Budget and rendering limitations or one thing, but to introduce a major character like this seems like weak creativity. One of the things I loved about fim, is how they held things in suspense and when a thing did happen it was epic, and everypony in that scene reacted to that epic.
This was just: hitch holding an egg, egg goes poof, now hitch is holding a dragon. They could have hatched the dragon so many different ways, and gave it a rememberable beginning. *cries *