Twilight Sparkle wasn’t the only pony who was given a position of authority in Ponyville. Since she and her five best friends controlled the Elements of Harmony, the six of them became a sort of Royal Guard-like team which Princess Celestia named Ponyville’s Royal Taskforce. Proud of this appointment and confident in their abilities to protect their home from danger, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Rarity accepted their assignment and promised to give Twilight every bit of support they could provide. Spike was also quite happy to be assisting a Princess. He was sure to be sending more than just reports on the merits of friendship now. Important memos and royal invitations were likely to be incinerated or belched out on a regular basis.
Twilight managed to get used to having wings, but she still needed practise with flying. And who better to give her some good tips than Rainbow Dash?
“OK, Twilight. Let’s see how fast you can pull out of a dive.”
Rainbow Dash might not have been taking foal steps because Twilight was beginning to fall all over herself imitating her stunts.
“Yikes,” she said to herself after apologizing to Blossomforth for almost crashing into her. “I’m either gonna hurt myself, somepony else or both by the end of the day.”
But later that morning, none of those happened. The only pony who hurt herself in that practise was Rainbow Dash. She was demonstrating how to avoid airborne objects by throwing some frisbees, beating them to the other side of Ponyville and weaving threw them. But one of them hit her on the head and she went off course into the top of a chimney. Twilight had to dive down and catch her before she hit the ground.
“Well, we know you can catch something or somepony falling out of the sky,” Rainbow Dash said as Twilight gave her some icepacks for her bruised wings.
At that moment, Fluttershy ran up to them looking tense.
“Uh, Twilight, we might have a problem,” she said. “A big problem. Like, a code red problem.”
“What is it?” asked Twilight.
“Applejack says she saw some apples fall out her wolf river tree,” Fluttershy told them. “She looked up and saw a… a big d-dragon sleeping in it.”
Rainbow Dash groaned. “You might think it’s a code red emergency, but all we gotta do is get him to leave. It’s no big deal.”
“It could be a big deal,” said Twilight sternly. “You know dragons don’t like ponies.”
“Hey!”
Spike had turned up.
“Oh, come on Spike,” said Twilight, “You know I don’t mean you.”
They made their way to Sweet Apple Acres to the biggest tree in the orchard, the 50 foot wolf river apple tree. Fluttershy was so nervous, she could hardly walk straight. Just about every dragon she ever came across scared her, including Spike when he went on that rampage on his after-birthday. They saw Applejack standing a few feet away from the wolf river tree.
“I told Big McIntosh, Apple Bloom and Granny Smith to stay in the barn until that dragon’s outta that there tree,” she said to Twilight and Rainbow Dash in a low voice.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked up into the tree. Twilight had to stifle back a gasp.
“Get outta sight!” she hissed.
She ushered her friends behind a nearby golden delicious tree.
“Spike, run to the library and grab that book on the organic horseshoe era,” she whispered.
With a flash of alarm in his eyes, Spike sprinted away looking back at the wolf river tree to see if the large dragon sleeping in it was waking up. Twilight’s horn glowed. In the distance, Applejack, Rainbow Dash ad Fluttershy saw red lanterns lighting up. This was the way they alerted Ponyville of a code red situation.
“What is it, Twi?” asked Applejack.
“Should Fluttershy just faint right now?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Twilight ignored Rainbow Dash, despite thinking Fluttershy might lose her mind when she told them what they were dealing with.
“That dragon is the spitting image of a dragon I read about a while ago,” she said in a hushed voice. “It’s called a Venomodo. It hasn’t been seen by ponykind since the time when horseshoes were made of plants. Egg Banjo from Coltchester encountered one and lived to write a book about it.”
“So what makes it so dangerous?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“Well, you know how a lot of dragon parts can be used to cure something?” asked Twilight.
“Yeah, like d-dragon fat cures burns and dragon tears are good for getting rid of blemishes,” said Fluttershy.
“Well, Venomodos are the exact opposite,” Twilight said, “Virtually every bit of them is a poison. And they despise ponies as much as any other dragon.”
She glanced at Fluttershy for a second.
“Especially pegasi,” she finished. “They really hate ponies who can fly.”
Fluttershy remained standing, but was feeling no better than she had before learning about the Venomodo.
“You shoulda told Spike to get Rarity and Pinkie Pie and our Elements of Harmony,” said Applejack. “We gotta get that thing outta here.”
Twilight shook her head. “We can’t use the Elements of Harmony on it. Or any magic.”
She paused as they looked at her in disbelief.
“If you use any kind of magic on a Venomodo, it’ll explode,” Twilight told them.
“And the same goes for anyone or anything infected by one,” said a voice from the other side of the golden delicious tree.
The four ponies froze in place. There was no doubt that the Venomodo had woken up and either spotted them or heard them talking. No one moved for almost a minute, then at last one of them looked around the tree. Would you believe it was Fluttershy who worked up the courage to stare one of the biggest threats to ponykind in the face?
“A pegasus,” growled the Venomodo with a look of disgust.
He looked around the other side of the tree.
“An earth pony.”
Applejack tried not to shudder.
“More pegasi,” the Venomodo went on. “Oh. And an alicorn. A product of pony royalty.”
He looked around as the four ponies’ imaginations started to run away with them guessing what he would do to them and their community.
“I’m in Equestria, aren’t I?” he asked, facing Twilight.
Twilight nodded.
The Venomodo looked disturbed. “Must’ve made a wrong turn during the migration.”
Twilight had no idea what to do as the threatening monster turned towards Ponyville. Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy couldn’t think of a course of action either.
“There’ll be ponies everywhere,” the Venomodo said loud enough for them to hear. “I’d be outnumbered a million to one if I tried anything.”
They tried not to flinch as the dragon turned sharply around and walked back towards the wolf river tree.
“I think I’ll take my leave.”
Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were very surprised. Fluttershy couldn’t help but sigh with relief. They watched as the Venomodo knelt down preparing to take off. But before he did, he spat on the tree he’d been resting in.
Applejack went from feeling relieved to affronted. “Why that nogoodnik! I didn’t think you meant spitting image literally, Twilight.”
Twilight wasn’t feeling relieved either. She was sure the Venomodo’s spit must have had some effect on that tree.
Minutes later, Spike ran up to them clutching Twilight’s copy of The Land Before Horseshoes. He was followed by Pinkie Pie and Rarity.
“I saw it take off!” Rarity cried. “You haven’t been attacked have you?”
Rainbow Dash was about to say everything was fine, but she was cut off by an odd noise coming from the wolf river tree.
Twilight magiced the book out of Spike’s hands and began flipping frantically through the pages.
“What’s the problem, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy. “The Venomodo’s gone. We’re all safe.”
“Didn’t you hear me?” Twilight replied, not taking her eyes off the book. “Everything that comes from a Venomodo is poisonous.”
“Uh, oh,” Applejack groaned. “All those apples are gonna get infected.”
“What did it do?” asked Pinkie Pie.
Before Applejack could reply, the wolf river tree emitted an odd moan. At last, Twilight found the page she was looking for, and when she did, she yelled to Rarity, who was nearest to the groaning tree.
“Quick, spit on that tree!”
“Excuse me?!” exclaimed Rarity. “How undignified!”
CRACK!
The giant tree practically walked out of the ground, its long roots acting like spidery legs.
“We gotta spit on it before it destroys everything!” Twilight called as it ran away from them. “Rainbow Dash, fly over it!”
Rainbow Dash, wishing she had time to wait for an explanation, took off towards the rampaging tree. But she didn’t get far before her bruised wings started dragging her down.
“Ow!” she cried as she touched down. “I can’t get speed up!”
Applejack took action. She grabbed a rope and threw one end at the tree. She caught one of its branches and quickly tied the other end of the rope to the golden delicious tree they’d been hiding behind earlier. But as the others ran towards the wolf river tree, it yanked at the rope and snapped it.
“It’s too strong!” yelled Applejack as the tree sped off again.
Twilight resorted to teleportation. She moved herself, Spike and her pony friends to the orchard’s entrance. The wolf river tree was now running towards them.
“Get ready!” Twilight called, and she began hocking.
The others followed suit, including Rarity. The tree came nearer and nearer.
“Now!” shouted Twilight, dribbling a bit.
It was Pinkie Pie who spat the furthest and hit the tree. At once, it stumbled and fell forward. Unfortunately, Spike didn’t get out of the way in time and got caught up in the tree’s branches as it tumbled down the slope. Applejack tried to lasso it again, but she couldn’t secure the other end of the rope to the front gate in time. She got yanked towards the tree, sweeping Fluttershy up with her. Now Spike, Applejack and Fluttershy were stuck in the rolling tree. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie gave chase all the way to a pond. With a massive splash, the tree hit the water.
Then, to everyone’s surprise accept Twilight’s, the tree stood up in the shallow water and started using its branches like arms to help Spike, Applejack and Fluttershy out of the pond and back onto land.
“Uh, thanks,” said Applejack after she was placed gently onto the ground.
She and Fluttershy were a little scratched up from the tree’s bark and branches, but they weren’t seriously injured. Spike got scratched too, but he barely noticed due to his thick hide. But something seemed to be pricking him in the leg.
“So what did that monster do to that tree?” asked Rarity.
“Venomodo’s toxins have odd effects on plant life,” said Twilight, magicing her book there in front of her to show her friends. “When a plant gets spat on by a Venomodo, it comes to life and develops the same drive as one. In this case, that wolf river tree wanted to attack Ponyville. Luckily, Egg Banjo found out that all you gotta do is spit on the infected plant yourself.”
“So now it’ll do what I’d want to do?” asked Pinkie Pie.
The wolf river tree started splashing them. Pinkie Pie was unsurprisingly the only one who found this amusing. Spike wasn’t so much amused as relieved.
“Could you do that again?” he asked.
“What’s up, Spike?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“I feel kinda hot,” Spike replied before the tree splashed him again.
Twilight saw something long and brown lying next to him. It looked like a twig at first, but it was more curved and smooth.
She gasped. “That’s a Venomodo claw!”
Spike, who thought he’d been pricked by a branch, began to worry.
“W-what does that…?”
He fainted before he could finish his question.
Applejack and Rarity looked him over while Twilight consulted her book.
“Getting scratched by a Venomodo causes a form of heat stroke!” she said, beginning to panic.
There was a graph on Venomodos with a nearly empty column on cures. At first, Twilight thought there was no cure for a Venomodo scratch, but when she saw she’d been looking at the wrong row, she was very relieved.
“So what do we do?” asked Fluttershy.
“We need to get him to break the sound barrier,” she told them.
“Break the sound barrier?” repeated Rarity.
“His temperature is going up and cold water won’t be enough to bring it down,” Twilight said. “Only a 768 mile and hour breeze in his face can bring it down and keep it down.”
“I could take him with me into the sky and make a sonic rainboom if my wings weren’t so messed up,” groaned Rainbow Dash.
“Let’s take you both to the Library,” said Twilight. “We’ll do everything we can to cool Spike down and I’ll mix up a potion to rejuvenate your wings.”
She turned to Rarity.
“And don’t use any kind of magic on him. Or else, Ka-Boom!”
Later, Twilight was hurriedly concocting a cure for Rainbow Dash’s sore wings. Everypony else was trying to keep Spike cool. Rarity was fanning him while Applejack and Pinkie Pie were constantly replacing bags of ice on his forehead.
“It’s awful sunny out,” said Applejack. “Fluttershy, do you think you could get a cloud over us to shade Spike?”
“Sure, Applejack,” said Fluttershy, walking towards a window. “It’s supposed to be a clear day today, but maybe Derpy forgot to put the Altostratus clouds away in their right spot again.”
“Hey, I’m coming too,” said Rainbow Dash. “No offence, but I don’t think you could move a big cloud on your own.”
“But what about your sore wings?” asked Fluttershy.
“I can still fly,” replied Rainbow Dash. “Just not fast.”
“I guess we’re lucky that Spike caught something from a Venomodo that can be cured,” said Twilight after Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash left. “The list of poisons is so long and the list of cures is so short.”
“Why wouldn’t you feel lucky?” asked Pinkie Pie. “Is it because you think there’s no such thing as luck.”
Twilight had known Pinkie Pie long enough to know that there had to be such a thing.
“Well, it’s just that there are two diseases a Venomodo scratch can give you,” she said, glancing at her book. “The other is paralysis and that’s a lot easier to cure. All you gotta do is spray the wound with cold water.”
Little did Twilight know that they would soon have to do that…