Mirror of Your Dreams

A majestic dragon glided through the air, wings as wide as mountains carrying him through vast clouds and sky out of another place and time. Clutched in his grip was a female filly, her deep purple mane blowing in the breeze as the exhilaration of flight flowed like a rapid waterfall through her soul.

Higher, she cried. HIGHER!

The dragon obliged, and the sudden shift in elevation caused an uncomfortable pressure buildup in the pony’s ears.

Lower, please.

The dragon gently chuckled at this filly, who seemed so confident yet indecisive. “I’m getting a bit winded, little one.” The dragon’s rumbling voice reverberated through every fiber of the pony. “I can fly for a long time, but I think a break is in order.”

The dragon swooped down from his aerial domain, softly releasing the ecstatic equine from his grip just moments before landing himself in a hilly meadow, where vibrant amber waves undulated with the passage of his massive frame.

The pony casually attempted to correct her wild and breeze-blown mane. A pink streak accented her tail, although sometimes she wished her mane was more singular in color.

With her heart still rapidly beating, she wrapped two hooves around the neck of the gentle dragon, thanking him profusely for the experience.

A peculiar bird that the filly did not recognize sat basking on a rocky outcropping, its beak too big; its feet not proportional to its body. It let out a squawk, slowly at first, then more rapidly. The bird’s call sounded like a cross between a dying frog and an alarm.

The alarm clock!

“Time for me to go, Twilight.”

Wait, I need you!

“SQUAWK, SQUAWK, SQUAWK, SQUAWK! SQUAAAAAAAWWWWWKK!”

In a blur, the sunny meadow vanished, along with the dragon and obnoxious unnatural bird. The shrill squawk morphed into the sound of Twilight’s wake-up call; its repeating tone beckoned her to join the real world once again.

“Uaagh…”

Twilight Sparkle rolled out of bed, her mane no less disorderly than when it was being swept back by a dream breeze. She spent the minimum time necessary to comb out the snags and appear somewhat presentable for school. The young unicorn grabbed her classbooks and homework, placing them haphazardly into her saddlebag.

She casually climbed down the staircase, her hoofsteps echoing through her house. The house seemed more empty now. Hollow. Only a ghostly shell of its once welcoming aura remained. It was as if a living part of the house had died.

Her father was already sitting at the kitchen table, reading the most recent copy of Equestria Daily. His eyes didn’t move from the paper as Twilight pulled up a seat. A bowl of oatmeal sat on the table, steam still rising from the now cooling gruel. “Your teacher stopped by yesterday, Twilight.”

Mr. Sparkle folded his paper with his hooves, while simultaneously using magic to bring a cup of coffee to his lips. His comment elicited no response from Twilight.

Uncomfortable silence settled on the table.

“She said you were drawing humans in class.”

Twilight stared into her oatmeal. It stared right back. Losing the contest of will, she plunged a spoon in and ate her oatmeal, gaining little enjoyment from the exercise.

“Elves,” she spoke softly, correcting her father’s mistake.

“What was that, Twilight?”

“They weren’t humans. They were elves. Elves are like humans, but magical.”

Twilight’s father moved opposite from her. “Twilight,” he addressed her, “Look at me.”

She slowly lifted her gaze from the bowl of oatmeal, barely making eye contact with her father.

“I know I’ve been hard on you. It’s been hard for me too, ever since your mother died. But you need to pay attention in school and do your classwork.”

Twilight feebly replied, “Yes, Dad.”

In a voice neither comforting nor authoritarian, her father continued. “You need to come back down to earth; get your head out of the clouds. Leave that for the pegasi.” He looked at a grandfather clock on the other side of the house near the living room.
“You should get going, sweetie. Don’t be late.” Her father embraced her in a somewhat detached hug that conveyed little warmth.

*

Trotting along to class, Twilight heard the trio of bullies before she saw them.

“If it isn’t Twifright Scare-kle!”
“Hey Twifright, where’s our lunch money?”
“Yeah, you’re behind on payments for a week. Time to cough it up!”

The three earth ponies were bigger and older than her. Stronger, tougher. Smarter? Not a chance.

“Look, I’ve got about two bits….” Twilight’s muscles tensed as she searched for an escape route.

“Two bits?” The orange haired colt laughed. “We can’t all get a hayburger with two bits.”

“Hey Pokey, what if we just buy candy with it?”

“No way, Shortstop! It’s hayburgers or….huh?”

While the trio argued, Twilight sprinted at a breakneck pace in the direction of the Canterlot School for the Gifted.

“GET BACK HERE, FREAK!” The ginger colt named Pokey gave chase, catching up to her roughly the same time as Shortstop and Mudkicker. The latter two held her down, while Pokey removed her saddlebag, rifling through its contents in search of money.
“DARN IT! This whorse doesn’t have a single bit in here. You know what happens to little ponies who don’t pay up, Twifright?” Twilight followed the trajectory of the bully’s gaze, where it ended at a chariot sized dumpster.

“No…noo...”

“Yup. They go out with the trash!” The two lackeys grabbed two each of the filly’s legs, while Pokey lifted the trash container’s lid. The two colts holding her legs struggled to lift her, while Twilight exerted every ounce of her strength in an attempt to escape their clutches.

With a heave, the colts lifted Twilight over the lip of the dumpster, where she landed on blades of old hay and drink containers. The smell of rancid milk permeated the bin, inducing a gagging fit in the trash bin’s newest resident.

“And stay in there, Scare-kle!” Pokey tossed the ransacked saddlebag in the dumpster, narrowly avoiding hitting Twilight in her face. Twilight could still hear the bullies laughing at her expense. Several minutes passed before their voices were gone.

Confident that the bullies were finished with their near daily torment of her, she climbed out of the disgusting bin, clumps of hay still clinging to her mane and tail. As she rounded the corner near Joe’s Donut Shop, the three bullies were exiting from Kandy Korner. As Mudkicker began to chow down on a Choco Loco, Shortstop pointed out Twilight's attempt to continue her tortuous trek to school.

“You’re dead, freak!”

Galloping back down the alleyway she came from, the frightened filly veered left, ducking into a shop to avoid further bully brutality. The bell on the door gently chimed, announcing her entrance to an unseen entity. The three bullies ran past. One of them shouted, “I know she went this way!”

Still hidden, she leaned into the door, closed her eyes, and breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Go away, I don’t like foals!”

Twilight spun around quickly, still ducking out of view of the shop’s windows. Books crowded every corner, some stacked to mere inches from the ceiling.

“Didn't you hear me? I said, ‘Go AWAY!’” Twilight couldn’t see the source of the voice; near to the center of the store, a high backed chair faced away from the door. Approaching closer, the curious filly saw the voice’s source. An elderly pony, seated with a book in one hoof, craned his neck in Twilight’s direction. A glint of light reflected off of the pony’s spectacles, hitting Twilight in the eyes.

“You heard me, didn’t you? Go on. This is a bookstore, not Cotton Candyland. That’s two blocks down.”

“I, I was ju-just…”

“Oh, I see….” Recognition sweeps over the old earth pony’s face. “You’re hiding from somepony. Or someponies.” He pointed toward the door with his empty hoof. “This isn’t the place for Hide and Seek. All we have are little squares filled with words…on PAPER. You won’t find any fancy candies, sweets, or toys here!”

“But I know books!” proclaimed Twilight. “I have a hundred sixty eight of them at home.”

“Bah. Comic books, with superponies.” The cranky curator waved her off dismissively.

“No! I’ve read ‘Around Equus in 80 Days’, ‘Horn of the Rings’, ‘Luna Shrugged’, ‘Canterlot Tales’…”

“Whoa, now. Slow down.” The stallion beckoned her to come forward. “Who were you hiding from?”

Twilight’s face flushed with embarrassment at her most recent torture. “Just some…. colts from the neighborhood.”

“Why hide from them?”

“They wanted to steal my lunch money….throw me in the trash….” Twilight’s head hung in shame.

“So why don’t you give ‘em a swift kick to the jimmies?!” The stallion raised his hooves in a mock fight stance, punching at invisible enemies with gusto.

“There’s three of them. Even if I did land a good kick, they would just get mad….pick on me more….”

“I believe you.” Rising from his seat, the old pony came closer to Twilight. His cutie mark was a brown book. On the book’s cover, a horseshoe shaped portal glowed with a mysteriously soft blue aura.

“Sometimes, I wish I could have been born a unicorn. Magic makes life easier. But you know what, filly?” He leaned in closer to her, his voice barely registering above a whisper. “Books....hold a magic all their own. Take this one, for example.” He placed the book he had been holding into her hooves. The book had a symbol on the front: two entwined horseshoes, wrapping around each other in an intricate knot. In a fancy script, the title of the book decorated the cover in embossed gold filigree.

The Everliving Tale

Twilight spoke up. “What’s so special about this one, mister?”

“Well,” the old stallion chuckled. “It’s one thing to read about Maredor in the Horn of the Rings, but it’s another to be there, on the field of battle, fighting with Shadowfax and the Riders of Rohoof against the hordes of Sauricorn. With this book…you can be there.”

“I’m sorry mister, that’s just…that’s just not scientifically possible.”

“Oh, it isn’t?” The old pony snorted with derision. “Just keep telling yourself that. This book has its own magic. A powerful kind.”

“May I borrow it? Please?”

“No!” The older stallion replied hastily, snatching the book from her hooves. “It’s dangerous. Not for foals.”

The chime of the doorbell rang throughout the store, heralding the arrival of a pair of new customers. He gingerly placed the book down on a relatively book-free endtable.

“You’d best be on your way, young miss. Forget about this book.” The elderly stallion moved forward to greet the clientele, maneuvering around every cluttered table and bookshelf with practiced ease. While the bookstore owner’s attention was fully focused on the adult customers, Twilight magically penned a brief note. She grabbed the Everliving Tale from its resting place, stuffing it into her bag and leaving the note in its place before galloping out of the store.

As Twilight charged out of the bookstore, the old pony glanced back to where he left the magical tome. Making a mental note of its absence, a smile played across his tired, wrinkly muzzle.
“I’ll bring your book back soon”

-Twilight Sparkle

*

The Canterlot School for the Gifted’s halls were vacant; not even Brownnose the hall monitor or Vice Principal Buckingham stalked its quieted lanes. Twilight stealthily peeked her head into a window in the door, the thin glass portal separating her from her classmates. Even though she really liked her teacher, Mrs. Poofyhoof, she knew she would die from absolute embarrassment if she entered class right now, with every pair of equine eyes in the room gazing at her, reflecting only silent judgments.

Mrs. Poofyhoof passed out sheets of paper to her present students, the look on their faces betraying the current assignment.

"The mathamagic test...." Twilight spoke softly to herself.

No, today was not a day for mathamagical quizzes or Sir Neighton's Second Law of Conservation. She backed away, heading down the hall with measured hoofsteps. Her horn lightly glowed with simple magic; her hooves made hardly any noise thanks to the freshly cast silence spell.

It was a thankfully short walk to Twilight's destination. Magic flared from her horn once more as she opened the doorknob to the school's attic/storage space. The attic was a safe place, where Twilight hid twice since starting attendance at CSG.

The coating of dust and cobwebs gave a hint as to how often the attic was used, restoring Twilight's confidence that her stay here would continue without unwanted visitors. Jars of substances were lined up in orderly fashion on shelves near the rear wall. Twilight didn't know what was in most of the jars, nor was she curious to find out.

Grabbing a blanket from one of the shelves, she shook it vigorously once, sending dust flying in her face. She was forced to stifle her cough while the blanket was still in her mouth. She folded her bug-free blanket once and spread it over the dusty wooden floor. Removing her saddlebag, she retrieved the lunch her father packed for her. She lifted a half-squished paper-wrapped sandwich to her muzzle and gave it a cautious sniff.

“Daisy and banana.” She set the sandwich aside and retrieved an apple from the bottom of the bag. Red delicious…most likely from the Sweet Apple Acres. She placed the apple on the sandwich, careful to not let it roll onto the floor. The final snack packed away was a foal-sized bag of Wheat Thins ™. This last item really had Twilight excited, until she realized that its contents were mostly pulverized.

“Thanks a lot. Stupid bullies.”

In anxious anticipation, Twilight pulled the borrowed book from her bag, her eyes focused on the raised part of the cover.
As her hooves slid over the book, the intertwined horseshoes on the cover began to move and contort all their own.

“This shouldn’t be possible….”

Within moments, the strange magical dance of the object on the cover ceased. Twilight opened the now motionless cover, and began to read the story held within.