A/N: I just want to give a big thank to SupremeSoviet for helping me with my little problem. You rock man. Also as you’re about to find out…I’m not so good at writing friendship speeches. Just a bit of fair warning.
Chapter 7
As far as dragons went, this one looked very similar to the one that had been smogging up Ponyville not too long ago. The only noticeable difference being that this dragon lacked wings and that its scale were a much darker shade of red, almost black. Its eyes held much more ferocity than the one from Ponyville and Rainbow Dash doubted that yelling at it and threatening to tell its mother would frighten it away.
She gulped when she saw its eyes held something else as well: hunger. Hunger for a certain rainbow maned pegasus that had just woken it up from its nap.‘Geeze, I’d rather deal with that other monster than this guy. He at least only looked annoyed with me. This thing looks like he wants to-WHOA!’ ’ Zipping to the side, she barely avoided the dragons snapping jaws.
‘That things fast!’ She thought with worry, thanking Celestia that it couldn’t fly. Floating just a little bit higher this time, she looked at the still fuming dragon, and for once actually began to listen to her rational side. ‘This is way too much for me. That other monster was one thing, but taking on a dragon is another thing entirely.’ Deciding that living to fight another day was the best option, she turned and prepared to zip away when a dark chuckling stop her.
Turning back to the dragon, she saw that it was looking at her with a grin on its face. “What’s wrong little pony, afraid?” The dragon taunted in a deep voice. Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and tried to ignore him. ‘Don’t listen to him Rainbow, he’s just trying to egg you on. He wants you to lose your cool. Don’t give him the satisfaction.’
What the dragon said next though, made her immediately forget those words. “I guess it’s true what they say about pegasus: they really are all just a bunch of cowards who are all bark no bite.”
Rainbow Dash saw red. Calling her a coward was one thing, but calling ALL pegasus cowards…
She glared down at the still smirking dragon.
He was going down. Hard.
Snarling in anger, she rushed forward at breakneck speed and bashed the dragon hard in the nose with her hooves before leaping off and flying away. Rubbing his nose , the annoyed dragon swung at the pegasus only for her to dodge the attempted blow and bash him on the nose again. And again. And again.
This was the pattern that followed for the next several minutes: Rainbow Dash would whack the dragon in the snout while avoiding every grab, punch, and bite that the he would send her way. It was a close call several times: Her fur was slightly singed from when the dragon had nearly hit her with his flames, but for the most part he hadn’t been able to land a single hit on her yet. And she could tell he was getting pissed off about it.
“What’s wrong little dragon, afraid?” She mocked as she hit him on the nose for what must have been the 27th time. He growled and tried to bite her…only to miss and get hit on the nose for the 28th time.
Flying at a height that the dragon couldn’t reach her, she began holding her stomach and gasping for air as she laughed at the look on his face. “I guess this pegasus wasn’t the coward you were expecting huh?”
He growled but didn’t do anything. He couldn’t reach her at that height and he knew she would dodge his flames, so the only thing he could do was wait. Outside, he looked infuriated but on the inside he was grinning from ear to ear. His plan was working perfectly. You see, there was one more thing he had heard about pegasus: that they were extremely prideful and arrogant of their flying abilities. That usually led to overconfidence and overconfidence usually led to defeat. She would slip up soon enough and when she did…
Licking his lips, he struggled to keep a dark chuckle from escaping his throat.
Rainbow Dash, paying no heed to the sinister look that was on her opponents face, could only think of the huge surge her fanbase was going to experience once word spread that she had taken on a dragon.
Deciding that she had played with the poor sap for long enough, she planned on whacking the dragon on the nose one last time for good measure before going back home.
Charging at him, the same pattern followed: she dodged his attempted hit and bashed him on the nose. But this is where things went differently. The dragon was right: Rainbow Dash had become overconfident. Instead of flying off after immediately hitting him like usual, she decided to be a bit more fancy: hopping off his nose she landed on his head and then jumped, planning on launching off his head and into the sky.
She hadn’t expected to be hit with the dragon’s tail as it swung by overhead.
Yelping in pain as the massive tail struck her, she was sent flying backwards and collided harshly with the mountain that the dragon had made his home in.
Her body bouncing off the solid rock, she plummeted downward before impacting harshly against the ground.
Groaning in pain, she lifted her head and saw that the dragon was slowly stalking towards her, a sadistic grin on his face. Dash flapped her wings and screamed in agony the second she did. Looking at her left wing, she gasped in horror at the irregular angle it was bent. She wasn’t going to be flying anytime soon. She wasn’t going to be running either. Her left leg was bleeding heavily and she fell back down the minute she tried to stand on it.
Looking back towards the dragon she shrunk when she saw it was standing just a few feet away from her, its gargantuan form blocking out the sun creating shadows that washed over her body. She shivered when he opened his mouth; row upon row of deadly fangs became visible, all of them just waiting to rip her to shreds.
She wouldn’t be getting out of this one. This was the end. She felt tears come to her eyes again but she fought them back; she would die with dignity. But that didn’t stop the feelings of regret.
‘This wasn’t how I wanted to go. I always thought I’d die doing something awesome, like saving Ponyville or rescuing the Princess; not being eaten alive by some dragon in the Everfree Forest. There were so many things I wanted to do; I never did join the Wonderbolts.’ She almost let the tears fall when she thought about the dream she would never accomplish.
But the worst thing was…she would never see her friends again. ‘Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy; I’m so sorry you guys. I-I just wanted prove that I was worthy to hold title of the Element of Loyalty. That I was worthy to be your friend. I never… I never wanted this to happen. You girls are the best friends I’ve ever had. And that’s why…that’s why…’ She was sobbing now, the dam having long since broken.
'…And that’s why it hurt so much that I couldn’t do anything to help! I’m sorry girls! I’m so sorry!’ As she begged her friends to forgive her the dragon launched its head forward, mouth open to devour her. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and waited for the end to come.
And waited.
And waited.
After a whole minute of waiting, she slowly opened her eyes to see what was happening.
She was not prepared for what she saw.
Separating the dragon from her was a purple dome of magic energy.
And running out of the forest she saw five familiar ponies charging towards the dragon.
“Stay away from our friend you brute!” Rarity’s familiar high class voice yelled out as she blasted the dragon with several magic bolts, the force of which was pushing him back. Next to her Twilight had her eyes closed in concentration as she struggled to hold the shield together. “Fluttershy, I’m going to release the shield. When I do you go in and grab Rainbow Dash. Applejack and Pinkie Pie, work with Rarity to keep the dragon distracted!”
“You got it sugarcube!” Yelled Applejack as she and Pinkie charged the dragon. Both earth ponies stopped in front of the rampaging beast who looked at them curiously. “And just what do you two plan to do?”
Applejack, not taking her eyes off the dragon, spoke up first. “Well Pinkie, how bout we show this varmint what we plan tah do. Did yah bring it?”
Pinkie Pie’s hair was still straight, but that didn’t stop the massive grin from appearing on her face. “Of course I did silly! I never leave home without it.” Reaching behind her back, the dragon finally got a good look at what “it” was: Out of nowhere, the pink pony had managed to pull out a small blue cannon.
The dragon looked down confused, but not because of the weapon itself. “Wait a minute where did that just come from?” He questioned, trying to figure out how she had managed to materialize the weapon apparently out of nowhere. He was always under the impression that only unicorns could perform magic.
Pinkie met the dragon’s confused look with one of her own. “From my house of course, didn’t I just say that?”
The dragon just stared at the pink pony, stammering as he tried to figure out how to respond to that.
“Its Pinkie Pie, we stopped tryin tah explain it a long time ago.” Applejack quickly explained, wanting to save him the headache.
The dragon simply shook his head at that answer before focusing on the task at hand. “Well, it’s not like it matters: dragons are fireproof. That little weapon of yours won’t hurt me anyway.”
The dragon couldn’t help but feel a little worried when Pinkies grin grew wider as a response to that. “The party cannon doesn’t shoot cannonballs you silly dragon, I use it to throw parties! But you’re mean, so no party for you! Instead, I’m going to give you something else. Applejack you ready!” Looking back towards the cannon he saw that the farm pony had managed to climb inside the barrel…the barrel that was now pointed directly at his face.
“Yes ma’am, let’er rip!” she replied.
“TASTE THE AWESOME POWER OF THE APPLEJACK CANNON!” The hyperactive pony screamed as the cannon fired its cargo at the dragons face. Still reeling at the insanity of these ponies, the dragon was slow to react as the hooves of the orange pony soon collided with his nose. The speed at which she was moving, along with the fact that Applejacks legs were far more powerful than Rainbow Dash’s, led to a much more severe injury than what the pegasus was able to produce.
The dragon suppressed a scream as he covered his now broken snout with his hands, trying to stop the blood from flowing out. Applejack meanwhile landed back on the ground, wincing slightly as she landed on her back legs which were still sore.
She looked up to see the dragon had taken his hand off his snout, allowing the blood to gush out all over his face. She would have been disgusted if not for the look of murder he was currently giving her. “You little bitch! I’m going to make you suffer for-“ He stopped when he noticed a certain pink pony was no longer there.
Before he could even try to fathom where she disappeared to a loud booming voice screamed next to his right ear “HEEEELLOOOOOO!!!!” Yelling in pain, he sent a clawed hand to his ear to grab whatever was assaulting it. Grabbing nothing but air, he had barely enough time to rub his ear before that same booming voice assaulted his left ear “HEY APPLEJACK, YOU'VE GOT TO GET UP HERE THIS IS SO MUCH FUN!!” Pinkie Pie called out into the microphone she had somehow attained, simultaneously causing pain for the dragon whose ear she was next to.
Applejack chuckled as she watched her friend hop around the dragons hand as it tried to swat her. Despite the severity of the situation, she couldn’t help but smile at seeing the party pony act like her old self again. Her hair was noticeably more poofy and she was grinning from ear to ear.
As Applejack and Pinkie Pie dealt with the dragon, Twilight focused on Fluttershy. “Fluttershy are you ready?” She asked the yellow pegasus.
Fluttershy, her fear replaced with determination, answered with a firm “Yes.”
“Okay. Go…NOW!”
The moment the shield disappeared Fluttershy shot off like a rocket and was at Rainbow Dash’s side in an instant. Wincing as she inspected her injuries, she gingerly lifted Dash onto her back and began to fly back. “Y-you guys came looking for me.” A tired Rainbow Dash whispered. Fluttershy, turning her head to look at her, simply smiled and said “Of course we came looking for you. We’re friends; you would have done the same for us.” When the word ‘friends’ escaped from Fluttershy’s lips, she had to suppress another sob.
They were her friends weren’t they? The greatest friends she could ever ask for.
As the two of them flew close, Twilight called out “Applejack, Pinkie Pie! We’ve got Rainbow Dash, get out of there!” Applejack nodded and began to run back, as did Pinkie Pie after hopping off the dragons shoulders. “Rarity, I hope you’re ready with that spell.” She asked the other unicorn as she turned to her. Rarity simply nodded her head as her horn began to glow brightly.
The dragon, realizing that his ears were no longer being attacked, turned his sights towards the escaping ponies. Roaring in fury, he charged at them. “Rarity, the spell?!” Twilight asked again once everypony was together. “Ladies, I’d close my eyes if I were you.” She told them calmly as she released the spell. Obeying her command, the ponies were unharmed by its effects.
The dragon unfortunately was not.
Screaming in pain as he suddenly found himself blinded by a bright light, he began rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to get rid of the blindness.
“Wow Rarity that was some spell.” Twilight said sounding impressed.
“Oh it’s just something I picked up; you’re not the only one skilled at magic darling.” Rarity answered, soaking up the praise.
“Well that’s mighty fine an all Rarity, but ah think we should RUN!” Applejack reminded them as she and the others began to run, confident that they had escaped.
Unfortunately, they had overlooked one important detail about dragons: their powerful sense of smell.
That fact quickly came back to bite them when they suddenly found themselves trapped by a wall of flames that the still blind dragon managed to breathe in their path.
Their only way of escaped blocked, the ponies had no choice but to turn around and face the no doubt angry dragon as he quickly locked onto them with his sense of smell and began to slowly walk their way.
“Uh, Twilight ah don’t suppose you’ll be able to teleport us outta here.” A nervous Applejack asked. The look in Twilights eyes answered that question. “Sorry Applejack, I don’t even have enough magic left to teleport myself, let alone five other ponies.” Applejack nodded in defeat not even bothering to ask if Fluttershy could fly them out of here. She was barely holding Rainbow Dash up as it was.
Then, if possible, their situation got worse.
The dragon slowly began to open his eyes, rapidly blinking them to clear away the remaining stars. It was obvious that the spell had worn off and now they had a very hungry, very angry dragon that was able to see them.
It didn’t charge them or roar at them. It simply glared at them with burning red eyes before opening its mouth and expelling a huge blast of flame at them. Twilight barely had time to conjure up a dome before the flames came into contact with them.
The shield held up, but she knew it wouldn’t hold for long. Her magic was still drained from the battle with the creature and holding the dome was draining what little she had left. This was especially true after the dragon suddenly charged the dome and began beating on it with his fists, determined to get to the ponies that lied within.
It took only three hits before the shield began to crack and crumble.
‘I can’t hold it!’ She thought before she let out a scream as the shield finally shattered.
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Elsewhere, a certain monster was watching everything.
While James Heller could easily say that this entire day had been insane, the last ten minutes were definitely the most insane- as well as the most interesting.
Immediately after landing from his jump to escape the blue menace, he had done something he hadn’t done since getting his powers: hide.
Taking cover behind a tree, he prayed that his stalker wouldn’t follow him; that she would get tired and just go home. He didn’t want to kill her but if she kept attacking him, he would have no choice. After a few seconds of hiding, he had seen her land near the crater he made and everything after that was a blur.
He remembered feeling pity as he watched her beg and cry for him to come out and fight her. He remembered feeling relief followed by confusion as he watched her walk off, only to stop and walk in the opposite direction towards a cave which she then began yelling into. He remembered feeling shock as he watched a dragon, a fucking dragon, emerge out of the cave and actually began to talk. He remembered feeling impressed as he watched the pegasus expertly run circles around the dragon only to wince when he saw her get smacked against the mountain. He was even more impressed when he saw the other horses charge out of the forest to rescue their friend while also holding back the dragon using strategy and teamwork comparable to a special ops team. He also remembered feeling annoyed when he suddenly found himself blinded by a white light that had emanated from the white unicorn.
And now that he had his vision back and could see the dragon attempting break down the shield that had suddenly appeared around the now helpless horses, he didn’t know what to feel.
On one hand, the horses had definitely gained his respect. The bravery, skill, and teamwork they showed was admirable and he couldn’t help but feel that they would have made excellent soldiers back home.
On the other hand…they had attacked him. Paralyzed him. Used some kind of mind trick on him. Attempted to capture him and do God knows what to him.
Closing his eyes he put his head up against the tree. ‘Why am I even conflicted about this? These horses aren’t my responsibility and they aren’t my problem. And besides…’ He thought back to something he had once said not too long ago.
‘…I’m not a fucking hero.’
That’s when he heard the scream.
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He could feel his mouth watering as he stared down at the tasty morsels beneath him. Now that their little shield was gone, he could finally chow down.
Opening his mouth wide, he prepared to devour them in one bite…
…Only to feel something collide with his cheek. Hard.
The force of the blow knocked him off his feet and sent him skidding along the ground on his back. Once he had stopped, he groaned in pain as he lifted his head up, trying to spot what had struck him.
His eyes fell on a tiny, two legged creature who couldn’t have been more than a few feet taller than the ponies.
But what caught his attention was the massive blade that the creature had in place of his right arm.
“Alright you ugly motherfucker.” James Heller snarled at the massive beast, his blade at the ready. “Let’s see you chomp down on this!”
A/N: Next chapter is the one you’ve all been waiting for: The gory violence that makes Prototype such a great game. It’s time for the Main 6 to see the true power of James Heller. Once again I want to apologize for anyone who thought that Rainbow Dash’s speech about her friends was…lacking. Gore and action scenes I can do. Scenes that are supposed to make you cry…not so much. Once again, sorry.