Severance

Chapters

Welcome to the Neighborhood
Skipping Through Time
Uninvited
Something to Think About
Chapter 7
Conflicting Moralities
Not in the Schedule
Homeward Bound
Homeward Bound, Part 2
Four Bits a Jar
Chapter 13
Becoming a Land Owner
The Waiting Game
Not My Fault
Rescue Operation
Doubt
Chapter 20
Goal Oriented
Quantum Shenanigans
I'm T-N-T...
...Maybe it Was, a Little Bit...

Welcome to the Neighborhood

I flopped into the small bed I had within the cave. The red haired pony was safely tucked away in another cocoon. *groan* Transporting the new ponies is always the most taxing part of this job. Long distance teleportation had proven to be either far too taxing or simply impossible for me to do, so my cargo is transported by stringing together small teleports. Over nice clear terrain I could get about half a mile per shot. And while Dodge Junction isn't all that far from the forest, relativly speaking, especially when compared to Baltimare, it still left me exausted. Once my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.

At some point I was awoken by the throbbing in my forelegs, the miracle cream must've finally worn off. I looked over and saw Zecora muttering something over her little cauldron, occationally switching between stirring and adding more things to the pot, she had also taken her cloak off at some point. I must not have been sleeping too long, she's not even done making her potion yet. Of course I don't know how long it takes to make, and now that I think about it I don't remember seeing another cot either. Craning my neck to see past the tree above me, I caught a glimps of sunlight. Too bright to be from the same day as I fell asleep. Damn you Zecora and your unquestioning selflessness! I'm going to feel in your debt for a while.

I must have let out a sigh when I wasn't paying attention because Zecora turned and gave me a harty 'good morning', or at least that was the jist of it. She seemed surprisingly chipper for having stayed up all night. Probably had some equivalent potion to five hour energy. Ha, I wouldn't doubt that she can make pepper up potions.

And so I continued to lie there, listening to Zecora's gibberish and just looking at things. Eventually my eyes settled on her cutie mark, bringing up the question of whether or not it actually was a cutie mark or just some tattoo. It seems to be implied that only ponies get cutie marks, though zebras are basically just re-colored earth ponies, from a purely visual perspective anyway. I wonder if tattoos even exist here? They would need a chemical or potion with the ability to permanently change the root color of their fur for it to work, so I doubt it.

When she started to get up I quickly redirected my head, I didn't need her thinking I was checking her out or anything. Not that she isn't check-out worthy. In this situation symmetry seems as good a judgment of attractiveness as any, and she is quite... symmetrical.

"The potion is ready, drink this and it will fix you up in a jiffy," she said while holding the bowl over my face as I prepared to have it poured down my throat. A few quick gulps later and I was ready to see what it feels like to have my bones instantly nit themselves back together.

It was surprisingly unpainful, meerly a powerful tingling feeling that sent shivers through my whole body. Once the feeling had passed I couldn't feel anymore pain so I immediatly got off the cot and started stretching my legs. "Oh that feels so good. It's funny how you don't realize how stiff you are until you start moving again." I gave a couple quick jerks to pop the joints in my neck before turning back to Zecora. "Thanks for going through all this trouble for me Zecora. I won't be able to pay you back for a while though, I'm kinda broke right now."

"There is no reason to fret, I did not do this to aquire your debt. I will always be here to help those in need, I desire no reward for a good deed."

"Well, if your sure I guess I'll be out of your way then. I hope to see you again sometime Zecora, take care!" With that I headed off into the woods. I had noticed a small dirt path on our way to the clearing yesterday. If i could find it again, I could follow it into town.

I can probably introduce Zecora to the town early as a thank you. Her hut from the show had a much larger cauldron, an actual bed, a front door and, of course, walls. That'll all be a lot easier to get if she can actually go into town and buy stuff, and I doubt this one event will be too earth shattering, not that cannon really applies anymore.

Sooner or later I had successfully found my way out of the forest and into the rolling hills of the countryside outside Ponyville. Right, to the library! Like hell am I going another minute without knowing how to use this stupid horn. Now to brush up on my excuses.

As I continued to trot towards town I held a few conversations in my head, mimicing the curious ponyville citizens and thier inquisitive librarian. Hi there, I've never seen you in town before. My name is Cotton Hill, I'm from Manehatten. I got some vacation time and I heard Ponyville was a nice place and thought I'd check it out. Manehatten, huh? what do you do there? Easy, I'm a chemist. I work with chemicals to make things like artificial flavoring and perfumes. Why do you want to see books on stupidly simple magic? Simple, my little sister's birthday is coming up and I wanted to teach her some magic as a gift, so I thought I'd take some notes for a lesson plan while I was here.

I walked across that little stone bridge and was now officially in ponyville. The library is the only building made from a hollowed out tree, so it should be easy enough to find. After about ten or so minutes of searching I found it and began knocking on the door.

"Come in! The door's open!" Called the voice of a clearly older female pony.

Eh? Is Granny Smith in there or something? It took me a few seconds to figure out how to turn a doornob without fingers. It's like, instead of gripping it, you just press your palm against it really hard so when you turn your wrist the friction is strong enough to turn it. While it got me into the library, that probably isn't how ponies open doors or else they couldn't open ones that swing outword. Not wanting to look stupid on my way out I was sure to carefully rest the door back so it wouldn't fully close.

"Hey there young stallion, welcome to the Ponyville library. What can I do ya fer?" She was an old pegasus mare, light brown with an aging mix of white and gray mane, pulled into a bun just like Granny Smith's.

That must be an old person thing, my grandma always had her hair like that too. I wonder what time period I've landed in, just how long before the start of things am I? "Um, yes, I would like a book on beginners magic, if you have something like that."

"Beginners magic, hmm? Well let me see here. Oh where was it..." She started walking around the library, which looks just about the same as I remembered, swinging her head up and down like she was looking at every title. Eventually she seemed to find it as she started flapping her wings, which squeaked like they needed some oil, and grabbed a book off an upper shelf. Setting it down on a table by the door she said, "Well there you go youngin', a magic starter guide."

Looking down at the book it's full title read: Mastering Magic, a Starters Guide. Looking back up to her I waited for the obvious question, preparing my vocal cords to deliver the lie i'd whipped up earlier.

She just stared at me. And I stared back. After about five seconds I realized she wasn't going to ask me anything and I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed that my clever story was a waste of time.

"...Well, uh... Thanks. Is there anything I need to sign before checking this out Miss..."

"Oh! Thanks for reminding me young feller, here's the checkout book." After pulling an abnormally wide book out from a drawer in the wall she flipped it open to the first page. "And the names Arial Ace, It's nice to meet you."

Ponyville must not be big on reading, or this is a new book. I carefully signed my new name into the fourth space on the page using my mouth. "My name's Cotton Hill, it was nice meeting you miss Arial. I'll see you later." With that I took the book in my mouth and left to find a secluded place to get started reading.

Well, I've officially been in Ponyville proper for about thirty minutes, and no sign of Pinkie. Either she's busy or her Pinkie Sense doesn't have a 'new friend' setting. Fingers crossed for the latter. Figuratively speaking. I eventually found a nice field with a few trees and some flowers. There was no one around, but before I could find a spot to read in my stomach reminded me I hadn't eaten for at least a day. And I don't have any money, or even a job... Taking another look around the field I took special notice of the flowers this time. I am a horse now, so technically I'm surrounded by food. And, well... when in Rome I guess...

I grazed on some flowers for a while, and while they didn't really taste bad per sae, I definately wasn't looking forward to living on them for however long it would take me to find a source of income. Once my hunger had been sated I finally got to start reading my book. Unfortunatly, the peace and quiet didn't last long. I got through about twenty pages and learned how to use my horn as a flashlight when I began to hear the unmistakable bouncing sound. *sigh* As the locals might say: ponyfeathers. I couldn't just luck out and be left alone could I? Soon she crested one of the nearby hills and, immediatly spotting me, began hopping even faster while frantically waving and yelling her greetings. Just grin and bear it Cotton, grin and bear it. Resisting will only drag this out

"Hey! Hey! I don't recognize you, you must be the new pony I've been hearing about!"

So her Pinkie Sense doesn't have a 'new friend' setting, but she does have an extensive gossiping spy network. "Yeah, that's probably me. Name's Cotton, and you are?"

"I'm Pinkie Pie and omigosh, it is SO nice to meet you! *overly dramatic gasp* I have to throw you a 'welcome to Ponyville party'! I'll invite everypony in town and so you can make lots of friends and then we'll ALL be friends and it'll be SO much FUN!" And I just kept up an amicable smile, waiting for her to either leave or wind down, when suddenly, quick as a whip, she was holding my book looking at the title. "Hey! What is this your reading! Ooohh a starters guide to magic! Hehahaha, that's silly, why would you need a starters guide, don't you already know a whole lot of magic?"

At that moment I realised I had underestimated how long Pinkie would spend talking and getting to know me before running off to prepare a party. This is going to test the boundries of my preparedness. "Yes, well, I was reading it to help me come up with a lesson plan, you see my little sisters birthday is coming up-"

"Omigosh you have a little sister! Her birthday is coming up! *gasp* Is she in Ponyville too! YAY a double party!" She began hopping in a circle around me chanting 'double party'.

"No! No she isn't, My family lives in Manehatten, I'm just here on vacation for a few weeks and I thought-"

"OH, your on vacation? Vacation from what? Is it a hard job? Is that why your on vacation? Or is it a boring job? I remember having a boring job! When I was little I worked on a rock farm, and let me tell ya, it was boring there all the time! Especially before I found the joy of throwing parties!" As she paused for breath I took my chance to interject before she could get rolling again.

"I'm a chemist there, I make things like perfumes and artificial flavorings. It-"

"Ooh! I know ALL about artificial flavors! We use that for all sorts of things at Sugarcube Corner! Things like cotton candy, candy corn, candy canes, rock candy, lollipops, OOH! And frosting! What would a cupcake be without frosting? It would just be sweet bread! Wouldn't that be silly if all we sold was sweet bread? That would just be TOTALLY-"

Her endless lip flapping descended into a rant on the superiority of cupcakes over sweet bread, gradually branching off into other topics as she went. I just tuned her out and waited for her to stop so I could get back to my reading. As she continued unabated, no end to her talking in site, I allowed my mind to ponder an odd bit of cartoonyness I'd noticed while walking around town.

No pony anywhere is ugly. That made perfect sense when it was a show, why draw ugly characters? But this is all real now and still no ugly ponies anywhere. Every pony I've seen is perfectly good looking, and perfectly in shape, with the exception of Arial, but even she wasn't that bad looking. She wasn't as wrinkly as Granny Smith, probably younger too, but no fat ponies who overeat, and no skinny ponies who undereat. No physical deformities of any kind either. Maybe Celestia has some strict rationing laws, and magically prevents any genetic aberrations, but this perfection really leaves a certain unreal quality about the place.

"Hello! Equestria to Cotton! Come in Cotton! Are you in there?" My gaze had drifted downward while I thought, and now that I refocused my eyes I could see Pinkie laying on the ground looking up at me and waving her hooves infront of my face. "Oh good, your alright. I tried telling you when the party was going to be but you wouldn't respond and I was getting a bit worried there for a second."

"Oh, sorry Pinkie. I got a bit wrapped up in my thoughts."

"No worries, but I have to get back to work now. Don't forget, the parties gunna be at eight O'clock at Sugarcube Corner! See ya Th-!"

"Wait Pinkie! Before you go, what time is it right now?"

"Hmmm... well, it was two thirty when I left to come find you so... three O'clock! Now remember, eight sharp!" And like a pink road runner, off she was in a cloud of dust.

Well, that gives me about four and a half hours to learn levitation. I don't want to be the only unicorn at the party who can't lift his punch glass with magic. So I layed back down and returned to the chapter on simple levitations. I was only reading for a few more minutes when I had an absolutely brilliant idea. This is how I can introduce Zecora to the town! What better way to alleviate their fears of the 'evil enchantress' than by enjoying a nice party with her? Oh brain, you are so clever!

With this plan in mind I returned to my studies, content in the knowledge that I was on the fast track to repaying my debt to Zecora. Soon I would be completely unfettered by the strings of guilt telling me I had merely taken advantage of her kindness while checking out her ass- *record scratch sound fx* Uh, I mean... just the... taking advantage of her kindness part... and nothing else.

Yeah...

Well, I thought, staring at the glowing red flower floating before me, it's not much, but I should be able to lift a punch glass at least. maybe swing a pinata stick if I really have to. I wasn't sure what time it was, but the sun was sugnificantly lower in the sky than it had been. Getting off the ground and stretching my legs a bit I started towards Zecora's, eventually, hut. I was keeping the book levitated just in front of me, currently producing a slightly uncomfortable pressure on my forhead, like some old man shoving my head with the tip of his cane. The pressure was worse the more things I tried levitating at once, and presumably with heavier things aswell, but according to the book, that would only go away with continued practice. Like excercise for my magic muscles. I doubt I'll be lifting any Ursa's anytime soon, but still, being able to see my progress in action is so much more rewarding to me than getting A's on my chemistry tests in college had ever been.

After explaining my plan to Zecora, and telling her why the shops had been closed the other day, she agreed to accompany me to the party without argument. Not that she had any reason to argue, she was as eager to sort out this missunderstanding as anypony. We started heading off to the party location without delay, Zecora didn't have a clock either, so we could have been late already for all we knew.

The sun was down low on the horizon now, probably only another hour of light left. The walk through town was quite uneventful, the streets were abandoned, but a quick flash of my horn through some windows didn't reveal any hiding ponies. I guess Pinkie literally invited the whole town. we're probably late then if everyone's already there. When we finally made it to Sugarcube Corner and saw that the lights were off, I immediatly knew what was going on. Oh, Pinkie. You and your surprise parties.

"Are you sure this is the right place? Of a party, there seems to be no trace."

"Oh, this is it alright." Using my new bad ass TK powers I opened that door, like a baws! And motioned for Zecora to go in first while I came in next and closed the door. we were only in the dark for about two seconds before all the lights came on and the whole town shouted at us:

"SURPRISE!!!"

"Wema Mimi!!!" Shouted Zecora with a hoof raised as if to ward off a strike.

Her shout drew the attention of the cheering ponies and immediatly silenced the room. When the noise stopped she lowered her hoof and raised her eyes to the gathered ponies of the room. The stalemate lasted almost five seconds before Pinkie Jumped to the center of the room and started shouting.

"It's the evil enchantress! She's come to curse us all, RUN!!!" Instant pandemonium.

Unfortunatly, Zecora and I were blocking the front door, so no pony could actually leave without jumping out the windows. Deprived of their only obvious means of escape, they just ran around screaming like a bunch of headless chickens. Soon two ponies came out of the crowd and assumed aggressive stances as defenders of the group.

"Now ya'll just be gone from here and no pony'll have ta get hurt!"

"Yeah, what she said!" shouted Applejack and Rainbow Dash, respectively.

Zecora just kept looking back and forth between me and the chaos in front of us with horrendous confusion, and a little bit of fear. Before anypony could start charging I braught my hoof to my mouth, temporarily forgetting I don't have fingers anymore. Despite this fact the gesture worked anyway and I was able to loose an ear piercing whistle that ground all the activity to a halt and gave me everyponies attention.

"Oi! Stop being stupid! Nopony's cursing anypony. Zecora here's just your friendly neighborhood zebra! Now lets settle down, have some cake, enjoy the party and love and tolerate the shit out of eachother like good ponies should!"

They remained standing in place, now staring at me though. Granted, they weren't screaming anymore, but this wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

"Zecora, this is Everypony. Everypony, this is Zecora... now say hello!" Which I punctuated with a hard stomp on the floor.

Like a class full of kids greeting a new student they all chorused a rather monotone, "hello Zecora."

"Good. Now that we all know eachother, let's get back to this party."

At that moment Pinkie shot out of the front window display case, tray of cupcakes on her back and a cake balanced on her head. "Wohoo! Wasn't that fun! Now let's PARTAY!"

And the party commenced like nothing had ever happened. Luckily for me, though I hadn't planned on it, this became more of a welcome party for Zecora, allowing me to sit unbothered in a corner for the most part. I was getting in a bit of excercise, holding a plate with a piece of cake on it, a cupcake, and a punch glass all at once.

"Ya know, after all that, ya never did tell anypony who you are." I didn't need to look to see who it was, the accent gave it away.

I think I'll mess with her a bit. just this once. "Nnope." Keeping my face as blank as possible.

"...Are ya gunna tell us who ya are?"

"Eeyup."

"...Are you sure ya'll's new ta Ponyville?"

"Eeyup."

"Your doing that on purpose ain't ya?"

"Nnope."

She smacked my chest with a hoof, "now I know ya'll's doin' that on purpose."

I couldn't hold it anymore and my mouth broke out into a shit-eating grin that I couldn't force back down. "It's Cotton Hill. Nice to meet you lady-" I turned to her at last, extending a hoof for a shake, when I spotted Fluttershy hiding behind her. "-Ladies."

She gave my hoof a firm shake, which I really didn't understand. She touched the side of her hoof to mine, and then it was like we were connected by a magnet or something until she let go. I hope that didn't just make me seem to have a limp wristed hoof shake. She never gave me any wired looks, so I don't think she noticed anything off.

"Well I'm Applejack, and this here's Fluttershy." When Applejack shifted out of the way to give me a better view of her, I stared strait into her eyes, about to say hi when she jumped back behind Applejack again. "...Ya'll have to forgive her, she's a might... shy."

"So I noticed."

Over the course of the rest of the party I was approached by the other two present members of the main six who introduced themselves. Rainbow thought the way I had taken control of the room earliar was 'pretty cool', and Rarity tried to get me to let her style my mane, which she found to be atrocious. Not very surprising given the last few days. I let her comb it down, but firmly refused anything more.

After a few hours the party ended and everypony went their separate ways. I bid Zecora farewell as she walked down the path to leave town, leaving me to think on the subject of housing. There wasn't really much I could do, being a penniless hobo and all, so I wandered back to the field I practiced magic in, made a pseudo pillow for my head out of some leaves and layed down under a tree.

Author's Note

I use Google Translate, I can not vouch for how accurate they might be.

Skipping Through Time

"You wanted to see me?" She asked, putting enough disdain in her voice to sound upset that I had the gaul to make her come to me. The effect was diminished somewhat by the fact I knew she wasn't really bothered by it.

"Yes, my Queen," usually I would simply call her Chrysalis, it irks her when I treat her like just another Changling. But she likes it when I call her my Queen, willingly placing her above me. So I tended to do so when I needed her to do something for me.

I placed the last of the luggage into my saddle bags and turned to face her. Her chitin was darker than the last time I'd seen her, and had a healthy gloss to it now. I noted that she was standing especially strait, raising her eye level just a few inches higher than normal, even though she was already twice my hight. It was to make me look just that much farther up to speak with her. Her pride wouldn't allow her to lower herself for anypony, and I don't make an issue of it. Her pride had taken a hard enough blow by being in my debt in the first place.

"I was hoping you could supply me with a timetable for the recovory speed of the Hive. They certainly look healthier, but I can't feel them the way you can."

"I estimate it will be another month before they have the strength for this operation of yours. Though we could speed it up by rearranging the feeding schedule and allowing some to stay in the Farm longer."

"There's no need for that. The information gathering will take more than a month to finish anyway. I'm giving myself plenty of time to observe and refine my plans once I'm in Canterlot. There's no kill like overkill as they say, and I'd rather be too prepared than jump into this early." After putting on my saddle bags I started walking to the cave entrance, and from there the Ponyville train station. Chrysalis followed alongside up to the mouth of the cave, her long legs effortlessly keeping pace with me.

"Oh? Were you not the one who said, 'there is no such thing as too prepared', when you first told me of this plan?" She sounded quite smug at pointing out the way I'd just contradicted myself.

"Oh, ha ha. I'll see you whenever I get back. How about you keep working on my backup plan while I'm gone? If we can get those spells to work it'll make everything that much easier to salvage if plan A goes to shit."

It's been about five months since I took up residance in Ponyville. It only took me a few days after the welcome party to find a part time job choping wood for Emerald Glaze. She's an earth pony with an emerald green coat, presumably her namesake, and an orange and blue mane. She's a potter, and every few days needed someone to go get her more firewood for her kiln. She paid me five gold bits for a quarter cord of wood, which was usually enough to last her a week.

A cringingly small amount of money to live on, five bits a week. Firewood was pretty cheap in a society that can control it's own weather. But, being an undocumented worker, as well as a homeless hobo with no bills to pay, it was pure income. Enough to buy an apple or two a day while still eating mostly wild grass and flowers. I continued sleeping outdoors, making leaf pillows and ripping up the ground to provide a semi soft bed of dirt. I was quickly nicknamed the 'dirt pony' cause I was always covered in the stuff. I'd jump in the river every day or two, but a little dirt never bothered nopony. Except Rarity, of course.

This job was a real lucky break on my part, all that wood choping was a great workout for my magic. And I was always good with my money, never buying anything I couldn't afford and always thinking ahead with my spending. I'd usually end the week with one or two bits left over. I knew I'd need to have enough money to buy a two-way ticket to Manehatten eventually, in order to fulfill my story of teaching some magic to my little sister.

I, of course, had to change up my story a bit once Pinkie asked when my vacation would be over. She wanted to throw me a farewell party before I left. So I told her I was never on vacation, but had been fired after I got into an arguement with my boss and just didn't want her pity. She was quite upset with me for lying to her and started grilling me for information about my living arrangments for the last few weeks. She eventually forgave me for my lies after telling her the truth, but I made her Pinkie Promise™ not to tell anyone. I've never given to charity in my life and I didn't want any either. The townsfolk did stop calling me the dirt pony not long after though. I'm certain Pinkie had a hoof in that, as well as the tent I found in my usual sleeping spot when I came back from a two day stay in Manehatten. At least I wouldn't have to sleep in the dirt anymore. I had to buy a pillow though, putting leaves in the tent would have been messy.

Pretty much all of my free time was spent either in the library listening to Arial talk, another thing she had in common with all the old people I knew, or reading books on magic. The firework trick became one of my favorites because of the heavy emphasis on visualization. Just think about the image you want to appear while charging the spell, the book said. I had a lot of fun making more and more detailed pictures in the air with it. I had remembered that Trixie was able to make her firework pictures semi-animated during her ursa story, and a bit of searching led me to a book on illusory spells.

I was standing in a blank white space. Nothing around me. No distractions. Carefully I began to form the image of a simple box in front of me. I felt a trickle of sweat on my forehead and the illusion started flickering back to the inside of my tent as I lost concentration. It took a few seconds to restabilize it, before trying to make the box open up.

"Hey Cotton, are you in there!" The illusion instantly collapsed like a house of cards in a wind tunnel at the sound of Pinkie's voice.

"*sigh* Yeah, what is it?" I moved to unzip the tent and go outside.

"I came over to invite you to the 'Happy Retirement Party' I'm throwing for Arial Ace! It's gunna be in the library tonight at six!"

"Retirement?" I asked as I finished zipping up the tent. "I was just talking with her yesterday over tea for like, an hour. She never mentioned anything about retirement."

"I know, I only just found out too! She's going to go live at Cloudsdale's famous retirement community, the Olympian Hights!"

"Olympian Hights, huh? Sounds fancy. I didn't know librarians had such good retirement plans."

"Me niether! I gotta go now, there's lots more ponies to invite!" With that, she turned and started hopping away.

Retirement huh? I wonder why she never said anything about it... I began a nice trot towards town, it was lunch time anyway and I figured I'd splurge on a few apples today. The sky was nice and clear today, aside from one conspicuous cloud with a technicolor pony resting on it. Hmm, she lived in Cloudsdale for a while, I bet Rainbow knows something about this retirment place.

"Oi, Rainbow! Wake up, I wanna ask you something!" She just sorta rolled onto her belly and started pushing the cloud lower towards me.

"Okay, what do want to know?"

"You lived in Cloudsdale before, you must know a thing or two about this Olympian Hights place, right?" Apparently she did, because the mention of it got her excited enough to get off her cloud and start flying around.

"The Olympian Hights is only the premier retirement location! It's every pagasi's dream to get to go there when they retire!"

Odd that she'd be excited about something as boring as a retirement community "Well what makes it so special?"

"What makes it special? Oh, nothing really, it only has like, a dozen former Wonderbolts living there!"

And, there it is. "Oh. Well Arial is apparently going to be living there soon."

"Really? Wow, her kids must have some serious money to be putting her up at the Hights. Pinkie came by earlier saying something about a party, but I wasn't really paying attention. Was that what she was talking about?"

"Yep, she's having a retirement party at the library, it's tonight at six."

With the topic of importants out of the way we exchanged our farewells and she rocketed off into the sky. Probably to find a new spot to sleep in.

Arial never mentioned having rich kids either... this mystery bears investigating. Putting off my lunch for now, I made for the library. When I got there she had two large suitcases open on the floor and was carefully placing a bunch of random nick nacks into them. Must be things she braught with her when she first came to the library however long ago.

"Hey Arial, congratulations on the retirement. I hear your going someplace really fancy."

"Oh, thank you Cotton. I never thought I'd get to retire in the Olympian Hights, why, I never even dreamed..." She trailed off as she continued slowly putting things in the cases.

"Well your kids must really love you to be hoofing the bill for such a nice place to live huh?" She started chuckling at that.

"Oh. My poor kids can't even take care of themselves, little own me. I haven't even heard from my son in almost a year. Last I knew he was off gambling in Las Pegasus, the irresponsible brat."

"Well, how can you afford to go to this place then? Do librarians really get that awesome of a retirement plan?"

"Actually, it's the funniest thing. I got a letter last night, from Princess Celestia, if you can believe it! She said that she was impressed with how diligantly I've taken care of this old place for the last thirty years, and reserved me a nice little house in the Hights. Isn't that just like her? Taking such good care of all her subjects, even a rusty old mare like me."

Suspicious is the word I'd have used. Why would she care about-. Oh crap! How could I forget that summer thing is coming up! So that's how she 'arranged' for Twilight to live here... I guess it isn't that bad of her though. Arial gets to live high off the hog for what's left of her life in exchange for this move.

Leaving Arial to her packing, I went out to the market and baught some apples and a few carrots for lunch.

I finally had a cot of my very own! Misappropriated of course, not that anyone seemed to care when they saw me rummaging through the wreckage of Trixie's trailer. I also found a nice little white comforter. It reaked when I found it, indicating it hadn't been washed for some time. This made me question Trixie's financial situation, even before her livelyhood had been crushed under paw by the mighty infant space bear. Applejack let me wash it with one of her washing boards and it was now serving as a thin mattress on the cot.

The last few months had been rather uneventful for me, aside from my little salvage expedition. I went to the townhall to see Nightmare moon in person, which was far less exciting than I thought it would be, then just went about my day as usual. Seeing all the townsfolk running around in a big mob that one day was pretty entertaining, but it disrupted my plans to have a real lunch since all the stalls were closed. I actually completely missed out on the whole Gilda thing. I didn't even know she was in town until Pinkie invited me to a party for her, which I blew off. You can only handle so many parties before the sight of cake makes you sick, and I never had much of a sweet tooth to begin with.

I was continuing to practice my illusion magic, the clear problem now were my poor multitasking skills. I could now create and maintain several simple geometric shapes at once as well as color them. But whenever I tried making them move, they would all transform into whatever shape I was looking at at the time. It was quite frustrating, and a long ways away from being able to screw with ponies for laughs. I was at Zecora's, she was teaching me how to meditate, to clear my mind and sharpen my focus, when Twilight burst in and spit a Parasprite at us. Her panickiness was just adorable.

The snow came not long after, Winter only lasted about a week before it was time to clean it all up. I made a killing that week selling firewood. Well... relativly speaking. I was able to undercut my compitition for prices and made a healthy fifty bits that week. Everypony wanted to know where I was getting my wood, and no one believed my when I said the Everfree forest. I didn't try to make any of them believe me though, they didn't need to know about Zecora's creature repellent potion, and why would I help my compitition anyway?

After another few weeks of trying, and failing, to improve my control over the illusion world, I decided to give it a rest and learn something new for the first time in months. I began having ragular study sessions with Twilight as I tried to learn to teleport, something she insisted was too advanced to just jump into without reading half the library first. It sucks that all the cool stuff like teleporting, crystal enchanting, and transfiguration were right in front of my nose, only to be withheld like a mystical ball of yarn dangled just out of reach of a young kitten.

I was in my tent reading a book on enchanting magic crystals, Twilight wouldn't let me actually do any of it, but reading about it was so facinating. Storing a spell within a crystal, just waiting to be activated by a spark of magic. Apparently that's how hot air balloons work here. A crystal containing a fire spell, held in circuit with a sort of 'battery' crystal charged with magic. I wasn't sure how exactly it all worked yet, but I wanted to. Twilight called off our study session, said she had other things she needed to do today, so I was just relaxing, more or less.

I was called away from my reading by a knock on the piece of wood I keep outside the tent. This was strange for several reasons. Two of them being, not very many ponies actually know where I live, and the ones who do know, just ask if I'm in through the thin material. I unzipped the flap to find something I was not expecting.

Flat hair Pinkie.

Well, shit. what's up with this? "Uh, hi Pinkie. Something wrong?"

"*sniff* All my friends hate me and don't wanna be my friends anymore!" She started out fine enough, but by the end of that sentence she was tearing up.

"What??? Bull, I bet it's just a misunderstanding." Where the heck did any of this come from?

"No it's not! I talked to Spike and he told me it was true!" She was openly crying now.

God I hate my brain sometimes! I can't remember what the hell is supposed to be going on! All I remember was Pinkie being depressed about something and then it all worked out in the end. Fuck my life!

I awkwardly placed a hoof on her shoulder, "there, there Pinkie. I'm sure everything's alright. What did they say when you asked them about it directly?"

"They were all avoiding me! Rainbow kept running away, and Applejack actually lied to me! None of them wanted to come to Gummy's 'after birthday' party, and then they all started sneaking around, trying to hide something from me! I thought everypony loved my parties..." The last part was nearly whispered, and while she wasn't bawling, thank god, she was the absolute picture of depression.

Ugh, I've never been good at comforting people. I wish I could just say she needs to toughen up and send her on her way. That's what I told my sister when she came crying to me over the hassles of being in a long distance relationship... But I couldn't do that to Pinkie, I owed her for all times she helped me out.

After I told her that I was homeless and just scrapping by with the money Emerald paid me, there was a period of a few weeks where, every other time I saw Pinkie, she would just 'happen' to have baught too many vegitibles. I turned down many a mixed fruit and veggie basket, although I did take one early on when I needed to save for the train ticket. And even though she won't admit it, I know she was the one who put this tent here. I still haven't found a way to pay her back for that...

Placing my other hoof on her other shoulder I gave Pinkie a good hard shake before pulling her up off her haunches. "Come on, that's enough pity party crap! Let's go do something fun. Together!"

"*sniff* Fun? Like what?"

"Well... Your the one who needs cheering up, what's something you've always wanted to do? Anything, just name it."

"*sniff* Anything?" She asked, eyes wide and expecting and still full of tears.

I know I'm going to regret this, but look at that face. How do I say no to that? "Anything."

I knew I would regret it.

"This cord is your primary chute, this is your backup chute!" Shouted the pagasus diving instructor, the wind whipping by the chariot making it a bit hard to hear. "Remember! If for any reason those fail! Just remain calm, and light your flare! I'll grab you and bring you safely to the ground!"

It HAD to be skydiving didn't it?

"Ready! Jump!" And we did. My heart was beating a million miles a second and I thought it might explode, but after looking over at Pinkie, whooping in joy as she haphazardly tumbled through the air before managing to straiten herself out, laughing, I knew it was worth the trouble.

Our target landing zone were the large plains west of Ponyville, a great stretch of open grassland, it was quite lovely from this altitude.

"What the hay are you two doing!" Somepony shouted, I couldn't tell who through the wind in my ears.

"Hey Rainbow Dash! Cotton took me skydiving! It's great you should try it!" I started turning so I could find her, and there she was, falling next to Pinkie.

"I am Pinkie, my wings are already shut, see?" indicating her closed wings with a hoof. "But that's not important, We've been looking all over for you for the last hour!"

"What for?" Pinkie asked, all smiles again. Apparently the thrill of skydiving had purged all memory of her ealier depression, and the cause of it.

"We need you to come to Applejack's! I'm gunna go tell the others I found you! when you get on the ground go to Applejack's barn!"

"Okie dokie lokie!" Rainbow flew off, leaving us to finish our fall.

"Your windows coming up!" Yelled the instuctor, who had been falling with us, "ready your cords!" After a few seconds we both had the loops of our cords in hoof. "Pull!"

Thankfully, both of our parachutes worked just fine and we began the slow drift to the ground. As we drifted downward the diving instructor explained to us the procedure for landing safely.

"Wohoo! Wasn't that fun! We should go again!" Pinkie had somehow managed to get out of her diving suit before me, despite not having any magic with which to undo the bottons and straps.

"Oh, yeah... totally." Like hell. Once is enough excitment for me. I finally got the suit off me when I felt something rubbing against me along my neck. When I looked down to see it, I got a face full of pink hair.

Thu-thump.

"Thanks Cotton, for cheering me up."

Pinkie is nuzzling me..! I could feel my face getting hotter. "Uh. N-no, no problem Pinkie. Don't you have a, uh, *gulp*, thing to get to? At Applejack's?" She hopped back out of my personal bubble and turned to walk away.

"Yep! Bye Cotton! I'll bring you some cupcakes later!"

"Okay!"

thumpa, thumpa, thumpa, thum- Shut up already you stupid muscle! She was just grateful, don't get any crazy ideas you prick!

Cupcakes were had that night. Well, two anyway, so as to not look ungrateful while Pinkie was talking before she had to go back into town. They gave me massive heartburn, the source of my lack of sweet tooth, but they were damn good cupcakes.

The next several weeks became kind of awkward for me, as Pinkie started coming by more often to talk, which wasn't so bad in and of itself, except that her friends took notice. My study sessions with Twilight would often become silent reading sessions as I ignored her completely obvious attempts at 'subtly' questioning me about my time with Pinkie. And eventually they even started following her out to my tent, like they thought I was a rapist or something. I was very grateful when the night of the GGG came up for the break it gave me from all of them. I was pretty sure Rainbow had been following me around when I'd go into town too.

Unfortunatly, the following days were not going to be any kinder to me.

I had stayed up late last night, trying to transfigure a small stick into an umbrella. It was classified as a moderatly difficult excercise because of the multiple types of material involved in making an umbrella, as well as the mobile parts. When I woke up, I could see the sun shining through the material of my tent. But something was wrong.

It felt like I was on a boat, gently bobbing up and down, which confused me greatly. I got up and unzipped my tent only too see a sheer drop just a few feet away from me. Carfully I looked over the edge, and saw the dirt and tree roots underneath me, and past that by about ten feet, was the ground.

Well, looks like Discord's free. I bent my legs and prepared to jump down to the ground, but when I jumped over the edge, I didn't fall. Not down at least. I was drawn back to the underside of the floating platform like it was a mini planet with it's own gravity, and got a face full of loose dirt. After shaking it off I stood back up and looked up at the ground below me. I impotantly hopped up and down several times trying to get down there, but I always fell back up to the platform.

"Dammit Discord! You better not have me stuck up here forever!" He must have heard me, because at that instant I became disconnected from the pseudo planetoid and fell.

"Oof! Ow..." I stayed laying there on my back, thinking about just how much this was going to suck. Not long after a small cloud floated overtop of me. I found it to be quite strange because nothing seemed wrong with it. That is, until it started rotating and revieled the face of a sheep.

"Woof Woof!"

*sigh* This is going to be sooo much fun, I can just tell. Sarcasm, the best thing since sliced bread.

Author's Note

The real story's gunna start in just a few more chapters! After that I'll be able to put the changlings back into the character tags.

Uninvited

"And what have we here?"

That voice made me jump, I didn't even hear him teleport in!, to find Discord standing just a few feet away.

"Uh... What the hay are you?" Damn that sounded unconvincing, but why the hell is he here?! I'm nobody, I haven't done anything! Where did he find out about me!?

"You know, not many ponies remember my name, or recognize my work. But then, you aren't a pony, are you Cotton? or should I call you Robert? " I wanted to punch him so much for that. "And as for how I found out about you, you did just yell at me a few minutes ago. I would have come over sooner, but I was busy finishing up a little game with the Elements."

"So, what, you can read my mind? You know everything about me now?" It was official, I hated Discord. My privacy is something I take very seriously.

"Oh heavens, no! Knowing everything would be so boring. When I reach into someponies mind, I only go deep enough to get their name and a few interesting bits about them. And you, Robert, are full of interesting bits."

"Enough with my old name already. Unless you plan on sending me back to earth, it's Cotton now."

"Send you back? To that boring place?" With a snap of his fingers there appeared next to us a simple wooden door with the word 'Earth' printed on it. Discord reached over with his lion arm, snapped the handle right off, and ate it. "Perish the thought!"

"If you didn't look too deep into my brain, then how do you know it was boring?" He actually managed to look quite sheepish at that. Without even turning into a sheep.

"Well, I may have looked the tiniest bit deeper than usual, but can you blame me? You were performing an experiment aimed at making electicity more efficiant, but instead you wound up as a pony in Equestria! That's just so deliciously chaotic! Hahaha!"

"*sigh* Whatever..." Discord is basically god, being pissed at him is pointless. I started walking away, trying to ignore him. He hadn't done anything to me yet, so he probably wasn't going to.

"Not even a goodbye? How rude."

I just kept ignoring him while heading towards town. Maybe I can get a few things to eat before all the stalls explode or something. A tree pulled itself out of the ground and started walking off, each step knocking loose a few acorns that then split open and started flying around like beetles.

More and more things were changing around me as I walked, each random event quickly followed by some stiffled giggling. The sun and moon started switching positions every few minutes and a group of dancing buffalo were performing up ahead. And still that giggling, right behind me.

"Why are you following me? Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Ooh, it speaks! You really should learn to be less stodgy all the time. I mean, look at all the fun changes I'm making around here, and you can't even be bothered to crack a smile!" With a snap of his eagle claw I felt a string wrap around my head, and a piece of cardboard was now held loosly against my muzzle. I imagined it had a big smile painted on it.

"Mm-hmm." It wasn't hindering my breathing at all, so I pretended not to notice it. No need to indulge him by reacting to his antics.

"... You don't seem to be that bothered by me or my chaos. Even Celestia, with all her years of practice at putting on a calm, collected image, gets mad at me quite easily."

"It's called repression. It's something I've always been good at."

We crested the last big hill before Ponyville, bringing it into site. It was a mess, ground in a light and dark pink checkered pattern. Several buildings were floating, the town hall in particular was floating and upside down. ...Well, that was quick. No food for me then.

"Well, what do you think? I did this especially for Twilight, who should be getting here in about another fifty minutes."

"Eh," I half grunted. Discord was silent for several seconds, almost like he was trying to find a hidden meaning in that dismissive sound. When he finally started talking again I could hear his wings more clearly as they brought him in closer. There's only one reason he'd want to get closer to me.

"You know, you really aught to talk more, be more expressive. As it stands your about as engaging as a bowl of rice pudding. So how about it? Why don't you go ahead and tell me..."

A quick glance showed his claw coming towards me, so I quickly jumped away from it, only to bump into something. I felt his claw poke the side of my head before I could look up. "What's really on your mind."

"I hate you Discord." I could feel his magic weaving through me, taking hold of my voice and forcing me to speak.

"Hate me? You didn't seem to care before, why would you-"

"SHUT UP! You wanted me to talk, well now I'm talking! I hate you because of this! Right now! I like not talking to people! I like being left alone! And I like my privacy! But you come waltzing in here with your bullshit, start sifting through my mind and now you're forcing me to spill my guts!" While all of it was true, and I'm sure Discord didn't really mind, as I doubt he has much experience with being liked, I silently feared what was to come. His magic still had a firm hold on my vocal cords, and I knew the tirade I was about to go on would make him angry.

"And you wanted to know what I think of your chaos right? Well it sucks. It's downright orderly!" His eyes were narrowing already. "Look at these floating trees, what's chaotic about floating trees? You just delocalized the gravity and pulled them out of the ground! Same thing for all the floating buildings. Look at those dancing buffalo! No chaos there, they're all in sync with eachother! And their dance is well choreographed to boot!" Steam was coming out of his ears now, and he was gritting his teeth. "The sun and moon switch places every few minutes now instead of once a day, and that isn't chaotic either! You just sped up the cycle a bit. And just look at the ground! Checker pattern!? Patterns are, by definition, orderly! Chaos on the other hand is, by definition, disorderly! Do you see the contradiction?" With that last condescending statement his horn and the tips of his antler shot off gouts of flame like little rockets.

"What would a pathetic mortal like you know about chaos! I am Discord! The God of chaos!"

"You know, for going through the effort of forcing me to speak my mind, you sure don't listen that well! This isn't chaos! This is just different! You are not a god of chaos, you're just some omnipotent prick!" As I panted, trying to regain my breath from all the shouting, I could feel his magic letting go of me. But that no longer mattered, the damage was done. Something changed in Discord once I'd said that. The fires went out on his head and he unclenched his jaw, his entire posture seemed to relax. But his eyes revealed a cold fury.

"Get out." It was almost a whisper, but the world had gone deathly silent.

"Wha-"

"I said GET OUT!" I was lifted into the air and kept floating at about head hight with Discord. As he continued to speak I could feel his anger pressing in on me with a physical force, wanting to crush me but never actually doing so.

"You've insulted me, and my chaos, and I won't stand for it!"

"But you made m-" My mouth was gone.

"Your lucky I'm not the kind to hold a grudge. I'm even going to give you a little gift to improve your attitude." Suddenly I was pulled towards him and quickly found my entire head enveloped in the iron grip of his eagle claw. I imagine it was like being hooked up to an electric chair.

His magic was pouring into me, ripping through me without mercy. Through the pain I could just barely sense him rearranging things in my head, breaking neural connections and forming new ones across my brain. Distantly I was aware that this process hadn't been painful for any of the effect main six. His magic continued arcing through me for what felt like ages before it finally stopped. My ears were ringing, and I could barely hear him as he spoke again.

"Now it's time for you to leave. Equestria is my house now, and you are officially uninvited."

With what felt like a hard punch to the stomach I was flying backwards through the air, the ground and sky both flying by at dizzying speeds as I was propelled to who knows where. Discord hadn't given my mouth back, so I couldn't even scream as I anticipated becoming a long red smear on the landscape. In only a few seconds I shot passed all of Equestria. A snowless mountain range passed beneath me and my trajectory, which had been flat and uneffected by gravity, began a downward arc.

At this speed, there's no way I'll survive! But Discord wouldn't really kill me, would he? I always thought of Discord as just out to have some fun. To get some laughs at other ponies' expence!

The ground drew closer, uncaring of my plight.

He wouldn't really kill me!

Still it grew closer, my speed unchanged. I felt the icy sting of my tears in the wind.

Would he?

"Mmm..." I couldn't help but express my approval of the spaghetti I was eating. I was never very in to pasta dishes, only eating it when it was offered to me, and never bothering to make it for myself. But, after spending nearly a year eating mostly bland grass and flowers, and spending money on proper meals only occationally, it was heavenly. The noodles were thin, likely angel hair, moist and slippery, the tangled mess weaving in and around itself perfectly as it twirled around my fork. The sauce was incredible, it was probably home made with some closely gaurded secret recipe, and peppered with a light layer of mazzarella. Topping it all, were several meatballs, cooked to perfection. They were succulent, juicy, and melt-in-your-mouth tender. In the time I'd spent in Equestria, meat was one of the things I missed most, and as I popped another of the delectable morsels into my mouth I couldn't help but release another satisfied moan.

"Mmhmhmhm." Came a cute little giggle from across the table.

Looking up from my meal I briefly examined the table itself. Situated just above and to the left of my plate was an elegent wine glass, filled half way with a deep purple liquid. On either side of the table were two long candles, providing the rooms only light. In the center of the table on my left was a plate holding several uneaten pieces of garlic bread, and next to it on the right was an ice bucket holding what looked like a wine bottle. The lable, of coarse, read Grape Juice, which was fine by me, I never liked alcohol anyway. And passed that, in the opposite seat, was her. Smiling that same brilliant smile, as always. It looked the same as any other, but this smile was special. It was for me.

"Enjoying Mrs. Cakes spaghetti?" She said with that lovely lilt to her voice, like she was suppressing another giggle.

"It's the best thing I've eaten in years. But I feel kind of bad that you were the one who set all this up. I should be setting up fancy dinners for you, not the other way around."

"Aw, don't feel bad. Things are just different here in Equestria. There are way more girls than boys, so some gender roles are just all flip-floppy compared to where you're from."

She was always so sweet, always trying to cheer me up when even the slightest negative emotion crept forward. She knows everything about me now, it was only a matter of time with how often we talked. She promised not to tell anypony about me though. She knows that I don't like a lot of attention, and that being singled out as an extradimensional being would put me in a massive spotlight. That's just one of the reasons I've grown so attached to her, because I can trust her. Be honest with her about everything and know she will never betray that trust.

"I love you Pinkie."

"I love you too Cotton."

We leaned closer, slowly bridging the gap over the table. The distance continued to shrink, I could feel her breath against my face, it's sweet scent like strawberry frosting. We closed our eyes, and...

*Blink*

A white cloth ceiling stretched over a simple wooden frame was above me.

"Am I in a covered wagon?" My voiced question was met with several surprised gasps from all around me. Sitting upright I saw several foals of varying types sitting around the mat I was laying on. Creepy...

After only a second of staring the foals all scrambled out of the flap at the end of the wagon frantically yelling 'he's awake' several times. "Fuckin' kids", I muttered. I started at that, my anger actually seemed genuine instead of simply irritated. That's odd. I've never liked kids, but I've never hated them before... Speaking of odd things, that was one hell of a dream.

My thoughts were interupted by the entrance of another pony through the flap. It was a pagasus mare, she was light blue with a dark blue mane, and my brain seemed to have shut down as I stared at her. She was quite shapely, and adorning her flank was a silver colored crescent shape with a few small lines behind it, as if it were flying. I gave my head a few good shakes, desguised as cracking my joints, to get my mind back in order. Get it together. You've seen plenty of beautiful women and mares in your life and none of them were this distracting. There is nothing different here, so focus.

"Oh, thank goodness. We were beginning to fear you would never wake. Are you feeling well?"

"Yeah... I'm alright. Where am I exactly? And how long has it been that you thought I'd never wake up?"

"We're still in the Badlands, and you were asleep for four days." She came closer and seemed to be examining me, "we we're actually surprised you survived at all. It was quite the impressive fall you had."

Right, my cross country flight a la Discord. "Thanks for taking care of me while I was out. My name's Cotton Hill, who are you?" I tried to get up but my legs were all wobbly so I sat back down before I could fall over.

"My name is Silver Wind. It will take some time for your legs to fully wake up, until then..." She walked around to my side and her voice took on a sultry tone, "I will help you." She stretchout a wing over my back, lightly brushing the tips of her feathers against me and sending a few shivers up my spine. Once it was all the way across me she folded it in and her wing formed a firm grip against my side. She helped me stand, and I could feel my body temperature rising all over from this extended close contact, as well as how she had spoken.

I had to get the promiscuous one, didn't I? I could swear I heard her purr just now...

"Now let's get you outside. Your legs should get better after a little walking, and Diamond Sigil wanted to see you once you woke up." We walked out of the wagon into the barren fields of the Badlands, where I was greeted by the site of what appeared to be a tent city. There were several other wagons like the one I had been in as well, and likely more beyond what I could see through the white sea.

"So who is this Diamond Sigil, and why does she want to see me?"

"She is our leader, and she is very interested in the pony who was so strongly rejected by Discord."

Many ponies were walking around, most were carrying either boxes or bundles of rolled up cloth. I briefly wondered what they were doing when one of the tents came down while several ponies started removing the cloth from the collapsed frame.

"How do you know what happened to me? And why is everypony packing up? There can't be more than a few hours of sunlight left."

"We have grown used to traveling by night in the last years. The sun is hot in the Badlands, traveling at night is cooler and easier. The moon gives us enough light to see by."

"You've been wondering the Badlands for years? Why would you do something like that, and how are you even alive?"

She let out a dainty giggle at that and pulled me a little tighter against her with the wing over my back. "No, silly, We've only been in the Badlands for less than a week. We came here from across the sea to the east. Our band was traveling in Zabrica for several years, and the sun there is quite hot in all seasons. When we crossed the sea, we had planned on visiting Equestria, but when we passed through the mountains we saw all manner of strange things. Lady Sigil recognized it as the workings of Discord, so we turned around and are now headed south towards Minotaur lands. It was one of our day watchers who first saw you flying by overhead."

I had only really been half listening as she talked, I was destracted by her wing around me. I had almost forgotten it was even there. My legs felt better now, I didn't need her support anymore, but I didn't want to push her away. The warm feeling of her wing over me and her body pressed to my side felt... nice.

Dammit, what is wrong with you! "My legs feel better, I can walk on my own now," I said as I pushed against her wings grip on me. She resisted for a moment before letting me go, her face clearly showing disappointment. We continued on through the tents, now in silence, as I contemplated my newfound lack of control over myself.

Dammit, what is wrong with me! First I snap at a bunch of stupid kids, then I can't stop ogling some random mare, and now I wanted her to keep holding me?! Fuck! It's like I'm having mood swings or something! What happened that I- oh...

A little gift to improve your attitude.

...That fucker! I felt him doing something to my head, that bastard must have screwed with my emotional control! I let out a small growl before I could stop myself. Silver looked over at me, she seemed concerned but didn't ask me what was wrong. I took a few calming breaths.

Easy there, anger is never useful. All it does is make you punch things, that's how you broke your gameboy when you were seven. After a few deep breaths I could think clearly again. Could it really be Discords magic? I felt him changing things in my head, but he was sealed again days ago. Everything effected by his power was returned to normal by the Elements... unless... "Silver, did your day watchers report anything else odd happening the day they found me? Any strange lights, or any kind of large magical disturbances?"

"Hmm... I don't remember hearing about anything like that. Aside from you it was another uneventful watch." She shifted a few inches closer to me, probably thinking she could use the conversation to get near me again. I shifted myself to maintain the distance, she seemed to get the message and didn't try again.

Well, balls. The Elements' power didn't reach outside Equestria, and since I wasn't in Equestria, everything he did to me is now permanent. I hope it doesn't take too long to get my self control back.

Eventually we came to what could best be descibed as a trailer, kind of like the one Trixie had. However, unlike Trixie's, this one was undecorated and had no obvious modifications. It was only made remarkable by the fact I hadn't seen any others on the way over. Silver walked up to the door and knocked a few times.

"M'Lady, I have brought the unicorn." There was a muffled sound from behind the door, I couldn't make it out, but Silver moved to open the door. "She will see you now, please, step inside."

I was getting a real mafia-boss vibe from this, like I'd go in there and be greeted by a shroud of cigar smoke and an italian accent.

Thankfully this wasn't the case, though I had to take back my previous thoughts on the place as Silver shut the door behind me. It was simple enough on the outside, but the inside was decorated up the ying-yang. There was a carpet adorned with stitched flower and bird designs, Though I couldn't make out the colors in the dim lighting. There were many candles all across the room but none were lit, instead the dim light was coming from a glowing crystal embedded in the ceiling. Several paintings lined the walls, all of which looked to be sunsets in different lands, some had snowy terrain, a few had deserts, and others had grassy fields. At the end of the room, what would be the 'front' of the trailer, was a generously sized bed that left only just enough room on either side to walk up to it's head. A draw curtain was set infront of the bed, currently open, revealing the silhouette of it's only occupant.

I was about to say hi, but I got destracted by a faint glow coming from her head, and then all the candles in the room were lit at once.

"Greetings Outsider. I trust you slept well."

Oh fuck you Universe. I was honestly hoping for the 'wizened old lady' type of leader, not the goddamn supermodel kind. She was a unicorn, coat a deep forest green, almost black in the candle light, her main was of the same color but streaked with bands of silver. On her flank was the picture of a tattered old book, several of it's pages misaligned like they were about to fall out. She was laying on the bed at an angle to the door, allowing me to see her side while not having to turn her head at an uncomfortable angle to look at me. Her eyes were a piercing shade of blue that seemed to glow, and she wore a warm smile on her face.

As the seconds ticked by and my rebellious eyes refused to remain focused on her face, I was finally snapped out of it by her voice.

"See something you like?" She fluttered her eyes at me and her smile, once warm and inviting, was now almost predatory.

"Yes- no! Well, er, what I mean is-" Great, another Silver to worry about. "Uh, ahem! Anyway! You wanted to see me?" That awkward moment passed, I was now able to focus, whereupon I saw her smile falter for a moment, like I'd just done something to annoy her. I first thought it was the staring that annoyed her, but that didn't really fit as she seemed to have been enjoying it at the time.

"Yes, I did request your presence. A unicorn flying through the air as if launched from a trebuchet is not a common sight. And, acording to the stories, Discord was loathe to have anypony escape his reach, little own remove them himself. I am curious as to what caused this, has Discord become vengeful after so long in stone?"

"Uhh, no. I just pissed him off. How do you know so much about Discord? I was under the impression that very few ponies remember he even existed."

"Oh? How strange, I would think Equestria, of all places, would remember him. Celestia and Luna were the ones who defeated him after all. One would think that to be a prominent part of any history class. As for how I know... well." She trailed off as she took one hoof and began sensually sliding it down her side. She smiled again when she saw how I couldn't take my eyes off it, before bringing it to rest above her cutie mark. "I know all the old stories."

I swallowed a lump that had formed in my throat at some point. Man it is hot in here all of a sudden. I took a slow, deep breath to try and calm myself down and lower my heart rate, when I caught a wiff of something. Is there a strawberry scented candle in here? At that point my stomach let out a rumbling growl, and I nearly collapsed as all at once it hit me that I haden't eaten in at least four days.

"Oh yes! You must be positivly starving by now. We'll talk more later, Silver can lead you to some food. We wouldn't want you dying on us now. After all, everypony needs to eat." There was an inflection to her voice that I didn't recognize in that last statement, but food was calling and it wasn't important.

I said my goodbyes and went outside into the setting sunlight to find some food courtesy of Silver Wind. She took me to one of the wagons, inside were several baskets and boxes full of different foods that I helped myself to. After eating I started to feel tired, which I thought was wierd as I had just woken from a four day nap not more than an hour ago. Regardless, Silver led me back to the wagon I had slept in before. After exchanging goodnights, and insisting I would be plenty warm by myself, I went back to sleep.

Author's Note

To any of the one or two people actually following this story, no, I'm not dead. I started writing this during spring break and since collage started up again I don't have much free time between homework and lab reports. It doesn't help that I was a horrendously slow writer to begin with.

Something to Think About

"I can't believe this crap! I knew they were rude, and possibly racist, but superstitious to boot!" I was angrily pulling stakes out of the ground as everypony took down the tents and packed them away.

"Hey, calm down! Why are you so angry about this?" I looked over at the earth pony who'd said that. I didn't know his name, we were just working on the same tent.

"Why aren't you? I'd be pissed as all hell if someone accused me of something I had nothing to do with! 'Bad omen' my ass," I grunted while pulling out a particularly stubborn stake. And I had been in such a good mood earlier.

While we waited for Andre to get back with the money, Diamond explained to Silver and I that the sheriff told her that we had to leave. The citizens of the town had apparently decided that the cave-in at the mine was some kind of 'sign' that the pony caravan was bad luck, or cursed, or some other nonsense. The justification for their reasoning, if you could even call it that, was that the cave-in, the first one in that mines history, occured not more than a few hours after we were given permission to set up camp.

"Living the way we do, you get used to being treated like a plague. You can't waste your energy being mad all the time. I, for one, am glad that they told us to leave instead of coming at us with spears." The cloth was removed and folded as we spoke, allowing us to start taking apart the frame.

"Silver mentioned something like that too. What exactly happened in Zabrica? Why were you all run out so violently? You all seem pretty nice, and it just doesn't make any sense to me." Everypony within earshot of my question stopped working, sad looks overcoming their features. They started looking back and forth amongst themselves, like they were deciding if they should let me know or not. I could tell it must have been a painful memory for them.

"Zabrica..." one of the ponies started, "isn't a very peacful place." He just looked down again after that.

"The zebras are almost always in conflict with the lion prides," a pagasus mare picked up where he left off. "The lions attack whenever they want pray that puts up a better fight than the gazelle herds. And then there are the hyenas, they prowl in the dark and strike at any unsuspecting creatures from the shadows. They've even been known to foalnap young zebras who are out playing at night."

"Prolonged periods of peace are a rare thing for the zebra tribes," said the earth pony I had asked originally. "When we first arrived, they were happy to have us. Our presence bolstered their numbers and deterred several attacks. They treated us kindly, they fed us, and they gave us a place to settle down for quite some time. It was nice..." He sounded like he really missed that place, and the others held expressions of fondness for that memory. "In exchange we helped them gather ingrediants for their potion making, helped tend to crops, and provided a significant boost to their defenses."

"That sounds like a pretty ideal partnership. What went wrong?"

"Well..." He trailed off, his expression saddening along with everyone elses.

"The zebras don't fight amongst themselves very often," an earth pony mare took over. "They're always too busy protecting themselves to fight eachother. But we stayed with them for almost two months, bolstering their defenses and fighting off the lions and keeping the hyenas away. I can only think that our help... gave them time to argue with eachother."

"They started yelling at eachother a lot," said a pagasus stallion. "And when the fighting started, we... must have become an unnecessary burden on their resources. They told us to leave, but we had been there for a long time, we had... unpacked, I guess is the best word for it. Putting the caravan back together takes time... time they weren't willing to give us."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would they attack you just because you wanted time to pack?"

"We weren't really in a position to ask..."

"What is going on over here!" The ponies all turned and, seeing Diamond, gave quick bows and then went back to work. As she made her way over to me I noticed that the tents in this area seemed to be the only ones not packed away yet. "Cotton, what were you doing over here?"

"I was just asking about what happened in Zabrica. Everypony kinda got distracted telling me about it..." Even she looked sad at the mention of that event.

"I see. Well I hope your curiosity was satisfied. It isn't something we like to talk about." She started walking away, probably back to her mobile home, and I followed along.

"It was, I guess. But it left me with some thoughts, and a theory that I'd like to run past you."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"You don't like living like this do you? Always on the move I mean." She stopped walking at that, but didn't turn to look at me. After a second she started moving again, and I kept following.

"What makes you say that?"

"When they were telling me the story, they talked about how the zebras let you stay with them for a long time. They way they spoke about it, and the looks on their faces... They were describing something they wanted to have again." She stayed silent for a few seconds before letting out a small sigh.

"It's true. We did enjoy our time there. We didn't have to think about where we would go next. We didn't have to worry about running out of food before we got there. For a while... it was like we had a home."

"So why don't you try again? Maybe somewhere more... stable... than Zabrica seems to be." She scoffed at the suggestion.

"Zabrica may be the latest example, but it is by no means the first place we have been kicked out of. It only hit harder than before because we had time to get comfortable first. Our group is large, as you've no doubt noticed, and the arrival of a thousand strangers is never well recieved. But, we have been wondering for generations, and we've grown used to it."

"I can see how having a thousand ponies show up on your doorstep would be discouraging, but why are you always run out of places? Couldn't you find some sort of niche to fill? Maybe integrate into their society somehow?"

"We aren't always run out. Sometimes we aren't let in in the first place. As for integration... I suppose it would be possible, if we had any money." That through me for a loop, how could they have no money? She must have sensed my confusion somehow because she answered my question before I could ask it. "We are all one big family here, we help eachother, and as such we've never needed any currency. Whenever we need supplies, we just go out and gather them ourselves."

"Yeesh... no wonder no one wants you. Adding a thousand bodies to an economy without bringing in any money of their own would be devestating to any place that isn't filthy rich." She simply nodded at that as we approached her trailer. There were two earth ponies hitching themselves to the front of it. Once we reached the stairs into the trailer she turned to look directly at me for the first time in this conversation.

"Is that all then? It's been a long day."

"Just one more question, have you ever tried to build a home of your own? No one could kick you out that way, just pick a nice field and start building." She looked away from me, and spoke with a resigned tone of voice.

"We could never do something like that..."

"Well why not?" She let out a few rhythmic puffs of breath, like a laugh that didn't quite make it, then turned back to look me in the eye.

"Look, Cotton... I can see what you're trying to do, and it's very sweet of you. But this is our lot in life, and that's simply how it is."

"But-"

"That's enough Cotton. Why don't you go find Silver Wind, I'm sure she'd like to spend more time with you." With that final word, Diamond walked into her home and the two ponies in front pulled it away. Slowly but surely the caravan began to move, following the sun west as it set, and continuing on into the night.

We were on the run. There was a huge mob of ponies on our tails, brandishing pitchforks and torches and harsh words. But despite the throttling we were in for if they caught us... there was no fear, only laughter.

She had come to me this morning and invited me to do some pranks with her. We spent the whole day running amok throughout Ponyville, and needless to say... we did everything. Snakes in a can, water buckets over doors, super spicy lemon drops placed innocently out in the open. We even replaced a jar of Applejack's zap apple jam with a jar of liquid rainbow. The poor sap who baught it didn't even know what hit him.

As we kept running and laughing, we sent a glance at eachother, but once our eyes locked, we couldn't look away. No longer looking where we were going, it was only a matter of time before we tripped over our own hooves and went tumbling along the ground. Eventually we came to a stop, my back to the ground and her on top of me. We just kept smiling and staring into eachothers eyes. It didn't take long for me to get lost in their sparkling cerulean depths.

The mob of ponies disappeared, the sun fell from the sky, leaving the night in it's wake. The stars winked out, sucked up by the blackness of space, and the ground fell away beneath us. We were left floating, alone in the void, but we noticed none of these things.

"Cotton."

"Pinkie."

"It's time to wake up."

Huh?

"Wake up Cotton!"

*Blink*

Eyes.

"AH!" *Thwack*

"AH!" Shouted a feminine voice, followed by several gasps and the sound of shuffling hooves.

I bolted upright, taking in the scene of the wagon where I went to bed. There were several foals of varying ages backed against the walls, they looked kind of nervous. And off in one corner was a familiar pagasus, rubbing her jaw.

"Ow! Why did you hit me!"

"Why were you standing over me like that!"

"I was just trying to wake you up!" She winced while continuing to rub her jaw, "that really hurt, ya know!"

"Well, sorry, it was a reflex. What would you do if you woke up with somepony standing over you for unknown reasons?"

"I don't know," she stopped rubbing her jaw and flexed it a few times. "Geez, who knew you were so jumpy?"

"No one's ever done that to me before... Anyway, why are you all in here?" I asked, looking over the array of children in the wagon.

"I'm in charge of this group of kids while the camp is being set up, but I'm outnumbered and they always wear me out with their games! Then I thought, 'hey, I should get Cotton to come play with us!' And here we are. So come on!" She started marching to the exit, and I opened my mouth to try and protest, but she anticipated my response. "And you're not allowed to say no! You have no excuses and nothing better to do."

"Augh... Can't I at least get some breakfast first?"

"Bye-bye everypony!" Called out Silver to all of the children now being lead away by their parents.

"Bye Silver!" They called back, "bye Cotton, thanks for playing with us!" I forced myself to put on a smile as I half heartedly waved to them.

"No problem, glad you had fun! You little demons." I mumbled. I definitely saw now why having to deal with them all alone would wear Silver out. They insisted that we actively take part in all of the games, forcing us to run around with them through several variations of tag, and a few rounds of six flags. It was sort of like capture the flag, except each team had seven flags and you only needed to capture six of them to win. That rule had something to do with not allowing an entire team to guard a single flag.

"What was that Cotton?" Asked Silver, who was suddenly a lot closer than the last time I looked.

"Nothing." Thankfully a few clouds had drifted in this morning, and were giving us a nice reprieve from the sun. I started walking away myself after that. What am I going to do with myself for the rest of the day? God I hate boredom.

"Hey Cotton, there's something I wanted to ask you."

Is it bad that I'm already used to her following me around? "And that is?" I inquired while aimlessly walking along.

"Who's 'Pinkie'?" For reasons I can't explain, that question made my heart skip a beat. Like the name was some deep dark secret I didn't want anypony to know about.

"Where did you hear that name?" I stopped and turned to address Silver directly.

"You said it in your sleep when I was waking you up this morning."

Well that's wierd. I've never talked in my sleep before.

"So, is she your marefriend?" It's a good thing I wasn't drinking anything or that would have been a spit take.

"What!? No! Nothing like that, we're just friends!" That assumption had blindsided and flustered me. "Where did you even come up with that!?"

"Well, nopony says a mare's name the way you did if there's nothing going on. Plus..." At this her mouth stretched into a satisfied grin, like she just solved the mystery in her own personal crime novel. "...You're blushing." I hadn't noticed before, but now that she mentioned it, my face felt like it was on fire.

"Sh-shut up you! There's nothing going on! Pinkie and I are just friends, really." She just giggled at that.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night..." She said in a resigned tone of voice. She turned her head away, and I felt relieved that she seemed to be dropping the subject.

I should have known better than to get my hopes up.

"So, if she's not your marefriend," she said while starting to walk ahead of me. "Then that must mean..." She turned her face towards mine and fluttered her eyes. This set me on edge, but I still wasn't prepared for what happened next as her voice took on a seductive tone. "That you're..." I felt something soft come up and lightly caress my chin, followed by my heart stopping. "Available."

Tearing my eyes away from hers, I saw that the soft something was her tail. My face heated up even more as it continued to slowly move along before the end of it poped off the end of my chin, flicking my nose in the process. I felt my heart start pumping again. Unfortunatly, it was directing blood flow to a certain spot more than anywhere else.

I could see several ponies already looking my way, and as I felt it happen, out in public, with no pants to hide it... panic immediately set in.

I NEED TO BE AWAY!!! I screamed in my mind.

I tensed my legs, preparing to run but then, in a flash, I was back in my wagon. With a spliting headache to distract me from my imminent panic attack.

"Agh! Fuck, wha-? Ah!" Each heartbeat sent a new wave of pain crashing through my skull. How did I- Agh! I collapsed onto the sleeping mat, head still throbbing. "I can't even- ngh- think, aughhh..." I just laid there, wincing in time with my heartbeat, hoping I could fall asleep and be rid of this pain.

"Hello?"

Ow. Fuck me. I cracked an eye open to get a look at the intruder. It was a little unicorn colt with a yellow coat, dark blue mane and no mark yet.

"I saw a flash in here, was that you mister?" He asked while walking up next to me.

"Augh... Leave me alone." He didn't however, and I clenched my teeth in pain as he continued talking, but in a raised pitch.

"*gasp* You're hurting! What happened, is it bad!? Don't let it be bad!" Each syllable was like another nail to my temples as he hopped around the room to look at me from every angle.

"Ow. Please stop talking. I'll be fine."

"But you're not fine! What if you don't get fine!? You're not supposed to get hurt! I-I-I'll get somepony who can heal you!" He promtly ran out, and as relieved as I was for the kid to stop yelling in my ear, I couldn't help but grumble agitatedly all the same.

"Of course nopony's supposed to get hurt, dumbass, it just fricken happens." I tried to relax and lower my heart rate, to increase the time between the shots of pain. The kid couldn't have been gone two minutes before he came running back in, an adult unicorn trotting in behind him. She had a light brown coat and a black mane and tail, she had a cutie mark of some kind of constellation.

"What happened and where are you hurt?" She spoke quickly, almost in a panic, while looking me over for injuries. Clearly she was as concerned about my health as the kid had been.

"It's just a bad headache, and I'll be fine if you stop yelling in my ear. All I need is a little nap."

"Oh..." She trailed off, while sending an angry glance at the kid. He returned a sheepish look before quickly scampering out.

He probably made me out to be dying, judging from her paniced behavior.

"Well," she said before looking back down at me. "I can fix that while I'm here." Her horn was enveloped by a deep green aura, then she lowered it down and lightly pressed it to my temple. The pain I was almost starting to get used to began slowly receding as she kept her horn to my head. "So... what spell were you trying?" She said by way of bedside manner.

"Uh... I teleported. Accidentally, I guess. How did you know?"

"Strong migraines, in unicorns at least, are a common symptom of overtaxing one's horn. And you say that you 'accidentally' teleported? I've never heard of an adult unicorn experiencing accidental magic before, but teleportation is a complex spell and could easily overtax you if you haven't learned how to do it properly."

"So that's what this is. I've read about teleportation and was trying to learn it for a while, but my teacher never let me try it. She insisted I 'sufficiently master' an entire series of other spells first. Ha, guess I showed her, eh?"

"Hm. Maybe if you do it again without the-"

"Cotton!" Came a frantic shout a fraction of a second before a certain sky blue cannon ball barreled through the flap into the wagon and smashed head first into my nurse. They went tumbling into the wall at the front end, where they came to a rest, tangled up in eachothers limbs. "Cotton, I'm really sorry about-" She stopped suddenly when she realized that the unicorn she had tackled wasn't me. "Uh... Hi Star."

"Hi yourself," she deadpanned. "Now can you get off me? I was in the middle of something." They quickly disentangled themselves before focusing back on me. Silver hopped infront of my face, while the now named Star went back to work finishing off my already far less painful headache.

"Hey Cotton, I'm so sorry about before. I didn't know you were so shy, and that was just totally out of line." She lowered her gaze to the floor, "Besides... I should have known you were saving yourself for your marefr-"

"She's not my marefriend!" I exclaimed while bolting upright, Star's quick reflexes being the only thing allowing me to narrowly avoid impaling myself on her horn.

"Watch it!" She shouted, but I ignored her.

"How many times do I have to say it, Pinkie is not my marefriend." Star had done a good job repairing my braincase so far but she wasn't done yet, and my lightly throbbing skull kept me from shouting, even though I wanted to.

"That's what you keep sayinggg," she sang, ending it with a few giggles, and a cheshire grin that she held for a few seconds before turning serious again. "But honestly, I am sorry. So waddya say? Forgive me? I promise I won't tease you as much anymore."

"*sigh* It's fine. Just don't do that again, alright?" She grew a large smile, her eyes started sparkling, and I could swear I heard a sound like a squeeky toy going off.

"Thanks Cotton, I'm so relieved you're not mad at me. Don't you worry," she said while merely placing a hoof on my shoulder, as opposed to her usual habbit of large amounts of bodily contact. "I'll be a more considerate friend from now on."

This all seems a bit much for some teasing that went overboard. Why does she put so much stock into my opinion of her?

"Yay, we're all friends now," said Star in a mock happy tone. "Now will you please hold still so I can finish this already? You nearly stabbed yourself moving so suddenly before!"

It only took a few minutes for Star to finish up, after which Silver asked me out to lunch to celebrate the new start to our friendship. She also invited Star, then forced her to come with us when she turned the offer down. She started packing a picnic basket, the three of us idly chatting about nothing in particular while she put it together and grabbed a checkered blanket. I learned that Star's full name was Stargazer, and that she prefered to go by Star because it was shorter.

Silver was still being flirty, but so far was staying true to her word and hadn't done anything physical. But I was still wary, especially now that there were two of them. The wariness only increased when Silver wanted to have the picnic outside of the camp in an open field. Away from witnesses, being my first assumption. I argued that it would be more comfortable to stay under one of the tents, there being only a scant few clouds in the sky between us and the oppressive fireball. She replied only that there was nothing for me to worry about.

By the time we arrived at a nice location the sun had long since come out from behind the clouds, much to my annoyance. Given that my hate of heat had already been made known, I didn't voice my complaints as we set up the picnic. I was pleasantly surprised however when the sun suddenly went away. I looked up, pessimistically expecting only a small cloud that would move out of the suns way in a matter of seconds, but what I saw was Silver. She had just set a cloud overtop of our blanket, now being held in place by the weather controlling power that she, being a pagasus, possessed.

After that, everything was pretty normal. We had lunch, we talked... Well, more like they talked, and occasionally asked me something that I would answer in as few words as possible. It's just how I'd always been. I don't like to talk, I just listen. That's why it became my 'special talent' when I got here.

But then something started to happen. I didn't even notice at first, but I was starting to open up to them. As more and more time went by, I began talking more often. Explaining things in greater detail, I even started talking without being asked a question.

We started telling stories about ourselves, about interesting things we'd seen or done. They shared stories from their travels, about the many lands they'd been to and the creatures they'd encountered. I told them little stories about some of the non-lethal lab accidents I'd seen or been a part of, and of my time in Ponyville.

And then I noticed something else. As the minutes turned into hours, I realized I was enjoying myself. I was talking with them, openly, and I liked it.

That realization struck me like a brick. And I recoiled from it.

"-So then I said, 'now make like a tree, and leaf!', hahaha!" Said Silver, just finishing the story of how she faught off a pack of timberwolves all by herself without getting a scratch. Embellishments abound, to be sure, but it was entertaining. "So how about you Cotton, have you ever seen timberwolves before?"

"Yeah, I saw some once," I said while standing up. "But I think I'm gunna go now, I want to get in some teleportation practice before we start taking down the camp."

"Oh, that's cool. Let me pack this up real quick and we can join you." Silver and Star got off the blanket, and then Silver unceremoniously stuffed it into the now empty basket. "Let's go!" She said with a big smile.

"Actually, I'd rather be alone, if that's alright with you." Their ears perked up in surprise, and they looked at eachother briefly before turning back to me.

"Come on, can't we watch? Please?" Silver was giving me the puppy eyes.

"You really should let us come with you," said Star, without any sort of begging in her voice. "You do remember what happened last time right? What if it happens again, are you just going to curl up in the dirt until somepony comes looking for you?"

That kind of defeats the purpose of being alone, but she has a point... "Do you think you could teach me that spell of yours? That way I could fix myself up when I need to."

"W-well... I'm not really a teacher, and few unicorns have an affinity for healing magic..."

"Oh, I know!" Interupted Silver, "you could ask Lady Sigil to teach you, she knows all kinds of magic. She even teaches many of the children who want to learn more advanced spells."

"No, that's alright. I'm sure she's busy anyway, I'll just work on something else for a while then. Maybe I can get my illusion spell to finally work or something..."

"Nonsense!" Silver said before putting her wing through the handle of the basket and folding it shut. She then trotted to my side, carrying the basket like some kind of shoulder bag. "Diamond is very good at managing her time, I'm sure she'll be willing to find time for you."

"Besides," said Star, walking up to my other side, "after those stories you told us about Ponyville, and your studies with Twilight... You can't deny that you'd love the opportunity to learn more magic."

*sigh* I knew they'd gang up on me sooner or later. At least it's over something I know how to handle, and not... physical stuff.

I didn't struggle as they dragged me back into camp and towards Diamond's mobile home. I was preoccupied, thinking about what new magic I could learn... and the way I had been enjoying their company. I was getting attached to these ponies... and I didn't know if I wanted to let it happen.

Author's Note

I'm sorry to the people who were waiting on this, but I was being hit with writters block for a few weeks. I knew roughly where I wanted this chapter to go, but I couldn't figure out how to get there. I'm hoping I can finish the next chapter within two weeks, instead of another month.

Also, I don't know if it would be better to retroactively call the futury bits in the first few chapters flash forwards, or not. Because the way I have the story planned out, we won't be seeing the "future" again until we get there, and I'm not sure if having 80% of my story being a long flash back is acceptable.

Chapter 7

The sun was getting low in the sky by the time we got to Diamond's trailer house. We had obviously been out there longer than I thought. Time flies when you're having... fun, I guess. There was a grey coated unicorn stallion standing guard next to the door.

"Is the Lady in?" Asked Star, to which the guard shook his head.

"No. Our Lady is teaching a class, you will find her in that direction," he said while pointing a hoof.

"Thank you!" Called Silver as she started pulling me along. "The class will be nearly over by now, we'll need to hurry if we want to catch her in a teaching mood!" I just let her pull me in silence. I'd done more talking today than in the last few weeks, and I wanted to give my throat a rest.

We trotted through the camp at a jogging pace, and soon enough we came to a wide canvas tent. There were only eight foals under it, all sitting before Diamond as she finished up the lesson.

Silver said only the kids who want to learn more advanced magic attend these classes, the rest of them are likely off playing or something. That would make these the aspiring intellectuals of the generation... or the ones with overbearing parents.

"-Is a key aspect of a successful shield. Pliable barriers are possible and have their own applications, but for the purposes of this class, it must be rigid. Now, once more, bring up your shields." At her command, eight little horns lit up with identical green auras.

Wow, that is creepy. And disconcerting. It's getting harder to excuse their color as coincidence... but... Little green bubbles flared up around the kids, each being fully encompassed by one. One bubble was shining brightly and was nearly opaque, while two were only just bright enough to see. The remaining five looked like pulsating, green tinted glass. ...But they're so... different, than how they're supposed to be.

"Hmmm..." Diamond hummed as she inspected the bubbles. She started with the opaque one, prodding it several times with a hoof. "It's good, but you're putting too much power into it. You'll be drained of energy in minutes, tone it down." The bubble slowly dimmed and soon took on the same tinted glass texture of the others. Nodding, satisfied, she moved on to the two who's bubbles were quite dim. Again, she prodded them with a hoof, each one sinking in a ways like half inflated beach balls.

"Hmph. What were you two thinking when you cast this spell?" She rhetorically asked, her eyes narrowing and her voice taking on a harsher tone. "Did I not just say that concentration during the casting is key?" The children both looked down in shame, unable to look her in the eye. Her horn flared green for only a moment, but that was enough, as both of their shields broke with an audible *pop*. "Again."

The three of us patiently waited for her to dismiss the class as the two kids re-cast the spell, this time forming shields that Diamond's hoof found acceptable. ...Could they really be...? No, this is all too different to what I know. I need more proof before I can decide. Until I know for certain, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

"Better," she said while walking back to the front of the class. Once at the front, she picked up a baseball sized rock before dismissing the class. "Tomorrow, I will be testing you on the strength of your shields. Now go on, and be sure to practice if you value your little skulls." The small class then bowed to her before running off.

"*whistle*," I whistled admiringly, "if we had teachers like you back home, the dropout rates would be huge."

"Mhmhmhm," she chuckled. "This is how my mother tought, and just like her, I don't see how going easy on them would greatly improve their performance." This she said while hoisting the rock once, before putting it back down.

"Ha, pain will always be a strong incentive. Maybe fewer pe- ponies back home would fail their classes if teachers could hit them for not studying." She smirked at that.

"Indeed. Children cannot learn unless their failures are made clear to them. And if these failures have no consequences... how can they be expected learn from them?" Her smirk shifted into a warm smile as she changed the topic. "So, what's made you come looking for me tonight?"

"Oh, yes, well... um..." How do I word this? God, I suck at asking for favors. "Ahem. I was wondering..." Just say it asshole! 'Teach me some magic'. "That is, if you don't mind..." She quirked an eyebrow at my hesitation, and looked between Silver and Star, whos reactions I couldn't see. But I don't know how to pay her back, and I don't want her thinking I'm trying to push their hospitality. They've already done so much for me, letting me live with them and eat for free, and possibly saving my life... "*sigh* Nevermind, it's nothing. Sorry for wasting your time, I'm sure you have more important things you could be doing. I'll just-" I tried to back away, as a precurser to leaving, but I was stopped by the familiar sensation of Silver's wing over my back.

"He wants you to teach him some magic!" Silver said before addressing me in an exasperated tone. "Honestly, why are you being so shy today?"

"I'm not shy! I just... I'm not comfortable asking for favors. Espesially now, after everything you've already done for me. Asking for more just..." I trailed off, looking at the ground. "Feels greedy. I have nothing to pay you back with, besides the bits I made yesterday, and you told me you don't use money, so..." Again I tried to leave, but Silver wouldn't let me go, instead tightening her wings grip on me. I wanted to tell her to let go, but before the words could form in my mouth, I was destracted by a curious sound.

"Ha. Hahaha, ahahaha!" Looking back up, I saw Diamond, bent over in laughter, where she remained for several seconds. "Aha, ha, *inhale* haaa... Cotton..." She said while wiping a tear from her eye. "You fret over the stupidest things." I opened my mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say, only managing to quirk my eyebrows as my mouth hung open. "Just yesterday, you not only saw the mangled corpse of a minotaur, but bent down to examine it, without so much as batting an eye! And yet, the prospect of asking for a simple favor terrifies you?"

"Well when you put it like that, it sounds kind of silly... but that's just how I grew up. I don't really like having others do things for me, it makes me feel indebted to them. And asking others to do things for me, for free... it just doesn't feel right." I looked down again, feeling kind of depressed. All this talk is just reminding me of how much these ponies have done for me, and I don't even know how to pay them back for it. There has to be something... Silver removed her wing from my back, the feeling bringing me out of my thoughts enough to notice a pair of forest green legs right in front of me.

"Cotton..." One hoof came up under my chin, and raised my eyes to hers. "It's alright," she cooded in a warm, comforting tone as my inner thoughts became quiet. "Relax... you have nothing to worry about." I could feel all my anxiety slipping away, my eyes unable to leave hers. "I have no doubts that you'll find a way to pay us back." My peripheral vision began to take on a green tint, I stopped breathing, and I was lost in her eyes. I could no longer hear what she said, her mouth silent as it was swallowed up by the green. Those eyes were my world, the perfect shade of cerulean blue, filled with love as they gazed apon my very soul.

Beautiful... The green encroached farther into my vision, until those eyes were all I could see. Then I heard her voice, calling me.

Cotton..? Where are you?

"Pinkie..." I whispered with the last of my breath, so quiet the name barely escaped my lips. When I blinked, the eyes were different, a more luminescent shade of blue, and the green had receded. "Hhhhhhhhuh!" I inhaled deeply, blinking rapidly to clear the blurryness that had overcome my vision. What just happened? Did I zone out just now..? I can't remember but... I feel... great! Like all the stress in me is just gone. I looked back up in time to see the glow fade away from Diamond's horn. "Wow... thanks! What was that, some kind of nerve soothing spell?" She looked positively shocked about something, but quickly turned to face away from me.

"Yes... you seemed very... tense... about this whole favor thing. I figured I'd loosen you up a bit. So," she said, turning back around, face composed into a neutral stare. "What, exactly, did you want my help with?"

"Right, earliar today I teleported, but-"

"Oh wait!" Shouted Star, hopping infront of, and interrupting, me. "Show us your illusion thing first. You wouldn't show it to us before, and it sounded really interesting."

"I didn't before because I was still drained from that teleport incident, and I didn't feel like doing much of anything."

"Yeah, but you're better now. You were the one who wanted to leave and practice teleporting just a few minutes ago, so don't tell me you're not up to it."

"What is this 'illusion thing' you're talking about?" Asked Diamond.

"Well, I took an interest in illusions a while back. I could only find one book on illusion spells, but I could never get the spell I learned from it to work the way I wanted, so I gave up on it."

"I see..." She said, turning her gaze to the lowering sun. "There isn't much time left before we move. Show this spell to me. I'll examine it, and see what I can do in the morning." I took a quick look around, Diamond was patiently waiting, Silver looked expectant, and Star looked more excited than she had all day.

I guess I can learn to teleport later... "Alright, but it isn't that great, so don't get too excited." I closed my eyes to concentrate, I hadn't cast this spell for months, and wanted to make sure I did it right.

My horn glowed a bright red for several seconds while I formed the spell. When I was finished, a thin wave of magic pulsed outward around us, and the world shifted into the white space. My self congratulations at performing the spell correctly, after not having even practiced it for so long, were sadly interupted by several shouts of suprise and panic.

"What's going on!" "Where'd the world go!" "Where's the ground!" And so on...

The four of us started looking around, and we saw several other ponies in the white with us. They were all nearby, the farthest one being less than ten meters away.

"Uh... Sorry everypony! I'll just..." I ended the spell, bringing the camp back into view. "Sorry, I didn't mean to catch any of you in that!" They seemed to accept my apology and just went back to whatever they were doing. I turned back to the group, and all three of them were sending me quizzical looks while I blushed in embarrassment. "I, uh... never actually tried casting this spell on anypony before. I was always alone when I practiced with it..."

"This happened because you didn't direct the spell at all." Said Diamond. "You just cast it without focusing it, and it spread to everypony nearby. Do it again, but focus on us this time." I nodded, and started charging up the spell again.

Okay... Stargazer, at my left... Silver Wind, at my right... Diamond Sigil, at my front... And myself... I released the spell, and this time, there was only the four of us.

"So this is it then... what exactly is wrong with it?" Diamond asked, while Silver and Star started poking at the nothing where the ground used to be as they walked around.

"Well... I'm not really sure. It's supposed to be a sort of illusion world, but I can't really do anything with it." I said while conjuring up a few floating shapes. "I can make some simple shapes, but that's about it. Whenever I try to do anything more complicated, it just... doesn't work."

"Hmm..." Was all she said before her horn glowed, and she started pointing it in seemingly random directions. "I've never heard of something like this before... And you're sure it was an illusion spell?"

"Well, what else could this be?" She leveled a glare my way, clearly not pleased with being answered with another question. "W-well, yes... as far as I could tell."

"And what does that mean, precisely?"

"It was an old, hoof written book, and the writting... wasn't the best. I could only really decipher about half of the... words..." I trailed off as she sent me an incredulous look.

"Well," she said, the glow of her horn brightening. "I think it's safe to assume you misread something." A frown formed on her features, and she made her horn glow even brighter. I wondered what she was doing, when my horn started to get a little sore. I quickly cut off the flow of my magic, not wanting it to get worse, canceling the spell.

"Whoa," came Silver's voice, once again on my right side. "That's disorienting..."

"You said it," came Star's voice, once again on my left.

But they were just... huh. That's pretty neat. Still not very useful, but neat.

"I can teach you real illusion spells tomorrow, but for now, it's time to pack. We should be able reach the next town before sunrise." She said before turning to walk away. "Hopefully, we can stay there for more than one day this time."

"Three caramel apples please," I say while setting three bits on the counter of the parked cart, folded out into a street stand. "With almonds."

"Coming right up!" Says the vender in an overly cheerful voice. It was most likely for drawing in customers, but the minotaurs in this city were much friendliar than the last ones I'd met.

Maybe that place was the equivalent of some backwood redneck town, where everyone's racist for no adequately disclosed reason

The 'town', as Diamond had called it, turned out to actually be a full blown city, very much like Manehattan actually. It was a fairly renowned one named Tolmiros. It was the city in which the only train track across the Badlands enters the country. This track was the only constructed land route connecting Equestria to Minotauria, all other transportation and shipping being over the sea, along either coast. Or so the pamphlet I picked up at the train station said. One thing I'd learned since arriving here was that Equestria seemed to be the center piece of the world economy. They export a lot of food, but I was actually suprised to learn that they were the leading supplier of the worlds paper. Apparently no one else had invented a mechanical means of mass producing paper, leaving them otherwise stuck with papyrus and cloth papers, which are very slow to make. So Equestrian magic was vital to the widespread production of books elsewhere in the world, inevitably linking them to the concept of widespread education as well.

"There you go," Said the minotaur behind the counter, handing me the freshly dipped caramel apples, sprinkled with chopped nuts.

"Thank you, have a nice day!" I had noticed that the apples were kept in a mini fridge, once they were dipped in the hot caramel, it would quickly cool against the cold apple so as not to be a horrible, drippy mess. With the lack of electricity, of course, this meant it ran on magic, leading to the other notable difference between Tolmiros and the mining town from the other day. This city actually had a pony population... One I was currently getting quite a few jollies out of.

I walked down the street, before spotting my target, a mare, who had apparently saw something rather disturbing as she looked my way in horror.

"Beautiful day isn't it?" I call before taking a healthy bite out of the large eyeball on the end of my popsicle stick. Her eye's widened comically, as she let out a shrill and terrified scream, just before fainting. "P-PAH-HAHAHA- Hurk," my mirth at the successful prank was cut short as I started choking on the bite of caramel apple I'd taken. I hacked and coughed for almost a minute, before I finally managed to spit out the accursed thing. "*pant* Ha. *pant* Haha, hhhhuh... ha... This will never get old..." I whispered before continuing on to where I had agreed to meet up with Silver and Star.

Star had been sent to wake me up and get me to 'class' this morning, before sunrise. I was yawning and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes through most of my lesson, something Diamond made abundantly clear that she did not approve of. It was a good thing Star was my friend now, or I'd be sporting several singe marks where my abusive teacher had shot me with small lightning bolts.

But, I thought, remembering all the fun I was having with it, it was totally worth it. And so will any more lightning she throws at me, as long as I keep learning from her.

I had dreamt of Pinkie again last night, something that was starting to really bother me deep down. I had never had any dreams about her before, but ever since Discord fucked with my brain, every night was filled with vivid and romantic dreams of her. That's the main reason I didn't buy a ticket for the train back to Equestria yet, and wasn't planning on it either. The other, of course, being that I was learning my undoubtedly favorite form of magic from Diamond, and didn't want to drop that until I was finished. But I figured a few extra days away from Pinkie could only be a good thing. After all, I didn't know how I would react to seeing her again while in this state of mind.

As I continued down the street, I noticed a minotaur leaning against the corner of a building farther down the street. He was looking at me with a very serious expression, and following me with his eyes. Once I we were closer, he braught a notepad up to his face, and I noticed the golden shield badge of a cop on his vest. I just took the last bite of my apple when he pushed himself off the wall and approached me.

"Are you the pony called 'Cotton Hill'?" He asked, staring down at me with the same serious expression.

"Myaw. *chew chew, gulp* What of it?"

"Our office received a bolo for a unicorn of your description, there's somebody who wants to talk to you. I'll need to ask you not to leave town anytime soon."

"What? How does anyone even know who I am, or what I look like? I've only been in your country for like, two day- wait... I'm not under arrest am I?"

"No, we were only supposed to find you." I sighed in relief. "You and your's will be staying here for the next few days, correct?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess. As long as no one makes us leave."

"Good. The department building is on Baldr road on the west side of the city should you have any trouble while you're here." He said before turning around and walking away.

"Wha- hey! What is this about, who want's to talk to me!?" He didn't even turn back around to answer me.

"I don't know."

Well fuck that! I started following him, when Silver touched down infront of me, with Star quickly trotting down the street.

"Here you are Cotton! You were late, what's the holdup?"

"I was coming when this guy-" I looked behind her, only to find that he was already gone. "What! Where did he-" I frantically looked around the street, trying to find him amongst the wandering pedestrians. "AH! He fricking Batman'd me!"

"What about a bat?" Asked Star, just now reaching us from where Silver had left her in the dust.

"I was talking to this minotaur, and he just-"

"*gasp* Are those for us!" Exclaimed Silver while ripping an apple from my telekinetic grip. "Ooh, I've never had a taffy apple before! *chomp*" She started noisily eating her treat while Star and I sweat dropped. Star then turned back to me with an apologetic look.

"...You were saying..?"

"It's nothing," I say while floating the remaining taffy apple over to her, "don't worry about it." I'll just drop by the police department later to see what's up. Star held a dubious look as she took an experimental bite, she had appearently never had one either. "So... you two find anything interesting while I was having breakfast?"

"*gulp* Don't you mean lunch?" Asked Star before taking another, larger, bite. She liked the taffy apple too, though she was not as enthusiastic about it as Silver, who had already finished chewing her last bite.

"No. Diamond didn't give me any breaks after you left this morning." Silver cringed at that.

"Ouch... I get headaches when I skip breakfast..." I just shrugged. It didn't really bother me, I'd skipped breakfast before. "Anyway, we did find some cool stuff. There's this neat museum on Crete street that does tours! And after that we can-"

*jingle-jingle* Rang the resteurant doorbell on our way out. It was about eight, and the sun had just set, the streets now lit by the moons glow.

"Ah, that was a nice dinner." Said Silver, now clad in a feathery sunhat, while I stared dejectedly at my near empty coin bag.

"Yeah, cause you didn't have to pay for it." They both giggled at me.

"Aww, but we really appreciate it Cotton," said Star, casually draping a foreleg over my shoulders. She now wore a thin chain necklace tipped with a polished piece of obsidian.

My sister used to, occasionally, vent to me about some of her friends, who would invite her out to the bars and then conveniently have no money when the bill came. I now knew that feeling.

It's different though, because they actually don't have money... but still. I can complain if I want to! The museum tour had been two bits per individual, knocking me down to twenty one, after the caramel apples. Fortunately it was a history museum, so at least I learned something, though a visit to the library would have been cheaper.

Apparently Minotauria's government was in the process of becoming like England on Earth. They had a ruling family, and, unlike in England, the King still held a lot of power, but those powers had been gradually dwindling over the last century. We also learned about the unification of the minotaur peoples, which occured roughly seventeen hundred years ago, establishing the rule of their first king, and coorisponding to an event called the 'Longest Day'. In a different section of the museum, we learned about a race called Gorgons, who sounded very much like vikings, constantly out fighting and raiding. They had gone extinct at about the same time as the first kingdom was formed, and this 'Longest Day' thing, was cited as the main cause of their decline.

I asked the docent what that even was, but he said that it was a mystery. There were no direct records of the event, it was only ever refered to in other historical documents, but they did not detail upon it. A very unsatisfying answer, but if there are no records, there are no records. In the less interesting sections of the museum I spent my time getting other tourists to do double takes, by making them see things out of the corners of their eyes, and then quickly ending the illusion.

Good times were had by all.

"Yeah, yeah," I say, while ducking out from under Star's foreleg. We continued down the street until we came to the first intersection, where I turned left.

"Hey, where are you going?" Asked Silver. "Camp's this way," she said, pointing right.

"I've got something I need to take care of at the police department before I go back." I tell them before continuing on my way with a wave. "I'll see you both later."

"Oh... alright. Thanks again for the necklace, I really like it!"

"No problem."

After we left the museum, Silver and Star started to drag me all around downtown. They wanted to go window shopping, and to use me in the manner that all women use men when they're not in a porno, E.G., a wallet mounted on a pack mule. I had to forcibly restrict them to one item each, reminding them that I only had twenty one bits left. I had to further restrict them to one cheap item each, or there wouldn't be enough money to go to dinner. The dinner that they had already decided we would be having before I met up with them. That wouldn't have been so bad in and of itself, but they made this decision also knowing that they had no money, and that I would have to hoof the entire bill. Which I did, because refusing to do so, after all the free food I've been allowed to eat, would have been a real dick move.

Eventually, as we walked around, they found their one item choices. Silver wanted a fancy sun hat decorated with what looked like peacock feathers, which was four bits. A while later we came across a pawn shop where Star found her little necklace. It was actully a somewhat educational experience, as the shop keeper, a unicorn, claimed the piece on the necklace was 'genuine Badlands obsidian from the Longest Day'. He made it sound like some super rare thing, but the 'low low' price of six bits tells the tale.

Regardless, upon questioning he said that he did not actually know what happened, but the leading theory on what the Longest Day actually is, was a massive dragon war of some kind. The excessive amounts of dragon fire would have formed lava flows all across what is now the Badlands, which formed into large quantities of obsidian once they cooled. This was also when I learned that Minotauria's southern border bumps up against the Dragon Territories, where they suffer the occasional raid by the adolescent dragons.

While I continued walking, I saw two shadows quickly move past me from overhead. Looking up, I saw two pagasi flying off in the same direction I was headed, but didn't give it any thought.

The police station was a lot smaller than I expected, like something you'd see in a rural area, as opposed to a big city like this.

Crime rates must be pretty low here. Still higher than in Equestria though, I don't remember even seeing a police station when I was in Manehattan. I entered the station lobby and walked over to the reception desk, where a minotaur in uniform was scribbling away at some paperwork.

"Can I help you?" He said, not looking up from his papers.

I'm gunna go out on a limb, and assume that guy was telling the truth when he said he didn't know anything, so... "Yes, I'd like to see the Police Chief, if he's in." His hand stopped mid-pencil stroke as he looked over the desk at me.

"What business do you have with the Chief?"

"Well, a cop told me that your office recieved a "Be-On-Look-Out" for me, but he didn't know anything more about it. I was hoping for some clarification on that." He gave me a thoughtful look, before sifting through a few sheets of paper and bringing one up to his face. It must have been the one with my description, given how his eyes were quickly moving back and forth from me to the page and back.

"Hmm. I'll see if he's still in. Wait here." I nod in the affirmative, and he leaves through a door farther behind the desk.

As I waited, my eyes wandered, taking in the whole lobby area. It was very plain, no decorations at all, not even an 'employee of the month' photo anywhere. My wandering eyes eventually braught me back around to the door, just a plain wood door. I was about to continue on my circuit, when I caught something through one of the windows.

Is that a big feather? I couldn't distinguish exactly what it was through the half-reflective properties of a window at night. I took a step towards the window, to try shining my horn through it, when the sound of the door latch behind me redirected my attention. Out of the door came the receptionist, followed by another minotaur with no uniform.

"So you're this 'Cotton' pony, eh?" He stated, more than asked. "You wanted to see me about this, right?" He asked, holding up a small roll of paper. I took another glance out the window, this time not seeing anything, before answering.

"Yes, I was hoping you could tell me who wanted to find me, and what they wanted to talk about."

"Ah..." He trails off, looking at the little roll of paper, "I won't be of much help there. The most I can tell is that the military's involved."

"...Excuse me?" Rather than answer my question directly, he just tossed me the paper. I caught it with my magic and unrolled it. Be On Look Out - A P.O.I. named Cotton Hill, to be located, not detained. P.O.I. is in possession of sensitive information, was last seen traveling west from Ironton with large pony caravan. P.O.I. is a unicorn, male, beige coat and white mane, cutie mark of a pale blue smiling face. If located, send word by carrier bird to Athrastos... "What's 'Athrastos'?"

"It's a castle about a days ride south of here, mainly used as a training center for army recruits."

"Oh... Have you gotten a reply yet?"

"A reply?" he incredulously asked, "it's only been seven hours, birds can only fly so fast. Any reply they send won't get here until morning."

"Alright, thanks then. I'll check back in tomorrow." I start heading towards the door, and eventually my mat and some z's. He offered his farewells, and walked out the door with me. Apparently I had only just caught him at the end of his shift, which is why he was out of uniform.

As I made my way back to the camp, I couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy about the situation. And I couldn't pin down why either.

It's obvious why they want to talk to me, they heard about the TNT from someone... But why does that bother me? They aren't going to hurt me at all, if they wanted to the bolo would have called for my arrest... So what is it?

Author's Note

Yeah, apparently I don't do deadlines that well... suffice it to say that chapters will be coming out when they're ready to, lol.

Conflicting Moralities

Another night, another dream of her. But something was off... I couldn't place it, but there was a strange feeling that woke me up. I slowly opened my eyes, letting them adjust to the darkness, and after a few seconds a face came into focus. It took my half asleep brain a few seconds to recognize the pony laying next to me.

"Star?"

"*gasp*" Her eyes snapped open and she shot up onto her hooves, placing herself a few feet away from me.

"What were you doing?" I couldn't see her face anymore through the darkness, the dim glow of the moon outside only serving to reveal her outline.

"C-cotton! I-I was just- just coming to wake you up! Yes, it's time to get up, so come on! Time's a wastin'!"

"...You didn't look rushed a second ago." I mumbled, eyes half-lidded, wanting only to roll back over and sleep until sunrise.

"Well that's because I... I'm early! Yes, early! Yesterday you said you didn't get any breakfast, so I decided to come wake you up early! So you can eat. Y'know... before your lesson with Diamond."

"Augh..." I groaned, rising into a sitting position. Right, I almost forgot. Magic lessons have to be before daylight, she says. Sadistic bitch. I got up and did one full body stretch to wake my legs up, then followed Star outside. I was able to see better out in the direct moonlight, and noticed that she was still wearing that necklace. We walked for a few minutes, when I spotted one of the food wagons, they being conveniently labeled with the picture of a fruit basket. I stopped there, but Star kept going. "Hey Star, you sleepwalking? The foods right here."

"Oh," she said while turning around. "Right, I guess I wasn't paying attention." She sounded apprehensive. I didn't think there was any anger in my voice, but I was still tired...

"It's alright, we all have off days," I say while ducking through the flap to grab some breakfast. I light up my horn to see the selection, and Star comes in behind me, staying by the exit. I shop around for a few seconds before deciding on the ever dependable apple to start with. It took about half a minute to finish, whereupon I moved on to a carrot. I was almost done with it when I noticed a tapping sound. I looked over to Star, only to see her nervously shuffling her hooves around and constantly looking at the exit, like she thought someone would come in and yell at her any moment now. "*gulp* Are you alright? You're being all... fidgety."

"It's nothing, really, it's just, well... you know how Diamond is about punctuality. She'd- *yaaawwwnn* -owed up early!" Half of what she said was drowned out by a big yawn that I lost the battle to suppress. When I reopened my eyes, she was giving me a strained smile, though what it was strained about I couldn't be sure.

"Yeah, I'll get right on that." I say, not really worried about whatever she'd said that I didn't hear. I grabbed a celery stalk and was about to take a bite when she started tugging on my tail.

"Come on, we gotta go, I didn't wake you up that early!" she said, starting to drag me out of the wagon.

"But I only had a carrot and an apple!"

"You have celery, eat it while you walk!" She barked, now dragging me through the dirt, my hooves leaving little trenches, as I remained standing as we went.

I had finished my celery stalk by the time we arrived at the spot outside camp where these lessons would be taking place. It was to be the same spot, at the same time, every day until... well... whenever she gets sick of teaching me I suppose.

"Lady Sigil..?" Star tentatively called into the seemingly empty surroundings.

"I guess we're earl- *zap* -SHIT!" I yell, feeling the familiar sting of lightning on my backside, and jumping around to face where it came from.

"You're late." Says an angry disembodied voice, followed by Diamond appearing out of thin air several feet in front of me.

"On who's damn clo-! *zap* -AH!"

"Stop swearing so much." She must have turned up the juice in those two shots, because my ass was almost numb already.

"I'm sorry M'lady, it's my fault he's late. I was... um..." She trailed off, looking at me guiltily. Diamond quirked an eyebrow at her for only a moment, before realization replaced her quizical look.

"Ah... I understand."

"Understand what?" I distractedly ask, trying to return feeling to my hindquarters.

"Nothing to worry about. Star, you may leave now."

"Of course M'lady," she said with a bow. "Good luck with your lesson Cotton!" She called out as she left. I waved goodbye, and Diamond launched right into the lesson without preamble.

"Today I will be teaching you how to produce auditory illusions." She quickly taught me the spell to generate an imagined sound, and then proceeded to mercilessly drill me on numerous sounds, zapping me whenever I did something wrong.

"*caw*- *zap* -Nnn..!" I grunt.

"Too high pitched. I said raven, not crow." I really wanted to make a quip about not being an ornithologist, but...

"Yes Ma'am," I say instead, this time generating the correct bird call. There were rules to these lessons, and those rules were no backtalking, and no complaining. Two things that had been almost entirely bled out of me by the fifty or sixtieth zap of yesterday's lesson.

And so it continued for several hours, ranging from musical notes, to more obscure bird calls, to imitating voices, and so on... But I loved every minute of it, even as I felt another sting dig it's way into my side because my fake Silver Wind's voice wasn't exactly right.

I couldn't explain it, but something about the whole experience was just so... exhilarating.

"...And you've been all over the world?" Asked the curious earth pony who's name was Dusty. He'd wondered into camp from the nearby city and began asking the first ponies he'd found about the caravan. Star and myself being the lucky ones who first caught his eye.

"I haven't, no," responded Star. "But our caravan has been to most of the world over the generations." She elaborated.

The morning's magic session was finished about an hour ago, and Star met up with me while I was eating lunch. Silver was, and remains, conspicuously absent as I started my way to the police station to check in on that whole military thing. I didn't find any reason to not let Star come with me, and that was about the time that Dusty showed up.

"Ooh, how fun!" He exclaimed in a positively giddy tone. "I've always wanted to travel the world! Oh, but between family, and work... you know how it goes." We both just nod amicably, neither of us really knowing at all, 'how it goes'. Me being essentially homeless, having nothing to stop me from traveling the world, and before that, on earth, having had no interest in the idea. And Star, who already does travel the world...

"Right," I say, "if that's all Mr. Dusty, we were-"

"Oh!" He interrupts, "there was one other thing! If you could indulge me?" I just spin my hoof in a 'get on with it' gesture. "I've actually never heard of there being any such thing as nomad ponies in the world. Why did your ancestors leave Equestria..? And when, as well?"

This guy's never heard of them either? I thought it might have just been something I never found in my time at the library...

"I don't really know all of the details, I'm not much of a history buff," she says embarrassedly. "But, I know they left durring the time of Nightmare Moon." His eyes widened comically upon hearing that.

"Wow, a thousand years traveling the world... Have you ever considered coming back?"

"Well, we were planning to... but our timing wasn't the best. Discord had returned again when we arrived, so we turned south and came here instead."

"Ah, that is bad timing," he sullenly said. "But," now in a cheerful tone, "that's all been sorted out already! The Elements of Harmony came to the rescue, and Discord's been defeated! Equestria is back to normal now. You should really consider coming to see it again." Not long after that he obligingly moved on to find some other ponies to talk at, seeing as we were going somewhere and he didn't want to hold us up too long.

Now free of any impediments, I made my way to the police station at a brisk pace, with Star following in tow. I really didn't have any reason to be in a hurry, but I was anyway. I mean, if there was a reply in, me getting there one or two minutes earliar or later wouldn't change what was on it. And if there wasn't a reply waiting, then me rushing is just a waste of energy, and it's not like I have anything else to do today.

Stop feeling nervous! We've already established that they don't want to kill or torture me, or they already would have... Unless it's some kind of PR conspiracy and they don't want to get the civilian police involved because they would be questioning the ethics of it, and then loose ends would have to be delt with, and when loose ends are 'delt with', it causes an in depth investigation of their death, leading to the possibility of the conspiracy being descovored by the public, and then- I bite the inside of my cheek to break myself out of that tangent. Stop thinking up this inane shit! I guess the uncertainty of dealing with any sort of military orginization, especially with all the questionable things the government I've lived most of my life under was prone to do, was building up my normally calm anxiety levels.

"Hey," came Star's voice, bringing my attention to her as she walks alongside me. "Are you alright?" She asked concernedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just... letting my thoughts get away from me, it's nothing to worry about."

The door to the station appeared before me much faster than I thought it should have. I took a calming breath and banashed all of the stupid, stupid thoughts from my brain, like opening the door only to be grabbed and put in irons or something.

Opening the door, I was greeted by the same room as last time, unaltered, and empty save for the two receptionists sitting at their respective desks. The one I had spoken to last night wasn't here, he must have been a night shift worker.

"Good afternoon," called one of them, "how can I help you today?"

"There was supposed to be a message coming in this morning," I explain while walking up to his desk. "It would have been by bird from the castle south of here, Athrastos, I think he called it. The police Chief said he'd let me read it." He looked at me suspiciously as he replied.

"We don't make a habit of letting civilians read military communiques. I'm going to have to take this to the Chief..."

"That's fine, I can wait." He blinked in suprise at my responce, before begrudgingly getting up and going through the back door. Probably thought I'd come up with some hastily contrived excuse, and run out, before he could actually try to confirm my story, the prick. Who comes in out of the blue saying that they have the okay to read military messages, if they don't have anything to back it up? We waited by his desk for several minutes before he came back out holding a small paper roll.

Reading it put my fears to rest, as aparently only one officer, a Colonel Griggs, and a Dr. Qhorin, were coming to see me. Their identities confirming one of the thoughts running around in my head.

"Why are a Colonel and a Doctor coming to see you?" Asked Star, who had read the message over my shoulder. I put the paper back onto the desk, and answered her as we left.

"Back before we left that other town, I made and sold some explosives to a miner. It's a substance that's virtually garenteed not to explode until you want it too, and somehow or other someone in their military must have found out about it."

"...So they want you to make bombs for them..?" She hesitantly asks, clearly not comfortable with the idea.

"Probably," I shrug, continuing through the streets. "But I'm only one pony, so it's more likely they want to buy the recipe, and make it themselves." That's why their bringing a docter, someone who can understand what I tell them, and then tell the officer that what I said makes sense, and that what I can make is real.

"B-but they wouldn't be able to do that, would they? I mean, they- they'd need magic to make this stuff of your's, wouldn't they?"

"...No..?" I say, sending her a look, my confusion at her aparent misgivings leaking into my tone. Next thing I know I'm being pulled quickly out of the street into a nearby alleyway. Once we're a good distance in, and away from the other beings walking the streets, I come to a stop with Star giving me a serious look.

"Why are you being so nonchalant about this!"

"I don't know, why are you yelling?" Says I, being totally confused.

"Because you're talking about selling bombs! Don't you know what they're used for?" She says in a strained voice, trying to yell and keep her voice down at the same time, so that no one walking by the alley will over hear.

"Controlled demolitions, artillery strikes, and land mines?" The question was probably rhetorical, but I answered it anyway.

"Killing things!" Star half shouts, exasperatedly. "They're going to use what you give them to kill other beings! Why doesn't that bother you!?" she says, ending her sentence with a stomp.

"Whoa, come down," I say, raising my hooves placatingly. "It's not like that. Anything they kill with TNT, is something they would have killed with dynamite anyway. Doin-"

"How does that make it better!" She shouts, no longer containing her outraged volume.

"Hey, calm down!" I shout back before lowering my voice again, trying to remain calm myself. "Maybe that was the wrong choice of words, but why are you getting so worked up over this?"

"I'm a healer," she begins, seemingly calmer now. "It's my gift that I'm one of the few with an affinity for it. Killing goes against everything I stand for, and seeing you talk so casually about it just... it really bothers me." She finished, looking pleadingly at me, like she hoped her bleeding heart arguement would re-align my moral compass.

"TNT is much safer to handle though, meaning no one will be killed by accident while around it. Selling this to them will actually save lives, if you think about it." My logic, however, did not sway her, and served only to rekindle her ire.

"What kind of profiteering excuse is that!" She exclaims, leaning foreward and locking her horn against mine, in the unicorn version of butting heads. "Being safer only means they'll use it more often. Ending more lives, not saving them!"

"Rrraahh!" I grunt furiously, pissed at her stubbornness, as I press down against her horn, intinctually trying to assert my dominance through force. "Why are you so-!" I was gearing up to really lay into her, when I saw a spark of fear enter her eyes, knocking me out of my overly emotional state. I hastily pressed a hoof against her chest and pushed us a few feet apart. "I don't want to argue with you..." I trail off, unable to think of anything else to say.

Star just stares at me with a sad expression, before slowly turning around and walking away. I watch her go until she reaches the street and exits my line of sight.

"*sigh*... Fuck my life..." God I hate having emotions, they're just so... annoying.

I spent the next hour wondering the streets, feeling bad about getting all angry and aggressive with Star. I tried to cheer myself up by messing with others the way I had yesterday. I saw a pony couple, sitting at an outdoor table by a restaurant. They leaned in and started making out, so I worked my magic while their eye's were shut. When they broke away from the kiss, they each saw a horrific, half rotten zombie, in place of their date. Their horrified screams were amusing, but they failed to penetrate my gloom. I just couldn't get into it like I was yesterday.

I wanted to blame Discord, to dismiss my temper as his fault for what he did to my brain, but I couldn't bring myself to do that. It had been how many days since then? I had to have gotten over it by now. I had to stop blaming him for everything, it was my fault, not his anymore. I got mad, enough so that I made one of my friends fear for their safety.

I have to apologize. I thought, dismissing the illusion of a great big snake I'd placed behind a shop keeper, and that was about to loose a threatening hiss.

I spent the next several hours looking for Star, though I only spent about one of them within the city, before giving up and going to the camp. I found Silver Wind about an hour later and, after explaining the situation, got her to help me look. I knew by this point that Star didn't want to be found, but I was determined. It was well past dinner time when Silver landed next to me again, filling me with hope.

"Hey, one of those policemen from town is looking for you." She said, draining my hope like an upturned bucket.

"Oh... I guess those guys are here..." I say unenthusiastically.

"What guys?" Silver asks, blinking in confusion. I quickly explain what all's going on, having before only said that Star and I had an arguement. I was expecting a similar, if toned down, reaction to the whole bombs thing. "What do you think you'll charge for it?" It took a minute for my brain to comprehend the question.

"What..?" Le fuck..?

"Well, y'know, since you're selling the concept, instead of the product? That's supposed to be worth like, a bajillian bits!"

"Where did you learn something like that?" I've never heard of or read anything about there being patents in this world!

"Well, after we uh... left... Zabrica, we spent almost a year in the Saddle Arabian colonies all along the Zabrican coast. Those horses are really big on economics and wealth, and in one of their cities there was this place where they baught and sold eachothers ideas. There was this one guy who made almost seven thousand bits, selling what he called a 'refining process' for this icky black goo that they have."

"Huh... well that's... interesting..." So Saddle Arabians have oil? Who knew.

"So what are you gunna do once you're rich?" She asks, now leading me along to where the Policeman was aparently waiting.

"I dunno, probably stuff it all in a box."

"What!?" She cried, stupefied by my answer. "Why?"

"I've just always been of the mindset that, just because you have money, doesn't mean you have to spend it." What would I need a ton of money for anyway? I've gotten pretty used to not having a house, and buying one would just bring up the issues of property tax, forcing me to become a registered citiz- In that instant, something clicked in my head.

"Couldn't you find some sort of niche to fill? Maybe integrate into their society somehow?"

"...I suppose it would be possible, if we had any money."

"Of course..." I mumble under my breath as the gears start turning in my head. This can solve everything... I pick up the pace, a new energy filling me as I flesh out my plan of action.

Eventually we met up with the cop, and we all walked to the station together. I was puting the finishing touches on my plans, and reasoning out what kind of price I would give them, when I noticed some of the ponies walking the street looked scared of something. It wasn't until we actually reached the station that I found out what was giving them the heebie jeebies.

Tied up to the posts outside of the building like horses, and also hitched to a stage coach, were four creatures I'd never seen before, though I had an idea of what they were. They had the rear legs of a goat, with a large python where the tail should be. They also had the upper body of a lion, with both a goat and lion head coming out of their broad shoulders. None of the lion heads had manes, indicating them all as females.

Holy balls, they use chimeras like horses. That is so badass. They were all pretty big too, their heads being on level with the minotaurs. As we walked past them towards the door, they growled at us, allowing me to see that they were defanged.

Silver was forced to stay in the lobby, while I was escorted through a few halls, up a flight of stairs, and into a back office, where two minotaurs were waiting. They were both standing behind a large desk, becklit by a wide window overlooking the street. They were both staring out it when I walked in, before turning around once the door was shut, and giving me a good look at them.

One was wearing a blue tie, and otherwise looked perfectly normal, while the other was a good foot taller, and obviously the Colonel. He wore what looked like some kind of upper body harness, with a few pockets and knife holsters sown onto the straps, aswell as a patch of material with a collection of military ribbons on it. Shirts definitely weren't a big thing with minotaurs, not that you could blame them with the near constant heat they had to live in. The Colonel's other distiguishing features were battle scars, the lack of a nose ring, and one proudly worn trophy. His right horn terminated in a jagged stump, where it was most certainly broken off by something, and the upper half of a cleaned skull was strapped to his left shoulder. It's shape, sharp teeth and backward sloping horns, identified it as a dragon skull, the size further identifying it as an adolescent.

"Cotton Hill," the Colonel more states, than asks, looking down at me over the desk with an angry expression that didn't seem to really be focused on me.

"Yes," I say with confidence. Don't show any fear or hesitance, or they'll walk all over you.

"I'm Colonel Pheris Griggs, and this is my colleague..." He says, gesturing to the other, and sounding just as angry as his expression.

"Doctor Rickert Qhorin." He said, face neutral, although there was a certain glint in his eyes. I also couldn't help but notice that neither of them offered up a handshake, or any equivalent gesture. Looking past that, I started thinking about how I could cut to the chase, without sounding rude or demanding. I had skipped dinner afterall, and was starting to get stomach pains, but then Mr. Griggs beat me to it.

"Let's skip the pleasantries," he begins with his growling voice, grabbing a small pouch out of one of his pockets. "Three days ago, you made this," he pulls a small, yellow, and familiar piece of material from the pouch. "And sold it to the operator of the Ironton mine."

"And you want to know how to make it yourselves." I stated, not even trying to make it sound like a question. I may have accidentally cut him off without thinking though, because his face seemed to get just a little bit angrier.

"So it can be made without magic?" Quickly asked the Doctor, and to which I sent a confused look.

"Yeess..?" I slowly say. Why would they be here if they didn't already think it could be made without magic? Seeing my still slightly confused expression, he elaborated.

"Our source said that magic was not needed to use it, but that you created it using magic, forming it out of water and coal. We've only had the samples in our lab for a day, but preliminary experiments have been unable to recreate it."

"Oohhhh," I say, now understanding his concerns. "That's probably because it's not just water and coal. Those were just the things Andre could see. The most important part of it is the nitrogen, which I took out of the air. But anyway, the making of TNT is a completely chemically possible process, using magic just let me skip all of the steps."

"Good," said Mr. Grump, face still angry. Maybe it was just stuck that way? "That's one thing we needed to confirm. Now, could you explain the process to the Doctor here? So he can go through it and make sure it will work, and that you're not just stringing us along?" He said it without any change of expression, but I knew his game.

"I'm not stupid, you know. I'll write out the process, and he can go through it when we meet again for the exchange. After we've agreed upon the matter of payment." I say, undiplomatically, as his horribly insulting snipe at my intelligence really pissed me off, as well as bumped up the price I'd initially settled on. "I assume you've been given the authority to negotiate and approve that sort of thing?"

"Before we get to that," says the Doctor, bending over and lifting a brief case out from behind the desk. Setting it on the table, he pulls out a clip board with a really wordy paper attached to it, before uncorking a small ink jar, and placing it and a quill on my side of the desk.

What's this? I wonder, floating the clipboard off the desk, the words 'confidentiality agreement', immediatly visible in bold capitals at the top of the page. Ah... one of those. I had to sign one of these when I got my research job on earth.

Dr. Qhorin started droning on while I looked it over, probably explaining what a confidentiality agreement is, not that such needs explaining. I picked up the page to see how much of this thing there was to wade through, but was only greeted by the wood texture of the clipboard. *blink* I look at the back side of the only page, only to see it blank.

What in hell..? letting go of the page I start to actually read the thing, whereupon I find that it's actually understandable, and pretty strait foreward. Sweet Jesus, I love this world even more now! This wonderful, pre-modern world, where the law system isn't a horribly unintuitive, and incomprehensably tangled mess, requiring a law degree to even read it. A one page confidentiality agreement, the one I signed on earth was nine!

Reading through it, I didn't find anything sneaky, or underhanded in it. They only wanted me to keep my mouth shut about this sale, and never sell this information to any other nation. Seeing nothing disagreeable, I dipped the quill and signed on the dotted line.

"Alright," I begin, as he starts putting everything back into the breifcase. "I want fifteen hundred."

"What!" They exclaim in unison, the Doctor almost dropping the ink jar, and the Colonel leaning down and pressing his hands to the desk. His stance would have probably been intimidating, if I hadn't already planned for them getting aggressive when I named my price.

"You heard me." I say, looking them in the eyes. "My price is not up for negotiation, and it's actually rather cheap. I should be charging closer to fifteen thousand, considering you're paying for all the TNT you will ever make, and all the TNT your grandchildren will ever make..." Dr. Qhorin didn't seem very invested in the price issue, merely being suprised by my forewardness, whereas the Colonel looked downright pissed. Not that I could blame him for feeling extorted, but it's his fault for being a dick. I was only going to ask for twelve hundred. "...But, I'm not greedy like that." The fact that I wasn't scared of him or his aggressive stance, seemed to only make the prick angrier.

"I won't stand here and be condescended to by an extortionist." He growled out, shoving himself off the desk and crossing his arms.

"Well then, I guess we're done here." I say with a relaxed shrug, to emphasize to them how certain I am that the following will be true. "You can try to reverse engineer it in your labs, but I have to wonder... how many bits will months of fruitless research cost. And how long would your superiors allow it to go on before cutting the funding. But, oh well..." I could tell by the looks in their eyes that I was convincing them, making them doubt their ability to synthesize it from scratch. I have them by the balls, and they know it. All that's left is to drive the point home. I turn around, and start walking towards the door, calling over my shoulder. "Good luck Doctor Qhorin, I have the utmost faith in your success."

I didn't, obviously. Lacking electricity, there were no NMR, Mass spectrum, or IR spectrum machines, they wouldn't have X-ray crystallography either. And without any of those technologies, they would have no way of determining the structure of TNT, leaving them with nothing except that there is carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen in it. They could spend decades trying to put those together in the right way, not even knowing that the essential starting material wasn't even plain carbon at all, but toluene.

I could hear hushed whispering start up behind me as I opened the door, most likely the Doctor trying to convince Griggs to swallow his pride. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop or slow down without revealing my bluff, so I walked out into the hallway and headed for the stairs. By the time I actually got to the stairs, I had practically chewed through my own lip.

Dammit, what's taking so long? I nervously thought, already on the fourth step down. Come on...

Fifth, sixth. Come on..!

"Wait!"

Oh thank god! I thought, while letting out a sigh of relief. Turning around on the stairs, I saw Dr. Qhorin walking down the hall. There was no aparent urgency to his step, probably as some attempt to save face.

"After some deliberation, we've decided that your offer would be a more sound investment." He kept his face in a schooled expression of professionalism, and I had to fight really hard to keep my smile from turning into a smirk.

"A smart decision, I assure you. So, when can you have the money ready? I'll make sure I have everything finished on my end as soon as possible."

"Arranging the transfer of funds from Castle Athrastos should only take a few hours, but it won't be able to reach the city until tomorrow night."

"I see," I say, nodding my head. "Then we'll meet here again tomorrow. How does eight sound?"

"That should be acceptable, I look foreward to seeing you there," he says, proffering a handshake.

"So do I," I reply, accepting the handshake with a friendly smile. He turns away to head back, but I stop him. "Before I go, there was something I wanted to ask you..."

"What's that?" Turning back around.

"Is the Colonel always this angry? I mean, I know I pissed him off, but he looked pissed already before I got here."

"No, he just... isn't comfortable around foreigners." The way he said it sounded off, and he looked uncomfortable, himself, at the question. Remembering back to how most of the minotaurs in Ironton acted, I took a stab in the dark.

"Hmm... and by foreigners, I assume you mean ponies." The way his eyes moved away from me, and how he shuffled his hooves, told me I had guessed right. "Is that a common trait outside this particular city?"

"No, of course not, it's just-"

"I'm not as naive as the average pony, Doctor. I can tell that you don't like me either, you're just a lot better at hiding it." He kept his face carefully neutral, though I could still see that glint of distaste in his eyes. "Why don't you just drop the charade for a minute, I'd genuinely like to know why your people hate ponies." At this, he frowned for the first time since I met him.

"It's not something we're allowed to talk about." This confused me.

"Come on," I mock pleaded, "you can trust me. I'm really good at keeping secrets," I say, motioning to my cutie mark. He didn't seem convinced. "Hmm... How about, if you tell me your secret, I'll tell you something that can revolutionize science for your people?" He was understandably skeptical.

"Like what?"

"The structure and composition of the Atom. And no, I'm not lying, I do know it." It didn't take long for the knowledge hungry scientist inside him to win out, leading me out of the hallway and into a side room.

Author's Note

I think I'll end it there for this chapter. I wanted to get a lot further along in the plot by the end of this chapter, but it's starting to get too long. It's already 500 words ahead of my longest chapter, and at the rate it's going, I'd rather split it up, than have a 10000 word chapter.

In other news, there is a distinct possibility that I may have to go the rest of the summer without internet access. If that ends up happening, don't expect another update until mid september.

Also, for anyone thinking that 1500 bits would be an absurd amount of gold coins to lug around, I thought the exact same thing. So I did a little calculating. In my universe, a bit is the same size as a U.S. quarter, but made of pure gold.

According to the US mint website, a quarter has a volume of ~808.9 cubic millimeters, or 0.8089 cubic centimeters. Gold has a density of 19.30 grams per cubic centimeter. This would make one Bit wiegh 15.61177 grams. times 1500, divide by 1000, and you have the entire pile of gold equal to ~23.418 kilograms, or 51.52 pounds.

So it's not that different to carrying a 50 pound bag of mulch, something that a pony, (a four legged creature that doesn't have to worry about lower back problems), would be able to easily handle, even over long distances.

Not in the Schedule

The room Dr. Qhorin lead me into looked like an archive, filled with rows of filing cabinets, with one window opposite the door overlooking the alley between buildings. The window was the only light source, but with the sun about to set any minute now, it was very dim. While examining the room, I noticed a candelabrum at a desk, hidden behind a few rows of cabinets. It had slots for five candles, but only three of them were occupied, which I lit with a small fire spell I learned from Twilight.

"So," I say, walking back towards the window, lit candle stand in tow. "Now that we're all tucked away from prying ears, what's this earth shattering secret of yours?"

"I expect you to hold up your side of this little bargain." He said, following me away from the door. I rolled my eyes at his distrust.

"Yes, yes. I'll even outline an experiment you can perform yourself, so you can corroborate what I tell you." He nodded, placated, but remained silent for several seconds, staring into the candle flames.

"The truth of the matter is," he finally began. "We don't hate you ponies... not really. Your all so happy and friendly, it's almost sickening. Your just a convenient surrogate for Celestia." The name left his lips like a swear, but I had to interject when he failed to say the other name.

"...And Luna? I assume."

"No," he said, surprising me. "We may have hated her too in the past, but she's been all but forgotten over the last thousand years. Until last summer, it was generally believed that Celestia hadn't sealed her away at all, but killed her outright."

"Wait, wait, wait... You knew that she was supposed to be sealed away in the moon?"

"Heheheh..." He chuckled. "That's one of the things we actually dislike about you ponies. You forget, or maybe even erase, all of the bad things from your own history. The Reign of Discord, the Longest Day, the northern secession, the conquest and destruction of the Crystal Empire, even the banishment of your own princess Luna. You forgot about all of it."

"Wait a sec, what does some dragon hoedown have to do with our history? Did Equestria's southern border extend a lot farther before than it does now, or something?" He sent me a confused look.

"...Dragon... hoedown..?"

"Yeah... that was just the first word that popped into my head. I mean the dragon war that liquidized the Gorgons, and torched the Badlands."

"Oh... so that's the newest theory... I guess it makes sense. After all, what other than dragon fire could render half a continent into a flat, lifeless plain..." There was an inflection to his voice that indicated there was something else.

Something, other than a thousand dragons breathing fire, that can melt thousands of square miles of land... He couldn't possibly be implying... "Why is it, exactly, that you hate Celestia..?" He blinked in surprise.

"I didn't think you'd come to that conclusion on your own."

"No, no, no, that's just... I can't picture her doing something like that, she's too... nice, and caring, and-"

"To you, she is," he interrupts. "Why do you think it was called the Longest Day."

"I don't know, because it felt really long?"

"No... because it literally was." He said, looking down at me, before leaning back against a few cabinets, making himself comfortable for the long story ahead. "It was about eighteen hundred years ago, Celestia and Luna had just defeated Discord, and established their rule over Equestria. They wanted to create a peaceful utopia for their subjects, but Discord had ruled for almost two hundred years before them. The madness he wrought was sown deep into the land, and they needed time to fix it. Time they couldn't get, while having to worry about external threats to their subjects.

You may not have noticed, but the rest of the world isn't as peaceful as Equestria. We have wars, we have hunger, everyone wants what their neighbors have, and it was even worse back then. With no standing army, the defense of Equestria fell almost solely on the two of them, but they were busy trying to bring harmony back to the land, and they couldn't always be there for their subjects. So, after a time, Celestia issued a threat to the rest of the world: 'do not attack Equestria, or else.'"

"...Or else she'd destroy them..."

"According to the history books, she never actually said that. She just let the threat hang, to be filled in by the imagination, and it worked. They were the Gods of the Sun and the Moon, who'd want to be the focus of their anger? They had nearly a century of uninterrupted peace, but that's where the Gorgons come in. They were a warrior culture, constantly fighting and raiding, both each other and our ancestors. But, as Equestria grew, and became more and more prosperous, that wealth became an irresistible target.

One day, they stopped resisting the urge and attacked. Their raiding parties ravaged Equestria's southern border for days, pillaging every settlement they came across. They killed hundreds, and burned entire cities to the ground, with little resistance from the ponies, who'd gone their whole lives without ever needing to fight before. Eventually they finished their raids, and headed back home, loaded down with all the riches they'd taken... and Celestia made good on her threat. Documentation states that, on that morning, the sun rose up and went straight into the noon position, where it began to shine brighter than it ever had before. The next thing our ancestors knew, everything north of us was on fire.

For five days, the land burned, until there was nothing left to burn, and the sun never moved. That night, when the sun finally set, the molten rock lit the sky, like a dawn rising in the north. The entire region, every hill and mountain, they were boiled down, and flowed together, becoming the flat, barren plain we now call the Badlands."

"...And the world just let that stand!? You just let her get away with genocide!?" I was more surprised than outraged, a threat that powerful would have united the whole world against it in my world. He just scoffed at me.

"There's not much we could have done about it, even had we cared. They were our enemies as well, and they were made example of. It was a message to the rest of the world that her threat was not idle. Besides, why poke a sleeping dragon?"

“So she’s just been, what? Holding the world hostage ever since?”

“Well I wouldn’t say that, exactly,” he said with a shrug. ”She makes no demands, and asks no tribute… But no one wants to be the first to see if her threat still stands. As a consequence, most nations tend to treat their dealings with Equestria with kid gloves.”

"Wait a sec... If she's so powerful, why the hell did she let the Gorgons raid Equestria in the first place? Couldn't she have just stopped them before they had destroyed multiple cities?"

"Celestia's wrath may be powerful, but it's also broad. If she unleashed her power within her own country, she'd destroy it." The light from outside abruptly disappeared, signaling the sunset, and leaving us with only the candle light. "Besides," he said, shrugging, "she was probably busy purging more of Discord's influence at the time, and just didn't know about it until later. Powerful as she may be, she isn't omniscient. In any case, that event resulted in the founding of your Royal Guard, if I remember correctly."

"Now, hold on... you keep bringing up 'Discord's influence', what are you talking about? When Discord was beaten last week, everything he did was instantly undone by the Elements, so what was there to purge?"

"As I said, Discord had ruled for two centuries the first time around, as opposed to less than a day. The Elements just weren't able to remove such deep seeded effects, at the same time as they defeated him. As for the purging itself, I don't know any of the details into that, but I do know that Celestia and Luna never finished."

"Never finished?" I could tell by the way he moved his head, that he was rolling his eyes at me.

"Yes. Didn't you ever wonder why the Everfree forest was so different to the rest of Equestria? Why pagasi can't command it's weather, and earth ponies can't tame it's land? It's the last bastion of Discord's old influence, the only remaining patch of the kingdom over which he ruled. But, after Celestia had to fight her sister, she just never finished the job for some reason." There was a pause, where I contemplated what I'd just heard, and where he was probably just waiting for another question. "...Alright, that's enough story time. It's time for your end of this deal."

"Yeah, yeah, alright... Well this," I said while forming the illusion of a basic atomic model. "Is what an atom more or less looks like. As you can see, it's not an indivisible sphere, but composed of..." I spent a while teaching him about protons, neutrons, and electrons. About the strong nuclear force that holds atoms together, even explaining the basics of vsepr theory. Eventually I outlined the Rutherford Experiment for him, so he could perform it himself someday and 'discover' the atomic nucleus, and that atoms are mostly empty space.

It's a sword of damocles... I thought, walking down the stairs. They hate Celestia because she represents a real and constant threat to their whole civilization, but since she's beyond their reach, they direct their hate at her citizens instead. I reached the ground floor, continuing down the hall towards the lobby doors. And the Everfree... I hadn’t even given it any thought before... I opened the door to the lobby, and saw Silver laying down on a bench, waiting for me. She looked up at the sound of the door.

"Hey, how did it go?" She asked, getting off the bench. "You were up there for a while."

"It went fine," I tell her, walking to the door. "I was just chatting it up with a fellow scientist for a while after the meeting. Sorry I made you wait."

"It's alright," she says, waving it off as we exit the building. "It gave me a chance to relax after all the running around we did."

"*sigh*... I wish we could have found her..." I say, still feeling bad about snapping the way I did.

"Hey, come on now!" She says, lightly punching my shoulder, "no sadness. She'll come around sooner or later, we just need to get your mind off it. What happened in the meeting, did they try to rough you up at all? What kind of things did you talk about with that Doctor guy?"

"It went fine, they didn't try anything, they just want me to keep this whole thing a secret. And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be interested in what the two of us talked about."

"Hey!" She exclaimed, flapping her wings and wrapping a foreleg around my neck, putting me in a headlock while she floated next to me. "Are you insulting my intelligence!" She says, starting to noogie me.

"Hey! Get off me!" I shout, struggling, to no avail, against her grip.

"I can so understand all your sciency speak!" The noogie continues.

"Dammit, would you stop already! Ah! Get off!"

"Hahaha, never!" She shouts, now laughing as she continues.

I started struggling even harder, wrenching my whole body this way and that, trying to get her off. She just laughed at my efforts, now riding on my back like a bucking bronco. Eventually, her hysterics got the better of her. Losing her grip on my neck, she was catapulted into the air and flew down the street. She caught herself with her wings before hitting the ground, and gently glided back towards me, still giggling.

"Hehehe... Wasn't that fun?" She asks, landing in front of me. I just grumble, running a hoof through my mane several times, trying to get rid of the staticy balloon look it now had. I wasn't going to admit it, but it had been a little exhilarating... "So come on, start talking. It's either that, or round two!" She says in a teasing tone while unfurling her wings again.

"Fine, geeze..." I say as we start walking again. "We mostly just talked about chemistry and electrons."

"What's 'electrons'?"

The rest of the walk was spent pretty much repeating the conversation I'd had with Qhorin, but with more interruptions as she asked me to repeat things. Clearly most of it was going over her head, but I didn't mind though. I liked talking about these things because, aside from earlier today, I never had the opportunity to since coming here, and it was nice to know I hadn't forgotten any of it. Silver seemed to be enjoying the impromptu chemistry lesson as well. It was probably because I loved this subject. I remembered that classes were always more fun when the professor was really into the subject matter.

We were outside town now, in the space between the city and the camp. It wasn't too long a walk, like with the mining town, just a hundred meters or so. I was teaching Silver about electrophilic aromatic substitutions, when she asked me a question I hadn't anticipated.

"Hey Cotton, I've been wondering... If you like chemistry so much, why did you quit?"

"I didn't quit, remember? I got fired, I told you that."

"Well, yeah..." She said facing down, and trailing off for a second before looking back up. "But you could have applied for a job somewhere else… the way you told it, you never even tried. You just stayed in Ponyville, chopping wood and learning spells from Twilight... Why would you abandon something you love?"

I stayed silent for several seconds, thinking, not only how I would answer, but what the answer actually was.

"...I guess I..." The chemistry I know hasn't even been invented yet. "Never really thought about it..." If I got a job as a scientist, I'd become famous for 'inventing' several new fields of chemistry. "It was something new, a break from my usual life." Besides, I haven't found anything chemistry can do that magic can't do better. "I could study magic, instead of science for a while, and I guess I just... got used to the new life."

We bid each other a good night and separated when we got to the camps perimeter, leaving me to my thoughts.

I really never gave any thought to abandoning my old life..? I guess not... Now that I'm thinking about it, I never even tried to look up any spells for dimensional travel. The thought of going home just hasn’t crossed my mind... I haven't even spared a thought as to how my parents and sister might have taken my disappearance...

I made a pass by one of the food wagons and picked up a dinner to go as I kept walking.

I wonder if I'll ever get to see them again?

Wow, I thought, rolling over. That was the most restful sleep I've had in a while. I rolled onto my back and just stared at the ceiling for a while, not wanting to actually get up just yet. After a few seconds of staring, I noticed something. Why is it so bright out? I contemplated this for about a minute, before the stupidly obvious answer smacked me in the face.

"Aw, crap!" I exclaim, jumping to my hooves. I am super late! Running out of the wagon, I make a B-line for the meeting place. No, I'm at least an hour late already. There's no way she would just stay there waiting for me. This in mind, I redirect myself towards Diamond's trailer. I hope she's there right now.

When I arrived, I was heartened to see there were no ponies standing guard. I'd learned over the last few days, that Diamond only has others stand guard when she isn't in. I trotted up to her door, raised my hoof for a knock, and paused, the thought of just what kind of shock therapy I was walking into sending a tingle up my spine.

*knock knock*

"You may enter," came her voice from beyond the door. Taking a few deep breaths to steel myself for the upcoming encounter, I opened the door and stepped inside. It looked the same as the last time I was there, only the glowing crystal in the ceiling was brighter. Diamond was near the back, focusing on something on the bed, her back to the door, and an open cabinet on the left wall. She started turning, giving me a glimpse of something glowing blue on the bed. "Cotton," she said, surprised, shifting to take the object out of my sight. "I wasn't expecting you today."

"I'm sorry I was late," I begin, speaking quickly, "I slept in and-" My brain finally caught up with her words. Wait... wasn't? "You... weren't?"

"No... Did I not tell you?" She asked, taking on a more relaxed posture. "Your lessons are over."

"Over..? But it's only been two days..." I trailed off, dejectedly. I really liked learning from her.

"And they were very productive days,” she said with a nod. “I've taught you how to form and break both visual, and auditory illusions, and you've demonstrated an acceptable level of skill in both areas."

"But I've only learned sight and sound. Isn't there-"

"Is that not enough?" Came her voice from behind me. I turned my head to see the fake Diamond she'd placed behind me before looking back at the real her... or at least, I would have. When I turned back around I was suddenly outside. No longer in the arid climate of Minotaria, but in a field of green grass, one lone oak tree standing tall at it's center. It was night, with a bright, full moon overhead, and the sound of crickets in the air. "Sight and sound are powerful things," she said, walking past me and up to the tree, laying down beneath it's leaves.

"But it's only sight and sound," I say, dragging my hoof through the 'grass', and feeling the texture of the carpet in her home. "There are three more senses to cover."

"Illusionary magic is a rare thing in the world," She says, looking up at the moon. "Few advances have been made since it's inception." The tree began to morph, lengthening and twisting. Soon enough it became a large, wooden, chinese dragon, flying in lazy circles above the field. "It's mainly been used over the years as a story telling supplement, a way to entertain the children. Turning old stories into something they could see and hear for themselves."

"So there's nothing more you can teach me then..?" I say, saddened by the idea.

"Hmph," she scoffs. "I didn't say that..." She trails off as the dragon lets out a roar and dives at me, mouth open wide. Using what she taught me, I dismiss the illusion with a flare of my own magic, bringing me back to the inside of Diamond's trailer. "There are many things I could teach you," she says from her position in front of the bed. "However, if you want to manipulate the remaining three senses," she shrugs while turning around, "you'll just have to create that magic yourself."

Make it myself... It was a very enticing prospect. Making my own magic... Oh the fun has so been doubled...

Diamond proceeded to take the object off her bed and float it into the open cabinet. When she did so, however, It gave me a better look at the very familiar looking crystal.

"What's that?"

"Oh, this?" She replies nonchalantly, pausing it in the air before putting it back. "It's just an old family heirloom."

"It looks like the Crystal Heart, but smaller." This causes her to blink in surprise.

"You know about the Crystal Heart..?" She asks, one eyebrow raised in confusion.

Aw, thats right... no one's supposed to know shit about the Crystal Empire anymore... "Well... just a bit. I more know of it, than about it." She nods at that, apparently convinced, as she closes the cabinet. "...Did that come from the Crystal Empire?"

"Yes." She answered, motioning for me to follow, as she walked passed me and outside.

"Wow, that thing is old," I say, closing the door behind me. "Still looks brand new, you must take really good care of it."

"Yes," she answered, in a reverent tone, "it's very important to me."

*scritch scritch scritch* Called out the sound of quill on paper from where I lay within my wagon, as I started writing out the process for synthesizing TNT onto the paper floating in front of me.

Not long after my conversation with Diamond, we separated. She continued on to another magic class, and I went to eat the breakfast I'd skipped in my slight panic. Once finished, I took my last two bits and bought a manila envelope and some paper from an office supply store, before coming back to start working.

*scritch scritch scritch* -With fuming nitric acid. Add a small amount of concentrated sulfuric acid catalyst to start the reaction- *rustle* Looking up from my work, I saw Silver walk in through the flap.

“Hey, whatcha doin’ in here, all alone?”

“Working," I say, indicating the paper. "I need to have this thing done before eight tonight.”

“Why eight?” She asks, walking around to get a better look at the paper.

“Because that’s when we’re making the exchange.” She remained quiet after that, watching over my shoulder as I continued to write. -Once the reaction is complete, neutralize the remaining acid with sodium hydroxide, and isolate the step one product by-

“What are these shapes and letters with all the little arrows and dots?” She asks, pointing a hoof to the left half of the paper where said shapes reside.

“Those are the chemical structures I was telling you about last night. The shapes are the carbon skeleton, and the letters are the other atoms involved. The arrows and dots are the electron flow diagrams, they show how the reactions actually occur.”

“…And other scientists can read this?” She questions.

"Yeah... or at least, they should." *shrug* "If not, I guess I'll just have to charge them a little extra to teach them." I respond with a grin.

"Say," she starts, rubbing a thoughtful hoof against her chin, "how much are you getting for this anyway?"

"We settled on fifteen hundred."

"Fiftee- wow," she said, strangely surprised by the number. "You're just rollin' in it now, aren't you?"

"Well I wouldn't say that," I reply, putting the paper down and standing up to face her. "Fifteen hundred's not a whole lot, all things considered."

"Not a lot?!" She exclaims, wide eyed at the prospect. "What are you planning on doing with it, buying your own village!"

"Heh... somethin' like that." She just gave me a bewildered look while working her mouth, trying and failing to say something. I just rolled my eyes. "Well I'm not going to literally buy a village, that'd be dumb. I'll just buy a bunch of land we can build one on."

"...We..?" She tentatively asked.

"Hmm..." I eyed her critically, wondering if I should tell her or not. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course!" She says with confidence, while shifting to stand a little taller.

"Are you sure? I don't want word of this getting around. Can you keep a secret, even from your friends?"

"Yes, I totally can!" She replied exuberantly, though her tone was less confident now.

"Alright..." I nodded, accepting her word. "Well... this is for you." I say, indicating the unfinished paper.

"M-me!?" She stammered, slack-jawed, as her wings flared and she raised a disbelieving hoof to her chest.

"Well y'know, you as in, all of you. You, Diamond, Star... everypony."

"...Why?" She asked, suddenly much calmer.

"Well, a few days back I was talking with some other ponies about what happened in Zabrica. I got the impression that you all wanted a place that you could call home, and when I asked Diamond about it, she confirmed my thoughts. So I figured that-"

"No!" She interrupted, eyes narrowed at me. "Why would you do this for us?" She reiterated. "You said yourself that you don't give to charity, so what are you expecting to get out of us for doing this?" She questioned, voice and stance filled with distrust.

"Uh, nothing..?" What's with the aggression? Although I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given what happened the last time someone offered them a home... "I'm just trying to repay you all for everything you've done for me."

“Repaying us?” She asked, eyebrow raised, her distrust giving way to confusion as her stance began to relax. “You want to build us a village, for letting you stay with us for a week?” Skepticism was thick in her tone, though I was quick to correct her mistake.

“No. I don’t know anything about construction, so I won’t be building squat, I’ll just be paying for it. And you’ve done a lot more for me than just letting me stay with you. Yeah you’ve given me free food, a whole wagon of my own to sleep in, and Diamond’s been teaching me some kick ass magic, but by finding me and taking care of my unconscious body, you also saved my life. Which is worth quite a lot to me.”

“So you’re going to just, buy us a bunch of land somewhere?” She asked with a very serious expression.

“Somewhere in Equestria, yes.”

“So that we can build a village?” With that same look.

“That’s the plan.”

“…”

“Cotton…” she said, looking down. “This is just…” She sounded like she was about to cry, and I internally dreaded that I’d overstepped some kind of cultural boundary. “Just, wonderful!” Suddenly she rushed forward and hugged me.

“Oof!” I struggled not to be pushed back by the impact, as I didn’t want to risk hitting the ink jar and ruining the work I’d gotten done.

“Oh, thank you, thank you! You have no idea what this means to us!” She cried into my chest. “This is just so- *gasp*” She jolted like she’d been shocked. “But wha- what if-” She nervously stammered, releasing the hug and backing away from me. “What if they don’t like us? What if they don’t want us?” She questioned, the anxiety from past experience coming to the surface.

“Hey, don’t worry,” I tell her, moving forward to place a comforting hoof on her shoulder. “The ponies in Equestria are very accepting, they’ll love you guys.”

“You really think so?” She asked, hope ringing in her voice, as she became visibly less distraught.

“I know so. Trust me, you’ll fit right in,” I reply, giving her shoulder a pat.

"Oh Cotton," she said, giving me another hug. "This is just amazing!" She continued, breaking away from the hug to prance around in a circle, all smiles. I liked seeing her that way. It felt... good, knowing that I made her so happy. "I'm so excited!" She sang, making for the exit. "I need to go tell-"

"Hold it!" I called, grabbing her with my magic before she could leave. "I want this to remain a secret, remember?"

"But this is so great," she replied, as I turned her around before setting her back down. "Why would you want to keep it secret?"

"Because there are logistical problems. Once I have the money, I'll need to approach Celestia for permission to build a new village, not to mention getting you all registered as citizens of Equestria. Then we'll have to find a suitable location to actually build it, and we'll need to run train tracks in in order to transport building materials. A lot of planning and preparation goes into the founding of a new settlement, and any number of things could go wrong along the way. I don't want to get everypony's hopes up, just for the whole thing to fall through in the end."

"Will she say no?" Silver asked, leaning in.

"Well, probably not, but-"

"Is there no available land?" She continued, tilting her head downward while maintaining eye contact.

"There's lots of land, that was kinda the point-"

"Well then what's the problem?" She said, springing back into an upright position. "If nothing will go wrong, than-"

"Because! If something can go wrong, it will. You can never rule out the possibility of failure."

"But-"

"Please Silver," I plead, placing my hooves on her shoulders. "Can you just do this? For me?"

"Well... okay," she replied, looking downcast that she couldn't share the news.

"Thank you," I say, giving her a brief hug before letting go. "Well, I need to get back at it, so... I'll see you later."

"Alright, see you later," She said with a smile before practically skipping her way out.

"*sigh* Where was I?" I think aloud, laying back down and picking up the quill and paper. Dipping the quill, I resume my work.

*scritch scritch scritch*

*-donggg donggg donggg donggg* Concluded the local clock tower’s hourly jingle, indicating it was four O’clock.

*slap!* …Damn, still no reaction… I think, watching the subject of my experiment briefly look around for the source of the sound, and showing no indication of feeling the slap to the behind that should have come with it.

I had finished writing the synthesis for TNT about an hour and a half ago, and placed it into the manila envelope for safe keeping. I was carrying the envelope with me, a slightly annoying task given my lack of saddle bags, but I didn’t trust leaving it unattended. Any number of unforeseen things could happen, like curious kids trying to eat it, or the minotaurs sending someone to steal it. Anyway, I had several hours to kill, and was currently using them attempting to manipulate the remaining three senses. I was sitting on a bench on the side of the street, just a few buildings from an intersection. It was in the more crowded downtown area of the city, where I could use random passerby’s as test subjects without them noticing me. My hypothesis had been that, I may be able to use the principles behind visual and auditory illusions to access the other senses.

I wasn’t having any luck in the endeavor.

*sigh* I guess trial and error just isn’t going to work here, I conclude, thinking back on all my failed attempts.

Because a successful manipulation of the other senses isn’t something that can be directly observed, I knew whatever I did would need to cause an immediate reaction from my subject. To this end, I started out by trying to make certain individuals catch whiff of a really eggy fart. In the end, all of my attempts either resulted in nothing happening, or in the victim being made to see a green haze floating near their heads like in a cartoon. None of them gave any indication of having smelled anything, little own something repulsive.

After that, I tried to make them taste horrible things, like sour milk, and raw beef. No reactions.

I then moved on to my current activity, trying to make them feel things. Mainly slaps and pinches to the behinds of passing mares, and occasionally to the minotaurs too. Still no luck.

I’ll need to do some research into developing original spells when I get back to Equestria. Getting up, I was about to move on and find something else to do for the rest of the day, when I saw her.

She was trotting innocently along on the far side of the street, taking in the sights and blending in with the crowd. Well, trying to at least. Her plain brown coat and black mane stands out quite a bit among the more… exuberant colors that most ponies tend to have.

“Star…” I said under my breath, in disbelief that, after all the time I spent looking for her, I’d just run into her after already giving up. I picked the envelope up off the bench and stepped out into the street. I wanted to move closer to her, to stealthily approach through the crowd without her noticing, so she wouldn’t run away. Unfortunately, at that moment, as if she’d heard me say her name, Star turned her head my way.

Her eyes widened as we made eye contact for a few brief seconds, before she turned and ducked into an alley.

Shit, I thought, running across the street as fast as I could while needing to dodge around pedestrians. I wanted to call out to her, ask her to stop, but I really didn’t want to yell out across a crowded street and make everyone think I was some nutter chasing his ex around.

After what seemed like hours, I finally broke through the crowds and dashed into the alley after her. Unable to see her, I thought she’d already gotten to the other street, when a flash of green drew my attention to a split in the alley. There was a T-intersection of alleys between the buildings.

“Star, wait!” I yelled, hoping against hope that that wasn’t the flash of a teleport.

Turning the corner I was greeted by an empty alley leading to the end of the block. Bursting out of the alley, I stop and try to determine which direction she went. Stretching as tall as I could go, I frantically look back and forth through the crowd for anything brown, but was unable to find her.

Fuck. Continuing my search, though quickly loosing hope, I spot a mare doing some window shopping right next to the alley exit. “Excuse me, Miss..?” I ask for her attention. The lime green mare turns towards me, brushing a loose strand of her bright red mane out of her face.

“Uh, yeah?” She nervously asks, with a hint of a southern accent.

“Did you see a unicorn run by here? She has a brown coat, black mane?”

“No, ah… ah don’t recall seein’ nopony like that.” She replied, looking around as if she might find the pony in question standing nearby.

*sigh* Dammit. That flash must have been- *blink* Is that..? “Well, thanks anyway I guess. You have a nice day,” I say with a friendly smile. She reciprocates my farewell, and I move out into the busy street, walking away from her. Moving on a diagonal, I make my way across the street, walking through the door of some shop or other. Quickly I turn back around to peer out through the corner of the window. She had just turned away from the shop window, which I now noticed was a candy shop.

Quickly thinking up a disguise, I ready my horn, and with a small magical exertion, I was a red earth pony with a dark blue mane and a bullseye cutie mark. Giving myself a once-over, I frown at the floating envelope. It would be very bothersome for my target to see an earth pony using magic. Thinking quickly, I pull several hairs from my tail, and transfigure them into a string, using it to turn the envelope into a bulcky necklace. I walked back and moved to open the door, placing a hoof over the handle.

"Is there anything you need help finding sir?" Asked a female voice. Turning my head, I saw a minotaur in some kind of fancy dress, and noticed the racks of clothing in the store.

"No, just browsing," I tell her before leaving. Looking down the street, I quickly pick the earth pony out of the crowd. What are the odds, I wonder... Discreetly I begin to follow after her, of there being another pony in this city, with that same necklace..?

Augh! Why won't you change!

For several hours I had been following her around the city, occasionally changing disguises to prevent suspicion. I followed her through streets, through alleys, into stores of every kind, it felt like we had to have circumnavigated the whole city at least once... but she never changed.

I can't believe it. I cannot believe that I just wasted my whole day stalking some random stranger. I refuse to believe that I'm that crazy.

She turned into another alley up ahead, and I hoped for something to happen. It was getting late, the sun was getting lower and the shadows would be darker. The perfect opportunity for her to change into a different pony for a while...

Carefully peaking around the corner, I was again disappointed to find her the same.

As I waited for her to reach the end of the alley, so I could follow without the risk of her turning around, I could hear a clock tower start up it's jingle. Counting the dongs, I checked the time. ...Five... six... seven... seven O'clock. *sigh* Damn. The exchange is at eight, and I definitely don't want to be late for that... Begrudgingly I turned around, exceedingly despondent that I'd just wasted an entire day on nothing.

As I walked away, however, I was unable to see that she let out a sigh of relief, wiping some sweat from her forehead.

"Hhhhhuh... hahhh..." Today was a good day. I think to myself, standing on the porch of the police station in the waning sunlight, taking in a deep breath of fresh air, and weighing fifteen hundred bits more than when I went in.

The exchange went over smoothly, with me handing over the envelope, and them handing over a saddle bag filled with what looked like rolls of quarters. I performed a scanning spell to ensure that all of it was real, and then answered a few questions from Qhorin. It was all very professional, with even the Colonel acting civil throughout. I even told them that toluene could be most plentifully aquired by distilling it from crude oil, which they could import from Saddle Arabia. As a sort of 'thank you' for not trying to make things difficult for me.

After a while of walking through the streets on my way back to the camp, I suddenly became aware that I was smiling. I just felt... lighter, in spite of the heavy saddle bags wieghing me down. I had a schedule now... I've always liked that. Having a plan, knowing what I was going to do tomorrow, before I actually got to that point. With this money, the next few weeks of my life are planned out.

Tomorrow, I'll catch the train to Equestria, switching trains at the Appaloosa train station. There, I'll continue on to Ponyville, tell Pinkie about my trip, and weather a welcome back party, I narrate to myself, now outside the city. The next day, I'll visit the mayor, and inquire as to how purchasing land actually works in Equestria, and ask if there's some kind of map of available land. The rest of that day will be set aside for researching the available locations...

Not long after entering the camp, I notice several ponies looking at me very un-subtly.

Hmm, probably just curious about the clinking sounds in my saddle bags... Anyway, the next day, I'll compose a letter to the Equestrian government, and either send it to the castle by mail, or ask Spike if he'd send it for me, depending on whether or not I'll need to contact Celestia at all. Then, depending on which of those situations arise, I might have several days to kill, which I'll spend doing some R and D on my new illusion spells...

The closer I got to my wagon, the thicker the crowd of staring ponies became, some even running off and bringing back more.

Okay, what in the hell? I questioned, getting a major 'it's a trap!' vibe from the numerous onlookers.

Finally, I arrived at my wagon, where I saw Silver waiting for me, and I immediately knew what had happened.

"Hey... Cotton, uh, how'd it go? Heh heh, heh..." She asked, ending in an unconvincing laugh that failed to remove the displeased look from my face.

"Fine," I said, displeasure clear in my voice, though that didn't discourage the ensuing cheers of joy at the news. "I guess you're not as good at keeping secrets as you claimed..." I more stated than asked, once the noise had calmed down a bit.

"This isn't my fault, I swear!" She claimed, motioning to the crowd. "I only told like, two ponies! Verin," she called, pointing into the crowd. "Who did you tell, I told you it was a secret!" She yelled accusingly to the stallion.

"Don't look at me, I only told-"

What followed was an extended, quote unquote, 'finger pointing' session. Aparently, everyone who was told, and then told to keep it a secret, 'only told' a few close friends, and it just dominoed from there until everyone knew.

"Oh, Christ..." I muttered, walking inside and plopping the saddle bags off to one side. I didn't even get to drop onto the sleeping matt before the sounds of partying started up. As if that wasn't bad enough, they started poking their heads in and thanking me every now and again.

I hated the attention, and being thanked for something I hadn't done yet made me queasy. The whole situation was just heaping unwanted pressure onto my mind at the thought of disappointing everyone if I failed.

God... This is why I didn't want anyone to know... I thought, feeling miserable.

*rustle*

Fuck, not another one...

"Um... Cotton..?"

"*gasp* Star!" I jumped up so fast I made myself dizzy for a second, but when I turned around, it really was her. "..!" There was so much I wanted to say to her, but it all got stuck in my throat like a four lane pile up of the vocal cords, and I just stared at her, while she stared at the floor.

"...Cotton," she began, breaking the stalemate, "I'm sorry for-"

"No!" I interupted, coming over and giving her a hug. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I was the one that went overboard and-"

"But I do!" She shouted back, pushing us out of the hug. "I was insulting you, and called you a profiteer! I didn't know that it was for-"

"I still should have taken your feelings more seriously! I didn't have to sell them a weapon, it could have been anything else, like the Haber Process, or-"

"Ahem!" A voice interupted. Turning towards the entrance, there was a grey coated stallion standing there. He looked to be the same one that gaurds Diamond's trailer. "Cotton, Our Lady would like a word," he stated.

Looking between him and Star, I didn't know what to do. I wanted to stay with her for a while-

"...Go on Cotton," Star said, seeing my hesitation. "I'll wait here. You shouldn't keep her waiting," she finished, giving me an encouraging push towards the exit.

"Well... alright," I hesitently say. "I'll be back soon," I tell her with a smile. She smiles back, and waves as I leave. Once outside, I noticed that the sun had set at some point. "So what does she want?" I ask, once we're a distance from the wagon.

"I was only told that she want's to speak with you," he said without looking back.

She must have something to say about my plan. If everyone else knows, than there's no reason she wouldn't...

I knew something was up as soon as the trailer came into view. If she was in, normally there would be no gaurds, but there were four stallions at attention around Diamond's home.

What's with the security detail? Walking up to the door, the guard opened it, and motioned me in.

The interior was only dimly lit, adding to the bad vibe I was getting. Completing the picture of bad news was Diamond, laying on her bed, eyes narrowed at me.

"You, uh... wanted to see me?"

"Yes. I'm very disappointed in you Cotton... Do you know why..?"

"Disappointed? Why-"

"Because!" She violently interuptes, getting off her bed. "We've talked about this before, just a few days ago," she continued, walking up to me, and looking much taller than the last time I saw her. "And I clearly remember telling you to drop the subject!" She punctuated with a stomp to the floor.

"I know, but-"

"Yet here you are!" She again interupts, with another stomp. "Carrying on, scheming behind my back!" She accuses, bending her neck down to look me right in the eye.

"It's not scheming!" I shout, patience with her yelling lost. "You all want a home, I can give you one! Why is that so bad!"

"A home," she replies, rising back to her full hight. "Pah! You've no idea just how cruel your promises are, how high you raise their hopes, just to crush them down again!" She asserts, voice filled with a cold contempt, that slowly built back up into rage.

"If I don't know, then enlighten me! Why are you so against this?"

"Our true home was destroyed long ago, there is no other place for us."

"The hell kind of reasoning is that? So you just don't want to find a place where they can be happy? Or do you just not care?" That was aparently the wrong thing to say.

"How dare you!!!" She screamed, her voice taking on a strange, warbling quality.

I just barely registered the glow of her horn before I was lifted off my hooves and rammed against the wall, knocking a painting and several candles to the floor. She was on me in an instant, with a foreleg tucked under my chin, pinning me even more tightly to the wall, and her forehead pressed right against mine, our horns scraping against eachother.

"My subjects mean everything to me! They are what I live for! Who are you, to accuse me of not caring! Their happiness is more important to me than anything! I just..!" Her voice hitched, as she held back a sob, the anger and adrenaline dredging up old emotions. "I just... I don't want to see them harmed again..." she trailed off, letting me sink limply to the floor.

I had only half heard her tirade, and was only distantly aware that the guards had burst in at some point. I just sat there, in the awkward position in which I crumpled when she released me, staring up into her eyes.

Her green eyes.

We just stared at eachother for several seconds. Eventually, she tilted her head slightly, perhaps wondering why I seemed so spaced out.

"My Queen," the closest guard spoke, gaining her attention. "Your eyes..."

Realization flashed across her face, before hardening into a stern expression. She blinked, and her eyes became blue again, and as she turned her gaze back on me, I only had time for one thought.

Oh shit.

Author's Note

And thus have I returned. :P

I've noticed something really wierd about FimFiction when I loaded this chapter. Microsoft word said I had 7902 words, but the website says this chapter is 8527 words... that's a 625 word difference, I wonder what's up with that?

I'm sad to say that I don't have a stock pile of chapters ready for posting after all this time, just the one. As that clearly states, I didn't get a whole lot of writting done over the last three months. Being a closet brony makes writting difficult when your dad is walking by asking what you're doing all the time. I spent most of these months playing video games instead of writing, just so I wouldn't have to deal with the annoyence of constantly switching screens over to Homeworld or Spore when he walks by.

That said, the semester has started now, and I have a consistent schedule to work with, (and less of my dad to worry about) so I might be able to pump out a chapter once every three weeks or so, depending on how motivated I get, because there are some days where I'm just not motivated, and don't feel like writing.

Homeward Bound

"*Yawwwn*" I yawn, twisting my body this way and that to stretch the sleep out of my muscles. "*sigh*..."

*blink*

That's wierd... I think to myself, sitting up. I don't remember going to sleep last night... Looking around the room, I spot the saddlebags off to the side. Well, today's the day... *sigh* I guess I won't get to apologize...

*rustle*

I turned my head to the door, to see who had come in, and I almost couldn't believe my eyes.

"Good morning... Cotton." She said wearing an awkward smile.

"Star!" I exclaimed, hopping to my hooves. "You're here! You're really-" I cut myself off to give her a hug. "I'm so sorry for before. I didn't mean to snap like that, can you forgive me?"

"...It's... alright, Cotton," she says, returning the hug. "I share some of the blame too, insulting you the way I did, calling you a-"

-profiteer! I didn't know that it was for-"

"I still should have taken your feelings more seriously-"

"-anything else, like the Haber Process, or-"

"Ahem!"

I turn to look at the entry, but nothing's there.

"Cotton?" She releases the hug so she can look at my face. "Is something wrong?"

"...No, it's... it's nothing," I say, ignoring the small headache I suddenly had, while turning back to look at her face. "Just a... wierd sense of deja vu." She looked concerned for a moment, before replacing it with a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure it's nothing. Now come on, let's get some breakfast," she suggests, grabbing my hoof and pulling me along until she's sure I'll follow on my own.

The walk to the closest food wagon was excruciating. Every pony who caught sight of me, dropped whatever they were doing to smile and wave, like I was some kind of celebrity. I couldn't help but cuss out Silver in my head for exposing my plans, and dumping this unwanted fame into my lap. Maybe I'm just too self concious, but I hate it when beings I don't know are looking at me.

"So, Star?" I begin once we're inside again. "Where have you been since... you know..?" I ask, grabbing some food out of the baskets.

"...Well, after our... arguement... I went to the hospital on the south side of the city. I spent the rest of the day doing volunteer work there."

"Oh? Did anything interesting happen?" I ask between bites.

"I guess that depends on what you mean by interesting. I got to see a minotaur giving birth, but other than that, I mostly just replaced empty IV bags, or carried paper work around." She paused to take a bite of carrot, chewing for several seconds before continuing. "Although, I did meet this nice elderly couple from a place called Dodge city. They came into the hospital with their grandson, who had gotton curious and ate some of the, uh... minotaur food, at a buffet."

"He ate meat? That can't be healthy, was he alright?"

"Oh, he was just fine. Hmhmhm," she giggled, "but it was funny, the grandparents were practically in hysterics! They thought it would poison, and maybe even kill him," she said, giggling once more at the prospect.

"You mean it wouldn't have?" I ask, confused, as that was what I thought would happen.

"Well of course not. It's a little known fact but, ponies, and other equines, can actually eat meat without ill effect."

"You've gotta be joking me..."

"Hmhm, nope, not at all. It isn't exactly what you'd call healthy, but so long as it isn't eaten too often, our digestive systems can handle it just fine." I just stared at her for several seconds, waiting for her to say 'gotcha!' ...but she didn't.

"...Huh... you learn something new every day..." I briefly contemplated skipping the rest of breakfast and getting a nice steak somewhere in town... I dismissed the thought, however, before I could start to seriously consider it. The way I saw it, it was like eating dog, just because you can do it, doesn't make it socially acceptable.

"So, Cotton, what are your plans for the day?"

"Well, actually, I was going to leave today," I answered, feeling sad that I couldn't spend more time with her now that she wasn't avoiding me. "Head back to Equestria, and get started on this whole project."

"I see... do you know when you're leaving?" She asked, showing no similar concern.

"No, I'll find out when the train leaves, when I go to the station and get a ticket," I replied, lazily chewing some lettuce. Time doesn't really matter at this stage of the game. Today, tomorrow, what's the difference? I thought, mentally adjusting my schedule so I could spend another day with-

"Well, we should go do that right now then, don't you think?" She asked, derailing my thoughts.

"Why right now? The train probably won't be leaving until sometime this afternoon," I reason, grasping for an excuse as subtly as possible.

"Maybe, but it's better to be safe than sorry, right?" She asks, reaching down and, once more, grabbing a hold of my hoof and pulling me along with her. "So come on, let's go to the train station."

Aw, dammit... I thought, letting her drag me outside. I already said I planned on leaving today, so I can't tell her I don't want to, or she might get it into her head that I never really planned to help them build a village, and have just been fucking with their heads the whole time... We make a quick stop at my wagon to grab a roll of bits before walking towards town. Doing my best to not too look agitated, I tried to make the most out of the situation by filling the entire walk with casual conversation.

Not exactly being a world class conversationalist, I weakly opened with the cliched 'nice weather today, huh?' Thankfully, the subject of weather made me think of pagasi weather teams, allowing me to speculate allowed, if there was a weather team for this city. This proved to be the spark necessary to make a real conversation take off, as we began an in depth discussion on the meshing of pony and minotaur cultures and innovations within the city.

The existance of mixed species eateries was an important subject in my opinion, as, back in Equestria, the very thought of a meat eating creature was enough to make most ponies cringe in disgust, if not fright. Yet here, ponies can walk into a restaurant and have a perfectly peacful meal, while at the very next table a minotaur is digging into a grilled chicken dinner, and nopony bats an eye!

Finally arriving at the station, we enter the main lobby and head over to the ticket counter, arrival and departure times being displayed on the board overhead.

So there's only one train to Equestria today, and it leaves at noon... well that blows.

"Well, would you look at that?" Star said in an excessively smug tone, wearing a smile of superiority and saying 'I told you so' with her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, rub it in," I reply, pealing a few inches of paper off one end of the bit roll while she giggled at me. "One ticket for the noon train to Equestria, please," I ask the ticket teller, placing a stack of fifteen bits on the counter.

"Boarding starts at eleven forty-five," the teller said, while giving me the ticket.

Ticket now in hoof, so to speak, we left the station and headed back to camp, so I could retrieve the saddlebags. I was going to have to spend the intervening hours waiting in town, because I didn't have a watch, or feel like buying one, and you can't hear the clock towers ringing from camp.

Silver met up with us outside my wagon, where we exchanged greetings. I was still upset with her though, so I only gave her a noncommittal 'hey', in acknowledgment of her presence.

"Hey!" She called, stopping me from walking up the plank and inside. "You're not still mad at me over last night, are you?"

"Yes, and I'm disowning you as my friend," I told her, being facetious.

"Oh, come on, stop being such a drama queen-"

"-My Queen-" said a male voice, accomponied by a sharp, but brief, pain in my right temple. Agh, what was..?

"-You're famous now," she continued, "who doesn't want to be famous?"

"Me," I reply, bringing a hoof to my temple, and walking inside to put on the saddlebags. I rub at my temple for a few seconds before donning them, trying to get the residual pain out from that wierd... whatever it was. Taking one last look at the place that had served as my home for the last week, I stepped outside, likely never to return. "Alright," I say, stuffing the opened bit roll into the saddlebags so I wouldn't have to waste energy on it anymore. "That's everything, time to- ...where'd Silver go..? I swear, if she's organizing some kind of grand sendoff, I'll disown her for real."

"No, nothing like that," Star assured. "She went to tell Diamond that you're leaving. We'll be meeting her at the edge of camp, she wanted to say goodbye to you in person."

"Oh," I said as we started walking. I guess seeing her one more time'd be nice. I don't think I got around to thanking her last time...

It took a few minutes after us for Silver and Diamond to arrive, and when they did, it was only the two of them. I don't know why I thought she would bring anypony else...

"M'lady," Star greeted, doing a short bow.

"Stargazer," she acknowledged, before turning to address me. I could have sworn her eyes were green, but when I blinked they were still blue. "Cotton... I suppose this is the last we'll be seeing of eachother for a while."

"Yeah," I replied, ignoring the slight headache I could feel building up. "Just a few weeks though, maybe a month if things go slow."

"We all hope for the best, and I wish you a safe journey. We will be staying here a while longer, acquiring the supplies we need to cross the Badlands again."

"I'm sure everything will be fine, but before I go, I wanted to thank you. I don't think I ever thanked you for teaching me these last few days... I know you didn't really have to, so..." I give her a proper bow for the first time since meeting her.

"There's no need to thank me, Cotton," she replied, putting a hoof under my chin, and raising my gaze to meet hers. "I have a feeling that you'll be rapaying me in full, soon enough." Again, I could have sworn that her eyes turned green for a moment, and the small headache from before became a bit stronger.

"I guess, but still, you went out of your way for it, so thanks," I finish, giving her a smile. "Goodbye Diamond, Silver. I look foreward to seeing you in Equestria." Farewells given, Star and I begin the walk back into town.

I couldn't stop thinking about those little hallucinations of mine though. Those weren't just any green eyes, they had diamond shaped pupils. That stupid headache of mine was starting to get even worse. The eyes of Chrysalis, Queen of the changlings... I don't know, maybe I just really wanted them to be changlings. That certainly would have made things more exciting.

Looking over at Star, walking slightly ahead of me as we draw near the first buildings, it occurs to me that that is a really shallow way of thinking.

That's like walking up to one of your friends and saying that you value their friendship, but, that it would be so much better if they came in black. Firstly it's racist, and secondly it's very insulting on a personal level. Besides, it's probably better that they're not 'lings anyway. They'd probably kill me if I found out-

-Don't need to kill me-

Suddenly I could feel every vein in my head, as they throbbed in time to my heartbeat.

God damn it, my imagination is really fucking with me today... AND WHY DO I HAVE A FUCKING HEADACHE! Jesus Christ I hate headaches, I didn't even do anything to-

"Is something wrong Cotton?" Star asked with concern. "You look really frustrated about something..."

"No," I replied exasperatedly. "I just have a bad headache for some reason, and it's really annoying me."

"Oh... I could, um, try healing it for you, if you want?" She hesitantly asked, which struck me as odd, considering she easily took care of my headache the last time.

"Yes, that would be great. It feels like my eyeballs are trying to jump out of my head." It wasn't as bad as when I teleported, but it was still a mean headache.

"Alright, just... sit down and I'll take care of it."

Doing as instructed, I parked myself down on the side of the street. Star's horn started glowing, and it looked dimmer than I remembered it, but that was probably just because we were in direct sunlight. She brought her horn to my head, and Immediately I could feel a cooling sensation spreading throughout my skull.

She seemed to be going slower than the last time she healed me, but I didn't really mind, continuing to focus on the sensation. It was like I could feel her magic flowing through my veins, pouring into every nook and cranny of my brain, fixing all the little things that were causing me pain. It was such a strange form of awareness, like nothing I'd ever experienced before...

*blink*

What's that..? I thought, at a peculiar sensation amongst the cooling effect of her healing magic. I had a hard time putting words to it... but it was almost as if there was a... a little shell, in my head. I could feel her magic flowing through my brain, but there was a little spot where none of it was going...

Curious, I tried focusing some of my own magic into that spot... and was met with a feeling of resistance. Now doubly curious, and suspicious, of this little bubble inside me, I started focusing more magic there. Upping the ante to match, and eventually surpass, the resistive feeling.

And suddenly, I remembered.

Oh shit, I thought as Diamond, or should I say Chrysalis, faced me with a stern and serious expression as her guards blocked the door. Without a word, her horn started to glow as she charged a spell. Having no idea what she was planning to do, but being fairly certain it would drastically shorten my lifespan, survival instinct kicked in.

With all the strength I could muster, I kicked outward with all of my limbs in a desperate bid to get out of the way of whatever the fuck she was about to do... Unfortunately, given the position my limbs settled into when I slid down to the floor, this action resulted in me giving Chrysalis a flying tackle into the opposite wall. But before I could even let out a cuss at my failed attempt at evasive maneuvers, I was pinned to the other wall once more by two sets of hooves, and at least one telekinetic spell.

"My Queen, are you injured?" Inquired one of the unpreoccupied guards while he helped her off the floor. If she gave a reply, I didn't hear it, over the sound of me breaking out in hysterics.

"AHH! Let me go, let me go! I love changlings, really! You guys are awesome, you don't need to- oof!" One of the guards gave me a hard punch to the stomach, knocking all the air from my lungs.

"You may as well stop struggling," the Queen stated. "You're only making this harder on yourself."

"Ugh... please, I promise I'll keep this whole thing a secret. You don't need to kill me, keeping my trap shut is even my special talent, so you can trust me."

"Hmph. Who said anything about killing you?" I sent her a confused, but incredibly relieved, stare. "Pointless as this plan of yours may be, it will keep us fed and sheltered for a long time. What kind of Queen would I be if I threw away such an opportunity?"

"*sigh* Thank god. Does this mean I can leave?" I hopefully asked.

"Yes..." she replied, making me cheer for joy on the inside. "...But, not yet," she concluded, draining my happyness away. "You may be capable of keeping secrets, and may even be telling the truth, but your word doesn't carry any weight with me, so..." Without even giving me the chance to object, she cast a beam of magic at my head.

Quickly I became aware of the familiar sensation of someone poking around inside my head, although thankfully there wasn't any pain this time.

"No, dammit!" I shouted, doing the best I could to fight against the sensation. "Get out of my head, I don't want my brain scrambled again!" I tried channeling my magic into my head, imagining something along the lines of occlumency from Harry Potter, and after a few seconds it seemed to be working, as the feeling of intrusion faded.

"Feh," she sneered, canceling the beam. "You have a very stubborn mind. I should have guessed this with how easily you resisted my mind control spell the other day." She glared at me for several seconds while I reveled in this minor victory. It was short lived, however. "Knock him out," she said, addressing her guards. "You won't be able to resist me while your unconcious."

Aw, dammit.

"Cotton..? Cotton!" Blinking out of my memory induced trance, I found a hoof being waved back and forth in front of my face.

"Yeah? Uh, how long was I, um... out?" I asked, trying not to feel nervous.

"Just a few seconds... What happened?"

"Well, uh, with you going slower this time, I could feel your magic as it circulated through my brain. It was really cool, unlike anything else I'd ever experienced, and I guess I just got cought up in it," I rambled off, hoping she wouldn't be able to detect my lie of omission.

"Oh, alright. You had me worried there, for a second I thought I might have, uh... disturbed something, heh heh" she said with strained smile and valiant attampt at a disarming laugh.

I smiled and went along with it, to keep her convinced that nothing changed. I'm home free already, just don't do anything suspicious...

"So, what do you want to do before the train leaves?"

"I don't know... we need to find a clock first, see how much time I have left..."

We managed to find a clock not long after, inside a little 'mom 'n pop' type bakery, the building design suggesting they lived upstairs. It was ten thirty, and while we were there, I spent a few bits on a pair of nicely sized doughnuts for us to snack on. A clever scheme on my part, designed to give me an excuse not to talk, so I could think instead.

Going outside, we found a nice bench to sit on while we munched away. In the mean time, I thought over the last week from my new perspective.

Now I know what those kids were doing, all clustered around me while I was unconcious. It was dinner time... From there, I remembered all my interactions with 'Silver Wind'. All the flirtations, all an act, set up to engender love... And their Zabrica story, how much of that was a lie, designed to gain my sympathies? Actually, the zebras probably just found out one day that they were 'lings... Taking another bite of doughnut, I moved on to all the time I spent with 'Stargazer'... I was starting to make myself sad, thinking that both of the friends I thought I made were fake.

"What's wrong Cotton? You seem sad all of a sudden," said Star, my emotions aparently betraying me.

"*sigh* Nothing's wrong... I was just thinking how much I'll miss you guys once I leave..."

"Ohh, don't worry, we'll get to see eachother again in just a few weeks," she replied, accepting my answer without suspicion.

Being a remorseless liar has it's advantages, especially when you're hanging around beings that can feel emotions, I thought, taking the last bite of my doughnut.

"Ah, that was good," Star began, getting off the bench. "So what do you want to do now? We still have about an hour before boarding."

"I can't really think of anything... I guess we can just walk around and see what comes our way." Getting back to my retrospective, a new thought entered my mind. I shouldn't be sad that they lied to me anyway, it's not personal, it's necessary. No one likes the changelings, and they have no reason to assume differently about me. They have to lie, it's their only way to survive, the only way for them to get any lo-

As that thought passed through my mind, I had a sudden realization.

Star... I thought, glancing at her from the corner of my eye, as she walked beside me. Changelings, the stories they make up, the personas they invent, everything is designed to achieve just the one goal, to aquire love. But her reaction the other day, that wasn't scripted, that wasn't an act done to engender love. It was a real reaction, from a real individual, with their own values and morals...

This was a significant realization for me. Given their insectile design, and the fact that the queen is the only one to display any sort of personality, I'd always been under the impression that changelings opperated on some sort of hive mind, controlled by the queen. This theory, however, was now being called into question, and with that uncertainty, a new question entered my mind.

If she isn't just some drone doing what she's told, but a free thinking being, than how much of 'Stargazer' is actually fake? I'm really not that different to a changeling right now, situation-wise. My whole identity is one lie after another, but I've never tried to fake my personality... so maybe, just maybe, she isn't faking hers either?

Curiosity is a terrible thing. I couldn't help but acknowledge this, as I made a plan that would almost certainly ruin my clean getaway if it doesn't work out in my favor.

I need to gain her trust somehow... but the only way to do that would be to reveal that I have all of my memories... This'll be dangerous. They let me live because Chrys did her memory spell on me, but because I broke it so easily, I doubt she'd take the same chance again if they found out...

I quickly came to the conclusion that the only safe route would be to tell Star right as the train was about to leave. That way, if things go south, I'll be able to hop on the train and get right the hell out of dodge before they can do anything about it.

Until then, all I can do... I thought, moving closer to Star, and beginning to actively look for something we could do together. Is put on a smile, and hope for the best.

This waiting is killing me, I reflected, sitting next to Star in the waiting area of the train station, surrounded by other waiting passengers. We'd been sitting there for about five minutes already, and the boarding call should be coming along any minute now. Turning my head, once more, to the clock on the wall, however, I could swear the damn thing was going in reverse. I had a horrible case of butterflies in my gut, and each tick of the second hand only served to make them more agitated, as the Moment of Truth grew ever closer at a snails pase.

"What's got you so anxious?" Star asked, drawing my attention away from the clock. "You've been fidgeting ever since we sat down."

"Oh, you know, performance anxiety, heheh," I replied with a nervous chuckle. "I'm gunna do something very important soon, and the anticipation is getting to me."

"Hey, come one," she replied, resting a hoof on my shoulder as a form of encouragement. "There's nothing to worry about, everything's going to turn out just fine, you'll see," she continued in a reassuring tone.

"*sigh* I wish I could believe you..."

"And why can't you?"

"Because I don't think either of us really knows what's about to happen."

"Attention passengers," came a shout, interrupting whatever reply Star might have had. "The northbound train to Equestria will be departing at twelve O'clock! All nourthbound passengers, please make your way to gate six, and have your tickets ready!"

Here goes... I thought, getting off the bench and replacing the saddlebags onto my back.

"Well, I guess this is it," said Star, also getting up.

"Yeah... But before I go, there was something I wanted to talk to you about, in private," I said, motioning for her to follow as I walk towards a secluded corner of the lobby.

"What's this about Cotton?"

"Before I start, I'd like to point out that I could have easily just said goodbye, got on the train, and left, without risking anything."

"What do you mean? Risk what?" She asked, genuinely confused.

"I'd like to get to know you better," I started, causing her to blush slightly, "but do you think we can trust eachother?"

"Yes, of course we can," she answered, smiling, oblivious to my true meaning. That would change soon.

"We don't have much time before the train leaves, so we might as well start with the simple stuff. Could you tell me your name?"

"Wha- what do you... what are you talking about?" She asked, at first confused, but then serious.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I know you're a changeling, that you're all changelings."

"How?" She asked with an angry tone, eyes narrowed at me. "You're not supposed to remember anything."

"It was when you fixed my headache." Her eyes widened in realization.

"I took away the pain... Fighting a memory spell induces pain, I should have realized that was the source of the headache," she said, berating herself. "But, no, you didn't... you didn't do anything, you didn't act any differently!" She exclaimed in disbelief.

"Your kind aren't the only ones who know how to lie," I said matter of factly.

"How could you hide it so well..?" She asked, sounding demoralized.

"I did my freaking out before then, and I knew that if I stayed calm, and kept quiet, I was already home free."

"...So why do this?"

"Because I'm curious. I've never met changelings before, and the time I spent with you, showed me just how little I actually knew about them..." I waited a few seconds for a reply, but it never came. "...So what's your responce..?"

She remained unresponsive, her head down, staring at the floor. After a few minutes, the final boarding call came.

"Attention passengers! This is the final boarding call for the northbound train to Equestria! The train will be departing in five minutes!"

"...*sigh*... I guess that's it then..." I said, walking away.

The line at gate six was pretty short by the time I got there, with only six or so ponies left. Looks like I'll be the last one to get on, I thought, as I approached. I was only in line for a few seconds when I heard the sound of running hooves.

"Wait, Cotton!" Turning around, I saw Star running my way.

She changed her mind! I thought with excitement, trotting away from the line so we could talk somewhat privately. As she kept running, I thought she might tackle me, but she instead came to a skidding halt just in front of me. "Yes, Star?"

"Emulate," she said, panting a few times to catch her breath.

"Excuse me?" I asked, somewhat confused about her telling me this random word.

"My name," she reiterated, blushing like it was somehow embarrassing, "i-it's Emulate." I almost couldn't believe it, she was giving me a chance! I smiled, and gave her a big hug, it was almost... scary, how happy this made me.

"Thank you Emulate," I whispered into her ear. I was about to let go, when she braught her forelegs up and returned my hug.

"Don't make me regret this, Cotton," she replied with a heart wrenching desperation to her tone, that just made we want to nuzzle her in comfort.

"Awww!" Came the sound of a soap opera's live audiance. Turning my head to see what was up, I found several ponies crowded against the other side of the chainlink fence separating the lobby from the train platform, and all of them were looking at the two of us.

"Fuckin' peanut gallery," I whispered, making Emulate giggle, before we released the hug and separated. "You won't regret this, I promise. Goodbye Emulate, don't forget to stop by Ponyville when you get to Equestria."

"I will, goodbye Cotton."

And with that, I walked over to the gate, held up my ticket for inspection, and finally made my way across the platform to board the train. The whistle blew about three seconds after I got on, and the train started moving out of the station. Looking back out through the doors window, I spotted Emulate watching from the fence. I waved goodbye to her one last time, before I started looking for a seat, purposefully ignoring the ponies who saw me nuzzle her.

There were a few available seats, but I moved down to the next car anyway, and found a seat there to occupy instead, placing my saddlebags onto the overhead luggage rack.

Homeward bound, I thought, feeling very good about myself. I wonder what Pinkie's been up to since I disappeared...

Homeward Bound, Part 2

I hate trains, I thought, as I walked out into the dusty streets of Appaloosa to stretch my legs.

It was just after eight when the train finally arrived at the Appaloosa station, eight in the morning! And I thought we were making good time too, looking out my window and seeing the landscape of the badlands whiz by. It took a while for the train to get up to speed, but once we were well underway, the ground looked similar to the last time I could remember driving my car down the highway, so I figured we had to be going at least fifty miles per hour.

By sundown, however, it became apparent that I had misjudged the size of the Badlands, as we had only just reached the Macintosh mountains. Then the train slowed to a crawl as it weaved through them, as there was no train tunnel going under these mountains. We were probably only going about ten when I went to sleep.

The train I rode in on was on a curcuit towards Manehattan, and had started boarding as soon as the exiting passengers were off. I bought my ticket for the train to Ponyville, but that one wasn't boarding for another half hour, so I decided to take a small tour of the town while I waited.

As I walked, I noted that the peace between the ponies and the buffalo seemed to be progressing nicely. There weren't very many buffalo in town, at least that I saw, but the ones I did see appeared to be well accepted members of the community. They weren't avoided, or given odd looks, and some of the ones I saw were even engaged in friendly conversation with the ponies. After a few minutes, I came across the Salt Block Saloon, and decided I could use some real food in me. The food they had on the train was really insubstantial, and breakfast had been particularly unsatisfying.

Walking through the saloon doors revealed that it wasn't very busy, which was nice, that meant I wouldn't have to wait too long for the food. I didn't want to miss my train, after all. There were only a few other ponies in the place, all sitting at one table chatting, like some sort of breakfast club. Against the wall, opposite the door, was the bar, with a surprisingly small number of bottles on display behind the counter. There was a half-door off to the right, where the bar ended, showing part of the kitchen.

"Howdy, an' welcome to the Salt Block Saloon," greeted the bartender enthusiastically. "What can Ah getcha Sir?" He asked as I took a seat at the empty bar. I took a few seconds to look over the breakfast menu, scrawled out in chalk on a blackboard above the bar, before settling on that morning's special.

"I'll have the apple cinnamon pancakes." He nodded and walked over to the kitchen door.

"One mornin' special!"

"On it!" A voice called back.

"So what'll ya have to drink," he asked, coming back over.

"Just water, thanks," I replied, idly looking over the drinks menu, and slightly perplexed that there even could be seventeen variaties of apple cider. I also was able to see that the few bottles on the wall were lagitimate liquors, like at the bar in Minotauria. I didn't know there even was real alcohol in Equestria... Ponyville must just be a dry town, I guess. A full glass was clinked down in front of me a few moments later. I took a few sips, and proceeded to quietly wait for my pancakes.

"...Y'know, Ah've never seen you in 'ere before," the bartender started by way of conversation. "You new to town?"

"Just passing through, my train'll be boarding pretty soon, and I figured I'd get some breakfast first."

"Oh, so you must be headin' on down into Minotaria then, huh? Ain't no other rails that I know of stop by here on their way ta anyplace else."

"Actually, I'm coming back from there," I said, taking another sip of my water.

"Oh really? Did you have a good trip? Ah hear those minotaurs can be a bit unfriendly."

"Eh, there not so bad once you get to know 'em, they just have a different culture."

"Order up," called the cook, walking out of the kitchen and passing the plate off to the bartender, before taking a seat at the bar during the downtime.

Soon enough, I had a stack of three steaming pancakes in front of me, each almost as big as the plate they came on, with a generous dollop of butter melting away on top. I'd never had apple pancakes before, and it took me a second or two of staring to realize that the apples must be inside them.

"Enjoy," said the bartender, setting a jar of maple syrup and some silverware next to my plate. I nodded my thanks, and levitated the jar...

*A few minutes later*

That was a little disappointing, I thought, setting my fork down on the plate. They haden't been as good as I'd assumed they would be, but they were definitely edible, and they filled me up at least. I guess the combination of apples and panecakes just isn't my thing.

Soon after, I paid my bill and left without complaint. There was no need to mess up their day with my personal preferences, especially since I was unlikely to ever come back again anyway.

The train ride from Appaloosa was fairly peaceful so far, mostly consisting of me staring out the window in incremental boredom. A boredom that culminated at about lunch time, when I conjured up a square piece of paper and folded it into an origami crane. It still frustrated me how bad I was at conjuration, making that one piece of paper had taken more effort than transfiguring twelve kilograms of TNT did. It had frustrated Twilight, as well, when she was teaching it to me, but no amount of practice had managed to improve my efficiency with the spell, and eventually we just sort of gave up on it and moved on.

Performing the final fold, I crimped it's nose into a downward angle and started inflating it slowly, as not to tear it. I inflated it telekinetically, because I didn't want to draw attention by making blowing sounds. This motive, however, proved moot, as my attention was drawn away from my little project by an awed vocalization.

"Wow..." said a little filly, who had walked over at some point when I wasn't paying attention, and now stood mesmerized by the intricately folded bird. She was a unicorn with a dark yellow coat and two-tone green mane, she looked to be about the same age as the crusaders. "That is so cool, how did you do that Mister?" She asked, looking up at me. Looking into her eyes, my heart skipped a beat. They were the exact same shade of cerulean blue as Pinkie's, which, for reasons I could not explain, shocked me for a second.

"W-well, uh, how did I do it? With lots of boredom and too much free time, heheh," I joked, not exactly comfortable with somepony elses kid talking to me while unescorted. She laughed too, so at least it wasn't as awkward a situation as it could have been, but I really just wanted her to go back to her parents... "Y'know, if you want... you can have it."

"*gasp* Really?" She asked, wide eyed and excited at the prospect of being given a gift, as all children are.

"Sure," I replied, floating it a little closer to her. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, before scrunching her face up into just the cutest look of concentration. A few moments later I felt my grip on the bird being contested, letting me know that she had a hold of it now, so I let go. "Why don't you go show it to your parents," I suggested, when she didn't move and just kept staring at it. "I'm sure they'd love to see it to."

"Okay, thanks Mister!" She said enthusiastically, as she turned and started running towards the back of the car.

"Your welcome," I half-heartedly replied, glad that she was leaving.

Even after spending a year in Equestria, it's still kinda scary just how trusting the majority of ponies are, I reflected, watching the filly go through the door to the next compartment. Her parents are letting her wander the train, unsupervised, and beyond their line of sight. Dismissing that train of thought, as it really wasn't anything new, I focused on my reaction earliar. If I reacted that strongly, just to someone with the same color eyes, than I am so not ready to see Pinkie again... With a sigh of resignation, I went back to staring out the window. It's not like I could jump out of the train and walk the rest of the way. I had a schedule to keep.

Unfortunately, the damage had been done... I was thinking about her now, and with that came the butterflies.

Stupid flesh, I thought, annoyed, I really disliked this semi-nauseous feeling. Luckily the food cart came around a few minutes later, the food quelling the butterflies, for now. Sadly, it did nothing to quell my imagination, which was busily churning out scenario after scenario of how my return would play out. Some were far less... realistic... than others, but none the less, I felt a nervous energy building up inside me with every passing mile.

Within the hour, all four of my limbs were tingling with excess energy, and tensing them up for a while wasn't getting rid of it. Usually when I found myself in this type of situation, I'd get rid of the energy by repeatedly punching the sofa cushions, or sprinting from one side of the room to the other a few times. Neither option was open to me, however, because, best case scenario, everypony in the car would think I was an extreme spaz.

After a few more minutes of trying to ignore the increasingly twitchy feeling spreading through my body, I finally decided to try going for a walk. Just as I was about to get up, however, I hesitated. I didn't want to leave my saddlebags unattended, old habits die hard, after all, but walking through the train with them on would look really wierd...

Torn between my general lack of trust in other living beings, and the ever increasing levels of ATP in my leg muscles, I suddenly remembered a spell I learned while I was studying with Twilight. I had more or less forgotten about it up to now, because I'd never had any use for it... a locking spell. It coats an object, usually a door, in your magic and locks it into place, with the caster's own unique magic frequency as the key. It took a minute or two of thinking before I remembered how to cast it though.

With that settled, I felt safe leaving my bags alone for a while, and started my journey by walking towards the front of the train. The spell wouldn't stop anyone from just cutting them open, but that would make it very obvious that they were stealing.

Eventually I made it to the iron door of the engineer's car, whereupon I turned back around, idly counting the cars as I went. I passed my saddlebags, still intact, and continued on, eventually being greeted by that one filly, now sitting with her parents, as I made my way to the last car. The walking was helping, but by half way through the second lap, I realized I was still dwelling on what would happen when I met Pinkie again. I needed to get my mind off it for a while, so when I got back to the last car again, I opened the door and went outside.

I stood there for several minutes, admiring the retreating scenery and feeling the wind on me. A chill shot through my body, making me shiver for a second. It's nice being back at an agreeable latitude, I reflected. I liked the wind, for as long as I could remember, it was one of my favorite things. It was nice to be able to feel it again, without the threat of impending death, I mean. A breeze is always nice, but ever since coming to Equestria, I've never encountered any strong winds, aside from the occasionally scheduled thunderstorm. Thunderstorms always came with rain though, so I was never really able to enjoy the wind on those days. The last time I actually got to enjoy a nice wind, was when I took Pinkie skydiving...

And just like that, I could practically feel the warmth of her face again, as she gave me that one, and only, nuzzle in thanks. Another shiver ran down my spine, but this one wasn't from the wind. My heart rate picked up as I remembered that feeling, and imagined feeling it again... It didn't take long for the butterflies to come back.

Dammit, I'm trying to not think about this. Turning around, I went back inside and started on another lap, trying to find something else to focus on. That something I found at the front of the train, when I realized that there should have been a coal car blocking passengers from reaching the engine car. Curiosity piqued, I opened the door, wanting to get a look at what a magic powered steam engine looks like.

A sudden increase in temperature was the first thing I noticed, before shutting the door behind me and being greeted by the surprised face of the engineer. He was an earth pony, beige coat, dark brown mane, and wearing his engineer's cap.

"Hey, what are you doing in here! Passengers aren't allowed in the engine room," he said, placing himself defensively between me and the boiler controls.

"I just wanted to look at the engine, I've never seen one before. I promise I won't touch anything, I know it's delicate 'n all that."

"Never seen one!?" He asked, flabbergasted. Taking a quick peek at his cutie mark, I saw a train's steam whistle with a little gout of steam coming out.

Excellent, I thought, seeing an opportunity. "Yes, I've heard about these 'Steam Engines', but I don't really know anything about them. How does it work?" I could almost see his eyes light up, as he completely dropped his guard and started giving me full tour of the rather cramped engine room. I had to wade through several minutes of him explaining all the different guages and valves, before we finally came to the part I was interested in.

"-And this is the firebox," he went on, "it supplies the heat that runs the whole system." He opened the door to let me look inside, and it was... absolutely beautiful...

A deep violet amethyst, flawlessly cut and polished, hung, seemingly unsupported, in the center of the chamber, a brilliant flame emanating from it in all directions, coating the metal sides of the chamber in a cherry red. He closed it a few seconds later, so as to not waste too much heat.

"Only the highest quality enchanted crystals will do for a steam engine," he elaborated. "If there are any imperfections, it could crack from it's own heat, breaking the enchantment and leaving the train stuck between stations."

"So where's the battery crystal at? I didn't see it in the firebox."

"A battery crystal doesn't go in the firebox," he said, like that should have been obvious. "They'd definitely crack. We keep 'em over here," he said, moving to a panel on the side of the machine. He opened it, revealing a smoggy, obviously low quality, crystal. It glowed faintly, and was held inside some kind of two piece glass chamber, the top half being held in place by several pins. "We've found that the quality doesn't have much impact on the effectiveness of a battery crystal, so the company buys the cheaper ones. We keep a few spares around, incase one runs dry on us."

Soon after that, I thanked him for the tour, and left him to his work.

That is just the coolest damn thing, I thought, walking back through the train cars. I was passing through the third car when one of the passengers addressed me.

"I say, young lad, this is the sixth time you've walked by here... Is something the matter?" The stallion asked in a posh english accent.

"No, I've just been walking off some nerves is all," I replied, turning to face him. He was a unicorn, white coat, dark blue mane and tale, he also had a mustache, and was wearing a trilby. Sitting next to him was, presumably, his wife, also a white unicorn, but with a two toned mane of very pale pink, and wearing a straw sunhat with a few flowers on it. Wow, they look really familiar for some reason...

"Nerves, hm? Are you heading to a job interview?" He speculated.

"No, I'm just going to see a friend," I said, trying to think of why they would look familiar to me. They had to have been on the show, that's the only reason I'd recognize anyone.

"An zis friend makes you... nervous?" His wife asked, with an eastern european accent.

"Well, I kinda disappeared on her for a week and a half without warning, so..."

"You walked out on your marefriend?" He asked, almost accusatory in his tone.

"Why does everyone just assume that? We're not in any sort of relationship-"

"Zen vhy does she make you so restless as to pace ze train six times?"

"W-well, u-uh..." Fuck, how can I change the subject? "...What's with the third degree here! Why do you care, I don't even know you ponies!" At this the stallion's eyes widened, like he'd just realized something.

"Ah, yes, how terribly rude of me not to introduce myself. I," he began, dramatically, and placing a hoof to his chest, "am Fancy, and this lovely mare is my wife, Fleur." She nodded her head at me in acknowledgement, though her eyes were narrowed. No doubt annoyed at my avoidance of her question.

*blink* "Fancy? As in... Pants..? ...Yeah, I can see that now, I didn't recognize you without the monocle... or the suit... My name's Cotton, by the way." After saying that, he stared at me for several seconds in deep contemplation.

"...You'll have to forgive me but, I can't seem to recognize you. Have we met before?"

"No, I just heard about you from a... not a friend, really, more of an acquaintance. What's a big name from Canterlot doing in Appaloosa anyway?"

"Switching trains, actually, we just finished a nice little vacation in Minotaria." Seeing that that haden't satisfied my curiosity, he elaborated further. "I own a hotel in the city of Tolmiros, and I like to check in on my investments personally. It keeps me more... down to Equus, as the saying goes."

"Hm... Well, I'll leave you two alone now, I've taken up enough of your time. Have a nice trip back to Canterlot," I said with a small wave.

"Yes, of coarse, may you have a 'nice trip' as well to... where was it you were headed?" He asked, placing a hoof to his chin, as if I'd actually told him at some point.

"A little town called Ponyville, it's the next stop on the line," I answered, already half turned to walk away.

"Ah, well, I hope the rest of your ride is pleasent, and good luck sorting out that situation with your friend."

"Yes, I do hope you've gotten her zomething nice to make up for it," Fleur interjected before I could leave.

"Got her something?" I questioned.

"Why of course," Fancy replied, "one does not simply show up on a mare's doorstep emptyhoofed. It's simply ungentlecoltly."

"Right," I said dryly, "thank's for the advice..."

Well... I finally made it, I thought nervously, walking out of the Ponyville station. It was about seven thirty, roughly eleven hours from Appaloosa. I started off towards the market area, only a vague idea of what I was looking for in mind.

After the encounter with Fancy and Fleur, I had pretty much given up taking my mind off of Pinkie. Everything I tried to distract myself with just seemed to keep coming back around to her at some point. I also eventually came to the conclusion that those two were right about getting something for her. Anyone can just walk up and say their sorry, but words are no assurance of sincerity. I'll need to do something to prove it, and getting a gift would be the easiest thing, hence, the market.

While I was walking, I noticed that many of the ponies were looking at me and whispering to eachother.

Huh... I didn't think my presence would be missed enough to get everypony's attention like this. I guess I'm more noticable than I thought... Once I arrived at the market square, I took some time to survey the area and see what was available.

Carrot-pony was attending her carrot stall, mixed-vegies-pony was at her lettice, celery and rhubarb stall, Big Mac was at the apple cart today... After a few minutes of looking, my eyes fell on the flower stall presided over by red-flower-pony. The sign read one bit for a half-bouquet, two for a full one.

Girls like flowers, right? ...Well, Pinkie likes cake, but she lives in a bakery so getting her that would be pointless... Flowers seemed a good a gift as any. When she saw me walking over, she started to look at anything else, like she was trying to avoid eye contact. "Excuse me," I said, to get her attention.

"Uh, y-yeah?" She replied, like she didn't know why I was talking to her.

"I'd like to buy some flowers," I clarified for her.

"O-oh, uh, sure. What would you like?" She asked, still nervous.

"...Is something wrong? Why are you so nervous?"

"Nervous, who's nervous, I'm not nervous, you wanted flowers right?" She spoke in a single breath, before grabbing a full bouquet and practically shoving it at me from across the counter. "Here ya go!"

Hmm... I was only going to get a half-bouqeut, but I guess bigger would be better in this case... Telekinetically feeling around inside my bags, I found one loose bit and pulled it out, before continuing my search. After a few seconds I determined that I had no more loose bits. "Just a sec," I said, preparing to break open another roll, though I didn't get the chance.

"That's fine!" She exclaimed, snatching the bit out of the air. "This is good, consider it a 'welcome back to town' discount."

"Hmm," I hmmed, looking at her critically for several seconds. After four, I could see the fur on her forehead starting to get wet, as she perspired under my intense gaze. "...Alright," I said slowly, grabbing the bouqeut and placing it inside my left saddle bag. An open market isn't the place for an inquisition, I thought, turning away and heading in the direction of Sugarcube Corner. Ponyville has a powerful, and active, rumour mill. I can only imagine what stories have been thought up regarding my sudden disappearence.

I was just about to make the turn onto the street that would take me to the Corner, when a sign caught my eye. It was a sign of three little wrapped candies, Bonbon's sweet shop. For an instant, the image of a heart shaped box of chocolates flashed through my head. For several seconds I stood there, considering it, before rejecting the idea.

No, that's just... too obvious, too... cliche, I decided, turning away from the sign as I continued onward. I stopped again after only a few steps. Pinkie does live in a bakery, and eats cake and cupcakes all the time... I thought, looking over my shoulder and back at the sign. Maybe... she'd appreciate having a different kind of snack for once..?

I chewed on my lower lip for a few seconds, thinking it over, before fully turning back around and walking up to the door.

Well... I rationalized, pushing the door open. I suppose cliches... are cliches for a reason...

*ding-a-ling* "Hello, and welcome to Bonbon's sweet shop!" Greeted the mare behind the counter, eyes closed in a large, friendly, smile. "How can I he-" The words died in Bonbon's throat when she opened her eyes. Her jaw was stuck half way through saying 'help', and her eyes started widening.

Jesus... the fuck kind of stories are going around about me..? Thankfully, she seemed to recover after a few seconds, clearing her throat and trying to pretend nothing happened.

"Ahem... Hello, um... Cotton, was it?" She paused, aparently actually wanting a confirmation. I nodded, though I found it odd that she knew my name at all. I couldn't remember ever interacting with her before this. "So, what are you looking for?"

"Just a box of chocolates," I informed her.

"Oh, okay," she said, somehow seeming relieved, like I could have been in here for something else. "Costum selected, or prepackaged?"

"Prepackaged is fine."

"Okay, chocolate boxes are over there, against the wall," she directed, pointing to the back. I nodded my thanks and went to the indicated area.

There were seven different boxes of varying price and size, and while I didn't want to be a cheapo, and get the smallest one, I also didn't want to get one that was too big to hide in my right saddle bag. Carrying flowers and chocolates around, out in the open, would miscommunicate my intensions to any onlookers...

Well... miscommunicate might be the wrong word... I thought, catching myself eyeing up the only box with a heart design. It didn't help that it was the perfect size...

"Did you find everything alright?" She asked, seeing me walking back towards the register.

"Yeah," I replied, placing the box on the counter. Seeing the red heart shaped box, she paused before ringing it up.

"This... wouldn't happen to be for... Pinkie, would it?" She hesitantly asked.

"So what if it is?" I said, trying to mask my blush with a scowl.

"N-nothing, nothing, that's great!" She said, quickly backpedaling.

"Okay, what's going on! Why are you scared of me?" I asked, finding the inside of an, otherwise empty, store to be a much more appropriate place for an extended questioning.

"S-s-scared?" She asked, ears flat against her head and flank nearly pressed to the wall after my yell. "Heheh, w-who's scared?"

"You're a horrible liar. What stories have been going around about me?"

"Oh, j-just, silly stories," she dismissed, spinning her hoof in the air. "I don't believe any of them," she assured.

"If you didn't believe them you wouldn't be shaking," I deadpanned. "And would you please stop cowering? I'm not going to hurt you. Honest." That seemed to calm her down a bit, though she remained by the wall, maintaining her distance. "Now, tell me the romour."

"...Well, there's... a few..." I waved my hoof in a 'go on' gesture. "One is that... you're an... assassin. That's why you never talked to anypony about yourself... or tried to make any friends."

"Ah, geez... What else?"

"Another is that you're an... alien," she said, with greater confidence than before. My lack of significant reaction must have encouraged her a little.

"An alien?" I skeptically replied.

"Yeah, and you're gathering intelligence for an alien invasion of Equestria." I just shook my head at that.

These ponies really need something else to do with their free time.

"The last one, is that you're a spy."

"A spy? Did Rainbow Dash start that one?"

"I don't know who started it, but who you're a spy for is still up for debate. Some ponies think it's the Griffins, others the Saddle Arabians, a few think you were spying for the Changelings, which is just silly. Everyone knows that Changelings are just a fairy tale."

"Heh, right," I agreed. She seemed to have fully relaxed by now. "So... how much for the box..?"

"Oh, right! Hmm, let's see..." she replied, pulling a book out from behind the counter. Flipping through the tabs sticking of the the sides, she quickly found the right page. "This one's four bits." Nodding, I open up a new roll and place four bits on the counter. "Sooo..." she started, as I slipped the box into my right saddlebag. "Is it for Pinkie..?"

"Why do you think it's for Pinkie?"

"Well it just... makes sense. She was the only pony that you ever spoke to on a ragular basis, besides Twilight, but she was just teaching you advanced magic. Plus, when you went missing, Pinkie organized the whole town into a search party, not Twi-"

"There was a search party for me?" I interrupted, taken aback by the news.

"Yeah, and the cupcakes were great, by the way... *blink* Hey, where were you anyway?" She asked, a tinge of anger entering her tone. "Pinkie got really sad when we had to call off the search! This town just isn't the same when she's not happy."

"That really wasn't my fault," I replied, raising my hooves defensively. "Discord threw me out of Equestria, and I only just got back."

"Discord!? Oh, I'm so sorry, that must have been just terrifying!"

"Heh, you can say that again. I'd prefer to leave flying to the pagasi from now on..."

Shortly after I left Bonbon's shop, I heard the 'whoosh' sound of something attaining a great amount of speed all at once. Looking up, I saw the fading rainbow trail of Dash, and so dismissed it as nothing of note. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, I found myself at the door to Sugarcube Corner.

My heart was racing.

Moment of truth... I thought, raising a hoof to open the door, however, I hesitated to grab the handle. Staring at my raised hoof, I had to concentrate much harder than I should have needed to, to make it stop shaking. *gulp* I am so not ready for this. I reached foreward and opened the door before I could change my mind.

*ding-a-ling* "Welcome to Sugarcube Corner, how can I help you?" Asked Mr. Cake from behind the counter.

Huh... he must not keep up on local gossip. "Yes, i-is, ahem... is, uh... Pinkie in?" I managed to ask.

"No, she has today off. Why, do you need to see her?" My heart rate started to lower the instant I heard she wasn't in the building.

"Well... no, it's... it's not important. I'll try again later..." I replied, feeling an odd mixture of relief, and soul crushing disappointment.

"Are you sure?" He asked, seeing my dejected look. "I could take a message for you," he said, pulling out an orders notepad. "From, uhh... Who are you? I'm sorry, it's just that Pinkie has so many friends, it's hard to keep track sometimes."

"I'm Cotton, and you don't need to take any messages, just... let her know I'm back," I said, turning to open the door.

"Cotton... Cotton," I heard him mutter to himself. "There's only one Cotton that Pinkie's talked about," he said, his tone turning from pleasent, to sour. I had the door half open already, but turned to look at him, and let him finish. "You better have a darn good excuse for just disappearing without a word like that! Do you have any idea how worried she's been?"

I proceeded to explain what happened, just like I did with Bonbon.

"...But it's been almost two weeks! Where did he send you, Zabrica?"

"No, he only sent me to Minotauria, but it took me a while to earn enough money for a train ticket."

"And it never occured to you to send a letter, and let her know you were safe?" He questioned critically.

*Blink* "Uhh, actually... no. I didn't even think of that," I replied, sheepishly rubbing the back of my head with a hoof. "Oops..." He just continued to glare at me for a few seconds, before letting out a sigh and seemingly letting it go.

"*sigh*... Well, I guess I can't really stay mad at you for it. It wasn't your choice, after all... I'll let Pinkie know that you're back when she comes in, but I expect to see you here again in the morning, got that? And you better have something in mind to make it up to her for not thinking to send a letter."

"Yes sir, and I already have something, so don't worry. You have a good night," I bid, walking out the door. The Cakes have always been very... parental, when it comes to Pinkie. Official papers are pretty much the only thing between them, and declaring her their adoptive daughter. Though that has a lot to do with them being greatful for her help...

I was reminded of the time Pinkie told me the story of how she first moved in with the Cakes. It was a... semi-typical day, with Twilight calling off the day's study session on account of some kind of fashion emergency with Rarity. She did that fairly often when her friends were involved. It would be a few more months before the skydiving incident, and the development of my... well there's really no denying it anymore, crush on Pinkie Pie...

"-And the lights and the sounds were like, whoosh! And wacha!" Pinkie narated, while making extravagant gestures. "And Hoity Toity was like, 'encore, encore!', it made Rarity so happy!" She finished, totally ecstatic that her friend had been successfully lifted out of her gloom.

"Hm... sounds like this'll be a real boon for her business, getting a high society authority on fashion interested in her designs. I bet her parents are very proud of her." I said amicably, not really caring at all, one way or the other. I expected an immediate responce, as she usually only gives herself just enough time to breath, before talking again. However, she actually seemed to be lost in thought for once, staring meaningfully at my tent.

"Hmm... I just realized, your tent doesn't have a mailbox!" The sudden change of subject made me blink in surprise. Pinkie's brain can shift gears in a way race cars could only dream of.

"Of course it doesn't, it's a tent."

"But don't you see! If you don't have a mailbox, than you don't have a mailing address! Who knows how many letters your parents tried sending to you that you never got! Oh, they must be worried sick..." She said, lowering her head sadly.

"I'm sure their fine, they don't usually write to me anyway." Technically it wasn't a lie, my sister wrote to me all the time on facebook, but neither she or my parents mailed me letters...

"*gasp* I've got it!" She exclaimed. "You can use my mailbox! You can write them a letter right now using my return address, and I'll pass on any letters that come in for you! It'll be perfect! At least, until you have enough money to get a house for yourself."

Mail a letter to my parents in Manehatten who don't exist? Not a good idea..."Speaking of housing, I've been wondering, how did you end up living with your employers anyway?"

"The Cakes? It's a funny story actually, ya see, it all started after I got my cutie mark-" Luckily she took to my change of subject without suspicion, and quickly forgot all about the letter idea.

She proceeded to explain that it was a few years after her cutie mark before she managed to convince her parents to let her leave the farm in persuit of her true destiny. However, if she was going to move away, she'd need a place to live, so her parents took her to Dodge city, which is a few hours south of the farm, to look at some housing adds. There weren't any places for rent listed in the local paper, and so had to expand the search. They found several adds for apartments in the big cities like Philadelphia, Manehatten, and Baltimare, but were uncomfortable with sending their little girl to a big city all alone, so they kept looking. Eventually, they came across an add for a room in the little town of Ponyville.

That room, as it turned out, was the guest room in the Cakes home above their shop. Their business... wasn't doing too well, to put it nicely, and they needed to rent out thier guest room to keep themselves afloat.

Now, Pinkie's parents weren't exactly rich, and so could only afford to give her thirty bits, after buying the train ticket. That was enough for the first months rent, and maybe two weeks of food, so she needed to find a job fast. Naturally, seeing that her land lords also owned a store, she asked if they needed any help. She didn't have much baking experience, and only really knew how to make bread, and follow simple cook book recipes, but they felt sorry for the little filly who could barely feed herself, and so gave her a chance.

This, as we all know, turned out to be one of the best decisions they'd ever made. She learned the trade quickly under the guiding hoof of Ms. Cake, and that, combined with her endlessly cheerful demeanor, and natural ability to befriend every pony she met, made her truly invaluable. Within a matter of months, Sugarcube Corner went from nearly broke, to one of the most profitable businesses in town. All thanks to Pinkie.

I don't think they even charge her rent anymore, I recalled, starting to unzip my tent, which remained, somehow, undisturbed.

"There he is!" I heard somepony shout. Turning to the source, I just managed to see Rainbow Dash as she dived back to the ground, just behind one of the hills towards Ponyville. A few seconds later, the whole gang crested the hill, and were headed towards me.

Huh. Must be the welcome parade or something... I thought, putting my saddlebags into the tent, not wanting any of them to see what was in it...

Author's Note

Hello again, he said one month later, and sorry for the delay. I have a few excuses, but the biggest one is that I've just had no motivation to get any writing done. More often than not, when I'd sit down to write, I'd just end up listening to music on youtube for a couple hours while getting maybe two or three sentences down.

My other excuses are that I'm learning quantum mechanics in my physical chemistry class and the calculus is killing me, as well as catching up on lab reports.

Microsoft is also partly to blame, as they gave everyone three free days of xbox live a few weeks ago, and I'm a Dark Souls addict, so I didn't get any writting done that weekend. I also rented Lost Planet 3 the next weekend...

Anyway, enough boring you with my life. As for the story, I had to cut this chapter up, mainly for the purpose of posting something now, as opposed to making my (approximately) two fans, wait another week or more.

Four Bits a Jar

Oh this can't be good, I thought, watching the six of them walk towards me. Now that they were closer, I could tell that they were all wearing serious expressions, and if that alone wasn't proof enough, Pinkie wasn't hopping! I'd have thought she'd be happy to see me, given how worried she's supposedly been... On the other hoof, she looks real sexy when she's serious- I shook my head a few times to get rid of that thought. Dammit this is not the time, brain! An anomaly is detected: she is not happy to see me, when witness testimony would suggest that she should be!

On some unseen signal, they started to spread out into an arc formation, only worsening my bad feeling. Whatever they were here for, they thought I'd try to run away.

"Uh, hey girls..." I started, trying to hide my nervousness. "What's up, how have you been?" I asked as they came to a stop in front of me.

They weren't fully spread out like I thought they would be. Fluttershy was sticking close to Applejack, probably not confident in her ability to stop me if I tried to escape past her, and Pinkie stayed next to Twilight, still looking sexy-

I mean serious! Fuck! *gulp* "H-hey... Pinkie... I'm really sorry about any trouble I caused you... I-I, uh, hear you... started a search party..?" I didn't mean it to sound like a question, but I was having a hard time controlling my voice. It was Twilight who responded though.

"Is there anything you want to tell us before this goes any further?" She asked, seemingly channeling the spirit of a police officer.

"...Well, I uh, didn't want to leave, I was thrown out of Equestria by Discord," I explained, looking at Pinkie. "I'm sorry I didn't send you a letter, that was really thoughtless of me..." When this explination did nothing to brighten her mood, and served only to form looks of disappointment on the other's faces, the bottom fell out on my stomach. They're not confronting me about abandoning a friend? Than wha-

"That's it?" Rarity scathingly replied, interupting my thoughts.

"Nothin' else ya'll wants to say?" Asked Applejack with narrowed eyes.

"Wha... w-what, what is this about..?" I nervously questioned, focusing on Pinkie, who had yet to speak, which was starting to freak me out a little.

"Pinkie was really depressed when we couldn't find you," started Rainbow, looking like she was ready to tackle me at a moments notice.

"So we expanded the search," continued Twilight.

"We talked to Zecora first," continued Fluttershy, speaking above a whisper for once. "But she didn't know where you could've gone..."

"So Twilight sent a letter to the Manehatten Mayor's office," continued Rainbow. My eyes widened in shock at this information.

No..! I was in disbelief that she would do something like that.

"And I'm sure you know exactly what he wrote back," Twilight resumed, smugly. "There was one family in Manehatten with the surname 'Hill', and they don't even have a unicorn child at all!" She finished, jabbing an accusing hoof in my direction.

"Who are you, really!" Rarity more shouted, than asked, taking an aggressive step forward.

"What'd ya come here for!" Demanded Applejack, stepping forward as well.

"Who are you working for!" Added Rainbow, pawing the ground like a bull about to charge.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I exclaimed, backing up a step. "Chill, I'm not a threat! Come on Pinkie, say something," I pleaded. "You know me, I wouldn't do anything to cause trouble, right?" I asked, hopefully. Her word would really help in defusing the situation. She remained silent for several aganizing seconds, while a look of sadness gradually overtook her serious expression.

"I... I..." she started, before lowering her head. "I don't..."

"...W-wha..?" I didn't understand, I couldn't. Why..?

"Ever since I, *sniff*... I noticed you were gone," she began, holding back tears, her broken silence loosening the tight grip she'd had on her emotions. "I tried remembering... everything I could. Anything to help find you, a-and..." She paused to wipe a hoof across her face.

"Pinkie... I..." I tried to comfort her, but an ethereal, magenta hoof appeared, pressed to my chest, and wouldn't let me get any closer. Her hoof came back damp, but she refused to look at me.

"I never noticed before, but... whenever we talked... you never really talked back, *sniff*. When it came to you, or your family... you always found a way to change the subject. But... you were so nice, you always listened... you never interupted me, never ignored me, or told me to leave you alone... so I kept overlooking it." She paused again, to wipe away more tears. "*sniff* But after you disappeared, and I started thinking about it... I realized..." Finally, she looked at me again, and... it tore my heart out.

Her eyes were red and puffy, tears flowing freely and soaking the fur of her cheeks. She looked absolutely miserable.

"*sniff* I realized... I don't know anything about you!" She yelled, finally letting loose and openly crying as her hair deflated into it's strait style. "You n-never e-even told me h-how you got your c-cutie ma-ha-haark!" I wanted so much to go and comfort her, as Fluttershy was now doing, but Twilight would not allow me to approach.

I was getting really pissed off at her, but I didn't want to break the spell. That could be seen as an act of aggression, and would only antaganize them more.

With Pinkie unable to continue, Applejack took over from where she left off.

"An' as if that weren't bad enough already, then we learn ya'll've been outright lyin' ta us from day one! Cotton prob'ly ain't even your real name, is it!"

Oh God, I fucked this up so bad, I thought, on the verge of tears myself. Seeing Pinkie like that, and knowing it was unequivocally my fault... it was almost more than I could take. "Oh, Pinkie, I'm... I'm so sorry, I never meant for this to happen, I just... I got used to keeping my secrets. I never even noticed I was doing it! I-I'll tell you everything, right now, just... please stop crying, I can't stand seeing you like this..." I backed up a little, the magic hoof felt like it was leaving a bruise on my chest, and sat down as an indication that I wouldn't be trying to run away.

Neither Rainbow or Applejack were willing to take their eyes off me, but Twilight and Rarity moved to help in getting Pinkie back on her hooves. It took a few minutes of hushed whispering, that I couldn't make out from my position, before she was composed enough to stop crying and stand back up.

"Are you okay, Pinkie?" Asked Rainbow Dash, looking away from me for just long enough to see her nod in the affirmative. They accepted her answer, but... she didn't look okay...

"Alright now," said Applejack, "git talkin', an' no funny bussiness!" I paused to take a deep breath of resignation, before beginning.

"*sigh*... Well, first off, no... my real name is not Cotton Hill, it's Robert Maudery. I would prefer that you keep calling me Cotton though, I've gotten used to it." They had varied reactions to this knowledge, but mostly confusion.

"Robert... Maudrey..?" Rarity parroted, slowly, like she was tasting the words.

"I've never heard of a name like that... N-not that there's anything wrong with it..." Fluttershy said, voice nearly a whisper once more, as she quickly backpedaled.

"That can't be your real name," Twilight replied, critically. "That's more in line with griffen naming conventions! Nopony would give their child a griffen name, it just isn't right." This immediately turned the others' expressions from confused, to cross, as they jumped to the conclusion that I was just telling more lies.

"Don't jump down my throat just yet," I hastily continued, before they could start yelling again. "There's a reason why I don't have a pony name, and that's because I'm not really a pony." Skeptical looks followed this statement. "...Well, I guess am one now, but I wasn't one before I came here... or arrived here, would be a better choice of words, since I didn't come here on purpose." They continued to be skeptical, but Pinkie's thoughtful look gave me hope.

"If... if you're not a pony, than... what are you..?" Questioned Pinkie, still looking depressed, but sounding much better.

"An' assumin' we're believin' any a this hooey, where'd ya come from?" Applejack followed up, still quite antagonistic towards me. Understandable, given her whole 'honesty and truth' thing.

"Well, one, I was a species called 'human'. There are technical terms, but they won't mean anything to you since Latin isn't a language here. As far as I know, no equivalent species has ever existed on Equus," I said, taking a moment to think if I ever actually read anything about the different species on this planet.

"Are you implying that you're not from Equus at all?" Asked Twilight, a hint of scientific curiosity entering her voice.

"Correct, my planet is called Earth, although I'm fairly certain this isn't even the same dimension either," I speculated, receiving some odd looks as a result.

"Dimension? What does geometry have to do with anything?" Asked Rarity.

"That's not the kind of dimension I'm talking about," I answered. "Does Equestria have any sort of multiverse theory?" I asked, directing the question at Twilight, as she was the one most likely to know about it, if there was one. She seemed just as lost as the rest of them though. "...Many worlds theory? Parallel worlds, alternate worlds, anything like that..?" At last a light seemed to pop on inside her head, as a look of realization came across Twilight's face.

"Oh, yes, I've read quite a bit about that when I was in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns! It was in the Starswirl the Bearded wing, although he named it the 'Tonal Planes' theory, as his thought was that each of these planes, or worlds, resonates with a unique magical tone that prevents them from interacting with eachother."

"I'm not particularly knowledgeable on the mechanics of it all, but that is what I'm talking about. That's also why I lied to you all, I mean, what reason would you have had to believe me if I'd introduced myself like this? You'd have thought I was either nuts, or lying to get attention."

My logic seemed to be swaying them, if their contemplative looks were anything to go by.

"...So... you really are an alien than?" Asked Rainbow, with what sounded like a disappointed tone in her voice.

"Essentially, yes," I replied, not understanding why that would disappoint her.

"Augh," she groaned bringing a hoof up to her face. "Now I owe Flitter five bits..." I couldn't resist chuckling at that.

I don't know why I thought that was so funny... it must just be the stress or something.

"Hmm, what kind of fahion do aliens like..?" Wondered Rarity.

"I still don't like that you lied, but... I guess I can see why you did..." Said Pinkie, slowly returning to her old self. "Just promise you'll never lie to us again okay!"

"I promise," I told her, going through the motions for her Pinkie Promise™. It felt wonderful to see her smiling again. "And I have never been very connected to the fashion world... sorry," I replied to Rarity, who was understandably disappointed by this answer.

"An alien..." Twilight pondered thoughfully. "This is incredible! Your society's magic must be very advanced to be able to teleport across planes! But... why are you a unicorn? Are your species shapshifters?"

"No... no, we are not. And we actually-"

"Ah can't believe ya'll're fallin' for this!" Interjected Applejack before I could answer. "An alien!? Come on!"

"Hey, what's so unbelievable about aliens!?" I countered. "If life exists here, why can't it exist elsewhere?"

"He can't be lying, he Pinkie Promised!" Objected Pinkie, coming to my aid.

"Yeah Applejack, wierder things have happened," said Rainbow, surprising me, as I did not anticipate her backing me up.

"He's been lyin' ta us with a streight face for months! A Pinkie Promise don't mean nothin' to a pony like him! And when the hay has anythin' wierder'n aliens happened?" She shot back at Rainbow.

"Fluttershy made a grown up dragon cry. I think that's wierder than aliens, right Fluttershy?" Rainbow asked.

"Um, a-actually... I agree with Applejack..." She said, half hiding behind her mane, like she was ashamed to have an opinion. All of us, even Applejack, stared at her with wide-eyed surprise. This, of course, had the effect of making her curl into a ball and quickly repeal her previous statement. "I-I mean, 'yay, aliens'..."

"...See? Even Fluttershy can tell he's up to no good," said Applejack once the shock had worn off.

"Why do you think he's lying Fluttershy?" Asked Twilight. "Did you notice something that we missed?"

"O-oh, i-it's nothing, really," she almost whispered, looking like she wanted to burrow into the ground and disappear. That was mostly my fault, I'm sure. I just couldn't hold back the scathing look that I was shooting directly into her eyes.

Her siding with Applejack is making them doubt my story!

"Come now, dear," spoke Rarity, placing a comforting hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. "Speak up, we need all the information we can get if we're going to sort this whole thing out." While Fluttershy gathered her courage, I closed my eyes and took a few calming breaths to vent my anger.

Let it go. Anger destroys thought. If I'm going to come out of this on top, I need to meet every point head on, and counter it in a calm, collected manner...

"...W-well, when we talked to Zecora... she told us that she found him just after he... broke his legs, falling through the forest canapy," she started, with her trademarked timidity.

"Yeah, yeah, that's when I first got here. The lab I was working in was on the fifth floor, which is the most plausable reason for why I was so high up when I arrived here." Applejack sent a glare my way, before encouraging Fluttershy to continue from where I'd interrupted.

"She also told us that she had asked you your name, and where you lived," she continued, seeming to pick up some steam, and bravery, from all her friends encouragement, as she was now adressing me directly. "But when we asked her if she could recall you acting suspiciously in any way, she said she couldn't," she said, her voice picking up volume as her confidence grew. "That means that, when she asked you for your name, and where you lived, you didn't hesitate to answer her!" She finished, accusingly, now standing tall, although neither myself or any of the others seemed to know what she was getting at.

"...So..?" I questioned.

"So... if you really are from another world, than by that point you would have only been in our world for a few minutes! So how could you have known that Cotton Hill was a proper pony name, or that Manehatten was a real city? You couldn't have! Which means... you're lying," she finished, sounding for all the world like a prosecutor. Her puffed up chest and confident demeanor swiftly began to drain, however, as we all stared at her, mouths agape once more, at this sudden display of detective skills. "I-I like to... read Shearlock Holmes novels..." She embarrassedly elaborated, hiding behind her mane again.

Oh, balls, I thought, as they all turned back to me, accusing looks in their eyes, with a dash of smugness from Applejack, and hurt betrayal from Pinkie. "I was really hoping I could avoid explaining this. It sounds rediculous, no matter how you look at it... *sigh* ...In my world, there was a... television show... Television is basically like the theator, where actors and props play out a story," I preemptively answered. "Anyway, this show depicted scenarios, and... characters... that have a striking resemblance to this world. So, when I found myself here, I recognized the timberwolves, and Zecora... so I just rolled with it, and used what I knew from the show to come up with an inconspicuous identity. Now, I know that that alone is also suspicious, but there wasn't any ill intent behind it, I just... don't like a lot of attention." I could tell from their expressions, that I haden't swayed any of them.

"That is rediculous," responded Twilight with a shake of her head. "Now you're just arbitrarily adding things to your story to fill in the holes!"

"I am not! And I can prove it, just... give me a minute to think of somethi-"

"Why should we give you any time to think up more lies!" Applejack rhetorically asked.

"Because I need something to use that I couldn't have learned from Pinkie! There's a lot of things I could use, but I need something immediate, something that I can prove without a timeline to work with..." What can I use!? I can't use the Crystal Empire, I have no idea how long it'll be before then. I can't use the wedding either for the same reason- The wedding! Shining! "I've got it! Twilight," I started, jabbing a hoof at her a little too enthusiastically, causing her to drop into a defensive stance. "You never told any of your friends that you have a brother, did you?" Her widening eyes were my affermative. "Or that he's Captain of the Royal Guard?"

"Tha-that doesn't prove anything!" She heatedly replied. "Anypony who's spent time in Canterlot would know who my brother is!" The others appeared shocked to learn that she actually did have a brother, as I'd said.

"Well how about the fact that Princess Cadence was your foal sitter when you were younger?" I countered, pissed at her sudden switching of sides. She was perfectly willing to believe me before Fluttershy fucked everything up!

"That wasn't any kind of secret, anyone at the royal palace could've told you that," she answered, much more self assured now that she's apparently convinced herself that I must be from Canterlot or at least spent time there.

"Than how about the fact that Shining and Cadence are dating? You could send him a letter right now to confirm it of you want."

"Even if that's true, that kind of news would be all over Canterl-"

"Dammit!" I interrupted, standing back up, as I started loosing control of my temper. "Would you stop just whimsically dismissing everything I say!" Rainbow, Applejack, and Twilight seemed to be preparing for the moment when they would need to restrain me, but I couldn't be bothered to care at that point. "What do you want from me? Do you want to know that the Cakes will have pagasus and unicorn twins? That the Crystal Empire will reappear? That Spike will adopt a baby phoenix and name it fricken Peewee? What can I do to make you believe that I'm not lying!"

"Some proof'd be nice," answered Applejack, sourly.

"What proof? Nothing came here with me, not even my clothes! So how can I prove anything if you just keep dismissing everything I say!" I spat back, frustrated.

"Show us the spell you used to get here," suggested Twilight, "that would be more than sufficient."

"A spell didn't send me here. It was some kind of reaction that occured when I ran an electrical current through one of the superconductive organic compounds that my lab had recently synthesized." I received several blank looks at this elaboration, as several of those words had no meaning to them.

"...Well, make some more of that stuff then," said Rainbow, as if it were just that simple.

"I would... if I knew what it was."

"How can you not know what it was if you made it?" She asked, incredulously.

"That sounds awful convenient ta me," sniped Applejack.

"Do you have any idea how a corperate research lab works?" I asked, exasperatedly. "We don't work with one compound at a time, that would be horribly inefficient. There were more than a dozen compounds being tested! And it's been a year since then, how could I possibly remember which one I was on!"

"What spells were used in the process of making these compounds?" Asked Twilight. "If you are telling the truth, we should be able to re-synthesize the entire set, and then you can test them again."

"There were no spells involved, magic doesn't exist in my world." The very thought of a world without magic, was shocking to them. "That's why I've been so focused on learning about it, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity." Unfortunately, while the thought may have shocked them, Twilight looked less than happy with it.

"You just messed up your story," she began, triumphantly. "I was willing to believe that an alien culture could have a more advanced understanding of magic than we do, but there is no way that a society without magic could achieve something that even magic couldn't," she stated, matter of factly.

"That is rediculously narrow minded of you. You have no idea what our technology is like, or- *blink* ...Wait... 'that even magic couldn't'..?" I questioned, the implication of that phrase dawning on me.

"That's right. Even Starswirl the Bearded was never able to create a spell capable of observing, little own entering, other worlds. His theories on the matter remain unproven to this day," she said, with a 'check-mate' tone to her voice.

"No. No, no nonono that... that-that-that can't be right!" I denied, increasingly panicy. I didn't know if I would have ever decided to go back, but I wanted that to be my decision! "You have to have missed something, I was counting on this!"

"So ya'll admit it! You've been lyin' this whole time, 'n now we gotcha red hoofed!" Called out Applejack, immediately jumping on my choice of words.

"What!? No! That's not what I said, that's not what I meant! I ju- I, ugh!" I groaned, fed up with her bullshit. "I've just been told that I can never go home again! So could you please fuck off with your antagonism for a while!" I shouted, stomping a hoof in anger. I instantly regreted it though. Look at me, screaming and stomping my hoofs like a god damn brat! I need to calm down, I- My remaining thoughts were thrown for a loop, however, at her responce.

"*hmph* Alright ever' pony, I'm outta here," she said turning away.

Wha- that easy? I should have known better than to think that was her final word.

"This one ain't never gunna come clean, and I don't know about the rest o' ya'll, but I ain't interested in no more snake oil," she finished, starting to walk away. I looked to the others, hoping they wouldn't follow her, but knowing that they would.

"So not cool," said Rainbow, with a disapproving shake of the head. "Come on Fluttershy." They both started trotting after Applejack, Fluttershy giving a meak 'sorry' as she left. "Don't apologize to him Fluttershy, he should be doing that," Rainbow rebuked her, just loud enough for me to hear.

Rarity was next, turning up her head with a 'hmph', "What an uncouth stallion," she remarked as she left.

Then came Twilight, who continued to look at me for several seconds before also walking away. Her expression showed that she wasn't really mad, but more... disappointed in me.

Finally was Pinkie... She looked so sad again. And it was my fault, again.

"Wait, please," I pleaded as she turned away from me. I could stomach watching the others leave, but her... I couldn't bare it. "...Thank you," I thanked, when she actually stopped, although she didn't turn back around. *gulp* "...I know... that you don't believe me... and I guess..." *gulp* My throat was really dry all of a sudden. "...You don't have any reason to... I've lied to you... kept secrets from you..." *gulp* "I've had so many opportunities to tell you the truth... but every time... I didn't... Pinkie..?" I questioned, as she hadn't moved at all, or given any indication that she was still listening. "Please look at me..." Nothing. "...Pinkie, please... just look at me," I begged, feeling that damnable pressure building behind my eyes.

Slowly she shuffled, one hoof at a time, until she was looking in my direction. However, her eyes were empty and unfocused, like she was looking through me, instead of at me.

"What are you doing Pinkie!?" Called Rainbow Dash from the top of the next hill, where they all had stopped, realizing that Pinkie wasn't with them.

"Don't go," I implored, as she turned her head away from me. "Please, Pinkie... I don't want to lose you, please," I pleaded one last time. "Can't we still be friends, at least?"

"...Friends..?" She said, slowly, contemplative, her head down. She didn't want to look at me.

"Get away from that one Pinkie!" Applejack shouted. "He's a bad infulence!"

"...Friends..." She said again, turning way from me, "...don't lie to friends..." She finished, slowly walking away, head still held low, like she didn't have the energy to raise it.

No... this... this can't be happening! How could this be possible, Pinkie, the friend making pony, rejecting a friendship? This has to be a prank, I rationalized. She's going to turn around any time now, and smile at me, say how she really had me going there! I thought, desperately, each step she took crushing my heart. Any minute now! *crunch, crunch, crunch* She'll start laughing, and say she still trusts me! *crunch, crunch, crunch* Everything will go back to normal, it'll be like this never happened! *crunch, crunch, crunch* "Please..." I whispered, the first tear leaving my eyes. "Please turn around..."

By the time she crested the hill and fell out of sight... only dust remained.

I was probably in shock. Time lost all meaning as I simply stood there, staring at the hill that she would never come back over. The abrupt loss of light, as Celestia set the sun, broke me out of my stupor.

"It's alright, I don't care," I whispered, like saying the words aloud would make them true. "I don't care about her... I don't need her..." I continued, zipping myself up inside the tent and laying down. "It's not important, it never was... It's not important, it never was..." I repeated to myself. A mantra, to burry away the choking feeling in my throat. "It's not important... it... never was... It's n-not important... it ne-never w-was... It's *sniff* not impor- huhuh... n-never w-w-was... It's no- *sob*... never w-ahaha-s-s-s... *sob*"

It's not important! *sob* She never was!

...So why can't I stop crying?

Author's Note

Totally not my name, by the way.

You'll have to forgive me if this chapter is particularly horrible. It just doesn't feel natural for me to write things that are supposed to be emotional.

I also shot myself in the foot pretty good right out of the starting gate with my timeskip chapter. I should have had another chapter or two of interactions with Pinkie to flesh out her reaction in this chapter. For all of you people reading, I doubt there was any apparent reason for her to have been so distraught. I realized this half way through writing the last chapter, which is why I crowbarred in that one flashback at the end, to give at least a little more insight into what the timeskip chapter skipped.

Anyway, updates will continue to be slow, probably indefinately. I have a project I need to work on over thanks giving break, and I just bought a PS3 on sale that I'm blowing all of my free time on... so... yeah.

Chapter 13

When I woke up that morning, I... didn't want to move. I just laid there, staring at the fabric wall, unthinking, unblinking... I felt numb and lathargic, the whole world just seemed so far away... I was so tired, but I couldn't fall back asleep... so I stared. All I wanted was to just fade away, to crawl back into the blissful darkness of a dreamless sleep. To return to that one place where nothing mattered.

Eventually I started to get hungry. Normally the first thing I do when I wake up is eat breakfast, but I still didn't want to move, so I tried to ignore it. Unfortunately, I was also trying to maintain my unthinking state, and without thought, that left me with nothing to focus on except the growing feeling of hunger. It didn't take very long for the hunger to overpower my will and make me roll out of bed. I may never have been very materialistic, but let's face it, I was a middle-class American, and I never needed to go hungry at any point in my life. So my willpower was... deficient... in this area, to say the least.

Plodding outside, with my head and neck hanging mostly limp from my shoulders, I walked a few paces away from the tent before I started slowly ripping some grass out of the ground. Each small clump had five chews dedicated to it before swallowing, whether it was fully processed or not. In my current state of mind, I couldn't even taste it. It was just something solid to fill the gnawing cavity at the end of my esophagus.

Once my stomach finally stopped grumbling at me, I stopped pulling at the grass and went back inside. I was about to flop back onto the cot, when I caught sight of the saddlebags sitting by the door.

Don't make me regret this, Cotton...

"What am I doing?" I questioned, my lathargy being quickly replaced by anger. "Just fucking off and wasting time! You have a job to do, dammit!" I scolded myself, going back outside. "So you got dumped, bo hoo, life's a bitch n' then ya die! Plenty of fish in the sea, and all that shit!" I ranted to myself, trying to stay angry because I knew that if I lost my steam I wouldn't be getting it back. "This is your responsibility now, nothing else! It's time to get to work asshole," I continued, Ponyville now coming into sight. "...So check your fucking baggage at the door..."

I walked briskly as I made my way towards the townhall, occasionally going behind buildings or through alleys to avoid the more crowded streets. My angry expression and fast walk was doing a good job of keeping anypony from trying to talk to me, or get in my way, but I didn't need to draw any attention. I ducked into another alley to get to the next street, going out of my way to avoid passing through the market. I didn't need to take the chance that Applejack would be manning the stall this morning. Any possible confrontations just weren't in my schedule for the day.

I allowed myself a small sigh of relief when the door closed behind me. I'd managed to get all the way to the center of town without anyone causing me trouble.

Now I only have the mayor, and maybe a secretary, to deal with, I thought, making my way to the stairs behind the stage at the back of the hall.

The ground floor of the town hall was a general community gathering place for special events, like the summer sun celebration that got interupted. It's high ceiling, as well as accomidating the balcony above the stage, took up the first two stories of the building, while the third story was the office area. The stairs wrapped around the whole building in one long spiral staircase, at the top of which I encountered a small waiting room with several cushioned seats along either wall. There was no one there though, which didn't surprise me. A small town like this practically runs itself, so no one goes to the mayor for anything if they don't need to.

Walking through the door labeled 'Ponyville Mayor's Office', the first thing I noticed was the domed ceiling. Fancy, I thought, looking around. As could be seen from the outside, there was a window every two meters or so all the way around to provide plenty of natural lighting, the slope of the dome starting just above them. Off to the left from the door, at the opposite end of the floor, was a walled off area, the only break in the otherwise circular room. On the door of this area was a simple plaque reading "Mayor Mare", indicating it as her personal office. The rest of this floor was arrayed with aisles of filing cabinets from one end to the other, with one center aisle leading from the entrance to the mayor's office, and one space, directely in front of the entrance, for the secretary's desk. The secretary herself was an earth pony, like the mayor. Her coat was a light magenta color, and she had her purple mane tied up into a bun.

"Oh!" Exclaimed the mare behind the desk as she looked up from her paperwork. "Um, can I help you?" She asked, having only noticed me after the door latched shut behind me.

"Yes, I was thinking about buying some land, and was wondering if there's like a... a map, or something, of what's available," I told her, walking up to the desk, which was almost unnaturally clean and tidy.

"Hmm..." She vocalized, straightening the pile of papers before getting out of her seat, "I don't think our municipality has any parcels for sale, but I can check." She started navigating through the filing cabinets while I simply followed. "Most of the vacant land around Ponyville is owned by either the Apple family, or Mr. Rich," she explained, scanning the drawer labels as we walked. "Ah, here we are," she said, opening a drawer and flipping through some tabbed folders before pulling out a folded map.

"That was fast," I comment, as she had only been searching the aisles for about a minute. "You must have had this job for a long time to know right where everything is like this."

"Yes, I've been the secretary here for almost four years now," she proudly stated. "But you should have seen the place when I first got here," she said, giving off a shudder at the unpleasent memory. "It was a mess. How anypony could have found anything in this office was beyond me. My first months here were spent reorganizing the whole place... It was kind of fun, actually," she admited as we walked back to her desk.

"Hm..." I neutrally replied, almost wanting to call her out on that statement. Seeing as her mark was what appeared to be a checklist, however... she probably meant it.

The map was unfolded and laid out on her desk, revealing a parcel format map of Ponyville. The map itself was pretty big, although it didn't seem to extend out to Sweet Apple Acres, instead cutting off at the small stream just south of town. It was also covered in coding, which the secretary mare was currently skimming over. None of it made any sense to me, but it didn't have to, this wasn't what I was looking for.

"...I'm sorry, but I don't see any land marked as being for sale," she said, turning from the map to look at me. "But as I said before, both the Apple family and Mr. Rich own quite a bit of the land around here... you could go to them and see if they're interested in selling any," she suggested.

"Yeah, but this isn't really what I'm looking for. Do you have any maps of the lands in the rest of Equestria?"

"Oh, well... our office doesn't really, uh... keep up... on the properties beyond our jurisdiction," she explained, sounding rather embarrassed about this deficiency. "It just isn't our responsibility, and Miss Mare prefers to keep the office's paperwork to a minimum..." I just nod my head in understanding. It was a stretch anyway, hoping that I wouldn't need to go to Canterlot to get this done.

I don't like dealing with the government... pony-run or otherwise. "Well, thank you for your time Miss. You have a nice day," I said, walking back out the door as she returned my farewell. *sigh* Well, this is annoying, I thought, walking down the stairs. I did plan on needing to go to Canterlot... but I was really hoping I wouldn't have to. Exiting through the front doors, I start walking back to the tent. Now I'll need to buy another train ticket, and I'll need to figure out who exactly I'll need to talk to...

I halt in my tracks as a thought strikes me.

Shit, I just remembered that I'm not a legal citizen! Fuck, will I even be able to get into the castle without being arrested? I chew on my lip and start walking again while I mull this new complication over. Hmm... I might have to steal someone's identity... But who? And how would I even go about doing it? I've never seen anypony carrying around any photo id, or even a wallet- *Blink*... *Facehoof* Idiot... This isn't Earth, there aren't strict regulations on every little thing here. I didn't even need a passport to travel within Minotauria, or get back into Equestria, what the hell am I worrying about!? Christ, I shook my head at my own stupidity. You'd think I'd have picked up on that while I've lived here...

I frown at that thought, as I make a turn to avoid a crowded street.

Now that I think about it... I haven't tried to learn anything about this world since coming here. All I've done is learn about magic and chop wood as a part-time job. I've never done any actual... intigrating... into pony society. I suppose, in the back of my head, I always imagined I would be leaving anytime now, just as soon as I got bored of it... Well... until now, I guess...

I could feel the tingling sensation in my sinuses, indicating that my eyes were about to start watering. Immediately, I bite down on the inside of my lip to fight it back.

Stop being sad. What am I losing, exactly? A boring and unfulfilling job? Working in a lab was never as exciting as science fiction made it look, and magic is just so much more fun! A mortgage and a lifetime of student loan debt? Sure, I miss the internet, but I never did anything important on it, just read fanfictions and watched youtube videos! Yeah, it'll kinda suck that I'll never get to see my family again, but I was never much of a family person anyway, and I'm sure they'll get over it. And my frie-... I stopped again, staring at the ground. ...I almost forgot... I didn't have any friends... there were some people I'd talk with at work, but... I haven't had a friend since-

I felt a tear roll out of my eye, and I bit down harder.

Dammit! You are not sad, so stop crying! It was years ago, you're over it, you've been over it! Suddenly, I tasted copper. Fucker! Now look what you did! I berated myself as I started moving agian, stupid flesh, stupid brain, stupid emotions!

Only to come to a stop again a few seconds later.

"Hello Cotton Hill, I see that you've returned to Ponyville," came the unmistakable voice of the local zebra. Sure enough, when I raised my head, there was Zecora, in all her stripy glory. She didn't have her cloak on today, and instead was sporting a wicker saddlebag on her left side.

"Oh, you're still talking to me?" I questioned, surprised that she hadn't disowned me yet. "I figured you wouldn't want anything to do with me now..." Some stray emotion from my sad memory must have accidentally bled into my words, as her jovial expression slipped away when I looked at her.

"What are these tears in your eyes? To see you cry is quite the surprise," she intoned, sounding concerned.

"It's nothing," I say, wiping a hoof across my eyes, "just remembering something I shouldn't think about." When I raised my eyes again, I noticed that some of the ponies were staring at us while they walked by. "Are you sure you want to be seen talking to me? Being associated with me might hurt your reputation."

"Hollow rumours hold no wieght, and in time they'll come to see. Your deceit has held no ill intent, nor your actions any treachery," she replied with certainty.

"And why do you think you know my intentions?"

"I know the desire to start one's life anew," she somberly replied, "...and this desire I saw clearly in you. We all have secrets that we wish to keep... although some of us choose simply not to speak," she chided. I looked down in responce to her admonishment. She was right, afterall. If I had just said nothing, instead of lying, than none of this would have come about. "In any case, I am glad to see you are alright, your disappearence gave us all a fright. But now I must be on my way, I've quite a bit to do today," she said in farewell.

"Huh? But- wait!" I exclaimed, making her stop before she could fully walk away. "Aren't you going to... ya'know... ask me anything?" I questioned.

"No," she replied, shaking her head. "I may not know why you chose to lie, but neither is it my place to pry. If it was something that I needed to know, you would have told it long ago," she stated matter of factly. She was making me feel really guilty right now.

"Zecora... *sigh* I'm sorry I lied to you. I never really thought about it until now, but... you are such an amazing friend, and... I hope I can make it up to you someday..." She smiled warmly in responce.

"Your apology is accepted, and your honesty in the future is all that is requested. If there is ever a thing you do not wish to discuss, simply say so, and there will be no fuss."

"Thank you Zecora," I said, returning her smile. "I promise I won't lie to you anymore... Oh! Also, I'm going to Canterlot soon, and I don't know when I'll be back... Just so you know," I informed her, "don't need anyone thinking I disappeared again." And with that, we said our farewells and parted ways.

Should I try, or should I not..? I asked myself, walking out of town. She's very understanding, and might be willing to believe me, I reasoned, but... just because she wasn't mad that I lied, doesn't mean she'll trust that my story is true, I countered.

I had been spending the whole walk out of town contemplating wether or not to tell Zecora the truth about myself. However, I haven't been able to convince myself that she would believe me. Just because she wasn't upset with me, didn't mean that she would trust me anymore.

Soon I passed a small patch of flowers, and decided to use a classic cop-out, taking the decision out of my hooves altogether.

Alright, I thought, picking a flower with my magic, should I tell her, or should I not?

Unfortunatly, before I could start plucking the petals, I toke a moment to admire how uniform and even the flower was, it having six perfectly even petals with exact spacings between them. This observation allowed the analytical part of my mind to note that, due to the even number of petals, if I started with 'yes', then the petals would answer 'no', and vice versa. This utterly destroyed the point of having a flower make the decision for me, and reduced the question to a simple choice of yes or no to be made, once more, completely of my own volition.

"Grr..." I frustratedly growled, casting an annoyed glare at the flower for failing me in the few seconds before eating it in one bite. Screw this, I'll decide later, I resolved, carelessly tossing the remaining stem over my shoulder. Hmm... how am I going to take everything with me? I wondered, the tree on the next hill coming into view, along with tent set beneath it's branches. I could probably fit the pillow and comforter into the saddlebags, but what do I do with the cot and all the parts of the tent?

I stopped a little ways back so I could get a good look at it, and make some sort of guess as to how many pieces the frame had.

...Maybe if I wrap it all together just right, so that it won't fall apart, I could balance it on my back? This thought in mind, I entered so that I could start packing. If all else fails, I can turn some more of my hair into ropes and tie it to my back. I floated the pillow off of the cot first, bringing it over to the saddlebags and stuffing it in-

Upon opening the bag, I saw the bouquet of roses. Opening the other bag, I pulled both the flowers and the box out and stared at them. At first it was a stare of slightly confused apathy, I had completly forgotten about these things, but swiftly it morphed into one of anger.

"How fucking stupid could I have possibly been!" I shouted at myself. In a burst of white hot rage I set the offending objects on fire, an effigy to the insidious feelings I'd been foolish enough to foster. "As if it could have ever worked out anyway," I growled out, teeth clenched, as I threw the burning refuse from the tent...

...Or tried to, anyway. In my anger I had misjudged my throw, and instead of flying out the door, as was intended, both objects bounced off of the wall. The bouquet landed squarly on the cot, where it began to char the comforter, while the box rolled off to one side, coming to a rest against one of the walls.

"Oh shitshitshitshit!" I exclaimed, reaching out to remove the objects before the whole place could go up in smoke. I had just enveloped them in my telekinetic grip, when a uncharacteristically vindictive though took hold in my mind... let it burn.

It was clear that she didn't want anything more to do with me, and what better way to show that the feeling was mutual than by destroying the home she'd given me.

"None of this is mine," I reminded myself as the flames began to spread. "This place is nothing but an act of cherity, from a mare who never wants to see me again... even the bed I sleep on is merely stolen. Pillaged from the wreckage of anothers livelyhood." Turning to leave, I place the saddlebags on my back, and stuff the pillow inside one of them. "This pillow, and these bags... they are the only things in this world that I own. The rest of it..." I finished, taking one last look at the burning tent before walking away. "...Can just disappear."

I sat brooding in my seat aboard the train as it left the station, observing the small column of smoke rising on the far side of town.

Several pagasi, equiped with rainclouds, were already enroute to fight the fire.

What little of it there is, anyway... As happy as the thought of the entire field around my hill being in flames would have made me, I knew that no such thing would have been possible. The grass is always so green and lively... it would never be able to properly catch fire. I imagine, at most, that the leaves in the tree are burning... Even if the flames could find a way to spread, the weather team would put them out before they had the chance to grow.

The chatter amongst the other passengers soon shifted in speculation about the smoke as we came around into a better vantage point.

I never noticed before just how close to the traintracks my home was, I ponder as the train circles north around ponyville, before straitening out towards Canterlot in the northeast. We're probably only half a mile away right now.

The train began picking up speed as we entered the straight stretch to Canterlot Mountain, and soon enough, Ponyville was out of sight behind us.

Author's Note

This chapter's kinda short, but I'm cutting it off there. I'll try to make up for it in the next one.

I'm sorry if the long wait has disappointed anyone, especially with the size of the chapter itself, but rest assured, I have plenty of excuses. So many, in fact, that listing them would take long enough to warrent another excuse. I'll try to update once a month... but I do have three upper level chemistry labs this semester. That's a lot of lab reports and lab notebooks to keep up with, so don't be surprised if I can't stick to a once-a-month schedule.

Also, my stats page says that like, 20 people found my story via google, and while I know that the fimfiction searchbar goes through google, I'm still curious as to what people are typing in that brings up my story. I tried looking for it myself, but I could only get it to come up by typing in the actual name of my story... maybe other people go beyond the first page of results, which is something I never usually do when searching things...

Becoming a Land Owner

"...You have got to be shitting me, right..?" I asked the unicorn secretary, in genuine disbelief of what I had just been told.

When the train had arrived in Canterlot about an hour ago, I immediately set out for the castle, fairly certain that that was where I needed to go...

"No, sir," she replied, a cringe forming on her muzzle at my vulgar language, "I'm not."

...So, naturally, I was confused when the gate guards asked me to halt and tell them the nature of the proposal I was bringing to the Solar Court. One short conversation later, and I was directed to the Internal Affairs building... where the secretary gave me the bad news.

"Why do I need to make an appointment a minimum of three days in advance?" I questioned, hoping to find a way to cut through this bureaucratic bullshit.

"Because," she began, tone of voice indicating that she'd had this conversation before, "Mr. Maize is a very busy pony. If he accepted walk-in's, he'd never get any-" Her sentence was interrupted by my front hooves clopping down on the top of her desk.

"I can understand the need for appointments," I ground out, looking down at her, with teeth clenched, as I held myself back from yelling. There were guards in the building, and if I made too much of a scene, they were liable to drag me from the premises. "But why, in the blood soaked depths of Tartarus, do they have to be three. Days. In advance," I reiterated.

"Sir," she started, rising from her seat and unflinchingly meeting my heated gaze, "I have to deal with the Canterlot nobility on a daily basis. You," she continued, eyes narrowing while her voice maintained the same calm and collected tone, "will not be intimidating me." Retaking her seat, she pulled an appointment ledger from a drawer and dropped it harshly onto the desktop. "...Now... you can sign up for an appointment... or I can have you escorted from the building," she finished, bringing her hooves together in the pony version of steepled fingers.

"...Where do I sign?" I resignedly asked, removing my hooves from the desk.

Levitating the provided quill, I signed on the indicated lines, confirming my appointment for two PM on Thursday.

"Now... if that will be all, sir," she said, motioning to the door, clearly telling me to leave. I didn't even bother saying goodbye before walking out into the hallway and shutting the door behind me.

*sigh* What the hell am I supposed to do for three days? I wondered, walking down the tiled hall towards the exit. I guess I'll need to find a place to stay while I'm here. The Canterlot nobility strike me as the type to have vagrancy laws in their city...

*grumble* Comes the sound of my stomach, which refused to be ignored any longer.

...But first, I need something to eat. I haven't had anything since that grass this morning... This goal in mind, I exit the building, passing by the two guards stationed at the door, and begin searching for a place to eat. Speaking of guards, I thought, taking a look around as I walked through the busy streets, I've only seen one patrol group since coming here. Sure, there are guards at every government building, and the castle is just crawling with them... but I assumed there would be more of an active presence on the streets than I'm seeing.

It was about an hour later when I exited the restaurant I'd found in the downtown area. I was eight bits lighter now, and paying the bill for that meal made me realize that I needed to take stock. To that end, I ducked into an alley, the shadows cast by the low sun hiding me from prying eyes.

"What's left after all those train tickets..?" I whispered to myself, taking all of the rolls and loose bits out of my saddlebags. A few minutes of silent counting later, and I quickly replaced all of the bits into the bags, and put them on my back again. In addition to all my savings I had in the tent, I've only got fifteen-hundred and twelve now... *sigh* How can I ration twelve bits across three days, and still have enough to get back to Ponyville..?

After only a few moments of thinking, the answer was obvious.

*sigh* Why did I let myself burn down the fucking tent...

I awoke with a full body shiver, as the cold morning air flowed over me. It poured in through the hidden entrance to my little hideaway like an eldritch fog foreshadowing my inevitable demise...

Or at least that's what it felt like.

"Augh..." I groaned, rolling over and inadvertently exposing my warm side to the cold air. Another shiver shot through my body as I forced myself up onto my haunches. "God... why didn't I at least save the blanket..?" I moaned, bringing a hoof to my face to wipe the sleep from my eyes. This was the first time I'd ever woken up cold, at least as far as I could remember. Even during winter in Ponyville I was at least able to cocoon myself inside of the blanket. Here though? I was completely exposed, with nothing but a pillow to lay my head on. Canterlot was fine during the day but, thanks to the increased altitude, it gets a bit chillier at night than I was used to.

...And then there were my actual sleeping arrangements.

I went out of my way to find a good hiding spot, and eventually minecrafted a small space under the line of hedges that formed one of the dead ends inside of the Canterlot hedge maze. However, being underground, I didn't want any worms or bugs coming in through the dirt and crawling all over me while I slept. To that end, I enveloped my hiding place with a thin layer of rubber, which I transfigured from the organic matter in the dirt itself. Rubber, however, isn't exactly the softest thing in the world to sleep on, and I quickly found myself missing my cot during the half hour or so it had taken me to fall asleep last night.

With a groan, I do a bit of stretching to wake myself up before moving over to the hole in the ceiling, using the opportunity to stretch my back muscles as I pull myself up into the leaves. My little crawl space wasn't tall enough for me to rear up at all inside. Just one of the things I didn't think about when I made it.

Well... I have three days to kill, I think to myself, ...I'll probably be spending most of it at the library... "But first things first," I say aloud, pulling myself out of the hedge wall and making my way farther into the maze. "I haven't had a bath for more than a week, and I'm sure I'm desperately in need of one..." Whilst doing my exploring of the maze last night before the sun went down, I managed to find a nice little pond. I setup my hiding place just a few turns away from it, so I could easily find it again.

Once that was all sorted out, I started to eat some grass for breakfast while I dried off, before leaving the maze and starting my search for the library.

Well, I thought, walking back out of the internal affairs building, that was a lot less painful than I thought it'd be...

I was now the proud owner of a plot of land on the west side of the White Tail wood, and about fifty kilometers from the west coast. It was a nice location, far enough out of the way to get a good price, but close enough to the existing railway system that laying the tracks down in the future wouldn't be a crippling investment.

As much as I complained about it at the time, being forced to wait three days for my appointment was incredibly fortunate for me. I was still too upset by recent events to really think ahead, and it wasn't until I started doing some research in the Archives that I realized how unprepared I would have been. It took most of my first day just to identify all of the books and reference materials I figured I'd need in order to start really deciding where would be the best, and most affordable, location for this new town. Nothing in Equestria has made me miss computers more than scouring the library shelves for books without knowing which ones I needed.

It was especially annoying because I had to constantly restrain myself from wondering over to the magic section while I was trying to work. On the bright side, I was able to get plenty of practice in with my illusion spells by making myself invisible and silent whenever I went dumpster diving behind one of the bakeries.

With the deed tucked safely away in my saddlebags, I begrudgingly made my way through the city towards the train station.

I wish I could stay for a few more days. I didn't get to read a single magic book while I was here, but I told Star... Emulate, I mean, to come and see me in Ponyville and it's been four days already. I don't know how much preparation they needed, but she could be here any day now, and if I'm not there... who knows what she'll think.

I had exactly one bit to spare after buying my train ticket.

*sigh* Looks like I'll be living off the land again for a while... Maybe Zecora can teach me how to make mushroom stew or something. I suppose I could have considered seeing what the restaurants in Ponyville throw away before resigning myself to foraging, but I've had enough of stale bread for a good while... And I didn't need any reasons to be caught hanging around Sugarcube Corner these days.

The ride down to Ponyville was uneventful as I tried to think of a way to avoid any unnecessary conflict with... well, anypony, but mostly with any of the main six.

I doubt I'd be welcomed back into town by the general populace, especially after that stunt I pulled when I left. With how easily the townsfolk of Ponyville can get spooked, who knows what stories they've woven about that fire. Not to mention me disappearing again right after my lies were called out, because, ya know, that totally wouldn't be seen as suspicious.

As I stared out the window at the scenic view of the valley south of the mountain, the sheer drop to which was only a stones throw from the tracks, I briefly decided to make myself invisible when the train arrived at the station. That way no one would even know I was back in town... but I had to reconsider a moment later.

How will I find Emulate when she gets to town? Or her me if I go invisible? It's just not practical to be combing the streets for her, even if she does use the disguise I'm familiar with... I have no idea when she'll even get here, so how can I make it easier for her to find me..? I didn't need to think about it for very long. *sigh* Dammit. Emulate'll need to be able to ask around for me when she gets to town, which means I'm going to need to make it public knowledge that I'm back.

"*sigh* ...Balls," I sighed, leaning my head against the window. I wasn't looking forward to this.

Exiting the train, I stood tall with my face strait as I focused only on what was in front of me. I didn't want to look nervous to be back, I had nothing to fear after all. Even if someone were to try and confront me, I could easily slip way with an illusion or two. Taking a final, calming breath to steady my nerves, I began walking towards my old tree, my course set to take me right through the center of town.

Not ten paces from the train platform, and I could already feel eyes on me. I did my best to ignore them, and to keep my gaze forward, but despite my best efforts I found it wondering, looking for familiar faces. I didn't find any. Yet.

As I walked, any pony's eyes I met would quickly look away. There was a general air of nervous tension to the crowds I moved passed... but that was none of my concern. It seemed I was on the central boulevard, as I could see the Sugarcube Corner up ahead. I couldn't help but look into it's front window as I walked by, and there I saw my first familiar face. It was mister Cake, arranging a few confections in the display case with a smile on his face. Then he saw me. First came the frown, then came the blinds.

None of my concern, I thought to myself, pushing my eyes forward again while keeping the concept of the buildings... pink... occupant, out of my mind. As this, too, was none of my concern. Not any more.

Soon after, I found myself in the market square, where I fully expected to see Applejack, but, fortunately for me, there must have been something special happening today, as it was Mac at the stall instead. There was the barest hint of a downward crease to the corners of his mouth as we saw each other, but other than this he simply ignored my presence, and for this indifference I was deeply grateful, as I proceeded to ignore him in kind.

Nothing else of any note occurred for the rest of my walk, and soon enough I had passed through to the rolling hills that separated my former residence from the town proper. And with this transition I released a sigh of relief as I allowed my neck and shoulders to relax. It was nice having been able to get through town without any trouble.

Now I'll just make a quick stop to see how my old tree's been doing since the fire, then take the scenic route around to the Everfree, and let Zecora know I'm back...

The tree looked about as bad as I figured it would, given how quickly the weather team put the fire out. There was a jagged, blackened circle where the tent used to be, the bark on this half of the tree was charred, and there were no leaves in the branches of the same side.

"Sorry about this, old buddy," I whispered, running a hoof along the blackened bark. "I just wasn't thinking clearly..." Using my magic, I rip two clumps of dirt out of the burnt circle. One I turn into ammonium nitrate, and the other into potassium phosphate, two important fertilizers that I could remember. Once we start building this town of ours, I'll probably never be coming back here again... It'll be for the best if there's no evidence I was even here after that, I reason, sprinkling the two powders into the circle and around the base of the tree. I'm not going to waste time tilling these into the ground, but they're both water soluble, so next time it rains they'll soak right into the soil.

I decided to take the south route around Ponyville and across the train tracks, mainly because I didn't want to have to go past the Sweet Apple Acres and risk being spotted. Unfortunately, this strategy wasn't as fool proof as I'd thought, as, after several minutes of walking, I saw an assortment of different bird species, plus one bat, come flying overhead towards town from the south. Wondering what was the cause of this odd scenario, I walked up the hill blocking my view only to see none other than the main six, not more than a hundred meters away, as they walked towards me through the valley leading from Ghastly Gorge. Thankfully none of them seemed to have noticed me yet, they were all looking at Rainbow Dash as she rode on the back of some small creature, which I couldn't recognize from this distance. Quickly I cast my illusion magic to make myself invisible before walking back down the hill and continuing on my path.

It looks like things are back to normal for them now, as far as I can tell... That'll probably change once they hear the latest town gossip. Soon after, I reached the river that separates Ponyville from the forest. The only bridge across around here is the one in town, so I'll have to wade across... I hope my magic is good enough to keep the water away from the saddlebags. This river wasn't very deep, but it would still go above my back, so I cast a telekinetic bubble around my torso region to protect my papers, and started walking.

It didn't start off too bad, but the pressure on my horn quickly escalated once my barrel started submerging the surface. The water wasn't exactly rushing by, but even this gentle flow was shoving dozens of kilograms of water against my little shield every second.

Shining must be a fuckin' beast if this pathetic display of shielding magic is anything to go by, I thought, as the first beads of sweat started soaking into the fur of my forehead. Luckily the deepest part of the river, which had put my whole barrel and half of my neck underwater, was only a few meters wide, and within seconds the water started getting shallower again. It probably only took me about a minute to fully cross the river, whereupon I cast a quick drying spell on myself before letting down my tiny shield.

I saved my sigh of relief until after checking my bags, but sure enough, none of the ink had started to run on the papers, meaning they had stayed dry, rather than having been dried by my spell.

Well, I thought, putting the documents back into my bags, the only thing between me and Zecora's hut now is some dense forest. The edge of the forest was a few more minutes away, but the thought of walking through the Everfree didn't make me hesitate anymore. I'd gotten pretty used to this forest during my time in Ponyville, mainly due to my woodcutting. It helps that I've always had an uncanny sense of direction. Once I'm inside I'll just need to keep heading north by northeast and I'll find the dirt path soon enough. I was decently confident in my ability to either evade or kill anything that would try to attack me on the way. My illusion magic should keep me out of harms way... and even if it doesn't, I've always wondered what it would look like if I used my transfiguration magic to reduce all of the sodium and potassium ions in a manticores brain to their elemental states.

Many of the dangerous creatures of the Everfree forest are nocturnal, so I didn't cross paths with much of anything on my trek through the woods. I did encounter one cockatrice, but I just made an illusion of myself running off in some direction and it quickly gave chase, leaving me to continue on my way, unnoticed. Soon after that I found the path, and quickly found myself at Zecora's doorstep. I knocked on the door, and could hear some muffled speech from inside. She's probably expressing some surprise at having a visitor, I thought. Upon opening the door her eyes widened, slightly, in surprise when she saw me.

"Why, Cotton Hill, this is a surprise," she said stepping to the side and motioning an invitation to come inside. "I had thought your plans changed, when I saw the smoke rise," she continued while I walked in.

"Yeah," I started, bringing a hoof to the back of my head while trying not to sound like I was embarrassed. "I wasn't really thinking at the time. I let my emotions get the better of me and, well... it was a moment of weakness, and I've been regretting it ever since I calmed down," I explained as she closed the door.

"Mistakes are often made, this I understand," she replied, before her eyes narrowed and her lips bent into a frown. "...But what could drive you to leave such a scorch on the land?"

"friends... don't lie to friends..."

"...I," I started, feeling the tingly sensation in my nose that always precedes the buildup of tears. "...I don't want to talk about it," I said. I've been trying not to think about this... or her. The only way to get over it is to distance myself from it.

I don't know if it was something in my voice, or if she could see some lingering emotion in my eyes, but when I looked up, her disapproving expression had softened into one of understanding.

"I thank you for your honesty," she said, bowing her head slightly. "Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?" I was grateful for her willingness to change the subject, and dove right in.

"Well, you see, the thing is..."

I proceeded to explain how my own stupid actions had rendered me even more homeless than I already had been, and if she knew of any relatively safe areas in the forest where I could set up a new place for myself. She, of course, offered to supply me with her creature repellent, but after explaining that It was only going to be temporary, and that I would likely only be using it as a place to sleep for a few days, she pointed me towards the south side of the forest, near froggy bottom bog. The manticores don't hunt near there because of the hydra, and as long as I stayed within the trees and out of the bog itself, I was unlikely to provoke it.

Thanking her for the suggestion, I also asked what plants were safe to eat, as I would be foraging in the forest for most of my stay. Along with this information came a warning to avoid areas that smelt strongly sweet, like honey, as these areas are home to the paraspiders. Their webs emit a sweet scent to attract parasprites, their main staple, but they grow to the size of an average filly, and are not above eating anything that can ensnare. Zecora even saying that she had once seen the shriveled husk of cockatrice in their webs.

Taking this warning to heart, I thanked her again for all of the information and, after cloaking myself in a layer of illusion magic, set off through the woods.

I spent the last few hours of daylight finding a good, easily hidden spot to make an entrance, and then made an underground dwelling, just as I had in Canterlot... except bigger. I wanted room to stretch out this time, as well as space for some hypothetical furnishings, depending on how long it took Emulate to show up.

I chose a spot next to a recognizable cluster of trees. They looked like about a dozen seeds had landed right next to each other, and then all successfully grew, forming a sort of bowl shape in the middle as they all bent away from each other.

This time, I had been smart enough to cast a warming spell before going to sleep, realizing that the waterlogged soils would probably be just as cold as the altitude at Canterlot. In the morning, I spent some time looking around for a decent breakfast before grabbing the saddlebags and making my way back to my old tree. I had decided that this is where I would be waiting, as when Emulate got to town, she would start asking around for me, and given that this had been my only stable location for the last year, they would likely tell her about it.

Likely... I sceptically thought. I did burn this place down, after all... but... it's a good a plan as any. Sitting at the train station all day would either be way too much of a spectacle, or way too draining on my magic, depending on whether I stayed visible or not. And I didn't even know that she would be coming by train. She might just turn into a pegasus and fly.

"Either way, this is as good a plan as any..." I reiterated to myself. *sigh* "Now," I said, resting in the shade of the side of the tree that still had leaves on it. "...The waiting game..."

The Waiting Game

I spent the first day diligently waiting, eyes glued to the horizon as I sat under my tree, occasionally stopping to munch on some grass or flowers in the area. By around midday the thought came to me that eating nothing but grass and random flowers, while possible thanks to my new anatomy, probably didn't constitute a very healthy diet. I made a mental note to myself to expand the diversity of my meals from then on.

I left my post a few hours before sundown so that I could forage for the various plants and mushrooms Zecora had identified for me. I dropped off the deed to my new land in my small hovel before venturing back out into the woods. I was out past sunset gathering things, but I kept myself unnoticed by the creatures of the forest by combining my invisibility and silencing illusions, the same way I'd done it in Canterlot while dumpster diving. Once I felt that I had enough food stuffed in my saddlebags to last a while, I started back towards my little hideaway.

I estimated that I was still several minutes away from my destination near the bog, when the various sounds of the forest went quiet. I knew this meant that there was a predator nearby, but paid it no heed, confident I would remain unnoticed within my illusions. As I continued on, I soon heard the sound of rustling leaves behind me, too close for my comfort. Turning to investigate, I saw a maniticore stalking its way through the undergrowth. I knew that it could not detect me, so I once more continued on my way... when I heard several rapid breaths that caused my heart to leap in my chest.

The sound of sniffing.

Looking behind me, the manticore now had its face to the ground, obviously following my scent as it quickly came to the tracks my invisible hooves had left only meters behind.

God dammit, I swore in my head. I should have thought of that, but... argh! There's nothing I can do about my scent! The annoying creature began following my tracks as I weaved my way around several trees in a serpentine pattern to stay ahead of it. I need to make a decision, and quickly. The manticore was moving faster by the second, and it would catch up to me very soon at this rate, but if I started running, it would easily notice the parting of bushes and other fauna as I rushed through the undergrowth. It wouldn't see me, but it would still know generally where I was and give chase. She said they don't hunt near the bog, so if I can keep ahead of it, it should give up the trail soon enough... But, looking back to the creature as it was gradually catching up to me, I don't know if I'll make it far enough in time.

I tried to still my rapid heartbeat before I could have a mini panic attack, when the logical part of my mind kicked in, and looked beyond the intimidation factor of the beast baring down on me.

I'm in no danger. Not really. I have magic, I'll just kill it.

looking back to the stalking predator, so confidant in its dominance, I hesitated for a few seconds at the thought of killing this essentially defenseless creature... Then, reaching into it's skull, I crushed it's brain in my telekinetic grip.

Watching as it toppled over without a sound, I was suddenly seized by a sense of paranoia, adrenaline shooting through my veins as my heart rate doubled on the spot. Nervously, I began looking around for anyone who could have potentially bore witness to what I had just done, as a nauseating feeling of guilt momentarily pulsed through me.

Swallowing the small amount of bile that had risen in the back of my throat, I began slowly trudging back towards my dwelling as I tried to shake the strange feelings off.

I have nothing to feel guilty about, I assured myself, it wasn't murder, and that wasn't some cute little puppy. It was a dangerous predator. It was him or me, that's simply the way it works, and nature can be far crueler. It's death was painless, there was no cruelty to my actions. You have no reason to feel anything for that creature... You have no reason to feel anything at all.

Returning to my temporary home and unloading my bags, I had intended to start making a small kitchen for myself so that I could prepare the food in some way, but now I just didn't feel up to it.

I can still eat it raw I suppose, I thought to myself. However, looking down at the plants I'd collected, I found myself without an appetite, despite the fact that I hadn't had dinner yet, and only ate a few of the plants to hold me over while I gathered more. Easily guessing what recent even was the likely cause, I tried to ignore it. Bringing a mushroom to my muzzle, intent on eating at least a few things, only for my stomach to churn, and my mouth hesitate to open.

Snarling, I forced my mouth open and took a vicious bite out of the mushroom, forced myself to chew it and then forced myself to swallow.

"Stupid useless flesh," I growled, throwing the rest of the mushroom into my mouth, only growing angrier as I still had to force myself to swallow it. "There's nothing wrong with killing some stupid manticore!" I shouted in frustration, ripping off a chunk of some large leafed plant whose name I couldn't remember right now. "That wasn't some poor little animal, it would have eaten you if given even half a chance, so fuck off with your guilt!" I continued to rave, biting into another plant.

I only forced a few more things down my throat before dropping in a huff onto my pillow so I could try and get some sleep.

Grr... If anything I should be pissed off that I didn't drag the body back with me and eat the fucking thing, I thought, venting the last of the frustration I'd built up.

Letting my body relax, and trying not to think of anything more, I gradually fell asleep.

On the second day of waiting, there was apparently a light rain scheduled for the area. The first couple of hours after sunrise saw the sky filled with pagasi positioning clouds overhead. Some of them looked down in my direction during their work, but I didn't try to hide my presence from them. I still needed ponies to know that I was here so that they would be able to give Emulate directions. When it looked like the last of the clouds were being put into place, at least as far as I could see, I made an umbrella stand and a large umbrella to go inside it.

Suffice it to say, that was the high point of the days activities as I spent the rest of it staring out into the rain, bored.

By the third day, the novelty of waiting for Emulate to show up must have worn off, as it was aggressively boring. Way more so than usual. I was tempted to see if Twilight would still accept my library card now that my false identity was revealed. Ultimately I decided not to tempt fate though, and kept to my policy of staying out of the town itself.

I need to go foraging again soon, I noted while taking my dinner out of the simple icebox I'd made to keep everything as fresh as possible. I'll do it on the way back tomorrow, I decided.

Throughout the fourth day I was intermittently switching between staring off into space in abject boredom, feeling as if my brains were melting away and dripping out of my ears, and nervously wondering if something had gone wrong. It was taking way too long for Emulate to arrive, at least as far as I was concerned.

From what I learned while in their caravan, it takes them about five days to cross the full breadth of the Badlands. Even factoring in a couple of days to collect some love energy before leaving, they should have made it into Equestria three days ago... Seeing that the sun was getting lower, I decided to leave for the day and give myself some more daylight to gather my food with. ...And I wanted to ask Zecora if she had a book on potions I could borrow. I've had all I can take of this sitting around with nothing to do crap. Getting up, I took one last look around before sighing and starting the walk back. Maybe there was some kind of delay I didn't account for? ...That must be it. Moving a caravan of wagons through the mountains is probably pretty hard...

Later that night, after having restocked my food supply, I made the trip to Zecora's hut.

The forest was dark by the time I arrived, but I could still see light through the window. Knocking on the door, I waited for it to open. "Hey Zecora," I greeted.

"Oh, I did not expect to see you for some time Cotton, I do hope your plans have not gone rotten?" She asked while moving aside to let me in.

"No, they're just getting a little stale is all," I answered, going along with her metaphor as I walked inside. "My friend is taking longer to get here than I expected, so I'll be around for a while longer... But anyway, how are you? It's been a few days, and I didn't really do much visiting last time."

"I am quite well, as you can see," she said, walking across the room to a counter where a cup of tea and some half eaten food informed me that I'd interrupted her dinner. "...Though I sense conversation is not all you sought from me?" She asked, eyebrow raised as she turned in my direction.

"Well... not really. I was wondering if you had a book on potions I could borrow? I need something to do while I wait around, but I didn't want to risk stirring anything up by going to the library."

"A book about potions you wish to see?" She questioned, "then I believe I have just the thing to sate your curiosity," she stated, walking over to her bookshelf. She looked through the titles for a few seconds before finding the one she was looking for. "This book, I have found, to be quite a delight," she said, bringing over a green book with some kind of spindly looking plant on the cover. "...And on the way of potions it will shed much light."

"Thanks," I thanked, taking the book in my magic and looking at the title written on the spine. Supernaturals... Why does that sound familiar..? "I really appreciate this. I'll be sure to bring it back in perfect condition," I promised with a reassuring smile, which she returned with a nod. "...Well... I better head out. It's getting late, and I should let you get back to your dinner."

With an exchange of farewells, I made my way back to my dwelling, happy to have something to do now while I continue to wait.

The next few days passed uneventfully as I read the book of herbal remedies. According to the title page and preface, it was first published in Baltimare about eighty years ago by an earth pony herbalist named Lily Evergreen. The book wasn't exactly what I was expecting, it being little more than a glorified cook book. There were no descriptions of the materials used in each recipe, only providing the names, amounts, and how they should be prepared. There was an appendix that held some information on the many different plants used in the various recipes, but it provided only brief descriptions with no clarifying pictures for those who had never heard of these species before. In addition to the brief descriptions was a small caption about their preferred growing conditions, presumably for the benefit of any home gardeners reading.

A very dry read, all in all. Though it did inform me that the only real difference between magical potions and the kind of herbal remedies to be found on earth, was that some of the ingredients were imbued with a sort of latent magic that they just naturally grow with. Presumably, then, the trick of it is finding out how these latent magics interact with each other to provide beneficial effects, I mused to myself.

The next day, day seven I had anxiously noted to myself that morning, I was perusing through the various recipes, just looking at the kind of things these magic remedies could do, when I heard a roar at around midday. Looking up I tried to find the source, as it sounded too close to have come from the forest. As another roar rang out, it sounded like it came from the direction of Ponyville, but it wasn't a roar I could recognize from my time in the Everfree. The roars continued as I moved to the hill that would give me a view of the town, and when I reached the top, I was greeted with the sight of an enormous dragon, one with a very familiar coloration, going on a rampage through town.

Oh, I thought, it must be Spike's birthday. I took a few minutes to try and remember the events surrounding this situation, and eventually recalled that he had taken all of Zecora's stuff. I wonder if that still happened... If it did, I should go help her bring everything back. It's the least I can do, really, considering everything she's done for me.

Day eight, and my tree was finally starting to heal. The leaf buds seemed too big to have only just grown since yesterday, but only today did I notice them as I walked to my usual spot at the tree's base. There's probably some significance to that, I thought. I'm looking up today... I wonder why... I did feel... better, I suppose, than I had for a while now... Like I had more energy. It was probably all the activity yesterday, I thought, remembering the several hours it had taken to track down all of Zecora's possessions and get them back to her hut.

That was my first time going into town since I came back. I kept myself hidden under the guise of another pony though, just in case. Zecora didn't approve of it for some reason, but I was able to talk her into accepting it. I also used the opportunity to keep an eye out for Emulate's Stargazer identity, just in case she had shown up to the whole town panicking and wasn't able to ask around for me.

I didn't see her though... Now it was back to the old routine, and I wasn't sure how much longer I would keep waiting before giving up...

But... I also don't know what I'm going to do next... I'd like to keep studying more magic, but I'll need to find a job. I could try to patch things up with Ponyville and the main six... But it would probably be easier to just move somewhere else... Start over while I've still got nothing to leave behind.

My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed a form approaching from the direction of town. My hopes were quickly dashed, however, no pun intended, when I saw the familiar selection of colors hovering along just above the ground. When I spotted Applejack as well, I thought I was in for some kind of intervention or something... But when no more forms crested the hill behind the two, I became very suspicious of why the two most physically inclined members of the group would come to see me alone. As a precaution, I made myself invisible while producing an illusion of me walking a few meters away to one side-

"Hey! Don't you try running away from us!" Dash yelled, zooming around to get in front of where my illusion was walking.

"I wouldn't dream of it," I replied through my doppelganger's mouth, making it sit down. If things get physical, at least this way the first swing won't leave a bruise. "...So," I started once Applejack had gotten closer, "what can I do for you today, ladies?" I asked with a friendly smile.

"How 'bout ya start with not lyin' ta us," replied Applejack in her usual manner of not mincing words.

"We've got some questions for you pal," continued Rainbow, trying to be intimidating by getting right in my copies face, forcing me to make it lean back to keep her from touching it.

"And what would those be?" I asked, neutrally, as she backed up to hover near Applejack.

"Where were you between the hours of one and three yesterday afternoon!" Dash more yelled than asked, pointing an accusatory hoof at me, despite not accusing me of anything yet.

"I don't own a watch, so I really have no idea," I answered with a shrug. "But I was probably right here. Why?"

"Oh really?" Questioned Applejack, sceptically raising an eyebrow at me. "'Cause RD here's been keepin' an eye on you since we heard ya got back, an' she says you were nowhere ta be found yesterday," she said while I cast a humorous glance at Rainbow.

"You've been spying on me, doing nothing, for a week? Heh heh heh, that must've been a blast," I sarcastically stated.

"Yeah. I was. You wanna change your answer?"

"Well, if I wasn't here, than I would have been helping Zecora gather up all her things after Spike made off with them."

"Likely story," Dash replied with narrowed eyes. "Got any proof to back that up?"

"Well, you could go and ask her yourself. It should only take you a minute. You are pretty fast, after all," I said, goading her.

"I just might do that," she said threateningly, like she thought I was bluffing.

"No one's stopping you," I shot back.

She continued to glare challengingly at my copy for a few seconds before Applejack ended the little staring contest.

"Go on RD," she said, placing a hoof on Rainbow's side, "ah'll keep an eye on 'im. You go an' talk ta Zecora."

"Fine," Rainbow replied, lifting herself off the ground. "But don't let him escape!"

"Don't you worry none," she said, tilting her stetson upwards and revealing a coil of rope. "He ain't goin' nowhere."

With a nod of affirmation, Rainbow shot off towards the forest, retreating out of sight within seconds and leaving the two of us alone... I watched Applejack keeping a weary eye on my fake for a few seconds before voicing the question that had been on my mind since I saw the two of them coming for me.

"...So, Applejack," I started. "What, exactly, am I being accused of right now?"

"Yesterday durin' Spike's little... er, episode," she started, trying not to paint spike's little 'incident' in a bad light, although her use of the word episode got a smirk out of me. "Somepony attacked the Mayor and her assistant."

"...And you think I did it?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow, surprised enough by the accusation that I didn't even feel insulted by it. "What have I ever done that would give you the impression that I just go around and attack ponies for no apparent reason? How do you know they were even attacked? In case you didn't notice, there was a bit of a panic going on yesterday. They probably just tripped or something."

"We know they were attacked 'cause they told us so. They were hidin' in the mayors office an' heard somepony open the door, then they got knocked out!" She exclaimed indignantly, as if I, the liar, were accusing the Mayor and her assistant of lying.

"And they claimed it was me?" I pointedly asked.

"No, they didn't see who it was," she replied with a shake of her head. "But yer the only suspicious pony who's bin in town lately, so we thought we'd pay ya a visit."

"Of course I am," I said with a role of my eyes to the 'suspicious' comment. "But that reminds me, you say 'we', so why did only you and Rainbow come here? It strikes me as a little suspicious that the two most physically inclined members of the group came to see me alone... I trust you weren't planning on beating me up while the others weren't looking, were you?" I asked, gesturing to her hat, and the rope hidden underneath it.

"'Course not... 'twas just a percaution is all."

"Oh, yes, obviously," I sarcastically quipped. "But that doesn't answer why the two of you came alone."

"If ya really gotta know, it's 'cause the others were busy is all. Rarity's gettin' a wall replaced at her boutique, Twilight's coordinatin' the repair of the other damaged buildin's, Fluttershy's gettin' a new chicken coop made... An' we both know Pinkie wouldn't wanna come an' see you again," she sniped, "even if she an' the Cakes didn't have ta get Sugarcube Corner repaired."

"...She's still sore- Whoosh -ver that, huh?" I said as Rainbow nearly rainboomed back next to us, wind from the pressure cone of her velocity whipping Applejack's mane over to her other side. Rainbow did not look happy, and Applejack also narrowed her eyes at 'me' for some reason.

"Okay, so your story checks out," Rainbow begrudgingly admitted. "...But Zecora told me something really suspicious about you! You can use your magic to make yourself look like somepony else!" She loudly declared. "So who knows what you've been getting up to when I wasn't looking!"

"Oh," I said, frowning a bit. "She told you that part." To be fair, I never asked her to keep it secret... but it's not something I wanted known.

"Yeah!" She exclaimed, getting right in my doppelgangers face again as I made it lean back. "So I'll be keeping an extra close eye on you from now on-" she promised, raising a hoof while I prepared to move my illusion back farther. "-Buster!" She finished, jabbing her hoof forward as I made my copy perform a nimble hop backwards from its sitting position to get out of her reach. The sudden movement seemed to surprise her, as she tensed up for a second before simply raising an eyebrow at me.

"I don't like having my personal space violated, if you wouldn't mind," I said by way of an excuse.

"Uh... yeah," Rainbow replied, a bit uncertainly, while Applejack merely narrowed her eyes at 'me' again.

"That ain't all there is to it, is there?" She asked.

"What do you mea-"

Before I could react, she suddenly bolted from her spot and tried to tackle my illusion, passing harmlessly through it, and making Rainbows eyes widen in surprise at both her actions, and the result.

"...Well that was uncalled for," I deadpanned. "What gave me away?"

"Yer mane didn't blow in the wind when Rainbow came back," she answered, looking around, trying to find the real me. "...An' jumpin' like that over a little touch was a might suspicious too. So where are ya?" She asked as Rainbow started looking around as well.

"I'm around. But I'll be staying out of sight, if it's all the same to you. I don't like getting into physical confrontations, so if verifying my innocence was all you wanted, then I guess I'll be leaving now," I said, allowing my illusory double to fade away as I got up and started walking back to the forest.

"Hey! You can't just leave!" Dash yelled, lifting herself off the ground, fruitlessly trying to find me. "I'm not done with you yet!" She yelled into the distance, gaining a few more meters of altitude.

Whatever, I thought, dismissing her with an eye roll as I kept walking.

"Grr... Why did you have to come back here!" She practically screamed into the distance, like she thought I was half way to the forest already. "Pinkie was just getting back to her old self again! Why couldn't you have just stayed gone!"

That gave me pause... I still wasn't fully over this whole situation myself yet. But I had to come back... I don't know what else I could have done... I was doing my best to detach myself from those old memories and feelings... but it sounded like she was having an even harder time of it. Of course she is. She doesn't have as much experience as I do with getting rid of emotional dead weight like this... Finding out that a close friend had been lying to her from the beginning is probably the most traumatizing thing she's ever had to experience... I felt a small tear start to form in my eye. Lucky her...

...

"Rrrgg!" Dash growled, still high in the air.

"...Come on down Rainbow," Called Applejack. "He's gone... Let's head on back ta town," she continued as Rainbow lowered herself back to the ground.

"Okay..." Rainbow replied, feeling a bit downcast after the anger induced adrenaline spike.

"...I am sorry," I said aloud, stopping them in their tracks only a few steps after they'd started. They turned in my direction, although I kept myself invisible. "Please, do your best to help her forget about me... Forget that I ever existed. If everything goes according to plan, I will disappear from all of your lives, forever, in another week or two."

With that, I returned to the forest, spending the rest of the day restocking my food, and hoping Emulate would get here soon.

It was dark when I woke up that morning. Looking up at the sky when I went outside for my morning wizz, I saw a thick layer of dark clouds overhead.

Looks like it's gunna rain today, I thought. The first time it rained on me, I woke up in a puddle of muddy water that had run down into my little haven. Thankfully the water didn't get at my deed, which I have since coated in a layer of conjured plastic, like magical laminate. At least my home is set up better now... And I'll take rain over those damn dragons roaring all day. The dragon migration was just yesterday, and while it was cool for the first few minutes, it just got annoying to listen to by the third hour.

Walking back inside, I closed the storm cellar style doors that were now installed over top of the small staircase that led down into my home. I'd expanded my bolthole into a true underground home, while also experimenting with my illusion magic in an attempt to achieve manipulation of the other senses. I'd been using parasprites as my main test subjects, held individually within several large glass cases, and keeping their reproduction in check by only feeding them when they were on the verge of starvation. That time being determined as the point when they no longer have the strength to fly, as when fed in this state, they did not reproduce. I'd had a few promising results, but haven't achieved anything consistently reproducible yet.

Making my way into the kitchen for some breakfast, I noticed the pile of newspapers sitting on the floor off to one side. It's been a few days since the last time I made a news run... I should go do that today.

It had been six weeks since my encounter with Applejack and Rainbow Dash... and I had resigned myself to the fact that the changelings must have decided not to trust me. I'd started making covert trips into town every couple of days to buy a new copy of the national news. It was mostly in the hopes of seeing a story about a large pony caravan, or a group of pony immigrants. Anything that could clue me in to the changelings having come into the country... I haven't seen anything yet.

I started buying the papers about a week after my talk with those two. I'd been using my own home-made counterfeit bits... Well, they weren't really counterfeit. They were made out of real gold, created using transfiguration magic, and were modeled off of the one real bit I had left. Besides, a few dozen extra bits in circulation wouldn't be causing any economic crashes so... no harm no foul, is the way I looked at it.

After breakfast I donned the dark brown all-weather cloak hanging in my entry way before heading out towards town. The cloak was courtesy of Zecora, and was of the same design as the one that she'd made for herself years ago. She made it for me in exchange for some help gathering rarer, and in some cases, more dangerous ingredients from the deeper areas of the forest. One notable ingredient being paraspider venom, which, when diluted and mixed with the right herbs, could make a strong muscle relaxant in the form of an anti-cramping potion.

I'd been visiting Zecora every few days for the last month or so for some social contact between stints of solitude. Mostly we would just talk for a bit, but on occasion I would help her experiment with new potions that she was concocting. I'd also finally gotten around to telling her the truth about my situation. I couldn't tell if she believed me or not, but she accepted my story without complaint. I learned quite a bit more about her past as well, all though she still would not speak about her old village, or why she decided to leave it. The first item on the list of things I had wanted to know was, obviously, her rhyming thing. Apparently it was a side effect of her training as a shaman. In order to condition an apprentice to always think deeply on what they say before saying it, they would be required to speak only in rhymes for the duration of their training. This often lead to them picking it up as a life-long habit by the time their training was completed.

Thunder was already sounding from farther back to the east when I made it to the edge of the forest. There I saw a group of weather pagasi fighting against the dark clouds spilling over into Ponyville's bright and clear airspace. The phenomenon of the Everfree was very interesting to witness first hoof. As the pagasi dispersed the clouds with their usual efficiency, those who moved too far forward would merely pass through them, their weather magic suddenly ineffective. I made myself invisible before continuing past them and into town.

Something seemed... off... about the ponies in town. They weren't smiling like they usually were, and they were missing the usual bounce to their step. Everypony seems a lot less lively today... I wonder why? I pondered, walking around the slightly downcast crowds. You'd think there's been some kind of tragedy or something. Continuing on, I chose to ignore it. After all, everypony considers it a tragedy when the Apples run out of cider, so it was probably nothing anyway.

As I approached the post office I took a moment to make sure no pony was looking, and shifted my illusion into the guise of a random pony before walking in. Giving a friendly wave to the mail room clerk, I walked over to the newspaper box, inserting one of my totally real bits. With the clinking sound of a falling coin the latch on the front opened up, allowing me to take a copy of the Equestrian National News. I didn't even look at it as I tucked it under my cloak and proceeded back outside, re-exchanging my disguise for invisibility on the way out the door.

The clouds over the Everfree had gotten even darker, with thunder sounding every few seconds. Dang. This looks like it's a full blown thunderstorm. That's pretty rare. Since I got here there's only been one natural thunderstorm before this. When I got closer, I could tell that it had already started to rain beyond the line made by the still present weather team. I took a seat just outside of town by the little bridge, planning on watching some lightning for a while before trudging through the rain. It was at this time I noticed that Rainbow Dash was conspicuously absent from the line of pagasi flying at the ready. I wonder where she's gone off to...

"Oohhh... what now?!" I heard one member of the weather team groan, and then yell out in annoyance. Looking up, I saw the team was now looking out to the west, away from the thunderstorm. Turning that way myself, I saw what looked like another cloud approaching Ponyville from the direction of the Whitetail Woods. Something was clearly wrong with it though.

It was black as pitch, for one. And moving very fast for a cloud.

About half of the weather team took off to try and deal with it while the rest kept the nearby storm in check. Things only got stranger though, as another cloud faded into view. This one, however, shimmered in the sunlight like a cloud of glitter.

...The fuck is goin on?

I soon found out, as the sound of screaming rang out from the town, and the other half of the weather team returned, yelling their heads off about an invasion. The buzzing noise of insectile wings was not far behind them, and quickly grew louder as the cloud became close enough to resolve into a mass of changelings.

"Wha..? Why, what, why!" I shouted, illusion dropping with my concentration, eyes wide and mouth agape in unmitigated shock.

The shimmering cloud behind them soon became close enough to distinguish as well. A wave of armored ponies, as what must have been a significant chunk of the Equestrian military was in hot pursuit. Hundreds of gold armored pagasi pulling flying chariots, baring with them hundreds more of the flightless guardsponies. As the swarm passed overhead, the sound of a thousand buzzing wings drowned out all other noise.

"Hey! What are you doing! What's going on!" I called out to them. "Your not even in disguise, what the hell is going on!!" I screamed, however, they either couldn't hear me over the noise, or all chose to ignore me. Near the middle of the swarm, I spotted a dense cluster of changelings carrying something. I managed to see what it was when they got closer, and it was Chrysalis. It looked like she was unconscious. The last of the changelings soon passed by, all flying just beneath the thunderclouds and quickly leaving my line of sight over the canopy.

"Break off!" Called out a magically amplified voice, breaking me out of the shocked stupor I'd just been thrown into. "Don't fly into the storm!" It ordered, bringing the army to a halt at the edge of the clouds.

Conductive gold armor and lightning don't mix well, I acknowledged, jumping to my hooves and running at full gallop into the forest as the chariots started landing. What the fuck is happening! Why did they reveal themselves? I internally questioned, heedless of the newspaper that became dislodged from under my cloak, falling unnoticed to the ground and revealing the headline:

CHANGELINGS ATTACK CANTERLOT!
PRINCESS CADENZA FOALNAPPED!

Author's Note

Huzzah! I finally finished this chapter. Sorry for the wait, but you can probably expect a similar timeframe for the next chapter as well. But! On the bright side, this marks the point where the changelings will finally be a major, and present, factor in the story from now on. :yay:

Unfortunately, I just graduated, which would normally also be a 'yay' moment, but between working with my professor and job hunting, I don't feel like I have any more free time now than when I still had classes. :raritydespair:

But anyway, who cares about all that, huh? I'd like to thank all you guys and gals who continue to put up with my slow-boil story and infrequent updates, and I want to reassure everyone that I have no intentions of ever abandoning it. I already have the whole storyline roughly planned out, it's just smoothing it over and writing it that takes me ages to get done.

See ya'll in October!

Not My Fault

The rain soaked me as I charged recklessly through the woods after the changelings. My hood had been pulled off by a twig almost as soon as I'd entered the forest, but I couldn't be bothered to pull it back up. It was only restricting my vision anyway.

The lightning and thunder continued to flash and boom with increasing intensity as the storm grew worse. In the back of my mind, I hoped they were alright, or had landed to get away from the lightning. In the front of my mind though, I was still busy screaming my questions so load that I could barely register the pain of running headlong through thickets while dodging trees. Forefront among these questions being simply, what did they do?

They didn't come from the direction of Canterlot, but the whole Equestrian military was hard on their asses! Did they attack a different city? Suddenly the forest came alive around me, breaking me from my mental gridlock as dozens of birds, squirrels, and other small animals ran and flew past me in the opposite direction. They must have landed, I thought, continuing my charge as the animals flowed around me. I couldn't think of any other reason why animals would abandon their hiding places during a storm, other than some very large disturbance... Like a thousand changelings bursting in through the canopy.

Soon after, my run was brought to a startled halt when I heard the howl of several timber wolves. Skidding to a stop and pressing myself against a tree in some instinctive effort to hide, I peered around it, trying to see them. Spotting a group of four a ways off, I was relieved that none of them were even looking in my direction. They were all focused on something on the ground in between them. Looks like they got some prey, I thought, seeing them bring their heads down to begin tearing at the black form.

That observation took a second to properly register.

No... On second glance, the form in the middle of them was a little too black to just be from the low light. Without thinking, I jumped out from behind the tree and charged the pack. "Get off him!" I shouted, blasting one of the wolves with my horn and scattering it's bits across the forest floor.

The remaining three wolves immediately whipped around to face me, growling and lowering themselves into a ready stance as the one I blasted started to reform behind them.

Shit, I forgot about that. Thankfully, my surprise attack seemed to have made them more cautious, and they looked to be waiting for their friend to finish reforming before attacking. This gave me some thinking time. ...I could use an illusion, but... I don't know if they would follow it or just go back to their easy meal.

Speaking of the changeling, I spared it a quick glance. I didn't know how to tell genders in their natural form, but it appeared to be playing dead to keep attention off of it. Looking back to the wolves, I remembered an idea I'd had about their magic, but that I never got around to testing.

No time like the present, I thought, seeing the sulfurous glow of the fourth wolf's eyes coming back to life. As soon as it gave a growl, they spread out to attack from multiple angles at once, just as I started to charge up my horn for my ever trusty transfiguration spell. All four of them become enveloped in the red glow of my magic, and with four simultaneous flashes, the glow disappeared.

When seemingly nothing happened, the wolves looked at each other in an oddly intelligent display of confusion before refocusing on me. The first one to move was the one I'd attacked earlier, pumping all four of its legs for a mighty pounce... or at least... it tried to.

With a high pitched howl of either surprise, or pain, all four of it's legs practically disintegrated from the sudden force of the attempted jump, springing its body forward by only a few short feet before crashing to the ground with a wet crunch, snapping off the front half of it's muzzle when it smacked into the ground. Enraged by their comrades injury, the other three charged all at once. I wasn't worried though. I was already grinning.

All of their legs broke apart from underneath them, sending them all tumbling to the ground, unable to move.

Wood's strength comes from it's cellulose, which is just a polymer of glucose. By breaking down all of the cellulose in their bodies, they're essentially nothing but rotten logs now. I waited and watched for several seconds as they writhed helplessly on the ground, but there was no sign that they were trying to reform. Theory tested, I thought, running past their downed forms. All living creatures, with few exceptions, have a lifespan. When wood dies, bacteria begins to break down the cellulose. By breaking down their cellulose artificially, I tricked their magic into thinking they were all dead, instead of just broken apart. "Hey, you alright?" I asked, stopping at the changelings side.

No answer.

"Hello?"

Still no answer, so I started inspecting it's injuries, thinking it was just unconscious. There were several tears and brakes in the chitin from where the wolves were biting it, but nothing too-

"Oh," I said, too shocked to think of anything else. After flipping it onto it's back, I saw a large blackened hole in it's chest that, on further inspection, went all the way through to it's back. "That explains why I didn't hear any yelling..." It must have gotten hit by lighting while they were still flying above the trees. Proof that, even in Equestria, real lighting is far more powerful than anything the pagasi can make.

Turning back to the timber wolves, still laying immobile on the ground, I could hear them whining now that I cared enough to listen. Deciding to put them out of their misery, I shot a blast at each, turning them into four piles of mulch before continuing after the rest of the changelings.

It was three hours later when the rain and lightning stopped and the clouds began to fade, bringing some light back into the forest. I had only come across a few search parties in that time though, which I thought was odd. It was possible that they pulled back to wait out the storm, so that they could search from the sky. Although, at this point, I wasn't even sure that the changelings were still in the forest at all.

It hadn't taken me long to find the point where they had entered the forest. The area was littered with debris and broken branches, but beyond that, I could find no indication of where they went. I spent so long scouring the area for tracks that the search teams found me while I was distracted. The first thing they did after yelling halt was shoot me with some spell. It didn't seem to do anything, but after some prodding they told me it was a disillusionment spell. I wanted to ask why they thought a spell designed to cancel illusions would remove a changelings transformation, as that was something totally different, but that would have raised the question of why I know so much about changelings... so I just accepted the answer and let them go about their search while I left.

That was more than an hour ago, and I hadn't encountered any more search teams since then. I myself had already been on the verge of giving up for a while now. It was well past lunch time, and the scent coming off of the paraspider webs in this part of the forest wasn't doing anything to strengthen my resolve as I continued to plod along in vain.

"Help!"

I went stiff and perked my ears up... I know I heard something, I thought after several silent seconds.

"-elp! Please!"

It was much clearer now that I was actively listening for it. Turning towards the voice I started running, as it sounded far away.

"-n anypony hear me!" the voice cried out, weakly. It sounded like they were just barely conscious. "No!" The voice, once weak, was now filled with panic. "Get away! No-"

"Dammit!" I yelled to myself, running faster as the voice was abruptly cut off. I was in spider country now, webs hanging from almost every tree. I could hear the paraspiders, hidden among the branches, chittering in anticipation at my passing. I looked at every web I passed as I headed in what I hoped was still the right direction.

Thankfully it was, and I soon found what I was looking for. Suspended in a tree, half wrapped in silk, was a light green pagasus stallion, his legs and wings bound, and a spider about one-third his size that had just started crawling back up into the branches.

"No you don't!" I yelled, shooting the wretched little thing with a stun spell, causing it to fall to the ground, legs curled up in the curious way that spider legs do. grabbing it's immobile form with my telekinesis, I hurled it off into the unknown before focusing on the pony. Using my magic I pulled him down and set him on the ground, then broke down the silk with transfiguration, whereupon it to fall apart into dust. As soon as his limbs were freed he started jerking around, weakly but spasmodically. "Easy there, I got you," I started, trying to calm him down.

"Wha- I... can't- where..? I-" He tried to speak, eyes obviously struggling to stay open.

"You've been bitten. I'm gunna have to take you back to my place, I've got anti-venom there," I said, looking at the still bleeding holes in his neck.

"No! ...Can't, I... need to... I... Awake! ...Sta... stay..." He struggled before trailing off as the venom overcame him and his eyes closed.

"Crap, I've gotta hURRY!" I startled as his form was engulfed in green flames. "Christ, that startled me," I said aloud. I was expecting it and it still caught me off guard. "Anyway..." Levitating him onto my back, I quickly made my way back home. The venom of a paraspider wasn't quite strong enough to deal with things as large as a pony or changeling, but from the holes I'd seen, it looked like he was bitten multiple times. Now that it had reached the point of making him fall unconscious, he probably only had an hour or two before his lungs and heart stopped working.

I administered the anti-venom immediately after flopping him onto my bed, as well as dabbing some directly into the holes left by the bites.

Hopefully he won't have any kind of adverse reaction to it, I thought pessimistically. I'm not exactly an expert on changeling biology... but he's my only link to finding out what's going on, and he will die without treatment...

I kept a close eye on the changeling for a little while after putting the anti-venom away. I didn't know how to check his pulse through the chitin, so his breathing was the only indicator I had of his vitals. He was still breathing after several minutes, so I decided to leave him alone to recover. If the anti-venom was going to kill him, something would have happened by now.

It's time to feed the parasprites anyway, I thought, walking out of my simple, barren bedroom. There was no door to close for him... There were actually no doors anywhere in my home, other than at the entrance. I had never bothered, or really felt the need, to make any. I made a mental note to grab some wood after feeding the parasprites. With the raw materials at hoof, it wouldn't take much magical effort to construct a door... and a cowbell to hang over it, so I know when he's woken up. This whole place looks rather dingy, now that I think about it... I thought, walking down the hall from my room. The prospect of having an aware visitor making me a little self-conscious about what he would think of my home.

When I first made my original bolt hole, it was the same as the one I'd made in Canterlot. Just a rubber-lined hole in the ground... and that was fine as a temporary place. But as my stay became more and more extended, the constant smell of rubber was starting to get to me. I spent a considerable amount of time reconstructing it all out of cement in order to remove the smell, and allow for deeper rooms as I expanded. I wasn't an architect though, and I didn't know much about construction beyond 'triangles are strong', and that arched ceilings would displace the stress onto the walls. As a result, I made sure to keep it small, having only three rooms as of now. A main area of about five by three meters with two solid concrete support beams along the middle, serving as entryway and kitchen. Then my room and my 'lab', as it were, each connected to the main area on opposite sides by a short tunnel/hallway. The bedroom was only big enough for the bed inside it with a little bit of standing space between it and the door, and the lab was probably only three by two meters large. It didn't need to be all that big, considering there was no equipment.

But the dingiest thing about it was that it was very poorly lit with the exception of the lab. I mainly used my horn to see by through the darkness, and only installed a few dim, battery powered light bulbs to alleviate the creepy feeling of walking through darkened rooms at night. The lab was the brightest room, at least when I was running experiments, due to each parasprite case having a light inside it in order to facilitate more accurate observations during testing. Unfortunately, I still hadn't learned any crystal enchanting spells, or else the lights would have been magically powered... Instead I had to make quite a few batteries for myself, and regenerate them on a regular basis by magically reverting the reaction inside them.

I went over to the icebox and pulled out a bag filled with some wild berries I'd found. They tasted absolutely awful to me, but the parasprites don't seem to mind them. Taking the bag into the lab area, I flicked the switch to turn on all the lights, and began the process of dropping half a dozen berries each through the mail-slot style openings at the top of each case. Nearly the instant that the first of the berries were revealed, the sluggish, near dead bugs visibly regained a bit of life to their movements, almost like the mere smell of food was giving them sustenance.

It was always like this when I fed them. Even when they weren't half dead from starvation, food was the only thing that parasprites really cared about. Even in the wild, they're only at their happiest when they're eating.

They quickly scarfed down the berries in one or two mouthfuls a piece, immediately regaining their full liveliness as they started buzzing excitedly around inside their cases. This would normally be the time at which I would perform my illusion experiments, as they were at their peak condition and, theoretically, in full possession of their mental faculties... However, I had more pressing matters to worry about today, what with the whole changeling situation and all.

With the berries gone, I grabbed the bucket I always used to water them with. Using a little eye-dropper, I squirted a small amount of water into each cell through the breathing holes on the front, making little puddles for them to drink out of.

Now that they were fed and watered, I continued to watch them for a few minutes, examining their behavior. It was an ongoing observation to see if being repeatedly brought to the brink of starvation and back was having any adverse effects on their overall health. Grabbing my clipboard with the tracking list on it, I wrote in the date and started my comment. There still doesn't seem to be anything different about their-

My thought was halted as I heard something... it was feint, but sounded almost like...

Clip-clop...

Hooves..? He can't be awake already! Quickly dropping the clipboard and moving back to the doorway, I peered down the hall, and could just barely make out a black form moving towards me. For fuck sake, it's only been a few minutes! Do all changelings recover this quickly? "Hey!" I called, "you're awake. Glad to see you're alright."

Clip-clop...

He was moving very slowly, and he didn't respond. It looked like his head was down, looking at the floor maybe?

"Um... Are you alright? You're movin' kinda slow, are you sure you should be walking right now?" Still nothing, though as he moved closer I could see that he wasn't just looking down, but his head was practically hanging from his shoulders. "Well... you're probably wondering why a pony would save you, but it's alright. My name's Cotton. We probably never met, but I'm a friend. You can trust me." He still didn't respond as he kept up his slow approach. Soon he was right in front of me... but he still kept walking. I moved to the side as he plodded slowly by me. "Uh... Hello?" I lowered my head to get a better look at his face now that he was in the brighter light, and found his eyes closed. Is he... sleep walking?

He continued forward towards the cases lined up in the wall, and filled with the freshly fed parasprites. His steady pace was unwavering right up to the point where his head smacked into the glass with a hard clonk. He fell over onto his side, startling himself awake, and seemingly unaware that his horn had just put a large scratch across the front of one of my observation cells.

"Gah! What, huh..?" He exclaimed, then mumbled as he truly rejoined the waking world and took in his new environment. "Where..." I heard him whisper as he stared at the wall of observation cells, having not yet noticed me.

"*Ahem*" I cleared my throat to get his attention. Immediately whipping around while jumping to his hooves, he tried to make some more distance between us, only to bump into the wall.

"Who are you! Where did you take me!" He shouted, leaning into an offensive stance with his horn leveled at me.

"You can calm down, your safe here. I'm a friend, and this is my home. We're still in the forest," I told him in a calm and, hopefully, soothing voice.

"Friend," he scoffed. "We don't have friends. Why did you bring me here?" he asked, narrowing his featureless blue eyes, horn still leveled.

"Because, like I said, I am a friend to the changelings. We probably never met, but my name's Cotton Hill," I introduced, placing a hoof non-threateningly on my chest. "I traveled with your caravan for a little while in Minotauria."

"That was you?" He asked. "So you're the one..."

That didn't seem to win him over like I thought it would, I thought as his eyes narrowed further.

"...This is all your fault!" He shouted as he charged, intent on impaling me with his horn while I turned and hightailed it down the hallway.

"What the hell Asshole!" I shouted, running around in circles in the main area in order to keep at least one of the two support columns between me and him. "I just saved you life!"

"You destroyed our lives! We lost everything because of you!" He yelled, taking to the air in the limited head-space and nearly tackling me with his increased speed. I only managed to dodge him because I was already in mid turn around a column.

"Fuck off! I didn't do anything to you!"

"Stop moving!" He shouted, obviously frustrated by our little game of tag.

"Stop chasing me!" I replied, only to jerk to a halt the very next moment, as my whole body was enveloped in a green aura. "Crap." I started putting my own horn to use fighting his grip on me, but it was clear the he was putting everything he had into holding me still.

"No more... running," he said, a great deal of strain clearly in his voice. I turned my eyes towards him, and the effort was visible all over his body. He looked almost like a mime fighting an invisible wind, as he seemingly fought for every step.

He must still be recovering internally from the spider venom. He won't last much longer, I thought, putting even more effort into breaking his hold... And sure enough, I could feel him getting weaker with every step. "Why are you doing this?"

"I... won't... let you... err! Escape!" He replied, unhelpfully.

"Sure you won't... But," I started, letting him weaken himself for a few more seconds. "...I still want my answers," I stated, finally breaking his hold, the magical feedback knocking the wind out of him as he collapsed to the ground. I quickly melded the concrete floor around him into several rings, locking him onto the ground through the holes in his legs, and another one over his neck. "Alrighty now," I taunted in a cheerful voice. "There are a few things I'd like to have cleared up here," I began, slowly circling his panting form.

He wasn't struggling to get up, just laying there, breathing heavily.

"...Now, what... in the absolute FUCK! Just happened out there, and how did you get it into your head that it was my fault?" I shouted, standing out of his field of view, in case he tried attacking me with some magic beam or other.

"..." He didn't answer, although his breathing had calmed down.

"...Hmph... You said that 'this' was all my fault... What did you mean by that? How much has happened in the last weeks for the Guard to be after you in force? ...I'm getting real sick of your shit," I said after a few seconds of silence. Deciding to take the chance, I walked around to look him in the eyes... only to find him sleeping again. "...Are you serious right now? ...Christ's sake..." Going back into the lab, I grabbed the parasprites water bucket... "Wake up!" I yelled, dumping the water onto his head.

"Gahh! Ahh-!" His screaming and thrashing were cut off by a coughing fit as he inhaled some water. Eventually the coughing ended, leaving him breathing roughly into the concrete, occasionally groaning, likely from discomfort.

"...Now that you're awake again..." I started, "What is going on, and why did you attack me for it?" I asked, standing just inside his field of vision, where I could easily dodge if necessary.

Instead of answering, he continued to groan, interrupted by the occasional dry heave, like he was going to throw up.

"Grr... the hell's wrong with you? You were just fine a minute ago when you wanted to kill me!"

"It... Hurts- Urk! ...So... hungry- Urk!" He tried to say, inter cut with more retching.

"How can you start dying of starvation from one minute to the next?" I asked skeptically.

"Magic... Used... too much..."

Their magic is tied in that closely with their feeding? I internally questioned. I knew from the show and comics that the more they fed the more powerful their magic would get, but I never considered it working in the opposite direction. "Hmm... I could try to help you with that... but you need to answer my questions first."

"Please, I- Urk! ...Don't want... to die..."

"Than you better cooperate. First question, why were you being chased by the royal guard- actually, why did you even reveal yourselves?"

"The Queen... ordered... attac- Urk! Canterlot... failed..." He responded, his voice becoming increasingly weak in between the retching fits.

"Why did she order an attack?"

"...Don't know... never... told..."

"What do you mean 'you were never told'! You were told to attack Canterlot, you had to have had more specific orders!"

"...Capture... the cit- Urk!" He was interrupted by a particularly long retching fit, his limbs straining against the rings as he tried to curl up on himself. "Please!" he choked out after a few minutes, eyes watering.

"Alright, one more question before I can help you. Do changelings only feed on love, or will any emotion do? Because there's no love to be found out here."

"Pos- Urk! -Positive!" he pleaded.

"Okay," I said, melding the concrete rings back into the floor. "I don't know how you feed, exactly," I said, opening the front doors before walking back towards the lab, "...but get ready to eat some happiness." Here goes weeks of research... but I can catch more later I guess... I thought before opening all of the cells, the parasprites immediately racing out towards freedom, and, more importantly, flying right over the changelings head on the way out.

When I went back into the main room, he was still on the floor. He was no longer spasming, and he was facing the door, the light from the outside now pouring in.

"Feel any better?" I asked.

"...I'll live," he replied after a long pause, his tone depressed.

"...That's the second time I've saved your life today. Even after you tried to kill me... Aren't I generous?" I said, walking up behind him. "...I'd say you own me the rest of my answers now."

"...What's one life over all the others you've condemned?" He said, shakily rising to his hooves.

"This is the last time I'm going to ask this question, understand? Why are you blaming me for your actions?"

"Because you're the reason all of this happened..." He answered, finally turning to face me. "So many of us believed in her promise... The promise that you were different... you lifted all of our hopes... and then you betrayed us!" He shouted, fresh tears welling in his eyes as he took a hostile step forwards. "Just like the Queen knew you would! Just like they always-!"

"SHUT UP!" I yelled, shoving him back onto the ground, his body too weak to put up much resistance. "I betrayed no one!" I shouted at his downed form. "I waited for you! For weeks I waited, and no one ever came!"

"Liar!" He yelled back, trying to get up again. "Scouts were sent to survey the town, and they couldn't find any evidence that you had ever lived there! Just because I can't feel them, doesn't make your lies any less obvious!"

"Argh!" I growled, angrily spinning around towards the back of the room. "If I'm lying," I said, using magic to grab the laminated page hanging on the back wall. "...Than what the fuck do you call this!" I said, throwing the document at him, slapping his face before floating to the ground.

"What is this supposed to be?" he asked, as if some random piece of paper could possibly mean anything.

"That," I started, pointing at it with an emphasizing hoof, "is the title to three-hundred acres of undeveloped land in western Equestria! That! Is the home I promised Emulate! That! Is the home your paranoia just threw away!"

"What..?" He questioned, bending down to read the paper. "...But then... why?"

"That was my mistake," I said, assuming he was asking about the lack of evidence of me living in Ponyville. "I never told Emulate that I lived in Ponyville, when I asked her to meet me there. I've actually never lived in the town itself, just in a tent on the outskirts... If your scouts had just asked for me by name, to anypony, they would've been pointed straight to me... That's what I was hoping she'd do when she got here, but... I should have guessed that Emulate wouldn't have been allowed to come on her own."

He had picked up the paper while I was talking, and he didn't say anything in reply as he sat there. Holding the page between his forehooves, he just stared at it... probably still absorbing the facts around what he had just learned.

I let him take his time for this.

After what must have been a few minutes, he started to wobble, his eyes fluttering.

"...Your not going to feint, are you?" I asked sarcastically. It certainly looked like that's what he was about to do.

"I'm feeling," he started, carefully returning the page to the floor while bringing one hoof to his head, "...light headed. Those bugs didn't give me very much. I need to eat something with substance."

"Will solid food work? Your caravan had an awful lot of real food to be carrying around just for looks."

"No," He replied with a shake of his head. "The food was for the children. We need it to grow, but it doesn't sustain us."

"I could take you into town?" I uncertainly asked, moving next to the stairs under the door. "Even after the recent scare, I'm sure there's plenty of good feelings to feed on... but... we need to find where the others went before we lose them completely."

"They're still in the forest," He stated, "but... There will be too many soldiers in the town. They might detect me..." he said, downcast with his head hung low. He obviously wanted to go, but felt he couldn't risk it.

"Hmm... Actually, they might not."

"What do you mean?" He asked, looking at me.

"I don't think they know how changeling magic works yet. Earlier today in the forest, a group of guards found me, and they hit me with a disillusionment spell to see if I was a changeling. That wouldn't work on your transformations though, would it? Since it's not just an illusion?"

"No... It wouldn't," He said, getting up and walking outside. I followed him, closing the doors behind us. He wasn't walking, like I thought he would be, when I turned around to follow him.

"...Having second thoughts?" I asked, seeing him simply staring off into the trees around us.

"...I don't know how to get there..." He answered, turning to me.

"Oh. Just follow me then, I guess."

"...So, how do you know the others are still in the forest?" I asked after a few minutes of silently walking next to each other.

"I can feel them. Distantly," he answered, simply. He had transformed back into the pegasus form he was using when I found him in the webs. He remained somewhat distant, even after proving that I had kept my word to them. I could understand though... we didn't really have a good first meeting, all told.

"Feel them? like telepathy?" Despite his distance, he did remain obliging enough to answer all of my questions as I asked them.

"Not really. To us changelings, sensing emotions is just like seeing, or hearing. We can feel each other much more strongly than any other species, although that sense still has a range. But, because they're all gathered together, I can feel them from an even greater distance. I know they can't be more than a few kilometers away, although I may lose sight of them before we make it to Ponyville."

"I see..." I hesitated for a minute or two before fielding my next question. "...I'd like to know, as much as possible... what happened since I left? Why did you end up revealing yourselves?"

"*Sigh*" He let out a long sigh, not wanting to talk about it.

"Well?" I reiterated, not letting it go. "I feel I should know, if I'm going to be helping you any more."

"..." He remained silent for a long time while we kept walking. "...When she came back from the train station... and told the Queen what happened... she was nearly executed."

"What!" I exclaimed, shocked at the information.

"Yes. Secrecy is what keeps our species alive," he started. "Letting you go free, knowing what you did... that was high treason. Not just against the Queen, but against our entire race." The emotion in his voice indicated that he truly believed that way as well. "Her belief in you was the only thing that saved her. It rang so deep and strong within her, it managed to sway even the Queens feelings. The scouts were sent ahead then..." He seemed hesitant to continue after that.

"...What happened... when you didn't find me?"

"...Emulate's rations were cut severely, and she was placed under escort, never to leave the boundaries of the caravan again... Never to feed again."

"What?!" I yelled, stopping in my tracks, "but you said her rations were just cut! That sounds like she's being starved to death!"

"Hmm? Oh, you misunderstand," he replied, shaking his head. "To never feed, is not the same as starving. We share our energy between each other, and sometimes store it inside specially tuned crystals. Feeding, as we call it, is the act of draining love from another species... gathering that energy inside of yourself to be brought back to the swarm. Feeding, and bringing energy back to be redistributed, is one of the highest callings in our society. You would not understand, but being forbidden to do so ever again is... terrible," he finished, giving a visible shudder. "It makes you... worthless... expendable..."

"I... see," I said, resuming the walk. "It sounds... like not all changelings go out and feed than? Why is that? Wouldn't that be more efficient?"

"Yes, but we cannot leave our camp, or our young, undefended. We have never had the luxury of letting our guard down."

"Oh..." I uttered, not wanting to bring up the story about the zebra tribe. "Wait, then why don't you just go to the other changelings? You can get more energy from them, and it'll save us all of this walking."

"Because, after everything we've been through, we need as much energy as we can get. If I can just bring something back with me... *sigh*. It'll be better than just taking more of our limited resources for nothing... It's the least I can do in this situation."

"That's very... noble of you," I said, truly meaning it. A pretty selfless action. "...Anyway, back to the matter at hoof, what led to the attack on Canterlot?"

"While the scouts were searching for you, they determined that there were no traps or potential ambushes set up in waiting for us, so the Queen assumed that you had simply lied, and had run away to parts unknown. With that, we resumed our normal travels, entering the country through the mountain pass along the train tracks. However, the Queen was still cautious. Ponyville may not have been trapped, but that didn't mean you couldn't have gone to the capitol and warned the princesses about our coming. Another team of scouts was sent to the capitol to find out for certain... That's when the report came back..." He said, pausing, like he was reliving the memory of the event.

"What was this report about?"

"It was something... inconceivable... miraculous..." he whispered, eyes half lidded, like he was still in the past. "...They spoke of a pony, an alicorn, but not one of the two we knew about. They said they witnessed her, on multiple occasions, using a spell that could convert anger and hatred... into love!"

"Yeah, that would be princess Cadence. She can do that, apparently."

"It was unheard of! Don't you see the implications!" He shouted, rounding on me, bringing us face to face as the walk was halted again. "If only we could harness that power, learn how to use it for ourselves! We would never again have to worry about food! Hate and fear of our kind is everywhere! If we could turn even a portion of that poison into food... we would never be able to drain it all!"

"Okay, I think I get it now," I said, walking again to get him out of my face. "So what did you do about it? I don't imagine you asked her to teach you?"

"No. The Queen ordered her immediate capture."

"You did what..?"

"However, we had to replace her, or else her absence would be noted... but... a normal changeling would not poses the kind of magical power required to impersonate an alicorn convincingly."

"No wonder they were chasing you, even after you lost..."

"The Queen and her personal guards went to Canterlot, replacing the princess, and a small contingent of royal guards. We then brought the ponies back to the camp where they were restrained."

"I assume then, that their cover was blown at some point? Is that why she called in the attack?"

"N-no..." he stammered. "...We... do not know why she gave the order."

"What? You mean you honestly don't know?"

"Everything was going according to plan," he said, head and ears down. "...The Queen and her guards remained unnoticed for more than a week while we tried to replicate the princesses power... But then," raising his head back up, "one of the guards returned with orders to move the camp. We were to pack up the caravan, and relocate into a forest called the 'White Tail Woods', where it would be hidden from potential attacks. Once finished, every able bodied changeling was to assemble in hiding at the base of Canterlot Mountain, minus those necessary to watch after the children and keep the princess contained. At the Queen's signal, we struck, disabling every pony we could find while fighting the royal guards in the streets."

"So how did you lose?" I asked, stopping at the edge of the tree line. "You said before that this attack failed."

"Yes," he said, staring at the town ahead. "...I didn't know the full picture from where I was in the streets, but it seemed to be going well. We had both surprise and numbers on our side... Then, seemingly out of nowhere, we were ordered to retreat by the Queens personal guards. It wasn't until we arrived back at the camp that we learned the Queen had been engaged in one on one battle with Celestia... and lost."

"...And then the army came looking for Cadence?"

"We stayed in the forest for another day, trying to wake her up... Hoping that she would wake up... That she would tell us why. Even her guards said that they were left in the dark to the Queens thoughts. The only clue they had was that, as the days of their cover went on, the Queen exhibited an ever increasing feeling of confidence and... power."

"Power?" She must have been feeding off of Shining.

"That's all they knew... The soldiers found our camp while she was still unconscious. We tried to fight, but we were weak from the previous fighting, and hadn't gotten the chance to regain our energy... We were losing, so we ran. We were forced to leave everything behind in order to escape."

"And that's when I saw you flying over Ponyville..." I stated, taking a moment to fully absorb the information. "...Well, you better go now," I said, seeing his front legs start to shake. "...Get something to eat before you pass out on me."

"Gladly," he said, walking forward several step before stopping. "You're not coming?"

"No. You'll be fine if somepony checks you for an illusion, but my real face isn't really... welcome... in this town anymore. If I went with you, it would only draw unwanted attention to us both. I'll wait for you here. Don't be long."

With a nod, he continued on, soon leaving my sight.

None of that sounded like it was my fault to me. I'll need to address this directly if too many changelings share that viewpoint, I thought, sitting against a tree and waiting for him to return. Oh, I never asked what his name was... oh well. I can ask later, but... this has thrown a real monkey wrench into things... I guess I bought that land for nothing, now.

Author's Note

Okay, I think that's as good a spot as any to cut it off. A lot has happened IRL since the last chapter. I got a job (W00T) and I had to move, so that took some time away from my ability to write. I'm working third shift as well, which took a while to get used to, but I've gotten into the swing of things. I've also got my own apartment now, which might be good for this story.

Something I've never mentioned before is that I'm a MASSIVE closet brony, so living alone might help me write faster. That, and we're finally coming up on the events I'd thought about that made me want to start writing this story, so hopefully that will help the process along more quickly.

With all that being said, I'm tentatively putting the release of the next chapter around late January, or February. See you guys then.

Rescue Operation

After the Captain left, I had to take a few minutes to get my heart rate back under control. I'd never had to fight anything with magic of its own before, and I was never very confidant when it came to fighting to begin with. I couldn't get myself to fully calm down though... I wasn't out of the woods yet. For all I knew, there could still be an axe hanging over me. I couldn't think of any reason why Chrysalis wouldn't accept my help, but... relying on others to act rationally was usually a mistake.

Always plan for the worst case... If it comes down to it, I'll need something to disable them fast... I don't know how effective stun spells will be, and they might put up some kind of defense while preparing to attack... I don't want to kill any of them, but... If I have to-

"Relax," I heard, unexpectedly, nearly giving me a heart attack as my head snapped to the guard who had spoken. It was the one who'd gone to get the captain. "...The Queen will accept your sincerity, I know it," he said, flashing me a reassuring grin.

"It's not our place to presume to know the Queen's will," the other guard said, frowning at his comrade. "...Besides, you shouldn't be talking to the prisoner."

"Don't be such a stiff," the first replied, playfully knocking a hoof against the seconds armor. "It's not like he'll be a prisoner for much longer."

"Hn," came an acknowledging grunt. He didn't sound too convinced.

Thank goodness... Happy made it sound like they'd all be against me. I'm so glad that's not the case, I thought, his words helping a great deal to further calm my nerves. "Thank you for the vote of confidence," I said, smiling at him.

"Mistakes happen, I... I get that," he said rubbing the back of his neck and suddenly sounding very somber. "Just... try not to make any more, okay?"

"I won't", I said, hoping I could keep that promise.

"Right," he said, smiling again, "I'm sure everything will work out in the end."

"Optimist," the other guard said, darkly.

"You always say that like it's an insult," he replied cheerily, to which the other just rolled his eyes.

When the conversation didn't immediately continue after that, I assumed it was over, and that I would go back to waiting quietly until the captain returned... Until I remembered something.

Names, names! I have to remember that more often! "Uh, you probably already know who I am, but, we haven't really been properly introduced yet. I'm Cotton, and you are?" I asked, extending a hoof.

"I'm Shift," he introduced, accepting my hoofshake through the bars. It looked like he was about to say something else, when he suddenly stopped and turned to his friend. "...Think that's good or bad?"

"Hm... hard to tell," he replied, the two of them looking towards the tunnel the captain had left through.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"The Captain's coming back," Shift started, turning back to me, "and he's not happy. Something's got him frustrated," he continued, voice lowered near to a whisper. The captain marched back into the room a few moments later, although he looked perfectly calm to me, the guards giving him a salute as he walked closer.

"Open the cell," he said to the as-yet-unnamed changeling.

"So... she's accepting my help?" I asked as the guard fired a thin green beam at the lock, liquefying the resin that had been sticking the latch in place.

"The Queen has... deferred to my judgment on the matter," he said. Although there was something about the way he said the word 'deferred', that made him seem unhappy about it. "...And I plan on putting you to work immediately."

"Alright, where am I going and what am I doing?" I asked excitedly as I walked out of the cell, happy that I was free and officially being given a chance.

"You will be joining the rescue operation in the Whitetail Woods," he stated, motioning us to follow as he turned to leave the room.

"There's already one happening?" I asked, wondering, again, just how long I was knocked out for. We fell in behind the captain with the two guards flanking me on either side. Taking a quick glance at Shift, the guard who was all smiles before, was suddenly completely stoic in the presence of his captain. Seeing this drastic change in behavior drained the small amount of comfort his support had given me as I was reminded that, only a few minutes earlier, he didn't protest or hesitate when it looked like the captain was going to kill me.

"Yes," the captain replied, continuing to lead us down the sparsely lit tunnels, torches only burning at certain intersections. "...A contingent was sent out immediately after Happy delivered his report. We need to make the utmost use of this advantage while we still have it."

"So what am I expected to do when I get there? I'm not exactly a soldier."

"You'll be reporting to a changeling named Dour, he's the appointed field commander. You will assist him and the operation in any way possible... If that means fighting," he said, stopping momentarily to make eye contact, "then you fight."

"R-right," I said, withering slightly under his gaze. So that's how it is, I thought once we started moving again. A trial-by-fire style test of my loyalty. They don't need me there for anything, he just wants to see if I'm willing to openly fight for them. From my perspective, these will be the best possible conditions to be in if I wanted to betray them and escape, since the fighting will probably keep everyone too occupied to keep an eye on me... While from his perspective, he must think that there will be enough changelings around to handle the situation and deal with me before I can escape, should I turn against them.

"Switch, Shift," he addressed the two guards, turning to us after coming to a stop next to the torch of another intersection. "You will escort him to the Whitetail Woods, and then join the operation as well."

"Sir!" They shouted in unison, giving him a solute.

"You are dismissed. Good luck."

With that he left, swiftly disappearing into another darkened tunnel as Shift, and the now named Switch, released their solutes.

"Lets get moving," said Switch, grabbing the torch off the wall with a hoof before continuing on in what was presumably the direction of the surface. I followed him for about a minute, watching his slightly hobbling three-legged walk, before I decided to ask...

"Why don't you just hold the torch with magic? Or even just use a light spell?"

"...It's unnecessary," he said after a pause, like he was debating whether or not to ignore me.

"Uhh, yeah I guess, but-"

"We're in a very... precarious situation right now, Cotton," Shift said, cutting me off. "We can't afford to be wasting any magic on frivolous things, no matter how small they may seem to you."

"Oh... right..." I hadn't considered that their situation was desperate enough that even something as effortless as a light spell needed to be conserved... The conversation ended for a time as we navigated the path to the surface. "...Hey," I started after a few minutes, "I've been thinking, and... how did the other changelings leave the forest without being spotted? There were patrol's going around last I saw."

"At least one patrol was overwhelmed and replaced," Shift answered. "Several ponies were brought back not long after the contingent left."

"Brought back? Isn't that risky? What if they escape?"

"Not as risky as letting them go," Switch replied. "If they hadn't been replaced, we would have lost the element of surprise... And if they hadn't been detained, our infiltrators would have been revealed."

"Imprisoning them was the only real choice at the time," Shift continued. "They're being kept in one of the other holding area's we've found. They're all restrained though, so don't worry about them escaping."

"Alright..." I conceded. They probably already thought of everything anyway. They wouldn't keep them if they couldn't hold them.

Shift and Switch both transformed into pagasi before we walked outside. Moonlight was shining through the trees, indicating that I was unconscious for several hours. We moved as quickly as we could towards the edge of the forest, sneaking out when we were sure no one would spot us. I used a feather-weight spell to make carrying me easier, and from there we flew towards the Whitetail Woods.

We landed inside the treeline about twenty minutes later, Shift and Switch reassuming their changeling forms. The moon seemed to be especially bright tonight, although it was probably just my night adjusted eyes tricking me... Either way, it made navigating these far-less-dense woods even easier, and soon we met up with a few more changelings who, after a quick explanation for my presence, led us to the field commander.

They were much harder to see in the dark due to their black chitin, but as we approached the rally point for this contingent, the woods quickly became alive with changelings. Dozens of them were in the bushes and trees, watching us as we walked by, and no doubt also keeping an eye out for any of the royal guard that could stumble onto their staging area. Soon we came into a small clearing with a group gathered together in the middle.

"And what's this now?" A changeling asked, stepping away from a circle of several changelings examining a map drawn into the dirt. Presumably this was the field commander, but his armor was undecorated, and looked no different from anyone else's.

"Sir," Shift started, stepping forward. "This is the pony, Cotton. He wishes to help us, and the Queen and Captain are giving him this opportunity to prove himself. He is at your disposal."

"Is he now..." Dour said, scrutinizing me for a long moment. "Very well, I'll accept their judgement of you for now," he said, turning back to the map. "We could put a unicorn to good use here."

"So... what's the situation? Where do you need me?" I asked, joining the circle around the map. Now that I could see it properly, it seemed to be the layout of a camp, likely the remains of their unpacked caravan. A location near the center was circled prominently, and was most likely where the captured changelings were being held.

"The situation is... less than ideal," he started, motioning to the circle on the map. "...Our brothers are being held in the center of the encampment within a shield bubble. From what we've observed, it gradually fades in strength over the course of about an hour, but seemingly any unicorn in the camp can recharge it. We've never seen something like this before, and it's made finding and eliminating the castor virtually impossible."

"An uncoupled shield? I've read about those," I interjected, putting all eyes on me. "They're notably weaker than normal shield spells, with their only real advantage being that it's maintenance isn't tied to the original castor. You don't even need to know how to cast the shield yourself to-"

"How much weaker?" One of the other changelings interrupted.

"I'm not sure," I shrugged, "it depends on how much power they're pumping into it... but if they need to recharge it every hour, it can't be too powerful... How many changelings do you have here? The shield's probably just strong enough to withstand the changelings inside it trying to escape, and not much more than that."

"There are ninety-six changelings in our force," another member of the circle answered.

"Ninety-six! How many royal guards are here!?"

"We've counted around eighty royal guards present in the camp," someone replied. "We estimate that about half of them are asleep right now, according to our first scouts, who were able to observe them during the shift change before nightfall."

Blink.

"Wait, you outnumber them by that much? Why haven't you just stormed the camp already? You'd win before anypony could wake up, or even realize they were under attack!"

"Because," Dour started after a short silence, "it would use up too much of our energy. An all out assault is open as our backup plan, but we're already in a bit of a crisis here, so we've been looking for a more... efficient way of doing it."

"Alright... So what is the plan then?"

There was a long, awkward silence in response to that question. Most of the changelings in the circle suddenly found the ground to be very interesting as they shifted their gaze away from me.

"We... don't have one anymore," Dour finally said. "The plan we were working towards was to disable the shield by taking out its castor, but now... now we know that isn't possible... *Sigh* We're back at square one," he finished, voice filled with dejection and exhaustion as his head drooped.

Looking around the clearing, most of the changelings I could clearly see looked so defeated with their heads held low, and the rest just looked tired. And now that I was looking closely enough, their chitin was dull and rough, unlike what I saw of Happy when he was... well fed, as it were. Many of the ones lying in the branches also seemed to be struggling just to keep their eyes open.

They're all exhausted, I suddenly realized. Not just magically, but physically and mentally as well. I just had a nice long dirt nap, but none of these changelings even got to go to sleep last night before flying back out here. It felt really stupid of me that I hadn't realized that at any time before now. ...And only just before that, they had flown halfway across the country with all of their strength, with an army on their asses, after retreating from a fight that they lost... after only one nights rest from another fight that they lost... I'm surprised any of these guys are even still able to stand.

I left the circle and sat down by a tree while they started trying to make a new strategy.

This 'low energy' thing is getting real frickin' annoying, I mentally huffed. When we get back, I'm telling Chrysalis that she needs to send out a blitz of changelings to every city in Equestria to gather as much love as they can... Really make use of the advantage while we have it.

"Hey, pony!" Came a yell from one of the strategizing changelings who wanted my attention.

"Yeah?" I asked, looking up to see them all looking at me.

"If we could get you close enough, would you be able to disable the shield?"

"I... don't think so," I answered with some hesitation. "I'm not an expert on shield spells. I've read up on them, but I'm actually not very good with them at all. My specializations are in transfiguration and illusion magics... Sorry," I meekly concluded.

With a sigh of frustration, the circle turned inward again.

Fuck sake... I'm totally useless here. I don't fight, I'm no good with shields... my skill set isn't right for this situation... "*sigh* Oh, what to do, what to do, what to do," I whispered to myself, dragging my hooves down over my face, slightly stretching the skin before dropping my hooves back to the ground. I leaned back to rest my head against the tree trunk with my eye closed. We don't have enough strength to spare to subdue the entire camp, or to break down the shield and escape... We also don't have any way to bring the shield down without force. That means we'll need to keep anyone from recharging it for over an hour, which just isn't gunna fuckin' happen while there's even one unicorn left standing in that camp...

Suddenly I bolted upright from my relaxed position as an idea hit me.

What if there were no unicorns in the camp? Looking through the trees at the multitude of changelings, we have far more than enough to replace them all, I thought. No, no, no, wait, I interrupted myself before I could get too enthusiastic, It would be way too obvious and suspicious if suddenly no one was recharging the shield... And even if they still think that they know how to dispel a changelings disguise, they're bound to have some kind of system in place, like code words and such, just in case... The only way we could pull this off would be... to...

Jumping to my hooves, I galloped back to the circle, barging my way into it.

"I have an idea!" I loudly stated over the surprised outcries. Turning to face Dour, "what would be the feasibility of quickly and quietly subduing and replacing all of the guardsmen who are still awake?"

"W-what!?" Was the universal reaction to that question. "That's ridiculous, there's no way we could do that!"

"Why not?" I pointedly asked, making it clear I wanted a serious answer.

"Well, for starters-" Dour started, sounding uncertain, likely put off balance by how assertive I was being. "-There are no patrols we've seen that go out into the forest. We would be attacking them in close quarters, where it would be almost impossible not to be seen by another group. They're also all wearing helmets and armor. Knocking them out in one quick blow would be impossible to do quietly-"

"What if you could do it quietly?" I asked. This made him frown.

"'What if' there was no shield in the first place," he derided. "Stop wasting our time with useless 'what-if' scenarios. We need to-"

I interrupted him with a burst of magic, as suddenly all sound in the clearing ceased.

I clapped my hooves together in front of his face a few times, to no effect, before ending the spell.

"You can't use magic right now, but I still can. I can make your troops, and any clanking armor, completely silent. I can even make them invisible while they get into range."

"...And this will be effective against the other unicorns?" Dour asked.

"Like I said, illusion magic is my specialty. They'll never know what hit them," I assured.

"...Okay," he finally said after several seconds of contemplation," ...so what's your plan?"

"The plans quite simple, really," I said, motioning to the map.

According to the scouting data gathered over the last several hours, the guard placements were all centered around the shield bubble, which itself was quite large, maybe thirty meters in diameter. Most of the tents from the caravan had been knocked down, and some were wrapped up and packed away into their carts. It looked like, at least during the day, that they were clearing everything up, probably in preparation to move it out of the forest. The only tents that hadn't been disturbed were the ones directly around the shield, which the sleeping guards were occupying.

The night shift consisted of five clusters of guards sitting around camp fires spaced evenly around the shield. Every couple of minutes, two guards from each cluster would walk around to the next, doing a cursory inspection of the tents and any potential hiding places as they went. One of these two-pony patrols would serve as our infiltration point. Their inspections would take them out of sight from the main clusters for just long enough to be ambushed and replaced, without interrupting the patrol pattern.

These infiltrators will then continue to the next cluster of guards while more changelings hide the unconscious guards for them. The bodies will need to be hidden so that I don't have to split my focus unnecessarily. The fewer things I need to worry about, the easier the whole situation will be to deal with.

Once the infiltrators arrive at the first campfire, they will cause a distraction. With all eyes on them, and more importantly, all backs facing outward, a group of changelings will quickly move in, undetectable under my spells, and take down all of the ponies from behind with a single coordinated attack. They'll have to move quickly in order to hide the bodies in time for the next patrol. In between the tents on the way to the next guard cluster would be the best option, given that the patrols were never seen switching directions.

Once the first cluster is taken over, it will only be a matter of time before all of them are. Once the next patrol is sent around, the same strategy will be used on each subsequent cluster. And while each patrol sent to the first cluster will be walking into a seemingly easy ambush, these, in fact, will present the most danger to the operation. As we move further around the shield, it will be progressively more difficult for me to accurately cast and maintain the illusion due to the increased distance, as well as the lack of a line of sight on the space I'm trying to cover. As such, the ability of those replacing the first cluster to take out each new pair of guards will be very important, as I may not be able to accurately center the spell on where the fight will take place.

Then, once all of the ponies are out of the picture, and if everything goes well, all that will be left is to wait...

The operation would begin once everyone was in position, which was taking a good while, and the waiting was making me anxious. Having the whole operation hinging on my performance wasn't helping either... even though that was entirely my idea...

After explaining my plan to Dour, he assigned the required number of changelings, and arranged the rest into a readied strike force. They were currently waiting a short distance from the enemy camp, and would charge in the instant someone came back with bad news... Specifically, one of my two escorts.

"Calm down," came the voice of Switch, to my right. "...If you're nervous, you'll mess up."

"Yeah, just take a deep breath... all the anxiety you're giving off is gunna give me flaky chitin," said Shift, to my left. That statement confused me a bit.

"Flaky chi-? Uh, sorry," I cut myself off, shaking my head, "it's just... this is a lot of pressure... I've never tried something like this before, and I have to get it perfect on the first try..."

"Ah... Well, everyone gets nervous their first time out, you just need to find a way to cope with it," said Switch.

"This... is a bit different to the first feeding," Shift countered. His comment was greeted with a pointed look. "-But I'm sure the same advice still applies," he quickly added.

"Don't worry about what might happen if you fail. Think about what will happen, when you succeed," Switch stated, inspirationally.

He's right. I can do this, I know it. "Thanks, I needed that-"

"Done with your pep-talk?" Came a new voice, as two, seemingly identical, changelings walked up to us. Now, I'm not exactly well practiced with telling changelings apart, but these two looked like clones to my eye.

"Everyone's in position. It's time to get started," said the other one.

I could tell from the voices that they were female, and now that I could see both genders side by side, I was able to spot the small differences. It was colors, mostly. The females had dark green chitin on their backs instead of dark blue, and the... fin looking thing, coming out of the back of their necks, was dark green on the females, but dark grey on the males. Other than the color swap, the only difference I could see was that, just like with ponies, the females had visibly longer eyelashes. Unlike the queen, however, there was no colored band circling their barrels, and they didn't have a mane.

"Ready when you are," I said.

With that affirmation, we moved into our position. We had to get dangerously close to the camp in order to give ourselves the biggest possible window to take out the first two ponies.

Once we were in position, we didn't have to wait long for the first patrol to come through. I cast two spells on the two female changelings, one of invisibility and another of silence. I kept up an active connection to the silent spell though, so that I could manipulate it on the fly, rather than casting it again on the patrolling guards. Through that connection, I felt when they bolted forward towards the unsuspecting ponies, and once they were right on top of them, I expanded the radius of silence to cover all four of them. We saw the two guards struggle, unheard, against their invisible assailants, and once they were down, I ended both spells, revealing two identical copies of the unconscious ponies, who continued on their way.

So far so good, I thought, casting my spells on Shift and Switch, who ran in to hide the bodies, while I relocated to the first group of changelings. Just keep the momentum going... You can do this.

I don't think I'll ever get used to this feeling, I thought, reflecting on the strange disconnect of feeling magically tired, while my body hadn't really done any work at all. I was sweating, and breathing heavy like I'd just run a marathon... but I felt none of the physical sensations normally associated with being tired. None of my joints hurt, none of my muscles were sore, my body didn't feel tense... and yet I had the feeling of needing to lie down and rest for a bit.

Regardless, the mission was a success, with only a few hiccups. There were a few situations where a sleeping guard woke up for a midnight bathroom break, but they were taken care of. Now we just had to wait, and watch out for any more ponies waking up.

"See? We knew you could do it!" Shift congratulated with an enormous grin, wrapping me in a one-legged hug while thumping my chest a few times with his other hoof.

"*Huff* -Yeah... yeah I did..."

"Good job," Switch pitched in, giving me a single pat on the back. "Come on, we need to report in," he continued, taking the lead as we walked. It didn't take us long to reach the staging area where the rest of the changelings were waiting. Soon enough, we parted the tall bushes, and were greeted by the sight of Dour standing in front of his small army. "Mission complete, Sir," Switch stated with a salute.

A buzz of excitement rippled through the crowd of changelings as they quietly celebrated the news. Dour opened his mouth to announce something, when suddenly his eyes narrowed and the quiet celebrating halted. I had a few moments to be confused, before a changeling ran up behind us from the direction of the camp.

"What's the bad news?" Dour asked before the changeling had even come to a full stop before him.

"Sir, when the operation completed, we made contact with the hostages through the shield. They informed us that several captives were taken back to Canterlot yesterday for study by the ponies."

Dour growled in anger at that news. letting out a sigh of frustration, he calmed himself down before issuing his orders, "bring me the Faint twins."

"Sir!" The changeling replied, running back the way he came.

"Alright, everyone else," he started in a raised voice. Not quite yelling, just loud enough so everyone could hear. "Stay quiet, and salvage what you can. Don't take more than you can carry, and only take what we need. We're not pulling any carts across open country."

The crowd surged forward in an flurry, some flying, others running on the ground, but all of them maintaining an impressive amount of silence for the sheer number of them that were present. I stayed back, though, I wouldn't know what to take anyway. That last bit of news was definitely not good, but there was nothing I, or anyone, could have done about that.

When I came back out of my head, I suddenly found myself standing there alone with Dour, who was just watching me.

"So... what can I do to help..?" I awkwardly asked, not really sure what else to say, and unable to read any emotion from his straight face and featureless eyes. He continued to just stare at me for a few seconds, unblinking, before finally speaking.

"You said transfiguration was your other specialty?" He asked, to which I nodded. "...Some saddlebags would help," he stated, simply.

"Right. I can do that," I said with a nod, making my way after the others.

"Cotton, was it?" He said, stopping me as I was about to part my way through the tall bushes.

"Yes?"

"...You have our thanks," he said after a moments contemplation. "I'll put a good word in for you with my brother."

"The Captain's your brother?" I questioned, one eyebrow raised.

"Yes," he nodded. "Now get back to work soldier, we still have a long night ahead of us."

I gave him a loose salute in acknowledgment before turning back to the bushes. I was just about to walk through, when a pair of changelings burst through right in front of me. They were mere inches away, at full running speed, and I just barely had time to tense up in preparation for the collision... when they both nimbly weaved to either side, not even touching me as they kept going.

"Feint/Faint reporting, Sir!" They spoke as one, giving Dour a perfectly synchronized solute the instant they stopped before him.

Still a bit shocked at what had almost happened, I turned around to get a look at the pair that had nearly waylaid me... only to find that it was the same two changelings from the start of the operation.

So they're twins? I thought they looked a little too similar... Not wanting to be accused of being nosy, I turned back around and left as Dour started giving them their orders, hearing little more than that they were to go to Canterlot. Now I have to make a whole shit-load of saddlebags... *Sigh* ...I hope Emulate wasn't one of the transferred captives. It's already been too long since the last time I saw her...

Author's Note

I've managed to keep to my deadlines for a whole three chapters in a row! :pinkiegasp: Mazel tov!

In other news, I will try to adhere to my next deadline of July, I really will! But... Dark Souls 3.

You know how it is...

Doubt

"There ya go," I said to the last of the thirty or so changelings that had lined up for saddlebags. After making so many, the entire area was now pretty much devoid of any grass. Taking it with a simple nod, he walked away as I tried, and inevitably failed, to suppress a yawn. "Oh man," I yawned out, sitting down and rubbing at my slightly dry eyes. I need a friggin' nap... Opening my eyes, I took some time to just watch as the changelings scurried about, doing their best to keep quiet while shuffling through everything that they could find in the remains of their caravan. I turned my eyes to the shield, it must not have gotten charged up since about the time we started the takeover, I thought, the shield significantly dimmer then it was when the operation had started. Well, my works pretty much done with... I should go and see if Emulate is in there, I thought...

...And yet, after several seconds, I still hadn't gotten up.

Why am I so hesitant? I questioned, contemplating the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Why is the thought of seeing her making me nervous? I want to see her again, and she'll be glad to see me too- Suddenly I was reminded of what had happened the last time I thought someone would be happy to see me. The uneasy feeling grew. ...No, after what she must have been put through because of me, I wouldn't be surprised if she hated me now too, just like the captain did. She'll blame me for all the misfortunes they've been through. Even though I'm here now, they've already lost so much... she'll say it's too little too late...

I don't know how long I sat there, torn by my fears and indecision, watching the shield continue to lose it's shine as it weakened. Normally when I'm in this kind of scenario, after a while I just say 'screw it' and leave, to avoid the potential conflict. No fucks given for the outcome of that choice until after the fact... But that wasn't happening this time. I just couldn't bring myself to leave.

Meanwhile, unnoticed somewhere behind me, a small group of changelings stood whispering back and forth to each other. The whispering gradually became more intense, until suddenly the group shoved one of their number forward in my direction. He sent them a betrayed look as they all cheekily shooed him on.

"Uhh, hey," I heard, turning to see a changeling walk up beside me. "...What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I reflexively replied, forgetting for a moment that I was in the company of beings that can literally feel your emotions.

"...Holding those emotions inside isn't good for you, you know?" He said, taking a seat next to me. "It'll make you sick," he stated, to which I responded with a raised eyebrow look. "O-oh, right," he started, rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof. "You're a pony. It works differently for you... But still, something's wrong. We can feel it." At the mention of 'we', I sent a glance to the very obviously eves dropping group of three other changelings.

"Sick?" I questioned, refocusing on the one, "negative emotions can actually, physically, make you sick?"

"Oh, well... yes. Otherwise it wouldn't be such a problem when-" His answer was interrupted when one of the other changelings ran up next to him.

"Don't let him change the subject!" She exclaimed, shoving him off to the side and taking his spot as he toppled over with an indignant outcry. "You!" She began, stabbing a hoof towards me with fire in her eyes, making me feel it necessary to scooch a few inches away. "You've been sitting here staring at that shield... Waves of fear, doubt, and anxiety pouring off of you... but beneath that, a powerful yearning!" She proclaimed, leaning towards me with squinted eyes, as if she were peering directly into my soul. "It's about her, isn't it?" She said with a sly grin, which morphed into a full mouthed smile as my ears heated up from embarrassment at the implication of her words and grin. "I knew it!" She exclaimed, giddily clapping her hooves together in excitement while the one she had pushed over just rolled his eyes, having gotten back up at some point.

I was too flustered to come up with a retort as the remainder of the group, both males, walked up.

"Leave the poor guy alone Joy," one of them said, "you're embarrassing him."

"He's embarrassed because I'm right!" She shot back, bringing her hooves up and clasping them together before her chest, stars bursting in her eyes as she stared into the sky. "...They're in love."

"W-what?!" I stammered, jumping to my hooves. "Who the hell decided this!" I objected, cheeks heating up now as well.

"Just give it up already," said the one she'd pushed over previously. "This isn't one of your silly fairy tales," he told her.

"No," she answered, crossing her forelegs and turning away from him. "I've known Emmy since we were hatchlings, we're practically sisters! She wouldn't break the law for just anything... I could sense something was different as soon as she came back from that train station."

"Look," I interjected, "we are not in love. We're just friends, at best. I mean we barely even know each other. Whatever you're feeling, you're misinterpreting it."

"Oh? Well..." she started, a devious glint in her eye. "...There's one way to find out!" She quickly said, grabbing my foreleg as she started to drag me towards the shield.

I wasn't having any of it.

"Let go," I sternly ordered, ripping my leg from her grip with enough force to whip her back around to face me. "I was going to see her anyway," I said, walking past her, "you don't need to drag me."

"Whatever you say," she replied in a 'sure you were' kind of tone. "No need to get all huffy about it."

"I don't like it when people grab me," I curtly shot back. There was no reply to that statement as they fell in behind me, likely giving me a little space to dissipate my anger. It didn't take me very long to calm down, just a few deep breaths... but it was still an annoying chore to deal with. Damn emotions, I cursed internally. I felt that I'd made a lot of progress in regained my ability to quickly calm down by letting emotions simply fall away from my mind, but getting worked up in the first place was still far too easy for my liking.

As we approached the remaining tents surrounding the shield, I saw one of the groups of changelings that were standing guard in case somepony woke up. Once the takeover was complete, the groups had relocated from the fires to stand directly around the entrances to the occupied tents. Looking beyond towards the shield, I tried to think about what I would say when I saw Emulate... But then I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach, my eyes moving back to the group of changelings as a horrifying realization came to mind...

They all look the same to me.

The whole group turned their heads to look at me at the same time before glancing back and forth at each other with confused looks as I stared at them with wide eyes. looking back, I realized that I had only been able to recognize Shift and Switch by their voices, but it had been so long since I'd heard Emulate's voice... In that moment, for the life of me, I couldn't recall it.

"Cotton? What's wrong?" Joy asked, sounding genuinely worried.

I can't tell them apart... I saw myself asking where Emulate was, only for her to be the changeling I'd asked. I felt my heart rate increase as this, and various other images of me making a fool of myself, came unbidden to the forefront of my mind.

"H-hey, did ya loose your nerve?" She tried again, poking fun in an attempt to get a rise out of me. "She's waiting for you, you know?" She said, elbowing me a few times in the side.

"I can't tell changelings apart yet," I said, turning to look at Joy. "I won't recognize her." I don't know why that horrified me so much, I'd never seen her outside of disguise, so obviously I'd never be able to recognize her... but it just felt wrong. In addition to everything she was put through because of me, now I won't even be able to apologize without first awkwardly asking who's who...

"Ohh, Cotton," she cooed, looking into my eyes with a warm, motherly smile. "You'll know her on sight," she said, placing a hoof on my shoulder. "Trust me."

Somehow, this simple gesture calmed me down almost instantly, and I could practically feel it as all of my fears melted away.

"Thanks... Joy, was it? I really needed that."

"No problem. Ahem" she replied, swallowing thickly after clearing her throat.

"Are you okay? You sound really thirsty."

"No, no, it's just... it's been a long day, you know? Now go on, we'll catch up," she shooed, waving a hoof towards the shield, "she's waiting."

"Right," I said with a nod, continuing forward. I feel so much more confidant now, somehow. She must be a frickin' therapist... It's strange though, she started to look a little sick there all of a sudd- It suddenly clicked into place just what she'd done to calm my nerves. Looking back, I saw her laying on the ground now. One of the others from her little group was rubbing her back while she took deep breaths with her eyes closed. "Thank you, Joy," I whispered, walking around the corner of the tent and continuing past the fire.

The shield had lost enough of its luster that it was quite easy to see inside it. The area within was completely barren, probably so the ponies could keep a better eye on the captured changelings, who were all just milling about at the moment, waiting for the shield to drop. There were quite a few of them too, easily thirty or more, mostly congregated as a single crowd near the center, although some were pacing around, either impatient, or afraid something would go wrong before they could escape.

This close to the tents, I wouldn't dare try to call out to them, so I had to wait for someone to look in my direction and wave them over. The one who finally spotted me was a female, bringing back the thought of not being able to recognize Emulate if I saw her...

Joy said I would recognize her on sight... I don't know if she really knew that, or if it was just some kind of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo... but... magic is real here, so... I decided I would trust in her confidence.

"I almost couldn't believe it when I heard a pony was helping us," she said, spitting out the word like an insult. "...But you're really here..."

"Uh," I hesitated, the hostility in her voice making speaking to her feel a little awkward. "Sorry, but, is Emulate in there..? I'd really like to talk to her."

"Oh you would, wouldn't you? Well we don't always get what we want," she asserted, getting as close as the shield between us would allow. "And 'sorry' won't fix what you've broken."

"I already know that. Could you please just go get Emulate so I can talk to her?"

"Hmph," she scoffed, turning away from me. "If you want to see her so badly, you'll just have to break down this shield and find her yourself then, won't you?" she said, walking away.

"Rrrr," I angrily groaned, letting my head thump against the shield, putting a slightly uncomfortable pressure on my horn in the process. Fucking bitch, I internally cursed, not trying to stop her. I didn't want to be angry right now, and she wasn't worth the energy.

"Try not to think too harshly of her," I heard, my breath hitching at the vaguely familiar voice. "...She speaks in anger, but she'll come around," she continued. "They all will, someday."

"Emulate?" I asked, raising my eyes to the changeling on the other side of the shield...

And when our eyes met, it was just as Joy had said. Even though I'd never seen her in this form before, I knew it was her. And it wasn't just because of the familiar voice, it was something... else. It was like an unseen force, lightly tugging at my chest. Barely noticeable, but pulling me towards her...

"...Hey Cotton... Long time no see," she answered, walking closer to stand just opposite me. Something caught the light as she moved, drawing my eyes to her chest.

What is- I started to wonder, when I recognized the object. "You're still wearing that necklace..."

"Of course," she said, like it should have been taken as read. "It's all I had to remember you by."

The clear admiration in those words made me blush again.

"Emmy..." I trailed off, unable to think of anything to say as I placed a hoof against the shield.

"Mmm... Cotton," she replied, closing her eyes as she put her own hoof up to mine.

They were blocked from touching by the shield, but even still, I felt that small tug on my chest grow stronger.

"...You've been talking to Joy, haven't you?" she continued, looking me in the eyes again. "...I don't know anyone else who calls me that."

"W-well, uh-" I stuttered, thinking I'd offended her by using a friends personal nickname. Before I could continue, I was interrupted by the arrival of said friend.

"Ooho-ho-ho, Cotton," she started, skipping up next to me, "...If this is how you feel when you're not in love, then I can't wait to get a taste of some real Equestrian love, hehehe," she said, finishing with a giddy giggle.

"S-shut up..." Well, m-maybe I do have a little bit of a c-crush or... something... I guess I silently admitted to myself, simply looking down in embarrassment as my entire face felt like it was on fire.

Suddenly I felt the pressure against my raised hoof vanish, quickly followed by a small 'clop' sound as our hooves came together in the air. Looking up, I saw the shield dissipate into a flurry of short lived, glowing particles, spreading out in a wave from our connected hooves. The soft smile Emulate had been wearing from the beginning grew into a full mouthed grin, fully revealing her teeth and fangs.

"Oh Cotton~" she sang, before I suddenly found a hard hoof buried in my chest, knocking me to the ground with a cough. "...That's for disappearing on us for two months, you jerk," she scolded, all warmth gone from her voice as she grabbed my chin, forcing me to look back up at her. I was going to yell at her or something... but it disappeared from my brain as my lips were taken by hers in a deep kiss. It lasted for several seconds, and I could practically feel the circuitry in my brain overheating and popping throughout the process, as I'd never been kissed like this before in my life. "...And that's for coming to rescue us," she whispered softly in my ear as she released my mouth.

I laid there, paralyzed. Completely dumbstruck and overwhelmed by the whole situation.

"Hehehe, I think you broke him Emmy," Joy giggled, waving a hoof in front of my face.

"Well, get him up," came the voice of one of the soldiers, "...we're leaving."

Just as before, I was carried by two changelings, Emulate and one of Joys friends, specifically. The flight back to the Everfree passed by without me as I remained locking inside of myself. I simply didn't know what to do, and my inability to just get over it was frustrating. Eventually I managed to get enough of a handle on myself to start thinking more clearly as I repeated the whole scene in my mind. The strange pull from before had faded away almost completely. I'd come to attribute it to the feeling of being fed on, as there was no longer any denying to myself that I had some feelings for her, and it would only be natural for her to take advantage, given the situation... But strangely, the feeling seemed to be pulsating now, shifting back and forth between pushing and pulling. It was so faint though, that I might have simply been feeling my own heartbeat...

Said heart was still aflutter at the mere memory of her kiss... but I needed to get it under control. I needed to calm back down before meeting with the captain again, so I started suppressing the unwanted emotions. It would lower my heart rate, and allow me to think more clearly now, and then I could deal with them more properly later...

"Hey!" Emulate shouted next to my ear, forcefully pulling me from my mental isolation. "You need to stop doing that. Bottling up your emotions all the time is bad for you," she said. "...Psychologically, I mean," she clarified, after I gave her a deadpan look.

I just rolled my eyes at that.

"I don't bottle up my emotions," I said after taking a second to look around. My eyes weren't really focused before, but now I noticed that we were already over the Everfree. "...I always deal with them, eventually... I just separate myself from them first." Looking upwards, I could tell from the height of the moon that it must nearly be time for sunrise.

"Separate..? I don't understand, how can you just do that? And why would you ever want to?"

"Because they just get in the way, and I think more clearly with them removed. It takes me too long to do these days though... I used to be a lot better at it..." I admitted, grinding my teeth slightly.

"That's... That must be awful," she said as our flight dipped below the trees. "What happened that made you this way?" She asked, her voice full of a genuine sadness that just pissed me off.

"Why do people always immediately jump to that!" I shouted, pulling away from her when we landed. "Can't I just dislike my emotions! Can't that just be a thing that is! Why do you assume something has to be wrong with me?" I aggressively questioned her.

"Because it's not normal! You don't just... reject emotions like that!" She vehemently answered.

"Yeah, well... I do," I said, done with this conversation. We were the last ones in as I ducked under the hanging roots that covered the tunnels entrance.

"Cotton, wait!" She called, galloping in after me and cutting me off at the floor of the tunnel. "Don't just walk away, we need to talk through this."

"There's nothing to talk about," I insisted. "You're not my therapist, okay? I was just a shy kid who never grew out of it, and that's all there is to know," I dismissed, barely able to see her in the unlit tunnel, even as I walked past her. I lit my horn with a light spell so I wouldn't accidentally trip on something.

"That can't be all though," she persisted, walking close beside me. "I felt what you were doing, and no creature, especially a pony, would develop that kind of defense mechanism without some kind of sustained abuse or neglect throughout their childhood," she said, taking me by surprise, as she sounded like she legitimately knew what she was talking about.

"And how would you know anything about pony psychology, little own mine? Isn't this your first time in Equestria?"

"See, that's another one!" She said, narrowing her eyes at me, "but I won't let you change the subject so easily."

"Fuck sake," I muttered under my breath as we kept walking. "Can't you just accept that I don't want, nor need, to talk about this? I've been this way all my life, and I'm perfectly fine with it... So just drop it," I asserted, stopping to look her in the eyes, to let her see how certain I was, even though she could obviously feel it already.

"But-"

"Please Emmy," I cut her off, "just let it go. This is who I am... why do you want to change that so badly?" She hesitated for a long time while I continued to stare her down, the light from my horn dancing in her big blue eyes as her gaze shifted uncertainly. Curiously, I felt a small, but noticeable, pushing sensation now. It was in exactly the same place on my chest, almost like the pull from before had been reversed. So what I was feeling on the flight wasn't just my heartbeat..? I thought. ...From what I understand, changelings must need to vent their negative feelings to prevent them from causing physical harm... Is that what I'm feeling now..? I pondered, briefly, before dismissing that theory. No, I wouldn't be able to feel anything like that... What could it be? I wondered, as the feeling faded back into the pulsating, barely detectable state.

"Okay..." she finally said, "I don't want us to fight, so, I'll stop... for now," she uncompromisingly appended.

"*Sigh*... That's good enough I guess," I resignedly accepted. "I'm just gunna go report back to the captain, and then I'm going home to sleep," I stated, still in that weird state of being magically tired, but not physically so.

We weren't that far behind, and so it didn't take long for us to catch up with the rest of the returning group. We followed them down into the main chambers where the majority of the changelings were staying, while I kept on the lookout for someone in armor, who could most likely tell me where the captain was. When the tunnel opened up into one of the larger chambers, we saw several armored changelings directing the flow of traffic and showing any saddlebag-wearing 'lings where they could put their salvage, at least for now.

"Excuse me," I asked one of them, "but, do you know where the captain is right now?"

"The captain is currently meeting with the Queen. He should be back when the news reaches him," he curtly answered, immediately going back to his task.

"Okay..." I said, turning to Emulate. "...Anything you want to do while we wait?" Thankfully she didn't try to restart our previous conversation, instead choosing to distributing her excess energy to others that were still hungry. I followed her along, interested in seeing the process in action.

She spent a few minutes gathering up changelings in the vicinity who seemed to be in the worst shape. Many of them had children, and every one of them she approached would push their children forward to take their place. In short order she had gathered up a sizable group, who began to crowd around her when she finally stopped. At first they sat down around her in an extremely tight cluster, heads down while she stood in the middle of them, probably as some kind of gesture of thanks.

Maybe the changeling version of saying grace..? I thought.

After a few seconds, they raised their hooves. Everyone who could, placed a hoof directly on her body, while those who couldn't reach, placed theirs onto someone who could. As one, the crowd took a long, slow breath... and I felt my heart skip a beat as the sheen quickly faded from Emulate's carapace, followed, then, by a loss of color, as her chitin faded from it's deep black to a dark, but lightening, grey.

Horror gripped my heart for those few frozen seconds, as the thought of her being drained to death by the ravenous crowd shot through me. I felt my throat tighten up with an urge to call out for them to stop... but then it ended on its own, the crowd quickly dispersing. Emulate definitely looked far worse for wear after the ordeal, and there was no visible improvement in the state of any of the changelings who had partaken in the event.

Just a drop in the ocean, I thought, moving through the dispersing crowd to offer her my support if she was feeling weak. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright, don't worry," she said, leaning on me, and slightly out of breath, as the pulling sensation returned.

She didn't sound alright to me though. She sounded very weak.

She started giggling into my neck after a few seconds, already sounding better. "Your fear is really bitter... but the love that fuels it is so sweet," she mumbled into my neck, immediately turning my whole face red with embarrassment.

"S-shut up," I stuttered, trying to reign in my out of control emotions.

"*Sigh*", she sighed, "I really wish you'd stop doing that." My reply was interrupted when we were approached by one of the soldiers.

"Emulate," he stated, to get her attention. "The captain wants to see you immediately. Follow me." Left with little choice in the matter, she followed, and I came along too, since I thought I should report back in person anyway.

We were lead even deeper underground, leaving the populated areas entirely. Soon we met up with the captain, alone, in one of the tunnels.

"I've brought her as requested Captain," the guard said with a solute.

"Very good, you're dismissed."

"Sir!" He acknowledged, dropping the solute and leaving.

"Cotton," the captain said, turning his attention to me. "I've already received the full report from my brother, and you have my commendations. We will call upon you again should we need your assistance. You're dismissed."

"What? But what did you want to talk to Emulate about?"

"That's sensitive information. You. Are. Dismissed," he repeated.

"But-"

"Don't worry Cotton," Emulate interrupted. "It's alright. You wanted to get some sleep anyway, didn't you?"

I hesitated for a moment, but soon relented.

"Okay," I said, walking away. If she isn't worried, then it should be alright, I trusted.

The sun was up by the time I got back to the surface. The walk home was uneventful, a rarity in this forest... but it gave me plenty of time to reflect on my new, rather sudden, feelings.

I only got to know her for less than a week... and that's while she was pretending to be a pony. We know almost nothing about each other... So why is this happening? The obvious answer came to me quickly. I told myself I'd stop blaming Discord for all of my mental problems, but this has to be because of him... I'd only just woken up, all of my normal barriers freshly ripped from my brain, and she...

I trailed off as I realized an error in my assumption.

No, it couldn't just be that simple... I never developed any of these strong feelings for the one calling herself 'Silver', and I met her a few days before encountering Emulate... I spent a few minutes reanalyzing my memories of those days. ...I trusted her, I came to realize. Silver was too forward with me, right from the start, and I distrusted her because of it. But then Emulate came in, helped me, never made any advances, and just acted like a normal friend... That made me trust her, and my still healing mind must have developed an attachment to her for it. Like a modified version of Stockholm Syndrome.

It was so obvious, in retrospect. I've never gotten attached to someone so quickly before... And it brought much of my own reasoning into question.

Did I decide to help them because I actually wanted to... or was it really just an excuse to get closer to her? I didn't know anything about them... and I still don't, really... At that time, they were just going to use me, and most likely get rid of me as soon as possible... And yet, on nothing but a hu-... No, not even a hunch, just on a vague hope, I reached out to her, risked my personal safety for her... Although, I had already been interested in the changelings, and wanted to learn more about them... But would that interest have been enough? Would I have still risked it, if I had been in my proper state of mind? I asked myself.

I thought on it for a while as I kept walking... but couldn't find an answer.

I just don't know, but it might not have played out as well as it has so far, in any other scenario... I've officially sided with them now anyway after last night, I suppose... I can't just abandon them now, I told myself.

But then I thought about it.

No one has seen me with the changelings yet. No one at all... There's nothing stopping me from disappearing and starting a new life somewhere... I'd have to dye my mane and use a different name though, 'cause the changelings would definitely be on the lookout for me, if not actively pursuing me... I continued down that line of thought for a few minutes, thinking of all the hassles and worries I'd have to put up with... I'll keep the option open, but for now... I'll just see where this goes, I decided.

But back to my infatuation problem... The sensation I'd been feeling ever since I first saw her behind that shield was finally gone. Completely, I now noticed. The fact that I had been able to feel anything at all, though, brought up additional questions.

Was that a product of the attachment I've formed with her? Some sort of magic coming into play, allowing me to feel it? I don't imagine that it's normal to be able to feel that sensation, otherwise it would be much easier to determine if someone was a changeling. It would be just as simple as following the pull as they feed on you...

Before I knew it, I found myself in front of the doors to my little bunker. Entering, I turned on the lights before closing the doors again behind me.

Speaking of being fed on, I thought, trudging to my bed, turning off the lights behind me as I walked. Where do I really stand with Emulate? She's definitely not shy about feeding on me at every opportunity... but I really can't blame her for that. They're in dire straits right now, and need every drop they can get, but...

Flopping down on my bed, I let out a long sigh as I tried to relax.

It's like dating a vampire, I mused. Do they really love you, or are they just acting, because they really love your blood? Shifting around, it was hard to fall asleep with all these thoughts in my head. And what could the captain want to talk to her about? He called for her, seemingly the instant he heard she was back... He wanted to meet with her alone, and far from the other changelings... Maybe they're a secret couple..? It probably isn't appropriate for the captain of the Queen's personal guard to be seeing someone who's been convicted of treason... Although, now that I'm officially helping them, those accusations should be dropped... Maybe the word on her innocence just hasn't come down from the Queen yet, and they're playing it safe.

It all made sense to me. The details might be wrong, as I was only assuming most of it, but... if she didn't really love me... if I was just being used... that would be easier for me to understand, and to deal with.

All wounds heal with time, I thought. Soon enough, my mind will have fully recovered, and I can put this attachment behind me... I just have to hold out until then, I told myself. Like pushing out a splinter, so the wound can truly heal...

Author's Note

Got this done a bit earlier than expected, although I'd like to issue a personal apology to everyone (or at least the one, you know who you are) who has been waiting to see Chrysalis again. It was not my intention to utterly lie about when she would physically come back into the story... but that's how it goes when you're writing a story on the fly, with only a few planned out set-points. Rest assured though, she IS in the next chapter. I'm already writing that scene as we read.

Again, I'd like to thank everyone who still follows this story, and I dearly hope I don't end up disappointing everyone somehow.

My last few chapters have been finished within approximately 13 weeks of each other, so based on that schedule, I hope to see you all again in September. Have a great summer! :pinkiehappy:

Chapter 20

*BANG-BANG-BANG*

"Fuck!" I yelled, falling out of bed, the thundering sound of someone banging on my door echoing throughout my home and startling me awake. I had just started pushing myself off the floor when I heard the creaking of the door being opened. "Who is it!" I yelled, doubting it was any creature of the Everfree.

"Duplicate, of the Queen's Guard," came the reply from an armored 'ling as he walked around the corner. "The captain is calling on your fidelity. We must leave at once."

"Alright, just a minute, I need to eat something first-" I started, attempting to walk past him, before his hoof shot out, blocking me from going towards the back where the kitchen was.

"Food can be provided for you. You must come with me, immediately," he reiterated.

"What could be so damn important, it can't wait for just a few minutes?" I asked, giving him an annoyed glare.

"I do not have the authority to say, but it is of the utmost importance, and cannot wait," he emphasized.

"Good God," I sighed, following him outside into the sunlight. I probably didn't even get seven hours, I thought.

"Follow me," he stated, giving me only just enough time to close the door before taking off in full gallop.

That caught me off guard, and it took me a few seconds to start moving. I chased after him with everything I had, realizing that something truly dire must be happening... Although the only thing I could think of that would warrant this amount of urgency was that their hiding place had been found already, in which case, I wasn't sure what all I'd be able to do.

Another guard was waiting for us at the entrance, and I was quickly ushered back down into the deepest tunnels, where the captain was before. Soon we came to a tunnel being watched over by two more armored guards. Seeing me, one of them turned and went down the tunnel. Said tunnel curved off a short distance in, and the guard quickly moved out of sight, while the two who had escorted me down here left, leaving me alone with the one guard who had stayed at the entrance.

"Captain Stern will be here shortly," the remaining guard answered, sensing my question before I could voice it.

So that's his name, I thought, giving a nod of acknowledgment. In the ensuing silence though... I noticed something. It's back, I realized, looking down the tunnel as I felt the small pulsating pressure. Emulate's back there...

The other guard soon returned with Emulate and the captain. They both wore grave looks, and didn't appear to be in the best shape either... Emulate looked like she was just barely holding back tears.

"What's the emergency?" I asked.

"It's the Queen," Stern started, "I've done everything in my power to keep this hidden from the others, but... she's-"

"She's dying!" Emulate burst out, no longer holding back her tears as she rushed forward. Grasping me like a lifeline, I was assaulted by the combined pressure of her vented feelings, and her crushing hug, as she cried into my shoulder.

"What! How, why!?"

"The Queen has fallen into a deep depression," the captain continued, gravely. " She's come to think herself unfit to rule, and it has taken a great tole on her health."

"What's made her so depressed?" I asked, unthinkingly placing a hoof on Emulate's back to try and comfort her. "Is it because she lost to Celestia?"

"Partly... The assault on Canterlot was not the first... poor decision... the Queen has made," he said, choosing his words carefully. "And it's not the first time those decisions have cost us."

"Losing what little you had must be terrible, but at the end of the day, they were just things. Maybe we just have to remind her of that?" I hopefully questioned.

"If only," Stern replied, expression remaining grim. "Our headcount was thirteen short after the initial retreat from Canterlot... Several were confirmed dead, and the rest are presumed to be as well... It's also likely that more were lost since then, although we won't know for sure until a new headcount can be tallied."

"Oh..." I said, remembering the dead changeling I'd found in the forest. Happy would have died too if I hadn't found him... How many others were there, that didn't have anyone find them? I thought, sadly. "...So what do we do?"

"The only thing we can do. We have to break her out of it," he answered. "I've been trying, but... she won't listen to me anymore. Which is why I called for Emulate. She was able to sway the Queens feelings once before, and I was hoping she could do it again, but... so far..." he sighed with a shake of his head.

"So, why am I here then?" I asked, trying to cover up the small, but no less inappropriate, surge of happiness I felt at finding out that they weren't a secret couple. It was then I noticed that the foreleg I'd put on Emulate's back had started hugging her tighter to me at some point. At least she's not crying anymore, I thought, looking down at her, head still resting on my shoulder. Resisting my treacherous emotions, I removed my leg from her.

"Because she insisted that you could help," he said, motioning to Emulate.

"How could I help?" I skeptically asked. I didn't know anything about Chrysalis, and I didn't have any idea how to cheer her up.

"She needs to see you," Emulate started, finally letting go of me and standing back to talk to my face. "She needs to see that it's not all bad. That at least some good has come of her choices... And you're the only one who can show her that," she explained, fresh tears forming again.

"O-okay," I stuttered, breaking into a nervous sweat under the force of Emulate's soulful, pleading eyes. "I'll try, but... I really think you're overestimating how important I am."

"We'll see about that," Stern replied, neutrally.

"I think... you just don't realize how important you really are," Emulate said. "You're the first one who's ever wanted to help us. For as long as any of us can remember, we've been shunned, universally... But now you're here... You've seen us in our true forms. You know who, and what, we are... And you still have stayed with us," she elaborated. "For us... I don't think anything more important has ever happened," she finished, still with that soulful look in her eyes.

I was too stunned to respond... How can you respond to something like that..? All I could think was that she had way too much misplaced faith in me.

"Don't make such warped statements Emulate," Stern chastised. "Control yourself. Your bond is giving you tunnel vision. We need to save the Queen, not give him a big head. Now, follow me," he finished, turning his gaze to me as he gave the order.

"So, what have you tried so far?" I asked as he led us down the curving tunnel.

"I've tried telling her that we still remain loyal to her, and that we can recover from this," Stern started.

"I've emphasized that as well," Emulate continued. "I said that she shouldn't lose faith in herself, because we all still believe in her."

"Okay," I said, thinking it over for a few seconds. "But... you don't really believe that, do you?" I asked.

"What?" They replied in unison, coming to a stop.

"Well, you said that you've done everything in your power to keep the Queen's condition a secret. You're probably just trying to prevent any sort of panic, or a, uh... depression epidemic. But the Queen is basically, like, a super-powered version of a normal changeling, isn't she? She can probably sense the underlying doubts that brought you to that reasoning, even if you have been trying to hide them."

"...It is possible," Stern said after taking a few seconds to mull it over.

"But I really do believe it," Emulate interjected. "She just needs to explain to everyone what happened... I know they'll understand," she insisted.

"...Well, it was just a guess," I replied as we started walking again. "Maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet? Depression's supposed to take a while to fully get over... I think... if I'm remembering right," I mumbled. God, it's been so long since I've thought about this stuff... "Oh, yeah, another thing is... she needs to talk. As much as we can make her. Shrinks always make their patients talk through their problems... Talking at her, isn't going to do anything."

"That will prove difficult..." Stern said, the tunnel widening into a small chamber, where at last I saw the Queen for myself...

The sight was... disheartening.

She was laying on her side, her mane and wings splayed, as if she had simply collapsed onto the ground. She was clearly sick, her chitin ragged, and discolored. Her eyes were open, but unfocused... glazed over, and staring at nothing. She paid no attention to our arrival... giving no sign of having even noticed us.

"We are back, my Queen," Stern announced as he and Emulate bowed.

"We brought a very special guest who wanted to see you," Emulate said next, waving me forward when Chrysalis continued to ignore our presence.

"Hey Chrysalis..." I started, Emulate and Stern sending me a strange glance. "Long time no see?" I said, uncertainly, the Queen still seemingly comatose on the ground, aside from the occasional blink.

"You remember Cotton, right?" Emulate asked, coaxingly. "He's the pony who wants to help us find a home..?" She continued, trying to lead her into a reply, or at least some form of acknowledgement... When none came, she started getting a little frantic. "Can't you see that there's still hope!" She cried. "He's here, he came back! Of his own will! He's not being mind controlled, or threatened, or blackmailed!" She continued, pulling me closer to the Queen, as if, perhaps, she just couldn't see me.

...But still, her eyes merely looked through us. I didn't know what to say... uncertainty held my tongue... and the captain seemed to just be watching from the sidelines.

Once more, tears grew in Emulate's eyes as nothing came of her efforts.

"Please, look at us!" She pleaded, laying to the ground, and bowing her head so low that her horn stabbed into the dirt. "Can't you see the good that has come from your decisions! There's more to see than just the pain and the loss! We can come back from this! We will come back from this! But we need you. Please..." She continued, her cries weakening as she gradually lost her fervor. "...You're a good, and fair Queen... I still believe in you. Please don't lose faith in yourself..." she finished, quietly, her energy spent.

"I believe in you as well," Stern added, finally speaking up. "...as do all of the changelings under my command," he declared. "...And," he continued, in a softer, reverent tone. "I'm certain that Queen Ambrosia would have been proud of you."

From the vantage point I had been pulled to, I was in the perfect position to see the first reaction we managed to get out of Chrysalis. Her eyes dilated sharply, and the wing and ear that weren't pressed to the ground both twitched while her whole body seemed to tense up. Some sharp emotion must have rippled through the air, as Emulate let out a gasp, even though her head had still been bowed into the floor...

In only a moment, it was over, and the Queen closed her eyes.

"Leave me," she said, voice hoarse from disuse.

"I'm sorry my Queen," Stern quickly apologized. "I should not have-"

"Get. Out," she ordered, breathing sharply through her clenched teeth with each word.

Without another word, the captain bowed and left, Emulate getting up as well and pulling me with her out of the chamber. Looking back as I left, I could see her chest shaking, like she was crying...

"...Mother... so sorry," I heard her mumble, barely audible against the quiet sound of the torch, burning on the wall.

"Does she often order you out of the room like that?" I asked once we were back in the main corridor. "And what's with the looks you guys gave me before?"

"This was the first time," Stern replied, head down, stopping just outside of the guarded tunnel. "That was foolish of me, I should have known better," he chastised himself.

"Addressing the Queen by name, without her permission, is inappropriate... Insulting, even," Emulate said, answering my other question. "It's too... familiar... for the Queen's subjects to be calling her by name."

"Oh, okay," I said. But... I don't think a subject is what she needs right now, I thought, looking back at the tunnel.

"What's the matter?" She asked, seeing my look.

"I don't know... Nothing I guess," I said, trying to think of how I could help get Chrysalis out of her funk... "Oh, yeah," I vocalized, remembering my plan from earlier. Turning to address the captain, "until the Queen is back on her hooves, that makes you in charge of everything, doesn't it?" I asked, although I didn't wait for a reply. "I have an idea that I need you to consider very seriously."

"And what's that?"

"You need to send out a wave of changelings, as many as you can spare, to every city and town in Equestria, and gather up as much love as you can."

"That was already one of our priorities, and we've been working on it," he said, like it should have been obvious.

"But how many have you sent out? Because, once the Equestrians learn how to deal with your disguises, love will be a lot harder to get. And you're going to need to majorly stock up in order to survive that famine until we figure out a workaround for their new spell."

"We are more than aware of that, but any large moves on our part would be impossible to hide. Infiltrators are being sent out regularly, in small groups, to avoid attention," he explained, slowly, as if to a child. "I can see why you, as a pony, would think we hadn't already thought of this... But we have constantly lived with this problem, and we are very experienced with this kind of planning."

"Okay," said, lowering my head in embarrassment. God, that was stupid. Of course they would have thought of that first.

"It's okay Cotton," Emulate said, coming up beside me to try and comfort me. "Captain Stern has all of the logistical things taken care of... Let's just focus on helping the Queen. That's where we can be of the most use."

"Yeah," I said, going back to my earlier thought. "Helping someone who doesn't want help is tricky..." I whispered, thinking aloud. What she probably needs right now is someone she thinks that she can just... talk to. Someone that she thinks will just listen to her, without any preconceived notions of how a Queen should be, someone she feels she can really open up to... A friend. But... I don't know how I can get myself into that position. Or if I can even be that person for her...

"What are you thinking, Cotton? Your emotions are going all over the place."

"... Just trying to think of a way to get her to open up," I answered. "...And it's dredging up some old memories," I admitted.

"Oh..." she said, looking conflicted as she walked a few paces away. "...I'd ask if you wanted to talk about it, but..." she started, sounding down. "We have to focus on the Queen," she stated, a short-lived confidence finding its way into her voice as she looked back at me from over her shoulder. "...And you'd just say 'no', anyway," she finished, glumly, lowering her head. Obviously she was still saddened by my lack of openness with her.

"Yeah..." I neutrally replied, looking back to the guarded tunnel. "...So... should we try again?"

"*sigh* It'll be a while before the Queen will tolerate our presence again," Stern replied, ears and wings drooping for a moment as he sighed.

I was about to ask what we should do in the mean time, when my stomach let out a growl, voicing it's displeasure at being ignored for so long. "...I need to eat something then... I was told there was food here?"

"Physical food was not high on our priorities, but I'm sure there are some changelings planning to go out foraging soon, if they haven't already."

I nodded, and started heading for the surface again, with Emulate close behind. That lying bastard, I thought, thinking back to the changeling who'd said that food could be provided for me here. But, whatever, I dismissed, at least I'll have some more time to think about what exactly I'm going to do...

After a little asking around, we were told that the foraging expedition had only just left a short while ago. Hearing that, I decided to just head back to my house. I already had food there, so it would be faster than foraging around in this part of the woods. Emulate continued to follow me, expressing an interest in seeing where I live.

"It's nothing to look at, really," I told her.

"I don't expect you to be living in a castle or anything, I just want to see it," she replied. I just clicked my tongue in acknowledgement, not having anything more to say about it.

My place was a good walk from the entrance to the changelings hideout, being about a half hours walk to the south, if you go through spider territory. Taking that route may have been flirting with danger, but really no more so than any other part of the forest... The spiders generally keep to their webs, and typically only attack passing animals if they're sufficiently agitated, or hungry. Charging through, as the guard and I had earlier, was more likely to have incited an attack than simply walking, as we were now.

"...So what made you decide to live here anyway?" Emulate asked, speaking up only once the chittering sound of the spiders had disappeared far behind us. "It's not like you couldn't have gone somewhere... nicer."

She'd been jumpy and on edge from the moment she started hearing them. It was kind of funny to me, that a changeling would be scared of bugs. But I suppose insects do eat each other all the time, and they were awfully big...

"...A few reasons," I said, after taking a moment to think about it.

"...Liiike..?" She probed, drawing out the word while still keeping a weary eye on the trees.

"...I wanted to be alone, but I couldn't go too far away... I was still waiting for you, after all" I answered, sending her a glance over my shoulder.

"But why in this place? I thought you said you had friends in Ponyville, like Twilight and Pink-" she cut herself off, feeling the emotions welling inside me. "-I'm sorry, I-I didn't-" she stuttered, waving her forelegs around frantically for a few seconds before calming down at my lack of a physical reaction. "...What happened?" She quietly asked.

I stayed silent for a while as I kept walking... thinking of how I would explain it, or if I even should...

"Hahaha..." I dryly chuckled to myself.

"...What's funny..?" She hesitantly asked, not seeing the humor beneath my other, darker emotions.

"I was just thinking how funny it must be... saying this to a changeling," I chuckled. "...I was lying about my identity... and they found out," I finally answered, stopping to face her. "...That's what happened."

"I... guess that... that could be funny..." she said, slowly and uncertainly as I started walking again. "...So, who are you then?" She asked after giving me a few minutes of space.

"At this point, my old name doesn't matter anymore. I'm me, I've never tried to be anyone else, and to me, that's all that matters. A name is just a name... and my name is Cotton Hill now."

"I don't understand, why did they leave you then? If you were always being yourself, why did your name matter to them?"

"That's the trouble with hiding the truth... you lie. And when those lies are uncovered-"

"You're cast out," she finished for me.

"Yeah... I figured it would sound familiar to you."

"...But... you're a fellow pony," she said after a period of silence. "Why wouldn't they even give you a second chance?"

"...To be fair to them," I said after thinking it over, "I never really needed to lie to them... I could have just said nothing, or told them I didn't want to talk about it... But I wanted them to trust me, or rather, I didn't want them to distrust me... Never telling them anything wouldn't have helped get me there, though. But, even after I did start lying, I could have told them the truth at any time... but I didn't... And when they found out on their own, they assumed I was never going to." I took a moment to just breath after that... Poking at those memories were getting my emotions too riled up.

"...Would you have?" She asked, bringing me to a stop as I thought about it.

That's something I've asked myself more than a few times, since then... "I guess... we'll never know," I answered, walking again. We fell back into silence for the rest of the journey until we reached the doors to my underground home. The typical sound of metal on metal creaked out of the hinges as I opened the doors. "Welcome to my humble abode," I said, walking inside and turning on the lights... It was more of a reflexive thing than anything, really, considering that the sunlight coming in through the doors was providing more illumination than the small bulbs around the main room.

I went straight back to the ice box to get some food, while Emulate looked around.

"Did you learn how to enchant crystals in the last few months?" I heard her ask. When I looked back, I saw that she was looking at me, so I could only assume that she was talking about the lights.

"No, these are just light bulbs," I said, grabbing several things from the ice box.

"But, how are you powering them then?"

"Just with some batteries. The voltage isn't very high though, that's why the lights are all so dim."

"'Voltage'?" She parroted, not knowing the word. "And didn't you just say that you didn't know crystal enchanting yet?"

Puzzling over her statement for a second, I soon realized the misunderstanding.

"No, no. Not battery crystals, chemical batteries. See the wires?" I asked, pointing out the wires embedded in the ceiling, all of which converged at the back wall, where the battery bank was located.

"What's a chemical battery?" She asked, a completely clueless look on her face.

"...You know what," I started after giving it a little thought. "This rabbit hole goes down quite a ways, and we have more important things to worry about. Maybe I'll tell you about it later, after we've gotten Chrysalis back on her hooves."

"...You promise?" she asked, giving me a long, pointed stare.

"Sure-"

"No," she interrupted. "Yes or no. Do you promise?"

"Yes, I promise," I said, closing the ice box and placing my meal on the small counter next to it. She nodded, accepting my promise. "Okay," I started, popping a berry into my mouth to shut my stomach up for a second. "...I think I'm going to need some background information. When we talk to her again, I don't want to accidentally say something that will upset her, like the captain did, just because i didn't know any better."

"Okay," she said with a contemplative look as she sat down beside me. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, from what Stern said, she's depressed because she feels that she's failed as a queen... Do you have any ideas as to why she'd think that? What else did she do?"

At the very mention, her ears drooped and a sad expression overtook her as she lowered her gaze to the ground.

"That's... That's a painful story... Not just for the Queen, but for all of us," she started, slowly turning her mournful eyes up to me. "I may need some... some help...g-getting through it," she hesitantly said, the inflection of her voice making it seem like a question.

The small connection between us gave a longing tug on my chest, making her intentions clear.

I'd almost forgotten about it, I realized. I should probably be worried about getting used to being fed on... "I get it. Do whatever you have to," I told her. "If I'm going to be of any help, I need to know this."

"Okay," she started, taking a deep breath. "It was our most... recent... tragedy. The Queen had, er, I mean we had-" She cut herself off with a sigh. After gathering her thoughts for a moment, she started again after taking another deep breath. "I'll start from the beginning... It was about three years ago, now... We had just arrived in the savannas of Zabrica, and the previous queen, Queen Ambrosia, announced that she would be letting her daughter act as queen. She wasn't passing on her title just yet, but wanted the Princess to gain experience with the position," she explained.

"Makes sense," I nodded. "So it all comes back to what happened in Zabrica then? Were your identities revealed because of something she did?" I asked.

"Not... directly," she slowly answered. "We stayed with the zebras for longer than anyone before them. At least, as far as I know... It was probably inevitable that they would find out someday, especially once the attacks became more coordinated."

"Attacks?"

"Well, I was getting to that," she said, obviously asking me to hold off on any more questions.

"Zip," I said, making a sideways motion over my mouth.

"Right. Well," she started again, "when we first came to Zabrica, we performed our normal routine of scouting the land for population centers, and using small teams to gauge how welcoming the locals would be. We had heard from a merchants guild of camels that the lions were extremely vicious and territorial, and would sooner eat visitors than trade with them, so we focused our efforts on the zebra tribes, who they occasionally traded with."

Already I had more questions. It definitely didn't help that I was not at all studied in the cultures or civilizations of the world beyond Equestria. Grabbing a pen and paper, I started writing down the things I had questions about. Emulate paused for a moment as I did this.

"Don't mind me. Just writing things for later," I said, motioning for her to continue.

"...Well," she continued, "we quickly found that there were many different tribes, all spread out across the untamed continent. None of them were very welcoming of outsiders, especially ones they weren't familiar with. Where we posed as zebras, they thought we were from a neighboring tribe trying to steal from their territory. Even when we tried to explain otherwise, they just didn't want to take in any of our teams. And where we posed as camel traders, they would throw us out when they found that we didn't actually have anything to trade," she narrated. "...But we kept trying. Day in and day out, using new disguises, new tactics... and when they would actually listen, new stories. Eventually we had... I hesitate to call it good luck, but... One of our teams were posing as emissaries from the Felis Empire, a desert kingdom to the east of Zabrica, but the tribe they were going to make contact with was under attack by a lion hunting party.

After helping in the battle, they were welcomed into the tribe like family, which finally gave us our in. Under the guise of securing a larger trade route across Zabrica to the Saddle Arabian ports, we were able to make contact with all of the tribes that this one had been on friendly terms with, and from there, to even more. The Queen and Princess spent the next several weeks making plans to bring together as many of the chieftains as they could into a single diplomatic gathering. It took some time, but after gradually showing them more of our numbers, all disguised as soldiers of the Felis Empire, most of them chose to attend. In that meeting, many of them were convinced to swear fealty to Queen Baast the ninth in exchange for military protection from any future lion attacks.

Soon after, we unpacked our caravan in a central location, giving us easy access to all of the local villages while claiming that we were setting up a local garrison headquarters. Of course, every village needed to have at least a few 'soldiers' in place at all times... With this arrangement, we were able to feed on most of the population simultaneously, while our mere presence was enough to ward away most lion attacks before we had to truly fight them off... But it didn't last," she paused, taking her first drink of energy from me. "In less than a year, the lions started working together. No one had ever heard of that happening before, but I guess being denied a source of prey was all it took for the prides to start cooperating. Attacks were happening more and more often, each in greater numbers than the last. We were spreading ourselves thin, trying to protect all of the villages we could... But fighting takes energy, and we needed to feed more frequently to keep pace with the attacks.

The zebras started demanding we send for reinforcements. Even they could tell we were too spread out... But we had no reinforcements to send for. Even worse, we could tell from their change in attitude that we were feeding on them too much. Our arrangement wasn't sustainable anymore. Queen Ambrosia wanted us to leave immediately, but the Princess was sure that the lions would give up soon, as even with all of the fighting, we'd managed to avoid any losses up to that point... But they didn't give up.

A few weeks later, an attack came in the night. We were unprepared for this change in tactics, and an entire village was destroyed. The survivors fled to what they thought was our garrison, looking for shelter... They arrived unexpectedly with the news of the destroyed village, and not everyone was in disguise when they came stampeding into our camp... We weren't able to capture them all, and soon, the news of our identities spread across all of Zabrica.

Emboldened by their first victory, the lion attacks became even more frequent. Soon after that, we were forced to retreat from all of the villages, as the love-starved zebras started attacking us in a rage. We were packing up the caravan as fast as we could, hoping to leave before anyone came after us... That's when tragedy truly struck," she said, pausing again. A tear formed in her eye, even as she fed more on our connection. "We don't know for sure why or how it happened... It was probably because of the camel traders... Either way, news had somehow reached the Felis Empire that a legion of soldiers had occupied the land in their name... and so they sent an army of their own.

They attacked our caravan as we attempted to flee to the west, towards the Saddle Arabian colonies. Dozens of changelings were killed in the first assault. We tried to run as fast as we could, because we knew that we couldn't win, but they were catching up to us anyway. We quickly realized that we wouldn't be able to escape unless we abandoned the caravan... A-and that's when..." She paused as she wiped the freely flowing tears from her eyes with a hoof. "...That's when the Queen sacrificed herself for us. She ordered us to run, and keep running until we saw the ocean, while she stayed back. Using all her power, she erected a shield wall behind us. It stretched as far as the eye could see... but she couldn't move while maintaining the shield... Her captain stayed back with her, protecting her to the last, as was his duty... We all felt it... when she died."

She took a few minutes to calm down and recompose herself after that.

"...After that," she continued, "the Princess, now Queen, has never tried to keep us in one place for long. We moved through the Saddle Arabian colonies for several months, gathering supplies to cross the ocean."

"...Okay," I said when she didn't continue, looking down at my notes. I have a much clearer picture of her mind-state... Now I just need to figure out a way to convince her to get up and try again, I guess... "...Thanks Emmy," I said, giving her a hug to help calm her down some more. "I know that was hard for you... But I should be better able to help now."

Author's Note

It's shorter than I wanted, but I'll end this chapter there. It's been crazy at work the last few months. I've been working tons of overtime, which really cut down on my ability to get writing done.

The picture Banished by Huussii on Deviantart, was pretty much how I pictured Chrysalis laying there in her misery, just without the blood.

Goal Oriented

“What are you thinking?” Emulate asked after a few minutes of watching me silently pore over my notes.

“I’m trying to structure how I want this conversation with Chrysalis to go,” I answered, looking up from the page. “I’m still struggling to come up with a way to get her talking though… Is there anyone that she’s close with? Anyone she regularly talks to?”

“I… I don’t know,” she admitted with a shrug. “That would be something to ask the captain. I don’t really know that much about the Queen on a personal level.”

“Right,” I sighed. “…We might as well head back then,” I said. I’d finished eating, and there wasn’t any other reason to stay here. Rolling up the page, I stuffed it into my saddlebags as I put them on and headed for the door.

“Was there anything else you wanted to take while we’re here?” Emulate questioned.

“No, I don’t need anything else.”

“Oh…” she said, trailing off as if she expected something more. After a few minutes of walking, she spoke up again. “It’s a long walk between the tunnels and your house… I thought maybe you wanted something else, but… Was this really faster than just foraging with the others?”

“Probably. The parasprite population is more concentrated in the northeastern part of the forest. The tunnels are close enough to that area that I figured it would be mostly stripped of anything edible.”

“What! Why didn’t you say something then?!” She yelled, wings buzzing in outrage. “You were just going let everyone waste their efforts, when you could have just said something?!” She accused, flying ahead and blocking my path.

“Hey, calm down!” I shouted, backing up to get her out of my face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t really think about it,” I apologized. “…But, it’s not like you’re going to starve or anything,” I dismissed.

“Starving isn’t the point!” She argued with an emphasizing stomp, made angrier by my casual dismissal of the matter. “Our children need to eat regularly. If they don’t, their growth will be stunted,” she explained.

“Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it. We can tell everyone when we get back… it’s hasn’t even been two hours,” I reasoned.

She looked down and sighed, and I could feel the pressure on my chest increase as she tried to vent her anger and frustration.

“…Just,” she started after a few seconds, “just… please be more thoughtful from now on,” she asked of me.

“I will,” I said.

Emulate didn’t say anything else for the rest of the trip. I could feel that she was still upset, but I figured that if she wasn’t saying anything, then she just wanted some space for a while.

The pressure I felt from our strange connection slowly faded as we walked. I assumed this meant that she was calming down. By the time we made it back to the tunnels, it had disappeared altogether. From what little experience I’d had with Emulate’s company, it was odd for her to be quiet for so long. I took a glance at her from over my shoulder… only to find that she wasn’t there.

“Emulate..?” I asked, uncertainly, to the surrounding trees. “Emulate!” I called out, but there was no answer. I felt an adrenaline spike course through me as I started to panic. I was torn between running back to try and find her, or running inside to get help. “No, she’s… she’s probably fine,” I said, trying to calm myself down. She must have just gone off somewhere without telling me, I thought, going inside. I never heard anything, so she couldn’t have gotten attacked. None of the predators in this forest are quiet when they attack, and I would have heard her screaming, I tried to reassure myself.

It wasn’t working. I couldn’t shake the feeling of panic that something might have happened to her.

What if she lagged behind, and got lost? What if she stumbled into a patch of poison joke, and it took her voice away? I suddenly found myself running down the tunnels as progressively worse scenarios raced through my mind. Soon enough I was met by a group of armored changelings running down the tunnel towards me, the guards having most likely sensed my panic long before they could have heard my frantic hoofsteps.

“What’s happening?!” “Did they find us?!” “What’s the emergency?!”

These and more were all shouted at me simultaneously as we stopped in front of each other.

“It’s Emulate! She’s lost!”

Despite my frantic behavior, they all visibly relaxed.

“Where did you see her last?” One of them asked, stepping forward. It took me a few seconds to put a name to the familiar voice of Shift.

“We’ll handle this,” another changeling, whose voice I recognized as Switch, said to the others. They nodded and went back the way they came.

“We were coming back from my place, and I thought she was behind me, but when I got here, she was gone!” I explained in a single breath.

“Okay, okay, calm down,” Shift said, putting a hoof on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll help you look for her.”

“Alright, come on!” I yelled, running back towards the surface.

“Where was the last place you saw her?” Shift asked.

“I don’t know, it was a while ago. We stopped talking, but I was sure that she was still following me.”

“When do you think you got separated?” Switch asked.

“I don’t-“ I stopped myself as I realized. That feeling… it wasn’t fading because she was calming down, it was because we were getting farther apart! “Just a few minutes to the south! It was just after we left the paraspider area!”

We were back on the surface in short order, and I immediately took off into the woods, following the route Emulate and I had taken before. We weren’t running for very long before Shift and Switch called for me to stop.

“What is it? Did you find her?”

“There are several changeling coming this way,” Switch said, looking to the east.

“Is Emulate with them?”

“I don’t know,” he answered. “I don’t know her well enough to recognize by empathy alone,” he stated, to which Shift also nodded in affirmation.

“Let’s go meet them then,” I said, starting in the direction that they had been looking.

“We’ve already signaled them. They’re coming to us,” Shift said, stopping me only a few steps after I’d started.

We waited for a short while… but then I felt it. Relief and excitement washed over me with the return of that familiar sensation, and I started running towards it.

“Cotton, wait!” I heard the two of them call after me in surprise.

“She’s with them!” I shouted back, not stopping or slowing down. Crashing through the woods, our two groups finally came together. “Emmy, thank god!” I shouted, embracing her in a tackle-hug. “You scared the crap out of me! When you weren’t behind me anymore, I thought you might have gotten eaten or something!” I exclaimed, squeezing her tightly before letting go and putting my hooves on her shoulders. “*Sigh* Thank god you’re alright… You are alright, right?” I asked, looking her over.

“Yes Cotton, I’m fine,” she said with a smile. “I was just letting everyone know not to look for food in this area.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” I asked, taking my hooves off her shoulders. “Do you have any idea how freaked out I was when I found out you weren’t following me anymore?”

“Because…” She paused before answering, putting her thoughts together. “Because I don’t understand you, Cotton,” she said, sadness tingeing her voice.

“Wha-” Putting a hoof to my mouth, she didn’t let me continue.

“You’re always so locked off. You keep everything hidden inside, out of sight… We’re used to feeling what others are feeling… It lets us understand them, and blend in with them… But you’re so different. I’ve never encountered a creature that could bottle itself up so well,” she said, taking her hoof away. “And when you do let your emotions show… they’re so jumbled, and you crush them down so fast, that… I can’t really get a read on what you’re feeling, or why.”

“So you just wanted to see if you could make me freak out!?” I shouted at her in indignation.

“No. I wanted to see if I could really trust you… if you actually cared,” she calmly replied.

“’If I cared’?” I questioned in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about! Obviously I care, or I wouldn’t be here!”

“I know that now,” she said, stepping forward and giving me a hug. “We’re used to a certain level of openness. Being unable to detect someone’s emotions puts us on edge. It makes it difficult for us to truly trust you… But in your panicked state, you opened up… at least a little. I could feel your joy and relief, clear, and genuine, when you knew I was alright,” She said, giving me a kiss on the cheek before pulling back away from me. “I’m sorry I worried you Cotton,” she apologized, looking into my eyes.

“…I… I guess it’s okay,” I said, looking down to the side, and managing to mostly ignore the rising heat in my cheeks. “I know my emotions aren’t very… stable… right now. But I’ve been trying to get them back under control.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s…” Hesitating for a moment, I decided to tell her. “…There’s a reason why my emotions have been so… chaotic…”

“What is it?” She quickly asked, her excitement rising at the prospect of me willingly opening up to her.

“Before Discord threw me into the Badlands, he did… something… to my head. Ever since then it’s been much more difficult to stay calm, and to keep my emotions under control. I feel like I’ve made a lot of headway in regaining control since then, but… it’s still a work in progress.”

“That’s terrible… I’m so sorry,” she said, giving me another hug. “I can’t imagine what it would be like if I couldn’t express my emotions properly… But,” she started, pulling back to look me in the face while holding my shoulders. “Why were you so apprehensive about telling me that?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t like talking about myself,” I said. “It always sounds like I’m making excuses. It’s my problem, and I’m dealing with it. There’s no reason to involve anyone else.”

“Oh, Cotton,” she sighed, shaking her head at me. “Letting others know that you’re struggling with something isn’t the same as making excuses. You need to learn to ask for help. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help.”

“It’s annoying though. I’m not going to go around bugging people over something I can take care of,” I asserted.

“Are you really taking care of it though?” She countered. “How long have you been struggling with this? How long will you continue to struggle? And how long ago could it have been taken care of, if you had just told someone? If you had just been willing to ask for help?”

“…Maybe, I guess… but-“

“No buts!” She cut me off, giving my shoulders a hard shake. “Now you are just making excuses! Let. Me. Help you.”

“Hmph,” I huffed, shrugging her hooves off me. “If you think you can do something, then go ahead. But I’m pretty sure that the only things that can undo Discords magic are the Elements of Harmo- Ah!” I yelped in surprise as she bopped my nose out of nowhere.

“You’re making excuses again,” she chastised. “If those old relics are the only things that can help you, then how is it that you’ve ‘made headway’ on regaining your control? Clearly you don’t actually need them. Now come on,” she beckoned, turning in the direction of the tunnels. “I may not know anything about healing mental wounds, but if we ask around, I know we’ll find someone.”

“Sure,” I said, rubbing my nose. Moving to follow her, I only now noticed that we were alone. The others must have left while we were talking.

A while later I found myself sitting across from Oscillate, or ‘Scil’, as she prefers. From what I’d heard while Emulate was going around talking to people, Scil was supposed to be one of the most magically astute changelings they had.

She had agreed to help me in exchange for some of Emulates excess energy, and for the last several minutes she had been silently scanning me. Eventually she stopped, opening her eyes as the glow faded from her horn.

“…There’s nothing there,” she stated.

“Excuse me?” I replied, both Emulate and myself giving her perplexed looks.

“Any spell that may have been cast on you has long since coalesced.”

“What do you mean it ‘coalesced’?”

“Well,” she started, sitting up straighter and seemingly going into lecture-mode. “Any spell that alters or distorts the natural state of an object, or creature in this case, leaves behind an echo. This echo is imprinted into the subject of the spell and, for those with the know-how, can be used to determine several things, including the nature of the spell that left it behind. This information can be used to, among other things, unravel that spell, dispelling its effects on the subject,” she explained. “…However, in time, this echo fades. The more it fades, the harder the original spell becomes to identify and disperse. Eventually, when the echo has faded completely, the spell is said to have coalesced with the subject. At that point, the original state of the subject can no longer be restored, as the spell is no longer needed to retain the induced changes.”

“*Sigh* God fucking dammit,” I whispered putting my head in my hooves. “Thanks for trying.”

“Of course,” she replied, getting up. “Sorry that I couldn’t help,” she apologized before leaving.

“…Augh,” I sighed again after Oscillate left.

“Cotton, I… I’m sorry,” Emulate said, trying to comfort me. “I didn’t know-“

“It’s fine,” I cut her off. Standing up, I looked at her, “it doesn’t change anything. I’ll just keep going on like I have been… Now come on,” I said, heading deeper down the tunnels. “This detour’s cutting into our work. I need to find Stern. I have some questions before we try talking to the Queen again.”

“Cotton, wait,” she asked.

I already knew what she was going to say, and I just sighed with my back to her.

“I know you’re upset, I felt it… Please be honest with me.”

“…I am upset… But we have more important things to do than dwell on the past.”

“You’re bottling up your emotions again! Please Cotton, just… be upset!” She pleaded, bounding around to look me in the eye. “Discord did something to you against your will, and now it’s too late to change it back! Pinkie and Twilight, and the other friends you told us so much about, they all abandoned you because of a few lies! You lost your place among the ponies, and now you have to live in this Queens-forsaken forest, and if any pony found out you were helping us, you’d be public enemy number one!” She desperately yelled at me while I kept my head lowered. “Your situation is terrible! Everything in your life has gone wrong! Don’t just push all of that into some dark corner!” She continued, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me. “You have every right to be upset! To be angry! Please, vent to me! I can take it! Don’t let everything fester inside of you like this! You’re not alone anymore! I’m here for you, and I’m not leaving!” She proclaimed, wrapping me in a tight hug. “…I know you don’t want to talk about it, but seeing you do this to yourself is killing me Cotton,” she whispered. “Please, just… let me know what you’re feeling… Just let it out… For me…”

I wanted to nitpick some of those details. It wasn’t just a few lies, and I still have Zecora, and nothing forced me to live in this forest, and… As the seconds of silence stretched on, I could feel her heart beating against my chest, and her forelegs holding on to me …Not everything in my life has gone wrong…

And I didn’t want this to go wrong.

“I am angry,” I whispered back, wrapping her in a hug of my own. “I hate Discord for what he did to me. I hate Twilight, and Pinkie, and Applejack, and Rainbow, and Rarity, and Fluttershy, and all of Ponyville for not giving me the chance to fully explain myself… I hate the socially awkward part of me that lied to them in the first place, and kept lying to them, all for no better reason than that I didn’t want to be the center of attention… I hate the part of myself that got so attached to her that it crippled me when she walked away... And I hate the part of me that still holds a grudge against them over something that I caused…”

I pushed us out of the tight hug so that we could look at each other. I knew this wasn’t exactly what she wanted from me… Just mechanically listing the things I hated.

“But… as bad as my situation might look… I’m not losing as much as you think I am. Not everything in my life has gone wrong like you think it has,” I said, bringing my hooves up to cup her face. “I’m sorry I’m not as expressive as you wish I was. I’m not going to change overnight... But we’ll have plenty of time to work on understanding each other better,” I said, leaning in and giving her a peck on the cheek. “I’m not leaving either. I promise.”

“…Okay, Cotton,” she said after a long pause. Leaning into my right hoof, she raised her own hoof to hold onto it. “I’ll try to be more patient about this, it’s just…” She paused for a second, “never mind. I promise to be more patient,” she said, not finishing her thought.

“It’s just what? Is something wrong?” I probed, bringing my hooves back to the ground.

“No, it’s just… Changelings experience love differently, and I know you’re not a changeling, but… it’s just hard, you know? To be fight your instincts all the time.”

“I… don’t…” I slowly said, genuinely confused. “Can you explain it?”

“Well, it’s like I said before, about how we’re used to openness and have a hard time trusting people who keep their emotions hidden,” she began. “Being so empathic as we are, love, for us, is on a whole other level. When two changelings are in love, their hearts reach out to each other, forming a deep bond between them… They can always feel each other, and they feed each other, maintaining an equilibrium between them. But… you’re not a changeling... and we cannot bond like that,” she said, tears starting to form in her eyes. “My heart reaches out to you…” she raises her hoof towards me, “but it finds nothing reaching back,” she concluded, placing her hoof over her chest. “It feels like my love I’m being ignored… We connect, briefly, when your love comes to the surface, but… when you pull it back… the connection breaks, and my heart aches with rejection,” she says, sniffling and wiping at her eyes.

“Oh, Emmy,” I said, pulling her back into a hug. “I’m so sorry, I had no idea…”

“I know,” she replied. “I knew you didn’t mean it, but you reacted so badly last time I tried talking to you about your emotions… I didn’t want to bring it up again so soon.”

“*Sigh* Yeah, I know I can be really testy, but… like everything else, I’m still working on it…”

We stayed like that for a while, reassuring each other… But we really did have an important task to worry about. Moving on, we eventually found captain Stern so that we could learn more before talking to Chrysalis again. My question was met with a disappointing answer, however.

“No,” he replied when asked if the Queen had anyone she was more open with. “If there were anyone like that, I would have called on them instead of you. Sadly, the Queen has been quite solitary since her mother’s passing.”

“Crap, that's gunna make things harder,” I said with a sigh. “...Do you have any ideas on how we can get her to start talking to us?” I asked, to which the captain merely shook his head.

“I never had very much contact with the Queen in the time before becoming her Captain. My father might have known such things, but...” he trailed off, looking down. Emulate lowered her head as well, which made me realize.

The captain who died with the last Queen! “I'm so sorry for your loss,” I said. “We've been so worried about Chrysalis that I didn't even stop to think-”

“You,” he interrupted, stabbing a hoof into my face, and coming only mere millimeters away from outright punching me as I instinctively flinched back. “-Will address the Queen with the proper respect.”

“With all due respect,” I sarcastically replied, “'proper respect', sounds like social isolation, and that is not what she needs right now,” I said. His eyes narrowed, clearly not liking my lip, while I tensed up, getting ready to dodge if he took a swing at me. “Why do you think I was looking for someone who's more friendly with her? I think she just needs someone to talk to. Someone who isn't pressuring her to perform all the time,” I accused. “Someone that she doesn't feel like she's already disappointed.”

“I have always been supportive of the Queen, in all of her endeavors,” he angrily proclaimed.

“Then why aren't you the one I'm looking for?” I countered. “Why won't she open up to you, and let you comfort her?”

He struggled to find an answer, and his anger quickly fizzled out.

“...I don't know,” he sorrowfully admitted, his head down in despair.

“...I don't know either,” I said after a pause. “I don't have much experience with this social bullshit... but not everyone's cut out to handle isolation. I don't know what you've done, or what you've tried to do... but it hasn't worked out. We need to try a different approach.”

Several seconds passed as he mulled it over in his head... Eventually, Emulate interjected.

“Sir?” She questioned. “If you're not comfortable with this, then... perhaps it would be for the best if Cotton and I... spoke with the Queen alone?”

“...Perhaps it would,” he answered. “As I am now, my presence would merely agitate her.”

“Whatever you want, I guess,” I said, uncertainly. She might still be mad at him, but... I don't know if making her mad would be a good thing or not... Pissing her off might be the only way to get her to interact with us, but, at the same time, it could be dangerous if she lashes out at us...

“Do you think he should come anyway?” Emulate asked, sensing my uncertainty.

“I don't know,” I said with a sigh, raking a hoof over my scalp. "Making her angry could be dangerous for us, but at the same time, it might be the only thing we can do to get through to her in the state she's in.”

“...I think,” Emulate started, sounding slightly nervous. “...We should save intentionally angering the Queen as a last resort.”

I nodded in agreement as I started walking away, heading for the Queens chamber. Pulling my notes out of my saddlebags, I scratched a line through a bullet point called 'friends' with a question mark.

“...So... you have any ideas?” I asked her. “'Cause all I've got is asking her questions until she answers. Maybe annoy her a little by pretending she's answering with silly or embarrassing replies,” I elaborated. Emulate quirked an eyebrow at me. “Well, I figure, eventually, she'll at least tell me to shut up. And that's progress.”

Having no better ideas herself, Emulate offered to help support my plan however she could. We spent a few minutes strategizing before taking the plunge and going back down to Chrysalis' room.

“-Lavender?” I Questioned, making sure my pen was tapping as loudly as possible as I pretended to record the non-response to what her favorite color was. “Well, that's kind of unexpected, I would of thought you were more of a teal,” I said. “Oh? When you were little, there was a lavender bush you'd hide inside whenever you played hide and seek? Well, that makes sense then...”

During our strategizing, Emulate and I had determined that asking questions one after the other, as Chrysalis blatantly ignored us, wouldn't be very effective at drawing her into actually interacting with us... So, I was using the idea of pretending that she was answering me, recording her 'answers' with my clipboard, and then making up a little story, as if she were explaining why such was her answer.

“...That's pretty cool... So, what kind of music do you like?”

I was currently pulling pretty much all of the weight with this strategy, despite Emulates pledge to help me. She was getting visibly nervous the closer we got to our destination, and the instant we were actually in the Queen's presence, she suddenly didn't seem as on-board with this plan as she had been. And I could understand that, I mean, it's the difference between laughing it up with a friend as you plan to egg the principle's car, and actually showing up to school with a carton of eggs. All the bravado disappears as soon as any real potential consequences come into play.

But still... “Ocarina? Dang, I totally had you pegged as a guitar sort of girl...” It's not like this isn't incredibly awkward for me too, I thought, sending a glance at Emulate, standing over by the entrance with a deer-in-the-headlights sort of look on her face. “Ah, so a wondering minstrel was to blame. I understand how a really well played bit of music can just get stuck in your head, right Emmy?” I asked, trying to get her involved in this.

“Oh, um, yes,” she lamely replied, to which I gave her a deadpan look. Breaking off from the fight to goad a response from Chrysalis, I walked over to Emulate.

“Emmy, what's wrong with you? Why are you so scared?” I whispered.

“What? N-no, no, I just... I know we need to help, but, I really don't want to upset the Queen any more than we already have,” she whispered back. “Maybe we should... come back tomorrow? Just give her some more time?”

“What are you feeling? Is she still that mad about-”

“Would you just shut up already,” said the least likely source of speech in the area as she rolled over onto her other side. “I can't sleep with all of your incessant prattling,” she continued without opening her eyes. “Leave me,” she commanded.

“No.” I heard Emulate gasp as the Queens eyes snapped open. “We're not leaving this time. Not until you're done moping,” I said, looking her straight in the eye.

I was prepared to defend myself, waiting for her to try attacking me for my defiance... But instead, she seemed to deflate as she simply closed her eyes again.

Being able to feel her emotions myself would be really handy right now I thought, not wanting to take the time to ask Emulate. “That's it?” I asked. “What happened to the changeling that would shock me every time I spoke out of turn?”

I sighed when there was no reply.

Back to the silent treatment... “I think I have an idea of what's bothering you... Will you tell me if I'm wrong?” I didn't think I'd get a response, but I paused anyway. “...I think you've been alone for a long time... Alone in a sea of loyal subjects who don't really see you... just your crown.” I paused again, knowing she wouldn't respond, but leaving the option open for her. From what I saw before, this should get a response from her. “...How long has it been since you had someone you were close with? Has there been anyone since your mother passed?”

“You will not speak of her!” She commanded, actually sitting up to glare at me.

“I will speak of her!” I defied, not backing away as she stood to her full height. “The fact that you won’t even let anyone mention your mother shows that you aren’t over her death yet. You can’t just ignore it. You need to face that pain, and get over it!”

“That's rich coming from a pony!” She angrily spat. “When have you ever had to suffer! When have you ever lost anything important! How could you possibly know what it’s like!” She shouted as poor Emulate tried to shrink away into a corner in order to avoid her Queens wrath.

“What what is like!?” I shot back. “The feeling of losing the only person you were ever close to? The feeling of hopelessness when you realize there's nothing you can do to save them? Or the hollow feeling when you put empty box into the ground?” I asked, eyes watering against my will as those old memories were pulled forward. There was a change in her eyes as we stared each other down. The intensity of my own emotions conveying to her just how much I knew what I was talking about. “Our situations may be different, but I know what loss feels like, and I know how hard it can be to come back from... but you can’t let it dominate your life. Your misery won't bring them back. It only holds you down.”

“You think I don't already know that?” She asked, her anger subsiding.

“Then why are we down here? Why aren't you up there doing your job and being their Queen.” She looked down to the side, like there was something that she didn't want to admit. “I'm not psychic. You need to say it out loud,” I prodded.

“I'm a failure,” she half sobbed, collapsing back to the ground. “I've brought nothing but suffering and death to my subjects. How can I continue to lead them after all I've done?” She cried into her hooves.

I sighed in frustration, raking a hoof over my scalp again. “Listen... you are clearly a good and caring Queen. The fact that you’re beating yourself up like this proves at least that much,” I reasoned. “But you can’t just give up and abandon them now. Captain Stern is working himself to the bone trying to keep everything together in your stead, but that won’t last. Sooner or later, they will start asking where you are. What you’re doing… Why you’ve abandoned them...”

“They're better off without me.”

“Are they-”

“That's not true!” Emulate burst out, interrupting me as she finally got over whatever anxiety was holding her back. “Things may have gone bad, but everything you've done has been for our sake! Even when you don't explain your decisions to us... we still understand that,” she said, bowing low, rather than looking at Chrysalis.

“I really don't like this blind faith mentality you all seem to have,” I stated, watching as Emulate maintained her bow. “Like Ghandi said, 'faith should be enforced by reason', so for what reason did you order the attack on Canterlot?” I asked, returning my gaze to the Queen. “I understand the significance of unraveling Princess Cadence's special power, but why did you change the plan so drastically, and without even telling anyone what you were doing? How was that supposed to benefit your subjects?” I demanded.

“Cotton!” Emulate exclaimed, “don't-”

“The same reason I tried to give up on,” Chrysalis weakly replied, Emulate cutting herself off the instant she started to speak. “I was drunk on power, and I thought that I could finally achieve my dream. To make a place that my changelings could call home,” she sadly explained, eyes still watering.

“What power?” I asked, although I was pretty sure of what it was.

“...It was a guardspony. The Princess's lover,” she said, voice becoming reverent. “His love was so strong, so intense... I couldn't help but to drink of it, and when I did, it felt... unending,” she explained, giving a slight shiver at the memory. “I gorged myself, and after only a few days, I was more powerful than I had ever been... Than any Queen had ever been. I felt... unstoppable,” she trailed off, the sadness returning to her countenance. “...But I wasn't...”

“...And now what?” I questioned.

It was time to shift the conversation. She'd started talking to us, and she'd admitted the feelings that were holding her down. Now we just need to convince her to take action.

She looked at me, confused.

“What are you going to do now?” I reiterated. “Your changelings have lost their homes, and some of them even lost their lives because of you... How are you going to repay them for that misjudgment?”

“Cotton..!” Emulate stage-whispered at me, coming out of her bow as Chrysalis returned her head to the ground, fresh tears coming to her eyes.

“No,” I cut her off. “Let her speak. Chrysalis, what will you do?”

“I don't know!” She sobbed into the ground.

“Their suffering cannot be repaid by yours,” I relentlessly continued. “You are their leader, you don't have the luxury of feeling sorry for yourself. You need to take action. How are you going to repay them for their loyalty and their blood?” I pressed.

“Shut up!” She screamed, her horn flaring to life as I was flung into the wall. I had just barely enough time to cushion the impact using my own magic, but I remained pinned to the wall as she approached. “If you think you're so great, then you tell me!” She shouted into my face, her anger tinged with desperation. I could tell that she truly wished for me to have the answer.

“I don't know.”

I suddenly dropped to the floor, and I could practically see the life draining from her eyes as she did as well.

“What am I supposed to do?” She quietly cried, hooves pressed against her head like she was trying to squeeze the answer out of her brain. Seeing her despair at not being given an answer, I sighed, continuing...

“I'm sorry, but... there's nothing 'great' about me, and I don't have any answers to give you. I put up a good face, but I don't know anything about what it's like to be a leader... to have all of that responsibility weighing you down... But I do know a changeling who can help get you on the right path.” I had to work very hard to keep my emotions flat as she looked up at me with a desperate need in her eyes. Broken... in despair... and fully open to suggestion... All according to plan. God, I am such a bastard for doing this to her, but she never struck me as being particularly willing to listen to others. “You should talk to Stern,” I told her. “He's more than just your head guard, he's your second in command. Just because you're the Queen, doesn't mean you're the only one allowed to think. Lean on his support, and ask for his advice. You'll find the answer together,” I advised.

She looked down, contemplative.

“But before any of that,” I started, looking towards the exit where Emulate was already waiting. “...You need to leave this room,” I said, extending a hoof towards her. “Everyone wants to help you,” I continued when she looked hesitantly at my hoof. “...You just need to let them.”

She hesitated for a while... but eventually, she reached out for my offered hoof, and I helped her stand.

Stern was waiting for us when we entered the main tunnel. Emulate and I left him and Chrysalis to talk things over, leaving the two of us with no official duties to perform. I wasn't really sure of what to do with this free time. Normally I'd use any free time to study some magic or work on my experiments, but I couldn't really do either of those things anymore... At least not without catching more parasprites.

“Cotton?” Emulate called, pulling out of my train of thought.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Can I ask you something?” She asked, stopping.

“You just did,” I replied, grinning at her.

I stopped when I noticed her serious expression.

“Are you a... sociopath?”

“What?” I asked, recoiling my head in surprise. I was definitely not expecting that.

“The Queen may have been too wrapped up in her own emotions to notice, but I did. You were pleased,” she accused. “Happy, even, when she was completely broken and begging you for direction,” she said, giving me a sad, but also angry, look.

“No! I'm not a sociopath. I'm just... goal oriented. I don't get any pleasure from making people grovel before me,” I assured her. “We didn't exactly have time to waste on the slow and sensitive approach. I needed her to be in a state of mind where she would actually do what I told her to. So that's what I did. Any satisfaction I may have felt was purely the result of knowing that I succeeded in that,” I explained.

“...How is that a no?”

“Because there was no malicious intent to what I did. We needed Chrysalis back on her hooves again so we could hurry up and get to work on our next goal.”

“'Our next goal'?” She repeated. “Are you our leader now!?” She asked in outrage.

“No! Obviously not, but you can't deny that there are things that need to be done! You can't just hide in these tunnels until you die, or the world starts liking you.”

“What would you have us do then?” She demanded.

“That's not my decision, and wasn't my point,” I rebutted. “The point is that, whatever they decide to do, they can do it now. Now that they aren't distracted by... other things.” She frowned at me.

“This didn't fix anything. She needed help, not... what you did.”

“You're right,” I said, which made her start in surprise. “...And now we have all the time in the world to actually help her. She needs friends that she can open up to, not just subjects who respect her. We can be that for her, and eventually she'll get better. Actually better.”

“...Okay,” she sighed, looking a little nervous at the idea of trying to be friends with her Queen. “...You will apologize to her,” she ordered.

“I was already planning to,” I replied, to which she nodded her head in approval.

That done with, we continued onward, aimlessly walking back up to what amounted to the main living area. The atmosphere still felt a bit... off... between us though as we walked side-by-side.

We've been arguing a lot these last few days, I thought with a sigh. I should apologize somehow, but... I don't know... What can I do that would be nice for her..?

“...Hey, Emmy?” I slowly, nervously, asked.

“Hmm?” She answered, just briefly glancing at me.

“This might be a weird time to ask, but... would you... like to go out somewhere?” I hesitantly asked, more nervous about this than I was about talking to the Queen.

Stopping, she looked at me with a deadpan expression for several seconds as I felt little beads of nervous sweat gather on my forehead...

And then she smiled, and laughed.

“Yes. I think I'd like that.”

Author's Note

It's always our own hypocrisy that we're the least aware of. But anyway, sorry for the extra long wait on this chapter. My life just keeps getting busier and busier it seems. It also doesn't help that I've completely lost any ambition to work on this story.

I still uphold my promise to actually finish this story. I will not be that asshole who just up and cancels their story halfway through. I'm just sorry that it's taken me this many chapters for it to finally settle on me that... I really, really just don't like writing. It's not something that I enjoy spending my time on. I'd much rather be hunting with a pack of Dilos on ARK, or exploring the depths in Subnautica, or even reading fanfictions again. I don't even remember the last time I read something other than a one-shot. I just never feel like I have time anymore to really get stuck-in to a long story.

Hope ya'll had a lovely christmas and new years. See ya next time.

Quantum Shenanigans

It was a peacful day in the Everfree forest. The sky was clear, the sun shining, birds singing, and the Hive...

Feeding.

The Farm was full to capacity with the hungry, and the line for those awaiting their turn stretched far beyond this one chamber, winding through the cave system in which they've been forced to hide. The Farm, as I've named it, is my creation. Currently housing seventeen ponies within lime green cocoons, most of them kidnapped by me over the last week. Each is held in a perpetual dream state, magically engineered to consist wholly of the memories of their loved ones. It provides a slow, but steady, drip of ambient love for the Changelings to consume.

As I watch them I can't help but think how different this is to how I wanted to live my life here. The whole Hive knows my name and even now I can feel dozens of eyes on me. And though their stares are filled with gratitude, the feeling of being watched leaves me very uncomfortable. I never liked the idea of fame, and I've always hated having people stare at me.

As the allotted feeding time for this group ends I leave the chamber with them, soon splitting off to head for the entrance. Seventeen may sound like a lot, but there are almost a thousand changelings to feed, and I needed to continue expanding the Farm. It only served as a supplemental food source at the moment, but someday... someday it would be all they needed.

The closer I get to the entrance, the more I can smell that familiar smell. It's nearly impossible to describe, like some unholy combination of cinnamon and acetone maybe, but it reminds me of Zecora, and the day I first arrived in Equestria.

It was a slightly less peaceful day in the Everfree forest, and the only sound to be heard was my screaming. I was falling, and I had never been a fan of heights in the first place.

"AHHHH!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!" Last thing I knew I was in the lab, now I was a hundred or more feet above a forest canopy. It took me a few seconds to fight back my all consuming panic and spread myself out to create as much drag as possible. Oh God I'm in for so much pain when I get down there. But, if I manage to hit every branch I can on the way down I might survive at least. My thoughts at the time were such that I didn't even notice that I couldn't feel any of my fingers or toes.

I drew my arms and legs in at the last second to protect my head and body.

Snapsnapsnap, snap, CRACK

"AHHHH!!"

Snap, snap, Thwack.

"Ahh... ahh Go-ha-hah-od. I think my arms are broken." My limbs had unfolded out from beneath me sometime between the last branch and the one I was currently balancing on by my stomach.

Crack. "Wha-!" the branch was cracked by my landing on it, and now it was giving out. Snap... Snap, snapsnap. "Oh shitshitshitshitSHIIIIIT!!!" crunch. SO much pain. My vision was swimming and I could feel something hard under my head. I must have hit a root or something.

I don't know how long I laid there, eyes closed trying to will myself numb so I could move. As I tried fruitlessly to fight down the pain I started to take stock of my injuries the best I could without any medical background. I can't move my hands, that's a bad sign. I hit that last branch with my stomach instead of my ribs, I hope I didn't rupture any organs. Though If I had I'd probably be in too much pain to even think. I can't wiggle my toes, but my feet feel fine. That's weird.

I heard a low growling sound and my eyes immediately snapped open. My first thought was the vicious mauling scenes from The Grey and how I should have just took a nosedive into the dirt and killed myself when I had the chance. Digging my heels into the dirt and pushing myself into a sitting position I was greeted by several sets of glowing eyes leering at me from the surrounding underbrush. This oddity didn't really register with me until they stalked slowly out of the bushes into the meager light from the hole I made in the canopy. I immediately recognized the wolf-shaped collections of logs and sticks for what they were, though this mind warping realization did nothing to quell my fears. There was more rustling to my left and I figured I was surrounded, not that I could have gotten away in the first place.

I futilely tried to lift my arms in defense when they lunged and were blocked by a cloaked figure with a spear leaping from the bushes to my left. The figure proceeded to wack the four timberwolves with the stone tip of the spear several times in quick succession like a scene out of some Japanese kung fu show.

"Begone foul creatures, or I'll add some new scars to your features!" Shouted what could only be Zecora as she held the spear in her front hooves while balancing on her back ones. The wolves all picked themselves back up and started growling at her for several seconds before they seemed to concede and slowly backed into the underbrush and disappeared.

That's really weird. I don't remember timberwolves ever backing down from anything. Although they were only in like, one episode... Suddenly I caught a whiff of something really horrible and I had to wonder if that was the bad breath Spike was talking about. Zecora put her spear back to wherever she holds it and turned to me, and for a moment an irrational spike of fear shot through me and her eyes looked really menacing. A shiver went through me and when I blinked she looked normal again and the feeling had passed, that's when I noticed she had asked me something. "What was that?"

"Hmm, injured you are, that much is clear, come, let's be away from here."

"Yeah, I think my-" I look down at myself for the first time, to confirm what I'd already guessed when she never asked what I was, noting my new beige fur as I do so, "-forelegs are broken. I doubt I'll be doing any walking for a while." We puzzled over how to move me without hurting my legs too much and eventually came to a sorta, two man conga line setup. I kept my forelegs hanging as motionless as possible on either side of her flanks to keep from jostling the bone too much. This position was rife with innuendo looking back on it but my mind was on other things at the time.

"It is most fortunate that I heard your cry, or those timberwolves would have been your final goodbye."

Ha. I think that was my hint to say 'thanks for saving my ass'. "No doubt. That was pretty epic the way you swooped in and started smackin' them around like that. Thanks for saving me by the way missz-." Woah, almost slipped up there, I thought, dragging the 'miss' up into a questioning inflection.

"It is Zecora, and I must ask the same. So Mr. Unicorn, what is your name?"

Unicorn? Kick ASS MotherF- wait... "oh, it's, uh-" shit, what's a pony sounding name? "uh, c-cotton. Cotton Hill." Thank god Cotton's either fictional, or in a different universe, or he'd kill me for saying his name was pony like.

"A pleasure to meet you Cotton Hill, do you live in nearby Ponyville? And what brought you to the forest today? I had heard most ponies tend to stay away."

"No, I'm from Manehatten." I need a map. I can't remember any other cities beside Canterlot and Appaloosa. "And I didn't want to be in this forest. I was doing an experiment and it must have gone wrong." Or right now that I think about it. That could explain how I got here...

We soon came to a small clearing containing a spectacular tree held aloof by massive aerial roots. The ground had been dug out underneath it to provide a taller space and there were several of, what looked like, tiki torches throughout the clearing. That bad smell came back again but much stronger than before.

"Augh! What is that smell! I thought it was the timberwolves before but now it's here too."

"Ah, that would be our special mixture, made to ward off frightful creatures. It evaporates into the air and tells the animals to beware."

So that's why the wolves backed down. That smell somehow stimulated their fight or flight instincts and made them think she was to dangerous to mess with. That also explains why her house is never attacked by anything despite how dangerous the Everfree is supposed to be.

She directed me to lay down on a small cot under the tree and I had to wonder why she brought me here instead of her hut. I carefully flopped onto the cot, letting out a hiss of pain as my forelegs protested this movement, and thought of a way to broach the subject.

"This has got to be the coolest tree house I've ever seen, is this like a camp site or something?"

"Not exactly, it isn't quite done, the construction of my new home has only just begone." She was sifting around through a small chest of some kind, probably full of potions given the soft clinking of glasses I could hear.

"New home? What happened to your old one?" She pulled one bottle from the chest and sat it down by the cot to answer my question.

"My old home was in Zabrica, and I thought I'd see what life would be like in Equestria." She offered no more explanation, leading me to believe there was some more backstory to that particular decision, but it was none of my business. "I don't have any bone healing potions, so for now all I can give you is this numbing lotion." she removed the cap revealing a brush attachment and started smearing the white cream onto my legs. I have to say, magic is awesome, my right leg stopped throbbing before she was even finished with the left.

"Wow. This stuff is amazing, how do you make it?" I'd love to get this stuff under an mass spec., or any number of analytical devices. It's too bad I don't know how to build any of it...

"Perhaps I will show you someday, but for now it is best we not delay." Zecora grabbed a jingling bag, most likely of bits, and hid it under her cloak before flipping the hood back over her head. "There are some ingredients that I need, so I'll make for Ponyville with best speed." As she turned and left Zecora gave me a warning not to move to much. I thought about stopping her, but knowing that the townsponies would all be afraid of her and close up shop the instant she set foot in town would have been an awkward thing to try and explain.

Oh well. This'll at least give me some alone time to think things over and make a believable backstory for myself. First things first: quantum leaping into Equestria. Last thing I knew I was in the research lab of the company I worked for experimenting with superconducting organic compounds. My goal, like pretty much every scientist in the world working with electricity, was to make a substance that would superconduct at practical temperatures, e.g. something that wouldn't need liquid nitrogen cooling to work.

But no one really knows what superconductivity is at a subatomic level, we only know the symptoms of it, zero resistance to current, ect.. Several of the theories paint it as some property of quantum mechanics that emerges at extremely low temperatures, and very low temperatures of course mean very low energy environments. I'm no theoretical physicist but my best guess would be that I managed to make a room temperature superconductor. And when I ran the electric current through it, the high energy conditions of the situation could have formed some kind of worm hole that I was sucked into, depositing me, or at least my consciousness, in a new universe...

But that still doesn't explain how I could have transformed/ been transferred into, a pony body... or maybe it does, fuck I don't know, I'm just a chemist god dammit!

*sign* Not that it matters anyway, I could spend years theorizing and it wouldn't make any difference to the situation. Time to focus on the here and now. Unfortunately I had to disobey my witch-doctors orders and start moving around to get a good look at myself and, most importantly, see what my cutie mark was. Thank fuck for that numbing lotion, who knows how much damage I was doing to myself.

My cutie mark, as it turns out, was a single pale blue smiley face with a shut zipper instead of a mouth. So my talent is not talking? ...Yeah I can see that, but it's a shit talent so I'm gunna think of something else to tell people... I mean ponies. I hate grammar. I caught a glimpse of my mane out of the corner of my eye and it looked the same color as my fur, though I'd have to look again when I had access to a mirror.

I spent the next hour or so just running through possibilities of what ponies might ask me and how I would answer them. Once I finished planning for my first venture into Ponyville and mentally prepared myself for the inevitable encounter with Pinkie, I turned to the subject of magic. I was a unicorn after all, according to Zecora, and with a quick crossing of my eyes to confirmed it, I set about trying to levitate things. It took me an estimated two hours of intense concentration, but I finally got some sparks to trickle out of my horn by the time Zecora came back.

"I apologize for the great delay, but it seems all the shops were closed today. I had to search the forest for the herbs I did need to get your legs back up to speed." She removed the bit bag from her cloak and placed several plants I couldn't recognize on top of the potion chest as she didn't have any tables yet.

"That's alright, I'm just getting a lot of time to relax is all." she nodded in acknowledgement and pulled a mortar and pestle set along with a small cauldron out of another bag and started the slow rhythmic task of pounding the plants into powder. I didn't want to practice using magic with her around as it would bring up uneasy questions of why a full grow unicorn doesn't know how to use magic. So I simply laid there, staring at the bottom of the tree that was the ceiling until the rhythmic scraping sound of the pestle lulled me to sleep.

Whew, cleanin' that mess sure took a long time, thought miss Jubilee. The click of the lock on the cherry sorting station doors was such a welcome sound that night. A few cherries had fallen off the conveyor belt and got all ground up in the gears.

"You have a good night Miss Jubilee," said a blue earth pony mare.

"Thank you for staying over to help Peach. Why, I'd've been here all night without your help. See you in the mornin'." They waved their farewells and went their separate ways.

It sure is dark tonight, she thought taking a look up to the moon overhead. There were a few clouds blocking the moons light, Dodge Junction didn't have many pagasi so stray clouds were fairly common.

"Hrrraaahhhhhhh..."

"Huh? What was that?" Miss Jubilee stopped and perked her ears up trying to hear anything.

"..." Nothing.

"Hm. I must be more tired than I thought." Dismissing the sound as the wind she continued on toward her home. She soon passed an alley, and she heard that sound again, but now it was accompanied by a strange scratching sound. Curious she stopped and looked into the alley. It was too dark to see anything but she thought she could make out the shape of a pony.

"Hello? Is that you making that strange sound?" A small breeze picked up and moved the clouds just enough for the moons light to peer through and reveal the pony in the alley. It was a rather tall stallion, he was wearing a fancy suit, but the face was his most striking feature.

There wasn't one.

As she stood there in shock the scratching noise started getting louder and louder, almost hurting her ears. The shadows in the alley started to move, thin black tendrils of darkness were reaching out to ensnare her. With a scream she bolted and made for the nearest house.

"Please let me in! There's something out here!" As she banged at the door the shadows on the porch quickly reached out and grabbed one of her hooves. She frantically shook it off but more kept coming, and with another scream she ran back into the street. There she saw it again, the faceless thing was waiting in the same alley as before, but then it took a step towards her.

Jubilee turned and ran down the street away from it, but then it stepped out from behind another building up ahead on the right side of the street. Black cords of shadow speared out in her direction and with another panicked scream she turned left and ran down a different street.

"Please! Somepony! Anypony!" Why is no pony answering me! Why can't they hear me!

There it was again ahead of her somehow, this time on the left, so she turned right. Again and again, it was always ahead of her, waiting with it's shadows. They clawed and creeped and reached for her, she could see them writhing on every doorstep, waiting for her come to them. She never even noticed that she was being herded out of town until the last building flew past her as she ran.

Up ahead she could see another pony, this one a unicorn, it's white mane shining in the moonlight like immaculate silver to her eyes. At that moment, it was like seeing an angel.

She ran up to the pony she could now recognize as a stallion, "Oh thank dear Celestia above! You have to help me, there's some, some, THING chasing me it's right-" She turned to show him the monster that would surely be right behind her, but there was nothing there.

" *sigh* That makes eighteen."

"What does that me-" She turned to see his horn glowing. A blistering red light pierced her forehead and all was dark.

Author's Note

To anyone who doesn't know, This is basically what a tree with aerial roots is referring to. If you look closely you can see strait through to the other side.

Does anyone have suggestions for generic pony names? I have always sucked at thinking up names, it took me like, ten minutes to come up with "Peach" for the random background pony who will never be seen again.

And I don't know who first came up with the concept of turning slender man into slender mane, but I'm using it anyway. I'm uncreative like that.

Be forewarned, this story will be slow as molasses to start with and the changlings don't become a significant part of the story for several chapters.

I'm T-N-T...

I was thankful to find no kids hovering around me when I woke up this time. The wagon was still moving, but I could see light through the cloth. Why are we moving if the sun is already up? Silver said they only travel at night. I looked outside to see the caravan was obviously not in the badlands anymore.

I jumped out onto the ground and started trotting along side the wagon while looking around. The ground was very dry and we were currently on a dusty dirt road. There were fields of some kind of desert shrub on both sides of the road leading off into the distance on the very flat ground. Up ahead by what couldn't have been more than five miles were some small mountains with a nice big one right in the middle that seemed to have a settlement at it's base.

As we moved, several shapes began to take form in the sky. They drew closer until I could recognize them as several pagasi. Once they drew nearer one of them broke off from the formation and came strait towards me, quickly revealing itself to be Silver.

"Hey, good morning Cotton! Finally woke up huh?" She swooped around and landed in a trot right next to me, bumping her flank against mine as she landed. It could have been an accident, but I doubted it, and I was again cursing Discord in my head as I faught down the urge to bump her back.

"Yeah. So what's going on, what were you all doing flying up ahead?"

"We were just scouting ahead and letting the Minotaurs know we're coming. The Sheriff said we could set up camp a mile from town so we don't get in the way or 'cause any trouble'." She made her voice really deep for that last part.

"Cause trouble? What kind of trouble are you expected to cause?"

"Oh, who knows. Most places treat us like this, like just because we're nomads we're untrustworthy." She performed a noncommittal shrug of her shoulders, like it didn't bother her to be considered of suspect nature.

That sounds a lot like how Gypsy bands were treated in the past. "Doesn't it bother you? That it's just assumed that your people will cause trouble?"

"Nah, you get used to it. At least we don't get run out of most places, that's actually why we left Zabrica. I guess we just... outstayed our welcome." I actually felt a pang of sympathy for her people at that.

They seem like pretty nice ponies, if just a bit overeager... well, I have only really met two of them, so maybe it's just Silver and Diamond who are all flirty. Admittedly I didn't really know anything about these ponies I suddenly found myself associated with. All I really knew was that they were a nomadic band and they took care of my unconcious body for four days and haven't asked anything of me in return yet.

"But that's enough of that talk. I saw some nice restaurants while we were in town, wanna get a bite to eat once camp is set up?"

I had just been asked on a date. It took my brain a few seconds to process that. I've never been on a date before, or had any sort of girlfriend. What should I do?! I don't really like her in any intimate way, should I say yes for the free food? Or shoot her down? Does she really like me, or is she just trying to loosen me up for a quickie? Or is it completely benign and I'm just totally misreading everything? Augh! I'm not used to this being desired by women shit!

"Aww, come on, please?" She must have taken my silence as a no and was now giving me the puppy dog eyes.

"...Sure, I guess." I wasn't very certain about agreeing to this.

"Cheer up, it'll be fun, don't you worry!" She was certainly happy about my answer. Before I realized it she had her wing around me again, and that feeling was back. That damned feeling of warmth, of being held. I indulged in it for about a minute before telling her to let go.

It was a few hours later, camp had been set up and the sun was high in the sky when Silver and I started towards the town. I still didn't want her trying to hold me, but now it was for an entirely different reason.

"I hate the south sooo much. It's just too bleeding hot out!" I was swimming in my own sweat as the equatorial heat beat down on my northern born ass.

"It isn't too bad actually." My attitude definitely wasn't being helped by the peanut gallery.

"Oh piss off miss 'I lived in Zabrica for years and burned away all my sweat glands'! Where I lived, it got above eighty degrees maybe twice a year, it's got to be at least ninty out now! And it isn't even noon yet!" She just laughed at my predicament as we walked into town and started navigating the dusty streets. We must have looked quite a site if the stares we were garnering from the locals was anything to go by, and I couldn't blame them. Here were two ponies, one drenched in sweat and panting for breath, the other looking no worse for wear and happily trotting along without a care in the world.

It was definitely different being less than half the height of everyone around me. I was actually pretty tall back on earth, and having to look up at literally everyone was making me feel quite vulnerable. I found myself unconciously moving closer to Silver as the Minotaurs walking the streets increased in number the farther we got into town. Eventually we came to a stop infront of a building that looked an awful lot like a saloon. It even had a saloon door. Must just be a desert settlement kind of thing. I remember there being a saloon in Appaloosa with a door like this too.

Because minotaurs are so much taller than ponies I opened the door with my magic, so we wouldn't have to shove our heads against it to come in. The inside was pretty standard looking, like most bars I'd seen, but there was liquor behind the bar instead of cider. We hopped into our seats at a free table, the chairs being large enough that we could actually sit comfortably on our haunches, when the waitress walked over. It was a female, still very large compared to us, but her horns were small and rounded and she lacked the nose ring that most males seemed to have. She wore a thick piece of leather over her breasts which, honestly, looked more like a piece of armor than a bra, and she didn't look particularly happy with having to be our server.

"We don't have much here for ponies," she said as she tossed two menus onto the table in front of either of us. "What'll you have to drink?"

"Can I have a pitcher of water, or can I only get individual glasses?" She gave me a once over with her eyes, I was still covered in sweat and breathing hard. No electricity equals no air conditioning, and it was only marginally cooler in here than outside.

"I'll get you a pitcher. And you?"

"I'll just have a glass of water," said Silver as she started looking over the menu. She left us then to peruse the menu for anything edible for ponies.

This menu is really making me miss being human, some of this stuff sounds really good. There were pork dishes, chicken dishes, a few types of fish, no beef though. I guess that makes sense. That would be kind of cannibalistic for minotaurs... Eventually we found a mushroom stew that didn't have any meat in it and made our orders.

Silver started up some small talk while I just quietly listened and drank my water. It was nice having her all the way on the other side of the table where she couldn't try to hug me or anything. It let me focus and think clearly, without needing to fight any of my runaway emotions. She was regaling me with a story of somepony she met in Zabrica, when it happened.

"-And he had soo many piercings in his face that he-" rumble "-jingled with every-"

"Shh, wait... did you feel that?" Before she could answer me, a bowl of mushroom stew was roughly clacked onto the table infront of me, scaring the crap out of me since I hadn't been paying attention.

"That was just more blasting from the mines. You get used to it after a while," she said while putting the second bowl infront of Silver.

"Oh, alright th-" The ground rumbled again, longer this time, and harder. The tramers lasted for several seconds before they stopped, and everyone in the bar went quiet. "...I don't know much about mining... but that probably wasn't supposed to happen." Like a stampede the bar was evacuated as everyone ran outside, leaving only myself and Silver. I sent a longing glance at my stew before begrudgingly jumping out of my chair. "Come on, we've gotta go help." She followed me out, though she didn't even spare a second glance at her bowl.

We made our way through the streets, following the crowds to the mine entrance while I puzzled over my desire to help. This kind of selfless behavior really isn't like me. I don't owe these people anything, I don't have any more reason to care about their lives than the lives of the random shooting victims I used to ignore on the news... But when I thought about just ignoring this and eating my food... I don't know, I just lost my appetite.

When we made it to the mine there were several minotaurs in leather armor with swords and axes keeping the crowd back from the entrance.

"Keep your distance!" The one in charge was yelling, "we know you want to help! But we can't have the whole town packed into the mine! Go on back to your business and leave this to us and the remaining miners!" This one was distinguished from the others by a single steel plate strapped over his armor on the left side of his chest. Silver and I squeezed past the legs of the crowd until we made it to the front.

"I'd like to help if I can."

"And why would you want to help us pony?" He was looking down his snout at me and giving off the general impression that he didn't like me.

Wow, racist much? "Do I need a reason? 'Cause my magic and I can leave if you want." He looked at me like a small child might look at a piece of broccoli his mother told him he had to eat before leaving the table. He continued to glare at me for a few seconds, but he gave in and with a growl that sounded suspiciously like 'fine mommy, I'll eat it, but I want ice cream later', he pointed to one of his men.

"Lead the unicorn to the cave-in." He nodded and motioned for me to follow. "Not you bird, you have to stay out here." I stopped to see what he was going on about.

"Hey, why can't I go in!" Silver was butting heads with the leader guy now.

He's probably the Scheriff now that I think about it.

"The unicorn's magic will be useful down there, you won't be. These are rocks, not clouds, so go back to your camp or something bird."

A pagasus really wouldn't be of any use in this situation. But still, he could have put it less dickishly. Silver puffed up her cheeks in a rather cute pout before turning around and flying away. The two of us continued down into the mine, the minotaur grabbing an oil lamp hanging from the wall by the entrance as we went.

The walk through the darkness was quiet and interrupted only for the minotaur to read the signs at some tunnel intersections. After a while I couldn't hold in my curiosity anymore.

"I've only been here for less than a day, but I've been getting the impression that your people don't like ponies much." I let the implied question ask itself.

"We don't." He said, offering no further explination.

"... Are you going to tell me why..?" He grunted once, but otherwise seemed to ignore me. Wow... I don't want to be racist but... Minotaurs are dicks.

Eventually we made it to the collapsed areas where a dozen or so miners were breaking up larger rocks with pickaxes and hauling them down the tunnel a ways. The area was kept fairly well lit by several torches, and the miners quickly put me to work moving the larger rocks so they wouldn't have to spend time breaking them up anymore.

I was sweating again in minutes. This is definitely harder than carrying loads of wood. The rubble was steadily clearing away, but there was no way of knowing how far this collapse extended.

"Where did this pony come from?" I heard someone say from behind me. I was greatful for the excuse to take a break and turned to answer him.

"The group I'm traveling with just came to town this morning." He looked about the same as all the others I'd seen. I was having a hard time telling them apart to be honest, they just all looked the same to me. This one had a sort of rigging on him that held an oil lamp, with a mirror behind the flame, to the top of his head. He was also holding a large, rolled up piece of paper in one hand.

"Ah." A few other minotaurs came over and looked at him expectantly, "no luck i'm afraid." He unfurled the paper on one of the big rocks I'd moved, showing it to be a map of the tunnels. "The other two passages are caved in aswell. There's nothing we can do but keep digging until we reach the other side." The map showed what looked like a small staging area just ahead of this cave-in, it had several smaller tunnels leading away from it that cut off with small lables. There were two other tunnels that came in from other parts of the mine into that room, each tunnel had a curved line scratched through it, likely indicating where they were collapsed.

It looks like the cave-in originates at this room ahead. If it didn't, more tunnels would be collapsed than just the ones leading there. "What kind of-"

"Hey pony! Back to work, we need you to move this rock!"

"*sigh* Breaks over..." I turned around and found the indicated rock, which was a little bigger then the minotaur pointing at it. My horn glowed as I magically reached for it, but suddenly the rock was encased in a deep green and ripped from the pile.

"Allow me." Her voice was unforgettable after the way we met, and the way I subsequently made a fool of myself infront of her. Diamond Sigil walked up next to me, flanked by several more unicorns from the camp. "Silver Wind informed me of the situation and we came to help you, but you don't seem to have acclimated to the heat yet. You rest, while we take care of this mess." It was true, and I was very grateful for a nice break from manual labor. I had only gotten to slack off for less than a minute while looking at the map.

I wanted to thank her, but the words died in my throat when all of the unicorns started moving rocks. Each with the same deep green magic aura.

No way... Nonono, that's stupid, they are not changlings, that just doesn't fit with they're behavior. Why would changlings be disguised as a caravan of ponies when they were going into minotaur lands? Espescially with how much these people seem to dislike ponies in general. No love could be harvested from here that way, and helping with this would just be an unnecessary waste of magic. This is just a wierd coincidence, maybe magic color is a familial thing and they're all just relatives.

With so many unicorns at work the path was quickly clearing, and it wasn't long before we found the first body. Or most of one anyway.

"Poor bastard," someone said. "Got torn right apart. I hope it was quick."

"Torn apart?" How in the hell... I came over to take a look, but I couldn't make out much detail. This torch light really isn't doing it for me. I lit up my horn to get a better look at the body. It had both of it's arms missing, and was crushed up pretty bad from the cave-in, but looking past that, I managed to find what I was looking for. "It was quick alright. He was dead before these rocks got to him."

"What makes you say that?" It was the one with the lamp on his head.

"A lot of the intact bits of this guy are charred, and also, his arms would still be here if he was just crushed. This guy got blown up." He was probably holding whatever exploded. That would explain why his arms are the only things missing.

"Damn. I guess our luck finally ran out." I sent him an inquisative look at that comment. "This mine's been in operation for eight years, and in that time we've never had any sort of disasters. We'd heard stories from other mining towns, about dynamite exploding on it's own, but it never happened to us. After all this time, I guess he just got careless. Probably set the box down too hard after flipping it."

The sound of cheering pulled us away from the body to see a steady stream of men pulling themselves through the hole made in the rocks. There was a moment of silence for their friend who died before we all left the mine.

"So you're the foreman for this mine?"

"And general manager," he said before tilting his head back and emptying the rest of his mug.

After leaving the mine there was a party held to the good health of the survivors, followed by an informal wake for their friend. After all of that, I tracked down the only minotaur whose behavior had been half way decent towards me. I followed him to a bar I didn't see the name of. His name was Andre and I was getting to know him a little first, to loosen him up before I start grilling him for information on why his people are such pricks. I didn't know anything about minotaur customs, but people are always more willing to answer questions after a bit of casual conversation.

"How did you get both of those jobs at once? Aren't they both pretty involving?"

"My father owns this mine, he was the manager before he left a few weeks ago to inspect a promising site to start up another one. I've got a few secretaries to keep the paperwork in check and I'm training one of my senior crewmen to take over as foreman. Another week or two and I'll be able to start sleeping again." He only half heartedly chuckled at that, like it wasn't really that much of an exaggeration.

"I imagine working two fulltime jobs would run anyone ragged pretty quick. Especially in your line of work." He just nodded his head while the bartender refilled his glass. "So what'll happen with the mine after today? You gunna have to shut it down for inspection or something?" He sent me a funny look like I'd just said something crazy.

"No... We already know what happened, we don't need any inspection. I'm giving the crew the day off tomorrow for Ricard's funeral though. After that, we'll rebuild the tunnel supports and then get back to work. Production's gunna slow to a crawl for a while, but there's nothing to be done about it."

Huh... I guess OSHA doesn't exist here. "What do you mean by that? Why would it be slower?"

"That was the last crate of dynamite. It was supposed to last another week while the next shipment is on order. Without it, the ore and rocks will need to be broken down by hand, and that can take a while."

Hmm... I suppose my questions can wait. My business savvy side senses opportunity. An opportunity that my pyrotechnic side would like to persue... "What would you say... If I said I could make you more explosives, so you don't have to wait..?" He was quiet for a few seconds, just staring down into his drink, before looking at me with narrowed eyes.

"I'd say 'prove it'." I couldn't keep the smile off my face.

"I'll need a few ingredients..."

I was getting a lot of strange stares as we made our way through the streets out of town, and I couldn't be bothered to care. I was so full of excited energy that I was hopping along like Pinkie Pie while holding a bucket of water, a small bag of nitre, and a shopping bag filled with a few other things I'd need for the demonstration. All the ingredients had been easy to find and they were pretty cheap too. You gotta love mining towns. Easy access to all sorts of raw materials.

"You seem a little too excited about this." Andre was carrying the other ingredients, a sack of coal and a small block of lead. The block had a hole going through it, but I didn't bother with that mystery.

"Well, yeah! I don't know a single chemist who didn't want to make explosives in there basement. Unfortunatly, the unlicensed manufacture of explosives is a federal crime that can get you marked as a terrorist, so we never get to live our dreams. But now I can!"

It wasn't long before we reached the edge of town and started off into the desert.

"There you are!" I didn't even start turning before Silver came to a skidding halt right alongside me. "I've been looking all over for you! You just sorta disappeared and..." She just sort of trailed off for a second. "Wow, what has you so happy?"

My very own stalker, and I haven't even known her for a day yet. My excess energy seemed to drain away as soon as she arrived, and while I was still totally stoked, I wasn't hopping anymore. "I'm gunna make some TNT," I told her, by way of explination.

"I've never heard of anything called 'TNT', but you must really love it, huh?"

"TNT is an explosive, and who doesn't love explosions! I mean honestly, the only way for someone to not love it is to have never seen it... Unless they were killed by one." We kept walking for a few more minutes before stopping a safe distance from town.

"So," Andre started after setting down the sack, "how are you going to make this 'TNT' out of these? Coal and nitre are components of black powder, but that's too weak, so you better have something else in mind or you're just wasting my time."

"Oh, I do. I'm not very good with conjuration magic or I'd make it out of thin air, but I am pretty good with transfiguration." Using said magic I turned the sand infront of me into a long glass block, to use as a work bench as well as for demonstration. The coal bag was emptied onto the block, and the bucket of water was poured over the pile. I feel like an alchemist... and I love it! "Alright, lets get the reaction started." Now to concentrate. Nitrogen from the air, oxygen and hydrogen from the water, and carbon from the coal. I've got everything I need, just put it together.

The red glow of my magic enveloped the work bench for a few seconds, and then with a bright flash the coal pile was replaced with a pile of small yellow chips.

"Ta-daa! Just like that, a nice pile of trinitrotoluene! Invented by some German guy, because Germans are awesome like that." Andre looked pretty impressed, Silver though, not so much. Well she does see magic from other unicorns every day, but still! She could at least pretend it was cool.

"Wait a second," Said Andre as he held up the lead block. "You only used the coal and water, what's the rest for?"

"The nitre is just mixed in with the TNT. It adds more oxygen to the equation and increases the explosive yield, just like it does for black powder. The lead though, is for the blasting cap." Walking up to the pile I scoop some up and move it onto a clear spot. "TNT is actually too stable to be used as an explosive on it's own you see-" This I punctuate by slamming my hoof down onto the smaller pile repeatedly. "-Nothing. You can even melt the stuff and it won't explode, which is actually very useful because you can pour it into moldings and make it whatever shape you want."

Grabbing the lead from his hand I floated it over to the work area, and after a few seconds of concentration it was converted into a pile of white powder which I quickly covered with the sack the coal had been in. It was mostly to prevent any wind from blowing it away, but I also wasn't completely sure the heat from the sun wouldn't be enough to set it off if I left it in the open too long.

"That powder is called lead azide, and that's what we'll be using to set off the TNT. It's far less stable and will explode if you drop it more than just a few inches. But enough of that, now comes the fun part, the demonstration!"

Digging into the shopping bag I pulled out an empty coin purse, a tea bag, a small spool of string, and a length of fuse wire. They both came over and watched over my shoulders as I began to jury-rig a grenade. Tearing open the tea bag and dumping out the leaves, I replaced them with a few grams of the azide, into which I gently embedded the fuse before tying it tightly closed with the string. I then filled the coin purse with a few hoof fulls of TNT chips and a few teaspoons worth of the nitre before carefully setting the tea bag inside and tying the whole thing shut.

"Alright, my half-assed grenade is ready, let's go set it off!" We walked a good distance away, at least fifty meters, before setting it on the ground. Andre pulled out a match box and lit it, whereupon we all turned and started running. I had left over a foot of fuse sticking out of it, giving us plenty of time to get away. I liked explosives, but I wasn't stupid. I treated them with a healthy degree of caution. After we made it back to the glass block we turned around and started waiting.

After a few seconds I started getting nervous. Shit. What if I made it wrong? This is the first time I've tried something like this with my magic. I stole a quick glance at Andre, he was just standing there, arms crossed, face stoney. Like a judge who was not moved by the defendant's story. Oh god... if this doesn't work I'm going to look like such an A-

*BOOM*

"HOLY Je-!" I need to stop getting so wrapped up in my thoughts all the damn time! I hadn't been prepared and the noise startled the crap out of me as I fell back into a sitting position. Both Andre and Silver just quirked an eyebrow at me, it made me feel very embarassed. I needed to get their attention off of what just happened. "Ahem... ha! I told you I could do it! You said 'prove it', well there ya go." I offered him a big cheesy smile.

"I admit I was sceptical that a unicorn would know how to make something that didn't run on magic, which is why I didn't sink a lot of money on your 'ingrediants'. But the proof is in the pudding. However, I'm doubting you did this out of the goodness of your heart..." He trailed off, obviously asking my price.

I... have no idea what TNT is worth... The azide would be expensive due to it being a hazardous material though... "How much coal did you actually buy? And the lead too... Actually, how much money did you spend on this?"

"Only nine bits. And the coal was only a half sack, about five kilos. The lead block was a weight for a fishing net, I don't know how much it weighed, but it didn't feel very heavy."

"Hmm. Alright, let me do some quick math..."

"So this is where you've been hiding all day." When I heard her voice I wanted to look at her, but I knew I'd forget the numbers I was calculating if I thought of anything else.

"M'Lady, what are you doing out here? If I had known you were-"

"What's two hundred and twenty seven devided by eighty four?" I interupted, wanting to get the numbers out of my head before I forgot them. I really miss calculators. All three of them sent me confused looks before scrunching up their faces in concentration.

"A bit more than two and a half, why?" Answered Diamond after only a few seconds of thought.

"I was trying to figure out how much TNT I made. So, that's five kilos times two point five... makes twelve and a half kilograms of TNT. Plus the lead azide, what would be a good price for all that?"

"What exactly is going on here? I was searching for you when I heard the explosion that lead me out here. That was you I suppose?"

"Yeah, and I'm in the middle of a business deal right now... I think fourty would be a good price for the lot of it." I turned to Andre, awaiting his answer. He was in a thinking pose for a few seconds.

"I'll give you twenty for it." I narrowed my eyes at him.

So that's the game he wants to play, huh? "Thirty five."

"Twenty five."

"Thirty, and that's as low as I'm going." It was his turn to narrow the eyes.

"... Fine. Thirty. I'll be back in a few minutes." As he walked back into town, I couldn't help but feel good about myself.

I just made thirty bits, and it didn't even cost me a dime in investment. "So," I said, turning to address Diamond. "Why were you looking for me?" She smirked at that and began walking closer.

"Oh? I was looking for you specifically, was I?" Her smirk stretched into a smile as her voice took on a sultry tone, "you certainly have a high opinion of yourself." My stupid heart betrayed me as it picked up the pase while I backed up a few steps to reestablish my personal bubble, and to keep myself from looking too deeply into her eyes.

"Y-you know what I meant! Why were you looking for us." Her face suddenly turned serious, an expression I hadn't seen on her before.

"Because we're leaving." I blinked at that.

"What?"

...Maybe it Was, a Little Bit...

While my new friend was doing his thing in town, I sat in intense thought, trying to plan out what to do from here, and how to deal with the coming encounter.

What should I say? What can I say? I don't want to abandon them, but... how can I even help them now? That land is useless, they'd never be able to build on it, they'd just get discovered... I could try to smuggle them out of the country, but they've still lost everything already... I could go and see what's left of their camp? If the Royal Guard pursued the changelings immediately after they started to run, then maybe the camp is still there? And we could salvage it, or at least some of it...

In the skies above Ponyville, two groups of armored pagasi passed each other moving in opposite directions. There were three pagasi per group, and they were obviously on some sort of perimeter patrol route. I made myself invisible as soon as I noticed them... I didn't want them coming down to check me out.

*Sigh* They probably have the whole forest covered, just waiting for the changelings to show themselves... No matter what I do, they're going to need to stay in the forest for a while and wait for the heat to die down. As of now, they'll never even make it out of the forest, little own the country, without being spotted.

This did leave me with another conundrum however... How do you keep an entire population of hungry changelings hidden deep in a forest for an indeterminate amount of time without them doing something drastic? It would only be a matter of time before the ponies develop a working method of detecting a changelings disguise, and after that happens...

...What options are left? They'll need to send changelings out constantly in order to gather more energy, and while it's impossible for the Royal Guard, or any local authorities, to perform random inspections on every citizen, changelings will still get caught on a regular basis... "Oh god," I sighed, sliding down onto my back and placing a foreleg over my increasingly tired eyes. It won't even matter if I explain that to them, they'll still need to do it. There's no other way for them to gather food... With another heavy sigh, I rolled over onto my stomach. "How did my life get so complicated," I sighed out, closing my eyes. It's been a long day... I'll just take a little nap until what's-his-face get's back...

"Oh my, Rarity, it's..!"

Mmm? I dazedly thought, barely even registering that I heard someone talking.

"Don't get so close Fluttershy!"

Huh? What's that noise, I thought, slowly blinking my bleary eyes as I started to wake up.

"But he might need help..!" I heard the unmistakable voice of Fluttershy attempt to yell, even though her voice wasn't raised at all. As the blur faded from my vision, I saw her standing right next to me, but with her head turned as she talked.

The very sight of her brought up the buried feelings of anger I had for the part she played in turning Pinkie against me.

"He was probably run out of his home by the changelings, just like all of my animal friends..! *Gasp*" She said, before turning back to look at me, only to let out a nearly inaudible gasp as her eyes met mine.

I've been told that I have a very intense glare when I'm angry.

"He may very well be a changeling, Fluttershy!" Called out Rarity, causing Fluttershy's pupils to contract in fear as that thought entered her mind.

"I appreciate the thought," I said while getting up, although the tone of my voice made it abundantly clear that I did not appreciate it. "...It is your element, after all... But I don't need any help, least of all from you."

"Hey!" Rarity shouted, running up to Fluttershy's side. "Don't you talk to Fluttershy like that, you hooligan! She was only trying to help. A kindness you certainly don't deserve," she said, turning her nose up at me in an exaggerated manner.

"Of course," I said, my mouth moving almost on it's own. "'Trying to help'... that's what she always does, isn't it..? But being helpful... doesn't always help," I said, sending Fluttershy a pointed look. "Just be on your way!" I interrupted, as Rarity opened her mouth to retort. "I know you didn't come by here to see me. So just leave."

She spluttered for a second at being so rudely interrupted and dismissed, but she recovered quickly.

"Come on Fluttershy," she said, turning around and going back to the dirt road. "Obviously, he's doing just fine on his own." Fluttershy didn't hesitate long to follow her, and soon they were both on their way again, down the road leading to Fluttershy's house.

*Sigh* I sighed, trying to relax my tensed body. I hate this hate. I don't hold grudges, but... that's exactly what I'm holding now...

"Who were they?" Asked a voice from behind me.

"No one important," I replied, turning to face the fake pagasus. "I assume you're ready to go now?"

He merely nodded, walking back into the forest. The plan from here was simply to keep walking back the way we came until he could feel the other changelings again. From there, he'd lead me to them.

"...So, who were those ponies to you?" He asked again after a few minutes.

"I told you, they were no one. Just some old acquaintances I used to know."

"Hmhm," he chuckled, "meeting them must have rattled you, I can feel your emotions very clearly now," he said, sending me a sideways glance. "...I assume they wronged you in some way?" He asked. "So they did," he concluded before I could even open my mouth and tell him to drop the subject.

I silently seethed for a few minutes at how unhinged I was after something so minor as a brief meeting.

"...So what's your name?" I asked after giving myself another minute to calm down. He looked at me intently for a second before facing forward again. I thought he was going to just ignore me, but after several seconds he finally spoke up.

"Happy," he stated, simply and without fanfare. Hearing that made me double take, and for a moment I thought he was joking. "You find my name odd?" He questioned, sensing my confusion.

"Well, I, uh... thought changeling names were all based off of, uh... something to do with copying... is all," I answered, lamely.

"Fah," he scoffed, "ignorant," he mumbled. "You meet one changeling and suddenly you think you're an expert on us?"

"I see your point," I said. He stopped a few steps later, eyes closed.

"This way," he said, adjusting the angle of our path. It was a few more minutes before I asked my next question.

"So... 'Happy'?" I questioned, not having seen any indication of him living up to that name.

"What?" He replied, not seeming to have gotten my question.

"What made your parents go with that name?" He sent me an annoyed glare before answering.

"Because, that's what I was when I hatched... Back before I grew up, and learned what it meant to be a changeling in a world that hates and fears us," he said in a tone clearly saying 'this conversation is over'.

Taking the hint, I allowed the rest of our journey to pass in silence.

I can't wait to see Emulate again... It'll be nice to see a friendly face, and hopefully she can help me gain the hives trust.

It took roughly an hour to get to where his senses were pointing, although the changelings seemed to have taken refuge underground. Finding the entrance took us longer than getting here had, as the swarm was apparently congregated far within the tunnels. When asked how he knew there were tunnels, he said it was because the feeling of the others was sprawled out in various directions, rather than clumped together in one large circle.

The entrance wasn't as big as I'd thought it would be for having allowed access for such a large group, but there was undeniable evidence in the torn up dirt, riddled with hoofprints, leading inside. Two, maybe three ponies could walk into it at a time, and it wasn't much taller than me. It was under an overhang on the opposite side of a hill, topped with a tree leaning dangerously over the entrance, as if the ground had collapsed out from underneath it. Half of the roots, now exposed, as well as some moss, partially hid the hole from view.

"How did they even find this place?" I thought aloud, "...It doesn't even look like it goes anywhere."

Not bothering to speculate, Happy marched in, dropping his disguise as he went. I followed shortly after, noting that his chitin seemed much... shinier... than I remembered. Like he'd been recently polished.

The incline was very steep, but solid, the once loose dirt having been packed down by thousands of hooves before ours. After descending three or four meters below the surface, the ground abruptly leveled out into a large tunnel, gently sloping deeper into the earth. Lighting my horn to better see in the darkness revealed suspiciously uniform walls, stretching out of sight. The tunnel was about twice my height, and the immediate area was strewn with rubble, but the floor quickly became free of debris as we walked farther in.

Definitely not natural, I thought, continuing to follow Happy, who didn't seem to care as he kept walking without pause. We didn't go far before we reached a crossroads with several tunnels branching out in all directions. Happy didn't hesitate, though, as he chose a path and kept walking, so I simply trusted in his senses. As we moved, however, I noticed an object attached to one of the walls. A torch sconce? I recognized, on closer inspection. The top ring was blackened, and after a short search I found the remains of the torch on the ground. Seeing the size of the remaining stump, I figured it must have burnt itself down until it was too short, and fell out on its own before going out.

"Are you still coming?" Asked Happy, looking back at me from a ways down the other tunnel.

"Yeah, just... looking at something," I answered, catching up to him. "...I think this is an abandoned diamond dog mine shaft. I don't know of anything else that digs huge tunnel networks like this."

Happy made an acknowledging sound, but did not comment further.

As we drew deeper underground, the branching tunnels started to jut out from the main path at all angles, and in a multitude of sizes. It gave me the vibe of being inside a giant ant hill or something. The dogs certainly weren't big on organized digging, and it was a wonder they didn't cause cave ins on a more regular basis. Through it all though, Happy never hesitated when he had to choose a direction.

He claimed that changelings don't have telepathy, but clearly they can still communicate remotely to some degree.

My thought was proven right, as far as I was concerned, not long after when we passed another set of branching tunnels. My brain had just enough time to register the sound of buzzing wings before the back of my head erupted in pain.

*Groan* When did I fall asleep? I groggily thought, rolling onto my- "Fuck!" I shouted, bolting upright and bringing a hoof to the horrible bruise on the back of my head. "Where the hell did this come... from..." I trailed off, finally opening my eyes for long enough to see where I was.

It was a small alcove of rock, with a ceiling I must have just barely missed headbutting when I shot upright. The lighting was dim, yellow, and flickering slightly, indicating torchlight.

"I'll get the captain." Turning around towards the voice, I saw two changelings standing on the other side of the iron bars to what I now realized was a cell. They were each wearing some form of armor consisting of a simple open-faced helmet, a chest plate, and ...back armor, I guess you'd call it, with openings to let their wings through. One started walking away, while the other nodded in acknowledgment before turning to face me. He proceeded to stare at me without saying a word... it was kind of creepy. Especially since the torch was on the opposite wall, causing the shadows to completely conceal his face, leaving only the barest glint of light reflecting off of his eyes.

fortunately for me, I've always felt anger much more strongly than fear.

"Fuck you assholes!" I shouted, using a foreleg to kick some dirt at him through the bars. "Why the hell do you people keep attacking me! First Ass-Face tries to kill me, or whatever his name was, then you give me a fucking concussion! You could have given me brain damage! Jesus fucking Christ, I might have brain damage now for all I know!" I yelled, feeling at my bruise again- "Dammit!" I shouted again, taking the hard hoof away from the back of my head, "Hooves fucking suck!"

Neither the clump of dirt or my yelling seemed to be fazing him. This guard was apparently quite good at his job.

"Screw you!" I yelled again, throwing another bit of dirt at him. "Take me to the queen, I want to talk to-"

"The Captain will be here shortly to deal with-"

"Piss on your useless Captain!" I loudly interrupted, "let me out of here before I turn your chitin into graphite!" I threatened, banging a hoof against one of the bars with a loud clang. "This isn't how you treat someone who's trying to help you, you paranoid fucks!" It seemed he'd gone back to ignoring me. He likely wasn't going to do anything until I actually tried to escape or attack him. "Grr... At least let me see Emulate. Let me talk to-"

"The traitor is not here, unicorn." Looking towards the voice, I saw the other guard return, accompanied by another armored changeling. This one was obviously the captain, from the roman-style mohawk attached to his helmet. "...Many of us are not here," he said, his voice calm and collected as he stopping in front of my cell, although the words themselves made my heart skip a beat.

"You don't mean..?"

"During the fighting, and our subsequent flight from the forest, many changelings were captured," he replied.

"Oh thank god," I muttered, lowering my head with a sigh of relief. "Let me out of here," I said, looking back up at him, "we need to rescue them, I can help you-"

"We need to rescue them, yes," he cut me off. "...But as for you," he continued, disdain thick in his voice, "...the last time I saw you, you assaulted our Queen, and then went on to make one of our own betray our secrecy!" He shouted, wings buzzing in agitation for a moment before settling back down. "Give me one good reason not to have you killed right now, before you can do any more harm."

"She didn't betray anything! She believed in my promise, and I followed through! It's not my fault that you're too-"

"'Not your fault'!" He cut me off in a mocking tone. "What a petulant answer! Happy's told me all about your little deed... and about your worthless excuses!" He barked, marching right up to the bars so he could yell directly into my face. "'If only you'd asked around'," he continued, once more mocking. "'They'd've pointed you right to me', are you truly so inept! You told Emulate to meet you in Ponyville... and that was all you said. You gave no other information, no meeting place, no time of day or night, nothing! Do you not know how suspicious that is? And you still expected us to go out of our way to trust you?"

"But, I-!"

"But nothing!" He again cut me off. "And to top it all off, you were waiting for her outside of the town itself, at a location neither she, nor any of us had any way of knowing about! You may have gone through with your 'purchase', but you demonstrated a supreme lack of initiative in following through with your word! That kind of willful incompetence is just as bad as if you'd been lying in the first place!"

"But I didn't lie-!"

"Do you really think that even matters anymore!" He shouted, pounding the ground with a hoof as his wings buzzed angrily. There was a pause as the lingering echos of his voice faded. After a moment, he continued, his voice heavy with exhaustion... "The only home we've ever had was just destroyed, leaving us trapped in enemy territory... We have hundreds of injured, and dozens more who were captured... You have brought nothing but pain and despair on our hive, and I cannot afford to waste any more time on you. Normally, we would just erase your memories... the dead provide us nothing, after all... But you have shown yourself to be too much of a nuisance in that regard."

"You're right," I started, heart pounding hard in my chest, "I can't fix the past, but I can still help!"

His horn started to glow, casting his face in a sickly green light as he charged a spell. A moment later, the two guards followed suit.

"Killing me won't help anything!" I shouted, backing away from the bars as I started charging my own horn to defend myself. "It won't get your people back! It won't get your life back!"

"You don't have anything to bargain with. How can a social outcast with no connections help us? Your just a loose end," he replied.

"Because I'm not a changeling! It's only a matter of time before they develop a method of detecting you in disguise, and when that happens, you'll all be finished! You're going to need someone on the outside!"

He narrowed his eyes at me, but unless it just takes an abnormally long time to charge that spell, it looked like he was listening.

"...How do I know you don't intend to betray us?"

"If I wanted to betray you, I could have done it a dozen times before now. Why would I risk coming here at all if I didn't mean what I said?"

"So you would know our location, for one."

"Than I could have just killed Happy and gone back after he showed me the entrance to these tunnels," I replied, letting the energy built up in my horn dissipate. "You can feel my emotions, you know you can trust me. You're just reaching for excuses now, I can tell from the way you're talking... I know how important the safety of your people must be to you, but please don't let that commitment to your duty blind you to a genuine offer for help," I pleaded, moving right up to the bars. Too close to dodge.

"...No one helps us," he countered.

"There's a first time for everything."

For several seconds our eyes stayed locked as I met his glare with a steady gaze. Soon, the light faded from his face as he released the charge built up in his horn. The two guards followed his lead a moment later, leaving only the light of the torch once again.

"...I will consult with the Queen on this," he said, walking away. "...She will decide your fate." He stopped, just before leaving the room, giving one final warning, "...Do not attempt to escape."

I didn't think I would need to.

Author's Note

Sorry for the short chapter, but I thought this would be a good place to cut it off. I'll try to aim for mid April with the next chapter. A big thanks to everyone who still has an interest in this story :twilightsmile: