> Changeling of the Everfree
>  by Veryfriedguy7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Lost and alone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cold

That's the only thing a lone changeling could feel.
Not even a changeling but a hatchling. Left all alone. To die.

His crime was simply being born. The hatchling had no idea what was going on while it was being carried off by it's carers. It still had no idea as it was dropped into the cold, muddy, wet ground and left to rot. It still doesn't.

Being only twenty minutes old the hatchling couldn't think for itself, it couldn't feed itself or even walk.

Barely clinging to life, the hatchling crawled with no direction, nothing to guide it.

It kept crawling until it couldn't. It wondered where it's carers were and why they weren't here. Where were they?

Where were they?

Not here.

The hatchling laid there for a while. It's life slowly draining away. 

Until there was barely any life left to drain.

The hatchling, near lifeless, lay on top of a clear rock barely noticeable as it protruded from the muddy ground. This rock was special, powerful. Or it was, teeming with dormant magic left untouched by the world.

A bright light flashed across the sky, a light filled with many colors, it was only there for a short time but whatever caused it woke the rock the magic within filled the dying hatchling with something it needed desperately.

Love.

For a few brief moments the hatchlings pure blue eyes flashed to a deep green.

As it did this something snapped in the back of it's mind, something that told it to die.

Instead the hatchling's mind was clear and in this clearness the hatchling now possessed one thing spoke aloud repeatedly.

Murex
> Keep them safe
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

That memory was burned into his mind. Reminding him of who he was.

No matter how long it's been it is always fresh within the confines of his mind.

Murex

Murex

It was so long ago but he remembers everything so well. How could he forget?

Especially how his carers had left him there.

He doesn't blame them. Should he? He doesn't know why they didn't comeback. He didn't know if he was even abandoned or left behind or what! He just knows he's alone.

He now spends his days wandering a forest. He doesn't know what forest it is, if it's special or not, if it has a name or not but a... what was it? A zebra? Yes, a zebra. A zebra told him he was in the 'Everfree forest' so that must be where he is. It only took a while to understand what she was saying. Being alone all his life meant he didn't know how to speak or what a 'language' was but he picked it up after a while.

There are many things he doesn't know and very few that he does. The zebra is kind to him and told him many things, mainly of these 'pony' things. She asked him to scare them away from the forest because they don't know how to keep away from the dangers of the forest or how to fight back, but he and the zebra do. So he did and he did it well.

He isn't close to the zebra but she can't keep these 'ponies' out for whatever reason and he already looks scary. So he scared them off and the zebra told him things in return. It didn't matter if it was about where the zebra was from, where they are or the ponies that are all around the outside of the forest. He always listened, learned.

Her... rhyming, yes that's what it's called rhyming, was hard to understand at first, after he learnt how to language, but he eventually caught on and listened to her tales with mild success.



Murex was prowling around the forest as he usually did, searching for something to wet his appetite. The forest was dark which is usual but not around this time, it should be getting brighter. Confused he climbed a nearby tree and searched the sky for the big ball that burns his eyes. He couldn't find it.

Loud bangs rang out from the pony town and his attention snapped towards it, many things were happening this dark morning, he was told to never go to the town. 
He asked why he couldn't and the zebra always told him that the ponies won't be nice to him. This confused him greatly. "Why would they be not nice?" He asked her many times after. He was never told why.

Preoccupied with thoughts about the ball not being there, the bangs in the pony town and why they wouldn't be nice to him. He stopped his thinking and dropped from the canopy and onto the ground below. His black and deep red chitin were highlighted in the moonlight, standing out from the nearby shrubbery. Not good.

Being seen is bad when not scaring off ponies. Murex is far from alone here, many things compete for food, things could try to eat him. But they never think of what they're hunting, big mistake.
Things found out when he returned the favor and ate them instead. He is small when compared to them but it's his biggest advantage. 

After attempting, and failing, to eat a few pebbles that heavily resembled plants on the zebra's insistence. Needless to say he coughed them up, but they weren't the only thing to come back up. A tiny needle flew out from his maw and audibly impacted a random tree. He experimented with it a bit and also discovered that by tensing a certain part of his throat he could add, what the zebra called 'poison', or coat a needle in a different liquid that could melt things. Acid the zebra called it.
But they weren't his main weapon.

They surprised him when the zebra demonstrated what a 'Chinese burn' is and squeezed one of his forelegs. They both found out that Murex had extremely sharp and long bone blades hidden within his forelegs. He nearly killed the zebra but he walked away with very efficient weapons.

Light, long, sharp, hard and thick. Perfect for cutting bad things down when they try to eat you.

Or saving the six ponies entering the forest.

A ponies scent stuck out in the forest, especially to predators. A sweet smell that often made his mouth water that could be carried on the wind for long distances, he used this scent to sniff them out like a bloodhound. That's what the zebra called it anyway. 

He shot off in the direction his nose was leading him to, the surrounding plants rustled in the wind he left behind.

It was a short distance that was closed in no time. Murex crouched down in bushes some distance away and he listened in, always eager to learn about the world beyond his own. 

Or he would have if a voice hadn't echoed within his mind giving him two simple instructions.

Follow

Keep them safe

That voice...

The same one that saved him such a long time ago...

He was powerless to disobey the simple commands from this gentle mental melody.

He kept his ears off them. Whatever they were saying it was second to the instructions branded within his psyche.

Follow

Keep them safe

Without a thought Murex followed them from within their own shadows.

Stalking them like the perfect predator he is.



Everything was going okay, not really. The ponies nearly fell to their deaths when the ground they were walking on suddenly fell from underneath them. He was about to act but the two wing ponies caught them all. One even jumped down the side off the cliff.

There was also a big fluffy thing with the weird tail but a needle coated in poison helped calm it down dramatically, not enough to kill it though. One of the ponies then subdued the thing with... words. He never thought to try that but he probably won't. They do taste kinda nice.

They laughed at trees for a while and this confused Murex but he didn't think about it too long and resumed his stalking.

There was a water long thing crying about some hair on it's face while thrashing about in the small river it sat in. The ponies needed to cross the water but couldn't due to it's crying and thrashing. Murex was about to act but a different pony from before, one with a stick on it's head, walked up to it and eventually cut of it's own tail with one of the thing's scale and gave it to the thing. It made it happy and it even helped them across, Murex wouldn't hunt it later for that.

They trekked on with Murex still stalking, still warding off things that would eat them from his presence alone. The tree dogs learned to stay away from him a long time ago. Even with this knowledge he must follow, must keep them safe.

They eventually came across a wood walkway that was no longer there. Murex remembered it well, nearly fell when he tried to use it. He was too heavy for it.

Another pony went off and dove into the fog below, he was stunned by it's apparent death until it came back up with the wood walkway in it's grasp. He relaxed at this sight.

Now waiting upon the other one Murex decided to look at these ponies and commit them to memory, the voice must have wished their protection for a reason.

Five... Five mares. Their colors and races standing out to him. Purple with purple unicorn, pink with pink, yellow with pink pegasus, white with purple unicorn, orange with yellow. He didn't know what the ponies with no wings or stick were called so he didn't name them and just remembered their colors. Until purple unicorn spoke up.

"Hey girls? Do you feel like something is watching us?" She asked, her voice and question confirming that they were mares.

"Now that you mention it Twilight, my skin has been crawling. I certainly feel like it's followed us too." White unicorn said.

Purple unicorn is Twilight. He will remember this.

The others sounded their agreement and yellow pegasus just curled up and squeaked.

The other pony came back and he went to commit her to memory too. Until he saw her mane.

'It looks just like the light I saw on that day...' He didn't even need to commit her to memory, he WILL remember her after seeing her mane. 

"I never leave my friends hanging!" The color pony chimed in a scratchy, definitely female voice. He will remember her by sound now too. 

They crossed the wood walkway and Murex, learning his lesson before, waited for them to cross and enter some old looking building then jumped, with the aid of his wings, the entire gap in one bound and landed on the other side. He was about to find a vantage point to look into the building but was forced to quickly dive to the side into some bushes that were near the cliff. He wasn't seen but the rustle of his landing was heard.

"Y'all hear that?" Orange asked the others. 

White unicorn spoke up "Do you think that thing that is following us is close?" This got a weird look from color pegasus.

"What are you guys talking about?" Her voice was music to his ears. 

"Twilight said that something might have been following and watching us while you were tying the bridge darling." White unicorn replied. Bridge? Is that what wood walkway is called?

Color pegasus was about to press further but a scream filled the air.

"Twilight!" they all called and ran inside.

Murex was about to follow them but a light off to the side caught his attention. 'Must be purp- Twilight' he corrected himself. He was about to find a perch but was interrupted.

Keep them safe

Safe...

He felt a presence in his mind and it was leading him off the cliff and to the side of the castle. When he followed it, it never ended poorly so he went where it instructed.

He backed up and fell off the cliff to grab a ledge that was poking out off the cliff face, he used it to jumped between small ledges and rocks sticking out of the cliff face. He came across a hole in the castle walls and jumped through it and heard banging. He looked to the side and saw a... door... shaking. The voices of the mares on the other side.

A stick of wood was on the door, stopping it from opening. He removed it and very quickly pulled the door open, using it to hide himself as it did. When he did this the mares burst forth and didn't even look back.

Falling into routine, he followed them.

They found Twilight standing before a tall pure black pony with both wings and a stick. Her stick was much longer than Twilight's. Twilight looked very upset for some reason with a bunch of rock shards around her. He tensed, quickly and quietly, he jumped up and scaled a wall intent on finding a good perch, he wouldn't harm the pony but would butcher it if it attempted to harm Twilight or the others. He must keep them safe.

Twilight spoke up. “You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that?” She squared her shoulders and looked to the tall black mare. “Well, you're wrong because the spirits of the elements are right here!” She stood proudly with the others mares standing behind her.

“Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt represents the spirit of, Honesty!

Fluttershy, who tamed a manticore with her compassion represents the spirit of, Kindness!

Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger represents the spirit of, Laughter!

Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift represents the spirit of, Generosity!

And, Rainbow Dash, who refused to abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of, Loyalty!

The spirits of these six ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us.” Twilight replied to her, the mare's voice was loud and confident. She looked back as the stone shards now floated around each pony she named, he will remember them. Each was a different color that matched with the pony they circled around.

This newly named pony 'Nightmare Moon' looked at them with a mixture of surprise and disbelief. “You still don’t have the sixth element. The spark didn't work!”

“But it did. A different kind of spark, I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear from you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all...are my friends!” Twilight and the others looked up as a new light went off above Twilight. It was in the shape of the mark on her flank and stayed hovering in the air above her. “You see, Nightmare Moon when those elements are ignited by the spark that lives in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... Magic!” Twilight exclaimed. The six ponies were pulled together and the light that flowed from them created... the colors in Rainbow's mane... held a color from each of them. The colors hit Nightmare Moon and swirled around her consuming her, hoof to her head stick.

“No! No!” She screamed in protest but even the sound of her protests was soon drowned out.

A bright light soon filled the entire room. Murex had to shield his eyes, not used to bright lights.

After it dissipated he looked and found a smoke cloud where Nightmare Moon used to be. He relaxed his tense muscles, confidant the threat was gone. The mares started recovering from their attack and looking around the room and inspecting the new shiny metal on them with glee. Murex didn't care much for their talking, until a voice he didn't recognize sounded out.

The ball of light finally rose but, much to his annoyance, another bright light filled the room and a new tall white pony emerged from it, he tensed once more but became confused as the mares bowed to this new pony.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight called out and ran to embrace this 'Celestia'.

"Twilight Sparkle! My faithful student. I knew you could do it." Celestia congratulated her.

"But you told me it was all an old pony tale." Twilight mused.

"I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more," She replied. "I saw the signs of Nightmare Moons return and I knew it was you that had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart." She finished

"Now if only two others will do this as well," She looked over to where Nightmare Moon used to be, a smaller mare in her place. Murex following Celestia intently. His eyes followed her with every word.

"Princess Luna." Celestia called out, earning a gasp from the smaller mare. "It has been 1000 years since I have seen you like this, time to put our differences behind us we were meant to rule together little sister."

"Sister?" Fluttershy, Twilight and Rainbow parroted.

"Will you accept my friendship?" She asked her little sister.

All the ponies were leaning in, intent on hearing her answer, Pinkie leaned so far she fell over. Murex was also interested.

"I'm sorry!" She cried out. "I missed you so much big sister!" She said while crying.

"I missed you too." Celestia replied, also crying.

"Wait!" Twilight shrieked, effectively ruining the moment. Everypony (and ling) turned their attention to her. "You said two! Is there another pony here?" She asked now wary.

"Indeed there is Twilight. But he isn't a pony." This surprised Murex greatly. She quickly began telling, much to his shock, the day Murex was born. "Roughly 15 years ago I sensed a creature that was on it's dying breath, abandoned by those that should care for it. By some miracle, he fought against all odds and lived, despite being born that day, and I reached out to his mind and gave him something to live for, something to fight for. I gave him a destiny and a name." She finished.

Murex was in shock. She didn't know about the rock but was she the voice?

"It wandered and eventually found the Everfree. He kept ponies out of the forest without me instructing him to, until today. He followed you and he kept the dangerous beasts that would seek to eat you at bay, merely by his being there."

"What was his name Princess?" Twilight asked as Murex felt the presence return to his mind.

"His name is Murex." She supplied. "Come forth Murex!" She called to him, the voice from within urging him out of hiding. He was torn between doing so and just leaving, remembering the zebras words. 'ponies will not be nice to you'.

With a reluctance greater than the big ball in the sky he jumped down from his perch with closed eyes. Landing silently behind the mares.

Celestia saw him, smiled and jerked her head towards him.

The mares turned and saw him. His hole filled hooves, his black body with deep red outlines on his upper torso, neck and all around his head. They looked deep into his glowing blue eyes when he opened them and silence reigned across them all. The mares' eyes all pin pricks.

"Girls. This is Murex and he is a ferocious predator and friend to me." She stated, a smile still on her face.

For the first time in nearly two weeks he spoke. "I not see you before, yet know you." He spoke not loud but not quiet, firm yet friendly, his voice not deep but not pitched. The sound of neutrality. "Ponies, safe. work is done here." Everypony, Celestia included, expected him to turn and walk out the way they came. He surprised everypony when he dived out a window, that was over a cliff.

Everypony ran to the window, expecting to see him falling only to see the glass shards from the broken glass falling to the rocks below.

"Where'd he go?" Rainbow questioned, still searching for him.

"I do not know, all I can sense is his rough location." She informed them, of course they asked where. She giggled. "He is already quite far from here my little ponies. While I would advise against it, the Everfree is his domain and he knows of you all now. You will be safe from the creatures here."

"Do the creatures here... fear him?" Fluttershy asked, curious as to why there was seemingly no creatures around.

"Yes. They do Fluttershy. He regularly hunts them to remind them he is still here. To fear him." Celestia confirmed her fears.

"If the Everfree fears him. Is he evil?" Twilight asked, more to herself than to Celestia.

"No my faithful student. He is not evil, but he is not good either." This confused all of them, Luna included. "He simply is."
> Who is she?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


I gave him a destiny and a name



Who is she?

That question has been on Murex's mind for some time now, not many ponies come into the forest now. Plenty of time to think.

Murex hated thinking as much as he loved it, not very much. But besides hunting it has become the near only thing he can do. The only active thing to come to the forest now is the stray pony. Even the zebra has started coming and going to the pony town. Why would she do that? 'Ponies will not be nice to you' Will they be nice to her? Is he meant to stay and watch as she comes and goes?

Murex may like her tales and respect her wishes but that just seemed... Unfair. Yes unfair.

The only pony from the 8 he remembers that comes near the Everfree is that shy one... Fluttershy... But that's because she lives near the forest. Much game lives with her but Murex has left them alone because she feeds them, may be attached. He may be hungry and he may kill things, sometimes daily, but he is not a taker of life. He is just what he is, a predator.

The voice hasn't spoken to him and he has kept thinking about it since, until he was thinking during a wood dog hunt. Almost injured, must think less.

Even heroes may die if they do not focus. That's what the zebra told him anyway.

The fact she ignored her own advice and went to the pony town didn't stop him from heeding her advice. 

Friend

What are friends? Twilight claimed the mares with her were her friends. But what are they? A pact? A title for those worthy of something? Just another thing he doesn't know.

After a while he stopped questioning what a 'friends' purpose was. Just like most things he doesn't know or understand, he let it be.

Are he and the zebra friends? Friends spend time together, he saw those 6 again today. Eating weird food on a piece of strange red ground that they brought with them. A lone wood dog tried to get them. The six saw it's demise just beyond the treeline.

Of course he stared at them for a time before he just turned and walked back into the forest. His home.

He once thought about hunting ponies, he quickly banished the thought. No challenge, not much meat and too much noise. They always make high pitched wails when he is spotted. Ears can only take so much.

Voices stopped his latest thinking. five if his snout is not lying. Three are familiar yet... not.... must find. Murex shot off into the foliage, searching for the voices and smells, trusting his senses and instincts to guide him. They were the two things to never lead him astray.

He crouched down low, bordering the end of his home. Five small ponies stood there, talking... no... two are mocking them.

"You'll never go into the Everfree! You're too scared!" A pink with pink and white tiny pony taunted 3 others.

"Yeah! you're scaredy cats!" A grey with grey tiny ponied taunted as well.

"Blank flanks!" They chimed together.

He doesn't remember any of them, but the other three are... theirs scents are... familiar. Murex knows very few scents, close to the six maybe?

"No we aren't! We'll walk straight into the Everfree and stay for ten minutes! Just like you said we couldn't! C'mon girls!" A yellow with red tiny pony declared, the other two following along with just as much energy.

He doesn't know much about ponies but he knows challenging others to go into a well known danger is... wrong.

Murex may just have an idea. Test the zebra's advice and maybe help the tiny ponies strike back against other tiny ponies. Murex will await them deeper, face theirs fears and discover a protector in the dark. No wood dog can bark if it doesn't bite, if they bark then they must earn their bite. Just like he.

Murex intentionally attempts to scare them out, testing their will to keep going, step on a branch here rustle a bush there. Whether from being brave or stupid, they continue deeper.

Something strange happens to him, a warmness floods his chest and his lips curl of their own accord. It may be very dumb to go where the light ball does not shine, but they did it anyway, because they said they would.

They earned a chance to bite.

He was was about to reveal himself and praise the act but six wood dogs appeared, growling.

"Timberwolves!" They cried together. They may be brave but they are still small, young he guesses. He may be a predator but he will not hunt something that can not fight back just because it's easy. These Timberwolves... no... wood dogs. Don't deserve good name. These wood dogs always try to eat ponies, weak ponies. Murex doesn't like them. He hates them.

He leaps between them and snarls a challenge to the wood dogs, every living thing present jolted from his sudden and unexpected appearance, and for once they don't back down. Excellent, a show of power.

Murex brings forth his blades and lunges at the largest one, spitting a couple acid spikes into two that stood beside the big one as he does, three wood dogs circle around him. He slams into the larger wood dog as he crosses his blades together over it's face and his days of hunting them shows true as the wood dog has half it's head and some of it's upper torso removed. The three not attacked lunge at his back but he throws himself forward allowing the three to collide into each other midair, showing their lack of coordination without the bigger one. 

Kill the big one first and you clean up the rodents, kill a smaller one and you have a big wood dog and it's vermin actually register as a threat. This is how Murex views them anyway.

He pulls his right foreleg across his body and puts all his trained power into one strike, cutting through all 3 in one mighty cut. Quick and simple, wood dogs are never hard, the waste of energy was unnecessary 

He hides his bone blades in their rightful place and turns his attention to the now cowering tiny ponies.

He approaches them and stops when they jolt in place, so he sits down to make himself appear smaller and speaks to them.

"Saw other two mocking you. Very brave to come this far on your own, many dangerous things here, I am one of them." They stop moving altogether due to fear. "Offer you something as token of my appraisal. A chance to... bite back." He gives a toothy smile, his fangs and canines glinting in the light that bled through the leaves of the treeline.

They look at him strangely, not shaking as much. "What do ya mean 'bite back'?" Yellow with red asks.

"They scared you into coming here. Yes?" A hesitant nod. "Bite back. Can scare them for you. Just... worse than they did." His chuckle seemed to shake the foliage around them.

"Ya would do that?" She asked, perking up.

"One thing in return." They go back to their fear, shaking. "Scents are familair and not, never seen you before. Close to the six mares that came here a while ago? You seem similar to one of them."

"W-w-well I'm Applejack's little sister." Yes that makes sense. Similar voice and speech. "Scootaloo is a big fan of Rainbow Dash and Sweetie Belle is Rarity's little sister." Her voice uncertain as she points out those with her.

"Yes I know them. Not well but know them. Okay tiny ponies. How shall I scare them?" As he asked Murex noticed that the orange and purple one had accidentally cut themselves. He smiled again as he came up with a plan. A rarity and milestone for him.



The two, now known as 'fillies' or 'filly' for tiny pony mare, awaited the three to come, they won't. Murex let loose a very loud screech roughly a minute ago. Birds flew away and the forest has been dead silent since. Yet they still nervously await the three fillies to come back. They reached their 'time limit' about fifteen minutes ago.

He waits for them to approach, to enter his home. They seem to have a silent conversation as their eyes meet and, very hesitantly, start their trek forward. He takes no joy in frightening ponies, especially the little ones, but it is to save their foolish lives. The forest is a known danger and then it falls to him to keep them out so they don't remain long or forever.
But this is something he will enjoy.

The closer they got, the more the anticipation grew. He had to ensure the little ones were far enough away to see but also so their fun doesn't tip them off.

Slowly but surely his 'prey' entered his home as the light that made them feel so safe was swallowed by the darkness native to his home, the further they got, the slower they walked. By the time they reached about half the distance the others came, their movement stopped altogether. The courage to mock but not walk a short hike into the woods? Pathetic. 

It did seem they were actually concerned about the little ones they sent in but barely had the courage to call out to them beyond a small whisper that even his honed hearing struggled to pick up despite being almost next to them. Did he forget to mention that he stalked closer to them every second? 

They mindlessly kept their eyes forward as he stood directly behind them, which was a bad decision as that would have sent them further in so he backed off and tried a different approach. He said he'd scare them not send them off to certain death.

It wasn't hard to move from their back to their front as they persevered with their ineffective whisper calling, now in front of them he saw how scared they were. Shivering on the spot, stiff movement, tiny pupils. He'd feel bad. In a different life maybe. They had the temperament of wood dogs, only picking on those they see as lesser. Murex hates that. 

They stood, he stood. Neither making any move, the former out of fear and the latter out of calculation. It was the first time ponies seemed to recognize the danger of his home, maybe it was the screech he did earlier. Tipped them off to something dangerous being near, because there was. They stood in a small clearing, a very small clearing but it was enough to notice his approach from anywhere but the back, where it would send them further in which was the opposite of what he wanted.

Murex needed something to send them forward a motivation, what the motivation did to them wasn't his concern, only if it sent them to him.

It was a stroke of luck that a squirrel, one that he remembered from Fluttershy's home, was crawling around in the tree above him, barely visible through the thick leaves that hid all in the Everfree. He really didn't want to but the animals from Fluttershy's home seemed intelligent enough. He tapped on the tree, enough to cause vibrations but not enough to create a noise.

It paused it's... whatever it was doing with the nuts in it's grasp and turned to stare at him, it's nose twitching. It was just his luck that he remembered attempting to consume this one, it was long before he actually met Fluttershy, he still has yet to do so properly as far as the zebra described pony soshel... soulmel... sockial... interactions.

Murex's eyes being the almost solid blue balls they were he slightly moved his head, gesturing to the small ponies who had yet to move, any non-woodland animal could have mistaken the movement for a twitch but not any animal who's survival depended on avoiding predator such as himself. It also seemed to remember him as it didn't move anywhere near his reach but it was curious enough to come closer on the branch high above him. It wasn't enough.

Fluttershy doesn't have any mystical ability to talk to animals like the zebra told him, none of them knows the Everfree as he does. The zebra knows the plant life, predator how it's predators hunt and claims to know the subtle patterns of the Everfree. Fluttershy knows the animals and their behaviors. He knows them by heart and soul as his very survival once depended on it. He wouldn't have lived this long if he didn't. The zebra introduced him to something known as a 'food chain' and how the 'apex' predators are at the top of it, the apex of the Everfree being the manticore as the more dangerous Wyrm is too far and few between to be included and her thinking of the Ursa's as more of an equalizer than a component, whatever equalizer means.

He felt off when he was considered in the middle of the chain, below wood dogs.

That was his early years and the zebra never spoke of the chain since.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He would have to apologize to a squirrel of all things. 

Upon reopening them his eyes locked on to the squirrel and tightness in the back of his throat indicated he was ready. He spat a needle at the squirrel's foot and it jumped as the toxin did it's work, the squirrels small body being quickly locked up as it failed to fight the toxin. It took a long long time to control the amount of toxin his needle had and it took even longer to work out how much a given animal could take before being temporarily paralyzed to succumbing to the toxin.

Thus the squirrel stumbled and fell off it's branch, unseen by the ponies, and into his waiting hoof. 

He brought it to his mouth and the terror reflected in it's eyes was reasonable. Instead of it's stomach or head he brought it's ear to his canine filled mouth, much to it's confusion.

"Talking to a squirrel... Ask a favor of you, no need to. I scare these ponies as they pick on those lesser than them, scaring to teach a lesson but am stuck. I ask of your help." Murex whispered into it's ear, unheard by all but the squirrel. The fast acting toxins ran their course and 'life' returned to the small woodland creature. It didn't run but still looked skeptical. Good enough.

A quick whispering and he lightly tossed the squirrel back into the canopy, quickly losing track of it.

As intended a small stick broke behind the fillies that could be mistaken for statues. Their bodies snapped towards the sound and begun to back up with folded ears, right into him.

As soon as their rumps made contact with his legs they stopped all movement. Then only their heads turned, the rest of them stock still as their eyes fell upon his large frame.

The little orange filly, Scootaloo, had gotten an equally little cut on her foreleg and seeing the small amount of blood gave him an idea, although she was weirded out by it at first when he roughly explained it she was all aboard. After washing his hooves and the cut in a nearby stream, he gathered the small blood that continued to leak from it and brought it to his lips, the other two, not being let in on what he was doing, assumed the worst and almost ran to get help. That led to a series of giggling as Scootaloo told them that he was doing.

Now faced with the attention of both terrified smaller, lesser wood dog wannabes. He smiled.

A toothy smile that displayed the apex of his grand plan and chilled the two to the bone. His once white fangs and canines now gleamed a soft red, the red of blood. From the fillies he had eaten.

They screamed for all their worth and turned to bolt out of the Everfree, he would have been impressed by the speed if he hadn't gone faster. Deeply satisfied with himself, Murex spat out the mud, water and blood mix he had concocted, it looked similar but was quite different from the real thing, a difference hidden in the low light of the trees. On top of it tasting foul.

As he moved to make his way back to the fillies he noticed the squirrel rolling around and clutching it's stomach on a branch high above him, he smirked as he made his way back.

A little ways away he found the giggling pile of fillies he left behind, now in uproarious, joyous, full-blown laughter. 

"Was good?" is all Murex asked when they recovered from their respective fits, which prompted another wave of giggling as they nodded.

Applebloom, the yellow filly with a red mane and tail was the first to recover.

"That was great mister! Funniest thang I ever seen!" She joyously responded, the other two making similar comments.

He nodded. "Time for little ones to go, forest is no place to be." They seemed disappointed but that wasn't his concern, felt like he was being watched. If he had fur it would be standing on end. A vague feeling but one he trusted with his life as it has saved it before, the Everfree is a naturally quiet place but now the silence was unnerving and it usually meant one of two things. Murex is hunting or something is hunting him.

He needed to get the little ones out. Now.

Intending to walk them out but not having the time he scooped them onto his back and shot off to the edge of the Everfree, almost losing them to the thick foliage numerous times. 

Murex dropped them just beyond where the Everfree begins and saw the six ponies he was asking about, and thinking of, earlier sprinting towards them.

"Look who came to get you little ones. They know forest is dangerous, yet they came because you were here. Do not ignore this gift." Murex said sagely, knowing the power of family and friends despite truly having neither. For all the danger it represents and holds, it was the greatest teacher he could have ever asked for.

"Before we go mister, why do yah talk like that?" Applebloom asked, did he speak weirdly?

"Like what?"

The tiny high pitched unicorn spoke up for the first time. "Do not know how talk?" Ah.

He could really only say, "Still learning." Without lying or taking too much time. He did run fast to buy time, time that was currently being wasted.

He quickly shoo'd them away and they run up to the six and begun talking to them, making them grind to a halt.

With the little ones now out of the way, his nose was unimpeded and quickly narrowed down what was chasing them. He growled. 



It didn't take him long to return to his thinking, it never did. Maybe a full belly would help him relax and think clearer.

He thought about the fillies. Why was he nice? Why did he help them?

He thought about the mares. Why did the voice want them safe? Why did he reveal himself? Why did he let them in?

He thought about the voice and the mare behind it. Who is she? Why did he listen? What did she mean when she said destiny?

Murex doesn't know many things but what he does know he holds dear.
What did she mean?


I gave him a destiny

> Meeting the enchantress, who doesn't do dances
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The six mares came today, Fluttershy looked terrified. Not surprising.

He's known them a while now, a few weeks maybe but they have rarely come to the forest, never while looking for him. Yet here they are. Doing that exact thing.

He's learning more words from the zebra even how to talk properly, she started warming up to him and it's nice to talk to her every now and again. He wishes the mares weren't scared of him but that is their choice, still surprised they came at all.

"Murex!" Twilight calls, the others doing the same. Why are they looking for him?

Much less hesitant than the first time he revealed himself, he walks through some bushes and is quickly heard and spotted by Fluttershy, her squeak alerts the others. Twilight turns to him locks eyes, clears her throat and nervously smiles at the larger figure. Murex subconsciously tenses up. 

"Celestia and Luna with to speak with you at the library." Twilight states with a strained smile. It raised many questions and he remains silent, staring into her wavering eyes. 

"A-Are you coming?" Her smile drops, he don't respond, just backs up through the foliage and all but disappears. When he is gone from sight she sighs, thinking he left.

"If she wanted talk, why would send you? Why would send all of you? I am predator, animal! Not stupid." Murex calls out, his voice taking a hostile tone as it reverberated off all the trees and bushes around them, even the forest was on his side hiding where his voice was coming from. Even if Celestia couldn't reach him, he would have felt the attempt. 

Pinkie then blurts, much to her chagrin and soon panic. "No silly! Twilight wanted to study you, see if you could be defeated when you turn on us!" She continues her bouncing, up down up down, unaware of the shocked look from Twilight.

"Did you really drag us out for this Twi?" Rainbow questions. "You woke me up from an awesome nap!"

"Sugarcube listen. I don't like or trust em' but he's done nothin' bad to us. He even saved Applebloom!" Applejack adds, Twilights cheeks start to glow red. Embarrassment is the least of her worries. 

"So is that it?" Murex asks before anypony else can add anything. "I help you and you try this? I can answer questions but I am NOT something to study, something to examine. Do you not like me Twilight? Celestia herself has vouched for me and yet you do this? Do you fear me? I would if I were you... You're in my world now..." Murex has never had friends, he doesn't know if that's what they are but hearing this news hurt him. He was angry but wouldn't cause bodily harm to them. Yet.

Twilight believed every word. The moment he finished she bolted, he never saw a pony move that fast. Her speed was easily tracked by Murex, a slightly chubby unicorn can move fast but pegasi are infinitely faster. Sometimes scaring them out involves a chase and to keep them out involves catching up to them, not easily done and he is always left out of breath afterwards.

When she was gone he emerged from the bushes once more and was almost tackled, still too fast for Applejack's earth pony reflexes. 

"Was my act that good?" He asked with a forced smile on his face, the sudden change in his attitude shocked the five remaining mares. The anger remained.

"Y'all were bluffin'?" Applejack asked still skeptical. So he answered her, unlike Twilight. "Yes." He replied his gritted teeth. "The voice asked to 'keep them safe' I wouldn't harm her," Lies. "But she doesn't know that." He explained, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face. This broke Pinkie and Rainbow who exploded into laughter, at least they didn't back up Twilight. His anger was directed at her but emotions don't just disappear.

"'The voice'?" Applejack parroted with a raised eyebrow, gaining the attention of two ponies and two more recovering ponies.

Murex looked up at the canopy in thought, he said her name under a minute ago but it still took him a moment to recollect.

"Celestia, call her Celestia." 

"An' whats with that weird talkin' you been doin'?" She questioned further, it was really grating on his nerves.

"I have been speaking Equish for a little under ten years, before not knowing how to speak at all." He was internally begging to hear that they had forgotten and not that they were secretly stupid.

"Didn't your parents teach you darling?" Rarity asked, they did forget. Disappointing but better than stupidity, he had let ponies die over that. Not anymore though.

He groaned. "Do you remember when Celestia was freed from... whatever Moon?" Getting nods he continued. "Celestia explained that I was abandoned, I was on my own my entire life. My only interactions being fights before I came to the Everfree. The zebra, you should know her, taught me how to speak in exchange for keeping the forest pony-free. I never asked why, her business is her own. I'm still learning."

"That Zecora? She's evil!" Applejack accused and the rest agreed, his anger flared up again in remembrance of the stories he had heard from a few ponies before he ran them out, those times were more out anger due to them painting the zebra as evil although nopony had even seen her beyond when she went into town.  

"I know where her hut is, if I hear anymore of this 'She's evil but I never met her' talk I'm going drag you there and I will not be nice about it." He warned as he begun to walk away. The zebra, much less joyous than her other stories, told him about the 'evil enchantress' the effect it had on her was minor but she was impacted about how a few of the iterations included him, upset at that fact for whatever reason, it bothered him none. Let them think what they may. 

One iteration that stuck with him however was that he ate ponies and dragged the leftovers to the zebra for whatever reason. The reason varies but the insult in the words struck a cord in him. Every. Single. Time. Even if he was starving and desperate he would not hunt those lesser than him, that isn't who he is. A meal is the only thing he gains from it. By hunting those who are equal or greater does he strive to not only eat but improve. And those the pet of the enchantress ate?

They walked into wood dog territory, he would feel pity but they didn't even try to run, just screamed. If he intervened it would be a waste of effort as wood dogs rarely waste time by screaming or gloating. They hunt to eat, just like him.

"Oh yeah? And why would you do that? The evil pet trying to bring it's master more things for her soup?" Rainbow challenged, standing with Applejack protectively in front of the others. 
Murex stopped mid step, the anger within boiling over.

The only noise that dared disturb the silence was the breathing of the slightly panicked ponies.

Murex's head slowly turned back to them showing the pure fury sculpted on his face, the trembling lips that pulled back to show his sharp teeth. How dare she. Murex is not a pet. He belongs to none.

He growled viciously.



They walk in silence, they were obviously scared of the forest but more so of him. He didn't want that but was left uncaring as he led them to the zebra's hut.

Only Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy followed, Applejack and Rainbow's tail was in his mouth, their manes getting filthy than they already were as their bodies were being held up by Murex's strength alone. He wasn't soft in his thrashing but he deemed it necessary, less for them and more for him so he didn't lash out at something. 

They didn't know of the relationship he had with the zebra, how could they? Hiding from something and calling it evil on assumption...

He had to ask.

"So why is zebra feared? She came into town. What is scary about that?" He asked with the two tails still in his mouth, Pinkie somewhat hesitantly came forth.

"She was standing in town square. Menacingly..." She said in a low voice, attempting to intimidating.

"Before or after everypony hid?" No answer, he gave a low growl.

"Well, coming up on the evil shaman's hut. Anypony feeling like attacking?" Murex asked sarcastically to nopony in particular. Applejack and Rainbow actually both raise a forehoof, surprising him with their apparent consciousness. He 'gently' forces their hooves into the dirt where they both lay face down. "No you don't." He growled out, there was no further argument.

The ponies sat and waited anxiously, or lay in two cases, for Murex to knock on the door. When he did the outcome was not the same as expectation.

"Greetings kind changeling, have you come to me for something?" She greeted him cheerfully, calling him a changeling again. Whatever that is.

"Sorry for disturbance but I was chatting with a few ponies, you were mentioned so I brought them here, maybe you could actually shop in town after." He explains his surprise visit to the zebra who smiles in turn.

"Shopping in town would be a great boon, come, I will be brewing a new potion soon." Every time she rhymes like Murex has to try not to scrunch up his face in annoyance.

They all walk inside, with great reluctance, and sit down around a table on the side of the room with a small standing mask in the middle, every pony was eyeing the cauldron in the center of the room. Murex could only roll his eyes.

Unnoticed by Murex, Zecora saw the forming bruises on Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the color sticking out on their coats. Zecora and Murex don't know much about each other but knew enough to know their basic mannerisms. She knew he wouldn't attack them for nothing, although she was unknowing of his view of hunting, so what had happened that had set him off? She resisted her frown and started with her brew. Having added the basic ingredients before their arrival.

They may annoy him, anger him, but their presence is at least distracting him from recent troubling thoughts. He's even had voices interrupt his thinking and it's starting to become worrying. He's talked to the zebra about it and she told him not to worry, that it was a side effect of his isolation. She doesn't seem to know that it's actually a pony doing it. Or that it isn't just Celestia anymore.

"So uh... what are ya making?" Applejack asks, trying not to sound skeptical or suspicious as to not upset the black and red being in the same room as her. Again. She isn't a good actor.

"A potion that will aid with healing, our mutual friend can take quite the beating." Murex didn't like her teasing tone, never did when it came up. He showed up once. ONCE. With injuries that wouldn't heal on their own and suddenly he's so fragile he might fall apart in a slight breeze.

The ponies notice his souring expression and back away slightly, not going far as they were all sitting.

"Had no idea that furry things with weird tails spread venom on plants to weaken prey! Was years ago! Give a ling break will you?" He complained, he only eats vegetation to get those nue-tree-ants that they have, like she told him to start doing. He had improved physically and not-consuming-deadly-venom wise ever since.

"Ling did I hear you say? Accepting what I am calling you on this day?" She raises a brow at the black mass in her hut. A growing smile on her face.

Murex doesn't answer and just shakes his head. Completely forgetting the ponies under his watch, namely the pink one.

"Hey! What's this?" The pink menace holds up an uncorked vial of Murex's natural poison, he completely forgot why the zebra wanted it and why he did it. He spots what she's about drink, has a mild panic attack and the mask on the table temporarily becomes a projectile to ensure she doesn't kill herself. It hits her dead on the snout, not the target but still satisfying, and causes the vial to fall to the floor and break, bubbling for whatever reason. Better on the floor than working to end her life.

"Now what the hay was that for?!?" Oh apple pony, if only you knew.

"Pinkie Pie." He says her name firmly. The tone of an upset parent despite his young age. "Do you know what you almost drank?" A head shake, too busy nursing her snout to talk. Good.

"You almost drank MY venom. I make it naturally within my body and I assure you, it is very effective..." The mares' eyes go wide, arguments dying in their throats. His voice was firm and his Equish pronunciation peaked, if only temporarily as he continued.

"Celestia told you I would protect you and she wasn't lying though she is incorrect in thinking why I do. It took a while to get that much as I can only make so much so fast, it is better wasted on the ground than working it's magic on you." She never bounced away from something as a safety measure, he can say he's seen her do that now.

"I must agree with him, better time wasted than our evening turn grim." Zecora is cool like that. Better we wasted our time than lose a life.

"What do you mean you make this naturally?" Rainbow questioned. Murex didn't verbally respond and licked along his foreleg, the very same venom being left behind. He held it up before them.

"THIS is what I mean. Do you even realize how much more different I am than Zecora? No you don't because you saw her and assumed the worst before you even met her. Don't do this, it's just stupid and I hate stupidity." They heard him but they were still focused on the venom coating his leg, concerned for his well being or how fast he can deploy an effective weapon is unknown.

"H-h-have you k-killed any creatures?" Fluttershy asked Murex with pleading eyes. He only leaned his head forward and gazed at her. She already knew the answer but that doesn't mean she liked it.

"Fluttershy, I admire your devotion to everything alive, truly I do, but that is the way it is in the Everfree. You don't have to agree with it but NEVER try to change it. You are good with animals but if there's a hungry manticore out there and it finds a small defenseless pony. What do you think it'll do? You know what it'll do, you just don't want to accept it." He doesn't like putting down ponies but reality is cruel, he knows this fact well. Always better to break a heart so it can come back stronger while she has her friends with her rather than nopony. The zebra is rubbing off on him it seems.

Rainbow Dash glares at him for saying that to her but she is wholly ignored as he keeps going. "I want to apologize for telling you like this, but it is out of necessity, do you know how many ponies I have chased out of here over the years? Too many. If I wasn't here those ponies would most likely end up a snack to something in here." He finishes and looks solemnly to the table, ears folded. Many lives were taken on both sides, ponies by the predators and predators by the ponies. He likes to think he stops both sides from going all out by thinning out the numbers of predators and lessening pony loss of life.

"It's okay... I understand but I don't like it." She whimpers to him, he looks up and speaks again.

"I never asked you to, I only ask that you don't do something stupid. I told you of the ponies I chase out, not the ones I was too slow for. I am only making sure you don't become one of the ones I didn't reach in time." He wasn't trying to scare them but he was doing a good job anyway.

"An agreement has come to pass, but the potion has yet to show class." Zecora's annoyance of the potion was obvious from her statement.

"It can't be that bad Zebra." Murex spoke without thinking. 

"Care to test? Try it only at your own behest." She dipped an apple into the mix, Murex didn't recall ever seeing one, he had confidence in her abilities even when she wasn't even sure.

"Healing right?" She nodded.  She tossed the once red apple, now blue, as he brought forth one of his blades, scaring the ponies, and skewered it midair, causing it to leak green juice which was off putting on it's own. Murex attempted to cut himself on the foreleg, which was a process due to his chitin. When the cut was verified with blood, he took a big bite with little hesitation.

He felt like he just ate a wildfire.

"Haaaaaaaaah..." He tried not to cry out but it was getting increasingly difficult. It just kept burning.

He was too occupied by the contents of his throat to notice the cut had healed like he thought it would, although without the burning. His predicament was quite amusing to everypony that wasn't him if the laughing was any indication.

"Okay... Wow... Owie..." He uttered, only just managing to get it out through the inferno taking place in his throat. His reaction was only fuel to their laughing fit.

He could say that he was genuinely having fun, surrounded by friendly faces in a familiar place. He didn't hear any voices.
> Beyond a simple mistake
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It felt nice to have ponies to talk to, do things with or just be around in general. Murex knows this now, he knows what friends are. He wouldn't trade even one of them for the world.

Murex wandered the border of the forest, the town still unaware of his being there. Somehow.
He finds it honestly amazing that he scared off a good maybe hundred ponies and there is no group of 'strange pony insect thing' hunters. He's not complaining though.

He has learned so much from the Zebra and the mares... His friends. The Zebra had told him so much about the life that dwells in the Everfree, from plants to animals, if it was there the Zebra had seen it and Murex had heard about it. The mares, the bearers of the elements of harmony, excluding Twilight, had told him of Ponyville and the ponies that lived there. Pinkie told him of everypony. Almost every single one. He loved talking with them all but there's only so much 'this pony looks like this and does this for a living' a ling can take. Applejack, or AJ, told him about her farm. This surprised no pony, except Murex. He had no idea what a farm was, he got force fed apple pie that day. Fluttershy... didn't talk about animals. Murex was utterly floored when she started talking medical procedures and the like. The detail of her description on how you would go about healing a family of field mice was concerning. Rarity talked about clothes, he would've said something like it would be of no use in his lifestyle but she didn't stop, he listened out of respect intending on not remembering any of it. Rainbow Dash talked to him about flying and the Wonderbolts, It had to be explained to him, the Wonderbolts that is, he never even whispered about how his wings being too small on his body to allow flight.

Needless to say he was a happy ling. Mostly.

Until he stepped on some random trap. That's what he gets for thinking on the go.

Unfortunately for him it wasn't as random as he thought and hoped. It was meant for him.

He felt the alien feeling of a spell being cast on him. He tried to fight it but it was pointless, he passed out.



He was only starting to regain consciousness and he could already feel the cold metal table underneath him. And the bindings.

He already hated this.

"Glad you could finally join me!" A very particular purple unicorn said to him with glee when he opened his eyes.

He hated this even more.

Murex wanted to say something, it would've been a very angry chain of words and demoralizing to any who would hear if it weren't for the fact he was gagged.

Twilight was facing away from him, mane and tail all tangled and messy, inspecting a book while humming and he looked past her to see an overgrown lizard run up the stairs.

"Why can't I find your kind in this book?!?" She screamed as she threw it across the room. "It had all the species in the Everfree in it! WHAT ARE YOU?!?"

His sensitive ears couldn't take much more of her. They felt ready to burst and he was only awake for about a minute.

"I have to get a report ready by tonight! It was meant to be a friendship report but a previously unknown creature anatomy report will be good enough for Princess Celestia I can feel it!" She seemed really obsessed with this report of hers. She even neglected to think of the fact that Celestia knows who he is. It would only end badly if she were to go through with this.

"First off: tissue sample!" He was too busy looking at the ceiling to see her magically pick up a scalpel.



He hated this. Every second was agony.

He was beyond patient with her, even forgetting the fact she already tried to do this.

She picked off pieces here and there, it wasn't so bad at first. Hurt pretty badly but she was being careful and it was only small stuff. The later it got, the more frantically she worked.

So many samples...

Tissue was small, a piece of his flesh under the chitin of his stomach. Getting under hurt badly, the scalpel didn't penetrate so she needed to break it off.

Then she wanted tissue samples from everywhere. His chest, foreleg, withers, hind legs.

Then there was blood samples. Blood. Samples.

The last set was the worst. She tore off pieces of his chitin. Slabs of it, more than just one.

Writing on a scroll the entire time.

Then a knocking was heard. On a door. Twilight dropped everything and ran upstairs to answer it. Words were exchanged and the door was slammed shut. But it wasn't over, salvation had arrived.

The door slammed against something as it was thrown back open and a surprised yelp was heard.

"You said you found a new creature Twilight?" He heard the voice of Rainbow. His heart started beating.

"Yes! I'm just finishing testing so you can go now! Bye bye!" She sounded so desperate. Rainbow seemed to have caught on that she was hiding something.

"Can I see it?" She asked, curious as to what it could be.

"No! It's uh... gone! Yes, it's gone now." She sounded somewhat relieved, likely assuming her friend was an idiot. Rainbow, that beautiful beautiful mare, wasn't.

"It's in the basement isn't it?" She deadpanned. Murex could kiss her, he won't but damn it he would if she asked. Zero hesitation

"No! Nothing's in the basement Dash!" And she was frantic once more.

The sound of hooves were getting closer, Twilight tried to get her to leave one last time.

"If you go down there you'll never get another Daring Do book from me again!" She declared with vigor, probably sure she'll scare Dash off. His beating heart dropped into his stomach. She told him of her love for the series.

"Okay yeah you're hiding something." She must have pushed past Twilight or something like that because she appeared on the stairs shortly after. And she saw everything.

Chunks of flesh on trays, bags of blood next to them, slabs of chitin next to a microscope across the room. And Murex on a table, strapped down and gagged, looking very cut up and missing large parts of his shell around his barrel. Staring at her with indescribable pain in his blue eyes.

She spun around and charged at Twilight who tried to apologize. He would've done the same, this wasn't a simple mistake.

He couldn't see much but he heard all of it. It didn't sound pretty. Sounded like more ponies came too.

He felt himself growing weaker as the noises ceased, the last things he saw and heard was a multitude of colors approaching him and his name being called before his blurry vision faded and Murex was embraced by the feeling of nothingness.



It was light out when he opened his eyes, or one of them. Something sticky covered the right side of his face, he hoped nothing was wrong with his eye, he needed that.

He used his left eye to scan the surroundings, what he saw made him smile, then grimace in pain as loose chitin moved painfully.

He was in Zecora's hut, safe and sound. Laying on a small cloud-like mattress with the softest covers he ever felt. They were the only bed sheets he's ever felt but damn it, it was comfortable.

He wondered where his friends were, hoofsteps were heard after he finished that thought. He couldn't help but smile, and grimaced again.

Zecora and his other friends opened the door to the hut and saw him awake immediately. The squealing hurt his ears.

He was hugged by all of them at once and the laughing that ensued was contagious, even though his was more like coughing. It hurt but he couldn't be happier. He was safe, he was with his friends. He could recover.
> Grand halls
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponies will not be nice to you

That statement tore through his mind as the days went by, the ponies constantly checking on him. Not all ponies are nice, he knows this.

So why are they nice?

This mystery was perplexing to him. He wanted to move more than anything but his aching body was constantly reminding him of his current inability to do anything but breathe. The mares all pitched in when he wanted to leave the zebra's hut and go home but were disappointed, for some reason, when his directions led them to a cave. Rarity even made a fashionable stretcher and was confused when appeared to be very uncomfortable in the WHITE stretcher in the DARK forest. He may be growing fond of the mares and them; the forest, but they still lacked the knowledge that being seen was bad, Rarity even mentioned shining like a star throughout the Everfree. He had a strong urge to move his hoof to his forehead but his inability to move made that rather difficult.

Fluttershy knows of the animals but believes they can be sweet talked into walking away from a weak and defenseless meal because she's nice, that manicore she 'tamed' a while back was somewhat upset not hungry. Rather young too.

Rarity can't handle dirt and well... outside. Applejack is too stubborn, good in some cases but can be life-threatening in every other case, she is sturdy and strong but isn't very quick. Probably lacks fight experience too.

Pinkie Pie is loud, doesn't shut up and is quite friendly. She wishes to make everything smile and be friends. She may be able to pull things out of absolutely now where but... well... She's too innocent. Couldn't harm a fly.

Rainbow Dash is brash, overconfident and faces everything head-on. She's fast, strong and claims to be trained in martial arts... whatever those are.

Murex was thinking of if they could survive the Everfree, just trying to waste time so he went over what he knows about them. Strength, visibility, speed, knowledge of the Everfree and situational awareness. The forest is kind to none and so he was harsh in his judgement. Together they stood a chance, complimenting each other's strengths and making up for weaknesses. Alone though...

He wished it would be quick.

He didn't want to scare them when they declared they will still visit him to help his recovery in any way they can so he kept his thoughts to himself.

So Murex lay there in his cave, in pain and doing nothing. The bandages were another reminder of his situation, barrel fully wrapped and some more around his legs. He could FEEL what he was missing, chitin blocked a lot of feeling but the cold air blasting into his exposed stomach was alien to him. He wasn't fond of it.

Every fiber of his being yearned to stretch his muscles, breathe the fresh air and feeling the wind wash over his form as he darted through out the trees of his home. Yet he didn't want to move an inch, didn't want to risk his still throbbing body to flare up in pain because he wanted what was currently impossible.

So he cleared his mind with a sigh and let sleep take him, resigning himself to the situation he was in.

Ponies will not be nice to you



He was greeted with a surprise upon return to the waking world. Faced with the ponies he was familiar with, no zebra however, sitting in his cave with smiles gracing their muzzles.

"Am I going to like?" His voice still sounded strained even after the few days of recovery he had. His pronunciation was greatly improved since their meeting with the zebra, although he was speaking less than usual which was already more than usual.

"The Princesses have requested your presence in Canterlot darling, it seemed important. Can you walk dear?" As much as he didn't want to go he felt like he had to. The voice he now associated with Celestia was indeed quiet, he hadn't heard from her in a while.

"So where is Canterlot?" They looked at him strangely. "I live in a forest. Where is Canterlot?"

After some unnecessary discussion about the location of Canterlot they decide to try to help him up, it went as well as Murex hoped. Only severe pain occurred and he was on his hooves for the first time in days. It felt good.

His stomach ached as he tried to walk, protesting every movement. He'd live. He will fully recover. This may have been the worst condition he's ever been in but not by much. The Everfree was kind to none.

So they began their slow trek to the zebra's hut to borrow her cloak on her insistence, she left a piece of paper, the mares read it and told him that she was out getting ingredients for that healing brew for him as the previous batch had apparently expired and would be unsafe to use, why she didn't decide to make it while he was there he'll never know. It was then on to this 'train station' they kept mentioning. He was still learning and they seem to keep forgetting this fact, continuously making him feel stupid. Talking about things he's never heard of and being surprised by his lack of knowledge about it.

It was the first time he'd left the forest fully since he'd arrived, his nerves were shot and were getting worse the further they went from his familiar scenery.

His large cloaked form attracted many stares on the approach to the train station but nopony acted out, only curious about the strange pony being escorted by the five semi-famous mares of Ponyville, the slight height difference could've been a factor but Murex attention was wholly on the colorful series of boxes, the roaring metal beast. He has seen it before after all.

Only a few times but every time it appeared it was normally spooking his prey or throwing him off while fighting wood dogs or a manticore. He'd never seen it fully only getting glimpses of it as it sped away after disturbing him, always far away from his anger and frustration.

His focus rapt on the train he missed the stare of the Ticketmaster giving out tickets to the six of them for shiny metal in return.  

Murex was on edge as they left the Ticketmaster in his booth and entered the metal beast, he felt somewhat silly, the mares with him were completely at ease and here he was on the verge of freaking out. He was a fish out of water the only thing he was remotely familiar with was the mares he was with who he barely knew to begin with. His nerves got a brief respite upon seeing they had entered an empty car, he would've broken down then and there if there were other ponies with him. They sat down as a group, Rainbow next to the window, Applejack next to him and Murex in-between them with the other three on the seat opposite them, and waited.

And waited.

What are they waiting for?

Murex raised his hoof to pose a question, "Uh-" the beast suddenly roared to life and Murex began scrambling for something to grab onto, the thing he latched onto was Rainbow who's face immediately went a deep red as she tried to fend him off, and held on for dear life.

"Is it supposed to be doing this?!?" He shouted, nopony answered, being more focused on what he was doing and laughing at his situation. In his panicked state he was oblivious to everything other than the beast was now moving.

Applejack came back to her senses and got up from her seat so she could get between them to help Rainbow pry him off, she shoved her forelegs between them and forced them apart, accidentally putting pressure on Murex's injured barrel in the process. 

His cry of pain shook them all, having never expected such a sound to come from the big scary monster they knew, and his immediate action after only stunned them, if such a thing was possible.

After having been separated he reflexively used Applejack's strength to aid in getting away, landing in the isle he curled up and hugged himself close. His injury made him feel weak, his restricted motion made him wary, the unfamiliar environment put him on edge, the train car made him feel boxed in, the separation made him feel vulnerable, the inability to regain his bearings made him feel exposed and the pain he felt amplified the havoc it wreaked upon his body and mind alike.

He lay curled up on the floor, shaking like a leaf, panting like a dog. Higher thought all but gone as the train rocked from side to side, it made him feel sick. He needed to get off. Now.

In his delirium his eyes darted every which way, the background noise of the beast and the ponies' questioning was rendered mute as his eyes then locked onto his only solace. The outside. He ignored the frantic shapes around him and dove for it, clambering over the colored shapes around him as he neared his beloved outside.

Something blue and something orange wrapped around him, preventing him from reaching his salvation. He thrashed and snarled and kicked as his escape was delayed, he reached out regardless, hoping to get a grip on something to aid him. His hoof was stopped by an obstacle unseen, his joy at finding outside came crashing down and was soon yanked away from the sunlight and forced to the floor, his weakened state made fighting back a herculean task. He tried to get out with all his might but the injuries caused all of his escape attempts to seem like wasted effort yet he tried anyway. White hot pain was rushing through his body as his limbs thrashed and teeth gnashed at the unknown threat. Soon his legs rebelled against him and slowly stopped their movement, even with his bodies' complete refusal to move he still tried. Never giving up the fight to his aggressor, never truly yielding. His vision swam and a deafening ringing filled his ears.

He heard noise, all around him. It sounded like something was running around him, celebrating victory maybe? His previous situation completely escaped his thoughts, he stilled wanted out, he still wanted to be anywhere else but he couldn't move despite his efforts. His limbs felt like stone, he wasn't moving any time soon he knew that much but it didn't stop him from trying. His consciousness was fading into black yet he still fought. 



His eyes snapped open with a sharp intake of breath, darting around to gauge his situation. Waking up quickly never felt good but it was always necessary. They were quickly shut again as the brightness of the room assaulted his unprepared eyes.

Trying again he opened them again and fared much better as he was prepared this time around. Mostly. It was a white room because of course the creature that loves dark places would wake in the brightest possible room, quite ironic, the only non-white thing in the room was Murex's borrowed cloak that hung on a white wooden... block that had half circles of metal on parts of it. Switching his focus to what he lay on it was one of those things that ponies slept on, only much larger than he thought it would be, what did Pinkie call it? A bed. It was difficult to gleam what she was talking about when she said 'Softest, comfiest, sleeperific thing ever!' but he managed to decipher her meaning, after a few hours. He looked around the annoyingly white room and saw a lot of... Hanging cloth? Near the outside that had a golden fence around it. The room itself was almost as big as his cave, enough for a manticore to move around in but little beyond that.

Ignoring the cloth as he had no idea what purpose it served he soon came across an image of the sun. It looked familiar. 

He had no idea how to describe this room other than white. It was similar to those dream 'houses' Rarity kept blathering on about, he can only withstand so much of her at once. That mentality isn't exclusive. Fluttershy's shyness frustrates him, Applejack's talk of work and apples bore him, Rainbow's gloating gets on his nerves and Pinkie needs no explanation.

The door to the room creaked as it moved and Murex's head snapped towards it. Assuming the worst he leaped from the bed and moved to the block that held his cloak for cover, well that was the intention. As soon as he jolted up to move his body felt like he had just been smacked by a manticore but he continued, more focused on the potential danger. As soon as he made to leap towards the wooden block his legs buckled and he lacked the strength necessary to shield his head as he fell.

The chitin on his head and upper torso was enough to protect him from the initial impact but some force still carried on through the rest of his body causing him to yelp as the air was forced from his lungs and flesh that was busy healing was disturbed once again. The ground having fur was more than odd. A soft giggle alerted him to the presence he assumed to be danger.

"Nice to see you could join us Murex." A voice he recognized said to him. Friendly, warm, welcoming with a hint of something else. He hated hearing it as much as he wanted to keep hearing it. "When I was told of your escapades on the train here I was quite surprised that you agreed to such a thing. Unknown environment, strange happenings and going far from home. Due to your reliability of baser instincts I'm quite impressed that it wasn't worse." The way she explained it made her sound like... Twilight... These ponies infuriated him more often than he would like to admit.

"If you knew it would happen. Why'd you let them?" He questioned, pulling his forelegs under him and attempted to lift himself with little success, his hind legs still hanging off the bed.

"I didn't, I may move the sun and be a thousand years old but I can't predict the future. Now I'm sure a certain few mares would like to say something." She stepped aside to reveal the mares as they filtered into the room one by one. Once they were all inside they all opened their mouths at once, to apologize most likely, but he wasn't having it. He could have refused the trip. Right? Whether he had a choice or not they didn't come all the way here to talk. 

His head turned to Celestia, brushing along the floor fur and ignoring them entirely. "Why are we here?" Being left breathless didn't allow him more than that.

Celestia looked displeased and the mares seemed somewhat hurt from his interruption. "Twilight is on trial for her transgressions against you Murex. Everypony needed is present and while it normally would take a month or so for the actual trial to take place, I have taken control of it as she is my student." Celestia informed him, everyponies expression darkening at the mention of the lavender unicorn. "Come. We shall make our way to the court room." The mares moved in to help Murex get off the floor and it's fur, being unable to get up on his own made him feel helpless. The Everfree eats the weak and helpless, how will he survive until he's healed?

His mood darkened considerably at the thought.

"Awww... Why are you all chummy my chum buddy?" Pinkie asked in her usual chipper attitude while poking his side, the hurt she displayed moments prior completely gone. Her touch made him flinch with a low growl at the unpleasant feeling he was subjected to, he was not happy with something managing to touch his chitinless flesh.

"I went from running around freely to being unable to get up on my own," They helped him up on all fours but when his legs started shaking, Rainbow brushed up against his side, wordlessly offering herself as a support which he accepted gladly. "I've been completely covered in chitin for as long as I can remember, I still haven't got over the fact that I'm not anymore." He replied sharply as his borrowed cloak was suddenly draped over him, it annoyed him that they always seemed to forget that he isn't a pony like them. "I am sorry, I never thought I'd suddenly be without some." He apologized, he mustn't take out his frustrations on them, it's unfair. Whether they brought about his frustration or not. His apology earned him a wing holding him close though.

"It's okay! I wonder what having cheetan would be like, would it be heavy? Or cold? Or hot? Would it be really really hard to move and you would be like a statue? What if you had fur?-" He tried his best to block out her ramblings, he didn't have it in him to snap at her again after he apologized for doing just that.

After the quick back-and-forth between them they followed Celestia in silence. The girls were quite talkative before he was like this and now they have suddenly nothing to say. Is it because Celestia is here? Or are they recovering from Twilight's examination in their own way? Murex mightn't have known them for very long but he can't allow this incident to affect them badly. They want to help him, it would be unfair.

The zebra had told him about her life before Equestria. How the Everfree is a proving ground for only the most hardened of zebra shamans, to progress from the silver bands to gold. Zecora was so at peace with life in the Everfree that she came back after proving herself, and earning her gold bands, to live there.

A far cry from the ponies ideology of the zebra's just being barbaric nomads from a far away land. Zebras were very spiritual and held their traditions close. Ponies did that a lot in history... In general it seemed. A misinterpretation of another race or just labeling them as 'bad' and conveying themselves as perfect, after the war of the three pony tribes at least.

Nothing against the ponies but they don't seem to see past their own little world, that nopony can do wrong and other races are to be feared just because they aren't them. Few ponies can see past this little world and Murex just so happens to be walking with six of them. He hoped that whoever was in this court room place could do just that. See that he had been wrongly harmed and not something else, something ridiculous.

He couldn't be sure as the only knowledge he has of the world outside is from the zebra.

Another thing he couldn't be sure of was where they were. He hadn't been keeping track of how far they had walked or how many turns they had taken. Celestia had stopped walking and turned to large golden double doors that was being guarded by two guards, each armed with a pointy stick. Celestia's horn lit up with magic and the doors were enshrouded in her aura before slowly opening. She rolled her wings in their sockets before raising them making her seem much larger, she walked through followed by the mares and Murex. The room and it's contents were revealed to him and he set about soaking up as much of his current situation as quick as he could.

Rows and rows of seated ponies. They sat on long, fully wooden seats that lined the sides of the fairly large room and left a walkway down the middle. They went from the back where the door is and continued until they reached a small wooden wall that left an empty area at the front. The only thing in front of this wall was two desks which were occupied. To the sides of this empty area were two large wooden stands, behind these stands were strange colored windows that stopped just above the wooden wall. One was empty and the other was filled, the front of the area had another one of these stands but had two large cloths that depicted an image of the sun on the left and a crescent moon on the right. Underneath the moon was a deep blue pony with a wavy mane like Celestia but without the colors. This ponies' wavy mane depicted a starry night instead, a sight Murex has grown fond of due to his nightly hunts with only the stars to light his way.

The middle of the open area was what gripped his attention. Standing there chained to the ground and looking back at Murex shamefully was the only pony he would ever kill without regret.

Twilight Sparkle.

He didn't try to bite back his snarl.
> Judgement pending
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

All attention was on the source of the snarl. Murex. He didn't notice however, being far too invested in his blood boiling fury to notice anything but Twilight, himself and all his thoughts and desires of pouncing and showing her how it feels be dissected. He didn't though, believing she is going to receive a fitting punishment anyway.

Acting like the snarl didn't happen he strode down between the aisles of chairs with his head held high, ignoring all the disgusted looks he's receiving by the ponies there, a few well-dressed even repulsed by the cloak. The mares, and Celestia, following.

Since he didn't know where to go, he hid it by holding open the half-door thing in the oak wall, separating the crowd from the front, allowing the mares to simply walk through. He followed them as they went left, into the empty stand and sat as they focused their attention on Celestia, sitting down next to starry mane pony. 

"We are gathered here today for the trial of Twilight Sparkle who is accused of ponynapping, causing severe bodily harm and resisting arrest. Twilight how do you plead?" Celestia asks a somewhat quivering Twilight. She looks off to the side, the stand opposite Murex, before looking back and giving her answer of "Not guilty".

"This seems rather... rushed. Does it not?" Rarity whispers to the rest, getting noises of acknowledgement from all but Murex, who was more silent than usual, still staring at Twilight. "Murex darling are you alright?" She was ignored however.

"There is much playing against you Twilight. I must ask why-" Celestia is interrupted by light gray unicorn mare with a white and purple mane who was sitting next to an azure also unicorn stallion with a dark blue mane, both smelt a lot like his current object of hatred.

"Your majesties why are we even here? There is nothing wrong. All she did was dissect an animal, you act as if she committed murder." Her snobbish voice cut through the air, eliciting the entire crowd to start whispering and look disdainfully towards his stand, namely, Murex. 

She opened her mouth to begin again but the splintering of wood made everypony in the room to look towards a now standing Murex and his black hoof, clenched in the heavily cracked wooden railing in front of him. "You should count yourself, your boy toy and your spawn lucky that I even came here instead of simply doing what I wished." His voice was a lot less clear as he growled out his response. The fact he didn't state his possible actions served to unsettle the mare who hid it with anger. He could see it though. The same look that many manticores gave him in their final moments, hidden behind her eyes, behind her anger, was an amount of dread and uncertainty. She wasn't used to others speaking against her it would seem.

"You dare speak against my wife?!" Her boy toy challenged, Murex chuckled, finding it quite funny.

He would have said something back but a strong scent hit him. Sniffing quite audibly, he violently threw his head up in an attempt to catch it, throwing his hood up while doing so. He ignored the gasps in the room, too intent on finding the direction of this strange unfamiliar scent and so, for the third time in recent history. He jumped out a window.

The stand wasn't too hard to clear and his intent on finding this scent driving him to ignore his barrel, currently crying out for mercy. The fall from the window would have been horrifying if rational thought had the wheel of 'Murex's actions', it wasn't as he fell with a straight face, still sniffing. His legs received no desired mercy as Murex landed heavily on some kind of hard surface, definitely on some poor saps house.

Ignoring his legs also flaring in pain he catapulted down the street, or more accurately, above it.

Running with an urgency he didn't entirely think necessary he jumped from home to home, roof to roof, all in an effort to track down that scent. He had no idea why he had to hurry only that he needed to. Suddenly some blue blur passed him and stopped in his path, with it not moving at that incredible speed it revealed itself to be Rainbow. He might as well hear what she has to say but if the scent disappears then he will be far from happy. 

"Dude! Why in all of Equestria did you jump out a window like that? Again?." She asked him with a short pause while hovering on the spot, still wished he could do that, she was apparently getting frustrated with his growing habit of de-glassing holes in the wall. Well... He would be lying if he said he had a good idea. "No clue really. Caught a strong scent. You might never know what I mean but this is strong, really strong. Quite overwhelming actually. I have to know what's causing it. I don't know why I need to but all I know is that I have to." He surprised himself by being 100% honest with her. She gave him a strange look but she eventually moved aside, letting him continue whatever he was doing.

So he did just that.

Beginning with bolting straight past a somewhat surprised mare with a speed that betrays his larger figure. Not much larger though. Resuming his 'chase' over the buildings of Canterlot.  

He cleared a good number of houses since running past miss rainbow-blur and stopped at a gap between some houses as the scent seemed to come from where he was standing. He looked down, it being the only logical place to look, and saw three figures.

"Please leave us alone! We won't tell a soul! Honest!" The voice of a mare pleaded, the sound of a whimpering foal making it's way to Murex's ears. A mare and a foal, likely her foal, cornered by two black... Stallions? Despite it being day he found it hard to see any defining features on them.

"Begging won't change what you saw..." One of the two black figures said darkly to the quivering mare in a raspy like voice. Kind of like how an insect buzzes but that buzz is it talking. It reminded Murex of his own voice when he was just starting to speak, only his voice dropped it, remaining as something you have to look for as he spoke.

He watched silently from above, waiting for any movement or hostility... An act of aggression with the intent to cause harm. He prefers this over a court room with snobbish nobles any day.

Moments of silence pasted by before one of the figures made a move, approaching the mare as he pulled something pointy from somewhere. The mare saw this and went to scream but her mouth was clamped shut from a flair of green light, originating from the other figures forehead.

Seeing this as not an intent to harm but kill Murex leaped down and landed heavily on the figure, forcing them into the ground painfully while he spun around using his right foreleg to swing toward the other who was currently too busy being shocked by his sudden and violent appearance to react. His shock and inaction that cost him his life as Murex's trademark bone blade rocketed out of it's hiding place as his hoof was about to make contact, impaling the attacker through his chest, splitting chitin with an audible crack and tearing through vital organs. Wait chitin?

The surprise of the sound bought the non-stallion, the... thing, some time to reorient itself and dislodge Murex from atop him. Murex's lack of current strength causing him to lose valuable footing and unbalance him, he sheathed his blade in case of an accident involving the blade going through the wrong target, there are downsides to their length. Ending up with Murex and the attacker switching places with Murex on his back and the attacker preparing to drive the weapon, now known as a jagged knife, through Murex's heart.

Murex was no stranger to sacrifices of all kinds. Sacrifice the few to save the many, sacrifice a part of yourself to live another day. So in reaction to the potentially fatal blow he brought his right foreleg into the knifes descending path and cocked his foreleg for a counterattack.

Unfortunately the knife found his chitin and not one of his many holes like he'd hoped, going through his tough exterior and into the soft meat underneath. It was the least of the injuries that occurred within the four second exchange.

As Murex was absorbing the stab he thrust his left hoof towards the offenders chin, the muscles holding the blade within constricting to set it free. Only to be rapidly buried again. The blade struck true and went through the chin and out the other side with a small spray of blood, showing that even if he missed the important parts of the important part there would be catastrophic damage for anything in the think tank. The now deceased attacker feel limp and somewhat sprawled on top of Murex, the muscles in the body ceasing function.

Rolling to the side and shoving the worlds most recent corpse off of him he turned his attention to the petrified mare and foal, staring at him with wide pin pricked eyes. He mentally kicked himself for not fixing the cloaks hood.

"I am not going to harm you. Do you know who they were and why they were trying to... 'Silence' you?" Murex asked, trying to sound as gentle as possible, it didn't do what he hoped but she said something that baffled him.

"You're one of them." The mare said quickly and slighty strained, fear was abundant though. Confused as to her meaning he asked. "One of who? Uh... Do you have a light of some kind?" He could see fine, not clearly but well enough. The light wasn't for him however.

"You're a changeling! How about you tell me what you're scheming?" She accused while getting up, setting the quietly crying foal aside. He had no idea why she was talking like that. Did he do something wrong? Or does she not like changelings? He still hesitates to call himself that as he does no sort of 'changing' but maybe this mare knew about his species. Perhaps that was why she was cornered by these changelings. He assumes they are anyway if her 'one of them' claim was anything to go by.

"Are you referring to trickery of some kind? Bah... no matter. You should steer clear of dark places. Where there is light, there is shadow." He said that last part on a whim but it felt somewhat nice to say things like that, cryptic, kinda, while also being straight forward, not really.

He didn't turn to see her face as he left the alley, stopping only to fix his hood and take a glance at one of the bodies before making a path back to the castle. He wasn't comfortable with how similar they were to him, only one more thing to muse over.

Now slowly walking the actual street this time he took in the sights. Keeping a calm exterior guise but within was far from calm, his thoughts running rampant over the encounter, with only more questions being added to his steadily growing arsenal. Why did they smell? How could only he smell it? Why did he feel like he did? How does she know about changelings yet everypony else doesn't? He walked past a noble as he thought that last one and the noble took one look at the cloak then scoffed, raising his snout to the clouds and walking away with an aura of self-importance. Right. But that and all other questions were entirely unimportant to Murex. All but one. Is he... One of them?



He eventually came across a squad ten of royal guards who halted him.

"You are being taken to the dungeons by request of the Sparkle family, creature." A quite decorated guard at the head of the pack spat that last word with a trace of venom, then actually spat at Murex. Of course they would think like that, they have the shiny armor. They must be invincible! "No you won't. I am here on request by Princess Celestia and I don't think she would appreciate having to fish me out of the dungeons." Murex had no idea what a dungeon was, not like he'd go willingly anyway.

"You are but a lowly, filthy animal! I would prefer we just execute you like the wretch you are!" The same guard spat. Not noticing a rather irritated Celestia behind him. Murex just smirked and waited for her to speak up.

"I mentioned you being afraid of my guards as a joke Murex." She said aloud. "Although it was quite explicitly stated in guard training that only I can command the solar guard." She added, her tone growing more serious.

Much to Murex's surprise, a guard openly attempted to spear him while slurring about being a mere animal. Unfortunately for him and every other guard present Murex sprang into 'fight mode'. He used a foreleg to redirect the strike away from him as he side stepped, leaning to the side to build some extra force into his other hoof, aimed at the guards neck.

His counter was very effective due to the guards total lack of neck armor and the guard recoiled while clutching his neck in pain, although it didn't last long as another strike to his mostly unarmored snout caused him to fall limp, drifting into unconsciousness.

There was a very brief moment of stillness as the other guards who whirled around saw their comrade fall with minimal fight. Then they all charged him.


Stop


He ignored her as he forced a would-be attackers spear into the ground as he redirected the force of the attack, using his opponent's moments of vulnerability to jump into a powerful kick, landing on the side of the guards head, knocking his helmet off.


Cease the fighting


He used his annoyance of the guard's insults and now Celestia's interference to fuel a haymaker that knocked the recipient off their hooves. Spurred by the shouting of the residents and a few familiar voices, he leapt at another guard only to land and slide, sweeping him off his hooves and introducing his face to the pavement by slamming his hoof into the back of his skull. Murex was quite disappointed as they were down three and they only attacked once. They were only standing around him and making the motions to attack but it always stopped short. Do they not know how?

"STOP THE FIGHT!" An unfamiliar and very loud voice ordered as it echoed throughout the city. Turning while assigning one of his hooves to rubbing his ringing ears he saw Starry Mane approaching.

"Sister you must speak up more, you've grown soft." She chided Celestia. So that's who she is. She grew fast.

"Your Highnesses. Fear not for this animal will be going to the dungeons now." That same decorated idiot declared, Murex was quite miffed that didn't clobber him.

"Thou art... Murex. Correct?" She asked politely. Giving a nod while not taking his eyes of the guard. "We art Princess Luna, Ruler of the night. My sister spoke of thou and your abilities but judging from how shocked she is, we assume she has never seen them herself?" She asked him, much to the guards chagrin of her not attacking. Taking his eyes off the guard he looked to Celestia, standing next to his friends and confirmed a dropped jaw. He refocused his attention on Luna.

"No she hasn't. Don't know what she's doing really." He confirmed Celestia's lack of seeing him fight, only knowing he does.

"We thought as much. Come t'is time for a recess from the trial anyway." She then turned and walked back into the castle like nothing was wrong. Murex, Celestia and the girls followed her. 

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?!" Rainbow near shouted, apparently giddy from his display. The others, excluding Rarity and Fluttershy, had similar questions. Said questions were asked and left unanswered until they came across a room with a long table in the middle, which was rapidly being filled with food.

Luna already sat at the end rock-like chair with deep blue and black cloth on said chair, a similar chair was next to her but white and yellow cloth instead. Celestia sat at this chair and everypony took a seat together, Murex in the middle of them still being bombarded with questions. He was happy to discover the chairs were padded and cushioned.

They quietened down as they took food from the many discs and put it on one in front of them, Murex had no disc in front of him however, he had no desire for plants right now anyway.

As he sat in silence a smell hit him. He paid it no mind as he was thinking. A while later it got stronger and the others even noticed it, he was feeling his empty stomach now.

Shortly after one last pony dressed in white and wearing a ridiculous hat came in holding another disc, he didn't look at him long. He was surprised as the pony sat the disc in front of him but the contents stunned him.

Sat atop the disc was a large piece of meat, he'd cooked before and enjoyed it but it took far too long in his opinion and he was just fine with it fresh off the kill. But this was a whole different beast.

The brown beauty before him reeked of glory, it leaked a surplus of juice that was just as good as the meat itself which was a light brown and slightly darker around the edges, promising a world of taste. He ignored the tiny plant on top of it as he beheld it's shear beauty. The pieces of metal he is supposed to use was forgotten as he sat and admired it for a full minute with an open mouth, salivating heavily. The ignored gagging was an insult to the perfection before him.

Wasting no more time and mentally kicking himself for foolishly allowing it to cool slightly, he used a bone blade to skewer it, much to all the prying eyes' surprise. It took nearly no time to bring it to his mouth and when he tore a chunk off to chew he was in heaven.

All his moments of struggle, of uncertainty, of anger was void with his first mouthful. All he could feel was sheer happiness and content. He barely finished swallowing before he was going in for another. Everypony present was rather confused and slightly disgusted at his display. Confused at his behavior and disgusted at the meat while the Princesses found it amusing, having talked and catered to carnivorous races before. 

Murex's moments of pure bliss were cut short as he ran out out of meat. Still on his high however he resigned himself to furiously licking along his blade. Cutting his serpent-like tongue for his efforts. Satisfied, yet disappointed, he leaned back into the chair with a sigh. Resting his hooves on his stomach.

The rest of the recess was uneventful and Murex eventually found himself walking back to the court room with a dopey smile plastered on his face, earning giggles from the girls.

Entering the boring room like before except the guards were inside this time, he smirked at one of the guards' black eye, he sat down in his stand and stared at the 'Sparkle family' across from him.

He still wants to go back to his forest.
> Surely you are telling the jokes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Murex was bored.

Very bored in fact.

He has been sitting in that room for who knows how long listening to that mare across from him, who he now knows as Twilight Velvet. It was now less of a trial and more of a back and forth between Celestia and whoever she's supposed to be.

Murex tried sitting in different positions even a few silly ones that amused the mares beside him and eventually resigned to resting his head on a hoof but he was still trying to fight off his incredible boredom. Hunting was different because he was looking for tracks, smells, altered foliage or the mark itself, in other words doing something. Here he was trying to pretend to listen about the ramblings between white, wavy-mane and the clown across from him that must exist purely to be an ass. Needless to say he was exhausted but in his mind instead of his body.

The hood of the cloak was down, he simply didn't care anymore and he really couldn't think of a reason to put it back on as everypony in the room had already seen him when he jumped through the window. He was still getting occasional glances from the crowd, from the glances of fear and curiosity to the glares of disgust. 'How dare an inferior being be in their presence?' Murex thought in boredom, trying to think of what they were thinking if only to fill his mind with anything that doesn't involve gutting Twilight Sparkle, her whorse mother or the fact that Celestia is letting said whorse run her mouth.

So he raised his head from a hoof and groaned, needlessly loudly, at the ceiling and then slammed his head onto the wooden hoof-rest on the stand he sat in.

"Princess Celestia you allow this beast to conduct itself like this in your presence?!" The whorse taking the opportunity to send another verbal jab his way. He tried to lift his head to say something back for a change but found his fangs buried into the wood of the hoof-rest instead.

Luna looked as bored as he did and when she spoke it sounded... rather forced. Like she wanted to say something else but couldn't due to her position. "Mrs. Velvet we believe thou should stop speaking to our guest like he is some filth." Yeah she sounded sick of her too, he couldn't really blame her. After a while Murex decided to stop thinking altogether as it was making his head throb but his mind was as stubborn as he could be and started leading a rebellion against his conscience with his instincts and most of his organs wrecking havoc on the parts of his body still loyal to his conscience.

He let out a chuckle as he imagined the gruel battle that would take place in his chest cavity. It would be bloody and brutal! He saw the battlefield before him. His emotions grappling with his instincts for domination, his heart and stomach dueling to the death and his large and small intestine taking turns slapping each other as they were far too polite to attack without permission but Celestia's next words towards tore him from his make-believe warzone. 

"Twilight will be placed under house arrest until further notice."

...

"Pardon?" Murex asked aloud. Too taken back to form any further words. His friends, especially Rainbow, had similar reactions.

"Yes dear sister, if the attack was as vicious as we hast been told we then believe a far harsher punishment is in order." Luna agreed with little hesitation. 

"How can you prove that that... thing isn't lying to make my poor daughter look bad?" Twilight Velvet added and that made Luna and his friends look to Murex who was currently busy boiling in barely restrained rage. How did she know how to get under his chitin? Well... her spawn already did that so it wasn't hard.

So Murex got onto the hoof stand while ripping the cloak off his body, revealing his hole-filled hooves, black and red body and bloody bandage covered barrel, and asked "Does THIS look like lying?!" As he said this he tore the bandages off his body, reopening a few healed wounds and causing fresh blood to drip off his chitinless flesh.

The room gasped at his display and a new round of whispers circulated the room. Celestia looked somewhat surprised and Luna looked quite furious.

Murex didn't register this though as he leapt down from the stand and walked to the doors, bristling in anger.

"I'm sorry..." Twilight said to him as he pasted her. He paused at this.

He said nothing to her and just glared as he continued on his way out, having had enough of pony society for a few days.

Every snobby noble started shouting at him for reasons that Murex couldn't care less about. 

Unbeknownst to him Celestia got up to tell him to retake his seat but Luna stopped her, believing it was best he left and Celestia begrudgingly let him go. 



Murex had been walking through the city for ten minutes since he left the court room, struggling to find the train station. The streets were empty when they arrived so he feel he didn't need to pull up his hood but now they were packed, full of ponies, all giving him disgusted glares.

If he were to pluck a single hair off a pony's coat whenever he received a glare of any kind or a nasty comment, well...

There would be a few hairless ponies walking around.

A loud ring sounded throughout the city and the ponies, who were once walking rather calmly, started rushing around. Finishing food, buying last minute supplies or rushing somewhere Murex wasn't sure of but soon enough the once packed street was empty and silent once more.

Until an entourage of hooves behind him came closer.

"Darling you could have just asked the Princesses to be let out if you couldn't be in there any longer." Rarity panted out, clearly being unused to this level of physical activity.

"Don't care, I just don't want to stay here." Murex stated rather coldly as they started following him, Or in Pinkie's case bouncing, they didn't pick up on his mood though.

"What?!" Rarity exclaimed in shock at his statement. He wonders how long it will take them to learn and remember that he still lives in a forest. "How could you not love Canterlot? The glamour! The sophistication! Oh how I dream of living here!" Her dreams however were not shared.

"Oh... it's nice Rarity... but I can't see myself living here... I'm fine how I am... I'm not good with crowds..." Fluttershy stated meekly. 

"It would be nice to live here but mah place is at the farm. Can't leave mah family behind." Applejack added firmly. 

"I'd rather be in Cloudsdale if I had to go somewhere that wasn't Ponyville. What about you Murex? Where would you go if you couldn't stay in the Everfree?" Rainbow asked him which was slightly surprising to him. They can learn.

"Those woods a bit away from Ponyville, White tail I think it's called." He said absent minded. Too busy thinking about a way to get back at Twilight. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't really kill her. He'll just damage her. He is no killer no matter what others say or think, even if he really wants to. He doesn't know how yet but he'll know soon.

"Must you live in those icky forests dear? Wouldn't it be nice to live in a warm home? Not having to forage for food?" Rarity asked him, almost appalled by him refusing to live in town. What does she have against forests? The wind flowing across your form, the thrill of the hunt, the feeling of freedom as you run freely through the expansive, dense brush. Unhindered by laws or somepony in charge. Just you and nature. Murex and Zecora understand the forest and accept it for what it is, the ponies fear it because they cannot control it. Through their sheltered lives all they do is go to school then get a job and they live that way until they die. Anything that threatens this cycle is treated with fear, disgust or the need to remove it entirely.

Murex didn't answer Rarity as he felt a presence come to his mind but he was far from being in the mood of listening to Celestia so he did something he wasn't aware he could do, he tried to push her out.

It wasn't that easy though as he had to fight her whilst still walking and pretending to listen to the mares walking with him. Yet after a struggle he did manage to fight her back and even push her out of his mind, it was far from easy and he felt exhausted but not in the way he sometimes was. As he was wondering what this feeling was about a thought hit him.

"Say does Ponyville have a uh... A library? Where books are?" Murex asked his friends slowly, unsure of the name.

"It does Rexi!" Pinkie Pie supplied quickly before stopping her bouncing, in mid-air, to repeat something to herself quietly. Despite his honed hearing he couldn't understand a single word as she was talking to herself faster than he had ever heard, apparently she was slowing herself down before but it was still too fast for him.

He gave her an odd look but quickly abandoned the thought of questioning her as he spotted the train station, he shuddered by simply thinking of the name of that wretched machine.

As they approached the station Murex couldn't rid himself of this disgusted feeling and it only grew the longer he was in Canterlot. He actually couldn't wait to get on the train.



It had been twenty minutes since they got on the train and Murex was handling it a lot better than before as he knew what to expect, he still took no part in conversation, still more than upset with the events in Canterlot. The girls were all next to him as the train rocked from side to side, trying their best to make sure there was no repeat of before. He tried to explain he just didn't know what a train did and just panicked.

They weren't lucky enough to get an empty carriage and Murex didn't feel like wearing Zecora's cloak anymore so their little group was attracting a lot of looks, fear and curiosity were the most common ones.

He should pay a visit to Ponyville's library and see what he could learn about the world in general, despite being told much by the girls, he always found himself at a loss when it came to... Everything that wasn't related to the Everfree, especially trains. While he didn't know the names of things like Zecora did he could still know of something if given a description.

Speaking of things he didn't know...

His mind wandered back to the two that looked similar to him. Just what were they doing and why was it so important that a pony was going to be killed for accidentally finding them? Definitely nothing good.

His side started to throb all of a sudden and he quietly groaned as he attempted to nurse it with a hoof without anypony looking, he was okay with expressing himself with the girls as he knew them but he wanted to be seen as if he was 100% in the presence of ponies he didn't know. His actions in Canterlot were catching up to him at the worst of times and he wasn't much of a fan of past Murex at that moment in time.

"Oh my... Murex are you okay? You don't look okay..." Fluttershy asked quietly as everypony, including the carriage full of strangers, noticed his pain.

"Is that um... Creature okay? It's not dangerous is it?" A pony across from them asked with fear and concern evident in her voice as she started to get up. Murex slumped forward and clutched his strained barrel as the pain kept increasing, he felt quite dumb for tearing the bandages off.

"I'll live..." He told them through gritted teeth, his visible fangs was reason for concern but his now exposed sharp teeth was cause for some alarm for the ponies that could see them.

"Uh... That's some teeth you... Have there..." The same pony said while quickly retreating back into her seat. The knowledge his sharp teeth made the other passengers nervous and Murex chuckle. "Hey! Don't treat him like he's some kind of animal! He's my friend!" Fluttershy growled out, surprising him. It did give him another dumb idea though.

"Woah! Down girl! Heel!" Murex scolded her with a dumb grin while still holding his barrel making Fluttershy frown.

"Fine I won't joke like that I'm sorry." Murex quickly remedied, his mood darkening once more, before the train hit a bump making his barrel flare up in pain. "Damn it! I hate trains!" He shouted hatefully making the whole carriage laugh.



The train pulled up in Ponyville's station and the girls led him to the town's library which was near the town's center. The only time Murex had been in the town was to go to the train station and he had the cloak to hide his appearance. Even though they only went through the town's outskirts he still encountered more ponies there than now and he was near the middle of the town.

"Hey you girls live here. So do you know where everypony is?" He asked them while looking around, his question made them look too. 

"Now that ya mention it Ah haven't seen no pony." Applejack said, the others made similar assessments and Pinkie Pie was Pinkie Pie by exclaiming they were playing hide and seek. 

Suddenly two colts ran past them and accidentally bumped into Murex, making him hiss. One was thin and lanky with an amber coat and turquoise mane and the other was short and stubby with an opal coat and orange mane, both were unicorns. His barrel was doing much better than it was on the train but it was still pretty sensitive. "Hey! What're you two doing?" His bad mood was still very present too.

"Haven't you heard?" One asked but stopped to continue panting. "There's a new unicorn in town!" The other finished before they both ran off to find this unicorn they were talking about. Murex looked at his friends who were sharing his confused look before he went to find where the two ran off to.

Murex found it hard to find specific hoofprints on a road littered with them but they eventually found a large crowd of ponies standing in front of a stage thanks to a number of sounds that Pinkie excitedly called 'fireworks'. On said stage was a pale blue unicorn wearing a cape and strange hat, it looked like she was speaking to them.

"...Deep within the Everfree forest!" Or she was finishing a story... He may never know. The ponies in the crowd seemed to like it however as it was met with gasps then cheers.

He was still in a bad mood but he was always happy to learn something, it being useful or not didn't dissuade him from learning new things. His curiosity of the unknown was cause for more than a few mistakes but it hasn't killed him! Yet.

"Could you repeat that? I just got here!" He called out while approaching the crowd.

His appearance caused most ponies to turn around and look for the source of the voice. Eyes grew wide when they fell on his form, recognition in many of them, Murex didn't notice this as he was too busy looking for the details of this newly discovered tale.

"Hm? It seems more want to the legend of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" The mare on stage called out without looking at him while more of those fireworks went off around the stage. His experience with a certain friend has exposed him to what an 'ego' is so he knows how to measure the sizes of one. His own is rather small as he has a habit of kicking himself on mistakes, a certain Pegasus he knows has a ego of similar to this mare.

She retold her tale for him and his friends. She even magicked up some figures to help tell her story and it was at this point Murex was pretty skeptical to the validity of the mare's tale as she went on, her magical figures depicted her 'banishing an Ursa Major', he couldn't help but feel like he should recognize the figure. As she finished her story she finally looked at him and raised a brow.

"So what are you supposed to be exactly?" her question made those who weren't still staring at him to follow Trixie's line of sight, eyes again widening when they saw him. Before he could answer a voice he recognized as Applebloom to beat him to it.

"He's the Everfree Demon! Well... He sure ain't no Demon but the name stuck." She finished with a shrug. Everfree Demon? Guess they didn't just forget about him after all.

Everypony was looking at him now, the ponies watching him carefully. After a while of silent thought Murex just shrugged and walked away, not really caring what they thought about him. "Now where is that library?" He asked himself as he walked away. His friends stayed behind with the crowd.



Murex roamed through the town, still looking for the library. He eventually this tree with windows in a few places around it, curious of the reason why there were holes in the large tree he walked around it and eventually found a door with a hanging sign above it that depicted a book. Thinking he found the library he approached the door and knocked, remembering what he did when he went to visit Zecora.

It soon opened and revealed a small purple and green lizard who looked seemed to recognize him.

"You! You're that thing that Twilight dragged in! Uh... What did she do to you exactly?" He asked him. He scowled at the mention of his object of hatred's name but at least obliged him turning to reveal his blood-stained, Chitinless, bandageless barrel.

"Woah! That's! Ugh... I'm gonna be sick..." He mumbled before retreating inside and leaving the door open. Thinking he was in the clear he walked inside, much less enthusiastic at learning this is where Twilight took him.

At first he was awestruck at the amount of books that were in the library when he walked inside but it was short lived as he quickly found a staircase that led down into darkness despite the lit room, likely into somewhere he didn't want to think about.

"Hey hm... Do you need any help? With books I mean." The lizard asked as he came back from wherever he ran off to. While Murex was excited to read some books and expand his spotty knowledge he made one large oversight. He doesn't know how to read. Growing up alone would do that.

"Yeah could you get me a couple books about Equestria?" Murex asked quickly, it was quite a large oversight.

"Okay! History or geography?" He has no idea what geography is so he'll stick to what he knows. "History if you could." After running over to the front door, the lizard got what Murex believes is a ladder and brought it over to the bookshelves.

It didn't take him long to come back with two somewhat thick books in his claws. "You can take them with you just make sure to not damage or dirty them!" He told Murex as he handed them over, he was relieved to know he could take them with no problem. He'll just leave them at Zecora's... And learn to read at Zecora's.

"So what's you're name? I doubt it's 'Purple and green lizard'." Murex asked absently while trying to balance the books on his withers, keeping them away from his bloody barrel.

"I'm not a lizard! I'm a dragon!" He exclaimed while crossing his arms with puffed out cheeks.

"Right. So what's you're name? I doubt it's 'Purple and green not-a-lizard'." Murex repeated with a chuckle as he faced the dragon, done with the task of book balancing.

"My name is Spike. What's yours? I doubt it's 'Strange black pony with cheese legs'. Spike shot back making him chuckle again.

"Murex. See you around Purple Dragon." Murex said as he turned to walk out and got a cheerful, "You too Black Pony!" in return.

After one last check to make sure the books won't fall off Murex began to walk back to the Everfree to see Zecora after his long day.



He had been learning to read with Zecora for roughly three hours and could proudly say he could read, at most, thirty words. Both sat at her table at the side of the room with cups of tea, even though he didn't like tea he drank it anyway, finding it helped clear his head somewhat.

It was rather difficult to pick up at first, having to learn that 'letters' represent sounds, can sound different depending on how they're used and in some words are completely silent but still be present. Frustration was dominant in Murex's head as Zecora kept teaching, dropping her traditional rhyming as to not cause confusion much to Murex's relief.

The lesson was interrupted by a series of panicked yelling and an Equis shaking roar. Murex shot up from his seat and burst through the door to run off in the direction of the roar. Running at high speeds through thick foliage was routine to him, dodge a low hanging branch here, evade an exposed root there. It was rather worrying when he crossed the border of the Everfree and his worry quickly turned to dread as the amount of screaming had increased tenfold and was coming from Ponyville.

He didn't stall for a single second when he saw the gigantic, blue bear wreaking havoc in Ponyville. Recognition suddenly stuck him as he ran towards the bear. That is an Ursa Minor in  town, and where there is a Minor, a Major is never far behind.