//------------------------------// // Greetings // Story: The Four Strangers // by The One and only One //------------------------------// The Four Strangers Greetings "We exist together now, two corpses in one grave..." - Gravemind (Halo 2) "Okay everypony, this is how it's going to go, we will all be in groups of seven, this is for the caution against threats that have been found in the forest, don't stay in one spot too long and continue to move, stay on the paths given to you, we will search until it gets dark, hopefully by then the girls will have been found and we can all go home, if we don't find them, well lets hope for the best." Twilight finished up her speech to the whole town of Ponyville, each group had at least one unicorn to light the way and had pegasus to fly overhead as scouts. Everypony was lined up, all facing towards the Everfree forest. Nopony knew that they were being watched by Restraint, eyeing all the ponies to complete his task and then warn his brothers of the upcoming storm of equines. "I sUre hOpE ToLerAncE KnOWs WhaT hE's dOiNg, bEcaUse iF tHoSe cLoAks DoN't wOrK, wEll I Don'T eVen wAnT tO tHinK aBouT WhaT MiGhT HapPen." Restraint was whispering to himself until... "Hey, it does work for a matter of fact!" Said a soft voice that seamed familiar, yet not so familiar. Restraint turned around as fast as he could to find three male unicorns, each one holding one of the younglings on their backs. The first unicorn was the tallest and skinniest of the group, he had a grey mane with a dark tan coat, his eyes were a dark red, on his flank was a black shield with white gears surrounding it, the unicorn on his right was smaller, but more muscular, he had a black mane with a lighter tan coat, his eyes were also a dark red, on his flank was a brown book with silver wrench in the center. The unicorn on the left was a normal standard to what Restraint had seen, his mane was a faded brown with a normal tan coat, eyes being the same color as the other two, this one's flank had blue atom made out of wires with two standard screwdrivers forming an 'X' on the atom. He was the one that had spoken and levitating next to him was what looked like the items Tolerance had, but they had been formed into one unit, "Well, Restraint, we don't have all day from what can be seen from outside the forest, put the cloak on." Spoke the taller unicorn. His voice also was not as powerful, but just as wise before. Restraint stood dumbfounded at what he was looking at until he heard hoofsteps coming from the opening behind him, he regained a sense of reality and quickly took the device from the air, which in fact was just being lifted by Tolerances cloaked arm. He placed it on under his sensory organs and activated it, as the giant Juggernaut slowly faded, a male unicorn stood in his place. He was tall, but also muscular, his mane was a dark tan color with the coat being a pale brown, his eyes were the same red as the others and on his flank was a golden gear with brown wings on them, on the tips of the wings being a dark red. Then the Restraint/unicorn spoke with a less distorted voice, being lighter in tone then his normal voice, "Well, this is interesting." "You'll get used to it very shortly, Restraint, oh and so you know its me Obligation under here and to my right is Mercy and Tolerance is on my left, just so you don't get confused brother." Said the tall unicorn, who which Restraint now knew was Obligation. "I just hope they don't short out, they aren't exactly designed for this use Tolerance." Said Restraint, as he turned his holographic head towards Tolerance. Tolerance just shrugged it off and said, "Well at least they work, hopefully by the time they start acting up we won't need them." "Okay then," Obligation getting 'everypony's' attention, "we have a whole search party of equines..." "Pony." Restraint corrected. His brothers looking at him in confusion. "What?" Mercy asked. Restraint sighed and began to explain, "They refer themselves as ponies as a species, they don't say equines or younglings, for example, any word that has body in it, like everybody or somebody is said by the ponies as everypony or somepony. And instead of saying younglings they say fillies or colts. The adults are referred as mares for females and stallions for males, and yes I learned this by hearing in on the lavender unicorn's speech, and thats another thing, unicorns are ponies with horns, pegasus are ponies with wings, and normal ponies are just called earth ponies." Restraint's brothers stared at him with even more confusion as they processed the newly acquired information. As soon as they were done they stood as tall as they could, with Obligation speaking words that would change there lives forever, "Okay my brothers, let meet the locals." ===== All the ponies of Ponyville began to slowly walk towards the Everfree forest, with the mane six leading from the front. they continued to move forward until they all heard the breaking of branches. Twilight signaled her friends to get ready for any creature that may come out of the forest. By then the sound was even louder and they could see bushes shaking. Twilight started to power up her horn until she saw the head of a unicorn pop out of the bushes, what was even stranger was that she didn't recognize the unicorn. "Hello!" Shouted Restraint as he slowly moved himself forward, exposing himself from the bushes, his brothers standing behind him, still camouflaged, by the bushes. The towns ponies were dumfounded by this change in events, "were you all about to enter the forest? Mercy whispers out, "What are you doing Restraint?" Obligation instead answers the question for Restraint, "So we don't sound suspicious." Twilight steps forward and answers, "Yes! As a matter of fact we are looking for three missing fillies!" "You are, it so happens my brothers and I saved three fillies from being wolf food!" As if on cue, Mercy, Obligation, and Tolerance exit the forest, each one carrying a filly on their backs. At the sight of this the mane six run towards the unicorns with happiness in their eyes as the unicorns lift the fillies off their backs and gives them to the mares, not noticing the absence of aura surrounding the fillies as they were lifted. Around the same time the girls woke up to find their sisters/idols and friends holding them in a hug. The girls looked back up at the three fillies saviors and said in unison, "Thank you." But before they could say anything Pinkie Pie jumped from the group and gasped, "Wait, new ponies and the girls were saved, you know that this means!" The rest of the group said in unison, "Oh dear.." "A PARTY!"