//------------------------------//
// A Minty Tale (side adventure) 
// Story: The Misadventures of Changeling 42 
// by Changeling 26 
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	“Hello world!” Sighed Minty as she breathed in the crispy Canterlot air. She had just hopped out of the Friendship Express from Ponyville and was grinning, thinking about what she was going to do now that she had returned to her old home.
Sure she was only here for a few days in order to attend a candy makers convention, but that wasn’t going to stop her from visiting old friends and family. Minty hadn’t been back home since she moved to Ponyville to start a new branch of the family shop.
“First thing I'm going to do,” Minty told herself “is to check on Mum and Pop.”
She gathered her bag and headed off towards the busy market district of Canterlot. The streets were crowded and the shops were bursting with upper class customers looking for the latest and greatest trend. Minty shoved her way through the main square and into an almost calm and quiet alleyway where a small sign hung above a bright green door.
Minty Fresh walked through the door and was greeted by the familiar smell of candies being baked in the back and the sound of smooth jazz playing from a nearby gramophone. grinning she walked around the shop crammed with sweets, taking in the same pleasant sites she had seen as a Filly. She walked over to the main counter and rung the light bell sitting near the register.
“Just a moment!” sung a high pitched bright voice from the back room.
The sound of the Mares voice made Minty’s smile grow twice as big. That same smile grew even bigger when a large yellow stallion with purple hair stumbled behind the counter, his face being blocked by a large stack of chocolate bars he was carrying with his hooves.
“Hang on let me put these down…” panted the earth pony
Minty cover her mouth with a hoof, trying to hold back a happy chuckle “That’s ok, I can wait”
The earth pony froze in his tracks and threw all the chocolate lazily on a nearby shelf and turned and looked at Minty. He smiled and ran around the counter and gave her a big hug.
“Minty!” He smiled as he kept a tight grip on the unicorn “Its so nice to see you again!”
She returned the hug saying “I know, Dad! I’m glad to see you too.”
“Cherry!” Minty’s father shouted to the back kitchen “some see who’s here!!”
He let the unicorn out of his hug, but kept his hooves on her shoulders. “Look at you, it’s been awhile, Minty”
“I know, sorry about that. I’ve been really busy lately with the shop and my new fri-“ She was cut off by a loud high pitched voice
“Lemon! So help me! I am in the middle of making five batches of chocolate turnovers, five pies and…” As the red earth pony mare walked out into the shop screaming at Minty’s father. She stopped and stared at the green unicorn standing beside the yellow pony          	.
“Mint…” gasped Cherry Fresh, Minty’s mother, as she ran over and grabbed Minty in an even tighter hug. “Welcome home.”
“Thanks, Mom” She exhaled as she returned the hug
“C’mon” said Lemon Fresh, Minty’s father, as he picked up her bag she had dropped during their hug “We want to here everything that’s been going on with you”
“Well I would love to drop everything, dear” Sighed Cherry as she let Minty go “But we do have a large number of sweets that need to get made for the royal banquet tomorrow. And we both know how fast Celestia goes through all of our candy.”
Lemon moaned with frustration “That’s right. How about you come back a little later today, Minty. We can all catch up then.”
“Well, If you guys don’t mind, I was hoping I could bake with you guys. We can catch up while doing what we all love, just like when I was a filly.”
“That would be wonderful!” Cherry sighed
“I’ll just place your bag in the closet, and ill join you guys in the back.” Informed Lemon with a big smile.
The Fresh family entered into the kitchen and began working on a large order of sweets. Minty told them everything from when she arrived to when she had opened her shop for the first time. Her parents shared all of the latest Canterlot gossip, how they were doing with the shop. Lemon fresh ranted about how he hated working in such a small shop in an alleyway. He felt they deserved a large shop with a giant window to show off their work. Cherry Fresh would, as usual, settle him down by explaining how Canterlot upper-class doesn’t want to be seen eating such unhealthy food and how their business is doing just as good as it would if it were on the main road.
The whole afternoon was filled with smiles, laughter and the sweet smell of candy baking in the ovens. The whole visit was going great until Minty’s parents began telling her their point of view during the Canterlot Invasion. They explained that they saw the changelings attack their friends and how a small pack of them broke into the store and tried to capture them.
“The holed mutts lunged at us” Exclaimed Lemon Fresh “I bucked them right in their nasty mouths!”
He grinned and walked over to a nearby shelf where are large fang was being displayed
“I knocked this out of one of ‘em!” he boasted
“It was so frightening” Cherry sighed “Thank Celestia your father was here to keep me safe. Who knows what would have happened.”
Minty looked a little annoyed “I’m sure they wouldn’t do anything to bad, Mom”
“I could see it in their lifeless eyes!” Cherry said in a serious tone “There is no good in those… those things!”
“It’s true” Lemon agreed, as he stirred in a large bag or minty flavoring into a mixture “Those little monsters deserve to be locked up and put away. And don’t get me started on what I would do to one if I got my hooves on one.”
“DAD!!” Minty Shouted “How could you say such a thing! They were probably just solders following the orders of their Queen.”
“Doesn't matter, dear” Cherry argued as she pulled a large tray of truffles “They all had a choice, and they chose to attack us and steal our candy!”
“You’re talking about Changelings as though they aren’t ponies like us!”
“No, honey we’re not.” Gasped Cherry as she walked over to Minty
Lemon, following his wife’s lead “We are simply saying that we don’t think those particular changelings made the right choice. We don’t hate all changelings, just the few that attacked us.”
“Are you sure?” Asked Minty with a confused look
“Of course, honey you know us.” Cherry smiled “Have ever seemed racist to you?”
Minty chuckled a little “Yeah, your right. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“It’s ok, I can see now how bad we did just sound.” Lemon said “But I don’t seriously mean any of those things, I just get worked up easily.”
The three ponies chuckled over the misunderstanding they had just shared, but Minty still felt a little unsure about it all. She decided not to tell them about the Changeling she was now living with and how she might be having warm fuzzy feelings about him. Instead she changed the topic to the latest recipes they had been trying, and ended her visit with her parents by trading recipes.
She gave both her parents warm hugs and went off to check into the small hotel she was staying for the convention. Over the next three days, she learned new candy making techniques, saw the latest and greatest in candy making technology, and she even gave a presentation on how magic and technology can work together to make delicious candy fast.
She was having tons of fun talking with the other inventors, swapping recipes with her fellow  candy makers, and gather bags upon bags of merchandise. The last night she was staying the hotel she was greeted by and unexpected knock at her door. When she looked thought the peephole, she saw the form of her two parents.
“Mom, Dad!” She exclaimed while opening the door “What are you two doing here?
As they walked into the room they looked at Minty with Nervous smiles.
“Your father and I have been thinking…” Cherry Fresh said while sitting down in a chair.
Minty looked at her parents, confused and a little scared “What about, mom?”
“We think it’s time that you knew something…” Lemon said as placed a hoof on your shoulder “Something about yourself…”
“What is it?” She asked.
What came out of her parents mouths shocked her at first, but it made sense. All the odd things about her life finally made sense. She wanted to keep this a secret to most of her friends, there was no need to frighten them with such a surprise. But there was one pony that would understand her and wouldn't care. Minty Fresh decided that she was going to tell the changeling living in her guest room as soon as she got home.