After that dream, and the next morning, Spike woke up and rubbed his eyes, which were still red from crying himself to sleep last night. He was still hurting from the revelation that Twilight and her friends abandoned him to celebrate Hearths Warming at the Crystal empire
"Maybe I should leave them for good. They clearly don't appreciate me or the things I do for them. Either that or they're afraid of either me as a dragon or they're afraid that if I'm with them all the time, others will hate them." Spike bitterly thought. Although he was pondering this thought, it wasn't the only thing on his mind as he looked back on the dream he just had the previous night.
"So that creature I saw yesterday can visit dreams, and he said that he was me from a different universe/timeline. Something feels weird about him. I hope that he isn't evil." he said to himself.
He walked out of his room and to the kitchen and made himself breakfast. As he was eating his breakfast of gems though, he saw a small square piece of paper resting on the counter. He walked over to it and saw that the paper consisted of six small circles which was around one big circle and lines that connected the small circles to the big circle. Another thing Spike noted that one of the small circles was already filled out with a K.
"What is this paper doing here? I didn't write this, so somepony else must have sent this to me, but who?" he asked. He flipped it over and saw some writing that said,
Keep this safe
"So the only clue I have is that ominous message on the back saying that I should keep it safe. Well that's just great, I'm no closer to finding who left this here and why they were here in the first place." Spike sighed and was confused, but he still decided to keep the paper as he thought it was important that he had it if it said he should keep it safe.
"Maybe I should bring this over to the Doctor. He's smart, so he should be able to help me with this." Spike thought as he went to put his coat and hat on, while sticking the piece of paper underneath his hat. He opened the front doors to go outside and he was greeted with a strong breeze along with a bunch of falling snow to his face.
"Looks like the weather team is setting up a snowstorm before Hearths Warming. I hope it doesn't get too bad." Spike said as he walked down the steps of the castle and into the city.
As he walked, he realized that a lot less ponies were out and about today than yesterday, mostly because of the intensifying snowstorm, but that didn't stop him from heading to his destination and after a few minutes of walking, he arrived at his destination, the Doctor's house.
Spike started knocking on the door hoping he would answer. "Doctor sir, can I come in? There's something weird I want to show you." After a few seconds, the door opened to find a grey mare with a blond mane and some bubbles for her cutie mark. She looked at Spike and smiled.
"Hello little dragon. My name is Ditzy Doo, but my close friends and my husband call me Derpy Whooves." she started happily but her tone turning serious and concerned after. "But what are you doing out there in the snow and cold weather? You could have gotten hypothermia or frostbite."
"Hi Ditzy, my name is Spike, but I need to see the doctor as soon as possible. I have something that he might want to take a look at. May I come in?" Spike asked.
"I was gonna make you come in anyway because of the weather. Come in and get yourself warm." Ditzy said while making way for the dragon to come in. Spike sat on the couch while Ditzy gave him a blanket. "I'm gonna go make some hot chocolate for you to warm you up. Stay there and the Doctor will come in shortly to talk to you."
"Thanks for doing this Ditzy. It means a lot."
"You're welcome Spike. Oh, and you can just call me Derpy. I see you enough as a friend for you to call me that."
"Oh, ok then Derpy. Thanks again." Derpy nodded while smiling and headed to the kitchen. Now that Spike was alone on the couch, he took out the piece of paper from underneath his hat and took another good look at it as he got more questions in his head.
"Now, what could the K on this piece of paper possibly mean? And why did it get sent here if Twilight and her friends and family are in the Crystal Empire? Was it sent specifically to me? If so, then I don't know how to react to this. I usually never get anything from others." These questions lingered in his head, but were interrupted when the door opened and the doctor walked in.
"Oh hello young Spike. How are you doing on this snowy day? And I thought you were decorating the castle for you and your friends to celebrate Hearth's Warming." The Doctor asked. Spikes face fell at that.
"I could honestly be better Doctor. Twilight and her friends and family were invited to celebrate Hearths Warming at the Crystal Empire, and they left me here to celebrate it alone in the process, so I'm not doing really good right now." Spike said with a sad look on his face
"Oh... I'm sorry you have to go through that Spike. And I'm sorry I asked and brought up bad stuff." said the Doctor
"It's ok Doctor. It wasn't your fault I was like this, It's theirs. Although I don't really know what to do for Hearths Warming, which is troublesome."
"Well, I can give you an option right now. This is your choice, but since you'll be alone on that day, would you like to come over and spend Hearths Warming with us? I'm pretty sure my wife Derpy won't mind."
As if on cue, Derpy came in with two hot chocolates, one for Spike and One for the Doctor. "I overheard what you guys were talking about, and Spike, I'm so sorry that you got abandoned by your friends. I would love it if you stayed with us for Hearths Warming. No one deserves to be alone on Hearths Warming, especially not you."
"Thanks guys, you're the best. I might just take you guys up on that offer." Spike said happily
Derpy and the Doctor smiled. "You're welcome Spike. Now, what is it that you traveled all the way here in the snow to see me?" The Doctor asked.
"Oh right, need to get back on track." Spike took out the piece of paper from underneath his hat and showed it to the Doctor. "I found this paper on the kitchen counter this morning as I was making myself some breakfast, but I don't know who wrote this or sent this to me, but they did tell me to keep it safe as it is written on the back. I was wondering if you can use something to help me with this." Spike said while he handed the piece of paper to the Doctor to get a good look at it too.
The Doctor looked back at Spike and said, "Spike, this is just a piece of paper. What do you want me to do with it?"
"I know it's just a piece of paper but somepony must have sent me this and I don't even know what the K in one of the circles could possibly mean. I know you're smart with all of these inventions of yours, so I thought you might be able to help me."
"Well the K could mean many many things, like king or kangaroo or keyboard. The abbreviation for potassium is even K." the Doctor rambled.
"How can K be an abbreviation for a word that doesn't even have that letter in it?" Spike asked
"Don't ask me, Ask Clophrey Davy. He's the one that named it. Either way we're getting off topic. I'll try to do what I can but it's still a piece of paper."
"That's all I ask of you, is to try something." Just then, they heard a blood curdling scream coming from outside. The 3 creatures ran out of the house and saw that some wild creatures they never seen before attacking.
"What are those things?" Spike asked.
"I don't know, but they look terrifying." Derpy said scared while hugging the Doctor, to which the Doctor hugged her back to make her feel safe.
"Don't worry Derpy, I'll make sure that those beasts won't hurt you, but to answer your question Spike, I don't know what those creatures are. I never seen them before."
Spike got a better look at them after looking at them again. They looked like wild boars or warthogs, except they were blue and black. Spike guessed that the black parts of the beasts looked like coal or a dark gem of some kind, while the blue part looked like ocean blue diamonds.
"We need to get back inside, quick." Spike told Derpy and the Doctor. The two of them ran back inside and Spike was about to do the same but then he heard a faint "help" come from the town. Spike looked to where the cry for help came from and saw that the teenage pegasus he met yesterday, Shooting Star, was backing away from one of the beasts, clearly scared for her life. Spike couldn't leave her alone when one of those beasts was clearly trying to eat her, so spike ran and sprang into action.
"SPIKE!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!?!" Derpy yelled.
But the question went on to deaf ears as Spike was focused on saving Shooting Star. Spike arrived at the scene and when the beast was about to pounce on her, Spike blew a big breath of fire at the beast to deter it from attacking.
"You stay away from her you wild beast. Don't you dare attack her." Spike yelled at the beast, but when he didn't hear any cries or scurries of it, and the fire dissipated, the two creatures found nothing but a few black crystals on the ground unmoving.
"You saved me. Thank you so much." Shooting Star said while tightly hugging Spike. The hug was so tight that it could give Pinkie Pie's tight hugs a run for their bits. Spike's face started to get blue after a while.
"Y... You... You're welcome, Shoo... Shooting Star." Spike said about to pass out from the lack of air from the hug. "But you're hug...hugging me too t...tight"
Shooting Star immediately let go of him him while Spike tried to catch his breath. "I'm sorry about that. I guess I got a little overboard with that hug right there."
"It's ok Shooting Star, just not so tight next time. Now I thought that these mysterious creatures were made of diamonds and black crystal, but that isn't diamonds. It's ice, so I can use my fire breath to help defeat these beasts." With that, Spike set out in search of more of these beasts to defeat them and save the town.
Spike went to the marketplace and saw a lot of the beasts destroying all of the stands. All of them were empty due to the snow and wind, much to Spikes relief. The beasts saw Spike and began charging at him, but when they were close enough, Spike blew an even bigger breath of fire than before and incinerated the beasts and just as before, when the fire dissipated, there was nothing but the unmoving black crystals. The other beasts saw this and seeing as they could easily defeated by a baby dragon, ran away from the town, scared that they might be beaten by Spike. Spike gave chase until the beasts were out of town in which, he turned around and went back to the Doctor and Derpy.
When he got there, Derpy was quick to run over to him worriedly. "Spike! Are you ok?" She asked while checking him for any injuries. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"
Spike smiled at her saying, "You don't have to worry about me Derpy, I'm fine. Although I do still feel a little tender in the back from getting hugged by Shooting Star." It was at this moment that the Doctor walked up the the two of them smirking.
"Who is this Shooting Star fellow Spike? Is she gonna be the one you marry someday?" the Doctor asked jokingly
"Doctor." Derpy said, hoofing him in the side. Meanwhile Spike blushed and was embarrassed.
"I only just met her yesterday. I don't even know her really well."
"I'm just teasing, I'm just teasing. However, something happened to that piece of paper while you were away saving the town." Spike grew worried after the Doctor said this.
"Oh don't worry lad, it's still safe but there was a light and, well, I think you should just take a look." The Doctor went over to get it and then gave it to Spike upon returning. Spike took a look at it and saw that along with the K, another circle was filled in with an M. Still, Spike a a bit skeptical.
"Are you sure you didn't just write this M on the paper Doctor?" Spike asked, believing it was a bit of a prank.
"No no Spike. I saw everything along with him." Derpy said. "There was this beam of light and it just filled the circle in with an M. Now that I think about it, that looked like the same kind of beam that hit me and the Doctor when we were swapped between two different universes." She said while looking at the Doctor.
Spike was in awe at the mention of the adventure the two had. "Wow, but in any case, I'll believe you. So a beam of light just filled the circle in with an M?"
"Yes, so there is something more going on here. I want to do some experiments on it, but it's your choice Spike. Do you want me to do experiments that are safe on it or would you like to keep it for safe keeping?" The Doctor asked him.
"I would rather keep it to myself. If the paper has magic, then I should keep it with me if it was meant for me." Spike told him, the Doctor nodded in understanding. "Anyways, since you told me that you two were swapped between universes, can you tell me about it?" he asked hopefully.
The Doctor and Derpy looked at each other smiling and then looked back at Spike nodding. "Sure we can Spike, but the story may last for more than two and a half hours."
"I have nothing to do for the rest of the day so I have all the time in Equestria. Also I forgot to mention this when I first got here, but you have a nice place you 2, it so snug." Spike told them.
"Why thank you Spike. You are quite the gentleman." Derpy told him. "Now then, get comfortable and me and the Doctor will tell you all about the adventure we had." So the three of them got comfortable and the Doctor and Derpy started telling them the story. Meanwhile, outside the Everfree Forest, a figure stood by the edge of Ponyville and watched as the battle between Spike and the beasts ended.
"The dragon is quite strong. My plans will surely be fulfilled soon." The figure said while smirking evilly. The figure then teleported away in a bout of flames.