Day 1:
'I've decided to forget about coming out of the Everfree forest. That prissy Alicorn princess thinks she can keep an eye on me, because that sun raising heartless snob told her to? Think again, I'm not coming out of this forest till I get a better understanding of this gem, and when I do get out, I'm going to make a plan. And I won't stop until I finally have something solid. But right now, I need to stop writing. I need to get to work on making a shelter for the night.'
-E.S.
Everchange put the quill and book down onto a stump, and started to buck furiously against a couple trees; Knocking them down and pulling some reeds and vines loose to use as a means of tying a few things together. Everchange had no tools, nothing, but he made due with what he could do himself. He decided that if he won't be welcome in town, he'll make himself welcome in the Everfree Forest... Where all monsters dwell.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, was a wooden cart, pulled by two unsuspecting colts. One with buck teeth and the other with a slightly disproportioned body for his stature. One had a pair of scissors as a cutie mark, and the other had a snail. Within the cart itself, was a unicorn mare, who was trying to sleep.
Her mane was well kept and it came all the way down to her back, her tail shared a bright sliver-ish light blue-white color with her hair, her eyes were purple, not as purple as you'd expect, but the color teetered on a balance between magenta and basically purple. Her coat was a basic light blue, and she had a crescent moon with a magic wand for a cutie mark. The mare woke up, exhaustedly, and stumbled out of the cart, getting good mornings and bows from the two colts.
The mare yawns and looks around the forest. "Trixie guesses this will do for a temporary homestead. The great and powerful Trixie's great and powerful apology tour will have to be on hold before I can start planning a route. Dangerous my flank, it's a forest, how much danger could there be?" Trixie told herself.
She looked over to the colts. "You two, don't stand around all day and gawk at my astounding presence, set up Trixie's cart and be careful with the mechanisms." Trixie told the colts. As the colts unhooked themselves, they got to work trying to set up the cart like Trixie asked.
Everchange, back on his side, had managed to fashion a wooden hatchet out of thorns, sticks and wood carvings; Hacking away at the leaves, brush and vines blocking his way, as he found an empty clearing that could work as a nice place away from his camp for testing out the crystal's capabilities.
Everchange set the hatchet down, and took a deep breath, marveling at the beauty of the silence, and the lush greenery. Everchange tapped the gem, and saw the icon of the changeling. He tapped the left side of the gem and the changeling icon switched to that of a dragon icon. He tapped the right side of the gem, and saw he had something brand new, the icon of a very skinny and lanky pony with a wavy mane and bug wings. With his curiosity piqued, he tapped the gem again and was met with the icon of a Minotaur like creature.
'Hmm... there goes my other theory. Whoever or whatever created such a gem with a power such as this, it must not have encountered changelings and Dragons before, but seems to recognize Minotaurs and Breezies. But, it's still my goal to understand this rare jewel. Let's start with something I'm familiar with in my alchemical studies.' Everchange thought to himself, switching the minotaur icon back to the Breezie. Everchange pushed the crystal down, and felt everything about him change.
His hooves were shrinking and getting skinnier, he felt frilly fly like wings sprout from his body as he shrank. His eyes had glossed over with a green color, his hair and mane began to wave in the wind, as butterfly antennae sprouted from his forehead. He felt the gem on his wrist disappear, only to magically reform on the back of the small creature. The creature laughed in a high pitch tone, sounding giddy as the bright green light, that was just a beacon for trouble, died down, showing a pale and faded yellow Breezie with a white gem protruding from its back.
"Hmm... for some reason, I was expecting something bigger. I guess the nature of creatures is also present within the crystal, it at least explains why I've become as small as them. I should give names to these transformations instead of making it sound overcomplicated, but I just can't be calling these forms something ridiculous, they feel like an extension of me... When I return to normal size and not as part Breezie, I'll make a list to memorize some names. For now, I'll call the Breezie state, Minifly!" the Breezie said, his high pitch voice not resonating much throughout the forest.
Within the wooden cart that nearly collapsed the first couple times upon trying to set it up to keep it from rolling away, Trixie is reading up on spells, specifically illusion spells for her apology tour. "Hmm... if I used a smoke bomb with an intangibility spell, I could have a brand new act in the making, if all goes well." Trixie murmured, looking over her options. Outside the cart, the colts are busy walking around the forest, discussing something while something else lurks nearby, stalking them from afar.
Minifly was flying all around a couple trees, trying to get used to the small stature and the wind in his face as he flew through the air, feeling a sense of peace and bliss. "This feels incredible. Good thing I don't follow the rules of Breezies, because this is too enjoyable to stop doing! The wind in my face, my mane in the wind, is this what Rainbow Dash feels every day? Because this is incredible! Astounding! I can feel the adrenaline!! WHOO!!!" Minifly exclaimed, cheering and laughing as he flew through the forest. "I'm king of the everfree forest! Nothing can stop me no-"
Minifly spoke too soon as he then hit a colt's face directly, groaning as it shook off the pain. In front of the Breezie was the colts that Trixie assigned to help her haul her cart.
"Hey Snips, it's one of those Breezies! There must be a group of them here if there's one of them here, right?" The slightly taller orange unicorn said to the smaller bright cyan unicorn colt.
"Yeah Snails, maybe if we bring it back to Trixie, we might get a reward for our hard work!" Snips said. The two laughed and looked back at the Breezie, who obviously could understand everything they said, and looked worried. "Starting to think becoming a Breezie was my biggest blunder, and not my brightest idea!" Minifly said aloud. The Breezie exclaimed in fear and flew between the colts, trying to get away.
The colts were on the run to get the Breezie, but with some risky and reckless maneuvers, plus due to his tiny size, Minifly was able to fit into crevices and holes that Snips and Snails would hurt themselves trying to fit through, but as Minifly was about to lose the colts, the gem started glowing red, humming at a low tone.
"No! Not now! Stupid shiny rock, why now?! Has it been 10 Minutes already?!" Minifly exclaimed in a panic. Snips and Snails immediately caught up to the Breezie, and then tackled it head on. In a flash of red light, Snips and Snails got up in triumph.
"Haha! We got the Bree...zie?" Snips and Snails said, as they slowly looked down and saw a full grown earth stallion on the ground, groaning as he looked up at the colts on his back.
"Could you two colts kindly get off of my hind legs? They were meant for a lot of things, but being stood on is definitely not one of those things, young men." Everchange said, with a slightly sour attitude, hoping these two didn't notice him turn back.
"S-Sorry sir, we saw a Breezie flying through here, and well-"
"Well nothing, what are two colts even doing out here on their own in this dangerous forest in the first place?!" Everchange asked in a very angry tone of voice. The colts lowered their heads, worried.
Everchange sighed and looked at the gem, seeing it shine a ruby like luster as he calmed down. "Can you direct me to where you came from?" Everchange asked, still a bit stern with the colts. The two lead the stallion back the way they came and started walking in the opposite direction of the forest, where his camp was getting farther away. In a small clearing, there was a wooden cart, where a blue unicorn mare was looking around for, presumably, the colts.
"Snips, Snails! Where did you two go!! The great and powerful Trixie demands you come out this instant!!" Trixie exclaimed irritably, her horn glowing with a light blue aura. "Sorry Trixie, we got a bit distracted. We saw a Breezie and then we got caught by this guy." Snails said, pointing his horn to the stallion standing above them. Trixie was a bit worried, but she kept her cool and stayed calm, approaching the stallion, pushing the two colts out of the way.
"Greetings, Stallion of Ponyville, I am the Great and Powerful Trixie, the greatest magic user of them all! Trixie is appreciative of you finding her assistants." Trixie announced. Everchange was not phased by her show of bravado, but it was definitely a change of pace that she didn't seem to hate him, but he couldn't be too sure that was the case.
Everchange cleared his throat and put on a smile. "Well, your great and powerfulness, I'm Everchange Spectical, and I just so happening to be making my new home amongst the crazy chaos that is the Everfree Forest. I hope you can understand when I say I mean you no harm or offense, but if you also plan to stay here and do whatever, kindly keep the noise to a minimum. Not for my sake, but to keep the Timberwolves astray." Everchange introduced, smiling warmly as he shook Trixie's hoof.
Trixie definitely got a bit of an ego boost when Everchange said 'Great and powerfulness', but not enough to make her get cocky. Though the sudden show of friendliness was a bit unexpected. "Well Mister Everchange, if you need anything or just want to chat, the great and powerful Trixie will be happy to accommodate, for a price, of course." Trixie said, smiling as she walks back into her cart.
The colts walk up and look a bit disappointed. "Sorry again, Mister Everchange." Snips and Snails apologized, before walking back to the front of the cart, minding their own business.
Everchange tapped his chin with his hoof and pulled out five bits each, handing the two unicorns their own share of 5 bits, smiling. "If you two need some part time work, I could always use some help with getting my camp built. You know where to go." Everchange offered, pointing straight to the other side of the forest, a white wisp of smoke rising above the trees as he runs on back to his camp.
Later That Night...
Snips and Snails have fallen asleep on top of each other, snoring carelessly as Trixie calmly slept the night away. Everchange was sleeping peacefully under the stars in his normal form, seemingly having a really good dream, until there was a loud crack, like a tree being snapped in half from its base, and then screaming, terrified, utterly scared, distant screams.
Everchange ran as fast as he could, stopping in his tracks as he saw Trixie panicking over her now crushed and severely damaged cart. He noticed immediately that those two colts weren't nearby, and figured they were the ones screaming.
"Trixie, what happened? Where'd your assistants go? Who was screaming?" Everchange asked, looking around for anything abnormal.
Trixie got up and saw Everchange, awake and looking around. "My assistants are probably fine, my main concern is that something up and smashed my cart into unfixable pieces! I had valuable and fragile stuff in there!!" Trixie exclaimed, upset at the fact she lost some stuff she could easily replace with the right amount of bits.
Everchange patted Trixie on the back, slightly angered that she didn't seem to care what happened to those colts, but he knows he'll go and get them back. "I'm gonna go get your assistants and make sure they're okay, since you're more worried about a cart you can get another of with the right amount of bits." Everchange said, running in the direction that he heard the screams.
Trixie looked up to the stallion as he ran after the colts, and figured she would have to go with him, without magic, he'd be in hot water.
Everchange ran through the thick brush, trampling vines, sticks, rocks, dirt and grass as he followed the sounds of the screams. He followed and followed till he finally came to a sudden stop, as he noticed a huge gorge, with some stairs leading down to them. Everchange trotted carefully and quickly down the stairs, seeing some sort of mass of red vines or tendrils pulling Snips and Snails into a pony sized hole in the rock face.
"Seems like something herbal is looking for a meat based diet, specifically Pony meat. Time to start eradicating these weeds." Everchange stated, tapping the gem and selecting the Minotaur icon. He was about to select it, until he heard a set of galloping hooves behind him.
He looked behind him and saw the unicorn mare, Trixie, readying a spell. "I'm going in with you, I'm planning an apology tour, and if I plan to say sorry to everyone on that tour, I need my assistants to help set things up! That, and you have no magic, fighting whatever or whoever took them would be blasphemous without magic." Trixie proudly stated.
Everchange smirked and chuckled, catching her attention. "Are you laughing at me? The great and powerful Trixie?!" Trixie said, slightly offended.
"No no, I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at the fact that you think I have nothing to work with. Magic is for Unicorns and the ones with both wings and a horn, Flying is for pegasi, kicking strength and nature is for earth ponies. But I can do so much more than kick hard and understand nature." Everchange said, feeling confident as he slams on the crystal, enveloping himself in a bright green light.
Everchange began to stand on his hind hooves, feeling his body adjust and become far stronger. His front legs started to increase in size, feeling his physical strength increase drastically. He felt horns growing from the side of his head, and a ring form on his nose as his mane disappeared and his hair became similar to that of a long fauxhawk. His pale and faded yellow coat changed to that of a deep navy blue, as a black shoulderguard chest piece thing formed, with the white gem forming in the midst of the chest's center. A pair of black shorts formed on the Minotaur as The front hooves grew digits, fingers and apposable thumbs as he also grew sharp claws, his tail became skinnier, as a deep dark gray tuft of hair forms at the end. The flash dies down as Everchange was replaced with a Powerful and super strong Minotaur.
"NRRAAAHHH!!!! OOOOHH YEEEEAAAHHH!!!!! Muscle, Strength, and Nothing else but what Matters!! This... This is good!! I'll call this one, Tyrani-Taur!!" The Minotaur exclaimed pridefully, running head first towards the pony sized hole, smashing his head against the rock face, and breaking the hole into a bigger hole, big enough for a Minotaur to fit.
Trixie stood there, awestruck and completely surprised. Did she just see that stallion change into a Minotaur, right before her very eyes? This had to be a joke, a trick, or maybe the stallion was a unicorn with a very short horn hidden in his mane, and he cast a very strong illusion or transmogrification spell. The unicorn tried to process this with logic, until she heard the Minotaur yell for her.
"Hey!! You comin' or are ya gonna stare off into space, Ma'am!! Someponies need our help!! Jeez!!" Tyrani-Taur exclaimed, impatiently waiting on the unicorn.
"I'm on my way, just... a bit surprised." Trixie replied, running to the Minotaur's side, walking into the cave, ready to face the dangers within.
To Be Continued...