//------------------------------// // Chapter 4:A tale of two mirrors // Story: The good of the many // by Dafaddah //------------------------------// THUMP! Spike awoke with a start when he felt and heard the noise. "Oh, not again!" he grumbled. It was the familiar sound of a book dropping to the floor. This often occurred when the magic spell holding it up dissipated as Twilight Sparkle fell asleep reading. It seemed to Spike this was happening more frequently of late. His only concern now was to see if he could rouse the gently snoring Unicorn sufficiently to get her to crawl into bed.   "C'mon Twi, bed time!" He shook her, pulled on her right foreleg, pulled on her left foreleg, pulled on her tail and shouted "Your mane is on fire!" into her ear, all to no avail. He resigned himself to the fact that this would be a 'Twi-sleeping-on-the-floor-in-front-of-her-reading-stand' night. Drat! She would be both creaky and cranky all day tomorrow after she woke up. He did the best he could to make her comfortable:  he removed a book from under her head and replaced it with a pillow. The filly got quite upset when she drooled onto a book while asleep! He also removed all the other books she had scattered around her and then covered her with a blanket. "Why does she even bother having a bed?" grumbled Spike as he crawled into his bed-basket, nestled deep into the blankets and immediately fell back into sound sleep.         *** Twilight Sparkle was having a strange dream. She seemed to be in a house, walking around. She had started in what was obviously somepony's kitchen, although something was off and she could not quite put her hoof on it. She passed through a hallway and went into a bedroom, pausing at the door. She got it! Everything seemed too cramped. How could anypony live comfortably in such tight spaces? There wasn't even room enough to turn around in this bedroom. How odd. Her body seemed to decide on what it wanted to do and she started moving again. She went towards a dresser covered in clutter. This included some makeup, hair brushes and various frilly lace clothes items whose function only Rarity would be capable of identifying, and interestingly a notepad and some books. She sat on a stool before the dresser, looked up into a mirror... and jumped back in surprise! Instead of seeing her familiar reflection she saw a strange creature with a hairless face and a short black mane looking back in shock at her. "OH MY!" said the creature in the mirror.  Twilight backed away in haste from the dresser, tripping on the stool, and falling to the floor onto her tail. She looked down at herself and instead of seeing the usual pale lavender legs and belly, she saw a flowered nightgown from which protruded long pale hairless legs - with TOES! - each adorned with red paint on their little flat nails. She could tell it was paint because it had chipped away on some of the nails, showing the cuticle underneath. And then the toes proceeded to wiggle - GROSS!    With a sinking feeling Twilight gulped and raised her right foreleg in front of her face. Instead of her familiar hoof she saw a hairless paw the same color as the legs, with longer and more delicate digits than Spike's. Each of the five digits ended in a flat nail the same color as the toe nails. And if the toes wiggling were gross, well she nearly heaved when the digits started wiggling, like so many tiny snakes. She really hated snakes! Enough was enough! The unicorn mare shut her eyes tight and screamed. When she finally had gathered enough courage, she opened one eye and spied before her face... her nice, normal, familiar hoof. She noted that her hoof polish had chipped in a few places, showing the cuticle underneath. Breathing a sigh of relief, Twilight opened her other eye, and saw that she was tangled in a blanket and lying on her flank on the floor before her reading stand. I must have fallen asleep studying again! thought the young mare to herself.  But what a strange dream. It felt so real! Spike raised his head over the rim of his bed-basket, having been awoken by what sounded like a scream. "Hey Twilight, are you OK?" he enquired in a groggy morning voice. "Sure Spike, I just had a humdinger of a nightmare is all. Or a night-whatever-it-was." She began to creakily get up and put away the blanket and pillow. "So, I fell asleep studying again, eh?" "Yup. I tried everything I could think of to get you to go to bed, short of hiring someone big enough to help me pick you up," replied the little dragon.   "Thanks Spike, you really are a dear!" said Twilight, feeling the effects of her scare fade as she contemplated food. "Let me make it up to you by buying you breakfast." "Sweet!" agreed the baby dragon, who got up and prepared himself to face the day way faster than was his usual practice so early in the morning.          *** Mary Ying-hao Lachance woke up with a start, and found herself on the floor of her bedroom in front of her dresser. She had had the strangest dream! Walking around in a weird house that resemble the inside of a tree, and looking into a mirror seeing a purple pony instead of her usual self, and then tripping on a stool and realizing that the pony in the mirror was actually her! Her biggest scare was when she discovered that her legs and arms ended in hooves - although she seemed to feel her toes and fingers when she tried to wriggle them! She woke up back in her room, after having no doubt - again - fallen asleep while studying. "Mare, you are such a geek!" she admonished herself using the nickname she normally despised, when it came from other people that is. She felt a warm spot at her side stirring in response to her sitting up and reached over to pet a large fluffy grey cat. "Oh, Nyan-Nyan, did I sleep on the carpet again? I'm lucky that you're there to take care of me at night, aren't I?" she said, scratching the big tomcat behind the ears, causing him to purr and stretch luxuriously. "Tell you what, I'll make a nice omelet for breakfast and share it with my favorite bodyguard. What you say to that?" Nyan-Nyan must have approved of the idea. After rubbing his head on her outstretched hand he slowly sauntered out the door and down the hallway, no doubt on his way to the kitchen.      *** The waiter placed a steaming stack of hay pancakes in front of Spike identical the the one already before Twilight. The baby dragon beamed in anticipation as he prepared to dig in, when he suddenly got the most comical look on his face and let go a loud burp.  "Spike!" Twilight began to admonish him, when he spurted flames that turned into a scroll hovering in mid-air for a second before falling smack in the middle of his pancakes. "Oh, a letter from the Princess! Better get it off your breakfast before it becomes all sticky." Twilight chuckled to cover her embarrassment at making such a spectacle in front of the restaurant's other patrons. Spike unfurled the scroll and held it up before his guardian. "My Dearest Student Twilight," she read, "I must again request your presence in Canterlot on a matter of some importance. I will send a chariot to Ponyville to pick you up at noon today. Please plan on spending several days away. Of course Spike's assistance would also be greatly appreciated, so I ask that he join you as well. And one last thing: please document any strange dreams you may have had of late, even if these were only of seeing strange places, objects or creatures. I remain your most dedicated teacher, Princess Celestia." Spike immediately started to cut and shovel large forkfuls of pancakes into his mouth. "Sounds really important!" he commented while chewing, stopping only every few mouthfuls to take a swig from his coffee mug. "Yeah, I wonder what this is about," replied the magenta unicorn.  Her horn glowing briefly as she ate her own pancakes, deep in thought.  She was still lost in her speculations a minute later when Spike burped again, more discreetly and without the appearance of royal stationary this time. Twilight spied his empty plate and remarked "We had better get a move on, the chariot will be here in less than two hours." She waved at the passing waiter. "May I have the check please?" Spike eyed her half eaten plate hungrily and was about to speak up when Twilight spotted the target of his gaze and pre-empted him with a sigh: "Yes, you can finish my breakfast!" The little dragon thanked her and cleaned her plate in seconds flat. "Wow, that was really good! And just to think, we'll be having breakfast, and lunch AND supper at the Castle for next few days!" he anticipated with a happy grin. Twilight let Spike hop onto her back and trotted home to the tree house, her rhythm punctuated by little burps of dragon contentment. The young filly wished she could so easily be distracted by the prospects of Canterlot and the royal kitchen's meals. She felt uneasy that Princess Celestia had not described what this was really about, which fact constantly gnawed at her thoughts. Oh, well, at least the chariot ride would give her time write a report on that strange dream she had last night. She and Spike entered their home in order to get ready for the trip.