Hours have passed since the hunting party. The woods were filled with the sounds of nocturnal wildlife as I floated back down to the ground, flitting between trees. I had no idea where I was when I finally landed. Glancing around, all I saw were trees and more trees.

"Phew." I breathed out. "Now what?" Strangely, the voice in the back of my mind didn't reply. Maybe it finally lef-

"Shame. Oh well." I grumbled. "I doubt they'll stop hunting me. Especially since I shot a laser and k-killed a guy." I did my best to hold down the sudden rush of emotion, I had to hold strong. Even if it was because I wasn't out of the woods yet... Metaphorically.

"Hm." I hummed in thought. "They probably think I'm a wild animal... or something alien if I were to put my tin cap on."

"You're being very cooperative." I noted.

"Understood." I stated neutrally. "I do have an idea. But it's very risky."

"They expect me to be out here in the woods. Other then that they have little evidence to track me by. So it wouldn't be unfeasible to hide where they least suspect, under their very noses."

"I would expect nothing less." The conversation effectively done, I broke into a gallop, wincing in pain as I took flight once more.

The Moon hung above the forest, casting its silver glare like a giant pupil-less eye over the trees. The countryside didn't have any defining features per se, just a flat expanse of trees. In the distance I could see obtrusive yellow glares occasionally break the darkness. I didn't fly too high, just barely above the highest branches. I didn't remember which town I came from, so I just veered towards the nearest yellow glow.

The obtrusive glow was indeed a town, I didn't recognize the layout or buildings. But then again I didn't really know the last one ether. Weary of power lines, I flapped a bit harder to gain a few extra feet of clearance. I checked my watch for the time. 1:34 am. Most people would be fast asleep by now, so I had a degree of freedom that came with no witnesses. Obviously I needed a relatively secluded place to stay, but it had to be near sources of food and water. A park? No, too small and it didn't have a building. The local grocery store? I paused. My experience in such a store would give me an edge... No, not secluded enough. Also security cameras were bound to see me eventually. I braked hard as I flew over a certain building.

"...A library could work." I said to myself as I hovered over a darkened book storage facility. It was a rather squat building with a steepled roof. Over all it looked rather odd, but it somehow worked atheistically.

I did a few overhead laps around the building, trying to see if I could find the distinctive black spheres that would betray the locations of security cameras. Spotting a few, I tried to imagine the optimal viewing angles for the camera network. The angles would try to cover as much of the building's sides as possible, if only to record a potential break in for insurance purposes. Doing my best to stay out of those ranges, I did a few more laps with this in mind to reevaluate if any window could be used to get inside.

"Forgotten what?" I snapped, growing a bit frustrated with how secure the building seemed to be.

Oh yeah right. Shoot that kinda changed things.

I browsed my newly unearthed memories.

"Oh." I mumbled when I remembered one of the spells I used in the fight with-

A wave of pain lanced through the imaginary weight in my left side.

Why did thinking of... Her, hurt so much? Wh-

The sweetness in the voice's tone was saccharine.

"No. Nothing at all." I grunted as I pulled some of the umbramancy from my memories.

The effects of the spell fell on my shoulders like a light rain. I slowly fell to the ground as my wings gradually grew less and less effective.

If you've never been part gas part shadow, the experience was odd and difficult to master. While I didn't have the memories of actually practicing, the Luna who dueled- Her, moved like a master. I glanced down, checking to see if the spell had worked.

The blue fuzz that I had recently become accustomed to was gone. All that remained was a sort transparent fog that was only marginally darker then the surrounding night.

Wasting no time, I slithered towards a window shrouded in darkness. With a tendril of living shadow, I probed the edges of the window, looking for the tiniest of openings.

There.

Pushing myself through a crack where the window didn't properly shut all the way, I flowed into the room beyond.

Despite the darkness, I could see almost perfectly. The room appeared to be mostly empty, the most notable features were the table that was pushed against the wall, and two stacks of cheap, cushioned chairs. A black sphere was embedded in the ceiling near the door, so I didn't drop the shadow spell. The single door was a simple office door with a wooden veneer. Most importantly, it had a half inch gap at the bottom that I squeezed through.

Here was the main portion of the library. The ceiling was surprisingly high, with the book shelves only reaching halfway up. When I was still outside, I had assumed that with a steepled roof there would be some sort of ceiling space or attic that people didn't really go into. But now I wasn't so sure.

The main room was too large for me to be confident in dropping the shade spell, so I didn't. Flowing upwards towards the ceiling, I pushed through the foam tiles.

Bingo.

I was right about there being a space above the ceiling. Fortunately, I didn't have to rely on the lightweight foam tiles to hold my weight. Instead, there were the steel beams that held the roof up that I could lay on. I took a moment to ensure the tile I was on was still set properly. With that done I settled on one of the higher beams and dropped the spell.

"Phew." I breathed in relief as I became solid again.

I ignored it, and reached into my jacket for a granola bar.

"Wait where's my jacket?" I asked outloud, suddenly realizing that I hadn't had it in a while.

"And you didn't feel like it was necessary to say something about that?"

"I hate you."

"Ugh." I groaned "Fine, I'm going to see if there's a breakroom or something."

Fading back into a shadow, I fell back into the main room.

Searching through the main room, I discovered that the library was divided into two rough wings. Adults on one side, kids on the other. The office was behind the main desk, which was in-between the two wings.

The office wasn't so much an office, more like a communal workspace that was cluttered with piles of books. Another two doors were in the back wall. Seeing no refrigerator, or any obvious places one would put food, I flowed to the nearest door.

Inside was what appeared to be the head librarian's office. I took a moment to look for the security camera control, but nothing obvious stood out. After doing what equated to a shrug for a gas cloud, I moved to the last door.

Jackpot

The small room, barely enough for three people to stand around comfortably, only had a small circular table, a single chair, a counter, and a fridge.

My usual care forgotten for a moment, I rushed the refrigerator and pulled its door open. There wasn't much inside, but I grabbed a package that didn't seem too old and a bottle of water. Shutting the door with a muffled clack, I flowed back through the ceiling tiles back into the crawl space above.

I wasn't sure if I made noises while asleep, so I went back to the highest beam and resolidified there. Sitting on my haunches, I looked at the package in my hooves.

"Pepperoni." I read. "Meh." I ripped open the package with a small burst of magic and began to eat. I sat silently for a few minutes, only casually eating the slices of meat. When the salt started to become overpowering I'd take a gulp from the pilfered water.

"... I get it now." I say absently as a memory came to mind.

"A memory, of the original Luna's. She was disgusted over a griffon eating some chicken." I explained.

"It's... It's weird in my head." I hesitantly stated. "I feel like a Lucas who has suddenly changed their name, and has more memories then they should."

"How could I not? Most of what I remember is still centered on being Lucas. I imagine if I were to gain more of Luna's memories, my feeling of self would shift to be more of hers."

"It's- It's complicated."

"It's- I do feel like I should be panicking. But at the same time, the memories of Luna don't feel foreign, and I don't think they're overwriting memories of being Lucas."

"Exactly."

Silence fell for a time as I continued to eat the pepperoni.

Something poked the aching, imaginary spear in my side.

"Stop it." I growled.

"You know perfectly well what that is."

Instead of answering directly, I tossed the empty bag onto the tiles below and lay down on my right side.

I closed my eyes to fall asleep.

'Cord!
https://discord.gg/RVvqpuGaRa