Spike heard the sound of rushing water. He could see through squinted eyes the glaring power of Celestia's noonday sun shining down on him. But most of all, he could feel the pounding headache throughout his body. Groaning, he slowly rolled over to his stomach, trying to shake out what cobwebs he had left from the shock to his system. Risking one open eye, he checked his limbs again.
No claws, no scales, no spines. Just hooves and a dark purple coat capped off with a lighter purple mane that hung down slightly in his face.
He glanced to his back, finding the same thing. No spines, no scales, just a large dark purple coat across his back, interrupted only by the lighter shade of purple on his tail and, much to his surprise, the bright green flames over a horseshoe on either side of his flank.
“I can't believe it,” Spike said to himself, slowly beginning to stand onto his feet. He continued to glance over his new body, taking in every inch of hair and flesh he now possessed. With trepidation, he slowly took a step forward. Confident that he had that down, he placed another hoof down. “Just one hoof in front of the other,” Spike said to himself, trying to get a mantra going. After several cautious steps, his walking slowly became more and more confident, and he began to speed up, trotting in circles as he got the hang of things. After a few more minutes, he began galloping towards the stream, a smile on his face
“Well, this is certainly eaaaaa...!” Spike lay on the ground, dazed and embarrased for having tripped over his own two hooves and landed face first in the stream. He sat up, shaking the water from his muzzle. His muzzle, he thought, an almost giddy sense of joy coming over him. Though he definitely loved being a dragon, and was proud of his draconic heritage, he had always wondered on more than one occasion about what it would be like to be a pony. He had felt left out of the adventures of his friends a few times, and he always felt that, despite Twilight's best efforts, the others did keep him at a hooves length away. They treated him as a friend, certainly, but not as an equal. Even to Twilight, he was nothing more than her best asisstant.
“Well now they'll accept me,” Spike said, his eyes sparkling in the sunlight. “Now they'll see me for the dra...err...pony that I can really be! Wait till they...” he was about to trot off towards Ponyville, eager to show his friends his new form, when he skidded to a stop.
As far as his friends knew, he was still a baby dragon. A baby dragon who had left a rather undetailed note about his whereabouts, and who according to that note should have been back by now if the sun's position in the sky was any indication. To be honest, he wasn't exactly sure what they're reaction might be if they found out he had gone and changed himself into a pony. They might scold him for being so reckless. They might shun him for not taking their feelings into account.
They might not have anything to do with him at all.
For the first time, Spike began to question his own rash decision. He bit his bottom lip, sweat starting to trickle down his brow. There wasn't much he could do though, he had made his bed of hay, so to speak.
“Why hello there,” came a silky voice from behind him, causing Spike to jump up in the air and land back on the rocky ground with his backside. Standing up, he grimaced as he turned, trying to see the source of the voice. Much to his surprise, it was the familiar smoky visage of the efreet before him, appearing to be sitting on a large boulder in the middle of the stream. He watched the newly minted pony, as if surveying his handiwork, his blue eyes twinkling in the sun.
“Wha...what are you doing here,” Spike asked. He hadn't noticed it before, but his voice was a bit more forceful than it had been as a baby dragon. Come to think of it, he was far older as a pony than he had been as a dragon. “I thought you couldn't leave that cave of yours.”
“Whenever did I say that,” the efreet replied, smirking as he did so. “I was put there merely to guard the treasures contained within. I never said anything about not being able to stretch my wings so to speak.” The efreet floated over to where Spike was standing inspecting him. “Hmm...perhaps you would have done better as a pegasus instead of an earth pony. Still, not a bad job for someone as out of practice as I am.” The efreet smirked, before snapping his fingers and cojuring a chair out of smoke for himself to sit on. “I suppose then you are satisfied with my work?”
“Yeah, I am. I mean...this is more than I could have hoped for.” Spike stood there, uncertain of how to continue. The efreet leaned forward.
“But,” the efreet continued, “You have no idea how to tell your friends about your remarkable transformation.”
“That's it!” Spike exclaimed, slapping his front hooves to the ground in frustration. “How can I impress Rarity with my new body if I can't find a way to tell her about it without her blowing up at me.”
“If they were really your friends,” the efreet offered, “then it wouldn't matter now would it. Of course, if she was really in love of you before, then you wouldn't have had to do this in the first place.” Spike sighed and lowered his head. “That is to say,” the efreet replied, merely leaning back in his smoky chair, “Perhaps the best course of action is not to tell them your identity at all.”
“You mean, pretend I don't even know them?” Spike asked, questioning. It would make sense, he thought. It'd be the easiest way to go about things certainly. Not to mention the fact that, maybe with a clean start, he'd be in a better position to impress Rarity and win her over. Then again...
“It wouldn't work,” Spike replied, a defeated tone evident in his voice. “My friend Twilight will never stop searching for the dragon me. And a pony with purple coating and green eyes showing up the same day her asisstant disappears will be too much of a coincidence for her to overlook.”
“That does present a problem,” the efreet replied, once again stroking his chin as if deep in thought while he stood up from his chair and paced back and forth. “It's just a shame you have nothing more of value to offer me.” The efreet stopped his pacing, his eyes looking back at Spike.
“Why,” Spike asked, suddenly intrigued, “Is there something you could do to help.”
“Maybe,” the efreet mysteriously replied, allowing it to sink in. “If you had something to give me, then maybe I could make it so that whenever your friends...or anypony for that matter, connected you with your former draconic self, they would suddenly be confused and distracted, forgetting that little connection they had just made.”
“But I don't have anything,” Spike replied, trying desperately to think of something he could get for the efreet to get a clean break with his old life, all thoughts of just telling the truth cast aside from his addled mind.
“I'll tell you what,” the efreet said suddenly, dramatically turning around as much as a smoke-based figure could. “Since I like you, I'll cut you a deal. In exchange for a favor by you at a later date, I'll grant you the wish I just described.”
“What kind of favor,” Spike asked, a bit skeptical on the whole affair. “You're an efreet. What could I possibly do to help you?”
“Why don't you let me worry about that,” the efreet replied, a bit of an edge to his voice. “And of course if you don't want my help...”
“No! It's not that...I just don't want anypony to get hurt.”
The efreet rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he said while sighing, “I'll add that the favor I ask of you will not directly hurt you or any of your friends.” He extended his wisp of a hand. “Do we have a deal?”
Spike looked at the hand offered, and thought about it for mere moments. His fear got the better of him and he slapped the hand with his hoof. “Deal!” he shouted. There was a loud clap of thunder, and the efreet smiled.
“Very well then.” With that, the efreet snapped his fingers and began to float away.
“Wait, I don't feel any different.”
“You won't,” the efreet explained. “The spell only works when somepony is trying to actively search for your former draconic self. Oh and by the way.” The efreet turned, his eyes glimmering slits contrasted against his transluscent face. “If you tell anypony...anypony at all about this, then my spell will be broken. But you'll still owe me for it.” Spike nodded, suddenly a bit more afraid then he had been in the past of the efreet, as the figure seemingly disappated into the forests, leaving nothing of his former self.
Spike let out a breath and slowly turned towards the forest, and beyond Ponyville. “Well,” he said, “Here goes nothing.” Backing up a few steps, he broke out into a full gallop towards Ponyville, only to once again trip over his own hooves.
“Maybe I should work a bit more on this.” Spike slowly stood up, dusting off his coat as best he could with his hooves, and slowly trotted down the path to Ponyville.
/ - / - / - /
As he exited the forest, Spike could see the silhouettes of Ponyville off in the distance. He grew more and more nervous with each passing step, glancing this way and that as if his cover would be blown at any minute. As he drew closer and closer, he began to doubt himself even more. What if the spell didn't work? What if his friends found out the truth? What if they hated him? Sure, there was always the possibility that they might accept him regardless, and part of him thought that that certainly. But that part of him was increasingly being drowned out by a chorus of self-doubts and second guesses.
So caught up in the what if's was Spike, that he failed to notice a soaring pegasus pony swooping down, having spotted something purple on the ground. In a flash, Spike and the other pony were tumbling to the ground, somersaulting over one another in a tussle of manes and limbs. Spike shook his head after the startle, an all to common occurrence in the last few hours he noted, and turned to see what had collided with him, freezing in place when he caught sight of a cyan coat and rainbow mane.
“Sorry about that,” Rainbow Dash commented, knocking loose some dirt from her ear. “I just thought you were somepony I was looking for. Well, not somepony per se but, you know what I mean.” Rainbow Dash laughed again and Spike couldn't help but stare at her, a deep-seated fear taking hold in the pit of his stomach. “Uh...you okay there?”
“Wha...” Spike blinked a couple times, his brain apparently catching on to the fact that so far, his cover had held. “Oh...yeah. Sorry. I just...um...” an idea popped into his head just as quickly as it could. “Say, aren't you the famous Rainbow Dash?” As if on cue, said pegasus jumped to her feet, a showy display of pride at being recognized.
“The one and only,” she boasted, flaring her wings out dramatically. “You must have heard of my famous Sonic Rainboom...or maybe the time my friends and I saved Equestria from Discord...or when we saved Ponyville from that smoking dragon.” She stopped, as if suddenly remembering something. “Speaking of which, you haven't seen a purple baby dragon anywhere, have you?”
Spike quickly shook his head, almost comically. “N-No can't say I have...” He scruffed his hoof against the ground, wanting very much at that moment to somehow magically disappear.
“Oookay...say you know, you kind of...” just as she was about to say something, Spike could see a blue flash blur over her eyes. “Umm...what the...” Rainbow Dash shook her head, as if she was trying to remember something. “What did you say your name was?”
Spike's eyes darted up and down, trying to think of something to say. His eyes glanced back at the makeshift cutie mark that he had been given by the efreet. “It's uh...Forge.” He swallowed a large gulp of air. “That is to say, it's Emerald Forge. But everypony just calls me Forge.”
“Forge huh,” the pegasus repeated, smiling at him. “Are you new to Ponyville?”
“Uh...yeah. Just moved here from...uh...Hoofington. That's right.” Spike smiled again, trying hard not to give himself away anymore.
“Well, I hate to ask you to help, but...my friend Twilight is worried sick about her friend Spike and we need to find him. Think you could help?”
“Uh, sure I guess...” Spike internally breathed a sigh of relief as apparently the efreet's spell was working as promised. It made him feel a little better, but he would feel a lot better if he could go hide out for a few days while everything died down. Still, if he was seen as helping searching for...well...him, then it would not only deflect suspicion away from the truth, or so he thought, but it would also begin the process of endearing himself to his friends yet again. He followed Rainbow Dash as she led him towards the center of town, apparently where they were going to search next.
Neither of them noticed the shadowy figure, who gasped upon seeing the newfound pony. The figure dashed off in the other direction, eager to begin preperations.
/ - / - / - /
A/N: It's not as long as I'd like, but I'm gonna be busy the next few days and this is as good a place to stop as any.