Sleeping in the Light

by Wheller

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

As they reappeared in the Ponyville Public Library once again, Kelso couldn’t help but be in awe of the building. It wasn’t so much of a building in itself; it was a tree, an honest living tree filled with rows and rows of bookshelves. The wonderful thing about reliving these memories of times gone by was that they preserved every single sensation. Every smell, every touch, every sight to see, all of it was here for them to take in.

The smell of the Ponyville Public Library was that of its books, honest, real book printed on parchment paper. These weren’t even the tree pulp paper books from the early Republic, and they certainly weren’t the holopaper books that could most commonly be found in bookstores in the modern day. This was the real deal, and while Kelso wasn’t actually here to read them, she was glad that she could get closer to the past than most.

‘You’re looking rather philosophical, Kelso’, Hopely said with a smirk. ‘Nostalgic for the old monarchy are we?’

‘Hmm?’ Kelso said, looking up. ‘Oh no, I was just admiring all of the Ponyville Public Library’s communist literature’.

Hopely dead panned her, and Kelso couldn’t help but smirk, she’d just pressed on Hopely’s berserk button.

‘WHAT?’ Hopely cried out in shock as she began to glance around. Kelso couldn’t help but laugh, and unfortunately for Hopely, Sparky and Dizzy couldn’t help but laugh either.

‘Relax Hopely, at this point in history no one in Equestria has even heard of Heinrich Engels or his Communist Edict’, Dizzy said patting her friend on the shoulder.

‘Communism is not funny’, Hopely seethed, turning her head away.

Twilight Sparkle was in the room; the de facto librarian was standing in front of a table holding a book in her telekinesis to the left of her head, and she was holding what, at first glance, looked to be a dagger to the right. Instead, however, it was merely a ceramic page separator, which Twilight was using to separate some of the pages that were stuck together in the book she was working with. In the background they could hear a radio playing. Much to their surprise, Twilight was listening to the Welaran Broadcasting Corporation’s World Service.

‘They were allowed to listen to the WBC in this day and age?’ Sparky asked.

‘Probably not’, Hopely said with a shrug. ‘Considering Twilight Sparkle’s connections though? She is probably one of the few who could get away with it’.

‘... Announced to the WBC World Service today is saddening news from South Island, thirty years ago, when the Welaran Empire was in the midst of the Great World War, many answered the call to save the Empire from its’ enemies, the kangaroos and Maori of the South Island and New Seeland Army Corps were no exception, during the War, only five members of the SINSAC were awarded the Victory Cross, the Welaran Commonwealth’s highest military decoration, four of them were awarded posthumously. The fifth recipient, Roy Melbourne, a kangaroo from Swan City, Western South Island, was injured during the Galloply Peninsula Campaign against Central Power Capran Empire when his platoon was pinned down by dug in machine gun fire. Against orders, then Lance-Corporal Melbourne abandoned his cover and rushed at the first machine gun emplacement, taking a hit in the arm, to destroy the emplacement with a grenade, creating a sizeable hole in the Capran defences and allowing his platoon to move up. Melbourne was injured several more times attacking a second machine gun emplacement before collapsing. He was quickly evacuated to a hospital ship where he miraculously survived his wounds. He was eventually promoted to sergeant, and awarded the Victory Cross. Roy Melbourne died three days ago, after a five year struggle with Lung Cancer’.

Twilight had turned her head towards the radio, and had been listening to the report intensely. ‘Roy...?’ she asked softly.

Her concentration was broken by at a knock on the door, and she snapped back to attention. Twilight returned the book to its place on the shelf and set down the page separator on the table before she trotted over to the door. Twilight opened the door and gave her visitor a small smile. ‘Hello Raindrops... did you forget to bring something to me when you were doing your post route earlier?’ Twilight asked.

‘Ah, no, not this time! I promise!’ the pony identified as Raindrops said. She was a beige coated pegasus mare, and she was nervously running a hoof through her teal mane, almost as if she was about to do something she shouldn't.

‘Oh, well that’s good! You’re getting better!’ Twilight said with a nervous smile.

‘Uhh... not really’, Raindrops said with a shrug. ‘It’s okay Miss Sparkle... I know I suck at this job, you don’t need to pretend like you haven’t noticed... but no! I came by because I found this at the bottom of my mailbag when I got done today’, Raindrops said, she opened up her mailbag and pulled out what was clearly a book that had been poorly wrapped up in brown postage paper. ‘It didn’t have an address on it or anything, so I asked my boss what I should do with it, well, we usually get rid of unmarked mail, but I figured... it’s a book, so why not donate it to the Library!’

‘Oh!’ Twilight said in surprise as she took the book from Raindrops. ‘Why thank you! That’s very kind of you! Do you know what the book is about?’

‘Ah... no, I didn’t look at it, I’m not allowed to open other ponies’ mail... even if it’s not actually going to anypony... I think... I’m not actually sure, but I’m sure it’ll get better use here than rotting with the rest of ponies’ rubbish, right?’ Raindrops asked.

‘That’s quite all right, thank you Raindrops!’ Twilight said brightly. Raindrops waved her goodbyes and Twilight shut the door behind her, and she set the book down on the table.

...

The memory changed, and Kelso and company found themselves standing in Twilight Sparkle’s bedroom. She was crying, something had happened, but as to what had happened, they could not say. Twilight glanced up and noticed that the book that Raindrops had brought by was sitting on her bed side table. She pulled it over to her, finally taking the time to take a look at it.

She opened the book, and there was a small flash of light from the pages, and a glint in Twilight’s eye. Her expression became vacant and she stopped crying.

Kelso shuddered, the room began to grow cold, and the passive observers all felt a malevolent presence in the room alongside them.

‘I thought communism was pure evil...’ Hopely said as she shut her eyes tight and turned away. ‘I don’t know what this book is, but it makes Vasily Dzhugashvili look tame’.

‘God grant me strength’, Dizzy mumbled to herself.

With the blink of an eye, the sun coming through the window had turned from the normal shine of daylight, to the orange of dusk. Time had shifted; however, Twilight Sparkle was still lying on her bed, her head buried in the book, looking as if she had not moved in the slightest bit.

There was a knock at the door, and Twilight looked up from the book for possibly the first time in hours.

‘Twilight! It’s me! Spike!’ a voice called out as the door opened. ‘I know you said you wanted to be left alone, but I came to see if you wanted any dinner?’

Here again, was the mysterious reptile creature called Spike from an earlier memory. His appearances were infrequent, but the passive observers had to wonder just what he was exactly.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Spike’s question. ‘Spike? It’s far too early for dinner!’ Twilight said with annoyance in her voice.

‘Twilight... it’s six o’clock, you’ve been up here for hours...’ Spike said.

‘No it’s not Spike, I’ve only been up here for like ten minutes and...’ Twilight paused when she glanced at the clock on her bedside table, indeed, it did say six o’clock. ‘Wow, I knew that this book was good’, Twilight said with a smirk. ‘I didn’t realise it was THAT good’.

‘What have you been reading?’ Spike asked as he stepped inside the room, walking up to Twilight to take a look.

‘Oh, it’s this really interesting book! It’s called the Tome of Alhazred, and it’s sort of a book about everything!’ Twilight said as she instinctively shut the book, not allowing Spike to take a peek. Though Spike didn’t think it was that helpful of a description.

‘Can I see?’ Spike asked with annoyance as he struggled to catch a glimpse of the book.

‘NO!’ Twilight cried out, snatching the book up and pulling it close to her. ‘Uhh... I mean... not until I’m done with it... heh heh...’ Twilight said, chuckling nervously and glancing around the room in a highly suspicious manner. ‘Dinner sounds good, Spike, I’ll be down in a minute... I just... uh... need to find a bookmark’.

Spike shrugged, acting as if he really didn’t care about the book, or the situation that he just found himself in, and walked out of the bedroom and back into the kitchen, Twilight set the Tome of Alhazred back down on her bed and continued reading. That was when the passive observers knew for certain, this book was malevolent, and it had Twilight Sparkle firmly in its' grasp.

...

The scene changed once more, the passive observers were now standing in Pinkie Pie’s bedroom. Kelso couldn’t help but facehoof as she looked around; the lights were all dimmed, however she could still tell that almost everything was pink. This was exactly like the obnoxious pink pony she had come to know.

The door to Pinkie Pie’s bedroom burst open with a loud crash as the door slammed into the wall.

‘PINKIE!’ Twilight cried out.

Pinkie Pie's eyes shot open and she quickly sat up in bed. ‘Huh? What? What’s going on?’ she asked sleepily, and began to rub her eyes.

Twilight galloped over to Pinkie Pie’s bed and leapt into it, throwing her forelegs around Pinkie Pie and hugging her close. ‘Oh... Pinkie... oh Pinkie! You’re okay, you’re okay...’ Twilight said as she began to cry into Pinkie Pie’s shoulder.

Pinkie Pie was more than a little confused, and the same could most definitely be said of the passive observers, part of the memory seemed to be missing, distorted. Pinkie Pie merely shrugged and hugged her friend back. ‘Well of course I’m okay! Why would I not be? Silly!’ she asked.

Twilight did not answer, she had fallen asleep, grasping Pinkie Pie tightly, ‘Oh... Pinkie...’ she mumbled in her sleep.

Something was odd about this scene, Pinkie Pie... looked incredibly uncomfortable, and it wasn't because Twilight had gone boa constrictor on her. Pinkie Pie worked slowly to wriggle herself free of the unicorn mare's vice grip, taking extreme care not to wake her.

Dizzy, was the first to recognise it. 'Pinkie Pie has feelings for Twilight Sparkle', she said.

Pinkie Pie gently pulled Twilight out of her bed and slung her over her back, and began to walk back to the Ponyville Public Library. The passive observers were quick to follow her through the deserted streets of Ponyville, and as they looked around, they discovered that the town had been mostly put back together since Emerald Sparkle's coup.

That was assuming of course, that this event they were watching now and that event that they had previously watched had occurred around the same time, which they had no way of knowing for sure. Pinkie Pie gently pushed open the door to the library. The obnoxious pink pony stepped softly, and was somehow able to keep from making a sound at all. If anything, this showed Kelso that there was another side to her than the obnoxiousness that she had grown accustomed to. This Pinkie Pie was calm, collected, thoughtful, respectful, and most importantly, quiet.

Pinkie Pie took Twilight upstairs and quietly tucked her into bed. She stood over her friend for a moment, and glanced around the room, making sure it was safe for her friend before leaving. She glanced over to the bedside table and discovered a large book sitting on it and grinned. Twilight was Twilight after all.

Pinkie Pie trotted back over to the stairs, when she passed the bedside table, however, her tail began to twitch uncontrollably, causing Pinkie Pie to jump in surprise, and she struggled not to make noise. In an instant Pinkie Pie quickly and quietly headed down the stairs and out the door.

'What was that about?' Kelso asked.

'I don't know', Hopely said. 'I think we're about to find out though'.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

Ah, my. I wonder if the subject of the Old World will ever come up.

[thatonenigga]

spike should still be alive some were chillin in some cave filled with dimonds and weed

[Hoof of Approval]

Huzzah for Pinkie Sense!

Pinkie knows that book is wrong... and I think we're about to find out why.

[Dr. Equestria]

735421

Uh..what?

I fail to see how this is conected.
---

Anyway, this 'memory' was quite a jump forward from the last ones.

As soon as I saw
'Do you know what the book is about?'

The penny dropped and I thought "Oh, fuck. Its this book, again"

Great chapter!

[PieisGood4U]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooes. Pinkie has been corrupted WITH SANITY. QUICK WE NEED DISCORD OVER HERE

[SuperPinkBrony12]

No Twilight has fallen, that book must be taken away and burned before it corrupts someone else!

[Fulgor Ignis]

736789 If only it was that easy... Unholy Relic is 'indestructable'.

Aw hell, not the Tome. That was my most hated villian in the 3 series combined because {{Omitted - Spoiler of upcoming events}}

[kladdos]

love it once again

[StatusQo]

Twitchy Tail! take cover!

[SuperPinkBrony12]

737130 Oh no run, don't look at that book if it's the last thing you do!

[Low-quality memes]

I'm going to guess at some point, Pinkie uses her fourth wall powers to see "the passive observers", as you enjoy calling them.img.ponibooru.org/_images/379ce9f68d53a4118046020bcce4ff10/55593%2520-%2520artist%253Atravischcan03%2520fourth_wall%2520pinkie_pie%2520wallpaper.jpg

[KeePony]

In the stories by H.P. Lovecrat the author of the Necronomicon is Alhazred. So yep that book is evil. It probaly the pony version of it. the Neighcronomicon :)

[Bronydragon]

Twitchy tail?
Oh no!
Everypony in cover, something's gonna fall!

Bronydragon