//------------------------------//
// Harmony Meets Nature 
// Story: The Adventures of the Elementals 
// by AutoKnight01 
//------------------------------//

*Just as a reminder to all who are not aware, this store takes place after the season 2 ending. Seasons 3-5 have not been incorporated into this story because I started this story way back after season 2 was still going on. So yeah. Let's get to it. I only own my OC's and the plot of this story. Everything else is property of Hasbro and Lauren Faust*

 


The Adventures of the Elementals


 


Chapter 3: Harmony Meets Nature


 

Nopony in the campsite slept easy that night. They were still a little freaked from the short brawl they witnessed between that black unknown creature, and the red hooded pony. Twilight's mind was racing the most as she lied down, thinking about what that black creature was. It looked enough like a pony but she knew there was something very off about it. The way it sounded, even the way it LOOKED. She had never seen a pony with that kind of coat pattern before. And those eyes. They seemed almost catlike. The only other place she had seen irises like those were on Princess Luna's guard ponies who were thestral ponies. But that creature last night was not sporting leather wings.
 
Eventually though, she did fall asleep and before she knew it, it was morning again. That meant it was time to wake up and begin a new day. Spike, as usual, was defiant to wake up. Twilight didn't really feel in a rush to wake him up so she let him sleep in. Walking out of her tent, she saw that the others had already woken up before her and started making breakfast. After everypony bid good morning to each other, they just sat there not really talking that much.
 
All of their minds were still replaying the fight from last night like a play by play. None of them were sure exactly what to make of the supposed Alamantian they saw, or what his leaving message was. Proceed with the utmost caution. Did that mean he knew what that creature was and what it wanted? What was going on? What were they all getting closer to getting caught up in? And most importantly, were they going to be able to handle it? So far at this point in their lives, they had dealt with three major threats. The evil alicorn of the moon, Nightmare Moon, Discord, the spirit of chaos, and Queen Chrysalis of the changeling hive and her subjects. All they could wonder now was, what new threat were these Alamantians dealing with?
 
Even after Applejack served breakfast, the aroma being enough to wake Spike up and lure him out to eat, none of them still made a peep.
 
"So....anypony gonna say anything?" Rainbow asked for the sole purpose of breaking the silence.
 
She just wanted to talk with anypony. It didn't matter to her who it was. After what happened last night, she had a lot to say. It turns out so did everypony else. They just needed somepony to be the first one to talk.
 
"It was....strange." Twilight muttered. "Not just that dark pony but....him."
 
She flashed back to last night yet again, giving her a picture of the cloaked unicorn manipulating the campfire. His form and movements were unlike anything she had ever seen before. And his horn wasn't even playing a single part in his ability to do what he was doing to those flames.
 
"There was no magic." She said again still unable to believe it. "I...I don't know what I was expecting. From the book I was reading I knew I would see something like what we all saw last night happen but....but..."
 
"You thought it was just fancy spellwork, didn't ya?" Applejack finished for her knowing that's where she was going. "Ah know, Twi. To be honest Ah was kinda thinkin' the same thing."
 
"The way he moved around with the fire...it was beautiful....almost like it was a part of him." Rarity added on wanting to voice her own opinion. "Simply divine."
 
"But what about that other thing?" Fluttershy asked all of them, the images in her head making her voice a little timid. "That thing...was growling at us...it hurt Rainbow Dash. What did it want?"
 
That was the question all over again. What DID it want? The creature was definitely there for a reason.
 
"That's why we gotta find that fire pony and the other ones." Applejack firmly responded. "Ah think it's safe to say they'll have some answers for us."
 
"If we're able to find them." Pinkie now took a turn to speak. "He teleported away. We don't have any idea which way to go now. Do we? Is there a spell that can track teleportation, Twilight?"
 
The eyes of all the unicorn's friends turned to her as they awaited a response to Pinkie's question. Before she answered, she thought back to her reading really trying to remember if she had even heard of such a spell.
 
"Sorry. If there is then I haven't read about it yet." She answered. "But I can say for certain that I could tell how powerful his teleport spell was. It was like mine. Short range. So he couldn't have gotten too far. So here's what we're gonna do."
 
The plan was fairly simple. They were gonna keep their campsite as "home base" and split off into six different directions. Spike stayed with Twilight while everypony else went out on their own searching for any sign of anything strange. Not too complicated.
 
They found nothing.
 
A time span of two hours went by and all of them returned one at a time with absolutely no results whatsoever. Not even so much as a lousy hoofprint.
 
"Well we at least know they're thorough in leaving no trace behind." Spike commented.
 
As much as the others agreed with him, it still didn't do any good. Going this long without any results was starting to eat away at their patience.
 
"Well what are we supposed to do now?" Rarity asked in a whining tone. "I know the princess wants to talk with these ponies, but does she really expect us to spend another whole day outside looking for them? I'm starting to get a sunburn."
 
"Oh would ya quit it already with your prissy attitude?" Applejack snapped at her. "So you're spending a little more time outdoors. Get over it!"
 
With a huff, Rarity turned to glare back at her friend, offended by her words.
 
"Proper coat and skin care is no laughing matter to me, Applejack! You may choose if you please to have the complexion of a 50 year old mare at such a young age but I like to take care of my body!"
 
"Girls! Big picture! Please!"
 
Twilight was in no mood right now to deal with the ongoing arguments of beauty versus outdoor life with Applejack and Rarity as the hosts again. They happened too frequently for anypony to keep track of in some cases. The two mares in question backed down from each other once they heard Twilight's raise in volume.
 
"Sorry, Twilight." They both apologized in unison.
 
"Don't worry about it. Now let's pack our stuff up and head for a different area of the woods." The unicorn said. "Maybe we'll have better luck."
 
Nopony else seemed to have a problem with it. It didn't take too much time for them to take down their tents and re-gather their things. Soon enough, they were back to trekking through the trees again in search of the six foreign ponies.
 
Thirty minutes passed and they didn't seem to get too far away from their previous camp site.  Instead of just wandering through the trees with no sense of direction, Rainbow Dash decided on another idea. They weren't too far away from the path that is used for the Running of the Leaves. So she suggested they use that to keep on going so at least they would have a path to follow. But even with that, no progress whatsoever was made in another twenty minutes passing. They had just stopped at the bridge that passed over the nearby river and waterfall.
 
"UGH!" Rainbow shouted to the sky. "This is getting us nowhere! How do we even know that they're still here?! What if they packed up and left?!"
 
"Would you quit your bellyachin'?!" Applejack shouted back. "None of us like this anymore than you do, Rainbow Dash. But we gotta keep lookin. We're on a mission, remember?"
 
"Yeah! I mean imagine it Rainbow!" Pinkie Pie was of course unbelievably optimistic. "We're gonna meet them and then we'll have six new friends to do all sorts of fun stuff with! We can learn their birthdays and have parties, buy them Hearth's Warming presents, bring them along on all of our get-togethers, it'll be totally TOTALLY AWESOME!"
 
"While those things DO sound appealing, Pinkie Pie, please remember that those aren't the reasons we're out here." Rarity stopped her friend's joyous rant.
 
"Sheesh, I know why we're out here, Rarity. Everypony's only been repeating it over and over since we started." Pinkie groaned back to her.
 
While she was right, it did little to change the overall attitude of her friends. What they predicted would take no more than 24 hours was now turning into twice the time. Even worse in Twilight's mind, how long was she going to leave the princess waiting? Her mind began to race. The princess surely doesn't like to be held up when it comes to a summons for six unknown ponies. And then she gasped. She hadn't bothered to give a progress report of yesterday! How could she have been so wrapped up to forget something like that?!
 
"Spike! Scroll and quill! Quickly!" she whipped her head around to look at her number one assistant.
 
Only to find that he wasn't on her back, or anywhere around them. First she noticed, then the others caught on that their dragon friend was nowhere in view.
 
"Spike! Where are you?!" Twilight raised her voice, worried.
 
"If this is a prank, Spike, it's not cool!" Rainbow Dash shouted.
 
One by one, they all sounded off hoping for a sign that Spike would answer them.
 
"Just give me one minute!" The dragon's voice came back loudly, with a touch of anger behind it.
 
"Where are you?!" Twilight cried back. "Answer me! Are you hurt?! In danger?!"
 
"I'm behind a tree going to the bathroom! Now can I please do so in peace?!"
 
That did its job of shutting all six of them up. Twilight actually blushed a bit embarrassed that she had interrupted Spike in the middle of that.
 
"Sorry...." She meekly responded, no longer raising the volume of her voice.
 
Since he would take a bit, Twilight decided to write that progress report herself. A scroll and quill telekinetically floated in front of her face as she began to write.
 
Dear Princess Celestia,

Day one of our search yielded few results. We have yet to find a true path to follow that will lead to these ponies, but our encounter last night proved-
 
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!""
 
The point of the quill pierced through the scroll as a huge scream of terror from Spike snapped her back to what was around her. Spike came running out of the tree line and began hiding behind the nearest pony he could find, who happened to be Applejack.
 
"Landsakes, Spike. What's goin on with ya?" the country mare asked.
 
Shakily, Spike brought a claw up and pointed to where he exited the woods. Something had followed him.
 
It exited the woods holding a snarl on its face and pointing it towards the six mares. All of them had recognized the creature from last night. Had it been following them the whole time? How could they have not known? As if it weren't enough, it turned out it had friends. Four more of the dark pony shaped creatures came out into the clearing all growling like beasts towards the bearers of harmony. Not a single one had a difference between them when it came to physique or look. There now stood five dark ponies, completely identical.
 
Rainbow Dash growled back wanting revenge for last night. The others now stood completely ready to fight these things with no surprises.
 
"What is it you even want?!" Rarity cried.
 
"We have been ordered by our queen and majesty. You will surrender the book, and maybe you shall live." The center creature hissed at them.
 
The book? It must have been referring to the Alamantian history book. But why was that so important? Was it possible these creatures were looking for the same thing? And what majesty? The only creatures any of them knew about under the ruler ship of a queen were the changelings. And these creatures did not resemble changelings very well.
 
At once, the five creatures started to advance towards their prey....only to immediately step back. The bearers of harmony became confused as to what made them change their minds. Then they heard galloping coming from behind them and getting closer.
 
They all turned around and saw for one second two more figures wearing black cloaks dashing towards them in a sprint. It looked like they were going to be tackled. But no. The two cloaks instead just jumped over the group of seven, landing in between them and the dark creatures, in a bipedal stance. The creatures began to hiss at them in a feral manner but nothing happened. All they did was raise their hooves to the hoods of their cloaks and draw them back.
 
One of them was a stallion, blue all over. Light in the coat, darker in his mane which was in a slick style and seemed to cover one of his teal eyes. His companion was a yellow coated mare with a brown mane held back by a black elastic headband. Her ruby red eyes narrowed at the creatures.
 
"You know, I'm really starting to get sick of these damned things." The blue one growled.
 
"Then let's make short work of them and get back. They interrupted my lunch." The yellow one replied.
 
With that, the two of them let their cloaks drop to the ground behind them revealing their whole bodies. No wings or horns, they were both earth ponies. But that wasn't the first thing that was noticed. Spike took a look at the cover of the book and then at the flanks of the two ponies now in front of them. Two of them matched  up. The blue one had the white symbol of water, and the yellow mare was bearing the brown symbol of earth.
 
"Check it out! Jackpot!" Spike whispered to Twilight as he pointed to the cover of the book and then to the two earth ponies in front of them.
 
Everypony followed Spikes claw and mixed in with their slight fear of these unknown creatures, came a sense of relief upon knowing their search has more than likely come to an end, and sooner than expected to boot. First however, these creatures had to be dealt with.
 
Before any of them could make a move towards them, the creatures lunged for the two earth ponies. Fast as they were, the Alamantians were faster. The blue stallion hopped to the left and the yellow mare jumped to the right. The mare stomped her rear hoof on the ground and a thick pole made of rock erupted from the ground in front of her. She took hold of it with both hooves and gave it a strong pull. As the pole was pulled from the earth, a large chunk of the ground ripped with it in the shape of a round flat faced hammer almost as big as her own body. With ease, she moved it around as if it were light as a feather and stood ready to swing at anything that came near her.
 
The blue stallion turned away and pointed one of his front hooves at the nearby stream. From the clam flat surface, a tendril rose up, under the control of the stallion's power. The water then extended towards him with lightning speed and enveloped his whole leg. He then brought his two front hooves together where the water was gathering, being pulled from the stream, then lashed both of his arms out turning back to the impending battle scene. There were now two large tendrils of water extending from both of his front legs like powerful whips.
 
The six bearers of harmony were more than ready to join these two in what was about to happen. However, when they saw the two of them show off their power, they decided to take a step back and just let the two Alamantians give them a show of what they were capable of. Twilight especially was looking forward to it.
 
Two of the black creatures lunged for the yellow mare first. She ducked the first one then laid the head of her hammer down on the ground and used it as leverage to vault herself towards the second one and thrust a strong back kick at it. She connected and the thing was sent sprawling back as the hammer rose up from the ground again. The first one she dodged then went for her again from behind and it was then knocked back once more when the butt of the hammer's handle was jabbed into its stomach.
 
The other three decided to focus on the stallion. In unison, all three of them charged up blasts of dark energy and launched them at him. Using his tendrils, the stallion was able to easily evade them and then lashed out his left foreleg. The water tendril attached to that leg extended and whipped all three creatures at their legs sending them off the ground. Before they hit the ground, one of them was struck again, this time by a harsh upward slash of the right side tendril. The creature was sent flying back away before thudding harshly into the dirt path. The other two who were beside him recovered quickly from their trip and advanced throwing punches and kicks at the stallion. Again, it was little work from him to evade their attacks. Menacing as these creatures looked, they did not offer a lot in terms of power or tact. Dropping the water tendrils, he grabbed one of the creature’s legs as it was thrown at him, then the other one's after that. He jerked them together then pushed them away before grabbing an amount of water he dropped to the ground and focusing it into two orbs hovering above his hooves. One by one, he shot them at the creatures and they both were hit knocked backwards off balance. As they were beginning to recover, they were then hit once more by the other two that were focusing on the mare. The stallion looked over and saw his ally holding her hammer as if she had just finished a strong swing of it.
 
All five of them regrouped together and saw that the two ponies in front of them weren't even breaking a sweat. They looked more than ready to inflict more damage. Glancing at the group of mares they come for, they growled and turned around to run off, obviously giving up and retreating. When they were out of view, the mare placed her hammer down by the head and tapped the handle. The hammer itself then crumbled into a pile of rocks and dirt at her hooves. The both of them turned to take their first good look at the group of ponies they jumped in front of to fight for.
 
One by one, all six of the harmony bearers stepped out from their hiding place slowly approaching the two ponies. The last one to join them was Twilight who sported a hung jaw and dilated pupils, shocked more than anypony else at the spectacle she just observed.
 
"Uhh...is she alright?" The yellow mare asked, tilting her head.
 
"She was a couple minutes ago." Spiked waved his claw in front of Twilight's eyes. "Twilight?"
 
A few blinks later and the lavender unicorn did the best she could to recollect herself.
 
"I'm sorry. I..I don't mean to gawk. It's just..you're earth ponies." She muttered
 
"So what if we're earth ponies?" The yellow mare asked again.
 
The blue pony seemed to scowl.
 
"Oh no. You're not one of those uptight snots from Canterlot who think earth ponies aren't worth anything are you?" He questioned.
 
"What-no! Of course not!" Twilight answered back loudly. "I mean I'm FROM Canterlot but I'm not like them. Th-there was a time a couple years back I was kind of like them but I got better I promise!"
 
"Okay okay calm down there, girl. We'll take your word for it." The yellow mare chuckled at Twilight's little rant.
 
Then it came to be Rainbow's turn, or at least she wanted it to be so she could talk.
 
"That...was...AWESOME!" she shouted. "I've never seen moves like that before! Where did you learn how to do that?!"
 
"Years of vigorous training in a place FAAAAAAAR away from here." The yellow mare answered them again.
 
A grunting noise came from her friend who joined her at her side and looked at the others he helped protect with a glare.
 
"Well thank you for this conversation. It was virtually pointless and I will work hard to forget both it and you. Bye now."
 
Without any regard to how rude he was, the blue stallion walked past her with a huff. Rainbow turned around snapping at him like a pincer, very unhappy with how she was just talked to. Who did this stallion think he was?
 
"Hey! I'm not done talking with you!"
 
"Tough shit. We're done with you." was her response from the blue pony.
 
Growling, Rainbow Dash was about to walk right up to him and clock him across the jaw. However, she stopped in her tracks once the yellow mare stepped in front of her.
 
"Sorry about him. He's an asshole." She said not really caring if he heard it or not. After that she talked again openly concerned in her tone. "Look we appreciate your gratitude and all that crap but me and him can't stay out in the open. And you should just go home. Something has been out to get us for a long time now and if you stick with us, it'll be after you too. Sorry but this is goodbye. It's for your own good."
 
Not wanting to put them in anymore danger like she said, the yellow mare turned away and grabbed her discarded cloak from the dirt with the intention of never seeing those ponies again. However, those intentions turned to dust one second later. Twilight however, was not willing to just let it end there. She took one step forward hoping what she said next would mean something.
 
"But we have a message for Pyro from Hitashi Ma!"
 
It turned out doing that was the right move. The mention of the names made the two earth ponies immediately cease their movement forward and turn back around to face them. Both of them were quite surprised to hear Equestrians mention them.
 
"How do you know those names?"
 
Twilight spoke firmly and clearly now that she had their attention.
 
"We have a letter from Mister. Ma. He told us that if we found it to come and find you and ask for a pony called, Pyro. Please just hear us out."
 
Just hear her out. A suggestion that both these element moving earth ponies were contemplating at the same time in their heads. The blue stallion let out a very loud groan. He didn't want this to happen. He thought his job was just gonna be to kick some ass and then vanish like normal. Now all these complications just came crashing down. The yellow mare felt similar. It was bad enough for her she had to worry about herself and a few others getting hurt. Now these six ponies and a baby dragon no less have gotten themselves involved in something way bigger than they could possibly imagine.
 
They didn't have a choice anymore. After rubbing the bridge of her nose a bit more rough then she had intended to, she looked back at the group of waiting ponies.
 
"Follow us back to our home. We can talk there."
 
It was reasonable enough to the group. So with that said, they all gathered their things up and began to follow the two earth ponies back to...wherever it was they were leading them to. They were led off the pathway and back into the trees and bushes.
 
"This is a mistake." The blue one muttered to his comrade beside him. "They're gonna get themselves killed."
 
"Well those things have seen them, so there's no going back for them now." The yellow mare whispered back. "And if they have info for us on Master Ma, we need it. You know that."
 
His growl was heard amongst everypony around him. Cautiously, Rarity approached them wanting to get a bit of information herself. Hearing her hoofsteps caused Agua to turn around with a glare.
 
"What do you want?" he snapped.
 
The fashionista huffed not caring for the uncalled rudeness of his vocal tone. First with Rainbow and now her. What was this guy's deal? Nonetheless, she put on a smile wanting to be polite and hoping it would encourage him to do so in return.
 
"I just wanted to ask for your names, is all. I'm Rarity. And you are?"
 
"We're none of your concern." He answered back in that same snap of his.
 
The ivory unicorn was beginning to growl herself. Spike was too. In fact, all of them were. She was just asking a question and he just shuts her out for no reason. Then the yellow mare jabbed at his side quite roughly not really caring herself for her friend's behavior.
 
"I know you don't like this, but be nice." she said warning him.
 
The she then turned back to look at Rarity sporting the smallest hint of a smile.
 
"My name is Chikei Jishin."
 
The name and dialect she used it in was unlike anything the Equestrian herd had ever even heard before. All of them looked at her very much confused.
 
"Uhhhh...Chica what now?" Applejack had to ask. She wanted to know how to say her name the right way.
 
The yellow mare just chuckled.
 
"Right. Equestrian. Well in your language it translates to Terrain Quake. Why don't you just call me, Terra?"
 
Terra. Now THAT was a name they could remember. Simple. One word. Easy to pronounce.
 
"Well it's nice to meet you, Terra." Rarity nodded pleasantly, happy at least one of them was being nice.
 
She didn't say anything more after that curious to see if the blue one would at all loosen up a bit. He didn't.  He just kept looking straight forward with no intention of saying a word.
 
"His name is Shio Tamari, Tide Pool." Terra answered for him.
 
His head snapped in the direction his yellow partner glaring at her with eyes frigid as the arctic north. She didn't even flinch. But the others did take a step back when he redirected his glare to them.
 
"Call me Agua." He just grumbled and resumed his march forward picking up pace a little bit. Pinkie Pie bounced up to where he was and looked to Terra with her head tilted a bit.
 
"What's with him?" she asked genuinely wanting to know.
 
"I really don't know. For as long as I've known him, he's always been a grump." The mare of earth answered with a shrug. "Don't worry about it. Right now there are bigger things going on."
 
"Yer darn right about that." Now Applejack approached sounding stern. "We got some questions and we want answers. Why are y'all here in Equestria? What were those things that attacked us? Just what the hay is going on around here?"
 
"Just chill out, miss hat." Terra chuckled. "You'll get all your answers soon. And then some."
 
Applejack blinked at what she was just called.
 
"I'm sorry....miss what now?" she asked.
 
"Well I don't know your name so I had to call you something now, didn't I?" Terra responded with another chuckle.
 
"Heh....well mah name is Applejack."
 
One by one each of the others announced their own names to the two Alamantians. Terra responded pleasantly.
 
"Well it’s cool to meet you all."
 
Agua simply did not.
 
"Whatever. After we get this over with, hopefully it won't matter anymore."
 
"Hey!" Pinkie Pie was really getting annoyed with his guy. All it was with him was one rude comment after the other. "What's your problem? You don't have any reason to be a big meanie to us!"
 
Once again, a growl sounded off from his throat as he turned to look at Pinkie, his eyes shooting daggers.
 
"Oh you really think that?" he stopped and turned around to look at all of them. "The seven of you have inadvertently gotten yourselves tangled up in a crossfire between us and something we have zero knowledge on. Because of that, now we have to worry about not only ourselves, but now all of you getting hurt or even worse, KILLED! It's already stressing enough on us to watch over each other, but now we have to worry about six other mares AND an infant dragon! So forgive me if I'm not exactly in a bright mood over that!"
 
Still growling, Agua backed off and turned his back once more heading down the dirt leaving the others feeling a bit guilty themselves. He may not have said it in the most polite of ways, but he was right. They were involved, and they were at risk. But it's not like they MEANT to be. They didn't know what would happen. It was just an accident.
 
"Look we ain't entirely happy with this either." Applejack responded to him as calmly as she could. "Things weren't supposed to go this way but they did. There's no changin' it. So would it kill ya to at least try and be friendly?"
 
It seemed that by his response, that either this water manipulating stallion was against that idea, or he just liked to scowl a lot. It didn't matter. Whatever it was it didn't stop Applejack from scowling back at him.
 
"Friendship isn't my strong suit." He said as he turned his back again.
 
Keeping the pace behind him, the others, minus Terra of course, were starting to get a little bit nervous about what to expect when they meet the others. Fluttershy tapped Twilight's shoulders and brought her muzzle up to her ear.
 
"Are you sure about this?" She whispered. "This thought didn't cross my mind until now but what if we tell these ponies the princess wants to see them and they no?"
 
"Then we'll convince them....somehow." Twilight whispered back though unsure herself. She then turned back to look at Terra and Agua speaking out loud. "How much longer until we reach your home?"
 
"It's not any much longer. We're here." Terra answered, pushing a bush out of the way.
 
She turned around and held a hoof out behind her as if she was presenting some kind of grand and spectacular showing in that direction. All they saw was the flat surface of a rocky mountainside.
 
"Uhhhhh it's just a mountain. There's nothing here." Rainbow Dash was beginning to think these ponies were insane.
 
The mare of earth laughed. Rainbow Dash tilted her head confused as to why the laughter was even happening? What did say that was funny? Was this mare really off her rocker?
 
"Equestrians. I swear you ponies have no imagination."
 
Swiftly, the yellow mare stood bipedal once more and dug her hind hooves into the ground. She then threw her right foreleg straight out to the face of the rock. Once her leg was at full extension, they all heard, felt, and saw the front of the rock begin to sink into the ground, following Terra's own movement down with her hoof. When it lowered, a passageway was revealed to be there, concealed by the rock. Again bewildered by the power the mare possessed, they just stood there with their jaws agape at the show before they were brought back into reality.
 
Agua was the first one to enter in followed by the others and Terra in the rear. When they were all inside, the mare of earth used her power again to shut the door behind them. The corridor they were in was lit by a row of torches along both walls. Not far from the makeshift door, there was also a small coat rack holding four similar black cloaks and two empty hooks. They were filled shortly by the cloaks Agua and Terra had themselves.
 
"Follow us. Meet the family." Terra beckoned.
 
She and Agua walked down the torch lit corridor and went out of view as they exited it. Shortly, the six ponies followed with Spike still atop Twilight's back.
 
As they exited the corridor, they came into a wide open space with what appeared to be makeshift workout equipment. Weights made of rock, a punching bag made out of a thrown out bed spread and filled with sand, a sparring ring, and the walls were lined with all sorts of various weapons. The items in there weren't what caught the harmony bearer's attention. It was the company. Spike brought out the book again when he saw that there were three other ponies in there using that equipment.
 
Over on the punching bag, rapidly throwing punches and kicks in a bipedal stance, was a white unicorn with a cyan colored mane and tail, with his mane in a mohawk style. On his flank was a cyan symbol cutie mark that matched the symbol of ice on the Alamantian book. And over in the sparring ring were two mares. One of them was a pink pegasus with bright blonde hair who bore a blue symbol cutie mark, which Spike saw as the symbol of wind. Her sparring partner was a unicorn, who looked to be much younger than anypony else there judging by her size. Her coat was an electric purple color and her mane and tail were flat black with a bright purple streak going down the middle. Her flank had a cutie mark that matched up with the symbol of plasma.
 
Five of the six ponies were now right in front of the elements of harmony. But where was the one that came to their rescue last night? Where was the pony of fire?
 
The pink pegasus looked over to the corridor entrance and noticed that they had unexpected company. Once she noticed, the purple unicorn saw it too and they made their way out of the ring to approach them. The white unicorn wasn't far behind them as he walked away from the bag, letting it sway from the impact of his last hit.
 
"Agua, Terra, who are these ponies?" The white unicorn asked uneasy.
 
"It's alright, Cryo." Terra responded and also gave the visitors his name. "They don't mean us any harm."
 
"Can't Typhoon just read them, get the info, and make them forget they ever saw us?" Agua suggested.
 
The pink pegasus huffed.
 
"You know how I feel about misusing my power like zat!" Judging by her reaction, she was the Typhoon Agua was talking about.
 
None of them were really expecting an Alamantian to have a Prench sounding accent though.
 
"Yeah I know how you feel but it doesn't mean I understand why you do." The stallion of water said back to her.
 
"Because eet's wrong! To go fishing around een someone's head and changing memories like zat weethout permission ees a huge eenvasion of zeir privacy!"
 
Typhoon and Agua were now nose to nose and scowling back at one another.
 
"Well I think the ends justify the means here. We don't need them."
 
"Agua, Ty is right." Cryo stood by the pegasus' side. "We can't do that. It isn't right."
 
One by one, all five Alamantians began to raise their voices at each other. Soon, the five voices mixed together into one track that none of the harmony bearers, nor the young dragon with them, could make out. All they could do was watch the spectacle, growing more uneasy by the moment.
 
"Uhhhh....what did we walk into?" Rainbow Dash muttered to anypony.
 
"Your guess is as good as mine." Applejack was the one to reply.
 
The five of them continued to bicker with an audience watching them for a few more moments until they were stopped by small explosion of fiery sparks over their heads similar to fireworks. All twelve present persons looked up in silence. But only five of them knew what it was that caused it. The Alamantians turned their heads in the same direction to view their sixth exiting out from a corridor and into the open.
 
The harmonious 6 and Spike all recognized that color of red the unicorn stallion was sporting. No longer concealed by his cloak, they were finally able to see the rest of him. His tail matched his bright red and orange streaked mane and his golden yellow eyes shimmered as if they were the mineral itself. On his flank he bore the orange symbol of fire making the circle of six complete. He stopped only inches away from his friends and gazed into Twilight's eyes, then Rarity's, then Pinkie's, and so on until he finally locked his sight on Terra.
 
"What happened?" his tone seemed almost emotionless.
 
Terra was quick to answer.
 
"Agua and I left to scout the disturbance, we ended up bringing these six ponies and a baby dragon back with us."
 
Not one part of the fire stallion's face seemed to move a single bit. Not even when he stepped through his team and stood in front of Twilight.
 
"I don't know if you have been made aware, but we-"
 
"Yeah yeah yeah we get the idea." Rainbow Dash interrupted him. "You've apparently had a thing going with another thing you know nothing about and now our lives are at risk. We already know."
 
"Then why have you willingly sought us out?" he asked, wondering what sort of crazy idea this bunch must have had.
 
"Well....in our defense, when we started looking for you, we didn't know how bad it was." Rarity softly said before remembering something. "But it was you. Last night you saved us from that one creature didn't you?"
 
Again, his expression didn't change much. All he did was give the unicorn a nod.
 
"Well then....allow us to give you an overdue thank you, Pyro."
 
He didn't seem at all moved. He just raised his eyebrow upon hearing the unicorn say his name. His attention was diverted to Spike when he noticed he seemed to have his eyes averted onto the purple Alamantian unicorn.
 
"You're welcome." He said to Rarity first before addressing Spike. "Is there something about my sister that interests you, drake?"
 
"Wha?" Spike jumped up a little realizing he had been caught staring.
 
"Spike, what have I told you about staring at ponies?" Twilight said scolding.
 
"I'm sorry, Twilight. But...." He looked back at the other unicorn. "How old are you?"
 
He like the others had noticed that the unicorn was smaller than the other ponies here. In a manner that seemed to match Fluttershy's, she let loose a squeak upon realizing she was being shown attention and took a step back uncomfortable.
 
"Um......thirteen." She muttered.
 
The number caught the Equestrians off guard a bit. That young a mare? Caught up in something like this?
 
"Just thirteen?" Spike asked again. "And you're okay with...what you're doing?"
 
"It's not like I asked to have this mark....." she replied while she brushed the ground with her hoof nervously.
 
"Eet's alright, Gem. None of us asked for zese cutie marks." Typhoon said softly to the young one, now known to be called Gem. "But we have zem, and we all agreed to ze contract zat came weeth zem."
 
"Contract?" Pinkie Pie piped up. "You had to sign a contract when you got your cutie marks? Is that how it works where you come from? Sounds like a lot of trouble to go through just for discovering your destiny."
 
"Uh...eet was a metaphor." Typhoon said back to the party planner.
 
"Yes and changing the subject, you haven't answered my question." Pyro started talking again. "Why were you looking for us? And who exactly are you?"
 
That's when the Equestrian guests remembered that they had only given their names to two of the Alamantians. Deciding to get the easy one out of the way first, Twilight gave her name and Spike after her.
 
"Ah'm Applejack. Ah work in town sellin’ apples."
 
"I'm Rarity, the best dressmaker in Ponyville."
 
The ivory unicorn swore she heard a small gasp from Typhoon come right after she introduced herself.
 
"My name's Rainbow Dash! Best flier in all Equestria!"
 
"Hi there! I'm Pinkie Pie! Would you mind all writing down your birthday’s here on this paper? It's for reasons that I assure you aren't wrong."
 
Shrugging, Cryo took the pad of paper and quill she apparently conjured out of nowhere and wrote down his date of birth curious as to what Pinkie would want with such information. The others followed, some unwillingly, and Pinkie stuck the pad of paper back in her mane smiling brightly with gears spinning in her head.
 
"Um....hi.....I'm...Fluttershy."
 
All seven of them were introduced. With that, Pyro slightly bowed his head to them.
 
"And I am Pyro as you apparently know." he then turned back holding a hoof up to his friends one by one. "And you've already met Cryo, Gem, Typhoon, Terra, and Agua."
 
At last the young unicorn was identified as Gem. She was the only one out of the five who gave them a gesture when Pyro said her name. She just raised her hoof and gave a shy wave, again, mimicking Fluttershy in a level of shyness. The demure pegasus herself seemed to take a small bit of comfort in the fact that there was more than one pony there who seemed a bit timid with all the introductions going around.
 
"They said they know, Master Ma, Pyro." Agua said getting back to business.
 
The red stallion's eyebrow rose up at the mention of that name. His head turned back to the seven guests with every ounce of interest now aimed at them.
 
"Did they now?"
 
Rainbow stepped forward and held a hoof up.
 
"Whoa whoa hold up. We never said we KNEW the guy." She said defensively. "All we have from him is a book and a note we found in a library. That's why we came out to find you. The note asked us to."
 
Both items mentioned hovered over to Pyro enveloped in Twilight's magical glow. The color of that glow turned from magenta to orange as he took them into his own telekinetic grip. As he looked at it, the heads of his five compatriots gathered around his to view it.
 
"What do you think?" Cryo asked.
 
"Well it's definitely from him. I'd recognize the writing anywhere. Even in Equestrian." He responded.
 
"So what does it say?" Gem then asked her question.
 
"That's just it. It doesn't really say a lot. There's no instructions for us or anything like that. It's just a note asking whoever finds it to search for us." Again Pyro answered as he turned the note over looking for more than what was there.
 
"I think he wants you to come out of hiding." Rainbow Dash pointed to a certain line in the note. "Right there it says, 'The time has come for them to step back out into the world'. Maybe he thinks you guys are ready to leave this place."
 
"Also, Princess Celestia has some things she wishes to talk to you about as well." Twilight added.
 
Both statements got all six Alamantians thinking. What could the princess of Equestria possibly have to say to them?
 
"Uhhhhh....really?" Typhoon asked. "What could ze princess possibly want weeth us?"
 
"I really want to hear the answer to that myself." Was all Twilight answered with.
 
"Gather, my siblings." Pyro requested.
 
The six Alamantians all took a few steps away from the Equestrian visitors in their midst and huddled together, speaking in only whispers. They all took note of Pyro using the word, "siblings". Is that why they easily got into arguments? Were all six of them somehow related to each other? Was this just normal for them? Terra did say to come and “meet the family” when they first entered the hidden home. Now that they were found it didn't seem like anything was getting cleared up like any of them thought it would. Instead, watching the six of them interact with each other only made more and more questions pile on that they wanted answers to. By the time they would get the chance to ask one, they wouldn't even know where to start.
 
"So what do you think? Should we trust them?" Terra was the first to ask.
 
"They said they're in tight with the princess. I think we can trust them." Cryo said, on the Equestrian's side.
 
"That's because you trust anyone, you naive moron." Agua growled. "If they said they could also shoot rainbows out of their asses and cure diseases with it, you'd believe it."
 
"Zat's enough, Agua." Typhoon snapped at her brother before looking at the others in the circle. "I deedn't read zem but I can tell zey are being sincere. I say we go weeth zem. Eef we end up een trouble, we can get out easy. Aucun problème du tout."
 
Pyro nodded seeming to agree with Typhoon's reasoning. But there was still one more to hear from.
 
"Gem, what do you think?"
 
All five of them turned to face the young mare of plasma who gulped not liking being put on the spot like that. Nevertheless, she exhaled through her nose and spoke her thoughts.
 
"Well....I don't think they would have gone through so much trouble to find us if it wasn't important to them....I believe them."
 
A series of nods came from the group, save for the stallion of water who was not happy about being outvoted. With a decision made the six of them broke their huddle and turned back around to face their visitors.
 
"Well?" Twilight asked a bit nervous.
 
Her answer came to her immediately from the stallion of fire.
 
"We will come with you to Canterlot. If your princess wishes to speak to us that bad, then what she has to say must be important for both us and herself."
 
Not just Twilight, but everyone else with her took a sigh of relief at the fact that there wouldn't be any complications in convincing them to come.
 
"W-we're gonna meet the Princess?" Gem asked suddenly sounding very uneasy. "Oh wow....that....that sure is something."
 
"Yeah who would've guessed huh?" Terra threw a foreleg around her youngest sibling's back. "Six renegade Alamantians meeting royalty."
 
"Aren't YOU technically royalty?" Cryo asked his sister.
 
"I make no connections to that life." Terra brushed it off, while unknowingly adding yet another question to that pile for the bearers of harmony. "Fire up your horns and let's get going!"
 
"Horns?" Twilight tilted her head. "I think you must be confused. We have to get to Canterlot by train."
 
A laugh was heard after that sentence. And it came from Agua.
 
"Train? That's what the slow folk use. Watch this." He looked to his ice powered comrade and gestured his head forward. "Do your thing horn dogs."
 
All three of the present Alamantian unicorns rolled their eyes at the nickname. Nonetheless, the three of the stood side by side and began to prepare their horns. Pyro's glow was a gold color, Cryo's was cyan, and Gem's horn shone a bright brown color. Twilight watched the three of them intently curious as to what sort of spell they were going to use. Their process however was interrupted when a small cry from the Alamantian pegasus overcame the room. Cryo, Pyro, and Gem all stopped what they were doing and looked to Typhoon who had a hoof to the side of her own head.
 
"Typhoon? What is it? What's wrong?" Cryo asked concerned.
 
None of the guests had any clue as to what was happening with the pink mare. Slowly, she took in a breath to focus kept the hoof to her head.
 
"I am picking up another disturbance." She told them all before going on. "Just outside Ponyville.....at a construction site. Eet's huge zis time. Eet's probably going to take all of us."
 
"The construction site in town?" Applejack wondered. "What's goin on there? Is everypony there okay?......hey wait a second! How do you even know somethin's happenin'?"
 
That part was just noticed as Applejack pointed it out. This pegasus just had a hoof to her head and was telling everypony that there was trouble happening in town. How could she possibly know? This was starting to become aggravating. Just how many questions were they gonna have when this was over? Right now that pile of questions had pretty much reached the ceiling.
 
"We'll explain ourselves later." Pyro told. "And the princess is going to have to wait. Typhoon, send me, Cryo, and Gem the location."
 
"Wait! You agreed to come! And the princess has a schedule to keep!" Twilight cried not liking getting diverted this much.
 
The Alamantians however didn't seem to care in the slightest at her plight.
 
"If the princess really does want to talk with us, then she can wait a few more hours." Terra told her. "Right now there are some ponies who may be in trouble and we have to help them."
 
"We have the location." Cryo said. "Pyro, Gem, let's do it."
 
Again, the three unicorns came together and their horns began to glow their respective colors as a spell was starting to cast. At first it didn't seem like anything was happening. The brightness on all three horns just seemed to get a little brighter. Then in a snap, it happened. Right in front of the unicorns, three flashes of gold, cyan, and brown appeared simultaneously and a brightly glowing ring of energy formed right above the ground. Through the ring, Twilight peered and saw there was what appeared to be a construction site right there through it, almost as if she was looking out a window. Immediately she was able to tell what the spell was.
 
"A portal spell?" she muttered. "But.....I've never heard of a spell like that. How did you three do that?!"
 
"Again, we'll explain later." Pyro said before looking to his team. "Be ready for anything."
 
"Wait, Pyro, we're not seriously gonna leave these guys here in our home while we're gone are we?" Terra asked gesturing to the element bearers and Spike.
 
"Yeah she's right!" Rainbow shouted. "Let us come! We can handle ourselves just fine in a fight!"
 
The decision was Pyro's in this case. He wasn't entirely convinced that these six plus a baby dragon could fight all that well, and he was making this judgement off of what he saw last night with just one of those creatures. But he and his friends didn't just want to leave them there in their home without so much as an explanation. Not sure of what to do, he turned back to his team.
 
"What do you think?" He asked the five of them.
 
"I say let them come. We can handle things if they get sticky." Terra replied with confidence.
 
Cryo and Typhoon agreed with their yellow friend. Agua was the only one opposed.
 
"They'll only just get in our way. We can do things ourselves." he argued.
 
Even though he was already outnumbered, everypony looked to Gem as if she was the deciding vote. Apparently they all wanted to get everypony's opinion before the decision was made even if the vote was already leaning in one direction.
 
"Well....I don't really know them....but if they want to come it's not like we have the right to tell them no." the young unicorn murmured.
 
With a nod, the Alamantians all looked towards them with Agua being the only one sporting a glare.
 
"Alright then. Just walk through the portal and be prepared for an uneasy stomach." Cryo advised.
 
Eyebrows were raised at that comment.
 
"Uhhhh....why?" Applejack asked.
 
"Happens with all first time portal travelers." Cryo said with a shrug. "First time I went through I puked. But that was years ago and I'm good. Now let's go!"
 
He then galloped over to the portal and with a "Woohoo!" jumped through it to the other side. Pinkie, liking his high spirit, was the first to follow him bouncing into the gate. Rainbow Dash followed, then Terra, and then one by one everypony else followed until the only ones left were Twilight and Agua, Spike having gone on before. Twilight was distracted by the portal itself tapping at it as if it were a hard surface.
 
"So fascinating. This is unlike any transportation spell I've ever heard of. I mean just think! All this time I could have been using portals instead having to put all that effort into teleporting! just think about how this could revolutionize the area of-GYAAH!"
 
Her little rambling session was cut off when she was shoved from behind into the portal by Agua. The stallion of water let loose a heavy sigh relishing in the brief moment of solitude before looking upwards to the ceiling.
 
"Lord Poseidon, I don't ask for a lot. But I beg of you please keep our interactions with these ponies short."
 
With that little prayer, he walked through the portal himself and it vanished as soon as he did. Little did he know that even before he made that little request, his fate and the fate of his siblings, were already sealed.