They were currently face to face with a giant dragon. This wasn’t something Rainbow was used to. She usually had a good idea of what to do during dangerous situations like this, but now she couldn’t think of anything. All she did was staring right into the dragon’s two, red eyes. She was terrified. And the fear paralyzed her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, and couldn’t flee. The dragon had completely forgotten about Fluttershy and Spike, who were now making their escape, while the dragon was focused on her and Sharpy. She tried to ask Sharpy what to do. He seemed more used to this stuff. A natural fighter. But she couldn’t make a single sound other than unclear mumbling. She slowly took her eyes from the dragon and looked at Sharpy. She expected him to look strong, in control and ready for battle. But what she saw frightened her even more. Instead of the confident pony she was used to see, she saw a weak, defenseless and scared little colt. He was terrified beyond compare and he didn’t hide it.

Her eyes returned to the back-scaled dragon as he leaned forward. The dragon stopped when he was just a couple of meters away. But he didn’t even bother to give Rainbow a quick look. He was only focused on Sharpy. Rainbow backed off when the dragon came closer, but Sharpy remained. He didn’t even more a muscle. The dragon looked at Sharpy for a few seconds before a sinister smile grew on his face.

“Sharpy… welcome home…” the dragon said slowly with a kind of tone which would make even the bravest of ponies shake in terror. And Rainbow Dash did.

“So this is what you have become…?” the dragon continued and looked at Sharpy in disgust. “It’s sad, really. And you’ve even become friends with these, too?” The dragon nodded in Rainbow’s direction without looking at her.

Rainbow saw how Sharpy grew angrier as the dragon spoke. He was still afraid, that much was obvious, and his entire body was shaking. But he wasn’t shaking of fear, no. He was shaking of anger.

Then it suddenly hit Rainbow. That dragon could be Huffy! He matched Sharpy’s description he gave her during their walk from the Everfree to here. She couldn’t believe that she was so slow to realize that. Rainbow now looked at the dragon with new eyes. She guessed that’s why Sharpy wasn’t already on the run. Fluttershy and Spike were safe and they could probably flee from the dragon if they’d like to. There were plenty of hiding spots all over the place. But yet he remained. But the dragon, presumably Huffy, didn’t attack him and neither did Sharpy. What were they doing? But then she noticed that Huffy started to smile. But that was not a very encouraging smile. That smile gave her the creeps. Rainbow lowered her head and prepared for action. She gave Sharpy a quick look.

“Sharpy?” she said while looking at Sharpy for a quick moment before, one again, turning her head towards Huffy.

“Yes?” Sharpy said slowly without letting his eyes go from Huffy.

“I’m not one for strategies”, she said quickly. Sharpy turned around quickly.

“Whatever you do, Rainbow, don’t…” but it was too late. Rainbow were already right in front of Huffy. Huffy wasn’t ready for that at all and staggered for a moment, giving Rainbow an opening. She took the opportunity to kick him with everything he got right in his face. And at nearly 150 km/h that kick had some effect. Huffy was pushed backwards as he covered his head to prevent an upcoming attack.

Sharpy saw how Huffy backed off a few steps. Rainbow Dash sure had some amazing speed and power. That kick got to hurt a lot. But even so Sharpy just grunted. He didn’t want to fight Huffy like this. There was no way they would defeat him without everypony here and especially not without at least some kind of plan. But perhaps they could hold him off until the others had made their way down the mountain. If they actually managed to hold him off for such time, they could perhaps corner him and trap him against a stone wall. Sharpy brightened up a bit. He wouldn’t be able to move at all!

When Sharpy noticed that Huffy was too focused on Rainbow to even notice him, he took the opportunity to sneak up behind him. He flew fast, because it would just be a matter of time before Huffy would notice what he was up to. But it seemed like Rainbow did a pretty good job distracting him. And she was too fast for his attacks with his claws and teeth. But when Huffy began to breathe fire, it was harder for her to dodge it. Sharpy was now behind Huffy, but he had to think fast. Otherwise, Rainbow wouldn’t last very long. He looked at the dragon’s back. Where and how to strike? He opened his mouth, revealing his sharp teeth, and flew directly for the neck. The neck is always a good choice if you want to create some critical damage. Sharpy’s teeth cut easily deep into Huffy’s neck. Since he was coming from behind, he couldn’t reach any vital veins, but it sure hurt. Huffy roared loudly in pain and leaned back as an attempt to reach Sharpy. Sharpy realized that Huffy would catch him if he didn’t let go. But that never happened. Rainbow didn’t allow him to. She flew away a little bit to be able to build up speed. She flew once again right at Huffy’s face with a deadly speed, kicking him so hard that he had to get support from a nearby boulder.

“Had enough, yet?” Rainbow said in a mocking tone while preparing for another attack. Huffy just looked at her with all the hate you could possible imagine. He groaned as he reached back for Sharpy.

“As a matter of fact, I have!” Huffy shouted. He was mad now. Rainbow actually enjoyed how easy it was to make him lose his cool. But at the same time, she didn’t want to know what he could come up with while he was as angry as he was now. Rainbow noticed that Huffy was trying to reach Sharpy who was still biting Huffy’s neck. She wasn’t going to let him. She shouted and insulted Huffy to get his attention. It barely worked. Huffy just turned to Rainbow for a second, but that was all she needed. She flew towards Huffy’s face, ready to kick him once again. But this time, Huffy was ready. He said a few unrecognizable words, unfamiliar even to Sharpy. And right before Rainbow would give him another kick, Huffy opened his mouth. A white glow from his mouth lit up the mountains around them. Both Sharpy and Rainbow Dash knew this wasn’t good, but it was already too late to do anything about it. An enormous blast wave occurred, causing Rainbow to fly away with such force, even the air hurt her. She managed, to stop her erratic flight right before she would slam into a rock. Rainbow was relieved. If she would have crashed into the rock, she would surely have broken almost every bone in her body. But she was still too stupefied to be able to return to the battle. Instead she dropped down a meter or two on the ground and just lay there, trying to recover as fast as possible. She didn’t like abandoning her friend, but at the moment, she was incapable of doing anything other than being in the way. In fact, she could hardly move at all. She looked over at Huffy and Sharpy. She saw how the blast wave had knocked off Sharpy from Huffy’s back, making him an easy target for the big dragon. She feared for what would happen next.

Sharpy saw how Rainbow managed to slow down. It looked like she was about to turn around and attack Huffy once again, but she didn’t. Her wings just stopped and she fell down to the ground. It didn’t look very good, and Sharpy couldn’t see, nor making his way there and make sure. But he currently had more urgent matters to attend to. The the magic Huffy used on Rainbow knocked him off as well, leaving him completely without cover. This wasn’t good. His head started pounding as his instincts wanted him to fly away. But he couldn’t just leave Rainbow like that. Huffy would rip her to shreds. No, he had to hold him off until Rainbow could move again.

Sharpy saw how Huffy was about to make his way to the helpless pegasus, but Sharpy wouldn’t let him. He once again attacked the dragon’s neck. Huffy roared as Sharpy’s teeth penetrated the scales. But without Rainbow keeping Huffy distracted, he easily shook him off.

“Do you think that can stop me?” Huffy screamed at Sharpy in anger. Sharpy had his doubts even from the beginning, but he sure hoped it would. Realizing Huffy was about to bite him, he backed off as quickly as he could. Huffy might be a lot bigger than he was, but he was still faster. Perhaps he could use that to his advantage, just like Rainbow did. He just had to look out if Huffy decided to cast any more spells. He sure didn’t want to fall pray for another one of those wind blasts.

Sharpy easily dodged most of Huffy’s incoming attacks. He avoided being bitten, sliced, burnt… But he was so focused on Huffy’s arms and head, he didn’t notice his tail. Huffy took the opportunity and whipped him with it, sending Sharpy flying. That tail whip sure hurt, but more importantly, it made him lose his balance. Sharpy had no longer control over his flight and crashed, back first, right into a large rock. Then he fell a couple of meters from the rock and down on the hard, cold ground below. His lungs emptied of air at the impact. Sharpy lay still for a few seconds to catch his breath. His vision became blurry and the pain returned to his leg and pretty much everywhere on his body. He realized this wouldn’t work. He didn’t have a chance against Huffy alone. And their difference in size didn’t make it easier. But if he was going to die here, he was going to die fighting. He had to push a lot harder than expected just to stand up, and still his legs were shaking. He looked up, half expecting to see Huffy’s claws the second before he would leave this world. But to claw came. Not a single attack from Huffy’s side. But instead he saw the thing he least expected.

Huffy just stood there. He didn’t move a muscle. And on his nose stood Fluttershy, staring right into the giant dragon’s eyes. Sharpy couldn’t believe it. It was like Huffy was completely lost in Fluttershy’s eyes. What in the world is going on? Sharpy did not know.

“Go… away…” Fluttershy said slowly to the dragon. By the sound of her voice, she was really angry. But didn’t surprise him that much. Huffy were attacking her friends, after all. But what really surprised him was that Huffy didn’t attack her. Or perhaps he couldn’t.

“Fluttershy…?” Sharpy asked her. Fluttershy’s ears twitched a little by the sound of his voice, but she didn’t look at him. She just kept staring into Huffy’s eyes.

“I said… Go away!” Fluttershy yelled. This time, Huffy actually listened to her by slowly taking a few steps backwards. This frightened Sharpy a bit. It seemed like she had total control over him. Did Fluttershy process some kind of power?

But then something happened. Huffy backed into the beginning of a mountain and couldn’t go further. Instead he bumped into the rock, which caused Fluttershy to lose her balance. She didn’t fall of, but she did lose her eye contact with Huffy.

Huffy looked like he had just woken up from a bad dream. Then he looked angrily at Fluttershy. She squealed in fear and tried to fly away, but Huffy was too fast. He tailed whipped her and followed up with saying the same strange words he did when he sent Rainbow flying. But in Fluttershy’s case, she would fly straight into the mountain. That would surely crush her. Sharpy couldn’t let that happen. He jumped up in the air and flew as fast as he could towards Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy! Watch out!” he yelled from the top of his lungs. Sharpy didn’t know if she could hear him or not, but it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be able to regain her balance fast enough to do anything about Huffy’s magic. Huffy opened his mouth and the bright light, one again, shone up the area. The next moment, Huffy’s magic hit Fluttershy and sent her towards the hard rocks on the mountain. But before she really went anywhere, Sharpy caught her in mid air, holding her tight. He couldn’t stop her, but he turned his back towards the stone so that he would take the hit and ease the impact for her. At the same time, he spread out his wings to slow down. It helped, but not much. Shortly after, the impact occurred. Sharpy took most of the damage and it felt like his entire body was pressed together by the force and every bone was crushed. He spit up a lot of blood immediately after. Fluttershy was still dazed, not used to taking hits like this one. But Sharpy could see a bolt of fire flying straight towards them. He instinctively tried to shield both him and Fluttershy with his big wings. Even though the pain was next to unbearable, he managed to shield both him and Fluttershy before the fire reached them. Both of them got hurt by the heat, but the dragon scaled on Sharpy’s wings defended them from the flames.

Huffy realized that he wouldn’t be able to hit them with regular fire, thanks to Sharpy’s wings. So he mumbled a few words that would create another spell. The next moment, a bright green flare started flying towards them at extreme speed. The spell took away a lot of Huffy’s strength and made him tired, but this would surely kill them both. There was no way they could evade this. The green flare hit Fluttershy and Sharpy and exploded. Huffy didn’t leave yet though, he waited until the smoke had subsided to witness the result. But he didn’t see what he expected. The two ponies were unharmed by the explosion and a purple aura were covering them.

“What!?” Huffy yelled in surprise. “What is this?” After his questions a purple colored unicorn walked up and stood in between him and his two targets. The purple unicorn didn’t seem very happy. She looked like she could burst any second now.

“You try to hurt my friends!?” she screamed in anger. “Well, think again!” Huffy just rolled his eyes and shook his head in disbelief. How could she possible thing she could do anything against him? But he had to admire her skill. No one had ever been able to stand against his magic before.

“I don’t have time for this…” Huffy snorted. Then everything started shaking. What was going on? Both Huffy and Twilight looked up towards the mountain. Apparently the explosion created an avalanche. Twilight looked frightened, but Huffy just raised an eyebrow. Well this is convenient, Huffy thought and flapped his wings to get away from the falling rocks. He looked satisfied as the ponies got buried beneath the massive amount of rocks that was falling down from the very top of the mountain.

“By the way!” she shouted. “I hope you ponies like dragons!” and with that said, he left with a victorious laughter. Next Chapter: Chapter 22: "Please save Sharpy" Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes