//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: The Forest 
// Story: The Singed Wings 
// by Sabuus 
//------------------------------//

	They walked into the barn, and the table was littered with food. There was every kind of apple flavored food Sabuus could think of and more. His eyes grew large, and his jaw dropped from the sheer amount of food.
“We decided to cook more tonight,” Applejack told him. “After all, what's the point in invitin' somepony over for dinner, and then we don't make enough for 'em.”
“This is glorious,” were the only words Sabuus could utter while looking at the food.
“I'm glad ya like it,” she said. “You stay here and eat what you want; while I go invite my friends over. They'd really like to see a new face around here.”
Without thinking Sabuus walked towards the food like a zombie and began to eat. While he was eating an apple fritter; his eyelids grew heavy, and he collapsed to the ground. There he was again, in the darkness with nothing around. He was expecting a voice to start speaking to him; however, nothing spoke to him. All he heard were shrieking birds. “Why?” said a different voice. “Why are we doing this?”
“I don't know,” said Sabuus' harsh voice from the library. “They must have a good reason though. After all, look at all they've given us.”
“It just doesn't seem right though,” said the mystery voice.
The darkness started to lift from Sabuus' eyes as the last words were uttered. “We really should go take him to the hospital,” said a voice from the table. He noted that it sounded similar to Pinkie Pie from earlier.
Sabuus finally regained his vision to see everypony from earlier was also at the table.“No, he's 'fine' remember?” said Twilight Sparkle. His saddlebag could be seen on the other side of the room.
“Those feather look a little hurt though,” Fluttershy said. “I really think he should go to a doctor,” the six ponies were all looking at each other. They hardly noticed him wake up.
“Can he even fly?” Applejack asked the others.
“Why don't you ask me yourself?” Sabuus responded from the table.
“How can I trust you to tell the truth?” she responded.
“Have I lied to you yet?”
“You said you had nowhere you were heading, but the others told me you were in quite a hurry to be headin' somewhere.”
“I'm not. I just want to leave Equestria,” he smiled towards her.
“Why didn't you stay on the train then?” Pinkie butted into the conversation.
“I only have so many bits for train tickets,” his gaze turned to Pinkie now.
“Well then, will you at least tell me why you were so angry when you saw my wings and horn?” Twilight demanded.
“Why should I?” he asked. “It won't change a thing.”
“You don't know that,” she tried to persuade him.
“Fine then,” he gave in and dropped his head. “I just want to be alone, so I don't have to repeat my past. If I avoid fighting again; it'll prove I've learned from it.”
“But you're causing more fights by doing that,” Twilight stuck her hoof out towards Sabuus.
“Not on such a big scale,” a tear rolled down his cheek, and he began to sob. “Just let me go on my own way.” Afterward, Sabuus grabbed his saddlebag from the table, and he rushed outside as fast as possible.
Rarity and the others stood in the doorway watching Sabuus run away. Rainbow Dash floated just above the rest, and she looked ready to fly towards him in order to catch up to him. Rarity had noticed this, and she asked Rainbow to at least slow him down in order to help. Next, everypony's mane went tugging in the same direction with the trees branches heading the same way with only a rainbow in between all of them to show she had left. The other five followed as soon as they'd seen the rainbow disappear.
Sabuus was near the gates of Ponyville. His coat was covered in sweat, and his sobbing had turned into simple  huffing and puffing. “I regret every decision I ever made,” he said regretfully to himself.
“Why's that?” Rainbow Dash said from a nearby cloud hovering over his head.
“You followed me?!”
“Well, of course. Why wouldn't I?”
“Because I never wanted you around!” his tired face immediately turned into frustration. “How long would it be until I can finally leave this little town?” he thought.
“You obviously have something wrong, so I'll just ask to make a deal,” Rainbow said attempting to get the truth.
“What's the deal?” Sabuus asked curiously.
“You tell me what happened to your wings, and I'll let you leave,” she said with a sly look on her face.
Sabuus let out one sigh before responding to her deal. “You really won't leave me until I tell you?” he said, hoping that she'd give up eventually.
“Nope, never,” Rainbow's eyes glared at him. She knew he'd give up eventually.
He thought it over in his mind. The excuse he had to have would need to be believable, and it would need to match the look. Sabuus took off his saddlebag and threw it to the ground. The wings emerged from his sides, and the rest of the ponies arrived. Twilight Sparkle was in complete disbelief of their appearance with Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack who followed closely behind her. Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped to the cloud, and the six of them were staring directly at the wings. The wings were tattered, and the dark green feather color couldn't even hide the black burn marks, and some of the feathers were even missing leaving gaps in the wings.
“It was just a little campfire accident,” he told them.
“I can already tell it wasn't,” Twilight responded, “this kind of damage could only happen from somebody wanting to do harm to you. What really happened? Why are you trying to leave anyway?”
“I'm trying to run!” Sabuus yelled. He began to sob.
“Then, maybe we can help,” Twilight replied with kindness in her voice. “If you really want to leave that badly; we're off to visit a friend that lives far away from here. You can follow us, and then mysteriously disappear into the forest.”
He was extremely hesitant to respond to this offer. The options he could see were to either go with them into the forest, or they follow him until they know what happened. He sighed and then followed the six onto a train heading towards the mountains.
The train followed it's tracks. The six talked to each other about so many different subjects. First, they were just talking about the Gala, but it switched over to the farm. Then, it just continued until Sabuus couldn't follow the conversation anymore and just dozed off. His eyes became tough to keep open, and he eventually fell asleep in his seat.
“There's our stop!” Twilight yelled to the others.
Sabuus rubbed his eye with his hoof and opened his eyes. His vision was still blurry, but he just followed the Mares' voices off the train. After a while he regained vision, and he lifted his head to look at the forest. He examined everything about the forest. It seemed familiar, but he couldn't tell what it was. They all began to take a step into the forest. Their hooves hit the ground and created a loud crunching noise that threw a cloud of dark smoke into the air. Suddenly, he remembered why this place looked so familiar. His body froze, and all he could do was stare towards the forest with fear in his eyes. It was the forest where the phoenixes lived. It was where his injury had come from.