Author's Note

New chapter is out :)

The arrival

Plague emerged from the river and looked around, to make sure nobody in the forest watches him.

The young black serpent always did that when it seemed to him that someone was following him. The young creature did not know if it was just a premonition or a remnant of his ancestors, but reason still gave him such a task and he had to follow it.

He landed his tail ashore and began to walk forward.

Slithering across the woods of Everfree, the boy understood that he is not the only one who woke up. This was confirmed by the sounds of newly awake rodents.

In his district dominated squirrels, who composed a song in the nearby hollows of trees. Hares joined their song, creating a beautiful choir.

It was one of the very few occasions on which Plague had a chance to listen to it, because since he could remember, his father always kept him at home, fearing that his defenseless hatchling would be hurt by the wild animal.

He could listen to nature one last time a few months earlier, when his dad allowed him to do Hearth's Warming Day shopping with him, but then most animals became lethargic and "song" of the nature was a lot of weaker.

Plague smirked.

Nature was beautiful if it was treated well.

The young black serpent however, didn't had much time to listen.

There were several dozen minutes far to the school from his best dreams and he didn't like being late either.

With one simple murmur stated that it is better to focus on the road and not be deluded knowing what the Everfree forest is capable of.

Going through the woods, Plague was still strangely not satisfied.

With the movement of his hands, the young black serpent tried to sweep all the dirt off his shoulders despite the fact there was NO dirt on them. The reason was the nerves and excitement he began to experience knowing he was going to personally meet Princess Twilight and her student Luster Dawn.

Sweat began to pour out of young snake's head, paradoxically feeling that stress would not help him in all this. However, the knowledge that the princess might not like him stressed him even more.

Plague sighed and fixed his already wet black hair.

"It's going to be ok buddy!" the young serpent yelled to himself in his own mind. "JUST DO NOT MESS IT UP!!!"

The little boy's jaw with two protruding fangs began to tremble even more.

"What if I will mess it up?" he shook, while the blood in his veins became hotter. "What if they will think I'm a freak?"

Plague inhaled and expelled the air a few times.

"I need to think about something else... kittens? YES! Cute kittens are the good thing to think about!"

The young black serpent quickly closed his eyes at the thought of cute little kittens. Never telling anyone about it, Plague always wanted a cat.

Contrary to appearances, he could have one from his father. He even named the kitten Gallus after the Princess Twilight's guard.

The young snake felt disappointed, when he had to give up the adult cat to the shelter, when his father found scratches on his black scales. It didn't help explaining that the cat did it inadvertently, Daddy Steven still know best.

Sometimes Plague had enough of his father. It was good that he was leaving for school and did not have to listen to his parent's lamentation.

The boy's thoughts were suppressed when he hit something lightly and with dizziness fell on the grassy surface.

The young snake scratching its head turned its gaze towards this thing.

Plague paled, as he recognized this thing.

He came across a nest of bees. From the corner of his eye, he could see a large flock coming out of a small number of those honey insects. He had to accidentally wake them up and

The whole body of the little snake paralyzed, watching more bees coming out from the nest.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no" he panicked in his mind.

A swarm of bees formed into "smoke" and began to head toward the young snake.

"Don't make a scandal out of it" the young black serpent hissed with a nervous smile on his lips. "It was one little silly accident"

His words seemed to make the swarm more angry, as evidenced by increased buzzing from the honey insects.

"I think I should" Plague got up on his tail and adjusted his backpack. "RUN!"

The young serpent crawled under the bees and started to run right behind them. The boy ran so fast that he could be mistaken for a pegasus who was doing the trick, or even an alicorn that teleported to something.

Despite Plague's intentions, he quickly got tired.

The little snake looked back momentarily and gasped.

The bees were chasing him and showed no fatigue. They were literally just behind the boy's back.

Before he knew what was going on, he found himself among honey insects. He even felt them sting him.

"GET OFF ME!" the young black snake yelled waving his hands and losing contact where he was. The only thing he saw then were buzzing bees.

With insects on his body, he ran through several bushes until he collapsed with his head toward the ground.

His head recognized that it was a stone ground.

"Shoo!" he heard a deep voice coming out next to him, then hearing the sounds of bug spray.

It wasn't even a moment when he felt the sounds of those insects stop.

"Need a claw, kiddo?"

The snake looked around and took a deep breath, when he realized that he was right next to the School of Friendship.

Right next to the school in front of him stood middle-aged blue griffon in golden armor right above him. His helmet was decorated with a comb-like headdress, and a teal star was placed on his chest. He also had golden clawwear. His armor shone more thanks to the sun

It was captain of the royal guard.

The griffon smiled, when he noticed backpack on the new guest's back.

"You made it just in time" he said with a laugh. "The school meeting almost began"