Adventures in Dragon Sittingnote
- Story by Ted Anderson, Art by Brenda Hickey
Rainbow Dash drops in while Twilight Sparkle is looking through some old photo albums, and one picture in particular catches Rainbow's attention. Twilight tells the story of how that picture came about...
On her first day at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, Celestia introduces Twilight to the baby dragon she had hatched during her entrance test. Though Celestia has been taking care of him, she feels that Twilight is ready to help out while she's at the school. The task is daunting to Twilight, trying to keep the baby dragon calm and quiet while trying to balance her studies, and her performance at the school falters, nor is she able to socialize to make friends as the other unicorns distance themselves from her. Her only moments of calm is talking to Smarty Pants when she's alone with the dragon.
The day of the first High Tea arrives, with Twilight's parents, Night Light and Twilight Velvet, invited. Celestia allows Twilight to stay with her parents at the tea. Twilight tries to explain why she's struggling in school without explaining about the baby dragon, but the dragon manages to get free of the carrier he is in and causes a huge mess. Twilight races him back to her dorm and yells at him for ruining everything as she starts to break down in tears, complaining that he's not like Smarty Pants.
The dragon suddenly speaks, trying to say he is like Smarty Pants. Twilight realizes the dragon is trying to be understanding and help her calm down, and realizes that Celestia didn't give her the dragon to burden her but to be her first friend. Coming around to appreciate the dragon, she decides to name him after his baby-speak on Smarty Pants's name, calling him Spike. Her parents arrive just as she has reconciled with Spike, and they take the photo of "Twilight's First Friend".
In the present, the other Mane 6 have come around to listen to Twilight's story, and are all touched by it. Spike wakes up, having missed it, but offers him a cocoa along with the others as they head off.
Tropes appearing in this issue:
- Appropriated Appellation: Twilight took the name Spike from Spike's baby talk.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: Twilight has trouble balancing her classwork and caring for Spike.
- Call-Back:
- Professor Inkwell, from the Celestia Micro issue, teaches on of Twilight's classes.
- Moondancer and Trixie are among other new fillies arriving for the first day. Elsewhere in the school we see Twilight's other friends, Moondancer, Twinkleshine, Lemon Hearts, Minuette, and Lyra.
- Continuity Nod: Twilight's doll Smarty Pants appears again earlier in her life.
- Mythology Gag: Twilight mentions reading a book by Galaxy, a pony from G1.
- Promoted to Parent: Twilight pretty much becomes Spike's mom.
- Rule of Funny: A picture in the cover of the comic shows Fily Twilight changing Spike's diaper for humorous effect, even though the former never wore one in the comic on-screen.
- Shout-Out:
- Four of the unicorn students are ponified versions of the characters from Magic Knight Rayearth.
- The title is probably a reference to the movie Adventures in Babysitting.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Virtually the whole story is Twilight remembering her early experiences with Spike.
