They abandoned it. All that work he went through to keep those stupid teenaged dragons from smashing the egg, and they just abandoned it.

Twilight said this was normal. She said that phoenixes will sometimes abandon their nests once they’ve been attacked. All the other chicks had hatched. They must have forgotten about their other egg. It happens.

But it just wasn’t fair. Spike had risked his life to save their egg, and they just left it. Left it alone and orphaned. It had all been for nothing.

He tried to hide the tears. He hated crying, especially around Rarity. He had a hard enough time trying to show her his manly side without throwing crying into the mix. But, unfortunately, Rarity noticed. He felt a hoof on his shoulder, and turned to find her smiling sympathetically at him.

“Oh, Spikey-wikey,” she said. “You have such a good heart. Rescuing that poor little egg from those big mean dragons, it’s just so you.” Spike felt his stomach flutter. She always did that to him, especially when she was praising him.

“You know,” she said, placing a hoof on her chin thoughtfully, “I think you would do a marvelous job raising the poor little thing yourself.”

Spike looked up in surprise. “Really?”

“But of course, darling! You’d make such an adorable little parent! You’d be so sweet and caring.”

“But…what would Twilight say?” It was pretty much her library, after all. Phoenixes could be messy for all he knew.

“Oh, she’ll be just thrilled, I’m sure!”

Maybe. “And how do I even know how to take care of a phoenix?”

“You live in a library, darling.”

Oh, right. “Well…” He still wasn’t completely convinced, but…what else could he do? Someone needed to take care of the chick. “I guess…I could try…”

“Oh, it will be wonderful! You’ll see! Oh, I just can’t wait to meet the little darling!”

And, that was that. Spike told Twilight, who, as Rarity predicted, was ecstatic. She’d always loved phoenixes, they were so fascinating and majestic, and oh, she had so many books on phoenix care and phoenix behaviors and famous phoenixes and…yes. How very Twilight. He should have known not to worry about any of that stuff.

Before long, Twilight had enlisted Fluttershy and Rarity to help with egg care. They worked surprisingly well together to build a sturdy (yet stylish) little nest out of ashes and straw. While they worked, Twilight rattled off all sorts of things about what to do when it hatched, how it needed to eat crushed worms at first before it graduated to small bugs, and how it would start trying to fly within six weeks and he needed to keep it away from windows at first and, for once, Spike listened. He wanted to do well. He wanted to take good care of this phoenix because, one, Rarity believed in him so much and he would hate to disappoint her. But, there was more to it than that.

He was beginning to suspect that this same thing had happened to him. Maybe he was abandoned as an egg by parents he would probably never meet, and Princess Celestia had found him. Maybe she had intended to find a way to raise him even if she’d never decided to give the egg to Twilight on a whim. Celestia had raised him while Twilight was young, and assigned him to be Twilight’s assistant later. Between the Princess and Twilight he had been so well taken care of, and had found such a good family in Ponyville. He could never repay them for it, but he could give the same care to little Pee Wee.

“Pee Wee? Really?” Twilight hated the name, he could tell. He also didn’t care.

“Yes. Pee Wee.”

“You know, I have a book of classic mythological names…”

“No.” He stated plainly. “Pee Wee. I’m calling it Pee Wee.”

Twilight sighed. “Oh, well. It’s your phoenix.” She made to canter away, then paused. “Hey, Spike, have you learned anything about friendship in the past few days?”

“Yeah, I have. A lot actually. Yeah, I know, I know, letter to the Princess. Already one headed for the quill and paper.”

Twilight laughed. “Thanks, Spike. Hey, I’m going over to Sweet Apple Acres to have lunch with the girls. You should come over when you’re done.”

“Nah,” he said, “I’d rather stick around here. Just in case Pee Wee hatches.”

“Alright then, good idea. See you later, Spike.”

“See ya!”

And he was right to stay. Just as he finished writing his letter, the egg hatched, and Spike was thrilled to welcome Pee Wee to the world, and to his family.