Alicorn Kings and Better Things

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter One: Introductions
Chapter Two: Expectations
Chapter Three: Emotions
Chapter Four: Opinions
Chapter Five: Changes
Chapter Six: Questions
Chapter Seven: Answers
Chapter Eight: Information
Chapter Nine: Visitor
Chapter Ten: Expedition

Prologue

As Aerlan flies as fast as his wings could move, he could only wonder what the hell he just saw.

“Okay. A Spirit fused with a pony. Thats… new. Didnt realise that was possible. I uh, I need to tell Father about this. He is the king, after all. He has to know what just happened.”

Charging a teleport, the alicorn prince disappears.

There are pros and cons to being King of an entire race of immortals that are capable of bending reality to their whims. The positives consist of not having to micromanage everything, everyone is able to fix their own problems for the most part, and any military the kingdom may have would inevitably adapt to any combat situation extremely quickly and effectively.

The cons… well theres only really one, one big one that makes having a Prince stressful. Because of an old Deoniyas tradition, where the Prince, in order to become king, has to fight for the throne in combat. To the death. Which means, at any moment, King Oblivion Deoniyas’ son could burst into the throne room at any moment and challenge him to a duel for the throne.

Which is why said king nearly jumped in fright when Prince Aerlan Deoniyas bursts in suddenly. oh no please dont tell me… The King thought, before his son begins to speak.

“Father,” Aerlan begins “we… i have discovered something interesting. Something i didnt think possible, on the assignment you gave me. The one with the rumors of that changeling infiltration?” Relief floods through the kings’ body that it wasnt what he thought, though confusion now replacing it.

“Well son, what did you discover? Were there changelings in that village?”

“There were, actually, but i killed them. Easily. The problem, well… an earth pony colt got away…”

Oblivion stares for a moment. “And how is that a problem? If it was a changeling im sure-“ before he could finish, the prince interrupts, “HE TURNED INTO A SPIRIT.”

After a moment, Oblivion visibly becomes angry and demands, “Aerlan. What. Do you mean. By that. Exactly?”

“Okay, well the colt ran, and i chased him. But, he went into the forest, the unnamed one? The one you said not to go into… and um. Well…” Aerlan starts to get a concerned look on his face, as his father is now seething.

“Aerlan. Do you remember why i told you to avoid that forest?”

“So i dont piss off the-“ “ITS SO YOU DONT PISS OFF, THE FUCKING, NATURE SPIRIT!!”

Calming down, whilst facehooving, the King continues, “Okay, continue explaining. In clear words please.”

Aerlan then decides to start from the beginning, stating that he hired two mercenaries to assist him in killing off an entire village, discovered four total changelings, and lost one colt into the forest. He then explained that the earth pony colt somehow fused willingly with a nature spirit. Aerlan specified that it was a “Tactical retreat” in order to get the information to his father.

Aerlan finishes explaining, and asks, “So what do we do now?”

Oblivion has his eyes closed in thought.

“We cant do anything right now, if what you say is true then that colt is likely going through fusion recoil. Well, not “colt” exactly… but the point remains. We dont need to do anything yet.”

Aerlan nods. “Yes Father. Understood”
As the prince turned to leave, he could have sworn he heard his father whisper “nearly gave me a heart attack”

With that in mind, Aerlan thinks to himself for a minute as he walks back to his room.

it seems father is growing more tense nowadays, probably because im at the same age he was when he challenged his father for the throne. Hmm…

I should start thinking on how to do that.

Cyvern is currently standing on a hill overlooking a destroyed, unnamed village. He never knew his parents names, or the neighbors, or the other foals that were in town.
He was alone. But this time, he was strong enough to deal with that. He didnt know what he was now -some half spirit, half pony creature?- but he knew he was powerful now. Powerful enough to make an alicorn scared, which he now knew was a good thing.

Those ponies… why did they do this? Why did they hurt everyone? We didnt do anything to them! growing in anger at his situation, Cyvern begins to go over the events in his head once more.

Everything happened so fast, i was having breakfast when those three attacked, the house was on fire, then i got lost in the forest, found a friend, friend runs away, alicorn nearly finds me, friend dies and… says something about sparks? Then everything gets bright and now im this. This thing.

Cyvern looks over himself, taking in his new form. Where before he was a short earth pony colt, now he seems to have grown to a stallion.

However, age isnt the only thing that changed, as he now has antlers on his head that are able to cast… not spells, some other kind of magic. He also can feel all the living things on and in the ground around him and can “see” how they function, but doing that makes him dizzy.

As Cyvern walks around his former home, he discovers a toy he liked to play with. A smile crawls across his face as he picks it up in his hoof, and inspects it for damage.
huh. This all happened in one day, but it feels like i havent touched this thing in… a very long time…

That age thing must have done something else to my memories, i feel much more… adult? Im assuming. I dont feel as playful or immature, but i dont think thats a bad thing. Not to mention what i… did to those… bad ponies… not wanting to think about That, he moves onto more important things.

“Now,” someone from behind him speaks “who the hell are you and what happened here?” Turning around, Cyvern’s eyes widen. Its not a pony! Its a… fox with several tails?

“Answer me, or face the wrath of the Kitsune!”

Author's Note

Ventian Pages of Information: Spirits.

The thing about spirits, is that they dont like fusing with mortals. At all. They detest the idea, and its unheard of for any spirit to willingly fuse with a pony, much less an earth pony. Nature spirits used to be the only ones to do so but they usually only did that with mortals they designated as “worthy” and never a pony.

Spirits hate ponies the most, as ponies have a long track record of, well… bending the laws of nature and order and they tend to manipulate spirits into doing things like giving out their True Name, which is what makes Spirits either very easy or very hard to deal with. Spirit is just another word for Fay (Fae, Fey, whatever). They arent immortal, they are Eternal. Eternal is just a fancy way of saying that they can never cease to be. They will always exist, and even if their physical form is destroyed they will return as another creature. Or the same exact creature. It varies.

Which brings us back to the fusion thing. Fusion is the ONLY known way to permanently get rid of a Spirit. The spirit becomes one with the soul and mind of the person they are fusing with, neither one actually surviving the process. Both participants of the fusion become a completely new person with both sets of memories, personality traits (which is why the spirit has to be careful who its fusing with, i mean, imagine a sociopath fuses with an empath) and powers. It literally creates a new person.

With one small exception. I once met a very interesting forest spirit, named Cyvern, that had encountered a dying nature spirit when he was eight. Apparently, the spirit didnt want to ruin his life by imprinting his mind onto such a young person so it decided to block those memories before fusing, letting Cyvern continue to exist while also making him a half-fae. I do not have enough space on this page to explain half-fae so i will

Author here, Ventian ran out of paper to write on. Again.

Oh wait this is the prologue, you haven't met him yet.
Word of warning, he is a bit of a nerd.

Chapter One: Introductions

Sixty-five years after the prologue

Focus: Ventian

Ventian Deoniyas was always an inquisitive pony, always wanting to know something he didnt know. Which was everything, apparently. When he was six, he asked what his parents names were (Aerlan is his fathers name, while Opulent is his mother). He asked why his father is the King and why his mother isnt a queen (because the stallion always gets the family name and the Deoniyas tradition means prince has to kill the king to become the king, which makes that situation very complicated.)

Ventian learned how to use his magic when he was nine years old, and since then he learned all sorts of spells from simple Telekinesis to something as complex as Transmutation(although oddly enough, Teleportation seems to be too difficult for him). He was always interested in all forms of magical and scientific information.

So when he discovered that he could write such information down on something called “paper” he was ecstatic. He could find so much information and not worry about forgetting it! He also enjoyed sharing what he learned, so that everyone could know things!

Sometimes he had to be careful what he shared though, it wouldn't do for the prince to give away royal secrets all willynilly. Despite his openness of facts and info, he also likes to keep secrets.

However, one day his father decided to not just give the answer to any questions asked by his son, instead saying “you should figure that out for yourself, i dont need to give you all the answers.”

This… kinda made Ventian frustrated. So now he spends most of his time going around the kingdom, not really leaving the capital, researching everything by writing facts about things on pages of paper. Ventian’s Pages of Information, he calls them. No real organization, just grab a page and read or write.

Ventian Deoniyas has a maroon coat with a blue mane, violet eyes and orange magus(magus is the technical term for magical aura).

Ventian age as of this chapter: 19

One day, while studying some interesting rocks, Ventian discovered something inside a stone about the size of his hoof. Placing it on his desk, he gets a metal chisel and hits the geode-looking rock. *crack* the rock splits open, not in half but a hole big enough to see inside, and inside is… a black liquid? He looks at it with a curious expression, eyes scanning the substance.

“Seems to be a magic-infused liquid, possibly the source of the Null-Magus effect. Cant use TK to lift it, kinda scared to touch it as it could be parasitic in nature… actually, better play it safe and use this…” walking over to a sizable box lined with lead, he lifts it in his aura and moves it over next to the rock holding the liquid.

“Dont really have a fancy name for- wait” looking over at his AutoQuill(an enchanted quill that translates voice to writing) he realises he walked out of range and it deactivated. Using his magic, he recasts the activation spell, and continues. “I dont have a really fancy name for this substance so I’ll just call it ‘VoidStuff’ for now. Placing the VoidStuff in the box… now.”

As he lifts the rock, being careful not to spill it, he moves it over the box when he suddenly gets an idea.

“Wait… if this is an antimagic substance, I might be able to solidify it by pulsing it with megas of the opposite polarity, so…” charging a spell, Ventian sets down the rock into the box and shoots a beam of white energy into the liquid part of the rock.

A very loud, high pitched tone begins and fills the room. The rock suddenly explodes.
*BANG* “AAH!” Ventian falls backwards away from the desk. Staring up at his ceiling, the prince of all alicorns did the only thing that was appropriate in that situation.
“Owwwwww…” he starts whining in pain. Very impressive.

Getting back on his hooves and adjusting his wings, he walks back over to his desk to see the result of his experiment.

Sitting in the center of the box, levitating, was a perfect cube of black metal, its surfaces seeming to absorb and bend all light around it making it hard to look at. The lead seemed to be gone now, the VoidStuff having clearly absorbed it.

“Huh” reactivating the AutoQuill, he continues, “Update; after following through with the experiment, the VoidStuff seems to have absorbed the lead properties of the box and transformed into a… metal? Yes, it transmuted into a sort of… VoidMetal. Doesnt look malleable, but i may be able to heat it up in the forge. Gonna make a Project with this… probably.”

Thinking, Ventian closes the now-regular box and levitates it, bringing it with him as he walks towards the throne room where his father probably is. “Gotta show him this. He told me to give him an update if i discover something new.”

Lightly trotting, he gets to the big doors in a few minutes. Nodding to the two alicorn guards, they open the doors for him.

Looking forward, Ventian spots his father, King Aerlan Deoniyas, sitting on the throne.

never really understood the point of a throne, i know father thinks its to show superiority but is that really necessary at this point? We own a quarter of the planet, a throne is just pointless in comparison

“My son, Ventian, what news do you bring? I assume it has to do with that box? Isnt that the lead one you bought for… what was it? ‘Containment purposes?’”

Ventian responds, explaining what happened earlier. “I discovered an interesting material and i uhh… experimented with a sample and created… this.” Walking over to the king, Ventian opens the box and shows him the levitating cube of VoidMetal.

Aerlan looks closely, but seems to become fatigued just looking at it. “Son, you said you… made this?” Ventian sees his father begin to become concerned. does he know what i made? Aww, did i not make a new thing?

The prince replies, “yeah, i found a weird rock that seemed to resist my TK, so i brought it to my room then i got the box and cracked the rock open and saw a-“ before he could finish, his father interrupts “You found a liquid that broke your magic and decided to place it in a metal container, then you used a Pure-Mega Beam spell to make it solid.”

Ventian becomes… somewhat disappointed that his father already knew what he made. “Ye-yeah thats what happened… it kinda exploded then turned into that. Did i not make a new thing?”

King Aerlan is reluctant to share but now that his son knows, he supposes he can tell some things. “Its actually pretty old knowledge in our family, but nobody has made this Void Metal-“ interrupting, Ventian yells out “Oh come on!! It even has the same name!?” Blinking, Aerlan continues, “yes, i suppose that would be the only appropriate name for it. Anyways, nobody has made it in a few centuries as its antimagic properties only function if it remains in a single state. Melting it or breaking it in any way makes it just a regular, albeit very strong and light, metal.”

Ventian looks at the cube with disappointment, then closes the box. “Thanks, i guess, for… whatever.” Ventian then walks out of the throne room back to his deskroom(a room with several desks in it as well as storage devices for research purposes).

When he gets to his room, he thinks about what his father told him. “‘If it remains in a single state’… antimega effect based on static molecular structure that dissolves when mass is removed, or when state changes… hmmm, maybe i can…”

Attempting something new, he grabs another one of the VoidStuff geodes. “What father described, he probably doesn't realize, was what happens when you attempt the same thing to a Runed object. Break or melt a Runed anything, and the effects are destroyed. However, there is a way to retain the effects… if i just do this…”

Smiling, Ventian casts a spell, and what happens… well, he does like keeping secrets. Maybe this secret can help him later on.

Author's Note

Megas: unit of measurement for magic usage. Does not translate to other units of energy measurement as megas tend to be based on the users race, age, and Magus frequency. Identical megas are very rare between magic users.

Runed/Runes: a type of magic based on magic-infused inscriptions and algorithmic patterns of letters based on users Mega. Not many magic users use this, as Spellcasting is much easier. Runes are only really used for Artificing, the art of making Artifacts.

Chapter Two: Expectations

A mysterious voice speaks, “Interesting… that method, those ideas… if only you weren't a Deoniyas. Perhaps… perhaps I may fix this problem. If I am allowed.”
The voice seems to dislike saying Deoniyas, spitting the word out like it put a bad taste in its mouth.

Focus: Ventian
two days after chapter one

“Prince! The King requests your presence in the throne room!”

Ventian looks away from the metal he was working with and faces the guard in the doorway. “Alright, i will be right there.” Then he walks towards the door and out of the room as the guard follows. huh, i wonder what this is about?

As they get to the throne room doors, Ventian can hear his father speaking through the doors but cannot hear what is being said. The doors open, and a cloaked pony walks past out of the room. As Ventian walks towards his father, he sees four ponies, some of which seem to be researchers of some kind.

“Ventian. I have decided you have been cooped up in this castle for far too long. I have made some preparations for an… expedition outside of the capitol. The destination is quite far away and will take a while to get there on hoof.”

Ventian’s eyes widen in shock. WHAT?! I was not expecting that! An expedition? To where? He decides to voice some of these thoughts. “Father, to where is this ‘expedition’ going?”

The king looks over at the gathered ponies for a moment and then back to his son. “These ponies can tell you on the way, now get prepared to leave. You may take whatever you wish from your quarters but make sure whatever you bring is… replaceable.”

Ventian looks at the gathered ponies and turns to leave whilst saying, “Alright… guess ill get some stuff from my room. Where shall i meet you all, in here or…?”

One pony steps forward and says “Prince, you may meet us outside the main castle doors. We shall wait for you there.”

The prince nods and walks towards his room, thinking very hard all the while.

okay. This was out of the blue, but i can manage. Luckily i just finished my Project with that new material. But should i bring it? Father said to make sure whatever i bring is replaceable, but it could be useful…

Getting to his room, Ventian prepares to leave the castle by grabbing a saddlebag enchanted with a Dimensional Compression spell that allows many things to fit in a smaller space(its bigger on the inside) and placing the Project into it, as well as other items that might be useful.

As Ventian exits the castle, he is greeted by the four ponies who were all in the throne room earlier. Two unicorns and two alicorns. The two unicorns seem to be siblings as they have similar coloration, one light purple with a dark green mane and one dark purple with a light green mane. The first being a stallion and the other being a mare. The alicorns are both mares, one being white with a pink mane and the other dark blue with a grey mane who is holding four large bags in a red aura.

The unicorn stallion speaks “Hey, theres the Prince. We can go now.”

Ventian, wondering what their names are, asks “So, before we start… can i have your names?”

The two unicorns look surprised a bit for some reason, but the white alicorn responds quickly to the question with a happy demeanor. “My name is Rose Petal, im a healer, the unicorns are Leva and Livar who are siblings and my friend here is Vedaria. Its nice to meet you, Prince Ventian!” She says with a small bow at the end.

Well, she seems nice. Maybe this ‘expedition’ isnt such a bad thing after all…
“Well, its very nice to meet all of you. I hope to get to know you all better as time goes on.” Rose seems to smile more at this, while the unicorn stallion, Livar seems to mutter to himself, “yea right, i doubt that”

“Okay…” Ventian starts “what next? Where are we going?” The blue alicorn responds by walking away while saying “Alright then, follow me everyone.”

As the group begins to walk towards the front gates of the capitol, Ventian seems to become nervous. oh dear. Ive never been outside the walls before… ive barely ever left the castle! Maybe father was right, ive been kept in the castle too long. Maybe this will be good for me? I dont really like this… odd feeling like… i dont know! Why do i feel like something bad is going to happen? Am i nervous? It feels like its more than that, like… like…

Livar was always a very independent person. Always keeping a lookout for anything threatening, keeping his dumbass sister safe from any monsters she happens to locate in her eternal quest for more information. “Research is progress!” She liked to say.

Livar didn't like the capitol, he didn't like the noble alicorns always flaunting their status and power, he didn't like most alicorns. Rose and Vedaria are tolerable, but he finds it aggravating that Rose is still magically stronger than him even though he has more experience.

And when he discovers that THE KING demands them come to him to “teach his son how to survive in the outside” he has no choice but to comply, but boyyy does he hate it. He hates royalty with all his heart and now, he has to deal with a prince for the next WEEK OR MORE?! No, abso-fucking-lutely not. But, he cant say no to the king. Nooo, that would be TREASON.

So now he has to keep an eye on his sister and make sure the prince doesnt kill them all. Just… fucking… perfect.

Leva always loved new things, loved to make new discoveries. Meet new creatures, study them and document information. She loved it when her brother helped with things like wrangling a mutant bear to see why it grew wings or maybe he just walks around Warg-proofing the area around them with spells.

Leva didnt expect much out of any alicorns she met, as they always assumed they knew everything. She doesnt like that behavior, because nobody knows everything! Theres always something new to learn. Someone new to meet. Thats why, when the king of alicorns demanded they come to help teach his son how to live outside of civilization for a while, she knew it was a recipe for disaster.

An unprepared, possibly spoiled prince who had no survival skills and probably knew nothing about wildlife, living with a small group of ponies out in the wild? Yeaah, she didnt have her hopes up at all for this pony. Hopefully, if the prince dies, her execution is quick and painless. She also hopes her brother doesnt start anything, as he hates alicorns the most.

five hours later

Ventian begins to get tired from walking for so long. The sun seems to be setting and the sky is darkening, the forest around them is starting to make noise as well.

Vedaria stops and says “Alright, we can begin to setup a camp here for tonight.” She sets down her bags (that she was holding in her aura for five hours strait.) and starts unpacking fabric and metal rods. “Hey, Prince? Do you know how to make a tent?” She asks, facing him.

“Uhh… no I do not, can you show me?” Ventian responds. Vedaria then walks over and begins to demonstrate, placing each tent several meters away from each other in a triangle.

As the camp is set up, a problem seems to arise, there are only three tents. “So…” Rose starts. “Who wants to share a tent?” Livar then replies to this with “Me and Leva get one, Rose and Vedaria get one and the prince is alone, problem solved.”

Ventian has no problem with this arrangement, and responds while nodding, “Alright, sounds good to me.” Then everyone gets into their respective tents as it is mostly dark now, and gets into their body-cushions and goes to sleep.

As everyone wakes up, the first thing Ventian thinks is wait this isnt my bedroom? Where- oh right. getting up and exiting his tent, he sees that its early morning and that he is the second to wake up. Livar is standing across the campsite from him with his back turned with his horn lit up. Huh. He must be casting a spell of some kind… better not interrupt.

Reentering his tent, Ventian grabs his bags and checks their contents, deciding to grab and eat a piece of bread. Seeing that nothing has changed with the contents of the bag, he reexits the tent with his food to see Livar now facing him. “Huh. Didnt think you would be awake yet…”

Leva then leaves her tent, and starts packing up the structure while saying “Good morning guys, I see we’re all early risers! Thats great. So, how was the sleeping, Prince?”

“I had a very good sleep, dreamt something about vines and big spiders.”

“Oh, do you not like spiders?” Leva asks, finishing packing the tent into its bag.

“What? No, i love the things, they’re fuzzy and cute and I like that they have the ability to produce such a strong material. Did you know that spider silk is stronger than steel? I did. Its pretty cool.” Ventian shares with a smile.

Leva and Livar look at the prince with a confused look, Livar shaking his head and walking away with the tent bag and Leva going from confused to happy.

“I actually did know that! Do you also like snakes? What about plants? What kinds of plants do you like?” Leva, now realizing that Ventian is someone worth talking to, begins to converse with him about plants and animals for a while.

All the while, Livar is glaring at Ventian. “Grrrr…”

“Hey, Livar. Cmere a minute, I wanna talk to you.”
Turning around, face going neutral, he sees that Vedaria is the one that spoke.

“What do you want?”

“I know you may not like him, but try not to glare a hole into his skull, alright? I can feel your anger from over here. Once his father calls him back or when the prince bails out of fear or whatever, then you dont have to deal with him anymore.”

“I know, I just don't like him near my sister…”

Vedaria walks past him towards the two super-nerds and tells them that its time to start walking again. Rose meets up with them, coming from… somewhere in the bushes? “I was just looking at the herbs, nothing useful.” She says with a smile when asked what she was doing.

Huh. didn't even realize she was gone… she must be very sneaky. Ventian thought.

As the group is walking, Ventian remembers something.
“Hey, so where exactly are we going?”

Rose responds “Oh! Right, we didnt tell you. Umm… the king didnt really specify?”

“Wait, I thought he said you knew?”

“Oh, well we do have a destination, but… his highness really only said to bring you in the wilderness to uh… teach you how to survive on your own?”

“I- what? Thats not- but…” Ventian stutters, not knowing what to say exactly. Okay. I guess I should have expected that. Father wasn't very specific, and he usually is. “Okay… is there anything else I need to know?”

“Not really?” Rose responds with a tilt of her head. “I mean, probably. But I don't think it matters.”

Ventian decides to take in this new information, Father sends me away from the castle to… what? Make me learn to survive? That doesnt make much sense. If he wanted that, then he could have just told me. Whatever, I'm sure this is going to be a learning experience and I do like learning.

Author's Note

Livar: Lie-Varr
Leva: Lay-vah
Vedaria: Veh-darr-eeh-uh

Chapter Three: Emotions

Focus: Aerlan
Immediately after Ventian leaves the throne room

After his son leaves the throne room, he looks over at the group and tells them “I suppose you all should go wait for the prince outside the castle doors. You may go now.” The two alicorns bow their heads and leave, the two unicorns following.

After the group of ponies leave, Aerlan is left alone with his thoughts. Now that thats settled, Ventian should be out of the way for a while. Enough so that my plans wont be interfered with. Not to mention how, if She does her work right, then my son leaving will be covered up well enough. I just have to…

Getting up from his throne, Aerlan exits the throne room and begins to make his way to his sons room. When he gets there, he dismisses the guard and enters, casting a scanning spell theres no reason for Ventian to bring it with him, so it should be… the king begins to frown, “grr, Where is it?!” He wispers sharply to himself. Would he bring it with him? Why?! Its just a hunk of-

As his eyes scan the room while he thinks, his thoughts are interrupted by a piece of paper he sees on his sons desk. Walking up to it, his eyes widen in shock.

”Ventian Page of Information: VoidMetal
After creating this and showing it to Father, he told me (implied, really)that it would be impossible to make any use of the material.

I have successfully proven him wrong! By utilizing the same magical rules as Runecrafting, i found a way to temporarily Mega-stabilize the VoidMetal so i can form it into something else without harming the anti-mega effect!
Cant tell Father though, his ego can only take so much… especially after Mother

The note ends there.

Three emotions flood into Aerlan. Confusion, Anger and, a new feeling. Pride in someone else. “Unfortunately its overshadowed by THIS UNYEILDING RAGE!!” He yells out after admitting it to himself. He swiftly turns and trots out of the room to go to the Vault Of Artifacts.

“My son thinks he's so smart, but he doesn't know all of my tricks…” he says, menacingly. Didn't think he would figure it out so fast. I should have done something sooner but Three Days?! Especially after i told him it would be useless, but in three days he figured out the secret to VoidMetal crafting?! It took ten ponies researching for two hundred years strait to figure it out and my son just comes across the solution in three fucking DAYS?!!?

At this point, Aerlan is seething, almost shaking in anger at the idea that his son could do something like this. As he enters the vault, and closes it behind him, he walks over to a very large cage. “Get up.” He demands. The resident of the cage slowly stands up on all four legs and speaks with an exhausted female voice, “What do you want, Aerlan Deoniyas?”

Focus Swap: Ventian
Present time

Ventian couldnt sleep. All he could do was listen to the sounds of nature at night, look around his tent and think about the previous day.

At first I thought father sent me with these people for a reason, something important or new. But the more I think about it, the more i realize that… father lied. He lied to me about it. Thats the only explanation i can think of. Father has always either told me the whole truth, at least from his knowledge, or nothing at all. I don't think he ever lied to me before, and if he had maybe i just wasn't aware? I don't know anymore.

With a face full of anxiety over his thoughts, he also sees a light coming from one of the other tents. “Huh?” He whispers to himself. Confusion overwriting the other negative emotions he's feeling, he leans closer to the wall of the tent to try and see what the light is for.

Thats Rose and Vedaria’s tent. Why are they- his thoughts are interrupted by someone, sounds like Rose, speaking, although he can barely hear it. “Shouldn't be a problem, right? I mean, its not like he would overpower… the rest he couldn't make out, ‘overpower?’ What does she mean by that, and who is ‘he?’ Rrr, so many questions, so many things i dont want to-

Realizing that he just was about to say he doesn't want to think about something. Haha, ridiculous right? Me, not wanting to think about information that i have no idea how to use? Usually i would be all for it, but… this is just too much.

Father lied to me for some reason that i cannot for the life of me figure out, Rose is awake and planning something, maybe? And Livar hates me, that much i can figure out. For once in my life… i don't know. I don't know why these things are happening and i don’t think i want to know…

Leaning back into his sleeping bag, he closes his eyes in an attempt to get some sleep.

“Ventian, come look at this!” Walking over to where Leva is calling him from, Ventian sees a pit. “Woah” he says, eyes widening. “I know, right!? Maybe somethings down there?” Leva looks back at where they came from with a nervous smile.

Ventian feels something shove him from behind, “AHWHAT?!” Quickly looking as he falls into the hole, he sees- Ventian wakes up, sweating a bit. “What the…”

What was THAT?! he thinks loudly in silence. Looking around, he sees that he's still in his tent, but from the light flowing into the tent he can tell that its starting to be day again. Getting up, he begins to put away the sleeping bag and puts his bags on his back and exits the tent.

“Hi there!” He looks over and sees Rose waving at him?

Smiling back, Ventian says “Good morning to you, Rose.”

As the group exits their tents and puts stuff back into the bags, Ventian walks over to Vedaria and asks “Is there a specific place we are going to, or not?”

Vedaria looks at Ventian while picking up the camping bags. “There are actually several places that we are going to in the next few weeks. The king was oddly insistent on you being far away from the capitol as long as possible.”

I KNEW IT Ventian thinks suddenly, and Vedaria notices a shift in the Prince’s behavior and asks “is something the matter, Prince?”

Ventian replies, shaking his head “No, nothings the matter, i just, didn't know something and now i do.”

Turning away from Vedaria, Ventian begins to walk away when Rose came up and said “I got a question, what do you do for fun?” Ventian’s eyebrow goes up and he replies, “I usually read or write stories. Though im not very good at writing…”

Rose then looks over at Livar, who is also there and says “See? A totally harmless hobby!”

“Whatever” Livar then walks over to his sister.

“What was that about?” Ventian asks.

“Oh, Livar just… uhm… dont be offended, but he thought you enjoyed making people… sad?” She clearly struggled with the last few words, as if trying to find words that wouldn't offend.

Ventian blinks “I rarely get offended. Ever. And, what do you mean ‘making people sad?’ That doesn't make any sense, i don't think anyone would enjoy that.”

Rose begins to look more uncomfortable as Ventian speaks, “oh, its nothing, don't worry about it.”

“Okay, if you say so.”

Rose looks back up at him swiftly, eyes more open than before, but Ventian is already walking away.

Four hours later

As the group is walking along a road, Ventian notices something on the ground ahead of him. Hey, thats a VoidRock! picking it up with his hoof, he places it in his bag.

“What was that?” Looking over at the speaker, Rose looks back at him with a curious gaze.

“It was just a rock. I like rocks.” Did I just… no, thats not technically a lie, it is just a rock… for now Rose is still looking at him with the same look, but then shakes her head and looks forward.

“Hey, Rose?”

“Yes Prince?”

“What do you do as a hobby? I meant to ask earlier when you did but forgot.”

“Oh!” Rose’s ears are perked towards Ventian and with a smile, she continues. “I like to take care of animals. I also enjoy reading, like you do, but i don't write. Vedaria is a writer, and shes pretty good at it too. Also, i exercise sometimes but not too often.”

Vedaria is a writer? Couldn't have guessed that. If only there was a way to tell a persons hobby just by looking at them… maybe a artificially magical genetic trait based on personal likes and dislikes? No, that couldn't work, and it would probably be invasion of privacy.

“Vedaria is a writer? I did not expect that. What does she write?”

Rose looks at the alicorn in question for a moment before facing Ventian again, “Oh, she just makes research notes about fauna and megafauna, she actually likes to talk to animals sometimes.”

Ventian tilts his head in confusion “‘Talks to animals?’ What does that mean?”

“Well, quite a few animals are actually smart enough to understand speech apparently. Or, at least, our body language. Ive heard of some birds being able to speak, although thats rare. Not to mention its more like mimicking speech than actually holding a conversation.”

Another voice cuts in, “Actually, i’ve met a curious species of bipedal lithovore dogs that seem to be developing some kind of language. Although, the ones ive ‘spoken’ with are very unintelligent, but i held a conversation for a loose definition of the word. They seem to speak in broken sentences and tend to be underground most of the time.” Vedaria, having overheard them talking about her, began to walk next to Ventian, on the other side from Rose.

Looking backwards for a second, Ventian sees that Livar and Leva are also listening to them talk from a few meters away.

“Also, theres been rumor of some kind of foxlike race to the east of the kingdom, and since we are heading east maybe we might come across one. Ive heard they are called ‘Kitsune’ and have an ageless lifespan like us and the dragons, though i don't know much else.”

“Oh yea, my dad told me about the Kitsune.” Ventian responds.

“Wait, you already know about them?”

“Not really, all dad told me about them is they really don't like trespassers. If we ever do meet one, they would probably accuse us of trespassing in their territory. And they are immortal. More so than us, actually, seeing as they are half-spirits.”

Vedaria’s eyes open wide “Wait, what?! Half-spirits?! I thought those were a myth!”

Ventian tilts his head in confusion I suppose it wouldn't be common knowledge, but they have to be in some books somewhere, right? “Um, no? I mean, all myths and legends are based on some fact. Like how the first dragon king Bahamut died to one of my ancestors, they actually both died but it was covered up and King Verodines son took his place for the next few decades after that.”

“Wait, thats what happened? Thats… why would you tell us that?!” Vedaria is now looking kind of frustrated and confused.

“Well, I like you guys and its not like the information matters, right? It happened over twelve-thousand years ago, so its distant history and doesn't affect today. Other than the fact that it was a tie instead of a victory, and it was kinda smart on his sons part. I mean, their names were even the same!” Everyone is now standing still, looking at Ventian. He begins to feel uncomfortable getting this kind of attention.

Why is that such a big deal? Its not like it changes anything now. If it was a secret then father shouldn't have told me, and- Livar interrupts his thoughts.

“Okay, what is your problem?! Dont you have any idea what you just said!?” Livar says with an angry face.

“Um… no? Whats the problem? I mean, does it change anything now?”

“OF COURSE-“ Livar gets interrupted by Leva saying, “Brother, calm down! Prince, what you are saying is that everyone in the world got lied to, and didn't even know it. I… I think you should ask yourself ‘why would they lie about that?’ I feel like you aren't the one giving enough thought to that.” Leva is staring directly at Ventian, eyes seemingly telling him ‘please listen.’

What… okay, Leva is right. Why did they lie? What did they have to gain, other than winning that war- Eyes widening, Ventian replies “So they could win… they lied to everyone so the dragons would back off. But if the dragons called their bluff, they would have invaded our kingdom with very little resistance!”

Nodding, Leva then replies “Yes, and you can see why that secret is a big deal. The dragons have only gotten stronger since then, more organized. If they realized that it was a lie…”

They would become enraged, a dragons sense of honor is very strong, as well as their anger. If they realized they and their ancestors got duped like that, they wouldn't hesitate to invade. Becoming more uneasy, Ventian then ponders on other things he was told by his father. “They would attempt to invade, and we wont be able to win. Not without quite a few people dying.”

Leva and Livar becomes relieved that Ventian is aware of the problem. Livar speaks up and says “Now you see, Prince? Dont just say something like that. Make sure you think about the effect it would have on others.”

“I didnt think it would be a problem! My father never told me it was a secret so i just… assumed… wow i am an idiot.” Looking down at the ground, Ventian continues “Yeah, youre right, i should have figured that out on my own. Sorry. Lets just… keep walking?”

The rest of the group seems to agree with him, Livar’s expression seeming surprised, but then he just went back to neutral.

Okay, so that was a thing. I am an idiot for not realizing that sooner! Also, why is Livar so aggressive towards me? At first i thought it was just his personality, but i have seen him smile a few times. Except… at me. He doesn't like me for some reason, is it because I'm a prince? Does he hate royalty for some reason?

Maybe i offended him in some way, but when? And how? I never really spoke to him, and its not like- wait. Maybe i did say something and didn't realize? Thats a possibility, should i ask? How would i ask that? as Ventian thinks more on the topic, the group continues their trek through the forest.

Author's Note

Explanation of Aerlans behavior:

He has so much ego that Vegeta from dragonball seems reasonable in comparison. He hates the idea of anyone else being smarter than he is, it doesn't matter if its his own son.

This will come into play later in the form of [REDACTED]

… of course I'm not gonna outright say it. In the words of River Song from Doctor Who; Spoilers.

Also, Ventian has ADHD and tends to focus on specific things without noticing anything else thats going on around him, and since he never really talked with anyone other than his father and some guards sometimes, he also is socially awkward and is very bad at telling when someone is lying unless its painfully obvious.

In the meantime, i would like to say that i would very much enjoy some opinions about how im writing. If im doing something wrong or whatever because if i made a mistake and it gets pointed out, ill correct the mistake. Usually very quickly.
So please, i exist off of the feedback of others.

Chapter Four: Opinions

Author's Note

This chapter will be a little different, as it will switch between multiple characters multiple times, except for Leva and Rose for… certain reasons. Totally unrelated to the plot. What plot? I see no plot here, nope.

Im doing this juuuuust for fun. And also to get better at writing. I kinda wanna make this story long. Like, at least a hundred chapters long. Also, i plan to make a trend of adding more and more detail to every chapter over time, so some things in previous chapters might be different than before. Some word changes, grammatical errors being corrected, etc.

Some feedback would be appreciated. Anyways, onto the story.

Chapter Four: Opinions

Right after previous chapter

Focus Swap: Livar

As Livar is walking, he can only think about the conversation the group just had with the Prince. How could he not know? He isn't stupid, anyone that can talk that much with my sister without getting bored has to be smart enough to figure that out on his own. So why didn't he?

Did he really not give it any thought before he said anything? It cant be because of dismissiveness, because he seems very… thoughtful? I hate to think this, but the prince has been pretty… polite. Doesn't he know we aren't nobility? Am i supposed to believe that he doesn't look down at us like the rest of the nobles in the kingdom?

As Livar is thinking, he reluctantly comes to the conclusion that, the prince isn't like the other nobles. At least, not entirely. If anything, he seems… forgetful yet attentive? Is that even possible? He didn't realize the problem with his words until Leva pointed it out. Then after, he really seemed to consider it and came to the correct conclusion.

Was it an act? I doubt it, Vedaria would have said something. Shes very good at telling if someone is lying. Surprisingly well, actually. Its like she can smell lies. lightly chuckling at the thought, he dismisses it and levitates something out of the bag on his back.

Taking a bite of the apple he brought with him, he continues to think hard about the prince, when Vedaria speaks up, “Hey prince? Can i ask something of you?”

Focus Swap: Vedaria

Thinking to herself about the conversation the group just had, Vedaria comes to a conclusion that she previously didn't want to consider.

The Prince seems to be… trustworthy. The others might not have noticed, but i heard him mention that he likes us. But he didn't make a big deal out of it, not even when Livar and Leva clearly proved him wrong about the whole ‘its not a big deal’ thing.

I mean, I knew something was up with that story, it just didn't seem likely that a eighty meter tall, magic resistant dragon could be killed by a single alicorn in one-on-one combat. Not even if Verodine was the strongest alicorn in history would that story be plausible.

So it being a lie makes sense, and if the prince wasn't trustworthy, then he wouldn't have slipped up like that. Not to mention he wasn't concerned about our reactions until we made it clear something was wrong.

He even became concerned and even apologized about the misunderstanding. He just doesn't seem like a schemer. Either hes so good at acting that its psychopathic, or he is just a considerate, albeit forgetful, nice guy…

Vedaria then speaks up, and asks Ventian “Hey prince? Can i ask something of you?”

The prince looks up and says with a curious look, “Yeah sure. What is it?”

“Do you like to share things? Is that why you didn't think about the problem in what you said?”

Ventian responds while nodding “Yeah, thats kinda the reason. I honestly just didn't think about it. If i did, i probably wouldn't have said anything. Its just, I'm so used to people that i talk to, usually my father, enjoying listening to me share information. I just thought of it as something interesting. I didn't mean to freak you all out about it. Sorry.”

“Huh. I accept your apology.” Livar says from the other side of Vedaria.

Well thats a development! Livar seems to have come to a similar conclusion that I did. Although i expect his thoughts to be something like ‘oh well he's not a prick like i thought.’ Maybe I'm being too harsh on him, but previous experience shows that Livar doesn't, or didn't, like the prince at all.

Vedaria then intentionally picks up her pace to let them talk.

Focus Swap: Ventian

“Huh. I accept your apology”

As Vedaria walks faster to be ahead of the group a bit, Venian realizes who said that.

Wait, Livar said that? I guess he doesn't hate me as much now. But from one conversation? One that i thought wasn't as big a deal as it seemed? Why are so many things suddenly changing, or maybe its not that its changing, i just never thought to think about… my thoughts?

Never thought to think about my thoughts. Thats a.. mouthful? Brainful? What? with a pensive look, he reaches into his bag with his magic and takes out a piece of bread.

“Where'd that come from?” Livar asks while looking at the bread with curiousness.

“My… bag?” Ventian replies, somewhat confused.

“But that bread looks like it would take up half of that bag, and ive seen you take… more from… wait. Is that a Bag of Holding?!” Livar now has a surprised look on his face.

“Um, yea it is. I made it myself, though it took me a while to get the runes right.”

Leva cuts in suddenly from behind Livar, speeding up her gait to walk next to Ventian, “Hold on, you have a Bag of Holding? aren't they expensi- WAIT, YOU MADE THAT?!” She finishes, yelling practically in Ventians ear.

Pinning said ear, Ventian replies “Owww, not so loud. And yes i made the thing, but as i said it took me a while. Like, two weeks. I think. Im bad at keeping track of time.”

“Theres no way you did that in two weeks, it takes like… a year to make one.” Livar says with an accusing tone, as if he believes Ventian lied.

“Yeah, but my father kinda taught me how to use Runes faster. It involves being able to transmute objects into pure mega instead of having to fuse each rune with pure mega over time, then placing those Mega-construct runes into an object. Dad has a hard time doing it himself, but i learn fast and was able to make the process more… efficient… by… okay, what now?!” Ventian finishes with exasperation, as the group, once more, is staring at him.

“Its… nothing, we just thought it wasn't possible to do it that quickly.” Livar replies.

“Oh. Anyways, as i was saying, i made the process more efficient by removing the malleability of the rune-magic itself. If the bag is broken, the contents will spill out instantly and the bag will become a regular bag.” Ventian finishes as the group now returned to walking along the road, when suddenly Vedaria yells out to the group.

“Theres a caravan coming this way, everyone move to the side of the path to make room.” As the group does just this, they now see the carriages moving towards them.

Oh cool, i knew these things existed but I've never seen a caravan group up close! Ventian thinks with a bit of excitement.

As the two groups pass each other by, Ventian looks more closely at one of the carriages. What is that symbol? Ive never seen that before. Deciding it doesnt matter, Ventian continues walking at a normal pace.

A few hours later, the group decides to make camp somewhat off the road a bit in case more carriages come by.

“We were lucky,” Vedaria begins “that nobody went by our path the last few days, but after that caravan I'm not taking any more chances. If we are in the way of, say, a nobles transport, then they wouldn't hesitate to go through our camp as they don't know us and likely wont care.”

Ventian agrees, knowing that some of the nobles he has met would be scummy enough to do something like that. Plus, now that he's away from the capitol, its likely nobody would believe him that he is the prince. Not like he ever pulls the ‘Im better than you and can prove it’ thing, as it were, nor does he believe in superiority by default, but still.

Ventian looks into his bag, and realizes something.

“Oh dear, i don't have anymore food. Uhhh… thats bad, right?” Ventian looks to Vedaria as he asks, getting a quick reply from the mare.

“Actually, we are getting close to a town with a shop that i know has pretty much anything you can think of. Im a friend of the family that works there too, so we might get a discount. Maybe.”

Rose then speaks up from next to Ventian, “‘Maybe?’ That doesn't seem like you to be unsure of something.”

“Do they have those chocolate things?” Ventian asks, as he enjoys chocolate. Even the word makes him giggle a bit inside.

“Yea, but its kinda on the expensive side. The cheapest I've seen their candies were around two gold.” Vedaria replies.

The currency exchange of the metal pieces goes like this: ten copper bits make one silver. Ten silver bits are one gold. Twenty gold is one platinum, and twenty-five platinum is one Deonnian, which are bits made of mythril, a very rare magical metal. Because of course they made the most expensive part of their currency named after the ruling family.

“Two gold, huh? Well. Good thing ive got…” looking into his bag, he takes out a few bits of teal colored coins. “Oh. So… this would be too much?”

Everyone is staring at the coins with wide eyes. “Are… those mythril?” Leva asks.

“Um… these are Deonnian bits. So… yes?” Ventian once more becomes nervous at the attention.

“Then yes. Those are too much. Did you bring other kinds of bits with you, or just ten of the most valuable material on the planet?” Vedaria questions.

Looking back into the bag, and placing the Deonnian bits back as well, Ventian speaks again.

“Oh yea, i got a few bags of gold and silver in here. No copper or platinum though… guess i didn't think about that. I did kinda rush out of my room. Heh.” With a sheepish grin, he looks back at the group to see… everyone giggling to themselves. Even Livar seems to be enjoying himself.

Huh. He does seem to have lightened up to me… thats a good thing, right? as Ventian finishes his thought, Rose speaks up.

“Hey, prince? What is your favorite food? Ive only ever seen you eat bread, but that can’t be the only thing you like.”

Focus Swap: Livar

While the prince explains what food he likes to Rose, Livar is thinking about what just occurred. Of course money like that isn't a big deal to him. He might not be a pretentious prick like i thought he would be, but he's still The Prince. He’s just… approachable. He's spoiled, but not to the point where he scoffs at other peoples opinions like they don't matter.

He seems to actually… care. About us, and our words. I mean, we pointed out a problem with his thinking and he acknowledged it! He actually considered our points of view. I… i will admit i was wrong about him at first, and i know i should apologize for my behavior but… ill do that later.

Focus Swap: Vedaria

As Ventian and Rose speak about what foods they like, Vedaria can only think about what just happened. Hmm… I've seen Mythrils before, but not that many. I could buy a house with that much, and the Prince just… casually brings them out like they barely mean anything? Of course he did, and of course it doesn’t matter to him. He might be trustworthy, but he is still royalty. He’s not a brat but he is spoiled.

Maybe there was some truth in the obvious lie of the kings claim of wanting his son to learn to live on his own. The prince does seem a little sheltered, at least socially. No friends during his foalhood, he most likely became bored of whatever schooling he’s had as he seems very intelligent by the fact that he can hold a conversation with our resident super-nerd. grinning at her own thought, Vedaria continues her train of thought.

From what i can see, Prince Ventian is an intelligent, friendless royal with little social contact outside of his father, the king, who probably has the opinion that Ventian should learn things on his own. Growing up, he likely had little opportunity to even talk with other ponies and the king probably gave him some speech about how friends would weigh him down, although given how the prince acts towards us, i doubt it sank in at all.

Which is a good thing, as Ventian seems to benefit from giving and receiving information, and he also enjoys it. He likes talking, and while its a tad egotistical, he cant help that. He is a prince after all. Maybe… maybe its worth it to befriend him. I could try to ask the question, but ill do that when we get to town.

Focus Swap: Ventian

After conversing with Rose about what foods they liked, they agreed that, while chocolate is good, its somewhat unhealthy. And Rose has never tried a type of bread called ‘Brioche’ before, Ventian insists that its ‘awesome to taste, and its healthy too.’

Rose seems to enjoy sweet but healthy foods, while Ventian will eat anything as long as its clean. When asked by Livar if he would eat grass if he had too, Ventian replied “First off, Gross. Second, absolutely not. And Third, gross” to which Livar replies that Ventian said gross twice.

A few more hours pass, and the group gets ready to sleep as the sky begins to darken in preparation for the night.

And as they enter their tents, Livar walks up to Ventian’s tent door to say something.

“Hey, so. I know i was kinda unfair to you, and maybe you didn't notice, but i just wanted to say that I'm sorry for being angry at you for no reason.” As he says this, Ventian looks at him with a smile.

“Hah. Its alright. Im actually used to people hating me for no reason. Some noble once ran into me in the castle and thought i was some random alicorn and acted all angry, demanding why i was there, and when i pointed out a picture next to us, he realised. That it was a picture of me and my dad!” Laughing a bit at the memory, he then goes on the say “So like i said, its alright. And if it makes you feel better…”

“I forgive ya.” He then raises his hoof and Livar looks at it, smiles, and hoofbumps the prince, who then says.

“Oh and another thing, please call me Ventian from now on. Id like to think we are friends. As long as you want to be as well.” Livar then looks at him in shock for a moment before smiling once again.

“Why wouldn't i wanna be friends with the prince? Alright Ventian, i guess we’re friends now.” Livar then exits the tent to go to his own, and Ventian closes the door with a smile.

Friends. Father said friends are useless, but he also lied about the reason why im even here at all. Maybe i should enact some spite for him lying… and become friends with these ponies. They definitely are friendly, and i like them.

Friends... Ventian drifts off into sleep and, for once, is truly happy.

Chapter Five: Changes

Focus: Livar

After leaving Ventian’s tent, Livar walks to his own tent where his sister is waiting for him.

“So, what did you have to say to the prince?” She asks in a hushed tone as others are trying to sleep.

“Actually, i apologized. And Ventian accepted it, and even offered to be friends.” Levar replies with the same tone and a slight smile on his face.

Leva seems surprised. “Wait, did you just call him…?”

“Yeah, he asked me to call him by name. Not to mention its probably a smart move going into town. Dont want to cause too much unnecessary attention.” He says with a serious look on his face.

Leva stares at Livar in thought. “Yea, I didn't think of that. Is he really okay with that though?”

“I don't see why not.” Livar answers honestly “He is… not what I originally thought. Anyways, I'm going to tell the group to stop calling him prince in the morning. Goodnight Leva.” Livar’s voice becomes quieter as he talks, until he falls asleep.

Leva’s eyes close as she recedes further into her sleeping bag as she yawns “‘Night.”

Focus Swap: Ventian

As Ventian wakes up, he sees that its still dark outside. Huh. Guess I woke up early, he thinks to himself as he gets up quietly and opens his bag to check the contents.

Gold and Silver bit bags, the mythrils I don't think I'm going to use… out of food, but I'm not willing to eat grass. Ventian shudders at the thought. I've got the VoidRock and my project with me… wait, why did I bring that? Did… was I just thinking about it and decide to bring it with? I dunno, maybe it could be useful.

As his thoughts continue, he hears something coming from the forest. “hey look, is that a camp? Lets go check it out.”

Moving silently, Ventian opens the tent door ever so slightly in an attempt to see who is out there.

As his eye moves across the tiny view slot he made, he spots someone unfamiliar.
What… is that a pony or a deer? Maybe a hybrid? I see antlers but his stature is that of a pony, who is that? And who was he talking to-

Eyes widening a bit, he sees someone else with a foxlike appearance and multiple tails come out of the forest next to the new pony. Oh shit, thats a kitsune. What is a kitsune doing HERE?!

The kitsune speaks quietly to the other pony. “Hmm… three tents. Not what we are looking for. And none of them have the Arventine on them. Lets move on, they went by here, im sure.”

’Arventine?’ What is that? What are they looking for? Ventian then retreats from his position, quietly closing the tent doors zipper as to not alert them.

Of course, he forgot to take into account that kitsune ears are very sensitive. “Huh? I think someone here is awake. Lets go.” Both of them then dart back into the forest.

After several minutes pass, Ventian begins to think about what just happened. What. The hell. Was that?! I… I don't think it matters. I mean, I've never seen a kitsune before, but who was that other… Im kind of reluctant to say that he, and I'm sure it was a he, was a pony. He seemed like one, but those horns weren't a pony feature. They didn't look like a dragons horns, more like a deers, but also not.

Ventian softly sighs to himself before admitting that, whatever the case, it doesn't matter. He just wants to rest again. Im kind of getting tired of thinking about all these things that I cant do anything about!

Falling asleep, Ventian tries to forget about the two unknown people that were just there.

As Ventian opens his eyes, he sees daylight filtering through his tent. Getting up, he grabs a gemstone from his bag with his telekinesis and channels magic into it.

This Stone of Cleaning I brought with me should help. it might not be a very sanitary replacement for a bath, as it doesn't get rid of germs, but it makes me feel cleaner.

With that done, he exits the tent with his bag in his aura. As he walks out, he sees that nobody else is awake yet so he walks towards the designated waste spot that was established when they made camp the previous day.

Finishing his business, he walks back over to his tent and hears someone else waking up. Sounds like Livar. He really does get up early, doesn't he?

Looking up at the sky, Ventian makes note of something that crossed his mind a few days ago. He and i both get up pretty early in the morning… is it because he needs to cast whatever spell he was casting around the camp the other day? I wonder what spell it is…

Ventian walks back to his tent and ponders a question that surprisingly scared him a little. How long am I going to stay with these people? They seem friendly enough, I get along well with Leva and Rose, but they all call me ‘Prince.’ I know thats who I am, but is it really who I want to be? No. I want to be Ventian, the friendly nerd thats willing to share things that nobody asked!

Chuckling lightly at his own thought, he sees Livar walking around the campsite.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Ventian asks, with a questioning expression.

“Oh, good morning Ventian. Well, I've just been making sure nothing snuck into our camp over night. Nothing seems off from what I've seen.”

Ventian is surprised at this because, Wait, Just last night there were…

“Hey Livar… do you know if your spell can detect spirits?” Ventian asks carefully.

Livar’s expression becomes that of confusion. “Um… no? Its a Physical based detection spell, so i think Mega-based life form would stay undetected. Why? Do you think there are spirits in this forest?”

“Um… maybe? Spirits are unpredictable most of the time. And its just a random thought i had. Physical based detection spell? I know a few of those, but not very well. Only in practice.” Quickly dismissing the topic so Ventian doesn't have to think more on those two, he moves towards the road and waits for the others to wake up.

A half hour later, and the group begins to pack up the campsite. Ventian uses his magic with practiced ease to fold his tent away, and place it in the tent bag that Vedaria gave him to use.

As the others prepare to get going, Livar says while pointing at Ventian “Hey everyone, i just want to warn you all to not call him the prince while in town. I think its better if nobody knows that he's royalty. Not many people know his real name anyway.”

Vedaria then nods her head, “Yes, i agree. As long as Ventian is alright with us calling him by name?” As she finishes, she looks at the prince.

“Alright,” Ventian responds with a smile “I have no problem with that. Actually, I was going to tell everyone to call me that way anyway.”

“Good. Alright, lets get going. I want to get to Adifoll before midday.” Vedaria says as she and the group begins to walk in the direction of said town.

‘Adifoll.’ That must be the name of the town she mentioned. I’ve only ever seen the capitol, i wonder what the town looks like.

“Hey Ventian. Here.” Livar speaks up, and levitates the prince an apple.

“Oh. Thanks Livar!” Ventian bites into the apple while holding it in his aura.

Approaching the town entrance, Ventian notices multiple things.

There was a sign reading ‘Adifoll’ in big letters above the doorway that was embedded in the wall that seemed to circle the entire town, letting people in and out if the guards in front of the gate allowed it.

As the group gets closer, two guards intercept them.

“Hey,” said one of the guardsponies, to Vedaria who was at the front of the group approaching the town. “Its four silver to enter this town.” Vedaria’s face contorts in anger.

“What?! I was here just two weeks ago and there was no entrance fee. What the hell happened?!”

“Sorry, but recent changes to our towns caravan traffic, the mayor decided to implement an entrance fee due to being so close to the capitol.” The guard said, face displaying no emotion.

As the group had to wait for Vedaria to sift through her bag to get the correct amount, Ventian continues to look at what little of the town he could see through the gate.

Several minutes later, and the group is allowed into the town.

“Is that not normal?” Ventian asks Vedaria as they walk through the entrance.

The other alicorn looks at him oddly and replies, “Kind of? Its a populated shopping town that happens to be out of the way of most routes, but I didn't think this town would have an entrance fee so quickly. This place was founded twenty years ago!”

“Is that fast?” Ventian asks. Twenty years?

“Yea, I mean, look around, see how many people are buying and selling? This place could run itself if the mayor-“ cutting herself off, she shakes her head while saying, “nevermind.”

Ventian looks around him at all the little shops that he wouldn't have seen if he stayed in Deovardin. There were food salespeople, shops selling jewelry and clothes, ponies walking from building to building going about their day. Not much attention is given to the group, just some glances from strangers.

Good thing I've never been one for expensive clothing or wearing gems. I once saw an alicorn fail to take off due to wearing too much gold. Ventian chuckles at the memory.

Vedaria directs them to a hotel that she mentioned on the way to the town, and as they enter the three story building that literally has the word ‘Hotel’ above the entrance, Ventian sees something he has never seen before.

A creature with a catlike appearance with wings and a birds head was standing at the front entrance desk talking to the clerk.

Thats… a griffon, right? Ive read about them, but never thought I would see one! Then again, I did see a kitsu- He shakes his head as he interrupts his own thought.

The griffin moves away from the desk after nodding and saying “Thanks” in a surprisingly deep voice. He glances at the group for a moment before moving towards the stairs leading up to the rooms.

Vedaria approaches the hotel clerk and brings out a small wooden card, then shows it to the clerk whose eyes widen on seeing whatever may be on the card. The clerk then gives the alicorn a set of three keys on a ring and Vedaria puts the card back in one of her bags.

Nodding, she comes back to the group who were standing off to the side. “Alright, lets go look at our rooms. I got us two connected rooms so we don't have to enter the hall to talk to each other.” Rose walks up next to Vedaria, and the two unicorns walk next to each other behind them with Ventian in the back.

The group walk up the stairs to the second floor, then enter a long hallway filled with doors and an interesting carpet pattern on the ground.

“Rooms 124 and 125 are the rooms we are looking for.” Vedaria says. “Me and Rose get 124 and you three get 125.” She says while looking at Ventian, Leva and Livar.

Ventian tilts his head a bit at this. One hundred and twenty-five? Theres no way theres that many rooms here, and all the numbers are in order so it cant be random- ohhh that makes sense. It must be that the one means floor one!

As Ventian thinks, the group get to the end of the hall and see, on the left side, two doors right next to each other. Both doors have numbers on them in metallic letters which read 124 and 125.

“Alright, you can all set up your rooms while I am going shopping.” Rose declares, turning around and walking down the hallway back to the stairs.

Ventian’s stomach makes a noise. “Oh dear, I forgot. Im also going to go look around for food. Livar, wanna come with?” He asks while looking at the unicorn.

That apple earlier was not enough, I need a meal. Ventian thinks to himself

Livar smiles and replies, “Yeah, I've been here before so I know what places you might like. Cmon.” He finishes, jerking his head in a ‘follow me’ motion.

Ventian nods and replies, “Alright” and follows him as they both go to exit the hotel while the last two mares watch them leave.

Chapter Six: Questions

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter Seven: Answers

Focus: Ventian, Rose

“What. The hell. Was that?!”

As Ventian and Rose remain staring at each other in confusion and fear respectively, Ventian thinks of the only possibility.

Shes a changeling isn't she? I mean, I guess I couldn't have known, as changelings are masters of disguise and deception, but really? Rose? And I thought Vedaria had secrets.

Rose begins to stutter out an attempt at a response. “I- im- you can- I mean- I can explain?”

“Tell me.” Ventian demands.

Rose suddenly becomes slightly confused. “Tell you… what?”

“What are you?” Ventian tries his best to make a straight face.

“You know what I am…” She responds, eyes looking toward the ground.

“I want to hear it from you.”

“Okay… I am a changeling. There, I said it.” She finishes, still looking at the ground.

“Alright then. Thats kinda cool.”

Rose’s face turns to surprise instead of just fear, and she looks up and sees Ventian isn't angry, but now has a big grin on his face.

“I mean, first I see that griffon, now one of my first ever friends turns out be a changeling? Ive never even thought I would see a changeling! Although… I may have met one and didn't even know! That was your plan, right?” Ventian asks while Rose’s face become less of fear and more of incredulity.

“You… don't care? Your father hates changelings! I thought-“

“I am not my father.” Ventian says with a surprising amount of seriousness. “I don't get why people think that. The nobles acted like that, but I assumed they didn't want to disrespect me, but you're my friend and you know that I know that, otherwise your first reaction to my discovering you might have been to attack me or run away or something. By the way, who else knows?”

Rose tilts her head, feeling oddly relieved that she was right about him being the kind to ask questions. “Who else knows Im a changeling? Vedaria and… some other people you don't know.” She answers honestly.

“Hmm. Okay then. One more thing.” He says.

“What is it?” She asks.

His face returns to a smile. “Promise me you'll tell me everything interesting about your species. I like learning new things, you know that. Im sure I said that at some point.”

Rose perks up, fear mostly completely gone now. “Oh, okay! I cant tell you everything though… only some things.”

“Okay. One last thing, can you turn back into your uh… real form? I wanna see you for real.” Ventian’s eyes light up as he brings out a small piece of paper and a pen.

Rose then lights up into green flame as Ventian flinches back a bit, and becomes a smaller, black pony-shaped chitin-covered creature.

“Oh thats cool! You're so small now!” Ventian says a little too loud as he writes down what she looks like.

Rose returns to her alicorn form in another burst of green, and says. “Okay, thats enough outta you. We should go back into the hotel before more people see me, and I am going to tell Vedaria that you know now. Don't tell the other two, I still don't know if Livar would be alright with knowing and I know Leva cant keep a secret.” She says seriously.

Ventian just nods with a smile remaining on his face.

I probably should take this more seriously, but who can honestly say that they met a changeling and managed to learn things about them! I may be the first of my family to have met one alive. I know my father has killed some of them, but I'm sure he never got the chance to ask them questions.

As Rose and Ventian walk back into the hotel, they both keep thinking about what just occurred. Ventian, knowing that by tomorrow he may forget some things, uses his pen to write some notes about the conversation he had with Rose.

Changelings seem to shapeshift via a burst of green magic that resembles fire. Could potentially be used to confuse less intelligent animals or even extremely unintelligent people. I will ask how the Empathic power works, but its getting too late for that. Also, I may want to ask how Rose and Vedaria met, and when Vedaria discovered Rose was a changeling.

Twelve minutes later
Focus Swap: Vedaria

“Wait, he knows? Knows wha- oh. Oh no.” Vedaria, after Rose tells her the new development, is now wide eyed.

“So… what did he do?” Vedaria asks carefully.

“Heh. I was kinda scared at first, but he really didn't seem to care all that much. I mean, he wanted to know more about me, but nothing went wrong.” Rose answers sheepishly, somewhat embarrassed she got caught by Ventian of all people.

“He is so freaking naive that I'm almost convinced its an act. What did his emotions look like?” Vedaria, still somewhat unsure about Ventian being nice, asks Rose.

“Just confusion, some curiousness, and a tiny bit of excitement. Nothing negative, not even the tiniest feeling of betrayal. He really didn't care that I wasn't what I seemed to be.”

“Of course not. I think I understand him a bit, enough to guess what he was thinking, and I have come the conclusion that he would never have felt betrayed.” Vedaria says with certainty.

“What do you mean? How wouldn't he feel betrayed?”

“Well, maybe he has the idea that he wasn't betrayed because he you never gave the indication of it being otherwise. He also doesn't blame you because he may know its in your nature as you are… what you are.” Vedaria finishes explaining.

The prince- no. Ventian isn't what I thought at first. Understanding, I expected, but this level of ‘I don't care what you are as long as you're my friend’ is just… Why?! Does he not have any suspicion whatsoever that we may be lying to or manipulating him in some way? Does he really trust us that much? It may get him killed!

Then again… maybe it is to his advantage, that he got us as a group. Both Rose and I are good at seeing if someone is lying, not to mention my previous skills as a monster hunter, I think Ventian gets the feeling that he doesn't have to worry about us. If we wanted to do something bad to him, we would have done it in the forest on the way here, and he knows that.

I think he knows that. Unless he’s too naive to see that as well, but in that case the facts don't line up. He’s smart enough to figure things out, but information is just information for him, if he thinks it doesn't matter, he may not think to consider alternate implications. Maybe thats why he trusts us, he just doesn't want to consider otherwise. His father told him to come with us, so he does.

I wonder if I should tell him about that thing that happened sixty-five years ago… no, thats not for me to tell.

As Vedaria thinks, Rose is getting into bed.

“Hey, why are your emotions all mixed up again?” Rose asks.

“Just thinking. Its getting late, isn't it?” Getting onto one of the bottom bunks, Vedaria covers up to sleep.

Rose does the same on the other side of the room. “Goodnight Veddy.”

“Don't call me that.” Vedaria says with a grin.

Next morning…
Focus Swap: Ventian

As Ventian awakens, he sees that he has fallen off the very small bunk bed and is now wrapped in his blanket on the floor. He also sees that Leva and Livar, in the bunk on the other side of the room, are still asleep.

Rose is also here. Wait what?

“Hi Ventian, good morning.” She says from the doorway connecting the two rooms.

“Um. Hi? Good morning to you too… uhh. I seem to be stuck.” He says, trying to get out of his blanket that seems to have twisted around himself, locking one of his legs against his body. “Help?” He asks.

Rose rolls her eyes and replies, “You have magic, doofus.”

Oh! Right… also, did she just call me ‘doofus?’

Getting out of his sheet prison, he stands up and faces Rose, who has walked closer to him.

“Whats up?” Ventian asks.

Rose just tilts her head. “Oh, nothing. I just decided to want to talk to you. Didn't know if these two were still asleep or not.” She says while looking over at the siblings’ bunks.

“Huh. Usually Livar is up before me. Guess that was just during travel.” Ventian remarks.

Rose’s face become odd for a moment, but goes back to a smile as she faces Ventian again. “So, you wanted to talk about… ya know?” She asks.

Ventian blinks before remembering. “Oh, right. That. Not right now, what if they wake up? Obviously you must have a reason for not telling them. Heck, you weren't even going to tell me! Not that I blame you for that, I understand.” Ventian finishes with a smile.

“You really don’t care, do you? What if I'm manipulating you or something?” She asks.

“If you were, you wouldn't have asked me that question.” Ventian replies confidently.

Rose just sputters. “I-wha- but- it- huh?”

Ventian just grins. Grins2, even. So much grin that its almost physically impossible to have that much grin.

“Heh, You're kinda cute when you're confused like that.” Ventian says, before both realize what he just said.

Wait, where did that come from?!

Rose just blushes and quietly says, “Thanks…” before walking back into her room and closing the door.

Ventian, despite his thoughts, continues to smile.

Okay, seriously, where did THAT come from?! That wasn't very appropriate! Why did I say that?!

Smile dropping, Ventian places the bedsheets back on the bed and sits on it.

“Weird. That was totally weird.” A voice from the other side of the room speaks.

Livar, being the one that spoke, is sitting on the bottom bunk below his sister with a smile.

“You're weird.” Ventian retorts childishly.

“Says the alicorn thats scared of Teleporting!” Livar laughs. Ventian frowns. I told him not to mention that!

“Yeah, well. You're scared of heights! Thats weird too!” Ventian replies, now trying his best to not laugh.

“Both of ya, shaddup. ‘M trying to sleeeep.” Leva speaks up from above her brother.

The two stallions just continue to fake-glare at each other, each daring the other to provoke the sleeping unicorn mare.

They both then decide, at the same time, to just giggle quietly as they can.

Still, it wasn't enough to appease the sleeping mare, so she just uses her magic to slap the both of them in the face with several pillows.

“Why do you even have that many pillows?!” Ventian yells at the unicorn mare currently assaulting them with what seemed to be a comical amount of pillows.

“Fuck you, thats why!” Said mare responds, continuing to bash her brother and the prince with pillows, when suddenly, all the pillows stop as an orange aura overtakes Leva’s magus.

“Well then, face the wrath of an alicorn with Fine Mastery of Multi-Telekinesis!” Ventian declares, burying Leva in several pounds of fluffy material covered in fabric.

“Dude, she better be okay.” Livar says, not really believing that Ventian hurt her.

“Shes fine, I think she just fell asleep.” Ventian responds, lifting a few pillows and discovering that she indeed fell back to sleep. Probably as soon as she got buried.

“Also, What was that you said? ‘Fine mastery of telekinesis?’” Livar asks.

Ventian just shakes his head. “Just the words I use to describe using TK to control multiple objects. Its easier for me to understand than just, ‘Telekinesis that is cast in such a way, that the user can manipulate multiple objects in varying positions at one time, directing them across separate axis.’” Ventian quotes in monotone.

Cant believe father taught me that kind of magic when I was nine, the typical age for alicorns to learn magic is twelve to fifteen, and thats just the simple stuff! But he just haaad to rush it.

Livar just stares and nods. “Okay, thats understandable.”

About Seventy minutes later

As the two stallions were in the middle of playing chess, Leva finally woke up for real.

She just walked down the steps on the end of the bunk, grabs some things from a bag and enters the bathroom.

“Hey, Leva’s awake.”

“Stop distracting me.” Livar is currently trying to win against Ventian, to no success.

“I don't need to distract you, you seem to be doing ba- I mean, good enough on your own.” Ventian corrects himself with an innocent smile.

Livar just frowns, looks at the chessboard, and frowns some more. So much frown that its almost physically impossible. Frown3, even.

He moves a piece. Ventian points to one of his own. “Cant do that, you would be opening up your queen.”

Livar replaces the piece. He moves his king across the board. Ventian nods.

“Okay.” He slides his rook directly into Livar’s king.

Livar commits face-table. The pieces fall over.

“Aww, don't rage-quit on me now. It was just getting fun!” Ventian says with a shit-eating grin.

Livar, still with his snout on the table, horn pointing toward Ventian, just mumbles.

“You've beaten me four times already, I haven't even won once. How is this fun?” The somewhat frustrated unicorn asks.

Ventian just replies with “Fun isn't winning. Fun is playing the game, and Fun isn't about the game, its how you play it.”

Livar, sitting back up just looks at Ventian. “Huh. Thats some philosophical shit right there.”

Ventian shrugs. “I don't have respect for philosophy. Either you live the way you want to, or you don't.”

“Based.”

“What?”

“Nothing, just a word some people use.”

“What does it mean?”

“Something like not caring what others think of you or something. I might be wrong though.”

“Okay.”

Both of them just remain sitting at the table, staring at each other in front of the useless window.

“Why does this window exist?” Ventian asks.

“I said that too! Kinda useless, isn't it? Cant see shit.” Livar remarks, laughing a bit.

After a while, Livar speaks up. “So… What was up with Rose earlier?” He asks.

“What do you mean?” Ventian replies.

“That whole… thing you said.”

“How much did you hear?” Ventian asks, kinda nervous now.

“Just the really awkward part. You called her cute.”

“HE DID WHAT?!” Leva speaks, having exited the bathroom just as soon as Livar said that.

“Uhh, nothing! You don't need to-“ Leva then walks quickly in front of Ventian, and stares directly into his eyes.

“What. Did you. Say? Tell me everything!” Leva, not having heard him and Rose talk earlier, is now filled with curiousness.

“Leva, calm down.” Livar says, trying to get Leva to stop harassing Ventian.

“Fffine. So what happened?” She asks after backing away a bit, still staring at Ventian with eyes narrowed.

“Rose came in here while you two were asleep and we talked, but then I said something that I probably shouldn't have and she left, but Livar heard me. Thats all.”

“Oh. Well maybe you should go talk to her and Vedaria about it while Livar tells me his side of the story.” Leva says confidently while pointing to the door connecting their rooms.

“Okay…” Ventian reluctantly stands back up and walks towards the door, opening it to see Vedaria alone in the room. She looks away from the window she is currently sitting in front of to see who entered the room.

“Ventian, hello. Come on in, lets talk.” She says with a smirk while getting up to walk towards him.

Ventian closes the door behind him. “You were expecting me?” He asks.

“Kinda. Rose told me what you said, and I have to agree. She is kinda cute, isn't she?” She says, smirk turning into a grin, so much grin that the grin itself is grinning. Grinception.

Anyway, Vedaria knows whats up, and Ventian does too. “Thats not exactly what I said…” he says, trailing off.

“Doesn't matter. Im sure you meant it.” Vedaria says with a knowing smile.

“Okay… so, I actually have some questions for you.” Ventian says, trying to make this conversation less awkward.

Vedaria stops grinning, going neutral now. “What are your questions?” She says more than asks.

Ventian thinks about something. As he brings out a paper from his bag, Vedaria’s eyebrow goes up.

“Why do you- alright then, I guess you came prepared.” She says.

“First off, that card made of wood you have, the one you showed to the clerk yesterday? What is it?” He asks.

Vedaria seems surprised and nervous at this question. “Oh, a friend of mine gave it to me. He’s kinda… well I wouldn't say ‘friends’ but he and the mayor know each other. So I kinda have privileges here that you probably would have back at the capitol.”

“Yeah, seems like it. Though there were some places I couldn't go on my own in the castle. Anyway, second thing. When did you and… Rose meet?” Ventian asks, pausing a bit before saying ‘Rose.’ Is that her real name? Probably not. I mean, she probably has other names she uses. She IS a changeling.

“Over thirty years ago, I used to be a monster hunter. I got a contract to hunt some kind of large scary beast made of wood and stone, when in fact it was just some guy-“ She shakes her head.

“Anyway, long story short, she was friends with a nature spirit, well, half spirit, and I decided to get to know them. Never did get payed for that, but I got some new friends out of it so its whatever.” She shrugs as she finishes her sentence.

“Half spirit? Interesting.” Ventian thinks. Could that be… no, even thats too much of a leap for my thinking. Theres no way that not-pony deer thing is who she’s talking about. Even though he dismisses it, the thought bothered him.

“Last question. How old are you?” Ventian asks.

Vedaria deadpans. “You aren't supposed to ask a mare her age ya know.” She says in monotone.

Ventian just tilts his head in confusion. “Why not? Its not like it matters for us alicorns, you could be a thousand years older and look the same, only a bit taller.” He says with confusion lacing his voice.

Vedaria blinks. “Its not that- Fine.” She cuts herself off, deciding to not argue with the oblivious stallion. “Two hundred six.” She bluntly states.

Ventians eyes widen. “Oh. Well, goes to show how well the whole ‘cant age’ thing works. Coulda sworn you were below a hundred, but thats what I get for assuming.” He remarks.

Vedaria just rolls her eyes.

“So, wheres Rose at?” He asks.

“I dunno, she left after telling me what you said to her. Probably to go for a flight, you really surprised her with that.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“No need to apologize, I'm sure she appreciates the complement.” Vedaria says, grin once more appearing.

Ventian then decides that he is done with the talking for now, and walks into the other room.

Where Leva and Livar are playing an intense game of chess.

Ventian looks over at them to watch as Livar seems to keep losing over and over again, growing in frustration.

Yeah, I think Ill just ignore that… Its only funny when I do it. When Leva does it, its just kinda sad.

As Ventian walks out of the room, he hears Livar shout something very not foal-friendly.

Wow, sailor mouth much?

Shaking his head, Ventian closes the door and walks down the hall to exit the building and see if he can find a place to eat.

Author's Note

Ventian may be naive, but he isn't stupid.

Yes, he should have handled the whole changeling thing with more caution than he did, and him being too trusting may be a weakness, but he also knew that Rose wasn't going to be aggressive.

Ventian doesn't believe in preconceptions. He works with what facts and information he has learned, and if he doesn't know something, most of the time he may want to learn about it if he thinks it may be useful. Ventian would rather ask the changeling who they are, what they liked to eat the most, etc. than just deciding that its evil like other people would.

Another thing, Chess in this is basically the same as the real life version, but the king and queens power is swapped. So checkmate is capturing the queen, which can only move one space in any direction.

Chapter Eight: Information

Focus: Rose/Petonia

Laying on a cloud, up high above the town, away from anything that could bother her, she always enjoyed the peace and quiet that having cloud magic always gave her.

Hard to believe my first ever disguise was a unicorn. After I flew for the first time ever, I got scared. But now… Now I feel comforted by the freedom this gives me.

Freedom to think. To just relax, and not worry about anything at all. As she finishes her thought, she hears someone flying towards her location. “Huh?” She says aloud, getting up to see who’s approaching.

Ventian, somehow having found her location, flaps towards her cloud. “Hi Rose! Hold on, lemme do something…” he says, channeling magic for a moment before a cloud suddenly condenses below him, and he promptly lands on the fluffy structure.

Staring at Ventian with a confused look, Rose asks “So… whats up?”

He looks at Rose, smiles, and replies “The sky.”

To which Rose frowns. “Very creative.”

After a moment, Ventian speaks up again. “Anyways, now that we’re alone and nobody can see or hear us, I would like to ask questions about you and changelings.” He says with a confident smile.

If earlier is any indication, he may be testing me. To see if he can trust me, or maybe he really IS oblivious? I seriously cant tell. His emotions are so positive that its almost blinding.

“So…” Rose reluctantly starts. “Whats your first question?”

Ventian’s smile becomes more noticeable. “First off, how does changeling government work? Im assuming most of what I’ve read is false, so please explain everything you can.”

“Well that one is easy, there are actually three subspecies of changeling; Royal, Drone and Brood. Royals command the hive they rule over, are larger, tougher, and can survive longer without food than the other two kinds can. Drones are… well, what I am. We are the workers, and gather food and resources. In my hive, we drones help each other as much as we can.”

“What about the third kind?” Ventian asks.

Rose just looks away. “Its kinda weird to be explaining this to… well, you know. I feel like I should be more reluctant to share, but here I am explaining how my hive works to whats supposed to be my kinds greatest enemy…”

Head tilting, Ventian becomes confused. “What do you mean, ‘greatest enemy?’ Im your friend, not an enemy.”

“Not you, specifically. Your family. Deoniyas.” Rose states, looking back at the prince.

“You know your father has killed my kind before. What do you think he would do to me if he discovered me?” She asks rhetorically.

Ventian doesn't answer. “Alright… sorry. Please tell me more about your kind, Lets move on from… that.” He says, not wanting to think about that.

“Well, to answer your question, Broods are the ones that take care of the hive’s food storage, Nursery, and medical supply. They raise our larvae and nymphs to adulthood, make sure the hive’s food is properly spread out, and they naturally produce a sort of slime from their hooves that has healing properties.”

“Gross.” Ventian says to the last part.

“Heh. Yeah, it kinda is. But, the slime can repair most injuries that occur in the hive. Because our natural forms are exoskeletal, the healing slime can be applied directly to a crack or hole in our carapace and it almost instantly fixes it, depending on severity.”

“How effective is it on other tissue? Like, can it heal muscle or tendon?” Ventian asks, now thinking about possible applications for this healing product.

Rose shakes her head. “It doesn't work well on non-changelings, if thats what you wanted to know. It only heals superficial wounds, but anything below the surface requires surgery, which Brood changelings are also required to know.”

“Okay. Got it.” Ventian, having brought a notebook, begins to write everything he has learnt.

“Uhm. I probably shouldn't let you keep that.” Rose says, pointing to the book.

Ventian looks back at her. “Its not like anyone else reads my notes. Not even my dad does.”

Meanwhile…
Focus Swap: Aerlan

As the king searches through his sons’ notes for anything else that might be useful, he realizes that Ventian is much more observant about things he never even thought of.

So this is how he made that bag of holding so quickly… and that knife thats perfectly level is just ridiculous. Not to mention this schematic for a horn ring that only responds to one persons magus, how would anyone even use that?! Most of this I barely understand and its infuriating! Not wanting to get too mad, he leaves the papers where they are and leaves his sons room.

Focus Swap: Ventian

Shaking his head, Ventian continues. “Anyway, another question I have, do changelings have a hivemind?”

Rose squints, her nose scrunching a bit. “Well… its complicated. There are some cases where the queen can lay eggs that produce whats called “Blanks” which are basically mindless drones that cant reproduce, and the queen has personal magical control over them and can give them information via what you would call a hivemind. Its rare for kings to utilize this, as they have to… um… Impregnate female changelings that are basically almost dying of starvation to produce them.” She finishes nervously.

Ventian isn't bothered by any of this, however, and continues to write. Looking back up, he asks, “My next question, who were you talking to in that alley? Was that your queen?”

Rose just nods and says “Yes, that was my queen. I was just updating her on recent things, I assume you heard some of it?”

“Not really.” Ventian says while shaking his head. “I mean, I heard the last part about a sister or whatever, but after hearing your voice I kinda forgot about that. Then I saw you transform.”

“And thats when you came around the corner to confront me. Alright then. Is that… all your questions?” She asks.

“Well, I’ll think of some later probably. Right now I just wanna stay up here with you. You look lonely up here…” He trails off, looking at her with concern.

“Oh. Thank you.” Rose responds, not knowing how to feel.

And I thought I was the Empath. How’d he even find me up here? Voicing her thoughts, Rose asks, “How did you find me up here anyway?”

Ventian just deadpans. “I looked up and saw that this was only one small cloud in the sky. We’re close enough to the capitol that this areas weather is controlled by pegasi patrols, so I knew an errant cloud was unlikely.” He explains in near-monotone, clearly unimpressed.

He isnt done, however, “Are you sure you're a changeling? Because thats twice now that I’ve found you, once by accident even.” He observes, now smiling at the embarrassed pony in front of him.

“Well, I'm just out of practice is all. I haven't needed to hide like this since Everf-“ Rose cuts off, looking away and gritting her teeth.

“Who? Since what? Okay, now I'm suspicious.” Ventian says, fully wanting to interrogate her.

But, other thoughts come, and he decides its not the best option.

“On second thought, nevermind. I wont push it if you don't want to say, but I still kinda wanna know.” He says.

Rose just sighs. “Thanks. I really don't want to talk about that. Lets just say, that I had a friend a while ago, and if you and him met, then… I don't know what would happen.”

Ventian, now concerned, says “Okay, and how would I prevent me meeting this person?”

“I havent seen him or… the person thats with him in years, so I dont know where they are. They could be on the other end of the planet, or they could be near this very town… I hope not.”

“Why not? They're your friends, right?” Ventian asks, confused now.

“Its not a problem with me or Vedaria or anyone else, he-“ Rose, not wanting to say anything else, goes silent.

“Alright then, moving on. Is Rose your real name, or is it something else?” He asks, changing the subject.

Rose latches onto this immediately. “Yea, my name is actually Petonia. Although everyone just calls me Rose, even other ‘lings. Except for professional or emergency situations.”

“Petonia? Sounds similar to petunia.” Ventian observes.

“Huh. It does. I… honestly never connected that before. I even worked in a flower shop once, how did I not notice that?” Rose says, looking very confused.

“Yeah, names are weird. You did good choosing a modern name and not the traditional Old Therrish names like mine and my family’s. Did you know that my name literally means ‘Free Will’ in that language?”

“Really? Hmm… ‘venti’ which means freedom and ‘yedia’, shortened to ‘yean’ meaning willfulness, huh.”

“Wait you know Old Therrish? Thats cool.”

“Only passing knowledge, I've read some old books before.”

“Books are awesome though, right? You can learn so much and share so much too! I might decide to write a book myself, even.”

“About what?”

“I dunno, but it sounds fun.” Ventian shrugs.

“Maybe you could write about your life?”

“Nah. Not much important goes on in that thing. Anyway, what stories do you have? Im sure you got a few good ones, they don't even have to be true!” Ventian, now on the subject of stories, asks gleefully, eyes almost sparkling.

Rose thinks for a minute. “Alright, Ive got something, a fictional story I read once…”

A very long time ago, there was a spirit of pure good and a spirit of pure evil.
These two frequently battled over dominion of the world.
If these spirits ever stopped fighting, the world would be doomed.
One day, a gryphon found these two massive titans battling, and without knowledge of the consequences, he interfered.
The black beast of evil was freed from the clutches of the good spirit, and swiftly left the area to create chaos and destruction.
The griffon, having been explained to by the spirit of good of what he had just done, felt ashamed.
The good spirit, however, wasn't having it, and decided to fuse with the griffon in order to contain the dark spirit once and for all.

“Huh. That was a short story, but I understood the purpose. Basically stating that there are consequences to actions you take, even if you don't know what the consequences are.” Ventian observes.

Rose, surprised at how quickly he got it, just nods. “Yeah, that was the idea behind that story. Its all fake though, spirits aren't good or evil. But you knew that too I think.”

“Yeah, maybe. There could be a pure good or pure evil spirit.”

“No, actually. The most evil spirit I can think of is one that likes to trick people.”

“Alright, if you say so.”

Focus Swap: Cyvern/Everfree

“Interesting…” Everfree says, while looking at the Blank changeling that seemed to have started to follow him several hours ago, now dead on the ground in front of Almori.

“Who would do this? I thought we established to the other hives not to spy on us anymore?” Almori questions to no-one in particular.

“No idea. If we made an unknown enemy, we need to go to a safe place to restock and evaluate. I think our old group is in Adifoll, or around it at least. I’ll look forward to seeing Vedaria again.” Everfree says, fondly remembering the alicorn from several years ago.

“Right. Lets go then, we passed their camp the other day, anyway.” The fox says.

“What?! That was them? But there were three tents! And I felt five people, did someone else join their group while we were gone?” Feeling kind of left out, Everfree complains.

“It has been six years since then, its very likely.” Almori states. “And you really shouldn't use your life detection power to see the inhabitants of things like that. You may see something you don't want to.”

“Already happened once. And, honestly, at this point I'm not grossed out by anything anymore.” Everfree says confidently.

Before jumping at the sight of a particularly big spider. And totally not squealing like a foal.

As the kitsune laughs her tails off, Everfree gets back on track and they both continue to move towards the town they helped create, Adifoll.

Author's Note

Ventian has a glaring flaw, and its that he expects this entire adventure to be a good learning experience.

He doesn't realize that not all learning experiences are good.
He will soon though.

Also, Cyvern loves snakes, but dislikes insects and has arachnophobia. Not a good thing for what amounts to being a literal druid pony.

Life Detection detects life in general, and cant pick out specific people. You cant just look at three people through a wall and go “Oh hey thats Tomathy on the left.” Thats not how it works.

Chapter Nine: Visitor

Focus: Vedaria

“Hey Vedaria, wheres Rose?”

Looking up from the book she was reading, she sees that Livar had come into her room.

“I dunno, she and Ventian left about two hours ago.” Vedaria replies.

“Oh, okay. Was just gonna ask her to show me that camo spell she told me about. I’ll ask later then.” Livar walks back into the other room, closing the door.

Hmm… Im pretty sure Ventian is either wandering around the town right now, or he's with Rose. Not sure he can keep that secret, after all he did tell us that little thing about the dragons.

Then again, he didn't seem to realize that was supposed to be a secret, and a changeling showing him their true form is a big deal. Im still on the fence about him, but at least I know that he’s trustworthy. Unless, of course, he’s able to fake his emotions, but not even a psychopath can trick a changeling’s ability to sense intent. Empathic sense may be able to be tricked, but intent is completely different.

“I wonder whats really in that head of his…” Vedaria, thinking aloud, ponders to herself.

Shaking her head, she goes back to reading her book.

Focus Swap: Ventian
Two hours later

As he and Rose get back to the rooms, he sees Vedaria standing outside.

Stepping forward, the blue alicorn speaks. “Ventian, Rose, I would like you both to come with me.” She then walks back into her room.

“I wonder what this is about.” Ventian says. Rose doesn't reply.

Entering the room, it seems Vedaria moved the table from the window to the center of the room, a big map laying across it displaying… quite a lot.

That looks like a map of the kingdom, plus the surrounding areas, thats huge! I wonder where Vedaria even got that map.

Talking over the map are Livar and Leva, conversing- more like arguing over where to go next.

“But I wanna see the jungle! Ive never seen so many insects all at once before!” Leva shouts.

“Thats because I’ve always deterred them for you! Do you have any idea how many diseases are given just by mosquito bites? Not that many, but all of them can be deadly! And thats not even mentioning the-“ Vedaria interrupts with a loud, exaggerated cough.

“Alright then. If you are both done arguing, the other two are back.” She says, pointing out the two alicorns behind her. “Which means, we can vote now.”

Livar groans. “Why cant we just go to the safest place first? And only there?” He complains.

“Because its on the other side of-“ This time, Ventian interrupts.

“Hey, sorry but, what are we talking about? Because I'm confused.”

Vedaria looks at him, and points to a dark green colored location south-east of Adifoll.

“We are trying to decide where to go between three places on this map. First and closest is the Medovari Jungle which I’ve heard rumors a new temple was discovered deep inside. Temples tend to either be empty glorified tombs or places of great treasure, so if we go there we may find some valuable items.”

Pointing away from the jungle, and pointing west of the capitol, on the other side from where Adifoll is, is an ocean dotted with islands.

“Over here, in the Obsidian Sea, are some people in need of weather control as their pegasi keep migrating away before Cyclone Season. If you don't know what that is, basically a hurricane hits the area twice a year, once in winter during Hail Season, and in the summer during Cyclone Season. We wont stay that long, but they do need some weather help.”

Again, pointing far north of the capitol, the location seems to become icy and mountainous, judging from the key on the side that Ventian can see.

“And this is basically the most dangerous and longest journey we could possibly make. The Windigo Mountains. Home to Ice Spirits, and yaks for some reason. Anyway, this place has a colony of earth ponies attempting to build a town or something up there. In my opinion, we aren't going there. Livar and Leva agrees.” Vedria finishes, looking back at the two. “So what do you two think?”

“Huh.” Rose begins. “Ive been in a jungle before, and bugs don't bother me so I guess my vote is we go there.”

Ventian ponders all this sudden information. Crazy earth ponies, I mean no disrespect, but thats basically impossible to build that close to ice spirits. The jungle sounds okay, but from what Livar said, I don't think he can deter however many bugs are in the jungle. Sounds like a lot. The ocean… I dont have any experience with weather work so I would just feel left out, so… Deciding, Ventian says “Im gonna have to go with the Jungle. Sorry Livar.”

The unicorn stallion just sighs. “Its fine. I knew I was gonna lose anyway.”

“We can go to the Medovari Jungle then.” Vedaria speaks.

Suddenly, a knock can be heard from the door. Rose perks up, stares at it, and her eyes widen in fear. ”Oh… Oh no.”She whispers, Ventian barely hearing it.

The others, not hearing this at all, stare at the door as Vedaria walks over to it slowly.

“Who is it?” She says loudly.

A male voice speaks from the other side. “Its Everfree, open up Vedaria.”

Vedaria then opens the door swiftly and says “Everfree?! What are you doing here?!”

The… wait. Thats not a pony.

THATS HIM. THATS THE NOT-PONY I SAW THE OTHER NIGHT!! Wait, wheres the kitsune?

“I was just passing by, and the clerk downstairs mentioned you were here so I thought to give you a visit. So, who's the new guy?” He says, looking at Ventian.

Everyone then just stares at Everfree, not really wanting to speak.

Ventian, oblivious to any of this, speaks up. “So… what are you?”

Everfree chuckles a bit. “Heh. I used to be a pony, I assure you. I just got fused with a spirit is all. Happened a long time ago, I'm used to it.”

“Oh cool, my names Ventian, nice to meet you!” Ventian lifts his hoof in a motion to shake hooves and the half-spirit does the same.

“Nice to meet you too.”

Focus Swap: Rose
Approx. Ten seconds before door opened

As Vedaria walked toward the door, life seemed to slow down for the disguised changeling.

OHSHITOHSHIT,HESHEREOHSHITNONONO,WHYISHEHERENONOOHHHFUUUU-

“Who is it?” Vedaria speaks, Rose not being able to tell her ‘no don't!’

The voice of a friend speaks up. “Its Everfree, open up Vedaria.”

Oh No shes opening the door, please don't oh no.

As the door opens, Rose look over at Ventian and sees his eyes widen a bit.

Focus on other things. Why is Ventian surprised? Maybe because Everfree doesnt look like a pony? But then why is there a hint of recognition in his shock? No idea, I’m way too scared to focus, oh geez, oh no, oh crap- Not hearing them speak until now, she hears “So, who's the new guy?”

She then looks at Everfree, trying her best to have a neutral expression.

“So… what are you?” Ventian asks the person with the most hate for his family than anyone else in existance.

“Heh. I used to be a pony, I assure you. I just got fused with a spirit, is all. Happened a long time ago, I’m used to it.”

“Oh cool, My names Ventian, nice to meet you!” The male alicorn says, shaking hooves with Everfree.

Oh no, he didn't.

“Nice to meet you too.” Everfree says, letting go from the others hoof.

“So… whats up with the map?” Everfree says, walking past the alicorn to the table.

Vedaria swiftly moves over next to him and explains the situation.

Meanwhile, Rose is still quietly freaking out.

If Everfree ever learns- no, WHEN he learns that Ventian is the Prince, he's going to flip. Especially now since nobody warned him, because why would we? Before we knew him, maybe, but we actually like Ventian! And, for all we know, Everfree might want him dead for what his father did!

Focus Swap: Vedaria

As she finishes explaining to Everfree what the plan was, she adds on “We actually just finished voting on where to go, and we’re going to the Medovari, wanna come with?”

Okay. I can work with this. Kinda freaked out, needed to buy time to think, but now I know what to do. I’ll just make Everfree and Ventian get along, and when Everfree learns the truth, the anger would be lessened by fact and logic. Plus, he’s going to ask Rose about Ventian’s intentions and Rose wont lie and neither will I. Its almost foolproof. As she thinks, Everfree nods.

“Yeah I’ll come with, I’ve been there before too. The Medovari has quite a lot of snakes, most of which are venomous. Good thing I have magic that nullifies venom and poison, so bringing me with is a good idea.” Everfree states.

“Hold on, wheres Almori?” Vedaria asks, just realizing that the kitsune isn't here.

“Shes chasing a lead, oh yeah! I just remembered…” Everfree trails off, looking over at Ventian.

Leaning towards her, he asks “Can we trust him? I don't want to give secret information if we cant.”

Vedaria nods, whispering so only they can hear “Actually, Ventian discovered that Rose is a ‘ling about a day ago, and nothing bad happened.”

“Hmm… what was his reaction?” He asks, intrigued.

“He just asked questions. Not interrogated, just asked simple things about changelings, from what Rose said. It seems to me that he’s more the type to ask questions and make friends. No preconceptions with him from what I can tell.” Vedaria explains.

“Interesting. Do the siblings know yet?”

“No. I don't trust Livar with his fear of bugs, and I don't trust Leva to keep her mouth shut.”

“Makes sense. Still interesting that you trust the new guy more than Livar, when did he become a part of the group?”

“About a week or so ago. We just got to Adifoll from Deovardin.”

“That place? Why were you in the capitol?”

“Just business, we met him and he decided to come along.” Vedaria says, telling a half-truth.

“Alright then. Anyway, what I was going to say is that Almori and I found something disturbing following us. A Blank Changeling.”

Vedaria’s eyes widen. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure. We captured it, tried to interrogate it but then it just attacked us, so we had to kill it. No words, just the typical hissing of a blank, mindless drone.” He says, grimacing at the memory.

“Thats bad. I thought even blanks had enough intelligence to try and get away by using deception, but it just attacked? Thats not normal.”

“I know. Almori is attempting to figure out where it came from right now. I wouldn't worry about her being left out of the trip to the jungle anyway, she can catch up. If she wants to.”

Focus Swap: Rose/Petonia

As the others talk, Vedaria to Everfree and Livar to Leva, Rose and Ventian just kinda stand there awkwardly.

“Hey Rose? This is the guy you were scared of me meeting, right?”

“Yeah. Just my luck that this happens almost exactly after almost slipping up about it.”

“Why didn't you want to talk about him? He seems really nice.”

“Well, lets just say that he has the most reason out of anyone in the world to hate the Deoniyas family.” She says, making sure only she and Ventian can hear.

Focus Swap: ???
One week earlier…

As the imprisoned queen lay on the floor of her cell, she could only think about the beings in her control.

These blanks are so mindless. Sister wouldn't have even the slightest thought to use these things. Its disgusting, how easily I'm controlled just like how I'm controlling these things. I hate Aerlan, I hate Ponies, I hate Blanks, hate hate hate…

Hearing the vault door past her cell move, she sees the king walk through the doorway, seemingly enraged by something.

“Get up.”

“What do you want, Aerlan Deoniyas.” She says more than asks. She knows better than to ask.

“Send your blanks towards the area around Adifoll, and use a few to continue spying on my son and anyone following him. If you do this, I may let you feed again.” He demands.

“I suppose you will only do so if you gain some information of use then.” She states.

The King just replies “Perhaps.”

“Fine. I’ll do what you say. Not like I have a choice.” The changeling says.

“No. You don't.”

Author's Note

Alternate title: In Which Shit Begins To Go Down.

Also, Ventian doesn't know whats coming.
I mean, its not like Cyvern has any reason to absolutely despise the Deoniyas family or anything, right?

Also, that sister that Rose’s queen was talking about? Yeah, shes in Aerlans ~~basement~~ Vault.

Chapter Ten: Expedition

Focus: Everfree
Two days after leaving Adifoll.

“Why though?!” Everfree says, laughing at what Livar just told him.

“No idea! He even admitted that the spell itself is safe, but he just refuses to teleport! Its ridiculous, even I can do it!” Livar states, laughing alongside the half-spirit.

Meanwhile, Ventian is trying his best to ignore the two.

Everfree stops laughing and walks over to him.

“Hey, its alright. Its all in good fun, ya know?”

“Yeah, yeah. I know, I also know I told Livar not to say anything, but here he goes telling the whole world my irrational fear of Teleportation.” Ventian says, frowning.

“Well, at least you aren't a person that can control animals and are also scared of one specific kind of them.” Vedaria says from the front of the group.

Everfree looks at Vedaria with a warning glare. “Don't you dare…”

Vedaria grins back, and states “Everfree here is afraid of -mmmhph!” Everfree quickly places a vine over her mouth.

But Rose says from the other side of Ventian “He’s afraid of spiders.”

“HA! Thats funny. Now thats an irrational fear, didn't you say you were basically immune to poison?” The male alicorn says.

“Yes, but thats not why I hate them.”

Vedaria spits out the plant. “Everfree! Don't do that!”

Said half-fae just sticks his tongue out at her.

Three Hours Later
Focus Swap:Ventian

“Alright everyone, heres where we get off the path.” Vedaria says after conversing with Everfree for a few minutes as they stopped the group.

“The Medovari isn't actually mapped out, and is very hard to trek through. There arent any roads or paths, but there are landmarks. I and Everfree will call out the landmarks as we see them, directing us to where I heard the temple was. Only scouting parties have seen it so far, and I want us to be the first looters there. First come first serve and all that.” She turns to Ventian.

“How much can your Bag of Holding hold, exactly?” She asks him.

Ventian thinks for a moment. “Uhh… I haven't even filled it halfway, and I bought quite a lot of food in town. Oh! I also recently put a Preservation Array in it so it preserves things for a very long time. Still haven't completely figured out the Time Dilation effect, so its rudimentary. It can also keep cold things cold and warm things warm. Very little energy transfer. I’ll change it when I get the time to.”

“Wait, hold on… I thought only the maker of the bag can edit it?” Everfree asks.

“Oh yeah, I made this bag myself.” Ventian proudly states, as its his (second)best creation ever.

“So you're a Bag maker? Interesting…” Everfree stares at Ventian oddly, probably thinking, and shakes his head.

“Alright, good. I know those things are extremely valuable, so make sure you keep it safe.” Vedaria says, nodding.

“Yeah, don't worry about that. I learned a… very special spell a while ago. Not telling specifics, but lets just say that I cant lose this thing if I drop it.”

“Long Distance Tracking spell? Thats very complex.” Vedaria says, head tilting.

“Sure, yeah. Something like that.”

No way she didn't pick up on that half-lie. Don't gotta specify though.

“Anyways, I need you all to have these.” Everfree says, using vines to carry over… small metal bugs?

Rose’s eyes widen at the objects. “Oh. We’re using these things? Thats… huh.” She says, clearly nervous.

“These are communicators. They were made by… well, people that I know and trust. The bugs are activated by magic, and since we all are magic users, I suppose we all get one. They are called Globally Active Magical Message Artifacts, or GAMMA for short.”

“Can we just call them communicators? Gamma is a type of radiation and calling these that gives it a negative, not to mention superstitious, connotation.” Ventian states, getting odd looks from everyone. “What? Im a nerd. We all know this.” He says with a shrug and a grin.

“Alright then. Communicators, or ‘comms’ for short, is an acceptable alternative.” Everfree says.

Vedaria speaks up again. “Anyway, Livar is in charge of anti-pest spells as always, Leva is with me doing scouting, Ventian and Rose will be carrying supplies as well as our food and water, and Everfree will reduce the amounts of foliage blocking our path with his spirit powers.”

Everyone nods at this, and Ventian looks at the pathless forest they are about to enter.

Looks big. Vedaria said the jungle doesn't actually start for a few miles, until then its just regular deciduous forest like the last few days that we've been walking through. Heh, I’m kinda nervous. But thats okay, I have these guys to help me out if I'm ever in danger. And Vedaria put me with Rose, I guess that makes sense. Im good at support spells, things like Transmute and Rune-Crafting, while Rose is good at being a healer, despite the… sub-species difference.

I guess the changelings in her hive have more flexibility in their jobs than just the outline of their respective breeds. That doesn't matter though. Maybe I should increase the space in my bag? No, I’m sure theres enough. Plus, the Dimensional Compression array can only be stretched so far…

As everyone gets their stuff ready, making sure they have everything, the group moves forward into the forest.

Vedaria and Everfree in the front, Livar off to the right side with Leva on the left, Ventian and Rose in the back.

Occasionally, Leva stops to look at something and Livar has to get her to move again.

An hour passes with nothing eventful occuring. Two hours, three, then four, when finally the forest around them seems to begin to change. Trees begin to rise higher and higher blocking out the sun, plants around them having bigger stems and leaves, bugs and birds and other animals become louder and more colorful and the air becomes not just humid, but very hot as well.

Ventian begins to sweat after a few minutes, not used to being in such a hot, humid climate. Rose brings a small towel out from her saddle-pack and gives it to Ventian.

“Hhhh, thanks. Its so hot.” He says, huffing in exhaustion.

“Yeah, you get used to it. Once we get back to Adifoll in… oh about a month, you’ll think its cold over there.”

“A month?! Why would it take that long?” He asks, surprised.

“Usually these expeditions last longer than that, actually. We don't just barge into the temple, loot it and then leave. We have to scout it out fully, research the time period it was built by translating the usual hieroglyphs you typically find on the walls, check for traps- and checking for traps takes the longest, as we have to carefully map out every room and the exact locations of the traps- and also setting up camp, make sure the camp is in a defendable location, making sure monsters don't attack, and if anything does attack then we have to usually fight it off. Although traveling is easy, what with Everfree’s power to manipulate plants.”

Ventian just looks at her. “Oh. Okay. Thats a lot to do…”

A particularly big bird, a rainbow colored macaw, lands on Everfree’s back.

“Huh. Does that normally happen?” Ventian asks Everfree.

The half-spirit looks at the bird. “Yeah, thats normal. Animals just seem to be attracted to me. Its because the spirit I fused with was a Greater nature spirit, so its influence is very strong.” He says as the bird flies off into the trees.

“Huh. Alright then. As long as it doesn't attract monsters like a Hydra or whatever.”

“Pfft. You wont have to worry about Hydras, they live in swamps, not jungles. Manticores and Basilisks are the big ones we have to worry about here.” Vedaria says.

Ventian’s eyes widen. “Oh. Im beginning to see why Livar was reluctant to come here.”

Said unicorn just rolls his eyes.

I’ve read about manticores, but I’ve never heard of a Basilisk before.

Five hours later

After about three hours, Leva and Vedaria come back from scouting for good camp locations, Vedaria informing the group what they found.

“A cave, back wall is about twenty meters back with a clear river nearby it. Theres also a cliff-face we can camp next to, easily defendable although theres risk of rocks falling. Theres also the potential to make a tree-fort on a particularly sturdy tree, but that might take too long even with Everfree helping.”

“Cave.” Livar says. Nobody disagrees.

“Alright, cave it is then, and we don't have to worry about being trapped because Everfree can just dig a way out using his Geokinesis. The cave also happens to be close-ish to the temple, so theres that.”

“Its getting night time, we need to set up our stuff soon before it gets dark. You don't want to get lost at night in this place.” Everfree warns.

The group follows Vedaria towards their chosen location.

As the sun sets, and the dark fills the air, the group gets to the cave just as they hear a roar of something in the distance.

“Wow. Someones angry.” Everfree says, sitting near the entrance.

“What was that?” Ventian asks quietly.

“Manticore. Probably got attacked by another of its kind, that was a battle roar. Hunting roar sounds different.”

“Hows it sound different?”

“The sound is higher pitched, and shorter length when its hunting, due to it being part cat. Battle roar sounds… like what we just heard. Longer, deeper sound, meant to intimidate.”

“Cool. How far away would you say it is from us?”

“A few miles. Not too good, but its sense of smell is surprisingly low. It hunts at night, and uses sound and vibrations to find prey.”

“So they're nocturnal?” Ventian asks.

“Kinda. Despite the cat part, they don't actually sleep much. Most just prowl around their territory keeping other manticores and various threats away. If they sleep too long, they get taken advantage of usually. Its kinda funny when you see one sleep.” Everfree chuckles a bit, probably remembering something.

“You’ve been here before?”

“Yeah. With Almori.”

“Who's that?”

“My friend, who happens to be a kitsune. She’s nice, although she tends to be paranoid around alicorns. Took two decades for her to trust Vedaria. You seem likable though, so she may not be too suspicious of you if you meet her.”

“Thanks, I try to make friends as best as I can. I mean, these people are the first friends I ever had, but thats because I was way too busy back in Deovardin.”

“Hm… what did you do back in the capitol, exactly? Nobody has told me who you are, beyond that they picked you up there.”

Ventian hesitates.

Rose said he hates my family for some reason, but why? Did my father do something to him? Maybe its like Livar, where its just that the impression of my father makes people dislike me. But also, Rose was scared of him and I meeting, why? She said he has the most reason to hate my family, but that doesn't mean he would hate me. Grr, I want to say something, but I have a bad feeling about it for some reason.

“I don't want to talk about it right now, I’m just glad they let me come with.” Ventian says.

Everfree narrows his eyes. “I really want to know. Im not asking. What exactly did you-“

“Everfree.” Vedaria speaks up. “Stop pestering him. He doesn't want to talk about it.”

“Okay, but why does he know how to make Bags of Holding? Why is everyone so nervous when I'm talking to him? This whole trip, since I joined, has been tripping my ‘paranoia meter’ as Almori would say. What is up with him? Whats the problem?” He asks, standing up and facing the whole group.

“Its none of your business. Stop asking about it.” Vedaria says in a warning tone.

“Fine. When Almori gets back, she will tell me.” He says, sitting back down.

Ventian then walks away from the entrance, and to where Rose was setting up her sleeping bag in the back of the cave.

“Hey.” He says, getting out his own sleeping bag.

“Hi.” She replies, sitting down facing him.

“Long day. Good thing I brought plenty of water.”

“Drink sparingly, take small sips every so often. This place may be humid, but its also very hot, I recommend you keep yourself from exhaustion as much as possible. There are a ton of predators in this place that will take advantage of that.” She explains.

Ventian then brings out a comically large jug of water labeled ‘Ventian’s comically large jug of liquid.’

Everyone just looks at him in shock.

“What? You said to bring water, and I did. I even brought canteens with insulation enchantments.”

“Dude… that thing is bigger than the bag opening, how did you fit tha-“ Vedaria says, getting cut off by Ventian’s response.

“Muffin button.”

“Wh- what? What the hell is a muffin button?”

“Its for the water, duh.” Ventain replies.

Vedaria just sputters in confusion, shakes her head after a moment and decides to lie down.

Everyone else does the same except for Everfree, who is still guarding the entrance.

“We take turns keeping watch, Vedaria, Livar and I.” He says.

“Goodnight everyone.” Leva says from her bag.

Focus Swap: Almori

“What do you mean they left?!” She says in anger.

“They left a few days ago, talking about the Jungle to the south east of here. The Medovari, I believe.” The clerk says, cringing in fear at the angry fox-spirit.

“Hm… I see. Well then, I suppose if they were on a limited time frame then Everfree wouldn't have waited. Understandable, have a nice day.” She says, exiting the hotel that she uncreatively named ‘Hotel.’

Why did I choose that name? Past me was so stuck up, and past me wasn't even that long ago! Whatever, I shall find Everfree, and the rest of the group. I just need to find their scent trail. Should be easy, as Everfree smells like nature itself.

Exiting the town, and walking to the south a bit, she finds what she was smelling for and quickly follows the path that Everfree took a few days ago.

Author's Note

Chapter Ten marks the end of arc one.

How many arcs there will be? How many chapters? I dunno, I only really have a vague idea of where I'm going with most of this.

Heck, Cyvern wasn't supposed to show up until later in the story, but now he's here at chapters nine and ten. (If you're confused as to why I'm referring to Cyvern as Everfree, go read the other story that I affectionately refer to as Lost and Found)

However, I do know how this story will end.
And then I’ll probably make a sequel or something. I intend to make this story keep going until I run out of ideas, and I'm only getting more at this point.