//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Shrinking Lavender // by Yinglung //------------------------------// I woke up in the bed after a wild night of celebration. Morning light pried at my eyelids like metal prongs, causing me to groan loudly. “Eh?” I yelped. My voice was higher by an octave or two. I immediately shot up from my bed, and yanked away my deep blue blanket. Wait, my blanket should have been light blue. Then, I realized that it was far from the strangest thing that I was seeing. I was sleeping on a bed instead of in a basket. And my purple hooves… What the hay? Why did I have hooves instead of my dragon claws? They looked suspiciously familiar. Pushing away the purple mane on my face, I shakily got up, intending to look myself in the mirror and confirm the inevitable. I cautiously stepped out of my bed, and tried to take a slow breath. But instead, I was hyperventilating. In between those hurried breaths, a part of me thought to myself wryly. I laughed so many times at a certain someone when she panicked over everything. But now, I was the one panicking. I engulfed the mirror with an aura of purple magic, and pulled it towards my face. It confirmed my worst fear – I had become the royal student herself, Twilight Sparkle. I did not even have the time or mind to savor how strange it was for me to know how to use unicorn magic despite being a dragon. I sat down on the floor in a mix of shock, fear, confusion and despondence. By now, I was a bit more alert than a moment ago. I started to realize that I was recalling things from two different streams of memories. One was mine, from the time when I was hatched and cared for by Twilight. The other one was not mine, but hers. I was a bit shocked to remember the time when I myself was hatched from Twilight’s perspectives. Moreover, I could remember things from before I was born. This was the most bizarre experience I had ever had. I shook my head violently. I was almost literally lost in a sea of foreign memories and forgetting who I was. Yeah, who was I? Was I the ever dutiful and studious Twilight Sparkle, or was I her ever helpful and responsible assistant Spike the Dragon? Before I pondered further, I suddenly remembered something. With a dash of burning worry, I rushed to my basket to see if ‘I’ was there. No. Not a scale was left in the basket. Then where was ‘Spike’? I thought hard. If there was a ‘Spike’ physically somewhere, then I had most likely switched with Twilight, and now the real Twilight would be in my body. Fueled with a newfound hope, I hurriedly rushed towards the staircase. But before I reached the stairs, a small purple figure reached the upper floor first. I pulled back my hooves just in time, but it still seemed to have spooked the one coming up, because he promptly spilled the cups of milk on my face and on the floor. “Oh my gosh!” The dragon yelped. “Twilight, I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you coming! I- I will just clean up right away. Wait, you need a towel for washing your face too, right? I’ll go get it!” “Uh- thanks.” I instinctively replied. The small dragon quickly retreated back down and disappeared from my sight. Although milk still dripped from my disheveled mane, a fact was clear as day. The Spike I just saw was the bona-fide Spike. How he reacted to the sight of Twilight, the spilling of milk and every other small movements. It was Spike. It was definitely me. No way could Twilight pull off this kind of ridiculous prank and get away with impersonating me this well. My heart sank. Where was Twilight then? Was I supposed to be her? There was no way this could be true, because I was Spike the Dragon… wasn’t I? Also, what happened? Why was I suddenly in Twilight’s body, with Twilight’s memories? I even had some of her most private thoughts plainly laid out in front of my mental eyes. It was something that both embarrassed and unnerved me. I began to make strange conjectures. For example, was I actually Twilight, but due to some bizarre experiment went wrong, I ended up thinking myself as Spike? Yeah, I was acutely cognizant of the fact that I should not use words like ‘conjecture’ and ‘cognizant’ if I was Spike. But… I had clearly lived as Spike my whole life, plus as I recalled, Twilight had not casted any spell before she went to sleep. Unless she somehow sleep-casted a spell that had copied my consciousness and memory, it remained an outlandish theory. As I was immersed in the realm of far-fetched thoughts, the other me had already returned. “Twilight, here’s the towel.” The other Spike said apologetically. “I’m sorry I made a mess.” I took the towel with my magic and pressed it against my mane. This time, I was more self-aware. Casting magic felt almost effortless and completely natural. Every magic spells Twilight had learnt were felt by me this way, not to mention the basic of the basics like telekinesis. Perhaps because of Twilight’s vast magic potential, I hardly broke a sweat shuffling the towel on my face. However, looking at the other me, I was at a loss of what to say. For some reason, my tongue was tied when I tried to formulate an explanation of my current status. I didn’t think that it would be a good idea to just tell him ‘Oh and by the way, I am also Spike’. I would definitely be seen as crazy and forcefully sent to the Canterlot Psychiatric Ward. The other me, however, seemed to be treating my silence as a sign of brooding anger. I saw his pupils slowly shrank for fear of my impending outburst. His little shoulders shook like quivering reeds. Seeing his sad and supplicating face, my heart was both wringing and melting. Maybe Twilight would utter a disapproving word or two at his carelessness, maybe she wouldn’t. But I didn’t care. I simply showed him the warmest smile I could give and comforted him. “It’s okay, Spike. I’m not angry at you. I’m the one who should be sorry. After all, it’s me who are being all rushing and frightened you.” I said with a chuckle. “Perhaps the milk was a call for me to calm down.” “Twi… y- you’re not mad at me?” “Why would I be? I’m clearly the one in the wrong here.” The other Spike smiled sheepishly. “I thought you were having a bad mood. Um…” I scratched my cheek. “Even if I’m not in a good mood, it’s no excuse to get upset at my number one assistant.” I momentarily paused. Was I getting comfortable at being Twilight? That was weird. Still, I asked, “Am I really looking a bit sore?” “Well, you didn’t seem to have a good night of sleep. I mean, your eyes are puffy and your mane is going all over the place. This usually means that you’d be super cranky and yell at me for the smallest thing-” The other Spike covered his mouth as he seemed to realize that he was badmouthing the mare who was standing right in front of him. However, I simply laughed heartily at his incisive observation. “Haha! Yeah… You’re right. I got too grouchy sometimes. Sorry for that.” The other Spike looked somewhat relieved at my response, but he then slightly frowned. “Twilight… you’re a lot more sparing than usual today. I won’t exactly complain about the fact that you’re going easy on me, but are there anything on your mind?” I widened my eyes slightly at his words. They said you couldn’t fool a family, and they were right. This Spike clearly sensed that there was something unusual about his Twilight. As I searched my mind for a response, I could not help but again think about what could have triggered this peculiar event. I doubted the other me could help much even if I told him what happened. He would simply freak out, which I totally understood. Exactly why was I not freaking out right then, I simply did not know. Regardless, before I figured out a possible reason, I was going to pretend first. “… Nothing in particular. But I wanna ask, did you see or hear anything unusual last night?” For some reason, my question seemed to have caused the other me a scare. Although he immediately tried to hide it up with a poker face, his gulping and cold sweats betrayed his real thoughts. I mentally chuckled. I was a terrible liar. I lightly placed my hooves on his shoulders, and cooed in the gentlest voice I could muster. “Spike, tell me what happened last night. I promise I’d not get mad at you.” “No! I- It, I mean… Nah. Nothing happened.” Yep, even more suspicious. It seemed that I might have done something really bad there. Usually I simply just fessed up when Twilight promised to go soft on me. “Spike. Seriously, I meant it when I said I would not get mad. I understand that it might be something quite serious, but exactly because of that, you should not hide it away from me. Let us try to solve the problem together, hmm?” The other Spike looked up uncertainly. He seemingly thought for a moment, and then gingerly nodded. He gestured me to come with him. Despite that I had not yet combed my messy mane, I shrugged and went with him downstairs. We went to one of the bookshelves. There a haphazard pile of hay and books lied. He gulped, removed the books, and cautiously reached into the hay. Then he took out something. It was the crown of the Element of Magic. The one magically appeared when I… Twilight turned the stone orbs into the necklaces of the other respective Elements. However, something was amiss. No, this might be understating it by too much. When I looked at the centerpiece of the crown, a glaring hole was there instead of the ruby-colored magical gem that was the source of its power. Mouth shaking, I still tried my best to appear calm. “S- Spike, w- where is the gem?” “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” The other me immediately apologized profusely. “I- I was a bit too tipsy on the cider during the party, when you told me to store the Elements away for today’s study. I must have mistaken the red gem on the crown with those in my food bowl… When I got up this morning, I felt a funny taste in my mouth and the gem is gone!” Suddenly, it became clear to me why this happened. I must have, in a drunken stupor, plucked the magical gem out of the crown and ate it whole. With my deduction using Twilight’s magical knowledge, I thought this was probably what happened: The newly re-forged Element of Magic was firmly tied to the soul of Twilight. Therefore when I ate the gem, a single powerful connection was made between us, and my being was superimposed onto that of Twilight. Despite my calm analysis, I was shocked and aghast. Had I accidentally erased the existence of my Twilight by overwriting her mind? This would be most terrible. But from somewhere in my mind, I was told that it was not the case. How exactly, I was not sure. I was keenly aware of myself being Spike the Dragon. But I was also aware that I was not just Spike, or else I would not be approaching this with the stereotypical rationality of Twilight, or throwing around big words that the past me would have trouble grasping with. Was I a mix of us both? Was I Spike with a touch of Twilight? In any case, if Twilight had not been entirely negated from existence, then there might be something that I could potentially do. However, right now, I had to deal with the other me. He was looking distraught and on the verge of crying. He knew he had screwed up. The Elements were not simple playthings, even I would have known it. “T- Twilight, what should we do?” The other Spike asked and sniffled in shaking fear. “I’m so sorry… I know the Elements are, like, super important, and you will return them as soon as you run some simple observations on them.” I deeply inhaled. “Spike, are the other Elements…?” “No! They are absolutely fine! I checked!” He ran to a locked cupboard, opened it and pulled out a container box. He opened it in a frenzy, and showed me the other five intact necklaces. I let out a ‘phew’. At least it was just me. His mouth quivered, and he shakily said, “I never meant for this to happen…” Yeah, pretty sure me too. I didn’t know where this calm optimism came from, but knowing the true cause of this anomaly and the fact that it affected me alone made me a lot more relaxed and relieved. I decided to keep the truth to myself for the moment. For one, I doubt telling this to Spike would help in any way. This was a matter of mind and magic. Magical mishaps had to be dealt with magically. Only highly-learnt unicorns like Twilight, and by extension me, might have a chance of understanding what was going on exactly. Second, I didn’t want to cause additional worry and guilt for the other Spike. For some reason, whenever I thought of the sight of the other me, I felt a fuzzy warmth in my heart. I briefly worried whether this was a sign of terminal narcissism, but in any case, I was unable to withstand the other Spike giving me a sad puppy look. And of course, if I was also Spike, I was just as guilty as the dragon in front of me. For the moment, I supposed I would continue acting my part as Twilight. “… I see, Spike.” “Y- You don’t seem… angry?” I smiled sadly. “Spike, what could anger possibly achieve? The deed has been done. The Element is in your belly, presumably long digested. We must find out what exactly happens to the power of my Element now. For instance, where is it? What do I have to do if I have to activate my Element from now on?” “Perhaps I’ll have to put you on my head whenever a kingdom-shattering villain turns up.” I tapped his shoulder and joked. Spike widened his eyes and let out a suppressed chuckle. “T- That would look weird!” “But it is not going to be an easy task.” I tapped my cheek. “For now, we’ll have to cover it up.” “Huh?” “Yeah, of course. We’ll have to hand back the Elements in a few days. We may be able to use the excuse that we just settled down and need some more time to sort things out, but at the end, we must return them. And unless we figure out one way or another, the princesses would find out the truth.” “But… shouldn’t we let her know so that she can help us solve this problem?” My smile faltered as I hesitated. “Spike, the Elements are the most important and stalwart defense against evil in Equestria. They are the most powerful magical artefacts that are known to us. The six Elements are interconnected, and they could not be wielded unless every one of them are present. I am not laying the blame on you, but the fact remains that your action had caused the Elements to become incomplete and useless for now. For one, I might be able to solve this issue by myself." I huffed. "... But more importantly, I really don’t want to expose you to any harm or punishment from the princesses or other authorities, which can be no joke considering the importance of the Elements. You’re... my only dragon. I don’t want to see you get hurt no matter what.” Feeling a bit awkward after uttering the true reason, I bashfully chuckled. The other Spike, though, was seemingly stunned by my incredibly forgiving words. He then cried, quite loudly even. “Twilight…!” I brought the dragon into my embrace. It felt a bit prickly. His scales bristled against my skin and hair. I was basically hugging myself, a bemusing and wholly strange experience. Regardless, I stroked and patted his back as he continued to cry his eyes out.