A Boy and his Watch
By TheAlienBrony22

The Hero of Canterlot

The days seemed to blend together with Ben helping out around the house as he used his powers to make the chores easier. Twilight was learning more at Celestia's school, Spike was being as carefree as can be, and Shining was working hard to try and make it into the royal guard.

Ben worked hard to show that he wasn't some monster that needed to be feared. He was a kid, obviously, but he made a promise to use his powers only when he needed to. The things Cadence made him learn when she babysat was absolutely mind numbing, but it did pay off in the long run, since most of Canterlot's residents stopped fearing him as some sort of heartless beast. Eventually, Ben was welcomed to the point where he could go through actual schooling with Shining and Twilight.

Ben knew how smart Twilight could be, so he made it his goal to work twice as hard. Ben even went as far to use that smart frog guy he could turn into, affectionately named by Twilight as Smart Toad, Ben was able to use this form to write down several notes and then study them in his human form, even if he could barely make sense of a fifth of what the notes contained.

Cadence truly had her hooves full, but at least Ben was the most determined out of the three, and Twilight was the most reasonable. Spike was just really cute, and easy to manage. One faithful night, when the Sparkles were put to bed, Ben just couldn't sleep. Ben got up and snuck towards the window, looking out into the night sky as he let his mind wander.

'Am I really using my powers right? I don't mind helping around with the chores, but I feel like I could be doing so much more with them. Helping out with more than just chores... You know what? That's what I'm gonna do. Starting tonight, I'm the hero Canterlot needs.' Ben thought. He opened the window and climbed down to the front lawn, running out into the streets as a flash of green light lit up the sky.

For a few weeks, there would be reports of a monster in the dark alleys of Canterlot, taking out simple criminals and thieves as they seemed to then vanish without a trace, no one has been able to get a good look at the monsters behind the attacks. Ben felt great about using his powers for something else, but he still felt that drive to do more. When Ben tried to sneak out of the front door one night, he was caught.

"Going somewhere, young man?" Velvet asked. Ben winced and looked around, seeing Velvet sitting in a chair, sipping on some tea. "Awfully late to be going somewhere on your own, isn't it?"

"I-I was just... It- uh... erm..." Ben stuttered, trying to think of an excuse. He could see the knowing smile on his mother's face, and he sighed in defeat. "I was gonna go out and stop a few bad guys. I'm just trying to find a better use for my abilities, it's nice for the chores to be easier to do, but I want to help people, instead of watching things get worse... I'm sorry for lying, mom."

"Benny, if you wanted to do the right thing, why not try a more... constructive outlet? Violence isn't always the answer. Besides, you're just a kid, you could get yourself hurt if you picked a fight you couldn't win," Velvet stated. "I like that you want to help people, sweetie, but there are better ways to do that. I'll let you go out one last time, but this is the last time, and no more fighting. Understand?"

"Yes mom... I'll be back in a little while." Ben replied, heading out as he was enveloped in a green flash. Velvet watched as the human vanished into a dark alley, then one of his transformations leaps through the shadows.

"Be safe, my poor brave boy." Velvet states quietly, looking worried as she heads back inside, going to bed as she hoped to see her son in the morning.

Ben leaps through Canterlot, transformed into What Shining called the huge red troll, 'Fourest Fighter'. The four eyed troll looked around down below, gripping onto the side of a tower to keep himself above.

"Ok, just gotta be careful. Fourest Fighter can be a bit too heavy for his own good, so I gotta try and balance my weight out when I jump... still, wish there was a way I could control what monster I get every time I go out on patrol. This is the sixth time in a row that this thing gave me the wrong one. I sure hope this thing isn't broken." The brute debated with himself.

Fourest Fighter jumped off the tower and carefully slid down to solid ground, just in time to take care of some lowly thugs, who seemed to be ganging up on some poor pony. 'Great, more muggers. Talk about too easy, you'd think they'd learn after the last few times I smacked them up, but no.' He thought to himself.

Fourest Fighter approached the thuggish ponies and cracked all four of his knuckles as he towered over them, oozing confidence. "Alright, how badly do you wanna be beat this time, because I can be really rough right now if that's what you wa--"

Fourest Fighter stopped his sentence and stared down, speechless. He saw a stallion around Shining's age, lying on the ground, motionless. The hero looked at the ponies that surrounded the stallion, now surrounding him. They looked up at the hero with silver masks, saying nothing. Without another word, Fourest Fighter grabbed one of the ponies and used them to batter away the other ponies, before chucking said pony into the ponies they were associated with.

"You monsters. I'll deal with you later, I'll be back!" Fourest Fighter took the stallion into his arms and leapt towards the nearest hospital. The masked ponies watched the creature leave, and simply back away into the alley, vanishing into darkness.

Fourest Fighter jumped and jumped through Canterlot, desperate to save the stallion's life, then he landed in front of the hospital, and in a flash of red light, Ben was returned to normal as he tried to pull the stallion inside. As soon as he entered the building, ponies were looking at him.

"I need help, this poor stallion was being attacked by ponies in masks. He's not breathing, he's not moving... Please, for Celestia's sake, help him!" Ben called out.

Several of the hospital staff took the stallion and wheeled him off onto a gurney, and Ben just sat down, worried about what may become of the stallion. Ben was worried he might've messed up this time. Was he too late? Did he not get him the medical help he needed in time? What if this was Shining, or Twilight, could he have saved them, instead of resigning them to their fates? Who were those ponies in the masks, and why did they gang up on this one stallion?

Ben's mind raced with questions, and soon enough, the doctor stepped in front of the human boy, looking sorrowful. "I'm sorry, we did the best we could. If you had gotten here just a couple seconds sooner, he would've been fine... I'm sorry, young man... he's gone."

Ben hung his head low and left the hospital, picking the safest and most populated route back to the Sparkle household. Ben felt sick, he felt upset, he felt mad. He felt disappointed in himself. Once Ben got back home, he saw that everyone was now up and awake, and only now saw Ben come through the door.

"Benjamin Sparkle, where have you been!? Do you know how worried we were, where were you, what were you doing?!" Nightlight asked in a panic, squeezing his son in a hug as Spike rested soundly on Nightlight's back. "I was so worried!!"

Ben eventually escaped the hug and just sighed, heading up to bed, leading to Shining and Twilight following him. Velvet just couldn't remove the look of devastation in Ben's eyes when he came back. This was going to be a little difficult for Ben to properly process, and he just couldn't get those two words out of his head.

'He's Gone.'

Author's Note

Ok, so I'm giving Ben's alien forms new names, because why not.

Here are the names.

Heatblast ---> Starburner

Wildmutt ---> Beelzebeast

Ghostfreak ---> Ghooligan

Upgrade ---> Cyberpunk

Gray Matter ---> Smart Toad

Fourarms ---> Fourest Fighter

Ripjaws ---> Halibite

XLR8 ---> Speed Demon

Diamondhead ---> Gemstone

Stinkfly ---> Skunksquito

Unicorn form ---> ???

Dragon ---> ???

You can comment names for the Unicorn and Dragon form, I'm gonna take a break and let you readers read it.