You're Wanted: I'll Always Protect You

by SciWriter

Where's the Dragon?

I finally returned to the nursery and laid down. I closed my eyes a few times, but it was no use. The anticipation, the pity I felt for my friend AJ, the fear of what lay beyond the fence… before I met Gray I was never so easily scared, but now… I looked over at Scootaloo… now I just wanted to hold on to what I had. I stood up deciding another few minutes in the cool air would probably calm my nerves. I walked out of the nursery.

I closed the door to the nursery and walked a few steps. I looked down the hall. There were three doors on either side and two large doors to the outside. This was a small building, but really, I sensed it hadn’t been here long. I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t better, but then again, I never really considered myself royalty, and probably there was something about a “low profile”.

I heard a slight chuckle. I shook my head, I so hated my psychosis. Gray was dead, I didn’t need or want his image and voice constantly appearing in my mind. I began to feel hot and I looked behind me. The door to the nursery was starting to glow… what? FIRE!

“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo yelled. I shot back to the room, the laughing of Gray starting to get louder as the hallway expanded and the door shot away from me, the fire raging hotter and hotter. The door opened, the room getting further and further from me as I ran, how was this happening? I heard my daughter and her friends screaming, my heart beat faster and faster-

My eyes shot open. “Get up Rainbow. Move!” Rarity slammed a hoof into my shoulder. It hurt, but seeing the fire surrounding me, I was grateful she chose to hit me. I jumped to my hooves. Fire surrounded the room, the members of the CMC jumping out of their beds and running to the center of the room. “Get them out of here, I’ll deal with her, Rainbow.” Deal with who-

In front of the door out stood a unicorn, black mane waving in the heat, gray silvery coat illuminated by the flames. She smiled. “Did you all sleep well?” I grabbed up Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo grabbing Dusk, Lightning jumping in front of both of them. “Oh come on, stay a while!” she yelled, a chain shooting away from her, forming out of thin air. The chain wrapped around my neck and pulled me to the wall in the back of the room.

Rarity’s horn flared and the unicorn was thrown out of the room in a white see through haze, crashing into the floor. The strange unicorn got up as the chain fell off my neck. “Oh that’s cute.” She started. “Do you two really think you can fight what I am? What Gray made me?” Ten or twenty chains appeared around her, all of them spinning in air independently and levitating in the air. “Don’t you know what I am? Don’t you know? Lightning is only the first of a new breed. Fathered by a great stallion-“ as she tried to lecture us, a loud BOOM went off and the door beside her broke off it’s hinges and shot across the room, slamming her against the door across the room and pinning the unicorn.

“Party cannon,” said Pinkie wheeling out her cannon. “Has all kinds of uses.”

Hundreds of chains pushed the door (or what was left of it) off of the evil unicorn and slammed it back into Pinkie, throwing her back into her room. Then several chains re-covered the opening, many of them rather heavy looking. Several chains then went over the two main doors out of the building.

The flames around me and the foals started to rise. I pushed both Apple Bloom and Sweetie under me, wanting to grab Scootaloo as well, but… I couldn’t. There she stood, sheltering Dusk, making me so proud. Besides, she was currently surrounded by a powerful electric field, Lightning Strike was next to her, remember?

The unicorn started slowly walking towards all of us, chuckling. “My name is Violet String, and I am part of a new order. Discount alicorns, the creation of Doctor Gray-“ Rarity’s horn flared again and the unicorn was slammed into the ceiling. Her body was then dragged along the ceiling and pulled through the small bit of wall over the door. Finally Violet’s body was slammed into the floor, floorboards snapping and breaking up under her body.

Rarity glared at the unmoving body, breathing hard, growling out her words in a very not confusing tone. “NOPONY. THREATENS. SWEETIE.”

Lightning ran over to Rarity and warmed up an electric attack, bolts suddenly erupting from her form and blasting the doors, the doors being forced out, chains and all.

Our group quickly met up outside the burning building. I looked at the group as we gathered. Rarity had grabbed Dusk in her levitation power, Lightning had carried Scootaloo out, myself carrying Apple Bloom and Sweetie out. Apple Jack and Pinkie had gotten out under their own power.

The building behind us continued to burn. I gritted my teeth watching Violet walk out.

Moonstone walked over to us.

“Stand down Violet,” yelled a voice above us. I looked up to see a red stallion pegasus walking on the roof of one of the barracks. “I can tell from here that you’re done.” To be honest… Violet didn’t look all that threatening at that moment. She was dragging her back right hoof, her head was crooked and she seemed to have a hard time continuing in one direction. Rarity had done a number on that pony.

The red pegasus had an orange mane that looked like fire. He started shouting again. “We are the discount Alicorns, the creation of Doctor Gray.”

“You realize that name doesn’t exactly sound threatening right?” Moonstone shouted back up.

“Oh I assure you,” the red stallion chuckled. “We’re not aiming to sound scary, we just are.” A dark blue pegasus with a cool blue mane flew next to him, carrying what at a distance looked like just a mass of sage and light purple… no…

I heard a scream behind me as a bat pony mare zipped past me as the mass was tossed down. “NIGHT!” Dark Echo caught the disfigured body of Night Blaze before it hit the ground. She gently placed Night’s body on the ground. “Night? C’mon kid… Night? Don’t be gone… don’t do this. Night?”

I… I don’t want to describe what she looked like. Burned, cut… I tried to put out my wings to shield the eyes of the foals but screwed up the maneuver when I puked. “Ha ha, the great element bearers don’t exactly cause fear either do they? Then again from the looks of Violet, you are capable.” The red pony held his head high. “Thus starts the crucible-“ Moonstone shot into the air, mouth open, fangs bared. The pegasus with the red pony slammed into the general to protect his leader.

Moonstone grabbed the blue pegasus and bit his neck, ripping a piece of it off and hurtling the body at the ground. The pegasus tried to save himself with his wings, but slammed head first into the ground before he could. He shakily tried to get to his hooves, his face quickly meeting the hooves of Dark Echo… let’s just say he died.

I shook my head. “Rarity, Pinkie, protect the kids.” I shot into the air to join Moonstone.

As I flew next to Moonstone, I looked at him, his teeth dripping with blood. “You think you’re scary?” he asked. “Soldiers of the night!” Moonstone shouted. Hundreds of bat ponies joined us in the air. “Destroy!”

The red pony shot into the air. “Soldiers of Gray, immolate!” As a unit, the bat ponies shot past me as a far less organized group of pegasi rose over the fence to meet them.

The red pony was suddenly surrounded by fire which shot at me and Moonstone, both of us barely dodging.

The two forces collided, the bat ponies much faster and seeming far better trained. However each of the pegasi seemed to have some kind of surprise, some shooting ice, fire, light or other elements at their opponents. “What is this?” asked Moon Shade, flying up next to us.

“Gray, that’s all I know,” said Moonstone. He soared back to the ground, myself and Moon Shade following. “We have to get the element bearers and their children to safety.” We landed and I was impacted by a green pegasus. I threw the pony off me.

The pegasus looked at me, then over at my friends and our children. The words Moonstone spoke to me last night came to mind. “Give no warning and hold nothing back.” I shot at the pegasus, slamming both front hooves into his face hard as I could, so hard I hurt myself. The impact sent his body straight into the stone wall of a barracks behind him, myself hearing the distinct sound of cracking bone. His body dropped to the ground.

I stopped, my ears ringing as I backed away from the body. Had I just… had I just killed someone? Did I really just… my mouth went dry looking at the body. “Good job soldier,” came the general’s voice as he pulled me away with his wing. “Now let’s move.” Good job…?

“The bunker!” Rarity shouted. “Get the children to safety insi-“

“Not so fast,” The general interrupted. “How do we know no one is waiting down there for you?”

“Well…” Rarity said, nervously looking up at the battle raging over us. “Can’t be worse than out here.” A large dark purple alicorn landed amidst us. “Oh… okay then, go check I guess,” Rarity said, looking up at the princess of the night.

“Rainbow Dash, Colonel, with me,” The general headed for the bunker. The Colonel flew next to Moonstone and I flew behind them both.

Moon Shade halted in front of the door. Moonstone threw the door open. “General, I must advise against this, it appears cowardly in front of the troops-“

“Get in there!” Moonstone shoved his subordinate into the hall past the door. “We have to know.”

I wasn’t sure what the general was doing, but he seemed so sure of himself. I followed as the two other ponies flew down a very large set of stairs. All around me was a very narrow tunnel lit only by small torches. I started to get a very bad feeling.

“Fly a little slower,” Moonstone said. We all did so, myself getting even more confused. What were we doing? Why? There was a battle raging up there, why were we down here? “Tell me something Colonel. Why does a pony publically carry a child he intends to kill to the middle of the forest, attracting several guard ponies he no doubt knew were there in the process?”

“Beg your pardon?” asked the Colonel.

“Rainbow Dash, you reported that you saw something impact Lightning’s electric field several times when she attacked Gray, like something trying to get out. However, tell me, were all the impacts close together? Could the effect be accomplished by simply throwing rocks at the outside? Would you have known the difference during the commotion?”

“Um… maybe… general what’s going on?” I asked.

Finally we got to the bottom of the stairs and my stomach sank. There was no bunker, just a small room surrounded by wood. “What… what is this?” Asked the Colonel.

“Isn’t it strange that Gray’s forces show up today?” asked the general. “That they knew exactly where the element bearers would be? I expected an attack, but this is full force, not just a random act of terrorism. Even so, one thing would have completely ruined all of it for the forces of Gray.”

“What are you going on about?” the Colonel shouted. He turned on the general. “General Moonstone, I demand to know, what is going on?”

“Tell me Colonel Shade, where’s Torkuda? Who was supposed to get the dragon? Who insisted on escorting the element bearers to their rooms?” asked Moonstone. “Or should I say, where is Torkuda, Doctor Gray?”

No… I started to back up, landing on the stairs. “He can’t… he’s dead…”

The colonel smiled. “I just love how a group of ponies, all as stupid as you Rainbow, are supposed to be the guardians of Equestria.” The Colonel’s eyes started to glow with a blue light. “Even Dusk yesterday seemed to know something was wrong, but not a single one of you, none of you even suspected-“

“One of us did more than suspect,” the general interrupted.

“But… you helped AJ walk into the hospital room the other day…” I said. Pegasus wings ripped out of cheap leather as the fake bat wings fell to the ground in pieces around the Colonel. “No, you’re dead, you’re fucking dead!” I shouted.

The cheap material that made up the head of the colonel split in two, huge teeth tearing out. The Colonel started laughing. “As long as she didn’t feel my teeth, which I also covered… why do I have to spell this out for you child? I killed a pony, had a friend sew teeth into his mouth and practically dragged everyone to the body, revealing what was left of it after Lightning purged it… really I should thank her, I wasn’t sure how well my prop would work until she blasted it straight to hell.” My heart started to race. “After that, no pony would know the difference between the fake and my real body.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked.

“Oh you should know by now Rainbow, I don’t explain anything useful. I did it because bats fuck in the moonlight,” Gray responded. “So what are you going to do now general?”

“Luna willing I’m going to kill you.” The general responded.

“You really counting on being able to do that?” asked Gray back.

“Get the dragon Rainbow. You’re the only one who can get him in time.”

“But he’s…” I shook my head. I had to deal with reality today… this was reality… Gray was alive. “He’s back in Ponyville.”

“A dragon can make that trip in about twenty minutes kid. They don’t exactly go all out during their migrations. Believe me, they’re fast. Course, there’s speed, and then there’s you. You see-” the general jumped forward, slamming into something invisible just in front of him. “Nice try Gray. Rainbow get out of here! GET THE DRAGON!”

I closed my eyes and turned around.

I shot up those stairs fast and dove out the door. I looked up to see my friends and Luna in front of me. I yelled to them. “The colonel was Gray…” I had no time to explain. I had my mission. I shot into the air, speeding through the waring ponies overhead.

Two black pegasi tried to follow me but I started flapping my wings faster and faster. My eyes started to sting as tears forced their way out. Gray… he was back… he was back… let’s see how long that lasts against a full grown dragon!

(***)

A rainboom did go off, but I didn’t care about it. I shot over the land faster than I had ever gone before, so afraid I wouldn’t get back from this errand in time to save anyone. Torkuda’s mountain was coming into view and I struggled to slow down. I barely made it, meeting the ground of the entrance much faster than I expected to.

I scrambled to keep my hooves on the rock floor of Torkuda’s cave, but I failed, eventually somersaulting after twisting my left fore-hoof. The pain registered for me, but I used it to just make my voice all the louder. “Torkuda!” I shouted. The cave shook as the dragon landed in front of me. “Dodge City… your kids… there’s been an attack,” I said between gasps for air.

“Where are they?”

“I think you’ll be able to tell from the air,” I said. I turned to fly back, stumbling on my bad ankle. My wings ached, but I spread them anyway as- Torkuda snatched me up in one of his massive claws and shot out of the cave.

(***)

Torkuda was slower than I had been, but the General was right, not by all that much. The wind shot through my mane as we soon closed in on the base near dodge city, the lights of battle continuing to rage over it. We flew over the base, bat ponies and pegasi still fighting in the sky.

“The bat ponies are on our side, help them!” I shouted. Torkuda veered towards the ground and slammed down in the midst of the base, several of the surrounding structures shaking, glass shattering and even earth starting to crack. The dragon set me down, my body feeling very dizzy. I stumbled away, noticing a huge necklace in one of Torkuda’s claws, which he affixed around his neck.

Luna landed next to me and shouted into the air. “Soldiers of the night, push the enemy out, the dragon has arrived, this battle is at an end.” Guess I wasn’t the only one with a good deal of confidence in this creature. I watched above me as several pegasi were driven away from the base, the bat ponies tearing away from them once they were a certain distance away.

Torkuda clutched his necklace, a huge jewel in his massive hand. The dragon’s eyes glowed and he opened his maw. Three circles appeared in front of the mouth of Torkuda for a fraction of a second and then an extremely bright beam shot out of his mouth. It ripped into the sky and reduced several of the evil pegasi to ash.

I heard cheering as the pegasi retreated. I breathed a sigh of relief. I would have to ask in time what the heck that weapon was Torkuda used, however- “I am here to liberate all of you, not only from the fear of Gary, but from the tyranny of the Solar Sisters. My child is only eight years old. I gave their messenger my word, if she was not returned to me, their reign would end. And so it shall.” That... that didn’t sound good.

Torkuda reached down and grabbed his children and Vinyl from the ground several feet away from me. He then shot back into the air and away from the base.

Luna looked down at me. “Rainbow Dash… that was a concerning thing for the dragon to say… does he not- mother of-“ Torkuda shot back over the base, grabbing Luna in his massive claw and soaring away, her screams echoing in my ears as she was dragged away.

I looked around at all the stunned bat ponies and my friends. No one spoke, everyone looking around in fear and confusion. Torkuda was a good dragon- what was he doing?

Then I heard her. I heard the laughter of Violet String. I looked ahead of me, seeing her standing amidst several ponies, her horn clamped and her hooves in chains. Next to her was the red pony with the fiery mane, his wings tied and his hooves also in chains. “Amazing aren’t they Red Cord?” she asked aloud. “They figured out Gray wasn’t dead, but they never figured out why he faked his death in the first place. Think children, if you had taken Torkuda’s children without telling him, he would have taken them back and best case scenario, just lectured you all. Gray didn’t simply not tell the dragon, that wouldn’t have made sense. No, he told the dragon what was happening… a version of what was happening anyway.”

Fire shot up around the two ponies, their bonds burning and falling off, even the metal chains. The red pegasus spoke up. “That dragon bears the element of courage, why do you think your princesses were so eager to appease him, even allowing him to adopt foals? You can all choose to fight us, or you can go to save your princess. Your choice. Either way, the enemies of Gray will perish tonight.”

Author's Note:

So yea, some nice musical accompaniment, hmm?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-3Kmcs__4

A few questions to answer:

"Are you ever going to explain Gray's motives?"
Hmmm... yes I am. However, just like here, anyone who paid enough attention to the story, could easily have figured out he was still alive. And so, anyone reading closely enough could start to build a profile on Gray and what he's after. Here's a hint for those of you who want to try. This is a hint for what to look for, it doesn't explain everything. Who locked Gray in the eternal nightmare? I promise you, his actions have motives, he's just not stupid enough to blurt them out like other villains.

"Do you really think a dragon could hurt a princess?"
I'm not going by popular fan theory here, I'm going by show cannon. Luna and Celestia are shown as powerful in the show, but never invincible. Dragons are given just as much fear as them if not more. All six of the element bearers were nearly killed by one until Fluttershy gave it the stare and talked it down. Directly fighting it was seen as a joke from beginning to end however. Even the mention of a dragon terrifies ponies and several of the main six ran away rather than even attempt to fight ones that were no where near full grown. The writers clearly intended them to be seen as powerful. Celestia and Luna are the most powerful of pony kind, moving the sun and moon, the only problem being, we have no idea if this is a spell, or a feat of magical strength. Actually we even saw Celestia in a war in the last episode of season 5 and she wasn't god-moding the whole thing there either. By what we've seen in the show, yes, it is completely reasonable to assume a dragon could hurt or even kill both of them.

"Torkuda's element came out of nowhere and you made it just for this didn't you?"
No and no. Torkuda was supposed to have the element of courage from the beginning, I've just never found a way to write it into a plot before now. Honestly it gives the princesses a good reason to want an alliance with him, but no, it doesn't really make him that much scarier. Being fire stories tall, VERY hard to hurt and invincible to heat, along with breathing fire, is what makes him scary. IE, being a dragon.

Edited by EarthRainbow.

Comments

[StarLoverRainDestroyer]

I knew that fucker wasn't dead. Also I'm fighting this with a nose bleed. Don't know why I have it

[SciWriter]

6933767
Thanks.