Rainbow Dash Rides a Dragon
The Struggle
The cerulean pegasus approached the cave entrance with caution and wiped away the sweat that slid down her forehead. She adjusted her saddlebag and sniffed the fresh, moist air as rigid rocks clanked to her steps. She’d flown and climbed the challenging terrain for far too long merely to reach the penultimate top. After all that, she’d finally made it. Rainbow had arrived at the throat of the world where the legendary horror she’d heard of slept with little knowledge of somepony at its very doorstep. It all came to this, everything that lead to her possibly acquiring her only current desire was right in front of her, in the bowels of the mountaintop cavern. Right under her hooves, scorch marks circled around the clearing. A few steps more, and she would be directly above where so many had been burned alive. Following the brown rubble was smooth and pitch black gravel that once matched the dirt colors she walked upon.
Looking up into the silhouette shrouds of haunting darkness, her heart could be heard pumping against her chest. If she proceeded, Celestia knows what the outcome could possibly be. For all she knew, her main objective could gulp her in one go before anything exciting even happened, or worse. She could trot a few inches forward and be barbequed by the dragon’s treacherous firebreath. Just like that, the mare would be cooked and ready for the fiend’s immediate dinner. Thoughts of her friends and how devastated they would be if she didn’t make it back clouded her original thoughts, but one vigorous fact stopped her from turning around and abandoning the mission entirely. That was the remembrance of why she was there in the first place. Rainbow Dash hadn’t only come for the dragon. She took initiative to meet with it for a completely different, though somewhat absurd reason. Nevertheless, she had come all this way, and she wasn’t about to allow all that effort go to waste because of fear. Rainbow glanced back up and saw Fearsome amber eyes staring at her, and before she could even gasp at the beasts surprising stare, a strong claw swatter her body clean off the cliff.
The dazing impact forced a deafening ring to her ears. She began to spiral uncontrollably through the whistling winds. It seemed nearly impossible to stop herself from becoming sick. The strike was so devastating, it made her head feel like it was stuck inside a vase. The chill of icy cold mist crashing against her coat from the mountain clouds only helped Rainbow feel more conscious of the actual danger she was truly in. Never before had she faced such a demonic monster, not like this. Only once had she stared into the hellish eyes of a dragon, but that was under different circumstances. This time, it was all about riding one, not working on different ways of getting it out of its home. It was do or die-- Catch or be killed, and Rainbow assured herself it wouldn’t be the latter.
Upon gaining a glance at the menace jumping over the jagged edge and speeding down towards her, she snapped out of the swirls that somewhat blinded her eyesight and spread her wings to catch a potent gust of wind. Once Rainbow stabilized, she was able to get a better look at the dragon. Red scales coated its body. Razor sharp spikes aligned its back, orange in color, and its claws were definitely stained with blood, no doubt from the many victims it had taken over its years.
The dragon soared directly next to her, so close that its wing came within an inch of her mane and almost brought the mare rushing back into an uncontrollable free fall that would’ve surely lead to her premature death. With the dragon headed for the jagged boulders below, Rainbow took a deep breath and kicked the wall behind her. An intense burst of staggering speed was all she needed to get back into the hunt. Feeling powerful and stinging winds slap her face only made the sensation that much more enthralling. Nothing amounted to the rush of chasing something so large and threatening.
The thing then folded its wings and made a breathtaking dive, headed right for the solid grounds as if that kind of fatality would be pleasurable. “Oh no you don’t,” she chanted. The mare copied the dragon’s actions causing the spectrum lines behind her to distort and form ecstatic zigzags from the sheer velocity. Suddenly, her main focus ripped the air apart with its wings reopening to grab a hefty chunk of air. As she banked right and away from the cliffs, Rainbow saw the menace look back at her. Its mouth gaped open to release a horrendous flare of black and purple fire. Dodging the inferno, Rainbow panted from the heat it produced. The dragon’s neck turn back around along with its frame slowing a bit.
“He must think that hit me,” Rainbow confidently said with a smug smile. Rainbow came up to its wing and biting her lip. At that time, adrenaline freely coursed through her veins like never before. To be so close to something so big was unreal to her, almost like a dream. Amazed she could barely keep up with her target despite its wings stirring up the air, Rainbow smirked and had to press her head down. Tears formed in her eyes and had to be rubbed away before escaping. Soon, she found the strength to roll completely over and glide right above it. Soaring above the dragon’s back, Rainbow yanked out the long leather rope from the sack that Fluttershy gave her with her teeth, but just as she pulled it loose, the dragon slapped her side with its wing and her saddlebag was knocked clean off her back. All she could do was stay focused on the dragon. While she kept a steady hold of what she actually needed, her eyes looked at the dragon’s neck. If she couldn’t find the tiny crease where its pressure points would be located, the whole whole purpose of this insane situation would be for nothing.
With the rope in her mouth and the dragon still directly beneath her, Rainbow Dash brought herself lower and wrapped the right end of the rope around and locked onto the dragon’s left fang. “One down, one to go,” she said. The being widened its eyes with realization and whipped to the left, making Rainbow shriek. The dragon pivoted its head madly, and though the rope was almost snatched clean from her mouth due to the strain placed upon it, Rainbow was able to maintain the situation. Finally, she caught her chance after the monster forced its head to the left again. She planted her hooves right next to the other outer fang, beat her wings to keep elevated and slip the hole through the sharpness securely. Rainbow returned to the neck and bit the middle end of the rope and then prepared herself for the dive that was sure to come. Her hooves curled around the lace while her teeth rearranged the rope inside her mouth, and just before the action she readied herself for happened, her mind trailed off to the moment which started all this madness; the single, foolhardy bet she made with Twilight.