The Puppetmaster

Setting the Stage

The coronation of the new princess had passed just a few weeks ago, and she was about to be allowed to return to her Ponyville home. Her friends were busy planning a rather large “Welcome Home” party, a decision of course made by the party pony herself, Pinkie Pie. Her plans had everypony—and dragon—running every which way to assure that everything was perfect for Twilight’s return.

Each had been given a specific duty by the experienced party planner. Applejack was to prepare all the cuisine for the event while Rarity and Pinkie were off choosing the decor. Rainbow Dash was the relay between all of them, carrying everything from messages to streamers and balloons. Fluttershy was allowed to get the music for the event ready, using her trusty avian friends to provide a soothing song for their new princess’s arrival. Finally, Spike was to get the library ready for the big finale, where the six mares and their dragon friend would exclusively hang out and catch up on all the happenings that the new princess had gone through after her coronation. All her friends found themselves strapped for time as her return loomed.

Spike was especially busy in her absence. Though he could have chosen to stay in Canterlot with her while her royal duties were sorted out, he ultimately decided to return to Ponyville ahead of her. He had grown fond of his new home over the years they had spent there. He did a good job of holding down the fort while she was away. Though he was temporarily free from the responsibilities of assisting Twilight in her studies, he had begun serving as the pro-tempore librarian, a job usually filled by the missing unicorn. Between this, the daily maintenance and helping get the library properly decorated for the party, the dragon found himself in a deep and well deserved sleep that night.

Unbeknownst to him, he had an intruder with him in his home. An earth pony—a stallion—had waited patiently for night to fall and made sure to scope out his surroundings for any late night stragglers. He crept at an agonizingly slow pace, trying to space the creaks his hoofsteps made on the old wooden floor. He knew he could not afford to risk any noise that would wake the sleeping dragon. One misplaced hoof and his plans would all be for naught. The stallion carefully closed each door and window in such an order that the last he closed was nearest to the unsuspecting dragon. Leaving only the front door open to make his exit, he began making his way to Spike.

The intruder could feel his heart miss a beat as he paused for a second after Spike had suddenly rolled over onto his side. He took very light steps as he closed the gap to a mere foot away, being careful not to make any unnecessary sounds. Quietly, he rustled through his saddlebag to find a large batch of some kind of herb. Striking a match also produced from his bags, he lit the herb and settled the smoldering plant next to the dragon’s bed, allowing him to intake the smoke as he slept, all the while holding his own breath.

Giving a satisfied smile, he crept out of the bedroom and out of the library, leaving the herb to do its work.

The dawn’s light splashed onto Spike’s closed eyes as he fought to stay asleep just a bit longer. Unfortunately, it was a losing battle for the dragon as the light intensified. Eventually, he gave in and awoke with his usual stretch and yawn. However, his yawn reminded him more of a ferocious roar from one of the grown dragons he had encountered. It even came with a rather large stream of fire, much larger than anything he ever remembered producing.

These abnormal happenings scared him fully awake. Standing up, he looked down to find he had crushed his bed into nothing but frayed straw mixed with the feathers from his small pillow. Rushing to the bathroom, he found he no longer needed his stepstool to reach the sink and look at himself in the mirror. But what he saw shocked him much more. It was not his usual pudgy baby dragon face, but what seemed closer to the narrow faces of some of the dragons he met during the Great Dragon Migration. His eyes were no longer round but slender with slit-like pupils. His body followed the shape of his face, slim and long.

Spike attempted to prop his arm against the sink, finding himself nearly falling over from the disbelief. To his surprise, he still fell straight onto the floor. Picking himself up, he examined the sink. Where he believed he had laid his claw, he only found deep gashes. Briefly looking at his claw, he decided to test it once again against the sink. They easily sliced right through the white porcelain, like a hot knife through butter.

He rushed through the library in a state of panic, not knowing what had happened to him. His first thought was of Rarity and the trouble he had caused the last time he had found himself like this. He thought back but he could not remember ever acting greedy at any point in the recent past. But there was no other way that could explain his sudden growth. He then remembered during his last greed-induced growth spurt, he had blacked out during his hoarding spree and could not recall what had happened.

Running up to the bedroom, he found no hoard of any kind. He had not been mindlessly gathering items just to keep them to himself. If he had not been acting greedy, then he had no clue what could have sparked this. Raking his brain to find a reason, he let out a loud stressed grunt and, just as before, he let out a large cloud of fire, setting ablaze the decorations meant for Twilight’s return.

Spike’s eyes widened as he manically put out the fire he caused. He eventually succeeded after pouring several buckets of water onto the blaze, but not until the flame had consumed most of the decorations and even spreading to some of the library’s books. Spike panted as he stared at the wet, charred remains of a large segment of the library.

“Oh no, oh no,” he said to himself, small puffs of fire escaping his mouth with each word he spoke even in his low volume. He wondered how all the ponies would react to his new form. They constantly mentioned how scary the grown dragons were and, though not fully grown, he was plenty scary with stronger fire breath and razor sharp claws. Would they run away from him or would they shun him because of his destructiveness? No, they were too close to him to do either, he trusted them. But could he trust himself?

He had basically ruined a sink just by leaning on it and burned down half the library by accident. He could not control his new powerful breath and he did not know what to do with his claws to dull them down. Twilight was set to return in a couple of days. He could only imagine what she or the ponies might say about his strange and rapid transformation. He began to dread the thought of him accidentally hurting any of his friends, especially Rarity or Twilight. He was not about to let that happen.

He thought and thought but could only come up with one solution, one that would resolve his fears, but would also mean a big sacrifice on his part. Spike quickly gathered a quill and scroll, though writing a note proved futile. His claws tore the paper to shreds and grasping the quill only sliced it into tiny pieces. It only served as proof that his new grown form would cause problems for everypony, however unintentional. He sighed downheartedly as he opened the library’s front door. Spike was surprised to find the klutzy Derpy Hooves on the other side of the doorway.

“Hi, Spike! Here’s your mail!” the mobile disaster pony smiled at the distraught dragon, apparently not even noticing his growth, as she held a stack of letters in her mouth.

He more or less ignored the grey pegasus as he ran off as fast as he could. He headed to the only place that he could think of that suited a dragon: the Everfree Forest.

“Hey, Spike! Pinkie just sent me over to bring some more stuff for the…” Rainbow Dash paused as she entered the ruined library. “Whoa, what happened here?”

Sifting through the soggy remains of a burnt bookshelf, the blue pegasus could not find anything around that would start a fire so destructive. Continuing her investigation, she found the crushed bed of their dragon friend, which only added to her growing list of question. Finally, her search lead her to bathroom where the sink had deep gashes going down its length. Suddenly, she put everything together. The burned bookshelf, crushed bed, claw markings, they all lead Rainbow to remember Spike’s rampage through Ponyville.

“Uh-oh…” the blue pegasus said to herself as she dropped the party supplies and flew off to warn the rest of their gang. The first that she felt she needed to warn was none other than the dragon’s longtime crush, the pony he had kidnapped during his first little run through Ponyville as a full-fledged dragon.

In his last destructive run through Ponyville, Spike had taken Rarity hostage. So she was definitely the first on Rainbow’s list to check up on. Flying into the boutique, the blue daredevil found her friend going about her normal business of designing new “fabulous” fashion lines.

“Rarity!” Rainbow Dash yelled, causing the dress maker to jump and scatter her materials about.

“Rainbow Dash! You must really learn to knock!” Rarity said, raising her voice a bit.

“There’s no time for that!” she shouted, only to see that her friend stopped paying attention to her. “Rarity!”

“No, not until you’ve learned how rude barging into someone else’s home is,” Rarity told her, turning her back to Rainbow Dash.

“Ugh!” Rainbow Dash groaned, slapping a hoof over her face. With an annoyed look, she flew out of the room’s window and knocked. However, Rarity only seemed to ignore the knock, which only caused her to knock much more violently.

“RARITY!” she yelled.

“Yes?” Rarity opened the window and allowed her to enter.

“Have you seen Spike lately?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Why no, I haven’t,” Rarity answered. “Why do you ask? Did something happen to my Spikey-Wikey?”

“Well, I don’t know, but he sure did a number on the library,” Rainbow Dash said.

“Oh no… do you mean?” Rarity said, remembering the same incident as the rainbow-maned pegasus.

“Like I said, I don’t know,” Rainbow Dash replied. “He wasn’t in the library and I haven’t seen him anywhere around Ponyville.”

“We should warn the others,” she suggested.

“That’s the plan!” Rainbow Dash told her as she dragged the dress maker out of her shop.

After small search, the group had finally gathered together, but all claimed that they had not seen hide nor scale of the missing dragon. Asking the rest of the other ponies in town gave the same result. No pony had seen Spike the whole day. With nothing else to go on, the mares gathered at the library, hoping to find some clue of what had happened.

“Maybe Spike didn’t do this! Maybe it was some sort of super, gigantic meteor that crashed into the library and kidnapped Spike and took him into space!” the ever-imaginative Pinkie Pie gave her explanation, receiving only blank stares from her friends.

“Well, back in reality…” Rainbow Dash said.

“It doesn’t seem like we’re having any luck here, darlings,” Rarity told her friends.

“And no pony has seen him in Ponyville,” Fluttershy added.

“I think we’ve hit dead end y’all,” Applejack concluded as each hung their heads.

A sudden crash through the window startled all the mares. It was none other than local mailpony, Derpy Hooves.

“Uh… are you ok, Derpy?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oh! Hi, Rainbow Dash! I guess Spike still isn’t back yet!” Derpy said, smiling as though her crash landing did not even faze her.

“Are you saying you’ve seen, Spikey-wi… I mean, Spike?” Rarity asked the mailpony.

“Mm-hmm,” the grey mare hummed, never once losing her smile. “He looked like he was in a hurry! He didn’t even have time to get his mail from me! Guess he was late to something in the Everfree Forest! He ran all the way there!”

“The Everfree Forest!” the mares all yelled in unison, quickly heading out the door.

“Maybe there’s some sort of party there… I wanna go to the party too!” Derpy thought out loud as she followed the mares, still totally oblivious to the situation. “WAIT FOR ME, GUYS!!!”

“One last delivery and I’m done for today!” a blue-hatted pegasus said to himself. Pausing for a second, he produced a small scroll from his rather large saddlebags detailing many names and addresses, most of which were crossed out, except for one at very bottom. “‘To: Spike the Dragon, Golden Oaks Library; From:…’ Princess Twilight Sparkle!"

“Oh boy, I got to be careful with this one! I didn’t think they’d be testing us this soon!” the beige stallion thought out loud. Lowering the scroll, he saw a flash of bright color send him for whirl. Before he was able to regain his bearings, a grey streak sent him into a second uncontrollable spin. Grabbing his head, the pegasus waited for his eyes to return from their thousandth trip around their respective sockets.

“Some ponies just don’t ever watch where they’re going… Well, at least I still have… Oh no…” the stallion desperately rummaged through his saddlebags, trying to find something that was no longer there. “This isn’t happening, not with this package!”

Looking to the land below, he found that he had been hovering over the Everfree Forest. It was impossible to see through the thicket, there was no telling where the package could have landed. He concluded that his best bet was to dive straight down and hope that the package did not fall too far from there.

“It’s no use… I can’t see anything from up there!” Rainbow Dash said, frustrated. “And Derpy isn’t helping much either…”

“Looks like we’re just gonna have to hoof it then!” Applejack told the rest of the mares.

“The Everfree Forest is HUGE! We’ll never find him in there!” Pinkie replied.

“We can’t just leave Spikey-Wikey all alone in that dreadful forest!” Rarity argued. “Perhaps if we can divide up the forest, I’m sure we would be able to find him.”

“What if we get lost?” Fluttershy said. “It’s already getting dark…”

“Fluttershy has a point there, Rarity,” Applejack interjected. “It’s gettin’ mighty close to sundown. The forest just ain’t safe at night. We should wait until tomorrow, then we can go in find Spike, first thing in the morning.”

“Do you really think that the kid can hold out until morning by himself?” Rainbow Dash joined in. “Like you said, the forest is dangerous at night. That’s why we’ve gotta find him!”

The friends explosively argued about their next course of action, except for the soft-spoken yellow pegasus, who merely tried her best to keep the peace.

Spike sat on a short stump. He had been wandering the forest area the whole day, hoping to find some sort of shelter before nightfall. However, most of the caves in the area were already the lairs of adult dragons and they apparently had not learned the virtue of sharing. So he was forced to dwell outside, but, luckily for him, most creatures in the forest had learned to steer clear of dragons, even if not fully grown.

Spike sighed deeply already feeling homesick from the mere thought that he would not see the ponies he called his family again. He felt guilty not being able to tell any of them about his reason for running away, but he believed that it was for the best. This way they could not come looking for him and could go back to living their normal lives.

Suddenly, he heard something brushing past the leaves and branches of the nearby trees. He panicked at first, believing that it could have been one of the mares looking for him. But his heart calmed down as he saw a small box plop onto the dirt floor. Curiosity got the better of him as he moved in to examine the package. Its trip through the trees had damaged it and even ripped off the tag that would have revealed to whom it was to be delivered and from whom it was from. He reached to grab it but remembered that his new claws would only finish the job the trees had started.

A sudden rustle of the brush caused the dragon to jump. It did not come from the trees above but from the bushes below. A head suddenly poked out from the leafy mess. Not that of a mare but of a stallion. He did not seem to notice the dragon as he fell, face first, out of the bush.

“Oww…” the stallion said as he picked himself back up, retrieving his hat that had been caught by the prickly vines. “Come on! It has to be around here somewhere!”

Giving the area a quick look over, he found himself being stared down by a dragon. But by the dragon he saw the package he had been looking for. Successfully delivering this royal package was definitely a priority on his list, he could not simply leave it. Swallowing his fear, he approached Spike.

“Uh…” he opened his mouth but found himself at a loss for words. The dragon he saw before him was not an adult, but he did stand just a good head and a half taller than himself.

“Is this-” Spike began, but quickly clamped his over his mouth. The fire that spouted from his mouth as he spoke just barely missed the stallion. “I’m sorr…”

His attempt on an apology backfired as his breath caught the stallion’s hat, setting it aflame. Abandoning his hat, the stallion tried to stomp the fire out, but he was not fast enough to save it. Spike saw the tan stallion mope over the ash and singed cloth that used to be his hat and hung his head ashamed. Stepping aside, he allowed the pegasus to retrieve the package. The sight of the ruined box only served to add to the stallion’s sorrows.

“I can’t deliver it like this!” the light-brown pegasus thought out loud as he promptly sat on his haunches. “I’m sure that 'Spike' will tell the Princess the bad shape that I gave it to him in. Forget the promotion; I might not have a job if I deliver it like this!”

Spike perked up, hearing his name being spoken. He could not help but wonder if the package was meant for him. He wanted to ask the pegasus about it, but his breath was still out of control and threatened to scare off the stallion before he could.

“I guess delivering it like this is better than not delivering it at all,” he conceded.

“Wait!” Spike said, stopping the stallion from taking the box and leaving. He did not face the stallion, allowing his fire breath to fall into open space. “I’m Spike!”

“You’re Spike?” the stallion said, raising a suspicious eyebrow. There was no evidence proving or disproving his claim. “Ok, so if you are Spike, where do you live?”

“I live…” the purple dragon started, but paused as he remembered his recent decision. “I used to live at the Golden Oaks Library…”

“Well, I guess this belongs to you then,” the stallion said, double checking the list. He held the package out to the troubled dragon. He did not accept the package, however. Instead, his gaze became locked on the forest floor. The stallion stood there awkwardly holding the box in silence. He could see a forlorn look in the dragon’s face as he hung his head low. His job never included “consoling dragons”, but not only was his conscience egging him to do something, it meant also delivering this package, which in turn meant keeping his job.

“Uh… what do you mean used to?” he asked.

“I’m… I was Twilight Sparkle’s assistant and I was a baby dragon, but today I woke up…” Spike told him, keeping his volume barely audible. “Like this.”

“Well… I guess that explains why you were getting a package from the Princess,” the stallion responded.

“That’s from Twilight?” the dragon asked.

“Yeah… here,” the pegasus answered, once again handing him the package. Spike reached for the package, but quickly withdrew his claws. This confused the stallion, but the dragon cleared the fogginess in his mind as he demonstrated the keenness of his claws on a nearby tree. Swiping his claws across the trunk, he left very distinct and deep scars. “Oh… I’ll get that for you.”

Tossing the top away, it revealed a few rather large gems and some mirror-like crystals along with a note underneath them all. Clearing his throat, the stallion began reading the note out loud:

Dear Spike,

I’ve been hearing nothing but good things from everyone in Ponyville. They said that the library’s running smoothly without me and the girls have been telling how you even had some extra time to help them out. I know that you stayed in Ponyville because you didn’t really like it here in Canterlot and trust me, this Princess stuff isn’t all that it’s cut out to be. I’m sure you would have bored out of your mind if you stayed with me. It’s a bunch of paperwork and hoof-shaking.  I do miss having my number one assistant around, but I just wanted to tell you that I’m proud of you for all the hard work you’ve been putting in while I’m gone. I could never ask for a better assistant and friend. I can’t wait to see you all in a couple of days again. You know, unless this courier service isn’t what it’s cracked up to be and you get this package after I get back home.

P.S.: I got my hooves on a couple of crystals that they’ve been finding in the caverns underneath Canterlot. I hope they taste as good as the gems! Thought you deserved a little treat for all your hard work.

Love,

Twilight Sparkle

“Hey! We couriers are the fastest mail service around! GUARANTEED next day delivery!” the stallion snapped.  “Anyways, sounds like you guys are really close friends. Why’d you run away out here?”

“We are really close, we’re like family! That’s why I ran away, I didn’t want to hurt anypony,” Spike replied, feeling even more distraught after hearing the letter from his friend. “Like I almost hurt you.”

“But… she’s an alicorn, right? There has to be something she can do to fix this,” the pegasus told him.

“She does know a lot of magic,” Spike thought out loud.

“There you go!” the stallion replied. “I’m sure that you can find a way to not hurt anypony while you guys figure out how to get you back to normal. I mean, I’m ok, aren’t I? My hat might not be, but I can always get another one of those.”

“I guess you’re right. I think I should head back, Rarity and the others are probably looking for me,” he said.. Turning his head every which way, the dragon had been wandering so long he did not know which direction his home was anymore. “I could use some help finding my way back, if you don’t mind.”

“Well, this was my last delivery. I guess I can stick around a bit,” the pegasus said, flying up to get a bearing of the town’s location. “It’s that way!”

“By the way, I’ve never seen you in Ponyville before,” Spike commented. “And I don’t even know your name.”

“It’s not really a surprise you haven’t seen me around Ponyville. I’m actually from Cloudsdale,” the stallion told him, taking the lead. “My name’s Cloud Slider. Y'know, I’ve never met a real life dragon before, kind of cool actually. I mean, I heard a lot about dragons from a pony that I help deliver supplies to. He wants to be the first pony to write a book about dragons! He’s been studying them for over a year now, and he’s learned a hay of a lot. He could talk your ear off with everything he’s learned.”

The two seemed to get along quite well as they journeyed through the forest. Both had plenty to talk and laugh about, though Spike nearly burnt Cloud Slider with his powerful breath occasionally.

As they neared the edge of the forest, they heard the loud chatter of multiple mares. It had appeared that they had been in a deadlock for quite a while. One side realizing the danger the Everfree Forest posed at night and the other wanting to go in anyways and split up, the only possible way they would have any luck of finding the dragon in the dense forest. Spike was touched that they were willing to go to such lengths to find him, especially from Rarity who seemed almost determined to proceed on her own if need be.

“Guess this is your stop, Spike,” Cloud Slider said, overhearing the mares calling the dragon’s name.

“Thanks, Cloud Slider!” Spike replied.

“It’s… been definitely the most interesting delivery I’ve had,” he told him. “Good luck with getting back to normal!”

As he flew off, he stopped suddenly and returned to the dragon. “Actually, can I ask you a favor? You see the mail service might ask you for feedback on my delivery. If you could just…”

“It’s the least I can do,” Spike cut him off.

“You don’t even know how much this means to me. Thanks, Spike,” the pegasus said as his wings gave a quick flutter. Holding out his hoof, the dragon greeted it with his knuckles.

With that, the stallion took off. Spike prepared himself to approach the mares with a deep breath. He was not sure what their reaction would be, but he hoped that their longstanding friendship would mean acceptance of his new form.

“Hey, look! It’s Spike!” Derpy announced, waving at the incoming dragon. “Hi, Spike!”

“Spike?” the arguing mares stopped and turned their heads. They expected the baby dragon that they always knew, but what they saw had all of them hanging their mouths agape. They saw a longer, slimmer dragon, eyes much more reptilian. The only thing they could really recognize were the purple scales and the trail of green spines that ran down from his head to his tail. Even his run was different, now traveling on all fours rather than his usual upright posture.

“Spike…?” they asked, taking extra caution in approaching him.

“Yeah,” Spike answered, making sure to face away from them while he spoke. The sudden and bright emerald flame startled the mares as they took a step back.

“What happened to you, Spike?” Rarity was the first to ask what was on each of their minds.

“I don’t know,” the dragon admitted. “I just… woke up and I was already big.”

The mare carefully observed the dragon, but soon saw that they had nothing to fear. He did not act as he did during his rampage. He was tame and even perhaps a little saddened.

“Well, dontcha fret none, Spike,” Applejack reassured him. “Twilight will be back in a few days, then we can go over to Zecora’s and together they can get ya back to normal.”

“I dunno… I kind of like Spike better this way!” Rainbow Dash added, giving the dragon a noogie. “He looks more like a real dragon, definitely a lot cooler than before!”

“Yeah! He used to be able to ride us, now it’s our turn to ride him!” Pinkie Pie laughed, climbing on top of the dragon. “Even Fluttershy isn’t scared of Spike!”

“Well, he’s still the little Spike I know… just bigger…” Fluttershy said as she joined the rest of the mares around Spike.

“Oh, Spike!” Derpy called out before reaching into her saddlebag. “Here, you forgot your mail this morning!”

Spike waved his arms to warn the grey pegasus not to hand him the batch of letters. However, she simply ignored it and impaled them on one of his claws. He looked with half-lidded eyes at the ruined letters and then back at the bubbly mare, who merely considered her job done and took her leave. The mares shared a laugh as the dragon gave a sigh of defeat.