Many days later...

In the vast and very dark forest, nothing was there to be seen except splendor and glory of nature. The sounds of animals echoed throughout the forest, hidden in plain view. They lived in the forest, but you would have to look very hard to see anything. The vegetation was thick enough that the sunlight would be blocked out some days.

However, a small swish of a bush interrupted the peace of the land. A scurrying set of hooves moved quickly and silently through the darkness. Another bush rustled again, much farther than the one that just rustled. From a bush, something shaped like a pony lifted its head from bristles of the bush.

"Er!" the figure said in pain.

It was Secundus. Wearing leaves and dirt placed below his eyes, he stepped into something rather pointed.

"Ow! Ow! That hurt!" he said rather quietly.

He fell back into the bush, blowing air onto the hind hoof he stepped on. A sharp thorn throbbed on the ground in which Secundus spat in disgust. He grimaced the pain and patted the small wound.

"You're not going to escape me..." Secundus muttered underneath his breath.

With a leap from the bushes, Secundus jumped out of his cover as he was in war.

"Gotcha'!" he exclaimed.

He had made a daring dive as his hooves grasped onto something. The dirt underneath his eyes served as a bit of war paint as he slowly parted his hooves apart. A small chitter was heard underneath his dirty hooves. A small blue sprite chittered again as it's four wings struggled for flight.

"I can't believe I actually got you!" Secundus said in accomplishment. "Now to sketch you!"

Secundus pulled out a small leaf and a special made quill by himself. Putting the quill in his mouth, Secundus tried his best to draw a sketch with his hooves gently clamped. The weird sprite continued to chitter, trying to get out of Secundus’ grasp. Secundus' face cringed time to time to 'perfect' the drawing on his finding. A small smile appeared on his face as he looked happily at his sketch.

"There we go!" he said.

A very childish drawing of the creature was on the leaf. It looked like as if a foal drew it.

"I'm going to call you Schlubs!" Secundus said proudly, letting go of his hooves.

The creature chittered again, looking at the changeling very curiously. The wings started to flitter as it's eyes studied Secundus. Secundus raised his eyebrow to not see the creature fly away in fear.

Starting to walk away, Secundus heard the chitter again. He turned around to see the small flying sprite.

"Hmm?" Secundus said, looking face to face with the creature

The blue flying creature suddenly snuggled Secundus near his neck.

"Well, Schlubs." Secundus said. "Looks like you're coming with me."

The creature chittered happily and followed behind the changeling.

"It's funny, I've never seen anyone of you guys curious of me before." Secundus said towards the sprite.

Schlubs chittered as it landed on top of Secundus' head. With a few minutes of walking, the base camp was within in sight. It was kind of the same ever since Secundus found the cave. In fact, he was starting to call it home. With a few defenses of sharpened sticks, he hoped that it would show the wildlife it was his territory. Learning many tactics in the Swarm, Secundus knew he would be fine for years. It would just be time before everything would end.

A chitter interrupted Secundus' train of thought as the four-winged sprite began to fly into the cave. There was actually wooden furniture, but it looked very unstable. There were many sharp edges of the tables he made, but most of them were dull. Secundus could barely sand them down before getting cut just by standing close to it.

"Schlubs, this is my home." Secundus said, a small smile on his face.
Schlubs chittered in reply.

"Don't you have a home?" the lonely changeling asked. "You know, family? Changelings you can count on?"

Schlubs chittered in such a way that it was correcting Secundus .

"Right, 'sprites' or something..." Secundus said.

He then sighed.

"I do wish something would happen." he said. "Anything."

Schlubs continued to chitter.

"In fact, I wish that something would fall out of the sky and completely change my life!" Secundus said. "That would be amazing!"

The small blue sprite immediately stopped chittering and looked outside the cave.

"What is it?" Secundus asked, following Schlubs.

Schlubs softly chittered, pointing one of it's legs up into the sky. A fairly small dark blue ball of light was descending from the sky very fast at an alarming rate.

Right towards them.

Schlubs cowered behind Secundus as the bright ball of light was heading straight for them. Or that's what it looked like.

The bright dark blue ball curved into the forest - not at far away from them.

Secundus looked at the smoke rising from the canopy of trees with awe, his jaw dropped.

"Something fell from the sky!" Secundus said with joy.

Schlubs chittered weakly, clinging onto Secundus in fear.

"Let's go!" Secundus said, starting to sprint towards the crash site. "Schlubs! Take note!"

Schlubs questionably chittered to Secundus.

"Day 9!" Secundus said proudly. "Something had fallen into the forest! I am going to investigate this said crashed material!"

The small sprite chittered again questionably as Secundus was now deep into the forest. Amazingly, Secundus was running so fast he was already nearing the crash site.

"What a day!" Secundus said, almost running out of breath.

He was so excited that it was sapping energy out of him. The smoke grew more intense as his vision become much more cloudy.

"Just marvelous! Fantastic!" Secundus said as he jumped over a bush as Schlubs clung on for dear life. "What wonder this thing is going to be!"

In a few seconds, Secundus skidded to a stop at a top of a crater.

"Oh boy!" Secundus said childishly.

With a step, he tripped and fell hard in the side of the crater hard as Schlubs began to take flight. Schlubs chittered as Secundus fell in and groaned in pain.

"I-I'm fine!" Secundus said, trying to lift his head up. "Just a small boo-boo!"

Schlubs chittered again and pointed in front of Secundus.

"Huh? What is it?" Secundus asked as he lifted his face up in the smoke.

But as he did, his face hit something soft very hard.

*SMACK*

"Hello!" Secundus said, feeling something soft and squishy at his face. "I think the thing's in front of me!"

He placed his hooves out and patted something gently.

"Ah-ha!" the changeling said proudly. "Schlubs my boy! I have made a discovery!"

Schlubs chittered questionably as the smoke began to clear.

"It..." he said as the smoke cleared up. "It is..." he continued as he tried clear the smoke from his vision.

A dark blue pony that was a bit smaller than the changeling laid unconscious in front of Secundus. And he was patting the rear end of the pony.

"Ack!" he said, noticing what he was doing.

His head jerked up due to the shock in which it made Secundus knock his head onto the tree branch above. A head-splitting crack was heard as the branch seemed to crack open his skull. Rubbing his head and muttering in pain, Secundus could see that this was no ordinary pony. He saw a cracked horn and some weak wings on the back of the pony.

"Say, it's a special kind of pony..." Secundus said as he examined the alicorn with interest.

His sharp eyes could see that the horn was breaking apart and the wings looked to be broken. With that, he walked over to the face of the pony and looked at the face.

"I'm guessing it's a mare..." Secundus said as he looked at the facial characteristics. "And not that bad looking, not bad at all."

Shaking his head of that thought, his worries about the predators kicked in as he heard howls of wolves. Schlubs chittered as Secundus managed to get the mare on his back.

"We ride, Schlubs!" Secundus said as he jumped on to the top of the crater and walked quickly as possible.

He went at a pace so that the unconscious mare wouldn't fall off.

"Now with some analysis on her, let's see what we get!" Secundus said as Schlubs chittered uneasily.

"Huh? What is it?" Secundus asked.

Schlubs chittered and flew over the mare's face. The mane of the mare was very sparkly in the dark blue hair.

"Yes, Schlubs..." Secundus said, raising an eyebrow. "It's very pretty."

---

A few minutes later...

Secundus finally grunted and broke a sweat as he softy placed the mare down on a flat elevated surface.

"Phew!" Secundus said as he stretched his legs. "It's been a while since I had to work like that..."

By using magic, Secendus had barely carved a stone table in the cave. It left him tired, but perfected it as something was telling him to do it.

"It's amazing that I worked my ass off to do this." Secundus said as he looked at the stone table.

Then his vision then went up, right near the legs of the mare.

"I wonder how she just fell out of the sky..." Secundus muttered as he looked at the wings.

He then flew up to the special section of the cave and fetched a special quill and a leaf. Schlubs followed Secundus and chittered unsuringly, looking over at the mare. Secundus seemed not to notice the sprite as he got the supplies.

"Ah, there we go!" Secundus said as he got a quill and leaf.

He then realized something.

"Damn, I almost forgot!" he said to himself.

Using his magic, Secundus closed his eyes and began to slowly change form. Soon, Secundus had a black coat and mane with devilish red eyes. However, the childish happy look in his eyes were in. Now looking like a full grown pegasus stallion, Secundus complimented himself as he admired his new body.

"Disaster would've occurred if she saw that I was a changeling..." Secundus thought as he flew down with leaf and quill in mouth. "Now..."

Spitting the quill and leaf out next to the mare, Secundus thought more about the situation. Before him was a pony that he never saw before. And the possibility of learning more about pony culture burned inside his heart. If he only kept his composure in keeping his pony image. Everything would be fine. His red eyes looked at the mare in curiosity and hoped something.

"I hope she's from Canterlot..." Secundus thought as he grabbed the quill with his mouth. "I would actually get into Canterlot and learn more about them... Fantastic!"

Clearing his throat, Secundus focused on a particular accent.

"Fan... Fantastic!" he said in a bit of an Manehatten, (British) tone. "Just fantastic!"

Secundus blinked a little and facehooved himself. Ever since he was banished from the Swarm, he would keep saying stupid things and do weird things. Just like trying to build furniture, playing with his voice, and one time accidentally wiping his ass with poison oak. He was getting more and more odd everyday.

With a smile, Secundus nodded with his new identity. With the quill in mouth, Secundus began to sketch the mare.

---

Multiple shadow beings that looked like mist flew across the late afternoon sky in insane speed. Fast enough that nopony could see it fully. Just a moment.

Except a goddess.

And the shadows were chasing after the night princess.

"Identify yourselves!" Princess Luna asked as her wings tried to escape the shadows.

"Come with us..." the shadows said, no emotions in their voice as it was cold as ice. "Come..."

"Never!" Princess Luna said as she started to go up.

Her wings went as fast as they could go while the shadows easily followed after her. The shadows went into a 'V' formation and split up to trap the alicorn.

"What do you want with me?" Princess Luna asked as the shadows slowly shifted towards her.

"Mistress... Night...m... Mo..." one of the shadows said. "Free us..."

Princess Luna looked shocked as the shadows advanced towards her at all sides.

"You won't get us!" Princess Luna said as her horn started to glow.

A brilliant dark blue light exploded everywhere around Princess Luna, vanquishing the shadows around her, However, the princess of the night was exhausted due to the chase and slowly closed her eyes. Losing altitude, her eyes also closed as her horn was still conjuring magic. Going down fast, all Princess Luna could remember was a forest below.

And then everything went black.

---

Princess Luna groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. Her vision very groggy and hearing impaired, all she could see was a boring gray color around her.

"Ugh..." the princess of the night groaned softly.

"Say, what's this?" a male voice asked.

Princess Luna could see somepony poking around her legs.

"Just amazing..." the voice said again.

A hint of a Manehatten accent caught the princess's distorted ears as she struggled to get up.

"Say, a tattoo! This has to be a tattoo!" the voice said again.

"Wh-who are you?" Princess Luna struggled to say.

But a very soft mumble, so soft that no one could hear her escaped from her mouth.

"Just a little bit here..." the voice said again. "I don't want to wake her up..."

Princess Luna now had her head up to see the mysterious pony. As her vision cleared, Princess Luna could see a pony with a black mane and coat - sticking his face and looking right between her legs.

"Say, that tattoo is kind of-"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Princess Luna yelled in her royal Canterlot voice.

With that in the air, she used one of her powerful back hooves and kicked the stallion square in the face.

"OOF!" the stallion yelled in pain as the princess's hooves crushed his face.

The stallion went flying across the room in Princess Luna's vision and saw the pony slam against the wall.

*CRASH*

Princess Luna got off the table that she laid on and landed on her hooves. Red in the face, furious and about to charge, she asked one more question.

"What were you doing?!" she asked again in her royal Canterlot voice as a large chunk of the stone wall fell down around the stallion.

The stallion was muttering and fell to the ground and twitched. Unhappy with the reply, Princess Luna got lower and stomped the ground, dragging her hooves across the floor.

About to charge, something was in her hair that caught Princess Luna's eyes. Having her attention on that, Princess Luna lifted a hoof up to see what the thing in her hair was. Touching and feeling that some kind of bandage was around her horn, Princess Luna instantly remembered that her horn shattered or something.

But remembering the stallion looked between her legs, her face grew a shade of red again in embarrassment and anger. Her eyes then laid upon leaves that seemed to have drawings on them. Walking closer to the leaves, it was drawings. Foal-like drawings. A small smile appeared on the princess's face was she remembered when she went to a magic kindergarten class. With the colts and fillies knowing that the princess was coming, the little ponies drew foal-like drawings as a gift to her.

A drawing of her cutie mark - a moon caught her eyes. Focused on the drawing, she soon realized that the stallion that looked at her had the mind of a foal. A few drawings of trees, a creature with four wings, and herself were on many pieces of leaves.

"Uh..." the black stallion groaned, his eyes in all directions with his tongue out. "What hit me?"

Princess Luna peaked her head up and realized that the stallion was stirring up. The stallion then sat on his rear and shook his head to clear his mind. Secundus' world came back to view as he tried to comprehend what had just happened.

"What is your name?" Princess Luna asked, walking up to the dazed stallion.

Secundus looked up to see a mare with beautiful sparkling hair and eyes looking right at his red ones.

"S-S-Secun..." he said, trailing off.

"Come again?" Princess Luna asked.

"Dusk." Secundus said rather quickly.

"Dusk?" Princess Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.

She heard the black stallion starting with a 'S' and kept that information in the back of her mind.

"Yes." Secundus lied. "It would be better to lie about my name..." the transformed Changeling thought.

Princess Luna and Secundus then looked at each other awkwardly before the princess came to a realization.

"He doesn't know who I am..." Princess Luna thought as the pegasus in front of her looked at her.

A small smile formed on her face as she could have a little fun with him. It was a very long time ever since she pranked anypony anyway.

"My name is Luna." Princess Luna said, not wanting to give her royal title away yet.

"Luna?" Secundus asked.

"Yes, from Canterlot."

"Canterlot?!" Secundus asked, bolting towards the princess. "You're from Canterlot?"

Princess Luna was mildly surprised at Secundus' sudden outburst and kept her composure.

"Yes, yes we are." Princess Luna replied.

"This is great! Just great!" Secundus said with excitement.

Princess Luna's face again become a little surprised as she started to wonder if 'Dusk' was mentally insane.

"I've heard so much of the city!" Secundus exclaimed as he walked past Princess Luna with a small limp. "So is it alright if we visit the city?"

Secundus flew up to the certain place of the camp and grabbed his saddlebag. Meanwhile, Princess Luna was trying to comprehend the stallion's odd requests.

"Oh, please make yourself at home, Luna!" Secundus said as he tried to get a few more things.

Princess Luna walked over to the stone slab she woke up up and sat on it, wondering what was going to happen next. There wasn't much fun at the castle in Canterlot anyway. She just wanted something exciting in her life. Ignoring the creepy shadow things that chased her before hoof, the stranger, Dusk, in front of her seemed to look like as if everything he saw was an opportunity for something.

Princess Luna looked around the room to realize that she was in a cave. The boring gray of the cave was filled with leaves, sharp wood furniture, and other things. And she noticed that Dusk was alone.

Just by himself.

"You know, I've always wanted to visit Canterlot, Luna!" Secundus said with joy in his voice.

"Don't you know you can walk in and explore the city?" Princess Luna asked, raising an eyebrow yet again.

"Er... Well... I just have a small problem." Secundus said as he flew down to some objects behind Luna across the cave.

"And what’re those problems, Dusk?" Princess Luna asked.

"I would rather not talk about it, sorry." Secundus said, not wanting to tell her about him being a changeling. "It'll be complicated for you to understand."

"I see..." Princess Luna said as she stared out the cave.

She could see the bright green trees and forests to see a small cute campsite right in front of it.

"Say, you live here by yourself?" Princess Luna asked.

"Yes." Secundus replied as he went through a leaf-bag.

Suddenly, a soft chitter was heard underneath some leaves.

"Any family?" Princess Luna asked.

"Not much anymore." Secundus answered as he tried to locate the noise.

"Schlubs?" Secundus asked quietly, wanting to know where the four-winged creature went.

Schlubs chittered as he was eating something. Food in his cheeks showed a very content face of happiness.

"Okay, whatever you do, DON'T disturb Luna." Secundus whispered to the happy blue sprite.

Schlubs nodded as he swallowed food. But as soon as he did, it looked like was about to hurl.

"Ow, oh shit!" Secundus said accidentally rather loudly.

"Pardon?" Princess Luna asked.

"Sorry! Just stubbed my hooves!" Secundus replied as Schlubs' face became worse. "An-anyway... Do you have any family, Luna?"

"Yes, I do actually." Princess Luna said, ignoring the crude word he had said. "I have an older sister..."

Luna rambled on as Secundus tried to calm Schlubs down.

"Hey, keep it down!" Secundus hushed quietly as Schlubs was about to throw up,

Schlubs hacked a brown disgusting ball about the size of himself - right into Secundus' open mouth.

"Urk!" Secundus choked as he placed his hooves at his neck.

Schlubs now relaxed and started to fall asleep right on the leaves.

"I did have a mother and father..." Princess Luna continued on as Secundus in the back staggered on two back hooves with his front hooves at his neck. "I really didn't know my father..."

In the background, the changeling began to stagger on his back hooves. With his front hooves still at his neck, he staggered around in odd angles to get the ball out of his throat.

"Anyway, about my sister, her name is Cel-"

"URK!" Secundus choked as a giant brown ball erupted out of his mouth.

A giant brown sloshy ball hit the floor, catching Princess Luna's attention. Secundus gasped for air as the brown thing now had eyes and four wings. With it's wings started to flap, it flew - right out of Princess Luna's vision.

"Was it something I said?" Princess Luna asked, raising an eyebrow at the air gasping pegasus.

"N-No..." Secundus gasped as he tried to catch his breath.

"Of course..." Princess Luna said under her breath. "Anyway, Canterlot. Do you know where it is?"

"Y-Yep." Secundus said, almost having his breath. "It's a few minutes that a way." he said, pointing his hooves towards the direction over the trees.

"We're going to fly?"

"Yes, we are and-" Secundus stopped as he realized something.

"What is it?" Princess Luna asked.

"Your wings. You luckily crashed in a way that they didn't break." Secundus said as Princess Luna looked towards her leaf-wrapped wings. "Guess we're going on hoof."

Secundus poked his head into his saddlebag and then out with a small smile on his face.

"Are we going to Canterlot, Luna?" Secundus asked with a smile on his face.

Secundus smiled in a way that made Princess Luna smile as well.

"Yes." Princess Luna said, nodding her head.

Something about the stallion made the long walk to Canterlot suddenly become more enjoyable.

"Please, follow me." Secundus said as he began to walk out of the cave with Princess Luna right behind him.

Princess Luna looked around outside of the cave to see that Dusk was absolutely secluded and felt a little bit sorry for him. He had nopony to talk to.

With pity in her eyes, she looked over to Dusk/Secundus, who in front of her. But then her eyes trailed down to his rear and blushed a little immediately to look away. Even for just an isolated stallion in the wild, Luna found Dusk a little bit attractive. Now looking back on it, she didn't much anymore that the stallion looked at her before.

Then something came across her mind.

"Say, Dusk, how did you find us?" Princess Luna asked.

"Hmm?" Secundus said as he lowered his pace so that he was going at the same pace.

Secundus was much larger and taller than Princess Luna, in where the princess could get a good look on his face. For living in the wild, Dusk was well groomed and clean. His black coat was somehow spotless.

"I saw you come crashing down." Secundus said, motioning his head to Luna would know the direction where he found her. "You were falling down fast with some magical energy surrounding you."

Luna realized how a pegasus would immediately know that it was magic around her. But instead of questioning him, she thanked him.

"Thank you Dusk." Princess Luna said with a smile to the red-eyed pegasus.

"No-not a problem!" Dusk said, getting red a little in the face.

His face turned a bit red to see the mare lean very close to his face. Princess Luna then smiled and picked up her pace a little up to give Dusk a show as well.

But in the dark forest, a pack of timberwolves sniffed the air and recognized the scent of Secundus. Knowing to stay away, the leader of the pack called the group away from the dangerous figure. However, a shadowy mist entered into one timberwolf and as another did to another one.

The once brilliant green color in their eyes faded into a disturbing black. The pack then faced and snarled towards the direction of Secundus and Princess Luna.