Cadance and Spike sat across from one another at a table in the lunch car, as per Spike's demand all guards were forced to clump up in all of the cards ahead of them leaving every car behind the lunch car empty, and for the final bit of protection, Shining had been stationed at the front entrance between the group and the guards instead of joining them for lunch.

Spike immediately noted the absolute lack of meat and inwardly groaned, having always been able to eat meat but being raised by ponies she hadn't had much meat in her life, but her time in the Groove had very quickly changed her dietary desires and all she could think of as she looked at the vegetarian lasagna on her plate was how much better it would be with meat.

"This tastes weird," Autumn noted with her mouth full before spitting her chewed-up food back onto her plate, "I think the meat is off or something,"

"This is a pony train," Spike informed her "There vegetarian, so they don't have any meat, and neither will the Empire or most places in equestrian, I recommended you force yourself to swallow it, it doesn't get much better to be honest,"

"You poor thing," Ash said as she pulled herself closer to Spike, the slash on her face now being nothing more than a faint mark that was already nearly gone. "Being forced to eat such a pitiful diet, no wonder you where so lanky,"

"I was more of a pear shape," Spike corrected.

"You were a dragon, so little meat in your diet couldn't have been healthy," Smoke countered "I bet that vegetarian diet was wreaking havoc on your body, you'd probably have died if you hadn't been the empty shell of a Goddess and been an actual dragon,"

"I did tell Twilight she should at least look into implementing fish in your diet," Cadance spoke up "But she never really went for it, said the smell of meat cooking made her very ill,"

"Sounds about right," Summer retorted.

"Now, now," Spike spoke up "Sure, Twilight has been a little...completely psychotic in her reaction to this, but she's usually very calm, and collected, for the most part anyway," Spike shrugged "Point it she's just trying to fix things, once she realizes she's dead wrong she'll come around,"

"Oh, that makes me like her so much more," Blue noted sarcastically.

"It does?" Spike asked in surprise, Blue looked at Spike with a deadpan expression and simply shook her head.

"I love you too much to hold that against you," Blue replied calmly "I don't care much for a Mare who will only become reasonable if literally, everything fails to bend to her will,"

"How did we go from talking about my Diet to dissing Twi?" Spike asked in a vain attempt to regain power over the conversation.

"Because your sister is the worst," Summer replied as she took a bite of her Lasagna, "I don't hate it, but I don't like it," She decided as she continued eating.

"She's just...difficult," Spike countered "I can think of ponies I've met who are way worse than-"

"Name one that wasn't considered evil," Summer challenged, the table was silent as the girls watched Summer, seeming in awe that she was challenging Spike. Spike frowned and looked away in defeat as she failed to name anypony, Spike pouted in defeat and was immediately comforted by her girls.

"No," Smoke immediately cut in "It's ok baby," Smoke snuggled up to Spike as Red and Blue glared at Summer.

"We're all thinking it," Summer said immediately as she continued eating "I love Spike as much as the rest of you, but I'm also calculating when I need to be, and I calculate a fairly large change that Twilight will eventually try to use Spike's attempts to not start a fight to lure her into a trap of some kind, most likely when she's by herself,"

"Twilight wouldn't do that," Spike countered before immediately deflating and muttering under her breath "Unless she was confident she could get away with it,"

"My point exactly," Summer nodded confidently "for Spike's safety Twilight shouldn't be allowed within 20 paces of her,"

"I can do a lot of things," Cadance said simply "But I can't do that, Twilight can't go against my will in the empire, but I'm not permitted to create laws against other princesses specifically, not to mention Spike final goal is to go to Everfree, and I have no jurisdiction past the empire so, while I can and will do a lot for you all, I can't force Twilight to do anything save for honor my peace treaty,"

Spike said nothing and continued eating, her girls following her lead and began eating the meal before them, with all of them visibly disliking the lack of any meat in the meal," The Group quickly powered through the meal and Cadence lit her horn, presenting them all with a slice of Apple pie. Spike's girls inspected the food curiously.

"I've never seen this dish before," Autumn noted with a tone of excitement "Is it an Equestrian delicacy?"

"It Applepie, it's a very popular food dish, this pie was made by a member of the Apple family, we have one on staff as our resident apple treat expert," The Kirin's all looked over the pie with interest, Summer was about to test it when she noticed Spike was trying not to look conspicuous,"

"Did...did you just eat it all in one bite?" Summer noted as Spike had her hands over her mouth and was trying to chew the slice before anyone looked at her. Spike said nothing and instead hastened her efforts of swallowing the slice.

"Your gonna choke yourself," Summer noted as she got up "Open your mouth,"

"Emagoddiz," Spike managed to choke back as she continued trying to swallow her oversize prize.

"Goddess or not that can't be healthy," Ash noted as she and Smoke joined Summer in trying to pry Spike's hands away from her mouth, failing to close her mouth with the pie slice shoved inside Spike began losing pieces as soon as Smoke pulled her hand away from her mouth. Spike snapped her mouth shut and looked away, still trying to chew.

"It can't taste that good," Red said as she walked over to Spike's side and grabbed her muzzle "and even if it did you can't eat it all like that, Spit it out,"

"Nu," Spike replied as she vainly tried to swallow only for Red to use her fingers to open Spike's mouth, resulting in most of the pie tumbling to the floor or onto Spike.

"Ah, my Pie," Spike whined only to be immediately offered a fork full of the pie by all of her girls, Spike happily took the bait and Cadance watched with a smile as Spike was tenderly fed nearly an entire pie worth of slices.

"So," Cadance said as she chose to push the conversation in a lighter direction "I'm guessing since your a goddess now you can eat basically whatever you want without consequence?"

"No clue," Spike replied simply "I haven't really been one long enough for weight gain to take effect if it can, not that I've been eating a balanced diet mind you, I've been having a lot of sex, like a lot a lot,". Spike took another bite as her girls began settling in and taking turns feeding her.

"They certainly seem to adore you," Cadance noted as she made to take a bite of her pie only to find one of the Girls has sneakily swiped it and had added it to their pie offerings "I might ever go so far as to say they worship you,"

"She is a goddess," Blue pointed out "And both Smoke and Ash are both high-ranking members of her church,"

"It's true," Smoke confirmed "We were to two that sent out to find our dear Goddess, we were raised on stories about her, and to be one of her lovers is a dream come true for both me and my sister,"

Cadance pondered over the idea that for longer than she had been a princess there had been Kirn's waiting for Spike to return to them.

"Could you tell me one?" Cadance asked getting the full attention of the harem before her "the stories you where raised on I mean, I'd like to learn more about what kind of person Spike use to be," Smoke and Ash looked at Cadance sourly and she had a feeling she was about to be told something along the lines that the stories where not for pony ears, but luckily for her Spike was the first to respond.

"Oh that's a brilliant idea," She declared, smacking her own fist with a large grin on her face, "I don't remember my life before being me, oh this is exciting, tell me a story about the Kirin I use to be," Both Ash and Smokes faces turned from a sour look to one of pure delight.

"oh absolutely my lady," Smoke said at once, Cadance assuming Spike's personal request overwrote any rules or laws dictating the stories not be told to ponies. The entire group became divided as they all tired to pick a story to tell, in the end it was Smoke and Autumn who picked it.

"Very well," Smoke said with a smile "We shall tell the ancient tale of the Tree Guardian, a story dating back to over five thousands years before our dear Love was lost to the forest,"

"Lost to the forest is a pretty cool way to say got turned into an egg," Spike noted "Alright, tell me,"

"Very well," Smoke took a deep breath, and began the story.

Author's Note

Ha, you all have to wait a week to hear the tale of the Tree Guardian

Hey if you wanna support me, and also influence what stories I take priority in updating try donating some money to me at Ko-fi just make sure to name the story your wanting updated. K, bye thanks for reading.