"Sharky! Stay with me!"

"Huh? Oh... Esmerelda... I'm so sleepy... How long until Ponyville?"

"We're almost there! Hold on!" I was leaning heavily on my right arm, fading fast and the world was going black at the edges of my vision. I had lost all sensation of the wind rushing past me, and time seemed to pass slowly as my lifeblood left me. Esmerelda's scales beneath me were completely red. Not a glimmer of her blue scales were visible through my blood for at least a foot in every direction.

"Hold on... right..." I managed to get my eyes to focus on the neck spike in front of me, and I tightened my grip on it. "Esmerelda... I... I think I have an idea..."

"What? What is it?"

"I need you to land for a second..." Esmerelda started a gentle decent towards the ground. Soon she set down the eggs gently, and we landed. I fell sideways off her neck. We had settled down in a plain grassy field covered in snow. I couldn't see very far with my hazed vision, but there appeared to be nothing more than the occasional tree, snow, and grass in any given direction.

"Oh... you don't look so good... let's hurry this up and get you some help..." Esmerelda sounded very worried. I was too.

"Ok... I need you... to breathe fire on me..."

"WHAT?!"

"It'll stop bleeding... I'll live.. don't worry..."

"I'm already worried! Are you insane?!"

"Yes. Breathe now..."

"I... I can't! I don't want to hurt you!"

"If you don't, I die... Please..." Esmerelda shuffled nervously. Most likely having an internal conflict. After a few seconds, she sighed heavily.

"I'm so sorry..." She let loose a small blast of flame at me, scalding the cuts and melting the snow around me, but the fire stopped shortly after I let out a small scream. "Sharky?! Sharky, are you ok?! I'm hurting you! I can't do this!"

"No! No, I was getting better!" The fire had shaken me out of my dazed state. "Keep going! I'm still bleeding." Esmerelda squeezed her eyes shut, and let another blast of flame out at me. I managed to keep from screaming as the flames engulfed me, and soon all my wounds had been burnt to the point where blood could no longer leave my body. Esmerelda kept going for a few seconds longer than necessary, but she stopped soon. I groaned in pain, but pain was still better than the nothing I had been feeling a few minutes ago. Esmerelda's eyes were still squeezed shut.

"A-are y-you ok n-now?" Her voice was shakey. She clearly was upset by what she had done.

"I... I'm fine..." I grunted slowly. My whole body ached from the flame, but I was alive. "I'm going to live... I just need to get healed now..." I tried to push myself up off the ground, but my left arm didn't work and my right gave out from pain.

"Oh nooo.... I really hurt you sharky..." Esmerelda cooed sadly. She gingerly picked me up in her foretalon and held me next to her face. "Do you think you can still hold on?"

"Yeah... I'll be fine. I can't fucking believe you just did that. Hurry up and get us to Ponyville! I hate everyone there, but it's better than dying!" Esmerelda flinched.

"I'm trying my best... I don't like that Steven... he's mean to me..."

"He's mean to everypony... Now uh... I'm still in excruciating pain from that fire. Can we leave now?" Esmerelda let out a whine.

"Ohhh... I did hurt you... I'm horrible..." She lifted me up and placed me on her back. I managed to try to pat her soothingly.

"No... You just saved my life... Let's move, please... I think I'm going to pass out..." The world was spinning. Even though I wasn't bleeding any more, I still had lost a lot of blood.

"Don't do that! I can't fly you anywhere if you're not able to hold on!"

"Right... I think I'll be fine for now... I'll warn you if I think I'm gonna pass out." My blood loss was beginning to take back over from the shock of the fire. Esmerelda sighed and flapped to hover slightly over the ground. She grabbed all the eggs again, and we were off.

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Within minutes, we were over Ponyville. It was still the dead of night, and we had almost missed it in the dark. I didn't want to risk scaring anypony, so I asked Esmerelda to land near the back of the Apple's orchards. She placed the eggs careful on the ground, then settled down right at the edge of the large orchards. She lowered her neck, and I managed to half stumble, half fall off her neck and faceplant into the snow. I rolled over onto my back.

"Oh my... Are you sure you don't want me to fly you closer? You really look hurt..." Esmerelda sounded really concerned for me, but I didn't want her to worry.

"Esmerelda, I've died twice already, I'll be just fine this time too. Now... You need a place to stay..." Esmerelda made a few uneasy whining noises in her throat, but didn't openly complain. "There, you see that moutain over-- Oh god!" A large furry lump jumped onto my chest. I was startled for a few seconds, until I realized it was Fang.

"No! You can't hurt my friend!" Esmerelda plucked Fang off my chest, and looked like she was about to throw him away.

"No! He's not hurting me! That's my pet I told you about!" Esmerelda halted and looked closely at the wolf she was holding.

"Ohhh... so this is... Fang right? Well... sorry Fang..." She placed him back down and he threw her a happy yip, as if he hadn't just been about to die. He rushed back to me and started licking my face.

"Heh heh, yeah, this is Fang. Hey boy! How ya doin'?" He barked at me and kept licking my face. "Ok, ok I get it. You missed me. GAH disgusting slobbery mongrel!"

"Aww... He really loves you..."

"Yeah... I missed you buddy..." I tried to reach up to pat his head, but my left arm wouldn't move, reminding me of my current situation. "Oh geez... I need to get that potion now..." I kept my voice low in order to not further worry Esmerelda. "Uhh... Hey, you see that moutain Esmerelda?" I pointed to the mountain from the Dragonshy episode.

"Which one?"

"I don't know! Maybe the one I'm fucking pointing at dumbass! That one, right there." Esmerelda flinched.

"Right, I see..."

"There should be a cave just perfect for a dragon in it! You can take the eggs there and take care of them." Esmerelda gave me a shocked look.

"Y-you think I'm fit to take care of them?"

"Of course! You're one of the few nice dragons, right? Maybe if you raise them, they'll be nice too!" Esmerelda seemed to think for a moment.

"M-maybe y-you're right... but... I don't know how to take care of babies..."

"Oh! It's easy! Just ask me if you need any help!"

"Really? You would help me?"

"Of course! What are friends for? Just uhh... Don't come here to me. You'll scare everypony spitless..." Esmerelda looked crestfallen.

"You're right... I guess I forgot I'm still a monster..."

"No! You're not a monster! You just... you happen to... look like a monster? I'm not really helping..." Esmerelda sighed.

"Well... thanks for trying..." She sniffled.

"Well... I look like a monster too. Look at me! They accepted me, and with time I'm sure they'll accept you too!"

"No... no, I don't think they will... Our two species have been divided by war... They won't accept me for a long, long time..."

"Well, you've got a long, long time to spare! Dragons live for longer than anypony! Other than Celestia and Luna of course... Point is, they'll welcome you eventually! I'll help! I'm kinda famous... Maybe if I spread the word about you being nice, they'll welcome you really fast!" Esmerelda seemed to perk up a little.

"You can do that?"

"Of course! In the meantime... Just uhh... send out a smoke cloud if you need me ok?" She nodded.

"I think I can do that... Will... Will you come by and visit sometimes? Just to... I don't know... talk?"

"I can do better than that!" I winced as I reached into my pouch and pulled out my phone. "This thing will shoot out a blue light at you ok? After that, I'll be able to talk to you whenever I want!"

"Really?! That's fantastic!"

"Phone, add Esmerelda to my contact list please!" A blew light flew out of my phone and enveloped Esmerelda. Just as quickly as it appeared, it faded and a button for Esmerelda popped up on my contacts list. "There, now I can call you."

"Great! So... I guess... this is goodbye for now..."

"Yeah... I'll see you again soon I'm sure. Bye Esmerelda..."

"... Bye Sharky..." With that, Esmerelda took to the air with a sad beat of her wings. She grabbed the eggs, sent me one last sad look, then flew off. As soon as she was gone, I tried to sit up.

"Grrr... I need to get to Shadow..." I was able to sit up halfway, but I couldn't force myself up any farther. Fang seemed to suddenly realize howhurt I was. He whimpered with concern, then pressed himself up against my back. I was able to sit up with his help. "Thanks boy..." I leaned heavily on my right arm, and with some effort I managed to stumble to my feet. "Whew..." I groaned deeply and made a vow to not get this hurt again. I stumbled to the nearest tree and leaned on it, Fang followed me, supporting me when I stumbled. "Such a good boy..." With his and the tree's help, I eventually managed to stumble all the way to the Apple's house. I collapsed on their porch. "No... that's just not fair..." Their door was just out of reach, and I no longer had the strength to pull myself forward or even yell. Then, Fang started barking like his life depended on it. Within seconds, a light flickered on in the house, and I heard hoofsteps inside. The door flew open to reveal a sleepy Applejack. Her mane and tail were untied and wild. She squinted into the night and didn't seem to notice me at her hooves.

"What in tarnation... Fang! What're ya doin here at this hour?!" Fang kept barking like a crazed dog, he started guesturing at me with his head, but Applejack didn't look down at me. "Fang! Cut that racket out right now! Mah family's tryin ta--" She took a step forward right onto my back. She slowly looked down at me.

"Hi..." I muttered lightly. My voice wasn't working with me and I couldn't speak louder than a whisper. Applejack gasped and jumped away from me.

"Sharky?! W-what the buck are ya doin' here?!" She leaned forward and got a better look at me when I didn't respond. She gasped again. "What happened to ya?! T-that's gotta be the deepest cut Ah've ever seen!"

"Shadow..." Applejack jumped again.

"Oh, Ah'm on it! Shadow!!" She ran back into the house, leaving me laying on her porch. I could hear some rushed talking inside the house, but I couldn't focus much at all. I had been through more on this day than ever before. My body was physically incapable of going on, and I could feel myself falling asleep. I welcomed the oncoming rest, knowing I would live. I fell asleep before Applejack even came back.

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"Sharky? Sharky are you awake yet?"

"Ughhh... W-what?" I grumbled as I started waking up. I blinked hazily a few times. The world slowly came into focus. I was crammed into a small bed next to a table with a bunch of test tubes on it. A small star bear was curled up on the floor next to my bed with Fang. Shadow was standing next to me by the table. He looked worried. "Hi Shadow... What time is it?"

"Oh good! For a while there I was worried you'd be asleep forever!" He beamed at me. I frowned.

"Forever? How long have I been out?" He fluffed his wings nervously.

"Well... You see, I had to make you an extra strong healing potion..."

"Annnnddd?"

"It has some... severe side-effects having to do with sleep..."

"... Hey, just woke up. What'd I miss? What does that mean Shadow?" I was worried now.

"Well... You've been asleep for four and a half days..."

January, Thursday 31st

"THE HELL?!" I sat bolt upright in the bed. My arm was totally healed, leaving only a faint scar as evidence of it's existance. The small scars all over my body wre gone without a trace. "What did I miss?!" Shadow flinched and backed up a little.

"Uhh... I think everypony is finishing wrapping up winter right n--" Before he had finished his sentence, I leapt up and dashed out the door.

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Well, sorry to take so dang long! Finals really F***ed up my writing schedule. Now, I know the timing for the Wrap up is a little akward, but I'm making it before Hearts & Hooves day because there's no snow on the ground in that episode. Well, I'm out. Thanks for being so patient!