Winter Wrap Up Day
The holiday was finally here and Ponyville was already doing its job to welcome spring. Not a single pony, save for a select few, wasn't working around town. Some unicorns and earth ponies were cleaning up snow while others were building bird nests or planting seeds. Some pegasi were clearing the skies while the others were fetching the southern birds. All was going according to Twilight's plan.
Somewhere in Ponyville, as the ponies continued to work, a mare was strolling through town. In her winter cloak, she looked around at everypony and smirked. She walked up to Town Hall and stopped in front of it. A nearby stallion and mare noticed that she wasn't working, so they trotted up to her.
"Excuse me, miss?" a stallion said to the mare. "We noticed you aren't working. Did you not get assigned a job?" The mare simply smiled and continued to look at the Town Hall.
"Oh I was assigned a job. My job is just a little...different than yours."
"Then what is your job?" a mare politely asked her. The mare looking at the building finally turned towards them with a grin.
"My job is to make sure no more harm comes to this town." The two ponies seemed confused, but within seconds, they became frightened.
Coming out of the ground behind the cloaked mare were four shadows. Each shadow had their eyes closed as they started to take the shape of male earth ponies. When the shape of a pony was made, the shadows transformed into stallions. Their coats were dark grey, while their manes were pitch black. The stallions opened their eyes, and the two ponies could see that each had a different eye color: red, blue, green, and yellow. The two ponies stared at the monsters as the mare continued to smile.
"Please run" was all the mare said. The ponies took her advice and fled from the scene. The mare turned towards her 'stallions' as she addressed them. "You know what to do. Gather up everypony but don't harm a single one." The mare thought for a few seconds. "Except the alicorn. You can play with him all you want." The mare smiled as the stallions jumped high into the air, landed on nearby rooftops, and continued into town.
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Soren and his friends were enjoying the holiday so far. Soren, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash just finished clearing the snow at Sweet Apple Acres and were now walking towards the frozen ponds and lakes near town. The three of them wanted to catch up to the rest of their friends. When the ponies made it to the ice, they saw at least ten ponies, Pinkie pie being one of them, skating on the same pond in a criss-crossing pattern. After they were finished with the pond, it broke into perfect square pieces, except the ice around the edges of course. Pinkie Pie walked up to Twilight, who was viewing the spectacle, then quickly saw her friends watching from a nearby hill.
"Hey, guys!" Pinkie exclaimed. Twilight Sparkle turned around and saw who Pinkie was talking to. Catching up to her pink friend, Twilight gathered around Soren, Rainbow, and Applejack.
"Are you all finished clearing the snow at Sweet Apple Acres?" Twilight asked.
"Yep," AJ replied. "Finished a lot faster than last year."
"Fluttershy still waking up the animals?" Rainbow asked. Twilight nodded.
"She should be done soon. We're done here for now, so let's meet her at her cottage." Everypony agreed. "Does anyone know if Rarity is almost done?"
"Knowing last year, I doubt she'll finish anytime soon," Rainbow commented.
After a few minutes passed, they arrived at Fluttershy's cottage at the perfect time. They saw the yellow pegasus leading a group of squirrels and porcupines into her house, probably for warmth or food. Once the critters were inside, Fluttershy gently closed her front door and scanned the area for any other creatures she may have missed. Instead of seeing more critters, Fluttershy saw her friends walking up to her.
"Hello, everyone," she greeted. "Are all of you done with your jobs as well?" The five of them nodded. "Well that's good. The whole town might finish before sunset."
"How 'bout we all grab somethin' to eat?" Applejack asked. "Ah'm sure we could all use somethin' to snack on."
"Sounds good to me," Soren replied. "To Sugarcube Corner?"
"To Sugarcube Corner!" the five mares exclaimed simultaneously.
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One hour passed and the six friends finished their food break. Stepping out of Sugarcube Corner, they saw three ponies sprint by. They watched the two mares and one stallion run away as if something scared them. They all looked in the opposite direction and saw a few more ponies running away.
"Run!"
"Are they following us?!"
"What are they?!"
Before Soren and his friends could comprehend what scared those ponies, they heard a mare scream in the distance. Reacting quickly, all six of them sprinted towards the sound. As they ran deeper into town, Soren and co. witnessed more and more ponies fleeing from a certain spot in town.
"Winter Wrap Up will never be finished at this rate," Twilight commented. "Why are these ponies so afraid?" Her question was soon answered by a dark stallion turning a corner while chasing a young colt.
After the colt ran past Soren and his friends, Fluttershy flew after him. The dark stallion stopped to look at the remaining five. His yellow eyes glowing fiercely even in the day. Soren looked upon the dark pony with a hard gaze. The pony chuckled deeply and howled at the sky. The howl was nothing like Soren and his friends imagined. It was such a loud, deep shriek that it was probably heard from Canterlot. As the pony howled, the five ponies curled to the ground and tried to shield their ears. 'He's like an animal,' Soren thought as his ears rang after the howling stopped.
The dark stallion stood stalwart, just waiting. Soren and his friends stood there watching him as the pony continued to grin. Eventually, more dark stallions were seen turning the same corner that the first one came from. The original pony was joined by three more stallions that looked exactly like him, except Soren and Twilight noticed that they had different eye colors. 'Yellow, green, blue, red,' he thought. 'Is there any significance to that?" His thoughts were cut short by Rainbow nudging him.
"What are those things?" she asked him. "They are definitely not normal stallions. And why do they all look alike?"
"It wasn't from natural birth, I can say that much," Soren responded. "Stay cautious. They don't seem friendly. Let's just make sure no one gets hurt."
The four stallions began mimicking each other. They all stood straight up while smiling. Pretty soon, laughter was heard, but it wasn't coming from the dark ponies. Soren and his friends shuddered from the laughter, except for Pinkie Pie.
"Does somepony think those dark ponies are funny?" Pinkie Pie asked happily. As the laughter stopped, the five ponies saw a mare wearing a cloak walk up from behind the dark stallions. The mare was only a year or two younger than Soren and his friends. She was an earth pony with a dark red coat and a grey mane. Her cutie mark was hard to describe. To Soren, it looked like a circle with fancy lines drawn inside it.
"That cutie mark..." Twilight muttered. "I've seen that mark somewhere before." The mare chuckled.
"As you should, Twilight Sparkle. You of all ponies should have read about where my cutie mark came from. It's history. Anyway, let me introduce myself. You all can call me Terra Firma or Terra for short." The mare was interrupted by Soren.
"No," he said bluntly.
"What?" Terra questioned.
"I'm not calling you Terra. That's the name of the Earth Elemental, and I know for a fact that you're not him."
"Don't you think I know that. The Elementals may have names, but in actuality, they have none. Those are merely nicknames that they use to please us. We cannot fathom a being with no name. Seeing that you're stubborn, I'll move on. I am here to help this town." Confused, Twilight and her friends started whispering to each other while Soren just remained silent. Suddenly, Applejack said something.
"Y'all call terrorizing our town helping it? What the hay do y'all think you're doing?"
"True our methods are... unorthodox, but we needed to do something to get this one's attention," Terra explained, pointing at Soren, "but if you mares feel brave enough to try and get in my way then I guess I'll have no other choice. So what'll be?"
Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash scowled at Terra. Pinkie Pie and Soren's expressions stayed the same. The scowling mares kicked the ground with their hooves like they were about to charge. Terra smiled and clapped her hooves together twice. Two seconds passed before all four mares were blasted backward. The four dark stallions each slammed into one with unimaginable speed. Soren turned towards his friends in shock. Not only did the stallions have insane speed, but they attacked Pinkie Pie even though she showed them no harm. Soren gave a fiery glare to Terra.
"Now you just crossed the line," he said darkly. "No one hurts my friends, especially if one isn't trying to start a fight!"
Soren's horn started to shine very bright. He surrounded himself with white aura and casted a Time Spell to make himself move very fast. To Soren, the spell affected everything else but technically it only affected him. Using the spell, Soren ran up to each of the dark stallions and casted another spell on them. Created with more magic, orbs were attached to the four stallions' backs. During this process, Soren glanced at Terra from time to time and noticed that she was drawing something on the ground. As the Time Spell wore off, Soren was fatigued by his use of magic.
The dark stallions turned towards the alicorn and ran at him at a slightly slower, but fast, speed. Using the last bit of his strength, Soren used one final spell. His horn glowed, as did the orbs on the stallions' backs. As the stallions drew near, Soren jumped into the air and hovered as he casted his spell. The orbs shined bright, and trails of magic connected all of them. The stallions' backs were quickly dragged near each other. They were brought together, back to back, as they sat on the ground unable to do anything. The stallions tried to fight the magical force, but it was far too strong. One would try to stand up but was forced back down by the spell.
The fatigued Soren landed a good distance away from them. After seeing that the spell was working, he turned his attention to his friends and saw that they were getting up, but before they could run over to Soren, a green light flashed. Everypony looked at Terra and saw her standing in her drawn figure on the ground. The lines of the drawing were glowing green. The green light surrounded both Soren and Terra, then it formed separate spheres of green around both of them.
"What is this?" Soren shouted. He turned towards his friends and saw the look of terror on Twilight's face.
"This is just one of the many spells I know," Terra responded. "You and I are going to spend some quality time together, Guardian" Terra looked at the four mares. "I'll let you four continue to clean up winter with this town. I know how important it is that you finish, but don't worry, I'm sure we'll see each other soon enough." The circle of unique designs Terra was standing in illuminated once more, as did the green barriers surrounding her and Soren. A green light flashed again, but when Twilight and her friends uncovered their eyes, they saw that Terra and Soren were gone.
"Where...where did Soren go?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Twilight," Applejack began, "you alright? Ya look terrified." Twilight indeed looked like she just came face to face with her worst nightmare. The purple mare sat down and finally spoke.
"That magic...it shouldn't be possible. Equestrians learned that magic from zebras, but it went extinct centuries ago. If Terra knows that type of arcane magic, then Soren and Ponyville are in deep trouble." Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack exchanged worried looks.