A little change

The dim trickling sound of water forming stalagmites and stalactites echoed throughout the gem-filled caves; the dim light of a head lantern filled the dark void that typically coated the cave as Spike used a pick axe to dig up gems. He could have been finished with the task a long while before this point, but despite his best efforts, he hadn't been able to even begin filling the cart until his stomach was empty. A constant roadblock in his life was his inability to be patient when it came to his stomach.

Spike had agreed to gather a few gems for Rarity, who was on her way to Manehattan for business for the next few days. Spike liked to imagine she was actually doing business and, as Rainbow had delicately put it, not doing her new favorite client. Despite his best attempts, Spike had found that Rarity's preferences seemed to change; any time Spike managed to get close to what she was looking for in a colt, it would abruptly change.

Spike was just about to finish his haul and return them to Rarity's boutique but decided to test the now barren wall he had been working on to see if it might have any special finds he could take with him; he struck once, twice, thrice. After a few strikes, he became determined to find something and spent what might have been hours searching for a treat before finally pulling his pick out of the wall and seeing a shimmering glow in the small tunnel he had dug.

Spike tossed his pick behind him toward his cart and dug with his claws to extract the gem. To his surprise, it was one he had seen in a book but never in person; the gem's color changed every few seconds, starting from the bottom and working its way up; the change happened so fast that it was constantly shifting between three different colors, making it quite the trippy sight.

As far as Spike could remember, the gem in his hand had many names, the blandest one being the Rainbow gem and the more extravagant one being the Wishing stone, rumored to be ancient fossilized magic that could grant wishes to whoever held it, each wish causing the rock to deteriorate, ultimately turning it into nothing.

Sure, he could have tested its rumored powers, but it was a gem, and he was a hungry Spike. He had barely grasped what he was holding before his tongue had snatched it into his maw. He cracked it in his teeth, and just in case it was real, he made a rushed wish before he destroyed it. Thinking back to Rarity's ever-changing desires, he decided it was the best he could think of on the spot and made his rushed wish just in case it might work.

"I wish I had the power to change in an instant," His mouth began glowing as he swallowed the magic rock, and his skin felt funny; his funny feeling quickly spread to the rest of his body, and in that instant, he tried to step back, in doing that he was granted the harsh reality that he no longer had feet, he had hooves.

"What the Fu-" Spike's swear was cut off, both by him hitting the ground and the silent realization that the words that had come out hadn't been in his voice. "Oh," a familiar female voice spoke out, "Oh shit," Spike looked at his hands and saw the black-clawed hand that was very much not his hand but the hand of a pre-reformed Changling.

"Oh Shit," Spike repeated the swear several times in a panic at the realization that his stupid panicked wish probably wouldn't stand as an excuse that he totally wasn't Chrysalis even though he sounded and probably looked just like her now.

"I better not be a lady," He realized as he checked just that; despite having a lady-like figure, he was still male, although he realized that might have just been his new Changling powers lying to him to make himself feel better. "I'll accept it and try not to ever think about being a lady," He decided; his clothes hung loose on him, and having once seen Thorax changing his outfit using his powers, Spike did his best to give himself clothes, a wrap-around his chest and a basic skirt was the best he could do and he decided not to push it as he got to his hooves and looked around.

"I can't go home," He realized as he thought about all the ways it would go wrong; since he now lived in Canterlot and was only visiting Ponyville at Rarity's request, he doubted he could get past the changing security around the castle, much less make it to the train station or even enter Ponyville.

Much like any rational creature would, Spike did the only thing there was to do: flop to the ground, roll up into the fetal position, and rock back and forth in panic. After a nice long panic attack, Spike did his best to get to his new hooves and stumble to his cart, all his hard work being for nothing, but even as a Changling, he was still Spike. His tongue immediately snatched a Gem, and as soon as it did so, his teeth warped, and he felt his stomach Shift inside him. The small gem shot past his lips, and he crunched down on it without any real effort, his body having changed from a normal changing to one that could eat and process gems since his every natural instance had been honed for doing just that.

As soon as Spike ate one Gem, he flew into a frenzy of stress eating, his massive haul being reduced to barely half a wagon's worth within just a few minutes.

"Oh, that helps," He sighed as his stomach gurgled in appreciation at being filled; it was weird; he felt like he had two stomaches, but he chalked it up as his body changing to allow him to overeat without hurting himself and he tossed his pick into the wagon before pulling it deeper into the cave system, Diamond Dogs had once called the caves home, but after an incident with Rarity they had all packed up and migrated far into the uncharted west to avoid as much contact with ponies as possible. Spike pulled his wagon down the cave system; when his headlamp went out, his eyes adjusted to see in the dark as though it was broad daylight, and he tossed the lamp aside before continuing into the cave system.

Soon, he found a tunnel carved out with claw marks; he ventured down it and, after several twists and turns, found what he had been looking for; if one thing was true for all creatures, it was they all needed to drink, and Diamond Dogs were known to make their territories with artificially crafted streams. While the water was less than crystal clear, it wasn't stagnant, and that was all Spike needed for the moment; Spike set his wagon in a dip in the wall that had probably once been a Diamond Dog's bed.

Spike focused on giving his hand filter fins and dipped them into the water; after some trial and error, he got a little bit of muck-free water and sipped it down, not having enough to gulp it down, as soon as he did so, however, the thing he had mistaken as a second stomach began forcing it's way up his throat.

It was far too large to spit up, and if he had been anything other than a changing, he probably would have choked out on it; that he was a changing, and his neck and lower jaw basically just ripped apart to let him spit the object out before returning to their original place.

His first thought was how horrifying he had probably looked during those few moments; his thoughts quickly turned to the thing he had spat up; it was a large webby sack of some kind After inspecting, Spike was left with the simple thought that all the leftover magic from the wishing stone had found a way to be used inside his body, being used to fulfill the primary function of any proper Queen Changling.

"Stupid Rock," Spike angrily declared as he held the Egg sack in his hands, "I didn't ask to be a fucking mother!"