The Story of Zeta

by Z-A-C

Chapter 14: Team Harmony

"Hello!?" It called. "Is anypony there!?" We've been following the creature for a half hour, trying to find out when would be best to attack. "Hello?! I'm here to help! I mean no harm!" It called, almost sounding desperate. 'Yeah right." I thought. I looked over to Velvet as it went inside of a building. She had a concerned look on her face.

"I don't know Ganger. Maybe he's being honest. He is with my friends. Applejack would know if he wasn't good."

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Why do you keep calling it 'he'?"

"Because his voice." She shrugged. "Its too deep to be a female."

"Hmm...I guess you're right," I paused as 'he' came out of the building. "But he could still have brainwashed the others."

"But I don't think-"

"Come on his moving again."

"...okay..."

We followed him for another five houses until it got dark. He mumbled something but I couldn't understand him. He then took his bag off of his back and pulled something out from it. When he put it on his head, it made his eye (the other one was covered with an eye-patch) glow green. He turned his head in my direction and I ducked behind the corner I was spying on him from.

He didn't seem to notice, but I waited a minute or two before peeking back around the corner. He was in the same place but he was looking in the opposite direction. It looked like he was about to turn around, but then a strange noise that almost sounded like crackling happened.

||||Group Two, Fluttershy's & Pinkie Pie's View||||

"This is Element Guard, Report."

"This is G2's Pinkie Pie reporting in!"

"G2?" A pause. "Anyway what have you found."

"Fluttershy reporting also. It's um..." Fluttershy trailed off.

"Bad news?" Element Guard asked.

"There's a lot of..." Fluttershy trailed off again.

"It's ok Flutters. Pinkie what is it?"

"Blood."

"Blood?"

"And lots of it."

Element Guard sighed. "How many bodies?"

"N-none strangely enough..."

"Hmm..." E.G. paused in thought. "That must mean they were eaten or buried. And I don't know about you, but I hope they were the latter."

"So do we," Fluttershy said.

"That's all so far." Pinkie said.

"Alright. If you find anything else, you know how to reach me."

"Okie-dokie-lokie!"

"Okay."

||||Velvet's View||||

We got a little closer while he was on his...whatever that was. We were so close now that we could hear the whole conversation now. He ended the conversation and the device crackled again.

"Group one, SitRep."

"Sit wha?"

"Situation report." He sighed. "Honestly Rainbow, you should know by now..."

"Ha, I was just messin' with ya."

"Uh huh... Applejack, report."

"Ain't found nothing worth while yet, sugar cube. But from the general look of this place..." Applejack trailed off. "We should have left a lot sooner."

"Yeah we should have..." A small pause. "Report when you find something."

"Yes sir!" Rainbow said in a slightly sarcastic voice. He shook his head at that and continued to call out.

I looked at Ganger. "I really don't think he's dangerous."

"And I really don't want to take the chance." She looked at me. "I think we should kick his flank first and then ask the questions."

"But-"

"Ssshhh!"

"Hello?" We both tensed up and looked in 'Element Guard's direction. He was looking in our direction. "Hello? You don't have too be scared."

We looked at each other. "What are we going to do?" I whispered.

"I don't know!" She whispered back. We heard him walking this way. "We need to move. Come on."

"Hello? I can see you, stay where you are."

We went wide eyed and she changed into a zebra. "Now!"

||||Element Guard/Seth's View||||

"Wait! Don't run, I only want to help!" I was about to chase after them but then my radio went off. I set the radio so it would automatically pick up my voice and followed the two that just ran away.

"This is Element Guard, report."

"Twilight reporting. We found a survivor, but he's in critical condition."

"Do you know what's wrong him?"

"I have yet to do a medical scan on him. I'll go ahead and do that now."

"Very good, you two. I've the others continue their search and then they'll regroup on you."

"What about you?"

"I'm on the trail of what looked like a pony and a zebra. I'll rendezvous with you all with our new friends." I jumped over a piece of wall. "If I can catch them, that is."

"Okay? I'll um see what I can do with this zebra here. Rarity?"

"Yes, darling?"

"You're on defense while I see to him."

"Of course."

"Okay I'll catch up with you later, I need to concentrate on catching these guys. Element Guard out."

"Group three, out." I turned my radio's volume down and continued to chase them.

||||Ganger's View||||

We turned dove into a house and found the darkest spot and hid. I heard him follow us into the building. He's panting kind of, but Velvet is doing way worse than him. I put my hoof over her mouth to try and silence the noise until her breathing was controllable. This house was darker than anywhere I have ever seen. The only light was from the device on his head.

He looked around before stopping and looking in our direction. We stayed perfectly still, hoping he would not see us and go away. We didn't have any such luck.

"Ah, there you are." He sigh. "You really made me get my exercise, you know that?" The green lights got closer. "Come on with me, I'll get you out of here." He suddenly stopped and the lights backed away a little bit. "Hey now, calm down."

I raised an eyebrow and looked over at Velvet. Her horn was glowing and I could vaguely see the scared look on her face. "Velvet? I thought you said you didn't he was dangerous?" I whispered and she nodded her head. "Then why are you-?" I saw tears in her eyes. I then thought back to when we first met. That monster might have had glowing green eye when it attacked her and her friends.

Her eye closed and her horn glowed brighter. Next thing I saw was the creature being in cased in her magic and being fling across the house. I heard a crash from somewhere in the house.

"All units! This is Element Guard requesting back up!" There was a very small pause. "Yes I know I said I could but now's not the time!" Velvet's horn stopped glowing and I heard muffled crying. "I have a unicorn that's gone feral on me! Deploying flare." There was a large crash and then a loud bang. "Who ever is closest get her as soon as you can. I think I was impaled by something, and I don't want to move."

"I-I impaled him? Oh no, I just wanted him to go away!"

"I-It could be a trick. U-um...I hope."

"Okay!" He called. "You made your point. I'll leave you alone. Just after I-" There was a thump. "Ugh it's in my leg. Shit um...dammit. Hey, does the unicorn know any illumination spells? I-if you do can you cast it. If you don't well then...yeah."

"Velvet?" I whispered to her. "Do....do you think we should help him?" She didn't respond. "H-he'll be fine. He said its his leg, he'll be fine."

"I'm sorry!" She cried. "I didn't mean to hurt you!"

"How about that spell? I kinda wanna see if I need to field dress it or...cut my l-leg off or something."

"Oh right sorry!" I felt her start move.

"Velvet! what do you think you're doing?!"

"I'm going to help him." She said in between sniffs. "If you don't like it just stay here."

I blinked a few times. "I um...just slow down a bit, okay?"

||||Element Guard/Seth's View||||

They entered the room and the unicorn stopped for a moment. "That's right. you don't like these." I said. "Here, let me switch them off."

The unicorn lit up her horn and then a bright ball of light floated from the tip and stuck to the ceiling. I could now see how bad the wound was and what I crashed into. It was a poorly made chair and one it's legs has impaled close to the bone in my calf. "Oh no..." I heard the unicorn say.

My eyes went wide, and I reached for the radio. "Medic! Oh man, medic! Fluttershy get over here now!"

"Oh my..." I heard her say. "B-be right there."

"Okay calm down." I took a deep breath to calm myself. "Alright," I took the rucksack off of my back and pulled out the med kit Twilight and Fluttershy put together. "I have no idea what to do..." I found the gauze and pulled out my knife. "...But let me try something." I cut a hole in a disinfectant and peroxide infused patch bandages, and put it on. The burning was almost unbearable! Next was the gauze. I cut a small hole in it and then started wrapping it around, cutting a hole with each rotation. I could already see red soaking through. Hopefully Fluttershy gets here soon.

After the pain settled a little, I tried to converse with the pony and zebra. " Name's?"

"V-Velvet."

"Ganger."

I raised an eyebrow. "Ganger?" I chuckled. "That's a weird name for a-." I paused in shock at the realization. "Wait, Ganger? As in Doppelganger?"

"How do you know my full name."

"Oh my god." I laughed. "Drop the disguise, Changeling, I know what you are."

She does as told and looked at me with a furrowed brows. "How did you know?" She asked, confused.

"Well, the name for one. Or perhaps you didn't remember you were disguised?" I shrugged. "And, well this might have some meaning to you: Match."

Her face went blank. "Match?" Then her face lit up. "Match?! Y-you mean she's still alive?!" She then glared and ran up to me. "What did you do to her!?" She yelled. "I swear, if you did anything I'll-"

I held up a hand to stop her from talking. "Chill out, sheesh. She's fine. Babysitting the CMC I think."

"So the ponies...?"

I nodded my head. "Oh sure it was rough in the beginning but, things smoothed out as time went. She became a respected citizen during my ten month...absence." I shook my head. "Even helped establish trade roots with Gloomy Town." I chuckled. "You should be proud of your friend Ganger. She's come a long way."

"How do you know my friends?" Velvet suddenly said, with an unsure look on her face.

"Well I do live in Ponyville."

She shook her head. "I haven't seen you before, I think..."

"Nor have I seen you." I grabbed the radio again. "Belay that order. Unicorn no longer feral, instead whoever is on their way escort Fluttershy to my location."

"Gotcha boss! I'll get Fluttershy. Applejack?"

"You got it sugar cube. Stayin' on course."

"And Fluttershy?" I said.

"Yes?"

"Do you know a unicorn named Velvet?" I heard a gasp (the good kind), and smiled.

||||Group Three's View||||

"Hmm interesting..."

"What is, dear?"

Twilight looked at Rarity. "He seems to somehow have magic, albeit dark, but still."

"Like Seth's? Or even Shadow?"

"Well it's different than that, but close." She said with a hoof to her chin. "His is more of an elemental type of magic, where Seth's is still....unknown. Unfortunately."

"This is fascinating and all darling, but uh aren't you supposed to be doing a medical check on him?" Rarity said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh." Twilight blinked, like she was resetting herself. "That's was done five minutes ago." She chuckled nervously. "But I'm sure that he won't mind when he hears what I think."

"What would that be?"

"Remember half a year ago?" Rarity looked down at the ground. "Like I said dark magic. I think he caused this crater, and the of the destruction around here."

"That's a big accusation Twilight. Are you sure?"

"No. No I'm not. It's just what I deduced. It is entirely possible that what ever did this escaped and he was dragged or he crawled here. But as you can see no blood trail and he has scorch marks and burnt skin. Looking at the crater I'd say is was caused by a fire ball spell, and a big one. That also connects too the elemental magic he's somehow able to do." She looked at a building to her right. "And those jagged pointy rocks with blood on them. Elemental magic.

"But what I want to know is why he is in the center of the blast. Surely he wasn't trying to kill himself...right?"

"Well when you put it that way, it does make sense but I don't think we should pin him to that just yet."

Twilight shook her head. "Neither do I. Anyway I need to report this in." She used her magic to click on the receiver. "This is group three, Twilight reporting in."

"See now that's how it's done!" He cheered. "This is Element Guard, go ahead." And then Twilight told him her findings while Rarity looked around the dark village. "Hmm...sounds familiar doesn't it? I think we should take him back with us, according to these two they've been traveling together for awhile. Anyway good job Twi."

"Have the others reached you yet?" Rarity asked.

"This is Rainbow Dash, I just retrieved Fluttershy. Heading over to you boss man!"

"Okay but what about you Applejack?"

"Applejack here. Just waitin' outside fer Rainbow."

Rarity shook her head. "Anyways, I think that is all." She looked at Twilight "Right dear?"

"Yes, that was all." She smiled. "And Velvet, I don't know if you can hear me but, I'm glad you're okay." The radio clicked off and Twilight looked at the zebra in front of her. "What part did you have in this?"

Author's Note:

Next chapter will be focused entirely on Zeta.