> The Equestrian Scrolls: The Lost Queen
>  by Queen Zenith
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: Birth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Floating.....and drifting. This is my life since the moment I came to be. From the very first thought, I was able to "remember", if that is what one would call it. Floating and drifting. That is what my life is and all I can remember it to be....well that's not strictly true, I have memories. The only thing that I know without a doubt is the memories are not mine, also they're not even good memories...or bad...or anything. They're just memories; knowledge about the world, outside this… place. Because of these I know what a tree is, even though I have never seen a tree, I still know what it looks like, know what the bark feels like, taste like, smell like. All because of the memories.
Clouds, grass, ponies, merponies, gryphons, minotaurs, and much more. I know everything about them even though I have never experienced meeting them myself. It's very annoying, but so very useful. After all it kept me entertained for such a long, long time. It's hard to explain, how even though I have these memories, I didn't know what they meant. I had to slowly piece them together piece by piece...it took a while, a long while. But it was all I could do.
My first memory, though simple, took me....I don't even know how long, I didn't understand the passing of time yet....Ha that's a hoot, I'm not even sure I know what the passing of time is right now. Well anyway like i was saying, my first memory was of a cat.
.....Sounds easy right? Yes and no. Picture this you see a big fat, long haired orange cat, with soft eyes and long whiskers that was sitting in the middle of a grassy hill. It was purring unendingly slow, which was soft and warm and gave you a weird funny giddy feeling in the center of your chest, and the only thing you wanted to do is push your face deep into its fur and nuzzle it as you pet it's neck and rub it's belly as you lay on the springy but unyielding ground.
Now, here's the hard part. You don't know what a cat is. Or what fur feels like, or the scent of grass that hangs in the air or what the sound a cat makes. If that doesn't work, try adding that you don't know what that feeling is in your chest or that your chest is called a "chest" or the fact you don't know what you are using to pet the strange animal and why it is connected to your body, or why you even have this feeling in the first place. Now take it a step further, you don't know that you are, and you are not the person in the memory. And you don't even know what a memory is. It was a large, confusing mess for me to think about. But I eventually understood everything....eventually. In the end I learned everything that I could learn from my "memories" and I often went over them to improve my knowledge...and also to make my unending drifting pass quicker.
Even now I'm merely talking to myself just to improve my social skills and to relieve me of my boredom. But after all this, the explaining of these “memories” and what I went through, and what I had learnt and how long it took me, it was all done just to help the passage of time go quicker.
And even that is starting to get boring.

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Slowly floating, my consciousness was drifting in and out of sleep, and once again I lost track of all time.
Waking from one such conscious exchange, I gave a great yawn and stretched out my hooves in all directions when suddenly my bottom left hoof touched something. My heart jumped and I snatched back my hoof back as I stared unseeingly that way as my heart pounded into my ribs. 
‘That's new.’ 
When my heart gained a steady pace again I slowly stretched out my hoof. It came in contact with a soft barrier of some sort. Moving my hoof up, down, left and right I found the barrier stretched as far as I could move and I realized it fully encased me. It was a oval room, curiously I pushed hard against the barrier but though it was soft, it was unyielding as stone.
‘What's this?’  I asked as I felt the entirety of the wall.
At the back of my mind I felt a memory trying to come to the surface. Closing my eyes, which didn't change much, it was still dark as Tartarus, but it helped me concentrate better as I grabbed the memory threw it out into the open conscious that was my mind. A perfect image of a oval shape came into view. It had black veins and was encased in a smooth, black substance which I know for a fact was once goo. It's surface was an even, milky grey color
‘Your egg’ I thought of as a flicker crossed my vision. I froze, staring hard at the direction it came from. Something flashed across my vision again, from across the shell. Pressing my face against the shell, I watched as light flickered all over the place. I could barely make out anything, but colors slowly became more and more prominent.
My chest tightened as I experienced color for the first time. It was like the whole spectrum of colors flashed before my eyes as it quickly grew brighter. It was beautiful; vibrant greens, bright yellows and deep blues filled my vision and only continued to get brighter. So bright, it started to strain my eyes quite a bit. But I couldn't look away, ensnared by the colors around me. That was until my horn poked the top of the egg.
‘Did it grow smaller?’ I did a quick feel around the egg, and yes, it was shrinking.
‘Idiot, you're growing.’ I retorted back at the other voice as a flood of heat suddenly came through the egg shell and made its way directly toward my face. Scooting back, I tried to escape the....whatever in Tartarus it was but inside the shell, there was nowhere to go.
The heat swirled slightly around my head, and I could feel the heat pressuring my lips slightly. I tried to fight it, my hooves moving through the heat but it was solid as air. With a suddenly with a flash of insight that vaguely reminded me of memories, I knew what I had to do. Opening my mouth and with a slight surge of my will, my innate power seized the heat and pulled in me, quickly storing it in my stomach.
The heat exploded, sending warmth through my entire body. From the tip of my wings to the bottom of my hooves. Not only did the heat strengthen my limbs and muscles, but it also energized me to my core and I felt a massive spike of energy blossom inside me.
‘Magic.’ saying it instantly, even before I could ask myself what it was. Another question was forming when my chest started to burn, not from the heat but from the lack of oxygen and the burn wasn't on my chest, but in my lungs.
I started to panic slightly before another memory surfaced quickly, it was of another changeling using his horn to escape from his egg. He used his horn to stab the egg and slid his horn down from top to bottom. He slid out of his egg, the greenish liquid spewing across the cave floor. I didn't wait before I moved to point my horn against the egg’s membrane. That's when I noticed that I had very little room to move. 
'Well, time for a change in the address. It's getting a little crowded in here.’ With a push, my horn easily punctured the membrane. It was hard, but with some effort, I cut down the length of the egg. The liquid around me gushed out through the hole, just like in the memory. When the mucus, which by the way, ew, was lowered enough, I took a deep breath, relieving the pain in my lungs. Before the hole was large enough, the egg split along where I was cutting and I spilled out, tumbling on the rough floor.
Blinking away the mucus and taking more deep breaths, I looked around. Light flooded down from a hole in a corner of the roof, it wasn't that strong, so it might be something being reflected or multiple somethings.
Because of this I was able to see the room somewhat clearly but there were quite a few shadows. The room I was in was a cave. It had a high ceiling and slimy walls dripping with water. Me and my egg were sitting next to a pool of crystal clear water. Multiple species of moss and mushrooms grew around the edges of the pool, but that wasn't the most important feature of the cave.
Not far away stood another changeling; he was partially hidden in the shadows. Behind him was a hole in the wall, which I can only suspect was the entrance to this otherwise enclosed cave.
"Are you full? Are you strong enough to move?" He asked in a rough and slightly gurgling voice, like he was trying to talk with a mouth full of water.
I stared at him for a moment, before looking around to make sure he was talking to me, and then nodding at him, "Yes, I think I can move."
I saw him nod from the shadows and I could see his head was misshapen. "Good, then you need to get up.” Walking forward, the changeling's back leg was causing him to limp. The reason for that was because most of it was missing, leaving only thin bone and patches of chitin. He eventually came out into the light and his visage terrified me to the point I let out an involuntary scream.
He looked like a normal changeling. Black carapace-like skin, short legs with holes in them, as well as webbed hair. His eyes were a royal purple, though there were no pupils. Though what made me scream was the fact that his head wasn't misshapen. He was missing a full quarter of his head, which made it look that way. There was a giant gash where his left eye should be. Shattered chitin surrounding muscles hanging off his head in strands. Shards of bone jutted out of the wound. The bone was showing bits of his of his brain which pulsed lightly.
"My Queen, we need to go. Your enemy is coming, and there is little I can do to stop them." He said urgently while coming up to me and bowing slightly.
> Chapter 2: Flight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stood staring as my brain trips over itself, as the changeling's wound close up at a snail's pace.  The only reason I snapped out of it was done by the male giving a small but firm cough. He did it a second time, pardoning himself and turned away from me.  A moment later, he gave a series of hacking coughs which ended with him violently coughing blood off to the side. It held small pieces of pinkish flesh and tiny shards of bone.  He gave a small sigh of relief, "That's better. It's been in there for a few hours, longer than I'm comfortable with." He said, wiping his mouth with a forehoof.
I gagged and turned from the sight, dry heaving.  "A-are you ok?" I asked, after a moment, and firmly not looking at him.
"Oh, I'm feeling much better my queen. Thanks for asking,” he replied from her side. His hooves making soft clops as he walked back to me.
‘Huh?’ I looked at him, shocked. "B-but you literally just coughed up your guts!"
He smiled gently and replied "My Queen. Look into your inherited memories, and you'll understand."
I blinked as he prompted me to look inside my memories again. I stared at him for a moment before nodding slightly and closing my eyes.   Keeping the question about coughing up one's guts and changelings in my mind I started to search through my memories.  It came quickly since I had an idea about what I'm looking for, and it shown me that changelings, as long as they have magic, can recover from even the most deadly of injuries.  Organs, limbs and anything else is able to be regenerated, all they have to do is focus on being whole again and let their magic do the work.  Although if their brain is damaged in any major way then recovering is not possible. But anything less then that is considered non-lethal so long as they have magic.
‘...Well then’
Opening my eyes, I looked at the changeling. The gash in his head is almost fully regenerated, and his leg was already whole. On a side note, I now only notice he had a sword strapped to his back. How I missed that, I'm not sure, but I did now. Oh and also his smile is gone now.  "Quickly, my Queen. We need to go now." his voice sounded urgent and as he turned and headed towards the opening I noticed that his limp was gone.
With a start, I followed him without thinking. "Why?" I asked as we made our way into a narrower cave walkway. The changeling right in front of me.
"I'm sorry, we are short on time and Deathlings are nearing our position," he said while picking up the pace.
I sped up to match his pace. I loved the way my muscles felt as I moved, after being encased in the egg for so long, it felt wonderful to be out and moving about.  "What’s your name? And How am I your Queen?"
We came out into a small cavern, with 7 other tunnels. He looked at each one in turn, his head cocked and ear up as if he was listening for something.  He suddenly took a sharp turn down the one third on the right.  "Please my Queen, we have very little time and your enemy's minions are almost upon us."
"Who is? What's going on?" I said，starting to get a little annoyed, yes this is not as boring as being in the egg， but I would at least want to know what is going on.
He stayed silent as he led the way through many tunnels.  Every time he came to split roads he would cock his head again and his ears perked up.  He listened for a few second at each tunnel before making his decision and dashing down the tunnel he choose.
I easily kept up with him, which seemed weird to me since I was born not too long ago.  I would have questioned him, but my memories answered it before i finished forming the question in my mind.  My magic fueled my body, as long as I had it I could run for days.  Not only that I don't need to sleep, but it has limits, the more I use magic to stave off exhaustion and mental exhaustion, the more amount of magic required until eventually I would need to rest regardless.
After what seemed like an hour, I had more than enough of this. While walking into a small cave clearing I said  "Alright. Stop."
I skidded to a stop and sat my haunches down on the ground, and he continued out through another side cave. few moments passed before he came trotting back into the cave.  "Please, my Queen. We really need to go." he said while standing in front of me.
"No. Not until you tell me what is going on." I said, looking at him.
Standing at his full height and even with me sitting on the ground, his height only came up to my chest.
He seem to get visibly agitated "Please my Queen." He said, his ears twitching.
I stared at him and shook my head slightly "Who, where and why?"
He stared back, and held my gaze for a moment before letting out a sharp breath with a hiss, "Yes my Queen." He said, and stood there for a moment collecting his thoughts, before shifting from hoof to hoof for a moment before starting.
"The 'who’ is that I am named Shell,"
"That is not very creative,"
"It's not, but that is my name because it's my job to protect the queen,"
"So you're my protector?" I asked, interrupting again.
"Yes… are you going to let me finish, my Queen? Cause like I said, we are very short on time." Shell said word by word very patently as if he was used to being cut off while talking.
I shut my mouth and smiled slightly.  "Please continue." I said.
He chuckled lightly "There is one more ‘who’. Her name is Queen Entomo and she wishes you dead."   All laughter and smiles left his face as he adopted a serious look.
My face mirrored his and I wanted to say something, but the look on his face held my tongue.
"The why-"
"Is irrelevant," another voice said. "After all, you will die before anything else happens."
I snapped my head around, looking back towards the source of the voice.  I had to, the voice sent a chill through the depths of my core… literally. There was a deep cold spot in the middle of my chest, right next to my heart and I have no idea why there is.
Four changelings made their way into the cave,  fanning out to circle us in. Each changeling was pale white with pale blue eyes, and each had a sword strapped to their back, right in between their wings.
"Stop. And not a step closer." Shell commanded. The sword on his back was out of its scabbard, and floating freely within a bright blue glow.
They stopped for a moment before four white glows admitted from their horns.  Four identical swords were pulled from their respected owners scabbards.
Shell shared a long stare with the four before he barked out a  single word, "FLEE!"
Before the word finished leaving his lips, the four shot forward with a beat of their wings.  There was several loud clashes of metal on metal.  The sword clad in blue sped around, meeting each and every one of the white clad swords in turn before starting over.  The four white changelings started to surround Shell and me, until Shell's back hoof kicked out and struck me in the shoulder.  I went sprawling on the floor just as two of the swords cut the air where I was sitting barely seconds before.
The scrapes I got from the floor brought me out of the daze and I scrambled to my feet, taking a moment to glance at Shell before doing as he said. And with that I ran with my tail between my legs
I could hear the sounds of fighting behind me. Clashes of metal as well as a quick howl of pain that was ended with a death gurgle.  The fact I could tell it was a death gurgle confused me for a second, but I quickly threw that thought out as it was distracting.  I could hear my hooves clopping on the cave floor as I ran.
I had no idea where I was going. Every time a split came up I choose a random tunnel and went down it.  This happened at least a dozen of times, each time no less than two paths came up.  Needless to say I was helpless in where I was going.
‘What do I do?’ my mind races as I repeated the question over and over.  An image floated into my mind from the back pointing me towards the right tunnel that I just passed.  Sliding to a stop, I turned and ran back, taking the tunnel. With the brief moment of silence from the hooves, I heard the distant clatter of hooves and faint echos of arguing.
‘Maybe he got away...hope to see you again Shell.’ I quickly picked up my pace again.  As I made my way through the tunnel, image after image popped into my mind's eye.  Each time it lead me down deeper into the earth and each time a faint roaring grew louder and louder.
After a few more twists and turns I made my way into a large open cavern,  it was beautiful if not loud.  I stood on a ledge that hung dozen of yards from a giant underground waterfall, a solid beam of light shone from the roof.  It hit the water vapor in the air, creating a rainbow throughout the cavern.   Crystal was set in the walls in a downwards spiral, each one caught a shred of light, sending out lines of colored light in different directions.  Like I said, it was beautiful, but also very loud.  The crash of the water from far below drowned out almost every other sound in the area.
'Anything else?’ I waited for a moment for my memory to give me an answer, but nothing came.  'Thanks,’ I thought sarcastically.
Turning around, I looked for another exit, another tunnel.  Using my wings, I flew around the cavern looking. It quickly became apparent that the only entrance is the exit.
'I need to find another way.’I  went back up to the ledge.  Coming over the edge, two of the white changelings stood in the exit with swords out, green blood dripping of the swords.
"Finally, let's get this over with." one of the two said, both moving forward.
"Hey now, is that the proper way to treat a Queen?" I asked, floating backwards in the air and slowly backing away from them to give me a slight head start if I needed to run again.
"You are not our Queen," they said as one.  One after the other launch themselves into the air towards me, with their swords flashing towards me.
I let out a yelp as I nosed dive towards the wall. They followed close behind. Seeing no other way, I the beat my wings frantically towards the particularly large crystal.  I felt a hot line cross my back leg then an intense pain that made me falter, I gave another yelp of pain as another slash went across my lower back.
Slamming into the wall, I gasped. Spinning around, and seeing one sword flying toward my chest.  I growled and bucked the large crystal. It broke off a large chunk, which I grabbed with my magic, which I just noticed was the exact same color as Shell's. Using it, I knock the sword off it’s potentially fatal course.  It sent sparks up into the air as it struck the rock wall.  The second sword slashed across my stomach, sending another wave of pain into my body, I gave a scream as my magic failed for a moment, making me drop the crystal.
Re-grabbing it, I smashed it right into second Changeling's neck. There was a snapping sound as his neck bent awkwardly.  I gave a smirk of victory but then the changeling sent the sword into my stomach, it swiftly changed into a snarl.  The first Changeling stabbed his sword into my neck, making my next scream gurgle in my own blood.
‘Brain! Protected your brain!’ I yelled at myself.
When the sword was viciously wrenched from my stomach, I used the crystal and smashed into the sword in my neck, snapping it in half. At the same time, blocking the other sword from going after my brain.
The first one growled, smashing the hilt of the sword into my head.  My magic failed me again, and the crystal dropped from me and was snatched away with by one of the other changelings and thrown to a side.
‘What do I do?’ I screamed into my mind. I didn't want to die.
Magic, pump it into your fore hooves and grab him!
I was about to ask why, but remembered that I was talking to myself, so ignored the question in my brain.  I knew what I was doing....I hope.
Using my hooves, I grabbed the one I believe was holding the sword that was in my stomach.  Pushing all the magic I could muster into my muscles and pulled on him, trying to slam the changeling into the cave wall.
He gave a yelp as he was suddenly and violently smashed head first into the wall.  There was a sickening thud as stone won against flesh and bone.  The aura disappeared from the sword in my stomach, and the last changeling jumped back as he was sprayed with Changeling brain matter.
Seeing a chance, I darted forward, trying to get to the exit. I got a few yards before a slice of heat and pain went across my wings and I felt them separate from my body.  I traveled upwards, caused by my momentum, a few feet more before stopping mid air, then I started to fall.
I gave a gurgling scream as the white changeling attacked again with his broken sword. He smashed the hilt into the side of my head over and over again, snarling all the while.
Grunting in pain each time, I twirled, spinning the air and rotating with him.  Getting my hooves in between the two of us, I used magic again to fuel my hind legs and shoved.  We separated, and he was launched towards the wall.  There was a wet thud as he smashed into a cluster of crystals and was quickly lost above me as I sped towards what was at the bottom of the cavern.
‘Heal, time to Heal.’ trying to focus through the pain, I pushed magic into my body. The wounds started to heal, but it was slow. Way too slow, I could see the bottom, where there was a massive lake and in the middle of it was a whirlpool just as massive.
I knew I couldn't heal in time, so I tried to do the next best thing in this situation. I minimized the threat of death.  Rolling into a ball, I covered my head with all four limbs and turned to my side, angled away so that my head was as far away from the impacted as possible.  When I hit water, my head was spared most of the damage, but it hurt.  It hurt so much I lost consciousness.
As it faded, my last feeling was of floating around and around, then darkness.
> Chapter 3: painful
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again I was floating in darkness.  I hate this feeling, I really do.  But that being said, the differences between what I am used to and what I'm experiencing now, is one major thing...well, two things.  One is that I'm surrounded by water, that's a new feeling, but not much of one.  The major difference I'm talking about is the unbearable pain my body is going through.  It permeates every nerve that makes up my being.
I knew what pain was and how it felt but I never knew what it felt like.  And that is the most likely the reason I woke up when I did.

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I gasped, then started choking as water entered my lungs.   Fluttering my eyes opened I looked around, but everything was very blurry...  It was also very dim, a soft light was shining down from above.  So seeing wasn't that much of a problem but a murky cloud of blood surrounded me.  It took me a second to tear my mind from that fact before trying to get my bearings.
It took me precious seconds to find which way was upward.  After all, the force of the water had me cartwheeling in every direction.  It also didn't help that my body hated me.  Everything that was me felt on fire.  My head struck against something hard which drew me back to my current problem… no pun intended.
Grinding my teeth and refusing to breathe in any more water, I flailed my hooves, trying to reach the surface to find air.  My left hind hoof screamed in pain as I jostled it.  I could feel it at an odd angle, and every time I made a slight movement with it I heard grating sounds of bone on bone.  What a wonderful handicap for my first time swimming.
Slowly, I swam up trying to reach the top, it was at that moment my lungs started to burn with an intense heat.  They were demanding air and I had nothing to give them.
'Oh sweet Luna, please don't let them punish me.'  the burn increased twice over in response to my plead.
I coughed and took an involuntary breath, which just made me cough harder.  I could see the surface of the water.  Knowing that air was only so far away made me push my body to the limit.
The force of the water was fighting me every inch of the way. It was trying to drag me back down to the mud, so it could ensnare me like webs would a fly.
'No! No! No!’
Grabbing at my magic, I started shoveling as much as I could into my body.  With a flood of strength, I shot forward. Soon after, my head broke out into blessed fresh  air.  I started gasping and coughing, then gasping again as my lungs demanded relief from their burning.  My head swirled as I started taking in my surroundings, it was hard going but I slowly started to gather my thoughts.
Moving rapidly down a wide river, I saw on one side was a range of mountains that spanned far into the sky.  On the other was patches of sparse forest.  There were also several river banks along my way.
‘Perfect. Just what I need.’
As my gasping had eased to a heavy panting, I continued to funnel magic into my limbs.  Paddling forward, I made my way towards the bank.  I growled as pain flared throughout my body again.  I dug my forehooves into mud and gradually hauled myself out of the powerful currents.   After that, it was an easy task to move myself farther onto dry...er earth.
‘Well this isn't boring,’ I groaned, rolling over and staring for a few moments into the leaves above.  It was only a few moments later, the pain across my body decided that they needed more attention.  I closed my eyes and sighed with exhaustion. It took me only a thought to let the magic flow into my injuries. It started stitching me back together.  After a few minutes of feeling my body repair itself, a different thought occurred to me.
‘How much magic do I have left?’ Looking inward, I saw the last dredges of my magic go into my wounds.  The magic strengthening my body evaporated and it seemed that it naturally strengthened my body, because my body started to shake from all the abuse it had suffered in the last day.  But something more abundantly clear made itself known to me: it also naturally reduced pain.
I let out  a gurgling scream that sent birds scattering from the nearby trees.  Pain flared throughout my body, making my body thrash in protest. Something was in my throat suddenly and I started to cough hoarsely.  I vomited roughly all over myself and my mind went into hysteria as I tasted blood.  My whole front became covered in dark greenish blood.  Sobbing uncontrollably, my body continued to thrash and twitch against my will.
'I need to make it stop.’ I said to myself.  ‘Make it listen!  I will not die! I got out of the egg and It will be a cold day on the sun before I die so soon!  NOW MAKE IT LISTEN!’ My inner voice roared, snapping me out of my sobbing.
I apparently have no sympathy for myself.
Forcing myself to carefully roll onto my front, I slowly curled in on myself.  I bit down hard on my hoof and focused on that pain first.  My mind slowly checked off what was hurting.  Right forehoof, left hind leg, barrel, neck, and head.  Those held the most torment for me, everywhere else felt like tiny cuts and bruises in comparison.
I started on those first, mentally checking them over without moving.  My mind gradually started to make the pain bearable or at the very least less excruciating.  Left hind leg: not fully heal, but also now completely broken. Chest: lungs, just need some more air.  I took slow deep breaths trying to solve that particular problem.   Neck: small but painful hole, also bleeding profusely  though it has stop momentarily thanks to the mud clogging it.  Yay for infections.  My stomach: small tear,bleeding somewhat. Not sure about my insides. My head: large gash on the top and a cracked horn, probably the least serious injury out of the lot.   The pain still tore at me but it wasn't all consuming as it had been moments before.
'Now what?' I asked myself trying not to cry again from the pain.
A crackle went threw the air.  It was so unexpected  that i made me jump and that sent a wave of fresh pain through out me.  I whimpered slightly l lost at what to do.  I was injured, bleeding and had three hooves in the grave.  I was out of magic and out of time.  And it was going to rain, great more water.
The only thing I could hope for is if I'm lucky enough for someone to come across me.  And seeing as how my luck has been so far, it would most likely be a bear.
It was then that the rustling of a bush emitted from the side of me.  The sound made me groan inward.
'I wanna go back in my egg.
There were soft thumps as something walked over to me, there was also the crunch of someone eating something hard right above me.
"Well, Well.  Look what I found," Said a voice with a very unpleasantly cheery tone.  "And here I thought I was going to have to spend the next few hours looking for you."
Gradually I turned my head and looked up at the overly offending cheerful fellow.  I had no other desire at the moment then to look at the face of the person I was mentally stabbing curentlly.
I stared for a moment before closing my eyes.  I'm seeing things. I counted to ten then opened them again.  Nope still there.
The creature stood before me a paper bag with colorful rocks in it.  Every so often he would grab a handful and toss them into his mouth, then the crunching sound would begin anew. That is not what made me stare.  What made me stare at him is that it looked like someone grab dozen different creatures then took one limb from them and threw them together to make this one.  If I had the motive I would have tried to guess which limb belong to which creature but between the pain,the exhaustion and now the prospect of being save I didn't really care much.
"Can you help me?" I choked out through a small mouthful of blood.  My head started to spin from the effort.
Rolling his eyes skyward he thought about it for a moment before nodding.  "I can help you." he knelt down and smiled crookedly at me before adding "But there should be a fair exchange.  It wouldn't be fair if just you got something out of this."
My anger rose and I gritted my teeth from saying anything just yet.  I didn't want to snap at him.  The crunching sound continued as he stayed above me waiting for my answer.
"Fine, you can take anything you want from me." I said through my clenched jaw.
He started to laugh "Oh I don't want anything from you," He ran one finger through my hair and down my face to the tip of my nose before quickly sticking it in his mouth.  There was a popping sound as he pulled it out and he started to smack his lips. "Mmmm thaumaturgic type if I had to guess."
All I could do was stare as he tossed the paper bag over his shoulder and rubbed his palms together.
"Abracadabra." he said opening his hands.  In between them was a small blue sphere, at the site of it something inside me growled slightly and I couldn't help myself as I moved forward trying to get to it.  What ever it was my body knew it wanted it.
He held it to me for a moment before pulling it back "So do You want to accept my deal?" he said flicking his hand and the sphere started to spin around in the air.
"I don't know what it is," I whimpered not taking my eye off it.
"What? Oh sorry it seems I forgot to state the terms." clapping his hands a scroll appeared out of the air with a small puff of smoke.  Pushing a pair of glasses that seemingly came out of no where he opened the scroll before giving a light cough.
"The one and only agreement for the terms is that you accept my three gifts."  He looked over his glasses at me "Aww isn't that sweet of me,"
I was going to call him crazy but a violent coughing fit over came me, blood spilled out onto the ground from my mouth again and all I could do was nod in agreement.
"Excellent, we have a deal then." he said throwing the scroll and glass into the air.  The disappeared into a cloud of smoke.  Taking the orb, he set it down right in front of my mouth. "Eat up now and tell uncle Discord how it tasted."
I didn't reply, I didn't even hear him. Even though in the back of my mind something scratched furiously trying to get to the front of my consciousness.  I didn't even notice that.  All that mattered to me was the sphere with evaporated into a blue smoke.  Once again with a slight surge of will I grabbed the smoke and greedily pulled it into my mouth where it was safely stored in my stomach.
Magic flared into life again and I immediately put it to healing my wounds.  It was only until after most of the healing was done when the scratching broke free and threw itself into my mind.
Do not trust Discord.  He lies, manipulates and cons everyone into doing what he wants.  And do NOT make deals with him, it will not end well.
My eyes suddenly focused and was met with the gaze of a grinning  draconequus.
"So, what it tasted like?"
'....Oh sweet Luna,'  I groaned and buried my face in my hooves as the vague taste of chocolate milk entered my mouth.
> Chapter 4: Gifts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Discord, easily the most known draconequus.  My memories knows little about other draconequus, but they know a lot about Discord.  From how he ruled over the land of Equestria, to the moment he was freed by elements that imprisoned him.  After that, little is known, its somewhere around that time that my memories stop giving me clear images.  I think that is about the time my egg was laid.  But every single nerve in my body told me that I am not to trust him...or to make deals with him.
Horseapples.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked up at Discord and continued to groan inwardly as I felt the smugness radiating off him as he floated above me.
"Come on, tell me.  What does it taste like?" He said, putting his legs up.  He settled on an ottoman that came into existence with a puff of  smoke and sat himself down.  Why does he keep doing that?
"I was going for milk chocolate....or was it chocolate milk?" " He said while stroking his beard, before giving an exaggerated shrug. "Oh well, either one will suit my purpose as the first gift anyway."
I took a deep breath before studying his face carefully "Okay, I'll bite.  What's your first gift?"
"Well what does it taste like?" he asked chuckling
I thought for a moment. "Chocolate milk."
"Good, that is your first gift."
"So helping me and making it taste like something was my first gift?" I asked, confused, I felt a few drops of water hit my head.  My eyes flickered up without thinking and saw a giant umbrella pop open.  It hovered over us and prevented the rain from getting to us.
"No. The gift I gave you is making the magic you eat taste like something." he said with a clap of his hand.  A table with a china teapot, two teacups and a small plate of cucumber sandwiches sprang from the ground a few feet from us. "Care for some tea?" he asked as his body and ottoman floated down and sat themselves on one side of the table.
I digested what he said as I looked over my body.  The magic that was given to me was just sufficient enough to heal the worst of my injuries, my body still felt like someone threw me down a mountain.  Which I kind of did...in a manner of speaking.
Standing up slowly, I made my way over to the table.  Coming closer, a small chair appeared in a similar manner as the table.  I looked over the chair before sitting down.
"What did you mean you made it so I can taste magic?" I asked as I instinctively tried to grab one of the sandwiches with my magic.  It failed, since I was out of magic so that made sense.
"Well, normally one wouldn't be able to taste magic, even your type of hive couldn't do that." He poured himself a cup of some pink liquid.  And when I said pink, I meant it was a bright, eye-burningly hot pink.   He then poured me a cup from his seat. The liquid trailed sideways through the air towards and into my cup.  Out of curiosity, I tried to take some of the magic he was so casually tossing around.  No matter how much I willed it, my power couldn't find anything to latch onto.
"That gift is....interesting." I said, already giving up trying to take the magic.  I stared at the cup, thinking of a way to pick it up without looking like a buffoon.
"Oh pardon me, I'm a bad host." He said before snapping a finger and a straw floated out of the liquid and settled against the side, it’s head pointing towards me.
I scrutinized him slightly, wondering if he could read my mind.  He just continued to smile as he slurped the liquid from his teacup.  I took a little sip of the liquid. surprisingly it tasted like bubble gum.  ‘What was bubble gum anyway,’ I thought. My memories then helpfully provided me the knowledge.  I started to say something but it died on my lips as my magic sparked lightly, not enough to do much but enough to use my telekinesis.  Taking a bit more of the liquid I couldn't help but wonder why he was doing this.
Silents followed us as the two of us drank our tea and ate the sandwiches, which by the way tasted great.  Besides the little sparks of magic I occasionally got from the tea, I was given a small amount from the food but not much.  I decided I'll save it for later instead of using it to try and heal my body.
Finishing up the last of the cucumber sandwiches, Discord took a handkerchief out of his his ears and dabbed it at his lips before sighing, "Well then, time for your second gift." he said, before pulling out a glass orb.  All the china suddenly disappeared and a small wooden pedestal was in their place.  He then set the orb in the pedestal.
Staring at it, I waited, but nothing happened.  My eye flicked back to Discord, he was calming sitting back on his ottoman, watching me.  He held his hand out in a motion that said 'Well you going to take it?'
Hesitantly, I reached out towards the glass with my magic.  Upon touching it, there was a spark, and a series of images flooded into my mind.  I didn't have time to do anything as it hijacked my mind, intent on showing me what it wanted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A humming sounded in my ears as I floated in the air behind someone.  It was Discord he was walking towards a large swathe of darkness but it wasn't aimless. He walked in a straight line making his way towards something.
A few second passed before a portal opened and the two of us exited into a cave dwelling.  It obviously a cave but it’s contents said that someone was using it as a bedroom.  Discord stood there waiting, my body that i wasn't in control of moved towards the ceiling letting me get a good look of the room. The most notable item was a king sized bed with dark coverings. Next to it sat a table with a crown on it, or at least what looked like a crown.  It’s bottom was a small base with four curved prongs, each ending in a blueish ball.  Besides that, the only other thing in the room was a vanity table and that was occupied.
The pony in front of the mirror was combing her hair.  She was a changeling, her long blue hair has web-like features.  She had black chitin-like skin like all changelings do.  Her wings were hidden inside her carapace, so I was able to see her reflection in the mirror.  I knew who she was in an instant. After all, anypony should know who their mothers are.
Queen Chrysalis was gazing at her face, as her magic aura pulled a comb through her hair over and over.  This went on for several moments before Discord gave a cough.
Startled, she spun around towards the source of the noise,
"Discord," she hissed, her wings fluttered slightly as she stood up, glaring at him.
"Why hello Chryssy, How are you?" he asked in his cheerful tone.
"Go away!" she snapped, the comb was gently set on the table behind her.
"Now is that any way to talk to a friend?"
"You are not my friend!"
"Aw don't be like that, I'm just being friendly after all."  He laughed and pulled out some roses from behind him and offered them to her.
Snapping, she crushed the roses between her teeth.  Chrysalis chewed them slowly while glaring at Discord.
"And here I thought you might not want them."
Rolling her eyes, Chrysalis turned back to her mirror, trying to ignore the intruder.
Walking up to her, he rubbed his chin, thinking.  "So how are you feeling?" he said.	She glanced at him in the mirror before sighing, "I'm fine." she said the irritation in her voice evident.  She started to combing her hair again.  It was slow and deliberate, as if she was trying to not think about anything else but that.
"Oh okay then..." He studied his nails for a moment before clapping once and said, "That's right! I have a question for you."
Her comb stopped for a moment before it continued, she herself said nothing.
"Oh please, it will take just a moment," Discord said with a slight whine to his voice.  His eyes grew large, comically so.  He gave a large sniff as tears started to form at the corners of his eyes.
She glanced at him before smiling, and firmly said "No."
"Well fine then, I guess I will just have to stick around for awhile." his tears dried up immediately and he flung himself onto her bed, despite the fact that it was a least five yards away.   There was a snarl as the Queen jumped up, knocking into the vanity table and making it rattle.
"Oh it will be fun, we can do each others hair, tell each other ghost stories. Oh," he turned his head to face her, there was a bright red flush on his face as he added "We could also tell each other what kind of colts we like more.  Won't that just be naughty."  He dragged out the word naughty before ended with a giggle as he half covered his mouth.
With narrowed eyes, she glowered at him with all her teeth showing. "What's your question?" She hissed, barely audible through her clenched teeth
"Oh, if you insist on it." Discord's blush disappeared as he spun around on the bed, he crossed his legs facing her.  "It’s almost as if you don't want me here."
"Discord!" she snapped.  Jumping forward, her hooves slamming onto the ground viciously just before the bed.
"Alright, alright." He laughed, floating away and spinning over and over in the air before settling on the roof of the cave.
"My question is, if you could name one of your daughters, what would the name be?"
Queen Chrysalis stared at the draconequus.  "Are you serious?" she asked after a moment of silence.
"Quite so, I had gotten that into my head and I couldn't get it out."
She suddenly gave a harsh bark of laughter, "You know we Queens name only ourselves when a name is required.  I, personally, only gave myself a name a few weeks prior of that fiasco that was a wedding." she gave another series of barking laughter.
Discord just smiled her waiting for the queen's laughter to subside before saying, "Yes that is true but my question was, if you could?"
She laughter remain as she wiped away one tear from her eye, "If I answer this, will you be gone?" She said after she calmed herself.
"Only if you seriously consider the question." he said stretching and laying out on the roof.
Chrysalis sighed before sitting down, she cast a glance at Discord every now then as if to see if he was still there.  This went on for several moments before she stood.
"I have your answer, pest," she said, drawing up to her full height.  With a toss of her mane said said, "Her name would be Zenith."
Discord twirled a finger through his beard as he rolled the name around in his mouth.  No, really, he had the words in bright white lettering rolling around in his mouth.  He spit them out in quick succession until they spelled out Zenith.
"Why?" he asked looking over the name as they evaporated.
"Why what?"
"Why Zenith?  There must be a reason."
Chrysalis took a breath before answering his question, "Because Zenith means that it is the highest point one could reach." Her eyes softened before adding,  "So if I had a daughter, she would be the highest point I could reach."
Her face had gone relaxed and her gaze was distant as Chrysalis was lost in thought.  Moments later she shook her head lightly before her eye locked onto Discord and hardened.  "Is that a satisfactory answer?"
Discord considered it for a moment before nodding "Yes, I believe it is." he said standing and dusting of his legs, "I guess I should take my leave now."
He was about to snap his fingers when Chrysalis stopped him with a question.
"What is this all about?"
Discord grinned as he wiggled his fingers and the body or whatever it was I was inhabiting currently fluttered down towards his hand.  Chrysalis started for a moment before staring directly at me...well sort of.
"Is that a Parasprite?" She asked becoming confused
"Yes"
"And it's the reason for the question?"
Discord grinned "Yes and no, It's memory is the reason for the question. It will go to someone who requires it at a later date." he said his hand slowly closing around the parasprite.
"Discord, wh-" That was the last thing I heard before I felt a brief but intense flash of pain as the body I was in was crushed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I gave a jump as my mind was returned to my body.  I was laying on the ground and rain had soaked me thoroughly .  Pushing myself up, I looked around.
I was in the clearing next to the river where I had pulled myself out of.  Discord and the tea table was gone and so was the umbrella.  The rain was really coming down, I started to stand and that's when I noticed the letter that was pinned to my leg.   It was literally pinned to my leg with a tack. Thankfully, it didn’t hurt.  I pulled it off with my magic, making myself wince slightly as the tack popped off and flew into the rain-and-river soak mud.  It took only a moment to read it.

Dear (your name here),
 I'm afraid something had come up and I had to run away.  But please don't think I forgot about you last gift, follow the setting sun and moon.  That will lead you to where you need to be.  Or you can go anywhere else you want, it’s your choice.  Just as it’s your choice to do with the knowledge you got from the orb as you will.
With love and affection,
Discord.
P.S.  I almost forgot, the changelings that are trying to kill you have friends and they are currently looking for you.  I suggest you make a decision quickly.

I read it twice more before it disintegrated in the rain, the magic protecting it giving out.  I started to think as I moved underneath a tree nearby.
‘Okay, before anything I need answers.’ I thought, curling up next to the tree and looking out into the pouring rain.  I started to gather a mental list of questions that I had for my memories.  After all, I have the time.  I'm tired, my body's tired, I lost my pursuers for the moment and it’s currently raining really hard. Might as well go to sleep and start out fresh in the morning.
My eyes gazed out unfocused, as I slowly drifted off to sleep to the sound of distant thunder and the gently sounds of rain.
> Chapter 5: Information
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, a name huh?  What a weird feeling, knowing that my mother had a named picked out for her daughter.  Now, granted, that name isn't mine by right but.... who else is using it?
If I took the name, I'm trying to picture how queer it would be to run into a sister who was also named Zenith.  I can't really picture it, mainly cause I never pictured myself having any sisters.
What's more, I'm strangely prideful that I might be the only one with a name that mother chose.  Of course, I knew that I would eventually pick a name to go by. My memories told me that it would be necessary at some point, but now that I know this...I can't help but want to take the name right now.
It's.... a weird feeling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Waking up to the sounds of birds chirping and the smell of fresh wet grass.   I still had my eyes closed and I groan inwardly as the flood of aches and pains hammered my mind when they noticed that I was awake.
I tried to ignore the voice in the back of my mind saying something about five more minutes, when something tickled the insides of my right nostril.
Instinctively snapping my head back, I scrunched up my muzzle trying to resist the urge to sneeze. Unfortunately, it didn't work.  I let out a loud high pitched sneeze, my head whipping side to side so hard that it began to hurt.
I heard an angry chittering under me, and I looked down. There was a squirrel shaking an angry paw at me. He was a little brown thing with what looked like skin flaps under his arms.  At his feet was a dozen or so acorns. He was still squeaking something in Squirrel-ish while he started to collect the nuts.
I was confused at how, exactly did I made the little guy angry.  He started to kick me and pointed to a side.  I considered just swatting him away for a moment before sighing.  Standing, I took three hoof steps to the side and sat my haunches down.
"Better?" I said, smiling at the little annoyance.
He stomped right past me with his nose turned up, he had only about half of the nuts as he made his way into a hole in the tree trunk.  It sat just above the ground.
I started wondering if there was a rock big enough to block the hole nearby.  The only thing that stopped me from doing so was for one, the sudden sound of more chittering.  Curiously, I laid down and glanced into the hole. There was four slightly smaller squirrels in there; each one now had an acorn in their tiny paws, gnawing away at it.
'Oh.’ I watched the little guy… no, little mother as she walked back out and gathered up the rest of the acorns.  I figured the reason why she was angry was because I was blocking the entrance to her babies. I laid my head back down, staring at the hole my thoughts going back to the parasprite memory.
'Right, Questions.' I said to myself, catching a stray thought about something  that I had a question about .
I settled down, getting ready to be there for a little while as I delved into my memories.  There weren't many questions, but they were important. To me anyway.
I closed my eyes as I asked my first question.  'What is thaumaturgic?' There was no pause between the time the information was given to me and when I asked.
Thaumaturgic is a type of changeling hive.  They feed off magic and they are considered to be the strongest of all hive types, as well as the most rare.  Unlike the other types, Thaumaturgy can only be born and cannot pick their food source like the other types.
I nodded to myself slightly, as I changed my next question. 'How are they the strongest?'
Because of their diet. Thaumaturgic types have heavy increases in magical prowess as well as almost unrestricted control over their shape-shifting ability.
‘What can my magical and shape-shifting abilities do?’ I asked immediately. I needed to know the full extents of my powers.
A Thaumaturgic has a massive increase to their pool of magic.  They can hold more from the beginning and with training, it can increase even further.  Their magical aptitude as well as their ability at learning new spells are increased.
Their shape-shifting control is second to none, they can perfectly mimic anyone from a moment's study but in addition, Thaumaturgic can partial-shift any part of their body.  Giving them the ability to make a new body altogether instead of just coping.  Unfortunately, because of this, shifting takes a lot of magic, proportional to the altered size of the change, to initiate.  After the shifting is complete, no magic is required to maintain the form.
'Interesting,’ I said looking inward at my magic pool.  It was slightly smaller than yesterday. Well, that meant no shifting for me. Yet. I didn't want to waste magic until I was sure I could regenerate more of it.
There was a soft chitter in front of me. I opened my eyes to one of the squirrels, it wasn't the one from before.  It was only slightly smaller than the mother, but beside that look exactly like her down to the skin flaps under his arms.  Almost fully grown if I was to guess.  He offered a berry to me as more chittering came from him.
I stared at it before sticking my tongue out at him.  He took as that I wanted the berry and placed it there before sitting on it haunches, staring back at me.
I pull it into my mouth and a gave a quick bite between my teeth. It was extremely tart.  My ear twitched and said thank you, before standing up to go wash my mouth out in the river.  The little guy scampered up my leg and onto my back.
I looked at him briefly as I made my way to the river , "Aren't you just a tad bit too friendly?"
He just continued to cling on, sniffing around as he enjoyed the ride.
The river was wider than I thought. The rocks in the riverbed was a deep, black color.  It made the the whole river look black.  I would have believed the river was an abyss if it wasn't for the fact that I could see fish swimming above barely visible mud at the bottom.
Taking a mouthful of water and swirled it around, I looked down into the river.  It took me a moment to realize that my reflection was staring back at me.
Swallowing, I looked over my appearance for the first time.  I had a slender face with purple eyes that had narrow slits that served as pupils.  I also had a long crooked horn, if memory served it looked similar to mother's, though it had bright blue lines throughout the grooves.  I had a very faint layer of hair, much like a newborn's.  It was a dark sea green, with flecks of brighter green here and there.  I couldn't tell if it was web-like since it was so short, I assumed it will be like my mother's.
Taking another mouthful of water, I looked over my body.  I mean I looked before, but I never truly saw it. I was too... preoccupied, at the time before.  I had a slender body with proportional legs and hooves to match.  My tail was almost non-existent.  Besides those, my body looked like any other changeling, black  carapace-like skin with holes throughout my legs.
I felt something climb onto my head and cling to my horn.  I looked up and locked eyes with the squirrel from before as he hung there.
"You're annoying, you know that right?" I said, going back to the tree and sitting down.  He said nothing as he perched in one of the curves of my horn.
Leaning against the tree I took a moment to consider my next question.
'How many hive types are there? And what are they?’
There are seven types of changeling hives.  The type of hive is based on what the changelings consume for sustainment and magic.  From what my memories tell me the types are: The Romantic: the ones who demand love.  The Euphoric: the ones who take happiness away. The Erotic: the ones who fulfill the needs of the flesh.  The Thaumaturgic: the ones who defuses the power of magic.  The Choleric: the ones who stoke the flames of anger. The Sadistic: the ones who provide and consume the pain to all they meet. And finally, the Necrotic: the ones who consume the flesh.
My first thought after hearing that was I need to know more about the Necrotic, after all necrotic is a term associated with death.  And maybe deathlings.  I didn't even have to ask the question as the information was thrown at my mind.
Necrotics are changelings who have abandoned the hard fought form of mental energy for the more easily attainable substance of meat. That being said, they must constantly feed.  They lost all their magic but a weak form of telekinesis.  They gain great physical strength and their appearance looks as if they are a half rotted pony who died of starvation.
'Or not,' I would have asked another question but the memory didn't stop there.
That is their biggest flaw, as they had lost the power of transformation.  But the major change that happens to them is the fact they can not die unless a condition is met; that is the queen must be killed.  After that has been met, then killing them is easily done for they can die like any other pony.
	'That's… terrifying.’  I thought to myself, a little queasy. I know how fast and how many drones a queen can give birth to.  I swallowed, feeling the squirrel move.  He threw himself onto the ground and made his way into the bushes.
“Good bye," I called after him.  Getting to my feet, I stretched out. I winced slightly as my sore muscles complained at the movement.
"Okay, no more questions." I said out loud.  After that last one I didn't have the heart to ask anymore, and the day just kept on going on.  It was time to go.
 'Setting sun....that would be west.’ I faced the west and tried to unfold my wings.  They weren't there.  That's right, they were cut off, and I had forgotten that in the face of all the pain.
Well walking it is for now, until I get more magic.  I started to walk, my hopes high, after all, I'm outside the egg and I have a whole world to keep me from getting bored.
I felt something familiar hit my back and scamper up onto my head.  I looked up seeing a squirrel’s paw holding onto my horn.  In his mouth, he held a stem with a small bundle of berries.  He plucked one off before offering it to me. These looked like blue berries but after the last one he gave me I wasn't going to take any chances.
"Thanks but no, you go ahead and eat it," I said. After that, I watched him eat the berries one after another as we walked through the forest together.  I didn’t mind having a plus one, maybe he can keep me entertained.
Rested, but not fully healed.  Fed, but not well fed.  And a surprising new friend, even if he's not that large.  What a good way to start a journey.
> Chapter 6: Hunger
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6

I knew that my mother had to forcibly take love for her and her hive to survive. I also knew ponies disliked, if not outright hated her for that. While floating in my egg, I would sometimes question why she couldn't just ask for it? Or bargain goods or services for it. It never made sense to me that the first thing she had to do was take it, it wasn't like there wasn't very much of it.

Up until a few hours ago I was under the assumption that I couldn't understand why she did what she did unless I was in her position. Then I felt the gut wrenching feeling gnawing at my belly and the answer came to me slowly over the days that the hunger and I shared the same body.

Why take the chance of asking, when they might say no?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Oh Luna please forgive me for whatever I did," I groaned, my stomach had been gnawing at me for sometime now, and if it wasn't for that sudden freak weather my magic would have lasted for a few more days.

The first two days went just fine, a little drizzle but nothing bad. It was sometime between day two and three when a storm startled me awake. A clap of thunder had awoken me, I was rubbing my eyes trying to wake myself when hail started to fall, not small hail either. Orbs the size of bits fell down upon me, it felt like someone was pelting me with rocks as they came down.

I didn't think, I ran for the nearest tree taking shelter underneath. I stared up at the sky through the tree limbs, it was swirling grey that drop cold white stones. I hated it.

This continued for awhile but showed no signs of stopping. The squirrel that had been with me was making frightened noises as soon as I was awake. I could hear him very clearly since he was clutching to the side of my head, his face placed snugly in my ear.

After about an hour the hail and wind suddenly stopped and it became eerily quiet. I was wondering what happened when the squirrel start to frantically pull on my ear, pointing behind us. At first I thought he was pointing at the tree, but he was pointing beyond the tree.

"You want me to go that way?" I asked before he jumped off me, gliding through the air. I followed him. He moved at an incredible pace, forcing me to trot to keep up. Leading me along the trees, I lost him once or twice but he came back to lead me again. He brought me to a large tree – correction a huge tree – larger than any tree I've seen before, at least as far as I remember.

He climbed the tree and headed into hole in the middle of the trunk. I sat under the tree and a noise made me look at the sky again, what I saw stopped my heart for a moment as my memories told me what was about to happen.

A mass of clouds were swirling together forming a funnel. I watched with mouth wide open as it calmly made its way, nearly the ground. I felt a shudder as the tornado touched down. The noise it made gradually went from a low rumble to a deafening roar. I watched with stunned silence for several minutes before noticing that it was getting closer.

"Oh no," I scurried back towards the tree. My head snapped back and forth looking for something to hold onto. Nothing, no roots or holes I could slip my hooves through and I refused to get into the top of the trees. Glancing back at the tornado fearfully, it looked like it was lazily making its way over to me.

I was freaking out when I heard the chittering of my squirrel friend. He was shaking his paw and pointing at it. I didn't get it until he grabbed the tree and hung on with just his forearms.

Hesitating for a second I regrettably used my magic to shift my hooves into squirrel paws but with clawed fingers to hold on better. It didn't take much, but I didn't have much, and now I had less. I clutched onto the tree and waited with my eyes closed, I didn't want to see what was happening in the moment.

Minutes ticked by and the roaring got closer. I gripped tighter as the sound arrived just over me, the wind trying to pick me up and take off with me. The wind suddenly slammed into my back, nearly ripping me from the tree, wood snapping and cracking as branches broke and other trees were uprooted.

I don't know how long it lasted, I was so focused on holding on with all my strength. It felt like I could be taken away at any moment, and several times I almost did get taken away. But using what little magic I had left I held on, eventually the noise slowly died away and the force of the wind dissipated, leaving me clinging to my tree even after all had calmed.

That was twelve days ago, although that's not entirely accurate. I lost count a few times, that happens when the hunger keeps stabbing you in the stomach of every minute of every day. It took its toll on my body – my legs and face were thin and gaunt,my eyes were sunken and had black rings around them from lack of sleep, my ribs were visible, and I wobbled when I walked. Though on the plus side having clawed fingers are awesome, being able to pick up things and hold them in my paws is handy.

The squirrel at that moment leaped onto my horn from a nearby tree, he had various nuts and berries in his hands. One at a time he held them down pressing them to my lips, and each time I ate them without being told. It didn't help with my hunger but it made the squirrel happier. He started doing this about a week ago, I think he heard the growls from my stomach. I know he's just trying to make me better but I wish he would stop.

I wobbled through the trees, the woodsgrowing thicker and wilderwith each passing day. What that could mean is anypony’s guess.

My hoof – I mean paw – slid through some mud, making me stumble and sprawl out onto the forest floor. The squirrel jumped off before slowly gliding around me in circles before landing next to me. He shoved and pushed my head making more squirrel noises.

"I-I'm getting up," I said not moving. The squirrel constantly chittered at me, his paws shoving at my horn making my head scrape across the mud. His efforts was the only thing that got me on my feet again. I might just start to like him. And with that I once again started wobbling on through the forest, my stomach still gnawing at me.

I walked through the forest forwhat seemed like hours. The light didn't change but that didn't say much, my attention was somewhat limited at the moment. I hung my head low, I didn't want to waste the energy it took to keep it aloft. I watched my hooves as I moved then the next thing I know my vision was spinning as I started tumbling down a hill. It was covered in soft grass and not to many rock so it didn't hurt all that much, but it still left me breathless as I hit hard at the bottom of the hill. I could feel my squirrel friend nudging me again but I couldn't hear him, well that's not true. I could hear him but I could only catch every other sound, not the whole thing.

My sight was blurry, I could barely make him out as I stared at the brown shape that was my friend. The shape wiggled and moved about but it got blurrier by the moment.

'Well, this sucks.' I said as the images faded into blackness, my mind followed not far behind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke with a start, the pounding in my head made me wince. Groggily I tried to get my hooves, paws, whatever – but I didn't have the strength in my limbs. There was a rustling nearby, but not the rustling of leaves. Cloth maybe or some other kind of clothing. There was a presence over me.

"Whoa there," a voice said, and I felt a hoof on my shoulder gently pushing me back to the ground. It sounded male and older, he spoke with a soft voice. "By how many of your ribs I can count, I would wager that your hungry."

It felt like I was on something soft, much softer than what I was laying on before. I could also hear the sound and feel the heat of a fire going not to far from me. My eyes flickered open and took a few seconds before my sight focused.

I lay on a bed in a small hut. The room was sparsely furnished. Another bed sat against the other wall across this one. In the middle of the room was a fire pit with a iron pot over it, a large table right up against the wall and then a door leading outside, or so I guess. I couldn't see any light coming in from around the door, so either it was dark or there was another door way past that one.

On and around the table sat jars, pots and sacks of what looked to be herbs and roots. There was a few other things that I guess had to do with storing items or food, but beside that nothing else in the hut. Well, except for the old pony near me – no he wasn't a pony, he was a deer. A buck to be precise, with chestnut brown with a long brown beard streaked with strains of grey. Coming from the from the top of his head were a set of horns. They were strong and large, they branched out into thirteen points. They looked like a crown around his head. He also had on a brown cloak that hung just above the dirt floor. But the most important feature that entered my head was from my memories. Deer as a race are all magical.

I tried to speak but my mouth didn't want to work, it felt dry and rough. I wasn't sure when the last time I had water, I wasn't even sure how long I've been out.

"Ah, can't talk can you, sly one?" He said with a eyeing me wearily. He stood and walked away from me, there were soft thumps on the dirt as he went. Using his fore hooves he maneuvered some glasses around on the table. He knocked over a few bottles but on the most part he did well. There was clinking as he poured water into a cup, before picking up the cup between his hooves before balancing it on his front hoof. He moved carefully across the room, as if he wasn't use to carrying cups this way.

Why isn't he using magic? I wondered, my stomach growling. I stared at him, wanting him to use some magic, as if my will power will will make him use it.

"Can you lift your head?" he asked, sitting next to me on the bed.

I tried to, I only manage to get it a foot off the pillow. My muscles in my neck gave out and I fell into one of his hooves.

"Its fine, I got you sly one," he said pressing the cup to my lips.

I could taste the water even before it reached my lips. I drank at it greedily. I choked and started to cough roughly.

"Slow down, just take it slow," he said, pulling the cup away from me. After the coughing subsided he help me to start drinking again.

After finishing I cleared my throat lightly, "Wh-where am I?" I asked, my voice hoarse and low, almost inaudible.

"Your in my hut, near a village that I help protect." He set the cup on the ground before leaning on his hoof. "I got a better question, What are you?"

I paused for a moment and considered lying to him but thought better of it.

"I'm a changeling."

"Oh I know that, anyone with the right knowledge can tell that right away. My question is what are you? You can't be painling you don't look disgusting. Nor do you look dead so you can't be a rotling." He sat up a little straighter looking down at me his eyes going a little hard. "So you’re one of the other ones, not sure which I can't remember the details about how to tell."

I stared at him confused, "Do you mean...my hive type?" I wanted to ask more but the look in his eyes stopped me.

"Yes, what do you eat?" he asked in a neutral tone. At the mention of eating my stomach growled and felt a fresh wave of hunger pains go through me.

"O-oh, I-I," I stuttered over the next words. "It's magic, I eat magic."

"Alright then, next question." he got up from the bed, he walked over to the door. He hooked a staff that was hidden just out of sight next to the door. It was kinda beautiful, it looked like it was wood with carvings of vines, flowers and thorns on it. Not sure what kind, for I never seen that type of wood. It was a dark blueish steel color, and had a slight sheen to it like it was metal.

"Why are you here?" he asked leaning on the staff his eyes boring into me. "And it should be fair to tell you, if I don't like your answer or I don't believe you. I will kill you."

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. Why did everything I meet want to kill me?

"I didn't even know where I was until a moment ago. I was just looking for-" I cut off as my stomach stabbed me again. It took me a moment to catch my thoughts, "-something to eat. I was looking for some magic." I opened one eye and meeting his stare, "and if necessary I would have attacked someone for it… but I never got a chance until now," I smiled at him and started to laugh lightly. "And now I am too weak to try. Ironic...no I don't think that's the right word. Or maybe it is – I don't know."

The buck considered this leaning more on his staff, his hoof twirling the beard around and around.

"You doesn't seem like you lying," he said finally, "And I'm don't hate your answer. As far as I can tell your telling the truth."

Making his way over to the bed the deer stood above me, "One more question," he said raising the staff up and over the bed. "If you were to be fed where would you go and what would you do?"

"That's two," I said not looking at the staff. My body was on edge, I was afraid if I looked at it I might try to grab at it, I could feel the remnants of magic coming from it.

"I suppose so." He didn't say anything after that. He just stood waiting not moving the staff from above me.

"I would go west, that's where I would go. Someone told me I should go that way, no idea why he didn't tell me that. And as for what I would do...found out about the changelings trying to kill me."

He said nothing and I didn't want to chance it. In my weakened state you could kill me before I could take any defensive action. We stayed like this for quite some time, before a sudden burst of magic came from the staff.

It made me flinch and I shut my eyes. I didn't mean to but I expected it to descend and obliterate me. After a moment when I realized it didn't I slowly opened my eyes looking upwards. The staff was aglow with a dark green aura, extended along the surface of it. I didn't even wait to ask I just seized it.

The magic and the taste of apples flooded into me, I pulled every drop I could from the staff. The hunger immediately died away leaving me with a phantom pain in my torso. I held it in, every instinct told me to throw it into my body but I knew it would take a lot more magic to fix my body in the state that its in now. So I let it do nothing. Even then I could feel my magic ebb away. Well my hunger didn't die, it was merely eating for the moment.

"Get some rest sly one. I'll give you some tomorrow, so don't go anywhere just yet," he said going over to the other bed. He set the staff next to his bed before eyeing me. "I'm a light sleeper. And twitchy after the war." With that he settled himself into the bed his back turned to me.

I sighed closing my eyes, I pushed my face further into the pillow. I had only been born and I was thrust into this tartarus cursed place that they call life. After so many days of pain and hunger, of being cold, of fighting for my life against unknown enemies. I finally felt comfortable in the home of someone who said that they would kill me moments ago and I could do nothing about it. It broke me, completely and utterly shattered what walls I had in place to keep me going. I couldn't help but sob into the pillow, trying to muffle the sounds the best I could. Even if I had every right to cry, I was not going to let anyone know that I was at my weakest. Especially life, I didn't want it to get any ideas, I wouldn't be able to handle it right now.

I continued to do so until sleep took me, it swept all fears and pains aside and just left me feeling empty. It was such a nice feeling.
> Chapter 7: Conidtions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agreements are confusing. All that they are, is words. Yet ponies and deer and many other species seem to place high value on those very words. From my memories, changelings had very little faith in words only deeds. Doing something and saying you’ll do something are two vastly different things. Changelings never promised to do something, they just did it. When given an order they either did it, failed to do it or refused to do it, they made no agreements or promises with each other, they only did something about it.  It’s only with other races that they started making agreements and more often than not they broke those agreements because it meant nothing to them.

           	I know from my memories that that was a common mistake that my mother and my grandmothers made.  I see that the other races DO  hold great value in those words and because of that when my ancestors continuously broke them, that is what started the other races of the world to isolate us and ultimately made us go down the path that we went.
Though that is not their fault, they had no choice…but now I am in a position to change that and my choices will hopefully fix the rift between my people and the other races.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                           	I woke up to slight aches and pains in my stomach..  I estimated that it would last the morning but not far after that.

           	And that thought led me to the deer that had fed me and gave me a bed for the night. I didn't know what to think of the old buck. I felt like he was good, and that he just wanted to help but at the same time I saw in his eyes that what he said is true.  He would kill me if he felt it necessary.

           	I felt a familiar weight settle on my horn. I opened one eye, and my heart stopped just for a moment.  Its fuzzy face was inches from my eye, encompassing my entire vision as I helplessly focused on its twitching nose.

           	"Could you please not?" I said shifting my head from side to side trying to make him fall.  All it did was make him clutch onto my horn with all his might.

           	Rolling over, I looked over the hut. Light was shining from around the door from the night before meaning that my guess was right about it leading outside. There were also two windows in the walls I didn't notice from before, one large one on the west wall opposite side of the room as well as a much smaller one in the door. The room was well lit from the sunlight giving me a better viewing of the hut. Besides sunlight nothing changed from last night. Image that. Though the most noticeable differences is that buck was nowhere to be seen.

           	Swinging my legs out of the bed, I struggled to them. I was stronger, but my muscles still protested when I used them. It felt great, I'm so happy that they feel this strong after only a meal and a full night of sleep.

           	I groaned as I fully stood, they screamed lightly but they held.  Stretching and holding them like that. They screamed much louder for a few moments but they died down to a low grumble. I let them relax before making my way casually across the hut. I could feel the weight of the squirrel on my horn as he hung onto it. It was a little annoying but it was nice to know that the little guy stayed with me.

           	I let my eyes passed over the hut again seeing if I could get some clue about the buck. If I was going to plan on what to do in the near future, then I needed to get an understanding about him.

           	It was a nice little place, it was clean and well organized. Everything in the hut had a place and everything was in its place as far as I could tell. It was well suited for one pony, so why was there another bed?

           	I was debating about it when a low singing came from outside. There was a soft thump and sharp crack, it was quickly followed by a clattering of falling wood. The sound repeated in a slow steady rhythm. Thump, crack and a clatter.

           	I quickly made my way over to the door.  As I got closer, I could have felt the hum of magic not far away. Though maybe felt was the wrong word, it was more like I could have tasted it. Interesting, I would have to play with that later, see how far the limitations of it was.

           	I peered out cautiously through the window of the door, trying not to draw attention to myself just yet. The old buck stood in the clearing in front of his house, in front of him was a tree stump with split logs around it. His aura held an ax, not a very big one but it suited his needs. He was still singing as the buck set a small log on the stump, with a quick swing there was a thump as the ax struck, a crack as wood split and a clatter as the logs fell to the side of the stump increasing the size of the pile.

           	As I watched and listened to him I smiled slightly. It was a pretty song and I was enjoying it. I pushed on the door to head out.  The door gave a great squeak then stopped as if it was suddenly blocked by a large unmovable object. Unfortunately, I didn't notice it in time, I kept going and smacked muzzle first into the door. Ah Pain my old friend, how have you been?

           	I rubbed my muzzle before taking note of the aura that was holding the door in place. It was around the door knob, so it really wasn't all that noticeable. I was seconds away from eating the magic when I heard talking coming from outside. I glanced out seeing what was going on.

           	The buck was leaning on the ax smiling to a light brown earth pony that had come out of nowhere. "You need anything else Duke?" the buck said to the stallion.

           	The earth pony is large one, stood over the buck by a foot and was a broad shoulder. He had a length of dark brown hair tied in a tight ponytail. On his flanks was a pair of saddlebags covering his cutie marks.

           	"Na, and not only cause I can't pay ya anymore then for this," he said, his country accent was very evident. He had nodded towards a cart not far away.  I didn't see it because it was fit snugly in between some trees. There was a steady stream of chopped wood floating towards and settling into the cart.

           	He dipped his head into the saddle bag and pulled out a small bag. Assuming it was bits, it was a small amount. Duke tossed it to the buck, his aura caught it and held it off to the side.

           	"Well you know where I'll be," the buck said as he finished up loading the cart. "Can I help you with anything else my friend?"

           	"Na, I'll be back in a week or two for more," the stallion hooked himself up. He gave a wave and pulled off towards the west.

           	After making sure Duke was far enough, the buck looked straight at me. "I'll be right in, don't come outside." He picked up the ax and trotted out of sight.

           	'Okay then' I thought to myself. I made my way back into the room looking for a place to sit.  Besides the ground there was only the two beds. Well, I made myself comfortable on the floor in front of the bed I woke in and proceeded to wait for the buck.... I really have got to catch his name. I can’t just keep calling him buck or deer.

           	Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted my little fluffy tailed friend darting out the window.  He briefly came into view again, he was scampering up a tree only to get lost in the leaves and limbs of the tree. 'Well at least one of us can go outside.’ I grumbled to myself, trying to catch another glance of my little friend.

           	It was only a few moments after that when the old deer came into hut. With a sharp thump he closed the door and turned to me.

           	"You should be careful," he said going over to the only table in room,  "The changeling descriptions are well known." He pulled a bowl towards him and started to fill it from various jars and bags. There were many type of plants, herbs and berries settling into the bowl.

           	"If he saw you it would have been quite the pain to deal with," he added making his way over to the other bed. He sighed settling himself down on the bed, the bowl coming to rest in between his forelegs.

           	The buck started to eat not looking at me. Rude, not offering me anything. I didn’t say anything, letting him eat in peace.

           	It took several moments to finish and he set the bowl aside. With a yawn he rested his chin on a hoof and finally looking at me. After a long moment of what I could describe as considering silence, the buck spoke. “So Sly one, who are you?

           	“Well…you first,” I replied. “It should be fair that you introduce yourself.”

           	“Very well, I am Edan. Warden of the plains of Adriane.” The buck nodded his head lightly at me “And you are?”

           	“I am….” Faltering for a moment, my mind whirled. ‘Who am I…that’s right, I know who I am. My mother named me after all.’I cleared my throat finishing my introduction with a firm voice.  “I am Queen Zenith, daughter of Queen Chrysalis.”

           	Edan gave a slight smile before bowing his head slightly, “Well, your majesty.  I humbly welcome you into my home.” Straightening up, the old buck asked another question. “And how did it come to be that you came to be...well frankly almost dead?”

           	Thinking about it, I went over my short and terrible adventure in my head. I gave a bark of laughter suddenly, “It is quite the tale. You might not even believe me.”

           	“Oh, don’t know. I have been on my share of adventures. Besides you’re a changeling, anything is possible when your people are involved.” Edan pushed around his blanket and pillow. “I’m also going to assume that it is a long or longish story so I’m going just going to get these old bones into a more comfortable position.”

           	I complied letting him get comfortable. Finally having settled down, Edan waved for me to start. I went over it in my head, thinking about where to start first.

           	"Well the first thing that I remembered is that it was dark and I was floating……”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

           	When I had finished my story, the sun was giving off an orange glow throughout the sky. During my story telling I had walked over to the window and stood off to the side so that if somepony had walked nearby they would see me out right. I had stared out the window for a moment taking in the site. The hut that we were in sat onto of a large hill nestled in between a small grove of trees. More of an outcrop of trees then grove but an it felt more like a grove to me. The hill was surrounded by more hills, all of it had long dark green grass across everything.

           	It was truly a beautiful sight to behold.

           	From behind Edan said nothing, he had said nothing the entire time. He just laid on his bed listening. There was two times he broke that silence; the first time was when I had described the white changelings. He had seem deeply concerned and scared about it. I was going to question him about it but he had drawn in on himself. I didn’t think I was going to get an answer so I had left it alone, I would be able to ask him later when he is more likely to answer.

           	The second time was when he gave a gasp of surprise when Discord had helped me. He had made me repeat that part of the story several times over before I was allowed to go on. Soon after that, I had finished with him finding me.

           	A few more minutes passed, allowing me to enjoy the fading sunlight before Edan spoke.

           	“Alright, that was amusing story. Though I do have another question: what are you going to do now?”

           	“Keep head west I guess. It was one of the things Discord “gifted” me after all.” It was that moment that my hunger made itself known.  It was like a blow to my gut all of a sudden, I cried out.  It wasn’t like the deep gut ache I had before but it came so suddenly that it surprised me.

           	“Sly one?” Edan asked in a concerning manner. I don’t think he meant to do that but hey he seems like he’s a caring buck.

           	“I’m fine, just hungry is all,” I replied trying to keep the question out of my own voice but not very hard.  A mare has got to eat after all.

           	“That is right, I did say that I would give you some more,” he mumbled rubbing his chin again, “But, I think that some conditions are in order given the situation.”

           	“What kind of conditions?” I asked wearily. Given that I had already made some kind of deal with Discord, I was not enthusiastic about making deals with ponies I don’t know.  Not that it didn’t work out before…. sort of.

           	“To keep you on a short lease, you are a changeling after all. Don’t worry though, it’s only going to be a few of them.” Getting up from the bed, Edan walked slowly over to me.

           	‘Oh really? Am I an animal then? I take it back; you are not very caring’

           	I was about to retort about where he could put his leash but the pain in my stomach changed what came out of my mouth. “Okay, let’s hear them,” I said through gritted teeth.

           	“First, you will swear to uphold these rules with magic. That way your own magic will enforce them. And forever do so until I release you from your oath. -”

           	Convenient, didn’t know that was possible.

           	“-Second, you will be living with me so I can keep an eye on you. Third, until I release you from your oath you will only eat what magic is given to you. Fourth, you will not harm anyone or thing unless you are force to defend yourself.”

           	At this point he was standing in front of me and had summoned his staff from across the room. On instinct I almost grabbed hold of the magic to consume the much wanted food, I had to force myself to stop. I didn’t think he would be very happy about me taking his magic immediately after what he said. Leaning on his staff, the buck looked up into my eyes. I was a good two feet taller than him.

           	“Fifth, you will take on the appearance of my choosing as well as follow the tale I will spin to the ponies of the plains. Most of them known me for a good many years, they will take me on my word.”

           	He went silent, his lips pursed slightly his eyes deep in thought. It looked like he was trying to decide if he should add anything.

           	“Anything else?” I asked. So far they haven’t been all that bad, except for the third one. That one is going to be hard.

           	After a moment he nodded, “That should about do it, unless you think we should add in a condition allowing me to add more.” He gave me a wide smile, chuckling.

           	“Ha-haha-ha no I don’t think so.”

           	“Alright then, all you have to do is swear it.” Holding out his staff, it burst alight with his aura. I wasted little time devouring it. Mmm apples, it tasted good but it wasn’t much. Probably just enough to get the oath done.

           	Savoring the taste, it was my turn to my go silent. I don’t know how to do that.  Throwing the question towards my memories, I waited for something to float back to me.  Several moments went by but nothing came my way. Annoyed I sent another question that way.  Nothing.

           	With confusion I started to think threw my memories. My eyes went wide and I started to slam through the memories looking for something, anything about magic. But besides the telekinesis I know virtually nothing about magic.

           	“What the tartarus, why Don’t I know magic?” I shrieked suddenly, making Edan step back. He was starting to say something when then familiar tingle came from my memories.

           	“Shhhh! I’m getting answers.”

           	He gave me confused look but I ignored it as I closed my eyes and listened closely to my memories.

           	Changelings can pass on memories, information as well as spells.  But most Queens, do not pass on their spells. They fear their daughters would use their own spells against them. Through fear they restricted the power of their offspring so that they are not usurped from the throne.

           	‘Really? How in the tararus did I miss this? ’ Giving a growl of frustration, I stomped my paw into the ground.

           	“Is there something wrong?”

           	Opening my eyes, I saw a worried looking Edan as he held his staff in between us.  He had a grim set to his face, like he was ready for a fight.

           	“I don’t know, any magic.” I growled out at him “Apparently my mother didn’t gift me with that knowledge.”

           	“…Gift?” he said slowly “Do you mean your inherited memory?”

           	I gave one quick nod still fuming over the fact that even though I am a thaumaturgic, I knew no magic.

           	Edan shifted setting the butt of his staff on the floor again.  “Remarkable, it was assumed that ability was a myth.” His eyes sparkled, he was thoroughly enjoying my anger…. No, that’s wrong. He was enjoying learning about changelings. He must be the knowledge hungry type.

           	“Why would she not give you that memory?”

           	“Because she feared being usurped,” I stated, before adding with a mutter “Apparently all Queens fear that.”

           	Edan dropped his head and started to chuckle, his staff tapping against the floor. He muttered ‘interesting’ over and over.

           	It went on for some time before I snapped at him.  “What do I Need to do?”

           	“Hm? Oh yes, the oath.” Clearing his throat as he shook himself out of his own thoughts.  “Gather your magic, and concentrate on your oath.  Wrap your magic around the oath, then speak your oath. Your magic will do the rest”

           	Still grumbling a bit, I drew my magic together. It came easily enough; it wasn’t very long before I had every scrap of magic I could muster. Then I let some of it go so that my stomach wouldn’t be gnawing at me after this was all over.
Holding on the magic, I thought of the conditions that Edan had listed off. I went over them twice more before I started to wrap them in magic. I made sure that it was evenly spread over each one and I’m not sure why I had to do it that way but it felt like it was the right way to do it. I took one last look over the…’image’ in my head before speaking.

           	“I Queen Zenith, swear to uphold this oath until Edan warden of the plains of Adriane, release me from this oath. I swear to Live with Edan. I swear to eat only what is given me. I swear not to harm save in the defense of my own harm. I swear that I will wear what image Edan has decided for me as well as follow the lie he will put in place to protect me.”

           	Edan’s face soured at the last bit of my oath, though he said nothing. I banished that from my mind and focused on what my magic was now doing. I couldn’t see it but I could feel it start to swirl around me.  It had grown more…. violent as it pressed in all around me.  When the magic swam over me, it started to burn as it seeped into me.

           	I gave a slight groan, though that was cut off as the magic suddenly surged forcing itself into me. I froze up as it painfully wrapped around my heart, lungs and other important parts of my innards before shooting straight up my spinal cord into my brain. Burning all the while. Why? For Celestia’s sake, why does life love making me feel pain?

           	As I screamed into my mind the pain vanished, leaving me gasping. It feels like someone just scrubbed out my lungs with some kind of cleaning product.

           	After a moment Edan started to chuckle, “So how do you feel?” he asked.

           	I glared at him, taking slow deep breaths. “What- “gasp “-was that?”

           	“That was your magic, it will enforce you to keep your oath,” Edan said.

           	“How?” I had to wheeze out that word, my lungs were feeling better but still burned.

           	He pursed his lips before answering, “You break your oath, your oath breaks you.”

           	“You- “gasp “-could have- “gasp “-warned me.”

           	“Why? It wouldn’t change what would have happened or the pain that you would feel when making it.”

           	I ignored him after that,uiding myself toward and onto the bed. I laid down giving out another groan.

           	“Are you sure you want to sleep just yet?” Edan asked, a surge of magical energy coming from his general direction.

           	That caught my attention. My flicked over to him. He was closer to the bed; his staff was a glow with green light again.
He held it out towards me, as if he was offering it to me. Yum dinner time. Latching onto it, I pulled taking all it had to offer. It had a lot more to offer then the ones previous. If I was a judging mare, I would say it was almost four times as much as the first one. Hmm the old buck is holding some serious power…. I want it. I savored the taste, my eyes looking over Edan.

           	“Alright then,” Edan cleared his throat, “Your ponysona, do you need to physically see the pony?”
           	Checking with my memories for a moment, I shook my head. “No, it’s ideal but I can do it from photos or by magical means.”

           	Edan nodded before heading over to his bed. His muzzle disappeared underneath the mattress before reappearing with a thin book, the kind that holds photos.  Settling it a top the bed, Edan nosed on through it slowly. He spent a small moment looking at each photo before turning the page. Edan went through the book, page by page. Around the middle of it, he stopped and stared at one particular spot in the book before motioning to me to come over. “Will this do?” he asked laying the point of his hoof on a point in the book.

           	Pushing myself off the bed, I made my way over to him. Looking into the book, I could see that it was indeed a photo album. His hoof was placed right on the bottom of a photo.  The photo was of a mare, deer by the looks of it. It was an old photo, black and white. She looked pretty, I can’t tell her coat color but she had an impressive set of horns. Thirteen points that curled around her head, making it look like she had a crown. She was also very slender and elegant, like she was breed from noble stock.

           	I could see that Edan was watching me from the corner of my eye, so with a thought I wrapped the image in my head in magic and pushed on it to fit around me. The effect was immediate; my form had started to shift. My paws turned to hoofs, my body thickened and my limbs shortened. A crown of horns sprouted from my skull shortly followed by a coat of soft velvet covering them.

           	Edan moved around me slowly, looking over my work with a critical eye. “Make your coat a touch shorter, shorten your limbs about six inches,” he said.

           	I complied following his instructions. A few more instructions came from him before he was satisfied with the results.
“You can make your coat any shade of brown, white, grey or white…. or black.” Edan said his horns shining lightly, there was a small burst of magic and a candle from the roof burst alit.  “Now go to sleep, we have an early morning.”

           	“We do?” I asked looking over my new form, I shifting the color to a midnight black. I like the color, reminds me of my original form.

           	He looked at me from over his shoulder smiling. “Yes, you and I have chores to do. After all, I got to make a living.”
> Chapter 8: New Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I never knew a grouping of strangers could live together so well.  In a hive there was little infighting almost no changeling on changeling crime.  Granted there were the occasional oddities but for the most part the hive worked in perfect unison.  But that was because we shared everything with each other.  Our thoughts, feels, secrets.  What one knew all knew.  So when I see a place that doesn't have that-the most intimate of connection one could have, and it works.  It makes me wonder what they could do if they had that connection.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 A woke with a startled cry as a cold, a VERY cold wave washed over me.  Sputtering I threw myself up in the bed, my head whipping back and forth shaking the water from my head.

 "Good morning, did I wake you?" Edan said setting down a bucket next to him.  I can only guess that it held water not too long ago.  

 Shivering slightly, I looked down seeing bits of ice lying about me.  How did he get ice?  It's nowhere near winter.... I think.

 “Did you have to do that?” I asked getting out of the bed. The ice tinkled as I moved.

 “Yes, you need to learn to start waking at this time. Your body will learn faster if your mind has reason to learn faster.  Hence the water.” Edan said moving around the hut gathering items and placing them in a saddlebag that he had procured from somewhere.

 “And ice.  Don’t forget the ice.” I mumbled rubbing an eye with my newly acquired hoof.

 “Yes and hence the ice also.” He added slipping a jar full what looked like some kind of pickled vegetable.  He had lifted a basket of something from the top self but stopped when it came level to his face.  Staring into the basket for a brief moment, he looked back at me.  “Friend of yours?” he asked tilting the basket so I could see.  

 Craning my neck slightly I spied a little brown furry animal inside.  It was the little squirrel that has been following me around.  I really need a name for him.  He was sprawled out in the middle of a small pile of nuts, his little stomach was bulging out.  He had himself a nice feast apparently.

 “Yeah, he’s with me.” I said wrapping the little guy in my aura and lifting him from his ill-gotten gains. “Sorry about that.

 “It’s quite alright.” Edan said chuckling. “Animals will be animals.  Nothing can be done about it.  But speaking of which, eat this so we can leave as soon as I’m done.” Edan horns glowed, a small ball of green light quickly formed in between them.  With a flick of his head he tossed it at me.

 I had just finished depositing my sticky paw friend onto my back when I felt the magic coming at me.  Snapping my head up, I snatched it out of the air and jerked back in surprise. The magical warmth I get from eating it was still there but it was a completely different taste from yesterday.  Today it tasted like a pepper, and not the sweet kind like bell pepper.  The spicy kind like a jalapeno, not the same taste but something similar.  

 About to say something about it, I paused thinking about what to say.  I don’t think it would matter if I could taste magic but it could be….better be honest. He is feeding me after all.

 “Edan, what spell did you just use?” I asked after a moment.

 “Hm? Just a small one.  Mainly used to start fires.  I just packed quite a bit of magic into it is all.” He said not looking away from what he was doing.  “Why?” 

 “It just tasted different.  Took me by surprise is all.” I said, It might have tasted spicy because it was some sort of flame spell.

 His process halted briefly before continuing. “You…can taste magic?” he asked after finishing packing his saddlebag and settling it on his back.  “Is that normal for magiclings?”

 “No, it’s be-wait magicling? What is a magicling?” I said confused.

 “It’s a shorten name for your hive type.  Thaumaturgic eat magic, so magicling.  Painlings eat pain, lovelings eat love and so on and so forth. Now don’t change the subject.  Is that normal for a thaumaturgic to taste magic?”

 I processed that information before answering his question. “No, only I can taste magic.”

 “Why?” Edan asked turning around and facing me. His face was a mix of confusion and curiosity.  Nailed it, he is a knowledge type.  Loves to learn.

 “Because it’s another thing the Discord gifted me.”

 At Discord’s name, Edan’s face took on a worried look. Staring down he started to mumble to himself under his breath.

 I barely heard something along the lines of ‘She did say that…why and…..He’s up to something.’ This went on for several minutes before he looked up at me and asked a question.

 “What gifts did he give you exactly?” 

 “The first is that he made it so I could taste magic.  He said that not even my hive type could do that naturally.  The second was a memory from about my mother, I guess it was my name technically.” I said using one of my hoofs to scratch the other.  I suddenly felt uncomfortable, I didn’t want anyone to know that I made a deal with that trickster.

 “Care to elaborate on that?” he asked

 I gave a brief description about what the orb looked like and what happen when I touched it.  And another one about what I say and what I gained from it.

 “Ah a memory orb,” he said nodding after I finished “A rare magical item.  Well not that rare but not exactly common either.” He continued to nod before he remembered something. “Hmm, anything else? I believe there was at least one other thing.  You mentioned it last night.”

 “Yeah, he also told me to go west.”

 “West huh?” Edan had went over and gathered up his staff from where he left it last night “If you continued to go west, you would have….” His eyes flickered slightly as he realized something “hmmm.”

 I watched the whole process, I have to say. It was slightly amusing to see him mull it over in his mind.

 “Anything I should know?” I asked

 Me speaking seem to have snapped him out of his thoughts, and he shook his head. “Know nothing important.  At least not right now.  Come, we need to be off.” He said making for the door. “Time is waning.”

 I ignored that fact that he changed the subject, “Where are we going?” I asked following the Elderly buck.

 “We are heading to a nearby village.  I have some things to sell as well as some herbs, ointments and salves to deliver.”

 A village?! I finally get to see a real life village, along with some real life ponies.  Memories are fine and all but I found them to be lacking in quite a few aspects.

 We quickly closed up the hut and made our way down the hill that his hut sat on.  It was a slow journey, but with the sun rising in the distance it wasn’t so bad. Very pretty.  I was in a very relaxed mood from it.  After my last week it, this put me at ease.

 We eventually made it to the village.  It seemed to have just come on us.  One moment we were walking along and I was admiring the scenery then we were in the middle of a busy road at the entrance of gated wall. Carts were being pulled by all shades of ponies.  There was all manner of noises.  Ponies call out to other ponies or call out their wares to everyone in general. 

 What’s more is that everypony seem to know Edan. They all greeted him with when they saw him.  Calling out good mornings and how are you. 

 He replied in kind to each and every one of them. I followed him as he made his way over to a large area down the main road.  It consisted of large and small stalls side by side, as well as three buildings making an off set triangle around the stalls. Two of the buildings were smaller than the last one. Though the smaller ones were still somewhat large, the two combined couldn’t match the size of the third one.  

 There were signs over the doors of each of the buildings but I couldn’t see them every clearly yet save for the largest buildings sign. I am going to assume that is a tavern.  why? Because the sign was a oversize mug, topped with a large head of foam and a clock in the middle of the mug.  The clock was interesting, it is shaped in such a way that  it looked like it wrapped around the mug.  

 “Ya in the way lassy.” A deep rough voice sounded from behind me, it sounded like somepony was growling as they were talking. I was so engrossed by looking around that I was just standing and staring all about me.

 “Sorry,” I said stepping out of the way for the…dog?

 A massive hound, hurried past me.  He was straining to carry a crate of what looked like ore of some kind. He walked on his hind legs and held the crate between his arms. Ponies made way for the him as he barked at them to get out of the way.

 I watched in amazement for moment before a tingle in the back of my brain was trying to tell me something.  Diamond dog, he was a diamond dog.
 
 "That was Forge, he's the blacksmith of the village. Darn good one too." Edan said coming up from behind me.  "He ought to be, he's a diamond dog.  No better smiths over or under."

 A few foals ran by laughing.  They cast openly curious looks at me.  This made me realize that almost everypony was looking at me.  Albeit they were sly glances, not trying to catch my attention but still trying to get a look at me.  Makes sense, I’m new in town and all.

 They were still openly staring when one of the fillies spotted Edan.  She gave a squeal.  
 
"Edan is here!"

 More squeals and cheers went off around the filly as they changed directions towards Edan.  

 Under his breath I could hear Edan give a small groan before he started to get into his bag.  "Never should have gave it to them.  Biggest mistake I've ever done." he grumbled

 The small herd gathered round Edan all talking at once. They didn't even notice that they pushed me out of the way.  Annoying brats.

 "Edan, Do you have any Candies?" they questioned, both fillies and colts jumping up and down around him.

  Edan spent a minute fishing around in his saddlebag before pulling out a small bag. The foals gave a cheer as he started to hand out little amber colored pebbles.  After making sure every foal had gotten a piece, he ruffled the mane of one before telling them to run off.

 They ran away laughing, picking up where they left off. Most likely playing some sort of game know only to them.

 “What was that about?” I asked finally getting a chance to get closer.

 Edan sighed before heading off towards a stall.  “I made the mistake of making a childhood candy of mine and giving it out.  Now whenever they see me the beg me nonstop for more.  I make it just so I can get peace and quiet.”

 Edan had a brief conversation when the stallion before Edan’s aura dragged out a small bottle of some kind of liquid.  Some coin exchange and Edan handed the bottle over before moving on.

 I followed him to the next stall with a elderly  mare with a dark green coat.  she was currently dozing in a rocking chair, it slowly moving back and forward.

 Edan coughed lightly, making her jump slightly.

 Looking around she finally noticed the buck.  Her eyes brighten apon seeing him.  "Oh Edan, Lovely to see you.  Did you bring my youth potion?" She asked leaning forward and disappearing under the stall.

 Edan laughed "Why Miss. Pepperfield, do you need to any younger?  Your as young and ask beautiful as mature oak tree."

 "Ha, If only.  They live to be several hundred years old." She said around a bag in her mouth.

 They continued to banter like that all through the exchange.  It was disgustingly sweet.  The two oldies must have some sort of relationship going on.  Feeling like a third wheel I started to tune them out when Miss. Pepperfield suddenly turned to me.

 "So, who are you?" She asked sitting back into her chair.

 I looked at Edan, He still hasn't told me what I was to tell people.  He must have understood or he was just waiting for the right moment, either way he came to my rescue.

 "This is Zenith, she is my granddaughter." Edan said.

 Pepperfield's head snapped back to Edan.  She studied his face trying to see something.  Edan's face was calm and still held the smile from before.  

 "So...Your daughter's daughter?"  She asked after failing to gain anymore information from him.

 "Yes, her presents had just recently become known to me.  She was raised far to the south."

 Miss. Pepperfield's eyes flickered to me and back to Edan before smiling, "Well, She's here now.  It's very lovely that you have family here now."

 "Indeed it is." He replied smiling back.  "Now I have other deliveries, I wish you a good day." He added nodding towards her.

 "Ah well it was nice seeing you."

 They wished each other well before parting.  I followed Edan closely, though something did catch my eye. Just out of the corner, I could see somepony had moved over to Miss. Pepperfield and was speaking to her in a low tone.  After moving some distance I asked in a low voice, "How important is me being your granddaughter going to be?"

 He said nothing.

 After that the Morning rolled on by.  He would move onto the next stall or to a pony and have a brief talk with them.  Since I didn’t have much to do  but follow him around, I couldn't help but listen. Most of the time it was instructions on had to use the medicine or salve,  a few times it was berries or certain foods that could help with various types of aliments.  One of bucks left me with the giggles, he needed a root for marital issues of the bed nature.  Though I was composed enough not to in till he left.  Edan gave me a warning look for it though.  He didn't find it as funny as I did.

 I had gotten bored with listening and tuned out what Edan was doing.  I started watching my surroundings again.  And the ponies, they were the main focus of my study.  They were fascinating to me, though I couldn't tell you why.  

 We had made our way into cobblestone area that was if my guess is correct, a common area.  There were benches and table as well as blankets laid out.   There was also a washing area near a well, I've seen a few with clothes so they do need to wash them.

I watched in amusement as a colt wailed, getting dragged away by a older buck.  The foal was throwing pebbles at bird and accidentally knocked over a jug of milk.  I could only guess that he was going to get a punishment of some sort.

 A sudden scampering up my next on my head made my eyes flicker up.  My little squirrel friend was leaning over to the side his nose twitching as it smelled something unknown to me. With a swivel of my head towards that way my gaze fell upon a group of mares, they were sitting and talking around a massive tub of green peas.  Every minute or so one would take take one and shell it into a bucket next to them.  I say every minute or so but that is not so.  They shelled them quickly and efficiently, obviously years of practice.

 I looked towards Edan, he was busy explaining something to somepony.  Seems like a good time to meet my fellows.

 I made my way over to the group and I had gotten just a few feet from them when one of them a bright yellow one, had noticed me and said something to the others.   The work stopped and they went silent and every muzzle turn towards me.  Yay they noticed me....now what?  Clearing my throat I smiled and said "Hello,"

 The bright yellow one smiled back "Hiya,"  she looked around at her group which prompted a round of greets from them.

 "So who are you?" The yellow asked as she started her work again.

 I was about to give a witty remark but decide against it, "Zenith,"

 "O~oo exotic sounding.  I'm just called Sunflower.  This is Lavender, Pearl, Sandy, Orchid, Cinnamon,..." She pointed at each  mare in turn.  It took a moment since there were about a dozen of them, though that was not what was impressive.  What was impressive was that she did it all with one breath.  Pointing at the last mare and name her off she added. "Would you like to join us?"

 "Um sure," 

 A few of them moved over to give me room and I sat across from....Lilly I think it was.  She was a pretty little mare, might be the youngest of the group if I had to guess.  She was a pale white with bluish white hair.

I felt a jolt as the squirrel launched from my head, diving for the bucket.  His a red and brown flash, a hollow thump sounded as a bucket intercepted the flying creature.

"I don't think so." A voice said and placed the bucket front of me.  A old red mare named Cinnamon, Just chuckled before adding, "Since your here. join us in the shelling. Also keep an eye on your friend."

 I looked at the bucket, then the mare, then back.  "Oh...yes...helping, sure why not." 

 Reaching out with my magic I took a pod and stared at it.  "Um how do i..." I said looking around at the others.

 "Like this sweetie." The red mare took the pod and split it down the middle and with a practice motion dumped the pees into my bucket. After a moment she reached in and scooped my little friend out.  He had grabbed one of the peas and was nibbling on it.  She then shelled a few more showing me how to do it properly before she let me try.  Using my magic I grabbed another pod and with a surprising amount of effort I split the pod and tossed the pees into the bucket.

 After about my sixth or seventh one Sunflower asked "So....what's your relation with Edan?" 

 "Eh? Oh, he's my grandfather." I replied casting a glance Edan's way.  He had moved on to another stall though I could tell he was keeping an eye on me.

 "Drat," The purple mare, Lavender said.  She fished out a bit and tossed it at Sunflower who was grinning.

 "Told you they weren't lovers." I heard her whisper to another pony.  That amused me to no end.

 "Really? I didn't know he had any children."  The old red mare said in surprise, "The again he has a whole other life in his old home.  So it's not really that hard to believe." she added looking a me with a critical eye.  "You do have a bit of him in you.  Around you eyes and in your muzzle."

 Unable to think of anything else I just said "Thank you,"

 "So what's the name of this village?"  I asked before anyone could ask anymore questions.  I didn't fully know what Edan was going to tell everyone.

 "Oh this place, it doesn't official have a name but we call it Edgeville.  For it being on the edge of kingdom of Mugruith's Territory."

 "Makes sense." I said.  I opened my mouth to ask another question but Edan suddenly interrupted from behind me.

 "Sorry ladies but I have to pull Zenith away from you.  We have other deliveries."

 I almost jumped out of my hide.  I snapped my head around looking at him.  He stood not three feet from me.  He moves quick for an older fella, last time I saw him he was across the way.

 "No problem sweetie." Cinnamon said "Drop her off anytime.  We were just starting to get to know her."

 "Next time.  Come Zenith."  With that he turned and started walking towards one of the buildings.

 With a word of goodbye to them, I stood and followed after the buck.  After catching up with the Edan I asked in a low voice. The squirrel ran up my leg making sure not to be left behind.

 "What is the kingdom of Mugruith?"

 "Its my homeland, the deer kingdom." He said just as quietly.

 "You know you are going to have to fill me in about my background if I'm going to be staying here."  I said to him "I was afraid that they were going to ask a question I couldn't answer."

 He looked back at me and nodded "you are right, I should have.  It was my mistake, I apologize."

 Looking towards one of the buildings, the largest one. He then said, "It's a little after noon, let's take a lunch break."  pointing towards the building.

 Edan headed towards the tavern.  "Um, I don't know if they have magic on the menu." I said thinking back on all the ponies that I've saw.  Most of them were earth ponies.  One or two pegasi  but I didn't see a single unicorn.

 "I gave you enough this morning.  Try eating food, It might not sustain you like magic can but eating is a pleasure as well as a necessity." edan said. And with Edan in the lead, we trotted through the door.  Noise exploded as soon as it was open. Music and conversion flooded over me, making me stumble back in surprise.  Once again the memories doesn't quite prepare me for the real thing especially if its a noisy tavern.

  My ears flickered in overdrive trying to take in and process all of the information.  One thing I could hear clearly through the haze of noise was Edan chuckling right next to me.

 "Are ponies always so loud?" I asked  lifting a hoof and rubbing my ear trying to sooth the throbbing it just acquired.

 "For the most part, yes they are quite loud."

 Looking around I watched mares that were wearing matching clothes, move between tables and patrons, each one balancing a tray laden with food and drink on their backs.  One passed right by me, giving me a good look what was on the tray. Cups and goblets filled to the brim with frothy drinks.  Those were the side notes.  The main thing that caught my attention was the plates laden with food. The aroma, dear Celestia the aroma.  It made my mouth water and stomach grumble in wanting.  Maybe Edan was right, I should try the food. I could feel the bobbing of a small figure onto of my head. It was turning every which way unsure which way to go.

 Edan moved swiftly through the flow of ponies to a table in the back of the tavern.  I had to stick close to him, not out of fear of losing him or anything but because the room was packed with ponies.  It seemed like the whole village was in here.

 Getting to the table, one of the mares in the matching clothes was already next to us before we even sat down.

 "What'ch ya want sugar?" She asked with a thick southern accent.  And with the flick of her head, pencil bounce out from behind her ear and into her mouth. It was then used to wright on a notepad she had pulled from somewhere.  Even though she was talking to Edan she was giving me side looks.  It feels weird being on everypony's mind.

 "House special, and two mugs of cider."

 "Alrighty. be right back with that."  Said said with a muffle around the pencil.  writing it down she gave a flick of her head again and sent the piece of wood back from where it came from.  

 "Oh by the way Edan." she added after a thought. "My daughter has gotten that wet cough again, do you have that one potion from last time?"

 "No, but I can make something similar that should do the trick.  Same price as last time." He replied settling into one of the low chairs.

 "Thanks sugar, it was be a goddess send.  She kept me me up half the night last night." With that said she walked off towards the giant fire pit, it held various cooking equipment

 "You get alot of orders." I said when she was far enough away.  I sat down in my own chair still looking around the place.

 "I'm the only healer for some distance around here."  Clearing his throat, Edan tapped his hoof of the table.  "Alright, let's get started."

 "Then you start with you and your daughter."

 He stared at me annoyed. "Seeing how you are suppose to be my granddaughter then I guess I have to."

 He took a moment to collect his thoughts before drawing a long slow breath.  

 "My daughter's name is Blossom Myth. And she the reason I was banished from my homeland, never to return on pain of death."
> Chapter 9: Past Mistakes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I never knew my mother. I mean I knew of her, who she was and what she was capable of but I never knew her.  I never got to be with her or learn from her.  Blossom had a remarkable gift and she ruined it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  I was silent and not out of respect. I was shocked. What did one have to do to get banished from a kingdom?

  Edan smiled slyly, "I guess I should start since you have nothing clever to say." 

 "It's not like I don't have anything to say," I said snapping out of my shock. "I just didn't know what to say. It's not every day someone tell you that they have been banished from a kingdom."

 He opened his mouth to say something but shut it and went quiet when the mare brought over two mugs of cider. He took a slow long drink waiting for her to meld back into the crowd before continuing.

 "Thirty-eight years ago me and my wife, your now grandmother," he added pushing the other mug towards me.

 My aura lifted it from the table and brought it to my lips to have a taste. It was delicious, but it also burned as it went down my throat. I coughed and sputtered not expecting it. That got me some amused looks from some of the closer drinkers. Edan chuckled before going on with the tale.

 "Like I was saying. My wife Willow and I had a daughter together. She was the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen. And as she grew older she showed a great strength for magic, much more than I had at her age. By the time she was nine she was accepted into the academy. she was the youngest ever to be admitted. Normally it would take deer a decade to graduate but she did it in half the time. Everyone who had the pleasure of seeing her use magic knew she was gifted with it. She was going to do great things." 

 His face took on a warm expression. He cleary still loves her, even though she got him banished. What a father.

 My heart felt a little heavy. A little for him but mostly wondering if my mother felt the same about me or something else entirely.

He gave a shake of his head and picked up where he left off. "It wasn't long after that Blossom was put into training for the school's betterment. She spent another-"

 Wait a minute. 

 "Excuse me, but why do I need to know about your daughter's life?" I asked taking another sip of cider. It still burned as it went down making me cringe but not on the outside, I didn't want to give the other drinkers a show.

 "Well, she's going to be your mother so you should at least know about her. Just in case someone asks about her." Edan said, his face had the look of patience on it. If you didn't know you can now tell he had a child before.

"Well you have a point," I said not really wanting the argue the point all that hard. I mean he did have a point.

"As I was saying before you interrupted me," he gave me a look that said don't do that again. "My daughter spent another few years under magical theory and the understanding and recognizing of magic artifacts and texts."

 What a mouthful but when I opened my mouth to say something along those lines, a slight look in Edan's eye made me close my mouth. He stared at me making sure I didn't have anything to say before picking up where he left off.

"Soon after that Blossom set out of her travels as a knowledge seeker. One who was granted the title to further the library of the royal academy of Mugruith. It a high pace of honor at the academy." His shoulders slumped slightly as he said this. He took another, larger draft from the tanker. He had the looked of a buck who was retelling the death of a love one.

 "Several years went by, more years then what is normal for Seeker to be gone. Many of us, none more then myself feared that something had happened to her. I had put in a request for a recovering team to go look for her when word had gotten to us that she was returning. What's more she had brought over a hundred books back with her. It was amount not heard of since the library was built. It was-"

 Edan went silent again as the tavern maid came over, she had a tray of food balanced on her back.

 "Two orders of stuffed apples with grilled brussel sprouts." She said after placing them on the table in front of us.

 It smelled so bucking delicious. The plate held two apples that held bread stuffing and a small pile of brussel sprouts skewered on wooden stakes.

 Leaning down I took a bite from the apple, my mouth exploded with basil and rosemary. The flavor made me dance happily in my seat. My little friend-I really need to find him a name- took that moment to jump onto the table and help himself to the food on my plate. 

 "Your lucky that you need to eat to survive." I told him as I pushed the rest of the apple towards him. He launched onto it with a happy chittering. 

The clinking of metal drew me to Edan hoofing over some bits to the waitress. She turned to leave but Edan stopped her with an ordered of another tankard of cider.

He looked into his plate his eyes lost in thought. This gave me the moment to try the brussel sprouts, which were just as good as the apples. The two of us stayed quiet as we ate, all of the noise was coming from are table was a chittering around a mouthful of food.

 Only when the waitress had come and gone did Edan carry on. His voice was in a low tone, I could hear that he was trying to keep to a neutral tone. Even though he tried, Edan couldn't get all of the emotions out of his voice. I could pick up regret and sorrow but I could also hear pride in it. He truly cared about his daughter and he was picking at a wound that would never fully heal. Honestly, I felt very honored that he would do that for me...and very confused as to why he would do that, somepony he doesn't know. And a changeling to boot. It down right didn't make sense to me.

 "She had brought over one hundred books to the it was a record that not many deer could think of let alone manage. My king granted her the title of The Fios Haon, it means The Knowledgeable One in the old tongue. She was hailed as a living legend of the academy. My king also granted her some land as well as a large sum of money. She spent the next few months catching up with her friends and family, and growing her house before returning to work for the academy. She-“ 

 “Wait, grew her house?” I asked not sure if I heard that right.

 Edan nodded “Yes, we grow are houses out of trees. Using spells, we accelerate the growth and alter the shape. If done properly, the trees are still alive.”

 “Amazing, I didn’t know that there are those kind of spells.” I felt amazed, you could do some much with magic. In the back of my mind I had a rage forming. My mother could have passed on such great magics but chose not to out of fear of me. It felt pitiful to me.

 Edan smiled “It is amazing. I personally specialize in plant magic. I spent years learning about it.”

 “Really? Can you tell me about it? What can you do?” I asked.  

 He opened his mouth before closing it with a shake of his head, “I will tell you later, I will get lost in the magic if I tell you about it. Let me finish my tale.”

Edan cleared his throat with a draw from his tanker before continuing again. 

 “She requested a small wing of the school to further her studies and to have a place to conduct magical experiments safely. Before I knew it two more years flew by. Blossom had produced several promising magical items as well as a ground breaking theory that sent the professors at the academy into a frenzy. Last I heard they have made no headway achieving a working model.”

 He started to chuckle, “None of them could match wits with her.”

 His chuckle disappeared rather quickly, leaving him with a grim look. “It was around that time that series of crimes happened. It started with someone breaking into section of the library that is reserved for the royal family or someone with their permission. Several forbidden text were stolen.”

 “What were they about?” I asked interested on what types of magic was forbidden. 

 His face soured before spitting out a word, “Necromancy.” It was dripping with so much hatred and venom that I was surprised it came from this old buck. I have heard nothing much gentleness from him… save the time he threatened to kill me.

 "Necromancy, the magic to raise the dead right? Why would that be forbidden? You think you would want ponies you loved brought back?" I asked.

 "THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT!' he yelled slamming his hoof on the table.  It made me jump and look around nervously, seeing if any of the ponies were looking our way.

 Which they were. All the tables around us were looking at Eden. Some were of surprise, others concern.

 "It's okay, calm down." I said soothingly, waving my hand in what I felt was a calming way.

 He took several deep breaths trying to get control of himself.

 "In my kingdom, nature is a way of life. Bring the dead back to life is not itself bad, it is how they are when they are brought back through necromancy. They are a corrupt version of themselves, everything necromancy promises is only poor intimation. For abyssal sake even the magic corrupts the user. It takes one life force and turns it on oneself, they become a monster not of this world or the next."

 I watched him carefully before asking my next question. I didn't want him freaking out on me again. 

 "Then why does the academy have books on it?" 

 "When one knows how a spell works one knows how to destroy, counter or take apart a spell that has been cast. We keep it to fight necromancy."

 Eden took another mouthful of cider before adding, "I apologize for shouting, this is stressful for me."

 "It's alright," I replied laying a hoof on his, the same one that he slammed against the table. "Just go ahead and take your time, I'm not planning on going anywhere." I mean you are feeding me after all but that's beside the point.

 My squirrel friend decided that he also wanted to cheer the buck up, because he decide to climb on top of our hooves and pat them both. 

 Eden gave a slight at the two of us before nodding.

 "Several texts and a few books on necromancy were stolen. The kingdom was in an up roar. The Academy was outraged that someone stole from them, the nobles blamed the academy for incompetence. And the King was terrified that a necromancer was coming into power."

 Uh oh, I can see where this is going.

 "The kingdom put all their resources to finding them but to no avail. Over the course of several months more crimes were committed, that could be related to he first. Bodies were dug up, magical ingredients were stolen before finally over a dozen deer were assaulted and half as many were slain and their bodies stolen." Edan seem to deflate somewhat but his story never slowed.

 "The King had put out a bounty for the necromancer's head. The size of the sum, drew many fighters and mages. Once again to no avail. The necromancer alluded all hunts for her before finally they had caught her in the act. A chase proceed  fighting the whole way she was cornered where she was conducting her experiments... If your smart you can guess where."

 It took me a moment but when I had put it together it made me grimace.

 "The academy wing you had given her."

 "Yes, that very one. My daughter, the necromancer had been using the wing I had given her to conducted her experiments. When I was informed that it was my daughter, I pleaded with the king to give me a chance to talk to her. To try and reason with her, to talk it out peacefully... But my words fell on deaf ears. When I had failed, my king sent in the troops."

 He took a deep breath before giving a humorless chuckle, the pain that had lined his voice the entire telling had engulfed entirely. "And she was absolutely amazing. My little doe, my sweet little Blossom stood her ground against dozens of the king's own. Highly trained war casters. The magic she threw around tore my heart with pride and sorrow. It was well crafted magic but it was tainted with necrotic energies. Over half of the King's own were killed. When it became clear that she wasn't going to stop me and my wife stepped in to stop her.....we had fought hard against her, and almost got her but..." Edan faltered, tears rimming his eyes.  "B-but when I had the spell lined up to end her life, I let my emotions get the better of me and let the spell go."

 I wanted to smile, he was a good buck. He loved and didn't want to harm his daughter even though it meant betraying his King and country. But at the same time, he was giving up everything he believed in. His morals, his beliefs, even his own wife.

 "You only wanted to protected you daughter. Any father would only hope to do the same." I said reaching out to lay my hoof on his again.

 "And in return for that favor she sent a lance of necrotic energy through her mother's chest," he said a bitter angry clouding his voice. I could tell it wasn't at anyone but himself. My hoof froze and I slowly dragged it back to me my mouth open.

 "Yes, she killed her mother when I failed to take her life.  After that, I stopped fighting. I just held my wife waiting for my daughter to finish me. But she didn't. Instead she walked right by me an-and said thanks dad, couldn't have done it without you," his voice cracked at the end. 

 A cold fury rose from my chest, how dare she. HOW DARE SHE. She would do something like that to her father and mother. The people who had given her everything, had risen her up from nothing. It must have shown on my face.

 "Calm yourself, this was twenty years ago. There is nothing to do about it now," he said wiping the tears away. "She had gotten away, but there were dozen more witnesses that saw what had happen. I was deemed an accomplice to a necromancer and banished from my Kingdom."

 "But couldn't they be lenient? It was your daughter." I said truly furious for the old buck.

 "If it wasn't for the king, my head would have been burned and the body left out for the crows. The nobles wanted me dead, a lot of the noble families offspring served in the King's own."

 Well that sucks.

 Edan fell silent once again as he drained the rest of his tanker. I looked at my plate, there was still some of the food on there but I didn't have much of an appetite for it after the story I had just heard. I pushed it towards my squirrely friend, who started to eat it with glee.

 Edan cleared his throat getting my attention. 

 "I'm going to head back to my home, you can come with or explore the village a little more. Do you know how to find your way back?" He asked getting to his hooves.

 It only took me a moment to think back on the trip, it was pretty straight forward getting here. I nodded getting up to leave as well. 

 "I would like to look around some more...." I hesitated for a moment before blurting out the question that has been on my mind when he first started his tale. "Why are you telling me all this? And yes I know I'm suppose to be your granddaughter and I should know this but why are you letting me be your granddaughter? I'm just somepony you just met and a changeling. I mean night before last you threatened to kill me."

 Edan thought for a moment rubbing alongside his muzzle before finally saying, "I don't feel like I should tell you just yet. Or more accurately I don't think you earn the right to know yet. Maybe in a few months I will." He cracked a smile again, though it was tainted with sadness. With that he walked away from me.

 I stared after him in surprise. For some reason I thought he would tell me, but to leave me with 'I don't think you earn the right'? I changed my mind about him, he's a dick.