Spike wandered through the Everfree forest, hands by his sides as he looked around at the large, dark trees that once frightened everyone in town, now seeming to be a minor nuisance after so many creatures came and went through it, and Zecora even permanently living here. His mind wondered as he walked slowly to if there was anything to really worry about anymore in here. Fluttershy tamed almost every creature she met in her after a while, so even the most vicious of beasts stayed away from ponies at least, so that wasn’t a danger anymore.

His thoughts on that fact were soon cut short as he heard a sizzling sound as he saw in the distance leaves wilting in moments as steam rose off of them, as the effect moved across the path and to the other side.

He took a step back before shaking his head. “Come on Spike, it’s just a bit of heat. Dragons bathe in lava for Celestia’s sake!” He says to himself as he approaches the unknown heat source.

He pulled away some wilting leaves to reveal a large white fox with oddly soft and long fur. It turned to him, its eyes looking as if a fire was lit behind them, as it stared at him as the heat began to build, more plants wilting and some beginning to burn.

“What the… what are you?” He asks as he steps closer, as the fox looks at him more, the heat growing to the point the plants around them both caught ablaze!

Then all Spike saw as a flash of white, then pure darkness.

Spike gasped loudly as he shot upright, before grabbing his head. “Spike!” Twilight said as she grabbed ahold of him. “Calm down, you are in the castle. There was a forest fire, and you were caught in it. I think even though you were immune to the flames, you passed out from the smoke.”

Spike looked over to his ‘sister’ of sorts as he rubbed his head some more. She had grown quite a bit when she ‘ascended’, as Celestia had called it, making the size difference between them more noticeable. He hadn’t worried about that in the past, but something inside him now felt unfairly dwarfed by her.

“Ugh, how long was I out for?” Spike asks as Twilight thinks for a few seconds.

“Approximately 3 hours and 54 minutes, give or take a minute or two” She answered as she put a hoof onto his head. “Well, in other good news, you don’t seem to have a fever, unlike what Pinky has predicted would happen after you woke up.”

“You are joking right?” Spike asks at Twilight’s words, as he suddenly felt a bit warm out of nowhere.

“Well, I was… but… um… I think your temperature just rose” Twilight says as she pulls out a medical bag she had nearby and puts a thermometer into his mouth, it breaking quickly from the natural heat of the dragon’s breath. “... Ok, I can’t tell if that’s normal or not for a dragon.”

Spike groaned as he felt his mind begin to wonder. Dragon’s didn’t have much healthcare, unlike most other species, so they didn’t have anything to tell if a dragon had an unnatural temperature. Twilight hadn’t been able to set anything up in that regard either, clearly, so how could a dragon tell?

He remembered the mirror downstairs, the one to the human world. There, dragons were just dogs… or at least, he had been. Still, if that tracked to all dragons, that could be the solution. All one would need to do is go through the mirror with a pony, go to a vet, and ask if they had a fever, or if they were sick at all really. However, that would only work if the illness didn’t disappear by going through the portal, or didn’t change from it either… Maybe one could catch an illness from the human world that way, one where Equestia had no cure…

“Um, Spike, are you feeling alright? You seem a bit… um… Caught up in your own thoughts” Twilight says, quickly bringing Spike back to reality with a question or two.

“Oh, sorry about that. Um Twilight, I have a question.”

“Oh, I’ll be happy to answer whatever it is for you.” Twilight says as she moves back a bit, in case the question was a particularly tricky one.

Spike, took a quick breath, before asking. “Are the creatures in our world like humans? Like, do we have bodies like theirs's?” He says, mostly to lead into his greater question about illnesses between them. However, this doesn’t happen as he feels his body heat up again as he winces a bit, not used to feeling heat like this.

“Of course Spike, I even mentioned how confusing it was that a crazy other world had creatures that looked like us.” Twilight replies, much to Spike's confusion.

“... Um, Twilight? You never said that” Spike says as he turns to Twilight, quickly realizing that she was no longer the sister he had for years before this.

Instead, beside him was a tall creature with the same colors as Twilight, but an entirely different shape, pretty much a human’s with the additions of her tail, wings, and horn. In addition to that, she was wearing a black t-shirt with a faded image of Starswirled’s hat on it, with below that a pair of gray sweat pants, suggesting she had been planning on relaxing for the day.

Spike then felt his eyes widen more as he realized he somehow knew that now. He slowly turned to his own claws, not far more like the hands of a human, just with the tips of the fingers feeling like normal. He looked further down as he realized he was far taller than before, now standing less than a head shorter than Twilight. Spike also noticed that unlike Twilight he had no clothes on, and his newfound knowledge helped him realize how embarrassing that was.

Now, having all of this in mind and the slowly growing heat filling his body, he did what any reasonable dragon- No, creature- would do in his situation.

He freaked the fuck out.

Author's Note

First Chapter down, with more to come soon. Suggestions for where the story should go are welcome, as well as questions, ideas, and general advice for writing. I'll try to respond to them all when I can.

Also, while the first source of inspiration is quite good in my opinion, the second is not, and if you wish to know why, someone has made 5 or so OVER AN HOUR LONG videos critiquing it. I just like some of the elements for that story so I took them for use in my own.