//------------------------------//
// Chapter Three- The Blackwood 
// Story: The Bitter Taste of Love 
// by QuantumKitten 
//------------------------------//

"A changeling is a dangerous creature my students. You want to know why? An animal has no malice if it were to attack. A changeling however... well, they'll get into your heart. They'll claw at your feelings and make you think they have emotions of their own.  

Don't trust a changeling. It might be the last thing you do."

-Changeling Psychology, Chapter One.


The lesser traveled areas of the vast Everfree forest were known as the 'Blackwood'. Home to the fiercest animals of Equestria, it wasn't a place many ponies would have liked to end up in.

And as Cassy Roseheart stumbled over another upturned tree stump whilst knocking her horn against another low hanging branch, she couldn't help but feel the Blackwood didn't like her very much. Which was fine, she thought with a quiet swear. She didn't particularly care for it either. 

And it wasn't just the way the trees arched and bent into knurled, crooked shapes either. Far off in the distance she could hear the sounds of combat, the clashing of spells and steel punctuated with the occasional scream. She'd caught rumours of Celestia's armies encroaching on the Blackwood, but nobody had seemed to know why. 

Shaking her head, she tried to ignore whatever was happening and focused on tracking her quarry. The daylight peeking through the leaves was fading fast and the creature that she'd been tracking for days would be hunting soon. The tracks went down into a small clearing, and as Cassy peeked over the ridge she held her breath. 

Down in the clearing, the fading twilight glittered off a Lapis Lynx. Its feline body was composed entirely of the gemstone from head to tail, shifting and shimmering as it stretched languidly in the light.

This was it. Carefully, she pulled a book from the battered saddlebags she wore with her teeth. Flipping to a certain page she reread the sleep incantation for the thousandth time, focusing on the intricacies and structure before concentrating on the Lynx. In her mind the spell easily slotted into place as her horn enveloped with a white glow. The Lynx opened one solid blue eye, ears perking up at the almost silent hum the spell generated.

"Wait for it..." She said softly, straining to slot the last few aspects into place. The Lynx had woken up by now and was looking around, trying to find the source. Now or never. Springing to her feet Cassy cast the spell, aiming...

And then everything seemed to happen at once. As the spell flew from her horn, a pegasus fell from the sky into the clearing, slamming into the soft undergrowth with a sickening crunch. The Lynx bolted, the spell going wild and striking the spot where it had been just a second too late. 

"Oh c'mon! For bucks sake!" Cassy swore, scrambling down into the clearing. "Hey! You... you okay there? Oh. Oh hell." She froze. It wasn't a pegasus. Where a normal looking pony had been there was a changeling, its disguise falling away with crackles of green fire.  "Sweet Celestia... You poor thing." She said, looking over the changeling with a wince.  One wing looked torn, the pale green gauze ripped and burned. Its front leg looked broken, blood dripping over cracked chitin. Scratches and burns covered the changeling from head to hoof. 

It's eyes snapped open causing Cassy to jump back. The changelings pained eyes stared at her as it spoke. "Please..." It said. "H-help us..." It fell unconscious. The mare glanced back in the direction of the combat, the distant sounds of fighting still raging on.

Cassy swore again.