Rise of the Element Gang, Book 1: The Adventure Begins

by Power of Six

Chapter 12: What Must Be Done

Chapter 12: What Must Be Done

I awoke the next morning, feeling drained, even though I hadn’t even moved from the floor since yesterday. I could still feel the tear streaks on my face as they stuck there like some kind of cruel reminder of what I had been through, what I had heard.

I wiped them from my face, pulled myself up off the floor, ate a small meal, and went to lay on the couch. She'd said yesterday how she and her friends were going to the Everfree Forest. I wanted to give them long enough to leave first, just so they wouldn’t see me. After about an hour, around about ten, I rose from the couch and, dutifully but not cheerfully, made my way to the library…as slowly as I could.

I supposed I had always known that they were just having me on acting on another’s instructions. I’d been right all along about myself: without my superhero alter ego, I, Dusk Noir, was so uninteresting, such an unappealing friend, that Princess Celestia had to tell Twilight and her friends to accept me, to be my friend. I supposed I should be taking some kind of satisfaction that I’d been right all along. But that was not the case.

It really did hurt to find out about that. All this time, I thought they were my friends when I’d been nothing but an idiot to their lies. Like a little foal, I’d kidded myself into actually believing the little fantasy that I’d been playing out for the last few months. The fact that the unicorn I’d always wanted to talk to and we’d actually become friends, just like I’d always hoped, of course it had been too good to be true.

Looking back, I figured it was rather obvious. She was the one who’d sent me to Ponyville in the first place after hearing me express my wishes. She’d practically set it up. It would have been fine if Twilight had just decided to be my friend because we’d be working together, so she might as well. It felt even worse Celestia had told her to like it was some kind of special assignment.

I looked bitterly towards the rising sun as it reminded me of her.

“Thanks for nothing.” I muttered, suppressing the anger that threatened to take hold.

No longer feeling happy at the sight of the tree, I hanged my head and pushed open the door. Though I raised it when I heard three voices say “Dusk!”

When I looked up I saw Shield, Dog, and Leon crowding around me with looks of worry, talking to me with concern all at once. I couldn't understand what they were saying as it was like their speech made a cloud of different sentence clumped together.

“Guys.” I said to them, trying to get them to stop talking. They didn’t hear me as they kept on talking. “Guys!” I raised my voice a little, but it didn’t work. “GUYS!” that yell was enough to get them to stop talking. Now that I got their attention, I could speak. “Can you please move out of the way?”

The three of them did and I walked right into the library and looked around. There was no Twilight to greet me, just like I was hoping. Only Spike was there, looking down at me from atop a ladder. Was he in on it too? Most likely.

“There you are! I was beginning to think you weren't coming.” He slid down the ladder, waddling up to meet him. “Where’d you go yesterday?”

“Home.” I said as I wondered how cold my voice sounded.

“Oh…right.” Spike must have heard it as his smile flattered. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

“Hey…are you okay?”

“It doesn’t matter.” I walked past Spike, moving to a desk. “What does Twilight…” I faltered when I mentioned her name. I cleared my throat, starting again. “What does Twilight…want us to do?”

“Right to business huh?” He gave a nervous chuckle, while I remained silent. “She’s left a list of things that she wants done. She said that they wouldn’t be gone too long, so we should be done by the time she gets back. There’s one for you, one for me.” He pointed close to me, indicating a piece of parchment.

“Good.” I stood back up, crossing to it. “You’ve begun your tasks, I take it?”

“Er, yeah.” He seemed taken aback by my attitude, but at that moment, I didn’t care. “I’ll let you get started. And Dusk, one other thing.”

“What?”

“You er…left your bag and scarf here. Just saying.” With that, he sidled out and into the kitchen, leaving me on my own.

I looked to where I had put my bag and hung up my scarf when I’d arrived, where I always left them. They hadn’t even been moved from the corner or the hooks like some strange form of respect for them. Or because they weren’t worth moving. I decided to get them later when I went home.

I looked at the guys and saw they were still there and still looking at me with worried looks.

I ignored them and turned my attention to my list of tasks, looking at the first item on the list: “Finish sorting out the old books into the boxes.”

I turned to see that, indeed, the large pile of dusty books hadn’t been completely sorted through yet. Well, at least that would take my mind off things, give me something to do. Dejectedly, I began sorting through the books again.

Spike joined me later, tidying up the room, but didn’t try to initiate conversation. He looked like he was about to at some points, but he perceived that I wasn’t exactly in a talking mood and thought better of it. Whether or not I was actually concerned for what was on the unicorn's mind, I didn’t know and didn’t really care either. I just focused on my work.

After about an hour, I was done sorting through the piles, they all being nicely organized into their respective boxes. If only my life could be sorted out just as easily. I took them down to the basement, another item on my list, and continued down said list with my other responsibilities.

I was required to rearrange the Little Ponies shelf, restock on some ink, make sure she had the right number of quills and backup quills, tidy some collapsed books that had fallen in the east wing and various other assignments. All the while, I kept silent…lost in thought.

Shield’s view

Me and the guys watched as Dusk did all that was on that list. He didn’t say anything, just did whatever it was on that list. But he didn’t actually looked like he was enjoying this and this was the only stallion we knew that loved doing checklists more than anypony. None of us has ever seen him like this. What could’ve happened yesterday to make him so upset?

Dusk’s view

I was just so mad. I wanted to get done with work and go home. How could anypony do this to me? Make me believe they wanted to be my friend all because they were too afraid to talk back to the Princess! And make the friends who I trusted for years all a part of the act no less.

“Dusk?” I heard Spike say, snapping me out of his thoughts. The dragon was looking at me with concern.

“What?” I irritably asked.

“Nothing. It’s just…you've been standing there, levitating those books for about fifteen minutes.”

I looked to see that he was right. I had noticed that a book that was supposed to be in Classics had been sorted into Non-Fiction. I had just been correcting the problem when…I must have become lost in my thoughts so much, that I’d forgotten about what I was doing. Now, I felt rather stupid.

“Oh…right.” I rectified the problem immediately. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Just, uh…stay focused, yeah?" He gave me a half-hearted smile.

“Yeah.” I returned it and was about to resume my work when…

“Okay, that’s it!” Shield said as we both looked at him with surprise as he looked at me with anger. “Time to start talking! Dusk, what’s going on with you?”

“Yeah, you’re over the moon when doing checklists.” Dog said, looking at me with concern.

“And you look so sad.” Leon said, giving the same look as Dog.

“Yeah, why do you guys care?” I said to them as I turned away and resumed my work, meaning for it to sound rude.

“Because we’re your friends.” Shield said to me as he and the others walked over to me. “Friends always look out for each other, remember?”

“Friends also trust each other.” I said to him as got up in his face. I then started walking forward as the three started walking backwards. “Which means they share details that concern them and don’t keep secrets from each other.” Shield and the guys were then cornered by me at the other bookshelf as I then got up in Shield’s face again. “How exactly are we friends when you don’t trust me enough to tell me about the girls’ secret?”

I then walked back and got back to work. I heard the guys hoofsteps as they came walking towards me.

“Dusk, what ya yammerin’ about?” Dog asked me. “What secret?”

“Don’t play dumb, Dog.” I said to him. “We all know you can’t lie about something like that. You already know what I’m talking about.”

“Dusk, he’s not lying.” Shield said to me. “We really have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“So you found out, huh?” I heard Spike said as I turned to him.

“Yeah, I found out.” I said to the dragon. “And you knew the entire time, didn’t you?” Spike looked at the ground with shame, confirming my suspicion. “I knew it. You were part of it too, weren’t you?”

“Part of what?” Spike asked me with a raised brow.

“The whole act!” I said to him, my blood reaching an all-time boil. “Making me believe that everything we’ve done actually matter to you! And you dragged my own friends into it!”

“Whoa! Whoa! Take it easy, Dusk!” Shield said to me as he put some distance between me and Spike. “What in Equestria is this all about?”

“It’s probably because that he found out that Princess Celestia ordered Twilight to become friends with him.” Spike said before speaking to me. “Now I see why you’re so grumpy.”

“Wait, Celestia told Twilight to be his friend?” Dog said with surprise.

“That’s messed up!” Leon said, just as surprised.

“Ooh! That’s cold!” Shield winced.

“There, you happy?” I said to the guys. “Bet that clear things up.” I then turned away from them and looked at the floor. “Though you already knew.”

“Dusk, Dash never told me about that.” Shield said in a tone that made me turn and look at him with surprise as I saw his concerned look.

“AJ didn’t tell me that either.” Dog said to me as he walked over with the same look.

“Same for me and Fluttershy.” Leon said, sharing the same expression. “No wondering you wanted to be alone.”

“I can’t believe AJ lied to me like that.” Dog said to himself.

“Dusk, we’re sorry for giving you hard time.” Shield said to me. “We didn’t know.”

When I looked at each of them, I saw that they weren’t lying. They really didn’t know about it. Now I really felt guilty.

I sighed before I said “No, I’m sorry. I snapped at you for no good reason. It’s not your fault. I’m the one to blame. Can you guys ever forgive me?”

It took a moment and Shield, Dog, and Leon looked at each other before they smiled at me with Shield saying “Of course, we forgive you.”

“Yeah, you’re our friend.” Leon said to me.

“And nothin’s gonna change that.” Dog said to me.

With that, I returned the smile and we all did a group hug.

After we broke the hug, Spike then said “Hey, Dusk? If it means anything, Celestia didn’t say I had to do it.”

“Wait, so you were being so nice to him because you wanted to be his friend?” Leon asked as we were all surprised by this. “Why?”

“Because he’s a real cool guy to hang out with!” Spike said with a smile. “Plus, it’s nice have somepony to talk, especially somepony from Canterlot.”

“Yeah, it is.” I said as I returned the smile before then use my metalbending to stretch out my arm and then pull Spike into a hug. “Thanks, Spike. That really means a lot.”

I had to guess Spike was a little surprised by this, but managed to return the hug.

“Okay, whoa!” Spike said with surprise after we broke the hug. “How did you do that?”

“Spike, ever heard of the Element Squad?” I said as me and the guys smiled at him.

“You mean that group of superheroes in Canterlot?” Spike said to me. “Yeah! Those guys are awesome!”

“Well…” I said before I then revealed my tail’s true form.

“Whoa!” Spike said, surprised by this.

I then nodded to the guys as they looked at me, telling them it was okay to show their powers.

Dog gave Spike a gentle ice breeze breath that made the dragon shiver, Shield formed above his hoof before making it disappear, and Leon made an orb of water in his hoof before doing the same. With all this, Spike finally pieced it together and said:

“You guys…are the Element Squad?”

“Yep.” Dog said to him.

“Always had been.” Shield said to him.

“That is so cool!” Spike said to us with excitement. “I can’t believe I’m actually with the Element Squad!” he then realized that what just happened. “Does anypony else know about this?”

“Only one: Fluttershy.” I said to him.

“You told her?” he asked.

“Nope.” Dog simply said.

“Then how did she find out?” Spike asked again.

“She was hiding when we were talking about our secret.” Leon said with an embarrassed smile.

“Oh.” Spike said, seeing how it made sence.

“Though you got to promise not to tell anypony else.” I said to him. “You know how this gig works, right?”

“Of course!” Spike said before saluting to me. “You can count on me!”

“Good.” I said to him as then went on to finish the job I was given. “And don’t worry. You’re not gonna be the only one in this library to keep it a secret.”

“What does that mean?” Spike asked, confused by this.

“Yeah, what are you talking about?” Shield asked me, just as confused.

“Did you guys forget?” I said to them with a smile as I finally finished the job and got the checklist done, before turning to them. “We’re gonna tell the rest of the girls at the party.”

“But I thought you didn’t want to.” Leon said to me.

“I did, but…” I said to him and the guys as I began admitting it. “I see that I might have overreacted. Plus, before I left the library yesterday, I think I heard Twilight say that her being my friend wasn’t an order from the Princess. Now I see what Celestia was talking about. I should’ve talked to them instead of running away and jumping to conclusions. If anypony is to tell me when I was right or wrong…it was my friends. Which means I have to make up for it.”

“So we’re doing it?” Shield asked me.

“Yeah, Shield. We are.” I said and it made him and the guys cheer out in excitement.

“Wait, what party?” Spike asked us as we realized he didn’t know about it.

“Oh, the big thank y’all party to the girls for defeatin’ Nightmare Moon.” Dog said before covering his mouth in shock while saying “Oops!”

He and the guys looked at me with worry as I looked at Dog with shock, them worried I was gonna get mad for spoiling the surprise. Though, since Spike was already gonna be here, it really wasn’t gonna be much of a spoiler.

So I gave him a calm smile and said “It’s okay. I’ll let this one slide.”

Dog gave a sigh of relief before saying “Thank goodness.”

“Wait, how do you guys know that they defeated Nightmare Moon?” Spike asked us.

“We were there when they showed the new window of them using the Elements of Harmony.” Shield said to him.

“We had our hooves and claws crossed for that to happen.” Leon said to the dragon.

“Wait, you guys knew that was gonna happen?” Spike asked again.

“Sorta.” I said to him as I explained. “There was a prophecy that told of Nightmare Moon becoming free again and that the only thing that could stop her was by using the power of the Elements of Harmony, used by six brave ponies. Twilight and her friends managed to defeat what had to be one of the greatest threats known to Equestria. For that, the four are forever grateful. This party is here to show that.”

“Oh, so that’s why you wanted them to come back here.” He said to me as he realized. “So when’s the party gonna start?”

“When the girls get back.” I said as I then saw it was only twelve 'o' clock. “Though we still need to set everything up.” I then realized that I left my Porta-capsules outside. “Oh, no! The Porta-capsules!”

“Hold on.” Spike said as he went off and came back a moment later holding something in his arms. He then presented them to me. “You mean these?”

“The Porta-capsules!” I said as he gave them to me and I held them with my magic. “Where did you find them?”

“Actually Twilight did.” Spike said as he explained. “She found them lying around on the door step and kept them in case whoever dropped them came back.”

“Thanks for getting these, Spike.” I said to him with a grateful smile. “Think you’d like to help out putting up the decorations?”

“Well…” He said while still looking at his list. I realized that he still had some dusting to do, so I decided to use my metalbending powers to do the dusting for him all without him noticing. “I still have a lot of…” he finally realized that I already did all the dusting for him, “dusting.” He then dusted off his claws. “Well, I’m done with my chores. How about you?”

“I’m done too.” I said, showing I completed all my tasks.

“Well, then sure.” Spike said with a smile.

“Guys…” I said to Shield and the others to make sure they brought the rest of the supplies.

“Brought them over just in case.” Shield said to me as the three of them showed they had their Porta-capsules.

“Then let’s get started!” I said as we all then began decorating the library for the party.

Me and the guys opened up the Porta-capsules and all the supplies came flying out, Shield and the guys caught the food and the punch bowl full of soda while the decorations landed on the floor. After setting all the food on the table, we all then got to work on putting up the decorations, Element Squad style. We had some laughs with Spike when we had a few decoration mishaps. It took us an hour, but we were finally done. We all did an up-high with Shield putting Spike on his head so he could be able to reach and then went into hiding as we waited for the girls. We waited. And waited. And waited. Seconds passed…then minutes…then hours. It was half past three when Dusk began to wander what was keeping them. All of us were getting concerned. Shouldn’t they be back by now?

“Um…anypony else getting worried?” Dog asked.

“Yeah, what’s taking them so long?” Shield said to him.

“It’s really getting late.” Leon said.

“Hey, Spike…” I looked to Spike to see if he could figure out what was going on, but I found out he fell asleep. I then decided to wake him up. “Spike? Spike!” The dragon jerked awake from his nap. “You said they wouldn't be gone long, right?”

“Wha…oh, yeah. What time is it?” He yawned and looked at the clock. His eyes widened and he was suddenly wide awake. “Oh, no! Twilight left hours ago, they should be back!”

“Just as I suspected.” I said.

“Wait, didn’t they say they were going to the Everfree Forest?” Leon asked, now getting worried.

“He’s right.” Shield said, now getting worried too. “Then that means…”

“They’re in trouble! What if it’s a hydra or-or a cockatrice or-or-or even a dragon? Or all three! W-w-we uh…oh, no…Agh!"

As Spike began to panic, the guys began to do so too as my mind too began to spin. What if something terrible had happened to them? They could be in danger! No, they’d defeated Nightmare Moon. It was probably nothing, they could handle it…but what if they couldn’t? They might need help. But what could possibly do? What could anypony do?

But you know what you can do, don’t you, Dusk?

With that thought, my thoughts became more ordered. I knew what I could do. The ponies I cared about, who had been so kind and welcoming to me, even if it wasn’t genuine, were in danger. Whether it was genuine or not, I owed them a lot. Now, it was time to repay those debts. Though I was gonna be able to do it alone. I was gonna need my team.

“Guys?” I said as I tried to get their attention, but they kept on panicking. “Guys. Guys!” when they continued to panic, I then decided to give a loud whistle which managed to get them to stop and listen to me. I then began taking on my authority as leader of the Element Squad. “Listen, I think Spike’s right. The girls are in trouble and they need help. Leon, Shield, Dog, we’re going to the Everfree Forest and find them.”

“Aye-aye, captain!” Shield said as he saluted to me as he, Dog, and Leon then began to look serious.

“Great! I’ll go with you guys and…” Spike said before I interrupted him.

“No, Spike, you need to stay here.” I said to him.

“But…” He said as he was about to protest.

“No, listen to me.” I said to the dragon. “If we’re not back with them in an hour, then you need to get reinforcements. Inform the Princess, tell her what’s happened. She’ll know what to do.”

“Dusk, are you insane? You can’t go off into the Everfree Forest!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be alone.” I said to him with confidence. “Besides, I’m El Dragon, remember? Please, trust me. I’ve read a lot about the dangerous creatures in the Forest and the guys here can be able to help me out. I can at least try…please.”

Spike stared at me, apparently unsure as to restrain me or to give me a round of applause. He sighed in defeat.

“Alright. I’ll wait an hour. I just hope you’re right.”

“So do I. Go upstairs. We’ll see you later, I hope.”

“Good luck, guys.” He did as I instructed, giving us one last smile.

Before we left to go and search, I looked once more at Twilight’s list of tasks for me. Did she know this would probably be the last time she wrote something? Wait, what was that? Something caught my eye.

The parchment had been folded at the bottom, so much I hadn’t seen the last item that was hidden beneath it.

“Dusk, come on!” Shield said, ushering me to follow him and the others out the door as they stood in front of it.

“Wait, I found something on the list.” I said as I looked at the last item left. “Looks like Twilight folded the bottom to hide it.”

“What does it say?” Dog asked.

“It says ‘check your bag’.” I said as I then looked over to my saddlebag.

“You can check it later, come on!” Leon said to me.

“Leon, Twilight must’ve put this on here because she knew she probably wasn’t gonna come back.” I said to him. “Which means she left something in my bag for me in case it happened. I need to see what it is.”

With that, I crossed over to my saddlebag, checking the flaps.

Something was in my bag, tucked away among my belongings. It was a rolled up piece of parchment, a letter. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who it must be from.

“Dusk, what is that?” Shield said as he and the guys came over to me.

“I think it’s a letter from Twilight.” I said as I unfolded it and read the content.

Dusk,

If you’re reading this, well done for finishing the tasks I assigned you. It’s good to know that I can count on you.

Something’s wrong, Dusk. I don’t know what it is or why you won’t say, but something is on your mind. You may not want to, but I want to you to talk to me about it. I want to help you if I can.

That’s why I called you in to help yesterday. I just wanted to try and talk to you. My friends had mentioned the way you’d been acting. I thought that I could find out, seeing as how you and I have become such good friends. At least, I hope we are.

I remember seeing you, always on your own in the library back at Celestia’s School. Sometimes, I’d think I’d see you looking at me. I suppose I felt sorry for you, seeing you sitting there by yourself. I wish I’d viewed friendship differently back then…we could have been friends from the day we met.

Though I’m glad that you managed to make friends despite that. I want to make up for that now, just leaving you alone and not even coming over to say hello. We’re friends now and I want to help you. When I come back, let’s have a talk. Maybe we can figure it out. Please?

My friends are all worried. Yours as well. When you didn’t come back to them for a while, they started thinking that maybe…well, I don’t really want to say. You’re not a bad pony, Dusk. I think you’re just lacking in confidence I know there’s still a chance maybe we can change that. Please, talk to me?

I’ll see you when I get back.

Your good friend, Twilight Sparkle.

I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes as I read her name. Despite what I’d heard at the library door, despite what I now believed, Twilight had still been willing to give me a second chance. She still was…there was still…hope.

“And…check.” Leon said as he checked off that last item on the list for me as he and the guys smiled at me, smiles which I returned.

“We told ya they cared about you.” Shield said to me.

“Ya ready now?” Dog said to me as I wiped away my tears.

“Yeah.” I said, giving a more confident look. “Let’s go!”

Feeling my spirits be bolstered by this newfound discovery, we burst out of the library door. Together, we galloped through the streets of Ponyville, out of the border of the town. Like when we teamed up against the Dark Gang, I felt brave, confident, and indestructible. But I also felt great and happy to be with my team on another mission. We would be like Daring Doo, braving the dangers of the wicked Forest, battling through whatever got in our way to rescue our friends. Nothing was going to stop us now…

…Until we reached the dark line of wicked-looking trees. The Everfree Forest. That’s when Dog said “Wait! Does anypony know how to find ‘em?” he was right to ask that question. None of us knew how to direct ourselves through the forest.

I stood there for a while, staring into the dark. Then I took a deep breath and the others prepared themselves just as I did. We had an hour. There was no turning back now.

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends.” I quoted Shakesmare. We then stepped in, proceeding to search for them and called out their names as we did.

I’d read enough about it to know that the forest was bad news. It was full of dangerous creatures, all of which had no problems preying on anypony foolish enough to come across them. The animals took care of themselves, so they only needed equines for…well, food. I just hoped that wasn’t their fates. And I knew my teammates were hoping the same thing.

We continued on in through the forest, calling out the names of the girls one-by-one. Just like Dog said, we didn’t know whereabouts in the forest they were, if they could even hear us where we was. As usual, it was up to us Element Squad to save the day. We had to do this, we had to find them...

We need to find them and get them back home safely. We had to do this.

I heard something snap from behind.

I knew the others heard it because I also heard Leon say “What was that?”

Then a growl of some unseen beast went through. We tried looking around, searching for what was making that noise, but couldn’t see where it was coming from. What was that? What was making that noise?

Then I shook my head, snapped out of my curiosity, and said “Guys, come on! We can’t let any-thing scare us. We have to keep looking for the girls.”

They all agreed and we kept on with the search.

We searched high and low but couldn’t even find a trace of them anywhere.

“Agh! It’s no use! We’ll never find them in this forest!” I screamed. I stopped running and had my head lowered in depression.

What had I been thinking? I could barely even keep my friends, what had made me think I could even begin to save them? How could I have been so stupid?

I knew my friends were worried about me for they came around and comforted me.

“Cheer up, Dusk. We’ll find ‘em.” Dog said.

“Yeah. As long as we’re together, nothing can stop us, right?” Leon said.

But I didn’t even move an inch. Instead I had begun to cry, thinking how pathetic this was. Now, I would never see the girls again. I wanted to find her so badly, I wished there was a way to find them.

I didn’t know it, but my magic somehow weaved her shape in the dark, giving me a window of light. When I raised, I was amazed by how my magic responded to my emotions. I even felt a little warmer, just seeing her outline…recalling how elated I felt, when she told me she wanted to be my friend. It was like she was actually here, I felt a little braver…and when she had been the first to welcome me.

The tears were gone and a smile was formed upon my face.

But we all became confused when the orange light of her puppet started moving away.

“Wait, where’s it going?” Shield asked.

“I think I might know.” I said.

My puppet was cantering in the air, running off down a part of the forest. Then, it stopped and turned its head to look at us. It was like it was leading us somewhere…and it wanted us to follow.

This was something they’ve never done, not once did they do anything like this before…but then again, I’d never had friends before. Well, in turns I put my emotions into this. But I wasn’t complaining for I had a hunch that if we followed this puppet, it would lead us to the real Applejack.

I couldn’t explain why I had come to this conclusion, but deep down, I knew it would.

“You guys okay with this?” I asked and they all said they didn’t mind and we’re with me all the way in their own ways.

“Alright then,” I said, running to catch up, “lead the way and…Element Squad, let’s go!”

Then the others began to follow, with their hopes risen just as much as mine.

Just to make sure we were combat ready, we each transformed into our elemental forms.

Each transformation was different and all depends on the elemental it’s caused by.

Shield was an Earth elemental, so for his transformation, rocks cover up his body. After he’s fully covered an orange flash blasts them right off, revealing him as the orange, green-eyed, golem-like skinned, silver horned and armored hero Apolloid.

Leon was a Water elemental, so for his transformation, a huge spout of water covers his body. After that, it crashes down and a blue flash goes through, ridding the water and revealing him as the blue, light blue eyed, reptile-like, amphibious, silver armored hero Posidacus with his navy blue visor and water bullet cannon.

Dog was an Ice elemental, so for his transformation, ice covers his body. After that, the ice would crack and blast off his body with a violet flash, revealing him as the orange eyed, silver armored violet hydra-like hero Icedra.

For me, ʹcause I was Fire Dragon, a Fire elemental, flames form beneath my claws and hoofs and spread all across me until I become the green-eyed, red dragon with golden horn and tail spikes hero and leader of the team El Dragon.

The color form set off again with us right behind it. The four of us followed it as it lead us along through the dark…to find our friends.

Author's Note:

What an unexpected turn of events! After a talk with Shield and the others, Dusk has now regained his trust in them and is willing to give the girls a second chance. But first the four must find and rescue the girls from the Everfree Forest, one of the most dangerous locations in Equestria. Will they be able to rescue the girls? Find out next time!

Okay, guys, we finally made it! Now you're gonna see the Element Squad in action! Also, I've added a little surprise that will change the lives of both the Mane 6 and the Element Squad forever. Do you want to know what it is? Then wait for the next chapter to find out! That's all I got for this chapter! Don't forget to comment and rate the story to tell me what you think!