//------------------------------//
// The Gaping Gorge 
// Story: The Wondrous Tale of Raptor Rapier 
// by Devianpony 
//------------------------------//

Twilight finished her activities for the following day rather quickly and had lots of time for the continuation of Claymore’s story. Claymore’s day had passed uneventfully and he was excited when Twilight finally came home. The two sat down and waited for Clay to continue the story. The stallion prepared himself to jump into the story, and started up the tale again…

Raptor and her hoof-picked team of brave ponies eventually made it across the desert. They had little time to celebrate though, for they were soon at the Great Gaping Gorge! The deadly canyon stretched miles across and legend had it that a huge serpent guarded the canyon from below.
Raptor surveyed her surroundings. There was a convenient lake nearby that they could restock their provisions at, as well as a bridge that once spanned the gorge, but now hung uselessly into the precipice.  The brave mare led her party over to the lake, for it was sensible to go there first. After she had refreshed herself with a drink from the lake and a snack from one of the surrounding berry bushes, she took flight to the air with Dewdrop, Cumulus, and Sky Soar to see if they could just fly their friends across.
When the pegasi reached the gorge, all was quiet and it seemed the canyon would be no challenge at all. They headed over the gorge looking around for danger. It was not until they were halfway across that danger leapt from the shadows toward them. The huge serpent of legend sprung from the canyon floor. The snake was a huge beast, it towered almost into the clouds, and the pegasi were caught off guard.
“Form up!” shouted Raptor. “we won’t get the others’ help for this one!” she drew her sword and the four pegasi formed into a group, swords drawn. 
The serpent hissed and spat acidic venom at the ponies and they had to split their formation to avoid the deadly spray. Raptor yelled at her men to regroup, but was cut short as she had to dodge another spray of venom. The pegasus leader almost ran into Cumulus and the two turned to face the giant serpent together. 
“Dewdrop, Sky Soar!” shouted Raptor. “see if you can take out its eyes! We’re going in!” the mare then dropped toward the snakes body and slashed at its scaly hide, but all the blow did was break her best sword. She grimaced and backed away, this was obviously not the right approach.

Back at the lake, the earth ponies and unicorns had heard the commotion and were rushing over to see what was happening. When they arrived, Sky Soar had succeeded in gouging out one of the serpent’s eyes, but the beast was still dangerous. Dewdrop had an injured wing and was spiraling out of control and Raptor and Cumulus were still having no luck doing damage to the beast. 
The battle was mostly occurring in the air, and since the other two breeds of ponies didn’t have wings, they had to find a way to help from the ground. The earth ponies started to make their way down the edge of the cliff to attack the serpent’s base, and the unicorns prepared their strongest magic to attack the beast with. 

The pegasi were beginning to get discouraged when they noticed the arrival of their friends. Raptor helped Dewdrop fly down to the unicorns to see if they could heal Dewdrop. Cumulus and Sky Soar stayed in the air to battle the beast, and were given new confidence at the arrival of their friends. 
Raptor landed among the unicorns and dropped off Dewdrop. “Do you… know any… shrinking spells?” panted Raptor as she thought about how helpful one would be right now. The unicorns looked at each other, they knew quite a few shrinking spells and were now embarrassed to say they hadn’t thought of it. The three unicorns gathered together and aimed their horns at the huge serpent. The combined power of their magic shot out in a streak of pure energy and struck the snake. They waited for the effects to set in, but instead of growing smaller, the serpent grew bigger!
“Uh, I hope you have a plan B…” Rainbow said, disheartened at the spells failure. 
“Do you know any spells that could weaken its armor?” asked Raptor.
“We could try…” 
The three gathered back into formation and fired another bolt of energy at the serpent, but again, the spell seemed to backfire, as the scales on the beast grew thicker. 
“Hmm, since it appears there is a spell reversing our spells that we use on it, perhaps we should use the opposite of what we want to happen!” Starburst said.
“Do you think that will work?” asked Raptor rather skeptically.
“It’s worth a try…” 
The unicorns gathered into formation for the third time and fired a strengthening spell at the snake. As Starburst had predicted, the serpent’s scales grew flimsy and weak looking. The unicorns brightened up and repeated the process again, this time with a growing spell. 
The earth ponies charged at the serpent and were shocked that the beast was the size of a mere garden snake by the time that they reached it. The earth ponies looked around and saw Sky soar and Cumulus just as confused, and then they saw the unicorns, looking triumphant. The Gorge hadn’t been bested yet though, for they still needed to get across.

The earth ponies made it back to the group from the canyon floor and the other ponies were brainstorming ways to get across.
“I still think we should just fly everyone across…” grumbled Cumulus.
“Do you really think you could fly a big pony like Tiller all the way over that?” Starburst said in retaliation. “Besides, one of you pegasi is already down on a bad wing!”
“We could try and fix the bridge,” said Snow.
“I think it’s beyond repair at this point…” Starburst said, she was smacking down ideas left and right.
“Fine! How about you use your magic to float us all over there or something!” 
“Because we don’t know any spells that can do that!”
Raptor quickly jumped in before an argument could start. “How about I go and scout out the other side to see if we could climb up over there,” she said gesturing to the far side of the ravine. She swooped off and was disappointed to find a sheer cliff that obviously wasn’t climbable. 
Raptor flew back and was greeted with disappointment, but got a new idea. “What if we built a new bridge from the trees around the lake over there?” she suggested.  It was their best idea so far so everyone set to work building a new bridge. 
It was nearing sunset when the bridge was finally completed and the unicorns levitated it into place. The ponies all happily trotted across to the other side. They set up camp and went to sleep for the night, tired out from the day’s battle.


Author’s note: I switched up the style for the story portion to allow for the addition of dialogue and such. I would be very happy if any of you viewers could leave a rating or maybe give some constructive criticism or feedback ;)