”How could we just let him go, like that?” Rainbow Dash broke the silence. Everypony in the cottage was looking at her. Rainbow was a bit worked up and clearly disappointed with herself and her friends. “I’m not sure if I trust him, but still. Did you get a look at him?”

Everypony looked at each other. They all silently agreed, but it took some time until Applejack finally responded.

“Ah’ have to agree with you, Rainbow. Ah’ feel mighty sorry for him… but he’s still a disguised dragon”. Spike just glared at everypony as he was sitting on top of one of the shelves. They were all talking about dragons like they were something that might want to occupy the entire land of Equestria with force. But he listened with patient when Rarity started to talk.

“I think it’s horrible for Fluttershy”, she said while walking over to Fluttershy who were still lying on the couch. “Who would have imagine that her new friend really were a dragon?” Rarity gave Spike a quick look and realized she had to add a “No offence” and so she did. Spike just rolled his eyes and waved with his claw to show her that it was all right. Fluttershy, however, first glared at Rarity for saying that. But then she lowered her head and got that sad look again. Fluttershy still had feelings for Sharpy, but at the same time she was afraid of him. He was a dragon after all. Or at least part dragon if you just go by his appearance. It was all so confusing for her. She didn’t know what to think.

A small argument had stared were everyone except Spike, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy took part in. Fluttershy barely listened at all, while Spike listened at every word that was said. The argument was about Sharpy and if you could trust him and how much there were to believe in. Rainbow Dash didn’t trust Sharpy very much, but that his feelings for Fluttershy were real were obvious. Twilight agreed with Rainbow that Sharpy was truly in love with Fluttershy and she was ready to put at least some trust in Sharpy. Applejack thought Sharpy was a nice guy but wasn’t sure if what he said was true. Rarity thought that everything he did was a part of some kind of ‘plan’ which Rainbow could partly agree with. After some time they turned to Pinkie who hadn’t said anything yet, which was pretty unusual. They asked her about her opinion about Sharpy. She answered them with a short laugh, which made everypony look confused at her.

“Oh, you’re so silly, girls! Sharpy is a nice pony… or dragon… perhaps a dragonpony... or maybe…? Oh it doesn’t matter. He’s a nice guy and that’s what matters”. Everypony thought about this, but before any of them could reply Spike jumped down from the shelf.

“I agree with Pinkie completely! Last year I wrote a letter to Princess Celestia. Do you remember that letter?” Spike asked. Everypony got silent, completely forgetting that they were about to say something. Spike nodded and started quoting the message of his letter. “…It doesn’t matter what you are…”

“…but who you are…” It was actually Fluttershy who finished the sentence. She looked at all her friends as they looked surprised at her. None of them were expecting her to talk. Fluttershy sighed. “I remember, Spike… But it’s just that… sometimes… it might…” Tears came out of her eyes, so she stopped for a second. But she didn’t have to say anything more. Everypony already knew what she was going to say. She was afraid of dragons and that was no secret. And there was no secret that Sharpy was a dragon anymore. And therefore she was afraid of Sharpy. The only problem for her right now was that she still had feelings for him. Being in love with somepony you’re afraid of is not easy. A part of her wants to run straight up to him, hug him and never let go. But every time she looks at him now, knowing he’s a dragon, makes her want to run away and hide.

“You still love him. Don’t you, sugarcube?” Applejack asked. Fluttershy answered with a simple nod. Her eyes were filled with tears and she didn’t dare to speak. She couldn’t trust her voice to be stable because of all the things that were going on right now. She curled up into a little ball as an attempt to hide herself from the outer world. She wanted Sharpy to come back… even how uncomfortable that would make her feel.

***

Sharpy didn’t look back as he flew to the centre of the village. Because if he did, he might reconsider turning back and then he had to see Fluttershy terrified again. And that was not something he would want to see ever again. He sighed. He had said that he wanted to see everypony one last time before heading out to get his revenge on Huffy, but he quickly regret saying that. The ponies didn’t trust him. That much was obvious. And he just made Fluttershy terrified. That was what hurt the most. He’d hope that she still had some feeling for him, but there was no way that love could be combined with fear. And fear were the only thing he could see in her eyes. A picture of Fluttershy kept showing up in her head. She was scared and her eyes were filled with tears. Sharpy tried to shove that thought away; trying to believe there was still some hope for them. But that was a childish thought. It was over for them. The only thing that was important for him now was his revenge on Huffy. And as he thought of that, another, more painful memory appeared in his head and removed his thought about Fluttershy. He revisited the memory when his sister died, over and over again. He couldn’t get the picture out of his head. He grunted, suddenly feeling much weaker than ever before. How could he possibly be able to defeat Huffy in this form? He couldn’t even defend his sister or keep a relationship for more than a day. He felt pathetic. But his will for revenge still lingered and if he was going to die, he would take Huffy with him, one way or another.

When Sharpy finally reached the rooftop he was sitting on earlier he immediately lied down because he suddenly felt very tired. Tomorrow he would have a last chat with everypony. Even if they didn’t want to. He felt like he needed that. They’d shown him great hospitality and deserved at least a proper goodbye. He closed his eyes and wrapped his wings around him to keep him warm. He fell asleep quickly.

Sharpy woke up late the next day. The sun was at its top, so that mean he’d slept through the entire morning. But at least he felt refreshed. He yawned as he stretched and looked out over Ponyville. The village was full of life and the ponies had probably been awake for quite a while now. Sharpy looked in the general direction of Fluttershy’s cottage. He could see some smoke coming from that direction which probably meant that she was home. He decided to meet Fluttershy first of them all. And with those thoughts he took off and flew down to her cottage.

But when he got there he saw through one of the windows and what he saw wasn’t what he had expected. Instead of Fluttershy being there alone, everypony and Spike was there with her. His first thought was that there was something going on with Fluttershy, which was probably the case too. He walked carefully up to the door and pushed an ear to the door as an attempt to hear what they said. And as expected; the only thing he heard was Fluttershy crying. Actually, he ignored everything else. Fluttershy was devastated and Sharpy was certain it was because of him. He backed slowly away from the door. Sharpy didn’t think it would be appropriate of him to show up to Fluttershy. At least not when she’s in this state. That would probably just make things worse. He looked at the cottage with sadness in his eyes. Perhaps he shouldn’t show up at all? He should just leave the village right now so that everything could return to normal at least for the ponies. It was a hard choice, but he decided that would be for the best. But as he was about the fly off a voice from behind stopped him.

“Sharpy!?” it was Pinkies voice. “Oh gosh, what a relief. We thought you had gone already.  Hey, you guys! It’s Sharpy!” Sharpy turned around. He was very confused. Was there anything specific they wanted him? He saw everypony walk out of Fluttershy’s cottage. They all seemed very relieved to see him, which surprised him. Yesterday they hadn’t been so happy at all. But then he heard a voice he had been waiting to hear.

“Sharpy?” Fluttershy quickly dashed out of the front door towards him. Her eyes were filled with joy and it looked like was going to give Sharpy a big hug. But just a couple of meters in front of him she stopped. As she looked him in the eye, tears started filling up in her. She stumbled around on the spot as if a fight was going on inside her body. She looked at him again, this time with fear. And the second later she fell to the ground. Things were getting too much for her. She cried out loudly as she tried to say something, but the only words that Sharpy could hear was “I’m sorry”, which she repeated several times. It didn’t take too long until her friends were there to help her. Sharpy got a sad look on his face and backed off a few steps.

Twilight, Spike, who were sitting on Twilight’s back and Rainbow Dash all helped Fluttershy inside while Pinkie, Rarity and Applejack were still outside. Sharpy didn’t feel too comfortable, but he was still curious of what they wanted him, so he simply asked them. Rarity was the first one to speak.

“Well we do know that you’re going out for revenge on Huffy for the loss of your sister”, Rarity said. Sharpy nodded and suddenly all anger came back to him. He’d been pretty calm after his sleep, but now the reality truly hit him.

“And we thought that you might need some help to bring that stupid dragon down for justice”, Pinkie said. “Look, I’m prepared for the capture!” Out of nowhere she brought forth a giant, pink cannon. Sharpy looked at Pinkie with surprise. Rarity and Applejack, however, didn’t seem to be surprised at all, just confused. The giant cannon were Pinkies “Party Cannon” used to quickly start a party in case of a party emergency.

“Ya’ goin’ to shoot him with cakes?” Applejack said while looking at Pinkie with doubt heard in the tone of her voice as well as shown in her eyes. But Pinkie shook her head.

“No, silly. I’ve loaded it with a net so that we can capture him”, Pinkie said and smiled. When Applejack nodded to show Pinkie that she understood, Sharpy just shook his head.

“I have no plans of capturing Huffy…” Sharpy said slowly. “…I’m going to kill him…”

Both Rarity and Applejack got stunned. Not by the fact that Sharpy wanted to kill Huffy. That was more or less expected. No, the reason was that he was so cold. They originally planned to capture Huffy and put him in from of Celestia. If Sharpy wanted to kill him they would try to make him change his mind. But Sharpy was too determined. There was no way they would have any chance to convince him not to kill Huffy.

“Hey! Do you think giant rocks will do some damage?” Pinkie said while loading her party cannon with a rock. Nopony had even noticed her going away. But here she was loading her cannon with rocks, so she had to have heard Sharpy said that he wanted to kill and not capture Huffy. All of them looked at her completely dumbfounded. Rarity tried to say something, but before she could Rainbow, Twilight and Spike, who were still sitting on her back, came out of the cottage.

“She’s not coming…” Rainbow said and gave Sharpy a sad look. “Fluttershy…”

“I understand…” Sharpy interrupted Rainbow. He didn’t look at her while saying this. He looked straight down. Twilight walked up to Sharpy and putted a hoof on his shoulder.

“But the rest of us will still help you”, she said. Sharpy nodded and gave her a sad smile. He appreciated their help. He’d apparently given them a positive impact and they could even put aside the fact that he was a dragon and offer him their help. This brightens up this entire situation a good bit, even though Fluttershy didn’t want to come. With these many ponies they were sure to defeat Huffy. But what bothered him was that they were putting their lives in danger just to help him.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Sharpy said to everypony around him, hoping that they were aware of the dangers. Spike jumped down from Twilight’s back and began to walk down the road.

“Yep, we are! Let’s get going!” Spike said while waving in the air with his claw. But he couldn’t come far until Twilight grabbed him with her magic and dragged him back to her.

“Oh, no, you don’t! You’re staying back here with Fluttershy”, Twilight said and gave Spike a look telling him she was not in mood for arguing. Spike hesitated at first, but at last he gave in. He grunted and walked irritated towards Fluttershy’s cottage. Rarity wasn’t late to describe how cute she thought he was when he was ‘waddling’ away. This only made Spike grunt even louder and so he increased his speed towards the door.

They had now formed a little team who were going after Huffy. Two unicorns capable of magic, two fast and strong pegasi and two earth ponies; one that were really strong and one that were really fast and could do the unexpected. They were just about to leave, but then Rainbow Dash stopped them.

“Ok. We’re all ready, good. But before we leave I have one question”. Everypony looked at her, waiting for the question. And when Rainbow was sure that they all did, she continued. “What in Equestria is Pinkie doing with those rocks?”

Next Chapter: Chapter 10: The Journey Begins... Slowly but Surely Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 10 Minutes