The day was cold but comfortable. Every pony in Ponyville was outside playing in the last days of heat before winter, enjoying the fallen leaves and the company of their friends. Rainbow Dash kept the clouds in check for the last day of the season, making sure just enough sun got through to warm the place up. Pinkie Pie and Applejack were chatting at Sugar Cube Corner while the girls tried to earn their baking cutie marks, and Rarity and Fluttershy were having a relaxing time at the latters cottage, figuring that on a wonderful day like this, it would be a shame to spend their get-together indoors.
One pony, though, was still hiding in her house. Twilight Sparkle was looking in the mirror, as she had started to do every morning, and examining her relatively new appendages. Her wings were larger than Rainbow's or Fluttershy's, and when she held them aloft she felt like a regal bird. Which was odd. There was hardly ever a memory in which the brainiac had ever felt 'regal.'
She sighed and brushed her mane before entering the main library to study more on wing care. Twilight searched through her library for a while, but as usual she had trouble locating the right book. She opened her mouth to call for assistance, but Spike was already there, with a book titled "Wing Care and Hygiene."
She smiled. "Thanks, Spike." She said.
"Of course, Your Majesty." He said with a bow.
"Stop that, Spike." She said, opening the book and finding a comfortable spot at the table to read. "You don't have to call me anything."
Spike sat beside her, looking at the pages. "So how does it feel to have wings?" He asked. "Have you and Rainbow been flying yet?"
"Not yet, Spike, I need to learn how to take care of them, first." She said, reading through the first pages of the book. "It feels... different. And I don't know what happened to my magic when I changed, either." She said, still involved in her book.
He looked at the alicorns wings and sighed. "Wish I had some wings. Think Celestia could make me a pair?"
Twilight giggled. "I don't think she can do dragons, Spike. Why don't you ask her next time, though, just to be sure." She smiled at her assistant. "Don't worry, we can go flying together."
He smiled happily. "I've never been flying before, Rainbow Dash doesn't seem like the safest person to fly with, know what I mean?"
She smiled. "I get it." She leaned down and nuzzled her friend. "But you're my number one assistant, I think you deserve a little reward here and there."
He hugged her back, then his eyes widened. "Hey, you know what we should do?"
"What?"
"You should test out your powers! You haven't used anything more than a levitation spell since you became an alicorn, I bet they'll be way more powerful now." Spike said enthusiastically.
"I don't know, Spike, Celestia said I should go back to Canterlot once I'm used to these-" She shook her wings "-and then we can work on controlling my magic. She said Cadence would be there to help, too."
He frowned. "Aw, come on Twilight, just a... simple transformation spell!" He said, and ran into the kitchen.
"Spike-"
"It'll be easy, you had some trouble with this before, I bet you can do it in a snap now!"
She sighed as the baby dragon came back with an apple and set it on the ground a little ways away from her. "Please, just one shot?"
"No, Spike, I don't know what will happen."
"Well if you do it right it'll turn into-"
"I mean with my new powers, I don't have any control yet." She said, rolling her eyes. "And I'm not about to disobey Celestia because you want to have an orange."
"Try for a jewel then." He said, coming back beside her and giving her puppy eyes. "Come on, Twilight, please?"
She sighed, and stood up, aiming her horn at the apple. She was just going to do a simple spell, and that was it. Nothing extravagant.
She shot her magic, but it was a lot more powerful than she expected. She hit the fruit with a large beam of magic, but had to fight to cut it off. When she stopped, an apple-sized diamond was in it's place.
She stared at it, dumbfounded, as Spike cheered and ran to pick it up.
As he touched it, Twilight's eyes went wide, and she felt her magic, having a taste of what it could now do, force itself into existence. She gritted her teeth and tried to stop it, but it didn't work. She turned her head just in time to avoid turning Spike into a ruby, instead hitting an entire shelf of books, which hardened and glimmered in their new form.
The power was too great to control by willpower.
She went to her knees, unable to control it. The stairs were turned to sapphire, and the table to emeralds. Spike backed against the wall, diamond apple completely forgotten.
She looked up at him, teeth gritted. "Go!" She said, but turned away again as she turned the door into gemstone.
Spike stared at his escape route, excitement at Twilight's new found power turning to fear of its uncontrolled mayhem.
He was running for the kitchen when Twilight's eyes flew wide, glowing white with magic and for a moment the entire library was shrouded in a brilliant light, Spike and all.
Spike groaned, but forced his eyes open. The first thing he saw was the glimmer of the library, now turned completely to white crystal. He pushed himself up, but stopped.
His claws...
He looked down at himself and recoiled.
He stood up, tripping over his extra pair of legs, and stared at himself. Hooves. He stifled a cry of surprise and rubbed the horn on his head with his hoof, backing against the wall as his wings spread out to balance him.
But he didn't hit the wall, he instead ran into something more spiny and warm. He gulped and turned around, only to fall on his rump in.
It was Twilight.
She was a dragon.
He ran out of the library, his four feet tangling him up. He snorted and fell, face digging into the dirt, but stood up again and began running. He'd woken up, but Twilight was still unconscious. And she was a dragon, a giant, full grown dragon.
"Help!" He said, realizing that his own voice was slightly deeper, and that he was no longer a 'baby' anything. He was a stallion the same age as Twilight.
Ponies in town stared at him, an unfamiliar purple colt stumbling in the dirt. They eyes him wearily. His mane extended down his back, almost to his tail, like dragon spines.
His eyes were wide as he stared at the watching ponies. He skidded to a halt as Applejack and Pinkie Pie came out of Sugar Cube Corner to see what the commotion was about.
Pinkie's eyes flew wide. "Hey there! I've never seen you around before, I'm Pinkie Pie, who are y-"
"Something's wrong with Twilight and I don't know what it is, she's unconscious and... and..." Spike broke off, breath coming in short gasps.
Applejack looked at him, seeming to realize something in his voice. "Now calm down y'all, take a deep breath. What happened ta Twilight? And who are ya?"
"It's me, Spike!" He said, putting his hooves to his chest, forgetting for a moment that he needed all four to balance. He fell, but got back up immediately, ignoring his now bloody nose. "Twilight, her magic, something happened, you gotta help!" He said, staring at the two of them in turn.
Applejack looked taken aback, and even Pinkie looked worried. "Spike?" The country pony asked. "Why, Ah knew ah recognized that voice. What happened ta Twilight?"
By that time, more ponies had gathered around to listen to this mysterious new colt. Spike was upset and on the verge of tears.
"S-She's... just come on!." He said, and turned to run back.
Applejack shared a shocked look with Pinkie, before she took after Spike. "Go get the others, Pinkie, I'll go with Spike." She said, and ran after the colt.
Twilight felt drained and broken. She heard a distant voice in her head, but couldn't make it out through the buzz of her fatigued body. It persisted, though, and soon she could hear Princess Luna, of all ponies, talking to her.
"Stay calm, Twilight Sparkle." The voice was distant and slurred. "We will be there soon."
Luna's presence in her mind vanished as she came to, body and mind sore and aching. She hardly had the strength to open her eyes, so she kept them closed.
She heard the faint noise of thundering hoof beats approaching, but it registered in her sluggish mind that they weren't close by. It took them almost ten seconds to reach the library. She'd never been able to hear that far before.
The door flew open with a smack, but Twilight could do little more than groan and slowly crack open her eyes.
She saw Applejack, a mixture of shock, horror, and awe written on her face, and somepony she didn't know, but something about him looked familiar.
Her eyes fluttered closed again as darkness once more prevailed.
Applejack stared, open mouthed, at the enormous purple dragon in front of her. She took up nearly all of the library floor, and wings and all rose almost to the ceiling.
Spike bent his head, overwhelming guilt plaguing his being. He'd been the one to insist she use her new magic, it was his fault. This was all his fault.
"Spike... Ah don't understand. What happened?"
He kept his head down. "I wanted her to try out her new magic. Just on an apple, to see what she could turn it into now that she's an alicorn, and... she couldn't control it." He said, almost crying. "Everything went white, and when I woke up... I was like this, and she was like that." He looked up at his friend's face, unconscious but still pained. "And it's my fault. I didn't know this would happen, I didn't..."
"Now Spike, I hardly think it was your fault." Applejack said to comfort him, putting a hoof over his shoulder, which was now higher than her own. "And I'm sure that when Twilight wakes up, we can fix this."
"What if she doesn't wake up?" He asked, looking at the orange pony. "What if she can't fix it?"
Applejack didn't have an answer to that, and was still looking at Twilight.
She was so big, Applejack could hardly believe it was actually Twi. Her arms and legs were outstretched, and she was curled in a circle around the diamond library. Her tail lied across the room between them and her, and one wing was slightly open, covering nearly all of the library about ten feet off the ground.
Before anymore could be said, the other four ponies ran into the building, only to come to sudden stops as they saw her.
Fluttershy gasped and backed away, nearly bolting out of the library.
"What in Celestia's name..." Rarity said, staring up at the former-pony, and then at the now sparkling walls of Twilight's accommodations.
"Is that... Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked, and then they looked at the tall purple stallion in the room, whose head was bowed in guilt.
"S...Spike?" Rarity said, walking over to the pony. "You're..."
He looked over at her, a tear falling down his cheek.
"Oh Spike, what happened?" She asked.
"I messed up." He murmured, and hung his head again.
Twilight moved, teeth and fangs bared in pain. Spike made a move to her, but Applejack held him back.
She opened her eye, the one facing the ponies. Fluttershy's eyes went wide with fear, and she backed against the door. Rainbow flicker her with her tail.
Twilight looked at Fluttershy, before moving her head and looking at herself.
She recoiled, sending the entire library shuttering.
Applejack walked forward as the dragon tried to move as far away from herself as possible. She looked scared and confused. Applejack put a hoof on her claw and stared up at her.
"Twilight, calm down." She said. "It's gonna be fine, Twilight." She reassured calmly.
She stared at the pony for another moment, shock still in her features, before relaxing slightly and looking at the other ponies.
She saw Spike, who had went over the verge and was now crying, and she slowly fell back to her stomach and lied down, staring at the former-dragon.
He walked forward. The blood had stopped seeping from his nose, and he wiped it away as best he could before he ran at Twilight and wrapped his hooves around her snout.
"I'm so sorry." He sobbed, putting his head against her scales. "It's all my fault."
She didn't say anything, only closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
They all sat with her, Spike still worked up. Twilight didn't say anything or move, and they wondered if she even could. It had been almost half an hour before anypony else entered the library. The Royal Sisters entered with haste, Luna in the lead. The ponies bowed, surprised, as Celestia and Luna ran inside. It was a rare moment when either of the Princess's looked worried, scared even.
"Twilight Sparkle." Luna greeted sadly, and walked forward. Celestia stood back, mouth slightly agape as she stared at her student.
"I-It wasn't her fault, Princess, I-" Spike began hurriedly, but Luna cut him off with a glance.
"I know. This was nobody's fault but our own." She stared at Twilight. "We should not have left you unattended with your new powers."
Celestia stood beside her sister. "Twilight, are you okay? Are you in pain?" She asked.
Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, but didn't speak.
The other ponies eyes widened. One couldn't just ignore a Princess...
But Celestia seemed un-offended, and she went and lied down with her student. "Twilight, are you hurt?"
She stared at Celestia with sad eyes. "No..." She whispered quietly, voice still very much the same.
The sun Princess nodded,and looked at the other ponies aside from Spike and Luna. "Would you give us some privacy, girls?" She asked kindly. They all nodded and left the library with heads bowed in respect.
"Twilight, you need to tell us what happened. Luna and I may be able to fix this before it gets out of hand." She said.
Twilight seemed unwilling to use her voice, so Spike looked at the Princess. "I convinced her to try out a transformation spell, on an apple." He said, and looked over at the diamond piece, forgotten in the commotion. "She did it, but then she lost control, and she started changing everything in the library to gems. And then her eyes went white, and we both passed out and woke up like this." He said quietly.
The Princess stared at Spike. "Twilight, did you do this on purpose?"
"I... no." She said, still very quietly. "I knew I couldn't control it, but I wouldn't... I couldn't hurt Spike." She said, looking at the pony. "I... I just don't know, Princess." She said, voice full of tears. She shifted, folding in the outstretched wing. The library shuddered slightly.
"You transformed Spike into what you were, and so you became what Spike was." Luna said, staring at the two of them. "A magical trade, something long forgotten in time. I have not seen anything like this in a thousand years."
"Can you fix it?" Spike asked, looking at the two Princess's. "It's my fault, I'm the one who made her do it, I... I'm sorry." He said, going back to Twilight.
"We can try, little one, but it was Twilight's magic that cast the spell. It may be that only she can reverse it." Celestia said.
"But she's a dragon, she doesn't have any magic!" Spike exclaimed, forgetting that he was in the presence of high royalty. "And I can't use it!"
For the first time, the Princess's seemed to realize that Spike himself was now an alicorn. They looked at each other.
"It may be that you will have to learn before the spell can be undone." Celestia said, and got down on one knee beside Spike, to eye level. "Spike, this isn't your fault, you mustn't blame yourself for this. The blame lies in me and my sister for not taking the proper precautions." She blinked. "We will remain here for the time being, and try to reverse the spell, but if it cannot be done, Twilight will remain a dragon, and you will remain an alicorn."
"But... I don't want to be an alicorn." He whimpered, and sat beside Twilight. "Not if Twilight can't be one too."
Celestia and Luna shared a look of sadness before lighting their horns and changing the library back to its original state. They removed the front, and looked at Twilight.
"Come, Twilight, you cannot stay here."
She looked at them for a moment before standing, still low to the ground, and slowly walking out of the library.
"Prince Spike." Luna said, nodding for him to follow.
He stared at her, and then at Twilight. She looked so sad and scared.
He ran after her, and Celestia replaced the library wall. She stood beside her sister.
"Twilight won't be able to use magic." Luna said quietly. "I imagine she will become isolated from her friends. She is strong, sister, but this? I do not think it will be an easy change for her. Never has this happened before."
Celestia simply stared at her student.
"It would have been better if she had transformed herself into a small dragon as Spike was, at least then she would have retained the ability to read and write. Now she is simply too large." Luna looked at her sister.
"Oh Luna." She breathed, as Twilight walked along slowly, Spike faithfully beside her. "What have I done?"
Luna extended a wing over her elder sibling, but said nothing, only starred as the two made their way out of Ponyville, groups of frightened and curious ponies watching them go.