The path to Canterlot was long but full of beautiful fields and, winding hills. Twilight was enjoying the ride, they moved at a great pace. It wasn’t nearly as bumpy as Raiju had made it seem, until Raiju suddenly began slowing down to a stop. They were at the top of a hill which looked over to a huge field and Raiju started staring off into the distance, Twilight then noticed that he had started crying.
"Is something wrong? Why did we st- You're crying, are you alright?"
"This field...It is where that war took place 900 years ago."
"And you are feeling remorseful. It’s fine Raiju, believe me nopony remembers what happened back then, and you aren’t like that anymore."
"But I remember! Every time I close my eyes I relive the horrors that happened in this field. You have no idea what happened, you don't want to...of the fifty thousand dead ponies, guess what our side of the war suffered? One soldier rolled his ankle on a rock...If it wasn't for Princess Celsetia's quick thinking, there would be no more pegasi either.
"It isn't your fault, and like you said, it happened over 900 years ago."
Tears were now pouring from Raiju’s eyes as he continued. "It is my fault though! The whole strategy was made by me. I even made the plan to use Cloudsdale as a weapon, we were going to fill it with enough energy to fry every pony that lived there and move it over Canterlot to discharge." He punched the ground in frustration almost knocking Twilight off of his back. "My whole life up until the past few weeks has been dedicated to the destruction of others."
Twilight couldn’t imagine the plan he had come up with and started getting scared, but she realized that Raiju must have come this way on purpose. "Is that why you ran this way then? You wanted to pay your respects."
Raiju had begun to calm down, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Yes and with what Princess Celestia is asking me to do for Equestria I wanted come here to say this.” He suddenly became very serious and said. “From this moment onward I swear to protect this land and its citizens from any dangers large or small, until I breathe my last breath. There is nothing I can do to atone for my sins, but I will devote myself to the defense of these ponies and will throw my own life away to protect them."
Now content with his oath, Raiju began silently walking again. After a while more of walking Raiju began to talk to Twilight again.
"Twilight. I would like to ask you a question. Why do you so eagerly and openly trust me, even though you know who I am and what I have done?"
Twilight was confused. "Why wouldn't I? You have done nothing to me or anypony else, but be kind and accommodating. Besides, I consider you a good friend now."
"That word again, I only know of that word from what your brother told me, but from what I know of what a “friend” is, I'm glad I can call you my first and only friend.” Raiju looked into the sky realizing what time it was and said. “It is almost noon now, what do you say we go to Canterlot then?"
Twilight looked up and began panicking. "Oh my gosh! I almost forgot! We are never going to make it on time now."
"Don't worry I planned on this, come off my back and stand by my side and we'll be there in no time."
Twilight stepped down and stood by his side as he had asked. Raiju then began gathering some energy around his back and after a few seconds, let out a howl releasing a massive flash of light and sparks. Twilight then realized that he had just teleported them to just 500 yards from the gates of Canterlot.
"Well here we are, let’s go meet up with the princess."
Meanwhile Princess Celestia was greeting the many mayors from across Equestria in preparation for Raiju's arrival. She was standing on a small wooden pedestal off to the side of the Canterlot gates which were closed for the meeting.
"Ladies and gentlecolts, I have called you here today so that I can inform you all of a newcomer to Equestria. I have put a lot of thought into this, and from what I have seen and know of him, I have decided to put him in charge of taking care of any major dangers that may come into Equestria. He has already saved Ponyville from two wyverns that were trying to destroy the town. I would ask that you tell the ponies of your respective towns not to fear this creature; he is only there to help.” Now noticing Raiju and Twilight in the distance he introduced him. “Without further delay I would like to introduce Raiju.
Raiju began walking up along-side of the crowd of ponies with Twilight. They stared at him, terrified and confused.
"Hello everypony I'm glad to meet you all, I hope I’m not late, I needed to make a small detour on my way here."
"You are just on time." The princess said, now turning to the crowd. "Everypony...this is Raiju, he is from a very far away land, and has agreed to help anypony who needs it. Would you care to explain to everypony what you’ll be doing and how you’ll be doing so Raiju?"
Raiju nodded and proceeded to tell all of the mayors what he will be doing exactly, After he had finished Princess Celestia began to speak again saying how the Wonderbolts will remain as first responders of any disaster but will now act as informants to Raiju when needed. With everything explained the princess sent them back to their towns except one, whom Princess Celestia stopped.
"Mayor Mare I would like to speak to you privately. I just want you to know that Raiju has been staying in a cave in the Everfree Forest, I want him to stay there because of its relatively centralized location in Equestria. I want you to welcome him to your town as best as you can."
Twilight then went over and talked privately with the princess and Mayor Mare about what her plan was for keeping Raiju informed of any attacks. When everyone left Twilight walked back to Raiju, right as she was opening her mouth to speak to him, his stomach began growling.
"Ooh...I guess I'm getting hungry, It has been quite a long time since my last meal."
"Good, I was going to suggest that we go and visit some of my friends. We can visit Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow morning and get you something to eat."
"That sounds like a good idea; I don’t need to eat yet anyway. Are we ready to head back home then?"
Twilight nodded and so Raiju teleported them back to the Everfree forest, the two said their goodbyes and began taking their separate ways when Raiju noticed a small wicker basket sitting at the entrance of the cave with a note attached to a barrier surrounding it.
Thinking Twilight might have left him a gift Raiju asked. "What's this? Twilight is this from you?"
"No it's not mine. There’s a letter, what does it say?"
Raiju unfolded the letter as the barrier dissipated, it read.
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Dear Raiju,
We have come to understand that you are the one who saved Ponyville from the Wyverns. Those wyverns were only here because of us; because we wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for you, we both agreed that you would be much more fit than us to take care of her. The reason behind why they were after us is far too long to explain on this piece of paper; In short we had ventured into a foreign land during our adventures and got into trouble with those two wyverns. We don't want you to search for us to return her, we love her and always will but she is much better off with you.
Sincerely,
Two ponies that made a terrible decision.
PS: We had not decided on a name you that is for you to decide.
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Raiju then opened to basket confused by the letter. Inside was a small Pegasus filly no more than three weeks old, she was the same teal color as Raiju with a short spiky mane with a similar dirty gold color. Raiju was awe struck; he had no idea what to say or do, before he could say anything Twilight said.
"Wait...what? Somepony just gave you their newborn daughter. Why?"
Raiju suddenly became incredibly nervous. "I-I can't take care of one of your kind. What do I do?
"Well...I really don't know. I suppose you have no choice but to take care of her."
"B-but I don't know the first thing about taking care of a child especially one of another species, what do I do?"
"Don't worry I'm sure my friends will help in any way they can, I know I will."
Twilight’s reassuring words seemed to calm Raiju down, but he was still very uneasy about caring for a child. "Thanks Twilight that means a lot. I suppose now I better get to making my cave a little more like a home then. I'll see you tomorrow so we can go into town and get some things for the filly then?"
"Sure I'll see you first thing in the morning."
Raiju spend the rest of the day and part of night building a small room inside the cave for the filly to sleep in. The next day Twilight came to the cave with Rainbow Dash in tow. Raiju had made a door at the entrance of the cave with the word
"Welcome" carved into the center. Twilight knocked on the door and walked inside, to a full room with wooden walls and a crib in the corner. The crib only had a pile of leaves for a mattress, and the rest of the room was still quite empty aside from a rather large table in the center, but it had met Raiju's needs for the night.
"Hello? Raiju are you...” Now noticing the renovations to the cave she stopped mid-sentence and said. “Wow. You did all of this yesterday?"
Pointing to the crib in the corner with the sleeping filly inside, Raiju quietly responded. "Shhh...She's asleep. Yeah I had to do something for her, It's still quite crude but it works."
Rainbow Dash began whispering and said. "Twilight said that you were going into town today so I decided to tag along too."
Twilight then said. "It would be best if we had as many ponies as possible to show everypony that there is nothing to be afraid of. So I suggest that we visit Applejack first, you said that you are hungry after all, and her house is just outside of town."
Raiju agreed and grabbed a sling that he made to carry the baby out of the blanket that was in the basket, and gently put her in it without waking her, and the group set off towards Sweet Apple Acres.