Mom, Dad, Caeli, Terra, Ignis:

I guess you already know that I’m gone. Please don’t see this as me trying to protect you all. I just want answers from the ponies that live in Equestria. I need to find out if they know about Gallopolli, and if so, why haven’t they done anything about an alicorn living here like myself? Especially if they want to kill me and anypony involved with me and magic. Please, don’t try to follow me, I need to do this on my own. If you want to move, that’s fine, but I think you’re safe where you’re at now. I don’t think Nexus can find you here.

If I make it to Equestria and the ponies there are welcoming....then I’ll try to start a new life there, because what I have here...I can’t live like this. I shouldn’t live like this. Hiding and being afraid....there’s nothing for me here. I’ll see you all again, I promise.

    Velux

Velux’s horn stopped glowing as he set the quill down. The alicorn picked up his note with his mouth and set it down on the table by the door. Velux then levitated his saddlebags filled with supplies onto his back. He also sheathed his father’s dagger at his side, Velux hoped that he wouldn’t have to use it, but it was better to have some sort of defense. He took one last look at his family, all of them asleep, all of them earth ponies. Why? Velux was an alicorn, how could he be their son? Velux knew, deep down, that they weren’t his real family, not by blood.

No, it shouldn’t matter if he wasn’t related to them. He had been raised by them since he had been born, and that made them his family. Nothing, not even learning about his real parents, would change that. Velux opened the door to their home silently and stepped outside. He looked towards the Everfree Forest, the only way to Equestria besides the guarded roads and the mountains, none of which were practical ways to get to Equestria as the guards on the roads would be looking for him and the mountains were too dangerous for Velux. He had never learned to fly, the most he could do was glide a few feet off the ground. Nopony had ever been through the Everfree Forest so it should be relatively unguarded.

It was the supposed inhabitants of the forest that concerned Velux. Manticores, cockatrices, and who knows what else? Velux took a deep breath, determined to reach his destination and began to set off toward the forest, not wanting to look back at his home, his family.

“Velux?”

Velux’s stomach lurched, he froze on the spot before he could even get more than a few feet away from his home. Slowly, he turned around to see his sister, Terra, staring at him. Terra was nearly identical to her twin sister Caeli, her light tan coat matched Caeli’s; her emerald colored mane was usually held together by a single bow. Terra stared at Velux with her orange eyes,

“What are you doing?”

Velux sighed, and started to walk back towards Terra.

“You didn’t see my note?” Velux asked.

“I read it,” said Terra, pawing the ground with her hoof, “I don’t understand why you won’t take us with you.”

Velux looked down to the ground.

“Because... I need to know if it’s safe first. I need to do this alone.” Velux said, “Besides, it’s too dangerous to move all of us at the same time, we’d never make it to Equestria.”

Terra’s tone shifted, she sounded more angry, more accusing.

“So you’re just going to leave us here? You know that Nexus is still going to try to kill us, even if you’re gone! Just going away isn’t going to change that!”

Velux’s ears dropped, he had always been close to Terra. To hear her be this angry at him was unsettling.

“I know...” Velux admitted “But it’ll be easier for me to make it to Equestria if I’m on my own. I can be more discreet and I can find a safe passage. I’m sorry, really I am, but I just need to do this alone.”

Terra sighed, “I guess I can’t change your mind, can I?”

“No.”

“Then go. Wherever you go, it can’t be much worse than here.”

Velux stared at Terra, surprised at her willingness to let her brother go. Finally, Velux was able to speak.

“You didn’t see me?”

“No,” said Terra, smiling, “I didn’t.”

Velux hugged Terra, and she hugged back. Now that Velux’s departure had been hindered, he almost didn’t want to go, to not have to say goodbye to Terra in person, to go back to bed and talk things over with everypony else in the morning.

No, it was easier like this, Terra might be willing to let him go but the others might not. Especially his mother and Caeli. Finally, Velux and Terra broke apart.

“Goodbye, Terra.” Velux said.

“Goodbye,” Terra said, her lip trembling, “Stay safe.”

“I will,” said Velux, finally turning away from Terra and walking slowly towards the Everfree Forest, towards Equestria.

As Velux neared the bottom of the hill that his home sat upon, he thought he heard Terra start to sob; but when Velux looked back at his house, the door was closed.

***

Velux pulled his cloak from his saddlebags and put it on before approaching the Everfree Forest. His mother had made it for him so he could conceal himself whenever he needed to go to a public place. It covered his wings pretty well, but his horn was still barely visible. Still, from a distance, he would look like an ordinary traveler. That was what Velux wanted, distance from any of the soldier ponies Nexus might have sent to guard the Everfree Forest. Of course, the most preferable way to get into the forest was not to be seen at all.

As Velux got closer he started to see movement. Whether they were Nexus ponies, or ponies at all, was still unclear. As Velux started to move farther away from the anomaly, though, he began to hear voices.

“....don’t know why we’re stationed here. He’d never try to go through the forest, it’s too dangerous.” a stallion said, bored and frustrated.

“If Liordani says that we have to guard this place, we have to guard it.” said another stallion, “The kid’s not stupid, he knows that we have the roads heavily guarded, and nopony would be crazy enough to try to scale those mountains.”

Damn, Velux thought. He knew Liordani’s name; he was a big supporter of Nexus, and the only kind of authority Velux had heard of within the organization. His father used to serve with him in the guard shortly before Velux had been born. There was no time to think of that though; the voices were close. He was surprised he hadn’t been caught already.

As Velux started to slowly walk away from the voices he stepped on a twig. The crack would’ve been loud enough to wake the whole forest. Velux stopped, nearly cursing at himself out loud.

“What was that?” the first Nexus pony said.

“Probably just an animal.” the second pony said in a stressed voice, as if his companion had done this many times before.

“No, there’s somepony there. I know it!” the first pony said. “Hello? Is anypony there?”

The soldier pony started walking towards the spot where Velux remained hidden behind a tree. For a moment Velux considered running as far away as he can from the Nexus ponies. But he realized that would lead to a chase that would set off alarms all over Gallopolli. Slowly Velux pulled his father’s dagger from it’s sheath with his mouth. He felt slightly queasy at the thought of what he was about to do, but he didn’t see any viable alternative.

As the soldier neared his hiding spot, Velux held his breath. Fortunately, it was dark in the forest and the soldier could barely see in front of him.

“Hell-” the soldier pony didn’t have time to finish his sentence, Velux leapt from his hiding spot, dagger in mouth, and drove it into soldier pony’s chest. Velux covered the pony’s mouth with his hoof to muffle his screams.

“What was that, Bones? You catch that rabbit yet?” the second pony chuckled to himself, oblivious to the fact that his friend was now dying.

Velux’s hoof stiffled a choke as the Nexus pony’s blood began to seep from the wound and trickled into Velux’s mouth. Velux pulled the dagger out, hoof still covering the pony’s mouth and stabbed him again where his heart was. His hoof stiffled another scream from the dying pony. Finally, after a few moments of struggling, the Nexus pony closed his eyes and lay still.

Velux slowly removed his hoof from the pony’s mouth and let go of the the dagger still embedded in his chest. He dragged his body behind a fallen tree a short distance from the struggle, doing all he could to keep himself from gagging. Velux pulled his dagger from the pony’s chest, sheathed it and began to run deeper into the forest, keeping his hoof falls from being too loud.

He finally stopped running when he had reached a clearing to catch his breath. Velux tasted blood; another pony’s blood. Velux retched as he took a quick drink from his canteen and spit out the vile substance. As Velux stared at the small puddle, he began to realize what had just occurred. He had just killed somepony! He had never done such a thing before! Even if he would’ve killed him if he had the chance, he couldn’t get the muffled screams out his head.....the image of his dead body stuffed out of sight behind the tree....

Velux retched again and doubled over, he nearly vomited, but held it down. The now dead Nexus pony’s companion would surely begin searching for him and discover the body...

He had to keep moving. Taking a minute to compose himself, Velux stood up and began to head deeper into the forest.

It only took a few minutes for Velux to realize that he was lost. He had been so shaken, so frightened of his murderous act that he completely forgot to follow the road that was said to lead to Equestria. Though nopony from Gallopolli had ever crossed the Everfree Forest and lived to tell the tale. Velux fought through the thick forest, sharp branches cutting through his coat. Everytime he had heard the slightest sound, Velux froze and stared blankly into the dark forest, waiting to hear the roar of some horrible monster coming to tear him to shreds, before moving on.

After what seemed like hours of futile struggling, the branches became less thick, less menacing. Velux finally cleared the branches and found himself on a road. It was a worn and what seemed to be a less traveled road, but it was the only navigation Velux had. Checking to see that nothing had been lost in his struggle against the forest, Velux followed the road in the opposite direction from where he came from at a trot.

It was only a short while before Velux found himself at the edge of a cliff, an old wooden bridge leading to a ruined castle. This was obviously not the way to Equestria, Velux thought that he should head back and try to see if he can connect to the main road, but something about the ruins made him curious. Velux tentatively crossed the bridge, looking down the whole way to make sure that he didn’t step on any loose boards. When he was free of the bridge, Velux set off toward the castle.

***

There wasn’t anything special about the hall he had entered, the ceiling had been collapsed and debris from the ceiling was scattered across the floor. Vines and branches from the forest had begun to creep through the shattered windows and wrap themselves around anything they could reach. Though something in the center of the hall did intrigue Velux, six stone outcroppings surrounding a large central one. The outcroppings looked as if there were supposed to be globes set on them, but they were gone. Velux deduced that whatever was supposed to be there had been taken when the castle was abandoned or destroyed.

As Velux approached the stone outcroppings he noticed an inscription on the central part.

The Elements of Harmony

      To be placed here in memory of Nightmare Moon’s

         banishment by Princess Celestia’s wielding of the

Elements

Velux barely had time to ponder what the inscription meant before something wrapped itself around his neck and pull him to the floor. Velux looked over his shoulder, half-choking, and saw that he had been lassoed.

“Haha! You got him! Pull him in! Liordani will want to see this!” said the Nexus pony standing next  to the pony who lassoed Velux.  

Velux fought and struggled but could not get his neck free of the rope. It was only constricting his breathing further, and it appeared that he had no choice but to go along with the unfortunate situation.

As Velux was pulled in to the Nexus ponies, another set of ropes was tied around his hooves. A few of the Nexus ponies kicked him as he was pulled out of the castle ruins and back outside. Velux looked up again and saw a tall, muscular earth pony. He had a tan coat and his mane was shaved off, and on his face was a look of pure contempt for the alicorn laying before him.

“Thought you could try to slip away in the night, didn’t you?” said the earth pony, who Velux assumed to be Liordani, “You haven’t done a very good job, your murder rang alarm bells all throughout Nexus. I think that will be enough for a hanging, in addition to being a filthy magic pony.”

“Your men would’ve killed me anyway!” Velux retorted, “I had no choice!”

“But who would believe you?” Liordani replied.

Velux opened his mouth to respond, but said nothing. He was right. Who in Gallopolli, a land where magic ponies are considered to be criminals, would believe him?

“Come on, let’s get him in the cage and back to Gallopolli.” Liordani ordered his troops.

Velux received another kick and was then dragged across the bridge in a single file line. A large cage drawn by two Nexus ponies waited on the other side of the bridge. The rope around Velux’s midsection was taken off before he was thrown into the cage where it was slammed shut and locked.

“Let’s go,” said Liordani, “and no talking to the prisoner.”

The ponies drawing the cage started to trot down the road back towards Gallopolli. The cage bumped and shook on the rough road and Velux bounced around in the cage, unable to move with his bonds still secured tightly to his hooves.

“Great job, Velux,” Velux thought to himself, “You leave a perfectly safe home, kill somepony, and get captured all within a few hours. Some alicorn you are.”

Velux wanted nothing more than to be out of this cage and back home with his family. Then he wouldn’t be in this mess, trapped and being led to his death. As the cage bumped on a particularly large rock, Velux flipped over onto his back and his father’s knife fell out of his saddlebags and onto the floor of the cage.

For a few moments, Velux simply stared at it, unable to believe his luck. Liordani and his colts forgot to remove his saddlebags, or they had simply thought that he had lost his knife or had no weapon at all. Looking outside the cage to make sure that nopony was looking, Velux managed to lift the knife with magic and into his mouth. Velux started to cut away at his bonds, his knife in his mouth. Every now and then, he would stop and make sure that nopony noticed that he was freeing himself.

When the last of the rope was cut free, Velux remained in his submissive position. It would be a mistake to get up when he was supposed to be tied up. None of it mattered anyway, Velux was free of the ropes, but not of the cage. He was still as trapped as before, completely at the mercy of Nexus. Velux thought that he might as well make a run for it when they opened the cage next and hope for the best. It was his best, and only, plan at the moment.

“Hold up, I think I heard something.” said Liordani suddenly, “You. Go check it out.”

Curious, Velux looked outside his cage and watched as a soldier pony pass the cage and move into the forest. It was deathly quiet on the road, nopony made a single sound as they waited for the Nexus pony’s report. After a few minutes of silence, there was a rustling from the forest and the soldier pony stepped back out onto the road.

“There’s nothing th-”

A great roar seemed to shake the trees of the forest as a large creature came out of the forest and swiped the soldier pony into the air with it’s paw. The pony flew over Velux’s cage and landed a few feet away, dead. Another roar came from behind their procession, and a few of the Nexus ponies yelled and drew their swords to combat the threat.

“Go! Get the prisoner out of here! We’ll catch up!” shouted Liordani to the ponies pulling Velux’s cage.

The ponies did not need to be told twice. The cage lurched as they set off down the road, more roars came out from all around them. Whatever the creatures were, there was an entire pack of them. As they turned a corner onto the side of a small cliff, another roar came out from above them and the creature crashed on top of the cage.

A claw ripped through the hole of the cage and started to swipe at the air, hoping to kill its prey. Velux picked up his knife and drove it into the paw, the creature gave another roar and the paw retreated. Then, another great crash hit the cage on its right side, sending them tumbling down the cliff. Velux flew around the cage, smashing into the walls and the cage rolled down the cliff at an alarming speed. The cage gave another great lurch, and Velux’s head banged into the bars, knocking him unconcious.

Velux blinked blood out of his eyes as he woke. He hurt all over, every part of his body felt as if it had been beaten with a hammer. Velux slowly got up and felt his head, it was wet with blood, but it felt like only a small scratch. His luck still holding, Velux examined his surroundings. The door to his cage had burst open in the crash and Velux climbed out.

The cage had been flipped over, and the creatures nowhere in sight. The two ponies who had drawn his cage were getting up on their hooves, heavily bruised with gashes all around their bodies. The Nexus ponies looked around and saw Velux standing outside of the cage.

“You little bastard.” said one pony as they advanced on Velux.

Velux desperately looked around for his knife and saw it lying a few feet away from the destroyed cage. He lunged for it, picked it up and turned to his attackers, ready to fight for his life.

“When we get a hold of you...” the pony growled as they drew their swords in their mouths.

Suddenly, a scorpion’s tail pierced the neck of the pony that was making threats. He stopped in his tracks, foam coming out of his mouth, the tail withdrew, and the pony fell to the ground. The creatures who had been attacking them had now revealed itself, it was not a scorpion, but a manticore. It’s lion’s body strong and large, with sinister wings at its side. The other soldier pony yelled and turned away from Velux toward the manticore.

Velux finally saw his opportunity to escape and ran away from the wreckage, giving no thought to the pony now fighting the manticore alone. Velux heard the pony scream and his body flew over his head and landed in front of him, Velux leaped over the body and continued to ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He mentally kicked himself for never learning how to fly.

The manticore had managed to catch up to Velux and swiped his side with its paw. Velux screamed as he fell off to the side, a gash in his torso. Velux was only starting to get up when the manticore lunged again at his head, Velux tried to jump out of the way, but it was too late.

The paw struck him straight in his horn. A sharp pain lanced through it, more intense than he had felt the whole night, or any other, really. Velux saw a large piece of his horn fly off and land yards away from him. Velux raced to the broken piece of his horn and picked it up with his mouth. He didn’t know why he did it, maybe there would be a way to re-attach it. The manticore still pursuing him, Velux ran deeper into the forest, hoping to lose him in the thick trees. He saw a hollowed out tree that could accommodate his size and leaped inside. The manticore’s paw reached inside and clawed at him. Raising his knife again, Velux stabbed the paw. The manticore yelped then looked inside the tree, his large eye visible.

Velux thrust the blade into the manticore’s eye, hoping that this would be the killing blow. The manticore did not die, but instead roared, clutching his bleeding eye and ran off into the forest. Cautiously, Velux came out of the tree and looked around. No more manticores, he was finally safe. A sharp, burning pain came from his side and Velux realized that he was wounded with a broken horn and once again lost in the Everfree Forest. Velux examined his wounds from the manticore and saw that in addition to his own blood, there was some sort of sickly green pus oozing as well. He knew not what it was, but he could only assume that there must have been some kind of toxin on the manticore’s claws. Still his head wound was not poisoned, and so Velux retrieved a bandage from his saddlebags and wrapped it around his head to stop the bleeding. He also did this to the poisoned wound, if only to stop the bleeding.

Looking around, Velux could not see the cliff from which his cage had fallen nor the wreckage. He wouldn’t dare to try to climb back up, he was too hurt, and he was sure that Liordani and his followers would be searching the roads, if they managed to survive the manticore attack.

It was nearing dawn, and Velux was stumbling through the forest, losing blood and consciousness. He’d escaped Nexus and the manticores, but if he did not recieve medical attention then he would bleed out in the middle of the forest or succumb to the effects of the manticore’s poison. He turned a corner and saw a small hut hidden away inside the trees, smoke flowing out of the chimney and odd chanting coming from inside.

Velux, using the last of his strength and nearly crawling, started toward the hut. Whether they were friend or foe he didn’t know, nor did he much care. Velux managed to make it to the front door of the hut and raised his hoof with the intent of pushing the door open, but only succeeding in knocking lamely against the door a single time. The chanting stopped, and he heard hoofsteps approaching the door. Velux’s vision blurred, and everything went black as he fell onto his throbbing side. Next Chapter: Chapter 2 Estimated time remaining: 34 Minutes