One morning, Sapphire was in her History class doing her assignment, which was almost done when...

"Excuse me, Lightning."

The whole class stopped whatever they were doing and looked towards the door. Principal Celestia was standing at the doorway with a new student as her side. "This is Emerald Justin." Emerald looked like a bad boy with a leather jacket, black sunglasses and the black pants and boots. He also had some jewelry on his hands and short, brown hair. The class stared with a mixture of surprised and fear.

"Umm... nice to have you here Emerald." Lightning greeted slowly. "You can have a seat next to Sapphire Shimmer,"

"Sure." he grunted. The walked over to his seat and roughly sat down. None of the students took his eye off of him. Sapphire stared at him for a moment and he noticed, "What are you looking at?" he snarled. Sapphire blinked, "... You."

He growled, "Well then.... don't." He turned to the side, not wanting to have anything to do with Sapphire. "Alright class, back to your assignments." Lightning called to the class. While Sapphire went back to working on her assignment, she couldn't help but look at Emerald. There was something about him that made her curious

Hours went by and soon it was lunchtime. Sapphire sat with her friends while she saw Emerald sitting all alone at a table. She just... didn't feel right, seeing him alone. All the while her friends were talking,

"Have you heard about Emerald?" Sunset asked. The gang nodded.

"I've heard he was in a gang before he came here." Fluttershy whimpered.

"I heard he robbed a few places." Buddy added. As the friends chattered Sunset noticed Sapphire aimlessly staring at Emerald. "Sapphire, are you alright?" she asked.

Sapphire came to her senses. "What? Oh! Yeah I'm fine."

"Then why are you staring at Emerald?" Lightning asked.

"I was thinking of going over there and talking to him." she replied.

The friends immediately stopped chattering when they heard that. "No way Sapphire, he's bad news." Rainbow disagreed.

"Yeah, he could hurt you or rob you." Fluttershy added. Sapphire mentally rolled her eyes. "That's just a bunch of gossip and rumors." Sapphire replied. "I don't believe he did all those things and I'm going to talk to him." Sapphire stood up and walked over to the table despite her friends objections.

Emerald wasn't even touching his food when he spotted Sapphire sitting down across from him. "What do you want, cheery?" he asked rudely.

"Nothing. I just want to talk." Sapphire replied with a cute smile

Emerald frowned at her and gruffly said, "Well, you can talk to somebody else, not me."

"I don't want to talk to somebody else, I want to talk to you."

Emerald growled. He found Sapphire more annoying since History class. "If you don't leave me alone, you'll regret it, girly." he threatened.

Sapphire only smiled, "I'm not scared."

Emerald was now turning red in anger and snatched his food and gruffly got up from his seat and walked away. Sapphire went back to her friends.

"Are you alright?"

"Did he hurt you?"

"Guys, stop worrying, I'm alright. He did nothing except talk rudely to me." The friends gave a sigh of relief. "That's good, but you should stay away from him, Sapphire." Buddy advised.

"No. I'm going to make him talk." Sapphire looked at the area where Emerald walked over to. "There's something else going on behind that 'tough guy' act. I just know it."

The friends only felt concern and worry for her.

Emerald was walking down the hall with his hands stuffed in his pocket. "Wanting to be friends." he grumbled. "Pffft. Pathetic." He stopped for a moment and thought. "Then again, she didn't act afraid of me at all." Remembering how Sapphire seemed oblivious to his frightening demeanor, Emerald had a strange feeling in chest. "Maybe... Maybe..."

Emerald sighed sadly as he took out a picture. The picture was of three people. A man looking to be 35 years old with short, brown hair and light brown skin, wearing a white shirt and a black jacket. Standing next to her was a women who looked to be 45 years old. She was wearing a pink shirt and jeans. In the middle was a little boy and girl. Seeing the picture, Emerald's eyes began to water a little. "Mom, Dad, little sis. I miss you." he whispered.

Emerald just stood there in the a hallway quietly sobbing unaware that peeking at him was Sapphire.

In the Prison Tower, Vulcan was training by himself; launching his fire powers and punching and kicking Lingoes. The minions were curious as to why he was doing this. "Umm.. Master." Keto called. Vulcan stopped and stared at the minions. "Why are you suddenly training?"

"Because you idiot, I'm going to get rid of that Animal Ranger, once and for all."

"What?!" Marla cried. "But Master, she's way too powerful, even for you." Bronc and Keto tried to shut her up but Vulcan laughed softly. "Do not worry. I have a plan."

The minions looked at each other with curiosity.

Meanwhile, at Celesto's mansion, Sapphire and the rangers were doing some training of their own. The rangers were doing push-ups, sit-ups wall climbing, even weight lifting to boost their physical strengths. They even ran through an obstacle course while each carrying heavy water buckets to work on their agility.

Meanwhile, Celesto and his lab staff were working hard to improve the rangers’ weapons and their morphing abilities as best they could. Even still, they couldn’t give them too much of a boost or the surge and strains would have horrible effects on the rangers physically.

Sapphire, on the other hand, was honing in on her magic. Now she could make large trees grow, change clouds into different types like thunder or rain. She even sparred with a few of the rangers and won. The rangers were proud of her.

After finishing her training for the day, Sapphire went into the mansion and sat on the couch. Rainbow gave her a towel to dry herself off while Lightning gave her a bottle of water. "Thanks."

"You're getting better and better, Sapphire." Sunset praised.

"Yeah. At this rate, we'll beat Vulcan soon." Rainbow added. Sapphire smiled at her friends.

Outside, the rangers heard some people gasping and screaming. "What's going on?" Lightning asked. They all raced outside and were met by a large holographic image of Vulcan.

"Vulcan." Lightning snarled. The others stared with angry expressions.

"What does he want?" Sunset added.

"Hear me Animal Ranger, I challenge you to a battle!" Vulcan claimed.

"A BATTLE!" the rangers, except for Sapphire cried.

"Accept my challenge. and meet me at Central Park in one hour. If you don't I'll fry your city to the ground!" The image disappeared.

Now, the minions now saw what he was doing. "So you're gonna force her to fight, cause you know she would do anything to protect her friends. Great idea." Bronc commented.

"Indeed. It's an offer she cant refuse."

"But what if she tried something, like trick you?" Keto asked.

"Well, that's where you three come in."

The three minions were surprised and curious about what Vulcan had in mind. "That Animal Ranger will have no choice to refuse."

"You have to refuse!" Rainbow cried. The rangers had gone to the base and told Celesto what happened. You can bet he was shocked and flustered. "Sapphire can't fight Vulcan by herself! That's suicide!" Lightning added. All the others agreed.

Twilight and Celesto were already there and had heard everything. “What do we do, sir?” Sunset asked.

“There’s no way we're letting Sapphire fight that monster all by herself and to the death!” Rainbow exclaimed in anger. Twilight sighed. “I don’t think she’s has a choice, guys.” she said.

The rangers turned towards Sapphire. “Don’t worry guys, I-I’ll be fine.” she said nervously. The rangers could easily see she was extremely nervous due to her fidgeting and their complaining wasn’t helping her either.

“Sorry, Sapphire, guess we’re not helping you feel any better, is it?” Sunset asked. Sapphire shook her head. Rainbow cake over and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ll beat the stuffing out of Vulcan. I just know it.” she encouraged. Sapphire looked at all her friends and took a deep breath. “Okay, guess I better get going.”

With that, Celesto sent her to the via the jump tubes. “Do you think she’ll be okay, sir?” Twilight asked.

“We just have to hope that she will be.” Celesto said. “However, I get the feeling Vulcan has something up his sleeve.” Hearing that, made the others worry about their friend.

An hour had passed, Vulcan appeared in the vacant park alone. "Now where is that ranger?" Sapphire appeared on the other side of the park. "Looking for me?"

Vulcan smiled. "Why, yes. I'm glad you accepted my offer." Sapphire frowned, "You made it hard to refuse." Vulcan grinned and took a fighting posture. "Now then, shall we get on with this?"

Sapphire took a fighting stance too. "Yes." she transformed...

"STARFLEET MAGIC... POWER ON!"

He lunged at Sapphire. She leaped into the air and blasted Vulcan with her magic. He growled and blasted fire at Sapphire, whom used a shield to protect herself. "Stop using your magic, coward! Fight!" Vulcan thundered as he lunged at her. "You asked for it."

Sapphire lunged at him and the two were engaged in a ruthless fight. Punching, kicking and even scratching each other. It was like two big cats fighting over territory. Sapphire slashed, Vulcan blasted, Sapphire blasted, Vulcan punched. The rangers watched everything from the monitors. "Woah, look at her go! She's doing really well." Spike said.

The others agreed but Sunset couldn't shake the feeling that Vulcan was up to something.

Sapphire and Vulcan separated and skidded on the ground. Vulcan growled and coated himself in all his fire power. "TIME TO END THIS! RANGER!" Sapphire coated herself in her magic and changed into a male lion. The two charged each other and full speed, roaring like warriors.

They collided.

KABOOOM!

A massive explosion erupted, shaking the ground. "SAPPHIRE!" the rangers cried. When the smoke cleared, they saw Vulcan and Sapphire laying on the ground, not moving. The rangers feared the worst. "No." Sunset whispered.

Then, Sapphire twitched as well as Vulcan. The two were badly banged up. The explosion was enough to de-morph Sapphire, leaving her in her tattered clothes. She was covered in scratches and bruises. Even the slightest movement equaled large amounts of pain. The two struggled to stay standing when he began laughing.

"What's... funny?" Sapphire groaned.

"You... didn't think... I would lose... this easy, did you?" Vulcan replied. Sapphire didn't know what he meant until she saw Marla, Bronc and Keto appeared. Keto pointed his staff at Vulcan, “Song of Resurgense.” The power of the melody magically took away the pain from him, actually healing his wounds, to Sapphire's horror.

The rangers were outraged. "That sneaky creep!" Rainbow cried.

"It was a trap!" Lightning added. "He wanted to weaken Sapphire, so he could capture her."

"We've got get to her, fast!" Sunset said. Celesto agreed and he sent them through the jump-tubes to the park. "Hurry, guys." Twilight thought as she didn't like what she was seeing on the monitors.

The minions chuckled as they approached Sapphire. "Looks like the tables have turned, huh?" Marla said. Sapphire painfully tried to crawl away, but she was in too much pain to do so. "Time for some fun." Bronc said. He fired lasers from his helmet while Keto fired from his staff. The blasts send Sapphire flying and crashing to the ground. "Uuuugggghhh." she groaned.

The four monsters laughed at the thought of victory. "Capture the ranger and let's leave." Vulcan ordered. The minions complied and Marla sent her hair towards Sapphire.

Suddenly there was a loud and threatening roar heard. "What was that?" Bronc asked.

Bursting from the ground in front of Sapphire were five more dragons but four of them were the same while one was different. Four of the dragons were resemblance of giant gulper eels. One was larger than the others but a lot smaller than the fifth dragon. They were all 95 feet long and 7 feet and 6 inches tall. They all had a large head and mouth with rotating teeth inside. Sharp spines covering their whole bodies and white bulging eyes. Grayish steel green bodies with red highlighted spikes The wingspan was 26 feet and 8 inches.

The fifth one was the biggest. A long snake-like body and a large chomping mouth. Rows of teeth and small wings with spiny frills along underbelly. Red spikes on head. Expandable spiny frill layers on the neck. Albino white with red highlights It was 16 feet tall and 365 feet long.

The monsters and everyone at the base gawked at the dragons. "What the heck are those things?!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Must be more dragon friends of her's." Sunset said.

"Whatever they are, they're standing between the monsters and Sapphire." Spike stated.

"Let's go!" Sunset snapped. The rangers agreed and Celesto sent them to the park via the jump-tubes.

The five dragons roared at the villains. "Let's get rid of these bobble head dragons!" Keto said and he charged the five dragons, but the four dragons roared and launched rings of fire from their mouths, burning Keto. He was black with soot and he coughed a ring of smoke from his mouth. Bronc, Marla and Vulcan gawked at the dragons. They roared and the smaller dragons approached Sapphire. One of them carefully wrapped Sapphire in it's tail (while keeping it's spikes down).

That's when the rangers appeared. "Sapphire!" Rainbow cried. The four dragons stooped them and hissed.

"Get that ranger!" Vulcan ordered. Marla and Bronc charged but the largest dragon unleashed a disorienting shriek. Everybody covered their ears at the sheer volume of the shriek. When it was done, the five dragons flew away. "Hey, wait!" Rainbow said.

The four dragons blasted her with rings of fire, sending her back. "Rainbow!" Lightning cried.

"Grrr... this isn't over. Move out!" Vulcan stated. The minions and Vulcan teleported away, leaving the rangers to compel the situation.

"And then they just flew away with Sapphire." Lightning finished explaining. Twilight was busy trying to track Sapphire. "And one of them blasted me." Rainbow added.

"But why would they do that?" Sunset asked. "And what are they anyway?"

That's when they heard Midnight's roar. "Midnight?" Sunset and the others saw Midnight entering the base with Sapphire's Book of Dragons. "Sapphire's Book of Dragons!" Twilight exclaimed and she grabbed the book. "This should help us find out what those dragons were."

".... Got it!" She placed the book on the table and opened it to a picture of the four dragons.

"They're called Whispering Deaths. They are part of the Boulder Class of dragons. These dragons love to live underground and can shoot razor sharp spines from any part of their bodies. They had six rows of rotating teeth. They can dig through dirt and tree roots."

"And what about that large white dragon?" Lightning said with a shiver.

Twilight opened to another page with the large, white dragon.

"It's called the Screaming Death. It's a rare offspring of the Whispering Death. Only one is born in 100 years. They can launched concentrated fireballs from their mouths. Their shriek cane knock a dragon out of the sky and disorient a dragon. They rare extremely fast; able to catch up to a Night Fury aka Midnight. They also love to live in underground tunnels and are protective of their mothers."

Nobody said anything for a moment, "Sooo... those are dangerous adversaries." Celesto said.

"More like deadly!" Rainbow exclaimed. "We can't fight those things."

"But we can't just leave Sapphire with them, who knows what they'll do." Fluttershy added.

"Well from what we saw on the monitors, the dragons were protecting Sapphire from Vulcan and the minions. When you guys showed up, they acted the same way." Krysta replied.

"So they thought we were a threat to Sapphire?" Fluttershy added.

But we're Sapphire's friends,
Why would they think that,
We're friends till the end." Rhymey said.

"We may know that, but those dragons don't." Celesto revealed. The others began to catch on to what Celesto was saying. "So all we have to do is show the them we're friends, instead of enemies." Sunset suggested.

"Only one problem." Spike pointed out. "Those dragons could have taken Sapphire anywhere." The rangers winced, being reminded of that. "Guys! I've got her signal." Twilight called.

"Where?" Lightning asked.

"She's in the forest near Canterlot High."

"Let's go!" Sunset snapped.

Meanwhile, at the forest, Sapphire was layed up against a tree, groaning in pain. The larger Whispering Death gently rubbed against her. "Easy, Whispers. I'll be okay."

The other dragons watched with concerned eyes. Sapphire smiled at her dragon friends. "I'm okay, guys."

Bushes behind them began to rustle. The dragons growled at the spot. That's when the rangers, un-morphed appeared. "Woah, woah, woah." Sunset said with her hands in the air. "We come in peace." The dragons hissed and narrowed their eyes at the rangers, suspicious of them. Fluttershy saw Sapphire and gasped. "Oh you poor thing." she rushed towards her and examined her. "Where does it hurt?"

"Ugh... everywhere."

"You need help right away."

The Boulder Class dragons were still acting hostile. "We just want to help Sapphire, that's all. But we can't do that if you four don't let us near her." Buddy pleaded. The dragons looked at each other and they backed up a little. The rangers went to Sapphire's side. "We've got to get her to the hospital, quickly." Lightning stated.

The others agreed, but before they could pick her up...

"Hold it, rangers."

The rangers turned and saw Vulcan and the minions again. The Screaming Death roared at them and the others hissed. "What are you doing here, again? Haven't you caused Sapphire enough pain?" Buddy asked, annoyed.

"Yes, and we're back to cause her even more pain." Keto replied.

"Fluttershy, Rhymey, get Sapphire to the hospital, we'll deal with the monsters." Sunset ordered.

Fluttershy and Rhymey nodded and Fluttershy carefully picked up Sapphire, bridal-style. The larger Whispering Death came up to her and nodded towards her back. "You want us to get one?" Fluttershy guessed. The dragons nodded and lowered it's spines. "Alright then." the two leaped onto Whispers and dashed to the hospital.

"Alright, now let's deal with these three." Lightning said.

The others agreed and morphed. "STARFLEET MAGIC... POWER ON!"

The minions and Vulcan lunged at the rangers but the Screaming Death rammed the four villains."Nice shot!" Rainbow commented. The villains growled and charged again. This time the three little Whispering Deaths blasted the four villains with their fire and the four villains collapsed on the ground.

"Woah, it took them out with one attack!" Buddy exclaimed with awe. The villains staggered to their feet. "You rangers won't get away with this!" Vulcan declared as the four teleported away. The dragons roared in victory. "Come on let's get to the hospital." Lightning suggested. The others nodded and they all headed towards the hospital.

You can bet when the rangers showed up with the dragons at the entrance to the hospital, people were amazed and shocked. The rangers ignored them and asked about Sapphire. They were taken to her hospital room where Fluttershy and Rhymey were present. "How is she?" Lightning asked.

"The doctors say she'll be fine, but she'll have to stay here for a few days." Fluttershy informed.

Sapphire came to and saw her friends. "Hey guys."

"Sapphire... how are you feeling."

"Dizzy and woozy." she replied in a groggy voice.

"Just take it easy." Sunset suggested. Sapphire nodded and closed her eyes. "How are my dragon friends?"

"They're fine. We'll ask you about them when you get discharged, alright?" Sunset added. Sapphire nodded and Sunset suggested that they should leave to give their teammate some well needed rest.

Outside the hospital they saw a crowd of people around the dragons.... except the people stood far away from the Screaming Death.

"Actual dragons!"

"Amazing!"

"They're beautiful!"

"We better get them to the mansion." Lightning whispered to the others. They nodded in agreement and they leaped onto Whispers and the Screaming Death "Come on, you guys." Lightning ordered. The dragons obeyed them and they flew off to the mansion.

Celesto, Celestia and Twilight were waiting outside when they saw the dragons hovering in front of the mansion. The two were shocked and amazed by the huge creatures while Twilight's eyes sparkled. Whispers and the other dragons roared and flew up and away from the others. "Bye!" Sunset cried. ".... Please tell me they won't be coming back."

"We'll have to see." Buddy said with a nervous chuckle.

A few days later, Emerald was sitting by himself at lunch. Staring at the other teenagers as they laughed and smiled at each other, he sighed with sadness. Until...

"Emerald."

Emerald jumped and looked, seeing Sapphire standing there with a tray of food in her hands. She still had some bandages on her arms and a gauze on her face from the battle with Vulcan, but overall she was okay now. "Is this seat taken?"

Emerald stared at her for a moment. Sapphire was the only one who showed him kindness ever since he got here. "... No... you can sit here." he replied and for the first time he actually smiled at her. Sapphire grinned back and took her seat next to Emerald. Unaware by both of them, Sapphire's right arm glowed and two more bracelets appeared. One had a pink butterfly in the center and the other had a purple diamond.

Emerald and Sapphire didn't notice and they continued having lunch together as the other watched from their table. "Looks like she broke his tough shell." Rainbow said. "And gained two more elements."

"Yeah, she's full of surprises." Lightning said. The gang continued at watch as Sapphire and Emerald engaged in their newfound friendship.