A return and a parcel

Well that was it, another episode down and another swift but ever brutal return from Equestria. This week ‘Read it and weep’, in my opinion the best RD episode so far, it really boosted my opinion of her – heck, I caught myself laughing once or twice. But now, well that’s just it, all I have is the rattling of the door, the patter of the rain, but not a rainbow. There’s never a rainbow here. So I take a seat under the halogen strip lighting of the kitchen and listen to the door creak and the post flap screech. With a moan I slump and lie face right into the table, shoulders limp. my last waking thought, I wish I had something of Equestria.

I woke the next morning to the smell of coffee from next door. The sun had managed to shed some light into the kitchen where it drifted lazy like fog, bringing to my attention the mess of last night’s ready meal sitting next to a flickering monitor. The sunlight also brings to view a nondescript brown paper parcel, but I never get letters - let alone actual stuff! Hesitantly, I pick up the parcel and turn it over several times in my hands, learning the indents through the paper. It feels… like a book. I place it with near reverence on the table. With almost surgical precision I remove the string and unfurl the paper. I gasp, and then start to panic, because sitting on the table in front of me is something that really shouldn’t exist. I take a deep breath, and with a gulp open the book.

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“Aaaaand that’s the last one. Thanks for the books, Twilight! They were AWESOME! Especially in the fifth one were Daring Do crosses the lava pit whilst holding the amulet of Peryx, in HER TAIL, I mean like wow! Daring do is like the second most radical p-“
“Mmmhm, that’s great and all Rainbow, but it isn’t even dawn yet. Maybe next time you could wait a bit, and then bring the books back a little later? Not all of us get so much sleep in the day” Teased a decidedly croaky Twilight Sparkle.
“Sure… Whatever I guess.” Rolling her eyes, Rainbow Dash took off – the pegasus’ signature rainbow tailing perfectly. “And would it kill you” Twilight mumbled to herself, “Not to come in by the roof” She crawled back into bed, careful not to wake Spike who was snoring blissfully nearby. Something was nagging at the back of her mind but she shrugged it off, and returned to a deep sleep.

Unexplainable

I read it in six hours, granted I did nothing else. I bolted the door, locked the windows pulled the shutters and drove myself to distraction trying to tell if this was some cruel joke. It wasn’t, I truly had a copy of Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone. Admittedly, the plot was predictable and over the top, but it looked legitimate, right down to the cover. What got me most was that it was actually there, I could touch it, smell it and see it in my own world. What intrigued me however, was that it looked used. Pages folded, some hay, I even found at one point a glistening azure hair. But then I found the best part, because at the back of the book I found some simple notes, some plot holes, some personal opinions, cool in itself, until I realized that these notes were Twilight’s own. She'd written these, she'd done it herself! Now though, it's here with me, and I had to have every single detail and make every connection. That hair had to have been Rainbow Dash's, I knew it! The dog eared pages by hoof not hand, the scorch mark of a wayward lightning cloud. Ordinary wear and tear in Equestria it may be, but to me - to anyone who watched, it was priceless.

It made me feel guilty when I remembered I’d absent-mindedly drawn the main six in a blank page before the book began.. If Twilight knew, she’d be devastated that I’d defaced her book.

“Hey, Rainbow! Are you up there?” called Twilight up to the cloud. She thought she’d seen a tail flick up there, and she had some important questions. “Come on, I know you’re up there! Don’t make me yell!” Twilight yelled. Fantastic, Everypony was staring by now. She snapped round “Don’t worry, I’m not crazy or anything, it’s just my friend is up there! Y’know, Rainbow Dash!?” The odd looks continued, along with a persistent poking… “Will you QUIT poking me?!” She turned to face the pokee, who turned out to be a wide-eyed Rainbow Dash.“Oh. I thought… Never mind you’re here now”
“So, what d’you want? No offence, I have important things to get back to.” Replied Rainbow, who had settled once more, leaning on a tree.
“I’m sure you do…” replied Twilight sceptically “Anyway it’s about the books. For a start I-“
“No, I gave them all back. All sixteen, I counted.”
“It wasn’t that it was just-“
“I swear, I didn’t rip any pages!” Twilight put a hoof over her friend’s mouth.
“I had no idea you were such an artist!”
“Mmph? Myph Mmmnph mmph!” Rainbow Dash removed the hoof from her face. “What? I can’t draw! And what are you talking about?”
Twilight looked the other pony up and down. “Well, I haven’t lent the book to anyone other than you. No-pony has asked for it, everyone has a copy of Daring Do.”
“But what are you actually talking about!” Asked Rainbow Dash, exasperated.
Twilight took the book carefully from her saddle-pack, turning the pages slowly until she reached one. “I-its us! That is AWESOME! They even gave me my shades!” Twilight, however did not share the pegasus’ enthusiasm. If it wasn’t her then it had to be something – something that… Nothing, there was no explanation, RD would never lie to her about something as unimportant as a sketch, regardless of quality. The only thing she could do was erase the picture and think as little as possible of it.

Testing

Twilight arrived home and immediately set about laying the book carefully on the table, carefully arranging her equipment, changing the angle now if I put that just there so that the light shines through the pages an-
"Uhh, Twilight?"
"Yes, Spike what is it? Can't you see I'm busy?" Twilight turned to face him briefly, before snapping back down to the desk, deep in preparation for Celestia-knows-what.
"I was just wondering why you have an autopsy prepared. Especially for your old copy of Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone." Said the young dragon, indignantly. This he mused, may not have been the best of ideas, he could already tell; the franticness in her voice, the sense of rising panic she just emanated at times like this and the jittery movements. She didn't understand something, this was never good. "Look Spike, this isn't game, this is important. If this were to be an unobserved phenomenon, then I'd immediately have to report my findings to the princess! Instead of standing there, why don't you get that copy of Maladies and Mildews of the Modern Book, the one I had last week, remember?"
Spike muttered something momentarily, before retrieving the book for Twilight.
"I have some gem hunting to do with Rarity today so..." There wasn't any point, nothing could draw Twilight's attention now.

"Finally," Twilight exclaimed "some peace". She delved into Maladies and Mildew of the Modern Book "I'm sure I'll find something. Time passed, and not a word on odd sketches in books. So she then took examined the novel in question, tracing it's every familiar edge with a tentative hoof. She read pages and pages, not a changed word, not a page out of place, not a trace of anything other than the sketch, that sketch looking at it now, the faces seemed contorted, grinning maliciously at her. She shook her head, "don't be ridiculous", out loud, however, she sounded even less sure of herself. By this time it was almost evening, Spike would be back soon. "I guess" Twilight gulped, as this was something she had never admitted. "It was ...nothing." The last word was little more than a whisper. She picked up the rubber and begin to remove the image that'd wasted a day of her life. Heedless of the ridiculous screeching of the rubber she continued the task.

"Huh?" The long drawn out screeching seemed to emanate from the book on the linoleum counter. "What the hell?" I murmured, mystified by the horrendous noise. Carefully I opened the offending novel. One, two three pages in the screeching was suddenly amplified, reminiscent of fingernails on a blackboard. With every screech however, part of my picture vanished. A rubber? But who could be doing that? I turned the page over. Nothing abnormal, just a few dedications. I turned it back, grabbing a pencil, I begin to write. Hello? Is someone doing that? And if so, who? My heart did a flip in my chest, the scratching and scrabbling of a quill on the page, spatters of ink starting to appear. I am Twilight Sparkle, bearer of the Element of Magic. Though who are you?

Twilight sat at the desk, eyes wide - waiting on a reply from her favourite chidhood novel. When an answer did appear, she was unsure as whether to blush or scream; I'm a fan.