The train took about two hours to climb the mountain tunnel to Canterlot. Nothing had changed physically. Same white towers and buildings, same cobblestone streets and same shops open on the corners. As I exit the train, I look down to be sure my legs are still hidden beneath the cloak from White Tail. The streets hadn’t changed with time. I could see the bakery I use to go to for mother’s birthday cake, and across from that the pawn shop I bought fathers gifts. The flood of memories is just too much! I have to get moving.

The walk was long and the city was crawling with guards. I wasn’t sure why, but I kept to the shadows as I walked the streets. Seeing as how I haven’t been here in almost five years, I got lost fairly easily. It was almost dusk when I reached our little house on the edge of the city. The edge that was hanging from the mountain. The welcome mat was still there and a Canterlot flag swayed in the evening breeze on the porch. I take a deep breath and come closer to the front door. My heart is racing. I haven’t see them in years. My robotic hoof shakes as I raze it up and knock. It took a minute, but a dark blue unicorn with a black and gray mane answered the door.

“Yes, can I help you sir?” she asked me.

“M-mother?”

She seems taken back by my shaky voice and backs away with a hoof over her mouth. I pull back my hood and reveal my face to her. She gasps and her hind legs give out.

“Honey, who’s at the-” he stopped short seeing me at the door.

“Hi dad.” I say with an nervous smile I could only imagine what I looked like.

“Lunarus… is it really you?” my mother asked holding back a sob.

I step in and kneel to her level, letting her run her hoof over my face. She lost it after that. Wrapping her forelegs around my neck and crying on my shoulder.

“You’re alive! My only son’s alive!” she shouted into my neck. I feel tears in my own eyes as well as she pulls back. “They said you were captured; that you died.”

“I got better.” (smooth)

“You stay right there.” father said approaching me.

He pushed me lightly with his hoof and looked me straight in the eyes. If it was at all possible, I think I see a tear in his eye.

“You’re okay…” he sobbed. “You’re alive!”

He jumped me and nearly knocked me to the floor. I made sure the cloak covered my leg as I wrapped it around him as well.

“Dear, Luna! You’re freezing!”

“Not exactly.” I say looking away.

“What do you mean? You’re here and fine right?”

“Here, yes. Fine, that’s up for debate.”

“Son?”

I don’t know what to say now. I brought it up. I should have eased them into it.

“Look, while I was gone, some very bad things happened to me. Please, just, don’t freak out.”

I lay my bags on the ground and slowly take the cloak off. My mother looks like she’s about to faint as she sees my metallic legs. My father is even worse. He looks mad.

“I’ll explain everything tomorrow, but for now, can I-” I say moving forward.

“Stay back!” father says getting in front of mother. Horn lowered and glowing.

I stammer for words as I back up a step. “Dad, what are you-”

“I heard they were getting better at lookin’ like us. I didn’t think they were this close. Molly, call for a guard. Now!”

“Dad…”

“I said get back you Changeling bastard!”

Ah! I could actually feel the knife he threw being stuck though my heart. I know Luna said there would be consequences, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. I can feel the tears starting to roll down my face. Mother takes one last frightened look at me before running out the back door screaming for a guard.

“I don’t know what you did with my son, but you are going to die here.”

“Dad, please, you gotta believe me. It’s really me, Lunar Nexus.”

He hesitates. Looking me over and staring into my eyes. He cringes and turns his back on me.

“Get out.”

“What?”

“Get out before I kill you myself you lying piece of shit!”

I levitate my bags back onto my back and slowly back out of my house. My mother screams again as I hear the guard ponies run closer.

“Halt!”

I don’t listen. I quickly bolt right and hop the fence into the neighbor’s yard before dashing back into the street. In hindsight, that was a poor choice in direction. We lived on the very edge of the Canterlot cliffs; and I learned that a little too late. I reached the fence that separated me from a several thousand foot drop straight down. I turn and find the guards slowly advancing towards me. My mind is too rattled for me to even summon even the simplest of spells. I hear the clank of my hind leg hitting the metal fence. I only see one way out of this.

‘So much for a year’s rest’

“Any last words?” the middle guard asked me.

I look back at the long drop behind me before responding. “Catch me if you can.”

I vault over the rails and instantly start plummeting towards certain death. The rush of autumn air chills my face and the whistle of the wind deafens me. I orient myself so that my front hoofs are pointing at the ground and my hind legs pointing to the cliff I just leapt from. This seems to be fast enough. I reach my head back and bite down on a brass ring on the top of the bag. With all the force I can muster, I pull the ring from the bag and hear metal sliding on metal as two four foot long, metallic Pegasus wings just out from the side of the bag. The feather shaped metal plates that make up the wings slice the air and I feel my descent slow. Now for the first test.

I built them to work off a wireless link to my spine where the tendons for flight would be located on a Pegasus. Half way down the mountain, the wings tilt back, catching the air and I start to level me out. They’re working, I can’t believe they’re working! Time to see how well they handle. I feel them flap with great force and push me higher and faster as I continue to level off. The trees are getting awful close now. I lean back hard and flap the wings hard. I decelerate as I pull skyward nearly instantly. My rear hoofs grazed the top of a few of the trees as the roar of the wind dies down to whistle.

The wings on my back flap powerfully and carry high above the tree tops away from Canterlot. I look back and bank right back towards the mountain and Ponyville to it’s south west. Now level and gliding I start going through my options. I can’t go home, news of a “Changeling” invading Canterlot is going to spread across Equestria faster then a wild fire in dry brush. I remember the map I bought showing a dense forest east of Ponyville that no pony dared enter alone. That seemed as good a place as any to hide.

I land in the middle of the Everfree Forest and let the wings fold to my sides. The seal is cold against my skin as I fall onto my back. The clearing was large enough to hide me from view but not the night sky. The whispers now were a mix of calm and dark, making me wonder if I was truly safe. The stars were dim and clouds dotted the skies.

“This isn’t what she warned us of, now is it?” a voice asked me. It was cold and sadistic.

“She told me the price was high, but I never thought it would be this high.” I think to myself.

“What point is there to serving her anymore. She couldn’t even help us back there. Our own parents hate us. We have power greater then both Celestia and Luna. Not even the six could stop us if we so desired power.”

“I don’t know.”

A roar jolted me upright and before I can breath, a massive scorpion tail nearly takes my head off. I roll to my feet and look at what the tail was attached to. The beast slowly pulls its tail from the ground and looks me in the eyes. I know what this is. The Manticore stood at the edge of the clearing, barring its fangs at me with a growl.

“Do you fear what you cannot hope to understand?”

“What are you waiting for?! Kill me! You want a meal?! Work for it!”

“You have nothing to lose anymore. Let me show you what absolute power feels like.”

A different sound fills the air now. It sounds like a bull grunting, waiting to charge. I want to look around, but my sight is fixed on the beast in front of me. I feel my facial expression contort into something I had never done before. Images flash through my mind. Vile scenes of the Manticore’s mangled body, bloody and brutally dissected on a tree. I cringe as I feel these thoughts take over my body. It was like the shadows from two years ago were coming back for round two. Something is going through me. It’s like the lightning, but this feels darker. I cringe again in pain and lower my horn as the energy speeds through my body and out my horn. There was a powerful rush of wind and ice around me and the Manticore stumbled back. I open my eyes and I see shadowy smoke and icy daggers spinning around me. The Manticore looks too stunned to move as the vortex speeds up, creating more daggers.

“Finnish it!”

I let go, the shadow pulses through me and the daggers rain down on the Manticore. It howls in pain as several icy spears pass through its soft malleable flesh. It doesn’t take long for the creature to be lying motionless in a pool of its own blood. I am breathing heavily and my vision is blurred as the shadows reseed. The Manticore dissolved back to tartarus. I collapse tired and drained before passing out.

My lord, why does it have to be so hot in fall? I have been wandering these woods for weeks. After the Manticore incident seven weeks ago, I have been keeping as quite as possible. I had to sell everything accept my schematics, bags and canteens in Ponyville only to run out of supplies two days ago. I hear there’s a rock farm to the south east of the forest. I never quite understood why you would have to farm rocks, but I don’t think they would accept me at all. Guess I need to keep going.

The sound of running water fills my ears and I feel my second wind rush though my body. I deploy my wings and dash towards the source of the sound. I pass into an open horseshoe shaped clearing next to a river. I dig my hoofs into the ground and stop right at the waters edge. Before any other thought crosses my mind, I dunk my head into the ice cold water and gulp down as much as I can stomach. Realizing I’m not breathing, I pull my head out of the river and gasp for air and let it out in a sigh of relief. I now fall onto my back and shut my eyes, letting the cold water trickle down my body.

From the corner of the clearing, I hear a light gasp. Too light to be a stallion but even lighter to be coming from a pony. Unless they were known for being incredibly quiet. I turn my head in its direction and a quick squeal of fear escapes the bushes. I jump to my feet and take flight above the trees. With quick precision, I dive behind the right side of the horseshoe and land behind a yellow Pegasus with a long pink make surrounded by small, woodland animals. She turned to face me and quickly fell to her stomach and covered her eyes as the creatures scattered.

“Please, don’t hurt me!” her voice was barely a whisper, even when she was scared. “I won’t tell anypony what I saw!”

“What are you talkin’ ‘bout?” I ask still out of breath.

“You’re the one from the posters, right?”

I sigh. “Okay, I’ll let you go.” she nearly gets up and runs before I finish my sentence. “But only after I’m sure you’ll stay quiet.” I lower my horn a feel the magic energy shoot from it into her.

Her eyes shut and she falls to her side. She’s still breathing, thankfully I still remember the difference between the sleep spell and the nightmare spell. I lift her onto my back and start looking around the area. She may be a Pegasus, but she didn’t fly here. Her still fresh hoof prints lead back towards Ponyville. It was hard enough walking through the forest in near one hundred degree heat, now I had to carry a pony on my back. She wasn’t heavy, but she wasn’t making things easy. I could hear the animals following behind us. For a Pegasus, she sure doesn’t seem to fly much. Her hoof prints lead in so many directions, it’s nearly impossible to find where she came from originally.

It’s taken a few minutes, but I think I’ve found her house. It’s just a tiny cottage set on the edge of the forest next to a small creek. The top half of her door was open. The spell should ware off in a moment. I need to be quick about this. I trot up the walk way and open the door. Even the inside of her house is filled with animals. I gently lay her on the couch in the center of the room and make sure she’s still fast asleep before making a break for it. Unfortunately, she’s starting to stir. The timid look in her light blue eyes speak for themselves.

“You’re going to be fine. What just happened was all a dream.” I hit her with a more powerful sleep spell this time and watch her drift off again.

I quickly leave the way I came and close the door behind me.

“So you knocked out a pony and just, took her back to her home?” Armor asked.

“That’s what I did. I don’t like hurting ponies.”

“And the Manticore?”

“I don’t know what came over me. I swear, no pony was harmed.”

“The records show that she wasn’t the only one.”

“Ten. I had to do it to ten others.”

“All of them returned safely to their homes…”

“Yes.”

“And you knew where they lived how?”

I groan. “I didn’t want to half to track them through the forest and back to Ponyville, so at night I hid on the roof tops, monitored movements, wrote them down and memorized where 95% of the residence lived. I never hurt any of them. You know what happens next Captain.”

“Tell me anyways. For the record.”