The City That Never Sleeps In

Fairy Tale City never sat still for long.

Between the glass towers and the cobblestone squares, trolls hailed hover-cabs, Little Red Riding Hood ran a popular food blog, and the Three Bears had just opened a porridge restaurant that was always — somehow — too hot.

Right in the middle of it all stood the Mega Mansion, a gleaming silver tower shaped like a lighthouse crossed with a castle. It was home to the city's greatest superhero: Mega Mother Goat.

Inside, she was doing three things at once. Her left hand magnetized a spilled tray of spoons back to the kitchen shelf. Her right hand held a buzzing phone. And both hooves were somehow keeping three small goats from climbing the furniture.

"Pip! Don't float near the ceiling fan!" she called.

The smallest kid goat giggled and floated higher.

Mega Mother Goat sighed — the warm, tired sigh of someone who saved the city before breakfast and still hadn't had any.

The One Who Looked Back

The phone was still buzzing.

Mega Mother Goat — the tall humanoid goat in the blue dress and teal kerchief — finally answered it. On the screen was Madame Cluck, the elderly hen who ran Fairy Tale City's news drone network from a rolling chair she never seemed to leave.

"You're going to want to see this," Madame Cluck said, and tapped something on her end.

The mansion's big wall screen flickered on. A live drone feed showed the center of the city — and there, floating above the clock tower, was someone who looked exactly like Mega Mother Goat.

Same blue dress. Same teal kerchief. Same curved horns.

She was waving to the crowd below. Smiling. And then she lifted a city bus with one hand.

Mega Mother Goat stared.

"That's —" she started.

"You," said Madame Cluck. "Except you've been home all morning. I checked the drone footage myself."

Pip floated over and squinted at the screen.

"Mama," he said, "there's two of you."

Down in the city square, the copy tilted her head up — directly at one of the drones.