It was another normal day in Ponyville, except, it wasn't so normal. Ponies disappearing into the night and Everfree forest were anything but normal for this small town. Especially not for the residents of said town. One of those residents was taking it quite hard as he awoke from his slumber in his bed.
"What happened last night?" He asked nopony in particular as he clutched his head in pain. Something was obscuring his vision, he reached up to his face and took off what felt to be a pair of glasses. They were an odd thing to behold, while they held the same style as glasses. Instead of being for ponies with near or far sight, they seemed to just have a number of bars of plastic where the actual glass should be. He rolled over in his bed and held them up to the ceiling as he tried to inspect them.
"Where in the hay did I get these things?" Suddenly, a flash of what seemed to be a memory shot through his head.
It was a dark area, what had been moonlight was blocked by vines that had made up the ceiling and walls, and what little light that had escaped through the vines did little to help anypony's vision. But what they could see was the strangest part. There had been strategically placed speakers. and and some kind of creature, and that creature was some kind of hairless chimp? What ever it was, it just sat their on some kind of stage, tinkering with an odd machine. The creature in question had long flat black hair on top of his head, and he wore jet black and blue shades on his face. The rest of what he wore seemed to be a simple white shirt and white baggy pants.
"What is this place?" Spike asked aloud as he looked at his surroundings. And he wasn't the only one, a number of the teen population of Ponyville seemed to be there. Wondering the same thing. Having heard Spike, the creature looked up from his machine and looked upon the group of children. His face that had been emotionless a moment ago, was now sporting a wide grin.
Spike doubled over in pain as his headache had gotten worse as he thought. He proceeded to make his way from his room, to the bathroom. He opened the door to the bathroom and mad his way to the medical cupboard. He withdrew and opened a bottle of pills that had been for headaches like his own.
He dropped a couple of pills into his claws and threw back his head as he downed them. Spike closed the bottle and put it back into the cupboard along with the other bottles and containers. When he had closed the cupboard something caught his eye in his own reflection. And what he saw had horrified him. His scales, which had been purple and green, were now black with green flames designed into them. the fires themselves had been tipped with a purple hue, along with his spines. And on his tail, had been words that read 'Party Dragon' written in a way that seemed to make it look like a tattoo. And it was written on both sides of his tail, in purple ink.
Spike was shocked beyond belief, he couldn't even recognize himself anymore. He ran from the bathroom and made his way to Twilights room.
"Twilight!" He called out, trying to find his beloved sister and to see if she knew anything.
"Oh, Apple Jacks gonna kill me!" Apple Bloom paced in her room, trying to find a remedy to her situation. Not a second later a knock was heard at her door.
"Apple Bloom, ya in there? Where have you been all night sugar cube?"
"A-Apple Jack! Don't come in! I'm- uh - not decent!" Apple Bloom said trying to bide herself some time.
"What do ya mean 'not decent'? Apple Bloom, you've been gone all night, and when ya got back, you went straight to your room so we didn't have the chance to see ya."
"I'm sorry, just please, please, please, don't come in."
"What's got ya not wanting us to come in? Did you make a mess of your room when you got home?"
"It's not that, it's something worse."
"Worse? Alright Apple Bloom, We're comin in, I don't care what ya say, we have to help our little sister."
Before Apple Bloom could do or say anything, the door swung open and in the doorway was Apple Jack and behind her was Big Macintosh. The moment their eyes connected with Apple Bloom, everything went dead silent. Both of the older siblings eye's widened. What they had seen, was much worse than any dirty room. On Apple Bloom's flank had been something of interest, mainly, the purple writing and green flames that spelled out the name of Ponyville's resident dragon.
Both of the older siblings were like deer in a set of headlights before Apple Jack, had been to break the silence and stupor.
"SPI~KE!"
"Sweetie, is everything okay?" Rarity asked from behind her sisters door. All she could hear was soft whimpering coming from who she thought was her sister.
"Sweetie Belle, I'm coming in okay? I need to see my sister after what happened last night."
Rarity slowly opened the door to her sisters room and peeked inside. She had seen her sister sitting in the middle of her room on the floor, with her eyes covered by her hooves.
"Oh Sweetie, are you okay?" Rarity asked as she made her place known next to her sister. Sweetie replied with a soft nod.
"But why are you crying then? Is something bothering you?" Sweetie answered with another nod and took one of her hooves and pointed to where a cutie mark should be. There, on her flank, was Spikes name written in purple ink and stylized with green flames. It took a moment for Rarity to grasp the situation, but when she did.
"SPI~KE!"
Scootaloo had been jumping with joy in her room.
"I have to show Rainbow Dash! She'll be so happy for me, now that I finally got my cutie mark." Scootaloo opened the cloud door and made her way down to the living room of the cloud home.
"Hey squirt. what's with all the commotion?" Rainbow Dash asked as she looked at her bouncing sister.
"I finally got my cutie mark!" Scootaloo proclaimed.
"Nice! What's it look like?"
Scootaloo had stopped bouncing in place and presented her new cutie mark. A moment later, the front of the cloud home exploded outward as a sonic rainboom had been achieved withing the walls of the home. One could say they heard the rainbow streak scream out one thing and one thing only.
"SPI~KE!"