//------------------------------//
// Companion 
// Story: Change the Fate's Design 
// by Shadowed Rainbow 
//------------------------------//

As Mother Chrysalis came to discover, properly looking after her "little flower" grew to be much more than simply providing for her basic needs.  The filly showed herself to be inquisitive and persistent—to a rather annoying degree sometimes, in Chrysalis's mind.  Still, whatever it took to keep her little flower happy—the happier tha the growing unicorn was, the less likely she'd be to want to leave.

By the child's fifth birthday, Mother Chrysalis could already say what Twilight wished for before the young filly would even get the word out—books.  Lots of books. Bringing sack after sack home from the village several days trot away filed with tomes of all sizes, the filly's eyes lit up in delight every time she beheld one of the page-filled treasures.  It didn't take long before the unicorn had turned her living quarters itself into a miniature library, with still enough space left over to occupy herself with her other hobbies.

As if that weren't enough for Chrysalis to handle, by the time Twilight was soon to turn ten years old, the unicorn surprised her by making an amendment to her usual birthday request.  

"Um, Mother?" Twilight began, looking up at Chrysalis as she appeared to be cataloging a collection of plants, which she had explained to Twilight were meant for herbal brews.  

"Let me guess, Twilight," Chrysalis murmured, already knowing what to expect, "you're going to ask me for more books, right?". She didnt even glance at Twilight as she stated this, sure that she knew the answer as she carefully measured out the ingredients.  By this point the book request felt routine for her to hear.

"Actually, no."  Twilight paused, reconsidering, shuffling her hooves.  "I mean, yes and no."

This remark actually caught Chrysalis off guard.  She looked up from separating savory from parsley leaves, tilting her head down so her green eyes were staring in surprise at the young unicorn.  "In that case... what is it that you want?"

Twilight stood up tall, as if hoping that doing so would make her seem more adult and increase her chances of getting what she wanted.  "A dragon egg!"

The sorceress blinked at the odd request before letting out a gentle laugh, patting the filly on the head.  "Oh Twilight, dragon eggs aren't really something you can find so easily—"

Twilight winced a little under Chrysalis's hoof.  "But I read about a ritual in a story where a unicorn like me had to hatch a dragon egg to get into a special school, and only ponies who hatched it would get to be in it!"

"That's just a storybook fantasy, Twilight," Chrysalis said dismissively before turning back to her herbal inventory as the parsely was levitated into a cupboard for safekeeping.  "It's not—"

"I at least want to try!" Twilight pleaded, giving Chrysalis as pleading a look as she could manage.  "Even if I don't get into any sort of school because of it, wouldn't it be neat if I could hatch a dragon with magic?"

After a long pause, Chrysalis sighed.  When Twilight became this insistent there was no changing her mind.  "Alright, you've convinced me.  Barely."

Sure enough, when Twilight's tenth birthday rolled around, Chrysalis returned from one of her three-day excursions with an object that instantly caught Twilight's attention as she used her mane to help hoist her mother into the tower.  A small, dark purple egg, dotted by lavender spots of various sizes.  

Twilight's eyes instantly lit up upon seeing it, galloping over and letting out a squeak of delight.  "You got me a dragon egg?!  A real one?!"

"It took a while, and I met a few... unsavory ponies along the way, but yes.". Chrysalis managed the paintest of smiles.  "I did."

Without bothering to ask what the word "unsavory" meant, Twilight clapped her hooves together as the egg was placed on the ground before her.  "Now I can try to hatch it!"  She planted her hooves squarely on the ground, staring hard at the dragon egg and closing her eyes in concentration.

"Oh, Twilight," Chrysalis said, "not now."

The filly opened her eyes, disappointment reflected in her gaze.  "Why not, Mother?"

"Because Mommy's working on her herbal brews right now," Chrysalis said quickly, making it clear that she didn't want to be disturbed as she analyzed her stockpile of hyacinth flowers.

"Can you help take the egg up to my room, please?"  Twilight begged, trying to lift the large egg with both hooves and magic, with both failing.

A green aura manifested around the egg in response, as Chrysalis carried it magically up the stairs with Twilight trailing behind, asking question after question about dragons.  Very few of which Chrysalis had answers for.

When they reached Twilight's room in the uppermost portion of the tower, Chrysalis gently placed the egg down onto the floor, the green aura fading as Twilight circled it excitedly.

"Thank you, thank you thank you!" the unicorn filly exclaimed, hugging one of her mother's forehooves tightly.  "I love you!"

"I love you too, honey," Chrysalis said, stepping away slightly which caused Twilight to let go.  "Now you can try to hatch your little dragon egg, and Mommy will make sure she has plenty of aloe vera."

"What's aloe vera?" Twilight asked.

"It's a herb used for helping to heal burns," Chrysalis elaborated with a sigh as she walked down the spiral staircase.  "Considering the nature of dragons we may need it to heal somepony from an unfortunate dragon incident."

Twilight giggled a little at that statement as Chrysalis departed.  Now it was just her and the dragon egg.  She circled around it, looking for any cracks or weak spots, something that would give her a better chance of being able to hatch this thing.

"I can do this," she told herself.  "I'm gonna prove that I can do this!"

Repeating what she had done earlier, she placed all four hooves firmly on the ground before carefully studying the dragon egg.  After a few seconds, she closed her eyes, keeping the visual image of the dragon egg firmly cemented in her mind.  Focusing what magic energy she could channel into her horn, she was aware of a bust of energy building up in her horn.

She opened her eyes in excitement, but all that came out was a faint spark which drifted like a snowflake.  But she wasn't going to give up.

"I gotta try it again!" the filly told herself.  She closed her eyes again, the magical flux of energy coming to her horn a little more quickly this time.  More sparks, but still no dragon-hatching results.

Taking a deep breath, the filly decided to try one more time.  Rather than having the magical pulse in her horn build up and stay there, nowhere to go as it had been, she realized she needed to direct it.  Forcing as much energy into that task as she could, she focused on the magenta energy from her horn swirling, collecting, encasing her horn in its light, and then firing like an arrow at the dragon egg.

The force of the magic burst knocked Twilight over backwards, and she shielded her eyes from the light.  When the light cleared, however, The fatigue that Twilight had briefly felt all but vanished.  The eggshell was burst apart in pieces on the floor, and in the center of it all sat a tiny, purple dragon with small green spikes on his head and along his back, down to his tail.

"I... I did it?"  Twilight leapt to her forehooves in disbelief, an astonished grin on her face as she stepped closer to the newly hatched dragon.  The infant, however, was drawn off from her attention by a flashing on her flanks.

Twilight gasped as soon as she saw what it was, a pink and white burst of magic, small white stars surrounding it.  Her cutie mark.  She had gotten her cutie mark.

The young filly was now bouncing around as if her hooves were made out of springs.  "YESYESYES!"

Twilight was making such a commotion that Chryalis instantly hurried up the stairs to investigate.  "Twilight, what in the world is—"

She stopped short the moment she saw the baby reptile sitting in the center of the room.  Her eyes widened.  "You..."

Twilight bounded over excitedly.  "I hatched him, mother!  With my magic!"  She hugged the baby dragon who was sucking on its tail.  "I'm gonna call you Spike!" 

Chrysalis smiled very slightly, unable to help but feel proud and impressed.  Not many unicorns could have that kind of magic potential, especially once so young.  Her smile, however, quickly changed to a slight frown.  Yes, the dragon had been hatched by Twilight and that was amazing, but... Twilight had named it.  And Chrysalis knew that once something was named, there was a very real possibility of getting attached to it.  And wanting to keep it, for that matter.

Sure enough, the next words out of Twilight's mouth were, "Can I keep him?" 

"Twilight..."

Twilight swallowed.  She knew that look in her mother's eyes, the "you'd better say something I'll agree with," look.  She took a deep breath.  The filly knew that if she wanted to convince her mother to let her keep the baby dragon, cutie mark or not, she'd have to hope the baby dragon behaved himself.  

Unfortunately, the latter fell flat about five seconds later as the dragon hiccuped and let out a quick burst of green flame directed at Chrysalis's head.  

"AAAHH!" 

Twilight squeaked in alarm as her mother's mane was set alight from the baby dragon's green flames.  She attempted to make her large violet eyes as stern-looking as possible as she waved a hoof.  "NO!  BAD dragon!  BAD Spikey-wikey!  NO breathing fire at Mommy!"   The young filly looked frantic, hurriedly flipping though any book she could to find a spell to douse the water.  

Chrysalis's horn shone with emerald energy as she hurriedly used a spell to douse her mane with water and put the fire out.  Her eloquent blue mane was now singed black from the fire's searing effect, making her appear distinctly less beautiful than she had been ten seconds earlier.  She tilted her head downward to stare firmly at the young filly her eyes narrowed to show that she wasn't exactly pleased with Spike's behavior.

Twilight winced slightly under Chrysalis's gaze.  "So, uh... can I keep him?"  She hurriedly tried to come up with a more convincing reason for her mother to let her keep the dragon, since she knew that the fire incident was not exactly the best start to asking for a new pet.  "I now he's kinda fiery, but we can train him, he's just a baby!  And, oh, look!  I even got my cutie mark by hatching him!"  The filly turned to the side to show the magic burst of stars on her flank, looking up at Chrysalis with an expression of hopeful glee..  "See?"

Mother Chrysalis looked from Twilight to her new pet, who hiccuped and let out another small burst of green flame.  She put a hoof to her forehead, letting out a long, slow sigh.  "... Oh, alright, little flower, you can keep him."  Her gaze grew stern.  "But only if you can keep him under control.  I won't have this tower being burned to the ground because of a certain young filly's inability to take care of her pet."

Twilight raised her hoof in an "I promise" gesture.  "I promise to take care of him, Mommy.  I'll teach him everything I know!"

And teach him she did.  As the years went by, on those days when Chrysalis seemed too preoccupied to listen to whatever new factoid Twilight had learned that day, she'd confide in her young dragon companion.  She taught him what was safe to eat, what were the acceptable rules of their household, and even how to talk (much to Chrysalis's increasing annoyance, which eventually led to a grudging acceptance).  

With Spike at her side, Twilight felt that her life in the tower was a little less lonely.   And every year on her birthday, the two would sneak quietly to the window and watch the faraway floating lights rise up into the heavens before they disappeared from view.