Soren was on his way to Sugarcube Corner to meet up with his friends. He was very lost in thought and stopped thinking now and again to make sure he was heading in the right direction. As he rounded the next corner, he could see the pastry shop, but something caught his attention at the shop: two mares were conversing while sitting at a table. One was a pale yellow earth pony with an orange mane, and the other was a light blue unicron with a blue and white mane. Soren heard a few strange things in their conversation that peeked his interest.
"You're lying!" the unicron exclaimed silently with doubt. "Are you sure it wasn't a meteor?"
"It's true!" the orange mare replied. "It was last week. I told you: a blue shooting star shot past the mountains one night." Why doesn't the other mare believe her? Soren questioned. Does she know the color of every shooting star? They could be blue...I guess.
Soren began to ask too many questions to himself, so he decided to walk away. Unfortunately, since he was already deep in thought to begin with, he began thinking about that tiny conversation again. He was thinking about it so hard that he nearly bumped into Rarity.
"Oh! Soren, there you are. We've all been waiting for you." She took notice of how distracted he seems. "Have a lot on your mind, dear?" Soren broke out of his trance and simply nodded. "Well then, shall we go mingle with our friends?" Rarity led Soren into Sugarcube Corner.
When they walked inside, Soren saw Twilight, Pinkie, AJ, Rainbow, and Fluttershy all at one table, chatting away. As Rarity and Soren stepped through the door, the bell above it rang, which caused their friends to turn towards the entrance. Pinkie was the first to greet Soren.
"Hiya Soren! What took you so long? We were waiting for but you took so long to get here so we all decided to relax until you-" Soren put a hoof to Pinkie's mouth and said "shh" to silence her for a bit. Pinkie nodded and everypoby got settled at the table. Soren didn't seem that interested in conversing with his friends. As he sat at the table, he was looking down as if in deep thought. Everyone looked at him.
"You alright, sugarcube?" Applejack asked. "Ya seem a little...out of it." Soren looked up to see all of his friends focused on him.
"I'm fine," Soren sighed. "I just have a lot on my mind as of late."
"Well maybe talking about it will help," Fluttershy pointed out.
"Alright then. Let's see: On the way here, I heard two mares talk about some blue shooting star that passed over the mountains." Twilight flinched a little at this info but nopony noticed. "And then I also had this very strange dream awhile ago."
"Dreams are dreams, Soren," Rainbow Dash commented. "It was probably only that: a strange dream." Soren seemed reluctant to accept that.
"This was much more than some crazy dream. Maybe I should just start at the beginning." Soren began to explain his dream to his friends. How a voice was telling him to do the right thing and to show someone mercy. How he was the one that was attacking a seemingly helpless buck.
His friends showed expressions of confusion and shock. The dream was indeed very strange. "And that's all I saw I supposed," Soren said after finishing the tale.
"Not to be rude, dear, but that was very..." Rarity was at a loss for words as she tried to be polite.
Since she couldn't find the right word, the others shouted out what they believe to be the right description.
"Strange"
"Looney"
"Crazy"
"Scary"
"Yes, yes, I know," Soren began, "the dream was very strange. I get that, but there's something about that dream that just pokes the back of my brain. Maybe I'm just losing it slightly. Maybe it's not the dream and my mind is freaking out because I almost died. I think I just need a good night's sleep." His friends agreed with him, so they said their goodbyes and left the shop, except Pinkie Pie since she lives there.
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Later that night, Soren was actually having a normal night's sleep. It would have been a full night's sleep if it wasn't for the noise that woke him up. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. He knew something woke him up but what was it? Soren got out of bed, stretched his limbs, and walked onto his house's balcony, which was connected to his bedroom.
He looked out at the silent, nighttime Ponyville. There wasn't anything happening, so what woke him up? Suddenly, the noise came again. It was somepony screaming! Soren quickly took flight and followed the noise.
After following the noise for a little bit, Soren came up to the fields near the Everfree Forest. The pony screamed again and this time Soren saw who it was. It was Fluttershy. Fluttershy and her pet rabbit were backing away from some dark creature. Seeing that there was no time to swoop down and attack the monster, Soren did the only thing that he could think of to get the monster's attention: sing.
With a slightly louder voice than normal, Soren began singing. Both Fluttershy and the creature looked towards the sky to see who it was. Soren landed on the ground as he continued to distract the creature. In all of his studies, never had he seen a creature quite like this. It was pitch black and its shape could be considered a reptile of sorts. It had glowing blue eyes, but no pupils, and its body looked like it was made from shadows. That's the best way to describe this creature: a walking shadow.
As Soren's singing continued, Fluttershy heard noises coming from the forest. She turned around and saw a horrendous sight. More of the shadow creatures were coming out of the Everfree Forest! Without thinking twice, she flew off at an amazing speed. Soren took notice and, without silencing his voice, looked behind himself and saw what the yellow pegasus saw. I can't let all of these monsters near Ponyville, he thought. With a plan in mind, Soren led the creatures, who were mesmorized by the singing, back into the Everfree.
In the forest, Soren managed to find a great open space to lead the creatures to. It was a clearing that had no trees, except the surrounding ones, and had marshy water. Soren, who still has yet to stop singing, stopped at the edge of the swamp. He looked back at the dozen or so creatures he managed to attract. After he sang one more song, the creatures' eyes started glowing brighter. The glow was so bright that Soren stopped singing and covered his eyes. When the light faded, he opened his eyes to see that the creatures had left. Soren would've left the Everfree right there and then, but he felt extremely tired. Without caring about where he was sleeping, Soren laid on the ground and slept.
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In the morning, Soren felt something nudging him. He slowly opened his eyes to see Applejack standing in front of him.
"You alright, partner?" Applejack said with a look of concern.
"Just fine," Soren replied sleepily. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Ah think we should git to Twilight first." After Soren stretched his legs, the pair left the forest and heading towards the library. Why is she so worried? Sure I slept in the Everfree, but I'm fine. Note to self: never be that stupid again.
It took awhile but they eventually arrived at their destination. Applejack and Soren walked into the library and saw that all of their friends, save Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, were already there.
"Ah thought ya'll were looking for Soren too," Applejack stated at Pinkie Pie and Rarity.
"They already did," Twilight defended. "With my help, we looked everywhere in Ponyville and still didn't find him. But we're glad you did."
"Find me?" Soren asked. "What time is it? And where's Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy?"
"It's well past noon, my dear," Rarity answered. "We came to your house and you weren't there. We started to worry."
"And Dashie and Fluttershy are still looking for you in the Everfree Forest," Pinkie said with her always hyper voice. As Pinkie was talking, Twilight started to examine Soren.
"Uhh, can I help you, Twilight?" Soren was a little uncomfortable with Twilight examining every inch of his body. "What's going on?" Soren looked at his friends for answers but they shrugged.
"Sing." Twilight stared intensely at Soren. "What?" was all he could mutter. "I'm asking you to sing." Soren did as he was asked but something was off. Clearing his throat this time, he attempted to sing again, except it had the same result. Whenever Soren tried to sing, his voice was hoarse. To say that Soren's singing was 'not as good' would be an understatement.
Many tries later, Soren gave up trying to sing. He started panicking. Was it because I sang too much last night? Or...
"Twilight, what's. Going. On?!" Soren shouted. Twilight put a hoof on his shoulder.
"Don't panic...never panic. What happened last night?" Twilight's voice was so calm as she talked to Soren. Soren relaxed and began to explain everything that happened the night before. When he finished, Twilight looked worried. "And how many of those creatures followed you exactly?" Soren started to think back to that night.
"I don't remember. At least a dozen. Why? What were those creatures?"
"They're called Soul Stealers. And no, they don't steal actual souls. They're creatures that feed on emotions or talents that require soul, like poetry or singing. They don't usually travel in packs when targeting a pony, but I guess you attracted a lot of them. Although harmless by themselves, if too many target one pony...," she paused, "...they could very well steal that soul-requiring ability from the pony...like your singing." When Twilight finished her analysis, everypony in the room was silent.
"So...I just lost my singing voice..."