The Prime Elements

It was midnight in Equestria and all was quiet. Ponyville was dark, except for the few streetlamps that shined in the night. Canterlot was dotted with the small lights of homes and the castle. Even the Everfree Forest was deafly silent. Animals cuddled together under the various plants as the stars and moon illuminated the dark forest. The only unnatural light that was found in the eerie woods, came from a hut that had been made from a hollow tree with several strange masks and bottles around the outside of it. While, on the inside, there were more bottles and masks, as well as a caldron with a boiling brown liquid. And a zebra wearing gold bands around her neck and two of her hooves, walked over to a bed that appeared to have different furs covering it.

"Such a quiet night. No need for a terrible fright." The zebra said as she sipped from her cup of tea.

To some, she appeared to be strange. But to her friends, she was just like any other. However, whenever it came down to something that couldn't be explained by their methods, she had ways of finding the answers. Whether it was magical, spiritual, odd medicines, or finding one's center, she was the one some went to for help. But, sometimes even she couldn't find the answers that were needed.

K-Kra-BOOM!!!

A flash and a loud sound roared through the trees, waking anything that could hear it. The zebra almost spilled her drink as the sound startled her.

"What was it that flashed?!" The zebra said, getting to her hooves and rushing to a window, "Has a star fallen and crashed?!"

Off in the distance, she saw several glowing ambers from trees that were exposed to the sudden activity. Clearly, whatever caused such a thing to happen, must be important. And the zebra knew that.

Quickly, she put her tea on a table and rushed out the door, heading toward the glowing ambers. But, when she got there, she found something very strange and alien to her.

"Never, in my travels to lands near and far," the zebra exclaimed, seeing the two figures in the center of a large burn circle, "have I ever seen creatures so bizarre!"

The only features that she could recognize were their arms and hands, which were similar to monkeys. However, they had far less hair, wore armor, and one of them had a torn blood red hood and a sword in it's sheath. The other had no weapon or hood, but the armor it was wearing had a burn mark on the chest plate.

"Both look strong." The zebra whispered, stepping closer, "But, there is clearly something wrong."

Once she was close to the hooded one, she cautiously reached out her hoof to it's neck. Upon touching the skin, she felt a pulse, but that only made her more cautious as she moved her hoof to one of the eyes.

But, before she reached it, the eyes shot open and one of the hands grabbed her hoof with lightning speed. She felt her voice catch in her throat, keeping her from screaming in fear as the glowing blue eyes stared at her. However, the feeling of fear slowly left her as she saw that the creature wasn't doing anything else, except stare. She was very good at reading others and what she saw in this creature was anger, fear, sadness, and torture. But, she had only relaxed as she saw that all of those emotions weren't truly directed at her. Then the creature opened it's mouth and she saw a pair of short pointed fangs. And then she heard a very faint sound escape it's lips, before the creature let go of her and closed it's eyes again.

Knowing that she wasn't in any real danger, the zebra quickly went back to her hut and retrieved a potion bottle. When she returned to the creatures she opened the bottle and poured only a few drops on each of them. After waiting a moment, the creatures rose above the ground only a few inches, allowing the zebra to wrap a vine around them and pull them to her hut. Once inside, she began undoing the straps that held the armor on the creatures. After a few minutes of fiddling with the buckles, the armor was finally possible to remove. On the hooded one, the zebra saw burns, scars, and dark bruises all over it's well-toned muscular body. But, on the second one, she only saw the single burn mark on it's chest. Checking the second's eyes and mouth, she also found that they were very different from the first one. For instance, this one's eyes weren't glowing blue and it's mouth didn't have fangs. And that confused her.

"Why would they not be the same?" She asked herself, looking over both of them as she started to throw certain things into the caldron, "And, from what land have they came?"

As she added more ingredients, the zebra noticed that she was short on one of the herbs she needed. However, it didn't worry her, because she knew where to get more. Unfortunately, the herb she needed had to be purchased in Ponyville, because it was one of the few plants that she needed, that didn't grow in the forest. But, it was the middle of the night and she knew that none of the shops were open. So, first thing in the morning, she'll go there and see if she can find what she needed. But, that wasn't what she was worried about. Instead, she was concerned about if the creatures would survive until then.

Grabbing a bottle off a shelf, she opened their mouths and poured only a trickle of the liquid into them. It wasn't a very strong medicine, but she knew that it would be enough to give them a chance.