I found a few candidates to hide in. A few for sale homes. But while they could "work", they looked too new and well kept for them to have been ignored. A riverside factory that looked condemned seemed promising, until you noticed the cheap sign that looked like someone who didn't know how to professionally design graphics tried to design a logo for a small town company. Who knew how much of the building they did or didn't use. Or even what the company would hide inside. It felt to me like the cops were going to bust the doors down any second for a drug bust.

I didn't even try to look around where I found churches. The god botherers would've snatched up those properties like children grabbing candy thrown onto the ground during a parade. Same thing with the one school I found.

That left the ideal candidate.

I was surprised to discover such a find. It was tucked behind a park in a part of town that felt like you could walk in one direction but never find a main road, despite never leaving the suburbs. The lawn was overgrown and was doing its best to swallow the path that lead from the sidewalk to the front door. The siding was sun bleached grey, its original color lost to time. a peaked roof that was scruffy, and likely leaked during even a small rain shower; sat above a second floor. A chimney rose behind in the back yard. Perfect for easily entering as a shadow, and important to vent smoke from a fire, since the power was likely cut by the electric company. While a problem, it was going to be one I would have to deal with.

Finally, a reason to be thankful for the housing crisis.

I looked at the sight angles through the windows, taking notes about where you could see from the road and neighbors. When I thought I got all the angles, I ghosted to the chimney top and flowed down.

The inside seemed just as faded as the outside, although a hint of color could be seen by the street lights. The living room seemed to take up the back center of the house, to the left side the master bedroom. To the right, the kitchen, dinning room, bathroom, and wash closet. Up stairs, a hall and two small bedrooms. There was some furniture, but I didn't trust them to be sturdier than a pile of dust. There even was a can of food in the pantry. Canned apricot juice, Dated 5/2009.

It was... Dubious.

I decided I would be staying mainly in the living room and kitchen. Mostly because they were opposite the road and most of the neighbors. And I didn't want to set the fireplace anymore than I needed.

Meanwhile I sat down in front of the unlit fireplace, in my hooves, a box of fruit snacks that I had stolen off a person unloading their car of groceries.

I slowly ate three, taking my time to stretch it as far as possible, dawn was in three hours and since it wasn't too cold yet, I didn't light a fire nor did I take the risk to be out more tonight. So with nothing to do, I re-searched the house because I was bored. All I found was dust, an old Barbie doll in one of the rooms upstairs, and a few cleaning chemicals and brooms in a closet in the kitchen. I then tested the the furniture in the two rooms I had chosen to frequent. The few that were already broken hadn't passed my tests. The living room couch held me.

But I still wasn't confident.

I curled up on the couch, my front facing the backing. And I did my best to fall asleep despite not really being tired.

That didn't work, so when dawn came I watched the traffic outside, trying to see what information I could scrounge with observation.

A few cars began to pass around seven, likely people leaving for work. No school buses. Then a few pedestrians walked by around eight, a few walking their dogs. Then traffic stagnated, only one or two walkers for three hours. Then a white USPS truck would park in the middle of the street, the mailman then delivering the mail for the whole street with a greying white canvas bag. That took only about ten minutes before he moved on. An hour later, several groups of stay at home moms walked by, gossiping and jockeying for social standing in their friend groups.

I took that opportunity to try and sleep again on the couch. Still couldn't sleep but I lay there with my eyes closed anyway. Letting the occasional feeling of distinct voices hum from outside.

Gradually, the dark grey glow from behind my eyelids turned fully to black.

The sun had set again.

The growl of cars returning to their owners garage over the course of a few hours.

The occasional chirp of quiet conversation from a few evening walkers.

The quiet hum of a world that hadn't left the late 2000's, winding down almost into sleeping silence.

I almost fell asleep, but I needed to get my sleep schedule back under control, so I opened my eyes.

The world was significantly darker than when I last had my eyes open. The contrast sticking strangely in my mind. Another car passed a the window in another room. I ate two more fruit snacks, munching slowly, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep, but knowing I couldn't waste this first opportunity to gather supplies to live off of for three months. I cast the gas shadow spell again and pushed myself up the chimney.

I dropped the spell as I cleared the chimney lip, knowing that getting my heart pumping would do more to keep me awake than constantly channeling the gas spell for hours at a time.

I stretched my wings, wincing as I realized they were starting to itch, like locks of hair that had been pulled painfully from how they naturally lay.

Lucas knew that birds preened. Luna had been well in the habit of preening herself, but had fallen out of practice after she had been thrown out of Equestria's solar system. Yet it was such a facet of her life she had never bothered to remember any such habit.

Evidently, what ever I was, needed to get into the practice of caring for their wings.

I did my best to ignore the itch by gently flapping my wings, hoping that getting the air to flow through the feathers naturally would help by providing the distraction of movement from the oncoming itching.

Finally deciding I had forgotten enough, I lifted into the night sky.

At the risk of sounding like a certain creepy space octopi,

JUST. AS. PLANNED.

also; 'cord!
https://discord.gg/RVvqpuGaRa