//------------------------------//
// Prologue - Part 1: Chrysalis 
// Story: Changelings and Assassins 
// by Delta 727 
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	Falling. I could feel myself being thrown through the air during my expulsion from the Canterlot Wedding. I had been defeated, and found myself in the terror and confusion of the vertigo. My body still throbbed from the contact of the protective shield released by Shining Armour, and I had been left disoriented. My Changeling army had scattered. I knew there was little chance I would survive the fall.

I began to form up my magic, for I knew there was only one way to survive. I directed my horn to the ground where I was headed for, and opened a portal. As I fell, I was afraid that I would not make it. But as I began to slip into the portal, I realized that I may have made it in, but I was not slowing down. 

As the energy of the portal began to fade, I found that I was just above the ground, but everything seemed to be in a slowed motion. My leg seemed to have grazed the ground, causing me to find my legs over my head, and snapped back to reality as I had slammed into a tree. I gasped out in pain, and landed at the base of the trunk. I found myself disoriented, as I lied there for several minutes. The pain had been excruciating, and I feared I had been seriously injured. As my brain shook with pain, I began to wonder where I had landed. I, painfully, lifted my head, and began to look around.

The portal that I had arrived in had formed in the mouth of a cave, expanding over the entire entrance, and illuminating the ground around it a bright green. I appeared to be in the middle of some sort of forest. But somehow, the trees seemed to be a less detailed color than those of Equis. 

The forest floor had been covered in a blanket of pine needles and fallen leaves, while the sky seemed to be a milky pink, and I had assumed that it had been early evening.

I shakily rose to my hooves, as the impact had left me disoriented. Glancing around, I had heard footsteps in front of me.

"Hello?" I asked. There seemed to be some sort of life here, and I had a glimmer of hope that maybe they could bring me to civilization, whoever they were.

I began to walk, slightly stumbling, and began to stalk toward the voice. I called out again. "Is somepony there?" I had tried to sound stern, but I had been weak from the impact, and I sounded more lost than defensive. I continued to walk, glancing around for any sign of life.

Unfortunately, I had found it.

As I ventured into a small clearing, I heard something yell, "Halt!", and felt something slam into my side, and I had fallen to the ground, gasping for air. As I caught my breath, I heard a click.

I turned my head to see some sort of hollowed-out, wooden shaft pointed right at my muzzle. Behind it stood some sort of bipedal creature. It had no muzzle, small eyes, a strangely curved snout, and some sort of stripe of hair over its upper lip. Instead of front hooves, it had strange pads with five similar appendages holding up the wooden shaft. It's hind legs were straighter than a pony's, and with strange, leather covers on the bottom of its legs. It was dressed in cloth of a dark red with a matching colored cloth hat. I heard it say something I did not understand, before it repeated in a language I could understand.

"What are you?" it said.

Suddenly, I heard a rustling noise from beyond the treeline. The creature had as well, as he turned to aim his wooden shaft at a figure emerging from the shrubbery. The second creature resembled the first, as it threw one front appendage around what I had assumed to be the neck of the first, threw it to the ground, and stabbed some sort of metal tool through it's back. 

He turned for me to see that he had been wearing another sort of clothing, the cloth around his body had been a sort of olive drab color, while it had been wearing a hood and cloak of white and a grey pattern stitched around the borders. It's hind legs had purple, lightly fluffed out cloth stitched at the ankles, and brown leather at its hind hooves, or whatever they had been. It had a face of the similar color of the one it had killed, as well as thin, black facial hair around its compressed muzzle.

Soon after, two more figures emerged from the shrubbery, but I could not see their natural features. One was dressed in white, with red symbols on its long legging cloak, and one on each shoulder. It wore a strange metal mask and goggles that resembled some sort of bird. The other had been slimmer than the other two, as it wore green robes and a gilded face mask with a hood pulled over its head. I began to assume that the one the first killed, the white cloaked one, and the one with the bird mask had been male, due to their posture and build, and the green-cloaked fourth had been female, due ot its slimmer body.

The one with the bird mask approached me, followed by the female, and soon accompanied by the green-and-white cloaked one with the metal weapon, and he had asked the same, redundant question as before.

"What are you?"