//------------------------------// // Waking Up // Story: Bigger Than Mac // by DraconequusMaximus //------------------------------// After dealing with the frantic populace of Ponyville the remaining mane six headed to the hospital to find a large tent had been set up to one side of the facility. It was easy enough to figure out that they most likely didn't have a hospital room large enough to accommodate Spike's new size properly. The girls trotted up to the tent and found themselves unsure of how to proceed. If they were doing anything like surgery, merely barging in could disturb whomever was in there with Spike. Applejack stepped forward and tried to alert the occupants. "Uh, hullo? Is it safe t' come in?" Applejack said hopefully loud enough for somepony to hear her. She didn't need to wait long as Discord's long neck popped out of the entry/exit wearing a surgical mask and a shower cap with what seemed to be rubber duckies printed on it. He smiled widely enough for it to be seen from around the mask. "Ah, dear Fluttershy and company. I could use your medical expertise my dear." He said cheerfully while only somewhat acknowledging the other four mares. With a snap of his fingers the assembled ponies found themselves in scrubs, masks, and caps fit for somepony working in a hospital. He pulled Fluttershy in and withdrew his head. It was almost immediately replaced by his dragon-like tail, the fur of which imitated a hand signaling them to follow. As the mares stepped in they saw Fluttershy being true to her craft and meticulously inspecting the sleeping dragon for anything that might have been amiss. Had Spike been conscious he would most likely be quite embarrassed at how closely the pegasus was looking him over. The princesses were all at the far end of the tent, the younger two attempting to console Celestia who had obviously been worrying herself sick. Her usually immaculate countenance was marred by bloodshot eyes and her normally pastel rainbow ethereal mane laying flat across her neck, currently a pale bubblegum pink. She held a cup of coffee in her bare hooves, her golden boots cast aside. "I'm a terrible mother, I should have known about this. We could have prepared him for it." Celestia said with tears welling up in her eyes, Discord's words seemed to have hit home. Before she could begin a session of full out weeping, Fluttershy stepped back from Spike and pulled her mask down so she could be heard more clearly. "Um... Princess Celestia? I finished looking over Spike." The timid mare said trying to get the mares attention. Evidently she heard the quiet mare as she looked at Fluttershy with hope in her eyes. The expectant look made Fluttershy a little nervous, but she steeled her nerves thanks to the importance of the situation. "Well, I don't know very much about dragons, but my specialty is animal care. From what I can see Spike isn't in any real danger, he just seems to be exhausted and... um... big?" She said thinking her explanation didn't sounds as professional as she had hoped. It didn't seem to matter though, Celestia's mane seemed to become more vibrant & resumed flowing unnaturally, but slowly. "So he'll be alright? There aren't any problems with his wings or anything?" Celestia asked with some renewed vigor. Fluttershy nodded before continuing. "Not that I can tell, he's going to need take it easy for a week at the least, his body seems like it used up quite a lot of nutrients and all his non essential body fat. I'd recommend he take a wide range of supplements for the next few months, calcium especially." Fluttershy took a moment to lift his wings slightly for the princess to see them, they sported a thin membrane nearly the same pale green as his underbelly. "His wings seem to have come in alright, although I've never seen anything sprout wings without magic before. He's most likely going to need to work with them before he's ready to fly. He'll need to build up flight muscles too. His musculature seems different than a bats or a pegasi or any other winged animal I know of, so I recommend trying different exercises to see what works. Somepony will need to keep an eye on him when he begins trying to fly, just to be safe. Other than that I don't think that there will be any problems." Fluttershy was a tad winded from her medical spiel, the timid pegasus wasn't used to saying more than a sentence or two at a time. The princess' hair began to resume it's normal coloration and she let loose a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. "I hadn't been so worried since the great griffon war while Luna was away. Thank you for putting my fears to rest Fluttershy. Do you have any idea when he'll wake up?" She asked hopefully. Fluttershy's expression saddened a little at the question, but she knew it would be bad to lie to the princess. "I can't say for sure when he'll wake up, dragons are notoriously hard sleepers and Spike has just been through a very tiring event. I could be a few minutes or a few months." She said not meeting Celestia's gaze, feeling terrible for dampening the newly improved atmosphere within the tent. Nopony said anything for a few minutes until Luna stood up with a determined look. "I will visit young Spike's dreams and speak with him, we should learn of how much he remembers of his ordeal." She said before sitting herself on the ground within the tent. She closed her eyes and was silent, after a moment her eyes opened revealing what seemed to be... space. Blackness with seemingly distant specks of light. Seeing this in the eyes of a pony was more than a little unsettling. "Does, she always get like that when she goes into ponies dreams?" Twilight said obviously creeped out and interested by the phenomenon. Celestia nodded and looked back to her sister while speaking. "Yes, it's quite disturbing isn't it? She normally only does this in the privacy of her chambers, she's actually very self conscious about it. It means a lot that she would do this in front of other ponies, she really does care for her nephew. Spike anyway, she threatened to eviscerate Blueblood the first time they met." Celestia chuckled, already feeling better about her son. Everypony's attention was drawn to the sound of an uncharacteristically loud "Ha!" from a certain alabaster unicorn. She immediately resumed her normal poised demeanor before simply stating: "A lady is allowed a loss of composure now and again... and the pig deserved to be taken down a peg." Nopony argued with this as Celestia merely nodded in agreement. After about fifteen minutes Luna's eyes closed and opened again to reveal her normal blue-green eye color. "It seems his mind has not suffered, though he complains of a sizable headache. He believes he will awaken by the end of the day, but his soreness is making his rest difficult. His hunger also has subsided greatly but he says it still feels like he hasn't eaten all day, as opposed to the unending emptiness." Luna stated, relieving some of the uncertainty of the assembled mares. Pinkie Pie was already crowd sourcing ideas for what to make for Spike's inevitable "You-got-really-really-big-really-really-fast-party". Her heated discussion with Discord about the merits of depleted uranium as a substitute for oregano was interrupted by Luna, who had just remembered something else. "Ah yes, Spike would also like for us to ascertain how Big Macintosh is faring." She said scanning the tent for the burly earth pony. This reminded the mares who had come in late of Big Mac's unexpected reaction to Spike's loss of consciousness. It was becoming apparent that the stallion was nowhere to be seen. "Just where is mah brother?" Applejack asked Twilight, as she had been here longer. "He said something about fixing the barn?" Twilight said uncertainly, "He left as soon as he was sure Spike was in stable condition." "Did anypony else notice those two sneak off for awhile during our contest last night?" Applejack looked around at everypony, though only Pinkie Pie nodded. "Yupp, I was gonna try and find out why they left a party early but I wanted to win the contest and they came back a few minutes later." She said obviously confused as to why anypony would leave a party early. All of the mares present were brought out from their own thoughts on the subject as Discord spoke up. "Are all of you crazy pastel ponies blind? Those two have had eyes for each other for some time now. Are immortals the only ones that ever notice anything?" He said to the mares. Rainbow flew up to his face angrily and shouted: "How would you even know? You only ever show up to mess with us or when the princesses make you!" "Pffft, oh please Rainbow Dash. I'm around all the time, I even have a house in Ponyville." Discord said before he suddenly shrank into a rather dull looking donkey. Rainbow was dumbstruck until she recognized the disguised Discord. "You're the guy that always seems to be around to take offense every time somepony says that someone is making an ass of themselves!" Rainbow said pointing a hoof accusingly at the transformed draconequus. Discord resumed his normal form and had a false look of hurt on his face. "Well excuse me for trying to give ponies a better appreciation of classic comedy!" He said with a forced huff. Twilight opened her mouth to comment on Discord's somewhat creepy antics but was stopped by a surprisingly deep groan. "Uuuugh, trying to sleep here guys. Just had all my bones stretched and gained like three hundred pounds all at once." "SPIKE!" The collected mares shouted, deafening the tired dragon. The group mobbed him with a collective hug, causing the sore reptile to both smile and wince. "Okay, okay, I'm awake guys. I still feel pretty sore though, like somepony dropped a mountain on me." Spike said as he lifted his newly elongated neck. Celestia and Luna helped Spike onto his feet. Spike looked himself over, he examined his new claws and stretched his wings experimentally. They hurt, but the thought of soaring through the sky eventually was well worth it. Curious, he flexed his arm revealing a far greater bulge of muscle than he had seen on anypony other than Bulk Biceps. "Okay, so I'm gonna go right out and say it. I. AM. HOT." He said with a grin that bordered on predatory. His smile fell when he saw the mares other than the immortals step backward slightly. He opened his mouth after facing away and tapped his new fangs with his claw, they were about the same length as kitchen knives. He knew for sure because he had eaten his own set in the middle of the night. "Sorry girls, not used to being all... scary." Spike said looking himself over again. Now instead of appreciating his powerful new physique he saw the body of a monster. To his surprise Fluttershy was the first to step back toward him. "No, we're sorry Spike. We acted on instinct without thinking of how it might make you feel." She said in her most motherly tone. The other mares nodded to in agreement that they felt terrible for fearing their dear friend. His actual adoptive mother was the next to step forward. "I'm glad to see you up so soon Spike." Celestia said craning her neck up to see her son's face, "It's hard to believe my little boy was so much shorter than me just yesterday." Spike was surprised that he was indeed a couple feet taller than his mother now. In fact looking over he could meet eyes with Discord while on all fours. "Hello there! Nice to finally have someone to talk too that can look me in the eyes!" Discord smiled at him as his eyes proceeded to roll out of his head and look up at Spike from the ground. Spike decided to ignore that, today had already been weird enough for his liking. He looked around the tent and noticed a distinct lack of red in the area. "Has anypony seen Big Mac?" He asked with concern obvious in his new voice. "Supposedly he's at the barn fixin' it. But ah don' remember there bein' anythin wrong with it." Applejack replied while rubbing her chin with a hoof. "Come to think of it, he was the first pony to try an' help you when ya passed out. Never heard im' make such a fuss before. There's somethin goin on between the two of ya isn't there?" She said in an accusing tone. Spike suddenly felt very small again as all eyes in the room traveled back to him. His nervous swallow was audible to everypony in the room. "Heh, about that..."