[.The Eclipse.] -- Joining Meadow

Many a year ago, a long and bloody war for dominance was waged among the four great Elemental Spirits known to all as Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. This war lasted for nealy an age, and the Earth witnessed strange eclipses nearly everday; moments of darkness where either the sun or the moon where completely covered for long moments before light once again returned.

Eventually, no victor was decided, and the great Spirits were left as they had begun, equals. Safe for one strange absence in their imortal powers. Frightened that they were losing hold of their vast amonts of magic, there was a rush of all the elements in the insane hope that they could at least create offspring in which the elemental powers could bloom.

This seemingly foolish idea caused many painful deaths among the mortal creatures below. Finally, the two elements of Fire and Water succeeded, and two uniped were born on different ends of the continent.

The births of the colt and filly occured bizzarely on the same day as the sun rose high in the midsummer sky. The powers of the Elemental Spirits were at their lowest ebb; their magic nearly gone now.

Both dams have found a secluded glade near enough to the herd where they could give birth, and they lay down on the warm earth as their children tore them apart. As the sun reached the peak of its daily passing, both mares screamed simultamously as their contractions grew closer together and the time of birth neared.

As the tips of the hooves exited the birthing canal, the earth itself seemed to hush, as if holding its breath. Almost unnoticeably at first, a sliver of darkness covered the sun's light. The nostrils of both foals exited their dams, the nearby herds shivering with foreboding at the unatural and haunting screams of the mares.

Half of the sun was now covered in darkness, as the gaze of all mortal beasts were raised in awe to the sky above. Half of the bodies of the foal were now exposed.
As the last sliver of lgiht from the sun vanished, all of hell seemed to break loose. Lightning arced out of the cloudless sky as thunder boomed across the land. With a great shudder, the earth itself began to shake. At the exact moment of the sun's dissapearance, the two foals were born, their slick bodies slithering from their dying mothers corpses. At this precise moment, the long and once thought eternal lives of the four great Elemental Spirits were ended.

...And for what seemed to many an eternity, the world was plunged into complete darkness...