A Returning Dragon

By: SensibleGnome (Sir Sensible)

The Returning Dragon: Chapter 5

“So, anything new about Fluttershy I should know before we get there?” Spike asked, raising his eyebrow to Rainbow Dash who was trotting beside him on the trail to the quaint little cottage.

“Hmmmmmmm… Nope, still the same old fraidy cat she was when you left.” Rainbow said with a chuckle.

“You sure there’s not some new guy, or maybe she remodeled her cottage?” he asked teasingly towards Rainbow.

“Oh!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, stopping Spike just before the bridge to Fluttershy’s home.

Rainbow looked back and forth to be sure the coast was clear.

“Do not, under any circumstances, bring up Angel.” she said in a barely audible whisper.

“Wait… is he...gone?” Spike said hesitantly.

“Yeah…” Rainbow said slightly saddening, and also prepared for her explanation.

“About a year ago Angel ran off into the Everfree Forest in a fit because of Fluttershy didn't get him the right kind of lettuce, or something. She flew off after him but she lost track of him after a little while. Fluttershy immediately came to me and I tried to decipher what she was saying between sobs, but I got the jist of it. I gathered everyone up and we all searched the forest for Angel. When we found him… It was bad to say the least. She blamed herself for his death, and we tried to tell her it was not her fault, but she didn't listening.”

“She just got over his death a couple of months ago and stopped blaming herself, but that is mostly because of Melody.”

“And just who is this Melody?” Spike question.

“She’s Angel’s daughter, or at least we think she is. She showed up with Angel one day as a little baby, we have no idea how he got her."

“Alright, so I promise I won’t bring any of this up, I would hate to make Fluttershy cry,” Spike said.

Spike and Dash approached the cottage, and then Rainbow Dash took a deep breath.

“Hey, Fluttershy! You home?”

“I'm over here,” shouted a soft voice from behind the cottage.

“Let’s go see what she is up to,” Spike said, running around to the other side of Fluttershy’s home.

Upon seeing Spike, Fluttershy gently put down a bag of chicken feed and rushed up to meet him.

“Oh, Spike, it’s so good to see you,” Fluttershy gently said, giving spike a short nuzzle.

“Pinkie had invited me to your welcoming party, so I figured you would be showing up around here soon,” Fluttershy said, explaining her lack of surprise.

“I can’t wait for the kind of surprise she has in store!” Spike said, also quite giddy with excitement.

Rainbow flew up and landed by Spike, " I have not seen Pinkie this excited for awhile now, and that's saying something."

“Well hopefully it isn’t… Well, startling; but if you like that sort of thing, then I guess it’s okay,” Fluttershy said, hiding behind her mane a bit.

“Spike, if you wouldn’t mind I have a favor to ask of you. I need to go feed the chickens, but Melody also needs her carrot. Would you mind feeding her for me?” Fluttershy said, pointing to a nearby basket of carrots.

“I don’t mind, how bad could it be?” Spike said, puffing out his chest a bit.

Wait, this is Angel’s daughter right? Spike thought walking away from the two mares, picking up a carrot from the basket.

Spike’s mind was filled with memories from his past experiences with Angel, namely the time he had to watch all the pets and Angel was constantly causing trouble. Afterwards he and Angel were on pretty good terms, but that still did not change Angel’s general attitude.

If she is anything like her father, this may be a lot tougher of a job, he thought, hesitantly opening the door and peering inside.

“Melody? You in here?” Spike said, wandering into the house. His eye’s soon locked with a white rabbit with a stunning resemblance to Angel. The little white rabbit, who Spike guessed was Melody, had looked at Spike for a moment, before bouncing over his way.

“Hello there, my name is Spike!” he said, trying to act as friendly as possible towards the new rabbit.

Melody stopped before him and gave him a look over. Spike had offered the rabbit a smile and gave her a pat on the head.

“You’re not a bad bunny, are you?” Spike said giving a hesitant chuckle.

Melody simply gave a happy smile and jumped around a bit.

“Guess what I got for you Melody?” Spike said preparing to reveal the carrot he had hidden behind his back.

Melody tilted her head a bit and then tried to look behind Spike’s back. Spike had turned his body so that the rabbit could not see what he was hiding.

“Comon’ guess!” Spike said encouragingly.

I wonder if she is as good at pantomiming as Angel was, Spike thought staring expectantly towards the rabbit.

The rabbit started to do skiing motions and then hopped off and grabbed the make believe skis and held them up.

“Nope not a pair of skis,” This rabbit is pretty good.

Melody stroked her chin a bit before a light bulb appeared over her head, and she immediately began to mime her next guess. After repeating this process a few times Spike had decided he had enough fun and revealed the carrot.

“It’s just your dinner! Fluttershy told me to feed you for her since she was busy,” He said holding out the carrot.

Melody, apparently un-amused by Spike's guessing game, kicked him surprisingly hard in the shin. Spike yelped out in pain and tossed the carrot up in the air. Without missing a beat, the adorable white rabbit caught the carrot and hopped away, not before turning around and sticking her tongue out at Spike.

“I guess it still went better than what I expected,” he said, surprised by how much the little gal had hurt his shin.

Spike, having completed his job, walked towards the front of the house. After carefully maneuvering around the devil rabbit, he opened the door and approached the chicken pen, by which he saw Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.

************************************************************************

Watching Spike disappear behind the cottage, Rainbow and Fluttershy began to grab the Chicken feed and fly towards the pen.

“Spike seems like he has grown a lot, what do you think?” Fluttershy asked, throwing the seed on the ground.

“He’s definitely more mature then he was five years ago, a lot cooler as well.”

“That’s good to hear, I can’t wait for him to tell me all about his journey, if he is alright with that.” Fluttershy said, looking towards the cottage a bit.

“Don’t worry about him feeding Melody, he has taken care of all our pets many times, remember?”

“I know, but Melody can be so stubborn sometimes. She really is kind at heart and I hope Spike can see that.” she said, tossing out another batch of seeds.

“I am sure it will be fine, Spike will take care of it no doubt!” She said with absolute confidence.

“Your right, I should not worry about it so much.”

After tossing some more seeds they heard Spike leaving the cottage, mumbling something under his breath.

“How did feeding Melody go? Did she act nicely? I hope she didn’t cause you too much trouble, she’s a good rabbit and I reall—“

“Fluttershy! Calm down, everything went fine. It actually ended up better than I thought it was going to go,” He said, trying to reassure her.

“Oh, that’s great news! I’m so happy that you could get along with Melody,” Fluttershy said rushing up to Spike and giving him a hug.

“Yeah, well it is getting late, and I don’t want to be late to my own party,” Spike said, trying to get Fluttershy off of him.

“I almost forgot! I better get ready to go,” she said, rushing up to her cottage, “I will see you both there!”

After she shut her door, Spike and Dash started down the path back to town.

“Well she really seemed excited,” Spike said, taking one last look at the cottage before the trees blocked it off.

“After what happened with Angel she really is careful for what happens with Melody.”

“Well now that we have visited everypony let’s get to that party! I can’t wait to see what Pinkie is going to do,” Spike said excitingly as he quickened his pace down the road.