Spike reminisced back to his first hunt. He knew hunting creatures was a big part of a dragon’s life, making sure all animals that might be of annoyance stay well away from their lairs, if they didn’t they had to be taken care of, Spike knew this, but he never expected his first hunt to be a Hydra.

Spike decided that it would be best if he left the Golden Oaks Library in the early morning as not to attract attention. The townsponies knew Spike was here thanks to Pinkie’s party invitations, but judging by none of them showing up to said party, Spike assumed that they were aware of his new found size and the certainly were unsure of it.

That is why he quietly sneaked out of Ponyville just as dawn began to seep over the hills and was now gently creeping through the dense trees of the Everfree forest.

A dragon is not the stealthiest of creatures. They could be extremely quiet when they needed to be, especially when they are younger and need to rely on stealth to even have a chance against larger beasts. But as they gradually get older and bigger they lose their small and light bodies and have to drop stealth in exchange for power. Spike had definitely passed his need for stealth which made his current predicament all the more annoying.

He furled his wings as close to his back as possible, so that they would not get in the way and continued creeping through the woods.

After about two minutes of moving through the dense forest he stopped and sniffed. He had it, the faintest smell of Fluttershy’s shampoo about one-hundred yards away. He had caught the scent back at the library the other day.

“It seems Twilight was right” Spike mumbled.

Twilight had told him that Fluttershy liked to take walks in the early mornings. Spike thought this to be an opportune moment to talk to Fluttershy. When he spoke to his old friends in the library the other day Fluttershy said nothing and the others spoke for her. Spike however wanted to hear what Fluttershy had to say, plus from what he remembered of Fluttershy he thought it would be best to start with her.

Spike redirected his course and headed towards Fluttershy’s scent, all the time homing in on it.

After a while he came to a small well-trodden path in the forest. The forest cover above the road parted, letting sunlight enter and touch the ground. Sticking to the foliage beside the path for cover he sniffed again trying to regain the scent of the pony, but could not find it.

“Darn…” he muttered to himself “Something greater is blocking the scent.”

Whatever this new smell was, it was heavy and thick, like all the feces, rotten wood and mud had all been put in one place. Spike knew this wasn’t something that just occurred in the forest, meaning someone or something was behind it. Spike sharpened his senses; if this smell was from a creature that lived within the forest then danger was sure to follow.

Spike peaked his head out from the twisted trees and tall grass. There she was. About five yards away Fluttershy walked down the road unaware of Spike’s presence.

Why would Fluttershy take walks through the Everfree?

Spike tensed. Whatever the stench was, it was getting closer.

Fluttershy stopped. Even she was beginning to pick up on it now. She turned her head looking around, trying to locate a source. But as she recognised the smell, her inquisitive transformed into one of pure horror.

Very slowly she backed away and turned to head back the way she came.

But the source of the foul stench had already decided to show itself.

The wooden creature leaped out from the forest and landed on the road. Sap dripped from its teeth like drool, its four great legs firmly in the ground ready to attack at any moment, its eyes aglow with a shade of green you could forget yourself in. A Timber Wolf.

Fluttershy began to run at the sight of the creature but two more came out from behind her, blocking her exits. She tried to let out a scream but nothing came out, too scared to scream she covered her eyes and pretended it was all a horrible dream that she could just wake up from.

Meanwhile the very real Timber Wolves prepared to pounce on their prey.

They did not get the chance however for a much bigger and more dangerous creature decided to finally make itself known.

Suddenly a loud and threatening growl came from the forest. The Timber Wolves ceased their advance on the pony and all turned to face the intruder on their meal.

Spike stepped out of the underbrush baring his teeth as threateningly as he could. When the Timber Wolves saw his full size they took a slight step back, but they weren’t going to give up their food so easily. Spike then unfurled his wings making him look even bigger while at the same time he shot a small ball of fire at the largest Timber Wolf. It was more than enough to set the entire creature alight.

That did it.

The still burning wolf yelped and ran back into the forest as fast as he could. Seeing the biggest of them so easily scared, the two others quickly followed suit. Leaving the dragon and the petrified pony with her eyes still covered all alone.

“Fluttershy, are you okay?” Spike asked in a concerned stature.

Fluttershy whimpered, hiding her face with her mane.

“Um… Fluttershy?” Spike asked again.

Again Fluttershy did not answer, too petrified to say anything.

He didn’t want to try and comfort, he didn’t want to scare her more than she already was. In fact he wasn’t sure how much she saw of him trying to scare the Timberwolves away. He imagined for a pony such as Fluttershy it would have looked completely terrifying.

Neither did he want to leave her here. He may have temporarily scared off the Timberwolves but the Everfree Forest still held one-thousand other things here that hunt, kill and devour ponies. Simply leaving her here was not an option.

So Spike sat there, not really sure what to do and waited.

Ten minutes had passed and Spike began to get nervous that another creature would stumble onto their scent.

“S-Spike?” Came a soft voice.

Spike looked down to see that Fluttershy had finally stopping whimpering in terror and was now looking up at him.

“Yeah?” He said nervously.

“Where are the Timberwolves?” She asked looking around like they were hiding in the bushes nearby.

“It’s okay, Fluttershy, they’re gone.” Spike said, trying to cease her worry.

“What did you do?” She asked this like she feared the answer, which secretly concerned Spike.

“Well, I scared them off” He answered, not wanting to go into too much detail of the event. “Which is why we should probably get moving… Timber Wolves can be scared off but they always return more of their pack.”

“Oh, right…” Fluttershy said, trying not to make eye contact “Thanks, Spike… for saving me.”

Fluttershy then turned to walk back down the road to Ponyville, leaving Spike alone.

Why is she avoiding me? What is she hiding? Spike thought.

He pondered if he should go back to Twilights and try again another day, He quickly cast the thought aside. He had come here to talk with Fluttershy and it was now or never.

“Fluttershy, wait!” He called.

Fluttershy slowly stopped and turned to look back at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“C-could I come back to your house and talk?” He asked.

Fluttershy wanted to decline him. The less time she spent with Spike the better. She pondered what the politest way to say it was.

“Since I did save your life and all…” He added.

That was true, however much she wished it could have been anypony else, he was the one that saved her life. She lowered her head. Sometimes Fluttershy was too kind.

“Okay” she said but it barely came out as a whisper.

That was enough for Spike and he moved to catch up with her

The two of them spent most of the journey back to Fluttershy’s cottage in silence. Only when they were out of the Everfree did Spike gain enough courage to speak.

“So… how have you bin’?” He asked

“Fine.” She replied.

“What’s been happening while I was… away?” He tried again.

“You know, Stuff.” She replied.

Spike sighed.

“Fluttershy, were not going to get anywhere if you don’t even talk to me.”

When they got to the door of Fluttershy’s cottage he realised that he had not thought about how he was going to fit inside the small cottage.

Fluttershy stopped and the door and finally turned to face Spike.

“What do you want Spike?” She asked with a sigh.

“To talk to you. Back at the Library you didn’t say anything and most of the others seemed to speak for you. So I came to get your side of the story.”

Fluttershy was silent. Still not wanting to speak, she turned away and reached for the latch on her door.

“Fluttershy please!” Spike pleaded as Fluttershy opened the door and began to walk inside “Weren’t we friends?”

At that last part, Fluttershy stopped dead in her tracks.

“Yes but you left us” She said abruptly.

Spike was silent.

“Back then everything was normal, we were happy, weren’t we?”

Spike could only nod as no words he could say occurred to him.

“So why did you abandon us?” Fluttershy said that more sternly than she meant.

“I… needed to learn who I was… and… how to be a dragon…”

“Then tell me… was it everything you thought it would be?”

Spike sighed mournfully “No… and I threw away my friends for it… I’m sorry, Fluttershy. I know I made a mistake and I’ve changed but it’s our friendship that matters.” He looked at her with almost pleading eyes.

Fluttershy’s emotionless face never faltered.

“You know that won’t cut it Spike. You can’t just apologize for running off for six years without even saying goodbye, and you never will, e-especially on the day Angel died.”

That last part hit Spike like a bombshell. Angel had died the day he left? Of course Spike did hate the little rabbit and usually found him trying to make Spike’s life a living hell, but anyone could see that Fluttershy loved Angel more than anything, even if nopony really knew how.

“Fluttershy, I-”

“Please just go, Spike” Fluttershy said, finally entering her cottage and closing the door. Before she did though, Spike could have sworn he saw a tear roll down her cheek.

After realising there was nothing more Spike could say to Fluttershy, He turned and flew off. He needed a new plan if he was ever going to regain Fluttershy’s friendship.

Spike had some thinking to do.

In a land not too far from Equestria. A land where scaly beasts ruled the Sky and everything below. A land where the blood of overly confident knights, treasure hunters and explorers stained the ground and their bones infused with the earth. And within the mountains of this barbarous land lay the entrances to a labyrinth of caves that made up what you could call a city. A city ruled by fear and strength, and as you can imagine such a type of governance that is only dependant on might alone is unstable and corrupt. A lot has changed for the dragon race in the last thousand years, especially in the dragon caves, and from the mouth of the cave in the mountains of this ruthless land… eyes of a red and gold dragon began to look at towards another civilisation….

Author's Note

Well, what did you expect? Another epic fight between a dragon and some other monster?

I wanted use this chapter for some story progression and some breathing room. Don’t have much to say about this one. I do hope you liked this chapter and found comfort in in it by seeing that this story STILL is not dead… just having sluggish progression.