Applejack didn’t need to hear it twice. She flew down the path back towards Ponyville, running side-by-side with her brother. She ran and ran, running out of breath as the fire breathing dragon flew above them, terrorizing the animals and threatening the lives of the six ponies running on the path. It was easily sixty feet long and as it flew it appeared to have a wing span of about a hundred feet. It certainly wasn’t harmless, with his jagged, gleaming midnight black scales, lightning shaped horns down his spine and two feet long claws.
This was a Everfree Forest dragon, it wasn’t like the one in the mountain from before. Any creature from the Everfree was a danger to everypony.
“Twilight!” Applejack cried.
“What, Applejack?” She sounded impatient, mostly because she didn’t want to waste stamina on talking.
“In case something were to…happen…to either of us, I want you to know I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have accused you, and I know I was wrong!” Applejack shouted, dodging a beam of flame from the dragon’s roaring mouth.
Twilight looked back for a moment, relief and joy in her eyes as she made eye contact with Applejack. This was short lived, however, as the dragon came back to their minds. They quickly refocused all their attention to the dangerous matter at
hand.
Twilight was thinking hard. The stun spell might work, but it would be hard on such a massive creature. Maybe the sleep spell? No, he is too excited. How about…no….maybe I could….definitely not… Twilight desperately looked for a spell to save them, but to no avail.
This was it. They all were sure of it. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were all crying as they ran, all wishing they could just make it home and cry in their beds. Applejack was furious she couldn’t have fixed her friendship with Twilight. Twilight and Big Mac were thinking that they had had so little time together, and it was sad to have lived such short lives.
Because, you see, there wasn’t much to be done about an Everfree dragon rampaging about Ponyville.
At this point, it was obvious that the ponies of Ponyville saw the dragon. From where the six desperate ponies were they could see the horrified expressions of the citizens, all frozen and few managed pull themselves together and run away.
This was bad, how many ponies might die today? Twilight thought, horror striking her as she bolted even faster.
The dragon looked like it had just found a candy shop that gave away its product. Ponyville had so many things to take, and so many ponies to kill and eat. It was heaven. He roared a victorious roar and made a beeline for Ponyville.
“Hiiiiyah!” Rainbow Dash came flying out of nowhere and kicked the dragon in the eye, surprising the evil dragon and making him furious as he favored his eye.
“How dare you?!” a deep, echoing voice said in fury. “Because of what you have done, I will personally hunt down your friends and family and make sure they suffer. Agony, emotional torment and pain, oh so much pain. More pain than your puny little brain can fathom. All before I kill them! They will know it was you who did this to them!” The dragon screamed and opened its eye, which was bloodshot and grey.
Rainbow Dash had blinded him in that eye!
But Rainbow Dash didn’t feel very accomplished. You could tell that the dragon’s words had intimidated even her, and she was hesitant to continue her assault.
Too hesitant.
Thwap! Rainbow Dash was batted out of the air and landed in a nearby tree, groaning and slipping into unconsciousness.
Oh no! She was our best hope! Twilight thought, desperately trying to come up with another plan.
Suddenly, an idea sparked in Twilight's mind.
“Applejack, do you have any rope?” Twilight asked, praying she did.
“No, why?” Applejack asked like rope was the last thing they could possible want right now.
“Because you could lasso its wing and stop its flight!” Twilight called back.
Applejack looked doubtful. “even if we did have rope, that’s a hard shot!”
“Actually, we do have rope!” Big Mac said as he reached into his saddlebag.
Twilight, Applejack and Big Mac all stopped. The Crusaders did not, which was a good thing.
Big Mac quickly gave the rope to Applejack.
“Here goes nothing!” Applejack shot the rope with everything she had.
Missed.
They ran a bit to catch up with the dragon, who was just outside of fire breathing range on the first buildings of Ponyville.
Applejack brought in her rope for a second shot “This is my last try before it’s too late!” She warned and let the rope fly.That was one of the slowest moments of there lives, watching the rope fly through the air towards the dragon’s wing.
And then successfully lassoing it.
Anypony could see the terror in the dragons eyes, even the grey one. Its wing’s leathery surface was twisted by the rope, forcing it to lose lift. Slowly it uncontrollably dived sideways.
But it knew its attackers.
A ball of fire, a fury unknown to any creatures existence. It flared in the dragons eyes as it sped towards the ground.
Unleashed fury. Flame. All headed straight for an unsuspecting Applejack.
It all happened in slow motion. Twilight, noticing her friends imminent danger, her quickly casting a teleportation spell directly in front of Applejack.
And then the flame hit.
Pain, agony, no words were strong enough to describe the instant of impact, as the massive ball of flame ripped Twilight’s body to shreds, barely saving Applejack.
The last thing Twilight remembered was Applejack on the ground, burned, but definitely able to recover.
And then everything went black.