Pinkie Pie's parties were always good, but when it's a birthday party, especially her own, it is never something to be missed. So naturally Twilight was off in a hurry to attend with the rest of her best friends. Except for me. Spike.
It's not that I felt left out, the reason that I stayed home, in the library: it's just that I don't always feel like Twilight wants me hanging around her friends. A lot of pony folk here think that Twilight is like a mother to me, but really she's just more of a... nerdy older sister, and I know that if I had any friends to hang with around, I wouldn't want to have Twilight around, constantly bugging them.
So it's not unusual for me not to go to one of Pinkie's spectacular parties. It's out of an act of sympathy. Twilight always tries to put herself in other ponies' hooves, and most of her friendship lessons seem to rub off on me, which totally stinks. Sometimes I could swear that the lessons were actually aimed at me, like one time she learned that the more risks you take, the more likely you're going to hurt yourself, but the way she worded it was: "If you mess with fire, you're going to get burned". Who messes with fire more than a baby dragon? I bet she thought she was being really subtle, but I saw right through that ploy.
Anyway, there I was, alone at home, waiting for something to happen: I'd already organized the bookshelves and dusted the place up, so that was my entire evening done, and I was a couple of hours ahead of schedule at least.
My favorite place in the library is probably the balcony, so it's pretty lucky for me that I have to go out there every time I send a letter to the princess - Twilight doesn't like the library getting smoky. Out of sheer boredom, I had walked out onto the balcony, and ZOOM! Splat! A meteor shot right out of the sky and landed in the Everfree Forest.
Initially, I was shocked, then excited, and finally, worried that anyone else had seen it, but I was fortunate. It was Fall, the running of the leaves had happened a week prior, and now the days were pretty short, and Luna was raising the moon really early afternoon. Maybe the princesses were attending Pinkie's party too or something, because they really got lazy that day. It wasn't late at all, but the moon was bright in the sky. The meteor had safely landed unnoticed right in... oh.
I had been hoping to go to where it had landed beforehand, but... Then I saw the smoke trails coming from the very center of the Everfree Forest, and I knew it was a lost cause. Twilight could have been back any minute! Maybe the party was a total bust! If I left, and she arrived and I wasn't there, she'd get so mad!
But I looked up to the moon, and said "Spike, come on. Be a manly dragon!" And I leapt up and roared triumphantly, yet quietly - Just in case. With vigor in my heart, I jumped down the stairs, two steps at a time, and out the door, off to...
The Everfree Forest...
With ninja-like reflexes, I slowly snuck across the silent streets, hoping to not make a peep of noise as I went along. The forest was creeping up to me. I saw Fluttershy's cottage to the right of me, resembling a face from where I stood, with the windows as eyes and the door as a mouth. It judged me. Well, it had about six eyes, and that was just from my perspective... and the door was split horizontally, so it was a deformed mouth... but regardless, the lights were out, and on such a dark and spooky night, it's not what you'd have expected from her cottage. What if she was injured! There could have been a burglar in there...
Wait, no, she was just at Pinkie's party. And yet still... maybe...
Nevermind, I was getting distracted from my initial goal. The Everfree Forest is awfully spooky, especially at night... how did Twilight do it against Nightmare Moon? Even now, I could see the bats and owls and poisonous bugs skittering around, gazing at me, daring me to enter. I might as well of rubbed myself in gravy, because I was probably about to enter some terrible creature's food bowl.
I dared myself to step forwards, and surprisingly, that worked. So long as my eyes were closed, I could only feel the scariness around me. It could be worst, I had thought, until Sweet Celestia, I kid you not, a bat just flapped right next to my ear. I hadn't blocked out my sense of hearing. With a scream, I turned and ran, evidently not out of the forest which was my initial path, but instead even deeper in. Even worst: I couldn't see the way out, and the trees were blocking the sky, so I couldn't follow the trail of smoke any more...
Unless... I started climbing!
I scurried over to the first good tree I could find, doing my best to ignore the sound of insects skittering away as I adjusted my footing. Digging my claws into the bark, I started scampering up to the nearest stable-looking branch. The ripping of bark peeling back was chilling, and I tried not to imagine the creatures waiting below for me. As I pushed away from the bark and dove to a branch, gripping as tight as I could, I heard the bark snapping bellow and crunching against the ground.
Until then, I had not realized how high up I'd climbed in such a small space of time, but it took at least two seconds between the breaking of the bark and the crunching it made as it shattered against the floor for me to realize my undeniable fate if I fell. On the plus side, the tree had much more branches, the higher up I went. Within a few seconds I had found my way to the top of the tree, which was no more than a leafy mess. Looking up, I realized the smoke was closer than I imagined, and maneuvered my way across the treetops towards it. I was only a few steps away! For whatever reason, this was making my heart race. Curiosity had made me possibly risk my life, and it was just about to pay off. I was so excited, I had stopped even looking at the branches I stepped on...
Big mistake.
Crack!
The tumbling sensation was too much, and despite the occasional branch which punched me in the stomach, the gap between any contact besides the wind through my scales as I rushed towards the ground was unbearable. Fortunately, a thorn bush was there to break my fall. Believe me, I still have a few thorns rustled into my scales from that experience!
Eventually, I found the power in me to get back to my feet. Looking up, I noticed something which was strangely familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It... looked like any old tree. But... there seemed to be some oddly colored fruit there. The colors of a rainbow. Then it came to me: This is one of those Zap Apple trees that the Apple family have! Funny that. I guess if I get back to Ponyville alive I can tell them-
Behind me, something began growling, extremely angrily. As I turned around, I found myself surrounded by wolves... peculiar wolves that looked to be made up of wood and leaves. They were chilling. As they encircled me, I tried to climb the Zap Apple tree, but instead received an electric shock, which felt as though I had been struck by lightning. Falling onto my back, I began feeling extremely dizzy, and darkness surrounded. Just when I thought my last living sights were going to be these weird creatures closing in, a blur of dark red swept across, and a wolf yelped in pain, as I blacked out.
When I awoke, it was still night time. A flurry of sticks and leaves surrounded me. And standing in front of me, intently studying my every movement, was a creature of darkness with spikes protruding from all around it's skin, sharp as broken bones.