You're Wanted: I'll Always Protect You

by SciWriter

I am Afraid

Two days went by without much event. I recovered Scootaloo and returned Lightning to her home with Torkuda at the same time.

The CMC were actually hanging out that day, but seeing as Lightning was relying on others to get her home for the next week or so, she and her brother couldn’t stick around. Thank goodness for all the unicorns in Ponyville, or her injury might have lasted longer without their magic. Still, I didn’t like seeing anyone be dejected like that. Thus I set out on a mission when I returned home from dropping her off, just to be nice. A rather obvious mission to the local supermarket.

Thus Twilight stumbled upon me in the toy aisle.

She chuckled looking at me. “We think along the same lines it seems, you’d think we were friends or something.”

“Hmm?” I asked.

“Oh c’mon, I know who you’re here for. Unless you’re buying a Rarity figurine for yourself,” she said, pointing a hoof at my basket.

“It could be for Scoots. Ya know, my daughter.” I pointed out. Twi raised an eyebrow to me. “Fine, you caught me.” I started searching a for a Fluttershy figure. “What’s happening to me Twilight? I didn’t always used to care so much about making ponies feel good ya know?”

“Oh I don’t know about that,” Twilight responded. “You had your jerkish moments, but I don’t think it ever set well with you to see others suffering. Remember that whole Mare-Do-Well thing?”

I looked at her with lowered eyebrows. “You five have no idea how embarrassing that was do you?”

“Point is, it was a bad moment for you, but you never wanted to hurt anyone.”

“Cept Mare-Do-Well,” I commented.

“Maybe that is a bad example.”

I chuckled. “You just wanna split the bill for whatever we get?” I asked, deciding the subject needed to be derailed.

Twilight shrugged, but then she looked left and tapped me on the shoulder. “Maybe we should be remembering something that’s kind of key here. Lightning doesn’t belong to us.”

“What difference does that ma-oh,” I said, looking up and seeing Vinyl Scratch and just entered the toy aisle as well. “Right, legal guardian, mentor and all that jazz. See ya.”

“Actually, let’s walk,” Twilight said. “I need to talk to you alone about a few things.” I shrugged and followed Twilight out of the store.

Not long and we were on the edge of the Ever Free, just east of Sweet Apple Acres. I chuckled, remembering how paranoid of this place my friends used to be. I had known for a long time it was mostly harmless if you stuck to the edges, having flown over it hundreds of time, but scaring the others the first time we went in together was still fun.

“Well, this is as alone as we’re gonna get Twi… within reason I guess.” I said looking at the trees. “So, what’s our plan to take down that Gray guy?... Oh hey should I get the others real quick?”

She turned to look at me, her eyebrows narrowing and a grin appearing on her face. “You know, it really shouldn’t be this easy,” came a decidedly masculine voice out of her face…

“Doctor Gray!” I shouted, throwing a right hoof through the image of Twilight standing before me. My hoof passed through like it was air.

“Seriously?” asked the image, moving like it were still Twilight. I started to get sick to my stomach, watching my friend’s image being moved like a puppet. “If I were going to all the trouble of luring you out here, you think I would just stand there, reveal myself and beg you to hit me or something?”

“Where are you hiding?!” I shouted.

“Again, seriously? Under the rug.”

Knowing he was probably screwing with me, I still found myself eyeing the dirt for a rug, just in case. He chuckled, Twilight’s fake projecting his expression to me. “A curious anomaly you are. Entirely unimpressive in every way, save for your speed. And yet, I find myself unable to account for such speed in my plans.”

“Good,” I said, repressing a slight smirk.

“Oh not really,” he replied. “I need you out of Ponyville that’s all.” The image laughed and rolled it’s eyes. “And of course you blatantly flat out told me your weakness without even thinking about it, didn’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“One can glean a lot about Rainbow Dash from just reading the papers, but a daughter, there’s a juicy tidbit…”

I lowered my eyebrows. “Oh come on, that was in the papers for a week and-“ I stopped.

The image of Twilight smiled, then vanished before I could even blink. “The Cutie Mark Crusader Scootaloo right?” came a voice that sounded an awful lot like Apple Bloom. I looked down to see an image of my favorite red bow sporting nine year old looking up at me with a sneer. “Ah recon she’d be a prudy easy target don’t ya think?” She gave a slight cough. “Guess ah might have to work on my country talk all the same, but then again, the image might be enough. What do ya think? I just have this image in the middle of a lake acting like it’s drowning and in yer daughter will go in. Wonder if I would even need to disguise the net, they seem to be pretty close friends from what ah’ve seen. Once she’s tangled up I can throw rocks at her from the shore or something as down she goes…”

I jumped at the image and stomped on it, snorting angrily. The image chuckled as my hooves passed harmlessly through it. It continued to speak. “Really? Were ya supposing ah was somehow in the three foot little girl’s image? Please…” Something smashed into my face, hard. I couldn’t tell what hit me, but it hurt like crazy, my right cheek throbbing. “Ah could just as easily kill ya where ya stand an’ all, it’s just nowhere near as much fun is all.” I shot forward and threw a hoof into the air randomly just trying my luck. I connected with something extremely solid. I blinked and suddenly realized I had slammed my full body weight behind my hoof into a large solid rock.

I staggered back letting out a small yelp. ”You’re just an illusionist, that’s all. You’ll run out of tricks!” I shouted.

“You think that’s how this works?” came a male voice “I could use the same trick multiple times and you would still end up beating yourself to a bloody pulp for me. You don’t know what’s real and what’s not. Think about it Dash. Where are you right now? For all you know, we’re deep in the Ever Free or half way to Canterlot by now… well I suppose you could still roughly judge distance and time without relying on your eyes, but you get the point. You have no idea the extent of my powers, nor how long I’ve been manipulating you.”

“I could figure it out.”

“Did you really even go to the store at all this afternoon?” he asked back. “Can you tell everything only by feeling and distance, do you know this town that well? Were you paying that much attention?” he chuckled again. “How much you take for granted.” I felt something sharp on my back side and tried to move away but it still cut me before I could slip away. I look around. I still couldn’t see him. All I could see was trees, grass and rainbow colored hairs falling… wait… I looked back and my eyes grew with rage. My tail had been cut, purple blue and green hairs lying everywhere. I then heard two snips just under my ear and looked in horror to see the hair from my lower mane on the ground. “See how easy it is to take away precious things?” I glared at the hair on the ground. I then looked up, scanning the area again. “Trying to see if I slip up. Ya know, a smart stallion would just hide behind a rock or something.” I sighed. Looked like I was going to have to keep up this game until it had finished. If he wanted to fight he would be doing so- I jumped back. At my hooves was Scootaloo, or an image of her at least. Her mane and tail had been shaved, she was soaked, her fur in tufts and blood was coming out of several cuts.

“Mom… hold me,” the image said, holding out a hoof to me. I jumped back. I shook my head.

‘No, it’s fake. She never calls you mom, remember.’

The voice of Doctor Gray laughed, this time carried in the air. “Oh my. You know it’s an illusion and still you’re panicking. You must care for her a lot hmm?” I started involuntarily backing up, continuing to scan around myself. I then felt something press against my right wing and the sensation of something sharp cutting my side. I jumped away, seeing several of the feathers and feather tips from my wing fall to the ground. “Oh this is amazingly easy, really it is,” came the voice again. I checked my side. It didn’t hurt to much, and the cut was superficial. Still, my beautiful wing tips were gone. Flying would be damn hard… maybe it was all just a trick. I flapped my wings trying to take off, but I spiraled in the air and smacked a tree. “Ya know kid, there’s nothing supernatural about a sharp knife.”

“What do you want!” I shouted.

“Oh I want the fucking moon, don’t we all? The question is, what do I want from you? Those elements of harmony all being assembled together, your speed, they both seem like they’d be pretty annoying. Not sure how the elements work now and all, but the fact remains. Plus there’s that matter of… oh never mind, you don’t need to know.” I kept scanning, now trying to think. “Oh yes Rainbow, you’re special somehow alright. I need you gone especially. And go you will. Take your daughter and run.” He chuckled. “You heard Lightning’s story didn’t you? You’d be surprised how much a fly on the wall can see.”

“You were…” I couldn’t get it out.

“In the room? Child, do you have any idea how long I followed that girl after my attack? It’s called testing the waters. None of you noticed me. Oh well. Guess that tells me I’m not dealing with especially observant ponies after all.”

A gray pony with glowing blue teeth and eyes appeared in front of me. He grinned at me. “Not even going to bother to attack this time are you?” he asked. “Leave for Canterlot. There are things I want to do, and I need that little girl, Lightning Strike and her brother for them. I promise, I really don’t care about anyone else. I just need to know you’re far away where you can’t interfere.”

“You’ll never scare me away!” I shouted defiantly.

“Won’t I?” The stallion walked to the right, behind him I saw a clear plexiglas box with a divider in it. On one side was Scootaloo, her tale and mane shaved, on the other, was Lightning Strike, furiously pressing a small red button. The gray stallion looked back at the box. “Oh, looks like the button doesn’t work deary…” My heart started beating faster and faster as the box Scootaloo was in caught fire. I turned away quickly, hearing the screams of panic and agony.

The voice took an echoing property, like it was slowly going away from me. “Go home, think about it. I’ll find you when you make the right choice.” I opened my eyes again, looking around and again seeing nothing but trees and grass.

(***)

I scanned the area again and again, but saw no sign of Gray. Finally I hesitantly walked home, knowing I couldn’t depend on my wings.

As I came up on town, there she was, one of the last mares I wanted to see me like this. “DASHIE!” Pinkie Pie practically tackled me in a hug. She bounced back from me and examined me. “What… what… are you hurt?”

A sinking feeling traveled into my stomach. Without knowing her pretty well, copying her mannerisms would have been pretty hard. This was the real Pinky. “It’s mostly just my mane and tale,” I replied, a few tears escaping my eyes none the less. I loved my mane, it was how everyone knew who I was. It grew the way it was naturally, it was part of who I was.

“Ooooh when I get my hooves on that pony-“

“Rainbow?” came Twilight’s voice. She flew over to me and put a wing around me.

“Sugar cube?” asked Apple Jack to my left. My five friends had apparently assembled before I got there.

Fear, anger, confusion… it all started to build and I started crying. “How do I know any of you are real?” I asked.

“You were attacked weren’t you darling?” asked Rarity.

“What do you think?!” I shouted back.

She smiled at me even as she shirked her head back. “I think I have some colored mane extensions in my shop, if you want.” I looked down at what remained of my tail. “Afraid I’m out of tale extensions.”

“Thanks.” I said quietly. I guessed I was getting a sample of what Lightning went through when Gray destroyed her toys. It just made me want to destroy Doctor Gray all the more. “What do I look like?” I asked Rarity. She floated a mirror to me.

My tail was half gone, my right wing was shaved, my lower mane was not even a fraction of it’s normal size, that cut in my side was bigger than I had thought and my cheek was actually bleeding along with there being a small welt under my right eye.

“We’re here to talk Rainbow,” Twilight said. “I need all of you here, just to bounce some ideas off.”

I’d had a lot of time to think myself. “First off, no one goes anywhere alone,” I said. Twilight nodded. “And be sure who you’re talking to. Twilight, what food are you afraid of?”

“Food?” Twilight gave a nervous chuckled. “I’m not afraid of a food… fine, quesadillas.” She looked around. “You gonna clear everyone else?”

“Only if they have something important to say,” I replied. "After all, he could just be invisible."

“Alright, let’s continue then,” Twilight said. “I talked to Luna. She knows who Gray is, and she’s actually pretty angry that he’s about again. She’s offered any assistance we might need. Unfortunately she doesn’t know the extent or nature of his powers. Best I can guess, they’re probably limited in range and by his personal knowledge, but other than that, my hat is off to him, he’s pretty good.”

“I’ll say,” I said back.

Twilight gave me a sideways smile. “Rainbow, I can understand if you’re a little shook up from the looks of you. Do you want to stay with me in the castle tonight?”

I closed my eyes and swallowed my pride way faster than usual. “Scoots can come of course, right?” She nodded. I hung my head. “Yes.”

“Okay then.” Twilight started again. She stepped away from me and in front of me rather protectively. “First off, I don’t like where this is going. We still don’t know specifically what this guy wants here, but from the looks of you Rainbow, he’s already looking to start isolating us. Everypony is to limit their time alone as much as possible, understood?” We all nodded. “We’re going to have to institute a similar system for the rest of Ponyville if this continues to escalate.”

“Dearie, isn’t that a little excessive?” asked Rarity.

Twilight shuddered a little. “You didn’t have to listen to Lightning’s recounting how he tortured her and her brother for fun. We know he’s trying to ascend through dark means, but what exactly that means I don’t know. I can only guess he wants access to Lightning, his old “test subject”. We’re protecting her, so he’s going to go after us. Thus we need to pair up, everyone watch each other’s backs. Remember, this guy’s thing is illusion. Know where you are and who you’re with.”

“He can be invisible,” I noted. “And forget trying to just hear him, he’s pretty good at manipulating sound too apparently.”

“But I’m guessing he doesn’t know us intimately.” Thus Twilight started to assign us. “Fluttershy, I’m sure AJ will have plenty of room for you and your animals, why don’t you stay with her?” Fluttershy walked over to AJ, who stood up with a glare on her face.

“No one will touch her.” AJ firmly stated.

Twilight just nodded. “Pinky, I don’t like you staying in a place with two babies if you’re a potential target. Someone…” she eyed me, “Found a way to point out to me that I do need to be mindful of potential hostage situations.” I didn’t feel like reacting to that. “You stay with Rarity, I’m sure she can put you up in Sweetie’s room.”

“But that’s where Sweetie stays dear, she likes her privacy to some degree-“ Rarity started, but Twilight shook her head.

“And this is where I’m gonna become unpopular,” Twilight said. “Sweetie is to stay with her parents until we know this guy is either dead or imprisoned. I’m sorry, she’s too easy of a target.”

“But… I’ve started to like having her around… what about Scootaloo and Apple Bloom?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow to Rarity. “Where would I put either of them anyway? I’m pretty sure Fluttershy, Apple Jack and Big Mac can keep an eye on Apple Bloom pretty easily. Scoots will be staying with me, and besides, there’s a huge difference there Rarity. You’re only Sweetie’s sister. Rainbow is Scootaloo’s MOTHER.”

Pinkie bounced over to Rarity as the fashionista hung her head. “Don’t worry Rarity, I’ll keep you company.” She wrapped Rarity in a side hug.

“No offense dear, but you’re a poor substitute for family.” She then chuckled. “Still, you should keep the shop from being too quiet I’d imagine.”

“Trust me, there’s no quiet with me!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Okay now I’m afraid.” Rarity noted.

“I’m sure you two will figure things out,” Twilight said, snickering a little. And that snicker got a little of a judgmental look from Rarity.

“Rainbow, you and Scootaloo are staying with me.” Twilight grinned nervously. “And I’m gonna get it for this. Given how close they are to us, without supervision, I’m afraid Scootaloo, your sisters and Lightning and Dusk should consider the CMC disbanded. The five of them alone is a recipe for disaster with this guy around.”

“I understand,” I said.

“Oh I expect all of you do, but no one is telling you guys you can’t spend time with your friends. Apple Bloom especially is going to be angry.”

“What about Lightning and Dusk?” I asked. “Would they be safer if they just stayed with their father for a while? He is a dragon after all. I’d like to see tall dark and ugly try to fight Torkuda,” I smiled at just the thought of that.

“Me too, but it’s not like it would be hard to get past him,” Twilight said. “Ponies are like insects to him and in the end, he’s only one dragon. He’ll have to leave the cave to go shopping or hunt or scavenge or whatever dragons do for food and supplies. Point is, he has to leave the house, and when he does, his kids will be isolated in a dark cave.”

“Can he just carry them with him?” I asked.

“I'm pretty sure that's impractical. They’ll be staying with Vinyl until all this blows over-“

“NO!” I shouted. Some of what Torkuda said to me was hitting me pretty hard right now. He was a good father, it had to be hell being constantly separated from his kids when they were in danger.

“Excuse me? Weren’t you the one who not too long ago wanted those kids to be taken away from Torkuda permanently?” Twilight asked.

“And I couldn’t have been more wrong,” I said. “He’s their father. He loves them and they love him. There’s gotta be a way he can at least be allowed to be close by. Maybe he could stay in the Ever Free, pretty sure there’s nothing that can hunt him there, or maybe in a clearing, or in that cave where Fluttershy made the first dragon leave.”

“He probably won’t want to stay in the Ever Free Rainbow,” Twilight replied. “And he’d freak out the residents of Ponyville… the mountain cave,” she shrugged. “If he wants to stay there, that’ll be up to him. Honestly, I’d like to have a dragon on call.”

“Good, I’ll go talk to him in the morning and-“

“You mean, you, me and Scootaloo will go talk to him. You’re not going anywhere alone, not after tonight.” I nodded in agreement to this, sensing I might start to lament the loss of my independence sooner or later. “What about school for the kids?”

“School?” Twilight asked back. “Well… we could…”

I nodded thinking aloud. “Really you think about it, it’s probably a bad place for the kids to be. Like fifteen kids and one earth pony who doesn’t know anything about fighting.”

“Yea but they can’t not go to school,” I raised an eyebrow to her. “I…” The others looked at her with much the same expression. “Girls, its school. We don’t know how long we’ll be chasing this guy.” She gave a nervous grin. “Maybe… wait! I can contact my brother and just have him send a guard so they can go. Yea why not?”

I shook my head. “Can’t disagree I guess. Course I can just see how Scoots is gonna take this. You deny her spending time with her friends, but school, she’s just gotta go there.”

“Well with any luck this guy will be caught in a few weeks anyway.” She bit her lip. “By the way, the CMC, minus Lightning and Dusk of course, have been standing right over there for the last few minutes.” She said, motioning to my right. For about one second my eyes grew to twice their normal size.

I looked over at Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Scootaloo wasn’t moving much, she was just looking up at me in near horror. “Oh… um… hi kiddo,” I started. She slowly walked over to me. “Look, we need to talk about-“

“I overhead a lot of it,” she said, tears were starting to come to her eyes. “But… tell me you’re okay, please.”

“I’m fine. Really kiddo, it’s more my pride that’s hurting than anything else,” I said. Wow… was that ever a lie. I was so far past caring about my pride at the moment you would think I was as humble as Fluttershy. I had watched Scootaloo get burned alive. Yes is was just a projection, but if it had been real, I wasn’t even sure I could have done anything but watch in the end. Pride? I was terrified. The only thing keeping me from grabbing Scootaloo and flying away right there was… well I guess what was left of my pride, a sense of not wanting to show her cowardice.

Scootaloo ran over to me, jumped up and hugged my neck. I dropped down and hugged her back, finally just letting myself cry. I only meant to cry a little, but it was all too much. I finally started sobbing against my own will.

For a few moments I noticed my friends gathering around me. Then Apple Jack spoke up. “Alright, alright, we’re all concerned, an’ that’s good, but crowdn’ er’ is not gonna help. We all have our assigned buddies, everypony get home. Let’s all make sure we’re safe fer the night, we’ll talk more tomorrow. ”

“Make sure you know you’re really with the pony you think you are,” Twilight noted. I couldn’t move. I held Scootaloo tightly, the image of her burning playing over and over in my mind.

I quietly sobbed into Scootaloo’s ear. “No one is taking you from me. I promise, I will always protect you.”

“What?” she asked. She started to loosen her grip on me, but I hugged her all the tighter. She then tighten her grip on me.

“C’mon, Rainbow,” Twilight finally said. “Let’s get you inside. We’ll get you cleaned up okay?” I just kept crying, holding Scootaloo. I felt Twilight’s telekinetic energy surround me and I was lifted off the ground with my daughter. I almost lashed out, fearing it could be Gray again, but I realized, he was a pegasus in the end. He couldn’t levitate anypony.

Finally, inside Twilight’s castle, my daughter and I were set down again. “Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked. I finally looked up and let go of Scootaloo. “What did he do to you?... Go get cleaned up. I’ll watch Scoots. We’ll talk about what happened in a bit.”

I knew where Twilight’s bath area was. I started walking away, but then I looked up. “Twilight…” I said, not moving. “How did we meet?” I asked.

“You crashed into me. Made me fall in the mud.” she replied.

I continued on. I needed that bath.

Comments

[StarLoverRainDestroyer]

Incredible chapter good sir

[SciWriter]

6745220
Thanks.

[RainSoar-best]

This is going to be good, I know it!

[SonicRPika]

i am enjoying it so far. Can't wait for the next part

[SciWriter]

6748067
6748025

Thankyou both.