“What’s the situation?” Twilight demands as she teleports next to Mayor Mare and Spoiled Rich, nearly knocking over Amethyst Star. The two earth ponies glance over from their spots under the clock tower while the unicorn brushes herself off.
“Twilight Sparkle!” Mayor Mare exclaims, some of the panic leaving her face. “Thank the heavens you are here! We have an urgent situation!”
“Yes, I got that from the blaring alarm going off!” Twilight shouts back, barely able to hear. Her horn flares, silencing the klaxon above. “I was busy reshelving the library again-"
Twilight cuts herself off, shaking her mane. "What’s going on?!”
Spoiled Rich clears her throat as Mayor Mare turns to calm down a distraught pegasus, snippets of their conversation bleeding in. “Reports are still coming in, but we have at least three separate sightings of dragons rampaging through the streets of Ponyville. One juvenile, one young adult, and one at least adult, if not an elder, based on the size.”
Mayor Mare dismisses the pegasus as Amethyst Star pulls out a sheet of parchment and a bag of green dust. “Twilight, do you want to do the honors of writing to Princess Celestia, or do you want me to?”
Cloudchaser flies over, shouting, “Another sighting, this time by Sweet Apple Acres! It’s a fourth one, definitely elder sized!”
“Are you sure?” Spoiled Rich’s face palls, as does Mayor Mare’s.
“A hundred percent! I saw the other one when he was rampaging through the streets, this one is way bigger!”
“That makes four of them…” Mayor Mare blankly states, her breath rapidly speeding up. “Ponyville can’t survive for long!” She thrusts the paper towards Twilight Sparkle. “Hurry! We can’t afford another international incident! But if we wait too long, there won’t be a Ponyville left!”
Twilight groans, unable to keep up with the ponies surrounding her, their constant demands slamming into the ironclad walls of her need for perfection.
“Another report!” shouts Rainbow Dash as she careens into the ground next to Twilight and Spoiled Rich, kicking up a large cloud of dirt. She coughs, a wing swiping it away as Cloudchaser returns to the skies. “P-D is returning to Ponyville! And he looks angry! We need to stop him, fast!”
No sooner do the words leave her mouth than Rainbow Dash is back in the air, winging towards the west part of Ponyville.
Twilight grits her teeth in frustration as ponies begin shouting back and forth. “QUIET!!” she bellows, stomping a hoof and angrily staring down the cowed ponies around her.
“We need more information!” Twilight motions to Ponyville; a few of the buildings have minor damage, mostly claw marks gouging into rooftops. “First, where are each of the dragons? We need more scouts in the air, NOW!”
A few pegasi salute, flying off into the air and making circles around Ponyville. The rest of the crowd slowly seems to calm down, their panicked screaming turning to milling about and awaiting further orders.
Twilight points a hoof at Amethyst Star. “I do not want to involve the Princess, not yet. Not until there is substantial damage, or casualties. So far, all I’ve seen is minor property damage and petty theft. No cause for national alarm.”
“But what-”
Twilight cuts Amethyst Star off, turning to address some of the bulkier earth ponies. “If these dragons do start a rampage, we’ll need everypony we can to help with evacuation and locating survivors. Set up a perimeter, orders to fall back and evacuate if the dragon attacks.”
Her eyes turn to Amethyst. “If that happens, and I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that, we’ll send that letter.” She glances down at the parchment the unicorn left in front of her. And the bag of dragonfire dust next to it. “In fact, I may want to write several letters, for differing contingencies.” She looks around the crowd, more than half the ponies galloping to their new assignments. “Has anypony seen Spike?”
Rarity races forwards, wearing a long, purple cape and dragging several heavy coats behind her. “I left Spike at the Boutique, just minutes ago! Is he alright?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight responds coldly, glancing towards the Boutique. “I hope so.”
Rarity gasps at seeing the damaged, open doors. She charges forwards, the coats dropping in her haste. She disappears inside the Boutique, barely noticing the missing articles inside as she searches every room.
Twilight’s frown sets in her face, finally a brief break in the commotion. “Do we have a list to cross reference of what dragons were authorized to traverse through or near Ponyville? Maybe if we can figure out who it is, we have a chance to figure out what they want.”
A few office assistants nervously glance to Mayor Mare before rushing inside the Town Hall.
A victorious roar booms from the west part of Ponyville. All eyes turn, watching as the gigantic purple dragon bellows again, raising his claws to the heavens. Everypony gasps as they slam down right on the Ponyville Schoolhouse, sending red timbers in every direction. He lifts the roof off the remaining two walls, heaving it onto the playground equipment. His massive sneer grows even larger as he plucks something out of the schoolhouse.
Twilight’s eyes nearly bug out as the dragon grows another two stories. “Did that just happen?” She turns to the ponies around her. “It’s the same dragon, just growing larger and larger?!”
Then the dragon’s eyes narrow, lazily swiping at a cerulean pegasus buzzing around him and weaving between his green spines; she may as well be a gnat for all she is doing. He plucks a pink earth pony off his arm, flicking the schoolteacher into the rubble of the schoolhouse. His deep voice grunts in frustration as more and more of the ponies cautiously advance on him. A bellow is insufficient to drive them away, but his massive strides serve the same purpose. Each advances him dozens of yards, heading straight towards the closest mountain. The same one that Razor settled in last year.
Most of the ponies break off to help dig through the remains of the schoolhouse, others bringing stretchers and medical supplies. Miss Cheerilee is lifted by a team of pegasi and rushed to the hospital, though all of the fillies seem to be okay. Every filly that is present, that is.
“Twilight!” Applejack races into the town square, skidding to a stop. “That horrible dragon just destroyed the Ponyville Schoolhouse!”
“I saw!” Twilight yells back, indecisively rubbing her hooves together. “Is everypony okay?”
The dragon reaches the base of the mountain, now harassed by a yellow and pink blur in addition to the cerulean.
“No!” Applejack turns to see Rarity leaving the Boutique, dreading giving the news. “He hurt Miss Cheerilee real bad! And he took Sweetie Belle!”
“He WHAT?!” bellows Rarity, her eyes blazing with wrath. She rips her coat off, the long cape fluttering as it sinks to the ground. “It. Is! ON!!”
Rarity charges towards the dragon, only stopping when a raspberry aura surrounds her.
“Wait!” calls Twilight, pointing a hoof up the mountain.
“So help me, Twilight, you better have a good reason for this!” Rarity’s eyes glance towards the unsent letter. “And how come you haven’t involved Princess Celestia? Surely this is deserving of her attention!”
Twilight merely shakes her head. “I believe that Princess Celestia wants us to be able to hoof this on our own. And I believe we still have the chance to do so.” At Rarity’s gawking stare she continues, “Based on the dragon’s current trajectory, you would never have gotten to him on hoof. Especially going up that mountain.” She points towards one of the pegasus chariots. “You’d need to fly.”
Rarity’s grin returns, dashing over to the chariot as Open Skies and Cloudy Skies hesitantly strap themselves in. One of them asks quietly, watching the dragon flail around on the side of the mountain, “You sure about this, Ma’am? If he so much as snorts at us…”
“As sure as I have ever been.” Rarity glances down, spotting a bullwhip inside the chariot. Who would possibly use a whip on a fellow pony? Even if time is of the essence?
The gigantic purple dragon reaches a cave on the side of the mountain, stuffing his accumulated horde inside. He roars, his tail swinging around, the high pitched screams of the tiny white mare inside barely audible in Ponyville.
Rarity strongly considers using the bullwhip until the chariot lurches into the sky, now weighing the possibility of tying herself down. The rapid climb nearly spills her out the back, only managing to stay inside by pressing every hoof against the walls. Wings beat again and again, straining to gain as much altitude as possible.
A sickening crack echoes from the mountain as one of the dragon’s flailing limbs strikes the cerulean pegasus. She arcs high, a line drive away from the mountain, tumbling in a perfect parabolic arc through the air.
“She’s not responding!” calls Open Skies, tracking the limp pegasus.
“Can you carry this on your own?” demands Cloudy Skies, about to unhook herself from her harness.
Open Skies glances back, his mouth pulling back to a grimace. “...I can land it,” he says, with far less confidence than Rarity would have liked.
“Do it,” Cloudy Skies commands as she releases her straps, zooming away from the chariot to intercept the speeding Rainbow.
“Celestia help her,” implores Open Skies, immediately taking the chariot into a controlled descent. He spirals back towards Ponyville and the long, flat streets, hoping he can line himself up before he runs out of altitude.
Rarity spins around in her seat, watching through teary eyes as the dragon roars in victory. The dragon goes to devour her filly, holding her up to his mouth. Rarity's horn flares, her vision zooming in as though through binoculars, if just to witness her filly’s final moments.
Then, the strangest thing happens.
His gigantic eyes, barely visible even with the magnification, draw to a small silver pendant around Sweetie Belle’s neck. They narrow, his mouth moving and asking an unheard question. She never was good at reading a dragon’s lips.
Then Sweetie Belle responds; the only word Rarity is able to make out is ‘Spike’.
And then the colossal dragon disappears in an instant, leaving Spike and Sweetie Belle briefly suspended in midair before plummeting down. A yellow blur bursts through her view, Rarity only barely able to refocus as she spots Fluttershy zipping towards the mountain, clutching Sweetie Belle and Spike to her chest.
She swivels, spotting Cloudy Skies barely staying aloft as Rainbow Dash flaps a single wing, limply holding the other at a horribly wrong angle. The chariot roughly jostles her from her observation as it slams into the ground, landing in a grassy field northwest of Ponyville.
Twilight stands in the middle of Ponyville, observing the same things. Her breath threatens to catch in her throat as she shudders; did she make the right call, attempting this on their own? Should she have been helping more, or less? Would Amethyst Star have stepped up to organize things if she had helped fight? Could she have helped fight? Also, that was Spike?
A loud, metallic cranking emanates from the ground behind her. Twilight turns as a giant circle appears directly in front of Sugarcube Corner, the street slipping into itself. The grinding intensifies as a domed object rises out of the ground, a gigantic telescoping barrel poking out of one end.
“Okay, I cleaned out all the bear, so this thing is loaded for dragon.” Pinkie Pie looks around the town from her perch on her Blowout Big BerthaTM. “Hey, where’d he go?”