//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Edge of the Forest 
// Story: Changeling Fate 
// by Nightmare Rift 
//------------------------------//

Night Crystal’s POV: 
Three weeks ago, I discussed with Luna and Twilight about my house. Now, my house sits just within the border of the Everfree Forest, so I will have to deal with Timberwolves, and other creatures near my house on occasion. However, my house is not really a house per say, it is a giant tree that has been hollowed out and follows Luna’s design. My “backyard” is essentially the Everfree Forest, which I am okay with, since I am use to defending myself, and I could go exploring in Changeling form without fear of being spotted. It is going to be pretty drab until I get furniture into it and decorate it the way I want to. 

Today I finally move what little belongings I took from my room in the Changeling Hive, and move them into my new house. My belongings included a dog stuffed animal that my real parents left with me before they died; and the suitcase that contains only one navy blue dress given to me by my adoptive parents, and a book about the uses of dark magic, which is carefully hidden under an invisibility spell. The invisibility spell, which can only be learned by use of dark magic, is in that book. A book that I have to keep away and hide from Celestia and Luna, and most definitely Twilight the bookworm. I have control over both normal and dark magic, like my adoptive parents. My real parents died before the War of Crystal. My adoptive parents, on the other hoof, well, that's a long story.

My adoptive parents were alive during the war, and were secret agents; the brains of the war. Thankfully Sombra died keeping their secret safe, so they lived on after the war. Sombra was very generous to the Changelings who were on his side: giving them money, food, and stuff that I wanted as a kid. I was alive before the war started, and I can say it was easy to say whose side was the better one to be on in terms of treatment. Yet we all knew that Celestia and Luna would win anyway. But I guess in a weird way, we all supported Sombra because he was kinder to us then Celestia ever was. Sombra loved to visit families that had small children like myself, because we were a source of great pride for him. Although, I might be biased because he was like the father I never had. He spent a lot time playing with me and teaching me dark magic while also listening to my adoptive parents’ plans about the war. I guess you could say that I loved him like a father, and maybe you could say that he had a good heart because he would often say to me that I would make a good daughter, and would be an amazing queen one day if we won the war. Unfortunately, he was killed by Celestia and Luna, and not too soon after, Celestia banished Luna to the moon for 1000 years. Yes that makes me 1327 years old, but technically Changelings are immortal as long as we continue to feed. The only way that we die is either by choice to stop feeding, or by being killed. My adoptive parents died by choice, they said it was time. I was devastated by their choice, but then I remembered that no one knew who they or I was anyway so their deaths didn’t impact the hive. Moving on, back to the time of war. 

During the war, I was raised fairly normal, besides going on missions. When the war ended, Celestia and Luna came by and determined whether my family deserved to live. They decided to let my adoptive parents live, and I was allowed to live because I was supposedly too young to be useful to the war. Which in reality was the opposite, I was severely useful to Sombra, as he often had me go to villages as a small pony filly and ask for food for my family, which was food for the troops. I also may have once been told to go to a village, act as an orphan, and be raised by the leader family. Once I was well incorporated into their family, I staged their murder, therefore crushing the resistance in that village. So yes, by that point, I really didn't deserve to live. But that is the past and now I have to keep up the appearance of an Alicorn who was an orphan with no family at all. So first order of business is to go to Twilight and ask her to give me every book on King Sombra.
________________________________________________________________

I decide to take the long way through town to Twilight’s castle. On my way I decide to buy a shiny black ceramic vase with white orchids in it from Roseluck. I decide to put it next to the window in my bedroom. I stop by the Quills and Sofas shop and pay for a black, two pony sofa to be delivered and put into my house. I also get myself a set of raven feather quills to  use eventually. Over the course of the rest of the day, I accumulate a set of black curtains, a variety of plants for healing, a bed and mattress, a black bedspread, and a set of black saddlebags. I teleport all of those items back home, the joys of dark magic, and then continue on my way to Twilight’s castle. 

As I reach Twilight's castle I hear screaming behind me. I whip around to see Rarity and Fluttershy running away from what appears to be a giant stuffed tarantula that has come alive. My immediate thought turns to the master of chaos, Discord.