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// Chapter 6 - Fleeing 
// Story: A defender's quest for... 
// by Archibad 
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David was running as fast as he could. His heart was racing and he was heavily sweating, "Help! Sturdy fell down the gorge, someone please help!" He shouted as loudly as possible, even though he wasn't even inside the town. He hoped that someone would hear him from one of the houses on the edge of Ponyville and together they would rush to his friend's aid, but no one came.
David saw a few pegasi walking out of the town and towards him, it seemed like they didn't notice him yet. Without stopping he waved his arms around and tried to yell louder, "Hey! Please, you have to help my friend! He-" David stopped in mid-sentence. The ponies, upon seeing him, turned right around and ran back into the town, "No! Wait!" He picked up his pace, pushing his body way past its limits. His legs felt like they were on fire, although this pain only made him run faster.
David was now in Ponyville. He resumed his yelling and took short peeks around himself to find the group of ponies that ran away, but they were nowhere to be seen. In fact, he couldn't see a single soul anywhere, even the houses were empty. He was perplexed by this, although he had no time to think about it. He instead turned his attention back towards ahead of himself.
David noticed something in the distance and squinted his eyes to see it better. It was a huge group of ponies, and they too were running away from him. He stopped his wheezing and took a deep breath to shout after them, but five earth ponies jumped out in front of him from a small alleyway to his right. He breathed out the air from his lungs in a surprised squeal.
The ponies turned their backs to him and prepared to kick towards him. There wasn't enough distance for David to stop before them, so he picked up his pace yet again and jumped. At such speed, he was practically flying above their heads and he managed to avoid their hind legs just by a few inches. Unfortunately, he had too much momentum and he came crashing down on the other side of the wall of ponies. The townsfolk were taken aback by the human's impressive stunt and backed away from him while he remained on the cold, muddy ground.
David's legs were screaming in agony and refused to obey him. He was unable to move them, even in the slightest way. He pushed himself onto his back with his arms and shouted, "Please! You have to help, Sturdy-"
"Stop with the lies, monster, you killed him!" The human fell silent. His mind halted and his heart skipped a beat. He was unable to believe his ears.  He regained control over his legs and, despite the excruciating pain, he sat up in the mud. His mouth felt numb, it stayed wide open while he stared blankly at the stallion in front of him, completely silent.
The stallion stared back at him with anticipation at first, but after realizing that the monster had no intention of jumping at him he took a threatening step towards him.
The loud splash that the stallion's hoof had made dragged David out of his daze. He quickly put his hands together, "Please, you-" he began begging, but he interrupted himself. Instead of the light-green color of the stallion's fur, he only saw a mixture of grey and red.
David focused his eyes on the object in front of his face. It was his sword, still covered in blood. He yelled in shock and threw it on the ground as if it had morphed into a snake in his hands. With shaking and burning legs he slowly stood up. He kept his hands in front of himself as he observed them. The blood on them was already cold, although it didn't coagulate yet. He looked down on his whole body. It was coated in the same way as his gauntlets were. For a moment he couldn't remember why he was soaking in blood, or why he had his sword with himself.
After the painful memory came back to David, he looked back at the ponies in front of him. A second stallion was reaching down for his sword with one hoof and quickly yanked it behind himself.
David's mind couldn't handle it, he was unable to understand anything. He could only think of finding help for his friend. He fell to his knees and opened his mouth to begin another one of his pleadings, but the voice spoke sooner in his mind. It explained the situation to David and he began to tear up as the ponies approached him slowly.
The first stallion raised his hoof. David couldn't put up his hands to defend himself from the blow, he was completely paralyzed by the shock of the sudden realization. He could only close his eyes and wait for them to knock him out.
Yet the blow never came. David felt a strong gust of wind to his right and heard the stallion's painful yelp. He opened one of his eyes and saw that the pony was rolling away from him on the ground while Lilly stood right in front of him with her back to him. She wore her shiny golden armor which was polished to perfection by herself. She slowed her breathing down as she took up one of the battle stances that David had taught her. The angry mob took a few uncertain steps backward by her unexpected appearance.
Lilly peeked back at David, who felt grateful for her. Then he saw the tears rolling down her cheeks. They said nothing to each other. Lilly turned her gaze back to the ponies and growled at them to no effect. They were steadily growing in number as more and more townsfolk stopped running away and gathered around the human instead. Behind David, another mob began to form as well. They hurled insults at the pony who tried to attack their saint and praised Lilly for her intervention. The stallion got up from the ground and wiped the mud off of his face while loudly cursing.
It seemed like the whole town had flocked to this street to either support David or to try to chase him out of Ponyville. With each second the shoutings became louder and more vulgar as the two groups aggravated each other. Mayor Mare had shown up at some point, but even she was powerless in defusing the situation.
Sensing the ever growing danger, Lilly signaled to David with her tail. He almost didn't catch it, he was so trapped in his thoughts, the image of his dea... wounded friend didn't let him be.
David wiped off the tears from his cheeks, gathered up his remaining strength and slowly stood up with a painful groan. He and Lilly began backing away from the no-mans-land at the same time towards the relative safety of the crowd. Neither of them dared to turn around, they kept an eye on the two mobs, hoping that they wouldn't charge at each other. The ponies behind them parted ways, giving them just enough space to squeeze through.
A sudden, quick flash of light caught David's attention. It came straight towards him. His mind barely had time to register it, let alone get out of its way. It struck him directly in the chest. It made a high pitched screech as it connected with him and the force of the impact threw him backward. The ponies behind him managed to dive out of his way while Lilly instinctively rushed to his side.
This was what the ponies at the front of the group had been waiting for, a spark, "For our saint!" They cried out in unison as they charged forward. The mob on the other side was waiting for them with their shoulders braced for impact. Bodies went flying as the two walls of flesh collided and a town-wide brawl broke out. There were ponies who were frightened by such a barbaric display and tried to escape the scene, but unfortunately, they were in the minority.
David's armor had warmed up at the point of impact and he felt the heat radiating off of it on his chest. He wanted to sit up to get a better look at it, although Lilly didn't let him do that, at least not before she finished inspecting him for any injuries. None of the ponies paid much attention to them, they were either blinded by rage or by fear. After she finished, they looked at each other through their tears. They said nothing again, neither of them had the mental capability for it.
David tried to stand up but his legs had no more strength in them and he kept falling back to the ground. Lilly began to hover over him and tried to grab him by the arms to help him get up. However, as soon as she touched his armor she fell back to the ground as her wings became unable to keep her in the air. David became desperate and he started crawling on the ground, he just wanted to get away from everything and flee to a corner of the world where he could give up on living in peace.
Lilly remained silent and followed David. As they moved away from the epicenter the crowd around them became smaller and smaller. The moment Lilly felt comfortable enough with the number of ponies around David she leaped to the skies and flew down the road at a breakneck speed, leaving him behind on the muddy ground.
David's body had finally given up and with a loud, coarse sigh he turned onto his back. He couldn't feel his legs, his lungs were aching horribly and his mind was still covered in fog. The only thing that he perceived with perfect clearness was the voice in his head. It talked to him as if it was just another being, not just his imagination. He listened to it intently, he had nothing better to do instead of thinking about his friend's pass... injury.
The voice was telling him all sorts of things. It talked like a madman, its sentences weren't coherent and it changed the subject constantly. On top of all of this, the way the voice spoke to him kept changing as well. Sometimes David could hear the voice in his head beside his thoughts, then it would fade away and it would speak through his thoughts, shaping them like clay to tell him something. 
At first, the voice talked about how he shouldn't give up hope, that his friend can still be saved, then it scolded him for letting Sturdy be hurt like that. After this, it told him that Lilly had left him for good and that it was much better this way and finally it desperately wanted him to not go to Canterlot.
David would have been deeply disturbed by the voice in normal circumstances, but now he enjoyed it. He welcomed every distraction from the emptiness in his heart.
Suddenly David's blurred vision filled up with purple and he felt a pair of armored backs lifting him up carefully from the cold ground and onto a cushioned surface. The blob of color sat down next to him and the ground began moving underneath him. It sped up at first, then it took off into the air with them. 
David heard Lilly's voice. He did not understand what she was saying. He wanted to shift his focus from his mind to the world around him, but he was unable to. He began to panic as he tried to push the voice out of his head, but it only grew louder. He felt none of his body parts and the light was slowly drifting away from him as the sweet dreams were forcing themselves upon him with only it speaking to him, keeping him company. 
Then something slapped David. The voice fell silent. He felt his limbs again. His legs were dangling off of an edge. He felt the stroke of the wind on his face and his vision became clear. He was lying on the carpet floor of a golden chariot while Lilly was sitting next to him.
David looked Lilly straight in the eye and slowly sat up. Her eyes were red, her cheeks were swollen and her fur was wet from all the tears. She was loudly sobbing and coughing, "Lilly-" he began as he teared up as well, but she held up a hoof.
"I know," she managed to say between two sobs.
"I didn't kill him," David was only able to repeat what he had told the ponies back in Ponyville, before all of this madness.
"I know!" Lilly screamed towards the floor and the flying chariot shuddered as the two pegasi in front got scared by her outburst. She leaned back into a pillow as her sobbing and coughing got replaced by hyperventilating.
David lifted one of his arms up to Lilly but he dropped it down before he could put it on her shoulder. He lied back across the floor. He couldn't hold it in any longer. He began crying while ripping his hair and kicking out towards the air as the voice's words fully settled in his mind.
He lied. He could have saved Sturdy, but he didn't. He did kill him.