Live for Another Day

by Ek Vitki

Chapter 2 - The Fetch

“A-Applebloom?!” Twilight sputtered at the the book in front of her. She continued down the list becoming no less surprised and confused as it went on.

“Appleblossom, Apple Cobbler... Applejack!?” she continued on, now jumping randomly from name to name, “Bon-Bon, Carrot Top, Sparkler... Celestia...”

Twilight pushed the tome away from her, leaning back in her chair. The unicorn sat, tapping her hooves together but otherwise silent.

What is Celestia’s name doing in there? What are any of these names doing in this book? What in Equestria is this? she pondered, gazing at the yellowed pages.

The librarian leaned forward again, staring down at the now frightening book. She hesitantly picked at the pages and turned them, going to the beginning. What greeted her there caught her off the guard. Instead of a list of names, there was a short blurb:

I know not why you read this journal of mine, but it is my dearest hope that these are a man’s eyes looking down on my words. I fear you have all died, or given up on reading.

Same thing, really.

Take whatever you can read out of this book, use it wisely. It just might help you live for another day.

That was it. Twilight read it four times, each time humming at it thoughtfully. She turned the page, and was confronted by a wall of the illegible runes in an incredibly small print.

“Huh?” she scowled at the text as she grabbed her note paper. She rubbed it on the pages, but with no result.

She stared at the book and tried again.

Nothing.

“But you just did it a minute ago!”

The book did not respond.

Twilight sighed, facehoofing at her frustration. The purple unicorn decided lunch was in order. A short trip down the stairs and into the kitchen. She summoned bread from the bread drawer, and opened the fridge to acquire dandelions and pickles. A whisk of magic hovered the ingredients, assembling them into a delicious sandwich in mid-air.

She grasped the cupboard handle with her magic, intent on fetching chips, but was stopped by her breath fogging in front of her face. Twilight furrowed her brow as a chill swept through her, making her fur stand on end and her teeth chatter.

The unicorn looked around her kitchen, searching for a draft.

Did I leave the fridge open?

She turned to the white box. It was closed.

Twilight’s bones rattled under her skin as she felt around the room with her magic. There was nothing out of the ordinary, no magical fields or enchantments.

“Why is it so cold in here!” she shouted, and as soon as she did, the heat of summer returned, leaving her confused and frightened.

“Twilight, what’s with all the yelling?” Spike entered the kitchen, rubbing his eyes with a yawn while an errant scale fell off his arm.

“Oh, Spike! I’m just a little... bound up is all. Ah! I got a book that has information on dragon growth in it, I’ll whip up something to help you with your shedding in a bit.”

“Oh, cool. I’m gonna go back to sleep then...” he muttered, stifling another yawn.

Twilight watched him leave the kitchen and flop back on the couch, unconscious in moments.

“He sure does sleep a lot. I should work on that treatment,” the mare talked to herself as she levitated her meal. The sandwich and its creator traveled back up the stairs to her room, finally coming to rest on her desk. She suddenly remembered a key component to her lunch.

“Chips! I forgot the chips!” Twilight hurried back down into the kitchen, leaving her sandwich all alone.

The librarian’s room fell silent. The sandwich was alone, with no company to eat it.

The sandwich began to move, as if it were being nudged by some invisible finger. Crumbs fell off, and a small portion of the sandwich began to disintegrate into thin air. All that was left was a small bite on the corner of the bread.

Not a moment later, Twilight returned to her sanctum carrying with her a bag of potato chips. She sat down once more, unrolling the previously opened bag and picking out a large, curled up chip to crunch on. The chip stopped midway to her mouth, however, as she noticed the small chunk of her sandwich missing.

“Spike-” she began, but she remembered he had been within her sight, asleep on the couch the whole time. There was no way he could have gone up to her room without being noticed.

Twilight stared for several minutes at her sandwich before letting the chip onto her tongue and slowly chewing it. Her eyes wandered about the room, unsure of what they should be looking for. The sensation of being watched tingled on the skittish unicorn’s spine, making her shift uneasily in the chair. Twilight held her breath, listening to the silence, only to have it broken by the light snoring of her assistant downstairs.

“I must’ve taken a bite and forgotten about it, there’s no ghosts or anything in my house!” Twilight laughed to herself nervously, timidly biting on another chip.

With caution, she looked back down on the wall of unreadable text that had made her irate earlier. Uncertainty on what to do next spiraled through her mind, forcing her to return to the notes.

And so an hour passed, and not a single thing she had written had helped her decipher the runic text. Twilight had at one point returned to the list of names, finding her own with ‘Alive’ tag next to it, thankfully. She spent several minutes reading through it, finding the names of her friends and family, the princesses, and even Discord, to her surprise.

Eventually the Celestia’s star pupil returned to the wall of illegible words. She had tried everything from blowing on them, rubbing her notes on the page, she even prodded and poked the words until her foreleg ached.

Twilight sighed, the book was tiring her out and she was getting nowhere fast.

“Maybe I should just go to bed,” the mare murmured as the sun’s last rays broke through the immense windows of her room.

With the decision made, Twilight prepared for sleep, then plopped herself onto her bed, passing out near instantly.

---

A vast evergreen forest stretched out in front of the purple magician, flooding the valley floor and capping the mountain tops in the distance. Twilight stood on a cliff, overlooking an immense waterfall that poured its guts down into the basin below. The landing zone of the waterfall tapered off into a roaring stream that wiggled and snaked through the little hills and stands of trees, until it finally ended in a small lake that was ringed with half-timber lodges and fishing docks. The spruce and pines stood, swaying gently in the breeze coming down over the mountains, spreading the earthy scent of the needles and the rich moisture emanating from the falls.

The breeze felt refreshing, though the air was a bit chillier than what Twilight was used to. She sat near the edge of the cliff, observing this little microcosm of a valley as it offered the unicorn a visage of natural beauty. A caw alerted her, beckoning her to look up and see the raven that circled above. The bird landed, perched on a large branch strewn on the cliff’s edge. It turned to her, looking the mare in the eye with its black, beady pupil.

She stared back, watching the raven sit and share the warden’s post on top of the high cliff. Intelligence stirred beneath that eye, like the waters of some well just deep enough to escape the sun’s light.

“What are your intentions, wizard?” the bird spoke, its mouth open but no other action causing the voice to form.

“I want to learn. I love to learn,” Twilight responded.

“And why do you want to learn?” the raven inquired further.

“Why not? Aren’t we all students? Aren’t we all learning anyway?” she answered, making the bird cock its head.

“I suppose we are, even the oldest of us. Your name is Twilight Sparkle.” It was more of a statement than a question, causing the unicorn to raise her eyebrow.

“It is, how did you know?”

“Your name is on the list, after all. I think you can move along now,” the bird said cryptically before flying off.

Twilight was confused at first, but then blissful indifference found her. The sights of the valley below were soothing, making the bookworm feel as if she were home after a long journey.

---

The purple mare jerked awake, her slumber suddenly coming to an end. She looked about the room, the dreams of the night before still prominent in memory. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, the unicorn saw that the sun was just rising. She rose from bed with it, unusually awake and full of energy. Twilight stepped over to her mirror, fetching her brush with a bit of magic. She stroked out the knots and tangles, making sure her bangs were even and orderly.

As she brushed away, she could see the book in the mirror’s reflection, lying open on that page she couldn’t read. The brushing slowed as violet eyes fixed themselves on the tome. Eventually Twilight set it down and trotted over to her writing table, sitting in its seat. When she looked down at the pages, she gasped.

She could read them! They were in Equestrian, but how? Shaking her head, she drank in the words.

I speak to you, my journal.

It has been thirty years since I’ve left, and just now have I decided to write in you. It’s a shame I hadn’t earlier, Hilde would’ve liked to see me all curled up with a stick of charcoal, scrawling on these pages about my day and how sore at the world I always am.

I miss you, Hilde.

Enough of that. The streets of Volrun are empty, the invaders had come and gone. Of course, they didn’t see me, a quick cloaking spell was enough. The Torzhakt weren’t very bright to begin with.

I’m going to leave now, I think I’ll go to Duld, perhaps those artifacts are there. I have no idea of course, but what else am I going to do?

I love you, Hilde.

Twilight looked up from the book, her eyes shiny with the beginning of tears. The thoughts of loneliness she had long ago bubbled to the surface of her mind, tickling her brain with sadness and flecks of joy, now that she had so many good friends.

“Celestia was right in sending me here,” Twilight smiled, thanking her mentor inwardly for helping her.

She wiped away the moisture, and moved on to the next entry.

I speak to you, my journal.

Duld is a nice place. Very calm, very peaceful. VERY green. By Odin’s left eye, I’ve never seen so many different plants in one place! I landed in the middle of a forest, but I wasn’t far from this little village of lizard people. A strange kind, but friendly to me, and they have good food too.

Hilde would’ve liked this place, she always complained about how cold it was up north. She mentioned wanting to go down south once, to see the princesses. The night alicorn, I forgot her name, she wanted to meet her. Always a fan of her skies, that girl was.

A shame the nights here aren’t as beautiful as back home.

Good night my journal.

“Luna? This pony knew about Luna?” Twilight’s stomach grumbled as she finished up the second entry.

“Ah! I forgot about breakfast!” she jumped up from her chair and hurried to the door, but before she left, the unicorn turned to look at the book.

“I’ll read more later.”

Twilight headed down the stairs to prepare the most important meal of the day for her and Spike, humming happily to herself.

---

Out on a leafless branch, a raven looked in through the kitchen window. Twilight was cooking waffles, and the sweet smell of the batter tickled the bird’s nostrils. It’s dark eyes watched her, analyzing every move.

The raven felt it had made a good decision.

---

And on the story goes! I hope you all enjoyed it, there will be more soon!

Comments

[Tie RoamingHooves]

I DECLARE THIS POST, FIRST!!!!!!
Great story though.
Onward sir, onward further into the story.

[Memphiston]

I like the ghostly allusions and eerie storyline, but Twilights reactions to these occurrences seem less then what is expected. Like she sees Applejacks little sister on a list of death, I think she would freak out a bit more and be extremely inclined to report such discoveries. And she seems to suddenly get distracted by various things, food mostly But again, I love horror/paranormal/evil story elements and the life and death list sold me on this story. very nice work

[Ek Vitki]

575465

A good point you got there, I'll probably edit that a bit later. I'm also new to characterizing her so it's good to hear your thoughts.

[Konics]

its so awesomei must read MOOORRRREEE......crap there is no more