I had a total of six energy stones in my bags and had stopped making them by the time it happened. The transition was gradual. At first, there were just one or two houses out by themselves, and I would count the distance between them with my hoof-beats. Quickly though, there wasn’t anything left to count and I was in a neighborhood.

The houses were very, consistent. They all had thatched roofs, they were all two stories, and they were all on the ground. I was satisfied with my choice of a unicorn, a pegasus might be a little out of place in a town with only surface dwellings. I was traveling close to the river, but wasn’t sticking to staying directly adjacent to it. I wanted to keep going the same direction, as to find this town’s communal buildings, but finding a creature to properly charge my stones was my ultimate goal.

Now that I thought about it, I had been in town for an awful long while to have not seen anypony, or anyone for that matter. I paused to listen, my ears swiveling back and forth. The neighborhoods around be were quiet, just the breeze. I could hear a murmur of activity coming from the south-east. So I continued in that direction reassured.

I guess my ears should have been warning enough, but it felt very sudden when I did find some ponies. I turned a corner and let out a gasp. I was surrounded. They were everywhere! It felt like I was swimming in a sea of eyes, judging eyes. Eyes that were sure to recognize me at any moment. Eyes that would see me as a monster to be hunted with pitchforks! with fire! With swords! with tar! with feathers! With anything! with everything!

I wisely chose flee back around my corner, and conceal myself in a bush. My breathing did eventually slow to a normal pace, and I could once again think in peace. If I was going to live outside Hive, I would deal with ponies. I needed emotion to fuel my magic which was how I stayed not looking like a monster that needed slaying. Ponies were going to be part of my life now, and I was going to have to get used to it. I didn’t have to stay in this town. I wasn’t going to stay in this town. I was going to get what I needed, and go to a new town with less ponies. Or maybe even less gryphons.

I just needed to get in and out I sighed, snacking on my hiding spot. Step one: charge my energy stones. Step 2: find somewhere I wanted to go. Step 3: find how to get there. It was only three steps, I could handle this. I stood up out of my bush, and bravely strode around the corner.

I really didn’t like this. I told myself stop, observe, and think. I was on a wide and unpaved road that ran east from a dock on the river. The majority of the ponies were grouped at an open market by the dock, but there were plenty popping in and out of the businesses lining it or taking a cart east. I was only one drone running on empty, so I had to look for love already being given that I could siphon off. Well, the ponies in my immediate vicinity were traveling, they read varying degrees of determination. I decided that I would go towards the mass of ponies in the market, because they had already gotten where they were going. That was a plan. I grit my teeth, swallowed my fear, moved to the edge of the crowd, and followed the plan.

Anger, that item was too expensive. Irritation, the line was too long. Disappointment, they were out of a desired product. General crowd reading was very negative, no love. Well what would someone buy at a market for someone they loved? Not the potatoes. Not the kale. Not the oranges. Flowers! We learned that in Hive. The exchange of flowers was a sign of affection. If I could pick out someone with a romantic intent, they would lead me to a buffet. I scanned: not her, or him, or him, or her… there! An adolescent, drenched in sweat and encrusted in acne, was purchasing a corsage of red roses! That was a stallion to follow!

I lingered out of the way by some trashcans, and let him get a head start. Then I followed, always keeping two lengths between us. He walked east down the road for quite a while. As we went on he proved himself to be most inefficient at travel as well. He would speed up, and I would follow. He would slow down, and I would match him. We crossed the street several times with no apparent purpose. He took turns off the main road, only to get back on it. It was a real waste of time.

We had crossed the street for the fourth time when he stopped. I looked around for his partner, but he wasn’t speaking to anyone. I slowly crept forward, perhaps I just couldn’t see them from my current vantage point. I was less than a length away when he whirled around glaring at me with bright orange eyes of fury.

“The buck do you think you're doing! Stop following me you creep! Stay the buck away from me!” he screamed, attracting the attention of many as he swung a hoof towards me in attack.

Horse-apples! Hose-apples! Horse-apples! I turned and ran. I ran as fast as my unicorn legs could carry me away from the scene. This was not good. I saw a clumping of trees up ahead and adjusted my course to take me to them. General Swift Vengeance Memorial Park, is what the sign out front read as I ran past it. Vengeance, I gulped at the word as I lept into the branches of a tall pine to hide.

I needed a new disguise, something low energy but visually drastic. Mane length, not drastic enough. Eye color, not drastic enough. Mark, I doubt anypony had even seen it. I would just have to try for coat color. I started to shift from my current black to a brilliant blue. It was proving… difficult. I was only about halfway through when the headache hit. I had no magic left to give! Quickly, I stopped casting. I needed to be able to hold this form just a little longer. I lay down on my branch to just breath.

My coat was different at least. It was kind of a grey-blue hybrid littered with thousands of small black dots. I didn’t exactly blend in, but at the very least my wings were still hidden. That wasn’t going to last for much longer though. Who could I feed emotion from. There were ponies on benches, ponies trotting around a path, and foals playing on … some playing equipment.

Foals! They were just a constant whirlwind of emotion! To my left were the perfect candidates! There was a lime green adolent mare pushing a turquoise filly back and forth on a pendulum. I could see their laughter and feel their unity and affection. With a smile I lit my horn and reached out to feed, but was too far away.

This situation was not ideal, I would have to creep closer. Cautiously, I climbed down out of my tree. Nobody had noticed me. I trotted around the path and sat down on the bench closest to the pair, mimicking the ponies around me. I lit up my horn and reached out to the foals. I could feel the magic pouring into me. It was a pleasant warm feeling that radiated from my core. It felt good to have my magic back. I took my fill, and started filling my stones one at a time.

“HI LADY!” someone small and blue yelled in my face, causing me to jump and drop my magic. “I noticed you were blue, and I was like I’M blue too!” a very small and very loud colt explained jumping up and down on my lap. “I had to come talk to you because I had to tell you were blue. I would know, because I know ALL the colors! Especially the blue ones! Why is your horn weird? It was going all flashy-flashy magic-magic, but you weren’t magiking anything? I would have seen it if you were, because did you know your magic is BLUE?” he screamed in my face. I shot up and started running. “YOU’RE PRETTY WEIRD BLUE LADY!” he shouted after me.

“Where to go? Where to go?” I mumbled under my breath as I ran out of the park. I still had four energy stones left to fill! Maybe a building enforcing physical restrictions on your prey would be beneficial. Yes, a building would be next step! Quikly though, which building do you run too? You were now entering the bustle of the street. Well of the three structures directly in front of you, which one looked the most quiet and empty? The Garron Public Library, located conveniently on my right, it was.

I whirled through the spinning door and stopped. Quiet, careful organization, clear labeling, and even dimmed lighting were present here. This was my kind of place. The walls were the most wonderful part though. They were filled from top to bottom with books, journals, magazines, catalogs, and any and every other way to record the written word. This was a building devoted to the non-verbal passage of information, for a mare in my situation it was heaven.

I started with finding emotion to fill my four remaining stones. Despite by bad experience a few minutes ago, I decided to once again try my luck with extracting from foals. Lucky for me, the Garron Library had blue arrowed signs to direct me to their appropriate section. Sure enough, I arrived to find a stallion reading a book aloud to his two foals in a large armchair. This time I was smart enough to levitate some books as an explanation for my magic, and took the extra caution of concealing myself behind the shelf for “Foals’ Mysteries”.

Their connection was strong, and it only took me a few pages to fill the rest of my stones. I walked out of the foals’ section cheerfully. That was step one complete! Now I just had to find somewhere to go and how to get there. I circled around the library reading all the signs I passed. Biographies, autobiographies, horror, cooking, poetry, religion, and travel! That sounded like the section for me, so I made my way over.

I chose to browse a large rack of brochures,, and began levitating them past my face. They were all so bright, this was going to be hard to choose. Eventually I just floated one of everything over to a table and sat down. There was one for Marexico with huge pyramids, but that just looked to hot. Manehatten looked way too crowded. Ponyville looked, but I didn’t think I could handle living that close to the elements of harmony. Vanhoover was also too crowded.This one was covered in hearts. My well-being was directly linked to hearts, so I picked that one up to read through.

“Come see the beautiful Crystal Empire! After living under the iron hoof of the former King Sombra for one thousand years, were happy to be back. Our very own empress of love Princess Mi Amora Cadenza, defeated Sombra and restored our most valued treasure: the Crystal heart. This city may be located in the freezing tundra, but it’s always a warm spring day in the Crystal Empire thanks to the crystal heart! The crystal heart reflects the love of the people out through the air, encasing our city in a protective dome that keeps out both cold and evil kings!” I read.

This city had an artifact that gathered love and projected it through the air? How could Hive not know about this? It was a dream come true! If I lived there I wouldn’t have to hunt down love, the air was full of it! The only issue was that I would be living very close to a certain pink princess who had slain an entire army of changelings, I gulped. Still, the opportunity to never have to hunt down my food again? It was a risk I was willing to take.

Only a few minutes had passed since I’d fulfilled step one, and now I was done was step two. I was going to the Crystal Empire! Last and most importantly was how to get there. Looking at the brochure, the Empire had a train station. I guess the question was whether or not Garron had one. I neatly refolded the brochures, slipped the one for the Empire into my bags, and returned the rest to their proper arrangement on the shelves. I could ask somepony about the train, but that would make me stick out. A pony who lived here would know where the train was, and sompony from out of town would have come in on thee train. No, chances were very high that if I followed the one main street away from the river that I would find the train.

I pranced over to the door happy to have replenished my magic supply. I moved to revolve my way through the door, but as I did an alarm started to go off. Horse-apples! I had overstayed my welcome! I ran as fast as I could out the door and down the street, doing my best to disappear into the crowd.

My theory was right. At the opposite end of the road, I found the train station. There was a small train already waiting to leave. I walked up to the steps to the platform and tried to pass through the the spinning grated doors, but they refused to open for me.

“They ain’t gonna open for ya without a ticket sweetheart,” and elderly purple mare informed me. She waved a small piece of paper over a crystal in the door, and passed through to board the train. Allright then, I would acquire a ticket then.

I approached the young red stallion in the booth labeled tickets and said, “I would like a ticket, please,”.

He looked up at me and replied, “Absolutely Ma’am! Where too?”

I had not known that was a factor. “The Crystal Empire, please,” I responded.

“Wow that's quite a trip!” he said, “That will be 184 bits please!”

Currency! I had no currency! “Nevermind!” I hastily replied. I moved straight to the restroom, I needed to hind from anypony who had seen my now three mistakes.

I sat in the stall and breathed. I didn’t have any currency, ticket, or the ability to board the train. I would be okay, I told myself. I would eventually need currency, but I wouldn’t solve that I problem today. I couldn’t get on the train, no correction, I couldn’t get on the train through the train station.

I used my replenished well of magic to transform. I was a yellow pegasus mare with a medium brown and orange streaked mane, orange eyes, and a brown bag for a mark. After some consideration, I changed my morph-pack to a matching brown color. I checked myself over in the mirror, and left the bathroom flying straight up.

The train lived on the tracks. I would just fly down the tracks a little, so I was out of sight of the train station. When the train went by, I would just land and ride on the roof. So that's what I did. I lied down on one of the yellow-roofed cars near the back and watched the sunset. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep.

Author's Note

Thank you for the feedback CaptainMoke.