Abnormal

Chapters

Voices
Mercy Me
Welcome Home
Pitch Black
Separation

Voices

~Voices~

I couldn't remember the last time I was so damn cold.

Being cold was a feeling no creature can ever truly get used to. Some have excess fluff for warmth, and some warm blankets to pull over them whenever they feel “a wee' bit chilly.” However, when you're lying around well after the sun had set, without said blanket and fluff, no idea where you are, and even less of a thought on where to go, being “cold,” kind of just squirms it’s filthy little self into the front of your conscience.

I tell you now, it will never go away.

It will nip at you, a sizzle like feeling. It will make you squirm and writhe to escape it. But you can't. It brings forward uncomfortable and unwanted feelings: it makes you long to be back with those you know, wrapped in a blanked, perhaps by a bonfire.

Try as you might though, you can't really escape something that thrives like a bug in the air around you. The wind will bring it, moving will bring it; when you breathe in it sears your lungs, making you wince every time you need to take a breath. The cold, present and profound can't be moved or persuaded, and it doesn't leave you alone.

I can't forget to mention that as a sad and little changeling, I was used to being surrounded by thousands of my sardine-packed and decently warm hive members; in lands that never really get, well; cold. And, although I never got to “play” or “laze around,” I was never uncomfortable. More importantly, I was never cold.

However, against my will, and much to my disdain; my once trusty hive discarded me like a wagon toy with only 3 wheels. They tossed me out -or rather just knocked me out- and flew off. Presumably back to my once called home. They left me here, on the outskirts of the Everfree forest, all alone; even worse, without a way to get back.

And wow was lying still on Equestrian soil after dark, cold.

I suppose I deserved it. All I had to do in the attack was suckle up some happy couples love and buzz away from the action, and I didn't. I just sat on my haunches, looking on like an oaf while my hive attacked the mountain side city. I just watched as they relentlessly flung themselves at all those ponies. I watched as some of us got taken down, some getting what they wanted. Finally, I watched as my queen and most of my family got banished to, somewhere far away.

I watched but I never did anything. I don't even recall moving during the attack, just sitting like an injured bystander. I guess someling else noticed my stationary status because, when the few stragglers of our hive got their wits together and buzzed away, I was dealt a good blow to my scaly head. He must have thrown one hard and fast hoof because besides waking up, that's all I remember.

I still thanked the cold though; it was the only real reason I bothered to get up after all.

“Errmg” I mumbled, lazily pushing myself up like it was some sort of chore. I felt all my joints pop and creak from all the tension standing seemed to release. I turned my head to face forward, I opened my huge blue eyes and looked ahead, the monumental trees of the Everfree laid out before me. Of course I was dumped next to the one place that Chrysalis told us to avoid.

Come to think of it, why leave me at all? Just re-teach me how to be a sad shell of a creature like all the others that disobey Chrysalis. Was dragging me to the edge of a unspeakably horrendous place necessary?

Was it because I have the ability to stop and think, or maybe because I was willing to use that ability? Or was it because I didn’t just spring into action when the lemmings I call my brethren did.

Probably.

“Probably just wanted me dead” I muttered, turning my attention back to the dismal treeline ahead. I gulped; it was, unnaturally dark in there. I began listening for any noise that could indicate a brutish attack from one of the strange beasts within.

A gust of wind blew past me, once again, the cold went with it. It stung my eyes like dust.

Much to my relief, everything was silent. Only the constant drone of the wind and the light wheeze of my breath was present. I figured it about as good a time as ever to head in to a bleak and beast ridden forest.

I took a few, tentative steps forward; the grass muffled my hooves, making even moving silent and dull. The silence fit in incredibly well with the ever so dark and ominous atmosphere of the night. It seemed as if the dark wanted to choke me; like it was closing in just to wring my neck, and strip me of life.

Oh how ironic it was when my pitch black hoof landed on a fallen stick, and every darkened splotch in the treeline lit up with the angry eyes of… things. Things that were more than likely bigger than me. A few of them released pent up growls and snarls that showed they were incredibly territorial, or were waiting all day for something to be angry at, and then to snack upon.

I locked up, gaping at my new guests. I felt bile climb up my throat, and I used about as much strength as I could muster to keep it down. I tried to stand tall, as if my authority wasn’t being challenged by a creature from the Everfree.

One stepped out, revealing itself to be a huge lio...scor...thing, towering well above me. It motioned its paws forward, leading the others out as well. Scratch that, leading the many others out as well. Six or seven of the miss-matched beasts squeezed through the brush and trees they had been using to stay hidden.

“C-can you ssspeak?” I questioned, hoping it could have some form of cognitive ability besides crush and eat, maybe even believing that it wouldn't try to make me very dead in a few moments.

It instead snarled and sprouted its….wings, oh my it has wings, big and powerful wings, and then snarled again; a deafening, guttural noise scraped up from the bottom of its throat.

“Ssso thiss meansss no?” I asked, half of me still wanting to believe that this was some sort of humorless joke. I started pacing backwards, and them forward. Each creature was equally matching my speed like it was a practiced routine.

I gasped when I stepped onto that accursed stick, causing me to lose balance, and come down onto my haunches. This gave me perfect view straight into their ‘leaders’ wide and open mouth. It leaned in and bared its almost sword like teeth to me. Teeth that made me -for the time being- actually want to go back to Chrysalis, wherever she was.

It took the moment I had off my hooves to jump up and over me, using its wings to glide down slowly and almost gracefully. The pride...er, uh, flock soon followed suit, and they sat in formation again; this time behind me, breathing down my neck.

Worse it seems, this meant that they were Intelligent; I was forced to go into the forest, where, most likely, billions of these things resided. It was like a trap, just, bigger, and with teeth and claws instead of tripwire and a net.

I gathered up the half ounce of courage I had left and pushed my legs back, moving into a ‘trot ready’ position, then took off. My petty, hole covered legs carried me as fast as they could away from my newly deemed, bat winged scorpion lions. oooh even better, lorpion bats! Yet, sadly, right now, it seemed it wasn’t all that fast. Even worse, against everything my brain said to do, I abided their plan, and went straight for the forest. I didn’t even bother to try something else, such as, running to the left, or to the right.

How Chrysalis-damned inane could I be? Why do I bother being alive if the best idea I can come up with under pressure is to trot into the home of lorpion bats?

Because being alive is fantastic, thats why I bother.

More cold wind shot past me as they pushed their mighty wings down, taking off full blast, they surprisingly didn’t immediately catch up. I closed the last few yards between me and the forest quickly, and in less than ten seconds, I had breached into the Everfree.

“oh, they sssmell bad asss well.” I hacked out when I registered the overwhelming scent of fermenting urine and sadness; more urine, less sadness.

Still, I plowed on, surpassing the urge to vomit, saving it for later incase I could puke at one of them. Maybe I could make them believe I’m insane and dangerous, or just too sickly to eat. I tried to get my wings open, but Everfree witchcraft was afoot and they seemed to stuck to my sides.

In a split second I made the decision to just use my changeling-born agility to outmaneuver them, trying to dodge and weave over just going forward. And it would have worked if more of them didn’t just pile out of the trees I passed. Run. Run. Run. Jump. Don’t puke. Run. How I avoided running directly into one of them was beyond me.

Tree after tree rushed by me as I dove, jumped, and bound ahead. My smaller stature and quicker footing legitimately being the only reason I was still alive. I could hear the crunching of branches and shrubbery as my pursuers made good chase, straining my fleeing capabilities more than I ever had before. A few more minutes of hauling-flank went by and before long, my legs were having trouble obeying me. Minutes were beginning to feel like hours, pain ripped through me with every second I galloped further. Every turn I took looked the same as the last one, and it was destroying most of the hope I had left.

Well of course they look the same, I'm in a forest; the Everfree forest at that...why would I come here? I heard a roar and cracking tree limbs behind me, a snap at my flank showed they probably wouldn’t just “go away.” Yup, thats why. My breath was starting to get really erratic and short. Not exactly at the point of passing out, but I noticed I couldn’t go as fast as before without almost collapsing.

Yet, thats when I saw it. Something more beautiful than the rising sun or a full moon. It was a cottage, and despite being in the middle of the night, there was somepony outside.

Yes! She isn’t even moving! Run past her and hide, she can be bait now.

“Sorry!” I tried to yell, however, it came out as more of an abysmal whimper. Atleast I attempted to apologise, despite not knowing or caring much for whomever I was now going to practically use as an oversized chewtoy. She turned her head and locked up, letting out a little “Eep,” as she did so. I strode past her and dove into a nearby thick bush, turning around and peering out at the scene that was about to unfold.

I had never killed anything before, and although I wouldn’t physically be doing it, this still felt like this would fit the bill for murder.

“Wha-” She spit out, turning towards the line of shrubbery I had escaped to. Her eyes gazed over my new shelter; they turned back and forth, like a sweeping spotlight.

A distant roar was heard, she whipped her body around, and faced the treeline again. all the lopion bats dove out of it at once, thunderous thumps echoed through the small clearing ahead. Many more had joined the chase, their numbers tripled in our run through the Everfree.They roared, oversized vocal chords letting loose torrents of noise that pounded on my eardrums.

Within seconds they had closed the gap between them and the mare, and then they...stopped. What? They stopped and sat down in succession, all their excess noise and panting ceasing to be as they sat in front of her.

The mare stood tall, holding her ground despite the fact that she was being presented with thousands of pounds of beast. She glared at them, and they all grouped up into a tight huddle behind their ‘leader.’ What?

“Hey you big meanie! What do you think you’re doing picking on some poor, innocent creature like that?” she sort-of-almost yelled. What?

“What did it ever do to you and your pride Mr. Manticore?” She asked, staring at them, face to face with once so high-and-mighty manticore.

My goodness she’s actually staring them down. ‘Mr Manticore’ shrunk back, and… whimpered, at her.

“Well then” -she stomped down her right front hoof, and the manticores shrank down even more- “you go back home, um, and leave the other forest animals alone will you, uh, please.”

What she did, I might never know, but they obeyed, they actually turned around, and like a stubborn child after getting in trouble, stomped off, back into the forest.

All of my what? I had witnessed a lone mare, one that I managed to startle by simply apologising to, overpower and command a pride of manticores… with her words. They must have hit me harder than I thought, or I ran too hard. This isn’t real, I mean, why would it be real?... Actually, oh no, what if she can control minds, or something like that.

“You can come out now.” A voice startled me, breaking me free from my thoughts, my head snapped to it. She was right in front of my bush. “Its safe.” she barely said; quiet, even though she wasn’t even a hoofs length away from the bush I was cowering in.

I stared at her for a moment, it took me a second to realize that I had stopped breathing correctly. I was absolutely terrified of her. No creature has the need, nor should have the ability to command manicores. It truthfully, frightened me, quite a bit.

Then she smiled. It was a sincere, gentle, and also heart decimating smile. Her aqua eyes stared into me, a lovely and kind gaze though it was, seemed to pierce my very soul. She didn’t relent, and seemed to be completely unaware to what she was doing to me with that look.

I wonder why I didn’t just lash out and, well, attack her. After all, it’s what my kind was meant to do. One quick and powerful bite with my fangs, and I would have sucked up her love, slowly draining the life from her body, until she would drop down as an empty husk of what she once was. It was really rather grotesque, I watched it happen more than a few times during the attack, and it was heart breaking to say the least.

This would have also helped me regain lost energy; she would never give me one of those mind-bending smiles again.

But something held me back.

It could be that I simply felt in debt to her, for scaring them away, Or maybe because I truthfully didn’t believe that I would win that fight. I’m small, even for a changeling, only coming up to her jawline. Perhaps because I wouldn’t be able to go into town, and the only rightful escape I had was back into that shitty forest.

Plus she still terrified me.

I’ll pretend that the fear was what made me decide against hurting her and running away like a scared animal.

I sat there for a moment, I tried to piece together what happened, and why it happened. I thought about the overwhelming lack of other options I had, and after a small while of uselessly staring back at her, pondering my existence, and looking at that neverending heart-fisting smile, I gave in.

“I sssuppose.” I said, her eyes widened, surprised that I could speak. She stepped back and gave me room to leave my fortress of sticks and berries. I sighed once more, and stepped out in front of her.

However, I seemed to forget that I was a changeling, a race that has always been against pony kind, furthermore, one that just recently attacked the Equestrian capital.

She backpedaled, eyes wide with what could only be described as fear. what, no! you command manticores, remember silly pony! Oh that was stupid, stupid, and some more stupid. Why didn’t I just change?

Fearful thoughts screamed through my head, a thousand different scenarios on what she was going to do pounded my thoughts around. She opened her mouth, and it dawned on me what her next action would be; she would scream for help.

“No, don’t, no! Don’t ssscream, I won’t, uh…” She began to squeak at me; a short rapid fire torrent of squeaks that couldn't deter an attacking lady bug. “hurt you… Um, are you alright?” I held one hoof out to her in case she needed help standing up. She flipped over onto her back, her hooves stuck out and pointed to the sky. At first I thought I had put her into cardiac arrest, but when I checked for a pulse, her heart was beating fine.. I may or may not have just broken this pony. I brought my head down to her mouth, and listened to her breathing; as far as my small medical knowledge on ponies went, it seemed pretty normal. I...believe I, froze her...maybe...probably.

“Now, I don’t know if you can hear me pony, but, I won’t hurt you. You sssee, I am no longer out to, um, get you. I’m, uh, good now, yessss, I am good.” I tried to speak softly as to not kill the mare by making extra noise. She shifted her neck to look at me, once again crushing my soul with a gaze that would melt steel.

I attempted to smile, but the overwhelming thought that this pony could possibly be, well, damaged because of me, brought my conscience down. Why though, I should have no feelings at all for this pony. In fact, I should have negative feeling because she’s a pony.

“Y-y-you w-w-w-wont?” She managed to squeak out. No promises.

“I promissse I won't” I just told myself I wouldn't promise, I’m a traitor. “You ssshould get up, if you can, I won’t touch you.”

“P-Pinkie p-p-promise?” What?

“Isss that, good?” I asked. She nodded her head vigorously. Her mood seemed to be getting better, less freezing and squeaks and more fluent body motions and brain function. “I, uh, Pinkie promissse then.” With that she smiled and slowly turned over, righting herself from her shock-induced state.

“Ooh,” she mumbled, shaking the dust off from her little ordeal a few seconds ago. She turned, giving me a quick backwards glance. “Y-you can come into my cottage for a moment, um, if you want to that is; y-you, um, look cold.” She smiled again, it was all too sweet and loving. Especially after my kind just attacked your capital, and I tried to use you as bait. But yet, her words gave me comfort; it also reminded me just how cold I was. Cold.

I shivered, “Yesss that would be, uh...niccce.” This time I was sincere with myself. It would indeed be ‘very nice’ to come into your home and not be killed outside. “Thankssss.” I squeaked out, the fact that I know nothing about my new company dawning on me. She could still read minds you know. Yet with the all the energy I burned from my forced marathon earlier, and the cold nipping at my limbs, I couldn't have cared any less.

She smiled again, and even giggled a little. damn that smile is contagious, and I’m not even supposed to smile. “You’re w-welcome.” She turned back around and gave me a “follow me” nod, and headed towards her back door with me following close behind. She started to hum, and was putting more spring into her step, skipping here and there. It was almost as if I didn't paralyze her with fear only moments before.

It was almost like I wasn't a banished race, one that the “princess” doesn't even approve of. Like she wasn't bringing me into her home, not even knowing who I was, or why I was here. this could be bad. I looked ahead at her, prancing along towards her home. that unusually contagious smile resting on her face. I managed a smile as well. Probably not.

Author's Note

Again, force feed me the criticism, brutal if need be.
And it would be much appreciated if someone come hold my hand and edit my stories. :3

here is the song for this chapter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF_sGFjQYow I can't get it to embed so I gave up.

Mercy Me

~Mercy Me~

We passed over a little bridge and went up a small dirt path until we reached the cottage. It was rather large for such an out-of-place home, with two floors and a big yard. Flowers were randomly strewn about, giving everything a very wild look. It was a very simple, homey cottage. Yet It only reminded me that I was more than likely never going to go back to my hive; to the lands that, although unwelcoming, I still called home.

I sighed and followed her up to the door, sitting down while she unlocked it. She held a key ring with four worn down keys on it by the tip of her wing, and she unlocked four different locks with them, one for each key.

I got the sudden feeling this mare was either a lock-enthusiast, or very paranoid.

“A-alright,” The yellow mare said as she pushed her cottage door open, “you c-can come in, but shhhh. You can’t wake the animals.” She brought her hoof up to her mouth for added effect.

0h no. “Umm, what kind…”

“Shhhhhhhh.”

Please don’t be big animals. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, my earlier run in with a pride of manticores did not help my already shaky view on forest “critters.”

I heard her slowly trot in, stop for a moment, and then continue on. Her hoof-steps getting increasingly quiet as she pushed onwards, leaving me to sit and wither in my own petty fear. When I pushed through the door I was blasted with the smell of wet animal, and slight tinge of urine. It filled me with uncertainty I could actually hear them snoring and breathing, and although unpleasant and disheartening, I opened my eyes.

The cottage was a minefield…

Beasts of all sorts were scattered around the floor, leaving almost no room for movement. They all slept peacefully, and they all looked terrifying to me. A few of the bigger ones seemed to shake the entire cottage with powerful snores. Animals that shouldn’t even be in the area were thrown about, ones that I had only heard of slept in tight bundles.

A scream crawled up my throat and I slammed a hoof in my mouth to stifle it, whimpering instead. They all shifted at once, the sheer amount of animals forcing the others to turn over when one moved. I couldn’t help but be fascinated as to how predator and prey were willing to sleep in the same room together.

“Thank Chrysalis for flight.” I whispered; thin as my wings might be, they saved my life from attacking creatures more than once. And it looked as if it would be no different here; even in the company of the “Manticore Mare.”

I hovered across the sea of fur and noise. The light buzzing of my wings -much to my concern- seemed to stir a few of them, but they kept down and quiet. It was minutes of painfully slow flight before I reached the end of the room and took myself through the doorway. It thankfully lead to a much more placid room, with only a few bird cages and Manticore Mare inside.

“What wass all that?” I whispered while landing. She turned to me and lifted a tray with cups filled with a brown liquid off a counter and onto her back.

“Oh, t-those were my critter friends. I-uh, hope they didn’t bother you.” she gave me an uncertain smile; I couldn’t really tell if she was embarrassed that I found her odd stash of animals or if she was still unsure that I wasn’t going to drink her blood and lick up her soul. I raised a up a hoof and pointed back to the room.

“There wass a ssseal in the…”

At the mention of the seal she lightened up. She took up a seemingly brighter shade of yellow and her eyes glistened. “Ooh that’s just Flippy,” she brought both hooves up to her chin and squeezed, albeit quietly, “Isn’t he cute!”

I brought my hoof down slowly and stared at the display of ever so awkward affection for a moment. No “Yesss, he isss…” Big, and smells like stagnant moss-water “Cute…”

She turned and moved to a table and placed the tray down onto it. She slid out an over-cushioned chair and motioned me over to it.

“You can sit down, um, if you would like, that is; I made tea.” I felt bad, with every word she said she got quieter. Her smile was still plastered on her face, but I could sense the overwhelming fear in her voice.

I knew I was impending and menacing because of my “previous employment,” but I still stood a full head shorter than her, and couldn’t control beasts like trained puppies.

“Thanksss…” I slid into the offered chair and stared down at the cup. It certainly looked nicer than the ‘food’ I had back in my nest, but that didn’t mean it was appetising. “I’ve never had, uh… tea before.”

“O-oh” Her smile turned to a frown and she lowered herself. “Sorry, I uh, didn’t know. Y-ou don’t have to…”

“look.” I said sternly, trying to sport a smile; she recoiled back, surprised that I cut her off. “I never sssaid I wasssn’t going to try it. I know you didn’t know, and I know you’re ssscared. Like me with the manticores. but I already sssaid I won’t hurt you, okay.” I tried to keep my smile, weak though it was, but it didn’t stop her from looking hurt. She opened her mouth as if to respond, but closed it and held her head down. Tears were forming at the corner of her eyes.

Uh oh I dun’ did it now.

“Sorry.” For what?

“No, no, you don’t need to be sssorry, jussst not ssscared. I’m trying to be a normal guesst, even being far from normal for you.” She lifted her head up and looked at me, but didn’t stop with the small trickle of tears or the frowning.

“Thats n-not it, I, just didn’t want to offend you.”

“Offend me? You never offended me, what brought you to think that?”

She put her head even lower than before and rubbed some of the tears that stained her face off “S-sorry, it, I just thought that offering you something you aren’t used to was… bad. I’ve never talked to a changeling before, I thought I had already messed up.” More tears began to flow, again, and she slumped down onto the table.

I leaned over and poked her shoulder. This was obviously melting down her conscience -for some unknown reason- and deep down I couldn’t help but feel like a waste for making her feel so… bad. She shifted her head up and stared at me; a frown (which was even more daunting than the smiles I got earlier) smeared across her face.

“You don’t need to feel bad, let alone cry. I’m not offended, and, believe it or not, am getting upsset ssseing you cry over thisss. I’ll try the tea, okay?” It was against everything I was supposed to stand for, feeling bad for one of the “pony kind.” But there I was, speaking as softly as I could to a mare I had just met, in a silly attempt to make her feel better.

I honestly did feel remorse for “making” her feel like this, even if It wasn’t purposeful; or even my fault for that matter.

I was rewarded with a nod and a smile. She sniffled and pulled her tea up to her mouth, and took a small sip. “Make sure not to drink too much too quickly, i-its hot.”

I nodded and looked into the dark pool of… what looked to be dirt-water before me. Back at my nest, we ate this slop that looked like it was regurgitated by a bear and then shoveled straight into the dinner trough. Our food was a yellowish green mush, but I was used to it. You’re really lucky I’m different than the others, miss, or I would puke this back up at you.

I looked up from the cup, she was looking back at me, willing for me to try the tea. “Ohh kay, here we go.” I lifted it to my mouth and blew away some of the swirling steam. I sipped it.

And it was fantastic.

“Thiss isss incredible.” I began slamming it down the tea, and continued until I had drained the cup of the liquid. “Really good.” She gave me a unnaturally wide smile and lit up like a lamp.

“Eee, you like it!” She squeezed and clapped her front two hooves together, Geez this girl has massive mood swings, “I’m so happy.” I would have been slightly put off if I didn’t find it rather cute -get it together- and because she was reverted from her depressed mood.

“I do, for one I can taste it, much unlike the food back in my lands.”

“O-I’m sorry you didn’t…” I put a hoof to her mouth.

“You didn’t have a real reason to apologize before, and you definitely don’t have one now.” I was all smiles, I had only been there for a while and I was already being fed, and with something more edible than wet cement. “Thank you, but um, do you have any more?”

I sat and drank tea for what felt like hours. She had gone to bed not long after I had my second cup, but not before she painstakingly showed my how to make it, plus giving me full access to her cabinet stocked full the stuff. I was getting drowsy, and the sun was actually beginning to rise, marking an end to my eventful night.

She had given me a blanket and pointed me towards her couch in the living room. The animals had awoken at one point, and investigated our conversation, but before they mutilated my face and such, she talked them down. Some, unsettlingly, gave me scowl-like backwards glances when they left. Apparently being told not to kill me was upsetting them; how lovely.

Still, that room was now emptied, and I got a full couch to myself. I laid down on it, feeling the plush cushion beneath me as I pulled the blanket over my head, careful not to rip it with my horn. It was so peaceful, I closed my eyes and let the thoughts run through.

I was out of my once beloved lands but… every second I spent here, I wondered why I loved them. They were hot, and brutal. Crowded due to the confined spaces between living areas. I had no friends there and even less of a family, mainly because as soon as a changeling was born, they were stripped from their mothers; the fathers would never stick around anyhow. Only females could feel true romantic affection, and this lead me to feel no romantic affection for males at all. Why my kind evolved that way seemed silly to me; it provoked lesbianism. Which was outlawed, and that was horribly for me.
Equestrian lands were different though. Everything was happy. I had something to sleep on that was comfortable, and it was all to myself. The first and only pony I came across was all too kind, almost unbearingly so. She gave me good food, and now a place to sleep.

I would have shed tears of happiness if I could.

I snuggled up and into the blanket, and closed my eyes for one last time; and drifted off to sleep, with great dreams to come.

I was awoken by the sound of humming and ceramic against wood.

“Ueeegh.” I slurred rolling off of the couch and onto a heap on the floor. I was a surprisingly light sleeper for someling that had to deal with the sleeping conditions of the hive.

I righted myself and stretched, popping the joints in my legs, and made off to the nearby sound, I entered the kitchen to find Manticore Mare with bowls filled to the brim with more -yay- food. She was singing softly, and it sounded very pretty, and almost flowed through your ears like a warm wind.

It was nice to listen to, but I had to interrupt; there was food present.

“Hey, I see you’re…”

“Eeep!” Her eyes shot open and the singing stopped. She tossed the bowl of ‘good eats’ into the air. I had to use all my wingpower and dive faster than I ever had in my life just to catch it in time.

“Sssorry, ssorry, I didn’t mean to ssscare you, just wondering what you were sssinging about.” She was pushed up to the counter, breathing heavily with her hoof over her heart. I was thankful I hadn’t sent her into a shock, again.

“Oh-oh my, please don’t sneak up on me like that, I get frightened easily you see.”

“I’m very sssorry.” So much for me showing gratitude for the nice place to sleep.

“It’s okay, ummm,” she waved the tension away with her hoof and began to giggle. “I’m s-sorry I never, um, asked your name.”

This filled me with sadness; changelings were never supposed to feel like individuals, so I was labeled rather than named. I had only heard that ponies had names, and even gave names to their pets.

“My name…” She nodded and gave me that hopeful smile and happy eyes. “I don’t really, uh, have a name, really. Everyone just called me CF-9878, for the 9878th female changeling.” I lowered my head down to floor level. It killed my heart to talk about this; I suppose it was due to the fact that my whole life was just like a mirror image to hundreds, if not thousands, of other changelings.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry,” she trotted over and pulled me in for a bone shattering hug, “That sounds terrible.”

“It really, wassn’t that bad.” I tried to break free, although, my attempts were in vain; she was really strong.

“I-it sounds pretty bad, you seem upset.” She looked at me with a more, motherly and concerning smile than the last one. She also -much to my relief- loosed her hug a bit, giving my lungs room to expand properly. “I know I can never say I’ll know how it feels to be labeled. I-I don’t know how hard it was, b-but at least, you’re away from all that now.”

“I, uh, thanksss.” I smiled and relaxed into the hug, one of the only hugs I had ever gotten. “I just, don’t want to talk about my old home very much… What’s your name?”

“I-its Fluttershy, and I, uh, have a question, if thats o.k.?”

“haha, yeah itss fine.” Her kindness makes me want to eat wood chips.

“Uh, I am fine with you, being, here, of course, but my friends need to know about you. I need you to, uh, make a disguise so you can bring yourself to our weekly pet play-date, and then, show everyone you’re, uh here. Don’t worry about them reacting badly, I, won’t let them hurt you.”

I see you lay it on heavy Fluttershy.

“Are you sssure they won’t assssault me? I don’t like being assssaulted.” I was starting to get queezy, the thought that five other ponies would be meeting with me face to face with me settled rather poorly in my stomach, just like the 13 some-odd cups of tea I ingested the prior night.

She hugged me tighter, squeezing me in. “I’m sure they won’t, they’re very nice. But, you, not to be mean, but, you have to try to not make that hissing noise when you speak, or, they’ll know.”

“I uh, could stop it if I try really hard.” Stopping the hiss was like imitating an accent; all i had to do was move my tongue different but it took full concentration to do so.

“Great, you, didn't do it there.” she released me from the hug and trotted to the bowl, “Come get breakfast, I poured cereal for you.”

“thank you, I've never had that either. Or anything poniesss eat for that matter.”

“I think you’ll like it, and be careful with the hissing please.”

“Sorry.”

I sat down and started pile driving food into my face. It was fantastic, but I wasn't paying much attention to the flavor at that point. I knew I struck gold when I came across this wonderful mare first, but meeting her friends sounded awful for my health; plus I really didn't plan on leaving just after I had settled in.

I could only pray that I would be heading back here with Fluttershy later rather than into a dungeon with arrows in my back.

Author's Note

Sorry that this drags on for so damn long without action, this chapter was suppose to be her just getting settled in.
If it seems rushed, its because it was; this weird holiday (Happy thanksgiving) came out of no-where and interrupted me.

Here's this chapters song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNvCTGWyiL0

Welcome Home

~Welcome Home~

Fluttershy opened her cottage door and held it for me, ushering me out before her. I slid past and took a huge breath of the morning air. It was cold and seemed to crack my throat; yet it was sweet, with the downwind scent of flowers capturing my sense of smell. I smiled happily and continued down the path until I reached her little bridge, where I made room to sit and watch the small fish flow down the little stream. Everything here looks so… surreal.

It took Fluttershy a few extra seconds to lock down her house, the excessive amount of security she had was hardly practical, and she fumbled with her keys periodically. It was a good minute before the tumbler turning stopped and I heard her soft hoofbeats reach the bridge.

“Do you like the fish?” She asked, giving me one of her giddy smiles. “Some of them are so pretty, like that one” she pointed her hoof to a shiny gold and purple fish. It was short and stubby, a fish in which I had never seen the likes of before. It swirled around, and swished back and forth from one side of the stream to the other, fighting the current and holding itself just in front of the bridge.

“What kind is that?” I asked, “It’s pretty.”

“I don’t really know, it kind-of just… showed up and It won’t swim any further away from my cottage that this bridge. I named him Galadon”

“Cool… Wait what?” Thats a name for a dragon, not a bloated fish.

She giggled. “I-uh, thought it was funny.”

And you know what. It was.

“Heh.” I chuckled; she had this really subtle and somewhat dry humor, but it was so simple and direct that I couldn’t help but love it.

“We should get going, they expect me to be at the pet-play-date in an hour, and I don’t want to be late. Can you change yourself now so we don’t attract attention on the way? I-If you don’t mind… that is.”

“Sure.”

Earlier, right after breakfast, we had done our best to pick a believable veil for me to go by. It took a long time to conjure up something decent, since I was working from scratch, and only using my imagination. I would say it took me a good thirteen-or-so tries to actually change myself into a presentable pony. I ended up altering myself to be a primarily tan pegasus mare; with wavy, long, and dark brown mane and tail. Yet despite my efforts, my overwhelming size difference was more outspoken in pony form, and the top of my head ended up level with Fluttershy’s chin.

She thought I looked cute. And hugged me, almost to death, when I first changed. I guess I can’t complain.

My “Cutie mark” as they call it, ended up being a brown square, which was disappointing, because I never really wanted to have a dull square stamped onto my flank. I had no ability to change it, or rather my dull imagination wouldn’t think hard enough to make the change, so I gave up trying to.

“Shouldn’t I have, a name?” I asked her, “Something that isn’t too outrageous.” She looked at me and scratched at her chin, before lighting up and beaming at me.

“Toffee.”

“What?”

“Oh, um, It’s a type of candy, and it’s very sweet; It’s my favorite food. Your tan coat reminds me of it.”

“Good enough.” I thought the name fit. It was a more, passive sounding name. trying to imagine anything named Toffee trying to hurt you was hard.

That was also when I met Angel bunny. It took me a carrot to the face and eleven seconds to realise that I hated Angel, and that I wished to: smoosh him. Fluttershy didn’t though, in fact, it seemed that she loved the little rabbit more than the world itself, and I wasn’t about to get on her bad side by hurting it.

I have him a rough glare, and he shot one back; it said “I’ll hurt you if you hurt her.” While mine was a simple “Drop the act or I’ll hit you with a stick.” I bet we looked like fools pouting and glaring at each other; especially because he was a rabbit.

That was over an hour ago now. I changed for the fourteenth time that day and stood up, getting on my hooves quickly. We turned and began a leisurely trot down the forest-side path, kicking up dust and loose dirt as we went along. I couldn’t help but notice how regal she looked as she simply glided along the path. So full of grace without even trying. It didn’t occur to me until then how pretty she was, how everything about her was unusually beautiful. Even her mane flowed fluently as trotted along. It was a true sight to see.

We went along the outskirts of a town, in which she labeled as “Ponyville.” A humble little settlement really. We passed by a few ponies, and although I got a few sideways glances, none came about as hostile or even uneasy. Probably just wondering who I am. At one point a grey pegasus flew, albeit recklessly, up to Fluttershy, and gave her some papers. She saluted, said her goodbyes, and flew off without another word. She was later described to me as, “the mail-mare,” and that her job was to give out the Ponyville residents their letters and such for the day. Something I never had back in the hive. There are so many unusual creature comforts here. Ponies handing you your letters. Unheard of.

She quickly tucked her mail into her “saddlebags,” also something new to me, and we continued on. Not long after we rounded past the town, we came to a vast field of green, with a few, randomly scattered trees looming over the landscape.

“Here’s the park,” she said, pointing her hoof to a group of ponies stationed around a tree on the other side of the park, “Those are my friends, the ones for the pet-play-date. Uh, Please be nice to them, um, please.” She muttered the last few words, seemingly afraid I would lash out at her at the very aspect of “being nice.” for some odd reason.

There was a sudden fast gust of wind, it blew me onto my haunches and made Fluttershy jump out of her skin. “Eep!” she squeaked out.

“Heya Flutters, and… new mare… wow you’re short” Gee, thanks. “ Who’s this Fluttershy?” I could hear a voice overhead, it was raspy but full of energy. too much energy. When I looked up, I was greeted with a hovering cyan pegasus, with a… rainbow mane and tail. this “Equestria” place is freaky. I couldn’t stop my mouth from hanging open in awe at the mare in front of me. I may have seen a few oddities here and there throughout my life: but never a flying Skittle.

“Oh, she’s my friend, Toffee.”

“Cool,” she chuckled and pointed at me. “She’s speechless; looks like she already knows how awesome I am!” Oh dear Chrysalis is she cocky. She brought herself down to me and nudged my side with her hoof. “Name’s Rainbow Dash, but I bet you already knew that.” she crossed her arms and gave a smug smile. Commencing ego destroyer.

“Never heard of you.” She reeled back, and threw up her hooves way above her head.

“What! But how? You know; Rainbow Dash, the winner of the Best Young Flyers competition, hero of equestria and coolest pony around.”

“Nope.” This is great.

“You have to live inside of a cave, as a shut in, or under a rock. Or maybe you’re just lame…” She turned away from me, keeping her hooves crossed.

“Rainbow!” Fluttershy scolded. “Thats no way to treat somepony new, She just moved here from Fillydelphia” She glanced at me and gave a an assuring smile. Shes crafty. “I was showing her around town after we bumped into each other near the Everfree, and I offered for her to come to our pet-outing. Don’t be rude, now say you’re sorry.” Way to go Fluttershy! although… all she did was call me lame.

Rainbow deflated, “But!” Fluttershy glared at her “Uhhg, I’m sorry Toffee.” She held out her hoof for me to shake it. “Forgive and forget?”

“Ha, sure thing.” I shook her hoof, it was rough and unkempt and clearly belonged to somepony rough-and-tumble. “Forgotten.” She smiled and took off, unusually fast, towards the group huddled around a picnic basket on a red and white checkered blanket.

“She can be a little… rowdy, but, she is very nice, and loyal to her friends.” Fluttershy ushered me with her hoof. “Lets go see the others, you need to make a good impression for things to go… smoothly.”

All of her friends were oddities in their own way, well, Pinkie was an oddity in every way.

She frightened me.

Rarity bothered me at first, because she seemed to be unbearably prissy; however I warmed up to her after she used her magic to dump a cup of tea onto Rainbow Dash for splashing mud in her mane. Me laughing seemed to bother Rainbow more than the tea dumping did, because I received more than a few negative glances after that.

Twilight was very booksmart. Only booksmart. and she also liked books. Alot. She legitimately never stopped talking about books. She brought and finished two books while we watched the pets play, and she told us about both of them like she would be exiled if she didn’t.

She also frightened me, but she seemed completely unsuspecting of me, which helped my nerves.

Applejack was the problem. She was simple, and had a strong country accent. She was loud and energetic. Competitive and very athletic.

But none of those were the problem.

She was honest. too honest. She sniffed out lies like drugs, and that scared me. Every time I would be asked a question about how Fillydelphia is, or why I came here, I would answer it as simple and forthright as I could be; “It was nice” and “I came here for the scenery,” she would glare at me. She never outright spoke up about it, and she never seemed angry, just… aware that I wasn’t telling my true story.

I got a lucky break when Pinkie stood up on her two back hooves, I don’t know how, and began launching pies, that she got from absolutely nowhere, at all of us.

“Pinkie Pie Patented Pie Pogrom!” She screeched out a battle cry and launched two apple pies at Rainbow Dash and me.

Rainbow Dash dodged at lightning speed. She flew over the air-to-air pie, and swooped down to grab a hoof-full of grapes. She used her wings to smack them at Pinkie at bullet speed. Are we really having a food fight?... This is incredible “Ahhg!” I got hit right in the face, but battle hardy as I was, I scraped half of the pie bomb of my face and used it to launch back at the pink assailant.

The childish, absolutely incredible, battle lasted for a whopping fifteen seconds before Twilight and Rarity “magically” put a stop to it. As in they pinned the food, and then us, to the ground with their magic.

“Darling, that is simply grotesque, you must halt these… foalish games immediately.” Rarity pouted and wiped mushy apple off her self. “That was uncalled for.”

“But whyyyyyyyy?” Pinkie gave her best puppy-dog face to her magical captor.

“Ah’l have ta’ agree on that one sugarcube, those were perfectly good pies y’all were throwin’.”

“Well of course silly-filly! Throwing bad pies at each other would be gross and it would smell yucky!” Rarity released her strained magical hold on the pink pony and she immediately began bouncing in place. “Besides,” She grinned passed her faces natural “grinning-limit.” A grin so wide it broke planets. “You had fun right?”

“Ah didn’t take part.” Pinkie bounced over to retrieve her toothless alligator, Gummy. Yes that’s right, she has an alligator.

“Thats your own fault silly,” she threw the Gummy up and he clamped onto her cotton-candy like mane. “I have to go now though. I got work tomorrow and Mr. and Mrs. Cake said that If I skip again I might get the boot, whatever that means, I mean, who would want only one boot?” She turned around and started bouncing towards the town. “Goodbye everypony!” She gave a little hoof-wave as she disappeared from sight. the group collectively saw her off with a wave and some form of verbal goodbye.

“I better get going too, Its getting dark and I want to get more practice in tonight. See ya’ later.” Rainbow Dash brushed the remaining food remnants off and took to the sky with her turtle-copter following suit. well that was abrupt she didn’t even wait for a goodbye from her friends…Why does she have a turtle with helicopter blades on it?

Soon enough, Twilight and Rarity followed suit, Twilight leaving to see after somepony named Spike, who was sick, and Rarity because she “Couldn't handle the dirt anymore.”

And that left Applejack.

“Where did y’all say you were from again?”

“Fillydelphia, It was very dull there. City life can take it out of you.” I forced a calming smile to help ease the lie past her sensors.

I don’t think It worked.

“Uh huh, and what did you do there?” buck…

“I-uh was an uh… artist.” I can’t draw for shit. She sharpened the look she was giving me, her placid smirk turned into a frown and it chilled me to the bone.

“Applejack, I uh…”

“Not now Fluttershy, hold on a moment. So where you stayin’ now?

“Look it’s not really your business…

“It is if ah don’t think y’all’re tellin’ me the whole story. buck. buck. buck.

“It most certainly does not make a difference if you don’t believe me, I never said you had to. Isn’t it like, uh, common courtesy-or-something to stay out of other ponies business.

“Uhm, I don’t like it when you yell, can we…”

“Isn’t It common courtesy ta’ tell ponies the truth when they ask where y’all’re from?” She’s going to blow this whole thing up, right in my face.

“Yes.” Keep it simple.

“So…”

“I told you the truth Applejack, you can deny it all you want but you’ll look like a foal.

She scowled and looked about to reply -probably with some unavoidable and brutal counter argument that would break my bones- but her expression changed when she glanced at Fluttershy, who was now tearing up.

“Fine…” She sighed. Not another word, no comeback, just “fine.” “Ah’m sorry. Ah’m going back to the Acres, have a nice night Fluttershy,” she tipped her hat and turned to me; still scowling. “Ah sure hope y’all enjoy Ponyville.” She trotted off, quickly. the dog that she brought for the play-date hot on her heels. It took me until then to realise that Fluttershy was actually sobbing now, goody; I made her cry again. piece-of-fecal-matter-me-making-mares-cry.

I slumped over to her and gave her a hug, I started stroking her mane absent mindedly. A task that was surprisingly difficult due to the height difference.

“I-I’m sorry I yelled at your friend and almost blew it.” she looked torn, her eyes were red and puffy.

“I-It’s just… It was going so well, b-but then you both started yelling. I s-should have known she would be s-so skeptical. I’m stupid.” Why does she have to do this whole self bashing thing.

I sighed, “Look, I know you aren’t stupid, and you know you aren’t stupid; so don’t down yourself like that, please, it bothers me. Besides, she gave up her questioning, so we’re in the clear for now.” I gave her a little nudge, even that satanic bunny was poking at her, trying to lighten her mood.

The tears stopped flowing, it only left her eyes a bloodshot mess. “It’s just, I-I brought you here and you, just, ended up fighting. I knew it would happen.” I dun’ bucked up.

I sighed again and squeezed her tighter. “I’m sorry, I just, couldn’t find a way out of that; Applejack is smart.” Too smart.

“I know, I just hate it when my friends fight, especially because I forced you to come here, and then y-you suffered for it. I…I’m sorry. Friend?

“I…I’m a friend to you?” Friend? She nodded and wiped at her eye with a hoof. I’m her… friend. I never made friends before. You were never supposed to become acquainted with other hive members. Friendship was “weak.” This hit me like a ton of bricks. Friend! Fluttershy was now, my first friend. I was here for a day and I could already call somepony friend.

That brought a tear to my eye. It made me feel like I was home, only, it was better than home.

I squeezed Fluttershy harder, most definitely suffocating the poor mare at this point. “You’re my first friend… Thank you.” She looked at me with a sympathetic smile on her face. She began to tear up again, but it wasn’t out of sadness. She wrapped a wing around me and we sat there calmly for an uncounted amount of time.

And I could not have been any happier.

*knock knock knock* “Oh who could that be, the sign says closed.” Twilight angrily mumbled to herself, pushing out of the chair in front of her desk. She groggily trotted over to the door and opened it, only to find a very distraught Applejack filling her line of sight.

“W-what is it, Applejack?” Now Twilight was concerned. Her friends down show up upset very often, and it more often than not took a lot to force this kind of action.

“We need ta’ talk.” Applejack talked quickly, with more than a hint of concern in her voice.

Within a few moments, both mares sat at the kitchen table, with steaming cups of tea between them.

“Now, what’s causing you this distress, Applejack?” Twilight asked.

“It’s that new mare, Toffee If I recall correctly; Ah don’t like her.” Applejack shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

“Why? She seemed… alright. Did she do something?”

“Y’all could say that ah suppose. It’s more about the fact that the whole ‘Ah came from Fillydelphia’ sorry wasn’t true. Ah feel it in ma’ bones. And nopony lies about their past unless they have something to hide.”

“I suppose you’re right, and I undoubtedly trust your judgement; but why is her lying scaring you so much?”

“Because Twilight!” Applejack shouted, though she recognised her outburst and tried to calm herself, “She’s associated herself with Fluttershy sugarcube! This mare, shady figure as it is, came inta’ town and met Shy, poor defenceless Fluttershy, and told her, as well as us, not a word of truth about who she is. You know how sweet Shy is, she’s wide open for a world of hurt, and ah don’t like it.” She settled back into the chair and cracked her neck, relieving some pent-up stress.

Twilight was lost in thought, mainly because Applejack was right; and that was scary. She knew the element of honesty wasn’t one to lie about her feelings, and she knew that if Applejack called someone out on a lie, they were lying. But she also knew that just because a mare wants to keep to herself about past experiences, doesn’t mean she can’t be trusted. she sighed.

“Applejack, it’s not that I don’t trust your judgement, because I do, but I don’t really believe that this, Toffee mare can be that bad, give her a chance.”

“Ah’m telling y’all, she can’t be trusted, and I won’t sit by and wait for something bad to happen. When ah confronted her, she got mad and snappy, and ah find that suspicious. Ah only stopped the interrogatin’ because Shy was bout’ to throw a fit.”

“Applejack I…”

“Please Twilight, if ah’m not askin’ too much, will y’all go around town with me tomorrow, so ah can find this mare and finish ma’ questioning. This time Fluttershy won’t be there to stop ma’ yelling. Please? Ah need a second opinion on this.”

“Fine, but only because you’re my friend. I don’t like doing things like this to other ponies. After that incident with Zecora, putting blame on others hasn’t been my favorite thing to do. But we arent hurting her if your suspicions turn true, I’ll write to Celestia about it if we find something we don’t like.” Applejack smiled, happy she didn’t have to do any more convincing.

“Thank y’all kindly, Twilight. Ah wouldn’t press this nearly as much if it weren’t fer’ Shy’s sake. Ah’m telling y’all though, this mare is up to no good.” Applejack finished the tea she had been sipping on throughout the conversation, and placed it back onto the tray, next to the still half-full teapot.

“It sounds rude, but, I hope you’re wrong about that.”

“Ah reckon ah ain't.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait for this everybody, I got this weird depression like vibe after I published the first chapter to the other story i'm writing, and it completely shut me down for a bit. I'm back now, and will hopefully feel up to writing more. thanks for reading.

Sorry for all the formatting problems with this chapter as well. It seems that Google docs could not handle this chapter and had a heart palpitation, causing the story to come out all jumbled. I tried to fix it, but I don't know what I've missed. Tell me if you find anything I forgot to fix.

Here's this chapters song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8a4iiOnzsc I still can't embed the link sorry guys and gals.

Pitch Black

Author's Note

Yeah...So all those who read the earlier chapters will notice the incredibly crap time span in between the third one and this one. I don't really have an excuse, but I can offer an apology. I picked up music recently so I have devoting most of my time to growing my musical knowledge rather than writing, and I only picked it back up recently.

If this chapter isn't as good as you were hoping the return of "Abnormal would be, feel free to strike me down with ample force. I still don't have an editor, so It may be mistake aplenty. Please notify me of big ones, or distracting ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e3OuUyKvbg That's the song for this one.

Pitch Black

-Pitch Black-

I awoke to a blackness.

I groggily rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and stood up, or tried to at least. When I put my back legs out to stand they met no floor, kicking out aimlessly. I gasped, preparing myself for a fall, but to my relief and utter confusion I did not. I looked at my feet, pushing them around, feeling for solid ground, coming up entirely empty in my search.

Nothing.

I swiveled my head to get a look around, but every direction I assessed told the same story. Absolutely nothing. I swished my tail from side to side, still clearly seeing the motion as if it were a bright sunny day. The area around me was surrounded by an impending blackness, but I wasn‘t a part of it.

I took a tentative step forward, but my leg only pushed downwards with no solid ground beneath it. It was as if I was floating, or falling without the resistance of wind. What the buck have I gotten myself into?

It took minutes to gain motion out of a simple swimming pattern, but after some trial and error I was successfully propelling myself through the endless black, hurtling towards some sense of reality. I swam for what felt like hours, pushing and pulling my hooves without even the slightest clue where I was heading, or if I was even moving at all.

I began hearing a low sound. It was not a hum, but a soft scratching sound that slowly increased in volume until it had my sole point of attention. The way it burrowed into my head like a bore, wrenched me from my thoughts was excruciating. I folded my ears against my skull to muffle the noise, but to no avail.

It was then that I heard a rough voice. A greeting but without words, just a gruff sound that carried venom and angst. It held no hurt, but only anger. It and the scratching became one, raising in volume until I stopped my motion just to cover my ears with my hooves.

It never stopped.

I sat motionless, eyes closed and hooves pounding away at my head until it all stopped. Breathlessly I awaited for another brutal entourage but nothing came. Only silence remained.

With the silence came an uneasiness.

Something arose in me, starting from the bottom of my stomach, but seeping into my chest. It felt like it was grabbing at my insides, making my stomach churn and my heart thumping all but out of my chest. The anxiety, the wait.

I opened my eyes and she was staring back at me. Chrystalis.

My mouth opened and a scream crawled up from my inner being, but her hole-ridden hoof slammed into my mouth before I could speak.

“Shh little one. You have reason to fret, but not here.” Her ominous voice cascaded into my ears, and pounded at my head until I could no longer fight her grasp. The scratching had returned, but louder and worse than it had been before.

“You chose incorrectly when you joined in with these ponies. You became a traitor, a deceiver, a liar, and a wart on the hide of my hive, and to me.” I used all my might to scramble away from her but it was no use. This was her realm. She smiled sickeningly, and all my breath was pulled from my body, leaving me a gasping sweating mess.

“We’ll see you soon, little one.” Her eyes intensified and the scratching became a wail, a screech. I began screaming and flailing, as when she dropped me from her hold I began to fall. The world was no longer black, but I was above my hive and falling fast. With one final choke and yelp, I rocketed towards the rough death that awaited me. I began to pray, to whom I don’t know, that I could relive my day’s, or just have one more to my self. I closed my eyes and prepared for the inevitable, or so I had dreamt.

“It’s o.k! It’s o.k! I’m here. Please be o.k!” I awoke screaming as well, thrashing and kicking like I had never before. I was drenched in hopefully just sweat, and had become impossibly entangled in the blankets that once comforted me. I tried to get up, to throw myself as far away from… -whatever that was- as I could, but I was being locked in place by something. I opened my eyes to find myself to be, this time, staring at a very teary, blue eyed Fluttershy. She had me encompassed in a hug and was nuzzling me in the neck.

It took me a moment to stop thrashing about, and much longer to gather my senses, but once I had, I did nothing but burry my muzzle far into Fluttershy’s mane: And cry. And I’m quite sure I cried for hours.

“Shhh, It will all be alright, It was just a dream; a really awful dream.” She cooed while I wept; I was latching onto her like a parasite and had no Intention of letting go. Most definitely not going back to sleep. I felt, thankfully, no pain. I did feel very sick and was physically shut down.

She used her wings to unwrap and pull the sweat-drenched blanket off of me, while stroking my mane and humming out a soft melody. It flowed into my ears like a slow river, and soothed me to the point that I was no longer babbling incoherently.

“There there, It’s alright. See? It’s all over, and you’re safe right here.” She placed the blanked on the floor and moved onto the couch, wrapping me in her wings. The over abundance of pegasus fluff provided ample heat, at a comfortable level. I rested back into her and looked at my surroundings. It was still dark out, but If the clock told true, the sun would be breaching the horizon soon. A few confused critters had scampered into the room, looking to find the source of all the commotion. Some of the bigger ones were being used as stepping stools for squirrels and rabbits.

“Heh” I chuckled and started wiping the remaining tears from my eyes. At least they aren't trying to maul me... this time.

“Better?” Fluttershy asked, inviting the devils child, I mean, Angel onto the couch and into her mane. The dastardly rabbit didn’t even attempt to bother me and he gave me a knowing nod when I looked at him. He’s probably seen this before, with Fluttershy. A lot.

I nodded, “A little, I just think It’s… funny how I’m supposed to be a hard working soldier of a powerful army, yet here I am getting a lullaby from you… and crying.”

“Well I’m sure that wasn’t a very good dream.” She once again started to stroke my mane, and it brought a smile to my face.

I chuckled, “You don’t even know the half of it. I’m not going to accept that as a dream, I’ve had bad dreams before… this was different.” Sunlight was just beginning is hopeful stream through the window, with the light stretching ever so slightly above the treeline, giving the forest in front of the cottage an almost surreal look. Inside the Everfree was still eerily black, the thick vegetation blocking sunlight from reaching the bottom of the forest. I shuddered and brought my vision down to the floorboards.

“Y-you want to talk about it, I-If thats alright?” She was now talking at normal, Fluttershy normal, volume again, no longer worried about frightening me and making my nightmares worse.

“What’ll that do?” She shrugged and snuggled into my back. this is nice.

“Sometimes, when things happen to me, no matter how awful, talking about them with somepony makes it much better. It was I got through many um... hardships in my life.” She sniffled and her tone of voice shifted dramatically with those last few words.

“I...I am very sorry to hear that.” I pushed my head further into the crane of her neck. I drew out a long sigh, and closed my eyes, preparing for the intense storytelling to come. “Yes, I want to talk about it.”

---------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy was shocked when she heard how awful my dream was, To be truthful I was shocked while telling it. I’ve never had a dream that vivid. Ever. She told me how the princess Celestia’s younger sister’s job, other than to raise and lower the moon, Is to stop ponies all over Equestria from having bad dreams. I’m probably the only creature in all of Equestria who has had a dream that horrible in… ages.

The story telling droned on for longer than expected, and very much against my will, I had to leave her embrace so she could, “Start the day.”

“Why do we have to go so early?” I pleaded, giving her the best puppy-dog eyes I could.

“Because animals won’t wait for their food, they don’t know better.” She opened a cupboard and pulled a wide variety of animal feed out.

“Yeah but, It’s only six.” I rubbed more sleep from my eyes and yawned, almost tipping over, only narrowly regaining my balance. You would think I would be awake by now.

“They can’t tell time.” She giggled, and started pouring the food in assorted bowls lining her kitchen. “I-uh, could use help, If that isn’t a… problem.”

I nodded and grabbed a bag of bird feed off the ground. “I can do that. Maybe.” I hovered over to a large bird feeder, one that had a hoof sized food tray, I leaned the bag over, only to have a tiny white paw stop me.

“Huh.” I looked up, and was greeted with an ugly sight. A white hare warrior, armed with a stockpile of nuts and carrots was crouched inside the birdhouse. He reared his arm back, looked me in the face, and grinned. And unnaturally sinister grin. He let loose the first carrot, and then an uncountable amount soon followed, all making their mark on my forehead.

“Ow, ow, ow ow ow, get away!” He threw carrots like a machine gun, rapid fire, orange projectiled pounded my face and I dropped to the floor. I pedaled hard with my back legs, and I slipped and slid my way over to the couch, in which I hid behind. I narrowly peaked my head out from the battle ready sofa, only to be smacked immediately with a walnut.

“Angel! Stop, that’s not nice.” Yes! I peered over once more to find Fluttershy in mother-mode with Angel frozen mid throw below her. “You know better than to hurt other creatures.” He gave a nervous grin, and he slowly lowered the carrot to his mouth, where he began chewing on it. “Now say you’re sorry, then go to you’re hut and think about this, um, please.? Angel drooped his arms and sauntered off, giving a half hearted wave towards me. I suppose as his apology.

“Hehe, good going.” I peeled myself from the battle-worn cover and trotted over to the fallen bird seed, picking it up and continuing the chores I was given. I caught glimpse of Angel staring at me, maniacally, sitting atop a slow moving vulture, and chills flew down my spine. I quickly looked away and resumed my chores double speed.

“Yeah…” She sighed and pawed at the ground, “Sorry about Angel, h-he doesn’t like other… ponies, stealing his attention.” She closed her bag of animal food, and placed it back into the cupboard; a fat baby chipmunk skidded over to her and held his hands out, to where she promptly placed a nut into his paws. He took the nut without haste, and shoved it into his mouth, scampering off to who knows where. These animals don't really treat Fluttershy very well…

I sat with a dumbfounded look on my face, as to how she put up with these, varmints, taking her food without thanks. I finished my bird feeding and promptly threw the bag back to where I found it. “He didn’t seem to bothered when I was all torn up on the couch.”

“H-he was probably, planning…and confused more than angry.” She shuffled her way to the kettle and added water to it, getting tea-bags ready. “He should know better though… sorry” Her saddened tone of voice drained any residual anger I had from my earlier onslaught. I need to get her to stop apologising, soon.

“Don’t be sorry, I’m sure he’ll get used to me, or something.” I trotted over to her couch and sat down, fluffing the pillow I was lying on for extra comfort. She nodded her head and grabbed her saddle bags, throwing them onto her back as well as a little green coat. She turned to me and gave a cute giggle. She’s… adorable?… yeah that fits.

“I have a weakly spa thing with one of my friends today, Rarity. You met her yesterday; but I have to go… W-will you be o.k here, alone?” I began to nod but turned my head only to witness Angel glaring and pointing at me, holding a carrot like a knife, and poking an old rickety vulture with it. He gave the ‘death glare’ and I gulped.

“S-sure.” I nervously turned away and back to Fluttershy, “I guess, but, whats a spa?” She cocked her head sideways and looked at me like I had a dragon strapped to my head, but softened her expression and giggled again. So...Cute?... Yes.

“Sorry, I keep forgetting you didn’t have back in your… Hive, that we do here. A spa is a place you go to relax, and its...nice. You can come if you want, I’m sure Rarity won't mind.” She trotted to her counter, opened a cupboard, and pulled out a hidden stash of “bits” as she called them. “I’ll pay for you.”

“Oh no, I can… Nevermind I can’t pay, but are you sure? I don’t want to cause a scene.” Fluttershy turned away from me, and watched as Angel sat upon the lazy vulture, poking his head with a carrot, glaring at me all the while. The vulture slowly toppled over, like a large building, where then he sat motionless, letting the vegetable viking jab him as he pleased. She cringed. “Quite sure. Do you remember your disguise?” Of course!

“Yup!” I quickly changed without a hitch and snagged an extra coat lying on a rack. “I’ll just talk as little as I can, and If something happens, I’ll just tell her I have to go… and stuff.” I pushed her door open and got hit with a chilly, but somewhat pleasant breeze. It smelled like...Life. She slid by me and began trotting down her path, me following suit. I could have sworn I heard something shuttering in the bushes near by, but I shrugged it off. Probably just a bear…Bear. Bear! I Jumped nearly half a mile, and sped off at a running pace. “I’ll-I’ll race, you there!" Yeah! that's why I’m running.

She took off after me with this distressed look smeared on her face. “But you don’t know where the spa is! Or Ponyville.” She was far lighter than me, and apparently much more skilled with her hoof work, surprising for such a demure Pegasus, and caught up immediately.

“Don’t care, lets go, far away, quickly!” I sped up to my maximum as I trotted down the path, she caught up to me but evened her pace with mine as she brought her head level with mine. This might actually be a fun race… I’m so smart.

Minutes before, on Fluttershy’s path.

“Ah’m tellin’ y’all, Fluttershy will tell us the truth if we ask!”

“Yes, but Applejack, you can’t pressure her like that, she’ll have a heart attack! And what if she doesn't even know. She isn’t one to keep secrets.” Twilight has to trot to keep up with the brisk pace the country mare was making. They were heading to Fluttershy’s cottage, although angrily storming towards it would be better put.

“Twilight, ah know that won’t happen, and ah’ll bet my farm and Granny Smith’s hip she knows. And on the secret keeping thing, that's why ah’m askin’ her.

“You know how wrong this is? She is our friend!” Twilight stopped on the muddy path and shook off some sweat gathered from the run. Applejack skidded to a halt, kicking up long laying dust and pebbles as she did so. She slid off her Stetson and gave Twilight a pleading look.

“Ah know that, but this is fer’ her safety as well. The longer we wait, the more wrong can happen, so please just trust me on this one.” She sighed and pushed her worn hat back into position, and continued on towards the cottage.

“Uhhg.” Twilight bowed her head and took a few quick steps to catch back up with her country friend. “I’m just rather reluctant to be-rid of the only new friend Fluttershy has made in...forever.”

Applejack rolled her eyes and pointed her hoof ahead towards a large berry bush. “Ya’ll can see her cottage from here, and we can use this bush for cover.” Applejack poked a hoof into the shrubbery and moved some branches to the side. “And look,” She stuck her head in, “It’s got room in here fer’ the both of us.

Twilight took a tentative step forward and placed her head in as well. “If you really want to go talk to her, then go do it. There's no reason to over complicate things, with… this.” Applejack had herself laying across some of the branches, winding her way in and out of them, resting her head on the dirt just behind the bushes protective greens. She paid no heed to Twilight's judgments and continued scoping out the cottage.

“Where are ya’ll, varmin’.” Not a bug nor bird stirred as they waited for their target to come down the road to Fluttershy’s house. The wind seemed to blow but not a leaf rustled, a deer was grazing only a few feet in front of the subtle home.

Applejack was fully bewildered when Her target came not down the road, but out of the cottage, along with Fluttershy herself. “Wha’ that little creep is already here.”

Twilight once more rolled her eyes at her friends rude behavior, but pushed her way fully into the bush and down into the dirt. “Oh look, she’s walking calmly. You might be right about her being evil…”

A glare and a prompt shushing stopped Twilight's sarcasm as soon as it began. It was then when “Toffee” Jumped, and ran ahead shouting incoherently as she went, Fluttershy soon following suit.

“Aha! Ah’ told ya’ll somethin’ was ahoof! Lets git’ after em’. Blueg.” Applejack leapt from the bush only to be magically halted by a quite calm Sparkle.

“Look, Applejack, if we really want to prove she’s got things to hide, chasing her screaming down that trail, and following her to who knows where won’t help.” Twilight released the struggling mare onto the path, their targets now long out of sight. Applejack stood up and shook herself from the dust she had collected. She took a long gaze at the stetson that fell off its perch

“Ya’ll’re right because they’re gone.” She shot a glare at Twilight and placed the country attire back atop her head. “Ya’ll better hope Fluttershy comes back from wherever soon.” She turned and began a slow trot back to their shrubby cover.

“Well if we head back to the library we can…”

“Enope, you and ah’ will be awaitin’ right here, until they git’ back, She snapped off offending branches to make her perch more comfortable. “Like ah’ said, It better be soon.” Twilight face-hoofed and sighed, but gave up on her already thought up protest and joined her friend in the bush.

Today is going to be a long one.

Separation

Author's Note

I have two stories I am currently working on. I'm going to try to push out a chapter once every week, alternating between the two. (If you do not read my other story, it's practically like this story will just be updated every other week.) Same business as usual; I have no editor and a small time slot each week to write, so If youspot some errors, tell me about them. Leave comments if you want me to feel fluffy inside.

Here is the song for this chapter. c:

Separation

--Separation--

"You know Darling, you really should come to more of our spa dates. You're simply a delight!" Rarity was climbing into the ever so sensible "mud bath" at the local spa. Aloe, one of the spa workers, handed us what looked like food. Cucumbers, I remember Fluttershy calling them. Aloe promptly turned away from the three of us and left without a word. It was a shame, I wanted to thank her for the snack. I went to take a bite before noticing the other two girls putting them over their eyes. Which was odd, to say the least. I was quite reluctant to adorn the thick slices myself, yet, I followed suit. I had to keep from looking too awkward during my spa visit.

Despite its many odd rituals, the spa was pleasant. I had received my first massage treatment, which was horrifying up until the years of collected knots under my skin were pressed away. I feared for some time that my fake form would have some anatomical inaccuracies, but the spa ponies never screamed in utter terror nor gagged in overwhelming disgust. I must have done well.

The sauna was nice. Its passing and filling heat felt just like home, which filled me with a longing comfortableness with a slight pang of longing. This was even more odd than the edible eye wear, because I was far happier here with Fluttershy than I was back at the hive.

"Huh, I thought I was pretty dull." Rarity laughed at this, shaking her head. Apparently she found me funny.

"Not dull at all dear. Certainly in better taste than most." I removed the cucumbers blocking my line of sight for a moment to get a good look around the room. It was vast, but private. Both the other mud baths were empty, leaving the room silent other than our occasional chit chat. Rarity was sprawled out a few feet to my left, Fluttershy daintily nibbling on her cucumbers to my right.

Either way, this bath was relaxing. It took me all of the energy I had not to pass out while I waded. There was a long while where the feeling of muck sliding around my legs repulsed me, but the feeling passed with time. Still; the bath could make some pretty awful noises if you moved around too much.

"Most ponies here must be in really poor taste then." Again she chuckled, nodding in agreement. Fluttershy frowned.

"Well that's not very nice Rarity..."

"Oh Fluttershy, you know I'm only jesting. Though, It wouldn't kill Applejack or Rainbow Dash to spend a day or two in here." Rarity flipped over, letting her jaw rest on the tiled edge of the bath, her mane falling into the mud and becoming lost with the rest of her. I looked back to Fluttershy who shrugged, gently starting to nibble on her cucumbers once more. I gave mine to her.

"Now Toffee. My apologies for prying, but, where did you say you were from again?"

"Fillydelphia." I subconsciously dipped my body farther into the mud.

"Ahh... That's right. I've been there but once. After being treated crudely by the owner of the hotel I resided in and coming down with a dreadful food sickness, I have decided to never return. It was a terribly unlucky time of my life. Not to be shrewd of course, the weather was quite nice."

"Oh of course. It's always sunny in Fillydelphia." Giggling ensued.

I couldn't dislike Rarity. My first impression of her wasn't particularly great. During the first few minutes of my visit to the spa she came off as quite a high strung mare. She talked far too fast, her vocabulary reeked of affluence, and she calmly told me that I looked "Uncouth." I was quite offended. Overtime she settled down, however. I felt it easy to just tune into the conversations she shared with Fluttershy, only piping up when I knew I had been silent for too long. She ended up being particularly enjoyable.

Still, as she waded at her corner of the tub, I couldn't help but feel slightly unsettled by her presence.

I heard the sound of approaching hoof steps before I caught glimpse of the owner. I figured it would be Aloe again, but the sudden presence of her sister promptly proved me wrong. Lotus was nearly identical, but she her coat a soft blue rather than the pastel pink of her sister. She also seemed much...sweeter.

"Please pardon my interruption. You have a special visitor who would wish to speak to you. May I bring her in during your bath?"

"Of course." Rarity flipped over and removed her cucumbers. "Who are we do deny a guest?" Fluttershy nodded and I shrugged.

"Ahh. I'll send her in." Lotus hurried off without another peep, I think she was apologizing under her breath. Subsequently, her hoof falls where noticeably quieter on her exit over her entrance. We made the poor mare nervous. So back down into the mud bath I went, attempting to settle in once more. Sadly, whatever magic the spa had done me thus far was wasted, for I felt on edge again. It baffled me that the entirety of the spa's relaxing magic wore off within seconds,and for something so simple.

All was silent for but a few moments. Slowly the sound of hoof steps rose once again, undoubtedly our visitor. As they entered the room, I watched both Rarity and Fluttershy's eyes go wide. Rarity's with clear delight, Fluttershy's with sheer terror.

"P-p-p...Princess..."

"Celestia!" Rarity hurried out of the tub and bowed to the regal princess. My head tore around at hyper speed, the frail heart locked within me thumping against the walls of my chest. It was evident I was going to faint. "Oh no... No, no, no..." I tried not to stare but that was an impossibility. She was such a stark contrast to my vile queen's description of her.

She was incredible.

For a moment I almost didn't feel the need to run. She was a towered above me, but not menacingly like the average hulking beast. Her height made her look regal, her calm facial expression showed a beautiful simplicity. I had thought she would be condescending, but she bowed back to Rarity.

"Please girls, you do not have the need to be formal." Her voice was smooth, and without hesitation. It held the confidence one would gather over thousands of years of life. She gazed over the room until her eyesight fell upon me nearly submerged in the mud. Her eyes widened.

"Who is your friend?" I realized I was blatantly staring at her. We made eye contact for a few moments, but despite her gentle smile I could not hold her gaze. She was a beautiful and elegant danger to me. This calm and collected creature of pure magnificence was easily the most dangerous being I had ever laid eyes on. She had laid her stakes as the, arguably, most powerful being throughout all of Equestria. The only recent competition she has had was Chrysalis and her corrupted Sister, Nightmare Moon. Both my queen and her sister lost their battles. Swiftly.

I gulped, hoping that I did not look as nervous as I felt. I opened my mouth to speak, but my tongue was cut in lead, my throat dry and sore. Only a pathetic squeak escaped my lips. Fluttershy spoke up, coming to my rescue once more.

"O-oh, Her name is T-toffee. She's from Fillydelphia, B-but she'll be staying with me for a bit." Celestia nodded, smiling at me again.

"I would stay to chat, but I'm afraid there are very... dark matters I need to address. Quickly, I might add."

"O-Oh! Oh my goodness! Has something happened in the castle?" Rarity stood in front of the princess, using a towel to rub off some of the mud left on her hooves and body.

"Not exactly." Celestia shook her head. "I do not wish to speak to you here about this predicament, but rather with all of the elements at once. Twilight has already agreed that we shall meet in her library." Both girls nodded before she turned to me. "I'm sorry we cannot get acquainted, Toffee. This is a dire situation that must be addressed without haste. However, it is not entirely private. If you wish to attend the meeting you are free to do so. But be warned, this is not a light topic." Celestia turned and began heading out of the spa. Aloe and Lotus both moving out of the door way and seeing her out of their business. "I must get the others. Please be prompt, girls."

"The elements..." I stood motionless, letting her words sink in. The ponies I had been relaxing in the spa with were the dreaded elements of harmony. I had spent the whole day with them. My eye twitched.

Two guardsmen previously unnoticed by me seemingly peeled off the walls, following their princess on her way out. As quickly as they came, they were gone. The three of us all sat in silence for a time, A somber mood drifting through the room like a chill on the wind.

"Ehem. That became quite harrowing rather quickly." Rarity started towards the exit as well. "I suppose we should be off then. Nice to get to formally meet you, Toffee. We should add you as a regular to our weekly trips. Ta ta for now." She waved goodbye to me, checking herself over once more for any left over muck from the bath.

"G-Goodbye..." I'm pretty sure she didn't even hear my reply, as she was already out the door. For such a proper mare, she could move decently quick; She even managed to leave a pile of bits on the counter for her time at the spa.

I felt a little bit more comfortable upon her exit. I wasn't that I was frightened by Rarity, but rather I was just unhinged by the constant nervousness I felt while having simple conversation with her. I was warming to her presence, but every time I spoke with the ponies around me I had to measure my words and the weight they carried. I had to be careful not to drag the conversation in the wrong direction, or to act out of place. It was evident that the guise that I was not from the same town and cultural background would only bring me so far. My non-pony like quirks began to show rather quickly. Her pressured departure left me alone with Fluttershy, which brought waves of relief to me as we sat. She looked uncharacteristically downtrodden, normally bright blue eyes cast to the ground, dull and without vigor. She was so nervous.

"You don't need to come with me to the meeting..." Her quiet yet sudden speaking stole away the lingering silence and startled me. "I-it would probably be best if you didn't... I-I, uh, don't want anything to happen between the princess and the other girls..." Her words made sense, and that made them more painful.

"Of course, I understand..." I nodded solemnly. "W-where should I go?"

"Back to my cottage, you can stay there if you would like. I don't think that I'll be gone all day. Do...do you remember the way back? If you don't, I-I can bring you." I nodded, telling her that I could figure it out. Ponyville was a pretty small place, after all. I brought the taller mare in for an impromptu hug. She didn't even look surprised, hugging me back immediately. I guess she understood how I felt. This would be the first time we would be separated since I found myself in her cottage. Despite our time together only being a mere couple of days, our separation frightened me. She had to be worried as well.

Then she too, was gone. I watched her leave the spa, but instead of turning right to head towards the edge of town she turned left to head deep into village. I sat by myself for a few moments to take it all in. My security blanket had left. The sole reason why I was even alive to experience this day at the spa had quietly exited my presence. If something, anything, happened on the trip back, she would not be there to help. I had to take deep, manual breaths to calm myself.

I was a soldier. Bred for war and filled with hate. A creature meant to fight in a desolate battlefield until the last ragged breath left my body and my head fell limp to the ground beneath my feet. I was a changeling, and all changelings were top tier warriors. We were ruthless.

But I was no longer a warrior. I was no longer ruthless. I was afraid, dependent. I was changing, but in a way no other changeling could. It was almost funny, for a changeling to be scared of change.

I sat alone for a long time.

"I'm Sorry to bother you, miss, but I overheard some of your conversation. I... I wish you and your friends good luck. They've all saved us before, and I'm sure whatever this is, they'll be okay. Don't worry about Miss Fluttershy, she's tough." Lotus trotted over to me and patted me on my shoulders, certainly the more caring one of the two sisters. She pointed to the exit. "Miss Fluttershy paid for you already, so you are free to leave whenever you would like. I'm sorry your day at our spa was cut short."

So I left.

Six young mares sat in a very crude line in the middle of Ponyville's town library, their princess sitting before them. They all shared the same look of worry, called to an urgent meeting with the same sparse details given to each of them. The amount of anxiety coating the room left a slimy feeling in the air. It only thickened with the passing of time.

"Thank you all for coming on such a short notice. We don't have much time to chatter, so I hope to be quick." Each mare collectively nodded, some more worried than others, yet none more worried than the canary yellow mare dead center in the line. The princess took a long breath and continued. "It seems that our recent victory was not what it seemed."

"You mean the one with Queen Chrysalis?" Twilight asked.

"That I do, my young student. I have gathered fleeting information from guards posted outside of the castle grounds that the battle we fought was just that. A single battle. There is word of stray changelings, undoubtedly cast from the hive, roaming our piece of Equestria." Applejack's face sharpened, sharing a nervous look with Twilight.

"They are most likely hiding deep in the forests that neighbor our towns. They are very dangerous, more-so than you would think. However, my guards can round up the strays, there is a far worse matter than that." Fluttershy had started shivering, Pinkie Pie halting her bubbly wiggling.

"Queen Chrysalis lives, and she is thriving. My sister warned me that she's been having visions of her return."

"I-If the queen is still out there somewhere, what could we do? She could be anywhere." Twilight spoke again. Celestia shook her head in response. With a flash of her horn, she spawned a map of Equestria. She rolled it out on the floor between them.

"She will have gone back to her hive, She will be able to recuperate there." Celestia pointed to the small spot on the map dignifying where ponies resided. Canterlot was a star in the middle of the small dot. She dragged her hoof all the way from Canterlot to the other end of Equestria, where the map began getting more sparse. Eventually, it stopped showing landmarks and towns all together, gradually declining in quality as her hoof went onwards. It soon fell on a corner that was completely blank, unmapped by anypony throughout history. "There. There is her home."

"that doesn't show anything, princess." Pinkie looked quizzically at the map. "This isn't very much help." Celestia rolled up the map.

"I know. None of my guards or scouts, nor even I, have ever been there. I've been searching vigorously on the topic throughout these past couple nights, and as far as I can tell, only one pony alive has."

"Who?"

"His name is Sombres Forêts. And he disappeared a very long time ago." Celestia turned to look out the window as she spoke. "Back before you were born, the changelings were unknown to the mass majority of the population. They became a hearsay tale for scaring small foals. One man, Sombres, Seemed to have a curiosity with these tales. He wrote entire books on them..."

"Oh my goodness!" Twilight gasped and ran to her bookshelf. "I have one of his writings! I can't believe I didn't recognize his name when you first said it." She lit up her horn and pulled a dull green book resting on the top shelf. The bindings were coming apart, and there was a clear bend in the books cover. She levitated it to the princess.

"Ahh, this is him." Celestia grabbed the time worn book and began looking it over. Paranormal Probabilities. Why There Are None. "He wrote about the origins of many children's stories, but he mostly focused on debunking every bit of folklore or myth that he could. Quite the skeptic, I would say. In his last novel he stated that he was looking for the history on changelings next, and that his search brought him to this unmarked corner of the modern map..." Celestia paused and frowned deeply. Fluttershy noticed the bags under her normally lively eyes. It hadn't even occurred to her that a princess could get tired.

"What happened to the poor dear?" Rarity spoke for all of them.

"He went completely silent for months. Then one day, he just came back. He published a fresh news article claiming he had found their hive, that everything was true about the tales. He posted article after article of information about their awful civilization. Each dreary block of writing becoming more jumbled and sporadic until it was clear he was not fit for writing anymore. His last article was done in the dead language of the dragons. Correctly, I might add. The newspaper he was accompanied with and the publisher he relied on dropped him. That's the last anyone has heard from him."

"I-I knew he was telling the truth when I read the articles, but as a princess, I had to keep my ponies safe. If I backed his claims, panic would have surely spread. I couldn't have let that happen..." She sighed and slumped to the floor. "Oh what a fool I have been." Twilight gave her mentor a hug, Celestia only returning the affection with a sad smile.

"You six are the only hope Equestria has left to deal with Chrysalis. I never wanted my pursuit to come to this, but I'm afraid I will have to send all of you on a journey. A very dangerous one. You will be accompanied by my sister and one of my best trained warriors. I...I cannot guarantee your safety."

"They didn't seem to hurt anypony when they showed up in Canterlot. Why the dark tone, princess." Rainbow Dash floated above the other girls, restless from the long conversation.

"They were planning on usurping my throne, other ponies were not the priority. If Chrysalis had won, I'm quite sure their rule would have brought the demise of many. I've experienced their full effect on ponies hundreds of years ago, when I first began ruling Equestria. It is not foal friendly."

Rainbow nodded and slumped to the floor, her lone question answered quite effectively. Nopony wanted to accept the situation they were in as one based in reality. Sleep would not come easy tonight, plagued by a task so daunting that the idea of it could steal a ponies breath away. The thought that death could be a possible result on their quest brought strange feelings so the surface of the imagination. Violence was suppressed throughout Equestria for so long that talk of it was unusual. It was no longer normal for a pony to be genuinely hurt by another.

Death was on another level.

"I have tracked Sombres down to the small town of LaFriesia, about an hour by train from here. Tomorrow at noon you will depart. You need to find him and get as much information from him as you can, I don't wish for you to go in to their hive blindly. Equestria needs you to pull through with the elements once more, and I fear that if this is left unkempt it could turn into another uprising. I don't want to risk them coming back.

"You can count on us, princess!" Rainbow took to the air again and saluted Celestia, all of the elements nodding in approval. All but two. Fluttershy was too busy fretting about the impending doom of her new friend, a doom she knew she could stop if she played her cards right. Applejack was too busy fretting about the impending doom of her old friend, a doom she knew she could stop if she played her cards right. The other girls were gaining a sense of confidence fed by each other's very similar confidence. Soon, the pleasantries of confidence surpassed the anxiousness that previously resided in the room. It could even be considered uplifting. Applejack, Celestia, and Fluttershy could not understand their friends' moment of bronze and vigor. Time was limited, and they could feel a clock ticking away every second of their lives, feverishly awaiting for time to run out.

I was half asleep on the living room couch when I heard the cottage's wooden door creak open. Tumbler after tumbler rolled, then swollen wood scraped against swollen wood. It took a lot of effort to not sprint out to see her as she trotted quietly inside. I could not hold myself back from pulling her into a long hug when she did enter the living room, however. The cottage was cold, she was warm.

She told me everything. She cried during most of it, afraid for her friends and herself, but mostly for me. The royal guards were now on an active hunt for my kind, and I knew first hand that royal guards are very skillful at what they do. I should have been alarmed, but I wasn't. Maybe I was expecting it, it was inevitable after all, or maybe I had just come to terms with the danger in my life. Either way, I felt blessed to have my friend back with me.

But then she told me that they had to go in search of my hive, and I was afraid again.

"Y-you can stay here, you'll be safe in Ponyville..." I handed her a tissue to wipe her eyes with, curtly shaking my head.

"I don't know well enough how ponies live. I'd never last on my own."

"B-but I could teach you, I could..."

"No, Fluttershy, I..I wouldn't live well alone here. I don't want , besides, I'm not letting you go back to my hive without my help." It was her turn to shake her head.

"I think a few of my friends are already suspicious of you... They would figure it out eventually."

"I can be crafty, my kind are quite sneaky. I might be able to help you get there sooner."

"But that'll be even more suspicious!" She was crying again, holding tightly onto me and letting her tears flow onto my shoulder. "You would look so out of place, and, and..."

"I'm coming with you. I'll stay until they start to figure me out, then I'll break away. And if I can't stay in the foreground, I'll just h.ave to shadow you as you make your trip. Either way, I'm not letting you and your friends make a trip back to My hive without my help. You helped me, so now I'll help you." She was still clearly nervous, but she stopped her weeping. I'm pretty sure she even cracked a small smile. I think I had gotten my point across successfully. We stopped embracing after a while, me going off and sitting on the couch, her to start making tea. This would be our last night in an actual home for a long while, possibly forever.

I stared at her as she made our tea. Even with the fur under her eyes stained a dark yellow from her previous tears, she was still beautiful. There was no way I would let anything happen to her, and if that meant protecting her friends as well, then so be it. I chuckled to myself. It took one kind, pretty mare and two days time to turn me against my kind. The "family" I was brought up in was now one of my many enemies. I was now a rebel, a traitor.

And I couldn't have been happier about that.