//------------------------------// // 27-Shit. // Story: This Beautiful Darkness Shall Protect Me... // by Timemaster //------------------------------// I look upon myself in the mirror, the third day of me in the comfortable hospital bed. Though my body seems to have been getting progressively worse the longer I let Allen replace me in it, but I fear that I will have to continue using him for now. Right now, Allen is in the mind of the griffon as we sleep. I know not of what he is doing, and I do not want to know. I really do not want to think about it, I look at my face, knowing that, unlike Allen, I have no idea what my real face looks like.Its odd how the last human body I controlled felt, and still feels with it gone, too. It was not a true human body,for it just did not make sense for me to look like that, so I wonder if it was Chrysalis who put me into that form and why she did so. I can not even remember who I am, for all of my memories are of Allen, Christopher, and the child. I know I can't be Allen, for he is his own entity;Christopher is a probability; and I am sure I am no child. So who was I? Truly, that doesn't matter now, but I want to know. I am Mr. Scribe, renowned member of the war-party, and whatever was on my false biography that the Canterlot Task Force wrote for me. The mirror starts to blur and haze as Allen appears. I wave at the lunatic as my vision of him fades, too. I wake up for the fourth time this day, feeling more rested than before. I move my body, bones popping into place. In a few moments, I feel a voice reverberating around the walls, sounding like a horrifying screech. I instinctively jump off the bed, feeling my numb parts slam into the ground, making me tear as run away from the noise at a brisk pace. "Scribe!" yelled a familiar griffon voice in the hall, the voice gnarled with kind of sickness. I had made it to the window at this point, immediately jumping out and opening my wicked wings. I harshly glide down fifty stories, narrowly falling into a cart. My wings separated the wind so precisely, that I did not hear my own self land softly. The griffon dragging the cart had on earmuffs, so I just cover myself with a blanket on the back of the cart. I pulled some bags under the blanket, too, so it would look just a bit more natural. I lay there for an hour or two before I feel the wagon stop moving. I hear wings flap, so he must be leaving to go somewhere. I peek out the blanket, seeing the driver disappearing in the distance. I get out of the cart, bones popping, and look at my surroundings. Around me are several mountains, each with moderately sized homes on them. Everyone seemed to be inside, not watching, so I take a bag of grain from the cart. I wonder how the griffon that was part of the Canterlot Task Force even found me, presuming that the sailors must have said too much. I make the vest into a saddlebag, carrying the bag of grain in my left side, and trot eastward (the sun was still somewhat rising, so I knew the direction) towards the Dragon's Nest. The Equestrian Kingdom would be too surrounded by secret changelings by the time I get there,so I have to go back where I started. I find a dirt road down the trail that headed south and had a sign saying, 'Flyer's Rest'. Rest would be satisfactory in a few hours, and it said that the place was only 10 kilometers away. Because I was in a pretty good hospital, I am guessing I am in the mainland. May take a few days to get to an eastern port city, but a lot better than not getting there at all. Of course, I also had to be hidden there, too. Thinking about it, it seemed that Allen moved me hundreds of kilometers by himself, so could I do that? I don't really know how, though, and I do not want Allen out here again. I casually trot down the dirt road, seeing a slightly dense forest in the distance. Deciduous trees seemed to be wilting currently, leaving a beautiful orange hue in the distance. I gleefully trot to it faster, wanting to see what else could lie on this dirty, misshapen, and yet happy path. ... An hour or two later, and I am on the edge of a rock that overlooks the beauty of the forest. It's size was mindbogglingly huge compared to what I thought it was. I stare, watching trees blow in the mild wing, letting it wash off some of my sweat. I wasn't fully healed, so my hooves have started to hurt. I sit on the rock for a bit, letting the wind rush past me. I look below the rock, seeing pretty even ground and the road to my left. The road cut through the forest, but seemed to start blending into the grass the further it went. I stare at the large mountains in the distance, remembering that I was supposed to do something for the Dogs. I was to kill a woman on the northern edge of the Griffon continent who has been blackmailing them for a few months. The name was written on the knife, but I don't have it. Where did I leave it? I think about the knife for a while, hearing the answer, "I have it." The answer came from my own mouth, but not from me. I close my eyes, thinking of the mirror... "What do you mean you have it?" I say to Allen, who is playing with it in the mirror. "Well, I knew you couldn't possibly handle hunting, so I kept the supply safe for you," he says, smiling. His voice sends shivers down my spine, "Well, can you hand it here?" "No," he says with a frown, "you were the one who keeps me bored in here." He pops his neck, "I want some fun, too." "Fine." He did not answer. "Allen?" "Hello, Allen?" I say, waving my hoof. He, too, waves his hand matching my motions. I try to open my eyes, but to my horror, see my own reflection in the mirror. "Finally." I say, rolling my shoulders. I put on underpants, feeling little beads of grain in the underpants. I shake for a bit, getting them out the ooz. The knife falls out the ooz, clattering on the ground. I pick it up, seeing its shining black blade with an engraving on it. I draw a oval on the rock, watching it turn into liquid below me. I sink into it, letting myself be engulfed in it, and wait for it to harden. I open my eyes, rising out of the rock with a full suit of armor. Rock armor, to be precise. I take off my boots and take out the knife and cut a circle on to the inside of both boots. I put the boots on, and focus a short sting of magic into them, watching the human invention of the magic loop make me levitate a bit off the ground before falling back down slowly. I look at the beautifully orange trees for a few moments as they slowly turn a dead gray in my eyes. When all the color had disappeared, I kick off the ground and slowly rise hundreds of feet in the air. I graft a loop onto my chest as I am falling, putting magic into it as it completes. This loop makes me slow down even more, to the point that it seems like I am flying. I pulse a burst of magic into my feet, which are pointed south, and hear a popping noise behind me. I look down at the trees, which are hit by a burst of air, sending many leaves into the air in magnificent fashion. Of course, in a few seconds, the entire forest is gone from my view. As I travel at a speed faster than sound could muster, I see many griffons nearly collide with me. Happily, I did not splatter a bird onto my windshield helmet. I laugh as I see many rural cities come and go below me, pulsing a burst of magic into my chest whenever I nearly fell. I missed this feeling. The feeling of being indestructible. ... I finally smell a slight amount of dead fish and rusty metal. I suck up the magic in my loops, making me fall like a cannonball into the middle of another small forest near the city I was probably instructed to go to. I then send a pulse into my chest loop, making me levitate a few centimeters off the ground. I put my knees and hands on the ground and suck back up my magic. After a few seconds of catching my breath, I stand up. Many small griffons lead by a big griffon in a ranger outfit stare at me. I wave at them, running northward into the forest. i run for an hour or so before reaching an abandoned stone road. I walk onto the road, taking bits of stone to reinforce my armor, and walk to a small house. I read the engraving on the mailbox, seeing that this wasn't the house, but I was on the right street. I read the knife again. '900 Capital Way, Griffon's Gate' I go to the house on the left, thinking everyone must be at work or something, and see that this was 899. I go left one more time and reach the house I needed. The house looks pretty, but it was small. I walk into the garden and stand as still as a statue, waiting. ... I see a griffon walk into the yard and stare at me. This was a male, so it was definitely not him. "Did my daughter order this ugly thing?" I stand still, a little mad that he insulted the body of humanity. He kicks me gently on the leg and immediately regrets it, "Who makes a statue out of sharp rocks!" I do. He walks inside, angered, and slams the door. I move to a more hidden part of the yard, behind the fountain, where I could still see the forest. I waited for nearly and hour. Feeling like going to sleep, I hear the snap of twigs. I look to the forest, which has become a bit darker as it is now the afternoon. I watch as the forest had many griffons come out of it, just like I did, and saw that they were all surrounding one griffon. The young griffons, horrified, look at their female ranger for guidance. In the middle of the street, the griffon ranger tried calming them down. "I am going to go home, so why don't you guys?" she kept saying to the small pigeon-people. "But we want to stay with you!" "No! Your parents told you guys to go to your nests before 9:00 PM, and it is already 8:45!" They all look down in disappointed agreement. Some start to walk off, pulling their respective family members. The female rangers shoos the rest away softly and starts walking into the yard. Wind picks off her hat and it lands in the claws of a little griffon. She turns around to get it. "Thank you for getting my hat." She says, pulling on it. The child doesn't budge. He looks at her, horrified,"No!" "What?" she asks," you don't want to give me my hat?" She snags it, and suddenly many small griffons shriek at her. She shrugs and turns around, bumping into the armor-less me. She looks astounded for a second, then looks dead. I pick off the witnesses and get back into my suit. I got a map off the ranger, which showed the island, and put it in the ooz. Using its coordinates, however, I plot course back to the Dragons' Nest. I look down as the impending sonic boom made the man of the house come outside. I laughed at what he must have seen. I wake up on top of a rock overlooking many dragons, my head rattling and my vision blurry. I couldn't really think straight, so I just let myself say things. "Hello!" I scream at them, having some of them look back at me with surprised eyes. I see many white ponies on the ground, too. I smile. "So, what is your answer to our call?" I say, a large smirk on my face. The white dragon, wounded, walks to me. He stares at me with his humongous eyes as I stare back. I wink at him, knowing that he knew about me. He smiles, "We agree." And every single dragon rejoiced in agreement, their bloodlust scaring the white ponies on the ground and amusing me.