The sun was bright and the sky was clear. The six ponies were walking down the road outside Ponyville. They were all ready for a long trip and they were all wearing backpacks filled with all the necessary things. Sharpy was the only one who actually knew where to go, so he was leading the small group. Rainbow Dash was, more or less, randomly flying around the ponies on the ground. She constantly encouraged them to hurry up, which made the ponies more irritated than eager to move faster. Pinkie, who seemingly didn’t have her party cannon with her, was babbling non-stop. And as Rarity was complaining over the dirty road, Applejack was teasing Rarity, though in a friendly way. Twilight, however was looking questioningly at Sharpy as if she wanted him something. Sharpy took notice of Twilight’s look and slowed down so that he was walking alongside her.

“What’s on your mind, Twilight?” he asked in a much friendlier tone than what he used earlier today. This group was just what Sharpy needed. He hadn’t been alone for too long, but that was enough to make him almost fall into depression. He needed some true friends to socialize with to keep his mood up. And now he could call these ponies his friends and they had for most part accepted him as well.

“Well, you haven’t told us where to find this Huffy?” Twilight answered. Sharpy nodded. That was true, he hadn’t. He took a deep breath before answering.

“Seconds before my Crystal died she told me where I could find Huffy”, Sharpy turned silent for a second before continuing. “She told me that I could find him at Shadowcliff Mountains. It’s a mountain chain quite far from here”.

“Do you know where to go? Otherwise I might have a map somewhere…” Twilight said and started searching in one of her backpacks. Sharpy putted a hoof on her back.

“Don’t worry. I know where to go”, Sharpy said. He hesitated for a second. Twilight wasn’t sure what to think of this short hesitation, but allowed him to continue. “First we need to cross the Everfree Forest and then…”

“The Everfree!?” Rarity shouted. She didn’t like the Everfree Forest at all. Just thinking of it gave her the creeps.

“Yes, the Everfree”, Sharpy repeated. “And then we have to go straight through my homeland. Unfortunately, ponies aren’t very popular there, so we have to be sneaky”. All the ponies sighed.

“Great”, Rainbow Dash said. “First the Everfree Forest and then straight through region filled with pony-hating dragons”. Sharpy looked at her. He prepared to say something, but stayed quiet and just shook his head. He had no interest in starting an argument which would probably end up with him losing. Sharpy sighed. What Rainbow said was true as well. The dragons more or less hated the ponies and wouldn’t hesitate to attack one on sight. He felt shame for once thinking in the same ways as many other dragons. He used to at least dislike ponies, but after getting a better look on them and their society he realized that the dragons could learn a lot from them. No dragon truly liked the constant violence the dragons lived in. So why would they keep on living like that? A dragon is, by nature, more violent that a pony, but even for a dragon there was a line. And the dragon society he used to live in had crossed that line years ago.

“We’ve had some issues with dragons before, that’s all”, Rarity said as to continue on what Rainbow said. Sharpy didn’t really hear what she said. He was deep into his thoughts about the difference between the two societies. But he got immediately thrown into the reality. He looked at Rarity and gave her a fake smile so that she thought he heard what she just said. But Twilight wasn’t done with her questions. Sharpy still hadn’t told them what would happen after they’ve crossed the land on dragons.

“What happens after we’ve managed to get past all the dragons? Where do we go then?”

“Well…” Sharpy began slowly. “There shouldn’t be a problem to reach the Shadowcliff Mountains after that… but…” Sharpy got quiet. Everypony stopped and looked at him.

“’But’ what?” They all said in choir.

“Well, all I know is that’s Huffy’s there somewhere, but not exactly where. We’ll have to look for him when we get there”. Sharpy felt like he was about to lure them into some kind of impossible quest. He had no idea where to look when they get there. And as if Twilight could read his mind she stated the unpleasant fact that would make everypony frustrated.

“And as far as I know, the Shadowcliff Mountains is one of the biggest mountain chains known to Ponykind”, Twilight spoke slowly and the second she ended the sentence a lot of loud, unsatisfied groans could be heard throughout the little group. But Applejack just shook her head and walked up to Sharpy and Twilight.

“Well, let’s cross that bridge when we get to it, come on!” Applejack said determined and took the lead. Twilight shrugged and gave Sharpy a smile. And so Sharpy ran up to Applejack and the little group followed.

As they walked towards the Everfree Forest they were talking about all kinds of things. Sharpy was glad they followed him. His heart was still heavy because of the loss of his sister. That feeling would probably never end. He’ll have to keep that memory with him for his entire life. But he wouldn’t let that keep him away from living his life. And if he would get his revenge on Huffy, perhaps that would make it easier. He didn’t know what would happen if he managed to defeat Huffy or what he would do. But what he did know was that these ponies sure knew how to keep the mood up. Their happiness rubbed off on him. They encouraged him to join their conversations and he gladly did. It seemed like all his problems disappeared for a while. The only one who was missing now was Fluttershy.

Sharpy sighed as he thought of her. The same question came up over and over again inside his head. Did she still have feeling for him? As he thought of her he got silent. The others of course noticed that. Sharpy got that sad look again and then there was no doubt that something was going on inside his head. They looked at each other to make sure they all noticed the same thing. They all did.

“Is it about Crystal or Fluttershy?” Twilight asked. These are right now the only two reasons for Sharpy to feel like this, that much was obvious.

“Right now? Fluttershy…” Sharpy answered slowly. He then looked at the other ponies. He wanted to know what they knew about Fluttershy, but for some reason he didn’t dare to ask. But it didn’t seem like he needed to when Rarity tried to make Sharpy feel better.

“Well you see, dear. Fluttershy still loves you”, Rarity began and Sharpy could almost guess what the following sentence would be. “The problem is… you’re a dragon and… well…”

“She is terrified of me”, Sharpy sighed. “Thank you, I’ve noticed”. Sharpy didn’t want to sound rude, but there was nothing to do about it now. Now he just had to deal with Fluttershy’s fear for him, but hearing that Fluttershy still loved him made it a little bit easier to take.

“She is so confused”, Rarity continued, fortunately without taking any note of Sharpy being rude. “She doesn’t know what to do”. Sharpy nodded. This made sense considering her first reaction of seeing him earlier was happiness.

“You know what I think you should do?” Pinkie asked Sharpy. Sharpy looked at her with interest to show her that he wanted.  “When you see Fluttershy, go straight up to her, give her a hug, and then look into her eyes. Because I believe that a hug solves all problems! …Well most problems”. Sharpy nodded and smiled to Pinkie. He doubted that would be such a good idea. But it was at least something he’d think about.

As the little group moved on Sharpy got that weir feeling that they were being watched. He looked around himself but couldn’t see anyone. He could swear that he heard the wing beats of some sort, but when he looked up there was nothing there. He squinted to see past the afternoon sun that was still shining strong, but there was nothing there. His first thought was that the dragons that had chased him a few days back had been waiting for him to leave the village. And now that he did, they were back to finish the job. He got worried for a second but calmed down quickly. If there were two dragons following them they would’ve been noticed. They were out on an open road. There were still quite a bit before they would reach the Everfree, so there weren’t many trees to hide behind and there were no way a dragon would be able to hide behind the clouds without revealing him- or herself. But as he looked up to the clouds he thought spotted something yellow quickly dashing behind a cloud. Was there someone following them or did his mind play games with him? He decided that safety was the main priority right now and decided to check it out. He turned to the girls for a second, asking them to wait a moment while he checked ‘something’ out. They all looked confused but agreed to wait. Sharpy gave them a quick not before taking to the sky. His eyes were fixed on the cloud he’d just seen the yellow… whatever it was, hiding behind. He flew straight through the cloud to surprise the possible pursuer. But there were no one there. He shook his head. All these resent events must have been too much for him. He told himself that he was probably seeing things. Some sleep would probably be the best thing for him now. But they hadn’t reached the edge of Everfree Forest yet. That would be their first stop.

As Sharpy flew down to the others they looked questioning at him.

“It’s nothing to worry about. Just my mind playing games on me”, he said. Rainbow Dash nodded and said:

“A lot of things going on recently, huh? Well it’s not far until we reach the edge of the forest”.

“Yeah, I think we’re all getting a bit tired”, Twilight next to continued what Rainbow was going to say. “Perhaps we should rest when we get there?” They all thought that sounded like a good idea. Some upcoming rest encouraged the group to move faster and so they reached the Everfree Forest just when the sun was setting. The girls putted up a little camp, lighted up a small fire to keep them warm during the night and Applejack had some, of course apple-filled, food with her. Sharpy and everypony else enjoyed each other’s company. And it didn’t take long until the word “camping” came from Applejack.

“This is just like the time ah’ was camping with Applebloom and BigMac last year” Everypony laughed but agreed. You could definitely compare this to camping, except that there were on a mission to eliminate a powerful, dangerous and on top of that, magical dragon. As the sun was setting and it was getting dark, they decided to call it a day. All the ponies walked into their tents except for Sharpy. He was originally planning on going alone so he hadn’t brought anything. He was relying on his survival skills he’d learned as a dragon. But the others didn’t think it would be nice of them to let him sleep outside while they slept in their tents, but Sharpy insisted.

“No, thanks. I’ll think I rather sleep on the ground outside”. And with that said he found a suitable spot close to the fire. But just as he lay down he heard a shout coming from Pinkies tent.

“F.P.A.D.G.O.F.R.O.M.M.D!” The shout made everypony come out of their tent. They opened Pinkies then and there she was, sitting up and smiling at everypony as they looked confused at her.

“That’s the name of our team!” Pinkie continued with an even bigger smile. “Five Ponies And Dragon Going Out For Revenge On Mean Magical Dragon”. Everypony looked at her dumbfounded for a second before bursting out into laughter.

“That’s a good one, Pinkie”, Rainbow Dash said, with some difficulties of not beginning to laugh as she spoke. “But I think you might need to overlook that name a bit”. Pinkie answered with a simple “Oki doki loki”. Then she lay down again and began to think of another fitting name sense her first one perhaps wasn’t as good as she thought. Everypony was giggling as they went back to their tents. Sharpy went back to his comfortable spot near the fire. To his surprise he found a little green blanket. He didn’t know where it came from, but he didn’t mind using it though. It would probably get colder later and this would help him to keep warm. But he got to admit it was a bit creepy. He didn’t know that someopony even brought a blanket like this one. He looked around. Perhaps somepony took an extra blanket that she then gave to him. That would make sense except he hadn’t noticed that anypony gave him the blanket. But he was too tired to investigate this and so he simply thanked whoever gave him the blanked and closed his eyes.

Sharpy wondered how Fluttershy was doing. She had Spike giving her company, but perhaps she felt alone anyway. With these thoughts in his head he went to sleep. Hopefully he would sleep well and not being bothered by bad memories and such. Tomorrow they would enter the Everfree Forest and then he had to be alert and on his guard. There were a lot of dangers in the Everfree for a group of ponies. That much was certain.

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