Long before the rise of Equestria and the Elements of Harmony, a feral world was the law of the land. As the ancient ponies struggled day after day to survive a world of powerful predators, a different evolution was beginning far beneath the surface. Beginning with an accident involving a feeding, nine feral changelings begin the long trek toward true sentience. Facing resistance from their own kind as well as the various lifeforms of the surface, the nine of them will have to cast off the shackles of their old life and learn to adapt to a new world and to themselves as they become more than they ever thought they could be.
However, in a dangerous world such as the one they face is it possible for a hooffull of changelings to survive the trials that it will take to become royal?