”So you don’t know where we’re going?” Fluttershy asked once again. Spike shook his head.

“I’m sorry. Some kind of mountains, or something” Spike shrugged. That didn’t tell Fluttershy very much. There were a lot of mountains in and around Equestria. But she couldn’t accuse Spike for not remembering because she didn’t know either.

“Oh, it’s okay, Spike”, Fluttershy said and crouched so that Spike could easily climb up on Fluttershy’s back. “We’ll get there eventually”. When she made sure that Spike wouldn’t fall off from eventual shakings and such she took off. Neither of them knew exactly where the others had gone, but it wasn’t too difficult to follow their trail. First of all Fluttershy assumed they had walked on, or at least alongside, a natural pathway that were leading through the forest. Their hoofprints also gave them away. You didn’t have to be a detective to figure out where they had been going. But Fluttershy had some experience in tracking down animals. She was used to her animals sneaking out into the forest so that she had to track them down and bring them back. She was sure her skills would make it a lot easier to find her friends again. As they flew among the tree tops they saw how the trees progressively got smaller, but more alive. After just a couple of minutes of flying, almost every tree had green, beautiful leaves which hung over the pathway like a beautiful ceiling. Fluttershy didn’t think she’d ever call the Everfree Forest beautiful, but right here it really was. Spike looked at Fluttershy and she looked back at him. They both thought the same thing. We’re heading out of the Everfree Forest.

After just a couple of minutes they were out of the forest, but what they saw surprised them. There was a giant field of absolutely nothing. Sure, there were a few weird rock formations here and there, but nothing more than that. And the ground had a strange dark red color. It was nothing any of them had seen before. It was pretty obvious that something had happened here many years ago because, somehow, it didn’t seem natural. Fluttershy was very skeptical about going there. She just got the strangest feeling that something wasn’t right about this place.

“I don’t know about this place…” Spike said slowly, almost like he was suspicious of something. “I just got the weirdest feeling…” This confirmed that Spike just got the same feeling that she just did. This place just had to have a dark history. You could almost feel the anxiety in the air. Fluttershy shivered and she looked upon the scary looking field.

Then it just hit Fluttershy. Weren’t they supposed to go to some kind of mountains? She took a look around, but there were not a single mountain in sight. This didn’t look like she’d expected. Had she flown the wrong way? But she was certain that the others had walked this way. She started looking over the field to see if they had gone out there, but they were nowhere to be seen. She got nervous. Had they really lost them? Without warning, Fluttershy quickly started flying alongside the edge of the forest as a panicked attempt to find Sharpy. The sudden movement almost caused Spike to fall off. If he hadn’t placed himself in a safe position from the start he would surely fall off.

She flew for a minute without result before turning the other way around to look for them on the other side of their starting point. It took about two minutes before reaching the same distance from the starting point as her first flight. She looked and looked but couldn’t see them. She tried to listen to them, but couldn’t hear them either. Fluttershy didn’t know what to think. She just kept looking hopelessly from side to side. She’d lost them. How could she lose track of them? Everything had gone so well until now. She flew down to the ground again. The field was in front of them and the forest behind. She looked back at Spike, begging for an advice. Spike saw how worried and unhappy Fluttershy was now. She was panting violently and was probably too stressed to think straight herself, so that’s why she turned to him. Spike gave it a thought. It wouldn’t be vice of him to say something without figuring out the best possible solution. It would be very unnecessary to make Fluttershy more worried that what she already was.

“Well my guess is that they are hiding somewhere to recover”, Spike began, but it didn’t seem to have such a positive effect on Fluttershy. She turned her head away and looked out to the giant field again. That gave Spike an idea.

“Hey, Fluttershy!” Spike’s exited voice caught Fluttershy’s attention and she looked at him once again. “They are probably going out there since we were able to follow them this far”. Fluttershy didn’t seem to understand where Spike was going with this. So far he’d only stated the obvious. But Spike continued. “What if we could go out there, hide behind some rocks or something, and when they comes out of the forest we’ll be able to see them”.

Fluttershy didn’t have any high hopes but guessed it was their only choice since they couldn’t find them. She looked out over the dark, unwelcoming field. Spike pointed out some bigger rocks which would be a good place to hide and wait. Fluttershy nodded and flew over to the rocks that Spike had pointed out. It wasn’t very pleasant, but it would do for now. They had more important things to put focus on. Fluttershy tried to swallow her anxiety and just focus on looking out for Sharpy. She just hoped that Spikes was right and his plan would work. If it did; she’d never take her eyes from Sharpy again.

They waited for what seemed to be an entreaty, though it were only a few minutes, and Fluttershy had already started losing hope in finding Sharpy and her friends. But Spike did his best to keep the mood as high as possible by telling Fluttershy, and himself, that this plan should work. So Fluttershy tried to pull herself together, but it was hard to keep the negative thoughts out from her head. But then she saw them. They were walking out from the forest, not far from where she’d tracked them. Fluttershy and Spike looked at each other, wondering how they weren’t able to see them. They must have hid themselves really well. Fluttershy felt so relived. She had been afraid that they had lost them. Now it would be easy to follow them again, Fluttershy thought, but as she looked up in the sky she noticed something very unfortunate. There was not a single cloud in the sky. She bit her lip. This wasn’t good. Not good at all. How were they supposed to follow them now? If they tried to follow them without using a cloud as a cover they would surely be seen. And there were no cover on the ground to brag about. But they had to keep them in their sights or they would lose track of them again. Fluttershy could feel how her hope started fading away again. As she couldn’t figure out what to do she turned to Spike. He has come up with good ideas before, so she assumed he could do it again. And he didn’t disappoint.

“We could just wait here until we can barely see them, and then we start following them”, He said after a minute’s reflection. Fluttershy nodded. That should work. It might be a bit risky, but it was their only option right now. She looked at the sun, seeing it wasn’t so much time left until the sunset.

“And would it be a good idea to move closer when the sun goes down?” Fluttershy added. “Just to make sure we won’t lose them again.” Spike nodded to show her that he liked that idea. And so they waited. They saw how they slowly walked away in the distance. When they agreed that they were far away enough they moved out from their hiding spot. They didn’t move by air when that would only make the risk bigger of being seen. But after an hour or so, Spike noticed something in the distance.

“Is that a dragon?” he asked. It wasn’t directed to Fluttershy more than to himself, but he was certain that he could see a dragon in the distance. But then he got surprised by Fluttershy squealing and almost fell over.

“A dragon!? Where!?” Fluttershy looked in the air for the dragon. Spike pointed in the direction where he could see the dragon and then Fluttershy saw it too. It was heading their way. Fluttershy squealed once again and pressed herself to the ground as an attempt to hide. Spike took cover behind Fluttershy, but kept an constant eye on the incoming dragon. Spike realized it would surely see Twilight and the others. Spike saw how the dragon looked down on the little group of ponies and expected the worst. But the dragon just flew past. He didn’t mind the ponies at all and probably thought it would be unnecessary to wait time on something that didn’t bother him. As the dragon flew over Spike and Fluttershy he looked down on them as well. This time he seemed amused that the yellow pegasus was so terrified, but didn’t slow down to watch at all. Spike shook Fluttershy.

“The dragon is gone now. He didn’t seem to care about us”, Spike said to calm Fluttershy down. Fluttershy carefully looked up to make sure Spike was correct. Then she sat up and looked sadly as the dragon flew away. She shed a tear and looked back toward Sharpy’s group. Spike looked confused at Fluttershy, wondering why she suddenly felt so sad.

“I thought I had got over my fear of dragons... That I might have gotten used to Sharpy…” Fluttershy sobbed. “…But I was wrong… Will I ever be able to live with Sharpy?” Spike didn’t know what to say. He cleared his through over and over again, but didn’t say anything until he noticed that the group was getting further and further away.

“Errm… perhaps we should start following them again?” He said with an awkward smile. Fluttershy wiped away her tears and stood up.

“You’re right, Spike. I’m sorry… let’s get going”. Fluttershy said and started moving. They normally didn’t talk very much when they were on the move, since Fluttershy wasn’t very talkative. But this time it just felt really, really awkward. Spike didn’t like it at all so he made a few unsuccessful attempts to start a conversation, but Fluttershy was a bit down after she’d realized that she had still an uncontrollable fear of dragons. Spike truly felt sorry for her.

As they walked, a few similar events occurred where dragons flew past them, neither of them really cared what the ponies were doing and just flew past them, but Fluttershy reacted in the same way every single time. She squealed, threw herself to the ground and covered her head.

It got dark quickly. But unlike the beautiful nights they were used to in Equestria; this one was almost unnaturally dark. You could barely see your hoof in front of you. And the fact that the field looked even scarier now didn’t make it any better. Spike, however, could see just fine thanks to the kind of eyes he got.  Since Sharpy now had the same kind of eyes, they assumed he could see just as well, so they kept a little bit distance between them to be on the safe side.

But after a while they heard a terrifying roar. None of them was sure what it was or where it came from, but it sure was angry. Spike moved closer to Fluttershy. But Fluttershy could feel how she started shaking. It was terrifying to look a dangerous monster in the eye, but it was much worse when she couldn’t even tell where it was. But even though Fluttershy was scared, she felt like she had responsibility over Spike, so she covered him with her wings. She was the bigger one and she could take care of most creatures if necessary. In a peaceful way of course… as long as it wasn’t another dragon. Spike was looking out from behind Fluttershy’s wing to see if he could see whatever it was that caused that roar. At first he couldn’t see anything, but then he noticed some movements on the ground. It was just Sharpy and the others splitting up. Wait? Splitting up? That doesn’t seem right, Spike thought and looked at Sharpy who were now standing alone. The others had gone hiding behind some rocks. Spike saw that Sharpy was fixated by something up in the sky. Spike followed where Sharpy was looking with his eyes and then he saw it. A giant dragon was flying in the air in full speed. And by the looks of it, it was heading rights towards Sharpy.

“Fluttershy!” Spike shouted and pointed towards the dragon. “There a dragon and he’s attacking…” Before Spike could finish his sentence, Fluttershy interrupted him.

“I… I can see that…” Fluttershy said terrified and crouched unintentionally. It was just barely, but Fluttershy could see most of what was going on. She just wondered what Sharpy was about to do. Then he flew high up in the sky. Fluttershy expected him to start flying in the opposite direction, but he just hovering in the air, waiting for the dragon. Fluttershy saw what was about to happen. If Sharpy didn’t move now, he’d be sliced to pieces by that dragon.

“No, no, no, no…” Fluttershy whispered to herself and prepared herself you fly over there.

“Wait for me, Fluttershy!” Spike shouted and quickly jumped on Fluttershy’s back. Then she took off. But she didn’t come very far until the dragon was already right in front of Sharpy. There was no way she could help him in any way. But she didn’t have to. Waiting for the dragon to make the first move was apparently Sharpy’s plan. He was clearly planning on luring the dragon away from the others. He easily dodged the dragon and quickly flew away from it. The dragon wasn’t fast enough to react so he got a slow start, but soon he was after Sharpy again. Fluttershy tried to keep up with them, but they were so fast and she lagged behind. But with Spike’s help she didn’t lose track of them in the dark. When she finally reached them it appeared Sharpy was in trouble. The dragon was right behind him and was swinging his claws, making multiple attempts to catch him. Sharpy seemed to handle the situation pretty well, but if he didn’t do anything fast it would just be a matter of time before he’d get caught. Then suddenly, Sharpy flew as fast as he just could towards a grove. Perhaps he could shake the dragon off in there. But Fluttershy saw how the dragon was quickly behind Sharpy. The dragon reached out his claws to grab Sharpy, but instead of catching him, he tore up a long wound that went through his hind leg. Fluttershy’s entire body cramped as she imagined the unbearable pain that must have hit Sharpy. She saw in fear how Sharpy’s body twitched and fell down towards the ground like a rock. Fluttershy’s eyes had already started to get wet when she instinctively flew to Sharpy’s rescue. But the dragon was closer and faster. He grabbed Sharpy before he hit the ground and pulled him towards his sharp teeth. Now Fluttershy’s eyes were flooded. She saw how Sharpy didn’t even try to resist. Had he already lost all hope? Fluttershy could barely see from all the tears in her eyes. She didn’t know what to do, but she couldn’t just watch him die. So she took a deep breath and screamed from the top of her lungs:

“SHARPY! DON’T GIVE UP!” She didn’t know what else to do. There was no way she could harm that big dragon. But then something unexpected happened. Fluttershy didn’t see how, but Sharpy somehow broke free from the dragon’s grasp. Then Sharpy started attacking the dragon by biting it in its throat. The dragon pushed Sharpy away and flew quickly to the ground while trying his best to cover up the wound Sharpy’s bite must have created. Fluttershy saw how Sharpy left the dragon to his faith without looking back. She couldn’t believe how he could be so cold about it. Fluttershy quickly flew down to the wounded dragon. As she approached the dragon carefully she could feel both fear and hate when she looked upon him. But even though he tried to kill Sharpy, no one deserved to die like this. She asked Spike for his blanket. She needed something to put pressure on the wound so that he wouldn’t bleed to death. But before she wrapped the blanket around the dragon’s neck she wiped out the tears from her eyes. The dragon was next to unconscious, so it wasn’t so hard to cover up the wound with Spikes blanket. But as soon as she was done, she quickly flew away from the dragon. If that dragon would wake up, she wanted to be far away from it. As Fluttershy had taken care of that dragon’s wounds, Spike had held his eyes on Sharpy, so he knew where he’d went. Fluttershy could easily return to Sharpy thanks to Spike’s guidance. She noticed that Sharpy was flying really slowly and that he hung his head. Perhaps Sharpy’s wound was worse than what it looked like. With all that blood dripping from his leg he’d might suffer from blood loss too. And then suddenly without warning, Sharpy’s wings stopped beating. Sharpy fell to the ground in high speed. If Fluttershy wouldn’t catch him… he’d die from the fall. Without thinking, Fluttershy dove diagonally so that she would be able to catch him, but she realized she would be too slow. Fluttershy begged her wings to make her move faster. Just this one time, please. She tried to push herself to the max, and she did. She could feel how she accelerated, flying faster than what she’d ever done before while Spike tried his best not to fall off. But having Spike on her back slowed her down quite a bit. The air resistance was too strong. She wouldn’t make it. Fluttershy’s eyes got flooded with tears. She couldn’t let him die, but there were not much to do but to try to fly faster. She was so close, but Sharpy had almost hit the ground.

No, no, no, no, no…, Fluttersy repeated to herself. She saw before her eyes how Sharpy would hit the ground and get smashed against the hard ground. Her entire body was hurting at the moment because of how much she forced herself. But just before Sharpy would hit the ground, a rainbow-colored flash of light flew in front of her and suddenly Sharpy was gone. Before Fluttershy realized what just happened she got scared and looked terrified in all directions. Then she saw Rainbow Dash carrying the wounded Sharpy. Fluttershy stopped and looked at them. A quiet little laugh could be heard from Fluttershy. She was so relieved that Sharpy was okay she almost forgot to breathe herself. It was miracle that Rainbow hadn’t seen Fluttershy and Spike, so they agreed to keep out of sight and make sure they followed them in silence.

She was able follow Rainbow Dash without any problems thanks to the fact that she couldn’t fly so fast while carrying another pony.

When they got back to the others everypony was first glad to see that Sharpy and Rainbow was okay. But when they saw what condition Sharpy was in they got worried. Neither Fluttershy nor Spike could hear what they were talking about, but they looked worried at Sharpy, who were clearly unconscious. Twilight then brought forth a map and started pointing in various directions. Fluttershy hoped they were looking for a place to take care of Sharpy. He needed medical treatment now or else the wound could get infected. Soon it seemed like they had agreed about where to go. Twilight took the lead, Applejack carried Sharpy on her back and Fluttershy and Spike followed them. Spike noticed that Fluttershy was feeling a bit down, which was weird. Sharpy were safe in the hands of their friends and he’d survived an attack from a dragon. Spike decided that he would ask her about it. Later though, when they had found someplace to make a stop and rest.

It seemed like they were heading for a small lake that were running quite close to the Everfree Forest. This was probably the long way around, but Fluttershy assumed they needed the water to take care of Sharpy’s wounds. But did you really need water if you had magic?

“Can’t Twilight use her magic to heal wounds?” Fluttershy asked Spike. Spike answered by shaking his head.

“Medical spells aren’t her strongest point. They are quite tricky to master”. Fluttershy nodded. They were pretty close to the forest, so she went looking for a good spot where they could both rest and see how everything was going for Sharpy while they remained hidden. It wasn’t very tricky to find such a spot, since there were a lot of bushes near the edge of the forest. Fluttershy really needed to rest, so she lied down on the ground, looking most unhappy. Spike thought now was the time to ask her what was on her mind. This place was as good as any, and it would probably take some time for the others to help Sharpy.

“Fluttershy?” Spike got Fluttershy’s attention. She looked tired and sad. “Are you all right?”

“I…” Fluttershy began, but then she said nothing for a few seconds. “I don’t know. It’s just that I feel useless. I mean… I usually don’t mind that ponies think that I’m useless… Not until I can hurt other’s that is…” Spike recoiled. He didn’t expect to hear that.

“Come on, Fluttershy!” He said. “You’re not useless. Everypony likes you!”

“But I can’t do what’s important”, Fluttershy cried. “I couldn’t do anything to help Sharpy with the dragon. All I could do was to yell at him not to give up”. Tears started falling from her eyes. “And I wasn’t able to catch him, because I wasn’t fast enough! If Rainbow Dash hadn’t showed up, Sharpy would be…”

“But now he isn’t!” Spike interrupted Fluttershy. “And I’d say you saved his life thanks to your shout. He’d clearly given up, but just the sound of your voice made his hope to come back to life again! If anything, you saved his life! Don’t you see how important you are for us, and especially for Sharpy?” Spike was almost mad at Fluttershy for having such thoughts. Fluttershy was not entirely convinced, but Spike surely made her feel better. She gave him a sad smile and wiped out her tears.

“I just hope that he’ll be okay…” She said and looked at Sharpy through the bush they were hiding behind. “But if this is what happens when he encounters a regular dragon… I fear for what will happen when he encounters Huffy…” Fluttershy sighed anxiously and covered her face behind her hooves. Spike looked at Fluttershy and sighed. He felt sorry for her and tried to imagine himself in her situation. He opened his little sack and pulled out his blanket. At first he lied down a little bit from her. But then she saw her shaking. He couldn’t tell if it was because of the cold or sadness, but he felt like he had to do something. He walked up to her, put the blanket over her and lied down beside her.

“I’ll all be fine…” Spike whispered. Fluttershy lied quiet and sobbed for quite some time, before replying.

“I will not stand by and watch when it really matters…”

Next Chapter: Chapter 17: The Real Sharpy Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 40 Minutes