Blaze woke up from the same nightmare. He could have sworn it was getting worse with every occurrence. He didn’t dwell on the thought though, just prepared and ate a quick breakfast, ate it and finished Fluttershy’s gift. He hoped she would like it and imagined her reaction as he wrapped it and put it in his saddlebag. On his way out, he grabbed a half empty tin of nuts which were usually reserved as treats, but he thought what the hay, he was in a good mood. Hammy squeaked with joy when Blaze placed them in front of his run and pulled the tin over to get at the nuts. When he looked up again he saw Blaze had already gone.

Blaze rounded the corner from his house. He was looking forward to seeing Fluttershy again, she was so sweet. However, the butterflies in his stomach returned as he neared her house. He had made sure the gift was properly made, that there was nothing wrong with it. He wanted to turn around and go when he saw her house but braved on. He walked up to her front door and knocked on the door. He heard who he presumed to be Fluttershy walk to the door. His guess was confirmed as she opened the door.

“Oh, hello Blaze,” she said to him “How are you? Did Hammy like the run?”

“Oh yes he loved it, thank you again for it. In fact, I have a small gift in return for you.”

He pulled the small mug shaped gift out of his saddlebag and held it out to her. Fluttershy blushed at the gesture and took it, slowly unravelling the ribbon tied around it. As the wrapping paper fell away it revealed what appeared to be a mug, except the bottom had been replaced with a fine grille.

“It’s very nice, but, um, what is it?” asked Fluttershy, turning the object around in her hooves.

“It’s for getting worms out of the ground. You just scoop it through the dirt and any worms get stuck in the cup thanks to the grille, while the dirt passes through it. I used to use one myself a while ago for collecting ingredients for medicine.” He began to blush again.

“Oh, that is so sweet of you,” she said, looking into his eyes “Sometimes it takes an hour to find enough worms for all my bird friends.”

“I hoped you would like it,” Blaze smiled “But I also came here to ask you something.”

“Oh?”

“You’re good with animals, and I’ve found this place, but the animals are too afraid to come out of their homes. I was hoping that maybe you could… help me?”

“Of course I can help! Where is this place you found?”

“Well, that’s the thing. It’s sort of, well… in the Everfree Forest,” he was dreading her reaction.

Sure enough, Fluttershy let out a small squeal and backed away at the thought. “O-oh no, I’m sorry, I can’t go in the Everfree Forest, there’s Timberwolves, and it’s creepy, even in the day, because there’s no light-,” she stopped, seeing the disappointment on Blazes face. She sighed, she didn’t want him to think she was selfish, or scared. “Okay. When do you want to go?”

Blaze smiled. He had worried Fluttershy wouldn’t want to go, especially after the way she reacted. “If you’re sure, we can go now, but I just have to pick up some stuff from my house first. Thank you for helping me.”

Rainbow Dash was watching the new pony. He was talking to Fluttershy now, and had just handed her a small gift. Dash hadn’t told Fluttershy about this colt’s weird behaviour yet, she hadn’t had time. She had just got up as it was. She wasn’t a morning pony. She hadn’t had time to follow him yesterday, didn’t have much time today. Tomorrow, she thought. Tomorrow I’ll warn Fluttershy about him. She turned and flew off the cloud she had been hiding on.

Fluttershy was standing next to Blaze at the entrance to the Everfree Forest. They had gone to his house so he could get his things, which included a very large saddlebag, a journal, garden equipment and even a camouflage suit for him, which she thought was odd.

“I’ll go first and make sure there are no dangerous animals.” He turned around and smiled through his mask. “You don’t have to do this you know. I know it’s dangerous.”

Fluttershy was clearly still scared, but was determined to prove she could help. “N-no, I said I-I’ll help, and I will.”

“Ok. Let’s go.” With that Blaze turned and started walking into the forest, with Fluttershy walking close behind.

-45 minutes later-

It was much faster getting there when Blaze wasn’t searching for plants. They had come close to a Timberwolves nest, but Blaze had led them around without being noticed. As they approached the clearing he stopped and turned to Fluttershy. “If I go in, I’ll probably scare the animals. Would you like to go first?” he asked as politely as possible.

“O-of course.” She walked forward and carefully stepped over the Everfree Wall. She stepped into the clearing and walked forward until she was right in the middle, next to the rocky outcrop. She looked around and saw all the signs of animals that Blaze had, and began looking for their homes and nests. She saw some bird nests, a few burrows in the rocky outcrop and even nests halfway up it, dug into the rock. The animals had all run when they saw her coming into the clearing, but she knew how to deal with shy animals. She sat down and started to sing.

***

Blaze stood on the outside of the clearing and watched as Fluttershy sat down. He removed the mask of his suit, not needing it anymore and wondered what Fluttershy was doing, and how she was going to get the animals out. As soon as she opened her mouth, he realised what she was doing. Her singing was beautiful. He had never heard anything like it. It was as though the mythical angel ponies of Utopia were singing. He wasn’t surprised that every animal there soon left their homes and nests to investigate the heavenly sound. He slowly walked into the clearing, as mesmerised by her singing as the animals that were now flocking and gathering around her. She stopped and looked up at Blaze, smiling.

He blushed as he smiled too. The animals looked over at him, but didn’t run. She quieted her singing until she stopped. The animals went back to their business around the clearing, no longer afraid. Blaze walked up to Fluttershy, who was still smiling.

“I had no idea anypony could do that. You have a voice like an angel.” said Blaze, still awestruck.

“O-oh, it’s nothing, really.” Fluttershy was blushing. A lot. “What did you want me to do?”

“W-well, I need to document the animals that live here, what species they are, what they eat, where they live. I need to know so I can find out about plants that I can use to make medicine.” He added, seeing Fluttershy’s perplexed look.

“Oh, I can do that. See that one over there? That’s an armadillo, and that one’s-“

“Whoa, hold on” Blaze smiled, pulling out a book and a quill “Ok, let’s start.”

-5 Hours Later-

Blaze and Fluttershy had been working on documenting all the life in the Everfree Breach for hours. He had been working on the plants and she had been working on the animals. There had even been a few species she didn’t know of, but she and Blaze had worked out names for them, as well as documenting 23 plants that had never been discovered. Well, until now, and because he had brought the gardening equipment, he took samples of 5 of the plants. Blaze had been working on a ‘Nature Web’ which showed the connections between the animals and the plants, what they ate etc. He had even shown Fluttershy how to easily make one when she asked him what it was, but they had called it quits when they got hungry after 4 hours of hard work.

He and Fluttershy were walking back to her house; he was a lot less nervous around her now. She was nice and he liked her, but he couldn’t waste any time. He had to find the cure as soon as possible. He said goodbye to Fluttershy at her gate.

“Thank you again for helping me, especially as we had to go through the Forest.” said Blaze “I know you didn’t want to.

“It was fine. It was a bit frightening, but you seemed to know what you’re doing.” She looked him in the eye and smiled.

“Would you like to meet again tomorrow so we can continue it?” asked Blaze.

“That would be nice. See you tomorrow.” She turned around but realised something and turned around “I have a question though, why don’t you use your wings? I’ve never seen you fly or even hover.”

Blaze turned his head towards her, but didn’t meet her eye.

“I’ll tell you some other time.” He said and walked quickly to his house.

Journal of Dr Blaze Carousel, Entry 127 – Today I enlisted the help of Fluttershy, the pony previously mentioned, to help with the animals in the clearing. Her awe striking abilities led to all the animals showing themselves, and she and I spent roughly 4 hours documenting the animals and what they eat, where they live etc. There were even several specie’s she nor I know about. I started a Nature Web for scientific purposes, and it would appear there are a few dozen different animals living there. I couldn’t complete the Nature Web today, but I have scheduled to meet her again tomorrow to continue work. As well as this, I have brought back 5 samples of unknown plants that I have yet to name, and will be known as Samples 1 through 5. I will leave the glory of naming the 2 dozen odd new plants there to somepony else, I don’t have time. I have to find the cure.

So far the roots and petals of the flowers have produced nothing helpful. Thankfully the illness in the blood samples isn’t mutating, but nothing seems to break the protein shield. If I could find the plant that caused this, I could probably find a cure easily, but Minerod passed before he could tell me where or even what it is. I can’t let that happen to anypony else.

I don’t have time to spare, not even for somepony like Fluttershy. I’ve learnt my lesson by doing that.