Febuary, Saturday 2nd

"Cheep cheep cheep!"

"What?! Who?! Where!?" I jumped as my new robin chirped into my ear. I leapt straight to my feet and my robin chirped proudly. "What? You proud you woke me up? Imma fry you and eat you fucker!" My robin chirped affirmatively. "Yeah well... good job I guess. Fluttershy? Why were you sleeping with me?" As soon as I jumped up, Fluttershy and Fang had both rolled over and fell because I was no longer supporting them. Fluttershy blinked groggily a few times before she realized that I was asking her a question.

"Oh! S-sorry... I got lonely..." She brought her tail around her back and hid her face with it. I smiled at her adorableness and leaned down to hug her.

"That's ok Fluttershy! Glad you came to me then." I released her and went into her bedroom to get Unity. There wasn't anything apparently wrong with the room, nothing seemed tampered with, so I assumed that Unity used a lot of power yesterday. Sure enough, I picked him up and nothing happened. I breathed a sigh of relief and set him back down. I decided that I would let him sleep as long as he could. I walked back out into the living room.

"Why'd you go in m-my room?" Fluttershy squeaked.

"Just checking on Unity. He's still asleep, so I'm gonna go play with my pets. I'm hoping for a relatively normal day today." Fluttershy giggled.

"Normal? Hee hee, I doubt it if y-you're involved in it."

"Ha ha, you're most likely right. Well, I'm going to go start breakfast." I walked into the kitchen and quickly found the bread, butter, and a grapefruit. I popped the bread into a toaster and threw the grapefruit in the air. I swung at it with my right arm blade, slicing it clean in half. I caught both halves with my left hand and set them down on the counter. "Sweet! My agility is better now!" I cheered. I had no idea how fast I could move. A few seconds later, the toast popped up, just barely browned. I pulled them out for Fluttershy, then put in two more slices of bread for myself. The robin chirped in my ear again. I jumped a little and accidentally dropped the loaf of bread.

"Cheep! Cheep!" He was bouncing on my shoulder and guesturing to the birdbath on the sink.

"What, you wanna take a bath?" I bent over to pick up he bread and hit my head on the counter. I let out a hiss of pain and my robin chirped affirmatively. "Well then why the hell are you asking me? When you want something, feel free to go do whatever it is. Like Fang does! Isn't that right Fang?" I didn't get a response, so I quickly looked around. Fang was gone. "See?" The robin flew off my shoulder and right into the bath, splashing a little water on the counters. I smiled at him and went back to buttering Fluttershy's toast with my blades. "Geez these things are useful." My toast popped up, just as light brown as Fluttershy's. I popped it back in to darken it just a little more and put Fluttershy's food on a plate. I brought it out for her with a glass of orange juice.

"Sharky! Y-you weren't suppose to m-make me breakfast!" I placed her food in front of her and walked back into the kitchen.

"Too bad. Did it anyway." I walked back into the kitchen and waited until my toast popped up. I buttered it and started washing off my blades in the sink. As soon as I was done the little robin hopped on to my hand and walked up my arm. He perched on my shoulder comfortably. I ripped off a corner of a piece of my toast and held it up for him to eat. He pecked at it lazily as I walked back into the living room. I sat down next to Fluttershy and started eating as soon as my robin was done. Fluttershy scooted closer to me and leaned on me. She let her head rest on my shoulder.

"This is n-nice..." Fluttershy mumbled.

"Yeah, yeah it is."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... Well, I've got to go." The peaceful silence was broken as soon as I spoke.

"What? Why?"

"I need to go somewhere."

"Where?"

"Somewhere. I'll be back later tonight. Would you mind taking care of Unity while I'm gone?" Fluttershy gave me a confused look.

"Of c-course I will... Is s-something w-wrong?"

"Nah, just gotta do something important. I'll be back later, bye!" I stood up, causing Fluttershy to rock to the side a little. I walked out of the house quickly, eager to get to Esmerelda and back as fast as I could. I whistled as I walked out of the house, and Fang appeared out of the forest and ran to my side. I grinned and took off in the direction of the mountain.`

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"*gasp* *gasp* *gasp* Wow that's a climb!!! Never again fucker! I need this body too ya know!" I continued my mad gasping as I stood on the ledge to Esmerelda's cave. Fang lightly trodded up beside me, totally unwinded. My robin fluttered back up to me and landed on my shoulder. I looked at the both of them, totally fine and not tired at all. They almost seemed to be laughing at me. "What? C'mon, I actually had to climb! You flew-" I pointed at my robin, then to Fang. "-and you just walked up the damn mountain like a pony!"

"Sharky? Is that you?!" Esmerelda shouted from inside the cave. Her head peeked out followed by a long, scaly neck. "Oh, you really are here!" She brought her full upper body out into the sun, sending glimmering rays of blue light off of her scales in every direction. My little robin quit moving on my shoulder at the sight of her. His talons dug into my shoulder, and he let out a small chirp of fear.

"Hey, *gasp* calm down boy..." I soothed to him. Esmerelda seemed to notice the animals with me, and saw that she was scaring the bird. She quickly vanished inside of the cave.

"Ohhh... I didn't mean to scare your pet... I'm so sorry..." I laughed.

"Don't worry Esmerelda, *gasp* he's just a chicken in a *gasp* robin's body." My robin sqwaked indignently and flew off my shoulder and into the cave. Shortly after that, I heard more small chirps of fear from the cave.

"Oh no no... Don't be afraid... I'm nice, I wouldn't hurt a fly." Esmerelda cooed gently. The terrified chirps kept coming though, so I let out a small gasp-laugh and trudged into the cave. I heard fang's claws tapping on the stone as he followed behind me. I entered the cave to see Esmerelda curled around a huge pile of eggs and my little robin just in front of her, shaking like a leaf. "Please don't be scared, I'm not a monster, I promise!" Esmerelda sounded on the verge of tears. I ran in as fast as my exhausted body would let me and scooped up my robin.

"Don't *gasp* mind him Esmerelda. He's just *gasp* a great big chicken. It's not your fault." My robin nodded quickly in my arms crawled up to my shoulder. Esmerelda let out a sad sigh that blew my hair around wildly with the power.

"I wish I didn't scare everything I meet..." She curled her neck around the pile of eggs so that her head faced away from us.

"Oh come on, *gasp* you don't scare everything! Look at me, *gasp* I was never scared of you!" Esmerelda turned her head so that she could look at me with on eye.

"Yes, but you're a hero!" She argued. I groaned heavily.

"I'm not a *gasp* freaking hero!! Yeah, you're a douche." Esmerelda blinked at me and extended her head all the way to me. She looked me dead in the eyes.

"You're my hero..." She said simply. "You saved me. You saved these eggs..." She waved her head back to the eggs. "All just because you thought it was the right thing to do..."

"Well technically I was sent by Luna--"

"To kill me. But you didn't. You saved me instead. I will never forget that Sharky." I faltered for a moment. I had nothing to argue with that. I sighed.

"Look, I just did what anypony would've done if--"

"No you didn't. Others would have killed me, maybe me and Forge. You're special Sharky, I can tell." I was left speechless again.

"L-look, can you just not call me a hero? It make me feel... odd." Esmerelda nodded slowly and grinned at me.

"Very well, shall I call you savior?"

"What? N-no that--"

"How about my knight in shining armor? My champion? My--"

"How about your friend!" I laughed. Esmerelda's grin broadened and my robin stopped shaking on my shoulder.

"Very well, friend for now." What? "So, how are things for you?"

"Oh you know, pretty good. Just fought a vampire horde and all my friends are half-humans for some reason." Esmerelda frowned at me.

"Vampires? Do you mean vamponies? I thought those were wiped out of everywhere but the deadlands..." I gave her a curious look.

"What are the deadlands?"

"Oh, it's a horrible place that exists just outside of equestrian borders. It's filled with zomponies, vamponies, skeletons, and ghosts. It's a forgotten land that only exists in mare's tales nowadays."

"... So it's real, or a mare's tale?"

"It's real. All too real. Luckily the princesses have shielded it so that the dead don't escape."

"What if somepony goes in?" Esmerelda lowered her head sadly.

"They don't come out."

"That... That's horrible!" I found myself instinctively reaching for my sword.

"Yes, even dragons can be lost in that horrible place." She shuddered. "Anyway, you didn't come here to talk about that nightmare." I let out a deep breath and let go of the buster sword's handle.

"Right. Why did you call me here anyway?"

"Well... I just wanted to see you again..."

"Ok, here I am. How has your time here been?"

"Boring and lonely. This is just like my other cave, but warmer... The only socialization I've had since I last saw you was with these awful diamond dogs that refused to share any of their gems!"

"That doesn't suprise me. Well, did you manage to take any?"

"No! I'm going to starve I swear..."

"Well that won't do! C'mon, lets go get you some gems!" Esmerelda blinked at me.

"What?"

"Fly me to the gem mines so we can get you some gems!"

"What? You think you can just go get some gems?!"

"Well yeah."

"Then lets go!!" Esmerelda flashed towards me, grabbing me in her talons and flying out of the cave before I even knew we were moving. She grabbed Fang as she flew by him and somehow my robin was managing to hang onto my shoulder.

"Whoa! You must be hungry!!" Esmerelda seemed to not be able to hear me over the rushing wind, but she did lift me to her neck so that I could sit down. She lifted Fang to me too and I held onto him tightly. In less than a minute, we were at the gem mines. She landed quickly, causing a minor quake around her. Several areas around us all of the sudden caved in on themselves, likely areas where the diamond dogs had tunnels. "Uhh... try and be a little more gentle on the landing next time..." Esmerelda blushed through her scales and tried to hide her face behind one of her wings. I laughed and slid off of her neck with Fang. Sure enough, not a single diamond dog appeared. They were problably all terrified of the shake that Esmerelda just caused.

"I'm sorry Sharky... I'm just... so hungry..."

"Well you shoulda tried to contact me sooner." I looked around for the nearest hole. "Ah, there's one!" I found a hole about twenty feet away that hadn't caved in. "Geronimo!" I jumped in. Little did I know that it was like a thirty foot drop. I landed in a crouch, suprised to realize that I wasn't hurt. It was high noon, so even at the bottom of the hole I could see the sun. The place I had just landed branched off into four different tunnels. One in front of me, behind me, to my right, and one inbetween the one in front of me and the one to the right. I chose to head down the path behind me.

"Be careful Sharky!" Esmerelda shouted into the hole.

"Careful is my middle name!" I looked to my robin. "Hey, fly down that tunnel-" I pointed to the right tunnel. "-and see if you can find any gems. If you do, make some noise and I'll come find you. If you run into trouble, fly away and make some noise. I'll come help." The robin threw me a salute and flew off. "Ok Fang, you take that tunnel-" I pointed to the one in front of me. "-and make some noise if you find gems. If you find trouble... eh, if you find a lot of trouble, make some noise. If it's not too much... You know what to do." He gave me a wolfish grin and vanished down the path. I let out a breath and took off down my path. After following it for awhile, I came to a large room. I took one step in and wished I hadn't. "Well, looks like I won't have to worry about the others running into trouble..." The room was filled to the brim with diamond dogs. All of them had run in here from the shake I guess. They were all looking at me angrily.