Winter awoke to a knock on the door. For a moment, she thought it was all a dream, that she was still at home with her parents. She sat up, overjoyed that the nightmare was over, when she realized that the bedroom was made of ice, crystal, wood, and green goo. Her heart sank.
"Come in!" she called to whoever was knocking at the door.
Sombra opened the door and entered, smiling at the pegasus filly. "Ready for breakfast?" he asked.
"Sure. Then what?" Winter asked.
"Then, I can take you for a tour, we can have lunch, and finish up with Dark Magic training."
Winter grinned. "Let's go!"
Winter followed Sombra downstairs, and through the city. She glanced from side to side, staring at the strange confluence of creatures. There were zebras, griffons, timberwolves, and even a manticore or two wandering purposefully around the town.
"This is my favorite place to have breakfast," Sombra pointed to a nearby shack made primarily from green goo. "It's mostly staffed by Changelings, but that's a good thing. Changelings are literally fed by your appreciation for their food, so they'd better do a really good job of making you satisfied. The Windigos who work in bars, on the other hoof, get fed by bar fights. Don't go in unless you want to come out with a bloody nose and a black eye."
"I'd probably come out with an eye missing," Winter muttered.
Sombra smiled sympathetically. "I knew a Lich or two in my day. Granted, that's over a thousand years ago, but I helped them work out ways to keep their skin intact. I remember one research paper I wrote on the regenerative qualities of Liches. Did you know that if your body is destroyed, your skeletal structure will regenerate from your amulet?"
Winter shivered at the mental imagery, and Sombra frowned. "That's right, you've not been a Lich for as long as them. Sorry, I'll try to contain my enthusiasm. It's just, I haven't had a friend who's lifespan is on par with mine for so long."
Winter looked at him questioningly. "What do you mean by that?"
Sombra smiled sadly. "Through Dark Magic, I have become immortal. In my foolishness and short-sightedness, I cast the spell in a way so that not even I could revoke it. It was a precaution in case mind magic was used to make me remove my immortality, but I never considered that I may want to remove it one day. As a Lich, you also have immortality, so long as your Phylactery remains intact. Unfortunately, my old friends who were Liches were destroyed during a Lich-hunt within the last thousand years, while I was frozen in time."
Winter frowned. "That must suck, to outlive everypony you know and hold dear. How did you deal with it?"
Sombra looked at the floor sheepishly. "I went insane, enslaved the Crystal Empire, and then banished it for a thousand years. After that, I realized what I had done... and went crazy again, tried to steal the Crystal Heart, and enslave the Empire again. A baby dragon, of all things, stopped me and got the Crystal Heart back to its rightful place, where it was activated."
"What did that do to you?" Winter asked excitedly.
"It made me explode, then cured my insanity. I reformed from the remaining dust within the next year or two," Sombra replied.
Winter stared. "Kind of anti-climatic, when you say it that way."
Sombra cleared his throat. "Anyway, we're here for breakfast, not story time."
Without further ado, Sombra stepped into the green building, followed by Winter. "Bugze, are you here?" Sombra shouted. "I got a new friend to meet you!"
A Changeling grinned as he stepped out from behind a pillar that supported the roof. "Hey, Sombra! What's up?"
"The sky," Sombra said, rolling his eyes. "Now, Winter, say hi. This is Bugze. He's a little strange, but so is pretty much every person in this town."
"Hi," Winter said shyly. "I'm Winter Aurora."
Bugze grinned. "Hey, Winter! I'm Bugze! You've come for breakfast, I assume?"
Winter nodded. "I heard this was the best place around."
Bugze chuckled. "Nothing too fancy, but we serve generous portions of any common food you could possibly want! So, what would you like?"
"I'd like a hayburger and an oatcake."
"I'll pay for her," Sombra quickly added. "I'd like my usual."
"Nonsense!" Bugze's smile grew. "First meal's on me! I'll start prepping your usual, you find a table."
Sombra smiled. "You can always count on Bugze to light up your day. He's probably the most friendly Changeling you're likely to meet. Now, where would you like to sit?"
"I'd like a seat near a window, please," Winter suggested.
Sombra and Winter sat down at a two-person table by a window of ice. "How do you keep if from melting?" Winter questioned, gesturing to the window of ice.
"The Windigos exert a certain amount of energy each day to keep all ice in the city stable. Luckily, anger from ponies outside our little kingdom is enough to keep them fed and still have enough left over to keep the ice stable," Sombra replied.
"Won't that be a problem later, if our settlement becomes more widely accepted and liked?" Winter said with a frown.
"There will always be haters," Sombra replied. "Besides, when we get popular we can always just buy glass and ordinary building materials."
Winter blinked. "Good point."
"Here's your food!" Bugze said as he walked over to them. "One hayburger and an oatcake for little Winter, and a nice hot coffee with hay bacon and hay fries for Sombra! Eat up!"
Winter stared at Sombra. "You know, that's really unhealthy."
Sombra pouted. "I don't actually have to eat, you know, and neither do you. I just eat for the taste, and it tastes better than any other breakfast food to me."
Winter rolled her eyes. "I guess, just my parents always ingrained it in my mind to always eat healthy to keep my body in good condition," Winter let out a snort at the irony. "Guess I don't really have to worry about that any more."
Winter and Sombra finished their food, thanking Bugze. "See you around?" Sombra offered.
"Sure. See you, Sombra and Winter!" Bugze waved as they left."
"Now what?" Winter asked.
Sombra grinned. "Time to learn Dark Magic!"
Um, Windigos. There's no 'e' at all.
5206844 this is why I need comments like this. Thank you! I fixed both instances.
Where did you get the covert art?
I vote for Winter
5207024 I thought I fixed that? Calypsion's the name, I'm going to go check that...
Gosh didn't reliae we could drop our own nicknames otherwise... Ah well. Gota wonder what she dose w the food she eats. No digestion so...
Let me reread the whole thing and I'll surest a few nicknames. Like how we find out what happened to Sombra after the heart nuked him
5212456 his brutal murder in the show never really sit comfortably with me, so I like to maintain that he survived, and that it helped him overall. Suggest a few names/titles for Winter, and I may just put them in! As for the food situation, well... Some of it can be used to supplament her magic, some of it just feels comfortable to eat because it reminds her of being alive, and the rest just drops out her butt when she goes poo. Most of it is in the third catagory, and all of it is in the second catagory.
May read this later, but I read your summary... and I could only think of two things. No matter how beautiful you may be on the inside, you are a freakin' rotting corpse. Maybe you can find another corpse to be happy with? I'm sure the smell won't bother them
Secondly, something I remember from high school: If the coffin's rockin' don't come knockin'.
Why do the Changelings charge for the food? The customer's enjoyment of the service and meal feed the Changelings right? Well it stands to reason then that it would be an even trade, food for food. Heck I could see Changelings paying the diner to work there.
Don't get me wrong I love your story! I'm just realy liking what you did with our favorite little bugs there.
5276251 Could have sworn I answered this months ago... Sorry, then. The Changelings charge for food because, well, it's their source of income. It's not like the only thing they need is love, they also need to pay taxes to Calypsion's government and buy the food they serve. Then, they need a little more money for spending on whatever they might want to save up for. However, it is true that on average Changeling establishments are much cheaper than any other restaurant. The Changelings work full-time at the restaurant.
Did I? My message system for checking which ones I replied to is derping
Bugze Bobcat
it's a pun ten points if you get it
I KNOW right people ask "What's up?" all the time and it' always the freaking sky or ceiling! SERIOUSLY they can't just look up to see what's up??
6405897 I sometimes say, "the floor beneath our feet."
when first seeing my head said winter was a mare no filly so was hoping to see some romance related drama knnow that i know she is a filly know i want to see more of parent related drama
The best way to keep a liches body in perfect condition is to have them bathe in a bath of grease from McDonald’s. That stuff lasts forever
Nice set of priorities there. :D