//------------------------------//
// One if By Land: Part 24 
// Story: Spike of All Trades 
// by Ariamaki 
//------------------------------//

Breakfast the next morning was 100% Pinkie Pie's business, by her own insistence. Spike let her go wild, because Twilight was so rarely a morning pony that breakfast was easily his weakest area. Even he had only technically become a morning person when he also became an all-day every-day never-need-to-sleep person.

Their little cozy cabin had a single recreational space with a pair of beanbag chairs (Pinkie claimed they were the best ratio of comfy-per-coin out of all their options) where they sat down to eat after Pinkie whipped up a series of sizzling cinnamon griddlecakes in the small open kitchen. Around the other bend of the building was a little workspace in case either of them wanted to craft anything in the shelter before breakdown time, but Spike had mostly just built it for the practice on all the fiddly little cubbies and cubicles.

"Order up!"

Spike gladly pounced over to grab his plate from Pinkie's platter, loading it high with cakes and throwing on a heavy glug of dark syrup before he retreated to the beanbags. Pinkie herself followed a moment later, her stack laden with butter and whipped cream on top.

"Sure you don't want a creamy topping?"

"Not this morning: I wanna focus on the cakes themselves for now. I've practically never had you cook for me personally before... It means a lot."

"Aaawww, Spike! I thought my meal was supposed to be sweet."

"Pffft, far be it for me to usurp its position."

They dug in together and quickly tore the food apart. Two voracious eaters plus the quality of Pinkie Pie's cooking more or less guaranteed a quick clear. Once their plates were clean they settled in to talk a bit before leaving, bouncing plans back and forth. Ever since they decided to leave Canterlot together, Pinkie had been curiously prodding him over team chat to figure out what they could do on the way back, and doubly so what they'd get up to in Ponyville.

Being open and public about their new relationship status was an obvious given: Neither of them had anything to hide in that regard. Sure their age gap was larger than some ponies may be comfortable with, but Twilight had seen to that problem with her whole 'forced recognition as an adult' spell on his first day as the Gamer. Just like how Pinkie's bond guaranteed nopony would see his Inventory as strange or unusual anymore, Twilight (and Celestia) had given him the gift of nopony questioning him due to their own idea of how old he ‘should’ be.

After that though, they both had a lot of divergent plans: Pinkie would obviously have to get back to work, and Spike needed to make sure the situation with the Diamond Dogs had actually been fully taken care of. If that weren’t possible he wanted to assure himself of their defenses should more attacks come in, and they’d have to figure out what was up with the (probably fake) Antlion either way.

One project they both wanted to work on together? The Crusaders. Spike still had a fair bit of work to do on his gifts for them, and Pinkie Pie had a lot of opinions about what their mystery Masteries could possibly be. Training those three in any kind of actual dangerous environment would be akin to throwing applejack (the beverage, not the pony) onto a bonfire. That meant finding a way to get them all powered up in a safe and responsible manner, without making the terrorizing trio into even more of a risk to themselves or others.

"So you're thinking discipline training first?"

"I mean Discipline is a bit of a loaded term given my recent skill pickups, but yeah, self-discipline."

Pinkie raised an eyebrow at that.
"I keep telling you-"

Spike waved a claw.
"No yeah I definitely agree, that's the most likely thing it could be, puns and coincidental overlap aside. I'm just kinda scared of what it might mean if that's true."

"That they have a lot of potential and are very good little fillies?"

"Apart from that."

"Well... Yeah. I think you've got the right plan, to be frank. Or to be Pinkie really: I don't exactly look the part of a frank!"

"No bun, for starters."

"Why I never!"

"You know what I mean."

She stuck her tongue out at him and he stuck his right back. Given the whole 'dragon' thing, he kept sticking it out with the intention of meeting her across the small room... but given the whole 'Pinkie' thing she somehow met him halfway. They both burst out laughing before leaning back into their respective bags of beans.

"So training first-"

"More like training third. Responsibility first-"

"Responsibility second, personal safety first?"

"...Point taken. Safety, then caution, then training. THEN, and only then, do we even think about getting up to any adventure shenanigans with them around."

Pinkie had brought up that idea because of her portion of his Benediction quest. 
'As a party, gain at least 2 levels apiece and lead another group in doing the same.'

Gaining levels as a party was no issue for the two of them, especially if the Diamond Dogs kept having trouble or if this trip back home had any surprises. But leading another group to gain two levels... That was trickier. Eventually they settled on the idea of leading the Crusaders for a variety of reasons. Although it was going to be complicated, Spike figured it would definitely be worth it.

He wasn't the only one who thought so, and neither was Pinkie Pie. A menu popped in thin air right as they were cleaning up the plates and spiritedly discussing training menus for the three fillies...


You are qualified for the title [Mentor of Young Heroes]
...Unfortunately the title is currently held by another.
Seek to uncover the current Mentor and learn from him.
In this way the title may be passed down, benefitting you both.


"...Any guesses?"

Pinkie poked at the pink plaque of phantasmal plasma before shaking her head.
"Cheerilee is definitely a mentor we know that works with the young, but probably not heroes. Twilight's brother would make a lot of sense for that half but he doesn't really mentor young ponies."

Spike sighed and looked up at the plain flat ceiling of their cabin.
"I've got an idea but I'm not sure if I like it."

At first he thought he might have to say it out loud, but then Pinkie's eyes widened with a gasp.
"...For really-real?"

He shrugged. The idea had been brewing in his mind for days now, but after yesterday...
"We both saw the statue. He's probably free for a reason: What if this is the reason?"

She tapped her hoof on the floor a few times before shrugging as well.
"Is it weird that I don't find that nearly as scary as I would have, like, a year ago?"

"We have come a long way since then."

Pinkie Pie stuck her tongue out again.
"Some of us longer than others!"

"Hah hah hah. But seriously... That's my leading theory so far. Like, what would this whole thing he's been doing with my dreams be if it wasn't 'mentoring' a 'young hero'? Not trying to forcibly call myself a hero or anything but like-"

"No totally, I getcha. It makes sense! Or as much sense as anything does around us anymore."

Spike raised a claw and snapped his fingers in the air.
"Maybe that's the real reason it's not as scary!"

His marefriend's muzzle scrunched at that idea.
"...Awww now I'm not sure if I like it."

"I mean hey, if he's not going to be doing villain stuff anymore then he might be willing to make some of those choco-cotton clouds on demand."

Pinkie's eyes lit up.
"Dislike retracted!"