Another story that came to me. I only own Rachel, Hope, and Christian. All other characters belong to their respective owners. "My Little Pony" belongs to Hasbro.

Scary And Protective All In One

Hope was glad when the school bus dropped her off at the end of the Mansion driveway so that she could finally get away from all the kids whispering about her family. She had just gone through the gate and was about to close it when the same bully that had scared her before came up with a few friends.

"Payback time," he said with a glare.

Hope started to run and they followed, but the hill was high and very tiring for a six-year-old. She soon fell and tried to get up, but was too tired to run anymore. She turned and saw the bullies were almost to her position when something dark grey floated out of the ground and turned white. The ghostly figure had green cuffs around his neck and wrists and in his hands held old chains which he now rattled and groaned.

"At last, more to join me," he groaned spookily. "More victims for me to bring to my lair."

The boy's friends fled in fear but he didn't. "I'm not scared of you!" he said.

"You should be, boy," groaned another voice spookily. A tall mummy came out, looking a bit futuristic, and his tendrils stretched out to the boy, making him back up a little as suddenly the mummy unraveled himself and floated behind him and took shape again. "Get him now, before he escapes," said the mummy to the ghost.

The ghost hovered closer and one chain wrapped around the boy. "Come, boy," he hissed. "Time for you to become a ghost."

With that, the ghost unleashed black and white tentacles from his chest as he let out a frightening laugh. The mummy laughed evilly too as he stretched his tendrils again, making the boy squirm harder to get free of the chain. He finally did and ran down the hill, screaming so loud it echoed, making the ghost and mummy laugh again.

"Ah, listen to those screams," said the ghost. "That was perfect."

"Yes," said the mummy. "But we still have this little one to take care of."

He gestured to Hope, who had been trying to quietly back away, but she now screamed and turned to run. They quickly followed her as she made it to the steps of the Mansion and ran inside, running down the hall and bumping into something and saw it was a tall frog, who looked at her in surprise.

"What's wrong, kiddo?" he asked, his deep voice filled with concern.

Hope whimpered and ran around him, ignoring him when he called out to her and ran into another room, coming face to face with a monstrous fish and she screamed, jumping back, but she hit her head on a bookshelf and the blow knocked her unconscious and she fell forward and would have hit the floor had some green slime not quickly moved to catch her and cushion her fall. The other three came in and looked at the little girl who was now sleeping.

"Who is she?" asked the green slime in a squeaky voice.

"Don't know, but some bullies were chasing her," said the ghost.

The frog looked thoughtful and noticed the little girl's backpack had a picture of ponies on it from the 'My Little Pony' television show and he suddenly remembered Gravattack telling him about his little girl who loved the show. He now realized who she was.

"Guys, she's Gravattack's daughter," he said. "He was telling me the other day about her and how much she loved the television series 'My Little Pony'."

"He was telling me that the other day too," said the ghost. "So this is the little girl we've heard so much about."

The mummy gently took the small backpack from the little girl as the slime one lifted her in his arms. "According to the tag on her backpack, her name's Hope."

"Well, we need to check to see if she's okay," said the fish one, who had been watching. "She bumped her head on my bookshelf after seeing me."

"We'll do that when she wakes up," said the frog. "She's going to be already scared enough waking up to see us. It will scare her even more if we're checking to see if she's okay and she wakes up and thinks we're trying to hurt her."

"He's right," said the slime creature as he morphed himself into a bed and set Hope down on his chest. "Hopefully, she'll wake up soon."

Hope let out a groan as she woke up. Her head hurt a little from where she hit the bookcase and she opened her eyes to see three of the monsters who had scared her looking down at her. She let out a whimper as she curled up in fear. "It's alright, Hope," said the mummy, although his voice was much calmer than before. "We're not going to hurt you."

"We know we scared you and we didn't mean to," said the fish in the tank.

Hope then felt two arms come around her comfortingly. "You got hurt trying to escape," said a squeaky voice. "We need to make sure you're okay."

It was then she noticed she was laying on a slime monster's chest and would have moved away, but his arms came around her a bit more tightly, keeping her in place as he nodded to the frog, who came up with a small penlight. "Okay, kiddo, this won't hurt," he said reassuringly. "Look up at the ceiling."

Afraid, she did as she was told and squinted a little when the light was turned on into her eyes, but she tried to keep still as the light moved from one eye to the other before turning off. "Well, she doesn't have a concussion," he said as he gently rubbed her head. "Does your head hurt, kiddo?"

Hope nodded, afraid to lie to him, and winced when his fingers gently probed the sore spot on the back of her head. He checked and saw a small bump was forming. "She needs an icepack," he said.

"Done," said the humanoid fish as he tossed an icepack to the frog. "I always keep some in case anyone's swimming with me and bumps into the rocks or corral."

"Good planning ahead," said the mummy as they watched their friend gently place the icepack behind the little girl's head and then he gently pushed her to lay back on the slime person's chest.

"Just lie still for a bit," he said to Hope, who nodded, still fearful of them. The ghost came up to her.

"Don't be frightened," he said to her, gently patting her head comfortingly. "Those boys are gone now."

Hope realized he meant the bullies, but she was still scared of them. The door then opened and Rachel came in, looking a bit tired.

"What happened?" she asked, looking at them all.

"Some bullies were chasing Hope and we scared them off, but unintentionally scared her too," said the mummy.

"She came in here and ran into my bookshelf after she saw me," said the fish, looking a bit guilty.

"She doesn't have a concussion, but she does have a bump on her head from where she hit the shelf," said the frog.

Rachel relaxed when she saw her brothers had not only taken care of the bullies but also too care of Hope, who looked at her aunt.

"Aunt Rachel?" she asked.

Rachel immediately went over to her. "Don't worry, sweetie," she said. "Why would they hurt you after they helped you?"

That made Hope pause a moment as Rachel then checked her head and saw she was better and tossed the icepack back to the fish in the tank. "She's in the clear now," she said to them with a smile. "Great job, guys."

"Just doing our job as uncles," said the slime being who now stood up, still holding Hope, who looked at them curiously and jumped when the fish jumped out of the tank and his tail became two legs. Rachel noticed how startled she looked.

"Yeah, he does startle some at first with that trick," she said.

Hope then shyly spoke up. "Are you all…my uncles?" she asked before shyly hiding her face in the slime person's shoulder. They all chuckled in amusement.

"That's right, kiddo," said the frog. "Your dad told us all about you and your mom and your brother."

"He brags about nothing else on missions now," said the ghost.

Rachel chuckled and gestured to the aliens as she introduced Hope to them. "These are Bullfrag, Ghostfreak, Ripjaws, Snare-Oh, and the one holding you is Goop," she said.

"We didn't mean to scare you when Ghostfreak and I scared off the bullies," said Snare-Oh.

"I didn't mean to give you a start when you ran into me, kiddo," said Bullfrag.

"Sorry about frightening you too, Hope," said Ripjaws. "You gave me a bit of a start when you ran in too."

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it," said Goop, gently rocking her in his arms. "Rachel was worse than you when we first met her."

Rachel scoffed. "No, I wasn't," she denied, but her face turned a bright red.

"Oh?" asked Bullfrag. "I seem to recall you screaming quite loudly when you first saw me."

"I recall the same when you first came here too," said Snare-Oh.

She scoffed again, although she was smiling. "You two have very overactive imaginations," she said and went to step out when she felt gauze and a long tongue suddenly grab her and pull her back. "Hey!" she protested, but was laughing too as Bullfrag put her in a headlock and gave her a gentle noogie as Snare-Oh tickled her sides and stomach, making her squirm to get away from them.

Hope giggled a little, but then saw Goop, Ripjaws, and Ghostfreak look at her and she squirmed, but Goop gently pinned her down on the floor as the three kneeled beside the young girl and began tickling her. Hope squealed with laughter and cute giggles as Goop tickled her neck, Ripjaws focused on her stomach and sides, even poking her ribs playfully, and Ghostfreak gently removed her shoes and gently tickled her feet with his claws while his tentacles tickled the backs of her knees.

Rachel's laughs mixed with Hope's laughs before the five finally let them up and Ripjaws jumped back into the water, surprising Hope. He chuckled at her surprise. "I might be an alien kid, but I can't be out of the water for too long," he explained. "I need water to breathe, although I can breathe the air for a short time."

Hope giggled again, making the others smile. Suddenly, they all jumped at hearing the front door slam. Rachel looked out in the hall and saw Christian come walking swiftly down the hall looking like he had a very bad day. "Christian, you okay, hon?" she asked, concerned about her nephew.

Christian shook his head and looked at her, tears forming in his eyes that he tried to wipe away, but then he hugged her and began to cry into her shoulder. She immediately returned the hug, knowing something bad had happened at school to make her nephew very upset. "What happened?" she asked gently.

It took a moment for Christian to calm down, but then he rested his head on his aunt's shoulder. "School's having a career day where we bring in our fathers and they discuss their careers," he said, sniffling a little. "One kid told me that it's a shame I don't have a father to come on career day. When I told him I did, he said everyone knew that my dad left my mom because he didn't want me or Hope around. Well, I got upset and it took every bit of me to not punch him, but then he started taunting me and when I turned my back on him, he pushed me and punched me, and I had no choice but to punch him back. The teacher saw what happened and sent the bully to the nurse's office and then told me she had seen what had happened and understood that I punched the bully in defense."

Rachel sighed lightly. "What happened then?" she asked.

"Well, she said that while I didn't start the fight, I still was going to get detention because I should have called her instead of turning away and having the bully start the fight," he said. "She just wants me to stay a little bit after school and wash the blackboards."

Rachel nodded. "But that doesn't explain why you're upset now," she said. "Is it because of the career day coming?"

"Yeah," said Christian. "I don't know what to do, and I know Dad's busy with his job and I don't want to add this to what he has to worry about. Not only that, with him being an alien, well, I don't think the school will look kindly at it."

"True," said Snare-Oh, coming out. Christian gave a start of fright and hid behind Rachel, who chuckled a little as the others came out with Bullfrag holding Hope, who giggled.

"Christian, we have more uncles," she said, excitement in her voice.

Her excitement helped the teenager to calm down a bit. Goop then slithered up behind him and gave Christian a playful tickle in the sides, making him laugh and jump away from him, but he bumped into Snare-Oh, who also tickled him while wrapping a few tendrils around the boy's arms to keep him from getting away as Ripjaws and Ghostfreak also tickled him for a bit. Christian laughed and tried to squirm away, but then was gently pushed towards Bullfrag, who handed Hope to Ripjaws before tickling the boy for a bit before seeing he had enough and stopped, letting the boy recover.

Hope hugged Ripjaws, who returned the hug before handing her to Snare-Oh and jumping back into the water tank, making Christian look surprised and Rachel laughed a little at her nephew's look of surprise. "You'll get used to being surprised after a while," she said. "Which reminds me. You know Gravattack can attend the Career day at your school under disguise."

He looked at his aunt. "Um, how?" he asked.

"With these," said Ghostfreak, coming forward with a mask in his hand. He put it one and instantly became human. "These human I.D. masks help us to blend in so that we don't draw attention to ourselves. That way, no one knows we're really aliens."

"Wow!" said Christian, amazed. "Does Dad have one?"

"We all do," said Goop. "For occasions just like Career Day."

Hope giggled. "And no one will ever mess with us when they see you guys," she said, hugging Snare-Oh, who chuckled as he returned her hug.

"We can scare others, but we are also quite protective," he said before his communicator went off. "Pardon," he said a bit sheepishly as he answered it. "Snare-Oh speaking."

"Snare-Oh, it's Gravattack," said the voice of the familiar planet-like alien. "I heard what happened at the school and was wondering if the kids were home."

"They are," said Snare-Oh. "And they're safe and sound."

"Good. I'll be there soon. And oh, before I forget, tell Christian not to worry about Career Day. I'll be there."

Christian couldn't believe it and the smile on his face made everyone else smile too.

One week later, Christian was sitting at his desk hearing the bullies snicker around him and whisper, but he didn't pay attention to them as he waited patiently for his father to arrive.

The teacher thanked the father of another student and turned to Christian. "Christian, is your father coming?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am. His job can run a little longer some days," he said, which was true. A knock then sounded and the teacher opened it.

"Excuse me for arriving late," said a familiar voice. "My work took a bit longer than I thought."

"Please come in," said the teacher and Christian watched his father come into the classroom in his human disguise. The teen stood up and went up to his father and hugged him. Gravattack hugged him back.

"Sorry I'm late, kiddo," he said.

"It's okay, Dad. I knew you wouldn't break your promise," said Christian.

"I'd never break a promise to you or Hope," Gravattack said firmly. "Well, shall we make those bullies' jaws drop?"

Christian held back a laugh and introduced his father to the class. "My dad is part of a very special team, ones that do jobs that keep everyone safe," he said.

Gravattack then spoke. "I'm part of the response team that is unseen, but makes sure those who are needed are sent out to the emergencies and I occasionally pitch in to help," he said, which was mostly true, but they left out a few details because they had been sworn to secrecy. It was alright though, because everyone's jaws had dropped at that. That evening, when father and son were telling the others about it, the laughs were plenty and shook the house.

Christian and Hope probably laughed the hardest as they endured more tickles from their scary-looking, yet loving and protective uncles.

If you want to know how Rachel met Goop and Bullfrag, check out newbienovelistRD's story "Secret Ingredient" and my story "Feeling Froggy?" Also check out my other "Four Monsters And A Girl" where Rachel meets Snare-Oh and Ghostfreak and newbienovelistRD's story "Fishing For Monsters" where Rachel meets Ripjaws. Check them out! :)

Please leave a review, but no flames!

GoldGuardian2418