As Spike wrote that information down in the back of his journal, he felt that slight shiver again and saw the quest popup.
> Investigate Menus
The shiver redoubled itself a split-second before the little clock by the oven went off.
> Breakfast
Reward: A good meal is its own reward, 10 XP
Cooking 'Recipe' Registered
Right. Rewards. His previous quests had been so simple that he hadn't thought about them for a little bit, but this one... Maybe he had complicated the process so much with his fancy breakfast that it was actually worth the bonus? Either way, he had gotten some XP, which meant any minute now... And there it was, a third quest ping, thankfully spaced out from the others.
> Get XP if Possible
That helped support his theory of rewards only being given when it was hard enough to justify it. And it knocked another item off of his list. That only left two more that he could realistically do in the Library, unless he felt like using Observe on every single book or something... Actually, that might not be a bad idea for later. Maybe a shelf a day or something? Planning later, getting his precious food out of the oven now. There was a bit of leeway on that, since he set the timer to go off a little early: Let's be serious, he was all about crunchy burnt pieces, but souffles did not mesh well with them, especially because of the whole deflating thing.
Spike popped open the oven and took a look: The cheese-infused and very eggy column of flavor was safe... For now. But once he extracted it, gave it a moment to stabilize, and began the attack? No, there would be no safety in deliciousness. The citizens of Single Serving Souffle Dish-town learned that quickly as the dragon attacked, laying waste to their parmesan battlements at the same time as his vicious claws cracked the sky of their home... To make a long and fairly ridiculous story short, breakfast today was extremely good.
Between every few bites he sprinkled in the shaved citrine pieces from his earlier practice, creating a really great mixture of smooth, crunchy, gemmy-lemony and savory. Spike was a bit surprised by the other thing it created: Another level-up for Cooking. Was it because the skill was so low, that just seasoning food would count? Did the game consider it to be 'improving' the dish in some special way? Or was it because of the other box that had popped up in front of his eyes...
[A Satisfying Meal]
By eating food of a quality and quantity above the minimum required to get by, you receive a small buff for a short period. The buff's nature varies based on the kind of food consumed.
Cheese-Citrine-and-Chive Souffle: Enhanced movement speed, 4 hours.
That was something worth testing, and he did: As soon as the food was done, he tried dashing from place to place in the kitchen, gathering and cleaning the dishes and cookware as quickly as he could. The end results were, well, a little bit good and bad. He could definitely feel the change and appreciate it, but it didn't seem as strong as it could be. And a quick check of his Status showed why: The effect was percentage-based, so it only had his (poor) base speed to work with. On somepony like Rainbow Dash, this would probably be a huge boost, but he was not Rainbow Dash... OK, apart from that one time when he was.
Less-than-helpful buff or not (although now he had the idea stuck in his head: COULD he give this buff to Rainbow Dash, or anypony else for that matter? It could go either way: Was it unique to him because it was his power, or could he share it because it was his cooking?), he got another quest completed in record time thanks to the little boost.
> Do dishes
That left the books here in the library, and then he'd be off and out for the day. Everything he had done so far had been pretty... arbitrary, things he could have done first or last without a lot of time difference in the long run. Now though, Spike had to figure out a sequence: Even with the speed granted by the food in his belly, Ponyville was kind of sprawling for a small town, and doing things out of order could completely wreck his schedule. In fact...
"You know what? The books can wait. I've gotta come back home to make the snacks later anyways, not to mention dropping off the overdue fines I collect... Yeah, that makes sense."
In fact, the fines were probably the first thing he needed to check up on: It's not like repeat offenders of book not-quite-theft all lived in the same neighborhood. He could route out his other stops based on both timing (no sense visiting the schoolhouse before classes were close to letting out) and the location of the fines. Of course, actually doing that would require him to have a map... Wait. Waait.
"Map."
There it was, even more transparent than most of the other menus (probably so he can keep it up while moving): a respectable map. It was an unlabelled overhead view, sure, but he could recognize the room he was in when he saw it. And this made sense: Even adventure games like Cloudedge had a map, so it would be a bit strange if he didn't. Right now it showed the inside of the Library, but he was able to zoom it out to show the neighborhood. Presumably, another zoom would expand it to Ponyville as a whole, and another to the whole region, then Equestria, and... Well, given the little greyed-out parts inside a lot of houses, probably not a lot. At a glance, it seemed like the map only showed places he had personally been.
For now, anyways.
Cloudedge had given the player all sorts of options to move from one spot to another eventually, and even at the very start of the game? Getting a quest to go somewhere usually put it on your map even if you had never been there before. Which probably meant he could zoom his map out another step and... Not see anything special. So he didn't have that type of objective markers, either "yet" or "ever".
...Or was it because he hadn't actually checked the list of fines? Video games could get away with creating information out of thin air, but maybe this new ‘ability’ of his was more discerning.
Since he had to do it anyways Spike tromped his way up the stairs, eventually flicking through the little rotary file Twilight kept near his writing desk until he found it: List F7. He started reading the names and addresses as well as the books involved and the actual amounts of the fines. Then he checked his map again... Haha! No need to take the list or memorize it: His map did spawn a set of markers showing the details he'd just read. No extra information, or tracking the ponies in question... But It was more than enough for what Spike was doing right now.
They were all over town, and none of them could have possibly owed enough bits that him carrying the fines home would be a problem... even before he got an Inventory. So if he went from here to the first house, then to Sugar Cube Corner to talk to Pinkie (he could hit SCC again for dinner on the way home), that would swing him out past the second and third houses before he got to Carousel Boutique to talk to Rarity. From there to Gillie's open-air arcade (man, he hadn't been over there in FOREVER), then to the fourth and fifth houses and the school. Sure, he might have to kill some time before classes let out, but he had a lot to work on anyways.