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// Chapter 3: Scales and Tales 
// Story: Fluttershy's Animal Adventures 
// by Darkmyster 
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A few weeks passed, as Fluttershy continued with her life, but with a new spark. That spark was none other than Toothless, who began showing some new behaviors she did not understand. One of the beginning signs of his strange behaviors started one afternoon after a tiring day of helping Apple Jack. She came home to find Toothless lying on top of the kitchen stove which she carelessly forgot to turn off in her rush.

“No, Toothless don’t lie on top of there, your going to hurt yourself!!!”

She picks up Toothless who miraculously is not burned at all from the scorching heat of the stove. As she turned off the stove, she looks at Toothless who seemed to have enjoyed a heated nap. Toothless looks up at her with a puzzled-look and jumps from her hooves and walks into the living room. Fluttershy thinks about this and wonders how he could endure so much heat in such a small body like his. Slightly worried, Fluttershy looked around for Toothless, who was sleeping on some charcoals that were still hot to the touch. 

“This is…different, I never knew dragons loved to sleep in heated areas”

Looking again at Toothless, Fluttershy was unsure she could care for a baby dragon on her own, after all she tried to care for Philomeena on her own, but that didn’t turn out too well in the end. So how could she take care of another mystical creature unless she knew how to care for Toothless? These pressing matters would not go away unless she consulted someone who had more experience with dragons than her, but who? Fluttershy thought for a few minutes, than she had an idea, Twilight Sparkle. She took care of Spike most of the time she was in Canterlot. Maybe she kept notes or a journal on how she cared for Spike during their early years. Maybe her notes revealed things she did not know about Toothless or more. Her mind was then made up; she would head into Ponyville and find Twilight.

The next day, Fluttershy got up and left some food for her animal friends, as well as for Toothless. She headed into Ponyville and came to Twilight’s home, which was nestled into a tree, her house also served as the local library to the citizens of Ponyville. She opened the door to her avail, a dragon smaller than her stood right in front of her. Spike, looked up at Fluttershy with a smile.

“Hi Fluttershy, what brings you over?”

“Oh, I came over to see if Twilight was home and I wanted to ask her a question”

“Oh Twilight, she’s not in, she had to make an emergency visit to Canterlot, but if there is anything you need, I could help”

Fluttershy was about to respond to Spike’s offer of service, but then she knew if she told Spike about Toothless, then he would tell Twilight about it, the news would travel to her other friends, and all the ponies would force her to give up Toothless or something worse…but if she could persuade Spike into a conversation about something off topic, maybe he wouldn’t notice if she sneaked something about how dragons. She would try, and began with a smile at Spike.

“I guess you could, but I’m not sure if you have it?”

“Have what Fluttershy?”

“A book about…dra…dragons?”

Giving Spike a wide-eye smile at him, he looked at her with little suspicion

“Ok let me look in the shelves and see if we have anything about dragons”

Spike runs towards a shelf and looks at a few titles: Dragon Lilies, Dragon Tales, Dragon Nights, Dragon Scales, Dragon Dances, Dragons and Dungeons, 50 ways to kill Dragons… The last title gave Spike a disturbing thought, who would write such a book on a topic like that? As Fluttershy walked around the room, she began to bring up the topic, while Spike was rummaging through the shelves.

“So Spike, when you were little, did you eat fish before gems, right?”

“Well sure, my teeth were not developed enough to bite into hard gems so soon, why do you ask?”

“Oh nothing, I thought that’s what dragons go through…when their growing, but when did you started eating gems?”

Spike looked at her for a few minutes, but turns around to finding a book on dragons and replied to Fluttershy.

“I guess it was around 6 months that I started eating gems, but I began changing”

“Oh what sort of changes Spike?”

“Changes like, how I like to sleep near warm places, like the fireplace or have an interest in shiny objects, things like that”
Fluttershy made some mental notes to keep in mind when taking care of Toothless and those behaviors were normal for a baby dragon. She continued on to ask more questions about Spike and how dragons behaved since his last visit on the great Dragon Migration a few months ago.

“So would you say Spike, that dragons are very affectionate?”

Spike blushes and looks at Fluttershy with a perplexed look on his face,

“Um Fluttershy, is this going somewhere where I think it is…?”

Fluttershy responded with a little stutter in her voice,

“What do you mean Spike….I…I don’t get what you’re saying…”

“I know what you’re going to say Fluttershy…” 

Fluttershy started to get startled about how her persuasion didn’t work in her favor, where she would be found out and having Toothless taking away from her.





“…but I’m sorry Fluttershy, I’m not interested in you”

Feeling relieved, Fluttershy let out a gentle sigh,

“I love Rarity and between you and me, I don’t think it could work out. My heart will always be for Rarity and no pony else”
“Oh…um…I guess that’s…ok” said Fluttershy as she began to relax after this confrontation she would find a way to apologize to Spike later on.

“There is no book on dragons particularly, but if you wanted, you could borrow the journal Twilight kept as she was raising me?”

Fluttershy looked at Spike with new enthusiasm, but tried to keep her composure the same so she would give herself away.

“Really, I would love to Spike”

As he went into the other part of the building, a few minutes pass as Spike returns with the journal in claws and places it in her saddlebag.

“There you go, Fluttershy, I hope that helps in some way?”

“Oh it does Spike, thank you so much”

“No problem, Oh right, I almost forgot” said Spike as he tries to find the 50 ways to kill a dragon and 'accidentally' rip the pages from it.

“What is it Spike?”

“Rarity was going to come over to your house in about 3 minutes”

Fluttershy stood there in shock; she completely forgot Rarity was going to come over for tea later that evening and reveal her newest jewel incrusted dress to her, but she didn’t know Toothless was sleeping in the living room and Rarity’s knocking would wake him and she would find out about Toothless. She rushed out of the library thanking Spike for his help, hoping she was not too late to arrive at her cottage before Rarity found out her secret. The secret she has been keeping from all her friends and maybe from Equestria itself…