Rainbow Dash and Sharpy flew as quickly as possible back to the place where they had fought Huffy the day before. If they were to find where he was hiding, they might as well start their search over there. As they flew over the mountains both Rainbow and Sharpy was constantly looking out for possible hideouts where Huffy might hide. But they were also making sure no dragons saw them. But they didn’t run into any dragons at all. Not a single one. This worried Sharpy. By now there should be a dozen of dragons chasing after them. He’d understand if the dragons didn’t really mind them flying above the mountains as long as they didn’t get too close to a nest. But there were no trace of anyone anywhere. It’s like every single dragon had disappeared into thin air.

Sharpy tried not to look worried, but he didn’t know if he did a good job or not. He suspected that he did not, though. Rainbow was constantly casting glances at him. He sighed and looked at her. The next time Rainbow looked back at Sharpy, she noticed that he’d already realized that she was observing him.

     “You seem worried”, Rainbow muttered. She still seemed upset, but Sharpy decided to ignore that.

     “Well that’s because I am”, Sharpy answered. “There are no dragons where it should be crowded”.

     “But doesn’t that make our job easier?”, Rainbow looked at Sharpy, trying to figure out what he meant”.

     “Perhaps…”, Sharpy said thoughtfully. “It’s just that it feels… unnatural to see everything so empty”.

     “Have you been here before?”, Rainbow wondered. She actually didn’t know much about how he lived as a dragon and she might as well ask when she was given the chance.

     “Only once. A long time ago”, Sharpy answered without looking back at Rainbow. He was still looking down to the ground far beneath them.

Rainbow nodded. She could understand why he was so uncomfortable. She tried to put herself in his place by imagine what it would be like if Cloudsdale were suddenly completely empty of ponies. It wasn’t a very pleasant thought and seemed kind of freaky. Even if Sharpy only had been here once long ago, he probably still had an idea of how everything should be. Perhaps he was worried that something had happened to them? Or perhaps Huffy had scared them away? Whatever it was, she suspected Huffy had something to do with it. She didn’t doubt for a second that Sharpy shared the same thoughts. They had to find his hideout as soon as possible.

Rainbow wasn’t still sure if she liked the idea of leaving Huffy to the princesses, but she guessed that was for the best. It’s just that it felt wrong to stack up their problems on somepony that didn’t have anything to do with it. Rainbow sighed. No matter how she truly felt about this, she had to admit that she was flattered by what he said. Letting go of so much hate couldn’t have been easy for him. She just hoped that it wouldn’t return and bite them in the flank later on.

They were now back at the place where their last encounter with Huffy had taken place. The sign of Huffy’s explosion caused by his magic was still here. They were both shocked by what they saw. Last time everything happened very fast and there were no time to inspect the true effect of the explosion. They could now see how a big chuck of the mountain had been simply blown away by the magic. Sure they’ve realized that it must have been a really powerful spell, but nothing like this. Even Rainbow started to get seconds thoughts about her negativity against letting the princesses take down Huffy. It would most certainly be better if group of professional and trained soldiers did the work rather than them.

Then hopefully nopony had to die. Rainbow thought. Once again she thought back to what Sharpy said. She slowly shook her head. Somepony could actually die…

Death has never really been anything she’d been too worried about. Sure they’ve encountered powerful foes, but never anything like this one. Never had someone been so willing to take a life as this dragon. And now when she realized that Huffy could turn a big chuck of a mountain into dust in just a few seconds she actually, for the first time in her life, really feared for her life. She looked at Sharpy, who had walked up to the foot of the mountain. He looked back at her with a serious look in his eyes.

     “Let’s find this guy”, he said as Rainbow walked up to him. She nodded slowly and prepared to take air.

     “Let’s…”, Rainbow said and flew a few meters up in the air. She looked around herself, inspecting the environment while trying to remember where Huffy had flown off to after he’d taken care of her and the others. Even though she had been dizzy after taking a hit and the explosion had made a big cloud of dust, she still remembered clearly where Huffy had went. She just needed some sense of direction. After a few seconds, she pointed in the direction she remembered Huffy flying off to.

     “He flew that way!”, she shouted to Sharpy down below. Sharpy nodded and flew up beside her.

     “He’s probably hiding in same cave somewhere”, he said to Rainbow. She nodded and they both flew off.

They searched every opening, every cave, anything that could be used as a place to stay. It was a long and frustrating search, and it took a very long time. After a while, they had been so tired of carefully looking through everything, so they simply flew over the hilltops and quickly inspected bigger caves and such.

They had been flying for over two hours, without a single trace of Huffy. And what worried them both, not a single trace of any dragon at all. There were actually no sign of anything living at all. Everything about these mountains gave Rainbow the creeps. She just wanted to find Huffy and leave this place as soon as possible. But she would never abandon Sharpy, who was madly determined to find him. After over an hour since they began, she asked him if they should go back to the cave and meet up with the others. He had simply given her a single look which instantly made her change her mind. Sharpy never seemed threatening or scary in any way, but there had been something in his eyes which told her that if she left, she’d leave alone. And as the Element of Loyalty, she’d never leave her friend.

While they were flying over a small ravine between two mountains, they suddenly heard voices. Their heart stopped beating for a second, before they realized what just happened.

They flew down to the ground as fast as they could without making any noise. They both quickly hid under between a boulder and the mountain itself. They were completely silent for quite a while. But Sharpy couldn’t stop his heavy breathing after flying for such a long time whilst still not fully recovered. He tried to cover him mouth with his hooves, but it barely helped. The voices had stopped. Had they been spotted? No, the voices were still there. They were just really hard to notice. Like if they had walked inside something. Like if they had walked inside a cave. Rainbow and Sharpy looked at each other and nodded. Carefully, at the same time, they crawled out of their cover, looking for a cave where the ones talking could be. It wasn’t hard to see at all. At the far side of the ravine, a little bit over ground level, a lit up cave could be found. Outside the cave a little platform, which seemed to have been build up by stacking rock on top of each other, could be found. It wasn’t much, but still good enough for a few, fully grown, dragons to stand on it.

So now they’ve at least found other dragons. But was Huffy inside the same cave? Only one way to find out.

   “Let’s do it”, Rainbow whispered and started crawling towards the cave, followed closely by Sharpy.

***

     ”Ok. First of all, there is no way we’re leaving this place without taking care of Huffy first”, Twilight said.

     “But Twilight”, Fluttershy took a step forward. “Sharpy said that-“.

     “This isn't about Sharpy or us anymore”, Twilight interrupted her. “This is about all of Equestria”.

     “But Luna said that-“, Fluttershy complained, but got interrupted, once again, by Twilight.

     “I know what Luna said, Fluttershy. But this is our duty as The Elements”, Twilight said and looked into her eyes. “We have to protect and maintain harmony in Equestria. And the only way to do that in this situation…“.

     “Is to kill Huffy”, Applejack added. She walked closer to Fluttershy and Twilight. Fluttershy looked at Applejack as if she couldn’t believe her. She knew Sharpy wanted to kill him, but she’d never expect to hear something like that from Applejack. Fluttershy looked from Applejack back to Twilight. She’d hoped that she would have another plan to go about this, but she simply nodded, agreeing to Applejack as if she got the right answer to a difficult question.

Fluttershy knew that they went on this journey with one goal: to help Sharpy get his revenge on Huffy. But she’d always hoped that they could find another way. Sure he did try to kill her and the others. He’d most likely forced the dragons to attack Equestria. He did actually kill Sharpy’s sister. But even so, killing should always be the very final solution, and not even in such a case she’d been willing to do it. And they haven’t even considered another solution. She turned to Rarity. Surely she had a thing or two to say about this decision.

     “I’m in”, Rarity said as soon as soon as Fluttershy asked her. “Besides, if he’s controlling the dragons attacking Equestria, taking him out for good would be the best thing to do”.

Pinkie had listened to everything they’ve said, but didn’t join the conversation until now. She put her front leg around Fluttershy’s neck, giving her a supportive hug.  

     “You know what? I actually agree with Flutters on this one”, she said and looked at everypony while pointing at Fluttershy. “We should listen to Luna. She wants us to hide for a good reason. But… with no Equestria there will be no parties. I’m in”. With that said, she bounced off to her own room in the cave. Whatever she was going to do in there, nopony knew. She was probably going to prepare herself so that she was ready to leave when Sharpy and Rainbow came back. The others should probably do the same, but they didn’t want to go until they’ve gotten an answer from Fluttershy.

But Fluttershy stared at her friends in disbelief. She couldn’t believe that they were all so willing to kill. It almost seemed like they actually wanted to kill Huffy. But, she looked down to the ground, she knew they were right. Huffy was dangerous. And she didn’t think it would be possible to convince him to reverse the spell casted on the dragons. And when she thought of it, capture him and force him wouldn’t work either. He knew that if he did, he’d be killed. If the ponies didn’t do it, the dragons would. Huffy literally had nothing to lose on this… war. He’d destroy Equestria or die trying.

But would she be ready to face a dragon? An evil, magical dragon? And would she be ready to take his life if given the chance? Or would she run away by just the sight of Huffy? All of this was a bit too much for Fluttershy. But then she remembered what she told herself. That she wouldn’t run away anymore. That she would be there for her friends, even if that meant she would have to face her greatest fears.

Fluttershy looked up from the ground and stared into her friends’ eyes.

     “I’m in”.

Next Chapter: Chapter 29: Shining Armor Estimated time remaining: 28 Minutes