//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: The day that confused everypony. // Story: Growth Spurts and Hypnotic Face Lasers // by HyperRandomness //------------------------------// For the first time in a long time, Rainbow Dash awoke with another body next to her. As one would guess, her mind jumped right to conclusions. “AAH!” she shrieked, bolting from the bed and quickly surveying her surroundings. Similarly, the body that had once been next to her awoke with a start, but didn’t scream. Instead, it just fell to the ground with an audible THUD. It scrambled around for a moment, seemingly caught up in the sheets. Seeing an opportunity, Rainbow Dash turned and readied her wings, but then an oddly familiar voice grunted, “Ugh! What the heck?” “…Spike?” Rainbow questioned, turning towards the writhing mass of blanket. After a few moments, the dragon’s head popped out of the covering. He shortly got the rest of the blanket off, then stood up.. and promptly hit his head on the ceiling. He ducked back down with an “Ouch!” and reached up to rub his head. Rainbow Dash looked up at Spike. Spike looked back down at Rainbow Dash. An awkward silence hung for a few moments, before Spike spoke up, “Uh, wasn’t everything a lot bigger last night?” Rainbow gawked at the dragon, mouth hanging open like a… well, like a hole. Spike had grown big. In fact, big was probably an understatement. He had to duck down just to fit into the library now, and he was certain that his neck, tail and wings hadn’t been that long before. Additionally, he was fairly positive that Twilight wasn’t the one who crushed Spike’s bed. Spike looked around, taking in his new viewpoint before it clicked. He had grown again. He quickly made observations of himself, noting that his teeth seemed significantly sharper, and also that his limbs had become lengthier. He even appeared stronger, regardless of any time he had spent working out. This was, to say, none. While he was looking himself over, Rainbow continued to stare at him, completely dumbstruck. First off, she had calmed her mind that she hadn’t done anything dirty overnight… well, at base minimum, that’s what she thought. She was pretty sure of it. Anyhow, secondly, she was quite confused. Spike hadn’t been NEARLY that size when she saw him last, which was merely the day before. It baffled her how he could have grown so large. “Spike? What was that noise? Spike?” Twilight called from downstairs, sounding slightly irritated. “Nothing!” Spike called, suddenly realizing his voice sounded much deeper than the day before. Would Twilight notice? Likley. Would she be upset? Also likely. Hoofsteps were heard coming up the stairs. Rainbow Dash, being the mare she was, automatically reacted and bolted out the nearest window… without opening it. The sound of shattering glass accelerated the hoofsteps on the stairs, resulting in the bedroom door swinging open forcefully. Twilight rushed into the room, a panicked look on her face. After a quick survey, her expression changed from panic to confusion and intrigue. “…Spike?” she asked, slowly approaching the now-towering-over-her-in-size Dragon. “You.. another growth spurt? I need to tell the Princess immediately! Oh, I hope my research can finish quick enough!” On that note, Twilight scurried out of the room. “Well, that was… weird.” Spike said, looking up at the window Rainbow had flown through, then back to the door Twilight had run through. After weighing his options, he opted to leave through the window and find Rainbow Dash. Unfortunately, physics argued otherwise. He attempted to fit his newly-enlarged self through the window, but only managed to get to his shoulders before he caught the edges. Figuring it was for the best not to destroy a wall to exit, Spike chose the door. Much struggling later, Spike just managed to squeeze through the door. I hope Twilight doesn’t mind that I cracked the walls, he thought to himself with a short chuckle, then taking all of three steps down the stairs to find Twilight scrabbling out a letter. “Twilight, what’s going on? I thought I was done growing…” he said, still slightly unused to his deepened voice. “Oh, good! You’re here. Spike, could you send this letter? You know, to the Princess?” Twilight asked, her mane and tail looking more disheveled than the time she had gone crazy over a friendship problem. “Uh… okay, sure.” Spike responded, grabbing the letter off the desk with his claws. It felt strange, because he usually needed most of his claws to pick up things. Now, however, he was big enough to only have to pick it up with two claws. Lifting up the sheet of paper to his mouth, Spike inhaled and exhaled magical fire. Unfortunately, he emitted far more than he meant to, which accidentally engulfed half of the library in the substance. “Oops!” He exclaimed, attempting to extinguish the flames with his claws and tail. Too late. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile, in Canterlot Royal Castle… Princess Celestia was enjoying a nice, relaxing moment to take a load off of her usually busy schedule. Right then, she had just finished re-reading one of her favorite novels. It’s too bad the Royal library doesn’t have more books like these, she thought to herself, If only we had a larger selection. Poof. WHAM! All at once, a half-a-library’s-worth of books fell on top of the reclining Princess. Needless to say, she was not pleased. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Back at the Library, Twilight was less-than-elated as well. “Spike! What did you just do?!” she yelled at the Dragon, who was attempting to make himself smaller by scrunching up into a corner. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” he said, shielding his face with his hands. “Ugh! Spike, now we have to write another letter to the Princess explaining what happened, then we have to wait for her to send the books back unless we want to go up to Canterlot ourselves to retrieve them!” she shouted, sounding more harsh than intended. “Well, maybe you should have figured I was going to burn down half the library with my fire!” Spike shouted back, suddenly taking a more aggressive stance against Twilight, looming over her. “I mean, you should have known that, since I got bigger, my fire would be more powerful! I didn’t even know I was going to get bigger again, Twilight! This brought up enough problems in the first place!” Spike had been moving slightly forward with each shout, sending Twilight back further and further in the library until she was pressed up against a wall. Snarling, Spike continued, “Why didn’t you tell me I was going to grow again? Did you think I didn’t want to know?! I’ve already scared the heck out of Rainbow Dash and you, and this is ALL. YOUR. FAULT!!” Spike practically roared at Twilight, dulling her hearing for just a few moments. Tears welled up in her eyes as she attempted to shield herself from the onslaught of words. Looking angrily down upon Twilight, Spike saw her in this state and mentally slapped himself. He nearly instantly calmed himself down and took on a saddened expression. “I, oh, shoot. I’m… I’m so, so sorry, Twilight. I just.. don’t know what came over me…” he glanced about the room, seeking refuge from the situation. He felt ashamed. Maybe it wasn’t Twilight’s fault that he hadn’t been informed about this growth. Maybe she didn’t know either. Seeking shelter from his own feelings, and possibly Twilight’s, he darted for the front door before she could react. He just managed to dive through when she managed to get up to call after him. He didn’t hear what she said, but he didn’t care right then. He, in his eyes, had just been as mean as mean could get. Right now, he just needed to get away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainbow Dash was confused in every sense of the word. She was confused emotionally, mentally, physically, and however else you could possibly be confused. To start, she had just woken up next to Spike. Spike the Dragon. In Twilight’s house. What the hay did I do last night? she thought with mild panic, hoping she hadn’t done anything she would come to regret. She cleared her mind of such thoughts. I wouldn’t do that, even if I wasn’t depressed and lonely… she thought, quickly shaking her head of that as well. Next up, she was very, very tired and could not figure out why. Perhaps it was the fact that she had cried herself to sleep? For the third time in the past two minutes, Rainbow shook her head clear of the offending thought. However, during the time she had spent focusing on these things, she hadn’t been paying attention to where she was g- THWACK! Rainbow Dash flew straight into a solid Apple tree, knocking herself unconscious. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spike flew far, and he flew fast. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he was sure it would be far away. He wasn’t sure how far he would go, nor was he sure if he was ever going to work up the nerve to return. Here, he had just practically roared at Twilight, his caretaker, for a problem that she herself didn’t predict. He felt like a huge jerk. That thought rung out in his head. Right then, he decided where he would go. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight sat, simply stunned from the scene that had unfolded before her. She knew Spike was going to have some emotional trouble, as the two dragon professionals had said before, but she had no idea it would have gotten this badly so quickly. She also had no idea that Spike’s growth would escalate to such a point as another growth spurt, but it was all water under the bridge now. Spike had just absconded, likely to sulk around for awhile before seeking forgiveness. “Well, no time to dilly-dally. If I don’t get this done on time, things could get a lot worse…” she said, grimacing at the thought of anything becoming worse at this point. She went right back to her notes and began drafting a letter to Princess Celestia.