Edwards gritted his teeth as he watched the green dragon reeled away, slightly dazed from his sudden ambush. 'Time to go!'
He then quickly brought his variable fighter's right hand to the ground to gently scoop up the three cowering figures there; Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.
"Hang on!" he exclaimed, both to the ponies in the hand (through external speakers) and to Twilight Sparkle and Spike who were strapped into the rear seat, watching anxiously.
He swung his variable fighter, still in GERWALK mode around and 'skated' away along the ground on the thrusters. Not too soon, as the dragon recovered, roared in anger and gave chase.
Edwards used his fighter's left hand to protectively cover the ponies as he skimmed along the ground through the forest. As he maneuvered his fighter through any gap amongst the large trees big enough to fit through, he could hear the dragon simply crashing through them behind him.
Eventually he came to a wide, churning river. He took advantage of the open space and gunned the thrusters, speeding away downriver. The dragon emerged from the trees moments later, and chased after the fleeing machine.
'Okay, Let's look at the situation', Edwards thought to himself as he navigated the river at high speed. 'I'm carrying 3 civilians, I can't risk taking to the air because my wings were damaged, and I have a huge dragon chasing me. The wide river now has high cliffs on either side, I have no offensive loadouts, no guns except for the machine guns and head ca...'
"Look out!" he was jolted out of his thoughts at the sudden cry of alarm from Twilight. A check of the rear view monitor showed the dragon flying behind him, and had opened it's mouth...
He quickly strafed his fighter to the left; just in time avoid the stream of fire passing through the space he had occupied not moments ago. The dragon then swept the breath of fire towards him. He strafed further left to avoid it. As he neared the cliffside, nearly scrapping off the rest of mangled left wing and with the stream of fire boxing him in, he boosted and 'jumped' over the stream, making a roll as he did so. The breath of fire tried to moved upwards to catch him, but it petered out.
His thrusters kicked up a spray of water as he 'landed'. There was a 'eep' from the back as he landed, but he paid it no thought as he made a quick check on his previous cargo. All three ponies were still there, still alive and clinging to the 'fingers', their heads poking through between them and watching wide eyed. He then jetted away from the dragon as it recovers from it's attack.
As he zoomed down the river, he abruptly came to a large lake. As he looked about, the dragon burst out onto the lake as well.
'Alright, let's see how you'll take this!' He quickly spun his fighter around while maintaining forward momentum. He brought up the side-mounted machine guns, centered the targeting reticle on the dragon and pulled the trigger.
A spray of energy bullets erupted from the guns, sped down the distance between him and the dragon and...
"Oh, Come on!" Edwards swore as the bullets splattered on the reptilian scales of the dragon, doing nothing but leave small scorch marks. The dragon let out a bellowing roar.
Correction: It did do something. It made the dragon even madder.
As he played 'keep away' from the dragon over the surface of the lake, he furiously combed his brain for another tactic. Any tactic.
Note: This is more of an experiment, to see if I could write a decent action scene.