A walk in the Woods?

[Silver Tongue]

Silver wandered the streets of Ponyville, taking in the commotion.  It was busy, but a different kind of busy than he was used to.  Everyone knew everyone.  Everyone was happy and friendly, willing to lend a helping hoof.  He smiled a bit at that thought.  It was exactly what he wanted.  Friendship and a happy community.  

He sighed, despite his happiness.  He was a Changeling.  This wasn't really who he was, unfortunately.  He made his way past the small, animal filled cottage, and ultimately into the Everfree Forest.  Once he was a short way in, he breathed a sigh of relief and changed his form.  The insectoid shell glistening in the small beams of light that filtered into the Forest.

He would usually be worried about being in his normal form, but with the stories that revolve around this place, he felt perfectly safe being him.  Most ponies don't travel the forests, and even if the did a single Changeling in the forest wouldn't seem off to them, right?

He trotted along, humming a soft tune to himself as he took in the sights, stopping every so often to look at the Flora that grew here.  He had a short while here in the past, just after the Canterlot Fiasco, but he was avoiding predators, and resting off injuries.  It was nice to not have to worry about it while he walked...

"Isn't it great to be different?
Isn't it wonderful to be exactly who you are?
When you learn to start accepting yourself
You'll become a shining star"

[Deleted]

Rufus sighed as he left the marketplace, counting bits in his paw. He had decided to set up shop here, though the ponies here didn't seem too keen to buy his gems. It may have been that the ponies here weren't interested in such commodities, or they were wary of Diamond Dogs, or a mixture of both; any way you put it, Rufus didn't get much business. As the day went by less ponies were stopping by the market, so Rufus figured he'd get something to eat and turn in for the night. Having already eaten now, Rufus found himself with still a good amount of time left before nightfall and not much to do.

That's when he spotted a brown Unicorn walking off towards the forest. Rufus tilted his head in confusing, wondering why a pony would ever want to go into that place. Rufus didn't know the the place well enough to know there was in fact someone living there (that someone obviously being Zecora), so as far as he knew the place was just a wild forest full of monsters. Why would a Unicorn want to go into the forest? Rufus tended to avoid getting into ponies' business, but curiosity got the best of him. He had heard a couple ponies say the phrase, "curiosity killed the cat" before, but he was a dog, so that didn't apply to him, right?

Going into stealth mode (or attempting to, at least), Rufus sneaked after the Unicorn wandering into the forest. Sneaking from bush to bush, Rufus tried his best to follow him without being seen. The Unicorn stopped for a moment, causing to Rufus to pause as well. That's when he sighed, then suddenly began to change shape. His fur was replaced by a pitch black chitin shell, his eyes turning a blank blue, insect like wings grew out of his body, among other things. It was nothing like anything Rufus had ever seen before; the sight of it filled him with both feelings of dread and wonder.

As the now Not-Unicorn continued to move along, humming to himself, Rufus, still in a bit of a stupor over what he just saw, forgot to continue to follow along. After a few seconds he shook his head and continued to follow at a safe distance. Despite being a good distance away, thanks to his excellent hearing Rufus could hear every word the Not-Unicorn sang. Rufus felt he could relate to having to try to "accept himself". Ponies were often afraid of him because of his size and what he was, but he knew he had to learn to accept what he is and live with it.

Thinking about what the Not-Unicorn was humming, Rufus hadn't even bothered to watch his step. Suddenly, he heard a strange noise and felt his foot step on something...different. It wasn't grass, that's for sure.

"Hm?" Rufus looked down on the ground...causing his eyes to widen in horror as he saw what he stepped on: a cockatrice. Fortunately, its face was currently planted firmly into the ground thanks to the weight of his giant back paw, but that probably wouldn't be true for long.

"Aaaaaaah!" Rufus took off as fast as he could, running deeper into the forest towards the Not-Unicorn. Suddenly, Rufus got the image in his mind of the Not-Unicorn looking back at where Rufus came from to see what he was running from...only to meet the eyes of the cockatrice. So, without putting any more thought into what he was doing, he ran past the Not-Unicorn and picked him up, slinging him over his shoulder as he ran. He continued running for a minute or so, until eventually stopping and putting the Not-Unicorn down.

Realizing how rude it was to have doghandled the Not-Unicorn like that, Rufus quickly apologized. "Um, R-Rufus is really sorry for doing that..."

[Silver Tongue]

Silver heard the yell from behind him.  As he turned to see what was going on, a large hairy arm grabbed him and pulled him along.  He squirmed, trying to get free, but...  So that's what a dog smelled like up close...     After a short while, the Dog put him down again, and Silver took a defensive posture.  He was dwarfed by this creature, but he hoped a little display would stave off his attacker.

Then, the dog apologized.  Silver blinked a few times, before looking around.  "Sorry for what, exactly?"  The dog obviously meant to apologize for grabbing him.  Silver shook his head slightly.  "Why did you grab me?"  He asked once, taking a few steps away from the Dog, ready to run if the need came up.  

He paused once again, looking the dog up and down, relaxing slightly.  "I've heard about your kind.  Diamond Dogs, right?  As I recall, you're not looked very highly upon.  Brutes that kidnap ponies?"  He asked, looking around.  "What brings you to the Forest, I don't remember seeing any of you here in the past."  

He realized what he said may have come off as... rude...  He cleared his throat and smiled sheepishly.  "Sorry...  The name is... Silver.  I assume yours is Rufus?"  he asked, reaching out a hoof.  "Nice to meet you."

[Deleted]

It took until he had stopped and the surge of adrenaline to subside for Rufus to realize he had really tired himself out by running like that. He had sat down on the grass and panted, looking back to see if anything had followed them. With the coast clear, Rufus now had plenty of time to think about what he did, and how monumentally stupid it was. He waited for the Not-Unicorn to freak out and run away; instead, he took a defensive stance and backed up a little, asking why Rufus did that. Kind of natural that he'd be kind of curious as to why Rufus had done that; if he was in the same situation, Rufus would've asked the same thing.

"T-there was a cockatrice, Rufus was running from it and he grabbed you so you wouldn't get petrifieds." The Not-Unicorn had plenty of things to say, so Rufus sat back and listened. "Yes, Rufus is Diamond Dog. But not all Diamond Dogs are not bad! Theys just don't get along with ponies much..."

Of course, the Changeling was also curious as to why a Diamond Dog would be in the forest in the first place. Diamond Dogs are generally wherever gems are, and forests are generally not one of those places. "R-Rufus...was following you into forest. Rufus was curious why you would go in here." Of course, back then he thought he was a Unicorn, but Rufus was still curious regardless. Why would anything sentient, even a bug such as the Not-Unicorn, choose to enter such a place?

To Rufus' surprise, the Not-Unicorn changed his attitude and introduced himself, all whist having a sheepish grin. Rufus thought his attitude was pretty justified really, so he hadn't taken any offense to it. Still, if the Not-Unicorn, who introduced himself as Silver, was giving out introductions, so should he.

"Yes, Rufus is Rufus's name." Rufus held out his paw and took Silver's hole covered hoof, shaking it. Of course, being a large Diamond Dog, Rufus put a lot more strength into it than Silver could. This ended up causing Silver's hoof to flail about like a rag doll at the mercy of his giant paw, all the while Rufus not even realizing it.

[Silver Tongue]

Silver nodded at the mention of the Cockatrice.  "Yeah, those things are a menace...  I watched my 'brother' get petrified."  He said with a shrug.  "Oh well, I keep from locking eyes with them, and I'm fine."  He said with a definitive nod.  He buzzed his wings slightly, remembering when he had first crash landed in the Everfree Forest and had to survive.  His wings didn't work for him then.  And even now, he didn't fly very often.  Falling from that height and getting injured really changed him.

He shrugged at Rufus' comment.  "Why wouldn't I come in here?  It's nice and quiet.  Avoid the poison joke and the predators, and you're fine.  And the sights can be breathtaking"  He said with a nod, looking around for a few moments.  "Until you get lost, that is..."  He muttered, before chuckling.  "I can relate to ponies not getting along with me..."  He smiled a sad smile.

He was suddenly getting shaken about.  Had his forehoof been soft like a Pony, he was sure it would've come right off, but the Chitin was stronger than that.  "All...Right...Ru...Fus..."  He tried to mutter, the shaking making it hard.  He squirmed, pulling his arm free from the Dogs paw and falling to the ground with a light thud.  He placed his hooves on either side of his head, waiting for the spinning to stop.  "Any Idea which way town was?"  He asked.  He had been okay with wandering the forest in the past, because he had a general idea of where he was going.  But now that he was carried for quite some time by Rufus, he had no idea where he was.

[Deleted]

Rufus was confused that Silver didn't seem to upset about his 'brother' being petrified. He knew for sure that he'd care if his brother Spot was petrified. Though, he remembered back in the pack 'brother' could also be used as a term to just refer to a fellow Diamond Dog, so maybe Silver's 'brother' was just a random member of his pack that he didn't know too well. Regardless, petrification was something wouldn't wish on even his worst enemy (assuming he had any); it made him shudder just thinking about it. "Rufus is sorry to hear about your brother," Rufus said, figuring that it was the right thing to say regardless of how close Silver was to his 'brother'.

Rufus nodded at Silver's response at why he'd come here. If you got past the dangerous animals and vegetation, the Everfree Forest was kind of calming place...though Rufus was sure that it helped that Silver had wings so he could just fly away from danger. Rufus' ears perked up when he heard Silver mutter about getting lost. Rufus sighed, realizing that he had payed no attention to where he was.

After shaking Silver's hoof, Rufus looked around. But, all he could see in every direction was trees. Just trees. He didn't even know which way he had ran from to get here. "Rufus...wasn't paying much attention to where he was goings..." Rufus declared while scratching the back of his neck. "Um...maybe it was that way?" Rufus pointed off in a random direction, essentially just taking a wild guess as to where town is.

[Silver Tongue]

Silver shrugged when Rufus showed sympathy toward his 'brothers' demise.  "Eh.  It happens.  And I have a few more brothers skittering around the Hive, I'm sure."  He said, looking around for a few more moments.  He watched the dog for a few moments, and let out a chuckle, realizing the dog was lost as well.  When Rufus pointed in a direction, Silver shrugged.  As good a choice as any.  "As long as we don't bump into another Cockatrice... Or a hydra... We'll be fine, Right?"

Silver started walking, moving under branches and around bushes rather easily.  Every so often, he looked back toward the Diamond Dog, making sure he was still following.  "So, Rufus.   If you followed me, it was probably from town, right?   What were you doing in Ponyville?"  He asked curiously.  It wasn't meant to sound condescending, even if it did.  It just wasn't a common occurrence, as far as he could remember.

He paused after a few moments, looking around.  Nothing looked too familiar.  "I'll be right back.  Gonna see if I can get a view over the trees.  Maybe I can see town from here?"  He climbed up into a nearby tree, and vanished into the leaves.  After a few moments and a bit of rustling, Silver reappeared, dropping to the forest floor in front of Rufus.  "Can't get up high enough...  Guess we just gotta keep walking and hope for the best?"  He muttered, continuing forward.

[Deleted]

How Silver could be so nonchalant about his brethren being petrified, Rufus has no idea. But he wasn't really in a position to judge Silver, especially since he barely knew anything about him. That wasn't really important right now though, since he and Silver were currently lost in the forest.

"Rufus was selling gemses in Ponyville. Rufus is gemses merchant, yous see. Though Rufus wasn't having much luck today..." Rufus wasn't too surprised he asked why he was in Ponyville, considering ponies and Diamond Dogs don't get along too well. Just because many Diamond Dogs didn't trust ponies and vice versa, didn't mean it was always true though.

Standing back to let Silver fly up and search above for a way out of the forest, Rufus thought about what Silver was. Rufus wasn't sure he was the first of his kind that he saw, considering he could make himself look like a pony. Heck, for all Rufus knew all ponies can do that. But what was that about Silver mentioning that he could relate to not getting along to ponies?

Rufus nodded as Silver came back down and suggested that the two of them continue walking. At this point, he figured this would be a good time to ask Silver some questions. "What did yous mean by ponies not getting along with you? Yous all black and...insecty, but yous still look like a pony. Why do ponies not trust you then?"

[Silver Tongue]

Silver nodded slightly.  "I guess Diamond Dogs are good at finding gems... It makes some sense that you'd be selling them."  Silver agreed, thinking for a moment.  This Diamond Dog left his gems behind to make sure a 'pony' he hadn't met was safe, and THEN ended up saving the 'pony' from a cockatrice.  For all Silver knew, there could be a pony that found the gems laying around and slipped them into a saddlebag while the shopkeeper wasn't around.  "You seem like you'd make a good friend, Rufus."  Silver muttered as a side comment to their conversation.

Then the question that Silver was waiting for came up, sort of...  Silver lowered his head slightly, breathing in a sort of sigh.  "A while back... Not sure how long ago it was, A crash landing and hiding while my body repaired itself saw to that, there was an attack on Canterlot."  He said, looking toward Rufus with a raised eyebrow.  "Since you spend time around ponies, you've probably heard of that, right?"  He paused once again, trying to find the right words so Rufus can understand.  "Queen Chrysalis and her Changeling army tried to take over.  Chrysalis took the form of Princess Cadence, feeding off the love of her fiance, and became powerful enough to best Celestia in combat..."  He paused again, looking around.  He was still trying to find his way.

"The rest of us Changelings broke through the barrier around Canterlot and started capturing ponies and tying them up...  I realized how much it was hurting them, and I stopped.  Changelings feed on love, not on fear and hatred... So I started freeing ponies as best as I could...  But the Changelings did what they Did, so that's all they see in me..." He muttered with a sad shrug.  "I'm doing my best to change that, though..."   Silver paused, his ears twitching slightly.  "Do you hear that, Rufus?  It sounds like... bubbling..."  He muttered, taking another look around.  "Are we near the Bog?"

[Deleted]

Rufus's gem stand was really the last thing on his mind at the moment, but he did leave it unattended. Of course, he had been planning on leaving it anyway and all of his more important possessions were still in the backpack on his back, so Rufus didn't need to worry about it anyway. Right now, he had to focus on getting out of this forest...and maybe learn a thing or two about what in the world Silver is supposed to be.

Rufus stayed silent as Silver explained what had happened to him. He had heard that apparently some sort of invasion had happened at Canterlot somewhat recently, but Rufus was off digging for gems somewhere underneath a mountain when all that happened. It was all kind of confusing to Rufus, but he got the basic idea to it: Silver's kind invaded Canterlot, they did bad things to the ponies, but Silver didn't like that they were doing bad things so he started helping ponies. Still, he was a Changeling, and ponies tended to have little reason to trust them.

Other than the whole 'invasion in Canterlot' thing, Rufus couldn't help but feel that this seemed all too similar to the relationship between Diamond Dogs and ponies. Of course, its was usually gems that Diamond Dogs steal from ponies, not love, but still they shared a pretty rocky relationship with ponies.

"Rufus is sorry ponies treats you that way," he apologized, as if it was all his fault that ponies are mean to Silver. "Ponies can be mean to Rufus too, because Rufus is big scary dog. But Rufus couldn't imagine hurting a pony, or steal from one too. But still, Rufus is big scary dog, and he can't change that. At least yous can pretend to not be you..." Sometimes, Rufus wished he wasn't a Diamond Dog; that he was born a pony, or a griffon. Heck, even being a Changeling didn't sound too bad; at least he'd be able to change how he looked.

Rufus had actually heard the sounds of a bog long before Silver did, but he didn't want to interrupt Silver while he was speaking. So, after responding to what Silver said, Rufus acknowledged what he heard and listened closely to make sure that was what he heard. "Yes, Rufus definitely hears bog. Should we go to bog? Rufus doesn't like bogs too much..."

[Silver Tongue]

Silver shrugged at Rufus's comments about being able to change his form.  "You think it'd be a blessing... But it feels wrong." He admitted, sitting on a rock to take a short break.  "I work to show ponies that I'm generally good.  But the, I show my true self as an act of trust, and I'm suddenly back to being hated."  He said with a sigh, shaking his head.  "It's kinda the curse of being a Changeling anymore."

"Awe, the Big Bad Diamond Dog is afraid of a bog?"  Silver joked, standing up and stretching his legs out before continuing on.  "We can see if we can avoid it, but I want to see it I recognize it.  Maybe I'll be able to get us out of here from there."  He explained, passing through a group of trees and coming out in the Bog.  Sickly looking ponds that bubbled for unknown reasons, broken trees, frogs and insects...  Definitely the bog...

Silver hopped forward onto a fallen tree sticking out of one of the ponds, scanning the area around them.  He looked up, the tree cover was light here... He could fly up an see where they were...  He buzzed his wings, starting slow but gradually getting faster as he lifted into the air slowly.  The last time he was airborn, he was being blasted out of Canterlot, and fell with an injury, so he was cautious...

He go above the tree line, hovering just a bit farther up.   He turned, seeing the cottage of that cute yellow pegasus.  That was the way back.  He looked back down.  The dog could find his own way back, right?   The reason Silver was lost in the first place was because of Rufus.  Though, Rufus did save him from that cockatrice...  He sighed, flying back down and landing on the tree he had flown up from earlier.  "Good news.  I found our way back."  Silver said, gesturing in the direction of the cottage.  They wouldn't have to cross through much of the water, if any,but Silver wanted to stay at least on the edge of the bog as they walked.