… they fell onto an expanse of white nothingness. Normally, this might have been a strange and potentially frightening thing, but right now, all Twilight could feel was immense relief that the music was no longer there. Her eyes filled with tears of joy, she leaned forward and drew Pinkie Pie into a hug.
“This... this is the most beautiful moment in my life.” Pinkie sniffed. Twilight smiled, and just nodded. There were no words powerful enough to give justice to her relief.
“Well,” she said once they had calmed down – which, admittedly, had taken over a minute. “What now?”
“I have no idea. But this place is pretty boring.”
'Boring' was certainly one was to describe it, Twilight thought. There was literally nothing there, no floor, no ceiling or sky, no walls, no objects of any kind. The only exceptions to this were Twilight herself, Pinkie Pie, the book, her quill, and her pot of ink.
Due to the lack of better options, Twilight kneeled down with a sigh, opening the book at a random page.
'Ah, you made it. Now, due to the relatively long time since our last visit...'
Twilight blinked at that, but then she just shrugged and continued,
'… I have come up with an idea for how to progress this uniquely constructed story. At least, sort of. Your first task will be to find the other players.'
That was all there was. After a few moments, Twilight attempted to ask the book written questions, hoping it would answer her like it had just done a few moments ago, but the book remained quiet. Tonguing the insides of her mouth in thought, she sat down on a particularly comfortable spot of whiteness (which was entirely indistinguishable from any other one, but still), and began to slowly spin the quill in her grasp.
“Pinke... any idea on how we can get more of our friends to this place?” It was worth a try.
“Nopy-dopy-lopey.”
“Mh...”
“Or wait, what if you just write it into your book?”
“I... guess?” Twilight's gaze switched between Pinkie and the book, until something in her mind clicked. “Yeah, actually, that's probably it.”
Twilight dunk the quill into the ink and floated it above the other page of the book, but instead of writing something, she put the quill onto the, well, nothingness beside her, and closed her eyes for several seconds. Eventually, she lifted it back up and began to write.
'It was a sunny day in Ponyville. Rarity was working on a dress, because making dresses was what she did for living. All was normal, when suddenly, a portal opened up beside her. Although she didn't know what was going to happen, she still felt curious, and so she went through it.'
Twilight's left eye twitched. The art of describing a subject in an analytical, factual, and compact manner, and the art of writing fiction were two very different things, and somehow, even though she had no comparison, she knew that what she had just written wasn't very good... at all.
And nothing had happened, either.
Twilight tensed her lips, her heart filled with a mixture of embarrassment and frustration.
“Pinkie?”
“Hmmm??”
“Can you read this out loud? Maybe it makes a difference.”
“Sure.” Much quicker than Twilight had anticipated, Pinkie snapped the book from the nothing and began to read.
“'It was a sunny day in Ponyville. Rarity was working on a dress, because making dresses was what she did for living. All was normal, when suddenly, a portal opened up beside her. Although she didn't know what was going to happen, she still felt curious, and so she went through it.' Wow, Twilight.” Pinkie giggled. “That one of the worst things I've ever read.”
Twilight blinked at the blunt insult of her story, the surprise at hearing something like this from Pinkie blocking out any anger that might have been there, or any disappointment upon the realization that, once again, nothing had happened. For a few seconds, she found herself wanting to react somehow but not knowing what to say.
“Hnnnnnnnnnnnnmgggggeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh...!!!!” Twilight spat, but then, suddenly, something caught up to her, and she looked back at Pinkie and laughed, and Pinkie didn't take long to join in. Somehow, someway, Twilight had forgotten how much fun her friends could be. Her friends, and life, and everything.
Even this stupid nonsense that was going on right now.
Still chuckling, she turned back to the book. The answer was, after all, rather apparent, and she shouldn't have to think too hard to find it. The whole point the book had been making over and over was to avoid any sort of contrivances and be honest with the reader. Thus, it was unlikely to appreciate an arbitrary made-up portal that only served as a plot device.
'Rarity will now be put here, because I need her to complete this task.' As soon as Twilight had written that, the fashionista appeared beside her. 'And she will also know everything relevant so that we don't have to bother with exposition,' she added spontaneously.
“Afternoon, dear.” Rarity waited until Twilight had finished writing, then she stepped closer and gave her a short hug. “Say, how about we make this place a tad more... pleasant?”
Twilight shrugged. “Sure. What should I write?”
A pleasant tingling from the overarching sun slowly crept up Twilight's cheek. With a stifled giggle, she stretched herself onto the couch, watching as Rarity wrote one final line into the book. As soon as the quill lost contact to the page, a multitude of palm trees sprouted out of the ground at breakneck speed, much to the delight of Fluttershy who, after a surprised squeal, couldn't be quick enough to fly out and examine them.
“Who'd have thought you'd give us so much... nature?”
“Why, whatever could you possibly mean by that?” Heaving herself upwards, Rarity raised an eyebrow at Twilight's remark. “Nature, dear, is a tremendous source of inspiration, just as long as-”
“You don't have to get your hooves dirty?”
“Precisely.” Rarity practically beamed, walking up to the railing of the little terrace whereon Twilight's couch was situated to adore the tremendous outlook. Behind them, Pinkie loosened herself from the remainder of the group, looking to take Rarity's spot as the prime mover of their little paradise.
“Well...” Twilight gave Pinkie a somewhat nervous glance. “This is all nice and beautiful, but it doesn't really help us to progress, does it?”
Rarity, who was still facing away from her, just shrugged at that, but Rainbow and Applejack moved over to take their seats on the couch beside Twilight.
So, what'cha wanna do then?
“I think we should-” But she interrupted herself. A sudden sinking feeling hit her breast, and she knew instantly that something had gone wrong. In fact, they had lost one of their players. But how..
With a cold chill running down her neck, Twilight lit her horn to remateralize directly in front of the book, shoving a surprised looking Pinkie away.
'You still have not found all players,' it read, 'but now one of your team members died. It was...'
Twilight gave the book a disbelieving stare, then her eyes wandered up to what Pinkie had written. Something inside her protested even before her mind drew the connection to what the book had said, and slowly, very slowly, the truth began to sink in.
“Pinkie Pie...” Twilight closed her eyes, doing her best to stay calm. "Congratulations. You just managed killed Grammar.”
“Uhm..” Pinkie gave a nervous giggle. “... ... ... oupsie?”
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Topic: M68: Fanfiction Mafia (Game over, Mafia wins flawlessly) (Read 197150 times)