Celestia’s sun pierced through the darkness of night bringing forth a new day; birds sang, bee buzzed and the world awoke. Rays of fresh morning sunlight shifted throw the gloom of the cave beneath the castle of friendship hitting a purple and green dragon. Spike began to shift as the sun annoyed his senses telling him it was time to awaken. ‘Alright am up no need to get snippy’ spike thought as he shifted and stretched. Doing this brought an uncomfortable realization to spike, he was huge! At least as large as a full grown stallion probable bigger, when he had gone to sleep the previous night he had been only a little larger than he had been when he had arrived in Ponyville.
‘What if I began hording and destroyed Ponyville’ spike thought in a panic looking around for the ill-gotten hoard that had caused his growth. As spike looked he not only failed to see anything in the cavern, other than a small pile of blankets that he had been sleeping on and a staircase leading up, but saw that he did not recognize where he was.
Spike took a breath in and held it for a second before releasing it, trying to calm his nerve. ‘Ok, think spike you have not been twilights assistant for so long only to panic in a crises… that’s Twilights job.’ He chuckled at his own little joke ‘this time at least seem to have my mind together. What i need to do is find Twi and ask her for help’. Spike thought as he started towards the stairs up.
Spike found it very hard to walk on his hind legs like he was used to, Stumbling after only a few steps, when he did Spike felt the weirdest thing yet. two limbs he never had before stretched out flapping helping him catch himself. Spike landed on his forelegs, looking back at the wings upon his back a faint smile gracing his lips ‘at least I got wings’ he thought. Deciding he should walk on all fours spike started ascending the steps. Opening the door at the top of the stairs, spike recognized where he was instantly. Sighing with relief spike made his way throw the castle of friendship to where he was sure he would find twilight, the library.
Twilight for her part was fast asleep face dawn in a book, the ‘busy mares guide to proper sleeping habits’ to be exact. She did not stir as Spike entered the expansive library, only continued her dream of learning a spell that would allow her to read a book instantly, so she could consume every book ever published in record time. Spike looked down at the sleeping mare and smiled; she was pretty as ever; an adorable face, only made even cuter by the small amount of drool coming out of her mouth, her slender body toned ever so slightly from living in such rural town as well as helping out at Sweet Apple Acres every so often, soft lilac fur, not to mention a grate rump. ‘Wait what was that last one?’ Spike thought shaking his head to try and clear it ‘maybe my mind has been affected after all’
“twi? Wake up, I need to talk to you” spike said gentry shaking the sleeping mare, His own voice surprising him with how deep it sounded.
“mhh” twilight moaned still clearly asleep “spike what are you doing in my dream?”
“Twi am not in your dream come on I need to talk to you this is important”
“It has to be a dream you’re asleep” twilight muttered as she blinked sleep from her eyes “spike… spike! You’re... You’re awake!”
“Of course I am, but we need to talk about my si…” spikes sentence was interrupted by the mare in front of him suddenly tackling him to the ground with a hug, his new size no match for her alicorn strength plus the element of surprise.
“You’re awake I missed you so much!” twilight half shouted in joy nuzzling him affectionately, making the dragon blush. “I was so worried you would sleep of one hundred years or more, but now your back and everything is going to be perfect”
“One hundred years? Twi what’s going on?”
"Well you see there comes a time in a dragon’s life when he sleeps for a long time to metamorphosize in to a new stage of his life; this process is called Sil-Dir. Doing this solidifies the dragon’s size and abilities until he chooses to go through the Sil-Dir once more. The first time this happens to a dragon it’s a lot like puberty for ponies, they become sexually mature and gain there secondary magical treats, magic if you are a wyrm or your wings if you are a wyvern.” It was a lot to take in for spike and getting lecture with the same tone a professor at a college would use while being snuggled was a bit weird.
“So let me get this straight I entered this Sil-Dir thing and slept for how long exactly?”
“Three years five months and fourteen days” twilight said finally letting spike go allowing him to get up “but it could have been a LOT worse”
“Three and a half years gone” spike said his voce filling of sadness running a claw over his head until it came in to contact with horns that weren’t there before. “You have got to be joking, please tell me you are twi! I cannot have slept for three and a half years!”
“Spike…” twilight said trying to comfort the panicking dragon.
“No twi! Just no, it can’t be. I mean don’t I get to choose! It’s so unfair” spike screamed tears streaming from his eyes “I went to bed in my basket just like every night and now more than a three years are stolen from me! I hate it, I hate being a dragon! How! Why twilight?”
Twilight engulfed spike in another gentler hug and this time spiked hugged back bringing his face in twilight’s soft fur. “Well usually yes, at a certain age you are able to begin your first Sil-Dir if you so choose, but you can also delay it for many years before your body will force it on you. Most dragons can’t even enter their first Sil-Dir tell they are around forty years old. Now we are not certain but as far as we can tell the longer you what for your first Sil-Dir the larger you are after. So this led us, that is Luna, Celestia and I, to believe that you entered your so early so that you would stay pony sized, we also believe your infatuation with Rarity and the fact that ponies your age are sexually matured might have helped in the process starting.”
“That still doesn’t explain why I got no warning”
“We think you did; you were sleeping more and more, you got irritable much quicker, and you were eating your body weight in food every day. All of which are common sighs that you were entering a Sil-Dir we just didn’t know it.”
“And how do you know so much about it now?” spike asked questioningly
“After you wouldn’t wake up… well after I had a good panic about not being able to walk you up I sent for Celestia to come help me. After we established that you were not in a coma but were in fact in a deep sleep all our friends and the princesses set out looking for answers that no pony had or had ever even looked for. I don’t think I have ever seen Celestia more frantic as when you would not wake up; she looked constantly putting all of Equestria on hold for almost 2 months without much luck. The real brake through happened when Luna found out about a cash of dragon writings while dream walking. Her and her elite guard where able to retrieve it and bring it here for me to translate it. I still have only translate a fraction of the texts but was able to find a helpful book about the Sil-Dir”
Spike nodded taking in the information for a moment, it made him feel loved to know that he had so many ponies that cared for him but wished his mother would not go so overboard sometimes. He still had a ton of questions but as he open his mouth he was stopped by his stomach witch growled like, well a dragon.
“Looks like someone is hungry after his long nap” twilight said with a giggle “let’s get you some food then we can go tell are friends about the new you.” Spike nodded and they set out for the kitchens.
“Twi is this going to happen to me again?”
“No, as far as I have been able to find only the first Sil-Dir is ever forced upon a dragon after that it is completely under you control, in two hundred years or so you will feel the urge to reinter the state but you may ignore it indefinitely if you so wish.”
“So your telling me am going to stay this size! Pony sized! I never have to leave!” spike said excited for the first time about this Sil-Dir stuff.
“Oh spike no matter how big you get you will always be welcome in Equestria, in Ponyville and as my number one assistant.”
“I know but if I became the size of Ponyville I would have to move on no matter what either of us wanted”
“Well good thing that we will never have to deal with that” spike smiled at twilight's words and wondered just how much had changed
In a cave far from the borders of equestria a huge form looked dawn at his hoard it was all there, all except his books. Someone stole his knowledge thus stole his power and they would pay! He grimaced, literal venom dripping from his maw as he rawer to the sky “I will find you and kill you no one steals from me!”
