The Adventures of the Elementals

by AutoKnight01

The Oncoming Storm

Alright you guys know the drill. I only own my OC's and the plot of this story, everything else belongs to Hasbro, yadda yadda yadda. Either way ENJOY!

*Ponyville; Town Hall; 11:30 AM*

"Gem! Twilight! Reinforce the barrier, they're starting to break through!" Pyro shouted.

Twilight's and Gem's horns both lit up again and shone intensely. Their combined efforts made the shield surrounding town hall just a little bit stronger to keep the enemies out. Afterwards, both of them collapsed to the ground barely finding the strength to stand back up.

"Pyro, we can't keep this up much longer without Cadence!" Twilight cried as she rubbed her head.

"I know, I know. Just don't give up! I'll think of something!"

"Well, you better think fast, brother!" Typhoon shouted. "Zose frozen freaks look really nasty!"

Pyro's brain was being put to the test here. Town hall was filled with scared ponies and they were all starting to become doubtful of he and his siblings' abilities to protect them; that is never a good sign. He was distracted from that for a while as Terra and Applejack returned from the basement.

"Any better?" he asked them.

"No. If anything, she's worse." Terra sadly replied.

"Her cold is a really bad one. Ah don't think she's gonna be able to use her protection magic with a fever that high." Applejack added.

A loud smack echoed through the building when his own red and orange tipped hoof smacked into his face.

"Oh, that's just wonderful. We have a building filled with almost half of Ponyville's population, a freak blizzard threatening to freeze us all to death, Cadence is sick, four of the elements are missing, and the snow outside is literally coming alive and trying to kill us. Is there anything else I forgot to mention?!"

"Yeah, there is actually. We just ran out of food." Rainbow Dash added.

"LOVELY!"

It was all happening so fast and everything was quickly taking a turn for the worse. Now it wouldn't be long before the snow beasts broke through the shield. Worried, he looked out the window and through the wind and snow to view the mountain of the highest peak.

"Cryo, Pinkie......where are you?"

*96 hours earlier; One week after Gem's birthday*

The noses of everypony living in Ponyville were filled with delight as they breathed in the fresh air of the warm sunny day. The weather team had it easy today. All that had to be done was put a light amount of cloud overhead and let the sun take care of the rest. With such a light workload, Rainbow Dash could take half the day off to work on her flying. That meant her partner was needed to take down notes. The last thing the weather team leader had to do for the day was sign off on a delivery of rainclouds from the Cloudsdale factory for next week's shower.

As soon as her name was signed on that parchment, Rainbow took off like a shot for the library, excited to get to work on some new tricks. Sooner than soon, the library came into view and she saw two ponies standing on the balcony rail doing a meditation exercise. Those two were Pyro and Cadence. Rainbow stopped right in front of them and startled them both with her greeting.

"Hi guys!"

She didn't really just calmly say it as much as she did shout it. The volume of her voice caused Cadence and Pyro to lose their balance and fall off the rail and back onto the balcony floor. Cadence chuckled but Pyro looked up at Rainbow with a slight glare.

"Rainbow Dash, how many times have I asked you not to do that while I'm meditating?" he asked.

"Boy, I lost count, Pyro." She answered honestly. "Where's Gem?"

The reason she was asking him was the young purple unicorn had a new hobby. She loved doing science experiments and the best place for her to do that right now without her own lab was at the library with Twilight. So, Twilight offered to let her help for it seemed beneficial on both ends; Twilight got somepony to help her out with some of her less magic involved experiments and Gem got to do what she loved to do all day.

"She's inside with Twilight doing an experiment." The red stallion answered. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we were doing something before you interrupted."

"Oh! Right, sorry! Don't mind me!" Rainbow said apologetically.

She then let herself land and knocked on the door. Someone purple did answer it but it wasn't a pony. It was the dragon of the house.

"Hey, Spike. How's it hangin’?" The pegasus greeted.

"It's almost a nightmare here." Spike spoke his true thoughts. "Gem has been here doing weird science stuff all day and its driving me crazy! So many big words I don't understand going back and forth, it's almost like Twilight copied herself!"

Rainbow Dash laughed at seeing the baby dragon in so much confusion.

"Hey, it could be worse, Spike. Pyro could have told Gem to be Twilight's partner instead of mine." She giggled.

"Remind me to hug him for not doing so." Spike groaned. "She's down in the basement."

Rainbow Dash nodded and trotted inside past Spike and headed to the basement door. Halfway down the stairs she saw her partner standing next to Twilight both of them wearing goggles over their eyes. Rainbow originally thought Twilight was the one telling Gem what to do. When she got within hearing range however, she found it to be the opposite and Gem was instructing Twilight.

"So you're saying that this solution will cause the mixture here to react?" The solution Twilight was referring to was a test tube filled with a shiny silver fluid while the mixture was a flask filled halfway with a bubbling green fluid.

"Positive. But no more than one drop." Gem instructed as she looked at the green fluid. "This stuff is highly volatile. More than a tiny drop could blow up the entire house."

"W-w-w-w-w-what?" Rainbow made her presence known in a way she was not proud of.

The two unicorns noticed her stutter and turned around, both smiling to see her.

"Oh! Hi there, Rainbow. If you're going to be down here then you'll need a pair of these." Twilight explained as she levitated a pair of safety goggles over to Rainbow's head and put them on for her.

"Uh....thanks. Gem, did you say, 'blow up the entire house'?" Rainbow asked.

"Oh, that. Come on down here. You gotta see this." Gem gestured with her hoof.

"I'm good up here, thanks." Rainbow replied, not willing to admit she was scared.

"Whatever." Gem went on. "Anyways, Twilight and I put together a chemical mixture here with the main ingredient being magnesium."

That last word was one Rainbow Dash was not familiar with.

"Magnesi-what now?"

Both the unicorns rolled their eyes and Twilight decided to explain.

"Magnesium, Rainbow Dash. It's a common metal substance that is used in the making of fireworks and other pyrotechnical things."

Then Gem chimed back in again eager to explain exactly what they were doing.

"What we've done is mixed a few chemical mixtures with a small amount of magnesium dust." She gestured to the test tube with the silver fluid. " Now, this is a catalyst that should bring on an interesting and yet totally cool reaction."

She and Twilight both backed up a few steps and Gem levitated the test tube over the opening of the flask. She had to get it right with the dosage. More than one drop and boom went the library. Slowly, the test tube tilted over and the silver fluid began to creep closer and closer to the tiny spout. Twilight grabbed hold of a rag with her magic and used it to wipe Gem's forehead free of the sweat coming from it. The electric purple glow from her horn stayed steady and her breaths were taken in deep.

"Gotta hold steady...."

The test tube slowly tipped once again as the very edge of the catalystic fluid neared the opening of the tube. Finally, with the gentlest nudge, a single drop fell from the tube and into the bubbling green pool in the flask.

Gem immediately pulled the test tube away from the area as soon as the drop was inside. All Twilight, Rainbow, and she had to do now was wait for something to happen. A minute went by though and nothing really seemed to change. The green stuff was bubbling the same way with no observable difference.

"But...I don't understand it." Gem took a look at the book she and Twilight were using for a guide. "Didn't we do everything right?"

Twilight put her head next to Gem's and looked at the pages.

"I thought we did. I did the calculations and measurements for that catalyst five times over before actually mixing it. What did we do wrong?"

"Um...girls?" Rainbow muttered.

"Did we miss something? Did we not put enough magnesium in the main solution?" Gem wondered

"Girls?"

"We put MORE than enough of that dust in there. With that catalyst it should have given off at least a measly spark." Twilight responded.

"Girls, I think you should..."

"Then why is nothing happening? All of this should be..."

"Would you just look already?!"

Rainbow finally raised her voice up into the point of a shout. The two unicorns first looked back at her and then to where her hoof was pointing. The green in the flask was beginning to bubble more rapidly and smoke was starting to pour out.

"Oohhh.....here we go." Gem smiled.

The smoke slowed down a bit and then something else flew out of the flask opening. It looked like a blue colored spark. Then it was followed by another spark, this one red. Then, green, then white, then purple, orange, and suddenly a whole array of sparks flew out of the bottle and seemed to explode when they reached halfway between the floor and the ceiling. Twilight, Gem, and Rainbow all smiled seeing the result.

"That's awesome! It's like a firework show in a bottle!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"That was the point." Twilight began. "Princess Celestia sent us the original formula for this project and we found that it was flawed. The princess asked in her letter if I would try to correct it. And with Gem's help, I did. Thanks a lot, Gem."

"It was my pleasure. Let's send the princess a letter back saying we have the complete formula." Gem suggested.

Twilight nodded, agreeing with the idea but first she, Gem, and Rainbow stayed down there for a few more minutes enjoying the show the experiment gave them. It died down after five minutes. After the two unicorns cleaned up, they headed back upstairs where Spike wrote down what Twilight said onto a letterhead and rolled it up along with Gem's and her formula notes. With a puff of his fire breath, the letter was burnt into a flying cloud of ash and made its way out the window towards Canterlot.

"Hm...I wonder if Pyro can do that too." Spike thought out loud.

"Doubtful. He may be a manipulator of fire but I think your flames are different than his." Twilight answered.

Spike shrugged and decided to go take a nap after he declared himself on break.

"Alright then. Gem, you ready to head out to the field?" Rainbow asked her partner.

"We'll have to stop by the house first so I can pick up my blackboard."

That was one of her birthday gifts from Fluttershy, along with a box of chalk sticks. She was ecstatic to receive it and hugged the pegasus in thanks.

"Alright, let's hit it then." Rainbow headed out the door and Gem followed her but not before waving at her fellow unicorn.

"Thanks for the experiment, Twilight. I had fun."

"It was my pleasure, Gem. I have a few more to do in the next few days if you want to help me out." Twilight said back.

"I'd love to. Count on it!"

Then she left in tow of her partner, leaving Twilight alone for a few seconds before the door of the door of the library knocked again. She didn't know who else it could be but decided to go and see for herself. When she reached the door, she met the dark azure eyes of her fashion loving friend.

"Oh! Hi, Rarity. What brings you by?" Twilight greeted as she stepped aside, allowing Rarity to come in.

Rarity walked in and explained her presence there.

"I came to ask if you had a bottle or two of hairspray that I could borrow." She started. "I'm going to need it for the weekend in Canterlot."

Twilight remembered now. After Agua finished reading those books sent by Princess Luna, she sent him a letter requesting that he come to Canterlot for a few days to begin his lessons. He originally intended to go on his own, however when he saw the look in Rarity's eyes at the mention of the name, "Canterlot", he soon found there was no way out and that he HAD to invite her otherwise the look would be in his head all the time. So, reluctantly, he invited her to come along for the trip. After he had popped his ears following the squeal Rarity released, he went to Fluttershy and respectfully asked if she would watch over Bobo while he was gone. She was happy to accept the clam into her home for a few days. Typhoon was standing next to her at the time and both took note of this; it was one of the very rare occurrences where Agua actually said, "Thank you."

So with Bobo in a tank filled with water and Opalescence in a basket, the partners of generosity and water dropped off their pets with the mares of wind and kindness for the weekend. Now all they had to do was go back to the boutique and finish packing. And that is what led Rarity to the library.

"Oh yeah I forgot about that." Twilight chuckled. "A whole weekend alone with just you and Agua? Good luck."

Rarity giggled right back at the statement, knowing all too well what being near Agua on a regular basis was like.

"I won't be seeing much of him, thankfully. He'll be too occupied with Princess Luna to spend any time with me." Rarity said with a smile. "Now about that hairspray."

"Did someone say, hairspray?"

That voice came from the top of the staircase where the purple and green scaled assistant of the library was starting to come down with a can of hairspray grasped in his hand.

"I thought you were asleep." His mother figure commented.

"I was, but then I heard Rarity come in. How could I sleep through that?"

Twilight rolled his eyes at Spike's persistence but smiled anyway. As did Rarity before her eyes beamed with an idea.

"Would you mind if I took Spike with me too?" she asked Twilight. "I'm going to be stocking up for the shop and a set of claws like his would be very helpful."

Spike's smile reached both edges of his face as he and Rarity together looked at Twilight for approval.

"I guess some time away from the library wouldn't be too hard for me." Twilight said. "I can ask Pyro to fill in for you."

"You're gonna ask me to do what now?"

Once again, the voice came from the top of the staircase as the stallion using it walked down with Cadence behind him.

"Spike's gonna go with Rarity and Agua to Canterlot for the weekend. You don't mind taking over for Spike while he's gone do you?" Twilight asked.

"I guess I can. After all, you are letting me live here for free." Pyro replied. "It's the least I can do."

"Great! It's all settled then!" Rarity excitedly burst out as she took the hairspray from Spike's hand and into her magical grip. "Spike, pack a bag and meet Agua and I at the train station in an hour."

"You got it, Rarity!"

With a final nod, Rarity made her way out the door to finish packing her things and to make a list of all the supplies she would need to purchase while away. That left Spike to go and pack his things while Twilight, Pyro, and Cadence all sat down for a minute to share a cup of tea. They conversed about a few small things until Spike came down with a bag packed for himself, mostly with gemstones to munch on.

"You behave yourself, Spike." Twilight told him as he headed for the door.

Spike was about to open it up before he thought of something. He looked back at Cadence and Twilight with a frown and approached them.

"Um....is there anything you want me to say to Shining Armor in case I see him?" he asked.

Both the girls frowned upon hearing the name.

"Tell him that if he wants to talk, he can come here because I'm sure not running to him." Cadence confidently said.

"I don't really have anything, Spike. Just keep the secret about me being the reincarnation of a god. Okay?" Twilight asked.

"You got it. Have a fun weekend you guys."

Finally, Spike headed out the door and began to trek to the train station. Along the way, he passed by Pinkie Pie who was carrying a saddlebag filled with all sorts of baking materials and ingredients.

"Hiya, Spike! Where ya headed?" she asked, chipper as always.

"To the train station. I'm going to Canterlot. Uh....." He then looked around Pinkie a bit confused. "Where's Cryo? He's usually always with you isn't he?"

"Oh he's back at the bakery helping Mr. and Mrs. Cake out with a few things. Today's a busy day so we needed an extra pair of hooves. Though Cryo is a unicorn so we got an extra pair of hooves and a horn all in one."

"Well okay. Tell him I said hi when you get back." Spike requested.

"Oki Doki Loki, Spike! Have fun in Canterlot!" With that, Pinkie bounced back to the bakery.

Upon entering the door of Sugarcube Corner, she looked to her right and saw Cryo was using levitation magic to work a couple of spray bottles filled with cleaner to clean the windows and the tables of the establishment at the same time. The cakes were in the back doing their thing and hustling as fast as they could to get things done. She went to them first to drop off the baking things they needed.

"Here you go, Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Everything on the list is right here." Pinkie dropped her saddlebags on a cleared table.

"Thank you so much, Pinkie." Mr. Cake said with a smile. "Now would you mind helping us? We're backed up here."

"I'm on it! Tell me what to do!" Pinkie said enthusiastic to help.

Hours passed by and everything was going smoothly. Ponyville was functioning perfectly normal as it should be.

When the clock hit 4 PM, the train that left from Ponyville carrying Agua, Rarity, and Spike, pulled into the Canterlot station. After they got out of the train, they headed for the castle where the letter said they would be staying for the duration of their trip.

Upon reaching the front gate, the guards let them pass through to the inside where an aide of the princesses told the trio where exactly in the castle they would be staying. Once they reached the place, they set their bags down and noticed a problem. There were only two beds. Rarity looked over to Agua then gestured her eyes down to Spike. The stallion of water noticed this act and seemed oddly repulsed by it.

"Um....no." he said flat and simple.

The two ponies went into another room to talk while Spike shrugged and began to dig into his duffel bag filled with gemstones. Not far away from him, the partners of water and generosity were having another one of their infamous arguments. They were arguing about who should be the one to share a bed with Spike. Agua said Rarity should since Spike has a crush on her and he probably dreams of being in bed with her every night. It wasn't the thought that revolted her. She had more respect than that. What offended her was how Agua used the line in a perverted way.

The argument Rarity used as to why Agua should share the bed was that he is a boy and a lady needs her privacy in a bed be it her own or another. Agua waved it off as a lame excuse and accused her of just being selfish, something to which she was horribly offended by being the element of generosity and all.

As offended as she was, she knew shortly into the conversation that Agua wasn't going to budge on his position lightly. It was going to have to take something much stronger to make him sway his thoughts. As disgusted as she was with herself for having to resort to such a low means of negotiation, she saw no other alternative for that bed.

"If you let me have the bed, I'll introduce and talk you up to any three mares you want in Ponyville."

Just like that, Agua had given Rarity her undivided attention.

"Really now?" he raised an eyebrow not believing her for a second. "Make it seven."

"Four."

"Six."

"Four is my final offer. Take it or leave it?"

Agua grumbled not quite satisfied with four. But he took the offer anyway and shook Rarity's hoof to seal the deal. After that, Rarity dropped the news on Spike that he would be sharing a sleeping space with Agua, which was something to which the dragon sort of feared for two reasons. One: He didn't like the stallion, and two: he knew very well the kind of dreams he had because he had heard him talk about them right in front of him.

The nights were gonna be long for the next few days.

Four hours later, they were all treated to dinner that was completely free. A group of chefs from the castle kitchen had brought up an entire buffet spread for them along with a note from Princess Luna which Spike read out loud before eating anything.

"Agua, eat healthy tonight and get to sleep at a reasonable hour. We start your lessons tomorrow at the crack of dawn. I will be expecting you in the throne room at 5:30 AM.

Princess Luna."

"5:30 AM?! What am I, a rooster?" Agua complained.

"Oh stop your whining." Rarity muttered as she dug into some salad. "If I were you I'd be appreciative of the lessons she's offering."

"I am nothing BUT appreciative for Luna's offer." He replied. "But come on! I need to get more sleep than that!"

"Well then maybe you should just go to sleep after you finish eating. Get as much rest as you can, ya know?" Spike suggested.

Rarity made sure she swallowed her food before speaking again.

"Spike has a good point now, Agua. I think you should listen to him."

He groaned as he usually did whenever someone said something he didn't like to hear or thought was just plain stupidity. But with a gander at the clock, he saw that they were unfortunately right. If he was to have any chance at getting enough sleep, he needed to hit the hay right after he finished and force himself to sleep.

So after he finished his dinner, he got himself cleaned up and refreshed and headed for his bed.

"I still can't believe I have to do this. I should really...huh?"

He diverted his walking direction to the window and peeked outside turning his head in every which direction as if he was looking for something. That got his partner and their dragon companion very confused.

"Agua, what is it?" Spike wondered.

He waited twenty seconds before he got a response.

"I....I don't know."

He said it softly then slowly walked to his bed and got inside of it with Spike facing away from him and Agua the same. When Rarity climbed into her bed, all three of them bid each other goodnight and they all headed off to sleep when the unicorn turned out the light.

*Ponyville; Sugarcube Corner; 10:05 PM*

Business was good for the bakery that day. Plenty of money, plenty of customers, plenty of food made. After the shop closed, normal life, or at least as normal as it could be for the ponies that lived there, continued on as usual. Pinkie Pie had fun with the twins until it was time for them to go to bed, Mr. Cake chatted with Cryo about guy stuff but mostly concentrated on the growing romance with him and Octavia, and Mrs. Cake smiled every time Cryo offered to help with any mundane task that needed to be done around the place.

Then it came to be late with the moon overhead and the stars all glistening. That meant it was time for them all to turn in for the night and prepare for the next day to come.

"You ready to hit it, Cryo?" Pinkie asked as she came downstairs wearing a nightcap on her head.

She got no answer and instead viewed the rear end of her partner's body. His head was looking outside with a flat expression. Those two cyan irises were pointed to the sky.

"Cryo?" Pinkie tried again. "You okay?"

She tapped his shoulder.

"Huh?" Then he realized she was there. "Oh, yeah I'm fine, Pinkie."

"What were you lookin' at?" she asked truly wanting to know.

He honestly didn't have an answer for her. He just looked at her and flashed an assuring smile.

"It was nothing. I was just seeing things is all. Guess I had too many free samples from the back today." He chuckled. "Come on let's get some rest. I'm exhausted."

Pinkie could have sworn he was hiding something at the time but when he smiled and told her it was fine, her worries went away and she bounced back upstairs with her partner right behind her. But he took one last look out the window with a confused expression.

"I know I felt SOMETHING. What was it?"

*Golden Oaks Library; 10:15 PM*

As much fun as it was to help Twilight around the library as an assistant all day, Pyro was immensely relieved when the library finally closed for the day and he was done. It wasn't hard for him in anyway. It was just so boring and dull. He didn't dare tell it to Twilight but it was probably the most boring thing he had ever done. He almost wanted to ask if he could take some of the books she never reads anymore or thought were bad and take them outside to use for target practice just to put some light back in his day.

Twilight on the other hand was oblivious to her partner's boredom and had an absolute ball with him as a temporary assistant. That was another factor as to how Pyro got through the day: seeing how much it made Twilight happy. Sure he was no replacement for Spike but the fact that he was a stallion that produced flame from his body made it seem sort of similar in her eyes.

While Cadence was staying with them, she was offered the spare bed Twilight kept in storage in case of sleepovers. Never mind the fact that Cadence was staying there because of Shining Armor being in a bit of a misunderstanding mood, she and Twilight made themselves happy by thinking of it as just one long lasting sleepover.

"Oh, this is just like when you were a filly and I used to fall asleep when we were reading together. I never can remember now who was reading to who." Cadence giggled at the thought.

"Haha. Those were fun days." Twilight laughed back. "Pyro! We're headed off to bed. Feel free to do....whatever it is you do while we sleep."

She turned to face him when she talked only to find that he seemed to be looking out the window as if he were in some sort of trance.

"Pyro?" Cadence tried to get his attention.

"Hm? Oh, what is it?" that time he heard her.

"We uh...we said we're going to bed." Twilight repeated. "You okay there?"

"Uh...yeah. Yeah I'm okay. I just......I sensed something out there."

Now it got to the point where the two mares got interested in what he was saying.

"What was it?" the pink alicorn spoke first.

"I'm not sure." Was what he responded with before he turned around and headed for the basement door.

"Aren't you going to go out tonight?" Twilight asked.

"Not tonight. I'm just gonna stay inside and meditate down in the basement."

Now they definitely knew something was up. Every night Pyro had been in Ponyville, ever since he got there, which was a little over a month now, he had gone out in the night while everypony else slept. To hear him say he was staying inside was a real attention grabber. A change in habit that big was a clear indicator of suspicion.

"Pyro, I want you to be honest with us. What did you sense?" Twilight hoped he would provide a clear answer this time.

She didn't get it.

"I told you, I'm not sure. It was...vague, and it seemed to be coming from far away. I can't tell you what I sensed, Twilight, because I honestly don't have a clue as to what it was."

"Do you think maybe it was Nightmare Moon?" Cadence suggested.

"I don't know. But I do know this; because whatever it was I sensed out there...it felt strange...and cold."

He looked up to the mares one more time before heading down to the basement.

"I know this sounds strange, but put some extra blankets over your beds tonight." He requested.

"What? Why?" Twilight asked curious to his behavior.

"Please, girls. Just do it. For me." He asked again softly.

He sounded concerned. And for someone who fought off a hoard of Shadowmares with fire shooting out of his body, that's never a good sign.

"Okay, we'll do it." Cadence assured him.

The red unicorn smiled at them and bid them goodnight before he went down to the basement and closed the door behind him.

"Ooooookaaaaaay. That was new from him." Twilight said out loud. "What was up with that?"

"I don't know." Cadence replied concerned about not only what Pyro could have sensed but also Pyro himself. "But we shouldn't take his word for granted. Let's go find some blankets."

Twilight nodded and proceeded upstairs to her bedroom and went into the closet to pull out a couple extra blankets for herself and Cadence. They then climbed into bed and turned off the lights with themselves all bundled up. Cadence fell asleep a few minutes before Twilight, who was looking out her window to the moon as her eyes grew heavy.

"We'll get you soon, Nightmare Moon." She quietly murmured as her eyelids began to come down on her.

As they did, Twilight thought she saw something that seemed to float down from the sky but she paid it no mind, thinking it was just something her blurry vision had created. Then her vision went black as she drifted off into dreamland. But had she kept her eyes open for just a tad longer, she would have seen that something DID fall from the sky.

It was a snowflake.