A Dragon in Pony's Clothing
In bed lay two ponies, a couple sound asleep in each other's comfort. They’ve been like this for over a month now. Coddled up together. Just them and no pony else, but one knows this can’t last forever. Twilight Sparkle has known for a few days now that her friends will come to see where her and her assistant have been.
She woke as the first rays of light trickled through her window. She knew it was time to get up and greet the new day, but his fur was so soft and warm, it was like spooning a big purple cloud. She’ll miss waking up in her stallion’s hooves the mosy, but he couldn’t stay a pony. He was born a dragon, and it wasn’t right for him to be a pony.
So she dragged herself off Spike and made her way downstairs. She searched through her bookshelves that hadn’t been organized in weeks, one major thing that causes her to itch. She looked for the book that contained the spell to turn Spike back to normal.
“No, no, no,” she tossed several books to the side. “Where in the world is it?” Several more books were shoved violently out of the way. “There you are!” She pulled out a small brown book. She flipped furiously through hundreds of pages before stopping. “Okay, all I have to do is do the spell in reverse, however that goes. Better practice, but I don't want to run the risk of waking Spike.”
Twilight slowly trotted back to her room to find that Spike was still sleeping peacefully. She came up to his side and kissed him on the cheek. “You'll be back to yourself by the end of the day,” she whispered before leaving.
A few hours later Spike woke to find that the bed was curiously empty. “Twilight?” he questioned, eyes still closed. He sat up, smacked his lips and looked around their room. She was nowhere to be found. He rose from his stone like slumber and lurched his way out the room. At the top of the steps he looked around, still no Twilight. He stepped forward, hearing a soft crinkle under his hoof. It was a note that read: I've gone out to get more food. Please wait until I come back... Twilight.
“Wait a second... ” he read over the note again. Something was wrong. Twilight would never go shopping without him. Of course, with his current state that wouldn’t be possible, but there'd be at least a list of what she was going to get coupled with random chores.
He dropped the note and ran to the door, but the moment he opened it he was stopped by a shocked Rarity. She looked up at him as he looked down on her. “H-Hello sir. May I ask what you're doing in Twilight's home?”
“I uh. I'm uh, I-I'm her cousin!” he said louder than what he had wished. Rarity looked him up and down.
“Odd, she never mentioned a cousin before,” she skeptically noted.
“Y-yeah, that's Twilight! Never wants to mention her family, heh...” he chuckled.
“Well, she didn't mention she had a brother. We only found out through his marriage to Princess Cadence. If you do happen to see her, tell her I need to talk to her. Oh and, do you perchance happen to know where Spike is?”
He began to sweat bullets. Every promise he made to Rarity was broken because of the spell. He was supposed to help her manage repairs at the Boutique, now he's over a month late with no viable excuse. “N-no ma'am. I haven't!” he shakily answered.
“If you do, you tell that little ditcher that he's going to get a decent piece of my mind,” she huffed. “Well, I'd best my on my way mister...?”
“Oh! Uh, Flaming Quill. Call me Flaming Quill.”
“Flaming Quill? Hm, that's a lovely name. It was nice to meet you Mr. Quill.”
“See you soon Miss... Rarity right?” he faked.
“Yes, see you later darling.”
He watched her until she disappeared into the market. “Whew!” he sighed. She was still the same as he’s left her. Though it had only been about month, it felt like years had gone by. He wanted to follow and tell her what happened to Spike, well him. The only problem is that she thinks he's a no good no show who'd rather ditch somepony than fulfill a promise. He needn't worry about that though. Finding Twilight was his only concern.
Later near sugar cube corner Spike sat exhausted on a bench. “Man, where could she be? I've been looking forever!” He had been walking in circles for hours “looking” for Twilight. He was fooling himself, using her absence as an excuse to get out of the house.
“Hello! I haven't seen you here before,” a sweet energetic voice called. Instantly his heart pounded furiously as he began to sweat. “Please tell me that's not who I think it is!” he turned to find Pinkie's snout touching his own. “AH!” he jumped.
“AH! What is there something on me?!” she squealed.
“No, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” Spike gasped.
“Oh, hehe. Sorry 'bout that. I'm Pinkie Pie!”
“Spi-uh...” “darn what was that name I told Rarity?!” He could not remember the name for the life of him. It was simple, not too convoluted, but he still couldn’t get it.
“Is your name Fire Writer?” she grasped his flank.
“Ah, hey!” he wriggled out of her grasp. “It’s uh, Flaming Quill.”
“That's a cool name!”
“Thank y–” he was cut off by a blue streak landing in between him and Pinkie.
“Hey Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash greeted.
“Hiya Dashie, you're just in time to–”
“Try out a new awesome flavor of cupcake?” she licked her lips greedily.
“No silly,” she giggled. “In time to meet this cool new stallion I bumped into.”
Spike was inches away from escaping. If she kept the conversation going for a second longer he would have made it.
“Hi!” he grinned nervously.
“Uh, hello?”
“Flaming Quill.” Pinkie added.
“Yeah, so. You're new around here, huh?” Rainbow circled him.
“Yup, been here about a month now,” Spike nervously chuckled.
“Mhm...” she looked deep into his eyes. “Whoa...”
“W-what? What's wrong?” he shook, stricken with fear.
“You have dragon eyes. Kinda reminds me of Spike... Oh, that's right!” she zipped back to Pinkie. “We have to keep looking for Twilight and Spike!” she demanded.
“I know Dashie. There's only one problem though.”
“What Pinkie?”
She pulled out a map with X's covering it. “We've searched all over Ponyville!”
“We'll have to look again. Those two will turn up sooner or later.”
“I can, uh. I can help...” Spike said dismissively. “I know where they are.”
“Oh yeah. How do you know?” Rainbow Dash spat.
“Because I'm Twilight's cousin.”
Meanwhile across town Twilight came back to find an empty library. She looked around, no pony other than her and a piece of paper on the floor. It was the note she left Spike. “Oh no...” she dashed out of the library, directly towards town square. She thought furiously about what reason Spike would leave after she told him to stay put over the duration of the spell. “Spike! Where are you!” she shouted, catching several odd glances from nearby ponies. “Spike!” she shouted in a fiercer tone. She was about to scream again when she felt a little nude from her side.
“Twilight?” a little filly called. She looked down to see little red maned Applebloom wearing an apron.
“Oh... Hi Applebloom. What are you up to?”
“Nothin', I gotta help Applejack with the cart,” she groaned.
“That shouldn't be too bad,” Twilight reassured.
“It's a form of punishment...”
“What did you do?” Twilight asked.
“Me and the crusaders tried to get our cutie marks in Law Enforcement,” she said flatly.
“Oh wow, uh.” Twilight grimaced.
“Long story short, I have one hundred hours of “family service”.”
“Family service?” she asked. “How many hours have you finished?”
“Three,” Applebloom growled.
“It shouldn't be so bad. I need to ask, have you seen Spike?”
“It's not even court official. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo barely got in trouble! How is Applejack gonna officially keep track of all my hours?!” she growled through clenched teeth. “About Spike, no. I haven't seen him in while. Actually come to think of it. Everypony is lookin' for you and him too. I'll go tell Applejack I found ya...” Applebloom ran back to Applejack's cart.
Twilight couldn't make out what they were saying. Applebloom would point back to Twilight a few times then turn back to Applejack. After about a minute of conversation Applejack looked past Applebloom. “Oh no...” Applejack slowly walked up to her, mouth agape. Twilight wanted to run, but that would only make her situation worse, so she stood as her friend looked on her as if she were a ghost.
“Twilight?” Applejack asked as she approached.
“Hi Appleja-ACK!” Applejack picked her up into a tight hug. The sound of crackling joints, rang in Twilight's ears, as she struggled to breath against the farm pony’s grip.
“Well, I'd say you've been stiff for a while,” Applejack laughed as she set Twilight down. “Where've ya been?”
“I was... was... I was In Canterlot! Yeah, I was in Canterlot.” Twilight said while rubbing her neck.
Applejack raised her brow. “You're acting pretty s`quirrelly.”
“Sorry, I was just running. That and you nearly crushed me,” she chuckled half heartedly
“Sorry ‘bout that,” she looked around. “Where's Spike? I figured he'd be next to ya or somethin'.”
“Actually, that's who I'm looking for. Would you mind helping?”
“I wish I could, but I gotta stay with the Applecart,” Applejack sighed.
“I can watch over it sis,” Applebloom said as she hoofed a pony some Apples.
“I dunno. Not after that stunt you pulled.”
“I won't go anywhere. I can't...” Big Mac approached with a stern look. “So yeah, don't worry about nothin'.”
“Come on Applejack,” Twilight called.
“You got everything under control here brother?”
“Applejack!” Twilight impatiently called.
“R-right, here I come!”
Near Town Hall, Spike, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash searched tirelessly for Twilight. “Ugh! We looked everywhere... Again!” Rainbow complained. “Where is she?”
“I don't know. She's in Ponyville, she was with me this morning, but I don't know where she could have gone,” Spike replied.
“Maybe we should put up lost fliers?” Pinkie Pie innocently suggested.
“That's a great idea... How about we put on it “fully grown unicorn missing. She's a freaking princess, you can't miss her!”
“That is a great idea!” Pinkie cheered with a bounce.
“Look, we've been searching for over a month now. It's not like she's just gonna walk up to us,” Rainbow whipped her head around.
“What did you do that for?” Spike asked in confusion.
“It's like in books. When you say they won't pop up behind you they usually do. Y'know?”
Spike and Pinkie stared silently. “I have no idea what you're talking about,” Pinkie giggled.
“Forget it...” Rainbow sighed. “Let's just keep looking.”
As they slowly walked off Spike was blindsided by something hard. He rubbed his throbbing ribs then looked to the assailant. “Hey watch where you're going! You almost killed me!”
“Sorry about that partner.” She removed the towel that was covering her face. “I slipped on this little board doohickey and came tumblin' right into ya,” Applejack explained. “Pleased to meet you, My name's Applejack.”
She looked Spike up and down. “You're not from around here, are you?”
“Oh, I uh. No, no I'm new,” he grimaced.
“Again, sorry for runnin' ya over,” she turned to Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. “Huh? What're y'all two up to?”
“We were helping Twilight's cousin look for her,” Pinkie replied energetically.
“Really? Well, I found Twilight and we were lookin' for Spike.”
“Why are you looking for Spike? He's in Canterlot, right Flaming Quill?” Rainbow Dash skeptically questioned. He knew he was caught, it was only a matter of time before they found out that he was Spike. Maybe he could try to sneak away again, but seeing as he’s a stallion and not a little dragon anymore, slinking away just won’t cut it. Just as he was about to come up with an excuse Twilight came behind Applejack.
“Applejack, are you okay? I saw what happened and –” she looked directly at Spike. “Spike?”
“Spike?!” they all gasped.
“Well, yeah. Who else could he be. Green mane, dragon eyes. Come on girls.”
“Me and Rainbow Dash thought he was your cousin, Flaming Quill,” Pinkie added.
“Cousin? My parents don't have any brothers or sisters,” Twilight along with the others looked down at Spike who had gone pale. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
So he did. Spike explained how he became a pony because of Twilight's deceit and as to why they had been missing for a month.He apologised for lying, and he apologised for leaving without permission. He expected them to lambast him for lying to everypony.
“Look Spike, just tell the truth next time,” Twilight instructed. “This'll make an excellent letter to send to the princess, just to let her know what I've been up to of course. It's not like I'm still sending friendship reports, heh,” Twilight awkwardly stated. “Come on Spike, I still need you to deliver this letter.”
“Uh, how?”
“Can your still use your magic fire?”
He strained and shot a small puff of green flame from his horn.
“That’ll be okay, now come on. We'll see you guys later.” Twilight said before walking off with Spike.
“So, what do ya think of this Pinkie?” Applejack asked.
“I like Spike as a pony. He's not as cute as he was as a wittle dwagon though,” she said in a babyish tone.
“Hm, I still think he's pretty cute...”
“Ooh, okay Applejack,” Pinkie looked playfully.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Pinkie giggled. “What do you wanna do now?”
“Pranks?” Applejack suggested.
“Now you're talking my language!” Pinkie pulled a water balloon out of her mane.
Dear Princess Celestia
I had an, interesting day today. I finally left home for the first time in weeks. I forgot how good fresh grass feels under your hooves. My and Applejack had to bind down Spike because he found his way into some “Trouble”. But all is resolved now. I have a question though. Is it wrong to love somepony who isn't real? That's all princess, I hope to hear back soon. You're fellow Princess,
Twilight Sparkle
“Okay Spike, send it away.”
Spike enveloped the note in a burst of green flames, sending it away to Celestia.