Twilight gets her horn broken by an ursa major/minor and get abandoned by her friends (implied mane 6 as kids) and then runs away from her home
Spike’s egg never gets found by Celestia. Instead, his mother’s cave was raided by Diamond Dogs who seeked to claim all the gems. His mother was defeated in the process, and Spike hatched. Diamond Dogs decided to “adopt” him to use his dragon abilities for gem search and digging, making him their - ironically - “dog”-pet (hence the name)
Giant collar on his neck also keeps him from growing into a big dragon via greed
Twilight accidentally “frees” him by defeating Diamond Dogs when they tried to take her gem currency. Spike thus became her “pet” instead and they just kinda both rolled with it since they have no one else
Eventually Twilight becomes a good guy and even an alicorn, though instead of just regrowing her horn, her broken horn grows a crystal-like sparkly full form, and she grows a pair of glowy wings. I’m still thinking about their design, so this is a WIP, ofc
They become very close friends, almost a family, or perhaps, almost romantic partners. It’s not certain yet
If every last minute of my day wasnt occupied by writing updates or working on commissions I absolutely would.
dew et X)