Finding Yourself

by abcd_z

Twilight's Sensible and Reasonable Reaction

"Spike? Is that you?" you ask.

"Well, yeah!" the green-haired boy says. "The necklace looks cool on me, doesn't it?"

"Spike... you're a human."

"What? No, I'm a dragon. Duh."

"Spike, look at your hands."

Spike looks at his hands. "Huh," he says. "That's weird."

"Spike, did you look at yourself in the mirror?"

"Well, yeah."

"Did you notice anything... out of the ordinary?"

"Uh, yeah," he says as if it was obvious, "the necklace looks really good on me."

"That's it," you say. "I think we need to have another look in the mirror."

-------------------------------------------------------------

As you climb the stairs with Spike you notice that he has perfect coordination. He doesn't trip or stumble at all on his way to the second floor. If you didn't know better, you'd say he spent his entire life as a human.

You step into the bathroom. Both of your faces are reflected in the large mirror above the sink.

"Spike, look closely," you say. "See this face?"

You point to the reflection of your face.

"This is a human's face. Compare it to your face. They aren't identical, but they're closer than anything else I've seen here in Ponyville, and five minutes ago your face looked completely different."

Spike eyes his reflection. "I don't... oh, oh wow. Okay, yeah. I see it now. That's really weird. Until you pointed it out, I didn't see anything wrong with it."

Spike looks down at his body. "I guess that means the body's wrong too, huh?"

"Yeah."

"It's weird," he says. "Even though I know I've always been a dragon, even after you pointed it out, this body still looks and feels natural to me. It's like I've always been this way."

"'Until I pointed it out to you'... Spike, do you know of any spells that affect somebody's mind?"

"Well, yeah. A long time ago Twilight cast a spell on a doll of hers that made everybody in town want it. She called it the 'want-it need-it spell'. Why?"

"Because I think something similar is going on here. The necklace made you human, but it also did something to your mind so that the human form feels natural to you. That's why you didn't stumble over your own feet when you were going up and down the stairs."

Something clicks into place in your head.

You say, "It's not just the necklace, it's the bracelet too! Rarity freaked out at the boutique once I took the bracelet off and only calmed down once I put it back on! Then she kept treating me like I was a pony. It was because she was trying to see me as a human, but the enchantment wouldn't let her! That must be why she broke down like that."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Spike yells. "Rarity broke down?"

"Yeah. That's why Twilight stayed behind. Didn't I tell you?"

"No, you didn't!"

At that moment you hear the sound of the front door opening. Twilight's voice calls out, "I'm home! Spike, Cale, are you here?"

Spike runs down the stairs two at a time in his new body.

"Twilight!" He shouts. "Is Rarity okay?"

You hear Twilight shriek followed by a loud crashing noise. You run down the stairs to see what happened. Human Spike is lying dazed in a pile of books and Twilight's horn has a pink aura around it.

"Stay back!" Twilight yells at Spike. "I'm warning you, stay back!

You run and interpose yourself between Spike and Twilight.

"Twilight, stop!" you yell. "That's Spike!"

"That is not spike!" she yells back. "That's a Diamond Dog with a green mane!"

"Twilight, calm down," you say. "I promise you, that is Spike."

Twilight looks back and forth between you and Spike, ready to act but not sure what to do.

You slowly reach down and take the necklace off of Spike. There is a puff of smoke which dissipates quickly, leaving only a small purple dragon. A few more books fall on him. Spike groans. "What hit me?" he asks.

You let out a breath you didn't know you'd been holding. Up until you actually did it, you weren't sure the transformation could be cancelled that easily.

"Oh, Spike!" Twilight cries and rushes to him. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know it was you, and you were this horrible monster, and I just freaked out and threw you into the bookshelves, and I'm so sorry Spike, can you ever forgive me?"

"It's okay," he says, "you didn't know."

You chuckle. "Horrible monster?" you ask.

"Yes!" Twilight exclaims. "Before you took that necklace off, Spike had this weird flat face and he held his upper body off the ground and he was walking around on only two... legs..."

Twilight frowns in concentration, staring at one of the walls distractedly.

You ask her, "Does that description sound a little bit familiar?"

"Actually, it does," she says. "Now where have I heard of something like that before? Two legs, two... not-legs, a mane but no coat, looks kind of like a diamond dog..."

You can't resist. You take the silver bracelet off your wrist and pocket it.

"Hey, Twilight," you say.

Twilight faces you. Just as she gives you her full attention you say, "Boo."

Twilight shrieks, her horn glows, and you're thrown into the bookcase on the opposite side of the room. Pain lances across your back where you're slammed into the bookcase by Twilight's magic. Several books fall off the bookcase and land on top of you.

You groan in pain.

"I don't know what I expected," you mutter.

As if agreeing with you, one last book falls off the bookshelf and lands on your head with a loud, and painful, "thump!"

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Several minutes later you're holding an ice pack to your head while you talk with Twilight. There aren't any chairs on the first level of the library, so you sit cross-legged on the ground.

"How did I never notice this before?" she asks. "You're clearly not a pony, but... for some reason I never really saw that until now."

You hold the wristband out to her.

"It's this thing," you say. "I don't know exactly how, but anybody- sorry, anypony that sees me subconsciously thinks of me as just another pony. And judging by how you reacted to two perfectly normal humans, I'd say it's a good thing that I have it."

Twilight's ears droop and her body slumps slightly.

"I'm sorry," she says softly. "I really didn't mean to freak out like that."

You wave your hand in a careless gesture. "I already told you, I accept your apology."

Twilight doesn't react to your words and her body language doesn't change. Well, if you can't directly make her feel better maybe you can at least distract her.

"Hey, Twilight," you say. "Would you like to help me figure out how this thing works?"

That did the trick. Twilight's eyes light up and she grins.

"Really?" she asks.

"Yeah, really. Unless you know of any other unicorns in Ponyville with an affinity for magic," you say teasingly.

Twilight treats your joke as a serious suggestion. "Well, there are a few unicorns in Canterlot with a cutie mark in magical research," she says, "and of course Celestia and Luna might know something about this enchantment, but they're in Canterlot too."

You facepalm. "Twilight, it was a joke."

Twilight chuckles nervously. "Oh, of course. I knew that. I was just... playing along."

You shake your head and hold your wristband up.

"So, where do we go from here?" you ask Twilight.

"Ooh, I know!" she says gleefully. "I have a research lab down in the basement! We can work on figuring the enchantment out there!"

You throw your finger in the air and yell, "To the basement!" in a faux-superhero voice before jumping up and running in what you hope is the direction of the basement. Twilight giggles and follows you.

A few minutes after you both leave the room Spike comes downstairs carrying a bowl of ice cream topped with ruby sprinkles. He looks at the two large piles of books that had been knocked to the ground, does some quick mental calculations, says, "nope", and goes back upstairs.

Comments

[WarpedDigit]

This story is kinda weird, but I suppose it's because the reader is in the same situation as Cale, who remembers almost nothing. I'll be following this story for each new chapter you post, abcd_z!

[abcd_z]

5038731
Thank you WarpedDigit, that means a lot to me.

[Gaegent]

before I read, can I know why you cancelled this story?

[abcd_z]

5904208
Two reasons. 1) It wasn't rating as well as I hoped it would, and 2) When I try writing drama or adventure it's like pulling teeth. I feel like I have to slog through the parts I don't care about to get to the parts I do, and it usually causes a bad case of writer's block.

[Gaegent]

5904227
btw, is there a sneaky SAO reference here?

[abcd_z]

5904666
Not intentionally. What did you think was the reference?

[Gaegent]

5905344
it may have been an error, but when I found this story, I was looking up the word 'Elucidator' and as most SAO fans know, Elucidator is the name of the long sword that Kazuto uses, so I only assumed

[Vinyl-ScratchDJ17]

so he's a human no matter what, but with the bracelet, everybody sees him as a four legged, furry pony, but without it, he's seen as a two legged, hairless monster. but either way he's still human. very cliche'd if you ask me.