The hour for dinner was almost approaching, and Spike did not want to be late. He had to keep himself calm, for he almost lost it when he saw each of his heroes up close like that. He took deep breaths as he walked down to the castle dining room while being escorted by a guard. Upon entering, she saw Princess Celestia at the head of the table who in turn saw him and gave a quick smile.
Spike felt sheepish under her gaze and gave a tiny wave. The others were already sitting down and he noticed an empty spot between Applejack and Twilight. Celestia gestured for him to take it. He gulped as he carefully made his way pass the other Elements who were all looking at him. Once he sat down, Celestia addressed him.
"We were never properly introduced, I am Princess Celestia."
"But every pony knows who you are!" Spike accidently blurted out and quickly covered his mouth realizing his mistake as everyone around the table gasped.
Twilight glanced at her mentor in fear only to see Celestia was smiling!
The tall alicorn giggled, "Yes, that is very true. But I know nothing of you, Dragon Warrior, what is your name?"
"Spike. Your Majesty."
"Spike… A fitting name for a Dragon Warrior, wouldn't you say, Twilight?"
The lavender alicorn nervously chuckled, "Of course… Princess…"
If Celestia had heard the uneasiness in her former student's laugh, she did not show it and instead said to the dragon, "Won't you please tell us about yourself?"
Spike felt himself sweating by the staring eyes and took a big gulp as he stammered, "I-I live in Canterlot with my dad."
Pinkie piped up, "Ooh! There's another dragon living here?!"
Fluttershy gave out a squeak of fear at the thought of a dragon, one much bigger then Spike lived in Canterlot.
Spike quickly said, "He's not a dragon, he's a pony." He muttered, "Mostly…"
Applejack raised her brow at this and asked, "You mean… you were taken in?"
Spike ended up staring into her eyes and with that the warm bubbly sensation returned.
Why do I keep having this feeling?!
He answered Applejack's question while ignoring the feeling as much as possible, "Yes, I don't know the whole story since Dad never told me how I was taken in." While it was true that his father was part dragon some part of him just never believed he was actually Discord's son.
Fluttershy and Pinkie sadly awed while Rarity and Twilight gave a sympathetic glance and felt more concern for the dragon's safety. Rainbow's face softened a little but kept a stern expression. Applejack tried to put on a front but was failing as memories of her past kept popping up and was feeling a small connection toward the dragon…
Whoa there, Nelly! Don't get in too deep here! Remember, he has got to go or else he'll get hurt or worse!
She quickly turned away from him so she wouldn't have to face him again.
Spike decided to lighten the mood by saying, "Well, whether we're related or not doesn't matter because he's the best dad I could have even if he occasionally trolls me from time to time… I can remember him pulling a fast one on me in our joke shop at one time-"
"YOU HAVE A JOKE SHOP?!" Pinkie squealed so loudly and was bouncing up and down like a manic, "OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH!"
Spike knew Pinkie Pie was the energetic one of the team but seeing her like this scared him. Everyone else around him just gave exasperated sighs or looks though it surprised him that Celestia was unfazed by this.
Twilight had to cast a spell to freeze the pink pony midair while saying, "Pinkie! Calm down!" then she lifted the spell causing the pony to fall with a thud.
"But Twilight, he helps runs a joke shop! A joke shop! Maybe he can sta-"
Rainbow had muffled her muzzle and Twilight gave a nod of gratitude for Pinkie almost gave away the plan in front of the Princess and dragon and that would have been very embarrassing to explain.
Twilight tittered to Celestia, "She just had too much caffeine today; we'll make sure she doesn't overdo it the next time."
Celestia merely nodded and summoned a butler so they can begin eating.
By halfway through dinner Spike tuned into the many conversations his heroes and the Princess were having but once Rainbow Dash mentioned to Pinkie, "Yup, I still have the scar from where the Bugbear bit me!"
Spike lit up as he proclaimed, "Bugbear?! As in the Bugbear you guys defeated in your first ever battle?!"
The girls eyed him with interest with Applejack questioning, "How'd you know about that?"
"I was there! I saw the whole thing! I was doing errands for my dad around town when I saw you outside of Canterlot! It was amazing! You were amazing!" he pointed to each of the Elements starting with Rainbow, "You like pow-pow-pow!" Dash gave a smirk as he turned to Pinkie, "You were like, 'It's party time!' And then you used the party cannon on him! That was so cool!" He looked at Rarity next with a dopey grin on his face, "Then you used your magic to blast at him! And you said, 'You uncouth brute! How dare you mess up my mane?!'"
Applejack couldn't help but laugh at that which caused Spike to turn her way and she quickly looked away again. He went back to the others and pointed to Fluttershy, "You were trying to reason with the Bugbear but when you couldn't get through you yelled at him and that actually scared him! It was so impressive!" he could see Fluttershy was blushing at his praise. Then finally he turned to Applejack who slightly looked his way as he said, "And you… you were one who managed to lasso him in and brought him to the ground… I was amazed by it all that I hoped that I could be like you guys. Brave and awesome. And now, with me chosen as the Dragon Warrior I hope for that even more, l look forward to working with all of you!"
The girls were speechless, they did not know how to reply to that given they've already made a plan to get him out before disaster happens. But the young dragon was so eager to stay that they knew it would be a difficult challenge to make him quit on his own.
Princess Celestia stated with a smile, "A very touching speech. I am sure you will do well in these next few days, Dragon Warrior."
Twilight and the Elements exchanged a brief unsure glance before resume eating dinner.
When they were dismissed from the table, Twilight went off with Celestia as the Elements went straight to their rooms. Spike was behind them with Applejack in front of him. As the others had said their good nights and shut the doors to their rooms, AJ and Spike were about to enter theirs when Applejack stopped and faced Spike.
"Listen, I have to be honest with you."
Spike gave his full attention to her.
"You don't belong here."
He gapped and thought maybe he heard her wrong but when she continued, he knew he didn't.
"It's not safe for you here. You're young and have your whole life ahead of you, we can't ask you to battle any monster that comes our way. Look, I'm not sayin' that you're not the Dragon Warrior nor am I sayin' you are. But I do care about your well-bring, given how you almost gotten yer self killed just by the way you entered into the stadium today. So, please, while you still have the chance, go…" she opened her room door and had shut it behind her as she felt her heart pounding like crazy. She had no idea why it was so hard to be brutally honest with him just now or why it hurt to have to push him away like that.
She climbed into bed and put her Stetson hat on her bedside post as she tried to get comfortable but guilt soon overwhelmed her and she knew then sleep would be impossible to come.
Spike couldn't go to sleep after what Applejack told him, thoughts swarmed his head as he realized his heroes saw him as joke and couldn't take him seriously. They were worried about him getting hurt and while there was some justification to their reasoning but if they would only give him a chance he could show them what was in his heart. He found himself ending up in the moonlit Canterlot gardens, where luck would have it he found a peach tree and started to pick the fruits after climbing up.
A wise voice called out, "I see you have found our Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom."
Spike was startled by the Princess's sudden appearance and almost fell out of the tree, "Princess Celestia! I'm so sorry! I thought it was just a regular peach tree!" he slid down the truck to face her.
"I understand, you were upset and you decided you would eat something to ease that… The question is… why are you upset?" she tilted her head down to him.
Spike felt a warm motherly gaze from the Princess as he suddenly busted into tears and ran to hug the alicorn. Celestia held the dragon and gently patted his back as he blubbered out, "Why could I think I would be anything like the Elements of Harmony?! I mean they have magic and wings! Even Pinkie can do that breaking the fourth wall thing! I got nothing like that! I'm small, helpless, and useless! Why did you choose me?" he looked up to her with tear-filled eyes.
"I didn't, Spike… the universe did…"
"Well then, why did it choose me?!"
She slightly chuckled, "The ways of the universe are strange as it is but it knows that everything has a purpose in life… Your purpose is what happened today."
He sighed, "Or maybe it was all just a big mistake and I should just quit and go back to selling pranks with my dad…" he hung his head.
Celestia lifted his chin up so he could see her smiling face, "Your destiny is uncertain and that's sometimes hard to take. You are too concerned with what was and what will be… Wait and see what happens first. All will be revealed in time…" she used her aura to pick a peach and handed it to Spike. She got up and started going while leaving the dragon to mull over her words.
While that had been going on, the Great and Powerful Trixie was planning her greatest trick ever. Escaping from Tartarus…