Culture osmosis

        I awoke to the gentle sound of a bird. But not just any bird, it was the stereotypical bird. The little yellow fucker had placed himself on my window, and was happily chirping away the morning. I rolled over, forgetting my bed was smaller than I was used to, and also forgetting I was currently on a couch. I hit the ground with a thump. Here was an average monday if I ever had on. I tried to stand up, and promptly fell over. “Damn my new four legged nature.” I jumped up to stand on my four legs, which were considerably more stable, and walked across the room/house to check on Zenith.

        The little bundle of chitin and cute had managed to sleep through the demon bird, and was somewhere in a horde of covers. They had rolled around him so completely that the only thing I could see was a small bit of his tail. I slowly moved the covers aside, using my wings since I still didn’t understand the witchcraft of hooves, and withdrew Zenith from his cocoon of blankets. He rolled around a bit before deciding that movement wasn’t allowed today, and settling back into a nap. I checked to make sure the sun was up before prodding Zenith with a hoof. “Come on little buddy, gotta get up.” He yawned and turned away, nibbling on my wing tips. A shot of pain flared up them, but the feathers rustled were all mine, so no harm done. “Hey, no biting little man. Why does a creature that lives off love have pointy teeth anyways?”

        Zenith’s green eyes filtered open, and he blinked a few times. A little yawn escaped his lips, and he nestled down and looked up to me. I smiled at him. “What’cha looking at? I got some bread in my teeth or something?” Thus began the oldest game to play with a baby. I pretended there was something in my teeth, and made as many funny faces as possible before Zenith’s laughing form slowly sank out of my wings. He plopped down on all fours and walked to my door, as if begging to be let out. “Alright little man, gimme a minute.” I walked towards the door, and opened it up.

        Outside my house, was an extremely angry rabbit. I stared at it. It stared at me. Not knowing what to do, I spoke to it. “Hello?” The rabbit stared pointedly at Zenith, then back to me. Before I could respond with anything, Zenith did the waddle-walk of all tired children. At least, until he noticed the rabbit. He giggled like an insane teenage girl before green fire enveloped him. I moved a hoof forward, but before it hit the ground, the flame was gone. In it’s stead, was a small rabbit, happily smiling at the glaring one. The glaring one was having precisely none of that, and hopped over to give the rabbit/Zenith a piece of it’s mind. This time I was prepared. I slapped a hoof in between them. Both rabbits looked up at me, one with a huge smile, and one with an annoyed frown. “How about you hop on home little friend?” I dropped my voice a few octaves, hopefully shaking the rabbits ears.

        All my dreams of intimidating the bunny were crushed thanks to a quiet voice from the woods. “Oh Angel Bunny, breakfast.” With that the rabbit nodded towards Zenith before sitting down. Soon enough, the originator of the voice walked through the forest. Fluttershy was walking through some of the underbrush as if it wasn’t there. Whether it was some small amount of flight or simply a skill I’ll never know, but she managed to keep an average speed going as she approached my house. That is, Until she saw me. I can see how she would have missed me in the grass field around my house. My fur matched the brown grass just enough for me to blend in. She shrunk down when she saw me, and her voice became whisper quiet. “Oh, uh... hi. Sorry, I um, thought nopony lived here. I nodded to her.

“Just moved in myself Miss Fluttershy, I’m Greenhorn, remember me?” All I got for an answer was a nod. It was about then I realized I was still lying across the ground.

I stood myself back up, revealing Zenith/bunny to Fluttershy. Her ears perked up. “Oh, you have a bunny.” Before I could stop her she had picked him up and was giving him a once over. “Oh, you’ve taken such good care of him. He’s well-fed, you’ve trimmed his fur a bit. In fact, he looks... exactly like... Angel Bunny.” The last words probably would have been normal, except that the green flames were licking Zenith again. As soon as she finished talking he exploded into green flame, eliciting a squeak from Fluttershy, before he was returned to his Changeling self. Fluttershy stared at him as if he was an aliens before letting out a simple ‘eep’. She appeared to be in shock, so I gently moved Zenith away from Fluttershy, and dropped him on my back. Fluttershy, didn’t move the whole time, which worried me slightly.

I looked at the rabbit who had begun to hop back towards the forest. “Hey, you gonna check on her?” The rabbit shrugged and hopped off again. I poked her with a hoof. “Excuse me ma’am, are you alright?” She sat there, not moving. “Zenith, I think we broke her.” Zenith happily jumped into her arms and licked her face.

        The reaction was instant. Fluttershy dropped her hooves, leaving Zenith floating his way down with his insectoid wings. She backed up a bit and spoke with the loudest voice she could, which was basically my indoor voice. “It’s trying to eat me!”

        I waved my hooves in front of her, which Zenith tried to mirror as he finished his descent towards the ground. He hit when I finally found the words to say. “He’s just a kid, he’s playing. See, now he’s...” I looked over my shoulder to see him happily walking towards town. “Going to town apparently. I’ve gotta run, don’t faint or anything. Bye.” I ran off towards town, checking behind me to see Fluttershy shaking her head as she stared at Zenith.

        I quickly caught up to him and scooped him up with my wing. Without slowing down, I deposited him on my back and headed towards the library tree for Twilights tests. The tree was in the same place, with the door closed. I slowed down to a small jog before stopping at the door. Zenith happily giggled. I moved my wings so it was hard to see him, hoping nobody would see him as a danger. As I slid into the library I heard a brash voice behind me. “Woah, hold the door please!” I ducked in quickly, holding the door open with my tail. A rainbow colored blur rolled through the open door, slowly coming to a sliding stop at the feet of an annoyed librarian.

        The pony in question was Rainbow Dash, which was more than enough to make me smile. The only problem was the fact that Twilight looked ready to kill since another bookcase fell down. Rainbow looked up and saw Twilight glaring down at her. Rainbow flashed a smile and stood up. “Hey Twi, got the newest Daring Do?”

        Twi sighed a bit before slowly nodding at Rainbow. “Yes, I have it in the back room. You can go get it, after you pick up your mess.”

        Rainbow looked down. “Alright, alright. I guess it is kinda my fault.” She looked around. “Wait, who opened the door from me?” I waved a hoof at her, still shielding Zenith with my wings.  Rainbow ran up and punched my hoof with hers. “Thanks bro, doors hurt, like a lot.” She the turned around and started picking up the bookshelf.

        Twilight noticed me when Rainbow pointed me out, and started heading towards me. “Hey Greenhorn, here for the experiments?”

        I nodded. “Yeah, you aren’t gonna hurt him right?”

        Twilight smiled. “Of course not, I’m just gonna try and figure out their basic anatomy. Come on, the labs in the basement.” She walked down the stairs and a purple glow slowly faded down the stairwell. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. The stairs were dark, lit only with the eerie purple light of pony magic. I walked down the stairs, which was still a bit hard, but I endeavored not to spill the baby on my back.

        The bottom of the stairs opened up into a huge room that seemed too big to fit into the basement. The room was filled with various bits and bobs that all looked very exact and fragile. All in all, it was a place way out of my pay grade. Zenith however, seemed perfectly at home. He quickly jumped off my bag and into the nearest chair. I wouldn’t have minded if it wasn’t next to some funky black powder. I poked it a bit. “Hey Twilight, what’s this?”

        Twilight looked at me. “Oh that, it’s some powder I found. Why?”

        I looked it over, trying to match why it was familiar. Suddenly it hit me. “Yo, you got a lighter?” Twilight quirked her head. I sighed. “Fire, I need some fire.” She nodded and brought out a small stick. The tip combusted and it floated towards me. I grabbed the end of it with my wings. I slowly put the stick over the powder and dropped it into the powder. A small explosion erupted around the table, and my face was filled with black soot. “Twilight you magnificent bastard. You just discovered black powder. Where’d you find it?”

        Twilight kinda sat there for a second. “Uhm... I found it in Everfree, Zecora said she makes it from crushed poison joke and some scratchy rocks.”

        I smiled. “Awesome, I might have to get some more later. I know how to use this pretty creatively.”

        Twilight shrugged. “Alright, well the only thing I wanted to do today was see how they blink. Zenith, wanna come over here?” Zenith jumped down and ran across the floor to the poofy chair beside Twilight. She moved in front of Zenith’s face and flashed her horn incredibly brightly. Zenith’s eyes formed a semi black shield around them, blocking his eyes from the light. He laughed a bit, and I smiled. Little bug could do some neat tricks.

        Twilight moved around the chair, doing base stimuli response tests. I saw her dangle a small fuzzy thing in front of Zenith. The thing itself looked like a cat toy, only the response was more brutal. Zenith jumped towards it and clamped his jaws around it. A small explosion of feathers slowly floated down to the floor around him. He hung dangling from the string as Twilight smirked at him. I smiled at him. “You sometimes remind me of someone little buddy.”

        Twilight looked at me. “Really, who?”

        I looked at her, thinking of the person in particular. He was my little cousin. I went out of my way to watch him at least once a week, and I loved him. He had been hell-bent for leather, and anything his older brother could do, he believed he could do. He had been a great kid. I sighed a bit and looked down. “No one important. Think you could watch Zenith for a bit?”

        Twilight looked at me funny. She paused as if to say something, then nodded. “Yeah, I guess so, why?”

        I turned around. “I need some time to myself, I’ll be back in a bit.” I walked up through the library, waved to a reading rainbow dash, and walked outside. The outside air hit me like a two ton bomb, and made me stop for an instant. I shook it off and went for a walk. I heard a small thump in the distance, but didn’t bother to look at it. It wasn’t important at the moment.

* * *

POV shift: Unknown

I feel cold biting my skin. I barely remember what cold is. It has been so long since I fell asleep, and now I can feel something in my stomach. It’s familiar, like something I used to know, but rarely experience. It isn’t enjoyable. I think about it for a while, and come up with hunger. It is a vile feeling. I can’t remember much. I feel like it’s been years, maybe even centuries. The two cursed ones, they did this to me. Why? Did they attack me, or I them? It’s so hard to think in this accursed cold. Two beings come near me. They look at me, and laugh. My hunger diminishes. They kiss and walk away leaving me with my hunger sated. I sat there, the cold diminished with my hunger. I suddenly heard others. They swarmed into my head like a million happy children. They seemed overjoyed at something, with the loudest voice speaking of peace with other races. I sat and warmed myself with their presence.

The voices spoke, and used words I remembered. Queen, love, hope, all these things triggered my memories. My people, I could hear them, and they could hear me, if I chose. I tried to speak. “I... have... returned!” The voices halted, their small talk stopped as my voice drowned out theirs  “The king... has been freed.” I moved my archaic magic through my body, consuming me in pure green flame. I found myself in the middle of a hive. I opened my mouth for the first time. “Your king is back, and he has come for revenge!”