1. Gems
“Seriously? Gumboots? It’s not even raining!” Spike yanked the pair of bright yellow boots away from Twilight’s magical hold, throwing them across the room. “I always make sure to clean my paws thoroughly, and I haven’t slipped once since that one little incident over at Sugarcube Corner. I’ll be fine.” He folded his arms in firm protest.
Twilight retrieved the boots. “And I’m sure you’ll be glad you left these at home while you’re dragging a heavy cart full of gems through swampland and rain. Rainbow Dash said she’s starting the storm tonight, so it’s best to be prepared.
“Preparing is for… Well, not fire breathing dragons, that’s for sure. I’ve handled far worse on the fly, a little mud isn’t going to get between me and those gems!” He turned on his left paw and took a step forward; right into the door. “Once I’m outside…” His muffled voice faded out into a low moan.
Purple magic peeled him away, until he was sitting on the ground with a rather sore face. Twilight rolled her eyes, then pulled him back onto his feet. “I know, I know. ‘That doesn’t count!’ Or, ‘You can’t keep me home because of one mistake!’” She opened the door to dump the gumboots into his red wagon. “I don’t care if you wear them or not. At least take them. That way we’re both happy, deal?”
Spike grumbled some more as he stomped out the door. “This is the last trip anyway. Ponyville might as well be rolling in gems thanks to my hard work.” The door closed behind him rather abruptly. At least she wasn’t going to tail him the entire time with the boots in tow. “I’ll show her. She won’t be doubting me anytime soon when she sees just how responsible I am with these gems.”
The gumboots made regular thuds as they were bounced up and down whenever the wagon ran over a rock in the ground. Every single time only reminded Spike that Twilight might as well have been pulling the cart for him. At least that’s how he chose to perceive the sound. “‘Take this Spike, you’ll get cold.’ ‘Take that Spike, you’ll get chewing gum between your toes.’ ‘Why don’t you take this as well Spike? I knitted it just for you to look like a completely ridiculous ball of wool for my crabby cat to play with.’”
It was at that moment he discovered he was quite fiercely grinding his teeth together. Of course, being a regular consumer of gems, they were nearly indestructible. Except to fizzy cola, or so Twilight often told him. “Get a grip on it Spike. You’re getting worked up over nothing. Sooner or later they’ll have to realize that you’ve matured, and you’ll have every right to be proud of it.”
His paw clutched the wagon handle again. It was still quite warm from his tight grip, which he subsequently loosened. Picking up the slack, he continued to pull it along the damp dirt road. The Everfree forest began to loom over him at that point. Storm clouds rolling in made it look dark and sinister again, like the time before they restored the Tree of Harmony.
“Just a big, dark, not-so-scary-anymore forest. Go in, get to the cave, load it with gems and come home. There’s a clear path too, right?” He had trouble recalling just how clear the path was. In the increasingly dark tree cover, the risk of tripping or getting lost went up. That he could figure out quite easily. He breathed in again, this time exhaling with a noticeable shake. “I’m a dragon. I can just make fire. Nothing to worry about.” The wagon continued to trundle behind him as he left the hard path, stepping onto soft grass.
The first hints of thunder echoed far away. With a determined grunt, he trudged into the forest line. Thick bushes and branches quickly began to close in around him, the twisted wooden shapes tangling into a foreboding net. Howling pierced through the forest. Whether it was the wind of the incoming darkness, or of timberwolves on the prowl he didn’t waste time pondering on. He was moving quite quickly at that point, the wagon rarely on all four wheels as he bolted at the speed his short legs could manage.
What little sky poked through the treetops was quickly drowned out by dark clouds. The first flash of lightning gave Spike just enough time to cover his ears before the very loud thunder roll came. He was already on the run again before it had finished. Heavy sounds of breathing followed behind the loud clanking as the wagon was tossed about the rough path.
Upon seeing the cave, he very nearly collapsed out of exhaustion. The wagon came up from behind and almost flattened him from the speed at which it had been moving. Every part of his body had some degree of pain, but he had made it through the Everfree forest. Getting back home could wait. He had food and shelter just a few steps away now, and it would be just another example of how well he could manage being on his own.
“I wonder if there’s a Ponyville record for fastest dragon. I could set a lot of records, come to think of it.” The roughly treated wagon followed him into the cave. It was still a long way to the hoard itself, but he was no longer in danger of being rained on, or eaten, or being the victim of some other terribly unfortunate event. He looked over his shoulder again, half expecting to see the dragon there again. Only the dark rainfall in its early stages loomed back at him.
“Nothing to worry about.” One of the wheels had been dented out of shape from the run, evident by the rocking motion the wagon went through as Spike continued on. It made a constant creak that echoed through the tunnel. Anything inside would have to know he was coming by that point, unless they were quite literally deaf. And probably blind.
The glint of thousands of gems reached his view. One of the facts from a book Twilight had given him about gems came to mind briefly. Something about certain gems producing their own light from magic. It was quickly overwhelmed by the desire to dive in and gorge on the bounty. Up until then, he had resisted the urge in favour of making the transport process as fast as possible. On the last trip however, and with a fierce storm trapping him there anyway, there was no reason not to indulge.
“It’s not like anyone’s gonna notice, right?” The wagon handle bounced on the hard ground once. Spike was head first in the nearest mound of gems before it came to a rest. Sapphires and emeralds quickly turned into rivers of dust, glittering as they flowed out from his teeth. Rubies danced around his tail as he dug deeper in.
Somewhere in the middle of chewing through a lump of raw amethyst, his hunger finally settled. A trail of half eaten gems and other remains ran from near where he began around the hoard, ending at the rough middle of the giant cave. The wagon was mostly filled with gems by that point, a few bearing cracks from being idly tossed in.
A loud belch echoed through the cave tunnel at the same time that a small green fireball struck the ceiling. Regular thumping soon followed, Spike patting his belly in content. “And to think that Twilight wanted me to wear those stupid gumboots. Please.” After a bit of wobbling around, he got to his feet and walked over to the boots. They had survived the journey over, at least until then. “You know what I think?” He grabbed them in his paw, feeling the weight for a moment. “I think those boots can go sit in dirt for a while!” Reaching his arm back, he hurled the gumboots up into the air…
Right into the snout of a very large dragon.
“Oh… uh…” He took a nervous step back. It wasn’t the previous owner of the cave; that much he was certain of. The dragon in front of him was much larger, and looked far meaner. Just being glared at was enough to make him fall back on his rear. “Mommy?”
The tears that began to flow didn’t reach the ground before being vaporized by the inferno erupting from the dragon’s jaws. Several metres away, the gumboots melted into a yellow pile of molten plastic. Blue-green fire raced along the red paint as the wagon was stripped bare, before bending itself into twisted metal. Many of the gems began to glow very brightly from the incredible heat.
A small patch of purple scales drifted to the ground, crushed underfoot as the dragon turned away from the burned figure.
*
“I shouldn’t have let him go.” Twilight pounded her head into the wall beside the window for a count she had forgotten over an hour ago. Beside her, a candle barely held onto life, the pool of wax nearly dripping off the edge of the plate. She had pulled on her sunshine-weave boots, coat and hat the hour before for the moment when she was worried enough to go search for Spike. It was a long battle between concern and trust in him. Concern was gradually winning.
“Alright, enough waiting.” She turned away from the window, ready to move downstairs when desperate knocking at the door caught her attention. A brief moment of relief took over. “Maybe that’s him!” The candle flickered out as she bolted down the stairs. “I’m coming!” In her haste, she neglected to light any of the other candles, arriving at the door in complete darkness. She began speaking before even starting to open the door. “Spike I...” Her voice faded quickly, drowned out by the torrential rain behind the shadowy figure in front of her.
It stood quite tall, wearing some sort of cloak, and didn’t move one bit. Twilight was about to speak, when a soft voice came from the shadow itself. “Twilight…” It moved inside, sliding past with a distinct sound of wet cloth dragging along the floor. The trail it left was definitely water, but the cloak erased any sort of print that would have been left behind.
Twilight slowly turned to keep her gaze on the arrival. She didn’t recognize the voice, and she didn’t know how to react to the way it just moved into her place. At the moment she was ready to go find Spike no less. “Look, I don’t know who… or what you are, but I really need to find a friend of mine. He’s still hasn’t come back, and I’m worried he’s trapped somewhere. Would it be too much to ask that you stay with somepony else until I get back?”
The figure looked at her as it sat down in front of the empty fireplace. A cold wind ran through the library, presumably from the chimney. “Spike… is dead.”
Another thunder roll shook every single book in their shelves, a few falling to the floor. Twilight felt her heart join them. No… no… “But… No, he can’t be dead. I’d know.” Inside her boots, her hooves were already starting to shake. “He was just a baby...” A few tears began to escape, before she removed her hoof and wiped them away. In the midst of the initial grief, her natural tendency to question everything was rearing its cruel head. “How could you possibly know though? Unless…”
She approached the figure again. “Who are you? You can’t just be a passer-by, how else would you know exactly who to go to? For that matter, you’re definitely not a pony, so what are you?” Her magical influence began to extend towards the fireplace, discreetly to avoid alarming the stranger. The water beneath her hooves was already a hazard, she didn’t need a cloaked figure running around to add to it.
“I… don’t have an answer for two of those questions… You’ll have to tell me.” Two shapes emerged from the figure, reaching up to the head. Silhouetted against what tiny light came from outside, the black hood was pulled away to reveal the outline of several spikes. Another lightning flash revealed them to be green in colour for a split second.
“In Celestia’s… No, it’s not possible.” Twilight turned away from the figure, her stomach twisting itself against the thoughts forming inside. The sudden surge of emotions caused her horn to relight the fireplace, casting a dull yellow glow through the room. Her eyes settled on her own shadow, looking deep into the spot where her face would be. “Please, tell me that’s not you.”
Her head slowly turned back, beginning to well up with tears again. The green spikes of hair came into view first, soon followed by a very strangely shaped ear. As the cheeks came into view, her eyes focused on the patches of scales, purple and green. Bare, pale skin covered every part of the body that the scales didn't. It was too much for her to deny, and yet she continued to try with every single part of her being. “Spike, what in Celestia’s name happened to you?”
The second shock came as Spike turned to her. She hadn’t ever seen someone like that before, but she could tell that it wasn’t just his body that had been transformed somehow. He’s… a she?
“I’m not Spike…” She stood up, the still soaking wet cloak clinging to her body. As she turned to Twilight, yet another shock was revealed. “I’m a fucking freak!” Both hands clutched at a noticeable swelling in the belly area, also bearing an assortment of scales and skin. “I woke up in this pregnant body, with no clue of how it happened! And before you start going off at me over swearing, just for one moment in your life try to imagine how I'm feeling!” Spike’s mouth began trembling fiercely, her hands still clawing at the swelling in her body.
Twilight’s mouth was still wide open. Her mind continued to struggle with what she was quite clearly seeing. Books, stories certainly. But not the real thing. “Spike, I honestly don’t know what to do. Just, bear with me on this, okay?” The next shuddering breath made her whole body shake as she looked up at her face. “First, could you sit down so I can look at you?”
Spike did as instructed, sitting back down on the stool with no shortage of water suddenly gushing out from under her. “I’ll take it off, I guess. You’re going to see everything anyway.” The wet cloth slid from her shoulders, letting more and more water flow as it was softly squeezed out by the weight alone. It caught on the spikes running down her spine and tail, eventually freed as she dragged it out from under herself.
It didn’t take much longer for Twilight to clean up the water once the cloak was in a wet pile beside the stool. Her eyes sheepishly returned to Spike again. “Okay, just, try not to jerk or anything if I accidentally bump something.” She circled around to the back first, where Spike seemed to retain most of his dragon self. Scales ran from the base of her head down the spine until it reached the tail, all purple with hints of green at the tips. The patches of scales began to grow smaller as they spread out, until they were smaller than a pony hoof on the stomach.
“Before you ask, I’ve felt around and I definitely don’t have a dick anymore.” Spike flicked her tail up to take hold of it gently. “And I didn’t continue ‘feeling around’ either.” Her fingers tightened around the tip of her tail for a moment before releasing it. It dropped to the floor with a low thud. “Should I just go over what I remember? If I’m gonna sit here naked in the meantime…”
“Yes. Just skip past whatever you’re not comfortable recalling. It’s late, and Celestia can probably work out the rest for herself. No-one wants to make this harder on you.” Twilight placed her hoof on the swelling, feeling the scales for herself for the first time. They felt just like Spike’s, which only unnerved her more. There was very little doubt left that it was her platonic little brother sitting there, now her platonic big sister.
Spike swallowed after a long moment of silence, staring down past her breasts at the bulge in her body. “I was in the cave, gathering gems and loading them into the wagon. Once that was done, I decided to eat, since it was raining heavily and dragging a wagon full of gems through a dark, muddy forest isn’t a good idea.” She took a deep breath, her hands clutching at her knees. “That’s... when the dragon appeared.”
Twilight paused in her examination, lowering her hoof so she could look at Spike properly.
“It was big and bad. Not from Equestria, at least it’s nothing like the ones I saw those few years ago. There wasn’t much I could do, before it burned me alive.” Her arms closed in again instinctively. The experience of having his outer scales burned off was still vivid. Lava didn’t even feel warm in comparison. “I couldn’t see very well after that, since my eyes… were open.” A few tears began to fall, wiped away by a tissue Twilight held up.
“You can stop there, Spike, if you want to. I wasn’t going to blame any of this on you in the first place, and I certainly won’t now.” Twilight left the room for a brief moment, returning with a dry towel. “Just wrap yourself up for now, I’ll try to think of somewhere you can sleep.” She moved past into the kitchen to prepare a warm drink for him, when she felt her tail catch her hoof.
There was another long silence from Spike, until she audibly cleared her throat. “I can guess where I’ll be staying. There’s one pony in town who lives alone for most of the week, and has a spare bed for the night. She’s also the one pony who can make me clothes…”
Twilight froze in that spot, afraid to turn back and face the eyes now focused on her. The same thought had occurred to her, but for the sake of everypony, she had been hoping for a different option.
“I’m in shock from this, aren’t I? That’s why I haven’t been bawling my eyes out constantly. But it’s gonna happen soon. And to be honest…” Spike stood up again, the towel now wrapped around her body awkwardly. “Rarity’s been patronizing me all this time, after all I’ve done to try and please her. Right now, I really don’t feel guilty about calling in. And when I do start breaking out in tears, she can see how it feels, for once.”