‘How did it come to this?’ Bronze asked himself in a silent panic.

He was sitting in the inside of a corner booth at Sugarcube Corner. On both sides of him were AJ and Zecora. But on the outer ends of the booth, nervously twitching their wings and glancing up from the table at each other and at the other three were Rainbow Dash and Gilda. It seemed that among the five of them, only AJ and Zecora actually wanted to be here.

“Well are ya gonna just ruffle yer feathers or are ya gonna actually talk about what we’re here about?” Applejack decided to butt into the situation, considering the group had already been sitting here in awkward silence for several minutes. Not even Pinkie bothered them, and when Pinkie actually goes out of her way to not pester somepony? Things be serious.

“Well sorry if my cubhood friend having the hots for me is a sensitive issue!” Gilda bit back, grumbling as she blushed and tried not to look at Dash who wilted. “I told ya last night Dash. Having more-than-friends feelings for old pals is normal, kay? I just don’t fly that way.”

“But hesitate telling us your feelings for Bronze you did not, but to have such would include us as well, were your words for naught?” Zecora asked with a raised eyebrow as she gestured to herself and AJ, getting Gilda to bow her head with a sigh.

“No...I figured if the cool colt was in the group then I could learn to love other kinds of things. But then I was told Dashie liked me that way and I got confused and...okay, I’m still confused. Dash, I just...don’t know what to really think about all of this.” Gilda complained as she started to whine.

“Hey, hey. Cool gals don’t whine kay G? I’ll just back off if that’s what you want….” Dash meekly offered, and Gilda groaned.

“I...don’t want that either. Flock! I can’t decide!” Gilda stabbed her beak into the table in her rendition of a #headdesk. “Mmph hm, frmph hmm.”

“Yeah...I hear ya G.” Dash then performed her own #headdesk and they both sighed into the table.

“Whatcha-Doin?” Pinkie suddenly asked, interrupting at the perfect time as she popped up from under the table between Bronze and AJ.

“Nothing important that we can take care of at the moment apparently.” Bronze said as he looked between the two old friends in worry. ‘Last time I set a couple up, I just dragged the guy to the girl and said ‘hey! this guy likes you! chat.’ and then left them be. I can’t just do something like that here...or can I?’

“Well are you worry-warts gonna buy something? Or am I going to have to ask you to have free cupcakes?” Pinkie Pie asked as she held up magic mane-cupcakes. Mmm, cupcakes from Pinkie’s mane…. “You know you want some~!”

“Pinkie, stop tempting Bronze with your sultry baked goods.” Applejack joked with a snigger, getting Bronze to blush as he edged away from Pinkie Pie. Remembering all the times he had far less than innocent thoughts about her. Thoughts AJ and Zecora were well aware of.

“Aw. But I wanted him to munch my muffin!” Pinkie said as she took out a mane-muffin, and making Bronze sink back into the seat to restrain his wings attempting to ‘fwoomp’ out. “I mean, he could take it from his spot there! His tongue is long enough-.” Gilda’s and Dash’s wings both fwoomped out, their faces bright red at Pinkie’s words, AJ and Zecora having similarly flushed faces, and Bronze...wasn’t there anymore.

“It would seem our beau has ran, then again of teasing, he is not a fan.” Zecora said, leering at Pinkie who blinked innocently.

“What? I wanted to see him munch on this muffin using his tongue to snag it from over a foot away like a frog, or an anteater. OOO! Or a giraffe! I hear they have long tongues!” Pinkie started rambling, getting everyone at the table to groan.

[@]

Bronze was far from Sugarcube Corner, having swapped himself with air from near Fluttershy’s house to escape the disturbing situation, where he promptly laid on the ground and covered his head with his forelegs. “Stupid. Sexy. Pinkie Pie! Stop! TEMPTING me!”

“Tempting you with what Bronze?” Came the gentle voice of Fluttershy as the kind and pretty mare fluttered from her place among her birdhouses over to her clearly troubled friend.

“Hey Shy. Ugh, it’s Pinkie. I can’t tell if she’s flirting pervertedly with me or not again.” Bronze grumbled, making Fluttershy blink and consider his words.

“Well, Pinkie can often not notice things. So maybe she just didn’t phrase something right?” Fluttershy suggested, and Bronze stood, looked blankly at her, and blushed before he slowly extended his long fruit-bat tongue out for it’s full foot and a half length, getting her to vividly blush and lean away. “O-oh...my….”

“She pointed out my tongue. And that got everyone else, including Gilda, blushing. Why does every mare who find out about my tongue get so interested?” Bronze asked his shy friend, who meekly backed away a bit, and kicked a hoof as she tried to muster up the answer for her oblivious friend.

“Uh-um...it’s...very...long….” Fluttershy weakling said, Bronze only hearing her due to his bat-like hearing.

“And what does that have to do with...oh….” Bronze’s wings went pomf, and he sighed. “I thought they were just teasing me for having such a weird tongue.”

“O-oh no! It’s a wonderful tongue. You shouldn’t be ashamed of who or what you are.” Fluttershy rebounded, poking out her cute little tongue. “See? It’s okay to...why are you laughing?” Fluttershy asked as Bronze was failing to stifle his sniggers at his friend’s suddenly equally clueless-as-him behavior.

“Nothing Shy. Just...never change.” Bronze chuckled at her tilted head and perplexed expression.

“Oh no, I’ll never change. Don’t worry about that Bronze.” Fluttershy said with a soft smile, before a half-eaten carrot was thrown at her head, knocking her eyes askew for a second before she turned to the perpetrator, and the instant Bronze saw him, he saw RED.

“...Bunny….” Bronze and Angel Bunny instantly had a raging hate-filled glare-off to epic music, until Fluttershy ruined it by kneeling down to him. ‘I will have my revenge for you scaring my dogs you lapin loser!’

“Angel, what is it? Was your food not fresh enough?” Fluttershy asked worriedly, before Angel bitch-slapped her, and pointed up into the air, making her gasp and drawing Bronze’s attention upwards too, where they both gawked. “You mean there’s a giant smoke cloud spreading across the sky?” The carrot hit Fluttershy again, and she squeed in embarrassment at not noticing it earlier.

“Hm...it’s gotta be coming from either a ridiculously enormous forest-fire like the one I saw back home, or it’s source is at a really high altitude.” Bronze suggested, watching the smoke trail as it rather quickly began to blanket the sky, and his keen thestral eyes thanked the smoke for blocking out the sun as he kept trailing it through the sky to a mountain far, far to the northwest. “So that’s where the source is. Volcano?”

“What’s a volcano?” Fluttershy asked as she tried not to panic, using Bronze’s relative calm to anchor herself.

“Geological event and a wonder of nature. Volcanoes are basically...teats, on the earth-Terra’s...crust. Only rather than a gland of milk, it’s instead a series of similar ducts and ‘vents’ leading deep into the planet, feeding the molten heat of the mantle as magma to the surface where it becomes lava, thickening and generating the crust.” Bronze explained, using more organic explanations for his more biology-smart friend, who blinked in understanding.

“So...why would that cause smoke?” Fluttershy asked, getting bronze to sigh at himself for not specifying that first.

“Lava is basically liquid fire as much as it is liquid rock.” Bronze said, getting Fluttershy to go ‘oh’ in understanding.

“I’m sorry I’m not as smart as Twilight, I’m sure you could easily plainly talk about things like that with her rather than try to find analogies for ponies like me who only had basic education.” Fluttershy bashfully kicked a hoof, and Bronze groaned at this. Most of his friends knew he was smart. Apparently, he was nearly Twilight smart, and he didn’t like the rift that caused sometimes. Especially since his knowledge was all theory and in random or esoteric information rather than being especially intelligent in a specific or many fields like Twilight is.

“Shy, c’mon, don’t do this. I have enough of Rainbow calling me an egghead and my marefriends looking at me like I’m speaking a different language. Can we just...go into town and see what the issue is rather than me rationalize the potential issue?” ‘Damn my high IQ sometimes….’ Bronze lamented as he and Fluttershy flew into town.

It wasn’t hard to notice the average intelligence of a pony was rather...lacking. Sure, they were smart enough to carry conversations, make great friends, and live normal lives. But when it came to any matters of actual intelligence? Average was the closest word to describe most ponies. Negligent of their studies also applied to that same category…. If it fell outside their interests, ponies knew little to nothing of a subject. Something both he and Twilight felt needed to be addressed.

“We should go see Twilight, maybe she knows what’s going on better than anypony.” Fluttershy suggested as she fluttered down towards the Golden Oaks treebrary. Upon arrival, Shy approached the door, and held up a hoof to knock...and gently, nearly silently, tapped the door a few times.

“...Shy, are you reading any of those self-help books Twi and I got for you?” Bronze asked, making the mare blush in shame as she meekly shook her head, getting him to sigh as he moved to the door and pulled it open. “Hey Twi! We got a situation!” Bronze called out as he blinked and took in the absolutely pristine library. “Twilight?” Bronze called out, and he heard some scrambling upstairs as Twilight soon poked her head out of the hallway up the stairs, her mane an absolute bedraggled mess.

“H-hey Bronze! What’s the problem?” Twilight asked a little too frantically, using her magic to straighten out her mane upon realizing it was a rumpled mess.

“Were you taking a nap?” Bronze asked in surprise.

“Yes! That! I was taking a nap! Got the mid-morning sleep-in bug. Yep!” Twilight pounced on the excuse, getting Bronze to raise an eyebrow suspiciously. “S-so what’s going on?”

“I’d ask you the same thing, but whatever you do in your private-time is your business.” Bronze said, making the scholar blush so hard her lavender coat turned ruby red. ‘Totally called it.’ “But there’s a huge smoke cloud spreading over the lower troposphere and blocking out the sun. I like it, but it’s got to be causing at least a mild panic across the region.”

“What? But if there was a forest-fire of that magnitude, the local weather patrols would’ve organized a deluge and taken care of it already. And there aren’t any volcanoes in Equestria proper….” Twilight mused as she moved back into the hall, knocking on a door. “Spike? Spike, are you awake?”

Things got quiet for a moment, Bronze and Fluttershy looking at each other with a shrug, before Twilight screeched in absolute horror. “AH! T-Twilight! I can explain!”

“YOU’RE TOO YOUNG FOR MAGAZINES LIKE THESE!” Twilight shrieked, making both of the winged ponies blush and also look at each other with pity towards the young drake.

“I’m 14!” Spike desperately defended.

“You’re still a baby physically! I...I need to ask Celestia, you, are grounded for now young drake!” Twilight stated, causing Spike to whine. “Now send this letter. I know what you’re doing is natural, but...I just don’t think you should be having thoughts like those at this age.”

“Twi, I’m mentally older than most ponies my age. Blame the fact that ponies around my age are already experiment-*BELCH*-phew...big scroll, and a smaller one.” After Spike’s words, both Bronze and Fluttershy could practically feel the tension rise.

“BRONZE!” Twilight screamed, before teleporting in front of the stallion and looking him closely in the eyes with panic.

“What?!” Bronze asked as he backed away from the sudden invasion of his personal space.

“A dragon. A REALLY big dragon, is the cause of this!” Twilight shouted, and Bronze blinked.

“...Aaaaand?” Bronze asked for her to clarify, and suddenly the large scroll he just noticed floating next to her was opened in front of him.

The resounding girly scream of utter horror of the Son of the Night was spoken of in hushed whispers for decades.

[@]

“I AM NOT LEAVING THIS CAVE! YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!” Bronze childishly squealed as he clung upside-down with all his limbs, wings included, to a stalactite on the roof of a cave found not-too-far from Fluttershy’s house within the Everfree. Were it not for Twilight and Rarity’s spawned orbs of magical light and his shaggy silver mane and tail, along with the light glinting off of his bronze nose ring, seeing him would’ve been nearly impossible.

“Bronze! Princess Celestia’s plan to deal with the dragon needs you in order for it to work!” Twilight pleaded with the cowering stallion. The rest of her group of friends, sans Zecora, were all gathered in the cave that Celestia had indicated would be the perfect place to relocate the dragon using Bronze’s godly spacial manipulation powers. Which was originally why they came out here so both Twilight and Bronze could memorize the location.

However, Bronze’s Bravery seemed to only extend to the here-and-now rather than what loomed on the horizon if it was avoidable, as he suddenly snapped and took to playing out the bat part of his physiology. “Sis can levitate him across the sky if she wanted! Either of them could! Why make me do it?!” Bronze pleaded as he shivered against the upside-down cone of a rock formation.

“Because Princess Celestia is meeting with the griffon ambassadors and can’t deal with it personally since it would display our country’s inability to handle a crisis without her. And Princess Luna is in Saddle Arabia on her cultural enrichment world-tour.” Twilight informed calmly.

‘Of all things for mom-SIS, to listen to me about, it had to be my suggestion for her to go on a world tour to get reacquainted with it.’ Bronze lamented his mom’s-SISTER’S absence. And that was another thing. Ever since his proverbial and literal rebirth, Bronze had to accept that he was now Luna’s, and his own even; son. Luna’s constant regular visits, even popping in during her current world tour, were clearly becoming evident that she’s seeing him more as a son and not a sibling, which Celestia was obviously overjoyed about with her starting to take the role of a doting aunt rather than a loving sister, and he apparently needed to get ready to start meeting his cousins.

That said, the public had already connected the dots, and already considered him Luna’s son in the public eye. So. That meant he really did have to do this, didn’t it? ‘Damn me, damn me and my sense of responsibility….’ Bronze whimpered as he slowly let go of the incredibly high-up rock formation, and flipped into a swooping dive before giving a powerful flap of his wings and landing among his friends, the Elements of Harmony, who were all fully prepared to head out. Including Fluttershy. Who had donned an adorably out-of-place hoofball uniform.

“Okay...I need one of you to bind my wings so I don’t try to fly away. And another to keep me from trying to run.” Bronze said shakily as he continuously shivered in fear.

[@]

“I DON’T WANNA DIE~!” Bronze wept as AJ dragged him up a slope using a robe she’d tied around his neck as a leash. The lightweight stallion easy for the mare to pull up the steep slope. “AJ! Please! Save me-he-he~!”

“Ah don’t know if Ah’m let down by yer actin’, or if Ah’m gonna laugh.” AJ snorted through the rope in her teeth, both annoyed and amused at her coltfriend’s behavior. She had no doubt that he could easily handle this issue, but with his wings bound and too frantic to be carried up by Dash or even Fluttershy who was oddly taking this better than him, they had to climb up the mountain instead.

“Don’t worry Bronze. I know that with all of us, you especially, that mean old dragon won’t be a problem.” Fluttershy soothed as she stayed next to her panicking friend. While she felt like panicking herself, Fluttershy couldn’t take that somepony she knew who was very, very Brave, was so scared out of his wits. Thus she tried to help him out as best she could. Because in her eyes, the fact that he was even willing to force himself to go in spite of his fear was an amazingly Brave thing.

“I’ve fought and killed a hydra, but dragons were always considered the worst thing in mythology to face! Sure, Spike is a cool little dude, but that’s because he was raised in a supportive and loving environment! Who here knows anything about natural-born and raised dragons?!” Bronze demanded, getting Twilight to visibly scrunch in on herself at the head of the group. “I WANNA GO HOME~!”

“Ugh! I swear, if I didn't’ know you secretly had bronze balls dude, I’d just consider this pathetic!” Dash complained as she hovered over the group with a pout.

“Whilst unbecoming of a Prince. I agree with Fluttershy that he can indeed put this rude smoke-snoring dragon in his place...in his new home at that.” Rarity said as she discretely looked at some sketches she had, and looked back at the failing-to-drag-himself-away Bronze, and she clicked her tongue. “Putting on muscle still, can’t bother measuring now.”

“I think this is hilarious! Bronze has punched Black Snooty in the schnoz and killed a hydra by smashing in it’s spine! Just warping a dragon to his new sleeping place should be easy-peasy!” Pinkie giggled as she pronked onward as she usually did.

“Be that as it may, Bronze’s fears are very realistic. Now let’s just be quiet on the way up.” Twilight said back at the group, feeling horrible about dragging Bronze up the mountain. At this point, she was wondering if a real friend would have let him go, or helped him face his fears? It was something to ask Celestia about.

[@]

“Well...here we are….” Twilight awkwardly said to the group. They made it up without much trouble, especially when they hit an avalanche zone and Bronze practically just curled into a ball, muttering ‘hi grandma’ over and over for some reason. Oh! Twilight remembered. His mother’s maiden name is Roch. Funny.

“L-let’s just get this over with….” Bronze whimpered as he shivered in his spot, trying in vain to calm down. “Get it together Bronze...what sort of name is Brave if you don’t face your fears?” Bronze muttered, his nose ring and cutie mark glowing blue and his eyes shimmering as he stopped shivering. “Thank you girls. I wouldn’t have been able to work up the courage to make the trek on my own on such short notice. But now that I’m here, let’s just get this done.”

“Alright, I would suggest one of us go with you, but even I can’t possibly be of any help with the degree of spatial manipulation you’re going to be doing.” Twilight said as the others all looked at each other.

“Shy.” Bronze said, getting the mare to blink. “I want you to come in there with me.”

Suddenly, Fluttershy’s eyes shrank to pinpricks, her wings clamped to her sides hard enough for the feathers to creak, and her whole body started quaking just as Bronze had been just moments before. “W-w-w-w-why?”

“For the exact same reason as I need to go in there. C’mon. Nothing will happen Shy.” Bronze said as he walked up to her, extending a wing and pushed her around and forward with a meek ‘eep’ from her as his wing comfortingly pressed against her withers. “Don’t worry Shy. If anything does happen, I can warp us halfway across the region if I need too.”

For some reason, Fluttershy had stopped shivering, and now it seemed her whole face was red with a vicious blush, and Bronze couldn’t figure out that odd reaction. “B-b-b-b-Bronze? Um...I-I don’t...think about you in that way….”

Now it was Bronze’s turn to have a raging flush. “Wh-where did this come from?”

“Y-your wing...you’re….” Fluttershy hinted as she continued to walk forward with him, and he quickly removed his wing from her back.

“S-sorry...I don’t know about these things.” Bronze admitted, but Fluttershy didn’t move away as she gave a friendly nuzzle.

“It’s alright Bronze. I was just caught off-guard. Pegasi don’t wing-hug anypony but those incredibly close to them, and it usually means family members or lovers.” Fluttershy explained, before looking back forward and freezing up, Bronze pausing with her to look forward himself, and sigh quietly out his nose at the sight of the snoozing red and yellow dragon surrounded by his hoard of gold, gems, and various other fancy things.

“Relax Shy, I got this.” Bronze soothed, before getting a determined expression. “HEY! PUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON!” Bronze shouted with the Royal Caps Lock, getting the dragon to snort. “WAKE THE FUCK UP!” Bronze then swapped the air over the dragon with a huge volume of water from Saddle Lake from just outside Ponyville, waking the giant reptile with sputters and coughs while Fluttershy was gaping at the scene in disbelief.

“WHO DARES TO-?!”

“ME! YOU INCONSIDERATE LAYABOUT!” Bronze continued to keep his angry facade and the Royal Canterlot Tone active, getting the now-awake dragon to blink, and realize that the pony in front of him was an alicorn, thus stalling his instinctive desire to lash out at the intruders. “Your snoring is causing smoke to cover the sky! I don’t mind, but my family up on the Canterhorn and everypony else does! So! Here’s how this is going down! I am going to warp you and your entire hoard to a new cave that isn’t so high your snoring will disperse over a wide area and block out the sky! Got it?!”

“U-um...okay?” The dragon replied, not realizing this nice cave he found would be problematic at all, let alone get the big ponies in charge upset with him.

“Now Bronze! That was just rude!” Fluttershy surprisingly spoke up with a disappointed gaze in her eyes, before she flew up to the bewildered dragon. “I’m sorry if my friend was offensive. He’s had a very bad day, and we were supposed to get you to move anyway….”

“Oh, well aren’t you a precious thing?” The dragon said surprisingly gently, as he sniffed Fluttershy, who only just realized she was so close to a DRAGON and instinctively stilled as best she could in the air. “You are a nice pony. If it was you who just asked, I might have just moved my home myself.”

“R-really? I mean, you wouldn’t just burn me, or eat me, or-or make me part of your hoard like all the stories say?” Fluttershy asked, and the dragon chuckled as Bronze sat down and smiled at the interaction.

[@]

“He was a very nice dragon.” Fluttershy finished her story to the girls as the group were sitting around a cafe table since Bronze warped them all back to town once he and Fluttershy had left the cave unscathed.

“So all those nasty things about dragons were just the meanie-pants?” Pinkie asked excitedly as Twilight was reviewing the notes she had taken from Fluttershy’s tale.

“Oh yes. Durgo was very insistent that only the ‘bad eggs’ went on rampages. Most dragons apparently just don’t see any reason to bother others so long as nopony goes out of their way to bother them.” Fluttershy restated.

“I didn’t know ya had it in ya Shy! Hoof-bump!” Dash cheered, leaning over the table towards her meek friend, who giggled gently and softly pressed her hoof to Rainbow’s, getting the prismatic mare to laugh at how her friend could talk to a dragon, but not even give a proper hoof-bump.

“I must say though Bronze. You’re quite the bold and vulgar one when you’re facing your fears. Not quite the behavior of a prince, but perhaps one of a hero regardless.” Rarity commented, getting Bronze to chuckle weakly as he scratched the back of his neck.

“I may be polite, but everypony’s got their breaking points. For me it’s things that are either beyond my control, or things I desperately do not want to be doing.” Bronze said as he sighed. “Dash. Go on a date with Gilda.”

“W-what?!” Rainbow balked, the sudden change of topic catching her completely blindsided.

“Take her on a date. Don’t even call it one if you don’t want to. Hang out with her in a more personal setting than just ‘chilling’ or ‘hanging’ see if that gets her motor running.” Bronze insisted, and Dash blushed as she tried to hide behind her scruffy mane like Fluttershy does. “Do it or I’ll play third-wheel.”

“Okay! Buck! You are so heavy-hoofed, you know that?” Dash tried to shout, only for her voice to crack and almost turn it into a wet rasp.

“Sometimes. A car needs a push. Wheels need grease. And ponies need to have a riding crop taken to the flanks.” Bronze snorted, ignoring how absolutely everypony in earshot, his friends included, gawked at him with blushes. “Yeah. I went there. Now if you ladies will excuse me...I have a hole to go crawl into and cry about screaming at a dragon at the top of my lungs.” Bronze then warped away to Durgo’s former cave, and began screaming in delayed panic.

Author's Notes:

Bronze Brave's Talent: Bravery in the Face of Adversity.

That dragon? Totally avoidable and thus does not apply