I do not own MLP.
"This is me speaking"
'I'm thinking.....I'm thinking'

Rainbow Dash

I was walking though the Ponyville market when I saw him. While I mostly knew him only because he's Scoots dad, I have meet him before. His normally bright orange coat and slick grey mane looked faded and knotted, not to mention the large bags under his eyes.

"Hey Speedster!"

He jumped and turned towards me, panting and holding a hoof to his chest.

"Oh, miss Dash. Sorry, you startled me."

"Are you alright? You look rough."

"Yes. I...haven't been sleeping well."

"That's lame. Why are you having trouble."

"Just nightmares. I...It gets bad sometimes but they run their course."

"Why hasn't Princess Luna showed up to stop them?"

"O...Oh she did. But that doesn't make them go away for good. Just for the night."

"That sucks man. Hey, get better soon, you are our senior weather pony. Can't have you falling asleep on the job. Right?"

"Like you do?"

I giggled and looked away. "Yeah. Got to go! See ya."

"Goodbye."

I took off in the air, quickly gaining speed.

'I can't imagine not sleeping. Hope he gets better.'

Speedster

I watched as Rainbow Dash took off. I couldn't tell her, nopony would believe me. Over the course of a week I have been haunted by some....thing. It wouldn't let me sleep, and every time I think I have a moment alone it appears. That Luna- damn skeleton, standing there, with its eyes of blue fire and its tendrils of darkness behind it. It just started it haunting one day, seemingly at random.

'No, not at random. This started the day Scootaloo came home late at night. That little waste, did she do this on purpose, to torment me? I'll show her.'

I turned to leave when I saw it standing in an alleyway, staring into my soul. But when that wall-eyed mare walked between it and me, it disappeared.

'I can't take much more. Maybe I should talk to somepony.'

Twilight

I was sitting in my castle's library when he came it. An orange Pegasus, looking exhausted. While most of the castle was normally off limits after dark, the library was open at any time, as long as Spike or I was in here.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes Princess Twilight, my name is Speedster and I was hoping you could help me with a problem."

"What is it?"

"I believe I'm being haunted."

I heard the sound of books falling over and turned towards Spike. The stack of books I had asked him to bring me had fallen on top of him.

"Haunted like a ghost or haunted with something like guilt?"

"The ghost one."

I sighed as Spike seemed to get nervous. The baby dragon really needs to stop letting his imagination get the better of him.

'Well, might as well hear him out.'

"Can you describe the ghost and what it does?"

"It appears in dark corners, and through windows while I'm inside. It stands like a Diamond Dog but doesn't hunch. It wears a blue rode and it's eyes are just two orbs of blue fire. But the worst thing is that it's just a skeleton, it doesn't have skin or lips or anything!"

"Wait...I've heard of this before."

"You have?" "You have!?"

"Spike could you get me 'Myths and legends from the time's of Starswarl'?"

After a minute Spike brought me the book and I started to flip through the pages. Coming to the page I was looking for I turned the book around, giving the colt a clear view of the creature on the page.

"Is this the ghost?"

"Yes! That's it, this....Lich"

I turned the book around with a look of unease on my face.

"What does this mean Princess? Am I being haunted by this Lich?"

"Unlikely. The Lich was a being of powerful dark magic with the power to summon the dead. While I don't doubt that this is what you've been seeing, the Lich hasn't been seen for several eras. And while it might have the power to act like a ghost, why would it put itself in a position to be identified when it could have summoned an genuine spirit or phantom to do the job? Especially after all this time."

"So what's been haunting me?"

"More than likely a pony who is good in illusions who is trying to get to you. Is there anypony you know that could have a problem with you that is good at such magic."

"No, nopony that comes to mind anyway." 'That brat! Who did she hire!?'

"The best thing is for you to face the illusions. They are non-solid and should disappear once you disrupt the magic with touch."

"Thank you Princess, that really helps."

"It's my pleasure."

Speedster turned to leave and walked out the door. While I'm sure that he will have no problem dispelling the illusion, the situation has me worried. The letter from Princess Celestia was only a week old, and now something like this comes up.

"Twilight?" Spike asked, seeing me stare into space

"Yes Spike?"

"Are you sure that the Lich isn't back?"

"I'm positive, but......" I paused, trying to find a way of explaining to Spike without scaring him. "I'm wondering if this Lich wrote some tomes before he disappeared."

"Tomes?"

"It was an ancient practice, used before even Discords reign." I levitated a lesser tome from the library and showed it to spike, a thunder bolt decorating the cover. "A tome is a book with instructions on magic, how to perform rituals and instructions on spells and is written with pure magic from the author. Like this tome for example; it has instructions for Unicorns on how to change rainclouds to thunder clouds and the reverse. However, some beings are so powerful that their personality gets intertwined with their magic, and others can feel if the user is strong enough."

"Like how when Celestia uses her magic I feel all warm inside?"

"Exactly. And because tomes are written using magic, some of the authors mind gets copied into the book. Now normally this wouldn't be a problem as all the dark magic tomes are locked away and only a few ponies today know the practice. But if a being like the Lich knew how to write tomes and hide them, then......"

"Then anypony who found them would know spells that the Lich knew."

"And be exposed to part of its mind."

"Is that what you think happened to Speedster?"

"Maybe, and now he's having hallucinations because of it. Or perhaps a pony with a grudge found one without knowing what it truly was." I looked at the nervous Spike, smiling and pulled him into a hug.

"Don't worry Spike. This is just a "Worst Case Scenario" hypothesis. More than likely it's just a pony playing a trick and using a old picture they found to be scary. While this isn't a common book, it is available to the public. Anypony could order one." I said, point at the picture of the Lich.

"Thanks Twilight." Spike said before walking out into the hall, likely heading to the bedroom.

I looked back at the picture of the Lich, still sitting on the table and a chill went up my spine. I wouldn't tell Spike this, but I was a little afraid. If a pony had even some of the Lich's knowledge or power, the damage they could do would be great. Particularly to a town like Ponyville, which only had a few reserve guards in the barrack.
"Let's hope I'm right."

Patrick

'Good job dingus. "why would it put itself in a position to be identified ", maybe because he's an idiot.'

I was standing outside the window to the castle library, listening to the princess and Scootaloo's father talk about me. I had assumed that the pony would be to prideful to seek help, but seems I was wrong.

'Damn, I was hoping to have a end game planned out by now, but it seems I'll have to wing it.'

I turned to look in, and saw that Scootaloo's father was leaving. I needed to act now if there was any hope of saving Scootaloo. That bastard is most likely going to vent his frustrations on her tonight, now that he "knows" he's being tricked. More than likely he thinks that she's getting one of her friends to play a prank on him.

'God damn it! Good job Patrick, you just unknowingly give her the ass kicking of a life time. What can I do? If I hurt him, then I'll have ponies after my family, but I can't let this continue.'

I looked up at the small clouds, as they passed in front of the moon, doing little to hide the rainbow ring around it.

'Wait.....rainbow? Rainbow. That's it.....though I will need to get my hands dirty and I'll need to hurry.' I teleported, and closed in on my target.

The cloud house was a little small for my size, but that made little difference for my ghost magic.

'Good thing I learned that cloud walking spell. Thanks for the book Princess.'

I walked in, my bone feet not making any noise on the cloud surface and I got to Rainbow Dash's bed. I tapped her shoulder, causing her to toss and turn. When she opened her eyes and saw me she opened her mouth to scream. I used my magic to close her mouth and bind her, though I hated seeing the look of fear when ponies saw me, this needed to be done, she would never have listened to me.

Plus I love being a dick.

I placed a finger to my mouth.

"Shhhhhhhh."

Though she stopped trying to scream, she looked even more scared.

"Listen to me." I said, lining in. "There's something you need to see. And after I'll let you go. Understand?"

She nodded and I picked her up. I teleported to Scootaloo's house and started walking towards the living room window. By her wandering eyes, it seemed that she knew the place, and was wondering what we were doing here. Looking in the window, It seemed that we had beat him here. I cast a spell that summoned headphones, one set for me and one for her, with cables leading into the house. If I was a asshole who beat my kid I wouldn't want my neighbours to hear. So better to be prepared.

I signed and looked down.

"So...........nice night tonight."

She gave me a look that said "WTF?"

"I think I got here too fast."

Sure enough, it took six minutes before Scootaloo's father returned. We heard the door open and close.

"Scootaloo!"

The yell was loud in my headphones, and the sound of hoofs running down stairs was soon heard.

We saw Scootaloo ran to her dad, and stop.

"W..What's wrong dad?"

"I don't know if you noticed, but I've been a little out of it this week. Do you want to know why?"

"Of course Dad." She looked at the floor, waiting for whatever punishment to come.

"For the past week, I've been stacked by a ghost. A certain two-legged skeleton in a blue rode. Sound familiar?"

Rainbow's eyes widen at the revelation and quickly turned to glare at me. I put two fingers in my eye sockets and then pointed towards the window. She seemed to get the massage and looked back.

"Patrick?" She looked up at him.

I tensed, that was the wrong thing to say. Even if he didn't know that was my name, the unknown word was more than enough evidence for him.

He back hoofed her, sending her skidding across the living room floor. I felt Rainbow jump forward, ready to spring into action, but her binds held her in place.

'Stay strong Scootaloo. If everyone's going to believe Rainbow Dash there needs to be evidence. I'm sorry.'

He walked over to her.

"You know who's been bucking with me!?"

"N...no...I."

"Shut Up!" He said, hitting her in the nose, the one I healed after he had broke it. The blood starting to flow from the shattered bone. He hit her two more times, once in her left eye and the other on her rib cage.

"You think that you can psych me out! You think that using smoke and mirrors makes you tough! Your just a worthless freak, too stupid to fly or fight back!"

He walked away, letting Scootaloo to sit up a little, showing that the living floor might have had some broken glass in it, as her back and legs had small cuts on them.

I looked down at Rainbow "This is what I wanted to show you. This has been happening for a long time, but as much as I would love to intervene, this has to be fixed by a pony. In exchange for this information, you are to never speak of me to anyone. Understand?"

She nodded and I released her binds. At a speed approaching a rainboom, she flow through the door. Both Scootaloo and her father were shocked to see her, but her father's shocked face gave way to one of pain, as Rainbow grabbed the nearest object, a wine bottle, began to strike him with it. After about six times the bottle exploded, sending him to the floor. I phased through the wall and walked in. Rainbow was grabbing Scootaloo, who had fallen unconscious.

"Take her to the hospital."

She turned to me, though the fear was still in her eyes it was clear that something as unimportant as fear wasn't going to hold her back when this filly needed help.

"But what about him?"

"Drop her off and go get Twilight. I'll stay and make sure he doesn't leave."

She nodded and took off though the door frame.

I walked over to him as he started to get up. One look at me and he jumped to his feet. While he was scared for a second or two, the fear turned to a smug grin.

"Your just an illusion, the Princess told me so."

He went to poke me with his hoof but stopped as my left hand closed around his neck. The grin turned to surprise and then to terror. The wide eyes were a clear sign that as to what he was thinking.

The Princess was wrong.

The Lich was here.

I had come for him.

My other arm glow red and I drove it into his chest, though it didn't leave a mark. It was a medical spell I invented, it let me turn my arm into something half-physical and half-spiritual. This would allow me to reach into a pony or person, grab whatever couldn't be removed without damage and pull it out, without leaving a wound or scar. Allowing healing spells to work unaffected or cause damage to fragile organs. The one problem with the spell was....

..It didn't relieve pain by itself. The person or pony felt the pain as if it was real and it needed to be used after the patient was numb to pain through medicine or magic.

And Speedster found this out the hard way. He didn't have time to scream as he quickly passed out from the pain. I removed my arm and dropped him to the floor.

"Goodnight sweet Prince."

I let out a pulse to check if Rainbow was near. Sure enough, she was just a few seconds from the house, though Twilight would take a minute. I stayed still as she flow in the house.

'Shit she's fast!'

I turned to her "Remember our deal. Shhhhhh."

The reminder of her earlier capture caused her angry express to morph into one of bewilderment.

"Ah, sure."

"Good. Oh and tell Scootaloo I said hi."

I phased down into the floor, leaving her with a look of confusion on her face.

"Keep her safe Rainbow Dash. I'm counting on you."

Author's Note

And scene. This one was surprisingly easy to write, though I'm sure there are a few grammar and spelling checks. Stupid word: it don't get all them.

A update: I'm not going to be able to update for a little while, as I have 4 essays due within the next five weeks, and right after I have exams to study for. So while this and my other story aren't on hiatus, It's going to be some time before the next chapter. Hope it this was good enough to tide you guys over and know this; while I might not type up a chapter, I will outline and plan. So there's that.

That said, I want to thank everyone who Favourited, commented and followed me. And while I might not reply to all things, I do notice and read all of them.

If you want to comment go right ahead, but if you don't then don't feel bad. I have spent a few days in my past literally all day on fanfiction. So I know that not all fanfic's can get comments, but anything you leave is welcome, even corrections.

Have a great day, and hope to see you again.