A Fearful Rescue

AN: And I'm back with another update! As some of you have clearly seen and mentioned, I've also been posting on . But don't worry, I'll still be posting here too. Another note, this story is coming to an end soon. Yes, it's unfortunate, but another story will take its place. It's still in the works but I'll try to have the first chapter shortly after this story is complete.

The new dragon-Pegasus team entered the apartment ever so slowly. Both clearly scared but Spike led the way, putting on bravado to save face, while Fluttershy followed, falling behind with every step as her hesitation grew

"Oh well, can't see anything…" Fluttershy said nervously, swallowing hard. "Might as well g-go back!"

"Fluttershy, we ha-haven't even been here five minutes," Spike said fear clearly in his voice as well.

The yellow Pegasus reluctantly continued forward. Through her eyes, the shadows in each room formed fantastic and terrifying monsters. With each passing moment, she heard imaginary sounds that were starting to close in on her, surrounding her. Then her own step on creaky floorboard sent a shockwave of fright through the timid pony.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Fluttershy screamed as she bolted off deeper into the pink pony's apartment.

"WHOA-HA-HA!" Spike yelled, scared by the yellow Pegasus's scream, as he ran off in a different direction.

"Uh-oh, Gummy," Pinkie said to her pet alligator, after hearing both screams. "Looks like Spike decided to join the party. Do you still think you can handle it, Gummy?"

The alligator simply walked off the direction of the screams.

"He's one brave alligator!" the pink pony said, admiring her pet for his "heroism."

"Spiiiiike… Sp—EEP!" the yellow Pegasus yelped as she unknowingly bumped into a chair.

Alone, Fluttershy knew she could not move through the apartment. Even the sounds of her own hoofsteps were scaring the feathers right off her wings. So instead, she decided to stay put. With any luck, Spike or Applejack or even Twilight might find her if she called out to them.

"Applejack… EEP!" Fluttershy squealed as she jumped at small creak of a floorboard, perhaps one she only heard in her head.

"Twilight…" the yellow Pegasus whispered, defeating the purpose of calling her friend's name.

Suddenly, she heard small noises, almost like walking, that seemed to come from the very edges of the room. The timid pony tried to keep calm and dismiss the noise as only in her mind but, no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, the noise only got louder and seemed to draw closer to her. She tried to bite her lip to keep herself calm but the tears coming from her eyes were clear signs that she was terrified. The noise seemed to approach her from behind but the fear in the pit of her stomach did not allow her to turn her head, in fact, she was frozen there, unable to move a muscle.

All of a sudden, the creeping noise stopped and everything went silent, except for the Pegasus who was shaking uncontrollably. Fluttershy tried to force the tears of terror back into her eyes but they continued to leak out. After a few more moments of silence, the yellow pony finally found her inner strength to calm herself down. Unfortunately, just as she gave a sigh of relief, something clamped onto her tail causing her scream and begin running through the apartment, eventually passing up the two captive ponies.

"Fluttershy?" Applejack asked herself, accompanied by a snore from the sleeping unicorn next to her.

"Flutter- AGH!" was the only thing Spike was able to get out before the yellow Pegasus climbed up on him, crying.

"T-t-t-tail!" Fluttershy cried out.

"Tail?" the dragon said, looking at his own.

"I-it's on m-m-my t-tail…" the scared pony stuttered. Inspecting her tail, Spike did indeed find something on it, a very familiar something. It was Gummy; everypony knew how he loved to wrap his toothless gums around anything and everything, in this case, Fluttershy's tail was his new chew toy.

"It's only Gummy, Fluttershy!" the purple dragon laughed.

"G-gummy?" Fluttershy asked, wiping away her tears.

Both watched the alligator as he dangled on the pink tail. Without any warning, he let himself fall onto the floor and began walking away from his two observers. The dragon and pony followed the alligator but neither could see where it was leading them. Apparently, the alligator knew the apartment very well as he navigated it through the dark without a single delay and eventually led his two shadows to closet of some sort, closed off by a curtain.

"Gummy? Did you do it?" a voice came from the closet. The pet only crawled under the curtain. "Good job, Gummy! I knew I could count on you!"

"Is that Pinkie?" Fluttershy whispered to the dragon.

"We did it! No doctor for us this year, Gummy!" Pinkie said as she exited out of the closet, carrying the alligator in her mane. "Let's go get a victory snack!"

"Pinkie?" the dragon and Pegasus called her, causing the pink pony to jump.

"Who's there!?" Pinkie asked, hiding behind a flipped table.

"It's us, Pinkie," Fluttershy said calmly if quietly. Her fear seemed to have melted away when she saw her friend, though barely, being so very dark in the apartment. The pink pony said nothing, only observed them carefully, with narrowed eyes.

"Pinkie, we just want to talk, ok?" Spike said, trying to quell the hostile-looking Pinkie.

"You… don't want to take me to the doctor's?" the pink pony peered out a little more from her makeshift cover.

"Why don't you want to go to your doctor's appointment?" her yellow friend asked. Though she did not answer, Fluttershy could tell it was out of fear. If there was one thing that the Pegasus knew it was how to tell when another pony was scared… and animals, she knew plenty about animals. And it was apparent to her that Pinkie was absolutely terrified when asked about why she refused to see the doctor. "Spike? I think she's scared."

"Scared? Really? I just thought it was another one of Pinkie's shenanigans," the dragon replied. "So… What do we do?"

Before the pink-maned Pegasus could answer or even think of an answer, a bell ringing at the shop suddenly interrupted the confrontation.