Legends of the Shady Trough

by _No_One_Remains_

The Changeling Traveler's Tale Pt. 1 [Dark]

I poured the injured passerby another mug of free whisky in the hopes that it would give him an extra edge for telling his tale. At the time, I never would’ve guessed the problems that would arise from my handouts. For now, it was all in good fun.

The Changeling chugged down his mug of liquor and chuckled, “You want an interesting tale, eh? I’ll see what I can do.”

I noticed Wolf and Razor slowly migrate over to the counter as the Changeling prepared his nerves for his story. I could see a small glimmer of anger in Razor’s eyes, but Wolf seemed interested in the new face. I cast both of their presences off and focused solely on the wanderer in front of me, waiting for a tale that would possibly kill a little time.

The Changeling took a deep breath and began his story.

…

Not long ago, in the far eastern regions of the world, many different hives of Changelings were bound together by the very emotion that we use to survive: love. Despite the differences between our hives and species, we were all united under one set of laws and culture with certain hives holding higher authority than the others. We Changelings were once a peaceful and happy race, until the day that tragedy struck our beloved royal families.

Allow me to explain some things about our culture to make this tale a bit more understandable. All Changelings were once bound a special code of conduct, to live in harmony with our neighbors and our brothers. There were two sets of royalty living within the eastern regions. One set was of the insect-like Changelings such as me. The other set belonged to a hive of Pegasus-like Changelings with actual bird wings and fully formed Equine structures.

Those two hives ruled over us with harmony and peace, and maintained a working social structure for centuries. That was…until almost a decade ago. The Insect Changelings and the Pegasus Changelings always maintained a system for deciding the heirs to the crown. The prince of one and the princess of the other would wed and have children. Those children would wed the most worthy of the commoners, and the bloodline would carry on as such.

It was our late kings and queens that found this system not so effective. No, the Insect Princess and the Pegasus Prince simply couldn’t seem to put aside their petty differences and always seemed to be holding a mental competition, which led to quite a few horrible tragedies over the years.

My tale truly begins on the scheduled day of the Prince and Princess’s wedding. For one last time before they were forced to be together forever, they wanted to settle once and for all which the better Changeling royalty was. They flew off in the wee hours of the morning for the thick forests surrounding our sacred wedding altars. None of the others had a clue where the two ended up.

It is said that their petty squabbles caused the horrible tragedy that was the death of our kings and queens. The Prince and Princess landed deep within the thickets to hold one final contest of speed and strength. Neither one was prepared for their fates.

It was all in friendly and egotistical fun, you see. They agreed on a set path around the forest that eventually wound back to the wedding altar just in time for the ceremony to be performed. They carried on with their taunts and tricks as they flew and leaped around their tracks, undoubtedly excited to find which the dominant Changeling was. Just as they rounded the final stretch of bog and started the final dash toward the altar, they were ambushed by the horrendous creatures of the eastern regions.

These creatures were infamous for their hostility toward any living thing, and the poison in their fangs was claimed to be the deadliest in the entire world. They were shaped like dogs with large muscles and needle-like teeth. In the dark of night, their eyes shined a deep crimson color, said to paralyze any and all creatures unfortunate enough to look into them. They were obviously intelligent as well, as they waited in the bushes for many hours for the Prince and Princess to pass by. Just as the royalty did so, the creatures leapt and began to assault our dear heirs.

Hearing the screams of help from their children, our kings and queens darted off immediately to stop the assault and save their joys. Upon reaching the battleground, our royalty found themselves surrounded by hundreds of the violent creatures, each more ravenous than the previous. Without a moment’s hesitation, the creatures snapped their attention to the more succulent Changeling morsels, and began a quick assault.

The kings were agile and powerful enough to knock most down or stagger them, but one or two were able to breach the small defensive circle of creatures. In the blink of an eye, one particularly large creature had ripped the wing from the Insect Queen. Her screams of pain attracted the remaining creatures, leaving the Prince and Princess open to flee. Unwilling to leave their parents to die, they attempted to strategize a plan.

Alas it was to no avail, as the creatures were determined to finish their feast. Hundreds of the ravenous monsters piled atop the quartet, and continued to rip and tears the royalty to shreds. The bloodshed and screams were too much for the Prince and Princess to bear, and as such they fled immediately from the horror of the murderous beasts. Upon returning to the wedding altar without the kings and queens, Changelings began to rumor and mumble about the fate that could have fallen their loving leaders.

The chatter lasted but a few minutes as the Prince and Princess began the most hostile and vulgar exchange ever witnessed by Changeling royalty. The two exchanged blows and insults and armed assaults as they continued to sob and argue and curse and cast the blame upon one another. Words were exchanged that could never be taken back, and assaults were cast that would leave everlasting scars.

The Prince exploded with rage and ordered his hive and any other loyal subjects to follow him, and those that did were never heard from again. To this day it is unknown what befell the Changeling Prince and his hive. The Princess, however, grew up into a bitter and lonely soul, whose depression began to deprive her hive of love and sustenance. In a desperate attempt to feed her hive, she attacked a bustling city and ruined the wedding of two royals, just as hers was ruined those many years before. Her attack failed, and her whole hive was cast away and banished from the region, left to starve from their lack of food.

One particular Changeling was cast in a direction opposite to the rest, and landed with a severed wing, just as the Insect Queen had before her gruesome death. For months that Changeling roamed the western side of the land of ponies, trying to slowly reach his hive and bring news of an abundance of love and hope to his brethren.

…

The Changeling Traveler fell silent here as he gulped down another mug of whisky. In the back of my mind I was waiting, hoping, for him to continue his tale. It was short, perhaps, but it had a deeper effect on me than I believed it would. When it became painfully obvious that he wasn’t going to continue, I shook my head in disappointment.

I groaned, “Well? What happened to the lost one?” I refilled his mug with whisky and urged him to continue on.

He smiled and chuckled, “He ended up in a bar telling a story to a stallion for free food and lodgings.” He chugged down the liquor and laughed triumphantly.

I could feel my expression slouch into one of disbelieving blankness. I thought about it for a moment before realizing that he perhaps wasn’t just telling a story, but a history. I clapped my hooves and sighed, “Heh, I didn’t think you could actually kill time, fella. Good job.”

The traveler mumbled, “You wanted a tale, so I gave you one. I take it I met your requirements?”

I spun around to search the shelves of liquor behind me before finding an unopened bottle of my strongest alcohol and placing it right in front of the newcomer. I groaned, “Yeah kid, you win. You’ll be staying in room thirty-two upstairs. I’ll send Caitiff for your order in a little bit.”

The Changeling let out a victorious grunt as he grabbed his bottle of liquor and room key from me. Without wasting time, he headed straight for the stairs with the intention of passing out in a comfortable bed. Before he could actually reach the stairs, Razor darted in front of him with an angry glare plastered on his face.

The northern Changeling scoffed angrily, “Who do you think you are, spreading sob stories for that dumbass Queen of yours?!” He stretched his arms out to keep the Traveler from proceeding to his room.

Wolf immediately darted to the white Changeling’s side and hissed a few short sounds into his ears. Razor hissed back, the anger obvious in his tone. The stallion growled, “He ain’t worth it, man! He’s just a traveler; leave him be.”

The Changeling Traveler sighed, “I don’t have a problem with you northern traitors. I don’t wanna start a fight here. Get out of my way.” He attempted to shove his way past his hostile brother in hopes of getting some sleep.

Razor hissed, “How dare you call us traitors?! It’s because of your Queen that we had to flee!”

Wolf shoved the angry creature aside and pulled the Traveler into the staircase. He groaned, “Please forgive my friend. He’s just upset because of your Queen’s attack on Canterlot.” He frowned as he looked back to his friend by the counter.

The tension immediately rose between the two friends. I felt a feeling of betrayal form between them, but it disappeared quickly. The Traveler staggered upstairs to find his room and get some sleep, while the other two creatures slowly approached the counter. An odd sense of dread filled my heart as I realized just where this whole ordeal was leading. Alas, my realization came too late…

Comments

[_No_One_Remains_]

I'll warn you right now: The Traveler's Tale is short, but there's good reason for that! The tales get WAY better after this one, I promise.

[Grimstalker]

Another great chapter!

[FlimFlamBros.]

and so we here the tales of a northern changeling! i think........ great job none the less!

[DianaWinters]

1337487 You're welcome =D If you forgot, razor belongs to me =p
I'm more interested in these 'horrible beasts.'
I hope it wasn't Wolf's pack =\
LET THE FUN BEGIN! dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/Derpy_Hooves_lolface.png

[Eclipsed_Luna94]

good chapter i must said, i like the whole mystery atmosphere around the whole story

[ChainReaction]

With every chapter, this keeps pulling me in further and further. I applaud your writing, and I cannot wait for another chapter.

[codejunkie]

I see you took some points from Wedding of Deecption. A great story made better. KEEP IT UP!