011 opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around and saw that he was no longer in the Everfree forest. Instead, he lying on a sofa in a small wooden house, a cottage by the looks of it. Had a pony saved him? Only ponies lived in wooden type structures to the best of 011's knowledge.
"How is this possible"? He thought to himself looking round, viewing the birdhouses and mouse holes that plagued the room. "Why would a pony help me? A changeling? Do they not hate us still"? Deciding he would find out the answers to his questions later, 011 got of off the sofa as quiet as he could in case the pony, or ponies, were still around. He rubbed his head carefully with his injured hoof and grumbled to himself. He looked around again before realizing something. He rubbed his head again and discovered his helmet was missing. He quickly turned round to view his back and hooves only to have the same result. All of his Armour had been removed and more to his concern, so had the locket. He also had white bandages covering his injuries from the chimera fight.
He slowly limped across the room and into what seemed to be the kitchen, which was filled with vegetables, bird seed and several other types of pet food, it was almost as though the owner needed to feed a dozen different kinds of animals. But apart from that, there was nothing else to be found.
011 proceeded back into the main room and checked outside. It was now night time meaning he had been unconscious for at least six hours. At least it would have been easier to check the house. "As long as ponies sleep at night that is". 011 thought to himself, unsure if ponies were nocturnal or not. The only remaining rooms that he had yet to check were upstairs. 011 then proceeded slowly upstairs trying not to make a noise. As soon as he had made it to the top of the stairs, he found three doors. He checked the first one which was a bathroom. He then checked the second room which turned out to be a small cupboard which contained some cleaning supplies and a mop that fell on top of 011's face the second as he had opened the door. He pushed the mop off of his face and into the back corner of the cupboard before closing the door.
"Two rooms down, so that means that my possessions should be behind this door". 011 thought to himself. He opened the door to reveal the room which turned out to be the bedroom. Even though 011 had never seen a pony bedroom before, it was kind of obvious that it was one seeing how there was a pony shaped figure sleeping on a huge, comfy looking bed about three and a half meters away. 011 saw his Armour lying over on the floor next to the bed and with a smile on his face, he took his first step into the room. The moment his hoof had pressed down on the floorboards however, a huge creaking noise sounded off. 011's smile quickly faded as he immediately pulled his hoof back and looked at the pony who turned over and muttered something. judging by the voice, the pony was a female. She was still asleep, but not for long if 011 wasn't careful. 011 sighed in his head and thought. "This is going to be difficult".
011 had now spent five minutes trying to cross the floor and had just made it up to the halfway point. Even using his magic was too risky because of the noise his horn made when preparing to cast a spell of any kind. He tried to take another step and raised his hoof slowly and lowered it down in front of him as gently as he could. Another creak sounded off and the pony flipped over again. 011's face was sweating. He was managing to get closer and closer to his items.
A few more steps later, which had taken another five tension-filled minutes, and he could easily reach his helmet. He stuck his right injured hoof out to try and grab it. He almost had it. But before he had even touched it, a yellow hoof lightly smacked him on his nose. He moved his eyes upwards fearing he had been caught, and after all that sneaking around too. But almost as if fate was watching over him, the pony was still asleep. Her arm must have just fallen out of the bed. 011 calmed down, relieved she hadn't woken up. He carefully grabbed her hoof with his own and placed it back on the bed. Glad to have that out of the way with, he grabbed his helmet and slid it onto his head. He couldn't risk putting the rest of the Armour on seeing how it would have taken too much time, time which he did not have. Good thing the Armour was a liability. The locket on the other hoof, was not. However, there was just one slight problem. The locket wasn't with the Armour. It was nowhere in sight. "Where is it"?! thought the panicking changeling looking all round the room, checking every inch of the room until his eyes rested upon a white rabbit standing in the doorway, possibly the same one he saw in the Everfree forest before he lost consciousness, holding the locket in both its hands. "Well..." The rest of that sentence ended in changeling language, but there was no doubt that it was something rude.
The rabbit hopped over to the changeling in seconds. It was too light to make any creaks in the floor boards which 011 found kind of mocking. Especially since it had taken him more than ten long, agonizing minutes just to cross one side of the room, not to mention the fact that his bandaged hoof was still injured. The changeling then carefully lowered himself down to the rabbits level once it had reached him. "Hello". whispered the changeling trying to be friendly to the rabbit and being careful not to wake the pony at the same time. "May I have that locket back"? He said with a weak smile. The rabbit looked at the locket in its hands, looked back at 011 and shook its head. 011 pulled his head back, surprised the rabbit could actually understand him, he then lowered his head again. "Come on, just hand it over" 011 whispered with a hint of frustration in his voice. The rabbit shook its head once more and turned round, not wanting to face him anymore as though it was messing with him on purpose. The changeling sighed "This calls for drastic measures". He thought with regret. 011 then gave the rabbit the biggest smile he could manage without choking said something that most changelings would never dare say in their own lifetimes. "Pleeeaaaase"? said 011, hoping that this would be enough to help win the rabbit over. 011 may have looked friendly at that moment on the outside but inside however, the changeling felt as though he wanted to throw up for saying such a foul sounding word. The rabbit looked over his shoulder, saw the smiling face and stuck his tongue out at 011.
The changeling was now gritting his teeth, finding it hard to believe a simple house pet could make him suffer so much as to not only refuse him his most prized possession, but to also force him to utter a word, that changelings frown upon, in vain. "Enough of this"! he said with still gritted teeth as he made a grab for the locket. The rabbit quickly ran under the changelings legs before 011 could touch him, hopped onto the bed, and hopped on top of the sleeping pony's chest and raised his foot up into the air, ready to bring it down on the pony's sleeping body. The changeling turned round and saw what the white nuisance was about to do. "Don't you dare". Said 011 narrowing his eyes, trying to keep his voice quiet so that he didn't wake the pony himself. "Don't...you...dare"! And as though those words were the rabbits cue to act, the rabbit brought its foot down, multiple times on its owner. "You did". Said 011 with disbelief.