Dankworld
(Pony Edition)
{Written By Phom}
~Act One~
~Part Three~

During your walk through Ponyville to the library, you can’t help but notice that it is a lot bigger and less humble than the show let on. There are many locations you have never actually seen, and places like Carousel Boutique or Sugarcube Corner are much more impressive firsthand. As with Applejack on the trail, you imagine how amazing everything must look in the daylight, and look forward to whatever you might be doing tomorrow. You feel a rush of excitement: this really is happening! You saw Sweet Apple Acres, met Applejack and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, walked by the buildings... You really are in Equestria, and the possibility of adventure and fun are, to be honest, a little overwhelming. Seriously, the antics of the inhabitants of Ponyville are nothing short of rediculous, and you aren’t sure if you are up to it.
Oh but hey, there’s the library! Forget all this doubt, your favorite purple pony waits behind this door!

>Knock

You knock four times, because two could go unnoticed but five could sound too urgent, and you know how Twilight overthinks things. First impressions are everything.
A nearly inaudible patter of paws approaches, and the door opens cautiously, revealing a baby dragon fresh from his basket.

“Hello? Do you even realize how late... Woah. Twilight, c’mere!”
The dragon looks you up and down, lingering on your hands, but leaving no inch unseen.
“Is this one of Pinkies pranks again?” He raises his voice. “Pinkie, it’s late, not now, okay?”

>Inform dragon of the situation

You explain that all will be revealed to the dragon later, once Twilight is present, because you would rather not repeat yourself. Just on time, said purple pony scrambles up, half brushed mane and levitated brush in tow. She begins to ask Spike who is at the door, but stops short when she sees you.

“AH! What- You- Uh... Wait, no, I mean...”

She pauses to gather her thoughts as you and Spike watch, expectantly.

“Um, I’m sorry I reacted how I did, I have neither seen nor read about your kind. May I ask... What are you?”

>”Hi, I’m Spencer Firna. I am a human, and I really have no idea what I’m doing here in Equestria, which is why I am here. I just woke up on the edge of the Everfree forest and walked back here with Applejack, who told me to come talk to you.”

She sighs. “Right, because if there is ever a problem, come to Twilight Sparkle, she has the books, she just magically knows how to fix everything...”
She rolls her eyes and turns around, retreating into the library.
“Come in, I’ll see what I can find. You will have to tell me more, though, waking up in the forest isn’t exactly much to go off of.”

You follow her into the main room of the library, and Spike closes the door behind you. Rubbing your head, you recall your injuries sustained in the company of the Crusaders, and scowl with annoyance. Twilight doesn’t notice, she is busy moving books via telekinesis and muttering to herself about indexes and such as she flips through multiple books at a time. Her speed and skill concerning her books never ceases to amaze you, seeing how you can barely keep up with the passing titles as they fly through the air.

Spike, bored with this everyday spectacle, announces that he is going back to bed, then does so.

“Okay... Spencer, was it? I found a few books on random teleportation, one on waking up in strange places... So, what happened again?”

>Explain

You attempt to explain in as much detail as possible, but you really can’t remember much about what happened prior to this evenings events. You know you were walking... somewhere... Then something happened and you were here. You think farther back, before your walk, and a chill runs down your spine as you feel your memories slipping away while you think of them. In fact, large details of your life are just barely out of reach in your mind, like a dream after you have woken up.

Twilight waits patiently for an explanation, watching as your facial expression grows more and more distressed.
“Um, Spencer? Are you okay, you look worried...”

>”I’m fine, I just can’t remember stuff. Like, important stuff, about my life before I got here...”

She makes a mental note, muttering something about amnesia, then resumes searching the shelves.
“Okay, that narrows it down a tiny bit... This might take a while, and it’s late, I normally don’t stay up past an hour ago... Would you meet me here tomorrow morning to continue our research? Where are... Oh... I bet you don’t have a place to stay, right?

>”Eeenope.”
Twilight briefly considers the odd fact that you just used a phrase Big Macintosh uses all the time, but she dismisses it as simple coincidence. She dons an irritated look.
“So, what, were you planning on staying here? Because it would be nice if you asked first, and...”

She starts rambling, so you inform her that you honestly had no plan concerning living arrangements for the night, and meant no exploitation of her hospitality. Her attitude undergoes a sudden change from annoyed to excited, and the tired pony from moments ago is totally gone.
“Oh, well, you could stay here if you want! It would be fun, like a slumber party, but with a puzzling mystery to solve! We could...” She starts rambling again.

The prospect of a sleepover studying party is very unappealing to you.

>”I’m sorry Twilight, I am not in the mood for any kind of party right now, I would actually like to go to bed. We can study tomorrow.”

“Oh... Well, that would be fine too. Unfortunately, I don’t...” She looks around the library. “...Really know where you can sleep around here... Oh, I know!”

She levitates blankets and pillows from unseen parts of the house, arranging them on the floor to create a makeshift bed. Two cushions from a nearby couch make the mattress, while blankets and pillows provide extra padding, with pillows on the sides lest you roll off. One pillow at the top and a blanket draped over the pile actually serve their normal purpose as pillow and blanket.
Twilight looks the whole thing over with a scrutinizing eye.
“Well, it isn’t great, but it will do the job. You can use my bed, it’s upstairs. Don’t mess with my stuff, especially not the bookshelves in my room, that’s my private collection and I have it organized perfectly.”

>”Oh. no, Twilight, I couldn’t. I’ll sleep down here, this bed is fine. It is enough that you are even letting me stay here. With all the research you are going to be doing for me, you need a good nights sleep.

Twilight opens her mouth to protest, but everything you said made sense. She was conflicted: nopony ever came to visit her for more than a question or a plea for help. save for her friends, who were usually occupied fighting each other or some odd internal struggle. But here was this creature she knew nothing about, which, yes, had a problem and needed her help, but was relying on her hospitality because it had nowhere else to go. She wanted to be a good host, and it responded by being chivalrous and refusing her bed... This was something to think about. Also, this Spencer creature had made not one quip about her books or her reading habits or anything. She was used to being called something along the lines of “egghead” at least once a day by her friends or otherwise, and everypony agreed that the amount of reading she did was totally weird. Spencer had said nothing. Of course, she had known him for all of an hour, but nevertheless she felt there was something special about this “human”.

“Are you sure? My bed is much better than this, and you are the guest in my home! I am supposed to make sure you are as comfortable as possible, it’s part of being a good host.”

>”I understand, however, I feel it is more important, unless it is too soon to say such things, to be a good friend and allow you to have the good bed. I’m just being nice.”

Her eyes widened at the mention of being friends. Wasn’t she the awkward nerdy pony who had been sent here for the sole purpose of making friends? Didn’t she normally have to work at it? She and Spencer were just instantly friends somehow, and she barely knew him. Thinking back, she realized that she was fairly rude to him at first, but he had been nice to her the entire time. She decided she would have to get to know him better, because why not? One can always benefit from more friends.

“So, you mean we are friends now? Why?”

>”Why? Why not? You are helping me with my problem, you are letting me spend the night and you don’t even know me... Why shouldn’t you be my friend? Friendship is magic!”

Again, her brain dismissed his knowledge of something he couldn’t possibly have learned as coincidence. She failed to hold back a yawn, and decided it was time for bed, but you beat her to it, telling her she looks pretty tired and should go to bed. She subconsciously enjoyed being cared for, and her calculating brain moved this new friend up a few rungs on some ladder that Twilight very rarely thought about.

“Fine, I’ll sleep upstairs. I guess, uh... goodnight? Bathroom is down that hall, kitchen is right there if you need water or something. See you in the morning, sleep well.”
She magically turns off the light, and her horn glows dimly, illuminating the stairs and the room upstairs as she retires.

>Sleep.

You get in the bed, which is awkwardly pony sized so your legs drape off the end. After a bit of consideration, you decide that the bed is honestly not very bad, and promptly drift off to sleep.

----------------------------

You have the strangest dream. You are lying on your back somewhere, and a couple of worms are working their way past your lips and into your mouth,

>Wake the hell up right now

You wake up and open your eyes to see Spike holding your lips open. He notices you are awake and backs up all startled-like.
“You... I know what you are here for! I don’t believe your story, and my investigation confirms my suspicions! Look at those teeth! You are here to eat Twilight, aren’t you? Well I’m not gonna let that happen, I’ll burn you where you lay!”

>”Wait, no, don’t do that! I am not gonna eat anypony, I promise.”

“Yeah right! I’ve seen enough monsters to know that those are meat-eating teeth! Well, there’s only one kind of meat around here! Pony!”

You actually can’t help but wonder what pony meat might taste like, but push the thought out of your head on the off chance that Spike might be able to read minds.

>Roll eyes. “Spike, really, I would have started eating ponies already if I wanted to. Go back to bed.”

“Hmm, well I have my eyes on you. You promise you aren’t gonna do anything bad?”

>”I promise. Don’t worry, I like Twilight, I wouldn’t eat her. At least she trusts me, unlike you and Applejack.”

Spike just walks back to his bed, feeling like a bit of a jerk.

----------------------

Meanwhile, Twilight sleeps soundly. Her bed had never felt more comfortable, and she had come to terms with herself on the whole Spencer issue. She figured that he was just a nice guy, and she had done well in allowing him to stay and offering her own bed, so he was simple responding to her hospitality by being selfless. It was all just a logical circle of friends being nice to each other, nothing more to it. She had fallen asleep quickly, but was then plagued by troubling dreams with Spencer at the center of them. She dreamed that she was mad at Princess Celestia because of something concerning him, then she felt overwhelming sadness and anger at herself because of something he did for her. She also dreamt that there was much, much more to the whole Spencer thing, and her petty emotional dispute with herself was nothing compared to what was to come. Suddenly, she saw an image of herself, dead, and somehow knew that it was her fault. This vision jolted her awake with a small cry, causing Spike to stir slightly and murmur in his sleep. Twilight sat up in a cold sweat, pulling deep breaths, and put her face in her hooves, trying to make sense of what she had dreamt.

{As stated before, this portion as brought you by the lovely Phom. If you all enjoyed this chapter, be certain to mention it and you’ll be very likely to see him write more!}