This is my first attempt at MLP fanfiction. I'm fairly new to "the herd" and I do have a lot to still learn about the intimate details of Equestria. I'd appreciate any feedback that any of you bronies can give me on how to improve, be it my writing, my characterizations, or any mistake I make, really. This show has made a big difference in my life, and I've turned into a much happier person over the last few months since I began watching a show I would have never imagined I would ever even view, let alone get hooked into watching.

As far as the fic goes, this story will become totally AU, and you'll understand why when you read. I'm versed in shonen anime, and I read lots of shonen fanfiction. My writing is heavily influenced by the many fanfictions I've read and so there will probably be shonen themes throughout this fanfiction.

For anyone that hasn't seen "Dragon Quest", I recommend you watch it before you read this.

That is all.

-MLPFIM-

"Spiiiiiiiike. Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiike. Oh, Spikey-Wikey! Wakey wakey, my little dragon!"

Green eyes slowly fluttered open, and the little dragon blinked rapidly to try and let his eyes adjust to the sudden light. As his awareness came to him, the purple lizard realized he was NOT in his bed in the library or in any of his friends' homes, no, he was surrounded by an endless white void. With a jolt, he jumped up. All of his usually repressed dragonic instincts were screaming at him, and he barely registered that his body was lighter than a feather.

"Woah, there, hatchling. You're not in any danger. Well, not really, anyway. I suppose anypony, or anydragon in your case, would be on edge when waking up in the Void to a disembodied voice. Let me ease you, young one."

Out of nowhere, a ghostly form of a dragon materialized, and soon became corpreal. It was the same size and shape as he was, but green with purple spikes. It was as if he was looking into a bizarre negative of himself.

"That better, hatchling?"

Despite his instincts, Spike felt himself relax a great deal. Seeing a form to the voice HAD helped, actually. At least he could see what was coming before it got him, he figured. Still not trusting his voice- or even believing this was nothing more than a bizarre nightmare- the young purple dragon nodded.

"Come on, Spike. You're never this quiet. Gosh. Anyways. You're a real oddity, you know that? You're a pony-raised, unicorn-magic-hatched, wingless dragon. I noticed you went on a crazy adventure of self discovery recently and didn't find much of an answer. I'm here to solve that, buddy."

The negative-Spike raised his claw to his mouth and cleared his throat for dramatic effect, then continued.

"You, my dear Spike, were never meant to exist. The egg in which you came from was, in fact, a dud egg. No unicorn foal, or many unicorns period, could hatch a dragon egg. They're very resistant to just about anything. And then? Little Twilight Sparkle decided to screw the rules with a blast of magic that would make Luna and Celestia blush. Twilight created you from nothing, really. Ever noticed how your scales match her shade of purple? Genetically, Twilight's your mother as much as the dragoness that laid you. You have unicorn blood in you, and that's why you're capable of your magical green flames that transport letters. Now, your greed-growth? That was crazy, but nowhere near what you're going to grow up to be, Spikey-Wikey. Any questions so far?"

The real Spike shook his head, totally dumb founded. Despite his immature nature, Spike wasn't dumb. He lived in a library, was taught alongside Twilight by Princess Celestia, and he wasn't much younger than his pony friends. Now that he was wide awake, he was listening. And it all made sense in a crazy way. He had noticed that even the odd looking dragon had wings. The little things he knew about dragons didn't add up to make him, not quite. Unicorn heritage would clear a lot of things up. Kind of. Maybe. This still might be a-

"A dream, Spike? Maybe it is, maybe it's not. But just because it's in your head doesn't mean it's not real." With that, the green dragon walked up to Spike and poked him in the middle of the forehead. His claw glowed purple and Spike felt amazing.

It was similar to how he felt when he had begun to grow into his greedgrown form, but more tamed.

"W-what did you do to me?" Spike asked, confused.

The green dragon shrugged

"Nothing really, just accelerated your growth a little bit. Imparted a little magical knowledge, gave you the ability to shape shift. Trust me, that's the least awesome thing you're going to be able to do when you get to be an adult."

Spike tilted his head in confusion, as everything seemed to disappear. He opened his eyes again and suddenly was back in his bed and in his home. The young dragon grumbled loudly and shook his head.

"Never eating fire rubies before I go to sleep again."

Spike began to curl back into a ball to go back to sleep with a small orange blur tackled him, chirping. The dragon brightened and gently hugged the blur.

"Good mornin, Peewee. How'd ya sleep?"

The phoenix chick flew out of the embrace and onto the nearby windowsill, chirping happily and saluting with his tiny wing. He pecked on the glass and waited for his "father" to open it so he could fly out.

"I'm glad. Hang on a second, little guy!" The dragon got up and stretched all his limbs. As he walked to the window to open it, he looked towards Twilight, the memories of his odd dream still fresh in his mind.

"Gosh, Peewee, I had the wierdest dream. In it, Twilight was actually my mom and I apparently had some kind of magical unicorn shapeshifting powers. It was crazy!"

Peewee tilted his head in confusion, and Spike sighed slightly embarrassed. In all his excitement, he had forgotten that despite his pet's clever nature, he was still just a newborn and wouldn't understand everything. The dragon opened the window and let the little bird fly out to get some exercize. He never ventured far away from the tree where the three of them lived. Spike watched him fly, feeling slightly jealous as he looked back to see his bare back. No wings to join him.

Oh well.

Twilight had been up all night doing research on Cloudsdale and it's weather making technology. She was more or less the organizer for any major event in Ponyville, especially after all her success in the last two winter wrapups. The first one had been on schedule, her first try at the position. The second Wrap-Up had been fairly ahead of schedule and everypony involved had gotten a wonderful chance to relax a little. Now she was in charge of helping organize the pegasi with Rainbow Dash in order to provide water to Cloudsdale for their water supply.

He looked back towards the unicorn that hatched him, and grinned. She was sleeping in an awkward position; she'd no doubt be stiff in the morning. She had also mostly slipped off her covers and he could see she was shivering lightly. Spike grabbed the blankets and pulled them back onto her softly so as to not disturb her. The little dragon chuckled and turned away, and headed down to clean up the mess she had probably made in her studies.

-MLPFIM-

It had been a few days since his odd dream, and nothing important had really happened to him specifically. Fluttershy had seemed to overcome some issue she had with her stage fright which had allowed the tornado to go off without a problem. The shy pony was an enigma to him. He had heard just how utterly amazing she could be when she got over her reservations. She could fly amazingly well when pushed. She wasn't Rainbow Dash, but then, nopony was quite able to match her speed. After all, it was the cyan pegasus' special talent. According to Twilight, she could wrestle a bear with ease, and Rarity had mentioned in passing during one of his afternoons helping her that she had a near encyclopedic knowledge of sewing. He supposed it made sense. She spent a lot of her time alone in her cottage, so she probably read a lot. And her strength was probably honed rescuing and taking care of the many animals she did.

He was very happy for her, really. The young dragon did feel horrible, though. He had been rather insensitive to her, and that wasn't very good friend behavior. So, Spike stood now, at the doorway to her cottage, holding a box of various sweets from Sugarcube Corner. It was a shallow apology, but he hoped she'd understand. He didn't really know Fluttershy well enough to know what she liked, but nopony didn't like Sugarcube Corner's desserts. The baby dragon reached up to knock on the door, and stopped suddenly.

His nose twitched. A scent that made his instincts rise up. Fear. Terror.

And then a scream rode the winds, and Spike ran to find it.

-MLPFIM-

Well, that's a good stopping place for now. I'm tired. Gonna be spending all my time on an airplane today, so I'll have chapter 2 wrote up in no time. Okie dokie lokey! Later, bronies!