and had to re-read more than just a few sections just to get a grasp on what was going on, but I'm certain this was intentional. Overall, superb detail of what was going on in Twilight's head. I enjoyed it.
Also, could you tell me how in the world you are able to write a scene like this? This must take some sort of mind set that just boggles my head.
A nice look at Twilight's last look around her former home cataloging everything she's about to lose forever, and realizing the one thing she HAS to save. Also glad you realized like I did, Smarty Pants is one of Twilight's few precious treasures that IS safe, cause Big Mac still has her.
Beautiful piece.
This was breathtaking and heartbreaking. An excellent addition to the collection of eulogies for the Library.
I love that line so much.
Excellent job! Frantic and broken and sad, it captures the enormity of the event and the flash in which it all happened, combined with some clever commentary on the plot as well. Nicely done... I'm so glad you put this one out!
After reading Que Sera, Sera, I'm not sure I dare read another sadfic by you, good sir.
I remained stoic, until
That shook me. Then the last line squeezed a tear out of both eyes.
You've condensed the power of Que Sera, Sera into a 1,200 word miracle.
Congrats on a new follower. Me.
I think the library tree is my favorite house in any fiction, ever. It's full of knowledge, has mysterious panels hidden in it's shelves. It looks gorgeous. It feels warm.
And the memories. It's the home where Twilight met her friends. Where she learned so many lessons about the world. Where she became something more.
And it's a tree. It's alive like few houses are, or ever will be. It's more than just a home, it's a friend.
This story is a beautiful homage to it. Thank you for writing this.
Count me in as another that loved the overdue list line.
Excellent story, Prancy.
Poetic, poignant and powerful.
I, too, will mourn for the tree.
Damnit. And here I had just today reachieved some form of balance about this show.
Let's just say that I am more upset than I have any right to be about the pretend destruction of a Flash asset. I guess what bothers me is that Ponyville has clearly been destroyed and rebuilt, virtually in toto, time and time again. It's become a running gag in the fandom. To suggest that they're not going to regrow the library (it must be within the realm of mystic possibility) as they have reconstructed every other building that has ever been destroyed is not a statement of practicality, it's a clear statement that the characters blithely prefer their new Rainbow Power Magic Friendship Castle over that drab old tree any day. Everyone writing a fic like this knows that's not unilaterally the case. And I can't get it to reconcile.
This screed is utterly tangential to the topic of your quite wonderful story of Twilight very credibly thin-slicing four years of her life in the few seconds left before disaster. Excellently done.
Yet again, Ponydora, you fail to disappoint.
#savetree
4390167 I would have believed they were going to restore the tree, except that they elected to make the new castle resemble some kind of rainbow crystal oak, which sprung from a giant crystal acorn, which tells me that it is meant to be the "New Tree." A shame. Thanks for reading!
Headcanon accepted. I love the idea of an ancient tree filled with lost knowledge, and has been there for 1500 years. But now... merely a smoking memory. A graveyard of knowledge.
Time to figure out a way to honor it.
4389891
I was a big fan of the treebrary too. It was one of those things that made Twilight and her story special. Thanks for reading!
4389646
Thank you for the kind words!
Twilight's stream of consciousness during the destruction of the library? I love it!
My favorite bits:
- Yup, I'm old.
- There are stories with tens, or even hundreds, of thousand of words, that don't do the Spike/Twilight dynamic as well as this.
-
Alas poor tree, we hardly knew ye.
4389689 described it best. It really is hard to believe that in real time, this story is really just a few seconds long, if that. That makes the thoughts running through Twilight's head all the more powerful.
However, as strong as it is, the ending could've been stronger. I never really got the sense that Twilight's despair was turning into rage. She was still as methodical and calculating as she was throughout the rest of the story. Instead of thinking "this is what I have to do now," I feel that her thought process should've been more along the lines of "My name is Twilight Sparkle. You killed my house. Prepare to die." Or is that just me?
Either way, that's pretty much my only real contention with this wonderful peek into Twilight's mind. A marvelous tribute to Golden Oak Library indeed.
I know Corne means Horn in french, but isnt Alicorn supposed to be All in one + Unicorn? xD
This is not the kind of information you get in a dictionary. Y'know, saving space because its a super heavy bigass book?
So, incase anypony somehow could not guess what it means, "I am the princess of pigeons."
Yes, Twi, damn right you are. Looking trough a telescope for that..
Wow what an intresting story.
The ryming in it was grate. good work.
Wow. That was heartbreakingly beautiful and I just cannot believe that you put a single moment into a short story. Good sir, you have one hell of a vocabulary and I sort of wish I knew half as many words as you do. I've been reading your stories for a long time and you have never seized to amaze me.
I wasn't expecting another story from you today but it really cheered me up knowing that there was something new for me to read by one of my favourite authors.
The Golden Oaks Library was a major part of the show and when it was just blown up I was torn. I could not believe that it was actually gone. But I think that by reading this little gem, I've come to terms with its absence and even though the new castle is not nearly as iconic as Twilight's home, at least someone wrote a story that entered the mind of the pony of whom dearly loved it.
Thank you so much for writing this and I hope to see more amazing things from you in the future.
- Crystal Secret
Oooh, look at that reference... never has it been more appropriate!
I'm not even spazzing about the tree but this is excellent. Superb job as always, Ponydora.
s6.postimg.org/dd47s96ap/Pirate_Approved.jpg
4390225 .....I feel like all of us are missing something obvious about the new "tree"....I can't figure out what.... I'll edit this if I figure it out.
EDIT: I...think I figured it out....The new tree is roughly in the same area as the Golden Oaks Library....The Library is almost always depicted in the town square, and the rainbow that took the box to the site of the new tree seemed to land directly in the town square, and you see homes in the background, so Ponyville may be a little bigger than we originally thought...which would explain the less populated area on the new site...so...Did the new castle use the Library's Roots to decide where to grow?
4391552 I think you're the first one to call that out.
Thanks!
Ow ow ow!
Right in the feels!! A terrible sliver of time, decompressed into beautiful cognizance. You have inspired me!
Alas, poor treebrary! We knew it, Celestia. A fallow of infinite lore, of most excellent fiction. It hath borne us in its trunk a thousand times; and now, how abhorred on our television it is! My feels well at it. Here hung those branches 'pon which Dash has landed I know not how oft. Where be your lab now? Your friendships? Your books? Your Bearers of Harmony, who were wont to meet for merriment and more?
A wonderful eulogy to the most iconic stucture in the show. I have to say though that I like the new treehouse. I feel that its a fitting tribute to what was lost because Twilight's new castle could have been anywhere and looked like anything, but that chest chose to go to where the treehouse once was and build a new one. It's definitely a symbol of Twilight becoming more secure in her princesshood.
Well, I was feeling better about the tree being gone...
Thanks a lot.
Crap. I love this.
The most fascinating thing about this story is that in takes place in mere seconds.
Powerful and beautiful.
Great work, thank you!
Glorious. Thank you, Ponydora.
Isn't it odd that it's left to us to illuminate the real depths of these characters, when their 'realities' can't and won't?
This is beautiful :) Great job.
Now my coworkers are making fun at me for tearing up.
Thanks, Ponydora.
Anyone losing their house would be furious and/or despairing, but Twilight, with her analytical mind, doesn't just know she lost everything. She knows *everything* she lost.
Caught a little Billy Joel in there, and that moment was the most bittersweet for me. Made me laugh that it was there to begin with, but sad because she's listing things that she'll never see again. Ever.
Although Smarty Pants is hiding out at the Acres. Also I think there's a moment in the show that shows Fluttershy having all the Gala Dresses in her closet at her cottage. But that's stupid because losing it in this story hurts in the best possible way.
So many references in this though. I doubt I noticed them all. Excuse me, princess.
And right after I read Gone Too Far, too. Where Celestia gets upset at Twi for doing just that.
But of all this story, "A new plan: get the owl, and get out." is what's going to stay with me. When everything in your house is important, and you can only get one thing, you need to decide what irreplaceable thing is the most irreplaceable. What you can't live without. Rare books? Sentimental outfits? Groundbreaking research? No. Get the owl, and get out.
I would have never thought such a heavy subject could be done so beautifully. Impressive, heartbreaking, and eloquent are the words that come to mind.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/9/29/437634__safe_solo_rarity_animated_crying_sisterhooves+social.gif
Oh the feels.
Description: Nice use of Kilmer's poem there.
Too many people don't respect how deep Trees is.
As for the story:
I'm blubbering like a fool. Thank you for such wonderful writing, but curse you for the blue feelings! (Pop Quiz: Does anyone know the quote I've just altered and utterly bastardized? History buffs should get it.)
That hurt to read. That hurt to read very badly....
Do you take pleasure in my computer shorting out because of my tears?
*reads description*
MMIT I DON'T WANNA SAD RIGHT NOW 
*looks at tags*
*reads random comments*
... D
I'll be back for you
I'm in awe of your prose and poetical talents. I should stop writing, there's no way I can ever attain this level of deep.
Twilights life
Your story is a subtle knife, sliding so sweetly into ours hearts, leaving a wound most grievous, and most welcome.
It's not difficult to write a 'story'
It is difficult to write one well
It is difficult to write introspection and desperate thought well
This is an example of writing a character's desperate thought into a moment that becomes a story of its own. The fact that you accomplished this with poise and without resorting to campy "and then" moments is remarkable.
It is a true shame that most people will gloss over this in favor of other stories for they shall miss a truly exceptional work.
4390810
Thanks for the translation. I had wondered about that.
In a similar vein: I believe that "damareotypes" would be the ponified plural of "daguerreotype".
Is "I wish I wish I wish" a reference to a unicorn from an earlier generation who used her magic with those words? Google-fu reveals a song by someone named "R Kelly" but I doubt that is the reference.
This is but one of MANY reasons why I despise... no, BEYOND DESPISE the Season 4 finale. In my opinion, the entirety of the S4 finale left me bitter and empty, wrought with feelings beyond anger and hate, too indescribable. In my opinion, the Season 4 finale in its entirety, not just this scene, but all of it, was the WORST cartoon episode in the history of cartoons... EVER.
5435868
I had thought that you of all people would appreciate to its fullest a tribute to the Golden Oaks Library. This window into Twilight's mind shows what a special place it was through the eyes of the one who knew it best. We see how something that can be taken for granted is really so much more to us and we only see it when we stand to lose it. It's also a lesson about what's most important in life.
I think that's a wonderful lesson to learn and it was portrayed here beautifully. Also, this story added an even deeper emotional impact to that scene for me. I re-watched it immediately after finishing this and the amount of time was little more than seven seconds. Those are now the most intense seven seconds of the entire show for me, topping when Celestia cried while banishing Luna.
I hope you can see where I'm coming from on this.
5489861 From my point of view, there are just some things you don't fuck around with. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who despises this "choice".