//------------------------------//
// Walking Through Ponyville 
// Story: The Mountain Dew Experiment 
// by arglefumph 
//------------------------------//

Author's Note: Once again, I feel compelled to remind my readers to please use Mountain Dew responsibly.  Don't be like Twilight Sparkle and attempt to make a homebrew batch of Dew.  Also, don't be like Pinkie Pie and dunk your head in a cauldron full of Dew.  It'd probably take forever to get all the Dew out of your hair.

It was not unusual to see a purple unicorn pacing back and forth through the Ponyville library. Twilight Sparkle did this at least twice a day; she said that it helped her concentrate when she was going up against tough problems.

However, the purple unicorn who was currently pacing through the library was not Twilight Sparkle. It was Spike, the former baby dragon. And that was unusual.

"Oh, man! Oh, man! Oh, man!" Spike moaned. "How did this happen?  I knew making Mountain Dew was a bad idea!"

Unlike Spike, Pinkie Pie was rather enthusiastic about becoming a unicorn. "Whee!" she said, as she levitated a book across the room. "Magic is fun!"

Spike examined himself in the mirror again. As a unicorn, he was about a foot taller than he had been as a dragon. He didn't see anything wrong with his coat, which was close to the same shade of purple as his normal scales. However, his green mane was completely out of control. It looked like somebody tried to make it spiky and rounded at the same time, resulting in a mess that even the ponies at the spa would be hard-pressed to fix.

"What if I'm stuck like this forever?" Spike asked.

"Magic really does make it all complete!" Pinkie Pie said, as she levitated herself, upside-down.

"We have to find Twilight!" Spike decided, slamming his hoof on the ground.

"Oooo, good idea!" the bouncing pink unicorn said. "I'll be she knows where we can get books on magic for beginners!"

Spike shook his head. "No, we need to find her so she can get us back to normal!" he said.

"Already?" Pinkie Pie asked, disappointed. "We haven't even been unicorns for five minutes! Let's have some fun!"

"What kind of fun?" Spike asked.

"Duh, magic unicorn fun!" Pinkie Pie said. "Like this!"

Pinkie focused her magical abilities in her horn, as best as she could. An explosion of pink flew out from her horn and smashed against the wall, turning everything bright pink.

"Oops," she said. "That's not right."

Spike facehoofed. "That's it," he said. "I'm going to go find Twilight. You can stay here."

"Let me come with you!" said Pinkie Pie. "We can be Unicorn Buddies!"

"No way," Spike said. "Everypony in town knows you! If they see that you're now a unicorn, they'll ask questions, and—"

"No problemo, Spike!" Pinkie Pie said. She used her hooves to fluff up her already fluffy mane. The hair at the top of her head, when tilted at the right angle, managed to obscure her new unicorn horn. It didn't cover up her horn completely, but as long as nopony looked closely at her forehead, they could be fooled.

"Well...I guess that'll work..." Spike said reluctantly.

Spike's plan to find Twilight without being noticed lasted a grand total of twenty seconds. He and Pinkie Pie had barely managed to walk past the block, when a familiar voice called out to them.

"Hello! Pinkie! Twilight! Yoo hoo!"

It was Rarity, out for a walk with her little sister Sweetie Belle.

Spike couldn't help but turn and look at Rarity. Now that he was taller, she looked...different. That wasn't saying much, because everything looked different now that Spike was taller. Spike hesitated as he looked around for an exit, which gave the fashionista time to trot up to him.

"Oh," Rarity said, stopping shortly. "You're not Twilight Sparkle."

"Uh...no, I'm not," Spike said.

What do I do? Do I talk to her? Pretend I don't know her? Use magic to teleport me as far away as possible?

"Hi, Rarity!" Pinkie said. "Ooo, I've got big news for you! I just came from the library, where I—"

"Met me!" Spike interrupted, worried that Pinkie Pie might reveal the secrets of the unicorn potion (otherwise known as Mountain Dew: Code Red). "I was there, looking for Twilight. Have you seen her?"

"I think she was headed towards Fluttershy's," Rarity said. Her voice halted a bit, as she was taken aback by Spike's behavior. A true gentlecolt never interrupts a lady, after all.

Rarity shook her head slightly. "You...you must be one of Twilight's relatives, am I right?" Rarity asked.

"Huh?" Spike asked.

"Well, purple isn't a very common color for unicorns, you know," Rarity said. "In fact, you sort of look like..."

Rarity turned a critical eye on the strange unicorn standing in front of her. Spike broke out in a cold sweat, as he could practically feel her keen attention to detail pass over him.

Rarity shook her head again. "Never mind," she said. "That's not possible."

Sweetie Belle cocked her heard in Spike's direction. "Now that you mention it, he looks kind of familiar," she said.

"Uh...Twilight is my...cousin," Spike said, trying to make his voice sound deeper. "My name is Mike. Mike...Diamond. That's my name."

"No, it's not," Pinkie Pie said. "It's Spi—"

Spike shoved his hoof into Pinkie's mouth.

"And we really have to go now," Spike said quickly. "You said she was at Fluttershy's, right? Thanks for the help, Rarity!"

Spike turned around, when a loud scream erupted behind him. He tried turning around again, but fell over by accident.

"Sweetie, what's the matter?" Rarity asked.

Sweetie Belle pointed a hoof towards Spike's hindquarters, which were sticking in the air. "He...he doesn't have a cutie mark!"

Rarity was surprised to see that her sister was correct. "How odd," she said. "He..."

"Does this mean I can be as old as him and still not get a cutie mark?" Sweetie Belle asked, horrified.

"Uh..." Spike said. He wasn't sure how to respond. He really had no idea what his age was, now that he was a new species. What does "baby dragon" equal when you translate dragon years to pony years?

Sweetie Belle ran away crying.

"Oh no!" Rarity said, galloping after her sister, but casting a backwards glance at Spike's blank flank. "Sweetie Belle! Wait! Maybe he's just...covering it up with magic?"

"Augh!" Spike cried, hitting himself on the forehead. He then cried out in pain, as his hoof smashed against his horn. "This is too much!"

Pinkie Pie giggled. "You're getting upset, just like Rarity and Twilight do!" she said. "I always knew that was some kind of unicorn power!"

Spike doubted that being overly dramatic was a unicorn power, but he didn't feel like correcting Pinkie.

The two new unicorns made their way to Fluttershy's in relative silence. Pinkie Pie wasn't bouncing around like she normally did, because that would have messed up her mane and revealed her horn. She had to settle for humming quietly to herself.

"Hey, Pinkie Pie," Spike said at last.

"Yes?" Pinkie asked.

Spike looked to make sure no one was within earshot. He whispered, "You know I kind of have a crush on Rarity, right?"

"Uh huh!" Pinkie Pie said. "You told me!"

"Well, now that I'm a unicorn...do you think I have a chance with her?" Spike asked.

"Hmmm..." Pinkie Pie said, thinking about it. "Nope!"

"What?" Spike asked.

"You made her little sister cry!" Pinkie Pie said, in a voice that was overly happy, considering the situation. "If somepony did that to my sister, I'd be pretty mad at them."

"Oh..." Spike said, looking downcast. "You're right..."

"Hey, cheer up!" Pinkie Pie said. "You need to start smiling! Ever since you became a unicorn, you haven't been any fun at all!"

"I'm sorry..." Spike said. "It's just...this whole thing is weird for me, okay? I wish Twilight were here..."

Spike tried to imagine what his closest friend and kind-of big sister, Twilight Sparkle, would say about the situation. She always seemed to know the right thing to say to him, no matter what horrible things happened.

Spike, I'm ashamed of you, the Imaginary Twilight Sparkle said.

Ouch, Spike thought. Maybe thinking about Twilight was a bad idea...

Have you forgotten all of our friendship lessons together? Twilight admonished. You've broken at least five friendship rules. What happened to Lesson #3, you should never lie to your friends?

I...but I had to lie to Rarity! Spike protested. She can't know the truth!

Twilight seemed to grow larger, in Spike's imagination. Why not? Lesson #6: You shouldn't try to hide something from your friends, because you're afraid they won't like it. True friends will accept you for who you are, no matter what.

But...But...

Lesson #22: You should learn to accept who you are, rather than run away from yourself. Lesson #23: No one—

"ARGH!" Spike shouted. "I get it already! You're right! No more lies!"

"Huh?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Spike shook his head, snapping back to reality. "You're right," he repeated. "I've been going about this the wrong way!"

"Of course I'm right!" Pinkie Pie said happily. "Life is for enjoying, not for frowning!"

"There are probably lots of good things about being a unicorn!" Spike said, trying to be upbeat. "Like...I can give myself a mustache!"

"I've always wanted to grow a mustache!" Pinkie said. "One time, I made one out of cake frosting, and—"

"I can make things float!" Spike said. "No more climbing up ladders to put books back on the top shelf!"

"And I heard that unicorns can make special magic music!" Pinkie Pie said. "Think of all the new songs I can sing! Sometimes, I feel like I don't sing enough, you know?"

"And I'll never lose anything again, thanks to locator spells!" Spike said.

"Oooo, yeah!" Pinkie Pie said. "I can use that to find decorations for my parties, or food for Gummy, or the perfect stallion, or—"

"Wait, that's it!" Spike said. "We can use the locator spell to find Twilight, instead of running around town, looking for her!"

"Brilliant!" Pinkie Pie said. "How do you cast that spell?"

"...I have no idea," Spike said.

Pinkie Pie pulled out a trombone and played some disappointing notes. Then she put it away again. Spike thought it was best not to comment.

Twilight Sparkle was returning to her home, after visiting Fluttershy's. She did not take the same route as Pinkie Pie and Spike. She actually took the longer route home, the one that took her past Carousel Boutique. Twilight was hoping to talk to Rarity about fashion and—

Okay, fine. Twilight just wanted to brag about her new potion experiment. Being a unicorn herself, Rarity was probably the pony who would best appreciate Twilight's new and improved magic-boosting Mountain Dew.

Twilight knocked on the door to the Carousel Boutique. "Rarity, are you there?" Twilight asked.

A moment later, Rarity opened the doors with a flourish of magic. "Twilight!" Rarity said. "How nice to see you! Come inside!"

"Thanks," Twilight said, entering the shop. "You know, it's a lucky thing you're here today. I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh, me too, darling," Rarity said. "I ran into your cousin a few minutes ago, you know, and I'm afraid he upset poor Sweetie Belle. I don't think it was on purpose, but still, his behavior was very odd. Is he all right?"

"You met my...what?" Twilight asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Your cousin, Mike Diamond," Rarity said. "He was with Pinkie Pie earlier."

Twilight shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean," she said. "I don't have any cousin with that name."

Rarity was surprised. "But...the pony I met said he was your cousin," she said. Her initial confusion was quickly replaced with suspicion. "Are you saying he lied to me?"

"There's a pony who says that he's my cousin?" Twilight asked. "What did he say? What did he look like?"

"He looked a bit like you," Rarity said. "He was a unicorn with a purple coat and a disastrous green mane that reminded me of Spike. I'd say he's a few years older than Sweetie Belle, but he doesn't have a cutie mark yet."

Twilight bit her lip. "That's unusual," she said. "I don't know anypony who matches that description. You said he was with Pinkie Pie?"

Rarity nodded. "He ran away before we could talk much. He said he was looking for you."

"Well, now I'm looking for him," Twilight Sparkle said. "If there's a mysterious pony going around, saying he's related to me, I want to meet him."

"I'll go with you," Rarity offered. "I'm free this afternoon. Dropping off Sweetie Belle at Mom and Dad's house after school let out was the last thing I had to do today."

Not far away, Pinkie Pie knocked on the door of Fluttershy's cottage. The yellow pegasus answered the door within seven seconds.

"Hello, Pinkie Pie," Fluttershy said amicably. She was always happy to see her friends.

"Hey, Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie said. "Is Twilight here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, you just missed her," Fluttershy said. "She came by to—Aaaa!"

Fluttershy caught sight of the strange unicorn standing behind Pinkie Pie. Avoiding the urge to dive into the bushes, Fluttershy tried her best to hide behind her mane.

"Y-you didn't tell me you were bringing anypony new here," Fluttershy said, looking at the ground.

"Fluttershy, I'm not somepony new," Spike said. "It's me, Spike! Twilight Sparkle's assistant!"

Fluttershy almost fell over in surprise. "SPIKE?" she said in a loud voice—loud for her, anyway.

"Yep!" Pinkie Pie said.

"One of Twilight's experiments went wrong, and now I'm a unicorn," Spike said. "We have to find her and fix it, quick!"

"Oh, oh my!" Fluttershy said. She got closer to Spike, then walked around him to see what he looked like from different angles. "Is it really you, Spike?"

"Of course it's me!" Spike said. "I can prove it, too! Remember the last letter you sent? 'Dear Princess Celestia, giving a speech in front of a crowd is something that can make anypony nervous, especially a shy pony like'—"

"Shhhh!" Fluttershy said. "Don't read my mail out loud! That's rude and embarrassing."

"Sorry," Spike said.

"So when did Twilight leave?" Pinkie Pie asked.  "Did she say where she was going?"

"Well..." Fluttershy said. She had the urge to pet Spike's mane, just like how she petted the fur of her animals, but she resisted. "I think she...hold on a moment. Let me look for her."

Fluttershy flew into the air about fifteen feet, then looked around. One the advantages of living on a hill was the fact that it let Fluttershy see for quite a distance. She looked out, then waved a hoof at somepony, and landed back on the ground.

"You're in luck!" Fluttershy said. "Twilight's galloping here at full speed, along with Rarity!"

"Wuh-Rarity?" Spike asked. "But she—that's not good."

"What's not good about it?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Rarity and Twilight are just the ponies we need to see! They can teach us how to use magic!"

"If they don't kill us first!" Spike said.

"There he is!" Rarity cried from a distance. "Fluttershy, don't let him get away!"