Black Clouds & Silver Lining

by Lucky Seven

A Nightmare To Remember

Being exiled along with your family when you’re nothing but a pupa is rough, but Tenna already knew that. After all, that was her fate when she was still developing. But little did she know, life was going to get a lot rougher from that point onwards. How could she have known that her father would die when she was only three years old? Surely, her mother would always be there for her in the wake of her fathers death…

But then those radical ponies had attacked her and her family, leaving her with nothing. With her home destroyed in a blaze of flames, she could do nothing but wander the outer edge of Equestria. Going in was totally out of the question. Ponies hated changelings, and changelings hated ponies.

...right?

She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about either race. Sure, she herself was a changeling, but that didn’t absolve them of what they had done, and were still attempting to do. Her mother had always taught her that violence was never the answer, so why did the changelings constantly try to use it to get their way?

But at the same time, why had those ponies attacked her village all those years ago? She had heard stories about the legendary Princess Celestia, and she knew of the lessons she taught her ponies. To treat everyone equally, no matter their race. Yet it seemed that in recent times, all of those lessons had been forgotten in favor of a simpler way of thinking. Ponies were good, and changelings were bad.

So then, why did she so desperately want to meet at least one pony? Why did she so desperately want to prove that she could be different? Maybe it had to do with her brother’s final words to her.

"Go and live your life, the way you want to."

Those words had really struck a chord with her. Maybe she didn’t have to be like other changelings. Maybe she could leave her mark on Equestria in a good way, unlike any other changelings before her. As Tenna walked down the dimly lit dirt road leading to a town called ‘Ponyville’, she decided that that was exactly what she would do. She would start by making friends in this ‘Ponyville’, then make her mark on the rest of Equestria.

As the trail before her seemed to get darker and darker, she almost gave up right there. Much like her life, this path was only getting darker and darker as time went by, and it sent a chill through her that resonated throughout her chitin. Perhaps she wasn’t ready for this, and she had only fooled herself by believing she was.

“No… I can do this.”

So, with much more resolve, she picked up her pace. She was going to do her best to see her goal through to the end. Even if she failed, whether she be run out of town or…

No. That wouldn’t happen to her. These ponies were going to see how much she truly wanted to get to know them, and then they couldn’t possibly harm her. At least, that’s what she hoped. The path before her as getting darker still, and it didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon. For now, all she had to occupy her were her own fleeting thoughts. Thoughts of her old home, of the other changelings, even of what she was going to say to the first pony she met. She still had no clue how to even address a pony without possibly scaring them senseless.

‘I suppose I could just… oh man, this is so hard…’

Indeed it was. It wasn’t like she could simply walk into the town and say ‘hello’. She’d be assaulted on the spot, in all likelihood. Not only was she a changeling, but she was a changeling that was alone. She wouldn’t stand a chance if they decided to do something like that. No… she had to bank her efforts on finding one pony that she knew would accept her for who she was. Again, though, that seemed nigh impossible at the moment.

Tenna had seen many ponies throughout her life, and absolutely none of them had nice things to say to her. Some had been so cruel that she had run away in tears, so finding one that wouldn’t be that rude, let alone would be accepting, was going to be a bigger challenge than anything she had faced in a long while.

And yet, she found herself welcoming it. It had been a while since she had had any interaction with other creatures, so she was definitely willing to do it, no matter how long it took. It didn’t seem like it was going to take much longer, though, as the trail before her finally seemed to be brightening, a sign that she was getting close to her destination. Picking up her pace a bit more, she reached a clearing at the edge of the forest she had been walking through.

Looking down from her spot, high up on a hill, she could see the town she had been heading towards for the past couple hours. Cottages, small and large, made up most of the inside of the town, with the outer areas being home to much larger buildings. To the northwest lied a large farm, absolutely filled to the brim with trees. Between the town and herself lied a quaint little cottage, with what looked like an animal pen in the back yard. All in all, this town looked… nice.

She just hoped the citizens were as nice as the town looked as she took her first step towards what she hoped could be her new home. Heh, home. It had been a long time since she had been able to call a place by that name.

“Ponyville, here I come…”