//------------------------------//
// 63 – "I'll Make Sure to Protect Myself." 
// Story: Spike Quits His Job and Goes on Numerous Quests 
// by B_25 
//------------------------------//


~63~

"I'll Make Sure to Protect Myself."


Hellfire continued to rain down from the smoke-enshrouded sky, striking against the ground surrounding the ambling Applejack but never even coming to touch her fur with their smoke. The mare herself never even glanced at the heaps of fire that continue to burn despite landing on solid ground, uninterested by the terror glowing orange inward on the scene. 

The surrounding guards, however, were taking the situation a little less calmly than the Element of Honesty. 

Applejack's eyes looked up to the arches perched upon on of the many building tops, scared and panicked expression adorning all of their faces, as they all fiercely plucked their bows randomly at the gray wisped sky. Some of the arrows launched saw past the clouds of smoke to whatever was above them, before falling down almost as dangerously as the hellfire. 

It didn't exactly help that the heat above the smoke ignited the arrows into flaming arrows, nor did it help that some of the archers were just plucking their bows – too scared to realize that they were all out of arrows. Just the sheer act of feeling one is doing something for the situation can trick the mind that they are useful, even if all they are doing is plucking an empty bow. 

But those type of ponies are better off as musicians. 

Applejack shuffled to the left, avoiding a ball of fire landing where she had just been standing before eyeing her next object of interest. This time, it was the earth ponies running around in circles with their spears pointed upward as if they could prick the dragon if it came to close to grabbing them. 

The orange mare felt her lower lip curl outward as her head slowly nodded at their current tactic against the dragon. Of course, it was a decent strategy for protecting themsevles, but it wouldn't do squat in actually defeating the dragon. Still, Applejack gave them their slight credit, before eying a platoon of unicorns circled about; the bright glow of their horns contrasting against the darkness that became of their sky. 

Applejack went to approach them until a shiver bore deep into her bone, freezing her in place as her ears began to twitch. Her earth-pony body felt the queer vibration of the ground and a light hissing from the sky behind her, instinctively causing her hooves to spread and her back to lax. She awaited the next moment with closed eyes and a suspended breath, hearing of the hissing transition into a screech. 

The moment she heard the change, Applejack leaped out of the collision course set by the swooping dragon's claws. The wind of his failed attack still assaulted the mare with a large gust as she watched the massive body fly past her, clashing her green eyes against his purple ones before he ascended past the smoke cloud once more. 

Applejack dipped her head with a sigh. "Aren't I'm glad to have left my hat with the Princess."

She looked down at her throat to find her rope wrapped around it, summoning a solemn image to her mind that she couldn't help but giggle at for some unknown reason, before catching the sight of another princess in the corner of her eye. Unlike before how she casually walked past the hellfire, Applejack began to trot to the mare with the starry-night mane, accented by its red edges. 

"Princess Luna!" Applejack dropped down to the fallen mare's level and lightly shook her shoulders. "Are ya okay? Do ya need medical help?"

A pained groan was her response, as the princess's eyelids remained sealed. Knowing that there was much she could do to tend to the princess's magical agony, Applejack slipped her head underneath one of the princess's forehooves while wrapping one of her orange hooves around the midnight blue barrel. Together, they slowly limped forth together to the last competent platoon of guards; a pair of green eyes keeping watch for dragons or other harmful projectiles. 

The distance between them was soon crossed, where the apparent leader of the pack, a large brown stallion with a properly trimmed afro came to greet the two mares. However, once his eyes caught on that these weren't just average citizens, he whistled immediacy and his circle of troops swarmed around the duo. The squad offered a bow to their princess, going further than usual at seeing the dragon's blood still circulating her mane's edges, before twirling outward to train their horns on the sky once more. 

"Ms. Element of Honesty." The said Element was drawn to the deep voice of the speaker, finding the afro leader of the squad towering over her. "Please accept my apology of not finding you or the princess sooner. My platoon seems to be the only sensible one left at the moment, and we've been trying to ward off the dragon whenever he attempts to fly away with one of our fellow guards."

"I don't blame ya." Applejack slowly slid herself out from the princess's hooves and gently laid her to rest on the ground. "I couldn't even see her at first past all the smoke and whatever that orange glow is."

"That's the after particles from all the bursts of fire." The leader leaned down to his princess, where even then he still was bigger than Applejack. But he paid this fact no mind, instead opting to sweep away the strand of mane covering her eye. "We're not as strong as the princesses, so when we have to construct a magical barrier around the dufus that runs into the flames, it taxes on us far faster. But even still, it is our duty as the Royal Guard to protect our dear princesses, and give them back their lost strength."

His horn lit up in a brownish glow, but unlike most aurora that seem to be expanding outward, this one seemed to be sucking inward. He brought his horn to the blue one of his ruler and in one tap of intimacy, felt the same influx of agony as he transferred out all of his welled energy. The brown afro guard fell to the ground, though he tried desperately to stay on his hooves until the transfer was complete. 

Luna's head rose on it's on as a beam of light blue light swirled upward into a similar beam only of brown, as the passage between the two magical interiors were swapped and traded. A minuscule voice tried to suppress his scream of pain and parity failed, while the princess he screamed for remained all the same quiet. 

The intensity of the two swirling connection began to wave, their glow dimming until the magical winds ceased entirely. The Princess of the Night no longer withered in her pain, as the stallion who had brought to her sweet dreams struggled underneath an unbearable weight to steady his shaking hooves. "That...should do it."

Applejack looked to the stallion finally at eye level with a glint of concern adoring her own set. "What in tarnation just happened? Are the two of you okay?"

The stallion smirked amongst the constant bouts of pain, straining his every vein to finally steady his legs, as he slowly returned to his proper height. "I gave her my lingering energy in exchange for the pain she bravely endured. It'll take some time for her to awaken with her power returned, but my guard and I will see to it see awakens unharmed." 

"That takes a worry off of my mind then." Applejack began to trot backward from the stallion she entrusted the princess's life to, turning around to the gap between the guard that would allow her to leave the circle through.

"You're not going to stay inside our protection?" the afro stallion asked as he looked up the sky, recoiling slightly as he saw a ball of fire just above him, which then slowly off the mixture color of barrier his guards had just set up. Thankful for their constant awareness, he only became more confused as he looked down to the mare now outside their circle. "If anything happens to you out there, we can't be sure we will be able to save you. Our guard is a mess due to our fallen leaders, and with you gone, there won't be a chance to seal away this dragon."

"Don't worry," Applejack looked back and flashed a signature grin, "I'll make sure to protect myself."

She looked around at the mess to which the stallion had mentioned, becoming well acquainted with the different acts of hysteria the moment prior from saving Luna. For some reason, the sky had transitioned from smoke to blueness, and the orange glowing hellish landscape changed into the open fields of Sweet Apple Acers. 

Applejack smiled at seeing her fellow workers lazing along the ground and sleeping against a tree, intent on showing them work and getting them back to it.



"I don't think Granny Smith had dragons in mind when she invented this idea."