It was strange for a minute, the impression I had of food was of something tasty and green..But it would appear this was a not required for life, instead a pleasure. "You'll be eating some of this first, we can infused emotion with any substance that is edible but as you can see we have a surplus of frozen water." Was all mother said.

"You'll need to fill up on some negative emotion, you just hatched after all. You need something to get your blood flowing with energy." My mother commented while placing a cube of ice into her mouth that glowed blueish. But what was before me was red, deep and leaving quite a big impression. "Why negative? What do you have?" I say, questioning the meal before me. "Well, negative emotion is more healthy for you physically. For magic power you need positive emotion. Simply put, you need energy, you make something hate you and then eat the emotion. The same goes for positive emotions."

"That seems...Strange, why would I make another brother or sister angry?" A snicker escapes my mother. "You seem to never ask the link do you? We take from other races. Emotion from our own kind is near worthless."

Deciding against further questioning for the sake of my hunger, I turn to my food. It sits patiently, the little pulses of red in it showing. My hoof reaches toward it, I will it to stick to my hoof and it seems to be effective, lifting it up.

The taste was of a cold melting liquidity sludge with little taste. I pinged the link. I was met with instruction to absorb the emotion via my horn while letting the ice and snow melt. It tastes deliciously vile, malice seems so purely straight forward I think I love it. Heh, loving hatred.

But something sours the discovery. The thought of how it was acquired. It seems so powerful that an influence such as this would be only from one with great loss. "That is a being to the south's excess hatred for the world. He is known as Sombra." My mother mutters.

"Wow, what's up with you and freaking me out on my first day here?" I say in a near mutter, continuing to sample the taste.

Mmmm..Wuh?

I wake up to the sound of the buzzing voices of my family over the link. I've lived in the ice caverns that make up home for a short while. I've grown in size by almost an inch in less that a week, I'm told I'll reach the size of my mother within two years. Not that it matters much, mother has been playing at something with me since I hatched. Something she brings up, the ponies to the south living in the city of crystal.

She told me about ponies on my second day after hatching. Since then I've been instructed in how to use the link to my further advantage, a sort of path-finding if you will. If you request to go somewhere that has been traveled before by another member of the family then they send you a imprint of their impression. You can then zero it down and find that path they took. Nifty for getting around.

But back to the city, mother says that the emotion collectors down there have had trouble getting positive emotions. Love, happiness, all that. Only the negative, and that's great for the physical development of the hive and the accelerated hatching rates. Most all the normal tier workers here don't have enough energy to use magic because of the drought of the emotion, not enough to form the spells used to cut the ice.

She says when I've grown to at least a normal ling I will stop the tyrant that now resides there gathering his power through the crystals of the city and surrounding mines. As much as she loves the negative emotion for growth and population reasons she finds it unhealthy to forget magic altogether.

This is of little importance beyond monologue , so I sit up. Collecting whatever thoughts had been going through my head and reigning them in. Today I get to see the ponies from afar. Think of that, only a few days out of the egg and I get to go on a recon outing with some of the most skilled infiltrators in our little hive.

They say a recon team a week or so prior had to take flight to get away from a snow giant, so we need to be cautious about being sighted. It's of little concern with the natural camouflage we have. Though I'm told we won't get near close enough to interact to disguise ourselves. We don't even have the energy to do so...I can't imagine how hard it is for our collectors to have enough to stay disguised.

After a quick check for all my provisions being held in the hide of a snow giant fashioned into a bag meant for my back I head out my quarters and down the steps on my immediate left. I check to see if the frozen emotion infused ice and imported compass are all still there. I pass my two personal quarter's guards on the last step. They greet my with a smile, only being armed with spears made of ebony and sharpened metal. Imported I'm sure, though not sure the merchant knew who he was selling it to.

It takes me only a few minutes stuck in my own thoughts to reach the exit we are to use today. The team of three other lings had already gathered, Some holding weapons fashioned of our 'Resourceful' weapons production teams. They mostly just use their own old shells as blades or tools, I personally find it....Strange. But it can't be helped when the only materials are frozen water and hard dirt under the water. Imports are coming in small and going out small. Not much you can export from here...

I look up from my musing to see Risen Flurry, my self appointed guide and the very same brother who saved me from my fall. Withering Blur, a killer with a white 'Ninja mask' from trotpan, she claims she can kill four ponies from all different directions. "Hello Swift Step! Do you have all your equipment?" Our final member and leader of the recon team, White Fury or just Fury as he prefers, Says to me. Looking him in the eye with an expression of excitement. "Would you keep a princess waiting for her first time outside?"

Author's Notes:

Edit: Fixed some errors, changed some sentences near the end.