I woke up, strangely enough, lying on Twilight's floor. Confused I opened my eyes a little- but then they shot open. The room was a mix of blues and purples, except for the bed where Twilight lay. That was green, with a yellow, orange and red shape which I could compare to the shape of Twilight's body. That was it, then- I was somehow seeing with heat vision. I got up slowly and looked down at myself and to my horror my body was all blue.
How, could I, a fire-breathing dragon, be so cold? But as I stood up, my crest nearly brushed the ceiling. I had grown a lot, and for a moment I panicked, thinking I was becoming a greedy hoarder like I had a little while ago, when I kidnapped Rarity and smashed up the town. But I hadn't been collecting things like last time, so I couldn't see how that could be happening.
But then the possibilities this growth opened up started to creep into my mind. Rarity had rejected me before because I was too young, but now I would easily tower over her. I wondered whether she would treat me differently now I was presumably older. But something still seemed wrong, other than my size, so I trailed over to the lights and lit them with a quick breath.
Candlelight flickered over my tall frame, and for some reason I began to see normally again, but before I could get a look at myself in the mirror Twilight moaned and turned over. A bit of her tail stuck out from under the covers and to my confusion it appeared to be scaly. I marched over and prodded the bump under the duvet. Twilight groaned and sat up, but as the covers fell away from her face I instinctively stepped back. Her face was blue, scaly, as she yawned I could see fangs, her horn had disappeared, her ears were more like webbed fins, and when she opened her eyes they were golden, with slitted pupils.
Just as I opened my mouth to cry out, she opened hers and with a strange strangled hiss scrabbled backwards off the bed, her eyes fixed on me. For the first time I looked down at myself to see to my chagrin that my scales had turned grey and silver, before melting off into what looked like fur on my legs. I strode over to the mirror, ignoring Twilight as she felt at her face with her hooves, a somewhat horrified expression on her alien features.
In the mirror was... I don't know.
I supposed that my form was like a minotaur's, but my top half was a dragon, a grey and silver one with blood-red eyes, but then the scales melted away into medium-length grey fur from my waist down. My legs ended in blunt stubs, which after a minute I recognised as hooves. I didn't know how I hadn't noticed that I had no toes before now. Examining my tail, I saw that it was bristling with barbs along its scaly length, with a tip shaped like an arrow head. I twisted my head around almost hopefully, but I was disappointed; still no wings.
Now I turned my attention back to Twilight. She was up, pacing towards me on unsteady hooves. The scales covered her from head to tail, as her tail was now muscle rather than hair. A crescent tail fin tipped it. A fin-like crest flopped over her neck where her mane had been. However her starry cutie mark was still present on her flank.
"Spike?" she said in a voice that sounded like she was gargling. I detected clicking on the floorboards and suddenly noticed long, disjointed claws, four on each of Twilight's hooves. They appeared to be webbed, and I wondered how Twilight had been transformed into this seemingly aquatic creature.
"Yes." I answered, my voice scraping and deep.
"Oh, good." said Twilight. "It's you. But I have no idea what in Equestria has happened."
She padded unsteadily over to the mirror and stood staring in horrified silence. For a few minutes, we stood staring in the mirror, until an awful, earth-shattering screech shook the windows and rattled the doors. Even under the panic,and strange growling which the scream tailed off into, I recognised the scream.
"Rarity." I said. Twilight looked at me with those unnerving, unblinking golden eyes and nodded.
Ten minutes later, after two minutes of hammering on the boutique door, I smashed through it and came face to face with a terrified-looking Sweetie Belle. Hearing the screaming continue upstairs, I gently shoved her aside and ascended the stairs.
I had to smash Rarity's bedroom door too, and it was then that I saw her.
She was facing away, but I could see all was not well with my love. A long black scorpion's tail swished in aggravation, and then Rarity turned to look at me, and then opened her mouth for another scream, her long canines glistening. From what I could see, Rarity's body was that of a female manticore, except with deep blue eyes and a pony's hindquarters. She stepped back, half-heartedly raising a clawed lion's paw to defend herself. But then she placed it back down, closed her mouth and looked down.
Her head, front legs and half of her body were those of a jet black lioness, her hindquarters were a white pony's with her diamond cutie mark still emblazoned on each flank, and a segmented black scorpion tail reared above her. She sat down on her haunches and wailed, "Just kill me! I'm finished anyway!"
"Rarity, I'm not going to kill you. It's me, Spike."
Rarity looked up at me with her familiar heart-melting blue gaze. "Spikey-Wikey?" Her voice started as her usual dignified speech, before tailing off into a growly low pitch.
"The one and only." I said, using the phrase I'd heard from Rainbow so many times. "Anyway, Twilight's.... changed... too, and she went to find the other four. We've to meet them in the library."
Rarity looked about to agree, but then she hunched up. "No, Spike. I cannot be seen like this!"
I sighed. "Rarity, it's dark. No one will see you." I didn't add that her white flank would stand out. I didn't think that information would be helpful.
Rarity just stayed where she was, lifting her black paws to cover her eyes.
I poked her. "Come on, Rarity. Twilight can't help you get back to normal if you don't go."
Rarity just let out a growly sob.
Unable to think of anything else to do, I began to shove her towards the door. She turned on me, growling and snarling,even raising a clawed paw to strike me, but then blinked and stopped. I sensed that she had somehow lost consciousness of what she was doing, as now she followed me down the stairs without complaint.
Sweetie Belle was still cowering downstairs, but when Rarity moved towards her she screamed and fled out of the door. I followed her out to see a white shape tearing away in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres.
I led a shivering Rarity to the library and stopped outside. I had to psyche myself up for what might await me inside. When I was ready, I shoved the door open.
Four pairs of eyes swivelled to gaze at me.
I padded into the library after Spike and instantly recoiled as four sets of eyes swivelled towards us. Even with my original fear, the thought niggled at my mind- four pairs of eyes? Surely there should have been five. But as I looked over them, the reason for this inequality became clear.
My eyes fell first on 'Twilight.' Blue, shiny, scaled from head to tail, fangs, fins, a wholly aquatic look about her. Spike had detailed her appearance as we travelled to the library, so I knew what to expect, but I was still repulsed by her appearance.
A dark shape hovering near the ceiling caught my eyes next. After spotting the lightning cutie mark on her strangely shaped flank, I could ascertain that this was 'Rainbow Dash'. Her whole body was red, and to my intense disgust her bones and muscles were bared as if she had been skinned. Raw, bony wings still beat, and in her grinning skull her rose eyes stared unblinkingly at me.
'Fluttershy's' eyes were covered with a thick scarf, so I could not see them, but her now muddy yellow fur, emblazoned with her cutie mark in its usual place, was clotted with dark red which I seconds later realised was blood. Her hooves were now claws, and they were steeped in blood. Membranous insect wings twitched on her back. These were not lustrous butterfly wings; more like those of a fly.
'Applejack' looked at me with blank eye sockets. I was puzzled for a minute, sure I had recognised her green eyes when I first entered, until she raised an orange hoof to reveal a leaf green eye implanted in its underside. Other than this, her body was normal, except for small puncture marks all over her body, out of which trails of blood were running.
'Pinkie' had no mouth to be seen, only glaring red eyes which pierced me terribly. Her mane was black as night, and straight, as was her tail. Her body gleamed silver as if it were made of metal. Even as I wondered how she communicated, her voice, a cold, harsh reflection of the usual Pinkie Pie, spoke in my ear.
Hello Rarity.
In light of all that had happened, I didn't question the supposed telepathy.
'Twilight' began speaking, her voice with a slimy, hissing quality to it. "Now, I think we all can see something awful has happened here-"
"No duh!" came a reply from 'Rainbow Dash'. Her voice clicked as her teeth clacked, amplified from the lack of muffling flesh.
'Twilight' coughed and continued. "Now, I think the best thing to do is get out of town before one of us loses control again. We don't want anything else like the, er, incident at Fluttershy's-"
"Why? interrupted 'Spike'. "What happened at Fluttershy's?"
'Twilight' shot him a killing glare, but it was too late. 'Fluttershy' sniffled and burst into tears.
"I.... I... killed them! Killed them all!" she wailed. "All my animal friends... I woke up and there was blood, so much blood, and bodies everywhere... and Angel came over to me... I looked at him... and he... he...."
"What happened to Angel?" I asked, dread suddenly filling my heart.
"Let's just say he won't be hopping around again any time soon." came a harsh statement from 'Applejack'. She pulled a small statue of a rabbit from her bags. I stared at it in horror.
'Fluttershy' dissolved into sobs, hugging the little statue and unintentionally smearing blood all over it. As she wept, 'Pinkie' spoke again. From the way the others went rigid, I could see they heard too.
Girls, what are we going to do?
"Get out of town." replied 'Twilight'.
"And go where?" I growled.
"The Everfree!" bawled 'Fluttershy'. "That's the only place for monsters like us... Like me."
I was about to refuse, when I saw that 'Twilight' was nodding. "That's the best place to be out of the public eye until we can get back to ourselves."
'Applejack', 'Rainbow' and 'Fluttershy' agreed. 'Pinkie' was nodding too, so I sighed, "Oh, very well. I'd rather not be seen by ponies when I'm like this anyway."
'Twilight' moved on to the next discussion. "Okay, now that's settled, have any of you, other than Fluttershy, experienced loss of control over your actions?"
I shook my head, only to hear 'Spike' say, "Rarity did, when I tried to force her to leave the boutique. She turned on me and was snarling, she was about to hit me when she came back to her senses."
I had forgotten this instance, but now it came back clear as day. I had felt the sudden, overpowering urge to attack Spike, claw him, bite him, but then it had died as quickly as it had risen up.
Now I focused on it, I could sense it, deep inside, that urge. It whispered to me, sweet words of murder, blood and death, urging to leap at my friends, kill them, rip them apart. I shoved the urge back down before it could get to me again.
'Applejack' was nodding. "I checked on Applebloom as I left home, and just for a moment, I..." she faltered, "I wanted to kill her."
None of the others had suffered the loss of control, so we left the library. We needed to be far away by dawn. Twilight walked ahead of us, her hooves making slapping sounds as she walked. Rainbow flew overhead, and when I looked up I could see every movement of her strong wing muscles.
Fluttershy was feeling her way along, still sobbing behind her scarf, while Applejack had moved her eyes up to her forelegs as she walked so that she could see. It was apparent that she could put her eyes anywhere but the eye sockets on her face. Spike was walking on one side of me, Pinkie on the other. Both were silent, impassive.
We soon reached the edge of the Everfree. Twilight strode in without a care, while Rainbow could be seen hovering over the trees further in. Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie followed Twilight, while I paused at the edge of the trees. Spike turned to me and wordlessly held out a silver claw. I took it in my jets black paw and we walked into the darkness together.