Rainbow Dash sneaked up to the opening, but stopped there. She looked back at Sharpy. He was just a few meters behind her, but she knew the best thing to do was to wait for him before going inside the cave. She took a quick peek inside, though. It wasn’t dark. Not at all. It was quite bright in fact. That was good because it would be easier to see and figure out what Huffy was doing in there, but it would also make it easier for the dragon’s to see them. On the other hoof, dragons could see pretty well in the dark, so she guessed this was for the best.

Now she couldn’t see Huffy from where she was standing, but she could hear him from inside. Or at least she thought it was him. She didn’t want to assume it was him if she wasn’t one hundred percent sure it really was him. If Sharpy wouldn’t be able to tell by the voice alone, they had to go inside.

It seemed like Huffy, or who Rainbow thought was huffy, was talking to another dragon, but it was impossible to hear what they were saying. She guessed the cave was big. Perhaps it went underground? She didn’t really like that thought. She preferred having open areas where you could easily fly around. But if they actually had to go inside she wouldn’t be able to fly up in the air if something happened. She just hoped that Sharpy would be able to tell that it was Huffy just be listening to his voice.

When Sharpy reached Rainbow a few moments later, he walked up to the opening. He looked inside and listened. The dragons inside were still talking. Rainbow looked at him. It seemed like he recognized the voice. Perhaps they didn’t need to go in after all. Sharpy turned to Rainbow and took a deep breath.

     “That could be Sharpy. Let’s go inside”, Sharpy said.

Rainbow groaned quietly as one single word ran through her mind. Darn…

***

     “Everypony ready?” Twilight was standing by the entrance to the cave. She looked behind herself and back into the cave. There had just been a few minutes since Sharpy and Rainbow Dash left, but every minute was valuable and they had to be quick about things. “Well?”

     “We’re all here”, Applejack stated. And they were. They were carrying even more now than what they did when they came here. They were carrying their own things, Rainbow’s and Sharpy’s things and what little Fluttershy and Spike had brought. So it was a bit heavier for everypony. But even so, they had to move fast if they wanted to catch up to Rainbow and Sharpy in time. They did not know the things they knew. And they had to know before they did something stupid. Sure they were just supposed to find his hiding place, but Twilight wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to take him down while they were at it.

Twilight took a look at all of them before moving out. She wanted to make sure that everypony was indeed ready. And indeed they were.

     “We haven’t forgotten anything?” Twilight doubted they’d forgotten something, but she knew the question was important. After all the times she’d forgotten the right equipment to her classes with Celestia, she knew that you had to ask yourself this question before heading out. But this time it seemed like everything was here, nothing had been left behind and they were all ready to go.

Twilight signaled Spike to jump up on her back, and so he did. It had been a little while since she was carrying him on her back. Even though it was a bit heavy with both Spike and the package on her back, she didn’t mind it. She didn’t like leaving him behind, even though it was for his own safety. He was like a little brother, or even a son, to her. She would always protect him, no matter what. But now it felt like she was doing the opposite. She was carrying him toward the danger. Something she’d never done before. And she didn’t like it one bit.

They had decided to go back to the place where their first encounter with Huffy had taken place. That seemed like the place where Rainbow and Sharpy would have gone to first. When they reached the place, the destruction that had taken place was overwhelming. Twilight still had a hard time understanding how one single spell could create so much destruction in just about a second. But there was no time to linger. Rainbow and Sharpy was far, far ahead and they had to reach them as soon as possible. But first they had to figure out which way they’d went. It would most likely be the same way Huffy flew off to after their encounter. Twilight had obviously no idea which way that might be, but fortunately both Rarity and Applejack remembered. Twilight trusted them fully and now the search began for real.

But to be sure that they were on the right way they had to come up with a system. Applejack and Pinkie Pie got the job to look at the ground for anything that told them they were on the right way. It could be anything from looking for cyan feathers to traces of her colorful mane. Twilight and Rarity would use their magic to track for movements. It would be a difficult task, but together with Rarity, Twilight was sure they would be able to cover a large enough area around them so that it would be useful. Fluttershy would be able to scout ahead as well as look behind the mountains. If Fluttershy brought Spike he could, with his good eyesight, see things that Fluttershy otherwise would have missed.

As everyone prepared to do their role in the search, Twilight stopped Fluttershy and Spike, who were now sitting of Fluttershy’s back. Spike looked confused at Twilight, who walked up to him and looked him deep in the eyes.

     “Spike…” she began. Spike listened carefully. “If something happens… get away. Hide”. After Spike heard her telling him to hide as soon as something happened, he got slightly irritated. He had no plan for running away. He wanted to help them and show them that he could also be useful in tough situations. He’d been a coward for too long. It was time to see some change. But as he was about to argue with Twilight, he hesitated. There was something in her eyes that told him he shouldn’t. She wasn’t angry or persuasive. She had a look in her eyes which he had seen many times before. But this time… the feeling he got for looking back into her eyes were stronger than ever. He felt loved.

     “Please, Spike…” Twilight said quietly. Spike swallowed and nodded, agreeing to Twilight’s request. And with that, Fluttershy took off. Twilight lingered to watch Fluttershy and Spike as they soared through the sky before catching up to Rarity. Both their horns lit up as they began to cast the spell. This would be exhausting after a while, Twilight could say that for sure. But she had to hold on. And together with Rarity she was sure they would be able to hold this spell active for a long time. But even so, this would be a long walk. Who knows how far ahead Sharpy and Rainbow Dash were?

***

Sharpy didn’t like that it was so bright in the cave. He’d much rather prefer darkness. That way they could easily sneak around without being seen. But they had to deal with what they got. He actually already knew it was Huffy inside the cave. Not only could he recognize the voice, but he could even smell him. He’d made Rainbow believe that he didn’t know it was Huffy. It was a lie, but that was the only way of getting closer to him. He knew this was a dumb idea and lying to Rainbow was wrong. But something inside of him made him do it. Something that kept pushing him forward instead of telling her the truth and get out of the cave. He thought about telling Rainbow what was going on and go inside alone, but there was no way she’d let him do it. She’d stop him before he could even take his first step into the cave. So he tricked her to follow him. But if something would happen and they would be noticed he would try to hold the dragon’s long enough for her to escape. There was no way he’d let anything harm her, even if that meant he had to sacrifice himself. He was, after all, the one who tricked her to come inside the cave.

Walking inside the cave was easier than you would think. There was a nice, big opening which seemed to have been crafted by dragons for living. The corners, stalagmites and stalactites were all rounded so that you wouldn’t hurt yourself. All the gravel and grit have been removed. All thoughts of this being a simple cave and nothing else vanished. This would actually be a place worth living. Or so Sharpy thought. He supposed Rainbow would still prefer her house up in the sky. And when he thought about the sky he realized the cave was really high, too. Perhaps even thirty meters. That was more than enough for a pegasus to fly around relatively freely. Perhaps not reach top speed, but good enough for a quick escape or maneuvers during a fight.

As they continued inside the cave, so far without running into any dragons, they realized that it was going down under the ground. It must lead under the mountain. They had no idea how far this cave went. It was the eco alone that made them hear everything that said. This cave could be more than a hundred meters down for all they knew.

Rainbow have had a bad feeling this entire time, but now even Shapy got the feeling that this was a really dumb thing to do. But even so, something kept pushing him forward. Something inside of him that he couldn’t argue with. A feeling that made him do something he knew he shouldn’t. But he couldn’t turn back now. The further inside the cave they went, the stronger this feeling got. And for every time he tried to turn around, he took another step forward. He realized how everything around him got blurry. Everything except the one way they were going. It was like a clear path that that invited him further into the cave. He also noticed how Rainbow started to get really worried. She tried her best to hide it, but it was still very obvious. But Sharpy just kept going.

After a few minutes of carefully sneaking down the cave, they finally reached their goal. It was like a big room in the cave. It was all lit up with what they suspected was magic because they couldn’t see any source of light. The room was filled with at least 8 dragons. That was much more than any of them expected. It made them both nervous, so they immediately went to the best possible hiding spot they could find. Once behind a bunch of rocks, close to the exit, they believed it was safe enough to peek out and see if they could recognize any of the dragons. If they could recognize Huffy, to be more exact. But the thing that worried Sharpy was that he couldn’t see him anywhere. He was so sure he’d heard him talk. Then where was he?

Suddenly a black figure rose from the ground. Every dragon in the room stopped doing what they were doing and looked at the black dragon that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. They were scared. Sharpy could see it in their eyes. The black figure was no one else but Huffy. The other dragons backed off at first, but then Huffy’s red eyes lit up for just a second and every dragon stopped. Sharpy noticed how the eyes of all the dragon’s turned white. Just like what he’d seen on Crystal, his sister, the day she attacked Ponyville.

Was he really able to take control of this many dragons in just a second? Sharpy felt worried, but at the same time it only urged him to step forward. He could feel like the hatred that he had tried to hide only grew inside of him. Oh, how he just wanted to walk up to Huffy and… Rainbow dragged him backwards. Apparently he’d been slowly walking forward, away from their hiding spot, without even realizing it himself. As he looked at Rainbow, she stared at him with anger in her eyes. And rightfully so. This worried Sharpy. Was he about to lose control of himself? He couldn’t let that happen. That would be the death for both of them.

     “Let’s get out of here”, Rainbow whispered with obvious anger in her voice. Sharpy responded with an awkward nod. As Rainbow began to sneak away, Sharpy stood still. He wanted to go with Rainbow but for some reason his body refused to obey him. It all ended with Rainbow smacking him in the face to get him out of it.

When Sharpy was finally able to look away from Huffy to sneak out with Rainbow, they had to stop as Huffy ordered all the dragons to leave the cave. They all obeyed him without question of course. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. First of all they didn’t have to deal with all the dragons, which was good, but this meant that they had to wait for them all to clear out before moving which made them lose valuable time. And time was something they did not have a lot of as every second they spend in this cave increased the risk of Huffy noticing them.

When all the dragons had left the cave they decided to wait just a little while longer to make sure there were no stragglers. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like it were, so they decided to start moving. But they didn’t get very far until they heard a voice that could make the bravest of dragons shiver in fear.

     “I thought I killed you, Sharpy”, Huffy said slowly. Both Rainbow and Sharpy froze in place. At the same time they looked back at Huffy who was just sitting there in the middle of the room with his back turned to them. “Do step out… and take the other pony with you”.

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