I walked down one of the many hallways of the castle alone. It has been a few days since retaking the Valley and everything is going fine for the most part. I looked out of the window to see the city below, it was the middle of a cloudless day but I never trusted it.

I thought back on when I first came to the Boreal Valley. The was a long time ago, like a real long time ago, like before Celestia and Luna were born. I don't know how or why but I came to be into the world much older than this, to a time where swords and plate mail were a thing.

I was… brought here by something that I can't picture or name, I don't know why I remember things from my old life in a world where everything was trying to kill you and hope seemed lost but anything after that it's fuzzy. I remember my old name, my sister, Mlp, and… that's it. I blame it on old age, kinda.

“My lord?” I was snapped back from my thoughts as someone asked me something. I turned and saw one of the servants. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, just thinking is, is something the matter?” I asked the servant.

“No my lord, I’m just delivering a message.” the servant said. “Lady Yorshka said it will take some time to get the old gate to work again.”

“I see, thank you,” I told the servant. I looked out of the window just in time to see a dark shape fly to the nearby mountains. A small grin grew on my face. “Mind taking a message to her?”

“Of course my lord.”

“Tell her that I’m going to be busy, will be back by the time she is done.”

I climbed the mountain side for the last hour trying to get to the top. I looked over to see the Valley as it looked like a small toy set. Shaking my head I continued to climb.

‘Why am I doing this again?’ I thought to myself. I got to the ledge and pulled myself up. I saw what looked like a clearing here and saw my answer. A big black wyvern.

‘Right, that.’ I thought. I stood up and began to walk closer to the wyvern. It turned to me and started to growl at me, dark black smoke began to pour out from its mouth as it dark purple eyes glared at me. I pointed at it and yelled out the most stupidest thing I can think of.

“YOU WILL BE MY NEW PET AND I SHALL CALL YOU FLUFFY!!!”

There was a loud crash from outside of the main staircase to the castle. I groaned and sat up and dusted myself off. I heard loud footsteps coming from behind me. I turned and saw a group of guards running towards me.

“My lord! What… happened?” one of the guards asked.

“Oh well, I just went out and got myself a new friend,” I said. I turned back and saw the wyvern groaning in pain. Some of the scales and horns have broken off and her wing is busted. “She might need some healing, so! How’s Yorshka?”

“Uhh we were looking for you, transport is ready to Canterlot.” the guard said. He looked at the wyvern nervously.

“Great! Now go find some healers to help out her,” I pointed at wyvern. “Get her up to shape and place this on her for the time being.”

I handed the guard a stone and started to head for where I’m needed. I made my way to a room deep in the castle. When I get there I found Yorshka and four Darkmoon Knights standing in wait. She looked at me and smiled.

“It’s good to see you my lord, have you finished your business you needed to do?” she asked.

“Yeah, she’s in the castle getting looked after.” I rolled my shoulders a bit, groaning a bit. “She’s a tough one I can say.”

“Yes, so shall we.” she gestures to the middle of the room. I walked over there and stood there. I felt the magic started, dust, ash, and snow started to twist around us.

Twilight

“Y'all sure this is a good idea Twilight?” Applejack asked. I simply smiled at her.

“Applejack, this is a good idea. We're meeting the rulers of another kingdom that haven't surface for a long time, this is a great opportunity!” I said. “Oh, what knowledge they would have!”

“Sugarcube, ya doing it again,” Applejack said. I blinked at her and blushed. “Anyway, ah understand that much but why me? Can someone else can do it; Rarity, Fluttershy, Dash, heck even Jace.”

“Well Rarity busy with a client, Fluttershy is to scared to come, Dash is off practicing, Pinkie is doing… something, and-” I frowned. “I don't know, he just up left to do something. The other hunters said that he’s doing something important.”

“Ya know, ya been spending a lot of your spare time over that their workshop, it's like a second home for ya.”

I chuckled a bit. “I do have to admit I spent some time there, there's some much there that no library has.” I spun around and looked at the farmer with a like of panic. “B-b-but I do make time for Nyx and Stella!”

“Ah never said ya didn't, now then we're here,” Aj said. I looked and saw the two doors to the throne room. The two guards opened the doors and let us in. I saw Celestia and Luna sitting in their thrones smiling towards us. We both how at them.

“Princess Celestia, I hope we're not late,” I said. I heard a chuckle from them.

“Twilight, you don't need to call me Princess, we're equals and close friends.” I blushed a bit.

“Sorry, force of habit,” I told her. She smiled and looked over at Applejack.

“It's good to see you as well Applejack.”

“Thank ya kindly Princess, and before ya say what ya said to Twilight just let me call ya that, it’s easier to say that other than ya name,” Applejack said. She smiled before turning to me.

“So when will the rules will come?” I asked eagerly. Celestia turned to Luna, she pulled a pocket watch and opened it.

“They should be here any second now,” Luna said.

“What do you-” I was interrupted by a magic spike coming from behind me. I turned to see what looks like dust, no it was ash and… snow? Twisting around in one spot. The guards moved around the spot to protect us.

Slowly the small tornado subsided and there stood six individuals, four of them were clad in armor from head to toe. One of them was a tall woman with pale white skin and what look like scales, and a white tail. Next to her was… Jace?

Jace

I looked around and saw Canterlot's guards pointing weapons at us, I sighed that the sight.

“Nice to have a warm welcome,” I muttered. Yorshka chuckled.

“You have ways to provoke others,” she said. I sighed at the thought.

“It’s a curse I swear” I looked passed the guards to see Tia and Lu smiling at me and also Twilight and Aj as well. I turned my attention to the one guard with the spear pointing at me. “You know, this isn’t a good first impression you wanted to make to your guests.”

“Guards, stand down,” Tia said she stood up and walked towards us with a smile. “I knew that you’ll be coming here when your business was finished.”

“What can I say, I’m sometimes easy to read,” I told her. I saw Twilight mouth ajar at us, also Applejack but she didn’t look happy I wounder why? “Anyway Tia, Lu, and everyone I want you all to meet Yorshka, the ruler of the Boreal Valley.”

Yorshka stepped forward and bowed slightly. “ I have heard many things about you two.”

“I hope it’s all good,” Luna said sheepishly. Yorshka just smiled at her and turned her gaze to Twilight. She walked forward to her, Applejack stepped in front of her still frowning. Yorshka stopped a few steps away from them.

“You must be the newest princess, Princess Twilight Sparkle I assumed.” she said.

“Umm, yes that’s me.” Twilight stuttered. Yorshka smiled as her eyes drifted to the farmer, who was still glaring at her.

“Well I know that it’s nice to chat and all but I want to get this done,” I said with a clap. Tia rolled her eyes at me.

“Well, there’s a room where we can go to talk and negotiate,” Tia said. We followed her to the room, I saw Applejack stay behind.

“Applejack, you coming?” Twilight asked.

“Sorry Twi, ah just,” her gaze turned to Yorshka, her eyes narrowed. “Ah have something else to deal with.”

With that, she turned and quickly walk out of the room. I narrowed my eyes at the farmer as she left.

“What are your thoughts?” I asked quietly.

“She has a lot of pent up hate towards me, but not at me,” Yorshka said. “I believe she has a sort of grudge on my race.”

Aj has beef with cross-breeds? I turned to the door and thought about it, I’ll deal with it at a later date.

“Come one, let’s get this thing over with,” I said. I turned and headed on out of the room to
the other room. Doing important talking stuff, great~.

I walked out of the room where the negotiations are happening and sighed. I’m not one to negotiate on trading, I prefer action than words. Luckily Yorshka is much better at this than I am.

I looked around at the hallway and saw a guard standing there. I shouldn’t be bothered at the sight of one simple guard but… something was off about him, he seems out of place and with everything I have seen in my life, err lives, when you see something out of place then something is either there that shouldn’t be or wrong.

I walked over to the guard, who flinched at me as I got closer. “Hello there, nice day we’re having.”

“Uhh yeah, yeah it’s a nice day.” the guard stuttered. I looked at him and saw that he looked scared.

“Hey you alright? You look tense.”

“Just!... a long day at work… I’m fine.” his eyes darted around at the place which made me suspicious.

“Hey you need to calm down, just take so deep-” I placed my hand on his shoulder and he stiffens as a white flame consumed him, revealing black skin and white eyes. We stared at one another for some time. “Well, this is awkward.”

“Uhh well umm… got to go!” the changeling said as he tried to book it. Only for me to grab the back of his armor and pulled him back.

“Oh no, you don’t, how about you tell me why Chrysalis sending spies out here,” I said in a low tone.

“I-I-I-I’m not with that hive, I’m with another who’s the child of Queen Chrysalis… well, was a child of Queen Chrysalis.” the changeling said.

“Well, why are you here then?” I asked.

“...Food,” he said. I heard the sound of footsteps coming closer.

“Take me to your hive, I want to chat with your queen,” I said. He blinked at me and frowned.

“I will not! I will not show you where my hive is and bring danger to my queen,” he said. I heard the footsteps getting louder.

“Better reconsider, those guards won’t be happy to see a Changeling in the castle,” I said. I saw the changeling started to look a bit panicked as the sound became louder.

“I-I can’t…”

“Suit yourself, HEY GUYS-”

“Whitetail woods!” he yelled. I smiled as ash began to twist around us.

“Thank you.”

The scenery changed to that of a forest, much nicer than the Everfree. I saw the changeling slowly stand up beside me.

“Alright lead on,” I said to him.

“Why are you doing this? Why do you want to meet our queen?” he asked.

“What can I say I’m in a diplomatic mood today,” I said. We headed out into the woods for about fifteen minutes until we came to a cave sort of place, it had two guards standing out front. When they saw us they tensed up. The changeling came up to them and started to talk to them in a hush tone. I saw one of them eyes dim a bit then back to normal. The changeling guard came up to me.

“Alright, you have an audience with the queen. Just don’t touch anything,” he said. I frowned at him but didn’t say anything. We headed down into the caves where I saw some of the changelings that live here. There were few and far between.

“There’s not a lot of you here,” I said to the guards.

“There’s about under three hundred of use here, we are the smallest hive here.” The guard turned to me. “A normal small hive has about two to four thousand changelings here.”

I whistled at the numbers. We continued on until we got to what I can guess is the throne room of the place. It was small, not as pretty and simple. I took a liking to it.

There on the throne is the changeling queen, who's now breathing heavily and looks that she’s about to collapse. She looks at me with snow white eyes that, oddly, have a red hue around them.

“W-who are you…” she whispered. I stepped forward until I was close to her.

“I’m Jace Belaguard, may I ask for your name,” I asked. She tried to sit up to make her look former but lurch forward and started to coughing. The guards went to her to see if she’s alright but she wave them off.

“I’m… Queen Tyra… of this hive. What business… do you have…” she rasped. I frowned at the state she was in.

“Well I found one of your changelings in the castle in Canterlot, I thought you were going to pull a Chrysalis-” I saw her eyes turn a bit red.

“And what… we are evil like her! Do all changelings you see are evil!” she shouted which made her start having a coughing fit.

“I didn’t say that, I can tell by looking around that you’re not like her, but I have to say is there something wrong with you?” I asked her. She stared at me for a moment.

“Changelings feed on emotions to stay alive, the stronger the better, love is the easiest to get but with what she did at Canterlot, getting emotions became harder,” she said as she stood up. She was shorter than I, who isn’t, she has snow white hair with sharp white transparent wings. Closer up hey eyes were white with a pale gray iris, even in a sickly state she tried to look formal. “I left her hive due to the fact that I didn’t agree with her methods. We made our hive and everything was going well until she showed up.”

She stumbled a bit as one of her guards came up and help her stand. “It was after the wedding when she showed up, weak and alone, I thought maybe that due to the events she might have turned a new leaf. But I was wrong, so very wrong, she came in and started to drain the emotions from my children and left me there with them all dying.”

I looked around and remembered the so few changelings around. She too looked around. “I saw my children slowly die around me which tore my heart apart. So I gave them my love so they would survive.”

I stared at her and loudly groaned. “I hate being nice, all my years of beast hunting and I’m still this nice!” I pulled my coat off and covered her with the hood up to cover her. “Do you trust me to help you and your hive.”

She looked at me and I saw her eyes pierce through my soul, it was creepy. “If it would bring my family from this hell hole, then I would do anything.”

I nodded and felt my magic as we transported out of the hive.

We appeared back to Canterlot in the same hallway that I and the changeling were. I looked around, seeing that there’s no one around I usher Tyra to the room that we were negotiating. I opened the door to see Tia, Lu, Twilight, and Yorshka sitting around the table.

“Jace, there you are, we were wondering where you- who’s she?” Luna asked. Before I could answer Tyra fell onto the ground. I caught her before she hits the ground, everyone else rushed over to her side.

“Jace what’s going on, who is-” Twilight stopped as she saw Tyra face. “She’s a changeling.”

“A queen at that, and she’s very weak,” I said to her. I looked up at Yorshka. “May you?”

“Of course my lord,” she said. She puts out her hand and a stream of snow white and blue magic poured out and went into her. She gasped and her breathing became a bit less heavy. “That should help her until she’s fed.”

“Okay, what’s going on?!” Luna asked.

“Sister, do you remember what happened two years ago?” Tia asked her.

“What? The wedding? I missed that.” she said. Twilight looked over at me.

“Jace what’s going on?” I sighed and began to explain my plan.

I walked in the fields in the Valley with Yorshka at my side.

“Do you believe this would work?” I asked her.

“To have the Changeling have in the Whitetail woods under the protection of the Valley until they are strong enough to live in peace with Canterlot, it’s a big risk but if it goes as plan then we have made a great ally,” she said. I nodded and looked out towards the city. “Do you still wish to let me lead after this is all done? You have the potential to lead this land.”

“I know I could but there’s still things that I’m not ready for, this is one of them, not yet,” I told her. She nodded.

“Then, again, your throne will be here until you are ready.”

Author's Notes:

Yes this may sound rushed but I just wanted to get this one done. -_-