Enter The Dragon...Layer

Spike blinked a few times when the morning rays of Celestia's sun hit him. Once he was fully awake, he remembered the previous night and quickly got up to check the mirror. "Still purple, nothing seems to be missing or anything extra growing outta me." A look at the clock showed the twelve-hour window Luna mentioned was coming to an end, and far as he could tell, nothing happened. "Well, at least they can relax. And next time Twilight tries that spell, she'll scuff the ball up a bit first."

Leaving his room, he gave things a quick sniff to see if Celestia, or one of the others, had decided to go ahead with breakfast. He didn't smell anything cooking, but there was a hint of something in the air; almost smoky-sweet undertone he couldn't quite place. It wasn't unpleasant by any stretch, just...odd. More curious than concerned, he made his way back to the main hall, 'Hey, girls, do any of you smell thaaaa-"

Spike's voice caught in his throat and he felt his body go rigid at the sight that greeted him.

There, sprawled out in the chairs and couches, lay twelve dragons.

Twelve. Sleeping. FEMALE. Dragons.

Spike almost choked on the breath he was midway through when he saw them. Who were these dragonesses? What the hell were they doing here, and where the hell did they come from? For that matter, where were the girls!? There was no sign of them anywhere!

"Who...who the buck are you??' Was all he could get out, though it didn't come out any louder than a conversational tone.

While it wasn't very loud, one of them seemed to have heard him...colored the same dark blue as Princess Luna with similar sapphire blue hair and tuft on the end of her tail. She also had a crescent moon-shaped crest on her forehead, four small, silvery, crescent-shaped horns that jutted out from her temples, and two large dragon wings on her back.

That... and she was wearing the exact same type of gown Luna had been wearing yesterday, except it was a tad snugger on her, showing off the dragoness' impressive curves. He noticed that what of her 'underside' he could see was the same sapphire blue.

She yawned and looked around briefly before setting her gaze on him, mild amusement in her face, "Having that 'dragon harem' dream again, Spike?" She sounded a bit like Luna too, though her voice was a slightly deeper tone.

"Dra...?" His jaw almost unhinged from that. He'd never told ANYONE that dream! How the HELL did this dragon know!? "H-How...??"

"I'm afraid this isn't a dream, Luna..." One of the other spoke up, squirming uncomfortably in her seat a little. This one was colored the same as Celestia, though she had a sun-shaped crest on her forehead and two golden horns that curved back over her head. She was also wearing the same gown as Celestia, but like the 'Luna' dragon, her clothes were tight as well, revealing her chest scales were the same shade of pink as in her hair. She squirmed a bit more, "Though that explains this wicked wedgie I have."

"Which is exactly why I never wear--WHAT!?" The first one screamed, causing the others to rouse.

"Nnn...where's the fire?"

"I feel funny..."

"DRAGON!" The ones with Fluttershy and Starlight's colors screamed, pointing at each other.

"Where in tarnation did THEY come from!" The Applejack-colored one yelled, jumping when she saw the Rainbow Dash -blue one beside, her "Gah!"

"Woah!"

"What's going on!"

Before any more of them could react, the Celestia-colored dragoness stood, "All right, all of you, settle down!" The tone was enough to make the room, and its contents, vibrate briefly.

"Wh...that was The Royal Canterlot Voice!" The Twilight one managed to get out while the whole group stopped dead, "But only the..."

"Yes, Twilight, it's me." The taller dragoness cleared her throat, "Been a while since I've used it. Now, before we do anything else, Fluttershy?"

The yellow dragoness looked up, though she was still shaking, "Y-yes..?"

"Apple Bloom?"

"Yeah...?"

"Well, at least that proves that we're all still us. At the moment, though, we've all been turned into dragons somehow."

"Dragons...Celesta...? That's really you!?" Spike said, once he managed to regain his voice, getting the attention of every former pony in the room.

"Spike!" Twilight called out, running over to him, "Do you feel fine!?" She asked, "No strange tingling, twitching, or itchy sensations??"

"I should be the one asking that!" He replied, "Twi, you. Are. A. DRAGON!" He looked back at the others, who were checking out their new bodies, "You ALL are! How the heck did this happen??"

"I-I don't know...we were fine when you went to bed." Starlight said, once she calmed down, running a hand over the spot where her unicorn horn used to be, now replaced with a crest that was quite similar to her cutie mark "This is so weird!"

"Tell me about it!" Rainbow responded, giving her altered wings an inspection, "I mean, the wings look cool, but I miss my feathers!"

"Who cares about feathers?" Sweetie blurted, "How are we going to explain this to our families??"

"She's kinda got a point. Maud's gonna flip her flanks when she sees this!" Pinkie hopped around, looking at her new clawed feet, "Oh! If we're dragons now, this mean we can eat like them too!?"

"Eat like dragons? You mean...eating g-gems??" Judging from her posture when she said it, was apparent Rarity paled somewhat at the thought.

"I admit, it would be interesting, but right now we need to run damage control." Twilight said, "Last thing we need is the town, or Canterlot for that matter, panicking about a group of dragons in town."

"Um...girls? Fluttershy spoke up near the window, nervously fingering one of the two large fins protruding from her head, "I-I don't think we'll have to about....about that."

Rushing over, the others were treated to the sight of a town filled with dragons, all running about screaming when they saw each other and their reflections.

"The whole place's been affected!" Trixie yelped, "This has to one of Discord's excuses for a joke!"

"No, this isn't quite his style." Celesta responded, "He would've shown up to take credit by now. Besides, there's no way he'd cast a spell like this on Fluttershy without warning or at least explaining himself."

"Plus...anyone else notice something funny?" Spike pointed out, "There are still ponies out there too."

Another look from the group showed that, sure enough, there were several ponies, just as freaked out as the dragons, running about.

"'Tia..." Luna spoke up.

"I know, Luna." Came the response, "Let's go." With that, the sibling princesses hurried for the palace doors, the others not far behind.

As soon as they were out, the noise that came with the collective freak out was almost deafening.

"I'm scaly! Why am I scaly!?"

"I always knew my wife was a dragon, but I didn't mean it literally!"

"What's going on!?"

"CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!" The duo shouted in unison, their voice quickly getting the attention of everyone.

"P-Princess Celestia, Princess Luna!?" Carrot Cake, still a pony, spoke up once he saw them, "Is..is that you?? You're dragons as well??"

"Yes, Mr. Cake. It's us. Everyone, please! Settle down!" Celestia called out over the worried murmurs.

"W-what's going on!? I woke up this morning to find that both my wife and daughter have been turned into d-dragons!"

"Mine as well!" Filthy Rich added.

"Eeyup! Granny Smith too!" Big Mac called out, "Ah ain't normally one fer crude speech, but it scared the hell outta me!"

Several others spoke up as well.

"Tia, am I seeing things?" Luna asked, "So far, all the unchanged ponies..."

"Are male. I see it too, Luna." Celestia responded, "This is very strange. Everyone, before we say anything, we need to be sure of something, first. Luna, move fifteen paces over to the left. I'll take fifteen to the right. All of you who haven't been affected, please move over to Princess Luna. Those that were, to me."

It took a minute before the group was sorted, but soon Celestia and Luna each had half of Ponyville standing near them. Luna looked over at her sister, "Celesta, I'm afraid we were right. Whatever magic did this has affected the town's entire female population!"

"But..but WHY!?" One of the mares-turned-dragoness cried out, "What's there to get out of turning every mare and filly in Ponyville into a dragon!?"

Celestia sighed, "I'm afraid I don't know. Who-or what-ever caused this was surprisingly quick and efficient for it to effect the entire town without any notice. I promise, however, we WILL find out what happened. And in doing that, hopefully find a way to undo it. For now, though, I ask that you all try and go about with your daily lives. If any of you start to feel anything like a hoarding urge, inform Princess Twilight and we'll do what we can to help."

It took them a little while to get the townsfolk to fully calm down, but Celestia and Luna managed to get everyone to head back home. Though a few were still weirded out by the whole situation.

Soon the group was back inside. Ones like Trixie, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell and Pinkie were still looking themselves over.

"So, what do we do now?" Spike asked, "I'm still trying to wrap my head around all you being dragons now..."

"Like 'Tia said, we just go on about as normal." Luna responded, "Though it's going to be fun explaining things to the stuck-ups at court back in Canterlot..."

GRRRRRUULLLRRR!!!

"Heh...well, I have a feeling I know what we gotta do first." Spike fought the urge to laugh at the mares' collective blush from the noise, "Omelettes good with everyone?" He was met with several rapid sounds of agreement.

As he started out towards the kitchen, Rainbow slowly cocked her head to the side, following him, "Hey, guys?

"Hm?" Twilight looked over, "Something wrong, Rainbow?"

"No, but...is it just me, or has Spike been working out?"

Multiple pairs of eyes glanced over to the sole male dragon, more than a couple widening while they watched.