//------------------------------// // The Raid // Story: Soren the Alicorn Part 1: New Beginnings // by KingNyroc15 //------------------------------// Soren was worried and a little angry. The raid was happening as he slept, and his friends chose to let him sleep! He felt like he was going to throw things across the room. He was just about to make that come true before Strongheart burst inside the building. "Doc, is Soren awake yet?" she asked hurriedly. The stallion pointed towards the scowling alicorn levitating many things. Soren saw the buffalo and put everything down. He stormed up to her. "Why?" he asked almost as a whisper. Strongheart looked a little puzzled. "Why?!" he asked louder so she could hear his rage. "You all had let me sleep when I could have very well helped to protect this town when the raid began. Why?!" "'Cause you passed out!" she yelled back with the same volume as Soren. "When we reached the edge of town, your friends saw us and met us, then you face-planted on the ground and wouldn't get up. You were too tired to do anything, so we kept you here until the raid started, which is now!" Soren calmed down and hung his head. "You girls were right to do that. I'm sorry I snapped." "It's fine. Let's go stop this thing." Soren nodded, then the two ran out the door. -------------- As Strongheart and Soren ran towards the center of town, Soren could see small buildings catching on fire, ponies running and screaming, and bandits chasing those ponies. As the they neared the center of town, Strongheart insisted on leaving Soren's side to go help the ponies being chased. "I'll go help Twilight protect the townsfolk," Applejack said. Soren nodded. "I can handle Coyote Colt on my own. Go protect everypony," Soren responded. She gave a nod and ran a separate direction. Soren continued to run straight. He eventually saw the stage that was in the middle of town, and upon that stage was none other than Coyote Colt, grinning at the chaos he and his crew were causing. It was just like Soren's dream, except that One-Winged Willie wasn't with him. The stage was relatively large, so Soren was able to step onto it while still being a fair distance away from the bandit leader. "Hey, Colt!" Soren shouted, slight anger building up. Coyote Colt looked at the alicorn. He chuckled. "Looks like y'all survived being blasted by me," the colt said confidently. "Shame that pegasus gal of urs didn't fare the same. Ah can see her runnin' around without flyin'. Her wing hurt?" "Doesn't matter. This is between me and you now. You decided to hurt innocent ponies, so now I'm afraid I have to stop you." "Y'all think you can beat me? The fastest spell in alla the land? Get o'er urself, buddy." Coyote laughed again, and when he was done laughing, he sent three knives at Soren's face. Soren broke a plank of wood from the stage and levitated it in front of him. The knives dug into the wood without breaking it. Soren threw it aside and shot a green beam of magic at the colt. The colt dodged it and levitated eight more knives out from a satchel he had on his side. "Catch" was all he said as he flung every single blade at Soren. Soren's eyes widened as he froze from shock. As the blades were close to impacting him, his horn suddenly began to glow. The blades were now a foot or two away from him. The came closer and closer...and closer...until... ...the blades impacted mud. Soren stared wide-eyed at what he apparently created. His magic had engulfed the dirt, brought it in front of him, and transformed it into mud thick enough to stop the blades. When Coyote Colt saw this, he became angry and shot a fireball at Soren. The spell was strong enough to blow apart the mud it impacted, to send Soren to the ground, and to catch him on fire. Someone wants to play, a familiar voice echoed in Soren's head. -------------- Twilight Sparkle just finished sending ponies to the outskirts of town, away from the fire and raiders. She ran back into Appaloosa to look for more ponies, but what she saw instead both frightened and amazed her. She looked at the stage where Soren was fighting Coyote Colt, and she was just in time to see Soren get hit with a fireball, which caught him on fire. She ran towards the stage, but by the time she was halfway, something happened. As he lay on the ground on fire, Soren slowly got up. As he stood up, the fire surrounding him grew in size. It eventually became so thick that it prevented anypony from seeing Soren. Then it exploded. The first thing Twilight noticed was that Soren changed physically. His normally white coat became orange, his black mane became pure fire, his eyes changed to red, and his cutie mark changed to a meteor. He looked like he came straight from the sun! Twilight got closer to the stage as she saw Soren's eyes turn pure white. Soren walked up to Coyote Colt, who was becoming a little scared at this point. "Now," Soren said with what sounded like two ponies talking, "where were we?" Coyote Colt started backing up, but couldn't move back very fast because of fear gripping at him. "Don't run away, we only want to finish what we started." Soren teleported in front of the colt and stared him down. Coyote could only stare back as the fiery alicorn stood before him. "P-P-Please don't k-kill me," Coyote said. He's scared out of his mind, Twilight thought. "Oh we weren't planning on it. We'll give you one chance to flee with all of your bandit friends and to never return here again...any of you." Coyote nodded. Soren leaned into one of the colt's ears. "Run!" he whispered with an almost crazy grin. The colt's ears shot up then he dashed away. Soren magnified his voice without magic. "FOLLOWERS OF COYOTE COLT, YOUR LEADER HAS BEEN DEFEATED! LEAVE NOW OR YOU WILL SUFFER A HORRIBLE FATE!" The fiery Soren looked upon all of the bandits who stopped. They ran out of town upon seeing the alicorn standing there and Coyote Colt running. After most of the bandits left town, Soren collapsed onto his side on the stage. Slowly, he reverted back to normal. His mane died out, his coat changed back to white, and his cutie mark flashed back on his flank. Twilight ran up to him, sat next to him, and put both hooves on his cheeks. "Soren?" Twilight asked worriedly. The alicorn groaned and opened his eyes. "Don't tell me I had another dream," he said. Twilight just hugged him. "Alright, what happened to me this time?" "Long story," she said. "Let's just make sure everypony is alright." Soren nodded slowly, but continued to lay there. Applejack and Rainbow Dash trotted up to them. "Soren, you alright?" Applejack asked. "We heard you yellin' at alla the raiders." "I'm fine, I'm just tired. I think I used a lot of magic." AJ looked at Twilight, who just nodded. The farmer looked back to Soren to discover him sleeping. "I think Soren should rest while the rest of us help the town." The two mares nodded. "He's sleeping more than me, and I was injured," Rainbow commented as Twilight levitated Soren and walked him to the infirmary. ------------- Soren opened his eyes to the light shining through a window. He looked around and found himself in a small room. It was a cozy place with a bed, a nightstand, and one open window with curtains. Soren got out of bed and left the room. Upon seeing stairs and walking down them, Soren realized that he was in the Appaloosa Inn. He stepped into the lobby and saw a few familiar ponies talking to each other. His friends saw him and ran up to greet him. They all gave Soren a group hug, which he returned. "What happened to me?" Soren asked. "I feel worn out." "Magic depletion," Twilight said. "Happens to unicorns when they use an excessive amount of magic." "And when did I do that? Come to think of it, how long have I been sleeping?" The mares looked at each other nervously. "Soren," Rainbow Dash said, "you've been asleep for two days. Today is our fourth day in Appaloosa." Soren's eyes widened. "Twilight...how much magic did I use? What. Happened?!" "Calm down, Soren," the purple unicorn said. "You're fine. I'll explain everything on the train ride back to Ponyville. The train leaves tomorrow. In the meantime, we all need to help repair Appaloosa as much as we can before leaving." "Alright, I guess we do need something to do on the way back. I better make sure I say goodbye to the Pega-Singers before they leave. Where are they anyway?" "Sugarcube, they left yesterday," Applejack explained. "So did Little Strongheart." "Crap. Well I'm sure I'll see them again someday." Soren's stomach growled. "Heheh, how about we get some food before helping out?." They shared a laughed, then the four of them left the inn.