Blaze woke from a peaceful sleep. Playing the guitar had helped as usual, but he didn’t have time to play it every night. A peaceful night’s sleep was a luxury he could barely afford even some nights. He got up and made breakfast. He was meeting Fluttershy at lunch, in 4 hours’ time. He decided to use the time he had to relax a little, by reading a book on the Everfree Forest to see if could gleam and information as to how the Everfree Breach could exist.

He sighed as he walked upstairs to the study with a bowl of Hay. He could write some of the song he had thought of in his head as well, he guessed. He would need to relax properly every so often or he would work himself into a stupor and not get anything done.

He wished the illness had never happened. He wished some parts of his life hadn’t happened, like the accident. He stretched his wings sadly at this, and sat down at the desk crowded with chopped up flowers, microscopes and vials of liquid to eat his breakfast. He looked forward to meeting Fluttershy again today, but remembered what he had written the night before.

Fluttershy was making her way done the stairs of her house after a long night of sleep. After helping Blaze yesterday she had had to go in to town to get some more animal feed, and then care to her animals. She had gone to bed late, and had consequently woken up later than usual as well. As she turned towards the kitchen, she heard a knocking on her door. She wondered if it as Blaze, and started to worry about the mess her mane was in, but she heard Rainbow Dash shout through the door.

“Fluttershy! You there?”

“U-um yes, what is it Rainbow Dash?” she asked, opening the door.

“I need to talk to you about that new colt.”

“Blaze?” she asked, wondering what was wrong “What about him?”

“There’s something wrong with him,” said Rainbow Dash, inviting herself into the house. “He acts so, strangely. You know how I know every Pegasus I went to flight school with?”

“Yeah?”

“Well I DON’T recognise HIM. How is that possible? I would have remembered him, so he can’t have been in Flight School, but that’s not possible either, everyone has to go to Flight School. And he doesn’t use his wings, not to fly, not to hover, nothing. No Pegasus does that.”

“I don’t know Rainbow Dash, maybe you just don’t recognise him.” said Fluttershy, brushing her mane into place.

“He must be a SPY, with fake wings or something.” said Rainbow Dash, muttering to herself and ignoring Fluttershy.

“Come on Dash, he’s not bad. Look,” she picked up the worm sweeper Blaze had given to her “He made this for me, that was kind of him.”

Rainbow Dash looked up at the gift and her eyes widened as she ran over and snatched it, looking it all over.

“It must be a listening device, or maybe-,”

“Dash!” Fluttershy shouted quietly.

“What?” she asked, dropping the worm sweeper, and looking as it hit the floor and the handle snapped off. “Oops.”

Fluttershy was angry now, something that never happened. “Dash, please leave.”

“Fine!” Dash shouted angrily “But don’t come crying to me when he does something awful.” She turned and began walking to the door.

“Don’t worry, I won’t, because Blaze is a nice pony, unlike YOU.”

“Humph!” with that, Rainbow Dash slammed the door and flew off, leaving Fluttershy looking sadly at Blaze’s broken gift. She picked up the pieces and put them on the shelf, wondering how she would tell Blaze.

Blaze finished packing the picnic he was going to take to the Breach with him and Fluttershy. He was trying to think of words to put down to his favourite tune for the guitar, but nothing had come to mind. He was looking forward to meeting Fluttershy as usual, but he knew he couldn’t get close to her. He had to keep reminding himself that, but as much as he tried he couldn’t stop himself. He walked into the study to get his guitar and practise. He couldn’t run any more experiments. He had stayed up late, past midnight, trying different combinations of medicinal plants but none were working.

He sat in his usual place on the balcony with Hammy sitting next to him and the guitar and started to play the song he had almost perfected. The song seemed to relax Hammy as well as him.

-3 Hours Later-

Blaze met Fluttershy at her door.

“Hey Fluttershy.” said Blaze.

“Oh, hi Blaze.” Fluttershy looked sad.

“What’s wrong?” asked Blaze.

“Well, it’s j-just, your gift, well, it got… broken.” she said, looking down.

“Oh, what happened?” Blaze worried it had broken because he hadn’t made it properly.

“Well, me and one of my friends got into a bit of a fight, and she dropped it. The handle’s broken.”  She brought him in and showed him it.

“Oh, that’s ok, I can fix it. Don’t worry, it’s not your fault,” he said, seeing her face “What were you and your friend fighting about?”

“O-oh, it was nothing. Don’t worry. Do you want to go now?”

“Um, sure. I brought a picnic with me, so we can stay there a bit longer.”

“Oh, that was nice of you. Let’s go.” She said smiling, eager to get away from the argument she had had with Rainbow Dash about Blaze.

[centre]-2 Weeks Later-[/centre]

Blaze was sitting in his study. It was a mess and it was late, the sun was setting. There were papers on the floor, the desk was cluttered with parts of all 23 plants from the Breach and books on medicine and plants were lying open all over the place. He had been visiting the Breach with Fluttershy regularly, every other day for the last 2 weeks, taking samples, mixing them up, running all types of experiments on the plants he had. He had come up with cures to some illnesses but not one plant or combination had yielded the success he needed so badly. He was running out of time. He had to get back to Hayton soon, or there would be no hope. He didn’t know how long the stew would work for.

He looked at the empty brewery chest. He had even tried foreign medicinal ingredients, like the Xander root from the Western Ponies, and Crystal coral from the Sea Ponies. They were some of the best medicinal ingredients in Equestria, and were used in nearly every major medicine, but mixed with the plants here they had no effect on the infected blood samples. He swept the books off his desk with his hoof. It was hopeless. He had tried everything. He decided to take one trip with Fluttershy to the Breach tomorrow, but after that he would have to leave and go back empty hoofed. He had tried everywhere else in Equestria, this was his last hope.

And he was tired. He had stayed up late every night for 2 weeks and woken up badly every other morning. He knew he couldn’t do it any longer.

And he was fairly sure he was in love with Fluttershy. He was a damned fool.

Fluttershy had finished caring to her animal friends. Blaze had fixed her worm sweeper as promised, and even painted it light yellow, just like her. She smiled. It saved her time every day, but she noticed that Blaze was getting more and more odd. She was worried. He was tiring himself out. She didn’t know what he was doing in his study but it was stressing him out. One time after saying goodbye, she had heard some sort of music from the balcony. She wanted to help, but other than with the animals, she didn’t know what she could do. She sadly closed her door and went to get ready for bed.

-The Next Morning-

Blaze grabbed his suit and saddle bag and went to meet Fluttershy. He knew it probably wasn’t worth the effort, but he had to try before he had to leave. He didn’t want to tell Fluttershy he had to go, but he had to let her know, sooner or later. He couldn’t put it off. He’d tell her when they got to the Breach today.

They exchanged quiet hellos, Blaze feeling down because he had failed and had to leave, Fluttershy feeling down because she couldn’t help Blaze more. They silently made their way to the Breach. When they got there, Blaze laid out the blanket and sat down.

“Fluttershy, can I tell you something?” he asked sadly.

She sat down next to him “Of course. What is it?”

“Well, I have to go soon.” he said looking down “As in, leave Ponyville.”

“Oh.” Fluttershy felt sad. She had grown used to seeing Blaze every other day. It had given her something to do. Without

him here, it would go back to long days of looking after animals, which she loved, but she enjoyed regularly seeing somepony else, even with her occasional adventures with her friends. “But, why?”

“Business.” he said as vaguely as possible. He didn’t want to go through it, even with her.

“Oh. Well. It won’t be the same without you.” she was very sad now. She stood up and walked off to the other side of the clearing.

Blaze sighed and stood up. He hadn’t wanted to upset her, but there wasn’t any other way he could tell her. He walked over to where she was standing and put a hoof on her shoulder. “I don’t want to leave either, but I have to.”

Then he smelt it. A sour smell with an edge of sweetness. He had smelt it the first time he had come here, while climbing up the rocky outcrop. He looked around at the flowers at their hooves. All he saw were daisies and a few roses.

***

Fluttershy leant down to smell the flowers here. She was sad Blaze had to leave. She heard him walk over and felt him put a hoof on her shoulder. “I don’t want to leave either, but I have to.” he said. She didn’t respond, she was distracted by a smell, sour but also sweet. She looked at Blaze and he was also looking around for the source of the smell. She took Blazes hoof off her shoulder and walked over the rocky outcrop. Outside a small burrow was what appeared to be a blue rose. As she got closer the inhabitants of the burrow came out to investigate her. They were 2 small Armadillo’s, creatures capable of rolling into balls with armoured backs.

***

Blaze watched as Fluttershy walked over to the outcrop, near a small burrow. He watched as she attracted the attention of the inhabitants, a couple of armadillo’s. She leant down and sniffed a blue flower, probably a rose, outside the burrow. She closed her eyes as and coughed. She opened her eyes again and walked over to him and sat down on the blanket.

He turned and began searching for new plants. His mind wandered back to that rose. It was only a rose, like all the others in the clearing. Nothing special. He had even tried the normal ones to no avail.

[centre]-An Hour Later-[/centre]

Blaze had found nothing new. They were walking back in silence, both lost for words. They heard a rustling and turned around. Behind them was a Manticore.

Fluttershy screamed and flew into the air, hovering about a hoof above the ground, but the Manticore was set on her.

“Help me Blaze!” she shouted at him just before the Manticore roared. She looked over at him.

Blaze merely dug his back hooves into the ground. Using his foreleg he removed his mask and Fluttershy gasped. His normally orange coloured eyes were glazed over and his pupils looked like they were on fire. He pulled out what looked like a glow stick from his saddlebag as the Manticore charged.

***

Blaze knew what was happening. It had only happened to him twice before in his whole life. He was being taken over by an urge to protect Fluttershy. He grabbed a flare from his saddlebag. As the Manticore charged at Fluttershy, he jumped into its path. For only a second, he made eye contact with the raging beast, but it was enough to stop it in its tracks. With a smirk, he twisted the flare and waved it around the Manticores face. It was a trick he had been taught in his travels.

When facing an angry animal, get its attention, distract it, then either scare it off, or go in for the kill.

He didn’t have the strength to kill the beast even if he wanted to, so he jumped to the left and then jumped at it. It backed off, scared by the smoke and light coming off the flare. He threw the flare over its head and as it turned to look, he shouted in its ear. The Manticore decided that this wasn’t worth it, and turned and ran.

Blaze looked to the floor as he felt his eyes return to their normal state. The exchange had lasted only 30 seconds, but it was still unpleasant. Once he was sure they were normal again, he turned to look at Fluttershy. She slowly back away, scared by his performance. Then with a change of heart ran forward and hugged him.

“Thank you.” she whispered into his ear.

He looked into her eyes. He wanted to kiss her, but he couldn’t.

He wouldn’t let himself.

He looked away from her. “We should go, before more of them turn up.”

[centre]-10 minutes late-

It was getting dark by the time they got to Fluttershy’s house.

Fluttershy wanted to ask him so many questions. How had he done that? Where was he from? What was he working on?

And most of all, what had happened to him in the forest?

But as she reached her gate, she suddenly felt tired. She would ask him tomorrow.

“Goodbye Blaze.” she whispered to him.

“Goodbye Fluttershy.” He made a sudden decision and hugged her. This would be one of his last memories of her, he

wanted to make it a good one. Fluttershy was surprised by the burst of affection, but returned the hug. As he let her go, Blaze saw she was very pale. She was probably still getting over the Manticore attack. He sadly turned and left.

Rainbow Dash was still angry at Fluttershy for not believing her. She looked at them from above on her cloud. Why were they hugging? Had Fluttershy fallen for him? She would come back tomorrow and convince her ‘Blaze’ was bad news. She had to. She had asked around and no-pony seemed to know him. Applejack recalled selling apples to somepony called Dr Carousel weekly, but that was it.

She had to find out what he was up to. And why he and Fluttershy kept going into the Everfree Forest.

Journal of Dr Blaze Carousel, Entry 159 – I went for a final search today. Nothing. I will have to leave in a matter of days to go back to Hayton, empty hoofed. I’m a failure. I’ve gone all over Equestria looking for the cure, but I haven’t found it. And my past is slowly revealing itself, which I can’t let happen. I have to leave. It will take 2 days to pack, but I want a day to relax for at least a bit.

I tried my best Minerod.