Chapter 1: Awakening

Part I:

Equestria Lost

Chapter 1 – Awakening

My eyes forcefully opened, raspy lungs gasping for breath. My body was utterly broken, every inch of my being crying out in pure agony. Blood crept out of the cracks in my hard, black skin, only to be washed away from the pouring rain. Thunder boomed and crackled from above, sending ricocheting waves of pain throughout my skull.

I couldn't see exactly what it was, but I knew that something was carrying me; I could hear and feel the rhythmic clip-clop of every step it took as it walked. Looking up from its back, I saw a blurred purple figure trailing me and my carrier, emotions of disdain and fear emanating from it. I tried calling out to the figure, but all that came out was pained, incomprehensible groaning.

Without warning, my carrier suddenly stopped. I felt a force lift me up and place me on the ground, my face impressed into the mud. Two different voices were talking, but I couldn't make heads or tails of what they were saying, only able to catch small, detached bits and pieces such as "it's awake," "hurry up," and "sleep.”

Right after ‘sleep’, I found my pain gradually being replaced with a numbness. Starting at my lower body, it quickly traveled to my chest, went up through my neck, and finished at my head. I slowly grew more and more tired as an all-encompassing feeling of relaxation overtook my consciousness, and it wasn't too long before I eventually succumbed to the warm, comforting embrace of sleep.

My consciousness came back to me seemingly as soon as it left. The pain was, quite thankfully, gone, leaving my body slightly numb, though still weak.

I rubbed my eyes with both of my forelegs, smooth and cylindrical, both covered in bandages. I looked at my two lower legs, which were lying down on a pale-colored couch inside what looked like a living room. Both of my lower legs were riddled with Swiss-cheese-like holes near the ends which, curiously, weren’t bleeding at all.

Where am I? I thought.

I looked up and took a quick glance at my surroundings. The room itself was ordinary, with the usual furniture – some couches, a short-legged table, a lamp on a dresser, et cetera – standing on and around a worn-out carpet. A barren fireplace was inside the middle of a wall, the walls themselves covered with stripped, sickeningly yellow wallpaper. I leaned slightly out towards a small window, where I could hear the soft chirping of birds amongst the trees.

"Comfortable?"

I jumped, feeling something buzzing on my back as my eyes snapped towards the origin of the voice.

I couldn't help but be confused as a literal unicorn stood right across from my side. Its head had a round shape, with comically huge, purple eyes and a lavender coat for its body. The flat-shaped mane and tail were a darker shade of purple than its coat, a pink streak running down near the middle of both. I looked down at the unicorn’s hooves and noticed them being just as cylindrical as my own.

The most interesting feature of the unicorn, however, was the strange tattoo on its flank: a picture of a big purple star, with a couple of smaller white stars surrounding it, like it was sparkling.

The unicorn spoke again: "Well, I hope you are, because me and Crystal are going well above and beyond trying to help you out of all things." Her eyebrows furrowed in disdain.

Disdain.

My mind's eye flashed back to the night before. That purple figure that was behind me. Was it the unicorn? Who was carrying me through the storm, then? Was it this ‘Crystal’ she mentioned?

The unicorn scoffed. "You really should feel lucky, you know. If you told me even a week ago that I would be helping a changeling..." She trailed off. "Well, Crystal should be back soon. She went outside earlier to get some food. I would have gone with her, but even with all of the spells and enchantments I put in this room, somepony still needs to be watching you."

Spells? Enchantments? What?

"Hello!" said a chipper, female voice, accompanying the sound of a door being swung open. "I'm back, Twilight!"

"Oh, she’s back already?" the unicorn, ‘Twilight’, muttered.

That must be Crystal, I reasoned. I wanted to get a look at her, but the couch was, unfortunately, not facing the door. And I absolutely did not feel like sitting up, especially with my current condition.

Twilight looked visibly disappointed. "Just leaves and grass? Really?"

"I'm sorry, Twilight. It was all I could find, I swear," Crystal pleaded, her chipper tone fading away.

"Oh please," Twilight said, "you’ve got to be kidding me. Anypony can read a simple book on the subject and easily learn how to find actual food in the forest, not just boring leaves. In fact, I already did.”

Crystal didn’t respond, simply sighing. She walked over to me, making a familiar clip-clop noise. To my surprise, the first thing that I saw wasn't her, but a sparkling pile of green grass and leaves, floating in mid-air and surrounded by a blue aura. When she did step into my view, her horn was glowing in the exact same color.

Another unicorn?

She looked much like the other one. Her deep blue eyes were huge, just like Twilight's. Her coat sported a light blue color with a light green mane and tail. Unlike Twilight's, neither were as flatly shaped, looking more natural. A white bang on her mane went over her left ear and covered part of her face, while the tail had a similarly colored streak that ran all the way to the end.

Curious, I glanced at her flank. Another tattoo. This time, it was a simple image of three flying white doves.

"Hello," she greeted, noticing my presence. "I didn't know you were awake. I have some food for you. It's nothing special, but it should do!" A portion of the green pile separated itself from the rest, placing itself down on the table right across from the couch.

I stared at the food. I wasn't certain if I remembered, but I didn't think I ever had raw grass or leaves in my life. I looked to Crystal, unsure.

She seemed confused for a moment before her eyes filled with realization. "Oh, right." Her horn glowed. Soon, I found myself being lifted up in a blue aura and gently placed near the table.

"There, now you can't fall while standing up and accidentally rip the bandages. We don't want those off just yet," she chuckled.

As much as I didn't want it, I was now that much closer to the pile.

Crystal stared at me, smiling. When she realized that I wasn't even taking a bite, her expression started to fade, ears drooping. "Is there something wrong with the food?" She turned around. "Twilight?"

She shrugged. "Looks fine to me." Her voice turned lower, quieter. "More or less."

Crystal's horn glowed again, taking a single leaf off of the pile. "Here," she offered, levitating it right in front of me.

Well, wouldn't kill me to at least try it, right?

Hesitantly, I took a small bite. It tasted... surprisingly fine. Maybe a little bland, but its flavor was otherwise more or less what I expected.

"See? It's not so bad," she cheered.

I ate the rest of the leaf. I then leaned over to the pile, having a bit of the grass. It was just like the leaf, but with a slightly more ‘earthly’ taste. Now feeling more confident, I continued to consume the rest of the pile, all until it was gone.

"Wow, you ate that quicker than I expected," Crystal said, surprised.

"Speaking of eating, we should probably have a little something to eat ourselves," noted Twilight.

Crystal paused, thinking. "Go ahead, Twilight. I'll join you later; I have to check how this one's recovery is coming along."

Twilight nodded, though not before rolling her eyes. The bigger pile of leaves and grass on the floor floated upwards in a purple aura, moving with Twilight into what I assumed was the dining room.

And so she was gone, leaving only Crystal and me.

She sighed. "Please excuse my friend's abrasiveness, she's been having a rough time recently." She put a hoof to her chin. "Well, actually, now that I think about it, we all have." A familiar aura surrounded her horn. "Don't move, I'm going to put you back on the couch." A blue aura enveloped my body again, lifted me up, and gently returned me to where I was.

She paused for a moment, gazing over me, thinking. "Do you have a name?" she asked.

I stared at the wallpaper, trying my hardest to remember. But my mind drew a blank. I looked back at her, shaking my head.

"You don't know?"

I nodded.

She sat down on her haunches. "Well, that's not really a surprise. There was a big thunderstorm last night, when we found you. Some lightning must have struck a tree while you were under it and gave you a concussion. We heard a scream, rushed over, and there you were. I don’t know if you remember that either."

She looked out the window for a while before turning back to me. "Normally, a tree as big as that one would have killed a pony, but, well, you aren't a pony. Your chitin exoskeleton helped to absorb most of the damage, but even then, you're still lucky to be both alive and recovering as fast as you are."

I stayed silent, not sure what to say. It was a lot to take in at once, after all.

"You don't... talk much, do you?"

I cleared my throat. "I didn't think there was much to say." I gestured over to the room Twilight was in. "And, well, there's also her..."

"Don’t mind Twilight. She’s actually more caring than you think, and also a very good friend. She just doesn’t have good history with, well-”

"Changelings?” I said, finishing her own sentence. “Why would she hate me because I’m a changeling? I don't even remember what a changeling is!”

Crystal looked down sympathetically. "I’ll tell you soon, I promise. But we don’t have much time right now; you need to go to bed as soon as you can, right after your checkup.”

I looked out the window. The sun was already nearly behind the trees. I took a deep breath, resting my head back on the pillow.

“Just lie still and relax," Crystal assured. "It won’t take too long.”

She stood up and leaned her head towards me, horn already glowing. In an instant, I could feel different parts of my body being poked and prodded at once, even though nothing physical was there. It wasn’t painful, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable either. Though the whole procedure probably only took a few minutes, it nevertheless felt like ages until it finally stopped.

"Everything looks swell," Crystal stated happily. "It looks like you'll be ready to have the bandages taken off tomorrow.” She placed a hoof on me, giving me a gentle smile. I flinched slightly. “Sleep well, okay? Your body needs all the rest it can get."

Crystal stood up and then abruptly stopped, her expression fading. "Uh... Twilight?"

The unicorn in question took a deep breath. "Crystal, you are a very talented and fine doctor, and I hold a great deal of respect for you. But, sweet Celestia, that is not a foal!"

Crystal rubbed one of her temples with a hoof. "He's frightened, Twilight. I'm just giving him some comfort, there's nothing wrong with that."

"Oh, frightened? You don't think I might be a little frightened that there's a changeling sitting right there?"

"Even if he could move, the spells you set up wouldn't let him do anything!"

"And what's more," she continued, ignoring her, "now you're also talking to it! Did you forget? Because that's how they get into your head, Crystal."

"You have every right to complain, Twilight, but if you’re going to, can you at least not do it in front of him?"

Twilight laughed. "Sure, we can talk all about it at dinner," she said in a sing-song voice.

Crystal and Twilight walked back into the dining room, shutting the door behind them. Not long after, I heard them start to argue, although it mostly seemed like it was Twilight doing most of the arguing part.

I buried myself into the couch, putting a pillow over my ear in order to block out the sound, but to no avail. I could still hear them even as I fell asleep.

Chapter 2: Departure

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Chapter 2 – Departure

A soft, yet firm object hit me hard in the face, making my heart skip a beat. My eyes fluttered as I regained awareness of the world, Crystal standing some ways off to my side.

"I said wake him up, Twilight,” Crystal scolded, “not throw a pillow at him!" She glared at Twilight, who stood right across from the table near my couch. The pillow in question was picked up from the floor in a purple aura and set back near my lower legs.

"Well, if you ask me, I think I did a fine job of doing both," Twilight retorted. "Just be grateful that I didn't throw a rock."

Crystal held her glare for a couple more seconds before facing over to me, her expression softening. "Did you sleep alright?"

With sleep still clouding my mind, it took me a moment or two before I realized she was asking me a question. I nodded.

She gave me a soft smile, turning away and walking into the kitchen. Not too much later, she returned, carrying back a plate full of some kind of fruit as well as a glass of water.

"Some breakfast for you," Crystal said, setting the items down on the short-legged table. "Twilight went out earlier this morning and picked these berries; they're really delicious." She looked at me. "Oh, sorry. Did you need help getting up?"

I lightly shook my head.

"Oh, no, don't worry. I'll help you," she said, horn already glowing. Without any further warning, I was lifted up in the air. As my body reached the floor, a sore pain I barely noticed earlier shot up from my forelegs and through my spine. A curse slipped from my lips, my body collapsing down onto the ground.

"Oh, dear Celestia, are you okay?!" Crystal asked.

I moaned painfully, nuzzling my forelegs together. However, the nuzzling only made it hurt again, so I stopped.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Cry about it.”

"I’m so sorry,” Crystal said apologetically, “I should have given you a pain dampener spell as soon as you woke up." Her horn glowed again, a blue aura covering my body. "Here," she said, "now you should feel better." A faint, familiar numbness crawled over my body once more. "It won't get rid of the pain entirely, however," Crystal added.

"I couldn't feel any pain yesterday, though," I quietly noted.

"That was a different spell," Crystal explained. "While it completely gets rid of all pain, it also weakens the body, and you need to be walking soon."

I nodded in understanding, remembering how weak I felt yesterday. I stood up, the painful soreness reduced to something more tolerable, even if not completely ignorable.

I glanced around, thinking for a second, wondering what it was that I was doing.

Right. Breakfast.

I leaned over to the plate and scooped up a couple berries with my mouth. As my teeth cut into the fruit, sweet, succulent juices exploded outwards. I savored the flavor, which, compared to the leaves from yesterday, were a significant improvement. Eagerly, I leaned over and started devouring the fruit, sparing it no mercy, stuffing as much of it as I could into my mouth at once.

Crystal giggled at my eating habits, a smirk on the corners of her mouth.

Twilight, in contrast, turned her head away in disgust. "Celestia, you eat like an animal." She grabbed a book out of what seemed to be saddlebags laying on the ground and moved to a distant corner of the room, hopping up onto a chair. I paid no mind, being too engrossed with my meal to care too much about either of their reactions.

It wasn't too long before all of the berries were completely gone. Feeling the need to wash it down with some water, I instinctively reached out for the glass with my foreleg. My hoof bumped the glass, making it rattle on the table’s surface.

As if on cue, Crystal picked the glass up with her aura and floated it over to my face.

I hesitated. "I'm fine," I said, gently pushing it away.

Her helpful expression faltered, replaced by a frown. She set the glass back on the table

I paused for a moment, glaring at the water, wondering how I was to drink it. An idea readily popped into my head. I hovered my mouth over to the cup, grabbing the rim with my jaw. Supporting the glass with a hoof, I tilted my head upwards, the cool water flowing from the glass down into my throat. Soon, after a couple breaks in between to catch my breath, the glass was empty.

Crystal shook her head, taking both the plate and the glass back to the kitchen. While I waited for her to come back, I looked at the book Twilight was reading. It had a plain, minimalist style, with a flat purple color covering it front to back. I squinted, reading the book's title: Defensive and Offensive Magic: An Advanced Guide, by Nebula Blaze.

I decided to look away from Twilight before she asked what I was staring at her for, instead drawing my attention over to the window.

I could tell that it was a bright and sunny day, even though I couldn't see the sun. Cirrus clouds floated high in the sky above the forest. The forest itself was dense, separated from the house by a small clearing that couldn't have been more than fifteen meters in length. As I looked into the forest, I noticed a deer. Its body was facing towards me, nose buried into the ground. When it looked up, the deer’s gaze aptly caught mine and froze. I found myself entering into a sort of staring contest with the deer, neither one of us willing to give up. It couldn't have lasted any more than half a minute.

Suddenly, the deer jerked its head around, looking directly behind it, as if it heard something. Then, it quickly ran away, gracefully prancing off to its left.

I looked deep within the trees, trying to figure out what had scared the deer off. Amongst the dense foliage that populated the forest, I saw a dark red figure sprinting towards the house. As it drew closer, I noted that it was an equine, just like Crystal and Twilight, except it wasn't a unicorn, lacking a horn. Instead, it was a pegasus. A pegasus with a brown mane and tail, its face, muzzle straighter than the two unicorns, filled to the brim with fear.

Crystal returned from the kitchen. "Well, I think it's about time to take his bandages off." She glanced over into the direction of where my eyes were pointing at. "What are you looking-" She gasped, seeing the figure for only a split second as it quickly slipped away to the left behind the frame of the window.

"What?" Twilight said, peering from behind her book.

"Outside, there's somepony outside!" Crystal sirened.

The doorknob shook violently, loud knocks sounding from outside the front door. "Hello?" called a muffled, male voice, "is anypony in here? Open the door, quickly!"

Twilight wasted no time. She dropped the book she was reading down on the floor, quickly trotting over to me and lifting me up in the air with her aura, my pulse quickening.

"That voice sounds familiar," Crystal murmured.

The doorknob rattled some more. "Hello? Anypony, can you hear me?!"

Twilight opened a small door on a wall, revealing a tiny, cramped closet. Twilight shoved me inside the claustrophobic space, the back of my head bumping against the wall. "Don't come out of here until I give the all-clear. Understand?"

More pounding on the front door. "Please! Somepony, anypony! Open the door!"

I looked back at Twilight, meekly nodding. Twilight shut the closet door, leaving me in darkness. I heard the sound of hoofsteps making its way away from me and over to the front door. I placed an ear over the door crack, listening.

"Who is it? What do you want?" said Twilight's slightly muffled voice.

"Twilight? Oh thank Celestia!" said the other, now even more muffled voice. "It's Pathfinder! You have to open the door, quickly!" A short pause. "Oh, no, too late, they're already here!" The door was pounded on even harder than before, loud enough for even me to hear it clear as day from inside the closet. "HELP! OPEN IT, OPEN IT!"

I heard a faint, energetic booming sound outside the house, followed by the front door quickly being opened and slammed shut.

"Well?" Twilight yelled. "What are you doing?! Find cover!"

Another energetic boom, glass shattering, noises of chittering and the buzzing wings of an insect gracing my ears. Several different voices shouted and cried out in pain as several more louder booms sounded through the door. I looked through the cracks, trying to discern what was going on, but I could barely make out the fast-moving black figures moving among bright flashes of green and purple light.

Eventually, the noise died down. The house remained silent for what felt like an eternity until a soft clip-clop made its way towards the closet door. My heart was working overtime. I leaned as far back as I could into the wall, bracing myself for the worst.

A knocking sound. "All clear," Twilight's voice rang. I let go of the breath I was holding in, relieved.

I searched for the doorknob in the dark with my hooves. When I found it, I fiddled around, its inconveniently rounded shape making the task of opening the door that much harder. Eventually, by some miracle, I somehow managed to get enough of a grip, pushing it open.

The room was a complete and total mess. Black bodies littered the floor, caked in fresh, red blood. I counted six in total. Most of the furniture in the room were knocked over. A vase with wilting flowers that was on a small table to the left of the couch now laid broken on the floor, joining the nearby glass shards. Twilight, who assumed a fighting stance, stood in front of me. Her horn softly glowed, scanning the surrounding room. Suddenly, her eyes caught something, horn turning as bright as the sun as her head quickly moved to my left.

Boom. A brilliant beam of energy escaped from her forehead.

I whipped my head around. A black figure flew straight through a broken window and landed right in front of me, me nearly falling over backwards into the closet in shock. After taking a moment to catch my bearings, I slowly put one hoof in front of the other, walking towards the body, the bandages stiffening my movements.

When I reached the figure, the first thing I noticed was the gaping hole in its abdomen, red hot blood flowing out from it. The second thing I noticed was its soulless eyes: huge, light blue orbs with white dots as pupils, which appeared to glow very subtly. The third were its two fangs, which protruded out of the corners of its upper lip.

The fourth thing, however, was the most alarming. The creature's hooves had holes in them, just like mine.

Dear God, it's a changeling, I thought.

I looked back at the changeling's face, its blue eyes looking just as surprised to see me as I was to see them. Taking a deep, pained breath, it dropped its head onto the ground, eyes closing as the translucent blue wings on its back softly buzzed.

And then, within the next few moments, it stopped breathing altogether.

Twilight turned away from the dead changeling, calling out towards the kitchen. "You can both come out now: they're all dead."

Crystal was the first to come out. The dark red pegasus I saw earlier, whom I assumed was Pathfinder, followed suit. Right upon seeing me, he pointed a shaky hoof at me in a panic. "Watch out, Twilight! There's another one behind you!"

Twilight's eyes furrowed, staring at him.

Pathfinder looked right back at her. "What are you waiting for? It's right there! Blast the damn thin-"

He was interrupted by a sudden flash of light from Twilight's horn. Pathfinder recoiled backwards, his body falling to the floor as green licks of flame completely engulfed him. The fire was short-lived, leaving a changeling in its place, its head missing.

What in the hell?

“Missed one,” Twilight muttered.

Crystal was wide-eyed, repeatedly looking from the dead changeling to Twilight. "How... did you know?"

Twilight gave her a look, as if the answer was obvious. "Are you serious?! The cutie mark on his flank was missing!" Crystal looked back at the changeling, scratching her head. “That,” she added, “and he barely sounded like Pathfinder."

Cutie mark? I thought back a few moments ago, realizing that Pathfinder had no tattoo on his flank, unlike Crystal and Twilight. Hmm, cutie mark... that’s a peculiar name for a tattoo.

Twilight trotted over to her saddlebags on the ground, picking up the book she dropped earlier. "Alright, listen up: we can't stay here any longer, more of them will be on their way soon." She slipped the book inside, looking at Crystal. "Pack your saddlebags, we get out of here. Now." Seeing Crystal diligently nod and walk away, Twilight went over to me.

She paused, glancing over me, thinking for a second. Then, she looked down, finding a misplaced, well-sized golden ring on the floor next to various other fallen pieces of jewelry.

"This will do," Twilight said, the ring flying upwards and over to her in a purple aura. She closed her eyes, pouring all of her focus onto it. The ring shimmered many times before she opened her eyes back up and floated it over to my forehead, slipping it onto something.

I felt my forehead with a hoof, the ring tightly fitting onto something rather long and sleek. I looked at a nearby changeling's dead body, noting a curved, sharp horn situated on the top of its head.

Twilight slapped my hoof down with her own. "Don't even think about trying to take it off. It won't work." I was about to ask what the ring was for in the first place, but I decided to hold my tongue, figuring that that was probably the right decision.

Crystal soon returned, carrying saddlebags of her own. Twilight faced the front door, her horn glowing as the entire room shimmered lavender in a similar fashion to the ring. "That ought to get rid of the targeted barrier spell," she said to nobody in particular.

"What's the plan, Twilight?" Crystal asked, standing behind her.

Twilight turned her head around. "Same as before; nothing changes." Her horn stopped glowing as she walked forwards and pushed the front door open with her hoof. She poked her head outside, looking left to right and up to the sky. "Looks like it might rain again some time later," she stated as her head returned indoors. "Other than that, nothing special. Let's get a move on." With that, she stepped outside.

Crystal stayed behind, motioning me over to follow.

I hastily tried to keep up, nearly tripping over myself as Crystal told me to take it slow multiple times. When I stepped outside the door, I could feel the sun's warmth on my face. I looked up to the sky, dark clouds far off in the distance left of my view, moving along with the wind to the right.

Crystal kept by my side, walking with me on the dirt pathway that lead to the forest, Twilight waiting on its edge." That bucking changeling is only going to slow us down, I swear," she muttered under her breath as we drew close, turning back around.

And so the three of us carried on, Twilight leading the way.

Chapter 3: The Pegasus

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Chapter 3 – The Pegasus

It was around noon, the sun high in the sky. A short walk straight ahead led us to a river, the journey only made longer from my slow walking pace. Across the river – the water flowing to the right – mountains stood tall along the horizon, snow topping their peaks.

“Alright,” said Twilight, sliding the saddlebags off of her back, “let’s take a quick rest over here.” She placed her saddlebags down near the bark of a large tree and walked over to the river bank. Then, she lowered her muzzle down and drank the crystal clear water, also taking the opportunity to wash the small amount of changeling blood still staining her hooves.

Crystal, setting down her own saddlebags as well, walked over to me. “We should probably take off the bandages now,” she stated, pointing a hoof at the ground below me. “Go ahead and lie down, if you’re ready.”

I obliged, easing myself down. The grass, as soft as it might’ve been, was yet hard to feel through both my chitin and the numbness that still covered my body

Crystal inspected me carefully. “Just one quick check before we start.” As her horn glowed, I felt a familiar poking and prodding make its way across my form. Thankfully, it didn’t take long, as she only checked what I guessed to be the most important parts.

“Looks good,” she said. “I’m going to start removing the bandages now. If anything hurts, just let me know, okay?” Seeing me nod, she got right to work, her aura gently unraveling the first bandage off of my left foreleg. As it came off, I noticed that, quite unsurprisingly, there were holes in it as well.

“Why are there holes in my legs?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Crystal remarked, “nopony knows that much about changelings; they’re all relatively new to ponykind.” With the first bandage fully unraveled, she tossed it aside and moved to the other foreleg. “Every changeling I’ve seen has those very same holes, though, so I think it’s just natural.”

“I figured. I thought they were just another one of my injuries at first, but then I saw the other changelings back there and...” I watched Crystal take a bandage off of my right foreleg, tossing it over with the other. “Why were they attacking us, anyway?”

She moved her horn down to the lower part of my body, starting to remove the few bandages there as well. “If I were to guess, they were looking for Twilight. She’s pretty important to them.” She made an upwards motion with her hoof. “Would you kindly sit up? It’s hard to take the bandages off when they’re being squished under your back.”

“Oh, sure,” I said, slowly sitting up.

“Thanks,” she said, continuing to work. “I’m sorry, by the way. About what happened back there to your fellow changelings.” She looked down. “It must’ve been horrifying.”

I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.” She glanced up, staring at me strangely for a moment. “...What?”

“Nothing,” Crystal said. With my lower body finished, she moved on to my upper body. I felt a pressure on my back that I hadn’t noticed before release as the bandages came off.

My wings, I thought. I remembered the dying changeling from before, how the wings buzzed as it slowly bled to death. I also remembered Pathfinder, bursting into green flames as he was shot, somehow transforming into a changeling.

“Crystal?”

“Yes?” Her ears perked up.

“That pegasus back there, Pathfinder. What happened to him?” I asked.

They folded back somewhat. “He wasn’t Pathfinder. The Pegasus you saw was a changeling disguised as Pathfinder.” She tossed more bandages aside.

I raised an eyebrow. “In disguise? How?”

Crystal smirked. “You ask a lot of questions, you know?”

I glanced off to the side. “Oh, sorry.”

"Oh, no, no, it's fine. I don't mind it." Crystal stopped working for a while to speak. “Changelings can disguise themselves as anypony you can imagine, and they’re so good at it that you can’t tell the difference between a disguised changeling and a real pony.”

My eyes furrowed, puzzled. “How?”

“I couldn’t hope to know; I’m... not really a changeling.” She resumed, moving up to my forehead. The bandages there were sparse, being removed in under a minute. “And we’re done!” she said proudly. “It’s a wonder your horn’s okay. If that tree came any closer, you’d probably have more than a broken memory.”

I reached up and felt my horn, the ring still tightly fitting on there. “What does it do?”

“The ring?”

“No, the horn.”

She giggled, making Twilight shoot her a rather disapproving look over from the river. “Magic, silly.”

I looked over my body, muttering the word ‘magic’ as I observed the various faint white scars shaped like cracks that covered my body. “I thought magic was nothing but a fantasy.”

She giggled again. “I hope that tree didn’t hit you too hard.”

“Honestly, I thought the same about unicorns and pegasai as well. I guess I’m just confused right now on what’s real or not.”

“Well, I promise you that I am definitely real,” she assured. “And don’t worry. Like I said, you should get better over time.”

“I don’t know, maybe that tree really did hit me too hard.” I stood up on my hooves, looking over to the river.

Twilight still stood there, looking cautiously around her as she splashed the water around with a hoof. She turned around. “Are you done yet?” she called out.

Crystal picked up her saddlebags, walking over to Twilight. “We just finished, Twilight.” She looked up at the sky. “Did you see Pathfinder anywhere?”

“Obviously not,” she scowled, “or I would’ve already told you.” She brushed past Crystal, floating her saddlebags from afar onto her back. “Let’s get going. Hopefully, he didn’t already take off on us by himself.”

Crystal and I followed, the three of us walking in a single file line, following the river upstream. I noticed how significantly better it felt to walk then with the bandages gone, although – for reasons that I couldn’t explain – it still felt just the slightest bit awkward.

“Stay under the cover of the trees,” Twilight advised. “There could still be changelings flying around in the sky.”

“What are we doing?” I asked Crystal.

She turned around. “We’re looking for Pathfinder, the real Pathfinder. We got separated from him a while ago.”

“Will we find him?”

“I hope so.” She briefly stood still and pointed ahead, making me pause as well. “He was told to wait over near the east side of these woods; we’re headed there now.”

I nodded, looking over to my left as we resumed walking. The river nearby had gigantic rocks in the middle, the current flowing around them. A couple fish jumped up from under the water and into the air repeatedly, making their way downstream. I closed my eyes, listening to the soothing white noise of the rushing water.

Actually seems rather peaceful, oddly enough, I thought. Considering the circumstances and all.

Fate, as it turned out, seemed to agree, as a loud cry suddenly erupted from behind me.

“AAAAAAAAAGH!”

I was about to turn around to find out what was going on when I was unexpectedly tackled to the ground by a dark red blur, hooves punching me across the face in an alternating manner, left to right. If it weren't for Crystal's spell, it would’ve probably hurt a lot more than it did.

I imagined Crystal and Twilight’s heads swiveling around at the commotion. "Pathfinder, no! Stop!" Crystal yelped, pushing him off of me.

"’Ave you lost your bucking marbles?!" he yelled, "I'm helpin’; that bloody changeling was about to kill you!" His voice sounded exactly like the disguised changeling's did, except he had a more pronounced accent. Even though it hurt to think through my pounding head, I scoured my mind, trying to identify it.

Almost sounds... British? What’s a ‘British’?

“Pathfinder,” Crystal panted, “the changeling’s with us.”

“...What?!”

“It’s a long story,” said Twilight.

Crystal quickly lowered herself down to me, helping me up off the ground with her horn. My head still pounded. I looked at Pathfinder, who was identical to the disguised changeling, save for the tattoo – or, 'cutie mark' – of some sort of map on his flank.

“Are you alright?” Crystal asked me.

I rubbed my head, groaning.

Her horn glowed. "A mild concussion. Doesn't seem too serious; I don't think there's any permanent damage." She looked up. "You could’ve seriously hurt him!"

Pathfinder sputtered. “Well, that was the plan, you gormless bucks! What did you expect me to do, let a changeling stalk you?" He pointed at my forehead, probably noticing the ring on my horn. "I didn't know you took one for a prisoner all of a sudden! I hope this 'long story' of yours is a damn good one, because you both got some explainin’ to do!"

Crystal was about to speak, but Twilight stuck a hoof over her muzzle, silencing her. "I'll handle it," she said, turning to Pathfinder. “We found our prisoner“ – she smirked at the word – “three days ago, dying under a tree that had fallen on it during the storm that was occurring at the same time.”

"Yeah, and?" Pathfinder pressed on.

“And as it would turn out, it was still alive. So, we decided we could get some use out of it. If there’s anypony-” She corrected herself. “...Any creature that knows anything about the changelings, it would be a changeling, no?”

Pathfinder threw his head against the bark of a nearby tree – or, he at least looked like he was about to. “Let me get this sorted: You saved a changeling, a bloody changeling, because you think it might know something?” He huffed, grinning maniacally. “Oh, bloody brilliant! How could this possibly go wrong? Barrels of fun, it’ll be, when it runs off to its cronies and tells ‘em exactly where we are!”

Twilight didn’t falter, walking over to me. She tapped the ring on my horn with a hoof. "This ring right here has a tracking enchantment. The changeling can't go anywhere without me knowing." She looked back at Pathfinder. "If it ever does run away, it won't get twenty feet before I blast it to smithereens."

“Oh sure,” he scoffed, “sounds good and all. But I’m telling you this right now: once you get whatever information it is you’re looking for, you better get rid of the changeling, quickly. Or it will happen, love. Mark my words.” Pathfinder gave me a look of disdain, one similar to Twilight’s.

"I just explained exactly why it won't happen," Twilight grumbled.

Crystal cleared her throat. "Say, Pathfinder, why are you out here anyways? This is a bit far from where you're supposed to be."

He managed to snatch his gaze away from me and to Crystal. “Well, I was plannin’ to stay where I was, but then I saw myself with a bunch of changelings walking over towards here,” he chattered. “Didn’t think much of it at first, other than, you know, the fact one of them looked like me, but then, I just got this feelin’, you know? Like I was going to find you lot if I followed them.” He scratched his head. “Probably shouldn’t have realized that thirty minutes after the fact, though.”

"Were those the only changelings you saw?" Twilight inquired.

"Uh, yeah, as far as I know. Haven't really seen too many of them around; guess they're all too busy invadin’ whole cities to be frolicking about White Tail Woods."

Twilight paced around, thinking. "Alright, so that means the group from before were the only changelings – well, other than that one," she gestured towards me, "– around.”

Pathfinder raised an eyebrow. "You ran into them?”

“Well, they more so ran into us, but yes,” Twilight confirmed. “They must have spotted me earlier while I was out getting breakfast. Probably looking for one of their own.” She glared at me with the last sentence, making me cringe internally. She broke away. “Whatever the case, they’re all dead now, so they won’t be a problem anymore.”

Pathfinder gawked. “Wait, you killed them? All of them?”

“Uh, yeah. I’m sure that’s essentially what I said.”

“Bloody hell,” he mouthed. “Sure is a bad day to be a changeling with you around.” Out of the corner my eye. I saw Crystal biting her lip, looking at me concerningly.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Probably is, but enough about that. We should figure out where to go next right now, since we’re all back together.” She reached into her saddlebags, floating out a map. She unrolled it, kicking a twig aside with her hoof before laying the map flat on the ground.

Pathfinder thought. “How about that house you lot were stayin’ in?”

"No," Twilight said, "sooner or later, the dead changelings' friends will notice they're missing. And that's the first place they'll go." She inspected the map closely. "We need to go somewhere else. Somewhere out of sight."

He reeled back. “Well, there aren’t really any places to go to then, aren’t there?”

She said nothing.

“I mean, Canterlot’s gone, Ponyville just got bucked in the arse, and they sure as Tartarus won’t be the last ones to go. It’s all lost!”

Twilight still didn't respond, staring at the map, her eyes darting left to right, scanning it.

He waved a hoof dismissively. “But no matter. You’re the brilliant Twilight Sparkle, right? You always got a plan, you’ll figure something out.”

Twilight sunk, shaking her head lightly. "I don't know," she muttered.

"Oh, rubbish! Come on, you gotta have somethin’!"

"I DON’T KNOW!" she snapped. Everybody stopped, looking at her.

"I don't know," she repeated.

“I don’t get it,” Pathfinder whispered to Crystal, “was it something I said?”

Crystal gave him a look, walking over to Twilight and placing a sympathetic hoof on her. “Are you okay, Twilight?”

Twilight’s ears drooped, immediately shaking it off. "Stop it," she spat, tensing. Crystal stepped aside, taken aback. Twilight sunk down again, looking at the floor with tired eyes.

It was raining. The sky was dark and gray, sun hidden behind the clouds. The mud felt noticeably soft and wet beneath my hooves, even through the numbness.

"Here it is." Pathfinder flew up towards the mouth of a cave, carved into the cliff face above. "Might be a bit of a climb," he shouted through the rain from above, "but I think it's doable enough. Watch your step!”

Earlier, Twilight had decided that the only thing we could do is hide away somewhere in the forest until she came up with a better plan. As it turned out, Pathfinder had, as he put it, “the perfect hiding spot.”

“There’s a cave near White Tail Hills that I’ve been staying in for the past couple days,” he had said. “We could go there.”

We embarked towards our destination shortly after, with Pathfinder leading the way alongside Twilight. Pathfinder turned out to be rather jumpy, always hearing a stick snapping from behind, or some rustling in the bushes, only for it turning out to be nothing but a harmless animal minding its own business, or even purely his own imagination.

"Well, I'll tell you this: that sparrow was definitely giving me a funny look," he said on one particular occasion.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Or, you’re just being paranoid.”

“Yeah, you’re one to talk,” he mumbled.

Crystal paid no attention. She had a habit, I noticed, of drifting away from the outside world. For the most part, she kept to herself throughout much of the trip. Sometimes, however, she snuck the occasional glance at me. Stared, as if she were trying to figure something out. And then, as I turned towards her, quickly looked away. I would've been concerned, but Pathfinder had been doing the exact same thing at least twice as much, so I tried to ignore it.

“So, what is it with you, anyway?”

I blinked. Who said that? Are they talking to me?

“Come on now, wake up, yea? I’m talking to you here,” Pathfinder said, his head already turned around, looking right at me.

“Me?” I asked.

“Yeah, you! Ever since I saw ya, you’ve only said like three words. What’s your story?”

“I don’t remember, quite honestly,” I responded.

“What do you bloody mean you ‘don’t remember’?”

Crystal spoke up, "He has amnesia."

He paused. "Really? Did it tell you that? You gonna go ahead and take the changeling’s word for it now, huh?”

“I examined him myself. I don’t need to take his word for it,” she quipped.

Pathfinder scoffed. “Oh, that’s right. You’re the doctor here, aren’t you?”

It started raining shortly after that, mere minutes before we reached White Tail Hills.

“You comin’ or what?” Pathfinder shouted, snapping me out of my thoughts. My head jerked upwards towards him. Twilight and Crystal had already made it up there, standing by his side.

I surveyed the path to the cave, a small, sloped ledge on the cliff face that started at the ground and led upwards. The entrance to the cave itself was far up, about two stories above the ground. The ledge leading to it wasn't too steep, although it was rather narrow near the bottom.

“Well? Come on, then! Fly up here!” he said.

“It can’t fly,” Twilight stated. “I put an anti-flight enchantment on the ring. It’ll just have to climb.”

I moved to the lower end of the ledge, placing my hooves on it one by one. I slowly shimmied alongside the cliff face, raindrops pelting my face as I made my way upwards. I did not dare look down, even though I didn’t think I was particularly scared of heights. It took some time to reach the top, but the ledge thankfully did grow wider up there, allowing me to move faster as I went on.

Pathfinder groaned as I arrived. “Could you move any slower?” He walked through the cave entrance, which was only a little bigger than myself.

There was a bright purplish-blue light coming from inside the cave. As I turned right to walk in, I quickly found out that they were actually two different lights coming from the tips of Twilight and Crystal’s horns – one purple, one blue. The unicorns were standing by a wall, where they had set down their saddlebags.

“Well, it isn’t exactly prime real estate, but here we are,” Pathfinder said, feeling his hooves against a large natural rock formation on one side of the cave. "You know, I've always wondered what these rock icicles were for."

"You mean stalactites and stalagmites?" Twilight said nonchalantly.

He turned around, befuddled. "What?"

"Stalactites and stalagmites," she repeated. "The former forms from the cave's ceiling and the latter forms on the ground."

"Well, what's the bloody difference? They look like icicles, they're made out of rock; they're rock icicles!"

She pushed her hoof into her face, groaning. "I just told you the difference- oh forget it.” She floated a green book, A Guide to Living in the Wilderness, by River Creek, as it was titled, out of her saddlebags, sitting down against the wall. I noted that the book wasn’t drenched at all, despite the rain.

Ah. The saddlebags are waterproof, aren’t they?

Pathfinder scoffed. “Of bloody course you’d be readin’ right now.”

Twilight peered at him from behind the covers. “The information contained within this book could save our lives, you know,” she chided.

Crystal reached into her saddlebags, levitating out a pen and looking up at Twilight. “But, Twilight, you already read every last book in your saddlebags, front to back. You told me yourself two days ago.”

“Always helps to refresh,” Twilight replied. “And it’s not like there’s much else left to do, anyway.”

“Well, I guess so, but...“

“But what?”

Crystal looked down in defeat. “Nevermind.” She pulled out a small brown book, also dry, with a tiny lock on it. She fiddled with the three dials of the lock with her magic, putting in the combination. The lock clicked.

“What are you about to write in that now?” asked Pathfinder.

“Nothing,” she said. Crystal walked over to the corner furthest away from the entrance, sitting down.

“Yeah right, ‘nothing’. You write in there right about as much as Twilight reads!”

“I said it’s nothing,” Crystal grumbled, opening the book.

Pathfinder rolled his eyes. “Always so protective of the bloody thin’, too.” He lied down on the floor, staring up at the stalactites on the ceiling.

Crystal took a breath, flipping through the pages and then stopping, readying her pen. She frowned. Hesitated. And then closed the book, setting it down with the pen before staring off into space yet again. The rain continued to fall from outside, providing some background noise to fill in the odd silence that followed.

“You’re still standing there?” Pathfinder seethed. “Sit down, already!” His head was off the floor, looking right at me. My face went red hot as I walked over to the same wall Crystal and Twilight were on. Pathfinder lied back down, muttering, “Luna, you buckin’ creep me out.”

I sat somewhere against the middle of the wall, looking around at the cave. It was well-sized, with plenty of space. Maybe under half the area of a typical gymnasium. The ceiling, which lay home to dozens upon dozens of stalactites, was a few meters high. My eye caught Twilight staring at me menacingly from a few feet away, the purple light from her horn making me squint. It didn’t seem like she wanted me there.

I stood back up, scooting as far away from her as I could, which led me to Crystal.

Crystal took note of my presence, snapping out of the daze she was in. “Oh, hello there,” she greeted.

“Hi,” I said back, sitting down next to her.

“You doing alright?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I replied.

She paused, giving me the very same look she had given me countless times when we were traveling to White Tail Hills. She looked away, thoughtfully glancing at the stalactites up on the ceiling, which glistened from the blue light emanating from Crystal’s horn. "I'm sorry. About everything," she said.

I turned to face her, squinting from the light again. A sympathetic expression was on her face. “What do you mean?”

"Well, it must have been absolutely terrible for you these last few days. Waking up, not knowing who you are, where you are..."

I said nothing, looking away.

"...How do you do it?" she asked.

I looked back. "Do what?"

"You've spent the whole walk over here with this unusually calm look on your face, like nothing's bothering you. You’re even doing it right now. How?"

My mind froze. She was right, I realized. How was I being so calm about this? I didn’t know what was going on at all. I didn’t even know my own name. I should’ve been panicking right then and there...

...So why wasn’t I?

“Well...“ I started, without having a concrete answer. “I guess, well, you know. Why panic?"

"Why panic," she echoed, gandering back at the stalactites on the ceiling. She frowned again. “You make it sound so easy.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“I don’t know. Ever since the changelings showed up, everything’s been so... depressing.” She picked the brown book back up and locked it. Set it down again, thoughtfully glancing at it. “You know I’m a doctor, right?”

I nodded. “I might’ve guessed.”

“Do you know why I became one?”

“No. Why?”

She cleared her throat. “I wanted to help those that couldn’t help themselves, maybe even save their lives. I knew that’s what I wanted even before I got my cutie mark, help ponies like that in some way.”

“Cutie mark... you mean the doves on your flank?” I inquired.

“Yeah. They symbolize my desire to help others. I’ve always wanted that.” She frowned. “But... then Canterlot happened. And all I’ve ever seen since then are ponies and changelings dying all around me. And the fact that I can’t possibly ever hope to save all of them, it just...” A tear streaked down her cheek, her nose sniffling. I started feeling the slightest bit uncomfortable.

And then, suddenly, she brightened. “And then, I found you. The one pony that I could save.”

“But I’m not a pony,” I objected.

“Well, I don’t care what anypony else thinks. Besides, you’re more than that to me. You’re the only one that gives me hope.” She smiled. “Thank you.”

I shifted around, my face turning hot again. “You’re welcome, I guess.”

Crystal blushed herself. “Oh, sorry. I-I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

“Oh, no, it’s fine, don’t worry about it,” I assured.

“No, I really am sorry. I’ll just... stop talking right now,” she said, glancing back up at the ceiling sadly.

I looked at her for a moment before letting out a sigh, staring outside at the rain.

I was still awake, but everyone else was fast asleep, the cave pitch black. The only noises being the crickets in the forest and what I thought was Pathfinder’s snoring. There was no rain to be heard, having stopped soon after the night fell down upon us.

I lied on the floor, rubbing the back of my neck, feeling the webbed fins that ran up to the top of my head. I reached over to my rear and felt my tail, which was also webbed but felt a bit smoother.

I sighed. What am I doing? I rolled over on my side, closing my eyes. I waited a while, but I simply didn’t feel tired enough. So I opened my eyes back up again. The stars were out, but I could only catch a small patch of the night sky from inside the cave. With nothing else better to do, I gandered at them as I pondered the day’s events.

The whole world seemed to be in turmoil, that much was obvious, and it all seemed to be because of the changelings.

The changelings...

That’s what I was, right? So why didn’t I know anything about them? All I knew is that they can disguise themselves and that they seemed to be rather dangerous. Why were they after us, anyways? Crystal mentioned that Twilight was ‘important to them’. I could’ve seen that, considering she had killed eight of them, all without breaking a sweat. And since we were all following her wherever she went, we’re part of the problem, too. She was a threat. A major threat. And even then, I conspired that I was yet to see just how much of a threat she really was.

But where do I fit into all of this, exactly?

With my memory still gone, that was the only thing that I couldn’t have possibly hoped to have figured out.

It took some time before I was able to fall asleep.

Chapter 4: Appetence

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Chapter 4 – Appetence

A light feeling of hunger was the first thing I noticed upon awakening – the simple consequence of not having any dinner before falling asleep. I rubbed my eyes, staring at the ceiling. Something about my body felt off. I felt the cold, rocky ground with a hoof, finding that the numbness from Crystal’s spell was completely gone. Without the spell’s effects, I could now more properly feel the texture of the cave floor, though my chitin still dampened it somewhat. But that was probably a blessing, considering I was sleeping on solid ground.

I picked my head off of the floor, looking around. It was bright outside, but, aside from the blue light emanating from Crystal’s horn, the cave was rather dark. She was a few feet or so away from me, her brown book floating gently in front of her, dispersing the light back into her face. Crystal looked through her book thoughtfully, slowly turning the pages every few seconds or so.

Yawning and stretching, I slowly raised myself off the floor. The soreness gone, I could freely flex my muscles without feeling any kind of pain. If I really wanted to, I might’ve even been able to run without stressing them out too much.

Crystal quickly took notice that I stood up. “Oh, good morning,” she greeted, promptly setting her book down on the floor with the cover facing up. I looked around. Pathfinder and Twilight weren’t anywhere to be found, both perhaps hidden from the dark. “Twilight’s out getting breakfast; she’ll be back soon.”

Well, maybe only one of them, then. I looked over to her, squinting from her light. “What about Pathfinder?”

“He’s just taking a nap.” Her head faced a distant corner of the cave, faintly illuminating a red figure on the floor.

“A nap? But it’s morning,” I pointed out.

“Well... he likes his naps,” she stated. “Did you sleep well?”

I didn’t think I did, but gave an affirmative grunt anyways, running a hoof through the fins on my neck.

“Can you remember anything yet?” Crystal asked hopefully.

“No, not yet. Not even-” I stopped, looking down as the hunger suddenly spiked. “Woah,” I mouthed.

“What is it? Did you remember something?”

I shook my head. “No, no. I’m just a bit...” I clutched my abdomen with a hoof as the hunger stopped spiking, fading back to the level it was at originally.

Crystal offered a weak smile, levitating her book back up and opening it. “Don’t worry, I’m hungry too. We’ll just have to wait together, okay? It’ll be alright.”

We didn’t have to wait long, as it turned out. Twilight came back not maybe ten minutes later, hauling a sizable mass of oddly-shaped apples from behind with her magic. She levitated the mass to the center of the cavern and let go, causing a few to roll aside as the pile hit the ground.

After stopping for a moment to take a breath, her eye caught Crystal. “What the buck are you doing?!”

Crystal blinked, lowering her book. “What?”

“You’re supposed to be watching the changeling!”

“Bu- but I was watc-”

“No, you’re messing around with that little notebook of yours. What if it started attacking you while you were distracted? Celestia, I can’t believe you!”

Crystal hurtfully closed her book and put it back inside her saddlebags. Twilight rolled her eyes, lighting her horn up. The cave turned brighter in response. She then squinted at Pathfinder dozing off in the corner, floating up a loose apple near her hooves and tossing it.

The apple flew across the room and landed on its target with a light thud. "Ah! Ow!" One of Pathfinder's wings reached over to his forehead, nuzzling it. His eyes rolled over to the apple on the floor, not far from his head. "Who in Tartarus did that?!"

"Breakfast is here," Twilight said, barely regarding him. "Unless you prefer starving to death."

"What? Was simply tapping me on the head too hard for you, so you had to bloody start throwing apples?"

Twilight shrugged.

He muttered something under his breath, stretching his legs outwards and letting out a rather loud yawn before pulling himself off of the floor. "Ah, buck," he uttered, "my back. If it weren't for all this changeling bullshit, I'd be napping on a cloud 'nstead of this dump."

A cloud? You’d fall right through, I thought.

After bending and shifting around in an attempt to lessen the pain, Pathfinder walked over to the pile of apples on the ground, eyeing them. "Those are some dodgy-lookin' apples right there," he mused. He grabbed one and tossed it up with his foreleg. The apple went up into the air and landed back down onto his hoof, the fruit somehow not falling off with the little support it had.

"You know, it's funny," Pathfinder lamented. "I can't even remember the last time I've had an apple." He tossed the apple up again. "Oh yeah, I remember now. That'll be a whole year ago. Worst bloody bunch of apples I've had in my entire life; didn't even taste like anythin'.” He raised the apple to his mouth, saying, "Never bought a single thing from that tosser again. 'Fresh produce', my arse." He took a bite, but didn't even start chewing before spitting it right back out. "Blimey! What the blazing buck is this? This is even worse!"

"They're crab apples, Pathfinder," said Twilight. "What exactly did you expect?"

"Not this bloody rubbish, that's for sure!" He slowly took another bite, wincing as he chewed and swallowed. "Where in Equestria did you find these? I'd rather have leaves than this trash!"

"I merely picked the first thing I found. If you think you can do a better job, you're free to get your own food next time." Twilight picked up the chunk of apple Pathfinder spat out with her magic and moved it outside the cave, dropping it in front of the edge of the cliff. She then levitated two groups of crab apples off of the bigger pile, floating them over to Crystal and I before letting go. "Eat up," she commanded, "we've got a long day ahead of us."

We both ate. Pathfinder wasn't exaggerating at all; the apples were very sour. I would've rather had leaves as well – they didn't seem to be that bad a couple days ago when I had them – but they would probably be lacking in nutritional value. So I buried my discomforts and kept eating, determined to finish them all through sheer force of will.

Twilight ate from a pile of her own as she looked at her map, staring at it like it had committed bloody murder. I wasn't sure if the stare was because of the food or because she was still having trouble making plans; I suspected both.

I finished my meal first, though I noticed that the hunger did not dissipate as I ate. It remained, lingering. In fact, as soon as I finished off my pile, it spiked yet again.

"Are you alright?" Crystal asked, raising an eyebrow. She had stopped eating not even halfway through, much to Twilight's dismay.

"I don't know," I replied. "I think it's just the crab apples."

"Yet another complainer. Goodie," Twilight hissed. "Maybe you shouldn't have gotten anything in the first place."

"Twilight!" Crystal stressed.

"Oh, shut your mouth! I don't want to hear any more of your horseapples, either."

Crystal glared, but didn't say anything further.

Twilight went on to eat just over half of her pile, while Pathfinder didn't even seem to make a dent.

"This is simply despicable," Twilight complained. "You can't even have half of it? A quarter?!"

"I'll be saving the rest for later; don't get your fanny all in a bunch, now!" Pathfinder exchanged.

Twilight stared icily at him. "Talk like that to me again, and you'll have something else of yours in a twisted, structurally superfluous knot," she growled.

"How about you put down the dictionary for once and tell us this plan of yours?"

Twilight bowed her head, fixating her gaze upon him. "Thesaurus," she corrected.

"Whatever! Bloody just get on with it!"

She held her gaze for a few more moments. "As you wish," she said as she started to pace around. "Alright, so our goal is simple: get to a safe location; find out a way to save Equestria."

“If, we can do that last part, even,” Pathfinder noted.

"With both of those things in mind," Twilight continued, ignoring him, "it is imperative that we take care of step one first. So, where should we go? Well, we know that Canterlot and Ponyville have already fallen to the changelings, so, obviously, we can't go there. Additionally, we could rightfully assume that any city within Ponyville's vicinity will also be invaded by them very soon. So that means..." she stopped by the map, glancing at it. "...Apple Loosa and Dodge City – well, Cloudsdale and Los Pegasus as well, but that's irrelevant, considering not all of us are Pegasai." She resumed pacing. "Now, given all of that, invading these locations will still take quite a bit of time. Ponyville fell only a few days after Canterlot, and both of these places are considerably further away, so we have more than a week to escape to somewhere that isn't any of these two locations or Canterlot or Ponyville. Any questions?"

Pathfinder raised a hoof.

Twilight sighed. "Yes, Pathfinder?"

"Yeah, you still haven't said where we're going?"

"Terrible question; I was getting to that," she said. "I have decided that we should travel to Tall Tale. It's close, so we won't have to travel far, and it's well-hidden, being right behind the Smokey Mountains."

Pathfinder grit his teeth and rubbed his chin with a hoof. "Tall Tale..." he said slowly. "Hold on just a minute, let me see that chart." Twilight raised an eyebrow as Pathfinder walked over to the map. He looked at it for a while before shaking his head. "Yeah, with all due respect, what a horrible bucking idea."

"What did you say?"

"I said: ‘what a horrible bucking idea’. Oh, yeah, it's close. And yeah, it's well-hidden enough, but when we get there, well, then what?"

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it, considering his words.

He continued: "With your plan, we would be absolutely bucked if the town gets invaded." He slammed a hoof down onto the map. "Look at the chart, there are zero other places we could possibly go. There's Vanhoover, but it's right next to Tall Tale, so you're just running away so that you can have the same thing happen right after. We could retreat back south to where we are now, but then we're bloody startin' at square one, all the while accomplishing absolutely nothing. Like I said, horrible bucking idea."

Twilight walked over and pointed a hoof above Vanhoover. "There's the Frozen North-"

"Brilliant, then we can all freeze to death. Look, you might be all clever when it comes to your books and magic and all that rubbish, but you're a terrible navigator.”

She huffed. "And you're any better?"

"Love? It's my cutie mark," he said, pointing at the map on his flank. "Let me figure this out for you, yea?"

Twilight gave Pathfinder a look. She stepped away from him and sat down, scowling. "Go ahead, be my guest."

Pathfinder rolled his eyes, turning away from her and gesturing over to himself. "Okay, everypony gather around. Yep, that's right, I said everypony; come on, Crystal."

Crystal and I looked at eachother, standing up and sitting back down near the map.

"What?" Pathfinder shook his head at me. "Nononono, not you. I said everypony, not every... uh, 'ling'?"

"That would just be 'everyone'," Twilight stated.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter, it's here now, oh well. Anyways, let's see what we got here..." His eyes rolled over the map, the gears turning in his head.

I leaned over a bit, tilting my head in order to take a glance at it as well.

It depicted a vast landmass, with the names of various towns and cities marked all over alongside other features, such as rivers, mountains, forests, and deserts. The very top of the map said ‘Equestria’. A city named Canterlot sat in the middle of this Equestria which, judging by the legend, was the capital. The city was very close to ‘Celestial Peak’, a mountain, and another town, Ponyville, which was not that far away from Celestial Peak in the southwest. Near Ponyville was the ‘Everfree Forest’, ‘Rambling Rock Ridge’, and then White Tail Hills, the latter being right next to Ponyville over to the west. White Tail Woods, in turn, laid just to the left of White Tail Hills, with ‘North White Tail Woods’ over to (where else?) the North. Northwest to North White Tail Woods was the Smokey Mountains, Tall Tale laying right above.

All of the other cities I heard mentioned were also on the map, alongside many others, such as ‘Baltimare’ and ‘Fillydelphia’. It seemed to be a trend for these ponies to have most of their city names relate to horses. Both Baltimare and Fillydelphia laid on the coast of the ‘Celestial Sea’, which extended all the way to the eastern edge of the map. The ‘North Luna Ocean’ and the ‘South Luna Ocean’ were over to the western edge, both cut apart by what was only marked as being the ‘Undiscovered West’.

Pathfinder's hoof tapped the left side of White Tail Hills, breaking my concentration. "Alright, so we're somewhere over here... and the changelings–" his hoof swayed back and forth over the area from Canterlot to where we were. "–they're all around there. And soon, the whole area from Canterlot all the way over to the South Luna Ocean will be full of 'em. Now- wait, no... uh." He stopped, frowning.

"What was that? You were saying something?” Twilight snarked.

"Oi! Piss off, I'm thinking!"

"Thinking hard, or hardly thinking? All you've done so far, essentially, is repeat everything I've said without offering anything new yourself."

"I said piss off!" Pathfinder lowered his head. "Dammit, I thought maybe we could go to Baltimare, but..."

Twilight smirked. "Not as easy as it looks, isn't it?"

He looked at her. "Oh, go back to reading your dusty old books! At least then you're less of a total arse!" Pathfinder looked back, staring intently, the gears in his head working harder than ever. "Oh, come on. Where, where, where? Where can we go?" His eye stopped at the western side of the map. He sat straight up, thinking. He looked back down. "Maybe..."

"What is it?" Crystal asked.

He faced her. "West," he said simply.

Twilight slowly turned her head towards Pathfinder. "West?"

"Yep. We keep heading over to the West. It might actually be our only option."

"'Keep heading to the West'? You mean all the way to the Undiscovered West?!" she exclaimed.

"Well, we can't head east; we'll be caught for sure! It's like running back into a burning building right as you got out.”

She shook her head. "No, no, no. NO. We are not abandoning Equestria. Period."

Pathfinder looked at her quizzically. "'Abandoning'? The buck you mean, 'abandoning'?"

Twilight stood. "Equestria is our nation, Pathfinder. Our home! We can't just leave it all alone by itself to rot!"

"Leave it alone to rot? Good Luna, girl, listen to yourself! We aren't abandoning it, we're only saving our own flanks – nothing more, nothing less."

"Oh! So that's it? Save ourselves and look back unto this kingdom as it crumbles all the way to the ground? Do absolutely nothing to save it?!"

"That was the plan wasn't it? Make sure we're safe before we try anything else?" Twilight said nothing. With no response from her, he added, "I mean, not sure why we would even bother. Seems like Equestria's done for anyways, so."

Twilight stomped her hoof. "As the bearer of one of the Elements of Harmony, I am telling you right now that, as long as I am around, Equestria is not done for."

I turned to Crystal. "Elements of what now?"

"I'll explain later," she whispered before looking back at Pathfinder.

"Pfft- oh, the Elements of Harmony. That would be you and your five little friends, huh?" Pathfinder laughed and then suddenly yelled, "WAKE UP, sunshine! Wake up and smell the roses, because the Elements are useless now!"

Twilight stood still, almost seeming to listen to him before shaking her head. "No. I can't just give up. I've saved Equestria before. Twice. And I will do it again."

"Oh yeah?! What're you gonna do, huh? March straight into Canterlot? Demand they hoof your friends right back over to you? Kill them all if they don't? You wouldn't last one bloody second!"

She gave Pathfinder the death glare. "Try me."

Pathfinder returned her glare, taking two steps towards her. "Almost wanna tell you to buckin' do it, just so that I can say that I bloody told you so."

"Go right on ahead," she dared.

Pathfinder laughed again. "Oh, wouldn't even be able to do that, 'cause you'd be dead. Do you really think that – just because you can take down more than, what was it, five changelings at once, you can take on a whole army? Take a bucking hike, love!”

At that moment, I saw something inside Twilight Sparkle break. Her death glare faded, replaced by something far more psychotic. Her eye twitched. "You know what? That's not a bad idea, taking a hike. Not at all."

"Uh, what?" Pathfinder said, confused.

"Yeah, I'll take a hike all the way down to Canterlot! Step right inside, exactly like you said! And if they send an army, I'll swat them all down like the flies they are!" She tapped her hooves together, as if applauding. "This is the perfect plan!"

Pathfinder rubbed his head. "Now, hold on just a secon-"

"Although! It's probably best to know what I'm getting into first..." She turned towards me, her expression unhinged. I had the vaguest sense that I should maybe get the hell out of there, but, for some reason, I froze, foolishly holding my ground.

Twilight slowly walked up to me, stopping mere inches away from my face. She looked at me up and down with contempt before saying, "If you ask me, I think you're long overdue on your usefulness." I give her a confused look, which she takes notice of. "What? You thought you could tag along without doing anything? Well, you've got another thing coming."

A purple aura engulfed me as I was slammed to the ground. Without Crystal's spell in effect, I felt the whole punishment of the fall, crying out in pain.

"Alright. I'm going to make this dead-simple. Simple enough that even a creature as intellectually challenged as you could understand." The aura dissipated as Twilight pinned me to the floor with all four of her hooves, looking down at me. "I am going to ask you some questions. You will answer each and every last one of them immediately, honestly, and concisely."

I gulped. "I swear to God that I don't know anything."

"QUIET!" Her horn started glowing violently. "Talking when I'm not talking, that ought to be strike one. Three strikes, and you're out."

I didn't reply.

"That's a good changeling. Okay, now The Queen. What's her plan?"

I stammered, unconsciously chittering as I failed to recall what she was talking about. "Who?"

"The Queen! Your Queen! She takes over Canterlot, and then the whole of Equestria. What happens after that?"

"I-" Right when I've forgotten about it, I felt my hunger rise again. I winced.

"...You were saying?" Twilight presses.

"I really don't know," I say as it died back down, "I haven't remembered anything yet, honestly!"

"Whoopsie-daisy! That's strike two!" Twilight put a hoof to her chin. "Actually, kind of unfair that I gave you a strike earlier when you didn't know what the deal was, so... buck it, you're still on strike one."

"But I'm being honest! I don't know about The Queen or Equestria, nothing!"

"Aaand we're back to strike two. That was fast. Well, if you don't want to talk about her plans, then at least tell me what she's doing to Canterlot. What’s going on over there? What has she done to the ponies living there, to the princesses?" A pause as she waits for an answer. "TELL ME!" she yells.

Seeing as trying to explain myself hasn't done any good so far, I kept my trap shut.

"Well?! Speak up!" She waited a few more moments. "Oooo, you're getting really close to strike three. Dangerously close!" she said maniacally.

I tilted my head over to Crystal and Pathfinder. Predictably, the former was horrified. The latter was biting his lip, wings spread wide open, as if he were ready to fly away at any moment.

"You know," Twilight started again, making me face her, "silence won't save you. In fact, come to think of it, that just makes me feel even more peeved." She sighed. "Oh well, I guess this is strike three. A shame, a real big shame. Looks like I really was lugging you around for nothing." Her horn glowed ever so brighter, sparking in a torrent of energy. I found myself clenching my jaw and closing my eyes, shielding them with the little coverage my hole-riddled hooves provided. "Goodbye."

So. This is how I die, I thought as I waited for everything to end. For the blast from Twilight's horn to carry me away from this world and into limbo. I wish I could've said that my life flashed before my eyes, but my amnesia denied me that, so whatever life I did have, I wouldn't know about it now. What did I ever do to anybody to deserve this shit? Well, at least I won’t have to worry about that anymore. Soon, I wouldn't need to worry about anything at all.

Hmm...

Hold on, I was still worrying. And if I was worrying, then that meant that I’m still alive.

But shouldn't I have already died moments ago?

I lowered my hooves ever so slightly and opened one eye, only to find Twilight's own eyes drooping. Her body was covered in a familiar blue aura.

What?

She was levitated off me and gently placed sideways on the ground a couple feet away. I rolled over and tentatively stood up. Crystal's horn was glowing.

...What?

I looked at Twilight. She was mumbling, her lips slowly opening and closing. It seemed like she was trying to say something, but couldn't get the words out.

I turned back to Crystal, looking at her alongside Pathfinder in awe. She stood quietly for a few seconds before finally speaking: "Simple sedative spell. It'll expire in less than ten minutes."

Chapter 5: A Lovingly Slow Death

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Chapter 5 – A Lovingly Slow Death

When Twilight could finally move again, she uttered not a single word. She simply gave everyone a slow, methodical once-over and walked as if in a trance to a distant corner, sitting there. Silently.

With her out of the way, Pathfinder had decided shortly after to start plotting our route to the West. "How'd you manage to put her down like that, anyway?" he asked Crystal, eyeing the map.

"I didn't even know what I was about to do; it just sort of... happened," she replied.

"Well, good thing it happened when it did," he said. "I thought Twilight was gonna kill us next once she was finished with the changeling." Pathfinder glanced at Twilight. "She always seemed a bit mental to me, but not that bloody mental, dear Celestia."

Twilight's eyes flicked over to Pathfinder, then rolled back to where they were. He ran a hoof through his mane, returning to the map.

Crystal frowned. "Twilight?"

She didn't even look at Crystal. A response no different from the other times Crystal had tried to talk to her.

Still frowning, she faced Twilight fully. Crystal lifted a hoof to move, but gave sudden pause, thinking. She then placed it back down in front, apprehensively approaching Twilight and stopping before her.

"Please, say something."

Twilight still didn't respond. She seemed jaded, like she had seen a ghost.

"...You know I'm always here for you, Twi."

She flinched. "I said to never call me that," Twilight said, her voice monotone, yet still threatening.

Crystal shook her head and walked back, giving up. "She never wants to talk to me," she said to Pathfinder, who looked up. "Why can't she understand that I only want to help her?"

"Maybe 'cause she's beyond help?" he snarked.

Crystal's ears drooped as she sat down against the cavern wall. "Oh, not now. Save your sarcasm for later. Please."

"Just sayin', mate." He resumed working.

I turned towards Twilight. Her usual demeanor compared to now was night and day. Yet, as presently calm as she was, it still wasn't too long ago that she had crossed the verge of insanity, all in the span of only a few seconds. Just from the notion of leaving Equestria.

I didn't know what was wrong with Twilight, but she must've not always been like this. Crystal had told me from the very first day that she was 'caring', and 'a very good friend'. If Crystal was to be believed – and I had no reason to not believe her – then the Twilight I saw before me right now was very much so a far cry from the Twilight of the past.

Given that, how did she end up like this? What pushed Twilight over the edge?

The changelings... Crystal had mentioned the same day that she 'doesn't have good history' with them. But if that’s so, then what kind of history? What had the changelings done to Twilight that made her change so drastically?

I looked down and then up towards Crystal, contemplating something. Determined, I stood up, walked over to her, and then sat down. I needed answers.

Crystal's ears flopped back up when she saw me, smiling. "Hello." Her eyes expressed concern. "Are you sure you're alright?”

Ever since Twilight made a scene, Crystal hadn't stopped asking me that same question. "Yes, I'm sure," I said, rushing through the pleasantries as fast as possible in order to get straight to the point. "Now, what exactly did the changelings do to Twilight?" I asked.

Crystal seemed a little off-put with my bluntness. "Oh. Well..." she gave Twilight a short, cursory glance. "They... uh, did a lot of things to her." I waited for her to elaborate. "Well, not to her, but, her friends and family." She looked down. "Mostly her friends, though. They were all very close, in a way. I think she took the loss of them the hardest."

I paused, thinking. When Pathfinder mentioned The Elements of Harmony earlier, he implied that Twilight and her friends were related to them. "You mean The Elements of Harmony? What are those?"

Crystal looked up. "The most powerful magical artifacts known to ponykind. She and her friends had already used them twice before to save Equestria."

Something didn't seem right. "If they're so powerful, then why is everything falling apart right now?"

Crystal shook her head sadly. "The changelings got to Twilight and her friends first before they could get their hooves on The Elements. Twilight was able to escape, but she couldn't save them, too."

"I see." I faced Twilight again. I seemed to be getting closer to understanding her. The changelings took her family and friends away; that's why she was like this. Clearly, she cared about the latter very deeply, so when she lost them, she was devastated. Her family only seemed to be the salt in the wound at that point.

I tilted my head up at the ceiling. And then there's The Elements of Harmony. If they're as potent as Crystal says they are and the changelings have them... well, no shit we're running away.

Pathfinder brought me out of my thoughts. "Right, looks like that's that," he said determinately, rolling the map up. Crystal and I faced him. "Didn't take that long. I mean, there's not much of the Undiscovered West on there to plan a route on, being undiscovered and all." He looked back up. "At any rate, we'll just have ta work with what we got."

"Are we going now?" Crystal asked.

"Don't see why not. Now's a good time to go as any. I mean, the longer we stay in Equestria, the more we're just asking for the changelings to sniff us out."

Twilight abruptly stood up. "Sounds great! Let's go." She pulled her saddlebags over and slipped them on as she rushed over to the map, shoving it inside with her magic and walking out of the cave.

Crystal and Pathfinder looked at eachother. "Well then," he said. "I guess we'll follow her." He walked outside as well.

I turned over to Crystal. "We're leaving? Don't we have some leftover crab apples to finish?" I pointed out

She smirked playfully. "I don't think we're as hungry for those things as you are."

"It... just seems like a bit of a waste-" I was interrupted by another pang of hunger.

"What is it?" Crystal asked, concerned.

I wish I knew, but I didn’t. This hunger – and, despite my amnesia, I was certain about this – was unlike any other kind of hunger I've ever had before. A constant light feeling, always spiking randomly throughout the day, and it didn't seem to be because I wasn't eating; that had long already been readily apparent after breakfast. Whatever this hunger was, it wasn't normal. Not at all.

As it faded again, I cleared my throat. "Nothing," I lied, "I thought I remembered something for a second, but it slipped."

Crystal looked at me for a few seconds, as if she were peering straight into my mind. "Well, don't force it. Your memory will come back on its own time." Something told me that she didn't believe a word I said.

"I'll keep that in mind," I replied.

She turned to the entrance of the cave. "I think they're still waiting for us." She craned her head around. "Shall we?"

I nodded, following Crystal outside. The sky was dense, full of clouds. The view from the middle of the cliff was vast, White Tail Woods stretching far out into the distance with tall mountains situated on the horizon. Railroad tracks could be seen from afar near the Northwest, which ran over from the East and turned to the South, where the trees of the forest then hid them from sight.

Twilight stood at the very edge of the cliff, looking towards the West. A long, pregnant pause filled the air as we waited for her to do something, to speak.

Pathfinder anxiously pawed at the ground with a hoof as he waited, while Crystal let her mind wander not even halfway through. As for myself, I rolled my tongue around the two fangs outside my maw. It felt unusually strange, I noted, to have them there, even though I had lived a whole life with them.

After what felt like hours, Twilight finally spoke. "I think it's about time I accept that all the hope I had for Equestria's future is gone," she said, still facing forwards. "You were right, Pathfinder. There's nothing anypony can do. Equestria's lost."

"...Hey," Pathfinder said, "don't worry, love. I get it, I really do. Look, we're all havin’ problems with this changeling bullshit, okay? You're not alone."

Twilight paused. "I've been alone for a long while now." She looked down, ears flopping down to the sides of her head.

Silence. If it weren't for the sounds of birds and rustling leaves, I'd have assumed that the world itself had died.

And then Twilight turned around to face us. That's when I saw her eyes, bloodshot red, her face one of distress. It almost looked like she was about to cry, but was trying her damnedest not to.

"And it's all because of you," she scowled, pointing a slightly shaky hoof at me. "Every last changeling is responsible for what happened. If it weren't for you, my friends would still be with me. I wouldn't have to fall asleep every night worrying if they're dead or not... or worse." She slowly stepped forward, glaring right into my soul. "I should kill you where you stand," she said, stopping halfway. And then she turned around. "But, Crystal doesn't want me to. And so, as much as I don't understand why, I won't." She looked at me one last time. "For that, you should be very, very grateful."

I had the urge to say something. To maybe tell her that I was sorry for her friends, even though I never knew them – even though she had tried to kill me, but no words came to mind. Not that I would dare tempt fate like that, anyway. When someone already despises you well enough, you don't accidentally give them more reasons to do so.

Pathfinder cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah. Love that little speech you just had right there, but could we maybe, I don't know, get going?"

Twilight looked back forwards, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. "Give me a second." As she put her hoof down and looked up into the sky, she froze. "Actually, it's best if we... waited."

"What? Oh, come on, we'll all have time to mourn later; we need to go now!"

She pointed at the sky. "It's best if we waited," she repeated. I followed her hoof to a torrent of small figures flying above, far in the distance. "Back up," she commanded. We all scooted backwards into the cave, letting the darkness shroud us.

Twilight was right on the edge of the sunlight. She took out a pair of binoculars out of her saddlebags, surveying the sky. "Alright, doesn't look like they saw us," she said.

"Who are they, changelings?" Crystal asked.

"Oh, there are changelings, but that's not quite the full story."

"You mean there's something else out there?" Pathfinder inquired.

She turned around. "Pegasai. A lot of Pegasai. Outnumbering the changelings four to three, as far as estimations go." She looked back into the binoculars. "And yet... they aren't fighting back. It looks like they're being herded around."

"What d’you think they're doing with 'em?"

"I don't know, Pathfinder. Maybe-" She paused. "Hold on. They're spreading out now. In all directions." Twilight put the binoculars down for a second to wipe her brow, and then resumed. "They're... clearing out the clouds. They're making the Pegasai clear out the clouds."

I squinted into the sky. Many figures in the distance zipped around with great haste, the clouds somehow disappearing when they drew near. Others trailed them, as if they were watching them very closely.

"How's that, then?" Pathfinder said. "Why do the changelings care about whether the sky's bloody clear or not?"

"The changelings aren't stupid, Pathfinder," Twilight explained. "If they were, they would have never been able to take over Canterlot. They must know that, in order to maintain balance in nature within Equestria, the weather must be controlled. More than that even, it must be controlled properly." She rubbed the back of her neck. "Without proper care, you could cause a drought. Or a flood. Or, in the case of not keeping the sky clear, the trees wouldn't get enough sunlight."

"Yeah, yeah, I took primary school, mate. I think I know how controlling the weather works."

Controlling the weather? I thought. That's... new.

Twilight hummed, lowering the binoculars. "You know, it’s interesting as to why they would need the Pegasai in the first place. Either the changelings can't control the weather on their own, or there aren't enough of them to do all of the work."

"Uh, Twilight?" Crystal asked.

She turned around. "What?"

"Could I, uh, take a look?"

"...Why?"

"I mean, if you don't want me to, that's fine. I'm just curious, is all."

Twilight rolled her eyes, handing over the binoculars. "Go ahead. I was done with them anyways."

"Oi! I want ta look too!" Pathfinder complained.

Ignoring him, Crystal floated the binoculars up to her eyes, peering through. "Wow. They're all working really fast. It's amazing."

"Oooh yeah, glad to see somepony's getting joy out of watching their fellow ponies being enslaved," Pathfinder snarked.

Crystal lowered the binoculars down and looked at him with a smile. "Do you want to look?" she offered.

"Well, duh! Come on, give them over 'ere!"

Crystal floated the binoculars over to Pathfinder, who grabbed them with his wings with surprising dexterity. "Hmm... oh, wow. They are working quick, and I mean properly quick. They must've grabbed the best fliers they could find."

Twilight frowned. "That doesn't even make sense. Any Pegasus can control the weather as long as they can reach the clouds. Why risk taking a bunch of ponies who can easily outfly you to do one simple job?"

Pathfinder's ears stiffened. "Ah, speak of the bloody dog Cerberus, one of the lil' buggers's startin' to do just that right now!"

In the distance, one figure was shooting across the sky over to the east. Three darker figures attempted to keep up, but in vain. The pegasus was too fast; they were already out of the changelings' reach.

Every other creature in the sky had frozen, looking on at the commotion in silence.

The changelings moved first, rounding the pegasai up into a single file line. Then, the changelings themselves made a line of their own, parallel to the other one.

A grim expression crawled over Twilight as she realized what was about to happen.

Pathfinder put the binoculars down. "What are they doing?" he said slowly. "I mean, they're doin’ nothing but sittin' there."

It was then that the changelings started firing. The first couple flashes of light happened quickly, coming all at once. And as the bodies of pegasai started to fall down to the earth, many loud, delayed booms sounded throughout the sky, echoing across the landscape, sending birds flying up from the trees.

The few pegasai that were left tried to get away from the killzone, but they too were shot out of the sky, leaving just one. The remaining pegasus, it would seem, was slower than the rest, and was quickly apprehended.

The changelings surrounded the lone pegasus. I thought they were about to shoot them as well, but the changelings simply stood idle.

Pathfinder gawked. “They left one alive? Why?”

Twilight shared his confusion at first, but then something within her clicked into place as she chuckled softly. “Oh, that’s clever,” she uttered, shaking her head.

He gave her a look. “Wha- what?”

Finally, the changelings started moving again, taking their captive over towards our direction. "Get back," Twilight warned. And so we did. When she saw them pass over us, she slowly walked out of the cave and looked to where they went.

"What the buck just happened?" Pathfinder said. He pointed at Twilight. "Oi, you're good at explaining things. So, go on then, explain."

She looked at him like he was an idiot. "What happened," she said, voice sounding like she was talking to a child, "was that a single Pegasus tried to get away, and so the changelings decided to punish them all. Do I really need to explain how much of a bunch of savages they all are?"

“No no no, there’s more than that. You know something, I heard you!”

Twilight paused. “It doesn’t matter, Pathfinder. We’re better off focusing on our own survival than dwelling needlessly on the past.”

“Bollocks! What was it? Tell me!”

She ignored him and looked back to the sky. "Anyways, as I've previously established, we will be staying here until nightfall. Until then, I would suggest that no one goes outside unless they really need to." She lit her horn, walking over to her saddlebags and pausing. She looked through them for a while until she found a yellow book called What Every Navigator Should Know, by Trotting Tro, sitting down to read. "I'd keep busy; we've got some time before we can leave."

Pathfinder huffed. “Bucking arsehole.”

I looked at Crystal, who looked back before glancing at Pathfinder. "When will the dying stop?" she asked sorrowfully.

He raised an eyebrow. “What?” Then, he realized what he was being asked. "Oh, uh... well, yeah, nothing about these last few days has really been sunshine and rainbows, that's for sure, but..." Pathfinder rubbed his head. "Honestly, love, I don't bloody know what you want me to do 'bout it."

She sighed, turning back and sitting on the ground, looking up to the sky where the changelings and pegasai were. Pathfinder stared at her and then me before walking to the center of the cave and stretching, lying down. I heard Twilight turn a page of her book.

I poked my tongue on my fangs, reflecting on everything that had happened earlier. It was odd that the changelings killed every last pegasus but one, and, admittedly, the issue bothered me just as much as it bothered Pathfinder. Unfortunately, much like him, I was also at a loss for answers.

I sighed. Something to think about later, I guess.

I turned over to Crystal, who was still looking far off into the distance, lost in her thoughts. The more I stared at her, the more I felt something draw me over, though I couldn't tell what it was. Perhaps I just felt safer with her close by, for some reason. It was hard to tell.

Step by step, I slowly made my way towards Crystal. Right before reaching her, I glanced behind me. Twilight was looking at me strangely. It was a look that said "Try anything stupid, anything, and you're fucking dead." (Well, she would've probably said 'bucking' instead. Why do they say 'fuck' like that anyways?)

I took a deep breath, and sat down next to Crystal.

"All those ponies..." she said after a pause. "All dead but one." She looked at me, her face full of melancholy. "Why did they have to be so cruel?"

I bit my lip.

"I'm... not blaming you, by the way."

"I didn't think you were," I said honestly.

"Oh." Crystal turned her head back to the sky.

As I looked at it with her, I reached over to the back of my neck, massaging it, feeling my fins as my hoof glided over them. Why do they feel so strange? I wondered. So... out of place. Like they shouldn’t be there at al-

Without warning, my hunger rose again. I gave a light groan and held a hoof to my abdomen.

Of course, Crystal took notice. "Are you okay?" she asked.

It hadn't gone away yet. I held my head closer to my chest, pressing my hoof harder.

She sighed. "I'm sure the crab apples aren't doing that."

As it faded back to normal, I shook my head. "I didn't want to bother you about it."

"I know. I... don't think I could even fix it, anyways." I looked up. Her face was solemm.

"How do you mean?" I asked.

Twilight set her book down. "What's going on over here?"

Unexpectedly, Crystal's eyes lit up with fire, shooting Twilight an angry look. "Something that would make you very, very freaking happy, I'd bet."

Twilight raised an eyebrow, puzzled at first. Then, realization struck her. "Hmm. It's about time," she muttered. Crystal grit her teeth.

I felt lost. "What's this all about? Crystal?" I looked at her.

She wasn't the one who responded, though. "Wow, just wow," Twilight said. "I mean, for a creature like you, this is major. Fascinating how you can't remember something so fundamental to your species.”

I tried asking once more. "Crystal, what is she talking about?"

Twilight was the one who answered back yet again. "Basically, you're dying. Slowly." There was a sort of sick, morbid glee in her voice. "Yep. Changelings need love in order to survive, which is rather unfortunate for something as unlovable as you." She levitated her book up and continued reading, adding, "Honestly, I shouldn't have even tried to kill you earlier. Why even expend the effort when nature will do the job for you just as well?"

Multiple thoughts ran through my mind. First of all, I was apparently dying. Second of all, it seemed to be because I wasn't being loved. Third, none of it added up in the slightest. Was Twilight joking? She must've been; why would one need love to merely live? It didn't make sense.

I glanced at Crystal, who was already looking at me sadly.

"She's not serious. Right?" I asked.

Her ears drooped. "I don't know how long you have," she murmured softly.

Chapter 6: Ink on Paper

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Chapter 6 – Ink on Paper

I stared at the crab apple, balancing it delicately on my hoof as I twisted it around. Its smooth, bright red skin softly reflected the light from Crystal’s horn into my eyes.

Stopping, I slowly brought the fruit to my mouth.

Just like the others, I took a bite out of it, chewed, and swallowed. And, just like the others, it too failed to rid me of my hunger. Air rushed out of my nostrils as I exhaled, letting the crab apple drop from my hoof and to the floor.

This is ridiculous, I thought. Nearly a whole pile of these things and yet this feeling still refuses to go away.

I had already asked Crystal how to satisfy the hunger before dinner, but she only seemed to know about as much as I did. “Changelings feed off of love,” she had said. “It’s why they’re trying to take over Equestria; there’s lots of it here.” I had asked how anything could possibly need to be loved just to not starve. “Well, they don’t from what I’ve heard. Changelings can just suck the love right out of ponies until there’s nothing left.” A pause. “Maybe you don’t need to take that much, you could just take a little bit, but...” A sigh. “I don’t think Twilight would like it if you did that. Even though I don't think there's any other way to stop you from, well, d-dying." She had wiped a tear.

We started dinner right after.

I looked over to Crystal on my left as she ate. Could it possibly be true? Is the only way to get rid of this hunger is to somehow literally suck the love out of someone? That doesn’t even make sense.

Nothing made sense, though. Unicorns didn’t make sense, and neither did their magic. Changelings didn’t make sense, even beyond the whole love thing. And pegasai were certainly no exception, either (and now that I thought about it, how could they fly anyways? Shouldn’t their body weight be too great for their wings to lift them off the ground?)

Whatever the case, it only figures that being dependent on love to survive would be an inevitability.

“Oooh,” I groaned as I felt my hunger pang yet again, as if it were deeply offended by my doubting it. Crystal stopped eating, throwing a worried glance at me. Something she had started doing a lot more since I’ve found out about my predicament.

I’d been analyzing the feeling closely over the course of dinner. At first, I thought it was coming from my stomach, but I soon discovered that such an assumption was misguided. This was not any normal kind of hunger indeed. It seemed to originate deep within me from something that I could only describe to be my soul. As if such a thing were possible.

“I’m so sorry for not telling you about it all before.” I faced Crystal, whose head was tilted down. “I- I just thought you knew already.”

“It’s fine,” I said.

It was not fine: I was going to die. And I didn’t even know when.

It would’ve taken a long while before we would be able to leave, as Twilight continued to insist on waiting until nightfall. “Better safe than sorry,” as she had put it.

To that end, we needed to pass the time somehow. Fortunately, Crystal, as it turned out, had the perfect solution.

“Got any sixes?” Pathfinder asked.

“Go fish,” Twilight said boredly.

He reached a hoof over to the pile of cards sitting between them, picking one card and placing it within one of his wings.

From what I’d gathered from the others’ conversations, the deck originated from the abandoned house I was being kept in – Twilight and Crystal played with them quite a bit as they waited for me to heal. Crystal, having extra space in her saddlebags, decided to keep them for future use.

After today’s dinner, she brought the cards out and asked Pathfinder and Twilight if they wanted to play. Of course, there was a lack of things to do to begin with, so they obliged. Crystal wanted me to join along, but Twilight "would sooner saw off" her own horn before playing with me.

I think what Twilight said got to Crystal, as she quit after only a single game, saying, "I don't really feel like playing any more." That left the other two to play amongst themselves.

"Any sevens?" Twilight asked, bringing my attention back to the game.

"Uh, no!" Pathfinder said a bit too defensively.

Twilight scrunched her face at him. "Really?"

He slammed a hoof down. "Bloody horseapples! I was so close to four!" He took three sevens out of his wings and threw them to her.

Catching the cards midair with her magic, she smirked and placed them down alongside another seven on the ground. "Another book~," Twilight sing-songed. "This game's too easy."

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up!"

"Oh, I'm not laughing; I merely find it amusing that you've lost nine games against me and you're still not giving up."

Pathfinder groaned and fell onto his back. “Wish Crystal was still playing so I wouldn’t have to suffer all by my-bloody-self.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Uh-huh.” She looked around the room and stopped upon seeing me. “What the-” She grimaced. “How long have you been sitting there?”

I suddenly felt just the slightest bit tense.

“Uh, only the whole time?” Pathfinder said, rolling over. “Just pretend he’s not there and look somewhere else. Been working for me... actually, surprisingly fine, so far.”

Twilight stood. “Go bother somepony else!” she sneered at me. “Can’t you see that we’re already busy enough without you breathing down our necks?!”

My face went hot. Hastily, I turned around and headed for the cave entrance.

Twilight sighed, going back to the game. "Anyways, where were we... hmm, any kings?"

"Buck off," Pathfinder muttered as I stepped outside.

There, Crystal sat near the cliff’s edge. She had walked out here after the sixth game, though not before Twilight warned her to not linger for too long and to be careful of any changelings flying above.

She was looking out at the sky intensely. I squinted, but couldn't see anything notable.

I grit my teeth and pressed my chin against my neck as I felt another pang of hunger. Then, as it went away, I looked back up. Crystal’s attention hadn’t shifted from the same spot at all.

The hell is she doing? I thought, walking closer.

“What are you looking at?” I asked.

She jumped as I started talking, but quickly relaxed when she saw that it was me. "Oh, uh, nothing. Just looking at the clouds."

I paused. “The... clouds?”

Crystal nodded. A curious look grew on her face. “Why are you out here?”

I rubbed my fins. “Twilight didn’t exactly want me back there.”

She sighed, facing back towards the sky. Though after only a few seconds, she brightened and pointed a hoof up. "Oh, oh! That one looks like a pony, don't you think?"

I followed her hoof, squinting again. “What?”

“The cloud up there!”

“Which one?”

She stretched her foreleg out more. “That one!”

The cloud in question was indeed shaped vaguely like a pony. “Oh. I guess it does.”

Crystal turned around and looked at me, thinking a bit before patting a spot on the ground next to her. "Come and sit down, we can look at the sky together."

I waved a hoof. "I don't think I'm much of a-"

"Oh, come on! I insist," she said, smiling softly.

I stood awkwardly for a few seconds. Well, it's not like I have anything better to do, I reasoned. "Alright, then." I tentatively made my way to her side and sat down.

She looked at me, her eyes bright. "It's beautiful, isn't it? The sky."

I slowly nodded, looking out to the horizon. The sun was kissing the peak of one of the mountains from afar, casting a long shadow over the landscape. It wasn't nearly behind the horizon yet, but it was getting there.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Crystal levitate her brown book up from the floor. I glanced over as she flipped through the pages with the cover facing me until she came to one page in particular. Her eyes flickered back and forth as she glossed over the words. Then, she stopped. Looked up. Stared into my eyes hesitatingly. It seemed like she wanted to ask me something, but couldn't bring herself to do it.

"...What?"

She blinked. "Oh, um... I, uh, wrote a poem while I was looking," she said, lightly blushing.

My eyes glanced to the side and then back. “A poem?”

"Mmhmm." She took a deep breath as her hind leg lightly bounced up and down in anticipation. "Would you... like to read it?" Crystal said slowly.

I thought for a moment. "Sure."

Biting her lip, she gently set the book down in front of me. Holding the book down with a hoof to stop the wind from blowing the paper around, I began reading from the left page:

Oh white clouds, high up in the sky
Looking down upon us, with a sigh
You've seen so much, traveled so far and wide,
But you have no one to share your travels with

Floating with the wind, everywhere you go
Seeing all sorts of creatures down below
Never to touch, never to see
You cry out but none hears your pleas

But, one day, the sky'll turn grey
And you'll fall down to the earth

Finally, touching the ground.

When I finished, I read it again. And again. And then stopped, picking my head back up.

Crystal was blushing furiously now. "D-did you like it?" she stuttered.

I didn't know what to say. I'm sure it wasn't the best thing I've read, but perhaps not the worst either. I couldn't be sure; it wasn't like I was a poet.

Or, at least I didn't think I was a poet...

She buried her face in her hooves. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have shown you that. I probably look so stupid right now." She wiped a tear going down across her cheek.

In that moment, I realized just how vulnerable she was. She only showed me that poem because she trusted me, confided in me; clearly more so than anyone else. She’d never let anyone else see what she writes in her book. I was the sole exception. And while I didn’t fully understand why she came to trust me like that so quickly, especially considering what I was, she did anyway.

That, and with her rounded face and huge, watery eyes, she damn-near looked like an adorable, hurt little puppy. I felt like absolute shit. I couldn’t bear to see her like this.

I had to say something.

"Crystal, you aren't stupid at all." She looked up. I paused as I tried to figure out what to say next. "It's... the poem’s actually thought provoking. I mean, maybe- maybe the clouds are alone – how would we know if they weren't? What would it be like to watch the whole world happening down below you, but never being able to interact with it? It must be a lonely life indeed."

Internally, I cursed myself. I didn't even know what I was saying; I was rambling. I might as well have been speaking complete gibberish.

Crystal frowned. I anticipated her pointing out just how ridiculous what I said was, but she surprised me instead: "You don't have to do that."

I raised an eyebrow. “Do what?”

She wiped another tear from her cheek. “You know what.”

“No, really, what?” I asked, genuinely confused.

“I know it’s not that good, the poem,” she said, closing her book and sliding it towards her, looking down at it somberly.

Okay, she didn’t see through my facade. I paused. But she’s still all teared up... come on, think. What do I say?

"Crystal, it's really not that bad, honestly,” I said after some thought. “For what it's worth, you're a great poet, and I really, really enjoyed reading what you wrote."

She smiled somewhat. "Do you really mean that?"

Well, really I only enjoyed it to an extent, I nearly told her. "I wouldn't have said that if I didn't," was what I went with instead.

She brightened fully, stood up, and walked over to me. I was unsure of what she was doing until I found myself wrapped tightly within her forelegs. "Thank you," she whispered as I felt one of her tears run down the side of my neck.

I tensed. I was not prepared for this at all. Gulping, I half-halfheartedly returned the hug – mostly just going through the motions, at best, as I waited for it to end. Unfortunately, she refused to let go for quite a while; it made me wonder for just how long any two people could embrace. It was torture.

"Oh, my." She abruptly stopped, pulling away.

"What is it?" I asked, internally relieved that the hug had finally ended.

"I'm sorry, I... gotta go."

"Go where?"

"Nowhere," Crystal replied, holding her crotch. "I just... gotta go. Like, really bad."

I looked up to the sky. "Oh, I see."

Crystal stood up and started making her slow descent down the cliff.

Well, I thought, that was interest-

“Fuck,” I breathed out as another hunger spike greeted me. Right as I’ve forgotten it existed. There didn’t seem to be a pattern as to when it arises, seemingly preferring to come and go at random.

Bending my neck down and shutting my eyes tightly, I held a hoof to my chest as I waited for it to pass.

It took well over half a minute to do so, unusually long compared to what I’d experienced so far. As it dissipated, I opened my eyes to Crystal’s brown book, which still laid on the floor only a few feet away, exactly as she’d left it.

Last time I checked, I didn't think she remembered to lock it. And I had a certain curiosity to look through it, to see what else was in there.

I really shouldn't, though, I thought. Crystal must've trusted me beyond measure to have shown as much as she already did. She clearly doesn't want me, much less anybody else, to read anything beyond that one poem, and I ought to respect those wishes. To peek through would be to betray the trust she holds in me.

I paused for a few moments, considering.

I looked side to side and behind, making sure nobody was watching. I then dragged the book over to myself, figuring that if Crystal never saw, then, really, what significant harm was I even causing?

It took a little while, but I somehow managed to get a loose grip of the cover and pry it open. It struck me odd that my hooves were able to get any kind of grip on it whatsoever with how smooth they were, but with the possibility of Crystal coming back at any moment, I didn't have the time to ponder that issue.

I looked at the very first page on the right:

Crystal Jades notebook
DO
NOT
READ

I noticed that “Jades” was missing an apostrophe, which somewhat bothered me. I ignored it and looked at the rest of the page. The paper itself looked rough and was yellowing slightly; probably more than five years old. As for its contents, while "Crystal Jades notebook" was written plainly and as straight as possible across the top of the page (though still noticeably crooked if looked at carefully,) the below words were huge and filled in thickly with black ink, taking up the majority of the page. Indeed, it would seem that Crystal tried her hardest to make her message very clear. And it almost worked, as I got the urge to close the book right then and there.

"Sorry," I muttered only somewhat sincerely, trying to get a grip of the next page in order to turn it.

As the page turned, I noticed "August 2nd" written at the very top in faded ink. Below, more words greeted me:

I thought about getting a new notebook last week because I got very nostalgic about how I keeped one back when

Kept, I corrected. Oh, what the fuck are you doing? Just keep reading.

how I keeped one back when I was still a teenager. so i went to the store today after remembering that and picked this one out I didn't pick a colorful one this time unlike when I was a filly, because I guessed i liked how simple it looks. Oh and I also guess because its also the only kind that had a lock on it and i didn't want to bother going to a different store haha.

There was more written after that, but I was interrupted by a hunger spike before I could continue to read it. After the feeling went away, I noted that I didn't really have time to read the whole thing anyways; Crystal could’ve come back at any time. So, after checking around once more for any witnesses, I kept on flipping the pages, skimming the contents.

The book contained various amounts of things aside from the journal entries the like of what I'd read above, mostly poems and drawings; some were even written or drawn sideways. All this in addition to the various odd words scattered throughout that weren't journal entries nor poems, like this one joke that didn't even slightly amuse me:

what did the bunny say to the squirrel, when the squirrel gave her some acorns?
Put it over hare I'll eat them later!

Wouldn’t the squirrel be the one asking that? I posited, continuing to flip through, although it was getting harder and harder to read as the sun continued to hide itself behind the mountains.

Further down the line, I noticed a flat drawing of a wilting sunflower in an open field, surrounded by other, normal-looking sunflowers. Underneath the drawing laid these words:

How is it, that even on the sunnyest of days I still feel so sad?

That comma shouldn't be there along with It's spelled "sunniest" were my only thoughts. Other than that, I didn't quite know what to make of it.

After enduring yet another brief hunger spike, I flipped through some more, not bothering to read much of it (though I would’ve if I had the time.) And then, suddenly, the pages turned blank. I had flipped through too fast. I carefully went backwards through the book until I reached the poem that Crystal had shown me.

Hm. What was written before this?

I turned one page to the right, and saw this in the center of the left page:

THEN WHY DO I CARE ABOUT HIM SO MUCH??

I heard a cough coming from down below. I poked my head over the cliff’s edge, seeing Crystal walking towards the pathway up to the cave. "Shit," I whispered as I quickly, yet silently closed the book and set it back to its original location. Considering the situation further, I lied down on the floor and closed my eyes, as she would suspect me of reading her book less if she thought I had been sleeping the whole time.

When Crystal came back, I heard a chuckle and a gentle nudging on my back. "Wake up, sleepy."

I was careful to open my eyes slowly. Calculating, I blinked once. Twice. I pretended to appear as if in a daze, slowly sitting myself back up. I rubbed my eyes.

She chuckled again. "Tired, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Almost as an afterthought, I willed myself to yawn.

Crystal's eyes caught her brown book on the floor. "Oh, shoot," she cursed herself, immediately locking it. "I forgot to keep that away from the cliffside; it could've fallen off."

"Oi, Crystal, you out here?" Pathfinder called out. We both turned our heads over to the cave. Pathfinder was walking out of it. "Ah, there ya are."

"Oh, what is it, Pathfinder?" she asked.

"Just makin' sure you're still around. Twilight told me to check on you two and also ta see if the sun is settin' yet." He looked up. "And what'dya know? Looks like it is." I followed his gaze. The sun had fully disappeared behind the mountains now, an orange glow in the sky. It was getting very dark.

Pathfinder cracked his neck. "Well, I'll go on and tell her, then. You lot should probably come along." He walked back inside and we followed him, Crystal picking up her notebook along the way.

If they're all monsters, then why do I care about him so much?

I didn't know why that singular sentence had been stuck in my mind ever since I first laid eyes on it, but there it was.

"No, I ought to be the bloody navigator!" Pathfinder said from below, "It's my Celestia-damned special talent for Luna's sake!"

Maybe it simply felt strange for a single individual to care when everyone else despises you?

"Uh-huh." Twilight looked back up to the cliff, which I was still trying to climb down from. "Come on! Hurry up, a foal could move faster than you!" she barked.

"He's trying his best, Twilight," Crystal defended.

"Did you hear me? I should be the navigator!" Pathfinder said again.

Twilight and Pathfinder had always looked at me like I was some kind of burden, but Crystal had never once shown any kind of ill-will towards me. Why?

"Well, 'his best' isn't good enough, now is it?" Twilight countered

I needed to think about this later. I was getting close to the bottom, now.

"Uh, hello? Are you just going to ignore me?!" Pathfinder complained.

Twilight yawned. "That's the plan, yes. Now shut up; I'm tired enough as is without having to deal with your crap."

I finally reached the bottom, sighing in relief and joining the rest of the group.

"Finally," Twilight breathed, "we can actually start, now." She turned around. "Okay, everyone stay closeby. Don't wander and don't stop walking. Time is of the essence. If anybody needs to take a break, tell me beforehoof."

"Obviously," Pathfinder added.

Twilight glared back before looking away. "Let's get going," she grumbled.

With Twilight leading the four of us, we started our journey westwards. She kept a watchful eye to her surroundings, occasionally floating her map out in order to check it. Close to my left, Crystal looked around carefully as well, though apparently for different reasons. She in particular seemed to be more concerned with the occasional squirrel or bird than any potential dangers.

"Shit!" Pathfinder swung his head around. I turned to my right and looked over at him.

"There isn't anything following us, Pathfinder!" Twilight snapped. "For, oh, I don't know, only the millionth time!"

"I swore I heard something, though!"

"Just keep walking and SHUT. UP," Twilight snarled, voice gradually lowering as she added, "Or something will find us because you can't keep quiet to save your bucking life!"

Pathfinder was about to retort, but he suddenly stopped, rubbing his head. "Ah... bloody buck-all!"

"What now? Twilight groaned as we all stopped to face him.

"What's wrong, Pathfinder?" Crystal asked.

"I don't know, just got a really bad feeling, like we shouldn't be doin’ this." He shook his head violently, cracking his neck. "It's probably nothin' to be worried about, though. The Undiscovered West's probably full of all sorts of dangers nopony's heard about yet, so of course I'd be worried."

Twilight rolled her eyes and kept walking. "Another false alarm; why am I not surprised?"

Pathfinder looked at Crystal, who was eyeing a butterfly. "Why does she always need to be such a cunt?"

Crystal blinked and looked back. "What?"

He stared for a moment before shaking his head. "Ugh, nevermind."

Soon, night had fallen. I could only catch glimpses of the night sky from beneath the trees, the stars shining through the leaves in speckled patches. Everything else was dark, much of the moon's light blocked by the forest canopy.

We had been walking for quite some time, maybe an hour or two, and it showed; I was getting tired. The lack of sleep, of course, only made it worse, and I wasn't the only one, either. Pathfinder especially made it well known to everyone else just how exhausted he was, much to Twilight's chagrin.

Perhaps in an attempt to stop his complaints, Twilight declared that we all take a break for a while in order to refresh. Unfortunately for her, it only made him more talkative.

"I bloody hate walking," Pathfinder complained as he lied on the floor. "I'd already be at the West and then some more by now if I could fly. How in the buck do you Unicorns and Earth Ponies cope?"

"The real question is, 'how do I cope with your endless rambling'?" Twilight muttered over from the tree bark she was sitting against.

I turned to Crystal, who was lying her stomach on top of a short tree stump next to me, her forelegs dangling from the edge. "Earth ponies?"

"You don't know what they are?" Crystal asked.

I shook my head.

"Pft, it don't bloody seem like you know what anythin' is! I'd be surprised if you knew that two plus two equals buckin’ four!"

I slowly turned to Pathfinder.

He stared back. "And now you're just gonna look at me with that dumb, blank look, huh? Not even gonna say anything back."

I held my gaze.

Discomfort grew on Pathfinder's face until he finally rolled over on the ground, facing away. "Just pretend he's not there, pretend he's not there, pretend he's not there..."

I internally shrugged and looked to Crystal again. "So, earth ponies?"

"They're one of the three pony races," she explained.

"Races?"

"Yeah, you know, Unicorns, Pegasai, and then Earth Ponies."

I paused. "I didn't know they were considered races," I mused. "So, how do Earth Ponies differ from the other two?"

"Oh, they just don't have any horns or wings," Crystal said.

"Gross oversimplification," Twilight chimed in, sitting up. "Despite the lack of the ability to fly or cast spells, Earth Ponies have above-average strength and toughness, as well as having a connection to the earth, making them natural farmers and growers." She sat back down, repositioning herself against the tree back as to face away from us. "Now, shut up, all of you. I'm trying to think."

"What are you thinking about?" Crystal asked curiously.

"I said shut it!"

Her eyes went wide at Twilight's harsh tone. "I- I'm just as-"

"HUSH!"

She frowned, turning to me. "Why is everypony so hostile all the time?" Crystal whispered.

"...That's a bit-” Hunger interrupted me.

Crystal waited.

I cleared my throat. “Sorry. It just seems like a bit of an overgeneralization, everybody being hostile all of the time," I pointed out.

She ran a hoof through her mane. "Um, I mean, most of the time, at least."

"I can still hear you, you know!" Twilight said, making us glance at her and then back to eachother.

"Well," Crystal said, lowering her voice to the point of just barely being audible, "I guess I can't really complain. I mean, everypony's more rude to you than me, for sure."

I shook my head dismissively. "It's not really that big of a problem."

Despite my assurance, my words only made her more concerned. Her head lifted as she glanced around at the trees, thinking before she came back to me, deep blue eyes gazing into my own. "How can you pretend nothing's wrong?"

My face gave a quizzical look. "'Pretend'? I'm not pretending."

"It's just..." A short burst of air shot out from her nostrils. "I always see you brush off everything that happens to you."

"Didn't we already have a conversation like this one yesterday?" I inquired.

"Yeah, but I- the more time I spend with you, the more unsure I become about how you're really taking this. I just feel like something's wrong here."

I sighed. "Well, I guess I... am a little shaken about starving to death."

Her worried expression grew. "Only a little?"

I rubbed my fins. "I don't really know. Either way, worrying won't fix it."

Crystal paused. "You don’t have to go through this all by yourself. If you ever need to talk to someone, I'll be here for you. Okay?"

I stretched my lips flat, facing forwards. "Alright."

She kept her gaze upon me for one more moment before fixating it elsewhere.

Sometime later, maybe more than ten minutes, Twilight stood. "I think that's long enough of a break. We should get going before we waste any more moonlight."

Pathfinder's abrupt snoring answered her.

She groaned and levitated a thick tree branch up in the air, aiming it towards him.

"No, don't!" Crystal yelped, hopping off the stump

"It is very tempt-ting," Twilight mock sing-songed as she glared at Pathfinder's sleeping form.

Crystal's own horn glowed, the color of her aura mixing with Twilight's and creating a blueish purple. "Let... go!" Crystal demanded, visibly straining herself against Twilight's magic.

The branch did not move from where Twilight was floating it, not even after Crystal took hold. Though the former eventually started lowering the stick down ever so slowly before finally dropping onto the floor, sighing. "Fine. It’d probably do nothing but make him dumber, anyways."

Crystal was still breathing exhaustively from her struggle. "Pathfinder's only tired; it's not his fault!" she exclaimed.

"Aren't we all?" Twilight snided. "Just wake the featherbrain up."

Crystal exhaled as she walked to Pathfinder and shook him gently with a hoof.

"Ughnn... not now, mum," he mumbled sleepily.

"Pathfinder, we need to go," Crystal rushed, though it sounded more like cooing.

"Wha?" He blinked and shot straight up. "Oh, buck me sideways, must've fallen asleep."

Twilight huffed. "You think?"

"Great, don't tell me Twilight's miffed." Pathfinder looked over to the unicorn in question, her eyes venomous. "Yep, she's miffed. Lovely."

"You fall asleep like that again, we're leaving you behind to the wolves," Twilight threatened.

"Yeah, yeah," Pathfinder said almost nonchalantly, standing, "it was only one time, calm yerself."

"The wolves!" she stressed, walking off.

He followed. "How about ‘wolves can't buckin' fly’, wazzock?"

Twilight turned her head around as Crystal and I caught up to them both. "I probably know a spell that can make them do just that," she said.

"Oh, sure you bloody do!"

"Don't test me," Twilight warned.

Pathfinder looked behind at Crystal. "Oi, Crys, you know a spell that'll make pissy purple unicorns less of an absolute wanker?"

"Please don't drag me into this," she pleaded.

"Keep running those corpulent lips of yours, and I'll find a spell that'll permanently seal them shut," Twilight shot back.

"What the bloody bucking Tartarus does that even mean? You wanna start talking like a normal pony for a change?"

"Yore won tew bluh-dee tullk," Twilight mocked, severely exaggerating Pathfinder's accent.

"Well, better me talking than you, at any rate. Whenever you bloody talk, you go all gobby and start talking like a right toff. Makes my ears want to fall off!" Pathfinder stopped for a moment to press his hooves against the side of his head.

"And whenever you talk, you single-hoofedly lower the I.Q. of everyone else here by twenty points!" Twilight shot back.

"Like you’ve anymore to lose! You spend hours blabbering complete nonsense!"

"It only seems like nonsense to you because you just aren't smart enough to get it!"

"Well... you..." Pathfinder fumbled on his words.

"What's the matter? Did you run out of sentences that barely pass for insults?" Twilight taunted.

He growled. "I am going to bloody murder you."

"I would absolutely love to see you try that," she said, feigning disinterest.

"No, seriously! I will bloody murder you!"

Twilight ceased walking and, turning completely, glared at him. "Well, I'm right here. Go ahead."

Crystal and I stopped along with them as Pathfinder stood dumbfounded. "What the- you- you're serious?”

"Aren't you?"

"No!"

"’No’? Seemed like you were pretty serious not twenty seconds ago. Pretty unwise to be making empty threats like that."

Crystal groaned. "Everypony, please! Stop!"

Twilight waved a hoof at her. "No no no no, let's see Pathfinder try to 'bloody murder me'."

Pathfinder paused. "You have completely lost the plot. I mean a proper nutter, you know that?" He pointed. “How’d a cock-up like you ever get into Celestia’s little magic school?”

"Oh, you- leave the princess out of this!" Twilight shouted.

"What’s the matter?" Pathfinder asked. “Upset that she went arse over tit when the changelings showed up?”

"Let’s see if you’ll still be able to talk after I-"

"STOP!" Crystal shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing against the sky.

She got her wish for a few moments before Twilight turned to her. "What have you done?"

Crystal cowered. "S-sorry, I was only trying to stop all of the fighting..."

"Oh, save it for later, now every last changeling around here will be closing in on our position!"

"Wait, what?!" Pathfinder breathed.

Twilight put a hoof over her muzzle, whispering, "Shh! We don't need to draw any more attention to ourselves!" She slowly looked up, her pupils carefully gliding across the sky with her ears wide open and perked up.

Pathfinder bared his teeth as his wings spread apart. Crystal inched closer to me while I myself stood as still as possible, glancing left and right, waiting...

Beep.

Twilight turned over quickly alongside the rest of us to the unexpected noise, horn at the ready.

But there was nothing there.

She raised an eyebrow. "What the..."

Beep.

Looking behind at us and then back to the noise, she walked at a snail's pace to it.

Beep.

She looked down.

Beep.

And over to us.

"What is it?" Pathfinder inquired.

"I have no clue," Twilight replied. "It's some sort of..."

Beep.

"Sort of what?" He, alongside Crystal and I, walked over to where Twilight was.

Beep.

"Have a look yourself," Twilight said.

The three of us gazed down at the floor.

Beep.

There, sat a sphere of metal, right around the size of a basketball, planted into the ground just under halfway through.

Beep.

Pathfinder rubbed his head. "A ball?"

"Why is it beeping like that?" Crystal wondered.

"I don't know; I've never seen anything like it." Twilight pointed at me. "You?"

I shook my head.

"Of course. Why did I even bother asking?" She let her horn die down. "Well, whatever it is, it's probably best if we don't touch it."

Clank.

She growled. "Pathfinder!"

"What?!"

Right at that very moment, the ball sprung to life, beeping faster than before and whirring. A small, circular light shone blue. Around the blue light, smaller lights, shaped like lines and of the same color, all started turning on one by one in under a second, going clockwise. The blue light started adjusting itself, as if it were an eye of some sort. The eye rotated on its own axis, facing Twilight, looking at her.

"Woah," Pathfinder uttered.

Twilight glared at him. "You idiot! What made you think kicking it was a good idea?!"

Pathfinder struggled to find the words needed to explain himself, resorting to a pseudo-innocent shrug.

The ball held its gaze for a while before the eye rotated again, facing parallel to the ground. Four circular rings with blades inside them sprung out from the ball diagonally, the circumference of which right above the eye.

Pathfinder watched as the metal ball's blades started spinning, hovering itself up from the small hole it had dug into the ground. "Well, I mean, you gotta admit: this is bloody cool,” he remarked, making Twilight scowl.

The eye adjusted itself again as it studied Twilight, who was looking back at it in awe and confusion. A blue ray of light then emanated from the ball, projecting it onto Twilight. It seemed to be scanning her.

She fired up her horn. "Hey, watch it!"

The ball paid no mind, giving a light click moments later as the light disappeared and flew away from her. It then looked around at the rest of us, one by one.

"What is that bloody thing?" Pathfinder wondered.

Twilight paused. "Probably some kind of artifact with a golem enchantment, and a rather sophisticated one at that." She looked at him. "There's no telling what it may do... and you just awakened it."

"Oh, give it a rest! It's not like it's doin’ anythin’!"

I looked at the metal ball as it kept gazing around at us. I didn't know why, but it seemed oddly familiar...

"It’s- it’s a scout droid," I thought aloud.

Everyone looks at me. "A what?" Pathfinder said. "Actually, time out: how the buck do you even know that in the first place?"

I pause, trying to think about how I knew what it was. "I, uh... I don't know..."

The droid clicked again, its gaze catching Crystal and floating over to her.

Crystal smiled, albeit tentatively. "Hi there. What are you?"

It didn't respond, doing the same thing as it did to Twilight.

"You're... very curious," Crystal remarked.

Suddenly, a small rod popped out from the droid, electricity flowing from it like lightning as the droid briskly closed the gap between them.

"Holy shit!” Pathfinder sirened, backing away.

Crystal's body shook as she fell to the ground and still shook after that. The eye faced her on the ground.

"Hey!" Twilight yelled, horn glowing. The droid was struck with a blast of her magic from the side, ruining the metal. The eye turned red, a small cannon extruding from the droid as it tried to face Twilight, but its damaged hover blades caused it to tilt to its left instead, coming towards her all the while spraying bullets into the air, Pathfinder wailing shortly thereafter. Twilight ducked, the droid crashing into a tree and getting its other blades jammed in the tree's branches. The droid hung there, continuing to fire aimlessly at the ground. My ears were ringing.

Twilight finished it off with another blast, and promptly covered her ears, groaning. “Why did it need to be so damn loud?!” she complained.

“Why did it have to shoot me in the bucking wing?!” Pathfinder cried out from the floor, holding a bloodied hoof to his side.

Twilight turned around, staring at him, her eyes wide.

“ARE YOU TWO GOING TO STAND THERE, OR ARE YOU GONNA HELP ME ALREADY?! YOU’RE LIKE TWO CATS WATCHING A BLOODY MOUSE DIE!”

"Celestia dammit,” Twilight uttered, rushing over to him. “I knew I should've just shot the thing the moment it awakened! Stupid, stupid, stupi-” Pathfinder groaned out in pain, making her stop. “Okay,” she breathed, kneeling down. “You need to apply pressure to the wound in order to stop the blee- dear Celestia, stop MOVING!”

“Oh, so sorry I can’t buckin’ HELP it, arsehole!”

Twilight growled, horn lighting up as she pinned his legs to the ground, using her hooves to press against Pathfinder’s wound.

Pathfinder let out another painful groan. “Buckin’ hell, why does this need to happen again?! Why me?!”

She didn’t answer, glancing to Crystal’s still body. The latter’s saddlebags opened, Twilight rummaging around inside with her magic. “No more bandages,” she muttered. “Great.”

“Oh, come on! Don’t you know a spell or something?!”

Twilight paused. “Oh.” She faced Pathfinder again and closed her eyes, tilting her forehead to his side, which now glew purple. Moments later, she let off of him.

Pathfinder stood up, wincing as he did. “Ugh, I can still feel it.” A single drop of blood dripped down from one of the feathers of his wings. “And it’s still bleedin’. Yeah, quality work right there, you tosser!” he yelled at Twilight.

“The spell only slows down the bleeding. I know of nothing else that could help,” Twilight explained.

“Well, to Tartarus with you! Where’s Crystal when you nee-” Pathfinder looked over to her, still lying dormant. “Right,” he said quietly, “dead.” He shook his head and clawed at his face, marking his cheeks in red. “Bloody fantastic.”

“Hold on,” Twilight said, walking over to Crystal. She paused for a second or two, thinking. Her horn glowed. "Where's the pulse, where's the pulse... here." She looked up. "She's not dead, just unconscious."

Pathfinder let out the breath he was holding, relieved. “Thank dear Luna," he remarked thankfully.

"Oh, cut the bucking crap!" Twilight exclaimed. "It's your fault this happened in the first place!"

"Well, I'm sorry, okay?! Cut me a bloody break!" Walking over to Crystal, he bowed his head to the ground and, pushing through the pain, swiftly scooped her up onto his back. Already, a couple drops of blood soaked into her fur. Pathfinder then looked at the droid, which was nothing more now but a mess of scrap metal. If I hadn’t seen it in one piece before already, I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell what the pile of scraps even was originally.

All of a sudden, I felt something grab me from behind and pin me against their shoulder. I yelped. “You better start talking,” Twilight demanded.

“About what?!” I exclaimed, confused.

“You said you knew nothing about that thing, and then suddenly you do?”

I chittered nervously. “I just didn’t remember!”

“Shut the buck up! That’s a load of horseapples and you know it!” Twilight yelled, throwing me to the floor and looking down upon me with contempt. Then, she took a deep breath and looked elsewhere. "Whatever, I’ll deal with you later – we need to get going before more possibly start showing up."

Pathfinder glanced around and pointed. "Think we're a bit late for that!" he shouted.

Quickly standing up, I looked over to where he was pointing, three more droids floating in midair about five meters away. Their eyes, of course, were red.

Twilight quickly charged her horn and sent out a blast to the frontmost one. Apparently, the droid anticipated that and quickly tilted itself to its right, dodging the shot. A small door on the droid then opened, its cannon sliding out.

"Buck," Twilight uttered, firing more blasts at the droids. But it was of no use, as they all adeptly evaded everything she threw at them. The other two units then slid out their own cannons as well, switching on their targeting lasers with the first as all three of the droids started aiming right at her. Twilight, realizing what was about to happen, lit her horn again, but did not fire a single blast. Instead, a purple, transparent dome materialized around us, shining and glimmering. The droids started shooting, but their bullets were stopped from the dome, falling to the ground as they came. The dome seemed to be some kind of magical shield.

After only ten seconds, the droids figured out that expending any more ammunition was pointless. So they stopped firing, crept up closer, and stopped right before the dome, looking upon us.

"What the buck do we do now?!" Pathfinder exclaimed. "You can't possibly hold that thing up forever!"

"You're right; I can't," Twilight said. "But there's no clear alternative."

Two of the droids started circling the dome in opposite directions, stopping at the other side and creating a triangle formation. They had us surrounded. Trapped. The situation looked bleak.

Twilight bit her lip. "Though, maybe..."

"What?" Pathfinder said. "Come on, speak! What?"

She looked at him. "If I supercharge the shield spell, it'll break apart, but it'll also create a shockwave that may disorient these things long enough for us to make a hasty getaway. Though we will need to act quickly and without hesitation."

He huffed. "I really don't like that idea. How about a plan that doesn't risk us getting shot again?"

"...Such as?"

Pathfinder looked at the droids and then back to her. "Alright, fine. But if I die, I'm blaming you."

"Good, then it's a plan." Twilight glanced at me.

I stared. "What?"

"Did you even understand all of that?"

"I was listening," I said.

"Didn't seem like it," she muttered. "Look, when this shield breaks apart, you'll have to run, understand? And don't even think about going the other way."

"I understand," I said assuredly.

She held her gaze, searching me before looking back. "Alright, back the way we came," she said, turning over to the east. "Everyone ready?"

"About as ready as I'll ever be to bloody die," Pathfinder remarked. I settled with a nod.

"Okay, the shield will go down on the count of five." She took a deep breath. "One..."

Pathfinder and Twilight walked over to the edge of the shield where we were about to run. I did the same.

"Two... three..."

Twilight's horn started glowing brightly; the shield reacted accordingly and grew in luminosity. Pathfinder shifted around, lifting one wing and wrapping it around Crystal’s body, trying to get her into a secure position.

"Four..."

Pathfinder cracked his neck, muttering to himself, "You can do this."

"...Five!" The shield cracked and subsequently busted open, sending a wave of energy outwards. Immediately, we started running. I stumbled on my hooves, barely managing to keep up with them. I looked back at the droids, panting. They were far enough behind us, maybe twenty meters, the shockwave probably having caught them off guard. However, they were fast to notice that we were getting away, immediately chasing after us.

And then bullets started whizzing by my ears. I quickly faced forwards, slightly lowering my head. I cursed; I was falling behind Pathfinder and Twilight. The fact that even he was able to outrun me had me befuddled; how wasn’t I able to match his pace despite my own previous injuries having long since healed?

"Oi! You- ow- you wanna run faster?!" Pathfinder yelled over to me.

I'm trying! I replied internally right before stubbing my hoof on a rock. I fumbled around, slowing down to a crawl as I tried desperately to not fall. When I regained my balance, they were even further than before. I quickly looked behind me and then ducked right before I heard a bullet crackling through the empty space where my head was, keeping on running. The droids were only ten meters away now.

Pure adrenaline pumped through my veins as I zigzagged through the trees of the forest, my black hooves clopping against the ground with each and every step. I've already lost sight of my accomplices, leaving me the sole target of the droids. And, somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew they wouldn't ever stop until they either caught me or I got away. At the rate I was going, the former seemed more likely.

Sidestepping the trunk of yet another tree, my hoof fell into a narrow gully and I came down crashing along with it, crying out in pain. "Ah, shit," I whispered, rubbing my side. I was about to get back up, but a droid then came into my view. Its eye, now yellow, was looking around in every last direction but below it, searching for me.

My eyes instinctively looked away from it. I kept as still and as quiet as I possibly could, my pulse thumping clearly and loudly in my ears. After a few long seconds with nothing happening, I slowly rolled my eyeballs back over to the droid.

I froze. Something inside me broke.

On the underbelly of the droid, there was a white, wide diagonal arrow that pointed to the top right. At the bottom, the arrow that was cut apart into two unequal pieces near the bottom. The piece closest to the rest of the arrow was thicker than the other, which was just a bit further away and rather thin.

I know that symbol, I thought. Or, at least I recognized it. What I didn't know was why my chest tightened all of a sudden, why my heart rate slowed, why a strong sense of panic and dread overtook me.

I must've made my distress audible, as the droid heard and immediately faced me. It was only when the gun on the droid started to pivot over to my head that I snapped back to reality and reflexively started scrambling away.

But I failed to move fast enough: I heard a loud gunshot followed by a very disorienting buzz on my forehead as I lost consciousness.

Chapter 7: Memoriam

View Online

Part II:

A Damaged Mind

Chapter 7 – Memoriam

I am crouched down, curled up against a tall figure. I can’t recognize her, but I know she’s important to me.

The figure whispers softly in my ear:

“Remember who you are. Remember who you are.”

A loud knocking echoes from the door, followed by numerous deafening bursts of gunfire. My ears ring, blood flowing onto the floor.

It’s at this very moment that everything begins to change.

I let out a gasp as the dream’s quickly replaced by the real world. It all comes to me at once: a tightness within my chest crushing my ribcage; the hunger, which already spikes; all of the undecipherable, though still troubling emotions that plague me; the latent imagery of a nightmare that had since burned itself into my consciousness.

Yet, somehow, in spite of all that, my mind is very much awake and aware. In fact, I feel significantly more focused and in tune with reality than ever before – in retrospect, the last few days felt as if I’ve been lagging behind in the past. But now, everything feels so much more present.

Unfortunately, I’m denied the freedom to relish in my newfound awareness as the memory of the dream soon returns, playing over and over like a broken record. I groan, clutching my head inbetween my forelegs until it passes. But it refuses to go away no matter how long I wait.

There is not a single detail of the dream that I can’t recall. Even though most of it was lacking in terms of visual clarity, the blood, in particular, I see almost perfectly, as if it were right there. The sheer vividness of the fresh, red, glistening liquid is more than enough to make me sick, planting a deep and distressing feeling within my stomach.

Barely resisting the urge to vomit, I push against the ground, standing up on wobbling hooves with my head bent downwards. I shut my eyes tightly, idle, hardly able to breathe, my windpipe choking against the very air it tries so desperately to inhale. I wait.

It takes a long time before I finally manage to catch my breath.

Even then, the hunger spike persists. I feel near my core, the feeling still as strong as when I’ve awakened. It doesn’t seem like it’ll be going away anytime soon. I have no choice but to simply tough it out until it does so.

I glance up, view parallel with the horizon. What happened? I think. Where are the others?

I run through the previous night’s events: walking westward in the dead of night, Twilight and Pathfinder arguing incessantly, getting chased by scout droids, blacking out... and then the dream.

My throat locks up once again at the thought of it. I chitter as my weight unconsciously shifts to the right, falling towards the low wall of the narrow gully. Before making contact, I try to use my forelegs to soften the blow at the last second to soften the blow, but to no avail.

I moan painfully. Removing my forelegs from the wall, I lie down against it and rub my slightly aching shoulder. At least I had the chitin to absorb some of the shock.

Taking deep breaths, I look along the gully’s walls and floor from within it, left to right:. nNothing but soil and foliage. I face back over to the middle and stare at the grass near my hooves.

I then squint, spotting a small golden object hidden within the blades.

Huh? What’s this? I wonder, pushing off the wall of the gully to reach it.

As I draw closer, I see that it’s a ring. I reach my hoof over, fiddling with it, examining it. When one particular motion flips the object onto its side, I find a nasty bullet hole embedded into the otherwise smooth surface.

I stop. I remember getting shot right before blacking out... and yet, I’m fine right now. How could that be?

Maybe...

Slowly, I sit up and lift a foreleg up to the top of my head. I feel around the base of the horn – the fact that something is missing from there becomes immediately apparent, and it doesn’t take long to put two and two together.

The ring Twilight put on me was accidentally shot off by the droid, I realize, glancing back down to the golden piece. Any lower, and I’d be dead.

I give off a short amused hum. "Good thing that didn't happen," I murmur, running the flat of my hoof against the bullet hole and feeling the unique texture it had created.

Twilight slid this thing on my horn to prevent me from using magic. Not that I knew how to do that. I pause, gandering up to the forest trees. My focus hadn't dwindled in the slightest since awakening, every last leaf and branch intriguing me with their sheer realness. And it's only now that I feel like this, right after the ring's absence. I remove my hoof from it and glance off to the side. Was the ring impairing my cognitive functioning somehow?

It had to have been. Perhaps it could be attributed to brain damage from the night of the thunderstorm. Still, Crystal never mentioned anything of the sort beyond my amnesia, so it was definitely the ring. There is no other likely explanation.

Clearing my throat, I stand up again, giving one final look to the ring below. Whatever the ring’s effects were, it had clearly been undone by the droid. Twilight probably made sure the ring would never be able to be taken off normally, so if sheer ballistic force was enough to make the ring fully slip off of my horn, it might've even completely nullified all of its other effects. If I were to slide it back onto my horn, it’d probably do nothing at all – not that I'm particularly eager to potentially handicap myself like that if it turns out to be at least partially functional.
Either way, it's now nothing but useless, busted jewelry, and so, giving the golden piece no further regard, I kick it aside, stepping out from the gully and onto the ground above.

I survey the surrounding area, trying to remember what I was doing. Right, last night, I recall, taking the time to think it all through. We were running. And then, I fell behind, one of the scout droids caught up to me... and then... I stop. Hold on. Where did it go? I spin around, searching the trees. Actually, why didn't it kill me? The droid had me completely disabled. Why didn't it just finish the job?

My mind answered for me unexpectedly: the droids never planned to kill any of us in the first place. If they did, the very first one would've shot us on sight; it only attacked when Twilight did, the rest of us then considered hostile by association. And sure, it tazed Crystal without provocation, but that was a non-lethal measure that had shown zero intent to destroy.

I blink. Hold on, where did that come from? How do you know all of this?

It continued: as for the one that had me in pursuit, when it knocked me out with the initial blow to my horn, it then checked my vital signs to ensure that I was no longer a danger to it. Even though I wasn't dead, it could still tell that I was nevertheless incapacitated. Therefore, it ceased to recognize me as a threat, giving it no reason to expend any more effort to neutralize me.

I shake my head. It was all too specific and made far too much sense to be false. Even then, I had my doubts. Okay, so, if they weren't going to kill us, then what were they doing? Why did the first droid even touch Crystal at all?

The droid probably didn't know what she was, and so marked her as a foreign lifeform. And, as with all foreign objects, she was to be examined. In fact, looking over to my left hoof, a few needle scars can be found there, mismatching my injuries from the night of the thunderstorm. Crystal was about to receive a similar treatment, the tazing only having been applied to ensure the process went smoothly. It was only to get the data it needed and then move on. As it was programmed to do.

...How do you know how it was programmed?

I have no answer for that.

I remember how quickly I recognized the scout droids when I first saw them. I might've not known what they were initially, but it still eventually came to happen. Twilight questioned how I was easily able to identify them – now, I find myself sharing such suspicions. If this is my memory coming back, then how come the droids seem so much more familiar to me than my own species?

I shake my head. I should move on. The whole matter's a dead end for now. After rubbing my eyes, I continue from where I've left off: Alright, I start, so, where are you, Phoenix-

My eyes go wide. Phoenix. "Is that... holy shit,” I whisper softly, “that's my name." Right after, something else comes to mind: 713. Right there, plain as day: a name and a number.

I rub my fins, looking up, down, and straight ahead as I mutter the two things repeatedly. "Phoenix, seven-one-three. Phoenix, seven-one-three. Phoenix, seven-one-three. Phoenix, seven-one-three... seven-one-three."

The number seems important somehow, yet, frustratingly enough, I can't remember why. I search my memory for anything that could tell me of its significance, but I've nothing more than what I have already got. It doesn't help that the hunger somehow still hasn't stopped spiking, only making it harder to think.

I sigh. As much as it irks me to have forgotten something that seems so crucial, I need to concentrate.

Location; what's my location? I think, looking around. Let's see, somewhere in White Tail Woods... and that's as far as my knowledge goes? Alright. Then what about Twilight? Pathfinder? Crystal? I pause. They aren't dead, right?

But that's the thing: I can only assume that Crystal, Pathfinder, and Twilight have all successfully fled away from the droids. If not, then I'm lost. If I'm lost, then, most likely, I'm dead as well. Still, I have good reason to believe they are alive; Twilight ought to be skilled enough to have seen to that.

Okay, not dead. So, where would they have fled off to?

Most likely, they would've gone to the cave. There aren't really any other places I can think of that they would've chosen, so it’s my best bet. If there's anything that I should do right now, it is to make my way back there A.S.A.P..

And so, I have a clear goal in mind at last. The only problem is that I don't know what direction will lead me to the cave. I do know, number one, that I was running in the same direction as Pathfinder and Twilight and, number two, I was running perpendicular to the gully before I tripped into it. So this means I can go forwards or backwards, as those are the only two directions that won't have me travel parallel to it. Unfortunately, this only gives me a measly fifty-fifty chance of going the right way. I need a better method.

I sit on my haunches, letting my eyes shut. It's okay, I just have to think about this. When we first left the cave, we were heading towards The Undiscovered West, which I can safely assume is indeed over to the western direction. The cave being east can then be extrapolated from that.

No, no, it's the exact same problem. I don't know what direction 'east' is as much as I know what direction the cave is. I sigh. I still have the option of guessing, I suppose, but if I guess wrong, then I'm only wasting sunlight- wait.

The sun. Of course! If I know where it rises and sets at, I can determine east and west. I look through the forest's canopy, searching for it.

There.

Though partially hidden by the leaves, I still spot the sun laying right in the middle of the sky. Unfortunately, I don't know – or, at least, I don't remember – where it rises from, as that can differ from planet to planet. The only thing I can deduce is that it's currently halfway through the day. Not particularly encouraging.

Actually, hold on: what planet am I on, anyways? Obviously, this isn't my home planet. These changeling creatures seem to be foreign to this world, so I'm likely an alien to it. I still don't know what the planet's name is however...

I shake my head. Concentrate, I stress. There’ll be time to ask someone about this later.

Alright: yesterday, I remember the sun setting behind some kind of mountain range. And that was before we left for The Undiscovered West. Also, when we left, we were heading in the direction of the mountains. So, I can then conclude that the sun sets in the West, which consequently means that it also rises in the East.

East, then West. I look straight up again, tilting my head in order to find the sun again. It had changed position slightly since I had last seen it. Additionally, it's going forwards, or, West, relative to me. Therefore...

...I need to go backwards.

I turn around, carefully stepping into the gully and out of it once more, looking through the vast forest laid out before me ahead. Then, I proceed to walk, starting my long journey to White Tail Hills.

I ought to keep an eye out, I think. There could be other droids out here, lurking around this forest. I need to exercise caution if I wish to survive. A twig snaps underneath my hoof as I step on it, making me look behind at it for a moment before facing the front again. The changelings, too. Though, I should be fine if I don't stray too far from the trees; I think they mostly keep to the skies.

I pause. Changelings in the sky... wasn't I going to think about the whole incident with the Pegasai? Must've slipped my mind.

I can still recall the event with great clarity – death isn't something that one easily forgets. It might've slipped my mind for a while, but I haven't forgotten the Pegasai whizzing about the clouds as they cleared them out, nor the changelings as they looked on. And, of course, what followed.

Even then, I suppose witnessing the whole ordeal didn't trouble me as much as it probably should have. Everyone else seemed to have been at least somewhat bothered by it, but I never came close. Maybe Crystal's right to be so worried about me; who sees all that and yet not give it a second thought?

I take a deep breath. I'm getting overly concerned about this, I'm fine. There are more important things to be thinking about.

Alright. When the changelings killed all of those Pegasai, they spared only one of them. Why would they do that?

Sidestepping a tree, I narrowed my eyes, considering the question. Perhaps I should start by listing out all of the basic details of the scenario, one by one. That way, everything will be put into better context, and so will hopefully be easier to analyze.

First of all, what was the changelings' overall goal? There had to be an ulterior motive to the killings; it wouldn't make sense otherwise to do it for its own sake. So what were they trying to accomplish?

"The changelings aren't stupid, Pathfinder," Twilight's voice sounds in my mind. "They must know that, in order to maintain balance in nature within Equestria, the weather must be controlled."

The weather must be controlled, I echo. That's what they were trying to do, weather control. And so, with that, I have my first fact:

1) The changelings' overall goal was to maintain Equestria's ecosystem via weather control.

I hear Twilight speaking in my mind again: "It’s interesting as to why they would need the Pegasai in the first place," I recall. "...the changelings can't control the weather on their own, or there aren't enough of them..."

I look off to the side. So, which one is it then?

Well, there isn't really a good way of knowing which one is correct. The best I can do is assume one of them to be true and the other false. I don't like doing that, but it's necessary in order to move on:

2) Assumption: the changelings can't do this by themselves.
3) Because of that, they need the Pegasai.

Now, what of the Pegasai themselves? Pathfinder mentioned they were all good fliers, right? Hmm... except he was wrong; the Pegasus that was spared was slow enough for the changelings to catch, so:

4) Nearly all the Pegasai likely processed at least above-average flight ability.
5) Only one Pegasus was an exception to that, perhaps being average, or maybe even below average.
6) The changelings' overall flight ability was probably superior to said Pegasus's.

Okay, is that everything? I paused. Oh, right. The obvious:

7) The changelings only proceeded to execute the Pegasai, save for the one with lesser flight abilities, after a single individual attempted to flee. After the execution, they then took the surviving Pegasus along with them, presumably returning back to wherever they came from.

Now finished, I repeat the facts in order within my head to ensure that I am familiarized well enough with them. Afterwards, I look through them, trying to find some sort of pattern, or even just anything that sticks out in particular.

I shake my head. Huh. Nothing immediately noticeable yet. I look up to the sun. It had changed position considerably, though still not even a quarter way through the western half of the sky. I suppose I can return to this matter another time. Waiting might give me a fresher perspective on things, anyway.

As if on cue, I hear a growling from my stomach.

I glance down. That, and it would appear that I have more... pressing issues now.

My literal hunger for love had distracted me from a different need: one for solid food. Of course, it only makes sense that I would only come to notice it now. Even now, the ‘love-hunger’ significantly outweighs the other, almost masking it to the point where I need to focus in order to feel past it, especially as it continues to spike. I'm actually quite concerned that it hasn't ceased doing that yet. Could it be a sign that my love-hunger's getting worse?

As if to answer my question, I suddenly feel intensely weak. Before I know it, I'm on the ground, groaning out in pain as I clutch my sides. Unfortunately, it only gets worse, the love-hunger slowly bleeding out from my core and spreading to the rest of my body, getting more and more painful. By the time it creeps into the furthest reaches of my extremities, it's completely intolerable. It feels like I'm freezing to death and being burned alive all at once, as paradoxical as that sounds. I want to scream, but I can't even bring myself to do that. Only a staggered, wailing groan escapes my throat. I am barely able to focus hard enough to silence myself with the flat of my hoof. Leaving nothing but my quiet chittering echoing through the otherwise silent forest.

Then, as sudden as it came, it goes away. I let out a heavy breath, as if I've surfaced from deep water. I take a long moment to calm down, sucking in deep breaths. My head spins as I slowly stand, legs shaking. I don't think I've felt anything close to pain of that caliber in my whole life.

It wasn't spiking at all this morning, was it? What just happened was the spike. It definitely got worse. I shake my head, looking back forwards. I need to get rid of this hunger, fast; God knows how much worse it'll get later.

But how?

I sigh. Let's face it, I'm completely lost. I need to find the others; they might be the only ones who'll know what to do.

I hear a familiar growling again, making me notice that the need for food is still there, waiting. Alright, if I can't fix the love-hunger, I should at least know how to handle hunger of this kind.

I look around, trying to locate a source of food. Okay, I'm a changeling. What else do changelings eat other than what I've had before? I roll my tongue over my pearly white fangs. Meat. I think I've had that before. Not sure how good of a hunter I am though; guess I’ll be finding that out the hard way. In the meantime, I should also keep an eye out for more vegetarian options, like berries or crab apples.

I slowly walk forwards, head pivoting around my neck as I search for game and other sources of food. However, aside from the birds I hear from up ahead, those of which I probably won't be able to catch, there's nothing to be found.

Patience, Phoenix, I tell myself before shaking my head – it feels so odd to actually have a name now. Even if it’s technically not all that new.

As I wait for some game to show up, I watch the birds fly from tree to tree, chirping as they go. They sing all sorts of songs: some sound joyful, others not so much, carrying a more melancholic feeling. Some are fearful, a few going so far as to be of anger. Two birds, in particular, sit upon a branch high above me, their songs seeming to even be of love. For some odd reason, I find it to be rather entrancing, and I find myself subconsciously walking over to them in a trance.

As I get closer, the feeling of love gets more intense. I stare at the birds as they sing and dance closely with one another, appreciating the music. I could listen to this without end. I wish to get even closer so I can hear it more clearly, but this is as far as I can get. I never knew a birdsong could carry so much emotion; it's intoxicating.

The dance itself is interesting. One bird's mouth lovingly touches the other's wings, nipping at it as if it were preening. It's fascinating how it's able to do that with its beak and sing at the same time; how does it do it? The other bird, in contrast, lies still as its partner does their routine, though it does flap its feathers every now and again.

How interesting, I think, it's a sort of dance that mimics preening...

I stand up on my lower legs, softly placing my other two hooves on the tree bark to get a closer look at the bird. I glance up to its beak, watching as it sings-

Wait. The beak's not moving.

Confused, I fall back to the floor, staring downwards. I then look back at the branch.

Now that I think about it... I don't hear any kind of song from those two birds at all.

I think some more.

That's not dancing, either, I realize. They're actually preening. My face slowly falls to the horizon. But... I can still feel the emotion of their song. How? How am I feeling the emotion of a song that doesn't even exist?

I look around me, eyes moving from one tree to the next. Different emotions flow from them like before, but I notice that not each one is accompanied by a birdsong. Indeed, some are completely silent. Nevertheless, each one carries at least one kind of emotion.

Grief. Joy. More joy. Anger. Fear. All from a tree that seldom makes a single sound, yet exhibits all these emotions. Like I can sense all of these birds' feelings directly...

Finally, I start to understand. Of course. I'm a changeling; I feed off of love to survive. That's how I know what they're feeling. I swing my head over to the preening birds. It's a sixth sense; an evolutionary adaptation, perhaps, used in order to locate sources of love. No wonder I was trying to get close to those birds – my survival instincts are acting up.

I furrow my eyes. Survival... my hunger. I can finally get rid of it now. I just need to find a way to suck the love out of those things. I poke my tongue on a fang. I assume one uses their fangs to accomplish such a task. A bit like a vampire, perhaps. Now, only to close the distance.

I stand against the tree once more, observing its height. The birds aren't far up; just two meters high. I circle the trunk of the tree, searching for a way to climb, but am able to find nothing. Not even a low branch.

"Fuck," I lightly mutter, stopping. "How in the hell do I get up there?"

I pause, craning my head over to my back. Blue, translucent wings greet me. I've almost forgotten those were there. Actually, I don't know why flying wasn't the first thing I thought about. Maybe I'm just so used to walking by now that it slipped from my mind. Either way, now that I do remember, it should be a lot easier to reach those birds now. Sitting up and straightening out my spine, I prepare to fly.

...

Except, I don't remember how.

You've got to be kidding me. I rub my eyes. Okay, not a problem. I just have to relearn. I glance back over to my wings. Let's see... I muse, closing my eyes and focusing, proceeding to twitch random muscles on and around my back in an effort to find the ones I needed to flex. For Christ's sake, this really shouldn't be that difficult. I ought to know how to flex a pair of muscles that I've probably used thousands of times before, easily. Like my arms, legs, nec-

I abruptly stop, opening my eyes. Arms. Where'd I get that from? I hold out my forelegs, staring at them. Arms... The word seems really familiar to me, and I can almost grasp the concept behind it, but I still can't picture anything in my mind. Almost as if it were struggling to piece it all together.

I shake my head, quickly returning to my back and continuing.

A whole minute passes, but I still can't get my wings to move. This is really strange. Are they broken? Crystal said they should be fine by now, right? So why wouldn't they-

A wing twitches.

Nevermind, seems like I got it.

I try flexing the same spot, and it happens again.

Alright, now the other one.

I move my focus to the opposite side and, though it still takes some work, I manage to do the same thing to the other wing after a couple of tries. I then twitch both muscles over and over, and I can't help but grin slightly at my progress. I look up at the tree, the birds' love still holding strong. My grin fades. It will nevertheless still take a lot of practice before I'm able to fly up there.

"Ah, f-fu-fuuck," I breathe, shutting my eyes tightly, trying to block out another hunger spike. The pain spreads out like a wildfire again, burning and freezing, making me chitter once more as I fall under my own weight. The birds' love suddenly turns to fear, such emotions then quickly moving away from me as they fly away. I crack one eye open, watching them leave. "No..." I murmur, reaching out with a trembling hoof, "d-don't..." I rest my head on the grass. "GOD F-FUCKING DAMm- agh,” I choke. “DAMMIT!" I yell, clutching my abdomen.

All around me, more emotions fly away, spooked by my voice. By the time the spike finishes and I stand, I come to realize just how empty my mind feels.

I shake my head. "It was right there," I mutter, "right fucking there. And then my damned hunger shows up and flushes everything straight down the shitter as I try to give it the very thing it wants. What kind of curse is this?" I sigh, dusting myself off. It was pointless anyways. It probably would've taken the entire rest of the day before I'd be able to fly well enough to have reached those birds. And even then, they'd just fly away before I would be able to get too close. If anything, that spike did me a favor.

My stomach growls again, reminding me of my other hunger.

I pause. Right. That's what I was going to take care of in the first place before I got distracted by all the birds.

I walk away from the tree, searching for food again. Still nothing. My eye falls on a bush, lush and green. Somehow, amidst all of the tension of my predicament, I've forgotten that I am capable of consuming raw leaves. However, from what I've gathered, it's not ideal. It'd be best to find something more nutritious.

I glance at my abdomen and back to the bush. I suppose I should at least have some of it for the road; it's better than nothing.

I make my way to the bush and bite off a leaf. Just as bland as last time. Chewing and swallowing, I eat more, ripping off multiple leaves at the same time. Soon, I've had my fill. Probably not as sustainable as most of what I've been eating before today, but, at the very least, it should silence my hunger for food until later.

Moving past the bush, I feel around my maw, picking at small chunks of leaf that had gotten stuck in between my teeth. Notably, my mouth feels quite dry. And now I'm thirsty. Out with one problem, in with the next one.

A faint buzzing from up above, hidden behind the trees, catches my attention, my ears stiffening as I turn to that direction. It sounds like an insect- no two insects- no, not insects. I hear them too clearly for how far away they are; they're changelings. And they're only getting closer.

...Well, it's 'out with one problem, in with the other two', now.

I frantically search for a place to hide. Fuck me, come on... here. Hastily, though still careful to not make a sound, I slip inside a thick bush as I hear the changelings dip underneath the canopy. Lowering myself down, I listen:

"...-aid it came from around here," one voice, a female, says.

A short pause.

"I don't see shit, Vytryx," says another voice, male. "Sure Pheris ain't just being all panicky?"

"Pheris might not be the brightest 'ling to walk the face of Terra, Hyphyn, but I trust her. She definitely heard a scream coming from this place."

Terra, I echo.

A huff, followed by incoherent mumbling. I cautiously peek out from the bush, staying close to the dirt. Sure enough, I find two changelings more than a few meters away, standing slightly to the left side of my vision. Their bodies face eachother, neither of which in my general direction.

Hyphyn, who was briefly shaking his head while looking off to the side, looked back. "She heard a scream," he echoed. "And you two think it's a pony?"

"What the fuck else could it be?!" Vytryx exclaims, looking around. "A fuckin' dragon? This far west?"

"Well, maybe it was one of us!" Hyphyn retorts. "We lost a lot of 'lings after that thunderstorm the Pegasai made to try and wipe us out!"

"Yeah, I know what happened, scrag; I was part of the search party!" she fires back. "And guess what: we found everyone that went missing! Alive or dead, we found all of them!"

He waves a hoof at her. "Nuh-uh, not all of them. Nobody's found Amix, Elgnyx, or Aeres yet."

Vytryx rolls her eyes. "Whatever, they're probably all dead by now anyways," she says. "If starvation hadn't killed them, then it was that caster, what's-her-name, Twilight Sparker."

"...You mean 'Sparkle'?"

"Oh what, you obsessed with her?"

"No, I hear her damn name tossed around, like, every day. It's burned into my mind." He turns around. "And that's besides the point, Vytryx. She's dead."

"Really? You didn't hear?"

Hyphyn looks back. "Hear what?"

"The 'lings sent to kill her and the other caster are all dead," she says matter-of-factly. "Kinda surprised you didn't know about that."

He chitters nervously. "What? Are you kidding me?! She's still alive?! Oh, fuck, we're so dead; we're gonna die here!"

"Oh, shut up," Vytryx dismisses. "Quit being such a grub. She's gone; nobody's seen her for days. Probably gone off somewhere far away by now."

"How do you know that?" Hyphyn says, chittering again.

"I swear on the hive- we're fine," she assures.

"Yeah, you won't be saying that when she shows up," he mumbles.

"I'll be fucked if she does. Now, come on, we have a job to do. We slacked off plenty enough already." Vytryx moves away from him, looking at the ground. "See any tracks anywhere?"

Hyphyn takes a deep breath. Briefly buzzing his wings, he walks, joining her. "Not yet," he says, eyeing the ground.

"Well then go look somewhere else! We don't need two 'lings looking at the same patch of dirt!"

"Yeah, I know! Ugh." He walks off over to elsewhere.

With that, their conversation ends. I note that not once have I sensed the slightest bit of emotion from either of them. Also, they haven't seemed to have sensed mine, either. Apparently, changelings aren't able to sense eachother's feelings. At least for me, that's a good thing, or I would easily have been found already.

They might find me soon, though, I think, if there are any tracks they find that lead up to this bush. I watch as they search, considering my predicament some more. Actually, why am I trying to avoid them in the first place? They're my kin, aren't they? They wouldn’t do anything to me. It might even be smart to reveal myself. The changelin- we, seem to be on the winning side, after all. Besides, I'm dying. They'll know how to best satiate the hunger if anyone.

I look up. I have family with the changelings, maybe even friends. If I see them all again, that might also help to bring my memory back sooner. Hell, I could even tell them where Twilight is. They clearly want her badly, so it's a good opportunity to give myself a good reputation right off the bat.

Crawling out of the bush is starting to sound like a good idea right now. And then, as a bonus, they'll also be getting Pathfinder and Crystal. I'd be considered a hero in their eyes at that poin- I suddenly breathe out. "Crystal..." I utter softly, barely audible to even myself.

I look down. She cares about me. A lot. How would she feel if she found out that I was the one who told the changelings where they were all hiding? Already, I didn't like the mental image that entered my mind. She'd feel betrayed, or disappointed, or maybe even angry. And that's aside from the fact that she saved me. And how am I to return the favor? By stabbing her in the back?

If I were to be honest, I hardly care for the other two ponies, but Crystal? I can't do that to her. I simply cannot. Perhaps if the situation were any different, I would go along with telling the changelings where Twilight and Pathfinder are. Then again, it's impossible for it to be any different, isn't it? Crystal's the only reason I'm still breathing at all. The only way I'd be alive otherwise is if I had never gotten caught in that thunderstorm.

Alright, but I'm still dying right now. Surely, it's still a good move to at least go with Hyphyn and Vytryx? I don't have to utter a single word about any of the three ponies.

I breathe deeply. Crystal would be devastated if she ever found out that I left her for the changelings. Of course, I have to do it so I don't die, but I wouldn't be able to tell her that. Aside from the fact that I would have a hard time finding her again, I'd never be able to explain any of that to my fellow changelings. I wouldn't be able to tell Crystal a single thing. As far as she would be concerned, I had left her, plain and simple.

I slowly paw at the ground with a hoof, looking at the dirt through one of its holes. I might live if I go with the changelings, sure... but would I be able to live with myself? Could I do that with the knowledge that Crystal will spend the rest of her days thinking of me like that?

No. I couldn't.

Resolved, I glance back up to the two changelings, who are still in search of tracks. I know what I must do now: get away from them before they find me.

But how?

I can't move from this bush without making a sound. I could do it slowly, quietly, but they're too close; they'll still hear me. I could stay here and wait until they leave, but then I leave it all to fate; if they find any tracks that belong to me that lead to this bush, I'm toast.

"Hey, Vytryx!" Hyphyn yells from a distance; I lift my head slightly. "Look at this! Something's been munching off of this bush!"

The bush I was eating from, I realize.

"Really?" she says, "Hold on, let me see." She makes her way over to him.

That bush is pretty far away. Far enough that they wouldn't be able to hear me. I can hardly believe my own luck; I might make it out of here without getting caught after all.

I wait until Vytryx is far away enough before I steadily push on the ground, maneuvering my body out from the opposite side of the bush. The leaves shake as I do so. More than halfway through, I hear a branch snap a bit too loud for my own comfort, and I stop. Thankfully, the changelings don't appear to have heard me, judging from the fact that I still hear their voices over at the other bush. And so, I keep going until I finally break free, standing fast and walking briskly away from the area.

Once I'm a sizable distance away, I look behind to make sure I'm not being followed, and then back in front. Relieved, I take a deep breath. Already, I know that I've made the right decision.

Flickers

by LoyalRenegade

Chapter 1: Awakening

Chapter 2: Departure

Chapter 3: The Pegasus

Chapter 4: Appetence

Chapter 5: A Lovingly Slow Death

Chapter 6: Ink on Paper

Chapter 7: Memoriam