The Guardian Colt

The day was early, a small breeze was sweeping over apple acres. The familiar sounds of apples 0could be heard hitting the ground as two ponies were bucking them, ready for autumn. The familiar sound of tribal drums were heard too, but not from the farm. A small tree house, re done to suit its new residence; that’s where the sound could be heard from. The sound only meant that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were welcoming a new member!

“We, the Cutie Mark crusaders, elect Button Mash to join us as a sister-“ there was an uncomfortable pause as the three exchanged looks of disbelief of what the unicorn just said.

“By Sister, I mean brother” Sweetie laughed nervously and continued to stare at the roll of paper; avoiding eye contact for a moment. The brown Colt looked at the Pegasus and the earth pony who were trying to stop themselves from laughing at what the white pony said. The unicorn executed a list of nouns with more hesitant pauses growing in between each one-

“Confidante… ally… bossom buddy… gal pal…compadre … blah blah blah…And fellow Cutie mark crusader!” Sweetie Belle paused as she read the rest of the paper.

“You are solemnly sworn in, here this day, in witness of your fellow sisters… Confidante… ally… bossom buddy… gal pal…compadre… Ah to heck with it; Congratulations!” She finally said with a huge grin.

With speech done, the white unicorn tossed a maroon clothe over the colt with a symbol of the groups design stitched on the side. The colt looked at his flank to where the symbol was and gave a small smile before looking back at Sweetie Belle. They all exchanged smiles before the energetic Pegasi spouted-

“So what’s todays plan for the Cutie Marks, the day’s still young and we need to fill it somehow.” She gestured to the window where the sun was not yet fully in the sky. They all exchanged a look, a look which showed thought. They all spent a few moments in quiet only for the silence to be broken by an “Oh, what about- oh wait, we’ve tried that never mind” or “Nah, that’ll never work”. The three fillies were hard at thinking, apart from the young colt who was now engrossed in his cyber life. Sweetie Belle understood Button Mash more than the other two, she was the one who invited him to join the Crusaders in the first place. She watched him as he pulled faces in the glow of his device.

“What about a Cutie Mark playing video games” the unicorn exclaimed. The two fillies looked at her with puzzled faces. Sweetie gestured Button Mash’s device. All of them took a seat behind the colt to see what he was playing. Too engrossed in the entertainment of it all they never asked what to do, they just watched in awe.

“Come on Big Mac! I see a couple of ‘em over here!” a pony’s voice echoed inside the tree house. The three fillies immediately identified the voice to being Applejacks. The sound of bucking came shortly after and hardly any of them could concentrate- mostly that being of the colt; Button Mash.

“Is there anywhere else we can go Sweetie?” He paused his game and turned round to look Sweetie Belle. Applebloom was quick to answer.

“Sure there is, but ya’ll better not make a mess!” She trotted out of the tree house and lead the three ponies to a barn; a hay barn to be exact. It was used to store Hay for the cows near apple acres. It wasn’t locked so the small ponies pushed their way in.

“Are you sure we’re allowed in here Applebloom” Sweetie Belle asked with a slight nerve in her voice. She inspected the higher floor to see Scootaloo already up there.

“This is way cool you guys! You should come up here!” Scootaloo shouted. Applebloom looked up with annoyance in her eyes, almost like Scootaloo had just ignore what she had just said back at the tree house. Button and Sweetie just ignored the look on Appleblooms’ face and climbed the hay to where the orange Pegasus stood. All the while the Brown Colt held his glowing device in his mouth- not letting any other pony touch it. Applebloom could only follow suit. It was warm higher up and this comforted the young ponies as they all nestled in the hay to watch the Colt resume is quest in the cyber reality. They were all in trance by the mechanism, before being broken from the spell by a noise from across the other side of the barn. Something else was in the barn…

“What was that?” Sweetie Belle asked, at this point felt slightly on edged. Something made the noise and it was in the same vicinity- that was all that was playing in her mind. Button looked up only to quickly look back down in response to a bleep. He and Scootaloo were too involved in what the device was showing. Applebloom and Sweetie on the other hand were staring at the other corner of the upper level of the barn- which is where the sound came from. Sweetie Belles eyes showed fear whereas Appleblooms showed confusion. The little yellow pony stood up and trotted over to where the sound came from; Sweetie Belle in the foot of her shadow. As the earth pony inspected one side of the hay, the white unicorn did so on the other; only to find a small Pegasus; approximately the same height as herself. She paused in disbelief- who was it? She had never seen the pony before.

He was a young colt, with a slivery white coat and an orange mane and tail. He was faced backward so she couldn’t see his face.

“Urmmm…” with the word humming in Sweetie Belles throat the colt turned and showed his face. His eyes were a mixture of blue and green, something calm and soothing was held about them. He had a softly rounded muzzle and on his forehead; something unusual was exposed. The Colt had two small pearlescent horns, almost like devil horns but the colt looked far from evil- he looked lost and confused. He took a couple of steps back till he met the wall of the barn. He looked behind him only to respond with a look of anxiety –he obviously didn’t want them to know he was there. Applebloom came over to confirm there was nothing to be found.

“Hey, Sweetie there’s-“ She paused as she took the sight in. She was staring at somepony she had never met before, but that wasn’t the point. She caught sight of his horns and she cocked her head.

“What are those?” The colt looked up. “Those horns? Are you- are you an Alicorn?” She was more in curiosity to be angry that somepony else, who she hardly knew taking refuge in her family’s barn. The Colt only looked at the two fillies in horror. He was on edge and wished that they never found him.

He was caught outside last night in the storm, so finding the barn gave him somewhere dry and warm to rest up. He tripped over which was the noise that altered the Crusaders.

“No Cutie Mark?  We haven’t gout ours either.” Appleblooms voice drifted sympathy with each word, truing to relate to the colt. She was trying to get the colt to speak, in hope she could recognise his voice. Applebloom always went to the market with Granny Smith, she had been than many times she recognised all the senses: Taste of the hot buns, Sights of the familiar items, smell of the apple pies, the feeling of the muddy ground which everypony had made hard and uncomfortable. But one sense she was most familiar with was voices- she could recognise a pony before she even saw them just by their voice! But she got nothing from the colt, only him looking at his blank flank, ears pressed behind his head.

Sweetie Belle was in awe over his appearance, she didn’t understand the presence of two horns. She only had the one, so why had he got two?

“Can you use magic?” She was curious to hear his response. Applebloom was staring at his flank as she looked back to his horns. She was also curious to what he could do with them. But still no answer, just silence as he looked back at them.

xxxx

“Awwww! Did you see that? I could have had that skeleton if I had the sword of Hamrick!” the colt expressed with anger. Scootaloo was now losing interest in Buttons device and wondered why they came to the barn in the first place. Her mind was set back on trying to earn her cutie mark so she made her way over to the two fillies staring at the wall.

“Hey, are we going to try for our cutie marks today? Or what?” She grunted. As she got closer she saw the two staring in unison. She walked round the hay stack to see the colt the two were trying to question at hand (or hoof). Her eyes widened as she saw his wings.

“AWWW! Another Pegasus!” She was ecstatic to see yet another Pegasus in the same room. She got closer to him and put her hoof on his blank flank-

“And NO Cutie Mark- who is this guy?” The orange Pegasus took no notice of the horns which were quite clearly on the young colts head. The slivery colt could only watch as she looked him up and down until Scootaloo finally caught sight off his horns.

“Wow! Cool horns!” Scootaloo hesitated before asking, “You’re a Pegasus right?”

The colt pulled his head back slightly and nodded slowly. This was the first proper response that he had given even if was non-verbal. Both Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were in shock, Scoots made it look easy talking to the young pony. Scootaloo smiled in response to his nodding and she just looked him over as Applebloom continued trying to question him-

“So what’s your name? How old are you?” Applebloom was trying to sound friendly so she could persuade the colt to respond so she could understand the situation a bit more, but all he did was watch Scootaloo look him up and down. It seemed to be that ponies of the same species had a better understanding of each other than another race, this was quite clear in this situation anyway.

xxxx

Five minutes passed and the colt- who still remained silent- was beginning to look more relaxed. He had stopped watching Scootaloo who was still looking at him but this time she was fixated on his horns. He was looking at the two ponies who stood in front of them, head to one side (almost like a puppy dog) The silence was interrupted by an over excited purple haired pony.

“Would you like to earn your cutie mark with us?” Scootaloo said with a sheepish grin. The colt stopped looking at the two ponies in front of him and looked at the orange filly. He shook his head and got up onto his hoofs. He backed up and picked what looked like a white saddle bag up with a blue lightning bolt on the side. He hooked it over his back; covering his blank flank and walked gently to the edge of the upper level of the barn. He didn't look back or even look at Button Mash- who was now bored of playing alone and decided to come see what the other crusaders were up to. Buttons eyes went small as he watched the white Pegasus jump off the edge and run out of the barn door.

“Who was he?” Button turned to the others for at least some logic to who he just saw. The fillies only shrugged and shook their heads. It was something they all wanted to know…