> You're Wanted: I'll Always Protect You
>  by SciWriter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Concert
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash’s perspective

So the day was finally here, Vinyl’s comeback concert. 

Sheesh this was awkward. I was so new to this mom thing, and it didn’t help that Scootaloo was pretty much new to the idea of even having a mother. I had adopted her about three months ago from a terrible home with a mother who pretty much left her to starve, only leaving a few bits on the table for her every week, like a family stipend or something. Scoots went through a lot even after I adopted her, so it’s not really surprising that she screwed up. 

Still, about a week ago she said something pretty nasty to her friend Sweetie Belle, basically wishing Sweetie would experience a tragedy of her own and pushing her away because she hadn’t. When my own mother passed away, I had said a few similar things. Lost a lot of good friends that way.

I was NOT going to let Scootaloo make the same mistakes. Thus I gave her her first punishment. No Cutie Mark Crusaders for two weeks. Harsh I guess, but if she wanted to push away friends, I figured I would give her a preview of what that would lead to. 

So what was I doing at a concert WITH Scootaloo then? Well one of Scootaloo’s friends, a filly named Lightning Strike, was staring as a performer in it. Lightning looked up to me but I didn’t really know her all that well myself. The thing was, from what I understood, she had a pretty hard time making friends. Apple Jack convinced me that keeping Scootaloo from the concert would basically be akin to punishing Lightning rather than just Scoots. I was thus making a rather shaky exception. 

Course not like Scootaloo was making this easy. And her friends weren’t helping.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle found us in the crowd as Vinyl was still doing her instrument checks. Apple Bloom was about to speak when she was overridden. 

“Scootaloo!” came a shout. And yea, that was another one of Scoot’s friends, her own little admirer, Dusk. He came barreling over to her. I stepped in between. He looked up at me with big pleading eyes. I held my ground. I looked over at Scootaloo, her giving me the same eyes. 

Sheesh, no one ever told me mother’s had to have iron resolve like this. I found myself almost preferring one of the group would throw a temper tantrum, but they were all too well behaved for that. Thus I just looked and felt like the bad guy. And thus a mini war started up in my head. It went something like this:

‘Look at those eyes. Remember Scootaloo is your friend, your admirer, she’s never hurt you, how can you do this to her!’

‘She hurt one of her friends.’

‘So you hurt her?’

‘It’s not about that.’

‘Dusk admires her, like she admires you, can you really keep them apart?’

‘Sure I can.’

‘Do you really want to?’

‘No…’

“Can Scootaloo come sit with us?” Apple Bloom asked. 

‘It’s for her own good, for her own good, for her own good,’ I kept repeating in my head. “Not today,” I said nervously. 

AB sighed. “Okay, c’mon Dusty, yer sister ll’ start gettin’ worried if she don’t see ya.”

Dusk looked up at the sky. “Twilight is supposed to be watching me during the concert, where’s she at?” he asked. 

“Right here kiddo,” my lavender friend said, landing beside me. A purple energy field went around him and she lifted the small blue earth pony into the air with her magic. 

I would comment on how excited seeing him made his big sister on stage, but she was performing in the comeback concert of her biggest idol, Vinyl Scratch, happiness was pretty much just her mode right now. Looking at the yellow filly on stage, one couldn’t help just smiling in general. She yelled, giggled and started hugging Vinyl, moving at ridiculous speeds. 

‘Doesn’t Scootaloo deserve to be happy like that?’

‘Shut up! Please shut up! What are you the anti-conscience?’ 

AB, Dusk and Sweetie settled in on the other side of Twilight. Technically they were pretty close to Scoots, but I decided not to start splitting hairs, they weren’t together and that was the point. Still, my mind was hammering away at me. Until I heard Scootaloo speak up. “Um Sweetie…” I was about to interrupt as she said it. “I really am sorry. I don’t ever want to see you hurt okay? You believe me right?”

On the other side of Twilight and Apple Bloom, Sweetie smiled sympathetically at Scootaloo. “Of course. I already said I forgive you.” 

I smiled as the words of Scootaloo’s therapist came back to me. His words went something like this; “Try not to think of yourself as the girl’s friend or enemy, not her protector, teacher or even her leader. You’re her parent. Your job is to be what she needs when she needs it.”

She needed to have someone show her right from wrong in this instance. She got the message it seemed. It seemed maybe I was doing right by her, much as it was hurting us both. 

The music started and everyone quickly got quiet. All that dreary punishment business aside, I hoped me and Scoots could get some enjoyment out of this. 

Lightning Strike had some unusual abilities and they were the reason Vinyl was having her perform. Certainly and most assuredly, one of her special talents was NOT singing. The base dropped and she started singing anyway however.  I had to try so hard not to laugh my head off and embarrass the filly. She admired me so much she had her own nick name for me after all, Rebel Rainbow. Still, hearing her belt out lyrics brought a pretty big smile to my face. Thankfully for us both Vinyl cut Lighting’s mic and tried to drown out her singing with the music and a few prerecorded voices. 

The chorus changed and on stage Scootaloo’s friend started to fly. Then the base dropped again, Lightning touching down on the ground of the stage, finally showing off her major talent that so many came to see along with Vinyl’s music. She slammed down her right hoof and a huge bolt of electric energy shot out from it, shaking the crowd. 

The chorus hit and ponies all around me started their own little dances. Well… most of them did anyway. Scootaloo was rocking out, dancing like a fool, which made me pretty happy to see. Apple Bloom, as this was NOT her kind of music, was trying her best not to roll her eyes… again. Dusk started trying to sing along, which was really just him mouthing the words as he heard them and trying to guess the next word. 

Next to me Twilight just rocked her head a little. I’m not really sure what kind of music she’s into. I should ask some day.

Sweetie Belle of course didn’t know how to dance at all, so that made for a display almost as comical as Lightning’s singing… did I say almost? Actually as she suddenly tripped over one of her own hooves and face planted in the dirt, I had an even harder time not laughing. 

All the while overhead lightning bolts started shooting out in time with the music. I had to admit this was a dazzling display. Several times a bolt went off over head that was so powerful it shook me down to my hooves with thunder. The lightning actually looked pretty dangerous and I understood why all pegasi in the audience had been given strict guidelines NOT to fly. 

Still, not fly? A pegasus not fly? Well yes there’s Scoots but she’s disabled. I felt like my hooves were chained to the ground. The music was awesome and the lightning display was the best I had seen in ages… well maybe ever, I don’t even think a unicorn could do better. (Take that unicorns! That was a pegasus filly up there!) I wanted to be in the air, surrounded by all the awesomeness… maybe even trying to get a little attention. I know it’s wrong to show off at someone else’s show it’s just… this was so awesome and I couldn’t fly! I love to fly, I need to fly! I swear if I don’t fly for a certain number of hours a day, I get sick. It’s never really happened that way but I’m pretty sure it could. Best keep flying just in case and all. 

The music hit a sudden calm. It started to rev up then for a huge drop in the base and change in tone. I waited, this sounded like it would be cool. Vinyl was even turning down the volume.

Lightning landed rearing up to pounce and no doubt shoot out a blast like no pony had ever seen. 

Instead of dropping forward with the base, on stage Lightning Strike dropped backwards, eyes wide, ears tucked down and mouth fixed open in terror. 

Lightning slowly got back upright, however still shaking, wings stuck to her sides and head down. The music stopped. I followed the filly’s gaze to… something hanging in the air just a few meters away from me. 

What looked like a gray pegasus hung in the air with its wings sticking straight out. One has to understand, flapping only does so much for pegasi, however flying without flapping at all, I don’t think it’s possible, besides it’s creepy as hell. The pony’s mane and tail blew in the still air and his eyes were held shut. 

It slowly opened its eyelids to reveal two objects that looked like eyes in its head but… eyes don’t glow blue and they usually have irises if I remember correctly. These eyes emitted a baby blue aura and only had tiny pupils. The eyes pointed at little Lightning Strike. The thing then started to smile.

Behind the mock stallion’s lips were sharp teeth, like those of a shark, all of them giving off the same baby blue aura. His smile just kept opening, threatening to split open his face- no his smile actually did split open his face, cutting straight through to the start of his neck. 

Not sure what to do, I pushed Scootaloo under my stomach to protect her. She didn’t object much, starting to tremble. “Hello Lightning.” Said the creature without moving its lips. 

“YOU!” Lightning shouted. Electric energy surrounded the filly, lifting her into the air. The creature disappeared. I started scanning the air and crowd. What was this, part of the show? 

The creature reappeared on stage. The look of sheer horror on Lightning’s face as she dropped to the ground banished any illusions I had. Whatever was happening, was no show. I reared back to fly to the defense of the little filly, but something suddenly made me freeze. 

Scootaloo was holding my leg. I could easily have pushed her off but- actually I felt like I could sooner have pulled off my own leg than push her away. I was spooked, but watching a horrible creature bear down on one of her friends, it had to be terrifying her. 

On stage Vinyl crashed through her instruments and tried to come to her little fan’s defense, but with just a look from that creature, Vinyl fell back in fear as well. Vinyl wasn’t completely backing down however, she warmed up her horn to fight back. 

Lightning screamed in pain, her wing moving in a strange fashion. It then hung by her side in a motion I knew all too well. Nothing had touched the filly, but somehow her right wing just broke. A small ache came to my own right wing remembering the pain of an accident I had a few years back. 

Rage and terror shot through me, but Scootaloo’s terrified hugging on my leg kept me on the ground. I looked at Twilight, who was signaling our friends in the crowd to start moving. I didn’t get it. How was she feeling less scared than me? 

“This is a declaration of intent,” Came the voice again, this time the creature’s lips actually moving. “The girl belongs to me, as does her young friend. I will take what I want and soon, what I am forming will cause a cataclysm that will be remembered until the end of time.” 

I wanted to fly onto the stage and start beating this creep, but again I couldn’t move. Scootaloo was scared and for some reason that held me like a row boat trying to escape the anchor for a battle ship. 

As I kept having a war with my own emotions, Fluttershy walked past me. “Fluttershy, wait for my signal!” Twilight scolded. 

My normally timid friend didn’t even look at Twilight as she flatly said, “No.”. She shot up to the stage and landed in front of Lightning Strike almost with a thump. 

Watching Fluttershy, a few select memories came back to me. Her confronting of a massive dragon, the story of her staring down a cockatrice, in both those instances, Fluttershy saved her friends with incredible courage. However no one had ever seen what she was like if someone actually managed to hurt another pony in front of her. 

Fluttershy shook with a fury that even from a distance looked to completely eclipse my own. Fluttershy spread her wings. “No one hurts a filly in front of me!”

Twilight had left before I even knew it. She landed between the creature and Vinyl. “Agreed. Come quietly or this will get ugly.”

I couldn’t leave Scoots, this was torture. “What are you doing?!” Scoots demanded. “That’s my friend up there, move!” Finally I pushed her off my hind leg, like those words set me free. I shot into the air. 

“Personally I’m hoping to mess this freak’s face up even more than it already is.” I shouted. This THING would be destroyed. It had hurt one of Scootaloo’s friends… wait what? Why didn’t I care about Lightning just for her own sake? “Go ahead and resist.”

The creature grinned at me. His gaze changed slightly to looking down to where I had been in the crowd. I had to fight a look of fear and just pushed a glare, hoping he wouldn’t realize my weakness. 

Vinyl suddenly stumbled to the side like something had struck her. “Enough!” shouted Twilight. “Trying to fight a little girl and a musician?” AJ crawled up on stage next to Fluttershy and behind the entire group, instruments and wood debris started to float all around as Rarity walked on stage towards the group. “Try fighting me and my friends. I guarantee we’ve fought tougher than you.”

“Oh no doubt you have, I’ve kept up with the news about you… five?” asked the creature. 

“Over here!” came Pinkie’s voice. I have never really heard Pinkie seethe with anger before, but then again, I’d never seen someone pretty much torture a child in front of her before either. Still as she spoke, the cannon she pointed at the stage, which she had no doubt pulled out of thin air, did not look at all like her normal party cannon. “Step away from the filly. No pony hurts kids while I’m around!”

“Do you six really even know this girl?” the creature asked back. 

“Doesn’t matter,” came Twilight’s answer. “We’ll protect her just the same. Now what’s it gonna be? You can surrender or you can fight. I don’t place much odds on you liking the outcome either way.”

“Or I could run away,” he continued. 

“You could try,” Twilight said, giving me a slight glance. I stared at the monster, just waiting for him to attempt flight. 

“If I were to fight you and win, what would I really gain besides an injury that would likely impair or kill me? One or two of you I might challenge, but this is ridiculous. If I go with you, I’ll be imprisoned and my plan will come to nothing. Thus my decision has been made for me it appears.” Said the creature. It sounded like rambling to me really, I was just waiting for him to attempt take off. He opened his wings and I felt my adrenaline start to flow. Here it came, no one could beat me in the air, and this thing was going to be no exception. Twilight and the others started to move as if to prepare for a chase as well. 

The creature disappeared. Had I blinked? I saw him one second and in less than a second I just didn’t, like he was never there in the first place. No mist, no light flash, no waiting for me to blink, he was just gone. I started scanning the crowd over and over. 

I glanced at Scootaloo several times. She was fine, her friends and her had gathered around Dusk, who currently was trying to get to the stage, yelling his sister’s name over and over. He looked pretty scared, but not as bad as Lightning herself, still whimpering on stage. 

Twilight cocked her head at me a few times and I shot away, circling over the crowd several times. I scanned in the crowd, I scanned the sky, I even started to fly way outside the bounds of the concert into town. Nothing. No sign of the creature anywhere. What was going on?

I returned to the group quickly. “It’s like he’s just gone,” I said. Frustration started to mount inside me. He got away, that mother bucker got away!  

Twilight closed her eyes. “I don’t like how confident he sounded.” She started to yell orders to the crowd. “I want this crowd to disperse. Get to your homes. Please work with us everypony. Stay indoors for a little while and keep your children close. Please just do what I say.”

I kept scanning the crowd as they started leaving. This just didn’t make sense. Something that freaky looking isn’t exactly easy to hide. 

I returned momentarily to looking at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Dusk was pretty much the baby of the group, so it made sense they tried to protect him. However apparently he wasn’t a complete push over. As they kept holding him back from going to his sister, he finally delivered a powerful kick straight to Apple Bloom’s face, dislodging her and shocking the others. He then scrambled up to the stage and to his sister’s side. 

Without having one of their own to protect, the CMC split up, Sweetie running to Rarity, Apple Bloom to AJ and Scootaloo- Scootaloo just got up on stage. “Get out of here Scoots,” I yelled. 

“Um… momma Dash… I’m pretty sure Twi’s orders were for me to stick with my parent,” she replied. 

“Oh right,” I noted. I landed next to her. 

“Where’s Dusk!?” Lightning shouted. Her brother touched her shoulder as she started to scan the area for him. Feeling him do that, she turned and wrapped him in a hug, starting to scan the area again. I myself started scanning again. I don’t know when exactly I did it, but I also apparently shoved Scootaloo under me. 

Lightning fell off of Dusk, sobbing over her wing. It was like she had just remembered it was broken or something. Again, my own wing had a slight feeling of pain, remembering just what she was probably going through. 

Twilight started giving orders. “Rainbow, you and Fluttershy stay with Lightning and her brother. Rarity, AJ, you stay here in case that creep comes back. Pinkie, you’re the fastest of the group-“

“Hey!” I shouted. I was the fastest, I was, I so was.

“Go ahead argue with me,” Twilight said. She sounded so confident. I was faster than Pinkie, I knew it. Pinkie has only had a few flukes, she couldn’t travel like me. I was about to argue, when I looked over at Pinkie. She was livid. I could easily tell she was more than ready to kill that creature. I then looked at Scoots. Did I really want to stop Pinkie and leave my daughter? I still gave Pinkie a look of irritation, her just shrugging at me. 

Twilight continued. “What I thought,” I still knew she was wrong in my own head. “Pinkie, you search the town. Whatever that was should be easy to spot with just a glance.” Yea, you’d think so…

“Okey dokie loki!” Pinkie said and shot away in a blur of shades of Pinkie. Pinkie’s little good bye motto sounded different than usual, but I didn’t pay it too much mind. 

Twilight seemed to want to stop her to say something else, but Pinkie had already left. I wish I could say that leaving without giving ponies time to talk was unusual for Pinkie, but she was a mare after my own heart. Neither one of us were known for our patience. “I was gonna tell her to careful, but let’s face it, if someone actually manages to hurt Pinkie… I’ll be rather surprised.”

Pinkie… hurt? “I’ll be pissed,” I quickly corrected. 

“You should go home Vinyl, I’m sorry your concert was ruined.” Twi continued. However Vinyl shook her head in refusal. “Excuse me?”

Vinyl Scratch was actually mute, so to “speak” to us she actually had to use a handy notepad. ‘Remember our meeting with Lightning’s father? I’m her legal guardian while she’s in Ponyville.’ She wrote.

“Can you defend yourself?” asked Twilight back. 

	‘I am a unicorn after all. I think I can manage against a pegasus.’

Okay that was going too far, no matter what the circumstances. “You trying to say something?” my pegasus pride forced me to say. 

“Please not now Rainbow.” Twi said with a sigh. I rolled my eyes, but stepped backwards a little. We so weren’t done after that comment, but I supposed there could easily be better times. “Stay on guard and stay together.”

Fluttershy started to examine young Lightning’s wing. Lightning started to hiss and cry… kinda the same way I did when Twilight examined my wing when I broke it. Course she didn’t have the same bedside manner. “Please, try to be brave little one,” said Fluttershy with her warm calming smile.

(Compare that to Twilight’s “C’mon Rainbow, I know you’re tougher than that,” I guess that wasn’t so bad but Rarity’s “It doesn’t hurt that much does it?” Yes, yes it did, you twerps trying breaking your own bones!)

“How is she?” Twilight said gently. I sighed inwardly. Yes, I know Twilight has grown a lot over the years, and I’m a full groan mare and Lightning was just a kid, but still… where was that kind of sympathy for me?

“She’s not in immediate danger, but I think it would be best if we get her to the clinic. Her wing is broken.” Lightning let out a small whimper. “Oh don’t worry, it should heal with proper attention, you’ll be flying again in no time. Like I said, just be brave.” Lightning looked back at her wing whimpering again. “I know it hurts.” I knew it too, I started to walk over to her. My own bedside manner wasn’t always terrible. I smiled gently and heard Fluttershy’s next line. “It’s like someone twisted it until several of the smaller bones got… let’s just say it should be looked at.” Suddenly in my eyes Lightning’s body seem to transform slightly to look more like Scootaloo’s. My imagination then played what happened to Lightning happening to Scootaloo. My expression sharply changed and I started to shake with rage. Lightning almost jumped back from me and Scootaloo tugged at my leg. 

What was going on with my head? My thoughts kept going to Scoots, why? 

“Any idea what in the Sam hell that was?” Apple Jack asked. 

“Library?” I asked, Twilight’s answer to every question really. 

“Someone has to see if anything like that has been seen before.” Twi said with a nod. “Rainbow, if there’s trouble, you come get me.”

“What!?” I demanded. “Fluttershy can get you, but I should fight. My daughter Scootaloo is here and-“ actually Twilight didn’t really interrupt me. It’s just, there was that name again. Why? Scootaloo wasn’t in danger so far as I knew so why did I keep worrying about her? My mind just kept replaying the thought of someone breaking one of her wings. This wasn’t a matter of pride, I couldn’t leave Scootaloo alone if that thing attacked. 

“And you can get me in seconds as opposed to Fluttershy’s minute and a half,” Twi pointed out. 

She had a point. “Fine,” I said, not sure if I meant it. Twilight flew away. 

Fluttershy and Vinyl started to carry Lightning as a bit of a team effort, Fluttershy gliding slowly with the filly on her back while Vinyl kept her wing steady. 

(All my whining being said, actually back when I broke my wing, Twilight and Rarity had carried me to the hospital in much the same way. Pinkie was there too, but she was kind of freaking out.)

As we moved forward, Vinyl kept trying to nod at Lightning for some reason. I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to do, and I guessed she couldn’t write and hold the filly’s wing at the same time. I shrugged, if it was urgent, Vinyl would have found a way to “speak” her mind. 

Course looking at the six of us, I found myself doing just that. “So… if we really are attacked…” I looked down at Scootaloo hovering over Dusk, like if anything happened she would somehow be able to protect her littlest friend. I moved casually to Fluttershy’s ear and then whispered in it. “Like I was saying, IF we’re attacked, that creep will have his pick of kids to use as a hostages. Two disabled pegasi, one injured and a six year old colt. Not to mention I doubt Vinyl knows much about fighting.”

“That is why we’re here Rainbow.” Fluttershy replied, keeping it down.

“I know that, I just don’t like the odds here. I’d feel a lot better if we at least got Dusk and Scootaloo out of here. That thing was after Lightning not them. Let’s try not to give him ideas ya know?” 

“What about Lightning’s phobia? She’s terrified of being apart from her brother for too long, especially if there’s danger.”

“Heh… think I might know a thing or two about that. Let me try something alright?” I spoke up. “Everyone please stop.” The small convoy halted. “I know Twilight told us to stick together, and I don’t like contradicting her in a case like this, but honestly I think it has to be done. There are too many kids here if that thing tries to attack again. I need to take Dusk and Scootaloo somewhere…” I pronounced my next word slowly and very audibly. “Safe. Safer than here.”

Lightning’s eyes went wide. “Dusk stays with me. He’s safe with me.” She looked like she was trying to get down, but when she moved, she yelped in pain, settling back down on Fluttershy’s back. “You can’t take him away,” she started to cry.

“I’m not…” wow, talk about heart breaking. She said that like I was talking about killing him. “I just want him to be safe.” I snatched up Dusk and dropped him on my back. I was about to take off and snatch up my daughter, when Lightning’s eyes found mine again. She was just so worried. No, it was not at all lost on me that her thoughts were probably similar to mine on Scootaloo. 

Scootaloo tugged on my leg. “She has a phobia,” she said. “You can’t just ignore that.” I wasn’t ignoring it, but I knew I was right, it was best they weren’t all together right now. Scootaloo scratched her head. “Hold on. Ya know, my therapist and Lightning’s are the same person. He did tell me that Lightning doesn’t worry too much about her brother at home with their dad.”

“Well yea, their dad is a dragon,” I said. 

“Soooo…” Scootaloo replied. 

I recoiled. “You… no! I-“ the very thought of leaving my little filly with a full sized dragon- actually, he WAS a good dragon and really I wouldn’t bet much that mister messed up face would really want to challenge him. I looked at Lightning. “If… gulp” I still wasn’t sure about leaving Scootaloo with a dragon but then again… “If I took them to your father, would you be alright with that?”

Lightning bit her lip. “He’s our daddy… he’ll protect Dusk,” she looked back at her wing. “I can’t move much.” She sighed. “Go… please… protect my brother…”

I grabbed Scootaloo around the chest and started to fly away. The dragon’s cave was a long ways away and Twilight was going to be so pissed that I had split up the group. 

But that wasn’t what stuck with me as I flew. It was the pitiful look of Lightning Strike as I took off with her brother. Her plea played over and over in my mind. “Please… protect me brother.” 

I wondered. Just over and an hour and I would be saying much the same thing to Torkuda the Dragon when leaving Scootaloo. I even started saying it in my head. “Please… protect my daughter.”
	
> You're Like Me
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Earlier that day I had been flying around with Scoots and it took me maybe ten minutes to get to a far off mountain. I use to go pretty slow with passengers, but over the last few months with Scoots I was gaining experience in not throwing passengers off on accident. You see, Scoots isn’t one to sit back and just enjoy the ride, probably one of the many reasons we’re so close. She always wants to go faster, even though she’s not the one flying. 

Two passengers however, one, Dusk, concentrating more on crying than hanging on to boot, that’s another story. I think it took me a full twenty or more minutes just to get to the mountains of Canterlot. (Yes I’ve taken the train there before, but that’s because my friends were coming and I didn’t want to just race on ahead of them.) 

The closer I got to Torkuda’s cave, I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach. Did I really want to leave my daughter with a dragon? Yes I knew Torkuda and yes I knew he wasn’t evil, but well, he’s still a dragon. Yea, yea, call me racist, but what was I supposed to be thinking getting ready to leave my daughter with a creature so massive his eye was two times the size of my whole body? At least I knew Scoots was safe from that… thing that appeared earlier.

I touched down and put down Scootaloo. Dusk was still crying into my mane, and Scootaloo had to help him off my back. Shortly after is when I finally looked into Dusk’s eyes. The emotions that washed over me… I had to sit down. He looked so scared. Tears were streaming out of his now almost blood shot eyes, his mane was scattered and… yea it took about ten seconds for him to collapse on the ground crying. 

Scootaloo stood over him, hugging his neck and doing her best to comfort him. I forced myself to walk further into the cave. I knew I just I had to get Torkuda and leave, but I wanted to help. The further away I got, it was almost like Dusk’s sobs got louder. 

I heard a series of crashes and then saw the form of Torkuda pass right over me. His massive green head was suddenly over his crying adopted son, myself standing, feeling like an ant, under his massive yellow underbelly. “Dusk, what’s wrong?” he asked. I flew back over to the foals.

The colt slowly sat up, Scootaloo still having a foreleg around his shoulders. “Lightning… he… the scientist guy… Doctor Gray, he’s back.”

“What?!” came a slightly tempered angry reply.

“Doctor Gray, the bad pony, the pony who-“

“The stallion who hurt you?” Torkuda asked. 

“Yes,” Dusk replied. 

The dragon growled, a huge clawed hand going around Scootaloo and Dusk, Torkuda looking left and right outside the cave. 

“I doubt he followed us,” I spoke up. 

“Lightning? Where is she?” he asked. 

“When he- Doctor Gray I guess- attacked, he broke Lightning’s right wing, basically to make threat I guess-“ Torkuda growled and stomped with his back leg, shaking ground I stood on. I was so glad he was on my side. “She’s at the clinic. I thought it best to get your son safely back to you.”

“Who’s watching her?”

“Fluttershy and Vinyl right now,” I started.

“What?!” the dragon demanded. “That’s all? Are you all taking this seriously? A timid mare who can barely fly and a DJ?”

“We’re not a military town Torkuda. Twilight is trying to find answers on what happened in the library and my other friends are trying to find the monster- the doctor. Even for us, this was a very unusual attack." 

Torkuda slowly lifted the hand covering Scootaloo and Dusk. “What is she doing here?” he asked, not pointing, but obviously referring to Scootaloo.

“She’s um… my daughter and I um… I’m… REALLY scared. I just- I’ve never seen anything attack a filly like that and… I don’t know why, but I keep thinking about him… doing what he did to your daughter to my daughter and… I had to get her out of there.” Torkuda looked back at me. “I know she’ll be safe with you-“

“Am I supposed to take the high road? You leave my daughter injured in a small clinic with not but the protection of a disabled musician and a slow timid mare and you expect to earn the protection of a dragon for your own daughter?” he started to glare. 

“HEY!” Scootaloo demanded. “Fluttershy is a lot more powerful than you think. She’s stared down a cockatrice!” 

“I think I picked one of those out from under my back claw yesterday… then again I suppose that’s a feat for a pony all the same,” the dragon replied. “Perhaps that was a… respectable choice. I haven’t heard much good about Fluttershy’s abilities, most think of her as the weakest of your group-“

“Yea well… that’s probably…well-“ could I really say it? There were times when I thought about it, but I never wanted to say it. “…Me.” Yes, I had noticed. Twilight and Pinkie both had amazing magic, Rarity could probably levitate a whole house at someone if she wanted, Fluttershy had that stare ability, and AJ had a surprising abilities despite not having much too just look at. My abilities were all on the surface. I was fast, that was pretty much it. I didn’t think like that often, but right now, the image of that thing attacking Scootaloo kept flying through my head and it was making me feel so helpless.

“Are you not the same mare who came to my home, treated me with disdain and tried to take my children away?” asked Torkuda.

“Um… about that…” oh yea, I did do that. I had seen Lightning about a week after I had just adopted Scootaloo. I guess I was starting to get it in my head that day that I needed to be on a crusade to save all potential abuse victims. Just so happened that Lightning Strike showed up in Ponyville with a broken shoulder and I assumed the worst. I found out her father was a dragon and I assumed worse than that. Talk about shame. I stormed into Torkuda’s home, treating him like a criminal and tried to convince him to give up his children. Had Vinyl not been there, I might have succeeded too. My behavior was childish even if my heart was in the right place. “I’m really sorry.” I hung my head. “I offer no excuse.”

Torkuda looked back at Dusk and Scootaloo. Scootaloo was still trying to comfort her little friend. The dragon looked back at me and his expression seemed to soften. “My son will need the company while he worries about his sister. It would be best if it were someone who could hug him without crushing him.” He glared at me again. “You do NOT assume the worst of individuals you don’t even know. I would never hurt my children-“

“I said I was sorry and I am so very sorry.” I looked at Scootaloo. “I can’t imagine how I would feel if someone did to me what I did to you. I mean, I came to you and pointed out your size and species, saying you couldn’t be a good parent. Imagine if someone had pointed out my lack of maturity or experience or knowledge or real qualifications I just-“ I sighed. “I would have been in the same position you were, unable to defend myself.” I looked up at him again. “Please forgive me?”

“I will not become a protector for the children of Ponyville.”

“Just Scoots…”

The dragon looked back at the foals. He sighed. “Your request is granted. I will protect her.”

“Just like that? Do you forgive me?”

“What were you expecting? A trial?” he asked back. I shook my head. Honestly I didn’t know what I expected. I turned slowly to leave. "As for forgiveness, you need to convince me you have changed." Torkuda then grunted. I stopped. “Bring my daughter back to me.”

“Or what will happen to Scoots?” I asked, gulping. 

I turned to look at the dragon whose glare could have turned me to stone. “You’ve learned nothing haven’t you? I’m protecting your daughter, not holding her hostage.” His expression softened again. “It’s just… I can’t simply go to Ponyville. Your fear of dragons isn’t exactly a minority opinion as I’m sure you’re aware. I would set the entire city into a panic merely showing up. My daughter is hurt. I’m scared for her but I can’t go to her.” Torkuda turned his hand over and the two foals crawled into it. He walked away holding them up saying, “Separated from those you love when you fear for them, looks like you’re about to get a taste of what that’s like.”

A lump stayed in my throat as he walked away. I had never felt like this before. I could stand being away from Scootaloo easily, but not now. Even knowing she was probably safer here, she was scared, confused and having to protect a friend of her own, it just felt like it should have been natural for me to stick around with her. 

However, I had to look over Lightning. Twilight’s orders weren’t really all that important to me in this instance, but really, if I abandoned Lightning, what would Scootaloo think of me? 

I shook my head. What was I thinking? I couldn’t leave Lightning because she was an injured filly who had been attacked right in front of me, that should have pissed me off all on its own. I took off back into the sky, trying to make that my primary thought. Back in Ponyville there was a filly who looked up to me and needed me… there was also one in a cave… no! Lightning was important too damn it!

(***)

I raced back to Ponyville, but decided to slow down as I approached the clinic, no need to cause a panic zooming in like mad. As I was about to walk in the front door of the clinic, two violet eyes met mine. “Hi Rainbow,” came a monotone voice. 

I gave a nervous grin. “Hi Twi.

“Ya know, sometimes I wonder why I even bother giving you orders. In a pinch you follow, but most of the time one wouldn’t know you somehow got into a military academy and passed.”

“Sorry. Look, the way I saw it-“

“My orders were completely incompetent?” 

“Well no. I mean interviewing Lightning before going to the library might have been-“

“Oh yes Rainbow Dash, why don’t you interview a little girl just seconds after she’s been injured and traumatized? Not only is that ethically questionable, but she’s in a panic, information I get from her has just as much chance of being false as true.”

“Not saying a long interview, but at least she could give us a place to start,” I pointed out. “In any case, you put us in charge of three fillies and a musician, one of those fillies injured and likely a target of the enemy. I just realized the odds weren’t exactly in our favor of not being attacked and if we were well… we weren’t right, please tell me there wasn’t another attack.”

“If there was?” Twilight asked.

“Well Flutters has got that stare thing.”

“Yes, that’s why I put her on guard duty. However that “stare thing” is still a mystery to everypony. Best I can tell it attacks a creature’s conscience. A guy who’s so wacko he breaks a filly’s wing just to get attention… I’m not all that confident the stare will work. I needed you there so you could come get me.”

“And I had to make sure my daughter was safe.”

“She wasn’t attacked Rainbow. Lightning Strike was.”

“Doesn’t mean Scoots and Dusk wouldn’t have made good hostages.”

“Yea, Dusk, that’s another thing. Please tell me you didn’t knowingly trigger a little girl’s phobia,” Twilight continued. 

“Hey I worked with that best I could.”

“She’s panicking like a rabbit in a fox den in there!” Twilight almost shouted. 

“Really?” I asked cringing. 

“Vinyl and Fluttershy have been able to reign her in for the most part. Look, you and I are going to talk about this more later…" she paused, obviously having to think. "Mostly because I’m not sure if I agree with you-“

“Go easy on yourself. None of us have ever seen something like this before. I mean we’ve seen violence, but nothing that brutal.” I tried to point out.

“Actually, it was a mental projection, but I saw my Celestia shot down by her own sister." Twilight shook her head. “Like I said, we’re going to talk later. In the meantime, we’re going to have to just sit out here and wait.”

“Why?”

“Like I said, Vinyl and Fluttershy have just barely managed to reign in Lightning, you walk in there and she’s going to go nuts. After all, you’re the one she’s waiting to hear from. The doctors are putting her wing in a cast right now. She might struggle if she sees you.” 

“Why didn’t the doctors just knock her out?” I asked. 

“Apparently she metabolizes sedatives.” No I’m not an idiot… still, those were some words even my Daring Do novels never used. I looked at her cross eyed. “Bluntly, sleeping drugs don’t work on her. The operation is painful enough without her fighting to get to you.” 

Okay, I had to pause on that note. I had been in the hospital a few times, happens when you pull stunts all the time. However, I liked being asleep when the doctors operated. Envy that little filly, I did not.

It was really only a few minutes before someone came and told us Lightning was in her cast. I walked into her room with Twilight. At the moment she was talking to Fluttershy about… the nature of bears I think. Lightning didn’t notice us, which gave me a few seconds to really look at her. Her fur was matted, eyes blood shot and she kept wincing every time she accidentally moved her wing. I felt so much sympathy for her, not only as she was just a kid, but I SO knew what that was like. I did my best not to wince a bunch in the hospital when my wing broke, doesn’t mean the pain wasn’t there. Course she looked way worse than me. Probably because of panicking and not being put under like I was. Come to think of it, “So they tell me you didn’t have any drugs. That’s pretty tough,” I announced.

Her head turned to me and her eyes lit up. “Rebel Rainbow!” she shouted her nick name for me. She then jumped up out of the bed and scampered over to me, jumping onto my chest and giving me a rather unexpected hug. I was about to hug her back, for lack of knowing what else to do, when she started screaming and hit the floor cradling her wing. “Owww...” she breathed deep. “Owwww!” With a grimace Vinyl walked over and used her telekinesis to gently lift the filly off the floor and put her back on the bed. The girl hissed and whimpered a few times, slowly putting her wing on a pillow that Flutters quickly put next to her. “Dusty?” Lightning asked.

“He’s with your father, he’s safe.”

“How do I know you didn’t just take him to your home?” she asked.

“Um… c’mon, it’s me, Rebel Rainbow, would I lie to you?”

“Well, you’re a rebel so um…” she started.

And I was reminded why I actually didn’t like that name. “And I protect all the fillies and colts of Equestria, like the Trixie bard told you, remember?” Lightning had originally heard about me from a traveling bard, a mutual acquaintance you could say. Still I was reaching with that reference and I knew it. 

“I guess.” 

Twilight interrupted. “Um Lightning, is it alright if us grown-ups go talk outside?”

“Um… well… can Rainbow stay in here?” she asked. 

‘Why her?’ Vinyl wrote. 

“I don’t know… just… she was the last to see Dusk so… please?” she asked. 

Twilight sighed a little, but said, “Alright.” She and Vinyl then left me alone with Lightning. 

Lightning laid on her bed, her wing bandaged up and a forlorn expression on her face. She rested her head on her forelegs and looked at the ground. “Um… what do you need from me?” I asked. 

“I don’t know, I just… I just need you to stay.” She said. “Dusty is okay right?”

“He was when I left,” I replied. “He has your dad and Scootaloo, I’m pretty sure nothing can touch him right now.” There was a pause as Lightning just stared at the ground. 

Finally she spoke up again. “Why am I like this?”

“Like what?” I asked back.

“I know he’s okay, I know it, but I’m still worried. Worse yet, I’m worried this worrying will make him not like me anymore and that makes me worry more. He doesn’t seem to mind now but, soon enough…”

“Why are you talking to me about this?”

“I don’t know,” she said, obviously exasperated. “I should be talking to Vinyl, but for some reason I’m talking to you.”

“Well what are you wanting me to do?”

“Listen?”

I sat down, figuring, after triggering her phobia, I owed her this much at least. I gave the warmest smile I could manage at the moment (I had a lot on my mind). “Okay.”

“I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do. I mean, you would think it would be fun having your best friend be your brother and it is but… what’s wrong with me? I can’t go ten feet from him without starting to worry about him. And then I’m so worried he’ll start to hate me for being so… so…”

I risked inserting the word for her. “Overbearing?”

“Yea.”

I looked at her curiously. “You’re just a little kid. You know there’s something wrong with you?”

“Well I am going to therapy… but even before that, I knew. I mean, I am me, of course I know there’s something wrong with me.” She then chuckled. “Speaking as one, little kids don’t like being called little kids, just so you know.”

“Sorry.”

“Thing is… what am I supposed to do? I’m getting help. But what it really feels like, is that I should just get over it. Like all I really need to do is stop worrying, but I just can’t do it.” She sighed. “That thing that attacked me, it’s called Dr. Gray. He hurt me and Dusk. Well more me really, he just threatened Dusk to keep me from fighting back. Guess that’s why I worry all the time. But still, why can’t I stop, even when I know Dusty is fine? Why do I worry about someone who’s not really in danger?” She looked at the wall. “I shouldn’t be like this. No pony else worries like this, so why do I?”

I nodded and walked over to her. I’m no genius when it comes to emotional matters, but at least I can read the writing on the wall. “Hey now, I mean, you do have issues, and you are dealing with them, but just for a minute, why don’t you listen to me and my problems? Maybe you’ll notice something.” Lightning shrugged and looked back at me. “Alright. I have a confession to make. When you were attacked on stage, don’t take this the wrong way, but I really wasn’t all that worried about you.”

“Um… I’m not… as tough as I look?”

“It’s not that you look tough, I mean, you really don’t.” Truer words and all. Lightning always looked a little off. Skinny, freckles on only one side of her face, the front of her mane arranged sporadically and the back looking like a jagged lightning bolt coming out of the back of her neck, she was childhood in a nutshell I suppose, total chaos. I guess it’s rude to say, but this all sounds cute, but at a certain angle, Lightning looked like an abuse victim… which apparently she was so… 

“Um… thanks?”

“That’s not the point. I sympathized with you, but I was only worried about one pony. Scootaloo.”

Lightning seemed to have to think for a minute. “Why? I mean, she was in the crowd so… that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Does it?” I asked back. “I’m her mom now Lightning. I know her pretty well. Sometimes it feels like my whole life revolves around her and at times, it probably does. I’m not even sure what I would do if something were to happen…” I swallowed, for some reason I couldn’t finish that statement. “I guess when that all happened, I didn’t understand what was happening in my head. My thoughts just kept going to Scootaloo when I looked at you. What if someone attacked her like that? What if they broke her wing, what if they made her that scared, what if she couldn’t fight back, what if I wasn’t there to save her, what if… I don’t know, so many thoughts raced through my mind.” I nodded at Lightning’s confusion. “I know. Scootaloo was in a crowd of ponies standing right next to me, YOU were being attacked, not her.”

“So why were you afraid for her and not me?” she asked. 

“Nothing against you, but I don’t really know you that well. I mean I’m sure you’re an okay kid, fantastic maybe, but I’ve only briefly met you a few times before and that’s only because Scoots is your friend. You’re cute, but I don’t care about you like that.” She twisted her neck looking at me. “Again, nothing against you. But you see, Scootaloo is my daughter, and before she was, she was my sister and before that… I don’t think I really realized it, but I think she was one of the best friends I’ve ever had. She always looked up to me, she always wanted to be with me, she made a fan club for me, had posters of me, heck she apparently ripped up a collector’s wonderbolt action figure to remake it to look like me.” I chuckled. “She loved me before I loved her.” Lightning appeared to be pondering what I was saying. “You see kid, there wasn't anything wrong with me... at least, I don't think there was." I had to pause on that note. But I decided if I needed a little therapy myself, probably best not to try to get it from an eight year old. Best to keep going on the note I was on. "Everyone worries about the ponies they love. It rarely takes much to trigger it either, let alone what happened today. It’s because of everything they mean to us. I mean, tell me about Dusk. Why is he important to you?”

“Well… he’s always been there for me, even back when no one else would even come near me. My powers used to scare other ponies silly, but not him, he would just walk right up to me to play, or to hug me. He’s always been quiet, always listening when I talk, always smiling at me. He’s told me I’m the most awesome pony ever, and he argues when I laugh at that. I cry, he comes running, I’m happy he’s there- I can’t-” she gritted her teeth. “I can’t even try to know what I would do without him. I love him. He’s my friend, my best friend. Scootaloo and everyone else is just nice to me, but Dusty is just… different.”

“AJ, Twilight, Fluttershy, they’re all really good friends and all, but something is just different about Scoots. I’m the most awesome thing she sees and I don’t think she’s ever thought less of me, no matter how much I’m pretty sure I deserve it sometimes. I know that things won’t always be that perfect, but I just… I don’t know. I love her. So, when there’s danger I’m afraid more for her than for anything else, even myself.”

Lightning gave a kind of half chuckle. She looked at her wing. “Well I think it’s pretty obvious I care more for him than myself, he’s at home sitting pretty and here I am with broken bones and I’m still worried about him.”

“Actually Lightning, he’s not sitting pretty. He’s a wreck. Let me remind you, he loves you too. You’re siblings, that’s how it’s supposed to be.”

“We’re not really siblings, we’re adopted.”

I raised an eyebrow. "You trying to say Scootaloo isn't really my daughter? She's adopted. Point is, I don’t think you’re that strange, you just have issues. You’ll get over them. I mean- well look at you, you’re sitting there having a pity party with me about our loved ones right after sitting through your own wing being put in a cast without any sedatives. You’re almost acting like it didn’t happen. You’re tough. I’m pretty sure you’re gonna get past these issues.”

“You think?”

“I have a sense of these things. Call it my Rainbow sense.” I winked at her. 

“Your what?” Lightning said laughing. “That was horrible.”

“Yea it was wasn’t it? Don’t tell Pinkie I said it either.” Lightning put her head down, continuing to chuckle. 

Just in time, Twilight and Vinyl walked back in. Vinyl looked at me, her notepad in the air. ‘I could hear you. Thanks for helping her.’ She wrote. I smiled. 

Twilight cleared her throat. “I hate to do this,” she said. “But Vinyl and I have reached a decision. Lighting,” she looked into the filly’s eyes. “We need you to tell us about Dr. Gray. Leave nothing out, we’ve got all day.”

Lightning pulled her head back and gave a scared piteous look. Looking at her, there was no doubt, I was finally worried just about her. 	

> Learning about Evil
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lightning nodded her head. “Where should I start?” she asked. 

“How did you meet him?” asked Twilight.

Lightning thought. “That’s not so bad to think about. He didn’t always look the way he does now… well he kinda did, but he had normal teeth and normal eyes… and a normal sized mouth, but you would figure that. I kinda doubt they would let you adopt foals looking like that.” Vinyl snickered at her protégée’s joke. I resisted the temptation to laugh, but that was kind of funny. “From what he told me, he had been going from one orphanage to the next looking for a special foal. He needed a pegasus with a good amount of unicorn magic somehow in her. He said I was rare indeed. Most pegasi with unicorn parents, mother or father, might have some unicorn magic, but no real control over it, and it doesn’t develop very well.  Me, he wasn’t sure how I came to be.”

“But when or how did you actually meet?” Twilight reiterated. 

“In the orphanage of course,” Lightning answered. “Melony, the head of my foster home, had been saying I was getting out of control, especially with how attached I was to Dusk. She was going to force us apart, so you can imagine how happy I was when a gray pegasus pony showed up and asked to adopt me and Dusk at the same time. He said I was special and what Dusk and I had was special. For the first few weeks, he was so nice.”

She continued. “He had a beautiful house in Canterlot, I think it was three stories tall. He gave both me and Dusk our own rooms, some really nice food and all kinds of sweets. He even gave Dusk a few toys. My room was pink and Dusk’s was blue… think I would have preferred blue, but at the time I didn’t complain, it was waaay nicer than the orphanage. He even read to me each night. I just… how could I have known anything was wrong? I still don’t understand. I don’t believe he ever really loved us, so why did he do all of that for us? It was so wonderful for those two week. Only one bad thing happened.”

Twilight’s ears perked. “And what was that?” she asked. 

“I really can’t remember how many days it had been since we had started living with Gray, but one day Dusk was playing with the toys the doctor gave him, but found his favorite was missing. Really Dusk had other toys he liked better, but he was also getting attached to what he was given. It was a small red stuffed dragon. Dusk and I went looking for it through the house. I don’t know how it got there, but we found it in the furnace on the second floor. It hadn’t been burned yet so I decided to fly in and get it. Dusk tried to stop me, saying he was afraid of me getting hurt. Suddenly the flames started coming up and Dusk started crying, watching his toy. I jumped in and saved the dragon. I gave it back to him, but he threw it away and hugged me tight, screaming at me to never do something like that again. I did have a few burns, but they weren’t serious.”

“That sounds, risky, but not too bad…” I noted. 

Then she said something that set my skin crawling. “When I looked up from my brother crying on the floor, I saw doctor Gray standing there. He didn’t come running to me… he… he didn’t look scared that I could have gotten hurt, he just smiled… I think he had been watching.” Lightning shifted on the bed. “It was kinda creepy, but I decided not to worry about it, since he was pretty nice and all.”

Twilight gritted her teeth in a nervous grin. “I hate to ask this, but, when did you realize something was wrong?”

“One day I woke up and went to Dusk’s room to play, but he wasn’t there. I went downstairs to find him. I found him on the breakfast table. He was in a cage and crying. Both of his forelegs were bandaged but they were still bleeding. His neck was chained to the bars. Doctor Gray then told me he had broken Dusk’s font legs. Unless I wanted him to break his back legs too, I had to do what he said.”

Twilight’s ears went down. “So… I mean… Dusk got better right?” Lightning nodded. “So… what did he make you do?”	 	

Lightning closed her eyes. “Do I really have to talk about it?” Twilight nodded. The filly looked up again. “I was born with unusual abilities, a kind of tele-teli-telikin- the ability to move things with my mind. That’s what scared other ponies about me before… well before this became a thing,” she waved a hoof and electric energy flashed from it. “For some reason Gray wanted me to be able to control electricity. He tried to explain sometimes, I think something about trying to create a… “discount alicorn” as he called it. He hit me with a bunch of spells for several days, none of them I understood. After a few spells I was able to generate sparks with my mind, however I would shock myself whenever I did, hurting myself. I didn’t like using my new powers.”

“And whenever you refused to use them, he would threaten Dusk again?” asked Twilight.

“Sometimes. Other times, at first, he would just tie me up, attach me to a few wires and shock me until he got tired of doing it. I tried to fight back a few times, but my mind powers had been changed so much I could only use electricity, which only hurt me. He said he was trying to increase my… resistance… I don’t know, it just hurt, it really hurt… please I am done with that part of my life, it’s over, it’s over, my life is better now.”

“Lightning I-“ Twilight tried to respond, but Lightning wasn’t listening. 

Lightning started shouting. “NO! It’s over! Is HAS to be over! Do you have any idea what it was like? One of his favorite things to do was throw me in this kind of see through box with a divider. There was a button in the box. I was on one side, something I loved was on the other. If I pushed the button I got shocked, if I didn’t, the thing I loved would be burnt, chopped, crushed… Dusk, my toys, my books… what do you want me to say? I don’t understand what he wanted. He just liked hurting me okay?” she slowly got up and pulled a pair of saddle bags from the ground. She pulled out two small pony dolls, one of me and the other Apple Jack. “The Element Bearers, they were my favorite heroes, my favorite toys. Fluttershy let all ponies know that anyone could be kind. He burned her I front of me just for fun. Twilight was their brave leader, fighting to save Equestria from dangers big and small, she made me feel safe. He shaved her mane and tail and then dropped her in the other side of the box. I wanted to save her, but I could only shock myself a few times, and that wasn’t enough. He burned her too.” Fluttershy, without any notion of asking permission, got on the bed next to Lightning and pulled her into a wing hug. 

Lightning started crying, but continued, not letting Twilight try to steer the story back on track again… actually I think Twi was just as speechless as myself by this point. “Rarity, the most beautiful pony, giving to anyone in need… I could only take four shocks for her, so she was chopped in half and burned too, her beautiful mane catching fire so fast… he threw me the pieces but I couldn’t save them. Honest Apple and Rebel Rainbow, best of friends and worst of enemies, Trixie told me they protected all the children of Equestria… I protected them, I got shocked seven times for each of them, but I had too… I don’t know. I had to save them… why was I only strong enough for them? Pinkie just made me feel happy, so funny and jumpy, kinda like me when I’m happy. I couldn’t take more than five shocks for her. She was smashed with a hammer.” Lightning pulled out two more toys. They looked like Apple Bloom and… I could only guess the remains of a Sweetie Belle toy. “No one really sells Cutie Mark Crusader dolls, in fact most ponies don’t know who they are. However Trixie sold them for one bit a piece. Pretty cheap, so Melony bought them for me to shut me up back when I was six. I had all three. They were on the other side of the box, I could only take three shocks and a blade fell on them. Apple Bloom and Sweetie fell before the blade hit them, Scootaloo’s plastic catching it. She didn’t break so her friends survived. She was ruined, and just for fun Gray burnt Sweetie’s hair, but he let me have my two not ruined toys back.”

I cringed. Of course Scootaloo was the one who was destroyed. Course now that I thought about it, maybe now it made sense that Lightning called my daughter the bravest filly alive. Maybe that nickname didn’t really come from Trixie. 

Finally Lightning pulled out a stuffed animal. It was so sad to look at, but she hugged it to herself. “I’ve had this one since before I can remember,” she sobbed into it. “Luna…” The stuffed creature was singed in several places, her proud mane and tail were trimmed and scattered. It had stitches around its neck and legs and its eyes didn’t match. “Daddy, my real daddy, Torkuda, paid to have her fixed. Gray did so many things to her. He laughed afterwards… I don’t know if Doctor Gray would have really killed Dusk, but I always hit that button when he was on the other side of the box. Sometimes it hurt so much I couldn’t… I black out. I came to and sometimes Gray would tease me that Dusk was dead… one time he made me believe Dusk was buried under the house… he had me tied up and put me over the spot where he said he buried my brother. He made voices, impersonating Dusk screaming for help-“

“That’s enough,” Twilight said, finally finding the wherewithal to respond. Myself, I was still shocked that I was even hearing something like this. “You don’t have to tell us everything that happened to you. Just what’s… relevant…”

“Like what?” asked Lightning. “He just did things. I don’t know why. He would try to explain, but what he said didn’t make any sense. Shock me so I wouldn’t be shocked? Force me to shock myself so I wouldn’t care about the pain? How does that work? That stuff with some kind of magic… I guess it worked, but how?” In my own head, sure I understood what that stuff meant, as an athlete I understood conditioning. But make no mistake, there is a HUGE difference between conditioning and what I was hearing about. Course Lightning used her powers now with no pain at all so… no, the results didn’t matter, what the doctor did was torture plain and simple. You see, conditioning… why explain it? I just wanted this doctor dead. I actually regretted that I couldn’t figure out a way to destroy that monster all the ways he destroyed Lightning’s toys. “You want to know why he looks the way he does now? He used to look normal. However eventually he started to talk about immort- immortality. He said there was a light path to living forever, but it was too hard for most ponies. There is also a dark path. I don’t know how it works, but what I understood, he had to become a monster and… and he had to kill someone… “in a room swelling with fear”… He cut his own face and cast spells on himself. He tried to kill Dusk, but Luna found us just in time…” Lightning started to smile, a rather evil gleam in her eyes. “I heard the doctor scream when she attacked him. “I laughed. I laughed so hard I scared the bat ponies with Luna. His screams were so funny. I didn’t see what she did to him, but I hope it hurt, I hope it hurt so much that-“ Fluttershy put up a hoof. 

“That’s enough of that. You let us worry about getting rid of this monster,” Fluttershy said.

Twilight shook her head. “I’m afraid it’s not enough. Knowing the doctor’s character doesn’t tell me how to fight him. What can Doctor Gray do? How did he break your wing without anyone seeing? How did he disappear? How did he fly without flapping? Self mutilation, a few spells… there’s nothing that can make that possible in your story. What can he do? What that isn’t well… I don’t know, normal?”

“I don’t understand how his power works.” Lightning responded. “The… experiments he did on me to make my electricity powers work better… he said I was an experiment myself. Just an experiment. I’m not the… “finished product”. He said he wanted to learn how to isolate different types of magic. Light, sound, heat, projection, electricity, colors… so many things. Electricity on me was just an experiment.”

“Is there a finished product?” asked Twilight. 

Lightning shook her head. “He was supposed to be the finished product himself. Whatever he would control, he was supposed to control it WAY better than I control electricity. But thank everything, thank all of it, Luna finished him off. He was stopped… he was stopped, stopped, stopped… he wasn’t stopped was he?”

Twilight closed her eyes. She looked down and to the right, doing her best to control her breathing, obviously having a lot of emotions running at the moment. “He will be, trust me.” She looked at me. “Rainbow, come with me.” She walked out of the room. I followed. 

Anger started to rise up in me. I didn’t understand how anypony could do things like that. The only reasons Lightning gave sounded like total bullshit. Immortality? Conditioning? Isolating magic? Something impossible and a few base concepts, that helped him sleep at night while torturing a filly? Twilight walked out of the hospital and I just followed barely aware of my surroundings. I was just so angry. My anger eclipsed any fear I felt. 

Twilight finally did a heal turn and I almost smacked my face into hers. “IT DIES! IT DIES!  IT DIES!”

“You mean he dies?” I asked. 

“IT! That THING doesn’t deserve to be called a pony!” she stomped her front hooves. “Torturing a little filly, breaking her toys for fun, threatening a beautiful friendship, manipulating a little girl… he dies by my hoof!”

Okay so this was… Twilight? “But we don’t know anything about how to fight him.” I pointed out. “Look Twi I-“

Twilight glared at me, then rolled her eyes. “Weren’t you listening?” she asked. “He was trying to ascend through darkness, create cheap alicorns and then his power, she said it, it’s projection. Think about it. Everything we saw, that explains all of it. None of it was real, just projections, illusions. We find the real pony he should be easy enough to kill.”

“Twi… look I’m angry too… but you and I, we’re better than this. We don’t kill-“

“Sombra, Chrysalis, Trek,” Twilight interrupted. “I watched as my brother and his wife sent Chrysalis flying to her doom, Sombra was shredded and Trek was placed in hades forever. Remember? And you know what? Is it such a crime for me to admit that I’m glad they’re all gone? I want this guy to get blasted too. Maybe not kill but…” she shook her head. 

“Twilight?” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Twilight has her moments… and they’re way worse than mine.

“I-“ Twilight paused. “You’re right, what I’m saying doesn’t sound right. I just… look, I know none of us know that girl too well, but you saw her face, you saw her toys… how could anyone be so mean to a little filly? It makes no sense. It’s enraging it’s… really scary. I keep imagining myself in that box…” she shook her head. “But really,” she started again, “He’s just an illusionist, so how hard can he be to beat? Especially now that we know that. I mean it’s not like every time I so much as look right I think I get a glimpse of those eyes… it’s not as if that means he could be watching us right now and we wouldn’t even know. He can apparently make himself invisible.” Twilight and I started looking around us. 

I wasn’t exactly petrified, and I got the sense that neither was Twi, but the possibility of that guy watching us that very instant did send a few chills down my spine. 

Twilight started walking away. “I’m gonna go get Spike to send the princesses a letter. Lightning did mention Luna after all, maybe she knows something.” she said. “You go back and keep an eye on Lightning. Remember, if I’m right, this guy is a master of illusion. Keep your wits about you. Don’t trust your eyes.”

As she left ear shot, I mumbled to myself. “”Don’t trust your eyes”, most comforting words ever spoken.”

> 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.
	
> 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. 

> the Storm Begins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Spread out!” Twilight shouted, all of us obeying. “Dispel!” Another purple haze shot out, the flying figure of Gray disappearing and his form appearing running next to Rarity. He slammed into my white unicorn friend, tripping her and sending her summersaulting into the dirt. 

As Rarity moved away from him I shot to the form of Gray, passing through it again. Rarity screamed as something struck her ribs causing an unnatural indent in her chest. Rage screamed into my head and I shot over her, slamming into… something, I was sure it was Gray. I fell over the figure, landing on my back. I quickly rolled to my hooves, Twilight shouting again, “Dispel!” Gray appeared looking at me, shaking his head. 

The freak growled at me, rearing back to- and two hooves connected with his head causing him to fly sideways and crash back into the dirt. He recovered his hooves, shaking his head, laughing like a mad-stallion. A purple beam shot from Twilight at his struggling form, passing through it like air. 

“How are you doing that!?” Twilight practically screamed. I quickly examined Rarity. She was breathing alright, but… well about a week before the concert when this all started, Rarity had been in an accident where the sign on the front of her store fell on her and- “APPLE JACK!” Twilight screamed. 

I looked up and was gripped not by anger this time, but sheer terror. Apple Jack started stumbling, a knife sticking out of her neck. She fell to her side, holding the implement in her hooves. “No! Don’t take it out,” Fluttershy yelled. She grabbed AJ and flew away with her saying “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…” 

“Dispel!” Twilight shouted again, but instead of seeing Gray where Apple Jack was, I now saw him just a few feet from where he fell when AJ struck him. I flew at him, watching him open that huge mouth. 

‘Another trick!’ I thought. ‘Even if he did try to bite me that’s mutilation, his jaws won’t actually-‘ a seering pain cut off my train of thought as he really did bite into my wing and  chest, his jaws opening wide and now seizing down like a crocodile. I was trapped. I screamed and flailed, trying hard to strike him. I knew where he was now, but the pain was so great and my thoughts just weren’t able to make any sense of what was happening. He was almost walking through us. Apple Jack and Rarity were already seriously hurt and I couldn’t get this guy off of me. 

I looked at Twilight as the pain in my chest and right wing kept up, feeling like his razor sharp teeth were digging deeper and deeper. I saw flashes of color move from me to Gray rapidly. As I watched Twilight, her look of determination changed to panicked confusion. What was she seeing? 

“Dispel!” Twilight shouted, the color flashes stopping and a white beam slamming into Gray from across from the two of us. Gray crashed into the grass several meters away. I turned to look at Rarity, who was barely holding onto consciousness, but the shot had definitely come from her.

I spread my wings to launch myself at him and- hit the dirt screaming… the pain, it was horrible, like I had pulled every muscle in my right wing. I looked at my wing finally realizing just how badly Gray had hurt me. My wing had been cut so badly it looked like it might have been falling off. I cried, sobbing openly, it hurt so much! 

Two pink hooves appeared in front of my face. Gray was hurting too, now staggering and having to steady himself. I looked up at Pinkie as she ran forward to him. She took a swipe at his head, hitting nothing but air. 

I looked back at Rarity, who was now unconscious. How was this even happening? He was just a stallion, just one pony! I looked back to Pinkie, her head snapping left like she had been struck on her cheek. Her head then shot up like she had been struck on the chin. “Dispel!” Twilight shouted again, the image of Gray now appearing, both of his hooves poised over Pinkie’s head. Pinkie had no chance to react however, the blow hitting the top of her head and slamming her face first into the ground. Pinkie stopped moving

Gray looked at Twilight laughing. “Liabilities aren’t they?” he asked. “You can’t just fire at me while I’m near one of them, can you?” he asked. 

“Dispel!” she shouted again. While he had been talking, his image stayed in one place, but while that image stayed, apparently his real self had moved closer to Twilight. Twilight didn’t have time to jump back before his jaws opened and slammed shut on either side of her neck. She screamed. I tried to get to my hooves, but the pain in my wing kept me from really doing much of anything. All I could do was watch in horror as his teeth sank in. I cried waiting for-

Two yellow hooves slammed into Gray’s face. He staggered back looking up to see a small yellow and blue pegasus flying in front of Twilight, who had now fallen to her knees, gasping for air. 

Lightning Strike glared at Doctor Gray. “DIE!” Lightning shouted, several huge bolts flying at the monster’s form, again passing through like nothing was even there. Something invisible slammed into Lightning’s head, the little filly falling out of the air and slamming into the ground. 

My heart sank. Again that horrible laugh came. “Amazing,” Gray said, not choosing to even project an image this time. “Out of everypony here, she had the most reason to hate me and in the end, she didn’t even last half as long as anyone else. How pathetic.” His form appeared finally. He staggered again. “You know, before following a few of you around, I knew mostly of your legends. I thought you were supposed to be formidable. But a little stalking let me know, that’s all mostly just image. I’ll give you ponies this, you have some coordination. I’ve seen better from first year cadets, but I suppose throw enough shit at me and something’s bound to hit right? My ears are ringing and my head is spinning…” he paused, hissing and holding his head. “Especially that farm pony. The seamstress really just pushed me away, but Apple Jack… oh well, the bucker is probably dead by now anyway.”

What? Apple Jack… dead? He looked over at Lightning’s unconscious form. “That’s how it goes isn’t it Lightning?” he asked. “You don’t cooperate, you get hurt, right?” He looked over at the three unmoving Cutie Mark Crusaders. 

“DON’T YOU DARE!” I screamed.

“What happens when we fight back Lightning?” asked Gray. He walked towards Apple Bloom, Sweetie and Scootaloo. "We loose things."

“STOP!” I yelled at him, finally finding the strength to stand, my wing screaming at me, but I had to ignore it. 

“You think you can fight me in your condition?” asked the stallion, now standing over my daughter and her friends. 

“No,” I said, crying. “Just please… don’t.” He smiled, lifting his hoof over Scootaloo’s paralyzed form. He slammed it down onto one of her legs, a crunch coming out. Tears came out of her eyes, but the drug in her system kept her from even screaming. I spread my wings, but the pain rushed through me like a flood, my right wing dropping lifelessly. “Stop… please…” 

“I can do what I want. Why should I even-“

“Dispel magic!” came a deep female voice. Gray’s form didn’t move this time, apparently that really was where he was. Four white hooves slammed into the ground, a white alicorn glaring at him. “You-“

“DIE!” came another shout as a black beam shot over head, this one passing through air. How was he doing that?! If his magic was being dispelled at all, how was he recasting it and moving at the same time like that? 

Luna landed a few feet from the monster. “Dispel!” Celestia shouted again, Gray appearing in the air. Luna charged up her horn again, her beam firing, but again she was apparently too late to not hit another illusion. 

Luna started to run after Gray, but Celestia shouted at her with… panic? Celestia panicking? “Luna… please… we can’t leave them… Twilight…” She looked around in fear. “They could all die like this. Guard me, I have to get them all to the hospital now.” I felt myself floating in the air. 

“Scootaloo!” I yelled for my daughter. Celestia looked down at my daughter as me and my remaining friends floated into the air. 

“What’s wrong with them?” Celestia asked, her normal calm voice gone. 

“He said it’s just a paralysis drug. But he broke Scootaloo’s leg…”

Celestia seemed to swallow her fear. She breathed deep. “Fear not, I won’t leave the children,” Celestia replied, the crusaders starting to float as well, including little Lightning Strike. 

“Scootaloo…” I whined. 

“Rest Rainbow Dash, I have no doubt you fought bravely.”

“How did he do this?” I asked. 

Luna answered this time. “Dost thou believe he was just a scientist or something?” she asked. “Gray was well trained in the night guard, why dost thou think we… I take this so personally? He's over forty five years old, specializes in psychological warfare and excels at tactics and anatomy. Stay away from him, I and the soldiers of the night will deal with him.”

“But-“

“STAY AWAY!” Luna shouted at me, her eyes glowing. I swallowed, watching her eyes. The glow faded and I saw the fear behind it. I looked back to Celestia, Twilight floating closest to her. 

“She’ll live… she’ll live… please tell me she’ll live…” Celestia started repeating to herself quietly. 

Scootaloo was slowly levitated to me. I wrapped my left wing around her. “You’ll be okay,” I said, as gently as I could to her unmoving body. “Listen to me, you’ll be okay. Just rest, the drug will wear off… just rest,” I petted her mane slowly. “You’ll be okay…” thank everything she wasn’t looking at me, the tears in my eyes would have betrayed how scared I still was. I held her close, my other wing screaming in pain again, but again I did my best to ignore it as I held my daughter. Scootaloo was terrified, even if she couldn’t scream, I could sense it. 

I gave her body a slight squeeze, noticing somehow that she started to feel slightly better. It was the best I could hope for. “Sleep Rainbow, rest mother, thy daughter is safe,” the princess of the moon said. I looked at her, sleep quickly taking over.

(***)

My eyes slowly flickered open, the searing pain in my wing stopping me from thinking what had happened was a dream. I looked around. My wing was bandaged and I was laying on my back on a bed with clean sheets. I heard the steady beeping of heart monitoring equipment and saw off white walls all around me. I sighed, realizing I was in a hospital. 

I looked left, finally seeing Fluttershy’s face smiling calmly at me. “Scoots?” I asked meekly.

“She’ll be okay,” Fluttershy said. “They were all pretty scared, but the crusaders were all able to move freely in a few hours… well all except for Lightning.” 

I cared about Lightning, I really did, but I also had priorities. “Scootaloo’s leg, what about her leg?”

“Her left foreleg is broken. She can walk, but she requires a crutch. Of everyone, her injuries are probably the least concerning.” Fluttershy said. 

“Lightning?” 

Fluttershy’s eyes started to tear up. “She’s alive, but a hit like that straight to the head- Rainbow she’s just a little girl. She can hardly walk and she keeps saying this is all her fault.”

“She shouldn’t feel that way. She tried to defend us,” I corrected. Short lived as her bravery was, I didn't feel at all right discounting it. 

“I know,” Fluttershy said. “Twilight told me.”

“Twilight is okay?” I asked. 

“Okay isn’t the word I would use to describe any of you five right now if I’m honest,” Fluttershy looked away from me. “Rarity is staggering around here doing her best to calm down her little sister, Twilight can’t leave her bed, they tell me you’re lucky to even have your wing anymore, Pinkie has a serious concussion… they say she should recover but she’s still asleep,” she clenched her teeth. “Do you know what it’s like to be here waiting… hoping… praying that everyone wakes up at least one more time?”

I place a hoof on her head. I had to choke out the question. I was very afraid of the answer. “Apple Jack?”

“I haven’t been allowed to see her. Apple Bloom is protecting that hat like it’s a part of her sister. There’s been nothing concrete on her condition. They can’t even tell me if she’ll live at all.”

My heart started beating faster and faster. “No…” 

“She took a knife to the neck Rainbow!” Fluttershy shouted. “What do you think that does?”

“I have to see her,” I said. 

“No one is being allowed to, even Apple Bloom, the doctors gave her the hat. We’re all just waiting for news.” 

“Can I get up?” A stallion walked into my vision as I asked this. 

“I can clear you to leave your bed, but only if you promise NO strain on that wing,” he said. 

“It’s strapped to my side,” I commented.

“You have no idea how lucky you are that that thing is healing at all,” he said back. “Sorry if my bed side manner is lacking. Give me your word.” I nodded. He rolled a small IV unit to me. “Take this with you.”

It took a small while, but the nurse stallion returned from clearing me to walk around and slowly helped me out of bed. Fluttershy had to help as well and I couldn’t help but complain as my wing ached so badly. I walked slowly into the waiting room. 

The first face I saw was Rarity’s, a glare fixed on it. “I owe you a black eye,” she said sternly. I gulped. “Not now, but just so we’re clear, if you EVER hurt Sweetie again…” she sighed. “Oh who am I kidding darling? I’m just glad we’re all alive. I know it was an accident. You would never harm a foal.” She shook her head. “Come, your daughter is in the waiting room, she’s been asking about you for hours now.”

As we came into the small hospital waiting room, Scootaloo yelled as I saw her. “RAINBOW DASH!” The sight of her stumbling over a crutch almost made me cry again right there. Still it felt good when she hugged me. Holding her, I still looked around the room. Vinyl sat with Lightning and her brother on the opposite side of the room from Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Sweetie looked to be doing her best to console Apple Bloom, who just sat there quietly holding AJ’s hat. Strangely enough Apple Bloom was also sporting a bit of a black eye… that was new.

“I warned her,” came the voice of young Dusk. “My sister is hurt. 'Don’t be mean to my sister' I said. But Apple Bloom kept yelling this was Lightning’s fault, making Lightning feel bad. So I hit her. If she says it again I’ll hit her again.” 

Vinyl gave him a stern look writing for him to settle down. 

“Dusk she was just projecting, her sister is-“ I started, but Rarity put up a hoof to stop me. 

“You really think he’s going to understand Rainbow? He’s only six,” she pointed out. “He’s protecting his friend, which is probably all he understands right now.” I looked at Lightning. Her eyes were blood shot from crying and her head was heavily bandaged. She was sitting very still and acting sick to her stomach. 

Scootaloo started to cry herself. “I’ve been doing my best Rainbow Dash, but Apple Bloom is so angry and so sad… this isn’t Lightning’s fault but she kept saying it was. I had to hold her back from hurting Dusk when he hit her. I don’t want my friends to fight but…”

“If she hurts Dusk, I’ll take care of her,” Lightning threatened. 

“Don’t worry,” Apple Bloom finally said. “Ah understand. Ah’m just… just… just…”

“It’s alright dear, we understand, you don’t have to explain,” Rarity said. 

I blinked and froze. Two glowing blue eyes met mine. I blinked again and they were gone. “You saw the eyes didn’t you?” asked Scootaloo. I nodded. “I’ve seen them too, but never at the same time as anypony else. Luna says that means it’s just in my head.”

Rarity spoke up. “Luna has her night guard patrolling this entire hospital and searching Ponyville. No one not injured is being allowed in and everyone is being scrutinized. Best I can tell, we’re safe for the moment.” I sat down, still holding Scootaloo, who sat next to me. 

Those must have been the longest minutes of my life, waiting for word on Apple Jack. Pinkie eventually woke up and came into the waiting room with us. She came with news that the doctors had confided in her that Twilight was improving, but they hadn’t told her anything on Apple Jack. 

Finally a doctor came into the room with a stern look on his face and walked straight to Apple Bloom. “I need to talk to you,” he said. “To all of you.” I listened, holding Scootaloo tightly. 

“I won’t lie to you, Apple Jack is not doing well. That knife could have killed her, and if not for Fluttershy bringing her here quickly, it would have,” he said, regarding Fluttershy. “It took us this long just to remove it, but the damage is severe. She’s alive for the moment and expected to regain consciousness. When she does, I require that everyone be gentle in both word and action around her. Do not get her excited, I repeat, do not.”

“What are her chances?” Rarity asked. 

“I give her good odds on living,” Apple Bloom sighed in relief. “Her mind should be intact, but she won’t be back to full health for another year at least. 

Apple Bloom squeezed her eyes shut. She suddenly jumped back, screaming. "The eyes... I just saw them..." She grabbed her sister's hat, holding it again, but this time shaking in fear. 
	
> 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.
	
> This is not the End
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A chill went down my spine. I looked forward to see a pair of giant glowing blue eyes in front of me for a few seconds. They vanished, but glancing at the others with me, I could tell they had seen them too. “Scream and she dies,” came Gray’s voice.

“Who?” I asked.

“Does it matter?” he asked back. I stayed rooted in place, Gray’s threat apparently working on everyone, as no one screamed. I started scanning for his form, knowing it was useless, but I kept doing it anyway out of instinct. Maybe he would slip up, but after all this time, I wouldn’t know what a slip up looked like. “So, you’re leaving, like I asked, wise. But I wonder, are you really done fighting me?”

“You’re fight isn’t with me. Look, you succeeded in scaring me, I’m going, isn’t that what you wanted?” I asked.

“I want to know you’re not a threat. I- stop struggling! OW!” Gray appeared, falling off his hooves, several burns on his body. I looked across from him to see the reason.

“Lightning!” I shouted. I put it together in my mind. He must have grabbed her before threatening us. She had a dark mark above her left eye, telling me Gray had tried to knock her out, but she had come too just now. Lightning growled, spreading her wings, electricity surrounding her form. Gray smiled at her, suddenly Lightning flying right as if struck in the face. She staggered, falling to her knees.

I had seen enough. I spread my sore wings and jumped over Lightning, keeping her injured form under me and protected by my legs. I started scanning again for Gray. I got nervous when I didn’t feel Lightning grab me for security and I ventured to look down at her, finally realizing what was going on. Lightning wasn’t there. She had never been there. The frustration started to boil in me. I hated this. I couldn’t tell what was real and it was driving me insane. “Still you refuse to stay out of things,” Gray said. I watched in horror as Scootaloo was lifted off the ground.

“RAINBOW DASH!” she shouted, kicking and struggling as she was lifted up. Rarity’s horn glowed, but before she could do much of anything, Scootaloo shot away, Gray’s form now visible holding her.

I shot into the air, the pain in my right wing almost completely gone, over powered by fear and rage. Scootaloo was crying and screaming as I shot after her. Two bat ponies flanked me in the air, a third behind me. I was glad for the assistance, shouting at them, “C’mon, he’s not supposed to be that fast.” My wing screamed at me as I beat it faster and faster in the air, speeding towards Gray and- flew right through him- what did I expect? I looked left to see another image of Gray with my daughter and banked to catch up to it. Again I flew straight through the image, my pulse now racing. Another image and I shot towards it. This time I hit something, a bat pony barely recovering his flight path. “Sorry… um…”

“Stay out of this!” the bat pony shouted, taking off. Scootaloo’s screams reached my ears again and my wing’s pain disappeared, as I shot towards the sound, closing my eyes, hoping to trust my ears. I flew several feet, but felt nothing. Tears started streaming out of my eyes as I opened them and started looking around, trying desperately to see Scootaloo or Gray. Finally I saw them, shooting over the boundary of the Everfree forest.

As I tore off after Gray again, I heard something over my shoulder. Something a lot like thunder.

Lightning Strike shot ahead of me, the yellow filly zipping through another image of Gray and Scootaloo, a scream of rage that was starting to match my own coming from her.

My heart kept beating faster and faster. I looked down and noticed something moving under me. “Timber Wolf…” I said quietly. A small clearing appeared in the forest, Gray flying over it, the wolf shooting out of the forest. I screamed. Gray dropped Scootaloo. She rolled on the ground and looked right. The wolf grabbed her in it’s jaws. My vision blurred.

My daughter’s screams reach my ears again and I shot to the creature, turning in air so I could slam my back hooves into the wolf’s muzzle. Hoof met wood and a loud crunching emitted from both. Scootaloo flew out of the animal’s mouth. Both my hind legs hurt like crazy, but I landed between my child and the wooden dog anyway.

The cur tuned to look at me, a huge crack across its face. It growled as I looked back at Scootaloo, who was bleeding from multiple wounds. The wolf ran away, apparently not wanting to deal with me. Gray landed a few feet away, chuckling. My eyes narrowed, looking at Gray, Scootaloo struggling to even stand in the corner of my eye. “That was the last mistake you will ever make,” I said under my breath. A yellow streak shot in front of me, Lightning Strike landing between me and Gray. “He’s mine kid, get out of here.”

The look she gave me could have frozen a lake. She turned that gaze to the image of Gray, spreading her wings. Gray moved towards her as electric bolts flew out from her and she screamed in anger. A field of electric energy shot from her body, ripping through several trees and causing them be fall down. The field went around the form of Gray, electric energy sparking in all directions. A HUGE half sphere of electric energy surrounded Gray. “You keep attacking my heroes and my friends,” Lightning shouted. Gray started looking around him, his face changing from confidence to panic. His image stayed stationary, but the electric field was apparently impacted several times.

An image of Gray appeared right in front of Lighting, his jaws open like he was going to grab her with them. However the jaws passed through her. Lightning closed her eyes, the field continuing to exist. I walked to Scootaloo as I watched her. “Get clear,” Lighting said. She turned back to Gray. “You think you should be fighting Rainbow Dash? You think I’m afraid of you? You created me, just like my mother and father. They left me in a dumpster. I HATE those who made me. You’re afraid of Rainbow Dash, Luna, Celestia?... I am the one you should fear the most!”

“What do you honestly think you’re going to do girl?” asked Gray. “You’ve never killed, you’ve never fought, this is a joke. You’re nothing more than an experiment. Step aside and maybe I’ll spare your brother.”

“My brother has a name.”

“Dusk?”

Lightning froze, her energy continuing to surround Gray. “That… was your last mistake.” She looked up. I grabbed Scootaloo and leaped away, pretty damn sure something big was about to happen. “LIGHTNING PURGE!”

“What?” I… I knew what that was… it was a big deal. I turned once I was several feet away, watching as a blue pulse erupted into the field surrounding Gray. Energy erupted out, sending Lightning Strike, myself and Scootaloo flying with it’s sheer force.

I got up, staggering, my ears ringing and my breath caught in my chest. I looked back to Scootaloo who’s eyes were closed. She had stopped moving. My heart raced like never before as I grabbed her. “C’mon squirt please,” I said, touching her chest, blood stains all over her fur coat. Her heart was still beating. I held her close, not sure what to do. Her wounds were so bad, she wasn’t even awake, and I wasn’t sure what that blast did to her.

Lightning flew over my head. “Please tell me she’s okay…” she said. I looked up at the filly.

“I’ll figure that out, just please tell me if he’s really dead.” She flew away to the crater created in the dirt by her attack.

Three bat ponies landed around me and about two feet in front of me finally landed the princess of the moon herself. She looked ahead. I couldn’t see past her and the bat ponies, not really sure what kind of destruction Lightning had done. However… I knew what a “lightning purge” was. If she really summoned one… “Ensure he is deceased,” Luna said. She turned to look at me.

I looked up at her, all pride and decorum of any kind that I had left was gone. “Please,” I held my daughter close. “Please… there has to be something you can do.” Blue energy surrounded Scootaloo’s injured body. I slowly released my foal as she floated into the air. Several large leaves and tendrils surrounded her wounds and tied themselves off.

A dark unicorn emerged from the trees. Luna looked at him, levitating Scootaloo to him. “Honor Guard,” Luna started. “Is there anything you can do?” The unicorn approached her and took her in his forelegs. He gently placed Scootaloo in the grass and leaned over her.

“There is a spell I can perform to freeze her in this moment long enough to get to the clinic, they should be able to save her there.” Several green lights surrounded her, suddenly shooting into her. Scootaloo’s body froze.

Honor Guard’s magic surrounded Scootaloo and he started walking away.

“Yee no doubt wish to go with thy daughter,” Luna said, waving for me to follow.

I shook my head, which was probably a dumb idea because it started to throb. “I have to see his corpse with my own eyes, feel it with my hooves. I have to know he’s dead, first hoof.” I walked past Luna and to the crater.

Ahead of me the dirt was overturned and all around several trees were burned and fallen. I was still staggering, that blast had messed with me but good. I was starting to feel nauseous, but I continued forward. I was probably going to pass out, but not until I saw and felt his corpse. I was going to know. Gray had to be dead.

In the middle of the crater were three ponies. One of them was a black bat pony, looking like a pony of death. He was feeling the chest of a gray pony with freakish features, several… pieces of it missing. I saw Gray’s teeth, no longer glowing. The third pony was Lightning Strike, sobbing openly, her whole body shaking. I felt the body of the gray pony.

It didn’t move, it was real. It’s teeth were real. This had to be Gray. He was really dead.

I looked up at Lightning Strike. I didn’t faint, in fact my faculties were finally returning to normal by this point. Breathing was still a bit of a chore, but all the same, I was doing better. The stress in my body was declining. “I should have known…” Lightning said. “I don’t get good things.” I was about to leave as I heard her continue. “This is all I get, all I will ever get. I live a nightmare, and by coming to you, all I did was bring it with-“ I could listen to no more, I had to do something. I grabbed her and hugged her to me. “What are you-“

I hushed the crying filly. “Thankyou,” She was still shaking. “Listen to me, it’s over. Everything will be okay. Life goes on, the nightmare has ended.”

“I can’t have this.”

“Shut up, yes you can.” I held the filly, squeezing her gently. I finally let her go, her walking a small distance from me. A part of me still wanted to go to be with Scootaloo, but I realized I couldn’t help her right now. But Lightning needed me. I stayed.

“I love you, all of you. Vinyl, Scootaloo, Apple Jack, Dusk… so many of you... I’m ruining your lives!”

“No.”

“Yes I am…” she said again and I lost it.

“NO YOU ARE NOT!” I shouted. “You saved my life and the life of my daughter and I will not hear this bull shit!” Lightning stepped back, her breath catching. “You’re a hero today. Believe it. You have my respect and my thanks. Now get back over here,” I said, holding out my forelegs for another hug.

Lightning just stood there crying. “No… no this can’t be real.” She pointed to Gray. “That’s what I have… that… that…” she ran to me and hugged me.

“It’s over.” I closed my eyes, holding her. I felt another pair of forelegs go around me and Lightning. I opened my eyes, seeing white. I crawled out, stepping away as Vinyl took Lightning Strike.

Vinyl looked up at me, her notes levitating in front of her. ‘Thanks. I’ll take things from here.’

I nodded, spreading my wings and taking off.

(***)

I caught up to Scootaloo of course, but she was in a freeze spell so it wasn’t like I could have talked to her. They kept me out of the room while they operated on her, so I wasn’t able to see her until several hours later of course.

Finally, there I was in her room, Scootaloo slowly opening her eyes and looking at me. “How do you feel squirt?” I asked.

“Like I was hit by a train…” she said.

“I know the feeling,” I said.

“Next time there’s a big monster in town, I’m just gonna hide under my bed for the week.” She said in a frustrated tone. I smiled, swallowing a laugh, not sure if she was in fact kidding.

“Good news, those wounds were mostly superficial,” I said. “You’re gonna be okay.”

“Yea I hope so,” she replied. “Just don’t tell any jokes I’m pretty sure laughing will hurt.” She said with a slight chuckle. “Ouch… yep.”

“Well I might be the wrong pony to be here then,” came Pinkie’s voice as she and Rarity walked into the room.

“I’m not, this is right where I belong,” said Twilight, now following them.

“Ah would say… the same.”

“Apple Jack!” I practically shouted. She had a walker and even then Fluttershy was helping her, but there she was.

She looked down at herself. “It’s not so much painful as ah’m really tired.” She explained. “Happens when ya barely survived a knife to the throat…” she breathed in deep, like she was trying to summon energy just to talk. “The docs say ah’m gettin’ better and eventually ah’ll be walking without this thing… still bucking is out.” She looked up at me and Scootaloo. “But enough on that. Is everyone else gonna live?”

Apple Bloom ran into the room and plopped her rump down next to her sister. The two sisters smiled at each other. Sweetie Belle came in next, followed by Dusk. Sweetie sat down next to Apple Bloom, but the look Dusk gave Apple Bloom gave a pretty good impression he was NOT here to be with her.

Finally Lightning appeared in the doorway. She slinked back, but a white hoof pushed her in, Vinyl coming in behind her. Lightning looked around, biting her lip. She walked over to her brother.

She looked at Apple Bloom. “I’m really sorry about Honest Apple… I didn’t mean for-“

“Shut up,” Apple Bloom said. Dusk stood up and glared at her.

“I’m warning you!” he shouted.

“Ah’m not gonna be mean, ah swear,” Apple Bloom said. “Yer sister didn’t do any of this. She shouldn’t feel like she did.” She walked around Dusk, the blue colt’s eyes burning with anger. “Ah’m sorry about what ah said. Ah was scared, ah still am, but yer still ma friend, and nothin’ is gonna change that.” I smiled as Apple Bloom sat down next to Lightning, Dusk hesitantly allowing it.

Lightning finally grinned. She flew into the air, a huge smile plastered on her face.

Pinkie laughed, watching us all, summing up quite a bit saying, “Yea yea, happy ending… we all look like crap.”

(***)

I slept in Scootaloo’s room that night, watching her and her friends. The five crusaders all had their own injuries save for Dusk. Apple Bloom’s wounds were emotional, Sweetie still had the remains of the black eye I accidentally gave her, Scootaloo was in bed covered in many bandages and unable to move her foreleg and finally Lightning, who was none the less still flying over everyone, was still sporting a nasty looking scar on her face. I say this to explain why the next day this adventurous group of foals was just sitting around playing cards all day pretty much. It’s really all they felt up to.

I participated in a few games, but for the most part, I just read a few books Twilight had loaned me.

Apple Jack slowly came into the room, assisted by a blue furred bat pony. He helped her sit as Apple Bloom quickly got up. Apple Jack waved her off, “Ah’m okay sis. Like the docs said, ah’m gettin’ better. Go back ta yer game.”

I walked over to her. “So what’s up?” I asked.

AJ shook her head. “Mostly ah just get tired of staring at those four walls in ma room. No matter how many balloons Pinkie decorates em’ with.” She looked at the bat pony. “Saw this guy walkin’ by. He asked where yer room was and ah asked if he couldn’t just help me go with him. He obliged. Guess ah just want ta… hang out.” I smiled. “Maybe ask a few questions.”

“Like what?”

“Well, ah heard about what went down… exactly what is a lightnin’ purge?”

The bat pony looked up at this. “Yes, that’s actually what I’m here about as well.”

I regarded the bat pony. “I assume you’re military,” I started.

“Yes. Colonel Moon Shade at your service.” he said.

“Don’t you know what a purge is?” I asked back.

“Technically I do. Tell me what you saw though.”

I thought for a moment. “A field of electric energy a good size went up around Gray, and then a huge blue pulse fell through it and obliterated him. I saw the body… half of it was missing and there was a crater under it. Pretty sure that’s a purge right?”

“What is a purge?” AJ reiterated.

“Essentially?” I asked. “A really, really powerful spell. Military grade, takes three to five ponies to pull one off, usually a multi race affair too.”

“Well who helped Lightnin’?” Apple Jack asked.

“No one,” said the Colonel.

I thought, then quickly spoke up again. “There were bat ponies… Luna… I mean, c’mon, you’ve got to be kidding. One pony doing a purge? That would be like one pony harvesting all of Sweet Apple Acres in a week,” AJ narrowed her eyes at me. “Along with helping other ponies at the same time…”

“Ya’ll are never gonna let that go are ya?” Apple Jack asked.

“You launched me through a house,” I shot back, smiling even as I said it. We both chuckled, but Moon Shade just looked at us with confusion.

“Right… well inside jokes aside,” he said. “Is there anything you can tell me about her knowing how to wield power like that?”

“I’m kinda the wrong pony to ask,” I admitted. “I was there, but I don’t know where that came from. Really I had no idea Lightning had that kind of power. Course I don’t know the nature of her power anyway. I’ve only seen her around and maybe watched a few of her rehearsals… well because someone rehearsing for a DJ concert where lightning is used as pyrotechnics is pretty fun to watch. But if you want to know about her and what she can do, there’s a couple ponies you can talk to. Vinyl Scratch, her brother Dusk, Lightning herself… heck there’s her father Torkuda, who’s a dragon, by the way, he probably knows quite a bit.” I looked around the room, thinking. “What’s going on anyway? You all just curious?”

“You could call it that,” said Moon Shade. “Luna has expressed interest in knowing the true extent of Lightning’s powers. There is a facility in Dodge City that is equipped to investigate the magic manipulations done on her. The investigation could tell us if Doctor Gray’s experiments could be useful in military application… well to be honest Luna has little interest in military application. She simply wants to know if Lightning’s powers are having an adverse effect on the child, and if so, if they can be altered or removed. Course… well…”

“Well what?” I asked. Moon Shade looked at me inquisitively.

“Do you really care? What is she to you?”

“After all that’s happened, let’s say I’ve “taken an interest” in the filly.”

“You did notice her new cutie mark?” Moon Shade asked.

Actually I hadn’t. Shows how much I pay attention I guess. I looked over at the filly flying above her friends as Apple Bloom started yelling at her to get down so they could all know she wasn’t cheating. She did have a cutie mark. The rest of the crusaders were still blank, but she wasn’t.

All five of the foals turned to look at me and Moon Shade, then all of them stared at Lightning’s flank. “I guess no one noticed in all the chaos-“ I started but Apple Bloom shouted an interruption.

“Hang on a second! Ya do have a cutie mark!” she said. “Get down here,” Lightning landed and blushed as the other crusaders gathered around her, even Scootaloo stumbling out of the sheets of her bed. “When did ya get that?”

“I don’t know, I think I got it when I killed Gray,” Lightning said.

“Why didn’t ya say anythang?” Apple Bloom asked. “It looks so cool.” The other crusaders agreed, Lightning starting to blush.

“Um… can everyone stop staring at my butt?” asked Lightning Strike. “I can still be a crusader right? I didn’t want to call attention to it cause you might kick me out.”

“Naah, we won’t,” Apple Bloom said. “Still… a blue shield with a lightning bolt. What do ya suppose it means?”

The bat pony walked over to them. “Well, a shield often means defense, and I can only guess lightning refers to her powers. If I were to guess, this mark infers Lightning’s unusual magic is part of her very make up now and her destiny is probably one of military service.”

“Well… I don’t have any say in what she does,” I said. “Still whatever is best for her, that’s what I’ll want in this. Lightning is a… friend, yea a friend. She’s definitely that after all that’s happened.” Lightning smiled at me.

“Hmm,” the colonel said, seeming to think. “Well… would you like to come along if she goes to Dodge?”

“If you’ll wait until most of our friends have healed up, why not, I’ve gone further for friends?”

“Well then, if all goes well, you all might have a new adventure awaiting you very soon. I’m going to go talk to Vinyl… where is Torkuda anyway?” asked Moon Shade.


> All In the Eyes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The day Gray died, I had flown faster than I had flown in a long time, my only thoughts centering on desperately trying to save my daughter from that vicious monster.

It was finally about a month later and even still my wings hurt a little, but for the most part I was back on my hooves, as was everyone else. Well…

AJ still wasn’t bucking trees and sadly it was pretty certain she would never be back to that. Big Mac had to take over all of the major chores around the farm, and even then the family was having to hire ponies to help them. This was apparently hard to afford and frequently, AJ was sent to ask if I or anypony else would help out for free. I and my friends did so gladly, but it seemed to bug the heck out of AJ just to ask. Still, AJ was coming back to normal a little, you see… ahh… just to myself, I had to admit, I felt so sorry for her. Her hard work ethic defined so much of what she did. AJ had a sense of humor, and she was very wise for her age, and she always knew how to make you feel welcome, but to take away her work, it was just cruel.

She was adjusting, basically becoming a baker with Pinkie, but even then she could only work so many hours a day. She also said she was happy to have a lot more time to spend with her sister, even if she couldn’t keep up like she used too. She was learning all kinds of new jokes, and she was starting to love sharing them, Pinkie gladly teaching her the art of the punchline.

Scootaloo was also still healing up. The doctors said that after all the trauma she had went though, she was lucky to be alive at all. Her leg was finally out of its cast, but she was still moving rather slowly.

I actually had to appreciate her friends in this time, as I’m sure she did too. Apple Bloom was her self-appointed protector, any time other foals would say anything mean about Scootaloo moving so slow, they would deal with her personally. Sweetie, who was much better with tact and discreteness, was usually the one to speak for Scoots when something was too much for her in her current state –let's face it, Scootaloo was like me, the very idea of saying “I can’t” was offensive, so naturally someone had to say it for her-. Lightning was entertainment, telling jokes, zipping around like a hurricane and frequently somehow honestly losing rough housing bouts with an injured disabled pegasus foal her own age. Don’t ask me to explain, Lightning rates somewhere between unicorn magic and general Pinkieness on my explain-ability scale. Finally, whenever they hung out, Dusk walked next to Scootaloo, no matter how slow she had to go, never complaining, never getting antsy. I will never understand where a six year old gets patience like that.

But yea, the time was now coming, Lightning would have to set out for Dodge City, and even if I didn’t want to go with her, Scootaloo sure as heck did- I did, just if I didn’t okay?-. That and I gave my word and I did have an interest in the filly after all this time.

I set out for the train with my daughter riding on my back as I flew through the streets at a steady pace. “Hey Rainbow!” came a familiar farm pony’s voice. “Wait up, ah got a good one today.” I flew down next to AJ. “Made it up ma’self this time, Pinkie hasn’t even heard it.”

I started walking with her, Scootaloo jumping down and joining Apple Bloom next to Apple Jack. “Shoot,” I said with a smile, always up for a good laugh.

“What has blue eyes and is still coming for you?” came a much deeper voice, accompanied by a pair of blue eyes suddenly appearing in my vision. I jumped back, grabbing Scoots and throwing a wing between us both and the eyes. I lowered my wing and looked around, at my gathering friends, Fluttershy and Twilight now there. “No one else saw him?” I asked. Head shakes and a few “nope”s came as my answer.

So yea, that was another thing. More than anypony else… well save for Lightning and her brother of course… Gray had messed with the heads of me and Scootaloo. Even sure as we were that he was dead, we both kept having visions of him.

Twilight trotted over to me. “He’s gone Rainbow, gone. And I’m right here. You’re safe.” I pulled Scootaloo close to me, glancing around, knowing I was wrong to do that, but I couldn’t help it. “Scootaloo is safe too.” She pushed up my chin with her hoof. “Now c’mon, the Rainbow Dash I know isn’t afraid of anything right?” She smiled at me as genuinely as she could. I stood up and let Scootaloo go, her staying by my side anyway this time.

I continued to the train station, being joined by the rest of my friends. Not all of my friends were coming to Dodge City, just me, Pinkie, Rarity and AJ. Rarity and AJ because their sisters wanted to stick by their newest friends as long as they could. Pinkie because she needed to keep tabs on her student Apple Jack and make sure she kept practicing both baking and joke making.

Finally at the train station, the filly of the hour saw us and zoomed over to us. “You came, you came, you came, you came, you came, you came, you came, you came!” Lightning said, zipping around the entire group several times.

I have never seen Twilight have to try twice to catch someone with her magic until that day. Lightning is REALLY unpredictable in the air though, so actually I watched two purple puffs just miss her when she spontaneously changed direction several times before a purple cloud finally surrounded the filly. “Calm down,” Twilight said. “Of course we’re here. You saved our friend and some of us are starting to think of you as a friend anyway.”

“A FRIEND!” Lightning screamed as Twilight set her down. Twilight’s spell went away and the filly shot away nigh instantly.

“Is she that used to unicorns capturing her to calm her down?” Rarity asked.

“VINYL! VINYL! VINYL! Twilight says I’m her friend!” Lightning shouted at the white unicorn who was now walking over to us.

Twilight’s eyes started nervously traveling off to the side as even Fluttershy started to laugh. Twi spoke to me quietly. “That’s not exactly what I meant. I means she’s an okay filly and all, but she’s not even half my age and I barely know her.”

I smiled. “So go ahead Twi, tell a little kid that she is definitely NOT a friend of the Princess of Friendship. That should go over well.” She gave me a half hearted glare.

I snickered. Twilight grumbled.

Luckily Lightning’s attention span was about as long as that of a gnat so she didn’t stay on that note for long. Twilight was able to give some excuses why she wasn’t accompanying her new “friend” to Dodge and those of us destined for Dodge city piled on the train… well attempted to.

“Um… no,” came a voice I knew, but was having trouble placing. I turned to see the night general, Moonstone standing next to the door of the train.

Seeing him again, I decided it was high time I noted exactly what he looked like. His coat was a very dark denim blue, almost black and his short mane was navy blue, making his natural colors much darker than the purple armor of the night guard which he wore. His eyes were orange with a black slit for a pupil. He was also huge, towering almost a full foot over me. His chest was big and firm and his legs stalky. He was… forgive me, I am a mare after all… kinda hot. I had a thing for bat ponies, didn’t talk about it much, but it was there.

He continued to speak. “Her highness is in a special car near the back of the train. You and whichever elements are coming are requested to join her, along with the filly, Lightning Strike.” Myself, Rarity, AJ, Vinyl, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Dusk and Lightning all turned to- “Um no, again, just the element bearers and the filly. It would not be proper to overcrowd the princess. I-“ but he stopped.

I was holding tightly to Scootaloo with my wing, and next to me, Lightning was clinging to her brother. “I’m sorry, but right now I have a hard time being apart from her if she’s going to strange places.”

“Dusty…” Lightning whined next to me.

“Well… how much room do foals take up anyway?” Moonstone sighed. “Fine, you can all come. The princess is fond of children anyway. But I will advise the children remember Luna is still royalty. She is to be given respect. Which means the proper distance.” We all turned to follow him when he stopped Vinyl. “Pardon me, but just who are you?”

‘I’m... Lightning Strike’s legal guardian.’ She wrote to him. ‘I kind of assumed I should go with her.’

“Is Lightning your daughter or not?” Moonstone asked point blank.

‘Well no but-‘

“Let me get this straight. You assume invitations to ride with royalty automatically extend to you because you are circumstantially related to someone who is to be in her presence?” He stood tall, his bat like wings halfway extended. “Am I understanding this correctly?”

‘Well…’

“Am I understanding you correctly?”

‘I mean, Lightning has no parents here. Only the dragon Torkuda, but he’s off in his cave right now. Somepony needs to watch her.’

“There will be plenty of adult ponies, including Honor Guard and myself in the car with her. I believe I can handle one small filly.”

‘Yes but…’

“Did you momentarily forget whom she is to be riding with?”

‘I suppose,’ Vinyl bowed her head and left the group. She walked slowly, hesitantly looking back every few steps, like she was having to assure herself Lightning and her brother would be okay without her. I gritted my teeth. Maybe she wasn’t an element bearer, but that was no reason to disrespect Vinyl. Still, I supposed Moonstone was just doing his job. He couldn’t let just anyone into that car, probably going out on a limb letting me keep Scoots with me as it was.

“Wait- what- Vinyl?” Lightning started. “No! You were gonna sit with me.” Before anyone could even react, Lightning was in the air and shot over to her guardian. “You’re not leaving are you? Please don’t- I need you. You’re my best friend- well besides Dusk but he’s my brother so he doesn’t count anymore so-” Vinyl lowered the filly with her magic. She wrote something to the filly. “NO! I’m not going anywhere without you!”

I shook my head. Lightning was a dramatic filly if nothing else. Not that I could blame her, but still. “I suppose someone should talk to them,” said Moonstone with a sigh.

“Hold up general, allow m-“

“I BEG YOUR PARDON CADET!” he shouted. I stumbled back. “I may not be in the service of the Princess of the day but I still deserve your respect, do I not?” Oh right… I was a cadet in the Wonder Bolts… and he was a general… and I had just talked to him like an old friend… oops. “For that you’re lucky I don’t dress you down right here in front of everyone. Do not mistake my earlier candor for me forgetting your position. You were injured and battered by personal attacks on you and your daughter, I thought it best to ignore your personal demeanor at the time. Am I to understand that is simply the norm for you now?”

“No sir!” I shouted, standing up straight.

“I do not need to speak to Spitfire do I?”

“No sir, I will remember sir.”

“We’ll see.” He looked back over at Vinyl and Lightning. “That being said, what did you wish to say?”

“Well, with respect sir, Lightning has no idea who you are, and she’s been on edge all this month. Maybe I should help you explain things to her. She trusts me sir.”

“Very well,” he said. “We’ll talk to them together.” Moonstone walked over to Vinyl, myself trying to remember what exactly was the proper distance to follow a general at was as I followed. When we were next to them Vinyl and Lightning looked up at us. The general spoke up again. “Ma’am, I must apologize for any appearance of disrespect. However, I have to maintain the princess’s security. You do not strike me as a dangerous pony, but judging things like that is not in my job description. You are not forbidden to ride the train and if you were supposed to be watching over the filly, I will have… words with Moon Shade about his omitting you in his report. I understood Lightning would be traveling with just the element bearers and her friends. I apologize for the inconvenience. I will ensure there are accommodations for you upon arrival in Dodge. You and Lightning probably won’t be housed together- again my apologies- however she will be cared for and you will not be forbidden to see her.” Wow, formal much? This is a family matter general Stone… huh, name made sense now. He looked at me. “Go ahead Cadet Dash.”

Lightning had wrapped herself around Vinyl’s leg. “Don’t take her from me,” she said. And the look she gave me… ouch.

“We’re not taking her away. She’ll be on the train too just in a different car,” I said.

“But she was supposed to sit with me. Vinyl is important! She’s my guardian and my mentor and biggest hero and… and… don’t take her away!” she said back. Again, ow, this kid knew how to make you feel like some kind of demon.

“She’s kinda your mom isn’t she?” I asked. Lightning looked left and right and hesitantly nodded.

“Not really but…”

I knelt down to look her in the eyes on her own level. “Listen kiddo, we all know Vinyl is important. But that’s kinda what this is about. It’s not that we’re taking her away, she’ll be with you in Dodge City and like the general just said, you’ll be able to visit like here-“

“I LIVE with her here.”

“Oh… oh shoot you do don’t you?” I stuttered out. “How did I never notice that?” I shook my head. “Anyway, look, Vinyl might be important, but she’s not important enough to ride in the car with the rest of us right now-“

“I beg your pardon!” Moonstone practically shouted. His bat wing was suddenly shoved between myself and Lightning. Just that wing pushed me back with such force I was actually astonished and was not sure if I could have pushed back against just it. He stood in front of the filly, his size and demeanor still like a massive stone. Looking at him, Lightning Strike squeaked and dropped to the ground in fear. Moonstone’s wing shot over her and then suddenly under her, pushing her to her hooves. It then pushed up her chin. “Listen to me young lady. Don’t listen to this sadly uninformed mare. She is confusing station with importance. ALL ponies, should be IMPORTANT to her.” Okay, I had to admit I had worded that poorly and now I was kind of swimming in my own horse shoes with embarrassment that I was doing my best not to express in front of a three star general. “The fact is, only certain ponies can go before the princess. The exact reasons are complicated and I don’t think you’ll fully follow if I explain them.”

“You’re gonna take her-“ Lightning said, starting to shake and bend her knees.

Moonstone held her chin with his wing. “Stand up straight!” he demanded. Mostly out of fear, she obeyed. “You are possibly one of the most powerful ponies in all of Equestria from what I’ve heard,” I held my tongue, but I seriously doubted that statement. “You should not fear us taking Vinyl from you. You shouldn’t fear. You should know. You should know she will only be in the other car. You should know I give you my word on this and I would not give my word to you lightly. I respect you. And I will not lie to you. I refuse to lie to the good, and you are good, are you not?”

“Um…”

“Are you?” He demanded. Lightning tried to look away but he wouldn’t let her. “I respect you, respect yourself. Others respect you as they should. You are not helpless, stop believing you are.”

“But Gray-“

“YOU KILLED GRAY! Why the hell should you be afraid of him? You protected your brother, your friends and yourself. You are NOT helpless. What more proof could you possibly need?” His voice boomed. “STAND!” He pulled away his wing. Lightning looked left and right. She started to shirk down, but then she looked into his face. I don’t know what she saw, but suddenly she stood up straight, copying his pose, her wings half extended. Bolts danced around her. I had to admit, if I could find an eight year old intimidating, I would have found her so in that moment. “Now come. Say goodbye and then be prepared to say hello again in Dodge, it won’t be difficult, not for you, will it?”

“N…n… no.” she said. Well, again, she was still Lightning Strike.

Lightning was left to say goodbye to Vinyl. I let myself smile at the general. He turned and glared at me and suddenly I felt about two inches tall. “Not important!?” he demanded.

“I didn’t mean it like that…” I tried to say.

“How did you mean it exactly?” he demanded. “Don’t answer. Let me tell you how you should think. You are a soldier of Equestria. You protect ALL of her citizens and ALL of them are equally important to you. Your opinion of any of them is irrelevant, for you this is fact. There is rank, and you respect that. But do you not notice that I respect you? A lowly cadet and I respect you. If I do not, then why take the time to teach you? No matter my opinion of you, Luna demands it. NEVER confuse importance with position. If you do and I hear of it, you will wish I never did. I have seen enough ponies forget this and treat their subordinates like trash. Clearly Spitfire and I do have things we need to discuss if this is not instinct for you.” I nodded, feeling a little more shame than I’m sure I strictly would have felt had anypony else said that to me. What was it about this stallion?

Lightning said goodbye to Vinyl, who yes, just got on a different car. Poor kid, all that and that’s all that was on the line. We had all been through so much.

Still, I got a good chuckle watching her and eventually the entire Cutie Mark Crusader troop follow Moonstone, all holding their heads high like he did. It was cute. Good to see them all getting a little dose of self-respect, even if they were just impersonating it. Okay, indulge a mother a little, Scootaloo was especially cute, her little wings half out, trying to maintain that pose despite moving slowly. She was a natural. I trotted up next to her and took the pose as well.

As we worked our way through the royal car to Luna’s area, Rarity came up beside me. “Soooo… Rainbow Dash um…”

“I’m your friend Rarity, you don’t need to act nervous with me,” I said flatly, not at all sure what was going on.

“I’m not nervous about you um… the general you see…” Oh no… “I’ve never considered a bat pony before but…” no… “The way he handled Lightning, giving her confidence like that, and the way he struts, his chiseled stallion chest…” no… “It couldn’t have escaped your notice. Oh and that night armor, it’s just exquisite, fitting his dark body like a… what? I have eyes, don’t you?”

“Rarity, he’s a general. Even if I did admit that he’s… okay so he’s really hot, kinda hard to find stallions with that kind of presence these days, but still, he’s waaaay out of my league. I’d probably break about fifteen bylaws even thinking about him in that way.”

Rarity chuckled. “Out of your league hmm? Less competition for me!” Oh sweet Celestia, she was gonna be unbearable this trip wasn’t she?

“Rarity-“ I started with an annoyed tone.

She lowered her eyebrows at me. “Well Rainbow Dash, I beg your pardon, I am a mare and he is a stallion after all. Attraction is rather natural, kind of how we keep the species going. I want a stallion, is that such a crime?” okay so she had a point.

“Well no not really… still a general?”

“Aim high,” Rarity said with a wink. I groaned. “Oh shoot, princess on deck-“ she and I both looked up and saw Luna dressed in her full royal regalia. She stood before us with that wise authoritative gaze her sister pulled off so much better, still, she wasn’t bad at it herself. I and the entire company bowed low… save for Lightning who zipped straight up to her and hugged her. I winced, waiting for the shouts of anger from Honor Guard and Moonstone, along with any display of violence they would go through to “protect” their liege from a friendly little filly… and I almost did a double take when I opened my eyes and saw Luna affectionately nuzzling the foal.

“Momma Luna!” Lightning said. “I missed you so much!”

“We have missed thee as well,” Luna responded.

“That’s kinda personal,” I quietly noted to Rarity.

“She did save the filly personally and become her surrogate mother, remember?” asked Rarity back, discreetly as she could.

“We bid you all to rise.”

(***)

And thus our ride was under way. I guess I can be a little dense at times about relationships that aren’t my own. Probably should have guessed Lightning and the princess were close, Lightning did have a way of making you feel pretty important… or like mud, but for now that was mostly unintentional. I wasn’t exactly sure why Luna wanted myself, Rarity and AJ there, but mostly she just talked with Lightning and Dusk for the trip, catching up with them.

On either side of Luna, Honor Guard and Moonstone took turns resting while the other watched, it being long past when they as night guard should be sleeping. Luna was starting to look tired as well.

Still, for the two foals she used to care for, Luna stayed awake. It really was strange to see the princess of the night being so personal with a pair of children. I’d never thought of her before in this light. She even tickled them a few times, it was weird.

Oh yea and then there was… the pair. Did they always have to do this? When AJ and I compete, it’s fun, when Rarity and Apple Jack do it, insanity soon ensues. For instance, Rarity had her eyes traveling nervously towards the general the entire trip, as did Apple Jack, so wouldn’t it be obvious what was about to ensue?

“So, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said, sitting on a giant pillow next to me (this was a royal car, the pillows sure were nicer than normal train seats), “Tell me- anything you can about Moonstone.” I rolled my eyes. I then looked over at AJ, who was “not listening” by looking away about two inches from my face. Subtle.

“Um… he’s a general, in the night guard.”

“And has a deep booming voice and the self-confidence ta match,” I gave AJ a lazy eye. “What? Ah just noticed is all. Not really that interested.”

I turned my head back to Rarity, whose face was currently about two centimeters from mine. “I am!”

“Guys, I’m in the Wonder Bolts, in the reserves at that. He’s in the active Night Guard. Asking me about him is like asking you about the shoe industry because you make dresses Rares.”

“I’m a fashionista, not a dress maker. I know more about shoes than you know about your own daughter. So, what can you tell me about the general?” Rarity said back with a grin.

“I know that if you want to know anything of substance about him you’re just gonna have to talk to him,” I replied.

At that, Apple Jack stood up, “Kay,” and promptly headed for the general, white magic enveloping her and suddenly her face was inches from Rarity’s.

“First, off, are you insane?” Rarity asked. “You don’t just approach stallions out of the blue and show interest, you’ll scare them,”

“Really? Ah haven’t noticed that,” AJ replied in a deadpan voice.

“Oh? You think you know better? How married are you then?” Rarity said.

“Bout as much as you,” AJ replied. Is this what it’s like to be stallion crazy? Look, attraction I got, every so often I would notice a really hot body, but in the end, stallions are just ponies … and yes, I’m aware that my lack of showing interest is probably why Scootaloo doesn’t have a father, I just… well really until I had Scootaloo already, I never really had thought about long term relationships. Short term ones either. Sports were my thing, not stallions. “That bein’ said, ah don’t really pursue em’ like you do, so failure record and all,” oh, shoot, where’s popcorn when you need it? That was such a smart thing to say. You could have just watched the steam come off of Rarity’s head.

“I’m going to say this one time Apple Jack, he’s mine,” Rarity said.

“Isn’t that kinda up to him? He can turn us both down,”

“Well yes he can, I respect that he’s another pony and all, but you’ll never get anyone if that’s your primary thought. But like I told you, back off or else-“

“Else what? Ah’m still recoverin’. You really threatening an injured friend?” Apple Jack asked. “Not that I like bringin’ it up…”

Rarity sighed. “No- look, let’s work together and if he goes for one of us, we’ll both be happy for me- I mean whoever he goes for.” They both got up and walked over to the stallion.

Scootaloo, sitting next to me, finally voiced a certain concern. “He’s like ten feet away at most and don’t bat ponies have really good hearing?”

“Yes, but I think you’re missing the point,” I said back. “Rarity and Apple Jack are going to try to work together to win a stallion’s heart, who happens to be a three star general… this I have to see.”

I watched at the two mares stood on either side of the stallion, because flanking someone is sooo the best way to proposition them. And- “I can’t fraternize in front of the princess,” he said. Shut down in two seconds flat. To quote Spitfire, “That’s an academy record!”.

“That is correct,” said the Princess. “However, we do not need to be protected in this manner from friends and a group of foals. We are in a good mood, why should thee not be general? Why don’t thee and Honor Guard take a break?”

What? The general looked at both of my friends with a smile. “Ladies?” , motioning to the door with his right wing. What? Was this happening? What… how was I supposed to feel about this? What’s the best part? The worst part was I wouldn’t be able to watch them get epically shut down, but… they might not be? Guys like being approached like that? Wow, I really did not understand romance did I? Happens when you really don’t pay attention to a subject I guess.

“Nothing improper general,” the princess said. “We should not have to tell thee, but children are present.”

“I will be entirely proper,” the general said, turning and bowing, Rarity seeming all the happier at that notion.

“I’m gonna be sick,” Scootaloo said.

“I might be too… or should I be happy for them?” I asked.

“Rainbow… Dash…” Scootaloo slowly said. She rolled over holding her stomach. “Ahhh,” she started to groan and hiss.

“Squirt that’s a little much for…” she was not joking. All ponies in the car were soon huddled around me and my daughter as Scootaloo hissed and squeaked in pain, hitting the pillow in an attempt to get even a small bit of relief. Well, all of the ponies except the general that is. He opened the door to the outside and shot out of the car immediately. “Scootaloo… Scoots… it’s gonna be okay, just hang in there… what’s going on? Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I don’t know,” she practically shouted, her voice cracking. “It really hurts, I don’t know what but something really hurts.”

The general returned flying through the door- not an easy maneuver to pull off, landing inside a moving train I might point out-. “Everyone get clear,” he commanded, even Luna obeying. “I spoke to the conductor,” he said, talking over Scootaloo’s groans, which were slowly turning into screams. “We’re twenty minutes out. Honor Guard, knock her out and put her in your freeze spell until then.” He turned to Luna, who herself seemed rather distressed, but quickly straightened out and took a stance. “With your leave princess, I will fly ahead for a doctor.”

“Make haste general.” Luna replied.

“As you command.” He shot away again.

Honor Guard’s horn glowed, Scootaloo falling limp immediately. Her body started to  glow with Honor Guard’s magic… wait, Honor Guard’s magic wasn’t blue- Two blue eyes rose off Scootaloo’s now unconscious form, a deep laughter starting up.

“Get away from her!” I shouted, slamming my hooves into Honor Guard.

Suddenly I was lifted into the air by Luna’s magic. I looked down and still saw those eyes over Scootaloo’s body. “The eyes… the big glowing eyes… am… am I the only one who can see them?” I asked. “Please tell me I’m the only one who can see them.”

“Calm yourself,” Luna said. “There are no eyes.”

I looked down. The eyes weren’t going away. “There are no eyes… there are no eyes, Gray is dead, he’s not here… he’s not here.” The Cutie Mark Crusaders surrounded their injured member, all except Lightning laying down around her, the yellow filly hovering over all of them.

Rarity’s magic surrounded me and I found myself against the wall of the train. Rarity stared straight into my eyes, her eyes starting to glow blue and her pupils growing. “He’s not here Rainbow, he’s gone, gone for good.” I started trembling.

“He’s gone,” I repeated. “He’s… totally gone… what’s hurting her then? We’re the only ones here, and the only ones close to her were me, you and Apple Jack… Moonstone! He’s leaving for a reason! I have to get him, he hurt my daughter, I’ll kill him, I’ll kill him!”

“Darling, no one attacked her,” Rarity said. “He’s just getting a doctor. Think, if he was fleeing why did he come back?”

“You just like him-“ I started, but Rarity glared.

“If I did not know you were paranoid right now I would take that as an insult Rainbow. I would never put my hormones before your daughter’s life. Now settle down.”

“Your eyes,” I squeaked out.

“Settle down…”

I closed my eyes tightly, blinked a few times, and Rarity’s eyes finally returned to normal.

I was finally let down, Rarity putting a hoof over my shoulder, Apple Jack staying near the foals, whom all looked very scared. “What’s happening to me?” I asked. “Honor Guard is helping her isn’t he?... I almost made it worse… I would have attacked Moonstone, and he’s helping her too… what’s wrong with me?”

Lightning flew over to me. “Now you really are like me,” she said. “It… kinda gets better.” I knelt down to her level.

“How long will I be like this? I’m not gonna hurt my daughter am I? How long does this last?” Yes, it totally struck me that I was asking for psychological advice from a filly, but that was all I could come up with, I was so scared.

Lightning of course didn’t help. She looked back at her brother, then back at me. “Injuries to the body heal… but the mind… mine still hasn’t.”


> How Should I Feel?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lightning was able to give me SOME advice that helped, namely a good friend can calm you down. Especially a friend you know is bigger than your fears.

Well that should have helped. Thing is, my dad isn’t a giant fire breathing dragon like Lightning’s. The only friend I was pretty sure was more powerful than Gray before he died that was around me at the time anyway was Luna.

When the train stopped, Luna went one way to deal with matters of state and Scootaloo went on a stretcher to the local hospital. Course I went with Scoots. Me and the whole troop did, including Vinyl, as this time the general had no reason to stop her. Moonstone accompanied us.

Scootaloo was stabilized pretty quickly. She was left to sleep, but apparently she was never really “in the woods” to begin with as far as her life being in danger this time. The doctors who examined her when she got off the train said they had theories as to what was going on, but they needed to do some tests at the hospital. Still, they were pretty certain she was going to be alright.

A mother worries, no one likes to hear their own child screaming. However I was relieved.

As we walked, I turned to our escort. “Can I speak candidly?” He nodded. “Why are you with us?”

“You don’t know do you?” he asked back.

“Know what?”

“Whenever something like this happens, the enemies of the kingdom start to get bolder.”

“Something like Scootaloo getting hurt?” I asked, confused.

“No,” he shook his head. “About two months ago one pony devastated all six of the elements of harmony, injuring all but one, nearly killing one, injuring her for life and driving another to near insanity. This creature escaped capture by the princesses themselves and was only defeated by a freak circumstance, undone by his own creation. Equestria is guarded by failures. Paper tigers only tend to threaten others until the material they are made of is exposed. Do you have any idea how many ponies and other creatures would like to claim the head of an element bearer or one of the princesses?”

“But… I’m just a…”

“You’re one of the ponies protecting this entire nation. Knowing you’re just another mare- welp, it was something we tried to keep silent. Royal bards told of the great acts you’ve all done, like the sonic Rainboom… apparently they had problems fudging things for Apple Jack…”

“Hey!” the farm pony shouted.

“Trixie Bard?” I asked, waving her off.

“One of the best. Her magical talents help a lot with storytelling, you’d be surprised. The point remains, with word of your now multiple humiliating defeats, those who want to prove themselves or overthrow the government… you’re targets now okay?”

“And our kids? Scootaloo, Sweetie, Apple Bloom… Scootaloo…?” I asked.

The general seemed ready to speak, but then he looked back at me and seemed to choke something back. “There are things better left unsaid to a parent. Just know that I will protect you both with my life.”

“What about our friends back in Ponyville?” asked Apple Jack.

“Surely you’ve noticed the larger number of guard ponies during both night and day,” he replied.

“I thought they were there to make sure Gray didn’t have any associates,” Rarity put in.

“Not going to deny they’re also looking for that,” the general acknowledged. “Course make no mistake, Gray, as a mere pegasus, broke the spell of the princess of the night, a spell that was meant as a death sentence. Do you have any idea how much easier that is to explain if he had allies?”

‘This isn’t over is it?’ Vinyl wrote, jogging ahead of us so the general could read her question.

“There are too many unanswered questions for it to be over,” the general said with a sigh. “Someone had to be working with Gray, who? What did Gray really want? If he wanted to continue his research, as some have proposed, why expose himself willingly like he did? Even the circumstances of his death raise more questions than answers. Why that clearing? Why fly your daughter all the way out there instead of just slitting her throat? How did he know a timber wolf would be there? What exactly are the nature of Lightning’s abilities, and how did he underestimate them when he created them? Or more to the point, did he underestimate them?”

“You mean did he know he would be killed? What kind of question is that?” I prodded.

“A disquieting one. Why wouldn’t that bother him, or why would he go through with it anyway?” The general gritted his teeth. “What was he after?” He grunted. “All of Equestria could hang in the balance here and I can’t figure any of this out.”

“All of Equestria?” asked Apple Jack. “Pfff, he was just attacking us. That sounds like a bit of a leap-“

“Dark ascension is not a minor concept. If it is possible to ascend through evil…” he snorted. “I can’t figure any of this out. It’s like… like I’ve been given a puzzle with pieces deliberately left out and I can’t even figure out how many are gone.”

“Are you okay?” I asked, seeing his continued antics.

“No I’m not,” he admitted. “Celestia… long have I been told of her great power, her great calm, how she held the peace of this land. I was told how her sister rivaled her and when I was young I was honored to join the guard, believing an invincible force awaited me… but I saw the looks on their faces when they returned with your broken bodies. Luna was scared, she even confided in me that she wasn’t sure that she could fight something that could conquer all of you. And Celestia was on the verge of tears, so afraid she would lose Twilight most of all… I think… if I were to guess, Twilight is like her own child. Just like you, seeing her child like that, shook her majesty to her core.” He bit his lip. “I’m sorry. My bluntness makes me able to cause others to follow me, it allows them to trust my words. However, it also means I bear my soul when I don’t know if I should. I’m scaring all of you no doubt.”

Rarity walked up next to him. “We’re not helpless you know. And perhaps it would be better if Twilight were here, however I’m quite intelligent myself. Perhaps I can help you with these mysteries?”

The general nodded. “I suppose. I’ve already gotten intelligence officers working on these mysteries round the clock. But another mind to bounce ideas off of can’t hurt.”

“Besides… that horrifying experience with Scootaloo aside, whom turned out to be fine, I still want to date you…” Rarity confessed.

“How old are you?”

“I beg your pardon?” she asked back.

“I’m forty one,” he said back. “I need to know if I’m robbing the cradle.”

“You think I look young?” she asked.

“A bit,” said the general, nodding his head, the statement more an exclamation.

Rarity floofed her main a few times. “Oh go on,” she said. “PLEASE!”

“I’m being honest, please return the favor,” Moonstone simply replied.

“Well… um… thirty,” she said hesitantly.

“I admit I like the company of beautiful mares such as… well most everyone here, save the children of course. However actually dating them beyond just casual conversation, one has to be sure. I suppose eleven years is a gap I could perhaps tolerate. No offense.”

“None taken I suppose,” Rarity answered.

I held my tongue, but yes, I was twenty one. It struck me right away that the general was older than my father. I had a feeling he was out of my league and this further confirmed that. Still, maybe I couldn’t have romantic thoughts about him, but I could still wish him the best in my head, and I did. Gray was dead, I was certain of that, however, I wished this protector of ours the best of luck with both the mysteries he was facing and dating my friends. Celestia knows both would be complicated and he did pledge his life to protect mine and my daughter’s. Wishing him well was the least I could do.

(***)

In Dodge City clinic the hours ticked by. And as they did, my stomach turned several knots. What was taking the doctors so long? I was told she was fine. She was fine right?

The general and my friends Rarity and AJ left to talk for a while, Pinkie and me knowing the real reason. HEY! Get your mind out of the gutter! They were most likely just talking, ya know, working out who would be dating him and stuff… whatever one does with romance besides sex.

They came back and my stomach was in so many knots, I needed something to think about besides my mounting questions about what was taking the doctors so freaking long. So... small talk it was!

The general walked away, seeming rather… not happy. That wasn’t a good sign. “Sooo…” I started.

“So who’s hooking up with the general!?” Pinkie shouted. Wow. Yes I’m the youngest of the group. Not the most immature though.

“Um, no one girls,” Apple Jack replied. She was obviously trying to be calm in her delivery. “At least, we’re not sure about somethin’.”

“What did he say to you two?” I asked, seeing both my friends upset. I started to glare. “If he said something mean to you-“

“Yer gonna fight HIM?” Apple Jack said, motioning to the general and rolling her eyes. “Sugar cube, we’re all injured enough as it is, don’t do anything stupid. Besides, if anyone is bein’ mean here…” she looked at Rarity.

Rarity continued. “It’s us. We can’t help it, but we know we’re not being fair. If we’re being honest, some things have to be thought about critically.”

“Why?” I asked, kinda disappointed now.

“It’s personal Rainbow, but no one is at fault. Ah’m warning ya, it’s none of yer business, please just leave it alone,” Apple Jack said, still looking rather disappointed and… a little guilty.

I had to sit and wonder for a little while what was wrong. Well, not for too much of a while, because a doctor finally came in and called my name.

I jumped and nearly scrambled over to her. “Seriously what took you so freaking long?!” I demanded. The doctor just stood there, looking at me. “What?... She’s okay right? She’s gonna be okay right?”

“She is,” the doctor replied finally. “We removed the offending object from her system. The stitches to sew her back up are already in place as well. She’s pretty much ready to go.”

“Well… what’s with the look?” I almost chuckled out, I was getting so nervous.

“We should go talk,” she said. I waved my hoof for her to continue. “Please, for your daughter, this is not something we should talk about in public. Come with me.” I did NOT like the sound of that.

We traveled into a secluded hallway. “Um…” the doctor started nervously. “Rainbow Dash… first, many of the doctors were wondering something… it’s kind of off subject, but how is a mare your age the mother of an eight year old child?”

“I adopted, now what’s going on?” I asked, brows lowered.

“Then who is her real mother?” she asked.

“You’re looking at her. If you’re talking about Violet Blaze she walked out on her own daughter and couldn’t even say “I love you” to her,” I spat at the floor. “If I never see that bitch again, she should consider herself lucky.”

“And her father?”

“Purple Cloud? Okay guy. Visits on the weekends. Long story, but he’s not here today,” I said.

“Do you know how to contact him?” she queried further.

“If nothing else, there’s always pony wing express,” I said, flapping my wings. “Now out with it, Scootaloo is my daughter and I deserve to know if something is wrong.”

“Yes, I’m getting to that, but I need to understand that you will get in touch with any other possibly concerned parents, or if we need to do it for you.”

“I’ll talk to Purple Cloud soon as I can. The mayor has a phone.”

“And her bio mother?”

“Fuck her.” I said without hesitation.

“In other words we’ll have to look her up ourselves…”

“If anything is gonna get that mare anywhere near Scootaloo, I’m not helping it.”

“You don’t understand, this is a legal matter.”

I chuckled sickly, remembering how Violet Blaze just walked away from Scootaloo one day when she was crying in the hospital, begging her to stay, saying she would forgive everything she did if she just said she loved her. Violet Blaze was so lucky I let her live after seeing Scootaloo crying like that. “No you don’t understand. Don’t let me go anywhere near that mare or they’re gonna have to lock me up. Now out with it already, what’s wrong?”

“Well… how do I put this?” my mind raced at that statement. Not good. Not good at all. “I’m sure you’re aware that as mares, there are parts of us that are important to… to bearing children.”

“No…” I said, shakily.

“Keep it down, this is not something any young lady would want to share. It seems when that timber wolf bit her, it left a small piece of wood embedded in her uterus. The other doctors apparently missed it. It might have moved out and been noticed another way if not for the train ride. The vibrations of the wheels on the track agitated the wound however and… Rainbow Dash her womb is destroyed for good. Perhaps if she were older and her womb were larger, but at her age it’s still developing and this kind of damage… I’m sorry.” I sat down. “She... how much did being a mother seem to be something she wanted?” the doctor asked.

“She’s eight!” I practically shouted. “Eight year olds don’t know if they want kids of their own or not. It’s not even possible until- you’re telling me it never will be possible?” she nodded. “Look I… I know there’s more to life but, the poor kid has had enough taken away from her. This too?”

“If she wants children she can always adopt,” the nurse said, obviously trying to encourage me.

“Yea but… that’s supposed to be an option, not the only way. Look, I never really was able to talk to my mom about pregnancy before she died, but I was able to ask Ms. Cake about it back in Ponyville. She said it had its downs, but it was one of the best experiences of her life. I actually want to know what it’s like myself someday. You can’t be serious.”

“This is a problem for mares all around Equestria, stallions too,” she noted. “She won’t be alone. And like I said, there’s always adoption. Do you really think you would be any closer to her if you gave birth to your daughter?”

“Of course not,” I said without hesitation. I loved Scootaloo and I couldn’t love her more. She was mine, my daughter. I would always love her and genes couldn’t change that. “I… does she know?”

“No. We thought it best she talk to her family about this first, not strangers.”

“Can it… wait?” I asked, not sure what I meant myself by the statement.

“The situation isn’t going to change. But you can wait until you think best to tell her. We’ll just let her know she needs to talk to you and we’ll leave it at that.”

“Thankyou.”

(***)

I couldn’t bear to talk to Scoots just yet. No, how I felt about her as my child hadn’t changed, that’s what made this so hard. How was I supposed to talk to a little kid about something like this? I wanted the best of everything for her, not locked doors. Can’t fly, can’t bear children, can’t have her bio mother… I wanted to help her, to save her, but there was nothing I could do. I was happy her life wasn’t in danger, but this seemed so cruel.

When she came out of her hospital room, I had to excuse myself and leave, telling her to just hang out with her friends for a while, I needed to go think. Luckily she didn’t press the issue too much. I left the clinic and started walking the grounds.

The general followed me. I wheeled on him after we left the building. “The heck are you doing?!” I demanded. “If I want someone to talk to, it’ll be one of my friends, not some-“

“You’re the one Gray showed the most interest in recently while he was alive, remember? We still don’t know if anything remains of those working with him, and mark my words, he was NOT alone. Besides,” he looked up, motioning with his eyes for me to do so as well. I looked up and saw in the darkening sky several bat ponies circling over the clinic. “You’re all being watched by the guard. Just you especially because of what I just said.” He walked a little closer. “Still, it seems something is bearing on your mind. Either that or you’re still forgetting I’m a general and not a stallion you should feel at liberty to just mouth off to.” I nearly choked. I was so glad this guy was understanding on that point. “Go ahead. I’m not stupid. Doctors don’t pull mothers aside in private to give good news. If you need to speak your mind, you can. And, as an added bonus,” he said, with a kind of side smile. “I’m a member of her majesty’s royal guard, if any secret leaves my lips, I could be demoted for breach of trust. Especially something critical entrusted to me by a fellow soldier. It’s a matter of honor.”

I sighed. “Fine. Scootaloo can’t give birth. Her uterus was destroyed,” I looked away, somewhat relieved to have said that to someone.

“Damn.”

“That’s it? Damn?”

“Well what are you looking for? It's unfortunate. Still, she’s not going to die and she can still adopt when she gets older.”

“It’s a big deal. Do stallions have that hard of a time being sympathetic over matters unique to mares?”

“Excuse me?”

“You said I could speak candidly,” I replied.

“You’re walking the line.”

“What line? Why don’t you care? I should have known a stallion wouldn’t care about something like this!” I snapped. “What would you know? Stallions only care about one thing anyway,” Wow… yes, I would later realize just how stupid and bigoted I was sounding with that statement, but show me one pony who hasn’t gone a little nutty in cases like this. I had long ago reached my boiling point. “and by extension only want kids one way. If a mare can’t give them to him, well then I guess she should accept being alone right?!“ The general turned away from me. “Nothing to say huh?”

“No, I’m just pissed off at you right now and I’m practicing methods of restraint because you’re not in a right mind. You’re a parent and something bad happened to your child, of course you’re distraught.”

“Pissed.” I gaffed. “Why should you be pissed?”

“Are you that dense?” He asked, an agitated edge to his voice. “Could your friends have spelled it out for you any better? Why do you think a pair of mares would turn down a stallion they’re both attracted to but not be able to say why in public? Why would they see themselves as the ones being unfair, but still think it’s for the best?”

“I don’t know how could I-“

“I’m sterile.”

“Oh… no… no AJ and Rares wouldn’t be that shallow,” I said back.

“It’s not like they rejected me on the spot, though I wouldn’t have begrudged them that decision either. There’s only one way to get pregnant if that’s what they want. They both have every right to want foals do they not?”

“Well yea but-“

“They have every right to choose pregnancy or not. Both of them were clear with me that they want marriage material. A life commitment is something you have to consider carefully. Even considering things that are, “unfair” to consider. Finances, politics, family planning, it’s their lives soldier. Their bodies and lives are theirs to give, not mine to take. As would be the case if a stallion were to take interest in your daughter when she grows up.”

“She’s… she’s… she’s not broken,” I said, almost like I was pleading with myself to remember that.

He turned back to look at me. “I never said she was. She’s every bit as much a filly and will be as much a mare as any mare who can give birth. Do you think less of me?”

“I might pity you.”

“Don’t. My sterility has not really held me back from dating, more my career choice and direct speaking.”

“Guess I can see that.”

“You’re walking the line again.”

“Sorry.”

I hesitantly walked next to him and he continued. “It’s not so bad though really. She can have children through adoption like you did, and there are hundreds, nay thousands of foals who will need her if she so chooses. Still I understand what kind of a blow this can be.”

“It’ll devastate her. If I can ask, how did you lose your ability to make kids?”

“I don’t really know. I just found out one doctor visit back when I was fifteen. Something was… different about my um… member. No children for me, sorry… Stallions want to pass on their genes. It’s hard to explain but, we do.” He looked up at the sky and raised an eyebrow. “If you really think about it, I suppose a reasonable mare or stallion wouldn’t be sure why it matters at all. It’s not like having wings or legs that don’t work. Adopt a baby, what would I really miss out on right? Heck I’m a stallion, I don’t get pregnant, the mare does.” He sighed. “But any time reality takes something away, it still hurts.”

“Any advice?”

“From a stallion? I thought we only cared about one thing.”

“Sorry I said that. I’m just really upset right now. Mess with me all you want, but mess with my daughter and… and what? There’s nothing I can do about this. Can’t even blame Gray as he couldn’t have predicted something like this.”

“Blame him all you want, he was a horrible pony.”

“Doesn’t make me feel better.”

I waited for a few minutes, standing there with him, looking up at the stars. Finally he spoke up again. “Don’t make a big deal out of it I suppose. If she wants kids, just tell her about adoption.”

“Should I hide it from her? Or tell everyone to just shut up about pregnancy around her?”

“She has every right to know. As to everyone shutting up about it, if they know it’s a problem for her, it’s rude to talk about. However, no, especially if a friend of hers gets pregnant in the future, she’ll want to share in the joy of it I’m sure.”

“I just wish… if there were one thing I want right now that isn’t impossible, I want my dad. Daddy could help me. I know he could. I’m so messed up right now and I don’t know what to do for my daughter. No matter what, he always believes in me. He always knows what to say. He’s… he’s my daddy.” I looked over at the general, who seemed to stutter a little in his stance.

“I can’t- if you’re looking for something like that from me…”

“No, not really. I mean, you did listen to my crap just now and talked some sense into me, and that was great. Thanks. Last thing Scoots needs is for me to fall apart on her ya know?” I sighed. I did feel better having gotten through that. “And… ya know, for what it’s worth, you seem like a nice guy when someone gets to know you. I hope Rarity or AJ gives you a chance.”

“They probably will. These days most ponies have to think about this sort of thing, but most of the good ones decide it’s not that important.”

“It’s not that important right?”

“That’s not for you to decide. My dad made a huge deal out of it and my mother told me it didn’t matter. Years later and I’m still confused.  If I had my wish, I wish one of them just would have supported me in however I felt about it.”

“Just be there for her?” he nodded. “You sound like my therapist.” I turned to walk back in. “Um… general, this has been a really messed up time for me. It’s kinda nice to have an older pony around, like when I was a kid and I had my dad.” He looked at me nervously. “Nothing big I swear but, can you stick around while I tell her? Please?”

“Is that what you need soldier?”

“Yes.”

“Then so be it. Lead the way. I’ll be with you.”

(***)

I pulled Scootaloo aside in the clinic into an empty hall, deciding spur the moment she could have Apple Bloom stay with her. I hoped that was the right choice.

We talked. It was so hard to get out the words to explain to her what had happened.

“I… I can’t? Ever?” She finally shouted when she understood.

“Keep it down,” I said.

“He knows?” she said, pointing at the general.

“I am sworn to secrecy by her majesty Princess Luna’s service. She could have told a stone and it would have made about at much difference,” said the general.

“They can’t fix it?” she asked. I shook my head. “I don’t know if I’ll want kids someday but… what does this mean?”

“It just means you can’t get pregnant that’s all. You can have kids, there’s adoption.” I said.

Apple Bloom looked at her. “You okay?”

“Don’t tell anyone,” she told her friend. “And… I don’t know. How should I feel about this?”

“No one can tell you how to feel,” I replied. “But I’m right here. We’ve done this before kiddo. You know I’m going to be here for you… if I can ask, how do you feel?”

“Just confused. I haven’t ever really thought about that sort of thing.” She turned to her friend. “Apple Bloom, how would you feel?”

“Me?! Um… well… ah want ta be a mom someday, ah really do but, well, adoption seemed ta work out for you and yer mom sooooo…. maybe it’s not a big deal right?”

“Yea… yea I guess so- LIGHTNING!” she suddenly shouted. “You were listening?”

“I was worried,” she said back, backing away from the corner where she had been hiding. She hid her head under her hooves. “I’m sorry, please don’t hate me.”

Scootaloo grunted. “I… just keep it to yourself.”

“Gray did this. The evil scientist pony did this.” Lightning said.

“Yea but he’s dead…” Scootaloo started to turn around, like she was angry, but she stopped and closed her eyes. She then turned back. “Thank you. You’re a good friend. Thank you for saving me and Rainbow Dash.” She paused. “And thank you for killing him.”

(***)

Finally the group got up to leave the hospital. Scootaloo swore me, Apple Bloom and Lightning to secrecy, which was understandable. The general said he was going to lead us home, or at least to where we would all be assigned to stay.

As we walked, Rarity and AJ talked to him again. Apparently they had decided Apple Jack’s commitment to her family meant she couldn’t really date him, though the way she phrased her reasons, I doubt anyone but me, Moonstone, Rarity and herself understood what she meant. Rarity however had no real issue with “what he brought up”.

As we went along, Pinkie suddenly stopped and looked left. “Um, hey general, everyone seems all gloomy, but you just hooked up with Rarity, so you two should be happy right?” she asked. We all stopped and Rarity looked back at her along with Moonstone, both of them rather befuddled. They then looked at each other and shrugged.

“We’re happy to date darling, but this isn’t exactly a very happy time,” Rarity pointed out.

“It could be!” Pinkie said back.

“I don’t see how,” Moonstone said back. Pinkie motioned next to us to a large abandoned building. “I’m not following.” Pinkie shot into the building.

“It looks like everything is pretty sturdy in here,” we looked in after her, everyone still bewildered. “No loose debris or anything.”

We followed her in finally, the general speaking up. “This used to be a dance studio. It’s not run down, the owners only lost it about a month ago.”

“Used to be?” Pinkie asked.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked.

“I… I get that I kinda sometimes mess up… I sometimes get the mood wrong… is this a bad time to try to make everyone happy? Does everyone want to be all frowny?”

“Not especially,” I replied. “We’re not in mourning. It’s just something happened. Again I can’t say exactly what. Don’t worry though, Scoots is fine…”

“So…” she bounced over to a large stage overlooking the dance floor we were all standing on. “If I pulled out something like this,” suddenly a large mix track and speakers appeared with her.

“How the heck-“ asked the general.

“It’s Pinkie don’t question it,” I said. I looked over and saw Vinyl’s face light up.

“Before we go home, would anyone be interested in a little fun?” Pinkie said, bouncing with anticipation behind her set up.

“A dance party!” Lightning shouted. “By the mistress of party herself?”

“I like that name by the way,” Pinkie said. “We do have a DJ in the house…” she looked over at Vinyl. Vinyl scurried up beside her.

The general shrugged. “Um well… I won’t forbid it, but I don’t understand how you’re going to use a mix track that isn’t even plugged in-“

“LIGHTS!” Pinkie shouted and suddenly the entire room was lit up with light with no apparent origin.

“What the?” the general asked, spinning.

“Party pony general,” Rarity said.

“Are they really that powerful?” he asked back.

“You have no idea how used to this I am, now if I may be so bold,” she turned to Pinkie. “HIT IT!”

“I um…” the general said, looking around as the music started at a low hum.

“Shut up and dance with me!” Rarity said.

Speaking of that line, a familiar tune started to play.

And thus, yes, with a platoon of night ponies flying overhead -which I was sure Pinkie would soon invite in-, horrible news and our lives probably in danger, in defiance of it all, we were about to have a good time anyway.                  
	
	
> Shut Up and Dance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	And then suddenly-“hold it!” Pinkie shouted. “Let’s see… can the guards circling the sky over us come in?”

“You don’t find that creepy?” asked Moonstone. “It’s their job and all but-“

“Nope!”

“Okay then,” he walked outside and looked up, yelling back in to us. “Depends on how long you all want to do this. There are twenty soldiers up there…”

“Twenty?!” I shouted.

“Want me to be frank? We’re counting on you being attacked within the week. We’re hoping for it so we can put it down and tell the bards how terribly it went for the bad guys.”

“What if they just attack somewhere else?” I asked back.

“Welcome to orange alert Rainbow. Every soldier is waiting for something. I’m surprised you yourself weren’t deployed, though the circumstances may help explain that. Gray was attempting dark ascension and likely wasn’t alone meaning that-“

“Yea yea, that’s not the point. Can they come down or not?” asked Pinkie. “I think we’ll be at this for maybe… one hour.”

“In shifts, they can. But I will need to join them on guard, to do otherwise would imply exempting myself from my own decisions.” He looked back up.

“Um, is that illegal or something?” I asked.

“Not every unwritten rule shouldn’t be,” he said, taking off into the air.

As he went up Pinkie tossed a microphone in the air, caught it and then tossed it to Sweetie Belle. It bopped Sweetie in the nose, but didn’t really hurt her. She picked it up. “Sweetie, vocals!” Pinkie shouted.

“Got ya,” Sweetie said back, running up to the stage with a mic that by all accounts should have been both non-existent and inoperable.

“Scootaloo, Dusty, dance choreography,” Pinkie shouted.

“What does that word mean?” asked Scootaloo back.

“I don’t know, just dance on stage,” Pinkie said back.

“I don’t know this Dusty you refer to,” said Dusk with lowered eyebrows.

“Just get on stage Dusty,” shouted his sister. Dusk obeyed, grumbling, until he seemed to suddenly realize he was to be dancing with Scoots, at which point he instantly perked back up.

Finally ten darkly colored ponies along with general Moonstone filtered in. They all looked pretty nervous about all this. Oh yea and uh… a lot of them were pretty cute… and built… and in uniform… this made me happy for some reason.

“He’s mine,” Rarity said, the general floating over to her. He shrugged with a kind of half smile. He was cute too, but more in a kind of, daughter seeing her dad happy kind of way -no, he wasn’t my dad, but it was the same feeling-.

Pinkie raced over to me and talked to me in a manner to suggest she was being covert. “Hey Rainbow, they all look stiff don’t they?” Pinkie asked. “Even AJ… tell you what, the pony who gets the most ponies to loosen the heck up by the end of the song, wins.”

“Pinkie it’s kinda-“ the music started. I recognized the distinct sound of “Shut up and Dance”.

“You’re losing- you’re gonna lose, you can’t do it,” she started saying quickly. “maybe I should tell Scootaloo up there that Rainbow Dash can’t cut it-“

“You’re on!” I shouted smiling and almost laughing.

“One!” she shouted, shooting away from me. Wait, I counted… No Rainbow, don’t let her distract you. You have to find a way to get a bunch of soldiers to loosen up without setting a bad example for your daughter, move it!

I shot over to the first stallion, a dark purple pegasus, probably the only non-bat pony in the group. I appeared in front of him with a huge grin on my face, him practically freezing in place. I pushed him and started singing with Sweetie Belle in the most off tune voice I could manage.  Helped that I didn’t actually know the words to this song. Looking at me with a raised eyebrow he cracked a smile, and laughed at my antics. I shot away.

Next stallion- nope, mare. One of the only two on in the group. She had a faded sage coat and light purple mane and tail. I grabbed her and started just dancing in front of her in my own chaotic way, seeing as I don’t often dance. She smiled. “By the way kid, you’re gorgeous.” My cheeks turned beat red… next-

“No one is ever going to be interested in you. Looks like they’re just dancing with everyone in the room. She comes this way just stay in the backgr-“ I overheard one stallion talking down to his compatriot. I thought about reporting him to the general, but rejected the idea and just body slammed him across the room. More fun that way. Minus one, but it was a negative one so I was still at two right? The intended victim had a skinnier frame than most of the other guards, but honestly he didn’t need to be ashamed.

“Sup handsome?” I asked, trying to think of what would work the fastest.

“Ya… you… you remind me of Daring Do… sorry I’m kind of a Darrian. I know it’s dorky, but if you like-”

“DARING DO IS THE MOST AWESOME PONY EVER!” I shouted in his face. “I have first editions of almost every story… and I um… might have multiple copies.”

“Even Forbidden City of Clouds? I can’t find that one anywhere,” he replied.

“Talk to me later if you can, I’ll hook you up with a copy.” I said. “I’ve got three… you don’t get the first edition one you understand.”

“Just a copy is fine with me.”

So yea, it went like this for a while. I got up to nine ponies at least feeling good. Only two of them took it as an invitation to hit on me, which they were lucky I didn’t break their jaws for that. Pinkie said she “already got one stallion,” but she was still working on one pony pretty hard. Strange that I was beating her somehow. I shot up to the stage, where Dusk and Scootaloo were kind of milling around, even if they were supposed to be dancing.

“Hey Squirt!” I shouted. Both kids jumped, looking back at me. “Feeling a little down?” I asked.

“Understandable isn’t it?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yea, I know, at the end of the day, you’ll just never be able to keep up with Dusty here at River Dancing huh? May as well not even try.”

“That’s not what I meant-“

“May as well not even try,” I interrupted. “You’re just not awesome enough.”

She gritted her teeth. “Dusk!” she shouted, grabbing the younger colt.

“Aren’t you still a little hurt?” he asked.

“I’ll just go slow, let’s do this!” and suddenly both kids were stamping their back hooves while dancing in a circle and holding up their fore legs. The dance looked pretty complicated, but more to the point, both looked exceedingly happy.

Okay, that made me feel better than any of the other encounters, even finding a fellow Darrien. I was thinking about making sure Lightning was feeling alright, but as another burst of electricity shook the entire house and everyone looked at her with her huge open grin… it was pretty clear no cheering up was needed.

Moonstone still didn’t look so sure of himself, but when I walked in his direction, a quick glare from Rarity told me to move on. Finally I came to Apple Jack. AJ was mostly just shrugging her shoulders in beat with the music.

“Havin’ fun?” she asked as I trotted over.

“I got pretty much every pony in the room grooving in under two minutes, I’d say that’s another record,” I said, not sure if bragging about that had any meaning, but I was going to anyway.

“Think ya can slow down and just talk fer a minute?” she asked. I shrugged, sitting down next to her. A new song started as we talked. I wasn’t paying attention to what it was, something about being a Rock Star. “Ah don’t like bein’ the only one not in the groove, actually ah used ta love dancin’, even if it weren’t ma music style n’ all.” She watched the stage. “Ah see granny do this all the time, just watchin’ me, Apple Bloom and Big Mac runnin’ all over the farm, playin’, workin’, goofin’ off, whatever, but ah never stopped to wonder how she does it. How does she stand just watchin’ and not bein’ part a’ things? These days ah have to pick an’ choose ma moments to play with Apple Bloom or work alongside ma’ brother, and even then ah can’t keep up.” She gritted her teeth. “Ah just… ah just want one more day ya know. To be what ah was. One more day.”

Well… that put my problems in context real quick. Course I dared not say all that out loud.

“The girls sure are cute up there aren’t they?” asked Pinkie, suddenly appearing on AJ’s other side.

“Ah guess, though ah doubt Dusk would like ta hear ya callin’ ‘im a girl.” She said with a chuckle.

“He’s outnumbered so he has to deal with it,” Pinkie said back.

“They’re all havin’ a blast up there, it’s good ta see,” AJ said back. The song was coming to a close.

“Apple Bloom isn’t up there,” I noted.

“She don’ know what ta do.” AJ replied. “Poor girl really only spazzes out when she dances. It’s cute n’ all, but she don’ like ta do it in public.”

“Oh that’s okay, she’s not as cute as the others anyway,” Pinkie said, waving a hoof.

AJ’s eye twitched. “Beg yer pardon,” she replied.

“Seriously, she can’t compete with Scoots and Sweetie,” Pinkie said. And just to hammer it home, “and Lightning and her brother are just in a league all their own.” Apple Jack’s brow started to twitch. “I mean, Apple Bloom is cute sometimes, but she’s just not-“

“Apple Bloom!” Apple Jack suddenly shouted. Her sister ran over to. “Git up there an’ do somethin’.”

“Um… like what?” Apple Bloom said. “The song just ended anyway.”

“An’ another one is startin’, ah don’ know, do yer karate or something. Ya know, what ya did at that talent show. When you weren’t bustin’ things up it was pretty cute lookin’.”

“Ah wasn’t going for cute that time-“

“Git goin’, ah won’t hear any more a’ this, now go join yer friends.” She was obviously confused, but Apple Bloom still happily scurried up on stage.

And thus the next song started, “I Could be Dancing”. Vinyl wrote that it was a remix, but I wouldn’t know one way or the other original vs remix these days. What I did know was the result was that a kind of slow dance song was now having lightning accompaniment, along with a damn good young singer who was the wrong gender for most of the singing and river dancing and karate as the on stage dance direction… it was hilarious and everyone was having a blast just watching even if they weren’t dancing.

Everyone except the general that is. He just kept looking confused, or like a deer in the headlight of an oncoming train. Sheesh, pretty easy to tell why he was still single if this was normal. Nice guy, but he really needed to loosen up. Not to say he wasn’t clearly attracted to Rarity, but I had evidence in the form of Spike that a male of any species shared that thought.

Rarity commanded his attention with her magic, almost forcing him to turn his head. Then she started dancing, quite professionally. All the amateur stuff on stage, even Vinyl’s playing, looked childish by comparison. I doubt that was helping. Rarity even started to sing a little, doing her best to invite him to join her. How does one deal with a shy guy beyond just showing interest?

Second chorus hit, a number of eyes were traveling to the general. Some of the soldiers were starting to talk. “Don’t think the general thinks we should be here,” “He’s just being nice. He’s a good leader but this isn’t his kind of deal.” “Maybe he doesn’t think a fashionista is good enough?”

On that last line, something happened. The general stood up tall and his wings shot out, his full body now on display. Rarity seemed to gasp at the display. He grabbed her and started pushing her into a form of dance that looked extremely formal and very close in contact. They spun and moved faster and faster, the general in the lead. Several times he had to pick her up or flex his muscles… yea that’s about what Rarity wanted. One of those mares who dreams of a big stallion sweeping her up and all… me? I’m the opposite. I’ll be the one doing the sweeping, thank you. I get the fantasy though.

I looked around. Several of the soldiers I thought I had calmed down were getting nervous again. “Looks like it only worked so well, what I did,” I noted.

“Ah whatever,” Pinkie said. “Took a little work, but I got the ponies that counted to have fun,” I looked over at her, noticing how happy AJ looked to be watching her sister on stage. Scootaloo and Dusk were also having a blast on stage and Lightning had all but let go of her now almost normally nervous self.  

“Who was the hardest to get loosened up?” I asked.

“I can’t say that, not sure, but I know who I was working the hardest on,” she smiled at me. She started walking on stage to watch everything. I joined her. “You ever going to tell me what happened in the hospital?” she whispered.

“It’s not my place to tell you,” I said.

“You know that no matter what, we’re all gonna be there for you both right?” Pinkie asked.

“Thanks.” I close my eyes, remembering those glowing blue eyes again. “You sure there’s nothing that will change that?”

“Nothing you could ever do,” she replied. I looked back at the dance floor. “Wanna dance?” Suddenly miss “by the way you’re gorgeous” was next to us.

“Can I join?” I looked at her wearily. I really wasn’t in the mood to hook up, even if I did swing that way. Finding out your daughter just became sterile kinda kills that mood. All I wanted was innocent fun right now. –If someone was attracted that was fine, I just didn’t want to be pushed beyond a certain level at the moment.- “Oh nothing like that I swear. I just want a chance to dance with two of the prettiest mares in Equestria. Nothing at all inappropriate, again, I swear.” Pinkie and I looked at each other and shrugged.

And thus the three of us were on the dance floor. Eventually I even dragged that Darrian I found earlier into the group… oh hey, looks like some guys do like girls to do the sweeping.

An hour of partying later and I was pooped.

Yes, a few stallions and mares tried to make the moves on me and my friends, but most didn’t get far. Most turned away when told we weren’t interested (and everyone left Rarity alone, I wouldn’t cross the general if I were them either), though one notable exception was when Pinkie started getting a little ticked that one stallion wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. She finally pulled him aside, caressed his mane, looked deep into his eyes and said “Honey, I’m not into you, in fact, you don’t want to know what I’m into.” That got him to give up the chase finally. Kinda made me have my own questions to be honest… she was joking right? She didn’t look like she was joking. Pinkie is an adult… no, she’s innocent as a foal and that’s the end of it, or at least the end of what I will consider. Moving on!

We walked away from the small dance room in various stages of… tired. Vinyl walked out with a little yellow filly on her back, Lightning having passed out after only forty five minutes. She didn’t want to fall asleep, but she did. Dusk followed on the ground, stumbling along until Moonstone finally offered to carry him.

I offered to carry Scootaloo, but she said she had a lot on her mind and didn’t want sleep just yet. I understood that. Sometimes a good walk clears the mind. Apple Bloom was at her side, helping her keep up, as she was still recovering. Even as the group sometimes moved at a fast pace, forgetting them, Apple Jack, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo all stayed together- the general keeping the same distance from them the entire walk and ordering us to hold up every time they fell behind. He never scolded them however, just us.

Me? I was doing great. I hadn’t danced and partied like that in over a month. I wished that Twi and Flutters could have been there, but for just that walk, I was convinced that everything was right with the world.

Finally there was Rarity. Rarity was not a mare who didn’t know what she wanted, no one could ever accuse her of that. For the moment, she wanted the general. She walked next to him the entire time, taking his side every time he snapped at the rest of us for walking too fast. Several times she leaned her head on his shoulder, which he smiled at. She gave the biggest grin when he put Dusk on his back, which made me wonder if he did that more out of the kindness of his heart or out of wanting to impress his mare friend.

Finally we came up on a small gated community, apparently a military installation of some kind. Once we got past security, we finally met up with another familiar face. Moon Shade.

By the way, Moon Shade was a dark green pony with a very dark red mane. He also have violet eyes and his wings were a little smaller than the general’s.

The general approached him. “Colonel, might I ask a few questions?”

“Yes sir.”

“How did housing the dragon go this evening? Did he request to see his children? Where is he anyway?” Moonstone asked.

“Torkuda hasn’t arrived yet sir,” he replied.

“I see. How strange. One would think this a pretty easy trip for a dragon to make,” Moonstone said.

“Dragons aren’t known to be very mobile creatures general,” the Colonel said back.

“But fathers prefer to be with their children,” Moonstone noted.

“I personally informed him where we were to be General. I assumed he did not need an escort, should I correct that error?”

“Torkuda is an adult. He is an older thing than any living pony save the solar sisters themselves. I would guess he can find one city that’s been here for quite a while.” He sighed. “Where’s Princess Luna?”

“Central facility.”

“Good.”

“With your leave general, I will show everyone here to their quarters… save for the DJ, I’ll have a sergeant show her to her quarters. No offence to her, but she’s not an MVP exactly.”

“Understandable. Where are their quarters however?” The colonel showed him a small map. “Good, I’ll have my quarters moved there immediately.”

“Is that necessary sir?” Moon Dust asked.

“Are you second guessing me soldier?”

“Of course not, just a strange choice.”

Thus we were underway again, now following a different bat pony. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom started swaying, looking very tired. Apple Jack confided in me that she didn’t feel up to carrying Apple Bloom. We would have turned to Rarity, but she was already carrying her sister by this point. Dusk had been handed off to the Colonel.

I offered my back to Scootaloo and that was pretty much all I could support. Thus Pinkie had to walk like a normal mare for once in her life. It was all pretty cute until Dusk stirred on the colonel’s back, stood up and slipped off, pausing like something was seriously confusing him.

“What’s up kid?” I asked.

“I… I don’t know… something… where’s daddy?” Dusk asked.

“I’m sure he’ll be here in the morning.” Moon Shade said.

“Something feels… wrong… I’m… I’m…” Dusk started shaking. Vinyl nuzzled Lightning. Lightning woke up, looked back at Dusk and was quickly by his side.

“He sometimes does this,” Lightning said. “I think we both have… issues from what Gray did to us.” Dusk leaned in against his sister, who put her wing over him. His eyes were wide.

Vinyl nervously walked away from them following a sergeant that was showing her to her quarters.

“Perhaps he’s not wrong to be afraid,” said the Colonel. We stopped. He looked into a small building. “That’s where your rooms are. There’s a nursery for the children, sorry if it’s too juvenile for most of them. You can choose your rooms, there are enough for everyone in there. Still, I might suggest someone stay with the children.”

“Why?” asked Rarity.

Moon Shade looked ahead, past the fence at a series of lights in the distance. “All night long, strange ponies have been gathering outside the gate. They’re too far away to be seen as a threat directly, but they have no reason to be there.” He motioned for to the doors. “Rest, we’ll guard you as you sleep, but be ready to head for the bunker if something goes wrong.” He turned to a small stone structure. “Made of very sturdy stone that. Only one way in or out. Easily defended and it would take a lot of firepower to destroy. We even have a few brig cells down there, but if we’re attacked, I doubt we’ll be using them.”

“Seems foolish for everyone to head into one spot if we’re attacked,” Rarity noted.

“No, all of you head to one spot and we will defend the outside,” Moon Shade replied.

“I see… Apple Jack I don’t like this,” Rarity said.

“I’ll be in the barracks just next door and there are sentries all over. Heck we’re nocturnal here. The night is the worst time to attack. Just get some sleep.” He walked away.

“Ah don’t like it either Rarity, but what can we do? Who knows what those ponies want, but we can’t just storm out there and demand to know. Besides, Luna is in the camp, didn’t ya hear Moon Shade? This is a night guard base. It would be stupid to attack at night.” AJ sighed. “Let’s just get some sleep.”

“You and Pinkie take a room together,” Rarity said. “Rainbow and I will sleep in the nursery with the foals.”

“Ah doubt they have beds for two full grown mares in there.” AJ contested.

“Then we will sleep on the floor. I will not have my sister with no protection with a group of strange ponies possibly staging an attack on this base. If I don’t sleep a wink I don’t care. Sweetie will be safe.”

“Well then why don’t we all sleep in there, or in the hall if it’s too full?” Apple Jack asked back.

“Because one of us couldn’t carry her charge,” Rarity said. Apple Jack’s demeanor dropped in a second. Rarity closed her eyes tightly and fought out the words I was thinking too, but didn’t have the courage to say. “Apple Jack, dear, I’m sorry, but if there is any fighting to be done, run away with the children. Please.”

“Ah can help. Ah’m not totally broken here girls…” Apple Jack said looking at us. “RD?” she said, looking at me for an ally. I looked back at Scootaloo sleeping on my back.

“AJ… I… we would just have to defend you as well and… if you stray from them, I will not leave Scootaloo to help you. I’m sorry, but I don’t have a choice here,“ I said. “I’m sorry AJ.”

“No, she’s yer daughter, course you defend her first. That’s yer job. But girls ah’m still part of this group.”

“AJ, you’ve been there for me during some of the hardest times of my life,” I said. “I wouldn’t trade your friendship for anything. You are always a part of things for us.”

“You are not part of battle anymore Apple Jack. Not everyone is,” Rarity said matter-of-factly.

“And if somethin’ comes fer ma sister?”

“Yell for help,” Rarity replied. “I love you AJ, but I am of the same mind as Rainbow. I will not leave the foals to defend you if you get separated.”

“Girls ah would rather die than you leave the kids to fight fer me-“

“That’s what we’re afraid of Apple Jack,” Pinkie said finally. “I don’t want a dead Apple Jack. Please let us fight for you.”

“Ah don’t run girls,” Apple Jack insisted.

I swallowed. “If something comes… please do.”

(***)

Well that shot my night. Try to sleep after a conversation like that why don’t ya? I wasn’t sure how seriously to take the possible threat outside the gate, but seeing that look on AJ face… needless to say I couldn’t sleep.

After a few hours in the nursery, all of the foals having beds and myself and Rarity having to sleep on the floor, I finally had to walk back outside. I figured I could always rush back in if needed. Besides, if there was danger, I was more likely to be able to fight it out here BEFORE it went inside to attack the foals. Whatever the excuse, I needed a walk.

I looked around as I came outside. I noticed the building I had been sleeping in looked both new and small compared to those that were around it. This one was made of wood, but those around it were made of stone and huge, all looking almost identical. There were several rooms in each building and each structure was five stories exactly. I knew they were barracks from my days at the academy, but these were bigger than the ones there. Course I hoped they also actually housed more ponies.

When I looked ahead I could make out a very tall structure that seemed to be made of three obelisks with a small building at the bottom. I guess that was the location of Luna, but it didn’t look as grand as one might assume. Just three spires.

Luna herself flew around the spires a few times as I watched them. I thought about calling out to her but decided not to. She had her own responsibilities.

The mare that had danced with me that evening walked by with another mare. They both stopped walking and the sage bat pony shot over to me. “Sheesh what are you doing up- hey would I be pushing my luck if I asked for an autograph… are you too tired for that kind of thing right now?”

“I’m never too tired for a fan,” I said, holding my head up high with a cocky grin. The mare pulled out a small note pad, her friend walking up next to her.

“I’m on duty in thirty minutes, but we can talk until then if that’s alright with you.” Well, if I wanted to feel better, this was what the doctor ordered that’s for sure. I signed her paper and then shrugged for her to continue.

However her friend spoke up. “Excuse my star struck friend, she’s admired you and your friends since you defeated Nightmare Moon and gave us Luna back. You have no idea how much that meant to us bat ponies. Luna respected us a thousand years ago and during her absence we were pretty well disregarded, we’re very happy to have our ruler back. By the way,” she shifted her wing to point at herself, “I’m Dark Echo and this is Night Blaze.” Night took her paper back.

“I’m sorry, I just have to say it, Rainbow you’re hot!”

“Um…” I said, not sure how to take that.

Dark looked at Night for a few seconds. “She also has a tendency to stick her hoof in her mouth. Like I said, star struck.”

“Oh please, like you’d do better if we were talking to Shining Armor. Compared to the element bearers he’s just another unicorn-“

“Just another unicorn!” Dark shouted. “The purity of his love, his amazing body he- oh hi you’re still here,” Dark suddenly remembered I was still standing there.

“It’s okay, you should have seen me when I first met a Wonder Bolt, I-“ I started, but Night interrupted.

“Race me!?” Night asked slash demanded.

“Um, when?” I asked back.

“You’ll do it?” he asked back.

“When?”

“Tomorrow, in the morning, just so it’s not during either of our sleep cycles.”

“Sure,” I said. No big deal to me, but the grin on her face started to remind me of my own at the Gala when I met the Wonder Bolts. And she squeaked, which was cute. She then suddenly flew away, yelling about who was going to race her.

“You have no idea how important that was for her,” Dark said, watching her fly away.

I smiled. “Okay, just curious, lovers or friends?” I asked.

“Hmm?” Dark said, seeming startled, but she continued. “Oh right, not like her preference is hard to figure out huh? However I’m straight, so we’re friends. She does find me attractive, but she’s pretty good at not going beyond just saying so.” She smiled, watching Night shoot across the sky. “Will warn you though, Night is NOT slow. I know your reputation, but my bits are still on her. Heck most of your friends can’t even fly, so how good can you be?” she said, giving me a mock evil grin.

“Heh heh, filly, you have no idea who you’re messing with,” I replied.

“Yes, a lot of that’s going around,” came the voice of Moonstone.

“Oh shoot!” Dark Echo straightened up and immediately saluted the general. “Aren’t you gonna- evening sir!”

“At ease. For the record, Rainbow is not under my command, so she’s not obligated to salute, just give basic respect.” Dark finished her salute. “Please inform sergeant Blaze she’s assigned scouting duty tonight. I want an eye witness report on that gathering group as soon as she goes on duty. No reason to raise an alarm, but I do want at least basic intel to know what they’re doing out there.” He smiled, watching the sergeant still shooting across the sky. “I’ll understand if you have a hard time catching her. Now get to it.” Dark flew after her friend. “Now as to what I wanted to see you about.” He continued. “I’ve heard mixed reports of your encounters with Gray, you and your friends. Of everyone, oddly enough, only young Lightning Strike seemed even halfway competent in battle.”

“Excuse me?” I asked. “She was courageous but she went down with a single hit in the first fight.”

“She’s still a child with a child’s endurance, I was referring to her approach not her durability. We could be attacked tomorrow and if you or any of your friends are going to join the fray, do what she did. Give no warning and hold nothing back. Had you and your friends done so when you first fought Gray, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“Why are you telling me this sir?” I asked.

“You won’t be alone this time, but like I said, I’m planning on being attacked tomorrow. There’s a reason I’m sending my fastest scout to inspect that gathering. She’s the only one I’m fairly certain will get back alive if she’s discovered. You want to know who supported Gray? If I’m right, we’re about to find out.”


> 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.”
	
	
	
> No Win Scenario
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bat ponies closed on the two former prisoners. One bat pony emerged, looking to be regarded as a leader… where was Moonstone? “You know what is happening, is that not true?”

“But of course,” replied Violet. “But what are you going to do? We command fire and chains in a way you cannot understand. You cannot bind us, so torture won’t work, and you probably don’t have enough time to try interviewing us or tricking us.” She grinned. “What will you do? Kill the dragon, or let them fight it out until one falls? If you fight the dragon, I imagine most of you won’t return alive. If you let them slug it out, you could lose your princess, or perhaps both of them. Choices, choices.”

“And if we let you walk away, what then?” asked the head bat pony.

“Ya can’t be serious!” I heard a shout from Apple Jack. AJ walked over to the group. She pointed a fore hoof at the red pegasus. “This here monster lit ma friend on fire, ah have never heard Pinkie scream like that. He’s lucky ah don’t kill him ma’self!” Pinkie? My eyes went wide.

I looked over at my friends. Save for AJ right now, they had all gathered in a group to my left. The foals seemed fine and Rarity stood over all of them. In their midst Pinkie lay there, unmoving. I quickly flew over. “No…” I started.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Rarity said, interrupting my train of thought. “The burns sent her into shock, but she’ll live. So said the field medic.”

“How…?” I started. “I… hoped I could get back before-“

“This is not your fault Rainbow. That pegasus separated Dusk from the group. Pinkie took the attack meant for him. She probably saved his life.” Rarity said.

“Oh but isn’t it her fault?” asked Violet. “She brought the dragon. And just who told her to do that?”

“General Moonstone!” I yelled.

“When he confronted Gray in the bunker?”

“Yes! He- oh shit,” I was suddenly not so confident.

“Are you sure Moonstone gave you that order?” the pegasus asked. “Do you even know when he died, fighting Gray alone in that stairwell, he so could have used you.” My jaw hung open, my mouth going dry. “Oh what’s that? Is that the confession of a… traitor?” I stood silent.

Violet giggled. “Amazing. Honestly I’m not sure how well this would have gone had Moonstone not isolated you three in such a foolish yet clever gambit. That surely was the way to ensure Gray’s death, trapping him in a small space where his powers are useless. But it only helps if your backup isn’t a moron.” Tears started coming out of my eyes. She looked at the bat pony leader. “You think there’s anything you fools can do to stop this with just information? Very well. I know bat ponies are bound to their honor. A certain Colonel Moon Shade told the dragon that Luna was going to force his daughter into service as a soldier. You see, her power was too great for the princess not to control. When the dragon inevitably shouted in anger at the Colonel, the Colonel offered to negotiate on the dragon’s behalf with the princess, appealing to her better nature. But now that the dragon has been told his children were being attacked at a military installation, what do you think he believes became of that negotiation?” She shook her head

I suddenly had an idea. “I’m a moron huh?” I asked. “A princess fighting a dragon. Even this moron knows Gray’s powers would be useless to disguise that fight, and even if he could, he can’t keep up with me. I can stop this all by myself.” I looked around and yelled, “There’s no point in everyone following me. Torkuda could easily kill you all, but I can outmaneuver him. Please, give me a chance… I’m all you’ve got. I helped save your princess before, please, give me a chance to do it again.”

Violet and the red pegasus started walking past me. “Go for it kiddo,” Violet said, continuing to grin. I shot away and after the princess and the dragon.

(***)

As one can imagine, finding the dragon was not hard. He was in the air, holding the princess and shouting at her. I wasn’t sure who made the decision to fight where they were, a large open rocky wilderness area, but I was glad I wouldn’t have to worry about saving innocent ponies from collateral damage.

“And after all this, you dare to blame a corpse for you own actions?” he demanded of her as I came within ear shot. “I saw his body with my own eyes, as did all of your ponies. If you did not mean to conscript her, why bring a child to a military installation so far away from her parent?”

“As we said, Gray is alive. He must be. We had our suspicions about Moon Shade before, but if he told you such vicious lies, then we fear what became of the real Moon Shade, for the one you spoke to was not him.”

“There have been rumors of your subjugation of the pony race. I did not believe it myself, but now you seek to oppress even me? Your lies will not avail you.”

This was not going well. Course how had it been going before I showed up? Honestly I had no idea how powerful either creature was but this was not how I wanted to find out. “Torkuda, listen to her,” I shouted. “We didn’t mean to put your daughter in danger. This was just to research her powers, not use them in war. We didn’t even know this would happen.”

“The conflict I saw was far too large to be a random attack,” the dragon replied. “That was a full scale battle. Someone had better tell me the truth. What were my children and their guardian doing there?”

“Torkuda listen to me,” I started anew. “This is a ruse to destroy the enemies of Gray. He can’t fight you two himself so he wants you to fight each other.”

“Fear this tyrant no more Rainbow Dash,” Torkuda said. “I will end her once and for all.” His grip looked to be tightening on the princess. Suddenly his hand opened and his entire body was encased in a purple aura. He was then flung at the ground below. His impact threw up dust, but apparently didn’t faze him in the least. He grabbed his necklace and opened his mouth, the three circles appearing in front of his maw again. Luna quickly dodged right as a powerful blaze shot at her. Luna just barely escaped the blast.

Luna’s horn flared and Torkuda was tossed away from her, slamming into a mountain several meters away.

I thought aloud. “I can reason with Luna… but Torkuda… how can I talk to him? If I were that angry, who would I listen to?... Twilight… a friend… When I accused him of child abuse in his cave, Vinyl was able to talk him down… where did he put Vinyl?”

A little yellow filly suddenly came into view. “DADDY!” she shouted. The dragon was in the air again and flying in front of the foal. Lightning Strike had arrived. “Daddy what are you doing? Don’t hurt Luna.” She pleaded.

“You don’t understand Lightning, leave,” Torkuda turned back to Luna. “I warn you. Hurt her and what little I am holding back will be unleashed. Let her leave.”         

“Daddy what are you doing? That’s Luna.”

“We would never harm a foal.” Luna shouted back.

“You had her in the middle of a war zone.” Torkuda said.

“You are leaving us little choice dragon.” Luna’s horn glowed, Torkuda being slammed into the ground again.

“DADDY!” Lightning screamed. I flew next to her. “I have to stop this… Rebel Rainbow… how do I stop this?” Before the dust settled around the dragon another powerful red laser shot out and this time actually clipped Luna’s left wing. “LUNA!”

I grabbed the filly. “We need Vinyl, your daddy listened to her once.”

“How can you listen to someone who can’t talk?” She asked as another laser shot into the air, just missing Luna.

“She was able to talk him down in her way. You know how she talks, by writing.”

Lightning watched as her father was dragged along the ground by Luna’s telekinetic energy. She swallowed. “Daddy! Follow me Rebel Rainbow!” She flew away, me quickly following.

In seconds we shot back over the base and towards a large rock. Lightning circled around the rock and was suddenly yanked down by white energy. I followed to see Vinyl grab her in a fearful hug. “Daddy told us to stay here. Vinyl isn’t talking to me for some reason, so I flew away.” Vinyl was crying over Lightning, but for some reason, she was right, Vinyl still hadn’t taken out her notepad to talk with us.

I shook my head. I had no time. I pushed Lightning away from Vinyl, grabbed Vinyl and shot back into the air.  I then tore back to the ongoing battle. This was a longshot at best, but I had to try.

I explained fast as I could, holding up Vinyl so she could see the fight. “Okay, here’s the deal. Torkuda thinks Luna conscripted his daughter. My guess is he’s trying to kill her to destroy her political power to make such a decision. You’ve been with us the whole time, I’ll yell to get his attention, you write what happened from your perspective. He pays attention to you and clearly thinks you’re on his side.” I screamed loud as I could “TORKUDA!” Both fighters stopped and looked at me. Luna was flying in the air at about the chest level of Torkuda and Torkuda was standing in a large crater deeper than all six of us element bearers combined were tall.

The massive dragon glared at me. Yea, having anyone stare at you with killer intent can be scary, but have that person be big enough to eat your whole body in one bite- I gulped. “A hostage?” He asked. “To what low will you ponies not sink?”

“Well c’mon Vinyl,” I said. She just hung her head and pointed at her saddlebags… and yes, it had taken me this long to realize. She didn’t actually have any saddle bags on her right now. That meant no writing. And since none of us knew sign language –I wasn’t even sure Vinyl herself knew it- I had just brought her all the way out here for basically no reason.

Torkuda growled deeply as I felt Vinyl’s tears drip onto my forelegs. “So what now Rainbow?” asked the dragon. “You drop her, I catch her and I kill you without any effort.” I held her tight, doubly not wanting to drop her now.

Torkuda’s right arm snapped up, the back of his fist slamming into Luna and sending her crashing into the ground, somersaulting several times and finally landing in an unconscious heap. “Your threats mean nothing Rainbow. Vinyl can escape your grasp at any time and Lightning can catch her. Though I see you are true to your element. Loyal even when your leaders are despicable.” Torkuda turned his back to me.

“Daddy… please stop…” Lighting pleaded.

I close my eyes, not wanting to see this. I loved my leaders, Luna and Celestia both. How could this be happening? “Please… I whispered, “Someone save her.”

Torkuda’s body was suddenly ripped out of the ground, turned upside down and slammed back into the ground, his neck appearing to break as he slammed down.

The dragon’s body slumped, crashing down into the ground lifelessly. My relief was short lived when I looked over at Lightning Strike. “Dad…?” she asked. “DADDY!!!”

I looked over my shoulder to see Celestia flying behind me, glaring at the dragon’s body. I wasn’t sure when she got there, probably came to check on her sister when someone informed her things at the night guard base didn’t look good. In the end, it didn’t matter. My princesses were still both still alive, and Lightning’s father was gone.

“Fuck you Gray,” I whispered to myself, watching Lightning slowly descend to the ground. I looked back to see Celestia’s glare fade. She drifted over Lightning, looking very unsure how to approach the filly.

Celestia drew closer- “DON’T. TOUCH. MY. DAUGHTER.” Celestia and I both looked up far too late as Torkuda’s massive tail swiped at Celestia. It cut through the air and- transformed into bubbles as a loud snap echoed across the landscape. The bubbles passed through Celestia harmlessly. 

I had literally never been happier to realize Discord was present in my entire life. The draconequus appeared a few feet over my shoulder.

Torkuda’s tail was restored and he reared back, his mouth opened wide, leaping right at my mismatched “friend”. Another snap and the dragon was encased in a large blue bubble. “I’m not here to fight,” Discord said. “If nopony has ever bothered to notice, I don’t fight. I see no point in it. I’ve been told it’s fun, but I’ve seen hundreds of wars, trust me, that’s not how I would describe what I saw. I’m here because Celestia sent word to Twilight when she found out the night base was under attack. Seeing what she tried to do, I see that teleporting Celestia first was a mistake.”

“You won’t fight, so you’ll just help keep tyrants in power?” asked Torkuda, still floating.

“Luna and Celestia, tyrants?” Discord responded. He twisted his face a few times. “Well they did imprison me in stone for a millennium for being annoying, so I’m not sure “tyrants” isn’t an apt term. All the same, had they never done that, I never would have found the happiness I know these days, so if it’s all the same, I’d rather they not be killed.” Well… there was a perspective shift. Guess I never thought of how it felt to be on the other side of the curses of the elements.

“I will not allow my daughter to be conscripted, I don’t care how many powerful friends Celestia and Luna challenge me with.”

“Conscripted?” asked Celestia. “At Lightning’s age, that would be a war crime. I highly doubt my sister would behave in such a way even as Nightmare Moon.”

“Are you going to try to tell me this is the result of Gray’s actions as well? It was one of Luna’s own guard who told me what she was going to do. Gray is dead,” Torkuda said that last line with such assurance.

“No he’s not,” I said shakily. “He fooled us all. This was his plan all along. I think we’re extremely lucky it didn’t work.” I bit my lip. I was so done with all of this. “Discord, please just put an end to Gray’s plans. Please, kill him, for all of us.”

“I don’t kill,” he replied.

“What?” I asked. “You… you… you forced me to watch my entire town crumble just to fuck with me. What do you mean you don’t kill? Talk about drawing lines in the sand!”

“Typical of you to start shouting when don’t get your way isn’t it Dash?” he asked back.

“Get my way?” I practically screamed back. “That creep injured all of us except Fluttershy. Is that it? Is that why you don’t care? Because she’s okay?”

Discord’s eyebrows rose. “You think I don’t kill because I don’t care? What a strange concept.” He said. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m geared to having fun not fighting. If you must know I did kill a pony once. Then the ponies who knew him stopped being any fun at all. I admit at first I thought it was just an inconvenience, but then I realized what I had done… he was gone… my toys have short lives as it is, let alone that I snuffed one out… the sad looks of those who knew him, the empty house he once occupied, the tears of his children… they haunt me to this day.” The look on his face, probably the second genuine look of regret I had ever seen from him, caused me to pause.

Still, “So don’t kill innocent ponies,” I said back.

“Who do you think kept Tyrek from killing the princesses a year ago? He had them at his mercy. However I let him know if he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life as a fluffy bunny, he would just imprison them. I do not kill. Is it so hard to believe I might have principals of my own?”

I shrugged. “I can live with Gray being turned into a fluffy bunny. Go for that,” I said.

“I do not take sides in war,” Discord replied. “I’ve spent enough time on the wrong side. However, seeing as I promised Celestia, I will resolve this fight.” I heard another snap and I found myself inches away from Discord. Discord reached into my ear and suddenly pulled film out of one of my ears. That… that felt weird. “She’s the one who just said Gray was still alive, and she sounded pretty confident. Let’s see what makes her think this shall we?”

“How do I know you won’t just show me a lie?” asked Torkuda.

“Because I’m being so partial right now,” Discord said back sarcastically. He pulled the film somehow coming out of my ear again… you get used to this kind of stuff when you’re friends with the spirit of chaos. A lens appeared on my head and suddenly projected an image into the air as a strange clicking noise came out of my head.

“This is really weird,” I finally voiced.

“Oh hush, no one likes someone who talks during the show,” Discord said. He snapped his fingers again and suddenly a bucket of popcorn appeared between my forelegs.

Lightning flew next to me, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. “Um… what’s happening?” she asked.

“Um…” I looked up at Discord with my eyes, as for some reason my neck didn’t feel like moving. I waved my hoof back and forth between the two. “Lightning, Discord, Discord, Lightning Strike.”

“She new here?” he asked.

“Kinda.” I said. “Apparently I am now a movie theater projector and I think we’re going to watch my memory sooo…” I shuffled the popcorn in the filly’s direction. “Popcorn?”

“Ummm…” Lightning just paused. “Where did the popcorn come from?”

“It’s Discord, roll with it,” I said. “Only way you’ll stay sane.” I threw some popcorn into my mouth. It was actually some of the best I had ever tasted. Do projectors normally get to enjoy concessions? I wouldn’t think so… and I had to remind myself not to think about it.

I looked up at the projection. The memory of my last encounter with Gray in the bunker played. I watched closely, trying to discover who had given me the order to fly away, but as I suspected, there was just no way to be sure. I bit my tongue when I realized that was also to be the last time I saw Moonstone alive if Gray’s lackey wasn’t lying.

The projection went away and my head returned to normal when I flew out of the bunker. “So,” said the draconequus, snapping his fingers and making the bubble surrounding Torkuda disappear. “Now what will you do?” 
	
	
	
> Funeral
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Torkuda looked back at the draconequus. “I suppose first I will apologize for my behavior.” He cracked his neck a few times and reached out his hand to Luna’s body. Celestia’s body tensed up as he did, her horn appearing to warm up for another attack. Torkuda gently picked up the princess of the night and handed her to Celestia. “Knocked out, but I doubt a simple hit could have killed her.” Celestia levitated her sister next to her.

Suddenly Lightning shot away from the rest of us and slammed into her father’s face, hugging it best she could. “Daddy… never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never-“

Discord bowed. “Well I suppose I’m unnecessary now. And as much as I would like to catch up with my friends here, I doubt they’ll be up to anything besides more fighting. I need to check in on Fluttershy again… she’s been a mess with worry about her friends fitting in on a military base… I should probably omit a few details… hmmm-” He snapped his fingers, disappearing.

“I will never do that again, I promise you my child. I never wanted to in the first place.” He gently nudged her with the back of his right claw. He then held out his hand, her flying into it. Lightning sat down, looking up at him. Torkuda gently petted her mane with the back of his claw. “I still love you Lightning, you are still my daughter and I would do anything to protect you. That is why I was fighting. I thought Luna was putting you in danger.”

Lightning looked up at him. “Momma Luna? She would never hurt me.”

Torkuda closed his eyes. “We’re both very different from those around us child. Trust will never come easy for us.” Torkuda looked back to Celestia. He bowed his head. “I must apologize for my behavior.”

“It was a misunderstanding,” Celestia said. “That being said, NEVER ATTACK MY SISTER AGAIN!” her voice boomed and the ground beneath us started to shake at that statement.

“Maybe Gray is lucky this plan didn’t work,” I noted to Vinyl. Vinyl didn’t respond to me, she just looked down at the ground. I looked at her face and realized she was still crying. “Hey, it all worked out,” I noted. “I guess I feel bad about Moonstone.” Vinyl gritted her teeth, starting to sob. What was wrong? It was so frustrating not being able to talk to her.

Lightning’s eyes actually widened a little when she looked back over at me. “Vinyl!” she yelled, not as loudly as she had been yelling earlier, but yelling still. She flew out of her father’s palm and over to me and Vinyl. “It’s okay Vinyl, everything worked out. Really, I know you couldn’t help, but we didn’t really need you this time.” Yea what was up with-oh. “Thanks for trying.” Vinyl hid her face from the filly. “Vinyl… I love you… you know that right?” Vinyl invited Lightning into a hug, nodding. Lightning flew up and embraced her. It was only halfhearted on Vinyl’s part and any adult would have realized that. Sheesh did I feel guilty. I had been tricked before, but with Vinyl, I had basically thrown her biggest weakness in her face and now all she could do was bear it as a loved one just tried to guess what was bothering her.

I whispered to her. “I’m so sorry…” I said. “We’ll get you some paper so you can talk again when we get back to base I promise.”

Lightning separated from her finally. “Where’s Dusty?” she asked.

“Back behind the rock,” I said.

“Gray is alive and we left him alone?” Lightning asked with panic in her voice. “What if he was standing right there?”

“Would be a pretty big coincidence,” I noted. “I know a few unicorns could use dispel magic in the base so sticking around long enough to see what your dad did with his own eyes-“ but she shot away. Before I might have worried about Lightning in that moment, but I was getting used to her antics. I watched her go, knowing I would need to follow soon. “Ya know, say what you want about her problems and demeanor, you always know where her heart is.” Vinyl did smile at that notion.

(***)

We all eventually returned to the night base, yes, everyone including the Mistress of the day and the massive dragon. Torkuda’s reception was mixed, some cheered, others were angry to see him. I tried to defend him, he had been tricked like the rest of us, but the ponies wouldn’t listen.

I did secure some new writing utensils for Vinyl however, so I suppose that went well enough.

I returned to my friends and the rest of the foals. I explained what happened to them. “So guys, we’re gonna need to talk about what to do now. Guess Twilight isn’t here so, who's the leader?”

AJ looked over at Rarity. “Rarity,” she said. 

Rarity nodded her head and began to speak. “Yes well… I suppose there’s a topic that’s long overdue for discussion. Regarding Torkuda. Apparently we’ve taken Spike for granted. We need to remember what dragons are. They’re monsters. Celestia made a mistake letting him adopt foals-“

Yea… guess I didn’t mention Vinyl, Lightning and Dusk had stayed with me. Lightning immediately flew up in Rarity’s face. “Take. That. Back.”

“You think I’m afraid of you? Do you have any idea what I just went through?” Rarity said.

“I was there remember?” Lightning asked. “I saved your life twice. You’re making me regret that.”

And when an eight-year-old says something like that- I put my hooves up and pushed the two apart. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s all calm down here, shall we?”

“It’s not that I have a problem with dragons in general,” Rarity said. “I like Spike, but he’s a different breed. Torkuda is the breed we met during the dragon migration. He can’t change his scales. There’s a reason Equestria has very few dragon allies.”

“Yea,” AJ said, looking at her with lowered eyebrows. “Ah wonder what that reason is.”

“Well don’t look at me like that,” Rarity replied. “Am I the only one to think this entire elaborate scheme of Gray’s hinged on Torkuda acting like a brute when faced with a problem? It certainly worked.”

“Rarity, ya know what, there are times when ah can’t stand yer inability to ignore things like class and species. How many times have you insulted me and ma family? But to insult a child’s father right in front of her, that’s a new low.”

Rarity snorted. “I’m just the only one with the courage to say what everyone else is feeling. That beast just tried to kill one of our leaders.” She pointed a hoof at Celestia who was currently flying above the base and the other ponies, Luna still being carried unconscious beside her. “Look at them. Celestia is trying to hold it together but she’s scared. Can’t you tell? Luna is bleeding and I’ve seen three doctors examine her as we’ve been talking. Luna is the second most powerful pony in all of Equestria, and how much effort did it take for him to do that to her?” she looked to me for an answer.

“I don’t know, he punched her,” I replied.

“One punch?” Rarity’s eyes went wide. “Think about it. Even if we give him the biggest benefit of the doubt we can, just one snap, that’s all it would take and either Lightning or her brother could be killed. Even if we ignore dragon nature, he’s still massive.”

“We know almost nothin’ about dragon nature,” Apple Jack pointed out.

“That doesn’t change what I said now does it?” Rarity said back. She looked at me again. “C’mon Rainbow, from what I understand there was a time when you had your doubts about Torkuda as well.” I looked back at Vinyl, Dusk and Lighting, Vinyl having to do her best to hold back Lightning with her telekinesis. “Well?”

“Scootaloo can’t fly,” I finally replied.

“Hm?” Rarity said back.

“Rarity, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten pissed off at you.” I stared her in the eyes. “Get your head out of your ass. If I wanted to hurt Scoots all I would have to do is grab her, fly up and drop her, there’d be nothing she could do about it. That’s what kids are, helpless. That’s why when they’re in trouble we feel so helpless. That’s why I’m so pissed right now! Even if I do understand what you’re saying, I know it’s not you. Do you fucking understand me? GRAY IS BACK!” I started to pant and pulled myself back from her. Rarity seemed to jump in place, her eyes wide. “He was never gone. The ponies we counted on are all humiliated, injured or dead and once again he looks bigger and better than ever!” I tried to breath to calm myself down. “This isn’t you Rarity. You have your moments, but you’re not a racist prick.” Rarity looked away but I could tell she was starting to cry. “You’re scared, we all are. I get it.”

“You’re actually saying you’re scared?” Rarity asked, looking back, her eyes showing a little shock. “YOU’RE the first to admit it?”

“Hate ta’ be that mare,” Apple Jack said. “But can ya’ll stop curssin’ in front of the foals?” I bit my tongue and looked down at Scootaloo who was at my hooves at the moment. “By the way ya’ll are scarin’ the stuffin’ out of em’.” Scootaloo was trembling. I put a foreleg over her.

Scootaloo looked down at her leg. “He… he…” she started to stutter. “Gray beat a dragon.”

“Not exactly squirt,” I tried to prove her wrong. “I mean Torkuda is fine save for a small crick in his neck.”

“He almost killed Luna,” she said back.

“That was a misunderstanding-“ I started, but she interrupted.

“No it wasn’t!” Scootaloo shouted. “A misunderstanding is a mistake. That attack is what Gray wanted to happen. Torkuda didn’t attack Luna, Gray did. He was just using Torkuda. He’s turning us on each other, even you guys are fighting now.” She pulled my foreleg around her. “This just keeps getting worse.” Sweetie and Apple Bloom both started to hide under their sisters. “He broke my leg, he hurt all of you, he killed Moonstone, he almost killed Apple Jack… what’s next?” She kept shaking, harder and harder. “He’s gonna get us all… no one can stop him.” I wanted to talk her down but the words caught in my throat. “I close my eyes and I see his. I just want this to stop.”

Lightning Strike stepped over to us. “It will stop,” she said. There was something… different in her voice.

“There’s nothing you can do either. All he did was use you,” Scootaloo said.

“That’s cause I didn’t do it right,” Lightning said.

“Do what? What do you mean?” Scootaloo asked.

“You’ll see,” Lightning had a kind of cold determination in her voice. She walked back to Vinyl. “Vinyl can we leave?” she asked. “I’m really tired.” Vinyl looked at her with confusion. I didn’t like her tone either, but we had other things to deal with besides extremely vague comments from an eight year old. She, Vinyl and Dusk finally left the group. I had thoughts on the subject of following them but decided that would probably not be best. I turned back to Rarity.

“Well… that happened,” I said. “What now?”

“I don’t think right now is the best time to plan our next move. We did all just blow up at each other,” Rarity replied.

“Is she alright?” Came a voice. A large shadow loomed over us and I turned, wings at the ready to- yea it was Celestia. She pretty much ignored my near panic and continued. “I mean Lightning Strike of course. That must have been terrifying for her.”

“She’ll be alright I would guess,” Rarity said. “But Luna, how is she doing?”

“Looks worse than she is,” Celestia said back. “She’s recovered her consciousness finally… sometimes I think she’s a better ruler than myself. Her first questions were to ensure Torkuda was alright. Even out of it as she is, she’s currently trying to oversee preparations for funeral services for her soldiers.”

“How many died?” I asked.

“Twenty four, including Lieutenant General Moonstone.” Hearing that Rarity looked down. “Any soldier dying is a high price, but he’s been at Luna’s side since she came back. His soldiers respected him very much.”

“So the service will be mostly for him?” I asked.

“He would have been insulted if it were,” Celestia replied. “He was the first officer to suggest one of the military reforms we currently have. Officers and common soldiers are buried with the same honors.” We nodded to this. I only knew Moonstone for a short time, but even so, that sounded like him. Celestia shook her head. “I remember promoting him. So nervous. He didn’t believe he could do a good job.” Celestia smiled. “Rarity, I also came here to speak with you. Do you think you can help with the ceremonies? Somepony needs to oversee the decorations and general aesthetic.”

“I’m not an expert in that field, but I’m sure I can manage something,” Rarity said.

“And Rainbow Dash, it seems one of the bat ponies has been asking everywhere to speak with you,” Celestia motioned with her head to a bat pony standing a small distance away.

The pony had a dark green coat, nearly black. Her mane was a faded red with cool blue highlights. I knew her, Dark Echo.

Dark had tears streaming down her face. I didn’t know her very well, but still, I rushed over to her, Scootaloo following. “Dark… Look… I’m so sorry. If we hadn’t shown up-“

“No,” Dark interrupted. “If you hadn’t shown up, Night wouldn’t have had the chance at some of her dreams coming true. She got to meet THE Rainbow Dash. The fastest pony in Ponyville, probably in all of Equestria. She got to dance with you and she got to go to a Pinkie party. She was so happy. I wouldn’t have taken that away from her even if… well I don’t know. I would want her to still be here… is that right or wrong?”

“It’s okay. I can tell. You’re a good friend,” I said.

“But my friend is dead. What good is being a friend when a friend passes away?” she asked. “I just came to say “thank you”. Like I said, you have no idea how happy you made her. I guess I just said what I came to say… I’ll go…”

“No, c’mere,” I said, trying to grab her with my wing. I failed to grab her, but she still stopped. “Look, she was a lot of fun, even what little time I knew her. I’m really sorry about Night.” I closed my eyes. “Is there anything I can do?... Please, something… I failed to protect the general, all I could do was watch when Luna and Torkuda fought, I couldn’t even give a fan a race, it seems like I can’t do anything right tonight. I feel so useless.”

Dark twisted her lips. “Smile?” I didn’t. “I guess that’s a bit much to ask right now… but listen… just… just- just don’t call my best friend’s idol useless. She wouldn’t like it… try smiling again? She always said your smiles were beautiful.” I wasn’t happy, but I did my best to manage a kind of side smile. “Well… I don’t know if I can pay you the same compliments she could… your daughter is cute.”

I looked down at Scootaloo, currently at my leg. She looked away nervously. I don’t know that she likes being called cute. It’s a fact that she is, but that’s doesn’t mean she likes being called it. Still, I drove a hoof into her mane saying, “She knows she is.” she pretended to flinch away. I sighed, letting Scoots go. “You sure there’s nothing I can do for you?”

“Well… it’s kinda lonely being the only mare on the base- well besides the princesses, but that doesn’t help. I know you have your own friends, but I’m not that good with so many strangers at once… I can’t say goodbye to her alone. Can you stay with me tonight?” I nodded.

(***)

I’d be lying if I said spending the night with Dark was at all pleasant. She apparently had a couple friends to say goodbye to, Night Blaze was just the closest. 

Scootaloo stuck close to me, her fear seeming to lessen as the night went on. To be honest, that’s probably because both of us were tired as heck. Scoots finally just passed out during the funeral service.

The funeral service was rather well decorated, as was expected. The main portion of it was a procession of the bodies in various caskets. Some were covered because the remains were too unsightly to be displayed. One of those was Night Blaze. Still, when her covered casket came by, Dark Echo cried into my mane.

It was good to be there for somepony, to feel necessary. I held the bat pony close, my wing around her.

“Is she really gone?” Dark asked.

“Yes. She is... What do you need?”

“Just stay beside me. This hurts…” I closed my eyes.

“I know. You’ll get past this,” I said.

“How are we gonna beat this guy?”

“I don’t know. But we will, I promise.” I didn’t feel as confident as I sounded, but still, saying it made me get a little confidence back.

When the funeral ended, I finally got back to sleep.

(***)

I woke up the next morning, groggily turning over. Dark Echo had allowed me and Scootaloo to stay in Night Blaze’s former room. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling staying in such a room, but we made the best of it. Uncomfortable sleep is better than no sleep at all.

I crawled over Scootaloo on the bed, deciding to let her keep sleeping for the moment. I got to my hooves and- stared straight into the worried face of Twilight Sparkle. “Hi… didn’t hear you come in-“ I started.

“Teleported- I was listening from behind the door- irrelevant. Are you okay?” she quickly spat out.

“Physically? Yea sure,” I replied.

“Emotionally?” Twilight asked, shirking her head back a little.

“Yea that’s another story.” I rubbed my eyes a few times to get the sleep out of them. “I assume you teleported to the base or something. Been here a while?”

“I flew here. Been here, oh maybe an hour or two,” Twilight said. “I heard what happened and I had to come ya know?” I nodded. “I caught up with everyone else… poor Pinkie… she’s being so brave.”

“She’s awake?” I asked.

“Yea. And the doctors say she’ll recover soon enough… doesn’t make second degree burns fun though,” we both grimaced at that line. “I… I think… I think I might have said something pretty mean to Dusk…” another grimace from Twilight. “And now Lightning won’t talk to me… I know it wasn’t really his fault, I just reacted. Pinkie got hurt protecting him and- hmmmm, I practically bit his head off.” She watched me for a second as I rummaged around the room, finding my toothbrush. “You’re not disappointed in me for that?”

“Last night we had a falling out where a few of us said some things we’re probably gonna regret. I’m hoping it's normal considering the situation,” I said back in an almost monotone voice. I took my tooth brush, finally finding it and got ready to clean my teeth. I looked in the mirror and paused. “How long were you waiting outside my door?”

Twilight bit her lip. “Oh ya know- not long… maybe ten minutes-“ she looked at my alarm clock. “Maybe thirty minutes-maybe more. I knew you needed your sleep so I waited but I couldn’t leave the barracks room until I knew you were okay so… I just kinda stood there with my ear to the door like a stalker… sorry.” Twilight started nervously shuffling her hooves.

I chuckled looking in the mirror. Twilight smiled at me. “Good old neurotic Twi,” I said. She grinned at me nervously. My hoof started shaking. “What am I gonna do Twi?” I squeaked out. She rushed over to me. I looked in the mirror again, but then had to look away. “I don’t even know the pony in the mirror anymore. What… I…” I hissed. “I let so many ponies down yesterday. Moonstone died when I abandoned him, I almost got Torkuda killed, and I’m so lucky Luna is alive at all, I went to a funeral and watched as they took the body of this one mare who looked up to me and I couldn’t have done a damn thing to save or even help her, Scootaloo is terrified and I don’t know what to say and… and…” Twilight wrapped a wing around me.

“Hey,” she started. “This isn’t the Rainbow I know. C’mon. The other ponies speak highly of how you tried to fix things yesterday. Flying out there all by yourself. You even had the idea to use Vinyl to get through to Torkuda-“

“I shoved her disability in her face Twi!” I shouted. “I’m such a little fucking bitch!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight said, hugging me a little tighter. “Don’t talk like that.”

“Why not? It’s true. You should have seen the look on Vinyl’s face after what I did.”

“You panicked,” Twilight said back. “She understands.”

“I didn’t do any good… seriously- how- how do I even know I’m a good pony anymore?” I asked. I looked over at the bed, Scootaloo staring at me, starting to cry. She bit her lip.

Twilight stepped away from me and between us. She looked back and forth between the two of us. “Look, girls, please, just listen to me,” Twilight said. “Rainbow, Gray used you, none of that was your fault okay?”

“I’m such an idiot, that’s why he-“

“KNOCK IT OFF!” Twilight shouted. “Stop insulting my friend! You listen to me and you listen good! Rainbow Dash is one of the bravest ponies I know. She’s not always the brightest but she loves her friends and she’s grown a lot over the years. She makes mistakes, but she doesn’t hurt ponies on purpose and she’s dreamed of being a hero her whole life. She stood up to bullies as a kid, she proved the sonic rainboom exists by accident, she adopted a little filly as her sister just for the asking, she encourages Fluttershy when she’s feeling bad, she took in a foal because she was needed- these are not the actions of a pony I have to wonder about. She’s good, she’s strong, she’s brave-“

“Is she really me?” I asked.

Twilight calmed down. “Yes, she’s you.”

“I don’t see her right now.” I shook my head. “I don’t see the mare who adopted Scootaloo. I see a mare who almost orphaned Lightning Strike and Dusk. The difference between a good pony and a bad pony is what they do right?” I asked.

“Well it’s not that simple…” Twilight replied.

“You would have said yes a few days ago wouldn’t you?” I asked.

Twilight sighed, nodding. “That’s only because I wouldn’t have thought of something like this though.”

“So what’s the difference?” I asked.

I looked back at the bed, Scootaloo starting to sob. I clenched my teeth, dropped my toothbrush and shot over to her, wrapping her in a hug. Twilight looked at us for a few seconds. “That,” she said, pointing at us. “Maybe you don’t always succeed, but… there is a saying Rainbow. It’s pretty old. ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’. Your heart is with your friends Rainbow, and your daughter. You’re not upset because you got a little beat up. You’re upset ‘cause you think you’re letting them down. You love your friends and family Rainbow. You have a good heart. I can see it.”

I started to sob myself. “Do you still believe in me Scoots? Do you?” Scootaloo just hugged me tighter. “Twilight, I can’t stay here. Get us out of here.”

I looked out of my tear soaked eyes to see what she would do with that. “Luna seems pretty sure this group of monsters is after us… I mean the element bearers. Gray doesn’t even seem all that interested in Dusk or Lightning Strike… which I guess is good news for them. Thing is, we can’t safely move Pinkie right now so the six of us are just gonna be staying here. Fluttershy is here too by the way.”

“I want to go home Twi.”

“Hey, c’mon… we’re actually safer here. Myself, Luna, Celestia, Honor Guard and a few others here can all perform the dispel magic spell. Gray can’t just walk around here without fear of being caught.”

“He did.” I said. “How do you beat someone like this?”

“I don’t know. I guess… maybe we can monitor everything we can, check everything we can… indefinitely…” she looked away. “I’m gonna go talk with Celestia. Maybe she has an idea.”

I grabbed her wing as she turned around. I felt like a scared little filly with her mother. “Don’t leave me,” I held Scootaloo tightly. “Please?”

“Then just come with me. We’ll go talk with Celestia. I’ll keep you safe. I promise.” She wrapped her wing around me and squeezed tightly. “Trust me, please.”

“Cast it.”

“Dispel magic.” Twilight’s horn glowed. No blue eyes. No teeth. No Gray. “Now follow me.”
	
	
> The Profile
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I followed Twi to a small meeting room inside Luna’s… facility… in the base. Honestly I didn’t know what to call the three spires. It wasn’t a castle. I even asked Twilight, but she wasn’t sure what to call it either. “Command Center” was the best name we came up with.

We headed to a small meeting room inside.

The meeting room had many doors around it and was circular. In the center of the room was a large round table. The three princesses, their highest ranking officers and my five friends were all in the room around the table.

And boy were we a sight to behold. Rarity seemed alright, but she had a guilty look on her face. I had asked about it on the way in and apparently Lightning and Dusk wouldn’t even let her apologize for what she had said about their father. I was sticking close to Twilight like a kid with her mother, Scootaloo peeking around my legs for danger. Pinkie was moving very slow, but doing her best to smile… she was not pleasant to look at. Twilight kept her wing over me, but otherwise I guess looked normal herself. AJ looked exhausted, Apple Bloom by her side and looking normal enough. Finally Fluttershy kept asking everyone if they were okay, even after some of us started to get annoyed with the question.

The princesses looked worse for wear too now. Luna’s right wing was bandaged up and she had a cold compress on her head, Honor Guard insisting everyone keep their voices down for her. Celestia was physically alright, but she stuck very close to her sister, looking over her protectively.

“You all know why we’re here,” Celestia started. “We cannot continue to let one stallion do this to the defenders of Equestria.”

Twilight spoke up. “If I might offer a correction your majesty. Moonstone pointed it out a while ago, and now, to say the least, there is little doubt. Gray might be a leader, but he was never working alone. We’re not dealing with one stallion.”

“Even so, the fact remains that we have to do something to stop this. All of Equestria is watching us,” Celestia continued.

“Yes… all of Equestria IS watching us,” Rarity put in.

“Um… excuse me Rarity, you should not interrupt your elders. Now as I was saying-“ Celestia tried to continue again, but Rarity actually interrupted this time.

“But I have an important observation to make here and I’m… not sure… I’m afraid to forget it so I must speak it aloud. I’m sorry, I just sense that this is important.”

Celestia sighed. “Proceed.”

“I spoke with Moonstone before and offered to help him with the mystery of Gray, as some of you already know. Now I admit most of my interests in Moonstone were of the relationship blossoming variety, however I was being sincere.” A small fly buzzed around the room, most of us ignoring it. However Rarity quickly reached out and captured it with her magic, forcing it to the table. “I’ve just thought of something. One of Moonstone’s biggest questions was why, if Gray wanted to fight us, he didn’t just use stealth tactics to kill us easily. Clearly he has the skill to do it, so why not?” Rarity reared up as she released the fly. She then slammed her hooves on the table over and over, apparently attempting to kill the creature. Normally we might have laughed at this display, but in our current state, the loud noises and actions made Scoots and I shirk back a little. Finally she nailed the insect, slamming her right hoof into it several times. “Now, analyze what I just did. Anyone? Why did I do that?”

“To make a point?” asked Twilight.

“Ta get our attention,” Apple Jack said with an air of seriousness. “Now that ah think about it, it’s kinda obvious. He’s been makin’ a presentation out of our battles.”

Pinkie smiled. “So I guess that’s some good news… kinda. He can’t just kill us right?”

Rarity lifted her hoof with the squished insect and my stomach sank. “That all depends on whether the show is over.”

“How does knowing that help us?” I asked.

“Understanding the enemy helps fight him. Part of the art of war,” Rarity said. “Gray isn’t as random as fear makes us believe. He faked his death so he could force a scenario to occur where he could eliminate his greatest enemies by plotting them against each other. If he were dead you see, no one would suspect him in anything and he could walk right under our noses without fear, just as long as he kept up his illusions. That’s why he practically dragged the guards and Rainbow Dash to that place in the forest where he “died” in the first place.” Rarity put a hoof to her chin-the one without the dead bug-. “Come to think of it, the desire for attention explains a lot. Why attack us element bearers in the first place? He couldn’t do so completely in public, else he would risk outside interference, however he had to be somewhat public at least.”

What Rarity was saying made sense. Thus I had to know. I practically screamed, slamming my hooves on the desk. “SO WHY!?” Everypony looked at me. “Why single me out? He attacked me in private, he made me see my worst nightmares. He used me to try to kill the princesses. He kidnapped my daughter and threw her to wolves. He made me a terrible offer and he manipulated me. He fucking broke my child’s leg! What the fuck was all that for!?” I started breathing hard, putting my hooves over my head. “He’s got to be dead. This has to be a fucking dream. He’s dead… he’s dead… he’s…”

Twilight wrapped her wing around me again. I cried into her coat. Rarity swallowed, then continued. “I think the reason is fairly obvious from your behavior. Out of all of us Rainbow, you’re the one of us most prone to making a scene.”

“Ummm…” Pinkie started.

“Well… of the three of us with fairly obvious and easy to exploit weaknesses I should say,” Rarity pointed at Sweetie Belle. “Your panic is actually doing more to our nerves than Gray attacking us directly could… or at least could do with the same amount of effort. You’re his little fear monger.”

“So he’s been using me this whole time?” I asked. Rarity nodded. I slowly pushed away from Twilight. “So what should I do?”

“I don’t really know. I could tell you to resolve yourself not to be scared, but then he wouldn’t have a use for you now would he? And we all know what happened to that fly once I no longer had a use for it,” Rarity replied.

“Well… even if I do die, if it means he leaves Scootaloo alone…” I sighed, holding myself up best I could.

“I doubt that will matter one bit to how or if he targets your daughter. Killing her after you would attract more attention.”

“You’re supposed to be helping me here Rarity,” I said, looking at her with lowered eyebrows.

“I’m just being honest.”

“C’mon then,” I said, starting to get angry. “All you’re doing is scaring me more. How do we fight this guy?!”

“Rainbow wait,” Twilight said. “Think about it. If we understand Gray…” she looked around. “Dispel magic,” a purple field shot over the room. No eyes, no teeth. “Then we can bait him, maybe get him into a battle on our own terms for once. If we know what he wants…”

“So only a few questions remain,” AJ put in. “First somethin’ none of us are thinkin’ bout too much these days. Why did he experiment on little Lightnin’ all that time ago anyway? What did he want from it? We all could just call ‘im a saddist, but assumin’ there’s more to it…”

“He apparently wanted to achieve dark ascension,” said Twilight.

“He’s not an alicorn yet last time I checked,” Pinkie pointed out.

“But he does have an army of discount alicorns,” Celestia pointed out. “And to be honest, another scary thing is, none of us have any idea how long that has been growing.”

Twilight tapped her chin. “Assuming Lightning Strike was the first “discount alicorn”, that does give us an idea of when he could have started giving them powers. Though I guess he could easily have been gathering followers long before that. The most obvious reason to experiment on Lightning was to create a discount alicorn in the first place.”

“Fer what?” asked AJ.

Luna tapped the desk. “Gray used to be loyal to us… or at least play loyal to us. There were a few reports from him to us about this project we think. He never called it “discount alicorns” back then. He called it… impulse magic… we think we remember! Yes, impulse magic!” Celestia looked at her sister with confusion. “You see sister, like many, particularly with creatures like ursas, hydras and most terrifyingly, sentient dragons, many ponies have pointed out that we ponies are at a disadvantage. Our magic can only protect us so well, and only those of us lucky enough to be unicorns or alicorns, and even then only if we’re particularly skilled. Imagine if there were war with dragon kind. They would win with nary a significant foreseeable loss and our kind would be subjugated or worse. All four races would be hopelessly defeated.”

“Gray had a solution to that didn’t he?” Twilight asked. “Discount alicorns?”

“Impulse magic, but essentially we suppose it would have been the same thing,” Luna responded. “The idea was to create a strong bond between a pony and a single form of magic. This would allow a pony to rapidly control a specific type of magic, basically on an instinctive level. Instead of a pony memorizing several different forms of magic, he is given a boost of magic and prolonged exposure and time with a certain type of magic, like illusion. The boost would allow any pony to use magic, and the exposure would eventually allow full command of whatever type they were associated with.”

“Sounds like a complicated but decent idea,” Twilight said.

“The exposure process essentially involved torture. Even before we found out about Lightning and her brother, we understood this much about Gray’s idea,” Luna said.

“Oh. Guess not then.” Twilight said.

“So he’s trying to create ponies with impulse magic anyway?” asked Celestia. “Hmm… so why go about it this way?”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “WAIT! Luna, when you punished Gray, what did you do again?”

“I put him in an eternal nightmare. He would dream horrors until he died of dehydration, fear itself or starvation. Whichever came first, we cared not.”

“Okay, that’s dark,” Twilight said. “But what did you do other than that?”

“We destroyed his lab… but that wasn’t so much a punishment as iconoclasm,” Luna said.

“That’s not how a researcher would see something like that. That would be seen as a very personal attack.” Twilight said. “Look, I’ve done years of research and study. It was all destroyed in an instant by Tirek. When that happened I lost it… Gray is furious. You destroyed all he worked for.”

“You also possibly destroyed any chance of him being remembered by the public at large. That’s plenty of motive to be so public with his attacks,” Rarity pointed out. “He doesn’t just want attention, he wants to ensure he is remembered.”

“We’re all forgettin’ somethin’ else,” AJ said. “Didn’t Lightning say he wanted to become immortal? Ya know, that dark ascension thing we all keep talkin’ bout? Why did he want to do that?”

“He wants to live forever,” Rarity said. “Immortality seems a pretty good motivation in it of itself doesn’t it?”

“On the surface,” Twilight said. “But what makes a pony take the extra step here? He mutilated himself for immortality. Even if we assume he’s freaking insane, which to be fair he probably is, why go that far? Why does he need to be immortal so badly?”

Luna closed her eyes. “For the survival of oneself, one can justify many things. For the survival of one’s own species, a person can justify anything, without exception. Many of Gray’s letters to us sounded like he was quite scared of our kind being wiped off the map if something wasn’t done soon. We refused him. We and our sister are stopping him from making impulse magic common. We suppose he could kill us, but if he succeeded in doing that, nothing would ensure anything would work in his favor afterward. If he ascended and became an alicorn himself, through power and immortality, he could play for the throne himself.” She shook her head. “Perhaps we should have seen this. Especially after yesterday. These are not simply the actions of a mad stallion. What Gray is doing is attempting to userp us. Perhaps in his eyes, we were not willing to do what had to be done, so he moved forward with his projects anyway, preparing to do what needed to be done to force change himself.”

“You all know you’re just assuming right?” I asked. “That has occurred to all of you right?” I sighed. “Look this guy could just be just as kookoo as he seems.”

Rarity shook her head. “Actually Rainbow, I’ve studied a little psychology, and even a crazy pony needs reasons for his actions. If somepony is so far gone to not even have reason behind his actions, normally they aren’t a threat to anyone. Most ponies like that end up drooling in a chair in an asylum for the rest of their lives. Intelligent action requires intelligent motives. Especially something on this scale. I mean one has to give credit here. Gray did figure out how to create impulse magic and amass an army. I kinda doubt he’s just an ordinary psychopath.”

“There could be other reasons for his actions,” I said.

“Like?” Rarity asked.

“I… I… well c’mon girls, I’ve never claimed to be the smartest pony in the room. Surely you can think of a few other possible motives though, right?” I asked back.

“Possibly,” Rarity said. “What we’re doing is called profiling. In criminal investigation it has to be done. But it is subject to flaws. All the same, this gives us something actionable. We know what Gray wants. Right now he wants attention and a chance to destroy the established leaders of Equestria. That would mean Celestia, Luna and well… you Twilight.”

I expected Twilight to be frightened by this, but instead she smiled. “Ya know what… he’s not actually more powerful than me is he?” she asked.

“Probably not,” Rarity said.

“If I forced him into a confrontation,” she said. “hmm… how did he beat me the first time… he used my friends. He stuck close to you guys to keep me from just shooting him at a distance. But if I fight him alone… I have an idea girls.”

(***)

How? Just how? How in the whole of Tartarus did Twilight talk me into this I wondered? It made sense I supposed. Scootaloo would stay back with the princesses to ensure she was safe. Twilight would then go with me a distance away from the base and basically try to get Gray to just come for us both. Gray would never attack her by himself openly. However if I was there he would likely think he could use me to gain an advantage. However I could easily get the heck out of there long before he even tried.

Still… I was walking straight into his jaws right now. As we walked away from the safety of the base, my ears were stuck to the back of my head, my head down. My eyes darted everywhere, hoping against hope I could spot Gray before he had a chance to get me. I was long past thinking I could fight. “I’m really sorry about this Rainbow.” Twilight said. “You’re ready to fly right?”

I gulped, nodding. “How… how do you know he won’t just walk up, slit your throat and leave, never letting us know he’s there at all? Don’t you have some kind of convenient magic that can see through illusion?”

“There are spells that can do that,” Twilight said. “However, of all the spells I do know… look, illusion spells being cast that well, that often, that quickly is pretty much unheard of. Look, let’s just recognize the pattern of Gray’s attacks alright? He’s never just walked up, killed someone and left before, even if he could.”

“It only takes one time. Can you dispel magic a few times? Ya know, just in case?”

“Dispel magic.” A pulse went off from Twilight. No eyes, no teeth.

We walked for several minutes, me continuing to get antsy. Twilight had a kind of confidence, but that was easy for her, Gray had never showed her her own daughter burning alive just for kicks. “How do I know you’re not Gray?”

“You’re most ticklish under your right foreleg.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “Hey, I’m running out of things only a pony close to you would know.” I shrugged. Two more minutes passed. “We’re far enough. Rainbow, get ready.” I opened my wings. “Don’t be too obvious.” I held them closer to my body. “Now let’s give him something he can’t ignore. He won’t doubt a princess is here… hey, c’mon, this is gonna be awesome.” I tried, but I don’t think I looked more confident when she said this.

Twilight closed her eyes, unfolding her wings. Her body slowly started to float into the air.  Purple magic suddenly around her, pushing out from her and eventually pushing me away from her. A purple haze slowly went up from her form into the air and far up into the sky.

“Doesn’t really seem all that awesome- no offense but-“

Twilight shot down and a giant purple six sided star appeared under her, myself being violently shoved away from her. At the end of each point on the star was a circle. In each one of those circles appeared one of the cutie marks of us element bearers. Her own mark was ahead of her, Pinkie’s behind, AJ’s just ahead of me, I couldn’t see the other two (they were on the other side and this spell was rather bright) and my own mark, of course, appeared down from her and to the right, next to me. Purple sheets of magic shot up from her, the marks and the star. Suddenly, as I looked up I saw the sky and clouds above me change, all of them now purple.

Twilight spread her wings, the mass of magic disappearing with a loud clap that almost set my ears ringing. She looked over at me, my mouth hanging ajar. “You were saying?” she asked. “That actually felt kinda good, I should let go like that more often maybe… mmm… maybe not, might scare ponies too see my power ya know. Think he noticed?”

“I think they noticed in Canterlot,” came a deep voice. A chill shot down my spine.

“Rainbow go!” Twilight shouted. I opened my wings, but a series of chains wrapped around me, pulling me back to the ground. “Dispel magic!” The chains evaporated and I looked up, seeing Gray, Violet String and the red fire pegasus from the previous attack.

“Pyromance, immolate!” Gray shouted. Twilight quickly projected a shield spell between us and our enemies, a mass of fire shooting out from the red pony.

“Fly!” Twilight shouted at me. I zipped into the sky. As I shot up, I watched below as Twilight flapped her wings at the three evil ponies, a blast of energy shooting out from her, overwhelming the flames and scattering all three of her opponents. She then looked at Violet String as she was getting up. A purple blast shot out from Twilight’s horn, slamming into Violet and tossing the unicorn away, her body slamming into a distant tree. One down already.

I looked back at the base. Twilight had ordered me to leave when the fight started and she was doing alright… I just… I couldn’t leave. It was like the very idea was impossible, my body only allowing me to stay flying over the fight. “The pegasus, get her!” I heard Gray shout.

Pyromance stood up and looked at me, a ball of flame suddenly coming at me. I dodged right, a stream of fire just missing me as I dodged the first attack. “RAINBOW GET OUT OF HERE!” Twilight shouted. Another ball of fire came at me, three fire streams shooting past me. In that split second, I knew I couldn’t dodge. My life flashed before me- no that wasn’t my life flashing before me.

That was a massive bolt of lightning. It struck with a deafening sound and forced the streams of fire to dissipate. Another bolt shot at the form of Pyromance, but passed through him. A small yellow streak shot by me in the air, Lightning Strike “appearing” on the ground. The second after she landed, she shot right, and then shot left in the next instant. Lightning Strike started shooting left and right, stopping at random intervals, being missed by several plumes of fire. She was moving so fast, she was almost a blur.

I can personally move pretty fast, even faster than she was going, to be honest, but I need a bit of a running start, she was moving like a panicked rabbit, stopping and going with no warning at all. Several streams of fire just missed her as she kept moving. Suddenly she crashed into something, rolling over it.

Lightning shot several bolts at the object. As I watched, the image of Pyromance I had been seeing suddenly vanished, him reappearing just a few feet away from Twilight. Fire shot from him and Twilight barely got her shield back up in time to stop the onslaught. Pyromance kept the flames up, this time looking far hotter than before.

Gray appeared inches from Lightning Strike.

Gray slowly got up unsteadily. His image blurred and he appeared to Lightning’s left, however a mass of electric energy shot forward from the filly, impacting something that suddenly revealed itself to be Gray again. “It all makes sense now Gray!” Lightning shouted. “Why everyone always eventually shuts me out, why I can’t get away from you, why I’m always so afraid- I’m not supposed to be here. I’m going now- I’m taking you with me!” A huge field of electric energy suddenly surrounded both Lightning and Gray.

“No…” I whispered. That stupid filly! After all everyone had gone through to protect her, she couldn’t really be about to do this, could she?

As I watched the electric field completely enveloped both of the ponies. Gray tried to fly at Lightning, but she moved at top speed again in an instant and stopped in another. “Goodbye Gray. Fuck you!”

I was NOT about to just watch a little filly take her own life, especially not if it meant losing another pony to this freak. I knew of only one way to stop this. I closed my eyes and shot down to the massive electric field, just praying to Celestia I somehow would survive impact.
	
	
> Instinct Took Over
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Impact. The pain was immense and I was tossed away from the field like a rag doll. “REBEL RAINBOW!” Lightning shouted. I hit the ground and barely held on to consciousness. I had to know. Would she live?

The electric field disappeared, dust and grass flying away. In the middle of the debris stood Lightning and Gray, both unsteady on their hooves. Both fell down. My vision started to darken, changing to a dark tunnel.

I looked over at Twilight, the flames around her so hot I could feel them even as far away from her fight as I was. Suddenly my purple friend appeared behind Pyromance, bucking him in the rear, causing the pegasus to slam face first into the ground.

Twilight disappeared from there, appearing again over Lightning Strike. She then disappeared again. Then two purple hooves took up what was left of my vision- I blacked out.

(***)

My eyes shot open and I jumped out of bed- why was I in bed? I breathed rapidly, head starting to spin as my eyes scanned the room I was in again and again. Lightning Strike was on a bed next to me. I jumped out of the bed and stood over her, looking around.

“You’re okay!” Lightning shouted. I ignored her, looking around the dark room.

“Where are we Lightning?” I asked quickly.

“Um… hospital. Kinda where you go when you fly into an electric field… well either here or…” she flew out from under me and landed on what was supposed to be my bed. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I said back, deciding to take for granted that she was right and we really were just in a hospital. “I get that electricity doesn’t hurt you- normally- but a purge could probably kill you anyway. The shockwave-“

“That was the idea!” she shouted back.

“Why the hell would you want to do that?” I asked back. “I mean, couldn’t you have just set up that attack and jumped out of it?”

“Yes. But I only bring ponies trouble. I’m the problem, don’t you get it?” she asked. “I keep worrying about Dusk, Gray keeps attacking you guys, but I finally figured something out. The only reason Gray is here is because of me. He only hurt Dusk because of me. If I wasn’t so strange, so different, then none of this would have happened. I’m the problem. If I’m gone… if I’m gone…”

“You don’t know what would happen if you were gone, do you?” I asked.

“Well… no. It has to be better than what’s happening now. If I had succeeded at least Gray would be gone. That’s all that matters in the end right?” she asked.

“No, of course not!” I shouted back.

“Is it really important that I’m alive?”

“Kid… this isn’t you. Where is this coming from?” I asked.

“Where do you think? I just want this all to end. I don’t want Dusk getting scared anymore, I don’t want Vinyl crying anymore, I don’t want daddy getting hurt anymore…” she started crying.

“Well I don’t want the ponies I care about getting hurt either, but killing yourself does nothing for that. It just hurts them again.”

“Can’t they just get along without me?” she asked back.

“Kid… I guess they could. Have you ever felt what’s it’s like to lose someone you love? I have, my mother passed away when I was about your age. Trust me, it hurts, it hurts more than anything you’ve ever felt.”

“Anything I’ve ever felt?” she asked, emphasizing that we were talking about HER experiences.

“I’d wager,” I said. Lightning sat down. “Trust me, you don’t want to put your brother and father through that.” Lightning looked at the ground. I reached out a hoof and forced her to look me in the eyes. “No more of this okay?...” Lightning seemed to nod, but her eyes looked off to the side. I was under no delusion that I had somehow fixed her. I did hope that I had helped though. “Besides, aren’t you worried about Dusk?”

“Oddly enough, no. Guess I figured I was taking care of Gray, so there’s nothing else to threaten him,” she said.

“Why don’t you protect him by sticking around?” I asked.

Light poured into the room as a door a few feet from our beds flew open. I looked up to see Vinyl standing in the frame. Her horn flared, Lightning floating into the air and over to her. She wrapped her forelegs around the filly, hugging her tight, tears streaming out of her eyes. “So… you know what she tried to do?” I asked Vinyl. Vinyl nodded. “I thought Gray was making ME crazy.” I got off the bed and walked over to her. “I think-“

“You’re awake?” Came Twilight’s voice. She stormed into the room and past Vinyl. “I’m really sorry guys, but we have to go. Pinkie is finally well enough to travel and well… Rainbow you’ve been asleep for a long time.”

“I don’t-“ I started but she continued.

“Several discount alicorns have been reported attacking Ponyville. We’re not sure what Gray’s plan is this time, but Rarity said we might have just made him desperate when we almost killed him. We have to get back home.”

Vinyl and Lightning looked up at us. “I’m coming with,” Lightning said. Twilight and I paused while looking at her. “Look, I won’t try that again, I promise, but we all know I can fight him.”

“So can I,” Twilight pointed out. “I’ll be frank Lightning. We all care about you, and we’re not putting a filly on the front lines of a battle.” Lightning opened her mouth but Twilight just kept going. “No, it’s not happening. Your father is transporting us all home, however, he’ll be taking you and your brother back to his cave when we arrive in Ponyville.” Lightning looked down, swallowed, pushed away from Vinyl, then looked up at Twilight again. She stamped her hoof- “No. I don’t care what objections you have. What you did, we’re not allowing to happen again. Now c’mon everyone, I promise we’ll deal with all this later, but ponies have been seriously injured. We have to move.”

(***)

Well that was abrupt. So yea, we element bearers, along with the children and Lightning’s family flew back to Ponyville. Lightning, Dusk and Vinyl were then taken back to Torkuda’s cave overlooking the town. When we landed Twilight quickly worked out a signal to get Torkuda back to town if we needed him for a fight.

We were in the middle of town when we landed, but no ponies were around. Twilight scanned the area. “Rainbow, take the kids and get to safety.” She said.

“Have Pinkie do that,” I said. “She can’t fight in her condition.”

“Take her with you then. You can’t in yours either,” Twilight said.

“What?!” I practically shouted.

“Rainbow, we all have to face it. Gray got to you.” I gritted my teeth, ready to object but Twilight just kept going. “No. Just like Lightning Strike, I’m sorry Rainbow, this just keeps getting more serious and I have to start realizing who can and can’t help right now.”

I nodded. “Fine… where is everyone though?” I asked.

“Everypony probably just took cover when they saw Torkuda flying in. Remember, we’re not surrounded by military ponies here… don’t worry though. Elements of both the night and day guard are on their way here to back us up… Dispel magic.” She looked around one more time. “Alright, Rainbow, AJ, Pinkie, fillies, get to the schoolhouse, Rarity, you go with them and stay on guard.  Fluttershy and I will start searching the town for trouble…” Twilight sighed. “I’m used to having a few more friends than that to help me… we’ll figure this out girls.” As my group started walking away, albeit, hesitantly, Twilight had one more thing for us. “Amethyst will be along shortly when I find her. She’s not much of a fighter, but just in case she does know the dispel magic spell.”

(***)

At the school house we found several other children had already arrived and many town ponies had been placed on guard. We were all relieved to see a very familiar face among those protecting the kids. “Big Mac!” AJ yelled, trotting to her brother. “So what all has been happenin’?”

Big Mac waved for the children to get in the school house. “Three ponies were found strangled and burned, we rightly have no idea what did it, but we’re all purty certain it has to do with this Gray fella.”

“Never seen Ponyville get organized like this,” I noted, looking around.

“And how many killers have ya’ heard of in r’ little town?” Big Mac posed back to me. “We’re all scared, but me and a couple other citizens have managed to pull everyone together. Most of the children r‘ here. There is a group of kids and their folks who got split from us ‘nd we have folks trying to track them down… but well… Rainbow?”

“I’m on it, who is it?” I asked.

“Little Pip-“ Big Mac started, however everyone stopped talking as a plume of fire shot into the air several meters away. “Um…” Big Mac looked at the other adult ponies, fear in all of their eyes, several looking ready to run. “Everypony hold the line!”

A stream of fire flew towards us, a red and orange pegasus in front of it. “Pyromance!” I shouted. He flew around the school house. “He’s one of Gray’s alright.”

“Amethyst!” Big Mac shouted.

“Dispel magic!” came a voice I wasn’t incredibly familiar with, but still knew. Pyromance fell out of the air, his fire disappearing save for a small trail that had caught naturally behind him. The evil pegasus quickly got back to his hooves and spread his wings only to find himself trapped in Rarity’s white magic, his face quickly meeting the ground. Rarity ran out from the rest of us to meet Pyromance.

As she approached Gray’s lackey a chain wrapped around her neck and pulled hard, starting to strangle her. With a huge grin on her face, Violet String galloped to Rarity. I shot over to the scene fast as I could, nailing Violet in the chin with a swift kick. The chain around Rarity released, but as Violet hit the ground, four more chains surrounded me.

Amethyst’s voice came again. “Dispe-“ fire shot into the crowd behind me and I heard Amethyst scream. Pyromance flew back into the air, fire igniting around him. The chains around me almost closed, but just as they did Thunderlane slammed into Violet String.

AJ shouted, “What’s keepin’ Twi?”

I glanced up, seeing a blue pegasus, a mass of red light shooting away from him. I then heard a huge explosion and saw purple magic coming back up at him. “Apparently someone we haven’t met yet,” I yelled. I looked back to the school house to see Pyromance had already blasted through one of the windows. Inside the children were screaming.

“Scoots!” I shouted. I leaped into the air, wings spread and shot into the building after him.

“Wasn’t sure who to grab actually,” the stallion shouted as I came in, fire surrounding him as the children scattered from him. He grabbed Scootaloo from the group of fleeing foals. “She’ll do nicely.”

“Drop her-“ I yelled. But he just shot back out another window and into the air outside the school. My heart started racing and I shot after him. Why did they want her? Why did Gray keep attacking my little family?

Pyromance shot over the town, me on his heels. He lit up in a huge blaze, but despite Scootaloo yelling for help, she didn’t yell in pain, so at least he wasn’t just killing her.

We were now several feet up. My mind started going into overdrive trying to figure out how to fight this guy without sending Scootaloo plummeting to her death.

A huge shadow passed over me. I looked up seeing the massive green dragon. “Torkuda!” I shouted, never happier to see him. “Help!” The dragon turned over head, gliding over Pyromance. Torkuda flapped his wings, a massive amount of ice quickly materializing on one of them, causing the dragon to careen out of the sky and into a small series of buildings on the ground.

A light blue pegasus shot past me as I continued after the pony holding my daughter. “Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo started to scream. I was panicking, but still had no idea how to get her away from him.

Nothing came to me as we got closer and closer to the everfree forest. Visions of Gray tossing Scootaloo to that timber wolf flashed in my head. Finally I decided to play things by ear and shot at Pyromance, attempting to smash his head with my front hooves.

I passed through him. My mouth went dry as a second image of him appeared to my right. He disappeared into the trees of the everfree. “Rainbow Dash!” I dove after the image. I had to get her back… somehow.

On the ground, in the midst of the trees I saw those terrifying glowing blue eyes over my daughter again. “GET AWAY FROM HER!” I shouted.

“You don’t even know if I’m near her,” Gray pointed out with a chuckle. “I’ve enjoyed our time together Dashie, truly I have, but the throne is calling.”

“Throne?” I asked.

Pyromance stepped between me and his leader. “Kill her,” Gray ordered. The red pegasus looked at me and- was tossed away by three lightning bolts, his body slamming into a nearby tree.

Lightning Strike landed next to me, glaring at Gray. “C’mon Rebel Rainbow, let’s finish this!” she shouted. She then screamed and dropped to the ground, blood coming out of her side.

Scootaloo started to cry. “Lightning!” she shouted, seeing her friend struggling to get back up. I reached for the yellow filly, but her form passed through my hoof.

“You fucking bastard!” I shouted. “Where is she?!”

A small object was tossed directly at me. “She’s mine, take your daughter and go,” I looked down, Scootaloo in my forelegs. I looked back up to see Pyromance walking back into view. Gray held up a hoof to his lackey. “Let her decide.” Flames surrounded me and my daughter, Gray and Pyro staring at me, both smiling. I saw little Lightning laying beside Gray, laboring just to breath.

The flames got hotter and hotter, Scootaloo clinging to me, her heart racing faster than mine. Scootaloo was my daughter, Lightning was barely a friend… I closed my eyes.

Instinct took over.

I shot away, carrying my daughter away as fast as I could, ignoring her screaming at me to stop and go back. I soared back to the school house and touched back down.

Once there, I saw my friends and the town ponies. They had survived, even Amethyst only having a few superficial burns. The buildings around were a mess, but everyone was still alive. Twilight had a few bruises, but she was fine.

Best I could tell Gray’s freaks had gone too. My heart still racing my eyes quickly scanned the horizon. Where was he… there!

I shot away from the ponies on the ground, after the dragon. “Torkuda!” I shouted. The dragon looked up at me. “Lightning… she must have left the cave. She tried to fight, but Gray has her.”

“Where is she?” he asked quickly.

“The everfree, hurry, she didn’t look good,” I pointed to where I had just been. Torkuda took off from the ground, his shadow passing over me. As that shadow passed, it finally hit me what I had just done. My body started to shake as he passed over the forest. “Find her… please find her…” I squeaked, myself the only one who could hear. He flew over the forest where I had pointed several times, then started to in ever widening circles. I remembered the pattern as the same I had used to try to find Gray the first time we encountered him.

Finally I heard him scream in rage and frustration. My heart sank. I flapped my wings slower, slowly going to the ground. More than once as I slowly went down, I thought about just ceasing to fly at all and just letting myself fall, not like I would have deserved better. I touched down once more near the schoolhouse.

I looked at Scootaloo, the look of confusion on her face slowly turning to anger and shame. She finally looked down, tears streaming out of her eyes. I wanted to crawl into a corner somewhere. I dropped to the ground, front hooves over my head crying into the ground. “What have I done?” I whispered over and over.

“Rainbow?” came Twilight’s voice. “Rainbow I’m so sorry, I thought I could get to you guys in time. I’ve making so many mistakes…” I felt Fluttershy’s wing go around me. I looked up, watching my friends slowly surround me. In my mind I imagined Lightning, if she were even still alive, being surrounded by evil ponies, even one she thought she had escaped.

I sobbed openly. “Lightning… she… she saved us and I… I left her.” I even felt Fluttershy start to move away from me.

“What?” asked Twilight.

“I was so scared… I didn’t have a choice… Pyromance would have killed us all… I had no choice but to do it… what have I done?” I looked up, Twilight speechless. “What have I done? I just left a filly to die after she saved me, how could I do that?”

My friends started telling me they were sure I only did what I had to, or there was some justification, but I basically tuned them all out, looking at Scootaloo. Scootaloo’s eyes were wide, her jaw was open and tears were streaming down her face. “I… I wanted to save you…”

“What about my friend?” she asked back. “I might never see her again. Why? Why didn’t you fight? Why didn’t you let me fight? She got hurt and you left. She saved us… just- just- stop looking at me.” Scootaloo turned around and walked away from me. Twilight moved to go after her, but I grabbed her leg with my fore hoof.

“What are you gonna say? You weren’t there, you don’t even know what happened. I’ll talk to her. See if I can get her to forgive me… see if I can forgive myself.”
	
	
	
> I Have to Save Her
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight and a few others, what few of our friends could still fight, went off to plan how our next encounter with Gray and his forces could go. Normally I might have followed and fought to be part of taking down that creep but… they walked away to go talk and I just stood there, the image of Lightning lying injured on the ground continuing to play in my mind.

I was right there, she got hurt, she had saved me, she got hurt because of me and I… I left her. She was in the hooves of a monster and I… I pretty much put her there.

The town ponies basically started milling about, not sure what to do as the attack was apparently over. Should they just go back to their lives? Gray wasn’t defeated, he just got what he wanted apparently… which was Lightning I supposed. Course why or why now I had no idea. I was sure Twilight and Rarity could figure that out though. Not like I had contributed much to the last bout of profiling they did so they didn’t need me, just as well they didn’t ask for my input.

I just started walking home, AJ following. As she did, I started talking to her. “So… ya know, a while ago, I tried to pressure you to adopt Scootaloo and you said you might back then… would you now?”

“Yer her mother Rainbow,” AJ replied.

“I don’t deserve to be anyone’s mother after what I did.”

AJ trotted ahead of me and stood in my path. “Ya know, ah have a hard time believing ya just ran away.”

“Well it’s the truth,” I said.

“But there has to be more to it than that. Not like you never faced Gray before.”

“I have, and every time I’ve done little more than be his pawn… and… and maybe- maybe- just maybe, you could say that’s just because he’s good at what he does. But what I did today, that wasn’t just me being afraid, I crossed the line.”

“You saved yer daughter,” AJ said back.

“So that makes it okay? Lightning isn’t also someone’s daughter? What about Torkuda? What about Vinyl and Dusk? She’s their family.”

“Ah wasn’t saying Lightnin’ wasn’t important too-“

“Here we both are talking about her in the past tense. We both know it don’t we? She’s probably dead. Heck she’s probably better off that way now.”

AJ furrowed her brow and finally started to shout. “Now you listen to me! What was you supposed to do huh? Fight Gray an’ Pyromance yerself? Gary could take on Twilight all by himself and probably win. Heck even Luna has her doubts ‘bout fighting him. And Pyro? Ah admit ah don’t know much about ‘im, but he looks pretty hard to fight himself. Held his own pretty well during that attack on the night base the other day. Ya did what ya could. Ya used your speed ta-“

“To run away!” I shouted back over her. “There are things I could have tried. I’m way faster than Gray, and I’d wager Pyromance isn’t exactly Wonderbolt material himself. Hell when Lightning fought Gray, she showed Twilight and I how to beat his illusions using speed. Just sweep back and forth till you hit something. I could have done that.”

“Yea ya could have done that, in an open field. In the middle of the forest that would ah’ been just about the most moronic thing ya could have done period. Ah assume ya mean just swooping back and forth blindly right? You’d have been ten times more likely ta just slam into a tree that way.”

“You can try to make me look better all you want. I didn’t leave because I saw no alternative. I left because I was scared. And maybe I was right to be, but that doesn’t change what I did. Gray threw Scootaloo to me and told me to leave, he told me Lightning belonged to him. He then had Pyro surround me with fire. I didn’t want to die that way, I didn’t want Scootaloo to die that way. I didn’t want to leave Lightning but when it came down, her fate wasn’t what I was worried about-“ a white hoof slammed into my face and I fell to the ground as the rest of Vinyl’s body slammed into me.

The white unicorn started hitting me over and over, but I just couldn’t care. It hurt, good, I deserved it. Finally AJ slammed into her and knocked Vinyl off of me. Apple Jack stood between me and the furious DJ. I got up slowly, seeing the pain in Vinyl’s eyes. Tears streamed out of her eyes and her teeth were grinding. The fury in her eyes eclipsed my guilt easily. “I’m sorry.” I said.

Her note pad came out. ‘Sorry doesn’t bring back my student my… my- fuck it I’ll say it. My daughter!’

“She’s not yer daughter, she never was,” Apple Jack said back. “You can’t understand how afraid Rainbow was. Scootaloo’s whole life is in her hooves every day, just like my sister. Lightning isn’t-“

“Shut up AJ!” I shouted. “You can’t just defend me. Vinyl’s family is falling apart, she has every right to be angry. She took care of Lightning, she’s been by that filly’s side this whole time. She has fed and trained that filly, even when she couldn’t get anything from it. If you can call me a mother you can call her one too. Let her attack me.”

“This is all Gray’s fault, ya’ll can’t keep blaming the victim,” AJ replied. “Rainbow you weren’t in control-“

“And just who ever is?” I asked back. “We don’t control our circumstances. We only control ourselves and me… I’ve lost control of even that. How can you come back from losing even that? How am I not one of the bad guys now?”

“Ya know Rainbow, ah can’t just defend you if yer gonna-“

“I don’t want you to defend me!” I shouted.

AJ closed her eyes and dug her heels into the ground. “So… so what r’ ya gonna do? What happened happened. Lightnin’ could still be alive out there ya know. So what r’ ya gonna do now? Ya just gonna go home, crawl up in a corner and die? Things didn’t work out so ya just gonna give up? No one does the right thing every time Rainbow.”

“Then how do we know we’re even good?”

“Because we fight,” she looked away. “There are bad ponies in this world, and there always will be. We fight them, we fight ourselves. Those who give in and those who just accept being evil for their goals, whatever those goals are, those are the bad ones. Ah can’t blame ya if ya git confused, the line gets blurred all the time. Perhaps if he did things a different way, Gray does want to do good things, maybe he would be a hero if he weren’t the way he is. His wants to save Equestria, but from what we know, he’s so zeroed in on that goal, he’s forgetting everything else. He’s allowing himself to be evil and just indulgin’. Now ah’m not gonna say yer as bad, cause that would be an accomplishment, but if yer just gonna give up cause ya messed up… then maybe we can’t be friends anymore… now… now what r’ ya gonna do?”

“I want to fight, I really do. I just don’t know how.”

“Well welcome to the club. Heck ya’ve been in it the whole time. No one ever really knows how or even what to fight most of the time. We’re all along for the ride in the end. Ya think ah know what to do next? Ah don’t. Certainly not now.”

I closed my eyes for a bit. “I… there has to be something I can do,” I tried to think. “Ya know, Moonstone said something to me a while ago. He said Gray has a weakness. Basically that he tries to figure out who is and isn’t a threat. Maybe if I don’t fight him-“ AJ glared at me, “No, no, hear me out. Maybe if I don’t fight him directly. Maybe if I stay on the sidelines of any battles with him around me. Maybe if I keep acting broken. And then, when we find Lightning, I can just grab her and go. No fighting, just go. I don’t think I care about winning anymore. I just want to save Lightning now. Let someone else beat Gray. I just want everyone safe.”

“She might not be all that important to him,” AJ said. “You realize that right? He probably just wants her for a few experiments. Taking her back might not be so important. It might be better if ya-“

“OF COURSE SHE’S IMPORTANT!” I practically screamed. “She risked her life for me. She’s my daughter’s friend, she’s Vinyl’s student… I want Gray gone as much as the next pony but I will not sacrifice her so we can beat him. I won’t- compromise…”

“Well ya wanted to know the difference between the good and bad. There ya go. It’s not easy, it’s not glorious, but that’s what good is.”

I looked over at Vinyl, silently crying to herself as she listened to us. I wasn’t sure what she thought of me, but it was clear she realized hurting me didn’t help anything. I leaned back, opened my wings and shot into the air. “I’m gonna find Twilight and tell her what I’m gonna do.” I shook my head and said, just to myself, and perhaps to a soul that could somehow hear me, “Lightning, I’m coming for you. I know you think you’re alone. But as long as I’m here, you’ll never be alone again.”

(***)

I caught up to Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight, landing in the midst of the three of them as they talked. “Um… hi,” Twilight said. “Um Rainbow, I remember telling you that you need to sit things out. I wasn’t looking to be challenged on that.”

“And I’m not looking to fight. You guys go ahead, plan whatever you’re going to do. I hope it works. But help me do one thing. I have to save Lightning. I don’t care if I sit on the sidelines of every battle from now on, just let me save the ponies we care about.”

“You don’t want to fight?” Rarity asked. I shook my head. “You… you have changed.”
.
“Maybe I have,” I said. “All I know is, I have to save that filly. Please, give me a shot and that’s all I will do, I swear.” I looked over at Fluttershy, who was staring at the ground and biting her lip. “Um… what’s wrong? Fluttershy, it’s me.”

“Is it?” she asked. Then the timid yellow mare glared at me. “WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!” I jumped back. “Did I hear this right? You left that little filly to die? I… I don’t know. How could YOU do that? You’re crazy sometimes, but I know you would never leave me, no matter how silly my shyness gets but- you left her.” I swallowed. “I don’t understand this. Rainbow I always looked up to you. And this…”

“If she is alive-“ I started.

“She is,” Rarity said. “If Gray wanted to kill her, he would have done so before you left. He tends to want ponies to know what he does. He’s not going to just execute a major enemy in secret.”

“Then I WILL save her,” I said.

Twilight sighed. “Alright. If you promise to stay out of the way. I can’t rely on you right now, and I’m really sorry about that, but too much has happened. You just stay in ear shot until we find Lightning, then you grab her and get the hell out of there, wherever we next fight. Next time we fight Gray, I’m not interested in having her there either.” Twilight went back to our other friends. “Now, as I was saying-“

“Um girls,” Fluttershy said looking up. “Just noticed but… something is coming.” We all looked up.

“I was wondering when you would all notice us,” came the voice of Pyromance. He was flying in the air, carrying Violet String. He flew down in front of us. The chains holding him to Violet disappeared. Twilight and Rarity’s horns glowed. “Oh really?” asked Pyromance. “You’re just going to beat the shit out of us? No concern about what we have to say? No concern about the fate of that poor little filly?” Both horns stopped glowing. “That’s what I thought.”

“What did you come to say?” asked Twilight.

“Oh we came to fight, but not them,” said Pyromance, looking at Rarity, then at Fluttershy. “She can help if she wants,” he said, chuckling and looking at me. “But I think it might be better for you if she didn’t.” He looked at Violet. “Violet String and I are Gray’s head lieutenants. If we can beat you, Twilight Sparkle, we will prove that Gray’s discount alicorns are on par with if not superior to true alicorns. If we kill you in battle, all of Equestria will have reason to fear us.”

“So you want me to fight you alone.” Twilight said. “If I refuse and just fight you with my friends?”

“We will leave and proceed with our plans,” Violet said. “This battle does not have to occur. However, let us sweeten the deal for you. We give you our word, if you find a way to subdue us, ALONE, then we will tell you where Gray and the filly are.”

“You have no intention of keeping your word,” Twilight said back.

“Don’t we? We have no intention of losing. However,” Violet said. “Here’s the thing. By now you must know our boss has a thing for the spot light, yes? So if we lose and DON’T tell you where he is, he won’t have an audience for his ascension AND you won’t be gone. It is to our benefit to keep our word, so we will. This is not some concept of petty honor, this is all part of Gray’s grand plan.”

“We are Gray’s chosen.” Pyro said. “We are discount alicorns. We are a new breed. We are a new race. We are Impulse. You think Pyromance was my original name? I changed it.”

“I had my suspicions about your name,” Twilight said. “Now that I know that’s really what happened… that’s kinda stupid.”

“We’ll see who else thinks so when the Lord of Fire and the Queen of Chains kill the element of magic herself. Do you accept our challenge or not?”

Twilight shook her head and sighed. “Ya know, you could just give me the information right now and join our side. I would see that you get lesser sentences…” She looked in both of their eyes, seeing what we all saw. They weren’t the kinds to reform. “You really think you two can beat me? A crazy mare and a colt who thinks changing his name makes a difference? I’ll ask one more time. Just tell me where Gray is and you can leave in peace.”

Violet laughed. “Accept our challenge, or Lightning dies and her corpse will be my toy. I think her wings will make a nice hat. Hmmm… maybe her hooves will-“ BOOM! A blast of purple energy shot out of Twilight, tossing all ponies around her away, both friend and foe.

“Maybe I’m not being clear. You WILL tell me where she is. I am so DONE with all of this,” Twilight shouted. “Your boss is dead, and I will be the one who brings him down. If I have to go through you for that, than so be it!” She closed her eyes. “Lightning has done a lot for us. She is my friend. No one fucks with my friends.” Twilight looked back at us. “Stay back. If you all want to help… just make sure I keep one of them alive.”

“I see I’m not the only one who’s changing,” I noted to myself.

Purple energy surrounded Twilight and shot up into the air above her. Pyromance smiled back, fire surrounding him and shooting up into the air as well. “Dispel ma- herk-“ Twilight was about to try, what I’m sure was becoming her fall back spell, when a chain wrapped around her neck and slammed her into the ground. Violet grinned at her. Twilight’s horn glowed and a pulse of purple energy shot at Violet. However a wall of chains blocked it.

The chain continued to choke Twilight, flames surrounding her. Twilight’s eyes glowed, her form disappearing from the circle of fire and out of the chains. She appeared beside Violet String and she slammed both front hooves into the madmare so hard she drew blood. Violet staggered away, but a chain wrapped around Twilight’s stomach as she did. Twilight was tossed away by that chain.

Twilight caught herself in the air with her wings, putting up a shield just before several chains shot at her from the ground from Violet’s position. Then I heard Twilight shout. “I’m sorry big brother. You told me never to use them like this… but shields can do more than just protect.” She disappeared again just before a huge plume of fire shot at her, now passing through thin air.

Twilight appeared beside Violet again. Another chain wrapped around her. Again a shield went around and- blood. Her shield cut through Violet’s body- so that’s what happens if a shield spell goes through you… my jaw dropped as Violet’s body fell to the ground. She had a huge gash on her side.

The silver unicorn dropped to the ground, looking as helpless as Lightning had looked earlier. She hissed and choked, unable to get up. “I know more about magic than you two know about your own parents,” Twilight snapped at her remaining opponent. “You really want to fight me? You think you can beat me because you got some new powers?” Her horn flared and she disappeared, appearing beside Pyro. Her horn glowed again as she was suddenly covered in flames.

Instead of her shield taking him out too, Twilight screamed. That scream will haunt me for the rest of my life. She was in agony. The flames died away and Twilight staggered away from Pyro, disfigured and crying. Pyromance smiled at her and licked his lips. “Ya know something?” asked Pyro. “This really is funny. You never stood a chance. Say one Impulse is worth three quarters of a true alicorn,” he explained. Twilight’s horn glowed and she fired a purple pulse at him, hot flames rising up and blocking it. “But then you tried to fight two of us at once. What a joke.” Her horn glowed again but Pyro slammed into Twilight, her dropping to the ground and rolling away. “Your horn is a dead giveaway to when you’re going to attack. Really unicorns in general aren’t that hard for impulses to fight. We have bigger problems with the other races really. It’s less obvious when they’re going to attack.” Fire surrounded Twilight.

Sticking to my plan not to fight… I gritted my teeth and my wings opened of their own volition.

Pyro started talking again. “Really you all should have guessed where Gray was from the beginning. It’s not like he’s really trying to hide at this point. Besides, one of the things dark ascension needs is a landmark of hope to be perverted into an icon of fear. If only Luna hadn’t destroyed Gray’s work you would know that… he’s in the Castle of the Two Sisters.” Twilight tried to get up, but fell back down, tears streaming out of her eyes.

Fluttershy flew to Twilight, but just as her hooves were inches from grabbing her, some of the flames around Twilight shot up, impacting the yellow mare. Fluttershy screamed and hit the ground between Pyro and Twilight. She somersaulted and fell unconscious.

Fluttershy’s mane was scorched and her skin was burned around her chest. “This is too easy,” Pyro said. He started to shake his head as- his body was raised into the air and then shot down so hard that on impact dirt flew up around him. He was instantly unconscious.

Luna and Celestia both flew down beside Twilight. Celestia gently nuzzled Twilight. Twilight screamed in pain, Celestia jumping back, tears almost instantly in her eyes. I flew over to Fluttershy, putting my hoof to her chest and feeling for a pulse. She would live, and Twilight was suffering, but so would she. This was such a nightmare. I turned to the two rulers of the land. “He’s in the Castle of the Two Sisters. He’s going to try to ascend.” I put a wing over my unconscious friend. “It’s gonna be okay Flutters.”

Twilight started shivering. “Just get her out of here,” she said. “You can’t touch me. You’ll just hurt me…” tears were streaming out of her eyes and she choked several time. “Celestia help me.”

Luna walked over to her. “You can survive this Twilight. Honor Guard is on his way. But your fight is over. We will finished this.” Luna looked at Rarity. “Protect them when we leave.” Rarity nodded.

I stood. “I have to go with you,” I said.

“No,” Luna said.

“This isn’t about fighting,” I said. “I have to save Lightning. I promise, I’ll just take her and go.”

“Why?” asked Luna.

“I just have to. For her brother, for her mentor, for her father, for my daughter… for me. I have to save her. She’s important. To me she is.”

“Do what you must,” Luna said.

I looked back over at Celestia, who was standing over her crying student. Celestia’s horn glowed and Twilight fell asleep, her head dropping to the ground. “Rest my faithful student,” she said. “When you wake up, this nightmare will be over.” She closed her eyes.

Celestia spread her wings, her head still down and eyes still closed. The ground shook beneath me. I started backing away. “Summon the dragon Luna.” Celestia said. “So… Gray is going to ascend through darkness? However one does that.” Her head finally rose and her eyes opened. Her eyes glowed white, the skin of her eyes looking bleached. “He thinks that will protect him?”
	
	
> Phantasm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I flew a small distance behind Luna and Celestia as we flew over the ever free towards the Castle of the Two Sisters. I scanned the forest over and over as we came closer and closer. Maybe I would see her… maybe… maybe…

There was a problem. Lightning did tell my friends and I of one of the things Gray needed to do to ascend. He had to kill someone in a room swelling with fear. If Gray didn’t intend to keep Lightning for continued sick experiments, then he probably meant to just kill her. After everything he had gotten away with, I wasn’t sure I could save her… I had to but… what… what was SHE doing there?

I looked near the main entrance to the castle, under a stone archway and saw a white unicorn moving into the building. Vinyl? What did she think she was doing? I realized her appearance could be a trick, but it just didn’t seem logical to use her visage to distract someone when better candidates for getting our attention definitely existed.

Celestia looked down and she and Luna slowed down. “Rainbow, please get her out of here. My sister and I are going to end this conflict once and for all and we do not need bystanders.” Her eyes glowed. “Dispel magic!” No blue eyes, no glowing teeth.

I flew down to Vinyl, a knife at my throat in seconds. “Whoa!” I shouted, zipping back from her. “Calm down filly, it’s just me. Didn’t you hear Celestia? She used dispel magic, that should have diffused any illusions cast by Gray.”

Vinyl closed her eyes. Her note pad came out. ‘Sorry I suppose. I didn’t think of that.'

“What are you doing here?”

‘What do you think?’ she wrote back. ‘You think after what you just did, that I trust you to save my student? You’re the reason she’s here.'

“To be accurate Gray is the reason she’s here.” I said. “I’m sorry, but it has to be said Vinyl. I’m sorry for leaving her, I really am, but I risked my life for her more than once already and I’m out here doing it again. I am still very angry at myself for what I did, and I’m not excusing it. But after everything, can you please give me a chance? I will save her.”

Vinyl looked away from me and closed her eyes. ‘I know you’ll try. But- that filly adores me and clings to me like family. She trusts me implicitly and thinks the world of me. Just for being who I am, I’m amazing in her eyes. I don’t know if I can ever really explain why she means so much to me but-’

I smiled. “Stop. One word, Scootaloo.”

‘There’s a reason I called her my daughter back there. If there is any chance that she can be saved, I will see it through.’

“Still, what are you gonna do, threaten Gray with a knife? I’m sorry, but I kinda doubt that’s gonna work.”

‘Not like anything else has.’

“Good point,” I said. “But listen, Celestia and Luna are taking matters into their own hooves now-“

“We’ve found her!” came a shout from Luna. I shot away from Vinyl and back into the air.

I flew back up to Luna and Celestia. Luna pointed down at a huge hole in the ruins of the old castle. There, in the midst of the rubble was a small yellow and blue figure. She was alone. “We have already dispelled magic, she really is there, she really is alone… this makes little sense. Be cautious.”

I flew down to her quickly, but on the ground I approached slowly. Lightning wasn’t moving, save to breath. I walked over to her, visions of her in some kind of death trap swimming in my mind. However, as I walked around her, I realized she was fine, she was just quiet.

Finally I brushed her with my hoof. “Lightning?” I looked around. “It’s okay kid. I’m gonna get you out of here. Get on my back.” I leaned down. She didn’t respond. I shrugged. “Okay… that’s okay. I can carry you. We just need to go.”

“Don’t waste your time,” she said.

“Kid, this is not the time to go emo on me. Save it, let’s go,” I replied. “I’m not leaving without you.” Lightning got up, not even looking me in the eyes.

“He’s gone… he’s really gone.” She held up one of her hooves. It was covered in blood. “Dusk… my little brother… my best friend… he’s gone.” My breath caught in my throat. I stood still. This couldn’t be right. Dusk was off in a cave, not here in the woods. “I tried so hard to fight when I saw they had him… I failed. They slit his throat. He’s gone. I… I don’t care anymore.” I was quiet and still for a few more seconds. Was this reality? I shook my head. We could mourn the dead later, we had to go. I touched her and received a shock. “I don’t care. Just go!” she shouted. She slowly stood up. “You’re all here to fight Gray, right?”

Lightning raised a hoof to point at the pedestal where me and my friends had found the Elements of Harmony years ago.  At the base of the strange pedestal was a large gray egg. “He’s inside that,” she said. “I don’t know what it is. I’ve tried to shock it several times already. I can’t even make a dent.” She sighed. “Dusk shouldn’t stay here. Even if he is dead. You want to save something? His body is behind the… the thing… whatever you call it.”

I wasn’t sure what to do. I left her side to go look. I still had a hard time believing Gray had gotten little Dusk. He hadn’t had much time to do that. His forces were in Ponyville only about an hour ago at best. Torkuda was drawn away from the cave, but Vinyl was there too and if someone had to overpower her, sure that was possible, but why didn’t she have any signs of the battle on her body? Heck, how would Gray’s forces have known ahead of time where Dusk was for such a coordinated assault? It just made no sense.

As I walked around the pedestal and saw what was there, I felt horror, relief and revulsion all at one. Dusk’s blue coat… it definitely wasn’t brown and white… but the colt who did lie there dead, I knew. I closed my eyes, whispering his name. “Pip.” I wasn’t sure what to think, still, I yelled for Lightning to join me. She slowly walked over.

“He’s… he’s not Dusk?” she asked.

“I don’t doubt you saw your brother die, but that’s not what really happened,” I said.

She didn’t perk up much, but she seemed to move a little more freely. “Is it bad that I’m relieved?” she asked.

Luna landed behind the colt. I looked up into her face to see pure rage painted on it, eyes glowing white. She pointed a hoof at the strange gray egg. “That is him is it not?” Lightning nodded.

“Far as I know,” Lightning said. “That’s Gray-“ Luna’s horn glowed and a purple pulse of energy erupted from it, ripping through the pedestal and burning the egg shell.

Suddenly our entire group, including the corpse of Pip, was thrown outward from the egg. I was forced into a somersault, Lightning rolled, but Luna stayed on her hooves, scrapping the ground. Black flames surrounded the egg and the now crashed over the pedestal. Celestia landed beside her sister.

The egg vanished and Gray appeared standing in the center of the circle of flames. He smiled at us. Celestia spread her wings, a yellow beam of light firing from her horn. The beam was halted by some strange field. “Dispel magic!” she shouted. However the black flames stayed, unphased by her spell.

“You cannot stop this now your majesty,” Gray announced. “To think, all you two had to do was not introduce alicorn magic to my shell and I would have been trapped forever. “But combine ignorance with emotions and-“ A black portal appeared in the air to Gray’s left. “What is…” a large black hand with long black fingers emerged from the portal, slamming into the ground. “What?” Something began to emerge from the portal, Gray backing away in confusion. Luna and Celestia both fired their magic at the scene again, again to no avail.

The bald head of a pitch black creature emerged from the portal. Then in a second the whole body of some kind of bipedal creature just appeared standing next to Gray. The creature’s skin did not appear to reflect any light at all, like it was a living shadow. The creature had a mouth and eyes, however no nose, and it’s lips went more than half way around it’s rounded head. The creature’s lips curled displaying white glowing teeth. It’s eyes opened to show glowing orange eyes with no pupils. “What are you?” Gray asked, fear creeping into his voice.

What was I seeing? The creature was almost eight feet tall. It’s right hand reached down and grabbed Gray, lifting him up like he weighed nothing. “No… I’m supposed to ascend… what is this?” The creature’s mouth opened wide and Gray’s entire head was shoved down its throat.

The four of us ponies watched in horror as Gray was slowly swallowed whole by the creature. The creature then looked at us, smiling. “What the…” I said. I backed up. I should have been elated that Gray got some kind of just desserts but- what was I looking at?

“No,” came a voice from the creature’s stomach. “I know what this is. You think you will run the show now? You’re wrong. Give me what I desire, or for the rest of your days you will hear my thoughts in your own. I am more of a monster than you will ever be. Give me your power, give it to me now!” The black flames rose, soon before us a black half spear ten feet tall appeared. None of us could see Gray or the- demon I supposed- anymore.

The half sphere levitated up, becoming a full sphere floating in the air. I noticed that the pedestal of the elements must have been in it, but that barely registered as important for obvious reasons.

Suddenly the sphere disappeared, a five foot black alicorn appearing where it had been. The creature’s eyes opened, glowing white. The creature smiled, the same smile as gray showing, but this one now glowing white.

My stomach began to feel sick and my knees began to wobble. I wasn’t sure if this was a natural reaction, of if Gray now had the power to make that happen.

“We are no longer Gray,” said the Alicorn. “We are fear manifest. We are Phantasm.”

Luna and Celestia shot into the air. I quickly grabbed for Lightning Strike, ready to get the hell out of there but- like I should have counted on- my hooves passed through her. More illusions!

I flew into the air as well, looking around. The forest was still there around the castle, but something was wrong. As I looked at them, I realized several trees had moved, or looked like they had. Many of the ruins of the castle also looked… wrong. It was like Gray- or Phantasm I supposed- was reshaping the surrounding world. Was is it real? Was it all just illusion? Which would be worse?

Two beams of light, one purple and one yellow fired at Phantasm, one beam passing through his form and the other seeming to split into a thousand different directions, several explosions going off… or perhaps just appearing to. There was a sense in my mind that much of what I was seeing wasn’t real. For one, where was the explosion from the impact of Luna’s attack? Where was the smoke from the explosions I did see?

For that matter… I looked down. The ground now seemed to be hundreds of feet down- when did I- I flew down and- crashed into a ground I couldn’t see.

I slowly stood up. Where was I? Where was… anything? I looked up and saw the form of Torkuda flying overhead, his massive shadow covering- far too much of the surrounding trees to actually be his shadow. Torkuda circled overhead. The black alicorn flew up to him, a black pulse firing from its horn and cutting through one of Torkuda’s forelegs. The dragon roared, turned and opened his maw, fire issuing forth. A force field protected Phantasm from this attack, which simply went around. I then heard a scream and watched as Celestia barely flew away from the encounter which… no I didn’t know she was even there.

Phantasm’s illusions seemed ten times as effective as Gray’s and we could barely fight him then. What the hell were we supposed to do now? Looking up I thrust my wings down to take flight, wanting to scan for Lightning and Vinyl from the air. My right wing slamming into… something. It didn’t hurt that much, but had to feel around just to make sure I could take off.

I took off a small distance… I think… and started to hear an echoing of hooves on the ground. I couldn’t tell how many hooves there were or where they were coming from. Why was I hearing them? What was coming? Was Phantasm attacking me, or were his illusions so pervasive now that they were effecting a pony he wasn’t even fighting?

I started to hear a ringing. My stomach started to feel sick. I was so disoriented and sweet Celestia that ringing was ANNOYING! In fact, why would- it got louder… a lot louder. The sound climbed in octaves over and over, the ringing soon louder than any scream I could even make, which eventually I did. I fell to the ground, the sound just getting louder and louder.

The castle transformed before my eyes. If the castle looked right or not I couldn’t tell. I held my head, the nausea and head throbbing getting worse and worse. Luna damn it, what was making that sound?

Two hooves appeared in front of my face. I looked up to see the form of a white unicorn standing tall as it could, it’s horn high in the air. A black creature, which was far larger was next to this unicorn. The black creature starting to fall to the knees of it’s forelegs, opening it’s mouth and looking to try to scream itself.

The sound stopped. I was pretty much deaf now as I watched the black and white figures. Something silvery flashed from the body of the unicorn and to the black creature. The black creature’s head dropped to the ground, and rumbling shot through the ground under me.

I slowly struggled to my hooves. I closed my eyes, slowly and gently shaking my head. I looked up and over to see Vinyl next to me, struggling just to stay upright. I then looked ahead to see Phantasm, Vinyl’s large hunter’s knife sticking out of his ear and buried up to its handle.

I stood breathing hard and watching as the white unicorn walked over to the barely moving body of Lightning Strike. Lightning was breathing, but she apparently had the wind knocked out of  her worse than me by that sound… wait… sound?

Did that actually happen? All the champions of Equestria had been fighting this monster for months and the local DJ just took him down?

Vinyl slowly laid down next to Lightning, resting her left leg gently on the foal. She smiled warmly at the filly. 

Luna and Celestia landed on either side of me, themselves holding their heads down and moving slowly. Luna started talking, but I couldn’t hear her.

After a few seconds my ears barely started working again. It took effort, but I picked out Luna’s words. “Moonstone was right, that was his downfall. We do not believe that anyone was considering what she could do.” I missed some of what she said, but from what I heard… yea, that seemed right.

I walked over to Vinyl and Lightning. Vinyl looked up, tightening her grip on the foal. Her face didn’t show fear but a kind of possession, like she was trying to tell me, with just a look, “she belongs to me.”. Lightning nuzzled into Vinyl’s fur coat and closed her eyes, gradually falling asleep. Vinyl swished her tail, laying it in front of the filly. She laid her head next to the foal. It looked like she was protectively surrounding the child with her body as best she could.

What does it mean to have your own child? I don’t know. Is it really something that can be defined by the law? Was Lightning Vinyl’s daughter or not? In that moment, I couldn’t tell. Pretty sure I might have looked the same with Scootaloo in the end.

I looked away from the pair, watching Celestia and Luna walk over to the body of Phantasm. Celestia was burned, but not seriously. “Are we certain he is dead this time?” Luna asked.

A shadow loomed over the body of Phantasm and the hand of Torkuda slammed down on top of it. “He’s dead now,” Torkuda said.

“Is that really his body this time?” asked Celestia. For a few moments we all stared at the bloody remains of Phantasm. Was it a trick this time too? I couldn’t understand why Gray would want everyone to believe he was defeated by a random DJ but… “We may never know.” I nodded my head.

Luna spat on the remains. “He fought so furiously not to be forgotten. We suppose he won. We will never forget him.”

“We may not,” Celestia said. She turned around to face us ponies behind her, holding her head high. “But here and now this is my decree. All witnesses to these events are hence forth silenced. No one may speak of these events. Gray will be forgotten.”

I shook my head. “He left his mark.”

“He will be forgotten,” Celestia insisted.

“AJ is crippled, I’m paranoid, Twilight is going to be in the hospital for a few months at the very least, Scootaloo is forever barren…”

“His memory will then die with us,” Celestia insisted.

I hung my head. “I won’t speak of this to anyone, only those who were there, I promise. I don’t wanna anyway. But as far as Gray being forgotten… I think he won that battle.”

“I understand,” Celestia said. “But we’ll see about that.” She looked at the remains, her horn glowing. She set fire to the corpse. “His ashes will be scattered to the four winds,” the fire blazed, the heat and force startling me and forcing me to jump back. “His followers will be hunted and imprisoned, brought to justice dead or alive.”

“And the survivors?” asked Luna.

“They will receive the best help available, I will see to it personally,” Celestia answered.

“They will never forget sister. Rainbow is right. He won.”

“Like I said, we will see about that.” She shook her head. “Iconoclasm is now declared on any literature ever written, from this moment on, about Gray or any of his followers. Only the guard will know of him. Let’s see him come back, let’s see his followers rise again when shadows have more fame. He will turn into folk lore. In a hundred years, the name of Gray will be little more than the boogey stallion.”

“I hope so.” I said.

“You really think so?” came a shout. “I planned for this eventuality.” We looked up to see Pyromance standing several meters away. He looked down at a symbol on the ground. He lit the symbol on fire.

A blue portal suddenly appeared next to him. “This will never end. Gray and his followers will live on. Through this portal there is a new world, a world called “earth”. There is no magic there. The impluses will descend upon them and find a way to bring their armies back here to fight for us. Let’s see how you fair against-“

Lightning Strike shot out from under Vinyl’s hoof and body slammed into Pyromance. He easily pulled her off and tossed her into the portal. I was already in motion, shooting through the portal, Vinyl quick on my heels.




> Reality Hits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


(***)

I slowly rose to my hooves. I heard the laughing of Pyromance as I steadied myself and looked around. I was standing in a huge sandy waste land. There appeared to be nothing around me for miles. Well nothing save for Lightning Strike and Vinyl who stood with me in the dust. “Where the hell is this?” I asked.

I noticed two small figures coming towards us, looking like some kind of bipedal creatures. They were dressed in excessive clothing from head to hoof, so I couldn’t tell what they looked like. They stopped walking and seemed to look at us.

I looked up, seeing Pyromance flying overhead. “Ha ha! Didn’t you listen? This is earth. Home to billions of creatures, none of them possessing magic.” A ring of fire surrounded us. “And as the followers of Gray descend upon this world, no one will be around to warn them. Hm… when Gray heard of my plan to come here, he thought we would need to negotiate with these creatures. Ha! They will serve us as slaves. I will burn you to a cinder here so no one will warn-“ several bolts of electricity barely grazed Pyromance, the flames around us disappearing.

Those bolts did NOT comes from Lightning Strike. I looked back at the creatures that I saw earlier. They had both thrown off the bulk of their clothes. Beside us were now two creatures that looked like what Lyra often described as “humans”. One looked like a young “boy”. He was dressed in blue pants of some kind, a red shirt and an open vest. The other human looked like a girl, herself dressed in a bright red shirt and bright green pants. Both of them had pale skin and raven black hair.

The girl pointed a small sword at the flying pony. “Okay, I’ve heard enough,” she shouted. “What the heck are you?”

“Your soon to be conqueror.” He flew down and landed in front of her. He then looked over at my group. “Watch as I dispatch these creatures with a power such as your feeble minds have never known.”

“Pyrokinesis?” the girl asked. She looked over her shoulder at her partner. “What do you say Kyle, been a good month since we last saw that?” the boy shrugged. “Give or take?” he nodded.

“Are you… mocking me?” Pyromance said.

“No,” she looked over at me. “I’m sorry but can you hold on for a minute? Just a minute I promise.”

“um…”

“Thanks,” she pointed at my mane. “Is that hair naturally that color?” I looked at her bewildered. “I’m sorry, I just have to know.”

“DO NOT IGNORE ME!” Pyromance shouted. Fire surrounded the entire group. “You and your friend will now die along with all of them for your ignorance-“ the girl balled up her hands and slammed them together, a massive amount of lightning and electric energy surrounding her and shooting into the air. The girl had dropped her sword, but electricity appeared to catch it in the air and a second was drawn out of a sheath on her left hip. The girl closed her eyes, both swords floating on either side of her head.

“Die,” said the girl. The swords flew forward, slamming into Pyromance and skewering him. He dropped down, his fires disappearing.

My jaw dropped. “Um… didn’t he say there was no magic in this world?” I asked.

“Magic?” asked the girl. She took her swords in her hands, her electric energy disappearing. “I mean- hang on, can you fly?” she asked. I flew into the air above the group. “Kyle… it’s a flying rainbow maned pony that talks- can I keep it?”

“Umm…” said the boy. “I’m still getting passed the idea of talking ponies here, Jessica.”

“They’re multicolored ponies that talk, what’s to explain?” Jessica asked. “The yellow one is really cute, I think she’s a baby.”

“I’m not a baby!” shouted Lightning Strike.

"That was-ADORABLE!" the girl shouted. 

I shook my head. “I have no idea what you just did there, but it’s good to see this world isn’t without defenders. I suspect a lot more ponies like that guy will be coming here soon. They'll be coming to conquer you all.”

Jessica appeared to stifle a laugh. “Um… that thing was supposed to be a big deal?” she asked.

“Um… yea,” I said.

“How many?” asked the boy.

“Hundreds… maybe thousands I don’t know.” I said.

Jessica looked at her friend. “Was that guy important?” she asked, not even looking at us.

“Their leader now.” I looked over at the corpse. “Okay so maybe he was… by the way who are you? Champion warriors of this world or…” I waved a hoof for them to explain themselves.

“Um… Kyle and Jessica, we’re the Finders. We um… find lost kids.” I blinked at her. “We’re um… okay at it.”

“Are you even a big deal here?” I asked.

“To the kids we bring home I think we are,” Jessica answered. She scratched her head. “But to be honest, that thing wanted to invade THIS world with forces weaker than himself right?”

“Kinda the same powers I guess,” I said.

“That’s gonna be… probably the most hilariously anticlimactic invasion in history.”

“What are you?” I asked.

The girl smiled. “Ya know, maybe sometime in the future we’ll meet again and I can explain,” she looked up. “But that blue portal thing you came through is um… I think it’s closing. Unless you have a plan to open it again, I would just go.”

“You guys can handle this?”

“An army of a few hundred is gonna try to conquer a world of billions?” Jessica asked. She closed her eyes and shook her head, as if to say that was the stupidest thing she had ever heard. “Kid, just go. We got this. I would make an analogy about a bug meeting a windshield, but I’m not sure you would get it. Just go.”

I picked up Vinyl and flew back into the portal, Lightning following.

(***)

So yea, Gray died. He died by the hoof of a local musician and his armies were going to be defeated in a world where their powers wouldn’t even be considered important. (To tell the truth I was envisioning them going to that world Twilight visited a while ago, but I’m pretty sure that was a different “earth”. How many of those are there anyway? Mystery for another day I guess.)

There I stood with AJ on her farm, watching the Cutie Mark Crusaders scuffling in the reeds. I cheered for Scootaloo, whose injuries had started letting up a while ago, so she could keep up a little with her friends now.

A week had gone by. Twilight wasn’t completely out of the woods, but the doctors believed she would survive what happened to her. It would probably be a year before she was totally on her hooves again though. Most of my friends were physically on the mend by this point, all save for AJ, who we had all accepted was now how she would always be.

“So that’s all that happened on the other side?” asked AJ. “Not what ah would expect. But ah guess it’s a happy enough ending right?” I shrugged. “So what happened to Lightning’s cutie mark?” she asked.

“I… don’t know,” I replied. “I think it disappeared in that other world. I have no idea why though. Mine is still around so… hm… Well it doesn’t seem to really bother Lightning too much so maybe we shouldn’t worry about it.”

“Ah hope so. That filly’s been through enough ya know?” she asked.

“Haven’t we all?” I asked.

“Ya know, ah kinda doubt ALL of Gray forces are gonna follow that foolhardy plan of Pyro’s,” AJ pointed out.

“I kinda wonder if that was really Gray’s only plan in case of his death.” I nodded. “Really, doesn’t strike me as Gray’s kind of material. More like something that moron Pyromance thought up himself.”

“Ah wonder if Gray really is dead this time.” She shook her head. “So many questions. Think we’ll ever know the answers?”

“I think I’d like to try to just forget all of this even happened, like Celestia said.

“Ah will never ferget RD,” she said. I closed my eyes. “Don’t mean ah’m gonna stop you.”

“I said I would try…”

“What happened to Pip’s body?” AJ asked.

“Buried… by even more ponies who I’m sure want to forget this even happened… but I don’t think they’ll be able to either.”

I couldn’t stop myself. I broke down and cried, laying in the dirt. The crusaders stopped play fighting and surrounded me almost in a heartbeat. “Rainbow Dash?” asked Scootaloo. “You okay?” I hugged her quickly. She seemed confused at first, but soon hugged me back.

“I’ll be okay Scoots. I don’t know what’s coming. But I have you. I have what counts. I have you.”

Through teary eyes I watched Lightning flying overhead. A white unicorn walked up to our group. She smiled down at me. She didn’t have to say anything. I knew she understood.

We had what really mattered.





The end… at least… I hope so.