Chapter One: A Snowy Night and a Single Box

The winter air was very strong that night. Combine that with heavy snow, ice, and slippery roads and you have a recipe for disaster. Strong Wind, a pure white pegasus pony with brown eyes, and long black mane and tail, sighed as he looked up at the belltower in the distance. He wasn't able to read the numbers that well, due to the snow pelting his eyes. However, he was able to see where the hands were pointing at. 11:49pm. At least, that's what he could make out from that distance. He continued walking towards the large apartment complex, when a snowplow came running in at the wrong time, and completely blocked his path.

"Oh for the love of.." he said as he slapped his hoof to his face

It was nearly midnight now. He was exhausted for having worked overtime at the cloud factory, and now he had no way of getting home.

"Just my luck. Now how am I going to get home?" He questioned himself, as he looked around the snow covered town.

Looking around, he found that most of the pathways were either blocked by snow, or barricaded with signs that that forbade any kind of movement on the said path. Turning himself around, he noticed a small alleyway wedged in the middle of two small businesses. That was the last place he wanted to trot down. However, he was getting colder and colder by the minute and there were no other options available at the moment. So he just sucked it up, and made his way towards the alley. Once there, he got a very strange feeling that something was off about the place. Of course, everything was off about dark alleyways in the middle of town. Robbers, Vandals, and Creepy as Tartarus ponies usually resided at places like this.

"I'm going to die aren't I ?" Strong Wind said as he continued to make his way down the narrow alleyway

Just as he was about to turn the corner towards the endless maze of connected alleyways, he heard something. It wasn't a very loud sound, however it was certainly there. Strong Wind took some time to gaze around the place he had trespassed on, and saw nothing except the usual dumpster, broken glass, and the occasional stray needle lying around. He gave a small sigh of relief, and continued to make his way down the dirty pathway. About a few minutes in, he heard the sound again, this time a lot louder, as well as closer too. Strong Wind started to sweat, despite the temperature being below thirty that night, in fear at who (or what for that matter) was following him. He prayed that there wasn't a psycho killer stalking him as he walked. Taking in a deep breath, he continued to move, albeit a bit faster this time. After about what seemed like forever, he finally made it towards the end of the alley. Only to find out that the exit was completely covered in snow (about six feet of it that is).

" I swear to Celestia, I'm going to freaking find the pegasi that are doing this and beat the living he..."

A loud crash of wood and metal interrupted his ranting. His face began turning white as turned around. Upon turning around, he saw a large pile of wooden crates and old metal carriage parts that had fallen crashed into a huge heap on the ground. This just terrified him even more as he saw the damage. He hadn't even been near that stack of crates, much less caused it all to come crashing down like that. It wasn't until he saw a figure struggling from the heap, did his blood truly ran cold. He couldn't completely make it out, but it looked very pony like.

It looked like it's wing was trapped in the pile, only to free itself moments later after hearing a rather nasty tearing sound coming from where the pony, or whoever the heck it was, was at. Almost immediately, the figure turned to the petrified pegasis and ran into a small box not too far off. Whatever it was, he was sure that it was more frightened of him then he was of it. Nevertheless, he knew that it wasn't time to take chances. Looking around, he found a stray piece of wood lying next to him with a nail sticking out of it. It wasn't much , but it was something. Grabbing the weapon in his hooves, the shaking pegasi made his way over towards the box that the figure had disappeared in. It was now or never. Lifting up the weapon in one hoof, he used his other hoof to open up the flaps of the box. Once the last flap was opened, Strong Wind's jaw dropped. Inside the box, was a Changeling with one of its wings torn rather badly from the side. Normally, he would run like a little girl at the sight of something like that, but for some reason he didn't. The Changeling immediately opened it's eyes and made a hissing sound that made him jump back in fright. Strong Wind grabbed at his weapon that he was carrying and immediately lifted it up to strike a fatal blow, when the Changeling spoke:

"P...Please don't hurt me." the Changeling said whimpering.

The Pegasi immediately stopped himself from striking. He wasn't sure why he did it, but for some reason something was preventing him from killing the Changeling in front of him. Breathing heavily, he threw the weapon down on the ground and lowered himself down to meet eyes with the changeling.

"Hey" the pegasi said warmly "I'm not going to hurt you."

The Changeling locked eyes on the stallion in front of him. For some reason, he believed him.

"You can come out. I promise I'm not going to harm you in any way." The Pegasi said with a smile

"Why are you being so nice to me?" The Changeling asked

Strong Wind didn't really know how to respond to that question. He had heard a lot about Changelings, and how they where love sucking monsters that would gladly kill you for all the love in your body. He also had heard about the Changeling invasion in the Crystal Empire, so why he wasn't splattering this Changeling's brains across the pavement was a mystery even to him. What made the situation a lot weirder, was the fact that he was being kind to this Changeling. Now, he wasn't a selfish pony, but he certainly had trust issues when it came to strangers, including other ponies. But this Changeling. He had a feeling that this Changeling was different than what he had been told.

"I...I..I don't know." The stallion answered

"Well...I won't hurt you" The Changeling replied " you can go on ahead and leave if you want."

Strong Wind looked down at the shivering Changeling in front of him. In an instant, all feeling of suspicion and fight melted away into care and a desire to help.

"Do you have anywhere to stay at?" Strong Wind asked

"No..Not really." The Changeling Answered

"Well, would you like to stay with me for a little while?" The stallion asked

The Changeling looked at him with confusion. First this stallion wanted to kill him, now he was offering a place to stay?

"Are you sure?" The Changeling asked

"Of Course! No pony, or in this case Changeling, should go without a warm bed." The stallion said smiling down at the Changeling.

"Well, if you say so.."

The Changeling immediately walked out of the box that he was sheltering himself from. Strong Wind immediately took notice at how big this Changeling was. He looked to be close to his age almost.

"Wow, you're pretty tall." The stallion remarked

"Yeah, I'm not a pupa anymore. I just turned eighteen this week actually." The Changeling said with a small smile

"Well, now that we've got out of that crazy situation, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Strong Wind."

"I'm Buzzer,but I'm usually called B." The Changeling said embarrassed

"Well B, it's good to meet you. Now how about we get ourselves out of this snow, and into a warm bed." The Stallion asked

"Sounds good." Buzzer Replied

Now the only question that flowed into Strong Wind's head was "How the heck do I sneak in a Changeling?"