Mika woke first that morning, thinking how warm and comfortable this place was. Then he actually remembered where he was. He was embraced by Twilight, who, for some reason, had had the same dream as him last night. He almost certainly couldn’t trust this pony, he knew that, but a strange part of him wanted to, it wanted to cling to her so badly...
Twilight awoke, the boy’s mane in her face. She knew he was awake, and he knew that she was. She got up, and sighed. She trotted over to Spike’s basket and gently shook the small creature.
“Spike, wakey wakey.” Mika found it hard not to scoff at Twilight’s use of the word “wakey”. It was the single stupidest thing he’d ever heard. The Dragon stirred and groaned, and woke with a jolt, before he looked up a Twilight and yawned.
“Breakfast for 2 please, Spike.”
Then it hit him. That dragon was Twilight’s slave. She had put an anti ageing spell of some sort on it, and forced it to her bidding. Spike groaned. Moron, he was going to suffer for that. But Twilight let the remark pass. The dragon yawned on his way out of the room, still Twilight did nothing. Mika was very confused by this odd pony. Once spike had left, he asked:
“Spike’s your slave, why do you let him get away with yawns and groans like that?”
“My what!?” Twilight shot back at the boy. Mika realized he’d said something wrong.
“I’m sorry, I-“
“Spike is not my slave, what in the wide wide world of Equestria gave you that idea?” Mika looked down at the pillow. Twilight continued “What- I mean – how do you even come to that conclusion in the first place, It’s ridiculous! What kind of a pony would I be if I-“
“I was a slave.” Mika stopped the rambling Twilight, who now looked at the boy, seeing behind the barriers revealing a tormented young foal who had lost everything while he was young and turned his thoughts to blood.
“READY” Spike’s voice rang out between the two, breaking Twilight’s stare. She trotted towards the doorway, thinking.
“Come down if you’re hungry.” She said without turning. Mika stared after Twilight and hesitated before making his way to the door.
Breakfast was cereal. Mika grabbed the spoon by curling his forehoof. Twilight didn’t look up from her bowl when she talked.
“We’re going to play a game.” Mika didn’t argue “ I call it, the question game.”
“Oh, boy, I love the question game! Twilight and Mika both turned to the baby dragon. He looked down, blushing. Mika turned back to Twilight, who herself turned back to her cereal bowl.
“I’m going to ask you a question,” she continued, “And you’re going to reply with one, got it?” Mika nodded.
“Good.” said Twilight. She suddenly looked up at Mika and asked:
“Where do you come from?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Why shouldn’t I want to know?” Mika sighed.
“Some things are better left unsaid.” he said darkly.
“Wrong!” Twilight teased. Mika shot her a confused look. “That wasn’t a question now, was it?” Mika’s look of confusion changed to annoyance, as Twilight innocently smiled back.
“Want to play again?” she chirped.
“Not really.” He said, returning attention to his bowl. Twilight sighed. She was going to get the answers she wanted from him, but obviously not this morning.
“Look Mika, I’m pre-occupied for the morning. In afternoon we could maybe go out and do something? I could show you around Ponyville if you like?” The boy remained silent. Twilight tutted, and made for the library door.
“Until then you can help Spike with his chores or read a book. Or perhaps you could just sit around and do nothing, moping about your mysterious past. If you want to leave then fine, but don’t expect another roof over your head anytime soon.” She glanced back at the boy, expecting a reaction. There was none. Dang, he was good at this.
“Your choice.” She said, shutting the door behind her.
Spike, who had been watching the conversation intensely, sat dumbfounded looking at the boy. Mika glanced his way, and gave him a cold stare he found he couldn’t keep for more than a second. He picked up the bowls, and made his way to the kitchen. Maybe the boy would read a book so he could concentrate on his chores.
He was, at this point, the only other intelligent life form in the library (officially anyway, but Spike was pretty certain that Twilight’s pet owl inspiringly named Owlowicious understood more then she let on) and Spike didn’t want to be caught up in an awkward conversation with him.
Mika stared at the dragon that was contently washing the bowls and spoons. He got up trotted over to him. Spike tensed, sensing trouble was coming.
“Don’t you ever get tired of doing all those chores?” he asked.
“Nope!” He replied. “It’s worth just to see Twilight happy.”
“Ha, she thanks you for these little things?”
“Of course. What do you think I am, a slave?” A silence answered him. He turned towards the young foal, and stared right into those emotionless barriers he had for eyeballs.
“Well I’m not. No-pony in Ponyville is. Twilight takes care of me and I take care of her back. It’s been that way since I first hatched.” He explained as the boy stared hard back. “Now go read or a book or something, will you? I’ve got bowls to scrub.” With that he turned back to the sink, dismissing the boy. Mika silently left the room and Spike let out a huge sigh of relief.
Mika looked around the library, and decided to take one of those things off the shelf. Spike and Twilight had called them books. Mika bit one and took it out. On the title page there were weird shapes at the top and bottom. He opened the book to find more weird shapes, except they were all tiny. Some were bunched together and some were spaced out as if they were in some sort of random order. He saw several shapes repeat themselves, some more than others. He closed the book, shaking his head. He put back on the shelf and tried another, getting the same results.
He then decided to go look in another part of the library. He trotted over to a more colourful area, and took out one of the books there. The books were definitely thinner than those he’d been dealing with before, the shapes on the front, though still recognisable, were drawn differently and were far bigger. There was also a picture of 3 houses, one made of wood, one made of sticks and one made of bricks and a large furry creature who looked up to the moonlit sky with his lips pursed.
Bizarre didn’t even come close.
He opened it up and saw picture of 3 smiling pigs along with some more strange shapes. He wondered why he kept seeing the same ones and what they meant. He turned the page and saw the three pigs each standing before one of the houses he had seen on the cover. There were more symbols, but he had decided to ignore them by now.
On the next page he saw a dark picture of a nasty looking wolf. He turned the page to see the wolf walking up the straw house. On the next the wolf was knocking on the door, while the pig cowered in fear. Then, the wolf was blowing at the straw house, which led to it collapsing on the next page while the wolf chased after the pig who was running away down the path.
The pig ran to this stick house and the same thing happened, so both pigs were now running from the wolf. The 2 went to the stone house and, after the wolf had knocked on the door, he once again blew at the house. But this time it stayed firm, leaving the wolf out of breath, panting. Mika could just see it.
But the book then showed the wolf with a cunning glint in his eye, the same he had seen many times before in Saddale. He worriedly turned the page to find the wolf scaling the brick house. On the next he was climbing into the chimney. He was going to get the pigs!
Then Mika gave a sigh of relief as he saw the wolf burning alive in hot cauldron of soup while the pigs laughed around the fireplace. He put the book down and found himself... smiling. He’d done worse, he supposed. He pulled out another book, this time seeing a young filly with a red cloak surrounded by trees and two mysterious red eyes staring at her intently. He opened the book, intrigued...