//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: Small Scale 
// by Twinkletail 
//------------------------------//

It was impossible. Absolutely, positively, one-hundred percent impossible.

Twilight couldn't have brainwashed him. Princess Celestia couldn't have brainwashed him. Nopony could have brainwashed him. Spike knew for a fact that he loved them and they loved him, completely free of any magical influence whatsoever. There was no question in his mind about it as he was pushed across town by Celia.

The shaman had to be lying.

That was the long and short of it, really. The shaman had to be lying in order to keep Spike here with Celia.

But why?

He had never met this shaman before his inspection. The shaman had no prior interaction with Spike to make him go and lie to keep him here. It made no sense whatsoever.

Or did it just make no sense to him because he was still brainwashed to love Twilight and the others?

Spike quickly sent that thought packing, horrified that his brain had even allowed it to manifest. There was simply no chance that his feelings for them weren't genuine.

And that was exactly what someone who was brainwashed would think.

Spike let out a yelp as he caught himself thinking about that possibility.

"Are you awake now, my sweet little whelp?" Celia asked.

Spike had spent the better part of the last hour and a half pretending to be asleep, although his stress levels had made it difficult. Celia had wanted to take him to the park to meet some children his age, but he was in no mood to meet them under these circumstances. He was missing an opportunity to actually meet dragons his age by faking sleep through the entire stop at the park, but he didn't care. And apparently Celia didn't mind much, either. After all, from the looks of it, he would have plenty of time to meet them in the future.

"Uh-huh," Spike responded, not looking up.

The Dragon Code of Honor had officially made Spike's bad list, as had his lack of impulse control. Both of them had collaborated to put Spike in this terrible situation. As little as he wanted to stay, he had made a deal with Celia, and even though he still didn't believe the word of the shaman for a moment, he felt an awful obligation to abide by his side of the deal. Although that didn't mean that he couldn't try to convince Celia otherwise.

"We're on our way back to the shaman," Celia told him. "Soon you'll take that potion, and all those nasty fake emotions for those ponies will be gone." Spike took a breath. It was now or never.

"Celia, look," Spike said. "I know we made a deal, and I know it looks like I should live up to my part of it, but I just know that the shaman isn't telling the truth. I swear that Twilight and Rarity and all the other ponies truly love me, and I love them. You're taking me away from my family. How is that any different from what those egg thief ponies are doing? Please, if you really care about me at all, you'll let me go home. I'll still come visit! You can even treat me like a kid when I come visit! But please, just believe me and let me go home."

Celia was given pause by this plea, so much so that she even stopped pushing the stroller. She stared down at Spike, looking pensive. Spike might have been young, but he held the advantage of being particularly persuasive when he really needed to be. In the past, he had really only used this persuasiveness to talk Twilight into letting him have cookies before dinner, but there was far more at stake this time. Although Twilight's chocolate chip cookies were tasty enough that Spike could practically consider having them taken away as a life-threatening situation.

"My child..." Celia finally said. "I do care about you, and that's why I can't send you back to them. All of this you're feeling is manufactured by the evil magic of those ponies. The shaman is trusted by the community to be truthful and forthright. He would never lie to us, especially in an event of such importance. And it hurts that you would compare me to those despicable egg thieves..."

Spike bit his lip. Just because he wanted to go home didn't mean that he didn't care for Celia in some fashion.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Spike said. "I like you. Honestly, if I didn't have a family to go back to, I'd be happy to stay and be your whelp. You're really nice and a good mother. But I do have a family to go back to. I'm begging you, just let me go!" Spike tried his best to stay firm and strong during his pleas, but tears were starting to form in his eyes. At this point, he was willing to make just about any bargain to get what he wanted. "What if you come to live in Ponyville too? So you can see how much they love me, and you can be nearby to see if they're doing anything bad?"

"Absolutely not," Celia said, shaking her head. "I refuse to live around those who would harm us dragons so."

"You're like a million times bigger than them!" Spike shouted desperately. "Even if they would want to hurt you, do you really think they could?"

"They bullied my friend out of his sleeping place," Celia answered. "And he's a bit larger than I am."

"But the smoke from his snoring would have blocked out the sun for a hundred years!" Spike cried. "They didn't just kick him out for the heck of it!"

Celia hummed lightly to herself, looking like she was actually thinking this part over.

"He does have a bit of a snoring problem..." Celia said, contemplating. "Well, either way, I don't trust them. They brainwashed you, the shaman said it himself. And as the head of our town, the shaman would never lie to his people."

"But I'm not brainwashed!" Spike yelled.

"Then why are you so afraid of taking this potion?" Celia asked. "He said the potion would remove your brainwashing. If there isn't any there, then it would have nothing to remove, wouldn't it?"

Spike thought this over for a total of three seconds. For the first two seconds of that, Celia's logic made sense. A potion that was meant to remove something couldn't remove that something if it didn't exist. It was in that third second that logic won out. The shaman had lied about the brainwashing. Who was to say he wouldn't lie about this potion too? It wasn't just a possibility, it was incredibly likely.

"Here we are!" Celia said with a smile as Spike was pushed back into the opening of the shaman's cave. Spike struggled, trying to pull out of the stroller in a last-ditch effort. Unfortunately, the restraints were made to withstand struggling, and his efforts were in vain. He stared in defeat at the blank cavern walls as he was pushed along, frowning at the light at the end of the corridor that he knew to be the shaman's room.

"Ah, you're just in time," the shaman said to Celia as the two entered his chamber. "I can tell how much you care for this whelp and his safety."

"I do," Celia said. "I really do." The shaman chuckled softly, smiling down at Spike.

"You're very lucky to be gaining a mommy who loves you so much," he said.

"She's not my mommy," Spike insisted. "Twilight is." He paused. He'd never referred to Twilight as "mommy" before, but the more he thought about it, the more it fit. She loved him, cared for him, protected him, educated him...sure, she could be a pain at times, forcing him to do chores and the like, but that just made her fit the role even more. If he ever got out of this, he would make sure to let her know all that.

"I'm sorry the ponies have forced you to think that way," the shaman said, shaking his head. Then he looked up to Celia. "Please pass the child to me."

Spike attempted to escape as soon as his restraints were removed, but Celia was too quick and far too strong for him. He found himself held securely in her arms, limbs held tightly against his body.

"Perhaps I'll hold him instead," Celia said. The shaman nodded and reached up towards the nearby shelf, taking hold of a small vial of blue liquid.

"Now, open your mouth like a good boy," the shaman said to the struggling Spike. "I promise it tastes good. Like fresh-cut sapphires."

Spike did like sapphires quite a bit, but not anywhere near enough to give in. Instead, he took a deep breath, waited for the shaman to get close to his face, and spit on him.

"Small Scale!" Celia exclaimed. "That's very rude! I'm terribly sorry, shaman."

"No need for apologies," the shaman responded, wiping his face clean. "A child like him doesn't know any better." One claw came out and pinched either side of Spike's mouth, forcing his lips open. Before Spike could stop him, the potion was quickly poured into his mouth, the claw moving to hold his mouth shut. The potion did indeed taste like delicious sapphires, but that didn't make Spike any less resistant to drinking it. The shaman slowly and carefully tilted Spike's head back, ready to stop if he began to choke. Thankfully, there was no choking to stop, as Spike unwillingly swallowed the concoction down.

Celia watched the shaman's slightly rough treatment of Spike with an odd mix of disdain and relief. She didn't feel good about seeing him treated like this. Part of her even wanted to pry the shaman's claws away from Spike, her motherly instinct kicking into overdrive as she watched her whelp struggle. It was a heartbreaking sight, but she knew in her heart that everything the shaman was doing to him was done for his benefit.

Spike shuddered as he realized he'd drank the whole thing, then tried to pull away from the shaman's claws. This proved to be easier than expected, as the shaman seemed to have no interest in restraining him any longer now that he had drank the potion down. He wanted to gag himself and try to cough the potion up, but Celia still held his arms tightly. The potion felt warm in his stomach, and he could feel his arms and legs warming up a bit from it as well.

Then a weird feeling came over him. As he glared up at Celia, her warm smile began to get to him. Something about that smile warmed his heart. Why did it warm his heart? He tried to look away and focus on something else, but found that somewhat hard. His pony friends sprung to mind, and he tried to focus on thinking about them, but one by one, their faces started to fade. He desperately tried to grasp at them, but each one seemed to just wink out of existence. With each fading face, he felt a wave of unnatural calmness wash over him, until only Twilight's face remained. By this point, he had been mostly placated, but the fight in his mind and body kicked up once again, trying desperately to keep her from disappearing too. Try as he might, though, the effects of the potion were too potent. A tear came to Spike's eye as Twilight's face vanished from his mind. All that was left was the face of the dragoness above him.

"I-is he okay?" Celia asked, looking at Spike with worry. His initial struggles had troubled her, but his current utter calmness was almost more worrying.

"He is more than okay," the shaman said. "Why don't you ask him yourself?"

Celia looked down at the whelp in her arms. He stared up at her in response, his expression blank.

"Are...are you okay, Small Scale?" Celia asked.

"Uh-huh," he responded, a bit groggily. "I'm okay."

"Thats a relief," Celia said. Then she tilted her head. "Do you still want to go back to the ponies?"

"No!" Spike exclaimed. "Don't send me to the bad ponies! I want to stay here with you, Mommy!"

Celia beamed as she lifted Spike...lifted Small Scale up to her face, giving him a kiss on the forehead. It certainly felt like he had accepted her rather quickly, but that didn't matter to her now. She finally had her sweet little whelp.