//------------------------------// // 71 – "I've Seen Just How Good Applejack Is with a Rope." // Story: Spike Quits His Job and Goes on Numerous Quests // by B_25 //------------------------------// ~71~ "I've Seen Just How Good Applejack Is with a Rope." The current of wind spawned from the dragon's flight assaulted those present on the platform. The meaning behind its winds stung worse than the dust that in their eyes and the pebbles that irritated their cuts. Time had slowed down in Applejack's eyes, as she watched the one who inspired her leadership sacrificed his life for the greater good. He bore no frown toward his forgettable demise, only a smile that was delighted by it. Those same green eyes traveled to the pack of ponies that had been saved by the stallion's actions, their expressions growing to those of confusion and sadness. Applejack felt the familiar pain began to seep across her face, but she shut her eyes and drew the talons misery back to inside her soul, locking it away with a heavy sigh as she choose to ignore its malicious implications at the cost of allowing it to fester deeply inside her. Once a stoic; always a stoic. She looked up to the rising dragon, her eyes narrowing on his form as he disappeared past the smoke cloud. It wouldn't end like this, a stallion dying just to afford the princess the few minutes they needed to prepare their magic. The rope held snug around the orange furry neck had its knot plucked by a pair of teeth, loosening its hold on its owner's throat, as it cascaded and slithered onto the floor. "Applejack!" She heard the distant voice of her happiest friend, sealing her eyes harder and lowering her head. "Get over here quick! That nasty dragon looks really mad, and I think he's going to strike again soon!" 'I know,' Applejack replied in her thoughts, biting the rope all the much harder with the force pulsating from the misery in her chest. Unlike how she could silence herself in order to sense the dragon, Applejack couldn't quell the sounds of the locked away pain, no matter how much she banged on its cage. So she used the energy from that pain into flickering the rope into the air, its end becoming accentuated by rays of light still escaping through the circle of hope, as the rope was then snapped left then right. Left, then right. So on and so forth, going faster in speed, and beginning to leave black marks on the stone from which they struck. The sound of the rope snapping faster and faster began to resound throughout the platform, silencing those who had started to question the mare's question, and simply stood in place as they watch the rope extend its reach. Even the princesses didn't do a thing, watching the affair from the distance, and listening to the snaps of the rope as it began to travel along the mountains. Applejack knew that shouting in her own tongue wouldn't make the beast understand. It would only hurt her vocal cords. Instead, she spoke in the one language that all beasts knew. A roar came from above the clouds, clashing against the sound of the ropes, notifying all that the challenge was accepted. It brought zero fear to the farm ponies heart, only using that extra energy to swing faster and hit harder, hearing only the wind from her whip's movements. The dragon would be about her any moment, though she did not use her senses to try and ween out his location, opting instead to trust her gut on when to act. "Surely her intention isn't to just stand there when the dragon appears," Rarity mused to herself in the distance, her hoof pressed against her mouth. "I've seen just how good Applejack is with a rope, but not even the strength of an earth pony will be enough to pull down a beast that large." Just before she closed her eyes once more, Applejack caught sight of the dragon in their corner. His wings were curled at his side to allow for a steep descent, and his middle digit held the afro stallion against its palm, while the others were free to whisk the farm pony away. Her gut began to speak. Her eyes opened in a flash. And her legs leaped out of the dragon's course in the perfect moment to trick him into going through with his attack, while still allowing her to jump out of harm's way. The airborne lasso caught around the dragon's snout and tightened by his pulling force, whisking his prey along into his descent, though not in the way he had planned. Applejack's teeth clamped onto the rope with all the reservoir strength lingering into her body, pulled along into the dragon's wingless descent. She saw from her height above the dragon the line of her rope trailing perfectly on the bridge of his nose and over his head, leading to where she now was in the air. Her hooves pressed against each other with the rope being in-between them, suffering through the time it took for the dragon to fly once more. The dragon saw the trees below him no longer begin as blurry as they once were, urging him into unfurling his wings and adjusting them to the current opposing winds. Once in place, they rose up in down in contrasting against what pyschs wanted from him, taking back to the sky on his own rules and terms. The suddenly rising form of the dragon was jarring to Applejack, to say the least. He'd basically stopped in the middle of the air with her body almost smashing into the back of his neck, only for him to bold upward with a force that she could not longer hold on to. The rope slipped from her mouth, and see went from flying behind the dragon with said rope being her wings, into smashing into the dragon's blue back and sliding down along its length. Applejack squealed in pain as her body ached, collecting cuts and scratches from the scales unintentional sharpness to her soft fur, as she would soon find their end at his bottom, where subsequently, she would find her end at the bottom that was the ground. Her hooves collided against the scales in the attempt to find something to grip onto, until the dragon made a hard left in his flight, and caused for his 'passenger' to smash into his spines. They weren't as sharp as the scales. But they could slice her latching hooves should the dragon give too mighty a flap of the wings, or make another hard turn. Applejack saw the side of the mountain, momentarily seeing her reflection in the many streams the landslide had to offer, before encircling their length upward until being greeted by their tips. The temperature grew colder by the second, though her fur fought off the frost, but if she didn't begin moving, then soon none of it will ever matter. She slowly began her ascent up the dragon's back, using the side of his spine as constant support, and using the other hoof to edge ever upward along his scales. Whenever she felt the muscles tense underneath the layer of scales, or if the frigid when cut too ferocity into her, Applejack would latch her entire body to the spine and hold on for her life. Literally. in those secluded moments of peace in which she had to shut her eyes, Applejack would think. The thoughts would range from what her little sister and brother were currently doing back on the bar, if the Afro-Stallion was still alive in the claw below, and if the princesses used the time they had to start charging up their magic. Of course, the seductive voice stemming from the locked cage in her soul spoke too. Of the wonders of letting go and falling freely in the air, how it would be more prideful to let go of her own accord, then to have her best efforts slipped from the dragon's back because he gave a mundane flap of the wings. Failure was occupied her mind more on how she should give up scaling the beast, then determination and will-power for which she was known for. When the torrent of wind had ceased, she was granted to inch away from the protection of the spines. When the dragon, too lost in himself to notice the alien feeling on his back, aimed straight for the platform once more – she was able to begin scaling the beast once more. She slapped doubt across the face and buried it underneath a pile of hay, each piece composed of the resilience she used to rebel against the chilling winds. No thought was given about how the dragon could kill her by just a simple move as she reached her flapping rope at the back of the dragon's head. The distance between the two was cut in a matter of minutes, all the energy doubt had sucked for its own voice was used instead to power her will, which saw her to her objective. Applejack sank her teeth into the rope and gave it a little pull, which assured her she had space to move and that she was too weak to even think about controlling the dragon. She saw past the massive back of the dragon's head to the approaching platform in the distance, making a deal with the devil to afford her the luck needed to execute her newest idea. 'Earth pony strength,' Applejack turned around with her hooves pressing into the scaly neck, using her rope to keep her in place, 'Don't fail me now.' She imagined the force she was about to give to simply be distributed around the dragon's head, but rather, for it to travel through the scales on the back of the dragon's head and then dispersed once it reached its skull. Applejack summoned her innate strength, calling for any lingering energy to be invested in her hind quarters, as she took the chance, and with all the might she was capable of, bucked the back of the dragon's skull. Even though winds had grown frigid and began to cut into her, she still heard a crack from within the dragon's head over the cries of the current. His head flew forth from the impact as his mind slogged inside the cracked skull, impairing his vision and causing his wings to cease their flapping. The rope attached to the flicking snout sent its owner flying into the air once more, making that pony very glad that she did not squeal in surprise. The orange farm pony's body was pulled against the current like they had been not long before, feeling like she was flying with no wings, and seeing her possible demise should the gliding body guiding her through the air fail to make it above the railings of the circular platform. The forms atop it in the distance were blurry, almost unseeable due to the rays of light raining down from the exposing clouds of smoke. 'C'mon!' Applejack shouted to herself inwardly, holding on tight to the rope dragging through the air as she felt the warmth of the sun for the first time in a while 'Clear this gap and we're both golden!' The dragon remained unresponsive since the buck to his precious skull, his body solely relying upon the momentum gained to see him to the other side. The railings that would let them know of their fate came closer and closer to them, both in distance and in height, and Applejack tried not to think what could happen within the next few seconds. The specks on the platform began to clear to the sides to allow the crash landing dragon the space he needed. Applejack saw the dragon's shadow pass over the top of the railing as she felt herself in the clear, as she could handle whatever object the two of them would crash into. But in looking at the back of his head an idea spawned in her head, one that her exhausted body absolutely hated, but her mind would need in order to have the closure her coming relaxation would require. Deciding that she wanted a regret-free future, Applejack bore through a painful present She let go of the rope.