Part Dragon, Part Princess

by Ultimus Pendragon

For A Few Turns More

Author's Note:

Welcome, welcome back. Back with the story, and we shall continue. Enjoy.

And I know what I did when you read a certain paragraph with no periods except one; it's an intentional rant. You'll see what I mean.

“Identify the sequence of stages that leads to turning your dreams into reality.”
-Sunday Adelaja.

''So,'' Twilight turned her head to Cadence asking her about their present predicament. ''Remind me why exactly you think this will work, and what's the chances of it going even more awry if the smallest thing isn't accounted for?''

Huh, that was indeed a good question. With all of the ripping and running that she did, along with Pinkie Pie for a portion of it, Twilight should have taken more care to double-check her numbers to just have a better, more tangible idea of the risk versus that of the spoken word. The Mirror Pond was mysterious in of itself, but there had to be a loophole of sorts to adapt this to Spike and Cadence's personal situation.

Due to her own negligence.

''Well, when Pinkie Pie made the mistake of coming here and doing. . .what she did; we almost lost her if it wasn't for the bond with her friends to help her concentrate and tell us without actually saying it that she was the real Pinkie Pie all along.''

''I remember, Twilight,'' Spike sounded as he sat on his haunches, remembering the fiasco in its entirety, all the way to the growing of different body parts that should not have existed along with facial features that scared more than just him on that day. ''But I don't see what that does for us getting changed back to normal, or why something like was even allowed to happen in the first place.''

''Twilight's. . .Twilight-ness, remember?'' Cadence nudged her brother, causing him to realize a second later as Twilight all but hissed at the pair to stop stating the obvious, as she was attempting to fix the issue so this whole thing would be talked about at the next Hearthswarming party as a happy accident that almost caused two of her most important friend to be stuck in each other's bodies with no possible way to get out because her own thirst for knowledge and want to appease her teacher that she holds in so high regard so to the point where she worships the very ground she canters upon because she's been exposed to so many different concepts at birth and failed to construct a personality until very late to the point where she became an awkward bookworm with borderline OCD and therefore goes overboard with almost everything and often doesn't realize her wrongdoings until the last second because she thinks too highly of herself to take a second look at the bigger picture.

But Twilight was sure that could have been anypony else. Right?

''Putting that aside, we managed to save Pinkie from making a big mistake when it came to messing with something that she had next to no idea about, and only heard second hoof accounts of its properties,'' Twilight said, inspecting the water to ensure nothing would pop out at them when she would attempt to switch the two of them back.

Cadence tilted her head, pointing a claw to her as she watched on. ''So basically what you're trying to undo, right?''

Twilight snorted, taking her attention off of the water to shoot a narrowed eye to her. ''Anyways; what we need to do will require all three of us to focus if we want this to go right, and without any problems.''

''And what do we have to do exactly? And why does it sound like something we're not going to like?'' Spike asked, watching Twilight poof up a book that she read through and began to trace some symbols on the ground in front of her, giving Spike a sideye that did little to reassure him. ''Twilight?''

''Shuush! Got to focus on this; we'll only get one chance.'' Twilight said as Cadence and Spike failed to share Twilight's interpretation of the matter. Whatever idea Twilight pulled from wherever certainly could only go from what they to possibly the worst, which would be. . .well; worse. ''So what we need to do is have the two of you be completely still while I make sure the spell is ready when we transfer the. . .effects of the spell backfiring onto two different templates.''

Spike and Cadence looked to be all but surprised when Twilight mentioned using the effects of the spell being used. The effects of the spell being revealed to anypony else besides the three of them were too risky to attempt without a baseline of sorts to go on.

''But the spell would only make a copy of each of us, and I don't think that they would be willing to deal with the effects,'' Spike pondered further what could happen; they could end up changing into a different species, not be able to talk, or worse!

Twilight shook her head, knowing the explanation of what she had in mind would more than likely go over both of their heads and would only result in her having to essentially 'dumb it down', as she had been repeatedly been told. The way the spell explained a possible loophole if done correctly involved invoking the consequences early by introducing an unsuspected variable to trigger the counterspell. Having the copies deal with the brunt of the spell was an option that did seem. . .unbecoming of somepony like Twilight, or anypony really.

Should they really be approaching the problem from this direction?

''Uh, Twi,'' Spike got up and walked over, laying a hoof on her shoulder, trying to find the right words to say to not make what he attempted to say to sound too mean. ''I don't want to be the one to tell you how to do science stuff, but I think I can speak for us when I say this idea may not be something we want, and the fact that you are seriously considering this kinda worries me.''

Twilight slowly thought about what Spike told her, and while it did seem to come out in a way that explained the deeper nuances behind what they were doing. So, if they were unable to use the Mirror Pond, then what were they going to do?

''Then, did you have any other bright ideas that we could use? Because of the way that it is looking, it seems like the best option we had will just be-''

''-Wasn't there a spell you could use to counter this? Wasn't it a spell that Celestia tried to show you?'' Cadence said, making Twilight pause in her thought.

''Do you think using that spell will cancel out the effects of this one? What if the countermand interrupts that?'' Cadence asked, unsure if this particular course of action would be one that is wise but still done in a way that will not cause any further headache.

''It's either we try this, or Spike has to pretend to be in love with your 'Shiny Whiny', euugh.~'' Twilight shuddered, looking at Spike lock up in complete and utter shock as he gagged and began to think about what that entailed.

''We're doing whatever else Twilight has in mind.'' Spike simply said, his tone final and unwavering.

''Spike, it can't be that bad. Shiny is. . .just loving, I don't doubt that he would be all that enamored with you like you're thinking,'' Cadence waved off her brother, not buying the claim that Shining Armour was not as love-struck as everypony else around the pair made him out to be. Sure, being Captain of the Royal Guard and sister to the student of Princess Celestia, as well as part of a pretty respectable family and parents who often had him and his sister pitted against one another in a friendly competition to foster a competitive nature that she was sure did not manifest a side effect of him being overly attached the pony that he fell in love with and becomes basically a pile of stallion mush when her name was even thought of, or mentioned. . .or any other medium. ''Ok, I may see where you might not want that.''

''Oh! You don't say?'' Spike questioned, shaking his head in disbelief. Twilight merely sat at the edge of the pond with her own thoughts about possibly utilizing the spell. Having the copies they would make take on the brunt of the negative effect of the spell was certainly something that she failed to properly take into account on the basis that the effect could be disastrous. ''Twilight, please tell me you managed to find something we can use to make this a little bit easier on us.''

Twilight nervously chuckled at the statement, not wanting to outright tell him something that she herself was not sure of, but she also did not want to tell them something she knew would not outright work either.

For the first time in a good while, Twilight was. . .kinda lying to herself on how certain she was of any of this. She didn't know how far it would go, to what extent she would have to delve into the secrets of magic, and even what would be the lasting effects after the fact when the issue was all said and done.

---

Comments

[Magic135]

Twilight, what are you thinking?

[Yoshifan30]

''Well, when Pinkie Pie made the mistake of coming here and doing. . .what she did; we almost lost her if it wasn't for the bond with her friends to help her concentrate and tell us without actually saying it that she was the real Pinkie Pie all along.''

But that was another thing they could have asked her like personal question that the real Pinkie Pie knows and basically see her emotion is much different from the other Pinkie Pie clones and they should figure that's the real Pinkie Pie

[Yoshifan30]

''Twilight's. . .Twilight-ness, remember?'' Cadence nudged her brother, causing him to realize a second later as Twilight all but hissed at the pair to stop stating the obvious, as she was attempting to fix the issue so this whole thing would be talked about at the next Hearthswarming party as a happy accident that almost caused two of her most important friend to be stuck in each other's bodies with no possible way to get out because her own thirst for knowledge and want to appease her teacher that she holds in so high regard so to the point where she worships the very ground she canters upon because she's been exposed to so many different concepts at birth and failed to construct a personality until very late to the point where she became an awkward bookworm with borderline OCD and therefore goes overboard with almost everything and often doesn't realize her wrongdoings until the last second because she thinks too highly of herself to take a second look at the bigger picture.

Dang that sentence alone is like a rant against Twilight and her character which I can agree to some but not everybody's perfect we all make mistakes and I'm sure she'll fix this soon

[Yoshifan30]

''It's either we try this, or Spike has to pretend to be in love with your 'Shiny Whiny', euugh.~'' Twilight shuddered, looking at Spike lock up in complete and utter shock as he gagged and began to think about what that entailed.

Okay I will say twilight is right because that is still as awkward as hack I know Shining Armor doesn't know what's going on but they really need to keep him away from "Cadence"

[Yoshifan30]

Very nice to see the story again so Twilight has another plan to see if they can try to fix the problem and that involves the mirror pool which I don't understand how that's supposed to work but somehow she's trying to see if there's another way and Spike and Cadence are kind of worried about that I just hope she knows what she's doing well I guess we'll find out next time

[Starlight Glimmer1]

I think Twilight should be banned from trying both unknown and untested spells after this.

[Scyphi]

So basically what I'm getting here is that Twilight is in danger of making it all worse in her desperate attempts to actually make it all better.

Yeah, that's sounds about right.