The Beginning

The small, dusty town which pride it's self of their orchard was at rest. The moon gave a luminous glow over the houses as the cold wind blew. The Orchard's apples were slowly, but surely regenerating as small bulbs that gradually turned from a healthy green into a bright shiny red that made them appear like rubies as the leaves shuffled around them. Outside of the orchard, a large tent, several large tents, were stationed around the boarders of the trees. Inside were horses with golden armor, and shovels.

Over looking the settlement was a lone figure, fully clothed in a tattered tarp, a five-gallon hat on his sun bleached dark golden head. The tired green eyes closed as a long dark figure trotted up behind him, his ears filling with the sound of hooves and her exoskeleton rubbing together.

"It'll help us both young one..." The voice was female, and sounded as though it had several owners, but it held some pity within. A dark, slender hoof, littered with holes, laid upon the young colt's shoulders. He looked up into insect like green eyes with silted pupils peeked through long skin-thin blue hair while she stroked his mane.

"...I-I know it will... buh-...ugh..." He let his head fall, and the Insect queen nuzzled into the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know how else to help you without-"

"Ah know Chrysalis, ah know...." He rose his head up again and took another look at the town. "Ah built this place from the ground up, plante' all them there trees with mah own hooves. And now, barely 2 years old, and this ma-be the las time am gonna see it..."

"I'm sorry for your plight, but I hope you understand, my changelings, my family, are starving, and your home doesn't have enough love for us to survive... we've given as much of the gems as we could barter with for you all, but we must draw the line somewhere...." She sighed, holding back tears as she kept her regal pose.

"And the only place fo ya was Ponyville..."

"...yes..." A small ball with wings laid on the queen's back, in it's mouth was three large grey orbs on separate silver strings with several quartz crystals. The little changeling gave out a whimper, attracting both the farmer and it's queen's attention. Braeburn smiled at the little thing, It looked more like a big-eyed pony with pointy teeth, light blue butterfly wings, and hole-less limbs than the monster he thought they were. It looked towards the cow-pony's hat, eyes as big as half it's head, shimmering as the moon gave it a sparkling glow, making them look like 2 pale green sapphires.

The yellow pony chuckled at the creature before taking off his hat, and placing it upon the baby's head. "Now ah want tha back in a few days now ya hear?" From it, drew a squeal of joy as the pendants fell from it's mouth only to be caught by a green aura surrounding it, a few inches from the dirt and levitated it up in front of the apple member.

"The gems before you absorb love, and large amounts of it. In order to," She paused to think of another word, but came with no way to sugar-coat it. "Harvest, love, you must be touching the creature for it to absorb the love. It doesn't matter if they love you or something else, but it works more if they do feel for you, dear Braeburn." She levitated the gems around his neck as she explained over the sounds of the young changeling's mews while being covered by the large hat. She was extremely wary of getting the cow-pony in the eyes with the quartz, but something told her that he sort of wanted it to. "They will glow a bright blue when full. Once they do, we will pay you double the amount of gems from the caverns. Is this acceptable?"

She could see the fear and uncertainty within his eyes, but he turned around towards the orchard to see a Canterlot noble picking one of the apples from HIS orchard. The ripened fruit was hovered in the air, perfect in sze, shape and color, all from Appleloosian's hard work, and was thrown into at the bark. This brought a resounding, horrible thud and a crack that tore at Braeburn's heart. A small buffalo came charging at the noble from inside the thicket and stopped the pony. She barley got a chance as her much larger friends came to intervened. The yellow pony's heart broke even more as the guards started to pour out, unable to hear the quiet conflict.

He looked down at the gems, their empty color, the quartz that seemed to glow on their own, and then towards the queen and the little one that poked it's head out from under the rim, giving out fangy smiles with a blue tongue. The buffalo were pushed away by that time, but the smallest one stood her ground until the sheriff came and ushered her away..

"....I'll do it." May Cadence forgive meh for ma transgressions...

Somewhere else

A woman, roughly 15, with amber eyes and yellow hair stood at her window, looking out at the moon in her long grey, silk nightgown. A bandage patch was wrapped around her right eye. Her lips were smeared with a red streak and her skin was a nice tannish color, but held little pink. Around her was a hospital bed, an I.C.U with the tubes on the ground, a discarded robe, and a bed pan laid to the side, red liquid dripping out onto the linoleum floor.

In her arms was a small stuffed doll with large butterfly wings and a blue flower pinned into it's head. It wore no clothes, had no hair, and had no eyes.

A small light danced around her legs, up her chest, and disappeared before her face as it drew out a tear. The resounding noise was a small and faint whisper that danced around the room

"One more month...." Then the tears began to freely flow. The stars shining brightly and the moon giving off a lustrous glow over the rural town that's becoming a city.

Author's Note

...I don't know what this box is for....

It's my first story on this site, so, please be nice.
This all takes place BEFOR, the main event though.