The Everfree forest, all the monsters quietly hunting, the wood nymphs sleeping in their wooden forms, and the rivers running by peacefully and free. This is what ponies fear. What they can't control. What has its own concepts and own freedoms. They even fear the weather system in the Everfree. The Cockatrices, the Manticores, the Hydras and... the Ponies they couldn't control, this is where they sent them.
Still though, this one little pocket of freedom has so much to offer, because of the Isolation it has experienced so many beautiful and inspiring things have developed. These ponies I mentioned earlier, they struggled but they lived. In their fear and panic from being thrown in this place with these monsters built themselves a shelter, to hide from the Monsters that had been sent here with them. Now, these ponies... well, I've been calling them that but truthfully they're not quite. They're Equine, but they're different. At the time, ponies hadn't had a name for these Creatures, keep in mind this was over 1000 years ago. But more recently, ponies have taken to calling these "things" Changelings, Draqoneqi, Dragons, instead of just plainly calling them Demons. Every few years though, a regular pony or griffon was thrown in, just for defending these poor creatures.
These Equines, grouped together, and built a safe haven into the floor of the Everfree, the one place nothing had yet taken residence. They used the nature around them to assist in the building of these caves, they took special Ivy and let it grow all over the walls of their tunnels, to light their path as they trotted around underground. They built beds from the cotton that grew on the trees, they took the flowers and planted them into the path they walked on. They grew the trees that grew in other caves into the structure of the haven to give it structure, and to stop it from caving in. Their furniture was shaped by the friendly wood nymphs of the forest. Over time it became a beautiful place of peace and hope for the peaceful creatures of the Everfree, some of them even started thanking the ponies who threw them in here. Of course, these creatures developed... a love for each other and, well- you know.
This Haven of theirs grew for centuries becoming larger, but still keeping its beauty. The foals would run around and play between the trees outside, the Everfree was no longer a place of terror, where bad fillies and colts would go to be eaten alive, the Everfree had become something more beautiful than Celestia could imagine.
Of course the outsiders, the ponies, carried on with their normal lives but still kept chucking more and more "monstrosities" into the Everfree, while the number of forests in Equestria dwindled. All just to make more wooden houses for themselves. The "Creatures", very much alive and scared were taken in by the Everfree Solace. At least- that's what the ones who built the haven called themselves. The Everfree solace would send out patrols to find the poor souls that had been abandoned by society, and once they took them in, they built their very own place to stay, and sleep. They fed them, and helped them recuperate if they had been harmed, they were incredibly friendly.
Eventually, after only about... 600 years, the ponies that argued against throwing these monstrosities into the forest to die finally got through to the majority, and they finally stopped sending ponies into the forest to die. The Everfree solace had of course, no idea that this had happened, and continued on in their haven. They stopped sending out patrols, after a month of no-one being dumped into the Everfree. The society they had built kept growing with their everyday activities. They built themselves a library, a special underground garden, a hall specifically for eating in. But they still kept themselves hidden, they went outside, but they made sure they preserved the nature around them. They would not kill the Manticores, they did not harm the Cockatrices, they left the Hydras in their massive swamps.
Of course, it was unrealistic that the Manticores and the other beasts would not harm them, so they taught themselves and each other how to safely pacify the beasts of the Everfree. Every one of them knew how to keep themselves safe, as well as how to protect others.
It was only seven years ago that this peaceful cycle was broken...
"Come on, you're kidding right?"
"No, She actually did!"
"You asked her out, and she said yes!?"
"Yeah! She even hugged me!"
"You got Jam Bun, to hug you?"
"I'm not kidding!"
"Whatever you say."
A perfectly normal day in the underground of the Everfree. The kid who's saying they got a fillyfriend is Hex. He's a changeling, so it makes sense that he would be interested in romantic things like that. I'm the one arguing back, I'm Fyre Web. My fur is currently my normal red, since I'm not really feeling a strong emotion, it's this way when I'm casual. Casual Colours. Jam Bun is a really cute, perfectly normal filly. They're a unicorn.
"I'm honestly not kidding you, even ask her... just, please don't spread it around. I don't wanna have to explain to my parents that I like another species."
"Fine, but you can't expect me to not constantly tease you about this for the rest of your life."
"Yeah, I know..."
Right now, we're talking in the garden, There are other creatures in the garden, but the garden is huge, there's no way they can hear us. We're lying on the grass, just hanging out by a patch of Ghost Bluebells, they're transparent but glow a soft blue in the dark. It's almost midday.
"...We should get going for lunch, they'll be calling us in soon anyway."
"Wouldn't it be nice if we could decide when to eat? Instead of leaving it for them to decide?" I said
"Yeah, but they'll still call us in soon. Let's get going"
Lunch is immediate at midday every day. I would have said 12 o' clock, but the Everfrenians (Yes that's what we call ourselves now, I know, the Everfree solace is way cooler.) don't use a Twenty four hour time system. We mainly time everything according to where the sun is, they haven't sorted a measurement of time other than seconds and minutes. We do have a calendar as well, but it's too different from ours for me to even explain it... although we do still use years. Oh and, I am still twelve years old. I'll explain that later.
It's a small community now, we provide for each other, we don't bother with a currency anymore, and we help each other in any way we can. We all accept each other for who they are, and most of us are friends with each other.
"Hi Fyre, Hi Hex, come on in, take your seat."
That's the cook, she's a dragon, you sort of have to be a dragon if you want to be a cook, since all the tools can't really be held with hooves. I mean, I suppose you could cook if you were a changeling, by transforming into a dragon, and draqoneqi can have claws, but I suppose if they have mismatched arms, like if they have a claw and a hoof, then it might be hard. Anyway, the cook is a nice dragon, she's called Violet Flame, her parents must have been really un-creative to have just called her the colour of her fire breath. She has yellow and brown scales, arranged in a zig-zagging pattern all the way up to her muzzle, her muzzle is just yellow. Her eyes are a hazel brown.
Where were we? Oh right, we just entered the dining hall. My seat and Hex's seat are both right at the end of the table, Violet doesn't have a seat, since she usually sits on the kitchen bar and eats her meal... she always looks like she really enjoys it, I never asked her what she was eating... must have been good.
"So, you looking forward to tonight?" I asked Hex once we'd sat down.
"Y- Yeah," he replied, blushing
Oh, I forgot to mention, tonight is Valentin night. It's sort of like hearts and hooves day, but we celebrate at night. All the foals between the ages of 11 to 15 go out into the forest and get the whole night to themselves, the beasts of the Everfree are always around the outskirts of the forest around this time of year, that's why we're allowed out on that day, especially at night. I think the holiday was started by a Draqonequis named Ben Valentin and his fillyfriend, odd name, right? Still, thanks to him we're able to get a whole night to ourselves, without the adults watching us. Thanks Ben!
Most of the other creatures are coming into the dining hall now, there goes Chaio, he's one of my other friends, but he's on the other side of the table. He's a Pony-Draqonequis. Oi! don't ask me the difference, that's his words! His parents are walking in now, The pony is Grass Blade, she's a nice pony, and the Draqonequis is Mather. Another Draqonequis with another weird name.
"You think Chaio has someone in mind for tonight?" I asked Hex.
"um... He might, not like I know anything," Hex replied, rather unconvincingly
"...Tell me."
"No, I promised him!"
"Tell me!"
"I promised!
"TELL ME!"
"It's Heather Moss, stop yelling please!"
Heather moss is a thirteen year old drake, yes, drake as in male dragon. He's really outgoing and fun to be with, he likes everyone and doesn't seem to have a... preference when it comes to who he'll date. He's pretty tall for a thirteen year old dragon, and he's completely purple. His wings haven't developed yet though, so he can't fly.
"What? You're kidding!"
"I'm not, but please, stop being so loud"
"Oh, sorry."
In the time we've been talking half of the Everfrenians have come back to the dining hall, that's about one-hundred of us. Out of all of us though, there are only about six Changelings in total. None of them are a queen though, changelings don't have a queen normally, and most hives are only made up of about six to sixteen changelings. Of course, these changelings do need love to survive, but we happily provide it, all two-hundred of us supply whatever anyone needs in our community.
Please, don't jump to the conclusion that if we have that few a number of ponies that we must have ended up somewhere along the line having... Incestual relationships. No, that would be- Ugh.
"Still though, Chaio. Him. They're gay?"
"Well, I think Heather just will go out with anyone, Chaio is almost certainly. Please don't tell anyone else about this, Chaio probably doesn't want everyone to know that about him... you don't have something wrong with that, do you?"
"No, no, I'm just a bit surprised, it does explain why he always walked away when we started joking about heather being so open, and why he always really likes when Heather ever just talks to him, huh."
Our conversation carried on and continued changing subject, my fur didn't change too much while we were talking, up until our lunch was served by Violet, you remember her? Each of our Lunches were made specifically for what we were and who we were. Hex got hugged by violet since he's a changeling, of course though, she still got him his meal, which was potato waffles and red pepper. He didn't need as much as anyone else since most of his food was love, but changelings still starve if they don't have solid food for a while. My Lunch was the same as Hex's except with something which we'd started making called "bread". It's a square food thing, you have two of them and put something between them, and then you get a "sandwich" it's really good.
Anyway, let's skip all the boring stuff, Let's skip to... Converting it to 24 hour time it would be about ten pm, that's just before we go out in the night sky. We always really loved the moon and the darkness, not in a creepy cult-type of loving the darkness, but rather just an admiration of its peace and beauty.
Anyway, we're all just leaving the tunnels, I'm walking by myself out, Chaio is looking really happy and, he's walking with heather. Nobody else seems to have noticed. Hex is walking with Jam Bun, she's leaning against him as they walk, and Hex is blushing again, his blush is blue since changelings have a different colour of blood to us ponies, or something like that and he's got this really wide grin. I'm walking by myself, and my fur coat has dimmed a bit.
We get out of the tunnels and we're in a large clearing, there's only about 12 of us that are out right now. That's Chaio, Heather, Hex, Jam, Me, Bronze, Gold, Sandstone, Swirl, Clover, Maxell and Kindle. You know the first four and me. Bronze and Gold are brother and sister, they're both pegasi. Sandstone is a Griffon, he really doesn't like talking and he's really grumpy. Swirl is a unicorn as well as Clover, they both really like each other, but if they didn't have each other they'd be spending their whole days in the library. Maxell is... A special case, he's a Kirin. That's a Dragon-Pony, his forelegs are dragon arms covered in scales and he has draconic scales as well, he's even got the draconic tail ending in a spike. He still has a pony head and hind legs. His parents both died after they tried to leave the Everfree forest. He's really sensitive and kindle really likes him, but he doesn't know it. Kindle is a dragon, she's really kind and shy.
Chaio and heather are both already running off, probably to their nearest hideout. Hex and Jam are sitting on the grass talking, Hex is still blushing. Bronze is sitting on his own, not really bothered. Gold is talking to Sandstone, he's actually listening instead of flying off in a huff. Swirl and Clover have already teleported off, probably just back to the library. Kindle is breathing fire gently on Maxell, I think it's some kind of dragon thing. And then there's me, on my own.
I decided to go off to my own special place, it's the same place you saw in my dream, the clearing, the one I was in just before I got mauled by a timberwolf. Yes, the nightmare took place in a real place. No, that did not happen, that was the dreamscape turning it into a nightmare. It really was just as beautiful as ever, with its still shimmering lake. Of course though, at the time the nightmare hadn't happened yet.
When I arrived there I was calm, I wasn't sad anymore, my fur had returned to its normal shades of red, the moon was shining off of the pool, The flowers at the side were still as pristine and perfect as they always were. I sat at the edge of the pool, admiring it, wishing I could be, it. It was alone, independent, it didn't need anything to thrive, it didn't have everyone supplying it everything it needed, it was independent, I wanted to be independent.
And then, ever so slowly, every star in the sky above me was snuffed out slowly, one by one, they stopped shining. If only I noticed sooner...