Twilight Sparkle walked to her room, carrying a couple books close to her chest as she took a deep breath. To say she had been through a crazy school year would be an understatement: From sirens whose mere voices inspired hatred on people, to an ancient nature spirit trying to trap everyone in a camp, to a stone capable of altering people's memories, nobody could doubt that the girl had gone through some crazy stuff.
But hey, at least she could go back to her room now, and take the rest she hoped for.
Sure, this did nothing to change the fact her dog could now talk, she and her friends could, and magic could strike literally any moment. But the fact these incidents only seemed to happen once gave the girl hope that, with the current magical emergency dealt with, the next day would hopefully a peaceful, relatively normal one.
They keyword being next day.
"Hi Spike, sorry I couldn't take you with me today," Twilight said, focusing on closing the door. "But you know the rules of the cinema, they don't accept pets in-"
Not an instant passed before Twilight turned around, and gasped at the sight on Spike's dog bed: The dog himself was there, but he now had a pair of draconic wings, and his small tail had grown into a chubby, reptillian one.
Notably, both new members sported the same purple-green color scheme he had.
"Yeah, I was pretty shocked when I saw them too," Spike remarked, standing up as he spread his wings. "I was actually wondering how I was going to hide them when you arrived."
Twilight dropped her books on her desk, walked to her canine companion, and crouched down, taking a closer look at the draconic limbs.
"S-Spike, what happened?"
"I've been sleeping since you left, so if something happened to me, I wasn't aware of it," Spike answered, tilting his head. "However, after stretching these things for a little while, I can say I've gotten a little bit more used to them."
Twilight promptly grabbed the dog-dragon and lifted him, sporting a mixed look of anger and concern.
"Stretching?! Just what were you up to while I was gone?! These are new developments that came out of nowhere, Spike, you can't just play with them like they were with you all along!"
"O-Okay, calm down, I understand what you mean!" Spike replied as he was put back in his dog bed. "By stretching, I just mean I moved my tail and wings up and down, left and right, just try to get a general feel for them. I can even wag my dragon tail now!"
The dog-dragon promptly wagged the reptillian tail back and forth, with Twilight sporting an incredulous look until the creature stopped doing that.
Twilight's reaction?
"That's fascinating in the most bizarre way possible."
After staring for a few more seconds, she shook her head.
"Wait, that doesn't matter! We need to do something about your wings and tail!"
However, a sudden yawn prompted Twilight to look at what time it was.
It was around 10 pm.
"More accurately, we'll have to do something about them tomorrow."
The dog-dragon nodded. "Sounds fine by me."
So, while Spike returned to his dog bed, Twilight turned towards her bed and plopped down on it, falling asleep immediately.
Next day came, and after a few hours spent reading books about mythological creatures, Twilight's attention went to her door once she heard someone knock on it three times.
The girl closed the book, walked to the door, and opened it to find none other than Fluttershy outside.
"Hi, Twilight, you called me?"
"Yeah, I did," Twilight said as Fluttershy walked inside, and she closed the door. "I'm sorry for calling you so suddenly, Fluttershy, but I need someone trustworthy to help me with something."
Fluttershy found out just what was this "something" Twilight spoke about when she looked at Spike, and immediately noticed his wings and tail.
Luckily, her gasp was so quiet, Twilight didn't have to worry about her accidentally getting more people to come see what was up.
"S-Spike, you have wings and a tail!" Fluttershy exclaimed.
The dog rolled his eyes. "I know, I was shocked too at first."
"How did this happen?!"
"I was asleep, so I can't answer that."
Twilight coughed, getting Fluttershy and Spike's attention immediately.
"I feel like I may have something to do with this; His connection with me, to be exact."
Twilight rubbed her arm and grew hesitant.
"And, just hypothetically, you may have something to do with this too."
Fluttershy frowned. "What?!"
"W-Well, your magic was the one that hit him when he gained the ability to speak, right?" Twilight replied, trying to explain herself before the girl started crying at her perceived guilt. "M-Maybe that same magic caused him to gain the ability to transform?"
Fluttershy hummed for a moment, then gave a blunt answer.
"Twilight, that was several months ago; How could he gain the ability to speak right away, but not the ability to transform until now?"
Twilight paused.
"Okay, you got a point there. I mean, I could argue that the transformation took a while to come out, but then I'd need to explain why he could talk right away, and I got nothing on that."
"I see..." Fluttershy scratched her chin. "So, what did you mean when you said you felt your connection with him had a part in this form?"
Twilight adjusted her glasses.
"Spike and I have been best friends for several years: I don't take him with me during our magical adventures too often, but when we're at home alone, I make sure to make up for all the time we lost."
Then, she sighed.
"However, since I haven't changed my tactics since gaining the ability to do magic, I believe that, someway, somehow, some of my "ponify up" magic must've been absorbed by him, giving him the ability to transform into this dragon-dog hybrid state."
Fluttershy walked to Spike and took a closer look at his current form.
"I guess it would make sense if he had magic to transform with, but if it was your "ponify up" magic, wouldn't that mean he would "pony up" and gain pony ears and tail? I mean, the tail looks more like a komodo dragon's, or lizard's, and I've never seen a reptile with wings like this before."
Twilight grabbed the book on her bed, opened it on the dragon's page, and showed it to Fluttershy.
"I've researched mythological creatures, and from the looks of it, those wings and tail are the ones of a dragon."
Fluttershy hummed, and Spike was quick to point something out.
"That still doesn't explain why instead of being "Ponyfied," I'm "Dragonized." I mean, I don't mind the form, but I'd like to know why I'm in it first."
Twilight put the book down and scratched her chin, taking her time to think up on what to do now, while Fluttershy went for the book and read it, hoping to find more information about this.
Eventually, Twilight got an idea.
"There is one person that could help us with this!"
Twilight and Fluttershy stood outside the former's room, looking around the hallwats for any sight of the person the latter contacted, while making sure nobody else was coming to them.
"She said she was going to be here by this hour," Twilight remarked. "Did she cancel at the last minute?"
"If she had done that, she would've told you about it, don't you think?" Fluttershy answered, twiddling her fingers. "T-Then again, maybe something came up and-"
"Oh, nevermind, there she is."
The duo turned their attention towards the figure approaching them, who turned out to be none other than Sunset Shimmer, sporting a smile and with her hands saved on her pockets.
"Hi Twilight. You told me you needed help with something, and apparently, it has to do with your dog, Spike?"
Twilight exchanged looks with Fluttershy, and twiddled her fingers.
"Yeah, uh, how do I put this in a way that you'll believe right away?"
Sunset folded her arms. "Does it have to do with magic?"
Fluttershy's eyes widened. "How did you know?!"
"Girls, let's be honest: Whenever there's something weird happening in our world, it usually has something to do with magic," Sunset explained as she walked to the door. "So, I'm just going to ask: Is whatever your dog's going through related to magic?"
Twilight nodded. "That's the theory I'm most willing to believe right now, though I only have superficial evidence to support it."
Sunset gave Twilight a reassuring smile. "Alright then, only thing left to do then: We're going in, and whatever I witness, I'll do everything in my power to help you."
Twilight returned the smile, as Sunset did the thing she did best: Tempt fate itself.
"I mean, after everything we've gone through, I feel like I know what to expect."
Sunset entered the room, and ate her words when she saw Spike high in the room, flapping his wings before he glided slowly back into his dog bed, completely oblivious to Sunset's presence.
"This is most definitely not what I expected!"
The dog-dragon crash landed on his bed, and both Fluttershy and Twilight came in, the latter closing the door immediately afterwards.
"Twilight, why does your dog have dragon wings and a tail?!" Sunset asked.
"That's what we'd like to know, too!" Twilight replied, folding her arms. "I was walking back home after a night trip to the bookstore, and when I entered my room, Spike looked like this!"
"And don't bother trying to ask what happened to me either," Spike spoke. "I was fast asleep during the entire time Twilight was out, so I was completely unaware of my surroundings."
After a moment of stunned silence, Sunset shook her head and took a step back.
"H-He talked! Your dog talked!"
Twilight half-heartedly rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, that's something he's been able to do for a while,. Long story is, he got hit with some magic and that granted him the ability to talk."
Fluttershy promptly looked away and rubbed her arm, though Sunset seemingly failed to notice this.
"So, being hit by magic once gave him the ability to talk?" Sunset scratched her chin. "Wait, if he was hit by magic, don't you think that same magic gave him the ability to transform?"
Twilight shook her head.
"I did think about that at first, but then I realized that if that was the case, then he should've transformed into his dragon-dog state a long time ago. But this is the first time he's ever been in this form; He said so himself."
Sunset turned back to the dragon-dog, who nodded in agreement.
"Okay, so, what do we do now? We can't keep him in this state, but who knows how we're supposed to get him back to normal?"
Twilight scratched her chin. "Well..."
Fluttershy turned to the woman of science. "You have an idea, Twilight?"
"To get him back to normal, no, but I assume he simply has to will it."
Twilight adjusted her glasses.
"No, the idea I have is to try and take advantage of this..."
The girls had worked together to create an obstacle course in one of the unused classrooms of Canterlot High School, with Principal Celestia standing at the door, looking at their progress.
"Thanks again for letting us use one of these classrooms to test out Spike's abilities, Principal Celestia," Sunset said as she approached the woman. "And we're sorry that we told you about this in such a short notice."
Celestia smiled.
"It's okay, girls, I'm always happy to provide my students with the support they need, even if it's for a magical situation."
Then, the woman's tone turned into a stern one as she looked straight at Sunset, Twilight, and Fluttershy's eyes.
"But if any of the tables, the windows, or the walls of this classroom ends up damaged thanks to this obstacle course, you'll have to pay for it."
Fluttershy shrank. "P-P-Pay how?"
Celestia immediately turned back to normal.
"Pay as in each of you'll give me a small amount of money so I can call a tailor to fix the broken equipment. Now, I have enough money to pay for it myself, but since you're the ones requesting this course, it's only fair that you help pay for any damages that may occur as a result of it."
"O-Oh, that's what you meant," Twilight clasped her hands. "Okay, understood, Principal Celestia. We'll be sure to be as careful as possible."
The principal smiled once again, and promptly left the classroom, allowing the girls and Spike to test the dragon-dog's abilities once and for all.
The first part of the course was a set of security pins in a forward pattern, with them being just far apart enough to let Spike run through them.
When the dog ran and went from pin to pin, however, his elongated tail struck the pins as he ran, with the dragon-dog only noticing once he had reached the end of this part of the course.
He did end the course a second faster than he did back as a normal dog, though, so that was a plus.
Next part involved a robotic squirrel, which, once activated, caused Spike to growl and bark at it, before he chased it all over the room. And though, he bumped into several stuff, nothing wound up being broken just yet.
And then he took a deep breath.
And then green flames came out of his mouth, completely burning the squirrel robot down to its metallic body, giving the dog-dragon a sense of victory.
The trio exchanged concerned looks, but decided to go on to the last part of the course.
This was nothing more than a platform with a couple of books on top of it.
So, Spike walked up to the platform, touched it with his head, and moved it rather effortlessly to the wall, while Fluttershy watched him with pride.
And though Twilight was also proud herself, she pondered if that was the extent of his strength. She was a curious girl, how could she help thirsting for knowledge about this strange phenomenon?
But putting Spike through too much pressure also didn't feel good for her...
So, with the last bit done, the girls wrote down the results and decided to call it a day.
Totally because they were satisfied with the results, and not because they were afraid the classroom would get destroyed if they continued, by the way.
"Okay, so, based on the tests we've done today, this transformation gives Spike the ability to fly, as he demonstrated before; He can also breath green fire whose heatness is determined by his anger, the angrier he gets, the harder they burn; He also gains enhanced speed and strength, but nothing compared to Rainbow Dash or Applejack's enhancements."
Twilight rolled up a piece of paper, threw it at Spike, and the dragon-dog promptly breathed fire, consuming the paper in an instant.
The paper promptly reappeared on top of Twilight's bed, falling down to it as she spoke.
"And finally, he can use this same fire to send messages from one party to another, as long as he knows who the other party is supposed to be."
"Good to know, now there's only one more thing to figure out," Sunset stated.
"Yeah, we need to figure out how to get Spike to turn back to normal," Fluttershy said. "I mean, we can't leave him like that."
"You're right, we need to know how to undo the transformation as well..."
Twilight snapped her fingers.
"How do we undo our own ponyfied transformations, Fluttershy?"
The nature-loving girl hummed to herself, trying to remembering if the group ever did anything to undo their transformations.
"We just... consciously deactivate them, I guess?"
Twilight raised an eyebrow and turned to Spike.
"Think you could try that out, Spike?"
"It's worth a shot."
And so, the dog closed his eyes and concentrated, his draconic limbs glowing as he focused on them specifically, and promptly whisked them away, returning him back to his ordinary dog form.
Once he opened his eyes, he wasn't exactly thrilled at the simplicity of his action.
"Well, that was anticlimactic."
"You get used to it," Sunset spoke, with Fluttershy nodding in agreement.
"And that concludes today's topic on Spike's dragon powers, I believe," Twilight remarked as she wrote something down on her journal. "Thanks for your help, Fluttershy, Sunset."
"It's always a pleasure to help a friend, Twilight," Fluttershy chirped.
"But a little word of advice, you might want to tell the rest of the crew about this little discovery," Sunset spoke. "I mean, even if you don't take Spike with you on the days he turns into a dragon-dog again, you can't deny that if you keep this thing a secret, it'll only be a matter of time before the rest of the team finds out about it."
Sunset frowned. "And worst case scenario, they'll think you kept a secret from them."
"I'll be sure to deal with that eventually, girls, don't worry," Twilight replied. "For now, let me have a little talk in private with Spike, okay?"
Sunset nodded, and turned her attention to Fluttershy as the duo walked out the door.
"Got something I could help you with, to pass time?"
"Well, I've been itching to teach the circle of life to one of my friends..."
With them out, Twilight closed the door, took a deep breath, and sat on her bed, while Spike did the same.
"So, I can say today was interesting. I'm quite surprised you managed to hide me in your backpack as we went into and out of that classroom, I almost wondered if people were ignoring me on purpose-"
Twilight put a hand on Spike's head and rubbed it.
"Spike, we're alone now, you can be completely honest with me."
Spike raised an eyebrow.
"Listen, I find it hard to believe that you would sleep through something as unusual as you growing dragon wings and a tail! So, I'll ask again; Do you know what happened to you?"
Spike shook his head.
"I gave you my answer before, and it hasn't changed: I was asleep while it happened, and when I woke up, I was already in dragon-dog form."
Twilight took a deep breath and brushed her forehead.
"I guess that's something we'll have to leave for another time then."
Spike nodded. "Hey, mind if I sleep with you tonight?"
Twilight smiled. "Sure, you rarely sleep on your dog bed anyway."
The girl settled down for a nap, and Spike cuddled right next to her, ready to end this interesting day with a snooze.
Surely nothing weird would happen next day, right?
...
Right?