Too Young

by Swordoath

The Prank

Spike closed the door to Twilight's room as quietly as he could. He didn't want to wake her up, especially considering what he planned on doing tonight. Explaining himself would ruin his whole plan. Right now he just needed to make it down to the guy's room, and get them on board.

"Hey," he whispered to the sleeping forms of the two adolescent boys. "Guys, wake up."

"Uhg," moaned the one on the left, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his green-blue eyes. This was Zack, the younger of the two, but not by much. His strawberry-blonde hair stuck up in odd places, and the white t-shirt he was wearing was pulled up around his neck, for some strange reason. "Is it even four in the morning?"

"No, it's a little after midnight," Spike replied, attempting to rouse the other boy. "I need your help with something."

"Ow! Stupid claws," said the older boy, Quinn. Donning his glasses so his mahogany eyes could see properly, he shifted his legs over the bedside and smoothed down his short black hair. He was only wearing a pair of black sweatpants, so his torso was fully exposed. "This better be important, Spike. It was hard enough to sleep with one loudmouth in the room."

"Hey!" Zack frowned.

"Sshh! I don't wanna wake up Twilight!" Spike hushed the two half-dressed humans. "I need your help to get back at Twilight and her friends."

"Wouldn't waking them up be punishment enough?" Grumbled Quinn. "What for? Is this about the cake?"

"No, it's not about the cake!" Spike shout-whispered.

"I wanted some of that," Zack murmered whistfully, then voicing aloud. "What is it about then?"

"I'm tired of Twilight and her friends telling me I'm not old enough to do things. They always get to see those movies, but I never get to. I just wanted to see The Power Ponies Movie, but Twilight said I'm not old enough to go!"

"Wasn't it rated PG-13...?" Quinn said.

"So are you gonna sneak out and see it?" Zack asked. "Or do you need money for tickets? 'Cause I don't really have any bits on me..."

"No, I've got a better idea," Spike said, rubbing his hands together in the stereotypical villian fashion.

---

"You want us to help you break into Zecora's hut and steal an age potion?!" Quinn surmised incredelously.

"Shh! Not steal it, we're gonna leave behind some bits as payment. Besides, we'll be the ones making it, just using some of her ingredients. She's visiting home, so she won't even be there. It's not even that deep in the forest. All I need is for one of you to cover for me while the other comes with me to make it. Easy stuff!" Spike elaborated.

"Why do you need someone to go with you?" Zack asked.

"I'm... I'm too short to reach all the shelves," Spike admitted sheepishly.

"I don't know," Quinn said, rubbing the back of his head. "This doesn't seem like a very good idea..."

"Aw c'mon, please?" Spike hugged his leg tightly.

"Well... on one condition; I'm the one going with you, alright?" Zack conceded. Quinn nodded in agreement.

"Yes! Absolutely!" Said the dragon.

"I'll tell her that you guys went out to for a morning walk or something." Said Quinn, settling back into bed.

Spike went up to his room to grab the bits he'd saved for just such an occasion, waiting for the now fully-clothed Zack to head out. They ran the majority of the distance, only stopping when Spike fell to the ground clutching his side, and was offered a ride by Zack the rest of the way. Spike directed his older friend to the hut of the absent alchemist, and the two slipped inside the unlocked abode to begin their task. Spike requested Zack to grab a certain book from one of Zecora's shelves, titled Supernaturals: Natural Remedies that are Simply Super!, which the dragon opened to a page labelled 'Youth elixers- Master's only'.

"You sure you still want to go through with this?" Zack said as he gathered the listed ingredients. "We could still put everything back and pretend none of this ever happened."

"You kidding? It took me months to find an opportinuty like this. I thought you'd be psyched about this." Spike said, swirling a rapidly color-changing potion with a smoldering wooden spoon..

Zack shook his head wildly, and grinned at his small friend. "You're right. Probably just Quinn getting in my head. Pass the whitecaps, please."

Hours later, the two completed their concotions. Spike's, a deep transparent violet, was intended to revert the subject's age to roughly the equivalent of his own, or that of a younger filly. Zack's, a milky white, was suppossed to negate the effects of the first. Cleaning up their mess and leaving their payment on the table with a note, the duo set on their path home just as the sun began to rise.

"Remind me again how you plan to make them drink it," Zack asked Spike, slowing down so his pace matched the young dragon.

"Twilight invited them over for a sleepover tonight, and put me in charge of the punch," Spike explaned, tightly clutching the mixture. "I'm going to put just a bit of this into each of their glasses, so when they drink it... poof! Younger than me. Let's see how They like having a seven o'clock bedtime!"

"Ooh, twisted. I like it," Zack replied as they slowed to a stop outside their destination. "When do we turn them back?"

"Probably when they go to sleep. The book said the second one can be applied to the coat, so it'll work out fine. Best part is, they won't even remember, so I won't get in trouble!" He whispered, opening the library door as quietly as the hinges would let him.

"Clever. But won't that defeat the purpose of making them feel like you-"

"Ssh, Twilight won't be up yet. Don't wake her up."

Quinn stood leaning against an unshelved portion fof the wall, sipping a cup of coffee, listening in on the end of their exchange. "Glad your back. It went well, I take it?"

Zack flashed the bottle of antidote to him "Yep. All set for tonight."

"Good. You might want to hide those; I just heard the water turn off upstairs." Quinn suggested before taking another sip.

Almost dropping the bottle in a panic, Spike ran to the boys room and shoved the potion under Zack's pillow. Quinn watched the frantically stumbling dragon run into their room to hide it. Zack slipped the vial into his back pocket. Twilight walked down the staircase, her tail dripping slightly and a towel wrapped in her hair.

"Did I miss anything?"

---

The girls let talked about this and that while the boys, in the kitchen, put their plan into action. Ladling out glassss of punch for everyone present, non-ponies included, Quinn held out six of them for Spike to add a spoon of his potion to. Being careful as to not confuse their own with the spiked punch, the glasses were distrubuted amongst the guests and residents of the library. Spike was litterally shaking, but whether it was from nerves or excitement, he couldn't tell. What did Pinkie call it? 'Nervoucited?'

The group had finished their beverages and were occupying themselves with a round of ghost stories. It was Quinn's turn, and he was doing a fair job of unnerving his friends with his.

"The mare turned-tail and ran all out from the faceless being. She didn't see where her friend went, but her panicked mind caused all other concerns to be blocked out. She didn't stop running until she was well out of the forest. terrified and exhausted, she collapsed on her living room floor before finally remembering her friend. Too rattled to search for him, she headed up to her bedroom, hoping she could forget the whole ordeal. Her door opened, and there stood the faceless one, in all his terrible glory. She did not have time to scream. Nopony ever saw her again. They say the creature with no face still roams the world, looking for victims to take to his purgatorial realm and torture forever. Perhaps he watches us even now, waiting for the right opportunity to STRIKE!"

A white faceless figure much taller than the ponies and Spike jumped out from behind Quinn, causing the seven to scream and duck for cover. The figure pulled off the white ski mask, revealing Zack, who was breathless with laughter.

"Man, you totally believed it!" Quinn said, cracking up along with him.

"Did not!" Rainbow and Spike protested simultaneously.

"Then are you hanging from a lamp, and you behind the door?" He asked.

"Okay... maybe a little." Rainbow admitted, getting off the light fixture. An inquiring look from AppleJack made her add "Okay, a lot."

The group broke out in laughter, and after coaxing FlutterShy out from beneath the table, Quinn pulled Spike aside into the boy's room.

"Hey. They drank the potion almost an hour ago. When's it going to start working?"

"I don't know! I thought it would've worked by now."

Zack entered, throwing the ski mask on his bed. "You might want to take a look at this," he said, grinning.

The boys looked out into the room, and their gazes were met with that of six foals, each about a year younger than Spike, excluding FlutterShy, who seemed roughly his equal. They were all only two-thirds his size, and not one of them seemed to understand what just happened. AppleJack wrestled off her hat with a cute little grunt. Pinkie Pie, who's hair now hung flat, watched as Rarity sat on her bottom and began to cry. FlutterShy curled up in one corner, while Rainbow Dash fluttered her wings in attempt to get airborne. Twilight, still on the chair she'd been sitting on earlier, tried to find away down, landing with a light thud after falling the two inches between her and the floor.

"It worked!" Spike exclaimed, picking up the small, somehow-still-an-alicorn Twilight, as if to reassure himself.

"What worked?" spoke the much higher-pitched voice of the much younger Twilight.

"Nothing," Quinn interjected, swooping in to comfort the crying unicorn. "Man, this is not something I'd thought I'd ever do..."

Zack fixed the table that had for some reason been flipped over during transition. "What, comfort a child?"

"Very funny, now help me out here," He said, picking up Pinkie in his other arm. "We can't have them wandering around the library."

Spike and Zack helped him gather the group of fillies in the main room, setting them down in front of the horse-head statue on the table.

"So... What now?" Zack said, legs swinging in open air as he sat on the staircase.

Spike smiled mock-villainously, tapping his claws together in a similar fashion. "Now, I get to have a little fun."

Author's Note:

Yes, I realized I made the 'Spike'd punch' joke.
Yes, I realize the show already did.
Shut up about it. <3
This took longer than it should have. As do many things. But good things come to those who wait.

Comments

[Secrets101]

*evil laugh.exe* *run* MUUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!

[Life Haunter]

This is... SO AWESOME!