The mare and stallion from Spane called their single daughter Starfire.
She was a golden filly, with a white mane and tail, splotches of white on her body and a white star on her forehead. The stallion tied a pink ribbon in her mane, and she watched him with her large, innocent green eyes.
"She's beautiful," he muttered. The mare nuzzled him from her white bed, holding the filly in her forelegs.
"We have to leave soon with the expedition, though," the mare whispered. "We couldn't leave her behind, not this young."
"We'll bring her with us, then. We'll have a whole herd with us to protect her, and she'll be a month old by then. You know how fast fillies grow."
"Maybe I should stay behind," the mare sighed. "It'll be safer for the both of us."
The stallion rested a hoof on her shoulder. "You've waited your whole life to see these temples, remember? Now may be the only chance we have. I'm sure everything will be fine, even for little Starfire."
And so it was that, exactly one month later, young Starfire watch from a tree's branches as a Manticore finished off her parents. Her mother had shoved her up there with a panicked flight, tucking her away in the branches, while her father distracted the huge animal. The two had fought it together, and has fallen as such.
The Manticore leaned over it's kill, looking around the clearing warily. It had no way of knowing the three ponies had fallen behind the rest of the herd while letting Starfire rest, and that the group likely wouldn't notice they were gone until nightfall. No, it seemed to by waiting for something else.
Starfire screamed as something rushed towards the Manticore's head. The large beast looked at her for a moment, a long painted spear sticking out from between it's eyes, before it let out a dim growl and toppled to the ground. The clearing was silent again.
Two tall creatures, similar to ponies, stepped into the open. Their gray shells were painted with various dyes, letting them blend into the forest's foliage. Their piercing blue eyes scanned the clearing for other ponies before beginning to move the Manticore's corpse aside, flicking their short gray tails in annoyance.
"Grillin chit weres. Visio marn?." One of them growled, glancing around.
The other one snorted. "Eh sile earch.."
Starfire, frozen with fear up in the branches, felt herself swooning. With a sigh as her eyes closed, she fell from the branches.
"Sare!" One of the creatures shouted. The other threw itself forward, skidding painfully on the rough forest floor. The falling filly bounced off of it's shell with a bit less impact than that of the ground.
"Chit were?" The one asked, getting to it's hooves.
"Ist, Sytax. fel hist.."
The one named Sytax shrugged, gently lifting the limp filly in his jaws. He pointed towards the other, less-living denizens of the clearing. "Gouc sict."
The creature not named Sytax whistled loudly, and a few moments later a second pair of creatures entered the clearing, looking at the corpses and the filly hanging from Sytax's mouth. "Vist," the other creature hissed. "gouc sict."
The two newcomers growled their distaste, but set to work on the bodies. The Manticore began preparation for cooking, and the two ponies were cleaned up and packed away for some later funeral.
And then the one named Sytax seemed to shimmer like a mirage and, with little Starfire still hanging from his jaws, he disappeared into the forest.
Pale green light filtered through the canopy as Starfire came to. She looked around; she seemed to be lying on a suspended platform of vines and branches, an indefinite distance from the ground and with no method of travel in sight. She noticed, also, that there was a thick layer of white paste on her side and - when she rubbed her forehead - most of her face. Starfire looked around, young hooves aching slightly from her climb the day before.
Something moved near the side of the platform.
A creature, seemingly pony-like, seemed to emerge from the shadows, dappled patterns of green and black vanishing into a stark gray coat. It regarded her with bright blue eyes, as if assessing her injuries.
It's eyes narrowed, and it let out a series of strange clicks and chirps that sounded vaguely criticizing.
She shook her head, not understanding. Her parents hadn't talked like this, and although she hadn't learned much Equish, she knew that this creature didn't speak it.
It seemed just as confused as she was. After a moment of bewildered silence, it pressed a hole-speckled hoof to it's chest. "Sytax."
"Starfire." The filly replied, mimicking the action.
"Starfire." It chirped. Tilting it's head, it tried to use Equish; his accent was thick with an odd buzz that reminded her of the summer bugs at home. "You... come... pony?"
Knowing these words, she tried to come up with a response. "Mom, dad. Here?"
It chirped in confusion, a series of strangely syllabic noises.
"Pony," Starfire repeated, "yes. Where?"
Another creature came out of the leaves, looking between the two. It snapped something at the first one, sounding bothered, and proceeded to glare down at Starfire. It bit off a leaf from a nearby branch, placing it on the ground in front of Starfire.
"Een." It chirped, tapping on the leaf with it's hoof.
"Een," Starfire repeated, picking up the leaf in her forehooves.
"Were," it continued, pointing at her. "Pony."
"Were," she pressed her hoof to her chest, signifying she understood.
The creature pointed to the first, "Sytax," and to itself, "Messiah. Blendfalk."
"Starfire," she said, pointing at herself as well. "Were."
Messiah grinned.
Hooves blurred over the forest's damp earth. A golden blur raced past a fallen tree, barely breaking speed to avoid it. Her mane and tail billowed out behind her, an ivory flag braided through with vines and flowers.
The pony let out a short huff of breath as she jumped up, landing squarely with all four hooves on a sturdy branch. She jumped again, climbing further, until she raced forward again, leaping between branches as easily as if they were a dirt trail. The sun dappled light across her green-and-brown-smeared coat, the golden fur underneath gleaming where the colors had scratched off.
She changed her angle as another pony darted down from the leaves above, painted in the same colors and matching her stride. It was not a normal pony, though, with it's gray hide and holed hooves. It blinked it's wide blue eyes at her, tossing her one of the two pointed sticks it was carrying in it's mouth. The mare caught it with ease, leaping out from the trees into the open air.
For a moment, it was as if she was flying, and then she came hurtling towards the ground, spear pointed down. It impacted it's target with a wet thud, and the mare quickly drew it back out as she landed and swung around for another attack. Her running partner landed nearby, letting off a rattling war cry.
The intruders backed away, yelling something in their harsh language. Other creatures like the gray one landed in a circle around the mare, shielding her as she finished off her victim.
The intruders were much more varied than the creatures of the forest, more like exotic birds than her kin. Their coats, eyes, and manes were in all different colors, and their flanks were not blank like theirs. Each one bore a unique image; some were things she recognized, like leaves or animal prints, but some were items she had never seen before. They all had wings, but they were not the thin, membranous wings of her kin; they were coated in birdlike feathers, matching the colors of their coats.
On top of that, they seemed to only speak in shouts of harsh words, so unlike the melodious language of her kin. However from the frequent, violent, interactions with the intruders, she had discovered and relayed portions of their language.
Changeling had become the ugly title of her native kin, for their ability to camouflage onto nearly anything. She had heard their names for her, as well; strange one, or orphan. She didn't know these words, didn't understand why she was called something different than her kin. They may appear different, but she was just as much a being of the forest as they were.
She swiftly kicked in the skull of the invader she had taken down, turning to walk into the ring of her kin. She stared down the intruders with a glare of green steel. The invaders balked, weighing their odds. A few had already taken flight, their wings carrying them into th sky faster than her kin could chase. They had no weapons among them, but their hooves were thick and weighed down with heavy shoes that could crush ribs.
Starfire let out a wordless battle cry, and most of the invaders fled. A few were left behind, either unable to fly from their injuries or frozen in terror. Her kin opened their mouths, fangs flipping forward as they spat acid at the faces of wounded, ending their misery. Many of those frozen in fright heard the sizzling splash and came to their senses, fleeing as fast as their ings would carry them.
Starfire trotted up to the remaining intruder, a tan-coated male with a ginger mane and dark brown bands on either side of his white muzzle. He had three similarly colored dark socks, and one white. His ears pinned back as she approached, and he took a stiff step back.
She raised her spear, ready to drive it into his forehead. He put up his hooves, cowering before her. As she hesitated, he closed his eyes, extending his wings so they hid his face completely. The outer feathers on his wings were not the same color as his coat, like the others. Instead, they were also a dark brown.
He slowly moved his wings and hooves away from his face as the end didn't come. He looked up at her, pure terror in his eyes, and started babbling in his language.
"What are you waiting for?" One of her kin chirped from behind her. "You know Messiah doesn't want us to leave any of them behind."
Starfire jerked her head, slamming the sharp end of her spear into the ground to free her mouth. "I know what Messiah wants."
"Starfire, if you can't do this-"
"Sytax, what I can and cannot do is not your decision. I'm not a baby anymore." She turned to face the Changeling who had helped raise her, smiling fondly. "I'm almost of age."
"I hate to interrupt your nice bonding moment," another kin called out, "but we kind of have a prisoner to deal with."
Starfire hauled her spear out of the ground, swinging it sideways and slamming the side of it into the intruder's chest. He doubled over, coughing, and she darted behind him, kicking his head forwards into the blood-slicked mud. She pressed down on his forehead with one hoof, holding him down while she bound his mouth shut and his wings to his flanks. She rolled him over in the mud, binding his forehooves and hindhooves together before slipping her spear through the bindings.
With Sytax on the other side, they hoisted him up like a piece of prey. "He was a prisoner before," Starfire said, "and a prisoner he will remain. The rest of you, return to camp and prepare a cell."
Her kin dispersed into the trees, bodies shimmering with a green glow before seeming to dissolve into the foliage. Starfire hoisted the prisoner off the ground with a grunt, setting a steady pace for the trip ahead.
"You didn't have to save him," Sytax murmured. "If you had just told me you couldn't, I would have finished him off for you."
"I know," Starfire replied, shaking her head, "but if something happens to Messiah, I'm the next in line. There are a few suspicious of me already; I can't afford any more against me."
"You're almost of age," Sytax reminded her, "and choosing a mate will permanently bond you to our tribe. After bearing kin young, you will not be in danger."
"What if I don't want to bear?" Starfire complained. "We've got enough grubs as it is."
Sytax shook his head. "If you rear half-were young, we may be one step closer to driving out the intruders. half-were would be able to hunt them down in flight."
"Why can't we just make a truce? Bloodshed isn't good for anything. For every were we kill, ten more will come, and they will only become angrier." Starfire tried to meet Sytax's eyes, but her kin was fixated on the ground. "They have more warriors than we do. We only live here, but they send boats from past the horizon. Who knows how many there could be?"
"We must defend what is ours, in the way our chief decides is right," Sytax recited. "Messiah believes in violence. If she falls, who knows? Things might just change."
The tribe's prison was not lavish or particularly appealing. When large trees fell near the camp, they could be hollowed out and used as shelter or storage. There were one or two that had the particular layout for keeping prisoners; wide, deep pits with heavy panels closing them off. There were knotholes in the tree to let in light and air, and food was still delivered once a day. But when it rained, the bottoms became thick with soaked, rotting leaves and the remains of old meals or prisoners, and the cells were only as warm as the air outside.
Starfire and Sytax lowered the prisoner into the dried leaves at the bottom of the pit, unbinding him mouth-first.
"If you fight, we will kill you." Starfire told him, kicking him in the side to remind him that they had the advantage. "Don't struggle."
Whether he actually understood her or just heard her tone, she wasn't sure. But when they undid his hooves, he simply lay on the ground, wings tied, and stared at the wall.
"Not exactly energetic, is he?" Sytax chirped.
"We'll figure that out later. Come on, let's go see if the scouts saw anything else we have to deal with."
