"Wait wha*thud*" Star said startled before smacking his head very hard into something above himself. After he recovered and looked around he found himself under his bed, apparently he had fell and rolled under it, and whatever had woken him up had surprised him into hitting his head on the underside of his bed.
He got out from under his bed and saw a gaping hole in his roof "I woke up to a loud roar, but THAT didn't wake me up?" he thought incredulously before shaking his head and leaving to find the source of the disturbance.
He was shocked to see what had caused the disturbance, it was coming from town that much was clear, but he didn't have to be very close to see what it was.
Smack dab in the middle of Ponyville there was a dragon, a very large, green scaled dragon "Wait… do I know that dragon from somewhere?" Star thought as he approached the town at a flat run.
When he finally arrived at the town he was trampled by ponies screaming things like "RUN!" or "IT'LL EAT US ALL!" or even once he heard somepony shout "IT'S THE END OF DAYS! EVERYPONY STALLION, MARE AND FOAL RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
After he recovered he once again approached the dragon deciding to try and resolve the problem. When he finally arrived in the town square, where the dragon was standing, he saw Twilight, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spike all surrounding it and it looked like they were yelling at him.
Just before he approached the dragon he swung his tail at the small group of ponies and knocked them into a nearby building "HEY!" Star shouted while charging the dragon.
As the dragon turned to face him images flashed through his mind as he remembered where he knew this dragon from, this was the dragon that he had been in a duel with and won "Razor Claw?" he asked.
The dragon smirked "Ah, just the pancake I was looking for."
"Wait, pancake?" Star asked before dodging the dragons foot as it stomped the ground where he had just stood "What's wrong with you?" he asked in surprise.
The dragon let out a small chuckle "Yes, I am Razor Claw, and if you remember you humiliated me in front of my fellow dragons and royalty!" Razor Claw exclaimed before trying to stomp on Star again.
"How did you even know that I was here or how to find me?" Star asked.
"I heard the zebra speaking to herself about you giving her a gift, I immediately flew out here and caught your scent in a small cottage just outside the forest where I live, I destroyed part of it looking for you but you weren't there, so I decided to pay these ponies a "visit" and "kindly" ask where you were." he explained before picking up a nearby chunk of debris and throwing it at Star.
Star narrowly dodged this and turned back to the dragon "What were you doing in the Everfree? Last time I checked you were in the pride lands about to get married to Princess Yellowscale?" he asked while narrowly avoiding one of the dragon's claws.
This made Razor Claw growl "Then you don't remember yourself stealing her from me and being engaged to her just to tell her that you WOULDN'T become nest mates with her?"
Another thing clicked in Star's mind as the memory of the event resurfaced in his mind, Razor Claw was going to duel Star for her affections, but when he had turned down her proposal it had just infuriated Razor Claw even more, not only had she chosen him, a PONY, but he had rejected her feelings and upset her.
"Oh, right, but that still doesn't explain why you're here." Star asked once again while dodging Razor Claw's tail.
"After you turned her down she went into a life of solitude, choosing not to have offspring or a nest mate in fear of that same rejection, so I vowed to avenge her, no matter how long I had to wait!" Razor Claw exclaimed while swinging his tail at him again.
This time the dragon's tail had made contact with a nearby building, causing part of the wall to crumble. Razor Claw growled in annoyance "There is no room in this place; I can't properly destroy you…"
He appeared to be thinking for a moment before he was bucked in the back of the head by Rainbow Dash "Hey you big lug, leave our friend alone!" she exclaimed.
Razor Claw turned to Rainbow Dash in annoyance "Who's going to make me?" he asked with a sneer.
"She is!" Rainbow exclaimed pointing at Fluttershy.
Fluttershy looked as if she were trying to hide inside herself by curling into a very small ball, which she was succeeding at, she slowly peered up from behind her hooves to see the dragon staring at her, she then quickly retreated back into the fetal position.
After some encouragement from Rarity and Applejack she slowly and reluctantly flew up to the dragons face "Um, excuse me Mr. Dragon, I don't mean to bother you but would you please maybe possibly consider leaving us all alone and going back to your cave? That is, if you don't mind…." She asked in a very quiet and timid voice.
The dragon let out a nice smile "Well since you asked so nicely…" he started to walk away before quickly turning back and swinging his tail at Star again, this time hitting it's mark and knocking him to the ground.
Fluttershy then approached the dragon again, this time she looked furious "Now listen here mister," she said getting right in his face "nopony, and I mean nopony, gets to hurt my friends, got it!" she exclaimed.
The dragon stared at her with a very bored expression "Oh no! That scared me and made me feel bad, I had better leave before I get hurt by the big bad scary yellow pegasus!" he said sarcastically before showing a devious grin and trying to hit Star with his tail again, missing its mark and hitting another building.
"I'm warning you!" she exclaimed.
The dragon completely ignored her and began speaking to himself "Now, where can I go that has enough room for me to crush him in…"
He gained a maniacal grin and in one fell swoop grabbed Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, and Spike in his tail while grabbing Rainbow Dash in one claw and Fluttershy in the other "There is no room in this town to crush you so here's what's going to happen, I am going to leave and go to the everglades just to the east of the castle ruins, you are going to meet me there or you friends…" he slowly pulled one of his claws across one of Fluttershy's cheeks, causing her to let out a small squeal of pain as a small cut formed and blood trickled down it.
"Stop that!" Star exclaimed.
The dragon simply grinned at him again "If you ever want to see your friends ALIVE again, then you will meet me there."
The dragon flew off with Star's friends and all he could do was watch, not any moment since he could remember had he ever felt so useless, he was an alicorn for Celestias sake, he should be able to use magic or fly and stop it, but some alicorn he was, he couldn't do either of those.
He immediately began chasing after the direction that the dragon had flown off. As he ran he was stuck with his thoughts, he was angry with himself, all he could do was sit and watch as the dragon took his friends and flew off.
Suddenly he heard a voice faintly in the back of his mind "You couldn't help them, he took them while you just sat and watched." It taunted.
"SHUT UP!" Star screamed out loud.
"You were helpless to stop him, now if you don't get there in time he might start hurting your friends, just because you couldn't stop him." It continued.
Before he continued to argue with the voice he realized that it was right, he was powerless to stop Razor Claw from hurting his friends "Who are you?" Star asked.
"I am your conscience." It replied.
"If you think I am so powerless then what should I do about it?" he asked.
"Get angry, don't let him get away with that." It explained.
He found himself agreeing with the voice "You're right." He agreed before running harder than before.
"Star don't listen to it, you weren't helpless to stop him there was nothing you could do to stop him then, but you can help your friends now, stay calm and think this through, find a way to beat him without getting yourself and your friends killed." Solar reassured him.
He felt the sudden need to argue with Solar over that point, that he should be mad, but then logic took over and Solar made the better point "Sorry conscience, Solar is right on this one." He thought.
He spent the rest of the trip there listening to the steady rhythm of his hooves against the ground; the simple beat of it ingrained itself into his mind. Eventually he arrived at his destination, the everglades, he wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the fact that the mud made the steady beat of his hooves hitting the ground become muffled.
There, right in the middle of the everglades was just the reason he was here, there he saw the dragon holding all of his friends with his tail now.
He hadn't noticed Star yet so he decided to use this to his advantage and try to end it before it started, though he had no idea how he was going to do this.
He saw Twilight shoot off a few bursts of magic at the dragon attempting to hurt him and possibly free themselves, but it was to no avail and simply made him hold onto them tighter, also causing a new wave of anger at the dragon to wash over Star.
Taking a moment to analyze the situation he decided that if he could get his friends free and out of here then it would be easier to defeat the dragon, that way he wouldn't have to worry about their wellbeing while trying to keep himself alive as well.
Then he noticed just what he was looking for, making sure that the dragon had yet to notice him he put his plan into action.
After a few moments of adjustments he had everything in place, he was standing on a cliff just behind the dragon, the cliff reached to the top of the dragons head, but that isn't what mattered, what mattered was the precariously placed boulder near the edge of the cliff, just above the dragon's tail.
Making sure everything was in place once more he got a running start and pushed the rock off of the ledge and watched as it hit its mark with a loud thud as it smashed that part of his tail.
With a loud roar he dropped them from his tail and held it in pain "RUN! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" Star shouted to his friends.
"But what about you?" Twilight called to him.
"I'm going to do what I have to." He reassured her with a smile.
Before she could argue she was grabbed by Pinkie "Come on Twilight, you heard the alicorn prince let's get outta here and let him take care of it."
They didn't actually leave very far away; in fact they were attempting to hide in a nearby bush, and failing at keeping themselves hidden.
Ignoring this he followed the boulder's example and jumped down on the dragon, but instead of landing on the tail, he jumped onto the upper neck and used his back and tail as a slide to reach the ground.
He turned just in time to dodge a claw from the dragon; he had apparently recovered from the boulder "You're going to pay for that!" Razor Claw exclaimed.
Star gave the dragon a confident grin "Alright, how's about I pay you back with some nice hot tea, one lump or two?" he asked.
The dragon seemed caught off guard with this question "What? Oh, um, one?" he asked deciding to see where this was going.
No sooner than the words had left his mouth had Star thrown a small rock and hit the dragon in the snout "OUCH!" he exclaimed rubbing the spot that the rock had hit "What is with you and hitting me with rocks?" he asked furiously before swinging a claw at Star again.
Star jumped out of the way but received a small scratch across his side "I'm just distracting you until I can think of a way out of this situation." He said honestly.
The dragon raised an eyebrow "And you think it's a good thing to tell your enemy your plan?" he asked.
"You're not hitting me, are you?" Star retorted with another confident smile.
Razor Claw roared in frustration and started to gather his breath, it took a moment for Star to realize what was happening and he was nearly burnt to a crisp as a large wave of flame passed just behind him as he jumped out of its path.
He stared at the dragon wide eyed before looking back at his now singed tail and grabbing it "You burnt my tail!" he exclaimed.
"Next time I'm going to burn more than your tail!" Razor Claw exclaimed once again taking in a huge breath.
However this time Star had anticipated this course of action and prepared for it, while he appeared to be inspecting his tail he had grabbed a pile of mud, and just as the dragon was taking in his breath he threw it.
Luckily for him the mud landed where he had wanted it to, because he had no way to dodge the fire this time had it been aimed at him, he was currently backed against the large rocky cliff that he had dropped the boulder off of.
Taking this brief distraction to think he came up with a plan, though he doubted it would work all too well, "There's never a reward without some risk I suppose" he decided.
"If you get killed can I keep your body?" he heard Solar ask playfully.
This made Star smile "Sure, if you want to live the rest of your existence controlling a body that is buried underground and probably made of ashes or full of holes."
There was a consequence to not paying attention to the matter at hoof; he had taken a solid backhand to the side knocking him into a sharp rock which cut into one of his rear legs "You're dead now!" Razor Claw taunted.
"That's what you think." Star responded under his breath before watching in surprise as his friends charged the dragon.
They each had their own battle cries but the strangest of all, though he must have misheard them, because he could have sworn that he heard Rarity yell "Nopony hurts MY stallion!" and Twilight yell "Get your dirty claws AWAY from my future husband!" though he had to have misheard them, right?
Shaking his head to clear it he watched as his friends tried to hurt the dragon, they might've even succeeded, but Rarity must have forgotten what happened when Twilight attempted to use magic on the dragon, because she tried to shoot off some magic to hurt the dragon, just for it to bounce off of his scales and knock Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to the ground.
Razor Claw smiled at this before receiving a hard buck to his left leg, he let out a scream of aggravation before turning to the pony who was responsible, Applejack gave him a triumphant smile, it didn't last long as he grabbed Twilight and Applejack, threw Applejack into the air and hit her with Twilight using her like a bat and Applejack as the ball.
Star watched as Applejack hit into Spike and Rarity just as they were about to reach the dragon, he looked at the pony in his hands and smiled "You're that lavender pony that prevented me from incinerating that purple hatchling that I found in my hoard. It's going to be a pleasure to burn you to a crisp." he said in anticipation.
This was the last straw, Star had had enough of this dragon, he kept hurting his friends because of a millennia plus grudge. Suddenly, he felt a large pool of magical energy building up inside of him; though until that moment he had been void of magic it was suddenly coming from nowhere.
Though he was being blinded by anger he somehow managed to remember that the dragon was somewhat magic resistant, so he used the environment to his advantage.
The look on the dragon was priceless as the pony he had just been holding in his claws was replaced with a small raccoon, which he let go of in surprise.
Looking around he could not find the lavender pony, now he only saw Star, who's eyes were now glowing a bright red, before the dragon could make a snide remark the ground beneath him seemed to raise itself in a slant causing him to fall flat on his face, he got up in a rage and charged Star, who teleported out of the way causing the dragon to knock into the cliff head first.
While it was on the ground dazed Star approached him "Finish him, he hurt your friends, make him suffer." He heard his so called "conscience" tell him.
He was about to do just that, he was holding the large boulder from before above the dragons head before a familiar voice stopped him "Wait! Star don't do this, there is no reason to do this, you have bested him and that is all that matters." Solar reassured him.
Once again he felt the urge to defy Solar, but just as it did last time logic got the best of him as he realized that Solar was right, he dropped the boulder to the side and walked away.
As he was walking away he felt accomplished, just as he passed one of the trees heading into the forest he was grabbed by one of the dragon's mighty hands and impaled through a very large and sharp spike shaped rock.