> Meta Gamer in Equestria: Odyssey
>  by reflective vagrant
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 0.  I panicked.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I ran.  I ran and ran on into that cold night.  I ran away in a fearful panic.  I ran through the down poring rain.  I ran as if the draconequus's ice cold fire breath was still running down my back.
I finally collapsed in the middle of the muddy road.  I could hear hoof beats coming up behind me and found Zecora helping me to my feet.
I lurched away as best I could while off balance in the mud only to find myself falling forward again, spilling the contents of my stomach only inches to her right.
She began to speak, but I quelled her with a muddy hand on her snout and a strong tug on her mane to start bringing myself upward.
With the short moment she took to shake the mud off her face, I reached for the sprig of mistletoe around my neck and spoke an incantation while still tugging down hard on her mane to stand.
By the time she realized what I had done, it was too late.  All four of her hooves were now solidly embedded into a large lump of mud-turned-stone with me again running at full speed out of town.

It wasn't long before she broke free and caught up to me again, though.  This time she approached with care, being mindful not to venture too deeply into the mud.  Not that it would have mattered.  When I was about to round a turn and slip out of sight, I turned around and summoned Archimedes to my shoulder.
The moment she was in range, I spoke my next incantation.  Vines sprung up around her on all sides.  The tingling sensation at the back of my neck cropped up for a brief moment as the vines restrained her.  I quickly ordered my familiar to distract her for as long as he could as I turned to run again.  I knew the loyal owl shaped spirit would only be able to buy me a few more seconds before she managed to neutralize him, but I needed to make sure every second counted for this next step to work.
Pulling every trick in the book I had, I brought out a crystal from my pocket and ran for the cliff I knew was near. It was  so far up I knew someone like me wouldn't be able to see the bottom in this dark night.  Without hesitating, I grabbed a stone and leaped as far off of the cliff as I could.  I activated a spell to make the rock glow and threw it hard towards the darkness below me to scout ahead.
Then that familiar sense of nothingness under me came as I felt myself slowly catching up with the raindrops passing by me on their way to the ground my rock was scouting for.
A quick flick of the hand that held the crystal and I landed on my feet safe and sound a few seconds later in the small break of trees in the forest below.
'you're running out of tricks!  You need to disappear, fast!'  I thought to myself as I shut off the light, placed an enchantment on myself and dashed deeper into the woods.  Hopefully she didn't see my light from the cliff edge.  It would only make tracking where I went easier.


Springing from tree to tree with legs that practically landed and launched on their own, I made a beeline through the forest while keeping a small distance away from the edge of the forest were it gave way to the cliff wall.
She was still on my trail, I knew it—or at least I had to presume.  This was her element and I could barely shake her in my own element.  I was going to have to face her soon.  The only thing I could do was pick out where.
Finally, I found a tree that met my needs and stopped.  I let go of my enchantment, and watched the paws that had carried me this far fade away back into hands.  Then I leaned up against the tree's trunk, stuck my hand into my sleeve, let the rain pore down on my face and scalp and waited for that persistent shaman to catch up.


Maybe a few minutes later, the tingle on the back of my neck flared for a moment again as my eyes zeroed in on a shadow that was only slightly larger than before.
Seeing that she was caught, Zecora stepped forward into the light.  Before she could even speak I yanked my last ace quite literally out of my sleeve, pointed the wand and forced a lightning bolt at the ground just in front of her.
I locked eyes with her and showed every last bit of emotion running through me.  "You!  I do not want to hear anything you have to say!  Stop following me!  That's the last warning I'm giving!"
She must have finally gotten the message because she gave me a flat face that clearly wanted to be a scowl and stepped back into that shadow while giving a stiff bow.  The next moment my eyes lost her.  I spoke my incantation quite loudly and faded backwards into the tree.  I had no idea if she could track me through this trick or if she'd have to pick up my trail again like anypony else, but it was the best method I had.
Carefully, I stepped out of another tree onto a large stone absent of moss that was only a few yards away from a cave in the cliff.  I pulled out my mistletoe sprig and cast another spell to close the entire distance to the cave with one leap.
Another quick spell just as I jumped and my boot marks were gone from the stone.  One final set of spells within the cave and the water within my clothes and the mud I had tracked in when I landed was also gone.
I just walked into the cave as deep as I could, exhausted and strained.  Finally, I sat down and quietly cried.


It wasn't long before I heard the light sound of hoof steps on stone.
"Go away, Zecora!  I told you I don't want to hear any more of your crap!"  I called out as I readied my wand.
"Nor will thou hear any of the... words of the zebra until thou art willing," Princess Luna called back in an authoritative voice, finishing with an air of friendliness, "We shalt lock her up personally should she try."
With a levitating mirror, she looked around the corner until we could see each other's faces.
"May I come in?" She asked with a voice fitting a worried aunt, dropping the authoritative royal mannerisms.
"I don't really want to listen to what anypony wants to say right now."  I lowered my wand as well as my head in defeat.  "But It's not like I could hope to stop any of the princesses even at my top condition."
Luna puffed the conjured mirror back to where it came, came in and sat down beside me.  It was the perfect distance to allow a pony to pull away without having to feel like they needed to fight off an unwanted hug, or lean into a comforting embrace if they wished.  Her studies on handling uneasy ponies had seen great improvements since the last time we met, though I could tell she still was also putting her own personal touch in with the mirror.
Not that it mattered.  I just sat there in the middle, waiting.
"...Well?  You're here to lecture me too, right?"
"I don't think that would be very productive with how upset you are."  She gave me a wink as I looked up at her.  "Trust me when I say that I've been there."
I finally took the option to turn away from her as she continued, "I'm just here to support you.  Although explaining why you are upset would certainly help."
The only response I could give her request for the longest time was quiet sobbing.


A good hour of crying later, I finally managed to speak up.  "After what I did to Fluttershy-" *sniff* "-I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at myself in the mirror without getting sick again."
Luna looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "I'm not sure if I understand.  Maybe you should start from the beginning, Moss."
> Chapter 1, I Arrived. (Wilderness, Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I sat there on my tiny island in that nexus of unconsciousness, with the Princess that reigned over it at my side.
"I guess I can start at the beginning, like you suggested.  I can't really think of where I should start. It's such a complicated mess," I told Princess Luna as she sat down next to me.  "Are you sure you have time for this?"
"I have other duties, yes.  However, any problem left alone too long can cause great havoc in my dreamscape.  I need to be here by your side making sure you don't spiral into madness just as much as I wish to be here to support you.  If that is the best place you have to start, then I will listen patiently."
I looked at her, knowing I should be thankful, yet I still didn't want to talk.  But I knew I would have to deal with her one way or another and this was her playing nice.  So I decided I may as well take my blessings as they came.  "On the day I woke up here..."







I found myself coming to consciousness slowly and groggy, as if I had slept half the day away after an all night gaming session.  At least that was the speed I started waking up at.  The sound of birds chirping  and the sensation of waves of water brushing along side me quickly made me snap to a panicked alertness.  Somehow I was lying face down in water!
My body whined at the commands my brain gave it, but it performed its job post haste nonetheless.  I lifted myself out of the water, gasping for air as soon as I knew I was clear.
As soon as I had made sure I had coughed up as much water as I could, I started assessing my surroundings.  My hands had sank a few inches into the sandy mud of the shoreline.
It felt as if every part of me were soaked.  I was just now noticing a lake behind me as I dragged myself out of the water to a small patch of dyer sand-mud.  I must have barely missed being washed down the small stream feeding out of it just few yards to my left and wound up at shore instead.  Surrounding the lake was trees on all sides.  The lake didn't look to be well kept and was probably not a part of any public park.  Or at the very least, it wasn't a part meant for the public.
Pulling myself together, I felt the pack on my back and a soggy bedroll hitting the back of my head. 'Was I camping? I don't remember camping. The last thing I remember was trying to give my apartment some well needed spring cleaning.'
Regardless how I had gotten here, I was here, wet, lost, and possibly sporting a little oxygen deprived brain damage from however long I was in that lake.  The first thing I needed to do was assess my situation further and try to get dry.
I did my best to shake the bulk of the  mud off my hands and gather some dried driftwood from shore.  With some chance luck, the first thing I found as I rustled through the pack that was with me was a crude flint and some easy to burn wood shavings in an old fashioned tin.
With a fire going and warmth slowly returning to my soaked form on the shore of some unknown lake in an unknown forest, I sat there trying to keep myself calm and get my wits about me for the long haul.  Wherever I was, my chances of survival didn't look good and I would need every last bit of tactic and strategy I could squeeze out of my inexperienced brain to not die.
I mean sure, I've skimmed over some material on wilderness survival in the past.  Air, body heat, water, food and shelter were important, roughly in that order.  I managed to get the fire going, but I had a feeling I used up a good chunk more of the kindling in my kit than a more experienced hand would have needed.  I had one more use worth in the kit at how much a person at my skill level needed to use, maybe two if I were lucky.  I had no idea if I could manage to make more, at least any more that would work right.
Speaking of inexperienced, I needed to check myself for injuries and get a better look at what equipment I had.  I should have done that earlier.  I did a quick pat down on my arms, legs and ribs, not feeling any particular bruising.  I stripped the oddly old fashioned furs I found myself in and was shocked.
My torso was tinted green, and the spare tire around my gut was gone.  I wasn't sporting any special looking six or eight pack like some model or body builder, but just the fact that that much weight was gone meant some time had passed.
I quickly finished stripping, and checked my vitals as best I knew how.  From what I could tell, I wasn't sick or anything, just a lot thinner and a bit greenish.  Like someone had pulled a prank on me and dunked me in food dye or something.  Scraping the last bits of the now dried mud off my hands, I was finding that even my palms were sporting this new tint.
'Whatever kegger I got dragged to, I must have been slipped the mother of all Mickeys to wake up like this.  Dyed green, weeks or even months of memory missing, and stranded in the wilderness.'
I pulled my head back and gave an exasperated sigh.  "I practically live under a rock and I don't even drink.  What kind of sicko would manage to pull a stunt like this on me?"
I just gave a huff and knew I'd have to work with it. "Whelp, with my fat stores gone, food has now become a higher priority.  Don't have any reserves to work with."

A short time later, I looked at a sky reddening to what would probably have been a beautiful sunset if it weren't for the trees blocking my view.  It was the only nice thing about the situation and I couldn't even enjoy that right.  I had managed to check myself over better and found nothing out of place besides the sudden slimming and green tint.
I also got the odd bedroll and odd firs I had for clothes drying for the sake of long term warmth.  In fact everything I found in the pack was also oddly old fashioned, like it all had come from a antique store or otherwise hand crafted.
Most of the items seemed odd, but potentially useful.  I made a mental list of them, with particular note to some.  Some were tools, some were supplies. Thankfully there was a little food too.  That meant time I could spend getting my bearings or bait I could use for getting more food.
Setting that aside though, I opened another segment of the pack and was dumbfounded for a moment.  My stupor slowly began to grow to worry as I numbly pulled out seven or eight rolled up pieces of old fashioned paper with an elegant ribbon around each, four vials filled with a reddish liquid, a pretty big pearl, and finally what scared me the most: two large, old fashioned books that sat neatly below the other items.
"Please don't match.  Please don't match," I spoke aloud as I carefully opened the books.
Each page had an odd text to it ripped straight out of one of those video games that is supposed to be a fictional alphabet that the player doesn't have to know.  As I feared, the two books were identical.  I couldn't exactly tell what was in them,  but I still knew exactly what they were.  They were spell books.  Wizard spell books to be exact.  One the original, the other a duplicate in case the original got lost.  A common tactic for wizards to keep from losing their hard learned spells permanently.  Although the spare was usually kept at base, instead of on them.  The funny thing is my eyes almost moved as if they wanted to read the page.  It was probably just a simple trick like alphabet substitution or something and my eyes were still seeing patterns it almost recognized.
With my breathing quickening, I looked around the other items of my camp, and found they matched, at least as best as I could remember.  It was pretty typical a pack for a spellcasting type Dungeons and Dragons character.
Quickly I picked up the signaling mirror and gave my face a good look over.  "prosthetics," I whispered to myself as I looked at the bone like nubs going straight up and back the middle of my now bald head and fin like appendages where my ears should be.
"Someone brought me out here for a solid bout of live action role playing... How did I agree to this?"
As I looked up again to try to enjoy the evening sky, I saw what I could only describe as an animal that shouldn't exist flying.  I couldn't tell exactly what it was due to the sheer distance, but it had its hind legs, front legs, and was sporting a set of wings on top of that.  A hexapod.  Six limbs.  Nothing that big had more than four limbs, wings included.
I gingerly brought a hand up to one of the fins at the side of my head.  With a quick twist and a muffled whimper, it finally donned on me what had really happened.





It had been the better part of a week since I first awoke on that muddy lake shore and found myself in this predicament.  I was lucky enough, if lucky is even the right word for it, to have those few supplies on me.  Without them I don't know how well I'd have managed.
I've been stumbling through this dense forest as best as I could.  Shelter has been virtually non existent.  I've lost more hours of sleep than I'd like to admit wondering if I'll wake up the next morning.
To top it off, I'm not even in my own body anymore.  I've tried wrapping my head around it as many different ways as I could.  Every time I could only come up with the conclusion that I had either become a water dwelling like creature, or I had been transformed into the race of my first successful RPG character, a water genasi.
For those of you that are scratching your heads, all I can say is that they are supposed to be mostly human, but with water djin or genie ancestry, and were slightly magical.  The problem was that I didn't seem to have any magic, not even the little stuff inherent to all water genasi.  The only reason why I still saw that as a possibility is that upon closer inspection my pack had his most current inventory in it, right down to the small amount of rations that I've already consumed while stumbling around.
'Heh... I made this guy to be a survivor, but without his magic he's just a pansy.'
*Grugle* my stomach growled.
'A pansy that's about to get in very deep trouble if he doesn't find food soon.'
Finally pushing past the last bit of brush to the next clearing, I found myself back at the same lake I started at.
"And I give up."  A small thump of knees in mud could be heard. "I can't find my way out like this."


* * *


Rocks, logs, and whatever else that looked like it had soft mud underneath, that's what I was looking for for the rest of the day.  There was a good chance of termites or other creepy crawlies there.  I was also on the lookout for trees with loose, dead bark.
To be honest, the thought had crossed my mind of looking for these spots before, but I was too disgusted.  Now though, I didn't care.
"Thank you, Star Trek Voyager," I whispered as I found a rich nest of grubs.   I quickly put them in a solid looking tin from my pack.
'Time to cook these buggers before they start eating each other.'  Hey, I was hungry but I wasn't stupid, eating any flesh raw was more dangerous than eating it cooked.  If I was going to stoop low enough to eat grub worms and random bugs, I was at least going to be practical about it.

After a... filling meal, I spent the rest of the evening conserving my strength and recovering.  I worked on trying to replace some of my kindling with bark and cooking up another batch of bugs for the next day's meal.
Once I filled a small pouch with the roasted bugs, I set my best tidbits of bark inside the cooking tin and set it in the coals to dry out overnight.  Dry bark tidbits were bound to catch fire easier than moist bark and hopefully mere coals wouldn't set them aflame through the tin.
I set a not so dried out log on the fire to last through the night, grabbed my crowbar and laid down to sleep by the fire.  It was the best thing I had for a weapon since I didn't have a knife in my pack.  I know, right? A crowbar but no knife.
With a slow mental double check of any other preparations I could make, I finally settled down and made a quiet prayer to whoever or whatever might have been listening that I might wake up the next morning.


* * *


I was at that point between being asleep and not asleep, in that part of my sleeping rhythm where I could easily fall back into a deep sleep, but it was also easy to wake up with minimal prompting.
That prompting came quite suddenly as I felt the subtle breath of a creature on me from behind.
I knew something big enough to be a threat was there, investigating me.  It must have realized that I had woke up because its breathing stopped quite suddenly.  The moment seemed to stretch on forever as I laid there stiff with one thought running through my mind: Both of us knew that both of us were aware of the other.  I didn't know if it was hostile, but I had to presume it was.
Finally, the moment broke as I tightened my grip on my crowbar as subtly as I could, but it wasn't subtle enough.  The creature leapt away before I could even start my swing.  All I could see was a grayish blur of what looked like the last bit of the hind legs of a hoofed animal diving into the underbrush.
I stood there, getting my eyes in focus and listening intently.  I couldn't hear anything.  I couldn't see anything—which was odd, because you'd think grey would stand out in the brush when sunrise was throwing funny colors every which way.  Whatever it was it was good at hiding.  No noise, and no movements that would give it away.  The only thing that left me aware of its presence was a gut feeling. 
My eyes scanned around as much as possible, only leaving the underbrush momentarily to confirm the hoof prints in the mud from the creature.  It wasn't split hoof like a pig or a deer, but one whole hoof like a horse or donkey.  If it weren't for the fact that I'd seen ample signs that mythology had suddenly become real, including the fin like ears I was using right at that very moment, I would have probably relaxed a little.  But I couldn't relax, not when there was reason to believe the prints could mean something other than a passive herbivore.
I knew I wasn't likely to succeed, but I still decided I needed to search for this thing while it was still around.
As I made my choice a tingling sensation arose on the back of my neck.  That tingling wouldn't go away, even after I tried to shake it off.  Whatever the tingle was, it wasn't going to go away on command.  This feeling persisted for a long while.
And then all of a sudden the tingling feeling honed my search into a single direction.  With a quick turn of my head I caught a glance at the same hooves again, darting out of sight around a large patch of trees and bushes several yards away.  At the same moment the tingling feeling dropped.
The creature had finally fled.  Somehow I had won the standoff, if only barely.
All I knew is suddenly I wasn't alone out here.  Friend or foe—scratch that.  I didn't think I was going to find a friend out here.  Hostile or non hostile, I had to be ready for my new neighbor... or neighbors.
> Chapter 2.  I Survived. (Wilderness, Part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once I gave up wandering around aimlessly, just trying to get out, I managed to get my bearings pretty quickly.  While I still wasn't sure what way I might find civilization, I was able to learn the area immediately around that lake for about a mile by the end of the second week.
The bark wasn't the best tinder for my fire making kit, but I was able to find other things that smelled less unpleasant when burned and were easy enough to use.  I think it must have been the rotten state of the bark.  My diet still largely consisted of bugs I could find, and I made  a point of searching for them away from my camp at the lake as soon as I was sure I wouldn't get lost foraging, so that I didn't totally exhaust my local resources any more than necessary.   The cooking tin was the veritable godsend of my supplies.  Without it, I wouldn't have been able to purify water from the lake and I'd have to eat the bugs raw.


I saw bear tracks in the area the first few days into that second week and decided to yank my bedroll into a makeshift hammock up in the trees.  It was a pretty stupid move though, because the bear I saw at the lake the morning after seeing the tracks looked to be quite the prime example of its kind:  Big, toned, and still young enough to hold dominance in the area for years to come.  I knew within moments of seeing him underneath me in camp that he could easily climb my tree if he wanted to.  While he didn't seem bothered by me in the tree as he happily sat on the warm ashes of my campfire and chomped on his morning catch, it was pretty clear which of us was the top of the pecking order—and it wasn't me.
I could also see an intelligence in his eyes.  Not like the bear was another person, mind.  He was still only an animal.  I couldn't recall exactly what language, but I had heard rumor that some Native American languages used the same word for brother as they did for bear.  Looking into those eyes, I could understand why.  I just hoped he understood I meant nothing but respect when he looked up into the tree and stared straight at me.  I waited patiently for him to leave, though it did take a little bit of time for him to get up off the comfortable ashes.  
Finally, he gave a powerful yawn and meandered off with the ashes making a large white spot on his otherwise brown coat.  Once I got down I made a point to spend the rest of my day looking for somewhere, or rather someway, safer to setup camp while keeping an eye out for that bear.  For all I knew, the entirety of the area I had mentally mapped was within his turf.


Ultimately, I decided that I wouldn't be able to climb, swim, or crawl anywhere that Ash, as I decided to call him, or some other predator couldn't also get to.  I would have to build a shelter that they didn't know how to enter and couldn't simply bust down.  After finishing off my reserve of bugs for lunch, I spent all day using my crowbar as a digging stick to dig out a part of a nearby dirt hill to make a den for myself.  I knew I had chosen wisely to use the soiled wrappings from my medical kit to protect my hands because by the time I finished they were still sore and one was mildly blistered.  I could only imagine what would have happened if I had done it with only the thin protection of my fingerless gloves.
I was getting hungry by the time I had gathered the branches I'd use as a ceiling to make sure the thing didn't collapse on me during the next rainfall.  Every time I thought of something I might want to use as a door, I kept shaking the idea out, thinking a predator would just pry open anything I would be strong enough to pull in front of the entrance.  Ultimately I resigned myself to skip looking for supper and instead found a thorny bush to uproot and pull into the doorway to act as a deterrent.
With the thick branches solidly embedded into the dirt at the sides of the ceiling, the makeshift den dug a good way upward into the hill to keep water from flooding it and the thorn bush acting as my "attack door", I finally managed to feel safe enough to wrap myself up in my bedroll, tie my attack door to said bedroll as a warning should something manage to yank it in spite of the thorns and work on trying to get some sleep.
There I was, hiding in a crude dirt shelter that took me the better part of a day to build, with a weakly rigged door between me and everything that goes bump in the night around here, on a mostly empty belly, waiting for dawn to bring relative safety again. I couldn't help but be reminded of something.
"Eat your heart out, Minecraft. Hehe..."
I had laughed.  For the first time since arriving in this wilderness, I managed to laugh.  A bitter laugh, but still a laugh.


* * *


The next morning, I was working on getting my breakfast from a spot a bit further out than my hut, with a pace that was quite impressive considering my empty belly.
With a basic meal in my belly again, I wandered around looking for a sharp rock or something else I could make into a crude knife.  I had gone too long without one and I found it was about time I fixed that.  Of course, I was also filling my tin with whatever bug and grub spots I found while looking for something sharp.  It was only practical.
I had found a few candidates for my knife by the time I went back to the lake to stir up my leftover fire from breakfast.  Making anything with blistered hands was hard and I had learned that morning that making a fire with blistered hands was especially hard.  So I just made sure I left some coals for getting started on lunch instead of torturing my poor blistered palm again.
The bone I found was too old to hold up to any work, and the heavy lump of flint didn't really want to break off right.  But in spite of my lack of any real knapping skill, I managed to use my not blistered hand to get at least a few bits of crude flint that had some sharp sides.   When I fixed them to some sticks with a bit of cord pulled from the end of my rope they looked more like miniature axes for play sets than a solid knife, but at least they were blades.  I could start carving some wood tools now.  I hoped I'd get at least one or two before the thing broke.
It was then I realized I had depended on my crow bar just as much as my cooking tin.  It was undeniably the tool I leaned on the most for general purpose, but it was still no blade.  It also wasn't a spear, or a snare, or anything I wanted to risk losing in the water trying to fish.  But while it wasn't a proper survival kit tool, and even looked like it belonged in a museum rather than a hiking pack, I had grown appreciative of the curved rod of crude iron.
I thought about working on a spear before I ended that day, but then I heard Ash splashing around in the water a bit less down the curved shore of the lake than I was comfortable with.  So instead, I decided to take the small victory, pack up my stuff as quickly as I could while being quiet, leave the still quite heavy flint stone at the shore for later and head back to camp to rest up.
As I rested near my den, watching the sky shift brilliantly to the approaching sunset, I saw another one of those winged creatures in the sky, or rather a small flock of them.  They looked smaller than I remembered though.  These were clearly smaller than I was, about half my size, while the other one I saw on my first day here was at least as big as me.
I still didn't get too good a look at them though, as they were zooming across the sky pretty fast.  The one thing I did notice was probably just a trick of the light with the sky changing so fast, but I could have sworn they were colored like pastel candy.


* * *


The next day my blistered hand was feeling even more achy than before, but I figured that was a good sign that it had started healing.  Using the sharper side of my crowbar as a weird sideways axe that felt more like a garden hoe, I managed to fell a young sapling.  Fixing it under the elbow of my blistered hand's arm and using my flint blade from the day before, I managed to make a crude fishing spear.
"Finally," I called out in another small victory cry as I got the tip sharpened to a point I hoped was sharp enough to spear a fish.


With my newly found spear, I set out diligently on fishing, expecting to fail horribly and be forced to eat bugs for dinner yet again.  But surprisingly it only took me about an hour of bumbling around that lake shore to spear a decent sized fish.
"Yes! I'm finally turning my luck-" I started to say as I turned around, only to see myself only a few yards away from a young adult black bear waiting for me at shore.
"Figures..." was all I could say just as he gave a good roar at me.
He had pretty much cut off any chance of me getting to shore.  He was barely any larger than me but was clearly able to move faster than me on flat ground and I had about two feet of water slowing me down.  I just tossed my fish to shore off to the side, hoping he'd take that, and started backing up into deeper water.
It was just then that I heard more roaring behind me.   Turning my head, I saw Ash running out of the woods and into the lake at another nearby part of the shoreline as he ran straight for me.
'Whelp... when it rains it pours' I thought to myself.  I only had one crazy idea that might save my hide, and while I wasn't about to second guess myself given the situation, as hesitation inevitably led to death, I was still yelling at myself that it was totally crazy.
I dove, or at least I tried to.  I tried to seek refuge deeper into the lake, only to horribly fall into the water right where I was at, caught by the ankle on the underwater plant life.
I tried to wiggle loose to no avail, knowing that Ash was charging full speed towards me.  I honestly began to panic, trying to bend forward to untangle the knot and failing.  It was right as I slipped at tugging at a part of it that I bent back upright... On my back in the water.  Before I could try again, I felt a strong paw that felt almost as large as my chest shove that same chest down into the mud below, sinking me into it a few inches and knocking the air right out of me.
A moment later the paw lifted up, only to have another stamp down on my good arm, sinking it into the mud too.  I could feel Ash standing upright on top of my arm and heard his roar through the water.  I couldn't pay this much mind though.  The only thing my panicking mind cared about was getting some air and getting away from the bears.
I struggled futility under the weight of Ash, my arm not moving in the slightest.   I was in such a frantic state that I didn't even know what I was doing for a few moments.  I finally got a hold of my marbles again and mentally forced myself to calm down and stop my panicked breathing.


...Wait...  Breathing?  I was breathing?  Underwater?  How?


No sooner had I reflexively taken another breath  and realized my lungs were indeed still providing life giving oxygen with said breath, I felt my captor shove down harder for a split second and then finally leap off of me.
I just uprooted the plant I was stuck to, sank my bare heels deep into the mud and launched out and up as hard as I could.
I came to the surface and found myself spitting up water as I exhaled.  I swam for a few seconds into the lake while getting air back into my lungs.
With a preliminary distance established and the sounds of the bears not sounding like they were following, I dared to turn around to see Ash laying into the other bear.  It was then I realized that he wasn't going after me!  He was going after the other bear invading his territory!  I just happened to be in the way.
I finally managed to get to shore a good ways across the lake, to see the black bear's corpse with Ash standing proud over it.  Before pondering what to do next, I saw him snatching up my catch of the day off the shore and going off to lick his wounds without so much as looking in my direction.
"...Much appreciated, Ash.  Worth every penny," was all I managed to say.


I could only gather my supplies left on shore, resign myself to my small reserve of roasted bugs for supper again and get away from that lake.  I looked down at the corpse of the black bear, oddly not losing my lunch, but rather wishing I had a good proper knife on me.  My little wood carving blade wouldn't suffice to cut that thing up right.  Constant hunger will do that to a person.  All I could do was finish tearing off the leg that was almost torn off, and hang it in a tree for the next day.  I just didn't have the nerve to sit out in the open and cook it right then and the smell of blood wasn't a good thing to be bringing back to my den.
I took one last look at that lake before I left.  I couldn't help but feel a little frightened.  But, as I spit up a little more of the water I had learned I could breathe, another thought came to mind.
"Worth every penny indeed, Ash.  Please, don't do it again."
> Chapter 3. I thrived.  (Wilderness, Part 3)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My picking grounds were getting terribly thin on spots I hadn't already plundered.  I knew I needed to find a better source of food soon.  I needed to expand my search territory and find something other than bugs to eat. Actually, I needed to start looking for civilization again, but I knew I wasn't quite ready.  I needed to become more competent in finding food, water and tools.
It was a bizarre conundrum.  I needed to move around to keep from exhausting my resources, but moving around could also mean getting lost and failing to find resources again.  That lake was the only source of water I knew of and the water skin in my pack might hold a day's worth of water in it.
I got a fire going to cook the leg I managed to keep away from everything but the crows who had just barely gotten started on the exposed end of the leg.  I took the leg down, chopped it up as best I could with the crowbar and tiny temporary blade I had, set the good parts out to cook and made sure to give the tidbits and other parts I wasn't sure about to the crows.
Now you might ask why did I throw the tidbits to the crows?  The answer was because I knew some creatures like other primates, certain birds, and other higher intelligence creatures—like crows—were known to hold grudges.  I had just taken away the easy picking they didn't have to compete against the ground scavengers for.  Naturally, I wanted to show I was willing to share with them.  The last thing I wanted to do was have crows attack me later on down the road when I could potentially avoid it now.
After getting the meat going, I went about other tasks.  I had so many I needed to do now that my meal was already cooking so early in the day I knew I should try to take a good chunk out of my list.  I needed to get back to finding food other than bugs, I needed to try knapping a proper knife actually capable of carving up a kill out of the large lump of flint that had been sitting on the shore.  I also needed to work on experimenting on my new found water breathing ability to make sure I understood it right.
...That last one was probably going to stay on the bottom of my to do list.  I wasn't exactly eager to test it.
"If only the create water spell that water genasi are supposed to have worked along with my water breathing," I grumbled to myself as I resharpened my spear from the other day.  It was just lying there washed up on the shore and was easier than carving a new one from scratch.  So naturally I took the blessing as it came.
Since I had small critters eating at the bulk of the dead black bear instead of larger creatures like a pack of wolves, I used the situation to my advantage.  I didn't really want to eat after an opossum, or even eat something that had been marinading in its own blood instead of being drained lest I get sick.  So I practiced fishing with my spear in about the same spot as I had the day before, keeping an eye on the campfire and an ear on the critters chomping down.  While the bulk of the meat was going to waste, I could still use them as an early warning system should something try to sneak up on me again today.
I wasn't having as much luck on the fishing that day as I did the day before.  My bear meat was actually done before I managed to catch a fish.  But surprisingly I did feel like I was getting a better feel for it.  I just knew I had to be careful to not over fish any fishing hole.  I could lean on it a little, but I had make sure I didn't become dependent on it then run the holes devoid of fish, like I was starting to do with the bugs.


With the first bit of meat stowed away for safe keeping I set a second bit of fish meat cooking from my eventual catch on some sticks. I also did my best to work on knapping the flint stone and getting my water skin topped off for tomorrow with water, sterilized by boiling it in the tin.   Whether I managed to get a knife or not, I decided I needed to start looking around and expand my knowledge of the area more.  I couldn't afford to wait for perfect conditions.
About twenty minutes in, after a few botched attempts and lightly mashed fingers, I broke off a decent chunk.  At first I thought it was just another misshaped piece that was useless but upon sticking my fingers into my mouth on smashing them yet again, I took enough of a pause to see value in it.
It wasn't enough to be a large knife of quality, but if I tried, I should be able to make a small shiv knife out of it.
I knew even before I finished it, it wouldn't be any good in a fight with about a one inch blade and a dinky handle I would only get about half my fingers around, but still better than my excuse for a barbie doll sized executioner's axe.  I'd at least be able to get the leverage needed to carve up an animal right with it.  Had I had this yesterday, I might have been able to salvage more than one dangling leg from the bear.
I wrapped the knife's handle part up in a bit of the cloth that had protected my hand from the digging a few nights earlier and took a moment to admire it.  No matter what way I looked at it, I knew the thing would probably only last a half a dozen, maybe a dozen uses if I were careful.  It was a piece of junk knife, but it was still my piece of junk knife.
I looked at the big piece of flint I had been trying to knap, up at the soon to be noon sun and then to my hands.  I had bruised fingers on one hand, and the slowly healing blisters on the other.  "Yea.  I got time, but not a whole lot of hand left to spare.  This is about as good as I am going to get right now."


Once lunch was ready, I contemplated if I should do something else or confirm what had happened the day before as I ate my fish.  Ultimately, there was no getting around it.  I had to confirm my ability or I might screw up later.
Not trusting my newfound meat reserves to the crows or other scavengers, I put the bear meat in my cooking tin and left them to dry in the still slightly aflame fire pit.  Hopefully I'd get something like jerky out of it when I got back and not charcoal... or have them stolen.
I carefully stepped out into the water barefoot, and slowly lowered myself to the water's surface.  I was just deep enough to dip my head in without disturbing the mud below, but shallow enough to easily pull myself out in the likelihood that this ended up being a bad idea.
This was it, I was actually going to try to breathe water on purpose.  The thought had crossed my mind the last few weeks, but considering I didn't have any of the other abilities of a water genasi I figured I probably didn't have this one and it wasn't worth trying.  Now though, I had reason to believe I could.  So I had to make sure.
I lowered my face to the water, closed my eyes and froze.  I tried to inhale but my lungs were stubbornly holding my breath.  I had to wade a little further in, push my head further under water, face forward into the lake, and angrily force my lungs to empty.  Then I commanded my lungs with sheer determination to take in a chunk of water.
My lungs buckled out of reflex and I almost surfaced, but it passed almost as fast as it came.  My lungs weren't fighting it anymore.  In fact they were asking for more.
I knelt there, at the shore of the lake, breathing water while carefully monitoring my vitals.  Pulse was relatively non-elevated, the lungs weren't burning for air and my senses weren't blurring out as if I were drowning.
I pulled my head out of the water and held my breath for a moment, still full of water.  Sure enough, after a few seconds the burning sensation arose, the pulse quickened and the urge to exhale came, though only mildly before I acted.  Naturally I obliged and coughed out the water before things escalated.
I took a long moment to catch my breath and make sure I was good before trying again.  With a quick check on my stuff at shore I could see the crows were leaving it alone and nothing was around.
I once again knelt below the surface and forced myself to take the water into my lungs.  This time however, after steadying my breathing, I made a point to hold my breath, while staying under water.  As expected, the burning sensation and desire to exhale came back.  I held it just long enough to know it wasn't simply my mind playing tricks on me, telling me I needed it, then exhaled and took in more water.
It was a little slower than air, possibly due to the slight increase in the amount of force needed to push a liquid instead of a gas, but sure enough I was catching my breath even while under water.


* * *


With the first outright awesome thing to happen since getting here confirmed, I did something that was probably irresponsible.  I took the afternoon off from survival and just played in the water.  I swam around, scaring some of the fish, did laps around the lake, and went diving for treasures.
I did notice the breathing was slightly harder the deeper I went, but it didn't suddenly stop and I was still fine as long as I stayed calm.  Whether it was the pressure, or the lack of oxygen at a lower depth, I don't know, but I made note of it nonetheless.
As for treasures, I surprised myself:  I had found a pouch of similar build to my backpack at the bottom of the lake.  It was probably a part of my supplies that had sank as I was drifting to shore.  In the pouch I found a magnifying glass, small rods of metal with sharpened ends and a small number of tiny gems that were probably not worth a whole lot considering how many where there.  I playfully put the pouch over my shoulder and kept searching the nearby area.
The only other thing I found was simple, but significant.  A squiggly bit of metal with a handle at the end was sitting handle down in the mud.  I stared at it a moment before I recognized it.  It was Moss's Wand of Lightning Bolts, the only magic item I had gotten from playing with my group.  I carefully picked it up and put it in the pouch.  While it was cool, it was also a reminder of this being my D&D character's body, and in turn it was a reminder of my old life.  Of all the things that I could find that would have normally been cool, that had to be the most anti-climatic buzz kill of my life.  I solemnly returned to the surface and got back to survival mode.
The only other thing I found worth mentioning as I packed up for the day was that I made a mental note to repeat this experiment as a formality with another body of water, to make sure it was indeed me and not just the lake.





With a clearer head and a better feel for what I could and couldn't do from the weeks past, I set out to expand my territory and maybe get some leads that would get me to civilization.  I started in the direction I had made an educated guess was leading out of Ash's territory.  In spite of the attempt to get away from bear country, I still kept my fishing spear at hand and my crowbar within easy access.  I had seen at least two bears now and I doubt the next one I met would be as indifferent to me as Ash has been.
I actually recognized some of the spots I had bumbled through on my first attempt.  I had to suppress a bit of self directed schadenfreude like laughter when I saw the things I did wrong the first time.  Running around in a panic really messed with your sense of direction.


This continued on for several days, with me finding new watering holes, another fishing spot, all sorts of spots I could look for bugs at—that I made note of but only lightly delved into—and even what looked like a fruit bearing tree with blossoms just starting to bloom.  Hopefully I wouldn't be here long enough to need it.
Yes, I had found ample food and water by what I approximated was the end of my third week.  But the real eye opener was what I discovered on the last day of the third week, just before I started to turn back and return to my den.
Standing in front of me in the middle of a clearing was something I hadn't expected to see.  A zebra was there, slowly approaching me.  This was strange because zebra's were native to savanna lands in or at least close to the tropics last time I guessed.  This forest felt more like a temperate zone and definitely was not a savanna.
But what else I noticed surprised me more.  It was wearing jewelry.  Multiple brightly polished rings were around its neck and front left leg.  It was also sporting impressive loops of the same metal dangling from its ears.
The thing that surprised me the most, however, was what it did when it came near.
"E tvsephi tohjv yuos gusn it natv izqsitt, cuv O ximduni yua vu Iwisgsii popivjimitt.  Yuas xomm vu mowi epf miv mowi O fu dunnipf.  Puv nepy e cioph xomm e dsux demm e gsoipf."
I could only fall backwards prone on the ground at what I just heard.  The rhythm, the complexity of sound, the way it seemed to rhyme.  I didn't need to call on that bizarre sense of intuition that came with the tingle in the back of my neck to tell me what that was.  I had already figured it out on my own:  That zebra had just spoke to me.
I had no idea what it said, but looking into those larger than average eyes I found an intelligence far surpassing that of what I saw in Ash's eyes.  This creature was sentient, sapient, and whatever words would otherwise only apply to a person and not just some animal.  With the way she looked at me while I was sprawled on the ground, she knew I was more than some animal too.  I honestly had no idea what to think of at that point.
When a crow landed next to me and cawed, I finally went over the edge.  I shuffled backwards about a yard, got up, turned around and ran back to my den as fast as I could, abandoning my fishing spear/walking stick in my haste.
> Chapter 4.  I stuttered.  (Wilderness, Part 4)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"A zebra?"  I questioned myself.  "A zebra wearing jewelry and speaking to me like a person?"
I was curled up in my den, my safe spot, contemplating what that meant.  Every other weird, off the wall thing could be explained by my D&D character.  I saw winged hexapod creatures, breathed water, and was even starting to get an inkling of what that weird tingling of intuition at the back of my neck every now and then might be.  All of these might have been something explainable by my D&D books, as however illogical they might seem. But one thing I was certain of was that there was not any talking zebras in those books!
It was that night when I learned of a new flavor of fear.  Not fear of death or fear of losing my identity to my fictional creation.  I had a bit of both of those, but I was ready for them mentally. I was prepared to do what I could on the things that I could do something about, and hope for the best on what I couldn't do anything about.  This... This was something I was not ready for.  This was something that I had no explanation for whatsoever.
By the time the sun fell, I couldn't deny that it was no more improbable than breathing water and swimming around the bottom of a lake, looking for treasures like a giggling mermaid.  Even with that settling the argument of likelihood, I still had a pit in my stomach that shut up any hunger I would have quite thoroughly had otherwise.
What do you call it when you cry yourself to sleep only without any tears, and there aren't enough confidence blankets and bedrolls in the world to make you feel any safer?  Take whatever that's called, add a derailed train of thought that left you staring blankly into the pitch black just beyond your open eyelids, eventually losing consciousness without showing any sign of it, and that's about how I felt right then.


* * *


I awoke just after dawn to the faint crackling of a campfire.  My eyes were as dry as could be expected and I had to let them marinade in their closed sockets as soon as I gained consciousness again.  I don't know how long exactly I had to let my itchy eyes recover.  Seconds?  Minutes?  However long it was, I knew my eyes were still bloodshot like crazy when I managed to start using them again.
While I was worried about hearing a fire that I hadn't started, the fact that I didn't smell smoke, feel the heat from it, or even hear anything else amiss in the forest such as critters running in panic, I didn't use that full zero to sixty acceleration of awareness meant for panicked situations.
With my muscles as stiff as they had ever been since arriving, I pushed the thorn bush door out of the way and hobbled out of my small den.
What I saw before me could only be described as a paradox or an oxymoron.  It was something that didn't make sense, and yet was there.  I mean, physically describing it made sense and there was probably a simple explanation of how it happened, but how my mind interpreted it was what made if feel like a paradox.
I saw the same zebra from yesterday, laying calmly in front of a small camp fire that was made in a small fire pit surrounded by good sized stones that wasn't there the night before.  Likewise, there was a woven basket with what looked like a bottle peeking out from behind the cover.
As the zebra saw that I had spotted the little pick nick she had set up in front of my den, she pushed a plate of what looked like an assortment of berries and nuts towards me with her muzzle.
And this is where the paradox was swimming in my still slow from waking up brain.  This zebra that had scared me the day before had found my den.  It looked like she had found it without even trying.  A part of my mind was utterly terrified from this.  But at the same time, she had waited for me to wake without disturbing me, and had even brought food.  This kinda excited me.  I didn't know what feeling to act on.
I was still puzzled how a zebra was acting like a person.  Or rather, was a person?  I'd have to figure that out later.  But even with that confusion, the pit in my stomach had finally been dislodged and I realized I was pretty hungry.  I decided to act on the latter feeling, albeit carefully.
She seemed to smile as I tentatively went for the plate of food.  I felt like a stray dog that grabs something out of a stranger's hands when offered then dashes off in distrust.  Probably because that's basically what I was about to do.
"I usually like to be the one to pick the spot for the first date, but this works." I half spoke to myself  to ease tensions as I approached.  I leaned my hand out to the plate as far as I could, looking for any sign of disapproval or aggression.  The thing I did differently once I got a hold of it, however, was that I pulled the plate away slowly.  Partly to keep from spilling, and partly to not feel like a thief.  I was ready to drop it if she showed any sign of disapproval.
She just continued to observe me quietly while I ate.  I kinda felt rude with how I picked at the plate's contents, making sure to only eat things I recognized like walnut meat, raspberries and strawberries, but I wasn't about to trust a zebra's knowledge of what was and wasn't poisonous.  Not that I felt she would give me poison on purpose, but just because it wasn't poison for her didn't mean it wasn't poison for me.
I also recognized how she had cocked her head slightly both as I started eating and when I set the plate down, unfinished.  I could tell she was studying me.  As nice a gesture as it was, I was starting to get the feeling that she had some ulterior motives.
When it was clear that I was done with the plate, she picked it up with her mouth and slid its contents into her saddle bag.  The way the neck bent, though, I had to be impressed.  I didn't think necks could bend quite like that.  With that in mind, she pushed the basket towards me with her muzzle but with a step's worth of further distance to the push than she made with the plate.  Once she had done this, she backed away, gave a small kneeling motion with her front legs and began to walk off.
I stood there a little while after she left before it occurred to me to check the basket.  It appeared to have a large, old fashioned canning jar in it with one of those flip top resealable lids, filled with what looked almost like cookies in shape.  I soon recognized as what I knew as sea biscuits, or a type of bread that didn't taste all that great and was tough if you didn't soak it first, but was filling and was meant to last a long time when stored right.  There also seemed to be what looked like long strips of clean cloth neatly folded and ready to be made into whatever I needed.  The final item was a large lump of honeycomb with the outer wax cleaned up and the honey still preserved inside.
"Honey...  Honey doesn't go bad if it's stored right, and I'd say this counts as stored right, I think," I said as I scratched my head.


I put the small cover back over the basket and saw my fishing spear leaning up against a nearby tree.  She had even returned that to me.  Now that I got over the shock to the system, I started to feel a little more comfortable with this particular unknown.  While looking back over to her in gratitude, something occurred to me.  The meeting had been largely one way.  While usually I could at least say "thank you" or some other courtesy, the language barrier had pretty much prevented that.  I didn't really know what that would do to future relations.
With what energy I could muster, I quickly grabbed my backpack and the basket and jogged after her.
"Hey!" I called out to her, knowing she probably only understood the tone at best.
She stopped and turned to look at me as I finished approaching.
I did my best to express myself.  "Um... " I lifted the basket a little and spoke as clearly as I could, "Thank you."
I think she nodded her head in response, understanding the meaning if not the words, and turned as if to ask if she could leave.
I responded by setting down the basket and rummaging through my pack.   Pulling out the large pearl, I set it down on the ground between us, nudged it forward with my hand, and backed away.
At first she opened her mouth with an O shape, and confusion in her eyes.  She then came forward, and started to move her head in the same way that she had done for nudging the plate and basket.  She stopped before reaching the pearl, however, held for a moment and ultimately picked up the pearl.
I could tell she didn't need it, but she took it anyway to be polite.  Kinda wanted to kick myself, but I couldn't think of anything else.
Ultimately she put the pearl in her pack with the same impressive bending of the neck as she did before, gave another respectful kneel, turned around and resumed walking off.   I could only watch her as she hopped over a log similar to how a horse in a show would jump over a hurdle, though much slower given her pace, and turned out of sight shortly after.


* * *


I sat at the lake while enjoying my first biscuit out of the jar.  As I expected, I needed to get a little water on it to soften it up, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  The jury was out as to whether that was due to me not feeling all that picky anymore, or if it were just a good recipe.  I had to wonder if what she used in it wasn't poison like I did with the berries I didn't recognize.  But ultimately any of the bugs I had been eating could have been poison to me as well.  It wasn't exactly a risk I hadn't been taking already.  Surprisingly, the biscuit was rather filling for its size.
As I ate, I pondered what I might do with the honeycomb or the jar when all the biscuits were gone.  It was a good container for most anything aside from being made of fragile glass.   Being sealed, anything inside wouldn't attract anything by smell and protect anything inside from getting soiled.  But I didn't want to just chomp through the biscuits themselves to get to the empty jar.  Those biscuits were definitely the best thing I could find to store inside it.  They'd be my emergency stash for a while.  In hindsight, there was little doubt that was exactly what she intended them for.
I also contemplated on the zebra herself.  I wanted to see if I could find any directions to civilization from the zebra, but I'm not really sure what I would ask.  Even then, I still could tell relations were in their early stages.  I wasn't exactly dealing with a typical wilderness rescue at this point where everybody could tell I was lost and was willing to help.  I was probably as strange to her as she was to me.  Directions or anything to do with getting my bearings through her would have to wait a bit.
My muscles felt sore but it was a good kind of sore, like they were recuperating from all the resting I did that day.  The only thing I had done that could count as work was dig out a little cubbyhole in my den so that I could store my new jar inside without worrying about breaking it in my sleep.
Finally, I laid down to sleep that night. With my wits about me and a good solid day of rest but no major work done, I had mixed feelings about the day.


I had been laying there for a few minutes, having just about dozed off when I shot to as upright a position as the small den could allow.  I had just realized I had seen that zebra before.  The hooves I saw jumping over the log earlier that day were the same ones that I saw dashing out of sight my first night back at the lake.
> Chapter 5. I roared.  (Wilderness, Part 5)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next few days where solid business, doing further scouting and experimenting with whatever materials I could get a hold of to see if anything could be crafted from them.  Naturally, I failed miserably with the tree, plant and rock bits I could find but I got a better idea of what to look for next time.  
Animal parts would be useful.  I knew sinew was good for string or other ties and fir meant warmth.  But hunting anything besides fish with a stick was a long ways away and I wasn't sure what the zebra thought of it.  Sure, she didn't seem to mind the firs I had covering me, but actively hunting for meat to eat might scare her.  It's not like herbivores could relate to a meat eater's mindset in this regard.  Wasn't worth the risk for now.  Fish was as far as I would go until I knew the local customs.


With my initial scouting of the surrounding area done, I caught a fish at one of the further away fishing spots and looked about for a possible second den to build a bit closer to where I saw the zebra come from.  I didn't want to have to venture back to my only den every night.
A quick but small cooking fire and another dirt hill later, I was well on my way at digging out my initial hole.  I had made a large chunk of progress towards the initial digging of the front most section to where the door would be before my fish meat was cooked.
It was right as I was washing down my second to last bite with a swig of water from my water skin when I heard it.
The forest seemed to come alive as I heard a loud whinny somewhat nearby.  The birds took flight as the cry of pain washed over the canopy.
'She's in danger!'  I thought to myself.  Well, either her or one of her kind, I suppose.  Something told me that she wasn't the only hoofed thing around sporting a brain of that quality.
Realistically, one would run away from danger.  I normally would too, but for some reason my mind flipped a coin, went with "Charge!" and abandoned that last bite of fish right there.


Armed with little more than my fishing spear, I ran as best I could towards the direction that I thought the whinny had come from.  I would have been embarrassed for being a little lost had I not been so worried.
I ultimately only found her because I heard a resounding  *crack* of bone crushing on the other side of some underbrush.
Peaking through, I saw the zebra from before, dirty and exhausted.  Her eyes were closed and her hoof was pressing on what was left of the head of a creature that looked like the cross of a lizard and a chicken.
I saw a good, long, but not deep set of gashes along her flank.  It was about this time I noticed that her flank's stripe pattern broke off to what looked like would have been a decorative design were it not for the gashes.
I softly called out to her as I stepped out, "Are you alright?"
Her bloodied hoof came up right at me almost as if to tell me to stop.  Her ears darted this way and that, listening intently.
Finally, when she was satisfied that there was no further danger, she opened her eyes and looked at me.  Her eyes reflected her tired state.  I couldn't tell if she was or wasn't happy I was there, but I could tell that the forced smile she made still carried no malice.
With the gift basket's cover used as a lining for the otherwise dirty medical kit, I reached for the kit and brought it over to her.
I had intended to treat her wounds myself, but the moment she heard the swirling of bottles in my kit, she practically yanked it from me and somehow used her front hooves to scoop the bottles out.  Looking them over briefly first, she popped open the bottles to sniff at the contents.  Upon opening the larger of the bottles, she gave a nod and pored the liquid inside over her wound.
The process was surprisingly efficient.  She didn't spill hardly any.  Despite using her mouth to pour, she used just enough to clean the wound.  With a grace that would put all but the best brain surgeons to shame, I found her hooves and mouth dancing with the new cloth I had put in the kit wrapping her wounded limb.
With a clean rip and another small dance of her hooves and mouth, she had my medical kit packed back up and was presenting it back to me.
'Well now I know which one is the disinfectant...' was all I could think as I put it back in my pack.


We walked a ways through the forest in the direction she wanted to go.  At first I thought she was just being polite in letting me escort her, as she seemed to hold her self with a kind of pride.  But after a while it was apparent that she wasn't feeling too good.
It was then I realized that while she had dressed the wound, she still wasn't alright.  Whatever had scratched her had left something else in there.  She was poisoned and that poison was starting to kick in.  I could only hope whatever I had in my pack that she used was slowing it down.
She unloaded her own saddle bag and had to lay down next to the bottom of a large cliff to catch her breath.  It looked like she knew what she was doing because she wasted no time in panting as hard as she could and searching through her bag.
I leaned up against the cliff wall with my spear to keep watch and immediately saw a set of eyes in the bush in front of me.
Wolves.  The sent of her blood had attracted wolves.   This is why I never brought any raw meat back to my den and let the crows pick at the bear leg I salvaged before I got back to it.
I was in for a fight and I knew it.  The magical tingling sensation on the back of my neck kicked in and helped me spot the seven wolves that had surrounded us and pinned us against the cliff wall.
The zebra did her best to stand and face the threat with her ears flat and her face befitting a warrior.  This was a little reassuring, despite knowing she wouldn't be able to do much.  Why?  Because I honestly was only about to soil myself and the courage she had helped me remember the wise words of an old Clint Eastwood movie.
"When it gets tough, and you think you're finished, you gotta get mean.  And I mean plum mad dog mean. Because if you lose your head, if you give up. Then you neither win nor live."
That was probably a butchered quote, but the meaning behind it rang true in my mind.  I didn't have much of a chance, but I was going to have to get mean if I wanted to get that chance.
I readied my spear to impale the first one that pounced and snarled at them.


I still am not sure what happened.  I don't know if it was my snarl that set them off or what, but that battle was on us like white on rice the next moment.
I did manage to impale the first one, and lost my spear in the process.  Another two cornered me with two more cornering the zebra.  I wasn't exactly sure where the last ones were though.  Probably ready to pounce should something get lose from the other four.
I could feel the teeth through the thick fir as they bit down on my arms.  It was all I could do to keep them on my arms and not anywhere else.  My arms were bleeding, but they hadn't done any crippling damage.
The magic tingle happened again as one of the wolves on the zebra lunged but fell flat on the ground as if it had tripped.  The zebra took this opportunity to smash the bottle she had in her mouth hard on the beasts snout.
The creature yipped in pain and started to get back up, only to find itself suddenly falling asleep.  It was at this time, however, that the other one on her took the opening she had to leave to attack its ally to jump on her.
As I saw her weak form crumple under the wolf like a thin paper cup under a brick, something inside me snapped.  I wasn't playing a balancing act with defense and offense anymore.  I went pure offense.
I visualized myself biting down hard on the wolf that had my right arm, next thing I knew my muzzle was around the creature's shoulders and I was tossing it like a rag doll to the side.  By the time I had heard it yelp from landing, I saw a strong right paw swipe into the head of the other wolf latched onto me, knocking it into the other wolf that was on the zebra, though not enough to fully dislodge it.
As the wolf that was on top the zebra looked up, I glared right at it.  I came up on my hind legs, and roared at them.  I think the stone behind me echoed and enhanced it, because I could have sworn I had created thunder just then, I was so loud.


It was only after the wolves rand off and I was licking the zebra's face that I realized I was a bear.  And I don't mean I was a big cuddly and/or powerful hunk of a guy.  I mean I was a bear, an Ursa. A muzzle, paws, around four hundred pounds of muscle, fur covered bear.
I was relieved when the zebra not only opened her eyes but recognized me with that same uncertain smile.  She put away what looked like a totem of some sort she had in her hoof, but only after dimming its glowing red eyes.
She pulled out a bottle and quickly drank from it... and then nothing happened.  At least not at first.
She was still sitting there panting with a few new scratches on her.  I was about to nudge her belly to pick her up and carry her, but she only shoved me away.  I could have forced it, since she was weak and I was raw muscle at that point, but I decided she had a reason.
Finally, after a minute or two, I started to see her breathing slow and her posture improve.  I didn't know what was in that bottle, but apparently she knew it would help.  With her stamina renewed, we headed out.


It was weird being a bear.  You'd think I'd be as freaked out by it as I was discovering a talking zebra, but nope.  First, I had gotten over some of my freak out willies with the whole not being in my own body thing as well as with the aforementioned talking zebra.  Second, I started my discovery on an adrenaline high, making it not all that impacting compared to the threat at hand.  Third, it only took me an entire fifteen seconds at most to recognize what had happened.
Unlike the zebra that had no explanation for her ability to talk and behave like a person, my sudden transformation did have an explanation.  Moss, the character that my water genasi form had been modeled after, was a druid.  Well he did dabble in other classes, but he had taken more than one level into the druid class.  One thing that any druid could do after reaching level two was shape shift into wild animals.
It was one of the tactics I used commonly in my D&D sessions with Moss.  It also lasted an hour at what I believed to be his current level.  Even a master druid could only maintain it for ten hours without renewing it.  So if I was back to normal by morning, I'd know for sure.
I mean if I knew how, I could shut if off manually, or I could reduce my borrowed form to zero health to revert back... but I figured it was best just to check it with the timing.


It was a little less than half an hour after we departed that we arrived at a tree re-purposed into a hut.  I was glad we had come across it too, because the zebra was looking pretty out of shape again.  Whatever that bottle she drank was, it was clear now that it wasn't a proper antidote, just a stop-gap treatment.
I watched from the doorway as she applied a paste to the wound on her flank and drank two or three gourds worth of  water she had stored in her hut.  She then crawled up to a bed, gave me a genuine smile and nod of gratitude, then laid down to rest.
It wasn't long after she had laid her head down that my form reverted on its own.  It was funny because I could feel like a small chunk of stamina was missing somewhere, but not the same lack of stamina I was feeling in my muscles, lungs or eyes.
"Huh... I finally started getting into character," I said to myself as I sat down just inside her door to keep watch and dress the wounds that were still on my "natural" arms.  Had I not been through a life or death experience that left me exhausted and worried, I would have laughed.
Instead all I could do was contemplate. 	'And that pretty much confirms what that feeling is at the back of my neck I get when I'm in a pinch.  Now if I could just get his darn spell casting to work, I'd be set!'
> Chapter 6.  I gasped.  (Wilderness, Part 6)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke to the nudging of my new found ally, whom had led me to shelter.  I had fallen asleep while leaning up against her front door.  As cool as it was to come out of a life and death situation through cooperating with a stranger, I wasn't the kind of person to give out the title "friend" to anybody easily.  She and I had reason to look out for each other, and were getting along a little better, but she wasn't a friend.  I saw us as tentative allies and nothing more.
That said, the action of having anybody around again was still enough to bring a smile to my face.
I looked up at her and saw that she had a good amount of the life back in her face.  I looked back at the wound on her flank to find that it had scabbed over rather well and her leg wasn't gimping anymore.  Instead she seemed to be shifting side to side with her weight.
I pondered on this for just a moment before she gave me a pretty big clue.  She gave a strong huff and nudged my shoulder hard, trying to push me out of the way.
It donned on me that she needed to get outside quick for... unmentionable morning business. I quickly got up and out of the way.


With the bushes relieving my own business that came to my attention shortly after, I was about to leave but I found her pulling me back inside.  Once inside, she led me to the bed she laid on the night before, pushed me to urge me to sit down and started unwrapping my arms.
She stared at the wounds and then up at me with a deadpan face that could only mean one thing:  She wasn't impressed with my makeshift treatment of myself.  I had a feeling that right then and there she knew I was an idiot about medicine and first aid.
She gave me another downward nudge to make sure I understood I needed to stay seated.  She walked around her hut, gathering supplies and depositing them beside me on the bed.
Some I recognized as what could be a gourd filled with a topical medicine.  Others, I was clueless on.
When she came back with a sponge, she doused it with something from a gourd and got to work.   She pinned my hand to the bed with her hoof and then started scrubbing my forearm vigorously.  I gave a grunt in pain from both the sting and the scrubbing, but I didn't struggle.  I knew she was cleaning up the wound before addressing it with other medicines.
Spitting the sponge out of her mouth after she was done scrubbing both arms,  she went to another shelf and fetched a small bottle.  Directing me to stick my arms out further, she carefully poured it over my wounds.
My eyes just about popped out of my head as I saw the wounds close up and seal with little more than a scar to show for it.  She then went about lancing my blisters and treating both of my hands with the items she had gathered before.  I guess the bruises and blisters on my hands there weren't the right kinds of wounds for her potion to fix.  Still, my hands felt far better after she had treated them.
I was about to leave after I saw her put away her supplies, but I found her tugging at my firs again.  She pulled me around the cauldron that was in the middle of the hut and to a small table.  She didn't force me to sit but when I saw her get out a plate, I realized she wanted to feed me as well.
"You saved my life.  The least I owe you is three meals and a cot," another—probably also butchered—line from another Clint Eastwood movie rang through my mind.
After she had brought out a basket of much nicer looking bread and some raspberries, she sat down in one of the chairs.  She also grabbed a bun of bread, put it on her plate, and nudged the basket towards me.
I was amazed at how human like this zebra's actions where proving to be.  With her cue to partake, I sat on the floor cross legged to be about at her level. I reached for the basket and did likewise with the other bun.


It was an interesting breakfast.  The meal included a conversation we had with gestures and charade like explanations, which proved to be entertaining for both of us.  I was completely stumped by some of what she tried to explain, but from what I could tell, she seemed to be a hermit and a healer.  I also seemed to get the impression that she was knowledgeable.  I felt that if she lived with others of her kind, she'd be a wise woman of sorts.  Well... A wise mare of sorts.
She also managed to confirm my suspicions of the four potions I had in my pack being healing potions.  With a quick look over, a swirl, a sniff and the slightest sip, she understood its properties and promptly pointed towards my now healed arm.  I had a feeling that the recipe was foreign to her, but otherwise she knew the end result was pretty much the same potion.
When she pushed the bottles back to me, I tried to insist that she keep one by pushing one back.  I fetched the empty bottle on the bed to explain I wanted to replace her wares but she still shook her head zealously as if she were insulted.  In response, she took the bottle, went over to her counter and pretended to fill it from an empty container.
Once it donned on me that she made her own potions, I felt ashamed.  I had accidentally insulted her medicine making skills.  I just took up the bottles, put them back into my pack and turned to ask for permission to leave.
She may have misunderstood that I wanted to leave in shame and not just leave, because she tugged lightly at my sleeve but otherwise didn't pull me anywhere, then started to get to work at her medicine while largely ignoring me.
I was welcome to stay, but otherwise she had work to do was the conclusion I came to.  I stood there long enough to acknowledge I could stay and not be completely rude.
During that time I did a double-take at something on the counter.  She was making more of the paste she had used on herself the night before.  I could tell because she was putting the finished product into the same container she had drawn it from previously.  It was the same medicine.  That wasn't what surprised me, though.  Replenishing medicine after using it was just good practice.  What surprised me was the fragmented pearl she broke another chunk off of and added to the mortar she was mixing things in.  It was the pearl I had given her the other day.  She did have a use for it.
She stopped grinding it for a moment and looked at me.  With a smile and a wink, she quickly went back to her work.  I couldn't tell if it was the only thing she could have used, but I couldn't deny it was at least a small part of the medicine she had used to treat her poisoned wound with.  I couldn't help but swell with a little pride with that bit of information.


With that bit of tension broken from the insult, I managed to leave the hut on a good note.  I wasn't sure if I should just leave outright or wait a little bit.  Ultimately, I decided to test out my power again while I was there.  Finding it pretty easy to call upon now that I had felt it once and knew where to ask, I easily shifted back into what I now recognized as a pretty decent copy of Ash.  I spent the next half hour sitting in front of her hut, trying to figure out how to undo it manually.  Finally I figured it out, and decided to not test the third method of killing my animal form off to see if I reverted.  While it sounded OK with the D&D stuff becoming more real with my new body, I didn't really want to initiate any kind of "death" upon myself, temporary form or not.
So instead I walked around the immediate area around her hut, finding an axe and a lot of unchopped firewood.  I had another brief head scratching moment over this as I saw the zebra come outside and sit down to meditate.  Ultimately I shook my head at this and just dismissed it as another one of those weird things that worked here.
Trying to be a nice guest to my host, I gestured towards the firewood and axe, seeing if she would mind if I chopped some of the wood.  She only looked around enough to understand what I was asking, gave a shrug and went back to focusing on the sky.




Back to the present, in the nexus of the dreamscape, on a tiny island that our protagonist had secluded himself to, save for the occasional visit from the Princess of the Night.


"I'm sorry, I really am, but I won't describe what happened after that.  I am too ashamed, and it really isn't relevant, Princess Luna," I apologized, "Well I suppose none of this is, really."

Princess Luna simply sat there at that same distance that would let me be comforted if I wished or let me turn away.  "It is quite alright, Moss—or whatever your true name is that you find you are unable to share through the spells.  Do you-"
"I don't mind you using 'Moss,'" I interrupted.  "It's the closest thing I have.  Even when I wasn't in this form, he was just paper and a figurine for me to pretend to be in that game.  He was always nothing more than an extension of me."
"Indeed," Princess Luna continued, "but I find just having a chance to think things out and explain to somepony what they have been through helps them understand the root of the matter eventually.  I don't mind listening for an hour or so each night.  You will get to the root of your struggle in good time."
With this, Princess Luna's horn lit up and shot out a wave of energy into the nexus that was surrounding my little island in the dreamscape.
"Sadly I must attend to something building but I will try to visit you a little more this night if I can.  Please, try to wake up and take care of your physical body."
With this, she gracefully dove into that nexus and I did my best to wake.


I reset my alarm spells to make sure nothing would sneak up on me in the cave,  created some food and water, and did some basic exercises to keep atrophy from setting in as I wallowed about in my misery.  If it weren't for Princess Luna, taking a little time to visit me during my sleeping hours,  I probably wouldn't even have my alarm spells up and would be wasting away.  It was only because of her calm requests that I bothered.  You might be thinking this was me being nice with her caring about me, but it was just a deal we made.   I did it so that I wouldn't have her or some other princess come into my cave and drag me out.  I did it to get her to keep her end of the bargain and leave me alone beyond her nightly visits.  I wanted my privacy while I figured this out and as much of that privacy as I could get.


Sadly, my ability to resist sleep failed me and I found myself back at that nexus, with Princess Luna jumping back out and onto my Island as she promised.
"alright then... I guess it's story time again."




Back in the past,


The next few days were interesting, with my combat ability suddenly increased and a healer nearby I was a bit more daring at what I was and wasn't willing to do.  I finished my second den, managed to skin the wolf that had died on my spear and eat on it for a while.  Sadly, most of the fir still went bad despite my best attempts to preserve it.  Beyond the meat, and the innards I ended up feeding to the crows and other scavengers I felt I needed to share with, the only other thing I had to work with was bones.
I wasn't able to salvage the sinew and the zebra seemed a little weary about my skills at using animal parts.  At first I thought she was disgusted that I was doing it at all, but when she showed me how to salvage what little of the hide was left, it was apparent that she only cared about making sure the animal didn't go to waste.
I made a note to bring any further kills I had to her to show me how to preserve and use it.  But I also felt it was a good idea to not rush my next kill and let it come naturally.  Something about how the zebra held herself said I needed to respect the forest and the life within if I wanted to respect her.  That meant not killing needlessly.  Although I could kill quite easily now, now that I had Ash's form at my disposal, I still needed to not kill without good cause.


We had trouble communicating as usual during my next visit, but we managed to confirm a few things together.  My bear form wasn't the only form I could take.  I had taken the form of a squirrel and a wolf similar to the ones that had attacked us.  I also confirmed a lot of what I knew from D&D in its function and restrictions.
While I could have experimented with this stuff on my own, I still felt good having a medic on hand to heal me up if I was wrong while I confirmed it.  One thing I still didn't want to test was the whole reverting back to normal unharmed if I die as an animal thing.  The only thing I did test that I had been surprised on was the fact that I couldn't turn into a zebra even though I had seen one.
'I guess she's not exactly an animal,' was all I could think of.
> Chapter 7. I conversed. (Wilderness, Part 7)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I continued visiting her for two or three weeks, with me getting invited over about every third day or so.  We discussed through drawings in dirt about different things that we wanted to know about each other.  It turned out that there was a village nearby, but there was a lot of dangerous forest between her hut and civilization, and warned me not to try to cross it.  To emphasize this, she showed that the chicken/lizard thing that had attacked her was one of the rare strays from that territory and that there were other dangerous things in that area too.  
When I asked her why the hut wasn't built closer to the village, she showed a line going back and forth on the dirt map, indicating she could transverse it easily, but only if she were alone.   She had simply been surprised by the creature that had attacked her that day because it was so far away from its territory.
We also spoke of my power and form, explaining that I wasn't exactly in my natural body and that while I had some idea of my magic, it wasn't from my homeland and I didn't know how I had gotten here.
When she asked about my world, I couldn't help but feel bad about my initial hesitation to tell her of it.  She had spoken truthfully with me about a town nearby, albeit a bit out of reach at the moment.
I had no idea if others would come from my home world or if the natives of this world would be ready for them.  I couldn't help but recall when, in my home world, the people from the developed countries arrived in not as developed regions and ruined the native cultures with lies, half truths and double dealings.  I didn't want a repeat of that happening here.
So when I spoke of my old world, I made sure not to sugarcoat it and let her be aware of the bad as well as the good. I seemed to frighten her, but she still listened intently.  Naturally, I told of things I knew from history like the items I recalled about the darker meeting of isolated cultures, but also of how our civilization moved from stone to metal and eventually "fake materials" as I could best put synthetics, how we grew in trade, fought disease and learned of new medicines.  I left out the concept of religions though, as it seemed to be something I needed to be clearer on before I spoke of it.  I'd need to know how to speak with actual words before I even considered touching the religion part of history.
I told of advances in technology that allowed for flight and even the touching of our moon, as well as understandings of how we explore our oceans.  The science seemed to hold her interest very little.  When I spoke of agriculture and how some of my kind tried to worry about nature and sustainability, I managed to hold her interest well enough.  I honestly wondered if she thought I was lying or losing something in picture translation.
When I described politicians and war, however, it looked like she could hardly get herself to blink as she watched me draw.  I could tell she was feeling sick from what she saw me draw, but she urged me to continue.  I described how in the day of my parent's parent's parent, or three generations past, fought in a massive war and it was heart wrenching for her.  When I described our flying machines finally dropped the "King" bomb on another country, for lack of better translation for the word "atomic," she could only put her head to the ground and plant it firmly.
After a few seconds of shaky breath, she picked up her head, fetched a large bowl and drew a stick figure of a human that she had learned from me.  She then placed a pebble about the size of a finger nail at the head of the human and pushed the bowl towards me, she was using the method we had established for asking the question "how many," in slightly less crude communication.
She then pointed at the picture of the bomb, asking how many people had died in the blast.
I quickly grabbed another bowl, and placed larger stones on the picture of the bomb and under the bowls to indicate that two bombs had landed, and that each bowl meant each bombs' effects.  I then removed the pebble from the human's head and carefully placed a single grain of sand at the center of where the pebble had sat before.  Her jaw went slack at this.
When I picked up a double open palm full of sand and put my hands over the first bowl, I saw her collapse.  I had to close my eyes as I let the sand pour out into the bowl, and I couldn't stop the pain I felt from her sobs as the sand finished landing.
When I finished the second bowl, I fell to my knees and started sobbing myself.  I felt as if I had admitted to the mass murder that I was describing.  I knew it wasn't true, but I had just described my home world.  I had just described the place I claimed to be from.  This tale surely shook the way she or other natives would look at me.
I probably would have bore that sense of guilt until the day I died, had it not been for what she did next.
She embraced me and sobbed with me.  I had no idea how long we sat there, but we sobbed together.  Before the bellowing we made died down too much, I heard her speak to me.  It was the first time she spoke to me with words since the day she walked up to me in the field.
"Vji fievjs ug vji nepy xisi puv yuas geamv, xepfisoph upi.  Ov xes csewi ug yua vu efnov xjev yuas qiuqmi jef fupi."
I still had no idea what she was speaking, but I think I understood what she was saying:  She didn't blame me.


She did not ask anymore questions about my homeland after that day and only politely listened when I mentioned it.  Soon after we had conversed about our homes, she tried to show me the basics of her magics.  At first I was puzzled, but she was patient in explaining why.  She showed pictures of nature, with mountains, deserts, oceans, plains, and forests.  then she showed each of these linked together in a circle, with creatures linked to each other.  I could tell this was getting into some deep spiritual stuff, but I decided to hear her out.
In time, she professed herself to be a servant of "life," for lack of better word.  She respected death as a part of life, but still did not like having to kill needlessly.  She cared deeply about the pictures of plants and animals that represented nature, as I had guessed before, and the pictures of the tool users that I could only guess were the "people" of her world.   What seemed a little surprising was how she seemed to draw from the energy tied to every living thing to call upon magic.
When I asked her what kind, she showed pictures of working with creatures, listening to the land, diverting beings of both nature and civilization from impending disasters.  This seemed almost like nature scientists of my home world until she also showed me something that almost looked like she was manipulating water, or talking to an elemental.  I wasn't sure which.
It was at that time she had my full attention.  It was starting to look like druid stuff from D&D.
I must have startled her with my sudden interest, because she didn't draw another picture like that.  Instead she moved on, showing how she thought my animal forms also drew from the energy that she tapped into.
I saw her draw her shaman symbol over a picture that looked like herself, meditating.  Then I saw her drawing another symbol, albeit incomplete on a second figure that I didn't recognize.  When she showed symbols for the passing of days with pictures of her and that figure coming closer each day, I realized that she had a student and that her student would be arriving soon.
She then drew a picture of a humanoid with a bear head, promptly pointed towards me, and drew the smallest start of the shaman symbol over it.  With this, she then showed two different lines pointing out from the picture of me one reached the picture of her meditating, and drew the picture of me next to her, with a slightly more filled symbol.  The other line branching out from the first picture of me came to a spot where she drew me getting killed by the lizard/chickens and other monstrosities.
She then drew another line branching out from the meditation picture and drew another picture with me hiding from the monstrosities along side her, my symbol a little more finished than before, ultimately leading to another picture with me reaching the nearby village.
And that's when I realized that she wanted to teach me what I needed to know to reach the village safely.



* * *



I packed up what supplies I had at the lakeside den and brought them to the zebra's hut.  I then lived in the midway den, waiting for the day that her student rived.  She wanted me to move in but, for some reason, not until her student arrived.  Well, I suppose her other student, my senior.
And the day finally came when the zebra called me to her hut and prepared three mugs of what I had come to call forest tea.  As we sipped, waiting for the user of the third cup to arrive, the zebra looked up to the sky for a while as I looked around the surrounding woods for the expected company.
While I was curious as to what she thought about as she looked up to the sky so frequently, I could never quite figure it out.  But when her eyes focused in on something and her head raised, I recalled slight zigzags on the back of her student's stick figure and suddenly had a sinking feeling that her student wasn't another zebra.
Although it was only a speck in the sky at first, I saw something coming down hard and fast.  I had to get down and hide under the table as I saw a crow headed griffin land with a resounding thud, shaking the ground and exciting the local wildlife for a moment.
The thing was larger than the zebra, and seemed about my size.  But one thing I noticed about it was that it was about as "all muscle" as something that was part bird could get.
It looked straight at me as I stood back up and showed me an intelligence in those solid black eyes that promptly made me shake off the initial impression of a monster and use the proper pronoun, he.
He walked towards me, speaking boldly, "Ot vjot vji tvsehhmy cietv vji Eponat Napfo djuti vu cmitt?  Miv't tii katv jux johj op vji djeop ov ot!"
The zebra promptly stepped between us and stared down the griffin that was almost twice her size.
"UL, UL, gopi!" the griffin said, backing up a step. "O xup'v sotl lommoph jon, cav O fu opwuli vji sohjv ug tvepfoph..."  The zebra deepened her glare. "...Epf O'mm ci qevoipv xovj jon."
The zebra finally let the griffin pass, while still holding her glare.  As soon as he had walked past her, she brought her hoof up and performed a silent snarl in the gesture that meant I needed my bear form.
A quick glance back by the griffin was only met with her even quicker snapping back into a normal position, looking innocent.
With his eyes giving a solid glare at her, he slowly turned his head back towards me, closed the distance and reared up on his hind paws.  He then lifted a talon in a somewhat slow fashion, getting ready to slash at me.
Yea, I took this as my cue to call out my inner bear.  It made him pause for a moment, but then it only made him grin and pull his talon back a bit further.
The zebra puffed up her chest and gave a brave face to direct me.
I just stood there, and took the strong talon swipe.  While I knew it wasn't permanent damage, I still couldn't help but feel like crying like a little punk when my torso got three large gashes in it, it hurt so bad.  I didn't call out but my broken posture still gave a similar effect.
And then... oh then the laughing came.  The creature was cackling at me.  It didn't need translation, he was a bully and he was laughing at someone he just hit.  Oh that pissed me off far more than the slash hurt.
I saw him swell up his chest and spread his front talons, leaving himself wide open.  The zebra jutted her head hard in his direction in further aid.
I knew what he wanted.  He wanted me to give him the hardest blow I could dish out to show he could take it better, that he was dominant.  He got irritated standing there, but waited for me to make my move so that he could gloat some more.
'Like hell I'd give him that pleasure without a fight.  As good as time as any to try  that.  If not I've always got plan B,' I thought to myself.
Standing up again, I looked inside and tried to call upon that same instinct that brought me into bear mode, only this time I sought not power and size, but raw stamina.  I sought the resilience to shake off this blow and as much as I could get.  I had no idea if it would work, it was a test after all, but I figured there was a good chance of this sub power being accessed about the same way, calling it from within.
I knew it worked the moment I saw his eyes practically pop out of his head and the zebra grinning in surprise.  Well, that and the reduction in pain I was feeling helped too.  I could practically feel the skin being pulled and welded back together as if a healing potion or two had been applied.
I just stared at him and slowly raised a paw as he had raised his talon before.  He quickly backed off and spat at me, then at the zebra, defeated.
Before I left bear mode, I searched around again internally for wherever I found that power from, but it alluded me.  I could feel I had a chunk less stamina than before overall, but I couldn't quite figure out where it was, unlike with the bear form itself.
"Dang it. I was hoping to find those buggers," I muttered under my breath after I shifted back to my normal form.
I just glared at the griffin for a while after that.  Instead of a senpai to look forward to in my senior student under the zebra, I now had a rival and a bully.  At least I managed to back him off of me on day one.
> Chapter 8. I Studied.  (Wilderness, Part 8) (Reworked)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next few weeks passed about as one might expect.  I got glares from the griffin and the zebra tried to give lessons.  But the lessons proved to be unfruitful and she didn't understand why I was having so much trouble.
I mean, I did kinda get some of the stuff like how to recognize sounds of different animals, behaviors, and that it was absolutely necessary that I never, ever—ever!—look at one of those chicken/lizards in the eyes even after it was dead.  Her wording, not mine.  Well, her drawings, not mine.  This was more general wisdom and problem solving, and I got that stuff about as fast as any student that had to talk through pictures would.
What I didn't get was how to draw upon the "life energy of everything" she spoke of before in order to do magic.  Not that I didn't want to.  I knew I definitely wanted to.
She tried to get me to predict weather for the next day, or get a budding flower to bloom, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't replicate her ability.  I made sure I was uttering the wording right, even though I had no idea what I was saying, and moving my hands as closely as I could to her hoof movements as I could.  I tried all sorts of ways doing different things with my hands while mimicking her motions, even testing the buds before and after to see if I had even loosened them.  The answer: Nope.
Meanwhile, my senor student seemed to be a full on apprentice, doing a mixture of chores for the zebra off in the woods and studying.  Strangely, he always seemed to study on his own without ever getting any instructions from the zebra.


On a particular day, I was horribly failing to get the bud to bloom and feeling like an idiot.  Meanwhile, my teacher had started looking at me with a certain glint in her eyes that I couldn't quite place as I tried practicing.  She closed her eyes with a furled brow and ushered me to end my practice early, writing a quick picture of a sunrise to indicate we would try again tomorrow.  When I saw her go straight to her meditation pad, I could tell she was running out of ideas.

Dismissed for the day, I saw my griffin senor sitting at another spot around the hut, looking intently at the woods.  Not having anything better to do, with my personal food supplies well in order and a quality knife made from the wolf bone and fur I salvaged, I sat down.
I watched intently, making sure be ready to move away if he showed any sign of not wanting me around.  I could tell he knew I was there, but he seemed to just ignore me, going through the motions of his own magic.  When I started mimicking his mutterings and his talon motions with my hands, he gave me a weird look for a moment, then shook his head, laughed and continued on with a grin.
The darn bird brain thought it was amusing that I was trying to mimic him!  Well... To be honest, I couldn't blame him.  I had no idea what he was even trying to do and it looked more advanced than what the zebra was trying to get me to learn.  But with permission granted, I continued to mimic his movements, trying to feel anything flowing.
Sadly, I was just as lost as before, but it felt good to have something even loosely like hands to follow instead of hooves.


After a few minutes, he stopped his talon gestures and mutterings, then called out to the woods.
“Siqusv!”
I turned my head in the direction he called out to, finding about half a dozen weasels darting out of the woods, lining up in front of him.  After forming a line and standing on their hind legs, the one furthest from me started chittering.
It was then I realized his magic was letting him talk with the animals.  With this in mind, I started up my mutterings and hand signs again.  I did so as quietly as I could though, trying to not get him angry.  I focused on what the zebra had described, asking the energy of all things living to work with me.  It was then I started feeling something faint.  Like whatever I was asking started to answer.  It took a long while for this feeling to build, and by the time it felt right the final weasel was chittering away.
"Epf vji dudkevsodit esi hivvoph xoti vu vji tduavt up vji xitvisp cusfis ug vjios vissovusy.  Vjiy kommif ny..."
It was only when the weasel had stopped that I realized I had been repeating the gibberish I was hearing with a questioning tone.
Looking up, the griffin had his talon up in a stop position and was looking at me with the same glint in his eye as the zebra did when looking at my practice sessions.
With a quick gesture of his talon, the last weasel continued.
"Vjiy kommif upi ug ny nevit.  Og ov xisip'v gus vji gedv vjev yua'wi ciip kiiqoph yuas xusf xovj vji cie..."
The foreign words of the weasel returned to being just chittering noises shortly after the bottom half of the griffin's beak dropped.
My jaw kinda fell slack in kind.  I could kinda understand his surprise: I had just done magic.  Useless magic because I didn't understand the local language, but magic.  I couldn't tell if it was their kind of magic or me stumbling across Moss's druid spell, Speak with Animals.  But either way it was a breakthrough.
I tried doing it quickly again, but just couldn't muster up the energy in any less time than ten minutes.  It was long enough for the griffin to alert our teacher of the development.  I knew her finding out was inevitable, but I kinda wanted to fiddle around a bit more on my own first.
"Ritual..." I muttered to myself as I got dragged back to my own practice area by the zebra,  "It's just a ritual version, but that was a spell."
A ritual spell was a way to cast a spell without using a spell slot, but it took a long time to cast and forced you to concentrate on virtually nothing else.  Combined with the knowledge that I had accessed my spell slots to heal myself as a bear, I grinned.
"I've touched the two separate components, now I just need to bring them together."

It was days again before the ecstatic zebra would leave me alone.  She had me do the animal talking spell with some success, but I got the feeling it didn't take quite like she expected.  She seemed irritated that I couldn't get it up and running quick enough, and that it faded out faster than she would have liked.  We still couldn't get me to get a flower bud to bloom though.  This whole process was exhausting, with her trying to direct me, meditating and then directing me again with every spare moment she had on the days she didn't brave the woods to check on the village.
This would have been fine, if it weren't for the fact she tried to get the griffin to sit down and help me practice too.  He utterly refused to teach me for free after that first time.  I could tell he could easily get the food he demanded I give from my own supplies for payment. That way he didn't have to teach me any more frequently than I managed to gather food.  I could also tell that the zebra was the only thing that was forcing him to accept the food as payment with how they argued.  I knew that if it weren't for her, he'd be charging me stuff I couldn't gather at best, or refusing to teach me at all.
Not that the zebra's efforts mattered much in the end.  While I was undeniably getting a better hang of hand gestures with the griffin, I still failed to get a single bud to loosen up, much less bloom.  Getting animals to talk gibberish to me for ten minutes at a time after sitting around for ten minutes before hand was the best I could do.
When the excitement over my first spell fluke died down, they had me go back to the old routine of managing my supplies and practicing mostly on my own save for the times that I gathered enough food to pay the griffin, which I had given up on after the zebra stopped pushing me to do it.  We'd have to think of another way to get me the knowledge I needed to get to the village safely.





One particular day, I came back with my harvest of wild peaches from the tree I had seen during my scouting.  The fruit wasn't really all that ripe, nor would it ripen all that well plucked from the tree early, but the zebra had told me to thin the amount of fruit on the tree so that the remaining fruit grew right.  In the meantime, the under ripe fruit could still be used for other things.  At least that's what I presumed, when she traded me about a third of their weight in walnuts to me for them.
I was cracking the walnuts and getting the meat out so I could dry them for my long term field pack when I saw something bizarre come walking out of the forest.  Well, a few bizarre things really.  One was what looked like a small yellow horse with a pink mane, and the other looked like something like a cross between a deer and a lime green bug.  As I looked closer, both had the spark of intelligence in their eyes like the zebra did.
"Are they from the villa..."  I started to ponder aloud when I heard a small critter scuffling about in my walnut bowl.  Looking down, I saw a small white bunny had hopped up on its hind legs and was eating out of the bowl that had the meat I had gathered from my walnuts in it.
I shoved the bunny with a firm hand off of the bowl and into a swift but harmless tumble backwards.  With a low growl I also issued a warning that it wasn't welcome to my food.
Of all the things it could have done after picking itself back up, it just stuck its tongue out at me and went back for the bowl!
At this point I was done playing nice.  I cocked my hand back at the wrist good and firm, then landed a solid swat strait at its nose just as it was about to take another bite.  The resulting reaction was priceless.  It fell back in shock and wailed in pain somewhat like a cat hissing.
Not two seconds later, I found that small yellow horse flying in my face with a set of wings I didn't catch before. "Jux fesi yua!"  She called out, glaring at me with eyes befitting an enraged demoness.  "Ephim fofp'v fitiswi vjev!  Yua duamf jewi katv vumf jon ov xetp'v gus jon!"
In spite of glaring right back at her, I found myself backing up from that stare of hers.  When I finally backed into a tree, I hardened my glare while she continued spitting vinegar flavored words at me in her strange language.
I could tell she was angry, but one thing that got me angry too was people getting in my face about stuff I honestly didn't feel they had any right to.  So...  Yea.  I think her glare had an opposite effect on me than it normally would have in that particular moment.
"Back off!"  I more barked than spoke, knowing I'd have to use body language and tone more than words. 
As she only got in my face more, so much so that her nose was touching mine, I stealthily moved my arm into what I figured would be a blind spot underneath her.
A split second later, her vinegar words stopped as I had the small winged horse by the throat, tightly.  Were it not for what she had been doing a moment before, I would probably taken pity on the efforts she made to struggle out of my grip. She looked so helpless.  Instead I gave as solid as a throw my weak arm could do.  Considering how she felt like I wouldn't normally be able to hold her up with one arm when she stopped flapping her wings, I managed to toss her pretty far.  She bounced a solid... two, maybe three yards.
"I said back off."
I heard the bug/deer call out as it charged at me before I could go back to my walnuts.  Although all I caught was the tone, I knew what he meant.  He didn't like me treating his friend that way.  I managed to lock eyes with it just in time to see it shift into a bear and take a swipe at me.
I dodged around the tree, with bark flying off and hitting my backside as I retreated.  "That's a nice bear form you have there, but-" I called out as I circled around the back to face the critter again.  I shifted into my copy of Ash and gave the bug/bear a solid roar.
'-mine's bigger than yours!' I thought to myself as I roared.

He swung at me and I swung back at him in a vicious dance.  He would do his best to dodge and shake off my blows, while I only dodged just enough for the wounds to not be killing blows, landing more blows myself with the openings it bought me.  Sure, it hurt, but I wasn't exactly focused on pain right then in the middle of my anger.
We both got pretty bloody, but with me using my magic to heal myself I knew I could outlast him.  I could tell with how he dodged around, his wounds wouldn't heal like mine and would persist between forms.  He was a shapeshifter like me, but it was clear as day to me that we played with different sets of rules and my angry mind was dead set on exploiting that.
After the bug/bear and I had slashed each other up good, the zebra managed to knock us out with the same powder she had used on the wolves.


* * *


We must have shifted back to our natural forms in our sleep.  After we woke and the zebra had separated us, I could see contempt in the bug horse's eyes.  I did my best not to return that look of contempt, but I made sure he could see my unharmed body while the zebra bandaged his wounds.   I wanted to make sure he knew he had lost that fight and that picking another was a bad idea.

After the zebra pointed over to the corner with the cowering winged horse and the little bunny, I could tell that the zebra wasn't to pleased with me.
I did my best to convey a "they started it!" gesture, but I could tell that while she understood well enough what I meant, she still wasn't too happy on having to clean up my mess.
I gave a reluctant huff and reached for my backpack.  I pulled out my healing potions and rolled them towards her.  When she gave me an odd look, I just turned away in silence.

With my peace offering accepted and used to treat the bug's gashes and then the winged horse's bruises, we sat down and started communications as best as we could with drawings.



* * *


After a few crude questions, I discovered a few things.  The winged horse was an animal caregiver of some sort—if the word "animal" had any clear definition anymore—here guiding the bug to the shaman, and the bug was here to seek out the shaman to help his kind in some way.  But one detail in particular popped up that had me distracted.

"The path to the village is safe now?" I asked the zebra coldly as I pointed to the picture the bunny had drawn of them walking through the forest to the hut.  The spoken words were more to tell her the tone I had.  The quick drawing of a chicken/lizard was how I actually asked the question.
The zebra solemnly re-drew the crude map between the village and her hut and the chicken/lizards between.  She then pointed to the griffin and started stomping out multiple renditions of the chicken/lizards.
As she did this, I called upon the magic that made the tingling sensation at the back of my neck to help me read her.
The tingle showed me a twitching of an ear, and a subtle unsteadiness of her hoof.  She was only telling a half truth.  The chicken/lizards were being cleared out by her student, but she was trying to hide the fact that the path had been safe for a while now, if it had even been dangerous at all.
I promptly drew a picture of the sunrise, followed by a swift strike through the forest on her map from the hut to the village.
"Then I'm going to the village in the morning," I declared.
> Chapter 9, I wandered.  (Wilderness, Part 9)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My bag was packed, the jar had most of its sea biscuits left and the rest of the space was filled with dried walnuts for the trip.  I had a decent enough wolf bone and hide knife at my belt along side my flint shiv, a higher quality fishing stick I had carved recently and the wand stuck in my boot, not that I knew how to use it.  The rest of my possessions that I came into that lake with were tucked away in the bag, on my belt, or on my shoulders.  I had searched high and low in the weeks I had been studying, looking for the remaining items that were missing from Moss's initial inventory.  Going through a "pretty safe" path would have been nicer if I had his shield, but I couldn't find it or anything else anywhere.
I saw the griffin come to see me off and give what I could only guess was either an obscene gesture or a taunt. 
"I see you're happy to see me go," I called in the chummiest voice I could.  It phased him only for a moment.
The zebra came out with a few things to put in my medical kit, and quickly drilled me on the supplies.  I immediately recognized the paste used for neutralizing poison, at least a single dose's worth, and the sanitizing solution she used on my arms.  The rest of the items...  I think I got one of them right in being a bottle of smelling salts, but she could tell it was just a guess.
She just shook her head and put the first two in my kit, then brought out an envelope with a purple, six pointed star and five more smaller stars around it on the front.  She then drew a picture of a horse with wings with a symbol matching the one on the envelope.  She showed me giving the envelope to her, then circled the drawing, indicating that this is what she wanted me to do.
"If I see this horse, give it to them,"  I repeated back to her, mostly rhetorically.
The griffin gave me one last wave goodbye with a cackle just as the zebra snapped her eyes at him and made him jump.  Promptly, she raised a hoof and pointed towards me.  She then pulled that hoof in, pointed it to him, and then swung it back to me, jabbing at me a few times in the air.
He just about opened his mouth to object, but the sudden tension in the air that emanated from the zebra stopped him in his tracks.  There wasn't anything physical that changed.  Her back was turned to me and there were no visible signs, but I could feel the writhing of anger in her at that moment in spite of this.
Even with the irritation I had with her holding out information, I still respected her as a wise mare.  But this?  This just made me scared of her like a child that would be scared of a mother that found out they had knowingly shrugged a chore she set them on.
She really did care about my well being.  Not that it justified the means or meant I should forgive her, but it gave me a bit better an insight to why she did it.


The track was uneventful, save for the occasional pause that the griffin insisted on.  I probably wouldn't have complained, had it not been for the fact that he pounced on me from behind and shoved my head into the dirt with no warning every time.  He was tasked to keep me alive through the last stretch of forest and I had discovered in our time together he prided himself on getting the job done, but that didn't stop him from hating my guts.
I will admit though, I was kinda glad to have him.  The stretch of forest between the zebra's hut and the village was pretty spooky.  There were dark shadows that creatures could easily hide in ambush and there were multiple tracks of things that definitely didn't look friendly.  But fortunately, the distance was so short we didn't even need to take a rest.


When we reached the other side, he gestured towards a direction on a nearby road.  He was about to take off when I stopped him and gestured for him to wait.  His feathers ruffled a little, but he seemed to calm down when he saw me presenting the portion of antidote paste from the zebra to him.
I just shrugged my shoulders and meekly spoke, "I'm out of the woods now, I don't think I'll be needing it."  Then I knelt down and drew a picture of him fighting the chicken/lizards in the woods.
He gingerly took the medicine and put it in his own pack, then turned back around and glared at me.
"tvuq!"  He called out while throwing a talon at me in a firm, but non threatening fashion.  He repeated this a few times until I realized he was teaching me a few words.  When he was sure he had taught me the words for stop, halt, something that had the effect of "go away," yes, and no, he performed an action of his talons to show an exchange, similar to when he took food for my lessons on magic.
"OK then big guy," I said in as humbled a tone as I could muster while masking my growing laugh, "It's a trade, not a gift.  Your honor is intact."


I focused on memorizing those words as I walked in the direction the griffin pointed me after parting ways. "Stop, halt, go away, yes, no," I repeated to myself over and over.
After about half an hour of rehearsal, I saw building from the village come into view.
I came to the edge of the... well turned out it was more of a town than a village, and stopped to take it in a bit better.  I didn't see another humanoid in sight, but I kinda was expecting that by now.  There weren't any griffins or zebras, but there were plenty of those small horses trotting and flying about.  They even came in a rainbow of different colors.
A few in armor seemed leery of me as they continued on their patrol, and I likewise felt a little scared of them.  I didn't want trouble.
I noticed not all of the horses had wings, some had horns, and some had neither wings nor horns.  My initial look around didn't seem to indicate that there was any major divide between the types though.  They all kept a significant distance from me as I started walking into town, but the horned ones talked to hornless ones, winged ones talked to horned ones, and so on and so forth.
I could have sworn I saw a lizard tail go into a building that I had just come around, but I wasn't able to investigate it.  Instead, I found myself being investigated.
A stick was being poked at one of my fin ears, making me jump back.
One of the horned horses with a mint green coat was looking at me and my ear in a child like curiosity.  The stick that had just been poking me was surrounded by a faint glow that looked like it was holding it up.  The horn of the horse was also glowing the same color.
'The horned ones can lift stuff...' I thought to myself.
"halt!"  I heard from behind.
When I saw a spear from a guard come up between me and the pony, I quietly thanked the griffin for teaching me those words.  Had I not recognized it, I would probably have ran and it would have made more trouble.
"Xjev't huoph up jisi?" I heard the guard say from behind me.


Turns out, the guard was actually coming to my aid.  He promptly gave the unicorn mare a small lecture that I couldn't even try to follow and ushered her away.  When he turned back to me he made a courtesy of apology and almost said something before spotting the sharp point at the end of my fishing spear.
His eyes moved back and forth between me and the fishing spear.  Finally, he gave me a firm glare, marched forward slowly and declared, "O'n huoph vu jewi vu dupgotdevi yuas qoli, tos.  Xjomi vji japvoph vuumt ug niev ievist esip'v izqsittmy ceppif op uas pevoup, tunivjoph vjev sitincmit e xiequp ot huoph vu deati vsuacmi og e pixdunis liiqt xewoph ov esuapf op e vuxp ug qupoit.  Puvjoph qistupem.  O katv piif vu liiq vji qiedi."
As he said this, he stepped forward and eventually reached for my fishing spear with his teeth.  Not wanting trouble, I didn't resist when he pulled it from me and tossed it to another guard.
"Go away, tos."  I heard him respond with another respectful nod.
He was just about to leave when I realized I kinda needed to make sure of some other stuff so that I didn't get on their bad side later.  It would be easier to ask a guard that had already taken a respectful disposition to me than a random one later.  Or worse yet, one that stopped me for something with a bit less than respectful tone.
"Stop!" I called, hoping I was saying the word I was meaning to say.
When I saw him turn around with a confused look on his face, I winced but didn't back down.  It was at that moment I realized why the zebra and griffin didn't try to teach me their language before:  I couldn't pronounce it right and it was painfully obvious to them when they heard me speak my own language.  I just hope I didn't sound too much like a grunting ignorant primitive or something just as dense just then.
I opened my hand in front me for the guard, and slowly pointed to the knife and shiv at my belt.  I then gingerly pulled them out of their sheathes and let them go, landing promptly in the dirt.
When I backed away, He came up and looked at them oddly.  He put his hooves against each other on the ground next to the flint shiv, promptly kicking it slightly in my direction.  The bone knife he looked at more closely, put his hooves down together in front of it and paused.  He looked at it for a moment, looked up at me, looked back and forth between my hands and looked back down at the knife.  He then hopped his hooves sideways slightly to where they were next to just the blade and nodded.
"Yua'si katv xovjop sihamevoup xovj vjot upi.  Epuvjis jemg opdj epf yua'f piif e qisnov vu dessy ov up yua.  Katv fup'v fu epyvjoph tvaqof xovj vjin.  Xi'si xevdjoph," he said with a serious tone as he moved his hoof back and forth from pointing to his eyes to pointing at me.  He then flicked the knife towards me as well and went on his way.
As I picked up my knife and shiv from the dirt, I realized the griffin taught me those words just to help me understand the town's folk, not the other way around.  I had to lean against a wall at this thought as I cleaned the dirt off of my blades before putting them back in their sheaths. 
At this point, I had to wonder.  What was I even wanting in town now that I was here?  I really didn't have an answer at that point.  "Well.  I got the guards OK.  That's as good a first step as any.  Now I just need to mind my manners and keep my mouth shut while I get my bearings."







"And that's where we stop.  I kept my end and you agreed I'd get a night off from your visits tomorrow night."
A huff of frustration pushed her bangs up and about for a brief moment.  "Yes.  We did agree to that.  But your tale among ponies seems like it's just beginning and I've grown fond of your company.  You are one of the few creatures in the land that I don't have to be diligent with to not resemble the monster of my past."
I just looked at her blankly.  "And who says I don't see you as a monster?  I just consider myself one too now.  Now leave me be already."
She looked both a little hurt and a little confused from this.
"OK OK, I don't see you as bad.  You've grown past those things I've heard tell about."
She paused a moment to think of a comeback as she let the hurtful words leave her mind, forgiven.  Taking just enough time for it to not quite start becoming awkward, she managed to continue, "As I feel you will soon enough too.  Whatever it was, I'm sure Fluttershy would forgive you."  With this, she jumped into the nexus and left me to my little island of brooding.


I just curled up my dream body into a ball position and rocked myself back and forth.
"That isn't the issue, Princess," I called out absentmindedly to the void as my mind slowly slipped out of the lucid dreaming that came with Princess Luna's presence.  "She isn't the one I need forgiveness from."
I didn't have to wait long before the chaos that was my normal, random, hodge podge of thoughts, sleep that even Princess Luna couldn't make any sense of managed to set in.
> Chapter 10, Epic Deplomacy Fail.  (The Warm Welcome, Part 1)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You look rather well, Moss,"  Luna pronounced as she made her landing on my little island.  "I was afraid we would loose much progress last night with my absence and we would have to work even harder to return to where we were.  Yet it seems a single night alone has indeed proven useful."
We quickly approached each other and sat down in our usual spots.
"I'm kinda surprised you kept your word.  My sleep was a bit more uneasy last night than normal for me, all things considered."
She sighed.  "I won't deny I was tempted by the amount of negative emotion I felt from your island.  Had it grown much further, I would have needed to intervene."
"...Well, thanks," was all I could say.  I had kinda suspected she'd still be keeping an eye on me from a distance.
"But you managed to fight back the darkness on your own.  I felt the negative energy dampen considerably towards the end of the night.  You're race's mental fortitude is so similar to a pony's yet it amazes me how you can find inner strength when caught in your own mind's traps."
It was my turn to sigh.  "Yea...   I kinda had to tell my paranoid side to shut up when it kept saying things my logical side just saw as babbling nonsense.  It's not a trick every human has a chance to develop.  Not that I have a perfect grip on it or don't ever have any relapse."
"But when your paranoid and logical sides are in agreement, it isn't so easy?"  Luna inquired.
I could only shake my head in frustration.  "Yep, that's the side effect.  They don't even have to agree at times." My hand started shaking.  "Sometimes, they just need to be neutral, to not oppose each other and the trick is rendered pretty useless."
"And that is why the good support of a friend ca-"
"Yes! Yes! I know!" I blurted out, "A good friend can help you get your thoughts together and keep you from spiraling from your own fears and self doubts.  Anybody supportive really will do in a pinch if given the chance.  Why do you think I'm... I'm..."
I had lowered my head and did what I could to kill my momentum.  The funny thing is... a part of me didn't want to look up once I slowed down.  Not because of the glare I perceived, but because I was afraid of it not being there were I to look into her eyes.  A part of me wanted others to be angry with me, to hate me.
They all saw me as some great person.  Someone that helped them in a time of need and they wanted to help me through my pain.  I was the only one that saw myself as a monster for what I did and that was a part of why it is so hard to bear, princess.  It would be so much easier to relate my pain to them if they would just see the same monster I see."
"Then show me what made you this monster that you see."
I shot my head up at her and stared.  I realized at some point I had started to say my thoughts out loud.
"Let me understand.  Explain to me what you did that made you a monster and why.  If that is what you need.  If that is what you have been trying to figure out then I will listen and wait for you, however long it takes."
She came over into the standard hug offering distance and opened her wing in a welcoming manner. "That's a promise-"  She finished with a warm, yet pained smile.  "-monster to monster."
For the ump-teenth time in a row since I first started getting her visits, I once again turned to refuse the embrace and muttered a grunt of discomfort, but followed with a "Thank you."
A silence fell over the little island in the dreamscape.  In a few moments I had realized it was the first time I thanked her for visiting.  Two days prior I would have considered that a blunder as it would have encouraged her to visit more.  But that day I realized I didn't mind quite so much as when it had started.
Princess Luna started up conversation again a few moments later.  "Although they realize you need alone time and likely won't come, your old teammates still wanted me to invite you to join them in the upcoming festivities.  They are getting together to be guests of honor in the summer sun celebration in Ponyville."
I looked at her in horror.  "With Dalock on the loose?  Are they crazy?  That's exactly the kind of stuff he'd do a hit and run on to try to-!"
Luna raised her hoof to quell me in my panic.  "Much has happened since you went into isolation nearly a moon ago."  She gave pause to let me calm down.  "That murdering hollow shell of a fiend has been apprehended and is being held quite firmly in his special made prison until we can deal with him permanently."
"Oh..."  I thought for a moment.  "Even so, I'm not ready to come out yet."  An awkward silence fell over the little dreamscape island again.
A small laugh finally came over me as I thought about something.  "You know, come to think of it we also left the story off on the day I first met Sparkles.  She was probably the best member of the team."
"She also would want me to remind you she hates that nick name."
"And I love her for it."  I threw all of my dry humor into that last bit of snark and returned my mind to story mode.  "Be sure to tell the team I said 'Hi.'"
I gathered my thoughts again and continued where I left off.  "At that point I found myself unsure of what to do..."





At that point I found myself unsure of what to do now that I was actually in town.  Back when I first made the goal of getting back to town, I'd presumed I'd be able to talk to the locals, or at the very least see another humanoid that could help me.  Actually, I still expected to be on earth back then too.  I'd been watching the moon cycles long enough to tell it hasn't been changing phases as it should.  I wasn't on earth anymore and that giant glowing ball in the sky likely wasn't earth's sun either.
All these changes had crept up on me bit by bit.  Now that I was looking back on them all, getting back to town probably shouldn't have been as large a priority as I had made it to be.  That was practical back on earth, but here I needed to adapt to the local systems more than just get back to civilization.
So what business should I do first?  Learning communication beyond pictures probably would have helped.  Not much I can do now though.  A good proper bath would be nice, but for some reason my pack had no coins and something told me I wasn't going to be able to rent a room with tiny gems.  I had already seen half a dozen or so of the small horses sporting gems far larger than my own as casual jewelry.  The gems probably didn't have much value here and I'd have no real way to tell if I was getting cheated even if they were worth something.
No matter what way I looked at it, that letter was probably the only lead I had on what to do.
"It's starting to get hard being angry at the shaman with how big of a screw up coming to town is turning out to be..." I grumbled.  "I think I owe her a good heart to heart if and when I get past the language barrier..."


I spent the next hour approaching any of the little horses that were brave enough to let me ask a question, pointing to the symbol on the letter and acting like I was looking around like a lost idiot.  The biggest hurtle I had wasn't so much that the little horses didn't understand what I was saying, but rather it took a while to find ones willing to let me approach them.  It took me about half of that hour to manage to approach the first willing horse.
Sadly, he just ran off after I pointed at the symbol on the letter, and three others ran off after I started my gesture for looking for them.  It wasn't until I ran into an all pink mare that I got any directions.  I had been hesitant to approach her due to how she hopped around and did crazy acrobatics like a hyperactive kid as she moved through the town.
But she looked back and forth at the letter and me before grinning like a lunatic and pointing to the giant crystal structure on the far end of town.  To be honest, I was more scared of what my neck tingle magic might tell me if I used it to tell if she was being honest or not than I was scared of going to the crystal structure turning out to be a bad idea.  There was something in my gut telling me questioning what was going on in the head that mare wouldn't end well for what was left of my sanity.

The trip up through the town left me with a lot of uncertainty.  The townsfolk were keeping a little bit of a wider birth than was welcoming, and I wasn't entirely sure if they were talking down on me or just gossiping when I saw them whispering to each other every now and then.
I saw the crystalline structure coming into better view between the buildings as I got part way through the town.  A crystalline tree like building at least the size of a small fortress.
I approached with caution, keeping an eye on the mood of the ponies, seeing if they didn't approve of my approach.  All I could see was continued whispers and hushes as I made my way into the open fields between the crystal fortress and the town.
While there wasn't another traveler on it at that moment, the path through the open fields seemed as well traveled as any side street in the town.  At least one if not a handful of the small horses traveled to and from the fortress on a daily or so basis.

I made my final approach to the door at the base of the structure slowly, listening for anyone's disapproval or any sign that I shouldn't be there.  But everything seemed to indicate that it was a welcoming place despite being awe inspiring.
I just barely managed to knock on the door when I felt a strong chill wash over me in a form like a gust, but at the same time the wind had stopped.  Something about it told me it wasn't natural.  I could see a dark steam coming off my shoulder and the rest of my body as I turned around and went to the top edge of the stairs to look for the source.
The next thing I knew I felt a paralyzing shock of electricity strike me.  Crumpling like a rag doll, I rolled down to the dirt of the path leading to the stairs.  All the while, I could only think 'Shit... that hurt,' with my now barely functional mental state.
Upon reaching the base of the stairs, I happened to land looking up.  Before my vision faded out, I saw two armored ponies with a crystalline like sheen and another armored pony with a horn lit up with electrical energy holding the letter I had.
"Qsuditt jon epf neli tasi ji't ecmi vu veml xjip ji xelit.  Xi'mm piif etl jon ecuav jot esny."
> Chapter 11, Rough negotiations...  (The Warm Welcome, Part 2)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My cell was strangely clean for a feudal era style prison.  The walls were stone, and no window was available to the outside immediately near my cell, but the room was still well enough lit with what was probably fixed torches high up on the walls that were outside the cells.
All my stuff had been taken away before I woke and I found myself without even clothes, naked in the cell.  Had I not seen many more of the residents being publicly nude than clothed, I'd have thought it was to break me.  Instead, I resigned it to standard procedure, not ridicule.
It felt a little cold, but oddly, only to a degree that felt like it would have been comfortable in anything more insulating than summer wear.  It wasn't nearly as dank or dark as any dungeon I'd have come to expect from a prison made of cobblestone.
A water bowl sat at the edge of the bars not too dissimilar to an animal's cage at a shelter, and was filled with water that was so clear I could have sworn it came from a tap.  What looked like bread sat there on a plate next to a carrot.  It certainly wasn't as well thought out as the zebra shaman's first offer of food.  It was basic, but the quality of being basic showed me that it was clear they didn't want me to think I was going to be ill treated.
That's what scared me the most as I came to finish my initial exploration of the cell.  I could tell that they wanted something from me and felt treating me nice was the way to get it.  I wasn't about to let Stockholm syndrome set in.  Sure, they were the boss.  I wasn't about to fight them or resist.  They held all the cards and I was at their mercy.  But I wasn't going to play nice and do whatever they wanted.  I may have been a privileged prisoner, but I was still a prisoner.
Even if I were in a nice suite in a hotel, the scowls on the guards' crystalline faces would still been enough to tell me I wasn't liked.  They weren't simply uneasy of me like the horses in town, they genuinely didn't like me and they didn't care if I knew it or not.

Hours had passed since I first found myself in the cell.  My water bowl and bread were changed out twice that day by a pair of those crystalline looking horses.  Almost like routine, he'd levitate his spear towards me, I'd back off and press against the edge of my cell, sitting, and the other guard would grab the bowl and plate, replacing them with new ones.  The carrot was exchanged for an eggplant, then an apple the second time.
When they found I hadn't touched either even hours later, I could see that they were perplexed.   They may have asked me questions in that bizarre language of theirs, probably asking why I wouldn't eat, but I didn't bother humoring them.  Instead, I just sat there and waited for whatever they had in store for me.  My paranoid side didn't want to take the risk of it being laced with something and darn it if that paranoia wasn't what kept me alive out in the woods before I met the zebra, and even to a large part of it after.  Not trusting them was one of two options I had, the other being to blindly trust the beings that assaulted and imprisoned me without any clear warning of what I did wrong.  Yea, being a bit paranoid seemed like the safer bet right then.  Not cooperating with the food, at least right off the bat, was the best way I could think of to let them know I wasn't going to just role over for them... again... now that I wasn't paralyzed.

I didn't have too long to wait before the interrogations began.  That very day, shortly after I refused my last change of food, the horse that I had seen in armor came towards me with her horn sparking with magic again.  I was chained by the neck, hands bound, and my mouth gagged until I reached an interrogation room.  That's where I can't remember all that clearly.
The interrogations bled together, two to three times a day, I think.  Every time I'd be yelled at in her alien tongue, with nothing to show for it.   I think by the end of the second day, she was starting to not have to fake the throbbing veins on her forehead.
Sure, I tried to explain to them that I didn't understand what they were saying.  But when I raised my hands up off the table to cup my ear, the chains would shock me.  When I tried speaking, I was slapped and scolded.  Apparently, they thought I was fluent in their language.  Every so often, when I wasn't suffering from a bout of weakness brought on by not eating or drinking I'd hear "Yes us no?" and recognize the words the griffin taught me.  I made a point to presume that the middle word was something to the effect of "or," but that's about all I was able to learn.  Not that it mattered.  Giving a response without knowing what question I was answering would have opened a whole other can of worms.  They didn't hurt me besides the one slap and the shocks when I lifted my hands, nor were they making me go without.  So since they weren't exactly motivating me to talk through those routes, I wasn't compelled to just give them the answer they wanted to make it stop.

By the end of the third day's interrogations, I was getting pretty thirsty.  The hunger was there too, sure, but I had gotten used to that.  But I hadn't actually gone thirsty for any extended period of time in the woods.
I sat in my cell for a while, my mind wandering on options.  Should I drink from the bowl?  Should I call for the guards again and try to tell them I can't understand them?  Should I go full on bear and knock some heads?  Should I sneak out as a rat or something?
Thinking about what forms I could take made my mind wander back to my old dungeons and dragons campaign...  Moss had all sorts of spells that could be useful.  Creating water out of thin air once a day was something he could do just because of his race.  Being a druid would grant him access to food.  He had a plethora of spells from his other classes too.  There was even one that might help him understand them, if I could just cast the darn thing!  About all I'd been able to do was use his shape shifting and that silly little feeling I got on the back of my neck that pulled the chances of luck to my favor every now and then.  Neither had all that much stamina, one or two good uses before I expended myself at best.
Sneaking out wasn't an option, there weren't any rats around to blend in with and even if I could somehow change into the form of my captors, the security was too tight to slip though that way.  I discovered spells were too complicated to figure out on my own without a guide.  At most I could get the chance to hear an animal speak the same gibberish as they do.  I  had nothing I could use... Not even the clothes on my back.
The guards seemed to be on edge, waiting for a chance to attack.  It happened every time my gag was removed after my cell door was closed.  Even speaking up might provoke them.  It was clear they thought I knew how to cast spells.  After seeing the wand and spell books in my stuff, I wouldn't blame them.  I'd do the same to a spell caster.   Heck, I'd leave the gag on and feed him through a straw.  I had already ran into spell casters before I even reached town.  I doubt the shaman's griffon student only knew how to talk to weasels.  He probably had a few nastier tricks up his non existent, nudest sleeves to compliment his talons if he found himself in a pinch.  Precautions were understandable, if a bit irritating.

In the early morning of a later day, I had lost count, they saw me stumble in my cell out of weakness and collapse.  Well, I don't remember collapsing, but I do remember a feeding tube being pulled out of my mouth as I woke up a couple of hours later.  I caught a glimpse of another non crystalline horse in another room, arguing to the horse that had been constantly interrogating me with sparks coming from her horn.  My interrogator saw that I was awake and promptly slammed the door to that room shut, but not before I caught a glimpse of her horn without the sparks.  It was broken.
I was promptly gagged and returned to my cell.  There weren't any interrogations that day.  The guards were just as leery of me, but their scowls had softened a pinch.  I still skipped first meal, having strength from the force feeding they did to me to hold onto my resolve and get my bearings again.  But by the second meal, I figured that if they were going to force feed me, there was no further purpose in refusing.  I had made my point and if they wanted to drug me, they could have done it through the feeding tube.
Gingerly, I took the eggplant from the plate, started chewing and got a little water to soften the bread. I don't think I had ever enjoyed eating soggy bread before, or eggplant for that matter.  But my stomach wasn't feeling too picky.

About mid way through the next day, I was taken for another interrogation.  The sparkling unicorn once again started asking questions, but in a much calmer tone, bulging veins gone.  When it was clear that she still wasn't getting anywhere, she kicked at the door in a meaningful pattern.
A few moments later, that other non crystalline horse from before came in.  Now that I could get a good look at her, I saw that her coat was an almost pinkish lavender, with a purple and blue mane and a look of confidence in her eyes.  Behind her she levitated multiple books, including one I recognized as Moss's.
She wore a grin that looked like she was trying to keep from spreading from ear to ear as she came to the table.  She set the books down on the far end and lit up her horn with a strong glow.  Two tiny lights circled upwards from the base to the tip of her horn with a trail behind them.  Suddenly, the room came alive with energy for a few seconds.  When all was said and done and the room was calm again, she lifted up an amulet I didn't see before with her levitation and placed it around my neck.
She then came around the table and made what I felt was the most beautiful sound in the known universe.

"Can you hear me now?"
> Chapter 12, first words.  (The Warm Welcome, Part 3)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yes!  Yes, yes, yes!" I ranted with a quickening pulse.  "For the love of all things sacred, yes!  I can hear you!"
I could practically feel the tears running down my green tinted cheeks as my smile grew even wider than I saw the horse's face was moments ago.
And then it turned sour faster than a candy cane in lime juice.  My smile faded as I saw them look at each other in disappointment.
The one that had been interrogating me looked back at me for a moment and finally dimmed the sparkling of her horn. "I hate to admit you were right.  He doesn't seem to know our language.  Your spell definitely did something to get him excited.  But all your research gave us is more of his gibberish."
She walked over to the door and used her head to gesture to the guards to come in.  "Until we can establish proper communication, I can't just let him go."  Her ears went flat and she gave a quick glance to the other horse as the guards came towards me with the gag.  "We both know why I have to hold him.  Tell me when you make more progress."
The hairs on the back of my neck cropped up as I tried to analyze the tone of her voice.  The effect wasn't nearly as strong as it had been in the past, but I could still tell one thing:  She felt uneasy talking about why she was holding me.
I had barely made a note to practice better understanding of my weird luck granting ability before I felt the taste of the gag in my mouth again.
As all of this had been going on, the other non-crystalline horse had been watching me the whole time.  When she saw them gag me, she looked around worried for a moment then quickly shot up to the interrogation table, put her head in-front of mine and spoke loudly and with emphasized pronunciation.
"I don't know if you can understand exactly what I'm saying-"
*Click*  The guards finished unlocking the cuffs from the shock mechanism and lifted me by the arms with their weird horn levitation. 
"-But I'll keep working on it!  I have so many ques-voupt gus yua!!" I heard the audibility of her voice fade out as a guard removed the amulet from around my neck.  Without a second thought, it was tossed on the table and I was taken away.





For the next week I wasn't interrogated at all and the guards had notably stopped trying to talk to me.  I was still well treated, save for the cold and the indecency.  Nevertheless, I managed to regain my strength from before as the days passed.
They had finally realized that there was a language barrier and almost fixed it, but apparently it was one way only.  The spell Moss had worked like that too, but surely they didn't read it in his spellbook, did they?  Well, they did have it with them but how could they read it?  Was it written in their language?  There weren't exactly any civilizations full of talking horses in any rendition of Faerun or any other D&D world I knew of.  Even if they could read it, the comprehend language spell was a temporary effect used on a person, and only on the caster for that matter, not something put on an object.
And what did they want from me?  That question kept rattling through my brain as I paced back and forth in my cell, having finally lost my sense of modesty to the guards.  Still, a breakthrough had been made, for a moment I had finally understood what they were saying.  Even that partial breakthrough had me grinning for the first day and a half.

By the fifth day I had run out of things to think about and had grown bored out of my mind.  To stave off boredom I had gone to town on the bricks of my cell.  I had been playing and pretending to be a lizard or whatever wall crawling creature I thought was funny at the time, just to stave off the boredom and get some exercise.   I couldn't actually transform into anything, though.  That was bound to get the guards attention and make them think I was escaping or something.  Now that there was a breakthrough, that option got a good solid seat in my "not just yet" list and wasn't likely to be used any time soon.

At one particular time I pretended to have a flying squirrel for a hand, bounding it across increasingly longer distances across the corners of my cell.  That one I remembered quite well, because that's the one I was doing when the horse with the broken horn had come to get me.  I hadn't even noticed her until I heard the sparking of her horn behind me.
When I glanced over at the bars of the cell in mid fake squirrel jump, my face got plum beet red.  I promptly got down on my belly with my arms outstretched, waiting to be cuffed and gagged for transport.  I had gotten the routine down packed at that point.  The only thing I found odd was how she didn't bark her orders at the guard.  It almost sounded like she was calm instead of angry.





Back in the interrogation room, both of the horses from before were there.  This time the one that had the amulet was working a new slew of books on the table while the one with the broken horn worked hard at giving me a "Try anything and I'll kill you" glare.  With the posse of guards holding spears right at my neck, ribs and other places I didn't want to find out how uncomfortable it would be to have impaled, I didn't really need any help understanding that particular message.  So I complied and just pretended to be a statue.
A few fancy effects later and the lavender horse had done something to the amulet.  The books were quickly escorted away by some high ranking guards and several minutes passed while we just sat there, waiting for whatever it was they were waiting on.

When a bell gave two dings, the one with a damaged horn gave a sigh of relief and turned off the sparks coming from her horn.   A few minutes later, the high ranking guards returned and spoke briefly with her.  With a gesture of her head she called off the pincushion crew and I was finally able to take the deep breath my lungs had been craving.
The excess guards left and the lavender horse came towards me with the amulet.  When she had it around my neck again, she spoke carefully.
"OK, we need to test this out right.  If you think you can hear me, tap the table with your front hoof."
There was a pause as they both waited for me to act.  The air became a bit awkward for a moment as I cocked my head at her.  Hoof?  What did she mean?
It wasn't until she gave a sigh of disappointment that I broke out of my confusion and rattled my knuckles on the table as best I could with the thick cuffs getting in the way.  I could only hope that gave her what she was wanting.
Her face lit right back up.  "Oh, good!"  She cleared her throat and raised her front leg towards me.  "Now, can you please move your head in the same direction as my hoof."
With a few nods and turns of my head following her directions, she spoke up again a few times, saying the same thing in a different way.  I gave her an odd look, but continued to follow her directions regardless.  At around the fifth time she spoke directions to follow her hoof, she told me to do it in the opposite direction.
I had to pause for a moment as she moved her hoof again.  I could have sworn her heart leapt up into her throat as she watched me pause in thought.  When I started following her pattern in the opposite direction, her face positively glowed with giddiness.
A few more tests were conducted as we made sure I could hear them right.  With the excitement of being able to hear them toned down from the week prior, it was kind of frustrating going through simple color and shape tests while being spoken to like a child.  I had to keep reminding myself that they didn't know for sure what was going on at my end.
"It seems that the words are translating from us to you accurately enough.  Now I'm going to try something," she said carefully as she approached me again.  "Don't be alarmed.  I'm just going to press on your amulet for a moment."
She came up to me and pressed firmly on the jewel of the amulet.  I let myself be pressed up against the back of the chair as she did so, but other than that I couldn't tell what she was doing.  I half expected to feel a button depress, but there wasn't even that.  Instead, she just kept pressing on the amulet and made her horn glow for a few seconds.
When she eased up, she looked at me again. "OK.  I managed to get the amulet to translate words coming in indefinitely, but getting it to do the reverse and translate outgoing words was a bit harder.  It can only work for a short time right now, but if I did it right then you should be able to talk to us for a few minutes.  Try saying something.  What's your name?"
My mouth was agape as they waited for me to process this.  I managed to be patient enough with them to finally get proper communication established.  Now that it was, there was a zillion and one things I needed to say but one thing was first and foremost.  I sobered up and looked right at them.  Lightly, I inhaled and spoke but a single word.  I spoke it firmly.  I spoke it clearly.
"Clothes."
They paused again and looked at each other.  The broken horned one shook her head a little.  "It's not gibberish anymore, and that's an improvement, but it still seems to be on the fritz.  I doubt he meant to say 'clothes.'"
"Lets try that again.  Wha-" the lavender one started, but I quickly cut her off.
"No.  You heard me loud and clear.  You asked for my name, but I didn't give it to you," I ranted with a carefully held tone that wasn't too temperamental, but clear and firm, as I had been mentally practicing.
"I asked for clothes.  I don't know how your culture works.  You're about as alien to me as one can get while still having things that remind me of home."
Both of them looked at me with surprise.  The one with the broken horn was at the ready, a hoof held up to hold the guards in check.  The desire to keep my tone from escalating certainly went up another notch as I continued.
"I can tell that your kind don't hold clothes in high priority, but I am saying it up front, here and now:  People of my homeland do value not being naked the vast majority of the day.  It's indecent, embarrassing and not healthy for us in all but the warmest weather.  We don't exactly have a whole lot of fur to keep ourselves warm.  While you have provided me with food and accommodations that are well above what I expected to be given a prisoner, I still have been utterly humiliated.  I'm surprised I haven't gotten sick from being exposed in that cold cell for so long."
I glanced back at the crystalline guards, then returned my stare towards the two non-crystal horses.  Finally, I took one strong breath to signify my resolve.
"If you want any further cooperation from me, I will be provided something to cover myself with, now."

The air was thick with tension by the time I finished giving my demand.  That pulsing vein I had seen on the forehead of the one with the broken horn was starting to resurface.  She stomped her hoof down and tossed her head towards the door.  The guards came up with the gag as she gave the other non-crystalline horse a stoic expression.
She spoke in a cold and bitter tone, "We're done here for today."





A few hours later, back in the holding cell, I heard the sparks of my captor's horn signal her approach.  I sat on the edge of my mattress, looking for her to appear in the segment of the hall I could see from my cell.
When she came into view, she looked straight at me and gave me a squinty eyed glare.  She then looked to her side and signaled a guard that was just out of view.
Quickly, he stepped up and pushed something through the bars.  I looked at the item and found it to be a simple but thick military blanket.  When I looked up, she lifted her hoof and pointed to her eyes with it, then turned her hoof and firmly pointed it at me.
She had met my demand, technically.  Yet somehow I just knew I was at the top of her shit list now.
> Chapter 13.  The Dog in the Dog House.  (The Warm Welcome, Part 4)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found the prison alive with the noises of activity as I awoke well into the next day.  Looking around, I found the guards were more abundant than before, even with a few non-crystalline horses on patrol in the halls.   My only guess was that something had them spooked and they were doing what they could to accommodate the situation.
Since I didn't seem to get any sense of immediate alarm when I saw the third distinct non-crystalline guard move by, I dragged myself out of bed and took my newly acquired blanket with me to the bars of my cell to maybe get a better idea of what was going on.  Sadly, other than a little more overall noise, I couldn't notice anything more than that they were in a cheerful mood.  I could swear the guards that were the regulars were wearing their scowls almost as if they wanted to smile.
Usually more guards posted somewhere would mean more trouble, or that they were enjoying the suffering, but they didn't exactly strike me as the savage, torturing type.	Ultimately, I gave up and sat back down on my bed, wondering if they were even going to do anything with me that day, whether the hustle and bustle was something that involved me, or if they just were changing the guards or something of the like.

About an hour later, I heard an explosion from far away, causing even my cell to shake slightly.  Immediately, all but two of the guards left to investigate.  The guard that was ordered to stay behind with the higher ranking guard stomped the butt end of his spear to the ground to activate its magic and the other soon had a genuine scowl on his face again.  With the sudden bitter cold feeling in the air, both figuratively and literally with the spear's presence, it was pretty clear that the two winged crystalline horses that stayed behind were authorized to use deadly force to keep order while the others were away.

Minutes passed by like hours as my mind went wild trying to think of what was going on.  So many crazy ideas went through my mind that I had to ultimately tell my brain to shut up and just work with what it could see.  Anything else would just get me more on edge than I already was.  I had to actually let go of the blanket and let the chill of the cell calm me down again.
The guard with the frost spear would periodically make a brisk walk through the hall that my cell could see, then a short while later he'd walk back the other way.  The higher ranking guard would eventually do the same, but from the other direction.

After a while, I heard the scuttering of a creature other than a horse coming from the direction that guard with the spear would come from.
The odd little lanky dog creature that was making the noise came into view with a small, frilly satchel around his shoulder.  Stopping in its tracks, it perked its ears up and did a low growl.
I was tempted to use my good luck charm to see what was going on, but I wasn't willing to burn it out quite yet.  My practices that I had done each time I woke up the week prior had helped me get a good insight on how to feel it before it was used.  I could tell I had one shot of mild bad luck and one shot of really good luck with me that day and I decided I needed to save the good shot for when it would really count.
Regardless, It didn't take me burning a use of my good fortune ability to see that satchel didn't belong to him.  It didn't even fit around his shoulder right.  The thing was clearly intended for one of the horse creatures.
A moment after he stopped and growled, he looked at the cell that was across from me and a little ways up, then back at my cell.  He gave me and my blanket a solid look and grinned. "Yua puv e qupy.  Yue jimq Tdseq jofi," he called just loud enough for me to hear, but not carry down the hall.
With a mild but creepy laugh, he reached into the satchel, grabbed what looked like a sowing needle and a bobby pin and set himself to picking the lock of my cell.  I half expected the bobby pin to break, and it nearly did, with a loud noise of metal scraping on metal, but he managed to get the lock picked.  Quickly, he opened the cell door, came in, and then carefully closed it with a barely audible click of the locking mechanism automatically going back into place.
He then approached my bed cautiously, keeping his eyes fixed on me, and eventually slid underneath to hide behind the bit of blanket that was dangling over the edge just seconds before the guard came into view.
The little bugger was using my cell to hide in and get around the guards!
...Well to be realistic, it was kinda cool.  But I wasn't about to risk getting in trouble for aiding a prison break.  The moment he came into my cell he had forced me to pick between him or the guards.
'Sorry little guy, but I don't know you,' was all I could think as I sneezed as loud as I could and still make it sound real.  As soon as the guard turned his head, I knew I needed to get him to notice the little critter fast.  If he just moved on past us, the little guy under my bed would slip through the cell door again and I'd be an accomplice.
It was now or never.  I used my good luck charm on the guard and felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.  I could see his eyes practically get dragged right down to my bed as he turned.  But it wasn't at all quite like I imagined it would be when I used it to look around myself.
Instead, the way his muscles moved were so fluid and quick that he narrowly managed to dodge to the side as what looked like a taped off salt shaker with a liquid inside getting flung from under the bed. It hit the wall right behind where the guard's head had been a moment before and broke into a cloud of smoke.  The guard gave a cough as the thick smell of pepper came from the cloud just to his side.
With the guard now close to the bars of my cell and disoriented from the pepper cloud, I saw the dog like creature lunge out from under the bed and go for the guard.
To my surprise, the other use of my good luck charm brought tingles to the back of my neck just as soon as the other tingle had ended.  The claws of the creature fell just shy of the horse's exposed throat and scraped the area of armor I could only describe as the horse equivalent of a breastplate.
I could see the sense of betrayal in his eyes as he turned towards me with a snarl, guarding the satchel like it were a baby and readying for another pounce.  This was so not a good time to be on the same side of the bars as him.
I had no good luck charm left and I was literally naked against an angry, snarling, clawed and fanged creature.  There wasn't much I could do.
With a quick shout of "Damn it!" I converted into my bear form, reared up on my hind paws with the ceiling of the cell pressing against my shoulders, never mind my head, and roared the little guy into submission.
'I really didn't want to let them know I could do that!'
Only a few seconds of cowering occurred as the flat of the spear's head smacked the little guy square on the back.  Quickly, ice grew out from where he was struck and encased his torso and enough of his limbs to trap him.  Not that he really minded at that point.  He just whined and whimpered, calling to the guards—likely asking to be let out of the cell.

The incident ended with me transforming back, collapsing on the bed and pretending to be exhausted from the ordeal.  I kinda hoped I could trick them into thinking it was a last resort method, not my go to.
The guards returned, escorted by a white mare with a purple main and a horn that was clearly a civilian, not a guard. The guards dragged the ice encased trespasser out of my cell and returned the satchel to the white mare, who wasn't to happy to see the state of the bobby pin and needle from it.
A quick conversation between the white mare, the guards and the ice encased prisoner took place, ending with the white mare taking what looked to be a golden brooch of a bird's head from the cover of her satchel and placing it in the paw of the prisoner before he was carried away.
I could tell by how she was well groomed, and by how the guards couldn't manage to frown around her that she was the reason why the guards were so cheerful before the attack. Even through the language barrier, I could recognize the grace in her voice as she spoke to the guards. I could tell this pony had some real skill in tact and grace... and possibly other, more adult, charms.  Regardless, what a civilian like her was doing here was beyond me.
The white mare seemed to take an interest in me as we waited for whatever they were waiting on, but the guards made an uneasy point to have her leave.
I doubt the guard that I saved didn't tell them about my shape shifting.  Even then, I don't doubt the dog like creature had at least tipped them off as they had talked.  He still looked pretty steamed at me after they got him out of my cell.  I'd just have to cross that bridge when I got there.





A little while later, the scholar that had been trying to communicate with me and my interrogator with the broken horn came to my cell with the white mare, still toting her satchel with sowing equipment.  At this point I think I started to understand why she was there, and why there were so many guards.
A defensive circle was formed around the civilian mare, just within sight from my position on my mattress in the back of my cell.  Meanwhile, the scholar pony came forward and tossed the amulet that let me hear them towards me.
The moment I had slipped it on, the interrogator spoke firmly.
"I am obligated to formally apologize for the humility we have put you through,"  She spoke with forced words and a twitch to her cheek, "While I did not initially believe your story about clothes being a standard dignity within your civilization, I have confirmed with..."
She broke off and looked notably away from the scholar "...some of my sources that some cultures we have come across on rare occasion do indeed have this.  Therefore, in the desire to foster some level of trust, I have been ordered by my superiors to have the local tailor take your measurements and fit you with something basic as a sign of good faith."
Her eyes quickly went right to mine as she gave me the same glare as the day before when she had spears pointed at about every part of me and lit up her horn.
"But know that she has signed a non-negotiation waver before coming here. If you capture her, we will not negotiate for her release.  And furthermore, do not ask for your old garments.  We will not run the risk of delivering anything to you that could aid in an escape. Do you understand!?"  She was practically fuming with me by the end, complete with pulsing vein on her forehead.
All I could do was press down on the gem and look at the scholar in hopes of getting a little talk time.
She smiled and responded with "It's charged.  You should have activated it just now when you pressed on it."
With that in mind, I got up off the bed with my sheet around me, turned back to the interrogator and answered, "Understood loud and clear.  I'll behave myself, miss leader horse lady."

As soon as I finished my last syllable, everybody—and I mean everybody, including me—took a reflexive step back from my interrogator as the air around her became deathly thick.  The sparks in her horn had fluttered out, but it looked like she had the flames of hell in her eyes.
She paced slowly right up to the bars, causing me to back right up onto my bed to keep what distance I could.
"You've made your point on demeaning actions and gave us a chance to rectify them.  So I think it's only fair that I take my turn."  Her head twitched slightly as she reached the bars.
"Let's get one thing clear right now:  I may be a fair bit on the taller side than most-" at that point I noticed she was indeed a solid two or three notches taller than the next tallest guard in the room "-but I am still a pony.  If I ever hear you calling me a horse again I will kill you on the spot-"
Her horn shot out a fully fledged lighting bolt and scarred the cell wall to my left. "-my job be damned!"
The funny thing is, while I had grown to have an odd mixture of trust and distrust of these... "ponies" and their motives, I wholeheartedly believed her just then.  That's about the only thing I could think about as more lightning bolts continued to travel from her horn to the exact same spot without divergence for several moments, despite the fact that she had long turned around and was walking away.
> Chapter 14.  The Grim Situation.  (The Warm Welcome, Part 5)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was sitting at the interrogation table, locked up as usual save that I was permitted to have one hand free.  I was also clothed in a simple but durable set of clothes, complete with a shirt and a set of shorts that were so well fitting that no belt was needed for them to stay in place.  Across from me was the usual lineup of the scholar, Starlight Glimmer, and Miss "oh I'm angry all the time and you need to fear me," Captain Emo Sparkler Fountain, for lack of a better name.  Not that I didn't have a healthy dose of fear of her.  Now that being able to communicate with them let me see how transparent some of her act was now, I could tell that she never needed to be all moody for me to have that fear.  I knew that if I misbehaved or tried to escape, she would be allowed to hurt or even kill me.  That was reason enough.

"So let me get this straight,"  Starlight Glimmer interrupted me as I was explaining the details of how I had gotten there. "You have no idea how you got to Equis, let alone Equestria, and you expect me to believe that this isn't your real body, but the rendition of a character you made on a game of Ogres & Oubliettes and while your character can cast spells, you can't?  Not only that, but his spellbooks are somehow written in our language, but you still can't read them despite them being your spellbooks?"
"One, I indeed don't know how I got here.  Two, I don't expect you to believe me. If I wasn't stuck with these sensitive fins for ears, I'd be hard pressed to believe it myself.  Three, it's not called Ogres & Oubliettes.  It's called Dungeons and Dragons.  Four, to be honest, I managed to figure out how to cast one spell since I got here, but it's been useless to me so far.  Five, I didn't know they were in your language until you told me just now.  And finally, six, I don't know for sure if the books are his, as I couldn't read them.  I could probably recite a good chunk of the names of the spells written in my character's books and I'd actually hope they wouldn't match what's in those books because I honestly want to be wrong about all this."
The two ponies that had endeavored to establish communication with me stared at me with looks on their faces just as confused as I expected them to be.
Captain sparkler horn closed her eyes and rubbed her head with a hoof.  I could tell that she wasn't liking the answers she was getting from me.	"I've been given firm instructions to lean as much as possible for giving you the benefit of the doubt but..."
She looked up at me with a deadpan expression.  "I find it more likely for a mule to have a foal than that story being true.  So you're right. I don't believe it."
The room went quiet as she held her eyes questioningly at me.  I felt tempted to spout out "it's the truth," but the words just wouldn't come.  I couldn't even twitch my jaw to start the first syllable.  This wasn't because what I told them wasn't the truth, it was, but because I could see that she was so set in her choice not to believe me it felt like that if I dared utter them, then instead of listening she'd twist it around and take it as an admission of guilt.  The one thing I could tell was genuine within all her grandeur and loathing was that, in her eyes, my mere presence seemed to be a crime.  Silence was the only thing I felt I could even find a stalemate in.
She took in a sharp, raspy, irritated breath and let it out with a sigh.
"It's clear I'm not going to get anywhere playing nice with him," she said coldly to Starlight while still looking me strait in the face. "Now that I've tried the nice way, I'm filing the paperwork for authorizing more extreme methods to get the truth out of him.  He's all yours until I get back, Starlight.  Have fun."  With this, she turned around and went for the door.
Starlight's face had a mixed expression at her partner's response.  One of both excitement, and worry.
I heard Captain Sparkler grumble in a voice that trailed off as she went down the hall.  "All these rules about playing nice, at a time like this?  Even the Storm King's paperwork wasn't thi..."
Both Starlight and I stared at the door for a few seconds after Captain Sparkler left.  After that, we turned our eyes to make eye contact just as awkwardly.
Finally, I sat up and she composed herself.  To break the ice, I asked, "So.  Now that you know I'm a shapeshifter, aren't you concerned I might break out or something?   If anything I see less security than before."
Starlight casually had a titter and addressed my question offhandedly,  "Oh, we've known about that since before you arrived-"
My eyes went wide and my breathing stopped for a few seconds.
"-here in Ponyville.  Zecora has been keeping an eye on you for us ever since you were found in the Green Hills Forest on the far side of the Everfree."
My mind was grinding for a moment as I managed to mutter "Who's Zecora..?"
"She was actually the only one that convinced the royals to not capture you on the spot.  But when you ventured into civilization we had to act."
"Hey!"  I shouted for a brief moment, causing her to stop.  "Who is Zecora?" I asked again more firmly.
"Oh, right.  Language barrier."  Starlight rubbed the back of her head for a moment with a blush.   "Zecora was the wise mare in the forest that had been trying to communicate with you through drawings."
My mind did a double take for a second as I held up my one free hand to have her pause for another question.  "Zecora is the zebra shaman in the woods?"
Starlight bobbed her head back and forth for a second.  "Well, technically she gave up that title when she left her homeland to travel and is simply a medicine mare now, but yes.  That's her."
My body went livid for a moment as I held myself still.  A few seconds later, I brought my hand inches in front of my face, grasped the thought I had and then pulled it aside, both mentally and physically.
"I'm going to just compartmentalize the thought of her secretly..." I took a deep breath and moved my hand to the side as if setting something down.  "...that thought for later."
I stowed away as much anger as I could and asked Starlight, "So if you guys knew about me, why did I get attacked and why did it take so long to get communications established?"
"We didn't know if we could trust you.  To be honest, even Zecora thought you were faking ignorance on a lot of stuff.  When we found your spell books were written in Equestrian and you had managed to speak a few words to the local guards, it didn't look too good for your cause.  As for communication..."
She blushed a bit.  "I was only able to establish it by reverse engineering one of the spells in the spellbook you had and splicing it with some spells I knew.  Then I had to modify it with some classified spells that required you to be present to make it a two way spell."   She turned her gaze slightly down.  "So we had to keep you at weapons point to make sure you couldn't steal any classified information."
I slumped down and just let my head do a dull thud on my forearms. "Damn it," I cursed softly. "That was one of his spells, Comprehend Languages.  Those are his books."  I rolled my head to the side and whimpered.
She glanced back at the door for a moment again then leaned down towards me.  "If it's any consolation, while I may not believe that entire story you told us about being from a board game, I do believe you at least don't know how you got here and you don't know Equestrian without the amulet I made.  But I'm not the one in charge of you, she is."
I didn't know if I could believe her or if she was just playing good cop, bad cop, so I couldn't feel completely at ease.  But it did feel great to actually talk to someone again, to hold a somewhat normal conversation that didn't rely on dirt drawn pictures and crude sign language.
"So.  When we first met, I got the gist that you had a lot of questions for me.  What do you want to know first?"
"Well, I really want to know about where you're from, but I think it's best for now if you explain to me how your abilities work.  I can work with the board game metaphor if you're more comfortable using that."
I rolled my eyes  and held my free hand to my nose to better handle the mild migraine.  "It's not a board game and it's not a metaphor.  The basic premise is..."


* * *


"So you don't draw from a pool of Æther for your spells, but rather have pre-made lumps of magic energy set aside to fuel them and when you're out you're out until you have a chance to rest for the night?  That's just... weird."
"Yea. I suppose it is.  But if you happened to be a blend of a sorcerer and a warlock, you could play the abilities off each other to have a large stockpile of magic energy given enough time because warlock magic works a bit different.  But it tended to taper off in effectiveness after level 8 or so.  It was just a nifty novelty for-"
My conversation was cut off when Captain Sparkles burst through the door.
"I have you now!" She declared as she marched towards the table, multiple guards with weapons in toe behind her.  "I've been authorized to use more invasive methods to extract information from our prisoner."
She looked directly at me and said.  "This is your last chance to come clean before I stop pulling my punches and bring out the real suffering."
Starlight went up to her and interjected.  "And who in their right mind would actually-"  She was cut short as a scroll was promptly shoved in her face.
Starlight quickly read the scroll with her eyes going wide as she reached the bottom. "This is a..!" she exclaimed as she looked back at the captain.
"This is the lesser of two evils, Starlight!  You have your orders!  Now follow them or I'll be forced to have somepony less qualified do it!" the captain barked at her before returning her gaze to me.  "So what will it be?  Do you have anything else to add to your story?"
I could only cower in front of her futilely while multiple spears were poised to be thrown at me if I tried anything. 
"Just that it was all true??" I squeaked with nothing better to say.
"Oh! Oh! It's true, is it?"  she started to rant vividly.  "I suppose it's also true that for the last month we haven't been at war, trying to defend our lands from weird ape like beings like yourself that seem dead set on exploiting our resources in their own wars?  That you really did just happen to arrive only weeks before the rifts to another world open and our valued solders, many with family at home, had to not lay down their lives to hold the front lines?  I think not!"
All I could do is stutter, "Wait.  You're at war!?  With who!?"
She just ignored me and nodded to Starlight, who took a weird piece of chalk from the captain in her levitation and came towards me.  Her eyes welled up in tears  as she marked my face with the chalk then set it on the table and lit up her horn.
"Please believe me when I say I'm so, so sorry."
A heavy weight seemed to fall around my head and eyelids as I quickly fell asleep.





I found myself on an island in the middle of a void, almost like the night sky but with no horizon.  The funny thing is, I could swear I felt something watching me, like I had a big neon orange flag taped to my back saying "Here I am! Look at me!"
And that's when I saw it, flying out of that void and materializing at the edge of my island.  A tall dark blue horse pony with wings, a horn and a flowing main that looked even more like the night sky than the void behind it.
It zeroed in on me and screamed louder than what a creature of that size should have been able to, "Greetings strange mortal of foreign shores!  After moons of eluding us in thine sleep, the markings have finally allowed us to find the pattern of thine astral form!  No more can thou hide from us!  Thou shalt be judged by the undeniable truth from thine own dreams!  Before the next rising of our sister's sun, no secret of thine soul shall have escaped the Princess of the Night!"
> Chapter 15. rehabilitation.  (The Warm Welcome, Part 6)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Present day.

Luna's voice was tinged with pain as she responded,  "I know I officially apologized to you afterwords, but I want to say again how sorry I am for so forcibly invading the depths of your privacy back then, Moss.  You have a truly strong and good soul to open up to one that left you in such a state."
I didn't even really know what to think about it anymore.  "My soul didn't feel all that strong or good at the time," was the only thing I could think of to respond.
Luna winced at those words. "Well, I don't think I'll miss anything if you want to skip it."
I glanced back over to her for a second, shrugged, looked back down and said, "OK I guess.  We kinda got a lot of ground to cover still.  I've had a lot to deal with.  The whole ordeal after you declared me innocent, especially with Tempest, learning to trust in..."
I looked over to glance at my guest's hooves, horn, wings and ethereal mane.  "...in 'people' again, Archimedes coming into my life and the grim reminder he became, figuring out how to work with those knuckle heads on our first mission, learning what it was like to properly wield magic, helping end the war, the aftermath of the war, Dalock, disease, that bastard Dalock again..."
I paused for a moment then took a sharp, pained breath. "...Fluttershy's death."
Princess Luna carefully and gently, placed the tip most feather of her wing on my shoulder.  I started to pull away, but stopped myself, letting the feather stay in contact.
"Discord may have been angry in the moment, but after you left he came to realize it was not your fault.  He shouldn't have pushed you as he did and he has been trying to think of ways to apologize when you return."
She paused in what was a surely a humorous memory, taking a moment to stifle a nostalgic giggle and return to a calmer tone.
"And I think I'm starting to see what actions you were ashamed of doing, though I do wish to better understand why you are in such a level of disarray over them.  Your actions gave us the fighting chance we needed to finally capture Dalock for good."
I hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, but eventually looked up at her.
"It might not help you justify them to yourself, but try to at least take some comfort in that, please?"
I stared into her eyes and eventually managed to make a clearly forced smile.  With this she was content and pulled her wing back to let me continue my tale.
I took a strong breath and let it out again.  "The morning after the astral judgment I..."





The morning after the astral judgment I was under what was called a "prescription strength calming spell."  From what I was told, it wasn't uncommon for those that had gone through the astral judgement in the past to be violently desperate if found guilty and sometimes suicidal levels of depressed when found innocent.  As such, the calming spell was standard procedure for them either way.
Starlight was sitting next to my bed in the prison's hospital wing, doing her best to console me and provide company.  Unlike the calming spell, I wasn't obligated to have company and I could ask her to leave at any time, from what I was told, but I needed answers and the spell gave me just enough of a level head to want to seek them out.  So I used the opportunity as it presented itself.
"So you see, the astral judgement is supposed to be a purely voluntary appeal for those that insist they are innocent of an act of treason or a death penalty offense.  It isn't meant to be put on an unwilling subject, and is only allowed to be forced on somepony against their will when we are at war.  Even when we are at war, we still have a tri-factor set of check and balance regulations to make sure it isn't abused."

I only sat there in my bed, hugging my own knees.  After another glance up to Starlight to acknowledge that I was hearing what she was saying, I turned my head back down and searched for a way to further smother my face into my knees.
I wanted answers, but even with the calming spell I still felt like total crap.  I knew I had been declared innocent of espionage and that I wasn't a soldier of the foreign army, but that didn't feel all that important to me right then.
"I saw everything she raked my mind for,"  I told Starlight as I rocked back and forth.  "Every last inquiry into my home world and my being here.  I saw every last answer my mind was able to provide right along side her."
Starlight came up to the bed and tried to extend a hoof in comfort, only to find me shrinking away.
"P-please!" I exclaimed in a fairly calm, but still elevated, voice.  "Please, don't touch me.  She tried to comfort me in... that place when she was finished.  I didn't want a hug, but she smothered me so quickly I couldn't breathe, let alone object.  It felt like hours of suffocating and struggling in that iron grip of hers before she finally let me go.  After all that, I don't want another hug, or anyone touching me for that matter."
She backed off and let me have my space.  The air grew increasingly awkward as I struggled to think about what to talk about next.  If I were wanting to talk about it, we would have discussed how I never really had any particular fondness for my own race back home.  How we would be fairly decent to each other on the surface level, but we would also regularly do horrible, seemingly unfathomable acts to each other.  That "Princess of the Night" already knew enough about that.  I didn't really need another soul knowing how that astral judgement made me ashamed of ever being a member of the human race.  One being knowing that secret of mine was one too many already.
Instead, I deflected with another question, "So what are those safety guards?  That tri factor thing?"
Starlight had an expression of mixed joy and uneasiness at my question.
"Well, first off, since only dream walkers can perform astral judgements, any pony recognized with the one in a million gift is forbidden from participating in any other step in the paperwork of an astral judgement even if their position normally could do so, and those that are trained in dream walking can only perform it legally when an approved request is delegated to them.  Second, a request for a war time forced judgement has to be approved by a governing princess and a governing princess only.   Finally,  only the officer..."
She gave a pause.   Both of my lucky charms were tilted towards invoking bad luck that day, so I had to work with what I could do on my own.  All I could tell was that she was being careful on how she worded the last part.
"...assuming responsibility of the prisoner may submit the form for Astral Judgement.  Any willful violation of this process is an affront to our nations ethical standards and is a punishable offense equivalent to an act of treason."
At that word, a shiver ran down my spine that grew to an outright spasm as it reached the ends of my limbs. "T-treason...  Can we change the subject now?"
"Yea, no problem," Starlight said with an uneasy smile.  "What else did you want to talk about?"
My mind wandered as I looked around.  I could finally see other prisoners outside the window in the court yard.  It reminded me of how I was never able to leave my cell, not that it would have done me much good.  I would have likely been forced into more trouble if I was with the other prisoners.  I doubt there was another humanoid here, though I was seeing a few other races in the court yard.  Those dog like creatures and ponies were the most prominent though there were still so few that it seemed the prison was anything but packed.  I didn't even have any neighbors back in my old cell.
"So what happens to me now that I've been declared innocent?"
Starlight followed my eyes and slowly went towards the window.  "Normally, when a citizen is found innocent, they are released immediately.  But you aren't a citizen.  You aren't even technically a legal resident.  Until I get some paperwork pushed through to grant you residency as a refugee, we still have to hold you here as an illegal alien.  It should be finished tomorrow after I get a little information from you, though, and you should be able to be released the day after that."
She turned around and looked at me a bit more apologetically "but then the real trouble begins.  You'll be released into the populace and our efforts to keep the details of the war from the public haven't lasted as long as we had hoped.   You'll be viewed as an enemy and a spy just for having a similar form as the invaders.  We'll have to make sure you aren't released without an escort that can vouch for you and protect you."
Somehow, I didn't find myself getting very upset at the idea of an officer escorting me like a criminal and I could tell it wasn't the spell.  I still kinda felt like a criminal after what I saw about my home world again.
"So I'll have to-"  I took a pause to press on my amulet as Starlight gave me the signal that its outgoing effect had used up its current charge again. "So I'll have to have a parole officer then."
She gave another uneasy, about to throw technicalities at me, look.
"Well, technically they're called Rehabilitation and Reintegration Escort Officers.  They're a type of officer that lives with you and follows you around when you go out until you're deemed capable of being on your own.  But they have been called parole officers before, since they have had to arrest their charges every now and again for breaking the law while still under their care."
A guard rattling a hoof on the bars to my medical cell alerted Starlight that her time was coming to a close.
"I need to get some information from you before I go so I can finish up your paperwork.  I don't have to have everything, but the more you can tell me the easier it will go.  The only item I don't have but absolutely need from you is your name.  What is it?"
I briefly cracked the tiniest of smiles and responded, "@#^$#*Moss."
I looked down towards my mouth in disbelief of what had come out.  Meanwhile, Starlight cocked her head in confusion.
"Moss?  Isn't that your character's name from the board game?"
I nodded in agreement at her question.  "What I meant to say is-"  I took a moment to brace myself then spoke each word as carefully as I could, "My.  Name.  Is.  @#^$#*Moss.   No. Not moss, @#^$#*Moss.  @#^$#*Moss!  @#^$#*Moss, damn it!"
By this time I was rolling off the bed as the calming spell struggled to keep up with the sudden spike of emotion.
I looked up at Starlight as she quickly came around the bed and stopped just far enough away to respect my personal space.  Tears started coming out of my eyes as I whined.   "I can't even tell you my name..."
Starlight knelt down sympathetically and set her eyes alight with magic mildly similar to the stares I got from the zebra, but far more visible than a mere glint.  After a few seconds, she dropped the magic and responded.
"You've been bewitched into not saying it... I think.  I'll do my best with what I have then.  But it will probably take me an extra day to file a few extra pages. Sorry."
> Chapter 16, Meeting the RRE officer  (The Warm Welcome, Part 7)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A solid two days passed by without anything of note.  On the last day I was finally downgraded to a normal level calming spell and taken off medical cell lock down.  Not that I had much time to use my new found freedom with Starlight getting the paperwork finished and getting me scheduled to get out of there that afternoon.
I was allowed to use the medical wing's showers to clean up before I was released.  As my status as a prisoner steadily evolved, I hadn't been granted access to the showers for one reason or another for the whole time.  As such, I still kinda stank of the forest.
But with the apologies of the guards and my paperwork in order, finally, I was practically given the royal treatment.  I had the entire shower room to myself and I was told to take as long as I needed.  I didn't know if it was that I had backlogged shower time, or if it was medical reasons with the recovery process, or if they were just being nice, but the guards made it clear that they wanted me to be at ease as I had my first proper bathing experience in months.  One of them even slipped up and called me "sir," almost as if he were my butler.

And let me tell you, if it weren't for the calming spell's constant pull back to reality, I'd have thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
The showers were simple and sturdy, if a little short, but I sat on that floor and let the perfectly heated water come down on my back and scalp.
I hate to admit it, but I think the aquatic attributes of my new form being appeased had just as much to do with the sheer bliss I was experiencing as the normal stuff one would feel with their first shower in months.  I found that sitting there and just letting the water sprinkle down on my bald, horn ridged head pushed me past the simple calm that the spell was forcing and into feeling utterly tranquil.
A part of me wanted to say I should be ashamed of enjoying that part too, but the rest of me was stuffing a sock in that part's metaphorical mouth and telling me to just take whatever I can get while I can get it.  Even after I was released, I knew I had a long road of getting established in this world and I wasn't going to enjoy bliss like this again for some time.
I just let the water envelop me for what must have been an hour before I even reached for the cloth the guard had set at the edge of the shower.

When I had finally finished and was drying off, I could tell the guards were resisting the urge to crack a smile at the sheer time I took.
"That good was it?" one of them quipped before being kicked by another guard.
They apologized for not letting me have any clothes when I looked for them, saying that the discharge process required I started with nothing, but because I had special needs they made sure I would have clothes ready as soon as I was far enough along.
I had reluctantly given up my towel and just entered the hall with the guards to go to processing as I heard someone scream from a medical room that was just a little ways down the hall.
"I don't care how many favors I owe you!  The warden has given her orders and they say you are having a new physical today!  Now get your sorry flank in here, Sparkles Berrytwist!" some pony called from an examination room, clearly pissed off about something.
I had turned my head part way through the rant and found the tall pony with the broken horn that had captured me, along with a couple of other guards.
Just as she spotted me in kind, I saw that she had something on the base of her horn, but no armor on.  Before I could give an uneasy wave, she turned her head away and quickly entered the room with the guards.
"Sorry about that."  One of the guards said to me as he gestured me away.  "If we had known were going to take that long we would have adjusted the doctor's schedule a bit more.  Don't let it bother you."
"Sparkles," I muttered under my breath,  "So that's her name.  I was clo-"





I was suddenly whisked away from Princess Luna's side as the pinging of my alarm spell started going off in my head.  I found myself forcibly being pulled off of my little dream island and back into the waking world.
Just as I got my bearings and realized I was awake in my cave, I heard another ping in my head, this one at a lower pitch.  Whatever the intruder was, it entered up in the air then landed onto the floor.  That's how I positioned the areas of effect for the two spells at the front of the cave.  It meant spending a bit more time and energy, but it also would give me a better clue as to what kind of creature was disturbing me.
"Hello?"  I heard a voice call out.  Immediately I pressed on my amulet and readied myself.
The voice was kinda raspy and the echos of the cave distorted it some, but I could tell the mannerisms were almost familiar.  Like a friend or relative of somepony I knew.  "Moss?  Are you here?  Your friends have been missing you dearly.  You didn't make it to the festival and Scraps is very worried abo-"
"Go away!"  I yelled at the top of my lungs to the pony around the bend in the cave.  My breath had quickened as I rose to my feet.  I had to focus to keep the wand in my hand steady.  "I don't want any company!  I don't need any comfort or pity!  If you want to know how I'm doing, ask Princess Luna!  Anypony else I see is getting a lightning bolt sent their way!"

A few seconds of silence passed before a pony came around the bend carefully.  I had just about finished the perfect, luck assisted shot right as I saw Fluttershy's face in front of me again.  It made me jerk away at the last moment, sending the lightning bolt at the hooves of the intruder instead of blasting them square in the barrel like I was about to.
It wasn't an accident.  The bit of luck magic I had ensured there was no chance.  I knew I was about to land a solid blow and the only way to have a miss against such a vulnerable target after the luck was activated was to do it on purpose.  I just couldn't bring myself to hurt Fluttershy again. Even the brief split second my mind made me see her face on another pony that only resembled her at a glance was enough to make me falter.  The face that was burned into my mind when I saw her die right in front of me, scared and helpless, and yet still expressing the same kindness I came to know from her.
I failed in my attempts to keep the wand in my hand after that.  I watched it fall, unable to look my intruder in the face.  After the clattering echos of the wand rang through the cave, I fell to my hands and knees.
"I don't know who you are.  Please, just go away."
I heard hoof steps approaching as I just knelt there, shaking.  The pony was so close when they stopped that I could have just thrown my hand out an touched them.
"I said I don't know who you are!"  I shouted again, my words sputtering out from a firm rage to a mere whimper.  "Please, please, just go away."
I could almost visualize the hoof coming to my shoulder to comfort me as my shaking worsened, but no hoof ever came.  I waited several seconds before I looked up, but when I finally did the pony was nowhere to be seen.

It took me the better part of an hour to get my cave checked over, alarms reset and back to sleep.  Princess Luna was still dream walking and welcomed me back to finish my session with her.  No questions were asked about the interruption except for, "Ready?"





When I finally got to the outgoing side of processing, I had to give up my amulet for a brief moment, letting them catalog it and return it as my "official translation aid" before we moved on to the rest.

I found myself sitting in a waiting room with Starlight. I was clothed again in my familiar furs, which they were kind enough to give a proper washing.  They had returned all my belongings save for magical items such as the scrolls, Moss's spell books and the wand I had with me when I was detained.
From what Starlight was telling me as we waited for my RRE officer, the information my still confiscated possessions held had already aided the war effort in many ways.  The spells had aided some of the advanced unicorn troops in saving lives, and the Comprehend Language spell had been better adapted from an amulet to other, less mobile, forms for interrogating the more "aggressive" prisoners.  Apparently I wasn't the only humanoid prisoner they had, none of whom could speak Equestrian, though I was the only one carrying a spellbook.  While I was innocent, my capture still turned out to be a significant event for their intelligence operations.   The fact that the scrolls and spell books were written in Equestrian were still an unexplained enigma for them, but undeniably useful.

"As for your RRE officer," Starlight said, trying to change the subject, "I had a little trouble with it.  Every veteran officer that could be spared had all been recruited to the war efforts and none of the remaining ones have an opening.  On top of that, none of the novice officers were willing to take on something that looked like the enemy. But I did manage to find somepony technically qualified due to how well behaved you have been in here.  However... "
She was doing her best to make the dreary situation of being let out to the masses that hated me as cheerful as possible with a fake upbeat attitude.  It was failing horribly.
"There's a catch.  She's not combat trained and can't wrestle with any of her charges to detain them.  So if she says you have to let her bind you, even if you haven't done anything to deserve it, do it right away.  If the town guards have to step in instead, she looses jurisdiction over you instantly and you'll be at the mercy of the crowd."

I looked over at her and gave a somber nod.  "So I have to walk on egg shells from here on out.  But at least I'll have a guide.  So what can you tell me about her?"

Starlight gave a genuine laugh.  "Funny you should say egg shells.  You see what she does for a living is-"
The door to the waiting room opened and a small, yellow winged pony with a long, pink mane came in.  I recognized the face.  A face I remembered looking so scared and helpless, yet at this moment was filled to the brim with a look of kindness.
"W-well hello..." She spoke meekly as she walked over,  "I understand you need help getting your bearings and not accidentally breaking any rules but nopony wanted to give you a chance.  So I filled out some paperwork to become a junior RRE officer."
She came up to me and raised a hoof in greeting.  "I think we met once before, but I didn't have the chance to introduce myself.  My name is Fluttershy, and you'll be my first parolee."
> Chapter 17. World of Loathing, Part 1.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starlight suggested Fluttershy and I move discretely to where I would be living and try to lay low, but I was prompt to shut the idea down.  I knew hatred enough that I wasn't going to be able to hide forever, and it would be best to make it clear as day to the ones that might hate me as to my legal situation.  The hatred was inevitable.  Trying to hide my very presence would only help fuel their paranoia further in the long run.
Fluttershy agreed with the sentiment and said she would support my choice fully, though I could tell she was a little scared of what it would mean.  Starlight could only sigh and say she had business elsewhere.


That left Fluttershy and myself to not sneak quietly to her house.  That was to say, my new residence.  However, we didn't exactly make a grand parade about it either.  Fluttershy and I simply took the most direct route to her house.  Or at least what she said was the most direct route.  Even so, the prison was so far away that it was late into the evening before we reached town.
The ponies that saw us when we arrived freaked out in different ways.  The children were hurried off and others ran away, shouting to the guards.  While we tried to be as discrete as we could without outright hiding, we still had a bit of a time getting there.  We were stopped three different times by crystalline guards, whom Fluttershy had to show the paperwork for while I had to lay down in the dirt with as an unimposing and submissive posture as I could.
Thankfully, a few the higher officers of the town's guard had been informed and one flew in to confirm this to the lower guards.  The one that was the messenger got irritated enough by the third incident that he ordered the third set of guards to escort us through town to her home.


We came to our destination and I found it to be a proper cottage with a nice bit of countryside and light woodland surrounding it on the outskirts of town.  That wasn't what had my attention at that moment, however.
Outside the little cottage was a small but growing crowd of angry ponies.  Apparently they had realized where I was going and were organizing their protests.
I could hear a lot of jests and rants that were aimed at me as we approached.  A lot of standard mob stuff like, "that thing doesn't belong here!"  "We aren't really letting that thing go free, are we?"  "That's one of the invaders!  Why are we letting it stay here!?" were being shouted.
The high ranking officer that already had ruffled feathers from the last time he had to escort us came flying in and landed in front of the gate, demanding silence.


He planted a sign that had my picture on it into the ground at the edge of the property and shouted.  "We held our weekly town meeting two nights ago and this was one of the topics discussed.  We informed the town that an inmate from Iron Quarry Penitentiary who had been charged with espionage and consorting with the enemy was cleared of all charges upon the completion of an Astral Judgement made by Princess Luna and that the inmate was going to be released into Ponyville for reintegration under an RRE officer."
His disheveled mane and bloodshot eyes glared the townsfolk down as he added a tone of anger and pulled out a bit of paper to read from.  "You had the right to object to the idea then.  Yet you all agreed with Cranky and Matilda when they said, 'If Princess Luna did all that and found that they weren't guilty then there's nothing to worry about.  We don't mind a new resident,' and moved on to the next item."


"That's before the townsfolk found out it was one of them!"  A grim looking unicorn called out.  "That thing is dangerous!  It's only a matter of time before it hurts somepony!"
The head guard looked squarely at the new voice in the crowd.  "Chancellor Neighsay, this is a local matter of Ponyvile and you are not a resident.  Furthermore, despite your disapproval and history for throwing your political weight around beyond its intended domain, the laws of Equestria state that all sentient races are legally equal in rights.  It has been proven that he has performed no crime and it is expressly forbidden from stating an inmate's race in the local approval stage of the RRE process because of such potential bias.  Their criminal record is the only factor allowed to be weighed."
The guard then stamped the sign down further into the lawn and signaled the guards to ensure I could pass without incident.
"Which is what anypony will suddenly find themselves with if they so much as lay one hoof on, over or under this lawn with the intent to harm or harass the..."
The guard paused and focused intently on the sign as I passed him on my way to the house.
"...'Water genasi' known as the proxy 'Moss' that resides here.  Now disperse."
The crowd seemed to backup a bit more as the Chancellor came up to the head guard. "You and all of Princess Celestia's favored ones are far too lenient on outsiders.  Mark my words, Equestria will suffer from offering 'friendship' to the likes of them."
They stared at each other like two bulldogs growling through a fence.
The head guard met his glare spark for spark and spoke back to him in a grated voice.  "If I'm disturbed from my son's belated birthday party one more time because of this tonight, I'm going to have to show you just how 'lenient' the law is required to be to a pony willing to incite a riot."
I went inside as I heard the head guard call out to the crowd, "I said disperse!"


* * *


The crowd had dispersed and I was sitting on the couch patiently while Fluttershy worked with the guards on something outside.
When she came back inside and offered me tea, I could only shake my head and sigh as I pressed on my amulet.
"I know I said I shouldn't hide, but that pony was kinda right.  The people of my home world are dangerous.  Trusting me is a big risk.  I've already hurt you once."
She took a pause at this to think about it.  With a warm smile she gestured me to follow her into one of the rooms next to the main area of the cottage.
"I think that's just your trauma and tiredness talking."  She opened the door to reveal what seemed to be my bedroom, complete with a set of beds joined together into a larger makeshift bed to fit my comparatively larger form.  "We can talk more in the morning.  For now get some sleep and try to feel better."
She had just about left before turning back to me. "And don't worry, you are more than safe here."  Her tone, while still overflowing with the soft spoken kindness that she practically radiated, had an uncharacteristically strong and oddly comforting sense of confidence in it.  Yet, I had no idea why it did.
With this she left me to my room.  All I could do was take off my dirty furs then lay down on the first bed I didn't have to curl up on to fit on.  I did my best to get to sleep and let the noises of the owls and other nocturnal creatures in the surrounding area remind me that I wasn't in prison anymore.
> Chapter 18, World of Loathing, Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I woke up, it took me a few seconds to get my bearings and remember where I was.
I cracked a bitter smile for a moment but I just couldn't keep it.  I couldn't keep it in part due to the calming spell, and in part due to the fact I had a strong suspicion that there was still a small group of protestors/angry mob of ponies just out past the property line on the other side of the sign with my face on it.
I looked out the window, crouching, and didn't see any ponies near the sign, but I did hear the murmured voices.  Craning my neck a bit further, I saw about half a dozen of them gathered a good distance away from the property line marked with the sign.   I almost wondered if there was some sort of distance law above and beyond the property line itself for protests, but my question was answered when I saw one of them throw a tomato at the sign.  When it made contact, I saw a large, brown object next to the sign suddenly stir.  A bear, not as large as Ashes but still big, got part way up and roar at the crowd.  A pony that looked to be an upper class pony promptly dropped the remaining tomato in her hoof and scurried to the back of the crowd.

What she said the day before rang through my mind.  "And don't worry, you are more than safe here."  Fluttershy was an animal caretaker in a world where magic could allow oneself to speak to animals.  She didn't need the guards to keep the mobs at bay in her own property.  She had her animal friends.
A bit of a chill ran down my spine at the thought.  I needed to make sure to never get on her or her furry friends' bad sides again.

Breakfast was... there at least.  The oats were a bit more fibrous than the stuff I'd taste from the store back on earth.  I think the chaff wasn't taken out before it was made into the otherwise perfectly fine porridge I found in my bowl.
I also met the white bunny that had kick started my whole adventure into town by trying to steal my walnuts back when.  Angel, as he was called, was her personal pet apparently.   He was the only animal at the table with us, but I saw a few of her more generalized animal friends outside the window looking in at me and a mouse peaking out from the wall as well.
Going out side was difficult, since every single animal seemed to want to have my scent permanently embedded into their brains, there was so much sniffing.  The smaller ones weren't so bad.  Fluttershy was able to get them to behave well enough to where I wasn't getting swamped by them.
That wasn't the case with the larger cats and other fanged animals she had, who seemed to be insistent on bowling over me and sniffing at me on their own terms.   Fortunately, everything with fangs was fat enough to not seem interested in me as a meal and the bear that had been watching the front yard was satisfied with a few quick sniffs while I sat down on a sturdy stump turned bench.  I was doing my best to brave through my innate fears of being eaten in spite of their relatively docile nature around Fluttershy, but that calming spell was definitely the majority of my courage that day.
The hum-buggers outside the property were still a constant sour note, of course.  Every couple hours or so there would be a changing of the guard among them, letting them protest in shifts.  When we considered going out and approached the front of the property, it was clear that any of them were ready to come right up to me and do whatever they could to get me in trouble and out of their town.  The boundary that the sign marked was probably the only thing keeping them at bay, besides the bear.  Going to town to shop wasn't going to be an option for me any time soon.
Instead, I just helped Fluttershy with her animal friends.  I mostly did this by being the new novelty that the more energetic critters that still had to be penned up were distracted by while she went about her task far less unabated that what she said she normally had to do.  I tried to help with hauling or the more manual tasks, but it seemed that the time it took to teach me was less than the time Fluttershy had to spare that day after the meet and greet we had earlier.


* * *


When the chores were done, however, Fluttershy approached me uneasily.  It wasn't out of fear that she was uneasy, but manners.  I could tell she had a question.
"Hey, you've been nothing but kind to me, Miss Shy."  I had made a point to speak respectfully to her.  She was basically my parole officer and hostess. "I can see you need to know something.  So ask.  If this whole thing is going to work, we need to have open communication.  I'll do my best to not be offended."
She  she came a little closer as she gave an adorable smile.  The kind that could only form when a meek person was both grateful, yet still embarrassed.
"Well, I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, but a lot of my little friends with stronger noses were telling me how you smell like a predator.  Are you a meat eater like griffins are?"
I cocked my head and drew a blank for a moment.
"You couldn't tell?"
I then proceeded to explain how humans, and by proxy my current race, water genasi, were both carnivorous and herbivorous, or omnivores.  I further clarified that plants rich in protein, such as beans or nuts, could supplement most our meat needs for a time.  Otherwise, our diets usually did include meat to an extent, but we did need to cook most types first.  When I showed her my canine teeth and said they were our lesser version of fangs, she went wide in awe, then promptly brought me a fish from her feed barrels for meat eaters.
She did ask that I cook it on the far part of the property so as to not force her to gag from the smell, though.






And so my days went by for a while, doing nothing but slowly learning to help around the little animal care area that was Fluttershy's cottage and learning more about each other's species.  Interactions with locals were pretty much limited to the hounding I got from across the property line.  At least, until a few days after I was finally taken off the calming spell entirely.  That's when some of the braver ponies were willing to come in and talk to me.
A few were some of the humbugs just playing nice long enough to get close, but they wised up after the first few times they were "escorted" to the property line by some of those same sizable fanged critters that had grown to accept me at the cottage.  That trick only worked because they were trespassers on Fluttershy's property, however.  It would be a little while before I could walk in town without immediately being tackled and persecuted.  An animal escort outside the property line just wasn't feasible.
Not all the visitors were humbugs in disguise though.  A few braver souls managed to ask me about myself, often repeating questions Fluttershy had asked before.   I had to fudge a few things into not quite white lies. When they asked if I were a blood thirsty monster, I just told them, "although humans, which water genasi are part human, do need to eat meat, it is both immoral and illegal to eat the flesh of any sentient species on my home world.  I don't intend to eat any... anypony."   I just omitted that humans were the only sentient species my home world knew of outside of fiction and theology.  I don't know if I would have been able to make it sound convincing without the luck magic helping me.  Even that little omission made me feel like a liar.
One thing I was able to say with full confidence was that I didn't know anything about the invaders other than they supposedly looked like me and I honestly didn't know if they were from my home world or not.
I couldn't bring myself to say that even if they were... No.  Especially if they were, I would definitely want these ponies to drive them out.  I didn't know if I could bring myself to face my shame.  This particular prayer of mine seemed to be answered, though.  Nopony visiting the cottage ever asked.


Over the first month's time there, I managed to win enough of the town over to finally stop the protesting and get them to put away their torches and pitchforks.  Walking on egg shells was definitely still the standard operating procedure when venturing out though.  If we simply got too many odd looks for the market stall we were in,  Fluttershy and I would make a beeline back to the cottage.  We had simply won the battle to get public opinion of me to shift enough so that the crowds wouldn't be able to get away with persecuting me on sight.  They were still waiting for any little slip up on my part to give them an excuse.
> Chapter 19. World of Loathing, Part 3.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

We agreed that explaining my shape shifting abilities to the town guards was a good idea.  Since the authorities were aware of it anyway, doing so would help them keep people calm should a situation arise.  So, over the course of my  first week of being able to venture into town, we steadily showed the guards as they would visit one or two times a day.
Several of the unicorn guards tried to cast some sort of dispelling magic on me, with no effect.  Apparently, they had recently started integrating those shape shifting bugs into their society and had measures for keeping them honest if need be.  When they discovered this technique didn't work with me, they weren't exactly ecstatic.  So, for the sake of clarity and earnestness, Fluttershy and I cooperated in showing them subtle differences in how I looked and behaved to the guards so that they could tell me apart if ever needed.
I kinda wanted to listen in too, but my amulet wouldn't fit around most of the critters necks, being too large or too small, and merging it in with all my clothes seemed to deactivate it too.  So all I could hear as an animal was the same gibberish as before, save for the occasional word I recognized like "stop," "yes," or "no."  I was only able to actually understand what parts they would explain to me after I changed back, which I figured were filtered.  I myself couldn't see the differences and I think the guards were mildly relieved at that.  Yet a pony that specialized in animal care could see them as plain as day, apparently.  Several of her critters could pick up on the difference in my scent too, which some of the guards noted for the war effort in case the invaders had similar abilities.

With what I could tell, Angel wasn't fond of me, but he knew better than to pick a fight again. So he did his best to behave and perform for his master, though I could tell he didn't exactly like me wearing his face.
"Vjev upi ot ectumavimy efusecmi, sohjv Ephim?"  I heard Fluttershy call out in Equestrian during our final session for the guards. 
The guard successfully managed to pick me apart from Angel after we scrambled around behind a curtain to throw them off.  To reward him, I bowed lightly in my bunny form, hopped back a little and transformed back.
"Ding, ding, ding!"  I called out while I reached for my amulet, trying to keep that smile of Fluttershy's going a little longer.  "We have a winner!"
It turned out that any time I used a word as an onomatopoeia the amulet held off translating it, since the sound itself was meant to be the meaning.  It was a nifty method of backup communication Fluttershy and I were developing that also helped in buying time in a conversation to activate my amulet now and again.  It couldn't hold more than a dozen charges at a time and a willing unicorn wasn't always available to recharge it with their raw "aether" or whatever it was that their horns used.  As such, two way communication was still a valuable resource I had to ration myself with.  At least the incoming side was fairly permanent.
"Are you sure he can't hear us as an animal?"  The ranking officer asked as his subordinate smiled at my performance.
"Oh, I can,"  I answered him as I eased down onto the bench to relax and converse.  "I just can't get Starlight's amulet to work with the animal shapes unless it's something with a neck about the same size as mine to wear it from, so most the time all I hear is gibberish."
Fluttershy nodded in agreement.  "It's true.  Remember when I told him we found enough spare fire wood for a hot shower today?  He didn't even perk an ear up as a bunny."
"We do!?" I asked in reflex.  Cold showers were fine and still felt kinda peaceful, probably due to my aquatic features not minding the cold water, but they were nothing like the hot shower I had just before I was released.

Fluttershy could only wince and shake her head as I asked, dashing my hopes.  Wood was sadly a rationed supply with the war effort.  Not that everything was super tight or anything.  It was just that they had to limit how much they drew from the land with the desire to keep the land in good health even in times of peace.  Sadly, the war effort had to take a large chunk of what they allowed themselves to take from the land, forcing them to ration the rest far more stringently.  As such, certain luxuries like hot showers in households without alternative heating methods had become more rare.  Even cooking with wood had to be made as efficient as possible.  Needless to say, I had learned to go without anymore fish after that first day and settled with a pile of nuts on my plate instead.
I couldn't help but feel like I had been a burden for her.  In this place, it seemed like I was little more than an exotic creature with needs she wasn't familiar with and took up more of her time than it should have.  To be able to give back with my little shape shifting shows, even at the cost of some of my dignity, was nice.  It felt like something that could put the lingering bits of trauma, shame and fears of poisoning this world to the back of my mind, at least for a time.  The unmistakable sparkle of earnest curiosity and gleefulness in my host's eyes when she saw me shift into one of her critters was strangely soothing.
But even that wasn't enough to keep the bills at bay.  Keeping me here was expensive and I doubt the RRE system was meant to be a free meal ticket.  I needed to find a way to pitch in more fully, which was the next thing we were set to do that day, once the most recent squadron of the town's guards were finished with us for the morning.  Well, we couldn't fix it fix it, but we could do a stopgap measure at least.


* * *


As soon as the guards said they were finished, Angel took his thank you treat from Fluttershy, stuck his tongue out at me and hopped away with his prize to the back of the cottage as fast as he could.
We quickly got ready for our trip to town, grabbing a satchel for errands and groceries, securing my small pouch of gems set to be sold to one of Fluttershy's contacts, and waited for the mail mare to deliver the mail before leaving.
We decided not giving the ponies that still didn't like me the opportunity to steal the mail was best, as tensions were a little high still.  Fluttershy flipped through the mail for a moment before looking a little shocked.
"Oh!"  She called out, looking up at me for a moment.
I gave the gesture for "What?" trying to save from having to spend my amulet's last charge.
"Y-you have some mail, besides hate mail that is."  Fluttershy felt a little uneasy about it, but I didn't push her.
I just shrugged and pointed towards the table, then towards the clock. I couldn't read their language even with the amulet.  Apparently that part of the Comprehend Languages spell had to be knocked out to make way for other components.
"I-I'll read it to you when we get back then."





A typical glare filled hike through town and we managed to get the gems weighed, measured for quality and effectively traded for the local currency by the same tailor that ended up helping me get the garments I wore in prison.  But sadly we had to be rushed out the back in a hurry when one of the tailor's less understanding business associates arrived particularly early.
Fluttershy and I were respectively shoved out the back door, barely with even the payment and receipt in hand.
"But what about the amulet!?"  We both called out.
"He just used his last charge to talk to you!  Nopony else is willing to charge it for him!"  Fluttershy called out alone, but to no avail.  The tailor, Rarity, was already inside with her client.

A moment passed as we both sighed in defeat.
"Well, what's the game plan with no amulet charge?"  I asked Fluttershy while I still had time left on my current charge.
She looked around with a bit of worry, then gestured me down the road.  "My Senior RRE Officer, Cold Shoulder, is a unicorn.  He might be willing to charge you up on the way back if we ask nicely.  I need to pick up some paperwork from him soon anyway."


* * *


"What in the blazes of Celestia's sun is that abomination doing here!?" we heard Cold Shoulder shout when he opened the door to his office,  "I told you to never bring that thing to my home!"
"But this isn't your home, it's your office."  Fluttershy corrected, unusually bravely.
"Yea?  Tell that to my wife!  I can't get a moment's peace at the house while she's there and she's always there!  So office, home, same difference these days!"
I backed up a few paces and stood firm.  Partially to get away from the smell of a pony that had been sleeping in his own sweat and possibly liquor soaked suit, partially to not add tension to the already growing argument.  It was pretty clear getting a recharge wasn't going to happen.
"You had some paperwork for me?"  Fluttershy asked in a way I could tell she couldn't pull off if she were just doing it for herself.  "The sooner we get it, the sooner we can go."
He paused for a moment.  "...Keep him outside.  I don't trust him."  *Hic*  "I don't know why I ever agreed to oversee your work, knowing you were only doing it for that monster."  With this he turned away and started shifting through his files, stumbling in the process.
"Probably because you are so lousy an RRE officer that you have to take whatever commission you can get these days,"  Fluttershy said under her breath before walking in to help.
She turned to me and said, "Don't wander off.  Stay near the door."  She closed the door and helped him along.

I waited a few minutes outside his office on the street with nothing more than a few double takes and ponies moving over to the far side of the road to pass.
At one point I saw three little fillies looking curiously at me with a quill and a notepad in tow from across the road.  When they saw I had spotted them, they quickly ducked under cover.  After a moment of relative silence, they peaked their heads out again.  With a look at me then at each other, they came out and made a moderate canter straight for me.
Just as they were about to reach me, they were suddenly shoved into a cart by a mare with sizable pearls around her neck.  "There you go.  Now enjoy the slumber party with my dear daughter you blank...  You lovely ladies."  The cart promptly closed and took them away.
I knew at only a glance that this was one of the ponies that were still wanting to make trouble with me.   I backed up to the door and did my best to knock, only to hear a crash from inside.
"Oh my!  What have we here!?"  she called in a clearly practiced tone.  "A thief!  This disgusting beast has made off with somepony's-"  She yanked the bag of coins from my hand. "-bit bag!  Guards!  Arrest this despicable thing!"
I was being set up.  One hand was reaching for my sales receipt and the rapping of my other hand's knuckles on the door came more urgently now.
I think she was a bit surprised that I didn't go for my bag when she took it, but I knew better than to do that.  I'd had enough experience with people spinning accusations that the last thing you wanted to do was do anything that could even remotely justify those accusations.  Injustice of letting myself being pushed around, or taunted or robbed was bad, sure, but I knew better than to retaliate in any way.
I was the big guy even back home in my original body, and any action I did in retaliation could be construed as me being the bad guy just because I was "the stronger one."  The "frail" or "weaker" people at home, even among other guys sometimes, could push and shove an taunt all they wanted, since that wasn't seen as them "throwing their weight around."  They could try to goad me into doing something to justify their claims against me without fear of being scorned for it, even when they yelled at me like I was total garbage.  The only way to not fall into the trap was to not give them any fuel.  That's exactly what I was doing here.  Fair or not, that was my only chance.
> Chapter 20. World of Loathing, Part 4.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With no guards around, the pony with large pearls claimed citizens arrest, and promptly had me "restrained" by her personal bodyguards, who didn't seem to care that I wasn't resisting.  But the real "fun" happened after I was handed over to the guards and put in the holding cell with the local hooligans.






A few hours later, in the local guard station.

"Seriously Spoiled!?  You're lucky he isn't pressing charges on you!  Stealing his bit bag from right out of his claws in broad daylight!  What were you thinking pulling as immature a stunt as that!?"
The pony that had gotten me in trouble was sitting on the far side of the guard station with shackles being removed.  She could only sneer quietly while avoiding her husband's eye contact.  Meanwhile, I was waiting for Fluttershy to pick me up again after she finished filling out the paperwork to regain custody of me, since I was once again proven not a criminal.
Fluttershy was as prompt as she could be in following me to the station, and from what I could tell had a very, very effective 'talk' with the guards alongside Starlight.  They brought up my sales receipt from the tailor as well as the records showing that the gems were indeed originally mine, as the first time they had been confiscated they were also checked against all records of stolen gems in the kingdom during my stay in the prison.  In fact, I was told I not only had the right to press charges for the theft of my bit bag, but also for the wrongful arrest she caused.
I knew better than to take it though.  I knew her type.  Even if I fought it, it would just give her an opportunity to flip it back around on me to save face.  I'm sure she had way more finance available to her than I did.  She would have her lawyer twist the story if given the chance.  Letting it go was my only practical option.  Even though it meant she got off the hook legally, I knew she would anyway.  If I didn't fight it, then best case scenario the incident would put her in a bad public light and even worse case it would still keep me out of another potential trap.  Because I kept my cool, I managed to break even through it all.   As bitter sweet a consolation it was, I still took it.  I was kinda surprised I got that much.


Fluttershy finally came through the door to pick me up.  I was relieved to see her at first, but a second later I was horrified at the condition I saw her in.  She wasn't hurt save for a light bruise on her cheek, but her feathers were horribly disheveled, her mane had a chunk of hair pulled from the end and her face was utterly exhausted.
"What..."  I tried to speak, only to get choked up as I fell to my knees, holding up my hand to the damaged part of her mane.  "...What happened?"  My amulet wasn't working yet, but I don't think my words needed translation.
Fluttershy just leaned in and gave me a firm hug.  We both took a breath and got some strength back, knowing that we both made it through a tough spot.  When she let go, I could see something in her eyes.  It wasn't the pity of someone looking at a victim, nor the fear of a victim.  It was just solid resolve in her eyes, burning straight through the pain.  As timid as she was and as difficult it might be for her to tap into at times, I saw just how deep the wells of her inner strength went in that moment.


It was in that moment that it finally happened.  What she showed me was more than mere kindness, but the true desire to care about me.  I was entranced by her raw compassion, same as every one of those animals back at the cottage.  I owed her a debt of kindness I could never repay with the love she showed me within those wells of inner strength, in that exact moment.


"Sorry for being so late," Fluttershy finally responded, "Cold Shoulder was in on it.  The paperwork he had for me was a lie.  The moment you knocked, he did his best to keep me from getting to you, but I finally managed to get here."
I just finished my decent to the ground and sat there for a moment.
"I didn't want to, but I had to turn him in or he was going to push for your return to prison instead of your release.  He's lost his RRE license."
I leaned back and tried to keep my breathing steady as Starlight finished with the guard outside, came in behind Fluttershy and finally recharged my amulet.
A quick press later, I responded, "So you still lose jurisdiction over me anyway, right?  A junior officer can't have a charge without a senior officer overseeing them, and we just lost ours.  Where does that leave me?  Prison again?"
Starlight wanted to comfort me, but really couldn't figure out how. "Technically, Fluttershy has emergency authorization to work autonomously with you for a few weeks until we can get a new senior officer to take you two on.  But if we can't find one when that time is up..."
I could only shake my head and say "Then I go back to prison until somepony is willing."
Starlight gave an exasperated sigh.  "Sometimes in cases like this the charges are deemed fit enough to stand on their own instead.  But in your case with you so new to our society... Basically, yes.  For your own protection, you'd be put back in your old cell."
Spoiled Rich gave a snarky giggle as she overheard Starlight.  I pleaded with all my willpower to ignore her, calling upon my one bit of good luck I had that day to catch me when I felt myself failing.  With a tingle on the back of my neck, I barely managed to ignore the baited sneer on her face, stood up, and calmly walked out of the station with the only two ponies there that mattered.


We traveled quickly through town.  Some of the more upper class ponies looking at me with contempt, but most of the rest them just stared, unsure what to think.
I ended up brushing my arm up against a sign and cursed myself internally for not having a second good luck charm that day as I visibly winced in pain.
"What's wrong?" they both asked.
With a quick press of my amulet, I answered them, "Nothing, I just fell and bruised myself earlier."
I did my best to be dismissive, but Starlight wasn't buying it.  Since nudity wasn't an issue in their society, she promptly used her levitation to strip me of my firs, exposing what was clearly multiple bruises from my fight in the holding cell.  There were even a few on my back that had the width and spacing of the cell's bars.
"They hurt you!"  Fluttershy exclaimed while Starlight gasped.
"When I'm through throwing the book at them, they'll be-" Starlight started.
I quickly interrupted her. "They will be exactly where they were before because you won't do anything!" I demanded.  I then turned the dial to my voice's presence up to eleven.  "I said I fell!"
As I reached for my firs, Starlight finally got the message I was sending to her with my tone.  And I think a few bi-standards wound up getting it too, because I saw their mouths agape as I put my furs back on.







Back at Fluttershy's cottage, the animals were there to greet us in the yard, eagerly missing their beloved caretaker.  Although they clearly wanted to come up and swamp her with affection, they could tell she was exhausted and held back.
Starlight opened the door with her horn, and Fluttershy marched in with myself and finally Starlight in tow.  The moment the door closed, Fluttershy's strength failed her and she collapsed.
As I knelt down to the floor to her level to catch her, I saw the tears finally flowing from her unconscious eyes.  Angel Bunny came right up to her, worried.  I think he started to throw an accusative glare at me, but lost his nerve the moment we made eye contact.  His ears went back and he winced as he looked at me for a moment.  He then went to his private pet door, unlocked it and pushed it open, put his paw to his mouth and whistled.
It seemed every critter that could fit through that tiny door came through in a hurry.  The strongest of the critters gently took Fluttershy from me and worked together to carry her to her bed while the others did other things by opening the door to her room and pulling the blankets aside, then over her after she was placed in the bed.
When I first arrived at the cottage, I would have been shocked by such actions.  Indeed, it still amazed me how the animals could coordinate like that.  But the fact that they were willing to?  Nope.  That wasn't a surprise to me anymore.
After kissing his master's head good night, Angel came out and jumped up onto my lap as I sat there on the ground.  We shared a stare that had no words, but the things we saw in each other's eyes said it all for us.  He saw what had changed in my eyes, and I saw the look in his, as well as every other animal that was gathering and staring at me in kind.  I wasn't just some guest anymore.  The message they were sending me through those looks was clear:

Welcome to the family.
> Chapter 21. World of Loathing, Part 5.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning I did my best to help Fluttershy along with the chores, knowing she had a full plate that day trying to find a new Senior RRE officer to take us on.
The animals surprised Fluttershy a little when they were cooperating with me properly, instead of simply putting up with me.  Though it was still clearly harder for me to do each chore than it was with Fluttershy due to a sheer lack of experience and natural talent with the animals, with us both tackling them Fluttershy managed to leave about an hour earlier than expected to head into town for her daunting task.


That left me alone in the house to twiddle my thumbs after fetching the mail for the day.  No, literally.  A part of the speak with animals spell I knew actually involved me twiddling my thumbs at one point.   Now that I had the approval of the animals, I wanted to see if I could talk to them.   Sadly... its ability to mix with the amulet was... limited.
I had seen Fluttershy talk to the animals on multiple occasions, and she gave me permission to talk to Angel and one or two other "mild mannered" animals that wouldn't get offended when I told her I wanted to try this.
The good news was that I managed to get the amulet to work for communication coming in no problem, even though most of the gibberish managed to translate to "Treat!?  Belly Rub!?"  The bad news was that even when I pressed my amulet, my words couldn't survive the two step process of translating from English to Equestrian and then into animal.  It was by sheer luck I managed to say "stop" in my rough facsimile of Equestrian and got the hyperactive seal pup to understand my commands and sit still.
But the bigger part of what made me realize my animal translation couldn't survive a two step process is when I absentmindedly asked Angel to hop on the table and he responded.
"Wait, you can hear me?"  I asked in curiosity, leaning forward.
"Well yea!" Angel snickered at me, almost like he wasn't expecting me to understand,  "You're speaking plain Equestrian, fish head!"
I stared at him blankly for a moment before snapping out of it.  "Hey! What would Fluttershy say if she heard you calling me names!?"
He looked at me in sheer shock.  "You can... You can understand me too? But mother is the only pony that knows how to understand me."
"Mother?" I commented with a bit of approving sarcasm.  "You really do love her."
At this he quickly got angry, pressed his ears down, jumped up onto my lap, stared me backwards and got onto my chest. "Yes!  More than you ever will!"
The bunny clearly wanted to look intimidating to me, but I just couldn't find myself particularly frightened of him.
Much to his dismay, I could only ask "How is it you can understand when the other animals can't, Angel?"
I saw him back up in frustration, and puffed up for another go at intimidating me, only to slowly look upwards with an look of dread growing on his face, then tumble down off of me when he lost his balance.
"That's because he's been awakened, druid."  I heard a deathly cold voice call from behind me.
Turning around, I saw something I could only describe at that moment as a jigsaw puzzle nightmare come to life.
I could try to list the parts this creature was made of, but the yellow eyes that positively glowed with power as it stared at me was all I needed to know on sizing this thing up.  I was at its total mercy, though it looked to not have any today.  I seemed mesmerized by his gaze, despite the fear, and I couldn't look away.
Continuing in the same tone, the creature built up a sense of dread in me, almost as if it were a wall or prison being made brick by brick. "The bunny can understand you because it understands Equestrian.  Many the animals of this world do have a bit of a heightened intelligence compared to other realms.  It's still relatively rare, but some are even blessed with the ability to understand a language or two.  That wicked little bunny is one of those cases.  That little trinket Starlight made you works great for translating our words for you, but she had to pull a lot of strings and jump through a lot of hoops to make its outgoing abilities function at all.  The spell it's built on simply wasn't designed for it.  The end result is that its effects break down when anything else is added to it.  Even a spell as harmonious as that ritual you were casting through the Animus Mundi can't link up to the outgoing side."


At this point my focus came back out from his eyes, and I found myself on the ceiling with a teacup in my hand.  Oh, and I was upside down as he pored tea from a kettle upwards into my cup.  And yes, I knew I was upside down because while I seemed to be... "grounded" to the ceiling along with the table and tea set, my firs were dangling towards the floor I was seeing at the top of my vision.  I was so freaked out, I didn't even want to move.  I didn't know what it would do.
Suddenly the creature's tone gave a quite insincere and overly dramatized host like courtesy. "I was so hoping Fluttershy would have the chance to introduce us soon, but sadly it seems she has her hooves full with the rather distasteful task of finding a new paper pusher for all this babysitting she's been giving you.  So I decided to just take the initiative and introduce myself."
The creature took his own tea cup and clanked it against the one in my hand, then guzzled down the tea.  The tea cup in his talon then promptly lost its reverse gravity and splashed on the floor as if it where a liquid, barely missing Angel as he dashed out of the way.
He stood 'up' and bowed dramatically.  "I am the Purveyor of Pandemonium, Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, begrudged ally to the princesses of Equestria-"
At this point he was clearly getting full of himself, building up suspense, "-and most of all, an old and dear friend to the lovely and kind hearted Fluttershy, Discord!"
He then looked up at me and spoke in a way that was as sincere as anything else he said, but somehow struck a cord inside me in a way I didn't like.
"Might I ask, What is your name?"
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end with one of the strongest good luck charms I'd had since I figured out how to know what kind of luck charms I had when I wake up each morning.  In spite of my best efforts and my best luck trying to resist his magic, I found myself compelled to answer him.
"@#^$#*Moss" I blurted out with a sharp pain in my chest.  It was like a burp coming up at the same moment you swallow some water, pushing right at the sides of esophagus with both things traveling through demanding the other get out of its way.  That, except no burp at the end.
"Hmm... It seems you are bewitched after all.  This has so many possibilities I'll have to look into.  I'm sure we will meet again."


He snapped his talons and in a flash I found myself back where I was on the floor.  I almost thought it was just a hallucination trip until I heard a voice coming from the teacup still in my hand.
"Oh, and while you might think the bunny isn't that scary,"  I saw his face in the reflection of the tea's surface. "I can promise that you will be begging for me to rip your heart out and eat it in front of you as you die with what I'll do to you if I ever find out you hurt Fluttershy again like you did in the forest."
He smirked and gave a final goodby in a menacingly sweet tone, "Have a nice day."
He then drank the tea in my cup from inside the reflection and was gone.  It was a good ten minutes before I even dared move.  I think I just sat there on the sofa for the rest of the time Fluttershy was out, staring at the empty cup.


* * *


When Fluttershy got home, she wasn't nearly as tired as I expected.  I feared she would be because even with being so shaken, I didn't know if I would have been able to ask her what I was about to if she was.
"Fluttershy, do you know a spirit that calls himself Discord?"

She stopped in her tracks at that name, and we discussed much.  I described the ordeal I went through with him and she told me about their history. She told me about how they met and how she was assigned to help reform him, which wound up being a part of what qualified her to become an RRE officer, how he continued to be a good friend and that she was still helping him learn how to get along with others.
"I hope he didn't rattle you too much.  I was hoping to introduce you to him next week."
"To be honest, had I met him my first few weeks here, I probably wouldn't have made it.  Just discovering..."
I looked at Fluttershy with a lump of shame in my throat. "The zebras and ponies of my home world are considered animals.  Just discovering that they can talk here the same as any human almost broke me."
I hung my head down.  "My home world works differently.  If there is magic, it isn't common knowledge outside of stories and legends.  Things like griffins, unicorns and pegasi are just myths.  I hate to admit it, but not a day goes by were I don't at least ponder briefly on whether I've lost my mind."
Fluttershy gave an expression of mixed emotions when I finished.
"I'm sorry this has been so hard for you.  I guess his chaotic nature would have scared you anyway.  But I'm glad he didn't harm you.  Come on, let's get you moving.  Sitting around sulking isn't healthy.  Come help me feed."
With this, we got up and went outside for the evening chores as Fluttershy continued.
"He seemed to be in fairly good control of himself, considering he knew you threw me back then.  I'm going to have to scold him for not waiting, but I'll have to tell him I'm proud of him for handling it better than he's done in the past, provided he doesn't take it out on the invaders instead."
"Take it out on the invaders?  What do you mean?"  
"Discord is a spirit of chaos.  Chaos can do good in a peaceful nation, but it is hard for him to do it without causing harm too.   With the war, he has been allowed to use some of his old tricks to throw off enemy troopes and gather information for us.  But we've asked him not to go too far with it, or he might undo all the progress he's made in changing his behavior.  As bad as the war is, having him lose the progress he's made could be worse."
We managed to get to feeding bin for the meat eaters.  I grabbed some fish for the ground based animals as Fluttershy opened the worms for the birds.
"Its the same reason Thorax and the Changelings aren't being asked to aid the war by fighting.  They've only recently given up their old ways and are going through a phase of rediscovery.  Asking them to fight could bring out the worst in them again.  So they help in other ways."
With this she grabbed some worms and flew off to feed some of the birds.


I just managed to get the ferrets to take the fishes from my hands as I saw a few fillies come into the yard.  I recognized the three that tried to approach me the other day with a fourth friend that had a little tiara on top of her head joining them.  They strayed off the path to the cottage and came up to me eagerly, pen and notepad still in tow.
"Hey there!  We heard you were one of the nice invaders."
"He's not an invader if he's nice!  They say he just looks like them!"
"Is it true you're part fish?  What's it like in the ocean?"

At this point, I changed gears from welcoming a few eager kids, to climbing onto the nearest object too high for them to follow.
"ladies, please," I pleaded as soon as I could press my amulet,  "I'll be happy to try to answer some of your questions, but you need to calm down."
The fourth one with the tiara shouted, "Hey! I didn't bust you out of that fake sleepover my mom forced on us just to let you maul him!  Give him some space.  You're scaring him."
With this, the other three backed up and the other met me as I climbed back down.
"Sorry," the one with the tiara said.
"It's OK.  Eager faces are a welcome change to what I normally get around here." I sat down on a nearby stump and tried to steady my breathing.  "Just a little too much too fast."
The one with the tiara shook her head.  "I mean sorry for what my mom did to you.  She has a way of being mean and wants me to be just like her, but I hate being mean.  It never got me any friends.  So, sorry."
It looked like she wanted to cry, waiting for me to respond.
I felt a feeling in my chest that I had almost forgotten about.  It had been so long since I had seen it.  A normally unpleasant feeling, but one that was closer to normal than I had felt in a while, so it kinda felt good at the same time, if only a little.  The bitter feeling of seeing someone feeling bad about themselves, empathy.
"Hey,"  I called to her as I knelt down.
She looked up meekly as I spoke to her.  "We all have to live in the shadows of those that came before us.  I'm not exactly proud of my..."  I paused, deciding to fudge the technicalities a little, substituting another term for my race.  "-my father.  He wasn't the best person, and I shared a lot of those same traits that are a part of what made him bad.  But I learned one thing that rings true to this day."
"I saw the bad in him and decided to learn from his mistakes early on.  I still fear what sins I might commit on my own, but I know that I do not have to be trapped by my father's sins and I have the power to strive to be better than that if I choose to be.  So I'm certain it can be the same with you and your mom."
Her eyes glimmered with an uncertainty as I smiled at her.  "Apology accepted.  Think nothing more of it."


The rest of that afternoon with the four fillies was filled with questions.  Some were easy.  Some were hard.  Some were awkward, but I muddled through them.  When I said I was running low on charges, the unicorn filly was willing to do her best to top me off again so they could finish up.  I could tell it was hard for her, though.  So I told her to stop and that I would work with whatever number of charges she did get me.  Though I wasn't sure if it did get me any. I had no way of checking until I used them.


"So, you've never been to the ocean?"
"I've seen the ocean of my home world once in my life from a distance while traveling, or so I was told it was the ocean.  But no.  I've never been there."
"Huh... odd."  The one with a bow in her hair piped in.  "So, we've got everything for our report.  Just one last question to add a little flare to our paper, if you're willing?"
"As always, I'll try but no promises."
The one with the horn took her turn.  "So... what do you plan to ask for when you go to Miss Berrytwist's sentencing?"
I just stared at them in confusion.
"What?"
"You know, for the Astral Judgment?"
All of a sudden, memories flashed through my mind.  I recalled hearing Starlight describing the regulations that kept Astral Judgement from being abused.  "Finally, only the officer assuming responsibility of the prisoner may submit the form for Astral Judgement."
My mind then jumped forward to when I saw the head guard at the prison without her armor and something on her horn being called into the doctor's office, escorted by multiple armed guards.  "Only the officer assuming responsibility."
My face must have went pale, because they asked if I felt alright.
"I'm sorry, but I can't answer.  I have to go now."
With this I did a brief goodbye and practically dashed to the cottage.


I looked for the letter from the day before that Fluttershy had said was to me.  I did my best to check and make sure it was the right one, double checking with the sign out front to see if it was my legal Equestrian name on it.  Once I was as sure as I could get, I hurried to where Fluttershy was behind the cottage with the bear's shoulder rub session.
When she saw that it was important, I gave her the signal to finish and caught my breath.  I knew better than to get the bear angry.   Once that was over, however, I went right up to her.
"Miss Shy, if it's not too much bother, I need you to read this to me, now."
> Chapter 22. World of Loathing, Part 6.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fluttershy's eyes had grown watery as she finished reading the letter and explaining the core details.
"So let me get this straight.  Because I was found innocent, the officer that insisted on Astral Judgement gets punished for wrongful use of it as a deterrent from it being abused?"
Fluttershy could only nod, not even breaking eye contact from the letter.
"And, as the one she wronged, I get a say in the punishment?"
"You have the right to voice a request on the details, but those details have to be approved by a counsel to ensure they are appropriate."
I looked down at the table, and at the green wrists laying on the table, still with the lingering marks of shackles ill suited for them.
"So what is the normal punishment?  If a request isn't made that is."
Fluttershy finally looked away from the page and whispered.  "A life sentence of hard labor."
Before I could ask her to speak up, she reared her head towards me, shouting, and I found myself cowering a little.  "A life sentence of hard labor!"
With this, the floodgates had opened and there was no closing them.  "My newest friend that just started to turn her life around with a commission from the royal sisters now has to spend the rest of her life working herself to the bone from one tiny mistake because of..."  Fluttershy's eyes wavered for a moment then closed.  She turned her head aside as the tears finally started down her cheeks.  "-Because of this stupid war!"
I once watched an anime where a villain used the phrase "Your words cut deeper than any knife."  I couldn't help but feel a little like that just then, though with a difference.  She tried to hide it and clearly knew better, but I still saw that a part of her wanted to blame me for what happened to Sparkler Berrytwist.  The fact that she had the strength to turn that anger away from me and help me all this time only made me want to grab that metaphorical knife and twist it further into myself.

I was the cause of Fluttershy's pain.  Incidental or not, I couldn't let that stand.
"Do you have lawyers in this land?  Some...pony that can help me make a convincing case with my request to minimize her sentence?"
Fluttershy looked at me with her mouth agape and a glint of hope in her eyes again.
"I mean, it seems like they won't let her off the hook entirely, but maybe I can convince them that she did it for the right reasons and get them to let her do something like community service instead?"
Fluttershy came around the table and smothered me in a tear soaked hug.  I found myself stifling a yelp in pain as she squeezed the bruises around my back and stomach.  The only reason she didn't let go entirely from this is because I knelt down and drew her back in with a hug in kind.
"Thank you so much!" she exclaimed as she shifted her grip.





With that, we promptly went into town the next day, looking into finding a lawyer willing to help.  All of the local lawyers simply turned me away, most before even hearing us out.
Ultimately, we had to give up any ideas on normal routes.  Fluttershy said she had a contact that knew ponies with a bit more of an open mind, but the contact she had was a pony of significant influence that I wasn't allowed near with the war going on.  Even with my declaration of innocence, I was still a foreigner that had no clear explanation of why he was here.  I still had to be presumed a potential threat, at least when it came to VIPs.  So we had to make some arrangements with the guards.


"Seriously?" I half rhetorically asked as we approached the same castle I was arrested at when I first came to town. "You know the guard we're trying to help, a shape shifting bug king, a spirit of chaos, a shaman hermit,  and the local royalty?"
"It's not as strange as it sounds when you know our history."
Fluttershy then turned to the two guards escorting us.
"Thank you again for helping with this, Iron Bastion, Sharp Sentry."
The two guards nodded in kind, and the non crystalline one spoke up.  "With how you helped my nephew's pet, I wouldn't feel right not paying back the favor, and old Iron Bastion would do anything short of a crime for Rarity."
We walked only a few more feet towards the stairs before the crystalline guard tugged on my firs.
"Sorry, but this is as close as we can let you get to the castle," Sharp Sentry told me.  "Go on in Fluttershy.  Spike should be ready for you.  We'll make sure nopony gets this guy in trouble like last time."
Fluttershy went up to the large door and barely had to knock before it was opened and a reptilian creature even smaller than they were greeted her.
I felt a bit of a chill come over me, like a strong breeze, yet there wasn't any particular wind that day.  I saw a bit of black steam come off of me again.  I backed up, fearing the guards thought it might be an attack.  Backing up seemed to stop the effect before the guards noticed.  Their hooves were at their weapons while their eyes were fixated on the door, worried.  They turned towards me and actually seemed relieved that I had stepped back.  While they urged me back further, I could see the reptile was arguing with somepony hidden by the door.  He pushed his unseen target backwards and Fluttershy followed him in.


The guards were serious about their work on guarding me, both the crystalline and the normal one, but they weren't mean.  In fact they didn't mind me striking up a conversation so long as I understood they couldn't answer certain subjects.  The subject I picked, however, wasn't a problem at all:  Why there were both crystalline and non crystalline ponies.
Apparently, the crystalline guards were actually allies from another land who came in to aid in the war effort.  They were kinda sorta their own nation, but at the same time they were so closely tied to Equestria that having citizenship in either nation granted almost all the rights of citizenship in the other too, save for voting and the like.  The ruler of the crystalline ponies was even adopted into and partially raised by the Equestrian royal family before she became their governing princess.


The rest of the day was pretty easy.  Fluttershy came out about an hour later with an apology for taking so long and a promise that a skilled pony would see us tomorrow.  We went home to drop me off so that Fluttershy could do some more searching for a new Senior RRE officer.  In the meantime, I did my best to not hurt myself while Angel helped me with the little details of the chores that Fluttershy trusted me enough to do without her supervision.







Starlight met us at the cottage the next day with a brightly colored and cloaked stallion called Sunburst in tow.
"Are you sure you don't want to help with this case, Starlight?" the stallion asked her as Fluttershy brought out the tea and sandwiches.
"I'm too close to the case.  I fought for his release and it would surely be brought up as a counter argument.  Besides, while I'm decent at deciphering foreign spells in spell books and scrolls, I'm not the best at using facts to convince ponies that already have their minds set."
"Then I guess I'll have to see what I can do.  How's is the deciphering going?"
"I found the oddest thing.  I just got past the wand he had with him and started on the scrolls this week.  Once I managed to copy a scroll down, the words on the original scroll disappeared.  It's like it was meant to destroy itself after being used."
Starlight looked at me.  "And sorry about that.  I know you were asked to 'donate' them to research, but I was hoping to return them if we ever built up enough trust."
I could only shake my head and press on my amulet.  "The scrolls are meant to be destroyed when copied down or when someone casts the spell from them directly.  Knowing you wrote it down means it can't be cast from the scroll anymore, but the notes themselves should be permanent now, just like in the book.  At least if they are supposed to behave like the game."
Sunburst had been staring at my amulet while I spoke.
"I see that little bit of advice I sent you on re routing pattern recognition components instead of reversing them managed to pay out."
"In part," Starlight and I both responded, a bit to her surprise.
"It works, but just barely."  I finished, then spent a few minutes describing my experiment with speaking with Fluttershy's animals with my Speak with Animals spell.  Both of them looked at me intently while occasionally sipping their tea.
"Seriously?  You can tap into the Animus Mundi!?"  Sunburst said at the end as he fixed his glasses.  
"At least that's what that chaos spirit said.  Take that for whatever it's worth."
"Discord is known for being hypersensitive to magical fluctuations of all kinds.  If he focused, he might been able to discern it from Aether.  I'd love to observe your spell casting sometime, provided you are willing of course."
"Maybe after we save Sparkler Berrytwist."
Starlight coughed on her tea and threw me the stink eye. "Why would you call her names like that?  I thought you wanted to help her."
I felt uneasy as I responded.  "That is her name, isn't it?"
Starlight rolled her eyes back and took a breath.  "Riiight...  The translation wasn't established yet when she first introduced herself."
She set her tea down, promptly cleaned up her face with a flash of her horn and addressed me. "Her full name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist, but she frequently goes by Tempest for short.  Where on Equis did you get the idea she was called Sparkler?"
"Is it a bad thing? like when I accidentally called her a h-"
Starlight quickly interrupted me. "No, nowhere near that bad.  It's a nickname given to unicorns that are late bloomers with their horns.  It isn't always a bad nickname, but it's never a good one."
A small pause of awkwardness filled the air for a few seconds before I spoke up.  "The doctor at the prison is where I heard it."
"Ah," Sunburst chimed in, doing his best to alleviate the mood. "Common slang for any unicorn prisoner that starts trouble.  Not something officially condoned, but it's occasional under the radar use does tend to keep the prisoners in line."
The awkwardness still wasn't quite alleviated, though.  So after a few more seconds Fluttershy changed the subject.  "So what do you think we can do for getting Tempest out?"
> Chapter 23. Truth be Told, Part 1.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Days had passed by as we spent as many waking moments to optimize our odds as we could.  Even Fluttershy took a few breaks from trying to find a new senior officer in order to help with a few details now and then.

It all came to fruition as we submitted our plea to the courts.

I sat there on the floor at the prosecution table in the court that would be used to sentence Tempest in a few days time.  Sunburst and I waited for the judge acting as representative of the sentencing committee to read through the details of our case.

The mare sitting at the judge's bench lifted the next page with her horn and raised an eyebrow.  "I was impressed that you were able to find the proper channels to go through for a preemptive request screening, being a foreigner.  Though it is technically your right, this is the first time in my twenty years I've even had to handle an improper procedure case like this, wartime or not.   The penalty for improper paperwork on these things is not something to laugh at, so most ponies make sure to do it right."
She put the papers down and stared squarely at me.  "And I'm further surprised at not only how well your plea is put together and resourced, but that you are solely asking for leniency."
A smile cracked from her otherwise blank business like expression.  "If you are from a land different than that of the invading forces, I think I might like to meet more of your kind."
A shiver went down my spine as my face turned to the floor, scowling.  Before I could control myself, I blurted out a response.
"No, you don't!" I practically commanded her in a voice so firm it surprised even me.
Silence fell on the room as both Sunburst and the committee representative stared at me for my outburst when I looked up again.
My eyes went back and forth between them a few times before I hung my head again and took a deep breath.
"I'm ashamed of my home world.  While at first glance the people of my homeland seem alright, that's what makes them so deadly..."





In the dream realm.
"I still hear tales of that day now and again.  I don't think either of us need to re live that speech you gave about your home world."
Princess Luna gave a laugh at the memories.  "I had already known of course and gave the briefest of classified summaries to the leaders of the allied nations, but the common populace were horrified of the tale of your home world and wanting to cry along side you at the same time.  After you left, Zecora and I were called in to confirm your tale and quell the mild panic you wound up causing.  Since you had finally spoke of it yourself, I was able to clarify what I knew publicly."
I looked over at the princess.  I didn't know if I wanted to scowl at her or laugh with her.  "Including the fact that the images of my home that you saw didn't match up with any of the other prisoners that had been put through astral judgement at the time.  That would have cleared up so much rumor about me if you were able to talk before."
She wiped a tear with her for-ankle, nodded and gave another laugh. "You were the only one found innocent.  Yet, at the same time you were the one that proved the most productive under judgement despite knowing nothing of the invasion.  Every other prisoner that we used the Astral Judgement on was simply paid by a hooded figure to be muscle for the invading army.  Bane was careful to never have his underlings know too much.  It's like he expected them to be captured.  Tidbits of troop movements and tactics was the best we could ever extract from them."
"Save for Archimedes of course.  When he came along, our entire situation was flipped on its head."
"Yes, that dear broken soul.  He lost so much.  I hope we can eventually give him the peace he is looking for."
She shook her head and continued,  "But we are getting off topic.  Something is telling me that this is just another thought festering in the shadow of the real reason of why you are ashamed."
I finally decided to laugh a little without feeling bad about it.  "Zecora thought she knew me so well.  She couldn't get me because she never hated herself like we hated ourselves.  You understand this monster far more than she ever did.  Thanks for being patient with me.  Now, where was I?"




Back in the courtroom, several minutes later.
"-If you give them an inch, they will take a mile and say it still isn't enough, like spoiled toddlers.  Some are decent enough and one in maybe a few thousand might be genuinely good, but never let those good ones make you feel like you can trust the race on the whole.  That's the most deadly mistake you could ever make with them."
I took a deep breath, held it a moment and then let it out with all the anguish I had bottled up about it, barely holding myself up by leaning on the prosecution desk.
"There, I said it. I finally sai..." I lost my breath when I looked up and around.   I found the previously empty court room was now mostly filled with ponies looking at me in varied degrees of shock.
"Moss, you knew this was an open preliminary, right?"  Sunburst whispered in my ear.
Whispers and murmurings started to spread across the courtroom before the sound of a gavel being pounded repeatedly silenced every pony.
"Order!  Order in the court!  The information volunteered by Moss, as unorthodox as it was, has been recorded and anypony may comb through it in detail after we have adjourned."
The acting judge looked straight at me with an impatient look on her face.  "I apologize for causing your frustrations to come to the surface, but I must ask that we continue without any further interruptions like that."
I shrank under her stare and pressed my amulet to make sure I was topped off on time. "I under... ahem!  I under stand, your honor."
Some of the ponies left while others took a seat as we got ourselves reset. Once that was over the judge asked me, "So, if I might ask, what even prompted you to ask for leniency?"
I shook my head a little.  "While Spa...  Fizzlepop Berrytwist was quite intimidating, she was never unreasonably paranoid or abusive, for being at war at least.  The biggest thing that scared me was not knowing what my captor wanted due to the language barrier.  I don't know if she had mentioned the option back before Starlight was able to create the translation device, but if I had known about the war and Astral Judgement, I probably would have volunteered for the procedure anyway.  I wanted answers as badly as she did back then and it would have seemed like my best chance at the time."
The judge was taken back to her prior state of awe at what I said. "I... See.  Well, you're reasons for your recommendation will be sent to the rest of the counsel to review.   Procedure would have me ask more questions now to avoid needless complications at the final hearing, but I was not prepared for a request of leniency.  We will simply have to review your request and compile a larger than anticipated list to ask at the sentencing.  Your presence will not be absolutely necessary, but it will certainly help us understand your request better."
She then picked up the gavel again and struck it once on the Bench.  "The preliminary hearing is adjourned."


* * *


Starburst and Fluttershy sat next to me on the bench just outside the court room.   "I'm so sorry for the outburst in there, guys."  I said to break the awkward silence.  "I wanted to say something before, but I just couldn't.  I was too ashamed.  When she said she wanted to meet more of my kind I just co-"
"I don't know what angle you're playing, outsider!"  I heard a disturbing and somewhat familiar voice call out from the crowded hallways.
I turned in the direction of the voice to see the crowd parting with Chancellor Neighsay coming forth.
"I've been watching you since you were set loose and you have been playing far too nice.  First you cooperate with the local guards to let them understand your abilities, then you refuse to press charges on Spoiled Rich, and now you are asking for leniency on Fizzlepop Berrytwist!"
He stopped in front of the bench and gave a quick glance to the ponies on either side of me.  "Nopony plays nice like that in the courts without a reason!  Mark my words!  I may not know your angle right now, but seeing as you all but admitted to being an invader in there, describing your home world like that, I will dedicate my every waking hour to thwarting your plans and ensuring your request is denied.  I may not be a member of the committee overseeing the hearings, but I have my ways!"
With this, he stormed off.
"Well, that just happened," Starburst said in an oddly unshaken tone.  "It's amazing how that pony is so xenophobic that it drives him to see only what he wants to see.  I didn't get that from your 'little' speech at all.  In fact, I think it wound up helping our case."
We then looked around at the crowd with mixed expressions.  "Though I feel it may have given your public image a bit of a setback."  He wrote down a quick scribble in a book of his that had a moon symbol on it for a few seconds then promptly closed it with a solid thump.  "But I'm confident that will be sorted out soon enough."
> Chapter 24. Truth be Told, Part 2.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stood there with my eyes closed to keep my mind on the committee I needed to convince instead of the crowd of ponies that would surely pile up behind me, waiting for my cue from Sunburst as he prattled on about legalities.  Finally, he led me by the hand to a stand and gave me the cue to speak.
One hand pressed firmly on the large stone in the middle of the stand and the other pressed on my amulet.  "I have no idea how I got here to your land, but what I've found here has been amazing.  While your technology isn't as advanced as I've seen in my home world, save for the integration of magic, I honestly feel that this land is better off in every other way I've seen so far."
I placed the other hand on the stand with the first and turned my head as to look in the direction of the review committee.
"You wanted to know why I have been so cooperative?  Well it boils down to a philosophy I adopted years back.  A country's power can be measured in the might of its military, the ingenuity of its craftsmen, the size of its coffers, the bounty of its lands and the depths of its knowledge."
I made a purposeful dramatic pause of a carefully measured time.
"But a country's true greatness can only be measured in the integrity of its people.  While I was treated as a prisoner, you were firm but fair, far more so than anything I would hope to expect in my home world, given similar circumstances.  When I was released, multiple ponies, some of which had personal reasons to not trust me, fought hoof and tooth to help me.  I was viewed as a monster in the public eye, yes, but even then the people of this nation didn't treat me with the blind hatred I expected.  I doubt my home world could lay claim to the same if the situation was reversed.  True, there were a few that took action against me that wasn't completely wholesome, but the system was strong enough to not let such behavior take root solely on the hatred and ranting of the vocal minority.  It isn't perfect, but from what I have seen with my own eyes, your land is leagues ahead of my home world when it comes to integrity on the whole.  I find that quite beautiful, philosophically."
"As for why I am asking for-"  I was suddenly interrupted.


"Sandwiches are done!  I even made some with the 'egg salad' recipe you taught me, Moss!"  I heard Fluttershy call from behind me.
With the illusion broken, I opened my eyes and turned around to see the living room table of Fluttershy's cottage set up for a friendly snack.
"That was excellent, Moss,"  Sunburst called out,  "You didn't stutter once.  We can wrap up the last bits of practice after lunch.  Hopefully you won't choke too much when we do it for real."


* * *


"You made the headline, in a good way this time, Moss,"  Fluttershy said as she brought the newly delivered news paper to the table.
Apparently, the paper had interviewed the pony princess that had performed astral judgement on me to confirm my tale.   From what Sunburst read of the article to me, the princess was profusely sorry for invading my privacy, and was now clarifying my tale.  She basically confirmed the factual details that I had stated, and said that the opinionated statements of my home world may have been influenced by the emotional side effects of the Astral Judgement.  When asked about more details, she said she still was under oath as a Dream Walker to respect my privacy and said she could not divulge details I had not spoken about to the public any further without my permission.  The one thing she could volunteer, however, was that she was adamant that I was not guilty of the crime I was charged for, being among the invaders, as my home world looked nothing like anything she had seen from other prisoners, nor were there any images of consorting with the enemy.
When Sunburst was done with the paper, he picked up his flash cards.  "Sorry again, but let's go through these one more time to make sure you got them right."
I rubbed my temples so hard it started to hurt.
"I think I have learned more Equestrian in the last three days than in the rest of my time on Equis so far," I spoke in a broken mixture of raw Equestrian and English as I gave him a frustrated smile.  "While I am grateful for the lessons, why can't I use my amulet in the court again?"
Sunburst gave an empathetic sigh.  "Because the princess that signed and approved the order must also be present, as she is the one that ultimately passes sentencing.  Since we still don't know how you came here, we have to have you chained to guards among other security measures.  One of them is that only court prepared magical items can be present.  Your amulet isn't a qualified item.  We barely got a modified interrogation stone approved for your use when you take the stand.  You need to learn as many terms as you can to keep up with the conversation while you don't have your amulet.  Now, what one is this and what does it mean?"
And so I was run through as many terms as I could remember for the rest of the day and even a brush up the next morning.
I always butchered their pronunciation like a thick accent when I tried to speak them in the raw without translation, but that was enough to show him I at least recognized the words.  I knew I'd never remember more than maybe a half a dozen to a dozen of the words I was practicing after the courts were said and done and I had time to forget them, but at least it would work for the immediate task at hand.  Even if I learned more of their language, I knew I'd need the amulet for speaking clearly for a long, long while yet, if not indefinitely.
Turns out I had incorrectly learned the words for "carry on" as "go away" from when the crow headed griffin taught me a few words.  That one was definitely going to stick from there on.





The next day.
The court house was bustling again.  Most of the ponies seemed empathetic to me, and from what I could tell from my broken understanding of their calling out to me, they didn't like the fact I had to be chained.  But the higher class ponies were smirking at the sight of me chained to four separate guards.  I could only imagine what Chancellor Neighsay would be saying from wherever he was.  It was a flip of a coin between "serves him right," or "how dare he even exist!" at this point.  I tried to not let it bother me.  I was on a mission.
Despite the difficulties of walking in a chain restricted formation at the time, we managed to get into the court room and settled in.
From what I was told before hand, the security measures forced most onlookers out of the court room.  I could see that only a select few individuals were allowed in the stands.  Sadly, most of them looked like the upper class that didn't care for me.
After I was seated, the rest of the court filled in.  Fizzlepop Berrytwist was similarly chained and sat down on the defendant's side of the room.  She was unhurt, though a bit unkempt.  She also had an utter look of defeat about her with her head down and her overall timid posture.  I tried to give a gesture of encouragement, but she utterly refused to even look in my direction.
I saw other ponies, including the approval committee taking the seats of what was normally reserved for a jury.  Since the court wasn't to determine the guilt of a party, as that was already done and over with, there was no need for a jury.
Finally, after everypony else involved save the presiding princess had been seated, additional guards of crystalline nature entered and spread themselves about the court room.



And that's when the shit hit the fan, and our understanding of the situation was flipped on its proverbial head.
I felt a chill in the courtroom, like a strong breeze was trying to cut at my bones.  Just as the guard was announcing the arrival of the princess acting as judge, I could see a black steam rising from my body.
A taller, bubblegum pink pony with multiple stripes of color in her hair, sporting both a pair of wings and a horn peaking out from behind a crown came into the room.  Strangely, her hair was not floating around her like the hair of the princess of the night I saw during my Astral Judgement.
I couldn't think about it any further, as my body suddenly wanted to go into fits.   I held off the first with the help of my good luck charm, but a second bout that followed the very next second increased in strength and overwhelmed me.  I found myself rocketing up all exorcist style, pulling the guards with me into mid air.
I lost control of my body and found an foreign voice coming from my mouth.  
"Hsiivopht, Emodusp Princess ug Equestria.  Qmieti fu puv ci emesnif,"  I found my mouth speaking what I managed to discern was fluent, un-buchered Equestrian, "I niep yua pu jesn, cav I cies e nittehi ug avnutv onqusvepdi."
At this point all the ponies were in a panic.  The crystalline guards were placing themselves between me and the princess and I could feel the ones dangling beneath me calling out in pain from being held up by a single, shackled hoof.  My wrists and ankles were mentally screaming right along with them, but the rest of my arms and legs seemed fine, like there was no weight on them.
My right arm came forth and performed a bit of a presentation gesture.  Immediately as this happened, an owl appeared in mid air in front of me and simply flapped its wings to stay floating in the same spot.
"Vjot ot my djutip dusqusiem gusn epf I en tonqmy tqieloph vjsuahj vji dsievasi I en cuapf vu.  I duni ciesoph eptxist epf vedvodem lpuxmifhi vu eof you op-"
I couldn't tell what happened after that, because a strong surge of lightning struck me from the direction of the defendant's desk and I was out cold.  It wasn't until after I woke up days later that I figured out what had happened.
> Chapter 25. Truth be Told, Part 3.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I slowly came to with what sounded like the humming of an angel floating about the room.  I tried to open my eyes but they felt like they were made of lead it was so difficult to lift them.
"Fluttershy? Is that you?"  I called out.
"Oh! Good.  You're finally awake."  I heard Fluttershy come over and press on my amulet so she could hear what I was saying.
"Are you thirsty?  Do you need some water?"
I was a little thirsty, but that wasn't my main concern.  I felt like I could barely move.  My muscles didn't want to respond to the commands my brain was giving them.  Even just calling out to her a moment ago had taken a bit of extra effort.  Above all that, however, I needed answers.
"Where am I?  What day is it?  How much time until the..."
My mind caught up to the present and my body managed to jerk up a few inches. "The sentencing!  What happened!?"
I held myself up for only a few seconds before my strength gave out and I fell back on the bed.  My eyes were open at this point but it was pitch black.  "Why can't I see!?"
"Take it easy. Everything is fine,"  Fluttershy called to me as she lifted up the sleep mask I had on my face.  My eyes focused slowly on her as she waited for me with a calming yet relieved smile.
"You've been through a lot, from what I'm told.  You're weak right now but the doctors say your strength should return soon enough.  They couldn't give an estimate on how long it will take, with you being so different from us, but they did say that they were certain you would make a full recovery with enough rest."
I couldn't help but feel like I should be at ease at the sound of that voice and the warm glow of those eyes.  So I rolled my head back to a resting position and breathed.  As my eyes wandered, I found that I was back in my room in Fluttershy's cottage.  I was calming down, but I still needed answers.
"But what happened in the courts?"
Fluttershy looked down, unsure of how to find the words as she struggled to bring herself to say anything.
My heart sank. "...I blew it, didn't I?  Tempest is stuck with hard labor, isn't she?"
She tilted her head and seemed like she was about to answer when a cold voice from the other room chimed in.
"Not quite."
Tempest strolled in and leaned on the door frame while giving me a stern, yet relatively passive glare.
"The short version?  That weird float in mid air and chant like a lunatic thing you did didn't affect the official ruling.  The princess took your advice on leniency and has given me a deferred sentence.  I'm indentured to work in a specific department of the civil cervices for a set amount of time.  If I quit before that time's up, I have to go do the default sentence instead."
I gave an uneasy smile as Fluttershy helped me prop myself up on some extra pillows.  "That's good, right?"
I could have sworn the room's temperature dropped five degrees after I said that.  Her glaring eyes squinted in an ever so slight, yet significant way that made shivers go down my spine.
"To be honest, the job they have me doing is so ridiculous that I almost want to just break parole and turn myself in for a life of hard labor instead."
I darted my eyes around the room as I tried to think about what to say to such a remark.
Fluttershy waited patiently for a few seconds to let one of us say something, but when neither of us did, she cleared her voice in an attention grabbing way and addressed me, "Moss, I'd like you to meet our new-"

A loud noise cut her off as the front door burst open and a large dog like creature rushed in all covered in mud, followed by several of Fluttershy's more rough housing prone critters nipping playfully at him.  When he looked up and saw me, he immediately ran through the doorway to my bedroom—Tempest pulling back with a smirk to let him pass—onto my bed and right on top of me, wagging like a hyperactive dog that had gotten into coffee grinds.
"Fish friend awake!  Come play with Scraps!" he yelled while his paws landed on virtually every tender spot around my rib cage area and my knees.
"Scraps! Get down!"  Fluttershy promptly glared him right off of me, making him cower behind Tempest to hide from her with his tail between his legs.  
With "Scraps" and the rest of the critters suddenly calmed down, Fluttershy calmed herself, turned to me and continued.
"As I was saying. Moss, I'd like to properly introduce you to our new Senior RRE officer, Tempest, and her court appointed trainee parolee, Scraps the diamond dog."

I looked down at the "diamond dog" clinging to Tempest's leg and the new irritation on Tempest's face added on to the sour mood she already had.  I tried and failed to rub my ribs while giving her an apologetic look of "I feel your pain."
The diamond dog then gingerly came back up to the bed and licked my immobile hand.  "Fish friend help Scraps get out of mean stone house!  Scraps love fish friend!"
"They are also our new roommates."
With a titter escaping Tempest, I turned to see a bittersweet, shit-eating grin on her face.
"Almost," Tempest spoke up again, "But I'll see where this goes first."


* * *


And so days went by and I regained my strength.  By the end of the week, I was managing to stand without aid, albeit wobbly.  Scraps was constantly eager to play or otherwise be around me, while Tempest, being in charge of him, refused to forbid it.  If it weren't for Fluttershy's occasional glare, he probably would have seriously hurt me.  I tried to tell him that him getting out too was a total accident on my part, but he didn't care.  Fluttershy said he would calm down in time and that he was just ecstatic to have a real chance at a better life.
I asked about what happened in the court room, but all they said was that they promised the answers will come soon.  They wanted me to just focus on my strength for now.






The morning I was finally able to walk across the room without fear of tripping, the crystalline guards were practically kicking down the door, they knocked so hard.   Upon discovering I was fit enough for transport, Fluttershy and I were ordered to come with them for unknown reasons.
Was I in trouble?  Was I going to be judged for whatever it was that happened in the court room?  They didn't even tell me where we were going.
After a long chariot ride to the castle, I was escorted up the stairs, through the main hallway and into... a comfortable looking room with several exquisitely made chairs and sofas.  A smiling Starburst sat on the far side of the table with another one of the rare winged and horned ponies that were apparently royalty sitting next to him.  She was about the same size as Fluttershy, and had a look of eagerness to her that was begging to be let loose.  I could swear I saw her squirm in her seat a little when I entered the room.
I had no idea what was going to happen next, and that made me feel the same kind of fear I felt when I first discovered a zebra could talk.  Needless to say, I was more than just a little scared.
> Chapter 26. Truth be Told, Part 4.  (finished this time, apologies again)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The princess leaned forward with an expectant look on her face as her eyes made tiny shifts in movement, quickly looking at every part of me, from the ridges on my head, to my boots and everything in between.
A moment later I saw her ears fall back while her face and posture slumped in disappointment.  "Of course it was a one off.  And I came so close to being the one that triggered it,"  She said as she turned to Sunburst with a look of frustration, "Twice!"
She took a breath and let out a long, disappointed sigh.
My eyes simply shifted back and forth between her and the guards still behind me, unsure of what she was wanting.
"Twilight?" Fluttershy called to the princess as she put a comforting hoof to my nearest arm,  "I think we're scaring him.  He looked nervous the entire way here."
The princess finally noticed me glancing towards the guards' spears.  She sat straight up and gave a gasp of realization.  "Hey!  Lighten up, you two!  He's a guest here at my request, not a prisoner!  Stop scaring him and take a break!" She gestured at the snack table at the far side of the room.
The two guards that were in the room with us slowly eased themselves and their spears from attention, walked towards the table with snacks and  started picking at it with a notable lack of enthusiasm.  It wasn't until one of them rubbed his back hoof's ankle did I recognize them as two of the guards I had been chained to when I lost control in the court room.  Turns out bruises are better hidden under fur than on bare skin.
I darted my eyes around the room with a confused look, then stood up in a still tense, but closer to relaxed stance.
"So I'm not-"  I pressed on my amulet after seeing the princess tilt her head questioningly.  "So I'm not in trouble?"
Sunburst chimed in, "Well it depends on your definition of trouble.  You're stuck in an alien world that's in the middle of a war.  But no, you're not in trouble with us.  Quite the opposite, actually.  You've done us a great service, albeit without knowing.  But we will get to that in time."
The princess gestured to a chair that was seated a bit higher than the rest of the furniture in the room.   Its width was extended more than it's height compared to the rest, so I could only guess that it was intended for larger guests from other lands or something.  It definitely wasn't intended for a human, but it was still better than sitting on almost child sized furniture or sitting bare on the ground.
Or so I thought.  As I tried to get situated, the seat proved to be uncomfortably wide for me just as the seats they normally used were small.  The notable difference in height once I was seated was also uncomfortable.  I didn't like seeing them crane their heads up to look at me.  It didn't feel right.  Ultimately I thanked them for the well intended gesture, but I had to take the cushion off the larger seat and put it on the floor to sit.
Once I was situated, able to look at them at their level, we finally went about getting a lot of my questions answered.
"So," I opened while looking at the princess, "I was told that I wasn't allowed around royalty or any pony of significant political importance.  What changed all that?"
Sunburst started to answer before the princess beat him to it, "We didn't know anything on how or why you are here until recently.  We have somepony confirming some of the pesky details but we'll have all the answers in only a couple more hours at most and we have a good enough idea now to say for sure we know that you aren't a threat."


My heart leapt at the idea of getting answers of why I was here and if I could go home.  Although, I wasn't sure if I should go home.  I mean I'd probably get dissected being so strange to them.  Even if I didn't get dissected, just going back at all might give my home world a chance to come here and the ponies would have another world they would need to handle on top of the current invaders.  Goodness knows that by now my rent was so over due that I had long lost my contract and  another renter had been found for my old apartment.  So I was eager for answers, but not eager enough to not wait a few more hours.


"I'm glad that it's finally been cleared up,"  the princess said with an upbeat tone, "I've been so eager to meet you since Zecora told me about you."
With this, she pulled out not only the letter from Zecora I had brought with me to town, but several others like it and started sifting through them.  It was at this time I noticed the mark on her flank matched the symbol on the letters.
"This one tells about how she observed you befriending crows in the woods.  This one told about how you fought to guard her against wolves, not realizing she had it under control.  This one told me about how you had so much trouble learning the simplest tricks the Animus Mundi lets those attuned to it do, but were able to cast a more advanced spell just by mimicking Speaks with Talons's gestures and words."
"I'd still like to observe that some day," Sunburst added.
"Hold up," I called while raising my hand to them, "Speaks with Talons.  Was that Zecora's griffin student?"
The princess gave me a familiar look.  Indeed, I recognized the look by now.  I could tell that in this case she wasn't offended, but I had put my foot in my mouth again.
Fluttershy managed to speak up from beside me,  "He isn't her student, Moss.  He's the son of a prominent shaman of the Tribal Griffins and came to assist her with the increased numbers of unnatural creatures in the area.  But yes, Speaks with Talons is the griffon you met with Zecora."
With my inquiry answered, the princess continued.
"Basically, there were a lot of things that didn't add up until now but she still saw a lot of good in you.  So she had asked me to do what I could to look out for you when she couldn't keep you from town anymore.  But since I couldn't be near you myself, I sent my protege, Starlight, to do what she could instead."
I made a note to add that to my list of things to think about on Zecora and her motives.  She seemed to have good intent, but something was nagging at me to not trust her blindly.


* * *


And so we went on for an hour or so talking about little details on different subjects.  I still needed an RRE officer, but I had been cleared to have a job without Fluttershy escorting me to and from work every day, so long as I kept the permission slip on me and I only went straight to the workplace then back to the cottage and nowhere else.  That was at least somewhat good, since Fluttershy's schedule placed limitations on what jobs I could apply to back when we were contemplating before the big fuss with Tempest.
When I asked about the court case, they told me that Tempest broke her horn suppressor ring and fired at me with the same blast that had let her capture me before.  If it weren't for the fact that I was unconscious but still floating and spewing out Equestrian, I probably would have been back in jail right now instead.  That is what cued them in that it wasn't me doing it.
I asked if the guards were uncomfortable with talking about this, but they responded with how they would have been more uncomfortable leaving me alone with the princess.  The look in their eyes made me make a note to make it up to them at some point.

Finally, the book with the moon symbol next to Sunburst glowed for a moment.  He casually picked up the book and read one of the pages.  Once he was finished reading, his eyes widened as he said, "Oh my..."
He then looked at the rest of us and then to the princess specifically.  "Princess Luna had to stop early for the creature's safety, but she has the answers we need.  She will be with us in a few moments."
'Wait...'  My mind went as I heard the name "Princess Luna."   I had started getting a knack for associating the names of ponies with their appearances at this point.
"Isn't that the princess that..."  I had to swallow the rising lump in my throat.
"That performed your Astral Judgement?"  Sunburst finished for me.  "Yes.  She's the only princess born with the dream walking gift."
The doors burst open and I saw what was literally my own personal worst nightmare.





Back in the dream realm.
Princess Luna quickly batted the back of my head with the thick part of her wing.  When I looked over at her I saw a playful look of mild insult.
> Chapter 27. Truth be Told, Part 5.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The dark blue princess entered the room with some bundle in tow.  When she turned to me, she called out something.


I didn't hear what it was, just that it was directed towards me.  My mind was paralyzed in a primal fear.  It wasn't the kind of logical fear with not knowing what was going on, like when I first arrived at the castle.  That kind of fear I could still keep a grip on to some degree and eventually work through with enough logic.  Even when I ran from Zecora the first time, my mind was still doing its best to assess the situation with what information was available, and consciously chose to run from what I didn't understand to buy time to process, albeit with a continuous loop that kept me up through most the night.
No.  Processing wasn't even an option at that moment.  What I was dealing with was the kind of fear you might expect a child to have towards the closet they think has a scary monster in it or a person exposed to something that they have a phobia of.  The kind of fear that made all rationality jump straight out the window and leave nothing but panic in its wake.  I didn't really have any experience with that kind of nightmarish fear piercing my psyche since I was five or so, so it hit me pretty much full force.


She stepped forward and put her hoof out in what I realize now was probably a gesture of greeting.  When that happened, all the tension in my mind finally snapped into action.
I quickly skittered away on all fours with my belly up in the opposite direction, kicking the cushion I had been sitting on into her face by total accident.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Get the hell away from me, you unhinged, psychotic bitch!" 
With my eyes locked on her as I moved, I bumped into more things than I could clearly recall before I finally registered the wall on my back.  I slid along the wall until I hit the far corner and finally stopped to cower.
The other ponies in the room had stood up in worry, but I barely even registered it.  The dark blue princess made a single step closer to better see me around a bit of furniture.
In response, I curled up and hung my head. "For the love of all things sacred, no more!  Please, no more!"
I could hear somepony approach slowly.   Words were said, but I didn't register what they were.  When they finally stopped, I shook from their proximity.  They were so close I might have been able to throw my hand out and touch them.
"Please, just go away..."  was all I could whimper to whoever it was in front of me.
When I felt a hoof on my shoulder, I started screaming.  I threw my arms up over my head, causing that hoof to scrape hard against the back most ridge along the top of my head before getting flung away.
I screamed long, I screamed hard, and it seemed my lungs had no intention of stopping, save to draw another breath to keep going.


* * *


I had no idea how long I was screaming.  It could have been just under a minute, or well over an hour.   All I know is when it finally stopped, it stopped abruptly.
I found my breathing steadying on its own.  I looked up and saw the smaller princess giving me a look of worry alongside Sunburst.  Both their horns were glowing.
"It's OK.  She's gone now.  Are you alright?" the princess called to me as I stood up.
I did a quick assessment of the room.   The guards were quickly loosing a gleeful look on their face,  Fluttershy was holding a bundle as if it where a baby on the couch and the princess that set me off was nowhere to be seen.
"Calming spell?" I asked as unemotionally as could be.
Sunburst nodded. "Not normally allowed without a court ordered prescription or your permission, but since Fluttershy is your RRE officer, that grants her some extra authority over you when you are in an irrational state and so she gave us the clear."
"We don't cast it on a whim if that's what you're worried about," the princess added, "Do you think you can stand on your own now that she's gone?  We shouldn't keep you at this level for more than a few minutes."
She gestured up to her horn with her eyes.
"I'm not sure, to be honest.  But it is a bad idea to be dependent on something like this.   As a matter of principal, I have to try to stand on my own without crutches where possible or I'll never get stronger.  We can try talking again another day after I calm down if need be, right?"
The princess nodded and just about let up the spell before I held up my hand to stop her.
"Just one thing I need to say while I'm not afraid."
She tilted her head. "OK, what?"
"I don't think I'd manage to say it clearly with my normal mind, being so closely related to my fear, so I am taking the opportunity now."  I spoke in a flat voice, devoid of emphasis.  "Princess Luna.  Only a part of what makes me fear her is the fact that she did the astral judgement.  The other part is how forwardly she was trying to comfort me afterwards without realizing in the slightest that it was unwelcome.  If I were to give advice from my own experiences, have her practice learning to read the room and not act on impulses of forwardness that may or may not be welcome until she knows for sure.  Being a leader of your nation, in whatever way she does lead, I think this will aid her greatly."
I lowered my hand and nodded.  "I'm ready now.  End the spell."





Back in the dream realm.
"A piece of advice I treasure to this day."  Princess Luna smiled.  "The first step we took to realizing we struggled with many of the same things at one time or another.  Indeed, where it not for the advice Sunburst delivered, that day would have been one of my saddest moments."
"What was it that you said, anyway?  Before I panicked?"
"I was happy to meet you face to face, in the physical world, and that I was sorry for what I had to do to you and your familiar."
"Oh, right.  Archimedes...   He and I didn't start on the best of terms either, but we worked it out in the end."
"Indeed.   He counseled me in your absence during your early adventures, and I pay the debt I owe him forward to you on his behalf now."
I shot her a raised eye brow look.  "You'd do it anyway."
"True."





With all of us situated, the lower ranking guard sent out of the room and the book glowing to show a message had been sent to Sunburst, we finally got down to business on explaining to me why I was even here.


Fluttershy gave me an uneasy look as she held what now appeared to be a very weak owl, wrapped up in a blanket in her hooves. "We need to give you a little history of our world, but this is classified information.   The common populace would panic if they knew.  So don't repeat this to anypony that you aren't certain already knows."
I looked at the one remaining guard, the door where the other had left and back at her. "And you?"
"I was a friend of Twilight's before she was a princess.  I was also a part of the events that made her a princess and continue to help her where I can.  I may look humble and stay out of the politics, but I have clearance."
Fluttershy then looked to the princess, who then passed on the floor to Sunburst.
"This isn't the first time we've been invaded by bipedal ape like creatures from another realm.  It's the second."
> Chapter 28. Truth be Told, Part 6.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Even the elder royal sisters Celestia and Luna aren't old enough to have been present for the first war, as it predates what we have properly recorded in modern history books.  It isn't even in folklore, save as a tail Discord taunted ponies with, and was believed to be lying about back during a dark time before our nation was founded."
The princess lit up her horn and showed me a moving image to illustrate what Sunburst was saying.
"The details given to us have been cross referenced with multiple sources are diverse and complicated, but it does basically describe what you claim the darker of your world's desires may be, though amplified:  The desire to draw upon as many natural resources to fuel the war efforts on other realms, with no regard to the health of this world."
The images showed vague outlines of humanoids ripping trees out of the ground and throwing them through some portal.  Outlines of ponies and other creatures fought as best they could, but were quickly squashed in town meetings and other gathering places.
"By the time the races rallied together for the cause, it was too late.  We couldn't organize our troops, and the invading forces overwhelmed our predecessors, enslaved them, and forced them to be a part of the workforce that was draining the life from our world."
The illustration shifted in tone, showing the natives being forced to cut down trees, mine the earth, and pluck the fishes that were still in rivers and seas out until fewer and fewer were left to repopulate.
"But then a small group of  invaders and other beings that had fled the worlds ravaged by the war, both mortal and nigh-immortal, rebelled.  They started in secret to give the natives a chance to coordinate and counter attack without being discovered until they were ready."
Images of secret meetings being held and hidden from guards, and rebels being granted shelter and hidden showed,  tools, information and sheer numbers being gathered in secret.
"While he did not lead the rebellion, as that brave mortal's name has long been lost to history, Discord was among those that switched sides.  Where it not for the efforts of Discord and the others that chose to rebel against their masters, our world would have been long dead many millennia ago."
Images of rebel forces driving the invaders back to their portals played.  What looked like the outline of a leader among them jumped through the portal with a small band of soldiers of many of the races, fighting on what looked to be another world on the other side, keeping the last portal from being jammed open.  Meanwhile, what I could only guess were nature shamans like Zecora along side less nature focused mages of old closed those portals with Discord's help.
"With the rifts sealed, no outsider could invade so easily again, nor could they spy on our world while the rifts were closed."
The image faded and the princess took her turn to speak.
"The invading forces were particularly difficult to push back because they wielded a kind of magic far more potent than Æther or the Animus Mundi that had never been used on Equis before. They worshiped exalted beings known as 'gods'-"  The one remaining guard spat at the ground at this word "-and a select few of their followers were able to harness the 'Quintessence' of these beings to force their demands on Equis."


I had to use my luck charm to keep composure as I felt the negative feeling they had towards deities.  While I wasn't the most forthright about showing off my faith, and fell short in many ways, I did have it.  It was actually an integral part of who I was under the surface.  I had to wonder if I ever uttered anything out of reflex that would have angered them, and if I might slip in the future.


"Quintessence has since left its mark on Equis.   A select few individuals have managed to harness it during times of great trial in the past, while Discord is capable of using it easily and Alicorns like myself wound up being able to tap into it alongside our Æther to a degree.   But the details of its existence are guarded by family lines that have been sworn to keep its power from being abused and to be ready if the gods ever returned to Equis.  Sharp Sentinel is a member of one of these families."
Sunburst switched out with the princess again.  "Which is why we went on high alert when you came crashing down in your meteor in the woods.  It was positively radiating with so much Quintessence that anypony with monitoring equipment on at the time within the borders of Equestria or its surrounding nations would have noticed.  Without that alarm bell, we would have been caught off guard when the rifts opened.  Your well timed arrival gave us the time we needed to prepare and face the invaders head on."
Fluttershy chimed in, giving me a bit of a surprise.  "Which brings us to why you were sent here.  According to this adorable little foul that came with you-" She raised the owl in her hooves slightly.  "-One of these... 'exalted beings' known as Bane began learning how to break some of the less well maintained seals on the rifts open.  One of the more empathetic exalted beings wanted us to be left alone, feeling we had earned our freedom.  So he issued a challenge to Bane."
Sunburst grabbed two of the platters on the table with his glowing horn, and clanged them together, while also pushing all others aside.  "A formal struggle between only the two of them and their forces, ensuring only the two gods could fight over our world and that other gods would acknowledge that only the victor had any claim to the world.  Each participating god can send armies through whatever rifts they can open and a single champion.  The condition for Bane winning is the taking over of our world before his presence is expunged.  Otherwise, Equis is declared off limits.
"If what Luna has extracted from your familiar's volunteered Astral Judgement wasn't staged, each exalted being was granted a single condition that they imposed on the challenge.  The one that sent you insisted any invading military must be composed completely of mortals.   Bane then countered by insisting that whatever champion they send to represent them must not be one of their followers, presumably believing he could buy off someone unfaithful.   And thus you were plucked from your home world, though the little owl was not told why you were picked specifically."
"By technicality, you are the champion sent to oppose Bane's presence, but all the god that sent you intended to do was to alert us so that we can fight our own battle.  The owl was once a powerful celestial and a servant of this god.  He was bound to you as your familiar to exploit a loophole in the agreement and sent on a one way trip to aid us in tactical awareness, should you manage to come close enough to one of our nation's alicorn leaders.  Beyond that, he had no interest in sending an army of his own and actually used the meteor he sent you in to reinforce the seal of a rift that was about to burst, even though he could have potentially claimed it as his own."


* * *


I must have been sitting there, almost numb as I asked them to repeat parts of that several times.  It was a lot of information to be dumped on me all at once.  I wasn't needed anymore for the war effort, and I was allowed to simply live my life as I pleased.  They said they honestly had no idea how to send me home, but were more than willing to do what they could to help me adjust and would inform me if an opportunity to go home arose.
Even so, one growing fear lingered in the back of my mind as I processed all of this.  I was sent by a supposed "god" to this world, and Moss had a single level of cleric to his build.  Clerics drew their powers from the gods they worshiped.
At some point I found myself staring at the owl that was doing its best to rest.  I could only think of one thing as I stared at it.  "I don't care if we're bound to each other or that Moss was a cleric.  I'm never going to worship your god."
Looking back, I realize now that I used the link between us to talk to it telepathically.  In response, it opened its eyes, looked over to me weakly and telepathically responded in kind.  "That's more than alright.  He wouldn't want your worship, nor does he need it for this mission.  And for formalities:  Oghma sends his apologies for forcing this on you."





A proper freakout at the telepathic bond and subsequent prompt ending of the meeting, plus a few hours later, I was back at Fluttershy's cottage, sitting at the table with Tempest.  Scraps was unusually calm as Fluttershy showed him how she wrapped her front forehoof differently than she would paws.  Usually when they played doctor, he was still wiggling in his seat.

"It's a lot to take in, isn't it?" Tempest slid a cup of coco to me.  "You might never be able to get home."
It was the first time she tried to break the ice and act nice as I listened to her.  "I wasn't allowed to say anything until you met with them.  But to lose something dear to you like that.  To have it torn away and live among those that still have it.  As much as I don't like you, I can relate to that."
"That's actually not what's bothering me.   I wasn't too attached to anything at home, and at this point I was kinda expecting something like that anyway."
I took the coco and sipped.  "What's bothering me is things that don't add up.   How did my owl's... boss know you guys were still... 'watching over the rifts?'  How did he know how to write the spell books in modern equestrian?  Why did the message trigger when I was close to an alicorn, when alicorns didn't even exist the last time the rifts were open?  I thought outsiders couldn't see through the rifts while they were closed.  It isn't making sense."
I looked up at Tempest but she only stared back at me for a long while.  With a twitch of her ear, she finally responded in a flat tone,  "I guess it doesn't make any sense.  I'll file some papers with Starlight in the morning about that."
I didn't have another "good" good luck charm that day, but I managed to interpret the twitch well enough without it.
I reciprocated her flat tone, "Another thing that doesn't make sense is why you were allowed an exception to specifically take Fluttershy and me under your charge and nopony else before finishing your trainee year with Scraps.  It's almost like somepony high up wanted you to keep tabs on me because there were still a few unknowns left.  Maybe even take me out if I were to prove a threat."
Another twitch to her cheek followed my statement as she reached her hoof out for her own coco.  With a subtle confirmation that wasn't a confirmation between our eyes, she gave a genuine laugh and took a brief sip of her coco.
"Don't be ridiculous," she finally responded, "I can honestly say I was never given any order to take you out."
She chugged the rest of her steaming hot coco down in one gulp, not even flinching from the heat, slammed the mug down on the table, and smiled at the look of shock I had on my face from it.  Her tone went back to that familiar darkness I knew her for.  "I'd do it of my own free will if I saw fit."
Her tone shifted back to a begrudged acceptance. "I was just asked to make up for what I did to you and balance out Fluttershy's timid nature with my own.  As long as you behave, you won't have to see my... extra bad side again.  That's my promise to you."
I looked at Fluttershy finally warming up to Scraps, having established ground rules.  New developments always seemed to give me some sort of curve ball, but I started to feel like my patience was paying off.  I was getting some semblance of a home again.  It felt kinda nice, in spite of all the confusion.
"So, friends?"
She had pored another cup and was chugging it a little slower as she raised an eyebrow in response.  She went back to finishing her cup and made me wait for an answer.
"Not even in the pits of Tartarus, Moss."  She got up and put her cup in the sink.  "I said you won't have to see my bad side.  That doesn't mean I have to like you."
> Epilogue.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Muffins with wings took off and flew away into the sky.  For some reason I didn't pay this much mind.
I was looking at the school foals in the park, gawking at my owl and making me feel awkward with them asking what his name was when he didn't have one.
A goat with rather dainty looking hooves came cavorting down the path, calling out "Beast-kin? Where are you?"  over and over again, with a sense of urgency.  When he laid eyes on me, his eyes went from showing urgency to hellbent rage.
As I turned to run from him, Scraps rolled over the hill with a barrage of arrows and Speaks with Talons following close behind.  Scraps carried something past me with great fear fueling his strides.  I tried to follow him but I tripped, finding myself landing on a seat in the local princess's castle.
The spellbook found in my lap mocked me with a laughter in the flutter caused by the unnatural turning of its pages.  I ran from it, but found myself facing Zecora across from a massive active fire pit with no wood inside it, pleading to me not to let my primal fire consume the world.   The flame between us changed to a brilliant white and grew so large it would have easily been taller than any tree in the forest.
The flame then blinked out, revealing a night landscape.  I was in the middle of a battlefield, surrounded by many corpses of many races.  Some stirred, and threw raspy moans of unintelligible accusations at me.
In the attempt to flee yet again, I found myself in a field of rotting berry plants, only the berries were heads of ponies, eating each other.
Finally, the Draconiqus Discord himself stood in the middle of the field, his firmer back limb standing squarely on yet another corpse wriggling around under his lizard like talon.  In his arms he carried a small yellow pony, curled up and facing into his chest.  Tears rolled down his cheeks and his claw gently stroked the pink mane as I approached him.
My heart sped up as I approached, knowing fully well what this was, and what was about to happen next.
The head of the pony in Discord's arms rolled backwards, limp, until I was face to face with a twisted version of Fluttershy, as pale as death and its eyes devoid of any expression.
"You told me," the aberration of Fluttershy called to me in a whimper.  Not in rage.  Not in accusation.   Just in a confused and mournful whimper that made me want to literally rip my heart out from the pain of betrayal I felt inside my chest.
"You told me you cherished life.  So why?"
Several of the corpses appeared around me, and started dragging me down into the ground as Fluttershy's aberration futilely begged them to stop.  Even in this nightmarish state, I could only see her as kind.
I struggled for a moment against the pull, but only a moment.  Was this what was meant to happen?  Where this dream was leading me?  Did I even care if it wasn't?
I let them drag me into the ground with their undead grasp.  Within seconds, my knees were submerged.   My hips, my waist, and finally my arms folded up on my chest followed, leaving only my shoulders and head above ground.
A thunderous voice from the moon shouted, "Enough!"  and a dark blue flame passed over me.  The undead dissolved into nothingness and I felt myself being lifted from the dirt.

We hovered in the air with her guarding me as I came to my senses and I threw a mental wave of my regained willpower out to my surroundings.
The terrifying landscape faded away, leaving only my familiar little island of reflection beneath me as Luna called to me,  "I see that the dream still haunts you, but your will finally became too shaken to drive it away tonight."
I winced up as we got back to our usual seating positions.
"It's not that I was too shaken.  Rather, I finally had the will to let the dream play out to the end."
Luna started to open her wing like she always did, but closed it again and dipped her head in understanding.  "But not enough to take the shock?"
I nodded. "The shock that came with finally accepting what I did."
"..."  Luna said nothing, knowing I needed to say what she suspected for a while now.  She needed to let me say it in my own words.  Words that came from me.  Words I couldn't deny were the truth.
"I practically preached how I viewed life as sacred."
I shook and sobbed, finally letting it all out instead of trying to use logic to force it inside to be chewed over.  The logic side of my brain had finally run out of appeals and there were no alternatives.  I now knew, with no doubt whatsoever, why I hated myself:
"And I defiled it, knowing what I was doing was wrong.  I took the easy way out."
I turned to Princess Luna, briefly glanced down at her wing and back up to her face with a quiver to my lip.
With a bittersweet smile, she opened it again, allowing me to finally come in for a hug.
She stroked my back and rocked me back and forth as I sobbed.  "And so the monster has come to terms with its guilt," she softly whispered, "Now the wound can finally start healing."


I sobbed and nodded.   At some point I began to speak again, but I was quickly interrupted.
"I lost my way.  It all started on the day that the Fey-"
"We can start reliving trials that brought the real torment tomorrow, Moss.   For now, just cry."



To be continued in Meta Gamer in Equestria:  The Blight of Bane.