A tall and slender changeling stood over a crib, her expression was hard and exhausted. Her navy mane wasn’t cobwebby like the other changelings, in fact it was in a long and beautiful ponytail. On top of her head was a black tiara, signifying her place as a Queen, of a kingdom she took pride in.

In the crib were two little changeling grubs, both having a full head of messy hair, though curiously they weren’t the same color. One of them had a crimson mane while the other had a dark lime green color, both were snoring contently, every so often making a chirping noise.

“Mother?” A soft voice uttered from behind the Queen, she turned to face her young daughter, Princess Tsubaki, her mane was a pretty shade of sapphire blue. Her face held a solemn look as she seemed to look past her mother and at the crib, as if she was dreading something.

She continued weakly, “can’t you reconsider? Please, they’re only children—”

“One of them being the son of your whore!” Her mother hissed, snapping her head back towards the grubs, there was pure and utter disgust in her eyes as she looked at the green haired one.

The Princess looked down in shame, feeling tears prick at her eyes.

Then her mother said lowly, “you know Royal Law, even if he was your legitimate son, you still need to get rid of one. Twins are a terrible omen, and one needs to rule over Neighon once you are gone, my sweet daughter.”

“What if this is a gift from the Gods? Two lovely children for me to raise and look after, think about it mo—” as soon as Tsubaki saw the harsh look in her mother’s eyes she shut up immediately.

“Fine, choose one and I’ll be back to the Fillypines, I pray Adonis managed to keep things in order while I was gone... what a shame to leave my own kingdom just to see your curse from Caritas,” the Queen gestured towards the grubs and snapped, “choose now.”

Princess Tsubaki choked back a sob and she took shaky steps towards her grubs, then she peered into the crib and saw their sweet faces sleeping peacefully. She smiled sadly, gently caressing her grubs cheeks before kissing them on the foreheads.

“Mother,” she whispered, “if... if I chose one to inherit the throne... what shall happen to the other...?”

The Queen raised an eyebrow, as if the answer was obvious, “you leave the other for dead? Tsubaki Mamekagane, you already know this, it’s Royal Law.”

“Yes mother...” Tsubaki sighed shakily and finally chose, she pointed her hoof at the red haired one, “he shall inherit my throne a-and...” she glanced at her other grub, cracking out, “he’ll be abandoned...”

Her mother smiled at her daughter, wrapping a malformed hoof around her, whispering as if to comfort her, “you made the right choice, my darling.”

Thirteen years later...

“Jung-ho, wake up!” A voice shouted from the kitchen, causing the sleeping teen to jerk awake. He glared at the entrance of his room (he didn’t have a door to glare daggers at unfortunately), asking loudly, “why? It’s Sunday, you said that I would have a day off from work today!”

“I made you gyeran jjim! Unless you don’t want it, your mother will gladly eat it for you!”

That got him up, he practically leaped out of bed and fluttered into the kitchen excitedly. His father was the best cook he knew, though to be fair he didn’t get the chance to eat anywhere else very often.

Standing at the stove was his father holding a small bowl with his magic, he handed it to Jung-Ho with a kind smile. Then he gestured towards the table, sitting there was a female changeling with her bright red cobwebby mane in a bun, “kiss your mother good morning, my little nymph.”

Jung-ho did as told, pecking his mothers cheek with a giggle, “morning mother,” his mom nodded her head in acknowledgement and patted his head.

The young changeling hopped onto his chair and gasped at what was at the center of the table, it was a delicious looking bowl of rice. Next to it was a small cup of soy sauce, his father really outdid himself today, he usually barely had time to cook what with taking care of the farm and Jung-ho himself.

He happily took a spoonful of his steamed egg, it practically melted in his mouth, light and fluffy, just as it should be. “Thank you papa,” he said between bites.

His mother lightly scolded, “don’t talk with your mouth full, that’s not proper for a boy.”

He pouted his lip before obeying his mother, chewing slowly before swallowing.

Then his father said with a soft look in his red eyes, “now Stonefly, give the boy a break, he has such an amazing day to look forward to!”

“I do?” Jung-ho questioned.

“Netwing I highly doubt he’ll be excited about this,” she responded rather cynically.

Netwing inhaled sharply, as if he was biting his tongue, then he looked at his son with a smile, “I’m sure you’ll be happy about this, today you’re going to get your second name and we found out you’ll be eligible for the matchmaker next week!”

Jung-ho choked on his egg, looking at his father with disbelief in his eyes, “you’re kidding right? I’m only thirteen!”

“Your old enough to be engaged, after all I was promised to your mother when I was your age. It’s traditional, and don’t worry, I’ll be the one helping you prepare for it. Also the thing about your second name, you should be excited about that, you won’t have to use your real name everywhere and risk identity theft or something.”

Stonefly snorted, “let’s hope he doesn’t get stuck with something as ridiculous as Netwing,” she ignored the annoyed look on her husbands face.

“You won’t be able to choose it but I’m sure it’ll suit you, why I can’t remember the last time someone referred to me as Yang Ji-hoon!”

His wife mumbled, “you didn’t have anyone to call you that but okay.”

Jung-ho frowned at his mother’s words, knowing that it hurt his fathers feelings but he couldn’t do anything about it. So he hugged his father and said, “hey do you think you can come with me, I’m sure mom has soldierly work to do today!”

That was right, his mother was one of a thousand soldiers in the Empress’s army, she was tough in both personality and physique. Sometimes he admired her strength while other times he was worried about her temper.

“You’re not wrong about that,” she replied, taking a slow sip of her tea.

Netwing looked at her with a longing gaze for a moment, as if he was searching for something lost between them. Then his son tugged at his arm, “come on! It’ll be a father-son day, we haven’t had one in forever!”

His father blinked a few times before muttering, “I guess that sounds fun, come on now, finish your food and we’ll be on our way.”

Author's Note

My first mlp fic on this site!! I also have been dying to write on my changeling OCs and their kingdoms/culture. So I hope you’ll enjoy my interpretation of them (btw Tsubaki’s Empire is based on Japan while her mothers is based on the Philippines, Jung-ho is currently in a Korean-esque empire)