//------------------------------// // Step Three // Story: Twilight Sparkle the Dragon // by PlutoMilo //------------------------------// Instead of taking the time to fly to Canterlot, Twilight decided to do long-distance teleportation. She did not want to fall out of the air halfway up to Canterlot. A letter was sent to Steelwing, who assured her a section of the library would be cleared and ready to receive her. “You ready, Spike?” Twilight called from the basement steps. “Coming!” Spike would’ve pitched headfirst down the stairs if he didn’t crash into his mother. Both of his forelegs were trapped in his vest and he’d been wobbling on his hind legs until he finally freed himself. He giggled sheepishly when Twilight caught him and set about righting his vest. “How does one even get stuck in a vest of all things?” Twilight teased affectionately. “Not all of us have thumbs, Mom,” Spike stuck his tongue out and climbed onto her shoulders, “Ready whenever you are,” Twilight walked into her small energy array and braced herself. Tentatively, she reached out for the leyline that was under the library and gently tugged. She sighed in relief when it readily gave the energy needed to power her spell. Spike shuddered a little and flattened himself further on her shoulders when her scales began to glow magenta from the amount of power in her body. There was a moment of sheer weightlessness before the both of them appeared in the Canterlot Library in a burst of sparkles. Twilight shook herself the moment Spike leaped clear and flexed her wings. Likewise, Spike shook himself and then fixed his special guard’s pin. “Good morning, Miss Sparkle, Young Spike. I believe the Princess wishes to see you at your soonest convenience,” “Oh joy,” Twilight muttered under her breath, face twisting into a bitter frown, “Thanks for letting us use the library, Steelwing,” The old unicorn waved the thanks away, “It is of no concern, go on. Don’t be late,” Lifting a wing in farewell, Twilight and Spike hurried over to the Hall. Upon reaching the doors, Twilight rested a claw on the handle but made no move to open it. Something in her gut was telling her this meeting wouldn’t end well. She turned to look at Spike’s inquisitive eyes. “If anything goes wrong and I can’t get to you for whatever reason, I want you to use it. Understand? Do it just like how we practiced,” Spike’s ears pinned back but he nodded, “I promise,” The corner of his mouth quirked up in a valiant attempt at a smile, “I’ll try not to jump out of the balcony,” Twilight snorted and opened the doors, going first, but making sure to hold the door open for Spike. She kept him close, a wing draped over his entire body and flattening his mane. Surprisingly, Spike had no complaint and they walked in companionable silence. The guards at the Hall entrance opened the doors and the two walked down the lavish red carpet that led up to the throne. Twilight held eye contact with Celestia up until the moment they stopped at the bottom of the dais. The only reason Twilight had to look up to catch the alicorn’s eyes was that the dais and throne were purposely put higher than normal. Her suspicion grew. No one spoke until Twilight broke the uneasy silence, “It wasn’t an unfinished spell,” Celestia smiled gently, “As expected you never cease to amaze me, my student,” There was a very faint warning and Twilight smiled. Even so far away, the Everfree was still attempting to make it easier for her, “I stand before you now as the ritual completes,” Magic flooded the room in a kaleidoscope of colors. Ignoring the pain, Twilight smiled ferally at Celestia through the light. Her body slumped forward, but she wasn’t exactly in her body anymore. She blinked in confusion and it was Celestia’s time to smile triumphantly. Her horn was lit. Spike watched helplessly as Twilight’s body dropped to the floor. He sat next to it, stunned. Celestia rose majestically and trotted down the dais. The last thing Spike wanted was to leave his mother but unfortunately, said mother gave him a very healthy sense of self-preservation after the Crystal Empire debacle. Spike scrambled away and put as much distance between him and the alicorn as possible. He eyed her distrustfully and fought the urge to smirk at Celestia’s dumbfounded expression. A shoed hoof kicked the prone body of Twilight and she snorted in satisfaction. Spike’s hoof went to the satchel on his back. Should he wait? Celestia looked directly at him and smiled. “Don’t worry. She’s just asleep,” He called bullshit in a heartbeat and he narrowed his eyes further. He’s seen his mother asleep many times: At her desk, next to his bed on the floor, and whenever she happened to pass out (which was rather often if he must say). Never in all of his life did he see his mother’s scales dull as she slept. As the body lay there, it grayed further and further. Something in him cracked and shattered forever, but he snarled wordlessly and backed up even more. Then his butt hit an invisible wall and his eyes snapped to the alicorn’s horn. If he concentrated hard enough he could see it shimmering. “L-let me go,” Spike was not proud of the way he sputtered out the words but he puffed his chest and stood tall. Where were the guards? His mother was dead but he wasn’t. Not yet. He had the means to escape, but he stayed. Logically he knew he was being stupid since there wasn’t any way that Twilight could rise from the dead, but a feeling kept him there, waiting for her. Celestia chuckled and sat down next to the body, “Do you want to hear a story, Young Spike?” Not giving him any time to respond, she continued, “It starts when I find an abandoned dragon egg at the edge of the Everfree many many years ago. Whatever left it there clearly didn’t want it anymore so I took it back to Canterlot to study.” Carefully without drawing attention, Spike pulled the satchel off of the glass container on his back. The guards wouldn’t be coming then. Celestia kept talking and unbidden, Spike listened. “Such a long time passed and nothing happened with the egg. Test after test revealed nothing, so I put it into storage. Then, some years later, a unicorn filly came into my school. She was exactly what I was looking for in a protege. Clearly, she was a magical prodigy that Equestria hadn’t seen for eons. She took the test designed to show that no matter how powerful somepony is, she can still fail. But she did the impossible. So desperate to pass the test, she cracked open the fake enchanted egg and since there was no life to be birthed, all of that magic turned on its creator,” This part, Spike knew. He worried about what Celestia would say next. In a horrific fashion, Celestia began to stroke at the dulling scales. She petted the limp hair and ran her hoof along the body’s horns. Spike staved off the urge to puke. “My perfect student transformed into a beast. One that had Magic, wings, claws, and sharp teeth. It was no longer a pony, yet it still acted like one. I thought to myself, surely there was a way to reverse the effects. I did more tests. I remembered the dragon egg. I hatched it,” Spike felt the bottom of his stomach drop off a ledge. He’d been a dragon. Spike wanted to scream. He’d been an experiment. He choked on his unshed tears as Celestia kept droning on. “So I did more tests and it was successful. The dragon-child became an infant. It would be possible to reverse the effects of my student. I gave the infant to her to remind her that it was possible to change her back.” Here, Celestia’s voice took on a disturbing tone, “But my student refused. The Beast was consuming her. There was still some pony left in her, I was sure of that, but the Beast began to influence her decisions. After I gave her the infant, she became less focused on her studies,” Celestia’s eyes bled disappointment and yet they were so far away. Spike shifted uncomfortably and his eyes flicked back to the body. By now the body was such a dark gray it was almost black. He tore his eyes away before the tears could come. The way Celestia spoke about him as a child, like he was a thing and not completely a creature had Spike reeling in revulsion. Spike remembered when his mother first told him exactly how he came to be her son. She spat it out with so much venom that Spike had to refrain from running to his room. Spike was given to Twilight as an assignment and a reminder from Celestia. After she said that, Twilight assured him that she never thought of him as an assignment. He was her son, screw anyone that thought otherwise. Though at the time Twilight neglected to tell him what he was a reminder of. Celestia kept talking as if she were commenting about the weather. “But I remembered Star Swirl’s ritual. The moment my student stood in my presence, I knew she would become the Element of Magic. I was quite surprised when Magic decided to accept a Beast for a Bearer, but no matter. It was quite difficult to find a time to nudge my student in the right direction. But now,” Celestia was back and she was practically shining in excitement, “Now, the spell has been completed. Twilight Sparkle has been cured of her ailment.” Light flashed in the middle of the room and a small lavender alicorn settled unsteadily onto the carpet. Spike gaped and clutched the container even closer. The new alicorn’s wings unfurled and spread. She was short, about the same height as an average unicorn. Her mane and tail were twilight and stripes of pink broke it up. All in all, she wasn’t very remarkable. But there was one thing… It was her cutie mark that caught Spike’s attention. It was his mother’s. He looked back up in time to see the alicorn open her eyes. Twilight felt strange. It felt like she fell asleep with her fists clenched unbearably tight and leaned against a wall at the wrong angle. Her tail was numb and her wings ached. She groaned and cracked open her eyes. The first thing she saw was Spike’s guarded and shocked face. The second thing she saw was Celestia’s absolutely jubilant expression. Then, she noticed how tall things were. Her scales crawled with revulsion when Celestia bent down to examine her. She stumbled back but her tail wasn’t working properly so she ended up on the floor. She cried out and then promptly froze. That… That wasn’t her voice. She brought a paw up to wipe tiredly across her face but yelped when something akin to a rock smacked her in the forehead. No- This wasn’t happening. Twilight’s eyes blew wide when she finally laid eyes on her hoof. It was her fur that prickled. That wasn’t her forehead she smacked, it was her horn. Her teeth were flat. Her wings were so small. Her mane was far too long. “What- what did you do?!” Twilight screamed out in her abnormally shrill voice. Even if she was a pony now, her words were still laced by growls. It rumbled in her chest before being projected outward, but it was still too high sounding to be normal. “I cured you,” Celestia declared triumphantly, “You won’t ever have to worry about the Beast poisoning your thoughts anymore my dear student. You are free to focus on your studies as you please,” Then, Twilight’s eyes landed on the black body on the ground. Her body. “You-” Twilight winced when she gnashed her new flat teeth together, “You-” Twilight couldn’t even speak. The last thing she remembered before ‘waking up’ was standing right where that body was. Spike had been right next to her. By the moon, sun, and stars. Spike watched. Rage, as she’d never known, surfaced and she spun on the spot, growling pathetically at Celestia. Every time Twilight thought she found the cap to her rage, another thing would come along and prove her wrong. The funny thing was, the rage wasn’t even for her sake.  Red clouded her vision as she screamed, (it was the closest thing she could do that sounded vaguely like a roar). Unbalanced, angry beyond belief, and in her new body, Twilight charged the much larger alicorn on wobbly hooves. At once, Twilight knew it was a futile gesture, but seeing the shock and surprise on the alicorn’s face was almost worth it. She was caught in the alicorn’s magic and she thrashed fruitlessly. Tears blurred her vision. She winced again when she clacked her teeth together in an instinctive urge to ignite and extinguish fire for smoke. Her hooves pawed at the air uselessly and her wings kept flapping open to appear bigger. Celestia gazed worriedly at her. She bared her teeth as she was surveyed. “Has it maybe, even once, occurred to you that I didn’t want you to change me back?” Twilight snarled, “I even told you,” “But that was the Beast talking,” Celestia said blankly. “There was no Beast!” Twilight screamed in frustration, “I’ve always been me! You killed me in front of Spike! Have you lost your bloody mind?!” Celestia faltered, “But you used to be so studious. I give you a magically changed infant to remind you that it’s possible and suddenly you abandon almost all of your projects?” Twilight’s jaw hung open unattractively, and then she said in the most sarcastic tone she could muster in her anger, “Yes, I’m so sure you wanted Spike to die from neglect,” Twilight’s throat was growing irritated from how much she growled and snarled her words. “Let. Me. Go,” she said firmly, “You miss the one point I made. You just killed a parent in front of their kid. You’re lucky it wasn’t the other way around,” She added darkly. Celestia frowned and kept her aloft. She looked at her like an interesting specimen on a petri dish. That was it for the former dragon. Enough was enough. If Celestia kept insisting on traumatizing her child in some way, then she would put her claw down. She’d cut all of her puppet strings if she had to. Twilight lashed out with any and all Magic she could get her paws on. The Hall became a maelstrom of violent magic and power surges. Celestia had to drop her to shield herself. Though interestingly enough, none of the magic in the air dared to go near Spike. Twilight did not mean to latch onto all the leylines nearby. But once she did, Magic gleefully charged her almost until she exploded. She screamed again, just to let the energy out. Magic howled in joy and wrapped her in a tight embrace. What do you want? One wish… Magic was eager to do something. It was quiet in her little sphere of energy. Theoretically, her little sanctuary should’ve been crackling and breaking apart at the seams. Twilight took a few deep breaths to recenter herself. Now was not the time to let her inner nerd out to play. “I want to be me again. I may have been a pony once, but it was too long ago for me to remember,” Magic chirped affirmatively and then the cage collapsed inward, taking her body with it. Everything went dark.