Baking Bad

by XMark

Prologue

A plain yellow dress floated gracefully through the air, coming to rest on the ground shortly before a hot air balloon fell on top of it.

"Pinkie! Wake up!" Twilight Sparkle frantically grabbed the ropes of the deflating hot air balloon as it bounced across the rocky terrain. The sound of a roaring dragon echoed in the distance. Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie were both wearing gas masks. Pinkie Pie was completely unconscious, and the two corpses that shared the basket of their balloon were in a worse state. One was a griffon, the other a unicorn.

The wind kept pushing the balloon faster, dragging it over more rocky terrain until the bottom of the basket clipped a rock and tipped over, spilling all four of them out onto the hard rocky ground. Burners, flasks full of chemicals, and other equipment spilled out among them. Twilight held out a hoof to stop herself from rolling. The ground was slightly inclined. Twilight watched a break-resistant flask bounce across the rocks, and fall out into open air, and that was when she realized she was mere inches away from a sheer hundred foot drop. Twilight noticed Pinkie Pie's limp body still sliding towards the edge. She concentrated her magic energy to lift Pinkie Pie up and safely dropped her next to a boulder.

Twilight struggled to stand up. She heard the dragon roaring again. Louder this time. It was coming for them! She limped towards the crashed and now completely deflated balloon. Her gas mask was cracked, and she could barely see. She took a deep breath and took off the gas mask. Twilight rifled through the debris, feeling some small painful shards of glass in her hooves. Found a scroll of paper and a quill. She quickly levitated those items and ran away from the balloon with them to a safe distance before breathing in again.

Another even louder dragon roar. It was now unmistakable to Twilight that the dragon was coming for her. She fumbled with the scroll, unrolling it until she had scrolled past all of her notes to some blank paper. She began to write.

Dear Princess Celestia,

This is not an admission of guilt. I only wish that you pass on

this message to my friends and my family, and that they know

everything I've done was for them.

Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie, you were always

my best friends and will be forever.

Spike, you were always there for me, and I love you like a son.

I hope you know that. You're my big dragon now. There are going

to be a lot of things about me that are going to come to light

very soon. Please know that I only had you in my heart.

Goodbye.

The next dragon roar was so loud she felt the ground shake. She could hear the beating of the dragon's wings. Twilight dropped her journal and looked around. She couldn't risk a teleport spell in her current condition and in unfamiliar mountainous terrain. No telling if they'd end up inside solid rock or in the air with a long drop. Her back to the cliff, she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. She thought to herself "what would a brave pony like Rainbow Dash do?". She opened her eyes again, staring at the top of the mountain where she knew the dragon would appear soon. She would only get one shot. Her horn started humming and glowing as she built up the magical energy inside of her. She could feel the power surge through her body...

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