Eventually, the dream simply fades away, and I wake up. The sunlight is streaming in through the window, and I feel singularly unrested. Twilight is asleep leaning on my bed, her chest, head, and forelegs draped on my legs.

Sighing, I pick her up and stick her on my pillow and make my way downstairs. Normally I’m not that hungry, but seemingly missing a night of sleep makes me feel... empty rather than completely tired.

I fix myself a quick hand-roasted breakfast as usual and plop down in a chair in the main library. I reach for a book to pass the time with, but don’t find anything. I get up and head to the fiction section and I happen across a book amongst the Daring Do stuff. The author is listed as ‘Croupless Apples.’ Where have I heard that... I pull out the book and look at the cover. It’s a somewhat ponified version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series... and if my recollection of what this book’s title is supposed to be, it seems either the others are checked out, or Twilight only has the third book. Bummer.

Reading through it, I only get lost a little bit, though a lot of the aliens names are left exactly the same, the humans have pony names. That said, this is nothing like Daring Do ripping off Indiana Jones. This is more like an homage to the human series. The story is vaguely similar, and all the advancements in technology for spaceships and such... are left alone. Like it’s all tech and no magic. Granted the character they have for Marvin is a golem rather than a robot, but all the important details, as well as the jokes, are fully intact.

After a while of reading, Spike comes down the stairs, shortly followed by Twilight.

Twilight looks decently rested, though not entirely awake as usual, sits down at the table and hands me a pot of cold coffee. I look at it oddly for a second and Twilight just looks blearily at me and at the toast in my hand. Rolling my eyes, I pick up the pot and superheat it in a second. Twilight takes it back, pours a bit into a cup and takes a sip. Deciding it’s a good temperature she mutters a ‘thank you’ before just drinking out of the pot.

Oooookay then. Spike looks at her for a moment. “So, how late was she up this time?”

I shrug. “No idea, I was out before she was, that much is certain.”

“What were you guys doing anyway?”

“A dream spell, trying to get me inside Clark’s head to see what would happen.”

“Uh... isn’t that... illegal?”

At that word, Twilight seems to be very awake and nearly chokes on her morning drink. She starts sputtering trying to come up with an excuse, but I just cover her mouth and respond for her. “Well, since it’s clear magic works funny on humans, we figured we’d try it with a human on a human to see how that works. We figured that it would be best to try a rather harmless mind spell, seeing as how we didn’t want any problems. Right Twilight?”

Twilight nods quickly in a silent agreement with my lie. I let go of her mouth and Spike just continues. “So did it work?”

“Yep, though I’m willing to bet it wasn’t like a pony dream, but that’s probably obvious.”

“Well... that answers my question, too. So, Anthony, how did it go?” Twilight asks, finishing waking up and recovering from her minor heart attack.

“Pretty good considering whose mind I was in. It was a bit more extreme than I expected, but no worse than I’d imagine from him in general. Luna came by as well, but that was just luck. Obviously she was the only one who could hear or see me.”

“Wait, Princess Luna was there? And she- oh, I hope she doesn’t take offense!” Twilight looks around in mild panic, until Spike helps calm her down. Once she thinks over how silly the idea is, she decides to find something more constructive, as well as asks me if I’m going to want to try again.

I think about that. “Possibly, though I’m not sure how much different it would be. As I said, aside from Luna, I may as well have been nonexistent to everything the entire time.”

“I suppose. Oh, do you think I could trouble you for some notes about what you saw? I think it could help my studies on human psychology compared to equine psychology.”

“Well, normally it would, but that’s probably the only thing ‘normal’ about the situation. We delved into someone’s subconscious, yes, but I highly doubt that, from just one person, you could determine the psychological structure of an entire race. Unless of course this situation is new to you as well and all you ponies have some sort of giant hive mind that tells you what to do and think all the time.”

Twilight looks at me in confusion. I explain “I mentioned that there are billions of us, and-”

“No, no, why would you think we have a hive mind?” She looks at me, and I can see the sleep in her eyes still.

“Random guess. I said, if you think that you could map out the psychology of an entire race numbering in the billions from just one subject, then you must have some sort of reason as to how you came to that conclusion.”

“I didn’t. I said it’s a study. If I just ignore every available source of data, all four of you right now, then I won’t be able to get anywhere.” She shakes her head wonderingly. “Why would you think I’d assume you all thought the same?”

“Because you made it sound like you could take one person’s mind and draw conclusive evidence towards anything, and I thought we agreed that me and my friends are all oddballs. You’d get a study on our psychology, not typical human psychology.”

“Well, what else do I have to work with? And besides, it’s too early to talk about ‘tones of voice’.” Twilight says.

“It’s twelve-thirty, Twilight.” Spike helpfully corrects.

“I stand by my previous statement.” Twilight replies.

I shrug. “And back on Earth, staying in bed until twelve could get you kicked out of school in a heartbeat if done for too many days in a row. You must have the most lenient teacher in the universe. Oh who am I kidding, of course you do, you think she’s perfect.”

“What? No! It’s just that this is a Saturday!” Twilight seems a bit grumpy this morning.

Spike, in a display of near-suicidal helpfulness, informs Twilight that, “It’s actually Friday.”

Twilight just buries her head in her forelegs, and whimpers. “Nooo... my schedule...”

“Oh no, things didn’t happen exactly the way you planned them. How weird, how strange... how realistic.” I roll my eyes as I sarcastically comment on Twilight’s OCD

“My schedule is ruined...” She whimpers miserably.

“I think I have a fix for that. It’s a little something I came up with whenever I needed to change something unexpectedly. I think you might benefit from it.”

Twilight looks up at me hopefully, waiting to hear my sage advice. I simply give her a grin. “I just stop caring and move on. I call it the ‘fuck it’ adjustment, and it works wonders.” Twilight stares at me unhappily before returning her head to it’s buried position. “Well, can’t say I didn’t try to help.”

Spike looks back and forth between Twilight and I. “So... I got my chores done. Can I go to Rarity’s? I want to talk to Sweetie about an idea I have.” Twilight waves him off.

I think about Spike going to see Rarity. She hasn’t really mentioned anything about telling him what she thought of him and him just showing up unexpectedly might not go well. I should probably come along to see if I need to do damage control. I make an excuse about needing to see Sweetie about something as well, my excuse holding more water because I’m actually part of her little club, and I follow after Spike, He may actually be going to see Sweetie but the fact still remains that he’d just be dropping in on Rarity while, as far as I can tell, she hasn’t made up her mind. Rather, she got high off her ass.

Twilight waves us goodbye and sets about working as a librarian once more. Which reminds me that she does actually have a job.

Spike and I walk more or less in silence, until we reach the boutique. What I see there makes me feel a bit confused and a touch angry.

Carousel Boutique

is closed.

Rarity will be back

in time for Nightmare Night

costume deliveries.

“So... where would Sweetie Belle be? I mean no disrespect to her, but I wouldn’t trust her to be a latchkey kid.”

“Uh... with her parents, I guess. They live in Canterlot, though. Drat! I had some stuff to ask her about the Power Ponies. She’s got a bigger collection than I do.” This seems more directed at the dirt than at me, but I can’t help but ask.

“Power Ponies?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s a comic series I read!” The little dragon begins to explain what, loosely, sounds like a ponified version of the Justice League... but on a much smaller scale.

“The big reveal at the end of issue seven, though, is that the Power Ponies can’t stand each other! It was such an unprecedented idea that-” Oh man, he’s going to keep going, and I can’t keep up without reading first.

“Look, I’m sure this is very interesting, but since I have no frame of reference for a single thing you’ve been saying for the last ten minutes, I’m gonna have to say that you might as well be talking to a wall, dude.”

“Oh! Sorry... uhm, when Sweetie comes back, you could ask her for the first few. She’s got reading copies and collector’s copies of the first twenty. I’m so jealous... all I can get are reprints.”

“I may not understand this particular series, but I do understand comics, and I totally know that feel. Most of the time I wanted a comic or a graphic novel, I had to go to the library and check them out, but Twilight doesn’t think comics are very good material for a library, apparently.”

“Yeah, I know.” Spike says, sadly, as he and I start walking back towards the library. “The Canterlot libraries won’t carry them, either, and my stash of reprints of the first fifty issues got lost when I moved out here with Twilight. She ended up buying what she could find to replace them, but I only mostly have the recent stuff.”

“So... got anything like Spider-Man in comics, or just the Power Pac- er, ponies?”

“Spider-Mane, you mean? He’s really cool. An Earth Pony who gets spider-powers from a thaumically-overcharged spider-golem, and then invents so many things just to fit the theme. Man, I wish I could be like him when I grow older.”

Well... that, uh, explains the differences. “Not quite how it worked in the one I’m familiar with, but close enough I suppose. And frankly, I’d like to be a dragon when I’m older. Having skin thicker than an iron hull would be awesome, and breathing fire is pretty much the definition of ‘awesome’ anyway.”

“Eh, older dragons are jerks. I’d rather be a super-hero.”

“Don’t we all? Unfortunately, I doubt any of that stuff could happen to you out of nowhere... aw who am I kidding, it happened to me. Why not? You might want to come up with an outfit now though, designing one late in the game so to speak is a pain.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what my powers will be. What if I design a fire-based suit, and get lightning powers, or elasticity, like Wonder Mare?”

“You could say it’s because you’re a dragon? Idunno. Guess you don’t really need an outfit to be a superhero all things considered. One thing to remember though, capes are nothing but trouble, no matter how cool they look.”

“Aww, but-”

“No capes!” I snap, “Imagine if you got the power to fly and you flew into a thermal? The cape would grab it and send you flying. Who knows where you’d end up? And if you’re walking, it’s like a constant tripping hazard.”

“... Maybe a short cape?”

I look at the small dragon. “A short cape on you? That’d be, like, a handkerchief. What would be the point?”

“Uhm... I could... uh...” He thinks it over. “Ah! I could turn it around and use it as a bib if I’m eating spaghetti.” He looks so proud of this idea that I’m not going to point out the silliness of it.

“Sure, why not? Anyway, I guess we both have a free day... whatcha wanna do?”

“Idunno... oh, hey, you can help me prepare for Nightmare night! It’s only a week or so away, after all.”

“Sure, though I have to warn you, I don’t pull out stops when it comes to Halloween, and your version of it won’t be any different. So what do you wanna be?”

Next Chapter: Chapter 151 Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 41 Minutes