//------------------------------//
// The Sudden Realization  
// Story: Noble Dragons 
// by Cobalt the Kitsune 
//------------------------------//

As Twilight walked down the stairs in the early morning, the first thing she felt was the chill. Stretching, she yawned and got out of bed, heading for the stairs. Twilight blinked groggily, her eyes but half opened. She took her first step, and suddenly, the room turned upside down. The unicorn yelped as she tumbled down the staircase, hitting both her head and her rump on the cold floor. Finally, she hit the bottom, and groaned in both pain and relief.
As she rubbed her head Twilight said, “Ugh...It’s like my first day at Canterlot High all over again.”
As the fuzzy spots in her vision cleared up, she discovered the source of her fall. Every surface in the room was coated in a thick layer of ice! Twilight look around about for the source of this deep freeze. When she found what turned her library floor into a ice skating rink, she was thoroughly stunned. Rarity had not changed back during the night, like Twilight had predicted. Instead, she laid there in full draconic glory, with a smaller purple dragon cuddled against her side. Whenever she exhaled, a plume of freezing fog escaped her nostrils.
That accounts for all the ice. Twilight thought. Cautiously making her way across the floor, Twilight tried to figure out what could have gone wrong. Her train of thought was interrupted, however, when she fell flat on her face. She slowly slid across the floor, finally stopping at the side of the two dragons.
Woken up by the thud of Twilight hitting the ice, Spike yawned and said groggily, “Did I leave a window open last night? It’s freezing!” When Spike rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he gasped. He didn’t seem to care that Rarity was still a dragon, or the fact that Twilight had her tongue frozen to the floor. “Why in the world does this place look like a popsicle?!”
 Twilight rolled her eyes, and spoke. “Ghee, ‘ah vumber…” (“Gee, I wonder…”) She tried to jerk her head away from ice to try and free her tongue, but only managed to bring more pain to her mouth and neck.
Rarity, who had been holding Spike against her chest, reared up and yawned. The cloud of fog that she released floated up and formed icicles on the roof. As she used her tallon to brush back her mane-spines, she realized something was very very wrong. She stared down at her claws...yes, her claws, not hooves!
Rarity’s eyes widened and her pupils shrank. “Why am I not a pony?!”
Twilight really didn’t want Rarity to launch into a massive emotional breakdown “Wawuty, just wemaim cawlm.” (“Rarity, just remain calm.”)
Rarity’s eyes started to fill with tears, and she started to choke up “You promised me it would only be a few hours!” Rarity collapsed in despair and let icy tears flow down her cheeks. “I’m going to be stuck as a dragon for-e-e-everrrr!” As tears dropped, they froze and shattered when they hit the ground.
As Rarity sobbed, Spike, who had narrowly escaped being crushed by the distraught dragoness, put a comforting claw on her slender neck, and said, “Hey it’s not so bad. There’s lots of worse things it be stuck as.”
Rarity stop sobbing and sniffled a little. “I guess that’s true...”
“I mean you still have your good looks, your gorgeous smile, your amazing voice, your golden personality...” Spike said, putting a finger up for everything he listed. 
Rarity blushed and lifted herself off the floor “Oh stop it, Spike! You’re flattering me.”
“I will not!” The determined drake said. “I will not because it’s true.”
Rarity blushed, turning a deep red color that conflicted with her snow white scales.
Twilight, who had been struggling with the ice all this time said. “Yook I ‘ate to innu’rupt uh tu but we ave some maujor issuwes ‘ear!”
The two dragons couldn't help but burst out laughing. “Ey, whats tow ‘unny.”
“I’m sorry, darling.” Rarity said, putting a talon over her mouth to stifle a chortle. “But you sound simply ludicrous!”
Spike had to wipe away a tear from his eyes before he said. “I agree with Rarity. You sound like Pinkie Pie when she stumbled into that poison joke patch!” Rarity and Spikes tails thrashed as they laughed hysterically.
Unamusined,  Twilight horn glowed, and a magic laser melted the ice her tongue was frozen to. Although free, Twilight’s tongue was still quite numb.  
Trying her best not to slur her speech as she said. “Alright you guys. I think we should consult the other Princess’s about this problem.” Spit sprayed from Twilight’s mouth with every “s” syllable, adding more frozen patches to the floor.
 Using his arms to shield himself, Spike yelped. “Say it, don’t spray it, Twi!”
“Sorry, Spike, but soon, when the summer sun is at high noon, Rarity will shrivel! She will never survive a sweltering ponyville summer.”  Rarity had been cowering behind a now spit soaked, and bemused looking, Spike. 
Just then the door shook as somepony tried to get in. “Twilight are you ok? The door won’t open!” Pinkie Pie shouted.
“Pinkie, The door and everything in her has frozen over. We can’t get out!” Twilight said back hoping her voice could be heard on the other side.
“Did one of you get your tongue stuck to something?” Pinkie Pie asked.
Twilight rolled her eyes and said. “Pinkie I don’t think that really matt-”
“Did you?!” Pinkie Pie said, cutting twilight off mid word.
Twilight rolled her eyes and gave an annoyed sigh “Yes Pinkie, now can you--”
“It’s just that my hooves got all chilly, and when my hooves get chilly it means someone is stuck to something frozen, and since it’s-”
“Pinkie, we need to find--”
“And that’s when my Uncle Eddy Pie said, ‘That’s not how you make spinach soup!”
“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted, trying to redirect the scatterbrained pony’s train of thought.
 Suddenly the pink mare snapped to attention, “Way out, right!” As Pinkie zoomed off, Twilight sighed and turned towards Rarity and Spike. Rarity was trying to find something too clean Spike off with, while Spike just whipped the freezing silvia off himself.
Rarity’s mind was going a million miles an hour. She was currently thinking of all the new complications her life would have. One item stood out in her mind the most. Now that she was a dragoness, how would that change the dynamics between Spike and her? 
There were always two major barriers that stopped her from becoming romantically interested in Spike: age and species. When Spike and Twilight first came here, Spike followed her around like a little lost puppy, always offing to hold her purse or do household chores. At first Rarity gracefully declined, because she didn’t want to take advantage of the baby dragon’s crush on her. But as the little drake kept insisting, Rarity caved and let him do of the less dignified chores, such as taking the garbage out, or washing the dirty dishes.
As she began to spend more time with him, Rarity started to notice that Spike was simply, the most charming, most adorable little reptile she ever saw. After all it was Spike that was there for her when Prince Not-So-Charming let her heart down. Rarity started doing little favors for him too like, giving him a gem or two, or making him cute little outfits. But even with that Rarity remained firm in her position against a romantic relationship
It was only after that fiasco during Spikes birthday, that Rarity’s firm footing started to slip, and realized that she liked Spike a lot. Even then, she still tried to convince herself that a relationship between her and Spike could never happen.
Rarity’s train of thought was redirected due to a knock at the door.
An excited Pinkie Pie then said loudly.“I was able to find one of thouse little blow torches the cakes use to make creme brulee, Twilight. Perhaps you can use it to thaw the ice.”
“That would be perfect Pinkie. Except the ice is on the inside!”
“Oh yeah sorry.” Pinkie Pie giggled and tossed the propane torch over her shoulder. It promptly exploded when it hit the ground, causing everypony in town to jump. Applejack ran over, thinking something bad had happened. Close behind her was Rainbow Dash.
“What’s going on here.” Applejack asked as she walked over to the bubbly mare.
“Well somehow everything in the library got coated in ice now they can’t open.”
“How in tarnation did that happen! It’s almost summer!” Applejack said. She glared at her friend above, and immediately Rainbow Dash put up her hooves.
“Hey, it wasn’t me this time!” Dash protested. “That whole prank with the snow clouds was a one time thing.”
“They didn’t tell me, But my hunch is that Rarity turned into an ice dragon and didn’t turn back during the night, even though Twilight thought she would. So her freezing breath sent everything into a deep freeze!” Pinkie Pie said, adding a shiver for effect.
Applejack just rolled her eyes and got ready to kick down the door. “Stand back Twi. This door’s coming down.”
Inside, Twilight, Rarity, and Spike all huddled together in the corner and trembled as they waited for the storm of ice and splitters. When Applejack’s strong hooves hit the door the brittle door shattered, with a sound of breaking glass. 
“Whoa,” Applejack looking around at the sparkling room. “Pinkie Pie wasn’t exaggerating.”  The 90 plus degree temperature wafted into the room, causing some of the ice to melt and drip to the floor.
Rainbow dash took a peek inside. “So, what's going on here?” Suddenly her eyes widened when she saw the white dragoness. “Rarity is that you?”
Rarity had already beginning to sweat; the outside heat was starting to fill the room. “Yes Rainbow it’s me.”
Rainbow cocked her head at the overheating Dragoness and asked. “Hey do you feel ok? You don’t look so good.”
Rarity blew out a little fog then waved it towards herself, hoping it would cool her down. “I’m just a little warm.”  Rarity lied, more sweat pouring down her face.
“Rarity’s a snow dragon,” Twilight explained to the rainbow mare. “They find any temperature above 60 degrees fahrenheit unbearable.”
“A snow dragon, hun?” A sly grin snuck across her face. “You girls wait here.”
“Wait Rainbow!” The lavender alicorn tried to stop her friend, but Rainbow had already flown up into the sky.
Quickly the Rainbow pegasus gathered up the clouds from the highest point in the sky so that they were freshly cold. Then, after she gathered them together into one cloud, she quickly brought them back and put it over Rarity’s head. Rainbow Dash started jumping up and down on the clouds, making snow on Rarity. Absolutely dumbfounded, Twilight’s jaw dropped.
Rarity was grateful for this gesture, but saw one major flaw in it. “Don’t you think we should have done this outside Rainbow?” Rarity said with a gentle smile.
Rainbow Dash screeched to a stop mid-bounce. When she noticed the facehoofing Applejack and the utterly shocked Twilight, she blushed in an embarrassed sort of way. “S-sorry Twi.” Rainbow Dash said as she landed in front of her alicornian friend.
“M-My Library!” Twilight exclaimed her mouth still agape.
“SNOW ANGEL!” Pinkie Pie said as she jumped into the snow pile which went up to Rarity’s underbelly.”
“I’m sure it will thaw out.” Applejack said as she put a Comforting hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.
Rarity settled into the snowbank and chuckled happily as she watched Pinkie backstroke by. Suddenly, a rumbling in her stomach forced her to action. She asked “Spike, do you have any gems?”
The purple dragon who had just escaped out of a relative avalanche of snow looked towards Rarity. He looked a little disappointed in himself. “I ate all my gems a couple days before you turned into a dragon.”
“SPIKE!” Twilight shouted in a scolding manner. “I got you a full chest only a week ago!”
Spike did not make eye contact with Twilight as he said. “I know, and I know you told me not to eat them all at once. But they tasted so good and I just couldn’t stop.” Spike hugged his tail and frowned.
Rarity took pity on the sullen looking reptile and moved her open palm towards Spike. “Here, we can get some gems back at my place, would you like that Spike?”
Spike sniffled and nodded climbing into her palm.
Twilight then looked worried as the giant dragon lumbered toward the entrance “Um, Rarity I don’t think that that’s a good idea!” Twilight said as Rarity lowered herself so she could crawl to the doorway. “You're going to spook a lot of ponies and also I don’t think you will-” Rarity’s waist had gotten stuck in the doorway, as she was thrashing about trying to get lose. “fit.”
         Applejack, Spike, and Rainbow Dash outside the outside of the library’s back door, looking dumbfoundedly at the white dragoness. Rarity was clawing at the ground as she tried to escape her tight trap. 
        “Rarity! All that thrashing about is just going to rub off your scales!” Twilight shouted at Rarity as she looked for a way to free her draconic friend. “You’ve got to stop struggling!”
        Rarity, obviously tried out, stopped her frantic movements and started to pant. Sweating is so undignified. Rarity said as she wiped her brow with a tallon.
        “Why don’t you just widen the door?”Pinkie said as she hopped over to where the dragoness was squeezed.
        “Pinkie you can’t widen the door!” Twilight said a more than slightly annoyed tone. It wasn’t Pinkie Pie herself that annoyed her but this whole situation. What with the spell reversion failing, Rainbow Dash making it snow inside the library, Pinkie Pie’s antics were just the cherry on top of this absolutely chaotic cake.
“Of course you can silly.” Pinkie said as she positioned herself to the side of Rarities giant hips. “You just need to stretch the door frame like this!” Pinkie Pie then began to stretch the door frame like it was an elastic band.
A Rarity fully emerged on the other side of the threshold, a bemused looking Twilight facehoofed.  “What was I expecting...” When Pinkie Pie then let go of the door frame, letting it back to its old shape with a loud SNAP. 
        “Come along Spike, We have some gems to devour.” Rarity said as she let Spike climb on her back via her tail. Rarity took big thumping footsteps toward the boutique.         
Twilight quickly teleported in front of the stomping dragon. She had to walk backward so she could stay with Rarity. “Rarity, parading about Ponyville while you're still a dragon is a terrible idea! It would only cause mass panic and chaos!”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “Honestly Twilight, I think these ponies have learned how to not overreac-”
“EVERY PONY RUN IT’S A DRAGON!!!” Lilly the local flower mare shouted. In ten seconds flat, everypony had vacated the streets and began to quiver in their houses.
“See? See?! What did I tell you!” Twilight exclaimed. She jumped into the air and hovered in her face. “Rarity we have to go back to the library! Perhaps I can sort out this mess!”
“GANG WAY!!!” A small voice said as the trampling of small hooves. 
“Apple Bloom! Is that mah rope?!” Applejack yelled, her mouth agape and her eyes flashing.
Apple Bloom and her two other cutie mark crusaders were careening toward Rarity, a rope carried between them. “Not now big sis!” Apple Bloom said, her words muffled by the rope. “We need to stop the dragon!”
Twilight then stood in front of them to convince them to stop. “Girls wait you don’t understand!” She said before being tripped by the taut rope the fillies were carrying. 
The little fillies then began to wrap the rope around Rarity”s ankles. As Scootaloo tied a slip knot into the rope and pulled it tight. Grimacing in pain, Rarity shouted, “Girls, Stop!”
“Rarity?!” Sweetie Belle said in surprise as she watched the draconic form of her sister tumble to the ground. Sweetie Belle was absolutely dumbfounded. How did this happen?
“Sweetie Belle, your sister turned into a dragon?!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “That’s so cool!”
Rarity was sweating heavily. It felt like every drop was a gallon of salty water running down her face and quickly disappearing in the sun. “Could someone untie me? Please?” She said with a pleading note in her voice.
“Sure Rarity.” Applejack said, as she went to undo Rarity’s bonds. “I’ll get you out of this hog-tie in a jiffy.”
The confused Sweetie Belle had a worried look on her face as she asked. “How’d you get like this?”
“Well I-” Rarity was then interrupted by her alicorn friend. “Allow me to explain Sweetie Belle. Rarity had volunteered to help for a new spell. A DNA transformation spell I’ve been working on for little over a month now. I’d hope that Rarity would turn back into a pony after a hour or two, but as you can see, the spell reversion failed.”
“OW! Applejack, can you not be so rough? My scales are being rubbed off!” Rarity complained and Applejack tugged at the knot with her teeth.
Applejack spat out the rope and scolded Rarity. “Well if you’d stop fidgeting.” She said tramping her hoof on the ground. With one strong tug the ropes on Rarity’s ankles come loose. “There we go!”
        “Thank you Applejack.” Rarity said as she tried to get back but she collapses and pants. 
        “Rarity!” Sweetie Belle yelped, rushing over to her sister. “Are you ok?”
        Rarity was almost running about of sweat. “Yes dear I’m just a lightheaded.” She said as she tried to lift herself up. Rarity rose a couple of feet before her legs gave way, letting her collapse back onto the earth. 
        Twilight then hurriedly rushed over to her friend. “We have to get you to a cooler climate.”
        Rarity tried to speak though her panting, but all she could muster was a slight mumble. 
        “I’m sure Cadence will find some place for you to stay in the crystal empire. That’s a cool climate.” Twilight said as she looked up to the sky as she thinks over her sister-in-laws reaction.
Rarity’s mumbles trailed off as her thoughts became incoherent and faded into unconsciousness.
        “These just one problem.” Applejack said as she came towards the dragoness. “How are we going to get a few tons of Rarity onto a train?”
        “I’ve been working on the carrying capacity of my levitation spell.” Twilight comments casually. “I’m sure that I can at least carry her with magic long enough to her her to the train depo. Do you think you and your brother can get her into a train car from there?” 
        Applejack paused to think about her and Big Mac’s abilities. “It might take a while but we can do it.”

.........

        Applejack and Big Mac put their shoulders to Rarity’s thick tail as they worked the last bit of her rump into the all metal refrigerated train car they had acquired. 
“Put your back into it!” Applejack barked as she strained to push Rarity into the car. Twilight looks on with a slightly worried look as she her friend is packed into the car. 
Spike looks up and Twilight and asks. “What's wrong?”
“it’s going to be awfully cold in there... And with Rarity’s ice breath it could make it almost intolerable..” She said with a sorrowful voice. “But I don’t want her to be alone when she wakes up...”
Spike hung his head as he thought through the options. “I can stay with her.” Sipke volunteers.
Twilight spun around and looked down at her dragon. “Spike are you sure about this?”
Spike nodded with an excited smile. “My internal fire will keep me warm and I’m sure I could calm Rarity down if she starts panicking.” 
“ALL ABOARD!” The conductor called out as the last ponies got on.
“You better hurry Twi,” Applejack said as she and Big Mac hopped of the train.
“Don’t worry.” Spike said as he climbed up onto the train car. “I’ll make sure Rarity’s safe until we reach the Crystal Empire.” 
“Hurry Twi!” Applejack said as the train started to inch forward.
As Twilight ran to get on the train, she called back to Applejack. “Tell the others we’ll be back as soon as I sort this out, okay?”
“We’ll see ya soon, Twi!” The cowpony said, waving her hat as a sendoff. Twilight mounted the metal steps that lead up to the car
“Eeyup.” Big Mac added solemnly as Twilight entered her passenger car. 
The afternoon sun was soon brightly overhead as the steam whistle shrill screech perched the air. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash all waved farewell to their good friends as they sped north to the Crystal Empire.