Sharpy just stared at Rarity. And she stared back at him with determination. Sharpy didn’t really know how to respond. He thought about what Rarity said over and over again. ... learn how to love and tolerate… change your habits… believe… one just needs to believe…

These words echoed through his mind. He looked away from Rarity. Even after what he said, she believed in him. He started to feel warm inside. It could just be because he was inside the warm tent, but he believed that this was something special. He looked back at Rarity and smiled with all his heart. Tears then started to flow from his eyes. But it was not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. His faith in himself had been extremely low, but these ponies knew how to make you see hope in the darkest of times. Rarity’s eyes softened and she returned the smile. The next moment they embraced each other in a heartwarming hug.

“Thank you, Rarity”, Sharpy whispered in her hear.

“That’s what friends are for”, she replied.

The next morning, Sharpy woke up and found Rarity sleeping not even a foot away. He’d considered going back out yesterday night, but Rarity insisted of letting him sleep inside her tent. And when comparing the cold, windy weather outside to the warm calm atmosphere inside the choice was easy. Nothing really happened after that. They just went straight to sleep.

Sharpy didn’t know what time it was. He was used to sleeping much less than these ponies. The sun was up, that much was obvious, but he didn’t want to wake up Rarity by limping out of the tent. He just stayed put and looked at her, thinking about what she had said to him. Thought that which was most important to him was that she still believed in him. He knew that she didn’t really trust him just a couple of days ago, but that had changed now. And she gave him hope that he could actually learn how to control his predatory instincts. But Sharpy had still a nagging feeling that he could completely lose it if something would happen during their upcoming battle with Huffy. But Sharpy shook those negative thoughts away. He was devastated enough as it is. There is no reason to make it worse thinking of things that probably won’t happen. A movement from Rarity caught Sharpy’s attention. Rarity had her back turned against Sharpy, but now she turned around. She yawned, unusually sophisticated, and slowly opened her eyes. She looked at him with a puzzled look for a second before giving a tired smile.

“Good morning, Sharpy”, she said and yawned once again. “Have you been awake for a long time?”

“No, I haven’t”, Sharpy laughed. “I just woke up”. They looked at each other for a few second before somepony started punching the side of Rarity’s tent. They both looked confused at the place where the punches came from.

“Y’all awake in there?” They heard Applejacks voice from the outside. She sounded a little bit irritated, but mostly amused. “Come out of y’all want somethin’ to eat”. In just a couple of minutes, Sharpy and Rarity were both up and ready. Rarity offered Sharpy to help him walk out of the tent, but Sharpy said no.

“It’s not that bad, really”, Sharpy lied. The truth was that he could barely walk normally. He could only use three legs, since it hurt too much to walk on the fourth. Rarity noticed this of course, but allowed Sharpy to have it his way. Sharpy limped out of the tent after Rarity to find all the other ponies sitting around the campfire. This was a bit unusual for Sharpy. He was used to sleep a lot less than the others, but now he was, next to Rarity, the one who slept the longest. Applejack walked up next to Sharpy and looked at his hind leg.

“You alright, hun?” Applejack asked concerned when she saw how badly Sharpy walked.

“Yes, I’m fine”, Sharpy said and failed horribly at walking normally.

“I ain’t so sure about that”, Applejack said and pointed at his bandaged leg with her hoof. Sharpy just grimaced and tried to wiggle his leg a little bit only to realize it was just as bad as it looked like the night before. He wouldn’t be able to walk around like this.

“I think you should start using your wigs for a change”, Pinkie Pie said. Then she shone up. “You could fly around with Rainbow Dash and do cool tricks with her!” Both Rainbow Dash and Sharpy laughed awkwardly at that. Sharpy would be forced to use his wings from now on, but if he’d be able to do any tricks was a highly doubtful.

“Let’s just eat up so that we can get a move on before sunset”, Twilight joked. Said and done. Sharpy, Twilight and Applejack all sat down with the others and enjoyed their breakfast while listening to Pinkie Pie’s nonstop talking. During their time, both Sharpy and Rarity noticed how Rainbow Dash was looking at them with a little bit too much joy in her eyes.

“Is there something you want?” Rarity asked politely without any sign of irritation.

“Noooo… nothing”, Rainbow Dash said and rolled her eyes. “I was just wondering if you and Sharpy, over there, did something… special, this night? You were awake for quite a while”. Rarity just looked insulted by Rainbow Dash’s accusations, while Sharpy started chuckle.

“Rainbow Dash! How do you…? I don’t even…” Rarity stammered. Sharpy just chook his head and continued to chuckle. To him it just sounded ridiculous. Sure, Rarity was a nice pony and all, but his heart belonged not to her, but to Fluttershy.

“No, Rainbow”, Sharpy said after a few awkward seconds. “We were just… talking”. Sharpy didn’t know if he wanted to reveal what they talked about just yet. And more importantly, he didn’t know how to say it. Yesterday night it just came out of him. He didn’t really know what he was saying at that moment, but he sure remembered what was said. Rainbow suddenly got interested. He trusted that Sharpy was telling the truth, but she wanted to know more.

“What were you talking about?” she asked. Sharpy looked at her innocent smile as she tried to make him talk. But Sharpy just shook his head.

“I’ll tell you later, ok?” he said promising. “Let’s pack things up and get moving first”. Rainbow accepted Sharpy’s excuse, but with a sly smile she walked over to Rarity to see if she had better chances with her. Sharpy just rolled his eyes, doubted she’ll get anything out of her. Soon everything was packed up and they were ready to go. Sharpy realized that walking would be next to impossible and would take too much time, so he took to the sky alongside with Rainbow Dash. But he and Rainbow didn’t talk too much as she was still trying to make Rarity talk. As they proceeded he saw as the familiar mountains were coming closer and closer. Soon he’d recognize his former home. Or at least he hoped he would.

After almost an hour of constant flying, Sharpy could hear Rarity’s voice from the ground down below. She was calling for him, so he flew down to hear what she had to say.

“Rainbow have made everypony almost too interested in what we talked about yesterday”, Rarity said carefully. “What should I do?” Sharpy looked at her for a moment and then at the other girls who were eagerly waiting for Rarity to come back. Sharpy looked back at Rarity and sighed.

“Don’t hide anything”, he said sadly. Rarity just nodded and turned around. She walked up to the other with firm steps. Sharpy looked very insecure as he watched Rarity meet up with her friends. For a second he regretted the decision of letting Rarity retell their conversation last night. Sharpy didn’t know how they would respond to what she was about to say. Perhaps they wouldn’t take it as good as Rarity did. Then again, he wasn’t sure how Rarity would respond. He just hoped that they would understand just as much as Rarity and if they didn’t, she’d be able to change their opinions. Sharpy hung his head in shame as he imagines how they would look at him differently. He glanced at them, just to see that they were all looking at him with surprised faces. Sharpy looked away. This couldn’t be good. These ponies where all he got now, as he surely wouldn’t be welcomed by all dragons he once knew, if he looked like a pony. He doubted they would recognize him like his sister did. Sharpy sighed. He guessed he could only accept whatever was going to happen and try to go from there.

***

Rarity walked up her friends that were eagerly waiting. They all looked at her with interested eyes. Rarity couldn’t blame them. She and Sharpy had a conversation late at night without anypony else knowing about it. Well except for Rainbow Dash, but she had other theories in her mind.

“I asked Sharpy if he was okay with me, telling you, what we were discussing about last night”, she began. They all looked deep into her eyes, hoping that she came with Sharpy’s permission. “I was told not to hide anything”. They all seemed very satisfied to hear this, but Rarity herself wasn’t so sure this was a good idea. Sharpy had opened up to her in a way that made you understand his situation better. She just hoped she could retell what he said to her. Rarity took a deep breath and began. She tried to relive yesterday night exactly as it was. When she retold their conversation she didn’t remember every single word, of course. But everything important was there. The ponies had their eyes wide open during the entire time Rarity was speaking. From time to time they looked at Sharpy, just to quickly look back at Rarity. When she was done, she was worried that the message might not have touched them at it touched her. Applejack was the first to talk, looking very disturbed.

“Ah can’t… Ah just don’t know what to say…”

“I feel sorry for him”, Pinkie said right after Applejack was done. She looked a bit sad, though. “He can’t help who he is…” After a moment of reflection, Applejack nodded, agreeing with Pinkie. Rainbow wasn’t entirely convinced, though.

“I don’t know… Can we really trust him?” she said and looked at the others.

“Of course we can! We know him well enough to say that he’s nice.” Twilight said. “And as his friends we have to support him. And if what you’re telling us is the truth, Rarity, he needs our support now more than ever”. Rainbow bit her lip and looked down.

“I suppose you’re right”, she said. “Let’s go back to him”.

Rarity sighed relieved. She was worried there for a second, but it all turned out for the best. And as that was all she had to say, she walked back to face Sharpy once again.

***

Suddenly a pink pony appeared right in front of Sharpy’s face. Sharpy flew backwards in surprise as Pinkie Pie was hopping around him in circles.

“Come on, Sharpy. Lighted up!” Pinkie said with a smile. “We won’t leave you, silly”. Sharpy didn’t react for a few seconds. He was still in chock after Pinkies sudden and unpredictable emersion. Applejack soon arrived and looked Sharpy, who were now on ground level, in the eyes.

“Sugarcube”, she looked serious. “You might not trust yourself… but we sure do trust you”.

“Hey, Sharpy”, Rainbow Dash said from behind him. Sharpy turned around so that he could see her. “Yeah, you’re a cool guy, Sharpy. Don’t you worry”. And last, but not least, Twilight Sparkle carefully pulled him closer to her.

“Sharpy. We’re your friends and we’re in this together”. She gave him a quick hug before backing off. “Don’t forget that”. Sharpy just looked from pony to pony. He wasn’t sure what just happened and he was still processing it. He looked over to Rarity who just stood there with a satisfied smile, looking at everypony. Sharpy soon realized that he’d just been officially accepted by all his pony friends. He was surprised to say the least. He actually half-expected them to chase him away after hearing what Rarity had to say. He guessed that’s what he would have done in their situation. And that’s what his former friends would have done without question. But they accepted his flaws and wanted to continue their hunt. Sharpy smiled. He couldn’t have asked for better friends. The only one me missed was one certain yellow pegasus and this moment would be perfect.

“Thank you, everypony”, he said and gave them all one hug each. And when he came to Rarity he held her a little longer.

“And thank you, Rarity. I really needed somepony to talk to and get if off my chest”, he said, released her and looked her in her eyes. “I don’t know what I would have done without you”.

“I’m just glad I could help”, Rarity said and blushed. Sharpy found her very cute when she was blushing and he couldn’t hold back a happy laugh. Sharpy then turned around to thank all the others one more time for being there for him, but mostly for the simple thing as trusting him. Their trust meant a lot for him. Especially when he still didn’t trust himself completely.

The following hours went just fine. There were no inconvenient interferences and everypony was very social and open. Sharpy got a few questions of how he felt every now and then, but he always said that ‘everything is fine’. And for the moment it really was. Rainbow Dash was flying around the group, talking to more or less everypony. Pinkie Piewas as happy as ever, but also talked as much as ever. Applejack, Twilight and Sharpy spoke as fast as they got the chance. Sharpy was flying close to the group the entire time and Rarity tried to be as close to Sharpy as possible. Everypony enjoyed the company and Sharpy could for the first time since they left from Ponyville that he actually was happy and satisfied with his situation. He tried to enjoy every single moment, knowing that it could end at any moment. But behind all happiness he started to feel guilt. He was dragging these innocent ponies into something he himself wasn’t even sure what to expect. He tried to persuade himself that they were here on their own accord and everything was going to be fine, anyway. He managed to take down a full grown dragon all by himself. Surely Sharpy wouldn’t stand a chance when it was six to one, right?

Sharpy tried to shake any negative thoughts away. He couldn’t afford to be too deep in his thoughts when they arrived at the Shadowcliff mountains. And they were just getting closer and closer. In just an hour or two they would reach the foot of the mountain. Sharpy just hoped that they would find Huffy before Huffy finds them.

“We’re in this together”... that’s what she said.

Next Chapter: Chapter 19: Misunderstandings and New Areas Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 17 Minutes