"Please, excuse the mess and chaos."

It was a doe, somewhere between the ages of Blue and Thorax, who had spoken. Her voice held an air of intelligence and refinement, a tongue perfected over years of careful studying and teaching in the village school. That fact alone, when revealed, had left Coalburst a little gloomy; she didn't complain, but the less than exaggerated hops were a sure indication. It was almost as if she was simply dragging herself along.

"This place... Is everyone normally this... crazy?" Thorax looked about himself quickly and just avoided a scarpering fawn who ran past; when the thing's eyes landed on him, it came to an abrupt stop and rose a paw quickly to its antler buds in a salute. For a moment, it stayed frozen in that position. When Thorax opened his mouth to question it, however, it shot off once more. The ageing doe giggled.

"Oh, it is not normally so hectic," she said, walking with slightly more swing in her step. Her small tail flicked as she did so, her hips swaying slightly. "Somebuck found a pony outside a few days back. The poor thing was barely alive... Well, our medics did what they could; despite the fact that he was a pony, he was still an animal of Equestria and we pride ourselves on helping those who need it. But, alas, our efforts were for nought and he died soon after. So we're holding a funeral on his behalf; we need not stoop to the level of greed and selfishness of you ponies."

Coalburst ground her teeth so that they squeaked and opened her mouth to snap back, but Blue was the first to reply. She shot into the air and in front of the doe, flapping her wings heavily and panting whilst she said, "The pony! What did he... what did he look like?"

The doe stopped and rose her fore paw, frowning at Blue. "Of what importance is that information to you?" After a few seconds of waiting, her eyes then softened and her tail fell. "You have lost a friend?"

Blue nodded slowly and whimpered as she fell to the floor. She landed with a small sniffle; Coalburst and Thorax both rushed to her side to surround her in an embrace. She backed up quickly, however, and slipped from their hooves so that she could stare once again at the doe.

"I'm sorry for your loss, pony, but I cannot help you. I have never seen the stallion myself and I have only heard his tale. The body will be presented later, though, before its burial; if you are so concerned, the best course of action would be to come along to the ceremony this evening. Since it's a pony funeral, my fellow deer should tolerate you mostly."

"Yeah." Blue's head fell and she touched her muzzle to the dirt unenthusiastically. She nuzzled about in it slowly and then stood back up, her nose slightly dusty. Her ears, completely folded against her neck, looked ever so small and gave her an air of depression. "Yeah."

The deer watched Blue quietly and then shook herself slowly so that her fur, sleek and shiny for the cool (but not hot) summer months of Plague-Equestria, was freed of the powdery dirt that had coated it. She then walked onwards, beckoning with her paw. As she did so, she opened her mouth and said, with only a little disgust in her tone, "Little foal, do you know of the deer's tale?" Coalburst shook her head frantically so that her mane, short and cropped though it was, flew about her face. That, at least, drew a smile from the doe, who was quick to continue. "Back during the reign of that beast, Discord, we deer were powerful. Our forests still thrived back then; our pure magic, still connected with  was strong enough to repel the chaos. Whilst the mud huts and crops of you equines hovered upside-down in the air, our thicket castles remained untouched and unharmed, and so did we.

"Then, of course, that glorious era ended when your princesses, Elements of Harmony in hoof, stepped up to overthrow the beast. For that, we can never blame your kind; it was a natural reaction. What we can blame them of, though, is their actions in the aftermath of that unpleasant era, when every stallion and mare all joined as one in paranoia to ensure that they were not so weak again. Forests were torn down without so much as a moment's consideration. In their place they built unnatural orchards and farms, with cattle roaming where they should not roam and sheep grazing the grass that should rightfully belong to the wildlife. And we deer were cast out from our own forests, the land which we had so carefully tended for for centuries, without so much as an apology or second glance!

"For centuries, our kind suffered in silence. We remained at the outskirts of pony society, doing our best to keep up our role and maintain what remained of our once sprawling woodlands. And then, only a few hundred years ago, the changelings came to us. Without our magic they were easily recognised when they tried to infiltrate our numbers, but we understood how weakened they were after being cast out from your towns and villages. We agreed to help them, to let them feed off of our love for the world and each other, and that maintained a mutually respectful relationship between our species. Hence, when they finally grew desperate and attacked your kind, their queen kept the bond strong and avoided us. And, despite their initial failure, we knew that, one day, the changelings would deliver unto us a land less overwhelmed by ponykind. A more natural land, without the hideous atrocities that your kind construct."

Blue frowned as she trotted along, her encased hoof making a loud thud each time it fell on the damp dirt. She snorted a little as she went along, her head hung low and her tail dragging. A few small twigs were now tangled up in the mess of pale strands, but she hardly seemed to notice—or if she did, she did not seem to be bothered. The doe sent her a slightly sympathetic glance before she continued on with her tale.

"Well, the time came eventually. Ten years after the initial attack on Canterlot city, the changelings rose once more under Queen Chrysalis and promised to make true of our beliefs; they allied with Sombra, though that was much scorned by our kind, and lay siege to Equestria once more. This time, they were much more successful; your princesses, foolish ponies, knew nothing of the threat and were taken by surprise. They reacted quickly, to be sure, but it was all too late. The changeling armies had gained too much ground to be stopped readily. The swarms were massive, overwhelming villages and engulfing towns, taking back the love which they had for so long been denied. The crystal ponies—kidnapped, brainwashed and cloned by Sombra's wicked magic—fought your kind alongside them; with ponies on the alert for changelings, even attacking their kin in their paranoia, Sombra's could easily sneak into communities and leave... gifts. Crystal ponies spread so much light that ponies didn't—couldn't—suspect them. It was a destructive partnership.

"But then things... things went downhill. With each village that the changelings took and the love they harvested, their numbers grew. Chrysalis worked overtime to produce new drone eggs; by the end of the fourth year of fighting, and with Equestria weakened at long last, the changeling armies were so expansive that it was hard to sustain them. They did not fight among themselves, not as ponies would have done. But they were unhappy, distressed, and Chrysalis knew that she had to make a move; the forces gave up on taking small villages and instead set their sights once more on Canterlot, a success which would give them control over the whole land and the ponies who still lived there in terror. Sombra's ponies joined the attack, lulling ponies slightly with their innate light before the changelings would then pounce.

"And then everything ended. Your princess panicked and uncovered a vicious spell. She never should have used it; she should have considered it more carefully, thought of the side effects of a spell that claimed to, ahem, cleanse the land of enemies. Gaia knows that it should have been an obvious catch. But she did not do so, and she released the spell on her kingdom—and it was only then that she realised that she had doomed her own ponies as well. It was a matter of hours until the disease had spread acrossed the entirety of our land, mutating and killing life in its wake; after a hasty retrieval of her favourites, she and her sibling threw up the shield and abandoned the rest of the world. And for we deer, who waited and tolerated your actions so patiently until you eventually got your comeuppance... Well, we came out of everything even worse for wear than your kind. Our numbers are so small now... if any of your biologists cared, we may as well be registered as extinct."

The doe's words trailed off and she fell into silence, the only sound left that of the steps of each individual, deer and changeling and pony alike. The dirt was damp beneath the group and absorbed much of the sound that they made. The slightly musty air was so Iquiet, in fact, that even the king's feminine voice could be heard from the other side of the space—or maybe it was just their imagination.

The next few minutes trudged by without a word, Blue and Coalburst feeling too awkward to mention anything and Thorax in quiet contemplation. The ageing doe just hung her head and walked a little less bouncily, looking slightly depressed until she came to a halt outside what looked like a mud hut. Why a hut was needed underground, out of the elements, was beyond Blue.

"Some old garments should fit you, should you choose to come to the funeral this evening. Make yourself presentable; you may be tolerated, but there is no reason to give anybuck a reason to scorn you any more than they already will." The doe sighed and hung her head, but quickly stiffened and smiled slightly at Thorax as he walked past. "Excluding you. You should be accepted, at least."

Thorax lowered his head, ears slightly back, and tried to smile. "That... I never thought that anypony—or, well, anydeer—would ever... would ever like me. Not anymore. For who I am, for being a changeling." He gave a nervous smile and glanced to Blue and Coalburst. "Well, I hope... I hope you don't mind me. It's just, wherever I go I get scorned and hated and attacked. Nopony trusts a changeling anymore."

The doe grinned and nodded her head, her eyes softer. "Your kind is not to blame for what happened, changeling. Just remember that; we deer know the truth. It was the ponies who drove your kind to do what they did, and we have never blamed you for anything."

Thorax shook his head and stepped closer to Blue and Coalburst slowly, his eyes slightly brighter. "I... I don't think so. I don't blame ponykind for hating my species." He tentatively reached a hoof out to Blue and wrapped it around her neck. "I just... One day, I would just love to see everyone come together and fix things. Changelings and deer and ponies and every other species... We just need to, you know, get on and be friends. Friendship is really great, and it's really powerful too—I should know! Because otherwise... Well, otherwise we're never gonna be able to fix the world and be happy again."

The doe was quiet before she began to back up slowly, leaving through the hole in the mud wall. "If only it was that easy, little changeling. But maybe one day it will happen—but not until someone steps up to take the lead."