on a lark

[alicornucopia]

She combs and combs the world aside and there is another world, just ahead, and she steps in.

The combed-away hole closes behind her. She puts her comb in her pocket.

Thanjen (Unbitwise)

Blueberry (kappa)

Hivers (Rockeye)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"I'm Emily Lark."

[or_coincidence]

"It's very nice to meet you, Emily Lark! Have you been in Ponyville long?"

[alicornucopia]

"No, I just got here."

[or_coincidence]

"Did you come to the library in particular for a reason, or are you just sort of wandering?"

[alicornucopia]

"Just sort of wandering. Books are great, but I wasn't looking to necessarily get one today."

[or_coincidence]

"Well, I happen to think the library is an excellent place to wander to," she says. "What kinds of books do you like? I like most everything."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh, lots of different stuff, the last thing I read was for school and it was about some old-timey humans."

[or_coincidence]

"Ooh, history. What were the old-timey humans up to?"

[alicornucopia]

"They were going from one human country to a different human country because the first one had people from a third human country all over it getting in their way."

[or_coincidence]

Blueberry giggles. "That does sound like the sort of thing that happens in histories."

[alicornucopia]

"It was a fiction book," Emily clarifies. "But it was about real countries."

[or_coincidence]

"Which countries?"

[alicornucopia]

"Denmark and Sweden and Germany."

[or_coincidence]

"I've never heard of any of those. They must be very far away from Equestria."

[alicornucopia]

"Well, they're all human countries, and you hadn't heard of humans," says Emily reasonably.

[or_coincidence]

"Yes," she agrees. "It's perfectly logical, it's just also really interesting."

[alicornucopia]

Fidget. "Well, I hadn't heard of Equestria until recently either."

[or_coincidence]

"Are there unicorns near where humans live? They must not be very much like the kind of unicorn I'm used to, if there are."

[alicornucopia]

"Not near enough that I ever saw one, unless they were hiding, really really well."

[or_coincidence]

"Unicorns can be sneaky, but we'd have to be very sneaky indeed not to stand out in a country full of humans," says Blueberry. "I don't think even I'm that sneaky. Unless I learned how to shapeshift, I suppose..."

[alicornucopia]

"You can do that?"

A little quickly.

[or_coincidence]

"I could. Probably. I'm not sure if there are any spells for it in this library, and if there are they might be hard to learn. Can't hurt to check, though, I suppose." She grins. "Research project! Do you want to help me look?"

[alicornucopia]

"Okay." She starts looking at book spines.

[or_coincidence]

"That's the miscellaneous section, alphabetical by title," says Blueberry. "And nonfiction alphabetical by author starts there," she points a hoof, "and ends there. I'll go upstairs and check the unfiled books, they're always a mess."

She trots up some stairs, leaving Emily Lark with books titled things like The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide and The Founding of Equestria and Simple Home Remedies.

[alicornucopia]

Well, those don't sound like they're about shapeshifting. She keeps going.