The heroes continued to run towards the sound they had heard, dodging trees and large plants very narrowly. Whatever made the sound did not sound very satisfied at all.

They finally approached a large cave, hidden from sight to any onlookers of the Everfree Forest watching from a distance away.

“This cave seems very familiar…”Twilight stated as she observed the area, “like I’ve been here before…”

“Well, what’s the plan Mario?” Applejack asked.

“Let’s a go!” He replied.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Rarity interjected, “what if there is another pack of Timberwolves in there? Or something else worse?”

Fluttershy began to shudder in fear.

“But what if the Crystal Star is inside? What’s stopping us from at least taking a look?” Rainbow Dash said. She had a point, if it was there and they didn’t look, they would only be wasting more time.

“Or what if there is a party going on inside?! And we’re just missing out because we’re standing out here!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed suddenly. “I say we check it out!”

“I highly doubt that there is a party going on in there, Pinkie…” Applejack said.

“At any rate,” Twilight started, “Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie are right, we should at least take a look.”

“But that roar!” Fluttershy said suddenly, “we don’t know if it came from inside of there!”

Goombella started looking at the entrance of the cave.

“Whatever it was,” she started, “it doesn’t seem to be in here, at least now…”

“But what if it comes BACK?!” Fluttershy said, she sounded more fearful than ever at this point.

“We won’t be in there but a minute, Fluttershy.” Applejack said. “All we’re gonna do is take a look, we’ll be in and out in no time.”

As much as Fluttershy objected to entering the cave, she knew that nothing was going to stop her friends from going in, and she didn’t want to be left outside alone.

“Okay…I’ll go in with you guys then…” Fluttershy said. Anything was better than being left outside alone.

Mario led the way through the dark cave, ready to take on any ambush that might be waiting for them inside.

They continued to walk down the small corridor inside of the cave, noticing the beauty of the stalactites on the ceiling that had formed over many years.

“This place looks beautiful!” Rarity exclaimed.

“It is beautiful isn’t it?! If only the readers of this fiction out there could see it! They would be so amazed!” Pinkie Pie said.

The group all rolled their eyes and shook their heads at whatever it was that Pinkie was going on about, readers and a fiction, that’s pretty ridiculous, even for Pinkie. The only two that did not react to Pinkie were Mario and Applejack, whose lack of attention was due to their focus on protecting the group. They still did not know what, if anything, was in the cave, but they were not willing to let their guard down for a moment. Applejack stayed close behind him, she was just as protective of the group as Mario was, and she would throw herself out into danger for the safety of her friends any day. She also felt a lot safer near Mario. There was something about him that she could really trust, she couldn’t quite put her hoof on it, but being the element of honesty, it did not really concern her.

Twilight was still very skeptical. She knew she had seen this cave before. Even if it did look like any other kind of cave. Still, she seemed to remember it specifically, as if something had happened there recently…

The group finally reached the main room of the cave, to discover that it was filled to the brim with gemstones of various colors, shapes, and sizes.

“LOOK AT THAT!” exclaimed Goombella.

“Oh my…” Rarity said weakly. It seemed to overtake her; the massive pile of gemstones that were all merely just lying there was quite impressive. They overtook a large portion of the room. Speaking of which, the room itself was quite large. Almost as if it was meant to house something bigger…

“YAY! The party hasn’t started yet!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed suddenly.

“What in tarnation are yah goin’ on about, Pinkie? What party?” questioned Applejack.

“I can’t tell you! Clearly it’s a surprise party!” she replied.

Applejack could not think of any kind of reply. She instead decided to stop questioning the pink mare in order to preserve her sanity from being damaged.

She and Mario began to survey the massive mound of gems, in hopes of finding the Emerald Crystal Star that they had been in search of for several hours. They seemed to be quite convinced that it wasn’t inside of the cave. I mean, they DID kind of scatter randomly in the AIR. Not on the ground, or inside of specific hiding places. But, they continued to search a few minutes longer. Maybe it was inside, underneath all of those gemstones. Or maybe they were wasting their time with this cave. Maybe it was outside in the Everfree Forest, lodged in a tree somewh-

“THERE IT IS!” exclaimed Goombella.

Or maybe it was inside of the cave after all.

Goombella pointed (don’t ask me how) towards a small mound of gemstones, hidden behind a few larger mounds, with a green, star-shaped rock jutting out of it.

“It’s about time we found that darn thing!” Rainbow Dash said, “it feels like we’ve been out here for days!”

“Oh come on now, Dash,” Applejack began, “it hasn’t been THAT long.”

“Whatever, just grab it and let’s get out of here, my wings need a good stretch.” Dash replied.

Mario took a few steps towards the Crystal Star, only to notice Pinkie Pie, whose tail was twitching emphatically.

“Something is falling out of the sky!” Pinkie Pie shouted.

Before anyone had time to react, a sudden and familiar roar echoed through the corridors of the cave from the outside world followed by the loud thud of something very heavy, landing on the ground without a care in the world.

Twilight held a shocked expression.

“I knew this cave was familiar! This is the cave Spike ran away from home to, not knowing it was inhabited by a full, grown-“

“DRAGON!” Fluttershy screamed suddenly, cutting Twilight short.

Everyone turned around immediately only to witness that Fluttershy was right. A large, green dragon had entered the chamber that the heroes were in, and it did not seem very pleased to see them.

“And just what do you think you are doing in my home, puny ponies? I leave for a few minutes from that little earthquake and you suddenly think it’s okay to invade my cave?” It rumbled.

The heroes were rather speechless at the fact that this dragon had not decided to just eat them right then and there.

“WELL?!” It roared violently, shaking the ceiling.

Goombella was the first to speak.

“We’re sorry to bother you Mr. Dragon,” she seemed rather nervous, “…but it seems you have something that we’ve been looking for…that big star-shaped rock over there? We kinda need that…so if you could be so kind as to let us have it, we’ll be outta your hair, Err scales…”

The dragon laughed at Goombella’s request.

“You don’t get it do you? That “rock” over there is mine. I found out in this forest, and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

The dragon took notice at the fact that Mario was standing rather close to the Crystal Star, and he kicked Mario straight into the wall.

“WAH-HEHEHAHOO!” He shouted as he collided into the wall.

“Mario!” The others shouted.

Mario shook his head rigorously and managed to stand back up. He had been in many more severe fights with his arch enemy, Bowser, and one hit would not hinder him so easily. All the while, Fluttershy was still quite scared, however, she was now upset that the dragon had hurt one of her friends.

“Look here, Dragon breath!” Rainbow Dash was now furious, “all we want is that star, and if you won’t cooperate, then we’ll have to take it from you by force!”

The dragon seemed equally as furious at this point.

“YOU DARE THREATEN ME?! IF YOU WANT THAT PRECIOUS STONE, YOU’LL HAVE TO PRY IT FROM MY CLAWS AS I’M TEARING YOU APART!” It roared in fury.

The heroes took on battle ready stances.

“Is that a challenge?” Rainbow Dash said. She seemed to be confusing stupidity for cockiness. Surely this would not be an easy fight.

“IT’S NOT A CHALLENGE FOOLISH PONY, IT’S A PROMISE! PREPARE TO MEET YOUR END!” The dragon roared as he reared into his battle stance, breathing small amounts of fire at the ceiling.

Mario took his position in front of the group.

“LET’S-A-“

“WAIT!” Pinkie Pie shouted suddenly, interrupting Mario.

“What could it possibly be, Pinkie?” Twilight said to Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie zoomed out of the cave and back into it, taking only a few seconds. She pushed Vinyl Scratch, along with her equipment she uses for her music.

“We need epic music for an epic fight!” She replied to Twilight. She had a good point.

“Ready! Hit it Vinyl!”

“LET’S-A-GO!” Mario shouted.

The dragon let out one final roar to strike fear into his opponents, creating an echo inside of the cave that shook it so violently, stalactites began falling from the ceiling.

The dragon breathed a large ball of fire at the heroes, who narrowly escaped being burnt to a crisp by jumping out of its way in random directions. The fireball smashed into the cave wall, erupting in a large explosion. Twilight and Goombella took note of this while Mario took note at how similar the fireball would erupt on contact to a surface, much like Bowser’s fireballs would.

None of them knew exactly how they were going to approach this beast, as his size was quite massive, making it difficult to hit anything aside from his feet, and even then, what damage could be done? Still, Twilight attempted to fire a bolt of her magic at his chest. The bolt made contact with his chest but appeared to do absolutely nothing.

The dragon launched another attack at the heroes using his tail. He attempted to stomp them into the dirt by pounding his tail down like a hammer. However, they managed to dodge this attack by again, narrowly jumping out of the way. Now was the time to strike.

“Mario!” Twilight shouted, “Now’s your chance! Climb up his back from his tail!”

Mario attempted an attack by running up the dragon’s tail before he could pull it back. He ran up his back and managed to jump over his head and onto his snout with a lethal stomp. This stomp shook his snout up and down a few times, and the dragon grabbed his own face with his claw to ease the pain. As Mario attempted to land back onto the ground, the dragon swatted him away from his entire body with a great amount of force. Mario was sent sailing towards his team, bracing for impact, when Rainbow Dash caught him out of the air and placed him safely back onto the ground.

“AHHH!” The dragon shouted suddenly. “I HATE BEING HIT IN THE FACE! WHY WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!”

The heroes now knew his weak point. The battle was now in more favorable odds.

The dragon began roaring again to try and intimidate the heroes. Instead of being terrified, however, Pinkie Pie got an idea.

She pulled out her party cannon (from nowhere) and loaded a cartridge inside of it. Rainbow Dash took notice that she was pulling it out, but did not know what she was planning.

“Pinkie! Now’s not the time to be throwing par-WOAH!” She could not finish her sentence due to the fact that Pinkie Pie grabbed her by the back hoof and shoved her inside of the cannon.

“I’m not throwing a party, silly!” Pinkie Pie began, “when I fire, extend your back hoof out like you’re kicking! You’ll be satisfied with what happens next!”

She then fired Rainbow Dash towards the dragon. Rainbow Dash was confused as all hell, not because she was being fired from a cannon or anything, this was to be expected by Pinkie Pie. What she was confused about was why she wasn’t being fired at his face. However, as soon as she extended her hoof, she knew what Pinkie was planning. She aimed to kick him right in the Dragonba-

CRASH!

“DIRECT HIT!” Pinkie Pie shouted.

Rainbow Dash swiftly recovered from her attack and was now hovering in the air with her wings.

His eyes widened as he clutched his genitalia. The dragon was now in more pain than he had ever been in his entire life. There was no way to describe the agony of what he just felt in his lower body. He had been in many fights with other dragons, mainly fighting over gemstones, but fighting nonetheless. He had received his fair share of wounds as well as dealt his own, but never had he experienced pain such as this.

The dragon roared even louder in pain than he did in intimidation. The heroes damn near felt bad for it.

“Wow, Pinkie,” began Goombella, “that was a low blow. Literally. Even for you!”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Twilight began, “she gave us another opening, now’s our chance to take it!”

The dragon actually dropped down low enough for the heroes to reach his head a little more easily, slowly recovering from the previous attack.

Applejack jumped up close enough to where she could buck him square in the snout. She wound up and bashed it upward, and Newton’s third law soon followed, pushing his head up from the upward force, being followed by a sudden super stomp from Super Mario himself, immediately thrusting his head back down onto the ground with a powerful force. The dragon was starting to get a splitting headache as he managed to pick himself back up onto all fours. He had underestimated the power of his opponents who seemed to be beating the snot out of him.

“No more playing around…” said the dragon.

The dragon reached out with his massive claw and grabbed Goombella and everypony else except Fluttershy, who was still terrified out of her wits and managed to duck beneath the claw.

They all struggled to escape from his grip as he pulled them away from Mario and Fluttershy, shouting in fear, not sure of what would happen next.

Mario was about to jump up and hit his hand, when the dragon began to raise his hind leg. He stomped on Mario so hard that when the dragon lifted his foot, Mario was seen stuck in the ground, with his head still sticking out and body stuck underneath dirt, with a dizzy look on his face.

There were no words that could express the anger that was beginning to well up in Fluttershy’s face. At this point, her fear had completely subsided, and all that could be seen was pure rage.

“HOW DARE YOU!” She shouted at the dragon. He was caught off guard by this sudden outburst.

“YOU LET THEM GO RIGHT NOW! YOU CAN PICK ON ME, BUT HURT MY FRIENDS, AND YOU WON’T LIKE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!” She continued to shout. Mario actually broke free of his daze, quite surprised by Fluttershy’s rage. Never would he have thought that a shy pony like herself could unleash such a fury.

The dragon laughed at her rage, however.

“Hehehe…what could you possibly do that would ever make me regret my actions?” The dragon snarled with a hint of arrogance in his voice.

Fluttershy did not reply. She instead flew close to his face. The dragon was not quite sure what she was planning, but he remained cocky nonetheless.

His cockiness would soon fade away to the gates of oblivion, never to be seen or heard from again.

“Oh nothing…except give you THE STARE!” Fluttershy widened her eyes, in a quite intimidating fashion. It was as if her eyes were looking deep into his soul, punishing him for all the sins in his life. Her face matched the irritation that could be seen in her eyes. The dragon actually started to cower down to her. He was not sure why. I mean, he could easily pound her to a pulp without any regret. And yet, it was as if she was manipulating his mind to her will. His grip loosened on the ponies, who dropped down close to his feet, landing with a thud.

Fluttershy took one look down to make sure that they were alright, and this was her slip up. The dragon broke free of her stare; however he was still quite stunned. In his haste to collect on what just happened, he shook his head, as well as his wings around. One of his wings slapped Fluttershy across the room, sending her sailing towards the wall.

Just before she was about to collide with the wall, Rarity and Twilight used their magic to catch her safely, and levitate her back to the ground.

Mario finally built his strength back up enough to the point that he could pull himself out of the ground. He grunted with a strained look on his face, but managed to flip himself out of the dirt and back onto his feet, shaking his head quickly in recovery.

Everyone quickly regrouped before the dragon could regain his surroundings.

“Good job, Fluttershy!” Twilight said.

“Way to go, Fluttershy! I knew you had it in you!” Rainbow Dash said.

“See there? There’s bravery behind that shy exterior, I always knew there was!” Goombella said.

Fluttershy began to blush, hiding behind her mane.

“Oh, it was nothing, I just…I just couldn’t stand to see him hurting you all like that, I couldn’t hold it back.” She replied.

Morale was high in the eight heroes. They were ready for anything. Which was good too because the dragon had now recovered from Fluttershy’s stare of mental destruction, and he was pretty pissed off.

“You think you’ve beaten me? You think that you all can turn things around? We’ll see how you feel after dealing with my razor sharp claws!” He snorted.

The dragon put both his claws together and ripped forward, claws scratching against each other like two samurai parrying one another in a clash of steel.

He lunged towards Mario, who was ready to take the hit, when a large shield, surrounded in a blue aura and made entirely of gemstones flew in front of him, completely blocking the strike.

Mario looked up, trying to gather what just happened.

“IS THAT ANYWAY TO TREAT A LADY?! YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST THROW US AROUND HOWEVER YOU WANT TO?! YOU HAVE NOT SEEN FURY YOU VIAL CREATURE!” Rarity shouted. Mario was very thankful that she was on his side.

The dragon was still not convinced of her rage, and was ready to continue striking his foes, he had had all he could put up with today and he would not stand for it anymore.

He raised his other claw up, ready to strike her, when he was hit in the face with several more gemstones, flow at a high velocity.

“SERIOUSLY! WHY MUST YOU AIM FOR THE – AHHH!” He roared, unable to finish his sentence because Rarity was pelting him several times in the snout and in the eyes. It isn’t so much that it hurt him, it was more like a good distraction, because his scales could take pain delivered from a sharp object, but not so much blunt force.

Mario began to think while he had a free moment. He was contemplating his next attack. He noticed how Rarity would surround a gemstone in her aura and hurl it at the dragon as hard as she could.

An idea struck him.

He ran over to Twilight and told her of his plan.

“That’s…brilliant! Do you think it will work?” Twilight asked him.

He nodded in approval, and prepared for the attack.

“Girls, help Rarity by distracting him as long as you can, this will only take a second!” Twilight said.

Twilight began to focus her magic as Mario placed his hands at his side to charge his fire.

When he reached a sufficient charge, he fired it out, and Twilight caught it with her magic and surrounded it in a bubble of her aura, shining brightly in the air. Mario continued to fill the bubble with a consistent stream of fire, switching hands constantly.

“ENOUGH!!!” The dragon roared in rage.

He stomped his foot down and shook the entire cave, stopping Rarity’s flurry of diamonds and emeralds and rubies from hitting him in the face.

But before he could speak again, Pinkie Pie started launching confetti and streamers at him with her party cannon. He was not sure of this pink mare, but he would not stand for it, he almost stomped on her, when Rainbow Dash kicked him in the snout. However, at this point he cared very little for this pain.

They did not know how much longer they could hold him off. He started being better able to resist everything being thrown at him. However, it mattered no longer. Twilight and Mario were ready.

Mario launched one last charged fireball into the bubble, and it glowed even brighter.

“That’s it!” Twilight cried. “It’s ready! Let’s finish this!”

Mario signaled for Applejack to buck him into this massive fireball, assuring her that everything will be alright.

She took her stance and her hind legs went into the air.

Mario flipped into the air, with his feet making contact with her back hooves, jumping with all his might as she bucked him off of her hooves, launching him like a missile towards the fireball.

“WAHOOOOOOOO!” Shouted Mario, flying through the air.

Time seemed to slow down as he approached the fireball. Right when he was about to collide into it, he cupped both his hands and launched them over his head. Then, he struck the fireball with both hands, as if he was swinging his hammer, sending his might, as well as the momentum from the buck-jump, into the massive fireball of aura. The fireball was sent at an incredible speed towards the dragon, who had no idea what was about to hit him.

The dragon turned his attention away from the ponies that were attacking him, and directed it towards the massive fireball that was headed straight for his face. He only had time to say one thing.

“Why always for the face…?” Was all he could say before the fireball violently erupted.

That would be an understatement. The blast was so violent and bright that some of the flames and bolts of magic almost hit the heroes as well. They actually had to make an effort to avoid being hit.

“Magic. Magic is what my Cutie Mark means.” Twilight said, looking at Goombella.

“Say no more, I can see why.” She replied.

When the magic and fire had dissipated down a bit, and there was a lot less bright light inside of the cave, the dragon could be seen. However, he did not look angry. Actually, he looked quite impressed.

“Well,” he began, “never in my life have I seen a fire blast so powerful. I’ve dealt with some powerful dragons myself, but not a single one of them has breathed a blast like that. Even I can’t match it.”

Rainbow dash refused to accept that he could still be standing from it.

“How are you still even standing, did it even do anything to you?” She asked him.

“Oh yes, but not as much as you probably believe. I bathe in lava, I don’t think fire and magic is going to bother me as severely as you believe it would. Nonetheless, you are all quite powerful fighters. You want that stone over there? Take it; as tasty as it looks, I don’t think I’ll have a use for it, anyway. I could not break through it, even with my powerful jaws; I could not bite through it.”

“Just a quick question, why the sudden change of heart? You were ready to eat us.” Goombella asked him.

“I said nothing of eating you, though you look quite tasty as well.” He replied

Fluttershy shuddered a bit as he mentioned this.

He laughed at her reaction and continued.

“I do not see a point for this senseless violence to continue any longer. The way I see it, this would be the only outcome. No matter how long we fight, I cannot see either of us being triumphant over the other. Besides, as I said before, that stone is worthless to me, but you all seem to have a use for it, so you may as well take it.”

Twilight noticed that the dragon seemed very well read. His brutish behavior aside, he was actually quite scholarly.

“Thank you, again, sorry for invading your home,” Twilight said.

“Think nothing of it, by the way, sorry for attacking you a while back. I did not realize that baby dragon was your friend.” He replied.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some training to do myself. If I ever want to breathe fire like that, I’ll have to stop lazing around in my cave all day.”

With that, he exited the cave and took off into the sky, off to distant lands, with the goal of being as strong, if not stronger than his adversaries.

“Well he was really nice!” Pinkie Pie said.

For once, everyone could partially agree with Pinkie. He may have tried to kill them, but in the end, he wasn’t so bad after all.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get the star and call it a day, I’m beat.” Rainbow Dash said.

Mario nodded in agreement and walked over to the star.

He pulled it up from the mound of gemstones and held it into the air.

It shimmered brightly inside of the cave.

“YAHOO!” Mario shouted in excitement.

The Emerald Crystal Star was now in their possession.

The heroes were ready to exit the cave, when Mario’s hand started to catch fire.

“WOAH!” He shouted.

Twilight studied his hand carefully, when she noticed a piece of paper was forming out of his palm

Shortly after, his hand stopped burning, and he was now holding a scroll.

“That must be from the Princess!” Twilight said.

Mario was confused as to how that had even worked, but he handed her the scroll, and she started reading, eager to hear of her reply to the recent events in Ponyville that she had mentioned before.

A look of horror took her face when she finished reading.

Author's Note

This one took some time mainly because college had a break, and I needed some time to rest, but it's finished, enjoy. Oh, and props if you understand the Skyrim reference.