Early - the next morning

Sharpy woke up with a weird feeling. The sun was just about to rise and it appeared nopony else was awake. Who was that yellow dragon? He was sure he’d never seen her before. But something inside him told him he had. Did his subconscious tried to tell him something about this dream? And in that case, what? He tried to think of something else, like whom this Twilight was and if she could help him with her superior skills in magic? But his thought always returned to the dragon in his dreams. He tried not to think of anything at all, but it was impossible.

He decided he couldn’t do anything about it and so he sat up in the couch. He was still dazed and everything started spinning before his eyes due to the vigorous movement. When the world had stopped and everything had returned to normal he stood up. He needed something to drink. He looked over to the kitchen and drew the conclusion that there would be the best place to look for some water. He stumbled away from the couch and towards the kitchen as silent as possible. He was really tired and questioned his actions as his body more or less begged him to go back to sleep. But when Sharpy was tired, he could be stubborn as a mule. He wanted some water. And so he grabbed a glass with his hoofs that stood on a small table and filled it with water. He sat down at the table and took a couple of sips from his glass of water. He closed his eyes for a moment.

When he opened his eyes he realized he’d fallen asleep. The sun was up and shone its bright light upon Ponyville. He had been awakened by the sound of Fluttershy coming down the stairs.

“Oh, good morning, Sharpy” Fluttershy was surprised to see him up this early. Sharpy, who wasn’t as dazed as before, could answer with a stable, but still clearly tired, voice.

“Good morning, Fluttershy”. Sharpy looked at Fluttershy for a long time. Was there something equal between the unusual dragon in his dreams and her? He shook his head and pushed that thought away without taking it deeper than that.

Probably not.

Fluttershy opened a cupboard filled with different food and other treats for her animals.

“While you’re up, why don’t you help me feed the animals before we eat some breakfast?” Fluttershy asked Sharpy, still rooting in her cupboard. “If you don’t mind, that is?”

“Yes, why not?” Sharpy agreed to help Fluttershy. And as he just said: Why not? She had helped him so much and he hasn’t done anything in return, apart from offering his company. This is the least he could do for her.

She picked up a big sack from the cupboard. This was apparently food for all her chickens. And apparently they had to get the food a bit earlier than the other animals. Mostly to prevent them from trying to flee from their enclosure in search for food. They both walked out to the chickens. They were walked inside the chickens little house and there they were, waiting to be fed. Sharpy looked how Fluttershy reached her hoof down the big sack and, somehow, grabbed as much seed her hoofs could carry and shared it among a few chickens. Sharpy still wanted to improve his skills with his hoofs and tried to do the same thing. With mixed success. He dropped a lot on the ground, but still managed to keep hold of some seeds that he shared it among three chickens. They ate with great appetite as soon as they got the seeds placed in front of them. He held the mood up and discovered his skills with the hoofs were increasing fast. If he keeps using then, he’d be able to handle them as good as his claws.

But then both Fluttershy and Sharpy tried to reach the bag at the same time. Neither of them was looking. And so their hoofs met. They both froze at the touch. The slowly turned their heads to look at each other without withdrawing their hoofs. But when their eyes met, they withdrew their hoofs, very fast and at the same time. They looked away, both of them blushing.

What was this?, Sharpy wondered. He’d never felt this feeling before. He liked it, but at the same time it felt weird. Was he about to…? No, that couldn’t be it. She’s a pony and he’s a dragon. He assumed he was just tired. At breakfast he would ask Fluttershy if she had any coffee or something to wake him up properly.

“Um… I…” Fluttershy began, still looking away from Sharpy. Her voice was quite low. But then she turned back and continued her sentence. “I think the chickens have had enough” Sharpy nodded, still confused.

“I… think you’re right. Eh…” He scraped his hoof to the floor. “Let’s continue with the other animals, right?” And so they did. But without talking to each other. Sharpy realized Fluttershy peeked carefully at him as soon as he turned away. And he did the same. And every time he did, he wasn’t sure if he would laugh out of happiness or just crawl to the closest corner and cry. He’s head was mixed with all sorts of feelings, but deep inside it actually felt good.

I. Need. Coffee. NOW!

And Sharpy was lucky. They was soon finished feeding all the animals and was now able to finally sit down and have some breakfast. Sharpy asked Fluttershy if she had any coffee, just as he planned to do. And a casual and general question like this was just what they needed to soften up the mood. Fluttershy and Sharpy walked into the kitchen and prepared some “flower-sandwiches” as Sharpy had started to call them. They made some coffee using Fluttershy’s stove, which you had to warm up with fire underneath it. This was very interesting to Sharpy. As a dragon, he just had to breathe fire upon his food. Or coffee in this case. But he wasn’t a dragon anymore. And before he gets turned back into a dragon, he had to learn the ropes as a pony.

When everything was finished they walked out to the table where they had sat at during yesterday’s breakfast. In the beginning they weren’t really talking too much, but that changed as soon as they started to eat a couple of sandwiches and drink their coffee. Sharpy assumed they were both really tired earlier and he thought that was the explanation for how he felt at least.

When the breakfast was over they returned to Ponyville to introduce Sharpy to Twilight. Twilight lived at the other end of Ponyville, so it was quite a bit to walk, but neither of them wanted to put Sharpy’s wing at risk by flying.

But they reached Twilight’s house, or Twilight tree was probably a better explanation, just within a couple of minutes because they didn’t have stop to take a look at anything particular. Sharpy was really impressed with this house. Carved out in a tree and whatnot. But then again, he was impressed that these ponies could even do anything at all with their hoofs. Fluttershy walked up to the door and knocked. They heard three voices inside, but it was impossible to hear what they said. But then the door opened. Sharpy expected a unicorn to open the door, but instead it was… a dragon? It was a little purple dragon with green spikes. He couldn’t be too old considering his size. He hadn’t grown any wings yet, so he couldn’t be older than twenty years. He was probably still considered a baby. The little dragon shone up as soon as he saw Fluttershy.

“Hi, there Fluttershy!” He opened the door a little bit more and made a welcoming gesture. He nodded to Sharpy with a smile. “I’ll tell Twilight you’re here”. And so he ran off into a different room.

“Twi, Fluttershy is here!” you could hear everything pretty well from the other room. “And she’s got a friend here too. Green with a red mane”. Fluttershy carefully poked Sharpy in the side.

“That would be you”, she joked. But Sharpy didn’t laugh. He was too confused.

“A dragon?” he couldn’t believe they would actually have a dragon here in Ponyville. Were they accepting dragons after all?

“Yes, I forgot to mention that”, Fluttershy said. “The dragon, Spike, have lived with Twilight from the day he was hatched”.

That would explain it, Sharpy thought. They’ve accepted this dragon because they’ve been the one raising him. I cannot trust to be as lucky if I reveal myself too early.

“Oh, that must be Sharpy!” Pinkie said from the other room. So Pinkie is here too. And he was right. Pinkie was the first one to come out from the room. She was jumping forth and greeted both Fluttershy and Sharpy. Then Spike and a purple unicorn came out. Sharpy assumed the purple unicorn was Twilight.

“Hello there, Fluttershy! And Sharpy is it?” Twilight walked towards the two ponies standing just in front of the main door.

“Yes, I’m Sharpy”, Sharpy answered “And you are Twilight?” Twilight nodded to that.

“Yes, I am Twilight Sparkle”, she said with a smile and then turned to Fluttershy. “So why are you two here?”

Then for the third time Fluttershy and Sharpy told how they met, how Fluttershy had saved Sharpy, why he had to stay in Ponyville and how Fluttershy wanted to introduce him to her friends.

“Oh, so that would explain the damaged wing” Twilight said. But then she looked over at his cutie mark. “Just a question; what does that cutie mark stand for? I’ve never seen anything like it” Sharpy froze. She was the first one to actually notice the dragon on his flank.

“It kind of looks like a dragon”, she continued.

“Ehh… It’s because I have the… endurance of a dragon”, he realized that didn’t sound too convincing, but it was too late to take it back. “Or something like that”, he added. Twilight looked a bit skeptical after this explanation, but Fluttershy, without even realizing it, saved him.

“And he got the flying skills of a dragon”, she said. Remembering how he’d escaped the dragons. “He managed to build up strength and fly away from the two dragons chasing him. And he did that with a damaged wing” Sharpy tried to wave Fluttershy’s compliments away but then Pinkie joined the conversation.

“Ooh, perhaps he can prove to be quite the challenge even for Rainbow?” Pinkie was clearly impressed. Twilight shook his head to that.

“I doubt it. At least not with a damaged wing” Twilight pointed at Sharpy’s bandage. “Though I must say I’m impressed. Flying away from a dragon has proven to be difficult even for Rainbow”. But then Sharpy interrupted the three talking ponies.

“Who is this Rainbow?” He was curious to know.

“Oh, she’s just one the fastest pegasus in all of Equestria” Fluttershy answered. But Sharpy wasn’t satisfied enough with that answer. “I can introduce you to her later, if you want to” Sharpy smiled and gave Fluttershy a nod that showed her he was willing.

“Ok, perhaps you want something to drink while we talk?” Twilight was asking this question to everyone while she started walking into another room. Probably a kitchen of some sort. Everyone said it would be great. Short after Spike excused himself and followed Twilight into the kitchen. Now there were only three ponies left in the living room; Pinkie, Fluttershy and Sharpy. Sharpy took a look around. This looked more like a library than an actual house. Though it had a few different rooms so that you could actually live here. Is seemed she really liked to read. There must have been one copy of each book that contains any kind of useful information in this library. When he returned to Pinkie and Fluttershy they were talking about Fluttershy’s animals. But when he came closer they stopped and Pinkie started talking to Sharpy.

“Good you’re back! Remember that party I talked about yesterday?”

“Oh, yes. Yes, I do”, Sharpy answered. Stunned for a second because of the sudden question. “What about it?”

“Well it’s happening tonight! I’ve already got everything planned. The reason why I’m here is because I need Twilight to help me with the fireworks”. Now it was Fluttershy’s turn to talk.

“Sorry, but what exactly is she supposed to do?”

“Well she can use her magic to pump up the firepower, of course” Pinkie said while laughing and waving a hoof in the air. Sharpy reacted at the word magic. He just remembered why he wanted to talk to this Twilight in the first place. That is, apart from meeting somepony new. He needed somepony to turn him back into a dragon. When Twilight and Spike came back Twilight were levitating three glasses with some tasty-looking red liquid using her magic. Spike was holding his own glass in his claws. Twilight gave everyone one glass each.

“It’s my and Spikes home-made drink and we’ve gotten some help from Applejack”, Twilight said with some badly hidden pride. Sharpy couldn’t tell what this red liquid was even though he tried to smell it. But as a pony, he wasn’t able to smell things as good as he could as a dragon. “Why don’t you try it?” Everypony took a sip from the glass. Pinkie liked seemed to like it really much and immediately poured everything down her mouth. Sharpy and Fluttershy liked it too but they didn’t drink it all up just yet.

“This is really, really, really delicious!” Pinkie shouted while licking on her lips “Can I use it for the party?” Twilight laughed and said it was okay.

“Ehm… what is this made of?” Fluttershy asked.

“It’s mostly apples and blood oranges”, Twilight said while taking another sip. “And a lot sugar” Sharpy looked from Twilight, to the bookcases and back again.

“You like reading books, Twilight?” He said while looking back at the bookcases.

“Oh, yes. I study a lot” Twilight said before finishing her drink and using her magic to levitate her glass to a nearby table. “And more books are coming every week”. Sharpy nodded and gave her a smile. Clearly impressed.

“I’ve heard you’re good with magic?” Sharpy asked. He was silently praying to the Grand Dragon that she would say yes.

“Yes, you could say that. How come?” She said. It didn’t sound like she was suspicious. Just wondering why he was interested.

“No, it is nothing”, Sharpy said. “It’s just out of pure interest”

And for the next couple of minutes they were talking about themselves. It was a regular introduction. Twilight and Pinkie were talking the most. Basically because Sharpy didn’t know too much about them and were really interested in knowing more. Spike told Sharpy about himself too, but got bored quickly and left the group. He was a baby after all and casual conversations probably weren’t too interesting for him. Sharpy talked about himself like he did with Fluttershy because now they had more time on their hoofs. But he didn’t give them one single clue that he was a dragon. But he had his eyes on Spike as soon as he saw him. Perhaps he could talk to him later? But now the introductions turned into a more regular conversation. They talked about all sorts of stuff and Sharpy really enjoyed their company. And they enjoyed his. But now Sharpy was getting those weird feelings again. But not all the time. Only when Fluttershy started to talk. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to admit it, but he liked Fluttershy’s voice. It was so calming and it made Sharpy feel good. What was happening? The more Fluttershy talked, the more Sharpy got this feeling. He realized he got that feeling every time he looked at Fluttershy too. He liked this feeling but wasn’t sure if he should. Was he about to…? But then he spotted Spike. He decided he wanted to talk to him. He needed to get away from Fluttershy and the other ponies for a little while to be able to think straight. A little talk with another dragon should do the trick.

“Sorry, but do you mind if I had a little talk with… eh… Spike?” Everypony looked questioning at Sharpy. “Just to get to know him better, that’s all”.

“Sure why, not?” They all answered pretty much at the same time. And wouldn’t he want to? He was new in town and wanted to get to know as many ponies, or dragons, as possible.

And so he did. He left the three other ponies and walked into the room were Spike was hanging out. When Sharpy entered the room he was playing with two dolls. Spike didn’t notice Sharpy at first, so Sharpy decided to say hello.

“Hi there Spike!” Sharpy greeted him with a friendly smile. Spike was surprised to see Sharpy here and quickly hid the dolls under a couple of books.

“Err… Hi there… Sharpy, was is?” Sharpy smiled and gave Spike a not.

“So, what are you doing?”

“Ehm… nothing… just nothing”, Spike gave Sharpy a very guilty looking smile.

“What kind of nothing?” Sharpy said with a grin, but decided not to tease the little dragon when he saw he was getting nervous. “I’m just kidding. There is something I wanted to talk to you about”. Spike was relieved that Sharpy didn’t try to find out what he was doing and let out a sigh.

“So what do you wanted to talk about?” Spike had no idea why he wanted to talk to him in particular.

“First you need to promise not to tell Twilight, or anypony for that matter!” Sharpy gave Spike a serious look. Spike answered with a suspicious look, but agreed not to tell anypony. Sharpy looked over his shoulders before continuing. When he was sure nopony was listening he whispered: “I’m actually a dragon. I’ve been transformed into a pony. The reason why nopony is to know about this is because I don’t want to be thrown out of your society”.

Spike looked at him in disbelief. It sounded really weird but then Spike looked over at Sharpy’s cutie mark.

“That would actually explain your cutie mark”, Spike scratched his neck figuring out what to say. “But why don’t you tell them. I’m sure they’d understand”.

“No I can’t…!” Sharpy interrupted himself because he realized he was talking too loud. He continued by whispering. “No, I can’t do that. I’m not born into the pony community like you. And to them I’d be a monster”.

“So you’re using my friends to find a way to get transformed back into a dragon?” Spike could understand Sharpy’s reasons, but didn’t like the fact that he was just using them for his own purpose. Especially not Twilight. She was like a mother to him and knowing somepony was using him made him angry.

“No, that’s not true”, Sharpy tried to defend himself. “I really like all of them. They’re nice and so, but I miss my real family. I have a sister why is probably really worried right now”. When Sharpy mentioned his sister all of Spikes anger disappeared. He knew how important family could be to somepony. Or somedragon in this case. Sharpy let out a tired sigh.

“But I’m doing this with mixed feeling”.

“What do you mean?” Spike asked, clearly confused. He wondered what he meant by mixed feelings.

“I don’t know. But I think I might…” Sharpy wasn’t sure what to say. He was trying to express himself to a baby. But this little dragon was clearly very mature for his young age. “This might sound stupid, but I think I like Fluttershy”. Spikes eyes opened wide. He was prepared for almost anything but this was really a surprise. But then his thoughts wandered off to Rarity. Spike was desperately in love with Rarity, who was a Pony. And he was a dragon. It was time to take this seriously. He had many questions to ask Sharpy about dragons, be he thought that could wait for another time.

“So, you’re in love with Fluttershy?”

“Yeah… I mean… I don’t know”, Sharpy didn’t know what to say how this little dragon would react. “It all seems so weird for me. I’m not sure if I should feel like this”.

“No, I understand”, Spike said. The mature side of his personality shined through. “I’m in love with Rarity. I don’t know if you have met her, but she is the most wonderful pony in the universe”.

“But I’m not sure if I really… love her”, Sharpy’s head was mixed with all sorts of feeling. He was tired even though it was in the middle of the day. “I’ve loved other dragons before, but I’ve never felt like this. It feels good, but at the same time I’m scared I will scare her off”. Sharpy was in love. There was no doubt about it. It was so clear for Spike, but Sharpy struggled between his love for his dear sister and Fluttershy. Sharpy was getting tired psychically and just wanted to rest. He sat down and leaned his head against the wooden wall. He let out a deep sigh and looked at the ground.

Spike couldn’t think of anything more to say and therefore decided not to. He could see that Sharpy was tired and because of that he walked way, secretly picked up his dolls and leaving Sharpy alone in the room.

All that went through Sharpy’s mind was pictures of Fluttershy and his sister. He’s sister wasn’t as big as him, but had the same green scaled and the same red spikes. But as the pictures went though his mind another thought came up. Would he really sacrifice his friends, his life… his sister, just because of one pony? He hadn’t even known her for that long. Or was his former life really worth him leaving Fluttershy? He had a hard time to think straight. He sat there for was seemed to be an eternity, but was probably just a few minutes.  Sharpy’s head was now almost empty. It felt good though. All these secrets were hard to keep. He didn’t like holding secrets. But now things were progressing too fast. He couldn’t keep up. He was tired. Too tired to even stand up. And after a while he closed his eyes and let himself fall into unconsciousness.

This time his dream was nothing but black emptiness. But then a light appeared in the horizon. It was a bright yellow light. The yellow light came closer until it was right in front of him. He could hear a voice. Fluttershy’s voice. He couldn’t figure out what she said, but he didn’t care. The light faded. He could see Fluttershy more clearly now. He realized something. He loved Fluttershy. More than anything. Even though they’ve just met. There was something special about her. Not even his sister could compare to any of this. He could understand more clearly now. He didn’t want to become a dragon again. He wanted to stay as a pony. He wanted to stay in Ponyville. He wanted to stay with Fluttershy. Next Chapter: Chapter 5: Fluttershy's Feelings Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 16 Minutes