Stranger Than Dictation

by Masem

The Appendix

It had been a few days since the whole incident. After their celebratory meal, Twilight gathered all the magic parchment, those that Spike had used and the few spare sheets that remained, and taken them back to the library. Even though Spike profusely promised to not touch either, Twilight had placed the pages under a special protection spell that only she could undo.

Twilight had tried to get back into her normal routine to forget about being sucked into her friends’ story: cataloguing new books, resorting the shelves, sweeping the cobwebs out of the corner of forgotten racks. But she couldn’t get her mind away from the event. Even now, days later, she looked up at the shelf in the library where the pages sat, the faint purple glow the only sign of her magic at work.

“I wonder...” she said to nopony. She looked around, making sure that Spike wasn’t around. She knew he was running errands and likely planning on stopping to help Rarity, and shouldn’t be back for several hours.

She concentrated for a moment to unravel her magic on the written stack, and then levitated the pile to her desk.

She sat there for several minutes, staring at the first page with Pinkie’s title, “Twilight’s Big Happy Fun Day”. She knew what the rest of the pages would contain, based on what Rarity told her and her own experience, but never actually read anything beyond a few lines here and there.

Twilight looked out the window, biting her lip in thought. Her curiosity was getting to her. Her friends didn’t speak too much of what happened beyond getting involved in Pinkie’s plan to cheer her up, and seemed to keep their distance from her. Twilight thought that they felt ashamed, knowing their inner selves had been put forth into the story unintentionally and put her own life at risk. Even with the matter resolved, they still quickly hushed up when Twilight tried to ask about it. Spike himself had been hesitant doing anything around the library the last few days without assurance from her, worried that he’d activate some magic spell that laid hidden in the books.

Twilight took another peek at the clock, assured she would have time alone. With a faint smile, she trotted off to the kitchen to prepare a pot of tea and to sit down for some reading.

---

The slamming open of the library door brought Twilight out of her trance. “Hey, Twi, I’m back!” Spike offered, towing his wagon with some bags of food and other goods.

Twilight blinked several times, her concentration broken. She looked up from the last page of the story—Spike’s hastily written “THE END” staring at her—and realized that several hours had passed as she sat entranced by her own tale. It took a moment to realize that it was Spike at the door, and hastily dropped a long, thick book over the pile of papers. “Oh, um, hey Spike!”

Spike pulled the wagon inside and started to sort out the various bags. “So, you’ve finally gotten around to reading that, haven’t you?” he asked casually.

Spike’s comment took Twilight by surprise, and she turned her back, trying to hide the pages behind her. “Y-you mean this book the Princess sent me? Er, yeah.”

Spike stopped in his tracks and gave Twilight a deadpan stare. “I know you’re reading that story, Twilight. It’s not that hard to miss.” He continued on into the kitchen to drop off some items.

Twilight sighed. “Yeah, I guess I was. My curiosity was finally getting to me.”

“Hey, you’re Twilight, that’s just the way you are,” Spike’s voice called out from the kitchen.

“But I didn’t mean to,” she protested, turning back to the table and removing the book. “I feel like I invaded my friends’ personal space, knowing their subconsciouses were really creating this story. You’re not going to tell them, are you, Spike?”

Spike had come of the kitchen. “Of course I am,” he said flatly, returning to the wagon.

Twilight raced over and knelt down on her legs to look up at Spike. “No, you can’t! Please don’t tell them! What’ll they think of me!”

“They’ll think, ‘Why did it take Twilight this long to read it?’” Spike causally grabbed a jar of quills from the wagon.

Twilight took a moment to process that statement. “Wait, what?” she asked incredulously.

“I think AJ and Rainbow had a bet going too, how long it would take you to break down and read it.” Spike scratched his head. “It’s been, what, four days? I think that means Rainbow’s going to owe AJ a day at the spa.” He laughed. “Oh, I hope I can be there for that!”

“You mean, they knew I was going to read it?” Twilight asked exasperatedly.

“Well, duh! They knew you couldn’t let it just sit in the library without taking a glance. It was just a matter of time.”

Twilight was dumbfounded, and struggled back to her hooves. “But, wouldn’t they have a problem with it? I mean, that’s their innermost thoughts—”

Spike placed his claw against Twilight’s side. “They might have thought that originally, but they’ve all agreed it’s actually rather funny in the end. Well, except for putting your life at risk, but since we were able to get you out...”

Twilight took a sideways glance at the table where the pages laid. “Well, nearly getting killed isn’t always a laughing matter, but... now that you put it that way, it was rather humorous.”

Spike nodded. “And adventurous, and charming, and heroic. It’s actually better than some of those schlock Daring Do knockoffs they put out, according to Rainbow.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes and scrunched her brow. “Hmm. I wonder...”

Spike continued to store the goods from the wagon in various cubbyholes around the library before turning back to look at Twilight. “Uh-oh, I’ve seen that look on your face before. You’ve got an idea, I can tell.”

“Well, if it’s a good story—and if Rainbow says that’s true—maybe others would want to read it...”

Spike nodded. “I think I see where you’re going with this.”

“I wonder if I can get it published.” Twilight started to pace the library in thought. “Oh, I’d have to change the names and everything, and come up with a pen name, and fix up some of the plotholes and grammar mistakes, but...” She stopped and turned to Spike. “Do you think our friends would mind?”

“Mind? They’d probably want to help!” Spike laughed. “They just didn’t know how’d you react.”

“Great!” Twilight came over and wrapped her hoof around Spike. “Let’s just make sure we use the regular parchment this time, right?”

Author's Note:

Thanks for all those that commented on this!

I think it turned out pretty close what I originally wanted though I will say that the concept of having the four put themselves in as mary-sues within the story was one that came later (but before posting here), and really helped. I had started with Daring as an obvious point (after dealing with Pinkie's candy town) but once I realized that Daring was a mary-sue of RBD for all purposes, generating fictional versions of the other narrators was rather easy. Which then basically made it a matter of giving them individual stories to pursue that would be able to resolve in a final conflagration that incorporated them all. I do like the idea that this is potentially revisit-able though don't have any immediate ideas towards that at the time.

Comments

[Infinite Carnage]

Great story, deserved more praise

[Skeeter The Lurker]

Someone get this featured.

~Skeeter The Lurker

[Masem]

2329068 Unfortunately, "featured" here is a automated selection, so it's just a matter of page views and the like.

I am definitely considering EQD posting, but I need a lot of copyediting to get it there. (I try to do much myself but I know I need help).

[Swashbucklist]

There should be a line break right after,

With a faint smile, she trotted off to the kitchen to prepare a pot of tea and to sit down for some reading.

There's a time skip, after all.

The* curiosity was finally getting to me.”

*My

“Do you think my* friends would mind?”

*Our. It actually bugs the hell out of me when people fail to remember that the mane six are just as much Spike's friends as they are Twilight's.

Good luck with Equestria Daily! I think this story has a shot.

[Masem]

2329300 I'm not planning on rushing to EQD. I'm pretty confident this will be a copyedit chore to get to speed, and I want to let a few other ideas sink in.

(But I did get all those points you noted

[Masem]

2409395 It was an RPG concept (can be applied to any system but its less about the rules) where the game master would basically pull out a TV Guide and randomly flip to a listing, and then set the characters into that setting.

[Masem]

2409414 I would have had to up the age rating on this if that was the case.

[arcum42]

Shouldn't have started reading this right after spending several hours editing my own fanfic, since my mind was in editing mode when I started it. Snapped out of it somewhere in the first chapter or two, though. Fun story. Added to Twilight's Library.

[hypervelocity]

Definitely a fun story. Though I do find the idea of being transported into stories way more fun than they should be.

I really liked how off the rails the story got and how Twilight just ended up going 'Wait wh-! Oh screw it. ' by the time AJ added in The Lone Silver.

If there's anything that annoyed me, I guess it was how the other Mane 6 were just kinda thrown at the story. Not that it's a bad thing, but it was just kinda like 'poof! Here's Fluttershy!'. The only other thing I didn't like was that Spike was just kinda...connected to why Twilight was stuck in the story. I dunno. It just felt hollow.

But otherwise this was a fun little story! (And I'm happy to be 50th person to give you a thumbs up!)

[Shamus_Aran]

This was a pretty fun little read. Kudos to you.

[FashionablyHospitable]

2985839 Happy to be of assistance... or was it pleasure to help?

Anvayss... cool story, bro.