You're Wanted: I'll Always Protect You

by SciWriter

Our Separate Ways

A few days passed, my wing not healing nearly as fast as I would have liked. Apple Jack was still in critical condition, Lightning still barely moved faster than my pet tortoise, there were still fissures developing between my daughter’s friends, Twilight was still bed ridden… the only consolation I had was seeing Scootaloo healing at a steady rate. By this point she was able to walk around with no drugs in her system and still have no pain… provided she didn’t trip which is apparently monumentally difficult when you only have three hooves on the ground and a peg strapped to your right shoulder.

Injured as we were, everyone spent most of their time sleeping, still, when a knock came at mine and Scootaloo’s door (yea we were put together thankfully) in the clinic, I was pretty sure it was night time. One it was pretty dark outside the window and well… the door opened. “Princess Luna!” I practically shouted. I quickly got out of bed and bowed, hissing at the pain in my wing as I did.

Yes, Twilight addressed Celestia and Luna almost as equals these days, but I was nowhere near that daring, especially in my current condition. “Under the circumstance we will require you suspend all formalities. Stand.” I slowly rose to my hooves. Luna regarded me and her eyes softened a little. “Art though feeling… better?”

“A little,” I said. Luna towered over me and she was flanked on either side by two powerful looking guard stallions, one a unicorn and the other a bat pony. All three ponies were clad in violet and black armor. To say they were all imposing would be the understatement of the week at least. “Um, you’ll forgive my doubt, but how do I know you’re not Gray.”

“Wise,” commented the bat pony.

“We scared you off your cloud on our first Nightmare Night. Twilight and her dragon Spike were the only other witnesses,” Luna said, still standing straight up and hardly even looking me in the eyes. Fluttershy was levitated into the room next to me. “We were not certain how to calm this one down.” Fluttershy was shaking, her teeth chattering away. I put a wing on her, her head snapping to look at me.

“Um… R-R-Rainbow Dash, what was my wingspeed during tha-tha- the tornado?” Flutters asked.

“Two point three. It’s me Flutters,” I said. She visibly released a boat load of tension.

“She did the same thing with me,” Rarity said, coming into the room under her own power.

“A little paranoia can be healthy in times like this,” said the bat pony.

“I’m not blaming her,” Rarity said, moving next to my injured side. “I’m just stating that she’s being consistent, and that she already cleared me. Now, Princess Luna, you have been wanting us to go outside with you yes?”

“What we have to discuss is not best shared. Also we have a plan to ensure Gray does not listen in to our discussion either.” I looked nervously back at Scootaloo. “Yes, we anticipated thy hesitancy to leave thy offspring at this time.” There were times when I appreciated Luna’s curtness. For instance, she never felt the need to acknowledge Scootaloo’s “adoptive” status, to her, I was now Scootaloo’s mother, plain and simple. She motioned to the unicorn with her. “This is our honor guard… Honor Guard. He will watch the foals of the group.” The unicorn stepped forward, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle following behind.

Scootaloo blinked looking at them. “Apple Bloom!” she practically shouted. Scoots stumbled over her broken leg and got to her friend fast as possible. “Are you okay?” asked the pony with a broken leg of the one with a healing barely formed black eye.

“Ah still can’t talk to Apple Jack,” was all she said as she jumped up on the bed I had been sleeping on and just laid down. Sweetie stayed with Scootaloo on the floor, actually helping her up as Scootaloo had practically face planted running over to them.

“Lightning and Dusk?” Scootaloo asked.

“Dusk won’t even let me apologize for the way ah treated his sister and Lightnin' is barely able ta walk right now, let alone tell im’ ta shut up.” Apple Bloom showed signs that she had been crying again, I couldn’t blame her. “If ya’ll would rather be with them ah won’t take offense.”

“That is not your decision to make.” said the unicorn, a blue shield going up around them. “They will be safe. I swear it upon my life.”

Luna and the bat pony turned to walk out the door, Rarity and Fluttershy following her. I hesitated, looking back at my daughter and her friends as they stood awkwardly looking at Apple Bloom. What were they going through? I thought of what I wouldn’t give to know how they were all holding up, not only as individuals, but as friends at all.

I walked out and after Luna.

(***)

Outside the building I continued to walk with my friends, the bat pony and the princess of the night. After we were a good distance away, Luna spoke. “Dispel magic.” A light blue field shot out from her as she looked around. Then, with no sign of Gray, a blue shield spell was projected over all of us. She kept walking. She motioned to the bat pony. “This is our lieutenant general Moonstone. He and I are here to discuss with thee what is known of Gray.”

“I thought you wanted us to stay out of this.” I noted.

“You will stay out of it,” Luna said, no wavering in her tone. “This is only for thy information when and if he turns his attention to thee again.”

Moonstone finally spoke up. “Yes, you would do well to stay paranoid as long as that stallion still draws breath. Celestia knows I am. From what I was able to glean from your other friends and Twilight, Gray’s power seems almost instinctive to him… how odd. He’s the only pegasus that can even cast illusion, let alone that according to Twilight he seems able to cast it faster than any unicorn she’s ever met.”

“Not only that,” I noted. “He makes things pretty convincing, both with sound and sight… it’s scary. When you talk to him you can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t…” my words sort of trailed off as the vision of Scootaloo burning reappeared in my mind. I had to keep forcing myself to realize that was just a trick.

“Can you feel his illusions? Twilight said she wasn’t sure,” Moonstone noted back.

“Best I can tell, no,” I replied.

“She is unfortunate enough to be the one of us who would know the most about that,” Rarity said with a nod. I then felt my mane extensions lift from my head. I glared at Rarity. “I’m only showing them dear.”

“You could just SAY what you mean, they don’t need a visual,” I snapped.

“Sorry,” she put the extensions back. “What I suppose I should have just said is that Rainbow was attacked before the rest of us.”

“No doubt softening her up,” said Moonstone. He shook his head. “I suppose what’s really bothering me is the question I’m sure already hit all of you. Why not just kill you?”

“Actually I’m just thankful for that point,” I said with a slight grin.

“But why not?” he continued. “And if he’s so good at stealth and redirection, why be so obvious? His behavior makes no sense. His experiments on Lightning Strike were sadistic, but if not for Luna seeing the filly’s nightmares they never would have been discovered. He knows how to keep things to himself. He wants us to know he’s around.” He nodded slightly. “Here’s what you need to understand about Gray. He plans weeks, months, sometimes even years in advance. He was an excellent strategist and often enacting his plans looked like nothing more than ponies going about their daily lives. He has our attention because he clearly wants it. Do not underestimate him.”

“So he’s dangerous?” I asked. “Thanks, I couldn’t have figured that out on my own by this point.” I looked at my barely functioning right wing. “Does he have any weaknesses?”

“In combat?” asked the general. “You’ll excuse me, I rarely size my own soldiers up for a fight. Though if I were pressed, hoof to hoof was never his specialty, though he was always a decent enough shot with a knife. Blades are always his go to weapon and he’s terrifying with them. Course the princess has forbidden you to fight him so here’s my real advice. He’s not very fast, so just run away. I would say fly, but he already eliminated that possibility.”

“He told me to leave town with my daughter,” I said. “When he first attacked me he was acting like there was something important about me, like it was important I leave for some reason. Guess that means I’ll have to stay involved right?”

The general chuckled. “You don’t understand him at all do you? In fact you don’t sound like you understand strategy in general. If he needed you gone so bad, he should have just killed you and then draped your body up somewhere if he still needed the attention.’

“EXCUSE ME!” Rarity demanded. “As her friend I’m rather glad he didn’t do that, I don’t like visions of my favorite speedster strung up. Please restrain your speech if you don’t mind.”

“I’m just being blunt,” he said. “If you can’t take that, then there’s another reason you shouldn’t get involved in this.” Rarity glared. “The point isn’t my desire to see Rainbow Dash hurt, I have no problem with her personally. If Gray saw her as a threat he wouldn’t have announced it to her face and then let her walk away so she could tell everyone.”

“He threatened my daughter…” I said trailing off.

“He does have one weakness in strategy,” I tried not to act as interested as I was in that line. “I observed it while playing a few games with him… rather involved games, he liked that. Gray often tries too hard to prioritize. He will early on try to determine who and what isn’t important and ignore them. Unfortunately as the element bearers you don’t normally qualify as unimportant. You must be aware of that. If I were to guess at any purpose in his personal attack on you however, beyond softening you up, it would either be a ruse, or an attempt to see if he can find a way to safely disregard you. If you’re too scared for your daughter’s sake to get involved, he doesn’t have to worry about you. And if you’re like that, maybe your friends can be persuaded to stay out of things in a similar fashion.”

“So I should take his offer and leave town?” I asked.

“If you want to be safe, why not?” he asked. “Again, your princess has forbidden you to fight, so leaving for Appaloosa might just work out.”

“But what about Lightning and her brother, I can’t leave them to get hurt by him,” I found myself wondering aloud.

“The night guard will take care of this. You and your friends don’t have your elements anymore, so just leave this to the professionals.”

“Excuse me?” I asked with a glare. “This guy blindsided us but are you trying to say we’ve only ever been successful because of that fancy jewelry? You want to test that theory?”

He raised an eyebrow to me. “I am a general in the night guard. You’re a wonderbolts cadet, a fashionista and a zoo keeper, all of you seriously injured. Go ahead, try to fight me, that would be adorable.”

“MOONSTONE!” Luna shouted. “You will respect the element bearers. Without them, I would never have been freed from Nightmare Night.”

“My point is not to insult,” said the general, hanging his head a little. “Put simply, none of you stood a chance against Gray as a group and at full strength. What makes you think you can make a difference now?”

“We’ve been in worse struggles than this and won,” I said, not easing up on the glare.

“Very well, let me try a different tact,” he replied. “If you run to Appaloosa, unless Gray wants you specifically, he’ll probably leave you alone, and with his bombastic displays, it’s likely he’ll get taken down eventually anyway. He’s not an extra dimensional demon, he’s just a pony.”

“If he’s easy to fight, why can’t I help?” I asked.

“Easy. Do you love your daughter?” I looked away. “Like that’s a question I have to ask. He’s specifically singled her out and attacked her and used her to threaten you. You can “help” if you like, but as easy as he would be to stop, she would be even easier to injure permanently or even kill. I have no family, to attack me, Gray has to attack me. To attack you, he only has to attack Scootaloo.”

“He better not attack her again! Or I’ll-“

“Or you’ll what?” Moonstone almost laughed out. “If he stood in front of you with a knife to her throat, what would you do? Beg? By the time you would have flown at him to save her she would be long dead. Gray is not like any creature you have ever fought. He has no honor and there is no level to which he will not sink. He tortured two foals both for work and pleasure. You think killing one more is really going to bother him?”

I bit my lip, backing up from him. “Well not all of us have children,” Rarity pointed out.

“Sweetie Belle? I recall something about her being paralyzed during the fight too,” said Moonstone.

“Um… well… myself, Pinkie and Twilight have no children in our lives,” Fluttershy pointed out.

“Pinkie and Twilight can barely walk. Providing the Princess of the night approves, I’ll gladly take you into my ranks against this maniac, if you can prove yourself against me.” Moonstone turned to Fluttershy, stood up tall, spread his black wings, stomped the ground and glared at her. Fluttershy squeaked and backed away quickly.

“She’s timid by nature, that’s hardly fair-“ I started but the general interrupted again.

“She’s afraid of a stallion who is bound by decree to never harm her, how can I count on her against a menace who took down the champions of Equestria all at once and torments children for fun?” he demanded. "I have a kingdom to protect.”

“If you would see past your stupid ego-“ I began but, not surprisingly, he cut that off.

“Ego?” he spat out. “If I remember the tales you of all ponies should know something about that Rainbow Dash. This isn't about ego you arrogant child. Did you know Gray made recordings of what he did to Lightning and Dusk? I watched them with Luna before we destroyed them. Those horrors were seared into my mind. Forgive me if this sounds egotistical, but I will NEVER allow that to happen to another child and if you get in my way so help me-“

“General!” Luna demanded again.

He hung his head, but I realized it was me who wasn’t thinking right. “Sorry, I guess you’re really just trying to do your job… wait, destroyed?”

“There are public records of Gray’s activities. However what he did in secret, attempting dark ascension and the creation of discount alicorns, his journals, his demented recordings, his equipment, it was all destroyed.”

“Why would you do that?” Rarity demanded. “I’m sorry, but doing that you were just asking to be blind sided.”

Luna stopped. “We were asking for him to resurrect?” She asked. “I placed the spell of the living nightmare on that monster. He should have lived his last hours in horror and died of sheer terror, if not from exposure from being trapped in a dream for too long without food or water. A death sentence tends to take care of problems rather permanently in my experience.”

“Alright I admit that’s fair,” Rarity amended. “However was anything he found useful? Could it be used to understand others like him?”

“It will have to be found another way. We will NOT encourage that kind of behavior. Everything he accomplished perished in flames. The same will be done to anyone who follows in his steps. We do not wish to understand his kind, we want them destroyed.”

“But at the same time, even if Gray himself didn’t come back, learning about him could have let you anticipate the next pony like him and stop them before they got too far,” Rarity argued back.

“And in the meantime it would have afforded him fame and given other evil ponies the chance to analyze his actions and “improve” upon them. What would thee have us do? Prepare for what specifically lead to a unique case? Preparative measures are often naive, you can’t prepare for something that happened in the past as it happened then because rarely will circumstances replicate themselves.”

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it!” Rarity shouted.

“That would apply the same to our enemies as us,” Luna shot back.

“So don’t publicize what you find.”

“Hide it? Would you think it wise and fair to constantly hide things from our populace?”

“Well no…” Rarity said, looking sideways. “But knowledge is power.”

“Indeed it is.”

Rarity paused, but then started again. “Gray is back is he not? You’re unprepared are you not? I think the situation speaks for itself. Knowledge could have helped. You burned it.”

“I am your princess and am only even hearing such criticism because I am bound by morality. However I am still the law. That speaks for itself.” She looked in to the sky. “The question remains and we do not think it has been fully clarified. Lightning and Dusk will be protected by the solar sisters and the soldiers of the night and day. Gray will be hunted down. You have been forbidden from this fight. We will provide guarded transportation if you wish to leave Ponyville. If not, your blood, and that of your loved ones will be on your hooves... please, just go. We do not wish to see more blood. Let us handle this.” She looked down at the three of us, her eyes softening. “Forget your pride and just go.”

I looked back at my wing, Rarity examining her own collapsed ribs. I thought of Scootaloo, lying there paralyzed on the ground as Gray stomped on her leg. I thought how I accidentally gave Sweetie a black eye. I was angry, I had been violated, psychologically tortured and my own daughter had been threatened and attacked. I wanted Gray dead, and wanted to be the one to kill him… but I also wanted rest. I wanted to know I was safe, to have my daughter play in safety again. I wanted to again be able to talk to other ponies without fearing they were Gray in disguise.

I hung my head. Rarity did the same, Fluttershy sighing beside her. The princess of the night knelt down to look as us as equals. “You shall not be thought less of. You have your own to protect in this. You will be allowed three weeks to heal. My guard will stay here for the duration. We… I promise, I and my guard will protect the children Lightning and Dusk and we will watch over Apple Jack as she recovers. You have nothing to fear in leaving.”

(***)

Three weeks passed. Good news, everyone was now back on their hooves except Apple Jack. Bad news, Apple Jack, while she was improving health wise, still couldn’t leave her bed for longer than a few minutes at a time. Granny Smith was active by comparison. It frustrated her like crazy. On the flip side, Apple Bloom was ecstatic to be able to talk to her, just happy she was alive, and while AJ confided in me how much she currently hated life, Apple Bloom still brought a smile to her face.

So… yea… Twilight fought tooth and hoof to be allowed to stay in Ponyville and help take down Gray, but she made it clear to me she really would rather I got out of town, especially if I would take the foals with me. Rarity and Pinkie were coming too, Fluttershy not able to part with all her animals for an extended time. But that meant… Apple Bloom was coming with me.

In preparation for when she left with me, Apple Bloom was now living in my house and today we were setting out for the train, stopping to say good bye to Apple Jack on the way. I had gone back and forth on taking the filly with me, but AJ wouldn’t have any of it. “If you don’t take ma sister away from this monster, ah will consider YOU the monster. Ah love havn’ her around, but ah will not risk her life just to cheer me up in ma sorry state. Don’t cha worry none, ah promise ah’ll still be here when ya’ll get back.” It was what she said after that that bugged. “Apple Bloom has lost enough folks in her life, so no matter how much ah don’t like life right now, ah will hang on to it. If fer nothin’ else, then fer her.”

We started walking to the hospital, me, Rarity, Apple Bloom, Sweetie, Scootaloo and Pinkie. Lightning and Dusk would come and see us off with Vinyl, however they all had to stay in Ponyville with the night guard. As we walked, Rarity and I were silent, however Scootaloo, Sweetie and Pinkie took to trying to cheer up Apple Bloom, who was currently walking rather slowly behind the group. I didn’t want to be a prick, but part of me wanted to tell her she needed to pick up the pace or be left behind.

Scootaloo wrapped a wing around her friend for a few seconds, but she pushed Scootaloo away. “AJ should be out of bed soon enough,” she said. “The doctors said so. She’ll be alright.”

“She loves buckin’ an’ runnin’ an all that stuff,” Apple Bloom said, “An she told me that’s all done for her now. Am glad she’s still around, don’t get me wrong. But ah’m just sad fer her. What r’ we even gonna do together when she’s… kinda healed?”

“You can play board games, or maybe you can just sit and tell jokes, I love doing that!” Pinkie chirped.

“Yea, and we can train Lightning to take her place on the farm maybe… I can just see how that will go down,” Sweetie said.

Apple Bloom finally chuckled. “We want to still HAVE a farm after the next apple buck season thankyou.” She then grunted and growled a few times. Scootaloo looked at her inquisitively. “Oh it’s just… we’re all gonna be safe, but Lightning and her brother are still gonna be bein’ hunted by that freak. Layin’ there helpless like that on the ground, that was the scariest time of ma whole life. Ah can only imagine what it was like ta live with Gray. They just got away from him. Ah don’t want him after ANYONE I care about. Tell me there’s something ah can do to help… someone, just tell me… someone?”

She looked up at me and Rarity, but all I could do was hang my head. Pinkie pranced in front of everyone. “Oh come on all you gloomy gusses, we’re just gonna say good bye to Apple Jack for a few weeks at worst, the night guard is gonna take care of that nasty pony Gray and then we’re just gonna come back. Then I’ll make some of my famous Rainbow Cupcakes, the kind that freak out Dashie here cause they look like her mane.” We all chuckled at that. “Who knows, maybe I make them out of Rainbow Dash clones that I keep in my basement.”

“Hmm… might explain why they taste so good… oh my what did I just say there,” Rarity said, as I cringed.

“Children are present,” I said.

“Huh?” Apple Bloom said.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said back.

“Hey Rarity, out of curiosity, can you cast that dispel magic spell?”

“Well no darling, I’m delicate and pretty decent with my telekinesis and other forms of natural magic, but spells really aren’t my specialty. But more to the point, why would you ask that Pinkie?” Rarity asked back.

“Um… Rarity… I didn’t ask that,” Pinkie said.

Author's Note:

edited by EarthRainbow

Comments

[RainSoar-best]

Oh no that ending. Great chapter by the way. I can't believe that they have to leave. I wish great luck on the night and day guard. I also hope AJ will be ok. Anyway, this will be good for sure.

[SonicRPika]

Errr...

Did Gray follow them? If so, does this mean Scootaloo will have to stay with the night guard (asuming she too is being hunted)? If not, is he hunting RD instead?

Questions in my head. Good Chapter anyway, can't wait for the next.

[SciWriter]

6788826

I have to be honest, even I don't know how AJ is coming out of this. The story has already forced itself to be of the variety that if I continue in this universe after it's over, there can't be a reset button. There is just now way everything can go back to normal. Beyond that though, just stay along for the ride everyone!

[mechgamer]

the pic reminds me of the Cheshire cat from Alice in wonderland.