The Third Idea
Starlight Glimmer sat just outside the circle of light, shivering silently.
It was warm in the laboratory -- the crystal floor felt almost hot beneath her rump, a side-effect of the warding spells she and Twilight Sparkle had spent the past four days carefully inscribing with diamond-tipped styluses, drawing lines finer than the hairs of her tail. Miles of them threaded across the floor, up the walls and over the ceiling. The only part of the room not marked, not glowing with their energy, not heated almost to scalding with the power they contained, was the little circle just feet away, barely large enough to hold the book laying in its center.
Twilight Sparkle stood just outside the circle. They had agreed she would be the one to open the book. As an alicorn, her chances of surviving whatever traps, charms or beguilements it contained were much higher than Starlight’s. Probably. They assumed, at least. You had to make some assumptions when dealing with books like this.
Their other option was to destroy it. They’d tried that once, giving it to the fire, and it seemed to work. Nothing remained but a smear of ashes in kiln. But the book was back the next day, unblemished by its experience with the fire. And now, whenever they brought matches or torches or candles near the book, the flames flickered and died, as though all the oxygen in the room had been evacuated.
It would not be burned twice. More than a thing of paper and glue and binding, the book was an idea. It was immortal.
“The wards are stable,” Twilight said. Her voice was steady, but years of friendship had given Starlight the insight necessary to hear the faint quaver in her breath. “No sign of the book reacting. Moving on to step seven.”
Her horn glowed, and a thin iron rod lifted into the air beside her. She reached into the circle with it, slipped the pointed tip beneath the cover’s leather hasp, and gently flipped the book open. It settled with a faint rustle and nothing more.
Starlight ignored the book. She studied the carved lines beneath her hooves, feeling them with her magical senses. They were as dead as the stone they were carved into.
“No activation,” she said. “Should be safe to touch.”
“Should be,” Twilight echoed, and shook her head. “Of course that wouldn’t set it off. It wants to be read.”
“It’s just a book.” Still, Starlight swallowed. “So… phase two?”
“Right.” Twilight started to step into the circle, paused, then shook her head and committed. She lifted the book with her magic and flipped through the pages, back to the beginning. Something louder than the rustle of dry, ancient paper whispered in Starlight’s mind.
Twilight’s eyes scanned the frontispiece. She turned it, so Starlight could see as well. The characters were ornate, highly stylized, written in the high court fashion so popular centuries ago. But they were legible even still.
“Sarcophagus’s Third Idea: An Exploration and a Proposal for the Good of all Ponies,” Twilight recited. “Dedicated to Her Glorious Majesty Princess Celestia, Long May She Reign.”
“Well.” Starlight found her mouth was dry, and tried to swallow. Again, and again, until finally she worked up enough saliva to speak. “I guess the legends are true.”
* * *
The last necromancers didn’t think they were evil. On the contrary, they thought they were performing a service for all ponies. They had explored the realm of death and come back rich with knowledge and ambition. Soon their research would be complete, the last enemy would be defeated, and ponies would be immortal. The fact that some of their studies were unsavory, their methods morally questionable, and the subjects of their experiments not always voluntary was problematic, but this was an era of wars and famine and magical snowstorms that lasted decades and buried entire countries in glaciers. A few eccentric sorcerers hardly seemed like the greatest threat in the kingdom.
After, ponies questioned Celestia. And that took some courage back then, for Celestia was not always the forgiving, benevolent monarch of these later days. Why didn’t she stop them when she could?
It was simple, she replied. She never thought they would succeed.
* * *
Later, all the princesses gathered around the book. Luna scowled at it with a special disdain. Cadence refused to come nearer than the walls. Celestia’s mouth, so often turned up in a gentle smile, was drawn in a thin line across her muzzle. Her lips pressed hard together.
Starlight stood behind Twilight. She wasn’t part of this assembly, this immortal conclave. But she knew as much about the book as anypony alive, which was to say as much as anypony in the room. She had earned the spot.
“It shouldn’t be back,” Celestia said. “I banished it.”
“Is that your solution to every problem?” Luna asked. Her voice could have etched metal.
“Some problems lend themselves to no other solution,” Celestia returned calmly. “How did you find it, Twilight?”
“It appeared on the Life Sciences shelf in the library yesterday. There’s no record of it ever being entered. It’s not in the catalogues. The only copy was thought to be lost centuries ago. It shouldn’t exist, but… well, here it is.” She paused, then added, “It set off every magical alarm in the castle when I first touched it. It’s more than it seems.”
“Have you read it yet?” Cadence asked. She had to raise her voice to be heard from across the room. “That’s what it wants, you know.”
“It’s just a book,” Starlight said. She was suddenly conscious of the attention of four alicorns upon her. Four oaks weighing the words of a mayfly. “It doesn’t want anything.”
Luna snorted. “Not one of those statements is correct.”
“What do you mean?”
Celestia’s horn glowed, and the book slid across the crystal floor with a chime-like whisper. She lifted it and gently stroked the cover with her hoof. A silence stretched out between the five of them until Celestia finally spoke.
“It does want to be read,” she said. “And it’s not a book. It’s a pony.”
Silence again. Someone retched. Starlight thought it was Cadence, but she couldn’t turn around to check. Her eyes were only for the book. She stared at it, even as the rest of the world went gray and her vision became a dark tunnel. Something buzzed in her ears. Cold sweat dripped in rivers down her coat to dapple the floor with dark flowers.
She drew in a gasping breath, just before passing out. “No.”
“Sarcophagus wanted many things,” Celestia said. “He was a wonderful pony, good in his own way. He wanted to help us all. But he… he sometimes saw ponies as ways, rather than ends. That was the greatest tragedy, in the end. Not that ponies died, though of course that was terrible. The tragedy was that he thought he was doing something so good.” She set the book down, and looked at Starlight. “Have you ever felt that way, Starlight? So certain you were doing something right that it didn’t matter if a few ponies got hurt? That the world would be better in the end?”
Starlight’s heart hammered in her chest, so hard the tips of her ears trembled like flags. She tried to speak, failed, and merely nodded.
Celestia looked away. “That’s how he was. And in the end he was victorious.”
Twilight’s horn lit, and she floated the book back into the circle of light. It opened of its own accord and lay there, waiting.
“So, what now?” she asked. “What do we do with it? We can’t destroy it.”
“Kill it, you mean,” Luna said. She stared at the book through narrow eyes. Her wings rustled at her side, eager for some violent work.
“Bury it,” Cadence offered. “Say it is lost and Sarcophagus is dead and let ponies forget it again.”
Twilight started to speak, but only got a few words out before Luna interrupted her. Celestia tried to come between them, but that only turned it into a three-way argument. Starlight heard none of it. She closed her eyes and focused on her breathing.
In, out. In, out. Finally, her heart calmed.
“I did hurt ponies,” she said. The room suddenly went silent, and she felt their eyes on her again.
“I did,” she continued. “And afterward I’d have given anything to undo all that pain. I was willing to undo the whole world.” Her horn glowed and the book slid across the floor. She picked it up and held it against her chest. It was warm and seemed to pulse with its own heartbeat.
“Maybe he does want to be read,” she said. “But maybe he can change too. Maybe that’s why he came back.”
Silence again. The assembled immortal lords gazed at her, disparate expressions on their faces. Finally, the only one who mattered smiled.
“Maybe,” Twilight said. “Maybe it wasn’t me he came back to. Maybe it was you.”
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Cold in Gardez · 3k words · 247 5 · 3k views
- Cold in Gardez · 1.7k words · 180 3 · 2.5k views
- Cold in Gardez · 11k words · 333 5 · 4.7k views
- Cold in Gardez · 52k words · 545 61 · 4.5k views
- Estee · 9.4k words · 206 8 · 1.9k views
- Aragon · 2.4k words · 375 10 · 4.2k views
- Cold in Gardez · 5.6k words · 287 4 · 4.9k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.239 seconds
Total duration
978 users online
251,265 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
A good short thriller might be just what I need today.
I want more
A very good lesson to learn. We can change if we have the desire and find those who will believe in us. But one has to want to chance before anything else.
“But maybe he can change too. Maybe that’s why he came back.”
Celestia fixed her student with the most firm gaze possible. "Twilight Sparkle," she stated in a voice that brooked no disobedience, "you may have grown from my student into a princess of your own, but this is beyond your powers. Even Luna and myself can not--"
"Luna and I," said Twilight almost automatically. Celestia did not seem upset at all about being interrupted, but the faintest ghost of a smile came over her stern expression.
"Perhaps I am wrong," she said. "To change, he will need more than a princess. He will need... an editor."
Twilight Sparkle swallowed, then produced a red pencil. "I believe I can do this, Princess. Let me try, at least."
Dark, thrilling and interesting. I'm guessing from what I read that this is like Full Metal Alchemist where the book is the souls of ponies of the past?
Oh well done indeed. So Starlight will now become the last necromancer, and most likely never use her new knowledge. Or maybe she's going to be the one who will quiet the restless dead, using forsaken magic. or maybe she'll give some old pony some peace.
Interesting. That went way different than I was expecting, and the final note was agreeable.
Were it so easy
Heh. I haven't heard the best of souls in books. They tend to write back.
Points to anyone who gets it.
9802816
Well, I know of 2. Tom Riddle and Malchior.
9802831
Yup, that's right!
Tom Riddle, that is. Didn't know about the other one.
Good stuff. Twilight might have come to this conclusion on her own, but not with Celestia looking over her withers. Starlight's outside perspective can be truly invaluable at times.
This was excellent.
The only criticism I have is that it looks like the time limit caught you at the end. It's only noticeable because of the dense build up and (for its size) slow burn reveal of what the book actually is. I'd like to say something smarter and more helpful here than "its rushed" but that's all I got. Twilight's last line feels kinda silly and cutesy and I'm not sure that was what you were going for.
Still!!!
Good spooky lore (I wonder if it will be referenced in TWiFwM), use of the princesses as set pieces to amp the mood, the whole thing feels like a bottle episode in the best way, I love it. Would adore seeing this polished up.
give this a rewrite with no time limit it deserves it
"He thought he was doing good... he thought he would be helping ponies when he did this," Celestia sighed as she laid the book down. "How could he have known... how could any of us have known the horror he would release upon our world..."
They all stared at the tome of utter abomination: "MLP: FiM Season 9 Finale Script".
You write the best spooky pony magic stories.
[undignified begging]
Pleeeeeeeeease, can you continue Land of the Blind????
[/undignified begging]
...Is there more?
I really, really like where this is heading. Tell me there's more?
I mean, they already taught him that fire is bad, right?
Oh, I like this.
i like where this is going and wish there is a sequel
Any fool can read a book to the end. But to complete a book, it must be understood by the heart and soul of the reader.
Good luck, Starlight Glimmer.
hmm, Spooky
You’re right, I should have destroyed it, like I should have destroyed you. Bitch.
Nooooooo I WANNA KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SHE READS IT!!!!!
On the plus side, not having a definite ending means I'm free to imagine my own. I like to believe that Starlight is right, that Sarcophagus has changed and can be returned to life or find peace. (Assuming it is Sarcophagus; if I had one critique, I would say that it was difficult to tell if the book WAS Sarcophagus, or if he used his infernal magics to make ANOTHER pony into the book. That, and the title image was confusing since it made me think this was about the creation book from that Spike and Rarity episode. Unless it was?) All in all, very nice job, I enjoyed reading it and it didn't COMPLETELY freak me out, which is a good thing in my book. =Dd
9804391
agreed, this deserves a sequel.
A very harmless and benevolent sounding title, lol, it reminds me a little bit of:
A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick
Which proposes that impoverishment of Irish families be solved by selling their children as foodstock.
In fairness A Modest Proposal is clearly a political satire though, and not a serious proposal.
9807073
I'm pretty sure it's Sarcophagus. I think it's a book of necromancy, and if he was the one who succeeded at figuring out eternal life, turning another pony into a book doesn't guarantee the knowledge would be read again- the other pony (since the book is at least semi-sentient, and able to perform some magic) could either wipe the relevant pages or stick them together so they can't be read. If he turns himself into a book, then not only does the book already contain all his knowledge, secrets and wisdom, but he also controls who can read it. And if it is him, and he's the greatest necromancer ever (which I think is likely) then that's a very powerful book indeed.
9817329
Be sure to eat all of your soylent green!
"the common good" or "greater good" ect ect is the war-cry of every nutjob ever.
Whoops, I caught a logistical error!
This line
is later contradicted by this line:
Cant have been both yesterday and four days ago! I totally missed it the first time.
Did V write that part?
(V for Vendetta)
Of all the librarys in all the world... it had to walk into mine!
And it became BFF with the book of might have beens.....the end!
9806568
His edginess could have etched metal.
9821106
It's entirely possible Twilight had been working on wards for reasons unrelated to the book, and the book's presence dictated a sudden new need for them (and possibly, a higher priority on completing them).
10104264
Holy crud, someone's on the ball! Thanks!
10104269
*slaps face* 🤦♂️
Oh, not for you ^^’ the fact I have to share this with him https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/881333/question-why-dont-dramatic-readers-share
Hoooo I'd buy a full length novel of this by you
Never would have thought to use horror writing to convey something else. :O Nice!
i like the way you talk about the 4 Alicrons, The assembled immortal lords sounds epic.