Author's Note

This is a pilot that will determine if the rest of the story gets to continue. If it gets a positive reception, there will be more chapters to follow, so I hope y’all like it.

Part 1: The Discovery

***A Patriot Pony Production***

Spike grumbled under his breath as his feet shuffled across the floor. “Why did I have to come again? Why not bring Starlight? She’s the one who actually likes this kind of stuff.”

Beneath Canterlot Castle, in the fabled ‘Restricted Section’ of the Palace Library, Princess Twilight and her dragon companion sifted through a mountain of books, scrolls, and other documents. To Spike’s dismay, this was no exaggeration, as the reading materials literally towered over them. Twilight, to no pony’s surprise, was loving every second of it.

“Starlight is where I need her to be. She’s making room in our library for some of these lost tomes. Well, they’re not lost anymore, but... You know what I mean.” She fired him a teasing look. “Besides, she’s not my number one assistant, Spike. You are. That means you get to help me sort out which of these babies needs to be added to my collection!”

Spike rolled his eyes and turned his back to the hysterical princess. “Lucky me...”

He loved Twilight more than anything, but he needed some space from the endless sea of heavy novels, and from her obsession with books. Quietly, while she wasn’t looking, he retreated to a more secluded corner of the decayed library. There, he found more of the same, stacks upon stacks of dusty hardbacks and wrinkled parchments, but then, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his gaze.

Half buried beneath a pile of torn scrolls was a small, wooden box. It was the first item of interest he’d seen since they arrived, which was saying a lot. Spike knelt beside the box and uncovered it. Just as he thought, it was a wooden chest, no bigger than a lunch box. A brass latch kept the lid shut, and just above that, engraved into the old, splintered wood, was the letter ‘M’.

Intrigued, he dusted off the lid and opened the latch. The box creaked as it opened. Spike glanced over his shoulder, worried he might have alerted Twilight, but she was still somewhere in her own little world. Spike fully opened the lid, and what he found surprised him.

Inside the mysterious box was nothing more than a single notebook, bound in crimson red leather, and titled ‘Mallory’s Diary’. He opened the leather journal to the first page and began to read.

“Here lies the thoughts and wants of the forgotten princess, Mallory.”

He turned to the next page only to find it blank. In fact, the entire journal was blank. The only words to be found on any page were those he read just pay the cover. Spike figured this Princess Mallory must have been as boring as Twilight if her diary was any indication of her private life. The thought made him chuckle, but the box was still an interesting find.

Without Twilight’s knowledge, he decided to keep it. He placed the journal back inside and closed the lid, sealing the brass latch and placing the box with the rest of the artifacts they were going to take back to Ponyville.

***

A few agonizingly boring hours later, Twilight and Spike left Canterlot to return to Ponyville with their acquired goods in tow. Within the walls of the palace once again, Spike retreated to his bedroom with the box he’d found. He still hadn’t told Twilight about it, though he planned to. If anypony were to know anything at all about the strange diary, it would be the bookworm herself, but he wanted to get a better look at it first.

Spike swiftly entered his room and closed the door behind him before setting the box down on his bed. He lifted the brass latch, opened the lid, and retrieved the leather notebook. “Hmm... Mallory’s Diary...”

He traced a finger over the etched wording on the cover. Then, he flipped the leather front open to the first page, like he had back in the Restricted Section, but what he saw now startled him.

The words had changed entirely.

“To be touched again after so long is a delightful reward for my patience.”

Spike’s stomach churned and twisted itself into knots. He was certain that wasn’t what it had said before, but more than that, the new words came off even more disturbing than the previous line. “What in the...”

He flipped through the rest of the journal to find the rest of the pages were still blank, except for the last one, just before the leather back. There wasn’t a full line or even an entire word, just the letter ‘M’ in the same style as the letter on the lid of the box he found the diary in. Spike’s head was spinning in circles now. No pony could have written in the pages since he last saw them. If only to make sure the ink wasn’t wet, he felt compelled to touch the ‘M’.

Spike let out a deep breath and firmly pressed his thumb into the page, and in response, a sinister fit of laughter echoed throughout the room. He let out a startled cry and dropped the diary onto the floor as the pages began to flip on their own, turning faster and faster until they started to glow red. He wanted to scream for Twilight, but before he could, there was a blinding flash of light that knocked him off of his bed.

Then, there was silence. The sound of rustling pages was gone.

From the floor, Spike could see under the bed and out the other side where the diary now rested. Happy that the ordeal was over, he stood shakily to his feet only to come face to face with a naked mare sitting legs crossed on his bed.

“Hello!”

Spike cried out in terror and fell back on his rear. Following the initial heart attack, he attempted to stand a second time. When he looked at the bed again, he confirmed that his eyes and ears were not deceiving him.

A completely nude mare sat on top of his comforter. Her legs were crossed in front of her, and her arms were resting on her knees, making no effort to cover her voluptuous breasts. Her complexion was pale and bright, and her mane was a mixture of white and crimson stripes with a tail to match. Then, there were her eyes. They seemed unnatural and left Spike feeling uneasy under their gaze.

Spike swallowed hard while trying desperately not to stare. “Wh-Who are you?”

She beamed at him, her devilish grin stretching from ear to ear. “Mallory, the Princess of Lust, at your disservice.”

***To be Continued?***