Chapter 14: Seems This Is Important To Me Now...

"We made it." I say as Fluttershy and I walk up to the group.

"What's with the stuffed toy rabbit?" RainbowDash asks.

"I told Fluttershy to take care of it. It's important to me." Lies.

Fluttershy nods. RainbowDash rolls her eyes. We continue on our way. Until we come across a small drop. We hop over it, leaving only Fluttershy behind. Fluttershy stares down the drop, clutching the rabbit more.

"Your turn Fluttershy." Twilight says.

Fluttershy gulps. She turns to me. I nod, and fly to her. "If you'd like, I can hop along with you."

"I'd like that very much."

"Hurry up guys, we don't have all day!" RainbowDash says.

Fluttershy and I stand side to side. I tell the others to move back a bit. They nod, and back up. "Ok. 3, 2, 1. Go!" Fluttershy and I hop over. Until Twilight said what she shouldn't have said.

"Just don't look down."

Fluttershy looks down. She drops the rabbit. I catch it quickly before flying back up again.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to drop her!"

So she assigned a gender to my stuff toy rabbit. Ok! "It's alright. Just, promise me she won't get hurt."

Fluttershy hesitantly nods. Then takes the rabbit, hugging her tighter. We continue to walk.

_

"Let's keep it down." Twilight whispers. "According to my map we're in an avalanche zone. The smallest peep can cause a rock slide."

"An.. Ava, Ava-" Fluttershy slowly raises her voice while clutching the rabbit. Twilight shushes her up. We walk and fly as silently as we can. Until a leaf falls on Fluttershy, causing her to yell. "AVALAN-" AppleJack covers her mouth. But it is too late. The rocks begin to tumble. I pull out a bottle from my bag, containing a cloud.

"AVALANCHE!!!" Everypony shots while running as fast as they can. I open the bottle and release the cloud. It extends, becoming bigger. I shout.

"Everypony! Come under here! You'll be fine!" Everypony runs underneath my cloud. Except Fluttershy. I open my bag and pull out a rope, tossing it to AppleJack. "Use that to pull her underneath here!"

"Alrighty!" AppleJack lassos Fluttershy back.

We wait underneath here for the avalanche to die down. After it's done, I disburse the cloud.

"Is everypony okay?" AppleJack asks.

"We are." I answer. "Although our path seems to have been covered."

"Sorry…" Fluttershy says. AppleJack looks at her, sympathizing.

"Awh, no big whoop sugar cube."

"Yeah." Twilight stares at the path, blocked by the avalanche. She sigh. "We'll just have to climb over…"

As we climb, I make sure to keep an eye on Fluttershy. She's having a harder time climbing up with that stuffed toy rabbit. She trips, causing herself, Rarity, and AppleJack to fall. Although Fluttershy kept a tight grip on the rabbit. RainbowDash huffs, unamused.

"My apologies." Rarity says as RainbowDash helps to get her up.

"Not your fault." Rainbow stares at Fluttershy. A small peep escapes from Fluttershy.

I help the others up as Rainbow flies towards Twilight. She says something as we approach the dragon's cave. Looks like we're here…

"RainbowDash, you use your wings to clear the smoke." Twilight turns to us. "Rarity and Pinkiepie, you create a diversion to distract the dragon incase things get a little hairy in there. AppleJack, get ready with the apples incase he tries to attack. You too TipStir, grab a cloud and charge it up incase the apples don't work."

Twilight starts walking back and forth. "But it shouldn't come to that. Because Fluttershy will do what she needs to do in order to wake him up. And between the two of us, we should be able to get him to understand why he needs to go. Is everypony ready?"

"Uhuh."

"Okay then, we're going in." Twilight enters the cave. We wait outside. Fluttershy is hugging the rabbit, refusing to move. Twilight returns.

"Come on Fluttershy, we have to do this!" Twilight pushes Fluttershy forwards. I tap Twilight, then look at Fluttershy.

"Remember the story?"

Fluttershy looks down to the rabbit, nodding.

"What was the message?"

"That…we should face our fears, and that we aren't alone. But, what if I mess up? I'm, I'm just so scared…"

"Fluttershy, it's okay to be scared. But if you want us to help, you yourself must be willing to face that fear as well."

"But I'm not as brave as you were when you were facing that Ursa Minor…"

"You were brave enough to distract the Ursa while Rarity and Spike were helping Snips, Snails, and Trixie. You aren't alone Fluttershy. We're here for you."

Fluttershy hesitates but walks into the cave with Twilight. Everypony else also soon follows. As we approach the dragon, it snores. Creating smoke that still sends a shiver down my spine. Fluttershy noticed that, but saw that I still didn't run off. Perhaps that was enough to make her try. She and Twilight approached the dragon, Fluttershy speaks.

"Excuse me, sir." The dragon awakens, yawning. "Would you please move somewhere else where your snoring won't become a health hazard? Your smoke is covering up Equestria, and is causing problems to the small critters that dwell here. So we would love it if you'd move somewhere else. Please?"

Fluttershy gulps, shaking. I'm just impressed she actually said all that without stuttering. The dragon huffs, sending smoke to us. We cough. I'm unamused.

"Seriously, why do we have to persuade it? It's probably not able to even understand us. Let's just take it out by force!" RaindowDash kicks the dragon. Causing it to roar. It blasts RainbowDash to the back, I facehoof myself.

"Dash! Why?!" I yell.

The dragon roars, blasting us away. Fluttershy drops the rabbit, we watch as the dragon crushes it with his claw. Fluttershy gasps then looks to me. I act like I'm shocked and hurt. Seems this gamble may work. Fluttershy turns to the dragon, mad.

"How dare you. HOW DARE YOU!" Fluttershy flies towards the dragon. "Listen here mister! Just because you're big, doesn't mean you get to be a bully! You may have huge teeth and sharp scales and snore smoke and breath fire, but you do not. I repeat. You do NOT hurt my friend! You got that?"

The dragon slumps, looking like a hurt child.

"Well?"

The dragon talks, surprising RainbowDash. "But that Rainbow one kicked me…"

We all turn to look at RainbowDash. She coughs. "How was I supposed to know he'd actually understand us?!" We all turn back to Fluttershy.

"And I am very sorry about that. But you're bigger than she is and you should know better. You should also know better than to take a nap where your snoring can become a health hazard to other creatures."

"But I-"

"Don't you but I me mister. Now what do you have to say for yourself?"

The dragon bursts into tears. I use a cloud to cover myself before I got wet. Fluttershy pats the dragon.

"No need to cry. You're not a bad dragon, you just made a bad decision. Now go pack your things, you just need to fine a new place to sleep. That's all."

Everypony approaches Fluttershy, cheering. The dragon enters his cave to gather his things.

"You did it!" Twilight says. "I knew you could do it!"

The dragon takes off, possibly to find a new place to sleep. Fluttershy picks up the rabbit that is now crushed and tattered from the dragon. She walks up to me, sad.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't protect her…"

I watch as the rabbit falls apart. I shake my head. "It's alright."

"But it was so important to you…"

"Not as important as my friend. I'm just glad that you're okay. I can always buy a new one." I fly up into the sky. "Come on, let's go home." Everypony follows.

_

After clearing up the smokey skies, I fly off to meet with the mane 6. RainbowDash is bouncing a ball, AppleJack calls Twilight.

"Twilight! You gotta come see this!" Twilight looks out her window. "She's just 5 away from a new pony record!"

Rainbow counts the ball. Until Pinkiepie spooked her.

"Dragon!" RainbowDash plays possum. We all laugh. "Why are you all laughing?! That awful dragon is back!" Pinkiepie appears, mimicking a roar. "Pinkiepie, you scared me! Uh, I mean, you broke my concentration…" Fluttershy descends.

"It's okay RainbowDash. Not everypony can be as brave as me." A leaf falls onto Fluttershy, startling her. She yelps, and plays possum. We laugh. I feel something tugging onto my wing. I look down, and see Angel the bunny holding a present with my name tag on it. I take the box.

"Thanks Angel." I open it, and see my stuffed toy rabbit that dragon crushed good and new. I look at Fluttershy, and smile. "Seems this is important to me now… I think I'll call her, Butter…"