Down south in the deserted and dry bad lands, the Changelings dwelled from pony civilization. The vicious parasitic creatures were unwelcome anywhere for what they have been known to be and do.
In a deep and dark cave in the mountains, the ruler of the Changelings, Queen Chrysalis, stayed in her lair alone. Her attempt to take over Equestria had failed because the power of love Princess Cadence and her new husband Shining Armor possessed was stronger than the queen had gained. Though she wanted to plan another conquest, it was not the time. Instead of frowning, she smiled, looking upon her new baby changeling growing inside a large egg. The egg was green with veins all around the outer shell. The shell was very thin so the baby could be seen. It had already grown bug-like little wings and a small horn. Its eyes were closed shut and its limbs twitched, ready to be born very soon.
"My darling little larvae…" the Queen said in a soothing voice, gently stroking the egg with her hoof. She gave it a motherly kiss. "There's not a thing in the world that could replace you, my greatest and only treasure…"
Unfortunately, the mother and child moment was interrupted when she heard loud and angry clamoring coming from outside of her lair. She let out a groan of frustration and stood up.
"This is the fourth time this week the swarm had been fighting!" she exclaimed. "What could it be this time…?" She looked down at her egg and kissed it with a smile. "Don't worry, my precious. I'll be back shortly. Don't go anywhere." She walked out of her lair to see what the commotion was going on outside, leaving her egg alone and unguarded.
Immediately after being left alone, the horn of the baby started to glow and dim, going on and off. Babies with horns often had magic spasms that could be caused by the young age, making it difficult to control. The light of the horn continued to glow until the light consumed the egg completely. In a blinding zap from the magic spasms, it vanished, leaving the lair without a trace. It could've gone anywhere in the world.
Chrysalis returned to her lair, being able to get the other changelings to cease their ridiculous fighting among each other, but all she saw was a room without an egg.
"No… no… it can't be gone!" Her heart was stabbed with a subconscious icicle. The only thing in the world that was precious to her was gone. She began to breathe very fast with little quick squeaking gasps of panic. She searched everywhere in her lair, tossing and throwing boulders and raising dust, about to break into tears. With the place nearly demolished, there was no sign of the egg at all. The Queen broke out into many tears, letting out a grieving wail for all who lived in the mountains to hear. As she let out her agonizing and heartbreaking cries, little did she know that her egg was on a trip to the north from the bad lands.
It had magically appeared in the river, floating away on a wild ride. It had begun to travel many miles alone in moving water. It was going to be a long while until fate would make another decision for the egg. Many hours had passed. There was no stopping the egg of continuing to flow down the large river. It had soon travelled towards a large waterfall. The baby inside heard the loud and roaring currents of the water coming close to the edge of the falls, but was unable to do anything about it. The egg leaped off the edge and went tumbling down along with the falling water. After falling hundreds of feet down from the falls, the egg crashed into the next river with a big splash. It slowly rose up to the surface of the water and continued to be carried by the current without being given a scratch or damaging the baby inside.
More hours had come to pass for the egg as the sun was setting, creating a beautiful twilight sky. It was alone and wet. The baby inside began to feel cold, starting to twitch again. All of a sudden, the egg halted to a complete stop. It was blocked by a few large soft rocks that kept it from floating down the thinning river. After a long journey down from the mountains, the egg had arrived next to a small cottage just outside of the town Ponyville.
Little Lantana, a young yellow Pegasus filly with a blonde mane and tail, was tending to her own private little garden of flowers. She had always enjoyed gardening with her mother and it became a hobby of hers. She took well care of her plants. She gave it all of the love they needed. She was quietly singing to herself, hoping to entertain her flowers.
"Did you like that, Mr. Sunflower?" she asked her tall and yellow flower. She watched it move with the wind as if it was replying to her. She giggled. "Why thank you! Mommy and I have done a little practicing together." Her ear twitched, as if she was hearing her daisies saying something to her. "What's that? You need some more fertilizer? Well, I'll just ask mommy for some more. I'll be right back!"
She skipped happily around the cottage near the river. Before she took another skip, something caught her eye by the river. She turned away from the cottage and crept towards the running water, seeing something large and green. She took a closer look and saw that it was shaped like an egg. To her surprise it was an egg. She could easily see something moving inside. She tapped on the shell, and her hoof recoiled off like a rubber ball bouncing on the ground. Being unsure about what she found, she went to find her father to help with the little investigation.
"Daddy! Daddy!" she called out, running around her home.
On the opposite side of the cottage, Yorkshire was helping his wife, Fluttershy with feeding the animals for their evening dinner. Fluttershy stayed inside, feeding the indoor animals while he fed the outdoor animals. He had just given the chipmunks that were living underneath a large tree a bowl of assorted nuts and acorns. He watched the little critters literally stuff their faces with the nuts and chuckled.
"Fluttershy says to chew your food thoroughly." Yorkshire said, gently petting one of them on the head. He continued to feed the other animals until he heard his daughter calling out for him. "Daddy! Daddy!" he heard. He turned around to see that Lantana had found him and was coming up to him rather hastily.
"I found something, Daddy! Come see it!" she exclaimed, tugging one of his front legs.
"I can't right now." Yorkshire said. "You mother wants me to feed the animals before it gets dark."
"But Daddy, it's something you need to see! It's in the river!" She continued to tug on his leg, desperately hoping to get her father to go with her.
He let a small sigh out from his mouth and gave his little filly a smile. "Alright." He saw a great happy smile on Lantana's face and watched her go to the river. He put down the food for the animals and followed her. "So what is it that you found, sweetie?" he asked.
"I think it's an egg! You have to come see it!"
"An egg, huh? This should be interesting." Yorkshire looked in the river, and saw the large egg with his own eyes. He took a step back in fright, seeing an egg so green and veiny. He watched Lantana touching the rubbery shell of the egg. "Lantana! Don't go near it!" he yelled in haste.
Lantana quickly took a step back from her father's loud voice, frightening her. "But Daddy… it's just an egg."
He took a few steps closer towards it. It was still being pushed by the water, but it was being blocked by rocks that were keeping it from flowing down further. He slowly placed his hoof on the shell, feeling the texture of it to be smooth and yet squishy.
Lantana puffed her cheeks with frustration. "How come you get to touch it and I can't?" she pouted.
Yorkshire decided to ignore her last comment. He saw the being that was growing inside the egg, but couldn't tell what it was. Was it a large bird, or was it a dragon? He placed his ear against the shell to see if he could hear something from it. From the egg, he heard a quiet thu-thump like a beating heart. There was something in there, but was it something he wanted to see when it would hatch? From the way the egg looked, it appeared to belong to something dangerous.
"Lantana, I don't think we should keep this here." he said, looking towards his daughter and then back to the egg. "I think we should just push it down the river and forget we ever saw it."
"But Daddy, we should take care of it like Mommy does with the animals." Lantana replied.
"Sweetie, your mother is the last pony we should tell about this egg. If she were to see this, she would never part with this thing, and my worries might actually come true. Please, Lantana, whatever you do, don't tell-"
It was too late. Lantana had already gotten into the cottage to tell her mother about what she had found.
Fluttershy quickly followed her daughter outside and saw Yorkshire by the egg in the river. She gasped loudly and flew over. "Oh my goodness…!" She landed next to Yorkshire and placed her hooves on it, gently caressing the shell. "I hope it's okay…!" She put her arms around the egg and pulled it out of the river, causing her pant heavily with little squeaks as she inhaled. She looked to her husband with worry in her eyes. "Yorkshire, why didn't you pull this out of the water sooner…?!"
Yorkshire stayed silent for a moment, seeing how Fluttershy was getting a little assertive with him. He slowly opened his mouth to speak. "I… had some other thoughts about this thing…"
"Sweetie, we'll talk about what your other thoughts later. Right now, we need to get this egg inside and keep it warm." She looked over to her daughter and signaled her to come over. "Lantana, please help me get this inside."
"What should I do?" Yorkshire asked.
"Um…" Fluttershy looked around, but then saw an unfinished platter of food that was supposed to be given out to the rest of the animals. "You can come in and help once you finish giving the animals their dinner."
He slowly nodded. "Yes, Fluttershy…"
She and Lantana rolled the egg into the cottage carefully without damaging the shell.
Yorkshire watched them go inside before continuing to the give the rest of the animals their food. He let out a worried sigh.
"I have a bad feeling about this…"
