Soren The Alicorn Part 4: The Rift

by KingNyroc15

A Life Story

...on...

...ay with me...

...soren...

...Soren?

"Soren! Can you hear me?" Robin exclaimed with worry.

"Uggh..." Soren responded before he noticed he was laying on his stomach.

"Ok...ok...you're not dead. No need to panic. You're wings are just...C'mon Robin, stay calm! Umm, umm..."

"R...Robin..."

"Wha? Soren! Are you hanging in there? How are feeling? How many of me can you see? What year—"

"Robin!" The panicking mare froze. "What time...is it?"

"Almost noon. When I didn't see you in the morning, I immediately knew something happened," she began explaining rapidly. "It didn't help that Ruby was gone as well, so I just knew Nightingale was behind all this, or least your disappearance..."

"Robin..."

"Ruby must have snuck out of the house last night and followed you, and my sister must have taken her somewhere..."

"Robin!"

"Sorry, sorry. I'm just—"

"Panicking A LOT, just calm down!" Soren sat up as Robin shrunk to the ground and buried her face in her hooves to calm herself down. Remembering what transpired the night before, Soren looked at his wings. They were amateurly bandage with cloth, which was reddened from blood. His wings didn't feel any better, but the pain was bearable.

"Thank you for patching up my wings. I take it you did that to stop the bleeding?" Robin simply nodded. "C'mon...sit up," he said softly. She did as she was told and sat up, wiping away her tears afterward. Soren brought her in for a hug.

"We'll find Ruby, ok? I don't want anything to happen to her either. They couldn't have gotten far. I want you to promise me something."

"O-Ok."

"I want you to promise to remain calm and strong. No matter what happens, and no matter what I go through, I will bring Ruby back to you. The promise I made when I decided to help is still valid."

"Thank you...Soren." Their hug broke.

"How about I check myself into the hospital for the day while you look for any leads on Ruby's whereabouts?" Robin wiped away more tears and smiled at him.

"Sounds like a plan."

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The Next Day
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Soren woke up in the guest room of Robin's home feeling much better than yesterday. Sanctum's doctors bandaged Soren's wings more efficiently and even used a spell to dim the pain for a few days. Of course they mentioned that it would be months before he could use his wings, but Soren already knew of a way to speed up the time. Yesterday, Robin explored the entirety of Sanctum to look for any clues and to listen in on any recent gossip. By the end of the day, she heard something startling. She couldn't tell Soren right away, for he couldn't focus as much due to the spell the doctor used on him. That night, she picked him up from the hospital and brought him back to her house.

The next morning Soren and Robin had breakfast per usual, but it was very quiet without Ruby being present. The two barely spoke, knowing that nothing could be said to cheer one another up. After breakfast, Robin told Soren what she heard yesterday.

"How are your wings?" she asked to start the conversation.

"Better than yesterday. The feeling of them breaking though..." Soren shuddered. "I'll be fine for now. Any luck on finding information? I'm sorry I couldn't help."

"It's alright. I did discover something. A group of ponies near one of the watering holes were talking about something that had to do with Nightingale. They said The Rusty Nail, that bad watering hole you went to, was being taken over by a 'crazy mare.'"

"And you're absolutely sure it's Nightingale?"

"It has to be. She's the only pony I know of in this town that is called crazy."

"That information is helpful, but how exactly do we respond to this?"

They thought for hours without any sort of effective plan. The first thing that came to their minds were blurted out, hoping it would lead to an idea. No such luck happened. The best, and worst, plan that they came up with was Soren charging in there and confronting Nightingale, except...the result would possibly be the death of one of them considering the mother's rage towards Soren. Soren never agreed that it should be ruled out; he would prefer it to be a Plan B.

"Robin..." Soren started sadly.

"Don't...please don't," she replied, knowing what he was going to say.

"It seems like the only way."

"I don't want to lose my sister simply to get Ruby away from her!"

"It might be either her or Ruby!" Robin was silent. She wanted to weep again but knew she had cried enough. Besides, she made a promise to Soren.

"Robin..." Soren started again. "We have been spending all day trying to think of a plan. Nightingale will not stop at simply taking over The Rusty Nail. She wants revenge on the town and on us. Tomorrow...this will end, one way or another. It has to end."

"How? How can you easily make decisions like this? To just...commit to killing a pony?! Have you gotten used to it?" Soren sighed sadly.

"You never get used to making lethal decisions. You just...deal with them. The greater good surpasses the consequences...even if I can't deal with them sometimes." There was a decent pause before Robin blurted something out.

"Tell me about your life." Soren looked at Robin while holding his saddened expression. "Please...I want to know what you've been through. I've seen those shattered eyes of yours in my sister, but she was never willing to share."

"That's because she couldn't. She barely remembers anything besides her family. I suppose we have time left in the day." Soren looked at the small, table clock in the living room. It showed four o'clock. With his magic, Soren grabbed two glasses of water, one for him and one for Robin, from the kitchen and placed them on the table. He began his tale.

"It started when I woke up in a town called Ponyville..."

Soren told Robin everything. From his experiences...

"...then I basically became the embodiment of fire as I looked at Coyote Colt's terrified face..."

...to the ponies he met...

"...I strangely fought a dark version of myself twice. I still don't know how that worked exactly..."

...and the losses he was faced with.

"...then the stalactite stabbed her...right through her side. She died in my arms...she was happy, surprisingly. She said I was the only pony that believed in her..."

He told Robin of his enemies...

"...the other Time Lord, the Master, was a pain in the flank. Nearly killed us twice..."

...even when the enemy was himself.

"...I wanted to kill him so bad, but Twilight stopped me. The Master was lucky...I could've ended the torment..."

Finally, Soren told her about his greatest victory.

"She was strangely easy to defeat. Nightmare Moon, the all powerful alicorn, was no match for me and the items my friends gave me. Not even a resurrected Nyra on her side was enough..."

It was well into the night when Soren finished the summarization of his life story up until this point. Robin rubbed her temples afterwards.

"Wow, just...wow" was all she said.

"It's a lot, I know," Soren replied.

"No, it's not that..."

"Then what is it?" Robin paused.

"...You're amazing, Soren!"

"What?"

"All of the things you did, all of the ponies you saved! It's amazing!"

"I disagree," Soren commented bluntly.

"Huh? Aren't you proud of your accomplishments?"

"Proud? You think I'm proud of all the torment I put ponies through? You think I'm proud of bringing evil wherever I go? You think I'm proud of nearly killing everyone I hold dear?!"

Robin flinched. She looked down as she listened to Soren's heavy breathing. She soon heard it become choppy. Looking up, Robin saw Soren looking down ad weeping.

"I-I never wanted to hurt anypony. I just...I just wanted to live a normal life. But I just had to become the Elemental Guardian...I just had to become the Doctor. Why? Why me? Why. Me?!"

"Soren!" Robin yelled at him. He looked up, slightly irritated. He was surprised when Robin hugged him. "You can't blame yourself for doing the right thing. We can't know if all of those events would have happened if you were there or not. The way I see it...It was lucky that you were there to save everypony. So stop sulking and start discovering who you really are, if you haven't discovered the obvious answer."

"Which is?"

"Haha. The answer is that you are Soren." Soren smiled then scoffed jokingly.

"Heh, that's a load of crap." Robin giggled.

"Shut up." She looked at the clock; almost eleven. "If you truly are going to do something tomorrow, we need to get our rest."

"Definitely, but you were the one who wanted my life story."

"I never said I didn't enjoy it."

Soren and Robin left the living room and entered their respective bedrooms. Tomorrow was going to be a mystery to them.