//------------------------------// // 3 - Revealed! // Story: Exile’s Journey // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Felling Axe - 24th of Leaffall, 16 EoH La vallée-des-Roses - Prance There’s a weird thing that happens to you when you are well traveled. You realize that everywhere looks just like somewhere else. Not exactly, the same mind you, but the cedar forests on mountains in Equestria are basically the same as the cedar forests on mountains in Drake. Most places which you can go to would be indistinguishable from many other places if it weren't for one thing. Civilizations. There maybe only be five biomes, with limited sub-biomes that spread out over the world in a semi-regular pattern, but nature is only half of the world. If you were randomly teleported from wilderness to wilderness while sleeping, you could be forgiven for not realizing you had moved until you spotted one obscure species of plant or type of stone you know was “in the wrong place”. Not so with cities. Sure, some elements of architecture are shared between peoples, but each people still builds their settlements in distinct ways. The way the roads are made, the materials making up buildings, their size, how they are decorated… All of those small things come together to make each place feel distinct. Which is why even on foggy mornings when I was late for work and a bit heartbroken, I still enjoyed looking at des-Roses while I ran through it. A spruce tree, is a spruce tree, is a spruce tree, but homes come in a billion varieties. Hay, sometimes you can swear you almost taste the faint dregs of love put into a well crafted and cared for home. Like the very lovely old cottage to my left with its pale pink clay-tiled roof and awesome scrollwork decorated window frames, which had clearly been engulfed over time as the village grew, leaving behind only the vestige of a once lovely garden between the street and the front door. I bit my lip sadly. I might have given this identity a history as a lumberjack, as I did have some experience in that area, but woodworking was my real passion. If I were not late for work, I would love to get a closer look at those window frames. Maybe do a charcoal rubbing of them so I could replicate the design for some cabinets, or maybe a hoof locker. Ah, buck it. I was already late. What were another five minutes? I always had some tracing paper and a pencil in my bags. I’d just knock on the door and- “Sir, are you the Felling Axe who resides at twenty-one Sabbaton Way?” A mare’s voice asked from behind me. I winced, ears drooping. This was either really bad, or maybe with some luck, somepony saw one of my ads for carpentry services and wanted to- I turned around and instantly realized this was a bad thing. The gray-maned, citrine furred, unicorn mare addressing me was dressed in the smoky gray double-breasted uniform jacket of a Constable. And the three mage’s rods attached to a quick-draw bracer meant she was the real deal, or stole the jacket to murder me without drawing undue suspicion for carrying weapons. I took a deep breath. “Yes, ma’am. Am I being accused of anything?” Her horn began to glow purple as she slipped one of the rods from her bracer, the weapon’s arcane circuitry taking on her aura’s purple glow as it was readied. “You are charged with being a changeling living in an unregistered from, identity fraud, immigrating under false pretenses, and utilizing forged credentials,” she informed eyes narrowing. “By the authority of the Lord Mayor, you are under arrest pending trial by judge. Will you walk or be carried?” My heart skipped several beats, only to immediately switch to a study yet elevated rhythm as the adrenaline kicked in. I’d thought I’d found a new life. I'd never intended on shifting again. I liked being just an earth pony. I had something to live for again. I thought I’d outrun the past. I thought I had a nice ordinary life which would see me dying content in my sleep when this form expired. Maybe, just maybe, if I went with her peacefully, we could resolve this whole thing and- The overwhelming need to drop and roll left shattered any hopes of a peaceful resolution. I went limp, chest slamming into the ground while my hips twisted, sending me a meter to the left in an instant. A small crossbow bolt smashed into the street, my eyes catching the moment of impact which bent the special bolt’s syringe tip in the fraction of a second before I sprang back up. Airborne snipers. Buck, they were serious about arresting- I had to jump right! I jumped as my magic surged, it didn’t happen automatically, I was out of practice. This was bad. The constable snapped her rod into position, the silver and brass implement pulsing before launching a thick ring of hot purple energy towards me. I felt the energy slap my left ear as if I had clipped it while running too close to a brick wall. The concussive blast exploded with a thunderclap behind me as my hooves hit the street skidding on the cobbles as I fought for purchase on the morning rain damp stone. “Buck!” The constable exclaimed. “Soldier! It’s a Soldier!” That’s right. But fortunately for you, I don’t want to kill you. I just want to get away. I began to twist in order to sprint towards an alleyway I could see out of the corner of my eye. “Switch to lethal ordnance,” a stallion’s voice called from above. My danger sense was warning me one second in advance. I would not survive an extended engagement or a fighting retreat on it alone. I needed some equipment, or decent cover, or- My saddlebags! I had tools! Back up! Left! The unicorn leveled her rod, a crossbow twanged. I did my best to twist myself to comply with my magic’s warning, but it wasn't enough, white hot pain scythed along my right foreleg as a bolt sliced a shallow gash down the entire length. The unicorn’s concussive blast clipped my left hip, throwing me to the ground with far more strength than I thought possible. Pain radiated from my foreleg. It wasn’t too bad, I could suck it up. I wasn’t out of the fight yet. Laying on my side, I reached back into my saddlebags, hoof finding what felt like a pair of scissors. It was time to return fire. Gathering my other legs beneath me, I pushed myself up, turning the move into a rolling pounce, corkscrewing as I flew towards the unicorn. As I rolled I spotted the constable’s partner, thirty feet up, grimacing worriedly about shooting with me this close to his ally. Using the momentum from my roll I flung the scissors at him, smashing head first into the unicorn’s barrel an instant later, sliding and tumbling along with her over the cobblestones. As our roll stopped the unconscious mare lay atop me, I heard a metallic clink as the scissors hit the ground, and the pained cry of the pegasi above. I had never been very good at shapechanging. I’d never had to be any more convincing than ‘looks like a pony to me’. I’d gone earth pony knowing my strength would seem appropriate. Weak even. I had more than enough muscle to throw the mare away from me with one pump of my rear legs. As her weight vanished I rolled over, seeking to stand up. The sudden motion made me feel sick to my stomach. Hopefully, that wasn’t a sign of injury. I couldn’t risk shifting to heal myself, I’d never learned how to go from one form directly to another… Glancing up, I spotted the pegasi doing his best to aim at me with one hoof, the other one wiping blood from his eyes. My throw managed to open a large gash above his right eye. With any luck, that was the one he aimed with. I dove for the scissors, knowing they at least flew well. My dive failed and I landed a few meters from them, a crossbow bolt pinged off the cobbles to my right, so far away I hadn’t even been warned about it. The pegasi was disabled, but he could still track me. I needed to ground him so I could run. I surged forwards, grabbed the heavy steel scissors, opened them, placed one tip against the ground, and chopped at the center with the flat of my hoof. The center pin snapped with a loud ping, giving me two separate blades. Hardly daggers, but when you need a shiv- Forward! I fell into a roll, tucking my head and barrel down, pivoting my hips up and- IMMEDIATE INDESCRIBABLE PAIN! My hips slammed into the ground, pulled down by the force of the bolt cutting through me. The literally indescribable pain became worse as the bolt stopped halfway through, sending a jolt through me as the tip struck the stone, stopping dead. I went entirely limp, unable to control a single muscle for a full ten seconds before my body screamed. I didn’t tell it to. I just did. When it stopped I screamed as well. I had to. There was no choice except to scream and try to drown out the pain with my voice. A stallion will do that when cold steel pierces a testicle. Why did I pick stallion? Stallion was a bad choice! Every last nerve was boiling in Tartarus. I heard the stallion above me groan in sympathy, then laugh. “If you surrender I won't shoot the other one!” He called mockingly. I had just enough control of myself through the pain to open one eye and look up. Why did they have so many pain receptors!? WHY!?! I fixed my tear-blurred eye on the pegasus, futilely trying to fight through the pain enough to throw a shiv at him. I managed to get as far as a deep pained, gasping breath before he swung his bow away from me. “You!” The pegasi called. “Stay back, this changeling is under-” He vanished into a red streak, smashing into the ground with a yelp and a crunch. Confused, I turned my head, trying to see what had happened. Hooves clicked against the stone, and a heartbeat later, Repose’s face filled my view. “Are you?” He asked. I nodded, whimpering as a fresh surge of agony forced every muscle in my body to clench. “Okay,” Repose said decisively, nodding to himself. Oh, gods. He knew. I hadn’t ever told him and now he knew. I’d never see him again... Repose vanished from my view, black cloak swirling as he turned. “S-so-sor…” I gasped trying to apologize, despair hurting half as much as the bolt as he walked awa- “OH! That is NOT in your thigh!” Repose exclaimed, voice filled with sympathetic pain. “Well, um… This can't possibly hurt any worse than that. Bite something.” Bite some- “AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” I screamed as it hurt way worse, a throbbing blistering pain joining the indescribable hell in a separate but equal level of blinding agony. “The bolt is out. Can you heal yourself?” Repose asked. I whimpered and sobbed, anything on the street. “Stupid question... Sorry,” he apologized, cool relief starting to flow from my groin outwards. A few heartbeats later and the only pain left was from the full body cramp clenching from the pain had inflicted. It was nothing. My pain threshold definitely just jumped several notches. “Is that better? I’ve never fixed a living person before, and that was a tri-bladed broadhead… Surprised it didn’t just cut it into thirds. How big are testicles supposed to be anyway? I wonder if there’s a book on it,” Repose rambled. With the pain cloud leaving my mind, I was able to pick up on the tinges of shock in Repose’s voice. He wasn’t panicked like I would expect a civilian to be, but he was definitely not okay with the situation at large. “Much… Better…” I gasped. Sure, my foreleg was still cut but I honestly could only barely tell. “Good so umm, what in the actual buck is going on?!” Repose asked. A mare’s voice bellowed a warcry. With a wet squelch, a purple energy-spear punched a hole through the front of Repose’s barrel. I screamed in horror, expecting my love to fall, loathing myself for not finishing the mare off when we lay in a heap on the ground. “Ow,” Repose said reflexively, a look of shocked surprise on his face as he looked down at the energy weapon. “There’s a spear in my chest.” I felt my eyes nearly pop out of my head in shock as Repose turned around, the energy spear being ripped from the unicorn’s telekinetic grasp, the rod generating it falling to the ground, the spear vanishing the moment it left her grip. “What you did was in error!” Repose irritably announced. “Ponyfeathers!” The unicorn yelped, ears laying back and eyes widening in horror the moment Repose turned around. Repose’s red aura seized the unicorn, dragging her forward into an outstretched hoof. The aura flashed black for a split second as she made contact with him before dropping to the cobbles in a limp noodle pile. Muscles curling up into little flesh balls, via a series of agonizingly painful looking shudders. “Somepony will reattach your tendons later,” Repose said to the mare, his magic stripping her bracer containing her other two rods from her now-floppy leg. “And I’m taking this.” “H-how?” I asked, quite in shock from... Well, from the fact that he wasn’t bucking dead! Repose turned around, sliding the bracer on to his own leg, then knitting the hole through his bucking body back together with a quick spell. To my astonishment, he looked away from me in embarrassment. “W-well… For now, I’m not mad at you for being a changeling because I am not a hypocrite. We need to flee, we’ll BOTH talk later. Somepony surely ran for the nearest guard station. Oh, there’s another spell rod. Good,” Repose said in a calculating manner before scooping up the spear-forming weapon. I rolled over, managing to stand up despite my cramped muscles protesting. Repose was right. Act now, talk later. “I need to leave the country… They found me somehow, so they can do it again. Can you get me across the Iron Line?” I asked hopefully. He worked on it, surely he could, I don't know, turn them off for a bit? I could run a league pretty quickly. Ten minutes tops. He could do that, right? Oh gods, please be able to- “Yes. Easily,” Repose said, biting his lip in concern. “I’ll need to dig up some gear,” I said, suddenly remembering the chest I’d hidden before immigrating. Illegally. I couldn’t afford to leave that behind. Not if I was going to be traveling again. “Why?” Repose asked, sounding baffled. “Because your border guards wouldn’t have let a pony dressed in Sapphire hive wargear cross the border, now would they!?” I snapped, the stress of this clusterbuck hitting me in that moment. “Ooohhh…” Repose winced. “I-I can’t help you. Not if you serve Queen-” An indignant surge shot up my spine. “I deserted her army over a decade ago! And she’s dead now!” I exclaimed, stamping a hoof angrily against the ground. “She’s dead?” Repose asked in honest surprise, his frown visible through his hood’s shadows. “Yes! I told you months ago! I threw a small party!” I exclaimed. “Oh yes, you did… I forgot about that,” Repose muttered. “Very well. Unfortunately, I’ll need to go with you. They will be coming to kill me now.” “So what? You’re bucking invulnerable!” I protested. My heart suddenly tried to leap into my throat. “Oh-my-gosh-I-mean-yes-please-come-with-me!” My gods, a friend would be the best possible thing to have on the long lonely road to I had no idea where I could even go yet! I NEEDED him with me! What the buck was I even thinking a second ago!? “I’d love to… But first, I need to retrieve something from the castle,” Repose groaned. My heart slid back down into my chest and stopped beating for a long moment. “Wha- why?” I pleaded. Break into the castle?! Was he mad? “Because I’m not invulnerable. I’m actually very easy to kill if you know how. A foal could do it. They know that, and as soon as they know I attacked a guard, they will be searching for the way to kill me… And it’s in my old bedroom. More importantly, if I want to move more than twenty-five kilometers from that castle, I need to retrieve something very important from it, which I will explain fully later. Do you understand?” He asked in a serious voice. Oh. That’s right. Third class citizens were legally bound to work a certain job for the state. They probably had him magically ‘leashed’ to the village. Barbarians! “I understand. But do we have time to get it and my equipment?” I asked. Repose nodded. “Yes. I am very familiar with the entire village. If we retrieve my Phylactery I can teleport us to wherever you buried your gear, and then to the line… But not across it. I… I don't know anything about the lands over the border. I’m not going to risk a blind teleport. Not while carrying it.” “Then let's go,” I said grimly. “Do you have a plan?” “I’ll make one on the way. Run!” Repose exclaimed, wheeling around and bolting down the street towards the castle. I grit my teeth, took a breath, and sprinted after him. This had turned into a Tartarus of a day. But, at least I didn’t have to go to work now. Wait a minute… Repose pulled the bolt out of me. Meaning he had to have touched my junk. Did that count?! You know what, buck it, that totally counted! I lost my virginity today! Yay! Of course, I was still fleeing for my life but- NO! Happy thoughts and combat instinct only! Keep calm. Panic and you both die... Gentle Repose - 24th of Leaffall, 16 EoH La vallée-des-Roses - Prance The village’s alarm bells unleashed their warning cries in all directions. The guard was taking no chances today. But of course, they had good reason to be afraid. I would likely destroy most of the village before I was stopped, and they knew it. What they did not know is, I didn’t wish to do that. My sole focus was getting Fell to safety. Fell was more than a little fortunate I had set out so soon after he had, doubly so that I had gone the same route as he had. Things could have turned out much differently had one of us merely taken a less direct route to the barbershop. Not to say learning your roommate is a disguised changeling of the most hated hive in existence is a good thing. Especially not when you learn via intervening in a violent arrest. However, as with all combat, everything is about scale. Losing my sole friend would destroy me. Even now, a full three minutes after the two of us began the mad dash towards Château les Bruyères, I had no second thoughts about my actions. I was actively committing treason, going as far as to attack a fortified military structure, all for the sake of ensuring a friend would be safe. A thing I perfectly accepted, despite the love of my country. What use is patriotism when your nation has not earned your respect in a full five hundred years? None. None whatsoever. But loyalty to those who do truly care for you? That’s worth everything. Fortunately for Fell, my everything was quite a lot. Fifty times more than what my body normally provided, in fact. I was my father's firstborn son, set to take over his position when he died in the old merit-based nobility. I had spent the last three hundred years doing little else besides studying wizardry, but I still had my other skills. Dull as they may be. Our assault did not have to last long. Fell needed only to enter my bedroom, a thing which could be done from its window, and retrieve one item from the nightstand. I knew it was there, because my entire room was my old laboratory. It had been locked up pending magical ‘decontamination’ as they put it. And they never got around to it. As a changeling, he could fly through the window. Wait, can all changelings fly? They have many different varieties, right? “Fell, can you fly?” I called over my shoulder. “Yes, why?” He called back. “Formulating a plan,” I replied. It occurred to me that we had not yet encountered any guards. They must have assumed we would not head deeper into town. With luck, some of the castle guards would have been dispatched to give chase. With some ill luck, we might run into them in the street. Fighting off a squad of armored foes would tax me, and prevent me from doing anything of significance at the castle. We would have to evade anyone we encountered. Now, fell enters the window, to do that requires a significant distraction for the defenders. Wall top and towers alike would need to be focused elsewhere. What could I do that wou- Oh! Yes, that would work. The Castle’s granite walls began to loom overhead as we neared the edge of the village. In about thirty seconds we would leave the cover of the streets and enter the killing field between the castle and the village. A literal uphill battle awaited us as we ran up the road to the castle, funneled along by the short stone walls on either side. Offensive structures would help us as well today. Quite ironic. “When we near the wall, I will fire a volley of ray spells,” I informed loudly. “The last one will break my old room’s window. As soon as you see the distraction begin, fly in, grab the silver pocketwatch from the bedside table, and bring it straight to me. DO NOT get shot while you have it!” Given Fell’s previous luck with bolts, one of the damn things would pierce the hoof he held it in and destroy it. I did not want to die today. No day is a good day to die. “Wait, we’re after a watch?!” Fell exclaimed in disbelief. “I thought we needed like, some kind of magical contract or something like that!” “It’s not just a watch. You’re a changeling, you’ll understand when you get near it,” I explained wearily. “There is no time to argue… Stay close, I can’t waste much energy on shields.” The smooth granite castle walls loomed ahead, slender towers placed evenly along the perimeter. Each capped in blue clay tiles. The gatehouse was closed and the drawbridge pulled up. Whoever was in charge foresaw the possibility of an attack. Hopefully, they wouldn’t expect my plan. Another mage could easily counter it. I heard Fell sigh and gallop closer to me just in time for us to emerge from the streets and begin the run-up hill. To make this plan work I would need to make it look as if I intended a serious assault. Focusing my magic, I conjured a curved shield of magic, making it hover in front of us at an angle which would deflect arrows. I didn’t have the energy to maintain it, not with everything else I had to do. It was time to announce my presence. Closing my eyes, I readied my first spell. I felt my horn burn as more energy left me in the one spell than all the spells I had cast in several years. I was abysmally out of practice with battle magic! There had been no need for grand spells for some time. I used to be able to fire two dozen with this. Let’s see how many I could do today. To the soldier's credit, before I could use my spell, arrows began to skip off the shield. The shield was mostly in place to protect Fell and to provide a big red glowing target to hopefully hide him via sheer misapplied attention. “They have a bead on us,” Fell warned. “Get ready to fly,” I countered, and activated my spell. Under the command of my spell, one of the larger boulders in the stone wall tore itself loose from the structure with a hideous scraping sound, a stream of mortar trailing after it as it shot through the air as if fired from a catapult. I frowned. Odd… It was supposed to superheat and combust first. The boulder smashed into the castle wall, forcing archers to duck, but doing little else aside skip off the wall with a flash of bright blue. Thankfully the wall's structural integrity shield didn’t extend over the wall tops. After all, the archers needed to return fire. I launched another boulder, this one managed to ignite before slamming into the wall, scattering burning fragments of stone along a wide area. Hopefully, any grass fires wouldn't endanger the town. I got a fourth and fifth boulder into the air, both of them properly igniting, before the archers began to return fire in earnest, bright streaks of light joining the arrows as unicorns began to return fire. I could feel my spell’s energy almost entirely depleted. There was no way I could cast bombardment a second time and still have enough energy to ensure Fell could get in. Looking over the wall top, I spotted the section of battlements the unicorns had set up on and flung one of my last boulders at them, aiming the others at the towers above the gatehouse. The stones impacted, exploding and sending some of their fragments over the wall top. A pained scream pierced my ears, making me wince. It would be really nice if there were even a chance to begin with of resolving this peacefully. Of course, even a foal would have known there wasn't a chance in Tartarus of that. We reached a spot three-quarters of the way to the wall. From here I could barely see the castle itself over the wall top. It was time. “Marking the window!” I called, firing a volley of ray spells in a line at the wall. The first three struck the battlements, one nearly clipped an archer’s ear, another hit a crossbow, making it explode into splinters as the bow snapped, and the final ray streaked over the wall top, smashing a window. I felt my old bedroom window explode inwards in a shower of glass shards. Thank goodness. I hit the right window. “Got it!” Fell called, a sudden sound like air blowing into a forge punctuating the whistling of arrows and shrieks of spell bolts. Right, now for the real part of my plan. This could possibly drain too much energy from me. But I could do it. Fell would come back with my phylactery. It wouldn’t matter if I did collapse. I skidded to a stop, adjusted the shield’s angle with a quick pulse of telekinesis, and then took a deep breath as I prepared to cast a massively upscaled version of an entrenching spell. With any other castle, this would never work. But unfortunately for them, I knew how deep the wall went beneath the earth… “Go!” I shouted. Fell took off with a loud buzz. I saw archers take aim as he jumped, and released my spell. The earth literally trembled as the ground rolled away from the wall along the gatehouse's left side, rolling red-flame like tongues of magic shoving soil, rocks, and stone aside like a foal scooping sand from a sandbox. The massive trench blasted a thick trough from the base of the wall into the moat, the excess earth blocking off one side of the moat, forcing the water to surge down the sloped path and smash into the base of the wall, the wall instantly erupting into a cloud of blue-white sparks and electrical arcs as its enchantments dealt with the impact of several tons of water right at the very bottom. I sensed someone enter my old bedroom. Good. Fell made it. If I calculated everything right, the wall would hold. A near-crippling wave of exhaustion enveloped me. That spell had taken everything I had. I could stand and listen to the soldiers panicking atop the wall, but nothing more. I felt my heart skip a beat as a crack shot up through the wall, accompanied by a thunderous boom. I dug the trench too deep! I didn’t want to actually endanger the village! Bucking Tartarus, no! Don’t collapse! Ah, good. Fell had picked it up. Everypony was still fixated on me, he could definitely get back out. I held my breath in horror as the wall sagged under its own weight, sinking into the now muddy ground enough to visibly sag. The soldiers atop the walls crumbling section began to spring away from it, expecting it to fall. A fresh storm of arrows smashed into my shield and plunged into the soil around me. I couldn’t blame them. If I were really attacking, I would currently be raising a few dozen skeletons to charge through the gap as soon as the wall section fell. The sagging section of wall creaked, more cracks radiating out from the central one as the sagging wall’s bricks pulled apart. Then, thankfully, the wall settled. At least my first live fire use of siegecraft hadn’t been too badly botched… Fell came back over the wall, a black and blue blur moving at what had to be a changeling’s top speed. Several arches noticed as he blew past them, immediately sending a cloud of arrows his way. I held my breath in horror, dreading any of the shots striking home, but thankfully, Fell’s luck had changed. No… They weren't missing. He was dodging the shots! Fell easily slid up, down, left, and right without changing his forward momentum at all. Taking full advantage of insect flight to dodge the bolts and arrows coming from behind him. So that’s why changeling soldiers were legendary. He dove down, taking a ninety-degree turn to do so, and then another one just above the ground in order to shoot behind the cover of my shield and stop with a roar of his wings. Fell held out his left hoof, offering me the silver pocketwatch slash cloak pin my long dead sister had given me for my birthday so long ago. “Um, h-here's your… Er, you,” Fell stammered uncertainly. The star garnet set into the watch’s lid shone brightly as I reached for it, erupting into bright red-orange light as my hoof enveloped it. Power poured back into my body as my consciousness was reunited with it. It was nice to be in a single location again. Except for the fact that a stray arrow might make it past the shield and hit the part of me that mattered… Time to go! I focused all of my thoughts on our apartment, took a breath, and cast the spell. Immediately the sharp crack of the teleport echoing off the stone walls of a small room filled my ears. Thank the Emperor! I could still teleport. With the partial failure of my previous spells, I had been worried. Taking a deep breath, I slipped my phylactery under my cloak, pinning it to the back of the fabric behind the other broach. It would be safe there for now. Hopefully. Thank the Emperor I learned about the distance restriction before burying it inside a concrete block in the castle’s basement... “Pack your things! My cloak can contain a small chest of goods. You have one sixth of a cubic meter!” I shouted urgently, immediately spinning to grab my spellbook and notebooks from my desk. Under absolutely no circumstances could I leave behind anything which might provide them with a way to track me or my phylactery! “Um, my kit isn’t here. It’s buried, remember?” Fell said uncertainly. “I know! Grab anything else you think you’ll need,” I exclaimed. “Or just pack food. Frankly, I’m surprised that they haven’t-” The apartment doorbell rang three times. Somepony I didn’t know was approaching. We had seconds. I shoved all of my books into my cloak’s right pocket. Fell grabbed a book, a small toolbox, and a small pouch which I knew contained a gem collection. Why he would save non-currency non-valuable gems I had no idea. But that’s what he chose. I sprinted across the living room. The door exploded inwards with a torrent of emerald flames and a thundering crunch. They were done playing around. “There!” A stallion shouted. Fell grimaced, making me realize his pony face had just been his changeling face with fur on it. I wondered if the rest of him looked the same. I honestly hadn't gotten a chance to properly see his changeling for- THE BUCK AM I DOING!? DANGER! VULNERABLE! MOVE! A green spellbolt streaked over my shoulder, exploding against the wall. My left forehoof grabbed onto Fell, I pictured the interior of Glass Pan’s Grocery, before it materialized around us with a sharp crack, several cans shaking on the shelves as we appeared. Humm… My teleports were a bit off too. Great. “Where do we need to go?” I asked urgently, unsure if anypony would tell the guard this was where I frequently shopped. “A small graveyard next to the ruins of a chapel in a small grove just across the border alongside the road,” Fell answered. “A-across the border?” I asked, a feeling of dread filling my chest. “Yes,” Fell answered with a frown. “Y-you thought it was in town… Meaning-” “I had planned on you being armed and armored for getting over the Line,” I groaned. If he had some armor on, I could have conceivably convinced the Knights he was being buried and walked through them unopposed… “We have to go.” Fell reminded. “I know,” I agreed with a sigh. “Can’t you teleport us across the line?” He asked. “No! I’m out of practice with my spells,” I lamented. “And I wouldn’t feel safe teleporting even if I were in top form. I have NEVER been good at this. Without being intimately familiar with the target destination, I could materialize inside the ground, or a tree, or even inside you. That would destroy my phylactery since it’s on me right now, assuming say, a rock materialized halfway through it. “Sure, it’s magically protected but it’s not indestructible. Worst of all, unlike a normal litch, if mine breaks I don't get transferred to my body if it’s still intact, I just die! Immediately!” Fell gasped, taking a step backward in shock. “You’re a litch!?” Ponyfeathers… I hadn’t meant to say that yet... “Yes,” I admitted sadly. “B-but… But you're nice! A-and I can feed off you, I can’t ev-even taste undead-” I cut him off by holding up a hoof and firmly shaking my head. “I’m not undead. Not right now. I was for a few seconds earlier today when I was stabbed. It’s complicated. I improved the process and fixed a lot of thin- We don’t have time to talk about it now. But in short, my body is a living organism which becomes dead if killed, and I control it, living or dead, like a puppet, from my watch, which is where my consciousness and life force is now housed. Which is why if it breaks, I die. Understand?” Fell bit his lip, cheeks glowing a pale blue as he blushed, “Um… N-no.” “I’ll explain it when we’re across the line, I-if you still want my help,” I offered, ears drooping and face falling as I watched Fell’s face flash between confusion, fear, disgust, and once or twice curiosity. “Now that you know. I-I’m nothing like other litches. I’m sane, I have empathy… I do get the violent urges but I’ve never been compelled to act on them. P-please, Felling. You’re the only pony who still treated me like a pony and-” “I’m still your friend,” Fell said, cutting me off. “I um… I just… T-this is rrreeealy awkward now but um-” Fell suddenly stopped speaking, shaking his head sharply. “Nope! It would be a bad idea to say that right now! W-we need to get over the Line, then talk. About lots of things.” I nodded. “Agreed.” “J-just one thing,” Fell pleaded. “You’re not undead? At least, not always?” “Er, well, sort of. I’m comparable to a vampire. Equestrians have friendly vampires, right? Assuming you’re actually from Equestria…” I muttered. “I am. Lived there for a while after I deserted… I was found out so I fled. Didn’t think they would accept a Sapphire even though they accept other hives now,” Fell sighed. “Vampire, huh? W-well that’s okay then. Y-you don’t rot, do you?” “Only if I stop eating long enough for my body to die and then don’t repair myself with my magic,” I answered. “Why is that important?” Fell’s blush returned, this time much brighter. “Uhhhhhhh! We should go because they could be setting a trap for us on the border!” He yelped. I frowned. It hurt to see Fell so stressed out. It had to have been a long time since he last fought too. Poor pony. Bug. Buggie? Buggo? What is the polite thing to call a changeling? Where is a proper library when you need an answer? “Let’s go,” I sighed. “Maybe I can control enough of them to make a small opening in the Line we can run through… How fast can you-” “Ten minutes tops,” Fell replied quickly. I don’t think I could do that… “Alright, let’s try,” I said hesitantly. I reached out and grabbed Fell’s shoulder again. This time, I focused on a small garden right on the edge of the Line, near my office. The line was the thinnest there, thanks to a few of the graves at the far end being destroyed in a battle fifty years ago. They had not been refilled yet. It would save us four hundred meters. The sharp crack rang out again, the store simply replacing itself around us with the small dead garden, and the league thick line of black ash and marble sarcophagi buried in the ground stretching out in front of us. As well as a single pony, calmly sitting atop the lid of a sarcophagus, a lit cigar held loosely in his smiling lips. “Figured you’d come here, Rotbreath,” Sunlit Star smirked. Then he whistled sharply, and every last sarcophagi for as far as the eye could see began to slowly slide open with the sound of countless screams of rage.