You're Wanted: I'll Always Protect You

by SciWriter

The Calm Before

Twilight had a number of guest rooms, but, not surprisingly, I had Scootaloo sleep in the same room as me.

Again, a few days went by without any incident, actually this time a week went by. When we talked to him, Torkuda wasn’t wild about leaving his home, but he still did for the sake of his children. He now lived in a large mountain near Ponyville. It was funny to watch all the other mares and stallions freak out whenever he flew overhead. However they eventually got used to him being around. A few of the foals would even wave as his shadow passed over head. He never actually landed in town, which was probably for the best. Funny as it may have been, it was hard enough for me and my friends to calm down the citizens as it was.

Today Scootaloo and I were going over to Vinyl’s so she, Lightning and Dusk could hang out. It was nice to get a chance to hang out with Vinyl for me too. Not too long before this whole mess, Vinyl and I had become much closer, as I had been using Vinyl as bit of a reference for how to work with Scootaloo. Vinyl was an adoptee child herself and had a disability, which made her a little more knowledgeable about what Scootaloo was going through being unable to fly and now my adopted daughter.

According to Vinyl, the hard thing about dealing with a disability, wasn’t that one couldn’t live a normal life, you could normally find a way to do that without the use of every faculty. It was just the frustration of feeling like there was a limit to your potential, one that you couldn’t do anything about. And the really frustrating thing was… that feeling technically wasn’t wrong.

That morning I got up early. I looked at Scoots sleeping peacefully on a second bed. She was adorable of course, but that wasn’t what I was thinking about this time. I was puzzling out what I would ever do to fix her flying problem. This was a world full of magic, so it just couldn’t be fully incurable… right? If push came to shove, couldn’t I just ask Discord if there was something he could do? Not that I really knew how to contact Discord, or really understood his powers, but still… not that I liked him either.

Oh yes, it certainly did occur to me that this Doctor Gray could probably be easily dispatched by Discord, but help from him rarely just happens, especially with no strings attached. Besides, you have someone make you watch your whole city and family crumble just to screw with you while trying to get you to abandon your friends and world, and then turn around and try to be your friend. Let’s see how much you trust that guy. He didn’t even need to do that to me for his end goal back then, he apparently just wanted to. To me, Discord was no better than Gray. I really didn’t want to talk to him at all. Course, if things kept getting worse…

I shook my head. There had been no sign of Gray in a week, so maybe we all lucked out and he had died or been caught. He was just a pony in the end. It would be a good month at least before I was confident enough that he was gone to stop living with Twi, but I could still hope for the best.

I stretched and sniffed the air. Blue berry pancakes, raspberry syrup, hay bacon… Twilight didn’t always cook special, but when she or one of my other friends did, it called to me. Seriously I had to be the only one of element bearers who wasn’t an excellent cook. Not always sure why my friends put up with me, but its certainly not for the food I make. Course I couldn’t leave the room without Scootaloo so… how to wake her… tickling it was!

I jumped on the sleeping filly and started jabbing her sides. She squeaked a few times, yelling, snorting, laughing, she was suffering and I was having fun, but that’s how the game goes. Unless the other pony knows your own worst spot… under my left foreleg, I’m helpless if you get there, and Scoots knew it. She had me falling off her laughing in only a few seconds. She then jumped up and jetted to the door, me quickly recovering and shooting after her. We both bounded down the stairs and then started rough housing at the bottom.

I don’t remember how we got like that, but I was holding Scootaloo in the air and she was taking swipes at me when she finally sniffed the air. “I’m pretty sure that’s Pinky’s pancakes…” she said.

“Certainly not mine. I burn water.”

“Well you did burn milk once. Was that hard?”

“They told me warm milk helps some ponies sleep.”

“I don’t think putting out a fire helps you sleep,” Scootaloo pointed out.

“We were exhausted,” I said as a counter point.

“Race ya!” she squirmed out of my grasp and shot to the map room. I scrambled to my hooves, ran her over, literally (but not in a way that really would have hurt) and just barely beat her into the room with the breakfast goodies.

In the dining room were all five of the other element bearers, Vinyl, Octavia, Lightning, Dusk and finally the other two members of the CMC, Sweetie and AB. I stopped and looked at everyone, giving them all a big sleepy smile. I yawned, “What’s going on?”

AJ walked over to me. “Well sleepy head, if ya got up on time like everypony else-“

“I thought it was early,” I noted.

“Fer you maybe, but last time ah checked, if this were a school day, Scootaloo would have been late. Don’ matter really though, that’s not what ah was gonna talk bout’. Ya see, Lightning is gettin' her cast taken off and Pinkie wanted to do a goodbye bandages party because she missed bein' able to throw a gettin' out of the hospital party. Big deal fer her, especially considering well… we never should let those two hang out, ever again… ever.”

AJ turned to look at Pinkie Pie and Lightning Strike, who were “talking” a small distance away from the table. Their conversation went thusly.

The entire time they talked Lightning was buzzing around Pinkie like a big insect. “So like I was saying, balls are really fun, I make all kinds of games with just random ones,” Pinkie produced a soccer ball from… somewhere. “Yea! I play wall ball with that kind. You hit it as hard as you can at a wall and when it bounces you have to kick it back keeping it from flying off. Also you have to recite the alphabet backwards while doing it, ya know, because… for a challenge of course.”

“Huh!” Pinkie said, rolling her eyes. “Like I said, kids these days, no creativity. My version is called ceiling ball,” she said, standing on her forelegs and waving her back legs at the ceiling.

“Oh I don’t like where this is going,” Twilight commented, walking by me and AJ as Pinkie returned to her normal stance.

Pinkie started bouncing, the ball bouncing on her head. “You bounce it off the ceiling, recite the alphabet backwards, but every fourth letter you have to change to its number equivalent, and every tenth letter you have to say five times.”

“Cool!” Lightning shouted, Pinkie tossing her the ball. “What’s your record?”

“Somepony usually stops me before I can even get to x so…” purple magic enveloped the ball

“Yes, yes somepony does,” said Twilight. “Wonder which pony that would be.” The ball floated away from the two disappointed ponies. “Come let’s eat. Sheesh you made these Pinkie, don’t want them to get cold to you?”

Several extra chairs were around the table. Pinkie patted a chair next to her for Lightning. “Come sit with me, we can exchange more… ideas. You have any more prank ideas? I’ve got a ton!”

Lightning chuckled. “I’m gonna sit with my mentor, thanks though. Remember, tree sap is key to that last one.”

“Oh I’ll never forget that one! Oh and remember… cream pies…” she winked as Lighting went to sit with Vinyl Scratch and Dusk.

I chuckled sitting next to Pinkie myself. “Care to fill me in on these pranks?” I said, speaking under my breath as Scootaloo sat next to me.

Pinkie smiled slyly at me. “Nooo... not gonna fill you in on the ones from Scootaloo either.”

“Crap…”

Pinkie put several of the tasty sugary excuses for breakfast food on my plate. “No silly, pancakes,” she said.

(***)

The pancakes were delicious and after breakfast it was just so relaxing to head outside and play with the foals. Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy stayed inside to talk, Octavia staying to discuss some of her own concerns with them, but they encouraged me to go have fun, I needed it they said. Couldn’t argue with that, my nerves were still tingling after my last encounter with Gray.

The foals started to split up to play different games. Sweetie and Apple Bloom went to play with Pinkie, but Scootaloo wanted to play with me, grabbing one of Pinkie’s spare soccer balls. She quickly drew to lines in the dirt a fair distance apart for the goal and then eagerly stood by her “goal”.

I chuckled. As if she would ever score against me, but I still put the ball in the middle of our little field area just outside of the castle. Looking over my shoulder I held up a hoof to my daughter to stop for a moment. I shouted over to Lightning. “Hey, you can join us if you want.”

She looked over at me, but shook her head saying, “Got our own game going.” I then watched as she and Dusk started racing a basketball to a tree behind Vinyl Scratch. Vinyl picked them both up with her magic and turned them on their backs, kicking the ball away and towards an opposite tree. Lighting scrambled back to her hooves and shot after Vinyl, using her powers to keep up.

It was cute to watch, but I had to get back to my own game. I turned to look at Scoots and suddenly saw her flanked by a small blue earth colt. “You said I could play right?”

(***)

One awesome game later and Scootaloo, myself and pretty much everyone else in the giant castle yard was beat. Scootaloo and Dusk lost to me twelve to five, but hey, that’s pretty good considering it was ME they were up against. Apple Bloom and Sweetie were still trying to figure out how to get out of a giant log Pinkie had trapped them in (it was a prank, they were fine), Lightning Strike and Pinkie were fast asleep after playing harder than anyone else, Dusk and Scootaloo sat talking and I sat down talking to Vinyl.

I smiled at my daughter and Dusk, then spoke up to Vinyl. “So, I have to know, the name “bravest filly alive,”, Lightning keeps calling Scootaloo that, when did that name start?” Vinyl raised an eyebrow and pointed her hoof at Dusk. “It was from him? I thought Lightning-“

Shaking her head, Vinyl took out her notepad and started writing. ‘No, I was just pointing out that Dusk is your daughter’s real fan. I’m sure it really was from Trixie, she’s a bard these days, has been for a good two years. Those two tell me most of their nick names for everyone come from Trixie.’ She thought for a moment. '“Let’s see, there’s Scootaloo, “bravest filly alive”, Apple Bloom, “most feminine filly alive”’ I snickered, ‘Hey don’t blame them, all their information is second hoof after all. Sweetie kinda likes her name, “most kinda sorta evil and malicious filly alive”. Course Apple Bloom did let Lightning know if she ever called her by Trixie’s surname again, she’d show her “feminine”.’ I almost laughed out loud. ‘Well you know your nick name, “Rebel Rainbow”, then there’s “Honest Apple”, “Pinkie, Mistress of Party”,’ I went slack jaw hearing that one. ‘Again, these were from a bard. “Twilight the Guardian”, “Fluttershy the Great Matriarch,” and “Rarity the Prettiest Pony Alive”.’

“Oh I don’t know, why aren’t I called the pretty one?” I asked, shaking my hair. Vinyl snickered a few times and then gave a few rasps, which I guessed were her laughing. She stopped laughing and looked over at Lightning laying sprawled out on the grass. “So I got to ask, who is Lightning to you anyway? You almost seem like her mom or something.”

She lowered her eyebrows at me. ‘I’m not a mom. I won’t ever be a mom.’

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” I said, looking over at Scootaloo, who was currently cloud watching with her friend.

Vinyl tapped her pad to get my attention. ‘Really I’m just her care taker when she’s in Ponyville. I’ve thought about being her mom, but I’m really not sure how that would work out with Torkuda. I don’t want to endanger Lightning and Dusk’s relationship with their father or each other, so I’m leaving well enough alone as far as adoption.’ She looked over at Dusk and Scoots herself. ‘You’re aware Dusk has a crush on your daughter right? Sometimes I wonder if the title for her actually came from him, often as he uses it.’

“He does? Think I should give him a talk and make sure he’s fit for her? You know the dirty minds of six year old colts.” I said, grinning slyly, but in jest.

‘There is something I needed to ask you.’

“Shoot.”

‘What do you do when it happens? I’m sure Scootaloo has her own demons after being neglected so long by her own mother, what do you say when she gets upset about something in her past?’

I thought back. Scootaloo still had her moments. I would too often find she had cried herself to sleep without even telling me anything was wrong. Other times I would rush to her room during the night when she was screaming, begging that no good excuse for a mother to not leave her. So many nightmares… she was seeing a psychiatrist, but he was honest with me, her nightmares probably weren’t going to go away for a while. “I don’t know. There are some hugs, some crying… I cry with her, partially to let her know its okay, partially because I can’t stand seeing her like that.”

‘She ever yell at you?’

“A few times.”

‘She ever attack you?’ I raised my eyebrows and did a shocked double take. ‘Guess not. Course I guess that figures, why would she? She’s never seen your blue mane in the night, mistaken it for the blue eyes of her tormentor and tried to shock the life out of you before you even thought of touching her brother.’ She looked over at Lightning. ‘I know she loves me, but sometimes she scares me. The shit she’s been through… I don’t even know where to start helping her. I thought I had it rough.’

Not sure what to do with that, and figuring it was a better question for Lightning’s therapist, I tried to steer the conversation away. “When did you three meet anyway?”

Vinyl smiled. ‘Kinda long story there… well not really. I was feeling really bummed out one day coming out of a record store and there she was, begging for my autograph and acting like I was the best thing ever. She has a nick name for me too. “Most Awesome Pony Eva”.’ She grinned writing that. ‘I learned after meeting her that she was having a pretty rough time due to her powers. Other ponies were running away from her in fear. I saw her as being a lot like me with my muteness, ya know, hard to talk to folks when well… you can’t talk. So we started hanging out more and more. Then there was that incident when you, me and Twilight went to her house, you made an ass of yourself, and that’s when I became her guardian.’ Vinyl winked at me, as I winced.

I looked back to Scootaloo, who was currently giggling at a joke she herself had made. I had noticed her voice a lot, but something else… Dusk hardily spoke at all. “Why is Dusk so quiet… is it because… ya know, he’s scared too?”

‘Dusk? No, I thought about that too once, but Lightning assured me that he’s always been like that. He’s just a quiet colt by nature. Really he’s kind of her rock. He’s always been there, always been helping her and he doesn’t seem even partially as damaged by their experiences… not on the surface.’

“Surface?”

Vinyl nodded. ‘Dusk has taken to talking to me in private because he doesn’t want to make Lightning more upset than she already is. He’s terrified. Lightning is more vocal than him, so it’s hard not to forget, he was just as helpless as she was with Gray. He had to watch his sister get tortured and then he was used to make it worse against his will. Now that this guy is back, he keeps telling me how useless he feels, like there’s nothing he can do to protect his sister or himself.’

“Forgive me, but maybe just tell him he’s important to her.”

‘He’s six Rainbow, it’s not like he’s suicidal. I’ve told him that once or twice but I don’t think it’s his self-worth that I need to address. Like I wrote, he’s scared. I can’t blame him either.’ She took a breath and slowly exhaled. ‘All I can really say is this will be over soon. I could say that I can fight this guy off, but that’s a joke isn’t it?’ Vinyl stamped on the ground. ‘Any resistance I offer would be laughed off, I mean seriously this guy isn’t intimidated by Twilight, what’s a DJ going to do, play him a song?’ she seemed to grind her teeth. ‘I know what Dusk feels like. I’m helpless! Lightning worshiped me when I thought the whole world was just gonna forget DJpon3 ever existed. Her brother doesn’t even care about my music, and yet he still does his best to work with us both. I love those two. How could I not? But when they’re in danger, I’m as small as they are!... Celestia help me, there has to be something I can do. This thing is hurting them and I have no idea how to stop it. I’m not good with emotions either and I just… I’m Lightning’s mentor… role model really and when she needs me the most, I can’t do anything. I can’t even talk.’

I didn’t like anyone picking on disabled ponies, even if it was them picking on themselves. I breathed deep to let her have it, to try to say something to lift her spirits… nothing came out. I couldn’t think of anything that fit. What was I supposed to say? Don’t worry, you can help us fight this guy? We needed a civilian like her as far away from the action as possible when things went down. That she was involved anyway was the only reason we let her anywhere near this. I thought for a moment. “Look, I didn’t always know what do to for Scoots either. And I’d be lying if I said that feeling ever goes away. You’re their world with kids, they get everything from you and eventually you realize, you don’t have everything they need. You’re never going to be enough. Just… just always be there. Always hang in there for them. As much as you’re not enough, I think Scootaloo could tell you easily, if you’re just there, it means more than you’ll ever know. Her mother wasn’t there.”

‘Lightning was there for me, even if she doesn’t know she was.’ Vinyl smiled, looking at the small yellow pegasus as she finally stirred back to life. ‘Welp, time to get back to being there huh? She’s more fun than you anyway.’

“Hey!” I shouted, as Vinyl got up, ignoring me.

Lightning started yelling at her. “Vinyl, I just had the best dream ever! I was racing Rebel Rainbow and I totally won!”

“That would be your dreams kiddo!” I shouted as I got up to get my own kid. I looked back, seeing Lightning buzzing around her mentor like a fire fly. Yea, it wasn’t hard to figure out how the filly tired herself out so fast.

Turned out, shock of all shocks, she also had to go back in and eat again, the two of them meeting Octavia as they went. Sweetie Bell and Apple Bloom ran up to Scootaloo as Dusk followed his sister back into the castle.

Before I could get to the three original Cutie Mark Crusaders, Fluttershy, Rarity, Twilight and AJ intercepted me, Pinkie bouncing up behind me. “Rainbow, I know you’re one of the ones with the most reason to fear this guy, but I figure,” Twilight started, “You’re also one of the ones who wants a piece of him the most.” She was right on that. I sat down, ready for whatever she had to say. “I’ve been thinking about this Gray’s actions and Rarity and I think we may have figured a few things out.”

“You’ve got my undivided attention… Actually, girls, go… over there and play… make noise… stay in sight,” I said to the crusaders. The three of them ran off. “I don’t want them getting involved.”

AJ nodded. “Good thinkin’.”

“Listen to this,” Twilight started, she then nodded to Rarity.

“Well yes darling, I just thought of a few things. We’ve only had few sightings of this stallion, but already I’ve noticed a behavior pattern. He has a flare for the dramatic you see, so he’s already tipped his hat at us a few times as to the limits of his powers. First off, he’s always rather close by when his illusions perk up, we know this because he personally attacks ponies. Also he created Lightning herself and if you’ve ever looked at her performances, closely, you’ll notice she has a range limit. I’d say it’s about ten feet. She can’t really control electricity much further than that, only have it shoot away from her. If Gray is more powerful, I suppose the distance of his projections from his person could be greater, but I’d wager not by much. Whenever he projects we'll have a pretty good clue as to where he is. I’d say for now we estimate a radius of about twenty feet.”

I nodded and backed up a little, checking the area around me, feeling ready to go. I felt something squishy on my hoof, but shook it off. Just the feeling of knowing a few solid things about this guy was getting me ready to go a few rounds with him.

Twilight nodded and continued. “Both Lightning and Luna have told us this guy is a pegasus, so I’d wager illusion is ALL that he has, other than flight and he's lucky to have that. Also, with that self-mutilation he did, I doubt he’s all that physically tough.” She nodded, “Everyone got all that?”

I nodded, as did my other four friends.

“Good, one more thing.” She closed her eyes, seeming to shake with rage. Odd as we were just talk- “DISPELL MAGIC!” A purple haze shot out around us. She glared straight ahead. “Couldn’t resist could you?” she asked.

I turned to look where she gazed. There were all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders that stayed with us were lying on the ground, all of them breathing, but with looks of sheer horror on their faces, Sweetie with a black eye.

“What did you do!?” Twilight shouted.

I looked up to see Gray, grinning his unnatural grin, his teeth and eyes glowing… so that was real… great, was kinda hoping it wasn’t. “Just a paralysis drug, she kicked the white one,” He said, pointing at me.

Rarity grunted under her breath to me, “We’ll talk later Rainbow.”

I shot forward into the monster, forelegs outstretched to grab him and- passed right through his image. “Did you think I was just going to stand there dumb founded?” he asked, his image looking back at me. “I’ll give it to you Twilight, projection is all I have, but really, is it better to master one magic, or to barely understand several different types?”

Oh that wasn’t a good way to put it… Twilight pawed the ground under her, snorting with anger. “You think I don’t understand my magic?” she almost laughed. “Buddy, I got news for you. You think you’re special don’t you? You’re just another freak of the week. DISPELL!” The haze shot out from her again, the image of Gray disappearing and his true form appearing in the air. “The only difference between you and the bug bear is how much you’ve pissed me off!”

“Is that so?” he asked.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Twilight spat. “So what are you waiting for, bring it fucking on!” Twilight’s eyes started to glow as her wings spread and she braced to shoot up at Gray.

Author's Note:

Comments

[RainSoar-best]

FIGHT TIME!!! Yes!

[The Crazed Werewolf]

I wondered what the soft squishy thing Rainbow felt was...