In the Everfree Forest, Gem was lying down on the wet ground, waiting for Spectrum and her friends to show up. "I hope they come soon, I don't want to be here," she whimpered, she may be a dragon, but she held her personality of when she was the Pegasus Fluttershy, so she was scared of the forest like before.
Each time a branch cracked or an animal made a sound, Gem would shiver and cover her eyes with her clawed hands , of course because of her large body, most creatures stayed away from her. But it didn't stop larger creatures from attacking her, as she was about to find out.
Gem's head perked up when she heard thundering footsteps getting louder, she turned her head and stared at the direction of the sound, her body tense. Not knowing whether to fly or fight.
The creature came out of the tree line to reveal a hydra. Its four heads hissing and glaring at the dragoness. Since it has multiple heads, strength, and it could live in water, it was the only beast that could stand against a dragon, as it could watch in all directions for attacks, could hide in the swampy waters for a surprise attack, and it could easily over power a dragon. This hydra knows how dragons fight, because of its many scars and blisters from the fire, but it knew that it was lucky this time since the dragoness in front of it was shaking in fear.
Gem shook at the sight of the hydra, she had no idea what to do, she could only back away as the hydra got closer. She closed her eyes, expecting the worse, when a deafening roar above caused her and the hydra to look for the source of the noise. Gem saw an ebony coloured coloured dragon dive right into the hydra and growled, barring his sharp teeth.
The hydra was confused at the sudden appearance of the black dragon, but it didn't let it bother it as one of its heads head butted the dragon in the stomach, causing the dragon to stagger a bit, giving the hydra time to get up. The hydra and the dragon where now having a stare down, to see who would attack first, but a loud roar caused them to look at the source, and what they saw were the scariest pair of eyes they have ever seen.
Gem stared at the hydra and the dragon, her mind an ocean of thoughts of what to do. One thought was quickly taking over and causing her to let loose a low growl in her throat, attack the hydra, and help the dragon. She gave off a terrifying roar, with her eyes going into "the stare", the dragoness slowly walked up to the hydra, black smoke released through her jaw and nostrils, who was backing away. It's four heads trying to look away, but couldn't resist the power of her stare. Her snout went against the hydra's, and she spoke in a booming, yet feminine voice. "You better leave, or I'll help the dragon to injure you,"
Even though what Gem said wasn't that threatening, but the way she stared at the hydra, it seemed that she was going to kill it. So without a second thought, the hydra ran off into the forest, leaving the two dragons alone.
The ebony dragon stared at the dragoness, surprised that she could scare a hydra just by staring at it; his eyes averted to the dragoness flank, and gave a light smirk. "Well that was good, for a pony that just became a dragon,"
Gem stiffened, her eyes widened, and her body shook.
"How-how did you know?" she asked, her voice shaky.
"Well unless those three butterflies on your flank is a birth mark, than you were once a pony,"
Gem turned her head around to see if what the dragon said was true, and low and behold on her flank, was her Cutie Mark.
"I-I thought the transformation got rid of it," Gem said, her voice shaking. This caused the ebony dragon to be concerned.
"Why would you want to get rid of it? Isn't it part of who you are?" he asked, he went in front of Gem, to get a better look at her.
"But I'm a dragon now; I have no use for my talent,"
The dragon couldn't believe what he was hearing, here was this dragoness, who had a talent that no other could have, and she wanted to get rid of it? He opened his maw to say something, but was interrupted by the sudden shaking of the forest floor.
"Oh great, are more hydra's coming?" the dragon asked, he got into a defences stance and flared his wings out, ready to attack, what he saw coming out of the forest were three dragons. An orange dragoness, a yellow baby dragon, and a huge red dragon, his eyes continued to stare at the red one, as this dragon made him look like a wimp.
"Sorry about scaring y'all, we just have to find a friend of ours," the orange dragoness said in a country accent, the red dragon beside her just let out a "Eeyup" and proceeded to stay silent.
Gem stared at the three newcomers with eyes wide in realization that the orange dragon was actually a friend of hers. "Applejack, I'm glad you found me, and I see that Applebloom and Big Mac are with you,"
"Well Fluttershy, or should Ah say Gem, we don't go by those names anymore,AhI'm Amber, my big brother is Steel, and my little sister is Ruby," Amber introduced herself and her family.
Ruby on the other hand noticed the black dragon and couldn't help but ask who he was.
"Mister, who are you?"
"My name is Thorn, and if you are wondering why I am talking to your friend here, well she and I had a bit of trouble with a hydra," Thorn explained, the three Apple Dragons jaws dropped at the news.
"You fought a hydra!? That is so cool!" Ruby yelled.
Thorn smiled at the baby dragon enthusiasm and shook his head.
"Actually Gem stared it away, I guess her cutie mark represents how she can talk to animals,"
Amber eyes widened. "Wait, Cutie Mark, but we don't have Cutie Marks,"
"Well sorry to say, but you do, so I guess you three were also once ponies?" Thorn asked, the reaction he got was the two older dragons looking at their flank, and seeing their talent.
"Ah don't understand? Spectrum never told us that we would keep our Cutie Marks,"
"Spectrum? Who is Spectrum?" Thorn asked, suspicious.
"Spectrum is a friend of ours, she was a Pegasus named Rainbow Dash, but after drinking a potion, she turned into a dragon, and now she is turning all of Ponyville into dragons," Gem explained, she immediately regretted it, when Thorn looked at them like they were crazy.
"And you are allowing this! If word gets to Princess Celestia that Ponyville suddenly lost its entire population, she will send a search team, and when she finds out that it was a dragon, well, you know what will happen,"
The four pony turned dragons were stunned, they didn't even think of that. Now they were in trouble.
"Don't y'all worry, I think once she gets the last three of our friends, she will come to see if we are all right, than we can convince her to stop," Amber pointed out.
Thorn just lowered his head. "I hope your right Amber, I hope your right,"