Chapter 1 - A story to tell
I froze in place after knocking over the crate in the alley I was in. I saw a pony's shadow moving along the ground closer and closer to the mouth of it. I changed my skin to as dark of a colour as I could manage. As I saw the shadow still moving closer I could hear the hoofsteps getting louder as the pony kept walking.
They shouldn't be able to see me like this, I thought. As the pony started coming into view I stayed as still as I could. However, forgetting about the slight light my eyes gave out, I didn't think to close them as it came into the alley. When I remembered this fact, it was too late.
“It's the forest shifter!”
In that single moment, I grabbed the crate I knocked over, throwing it towards the pony who yelled, and bolted in the opposite direction in a bee-line for the Everfree. If I can make it past the treeline, then maybe I can lose them.
The distinct sound of thundering hooves and flapping wings at my back kept me going as fast as my legs could carry me. Looking back, my eyes widened as I saw practically all of the ponies in pursuit and catching up quicker than I would've liked. This was not going to work with the Bipedal form. I needed to be faster.
With a quick leap forward into the air, throwing my hands in front, I willed myself into the form of a wolf. Unexpectedly, I heard the sound of hooves slamming to a stop behind me. I took a quick peak and saw the ponies looking at me with a shocked and dumb-founded expression on their faces. I gave a light laugh, as this was second time I saw this from them. Ha! I might just be able to make it!
However, before I could make it any further, Rainbow Dash dive-bombed straight towards me at blinding speeds. Oh, crap!, I thought, before I stopped briefly in my tracks and, just as I was hoping, she kept going and started flapping her wings frantically to stop moving forward, but failed as she slammed into the dirt leaving a trail behind with her back legs flying into the air.
I grinned widely, as I sprinted past her crumpled body in the dirt. The treeline was getting closer and closer with the thundering of hooves growing louder once again. I assumed it was from seeing Rainbow face-planting herself into the ground.
As I reached the entrance I stopped shortly and took a glance behind me. The mob of ponies were gaining fast and I was running out of wiggle-room for planning and improvisation. I continued running past the entrance into the trees. Once I was inside, I immediately went off the path and started weaving back and forth.
I knew this forest left and right. Having lived in here as long as I have, this is now my playground. I climbed my way up into a tree and changed into a more convenient form for sitting in one. The form I decided on was a cat.
I didn't hear anything for a few minutes. At first I thought they had moved away from the forest, deciding to give up on chasing me. Then, my comfort levels were shattered as I heard the sound of hooves and wings moving through the forest. The pace was slow, which made me even more watchful, since they would have more time to look around and search for smaller details, or animals. Thankfully, because of my new form, they probably wouldn't be able to notice me without any sort of additional help, like magic or something; and I was no stranger to the concept. My kind has always had knowledge of it for many centuries.
I just waited quietly on my branch as I watched and listened through my spot in the tree as the crowd of ponies made their way through the forest.
It was few minutes before I lost sight of them. I honestly didn't think that many were chasing after me, so I was surprised when I saw just how many were walking through the forest. I could still hear the sound of their hooves so I stayed put until they were out of earshot.
While I was sitting in the tree, I reflected on how I even got into this situation. Being in the form of a cat, sitting in a tree, waiting for a mob of hostile equine beings to leave me be...
It was a day just like any other, walking through town square to get where I needed to be.
The academy, where each student had to get their daily lecture on what it was I taught. Shape-shifting. It was an art in itself, learning the correct dimensions of each creature, how they moved, and learning how to think like each one while in the form. This entailed having a class to help students learn how to better manage these abilities. The academy and the professors there never had a problem with me teaching this. It was something that many people had done classes on before.
I was always more favoured toward canine or feline creatures that matched my own size. If I chose a creature that was smaller or bigger than me, it often made it confusing for perspective and coordination.
So, wolves, dogs, tigers, cats, etc. Anything that entered either of those two categories.
Sometimes in shape-shifting, the shifter can combine two forms together to gain, often times, an unparalleled advantage. For example, the body of a bipedal, that most of the time being human, with the arms and feet of a creature with either claws or other appendages. That's mostly what I taught. Blended shifting. Teaching the students how to cope with a combined form; and, needless to say, it was very hands-on.
I wasn't always viewed in the best light for teaching this class, though. The society I lived in had no problem with shifting into different forms, but always saw what some call 'mingled shifting' as an unnatural practice. The academy where I'm at allows for teachers to choose what they want to teach in the class they've either chosen, or made themselves. I made my own class since, combined shifting was something I had to learn on my own. I never saw it as bad, but no one really sees things exactly like anyone else...
It often came to the point, between lectures, where I would unintentionally get into lasting debates with other professors on my class's subject. Most of them ended with me just walking away. Others were a bit more heated, and ended with me having to run to the next lecture. This went on for a few years before it was deemed unlawful to perform blended shifting and my class was then cancelled because of this, once the year came to an end.
At least they gave me the chance to give the final pieces of the course to my students before they shut me down!
Afterward, I moved into independent study. Researching creature after creature and how to adapt to their designs. I, of course, had to do this in secret as most involved certain experimenting with combined shifting to learn how each form could interact with each other form. Though, it came then to where I had learned all there was to be learned and where I had no more use for the knowledge, so I ended my studies and found a new life in solitude and silence.
Anyway, enough on my past and more onto how I got into Equestria.
To put it shortly, I was walking down an alley one day and found myself in a lot of light out of nowhere. Don't ask me where it came from or how it happened; I'm still trying to figure that out, myself. In this event, I ended up on top of a hay-roof house, leaving a sizable divot in the structure of it.
Well that's new, I thought to myself. When I came to, I was in a bit of a daze understandably and once I gained enough strength to sit up, the roof gave out from under me and I fell through into the building below, hitting the floor with enough force to send me through it as well.
I got up after my fall, stumbling around for a bit before my sight finally came back to me. I looked around and found myself in a small house, with a surprising low roof, as I hit my head trying to stand up. Needless to say it hurt.
“That's gonna hurt tomorrow...” I said to myself with a groan. When glancing around, I found a small couch, where there just so happen to be a... Um... Honestly, how do I properly describe this? It was a...uh, pastel-coloured equine, just shivering on the couch? It's body was a light turquoise colour. Probably something like Mint green; with a teal mane and a white streak going through it. It was a strange sight, to say the least.
We stared at each for a few moments. Me looking at her in confusion, and her looking at me an expression that I only read as shock, surprise and worry. “Uh, hello?” I spoke lightly to test how she'd respond. She gave a short shout before running straight out the door. Well... That was strange, I thought. Deciding to get a better idea of where I was, I went to the door and looked outside. I was surprised from what I saw, which describes most of what I thought of everything when I first saw it, but I don't want to go into too much detail. Let's just say there was lots of other houses lined up one by one and they had a kind of cartoon-y village look to them. Like they were designed by a children's cartoon artist. I made my way out of the house and, not wanting to draw anymore attention to myself, snaked my way into an alley to my right.
Once there, I saw that there were even more of these equines walking around. They were small compared to my current bipedal form. Some looked like normal horses, or ponies, or whatever animal would best suit their appearance, and some had a different look of having what I assumed was a unicorn's horn protruding from their foreheads; and lastly, some appeared to have what looked like wings on their backs and were flying around. Their wings were small, and I briefly wondered how they were able to get off the ground if their wings were that minuscule.
While I was thinking, one pony turned their head and saw me, dropping what it was holding, in fear, eyes going wide and surprisingly large, or larger since they were already of an...unusual size. It stood still for a moment, shaking where it was, before yelling at the top of its lungs,
“MONSTER!”
All the others in response to hearing this started running around in a blind panic trying to find a place of safety. I...just watched from my place in the alley, with a raised eyebrow in confusion.
“Okay, then...” I said to myself, “That's something I haven't seen until now.” I decided to go further in the alley to get away from the panic and then try to find a quiet place to sit down and think about things without all of this commotion and distress. As I reached the end of the alley, I peaked out and looked around. Over to my left, there was what looked like some kind of boutique, but I was no expert on building design. Directly ahead were more houses, where there also happened to be more panicking equines... Talk about overreacting.
However, over to my far right, there was what looked to be a forest and a cottage right nearby. “Maybe I could hide out in there for the time being-” I was suddenly cut off by my own thoughts of,
Do we really think that's a good idea? What if there's more ponies in the cottage?
I took a second to ponder on it, before deciding that it's better than being stuck out in the open. Without any further wait, I checked around to make sure no one was watching, then bolted towards the cottage near the forest.
“It's headed to the Everfree! Stop it!” Ah, crap...
I checked behind me and saw a small squad of ponies gathering up and following me as I sprinted. What do they want with me? I mean, it's not like I did anything to them, why are they trying to get after me? Without anyone to answer these questions for me, I just kept running towards the cottage.
“It's going to Fluttershy's house! Cut it off!”
In that moment, I saw one of the winged ponies, who was a cyan blue with a vibrant rainbow mane, zoom ahead of me and landed right in front of the cottage door.
Damn it! Well, I don't have a choice now... I changed my course for the forest instead. With any luck I could make it inside and lose them through the foliage. However that plan was cut short as the rainbow winged pony changed its direction right when I did, making a B-line straight for me.
I didn't see any way of the situation working in my favour in my current form. I needed something better. If I can just dodge this flying pony, than I'm home free. So, even though it wasn't what I was used to, I didn't have a choice. I leaped forward and shifted into a hawk, flying straight into the air, with a small dive to briefly gain some speed. To my glee, it was working, and not only that, it made everyone stop for a second in surprise. I chuckled at seeing their expressions but kept flying.
I swooped and dodged the winged pony, and I'm just gonna call them pegasi, since they most resemble it, making sure to keep out of range of touching or grabbing.
I flapped my wings harder and harder as the treeline came closer and closer into my reach. I could feel the ponies at my tail feathers, and hear the thundering of their hooves behind me. I didn't want to look back, at the risk of making a small mistake that would risk me losing concentration. I hadn't spent nearly as much time as an avian creature as I had canine or feline, so this was still a bit uncomfortable. I just kept on moving forward through the air toward the trees.
As the trees came close to being within feet of reach, I felt something brushing against my back feathers. I peaked around to see the rainbow pegasus reaching out with its front hoof trying to grab at me. The sight terrified me, if I were to be honest. If I kept going like this, she was sure to grab hold real soon.
Well, as good a time as any to change. In that moment, I dived down at a fourty-five degree angle toward the ground, leaving the pegasus still flying up high. As I came closer to the ground I angled myself to a horizontal plane, and morphed back into my bipedal form, landing in what some may call a 'running start'. It took the pegasus a moment to catch up but by that point, I was well ahead and within 20 feet of the trees.
I peaked back again to see where I was and Rainbow, as I'm naming her until I can find out her real name, wasn't far behind. I decided to delve into my reservoir of energy and use a spell that I hoped I wouldn't have had to use.
Exceligni. Fire-speed. It uses a burst of flame behind the caster to push them forward, applying the third law of motion.
I gathered my energy together and focused it into the spell. I then leaped again and cast it. It was one of the first time I had done it while running, so I was surprised to see how far it carried me. I looked behind to see the rainbow pegasus stopped in her tracks from the burst of fire from the spell. I smiled at seeing my pursuer halting in the chase. Sadly I forgot that once the spell was cast, the force it applied wouldn't last forever. I remembered this fact a bit too late as I made contact with the ground and started tumbling and rolling along the dirt path in the forest, before finally making contact at full speed with a sizable stone, sending me flying off the trail, into the trees.
Where I was happy that they probably wouldn't be able to find me in this lush, I was also worried I wouldn't be able to find my way out. This thought process was cut short as a large tree came quickly into view, sooner than I would've liked, and right into my path of trajectory. I slammed into it with enough force to blur my vision and leave me stunned.
I tried to get up from where I was, but couldn't move any part of my body. My eyes began closing slowly, before I heard steady hoofsteps coming closer to me. The last thing I saw was a black and white pony before my body completely gave out.