Lost Advocates of the Elements

Dry air blows the dusty grains of sand loose from the floor of the Badlands. The little grains swirl around to form miniature dancing dust devils making it the only movement seen in a vast desert. Dark, blood red columns and arches project out of the seemingly flat surface casting lifeless shadows. These shadows are the only form of protection from the intense heat beating down on the black mosaic features hiding beneath it.

The dark mosaic creatures sit restlessly guarding a small red, crescent shaped cone. Ever since the cone appeared in the Badlands, they have been assigned to the duty of watching the lifeless object for any signs of activation. After months of watching and boredom, the cone begins to glow with dark magical aura. The guard’s skinny bodies tense and their big blue, buggy eyes grow wide with excitement and concern.

One of the guards that had larger insect-like wings and curvy horn barked out orders to its subordinates, “Inform the Queen right away,” he hissed, “it has finally awakened!”

After the group returns to the surface of the throne room, Shining Armor closes the entryway to the staircase and then looks at the newfound prisoners released from their dark make-shift dungeon. Being back above ground, they are able to get a better look at the still confused faces of the six stallions.

Shining Armor begins to interrogate the new indigo alicorn with a black mane and broken horn, “Who are you and what were you doing down there?”

The alicorn swallows and tries his best to answer, “I thought I was the first to ask the question down there, and that hasn’t been answered yet,” he crosses his fore legs, “What happened to King Sombra? He was right in front of me before everything went black.”

“King Sombra hasn’t been in power for the past thousand years,” Shining answers back.

“But that’s scientifically improbable!” a gray unicorn with a black and white mane sitting next to the alicorn chimes in, “if it has been a thousand years then why do I look like I haven’t aged a day.”

“Why not just say it’s impossible, Brainiac?” a fuzzy tan three-legged stocky earth pony pokes the unicorn, “Not every pony finds fun in memorizing the entire dictionary.”

The gray unicorn turns to the tri-pedal pony with a glare, “I have a name you know, Fluffy!”

“Guys! Knock it off!” a dark brown earth pony with a black mane and white spot on his forehead cuts between them, “Ya’ll would think that after a thousand year long nap, you wouldn’t be as cranky as a hissin’ rattlesnake.”

“It’s not fair!” the gray unicorn falls to the ground in agony, “my work, my reputation, my portfolio at the university! Does that mean that; all that work was for nothing?”

“Yep,” a crimson orange Pegasus with a yellow mane apathetically chimes in from behind, “Bummer, dude.” That remark causes the roan green Pegasus with random brown splotches covering his body beside him to whack the backside of the orange pegasus’s head. “Ouch! What was that for Bro?” as he rubs the new bump forming behind his ears.

“You’re not helping,” the green Pegasus glares at him.

“Listen up!” Twilight Sparkle cuts in causing the six colts to look at her. “Can you guys, just tell us what happened down there?” The colts look at each other and shrug, “Please? We would like to help you.”

“Well, I was the first one down there,” the alicorn looks at the floor where the staircase was, “King Sombra and his guards chained me up down there.” Then a tan fuzzy pony jumps in.

“The rest of us come looking for him because I saw him disappear with the king after an argument.”

“King Sombra is not known as a very nice king, so we were worried about him,” the gray unicorn adds.

“An’ we find him,” says the dark brown earth pony.

“Then I told you guys to run,” the alicorn tries to start again, “because I knew the king was setting a trap for all of us.”

“Yes… we missed that monologue,” the gray unicorn adds again.

“But, as we get to him--” the green Pegasus starts only to get cut-off by the orange one.

“King Sombra shows up and tries to dish-out an evil spell on us!” a green hoof meets the back of his head again, “Ouch! What? It just gets so exciting at this part; keep doing that and I’ll start to lose brain cells.”

“Too late.”

“Any ways,” the alicorn continues, “I could sense that he was going to cast something fierce on them, so I leapt forward without thinking with some kind of protection spell and here we are.”

“Did your protection spell clashing with his spell cause your horn to break?” Twilight asks.

“Wait, what?” he raises his fore hoof to feel around the top of his head and his pupils shrink to pinpricks, “Where’d it go? How did that happen? Why didn’t I notice it earlier?” he starts hyperventilating.

“That’s not the only thing you lost,” the orange Pegasus adds, “Didn’t you have a cutie-mark before?

The indigo alicorn walks in tight circles with wide eyes, “My cutie-mark too??” then he stops, “Wait, I had a cutie-mark I know it,” he taps his hoof on his chin, “But, why can’t I remember what it was?” He turns to his buddies, “do you guys remember what it was?”

They all take a breath like they are about to say something, but then stop and make weird faces only to tap their own hooves on their chins. The alicorn sighs, “I guess not.”

“But there was…something,” the gray unicorn adds and the rest just nod.

“Perfect,” the alicorn says downcast, “hornless and cutie-mark less.”

“You still got us, right?” the dark brown pony adds and the others nod.

“Your right, I guess,” the alicorn smiles a bit, “Even though it does sound kind of cheesy.”

“So,” Twilight keeps the interview going, “Who are you and what are your names?”

“Oh yeah, right, I may be hornless and cutie-mark less,” he says with a chuckle and a blush, “But, I’m not nameless. My name is Concorde.” He motions the rest of his party to introduce themselves and they go down the line they are in.

“My name is Aristotle,” the charcoal gray unicorn with the black and white striped mane and tail says. He also had goldenrod colored eyes and as well as a matching gold olive branch wreath cutie-mark. “I am known, or at least I was known, as a scholar at the Canterlot University.”

“Hi! My name is Tripod,” said the three-legged, tan colored hefty earth pony with a short mahogany mane and tail. He also had a three-cornered red knot as a cutie-mark stamped on his flank. And he was fuzzy, like really fuzzy. His fur was so dense and plush that it appeared to be standing on end. “Don’t ask me how I lost my leg,” he crosses his fore legs as Pinkie Pie raises her hoof, “and no, I won’t give you a reward if you find it.”

“Awe,” Pinkie puts her hoof down in defeat.

“Any who, my name is Polaris,” the dark brown earth pony continues the introductions. He also had a jet black mane and tail with a red bandana around his neck. Just under his bangs was a pure white diamond-shaped fleck on his forehead. He also had a two white treble clefs as his cutie-mark “my friends call me Pol; ya’ll are welcome to do the same.” (Pronounced Paul)

“And without further ado, dudes and dudettes,” the crimson orange Pegasus starts with an eye roll coming from the green one standing next to him, “My name is Aileron.” His yellow mane that turned to pale orange at the tips almost covered his eyes, and the ends were curled like he had hat hair.  He had a yellow windmill cutie-mark. “And I play with fire!” then he ducks his head when the green Pegasus tries to hit him “Ha, Ha! At least I have an upbeat attitude for my destructive habits.”

The roan green pegasus glares at Aileron, then he turns to introduce himself, “Excuse me, My name is Camouflage.” Just like his name implies, his body is covered with different flecks of green and brown and the colors that are intermixed with white hairs leaving his limbs and nose a darker green. His cutie-mark is a green leaf pointing up like the spades in a deck of cards. “Aileron and I are twin brothers,” after some odd looks from the group he adds, “fraternal twins,” then he turns to his brother. “And I may seem like I have a pessimistic attitude, but I am always the one cleaning up your ‘destructive habits’.”

“Well it’s very nice to meet you all,” Twilight greets them all with a smile. Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, and the rest of her five friends introduce themselves to the colts and after some time of introductions Twilight turns to Princess Cadence. With a face of concern she asks, “They all seem like ponies that were in the wrong place at the wrong time, so to speak,” she continues, “so what should they do know? After a thousand years, they must be lost in their new time.”

“Your right, Twilight,” Cadence agrees, “And I think I have an idea for what they should do to get accustomed to this time.”

“And what is that?” Twilight inquires.

“Well, Shining Armor doesn’t want you girls to live alone,” she taps her hoof to her chin, “and they are no doubt looking for a place to stay.”

“What?” Shining Armor protests, “No! I’m not letting a stranger stay with my sister!”

“Shining Armor,” Cadence assures her husband, “Just any other guard is practically a stranger to them, and this way we can take care of two things at once.”

“Wait! They are coming with us back to Ponyville?” Twilight asks as the other girls gasp as they really don’t know what to think about all this.

After some time of debating and compromising, all the girls were assigned with their respective bodyguard. Concorde with Twilight Sparkle, Aristotle with Rarity, Tripod with Pinkie Pie, Polaris with Apple Jack, Aileron with Rainbow Dash, and Camouflage with Fluttershy. With the problem solved at the Crystal Castle, Shining Armor escort them back to the train station.

On the way to the train station, Twilight can’t help but notice that Concorde was showing signs of being very uncomfortable walking down the Crystal Empire’s streets. He would walk to trot in little spurts, curling his tail to try and hide his blank flank, and even rearrange his bangs to try and cover his broken horn. It didn’t help that some crystal ponies would stop to point and whisper to each other.

Once they made it to the train station, Twilight whispered something to Rarity and gave her some bits. Rarity disappeared into the train station’s souvenir store momentarily and returned with a gray fedora hat. Rarity levitated the newly purchased hat and placed it on Concorde’s head, covering his broken horn. “There! Hopefully that should make you feel better; even though it’s simple, it makes you look dashingly handsome,” Rarity compliments her work.

“Thanks Rarity,” Concorde blushes from the compliment.

With that problem solved, the group boards the train and when Concorde looks out the window, he notices Shining Armor on the platform. Shining Armor has a stern look on his face and points a hoof to his eyes and then points his hoof at Concorde, he keeps repeating the hoof motions. He may have just met Shining Armor, but understands what it means and gulps uncomfortably. Then Shining’s face changes rapidly from stern to cheerful and waves his hoof. Concorde turns around and Twilight is standing behind him waving back at her brother.

As the whistle blows and the train leaves the station Concorde slouches in his seat, he thinks to himself, ‘What have I gotten myself into this time?’