Yo yo yo, folks! How ya doing this morning/afternoon/evening? Good? Goood~. I, for one, am on a bit of a writing spree. I'm actually right in the midst of writing another chapter - said chapter is open on another tab, already partially written - and I'm loving it~!

I've got so many plans I want to see done today, and by jove, they shall be done!

Catch you all on the next chapter!

-Timeless

This wasn't right.

That's all I could think of once I was inside my guest suite. I barely cared about the lush interior. I barely cared about how cool it was to sleep inside a castle, even if only for a time. I barely even cared that my pacing was causing a ruckus from all the gear I now had on me.

I only cared about one thing.

How betrayed I felt.

This was supposed to be an escape. A world of wonder and light and joy and new opportunity. But that had been smashed quickly, both during my time in...the Void, and now, with my privacy being disregarded.

How much did she hear? How much did she know? In fact, was she talking to the others about my thoughts as I waited here? Sure, she said she hit two wards, which implies that she didn't get everything, but that could've been a lie to make me think she hadn't gotten everything. Hell, she could be spying on my thoughts right now!

My fists were clenching and unclenching, I was glaring a hole into every wall I saw, emotions starting to wear on my mind, begging to be released.

I didn't want to. I didn't want to raise more suspicion. I didn't want the guards coming in here, much less did I want to risk them coming in here and restraining me for lashing out too much.

It was all too much. Too much to process. Too much to hold back.

The hopes that I'd had for my life here had been put on a lifeline, and now? Now that line had been burnt, and the ashes liquified via blender and drunk by a demon, a demon named Twilight Sparkle.

I slammed a fist into my cheek at that.

She's not a demon.

"I'm just...overreacting, right?" I reasoned, uncaring for how my cheek hurt, or how I'd almost bit my tongue in the act. I shook my head violently. No. "NO." I shot back at myself. "Not this time. This time it's warranted." My fists clenched again as I glared down at the carpet. As I did, I suddenly noticed something about my arms.

They were glowing. Specifically, the exposed parts had glowing lines, like tattoos, on them. And they were glowing almost every color of the rainbow, like they couldn't decide what color to be.

My eyes widened. "What the...?"

They widened further as I noticed a familiar pattern in the lines.

They were Will Lines. The very same ones that almost every Hero, every descendant of the Archon of the Fable series' Old Kingdom and Albion, had when they were charging Will, their brand of magic. I reached my left hand out to touch one of the lines over my right forearm. It was a feeling that threw me for a loop, because it ranged from feeling like the skin was on fire, to being cold as ice, to being staticky, then to a number of other feelings I wasn't sure I could describe.

"I'm...a Hero?" I breathed, pulling my hand back and looking at my left forearm now. It was the same.

My thoughts once more raced. If that was true, then I could perform feats of Will, and there'd be nothing short of other magic that could stop said Will if I unleashed it. I recalled very well that Will could only ever be dampened, or channeled, by other materials and minerals. It could never be stopped, not truly, not unless it was via more Will, or likely some form of dispelling magic or anti-magic.

Ideas poured into my mind at this.

If my previous thought was right, and Twilight is reading my thoughts even now, then I only have so long to think up a plan. A plan, to leave here. While, yes, staying here would mean more safety, and that I'd gain more brownie points with the ponies, that was only in theory.

I reminded myself that this world was not the very same MLP I knew. Obviously, it was set after the show ended, a fair while, in fact, if Twilight truly did have to learn to mask her magical corona to cast mind reading spells. If she had to take time to learn that just to survive the political landscape here, then who knows what else she, or even the rest of them, had learned to do?

They could be far more ruthless than I initially thought.

Now, granted, Twilight hasn't interjected my thoughts yet, even after all this, so there's a lesser chance she knows my plans, but still... I can't afford to falter here. If I do, I could be sentenced to a worse life, either way. I could, for instance, be put in prison because she's only remaining silent so that she could reach here quicker, or something along those lines. I could also, for instance, be forced to deal with pony society as it is now, which could be worse with all the other races now flocking here.

The best choice right now is to escape and edge myself into society at my own pace, not hers, or theirs.

With my mind made up, I tried to focus on the feeling of my Will. It was a little hard, as it was slightly more difficult than how my brother taught me to control my aura. I had to visualize to a bit of a greater degree, and for longer, but in time, I got it, and was rewarded by my hands alighting with wispy purple magic.

I smirked. "I am so going to overuse this spell in the future." With that, I slammed my palms together, then slowly drew them apart, the purple magic coalescing and dropping to the floor in a heap.

The door to Hamin's room exploded outward in a shower of expensive wooden splinters, startling the guard nearby, and she was only further startled when she saw three small, goblinoid creatures of purple, wispy magic burst out at the same time, similarly wispy maces and axes in hand.

"By the Princess!" she cried as one of them grabbed her by the shoulders. The mare struggled in it's grasp, but couldn't shake it off. "G-Get off me, you plothole!" Hamin took this chance to run out of his room, the other two goblinoid shades following him. "Wha- Hey! Get back here!" She tried to push the goblin grappling her off, but it only shoved her to the ground and held her there.

Hamin didn't look back as he ran down the halls with his two summons. "Never thought I'd actually love Hobbes more, but, I do," he muttered as he ran. As he did, he saw two guards round the corner, both in the violet barding of the Night Guard.

Before they could even react, he flicked his hand at them, sending his two other summons at the Night Guards and turning sharply towards the window.

As the two summoned Hobbes wrestled the Night Guards, Hamin pulled out his katana, then smashed the glass window to his left with the pommel. "Well, was hoping I could make it to the front gates, but, this is why I made three summons," he muttered. He bit his lip as he noticed the fall below, but shook his head. "It's only about ten feet...Just remember what Kev said, Hamin..." he breathed, before jumping out the window, wincing as the glass tore into his clothes, and soon landed on the ground below, simply letting his legs curl as he landed and tucked into a roll.

"Ugh, my everything..." He groaned as he came out of the roll. His vision swam a bit, he'd dropped his katana and had to pick it back up, and he felt the voice in the back of his head complaining about how much glass he'd have to pick out of his body later, but he shrugged it off eventually. Shaking his head, he looked down at himself despite his thoughts. "Guess it's a good thing my bones aren't hurting...thank you, Hero physiology." He shook his head again, looking around. "I must be in the gardens." He noted, seeing all the fine shrubs, rosebushes, and the hedge maze. He nodded. "Good. Lots of ways to lose any tails."

With that, he rushed headlong towards the hedge maze straight ahead of him.

A whistle was blown soon after he reached the hedge maze, ringing loud and clear through the night's crisp air.

"Shit," the man cursed. "That'll draw more attention for sure," he noted as he ran through the maze. 'Just keep going straight, Hamin. Keep the wall in sight,' he told himself, eying said white brick wall from the top rim of the hedges.

He saw thestrals fly overhead, and cursed under his breath. "I don't know if I can focus enough Will to fire anything at them while I'm already running, so I'll have to keep away from them, and just do this..." With that, he ran into a dead-end, stopped, closed his eyes, and focused on his core. He imagined the earth, and souls beneath it, channeling through him, up into his core, and up into his hand and coalescing.

Opening his eyes, he soon saw the same wispy purple Will in his hand, and tossed it at the ground with a grin. Soon after, three more ghostly goblinoids - Hobbes, as he knew them - climbed out of the earth and formed up around him.

"Keep them away as best you can, but don't hurt them unless needed," he told the summons.

They simply jabbered in ghostly Hobbe gibberish, but he somehow knew they understood. Nodding to himself, he and the three summons tore back out of the dead-end and continued the escape.

Lantern lights almost alighted on them a number of times, forcing the group to take a much more winding path than Hamin wanted, but thankfully, they soon reached the end of the gardens and the maze, where a wall was. And, it had some overgrowth.

Hamin looked over the vines and overgrowth with unease. "Fuck, I've never climbed something like this before!" he swore. He glanced back at the lantern lights that were closing in, biting his lip. He turned back to the wall. "Well, time to learn, and quick, I guess," he breathed, latching onto the vines and trying to pull himself up.

It was difficult. He wasn't as fit as he would've liked - sure, fit enough to not be too unhealthy, but still not enough to be toned or a true musclehead - and it was taking it's toll on him. Cardio may have been his best trait athletically, but it was still a bit much. The fact that he almost fell multiple times thanks to loose vines didn't help either.

But, eventually, he reached the top of the wall. Turning his head back, he looked to his summons, "Alright...you three...don't kill or maim, but...have some fuckin' fun with them...prank 'em a bit, yeah?" The three summons cheered, and with that, raced off towards the nearest search party.

Hamin pulled his legs over the wall and looked over the edge. From what he could see, it was just wild mountainside from here, and what looked like the river that ran throughout the city. He bit his lip, a plan forming in his head for the days to come.

"Well, high-ho silver, I guess," he said with a sigh, before hopping off the wall and running into the wilds of the mountain that lay just to the side of Canterlot itself.

It was only when he reached a clearing that he realized his mistake.

"...This isn't wild mountainside," he said worried eyes frantically looking around. It wasn't to the side of Canterlot, either. Not exactly. He gulped. "It's a fucking park."