Fluttershy’s cottage – The edge of Ponyville

Fluttershy was just about to give her pet bunny, Angel, some milk to drink when she heard a loud roar. She jumped back in surprise, and dropped the bottle of milk all over Angel. Angel was clearly annoyed, but accepted the apology he got from Fluttershy.

“I wonder what that could have been?” She asked Angel, as he was jumping from the light green couch to the window frame.

When Angel looked out of the window he got a terrified look and immediately wanted Fluttershy to come and have a look. Fluttershy did as her bunny wanted her to do and looked through the window. She was shocked when she discovered what was happening outside.

Two dragons were chasing a pegasus out of the Everfree forest. Her fear of dragons instantly made her run and hide beneath one of the tables. Angel, however, saw in fear what was about to happen. The two dragons had nearly reached the poor pegasus. He acted quickly and jumped as fast as he could and gave Fluttershy a kick in her flank. She understood immediately.

“You’re right, I have to help him.” She said while building up some courage as she flew over to the front door.

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Sharpy finally reached the end of the forest. He looked in panic for the village of Ponyville. He spotted a road that would probably lead him to there, but now he realized his mistake was far greater than he first thought. He could hear one of the dragons yelling behind him.

“He’s finally outside the forest! Keep up the pace so we can catch him!”

Sharpy watched in fear how the two dragons started to catch up to him again. He tried to fly faster but couldn’t, he was simply too tired. The effort he had put on his wings and the injury from the bushes earlier, had probably damaged his right wing pretty badly, but he wasn’t going to give up. Ponyville couldn’t be far away now.

When Sharpy reached the road he immediately spotted Ponyville, but then he realized that the dragons were just behind him. He saw that the first dragon was reaching out his claws to catch him and the other one was preparing to breathe a large flame upon him. Sharpy acted quickly. As the first dragon tried to catch him, he dodged by flying slightly to the right. This made the dragon try and follow him. Little did he know that the second dragon had just let out a big ball of fire. The first dragon flew right into the fireball, which definitely hurt him pretty bad. The dragon let out a loud roar of pain upon impact. It distracted the dragons enough for Sharpy to get some space between them.

Surely somepony had to hear that. At least those who lived at the very edge of the village, Sharpy thought. He hoped for someone to help him, or at least let him inside their house. The dragons shouldn’t be able to get him then, if they didn’t want to fight the entire royal guard.

Unfortunately, no one came to help him or even opened their doors.

Didn’t anypony hear the roar? Sharpy got more terrified than ever. He looked back and saw the two dragons starting to catch up. The pain in his right wing ached badly. Is this the end for him? Is this how he would die? So close, but yet so far?

He’d given up all hope of surviving, but then a door opened. It was a cottage at the very edge of the village. A pegasus with a light yellow coat and a pink mane stepped out of the door.

“Hurry! Get inside my house!” the yellow pony made an attempt to yell, but Sharpy barely heard her well enough to understand what she meant. Then Sharpy realized that something was dragging him back. One of the dragons had grabbed his tail. Sharpy shouted in fear and the yellow pony screamed loudly, but Sharpy wasn’t going to give up that easily. He kicked the dragon straight in the face, causing him lose his grip.

Sharpy then screamed in pain as he pushed himself past his limits as he flew faster and faster. He managed to reach the cottage in time, and flew straight though the open door just to crash into a wall inside the cottage.

The yellow pony closed the door quickly as she ran back inside the house.

At first she hid herself under a table until she was sure the dragons were gone. After a short amount of time, she crawled out from her hiding place and went to check out the green and red pegasus. She could see that he was badly hurt, he had small cuts all over his body. A bunny then appeared from behind her. He looked worried and poked gently on the clearly unconscious pony’s hoof.

“Angel, all those wounds need treatment.” the yellow pony said to the bunny. “Could you be so kind and fetch me some bandages?”

The bunny named Angel apparently didn’t like taking orders, but he saw that this might be important so he saluted and jumped up the stairs. The yellow pony, however, started to carefully drag the green pony towards the sofa. He was quite heavy, but she managed to pull him onto it. She placed him in a comfortable position and then went to another room to fetch some water to wake him up. When she came back, Angel was sitting on a small table next to the sofa with the bandages ready.

“First of all, we have to wake him up.” the yellow pony told Angel. She poured the water over the green pony’s face, which immediately woke him up.

“Whoa, what?” Sharpy sat up all worked up. His eyes were wide open and he was out of breath. Then he started to shake. He groaned in pain and decided to go back to laying down.

“Yes, you should probably lie down like that.” the yellow pony said quietly. “If you don’t mind, that is.” Sharpy tried to thank the yellow pony for letting him inside her house, but all he could do was cough. The yellow pony immediately gave him some water to drink.

“My… my name is Fluttershy,” the yellow pony said. “You’re hurt pretty badly. Do you want me to help you?” Sharpy responded with a nod.

“My name…” Sharpy coughed. “…is Sharpy”

“Hush, now.” Fluttershy said with a sweet voice while cleaning Sharpy’s wounds. “We can talk later, if that’s ok?” Sharpy groaned but agreed. He needed some medical treatment after all. Fluttershy cleaned the small wounds and covered the bigger ones with bandages. When she touched Sharpy's right wing however, he shouted in pain. Fluttershy was shocked by the sudden shout, and took a couple of steps backwards.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know…” Fluttershy was truly sorry and worried, but Sharpy waved it off. After all; she couldn’t possibly know his wing was so damaged.

“My wing… It’s damaged” Sharpy groaned.

“Oh, I see.” Fluttershy responded and began to take care of his wing. After she had wrapped it with bandages she trotted out of the room. When she came back she held a glass with some kind of liquid. Sharpy, who felt a little bit better looked confused as the liquid was brought to him.

“It’ll help to ease the pain.” Fluttershy said with a shy smile when she noticed Sharpy’s confused face. “It might not taste so good, but it’s really important that you drink it.” Sharpy nodded, still confused.

“Is there something wrong?” Fluttershy asked, worried.

“No… I just…” Sharpy didn’t know what to say. He was used to having his claws to grab things, but all he had now were hooves. He knew that some ponies, the unicorns, had the ability to use magic, but how could the other ponies take care of themselves? He had seen that this Fluttershy had used her mouth when she treated him.

“… How am I supposed to drink it?” he finally asked. Fluttershy looked really confused by this question.

“Uhm… with your mouth, of course.” she answered carefully, after a few seconds. Now things started to get complicated for Sharpy. He didn’t want to tell anypony that he was actually a dragon. He feared, if he did, they would throw him out of their society, and then he wouldn’t get the help he needed. He didn’t want to stay a pony for the rest of his life, and dragons were immortal, so they couldn’t die of old age, just by getting killed.

But with this weak body, “the rest of my life” could be shorter than I might expect, he thought, uttering a little grunt. Fluttershy started to feel uncomfortable by the long silence. Sharpy noticed this and decided to do something. He grabbed the glass between both front hooves and shoved his muzzle inside the glass. He felt really stupid, but guessed this is how the ponies did it.

The drink smelled like trash and it tasted almost the same, but it worked. The pain slowly went away and he started to feel a little bit sleepy. He let out a loud yawn, and to that Fluttershy chuckled.

“Yes, the medicine usually does that.” Fluttershy said, and began to fly up to the second floor. “You can sleep on the sofa. Uhm… If that’s fine with you." She waited for Sharpy to nod, and when he did, she gave him a shy smile before she continued into her own room. Before she closed her door she turned and said with a calm voice,

“You’ll probably feel better tomorrow, and if you want to, I can introduce you to my friends.” Fluttershy didn’t wait for an answer, but gently closed her door.

I really hope one of her friends is a skilled unicorn. Sharpy thought to himself while looking inside her house. The house was really well built and it gave him a comfortable feeling just by looking at it. He couldn’t image how a pony could be able to do something like this, considering they didn't have any claws, but he didn't think too much about it. Then he saw Fluttershy’s pet bunny Angel jump across the room for his little bed. Sharpy decided to go to sleep as well. The medicine made him very tired and it was getting late, anyways.

I just hope one of her friends is a unicorn… Next Chapter: Chapter 3: Tour around the village Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 50 Minutes