It was that time when the Royal Couple got together at the dining room for lunchtime as Cadance poked her plate of salad with a fork she lifted by her magic and Shining Armor on the other side of the table enjoying the heaping plate of corn dogs (They're carrots dipped in batter and fried). It was a rather quiet lunch for them until Cadance was reluctant to get something she had in mind out of her.
"So what should we do now that we just let a criminal out of her prison?" Shining from across the table asked.
"I already sent auntie Celestia a letter about the situation, let's just hope she doesn't mess with the power of true love," Candace informed. "Still, I did not expect the spell to work too well, what if some random creature is destined to partner with Chrysalis or Tirek for some apparent reason to which I cannot comprehend!?"
"Just, how does the spell even work?"
Cadance tried to find the words to her answer as she struggles, "Let's see, the spell Twilight formulated uses a complex string of astrological foresight comparing every creature's zodiac signs and tapping into their cognitive— I don't know, it sounds like a bunch of pseudo-science mumbo jumbo. All I know is that it just works!"
"Oh Twi and her complex spells..." sighed Shining, "They always come back to haunt me."
"Hey! Sorry if I'm interrupting your lunch!"
They heard a voice coming from the doorway connecting the hallway to the dining hall as they turned their heads to see a familiar dragon and hero of the Crystal Empire nonchalantly strolling inside. Spike was just finishing off the last piece of a gemstone he had on him taking a nice whole bite inside his mouth and letting his teeth crunch on it.
"If it isn't the savior of the Empire, Spike!" Shining teased him, "Does Twilight have something urgent to be discussed in person?"
"No, nothing of the sort, just thought I'd drop by for a quick minute." The dragon shook his head, acting a bit more carefree than usual hoping on an empty seat, "Sunburst just came back with a butt load of bits after doing your destined partner summoning session. That sure sucks for him."
"So you saw the papers?" She cringed back, looking away from him.
He nodded slowly, "Well I was there when Twilight was creating the spell, never really had the chance to test it out myself. Not that it matters since I'm sure my destined partner will be a special some pony of you know who..."
"Oh! Of course, you did!" Cadance gave home a warm smile across the table. "Maybe if you want to, I could perform the spell just for fun!"
The sheepish dragon softly spoke, "Well I wouldn't want to be a bother to you, but since I'm already here; what the hay?!"
"Hmm, does the spell work on dragons too?" Asked Shining to Cadance, taking another bit of his corndog.
Taking another fork full of greens in her mouth, Cadance happily answered, "Yes, it works on all types of creatures, but I refrain from offering the service to the griffons. We don't want to become a financial drain because of their greedy mindset now don't we?"
"Oh, makes sense!"
"So, are you up to it?" Spike begged to fidget with his two claws in each hand.
She brushed on the idea, having a slight hunch on who Spike's true romantic partner could be. It would be pretty much a waste of her precious time to have the fashionista magically appear to her. But who knows, maybe Cadance would be surprised to see a different creature besides Rarity. After finishing the last pickings of salad on her plate, she got up from the chair and began to prepare herself, "We'll make this quick since we got to check on Flurry Heart soon."
"Oh, she doesn't eat with you at lunchtime?" curiously, Spike asked.
"Not anymore, we keep her room fortified in an anti-magic barrier preventing her from teleporting out and outside magic affecting her." answered Shining, turning his attention to Cadance, "Are you sure you should be doing this in the dining room Cadence?"
"It will be fine!" Cadance reassured him, taking a few steps back from the table, "Spike. Please get into position.
The humble dragon followed every dock man and flapped his wings to land softly on the spot Cadence pointed out. His heart began racing, his voice was still. Cadance began to summon the magic circle a third time, reaching the bottom of Spike's feet as he saw the pink circle around him. The moment he was expecting Rarity to appear right in front of him as he kept expectations high.
"Geez, I wonder who it will be?" Sarcasm filled the tone of Cadance's voice, trying not to expect much from this session.
*POOF*
The micro explosion wore off when Spike scrambled to look at the creature standing before him, with an intensive smile on his face. He was seemingly glad to see such a beautiful face in front of him. "Oh! Of course, It would be you! I wouldn't doubt ever to see you as my destined partner Rarity!"
The creature that was Rarity cringed as she stood bipedal just like him, "Spike!? Do have a loose screw in your noggin? My name is not Rarity, it's Ember!"
His entire world shattered into millions of species like glass when Spike saw the taller dragon bestowed in front of him, "E-E-E-Ember!? Not Rarity!?"
"Woah! Did not see that one coming..." Cadance smiled dastardly seeing unexpected results from finding Spike's destined lover, "IT seems that Spike's love life is about to spice things up! Does he seem to be destined to be with Ember, not Rarity? I owe Rainbow Dash 20 bits for this..."
"Where in the Dragonlords name are we anyway?" Ember took a quick check of her surroundings as the saliva from her mouth began secreting out her mouth, mesmerized by the place's infrastructure, "It's...It's like a palace entirely made of crystal...what is this place!?"
"You're at the Crystal Empire Palace..." Spike answered her, but quickly change topics to get his head around this, "Cadance! This is probably some sort of mistake! Do the spell again!"
"Now-now Spike, you should be appreciated that the spell found somecreature for you..." when Cadance was about to move her head to Ember, she saw the dragon fully teethed onto a crystal pillar as she screamed, "Excuse me miss Ember! That is not for eating!"
"Huh?!" Ember flustered, retracting her teeth from the pillar and spotting the pink alicorn, "Wait? Are you that Princess of Love I've been hearing about?"
"Oh, why yes I am!"
"Yeah, I know you! You're Candice!"
"Uh, not quite..." cringed Cadance, correcting the clueless dragon. "It's Cadance,"
"I could've sworn it was Candice?" the dragon scratched her chin, trying to get into the heart of the detail, "Are you responsible for summoning me here with your horn magic?"
"Yes, now this may seem quite a lot to take in but," Cadance cleared her throat up to add some suspense to the mix, "I've used a spell that would find creatures destined romantic partner, and to all of our surprise; you and Spike are seemingly a complete match for eachother."
This caused Ember's cheek to go bright red from the scene, covering her gasp with her claws, "Me and Spike, are truly destined for each other?"
"Yes, it appears so," nodded Cadance, " I know it may take some time to process, but please understand this is all pre-determined by the passage of fate. Your destiny with Spike has already been—"
"Cadance! PLEASE!" Spike made her come to a stop seeing his flustered face, "Do the spell again! I know for a fact that my fate is with Rarity!"
The princess shook her head, "Spike, you know that the results won't in fact change. You must find it in your heart that you'll find better happiness with Ember."
However, Spike was hesitant "But can't you see that we can't be destined together! You're...you're..."
"I'm what?" the moment she heard those words from Spike, Ember snapped at Spike giving him a cold stare, "Tell me...what makes me NOT qualified Spike?"
"Uh, I...well..." like he was on his last legs, Spike quickly jerked his head to Shining Armor's direction, "Dude! Help me out!"
But the royal gaurd captain responded by lighting up his horn preparing to leave the scene, "Sorry, I got to go feed Flurry!"
With that, he teleported away from the dining table and left Spike without any backup from a nearby bro. Ember stood with her arms crossed as she patiently waited for Spike to answer her. The atmosphere grew awkward around them, leaving Cadance to wait for something to happen.
"M-May I suggest som-"
"Shh!" shushed Ember, keeping her piercing stare at Spike, "I'm waiting for an answer!"
One big full from Spike's throat already made him nervous to speak up, "It's just...you're not really the type I expect to be with, you know?"
"Oh, I complete my understand." Her sarcasm was blatant enough to cause Spike to curl up in fear, "Don't want to be with your kind, huh!?"
"I didn't exactly say that—"
"Look! Let me tell you something!" Ember grabbed the smaller dragon with her claws on his shoulders to make him look up at her, "You got to wake up from your fantasies with that pony! She's never going to see you more as just a friend, nor she will change her mind in the future. She's too good for you! When will you realize there may be another creature out there who can give you the same feelings as that posh pony?! Some creature who's close to you, probably grabbing you by the shoulders and speaking to you in the present..."
"Wait!" he took seconds in his mind to puces together as Spike realized, "A-Are you implying-"
"-Yes I do!" nodded Ember, "If Candice..."
"Cadance!" Barked Cadance.
"Cadance, whatever!" Ember pulled up an endearing smile back on Spike, "If her spell to find the creature's destined partner for life is true, then I want to see it for myself if we're meant for eachother."
"But we're way too far apart! This is not ideal in the moral compass."
"So what? I'm not asking you to marry me on the spot, let's just take things slowly. But while I'm already here..."
The dragon slowly lowered her head and reached out to peck Spike in the cheek, feeling her firm yet comfortable lips implanted on his cheek. This caused Spike's eyes to dilate from this sensation, completely silent with only his orderly breathing as he experience pure bliss from Ember's kiss.
Meanwhile, at the lovely Ponyville boutique, Rarity was in her prime stitching up a brand new dress with her work glasses on and having complete utter silence and total focus on her workstation. But just in a quick flash, she suddenly stopped dead when a tingling sensation in her head caused her to halt completely. What makes it worse was the worried look on Sweetie Belle's face noticing her sister.
"What's the matter Rarity?" Sweetie Belle came to her sister's side feeling complete anxiety.
"I don't know," answered Rarity in a vague matter, "I feel...a disturbance."
Back to the Crystal Empire dining hall, Spike was still in a trance that made Candace feel worried for the poor guy. Moving closer to him and waving her foreleg to his eye level.
"Spike! Can you hear us!? Do you need medical attention!?"
"E-Ember..." He slowly started to speak up, only reciting a single name at first, but said, "I didn't know you had it in you."
"Pfft..." Ember shrugged off her little stunt, turning away from him, "That was probably nothing to you, must have gotten loads of kisses from Rarity."
"This was different, she gives me her typical friendship kisses when I do something good for you. " Said Spike, feeling somber from reminding, "I know I don't have a chance with her, but maybe... MAYBE something might happen to us in the future. I always say to myself 'Today's the day!', but it was me coping with the harsh reality. I even came to Cadance because I thought I was sure who my destined partner was. I'm sorry that I said that you weren't my type."
Ember shrugged it off, but couldn't hide the single tear running down her cheek, "It's cool, it doesn't hurt me at all..."
"Please! Let me make it up to you!" he insisted to her trying to cheer Ember up with a smile, "A grand tour of the Crystal Empire by the legendary hero Spike!"
"Hehe, hero!?" that little exclaimer made Ember crack a smile, "This I got to hear!"
"Umm...excuse me!" Cadance partially interrupted their head-to-head, "Spike, now that you got your feelings situated, how do you make of your destined partner?"
"I'd say that you finally got my head cleared after battling an agonizing emotional turmoil with Rarity. My minds made up, I'm going to pursue a new future for myself, a future with my dragon empress..." he took a deep breather taking in a sigh, "I guess I was surprised by the results after all."
"Great, way better than the last one where I freed Cozy Glow from her stone prison!"
"What?"
"What!?" The poker face on Cadence grew intensely, "Nope! I didn't do that, you must be hearing things!"
Somewhere in the lovely town of Ponyville, two pegasi sat across a table outside a cafe enjoying lunch together. The lanky aqua marine pegasus cried out loud with his two forelegs slamming the table.
"Come on Fluttershy! When will Rainbow Dash accept we're life partners?!" cried the lanky aqua marine pegasus. "I've tried everything to express my undying devotion towards her! It always ends up me with a black eye or my wings in a knot!"
"Now Zephyr, perhaps you should learn Rainbow Dash doesn't like you that way." Fluttershy showed an enduring smile to comfort her little brother, "What did you think all of those black eyes mean?"
"She probably has a different way of expressing her feelings?"
She sighed, "Look, I don't know if it will help, but I will take you to the Crystal Empire to meet with Princess Cadance to perform her destined partner spell. If you do find your fated creature to be with, will you please stop harassing my friend every day!?"
"R-Really? She can do that!?" Zephyr Breeze frantically asked, panting very heavily, "This is brilliant! Now Rainbow Dash will stop beating me if our love is predestined by fate! Let's go first thing tomorrow!"
"J-Just...don't be disappointed..."
"Hmm? What's that you say?" Zephyr turned his head to get after her sister's mumbling.
"Forgot I said anything!"