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// Chapter 8: The End 
// Story: A Dragon's Heart 
// by Derpyx0 
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	The wind whipped at my face as we plummeted downwards, Nightmare had clawed my wings, so I couldn't fly. But he couldn't either, I had clipped his wings and they now had too many scratches in them to catch the wind. At least I took something from him, his flight. We plummeted, the ground was covered by mist, so I couldn't  be sure when we would....arrive. "What were you thinking?!" Nightmare yelled. He bared his teeth. I sighed in defeat, for I knew these moments with him would be my last. "I have never seen anything so pathetic." I said calmly. Nightmare looked at me in a mix of rage and confusion. "You have absolutely no respect for others, neither do you care if they die by your claws. At least I had my limits." Nightmare growled at this, and said, "You were the one who threw himself off the side of a mountain! That was foolish!" I remembered when I had been like him, full of rage and revenge, there was no pity in his cold purple eyes.

"How could you befriend those ponies?!" Nightmare spat out the word ponies. I narrowed my eyes, and replied, "Those ponies, showed me something that you could never grasp onto...Friendship." Nightmare growled again and clawed my eyes, scratching my right eye, which could never be healed. I cried out in agony, but held onto my life strings, ready to hold out until the end. "You've grown soft Igneous, I'm glad that I the battle for the kingdom." I heard the ground rushing up fast , so I prepared for the sound of bones breaking. But, suddenly, I was lifted from my free fall, and was constantly being pulled up. I looked above me to see Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and....Twilight, lifting me upwards. I felt a burning pain below me and looked down to see Nightmare clinging onto my ankle. 

I tried to shake him off, but to no avail. "I knew it, you are growing soft." He grunted. "You're so called, friends are pathetic fools that deserve to be eaten by the land squids." I let out a low growl and let my rage take over me. "You, are the one who doesn't deserve to live. You refuse to let others into your life, you ignore the cries for help, and you enjoy the screams of pain. I may not be a perfect dragon either, none of us are, but at least I believe in second chances." 

And with a quick kick of my other foot, I pushed Nightmare off of me and into the misty abyss. He fell the whole way screaming until I heard no more. Nightmare was dead. I sighed in relief when I was finally hauled onto the mountain, but then pain hit me like a cannon ball. I didn't cry out, but I bit my lip, which the girls caught. "Oh! Mr. Igneous! Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked. I fell down and Apple Jack said, "I don't think so 'shuga." I couldn't see out of my right eye, my back was bleeding, and my wings....I only hoped that they would heal. But I held on to my conciseness, and my life.

I turned to Twilight and made a shaky bow, and said, "Thank you Princess Twilight, I owe you my life...and I would be happy to lose it for you and your friends." Twilight smiled and said, "If it wasn't for my friends, I wouldn't have been able to help." I knew this next part would be the hardest one. "Twilight, I know that you must go, and...I respect your decision to go." Twilight looked to her friends for help. Apple Jack spoke up first. "We would always enjoy another helping hoof-I mean, claw, on our farm." Fluttershy was next. "I always have room in my cottage, we have more space then you would think." Pinkie Pie jumped up and said, "I am always open for another friend!" Rainbow Dash smiled and said, "If you lived with me, we could race every day!" Rarity piped up. "I am always open for another costumer in the bouquet!"

I smiled, there was always a place to go when I needed a friend. But one choice stood out the most. "Fluttershy, did you say that you had a lot of open space?" I asked her. She smiled again and said, "Of course!" The whole group of ponies looked at me and smiled. I realized that I now had an actual home, and friends. No gold could replace that.

And it all started when that purple pony walked into my life.