Hybrid

Chapters

The Incident
Initial Symptoms
Crossroads
Apotheosis
Epilogue

The Incident

Somewhere, in the frozen wastes…

“There she goes!” Twilight Sparkle yelled. “Don’t let Queen Chrysalis get away!”

Twilight and her friends charged down the icy subterranean corridor, chasing after Chrysalis’ retreating form. The fallen villain cackled as she sped away from her pursuers, a sickly-blue necklace glowing around her neck.

“Chrysalis, please!” Starlight Glimmer yelled. She was using telekinesis to fly, managing to keep up with the others. On her back was Spike, holding on for dear life. “You don’t have to do this!”

“Incessant, whiny little...” Chrysalis shot a ray of magic behind her before rounding a corner. “Maybe this'll shut your trap!”

“WATCH OUT!” Twilight and the others hit the deck, the ray sailing past and slamming against the icy wall. Frigid, dagger-like shards exploded outward, laced with green magic that honed in on their fallen forms…

VWUM

...only to bounce harmlessly off a mighty magenta forcefield.

“Don’t get sloppy!” Shining Armor said. Horn glowing, he helped everypony to their hooves. “There’s no telling what she'll do with that amulet!”

“I’ve got a fix on her!” shouted Cadance. She was standing beside Shining, focused on a special locating spell. “She’s still going down the tunnel! She must be trying to get out through the caverns!”

“We can’t let that happen!” Twilight said. “If she gets away with the Amulet of Prismia…”

“I’m going on ahead!” Starlight said. She picked herself up and flew forward, rounding the corner Chrysalis had just gone around…

… but then abruptly had to stop, as a wall of glowing ice had been erected, blocking the path.

“Not another one…” Starlight turned to look at Spike. “You’re up!”

“On it!” Spike leapt off Starlight’s back, dashing forward while she kept clear. The reason why became quickly apparent, as cruel, black tendrils suddenly appeared on the wall, lashing out to assail Spike…

...but bounced harmlessly off his draconic scales.

Eerie emerald embers danced in Spike’s mouth as he took a deep breath.

FWOOOSH!

The air became swelteringly hot as the ice wall was consumed by dragonfire, melting to nothing in seconds. A steaming puddle of water was all that remained, and Spike wiped his mouth with a grin.

“There, that should—WAH!”

Starlight plucked Spike off the ground and set off again at full speed, her eyes darting all around for any other surprises.

The path became a minefield of pits and uneven ground that led down into the bowels of the earth. Starlight and Spike flew above it all, weaving carefully between the jagged stalactites, using magic to illuminate the darkness. Behind them, Starlight could hear Twilight shouting something, but couldn’t look back to see how her teacher was faring.

Spike, however, could, and with his sharper hearing, he heard exactly what Twilight said.

“FORMATION!” A brief pause, and then... “NOW!”

There was a mighty explosionof light. It was followed by a wave of harmonic energy that washed over Spike, making his scales feel tingly and warm. The air became heavy, a mighty pressure building that made one’s ears pop, and not long after, Twilight and her friends rounded the corner, flying in a prismatic aura at impossible speed. They caught up with Starlight and Spike in an instant, then blew right past, hot on Chrysalis’ trail.

“Looks like our time’s up, Starlight,” Spike said in her ear. “Sorry.”

Starlight grit her teeth. She’d been trying to get Chrysalis to give up the stolen artifact and surrender peacefully for hours, but all that’d resulted in was a drawn-out chase, made even worse by the dimensional lock Chrysalis had cast on all of them. At this point, she couldn’t blame Twilight and the others for getting fed up.

“Be careful!” Starlight yelled after them. Careful to keep herself level, she sped after them as fast as she could.

Chrysalis flew as fast as her wings could carry her, erecting barricades and traps to try and slow her pursuers. She could tell they were starting to fall behind, but then, the burst of harmonic energy swept over her like a wave of dread.

“Blast it all!” Chrysalis could feel the Elements of Harmony speeding towards her, likely with that vile rainbow magic of theirs. Her magical traps disintegrated like dust in the wind, and at this rate, she’d be overtaken in seconds. She had no other way of escaping; not with that accursed Cadance homed in on her magic like a bloodhound. And disabling her wasn’t an option, either—Shining Armor had wised up to Chrysalis’ tactics, and had more defensive spells on Cadance than Chrysalis could count.

Chrysalis came to a wide, icy grotto. She whirled and cast one last vampiric wall, then began devouring the power of the amulet she wore. Its energy tasted sickly sweet; almost more than she could bear—

BAM!

Spidery cracks appeared on the wall she’d made, shaking the ceiling above. Six ominous silhouettes could be seen just beyond, but Chrysalis ignored them and kept feasting. Her body emanated a foul darkness, her features deforming, changing, twisting into abhorrent mockeries.

BAM!

Chrysalis’ body was deteriorating, her chitinous flesh flaking off in chunks. Tendrils of energy lanced off her form, melting whole swaths of ice around her, turning them into tainted, slushy pools. The mysterious amulet around her neck vibrated, its power unstable from the forced extraction—

SMASH!

Chrysalis’ last defense was blown to pieces. Power blazing, the Elements of Harmony flew in and surrounded her, their face grim and set like stone. She tried to unleash a blast to scatter them, but the Elements’ power had already enveloped her, constricting her, negating the magic she’d taken.

“NO!” Chrysalis screeched. “NO, CURSE YOU!”

Starlight and Spike flew into the grotto, wincing at the feel of the chaotic, conflicting magics.

“It’s not too late, Chrysalis!” Starlight called. “Please! You can still—”

With every bit of power she could muster, Chrysalis ripped herself free of the Elements’ prison. Screaming with rage, she fired a perverted blast of love magic at Starlight and Spike.

Starlight dodged, but the backdraft of the attack knocked her out of the air. She and Spike fell tumbling to the tainted ground, landing in one of the corrupted pools with a splash!

Now the Elements of Harmony were enraged. They attempted to clamp back down on Chrysalis, but before they could, she tore the Amulet of Prismia off her neck and chomped down on it. All the power it contained rushed into her dissolving body, and Twilight and the others were blown back by a perverted explosion of darkness. The grotto abruptly became divided down the middle as the two forces of energy battled, equally matched.

“Hang on!” Twilight yelled to her friends.

Chrysalis’ body was gone. She was now an abhorrent, roiling mass of evil, ravenous with insatiable hunger. i WiLL... COnsUmE… cONsuMe... EVERYTHING—

ZORCH

VWUM

A pair of spinning rays drilled into the mass like a corkscrew from the grotto’s entrance. Shining and Cadance stood aloft, ablaze with the magic they’d wielded at their wedding, cold fury in their eyes.

“Consume this,” Shining said.

The combined light overwhelmed the dark, filling the grotto with divine radiance. Chrysalis tried to devour the new energy, but it was too much for her, and the powers of harmony surged forth, utterly engulfing her. She let out one final, agonizing wail, her form flailing and convulsing, and with a sound like rushing wind, she collapsed in on herself, dissolving into fine, powdery mist.

Deathly silence followed. The divided grotto was split right in half by a still-sizzling fissure, one side cold and black with scorch marks, the other side alive with color, and warmth. The pools of water on the alive side were crystal clear, revealing the wyrmling and a unicorn inside them—

Twilight gasped. She dove down and grabbed them both, yanking them to the surface and shouting their names.

Spike opened his eyes. His mind felt like it was submerged in molasses, his scales strangely cool, like they’d been slathered in menthol. Everything was blurry, but the two things he noticed were the extreme brightness of Twilight’s glowing form, and the weird, sparkly dust everywhere—repelled from her, but settling all over his soaked form.

Spike coughed up some water. “This is why... I prefer... riding you.”

And then he blacked out.

Initial Symptoms

Being knocked unconscious was a new feeling for Spike. Sure, he was kind of klutzy, and being Twilight’s assistant, he had to regularly help with dangerous stuff. In the past, he’d fallen, been tossed around, gotten blasted, had things land on him, and all in all, been subjected to more punishment than most ponies would be able to withstand.

Fortunately, Spike wasn't a pony.

Dragons were easily the most resilient of the mortal races. They could survive indefinitely in extreme temperatures, were resistant to most of forms of magic, flat-out immune to disease, could see in the dark, sense vibrations in the earth, live for thousands of years, possessed incredible healing capability, eat just about anything… the list went on, and on. True, actual documentation on dragons (at least by ponies) was embarrassingly lacking, but that mystery was quickly being solved thanks to recent peaceful negotiations.

Spike groaned as the world came into focus. He blinked several times, his eyes feeling dry and scratchy, with his mouth much the same. He was in a room with soft, blue walls, rust-red floors, and tall, wide windows. He was currently alone, lying on a plush, pony-sized bed, and from the light coming in from the window, he guessed it was either sunrise, or sundown.

“Urgh.” He rubbed his eyes, picking out the bits of sand. He felt woozy... drained, almost. Getting out of bed wasn’t on the to-do list right now. He did manage to sit up, though, and when he did, he noticed that the strange, cool feeling still remained, sunken deeper into his scaly skin. It wasn’t uncomfortable or painful, mind you, just… weird.

He put a claw to his head. “What happened…?”

“Spike!”

Twilight rushed in from the hallway, her mane and coat damp, wisps of steam billowing in her wake. “I knew it… I knew you’d wake up while I was in the shower!”

At Twilight’s entrance, Spike felt a pleasant shiver run through him. His thin, forked tongue flicked out, registering the warmth wafting off her, the lavender soap she’d used, the electric aura she emanated, and something else, as well—a sweetness of sorts, pouring off of her and funneling into him...

Spike fidgeted, the chill in his scales easing away. “Heh… isn’t that always how it goes?”

Twilight immediately began fussing over him, propping him up on a pillow while giving him a glass of water. “How do you feel? What’s the last thing you remember?”

After gulping down the water, Spike leaned back and searched his thoughts. “Riding Starlight, chasing Chrysalis underground, you and the others surrounding her... uhhhh...”

Twilight took his arm and felt his pulse. “She fired a potshot at you and Starlight before we could pin her down. She missed, but you both got knocked into a pool of water. Neither of you would wake up afterwards.”

Slowly, memories and sensations emerged from the fog: Frigid, tainted water, rushing down his throat. Terrible, searingpain, tearing and ripping into him, but stopped by light, blessed light, leaving only the strange coolness behind...

“Yeesh.” Spike looked out the window, realizing with a start that they were still in the Crystal Empire. “How long was I out?”

“About a day,” Twilight replied. She produced an enchanted thermometer and put it in Spike’s mouth. “Cadance and I have been taking turns watching over you, with Luna keeping vigil in the Dreamscape. She messaged me just now, saying you were going to wake up soon. Thought I’d have time to clean up, but…”

Spike wasn’t feeling so woozy anymore. There was now a warm glow inside him, making him placid and drowsy. On reflex, he leaned into Twilight’s fuzzy chest, closing his eyes with a sigh. “Honestly, I feel like I could sleep some more.”

Twilight put a hoof around him, nuzzling and hugging him tight. “Hey, if that’s what you feel like doing, go right ahead. You deserve it after all that.”

“Mmm.” Spike yawned, his eyelids fluttering closed. “Starlight okay?”

Twilight hesitated. “She’s… still in the infirmary. Her body’s not as tough as yours, remember.”

Spike pursed his lips. That news didn’t exactly surprise him, but still. “Can we visit her later?”

“Of course.” Twilight hugged him tighter. “We’ll go first thing in the morning, okay?”

Spike didn’t reply. His breathing had already become deep and slow, his little body slumped against her.

Twilight kissed his brow and laid him back down, watching him for a while before stepping out. She left orders with the guards, then shut the door and went to speak with Shining and Cadance.

It was a shame she didn’t stay longer, because if she had, she would’ve noticed the glow now emanating from Spike’s form, steady getting brighter, and brighter...

***

Being knocked unconscious was not a new feeling for Starlight. Sure, she’d always had a knack for magic, but impatience and a short temper didn’t always combine well with complex spellcasting. Over the years, she’d suffered bumps, bruises, burns, backlashes, blackouts, and even a concussion or two. Thankfully, those incidents had become less frequent with her redemption, but even still, as she groggily opened her eyes to behold the blank, rectangular ceiling tiles, a single thought nevertheless crossed her mind.

Oh. This again.

It was the dead of night. Three in the morning, according to the clock on the stand beside her. She was in a hospital bed, the dull, magical glow of a heart monitor the only light in the room. There was a plaster-like coating on her horn—a cast, she realized, and electrical sensors were on her chest and head.

Starlight winced. She looked around for the call button, but couldn’t find it anywhere… ah, it was on the wall beside her. She moved over to push it, but when she did, a pleasant burst of heat swept through her, making her stop dead.

Starlight jolted from the feeling, her eyes going wide. Fast, frantic memories returned—the standoff, the fall, the water, the energy ripping through her and Spike. A cleansing light had chased the pain away, but not a bizarre heat had formed inside her, smoldering beneath her skin, further kindled by the dust that’d covered her...

“Oh...” Starlight fell back against the pillows. Theheat was rising, racing through her veins like liquid fire. Her body began to glow with prismatic light, faint at first, but getting brighter by the second. The sensation was delightfully invigorating, newfound vigor pouring into her, and abruptly her body felt tense, coiled like a spring. She was filled with the itch to stretch her legs, and she did so with a pleasant hum, casually brushing off the electrical sensors.

Curious, Starlight inspected her glowing limbs. The strange warmth was still building, a veritable furnace burning away her pain, weakness, and fatigue. She lay there in silence, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts, a part of her enjoying the cozy sensations as the… healing magic… she guessed… ran its course. She pushed away the blankets and relaxed, staring up at the tiles and letting her gaze unfocus, thinking back to what’d happened in the cavern.

She’d seen what’d happened to Chrysalis. It saddened her, but… well, also wasn’t all that surprising. Ironically, it’d been Discord who’d taken her aside after the assault on the Changeling Kingdom, saying plainly,“Don’t pull punches the next time you see her, my dear. You’ve taken everything from her, and let me tell you—there’s nothing more dangerous than a foe with nothing to lose. Find her fast, and stop her fast, because if you don’t… you may need to endher, fast.”

Starlight closed her eyes with a yawn, reaching up to rub her scratchy eyes. “I guess he was—huh?”

Upon opening her eyes, she’d realized somepony had turned on the lights.

Starlight frowned. She hadn’t heard anypony come in. She looked over at the doorway, expecting to see a nurse, but the door was still closed. There weren’t any shadows moving beneath, either, and the light switch was still flicked down…

“What the…” Starlight glanced back up at the ceiling. The light fixtures weren’t any brighter, so where was the light coming from? The only thing seemingly giving off any sort of light was her, but she wasn’t that bright. Nevertheless, though, for whatever reason, the room was clear as day to her. She could see the bits of dust in the far corners, the spot on the ceiling the painters had missed, examine the threads of the window curtains, read the doctor’s chicken scratch on the clipboard mounted to the door—

Wait.

Starlight rubbed her eyes again. That scratchy feeling was still there, insistent, now accompanied by the heat. It was now building behind her muzzle, seeping into the rest of her senses. She blinked once, twice, thrice, each time her vision getting sharper, more detailed. Her muzzle began to itch, her nostrils flaring of their own accord, and each sniff now reported scents she hadn’t picked up on at first. The lemony floor cleaner, the clean, fresh blankets, the slightly stale air, heavy with disinfectant soap, the chemical odor of plastic.

The pulsing warmth next pressed into her mouth, and her teeth abruptly felt tingly, her jaw muscles following suit. Intrigued, Starlight pressed her tongue against her frontmost teeth, realizing that they were no longer flat, but growing pointed, becoming sharper and deadlier by the second—

Starlight leapt out of bed and dashed to the bathroom, beholding her glowing reflection in the mirror.

“What in Equestria…”

The shape and structure of her eyes had changed. Her irises retained their color, but the pupils had morphed into vertical slits. Furthermore (and perhaps more alarming), upon looking closer, A second iris and pupil had formed in each eye, able to be moved independently from the outer set. And as for her teeth, it was her incisors that’d changed most, becoming gleaming, dagger-like fangs, but her back teeth were changing, too—still the ideal shape for chewing and grinding, but now feeling heavier, stronger in her mouth. Her jaw and throat muscles were awash in the deep, burning sensation now, and as she looked on, they rippled and reformed beneath her skin, becoming less like a pony’s, and more like… something else.

Starlight knew her way around magic, and she could tell right away that that this wasn’t a spell of some kind—this was a transformation. And if there was one thing every spellcaster knew, you did NOT stop a transformation halfway. That was just Metamorphic Magic 101. Even still, though, the smart thing to do was to call for help. Any sane, rational pony would do no less. Starlight's best bet was to try to find Twilight and the others, as they’d been down in the cavern with her, and most knowledgeable about ancient magic. If anypony could figure out what was happening, it’d be them.

Yes, that was definitely the correct course of action. Starlight should ignore the addictive heat sinking into her mind, and try to find them, posthaste. She shouldn’t even be thinking about this—not when her body was changing before her very eyes! No! Stop it! The sensation of power building inside her was NOT enjoyable! She was NOT getting excited by this raw, primal energy, adding to her own considerable reserves! What, was she gonna lay back and admire herself while this happened? Did she really want to just watch these changes occur, like some vain, egotistical megalomaniac?

The answer came unbidden from her lips.

"Oh, fuck the hell, yes."

Tail swishing, Starlight grinned and pulled the cast off her horn, not surprised to find it fully healed. She detached the screws holding the mirror in place, bringing it back with her to the bed, laying down spread-eagle as she attached it to the ceiling.

Starlight took in her colorful form, revelling in the heat as she flashed herself a fanged smile. “Come on, then. Let’s see what you can do.”

The fiery sensation now moved into her ears. They twitched errantly, their shape turning angular, with tufts of fur becoming prominent along the edges. A sudden, incessant ringing sounded, but faded just as quickly, and when it did, it was like emerging from underwater. Starlight could now hear the hum of the monitor, low and buzzing in a monotone. Beyond the door and down the west hall, two sets of heavy hoofsteps climbed a stairway, their movements accompanied by jangling of metal. Down the east hall, a trio of mares, talked in hushed tones, the nurse’s station, she guessed.

All this Starlight heard and more, and if it weren’t for the heat still blazing in her mind, it might’ve been sensory overload.

Starlight played with her new ears, swivelling them back and forth. She ran her hooves over each one, fascinated by their new contours, and fluffy fur. As she was exploring, though she discovered a curious pair of bumps behind her ears, each one hard as bone. As if on queue, the heat in her mind increased threefold, the warmth now throbbing inside her head, pounding in her ears like a second heartbeat. It was all-encompassing (but thankfully not painful), and Starlight let her limbs fall limp with a groan, her thoughts going fuzzy as she panted for breath.

It felt like the heat was massaging her brain. It pressed in on her psyche, kneading it, molding it like putty. The bumps behind her ears grew more prominent, thickening as they formed, lengthening in an elegant arc. The skin covering them became hard and shiny, forming thin, spiral-like grooves along the edge, each one finishing off in a blunt, tapered point. Meanwhile, Starlight’s unicorn horn began to shrink, going numb as it melted into a featureless mass, its magic ebbing away, flowing instead to their two new conduits.

“Ah!” Starlight twitched like she’d been shocked. Her magic—such a huge, massive portion of who she was, had always felt cool, relaxing, almost like the sensation of menthol. But now, it was hot, deliciously hot, like a glowing hot coal in her soul. It allowed her to become accustomed to the heat swirling through her mind, leaving Starlight to focus on her reflection in the mirror.

She saw that her unicorn horn was completely gone, replaced instead by a pair of strange, curved ones that swept back behind her ears. Starlight tried levitating a few things to see if anything had changed, including herself. Her new horns glowed while channeling, their color of her magic surprisingly the same. Fascinated, Starlight poked at her now-bare forehead, running her hoof along the center, feeling the smooth, unblemished skin. She touched each of her new horns in turn, moving her neck back and forth, getting a feel for the redistribution of weight.

Starlight stretched a second time, again feeling that tenseness in her limbs. But this time, she felt the heat flare in her hooves, probing deep inside. There was a creepy-crawly sensation as her leg bones changed, muscles separated and reformed, and nerve endings grew with a maddening itch, the back portion of each hoof ‘softening’, forming into a padded heel. In the front portion, a pair of creases appeared, splitting the remains of each hoof into thirds, pulling them apart like they’d merely been glued together. The front portion retained their hoof qualities, but now they had a greater sensation of feeling, as well as an impressive range of motion...

Starlight stared. The creases had gone quite deep, splitting her hooves up to the fetlock. She had some degree of control over them, able to wiggle them back and forth, but she was also able to extend and retract them, pushing them out so they jutted out like claws, or pull them back in so they resembled hooves. She wasn’t really sure what to call these strange new appendages, but as the seconds ticked by, trivial things like names seemed less and less important.

Yes... what mattered was that they worked. What mattered was that they were useful.

Starlight chuckled as a fresh wave of heat pulsed through her. She was quite the exotic beauty, wasn’t she? She’d been attractive before, of course, but now, she doubted there was a stallion or mare who’d turn her down! Why the hay had she never bothered to flaunt her looks over the years, anyway? She could’ve had any pony she wanted back in that village she’d created. Maybe if she hadn’t been so convinced that love and friendship only led to pain—

Ah. Right.

The reminder of her past blunders was sobering. She’d told Twilight how it’d started once—losing Sunburst when he’d gone off to school—but that’d been only the tip of the iceberg. By the time she’d come of age and gotten away from everything, her repeated bad experiences had led to a warped perception of harmony, and she’d somehow come to the conclusion that cutie marks were evil.

Starlight held her pseudo-claws before her eyes, clicking them together with a snikt. She knew what friendship was capable of now, of course. Her experiences as Twilight’s pupil had demonstrated it in spades. Granted, Starlight still knew little about love, but considering there was a princess dedicated to it, an entirerace that used to feed on it, and a holy artifact that used it as a power source, she wasn’t under any delusions.

Starlight put a claw to her chin, running it along her jawline. But perhaps it was time to fill that gap in her knowledge. She’d come a long way in learning friendship, but… love was powerful stuff, and she didn’t like being ignorant about such things. Who to seek out as a teacher, though? Cadance and Shining Armor were the immediate first thoughts, but… no. Their lives were too busy with the Empire, and now with little Flurry. Twilight might know a thing or two, but… eh. Starlight didn’t want classroom instruction on this. She wanted something more involved, something more engaging...

Something more... intimate.

She wasn’t sure why HE sprang up in her mind. Maybe it was because he’d been kind to her, maybe because she knew he was a genuinely nice guy, maybe because they’d been through alot together. Or maybe it was because this strange magic changing her was subtly leading her towards him! She didn’t freaking know! All she did know was that for whatever reason, HE seemed like the best option for what she wanted, and she saw no reason to disagree.

“Nor any reason to wait,” Starlight murmured.

She cast a quick tracking spell. A simple one, of course, nothing too fancy. She doubted she’d need anything robust to find him—ah, there he was. About five floors above her, alone in a little room. Easy enough.

Starlight sat up and rolled off the bed. She stretched again as she stood, her claws clacking lightly against the floor. As she rose to her full height, she realized for the first time that her room was actually rather small—almost cramped, really. Heck, now that she was really looking at it, even her bed was on the tiny side! She hadn’t noticed it at first with everything else going on, but now…

Starlight rolled her eyes. Typical, she gets injured in the line of duty trying to save the damn world, and they can’t even bother to put her in a nice hospital room. She’d be having words with somepony about that.

Starlight teleported away with a blue flash.

Crossroads

A familiar, soothing voice echoed all around Spike, pressing in on his eardrums. “Ah, young Spike. Come closer, I would speak with you…”

Spike looked around. He was in an immense, natural cavern, the walls, floor, and ceiling all smoothed by the passage of time. The floor was covered in soft, clean moss, blue in color, and smelling almost like pine. To the left and right were channels of clear, running water, flowing from waterfalls that poured from natural aquifers. The walls and ceiling were translucent crystal, the ceiling being high, high above, and the cavern was awash in shifting colors, the ambient energy slowly, almost lazily, shifting the hue of the crystal in curtain-like sheets.

But the thing that caught Spike’s eye most was in the center of the room. Sitting upon a giant throne of platinum was Princess Luna, titanic in size, immaculate in beauty and shape. Her power called to him, shining like an ardent star, singing in his ears like heavenly chimes.

Spike walked forward, the spongy moss pleasant between his claws. He could feel Luna’s energy sweeping over, around, even through him, almost as if it were examining every aspect of his body. As he neared, the sound of the chimes grew clearer, the burbling water accompanying the soothing melody. Luna had a kind look on her face as she watched him, her colossal, slender form dwarfing him many times over. She had to be the size of Canterlot Castle!

“I must say, I’d no idea you held me in such high esteem.” Luna gestured to her godly form, then the peaceful scene around them. “Usually, ponies portray me as something sinister or mysterious in their dreams; not as an all-powerful, benevolent deity. Perhaps I shall visit your dreams more often.”

Spike put a claw behind his head. He hadn’t realized they were in a dream, but he rolled with it. “Yeah, well… I’ve met the real you, you know? And I’ve always figured, you’ve gotta be as strong at nighttime as Celestia is during the day...”

Luna chuckled. “As one who’s been linked to her since hatching, you’re one of the few who knows she hides her true power. But you’re only partially correct—there was a time Tia and I were equals, but in the millennium of my absence, she grew ever-stronger, while I remained trapped in the Nightmare’s vampiric embrace. Perhaps one day Tia and I will again be magical rivals, but not for a long while. A century, at the very least.”

Spike shrugged. “Hey, I’ll be around! If that’s the case, then this is just a sneak peek for me! It’ll be cool to see you like this for real. I can’t wait!”

Luna smiled. She bade him come closer, summoning up a pillow for him to sit. “Did you know, Spike, that before my banishment, the Dreamrealm would frequently offer me visions of events yet to pass?”

Spike’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Indeed.” There was a flare of energy, like the thump of a giant’s heart. “It’s been a rare occurrence recently, but a few scant hours ago, it gave me one regarding you. It was but a flicker of foresight, but I would tell you of it, if you’d hear me.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “What, like I’m gonna say no? Of course I want to hear it! Lay it on me!”

“As you wish.” Luna waved a hoof, and a transparent image appeared before Spike. “In my vision, a shadowy figure stood at a crossroads with two paths. One of these paths was clean and well-kept, blessed by the powers of love, goodness, and harmony. The second path was foul and twisted, marred with loneliness and despair, corrupted by blasphemous magics. Each path went a short ways before splitting into two more, and two again, and again, and again, continuing on until an infinite number of paths stretched out to the horizon.”

The image before Spike illustrated what Luna was saying. He could see that each time one of the paths split, it was different in some way—some of the good paths were cleaner than others, not all the bad paths were so twisted, and so on. One thing was certain, though, the paths all originated from the crossroads.

“Oh… erm, well, then.” Spike fidgeted in his seat. “That seems pretty cut and dry, doesn’t it? I’m guessing I’m gonna need to make some kind of choice pretty soon?”

“Very soon,” said Luna.

“Annnnnd... “ Spike fiddled with his claws. “I’m also guessing the vision was really vague beyond that?”

Luna’s face turned grim. “Fate is a fickle mistress, as they say.”

Spike hung his head with a sigh. “Yeah, I figured. It’s like that in the comics, too.”

Luna made the image vanish, then lifted Spike up in her aura, setting him gently atop her massive, outstretched hoof.

“You’re quite the curiosity, you know.” The chiming music thrummed deeper, rising in a crescendo. “A creature with the body and soul of a dragon, yet the heart and mind of a pony? There’s never been such a thing. You’ve remained astoundingly untainted of the vices that plague your race—your soul is pure, purer than any other dragon’s I’ve encountered. But how long will that remain the case? Even with so many good influences surrounding you, Spike, you remain a wild card. With so many paths open to you, I wonder who you’ll decide to be?”

Spike looked up at Luna’s enormous face, his eyes blank. “I’m not really sure what you’re saying. Didn’t you say there were only two choices?”

“Two choices now, but from there, an infinity of possibility.” The light in the room grew brighter, the otherworldly chimes ringing louder. The power in the room was building, unnoticeable at first, but now with a fullness, weighty in the depth it promised.

“Even already, in the span of your young life, you’ve done more than others have even dared dream. You’ve been a constant companion to Twilight Sparkle, one of the greatest heroes Equestria has ever known. You helped save the Crystal Empire from Sombra’s foul rule, thus preventing that war you and she witnessed. You helped establish the first ever peaceful relations with Dragonkind, and your friendship with the changeling Thorax has brought about a whole new age for his race. You’ve earned the favor of many powerful beings across the races—myself included—and yet, you remain an innocent child, an impressionable anomaly.”

Spike was about to reply, but as he raised his claw in question, he became aware of a prismatic glow now encompassing his body. He abruptly realized that the singing sensation of power was coming from HIM, not Luna, and it was only growing stronger by the second! He let out a yelp and looked to her, but she was now fading away, the cavern around them vanishing, melting into mist.

“I don’t understand!” Spike yelled. What am I supposed to do?!”

“What you think is right.” Luna was now totally transparent, swiftly disappearing, leaving Spike to hover alone in a void. “Stay true to your beliefs, and do not second-guess yourself. That is all I can tell you. Good luck, my friend…”

“Wait! Luna!” Spike tried to move towards her, but his vision was going white. “Please! Come back!”

***

Spike awoke with a start. He looked all around wildly in the darkness, searching for Luna, almost calling her name again.

He stopped when saw he was still glowing.

“Eep…” That cool, menthol-like sensation had returned, now stronger than ever. It was building beneath his scales, spreading to all his limbs, even creeping up into his head. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, but it was definitely weird, and if there was one thing Twilight had taught him—

BANG!

Starlight teleported into the room.

“GAH!” Spike nearly fell out of bed. As if the shock of somepony appearing out of nowhere wasn’t enough, said pony was glowing, just like he was! What the hay?!

“Shh!” Starlight raised a clawed hoof to her lips. “Somepony might hear you!”

Spike’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. It was definitely Starlight, but her face and muzzle barely looked equine at all! Her unicorn horn was gone, her eyes looked like his, ears were fluffy and pointed, she had fangs, and… wait, had she always been that big?

“S-S-Starlight?” Spike managed.

Starlight winked. Her new horns flashed with a spell, and he felt the air become a touch thicker.

“Privacy spell,” she explained. She went over to his bed and examined him, comparing the glow of his body to her own. “Don’t want anypony seeing just yet… hmm, looks like the changes have just started for you. Interesting...”

Spike shuddered from another pulse of soothing energy inside him. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure,” Starlight admitted. “But I don’t think it’s a bad thhhing… hmm?” She cocked her head, working her jaw like she was chewing on something. She opened her mouth to stick out her tongue, and Spike watched in awe as it became longer and thinner before his eyes.

“Ooh, that’th a new one.” Starlight wiggled it back and forth. “How’th it look?”

Spike’s mouth went dry. Did… he really just hear that right? She didn’t think this was a bad thing? “A-Are you sure this isn’t bad?”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. From all the stories you’ve told me about your adventures, you must know what dark magic feels like. Does this feel dark to you?”

Spike bit his lip. True, the magic didn’t feel dark, but there was certainly something strange about it. It felt like smooth ripples spreading out from his core, and they were now focusing in on the softer, chubbier parts of him.

“Why don’t you want anyone seeing us?”

Starlight giggled. She watched as Spike baby fat melted away, exposing his sleek, serpentine form, his face losing its childlike look. “Not ‘us,’ silly. I don’t want anypony seeing me. They’ll just start a panic if I call for help, and I’m rather enjoying this. I just wanted to see if the same thing was happening to you.”

Spike frowned. “Enjoying this?! Starlight, you almost look like—”

“—a dragon! I know!” Starlight squee’d and danced in place. “Except not quite completely, you know?Call it a hunch, but I’ve a suspicion that’s not what I’m turning into.”

“What do you m—”

Spike was cut off by a hiccup. He sat up straight as a board, his claws clenched into fists, his whole body going stiff.

“Ugh…” Spike gripped his chest, his breath uneven. “Sorry, I—HIC!”

It happened a second time, strong as before. He jolted so hard he doubled over, falling forward on his hands. Each hiccup shook his whole body, his back and neck cracking with a loud POP, his arm muscles pulling, stretching...

Starlight’s jaw dropped. “Wow…”

Spike looked up at her. “Did this—HIC—happen—HIC—to you?”

Starlight shook her head. Her eyes were as wide as dinner plates as she beheld his hiccup case. Spike found it a tad annoying, to be honest. She could’ve at least offered a glass of water.

Fortunately, the powerful hiccups were limited to a half dozen. Spike took slow, steady breaths as he remained crouched, his tongue hanging out his mouth.

“Geez louise,” he whispered. “What was that?!”

Starlight remembered herself. Wordlessly, she summoned up a mirror and held it before Spike.

“Oh…”

Walking on all fours wasn’t something Spike did very often. Sure, he could do it, but like ponies going around on two legs, it got uncomfortable after a while. He doubted that’d be the case now, though. His arms had grown longer and thicker, rivalling his hind legs, able to support his lithe form with ease. The joints had shifted for greater mobility, his neck was longer, and he could swivel it around easier, almost like a… a...

Spike rounded on Starlight. “Explain. Ten words or less.”

Starlight looked up at the ceiling a moment, counting silently. “We’re becoming dragon-pony hybrids. Doubt we can stop it.”

Spike narrowed his eyes. “Can stop it? You said you didn’t want to stop it.”

“That, too.” She sat on her haunches beside the bed. “Look, transformations like this are powerful things. We’ve no idea what, when, or how we’re being affected at any given time, or to what extent. The magic is sustaining us right now, but if we meddled with it, say, while our hearts were changing…”

Spike grimaced. “Yeesh. Point taken.”

“I’m not gonna stop you if you wanna call for Twilight and the others,” Starlight said quickly. “But personally, I’d prefer to wait until it’s run its course. It’s not like they’re gonna be able to do much, anyways. They’re just gonna get worked up in a tizzy.”

Spike mulled that over. When it came to magic, he trusted Starlight’s knowledge almost as much as Twilight. If she said this wasn’t something to be messed with, then...

“I guess that the more ponies that get brought in, the greater chance one of them might try something dangerous.” Spike ran a claw down his face. “You’re probably—hey, what’s with my claws?!”

Starlight looked. Spike’s claws were throbbing, each digit slowly shrinking. The respective joints became fused together, forming hook-like shapes that grew harder and tougher, the same thing happening to his rear claws. His palms developed thick pads, just like Starlight’s, and they pulled a few inches into his arms before Spike pushed them back out, flexing them on instinct.

Spike stared at his new pseudo-hooves. He held them out to Starlight, who compared them to her own. They were quite similar, but where Starlight had only three claws, Spike had four, the fourth like some kind of opposable dewclaw.

“Not bad,” Starlight said. “They feel okay?”

Spike glowered. “Great. Just great! And just how am I supposed to… toooo—whooooaahhhh...”

The soothing coolness now poured into his mind, filling it with a spacey, fluid feel. It was all-encompassing, and his legs gave out as he fell flat on his belly, a dreamy, doped-up smile on his face.

“Spike?!” Starlight made to rise, but then noticed the spines around his earholes changing shape. “Are you—oh. Ohhhhhhhh…”

Spike had only ever known the volatile heat of dragon magic inside him, fierce and untamed, burning in his chest like a furnace. The feeling that pervaded him now was almost the exact opposite—like a spring of bubbling water running through his veins, yet filled with an energy that made him wantmore. The spines guarding his earholes felt pleasantly cold, shifting farther behind his skull, sparks jumping off them as they morphed into smooth, curved points. Where the spines had been, Spike’s skin bulged outward, a pair of pointed, fleshy lobes forming around the ear holes, twitching and flopping before going still. He made a throaty purr as his new horns fully came in, each one flickering with bright, emerald light, eventually going dark, but the faint hum of a magic field was still present...

Spike felt like he was floating. The world looked wavy, like it was moving on its own, the odd power gradually settling inside him. The new font of energy was blending with the inner furnace he’d always known, now like liquid fire.

Starlight poked his shoulder. “Hey. You alright?”

“Mmrhhh…” Spike’s eyes refocused, looking in her direction. “Nowonder you wanna let this play out…”

Starlight grinned. She helped him get back to his hooves, letting him take his time. “Welcome to the world the pony magic. Twilight’s gonna freak when she realizes she can teach you.”

Spike let out a dry laugh. “Oh, goody. I can’t wait.”

Starlight couldn’t help but notice that the changes were happening in a different order for Spike. It probably had something to do with their respective original species, but she couldn’t say for sure. “Speaking of which, do you want to call for her? I won’t stop you, but I’m probably gonna leave if you do. I don’t want a bunch of stuffy doctors quarantining me and putting me under a microscope.”

Spike sized her up. He wasn’t sure why, but something told him that wasn’t the real reason she didn’t want to stay. There was a strange uncertainty in her eyes, a tenseness to her posture as she watched, waiting for his answer.

“Where will you go?” Spike asked.

Starlight hesitated. Oh, damn it all. She’d never been able to lie to those eyes.

A faint blush appeared on her cheeks. “I was kinda hoping… we’d figure that p-part out, together.”

“Toge—” Spike blinked. “Oh.”

Starlight’s voice became quiet. “Will you come with me?”

A silence fell between them. Spike studied her carefully, weighing out the possibilities of each possible response, the spacey feeling in his mind fading into the background. It came down to two real choices. Go with her, and be with her as they rode this out together, or get help for himself, and leave her to do… whatever. She’d just teleport if he tried to keep her here, and while it might be more dangerous to tag along, if she went off on her own, there was no telling where she’d go... or what she’d do...

Do what he thought was right, was it?

...

“Let’s go,” Spike said.

A huge smile spread on Starlight's her face. “Really?!”

“I’m not leaving you alone like this,” Spike said flatly. “And if you don’t want to stay here… we’ll just have to go somewhere else. Not too many places we could go, though… oh, I know! Let’s go out to the hills outside of the city! We’ll have total privacy out there!”

Starlight’s heart soared. “Spike, you’ve no idea how much this—”

FLASH!

“— means... to… me?”

The brief pulse of light had come from Spike’s flanks. They both looked back to see what it was...

“Starlight?”

“...yeah?”

“Is that what I think it is?”

Starlight took a step closer, squinting at Spike’s haunches. She had thought it impossible, but unless they were both hallucinating, it was pretty clear...

“Congratulations, Spike,” Starlight said in an awed voice. “Looks like you got your cutie mark.”

The mark was a winged staff encircled by two serpents, the wings draconic and leathery. The inner portion of the wings was the same pale green as his spines, and the rest of it was purple, set apart from his scales by a black border.

“Huh, I know that symbol,” Starlight mused. “Slightly modified, but still, pretty obvious...”

“Cutie mark?” Spike said faintly. “I g-got... a cutie mark?!”

Starlight snickered. “Seems that way! We’ll have to throw a cute-ceañera for you later, though. Right now...”

She enveloped Spike in her magic, focusing on a secluded cluster of knolls west of town.

BANG!

“...let’s relocate.”

The mild spring air greeted them upon their arrival. They were behind a series of hills about a mile from the city, the only sound the lonely wind in their ears. The crescent moon was low on the horizon, not quite ready to set, but getting there. The northern night sky was ablaze with stars and thin clouds, and the colorful, curtain-like aurora zigzagged out towards the sea.

Starlight took the scene in with approving eyes. She flicked her tongue in and out, picking up on a slew of things she couldn’t before. “Not bad, Spike! Certainly better than I would’ve picked. I’ll have to let yo—ooouuuu, he-lloooooooo...”

Starlight felt a rush of heat deep inside her skin. She relaxed and let the change happen, readily plopping down on the soft grass. It felt like her flesh was being squeezed, the firm, massaging touch sweeping through her, her hide growing tougher and thicker. More tufts of fur were forming on new spots of her body, particularly her joints, and in other spots her coat was thinning, a silvery pattern of scales shining through.

Thud.

A bizarre vibration registered in Starlight’s mind. She couldn’t see what’d caused it, but somehow, she could tell that said object was three feet to her left.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Spike trotted into her line of sight, his steps vibrating through the ground.

“You’re getting fluffier,” he observed. He poked at her now-unshorn fetlocks. “But also… scalier? That’s kinda cooo—ohhhh, kaaaayyyy…”

Spike knelt down in her vision, then fell to his side entirely, his eyes dilated. It was hard to see what was happening to him, but from what she could tell, his whole body seemed to be… swelling?

Spike had never felt anything so odd in his whole life. The cool flare of energy from his dream was thumping inside him, like a second, oversized heart. The flares started in his chest, traveled out to his limbs, then poured into his magic reserves, each one more intense than the last. With each pulse of power, Spike felt his body rumbling... creaking… expanding, his clawed hooves gripping and clawing at the ground, a sleeping beast being roused with each wave. New sensations emerged in his mind, surging forth in a heady rush, and Spike growled from the pleasure of it all, deep and gravelly in his throat.

A pressure he’d never known was now rising in his lower body. His tail coiled and uncoiled as the pressure continued to build, his member emerging from a newly-formed sheath. The shape of it reformed as it lengthened, losing its club-like shape, its bulbous tip flattening out into something more pony-like. Spike jerked his hips in a heady rush, grunting and snarling, the rising pressure building and building, so much, when was it going to stop?! It felt like helium was in his chest, each additional thump of power adding fuel to the fire, and he could feel the knot at his base swelling, so very thick and wide...

...and then his balls dropped.

Spike roared as he came. Jets of hot seed erupted from his dick in hefty loads, painting the ground white with his fertile essence. Fireworks went off in his brain again and again, his teeth grit in a blissful grimace, hormones racing through him as his body accelerated right through adolescence. Each spurt of fresh cum aged him just a little bit more, adding inches to his frame at a time, and yet still his nuts swelled larger, heavy and dense between his hind legs, filling faster than they could be emptied. His orgasm kept stretching out due to the combined sensations, and he let loose a stream of dragonfire, scorching the nearby grass to ash.

He had no idea how long it lasted. One minute, he was flying among the clouds, and the next, he was back on the earth. The pulses of power subsided, leaving him a stranger in his own body, and he lay there for a moment or two, his heartbeat—his actual heartbeat—hammering in his ears. The scent of burnt grass mixed with that of his musk, and he coughed once and sat up, looking over his new form.

This wasn’t the first time he’d grown rapidly in size. In times previous, though, the process had been clumsy and unguided, piling mass on haphazardly, making him an ugly, oversized brute. This time, there seemed to be more planning involved. He was about the size of Cadance, with a lithe, light frame longer than a pony’s, yet more compact than a dragon’s. His muzzle had become more square, the jawline now clearly defined, the scales on his belly turned violet, like the ones on his limbs and back. His tail was shorter compared to the rest of him, but retained its range of motion, and his cutie mark remained visible on his flanks.

The mostinteresting change, though, was the one still at full mast. Hard and long, Spike’s pride remained ready and raring to go, still slick with the remnants of his first orgasm. Fat beads of pre were already forming on his tip, his virile balls coaxed on by the prismatic magic, gurgling as they swelled up for an even greater load—

“Holy fuck...”

Whoops.

Spike hesitated. It’d been all too easy to forget about present company. He wasn’t naïve about sex, but honestly, that’d felt too good for him to be ashamed. Mind you, Starlight’s voice didn’t sound condemning, but still...

Spike continued to examine himself, making a point to not turn around. “Heh, so that’s what an orgasm feels like. I always wondered…”

He heard her make an odd sound, something between a meep and a squeak.

“That was… your first?”

“Yup.” Spike yawned and stretched like a cat, his member throbbing impatiently. He gave it an idle stroke, shivering at the pleasant touch. “You probably didn’t know this, but dragons don’t become sexually mature until after their first century. Heck, I didn’t know that until my last visit to the Dragonlands! Ember could tell I didn’t know some things due to being raised by ponies, so she had her dad give me The Talk. Boy, talk about awkward…”

“Spike…”

He ignored her. Instead, he suddenly sprang forward, breaking out into a gallop. He ran circles inside the knoll, laughing and shooting fire into the air.

“WOO-HOO!” Spike made a bounding leap, coming to a skidding halt along one of the hills. “Holy horseapples, this isgreat! To Tartarus with being the butt monkey all the time! I can actually help you girls like this!”

“Spike!”

Spike began humming a small tune to test the range of his voice. Instead of a boyish tenor, he had a smooth, deep bass, like liquid satin in his ears. He closed his eyes and swayed from side to side, his hoof drifting back down to his dick. “I guess I’m—ah—an adult now, aren’t I? Man, first—ngh—a cutie mark, and now this? Best—mmf—transformation—hnng—ever!”

“Spike!”

Spike opened his eyes, but still didn’t look at her. “Yes, Starlight?”

“Stop masturbating, and look at me.”

He couldn’t help but laugh. He did as he was told, though, turning to examine her with new eyes. She was still lying on her belly in the middle of the grove, her front legs crossed in a relaxed pose. Her body had grown longer at some point, most noticeably her tail, becoming thicker, and more reptilian. A ribbon-like tuft of hair was at the end, swaying back and forth as she stared at him with glowing, cat-like eyes. Silver scale patterns shone amidst her shaggy fur, and overall, she had a graceful, serpentine look about her.

Spike whistled.

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Come sit down.”

“Why?” Spike waggled his eyebrows. “See something you like?”

Starlight glared at him.

Spike chuckled. He didn’t know why he was teasing her like this, but damn if it wasn’t fun. He obeyed and sat down a short ways away, his eyes still roving over her.

Starlight was in a pickle. It was pretty obvious what was happening, and what the magic was pushing them to do. Spike’s little display had triggered that familiarache inside her, and she’d had to use a spell to hide her arousal. Even now, she was trying hard not to fidget, her tail wafting her masked scent, the cloying smell of his seed in her nostrils, her pulse rising as he eyed her like a piece of meat.

She’d said she wanted to learn about love. That’s one of the reasons she’d gone to him in the first place.

She’d asked him to come with her, and he’d done so, foregoing the safe option of consulting aid. They were responsible for each other now, and magical transformations notwithstanding, she was the adult here.

Quite the gray area, if she ever saw one...

…

...

…

If it were any other stallion, it would be another matter entirely.

But considering this was Spike...

“… how long have we known each other?” Starlight finally asked.

Apotheosis

“… how long have we known each other?” Starlight asked.

Spike cocked his head at the question. “How long? Hmm… since you’ve been Twilight’s student, I suppose. Heh, s’been an interesting ride, hasn’t it?”

Starlight snorted. “Can say that again. Do you remember when I first started my lessons?”

Spike smirked. “How could I forget? You kept getting lost in the castle, accidentally walking on me everywhere. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were doing it on purpose.”

Starlight's face heated up. “H-Hey, the castle’s confusing! Everything looks the same—the walls, the doors, everything! Istill lose my place sometimes!”

A soft chuckle escaped Spike. “I’m just messing with you. But it was pretty funny that we kept stumbling into each other. You’ve gotta admit that.”

Starlight watched Spike, taking in every aspect of his still-changing form. The change in his voice was what threw her off most, but she could still identify it as him. She couldn’t tell if he was bigger than her now; one minute it seemed like he was, and another, it seemed like he wasn’t. He’d taken to laying on his belly like she was, but he kept shifting his hindquarters, grunting as he pressed his hips against the ground.

“I was really scared there for awhile,” Starlight said in a low voice. “So many new changes, so much potential for failure. So much happening so fast…”

Spike’s smirk became lopsided. There was still that hunger in his gaze, but there was also a warmth, a familiarity Starlight recognized.

“Kinda like now?” he asked.

Before Starlight could reply, another surge of heat built up inside her. It gathered in her lungs and chest, making a loud gurgling noise that even Spike heard. Starlight felt her insides shifting, squishing, a whole mess of fluttering sensations running amok.

“Y-Yeah,” Starlight managed. Her cheeks grew rosy, her breath picking up. “Kinda like n-now…”

One instant her heart beat faster, the next she was short of breath. Her ribs suddenly felt tingly, itching for but a second, before a burst of energy flowed out into her bones. A second burst soon followed… and a third… and a fourth… the pulses continuing on, each one so hot…Hot… HOT…

Spike hesitated. The prismatic glow around Starlight was getting brighter, the pressure around her starting to build. “Starlight?”

Starlight let out a long, low moan. The strongest pulse thus far ripped through her, making her tense up and arch her back. The blissful heat was in every inch of her now, sinking deep into her bones. The power was singing in her veins, its voice alluring, tantalizing—

“Hey. Starlight.”

Starlight’s eyes refocused. Spike hadn’t yelled or spoken with any alarm, but he’d recalled her all the same.

“What is it?” he asked. “Another change?”

Starlight latched on to the sound of Spike’s voice, fighting to stay focused amidst the pulses of heat. “I-Internal…”

Spike raised his eyebrows. He leaned closer, his tongue flitting out to taste the air. There was a warmth billowing off her, along with a growing scent on her breath...

“Does it hurt?”

Starlight violently shook her head. “G-Good… really good…”

It wasn’t hard for Spike to guess what was going on. Wisely, he got up and moved out of the way, choosing to instead lay down behind her.

“Do me a favor, will you?” he said. “Keep, ah… staring straight ahead. Don’t turn your head, or anything.”

Before Starlight could ask why, her chest gave another gurgle, like the windy inflating of a bellows. There was one, final pulse of POWER, and then Starlight felt something building in her lungs and nose, like a cough mixed with a sneeze.

“Ha-a-a-ah…” She scrunched up her muzzle, inhaling deep and drawing back her neck. Her mouth opened on reflex, a blue light now in the back of her throat. “HA-A-A-AHHH!”

Spike scooched back a few more feet for good measure.

“HAC-CHOOOOO!”

Blue flames jetted from Starlight’s mouth in a cone, bathing everything in front of her in a torching blaze. The smell of sizzling mana and scorched earth filled the air, the sudden wave of heat like a shimmering curtain. Starlight could feel the fire travelling up her windpipe, generated from deep within her lungs, and only sheer awe prevented her from panicking. It was unlike anything she’d ever felt, but the sensation was so intense, so amazingly GOOD, she didn’t hold anything back.

The breath eventually wound down, and when it did, Starlight opened her eyes to find...

“AAAAAAAHHHH!”

Fire. So. Much. Blue fire. Half of the knoll was burning, now starting to spread out past the hills. She’d created an all-consuming hellscape, and from what she understood about dragonfire...

“Spiiiiiike?!” Starlight’s stomach twisted. “SPIIIIIIIIIKE?!”

“Anti-Magic Zone, Airtight dampener.”

Starlight nearly leapt out of her skin. She spun around to see him watching her with a calm look.

“What?!”

“Anti-Magic Zone,” Spike repeated slowly. “With an Airtight dampener. Best way to put out dragonfire. Cast the spells now. Go.”

The simple instructions cut through the panic. Nodding, Starlight called on her magic and focused, her horns glowing with a soft light. The air grew heavy and oppressive as she chanted out the spell, an iridescent dome appearing around the grassfire, sealing it in with a SH-PPP!

All was now silent, the eerie light of the dome and fire within casting odd shadows throughout the knoll. Spike got up and walked past Starlight, inspecting the dome with a trained eye. He could see that the flames had lost their blueish color, now burning a normal reddish-orange. He made sure that there weren’t any spots the blaze could get out, sighing in relief as it died down.

“Nice.” Spike turned around to give her a thumbs-up. “Looks like you won’t be burninating any countrysides tonight, eh?”

Starlight stared at the dome, chills running down her spine. “Spike…” She swallowed hard. “If you hadn’t b-been here… i-if you hadn’t told me to do that, r-right away…”

Spike waved her off. “No harm done, right? That’s what’s important.”

Starlight could feel the roiling energy still coursing through her, ready to be unleashed at a moment’s notice. The spicy taste of flame lingered on her tongue, her throat a-tingle from the mighty breath. “H-How’d you know…?”

Spike snickered. “Was one of the first things Celestia taught Twilight after she hatched me.” He puffed out a small emerald flame of his own, which he held in his claw to show Starlight. “Don’t worry, it’s not hard to control. All you gotta do is—mmfff!”

Starlight kissed him. Not a simple peck or a brief smooch, either, but a full-blown, desperate kiss. She pushed into him so hard she nearly knocked him over, their auras shining twofold at their contact.

It didn’t take long for Spike to start kissing back. His eyes fluttered closed, growling as he tasted the mana on her lips. He pressed harder for a better taste, his nostrils flaring at the sudden sweet scent that washed over him—

“Nghhh!“ Starlight abruptly tore herself away. She took several steps back and grit her teeth, turning away and hugging herself. “S-SORRY! Sorry, sorry, sorry…”

Wat.

Spike stared blankly at the now-empty space in front of him. “Uh…”

“ACCIDENT!” Starlight shouted. “That… that was an accident…” She covered her head and groaned. “Oh gods, Twilight’s gonna kill me...”

Spike frowned. “Excuse me? Not if I have anything to say about it, she won’t.”

But Starlight may as well not have heard him. “It’s the m-magic, don’t you see?! It’s pushing for this, it wants this! And I played right into it, ugh… Forget everything I said about letting this play out! W-We can’t be anywhere near each other right now!”

Spike’s eyes widened as he saw Starlight’s horns glowing. She was going to teleport away!

“I’ll go and hide somewhere,” she said in a rush. “You go and get help—”

“Who the FUCK do you think you are?!”

Starlight stopped dead. Slowly, she turned to look at him, her mouth agape.

Spike was folding his arms, staring daggers at her. “You kiss me, then freak out and tell me to leave while you go hide like a coward? What the fuck, Starlight?!”

Starlight wasn’t sure what was more shocking, hearing Spike swear, or the shame his words caused. “I-I—”

“No. Uh-uh!” Spike sprang forward snatched her hoof. “I already told you, I’m not leaving you like this! I don’t care what you think this magic wants—if you ditch me, I’ll never forgive you for it!”

Starlight didn’t pull away, but her expression was still torn. Her horns were dimming, but they hadn’t quite lost their glow. “We’re n-not in our right minds, Spike… If we stay together—”

“DON’T make excuses.” Spike took her other hoof, their faces only a foot and a half apart. “We already said this didn’t feel like dark magic. What are you afraid of?”

Starlight gulped. It felt like she was being drawn into him, their prismatic auras flaring bright. “I-I don’t know…”

Spike drew closer still, the heat of his breath washing over her. “...do you like me?”

Starlight’s heart was hammering. Spike’s face was so different, yet so very much the same. No longer pudgy and cute, but rugged and handsome, with enticingly familiar eyes that sent flutters through her gut.

He’d been a confidant, a friend, giving her a chance when others would’ve turned away.

He’d been there for her in times past, hadn’t he?

He was here for her now, wasn’t he?

…

“Yes,” Starlight whispered, the last light leaving her horns.

Spike gently held up her chin, murmuring into her parted lips. “Prove it...”

And then they were kissing, properly kissing, leaning into each other with a dual hum. They wrapped their arms around each other, a heavy blush creeping into their cheeks, the first real taste of each other setting off a fire inside them. Spike marveled at the softness of Starlight’s lips, moving against his with quiet smeks, her tongue poking out now again in reflex. His right claw travelled down her body, moving through her coat like a brush, feeling the toughened skin and scales. She moaned into his mouth, his efforts feeling pleasantly tingly, and she immediately began doing the same to him, her claws roving all over his body.

It might’ve been her touch that triggered the change. A soothing sensation suddenly swept through Spike, and not long later, it felt like he was being submerged in cool water. He pressed closer to Starlight as he felt a prickling sensation across his scales, and an instant later, most of his scales melded into his skin, forming a thick, resistant hide. His remaining scales became glossy, clearly visible like Starlight’s, and soon after, a coat of purple fur grew in where the scales had vanished, soft and full like a pony’s.

Both Starlight and Spike took note of the change, but didn't stop. Even when the ridge of green spines on Spike’s back changed, they kept going. Their tongues were mingling now, pushing back and forth into each other’s mouths. They were hooked on the feel and touch of each other, tasting each other’s residual flames, small snorts of fire escaping their nostrils.

Starlight’s heart was singing. Feelings she’d long buried were resurfacing, all the more intense for their neglect, further goaded on by that dull, insistent ache in her core. She steadily became more vocal, her soft moans and gasps becoming louder, lewder, Spike’s efforts feeding the coals inside her. A new, heady feeling was there now, born from her swiftly-building lust, and while she didn’t know what it was, she didn’t really care. She welcomed it and continued to kiss Spike, sucking on his lips one at a time while he rubbed her cutie marks, her self-control slipping more and more.

They eventually broke for air, their faces flushed. A strand of saliva hung between their mouths as they stared into each other’s eyes.

“Wow,” Spike managed.

Starlight licked her lips. “Quite... the natural...”

Spike gave her flanks a squeeze. “Not bad... yourself…”

She now could see what’d happened with his scales and spines, and she liked what she saw. The spines on his head and upper back were a proper mane, still recognizably green, but in desperate need of a comb. The ones on his lower back and tail were just fuzzy tufts on his coat, but as they’d also stayed green, he had a poofy emerald stripe that ran all the way down to his tail. On the end of his tail, he’d gained a ribbon-like tuft of hair reminiscent of hers, only a little shorter and scruffier.

Spike noticed what she was looking at, checking himself over with a small grin. “Heh, guess I’m fluffy now, too. How do I look?”

Starlight purred her approval. She buried her muzzle in his chest, feeling his new coat against her cheek. The scent of his body was like a summer campfire mixed with freshly-upturned earth, and it instantly became her new favorite smell.

“Spike…” Starlight began trailing kisses up his chest, travelling slowly up towards his neck. “Mmmmmm…”

Speaking of smells, Spike now caught another whiff of that sweet scent from when Starlight first kissed him. He recognized what it was now, and it made him painfully hard. His dick had grown more since the initial growth spurt, and it was currently sandwiched between them, twitching and dripping, his heavy, burgeoning nuts hanging low.

Spike clutched Starlight tighter. She was grinding harder against him, and he made no protest when she pushed him onto his back. Soon she was looming over him, greedily eyeing him over, still inhaling deep his scent. She swooped down and licked his neck, making Spike gasp and thrust his hips, his dick meeting nothing but air. The tips of their tails soon found themselves entwined, and Spike ran his hooves down Starlight’s back, stroking and feeling her, an eager rush filling his chest.

Meanwhile, Starlight was enjoying a rush of her own. Spike tasted salty and smoky, a perfect combo for what she craved, but she wanted more… oh, goddess… MORE! That single word became her mantra, sinking into her mind and driving her on, her blood burning hotter and hotter. Unnoticed by either her or Spike, Starlight’s prismatic aura now became more saturated, its colors becoming fuller, more intense. It wasn’t all that noticeable at first, but as the moment’s passed, the difference between hers and Spike’s became more and more clear...

“Ah~” Starlight was now taking long swipes up Spike’s jaw, planting love bites here and there, relishing his snuffling sighs and grunts. He was fondling her, groping her, working her hide with his clawed hooves, and it was better than any massage. He travelled lower at her urging, making his way down to her burning, needy nethers, but he stopped at the curve of her hips, content to knead and squeeze, his digits sinking into her soft, firm flesh.

It was nice, but it wasn’t enough. Starlight wanted more, MORE! She wasn’t about to stop when she’d only gotten a taste! With a flash of her horns, she pressed Spike’s hooves to her sex, coaxing him to touch it, explore it. She reveled in his shocked face a moment, then kissed him again with fiery need, their dexterous tongues dancing together.

Spike was only taken aback for a moment. He hadn’t been sure if Starlight would draw the line somewhere, but he was soon meeting her kiss with equal fervor, matching her frenzy while tracing her outer folds. He eventually slipped a digit inside, eliciting a pleased growl from her, and with his spare hoof he gripped her ass, molding it like clay. He pressed his probing claw deeper and wiggled around, the heat of her tunnel enveloping him, so very tight and soft. The action spurred Starlight to start thrusting back into his efforts, seeking ever-greater pleasure, her insistent urges desperate for more… MORE!

The strange, heady feeling now merged with the coals of power within Starlight. An abrupt shudder swept through her as something new sparked to life, pulsing in the back of her mind like an incessant itch. It made her feel tingly and hyper, almost like a caffeine rush, except it was also accompanied by that delicious, recurring HEAT. Starlight moaned into Spike’s mouth as it bloomed within her, welling, flowing, empowering, and she didn’t even notice as she suddenly began inch upward, her frame lengthening bit by bit, her limbs growing and thickening with a faint grooooooooan…

All Spike knew was that Starlight was getting more eager. She was sucking on his tongue, drawing it into her own mouth, her lips gradually enveloping his. She was egging him on, planting her hooves on either side of him with loud THUDS, kissing him harder, hungrier, fiercer. Her cunny was starting to not feel so tight, so he pressed a second claw inside, causing her to squeak in delight. He just couldn’t get enough of her butt—it was so firm, so supple, and it almost felt like it was expanding beneath his touch!

Before long, Spike was slipping a third digit inside Starlight, thrusting them in and out with ease. Her sexy sounds were vibrating in his mouth, leading him on to match her pace. The pressure behind his cock was still building, his length now dripping with precum. She was dominating their kiss now, practically shoving his head into the ground. Spike was having to reach farther and farther to grope her pillowy rear, and a small part of him was starting to wonder if he’d be able to fit his whole hoof inside—

Wait.

Spike opened his eyes. His whole world was mauve, a lavish prismatic aura on the very fringe. Just beneath Starlight’s moans and murrs, he could hear the creaking grooooooooan of her body, the raspy scrape of her claws spreading, sinking deeper into the dirt. Her tongue felt longer and thicker than his, and while the ends of their tails were still entwined, hers was snaking out past his…

“Mrf.” Spike reached up and tapped Starlight’s shoulder. “Phar-ite.”

Starlight didn’t hear him. She was lost in the sensations sweeping through her, raging like an inferno! She whined at the absence of Spike’s touch, attempting to guide his hooves back with magic, but instead, Spike shook her free and flicked both her horns.

“!!!” The jolt was like being stung. Starlight’s eyes flew open as she pulled away. “OW!”

Her increased stature became apparent to Spike as she straightened up. She had to be almost twice his size!

“Starlight,” Spike said calmly. “How do you feel right now?”

Starlight gingerly rubbed her horns. “‘How do I feel?!’ Like somepony just shorted out my magic! Do you have ANY idea how much that hurts?!”

Spike got to his hooves, craning his head up at her. “Sorry, but I think you’re getting a bit… greedy.”

“GREEDY?!” Starlight glared down at him with narrowed eyes. “You ruined the mood because you think… I… “

It was the angle she noticed more than anything else.

“Oh.”

The sounds of growth stopped. Spike noted, however, that’s Starlight’s aura was still saturated, and wasn't reverting. “I’m guessing you feel an itch in the back of your mind? Like a mosquito bite in the back of your head, making you want things?”

Starlight’s mouth went dry. She certainly felt the itch, alright, its urgings egging her on to get back to business with her little stallion. She tried to shove the urges away, but they just came right on back. “Not… not ‘things’, plural... All I want is what we were doing. MORE of what we were doing! I really wish we hadn’t stopped...”

Spike was suddenly quite grateful for that talk with Ember’s father. “Okay, so ponies don’t really have a word for this, but dragons call it ‘suultugri.’ It’s a natural dragon thing that makes us want to seek out a mate and build a hoard, and it can be intense when it first flares up. It makes us grow bigger and stronger when we indulge in the urges… and smaller and weaker when we don’t. Explains why most dragons are selfish and rude, doesn’t it?”

Starlight was barely listening. The impulse was chanting on repeat, droning in the background like a subliminal message. Spike’s servicing had certainly been nice, but the real pleasure had come from the tingly knot in the back of her head being ‘scratched’. It was steadily getting louder, goading her to pounce, to have her way with her mate. A sixty-nine sounded good to start off; him burying his tongue in her while she sucked him dry—

Spike snapped his claws. “C’mon. Stay with me.”

Starlight’s reality came crashing back. “ERGH!” She stamped her hoof, her nethers throbbing impatiently. “You keep interrupting it!”

Spike was nonplussed. “Look, you need to know about this. Hear me out, and then we can get back to the fun, okay?”

Starlight growled. It was SO very tempting to just force him, to TAKE what she wanted. She was bigger than him, she could easily do it. He likely wouldn’t put up a fight for long, not with how aroused he was—

Starlight slapped herself. Hard.

Spike furrowed his brow, but said nothing. He merely watched and waited as she clutched her head, hissing and spitting.

“Spike,” She said through gritted teeth. “This is worse... than fucking… ESTRUS. I’m about five seconds from jumping your bones, so whatever you have to say, I suggest you make it quick.”

Spike didn’t waste any time. “Suultugri is most affected by a dragon’s hoard. If a dragon suddenly gets a lot of valuable stuff, their suultugri’s gonna be going nuts, making them so horny they can’t think straight. Having sex while like this makes them bigger, growing them to their new, ‘proper’ size, which is the whole point. Once it’s over, the dragon can choose to give up or abandon some of their hoard to shrink back down, but only once the urges are out of their system.”

Spike squinted at Starlight, a knowing grin on his face. “You must have some seriously good stuff stashed away if suultugri’s manifesting this strong in you. What’cha hidin’, Starlight?”

Starlight’s face suddenly resembled an override plum. “S-Stashed away? Oh… w-well, that’s certainly, um… oh, boy... I s-suppose that all depends! Yeah! It depends on w-what counts towards… ah, having, a h-hoard! Can’t say I’m f-familiar… Don’t know th-that, erm... definition...”

Fortunately, Spike was. “Anything tangible of worth you consider yours, and you actively try to keep hidden. Sentimental value counts. Got anything like that, hmm?”

Starlight gulped. Oh, no, she didn’t have anything like that… except for the duplicates of rare spellbooks from Twilight’s libraries, the super-secret room she’d discovered in Twilight’s castle, her priceless, one-of-a-kind cutie mark removal spell, and an entire secret town that she was the honorary leader of!

Starlight’s gaze was starting to lose focus. Her suultugri was bearing down, SCREAMING at her, demanding that she obey. Her whole body ached with need, for satisfaction, for GROWTH! She felt so small, so very puny! The meager taste of bliss she’d had was only the beginning! All she had to do was—

“Share with me,” Spike said.

With herculean effort, Starlight pulled herself back. “W-What?”

“I don’t have a hoard,” Spike said with a sad smile. “Haven't for a long time. Unless you share yours, it’s gonna be hard for us to do much. I’m only the regular kind of horny, not suultugri-horny, so… yeah. I know it’s hard, but do you think you’re still pony enough to throw me a bone? Show me a little generosity?”

Starlight half-expected her urges to rally against it. A true dragon’s certainly would, zealously so! Maybe it was because she could see the logic, maybe it was because she was Twilight’s student, maybe it was because of pony magic, or maybe it was something else entirely. Starlight didn’t know. All she did know was that she didn’t feel any opposition to the idea, and if she didn’t get some relief NOW, she was gonna go insane!

“OKAY!” Starlight yelled. “Whatever I need to do, whatever I need to say, FINE! You’re the co-owner of all my secret stuff! My entire hoard is now also yours! Is that good enough? Can I stop holding back?! CAN WE PLEASE HAVE SEX NOW?!”

Spike shivered at her words. He breathed in and closed his eyes, the faint, familiar whispers stirring. Ever since his first run-in with this, he’d tried hard to keep it under lock and key. Suultugri in immature dragons was a bit different—without any sexual component, it wound up feeding into itself, a positive feedback loop of greed and growth. Spike felt weird awakening something he’d considered for so long to be dangerous, but as his suultugri crept forth, he could tell it felt... different.

No, not different... tempered.

It was like his urges were now on a leash. Instead of the wanton greed bowling him over, like it had in time’s past, it rose gradually, hesitantly, yielding to his will.

...want?

The color of Spike’s aura became fuller, matching Starlight’s once more. Curious, he opened the floodgates and let himself go, allowing his suultugri to run free. It immediately became as strong as he remembered, but he found he could rein it back in! He was like a boulder in a river, immovable, unyielding. Even when he let go and immersed himself in desire, he was unable to be swept away.

Want!

Spike opened his eyes, a master of his own self. His larger mate was shaking, almost vibrating. Starlight was raking the ground with her claws, shredding the grass without pause. The look in her eyes was desperate, almost feral, but she still hung on, if only by a thread.

WANT!

Quick as lightning, Spike bolted under Starlight, shifting all his weight into her left legs. She stumbled lamely before tripping, tumbling onto her back with a squawk of surprise. He was atop her in a flash, his smaller body straddling her, his face inches away from her glistening pussy.

“Spike WANT!”

He dove into her crotch, tasting her juices with his thin, forked tongue. His lust sprinted out the gate, the charged, tingly feeling from so long ago racing through him once more. He moaned into her snatch as his body responded, his chest deepening, his muscles bulging, his frame lengthening and widening with a low grooooooooan. He gained inch after inch as he ate her out, the dirt spreading away from his widening claws, sampling her honey while matching her size.

“SPIKE!” Starlight’s voice rose a whole octave, cracking in a girlish squeal. She thrust her hips hard into his efforts, her eyes seeing stars as she gripped him with all four of her legs. Right above her was his pride, bobbing before her like a hypnotic toy, his dry, subtle musk lodging itself in her nostrils. He had both a medial ring and a knot, and his overfilled balls were hanging even lower, promising to give her all the satisfaction she could ever want. AND they were growing bigger, right before her eyes!

MORE!

With a flash of magic, Starlight tugged his cock down to her greedy lips. The hyperactive heat poured into her veins as she took his length in her warm, tight maw, giving her that pure, unfiltered POWER she so craved.

GROOOOOOOOAN

Starlight’s quickly surpassed even the largest of ponies, growing to the size of a manticore. She fell into a hazy trance, her suultugri no longer commanding, but encouraging, endorphins now racing through her blood. A buzzing feeling welled up within her, cranking up like a dial as she suckled Spike’s shaft, her nimble tongue wrapping around it multiple times, feeling its pulsing veins.

More… MORE… MORE!

Starlight yanked his rear down, taking all of him in one fell swoop. His medial ring was no issue—she didn’t even register when his flat head slid down her throat. What did register, though, was the growy surge right after, her body pulsing with desire and need. Her jaw creaked as she pushed Spike’s knot past her lips with a wet, smacking POP, andher eyes rolled in the back of her head, her mouth tightening around its prize. Starlight didn’t even take note that she no longer had a gag reflex, she just gulped down his length with a lewd glk—glk—glk...

Spike nearly came right then and there. The sudden deepthroating doubled the pressure in his groin, his dick now twitching and leaking like a firehose. Starlight’s mouth was a sauna, and every time she bore down on him, her throat constricted around his length, trying to milk him for all he was worth. Spike moaned and settled his full weight atop his growing mate, burying his prehensile tongue in her cunt, plunging it in and out without pause. He pleasured every inch of Starlight‘s walls while servicing her clit with his lips and chin, her sounds and sexy shudders spurring him on.

Want… WANT… WANT!

But that wasn’t all that spurred him on. His internal chants were like the beat of a bass drum, steady, low, and rhythmic. He ravished Starlight faster, deeper, pleasuring her as much as she pleasured him. His reward was an electric jolt down his spine, and he arched his back as his growth accelerated. His body stretched... no, ascended, keeping pace with Starlight as they grew to the size of elephants.

Suddenly, in the midst of it all, the cool, menthol-like feeling from before sparked to life again in Spike’s belly. That font of magic that’d formed before, it now began to feel fuller, greater, the liquid fire being stoked more and more. His horns sparked and crackled with dense, emerald light, nascent bolts lancing off every which way. A high-pitched thrumming rose as his meager magic grew to something far, far more.

Spike’s head began to feel spacey, flying high, his power rising exponentially from mere kindling. His suultugri was laughing—laughing, cackling madly as it revelled and exulted in the newfound strength. It was trying to latch onto his lust for power, that secret, hidden WANT, and some traitorous part of him started whispering to him in a sickly sweet voice.

Yes… YES! Power… POWER! Don’t you see?! THIS is what you should be! This is what you DESERVE! You are no one’s servant—you are a DRAGON! You can do anything you want, BE anything you want! It’s yours, all YOURS! You’re better than a cheerleader on the sidelines, and now, your enemies will RUE the day they crossed you! You’ll be unstoppable with Starlight as your mate! Together, the whole north will be your territory, and these crystal ponies, they WORSHIP you—claim them as your own! Forget about being the vassal of some pathetic pony, and take your place as—

Spike gave his suultugri a BRUTAL yank. It wasn’t even hard for him to do—he just bitchslapped his tyrannical urges, then went back to eating pussy.

Meanwhile, Starlight was in heaven. Spike’s tongue was bottomed out inside her, twisting and writhing in a way no penis ever could, tickling her depths with his fleshy tongue. His hot, moist breath on her sex made her squirm, and he’d taken to gripping and squeezing her ass again, kneading it over and over. Her whole mouth was stuffed full with his cock, her muzzle pressed all the way up to his balls. She worked her lips around his knot, utterly drunk on his scent, and again and again she swallowed around him, feeling the blood pulse through his rod with each twitch. It was so addicting, so enticing, all she wanted wasmore... MORE!

And more she was about to get. Spike’s tension was boiling over, his efforts getting wild and unfocused. His muscles tensed as both his entire length swelled, his balls contracting in an internal rush, adding the impossible pressure. He knew what was coming, WANTED what was coming, and his whole body trembled from the gathering surge.

Starlight felt it, too. His whole shaft was expanding in her mouth, along with the stronger twitches and uneven thrusts, and all it fed into the clenching hunger in her core. Her own body shook as well, rumblinglike thunder before a storm, her inner walls clamping down on his tongue as she reached the point of no return.

Spike and Starlight groaned loud. Their prismatic auras reaching an apex, and their little hiding place was starting to be woefully inadequate. They were now the size of houses, and their thrashing, tangled tails were peeking above the hills now and again. Vibrations ran through the earth every time one of them slammed the ground, vibrations that only got stronger as they each became larger, more massive. They now raced each other to their finish, the WANT and MORE cheering them on, pushing them to cross the checkered line...

...and when they crossed that line together...

GROOOOOOOOAN

Starlight and Spike grew, rocketing upward in full, tumultuous bursts. Their bodies swelled more and more as they shot upward and outward, doubling—no—tripling in size! They rose above the puny hills in seconds, twenty feet becoming forty, then sixty, climbing higher with no sign of stopping. Spike was initially cumming gallons, but that soon became hundreds, then THOUSANDS, his balls soon the size of bottomless swimming pools that kept pumping their loads down Starlight’s throat. And Starlight hungrily swallowed it all, growing right alongside his output, his thick, boiling seed settling heavily in her belly.

Spike’s and Starlight’s entry into triple digits was accompanied by the increasingly loud, rubbery GROAN of skin stretching, muscles bulging, bones lengthening and strengthening. Mixed in was the gravelly shifting of earth, the sharp cracking of stone, the ripping up of grass, and the teeth-chattering BOOM of their colossal forms. The knoll they’d been in was now little more than a depression to them, but even as their climaxes petered out, their urges were unsatisfied, still WANTING. Their growth slowed to a halt just shy of the one hundred twenties, and in the relative silence that followed, it was Spike who came down first.

Considering his eyes hadn’t left Starlight’s crotch for some time, about all he noticed right away was the vice grip she still had him in, both with her legs, and her mouth. She was trying to coax more out of him, too, even with him sitting on her face. His balls were still quite full, so it wouldn’t be hard to blow another few loads down her throat, bringing her to cum alongside him, drinking down her sticky-sweet juices… but, no. It took a bit of doing to get her to release him, but she eventually did so, allowing him to get up and step away.

THOOM

Spike’s first step alerted him to many things. Though relatively unchanged in appearance, every twitch of his now-titanic body shook the feeble ground, his hooves sinking as if he were in moss. At first his movements seemed sluggish, like the whole world was underwater. But he quickly realized his sheer size and mass made him appear slow. He likely COULD move at a ‘normal’ perspective speed, but the immense force generated might cause an earthquake...

“Oh...” Spike could see the entirety of the Crystal Empire from his vantage point, and while he and Starlight were largely unnoticed at the moment, that likely wasn’t going to be the case for long. The only thing bigger than them now was the castle itself, and the foothills they’d been in only came up to their shins. His still-hard cock was as big and long as a train car, his nuts were boulders that gurgled and sloshed, and his elevated magic was like a wellspring within him, waiting to flow forth.

“Holy...” Spike glanced over at Starlight. “What kinda hoard does she have?!”

Starlight was staring up at the sky, rubbing her stomach and smacking her lips. She didn’t feel short of breath (likely due to one change or another), she just felt the elation of that ever-present heat. Little aftershocks were firing off here and there, random muscles twitching, the fiery ache in her core dulled to mere embers.

“That,” Starlight said dreamily. “Was. Amazing. Better than anything… what a rush...”

“Starlight?” Spike said. “I think we have a problem...”

Starlight turned to him with a saucy smirk. “Oh, I’ll say. You stopped before the suul-dragon thingy was done! If you think I’m gonna be just satisfied with that, you’ve got another thing coming!”

Spike shook his head. “I mean look at how big we are, Starlight! We’re humongous!”

Starlight raised an eyebrow. Slowly, she sat up and looked around, taking in their new size for herself.

“Ooooh…” She giggled and stretched like a cat, her spine cracking and popping like a barrage of cannons. “So we are! Heh, we’re a regular couple of giants, aren’t we? Guess we’re not hiding anymore. Wow, can you feel all this power? It’s so rumbly, and tingly, and HOT… I like it!”

Spike blinked several times. He did indeed feel it, although he wasn’t sure he shared the sentiment. “We, erm… should probably move away from the city. We’ll cause a panic at this rate.”

Starlight’s eyes flicked over to the city. “Oh, I don’t know… having an audience might be fun. Let ‘em all see the real event, eh? Give them a show they won’t soon forget...”

Spike wasn’t sure what was more concerning—Starlight’s nonchalance, or how tempting that idea was. “Are… e-erm, are you okay?”

Starlight wore a sultry grin. “Mmmmm, MORE than okay.” She got to her hooves with a series of THOOMS, her several thousand-ton body leaving craters in the ground. “But I’ll be even better once you’re RUTTING me. Don’t even pretend you don’t want to—it’s written all over you! I know you can still taste me, smell me... That was all just the appetizer, Spike. The main course is still waiting…”

Spike bit his lip. He’d never heard of suultugri being this strong before, and it was starting to make him think more was going on. “W-We’re gonna grow even bigger… you know that, right?”

Starlight shivered, a soft, sensual moan escaping her. “I’m counting on it.”

He didn’t protest as she sidled up next to him, brushing up close and rubbing all along his profile. She curled her long tail around him, looping it around and nestling it just beneath his chin, tickling his muzzle with the ribbon-like tuft. A sharp gasp escaped him, her touch electric along his hide, and he was soon nestled in her embrace, her arm around his shoulders as they stared into each other’s enormous eyes.

“Spike,” Starlight said. “Do you... like me?”

Spike could feel all the power, all the magic, all theheat gathering around them. Their prismatic auras were blindingly bright, their combined light dimming out the stars. He could see the eagerness, the captivating need in Starlight’s gaze. He could also feel the warmth of her body, the softness of her fluffy coat. His muzzle was still coated in her marecum, and every breath he took was laced with her scent, further fueling the WANT...

..but despite all that, Spike could also see Her. Immutable and lucid, Starlight was still present, her eyes never losing calculating glint.

DID he like her? It was a good question...

She’d been a friend to him, sticking with him through thick and thin, helping wherever she could.

He loved her sense of humor. She could be just as much a goofball as him!

She could be impulsive and overdramatic, but she’d learned from her mistakes, and he’d seen time and time again that she had a good heart.

She might be a little power-hungry, but then again, so was he…

...and right now, she was showing an impressive degree of control, which was damn hot.

…

“Yeah,” Spike whispered, his hot breath mixing with hers.

Starlight smiled, tilting her head and leaning close. “Prove it…”

Their lips met again with a veritable spark. With a sound like thunder, their auras turned pure white, melding at last into their gargantuan bodies. The chanting in their minds rose steadily, building with every heartbeat, thumping in their minds like a rising amp.

more... more! moremoREMOREMOREMORE!WANT MORE! WANT MORE! WANT MORE!

The color rose in their cheeks, their kiss turning more fevered. Little gasps escaped them now and again, peppered with wet smacks and purrs, tongues of flame escaping their hungry mouths. Their bodies shot up with small spurts of growth, a few inches here, a foot or two there, one of them briefly outpacing the other before they caught back up. The hills around them gave way to their expanding forms, that familiar grooooooooan signalling that the two great giants were about to become even greater.

Starlight felt a particularly nasty ache flare up deep within her. She snarled and ended their kiss, pressing their foreheads and horns together with a clack!

“More,” she said in a haggard voice. “Spike… MORE! GIVE ME MORE! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!”

Spike’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks. Just like that, there was that pressure again, like a coiled spring in his loins. His dick twitched hard at her words, and before he knew it, he was positioning himself behind her, his incredible steps flattening the rest of the knoll. He was now staring at her curvy rear, its short fur mussy from his earlier groping. Her cutie marks were clearly visible, each one the size of a tree, and her tail was lifted up high and to the side, revealing her tight, dripping sex.

Spike reared. Starlight moaned and crouched low, his tremendous weight draping over her like a blanket. Heat was gathering in both of them again, every contact priming their bodies. At one hundred and fifty feet each, they were now in full view of the city, nothing obstructing them from view. Nothing could obstruct them from view, Starlight realized, they were simply too big! There was no hiding anymore.

The thought made her even wetter.

Her legs now locked in place, Starlight urged Spike on. His slick, spongy head brushed her outer folds—a thirty foot cock ready to plunge into her desperate depths. She was about to be plowed by a dick weighing thousands of pounds, and it was only getting heavier, longer, THICKER! Her whole body tingled as he widened his stance, trying to aim the massive, swaying tool bouncing off her inner thighs. He finally just grabbed the thing and held it steady, and after one final feel of her ass, he thrust his hips towards the mark.

“YESSSS!” Starlight threw back her head in a deafening shout. He pushed firmly into her snug tunnel, her muscles sucking him in, kissing his head and shaft. She stretched around his girth, a slow, clenching burn accompanying his entry. Spike crept further onto her back, wiggling his hips now and again, his hot, panting breath sending shivers down her spine. Heat... HEAT... so much HEAT had gathered inside both of them, and it felt like it might just keep on building, but then without warning, it exploded through their bodies like fireworks.

GROOOOOOOOAN

And Spike and Starlight grew... grew... GREW. The earth buckled beneath them, surpassing even the largest dragons. Every fresh surge enlarged them further, their heads climbing towards the sky, the nearby city shrinking away. They broke two hundred feet in seconds. Two hundred became two fifty, and two fifty became three hundred, their increasingly widening stances bulldozing more and more of the rolling hills.

Sexual fluids dripped from their joined sexes, raining down beneath them in a lecherous drizzle. Spike continued to ease himself inside Starlight, her warm, wet tightness testing his resolve. She was squeezing him sohard, relentlessly thrusting back into him, her mound desperate to claim his length. He felt her tense when his medial ring bumped her three-foot clit, savoring the long, pleasureful wail that ripped free of her throat. He hooked his hooves round her shoulders and rammed himself further in, the bulk of his size slipping inside her, causing their bodies to begin rumbling...

“OHHHHHHH!” A MAMMOTH surge of growth hit, making them well over four hundred feet tall. Their raucous yells echoed throughout the whole Empire, and even out into the tundra beyond. They now stood head and shoulders over Crystal Empire Castle, towering over everything in sight, and then some. Spike’s self-control slipped amidst the godly rush, and he now struggled to regain his hold, to keep the primal lust in check. Every fiber in his body was screaming ‘do that again, do that again RIGHT NOW...’

But Suultugri or not, transformation or not, this was Spike’s first time. And damn it all, he was gonna make it last.

The grooooooooan of their growth spurts was starting to blend into a constant sound, one rolling right into another as they crept towards five hundred feet. Spike now rested his full weight atop Starlight, his gale-like exhales tickling the nape of her neck. He took a moment to bask in it all, kissing and tugging her furry scruff, occasionally nibbling on her ears. She purred and turned her head to kiss him, and for a while they remained like that, riding the exhilaration ever-higher. Spike’s hooves slid down to hug Starlight’s chest, holding her tightly, possessively, his heart beating in time with hers. His knot was the only thing outside of her, now, and he playfully teased her with it, rubbing its bulbous underside along her clit.

Starlight saw white. Each sensitive touch infused with her with more energy, more power, more need. Cracks appeared in the ground like a spiderweb around her claws, spreading out farther and deeper from her increasing weight, the sounds serving to turn her on all the more. With her smooth muscles, she began working Spike’s dick, flexing and tightening her velvety walls, drawing him in as best she could. She couldn’t quite take his knot, but the effort was Spike’s cue to start moving, and he now pulled his now-one hundred foot-long cock out of her crevasse of a pussy, preparing for his sacred task.

Anticipation swirled within Starlight’s breast. Every twinge just made more strength flow into her, more everything flow into her. Her head was bent low to the ground, her supersized tongue lolled out like a fleshy serpent, soaking the hills with her drool. Her lust-clouded mind barely registered the toy-like city to her right, her focus solely on where she and Spike were joined. Her breaths were ragged, the euphoric flow of energy accelerating in her and him. They grew past five hundred-fifty feet without nary a thought, and the ceiling of the Empire’s weather barrier was starting to look not so far away...

Spike took his time with the first backthrust, his exit punctuated by a long, lewd schliiiiiiiiiiiiick. He straightened back up for a better position, moving his forehooves moving back to her flanks. He stopped with just his head inside her and held there, his eyes closed and breathing hard, his body tingling with vigor. Starlight mewled at his pause, but he ignored her and held still, burning this moment, this feeling, into his mind.

He couldn’t help but laugh. Even after all the adventures he’d had, it seemed there was always something new to experience.

“Giveit to you, eh?” Spike boomed in his bellowing voice. “Oh, I’ll give it to you… let’s see… if you can TAKE IT!”

Spike THRUST back into her, drilling his tower-sized shaft inside her with resounding force. Starlight shouted her pleasure, immediately clamping down on him and squeezing with all her might. That made him let out a shout, and he now began properly fucking her, pistoning in and out, smooth and steady. Ecstasy overcame them as their suultugris FLOODED them with pleasure, and with so much of a catalyst, the fires inside them didn’t just flare up, they erupted.

GROOOOOOOOAN

Six hundred-fifty… eight hundred… one thousand feet tall! They grew faster and faster, swiftly reaching the size of mountains, and only pressing on for MORE. He plowed Starlight relentlessly, caring nothing for propriety or shame. Why should he? Ponies were literally smaller than fleas to him. His castle-sized knot was squished just a little bit more between him and Starlight each time, and the thought of claiming her so completely, locking her in place and seeding her womb… it just made him want to rut her harder... harder… HARDER!

Starlight seemed to be of the same mind. She was matching the force of his thrusts, her eyes thoroughly glazed over. It felt like Spike was fucking the growth into her, and she squirmed from the thrill of it all, her heated cries peppered with jibberish. But even as they both surpassed fifteen hundred feet, he hadn’t given her all he had… His knot, it remained unclaimed. Every time it pressed on Starlight’s entrance, it teased her—taunted her!

Starlight scraped at the ground, tearing gouges as deep as canyons. Her suultugri now focused on one thing, honed in with excruciating focus. Spike’s knot… she WANTED Spike’s knot! This was her chance to assert dominance! To prove that he was HERS! No way was some whore with a loose cunt gonna come along and steal HER male! Not a chance in fucking Tartarus! If any skank bitch so much as tried, SHE’D RIP THEM TO FUCKING SHREDS!

“More…” Starlight slammed her hips back hard as she could, shivering as they both grew past two thousand feet. “MORE!”

Spike staggered. Not only had that push been the first signs of give, it kicked the pressure behind his dick into overdrive. Growling, he timed his next thrust with hers, holding nothing back. The resulting THWAP shook both the heavens and the earth, but it still wasn’t quite enough—her pussy was still shy of swallowing him. He pulled back for another go, but before he could, the subsequent (and strongest) growth spurt hit, soaring them up another thousand feet!

They both nearly went over the edge from that. They now dominated the horizon, a single one of their hooves bigger than a city block. Barely hanging on, Spike readied himself for one last go, the lake’s worth of cum in his balls desperate for release. Starlight felt his readying and followed suit, already so tightly wound she might snap at any moment. There was an ominous tremor amidst the silence... and then, with the loudest, most perverted sound in history, their hips FINALLY collided, Spike’s swollen knot slipping inside Starlight with a veritable shockwave.

GROOOOOOOOAN

Imagine the most agonizing cramp you’ve ever felt, multiply it by ten... then replace all the pain with the euphoria of orgasm. That was what Starlight felt when her groin muscles locked TIGHT around Spike’s hilted length. Said length was cumming like a virile volcano, pumping untold amounts of hot, sticky seed inside Starlight, funneling into her fertile womb.

Spike and Starlight’s eyes flashed with color. The previous growth spurt may have been a tidal wave, but THIS was a typhoon!

The ground fell away from them in an indescribable rush. Three thousand feet became nothing. Five thousand feet became nothing! Spike and Starlight broke their first mile without any thought, their heavenly statures now amongst the clouds. They added on a second mile in no time, and while neither of them realized it, they weren’t standing beside Crystal Empire City anymore... They were standing OVER it! The entire population was now privy to Spike and Starlight’s union, a front-row seat to the tightening of Spike’s stadium-sized balls, releasing untold amounts of cum into his larger mate, again, and again, and again!

And Starlight was larger than Spike… make no mistake about that. Spike’s (proportional) output was ridiculous, already, he was threatening to fill Starlight’s womb up to the brim. But NO WAY was she gonna give up what she’d worked for, not until his balls were milked dry! Not ONE DROP of cum was gonna escape her; she didn’t care WHAT she had to do! She needed be able to take all he had! She needed to be able to takeMORE—

—and there was the magic word.

It’d begun almost immediately. For every bit Spike grew, Starlight grew just a little bit more. Spike didn’t even notice, honestly, not even when he’d fully slid atop her, his hooves dangling off the ground. Starlight’s locked-down muscles kept him right where she wanted, and even though she still strained to take his plentiful gift, take all of it she did, her womb soon bloated with his essence. His nuts were nestled snugly against Starlight’s plot, and his enduring orgasm just kept filling her... FILLING HER, helping her grow more, andMore, andMORE!

Three miles was a mere memory. They were like landmasses unto themselves, and Starlight kept needing to widen her stance, her vast claws reshaping the land. Four miles tall, and her back legs started creeping outside the weather barrier, the cool, arctic breeze tickling her fur. At five miles tall, she felt an odd, buzzing on their horns... followed by a blast of cold upper air. It seemed not even the legendary Crystal Heart could contain their grand size! It was the icing on the cake for Starlight, and she raised her head and ROARED, breathing an azure fireball so great, all of Equestria saw it escape into space.

Spike was in heaven. Both figuratively, and literally! Repeated explosions kept going off in his brain, drenching his mind in dreamy, doped-up bliss. Tsunamis of cum were flowing through his mile-long shaft, emptying again and again into Starlight’s willing depths. His suultugri kept dragging his peak out, refreshing it each time it threatened to wind down, apparently unsatisfied with how’d much he’d grown. About all that still registered with him was his stamina was still going strong. He didn’t care that he was multiple miles tall, and twice that in length. If this was all he did the rest of his life, he’d die a happy drake.

It was somewhere between six and seven miles that Spike’s suultugri fell silent. It took some time for him to come to, his mind blithely swimming in a soupy, post-coital haze. A rumbling purr sounded in his chest as he nuzzled and hugged Starlight, scratching the sides of her ribs. He felt her purr as well, the vibrations making his dick twitch a final time, sputtering out a few hundred million more gallons before being spent.

When Spike’s eyes refocused, he didn’t recognize his surroundings. Everything around him was wet, gray fog, so thick it blocked anything from view. All he could see was Starlight’s back and shoulders, her head bent low and out of sight. He errantly went to shift his weight, but his hooves met nothing but air. He’d fallen forward on Starlight’s back at some point, he realized, which amusingly, was actually was a familiar perspective for him. He spent tons of time riding on the backs of ponies, so it wasn’t too strange—

Hold on.

Starlight felt him wriggling about. She straightened and turned to face him. “Hey there, stud.”

Spike’s eyes widened. Their size difference was practically what’d it’d been before all this started! “Oh, erm, h-hi...”

Starlight playfully flicked his nose with her tongue. “Looks like I took you. You’re MINE, now.”

Spike grinned. The extreme heat and tightness of her tunnel still enveloped him, even as he went soft. “Oh no, my bachelor days are over. How sad.”

Starlight closed her eyes, savoring the lake’s worth of seed sealed deep inside her. She was over ten miles tall, and STILL, her tummy was stretched taut with all he’d given her. Her greedy urges were a fading echo, but their last whisper was to not let any of it go, no matter what. It was her prize for winning, after all...

Without even thinking, Starlight cast a spell that did just that. Even as her muscles went slack and Spike’s member slipped free, not a single thing else did. “You, uh… might want to stay on top of me, Spike,” Starlight said. “We’re a little too big to be moving around.”

Spike could tell at least that much. He obeyed and clambered properly atop Starlight, creeping up farther so he could sneak a kiss. “Oh, hey, we’re not glowing anymore. I think we might be done changing.”

Starlight noted that, as well. “Good… so I guess the question is, how do we change back?”

Spike waggled his eyebrows. “DO we want to change back?”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “We can’t stay this size, Spike. Didn’t you say something about earlier? Something taking things out of the hoard once the urges ran their course?”

Spike snickered. “Well, yeah, but I assumed shrinking back down was a given. I was talking about all the other changes.”

“That’s—” Starlight hesitated. “I… um, hmm... All the other changes… Yeah, I suppose that’s a good question...”

Spike could see it wasn’t gonna be an easy choice for her. “Maybe we should put that on the back burner for now. Let’s focus on one thing at a time. Okay, Glimmy?”

Starlight gave him a wry look. “Glimmy?”

Spike smiled. He kissed her again, but this one was softer, more tender. “It suits you.”

Starlight tried to glower, but the blush on her face wasn’t having it. “I-Idiot… alright, you call me that, but ONLY when we’re alone, got it? No one else hears it!”

Spike looked around again, but still didn’t see anything. “Um, speaking of which, where are we, exactly?”

You’re in the cloud cover several miles above the Crystal Empire, a familiar voice said in their minds. And considering the drastically increased volume of your voices, I’d wager everyone from here to Yakyakistan just heard you.

Starlight and Spike felt their hackles rise. They exchanged a quick look, cold dread sweeping over them. Wisely, they remained silent, but they could feel the buzz of the telepathic channel opened in their minds.

...Twilight? Spike ventured at last.

Hello, Spike, Twilight said dryly. Congratulations on losing your virginity. I’d appreciate it you both shrank down sometime soon—the eight of us are getting headaches from making sure Glimmydoesn’t break through the planet’s crust and fall into the mantle.

Starlight held back her groan. Oh, man… she was soooooooo gonna get it for this...

Epilogue

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