The Life of a Dragon

by pononymous

Grand Opening

"Mmmmm" Spike sighed contentedly as he scratched his itchy scales. Zecora had already made him a whole couldron of vegetable soup before they had showed up, and Spike had slowly made his way fown to the bottom of it as he listened and commented on Twilight's stories. She had decided that the best way to tell Alida and Novus about herself and her friends was to regale them with an on-hoof perspective of Luna's return from the Moon and Discord's return to Equestria.

"So, then I told Spike that he was going to be the new Element of Loyalty-" Twilight she continued as she spun her tale, but Spike interjected.

"Twilight, why did you pick me anyway? I'm nowhere near as cool as Rainbow Dash." He added. 'Though I could be if you could give me a moustache and a really cool hat.' He continued in his head, but he didn't blame Twilight, he knew she was one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria, even if she would never brag about it like Trixie would.

"Spike, the Element of Loyalty isn't based on 'coolness'." She said with a stern look, but it softened when she continued. "I picked you because you've been with me for most of my life, longer than anypony else actually. You've always been by my side."

"Aww, c'mon Twilight, don't start with the mushy stuff." Spike complained. "Besides, you've raised me from when I was an egg, of course I'm gonna stick with you Twi'."

"I suppose I have, haven't I..." She trailed off, staring in thought. "Oh! Zecora I'm sorry but if we don't leave soon we'll be late for Spike's next surprise!" Twilight apologized. Luckily, Spike was on the ball today and calmed her down before she could start to worry to much.

"Twilight we'll be fine. It's not like they can start until the guest of honor shows up, right?"

"Well I still don't want people to be left waiting for us to show up, you are not the only one who gets to enjoy the party you know." She replied, still a little miffed.

Alida decided that it was time for her and her brother to leave as well ".-- . .... .- ...- . -... --- - .... . -. .--- --- -.-- . -.. .... . .- .-. .. -. --. .- -... --- ..- - -.-- --- ..- .-. .- -.. ...- . -. - ..- .-. . ... --..-- -... ..- - .-- . -- ..- ... - --. --- ..-. .. -. -.. .- .--. --- -. -.. .. -. --- .-. -.. . .-. - --- --. . - -.-. ..- .-. . -.. .- -. -.-- .-- .- -.-- --..-- .... .- ...- . .- -. .. -.-. . -... .. .-. - .... -.. .- -.-- ... .--. .. -.- . .-.-.- "

"-.-- . ... --..-- .... .- ...- . .- --. .-. . .- - -... .. .-. - .... -.. .- -.-- " Novus added

"Thank you guys. I had actually forgotten you were under the effects of Poison Joke, I'm still sorry about that." Twilight replied with a cringe.

".-- . .-.. .-.. - . .- .-. - .... . ..-. .-.. . ... .... ..-. .-. --- -- -.-- --- ..- .-. -... --- -. . ... .-.. .- - . .-. " Novus tapped before they stood up.

"Alright then, see you guys later." Twilight waved as she and Spike stood up as well.

"Before you leave the forest Spike, I have a gift you will like." Zecora said as she walked over to her shelf. "Here you are young dragon, a book that will help in the times ahead. Just be sure to read it on before you go to bed."

"Thank you Zecora, your soup was great and I'm sure I'll find the time to read this once the sun goes down." Spike replied.

"Okay Spike, it's time to get a move on." Twilight said as she levitated him onto her back, "I'll have to carry you if we're going to make it on time, so just put that in my saddlebag. Bye Zecora, see you later."

"Thanks again for the gift." Spike said as Twilight started out down the path from Zecora's to Ponyville.

After a much less eventful gallop back to Ponyville, Twilight was still carrying Spike as she walked down the street, between the homes and businesses of the town. Spike would turn, wave and thank everypony who was wishing him a happy birthday, which was a surprising amount more than last year for some reason. Though that probably had to do with the trauma burning the date into their minds for several years to come.

At last, Twilight came to a stop and straightened out her tail for Spike to slide down like he usually did. Twilight sighed as she remembered when he first learned to do that without hitting his head, but soon drew her attention to the grey door with blue trimming that seemed to stick right out of the ground.

"Here we are Spike."

"Twilight what's this supposed to be, it's just a door, though it is a cool looking door."

"Silly Spike, it's what's beyond the door that's important, so let's get moving." She replied as a purple glow surrounded the knob and pushed the door open, revealing a staircase leading underground. She motioned for Spike to go first, and he found a lightswitch that lit up the stairwell, revealing a spiral staircase that went down about 20ft.

"So, why are we going underground?" Spike asked as they made the last turn.

"It's built this way so people can't hear what's going on inside. Oh, I almost forgot." Twilight turned to Spike and her horn glowed for a second. After she was done a blue glow traveled from his head down to his feet and tail.

"So, what was that for?" Spike said as he looked over his body, but nothing seemed out of place.

"It was just a simple shield charm, I figured that if my brother was able to shield all of Canterlot, then I should find some spells to shield my friends. So, I borrowed some spell books from the Canterlot Library the last time I visited. This particular spell allows for 2 Bucks of force to be absorbed and should stay charged for 3 minutes if left unused. I have a few stronger spells, but I don't think they will be neccessary tonight." She finished.

"Well, I guess we better get going before the spell wears off then." Spike said as he turned and reached out to open the door. As soon as his claw was about to grab the knob, the door flung inward and revealed a cannon pointed right at him. Twilight hurridly threw up a shield around herself as the cannon coated the stairwell in cake batter.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPIKE!" a pink pony shouted over the music playing in the mostly empty room behind her.

"Thanks Pinkie Pie, and thank you as well Twilight, that could've been a lot worse." Spike said as he wiped the usually sticky batter off himself with ease. He could see a few ponies setting up some tables and chairs by the walls on the left and right, a buffet type setup wrapped around a corner on the right with a kitchen behind it and a few pegasi hanging disco balls, lights and what looked like a speaker system along the far walls and ceiling about 50ft high. "Pinkie Pie what's going on in there anyway?"

"It's the grand opening of Vinyl Scratch's very own super-duper-awesome club. The mayor agreed that it would be a great place for me to throw parties without waking up the rest of Ponyville, so she let Vinyl build it here on the condition that I Pinkie Promised the place would be soundproof. I tried to build walls out of cake that were sound proof, but the spongieness didn't help absorb the sound at all, and cupcakes didn't work either, so I ended up building it undergound! It took all of yesterday, but it was so totally worth it to see the smile on Vinyl's face when I brought her down here!" Pinkie then took a big breath, so Twilight took the oppurtunity and interrupted.

"Pinkie Pie this place is huge, how in the world did you manage to dig all this out in one day, especially without carting all the dirt through Ponyville?" Twilight inquired of her logic defieng friend.

"Well, Vinyl and I were talking about how to soundproof her new club at Lyra and Bon Bon's Spa and luckily Fluttershy and Rarity were coming in for an appointment as well, so when Fluttershy heard about our problem she told us about how her home's basement was really good at blocking the noise from thunderstorms for her more timid animals and herself. Vinyl liked the idea of having a really cool underground club, but then she also remembered that we didn't have anything to dig it out with and would have to ship in construction stuff from Fillydelphia or Manehatten. Then Rarity offered to get the Diamond Dogs to help dig it out so we went and asked them. They didn't really want to help dig this place out for ponies, but Rarity offered to help them find a good jewel vein with her magic if they helped, and if they didn't she would start crying again, so they helped dig this place out for us!" *Huuuuaaahhhh hhuuuhhh huuaahh* Pinkie huffed while trying to catch her breath.

"Well, I think this place looks great Pinkie Pie and I can't wait until we get this party started!" Spike yelled as he dashed past Pinkie to look at the decorations, leaving her and Twilight to trot in behind him.

"Sooo, are there going to be drinks served at this place Pinkie?" Twilight asked with a little aprehension.

"Of course there are silly-filly! Pinkie replied while looking at Twilight like she was acting wierd.

"Pinkie Pie, I meant are they going to serve drinks here."

"Twilight, you just asked that, are you sure nothing's wrong with your head from all that studying you do?"

"I'm just fine, besides, I don't study as nearly as often as I did in Canterlot. What I mean Pinkie is are they going to serve drinks with alchohol in them?"

"What? No way! If we did that then we wouldn't be able to have kid's birthday parties here. All the food and drinks that I provide this club with will be 100% alcohol free." She said with a huge smile on her face.

"I just noticed you still haven't told me what the name of this club is yet Pinkie Pie."

"Yup!" ...Twilight waited for her to continue but Pinkie Pie just stared at her.

"Pinkie Pie, what is the name of the club?" Twilight asked with a little exasperation at Pinkie's antics

"I can't tell you Twilight!" she replied happily.

"Why not?"

"Because Spike hasn't named it yet of course."

"Why is Spike naming the club Pinkie? Shouldn't Vinyl Scratch name her own club?"

"She was going to, but when I asked her if she would let me use the club's grand opening for Spike's birthday party, she told me she'd be glad to and even let him announce the name and everything" Pinkie replied cheerilee. "Spike will you help Vinyl set up her equipment while Twilight and I help with the decorations?" She yelled.

"Sure Pinkie Pie!" Spike called out from where he had his head stuck through the doors to the kitchen area.

"Okay Spike, go over the controls for me." Vinyl Scratch Said to Spike as he stood behind the turntable and other DJ equipment.

"Okay, we got the record players right here on the sides, the volume slider things here in the bottom middle with two for each side, the rows of knob things that I'm not allowed to touch above those, the other buttons I'm not allowed to touch to the side of those, a whole bunch of stuf you didn't tell me about and the master power and volume right here." Spike finished, accidently pushing the mute button. Vinyl noticed and quickly turned the sound back on by pushing the button with her magic before to many ponies noticed anything was amiss.

"That's right. So are you ready to be our first DJ for the night?" She asked with a gleam in her glasses.

"Wait, what? Pinkie said I was going to be your assistant, so you could take breaks and stuff. I can't actually be a DJ!"

"Well, how else are you supposed to announce what your naming this place in a couple minutes?" Vinyl smirked.

"WHAT?!" Spike's yell was drowned out by the background music still pumping through the speakers.

"Oh, did Pinkie not tell you that either? It's fine dude, you still have about 10 minutes before we actually open the place to the public, so I'll help you out with that." Vinyl said as she pulled a chair over for Spike to sit on. "And this is your birthday gift from me, so go with whatever you like, as long as it's not stupid."

Twilight may have magicked him up his suit and mustache, but he was still hoping Princess Celestia would drop by and say Discord had broken out again, that was much easier to deal with.
"Hay everypony! Happy birthday to me and welcome to the Dragon's Lair grand opening. I'm Talon Scratch and I'm telling you we're going to burn this place down tonight!" with that he shot a small jet of green fire up over the crowd (whic stomped their hooves, though he also heard a loud yell of "yay" from the corner to his right) and started his mix list.

"That was pretty good Spike, though your mustache kind of went up with your pyrotechnics." Vinyl said, smirking at the little dragon.

"Oh c'mon, can't these things ever last!" Spike complained as he wiped a little bit of ash off his upper lip and suit. He was still pretty pleased about how well things had gone though, he was sure he would start stuttering or just faint. His suit was still itching like crazy though. "Well, maybe I can convince Twilight to give me another one before I go up again."

"Good luck with that, I'm pretty sure she's out there dancing like a maniac right now." Vinyl commented while pointing a hoof at a purple pony making some erratic movements on the far side of the dance floor.

"I don't know who that is. In fact I'm pretty sure I've never seen her before in my life." Spike replied in a monotone voice as he left the turntable to Vinyl as he went to drag Twilight off the dance floor before she hurt somepony. As he made his way around the dance floor though, Pinkie Pie popped in front of him.

"Spike it's time for you to cut the opening cake!" She half-yelled over the KeepOnRockingBrony song playing in the background.

"Why doesn't she tell me anything before hand?" Spike questions some random pony as he's dragged over to his friends who are waiting for him. 'Wait a sec, if Twilight's over here then who was..' As Spike looked back, he was really glad Pinkie Pie stopped him, because now he can see that it wasn't Twilight who was dancing like crazy, but Trixie. 'When did she even get back in Ponyville?'

"Happy birthday Spike, the suit looks good on you and that was a pretty cool stunt you did at the end there, and I'm definitely the best judge of what's cool." Rainbow Dash congradulated him as he made it into the corner booth that was set up for him.

"Happy birthday as well, and I'd reckon I couldna' dun a better job ma'self Spike."

"It was quite an exciting way to stir up the audience Spikey-Wikey"

"Happy Birthday Spike. You did a really great job and it looked good." at least that's what he though Fluttershy said, she would probably have to yell to be audible in here.

"I thought you did a wonderful job Spike, though I think your mustache would have lasted longer if it wasn't set on fire." Twilight said as her horn glowed and a new mustache appeared on his face. "There, that one should last you around thiry minutes or so."

"Thanks Twilight." He said as he wrapped an arm up and over her shoulder to give her a hug.

"Don't forget about cutting the cake Spike!" Pinkie reminded him of why he was brought over here in the first place. Sure enough she pulled a sheet off the object at their table and revealed what looked like a five tier cake that would easily feed everyone in the Dragon's Lair and probably the rest of Ponyville. This was almost the norm when Pinkie was involved though. The truly astounding part that left everyone's jaw on the floor was that the entire cake seemed to be made of Diamond, with a little Obsidian statuette of Spike on the top.

"Pinkie dear, wherever did you manage to find a large enough Diamond to make this from, this would have had to been made from something the size of Tom." Rarity was the first to recover (though she was stunned enough to forget mentioning Tom), as she worked with precious stones the most out of the six friends, but her famililiarity with them also made her all the more amazed at what Pinkie had made.

"Silly Rarity, I didn't make this out of Diamond." Pinkie explained to her stunned group of friends and a few ponies who had seen the revelation and were similarly awestruck. "I made it out of sugar!" seeing that they only became more confused she continued. "See, I learned about how Rarity had made so many awesome dragon foods by mixing gems into pony food, that I had the great idea of making pony food out of dragon gems, but then I thought about how hard gems are to eat. So I figured I would need to find a way to make gems softer! But nothing I tried worked, so I made cupcakes to help me think. While I was pouring out the sugar I realised I had a nice little edible crystal with me all along! It was so great that I wanted to start singing and have everyone join in, but I had work to do first, so I started trying to make the sugar into one solid gem-type-thing. It took all of five long minutes, but I finally figured out that if I heat the sugar in a pot and then add a crytal seed for the sugar to form on as it cools I can make solid sugar gems. After that it was easy to get my giant cake pans and make the cake, so now I call it my Crystal Candy Cake!" She finished her tail.

Birthday Arc still has one more chapter left, but for now I'll leave you with a list of all the allusions and references from the previous chapters.