"Hon, what's bothering you? You seem quite exhausted."

I jerked my head up. Thankfully, it's just my wife Lilac Comet, not the secret police I've been worrying about. To further make sure, I inhaled and felt every bit of smell my nostrils could catch. The special aroma of hers came to me as I wished, further calmed me down: it was indeed her. Yet again, I have been asleep at "work", since I'm a "linguist" right now working freelance.

"You still remember what had happened back in those times?" I looked into the green eyes of the female pegasus, feeling a bit of guilt.

"How can I forget? As fresh as new to me." She spoke softly, "You are worrying too much." We looked at each other, then we pressed our lips together, sensing the inner warmth of us.

Indeed, I've been worrying way too much now, but just six years ago threats I worry about kept hanging above our heads. We have already moved out of the nightmares and found ourselves a haven. The haven, as we call it, is a small town called Ponyville inside Equestria.

Equestria, the land of solidarity, unlike some authoritarian dystopia with its name ironically containing "republic". Compared to that "'democratic' republic" we fled from, Equestria never claimed itself as being democratic, although with high levels of liberty. Also, we can live without worrying about ignited explosives, or angry mobs slaying other ponies randomly.

I put my piles of parchments off, gently pushing the windows open. "Well, the sun has already risen for an hour. I'm going to go to the market to fetch some ingredients for the fried bean rolls. You still want it vegan?"

"Vegan, as usual. I'm not like you guys who can tolerate meat, you know."

"Gotcha. Wait for my special treat this noon! I tell you, it's ..."

"Yeah, yeah. You can brag about your hometown delicacies for weeks non-stop." Lilac shot me an unamused look.

"Heh." I rubbed my head, blushing.

The door of my study creaked open. I wandered downstairs, only to see my parents and our kids are still sleeping soundly. My wife and I are both early risers, since we have jobs to sustain our family. Not wanting to disturb their voyage in dreamlands, I sneaked out of the front door.

Shone under the beams of the summer sun, the paths we constantly walk on appeared to be more of a crimson colour, rather than its usual oak brown. The morning dew hadn't all vanished yet, attaching themselves to the leaves of plants on both sides of the paths, glittering intermittently. Looking up, the morning sky had a few pieces of fluffy white. I could see Lilac flapping her wings among the clouds, gracefully approaching her weather pony job site.

The path, on an unexpected turn, extends to a cottage which rather looks like a tree, with a yellow female pegasus in a light pink mane flying up and down. Upon seeing me, however, the said pegasus hurried back to her cosy small cottage, swiftly shutting the windows. "Does she literally have to do this to every stranger?" I wondered, trotting past the river beside it.

Not for long, I set my hooves firmly on the earth of Ponyville market. The scent of fresh vegetables and fruits can be smelled everywhere, unlike the rotten smell I had to bear back in that state. There are too many stalls I have to get past in order to find those I really want to have a purchase with, considering that this is a small town, despite being near Canterlot. That's kind of a privilege of being near the capital...

The ponies in town were walking in groups, chatting with each other casually. Or not entirely ponies, to be exact. Ponyville have gotten its most dwellers welcoming changelings, so it's not unusual to spot some changelings wandering in broad daylight, like that black one with a cutie mark standing beside a bouncing Pinkie, being a little taller than her. Other times, there are changelings living pony identities without much knowledge, like the writer living close to the Whitetail Woods, and the candy-selling mare living with a minty-green unicorn. Wonder how I knew? That's one of the advantages of being a hybrid.

Walking past several stalls, I found one with a griffon. Her stall mainly sells meat. Since ponies are not favouring eating meat and changeling also not that fond of it, her sales usually depend on several loyal customers like me, who are not at least entirely pony.

"Heya, Light. Need some pork for your usual grilled treat?" The griffon warmly greeted me.

"Yes, White. I'll make at least 12, considering my kids are always hungry whenever I even mentioned grilled bean roll. Do you want some?"

"Of course! When would I ever refuse a chance to taste it?" White Blizzard replied enthusiastically.

"Then make it satisfy 14." I chuckled. "It feels so nice to have your treat loved by someone."

"Uh well, if it's not for the loyal customers like you, my stall would go out of business pretty quickly."

"Then we draw!" I replied with a smile, "Don't forget to come to my house at noon!" I turned around, finally leaving her stall.

Shopping for ingredients wasn't too hard, considering the abundance of this market. It didn't take long to have all bought, so I went to Sugercube Corner to fetch some sugary treats as snacks for us, then went back home.

Together with some careful preparation, grilled bean rolls were all well-cooked. At noon, White Blizzard came to our house as promised, enjoyed the grilled bean rolls with us. Lilac was the only one clumsily eating, since she had neither magic nor talons to grab the rolls, the only things she had were her wings. We enjoyed some side chit-chat, with our mouths full. After lunch, White Blizzard thanked us for the meal, then left our house.

"No fair for me to be the only one who can't enjoy this to its fullest!" Lilac poked me slightly, complaining.

"Well, that's a treat for you," I smirked.

Finding my way back to my study, I continued my work. I put the drafts of toning systems aside, starting to jot down some of my memories as I thought back on what had happened during the years before our migration. It was fire, blood, and deaths. Propaganda exists everywhere we had gone, and for some time we had fallen for it. Somehow, we survived all that, but I still have guilt for seeing anyone before me suffer, and I couldn't do anything to help them. All these years, my guilt never faded, but strengthened instead.

I have to find a way to document all, as a physical representation of my mourns. What that authoritarian regime had done must be known by others, and it must be torn down for all the crimes it committed.

As I was outlining vague ideas, I heard some faint mechanical whirring and hoofsteps beside my door coming this way. From merely these noises I was able to know who was there, and her head poking through the half-opened oak door confirmed my thought.

"Dad?" Violet Silkway asked with worries.

"Right here. Yes?"

"Mom said you are not feeling good lately, so..." she hesitated a bit, then continued, "I kinda want to sit near you to try to make you feel better, if you don't mind."

"No, I don't. I have a seat just here, you can take it."

"Alrighty." She hopped on the chair. After seeing my notes, she was puzzled.

"What are you writing, dad?"

"Some past records. Or if you like it, stories."

"I like stories! Can you pleeease tell me some?"

"Um... You can read them right on your hooves."

"But they are just scattered notes! I want you to tell me stories as a whole."

"Dear, I have my work to do. Now..."

"Pleeease?" She gave me her watery puppy eyes.

Wow. Every time she did that, I almost can't resist. Sometimes I'd forget the fact that she is a robot, for everything she does have more relation to emotions than scientific facts. Well, that's daddy's little creation.

"Err... Huh." I sighed, lifting my forehooves up in the air, "I surrender. I have to warn you, that a very good portion of my stories is not at all good for you foals. Are you sure you want to hear them?"

"Yes."

"Well, I can't deny that. Only promise me your mom won't bite me when you're scared and she found out it's me who scared you."

"I promise."

"As much as I want to tell, I can't until tomorrow. I have to piece up some scattered stories to give you a more complete one. Also, Uncle Amedeo is coming to hear my stories."

"Who is he?" She was confused yet again.

"You know, Sir Avogadro, that blue unicorn with black glasses. I brought you to him when you were little. You drank that sour-sweet bubbly Kvass in his home."

"Ahh! So, when would he come?"

"Considering him living just in the edge of Canterlot, I don't think he'll be too late. Probably tomorrow morning." I rubbed my chin.

"Yay!" She jumped in great joy.

"Now, now. Don't be too excited. " I grinned at her. "You can watch me do the rest if you like, or you can play some games with your little brother."

For the rest of the day, Violet just sit beside me, watching me arranging materials. Sun slowly dove down into the horizon. Eventually, night came.

We had our supper happily while chatting with each other. After supper, Violet ran to her little brother, where the two would very likely play snakes and ladders or noughts-and-crosses. Lilac went to her knitting, while my parents listened to the play recorded on the gramophone. For me though, after a quick shower, I went to finalizing my arrangements.

At last, sleep crept over me. The lights went out, then I slowly drifted into my fantasy.

Author's Note

Thank you for taking your time to read this!

This is the first time I have ever tried to write a novel, so it's more like an immature experiment. The main idea for this chapter is to introduce some backgrounds before the main stories are released, and the atmosphere of the story is rather dark, hence the name "Lead".

When writing the story, I got immense support from several of my friends, who helped me to proofread and gave me suggestions to improve. To protect them though, I have to had their names indirectly mentioned by truncating them. Thank you, CoC, NaH, MuG, CoE, AnC, WiM, LtP, SpF and CoG!