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// Keeping secrets 
// Story: Love and chaos 
// by sapphiresong 
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	I struggled up the long flight of twisted,elaborate stairs. Normally these stairs would have been easy to climb (or at least a little bit easier...). But right now was different. Right now I was carrying more than 37 pounds of chocolate in my saddlebags. Sure, it doesn't sound like that much when you say it, but after hauling the saddlebags over only half of the stairway I was already exhausted.
"Luna!" I shouted up the stairs. "Can you come give me a hoof?" I waited a minute and,after what seemed like ages, my little sister appeared beside me and, taking my saddlebags, she began to whisper in my ear.
"Good job finding the chocolate,Tia," Luna began "But  I wouldn't be shouting if I were you. Somepony might hear you."
"I needed help. It was the only way." I shot back.
"Where did you get that much chocolate anyway?"
"...Found it."
Luna stared at me for a few moments. Then, realizing the pointlessness of trying to get me to talk, she changed the subject. "He's getting really big. I don't think we'll be able to keep him a secret for much longer."
My sister was referring to Draco, a strange creature (a draconequis as we called it) we had found in the everfree forest. I had adored him instantly When we had found him, he had been lonely, timid, and malnourished. However, over the course of the past two weeks, he had grown to be the same size as my little sister. We guessed he was close to our age but had been previosly stunted. With my safe, cozy bedroom as his habitat (and a steady diet of fish and chocolate), he was growing closer to his current potential size. he even learned to speak two words- "hi" and "more".
We both knew that it was only by a stroke of incredible luck that he was still unknown to everypony else. And with him getting bigger, smarter, and more curious by the day we knew it was only a matter of time before our secret was revealed.
My train of thought was inturrupted by a happy sigh from Luna. We had finally reached the bedroom. Luna opened the door and placed her burden of chocolate on my fluffy pink bed. Then, turning swiftly around, she went to open the closet door and inform Draco that his food was here.
I realized even before I heard her gasp that something wasn't right. The room seemed too quiet, too peaceful. Something big, obvious, and chocolate-loving was missing from the room. I turned to my sister as she gasped. I felt my heart stop for a moment, and we both uttered the same horror stricken words at once.
"Oh,buck."
Swiftly turning around on her graceful, delicate hooves, my sister began to desperately search everything in the room. She yanked books from the bookshelves, shuffled through the toybox, and pulled every last pillow and blanket from the bed. her ocean-colored eyes seemed to grow wider with panic by the second.
My efforts were no less. In full panic mode, my heart beating so fast I felt it would pop out of my chest, I began searching. I shoved myself under my bed, my white fur becoming a dingy grey color from the dust. I went into the closet and pulled out every last dragon plushie in my collection, just to make sure Draco wasn't underneath. I shuffled through various bright-hued dresses, but none of them revealed a hiding draconequis underneath.	
By the end of our search, the room was destroyed. Toys, books and pillows lay in heaping, unsorted piles all over the floor. Everything I had touched was covered by a light dusting of,well-dust. Luna and I sat down in the middle of it all, with bedraggled manes and looks of panic and exhaustion on both of our faces.
"He's not here. H-he's not here." I wheezed tiredly. "Oh Luna, where could he be? What are we gonna do?"
"I don't know, sister." wheezed Luna in response.
I stood up suddenly, a look of triumph crossing my face. "We can do it," I said. "We can find him. Why, even if we have to search the whole castle, I'm sure we can do it."
"Alright,Tia," Luna smiled a little, then continued. "You're right. Let's do this."
Grabbing several bars of chocolate each, we srode down the stairs to search for our lost little friend.
"Draco!" we both called out in unison as we walked down. "Come here! we have some nice yummy chocolate for you!" We waited a few minutes, but there was no response. We called out again "Draco! time to eat!". There was still not a sound in response to our calling. 
Luna sighed, then muttered "I think this is going to be a lot harder than we thought."
"You said it."
"I mean, really! I know he could be anywhere in the palace by now, but how far could a thing like that go without being noticed?"
As if it were meant to be a wordless response to her question, we heard a scream coming from a downstairs hallway. Running as fast as we could down the stairway,we came to a halt on the thick,red carpet in the main room of the palace and listened carefully. We followed the sound until we found the pony who was screaming.
It was a blue unicorn mare with a long,spiky jet black-and-blue streaked mane, glittering sapphire eyes, and a short spiky tail the same colors as her mane. She also wore a shimmering black cloak that was currently being pulled by Draco, revealing her cutie mark( 3 light blue stars) underneath.
"Let go of my cloak, thou silly critter!Thou cloak-devouring beast!" She exclaimed, waving her hooves at Draco. The draconequis took no notice of her, however, and continued tugging contentedly on her cloak.
I began to giggle, struggling to hold back a fit of laughter. Luna, however, gasped and quickly strode up to Draco, attempting to dislodge him from the other pony's cloak. "My deepest appologies, dear citizen. The fault is mine. Art thou alright?" She began, attempting to calm the unicorn.
I couldn't help but admire Luna's ability to remember her proper speech in a situation like this. Proper speech was the manner of speaking we were supposed to use when speaking to the subjects(other ponies used it sometimes,too. But it was far from casual). Luna and I both hated proper speech, but we had to use it anyway. It was just what was expected of us.
I walked over to assist Luna in removing Draco from the cloak. Grasping Draco firmly around the waist with my hooves, I gave him a firm, unrelenting tug  with all of my strength and...
RRRRRRRIIIP!
Draco was removed from the cloak, but so was half of the fabric. All three of us gasped in unison at the shredded piece of black fabric in front of us. It was clear that even if somepony attempted to mend the fabric by patching it or sewing it back onto the other part of the cloak, it would never be the same again.
Tears began to well up in the blue unicorn's eyes. "M-my c-cloak...My mother g-gave that to me..."  She stammered. Then she collapsed on the ground in front of the shredded fabric, shedding silent tears as she stared down at the ruined cloak with wide-eyed disbelief. 
Luna trotted slowly and silently over to the distraught mare and gently placed a hoof on her shoulder. the unicorn looked up at her, and Luna murmured something softly to her that I couldn't hear. The mare looked up into her eyes, seemed surprised for a moment, and softly spoke a single word.
"Thanks."
I looked away from thier conversation and walked over to Draco, who was now sitting in a corner. His head was hung in shame, indicating that he'd realized his crime. I looked him in the eyes, which were brimming with tears of regret. I'm sorry, his look seemed to say. I pulled him into a warm embrace in my hooves, as if to reply it's okay. We all make mistakes sometimes. He looked up into my eyes and smiled.
I looked back at Luna expectantly. Turning from the blue unicorn, she walked over to me and said "Sister, could thou take Draco back to thine bedchamber? I must retrive my purple cloak from mine." 
It took me a moment to realize what Luna needed her cloak for, but then I realized it. I poked Luna delicately on the shoulder. "Your purple cloak? But that one's your finest!" Luna's purple cloak was a wonderful one, deep,dark purple and covered in sparkles with a blue star-shaped jewel on the front.
"She deserves no less. After all, it was our fault her special cloak ripped."
Even I myself would never be able to part with something as special as that cloak was to Luna. I could scarecely believe it. And now, here she was, giving her cloak to a random stranger to make up for a mistake that wasn't even completely her fault. That's my little sis, I thought proudly. She's so generous.
Smiling and waving to Luna as she headed off to fetch her cloak, I turned back to Draco and grabbed his paw in my hoof. Then I began walking back towards the long flight of stairs to my room. I had almost reached the stairs when I ran into two ponies who were walking by.
I opened my mouth to apologize for the inconvenience but my words caught in my throat as I looked up at the ponies standing before me. I pretended to clear my throat and nervously spoke, a sheepish smile crossing my face.
"Hello,mother. Hello,father."