Strange Bedfellows

-I was greeted by a bright-dark light I had never seen before flash before my vision and then it settled as it always had, I felt a weight manifest that I was far to heavy for me to have ever dealt with before and pull me down as it always had, and a screeching sound that by the sweet grace of god had never reached my ears before in my entire life that had been there for eons. "Di-rienti-g -s ri-h-!" I say disjointedly, then a confused expression crosses my face for a reason I can't quite fathom. My hoof comes up to my face as I shake my head and the light around me swirls, shifts, and coalesces into a scene.

A bright orange quadrupedal creature with a mane of finespun moonlight was chopping wood slowly in the clearing that I could see through the trees, my head tilted to the side as my brothers and sisters bantered back and forth in my head excitedly.

"What's that?" Twenty asks excitedly through the Mind

"Is it friendly?" Three added in a relaxed, though curious, tone

"Can I keep it?" Twenty seven pleads in his newly acquired voice as he chewed on his pacifier.

"What's with the square stack of logs and ice that it is standing beside?" Two inquired with a hint of wariness.

That was when I noticed the structure that Two had pointed out beside the four-legged mystery; it's sides were made from stacked logs, it was topped with woven branches, and it seemed to have blocks of ice that blocked off holes in the logs that made up the sides. The creature chops one last block of wood, then it leans on it's stick-tipped-with-curved-moonlight and wipes it brow, then it mutters a sound that We couldn't understand.

"What did it say?" Three asks as he abandoned all pretenses of calm demeanor and hopped about in his cave excitedly.

"If you don't know, then We don't know, you fool!" Two shot at him angrily, "What if it has friends, what if they have already found you?" Two asks in a voice fringed with fear. "You should retreat for now, until we find more out about it... Please heed my words, One, we don't know what we would do without you."

My head returned to it's normal position as I walked out into the clearing and told the Mind "You needn't worry at all My Kin, If worst comes to worst I will flee and it will be none the wiser about us." I walk with a grace that belays my royal blood, without a stumble or a sound I walk until I stand about ten feet away from the creature that had captured my fascination so completely. "Hello?" I buzz in the tongue of my kin, the creature turns it's head so quickly that it's mane snaps through the air like a whip. It's eyes grow wide as it just stands there and stares up at my face, I raise my hoof as I go to speak once more and it snaps the spell that holds it in place. The creature whinnies loudly and runs towards the structure, it opens a flat piece of wood then disappears behind it and a loud, rattling sound ushers forth from the structure as the piece is closed strongly.

"That could have gone better..." Three states dryly as muted scraping sounds from the stack of logs reached my ears.

"I-I wanted to h-hug it..." Twenty Seven sniffs out sadly before he starts to cry and Ten goes to comfort him.

"That was far too reckless, One!" Two hollered through the Mind, "What if it was hostile? What if you were injured?" She started to descend into a state of near panic as I clean my ears thoughtfully.

"Two, We look to you for you invaluable tactical advice... but you worry far too much." I add calmly as the scenery blurs and disappears.

*-*

A series of picture, feelings, and sounds flash past me quickly and I find myself staring across a snow swept plain, towards a town-shaped shadow in the blinding flurry. I go to walk forward and kick something that makes a muted clang, I look down at the source of the sound and see a dark helmet with a brush-like thing protruding from the top with the snow slightly displaced from it, the winds were already undoing the damage I had caused. "Pegasai?" I say quietly as I look up towards the town one more, "Here?"

I take a few more slow, frigid steps forward before I start to trot slowly, then I find myself at a canter, then I flew across the pain at a full gallop as the winds die down and the frozen banners jump out of the grayness like wraiths from the shadows, they spanned across the whole of the plain . As I ran I could feel the residue of combat magic burn in the snow as I ran past. I broadcast my eyes and ears to the Mind as I entered the snow smothered town and charged straight to the town hall... what was left of it anyways.

The town had been smashed, gutted, and ransacked. Corpses lined the streets, the clothed lay evenly with the armored, and the young with the old. "Hello?!" I shout out in the tongue of the ponies, "Is there anyone left?!"

"Here..."

I tried to follow the source of the sound but lost it after only a few feet, "Keep calling, I can't find you!" I holler into the air.

"Here... in the Smithy..." I galloped to the Smithy and I run through the smashed doors, a cough echoed from the back room.

I dash to the back room and find a familiar dark brown earth pony leaning in one of the corners, with dried blood in a streak down his side. "Splint Mail? Is that you?" I ask quietly.

"Ah... it's one of you..." he says quietly as his head turns to face me, a far off look in his eyes, "I can't think of a better sight right now... except for a mug of apple cider, though I think I'll have enough of that soon..."

"What happened to you, to the town?" I ask quietly as I kneel by him and inspect his wounds.

"That won't be necessary, my friend, I'll be done soon anyways..." He says as he waves a hoof at me, "What happened to the town was that the Feathered Fools showed up to demand an increase in tribute because the last group of inspectors said we didn't look as weak as we should have... When we refused, they attacked us... But then those Horned cowards decided to use that to their advantage and blew both the town and the Feathered battalion apart with their stupid spells..."

My hoof shot to my mouth in horror, "A-Are we to blame for the attack? We just couldn't stand by and watch as you starved... We had to he-" Splint's hoof shot up and touched my shoulder as he coughed.

"No... No, don't blame yourselves... it was bound to happen anyways with this absurdly long winter... I just wish I could have seen my son grow up..." He shuttered painfully as he sighed, "Well... looks like I'll be of along the Old Windy Road soon enough anyways, so at least I'll see him again..." He coughs as he barks out a laugh, "I'll smack him a good one for trying to take... on that... mountain of... a pegasus... and... losing... a Mail... never... lo..." He shutters once more and lays still as his eyes fade. A tear slides down my carapace and freezes as the vision fades once again.

*-*

The stream of sight and sounds last for noticeably longer this time before I'm deposited back in the head of yet another Changling, who is inspecting a sunny town where pegasai walk side-by-side with unicorns, who in turn wave happily to any Earth Ponies they come across, as they shout greeting back to them. "What's this?" I thought loudly, "Didn't they hate each other for the longest time?" The previous vision flashed before my eyes for a moment before I nod resolutely, "Sure as the stars in the sky and the moon in the night..."

"This is rather strange..." The old crone Two rasped quietly as she inspected the scene through my eyes, "It has been hundreds of years though, maybe they have changed?"

"I think Two is having a stroke guys, she's being optimistic!" Two Twenty Three laughs out as he jabs Two Eighteen with his elbow.

"I never said that it was for the better, Two Twenty Three..." she retorts in her dusty voice, and Two Twenty Three stops laughing and hides from the mind and her "Gaze" bears down on him.

Queen Alexia let her presence be known and the background chatter was cut to a minimum as she said "One Fifty Six?"

"Yes, Queen Alexia?" I ask calmly.

"I would like you to investigate, but please be careful." She commands

I nod, knowing she can tell, and change into a green earth pony mare with a long, flowing blue mane. "Show off..." One Forty Nine says irritably as I walk out of the tree cover. After a few steps I realize I don't have a cutie mark, so I shift my form again to include one in the shape of a single acorn. I walk to the town without incident and mingle with the population easily as I make my way to the library to dig up historic literature. I arrive at the library, which was a rather regal stone structure that had decorative stone columns along the front, and start on my quest.

After several exhaustive hours I can't seem to find anything on Changlings at all, "it's like we never existed..." I think tiredly.

Queen Alexia decided to share an idea with me, "Why not just ask one of them?" I blush brightly as I rise from my seat and walk over to the librarian's desk.

"Umm... I have a question..." I ask quietly, the Librarian looks over her book, smiles, and nods for me to continue. "I can't seem to find anything on an old folk lore that my people used to share..." I add as I scrape my hoof on the floor timidly

"Which one would that be, sweetie?" The librarian asks as she puts her book down and releases her magic.

"Umm... Changlings?" I ask hopefully... and wished I hadn't, because the smile froze on her face and her eyes settled on me icily.

"There is a reason that those demons are not in any literature, now I suggest you forget about them and leave." I retreat from her glare and leave the building more confused then when I started, then head to the forest once more as the vision faded once again, this time it didn't stop at the bright darkness and I felt like I was falling into an infinite abyss and just before I started to scream I-