//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1: Uncovering Secrets 
// Story: Book of the Mirror Pond 
// by StoryBirth 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 1: Uncovering Secrets

"Whoo! Today was a long day," Spike said sprawled out on Twilight's back.

"Yeah, especially since you spent half of it watching paint dry. Anyway, it's not over yet. We still have to get that spell learned, remember?"

"Whaaaaaat? But Twilight, today's been so long!" Spike and Twilight had just gotten back to the library from Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie had written a letter to Celestia. Twilight used her magic to open up the door to the library. The unicorn had always loved the moment she opened that door, since it let out the smell of the wood that the library was made of. She could tell that the smell that was rushing through her nostrils and calming her senses was doing the same to Spike since his already exhausted voice was becoming more relaxed. "Although, I've been wondering something." the dragon said as he lazily rolled off of Twilight.

"And what is that, Spike?" she asked as she shut the doors behind her. The hot humid air of the summer wasn't welcome in the library. 

"Why is it that the town turned to you to fix the 'Too Many Pinkies' problem?" Earlier that day, Pinkie Pie had found a way to clone herself. Needless to say, it ended with a catastrophe like no other. Fortunately, they solved the problem, but it turned into a pretty long day. "Not that I don't think you're a stellar pony, but don't we have a mayor?"

"Well, it's probably because I'm Princess Celestia's student, but regardless, I'm glad I could help." Twilight walked to a crate labeled "Sweet Apple Acres" near the back of the library. Her horn glowed with a purple aura as an apple floated out of the box. The apples were used for testing spells so that no living creatures were harmed in testing. (by Fluttershy's request)

The apple was placed on a table. Twilight was ready to perform a spell on it that the two had been trying to perfect. She was trying to turn an apple into an orange. Naturally, this was a difficult spell since apples and oranges just dont mix.

"Ready, Spike?"

"Go for it, Twi!"

"Okay. Three. Two. One!" The unicorn's horn lit up with a purple glow and the light that embodied Twilight's magic shot toward the apple. After the light hit the apple, the fruit began to contort. It began to grow and poke out in random spots like a cat was trying to break out of it. As it convulsed, it grew and made all sorts of pops and whizzes. It slowly kept growing up until a point where the purple duo could feel that a climax was happening. The apple was at maximum size and the two expected something to happen right then and there.

The apple then began to shrink anticlimactically. Much to Twilight and Spike's disappointment, nothing happened, leaving them with the silence of the library and an apple.

"Well that stunk," Spike said flatly as he sat on a pile of books that they had pulled out when they were trying to solve the problem of too many Pinkies earlier that day. He knew that this was going to be a while, so he had a seat.

"I'll say it stunk. Hm...I can't work in a messy environment like this," the purple pony said as she lit up her horn. "Let's clean up a bit."

Spike's temporary throne of books was quickly taken apart by Twilight's magic. He fell to the ground with a thud and a yelp as the books went back to the shelves. Fortunately for Twilight, the Pinkie Pie problem that occurred earlier that day didn't require a lot of reading, so the floor wasn't as littered as it usually was after disasters. Even better, she knew a spell made especially for putting books on the shelves, so she had all of the books back before the baby dragon could even stand up and brush himself off.

The unicorn was content with her work, smiling at the clean floor and turning back to the table, ready to turn apples into oranges. "Alright, back to work!"

"Twilight! You missed one!" Spike called as he pointed to a open book lying on the ground. It was marroon with a gold plate on the front, but Twilight couldn't read the plate on the front since it was covered in dust. 

"That's funny. I've never seen that book before." Her magic picked up the book and she read the page that the book was opened to:

"How to eliminate mirror ponies"

The writing was in messy ink and bad handwriting. Twilight's knowledge of spelling and context clues was the only thing from making her think it said "How to elinmate mimor pomes". She remembered reading this page, since it told her how to take away all the Pinkie clones. She could identify it as relevant since the header read "Legend Mirror Pond". Incomplete, but telling.

"Where did you find this, Spike?" the unicorn asked, not taking her eyes off of the book.

"It was in some sort of secret compartment I found." Spike pondered to himself trying to remember which bookshelf it was in.

"What?!" There was a compartment that she didn't know about? "I know this library top to bottom! Front to back! Inside and out!"

Spike pushed aside some books in the bottom shelf next to the staircase. "Aha! Here it is!"

Twilight had to squat, but she peeked behind the books and saw the back of the wood bookcase. It was just like all the others, only there was an emblem of a gold horseshoe. It wasn't anything dazzling, just a wood cutout of a gold horseshoe. "And when I pushed that horseshoe..." the dragon said as he pushed the emblem.

When the horseshoe was pressed, the back wall of the bookcase slid up and stopped with a click. It just revealed another area of the bookcase that was completely empty unless you counted  the cobwebs and dust. "...the book was in here," Spike finished.

Twilight stood back up and looked at the book she was holding. She flipped to the front cover and wiped the gold plate off with her hoof. Under the dust, the word "DIARY" was seen. "Looks like whatever this thing is, it was someone's diary, which is probably why it isn't catalogued in the library," the unicorn said out loud, in case Spike wanted to know. Her magic flipped the book open to page one, which had a short note written on the page. Twilight continued to read aloud. 

"'Whoever may be reading this,

Thank Celestia you have found this book if you are a pony. I needed to keep it safe just in case. Hopefully at this point it the griffins haven't attacked yet and it's not too late.'"

Spike spoke up. "Griffin attack?"

His friend didnt even look up. "About 54 years ago, there was a war between ponies and griffins. The death toll was small, and the war itself was uneventful, so not as many people know about it."

Spike's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, I think I've heard that war talked about here and there. Maybe it isn't as famous as the War of Equestria, but it's still history!"

"That might be just it, Spike. I'm almost positive that we have our hooves on a fifty year old artifact." This excited Twilight. Had she made a historical discovery? Was ahe going to pave the way for a new section in the history books regarding the Mirror Pond? She read on:

"'The details of what I am about to say are mentioned in this book, but here is what you need to know if you happen to be short on time. I created the Mirror Pond.' Wow, Spike! This Mirror Pond was made by another pony. That must have taken some serious magic. Do you think maybe he was famous or-"

"Keep reading!" At this point, Spike was genuinely interested, and he knew that if his friend went off on a tangents easily, and didn't want to risk it.

"'I created the Mirror Pond, but don't expect instructions on how to recreate the pond, only how to handle it. I plan to keep the secret of the recipe with me to my grave. It's too dangerous to risk something like this being made or even used, but I've made the mistake of defying my own morals to make this thing, but now it can finally be used. 

The way the Mirror Pond works is that you have to pass through it while reciting magic words. If you do this correctly, a duplicate will come out. This duplicate will become invested into completing whatever goal the original had in mind when duplicating. Also, as a failsafe in case of some sort of mutiny, whoever holds this book will have influence over all created duplicates.'" Mutiny? That would mean the pony who wrote this planned on using the clones for a big organized event. Would clones do that? Twilight imagined herself among ten other versions of her.

"Well, that would have been good to know when there were Pinkies everywhere," Spike added during Twilight's pause.

"And it makes sense. When Pinkie created all of those duplicates, she did it so that she could have more fun. So all of those duplicates were bent on having fun. That was their main goal in their entire existence."

"That's why the paint test worked so well. They didn't want to watch paint dry. They just wanted to have fun."

Twilight smiled as she set the book down on the table next to the apple. "Exactly. Now, there's more to the note, but it gets messy, so it'll be tough to read." The word messy fit nicely, since it looked like the quill had made violent spasms that happened to resemble words rather than somepony actually writing it. She had to pause every so often to understand the writing. 

"'I've left support for the war against griffins in the...cove...cave! The cave next to where the Mirror Pond resides an army of clones all ready to...fight! The cave has been blocked off in case the pond is found by a griffon and sabotaged. The cave is opened with a spell mention on page...G? Oh! 6! Page 6 of this book. Simply hold this book and the army is at your command. At this point, if a griffin is reading this, an army would have no use since the takeover would already be complete. But good... luck opening it, griffin scum! If you are a pony (and have a unicorn to open the door), the army is yours.'" Twilight paused. "That's all it says."

Spike's eyes were wide at the idea. "So we have an army underground?" He had stood up from where he was sitting out of excitement. "And we can control it?"

"It would seem so," Twilight closed the book. "But I don't see any use for an army. There's not a war going on, so we have no use for an army."

Spike was ready for this. The two have their occasional arguments, and Twilight is the usual victor. It doesn't keep Spike from trying to win. "But it would at least be a discovery! Think about it! We could discover a whole army of ponies that maybe Celestia could use."

"She already has the Royal Guard for that." Twilight said as she flipped a few pages through the book. "Besides, if this book gets in the wrong hands, they have an army they can use to do anything they want, like possibly invade Equestria!" she said as dramatically as possible to get her point across.

"Well, you do have a point," Spike admitted, but he didn't admit defeat. "Well we can at least check 'em out! Then we can destroy them so that no one can use them for evil. We can destroy the book, too. That way no one knows where else to find the Mirror Pond. You wouldn't want bad guys knowing where something like this is."

Twilight stopped flipping the pages, and she started to speak as if she hadn't listened to a word Spike had said. "Aha! That's how! It says here that these clones can live on no sleep, do not need food or water, and are basically immortal. I was wondering how you could keep a bunch of ponies in a cave for who knows how long." The unicorn shut the book, continuing with her previous line of thought and responding to Spike's previous thought. "But that is a good idea Spike, but if we keep the book hidden, no one will find out where the army is, and no one will find out where to find the pool in the first place. Even if they do, we hid the entrance under a boulder, so it'll be way too hard for anypony to find. If anything, our going to the pond will risk somepony following us."

"That's a little paranoid if you ask me. It's not like some big bad guy's going to follow a baby dragon and a unicorn through the Everfree Forest. I mean we're just two guys walking around. And there's no one evil around here anyway."

"Spike, that's just it. You need to hope for the best, but expect the worst. Is it likely? No, it's not. But if it were to happen, and if the odds are twisted in just such a way that some huge evil uses us to find something as powerful as this. We would be the ones responsible for the downfall of Equestria. Now, we'll keep the book, but if anything, I'll be brushing up on the spells so that I'll know what to do if the time comes. It's the safest option." 

"But Twilight..."

"No means no, Spike!"

No means no. Those three words put the end to any and all arguments from the dragon in the past. This argument was no exception. Spike groaned, knowing he'd been beat. "Fine. But I still think we should."

Twilight put the book on the shelf for later reading. "And I'm sure you'll bug me until one of us gives up, but for now we are not going to see the army."

The unicorn wasn't going to help, but Spike had a plan to see the army himself. He wouldn't need to bug her half to death in order to get her permission. His plan was sneaky. His plan would break the rules. His plan would get him to see that army!

"Oh, and remember you need a unicorn's magic to reveal the cave," Twilight added charmingly.

So much for Spike's plan. 

But Spike kept cool. He had a backup plan B. Step 1: Get Twilight's guard down. "Of course I remember that. What, do you think I'm gonna sneak the book out of the library to see the army myself? Don't be ridiculous!"

------

"This is ridiculous!" Rarity exclaimed as she and Spike wandered through the Everfree Forest. "Why are we going through here at such a dark hour?"

Spike was holding the red book open to the page explaining how to get to the Mirror Pond. "'Where the brambles are thickest, there you will find a pond beyond the most twisted of vines.' Well, the brambles are pretty thick. Ow!" he yelped as he trudged through the bramble. "Anyway, there should be a boulder around here covering up a hole."

"Why is it that I'm moving this heavy boulder anyway?" Rarity asked. Being a pony of high sophistication, she was definitely not a big fan of manual labor. Especially in the Everfree Forest where its dark and musty. She probably wouldn't even be with him in such a dank place if it weren't for a promise of discovery. In the fashion designer's mind, discovery led to fame. It was very intriguing in its own way, but it led to fame for the Boutique. The promise seemed far-fetched, but it had been awhile since she'd shown her Spikey some attention.

This led to Step 2 of Spike's "brilliant" plan: getting another unicorn to help after taking the book. At this point, Twilight was out with Cheerilee. She wouldnt notice if he was gone for a bit. The next step was to get in, and the step after was to see the army. He'd plan out the rest as he went.

"Well, remember the Pinkie incident earlier today?" The vines were looking more and more twisted with each step in they took into the forest. They were going the right way. 

"Oh, of course! That was a Pinkie hurricane! Normally it would have been just fine, but this was simply chaotic! In fact, I still need to clean up the mess in my boutique after this. What does going into the forest have to do with Pinkie?"

"Well, under this boulder we're about to lift is a place called the Mirror Pond. Basically what it does is it makes duplicates of ponies. That's how all of those Pinkie's came to be," Spike said as he peered into the distance, avoiding the bramble. The boulder protruding from the ground was coming into view.

"A duplicate of a pony?" Rarity inquired, sounding very intrigued. "So if I were to duplicate myself, would I have a huge boom in production of my marvelous dresses." The gears in her mind were clearly turning.

"Well, yeah. More hooves mean more production. But you have to be careful, or it might end up a disaster like what happened to Pinkie. Anyway, here's that boulder." The boulder was about as big as Spike was, and it covered the hole tightly like a stone cork.

"Oh, this boulder is nothing. Hardly considered manual labor. The trip up was easier, to be honest." This was definitely true, which was shown when her horn lit up and the rock carelessly floated out of its hole. Much easier than trudging through the bramble.

The hole was now bare, letting forth a slight cold breeze as if it were a portal to a new dimension. It sent a chill down Spike's spine. He almost turned around and decided to head back. Who knew what would happen in there?

"Well, let's go to the Mirror Pond!" Spike declared triumphantly. They were already deep in the Everfree Forest. They may as well go further.

"I agree! Let's go!" Rarity also exclaimed with an excited air to her voice. The unicorn started to trot into the hole, despite the steep incline. Spike followed, ready to find out the secrets behind the Mirror Pond.