//------------------------------//
// Protector 
// Story: Party Girl 
// by Digital Ghost 
//------------------------------//

I won't let anyone hurt you





There was nothing but darkness. It stretched on for eternity with no sign of an end. Gentle clips and clops were the only noises that filled the voidness of life other than the heavy breathing that was muffled at its loudest. A slow scraping of hoof against wood was only an infrequent yet seemingly methodical signal. In this darkness scurried two ponies, whose likeness truly showed. 

Whose fear truly showed. 

They would stop suddenly at anything that would so much as make a creak, not daring to even breathe or swallow the dry lumps that had plagued their throats. They were hunted by ones who were much more familiar with the realm, so silence was their only ally. Speed was a commodity they couldn't afford, yet they desperately needed if they wished to survive.

Cones of luminescence passed by and through the gaps of wooden containers, long rotting with misuse. The light was welcomed for it showed them the way, however, the source could not be trusted. It was as if the light was the eye of a great predator, and the moment a single hair of it's prey was seen, it would strike.

The hunter mumbled, distressed at not finding his mark. It's eye turned, now inspecting a different field. The two ponies waited until they could no longer hear its hoof-falls before making their way to their next cover. A flood of light illuminated the interior of the warehouse accompanied by a creaking that seemed to scream in contrast to the silence. 

More hoof-falls were heard.

More eyes scanned the building.

The hunters had gathered.

It was time to get out.

At the sudden, shaky tap on her shoulder, the lead pony almost yelped. "I'm scared, Vice," her companion expressed.

"Don't worry. We can get out of here," she reassured. After seeing an opening for another change of cover, she quickly sneaked over, pulling her companion with her just in time to be missed by another eye. She was limping on her left fore leg. It had been lacerated by a nail and the wound was deep. However, her companion didn't notice it yet. She had always kept the bloodied side away from her, and turned away when light graced them to keep her pain from showing.

"There you are! I found one!" shouted a hunter on the other side of the building. The place rumbled as the herd gravitated to the spot. There were screams and splintered wood before everything died back down to silence. 

A few chuckles floated in the abyss.

Vice gulped. "Looks like they found Greenhorn..."

"So we're the last ones?" Cricket asked. She was answered with a nod.

"We have to get out of here."

They continued sneaking towards the exit. There shouldn't be anyone there anymore, they thought. Vice peered out of the corner of her cover and did a quick survey. Everypony seemed to have been distracted. Now was the perfect time to make a break for it.

"Okay, Cricket. Ready to get out of here?" she asked, but received no acknowledgement. "Crick—" She went pale for a moment. She had turned to see if her friend was with her still, and was greeted with a grinning unicorn stallion with reddish eyes who had his magic wrapped around Cricket's muzzle. The stallion was muscular for a unicorn, and covered in more scars than a homicide victim.

"Bo."

"AHH!" Vice stumbled backwards and fell on her haunches.

"AHAHAHA!" the stallion laughed gleefully. "You should have seen your fa—OW!!" 

The sweet sound of hoof meeting face flesh rang out through the building.

"Hey! What was that for?!" the stallion said angrily, holding his sore jaw.

"That's for scaring me! I mean, what the hay?!" Vice said in agitated reply.

"You have to admit , Vice," Cricket spoke up, now free from the magical grip, "he got you good."

"Alright, that's enough fun and games." Another stallion, a unicorn, white with a gray and black mane, entered the building and flooded the interior with light at the flick of the switch. He was a young pegasus, about the mares' age. Dressed in a white suit and hat, he stood out from the rabble inside who were mainly bearing black vests with random assortments of patches, and a mutual emblem on their backs. He had a scar on the right side of his face, giving him a permanent smirk, and his eyes were a vivid violet that seemed to sparkle in the light. 

"Come on, guys, game's over. It's time to get back to your duties," the stallion announced, prompting a collective groan from the crowd. The ponies filtered out reluctantly, leaving the stallion with the two mares.

"So, what was that about being the worst hiders in history?" Vice jabbed.

Shrugging, the stallion smiled. "Alright, I admit I was wrong. I never thought you two would be the last ones to be found. Especially after we found you trying to hide under the table."

"That was so much fun!" Cricket declared, hopping in place like a sprung jack-in-the-box. "Let's play again! Come on, can we?"

"Maybe later, Sugar Rush."

"Silly! My name's not Sugar Rush, its—"

"I know. It's a nickname."

"A nickname? Neat! Hey Vice, I got a nickname now! And it sounds yummy! Do you have a nickname for Vice too?"

"Sure do. It's—" the stallion cut himself off on account of Vice's death glare at him, daring him to give her a dumb nickname. He coughed and said, "You two should come along now, the cooks brewed up a nice breakfast for everyone," expertly changing the subject.

The three of them marched out where a mint-coated pegasus colt with two shades of green on his mane waited for them.

"Greenhorn, make sure these fine fillies get a nice serving," the suited stallion addressed before splintering off.

The colt nodded and turned to the mares, shooting Vice with a mischievous look. "Looks like Vex' got a crush on somepony."

"Oh yeah?" Vice tilted her head. "And who might that be?"

"As if you didn't already know. You see it too, don't you Cricket?"

"Yup!" the happy mare chirped. "Its hard not to see it."

"Hey, don't keep me out of the loop!" Vice reiterated her query, but the other two just giggled to themselves.

"Come on, we better go before the food's all gone." Greenhorn bumped Vice on the shoulder playfully, hitting the injury and causing the mare to wince and drew a sharp breath through her teeth. The colt panicked upon seeing the blood that had all but camouflaged itself under her coat. "Vice! You're bleeding!"

The mare regained her composure, waving him off and trying to act like she was fine. "It's just a scratch."

"Scratches don't bleed this much! Cricket, let's take her to Doc's and—where the heck did you two hide?" Greenhorn pointed to the second mare's shoulder where another laceration was sitting in the same place and bleeding just as much.

"Huh?" Cricket's jaw hung agape when she saw the injury. "That's funny, I don't remember getting that."





"Not even a day and already you've gone and hurt yourselves," Doc said, shaking her head at her patients. She was a unicorn, slender with a pale pink coat, powder blue mane done up in a ponytail, emerald eyes looking somewhat jaded and stern, voice unusually calming and friendly; she was somepony who anypony could turn to for help, which was a good thing considering her role. Not only that, but the way she worked on her patients placed them in little to no pain while still being quick and precise with her methods. Add in a captivating smile and a pretty face, it was no wonder why the other ponies never hesitated to drop by her office whenever they felt a degree warmer than usual.

Doc picked up her supplies and flawlessly placed them back in her medical cabinet without even looking. The used cotton were thrown into a bin and the blood-stained washcloths were tucked away in a basin under the sink to be cleansed at a later time. She got behind her desk and scribbled something on her logbook, silently mouthing out what she was writing.

A little time spent on observing her workplace would quickly reveal that she was the type who had everything sorted out. She had a place for everything, be it pens, bandages, disinfectants, gloves, or hairnets, and she made sure that everything was in its place. Not a single spot was disorganized, even the trash bins were labeled according to the contents they were intended to hold. Her pens were arranged according to color, a scheme shared with the folders on her shelves. And the various medical tools sitting on her display case were categorized by use, and ordered by size.

Vice saw the parallels the nurse pony shared with Twilight, and it made her feel somewhat anxious to be there, however her unfamiliarity with the mare was what made her feel safer in a way. The clone got to her hooves, knowing that Doc was done. "Thanks for patching us up, Doc," she said as she made her way to the door, "Come on, Cricket. It's time to go."

Cricket was staring at the various medical posters and giggling to herself as she read aloud the alien words that seemed to have been picked by slamming on the typewriter randomly and modifying what they got to make it sound like a real word. "Aww, alrighty!"

"Who said you're going anywhere?" Doc asked before turning to Greenhorn, who was examining Doc's tools, "Go fetch these mares' food."

The colt smiled, nodded and jolted off outside.

Doc removed her red-rimmed glasses, folded them, and set them on top of her logbook. The sound of her pen tapping impatiently on the desk echoed as the two mares returned to their seats. The nurse pony gave them a sharp look that was just a step below intimidating but still made it hard for anypony to look into her eyes. What she said caught the two mares off guard. "You two don't belong here."





By the time Greenhorn returned with a tray of fresh soup and a few slices of bread, Vice had planted her fore hooves at the corners of the table, leaning in with the scowl of an agitated wolf. "Vex himself said we could stay!" the clone screamed. Cricket was holding her back, afraid of what she might do to the nurse that tended to their wounds.

Doc kept a steady stare at Vice. She never flinched at her gestures and radiant rage, instead, she clasped her hooves together, and rested her chin against them. "And I'm saying," she spoke with a voice of a mother, "that you can't. You'll thank me later on this."

"Why? Why do you want us to leave?"

"It's for your own good."

"How is throwing us out into the world with nothing be for our own good?"

"I am not throwing you out with nothing. You have friends that care for you. I'm not letting you throw that away."

"What?" Vice's stance shook for a moment and her expression became less of an angry scowl and more of a confused squint.

"Last night, I saw you stumbling out on the streets. You were trotting like a wet noodle, babbling like a maniac. But still your friends stuck with you, even though you were the living embodiment of bad choices. You squirmed, you flailed at them, but they put up with you. You lose friends like that by staying here."

Vice's face turned softer, but not because of Doc's sappy story. It was something else, a thought that she convinced herself was true. "I'm sorry to say, Doc, but—"

"INTRUDERS!" The scarred unicorn from before burst into the room suddenly, almost slamming the door on Greenhorn. He tossed three identical objects onto Doc's table and left in a hurry. They could hear a commotion originating from somewhere outside. It sounded as if the whole complex was brought to life.

"More fools... They never learn..." Doc shook her head as she took one of the objects in hoof. It looked like two wooden cylinders bound by a golden band. She flipped a lock on the bottom and pulled the two cylinders apart from each other, revealing a blade. Pulled all the way back, the cylinders formed the handle of the knife. "If you stay, you need to know what kind of place this is. Go see what's happening outside. I'll wait. Greenhorn, stay here."

"But—" the colt tried to object.

"No 'but's."

The clones were hesitant, but curiosity got the better of them and they left, heading for where the whole gang was drawn to. There had to be at least three dozen of them fighting at the entrance to the abandoned warehouse compound. The earth ponies were at the front, soaking up and dealing most of the attacks. Pegasi were up above, swooping down like eagles trying to get their meal. The unicorns' magic blasts were thrown about nearly as much as the shouts of battle and insults were. It was difficult to see what exactly the gang was fighting with, but it looked like an unstoppable force as it seemed like the sheer number of the gang was struggling to hold the attackers at bay.

When the clones got closer, it was apparent why that was.

"No! Stop!" Cricket shouted, but her voice was drowned out from the battle. She and Vice tried to get in between the two parties, however they would be shoved aside in favor of a bigger pony in their place. They had to take care not to get hit in the crossfire, but the utter chaos made it difficult and they had to bail to the outer area where it was relatively safer.

Vice wondered how she was going to stop the brawl. She didn't have anything to get their attention, so she looked around for anything she could use. She didn't have to worry much about it as a loud crack resounded with a deafening shock wave that put a damper on the fight. 

All eyes turned a pony with a white suit and violet eyes. "What's the meaning of all this?" he said in a tone that flaunted superiority. "Why have you intruded on my territory?" Vex carried in his magic aura a flintlock pistol which he was reloading as he trotted along.

"That weapon... that weapon is illegal in all corners of Equestria!" the alicorn of the intruding party said.

"And so what if it is?" Vex aimed the barrel at the alicorn and narrowed his eyes as if to challenge the mare. "Are you going to confiscate it?"

"Vex, stop!" Vice and Cricket quickly ran to the suited pony.

"Vice?! Cricket?!" the intruding group gasped in surprise.

"Friends of yours?" Vex asked. The clones nodded quickly. The stallion lowered the gun and holstered it in his suit. "Very well. Get them to leave." He turned and trotted away, however the rest of the gang stayed with their knives drawn and horns charged.

Vice and Cricket approached the intruders, namely, Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Ace, and Lucky. Understandably they were bogged down in confusion.

"You're alive!" Lucky cheered. Pinkie Pie immediately followed up by quickly jumping on the two clones and gripped them tightly around their necks.

"Oh I thought we wouldn't see you ever again!" Pinkie said, trembling. "I was so worried you would get hurt—" she suddenly stopped and let out a sharp gasp when she noticed the bandages around the clones. "WHO DID THIS TO YOU?!" 

The mare threw suspicious glances at the ponies who were still keeping their eyes on the intruding party. "Was it you?!" She pointed to the unicorn with the most scars and glared. "Nopony hurts my sisters and gets away with it, you meanie pants!"

Vice and Cricket, who were struggling to escape Pinkie's viper-like grip for a gasp of air, were now trying to pin her in place as the mare began to charge at the unicorn. "Pinkie, no!" the both of them shouted, "He didn't hurt us, nopony hurt us! It was an accident while we were playing hide-and-seek!"

Pinkie looked at them, relieved that they weren't hurt by the bad ponies, and a tiny bit guilty for jumping to conclusions. "I'm sorry," she said, "I thought they hurt you because Lucky said that Ace saw you wandering in here and that these ponies were bad."

"Ace?" the scarred unicorn said with disdain dripping from his words. He looked at the unicorn in question and a wicked smile crept to the corners of his lips. "I thought I recognized you. Didn't you say this would be the last place you'd every step in?" He trotted forward, ignoring the three identical mares.

The group now turned to Ace. He stepped forward as well, baring his teeth. "Yeah, well things changed. And don't think this means I'm coming back."

"Who ever said we would take you back? You're a disgrace, and you know what happens to ponies like you." The stallion suddenly pulled out his knife and lunged at Ace, but to his surprise, his knife was swatted away from his grip by an earth pony.

Lucky smirked, feeling triumphant at his successful parry. "Not so tough without your knife, are ya?" His smirk quickly disappeared however when he felt himself floating and covered by an aura. "Oh. Right. Unicorn..." He sailed through the air, thrown back at the rest of the group and being caught safely by the combined magic of Twilight and Rarity right before his less than graceful landing.

"Stay out of this if you don't want to get hurt," the scarred unicorn said, turning his attention back to Ace. "I've been waiting for the time we'd finally settle this."

Ace spat at the other unicorn's hooves. "I almost forgot you had a one-track mind, Thick. Fine then. I'll send you six feet under."

"So you've finally grown a spine. Impressive. Enough talk, this is now a battle to the death!"

"There will be no such thing!" a sudden voice announced.

Doc held a steady glare at the would-be combatants. "There won't be any bloodshed today, you got that?"

"Still caring for this useless trash?" Thick sneered. "Did you forget what happens to traitors, Doc? This bag of filth had this coming from the moment he left." The unicorn retrieved his weapon and positioned himself for another attack.

"Put that down," Doc warned.

Thick ignored her and attempted to lunge at Ace again, however he suddenly collapsed as if somepony had pulled out his batteries. He may have broken his nose and chin, but he was snoring like a little foal. Doc's horn was glowing as she let out an exasperated sigh. She trotted up to Ace and gave him a strong back-hoofed slap to face. Ace didn't protest nor react in any way and simply let the full force hit him which almost sent him spinning half-cycle.

"Why did you come back?" she whispered.

"I had to."

There was silence from both sides as they waited what happened next. Doc turned to the clones. "Make your choice now. Stay or leave."

Cricket had already seen enough and she chose to leave. Vice did as well, but before she could voice out that she wanted to leave, she saw a sight that made her think twice. As she was trotting over to Pinkie and Cricket, she saw a wound on Pinkie's shoulder at the same place her own injury was sitting. It was small at first, but it slowly grew bigger and she felt a ping of pain where she was injured. 

Without thinking, she wrenched Cricket away. Pinkie stood motionless, in shock.

"I'm s-sorry. But... we're staying."

"Why?" Pinkie managed to utter, fighting to keep her watering eyes from overflowing. "What about our friends? Don't you want to go back to Ponyville with us?"

Vice herself was fighting to keep her own eyes from letting out a tear. She felt her heart bleeding from the inside from guilt. "They're your friends... not ours."

"But—"

"No, Pinkie!" Vice shouted, silencing the mare. "Just... no..." She turned to look at the gang ponies, and she was forced to swallow a vile lump. "They're our friends now."

Pinkie's knees grew weak and she dropped on her haunches.

Vice walked away; she couldn't handle another second of seeing the mare torn to pieces. "Let's go, Cricket."

The other clone looked to Vice. "But I want to go home."

"This is our home now."

"But I—"

"Cricket!" Vice felt daggers piercing her very soul. She just wanted to go somewhere private to cry.

Cricket took one last look at Pinkie, Twilight, Rarity, Ace, and Lucky. All of them didn't want either of the clones to stay there, but going against her better judgment, she decided to walk away with Vice. In her mind, she felt Vice had a point. A point that made her sick beyond words, but it was a point that couldn't help but accept as the truth. "Good... Goodbye." She followed Vice out, leaving the others stunned.

Doc addressed the rest of the gang and told them to dissipate, and they did. She was the last to leave, if only to make sure none of the rowdy ones took any potshots.

The sky itself seemed to grieve with the pink mare. It screamed into itself and unleashed a torrent of teardrops to mask the ones already flowing from her eyes.

Twilight and Rarity flanked her, and tried to get her to stand up. It took a few tries, but the mare soon got to her hooves and trotted away with them, head hanging low. The alicorn noticed the fresh wound on Pinkie's shoulder, and for reasons she couldn't comprehend, she took a glance at the two clones, who had just disappeared into a building with the pony they called Doc.

Ace trotted up to her and said: "I was a member of this gang a few years ago. I know the ins and outs. I'll keep an eye on your friends. Don't worry."

"That's kind of you," Twilight said, "I'm sure Pinkie would appreciate that, thank you."

The unicorn nodded. "Try to cheer her up. Its painful to see a mare with a bubbly personality as her's to be reduced into a somber shell."

"We'll try. You and Lucky should come back with us first. Your cheek looks sore."

"It could have been worse. And I can guarantee that it's nothing compared to what she's feeling."

The two of them trotted back together, however they held back a few trots from the other three. "Do you think you can get me one of those drinks your friend makes at the bar?" Twilight asked. Feeling a bit awkward for saying that, she quickly added: "I want to test something."

"Sure I can. How much do you need?"