On the next day, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo weren’t paying much attention at Cheerilee’s math class. They were talking among themselves instead.

“What should we do after class?” Scootaloo asked while whispering to her friends.

“Maybe we can go to the hospital to see if we can doctors.” Sweetie Belle suggested.

Apple Bloom frowned a bit and said: “Sorry. I promised my sister I would be back to help her to get some tools. My brother is going to fix our barn and he can’t leave to go buy the tools. So my sister asked me to do it. Besides, I don’t think they would let us in to walk around unless we were sick or something.”

“Can we go with you, then? At least it won’t be so boring if we are together.” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah, it might be fun in the end. And we can go play afterwards…” Sweetie Belle whispered right before they were interrupted

“Ahem! I hope what you fillies are discussing is something related to the class.” Cheerilee said while looking at the trio sternly.

“Sorry…” the three fillies said in unison.

A few giggles could be heard from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, but the teacher made sure to keep the class quiet and resume her lessons.

“Now, where was I…” Cheerilee said as she continued to explain the basics of trigonometry to her class.

A few hours later, the classes were over and all fillies and foals left the school. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were glad the lessons were over for the day and especially because there was no homework.

The three fillies got everything Applejack asked, which were nails, screws and ~~the almighty~~ duct tape. Apple Bloom carried them all inside of a plastic bags tied on each other over her own back like a saddle.

They chatted for a while as they trotted inside of Sweet Apple Acres. But they suddenly stopped as the trees’ leaves rustled making a few apples fall on the ground.

Apple Bloom looked up and found it weird: “It’s not even windy…”

But then the rustiling suddenly halted when they heard a pony shouting from behind them.

“Get away from those fillies!”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders then looked behind them to see a strange stallion with a black cloak and hood running towards them.

When he got near them, he seemed to look desperately everywhere yelling for something to leave them alone.

The three fillies slowly backed away from him. “Who are you, mister? What is going on?” Sweetie Belle asked trying to be polite, but having to admit she was a bit scared. By this strange stallion’s actions.

‘I need to find it when I’m alone. I can’t risk fighting it with others involved…’ the stallion thought ignoring the question the filly asked him.

However, he suddenlysuddenly lost his own balance and he fell on his side. He felt weak and dizzy. ‘Not now…Please not now…’ he thought as he lost consciousness.

When he fell down the Cutie Mark Crusaders could see that the stallion had a black mane, caramel eyes and a somewhat gray fur. Also, they couldn't help but to notice that this strange pony was an unicorn, but he had only the base of his horn. The rest of it was missing.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the library, twilight was at a desk looking at a few books with some empty flasks near.

Spike was finishing baking some cookies for them. He thought they would be a nice afternoon snack plus it would make Twilight remove her face from the books and talk about something else.

Once the cookies were done he carefully picked them and placed on a place, quickly picking one and ‘slyly’ putting one inside of his mouth.

“Don’t eat too much, or you’ll spoil your dinner.” Twilight said without moving her gaze from the book.

The dragon finished swallowing it and asked: “how did you know I was eating one?”

Twilight turned to him and smirked: “I could smell the cookies…and I know you all too well to know you would eat some as soon as they were done. It impresses me how you can eat them while they are still hot.”

Spike shrugged and said: “What can I say? Freshly baked cookies are the best. You should try some.”

Twilight smiled and said: “I would rather wait for them to cool down a bit.”

Her assistant saw this as an opportunity and said: ‘You know, ever since we came back from the Cristal Empire you have been reading an awful lot. We should call Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow dash and Fluttershy and go out tonight. It’s not healthy for you to do nothing but study in your free time.”

As soon as he was done talking he picked another cookie from the plate and started munching it.

Twilight frowned a little bit and said: “I do get out to have fun, Spike. Did you forget the party Pinkie threw a couple of days ago? We had a lot of fun. But we have a responsibility to further our knowledge and be prepared for anything.”

It was Spike’s turn to frown as he said: “It wasn’t a couple of days ago. The party you mentioned was two weeks ago! Really, Twi, you should get out more. You practically need to be dragged of this library to have some fun.”

Twilight then pointed to the books and said with a stern look: “I have fun studying, Spike, you know that.”

The baby dragon groaned and resisted the urge to face palm himself as he said: “I meant social interaction kind of fun, Twilight…” when the purple unicorn opened her mouth to protest, Spike quickly complemented “People who come here to get books don’t count.”

Twilight then closed her mouth and then sighed. “She smiled softly. She knew that Spike had only her best interest at heart and she was thankful for it. “How about this? As soon as I finish this experiment, we can organize a picnic tonight and we all can go stargaze.” She conceded.

The little dragon smiled in victory and agreed with her suggestion. He then asked: “Is there anything you need me to get you?” he then pointed to the empty flasks. It didn’t take much thought to know that Twilight wanted to brew something and sooner she got the ingredients sooner she would finish whatever potion she wants to make.

Twilight then used her magic to pick a scroll and gave it to spike along with a basket and a scissor. The dragon picked everything and then opened the scroll to see a bunch of drawing of plants with their names on the side.

“I’m glad you asked, Spike, I was going to ask you if you could pick up a few herbs for me? They’re at the Everfree Forest, but don’t worry about going to deep. You’ll find most of them without much difficulty. But if anything happens come straight home, okay?” Twilight asked her assistant

“Sure. No problem, Twi. I’ll be back soon.” Spike said as he placed the scroll inside of the basket and then he left his home.
Later, the small purple and green dragon walked around the Everfree Forest holding his basket while he picked up some herbs from Twilight’s list.

The forest had always crept the baby dragon a little and he knew all too well he shouldn’t go deep into it alone ever since the incident with the timber wolves.

The drake looked at the list to compare the herbs with the drawings to make sure he didn’t commit a mistake. ‘I’m her number one assistant after all.’ He thought as he smiled.

After half an hour wandering he collected all buy one of the plants from the list. He had to go a bit further into the forest because the last herb was something called ‘Rock Crawler’ because it was a grey looking plant that resembled vines and they always grew over big rocks and its roots carved deep into the rocks draining its minerals.

When Spike finally found it he sighed in relief because his task was almost complete. He found a rock entangled by the grey vines and proceeded to put down the basket full of herbs and pick the scissors.

The moment the dragon started to cut the vines, he felt something tightening the grip around his feet and pulling him to the top of a nearby tree.

The boy could only yell as he was violently dragged through several branch trees by what seemed to be some kind of…black rope.

“STOP! LET ME GO!!” Spike yelled as he was dragged through a dense area of tree. He continuously hit the branches hard and it was hurting him quite a bit.

Suddenly the ‘rope’ untied itself and the baby dragon fell on the ground. Spike was thankful his body was naturally sturdy thanks to his thick scales, but his relief was short lived.

Four black tentacles descent from the trees and each one tied one of his limbs and dragged him once more to the top of the trees.

Spike was about to breath his fire on the tentacles when a fifth one wrapped around his mouth, gagging him. He continuously struggled to free himself, but the tentacles tightened their grip so much it made the dragon give a muffled scream of pain.

The boy could only tremble as he looked at the source of the tentacles. It was nothing but a big mass of a black mist and the dragon felt a cold shiver through his spine as he heard the mist chuckling.

End of chapter 2

Author's Note

Author notes:
1)English is my second language. Forgive me for any mistake.
2)I don’t own My Little Pony