//------------------------------// // Draconic Authority // Story: Part Dragon, Part Princess // by Ultimus Pendragon //------------------------------// Twilight sat in her study, looking over the current progress of the two for as long as she was able to see before the pair disappeared towards the direction of Fluttershy's house. She wondered what amount of good the pair could give each other in the way of help from this incident which was the result of less than favorable outcomes. Twilight hoped the pair would be able to make this work for the time until this can rectified. ''If this gets out, then nopony will be able to keep this down, let alone even more if I can't fix these two.'' Twilight said, chuckling to herself nervously. But no matter what, one thing could be learned from this; Twilight would need to make sure she puts very distinct signs and warnings to prevent this from happening again. But she held faith that the pair would figure something out. . .hopefully. ''Hmm? What's this?'' Twilight observed a small rise in the scroll. Almost as if the one scroll was two. Using her magic to carefully peel back the parchment, she observed some more writing that was on a separate scroll itself. It appeared to be footnotes about the spell. It highlighted one of the various risks behind using the spell, and according to Twilight. . . Being stuck in the other's body just may be the lesser of two evils. "Left, left, left!'' Cadence called from Spike's back. When the dragon said he wanted to learn how to fly, she thought he would have had some basic idea of what to do, but she did not think it to be as bad as this! ''Left, left; your other left!~'' ''I-Isn't that just right?!" Spike called back, desperately trying to keep himself in the air without crashing. Using wings were a lot harder than what the Pegasi and Alicorns made it out to be. The wind whipped in his face, causing him to close his eyes and be shut off to the world for a few moments. He only wanted to go for a test run to see how hard it would be for him to learn how to fly. He managed to hover without too much difficulty, and then he wanted to bump things up a bit, Cadence was a little bit skeptical but the pair both knew it was something that needed to be learned. ''Don't overextend your wings, they'll lock up!'' Cadence called out, seeing his, well, her wings beginning to ruffle and shake. Something she should have made note of would be not starting off quite as high. Another thing was him not using his hooves and body to guide himself through the air. It looked as if he would need more practice! Spike attempted to go into a nose dive to test the limits of what he could do, though it only resulted in him overreaching and him and Cadence heading down to the ground faster than the pair estimated. In retrospect, they should have focused more on the fundamentals of what it takes to be able to fly and not crash. ''Fix this! We're gonna crash!'' Spike called out, whining his eyes out and locking his wings against his side. ''I don't want to go splat like a pancake!'' Cadence stopped panicking for the moment to realize something. ''You're the Alicorn!'' Oh. ''Ok, so explain to me why you thought it was a good idea to crash into-'' ''-Tactical landing-'' Spike interrupted Cadence. ''-Riiiight. We'll go with that. You did 'that' into one of Fluttershy's bee's honey vats, and then proceeded to get us covered in honey and grass.'' Spike blushed, a little hint of pink showing past the grass and honey. ''I mean, it was a good idea at the moment.'' ''Spike, my mane and tail will take months to recover,'' Cadence said, her face contorted in annoyance. Spike really could have found a better thing to save the pair from an uncomfortable situation. They weren't hurt, only Cadence's pride. ''Don't you have anything to say about this?'' Cadence sat down and mugged her brother. Spike groaned and began a slow stroll over to a nearby pond as she dragged Cadence by her tail as she pouted with folded arms. ''Well, we've been each other for a few hours, and I can walk a lot better, I need to work on my flying some, and then there's the magic. . .that I haven't yet taken care of yet, but everything else is pretty good,'' Spike said, dipping into the pond and swimming around in the hope of getting most of the honey and grass off. ''What about you?'' Cadence stopped and thought about it for a moment. Being a baby dragon at that certainly didn't feel all that weird, but it was something she never would be able to tell somepony without experiencing it. Besides the height change, and the scales, and two feet versus four hooves, and no wings or magic, she felt freer in a sense. ''It's certainly different from being an Alicorn, that for one,'' Cadence chuckled, but went silent when she thought about the possibility of the pair being stuck like this. ''Do you think Twilight will find out a way to make this right?'' Spike asked, taking a seat next to the dragon when she looked deep in thought. Cleaning that honey off certainly took a while, but most of it was off, but the pair was still a tad bit sticky. He couldn't blame her for thinking the same thing she knew that he was thinking. The only reason why that was not more prevalent in his mind at the time was because of the learning more about each other. He never had a real reason to doubt his friend, but the situation did seem less than favorable if he had to be honest. ''I don't know Spike, I actually don't know,'' Cadence held her head in her claws as she tried to think. There were too many variables to think about; The Crystal Empire, Shining Armour, Flurry Heart, The Cyrstal Ponies, then she had to think what Spike had going on in his life; his life in Ponyville, his. . .whatever else he had in his spare time. It was a big issue! ''All I know is that we can't stay like this, because if we do; we can't hope to think about what the backlash of the ponies around us if stay like this and if anyone finds out!'' Spike had to think about that thought for a moment if only one. What was so bad about ponies finding out The Princess Of Love and the assistant of Twilight Sparkle had their minds switched and that they may not be able to be switched back. . . Huh. Spike slowly began to understand what was going on. Or at least he thought he did. ''And not to mention taking care of Flurry Heart, and Shining Armour is sure to blow his lid when he finds out his wife is actually in the body of his adoptive brother!'' Cadence exclaimed, pacing back and forth while Spike continued to think more about the situation. He was okay with dealing with fillies to a degree, but an Alicorn filly is something that is easier said than done. And then Shining Armour. . . He was not kissing his brother, at all. Cadence continued to ramble on and on about the different problems and inconveniences that would be in front of the pair. What she did not notice was the sparkle of magic from Twilight popping into the conversation. ''Guys. we have a problem!'' Twilight yelled out, running up to Spike, the panic in her eyes telling him that it could only mean one thing, and it had to be nowhere near good. ''Yea, we have a problem!'' Cadence said, clutching the spines on her head in worry. ''We can't do this; Spike doesn't know the first thing about being The Princess Of Love! He can't lead the Crystal Empire, even with Shining Armour!'' Twilight looked at her sister in disbelief. That's what she was worried about? The spell was more important! Oh, wait. She didn't tell them yet. ''They won't like this,'' Twilight thought, biting her lip and absorbing the brunt of Cadence's rant. And why did the pair smell like honey? Eh, forget it. ''Twilight, what's going on with the spell"? Spike asked, laying a hoof on her shoulder. ''How bad is it?'' he hoped he wouldn't regret asking that question. He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again. Well. no time like the present, but they would have to take care of stopping Cadence from talking for the moment until things can be explained. Spike figured this could be a good as time as any to try out his magic. Granted, this would be the first time he would try using magic since he became an Alicorn, he was sure he could figure out what to do if he tried his hardest to use a spell to help his situation. Taking a deep breath and exhaling he focused his thoughts on his horn, feeling the skin on his skin around the base of the appendage constrict a tad and hold the position. ''And then Princess Celestia and Luna, when they find out, they'll. . .'' Cadence's words began to be echoed out by silence worming its way into the Alicorn's mind. ''Uh, Spike, what are you doing?'' Twilight looked to see Spike tensing up. He appeared to be trying to conjure magic, but he looked to be overworking himself. ''You just need a small spark to ignite your horn and the rest will take care of itself. Try imagining a fire being started in your mind. It may take a few tries. but after you do that, just think about what you want to do after that and your horn and magic will resonate.'' Easier said than done. Spike quirked a brow before stopping and relaxing for a moment. He stared down at the ground and narrowed his eyes, the ever so slightest twitch of his forehead and then the sound of magic shimmering filled his ears. His horn felt alive now, almost as if there were a separate entity from his body ontop his head. The feeling was something of bliss for the first few seconds, then afterward, a mild calm as he was able to feel every small wave of magic as it flowed from the base to the peak of his horn. He focused his mind and envisioned Cadence being held in the air a few feet, and with a few moments of focusing, the dragon was knocked out of her rants by being immediately lifted up from where she was and turned around and looked very much surprised. ''Hey, good job Spike!'' Twilight congratulated. ''You were able to do that on your first try?'' Spike blushed, his confidence shooting up a tad. Huh, maybe doing this Alicorn thing won't be so bad. ''It wasn't easy, I'm just glad I didn't mess anything up. Now, what were you gonna say about the spell?'' Spike almost forgot about the previous tone of Twilight's voice or the fact she popped up when she was supposed to be deciphering the spell. ''Well. . .it turns out that being stuck this way just may be the more preferable option,'' Twilight said, a nervous chuckle in her voice. ''The spell was actually a two-part sequence spell.'' ''So that's good, right?'' Cadence asked, a confusing glance in her eyes as she looked at Twilight explained. ''That other part should have the way to fix this then, right?'' ''Not entirely, at least as far as I can tell. Some of the text in the scroll is in language that I'm not entirely familiar with, so it probably will take some time to find out what it means. But from what I could gather, this spell has a drawback to it; the original spell was designed to hear the thoughts of others, though this revision of it was altered to also be a fallback should it be used for any kind of espionage or information gathering.'' ''What kind of fallback?'' Spike wondered, narrowing his eyes. ''If the mechanics of the spell or any information is told to anypony besides the caster when the two of you separated, then the spell will countermand,'' Twilight said, frowning a bit. ''That's it?'' Cadence asked. ''What will the spell do at that point?'' That Twilight did not know. She could only guess whatever it was, it could not be good since pertaining to espionage and secret gathering. She only shuddered to think about what exactly could happen if the spell activates. Curse her, and her foolishness with spells that she should have taken more caution in executing in the solitude of one of her labs, but this particular session she did not think there would be much risk. ''Are you serious?'' the pair's question came when a moment of silence filled the air. ''Afraid so,'' Twilight hummed to herself as she looked over the spell once more to confirm what she had known for the past few minutes. ''Verbatim, and I don't think we would be so lucky as to try and tempt the limits of the spell than we already have.'' ''That you already have, let's not forget that'' Cadence reminded her sister as she tried ever so hard to deflect. ''So, we can't really tell anypony about this, cause it might be worse than what it already is?'' Cadence pursed her lips together and thought about the matter. It would be difficult and with all of the responsibilities that the pair had (mostly Cadence), it would be even more difficult to get anything done. And with Spike's flying ability, she was sure that he would end up hurting himself. ''So what do we do?'' Spike asked when being presented with the information. ''You'll just have to work together; some sort of team effort to do what you need to. You'll be part princess, part dragon,'' Twilight chuckled at her little pun. ''So you're basically making us do this on our own?'' Cadence motioned for Spike to let her out of his magic, and when he did, she walked over to her sister and looked her in the eyes with the most unimpressed of frowns. ''Well, yes and no.'' Oh really? ''Spike.'' was all Cadence said before Twilight looked on in wonder. Spike nodded and brought life to his horn again, imagining one thing to happen. ''BLEUGH! What the-AAAAAAAH! *SPLASH!*'' Twilight was suddenly flung into the pond, after being coated with honey and grass by Spike. ''Couldn't you have done more?'' Cadence climbed onto Spike's back as he walked away from Twilight. The nerve of her. ''Not any more than that, or she would have reacted.'' Spike groaned. He had a feeling his earlier thought about kissing Shining Armour may have to be a reality. And that thought was one that scared the dragon, well Alicorn actually.