Chapter 1: Spike's a little secret
1.
It was midnight and everypony was sleeping but Spike -he is actually not a pony but a baby dragon so... it makes sense- who went out for a walk. The little dragon was carrying a little book -which had the covers ripped off, showing some kind of drawing on the front page-and was walking on his tiptoes. Derpy woke up from a nightmare and saw him from her bedroom's window. Derpy had a nightmare where she was in front of a whiteboard with letters in different rows. A voice told her to read the lines, she tried hard in her sleep but the letters grow bigger and double; it was impossible for her to read anything. The words became later a huge spiral. She suddenly was somewhere in the infinite darkness, felling down, going round and round. When her hooves touched the ground she opened her eyes and found herself lying on a bed. Derpy screamed with pain -an imaginary pain, she was totally okay- until she noticed she was safe and sound, which took her more than a minute or two. Once she calmed down, a big shadow came out of nowhere, light fading fast. Derpy screamed again, paralyzed by fear couldn't help but close her eyes, waiting for the worst. Nothing happened at all. The room was bathed in moonlight when she opened eyes. Derpy was taken aback by the strange -also scary- events. Afraid and curious looked out from the window and saw Spike walking on his tiptoes trying not to make a noise. The winged grey pony sighed with relief. Now that she knew she was not in trouble -or at least that's what the pony thought- wanted to know about what the little dragon was up to. It was not a normal thing to see him far from Twilight Sparkle nor seeing him walking alone at midnight, he was up to no good, that was a fact.
2.
Derpy started following Spike but the dragon didn't noticed the clumsy pony who came up against some trees in her way and stumbled several times over little rocks. Spike entered the Everfree forest for some reason and Derpy was going to find out why. The little dragon went inside the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters, a
castle in ruins in the middle of the forest. Derpy was scared and wanted to go back home but she looked back and saw only trees. She was lost and the forest seemed so deep and gloomy she felt like a little colt in the middle of nowhere. Perhaps the stories were true and everypony that came to the forest died in terrible suffering, or that was one of the stories somepony wrote? In any case, Derpy lost Spike and she only had two ways to go. The first one meant to go back to bed, which was a hard thing to do due to it was difficult to see the road to Ponyville plus there were lots of weird creatures in the forest waiting for her to get lost; taking advantage of that fact they'd eat her or they'd do something even worse to her like... torture her. In the other hoof she could continue following Spike to the castle and tell him to walk her to Ponyville. After taking a look at both sides, the dark trees and the ruins, Derpy broke at a trot going in the abandoned castle's direction.
3.
What Derpy saw inside the ruins was something more than broken columns, dust everywhere and cobwebs; there were big rats with the size of dogs too and, without a shadow of doubt, Spike. The little dragon was at the top of a marble stairway, so it wasn't difficult for the pony to find him. Spike was in front of a huge trunk made of wood. The dragon was laughing out loud in a machiavellian smile, his eyes glittered like jewels and the hair was all spiky; Derpy thought he was possessed by an evil creature. The sound that came out of her mouth wasn't normal for a pony.
Spike: "What are you doing here?" said in a high pitched voice while started going down the stairway.
Derpy Hooves was left speechless. The pony didn't answer anything.
Spike: "Why are you in such a place?" asked furiously the dragon- Were you spying me?
Derpy: "N-noo...what a weird idea!" responded immediatly- I was... searching for some rats?!
Spike: "Are you telling me you didn't come for the treasure I put inside this trunk?" pointed the top of the stairway with his left front leg, confused.
Derpy: "There is a treasure inside that trunk? I thought treasures were all buried. Will you let me see your treasure? I've never seen one" -looked at him with sad puppy eyes- Please?
Spike: "Are you kidding? Nopony should see these papers or I'd be in trouble, you silly pony!" answered with rage.
Derpy: "Papers are not a treasure, unless they're made of gold or have a magic spell written on them. What kind of papers are those of yours?"
Spike: "Far from that, they're normal papers"-Derpy lowered her head, disappointed for hearing that- "It is just a novel I wrote"-continued saying Spike.
The pony looked to the dragon with a great interest.
Derpy: "Can I read it? Can I read it?" yelled in excitement.
Spike: "Are you serious? This is a secret!"
Derpy: "Oh, come on! You cannot tell me you have a treasure inside that trunk and expect me to go to Ponyville and pretend nothing happened."
Spike: "You're right, I can tell some dragon to come and leave you alone with him. I think you'd have fun having a little chat" said in reply.
Derpy: "You... you... you're joking right? You'd never leave me, r-right?" wanted to know.
Spike: "In answer to your question, I wouldn't do it but... look at your face, it's so funny, it was worth to pull a prank on you" declared before bursting out laughing.
Derpy: "I'm telling Twilight!" replied the pony.
Spike: "Please, don't do it!" -he kneeled before her- "What do you want in exchange for your silence?"
Derpy: "I don't know..."-She tilted her head left- "Perhaps... if you let me just read the first chapter of your novel..."
Spike: "No way!"-he stood up-"I'll never let you read that"-shouted with rage.
Derpy: "Okay...I'll tell Twilight!"
Spike: "No, pleeease, don't tell Twilight!" -grabbed one Derpy's hoof and didn't let her go- "I... I can... read it for you- he suggested."
Derpy: "Really?"-said the pony with a look of surprise and a smile on her face.
Spike: "But... you have to promise me you won't tell anypony about this."
Derpy: "Promise!"
Spike went to the top of the stairway, with his head bowed, to open the trunk where his secret resided in.
