"Listen kid, I ain't got all day. Do you want the mirror or not?", asked the menacingly deep voice from behind the antique furniture stand.
"I dunno, is it really worth a pink diamond?", Spike questioned.
"What if I told you, that this mirror belonged to a king long ago, and the value of it is priceless", lied the stand owner.
"A king you say? Well... Okay okay i'll take it", Spike said looking down at a rare pink diamond, "I sure am gonna miss you little guy". Spike kissed the beautifully crafted gem and reluctantly handed it over, and the pony behind the counter retrieved the ornately decorated mirror. Spike had come to the traders exchange in hopes of finding a book that Twilight desperately wanted for her birthday, as crazy as it sounds there is a book that she does not have in her possession. Sadly, his efforts were fruitless and was about to head home when he found this stand which seemed very poorly made. The wooden fixtures were rotting from the inside out, and the cloth covering had numerous tears and stains that made the air around it unpleasant.
It's a good thing Rarity isn't here, she would probably have the pony banished to the sun for letting such a perfectly good cloth be destroyed and neglected, Spike giggled to himself at the thought. He remembered that Twilight had just a single mirror in her castle, and figured it would look good on a wall in her library so he jumped on the opportunity to trade for it. As he took the mirror from the stand owner, Spike realized just how heavy it was as he nearly toppled over backwards trying to balance it above his head. It's a good thing Rarity makes me carry her giant piles of suitcases when we go places, otherwise I might not even be able to drag this thing home!
"Thank you sir!", Spike said between grunts as he turned to start his long journey to the waiting train. Thankfully Twilight has to oversee the exchange this year, that way I can easily sneak this out and get it home before she has a chance to see it.
"Yeah, yeah whatever", the grizzled old pony said, barely audible as he was inspecting his new found wealth.
On his way to the train, Spike nearly hit at least three dozen ponies over the head with the enormous mirror. There were a few ponies who offered to help but Spike kindly said, "No thanks, gotta keep those arm muscles in tip top shape!". Admittedly, he didn't enjoy carrying the over-sized mirror but he was so used to carrying stuff for other ponies that he didn't want to be thought of as 'lazy'. He finally reached the train station and boarded the next train with his reflective companion in tow, choosing to sit in a relatively empty car in the hopes that he wouldn't have to worry about hitting anypony.
As the train left the station, Spike figured he had just enough time to take a quick nap before arriving to his destination. He was nearly asleep when he swore he could hear somepony whispering.
A world... perfect for you... don't be shy... a day or maybe two... with me.
The rumbling of the train car made it so he couldn't hear the voice too clearly. Figuring somepony on the train was just whispering to themselves, Spike shrugged the voice off and closed his eyes once again to hopefully get some shut eye. It felt like he had just fallen asleep, when Spike was awoken by the conductor who was walking through the train to inspect if anypony, or in this case any dragon, was trying to get a free trip to their next stop.
"Sir, wake up. We can't have any freeloaders take the train to wherever they please", the conductor said with a stern voice. Spike yawned and looked out the window, glad to see he was already back in Ponyville. However, he was none too happy about the conductors attitude and wanted to tell him off right there, but he knew Twilight wouldn't be very happy if she found out that he had made a scene on a public train. Spike just sighed and hastily gathered the mirror with a few grunts of slight pain. Next time, i'm getting Twilight something much smaller! It didn't take him long to reach the castle, the train station was conveniently close by.
Spike opened the large castle door and pulled the mirror inside. "Alright, just gotta get you upstairs into my closet and you'll be all set until Twilight's birthday rolls around", he said to the inanimate object. They were about half way up the staircase when Spike's grip on the mirror slipped, sending the fragile object tumbling back downstairs with very loud 'thumps' and 'bangs'.
"Noooooooo!", Spike shouted as he ran down the stairs after the doomed mirror. As he reached the bottom however, he couldn't believe his eyes. The wooden frame was perfectly fine, and the glass itself didn't have any cracks or signs of damage at all! Spike was puzzled, there was no way it could have survived such a tumble, especially on extremely hard crystal. Either way, he was glad that his efforts didn't go to waste, and once again found himself pulling the mirror upstairs.
He finally reached the top, and collapsed onto the floor catching his breath. Almost there, my room is just down the hall! After giving himself enough time to recover, Spike wiped the sweat beading off his forehead and picked up the mirror with an auditory 'huff'. Turning into his room, he placed the mirror into the surprisingly tidy closet and covered it with a blanket. "There, that should keep you hidden! Twilight never has any reason to check my closet, so you'll be perfectly safe here", Spike said with a sly grin on his face. He shut the door to his closet and walked off to head into the kitchen for a well earned snack and a tall, refreshing glass of lemonade, not hearing the voice coming from his closet.
A world where everything is perfect for you, don't be shy look a little bit closer and you'll finally see, let's have fun for a day or maybe two, are you ready? Then come with me...
As the day rolled on, Spike was enjoying his time alone reading comic books in the library. However as he noticed what time it was, his mood changed to that of nervousness. "Gee, Twilight should have been home by now, the exchange ended two hours ago", he said looking out one of the many castle windows to see if the Alicorn happened to be trotting her way home. It was at that moment that a blinding flash of light enveloped the library and made a very loud 'crack' that echoed throughout the entire bottom floor of the castle. There in the middle of the room stood Twilight, mane completely ruined and her right eyelid twitching from time to time.
"Uh Twilight, are you alri-", was all the dragon could say before Twilight burst out in fury.
"Spike, next time you come home early, PLEASE LET ME KNOW BEFOREHOOF!", Twilight was throwing daggers at the poor dragon with her deathly stare, "I was looking for you when the exchange ended, but I couldn't find you! I was waiting at the train station in the hopes that you'd eventually find your way there!". Twilight was almost on the verge of tears at this point, not knowing what she'd do if she had lost Spike.
"I'm sorry Twilight, I had a good reason for leaving. I just can't tell you about it right now", Spike said hoping Twilight was going to calm down and understand.
"What could have possibly been so important that you couldn't even have the decency to say goodbye?", Twilight asked, interested as to what Spike was up to.
"If I told you, it would ruin the surprise. And you know what happens when somepony ruins a surprise", Spike said, pleading on the inside that Twilight wouldn't pursue the issue any further.
Twilight let out a deep sigh and said, "Well if you say so, but in the future I would really like it if you at least tried to let me know these things, I was afraid someone had taken you or you had run off or something".
"Oh Twilight I would never leave you, you're like a mom to me!", Spike said giving her a reassuring smile. Twilight started to cry and walked over to give Spike a big hug. Spike accepted the warm embrace and was happy that Twilight hadn't given him a harsh punishment.
"Well Spike", Twilight sniffed as she wiped her eye with her hoof, "let's go to Sugarcube Corner for a treat, I hear Pinkie Pie has a new cupcake recipe she wants everyone to try!"
Spike giggled uncontrollably before saying, "You may want to get freshened up a bit Twi, you look like you were attacked by an angry squirrel!"
"Oh, right", Twilight giggled and turned to go get ready to head out.