//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two: Spike's Inspiration Manifestation 
// Story: How to Train a Prince 
// by Foal Star 
//------------------------------//

Spike was somewhat relieved as he arrived in Canterlot; after a four hour train ride, he was ready to get off and stretch his new legs. The former drake then got up and slowly wobbled off the station while getting off the train. But once the stallion took his first steps on the platform, he took a deep breath of fresh air as he trotted through the cobblestone streets of Canterlot. The stallion looked around, seeing many other ponies wearing expensive clothing and waving hooves at him. Spike waved back, seeing many whispering amongst each other and some mares swooning as he trotted by. 

The stallion couldn't help but proudly smile as he continued his trot. Still, eventually, that ended rather abruptly as he spotted two pegasi standing by, hitched up to a lavish chariot. The two soldiers both bowed and said in unison. "Hello, Spike; we have come to take you to Princess Celestia."

Spike grumbled under his breath, seeing Celestia send them to babysit him. "Thank you, but I don't require your assistance."

"Princess Celestia sent us to fetch you. We apologize for the inconvenience!" Both soldiers responded rather abruptly. 

Spike groaned as he knew the princess wouldn't let him set up his dream-like manor and get ready to take Rarity out. The princess will probably poke and prod him as she looks for a cure, and he loses his only chance to get with Rarity. So it looked like he had no other choice. He had to transform them, or they'll ruin everything. Spike then lit the end of his horn, and tendrils of magic wrapped around the soldiers. The two smaller pegasi were now much taller, with the white-coated pegasi now dressed with golden hitches and harnesses; their short-cropped blue manes and tails were now long and wavy. They were much more prominent, with their chests stuck out and with a larger wingspan. The two pegasi seemed somewhat confused, but as they tried to talk, only incoherent neighing came out.

"Sorry, but I can't have you two report to Princess Celestia," Spike then hopped into the chariot. He then stood up rather proudly in his seat and ordered, "now my steeds find me a manor that is abandoned and worthy of a prince!"

Without question, the two pegasi flew off through the cobblestone streets rather briskly, not too fast to cause havoc but not too slow either. He then took the time to wave at the pedestrians trotting by. Many waved back, admiring the handsome-looking pony flying by. This gave Spike a much more relaxed feeling as he felt more confident he could pull this off. 





During his trip, the stallion asked for directions to any fancy manors not in use or abandoned. To his luck, he was told of an old mansion belonging to an old mare who died decades ago. The trip was relatively smooth until they came outside the gate of the abandoned manor. It had a sign outside saying it was going to be demolished. It was in terrible condition, with the rooftop sunken in and the paved road leading to the mansion cracked and filled with weeds; it looked like something out of a horror novel and was perfect. He then had his escorts take him through the rusty gates and onto the old street with weeds covering the ground, and there was massive cracks and potholes, making it rather bumpy. Spike started to get rather peeved, then, without warning, the bumpiness of the road stopped. The weeds were gone, replaced with a beautiful, freshly paved street with purple and green bricks in a checkerboard pattern. They eventually came to the mansion's front doors. Spike got off his chariot to admire the outside garden, which was overrun with vines and weeds. All he did was think that Rarity would love to see a fresh garden filled with exotic flowers and decorative hedges. The stallion lit his horn, and tendrils of magic engulfed the yard outside. The magical tendrils transformed the garden from a field full of weeds and crabgrass into a freshly cut lawn with hedges depicting dragons and hedges filled with purple and green flowers. There were even stables for his fine steeds, which he had unhitched and set up with some fresh hay. 

"There, uh, good boys.."

Lucky for him, the stallions didn't mind him as they were too busy eating their hay. Spike quickly scurried out of the stables, still feeling guilty about turning some of Princess Celestia's royal guard into mindless horses. Still, they would've reported to Celestia otherwise; this way, it can seem they have yet to find him. It'll buy time for his date with Rarity; he'll turn them back to normal soon afterward. Spike then went to the mansion and tapped a hoof to his chin, seeing the outside of it was in shambles and wondered how he would repair it with his magic. As those thoughts flooded his mind, his horn lit up. He started to transform the manor with the wooden planks reforming and attaching themselves, the shillings for the roof stacking themselves on each other, and windows being repaired as shards of glass returned to them. It was like he was going back in time to when the manor was first built, and that's how it looked with a fresh coat of purple paint and massive doors made of emerald. 

The former drake then trotted on inside the manor and used his magic to transform the inside of the estate to his liking. With the inner walls now covered in purple wallpaper with dragons and white-coated unicorns printed onto it, the moldy carpet on the ground was replaced with emerald tiles with a violet-colored rug over the floor. Portraits now lined the walls depicting ponies that looked like him, some feminine in fancy dresses and others old grizzled ponies in fancy coats and uniforms. Old rusty suits of armor reforged themselves, and the rust disappeared, leaving a polished, gleaming metal. There were now broken downstairs, turned into a staircase made of polished emerald with a chandelier lighting overhead and spouting green flames. The dining room now had an elegant dining table aligned with candlesticks with spiraling staircases. The kitchen had a brick oven and a new stovetop filled with pots and pans. 

Spike went upstairs, continuing to transform the house with his magic, reforming the rotting wood and setting up bedrooms with new canopy beds with purple carpets and fully furnished with rich-looking furniture. He came to the master bedroom, giving himself a large purple heart-shaped bed. With a roaring fireplace spouting a green flame, there were portraits of himself with Rarity plastered all over the room with a closet filled with fancy suits. He also had a massive bowl of gems near his bed. It looked perfect but to make this place look lived in, he would need servants. The stallion shivered, seeing what he did to Princess Celestia's royal guards; he didn't want to reform other ponies. He then looked around and spotted some mice scurrying about. He smirked as an idea from a fairy tale story Twilight read to him as a hatchling came to mind. 

Spike then lit his horn, and tendrils of magic wrapped around the pests, and their mouse-like bodies grew into full-grown ponies. The males were turned into butlers with fancy tuxedos and the females into maids with cute prench maid uniforms. The crowd of ponies all seemed to be surprised at what happened, looking over their new bodies with all of them having gray coats, their manes a simple brown with beady brown eyes.

Spike had back a smirk seeing they had "mouse" like appearances; they bucked teeth and whiskers on their pink noses. He then continued to trot through his new homes, transforming every critter into a butler or maid. He soon had a dozen servants in the living room, all waiting on his command.

The former drake stood at the head of the group, cleared his throat, then said, "Good Afternoon, my servants; I am your master Sp- I mean Prince Spearheart, and that is what you will refer to me as."

"Yes, master Spearheart!" all the servants squeaked out in rather squeaky, high-pitched tones. Spike had to clamp down on his ears at high frequency. He then lit his horn, adjusting their voices, making the males sound more like a posh butler from his "Batmare" comics and the maids a fancy prench accent.

"Ok, let's try this again," Spike muttered as he got up on his hooves, then said, "Alright, listen up for the next two days; you'll be my servants.

"Yes, master Spear Heart." His servants all replied rather promptly in their new voices. Spike sighed in relief, seeing they sounded much more posh and refined than their annoying squeaky voices. "Alright, each of you will be assigned a portion of the house to ensure everything is clean and tidy. I also require three square meals a day of sapphire swirl cupcakes with a side of ice cream. Ensure my bed is ready for the evening every night, and that is all. Otherwise, please take any gems you want and use them to buy yourselves anything you need."

"Anything, sir!?" All his new servants exclaimed. 

"Of course! You're servants, not slaves, and I've never been a bit pincher, so do as you wish," Spike explained as he clapped his hooves. The second he did so, the butlers bowed as the maids performed curtsies and then went off to do their duties, seeing them dusting, mopping, and sweeping. The stallion then went outside to see some servants clipping hedges and mowing grass. It looked like he had lived here for years; this was just another typical day for him. Spike saw he looked like the part of a handsome prince, but he needed some help selling the fact that he was indeed a handsome prince. The former drake would ask for Shining Armor's help, but he was all the way in the Crystal Empire; he could write to him, but it would take forever to correspond that way. The only other prince Spike could think of asking for help was Prince Blueblood. The last thing he wanted to do was deal with Rarity's former lover. But Spike felt like he didn't have a choice; the stallion had need somepony to teach him how to be a prince and sell it to Rarity. So with a determined look, he went out to the stables and hitched his steeds to a chariot. When he clambered into his seat, he cleared his voice and shouted, "alright, we need to find Prince Blueblood! Don't delay!"

The horses let out wild neighs as they galloped down the cobblestone streets. Spike had a bowl of gems appear as he snacked on them. The stallion relaxed in his seat as he enjoyed this new comfortable lifestyle and wondered if he could really let it all go after his date with Rarity.





As Spike made his way to find Prince Blueblood, Twilight Sparkle was deep within the old ruined castle of the princesses. She was scrounging through the ruined library, looking for a book on what was going on with Spike. It took hours, but she eventually found a ledger referring to an ancient tome of chaos magic that possessed the user. The book explained that Starswirl found the book corrupting its user to turn his house and family into gold. The old sorcerer convinced the user to give him the book to save his family, and he did so. Anything the stallion turned into gold was reverted to its original state. To ensure no pony used it again, Starswirl locked the cursed tome up deep within the palace walls made for the alicorn princesses he adopted as his daughters. From what Starswirl researched, the book can manifest almost anything from their imagination, breaking the fundamental laws of magic through chaos magic. Unless the influence of wielding the magic is somehow convinced to stop their madness, they will break, the tome's effect will cease, and the user along with anything altered by their magic, will return to normal.

Twilight then closed the book; seeing that everything happening in the book she read matched what was happening to Spike, she turned to her pet owl, who was standing by. He had helped her throughout the day tearing through the library, and he was the one who found the ledger regarding the ancient tome. Despite Spike despising Owlowiscious at first, the two have grown to be rather fond of each other, and she can tell her owl would do anything to help Spike. She ordered, "Owlowiscious, you must find Spike and see what he's up to. I'll talk to Rarity…Spike turned into an older stallion because he wanted to date her, didn't he?"

She looked over at Owlowiscious, who gave a nod and a "hoot" of approval confirming she was right. Twilight felt a pang in her chest; if what this book said was true, Rarity might be the only one to convince Spike to end the influence of the chaos magic. 

The alicorn paused for a minute before she said, "while you watch Spike try to keep your distance and stay out of sight. Right now, he's as powerful as Discord. If he catches, you might transform you into something."

Owlowiscious gave another nod before flying out of the ruins. Meanwhile, Twilight sat down feeling guilty and worried she had to talk to Rarity and convince her to tell Spike she didn't love him to end this curse before it got worse. But she wasn't going to feel good about this or grateful. But seeing Spike's crush on Rarity for the past year and a half while living in Ponyville made her realize this eventually had to end. Regardless of how she felt, Spike's being influenced by chaos magic had to be stopped. She threw her wings out and flew off through the Everfree forest as she headed to Carousel Boutique.