A fate forged in the fire of a meal
Let’s talk a bit about Spike.
No, wait… actually, let me just tell you one of the many stories the little dragon had to face in its existence, one that nopony ever expected to happen and one which lesson would impact more than just Spike’s life, but, in the end, add to a pile of questions concerning a critical element in everypony’s life.
Or in other words, let’s talk a bit about Spike…
It all began one evening, as all five of Twilight and Spike’s friends arrived for a big heavy meal that the dragon had decided to organize after Rarity had somewhat let understand that she might have some interest in tasting Spike’s cooking in the midst of a very heteroclite conversation. Of course, Twilight’s assistant had had to invite everypony not to give away his intention to impress Rarity, but in the end, he was also flattered to be able to show off one of his many talents to as many ponies as possible.
To say that he gave it his very best would be an understatement. As soon as he opened the door, all five guests gasped and wowed to the magnificence of the decorum. The room had been completely transformed to look like the dinner room of one very fancy restaurant.
The dragon had gone so far as to put a real crystal chandelier hanged at the ceiling, and several other candles on the huge table. The tablecloth was made of silk and composed of many beautiful patterns. Also, knowing Rarity’s love for fashion, the colors as well as the whole style had been inspired from the latest trend in the catering branch. Finally, Spike himself was wearing a butler’s outfit to welcome his guests in the most elegant manner possible.
“I’m so glad you’ve finally arrived! You have no idea what it has been like around here!” almost shouted Twilight at the view of her friends.
And she was glad indeed, as she had had to watch Spike ponder every little detail for hours and hours, sometimes excited over some new idea he would have had, and sometimes shouting in exasperation as the node he wanted to make with one of the napkin had failed and was feeling like the whole night was going to be a miserable failure.
Through all that time, Twilight had tried to help, had tried to calm or comfort her little assistant, but altogether she probably couldn’t have handled much more.
“This looks magnificent” stated Applejack, who saw no reason to hold back. “You did all this by yourself Spike?” she asked.
“Oh no.” he answered to look as humble as he could. “Twilight helped with the napkin.” he added with a smile, ignoring the sound of frustration the newly crowned princess made behind him. “But please, let me take your coats and do take a seat.” he added, mostly for Rarity who was the only one wearing a coat, as fashion dictated a lady should for the only purpose of letting the host offering to take it.
They went to the table and sited on the chairs, observing the many details like the little cards with their names on them giving each one of them a designated and reserved place. Immediately, Spike came with a bunch of menus and the beverage list, including a list of thirteen different ciders.
“Would you like something as aperitif while you choose your meal?” the dragon asked, happy to see the surprised and amazed look on his friend’s faces.
To be honest, he was also secretly enjoying the fact that the only one who could stay composed was Rarity. She had that capacity to fake how non impressed she was, while being, in reality, totally won by everything she was seeing. And for Spike, who had been hanging around her for a while, observing her, there were some little signs betraying her true emotions and that alone was making him proud, not only of his work, but of Rarity herself, and of the connection he had with her on some level.
Everypony chose something to drink, and decided to have some mixed salad as an entry, with a choice of diverse foreign flowers, before the main course. Spike happily went away in the kitchen and very soon came back with everything the ponies had asked for, interrupting Twilight that was trying to figure out how the dragon had been able to write and print all those menus without her noticing.
“Here you go.” said Spike, serving each and every pony with class and dignity. “I hope you will enjoy yourself.”
“Spike, dear,” began Rarity, “You should think about opening a “restaurant chic”. This is all very beautiful.”
“Yeah, you really should!” said Rainbow Dash, her mouth half full of salad, “It tastes great!”
“I agree.” did Fluttershy with a gentle tone. “If you were to open it, yours would really be “un chic restaurant”” she added as a little joke, but nopony understood it so she tried to bury her head into herself, slowly curling up.
“Thanks guy.” replied Spike after a little silence, to break the glass. “I’m glad you’re having a good time.”
And then he added, sort of for himself, but out loud:
“A restaurant would be great. I can already imagine it: “The Spike”, the very best restaurant in town. Or in all of Equestria…”
Having fallen into his dreams of wealth and glory, Spike didn’t notice immediately that Twilight was trying to order her meal, as she was still hungry, the different propositions on the menu making everypony’s stomachs rumble out of pleasure.
Back from to Equestria, Spike took the different orders and went back to the kitchen, enjoying himself more than usual, knowing in advance how even more impressed everypony was going to be when they would taste the chosen main courses. Except for the french fries maybe. For some reason, he had always had some problems cooking those. They were kind of his arch nemesis of the kitchen in some way.
And sure enough, as soon as everypony had chewed the first bite of their meal, an explosion of amazement happened.
“This is truly delightful!” stated Rarity in her own style.
“It’s awesome!” said Rainbow Dash in hers, “I think I’ve fallen in love with food.”
“I must say Spike, you did overdo yourself tonight. It really is excellent.” admitted Twilight, having forgotten the whole day of frustrating preparation in that one bite.
She then noticed something weird with Spike. And her mind couldn’t connect the dots. It was very obvious and, at the same time, she was unable to accept the information her eyes were giving her. It wasn’t related to the dragon’s face or behavior. Oh no. Spike was standing prouder than an archduke, just like if he had won the Nobel Prize. There was something else, something that was straight on impossible.
“I agree with everypony else. You’re a true “cordon bleu”.” added Applejack to the procession of compliments. “But wasn’t there supposed to be french fries with my apples?” she asked.
A black smoke, coming from the kitchen, made Spike realize that he had truly forgotten about the fries.
“I… hum…yeah…” he began with an awkward smile. “Don’t worry, I’m going to take care of everything.” said Spike, disappearing into the kitchen.
But then, a very loud scream of surprise, followed by a second even louder scream of surprise and then a scream of panic, soon to be followed by a running dragon, followed himself by a trail of black smoke and the very characteristic smell of fire.
“Twilight! Twilight!” shouted Spike, “I… it’s… you…” he tried to continue, unable to know where to begin.
There were two things he wanted to say. The first one, he didn’t even know if it was real or not, and certainly didn’t have the words to speak about it right at the moment. As for the second one, he had spilled the saucepan of boiling oil for the french fries over the floor and the spill had somehow put the curtains of the kitchen on fire, which was quickly expanding, menacing the whole library.
Without waiting for the Spike’s explanation, not hesitating one second, Rainbow Dash went to fight the fire in a one on one, ready to figure out what she was going to do when the time would come, Fluttershy hid under the table, Twilight ran to put all the books in safety, Applejack looked around to find the fire extinguisher as well as send Fluttershy to call the fire department and Rarity took Spike outside, away from the smoke and the danger of the flames.
She began to ask him what had happened, but then noticed, as had Twilight before, that something was wrong with the dragon. Not wrong in a bad way, but wrong nonetheless. He did look shocked, and worried, also somewhat excited, but that wasn’t it. There was something else… And when her mind realized what was going on, she gasped in a mix of incredulity and instinctive joy.
“Spike…” she began, “Congratulations!” she told him almost out of habit, making the little dragon smile.
“There. I teleported every single book to Canterlot.” said Twilight, very satisfied.
“Where in Canterlot exactly?” asked Pinkie Pie.
“I don’t know that!” replied the princess, as if it was just a mere detail.
“Hum, girls… not that I would want to bother you, but we might need a hoof back there.” stated Rainbow Dash, her face covered in black soot.
Twilight and Pinkie Pie apologized and soon came back into the library, which might seem like a bad idea until you remind yourself that Twilight could handle some really good magic that she was ready to release as there wasn’t any book anymore to suffer from it.
Rainbow Dash created a violent wind to push the smoke away for a moment, then the alicorn flooded the house with a water spell, realizing too late that she should have just taken the oxygen away from the fire to extinguish it. The water wave took everypony out of the house, just as the fire ponies arrived.
“Woo hoo!” shouted Pinkie Pie, as her surf board immobilized itself on the ground. “That was fun! Let’s do it again.”
“Maybe another time.” replied Applejack, looking at Fluttershy and all the fire ponies who had been pushed all over by the water. “Is everypony alright?” she asked.
But Rarity came to them in a hurry and just told the five ponies:
“You’ve got to come! You won’t believe this. It’s incredible, it’s fantastic. It’s the most terrific thing ever!”
Of course they all followed Rarity who came back to Spike and pointed at one of his hips.
“Tadaaa!” she said joyfully.
The others looked and gasped. There was a picture of a chef’s hat on Spike’s hip.
“You have got your cutie mark!” shouted Pinkie Pie out of joy. “Congratulations!”
“Wait…what?” asked Rainbow Dash, who was as lost as Spike was. “He is a dragon. How could he have a cutie mark?”
Spike had been asking himself the same question since he had discovered the picture back in the kitchen. Still, due to Rarity and Pinkie’s reactions, he wasn’t caring that much about that fact. Those questions were still there, somewhere in his head. They were just not quite that important right at the moment.
“I… I don’t know.” replied Twilight. Still, she realized that the first priority wasn’t the quest for knowledge, which was a tribute to how mature she had gotten through all of her adventures, and that she should focus on Spike’s happiness. “Congratulations Spike! I’m so happy for you.”
Spike blushed and his proud smile expanded even further.
“Well, after the meal we tasted tonight, I can see why cooking is your very special talent. Well done little guy.” said Applejack, joining the others in ignoring the most disturbing part of the event for the time being and focusing on Spike’s feelings first.
“But still…” began the dragon, as, even if he felt he should be proud of the mark on his hip, as was to be expected after having lived amongst pony for so long, he still understood it wasn’t very normal. “Does that mean that I’m not a dragon anymore?” he asked, looking at Twilight. “Am I becoming a pony?”
It was Rarity, nonetheless, who answered that one, taking Spike into her hooves and hugging him, making any identity question seem trivial.
“You’re a dragon alright.” Rarity told him with passion. “You’re the most wonderful greatest cutest dragon in all of Equestria.”
“And strongest!” added Spike.
“Yeah, that too…” sort of agreed Rarity to not upset the dragon.
“You know what this means?” asked Pinkie Pie, with sparkling eyes at the idea of what was naturally coming.
“Yes, of course!” suddenly realized Rarity, putting Spike back on the ground. “Spike.” she told the dragon, “If cooking is your special talent, it means you do have to open your own restaurant. Oh I can picture it already. It will be grandiose!” she finished with her own sparkly look.
Spike would have opened any commerce of any kind if it meant pleasing those two wonderful blue eyes.
“No silly.” replied Pinkie Pie. “Well, actually yes, a restaurant if you want…” she conceded, as she had no objective objection to make to that proposition, but had clearly something else in mind. “It’s time to party! Come on, let’s celebrate Spike’s cutie mark in the only style that is dignified enough for such an occasion.”
“And what may that style be?” asked Rarity, always curious when it came to dignified ways of doing something.
“Pinkie Pie style!” responded the pink pony, pushing a button on a command she had taken out of her mane.
At that very moment, the nearest hill opened itself to let a giant party cannon appear, several speakers spawned all around and the music began with the detonation of the cannon that covered Ponyville in confetti, party hats and other accessories announcing the beginning of one hell of a celebration.
Very soon, all of Ponyville was partying, most of them thinking it was to the fact that Spike was going to open a new restaurant in town, as the idea of dragon having gotten a cutie mark was kind of hard to believe…
As for said dragon, he was enjoying the party and all the congratulations. He was feeling great about his new status. It was still a bit disturbing, but on the other claw, he was happy enough from the fact that he got to share the possession of a cutie mark with all of his friends and that it was seemingly making them very happy to see that picture on his hip.
The only thing the dragon wasn’t really caring about was the restaurant, which was paradoxically the one thing that he should have cared about, as it was going to cause him the most troubles in the near future…
