Bookworm
Twilight Sparkle discovered the note entirely by accident.
She was reshelving books, normally a job she left for Spike, but he had earned a day off after helping her catalogue Lamplight the Thoughtful’s Compendium of Astronomical Phenomena the day before, and now he was off romping around with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. It was unlikely he’d be back before dinner, and equally unlikely that he’d escape the three fillies’ clutches without a few scrapes and bruises.
The slip of paper fell out from the leaves of the last book on her desk just as she was about to slide it back in place. It was tattered and thin, like a piece of ancient paper worn away by the years and too many hooves. Curious, she lifted it with her magic and unfolded it.
“Bookworm,” it read. She frowned and glanced at the tome it had fallen from, a collection of accounting practices in the gryphon kingdoms.
“Huh.” She gave it another moment of her attention, then shrugged and dropped it in her wastebasket.
* * *
She found the next note in Peony’s The Field Pony’s Guide to Monstrous Carnivores, Third Edition. Fluttershy had returned the book some days earlier, and it rested untouched in her ‘to shelve’ pile.
It was easier to find than the first – the edge stuck out from the pages like a bookmark, and she opened it, fearing that perhaps Fluttershy had left it behind. It seemed as old as the last, filled with creases ground sharp by time, and the writing on it was clean but faded.
“Canterlot Library,” she said, eyeing it. Why on Equestria would Fluttershy leave that there? She flipped to the book’s cover, where sure enough the Books and Branches library stamp sat proudly on the first page, just below her own initials.
“Weird.” She crumpled the note and slid it back on the shelf, next to the other zoology texts.
* * *
“Spike, have you been leaving notes in these books?”
“Huh? No, why?” Spike poked his head around the corner, still wearing his chef’s hat.
Twilight frowned at the note on her desk. It had fallen from another one of her books, this time a collection of simple spells for foals she’d kept from her days in Magical Kindergarten. It looked just like the others, decades or centuries old, written in some dark graphite.
“Archival Wing.”
“This is the third or fourth one of these things I’ve found,” she said. She nudged it with a hoof. “Have you seen them before?”
He gave it a quick glance. “Nope. Someone playing tricks on you? Sounds like a few ponies I know.”
That it did. Twilight chuckled at the thought of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie slipping notes into her books. Whatever they were up to, though, it was pretty subtle by their standards. No pies in the face or water buckets perched over doorways.
“Yeah, I guess it does. Let me know if you find any more, okay?”
* * *
Spike never found any notes. Only Twilight did.
She frowned at the latest one, a small scrap hidden in a collection of Zebra short stories that she could have sworn no one had checked out in all the years she’d lived at the library.
“Aa-Ab, third shelf.”
Well, whoever was pranking her apparently knew the Dewey Decimal System, which meant it was either Spike, or she was leaving these for herself in her sleep. The latter didn’t seem too likely (though she didn’t rule it out entirely – for years she’d refused to believe she snored in her sleep, until Spike had produced a recording).
Perhaps it wasn’t a prank? A message, perhaps? Perhaps... she gasped at the sudden thought, a clue!
There was a mystery afoot, and she needed to get her pith helmet.
* * *
Seven days passed before she next found herself in Canterlot. Some part of her had wanted to find an excuse to visit the next day – no, that very night – but the Library wasn’t a 24-hour a day operation (despite the plea she kept dropping in their suggestion box), and it would’ve been a bit embarrassing to go to the trouble of travelling to Canterlot if the notes turned out to be a joke.
So, a week later, she found herself on the steps of the Canterlot Library. Its wide marble portico stretched out nearly a block to either side, and soaring columns carved in the shapes of standing ponies supported its massive roof. A pair of huge doors, large enough to admit ten ponies marching abreast, were propped open and seemed to beckon her in.
She smiled as she passed beneath the lintel and its carved message, “Knowledge for All.” As a foal, she had once spent a full hour staring up at that sign, attempting to puzzle out its secret meaning. Eventually the Librarian himself came out to fetch her, and reassure her that the Library was indeed free for all ponies to use, even for her.
The library smelled as it always had, of paper dust and ink and the wax they used to polish the marble floor. It smelled like her childhood, bundled into a single sensation. It smelled wonderful.
The archival wing didn’t see much use during the day, and in fact required a key even to enter. She checked it out from the librarian on duty and marched through the endless rows of shelves toward the thick door that held the library’s oldest works.
As she expected, no pony else was inside. She let the door swing close and inhaled deeply, and the the scent of the ancient books settled into her brain. Here, here was the accumulated knowledge of generations, all waiting to be discovered. She exhaled, smiled happily, and started toward her destination.
The row titled Aa-Ab was near the west end of the wing, and was still in shadow so early in the morning. Eventually the sun would cross the sky, and the light streaming through the windows would illuminate it too, but for now she had to squint to make out the words. Finally, annoyed with the darkness, her horn glowed with the light of a dozen lanterns, and the archives were cast into the sun.
Much better.
The third shelf was long, stretching across the entire wing, and easily held a thousand books. She sighed at the sight and was about to reach for the first when a tiny spot of color caught her eye. There, on the floor, sat a note, just the same as the others. She smiled and levitated it before her.
5532.11b
So, it was as specific book she was after. She let the note drift back to the floor and walked down the canyon of books.
5300... 5400... 5500.. She slowed. 5520... 5530... 5531.
The books in this section were ancient, so old that some of their covers were solid pieces of wood rather than the canvas of later years. She skimmed their spines, counting down the volumes, until she reached one without a number.
Huh. Beside it was 5532.11a, and on the other side was 5532.11c. The label must have fallen off. With a shrug, she lit her horn and pulled the book from the shelf.
It was huge, easily the largest book she had ever held. Another unicorn less powerful than she, or a pegasus, would have had trouble just holding it. Its cover was some odd, soft, pebbled texture, smooth with the years, and completely bare of writing.
It’s leather, her mind whispered. She nearly dropped it. No books were made of leather – it was obscene even to contemplate. Her hoof trembled as she slowly turned the cover.
How odd, the pages looked like teeth.
* * *
Hours later, the bookworm picked itself up off the floor and began the agonizing crawl back up the shelf to its home. Down the aisle, a small slip of paper reading "5532.11b" evaporated like mist.
And the archives were quiet for many more years.
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Creepy!
Wait, what- Oh. Ohhhhh.
whoa. just whoa.
Wait... did Twilight just get... eaten?!
Can you say "Monster Book of Monsters"?
Oh boy.
Whoah. That was a very effective and surprising twist there.
what the!? agg it's halloween horror stories all over again T_T and yet it was awesome
Wasn't expecting that.
Oghma Infinium.
I dont get it
In the bowels of Canterlot Library, book consumes you !
don't have much to say about this one overall other than the conclusion felt unsatisfying, and there were a surprising two formatting errors present in the text. full quotes are usually reserved specifically for dialogue, while single quotes and/or italics (possibly center-aligned) are most conventional for found signage, notes, etc. (unless you're playing fast and loose with formatting for stylistic reasons, which didn't seem to be the case here). the other was '24-hour' versus 'twenty-four hour', though i suppose the signage could theoretically warrant inclusion of the same in digit format.
i was legitimately interested in what the conclusion of the brief mystery might be right up until it happened. maybe a sort of good pun, but kind of unfulfilling - more like a suckerpunch of delivery than a real conclusion. good building of atmosphere with use of subtlety though, and not too rushed acclimation of clues despite a limited word count.
2306223
When Twilight opened the book, it turned into a literal bookworm and ate her.
The notes were there to lure Twilight into her own demise.
I guess?
Heh. I remember finding notes like these.
Imagine the shock when the bookworm realized too late I was the one finding them.
There's a reason many creatures of legend no longer exist.
I'm that reason. (Alondro: baddest badass of ever)
NOOOOOoooooo.......
4614555
Seriously, are you writing self-insert fanfiction on someone else's fanfic?
Stop. Just stop.
YES
Man, every word of yours I haven't read is a mistake. You owe me for the sleepless night I'm about to experience.
The most chilling thing about this is both how matter-of-fact and brief the conclusion is, and the thought of how long it will take for Twilight's absence to be noticed. I've always been abnormally creeped-out by disappearances like these.
Imdont get it, any pony care to explain?
*shivers*
Well, that was morbid. :B
6281876
She died doing what she loved – being eaten by a supernatural carnivore.
2632359
fast and loose with formatting
The best thing I've read about literature in ever.
6282811 Hmph, I'll bet it didn't even use tentacles like a proper Japanese book monster would!
At least give the meal some gratification, you danged non-hentai monsters!
wow, I've heard of being all caught up inside a book, but this is ridiculous...
Wish I hadn't read that.
Wow. Very creepy premise, worthy of an M.R. James story.
I'm afraid of Changeling - Good story, weak ending
One Thousand and One - Feels like an adaptation of an existing story
Uncoordinated - A 2013 story
But the Greatest of These - Very adapted.
Wonder - Err...
The Apple of my Eye - A 2013 story I literally forgot and had to reread after putting this down for an hour.
Bookworm - Ok, I don't know what its from, but I'm willing to bet that this is an adapted story.