Read This Inside

Open This
By: The Grey Pegasus

It was yet another day in the palace for Starlight Glimmer. Twilight didn't have anything for her to do at the moment, so instead, she was browsing through Twilight's library. The alicorn's book collection was a veritable one—even despite after getting Ponyville's original library destroyed, so she was told. Due to Twilight's presence in Ponyville ever since she arrived, the Golden Oaks library had been supported by Canterlot, making sure there was never a shortage or lack of any needed book.

Naturally, Twilight encouraged Starlight to look through the palace's new collection should the unicorn want to. Books were books, after all. Starlight obliged, still keen on learning new magic, though now driven with a better, actually positive purpose compared to prior to her relationship with Twilight. She may not have been as attuned to magic conceptually as her friend Sunburst, but that didn't mean she should keep trying to learn at her own pace.

Granted, Starlight wasn't spending all her reading time on learning magic. It would've been a shame to let such a diverse collection of books gather dust by only attending to one topic. Though, they didn't gather dust anyways due to Twilight's tendency to reorganize and keep the library tidy. Still, Starlight was willing to branch out a bit and take a peek in a different book or two. Maybe relax with a story. After all, stories had lessons in them too—there was bound to be something she could learn about friendship in a book.

Starlight mulled on that thought. Twilight would probably give her a short lecture about it not being a substitute for real experiences, but it was probably acceptably as a supplement.

During all of this, the unicorn was absentmindedly walking along a shelf, searching for something that would catch her eye. She wasn't in a studying mood. She was in a curious mood, but not for knowledge. No, she was in a searching mood.

It was one of those almost-bored moods, actually. Starlight wanted something to keep her occupied. She wanted something to grab her interest and give her something good.

This day, she had been doing so for the past half hour or so. Maybe it was just her disposition today, but everything just seemed to be... well, uninteresting, in her eyes. Some even off-putting. Trash, even, Starlight considered describing one or two. Or maybe a lot, if she was feeling critical.

Well, no, that wasn't true. There were actually some interesting ones. Oddly amusing ones, that is. Starlight wondered why Twilight even had some of these books, but maybe they were new arrivals that hadn't been sorted yet. Then again, she was in the fiction section, or at least she was sure she was, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Still, rolling the dice for a random book to read wasn't going too well today. Maybe it was just her unlucky day.

They said to not judge a book by its cover, but it was getting awfully hard not to when Starlight was trying to find something to pick up and occupy herself with. Refresh herself from a day that seemed to just drone on. It was a Friday—how could a Friday be like that?

Starlight continued scanning the shelves. Title by title, she'd quickly run her eyes along a shelf and determine if it was good enough to pick out and open. After all, a good author that wanted their story to be read would have a title that was attractive and fitting to what was written on the pages. Probably. Twilight once mentioned that a good title grabbed the reader in by making them ask short, mental questions about it, because—

"What the hay is this?" Starlight asked no one in particular as she spotted not a book, but a box slotted in on the shelf between a book and the bookcase's end. She tilted her head to read the words written along its side. "Open This. Looks like Twilight missed that reminder."

She pulled the box out with her telekinetic grasp to examine it. It wasn't a book exactly, but there was likely one inside. Also, written on the larger cardboard face was, again, the note of Open This. It was otherwise just brown, featureless cardboard all around.

Starlight wondered if she should open it. After all, it was probably just a book. However, upon closer examination, it was sealed shut with magic-proof tampering tape, and the cardboard was enchanted to protect against damage. Starlight came to a conclusion. "I think I need scissors. Or Twilight."

With that declaration set, Starlight headed for the door, box levitating in her magical grasp in front of her. She was going off to find Twilight, because she wanted to be sure she wasn't messing around with any of Twilight's things.

Upon reaching to the door, Starlight realized that at least she finally found herself with something to do. "I somewhat can't believe something managed to grab my attention this way."

As the unicorn walked through the hall at a leisurely pace, Starlight began twirling the box idly. "I wonder what kind of book would be inside this box..."

Was she actually so curious and out of things to read that she chose this thing to occupy herself with? "Better than nothing, I guess. Or the other stuff I came across today. Or I can keep telling myself that."

Open This, it goaded her. Inside a featureless box was something. "Or anything, as the thought goes. The possibilities are technically endless. Hm."

Starlight's thoughts drifted to speculation. "Well, I guess it could be a biography. Or a diary. There's plenty to learn from other people's lives that way. Even reading about daily life, you could probably learn something. Hm... Bit far from the biography section though. Unless this one was shelved in a hurry. Even though that seems really unlike Twilight. Maybe Spike made a mistake?"

Starlight rolled her eyes. "Nah. If one of those were true, this might as well be something about Twilight's ventures into that other world she told me about. Where that other unicorn lives... what's her name again? It's always something about light..."

She turned the box so its corners pointed vertically and began spinning it along that axis. "Well, I guess since this was in the fiction section, it could be a generic adventure novel." Starlight added a note with a chuckle. "Probably not Daring Do, definitely, because that would've been opened by now by Twilight."

"Although adding to that, it could also be a speculative fiction novel. Those are always interesting." Starlight paused, wincing a bit. "Including the timelines deviating from ours as a result of my screwing with the past during that whole mess not too long ago. From a detached standpoint, I guess they could be considered interesting."

"There's no limit to a pony's imagination though," Starlight continued conversing with herself. "A different world altogether. Different time—past, present, or even future. Different ponies. Or different beings altogether. Some ponies' imaginations are vast like that. Or preferences, even."

Starlight began uselessly tugging at the magic-proof tape for no reason other than doing something different to the box. "Alternatively, they could put it all in a blender and come out with something different altogether. Like a smoothie. I should get one later. Wonder if they make good ones around here..."

Starlight paused at an intersection in the hallway, trying to remember the direction to Twilight's personal study. "Books with depth are always interesting though. Even about dangerous magic or ominous tales." She stopped moving the book around and held it still in front of her. "At least, I hope this isn't a dangerous book. Celestia knows these bad things just have a weird tendency to be misplaced or something."

After a moment of considering it, Starlight realized that even if it were, there was nothing she could do about it by just standing in a hallway. "As for a story, hopefully it's not one of those edgy ones. Those are just annoying. Twilight did say there's an interesting point between the two though where you'd get a proper scary story. And suspense knows how to kill ponies. Although as for actually killing ponies, I guess some are into that kind of thing."

The box left its position from in front of Starlight, and instead was moved such that it began orbiting around her. "Suspense itself is a pretty good way to build stories though. Just the foreboding feeling of what might happen next. I guess that's how the more exciting parts of life are. Not that I like it when I'm stuck in those situations..."

"I guess I'm more of a mare of action," Starlight noted as she turned down what she finally memorized as the correct hallway. "No suspense, just get to the chase. As long as its own my own terms, though. Not really one for unexpected 'excitements'." Her thoughts paused as she went over her words. "I guess that last one depends on what it is though, and how I'm feeling. And what kind of state of mind I'm in."

The thought drifted to another as the box floated past Starlight's eyes. "I wonder if Twilight collects romance novels," she wondered as she tracked the box moving along its path. "... Her library's big enough that there's probably some in there. Now, is she the type for cheesy ones or the deep ones... or the ones that would be locked up somewhere only she knows..."

"Though, there's probably some to be found in history books," Starlight realized. "If that counts. And there's also a lot of tragedy to be found. History can be such a downer at times." She looked back at her own life. "When things go wrong for whatever reason."

Her demeanor returned to being pensive. "I wonder why some ponies like to read stories like that. I guess it's possible that there's a message to gain from them... Or they just want something captivating to read because they were bored."

Starlight groaned. "I should have made plans for today. Hopefully the book inside isn't about nothing. Maybe it'll be something funny. That'll be a relief. I'm getting a little bit close to not wanting to play this guessing game... imagine the irony if this was a book about discovering secrets."

Starlight finally found herself outside of Twilight's personal study. She entered it slowly, in case she might be disturbing the alicorn. "Hey, Twilight, I found this book in the library on a random shelf. It looks new. It's also unopened. I didn't know if it was yours or anything." She offered the book to Twilight in her telekinetic grasp.

Twilight looked up from her work, but she didn't seem to mind. "Oh. Maybe Spike or I must've been interrupted while we were shelving new deliveries." Twilight took the book out of Starlight's magic into her own. "Open This. Well, that's a helpful note."

"But it doesn't even tell you what's in it," Starlight said. "There's nothing about what's in it. Unless, of course, you were expecting this or just remember what it is."

Twilight found a letter opener nearby and began cutting through the tape. Upon opening it, her expression was a mix of happy surprise and confusion. "I... I didn't know I got a new copy of this."

Starlight walked over and read the cover over Twilight's shoulder.

"Read This. What kind of a book is titled Read This?" Starlight asked. "What's it about?"

Twilight gleefully smiled and chuckled. She let herself laugh for a good few seconds, then ended with a content sigh.

"Twilight, what's it about?"

"I have no idea!"

"... How? You read it, right?"

"Yes."

"And you understood it?"

"More or less."

"And you can't describe what it's about?"

"I'd... I'd say in the overall sense of the world, it's pretty... random."

Author's Note:

I don't know why. But it's (still) April 1st (in the US), so I have an excuse to do it. I hope you weren't expecting something legitimate? (Reverse fooling?)

Sequel after years for no reason whatsoever, yay! (Not as good as the first one in concept though, in my opinion...)

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