Cloud fell to the ground and ejected cactus juice from his face. Mawr had just shown him a summary of her entire life through three seconds of telepathy, and his body had not appreciated it.

“O-Okay!” Cloud managed to say between coughs. “I believe you!”

Mawr stood up. She was mostly unharmed, though a little shaken. She walked over to Cloud and smacked him across the head before offering the same hoof to pull him up.

“Ow.”

“Now we’re even.” Mawr helped Cloud up off the ground, ignoring his scowl.

“[She’s controlling his brain!]” One of the spectating Horses screamed. “[Now no one is safe!]”

As Mawr and Cloud had fought, a large crowd of Horses had gathered. Unsurprisingly, that crowd was now screaming along with the original three.

“The value of context is so underappreciated these days,” Cloud said to nobody in particular, “but when you don’t have it, oh boy is it wanted.”

“They think the ‘big, bad, evil Changeling’ brainwashed you,” Mawr explained. I mean, technically... “They’re all freaking out about it.”

“I see.”

There was a pause.

Mawr lit up her horn. “I’m gonna kill them all.”

“What?! No!” Cloud quickly teleported the two of them into the neighbouring street.

Mawr huffed and scowled at him. “What the hell, man? I was about to solve our problems and blow off some steam.”

“No!” Cloud shouted. “Stop killing people!”

“Or what?” Mawr scoffed. “You’ll kill me?”

“Considering I just kicked your ass, I-!”

“Okay, no, stop right there,” Mawr frowned, “you only beat me because I wasn’t going for the kill.”

“Bullshit!”

“[There they are!]” Shouted a Horse. “[They came over here, everyone!]”

“Crap,” Mawr muttered. “Unless you’re okay with me killing everyone, we need to get out of here.”

“Then let’s get going,” Cloud replied. He summoned a Support Circle and hovered a little in the air, motioning for Mawr to fly too.

Mawr flapped her wings, but…

“Argh!” She cried. “Fuck!”

“What’s wrong?” Cloud asked quickly, noticing the Horses beginning to stampede.

“Whatever you did, you screwed up my wings!”

“Fine-!” He focused his thoughts and increased the diameter of his Support Circle. “Get on! Quickly!”

Mawr climbed onto the Support Circle. After rooting her to it, Cloud flew into the air and away from the town.

“Wait, no!” Mawr shouted. “We need to go back!”

“Nope.”

“We need to go back and-!”

“Nope.”

“But we really have to-!”

“No- Agh!” Cloud had been smacked.

“Listen to me, asshole! I don’t know where we’re going!”

“You said we were going to Equestria!” Cloud shouted. “Make up your mind!”

“Oh yeah?! Well which direction do we go, smartass?!”

Cloud slowed the circle to a stop. Uhh… Shit, she’s right.

“We need to go back and find a map,” Mawr explained. “Food and water would be a good idea, too.”

“Where do we find a map?” Cloud asked. “In a library?”

“Yeah, it’s the best bet,” Mawr nodded. “But since you’ve decided murder’s not an option, I’ll let you figure out how to find a library in a town full of Horses who think I’m evil and that you’re my thrall.”

“Fine! It’ll be easy!” Cloud unrooted them from the Support Circle before turning around to look at the town. This will not be easy...

This is easy!

“This is stupid…” Mawr muttered, sitting atop Cloud’s head.

After a little bit of adjustment, Cloud had managed to alter the teeth whitening spell he had learnt back in Ponyville to whiten his entire body. It was purely a magical aesthetic, and would wear off after an hour. It changed nothing else about him, but it was enough to make the Horses in the town think he was an entirely different Unicorn.

Once disguised, he had Mawr to transform into a flea and hide in his mane. They walked through the town like this, and if anyone questioned him on who he was or where he was going, Mawr would tap on his head three times before saying loudly in a male voice; “[I no speak Saddline].” When Cloud felt three taps, he knew to pretend to speak.

Finally, Cloud was using a short range heat detection spell to search for a library. While most buildings were well designed for allowing airflow to keep themselves cool, a library would be full of books - insulating it. If Cloud detected a significant heat source, he would hide in an alley while Mawr entered the building, still a flea, to check if it was a library.

“This is beyond stupid,” Mawr continued muttering, “this is a level of stupid I can’t even comprehend.”

Cloud was unable to reply, lest he ruin the disguise. He ducked into another alleyway and Mawr climbed off him. He pointed to the building to his left.

“This is stupid…” Mawr sighed, before crawling toward the entrance. After a few minutes, she crawled back to Cloud and hopped back onto his head. “Yeah, this looks like one.”

They headed inside. It was a small building with no more than three rooms, the first of which was packed wall to wall with books. Sadly, as the room itself was small, the actual number of books wasn’t too high.

Mawr changed back into her normal form and glanced around, now able to see from her normal height. “Yeah, this should do nicely. I’ll explore the rest of the building while you make a start on looking for a map, okay?”

“GET OFF MY HEAD!” Cloud yelled into the floor.

Mawr wandered into the second room to discover that it was a bedroom. Connected to it was a small and simple kitchen. From the smell, she correctly guessed at a hidden away bedpan. The owner of the library probably lives here.

Checking the kitchen cupboards, she discovered very little food and water - there was just about enough for a single serving of each. She left the supplies in the cupboards and went back into the library itself.

Cloud was making steady progress checking books for any kind of useable map, skimming through them with telekinesis. Walking past him, Mawr headed directly to the other end of the room and joined him in searching.

Thirty minutes of flicked through books is what it took to discover a detailed history of Saddle Arabia.

“Here,” Mawr called, ending her telekinesis spell and holding the book with her hoof, “I found something we can use.” She quickly found a well presented map of Saddle Arabia within the book.

“I thought we were looking for a world map?” Cloud asked, now by her side.

“Yeah? And how successful have we been so far?”

Cloud sighed. “You have a fair point. So, what now? We find a city or somewhere else with a library and check there?”

“More or less,” Mawr tore the page out of the book, folded it a few times and stored it inside one of her hind leg’s holes, “but we should head west. Even if we don’t find somewhere with a better map, we can still make it to Zebrica.”

“Question.”

“Yes?”

“Which way is west?”

“I can navigate with the stars, I’ll tell you in a couple of hours.” Mawr put the book back onto the shelf.

“Another question.”

Mawr rolled her eyes. “Yes?”

“If you can figure out which way is west, why did we need a map?”

“So we can stop by towns and cities on the way for supplies.”

Cloud blinked. “Oh, right.”

“While we’re on the subject,” Mawr walked towards the kitchen and Cloud followed, “there’s barely a single ration of food and water here.” She showed him the little food and water to emphasise her point. “Stealing more from this town could be difficult, so I say you eat and drink it before we leave, head directly to the next closest town and steal some from there.”

“No.” Cloud was frowning. “I’ll steal from this town because we don’t have much of a choice, but I won’t steal when I don’t need to.”

“By the night’s sky…” Mawr groaned. “Fine! We won’t steal the supplies which we need to live! I’d ask how you plan to get it, but considering your last plan was so stupid I don’t really give a shit.”

“If the plan was so bad, why did it work?” As if on cue, Cloud faded back to his normal colours.

“Dumb luck.”

“Then w-” A realisation suddenly struck Cloud. “Wait, if I eat the food, what are you gonna do?”

“Changelings have… other ways to… ‘feed’.” She paused. “While we’re on the subject, uh…” She groaned and facehoofed. “I need a… favour.” Mawr described the favour in great detail which would surely destroy the audience’s fragile innocence if heard.

“Oh,” said Cloud, flexing his eyebrows and growing a shit-eating-grin, “now that’s something I can help you with…”

“Well, that was disappointing,” Mawr sighed.

Cloud had, once again, found himself in a sticky situation.

Author's Notes:

Why is it that when I become super busy with life stuff and tell everyone I'm super busy with life stuff I suddenly start producing more chapters?
Seriously though, life stuff is keeping me super busy so if I stop posting things for a little while, that's why and it's not me being lazy for once.