Rediscovery

Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony, nor am I profiting off this literary venture.

----

Spike glared at the book on his desk, a sheet of paper beneath his pencil littered with letters and numbers and shreds of eraser.

Math didn't normally prove too difficult, not anymore, but he was studying to try and advance up from pre-algebra into proper algebra. Because of this, Twilight had assigned him a few pages of extra work.

Nightmarish extra work.

He took his glasses off and set them down on the desk to rub at his nose where they sat. He put his hands over his eyes and flopped down, his forehead hit the book and something crunched under his elbow.

This was all just so difficult without a calcu-!

Wait.

Spike shot ramrod straight and ran his hands over the desk, finding and pulling his glasses up. One lens and arm at least.

"No! No no no no no!" His other hand flew across the desk in a panic, knocking the other half of his glasses down to the floor.

He quickly followed, immediately getting down on his hands and knees to find them. It took a few moments of frantic searching before he was successful, noticing them by a glint of reflecting light.

"Please no, please please please no!" He jammed the nose pieces back together, hoping for them to click, or snap into place or something! He needed them to be whole!

He wanted them to be whole.

Pinpricks of pain spread across the back of his hands momentarily before the metal jammed or caught on something, looking vaguely like they were fixed.

He jammed them onto his face, finding that they fit perfectly. Just like before.

That didn't make any sense!

He flew from his room, papers floating in his wake as he barreled towards a bathroom. He nearly fell down the stairs, barely catching himself as he rounded a bend and slammed into a door.

"Just a minute!" Plumb Drop. He was going to be waiting a while. He'd hoped this restroom would be empty by dint of being on the first floor instead of the second. Then again, both Plumb Drop and Lemon Zest were roomed on this floor as compared to everyone else sleeping upstairs.

Wonderful.

Spike absentmindedly scratched at the back of his hand while he waited. Contrary to everything he knew and expected, she really did come out almost a minute later. Dressed in cotton shorts and a long shirt, her hair was still wet and clung to her face.

He didn't know much yet about what was considered attractive here, but he was certain she would have been thought as such. Or maybe handsome?

He wasn't quite sure. For all he knew she might be considered the same as Bulk Biceps was back home, that is, muscular to the point of being disturbing.

"Oh, Spike. I thought it was Lemon Zest at the door." She walked by, looking at him as she did.

"Thought this bathroom wouldn't be occupied. Thanks Plumb!" He barely kept from slamming the door behind him as he bolted in.

His hands latched onto the sink in a white knuckled grip as he leaned forward, examining his face and glasses in detail.

Nothing. Not even a seam in the middle.

They looked like they'd never come apart.

"I know they did. I saw them!" He pulled his glasses off and gingerly pulled on the arms. They bent a little at the screws but refused to separate. He slid them back on and looked himself over again.

Nothing.

He knew they broke though! He looked down while he turned on the sink.

Spike froze. Well, his mind did. His body continued on the course of action, getting his hands wet, lathering them up with soap and then washing blood down the drain.

He brought the citrus fresh appendage up to his face, staring at the purple scales that had pushed through his skin.

It wasn't how scales worked. Especially not on dragons! They might shed and replace accessory scutes uncommonly, but they didn't just burrow out from below the skin!

He sat down on the toilet, staring at his hands all the while.

"Magic." He finally said. "It's got to be magic."

He knew he broke his glasses. And just as surely as he knew that, he knew they were sitting on his face, hale and whole.

"I need to talk to somepony." The weekend started tomorrow. "I need to talk to Sunset Shimmer."

He had just planned to wait until Twilight came to get him. Intended on not making his problems theirs or worrying them over the state of the portal.

But this?

He couldn't just ignore this.

Even though the scales were itching as they sank back beneath the skin, he was sure they'd be back.

Because somewhere, deep in his heart rested a place he only acknowledged with despair, the envy and joy he felt for a brief, brief moment where he levitated those books for Twilight.

He had to do that again.

----

Dear Princess Celestia

It is my sincerest hope that this letter finds you well.

I am writing you today, not with a friendship report, but with some questions and a request for help.

As you are undoubtedly aware, there was a recent mishap involving the mirror to the world of humans. Spike, afflicted with dark magic, was forcibly dragged through the mirror. The process of which brought serious harm to myself, the mirror and undoubtedly my assistant as well.

Recently, upon my return from the Crystal Empire to meet with my brother Shining Armor and sister-in-law Princess Mi Amore Cadenza I discovered the mirror in the process of repairing itself. This appears to be done using a weave of conjuration, etched into the frame, to materialize ambient magic and feed it back into the mirror in order to reverse whatever damages occurred.

At nearly two weeks since the incident, only the outermost fractures have mended. Assuming the rate of recovery remains fixed, I expect it to be almost another month until the mirror returns to full functionality.

I was hoping that during the interim you would be willing to loan to me any books pertaining to studies made on the Inspiration Manifestation, Curses and Countercurses and whatever few books have been written detailing the studies on the binding of displaced souls or consciousness.

When Spike returns, I need to be able to help him.

Please, Celestia.

Your Faithful Student

Twilight Sparkle