"How did I get here," Soren asked himself aloud as he stood upon a hill outside of a nearby city. "I was resting with Rainbow Dash and now I'm suddenly near Canterlot? What's going on?" After looking at the city shining in the night, Soren decided to fly to the castle to see if the princesses could possibly tell him what was happening. Before he could launch off of the ground, however, Soren was stopped by a very deep voice.
"Halt! By order of the princess!" Soren looked to his right and, at first glance, saw a purple-armored stallion staring at him. 'That armor...' Soren thought before responding.
"Halt? Whatever for? I'm just traveling to the castle to talk to the princesses." The stallion got in a fighting stance, and Soren got a better look at the guard. He was wearing armor that was different shades of purple and blue, and the armor had a strange eye on the chestpiece. The guard was a unicorn stallion with a grey coat. Soren wasn't able to see his mane under his helmet, which seemed to have a sharp fin of sorts on top. The most striking feature however were the stallions eyes; they made Soren freeze in place. 'Yellow eyes...just like Nyra's.'
"If you won't cooperate then I will be forced to take physical action against you. Last warning: leave now!" This pony wanted a fight, Soren knew it. 'He wants to fight? Why not give him what he wants.' Soren got in a fighting position as well and smirked at the guard. "Very well," the stallion said. "But I tried to warn you."
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The last thing Soren remembered was that conversation. He groaned as he started to wake up. As his senses came back to him, Soren heard a conversation near the place he was laying down.
"...he just wouldn't leave, so I had to take extreme measures. However, as I was hauling him to the dungeon, he kept saying your name, Princess." Soren recognized the voice; it was the stallion that kicked his flank.
"Very well," a familiar voice said. "You may leave, soldier. We shall handle this stallion ourselves."
Soren heard the guard leave, so he tried to move but felt instant pain in his shoulder. Cringing in pain, Soren opened his eyes and looked around. The room he was resting in was fancy; he assumed he was inside the royal palace. Soren tried to turn on the bed he was on, but he instantly felt a hoof on his back.
"Thou shouldn't move when one is so injured." Soren recognized the voice now.
"Luna?" he asked. He tried turning around, but he felt sharp pains once again. "Why do I hurt so bad? Who was that stallion guard?" Soren had many questions; so much was happening right now. Princess Luna helped to turn Soren over, and when he saw her, Soren saw a confused look etched on her face.
"Who are you? And why was thou lurking around the palace grounds? To answer your questions: That stallion was one of our lunar guards and he fought thee. Thou made a grave mistake challenging one of our guards; their strength cannot be matched. As a result of the conflict, our guard stabbed his horn into thou's shoulder and knocked thee unconscious." Something seemed off about Luna and it wasn't her memory loss. Soren shrugged it off.
"I'll think twice next time, and I wasn't lurking around the castle. I somehow arrived near the palace and wanted to ask you or your sister if you two knew anything. And how do you not know me? It's not like this is the first time we've met."
"Should we know you? Thou doesn't seem that familiar. But if thy knowest our sister personally then maybe we have met once upon a time. What is your name?" Soren sighed before continuing.
"It's me, Soren, also known as Nyroc. I'm not supposed to be here; I'm supposed to be in the Spirit World fighting the Elementals with Rainbow Dash. Me and her decided to rest but then I appeared near the castle."
"Ahh young Nyroc, the Nyr who defeated the Shadow Horses and saved Canterlot! Now we remember thee. You look different from the last time we saw thee." Luna thought for a moment. "Thou art missing a horn. Why is that?" Soren felt his head and discovered that Luna was telling the truth.
"First of all, your vocabulary doesn't need to be so formal with me, even if you are a princess. As for my missing horn, the Air Elemental got rid of it for a more fair fight. I guess it hasn't returned yet. To change the topic, can you heal my shoulder? I need to get back to Rainbow Dash and being injured isn't going to help our cause." Soren decided to not think about what's going on; he just wanted to get back.
"Very well. The wound will take at least a week with basic healing spells...but we believe we can speed up the process and have you healed before you leave. Also, if you were indeed in the Spirit World, we can send you back." Soren nodded, and Luna began healing his wound. He still didn't know why Luna seemed a bit off, but it wasn't important right now. Half an hour went by and the wound was almost healed. Before Soren was completely healed, Luna decided to ask one more question.
"So if thou art fighting the Elementals, how many have you and Rainbow Dash defeated?" The wound was now fixed, so Soren sat up. He saw Luna preparing a spell that would most likely send him to the Spirit World.
"Two. Luna, before you send me back, can I ask...am I in the real world?" Princess Luna chuckled. Her horn shined brighter as she spoke.
"My dear stallion, you were never awake to begin with. I am the princess of the night; I know when my subjects need my intervention, even if they dream within their dream. Good luck with your fight, young Guardian." She casted the spell, and Soren was surrounded with light.
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Soren sat straight up, breathing heavily. He looked around and saw that he was back in the vast emptiness that was the Spirit World. He turned to his left and noticed that Rainbow Dash was still fast asleep. 'I thought we were already dreaming. How does a dream within a dream work?' Soren thought. Thinking it best to ignore the fact, Soren went back to sleep to rest for the upcoming battle. With his eyes closed, he unintentionally began thinking about Luna and her lunar guards.
Eventually, Soren woke up, except it wasn't a natural awakening; it was a wake-up call via somepony nudging him. Opening his eyes, Soren saw Rainbow Dash standing above him, pushing and nudging him to wake up. Soren finally stood up but was still a little drowsy.
"You ok?" Rainbow Dash asked. "You looked like you were having a nightmare."
"What makes you say that?" Soren asked as he rubbed his eyes then felt his head. 'My horn is back.'
"You were moving a lot in your sleep."
"Alright, and yes, I'm fine. It was just a dream I can't remember. How was your 'sleep?'" Soren used his wings to emphasize air quotes around 'sleep.'
"No complaints. Still weird that we can sleep while already asleep. I'm curious, though...while you were moving around, you said Luna's name a few times. Why?" Soren wanted to tell her the truth, but they didn't have time for the full explanation.
"In my dream, I was transported to Canterlot. I wound up in the castle, and I spoke to Luna. I then woke up, saw you still asleep, and went back to sleep. I had another dream about her. If I had time, I would share every detail I remember about both dreams, but we need to focus." Dash nodded and asked the question that was on both of their minds.
"So how do we get the last two Elementals here?" Once again, just like the first time they arrived, Soren and Rainbow sat down and tried to come up with a plan.
After a long conversation about how to get the Elementals to arrive, the two ponies heard lightning strike the ground. Looking to the west, they saw thunderclouds above that general area. A few seconds of silence passed before another lightning bolt sounded. This time, Soren and Rainbow saw a flaming object hurdling towards the ground. By the time the object was half way to the ground, the fire went out. The object slammed into the solid blankness and somehow created a dust cloud upon impact. Soren and Dash began walking towards it, staring at it the entire time. Upon reaching it, the pair noticed that it was just a stone slab with what looked like ancient writing on it.
"Can you read that?" Dash asked.
Soren studied it but couldn't translate it. Nevertheless, he had an idea.
"I cant translate it," he began, "but luckily I know how we can. Dreams are strange; you can make almost anything happen with reason. If I concentrate hard enough, maybe I can gain a certain ability."
"And what ability is that?"
"The Doctor told me that the TARDIS can grant companions the ability to translate any language into another language, preferably Equestrian. Since we are in a dream, maybe, just maybe I can gain the ability to do just that."
"Let's cross our hooves." Soren's horn started glowing as he began concentrating. Minutes passed before Soren's horn shined even brighter. "Is it working?"
As he continued to focus on the writing, Soren noticed the words changing. As Soren continued his spell, Rainbow Dash decided to examine the whole slab. Once the writing finally became readable, Soren's horn stopped glowing.
"What's it say?" Rainbow asked, hearing the spell stop.
"The format is weird. It's like a riddle, but I don't think it's supposed to be one."
"Before you read that out loud, take a look at this thing." Soren walked around to the other side of the slab and saw a necklace nailed into the back of the stone by its chain. The necklace was just a chain with a pendent. The pendent itself looked like an eye. 'An eye! Just like that lunar guard's chestpiece!' Soren realized. Soren used his magic to carefully pull the necklace out of the stone and loop it around his neck.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Rainbow asked.
"We don't have much else to do. Not only is this necklace giving off a lot of magic, but I think I know what to do with it." Soren walked to the front of the slab and faced it. Staring at the words, Soren began reciting.
"In the dark, we tear and rend. To end all evils, with spines to bend. Lust and power, hunger and might. By Luna's will, and dark of night."
The eye pendant flashed white, and Soren could feel immense magic surrounding him. Rainbow shielded her eyes from the luminescent light as it began to change Soren. He felt his body changing; he felt his wings changing; he even felt his teeth changing! When the light vanished, Rainbow looked at Soren and saw the completed transformation. Soren now had a fur-ish grey coat, yellow piercing eyes, sharp teeth, bat wings, and he was wearing armor of different shades of blue and purple. Also, his chestpiece had the same eye that was on the pendant.
"Soren? Is that you?" she asked, slowly stepping closer. "Wow, you look...awesome! You're like half-bat, half-pony...and half-alicorn too! How do you feel?"
"Stronger..." Soren quickly put a hoof to his mouth. His voice became so much deeper that it actually made Rainbow take a step back. "My voice is so deep. Anyway, I'm fine. We still have to find the Elementals."
"But we were never gone," a new voice said. 'Why do they always have to sneak up on us?' Soren thought. "That slab was merely to test you and to give you a fighting chance. However, I find it very strange that the armor didn't make you frenzied. Instead it immediately accepted you. Interesting..."
When the voice stopped mumbling, a pony appeared from behind the slab. It was a pony that looked to be entirely made of crystals. He was a light-blue crystal unicorn with a darker blue crystal-like mane, which looked like frozen fire. His eyes were grey and his cutie mark resembled a top view of a whirpool. This had to be the Water Elemental.
"You're the Water Elemental, arent you?" Rainbow Dash asked. He nodded. "Why do you look like you're made of ice?" After she asked that question, Rainbow looked at Soren once again to get used to his new look.
"I may be made of ice," the Elemental started, "but I assure you, I am the Water Elemental. Ice is fairly related to that Element in any case." This pony projected sophistication and a calm demeanor.
"So what's your name?" Soren asked.
"So formal with everypony. Very well, if you must know, my name is Frostbite, and my friend should be here any second..." Frostbite looked up and shouted at the sky: "Unless she wants to hide up there and spy on us!"
The sky gave another crack of lightning, and a fireball flew down to the ground. When it landed, the fire cleared out to reveal a mare. She was a slender unicorn and was taller than everyone there. She had a white coat and pure fire for a mane and tail. Her eyes weren't even a color; she seemed to have fire where her eye color should be. They also saw that her cutie mark was a meteor.
"That is one fierce looking mare," Soren whispered to Rainbow. The Fire Elemental relaxed, and as a result, the fire of her eyes changed to a blood red color.
"Hello again, Soren."