//------------------------------// // Prelude: Another Night as the Element Squad // Story: Rise of the Element Gang, Book 1: The Adventure Begins // by Power of Six //------------------------------// Prelude: Another Night as the Element Squad In the streets of Canterlot, all was quiet as the light of the moon shined in the night sky. All was peaceful until…at a bank, one of its walls in an alley exploded and a couple of thugs walked right out, armed with weapons and carrying stuffed saddlebags. “Good work, boys.” The leading thug said as they exited the bank. “That was easier than I thought it was gonna be.” “Hey, look, guys!” one of the thugs said as he came over holding a toaster in his hoof. “I grabbed a toaster!” “I love your work ethic, Tin Fix.” The leader said, sarcastically. “It’s an inspiration to us all.” Then all the thugs began going through the alley to escape. When they reach a corner, a small light blue object came in and land between the two thugs in the back, disappearing before the ground beneath the thugs turns to ice and they slip on it. As they are lying on the ice, what looked like the head of a lizard came out of the shadows behind them, bit the two thugs on the tail, and then dragged them both into the shadows, the two struggling to get away. “What was that?” Tin Fix said as he and the remaining thugs looked behind them in shock before he fearfully said “What’s going on, guys?” Just then they heard gunfire and turned around to see a small blue object heading towards them. “What in the—Uuh!” the leading thug said before the object him in the face, exploded into drops of water and sent him flying into some trash cans behind him like a solid punch. “One bullet. Nice.” Said a male voice as the last two thugs looked to the shadows and saw a figure walking out of the shadows. The owner of the voice was revealed to be a violet hydra with orange eyes and the body of a stallion with the claws as the front hooves and having a reptilian tail wearing silver armor. It was a considerably small hydra as it was no bigger than either of the thugs. But this hydra was no ordinary hydra. This was Icedra, the ice elemental ninja of Canterlot’s own superhero team the Element Squad. Icedra smiled as the thugs looked at him in shock. “Thanks. Been working on that for a while.” Said another male voice as the thugs looked behind them and saw another smiling figure walk out of the shadows. What came out was a blue, amphibious stallion with a navy blue visor with light blue eyes visible underneath it, wearing silver armor and a high-tech blaster on his right front leg. This stallion right here was Posidacus, the quick-striking water elemental of the Element Squad, wielding his water bullet cannon. Then the two thugs looked between them and saw yet another figure appear from above as he and the big thug fought each other and the thug lost. “That was easier than I thought.” The new figure said in a male voice as he was then revealed to be a large, orange stallion with skin that appears be similar to that of a golem, two bull-like silver horns, and green eyes wearing silver armor. This large stallion was Apolloid, the earth elemental brawn of the Element Squad team. “Looks like it’s just you and us, shaky.” Apolloid said, speaking to Tin Fix as he heard him shaking as he held a chain in his hoof. He then turned around to look at the thug. “Take it easy. We’re not gonna hurt ya… much.” The thug looked at Apolloid with fear as he kept on shakin. “Boo!” With that, Tin Fix dropped his weapon and went off running and screaming. “Ha-ha! Yeah, run, little guy, run! Ha-ha!” Apolloid laughed as he, Posidacus, and Icedra watched the thug run off into the streets. “Shouldn’t we go after him?” Posidacus asked his large teammate. “Nah. The cap’s got this.” Apolloid said as he walked over to the thug he took down. “Let’s just tie the rest of these guys up while we wait for him.” “Yeah, then we can leave them for the Royal Guard.” Icedra said as he got the thugs he took down and began dragging them. In the streets of Canterlot, the thug continued to run in fright to get as far away from the elementals, unknowingly that something was following him from the air, its shadow being cast along the ground behind him. He stops running when he gets to an alley and tries to catch his breath. After a moment, he soon got a chill up his spine as he heard something moving in the alley. He looked around as he shook with fear, but couldn’t find anything. While he continued to shake, he started backing in deeper into the alley as he looked around in front of him, unaware that a figure flew down gently behind him. After a few moments of back into the alley, he finally stopped when his rump felt something behind him. He looked behind him and saw two green reptilian eyes appear from the shadows, causing him to jump away from what was hiding in the shadows in fright and trip himself as he laid on the ground looking at the eyes in fear. “Some ponies never learn.” The owner of the eyes said in a male voice as he began walking out of the shadows. He was revealed to be a red dragon, about the size of an average stallion, with green eyes, three, forward-facing, gold horns with two on the side and one on top of the head, a body of a stallion with claws as the front hooves, and a dragon tail with four gold tail spikes pointing upward, two on both sides. The dragon’s wings had gold webs. Now this was no ordinary dragon. This was the very leader of the Element Squad El Dragon. Strong, brave, and wielding the elemental power of fire. “Maybe you’ll have just enough time to figure it out behind bars.” El Dragon said as his top horn glowed blue before he smiled at the thug and pointed up. Tin Fix looked up and saw as there was a large yellow slate above him as it came down on him. Moments later, two unicorn Royal Guards of Canterlot got to the alley where the bank was and were looking up as they saw Tin Fix and the rest of the thugs hanging upside down from the side of a building, tied together with a rope as one of them illuminates them with the magic from his horn. “The Element Squad.” One of the guards said as they watched the thugs hang there. “They’re doing our job again.” The other guard said. “Tin Fix, keep your hooves to yourself!” one of the thugs said as they hanged there. “Hey, who’s tickling me?” Tin Fix asked. Back with the Element Squad, they traveled by the rooftops until they reached a certain building, Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Dusk: Okay, POS, I think I can handle things from here. We don’t need a third-person view for this. Power of Six: Well, I guess you got the spotlight now. This story is about you after all. The mic goes on to you. Dusk: Thank you. Now to go from where he left off… After dealing with those thugs, me and the guys took the rooftops and managed to get to back to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. From there, I then opened up the secret entrance back to the house. What I mean by house is the house that me and the guys shared. A little gift from Dragonis Maximus after I decided to be a team leader. Sometimes at night, me and the guys would use this entrance. But this was only one for night and was is barely used. All the others times, we would use the entrances in the streets. We’re the only with the keys to these doors, so they only open to me and the team. “Did you guys see that?” Posidacus said as he transformed back into his normal self. “I smoked that dude!” If you lived in Canterlot for the past couple of years, you would recognize Posidacus’ true self as a white unicorn stallion with a gold mane and tail, yellow eyes, and a monarch butterfly with rain drops on its wings as his cutie mark named Leon Aquilous, the local hound of the city. You would also recognize the others. “Yeah! This is what I’m talking about.” Apolloid said as he transformed back into his normal self. “This is our city! These are our streets!” Apolloid’s true identity was a green Earth stallion with a multicolor mane and tail of red, white, and blue (the colors in that order from left to right), blue eyes, and a boulder being struck by lighting with the same three colors as his mane as his cutie mark who went by the name Shield Steedor. He’s the athlete of the group and a very competitive stallion from Diggington. “Ya mess with the ponies, ya mess with us!” Icedra said as he transformed back into his normal self. Icedra was really a sky blue unicorn stallion with a light brown mane and tail and aquamarine eyes wearing a Stetson named Dog Fries (His last name is pronounced "Freeze" just so you know), our local cowpony. His cutie mark being an apple inside a snowflake. “We’re shadows in the night. Completely unseen.” Shield said as he and the others then did a high-hoof. “Guys, cool it!” I said, making sure I didn’t yell. “You want to wake up the whole school?” “Sorry.” Dog said to me. “But ya got to admit, we were awesome back there.” “Yeah, we were.” I said as I smiled and then transformed back into my normal self, my dragon tail still remaining. “A job well done.” With me, I was a unicorn stallion with blue fur as dark as the night, and a chestnut brown mane neatly combed and styled to my liking. My cutie mark was a rolled-out scroll, showing my enjoyment of learning whatever took my fancy. “Now off to bed.” I said to them. “We got a big day tomorrow.” “Yeah, a big day for some of us.” Leon said as we all got to the stairs to head to our rooms. “Don’t start, Leon.” Shield said to him as we continued walking. “I won’t be able to get any shut eye with you two arguing.” “Well, I’m sorry that I don’t want to be in a library for a few hours.” Leon said to Shield as me, Shield, and Dog went passed his room and he stopped at the door. “Hey, we promised Dusk we’d help him out tomorrow with his plan.” Dog said as he stopped at the door of his room after me and Shield went passed it. “You know that if it weren’t for this, we wouldn’t be at this house.” “Yeah, yeah. I know.” Leon said to Dog as Shield stopped at the door of his room and I went passed it and went over to stand at the door of my room. “I was there when he told us about it, remember?” “Well, if anything, it’s gonna be a great day tomorrow.” Shield said to them before he spoke to me. “After so many years, you’re finally gonna do it.” “Yeah. Tomorrow, I’m finally gonna go and talk to her.” I said to him. “Thanks for helping me get prepared for it.” “No problem, bud.” Shield said to me. “What are friends for?” “Well, I’m gonna go to bed.” Leon said as he went into his room. “Goodnight, guys.” “Night, Leon.” Dog said. “Night.” Shield said. “Good night, see ya in the morning.” I said as Leon closed the door. “Well, I’m hittin’ the hay.” Dog said to me and Shield. “Yeah. Aah!” Shield yawned. “I’m gonna hit the sack too.” “Well, night, y’all.” Dog said as he went into his room. “Night.” Shield said as he went into his room. “Goodnight.” I said to them as they closed their doors. With that, I then went into my own room and got myself to bed. I nestled into bed and laid on my side, getting to look at the picture of my family that I had kept on my bedside to remind of the happy times from back then. It was of me, my brother, my sisters, and my parents. It's the only one i have left that haves all of them together with me. Though it is sad that I can have a moment like that again, I was glad that i could have moments just as great as it. Back then I virtually didn’t have friends. There were two I did consider my friends, but one was busy with work while the other I didn’t know where to find after he left to find himself years ago. They were pretty great, but after a few years, we kinda drifted apart. I do see my busy friend once in a while, but those are such rare occasions, I barely see him at all. Right now, Shield, Dog, and Leon are the only friends around me that can help me through the day. Though, by tomorrow, there’s the possibility of us getting a fifth friend into our group, one I’ve been wanting to talk to for years now. With that said, I then closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. If you want know what exactly is going on here, then I’ll brief you on who I am and how all this came to be.