As Rainbow Dash neared Town Hall, she could already see a large group of ponies gathering outside its doors. It didn't surprise her all that much, given what many of them probably suspected.

The calamity that occurred all those years ago, and that had robbed the bitter cyan pegasus of her dreams, hadn't really affected Ponyville itself, but the event was on a large enough scale that it could most definitely be heard throughout the town, and the inequine wail was something a lot of Ponyville residents would never forget.

She frowned slightly and picked up her pace until she reached the group. She pushed past the group, ignoring the uneasy muttering and furtive glances as she made her way closer to the double doors of Town Hall.

She reached the doors, push them open and briskly stepped inside, stopping a little ways in as she spotted Mayor Mare and one other pony, both of whom turned in her direction. Rainbow didn't know the massive red stallion personally, having only seen him a few times since she'd moved in with Fluttershy on the outskirts of Ponyville.

She'd spotted him in the marketplace selling apples, and had even bought a few from him, but she'd never bothered to learn his name. More surprising to the cyan pegasus was the small purple dragon sitting atop the stallion's back.

For a long moment, everypony in the room was silent, all eyes on Rainbow Dash. Then, Rainbow finally got over her shock and looked around the room. She turned to look back towards the entrance and frowned before turning to address Mayor Mare.

"Is this it?" she asked, trotting over to where the others were, "I came here expecting a search party, and this is all there is?" she cast a side glance at the dragon, who waved back nervously. Deciding to leave her questions about the dragon for later, she returned her attention back to the Mayor, "you are planning an investigation into what just happened in the Everfree, right?"

"Well, yes, I did send out a missive asking for volunteers to investigate the forest," Mayor Mare replied from behind the desk she'd set up near the back of the main room, "but it seems nopony other than Big McIntosh and his, erm... new friend, answered the letter. As you most likely already saw, several ponies arrived, but none of them have actually volunteered."

"Most of the ponies out there were already here by the time we showed up," the dragon chimed in, giving Rainbow a friendly smile, "my name's Spike by the way."

"Good for you," Rainbow replied dismissively. Ignoring Spike's indignant frown, the cyan mare once more address the Mayor, "so it's just gonna be me and the big guy then? That's fine with me. It'll make it easier to move around and keep quiet."

"Wha—hey!" Spike exclaimed, gesturing to himself and glaring at the disinterested pegasus, "It's not just Big Mac, I'm going too, y'know!"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes before turning to fully face the indignant little dragon, her head rising to meet his offended gaze.

"Look, Spines—"

"It's Spike!"

"—I don't care if you come or not," Rainbow continued, "I don't care if this stallion comes or not, all I care about is finding the thing in that forest. The only reason I'm even here is because I'm not stupid enough to go in alone without at least trying to get help first."

"But you'd go in alone if nopony was here, I take it?" Big Mac asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yup," Rainbow replied simply, "I need to see whatever made that noise with my own eyes, and I'm gonna see it whether I'm alone or not," she turned back to the Mayor, "so we gonna do this or what? Cause I'm ready to go—"

It was at that moment that the double doors behind them all slammed open, cutting off Rainbow and causing the rest of the small group to turn once more in surprise. Rainbow reflexively attempted to flare out her mangled wings and winced in pain at the effort.

Unbeknownst to the pegasus, Spike happened to catch sight of it and frowned before returning his gaze to the pony who'd just thrown open the doors. Standing in the now open doorway was another pegasus, this one a soft yellow with a long pale pink, and slightly frazzled mane.

Rainbow's eyes widened in surprise and her mouth dropped at the sight of the sweaty, panting mare before her.

"F-Fluttershy?" she croaked before rushing over to her friend, "what are you doing here?" as she moved closer, a familiar mocha colored ferret poked its head out of her mane and chittered animatedly. The sight halted Rainbow for a moment and she frowned in bemusement, "Bella?"

"Rainbow," Fluttershy gasped, "I'm... so glad... I caught you... before you left... for the Everfree..."

"Whoa, Fluttershy, take it easy," Rainbow advised, allowing the tired yellow mare to lean against her, "did you gallop all the way here?" she frowned in disapproval, "come on, Flutters, your wings actually work. Why wouldn't you just fly here?"

"Bella... doesn't like... heights," Fluttershy wheezed, "it's okay... I'm okay... just... give me a minute..."

Further back behind the two mares, both Spike and Big Mac looked at each other, unsure of what to make of the situation. Spike went to say something, but the large stallion shook his head and looked back to the mares. Spike sighed, shrugged helplessly, and did the same, figuring it was better to just let whatever was going on play out on its own.

"Fluttershy, why did you come here?" Rainbow asked after a few moments, "I told you I wasn't gonna just sit around and wait. I'm gonna search the Everfree until I find that thing, and I'm not coming back until I do."

"I... I know," Fluttershy replied, taking a deep breath before straightening up, pushing her unkempt mane out of her face, and raising her head to look Rainbow Dash in the eye, "I know I can't stop you, Rainbow, and that's why I'm coming too."

Rainbow Dash was speechless.

Though she'd lived with her for some time now, there were still times that Rainbow couldn't figure Fluttershy out. She was normally terrified of her own shadow, and yet she chose to live next to one of the most dangerous forests in Equestria, on the outskirts of Ponyville.

She was afraid of getting hurt, and yet she lived in a location where she wasn't likely to receive any help from the townsponies any time soon should anything happen to her. At least, that would've been the case if Rainbow wasn't there for her.

She was terrified of the forest itself, but not the animals in it, whether they were carnivores or not. That was one of the main reasons to be terrified of the forest, and yet Fluttershy went in and out of the Everfree regularly for her animals. To Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy was a coward, but also one of the bravest ponies she knew, and she'd often asked herself a single question about her friend more than once.

What was Fluttershy truly afraid of?

Even now, when she didn't know what they'd find, when it could've been some massive monster with rows and rows of teeth meant to specifically devour a pony, she still wanted to join the group. Even though Rainbow could see her visibly shaking all over, her eyes were hard and resolute, just as much as, if not more so, than her own.

She didn't want Fluttershy to go, but Rainbow Dash couldn't bring herself to say that out loud, because she knew it would just make her a hypocrite. Aside from that, deep beneath all the shock and bemusement, Rainbow Dash was proud of and grateful to, her paradoxically cowardly and courageous friend.

"Fluttershy," Rainbow tried half-heartedly, "you don't have to—"

"I'm not letting you go without me, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy interjected, "if I can't stop you from putting your life at risk, then I want to be there to make sure you keep your promise to come back alive, and I'll make sure you keep it. That's my promise."

And there it was.

That was the reason Fluttershy was willing to march into this potentially deadly situation right along with her, Big McIntosh, and the baby dragon. With those words, there was no way Rainbow Dash could say no to her determination. She might've once, when she was younger and far more bitter, headstrong, and protective than she was now, but living with Fluttershy had mellowed her out, at least to some degree.

Fluttershy herself cast a quick glance over Rainbow's ruined wings before looking into the other mare's eyes once more.

"I know my way around the forest, at least more than you do," Fluttershy reasoned, "I'm also very quiet, and if I'm around, you shouldn't have any trouble from the animals that live there."

"That sounds mighty useful."

Fluttershy squeaked and jumped back in fright at the sudden deep timber of Big Mac's voice. She looked over Rainbow's shoulder to see the tall stallion approaching, his trot slow, easy and non-threatening. The yellow mare stepped back a bit further as Big Mac approached, but the stallion stopped just a few hoof-lengths short of Rainbow Dash, though he still addressed Fluttershy.

"Ah can't speak fer yer friend here, but ah'd be more'n happy ta have ya with us, Miss Fluttershy," Big Mac gave Fluttershy a friendly smile and raised one of his giant shod hooves, "name's Big McIntosh, but ya'll can just call me Big Mac. It's a pleasure ta meet'cha."

Fluttershy looked from the outstretched hoof to Big Mac's smiling face. She'd actually seen the stallion in town before on the rare occasions when she herself went into town to shop at the marketplace, but, like Rainbow, she hadn't learned his name.

She stood there for a few seconds, frozen in terrified indecision, but then she noticed the purple drakeling peering down at her curiously from Big Mac's back. Just like that, all her nervousness and awkwardness vanished and her eyes lit up with wonder.

"Is... is that a baby dragon?" she asked, moving around the stallion to get a better look at Spike, "it is! Oh, what are you doing here, little one? You must be far from home to have ended up all the way here in Ponyville."

"Um," Spike replied, caught off guard by the attention. He looked down at Big Mac, who lowered his hoof and shrugged. When he went to looked back to Fluttershy, he found the doting mare had lifted herself off the ground to get right into his face, "gah! I-I mean, uh... hi there... my name's Spike, and I—"

"You can talk?" Fluttershy gasped, "oh that's amazing! I had no idea dragons could speak! You said your name was Spike? How adorable!" before Spike could do anything about it, he found himself once more snatched up into a tight, relentless embrace, "you have to tell me more about yourself. How old are you? How'd you get here? What do dragons eat? I have all kinds of animal feed back at my house, maybe I can—"

"Pardon, Miss," Big Mac interrupted, his expression halfway between annoyance and amusement, "if ya don't mind, we got a forest ta investigate. Ah'd rather do it sooner than later."

"Yeah, Flutters," Rainbow Dash added, trotting over to her friend and laying a hoof on her shoulder, "forget about the dragon for now. If your gonna come, that's... that's fine, but I wanna go before whatever's out there gets away."

Fluttershy looked from the extremely disgruntled baby dragon, to Rainbow Dash and Big Mac. She looked back to Spike and sighed before letting him go, after which he rubbed his arm, frowned up at the mare, and hopped back onto Big Mac's back.

"I really hope this doesn't become a trend," Spike muttered, "seriously."

"Um... excuse me."

Everypony in the room turned to see Mayor Mare sitting back behind her desk, fixing them all with an awkward smile of her own. Many of the group had completely forgotten the mare was there, as caught up in Fluttershy's unexpected arrival as they were. Fluttershy, much to her own embarrassment, hadn't even seen the mare.

"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, the rest of you," Mayor Mare continued, "but if all of you are heading into the forest, I think it would be prudent to prepare yourselves for the worst. I recommend making sure all your affairs are in order and... oh!"

She stood up suddenly before trotting towards a door leading into a room further back. The others looked at each other with bemused frowns as the Mayor pulled the door open and stepped inside. She came back out a moment later with a small scroll.

"Before you go, take this with you," she trotted over to Big Mac and pressed the scroll into one of his hooves, "it's a scroll imbued with a spell that'll send out a magical flare when tossed into the air 'with the intent to call for help', or so the instructions say. Queen Daybreaker provided all the towns and cities around Equestria with some, in case of an emergency."

Big Mac eyed the scroll dubiously for a moment before hoofing over to Spike, who grabbed it and pulled it open curiously. Opening the scroll revealed a rather complicated looking series of runes surrounding several interwoven magic circles. Unable to make heads or tails of any of it, he shrugged and rolled the scroll back up.

"So how does it work? What happens when this 'magic flare' goes off?" Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow, "does somepony come running or something?"

"Apparently, it's supposed to summon the Solar Guards," Mayor Mare replied, looking unsure of her own answer, "don't ask me how. The instructions weren't very clear in that regard."

"Huh," Rainbow responded, eyeing the scroll in Spike's claw with the same dubious look Big Mac had given it a moment ago, "well... alright, whatever," she turned to Fluttershy, her features softening somewhat, "we should head back to the cottage and get a few things. I, uh... kinda forgot to grab some supplies when I left."

Fluttershy didn't say anything in response, merely nodding in agreement. Her mind was already on what they'd find in the forest, and how badly things might go. Big Mac likewise had his own preparations to make, and after telling Spike as much, he turned back to the Mayor, Rainbow, and Fluttershy.

"Looks like we all got somethin' ta take care of before we go," he announced, "why don't we all grab what we need an' meet back here before headin' off to the Everfree?"

"Sounds good to me," Rainbow Dash replied as she and Fluttershy began making there way to the exit, "just don't take too long."

With those parting words, she pulled the doors open and the two mares stepped outside, parting the crowd as they left. From what Spike and Big Mac could see, the crowd of curious ponies seemed to have thinned out quite a bit, and there were only a few stragglers left.

"So... what happened to her wings?" Spike asked once the doors had closed, "that pony... what did Fluttershy call her? Rainbow Dash?"

"Ah don't know, but ah get the feeling whatever's in that forest has somethin' ta do with it," Big Mac replied before twisting around to give Spike a disapproving glare, "but don't go askin' her about 'em, ya hear?"

"Yeah, I got it," Spike replied, raising his claws defensively, "don't worry, I won't. She'd probably deck me in the face if I asked anyway."

Big Mac eyed him for a moment before snorting and shaking his head. He thanked the Mayor for the scroll and trotted out of Town Hall. He'd only encountered the Solar Guard once before, and it had been an experience he didn't particularly care to remember. If the scroll did indeed summon the Guard, then he'd do everything in his power to make sure none of them had to use it.

Big Mac had said nothing and made no visible reaction to the information regarding how the scroll worked, but he wanted nothing to do with anything related to the Queen's Solar Guard. If he was being honest, he'd rather face whatever monster was in that forest than watch those monsters at work.

I wanted to poke a bit of fun at Fluttershy's apparent ignorance of dragons from back in the first episode of the show here.