The One Where Spike is The Mane Character

Spike leaned over a small pile of books, groaning. It had been a long day. Twilight and Spike were re-sorting the library, and Spike's job was to put the books into groups by category.

"Twilight, do we have to do this?" Spike complained, pushing his quills back with his claws in stress.

"I don't hear sorting!" Twilight replied in a sing-song voice.

"Fine. Fine." Spike said, giving in.

He began sorting the books like nobody's business, book after book after book, and then finally, it was finished! The pile of books was gone.

"Yahooo!" Spike cheered.

"Spike, we still have to work on the other three fourths of the library." Twilight said, her emotion unchanging as she moved to the next set of bookshelves.

"Twilight, can I take a break? Just for a few minutes?" Spike asked.

"Fine, Spike. But don't rest for too long." Twilight sighed.

Spike silently celebrated, and then tip-toed over to the door. He opened it quietly, and slipped out without Twilight even noticing. He skipped down the path cheerfully. Suddenly he was being lifted. He was heading back to the library!

He kicked his feet, trying to get away, but he floated through the door. Twilight's horn was glowing.

"Nice try, Spike. But you know we need to get this done." She said, before dropping Spike on the floor next to the new book pile. Defeated, he began sorting again.

"Hey." Twilight said, examining a book. "I don't remember having this one."

She opened the book and began to examine it's contents. "What's this gibberish? I thought the book was on the Everfree Forest!"

She showed Spike the open book, and sure enough, jumbled letters and words took up the heading of a page. They looked like they were hoof-written instead of printed, and were scrawled out in almost unreadable handwriting.

"Maybe it's some kind of code!" Spike exclaimed. Twilight and Spike stopped sorting and began trying to decode the book.

"The letters on page 4,90, and 74 say..."

"Maybe it's a..."

"Aha, I think I've got it!...wait, no I don't..."

"The subheadings..."

"Spike...Spike? Are you asleep?"

"Maybe the page numbers go to a letter..."

"Page 8's paragraph lettesr are an anagram..."

After an hour or two of trying to figure it out. Twilight laughed triumphantly. "Ha-ha! I figured it out!"

"Really?" Spike asked, excited.

"It says: Beware of the forest they share, in the moonlight's glare, or become a dead mare?" Twilight read it carefully, and she realized Spike was gone. "Spike...? SPIKE?!"

Spike awoke, it was damp, dark, and cold.

"Hello? Twilight?"

He got up, and winced as his leg snagged on a branch. It was nearly pitch black, like night. He couldn't see his claws in front of his face. He pulled his leg free, but in doing so, tripped and began rolling.

He rolled down a small hill and kept going, he yelled as he finally stopped, slamming against a rock. He could tell he was now in a cave, as it was darker than before, and his voice echoed.

"Helloooo? Anybody?"

He got up and began wandering in the darkness. Something pushed him down, and pain shot through his arm as he felt sharp teeth plunge into his hand. Spike moved his hand around on the ground and found a rock. He hit it against the creature's head, and it backed off, running away.

His hand was throbbing, but he was too afraid to worry about it. He couldn't find his way out of the cave. He sat down, and curled up into a ball.

"I'll never get out of here, I'll never find ponyville again, I'll starve to death!"

He broke into sobs, wondering how this even happened in the first place. The constant pain in his hand wasn't helping him, either. Suddenly, he was being lifted into the air.

"I got something, I got something!"

"Is it Spike?"

"Yee-haw, sugarcube!"

"Hooray! We found him!"

"Yay."

"Spikey-wikey!"

He could barely see them, but it was his friends! Twilight embraced him.

"Oh Spike. That code we found in that book was a spell, it must have sent you here!" Twilight cried.

"W-where am I?" Spike asked, wiping the tears out of his eyes.

"You're in the middle of the Everfree forest, Spike. The whole town was lookin' for ya." Applejack exclaimed.

"But now you're safe, so we can go back to Ponyville and PARTY!" Pinkie yelled.

The team all cheered and they began to head home to Ponyville, Twilight's glowing horn lighting the way.

Spike scratched his cheek to get a bug off, and cut himself. "Oww!" he yelped. He noticed his claws were a lot sharper than usual.

It was the hand that got bit.