Lost In Translation
Sep. 27th, 2016 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twilightponyI'm feeling better. My friends have all been over to see me today. They've told me of some of the panic and searching that happened when I disappeared. They didn't stay long. I'm still so very tired.
So what happened. We'd had a light picnic in the throne room of the Carerfilly ruins. It's our favorite spot, open to the sky, right below the twin thrones of Celestia and Luna, with the tapestries that Rarity had mended gleaming in the light. Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike were off selecting a tapestry to study and mend, Pinkie was serenading us on the Organ To The Outside, and Starlight Glimmer was nose deep in a book she'd pulled off the shelves with a dozen others piled to either side of her on her reading table. Zecora wasn't with us, she was still not home when we'd dropped by on the way to the castle ruins and my note was still on her door. So I took down my note. There would be other picnics.
I'd found a really faded and dogeared book in the Princess's hidden reading room. I discovered it behind some other books when I'd pulled a fat book on stone masonry off the shelf. I guess it had fallen down behind them and had been forgotten. Not only was it old, but it looked well loved! This could only mean it was worth reading. I sat down to see what it was about, but it was not easy. The text was hard to read and when I read the same passage twice, I seemed to get a different narrative. I figured that was because it was nearly illegible. Well, I know for a fact that faded texts can be read using the Haycartes spell! So I cast that.
I found myself in a yellowing, brightly lit plain of short grasses and wilting flowers. I couldn't see the sun but I could feel it beating down on me like it was midday. That was strange, but what struck me was how empty this book felt. Usually, with Haycartes you can feel the intent of the author. It's very useful for understanding the story and concepts they're writing about. Here there was none of that. Everything was vague and aimless.
From my spot among the bleached grasses and flowers, I could hear murmurs and the playful calls of young ponies, but they were muffled and nopony was in sight. I couldn't see more than three lengths in any direction and yet I felt like I was supposed to be in a wide open space. I took a step and found myself at a precipice, at the top of a narrow winding trail going down. I took another step and I was halfway down a clifface. Below there was mist and the sound of crashing waves, to my right, a cave. I went in. I heard the rumble of falling rocks behind me and I leaped forward to avoid getting hit by an avalanche. I dove straight into the jaws of a dragon. I screamed as I got engulfed in flames, only to find myself panting and wild-eyed, cowering in a yellowing, brightly lit plain of short grasses and wilting brown flowers. Then I tried to get out of the book and couldn't. All around me was the sound of playing foals, far away and unseen in the yellow grey mist. I decided to settle down and wait.
As soon as my belly touched the ground, the light went out and the foal voices vanished. Instead, there was rustling noises in the grass. Could be mice. Could be a rabbit. Could be something a lot worse. I'd just been whisked out of a ball of fire and the fresh memory of sulfur and burning hair was suddenly almost all I could think of. I kept very still. I heard a deep rumbling and the sound of grass getting ripped out of the ground. Some rustling. A stop. Ripping. Deep, whistling breathing! Grinding teeth! Sniffing! A deep, grumbling growl and something gigantic loomed out of the murky air right behind me! I screamed and shot out of my crouch at a full gallop and straight into an orchard. I careened around a stand of gnarled apple trees, my heart in my teeth and looked back. Nothing was following me that I could see or hear. I smelled the air for clues, but if there was any spoor, it was masked by the sickly sweet smell of very ripe apples. Suddenly I was very hungry. Again I attempted to get out of this book, to no avail. I tried not to panic.
I'd found the book around mid afternoon, and while I was trapped in the book, my friends had decided it was time to go back to Ponyville. They soon found my saddle bags and the books I'd pulled from the shelves and taken into the reading room, but they didn't see me. They wandered the library, then the castle, then the castle grounds looking for me and calling my name. They couldn't find me. They kept searching until it got dark. They were so worried that Spike sent a message to Princess Celestia. The Everfree is a dangerous place. Princess Luna arrived with her personal guard and they took up the search. My friends collected my things and headed for home. They were sick with worry.
So what happened. We'd had a light picnic in the throne room of the Carerfilly ruins. It's our favorite spot, open to the sky, right below the twin thrones of Celestia and Luna, with the tapestries that Rarity had mended gleaming in the light. Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike were off selecting a tapestry to study and mend, Pinkie was serenading us on the Organ To The Outside, and Starlight Glimmer was nose deep in a book she'd pulled off the shelves with a dozen others piled to either side of her on her reading table. Zecora wasn't with us, she was still not home when we'd dropped by on the way to the castle ruins and my note was still on her door. So I took down my note. There would be other picnics.
I'd found a really faded and dogeared book in the Princess's hidden reading room. I discovered it behind some other books when I'd pulled a fat book on stone masonry off the shelf. I guess it had fallen down behind them and had been forgotten. Not only was it old, but it looked well loved! This could only mean it was worth reading. I sat down to see what it was about, but it was not easy. The text was hard to read and when I read the same passage twice, I seemed to get a different narrative. I figured that was because it was nearly illegible. Well, I know for a fact that faded texts can be read using the Haycartes spell! So I cast that.
I found myself in a yellowing, brightly lit plain of short grasses and wilting flowers. I couldn't see the sun but I could feel it beating down on me like it was midday. That was strange, but what struck me was how empty this book felt. Usually, with Haycartes you can feel the intent of the author. It's very useful for understanding the story and concepts they're writing about. Here there was none of that. Everything was vague and aimless.
From my spot among the bleached grasses and flowers, I could hear murmurs and the playful calls of young ponies, but they were muffled and nopony was in sight. I couldn't see more than three lengths in any direction and yet I felt like I was supposed to be in a wide open space. I took a step and found myself at a precipice, at the top of a narrow winding trail going down. I took another step and I was halfway down a clifface. Below there was mist and the sound of crashing waves, to my right, a cave. I went in. I heard the rumble of falling rocks behind me and I leaped forward to avoid getting hit by an avalanche. I dove straight into the jaws of a dragon. I screamed as I got engulfed in flames, only to find myself panting and wild-eyed, cowering in a yellowing, brightly lit plain of short grasses and wilting brown flowers. Then I tried to get out of the book and couldn't. All around me was the sound of playing foals, far away and unseen in the yellow grey mist. I decided to settle down and wait.
As soon as my belly touched the ground, the light went out and the foal voices vanished. Instead, there was rustling noises in the grass. Could be mice. Could be a rabbit. Could be something a lot worse. I'd just been whisked out of a ball of fire and the fresh memory of sulfur and burning hair was suddenly almost all I could think of. I kept very still. I heard a deep rumbling and the sound of grass getting ripped out of the ground. Some rustling. A stop. Ripping. Deep, whistling breathing! Grinding teeth! Sniffing! A deep, grumbling growl and something gigantic loomed out of the murky air right behind me! I screamed and shot out of my crouch at a full gallop and straight into an orchard. I careened around a stand of gnarled apple trees, my heart in my teeth and looked back. Nothing was following me that I could see or hear. I smelled the air for clues, but if there was any spoor, it was masked by the sickly sweet smell of very ripe apples. Suddenly I was very hungry. Again I attempted to get out of this book, to no avail. I tried not to panic.
I'd found the book around mid afternoon, and while I was trapped in the book, my friends had decided it was time to go back to Ponyville. They soon found my saddle bags and the books I'd pulled from the shelves and taken into the reading room, but they didn't see me. They wandered the library, then the castle, then the castle grounds looking for me and calling my name. They couldn't find me. They kept searching until it got dark. They were so worried that Spike sent a message to Princess Celestia. The Everfree is a dangerous place. Princess Luna arrived with her personal guard and they took up the search. My friends collected my things and headed for home. They were sick with worry.
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Date: 2016-09-28 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-28 03:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-28 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-28 06:54 pm (UTC)