Another beautiful day rose upon the kingdom of Equestria, the sun using the sky as a canvas to paint a multitude of beautiful colors as it rose above the horizon, and nowhere else could one observe this beauty better than in the city of Canterlot.
The old town’s geographical position atop one of Equestria’s tallest mountains made it perfect for overseeing all the land that fell within the country’s borders, this was no coincidence I assure you, which created a sort of natural beauty as the sunlight slowly crawled its way across the land; engulfing every city and town that it fell upon.
Eventually the glorious morning gave way to a beautiful day, one without a single cloud in the sky, it was the perfect kind of day for an outing with friends.
Or in a certain young dragon’s case, playing in the royal gardens.
Yes Spike was having a wonderful time running through the Canterlot gardens, playfully chasing the animals around, climbing up the trees only to jump out of them into the bushes; laughing the whole time.
Sky Thrasher couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the picture of childhood innocence occuring before his very eyes, though he had to admit it was a tad strange watching a mere three year old run around in the body comparable to that of a colt three times his age.
To say that Princess Celestia was shocked when he presented her with the little hatchling was the understatement of the year; she was naturally cautious at first given that he had brought a dragon into her court, but the moment the little guy looked up at her with those shining eyes she literally squealed in delight which was a sound sky would treasure for years to come.
From then on, Celestia essentially adopted Spike as her own son and doted on him as much as she could; unfortunately because she still had a kingdom to run she couldn’t nearly devote enough time to properly care for him, much less as much time as she would have liked to spend with him.
So Sky Thrasher ended up being promoted to ‘chief guardian of the royal son’; which was basically a fancy way of saying that he was a dragon babysitter. But hey, it kept him in the castle and out of the trenches, not to mention it gave him a bit more authority than the average guard so he really couldn’t complain.
On the other hoof, the dragon was quite the hooffull: constantly getting into places he shouldn’t be, eating like a full grown stallion, and the growing oh don’t get Sky Thrasher started on the growing.
Spike grew up so fast and not in a metaphorical way, within just a few months he was already the size of a young foal and by the end of the first year with him Spike looked like he belonged in the middle of elementary school. Some of the egghead unicorns said that he’s maturing very quickly but aging really slowly, like reverse dog years.
Despite all of it though, the good and the bad alike, Spike had kind of grown on the guard; like the foal brother he never had or the son he’d always wanted.
The frightened squeak of a squirrel darting up a tree as Spike’s claws whooshed by it finally brought the guard out of his deep thoughts and back to the matter at hand.
“Spike! It’s time for breakfast!” the royal guard shouted.
The dragon immediately perked up and ran over to the royal babysitter, hopping up and down in front of him.
“Oh boy breakfast! I want rubies!”
Sky Thrasher gently took hold of the dragon’s crystal arm and led him deeper into the castle towards the dining room. “You can’t have gems for every meal Spike, a growing colt- er… dragon needs a balanced diet.”
“So what are we having” asked the dragon as he sat down at the head of the dinner table.
Sky trotted off into the kitchen, returning moments later with a steaming hot plate of chocolate chip waffles.
“Waffles, with maple syrup and a pat of butter.”
Spike started down at the food offering place in front of him with an intense look before recoiling back and shoving the plate away from him, an expression of disgust coming across his face.
“Oooh no! No way! I don’t like wapples!”
Sky Thrasher frowned. “How could you not like waffles? You’ve never even had them before, they’re yummy.”
“No they’re yucky!” the dragon stubbornly replied “I want a bowl of gems!”
Sky Thrasher sighed, of course Spike had to be difficult about this like every other foal trying new things, luckily he knew how to get him to come around.
“Okay tell you what, you try one little bite of these waffles and if you still don’t like em I’ll get you a bowl of rubies.”
“The kind mom keeps on the top shelf?”
“The very same.”
The dragon seemed to contemplate the deal for a moment before looking back up at Sky.
“One bite?”
“Just one” the guard replied.
“Hmm….okay!”
“That’s the spirit!” said sky as he cut off a small piece of the waffle and held it out on a fork. “Open up”
Spike aaaahed, leaning foward until his lips wrapped around the piece of crisp and fluffy goodness; chewing it momentarily before swallowing it down.
“Well? Good?”
Spike blinked and then smiled broadly “hey...I LOVE IT!”
The dragon quickly stanched the fork out of Sky Thrasher’s hooves and started scarfing down the waffles in a messy fashion.
“See, I told you that you’d like em”
Sky Thrasher walked off with an equally large grin on his face to get his own breakfast, All in all in had been a great morning for everypony and dragon.
***************************************
Meanwhile in the dragonlands, the local populace was not having a good morning, not even close.
Now given their living conditions the dragons rarely had good mornings since they had so many things to worry about just to survive the approaching day, but this morning was particularly bad for every dragon.
Nobody seemed to know what it was but it was as if a massive disturbance had washed over every last one of them all at once near instantly, they were all screaming out in pain and anguish towards the heavens.
So much so that even the dragon Lord Torch was awoken from his slumber and went out to be met with the sight of screaming dragons.
Not exactly the best way to wake up in the morning.
Torch quickly turned towards one of his generals “what in the name of the gods is going on out here?!”
“M-my lord it’s the hatchling he…..he has eaten the waffle.”
Torch’s eye twitched. “What?!”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?! He has eaten the waffle! Disrupting the prophecy and sending a disturbance through the very souls of all dragonkind!”
“Which means that Smaug will never return to us now.” Torch paused for a moment as he surveyed the surroundings, anguish possessing his people. “Truly this is our darkest hour.”
“Unless….” said the general.
“Unless?”
“We were to lure him in before the ponies could go any further with him.”
Torch raised an eyebrow in interest. “Just what are you proposing?”
“Oh I’ve got a rather devilish idea in mind that could bring smaug back to his true destiny, but I shall need Duke Garble and Lady Ember to make it work.”
“Very well, what is your plan?”
The general leaned in and began to whisper into his superior’s ear, an evil grin sprouting upon the latter’s face as he listened into the plot.
Little did either of them know that their so called ‘chosen one’, would become one of their greatest adversaries of all time.