//------------------------------//
// Roof, Story time and Neighbor  
// Story: Mustic the Changeling 
// by Stanislas 
//------------------------------//


 Chapter 2 



A light breeze caressed Mustic’s body as he was busy repairing the roof of his new home. A rainstorm had hit them the night before and they’d had the marvelous surprise of water that was leaking through the roof directly onto their bed. So first thing in the morning, Mustic took his hammer, nails, some chunk of wood, and a bit of hay, and started the reparation.

Of course, with no experience in roof-fixing, he struggled more than a bit; what would have taken an hour between the hoof of a better skilled changeling had took him instead the whole morning as well as lunch time.

Swiping his brow with his hoof, he posed down his hammer and admired his job. Being proud of himself, he flew down the roof to take a well deserved break

“Guess who just finishing working his shell off to make sure we will stay dry tonight!” exclaimed Mustic as he came inside his house and entered the main room.

“Good job, it only took you half of the day to do so,” answered his wife without any emotion in her voice, laying comfortably on the couch, reading a book while keeping an eye on Tulip while she was asleep.

“Someone had a bad day?” questioned Mustic.

“I can’t say it was the best day of my life so far. I think the bed had some parasite or something in it; since I woke up this morning, my shell keeps itching me and it so frustrating,” Cornelia said back, shifting uncomfortably on the couch. “Would you be a dear and go to the market to see if they have some kind of bed shop and buy us a new bed?”

“Y-you want me to go shopping in a shop owned by a pony?” exclaimed Mustic, not too thrilled by his wife’s idea.

“No, I want to you fly all the way to our capital Kyoto to buy me a bed that you will then carry all the way back here. Of course I want you to go into a ‘shop owned by a pony’ as you say it,” answered Cornelia, irritation clearly showing in her voice as she had no patience to deal with her husband’s awkwardness around ponies, but Mustic, not taking the hint, kept arguing. 

“But what if I forget how to ask for a bed in Equestrian, or what if I get arrested for doing something that pony would think is offensive or...or...”

“Mustic the Green!” snapped his wife. “You will get out of here right now and buy me a new bed before dawn. That’s an order!” 

Mustic gulped, knowing that if he did not want his wings to get ripped apart by his wife he better listen to her, and so he picked up his pouch containing his gold and left the house, leaving his wife trying to calm down her daughter whom had been woken up by her mother’s outburst. 



***



Mustic was outside in his field relaxing on his rocking chair, flipping the pages of a book he had brought from his home country about different way to take out the weeds in a garden. Taking a break from decorating the bedroom of Tulip, he let himself relax and thought things were going alright as the sun heated his shell. In the last weeks, he and Cornelia had finished unpacking their belongings into their new house, and their bedroom finally stopped leaking once Cornelia had convinced him to stop trying fixing the roof by himself and to fetch some help in the city. A few days ago they received the package containing the seeds he would need to start their business and he already had planted some of them around the house for their personal use. 

“Finally it’s not so bad here,” though Mustic. “Cornelia is beaming with joy, the soil is rich in nutrients for the plants, it’s calm and the city is filled with many activities that Tulip could take part in when she’ll be old enough. I could do with less ponies and more Changelings around the town, but I guess I’ll have to get used to living among ponies now.”

Flipping another page, he returned to reading his book when suddenly a hoofball smashed into the ground right in front of him. Mustick rose up from his chair and placed back his book on it before taking the toy in his hooves. He started looking around to find out who threw it to him but without any success, and when he was going to give up, he heard a quiet voice to his left. 

As he looked back with more attention this time, he saw some rustle in the long grass on the side of the road, and as he got closer he was able to identify the culprits who threw the toy at him.

Two little ponies were hiding from him in the tall grass.

“Please don’t eat us!” said the youngest from the two. It was a pink filly pegasus with a cream mane and orange eyes.

“Eat you?” said Mustic in confusion.

“Our mom will be angry if we get eaten,” said the other one, a young Earth pony with a purple mane and green eyes.

“But I don’t eat pony,” Mustic said back, clearly confused. He thought with the number of years and effort that has been put into the project to make Changelings live in peace with ponies, everypony would know that they only ate their emotions and not their body. “Why would you two think that?” he asked.

“Because our mom told us that ponies like you would eat us if we were to come play here,” answered the pegasus. 

“Well your mom is clearly in the wrong. We Changelings do not eat ponies, we only eat the energy surrounding you that comes from your emotions.” 

As reassuring as his words were meant to be, Mustic only caused the two fillies to shake more in fear and shriek.

“Help! He going to eat us!” they both screamed

“No, no! Don’t get scared…We only eat your emotion, not you.. and hum,” panicked Mustic, realising he might not have taken the best way to deal with the two children. “Shhh. Calm down, please. Here, if you two stop crying, I’ll read you a nice story.”

The two fillies looked at each other, unsure of what to do. The youngest one only wanted to go back home and wished to never have followed her brother’s idea to come play here, but the older one seemed interested by the idea of being told a story. 

“Is it a story with a king, knight and castle?” he shyly asked.

Surprised that his idea of telling them a story to calm them down worked, Mustic took a bit of time to answer back. “It’s a story about an idiot, a princess that lives in a castle, and a farmer; does it work for you?” 

The blue filly thought about it for a moment before he got out of the tall grass, slowly followed by his sister. Mustic smiled and returned to his seat and opened his book while the children took place at his side.


“Once upon a time, a long time ago,” started Mustic, “there was a young Changeling named Mustic. He lived in the woods in a small cabin with his mother. This youngling did not had a single talent for anything. He was a bit dull and was the desperation of his mother. His father had died many years ago and the poor mother had to take care of everything. From cooking, to doing the laundry and passing by the work in the field.

She was doing absolutely everything for her survival and for her good-for-nothing son. Mustic for his part passed his days smelling flowers and running after butterflies. One day, seeing his mother drowning in her task, he told her: “Mother, I’m going into town the city to find work. This way, with the money I will earn, you’ll finally be able to rest.” 

His mother answered him. “But Mustic, you don’t know anything and you always do everything wrong.” 

But the young Changeling said back, “You’ll see what I can do, Mom!” 


***

Mustic now had the full attention of the children. Cornelia, who was looking for her husband, sat nearby and started listening to him.


***


So Mustic left for the city. He stopped at every shop, asked every farmer and artisan to hire him, but each time one of them wanted to know what he was capable of. The honest Mustic answered: “I don’t know anything.” Of course, no one wanted to hire him after hearing that. At the last farm he presented himself as Mustic, though back at home his mother was always telling him how everything he did was wrong, so when the old farmer asked him what he knew, Mustic answered, “I can do everything.” He was hired on the spot.

All day long Mustic and the farmer bustled to cut wood and take out the weeds in the garden. When the night came, to reward him for his hard work, Mustic received a golden coin. On his way home, proud of himself for his first day of work, Mustic played with the coin and throw it in the air before catching it back, but a clumsy move made him lose the coin in a crook that runs alongside the road.  

Greatly saddened, he came back home and told his mom about his misadventure, to which his mom replied, “Next time, Mustic, take what the farmer gave you and put it in this pouch. This way you will not lose the fruit of your labor.” 

Mustic promised to do as his mom said and the next day he returned to work. This time he worked with the cows. To thank him for his hard work the farmer gave him a bucket filled with fresh milk. Mustic did exactly as him mom told him and emptied the bucket in his pouch to not lost it on the way home. He returned back completely drenched in milk. Listening to the tale of his son, the poor mother contained her rage and told him. “You must always keep in it contained what the farmer give you. You understand that, Mustic?” Mustic nodded his head.

The next day, after his work, he received a large pat of butter. To make sure the butter would not melt, the farmer asked Mustic to give him his hat and he put the butter in it before returning it to Mustic. The young Changeling left the butter in the hat and put it back on his head. The heat of his head melted the butter and it was with a face drenched in butter that he presented himself to his mother. 

Everyone around Mustic seemed to have fun listening to the tale of the stupid Changeling, and Mustic did a good job at telling his story. He mimed each expression, acted like each character and he knew how to keep the attention of his small audience.

When Mustic finished telling his mom what happened, his mother said, “You were right to keep the butter in the hat, but you shouldn’t have put it back on. Look, take this saddlebag and you’ll put inside what the farmer will give you. You understand, dear?” 

Mustic answered yes, he understood perfectly. 

]Close by the farm where Mustic worked was a very pretty castle. Mustic admired it each time he passed by and he dreamed to earn enough money to be able to live there someday with his mother.  He also noted that a youngling with a charming pink mane was on one of the many balconies of the domain and was always crying. Mustic was wondering what could possibly be the reason for her sadness, but gave it not further thought. 

The next day after his work, the old farmer gave one of his many dogs to Mustic. Having no need for him anymore, he gave him this generous gift to thank him. Mustic accepted the gift with a lot of joy. Like his mother told him, he wanted to put his reward in the saddlebag. he tried to push the dog in the bag a paw after the other but soon realised the bag was too small to put the animal entirely inside it. Mustic find another solution, he put the saddlebag on the head of the animal, slid under him, and started to carry him. He wanted his mom to be proud of him and for once he would do it right. 

The dog with a bag on his head struggled quite a lot and and soon both of them bit the dust. When he tried again to put the animal back in the bag, Mustic saw a tall Changeling approach him. It was the owner of the nearby castle. He presented himself to Mustic and immediately told him that his daughter has lost all pleasure in life and was crying everyday for years. He promised her hoof to anyone who would make his daughter smile. 


From the top of her balcony, the princess had spotted Mustic, and seeing his buffoonery she started laughing and laughing to no end.  

“And so Mustic married the princess, became king, and lived with his mother in the castle. My friends, this proves that to become a king, one either needs to not know anything, or do everything wrong.” 

Both children laughed and applauded Mustic for his story. Proud of himself, Mustic bowed to them.
“It was a really fun story, Mister,” said the younger one, not scared by Mustic anymore. “Can we hear another one?” 

“Oh yes, our father never told us a story like that!” exclaimed the older brother. 

Mustic looked at the sun, it was sunset already. “I would like to tell you two another story but it’s starting to get late, maybe you should return home before your parents start getting worried.” 

Both the kid suddenly realised how late it was, and with a quick goodbye, they ran back home. Mustic was going to return home himself until he realised that his wife was here. “Honey!” He exclaimed, happy to see his wife. “How was your day?” he asked her.

“It was good,” she answered, coming closer to her husband and dropping a kiss on his forehead. “I’ve found what I was looking for and the owner accepted my offer on the stand after a bit of my natural charm,” she added, giggling while clapping her tongue on her fangs. “Who where those kids?” 

“The kids. Hum... I do not know…” apologized Mustic.

Cornelia rolled her eyes in their sockets. “So two foals you don’t know come here and you tell them our story without even asking their name?” she said with a playful smile. “You’ll never change.” 

Mustic for himself sighed and accompanied his wife. They both returned home to start preparing the supper.