It would have been just your average day in Canterlot. As average as a day can be in a land ruled over by huge alicorn princesses. However the reigning princess, Twilight Sparkle, was about to be met with an alarming interruption.
Suddenly, a very familiar purple dragon had burst through the doors of the castle’s throne room. The tall, stalky dragon made it clear he was in a rush and was going as fast as he could to get to the princess.
“Spike? What’s the matter? Has something gone wrong?” Twilight asked with both curiosity and concern for her dragon friend.
“It’s… It’s… my egg! Erhm… my child! They’re gonna…” Spike took a short second in order to catch his breath before speaking again. “FREEZE!”
Princess Twilight gasped at the exclamation. She knew that dragon eggs had to reach extremely hot temperatures in order to hatch, but could Spike really not muster up the fire required to hatch one?
“Please, Twilight. You hatched me out of my egg with your magic before. Can’t you do it again? You’re my only hope right now!” The dragon said, shouting the ending of the sentence. It was clear that he was incredibly desperate.
Princess Twilight rose from her throne to meet her friend. “Don’t worry, Spike. I will do all that is within my power to help you.” She said as the two went off to tend to the current problem.
The royal guard looked on concerned until they were out of sight. The farther they flew away the more they talked amongst themselves. A few guards exchanged a few condescending remarks about the dragon under their breath. The royal guard were not chosen for their skill in the spoken word as it turned out.
The gossip ended when a young griffon captain scolded them for their unsolicited opinions.
The two friends arrived at Spike’s abode. A lavishly decorated cave burrowed into the side of the mountain Canterlot was built upon. It was a fitting place to live for the companion of Equestria’s saviours. The two entered the room of the shivering egg Spike had been stressing about. They had first met in Canterlot through hatching a dragon egg, and here they are, once again, hoping to bring another life into this world.
Princess Twilight looked on with awe and wonder. The egg was massive. It had to be at least three or four times the size of the one Spike had hatched out of. Who could he have possibly mated with to produce an egg of this size? Who had the genetics of such a massive dragon, that would make an egg of this stature possible?
“Oh my goodness… Spike… This egg is huge! The shell alone must be 5 centimeters thick. How in the world is that possible.” The princess asked. The two didn’t talk nearly as often as they had before, and when they did, the dragon had never mentioned anything about having any children. Spike never even talked to her about dating.
“I don’t know exactly why. She’s not all that much bigger than I am. My best guess is that the genetics came from her father’s side. But, even so, I doubt even he hatched from an egg of this size.” Spike seemed like he didn’t have much more of an explanation than Twilight did. The one thing he did know for sure, is that the egg was ready to hatch, and it would happen sometime soon, or not at all.
“Well, alright. If you need my help, I am glad to assist.” The princess said as she lowered her head and activated her magic, conjuring up the very same spell she used to hatch Spike all the way back when she first acquired her cutie mark. A few moments passed of Twilight working her magic on the egg. The eggs shivering subsided for a moment but besides that, nothing had changed. The baby dragon was still caged within the egg. The alicorn had not even managed to help the little one crack the shell.
“Oh, no!” Spike had begun to bite his own claws with overwhelming anxiousness. This was the last resort he was counting on, and it just failed. There was nothing else he believed could possibly work.
“I’m sorry. I haven’t used that spell since I hatched you at Celestia’s school. I’m afraid my abilities with this particular spell just aren’t powerful enough. I don’t know what else I can do.”
“If your spell won’t work and my fire won’t work, then what are we gonna do, Twilight?”
“Is your fire really not strong enough to crack the egg? Hasn’t it gotten a lot stronger over the years?”
“Yes, but… I’m still too weak. I don’t know what else to do!” The dragon was filled with utter dread.
“I can’t hatch this egg by myself, Spike. But if you and I give it all we have, we may be able to do it together.” Twilight said sternly, but with compassion and eagerness to help her best friend.
“Okay. It’s not much but I will do everything I can.” The purple dragon got ready as his alicorn friend activated her magic once again. Almost completely synchronized, the two began to blast the egg with both fire and magic. The damage to the room around the egg was significant, but that hardly mattered in this situation. A few charred walls is more than a fair trade in exchange for the survival of your offspring.
Spike didn’t have the strongest of fire, but he could still produce a fair amount of flame when needed. He just needed to hope that it was enough to hatch this egg. This was a daunting task for even larger dragons to take on, he couldn’t fathom being able to do this on his own, so he was immensely grateful for his dear friend Twilight being there to assist him.
Slowly, the purple dragons fire began to shift colour, and the eggs shaking stopped entirely. Every ten seconds or so making a shift to a more bright and vibrant colour than the last. Spike was giving it his all and then some. This had been by far the longest he has ever kept up his fire breathing, and he was determined to keep it up until he got to meet his child. There was no other option. Smoulder was back in the dragon lands with Garble. Ember was fulfilling her duties as dragon lord. All he had at this moment was his own lack luster fire, and his best friend doing all she could with what little she could contribute.
The dragon’s fire began to return to its regular green hue. Spike was getting light headed, and he knew he couldn’t keep this up forever. However, the baby was still stuck inside the shell with no sign of coming out.
Suddenly something was awakened in Spike. A spark. His fire was the last chance his child had at an entrance into this world. Knowing this gave a second wind to the young adult dragon’s fire that had been about to peter out. Quickly, the fire engulfing the egg gained temperature at lightning pace. Going from green to an almost white-hot colour, emitting light that made it difficult for both Twilight and himself to see what was happening. With his absolute last possible ounce of lung capacity, Spike scorched the egg with all the strength he could muster, before taking a gasp for air.
It was a few moments before the purple dragon noticed a noise in the room. A few seconds was all it took for the air in his lungs to cure his lightheadedness. As he opened his eyes, they were met by the gaze of a new baby dragon sitting on the floor of the blackened room. A baby dragon that was about the size of him when he first molted. Spike saw the indigo scales and dark green spines along the back of his hatchling.
“Twilight we did it! Look!” Spike cheered as he picked up his newly hatched offspring.
The princess looked at her long-time friend with pride. “Spike, my spell stopped working halfway through you breathing fire. We didn’t do this. You did.”
The young dragon was confused as to how he could’ve done this mostly on his own. “But, I was sure my fire wouldn’t be powerful enough to hatch this egg. I didn’t think there was any way I could do it.”
“You were sure there was no way you could do it, but look.” The alicorn princess used her hoof to point at the baby dragon held in Spike’s arms. “I’m sure there’s a lesson about having faith in yourself to be learned from this… but right now, just enjoy your first moments with your baby.” The princess giggled, not in a mocking way, but to show her relief and joy that her favourite dragon was able to accomplish something so wonderful.
The dragon admired his freshly hatched child. There were highlights in his life up to this point, but there was no feeling like this. “I’m gonna call you… Spark.”
The hatchling looked back at their father, and giggled.
