Your Human And You: The mask we wear.

All was peaceful in the Everfree. The sun was out, the birds were singing, it was a beautiful day.

"ARRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAGGHHOHOOH"

Until that happened.

"Holy mother of all that is sane HELP ME"

"*yawn* morning dude" Riot said half asleep.

"Riot help me" I shouted in my head.

"Whaa?" Riot yawned again.

As if right on que a large creature busted through a line of trees while I was sprinting for my life. What ever it was it is huge and some sought of lion scorpion bat...thing. I had unfortunately stumbled upon this rather...aggressive chap while I was working on something unique. I don't know what I had done but the universe decided I was going to have a bad day. A really bad day.

***

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.Dale Carnegie.

Despite having to run for my life, avoid eating poisons plants, hunting for food for the first time in a while I felt a sense of fulfillment. The clean air, the beautiful green fields and forests truly a place of fantasy and mystery, untouched by the unclean hand of civilization.

You must be wondering what has happened since my last log. The plan was to get a train but I had ran into a few snags. For one the station and train are out in the open and with the flyers around it was difficult to even approach the place. The ponies themselves have better hearing than humans and I was almost busted a few time because of a small noise I made on the dirt road. Why not wait at night to get a train? Well for one the place is locked up pretty tight and they have a small but effective guard force stationed around town at night.

Since then I have been living a green life biding my time. Riot who had now joined my little group had made himself clear about my lack of close quarters skill. True enough I was bad so I decided to take a different approach. A bow would seem ideal however the wood around the forest wasn't ideal for the strain a bow takes and for a simple blowgun I would need something like bamboo to make half decent one but the one I had made bagged be a few rabbits and birds.

While the large monster was still chasing me I pulled out a small grass pouch from my sleeve and threw it in its face. Upon contact it a white power burst forth. The monster groaned before slowing down and eventually collapsing in a large pile. The powder was from a special type of mushroom that makes it when agitated and acts as a powerful sleeping agent which I had learnt the hard way. Best four days sleep EVER.

***

Once I had cleared the beast by a large margin and taken some poison from its tail I began to make my way to my recon spot were I could observe the town from a safe distance. On the way however something felt wrong. The birds were silent, not a creature dared move, it didn't take long before I realized I was being followed but from were? Sneakily slipping another power bomb in my hand inside my sleeve and stopped moving.

"ARGGGGGGH AHHAHA" Riot screamed in my head as a huge headache spiked in my head. A huge pressure was assaulting my mind making me fall to my knees. Strange whispers filled my mind as another wave of pain surged through my head. Suddenly from the bushes bust a large insect like creature, its scythe like talons aimed at my head. I managed to roll my body out of the way as the large insect scuttled around me and soon two others joined. They came to about my chest in height, there carapace was black with a green shear, six eyes and large sharp mandibles slashed and scraped against each other.

They circled me like sharks, clicking and chirping aggressively. Another burst from the bushes and pined me on the floor, its large talons tried to slash me as I barely moved my head in time getting a large wound on my cheek and I felt the warm blood trickle from it. The other seemed to get restless as if they were cheering it on as I continued to slash at me. Taking a deep breath I threw the power in the insects face causing it to recoil of me and fall to the ground as it slept. The others looked ready to take me on as they started to scuttle quickly towards me. I felt movement in my chest as the nymph poked its head out of my coats top. The beetles froze, motionless as they stared at the nymph. Another blast of pain rose in my head as one more insect came out of the bushes but this one was different.

While the others were more armored and had talons at the front this one was more smooth and thinner. Like the others six eyes looked at me with a mixture of curiosity and caution. Six legs and a long slim torso rose to my height as well, and a pair of claws held together like a clamped hand. The nymph seemed to almost stare the other insect down as they seemed to be talking to each other silently. The nymph suddenly bit me softly and my head aches seemed to get worse for a moment.

"ɘno ƨƨɘlɿomɿɒ ɘm ɿɒɘʜ uoy nɒƆ" a voice from nowhere spoke, in absolute gibberish and a skittering after tone.

"um" I dumbly replied.

"bliʜɔ ym bniʇ uoy bib ɘɿɘʜW" It said again. Were they speaking in revers?

"Your speaking in revers" I replied.

"Where did you find my child? the voice said in a way I could understand.

"Child?" I thought looking down a the nymph.

The insect in front of me nodded as it got closer, when it did my head began to hurt again.

"May I have her?" It said as the voice sounded clearer and had a feminine tone to it.

With out doing anything the nymph made its way to what I assumed to be a queen of sorts judging by the insect solders surrounding us. Once the nymph got close to the queen its shell cracked and the nymph shredded its shell looking more like the queen now. With the two now together the queen looked at me and got closer making me feel very very uncomfortable. a talon touched my chin as she began to inspect me.

"I thank you for returning the future queen. She was taken from us. We observed you in the forest as you made your way to her. Forgive my solders they wish to eat you" She said, as the last part me me gulp. "Will you receive my blessings?" she asked.

Given the situation It seemed unwise to say no as the solders or even her could tear me to bloody ribbons. I nodded slowly as her mandibles clicked together. It was at that moment time slowed down it was brief but her claw shot forward and retraced at an insane speed. I felt no impact or harm until a spot of red came into view. The red drop slowly flew through the air as my head slowly turn to my right.

My arm was missing.

Everything went black.

***

They said it's the fatal wounds you can't feel. That statement is a lie.

"ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. OH OH GOD THE PAIN WHYYYY WHYYYYY" were my first thoughts waking up in a damp dark cave. I reached over to were my arm was rather rudely lopped off by miss psycho beetle only to find some large black cocoon thing were my arm once resided.

I freaked out. I freaked out hard. Many minuets of screaming and trying to get what ever this thing was were my arm should of been, did i mention my arm was missing. Yes. Good. Moving on.

After my break down I then took the time to look around. I was in a cave....which sucks, I was hungry too and had a sore throat. I began to walk down this cave with this thing on my arm getting any water I could that was leaking from the walls and eating small lizard like creatures. They tasted horrible and were crunchy.

Eventually I noticed that Riot was being quiet which was not like him. I don't know how but when thoughts beetle things showed up he seemed to cry out in pain as if being assaulted. Mentally at least, the beetles have a strong type of telekinesis or hive synapse. I tried thinking to him but I got no reply and soon I felt a faint scratching in my mind.

It was like a itch on the back of my head but i couldn't scratch it, it was driving me insane. It wasn't until later that I had a rather big headache and the cave started to change. Large green crystal like structures started appearing that seemed to radiate a strange energy my strange appendage itched the closer I got to them and a strange sensation filled my head. The further I went down the cave the more concentrated the crystals became and my mind once again felt assaulted.

The cave tunnel then suddenly opened up into a huge cavern witch was filled with the strange bug like creatures i had meet. A creepy experience for sure, but I had hiked for what felt like miles with nothing but small reptiles and drops of water to keep me alive. Also my right arm was gone too so I was in a bad mood.

"HEY BIG BUG I KNOW YOUR HERE" I shouted mentally into what I assumed was the hive mind.

"So you survived" a voice echoed in my mind, as the large queen emerged from the crowd. "It has matured nicely I see".

"You cut off my arm! WHAT IS THIS THING!? I shouted at her, waving my attachment around.

"You accepted my blessing and you shall see soon enough" she echoed rather ominously.

She motioned for me to follow her and she made her way to one of the crystals. The feeling again sparked and my attachment became restless again twitching rapidly. Twitching? I could feel something almost like a gooey substance as the shell on my attachment started to crack and splinter. It soon erupted and my eye would not soon forget what I saw.

Were once a human arm was attached was now black and shiny looking. Overlapping layers of carapace ran down my upper arm and a blade like mandible extended from my lower arm. Were my hand would be found was a large claw, three smaller fingers and one large thumb like claw. It looked extremely deadly.

I freaked out a bit as anyone would mostly in my mind as my body was paralysed from shock. I could feel it. The claw closed when I willed it to just like any arm would. The queen seemed satisfied with my new arm and again motioned towards the large crystal.

"This is know as a mana crystal. It stores the magical energy of living beings. Now touch it with your claw" she instructed.

As I reached out towards the crystal my arm seemed to leap forward and latch on almost as if it were a mouth. A strange flowing sensation filled my arm, like flowing water creeping up it. As this was happening the whole arm seemed to swell up and what seemed like veins glowed a radioactive green. I could feel the energy pulsing like a heartbeat as my arm finished 'drinking' the crystals glow.

"You can now harvest and store magical energy. Be it for food or as a weapon is up to you" the queen said as she motioned for me to follow her.

As we walked I tried directing the flow of energy in my arm to my new blade like appendage in my forearm. The edge of the blade glowed green and extended out like a scythe and began to vibrate and hum. Next I tried to direct it into the arm itself and almost instantly muscle and carapace covered the whole arm. This arm this thing was not to be taken lightly.

We reached what seemed like the exit of the cave and the queen spoke to me one last time.

"I will let you free now and see were that arm and the world takes you" she said as she then turned back to the cave leaving me at the entrance. The sounds of the forest filled my ears as I took a step outside.

God I am so done with caves.