0 Story Time! Story Time!
Chapter 0: Story Time! Story Time!
FWOOSH! went the fireplace, lighting up in a small yet roaring inferno and adding another layer of depth to the room. The aging stallion walking back to his old creaky chair and started counting backwards in his head, waiting for the dramatic entrance.
'5... 4... 3... 2... 1...' And the moment that had he stopped counting a young unicorn colt and a younger pegasus filly barge into the room, dragging their poor, crossed-eyed mother with them.
The two fledgling ponies chanted, "STORY TIME! STORY TIME!" while they started dancing and bouncing around the room, all with the most adorable smiles, each grin reaching from cheek-to-cheek in innocent glee.
The stallion sighed happily as he watched them burn off some energy, chuckling as he thought 'Foals these days sure have some amazing stamina,' before deciding that they should probably stop or else somepony could get hurt. "All right now settle down you two," --the elder stallion chuckled-- "Take your usual spots and please let go of your mother."
The little ponies nodded, letting go of their crossed-eyed mother and taking their almost regal spot in front of the fireplace, their grins absolutely beaming. Looking over to see if the mother was alright, the stallion smiled and sighed, "My apologies Miss Hooves, I hadn't realized they were... busy at the moment."
Derpy shook her head. "No No No, it's fine! We were just baking some muffins. Speaking of. I need to make sure they don't burn the house down. Oh, and please, just call me Derpy," And with that she trotted out of the study and went back to her very important baking, grabbing the fire hydrant along the way as a just-in-case.
The stallion smiled and sighed, turning back to the foals who were eagerly awaiting their story. They had been waiting for such a long time, even longer than they realized at first! He nodded at the foals gingerly "I take that it's time for that story already?" --The foals nodded in unison-- "Ah, where has the time flown..."
He then cleared his throat and grabbed the book they kept on the end table for this very purpose, dusting it off with his hoof. The stallion's eyes started fading in recollection of old memories, before softly saying to the fledglings, "The story of your father, Oblivion Prophet."
1: The Beginning of the End
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End
Once upon a time, there was a young stallion by the name of Luminous Prophet. Lumi was a sky blue unicorn with silver eyes, a short, cut-back brown mane with a sequence of five colors in the middle, White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green, as well as a short tail with the same pattern. His special talent was the magic of cards. The stallion could master any card game, trick, or secret he saw and even improve upon it! Lumi even decided to manage his own card shop called The Prophet's Card Shoppe. And yes, he even did fortune-telling for a while, unfortunately the fiasco that followed literally ran him out of town. Thankfully he converted his shop into a mobile one about a week before it happened.
One day after Lumi decided to become a wandering sales-pony, he decided to stop and rest in a very small and new town of Ponyville. He only planned on being there for a couple days, but the more he heard of the legend of the Everfree Forest, the cursed place where the plants grow, the clouds move by themselves, and the animals take care of themselves, the more it intrigued him. Lumi was a curious pony for sure and he absolutely loved mystery.
After about a week of staying in Ponyville, Lumi's curiosity overwhelmed him and he ventured off into the dark and mysterious forest. He wandered nearly in a straight line for almost an hour when he ran into a very odd creature, lying down unconscious and hardly breathing. He inspected the creature, examining it with wide-eyed curiosity. It was insectoid for sure but it was in the form of a pony. It had a jagged and pointy horn, transparent wings that would buzz more than flap, a black carapace, and very holey legs. Lumi then noticed that it was wounded, seeing as there were finite scratches along the carapace and a lot of bruising visible. Quickly, he levitated her using magic, his horn lighting up in a corona of blue-brown energy, and ran back to Ponyville.
Waking up with a very sore body and a huge headache, Isnita groaned as she tried to move, the young adult Changeling searching for a way to wake her up. The Changeling outcast tried sitting up, only to hit her head off a low-hanging roof. "Ow!" she exclaimed while clutching her head, the shock and momentary pain snapping her out of her groggy stupor, finally noticing that she was in a small, one-room house, "What in the... where the buck am I?" Isnita wondered in annoyance. It was bad enough that she got banished from her hive, she didn't feel like she deserved the cruel fate of being captured by some stupid ponies, although she quickly berated herself for the thought.
Hastily, yet slowly, she got up and buzzed out the door, looking around to see that she was actually in a dense, dark forest. "The... Everfree Forest? Why am I-" she was interrupted by the sound of voices coming from behind the house, which she now noticed that was a mobile home of a traveling merchant.
She slowly walked closer to the source of the sound, now distinguishing two voices and noting that it came from a hut.
"Are you positive you can't take her?" A faint male voice said
"I am afraid that fact is true. Take her back, or take her with you" A foreign female voice said in a sing-song tone.
Isnita did not like the sound of that, cluing in on the fact that they were talking about her. Quietly, she continued listening, curious to hear more of the conversation and inching closer.
"Alright... I guess she could stay with me for a bit. She doesn't seem too bad... Nor all that bad looking either..." Mumbling the last part to himself.
The female chuckled "Then I shall leave you with some advice, that way you don't come here twice. That creature out there will be quite the pest. Caring for her will be an arduous test. One wrong move can rip you to shreds, and she willing definitely be seeing some reds. But when you are unsure where to go, the next mare you meet. She will know!"
Isnita groaned inwardly, she hated riddles. Especially ones that rhymed. Still... she thought it couldn't be so bad, after all it was better than going back to those... hive-minds. Although the minute she thought that she got hit with a giant flashback, the visions of the nights prior hitting her like a manticore paw. It felt like her head was exploding as she collapsed on the ground, clutching her head and screaming like a newborn grub. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Dark. Black. Emptiness. The entire world a pure void. Isnita cowered in fear, for not even her night-vision could pierce the darkness of the Everfree. She heard the rustling of creatures scuffling around her, creatures more attuned to this gloom. She was frozen in fear for a good half-hour, until she heard a low growl right by her head and had even felt the hot breath coming from the creature. At that moment she panicked and galloped in the other direction, her eyes adjusting slightly so she was barely able to dodge trees and rocks as she ran in fear towards her hive, hoping that the comfort of her queen would calm her.
It was not so...
Hearing the sharp, high-pitched wail that erupted outside, Lumi dashed outside. He quickly found the creature that he had brought here on the ground, thrashing her limbs about. Using his magic, he levitated her off the floor and quickly brought her in the shaman Zecora's house. "Zecora! Help! She's freaking out!" Lumi then lied her down gently in front of the bubbling cauldron, his eyes wide with panic. The zebra trotting over and quickly doing an inspection.
"Hmmmmm... I may not be a vet, but on this I am willing to bet. She will do well if you want how she fares. She is simply in one of her nightmares. As of now she is in quite a fright, perhaps you and her could stay a night?" Zecora questioned, giving Lumi a smile as well as a light smirk. "But don't let some ideas get into your head, for I have more than one extra bed." She then started looking through her books of brew, and bottles of stew.
"W-What are you talking a-about? I-Ideas? N-No way! I only just met her!" Lumi blushed slightly. He was hoping he could experiment just a little. Of course with her consent though. He was only a curious pony, not a perv. Eccentric? Possibly. Maybe. Probably. Just a little.
Zecora chuckled and gave the odd creature a potion, which slowed her thrashing and calmed her down a little. "Of course." She nodded to a room as Lumi brought the creature into it, smiling a little as he placed her on the bed.
"Rest easy my little firefly" Lumi sighed happily as he then left the room, returning to Zecora. She was holding a small deck of cards, looking at him questionably. "What? They're Tarot Cards. Never heard of them? They tell the future. Would you like a reading?"
Rain. Why does it hurt her so much...? Why does the rain feel so... sharp against her carapace...? Isnita was only trying to help... She only wanted to show the others that... ponies aren't just food sources. Ponies are friends, not food.
What does she get in return? What reward does she receive... for discovering a new way to feed? Riches? Glory? A higher ranking position in the hive? Of course not... she gets called a monster... a freak... a mistake... And then she becomes something far worse... she becomes... alone... they banish her from the hive, place a bounty on her head, and then capture her lover, making it so that the new-born grubs get their first taste of love energy from his withered flesh.
And not a single, solitary 'ling, even thought of disobeying her Royal Majesty's orders. They even went so far as to get her best friend... no... her former best friend, to kick her out of the cave herself.
Hive-minds... all of them... no matter the 'ling... they were all bound by their queen. If not by body, then by soul... Isnta was no exception...or at least until she was... persuaded by a certain sky-blue unicorn pony. She felt what it was like to have fun, to be free of the nagging voice in her head telling her what to do. She felt... happy. She quickly discovered that the aching feeling in her gut was... gone. She didn't feel the urge to feed. If anything, she felt like she had the biggest helping of love that shes ever had in her life!
Rushing back into the Everfree Forest where her hive was, excited to inform the hive of what she discovered, she then realized something very, very bad... She was lost... Isnita always had used the hive-mind to find where to go. But without the annoying voice of her queen in her head, she was helpless.
Dark. Black. Emptiness. The entire world a pure void. Isnita cowered in fear, for not even her night-vision could pierce the darkness of the Everfree. She heard the rustling of creatures scuffling around her, creatures more attuned to this gloom. She was frozen in fear for a good half-hour, until she heard a low growl right by her head and had even felt the hot breath coming from the creature. At that moment she panicked and galloped in the other direction, her eyes adjusting slightly so she was barely able to dodge trees and rocks as she ran in fear towards her hive, hoping that the comfort of her queen would calm her. Until she realized something.
She had no queen... no mother to protect her... no brother to look out for her... no friend to help her out... she was well and truly... alone. Gradually she slowed down, tears welling up in her eyes as the rain started pouring down hard, each droplet biting her with a vipers kiss. She burst into tears right then and there, crying so loud that most of the creatures had fled from the immediate vicinity. She cried for so long that she had passed out, exhausted as she slowly became drained, even giving up... She closed her eyes as she drifted off to sleep, accepting the cold embrace of eternal slumber.
She had no family... no calling... no purpose... not even a friend...
"...What's the matter? Never seen Tarot cards before?"
Isnita opened her eyes and gasped, panting loudly. She took a quick moment to orientate herself, and judging the fact the she was in a wood room, Isnita concluded that she was in fact, captured by the pony-folk. She sighed and decided to accept her fate, only to realize that she wasn't in fact tied up or bound in any sort of way. Now very confused, she decided that a good bonk to the head was in order, and climbed out of the make-shift bed. She trotted to the wall and promptly headbutted it. As she did though, she failed to take into account her horn, it making a sharp cracking sound as the impact from the headbutt completely snapped her horn in half.
Isnita blinked and teared up a little, "...Owwwwwwwww..." Sniffling she started casting her changeling magic back through her horn, holding it in place as her spell started stitching the horn back together, still leaving a scar among the countless other scars along her horn. She was never really talented with magic, so she mainly used her horn in physical combat.
It was because of this she was taught the simple suture spell. It was not designed to heal the wound, but rather to simply close it up and allowed for magical movement between the gaps of the wound, thus allowing it to heal at a slightly faster-than-normal rate while still producing magic. Isnita had used it countless times on the field and also during her morning wake-up routine.
Once she was satisfied that her horn was secure, she then started to remember about what happened earlier, the memories flooding back like a burst dam. Shaking her head she decided to confront these ponies that undoubtedly saved her life. She walked calmly to the door before hesitating. 'Wait... the male ones voice... it sounded like... No it couldn't be. The odds are impossible.' She then put a insectoid hoof to the door to open it, only to find that at the same time someone had pulled open the door from the other side, causing her to cry out and tumble into the pony "AH! Oof!"
Once the dust had settled Isnita realized that her thoughts were indeed correct, for underneath her lay a sky-blue unicorn with silver eyes, and holding a Tarot deck in his magic. That feeling of being happy tore through her entire being like a rag-doll in a tsunami, her face heating up and blushing even through her thick, black carapace. Scrambling she quickly got off of him and helped him up, apologizing over and over like a little grub did when they failed a task.
After the fiasco they talked to each other a bit, introducing each other and making light jokes. They shared stories with each other for hours, each one more spectacular than the last. Lumi would tell of how he got ran out of a whole town just by showing his Tarot deck off, while Isnita would tell of how she managed to confront an Ursa Minor and lived. Eventually Isnita decided to join up with Lumi in his travelling card shoppe, using her Changeling powers to help advertise.
After a good couple of years they got married, with their honeymoon being The Grand Galloping Gala. Isnita decided to change her name to Obscurity Prophet, even though Lumi still calls her by her real name, and they chose to settle down in the town that they had first met. The small town of Ponyville.
After almost a year Isnita was due to birth a child. After 8 months of hard labor she gave birth to a swamp-green foal with a purple and blue mane and tail. The two things that were truly strange about the young colt were the fact that he had slitted silver Changeling eyes, but he was also an alicorn! Both parents were stunned by the child that Celestia had blessed them with, but they loved him for being him, and decided that if they could keep a Changeling hidden, they could keep an alicorn hidden as well.
Only one problem remained though, and it was a dispute that they had been having ever since they even thought about having a foal. The name. Isnita wanted for him to have a Changeling name like Thorn, Rosetta, or Alex, while Lumi wanted him to have a pony name like Opaque, Shimmer, or Ruby. Eventually they settled the dispute in the fashion that they always do. They consulted the cards. They were shocked to find that there was a name they both found satisfactory, but only wished it didn't sound so... intimidating.
And with that, Oblivion Prophet was born.
Author's Note
Also no I will not show what its like for Luminous to do a card reading 
But I will show what it's like for Oblivion to do a reading 
