Marauder Shields in Equestria
Rainbow Dash was flying along one day when all of a sudden she looked down and saw something odd near the edge of town, as always happens in Equestria. Her curiosity piqued, she started flying down to see the oddity up close when she was met with a terrifying roaring sound followed by flashes of light streaking up towards her. Instinctively, Rainbow Dash evaded the barrage of whatever the hay it was and continued her descent, with violence rather than curiosity on her mind this time. She was mere feet from the aggressor, ready to pound its face into dust when she slammed into something invisible and solid, collapsing on the grass in a heap: dazed but alive.
When she came to, she didn’t quite understand what was going on. Her mind brought up images of a big spiky monster and a few moments later, the puzzle solved itself. Her eyes shot open and she started looking around in a panic like a meerkat after a dozen coffees. Her eyes rested on the silhouette of a tall, bipedal creature. It had a large object made of strange metal in its claws and its face was horrible and mangled. It took every ounce of will she had to not scream for her life… for twelve seconds. Then she started howling and bawling. The creature walked towards her with intent. She frantically searched for an escape route but it appeared to have taken her into an abandoned building of some sorts. The only light came from a single open window behind the approaching monster. Rainbow Dash thought this was the end for her but she wanted to go down fighting. She knew she had little chance of getting past the creature, if she tried to fly over it, then it might start using that magic it used earlier and she’d be done for. That was her only option though so without warning she leapt to her hooves and shot into the air, soaring above the creature and… not getting any closer to the window. She looked back to see a claw grasped firmly around her tail. When she looked back though, she finally got a proper look at the monster’s face. In place of the horrible snarl she expected to see, she saw a face of solemn grief. A face that made her realise, the monster was simply acting out of a need for a friend to confide in: to understand it. She sympathised and the two looked into each other’s eyes, shared a look that said ‘I know how you feel’ and walked together out the door.
Later that day, Pinkie Pie was bouncing through Ponyville when she felt a strange sensation running through her left kidney. “Oh my gosh! Someone just made friends with a pony I’ve never met!” She bounced off towards Sugarcube Corner to do some Pinkie stuff.
Rainbow Dash had taken her mysterious new friend to a clearing near Fluttershy's cottage to watch her aerial acrobatics. She performed daring dives and ludicrous loops. The monster simply stared. This irked her, she expected its jaw-erm mandibles to have dropped by now. She knew there was only one thing for it: The Sonic Rainboom. Soaring up higher into the sky, she changed direction and began to speed towards the ground: more specifically, the monster. Gathering ridiculous amounts of speed, she began to push the sound barrier and finally…
*BOOM*
She rocketed towards the ground, a massive rainbowsplosion in her wake. She was mere inches away from the monster’s face before she pulled up, doing a few loops before finally stopping and looking over to enjoy her companion’s flabbergasted face. The monster simply stared. She facehoofed and came to the conclusion that there was no impressing it so she instead chose to move on and show him around the area.
Rainbow Dash and the monster’s destination was Sweet Apple Acres: where she was meant to be helping Applejack. The two wandered towards the farmhouse and Dash knocked on the door. A few moments and some clopping of hooves on the floor from within and the door opened to reveal Applejack, a welcoming smile on her face and the tatty old Stetson atop her head. She saw Rainbow Dash first and the two exchanged pleasantries but when the door was opened further and the creature swept into view her face changed from welcoming to ‘OMG’. She began to panic, attempting to drag the cyan pegasus mare into the building to ‘save’ her from the scary monster. This seemed to upset the creature, its head dropped and it uttered deep guttural noises that sounded like really creepy sobs. Even though it barely resembled a sob, the honest farmer felt bad that she had upset this creature and invited it and Dash in to share some apple cider as an apology. This seemed to cheer it up as it looked up and its mangled face contorted into some mockery of a smile. Unnerved and scared, Applejack nonetheless persevered. After enjoying a drink and a chat, the two ponies and one horrible monster emerged from the farmhouse and got to work getting apples from the trees. The creature was sceptical at first, staring the tree down as though it had never heard of ‘applebucking’ which is true because it hadn’t.
Applejack trotted over to it and demonstrated the proper technique then stepped back to watch the monster’s attempt. Instead of kicking the tree, it took the metal object from earlier that was slung on its back and began firing the magic from it again, causing the tree to fall from the bombardment of light. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both looked on in horror as the monster grasped one of the apples from the felled tree and held it aloft in glorious triumph. The two mares continued with the applebucking while the monster sat at the side-lines, confused at what it had done wrong. When the work was finished, Applejack thanked the two and they departed from the farm.
Rainbow Dash and the monster found a nice shady spot under a tree on a hill overlooking Ponyville. The two lay there silent, content and pleased. The monster stood up and stretched before looking at Rainbow Dash solemnly. She looked up, wondering what was the matter but when she looked into its eyes she saw sadness. She questioned it, wondering why it was sad after the fun day they had but it didn’t answer. It turned its back on her and spoke clearly for the first time. She listened to its words and when it was done it began walking away from town. She called out, asking if she would ever see it again, the monster didn’t respond. Just then, Rainbow Dash’s friends: Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Applejack all walked up to Dash and asked where her new friend was going. She said he had to leave because there was someone he needed to save. When Applejack asked her what its name was, a solitary tear fell from her eyes as she said:
“His name was Marauder Shields.”
FIN