Pen Stroke's Scattered Pages

by Pen Stroke

#FrozenFuture - Main Story

Author's Note:

#FrozenFuture

• Second Person Perspective
• Desc: The reader/user has a chance to change the fate of Hearth's Warming in Equestria.
• Characters: Sunburst - The Ghost of Hearth's Warming Yet To Come

Sunburst, sagely wizard and current vice-headmare of Twilight’s School of Friendship, reaches out to you regarding a page of the Book of All Stories. The dramatic changes around Ponyville and all of Equestria wrought by the book’s very presence has sent the studious unicorn rifling through the library in search of means and magics to find the scattered pages. This, however, has led to an unexpected discovery.

“Oh good, you’re here,” Sunburst says once you arrive. The orange coated stallion, with cream white “socks” in his fur and dark red-orange mane, motions you from the entrance of the library to his side, to a lectern currently holding a closed book. The hardcover book has gold lettering on, spelling out “A Hearth’s Warming Tale,” in fanciful lettering.

“It’s the strangest thing,” he says as he brings a hoof up to adjust his round glasses before giving his goatee a single, straightening stroke. “I had just developed a spell I believed could help us find pages of the BAS… the Book of All Stories. Sorry, I picked up Twilight’s habit for acronyms. Anyway, when I first tried it, I was surprised that it was having such a strong reaction. It eventually led me to this book, but… it’s strange.

“I feel like I’ve… read this book before. In fact, looking up my library history, I’ve checked out this very book before, back last winter. Yet, I can’t remember a thing about it. Even the title… Hearth’s Warming… I feel like… this isn’t just some instructional book about making a good fire in a hearth.”

Your own confusion perhaps matches Sunburst’s as you clearly remember what Hearth’s Warming is: the Equestrian winter holiday celebrating not only the fire of friendship but the very founding of Equestria. And it’s not something Sunburst would ever forget. You even begin to explain it to Sunburst, the cyan-eyed scholar watching you and listening intently.

Yet, as you are explaining the holiday, the book itself seems to sputter and jump, as if a firecracker was ignited in its pages. The cover swings open, and the pages flip and flow as if being riffled through by the wind. Ice and snow sprays from the book, blinding you briefly in white frost.

When you open your eyes next, you and Sunburst are no longer in the library. Instead, you are standing outside in a bitterly cold blizzard. The wind is howling across rolling dunes of snow. From beneath the snow you can see rooftops of long buried buildings. It’s as if the world has been buried in a thick blanket of ice and snow.

“You, who still yet remember Hearth’s Warming,” a booming voice speaks. Where the snow and wind chills your spine, the voice you hear chills your very soul. You and Sunburst both turn where you stand, looking back to a looming cloaked figure that towers over you. The figure is easily three times the height of Celestia, and yet you can see nothing but swirling darkness against the ground. Near the hood of the cloak, you do manage to make out a face. At first blush you would believe it to be Princess Luna, yet somehow you know the visage of the princess is just a mask for something else.

“Who are you!?” Sunburst sputters out, likely echoing your own thoughts.

“I am the Spirit of Hearth’s Warming Yet to Come,” the towering creature answers. “And you two can correct a terrible wrong.”

“I… I feel like I’m starting to remember now.” Sunburst looks at you, adjusting his glasses again before looking back to the Spirit Hearth’s Warming. “But how in the world did I forget Hearth’s Warming? And how are you real!? You’re just a character from a story!”

“Surely you would not doubt the existence of a world where the Hearth’s Warming Tale truly came to pass amidst the many worlds brought to life by The Book of All Stories.” The spirit said before moving slightly to one side, revealing a floating book. It was the Hearth’s Warming Tale storybook from the library, but now with a single page standing upright as the others laid flat.

“Through its pages all is as real as one wants it to be, and yet it is a blank page that has created a story with no future.”

The Spirit turns and looks at you expectedly, and after a few tense moments, you dare to approach the book. The single page standing upright in the book is a page of the Book of All Stories. Someone had placed the page into the Hearth’s Warming Tale story book, and through the magic, the page integrated itself into the story.

Looking at the preceding page, you can see that the last thing to happen was the Spirit of Hearth’s Warming Present was warning Snowfall Frost about how they had just witnessed the last Hearth’s Warming ever. Knowing the story, you remember that Present’s warning would normally cue the appearance of the Spirit of Hearth’s Warming Yet to Come.

And yet, with the blank page inserted, the story is paused.

“In this moment, you hold all the power Snowfall Frost once held. To leave the page where it has been haphazardly placed could mean the end of Hearth’s Warming for any stories whose fate is bound to similar events. To remove it would mean you can restore the flow of this fable.”

“And why can’t you remove it?” Sunburst asks as he dares to walk up beside you, marveling at the page and its potent magic.

“I am a guide and nothing more,” The Spirit of Hearth’s Warming Yet to Come answers. “I can show you what the future holds, but I cannot make you seize it.”

“We should remove it, right?” Sunburst says, looking at you expectantly.

---

What should you do to the Page in a Hearth’s Warming Tale?

• Remove the Page and restore the story.
• Leave the page. Hearth’s Warming can’t be that important.