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// The Everfree Forest - Prologue 
// Story: Discord 
// by AppleCider120 
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With the dawn of a new era in our beloved Equestria, it makes sense that a new threat would began to rear its head; thus, the following events cause them to fly full steam into our heroins, and subsequently meet their destiny in either Tartarus, or stone. This time, however, we find ourselves in a world behind a stunning crystal mirror. A world that is completely alien to their species, with the expected exception of our Princess Twilight Sparkle.

For this world is not ruled by many species, nor is their dominant race a collection of quadrapeds. In this world, we find a creature known as Homo Sapiens, or humans. And they do, indeed, possess a whole new form of magic. While they could not, for the longest time, conjur up a spell, or fly above the birds; while they could not imagine a world beyond their own, no matter how hard they would search; they always had one weapon above all, in their heads. The brain of these humans allowed them to turn the world around them against itself. In the early days, they would not simply sit by and let a meal get away. The tales of hunts lasting well past two or three sunrises fill the caves of times long forgotten. When they learned that these feral beasts could be lured into a sense of security, they learned how to change the creatures based on what they wanted to see. Many of these beasts were lucky, at one point or another. They would be pack animals, family companions, and even mutual hunting packs. Others, however, would not see the same fates; these creatures would be forever hunted. Many, to the point of extinction, or hiding.

As time progressed, these humans began to manipulate their environments into living shelters, guarding them from the very world that spawned them. They could build to protect from the outside elements, creating conditions many of the feral monsters around them could only dream of, if that. And monsters, there were many. Ancient scrolls, books of knowledge, and multitudes of respected scholars did not hesitate to speak of massive creatures wandering the lands; many of which came from the deep blues seas, wide savannas, the vast dry desserts, grand peaks, and --most importantly to our story-- the thick darks forests.

As this species evolved, they would begin inventing new competing technologies and machinery to push back each other, and eventually the monsters. Soon, their focus drifted primarily to the massive hordes of cretins that threatened their very existence. 

The deep blue seas would become burdened by massive wood, and steel structures that could sit on top of it's most powerful waves; as such, the colossal creatures inside stood little chance when humans came in multitudes that rivaled the sharks, and began to shove them even deeper into the waters, eventually driving them to starvation. The savannas held hospitality towards gargantuan lizards, and massive felines that could tear the bone from their aggressors' skin. No matter how hard the determined beasts tried to resist, the numbers of these humans became too much, and they were soon driven from the face of the planet. In their wake was a simple crimson carpet.

The desserts needed little to protect them from these newer inhabitants. Millenia of dear Mother Nature's neglect had left it dry; many times, only the simplest of organisms could thrive. To this day, little has been recorded as to the sorts of monsters that hid in the sand, but many humans have claimed that the dunes are not what they seem. This small bit of superstition still drives the humans of today away from the deserts. Though, the illusions brought about by their wretched heat are thought to be leftovers of the masters of the sand.

The mountains need none but one guardian, who would often lay for centuries in massive caverns carved into the side of these natural obelisks. Massive winged reptiles would lay in wait for an unsuspecting civilization to cause a disturbance. When the snow of the peaks began to roll, the roar of these massive creatures, Dragons, would send chills down the spines of early settlers. Many kingdoms had been destroyed by the fire, ice, earth, and simple air-based catastrophe's their bodies could generate. Alas, even a massive, moving catastrophe could not whittle the will to survive of the humans; specialists were often dispatched, in the form of a single warrior, or entire armies led by their king. Soon, the castles of the humans would worm their way into the hallowed halls of a dragon's lair.

Then came the forests. In the beginning of their times, the humans often clung close to the tight network of trees as a means to keeps away from predators. The massive trunks were often used by humans in their earliest abodes, while the remaining foliage served as a natural gate; this often kept the earliest savannah monsters away from early humans. As time drolled on, however, and humans began to multiply, even the most peaceful of Mother Nature's creations was not safe from the grasp of the world's harbingers of greed. Many nations' worth of forestry was destroyed as the kingdoms began to make their way further, and further onto their floors. 

For once, Mother Nature would not have a mockery be made of her most precious fauna. And thus, she began to infuse many segments of forestry with her own monsters. Whereas she would normally let the land form its own bond with a creature, she forced many of the humans own pets, and worst nightmares to wander deeper into the canopies, forming foes that would prove very difficult for the humans to conquer. In the early days, it was not too hard for her to keep the humans out. While she did not appreciate her world being dominated by the overgrown bipedal simians, she understood that it was her own fault to have guided their creation; thus, she did not want to directly hurt them. She did, however, believe that her creatures deserved a far fairer chance at survival. Many of her creations had been driven from the face of the earth by these creatures. By simple association, she would blame herself for this travesty.

The canines that the humans spared were the first of the creatures to begin changing. Having been by their side for virtually all their existence, she thought it would be a rational idea. And so, many wild creatures were called by her gentle voice deeper into the dark canopies. The lupines would begin to change over the course of centuries, becoming imbued with many features they now shared with their wooden kin. Their fur began to erode over the years, and bones began to warp in structure; their need for blending in vanished, as few creatures dared to cross their paths. After countless generations, the Timberwolf became the law of the deep, dark forests. Wandering in packs, and able to rebuild their wooden forms, the humans initially found it wise to wander away from the first sign of a Timberwolf's presence.

As evolution dictates, sadly, this would spiral out of control as humans began to learn a natural weakness of the Timberwolf. As with their own species, fire was a great deterrence to a Timberwolf that was in the area. As thus, when a Timberwolf became wounded, they would often light a segment of the body as it would began to reassemble. This would cause the fiery deaths of many packs, causing Mother Nature to begin work on her next monster.

The bovines that humans were beginning to corral were not as easy to domesticate as their canine brethren, she found. In many cases, a herd of cows and bulls could be disrupted with a simple storm; in the case of her new darling, it was easiest to take what the humans would miss. In many days of her watch, she had seen cattle often wander away from their herds, never to be seen by their shepherds for the rest of it's life. It was here she began to call the stragglers once more. The large creatures would wander into the abandoned worlds of primitive humans, such as their caves and camps, and would wander. This wandering was not aimless, however, as Mother began to change her children once more. As time ruled with her, she began to change their appearance. Often taking on a dark brown body, hardened horns, and a more bipedal gate, the Minotaur began to make the middle aged settler's life a living hell. 

Unlike the humans that left them behind, the Minotaurs would be known to sing for all those who had been lost to time. They had been spotted by many ancient researches even burying the dead of the humans, showing a respect that had been lost to them. While they respected the forms of the dead, they showed none of this mercy if a human settlement encroached upon their forests. The battle cry of the Minotaur could be heard from miles around, and often when the armies of a colony were not yet equipped for a war. The Minotaurs were ruthless in battle, not uncommonly beheading their adversaries, and rarely ever responding to a retreat, or surrender. As the centuries turned humans more sensible, the battles between the two would begin to waver. To the dismay of Mother Nature, however, this also brought more intelligence to the humans, and their victories began to multiply as the wars began to die down. Now they would have less conflict, but each would bring a higher chance of defeat for her Minotaurs. They were eventually driven back into the deep forests, where humans were reluctant to face them along with the Timberwolves.

But, Mother had another trick up her sleeve for the humans of early history. While she absolutely loathed the idea of killing her creations directly, she learned that she needed to create something that could turn humans against each other outside the boundaries of their countless wars. This became one of her most sinister, but necessary creations. While she grew to regret the use of the forgotten, she found them to be an important tool in her quest to force the humans to be more peaceful to each other. It began with the drawing of those she considered forgotten. Those lost in bloody wars, all but abandoned by family and society, and those simply looking for a meaning in their lives. Orphans, soldiers, scholars, philosophers, and the mentally distraught soon began to hear strange callings from deep in the woods. Sweet voices would draw them in towards the forests that their ancestors had left unscathed, and lead them into the heart of her most dangerous, but beautiful forest fauna. To their delight, the monsters that resided here seemed to view them as friends, and would leave them be during their early years.

Carpets of a mischevious blue flower, known only to the early wizards hopefuls as "Poisonous Joke", began to work on the very core of the lost humans, as they would begin to mingle, and form a strong connection over their losses, and their strengths. The philisopher's and scholars believed they were on the same plane for the first time in their history. The soldiers and orphans began to learn, and the orphans began to forgive the soldiers who may have caused their situation, as the soldiers took the young under their arms. They no longer hid under their armor, as the distraught were welcomed by all into their hearts. All this began to show the wanderers how strong love could really be in times of hardship and pain. As the years would span, the love was slowly paired with greed, and envy. The hordes of humans began to harbor the love they were getting from each other, though they were also finding it hard to recycle the delicious sensations. As such, many wanderers that found their way into established colonies began to vanish. Often times, the more mentally intact of the hordes would lure in the wanders with sublime kindness, and even treat them with undue love. When the victims would finally open their hearts to them, the more wise would give way to the mentally degraded of their society. The love of each victim was cycled thoroughly through the new hives, as the forms of these humans began to degrade. 

Gone were the variations in skin pigments, as a hard, solid black growth began to cover their bodies, and changed the color of their skin. As their bodies degraded, so did many of their mental faculties. While still quite intelligent, common speech was slowly replaced with various animalistic sounds. As their bodies began to fundamentally change, solid bone structure was slowly replaced with an exoskeleton-like composition, often giving way and forming large holes where a wound, or mineral deficient area was the focus. As they changed, the more focused began to wander again, and began changing even further. A straggler would often find a traveler, usually merchants or messengers, but including those looking for a new life, and talk to them. As they would speak, the new monsters would learn to change their outward appearances. For many, the change would be quick, as in the blink of an eye, they could look like a merchant's friend, or the form of a pack animal they would use for transportation. And this slowly allowed the new hives to form a new strategy: infestation.

It would begin small enough. Often times a lone camper, usually on "nature's call" during a stop, would leave the safety of his collective to find privacy. Once unprotected, the hive would strike, taking out the lone individual, and sending a drone in their place. More times than not, the humans would not notice, and the cycle would continue until the hive determined that the leader of the groups had been taken. Then, the hive would reveal itself to the remaining humans, often gaining immediate surrender from the party. In many cases, minor scuffles were quickly dispelled with a large collective. In a few rare cases, they would lose track of one or two humans, who began to relay these new developments to their civilizations. As the occurrences continued to grow, many humans began to come prepared with new tools. In the beginning, it wasn't impossible to stop a situation from getting out of control when the hand cannons began to take a toll; often times it was the leader, or a designated individuals who would carry protection.

Then the number of cannons began to grow. Mother Nature watched as her newest creature began to decimate large bodies of human civilizations, while in return watching as her Changelings(as the humans began to call them) were also beginning to suffer at the hands of their own cousins. As one incident reared its head, she regrettably resigned herself to simply watch as a kingdom was nearly overrun by her Changelings.

It started with a relatively new hive that had formed in the middle of a newer continent, as a human settlement was progressing not very far to the east. The Changeling hive would stick to its old tactic, only targeting traveling bands of humans, slowly making out the easiest ways to distinguish the most dangerous humans from each other. A particularly intelligent Changeling, which had been named a Queen by her hive segment(a first for the creatures), began to use her shifting abilities to mimic, and study the new kingdom as it grew beside them. It was a very peaceful beginning, as though she infiltrated deep into the nobilities neighborhoods, she restricted her growing hive to the travelers. She had a great curiosity in the humans, often wondering why they looked so familiar, yet so different to her own children. As this curiosity grew, so did her jealousy. She began to get hints of the Everfree Empire's subjects' love, and loyalty to their ruler. It was infectious, and many times she found she could easily return home to her hive, and share it with her beloved subjects. 

This became her pattern for many decades, as the societies of humans began to stagnate, and even out across the continents. While they rarely encroached further into the forests, they grew more plentiful in their own walls. As the hive's beloved Queen approached her time, establishing the first hierarchy of her species by naming a successor, she began to seed a plan to fully harness the love those human's possessed. Gone were any sentiments of her peaceful visits, as even though she came home full, her hives was beginning to grow too large; she often had to made several trips a day to feed her growing family. As her successor came of age, the queen gave her spawn a name of which the Changelings could understand: Chrysalis.

Chrysalis was the first Changeling, as Mother Nature could remember, to become anything more than her original plan of just crowd control. This one had a name, it had thoughts it could control far better than her siblings, and it would follow its mother's wishes to the grave. 

And as such, it was dutifully planned over the young princess's early years; her mother taught her all she knew, and how to get right at the heart of her new human counterparts. They would practice many hours with captive humans, often seducing new travelers until they could harness the pheromones. Often with songs, like a siren; though, as time dragged on, and Chrysalis became older, she became a natural at creating her own designs of the human females' form. She would notice that the males indulged in a stranger more often when certain features were enhanced, and quickly began to use this to trap more humans.

The eve of the first invasion came upon the death of the Queen, who now passed her title on to her daughter. The newly crowned Queen Chrysalis began only targeting human caravans that were going into the Everfree's walls, or leaving. All other paths around the forest had been abandoned, and the infestation began. Withing the first two weeks, she estimated that nearly a third of the population had been replaced with her children; with that, she sprung into action. Having noted the Everfree Queen's frequent trips without her husband, Chrysalis started to schedule her next attack. As the third week began, a dispatch of the hive launched an ambush on the human queen's two-carriage envoy, making quick work of the security detail with only one casualty. For two days, she conducted excrutiating interrogations on the captive queen, rarely giving her breaks until she began to divulge secrets of the neighboring empire.

With her newfound information, and her new body, Chrysalis took her guards with her, and "returned" to her king. Stage one of their invasion had been completed. Stage two was the least complex of the infestation, but far more brutal than the first. A couple of days after her entrance, she convinced the king to arrange a large festival in celebration of the kingdom's creation, citing the seemingly impressive peace he had maintained with the nearby forest. Unable to resist her sway, due to some of her own pheromones manipulating his mind, and the actually decent reasoning behind her request, he agreed almost instantly. 

Within a day, news had spread around the town of the upcoming event, of which merchants and bakers found all the better to set up their shops in the palace grounds. The large space was soon packed to the brim with all sorts of confectionaries, crowd pleasing carnies and freaks, merchants with goods from far away lands, and tournaments for jousting and talents. As the event was officially kicked off with a toast from the king, the disguised Changelings began to mingle with the crowd, soon becoming almost unnoticeable to their own kin when they disappeared. However, the Changelings could sense their brethren, which made it all the easier when the first distraction came.

Chrysalis had sent a messenger at the beginning of the festival, who made its way back to the forest, and alerted a minor group of Changelings to break off and follow. The rest were sent deeper into the forest with a sealed letter that was not to be opened unless two days had passed. The first horde arrived as the music began, rushing the guards at the front gate. The kingdom was too large for the citizens attending the gala to see this, but those who had remained home witnessed the gates crashing down as a massive collection of black figures with hard skin began flooding in like revenants, or the undead. Seemingly similar in gait to a corpse, and less than a handful making noises other than growls and screeches, the horde ran over the beginning of the kingdom like a tsunami, leaving a mass of green pods and some corpses in their wake.

As this was a swarm attack, they did not bother disguising as they went deeper into the kingdom, spreading out a bit more as the amount of armed in the main streets diminished, and the screeches and roars could soon be heard above some of the music, which began to die down as the noise grew. A few guards keeping a watch on the royal family ushered the king and queen into the palace, rushing them upstairs as some of the other disguised changeling began to unmask themselves. Unbenounced to the invaders, however, the humans technology had significantly grown since the early years, and many more of the humans were carrying the hand cannons, as well as the guards inside that carried much longer barreled ones. While the Changelings gained the upper hand for a time, many of the more astute humans began attacking whenever a changeling was caught in the middle of cocooning a victim. This difference in speed began to turn the tide of the invasion, and some Changelings began retreating. Chrysalis, herself, watched from the tower she was rushed to, clenching her fists as she realized what was happening.

Understanding that a retreat was likely necessary, she began to make a plan to find her way out, looking around the room nervously. The king, quite oblivious to his wife's antics, came over, trying to comfort her. The distraction made Chrysalis shudder from the love she got from him, which gave her an idea. She gave a smirk, and with a simple puff of hair as she aimed at his nose, knocked the king out with a sleeping pheromone, giving her time to think with the guards likely outside of the doors. Her mind was made up when she noticed the cockatoo in the cage across from the bed. She hurried to the window, opening it, before changing her form, and flying away as briskly as she could.

Sending out the scent for retreat to her remaining soldiers, she flew on out over the walls, as the ten Changelings left changed almost as swiftly as she had, catching the remaining fighters off guard as the invasion almost immediately halted. The Everfree Palace had been heavily damaged in the aftermath, as Chrysalis rejoined her damaged hive, hurrying them as far into the forest as they could go. They maintained the hold on their captors, carrying their hostages off with them, as the kingdom began to assess their standing, eventually making way for the king to announce the Empire would being searching for new land, citing the invasion, as well as the loss of their Queen, and countless individuals who had perished when they resisted the initial Changeling onslaught.

As the Changelings returned to their old ambush tactics, humanity learned to move on, developing new technologies to protect themselves from the hives. The Everfree Empire was soon abandoned, as humans made their ways into different nooks and valleys of the earth, leaving the dark forests to fend for themselves. Mother Nature finally decided she was done trying to force her own creations to turn on their own kind, though she would leave her current creations as she saw them fit to continue. 

As such, when the hives of Changeling's dwindled to that of just the Everfree, and the Minotaurs, Timberwolves, and other creatures began to return to their more feral natures, she turned her mind to create something new, that could balance out this unfortunate nature of her humans. This isn't to say she wasn't proud with their new developments, however, as she began to see a decline in the wars they were waging with one another. She also began to see more beautiful moments, often similar to how the original Changelings behaved upon introduction to the first Poisonous Joke flowers. Many were raising their respective funds to help less fortunate individuals; though, being just humans, not all were united in this.

As such, to balance out the nature of humans, she made her final creation. While she was destructive herself, she often pictured herself as a being focused on balance, and peace. Honesty was one of her greatest priorities, and she needed someone to keep her in check, and to stop her from overstepping her bounds in the future. Once more, she turned her eyes to the Everfree Forest. She allowed herself a moment of consideration, before settling on a lone traveler. He had no vessels to traverse in, and no one around him. She could sense no love coming from him, nor could she sense any that had been given. And he was perfect. 

A human with everything to give, and nothing to lose, if given the opportunity. And thus, a song began to play for him. A soft, sombre melody, with notes of cheer sprinkled inside. As her traveler made his way down the road, his steps slowed to a almost a tiptoe, catching his attention on the sweet notes around him. From there, he was drawn in, a wanderer just as those from all those eons ago. Broken, with no one turn to, but a song. As he approaches the source, he stumbles upon the carpet of poison that doomed his distant cousins. As he took in their beauty, and the splendor of the notes in his mind, he took no notice of his slowly diminishing movement. 

As he tried to move his body, a solid stone prison began to cover his form, soon snapping him out of his daze, and causing him to panic. Though, that panic would be short lived as his body was soon fully encased in stone, leaving him lost to his time.