Name: Element Isle (Elly)
Species: Pony – Earth Pony
Gender: Female
Coat Color: Very Light Blue (Almost White)
Mane Color: Faded-Yellow
Eye Color: Red
Cutie Mark: A Cluster of Sparkling Gems

Abilities: Can innately detect anything within the ground and sense when things are moving across the earth’s surface as long as they are within a given radial proximity. That proximity is increasing with time but extends several dozen meters. She seems to have a near supernatural-sense for detecting magic, magical intent, and living creatures.

Unique Features: I am not sure why but we can tell areas of her brain both unrelated and related to sensory perception react to the presence of living creatures, magic, and general movement. So her ability has something to do with her brain. I am unsure whether this is all neurological or something else.

As I said, everything got a lot more hectic once Plum joined us and we officially became the Unknown Guardians.

I did sometimes question why Celestia allowed Esper to stay with us even though she was so young. Perhaps I mentioned the radiation problem to Celestia or Esper requested it or Celestia just decided it was okay. Who knows? I’m just glad she’s with us.

But I digress; from then on we were constantly sent on missions for the Princess. Sometimes they would be related to the dark signals, other times they were just to head off a monster problem or political issues. Naturally, we also did our own investigations.

Most of the time, when we were on official duty dealing with monsters and disputes between towns, it really was not that bad. Equestrian monsters are generally fairly reasonable and at worst are similar to Earth animals. Very few are malicious. For us they were easy to deal with. And most disputes are readily solvable (especially with some technological or magical application). Of course, I always had to lie about my presence. Not that this was hard. The average being is much more willing to accept that I am a magical construct than an actual human.

On the other hand, the signals were troublesome. We never encountered anything like the shadow pegasus, but we encountered everything from toxins, to golems, to magical traps. Sometimes monsters were corrupted and we had to use Barn and Esper’s magic to dispel them. It seemed like every time we investigated a signal we were attacked. We had to save numerous towns and most of it was done in secret. (Again, we could not afford others trying to investigate these occurrences.) The good news was it was never as dangerous as it was with the basilisk or the shadow pegasus. Much of that was because we learned how to properly fight.

Nonetheless, as soon as we cleared out and purified one area it seemed like another signal would pop up. We learned to spread out and investigate multiple places at once. It does not seem to make all that much of a difference. Even now, we don’t know exactly what is causing these events and the signals keep appearing at increasing rates.

For our efforts, Princess Celestia granted us access to literally anything within the Royal Library and told us anything she knew. We quickly copied and added all we could to our databases while simultaneously going on missions to gather more information. We could also request specific items or individuals and we would almost always get our requests approved. We are still cataloguing everything but by now our collected knowledge extends past even the royal archives.

It was a thankless job but rewarding all the same. I mean, I felt important. I had always felt unimportant and tiny in the grand scheme of things. But now I mattered and reporting to the Princess (and very occasionally some of her advisors or associates) on a job well done was perhaps one of the greatest rewards in and of itself.

So, life was hectic but exciting.

It was also nice being Equestria’s force deterrent. In one notable case, when a group of dragons seemed to consider some sort of display of power for intimidation, Celestia sent us as “delegates” to show our abilities to the dragons. She told both Zed and I to show ourselves explaining that, unlike other short-lived creatures, dragons do not think humans are mythical, they think humans are extinct.

So, though the dragons were not afraid when Esper, Barn, and Plum showed up (even though they should have been), their tune changed once Zed and I appeared. While they sorted out what they were seeing, I initiated our “proposal.” I pointed to the sky, showing them the hundreds of drones in the air, and pointed to a nearby rock formation. Hundreds of explosives rained down and obliterated the area. All of us then activated every enchantment Barn made for our armor, generating a field of magical aura. The dragons naturally thought everything we did was magic and that each drone was a magical construct for war. Needless to say, they departed as fast as draconically possible.

While we played our part, the sheer brilliance of Celestia’s action did not hit me until long afterward. She showed them that Equestria had what amounts to extinct creatures under their control. Moreover, that these creatures were human meant something. One of the dragons even claimed to have met a human a long time ago and was wary of me even before anything started. That says a surprising amount about humanity’s interactions with this world and the presence humans had.

Speaking of which, during my Equestrian studies, sometimes I would find books with information about humans not reported by the Unknown during the expedition. Much of it was quite amusing. Interestingly, a few human terms might have somehow passed over to Equestria. The oddest ones are the weapons of war. I have heard of terms like “built like a tank” or “as fast as a bullet” but I can see very few references to their cultural origin. There are only rough sketches of the supposed items of war and they have taken on a mythical persona within the culture similar to that of dragons or other magical creatures on human Earth. Everyone knows about them and references them but none seem to believe in them.

I think this was what inspired me to make my first prototype Magnetic And Pressure Accelerated Energy Rifle (abbreviated as MAPAER). I needed a better long-range weapon. Magical attacks were not rapid enough. Because the explosives I was familiar with don’t work well accelerating bullets on Equestria, I made a weapon that used magnets and pressure to accelerate a solid compound that violently turns to plasma upon impact. Not good for piercing armor but certainly enough to hurt any opponent. And of course I continued to build more weapons of war.

I still have mixed feelings about that. I stayed on Equestria to get away from those kinds of things, but I suppose I cannot escape the influence the States had on my life. I guess there is no shame as long as they are used for the right purpose. For that, I definitely have shown the proper amount of restraint befitting a royal representative. And I will admit, as the incident with the dragons proved, there is a certain sense of joy at being a walking-arsenal.

Moving on to another subject, during that time we also grew older and began celebrating birthdays and holidays. Many Equestrian holidays matched those on humanity's Earth. Barn had never had a birthday before (not one he remembered). He was blown away by his first surprise party. For Esper, holidays were great events. Even with all of our battles, she was still a filly. Plum and Barn were always willing to accompany her to some sort of grand celebration. Unfortunately, even now, Zed and I are generally forced to watch from a distance or from a UAV. That’s why Nightmare Night is one of my favorite holidays. It means I get to go out and collect candy and no one suspects that I am not just a pony using a transformation or illusion spell. You’d think they’d catch on.

Life was an adventure. We became a band of adventurers. Like the old games of D&D I used to play with Nick and his friends. It was actually kind of fun.

Nothing major happened until midway through my second year on Equestria. We had just finished another batch of missions not worth getting into for this report. Point is, we were separated when something came up.

Zed: Stratos.

Stratos: Yeah.

Zed: Look at this. Readings from the HQ CPU.

(He sent an image to my suit’s HUD.)

Stratos: The Citadel Mountain Range?

*PAUSE*

Stratos: Is that signal moving?

Esper: What?! Really? It’s never done that before.

Zed: As soon as we got near it, the dark signals started to move in a particular direction. There is no documented case of that happening, except for the time with the basilisk.

Plum: A storm is moving in that location as well. What the hay? Is that a pony?

Barn: It… Zed, is this thing following them?

Zed: That appears to be an accurate assessment.

Plum: I can do my best but if that storm comes in it will take a while to clear it and it will obstruct the vision of the reapers and our attack drones.

Stratos: If we act, we will be on our own. No technological support besides what we have on us.

Esper: You mean when we act, we aren’t leaving a pony to die.

Stratos: Right, we are going in. Who’s the closest?

Zed: That would be you.

Stratos: Got it; If the boosters can take the snow then I can get there in maybe five minutes. What’s everyone else’s ETA?

Zed: Eight.

Esper: Seven for Barn and me.

Plum: Six, maybe five, but do you want me to focus on the weather or to help you?

Barn: When the dark magic acts, it acts fast.

Stratos: Barn’s right. We’ll forget the support this time. I’ll see everyone there.

To summarize: Something was odd about that particular event. Until then, the signals had been stationary. Something was chasing a pony through those mountains.

The Citadel Mountain Range was particularly cold and barren. The air was surprisingly thin. The storm dropped temperatures to -10°C not including wind-chill or the heavy snow. Without my HUD it was nearly impossible to see anything. And once the storm obstructed the satellites we just had to hope the pony would follow the predicted path and we could find them.

The terrain was also problematic. The snow and ice impeded movement while the jagged rocks made it hard to get a proper footing. I fell and ran into many objects in my dash to get there on time. I didn't care, I knew that the armor would protect me just fine.

I remember being thankful my recon suit could keep me relatively warm and being quite fearful that the cold would do-in the pony before I got there. For the first time in a long time I was fearful of death.

Luckily, even within the storm, I managed to spot the pony.

She was an Earth Pony, shakily trudging through the snow. When I saw her she collapsed, slowly pushed herself up, and collapsed again. She was clearly exhausted. Thin layers of ice coated some of her body. I was surprised she could move at all.

She was staring at me. In the howling winds she could still see me and I could see that pleading look in her eyes. I offhandedly checked my HUD’s clock and found out I was almost a minute early; I realized she had been heading straight towards me for some time.

I went over to her. She was shivering due to the cold. Her face was covered in frozen tears but she smiled when I approached.

Stratos: Who are you?

Elly: I-I-I am Element-t-t-t Isle; you c-c-c-can call m-m-me Elly if-f-f you want. W-w-who are you?

Stratos: I am Doctor Stratos Lucid. I am here to help.

Elly: D-d-d-do you ha-have s-s-s-something warm?

Stratos: Yes. Don’t worry, we’ll save you.

My recon armor is modular. We redesigned our armors so that we could take pieces from one armor and allow them to function independently or as a part of another’s armor, even if they were not of the same species. In this case, that had particular application.

I took off pieces from the reinforced areas of my armor and attached them around her body. It was no doubt a little awkward and uncomfortable for her, but the individual armor computers figured out what was wrong and began to act as warmers to slowly raise her body temperature.

I held her close to shield her from the winds and snow as well as add heat from my suit.

Stratos: There. That should help. What are you doing here Elly?

(She was already beginning to fall asleep in my arms. Knowing that time was running out, I had to lightly shake her awake.)

Stratos: Elly, why were you running?

Elly: *Softly* In my bag.

It was then I noticed that she had something a bag strapped to her side. I was so focused on helping her I completely missed it. I reached in and pulled out an old journal. Dusty, aged, worn, and now partly wet. I slipped it into a slot for folders/papers in the back of my armor for safe-keeping. When I finished, Elly’s eyes flew open.

Elly: It’s here.

Stratos: What is?

Elly: The shadow.

My memories fell back to the battle with the Shadow Pegasus. I was much stronger than back then, but I had just weakened my armor (though it was still stronger than back then) and I was unsure I could match it on my own.

Stratos: Blizzard’s blocking my motion sensors.

Elly: What?

Stratos: Nothing. Hold on.

(I picked her up and began to run in the opposite direction from which she came.)

Stratos: Everyone, if you get this signal, converge on my position. I have the pony. She was being followed by a shadow.

???(Esper?): *Garbled*

Stratos: Damn.

Elly: Behind you!

I looked over my shoulder. I couldn’t see anything. I felt an impact across my back. I tumbled into the snow and landed on top of Elly. I got up in a panic but rediscovered that ponies are indeed much tougher than they look. In fact, Elly was worried for my safety.

Elly: Doctor, are you alright?

Stratos: I’m fine. You can sense it?

Elly: Yes.

Stratos: Good. I need to link up with my friends. I—

(She spun around.)

Elly: It’s back.

I jumped in front of her and activated my shield just in time to block the force that slammed into it. I shoved the shield forward, flinging off the object. It landed in the snow. In the split second before it disappeared into the storm I saw the shadowy wolf. It had the same ethereal form that oozed darkness. It had glared at me with those same hollow crimson eyes. And the speed it had disappeared with was just as impossible as before.

Stratos: A wolf. Last one was a pegasus. There’s more than one. (I shook my head) Focus.

Elly: Left!

The wolf darted in, striking my left arm, tearing off some of the armor, and knocking me off my feet. Even as I hit the ground, I reflexively surveyed the situation. My left hand was now bruised and being slowed by the cold. I figured there might not be any backup coming. We might be on our own. The best chance we had was to take it out ourselves. Elly’s ability gave me the edge I needed. I got up and initiated a simple plan.

Stratos: *Grunt* Elly. (I pulled out my sickle and activated its enchantments.) Where is it?

(Elly closed her eyes.)

Elly: Front.

(The wolf shot in. I could not react fast enough and it tore into my right leggings.)

Elly: Doctor!

Stratos: Again.

Elly: Behind.

(The shadow struck and damaged Elly’s left-hind leg before i could complete my pivot.)

Stratos: Are you—

Elly: Forward left.

(I sung. My attack was too low. It struck me in the stomach, throwing me into a sheet of ice. I quickly jumped back onto my feet, focused, and readied myself for the next attack.)

Stratos: Once more.

It was clever. It knew I was catching on to its movements. This time the wolf took its time before it acted. I began to question whether it had just left us or not. Really what it was doing was waiting for our guard to falter.

Stratos: It looks like—

Elly: Above.

This time I did not hesitate or even think. I held my ground. I could not see it but I mentally pictured where it would likely be. I reached forward with my left hand, grabbed its muzzle, held my weapon out sideways and swung it in an upward arc. The blade contacted with the creature’s stomach and gouged out a huge portion of its shadowy form. Using its own momentum, I managed to yank it backwards and toss it over my shoulder. Its body landed in the snow.

I was glad these things don’t bleed. Otherwise it would have been quite messy.

Stratos: *Quick Breaths* Okay, that should do it.

Elly: *Worried* It’s still alive.

Stratos: What?

The wolf got back up and growled at us. Its wounds, hissing black mist, began to regenerate. I did not catch it on the recording but I was sure I heard it say something with “Human” being one of those words. It continued to get stronger.

Stratos: Run!

I pulled out and chucked a throwing knife into its head. The knife detonated blowing off half the thing’s face. Even though it staggered, the creature did not die. It snarled at me as its face regenerated.

Elly and I sprinted as best we could but we were wounded and slowed by the snow.

Stratos: Can you sense where my friends are?

Elly: I… (She looked a little to our right) I sense something friendly.

Stratos: We’re heading that way.

(I picked her up as best I could and activated the boosters once more. They barely worked but they did something.)

Elly: It’s coming.

I dropped Elly, spun around and punched forward. My fist contacted with its teeth, snapping them and shredding my gauntlet. The creature was thrown down into the snow. It got up but, before it could move again, a cluster of spears dropped down from the sky. One of them impaled the wolf.

Plum: Did I get it?

(The wolf tore itself from the spear and bolted away.)

Plum: Darn. (Plum landed in front of me.) Another creature of darkness.

Stratos: Plum, get back up into the air now.

Plum: Why?

(The wolf rammed into her side. I fired a spike out of my gauntlet but it jumped away. I quickly helped Plum back up.)

Stratos: It can strike anywhere and it can regenerate. *I saw Elly look up* Spear!

(Using her Helios armor, Plum generated a group of spears. I grabbed one and swung it in a sweeping circle. The magic pole contacted the wolf and threw it away. The wolf disappeared once more.)

Stratos: We need more firepower.

Plum: Zed or Esper?

Stratos: Yeah. Hold off until then.

(I don’t remember this happening but the audio record indicates we were hit again.)

*Thump*

Stratos: Get going.

Plum: Or I’ll just fly away with her.

(Plum flew forward, grabbed Elly and shot into the sky.)

Stratos: That should have occurred to me.

(I felt something rush by me and saw the wolf running up the side of the mountain after them. Energy began to surround its body.)

Stratos: That’s bad.

(I chased after it. It opened its mouth and released a lance of energy which hit its mark. The mark was Plum. She struggled to regain altitude and the creature closed in.)

Stratos: Crap!

I pulled out my MAPAER to try and shoot the wolf. Unfortunately, not only was I a poor shot but the weapon was still experimental. Half of the rounds did not detonate. The ones that did hit did not slow the wolf down. It jumped off the side of the mountain and clamped its jaw around Plum’s wing. With the flight suit’s assistance Plum could have still flown if it was not for the fact that she was still carrying Elly.

The three crash-landed back into the snow. Plum rolled with the impact and head-butted the monster. It tried to bite her but Plum bit into its neck first. From there it became a wrestling match between Plum and the wolf.

I ran over to Elly and made sure she was okay.

Having problems getting through Plum’s armor, the wolf began using magic again. It tried to give Plum a point-blank energy blast. Plum activated one of her enchantments, releasing a magical shield. The energy blast reflected back at the shadow-wolf blowing away a chunk of its body. Plum triggered a series of mechanisms, causing a flurry of darts to shoot from her armor and into the wolf. The chemicals in the darts mixed bursting into flames temporarily lighting the wolf on fire. This hardly stopped it.

Thinking of what I could do, I pulled out Elly’s journal.

Stratos: Looking for this!?

The wolf turned to me and rushed forward. I put the journal back in my suit and readied myself for a fight, starting with a barrage of machine gun plasma. It went right around me and lunged for Elly.

Midway through the jump, it was impaled by a large metal shard. As it fell, Barn burst out from the snow and stabbed the thing in the head with a magical blade.

Esper seemingly appeared behind me.

Stratos: Timely.

Esper: We try.

Stratos: But it’s not dead.

The wolf roared. A torrent of magical energy spewed forth from the creature tearing up the environment. Several waves of force struck Barn, throwing him back and damaging his armor.

Esper moved to shield us with a wall of thick metal.

It was at this point I did something rather stupid. I moved around the wall and charged toward the creature, ignoring its barrage of attacks. I withstood several magical lances (helped by my natural resistance to magic), shoved the MAPAER into its mouth, and pulled the trigger. The gun was not intended to be used that much or under these conditions. One of the bullets ignited within the chamber igniting all of the other rounds. I almost emptied the magazine when the gun exploded in my hand.

My left hand was almost frozen and my right hand was barely functioning.

Predictably, while heavily mangled, the wolf was not dead. At this point, I had no real means of protection. The wolf slammed into my chest and knocked me to the ground. I instinctively held up my left arm and it bit down into my flesh. I was too numb to feel it. I tried to shake it off. It released my arm and went for my skull. Luckily it had to break through my helmet first.

My ears rang at the sound of its jaw chomping into the metal. While the visor cracked the wolf could not complete its goal before Barn interrupted it. A razor coil wrapped around the shadow-wolf’s back leg and yanked the creature backwards while ripping off the limb.

I ran back to Elly while Esper moved in to attack. Elly and I watched my companions battle the shadow-wolf.

Spears fell from the sky, metal lances flew from all sides, and Barn exchanged magical strikes with his opponent. They focused all of their assaults on the creature but it just would not go down. No matter how much metal pierced its body, no matter what kinds of magic or weapon impacted it, no matter how many times chucks of its body were blown away, it just kept healing and attacking. But I could count on my friends to keep at it for a while longer.

I was more worried about my own health. The cold was preventing any significant blood-loss but, with so much armor torn away, the temperature was also beginning to get to me. It took a significant amount of effort to prevent myself from shivering.

Stratos: Elly, i-i-i-is… is there any way to kill this?

Elly: I don’t know. This is the first time it has attacked me.

Stratos: I thought you said it was following you.

Elly: Darkness was following me but it did not attack me until you arrived. *Elly’s eyes opened wide in shock* Something strong is coming. It has an aura but it has no life.

Stratos: Heh, it’s probably Zed.

Elly: Is it on our side?

Stratos: Yup, be prepared for something awesome.

Zed: Target Verified. Commencing hostilities.

Zed launch himself out of the blizzard, landed on top of the wolf, and punched its head into the ground. Before it could react, Zed jumped off and threw his detonator knife into the wolf’s head. The knife exploded. Zed charged forward upper cutting the creature into the air. He fired a grappling hook from his right gauntlet into his opponent and pulled the wolf back to him allowing him to jump-kick it.

Zed was unbelievably strong. You could practically feel the force of each of his blows and you could definitely hear them.

The wolf slammed into a rock wall and prepared to fire a magical blast. Zed released a burst of energy into the ground kicking up the snow and obscuring his position. The wolf fired a bolt of energy but Zed was gone. Zed somehow dropped from the sky. The wolf jumped out of the way.

Zed triggered a detonator in his left hand. Zed had managed to plant an explosive within the snow. It detonated under the creature. How he set up or predicted that attack I have no idea.

In spite of all the damage it had taken, the wolf dashed forward to strike Zed. Zed simply wrenched his right arm upward. A razor coil slithered up from underneath the snow, whipped around the wolf, and tore into it from seemingly every angle. Zed burst forward and roundhouse-kicked the wolf out of sight.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then an empty, hollow, perhaps gasping roar saturated our surroundings, coming from every direction.

Fully healed, the dark creature commenced its attack from the shadows, trying to assault Zed from any angle. It occasionally disappeared into the darkness to fire its long-range magical attacks, including balls of fire and spears of ice.

Even Zed could not dodge all the attacks but he deflected, parried, or rolled with each blow, dampening each hit to near negligence.

Having enough of this, Zed walked over to one of Esper’s larger metal shards, picked it up, and jammed it straight down into the ground.

The wolf darted towards Zed.

Zed spun around, grabbed the wolf, and used its momentum to impale it on the shard. He activated another one of his armor’s hidden weapons and enchantments, firing dozens of magically-enhanced serrated darts into the wolf. He leaped backwards, pulled out a grenade and lobbed it at his target.

The shadow ripped itself from the metal shard and dashed away before the grenade went off. It disappeared into the blizzard once more. As it came back to attack, Zed gripped Azrael and glared. The wolf hesitated and headed back into the storm.

The storm intensified and dozens of glue-golems pushed up from under the snow, camouflaging them in a layer of white.

Zed was too much for it one-on-one. The shadow-wolf no longer put itself in harm’s way. Instead, using its variety of magical attacks, it continued its assault from the cover of the storm.

Zed unsheathed Azrael with his right hand, unhooked his repeating crossbow from his back and held it in his left hand, activated the shield over his left arm, and continued to manipulate the razor coil with his right arm. For almost anyone else, this amount of equipment would have been unwieldy. For Zed, it made him almost untouchable. Zed’s speed, strength, agility, and precision were unmatched. Anything that got close enough was cut to shreds by Zed’s legendary sword. Anything that stayed out of immediate reach was torn apart by the razor coil. Any long-range attack was blocked by the shield. Anything that tried to stay and fight from a distance was shot with the crossbow (and Zed had packed plenty of ammo).

All the while, the rest of the Unknown Guardians, and Elly, regrouped and formulated our own plans.

Esper: Are you okay?

Stratos: I can’t feel my left arm and I wish I couldn’t feel my right arm. I’m not shivering anymore which is probably a bad sign. You know, I’d like to have just one major battle where I’m not coming out half dead or half-conscious.

Barn: Where are the regenerators?

(Note: We made a bunch of healing magic-based enchantments for our suits to slowly heal us in the midst of battle in case Barn could not help.)

Stratos: I gave it to Elly.

Elly: You did?

Stratos: Why do you think you can move your legs again? Unfortunately for me, the detachable localized heaters were built into the regenerators. Stupid design flaw.

Elly: Do you need them?

Stratos: Probably be good but if I removed them now you might go into shock.

Esper telekinetically “shuffled” our armors. She took some parts from her and Barn’s suits and attached them to Elly. Then she took off the pieces I gave to Elly and reattached them to me and then took some of the back-up or redundant pieces from her and Barn’s suits and gave them to me as well. (Yay for magic!)

Esper: There we go.

Elly: So you will heal right?

Stratos: No, well, yes, but one thing that sucks about being human is my natural resistance to magic. Well not really, as it means magical attacks don’t hurt me as much but these healed you so quickly because we had to make specialized extra-strong regenerators to bypass that anti-magic field.

Elly: Um…?

Stratos: So I will heal very slowly. I’m probably spent for this battle.

Plum: *Lands in front of us* Stupid wolf! It keeps running away.

Stratos: Which probably means it can be killed.

Plum: What?

Esper: It keeps running away. It would not do that if it did not have a limit to its regeneration. ‘scuse me for a moment.

(She took some of the back-up parts from Plum’s armor and evenly distributed them among us. Yay for modular designs!)

Plum: Then the biggest problem is killing it before it can escape?

Barn: We need to get it out of this storm so we can pursue it.

Stratos: What is the closest place where the storm is weak?

Esper: The valley directly below this mountain. But I’m sure the storm would just follow us if we did not get there quickly.

Stratos: So, any thoughts about getting down there quickly?

*PAUSE* (Besides all of the explosions and other miscellaneous sounds from Zed’s battle with the shadow-creature.)

Stratos: Seriously, any ideas will do.

*PAUSE*

Elly: Do you have more explosives? (We all stared at her, causing her to falter for a moment.) And something I could, um, drill through the rocks with?

(I pulled out a blast rod from my armor.)

Stratos: This thing is a tube filled with high-explosives and tipped with a drill. We made it for dealing with fortified walls so it should go through rock just fine. Stick it in the ground, apply pressure, and it will do the rest. It explodes twelve seconds after it is completely immersed in the object it drills through. Why do you want it?

Elly did not explain herself. She snatched the device out of my hand with her mouth and ran away. The four of us just stared blankly at the pony trying to put the pieces together. But as soon as the others realized where Elly was headed, they immediately galloped after her.

Ignoring the danger of doing so, and only able to do so because my friends protected her from attacks, Elly rushed past Zed and stuck the blast rod into the ground. The drill activated and it dug into the mountain. Elly sprinted back towards my direction while Zed and the others soon turned to follow.

The wolf chased after them and the rod detonated.

The whole mountain began to shake.

And finally, I put the pieces together. I thought back to our approximate geographical position. We were standing on a good-sized chunk of the mountain that somehow managed to hang over a large cliff-face that went from the near top of the mountain to the near bottom of a ravine.

This section had just been dislodged from the rest.

Stratos: Well… that’s certainly one way to do it.

The rock cracked and buckled. It tore away and shifted under our feet (or hooves). As it came apart, and as I began to realize that gravity was pulling me towards the valley below, I considered the impossibility that one stick of explosives had done all of this.

That was when it occurred to me. It was not luck. She knew exactly where to place it. She knew where the ground was weak and how it would react to this.

Of course, the implications of those thoughts would have to wait for later. For now, the Unknown Guardians were plummeting towards the earth, mere meters away from the jagged rocks of the cliff, with a seemingly unkillable shadow-wolf still chasing after us.

I remember that scene rather vividly. It was almost like that time with the Dark-Pegasus. Everything slowed down. But this time it was because I was afraid. All I saw was white, snowy clouds above, below, and all around us. Everything was still dark and dim. The sounds of rushing air drowned out all other noise. The rocks continuously broke off and fell from above. I tried to stay close to the cliff but that was a foolish idea. Immense stone outcroppings would appear and disappear from my vision, giving me mere moments to avoid them at best. One false move and I could have been crushed or killed in an impact.

I focused on staying alive. With my armor being damaged or patched together and my body still recovering, I was pretty much useless anyway.

On the other hand, my companions continued the battle. I only pieced together what happened after the event. From what I understand, it went like this:

Plum grabbed onto Elly and flew off with her before the wolf could catch up.

Zed, Barn, and Esper began running down the side of the mountain chasing after the wolf. They expertly dodged, blasted through, and weaved around all of the deadly obstacles. They were not afraid. They told me this was their duty as defenders of Equestria. They were only focused on one thing, killing their target.

As soon as Elly was pulled away by Plum, the wolf tried to hit them with another magical strike but Zed interrupted. He pushed off a falling rock and punched the wolf's head away, causing its attack to detonate against the cliff. After a few brief clashes, Zed grabbed the wolf by the side of its head and smashed it against the stone. Zed activated his boosters to pin the wolf and continuously grind its body against the rock. The wolf released a burst of energy knocking Zed away. Esper hurled one of the large falling boulders toward the wolf. The wolf used its magic to blow the rock to bits. Barn shot through the debris and tackled the wolf.

Barn activated and jabbed the blades on his front legs into the wolf’s neck, he pushed away and threw the nearly-decapitated creature into one of the rock outcroppings, narrowly avoiding the same fate himself in the next second. The outcropping broke off. Esper fired a barrage of metal at the position, covered herself in metal, and activated her boosters, accelerating her toward the target.

Esper rammed through the stone crushing the wolf and propelling it out of sight. Esper caught up to Barn and the two continued to chase after the wolf.

A storm of magical energy flew in from every direction, ripping the mountain apart.

The two ponies jumped from rock to rock avoiding everything they could and hoping their armor would protect them from the rest.

The wolf moved in and used its speed to attack them from their blind-spots. Esper and Barn remained determined; they ignored their wounds and did the best they could to launch their own magical assaults. Most of their attacks missed, only obliterating any rocks that happened to be in their line of fire.

Before this could continue for too long, spears and crossbow bolts appeared from the clouds striking the wolf and throwing it back against the cliff. Zed appeared firing his grappling hook into the wolf, yanking the beast back towards him, and stabbing it through the head with one of Plum’s spears.

Esper, Barn, and Plum unleashed another barrage of weapon and magical fire in the wolf’s direction, filling the creature with holes. Before the creature could escape, Zed revved his boosters and stomped it downwards towards the ground. The wolf ricocheted off the cliff and disappeared into the clouds once more.

We appeared out of the bottom of the clouds and discovered we were maybe only a few hundred meters from the ground. We all activated Plum’s “glider equipment” and landed on the snow.

I got up and Elly pushed me out of the way of a boulder. There were still rocks coming down from above.

Elly: Follow me!

The five of us sprinted after Elly as an increasingly aggressive tidal wave of rock fell upon our position. It was impossible to avoid everything. Our armor barely protected us from the smaller rocks and Esper had to use her ability to protect Elly.

But as Elly navigated us around the torrent of stone, more golems appeared and the wolf started taking pot-shots at us. While they tried to impede our advance, most of our adversaries were crushed before they could act.

In the middle of this chaos, Zed tossed me his MAPAER along with his ammo. I caught the items, inserted a clip, and commenced shooting anything hostile.

We continued to dodge the stone from above, blast through any threat in front of us, and block or deflect dozens of magical bolts. Barn would use his enchantments to blast through any stone immediately ahead or above us while Zed would bash or slash anything out of our way.

The shadow-wolf persisted, using its speed to dart in and tear away at us as we ran. It could not hurt us badly but the slight delays reduced our reaction to the environment. After we all had one too many close calls, a frustrated Plum bucked the wolf into the bottom of a particularly large chunk of falling granite ending its activities.

After traveling far enough from the cliff and evading another spiteful meteor shower, the rock-fall ceased with one final noticeable kinetic impact.

Absolutely exhausted, I fell helmet-protected face-first into the snow.

Stratos: *Panting* Okay, new rule. *Panting* We are never doing that again!

Plum: It wasn’t that bad.

Zed: You need more practice.

Stratos: Well excuse me for never considering—

Elly: It’s still not dead.

Plum: Oh, come on!

Esper: (To Elly) Are you psychic?

Stratos: Explain it later. Elly got us out of its storm.

Barn: Will it not attack without the storm?

Zed: Satellite uplink. The clouds are closing in.

Plum: Looks like we can’t rely on fighting it outside of its environment.

Esper: But now we have some time. We need a new plan.

Elly: Something is wrong with it. It is not healing properly.

Stratos: Hm…

Barn: So hurting it wasn’t pointless after all.

Zed: After this sentence, we have approximately fifty seconds before it is ready to attack.

Stratos: Zed, can you stun it?

Zed: Unquestionably.

Stratos: No one hold back. *I inserted another clip of ammo into my gun* I will protect Elly. Plum, when Zed’s done, use charged Helios Spears to pin it. Barn, charge Esper up. Esper, give us the biggest metal storm possible. We have one shot but that’s all we need. Go!

All of our armors lit up. Our technological and magical systems went into overdrive. Plum leaped into the sky. Zed stepped forward and readied himself. Barn put a hoof over Esper’s back, energizing her armor’s magical runes further than was normally possible. Esper focused the energy from her armor into her spell. The unicorn’s horn lit up with a brilliant glow that grew ever more intense.

The clouds closed in. The blizzard surrounded us once more.

Zed closed his eyes and stood still. All that I remember was the sound of scraping winds across the landscape. I myself began to question what Zed was hoping to do.

Elly: *Whispering to herself* It’s coming.

All of a sudden Zed flipped his sword, grabbed it by the tip, spun around, and threw it like a throwing knife.

The sword flew through the air and found its mark, skewering the wolf head to hind.

Zed did not stop. He rushed forward and punched the handle blade upwards ripping it out of the wolf. Not holding anything back, Zed unleashed a relentless flurry of blows, which I admittedly could barely even see let alone keep track of.

However, I remember that he told me it consisted of a serious of actions. One particular part involved him punching the wolf, grabbing it by its neck, kneeing it, grabbing it by its front paw, pulling it back to him to punch again, and so on. This all ended with Zed grabbing Azrael and cutting off the wolf’s legs with a single slash then elbowing it downwards into the snow.

But, like I said, all I saw was Zed run forward. After that, his motions became a blur and I heard what I momentarily thought was a machine gun going off. I felt the impacts of each hit through the air. It only occurred to me after the attack was over that this was Zed’s intended assault. This attack was almost too much for Zed's body to handle. He would need extensive repairs as a result.

Needless to say, this attack absolutely wrecked the wolf which now struggled to recover. Its regeneration could no longer sufficiently aid it.

Of course, for our purposes, this was not good enough.

Zed jumped back. Plum acted. A wave of spears fell from the sky stabbing through the shadow wolf and drilling themselves into the ground. The symbols on the spears fully activated and magical tethers further restrained our opponent.

Barn immediately threw more effort into super-charging Esper’s armor. Esper herself used the energy to boost her magic further.

Zed: Execute.

Esper unleashed her spell. The ground cracked and exploded. A storm of sharpened metal sprung up from the snow under the wolf’s position shredding it to ribbons.

For seconds, we all stared at the dark pieces of shadow hanging off of the metal blades.

Barn: Is it dead?

Elly: Maybe. I don’t—

(Zed pulled the pin from a grenade and tossed it on the remains.)

*Explosion*

(Only a large imprint in the snow was left.)

Elly: … Probably. I don’t sense it anymore.

Zed: Target eliminated. Hostilities ceased.

Stratos: And that is why we work as a team. *I turned to Elly* Told you we could help.

Zed: *He walked over to Elly and kneeled down* Do not worry. You are safe with us.

Elly: *Smiles* Thank you. *Yawns*

With nothing to hold it together, the storm around us dissipated and the bright, warm Equestrian sun shone on the mountains once more… poetic.

So we won, and I wasn’t nearly dead this time even if only because I stayed out of the last few minutes of fighting.

I gratefully basked in the sun’s rays for a moment before continuing on.

Stratos: Alright, that went surprisingly well, all things considered. Now then, *I pulled out the Elly’s journal* would you mind telling us what this is about?

Elly: *Gentle Breathing*

Barn: She appears to be asleep.

Esper: That was fast. …Should we wake her?

Plum: She’s probably exhausted. She has been running from that thing for a while.

Zed: Records indicate it has been approximately half a day of constant action.

Esper: Half a day? Wow, she doesn’t look like she’s that tough. *Esper saw me walking away* Stratos?

Stratos: I’m done for today. You guys decide what to do. I’m going back to base and taking a nap.

And that I did.

The others decided to bring Elly along with us. When she woke up we had a lot to explain to her but we obviously had to keep secret who exactly we were working for or why.

We gave the gist of it and in turn she explained to us who she was. (I did not manage to get this on audio.)

Element Isle, or “Elly” as she was called, was actually a miner, which surprised most of us but made sense given her cutie mark. She had a knack for knowing just where everything was and just how the rock would act or react and so, while she was not very strong, she was very useful. In fact, while she was weaker than the average pony, she loved to haul heavy loads. She said would have been much stronger if they had let her do that, but the miners were too afraid of her getting hurt (not because she was a female or looked weak but because if she got hurt there was no replacement).

She had gotten into trouble when she picked up an old family inheritance a few years back. One part of that inheritance was a journal from her ancestor Shrubbery Shrine, (called “Shrubs” by most others). She knew it was cursed but unfortunately she gave into temptation. From there, she had felt a dark shadow following her. It would bring misfortune wherever she went. This started when others were almost killed in a mine collapse.

She ran across Equestria and settled down in place after place, trying to be kind and help others to make up for the inevitable point when her misfortune caught up with her and forced her to move once again. As far as she saw, there was no way to stop it.

This kept up for years until she had heard about the recent sightings of powerful human warriors nearby and, out of options, went for help. Turns out that was exactly the right thing to do but it also made the curse more aggressive. Again, that was the first time she was directly attacked.

Barn immediately noted the similarities between their stories. This confirmed one of our previous assumptions. These dark energies were not just some random event but a conscious decision.

This was backed up by what was held within the pages of Shrubs's journal. Shrubs was an animal caretaker but specialized in taming monsters. About a little over two hundred years ago she noticed a slow decrease in the monster populations. Specifically, that of the Ursa Major, a bear-like monster at least as tall as a small skyscraper. It is a monster known for being impossible for one pony to handle on their own. Shrubs catalogued the changes over many years and discovered these events appeared to be happening all over Equestria. She could not discover an environmental reason and realized there must be outside interference. She tried to track down a source. She never found out what it was and was found dead a few days after her final entry. Ever since then, her journal had been cursed and her children dared not even read the works. But every few generations one would be curious enough to do so and would suffer a curse that would inevitably conclude in death of them and most if not all of their immediate family.

It is a sad but it is all too common as far as this investigation is concerned. We had already picked up several dozen of these supposedly cursed items. It seemed as if only the Princess’s presence can temporarily purify these items but even that only lasts for so long once they leave her city. Anyone else will face, as Colbert said, “certain doom.”

The other large exception was the Unknown Guardians. While collecting these items leads us to danger, as soon as we eliminate the threat we are safe. I was honestly surprised we had yet to be attacked or cursed ourselves and my only assumption was that my resistance to magic played a part in this. (I was wrong about that.) But at least our collection of these documents removed them from circulation and thus ended the threat they pose to others.

Nonetheless, the life of a Guardian is fraught with danger. It is not suited for the average human let alone for the average Equestrian. We had to decide what to do about Elly. Naturally, I called a meeting.

Stratos: Alright everyone, thank you for joining me today. We are here to talk about what to do about Elly. We obviously… Zed is something wrong?

Zed: I do not think so.

Stratos: What’s with the look?

Zed: Are you positive now is the best time to be talking about this?

Stratos: Does anyone have a problem with meeting now?

Plum: Not really.

Barn: No.

Esper: I like meetings!

Stratos: I don’t think anyone here has a problem.

Zed: If you are certain.

*PAUSE*

Stratos: Alrighty then. So, we need to talk about Elly. I think we can all agree she is really nice and sweet and all of that but we obviously can’t just accept anyone that passes by.

Barn: She is not just anypony. She has a special ability.

Stratos: But is it useful?

Plum: It seemed to help in the last battle.

Stratos: But that was only because of that particular environment. Everything she can do we can replicate with either our technology or magic. And we don’t need help with gathering any raw materials. Nor is she a combatant.

Esper: I don’t see that problem. You taught me how to fight when I was much younger.

Stratos: So no one has a problem with this?

Plum: I do. She has a home she can return to. With the curse broken she can restore her status. If we want we can even help her with that.

Barn: It’s not that simple.

Plum: It isn’t?

Barn: It might work that way in Coltberton but other areas might ostracize her, even if it is not on purpose.

Stratos: But we certainly don’t know what will happen until she returns home.

Zed: Element Isle’s abilities would be useful.

Stratos: Really?

Zed: Affirmative. Her ability allows her to sense objects and their locations. She can detect magic. We have difficulty pinpointing the precise location of cursed objects. She would be a great asset in those endeavors. In addition, the mining and material collections could be done much more efficiently. None of us desire to put in the required effort. If those operations were improved it could free up inputs for other areas.

Esper: Zed’s right, Elly is hardly useless.

Stratos: Why didn’t that occur to me?

Zed: You are notably susceptible to letting your biases and ideology influence your decisions. She is friendly and appears vulnerable. Your instincts tell you to protect her.

Esper: Stratos has a soft spot for Elly?

Stratos: You made that sound really creepy.

Esper: ‘Twas my intent.

Zed: Barn and Plum display similar reactions, and Esper wants to keep her as a friend.

Esper: … He’s right about that.

Stratos: Yeah so we’re biased. But my point still stands, as members of the Unknown Guardians we have direct responsibility to Princess Celestia and her wishes. We are in charge of defending Equestria. We have to throw ourselves into combat at a moment’s notice. And what we are dealing with is a force strong enough to worry the Princess. We have to train and better ourselves nearly every day just to stay alive. It’s a ton of work and dedication and no one can know about it. It is dangerous and mostly thankless. It’s a lot to ask of an individual.

Barn: But she has been attacked. She knows something is wrong.

Plum: It is hard to turn away from something like that. I couldn’t do it.

Esper: I don’t think it would be right to force her to leave.

Stratos: I agree but… Okay, Zed, what’s wrong?

Zed: You could just ask her.

Stratos: Well yes, now that we’ve talked about it, I suppose we could. Where is Elly?

(Zed pointed down. The four of us looked under the table and found Elly sitting there looking rather timid.)

Elly: Um… Hi?

Stratos: Elly, what are you doing under the table?

Elly: I was sleeping.

Plum: Why were you sleeping there? We gave you a bed.

(Elly perked up, slamming her head against the bottom of the table, and smiled.)

Elly: In the mines I always slept in the cramped bunks or in the carts. I like to have something right over my head.

Barn: I can relate to that.

Stratos: Zed, why didn’t you say something?

Zed: I thought all of you saw her. I was not sure how to react.

Esper: That’s a first.

*PAUSE*

Stratos: Well, now that you are here and heard literally almost everything about us, take a seat.

(Elly did so.)

Stratos: So, would you like to join the Unknown Guardians?

Elly: Yes. If you don’t mind that is.

Stratos: Are you sure?

Elly: Yes. I hurt many ponies by bringing the curse to them. I do not wish for anypony else to be hurt. And you all seem very nice and this place is amazing. I… I feel safe here.

Plum: We can’t have you hold us back. We can’t protect you.

Barn: You have to fight. Meaning you can die. Any of us can die.

Elly: I know but I’ve been afraid of death for too long. I want to do something.

*PAUSE*

Elly: Please, I want to help. I can be useful. I will do anything. I—

(I held up my hand and stood up.)

Stratos: Let’s make this quick, all in favor of Element “Elly” Isle joining the Unknown Guardians?

All: Aye.

Stratos: Well Elly *I shook her hoof* welcome to the Unknown Guardians. Zed, tell the Princess we have a new member she might like to meet.

Zed: Understood.

Stratos: We still need our armor repaired but we can’t waste any moments. Esper get Elly started.

Elly: I will do my best.

Esper: You better, because right now is where the fun part begins.

Elly: *She excitedly jumped out of her seat* Oh, what kind of fun?

(Esper began to magically push Elly out of the room.)

Esper: Combat simulation!

Elly: … What?

The next few weeks were spent breaking in Elly. You can’t tell from looking at her but she is one of the most determined individuals I have ever seen. She pushed through each task and persevered after each failure. Unfortunately she was very hard to train and I felt terrible throwing her into simulation after simulation. She came out of each session exhausted with a fresh new set of injuries that would have to be healed. And after that she would be forced into studies and mental exercises or familiarizing herself with the base and equipment. At the same time, she had to take on her new role over the mining operations. I cannot say I am surprised that she took the job as a combat medic; learning to use Barn’s healing enchantments along with the human-based materials and technologies. Healing others just works for her a whole lot better than anything else but she has proven she can fight.

After two months we sent her on her first mission. It was a relief to all of us when she won her first battle against a force of those glue-golems. She did not panic or hesitate. From there everything, combat-wise, went much more smoothly. She learned to work as a part of a team and never feared getting hurt to help others.

Throughout it all she never complained. In fact, she seemed to enjoy herself. She was always nice and pleasant. She just had that way of cheering you up. Soft-spoken and gentle. It’s hard to explain.

As with the others I am glad she decided to join us. I think she grounded us, or at least me. I learned to live my life a little more and not spend so much time worrying about everything. I remember the times with Zed, before Esper and the others, and how much time we spent just sitting and watching the scenery. It was thanks to Elly that I started doing that again.

We all enjoyed her company. Esper enjoyed playing games with her new friend. Plum liked to have someone her age to talk to. Barn admitted to me it was nice to have someone else who was quiet. Zed did not tell me but I found out he and Elly went on walks together. Usually those walks ended at Sunset Hill. And (when Esper was not available) Elly was always there to help keep me company during my many hours of study and experimentation or cheer me up when something went wrong.

She loves to play video games. That kind of surprised me especially because the first game she saw me playing was a very old game called Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. For the first few days she could not get her mind off of the game. The story of a distorted reality and powerful, ancient, malevolent, god-like entities using monstrous servants to do their bidding intrigued her the same way it did me when I was younger. She would join me every time I went to play.

Eventually, I decided to create a custom controller that could translate certain movements a pony could do into actions within the game. Now, as I hinted at, when the expedition left I kept a ton of old games I had played when I was younger on my computer but it just so happened that the first one she played by herself was Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Given its age, you probably don’t know, but that game isn’t exactly one of the more cheery ones. Still, she played it and beat it on her own. Ever since then she has been going from game to game playing them until she nearly 100% completes them. I guess she’s a hardcore gamer through and through. My computer library had well over a hundred games and I’m starting to worry I will run out.

But just because she plays games does not mean her personality is any different. Surprisingly, in spite of all of the battles she has been through and all of the things she has experienced, she has not changed much. She is now very competent at fighting though is still the weakest of us physically. But, as promised, she doesn’t hold us back.

Yet she looks the same.

I guess that is what surprises me the most about all of our adventures: In spite of everything we go through, deep down our spirit remains intact.

Nevertheless, our struggles can be trying. There are some times I wish I never figured out what was going on and just lived my life with my friends until the day I die. But I really can’t go back. Not to Earth, not to ignorance.

It’s not really a bad thing I don’t think. After all, it is because of these events that I have met my friends.

Besides, it made me realize I need to change. I needed that lesson more than anything else.