Friendship is Prime: Chapter Thirteen

Bumblebee opened his eyes and looked around the cave.  He looked down to find Rarity stirring from unconsciousness.

"Brpt-Zzzt?"  Bumblebee asked in concern.

"If that's your way of asking if I'm alright, then yes," Rarity responded before a look of realization struck her face.  "Hey!  Where's my diamond?"  She asked angrily as she frantically looked around.  Her gaze came to rest upon the necklace wrapped around the stalagmite bathed in the sunlight.  The stalagmite now looked slightly different, as it was red all over.

"Oh well," Rarity said to herself.  "I'll just have to make do with this little trinket."  She trotted over and started to reach for her necklace when suddenly the stalagmite started to move!  It slithered downward until the entire stalagmite was now beneath the earth, leaving a perfectly circular-shaped hole where it stood moments before.

"Hey!" Rarity shouted in anger.  "Give that back!"

Just then the ground began to shake violently.  The floor began to rumble and crack around the hole in the earth.  Bumblebee quickly lifted Rarity and jumped back to safer ground.  The floor seemed to give way as something started to rise up from underneath it.  As the creature broke through and rose up from its prison below, Rarity and Bumblebee were surprised to see how large it was.  It towered over Rarity, and it even had quite a size advantage over Bumblebee.  As the beast stretched its scaly wings, Rarity finally recognized that it was a huge, ferocious red dragon!  As the dragon wagged its tail, Rarity and Bumblebee noticed that the necklace from earlier was wrapped around it!

"Who dares disturb me from my slumber?!"  The dragon bellowed in a deep, dark voice.  It looked down and noticed the two creatures standing before him.  "What is your business here?'

"Bpt-zzoo-wre-pt-zpt," Bumblebee answered pointing to the necklace wrapped around his tail.

"You want THIS?!"  The dragon shouted accusingly as he eyed the necklace.  "You would dare to steal my precious treasure!??"

"It's not your treasure, it's MINE!" Rarity shouted angrily.  "If anything, YOU stole it from ME!"

The dragon bared its razor sharp teeth in a vicious scowl.  "Insolent brat," he growled.  "You shall suffer!"  The dragon unleashed a stream of flames aimed right at Rarity.  Bumblebee was quick to pick her up and dodge the flames.  The ground hit by the fire melted into molten lava.

Bumblebee put Rarity down behind a rock that would obscure her from the dragon's sight.  With both of his hands free, he readied his blasters and unleashed a volley of energy shots at the beast.  The dragon was stunned from the attacks, but he quickly recovered and unleashed another blast of fire breath.  Fortunately Bumblebee was too quick, as he dodged the flames once more and returned fire.  The dragon persisted and continued trying to chase him down with his flames, but Bumblebee's agility was too great for the monster to keep up with.

Rarity lifted her head from her hiding spot to look around.  She saw the necklace on the dragon's tail.  She also saw that the dragon was too occupied with Bumblebee to notice anything else.  She slowly crept on the floor along the cave's edge, making sure to keep out of sight of both Bumblebee and the dragon.

The dragon let out another fire blast, Bumblebee jumped over the flames to dodge it.  But then the dragon lurched forward and swatted Bumblebee out of the air with one of his arms.  Bumblebee was sent flying into the cave wall and collapsed onto the floor.  The dragon grinned in victory and raised his claw to strike the finishing blow when he felt a small tug at his tail.  He turned to find the gray unicorn from before pulling on the necklace around his tail.

"I've got you now," Rarity muttered stressfully through her teeth, which were chomped onto the necklace.  "You're all mi"- before Rarity could finish, she felt herself being lifted off the ground as the dragon lifted his tail.  The dragon stared at her angrily as she only returned a sheepish grin.  He flicked his tail and sent Rarity flying.  She rolled as she hit the ground, and was quite dizzy as soon as she regained control of herself.  She snapped back to reality as she saw the dragon inhale deeply before it unleashed a blaze of fire right at her.  Rarity braced herself and prepared for the end.  She waited for the fire to hit, but nothing happened yet.  She looked up to see Bumblebee standing in front of her, taking the full force of the attack.

"BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPP!!!"  He emitted a loud noise that was more than likely his howls of pain.  As the dragon ceased fire, Bumblebee collapsed to the ground, and his eyes went from blue to pitch black.

"Bumblebee!"  Rarity cried out in horror as she rushed to her friend.  "You threw yourself into harm's way to save me," she said with tears forming in her eyes.  "I've never seen anything so…selfless…" something seemed to snap inside Rarity.  A new look of determination formed in her eyes as she faced the dragon, her gray coat now changing into its original white color.

"How dare you, you ruffian!"  Rarity shouted angrily at the beast.  "I will not stand by and let you get away with hurting one of my friends!"  She ran away from where Bumblebee was laying and used her unicorn magic to lift several various rocks and stalagmites in the cave.  She then launched the barrage of stones at the dragon.  The rocks shattered on impact, and while they didn't seem to do much damage, they did manage to get the dragon's temper boiling again.  He shot another flame stream at her, but she managed to outrun the flames as they chased her down.  The dragon lifted its tail and brought it crashing down on the spot Rarity was running towards.  The impact shook the ground and left a huge cloud of dust.  The dragon lifted its tail and let a smile draw on his face as he looked intensely at the cloud.  When the dust settled however, he was shocked to find nothing there!

The beast looked at his tail and saw the white unicorn climbing his tail, reaching for the necklace.  He shook his tail furiously, but Rarity had all four of her legs wrapped around the tail and held on fiercely.  She climbed up to the necklace slowly and reached a hoof out towards it.  After one last thrust, her hoof did manage to nudge the necklace loose.  A smile beamed across her face as the dragon gave off a loud roar.  He raised one of his claws at Rarity and was ready to strike.

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Bumblebee slowly regained consciousness and lifted his head to see Rarity grabbing onto the dragon's tail.  His eyes widened as he saw the dragon raise its claw towards her.  Weakly, he raised one of his arm blasters and shot the dragon.  The blast made the dragon reel back in shock, causing Rarity and the necklace to fly off his tail and land near Bumblebee.  His arm fell to the floor and he was once again rendered immobile.

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As Rarity collected herself, she noticed Bumblebee to her left and the necklace to her right.  As she was about to head towards the element, the dragon drew her attention with a ferocious roar.  He turned to Bumblebee and shot another stream of fire at him.  Without hesitation, she threw herself in front of Bumblebee in a futile attempt to shield him from the attack.

Just then the element gave off a purple glow and began to move on its own.  It suddenly appeared in front of Rarity and formed an energy shield that blocked the flames completely.  As Rarity reached for the necklace in awe, it let out another blazing white light that bathed the entire area.

Rarity and Bumblebee awoke to find the cave as it was before, as if there had never been a dragon attack in the first place.

"Beep-roo-zir?"  Bumblebee beeped quietly.

"Me?"  Rarity answered.  "What about you?  You took a direct attack from that beast.  If anyone is hurt, it's you."

"Bip-zt-riz-oor," Bumblebee replied.

"While I do appreciate your concern that does not mean you can just stop looking after your own well-being."  Rarity answered.  Both of their eyes widened in surprise as they realized what had just happened.

"Zip-beep-zoo?"  Bumblebee asked.

"Why yes," Rarity responded.  "I DID just understand you.  Ooh, I did it again!"

Rarity gave Bumblebee a warm smile, and while Bumblebee did not have a mouth of his own, it was clear from the expression on his face that he was returning the gesture.

"Now then," Rarity stated.  "Let's get back and clean ourselves up a bit, shall we?"

"Beep-boop," Bumblebee agreed.