Twilight Sparkle was very good at resisting temptation. It was a talent, really. Many, many times as a filly she had restrained herself from such temptations such as sneaking into the restricted wing of the library, correcting adults that should have been much more knowledgeable about things, and eating all the pancakes before Shining Armor could come down to the table. But combine temptation with scientific curiosity…
Spike chuckled as he dug his fork into his baked pasta. “So you're doing the cooking now, huh?” he asked.
Twilight shrugged. “Call it an experiment,” she said.
Spike held up his loaded fork and placed a sprig of parsley as garnish on top. He placed it into his mouth, and then his eyes widened. He swallowed and quickly started loading his fork again. “Well, I deem this one a success. Maybe you should experiment like this more often.”
Twilight chuckled modestly as Spike chewed. “Cooking is an art, Spike; I just follow recipes. Now, you, on the other hoof…”
Spike swallowed and shrugged modestly. “I do what I can.” He glanced over at Twilight's setting, which was only a glass of chocolate milk. “You're not hungry?”
“I ate a lot earlier,” she explained. “Turns out you do a lot of taste testing when you're trying out a new recipe.” She smiled disarmingly. “If I ate any more, I'd probably explode.”
Spike guffawed. “More for me, then!” he said, digging in again.
“Don’t eat too much,” Twilight said with a smile as Spike reached for his third serving. “I’ve also made dessert.”
Spike's eyes widened, then narrowed. This was too good to be true. It had to be a trap somewhere. “Dessert?” he asked cautiously.
Twilight lit her horn and teleported back into the kitchen, only to return in seconds bearing a large chocolate cake. “Cooking is an art, but baking is a science, Spike,” Twilight said pleasantly. “And you know how much I like science.”
Spike chuckled as Twilight cut a piece for each of them. “There’s always room for dessert, amirite?”
“So right,” Twilight agreed as she took a bite of her cake.
Spike managed to eat one piece before he yawned hard enough that his jaw popped. “I'm thinking I'm gonna hit the hay early tonight,” he said, rubbing at his eyes.
“That's fine,” Twilight said a bit too quickly. “I'll just be…” She lit her horn and pulled over a random book from off the nearest shelf. “-doing some reading!” She glanced down at the book she had retrieved and read the title aloud. “'Scientific Naming and Cataloguing of the Coniferous Trees of the Whitetail Woods'! This one's a real page turner!” She looked up, but Spike had already vanished.
She chuckled. Perfect.
Twilight slowly crept into his room and poked her head in. Spike lay in bed, already snoring quietly. The sleeping pills she had slipped into her dinner had worked. A smile played at her lips, and she opened her mouth and ran her tongue along the bottoms of her teeth. Two tiny spikes, almost invisible if you weren't looking for them, now adorned her two incisors.
She wasn't sure how deeply she'd have to bite. His scales were thick enough that he probably wouldn't feel a normal bite; but if she needed to taste blood before the magic took effect (and she'd had enough blood recently to last her the rest of her life), then this would present a problem. For obvious reasons, all of Night Wing’s notes had been about protecting noctrali, not dragons.
Still, science wasn’t always clean, and sometimes sacrifices had to be made for science. She crept forward and leaned down, and then froze as Spike grunted and rolled over. She held still, not even breathing as he scratched at his stomach, and then he settled back down and his breathing steadied again. Twilight sighed with relief… and then froze as he once again shifted at the sound. She grimaced and held her breath again. Thankfully, Spike relaxed once more, and mumbled something that sounded vaguely like ‘airity’ before dropping off and snoring lightly once more.
Twilight shook her head. She’d just have to do it. She leaned down. Instinct told her the neck was the best position, and she bit. She didn't even make a dent in his scales, and she wondered if it had worked.
And then she felt it. Spike was available. She didn't know how else to describe it. An excited giggle nearly escaped her throat. Fascinating!
She walked back outside and found a nearby desk so she'd have a comfortable place to sit as she experimented. She rested her head and closed her eyes, and then slowly opened Spike's.
The first thing she noticed was that she was much closer to the ground than she had been as a pony. The second thing she noticed was the amount of dust under the dresser that had not been cleaned. She grunted in moderate displeasure and made a mental note to talk to Spike about the cleanliness of his room, but then she realized that she was in complete control of Spike's body—the sound had come from him, not her; and she had heard it with his ears, not hers. She pushed herself up and blinked in surprise. Spike had claws, and she could wriggle each one. This was a strange yet familiar sensation. They were short, but felt strong, and she idly wondered if he'd ever accidentally caught them on anything and shredded it.
Grabbing the edge of the basket, she tried to step out and go exploring as Spike.
Instead, her rear claw got stuck on the wicker basket, and she found herself toppling forward. She barely had time to register that this might be the reason Spike usually quite literally jumped out of bed in the mornings before her chin hit the ground.
She gasped in pain as she was back in her seat with the painfully familiar headache born of magical feedback pulsing in her skull.
Spike sat up, now awake. He groaned, too, but more in confusion. “Whoa,” he said. “Did I go sleepwalking or something?” Then he glanced up at Twilight sheepishly. “I didn't wake you up, did I?”
“It was 'or something',” Twilight answered, rubbing her head. “And it was fine. I just… was awake because I… uh… thought of a new magical breakthrough!” She smiled widely, even through the pounding headache, hoping he would buy it.
He did. Spike got up and climbed back into bed. “Sounds fascinating. Save it 'til morning?” he pleaded sleepily.
“Deal. Good night, Spike.”
But the feeling that Spike was once again available let her know that he was already fast asleep.
She giggled. Spike was right. This was fascinating.