Chapter 17: The Show
Twilight had concluded that Spyro had most definitely taken a small part of her with him, but only a small part. Magic, a few memories and emotions. Spyro got used to it though. Over the two weeks of practicing, he realized that having a part of the mare inside of him was helping a lot. It was easier for him to concentrate and get excited over learning new things. However, a simple test from Twilight laid their fears to rest. It wasn’t mind control, not even close. Her test consisted of giving Spyro some choices without telling him, learning new spells or spending the day with Pinkie. He chose the latter, reluctantly at first. When he did, Twilight explained to him that she would be happy to teach him the spells another day. All was well, for the most part.
Spyro was still extremely anxious, and not from his homework. Today would be the day of the show, specifically tonight. They had agreed that a showing around seven o’clock would be best for the atmosphere. He, Claws and Spike had absolutely nothing to do. It was a week ago when Twilight suggested that he spend more time with the two. They had helped him feel better about everything, and Claws was actually happy to see him. Without calling me weird, too…
"What ya thinkin’ ‘bout?" he heard Spike ask from behind him.
Spyro was over the edge of the stage, his feet hanging down and his hands cradling his head. "Hmm, nothing."
Claws quickly took a seat with him, smacking his claws over Spyro's shoulder, making him jump. "C’mon, you get to be an announcer!" He waved his claws in an arc over the imaginary audience. "Like the old dragon leader… only, you know, not evil and dumb!"
Spyro did chuckle at that. In a way, he would be like that big dragon, only saying something sensible. Ponies were indeed welcoming when they wanted to be. Not all of the ponies in town seemed to like him, but the ones he talked to did. "Yeah, it sounds cool…" In a way it did, but after reciting his lines a million times in front of an imaginary audience, it got old. The real excitement would only begin when tons of ponies would be listening to his every word. He was still nervous, but Twilight reassured him that this whole thing was just for fun and to show the town that Trixie meant well.
He knew that was important, that other places did not welcome her. Some part of him worried that this would not go over well though, despite most of the ponies in town being very friendly. Trixie’s sad story had shocked him to the core. This meant that, to him at least, it was all up to him. If he made a mistake on stage then the show might fail. If that failed then Trixie would be screwed (he thought that was the right use of the word). She would be in trouble.
Every time he pictured himself up on stage, it would either end in disaster or be one of the best moments of his life. He knew he didn't have that many lines so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Still, it wasn’t like he talked in front of a massive crowd of ponies every day for a show, and as a dragon, no less. A distraction lingered into the back of his mind, something that had very much been bothering him for a while. He wanted to be physically human again, if only for a little while. It was probably a bad idea to dwell on those thoughts, he figured. But he had his lines memorized, so why not?
It wasn’t that being a dragon was not fun, it was awesome. He felt like he wasn’t being true to himself, that he was lying. While his friends and new mom had accepted him and knew he was, in fact, an alien in a foreign body, others didn’t. It’s not like he could start every conversation with someone new as, "Hi, I used to be a human…" While he knew it shouldn’t be a big deal, to him it felt like he was deceiving everyone in the town. It wasn’t a very satisfying feeling, and like all feelings relating to guilt it had started to build up. He sighed. It wasn't like he could go back to being human now. After resting on the stage for several more minutes, his mind caught up. Magic!
Without warning, he leapt from the stage, running towards the library as fast as he could. He ignored the protests of his two friends who were close on his trail.
"Spyro…" Twilight began to rub the temples on her head in circles. "Even if I could do this, it would only be temporary. That’s if I can do it." She watched the drake sag in his seat. "Why do you want to do this all of a sudden? You seemed happy before."
"Hmm…" he mumbled and then sighed. He wasn’t sure how to put this into words. "I just miss being like I used to, I guess."
"I…" Twilight started before realizing that, of all the reasons he could’ve given, that made a lot of sense. If she had transformed into another species, she would easily miss her own body. From what she had seen of humans, though, they were close enough to a bipedal dragon like him. True, they had no tails or horns, but fingers and toes were their common link. It made sense that he had felt natural enough in this new body, though she did not know what his first few days were like in Equestria. She assumed they went okay. She would have to ask someday. "Okay, I can try to change you back." His face instantly morphed from depressing to a grin. "But if it doesn’t work then maybe Trixie can work up an illusion spell for you."
He blinked. "How would that help?"
She smiled. "So you can show others what you are inside."
His mouth tried to form words. How had she known? Could she read minds?
"I know you, Spyro. Maybe not that well yet, but I’m sure guilt is something you’re not fond of. Am I right?"
His head slowly nodded.
"Right. You feel like you're not being true to yourself? That you're lying to others?"
For a few moments he remained silent, scratching his legs gently with his claws for no reason. "I guess so…"
"Well, I can try my best. It probably won’t keep forever, a few nights at most though," she replied softly.
Magic isn’t permanent… His face twisted into confusion, remembering something Twilight had said herself. Magic does have permanent properties, it has to in order to exist. He looked down to his claws and then to his tail. He had gained magic and that had stuck, he had become a dragon and it had stuck. He looked back up at Twilight, a fierce gaze. "Magic can be permanent, I’m still a dragon now and that never went away, right?"
She considered what he had said for a few moments in silence. Her eyes suddenly snapped open. "You’re right! If… if you can give me some time and I can perform some experiments on you then perhaps I can reverse engineer the properties that made you this way and the magic I gave you!"
He scratched his head. "What part of that do I understand?"
"It means if I succeed I can make you human again."
"Alright!" Wait… "What about my magic? Will that go away?"
"No, that’s the best part! If I’m right, I can have you keep that too. Hey, I could even turn you into a unicorn." She giggled at the thought.
"No way!" He imagined himself walking on all fours and gagged. "No thanks, I just want to be me again."
"Right. Oh, but I don’t think I can do this before the show, Spyro."
"Oh…"
She smiled again, and walked up to him. Then she placed one of her hooves on his shoulder. "You want others to know you use… are human? Hmm…" Twilight took a seat, trying to think of a plan. Behind them, the library door started to open. In walked Claws, Spike and Trixie.
"Spyro?" Trixie questioned. "Are you alright? It’s okay if you're nervous, but I promise you, putting on a show like this is not that big of a deal."
Twilight looked to Trixie and grinned, much to the mare’s confusion.
"Are you sure they won’t freak out?"
Trixie, Twilight, Spike and Claws looked at Spyro. They all had smiles on, though the two dragons looked far more nervous. Trixie laughed a bit. "I don’t think so, this mini show Twilight spoke of is a wonderful idea. Are you sure you don’t mind taking over for…"
Spike waved a claw to stop her. "It’s fine! I got this. I did a few shows myself." Spike inspected his claws in a rather bored manner, though Twilight could tell he was faking a bit. What she spoke of was a quick change of plans. Spike would deliver the lines for the main show and Spyro and Twilight had another idea for what Spyro could do. Though it was mainly Twilight’s idea, Spyro didn’t mind it and was actually rather excited.
Spyro nodded, looking at the slightly altered sign for the show.
Trixie Illusionary Daring Do Tale, Featuring Human Magic!
Spyro still felt odd. "Um, you know humans aren’t magic though."
Twilight nodded but then winked at him. "I think you’re magic enough, Spyro." The cheesy line warmed his heart. It sounded cool to him at least!
"Okay, but you said my world would scare them," he said, remembering her exact words.
"I’ve been wrong before. The illusions we chose certainly won’t. They might even make them laugh," Twilight shot back.
"Alright…" Spyro said nothing after that and chose to simply take in some deep breathes and to try and memorize his little speech, which wasn’t much. There wasn’t too much to say until the show started, which was in a few minutes. He could see practically half the town had shown up. Funny what something free does to anyone. Twilight and Pinkie tried to reassure him over and over that the ponies of this town were actually a pretty friendly bunch, that he had nothing to worry about, but he was still nervous.
"Phew, talk about work!" Pinkie exclaimed, walking up to him and then slowly falling down onto the ground as she wiped some sweat off her forehead. "How you holding up, Son?"
"Okay. A-are you ready?"
"Yep! I may have passed out baked goods and treats to basically everypony in Ponyville, but your old mom is ready for an announcement!"
He never said it, but every time Pinkie or someone else had mentioned that he had a mom, it made him feel so great inside. Like he literally had a second chance in life and things were just so much better than they used to be. Trixie came up behind them and clapped her hooves. "Okay, everypony ready? And everydragon? Uh, human?"
"It’s body."
Trixie was set to walk away and then turned back to face Spyro. "Hmm?"
"When you say, uh, humans you don’t say ‘everyhuman’. You say ‘everybody’."
"Oh, alright then. Everybody ready?" She smiled down at him.
"Yeah… Are you?"
"I am. It starts in just a few minutes…" She trailed off and watched him look down, a familiar gesture. She gently raised her hoof and tilted his chin to lock eyes with him. "You’ll do great. Just take deep breaths and remember what Twilight said."
"That they're not all jerks?"
Trixie frowned and looked back to face Rainbow, who was whistling by herself, avoiding eye contact. "No, that’s what Rainbow said, but I suppose it means the same thing."
He smiled, feeling calmer at least. Spike was already on stage before Spyro knew what was happening. "Mares and Gentlecolts, thank you all for coming tonight. In a moment, you will all witness some of Ponyville’s residents in Trixie’s new show based on the characters from the Daring Do series of novels!" His voice echoed throughout the audience, causing quite a few to applaud. "But first, we wanted to show you a miniature show, if you will. Give a round of applause for Spyro and his Human Magic!"
Spyro did not hesitate to walk up on stage, something that surprised him. After all, the action literally made him the center of attention. This is where he hesitated, where the very thing he was about to do seemed far too extreme. He knew he couldn’t back out now or he would ruin the show for good. He took a deep, shuddering breath and fully opened his eyes. The audience looked on expectantly. He quickly looked to the right to see Trixie smiling at him with her horn lit ablaze. She’s ready… Then he looked to the left, seeing his mom smiling brightly at him. Let’s do this.
He immediately slammed his fist onto the stage below, much to the shock of the ponies in the audience. That’s where the magic that had been idling, waiting to be released, did just that. A blue aura started to seep out and swiftly cover the dragon’s body. The whistling noises slowly died down, as did the magic. What was left of the dragon made the audience gasp. Spyro looked to his newly formed hand, recognizing it immediately. A nostalgic feeling washed through him. He knew he was always still him, but just seeing it helped. He slowly stood back up and smiled to the audience. Then he cleared his throat.
"Hello. My name is Spyro. Some… of you may have noticed two new dragons in your town," he said, remembering the speech he had practiced. Some nodded and others simply looked on, their curious gazes never wavering. "Well, the first is named Claws. He’s one of my friends and is very friendly. You see, I had somehow ended up on the island where dragons come from. He helped me and I helped him escape that place on a ship." While he was talking, Trixie had conjured up vague images of his story. It was to help ease the audience into the entirety of the show. "Eventually, we met some real nice ponies who took us in. My mom…" He trailed off and looked over to Pinkie, who nodded. "…Pinkie Pie" – the name caused several ponies to murmur – "didn’t mind that I wasn’t normal. The way I now look is how I used to be."
He stopped talking for a moment and examined himself while the audience did the same. His tan skin almost seemed foreign to him. He chuckled at his blue button up shirt, something he did not miss. Going out naked was fine with him. Finally, he straightened up his hair with his hands.
"I’m a human. We’re creatures that don’t live in Equestria. I’m not sure how I ended up here… as a dragon. But I don’t care. I have friends. I have a mother now. I don’t live in an orphanage anymore and I even have magic!" His arms snapped to attention forming a ‘y’ shape, spitting off from his fingers came sparks of his own magic. He wasn’t casting any specific spell, but it did the job. Some of the ponies stomped their hooves in approval. He even saw his new teacher there. He figured she now understood why she hadn’t heard of New York. "I may not look this way when I’m done, but I just wanted to let the whole town know that this is who I am. I’m human…" He paused and, slowly, the illusion that was his old body flickered out of existence. "…no matter what happens. A good teacher taught me that magic can be funny. It may have made me a dragon, but I’ll always be human." Each sentence came out slowly. Memorizing even this small speech was more difficult than he had thought. There was no way he would be able to host the rest of the show! "Anyway, this is what we meant with ‘human magic’." He slowly smirked. "Although I do want to show you more of my world during Nightmare Night. But for now I just wanted to show you all that I may be weird, but I’d be glad to be a friend to any of you." Unbeknownst to the audience, he had occasionally tilted his head to reach a cue card that his mom had prepared. His words still were his own though. He just needed a little help to say it all in one go.
The stomping of hooves was started by none other than Miss Cheerilee. From there, the rest of the ponies joined her, cheering for the human-turned-dragon. He slowly bowed. "Thank you. Friendship can be pretty neat. A new friend of mine learned that. Trixie, a mare you might all know, also wanted to be welcome in town. Some of my mom’s friends were wronged by her, but they forgave her. She wanted to put on this show to show you all what she really can do." Suddenly, the nervousness he had felt finally faded. He had said the entire speech without messing up once. The hard part was over with. "So, who wants to see some Daring Do?" He asked the audience. Trixie had not actually expressed how he was supposed to introduce the main show. So he guessed. The cheering audience was his response. "Then welcome Trixie and her amazing magic!"
From there, the main show began, slowly at first but quickly picking up and moving at full force. Spyro could tell that Trixie was straining her magic to its limit. The series of Daring Do was playing live, using illusions to surround Rainbow Dash. It was like watching a live play only with the visuals and special effects of a film. He felt a hoof nudge his side and looked over to find his mom.
"That was great, Son. Do you feel better?"
He looked down at his claws and smiled. "Yeah. Yeah I do."
"Great! Then let’s go enjoy the show!"
The very first part of the show the ponies looked somewhat confused. Pinkie thought it was due to Spyro’s speech and little show of his. Maybe they were wanting something bigger and expecting ‘human magic’ to be more than just a speech. It didn’t matter though. The rest of the show they all thoroughly enjoyed.
Spyro certainly enjoyed it since he was standing next to Trixie the whole time. He and Pinkie Pie had a sort of back view of the whole show that somehow still worked. He didn’t fully understand her illusion magic yet, but it didn’t matter. To him, it just looked like a hologram, which was epic in his opinion. Holograms still didn’t exist where he came from, at least, he didn’t think so.
After a solid three hours, Trixie’s horn finally blinked out, extinguishing her magical flow. As soon as the curtain closed, Spyro was certain his eardrums were going to rupture from the noise. It was clear they had enjoyed it.
"Excuse me, Spyro," Trixie said. She was walking away with confidence, smirking all the way. Rainbow soon followed, being the only one in the actual show as did Spike, being the narrator. Out of all of them, Rainbow looked the most tired. Her role required her to fly all around stage, do tricks and memorize plenty of lines.
Spyro and his mom watched the three walk out on stage and take a bow. The audience somehow grew louder. The dragon watched on with his claws firmly clamped over his ears, which he somehow just noticed were odd-feeling fin-like… things.
"Thank you all!" Trixie cheered. "But I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for these ponies." She paused and cast a quick spell, illuminating the five seated in the audience. Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack blushed. They had helped out with what they could. "Rainbow Dash." The crowd cheered a bit louder as the mare in question did a few loops in the air. "Finally, I would like to thank Spyro. He was the one courageous enough to ask for my friendship when I honestly wanted nothing to do with it at the time. He pushed me into all of this, the show and my new friends…"
Spyro looked dumbfounded and then yelped when a certain pink mare picked him up and bounced him onto her back. "C’mon, the crowd’s waiting for ya!"
He instinctively grabbed onto his mom and soon he found himself in front of the cheering crowd. This was different than before though. Instead of feeling better about himself, he felt pride. He slowly stood up from his mom’s back and bowed with the rest.
After thanking ponies for coming personally and even giving a few autographs, Trixie was on her way back to her trailer, humming a simple melody to herself.
"Hey, Trixie! Where you going?"
She smiled wider, hearing the familiar voice would always be welcome now. She turned around. "Spyro, I’m heading back to my trailer. Why?"
"Oh… you just live in it?"
"Yes. I find it quite comfortable. Twilight offered me a place to stay, but I told her I don’t mind earning a place of my own. So long as I’m welcome here, it shouldn’t be too hard."
"Oh, okay… Uh, I think everyone is going back to my place for something. Wanna come?"
She tapped one of her hooves on the floor a few times. "Hmm… very well. Probably an after-party."
He nodded and they walked there together.
Spyro squinted his eyes, looking at his home. "Hey, Trixie? Were there always things in the windows?"
"Hmm, I’m not sure. Maybe they redecorated… Place could stand to be more subtle if you ask me."
He rolled his eyes and hopped off her back. He noticed he was getting used to just riding ponies in a casual way. Some part of him thought it was wrong, yet nopony seemed to mind. Spyro hopped off her back and slowly opened the front door. "Mom?"
He gasped, seeing the site of dozens of ponies facing him. "Surprise!" Even though he saw them, it still shocked him. A tingling sensation shot out through his horns. They started to pulsate.
"No, Spy—" Twilight tried to call from the crowd.
Spyro felt warm for a few moments. Blinding amounts of magic pulsated all around his body. He didn’t understand what was happening, but he was sure it wasn’t bad. It started to feel right, not pleasant, but like something he had not felt in ages. The magic and the noises it made died out quickly. He looked to his hands. Why did she use her illusion spell? He looked to Trixie, giving him a similar lost look.
"Spyro, are you okay?" he heard Pinkie ask.
He looked down to his body and hesitantly touched all over. That’s not an illusion… He was wearing pajamas, very familiar looking pajamas. The kind with tiny spaceships all over. It was the set of clothes he had worn when he went to bed not too many nights ago. He was human again and it felt great.
Twilight walked away from the crowd of ponies, towards him. "Spyro? What did you do?"
"I don’t know… I, um." He squinted his eyes on his fingernails, something felt off about them. He touched his index finger with his other hand, he felt the claws were still there. The horns still existed. "I think… I wanted to be myself again."
She tilted her head to the side. "You…" She trailed off and shook her head a few times. "That doesn’t…"
Pinkie Pie walked up to her and nuzzled her cheek. "Twilight, we still have a party to give. My son’s party!"
"But I thought no parties…" Spyro said.
"Twilight said it was alright now, right?"
Twilight wanted to scream no. If a simple surprise was enough to physically change his body then what else could go wrong?! She bit her lip and looked to the hopeful Spyro and smiling Pinkie, then sighed. "Yes, but—"
"Let’s party!" Pinkie cheered.
The other ponies who were standing off to the side reluctantly cheered too, wondering just what had happened, but not caring enough to ask. Spyro took a seat off to the side, feeling his body all over. He didn’t care that much about the party right then. It was obvious the other ponies weren’t bothered by him either. He felt right. I don’t get it… Just turning back bothered him just as much as it did Twilight.
"Hey!" He blinked and looked down from his seat. "Wow, you’re taller this way!"
It was Scootaloo. He blinked and just now noticed that she was right, humans were, in fact, taller than ponies. Even in a child’s body, he would tower over the Crusaders and was slightly taller than his mom even.
"What’s with the funny pajamas?" Sweetie poked his pants, feeling them down his leg.
He giggled. "Stop. That tickles!"
She giggled back and complied. He looked over to Apple Bloom who had her face scrunched up in confusion the whole time.
"What?"
"Oh, well… you look funny, is all."
He looked down at himself again. "What do you mean?"
"Ah dunno. Sorry, ah don’t mean to stare."
"It’s okay, and I’m wearing these because… I slept in them before I came to Equestria."
"But how’d you get here?"
"I don’t know. I…" He really didn’t know. he also didn’t know why he was human again. "I don’t know."
Apple Bloom tilted her head. "You just ended up here?"
He shrugged. "Maybe I had magic back on Earth?"
As silly as that sounded, the three seemed to buy it. It did seem possible given what they saw Spyro do before. He stood up and walked over towards Twilight. She looked at him in a different light. He still seemed childish, but just so foreign. "Do you know why I’m human again?"
For a few moments, she said nothing. She felt fine to just relax and enjoy the party. "Maybe… maybe you always were, like you said before. It’s possible that you had magic within you this whole time and it needed to be set free. You just needed a magical burst like back in the castle to…" He looked at her, not really understanding, so she sighed. "It was magic. Does it matter that much?"
"But don’t you want to know how?"
"I do. I really do. I’m sure we can figure it out together, but for now this is your party and it’s long overdue."
He smiled and figured she was right. Why ruin a good thing?
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Very well done good job
There's a difference between being screwed and being screwed over Just sayin'.
8223302 Um, if you're screwed over, then you're still screwed.
Magic...
Daww, I liked his Dragon form. Oh well, it was still a great story!
That alone made me think of this.
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Never seen so many comments in one place before from the same user lol. Glad to see you enjoyed my little dragon tale.