And I thought we were normal. How wrong I was.

"Dispatch a squad of guards to the bottom of the cliff and search for him. I want his body found and I want a group of 100 guards, including the guard captain, dispatched to ponyville and another 15 guards put up around an address that I will supply to those brought forth to me. Have them stay in the town for 2 days after arriving to ensure that he has no plans on returning. Send a sketch artist and a scribe to me so that we can make pictures of that brute; I then want a copy sent to every guard post in Equestria. Go!" Luna shouts at the remaining guards in the room before storming off towards the dining hall.

"Luna, don't you think that's a little too extreme for one unicorn. After all, there is no way he could've survived that fall." Celestia says calling after her sister.

"Trust me dear sister; since to deals with him, you're lucky I'm not sending all of our soldiers to search for him.

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What the hell? Where's the fire death zone? I should be dead; shouldn't I?

   I open my eyes and see the cliff face glowingly the sun's radiance a small distance away covered in moss and vines. Looking behind myself I see that I am leaning against a fairly wide and tall tree and I think I am in some part of the everfree due to the familiar sounds and smells. Shouldn't I be dead now?

   I remember the events of the fall but nothing comes to mind that could've saved me. Well, there's no use in trying to figure this out. Luna won't let this slide so I need to move out before she starts to send pegasi after me. I stand up and dust myself off while keeping my eyes towards the castle to ensure that no pegasi sneak up on me. I reach up to my forehead to scratch my forehead and to help relieve some stress. For the second time since I've arrived here; that action held the opposite affect.

"Oh fuck." I whisper being mindful of my situation.

   The back of my left hand is covered by a rough plating of a midnight black coloured exoskeleton of sorts that is riddled with small deep holes. What the hell happened to me? What could've done this? I flex my fingers and find that despite the holes being in places that should be impeding my ability to use them; they work just as well as they did before. What the hell?

   I decide to look into it later when I actually have an idea of what exactly has happened. I check my watch to make sure it still works which it does with the time stating 5:47. Next I check to make sure my necklace is still affixed around my neck and thankfully it is even though my expectations were that it had fallen off and broken during my descent. I turn around to check my back for anything strange and I notice something strange not on my back but rather where my back had been against the tree.

   Against the back of the tree are two huge burn marks is the rough shape of wings about 15cm longer than my back. I walk over and look at them wondering how these got here. Hmm. It's like some kind of bird with wings of fire sat against it. Wait; that would be a phoenix. From what I can see there aren't any phoenixes around here and those marks are exactly where my back was against the tree. Wait; Safaia said something about her being a phoenix, if that's so then... Oh shit; did I fly? If there aren't any phoenixes around here then the only thing I can assume is that those two inside of me did something to help me and if that's true it could mean that these holes in my hand are from Hitsuki's origins.

"Huh, I'm jumping to too many random conclusions but if it was you two, thank you. You really saved my ass there." I say humbly.

   Planning time. First; I need to distance myself from here and find a road. Second; I need to figure out which direction ponyville is in and walk through the everfree towards it so I can retrieve that book and change my clothes. Third; I need to get any books on changelings I can from the library at night since I'm almost certain Luna will be sending guards there to catch me. When did I become such a clear thinker?

   I come to the decision that walking along the perimeter of the cliff will probably get me to a road much faster than walking through a mostly unpopulated forest. I start off in a sprint to distance myself as quickly as possible from the area where I fell. I remember seeing canterlot quite far from ponyville so I can guess it could only be about 8 hours away if I ran and about 10 or so if I walk, both of these assuming that it's a nice flat walk.

   After running for about 15 or so minutes I come across a path heading in what I can guess is the general direction of ponyville. To keep up at least a slight factor of stealth I decide to walk through the everfree, but to stay close enough to the path that I can watch and follow it.

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   After a rough 12 hours of walking through the forest I begin to notice a few odd things. Previously when I had walked into the forest the animals would scurry away from me out of fear. However in this case the smaller creatures are actually running towards me. While small animals such as rabbits may not seem odd, some of these small creatures confuse me. I can no longer honestly say that I've never seen a half chicken half wyvern run away in fright or that I still think this place is safe. As I'm walking I notice carcasses of deer being devoured by vultures and maggots.

   Where I am is not an easy place to walk, or rather climb, though. Since the sun is nearly set there is a minimal amount of light outside of the forest but even less inside of the dense canopy of vines and branches. The roots of the tree where I am are simply astounding in their size and they rise out of the ground about a meter or so. As if to give me an even worse time I am on a hill that rises at about a 35 degree angle so in addition to having to walk around on top of the roots I cannot stand with great balance or composure.

   I decide to take a break due to my exhaustion and hunger and I sit down with my back against the tree and my legs sit on the tangled roots. The exhaustion isn't bad but the hunger and constant fear are what have really gotten to me. While I have dealt with my own share of stress the stress of being chased by the royal guard is on a completely different tier of mental pressure. My clothes were torn asunder early on by a large collection of thorns and I'll most likely discard this set after I get my other pairs back. I feel bad about getting rid of what was once a fine piece of clothing but at this point it has been rendered beyond use and if any fashion respecting pony saw me wearing this set I'd most definitely get my ass chewed out.

"MOTHER FUCKER!" I scream as pain shoots through the palm of my left hand.

   I look down immediately and I am met with a very scary and awkward sight. A growling wolf's head has grown out of the tree and bit into my hand. The large fangs couldn't penetrate the new plating on the back of my hand. The lower set of teeth got through my skin but was thankfully impeded by the underside of the plating and didn't get deep enough to cause any bleeding. Two large predatory yellow eyes are affixed to the head and the large twisted fangs with what seems to be sap coating and flowing down the fangs complete the ghastly image of this unforeseen and vicious predator.

   I manage to rip my hand away and I fall over the roots of the trees until I manage to regain some footing. I stare at the strange head affixed to the tree.

"What the hell?" I say as something I never expected to happen occurs.

   A full body wooden wolf walks out of the tree and growls at me loudly and scratches its sap coated wooden claw against the vines. Immediately after this 7 others sink out of the trees and come up through the roots behind the first one. A pack; how quaint.

   Three of the wolves rush forwards at me with incredible speed and instinctual determination. I immediately try to use my light cancelation over the surrounding area but I find the seal in my mind to be filled with a feeling of hostility and a dark gray colour. To my delight, before they can reach me, I manage to bring up a telekinetic grip on the lose branches and roots to bring up a shield about 10m from me. Through the holes I can see the wolves jump directly into my shield, but, to my disgust, they simply flow through the branches and keep up their sprint. Damnit; they just go through wood and my cancelation spell won't work; I can't use any of the materials around here to fight with.

   Before the three wolves can reach me I jump out of the way before they can pounce on me. I use the escape teleportation on instinct and I end up behind the three that ran at me. I kick the center one out of the way and I grab the other two by the rough bark of their necks and throw them back at the main group. To my disadvantage the center one simply merged into the roots and I have no way of knowing where it went and the other two have done the same. Rather than trying to win such a one sided fight I quickly activate the speed step spell and I dash off as quickly as I can up the hill toward where I know ponyville is. Don't judge me. I'm a thief at heart so it's only natural that I'd run from a fight. I may be a 'gentleman/colt' but I'm not some sort of knight. I look over my shoulder after I get over the apex of the hill to see the the pack of wooden wolves are still following me and going slightly faster than I am. I am able to increase my speed though since the ground is no longer littered with roots and I nearly trip multiple times. I finally trip and roll out into an open field of grass and I throw up and look towards the woods to see that the wolves stopped on the edge of the tree line with their yellow eyes gleaming with annoyance. We continue to glare at each other until they slowly turn around and run off back up the hill.

"Well that was fun as fuck. See you later assholes." I say before standing up and spitting out the remnants of vomit in my mouth.

    I look at my left hand's palm and see 6 holes through the skin which aren't deep enough to bleed and are filled with the colour of my exoskeleton-like plating. It's durable, good. I sit there for a few minutes trying to think of any various reasons as to why my spell for light cancelation failed but yet the others worked.

"It just felt so... impure and repulsive. I couldn't feed any magic into it and it almost hurt just to think of. I don't have that repressor on my horn anymore so my magic should be unrestricted. Why didn't it work?" I say aloud for the same of just hearing something semi-pleasant.

   I turn back around to the open field behind me to see that I have arrived at the outskirts of ponyville. However, the sight it not as pleasant as I had hoped because I can count at least 8 golden blobs from where I am. Damnit; I didn't beat the guards here. I half expected that though, they were able to use the roads and fly. I had to walk through a forest of death. I take out my watch and kneel on the ground to check the time which is now 6:30 p.m. or rather to fit my own liking 1830. I can tell it will be dark soon from the already darkening sky and that I can no longer, or rather I still cannot, see the sun. I won't be able to see in the forest after dark and it will be harder for the guards to see me then, but I doubt Luna left that place unguarded. Still it's my best bet at getting the things I need in the most efficient way and from the looks of it the guards have the town on a strict lockdown. Getting in at night still won't be easy since they'll most likely have some torches up but it's much easier to see a dark gray silhouette moving through a green field at sunset than it is to see a dark gray silhouette at night moving through a blackened field. I think before creeping back off into the woods where thankfully none of the previous wolves attack me. Now to make my way home. I kind of like this sneaky life style.

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