After nearly an hour of trekking, I had reached the treeline. Finally, somewhere out of sight and away from anypony… I could literally feel my wings vibrating with excitement, I was going to fly! Once I had that down, there would be literally nowhere I couldn't get to, between that, and my ability to walk on walls, as well as the teleportation spell. I let the plates of chitin covering my actual wings open up, feeling around for the right muscles, grinning in anticipation.
I felt my wings twitch, meaning I must be close! Okay… no muscles in the wings themselves, makes sense, these aren't avian wings, there insectoid. Turning my head so that I could see what muscle moved what, I watched as they slowly stood up. Now if can just figure out how to pull them down…
Bingo! I felt myself become lighter for a fraction of a second as they came down much faster than I expected. okay, so up… down… up, down. I will not attempt to deny that a squeed at the sight of them picking up speed. Soon, they were going fast enough that leaves were being kicked up, and a loud, deep, and slightly reverberating buzzing was audible. once they were going fast enough, I felt myself ever so slowly lifting off the ground.
Wait… how do I go forward? I facehoofed, unable to believe that I didn-
Oh. OH CRAP! the sudden movement had put me off balance, and I had no idea how to correct it, leaving me accelerating forward uncontrollably. How do I stop!? Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, this will most definitely end in pain!
by now, I was moving faster than I could have ran… and headed straight for a tree, so I did the only thing that came to mind: snapped my wings shut and ate dirt.
several minutes of tongue scraping later, I looked at the trench I had dug with my face. I am so glad I have chiten right now, or my face would look like a train wreck. As it was, my mane looked like something had tried to make a nest in it.
okay… time for attempt number two. Opening my wings again, I managed to get them up to speed much faster this time, now that I was more familiar with how to use them. Once more floating off the ground, I slowly leaned forward, stopping the moment I started to move in the same direction. Okay, so I just lean in the direction I want to go? seems simple eno-
*WHAM* “Owwwwch…” Of course. I stop paying attention, and I hit a fucking tree. George, I now feel your pain. Plus, I managed to embed my horn in said tree, all the way up to my freaking head. Just wonderful. Now how do I get down from here?
Ah, that should do it. Sapphire flames washed over me as I transformed into a generic earth pony… And promptly realized that I couldn't cling to walls while disguised.
“Aw crap.” The moment that last syllable left my lips, gravity took hold, and I plummeted to the forest floor, where I impacted rather forcefully. The end result: lots of cuts and bruises, as well as a rather nasty scrape on my left hind leg.
“Okay… Ow. Thats enough flying for today.” Now that I was free of that tree, I let the disguise drop, returning to my more natural form and looked over my cuts and scrapes, expecting to see my luminescent yellowish blood welling up on my chitin. Only to see that the injuries I had sustained where now just tiny white scratches, plus a small white patch where that scrap was on my leg. No blood, unlike my disguise. I turned back into a pony and looked them over, the cuts had a small red line of blood, same with the scrap. I wiped one cuts, but the blood didn’t smear. It wasn’t really there. Now that I’m focusing on them, they didn’t really hurt. Good to know, the injuries my disguise shows don’t really reflect my real injuries. Fucking magic.
This will make my disguise more realistic, but it gives me a whole new set of problems. If I’m injured, all of my disguises will share the same injuries. I’ll have to be careful about that in the future. Cracked chitin probably means broken leg, even if it’s not really broken it might look like it. Which probably means I should avoid any more attempts at flying until I find a lake or something where I won’t injure myself if I crash.
Being out in the forest by myself just felt natural for some reason, as I somehow navigated the undergrowth without making a sound, until I saw something. A squirrel. Just looking at it for some reason gave me a craving for red meat… Sure, I guess I didn’t need to eat, but I still liked to. I crept closer, keeping low to the ground, and trying to stay out of the moonlight, while remaining silent. So far, it hadn't noticed me, and I was getting rather close. I hunkered even closer to the ground, feeling my muscles coil like a spring…
Wait for it…
With agility I didn’t even know I had, I sprung forward, and was upon the little critter before it had time to realize it was screwed. I quickly clamped my jaws around its midsection, feeling my fangs dig into it, before its struggling rapidly ceased, despite the miniscule amount of bleeding. I don’t think I bit through anything vital, as there was no crunch of bone, so why did it die so quickly? Oh well, least I have some food now.