For the next couple of days Twilight continued her practice, making some progress here and there, but a permanent transformation only coming up every now and then, and even then she was only working with a random result. Spike had decided to not to pester Twilight whenever she needed a break from transformations, just to keep her content, and let her read other books for her own liking. Spike in the meanwhile had gone around to help their other friends, with mixed results. Helping Rarity, as much as he liked it, incidentally resulted in Rainbow finding a good reason to laugh at his expense for at least a few days. Rarity had convinced him, without any kind of difficulty, to modeling some of her newer designs, which only one was actually meant for young colts. Helping Fluttershy gave him some lessons about, and the trust, of some of the animals she keeps and cares for. Unfortunately, Angel wasn't one of them, which was mostly fine by him.
Now he was helping Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner, with Applebloom apparently. Scootaloo didn't want to try, finding baking boring, so she decided to just hang out with Rainbow Dash for the day. Sweetie Belle had stuck around for only a moment, but decided to leave of her own reasons.
"Okay, now just mix a few blueberries, then go 'head and get ready to bake 'em." Pinkie stated in her usual content tone to both Applebloom and Spike, all the while working on some cupcakes.
"Did she mean ya'll or me?" Applebloom asked Spike
"I think she meant both of us. Aren't we doing the same thing?"
"Ah thought ah was making cupcakes." Applebloom whispered, "Pinkie, aren't we makin' cupcakes."
"You mean you two? No, you're making blueberry muffins." Pinkie simply replied
"Uh...."
"Are you making cupcakes?" Pinkie asked as she walked over and looked into her bowl
"Ah thought we were."
"Well that's okay, chocolate blueberry muffins sound tasty too." she stated cheerfully
"Are ya sure?"
"Yep! Just get ready to put them in the oven!" she then trotted over to Spike, "How 'bout you Spike? How's yours coming along?"
"Not sure, does it look right?" Spike asked
Pinkie looked at the mixture before nodding, "Yep! Looks alright to me."
After waiting a moment or so, Spike and Applebloom took out what they had made. Applebloom was first, then Spike. Spike unfortunately had to immediately drop his because he burned his tongue.
Applebloom chuckled at the incident, "Don't worry, that happened ta me too."
"Okie-Dokie! Let's see how you two did." Pinkie simply stated before taking one from Spike's tray in her mouth and eating it, "Mmm, not bad."
"Really?" Spike asked in disbelief and proceeded to try one himself, as well as Applebloom.
Spike just made a face before swallowing. Applebloom followed suit, but spat the bit in her mouth out.
"Tastes sour." Applebloom stated
"Oh yeah..., it does taste sour." Pinkie stated, seeming to giving it a second thought, "Still not too bad though. Oh well, how about you Applebloom? Let's see how you did." she stated giving them a try
"Ah think ah did it wrong, ah thought ah was making cupcakes after all." she only stated
"Hm, yeah, somethings a little off, but that's okay. It still tastes good and it's okay to make a mistake every now and then." Pinkie stated cheerfully as she patted Applebloom on the head
"Hey, Pinkie Pie, what are we making muffins for anyway?" Applebloom asked
"A large order was made. Aside from our trusty mailpony, Derpy, an order for a few dozen blueberry muffins were made from somepony in Troddingham, which of course I thought was wrong, I mean who would order so many, but turned out to be real." she replied as she placed a tray of muffins ready for baking into the oven, "Then I went *gasps* 'What if it's for a big party?!' and who am I to ruin a good party just because I didn't follow the order."
"Ah'm sure they have their reasons."
"That or they're probably the fattest ponies I've heard of." Spike slightly mumbled to himself, but was loud enough for Applebloom to hear as she giggled at the statement, "Say Pinkie, mind if I keep helping you out? I've got nothing else to do."
"Of course you can help! I always appreciate a helping hoof."
For the remainder of the day, Spike continued to help Pinkie at Sugarcube corner. Applebloom stuck around a while longer as well, but eventually left as well. First though Pinkie boxed and let Applebloom keep her blueberry-chocolate-chip muffins since it didn't fit the order, and she didn't want all of them. Applebloom also decided to tell Spike to meet them at the clubhouse tomorrow for a regular group meeting.
Later that night, Twilight was reading a new book that Princess Luna had sent her. It was a copy of various counter spells that Luna owned. She had bookmarked various pages of interest that dealt with transformations. Twilight and Spike decided to have some of the cupcakes that Spike made, but goofed up in some way, as a dinner; and while mildly sour, she decided to humor him and eat some. Besides, they certainly tasted better than when she accidentally got a mouthful of Pinkie's favorite hot sauce topping.
The following day, Twilight let Spike ride on her back as usual as they made their way to Sweet Apple Acres. Greeting Applejack and Applebloom 'good morning' as they entered.
"Howdy Twilight." Applejack greeted, "Ah see Spike ain't back ta normal yet."
"Unfortunately." Spike rang in.
"I'm still working on fixing it. I'm getting close, and I've even gotten permanent transformations down to a tee. Unfortunately, I haven't focused on 'dragon' as a form of practice." Twilight added
"How much longer do ya fancy it'll take?" Applejack asked
"I don't know. Hopefully not for very much longer." Twilight simply replied as she let Spike down from off her back, "Princess Luna lent me a copy of her personal book of counter spells yesterday. With any luck I won't need to focus Spike's exact form during a transformation, but simply undo the spell completely."
"Is it easier?"
"It is, but it'll take some practice I'm afraid. As I said, I've just barely done transformation spells that are suppose to be permanent, much less magic to reverse said spell manually."
"Well, Spike's always welcome here at Sweet Apple Acres. As long as he doesn't cause a fire to the family crop or eat all the apples." Applejack stated with a chuckle.
"I doubt Spike would do anything like that anyway."
"I couldn't if wanted to right now." Spike rang in.
"Anyway, Applebloom, what are you, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle planning on doing today?"
"Ah dunno yet, Scoot and Sweetie Belle haven't told me yet." she simply replied
"Well, I have a special request for you three. If you're willing to take it that is."
"Well, I'm sure we wouldn't mind a challenge, so okay."
"Okay, thank you. I was wondering if you three could try teaching Spike the basics of being a pony."
"Basics...?"
"Yes, like holding a pencil, carrying weight on his back, something along those lines."
"Ain't he know about those already?" Applejack asked
"Yes, but not as a pony. He tried doing some of his usual chores last night, but...not as well."
"I goofed up." Spike stated, "I just ended up making more of a mess trying to clean up."
"Oh, it wasn't that bad Spike. You just need...a little better understanding what you're now physically capable of and your limitations." Twilight stated
"That doesn't sound too hard at all. Sure thing." Applebloom stated, "Besides it could be what I need to earn my cutie mark."
"Ya'll really think teachin' is you're special skill lil' sis?" Applejack asked with some amusement.
"Maybe, I haven't tried teaching before."
A little later at the clubhouse, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle found Applebloom trying to teach Spike how hold the pencil and write with his mouth. After letting them know about Twilight's request of them, with some hesitation they decided to give it a try.
"No, no, it's too...squiggly." Scootaloo voiced in
"I think I can sort of read it though." Applebloom stated, "It is you're name right?"
"Yeah, it is." Spike replied
"You sure you don't want to just use your hooves?" Scootaloo asked
"Yeah, I'm sure. I don't even know how you guys hold it with your hooves."
"Well just keep practicing." she stated and gave Spike a strong pat on the back, one that slightly made him cringe in pain, "Here maybe a demonstration is in order." then before anyone could say otherwise, or do anything at all, she took the pencil in her mouth and wrote her own name on the paper, "See easy-pea-sy, now you try." she added after putting the pencil back down on the floor.
"Can I get a new pencil then? No offense, but I don't want to put my mouth on the same object that was in someone else's just five seconds ago."
"Ew! Gross, I forgot you were using that." she exclaimed before walking off to go rinse her mouth
"How come I can't help?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously. She was just sitting off to the side watching the others teach Spike.
"Sweetie Belle, you're a unicorn, you can just use magic to move the pencil." Scootaloo stated
"Oh yeah."
"Um...why don't we try somethin' else for now?" Applebloom asked as she sat down to think what else they could try teaching him.
"Did Twilight ask anything else in particular?"
"She mentioned something about carrying weights."
"You're not good at carrying a pack?" Scootaloo asked him curiously
"I've never tried."
"Then let's get started. I have my pack near the door. We can put some books inside it and have him try it out." Scootaloo voiced in rather quickly and tried gathering some books from school and some they had borrowed from the library scattered about the clubhouse.
"Just don't go overloading it, Scoot. We don't want to send him to the hospital." Applebloom reminded
"Don't worry I'm sure it's not gonna be that heavy." she stated as she dragged it across the floor, and just managed to put it on his back.
"This IS heavy. What....did you put in it?" Spike asked in a strained voice
"Just four books."
Applebloom took a look inside to see what Scoot had actually put inside, "This has Twilight's dictionary in it." then proceeded to take that off Spike's load.
"Just one volume." Scootaloo stated in her defense.
"There's how's that?"
"Still kinda heavy, but more manageable. Thanks Applebloom."
"Think nothing of it."
"Come on, let's get walking. That'll help 'im break in those carrying muscles." Scootaloo stated as she walked over to the door.
"Carrying muscles?" Sweetie Belle asked curiously
"Do we have muscles just for carrying?" Applebloom asked
"I dunno, but let's just get going." Scoot stated boldly and trotted out
The others just gave a shrug and walked out to follow the pegasus.