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// Prologue; Silence 
// Story: The Last Changeling Queen 
// by Atuhor Name 
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Silence



"The only time people have the best of intentions is when something goes wrong."


        A silence rolled across the Badlands. It stretched over the dunes and wove its way through rocky outcroppings of long-dormant dune crabs. It edged its way around the last part of a noisy carrion feast, as one of the desert's great beasts passed back to the soil from which it came. And it gathered heavy around a figure in the desert, with whom it had been friends for a very long time.
        The figure lay in the sand, quietly caught midway between a sobbing breakdown and a coughing fit.
        She-no, she did not deserve to even call herself that anymore-It had failed them. It wheezed another gout of blood from its broken chest. It didn't deserve a name anymore. It reached one hoof in front of the other, and attempted to drag itself out of the sandy valley It found itself in.
        But like so many times before, It would almost reach the top, and then a rock would slip, and It would tumble down into the valley below. It hated that valley. It hated that valley almost as much as It hated this interminable hell of a desert. Almost as much as It hated Itself.
        Its only motivation now was hatred. It would claw its way out of this valley and-
        It paused and looked up, as a shadow fell across It. It saw a Nightmare, something from days long past.
        "Go away." It rasped at the Nightmare. "You can't help me, nopony can."
        "Oh, I wouldn't be too sure of that," Nightmare Moon said in an oily voice.
        It glared up at Nightmare and prepared a retort, but Its words were drowned out by another coughing fit.
        "We both know I can't help you with your more... difficult problems," Nightmare said as if her hoof was not suddenly slightly damp. "But I can help you with revenge."
        With that, It was listening completely to what Nightmare had to say.
        And the silence rolled away across the desert, pierced by the sound of unpleasant laughter.