//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Hooves of magic: The Element of Harmony // by Velvet dropped //------------------------------// An Ice Pony was trying to hide in the storm, lightning flickered across the dark clouds. FreezingDome was clutching his fragile cargo closer, If he could make it over the mountains, he'd be safe. He'd escaped the Pegasus tribes palace unseen and the secret cave was so close, but his theft was not as stealthy as he thought, and sets of different coloured eyes where already tracking him from below. The Silent changling on the mountain ledge had lighter skin then other Changlings that shined with the reflection of the eternal darkness, her purple, bug like, eyes narrowed, watching the motion of wings far up in the clouds. She covered her broken horn with magic, waiting for it to go from green to dark red and behind her two Pegisi with swords in there mouths rose to the sky and dived down into the heart of the storm, A piercing shreak echoed off the mountains as there swords siezed the moon-pale Ice Pony. "Bind his wings!" The waiting waiting Changling ordered as her soldiers threw FreezingDome on the ledge in front of her, he was already stretching his ice-like wings for a BlizzardSlash. "Quickly!!" She shouted, one of the Pegasus soldiers grabbed some chains from a pile of smouldering cloals, he threw it over each of AirStrikes wings, clamping his ice-like wings together with a sizzling smell of burning feathers. FreezingDome let out a horrible shreak of pain. "To late." The Changelings forked tongue slithered in and out of her mouth. "You won't be using your deathly BlizzerdSlash on us, Ice Pony." She said, one of the soldiers moved forward. "He was carrying this, Queen Scorn." He said while handing her a Pegasus foal with a Rainbow Mane, Scorn squinted at the newborn through the downpour. "This isn't an Ice Pony foal!" She hissed. "You stole her from the Pegasus palace." The Ice Pony stared back at her. Hissing steam circled his wings where the hot chains met cold silver feathers. "You thought you where unnoticed, didn't you?" Scorn said. "My Pegasus ally is not a fool. Queen Hurricane knows everything that happens in her tribe. Her lookout reported an Ice Pony thief sneaking away, and I decided finding you might add some...violence to my boring visit." Scorn held the small foal up to the light of the fire and turned very gently. Magic particles hovered over the foal as the light of the fire shone over her. "Yes. This is a Pegasus foal about to age." Scorn mused. "Why would my sister send you to steal a Pegasus foal? Ebony hates any pony or HippoGryph younger and prettier than she is." She thought for a moment as rain drummed on the ledge around her. "Unless...the brightest night is tomorrow..." She then created a scorpion like tail that connected to her own bug like tail, she then flicked it over her head, the poisonous garb inches from FreezingDomes eyes. "Your not not in Ebony's army, are you? You're one of those insipid underground piecebringers." "The hooves of peace?" Said one of the Pegisi soldiers. "You mean they're real?" Scorn snorted. "A few weaklings crying over a little blood. Unwrap his chains. He won't be able to strike us until his wings cool down." The the queen sized Changeling leaned closer as her soldier pulled the chains away. "Tell me, Ice Pony, do you really believe in that pompous old Alicorn's prophecy?" "Haven't enough ponies, HippoGryphs and Changlings died for your war?" Snarled FreezingDome, wincing at the pain in his wings. "All of Equestria has suffered for the last twelve years. The prophecy says--" "I don't care. No prophecy decides what happens to me." Scorn interrupted. "I'm not letting a bunch of words or young ponies, a trator of a Changeling and a HippoGryph choose when I die or what I bow to. We can have peace when my wretched sisters are dead and I am queen of the Changelings." Her magical venomous tail dipped closer to the Ice pony. Rain patterned on FreezingDome's fur. He glared up at her. "The Elements of Harmony are coming, whether you like it or not, and they'll choose who the next Changeling queen should be." "Really?" Scorn stepped back and turned the foal slowly in he magic. Her forked tongue slipped in and out of her smile. "So, Ice Pony. Is this foal a part of your pathetic prophecy?" FreezingDome went still. Scorn tapped lightly on the foal's forehead with one of her black and buggy hooves. "Hello?" She called. "Are you an Element of Harmony ready to age and end this big bad war?" "Leave her alone." FreezingDome choked out. "Tell me." Scorn said. "What becomes of your precious prophecy...if one of the five foals never aged at all?" "You wouldn't." he said. "Nopony would harm a foal." His blue eyes were fixed desperately on her magic. "Nopony...I'm a Changeling. And...no 'Element of Loyalty to save Equestria." Scorn said. "What a sad, sad story." She then began play in around with the foal in her magic. "I guess that means you should be very, very careful with this terribly important--oops!" With an exaggerated lunge, Scorn pretended her magic wasn't working and just deactivated...and she let the foal fall over the side of the cliff into the rocky darkness below. "No!" FreezingDome shrieked. He threw off the two Pegasus soldiers and flung himself towards the edge. Scorn covered his neck with her magic and slammed him down. "So much for destiny." She smirked. "So much for your tragic little movement." "You're a monster." The Ice Pony gasped, writhing under her magic. His voice cracked with despair. "We'll never give up. The Elements--the Elements will come to stop this war." Scorn leaned down to hiss into his ear. "Even if they do--it'll be far too late for you." Her magical scorpian tail ripped through the Ice pony's wings, shredding them as FreezingDome shrieked in agony. With a swift movement, she then stabbed her magical poisonous tail through his skull and flung the limp, white pony over the edge of the cliff. The Ice Pony's screams cut off long before the echoes of his corpse slamming into the rocks below. The Changeling turned her purple, bug eyes to her Pegasus soldiers. "Perfect." She said. "That should be the last we hear about that wretched prophecy. " she held out her one buggy hoof so the rain could wash away the glistening Pony blood that covered it. "Let's go find something else to kill." The Changeling and the soldiers lifted off into the dark clouds Some time later, far below, a Pegasus the colour of lava flew over the rocks to the broken body of the Ice Pony. She nudged one of his wings aside and lifted a strand of a rainbow mane then hovered back into the labyrinth of caves under the cliff. Stone walls brushed her wings. She grabbed and ignited a torch and held it in her mouth to light her way along the dark passege, deep into the mountain. "I stand with the hooves of peace." Hissed a voice in the shadows. "Amber? Is that you?" "Where awaiting the hooves of magic." Answered the red Pegasus. A blue-green HyppoGryth emerged from a side cave, and she tossed the strand of rainbow mane at his front talons. "Not that it will do us any good now." She snarled. "FreezingDome is dead." The HyppoGryth stared at the strand of rainbow mane. "But...the Pegasus foal--" "Dead." She said. "Gone. It's over, Onyx." "It can't be." He said. "Tomorrow is the brightest night. The moon will be at it's fullest for the first time in a century. The Ponies, the Changeling and the HyppoGryth have to age tomorrow." "Well, one of them are already dead." Amber said. Rage flickered in her eyes. "I knew I should have stolen the Pegisi foal myself. I know the Pegasus tribe. They wouldn't have caught me a second time." Onyx grimaced, fiddling one talon over his sea-Crystal that was around his neck. "SandStorm is dead, too." "SandStorm?" A spurt of magic shot groom Amber's wings. "How?" "Caught in a battle between Ebony's and Chrysalis's forces on the way here. She still made it with the orange Earth Pony foal. But she died of her wounds stoon after." He answered. "So it's just you, me and Cliff to raise the little weaklings." Amber growled. "For a prophecy that can never be fulfilled. Let's just kill the annoying foals now and be done with it. We'll be long gone before the hooves of peace return for the Elements" "No!" Onyx squarked. "Keeping the Elements alive for the next eight years in more important than anything. If you don't Want to be part of that--" "All right, enough." Amber snapped. "I'm the strongest pony in the hooves of peace. You need me. It doesn't matter how I feel about weak foals." She eyed the strand of Rainbow mane on the floor, rubbing the back oh her neck with one of her wings. "Although I thought at least one of them would be a Pegesus." "I'll find us a fifth foal." Web's pushed past her, feathers scraping against fur. "There's no way way back into the Pegasus tribe, brainless." She said. "They'll be guarding all the foals closly now." "Then I'll get a foal somewhere else." He said grimly. "The Unicorns don't even look after their foals...I could take one from there tribe without any of them noticing ." "Of all the horrible ideas." Amber said with a shudder. "Unicorns are lazy creatures. Nothing like a Pegisi." "We have to do something." Onyx said. He squarked as his tail sent the strand of mane skittering across the floor. "In eight years, the hooves of piece will come looking for three ponies, one Changeling and one HyppoGryth. The prophecy says five, and we're going to make it come true...Whatever it takes."