> A kitsune's haven: A tale of tails
>  by gypsyfox
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> Awakening
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I awoke chest heaving, desperately inhaling as my chest ached with a phantom pain. The first rational sense to come back wasn’t my hearing, touch, or sight. No the first thing to come back was my sense of smell. With a deep inhale the scent of wet soil, decaying leaf matter, and an odd musky smell that reminded me of ash and burnt lavender.

Honestly, as rational thought came back to me it came as a shock that I could smell anything, the last memory I had was the wet rasping sounds of my buckshot-filled lungs and the indignation I felt at someone robbing a bookstore of all things. I suppose some of the antiques I had collected over the years could be worth something, still. It was a bit stupid, they could have robbed the antique shop three blocks down for that.

I had spent years of my life collecting old novels and books, tomes that one would expect to find inside old ruined libraries and not in my little shop and that bastard had the audacity to ruin them with my blood. He was lucky that he hit me or I’d have shoved my foot so far up his ass he’d be trimming my toenails with his teeth.

When I finally gained the mental will and awareness to open my eyes the first thing that greeted my sight was the dark green canopy of some admittedly large trees. A few beams of sunlight pierced through the blanket of leaves to form some real-life God rays. It didn’t take much for my confused brain to register that I was In a forest, a rather dense and dark place that reminded me more of a fantasy book’s illustrations of one than any real place.

I tried to remember how I could have ended up in such a forest, but only discovered that I was missing some very crucial memories, like my name, I could remember that I was twenty-four and that I died choking on my blood after trying to fend off a burglar in my shop, and all the important life skills I learned from my childhood were there but faces, and names, those priceless memories were gone. Silently tears blurred my vision as my body reacted to a loss my mind couldn't perceive.

When my ability to feel my body finally returned I couldn’t help staring down in confusion. My memory may have been shot, but I was fairly certain that I had been Human when I had been shot, and yet my body seemed to have forgotten the memo. Lifting my now fur-covered foreleg I stared Dumbly at the paw that was attached to it in place of my hand. It was huge, about the size of a dinner plate.

I probably stared at my paw in shock for a good two or three minutes before my brain caught up with my thought process. Quickly I scrambled to feet, well paws I suppose. With a thorough eye, I examined the rest of my body, not taking very long to realize that I was a very large fox. With a bit of mental guesswork, I figured was probably around eight and a half feet tall, not counting my new ears which added a full thirteen inches to my height.

Four legs with large paws which unsheathed a set of four claws about eight inches long with a bit of flexing. My entire body was covered in a rather fluffy and soft coat of fur that was a brilliant fiery orange and flickered with a dim glow almost like light reflecting off of water, it was nearly impossible to see unless looked for. My tail, or rather tails were unnaturally long and prehensile. There were nine of them each one I could move individually with surprising ease and grace.

With a bit of work and a surprising amount of natural flexibility, I managed to check my underside and hindquarters, much to my relief my equipment was still there, though changed to fit my new body, a bit of prodding with a tail revealed a more feminine organ as well, I was surprisingly unbothered by the fact that I had both sets of sexual equipment, being a hermaphrodite seemed natural to my newly changed mind and I was already genderfluid before whatever happened.  In my mind I reasoned it made sense if my suspicions on what I was proved true and in the long run it simply meant double the fun.

While I had no way of observing my face besides touch, I knew from carefully probing with my tails that I had a muzzle, complete with fur, whiskers, and a slightly twitching and moist nose. Running a long and to my momentary shock prehensile toung over my teeth revealed a set of large and sharp teeth along with a set of fangs long enough that they actually poked over my bottom lip by almost an inch.

“Well then, nine tails would indicate that I’m a kitsune. I’m not white so I probably shouldn’t be responsible for any messages getting delivered. I feel I should be freaking out more but I really can’t seem to care.”

And I couldn’t, despite my rather sudden change in shape and gender any attempt to impose my old form using a memory simply changed the memory to seem as if I had always had this shape. That time I caught my first fish, I had used my tails to hold the rod, not my hands, despite me knowing I was human at the time. The memory of that one family picture everyone takes, I logically knew I was human when it was taken but the image I recalled had a kitsune in that group of blurred faces.

I suppose I should be thankful for whatever was causing that particular phenomenon, otherwise my brain would probably fry itself. The part of me that should register something being wrong with this situation just wasn't coming to the forefront of my brain and honestly, I didn’t want to process that at the moment in case I triggered a mental breakdown somehow. Autism could be such a bitch sometimes.

In the end, I reasoned that I probably had bigger priorities, like trying to figure out where I was and why I was sitting in the woods. Looking around I was sitting atop a grassy knoll, the surrounding woods so dense that anything past thirty feet was consumed by foliage and the twisted reaching branches of trees that could only be the product of a necromancer rolling a nat 1 while trying to use druid craft. Their dark trunks stretched a good forty feet into the sky with canopies that spread like interlocking umbrellas of dark green.

Despite my attempts to spot some kind of path or disturbance in the foliage the only source of unnatural scenery I could find was a bag. I had almost missed it hanging from a lower branch of a smaller tree. I approached it slowly, carefully taking soft steps as if I were walking in a mind field. The way the bag dangled like a tempting fruit screamed of traps. My inner dungeon-master was screaming about loot traps and quest hooks.

With an ease of movement that hid my inexperience with my body, I eased a tail around one of the straps and gently lifted the bag from the branch. The fur at the end of my tail subconsciously wrapped around the strap of the bag and secured it in my tail. With a bit more confidence in my movement, I brought the bag up to my face to look at it better.

It was a canvas saddle bag, the straps and size of the bag made it obvious that it had been tailored for something of my size. It had an odd design sewn into the front with a brilliant cyan-blue thread. The design itself was that of a kitsune, it was stylized in such a way that I had mistaken it for a flower of some kind at first. It was held shut by a silver latch that was covered in strange symbols I couldn't recognize.

With a bit of hesitation, I used another tail to unlatch the bag, I watched in slight fascination as the fur at the end moved and manipulated itself into multiple minute tendrils almost invisible amongst the rest of the fur. Moving in unison with each other to allow an almost finger-like manipulation to grab the latch and flip it.

The inside of the bag was a murky dark expanse so deep that I couldn’t see the bottom, the chasm of darkness like an all-swallowing abyss that threatened to consume all light, the sudden void hovering in my grip caused me to rear my head back in shock and toss the bag away from myself.

I paused pondering on my next course of action, the rules of common sense stated that sticking a body part into a void bag would be stupid, but what fun was there in making sense when faced with magic? Then almost wordlessly I stuck a tail into the bag. I fished around inside grabbing the first thing it came in contact with, with a grin forming at the corners of my muzzle I pulled a large book from the bag.

" It’s a God-dammed bag of holding.” My mind raced with possibilities, casually jumping to the sheer mayhem one could cause with such an object. I’ll be the first to admit that I was a bit of a nerd, the local group of D&D players I DM’d for in my shop would attest to that wholeheartedly. With a small bark of excitement, I plunged one of my tails back into the depths of the bag and began pulling things with a gusto one generally only sees with kids opening presents.

By the time I got over my little nerdgasm, I had pulled five objects from the bag. The first object, the book was a large leather-bound tome, the front was illustrated with a Celtic-designed fox that was eating its own tail. The book itself seemed to have around six to seven hundred pages of old and slightly discolored parchment stained and decorated with ink. Flipping through the pages I noticed that they were the titles and summaries of books I had in my personal library, categorized by their subject.

Each page also held a single shimmering symbol that was situated in the corner of the page. Hesitantly I hovered a single toe over the symbol and pressed it. My jaw dropped slightly in amazement as the entire book shimmered and morphed into a copy of The Art of War. Flipping through a few pages I confirmed that it was indeed the whole intact book. I quickly pressed the symbol on the first page again and the book switched back to how it was.

A chuckle bubbled up from my throat as I stared at the impossibility that I was holding in my tail, my whole library a treasure cove of knowledge both old and modern sat in my grip. “At least I won’t be bored while I’m lost in the incredibly creepy forest of doom.”

The second object that I pulled from the bag was a porcelain mask, a kitsune mask. The mask was decorated with a recreation of a smirking and rather toothy grin. It was able to open the jaw and move up and down, I could find no hinge or screw that would indicate such movement, however. The porcelain was unnaturally smooth to the touch, and I could swear it gave off a slight heat.

I stared at it before silently slipping on my face. The mask fit my face smoothly and settled so comfortably along my muzzle that I imagined it would be easy to forget that I had put it on in the first place, startled as that warmth spread down my body. Looking at myself I watched as a bamboo chest plate formed over my midsection, reinforced with bands of silver covered in faintly shimmering runes. I hesitated to call the metal silver, it was brighter and seemed to shimmer even beyond the runes etched into it.

Forming on all of my tails where the fiery fur started to shift into a deep inky black was a series of silver metal bands that were paced evenly down my tails, twelve on each tail. The rings didn’t seem to weigh much and if I had to guess they would, in theory, act similar to brass knuckles or a roll of quarters. Their metal surface flickered with dim symbols whenever my tails moved too fast. Three thin chains of the same metal existed between each ring connecting them to each other and the main armour.

A cyan-colored, silk-like fabric spread over my lower stomach, and back and flared briefly with dark blue symbols before a thin layer of chain mail formed atop it, soon my neck received a similar treatment, and thin plates formed over my spine and upper shoulders. My legs were armored with cylindrical guards made of bamboo and Chain-mail as well. Surprisingly it didn’t weigh all that much and didn’t seem to make any noise when I moved. The whole setup seemed like someone had mixed Ashiguru armor with a European half-plate.

I played around with the mask and armor a bit before I moved on to the third item I pulled from the bag. It was a bottle, a simple nondescript porcelain bottle with an old-style cork. Spinning it around in my tails grasp I eventually popped the cork out of the bottle and sniffed, my muzzle wrinkled slightly as the sour scent of alcohol hit my senses. I wasn’t certain but with a sip and a brief thought of my situation, I guessed that it was probably sake.

The fourth object was a koto, nothing seemingly special about it at all, idly I plucked a few strings, the harp letting out a few notes. The lack of glowing symbols or odd effects was surprisingly comforting, I’d half expected to summon lightning or cause some plants to do the juicy wiggle or some such.

With a somewhat strained smile, I picked up the fifth and final object a single stained piece of parchment. There wasn’t much written upon it. But what was written was done so with such a smooth grace that It could only have been written with a calligraphy brush.

To whom it may concern
Congratulations on being chosen for the great game that is change. Be you player or piece the dice have landed on you. Within this bag is a set of objects that will help survive the coming days and the challenges that follow them. Have fun and remember, chaos is but the stepping stone of change in the face of stagnation, and change is the ladder on which one climbs to salvation or damnation.
With love, CG
Ps. I do hope you enjoy your new form.

I couldn’t help but stare dumbly at the letter as it began to smolder before being consumed in a flash of blue flames. I couldn’t help but feel a bit of dread, I played role-playing games. I knew what it meant when the game master starts with a set of powerful magical items, and who the fuck was CG, the fucking chaos gods?

What game, chess, Stratego, fucking 4d checkers? Am I a player or a piece? Was I going to roll too high of a perception check and see a kid holding a dammed character sheet and a bunch of snacks, if so they’d better share. Worst of all, if I was part of a game what was my role? Could I be the king?  Maybe I was a knight, better yet a pawn.

I snarled as I threw the bag to the ground in mild frustration, a rant that would make a sailor blush on the tip of my tongue. Barely a sound had left my mouth when a loud snap caused me to close it with an audible clicking noise. Slowly I turned to look at where the sound had come from, a thicket of brambles that slowly shuddered as the interloper made itself seen.

I couldn’t help it, I broke down cackling. My chest heaving with mirth and probably a slight sense of insanity at my situation. As cliche and predictable as it was the rabbit scare was a bit humorous. A fanged smile still tugging at my lips I observed the small critter.

The small spiraling horn in the center of its forehead told me it wasn’t normal and my years of DND probably would have left me worried at the sight of the almiraj if I wasn’t as big as I was. Though I did take note to make sure there weren’t anymore in the bush, one wasn’t a threat to something my size a group could cause some damage.

However, the existence of the magical rabbit did foreshadow the likelihood that there were other magical beasts in this forest. Between my size and my armor, I could try my luck with a bear, but a pack of dire wolves or worse a magical Badger or giant Wolverine. No thanks, I liked my testicles where they were thank you.

Honestly, the almaraj was the kick my brain needed to finally comprehend my situation, I had been putting off the fact that I was lost In some weird forest. “Right, time to take stock of the situation. I died, woke up, and have transformed into a giant fox.”

“So first things first,” I sat back on my haunches and lifted a paw before slamming it into a tree, “Ow fuck.” Okay so this isn’t a dream and I’m probably not in a coma while in the hospital, despite wishful thinking, the nearest hospital to my shop was almost forty minutes away. The shotgun had most likely shredded my lungs, there would have been no saving me not with me being at point-blank range.

Which meant that this was real, I stared at my paw for a while, contemplating what I was supposed to do next, I could guess that with the way the forest looked and the magical unicorn rabbit, I was probably not on earth any longer. A good thing given that I had no wish to be dissected or start a cult. So where was I? I could guess that it was probably some kind of fantasy realm.

Where was I to go, my new body and instincts would make hunting easier so food wasn’t a major concern, the general environment indicated that water was abundant, and my fur should protect me from the cold. Realistically my biggest threats would be predators and my own boredom.

Perhaps I could find a city or some other kind of settlement here. Settle down and open another bookshop. I was always fond of the stories in my books, a retreat from my mundane and painful life. Burdened by debts and medical bills, barely scraping by, the only lucky break I had was my bookshop.

But now I was that character in the books, the one that found themselves in a new land, except those characters always had a goal. A mission to complete before they could live happily. I didn’t have that. I didn’t even know if there were other sapient creatures in this realm.

" Well, if I don’t have a goal then I would just have to make one,” with a determined grin I stood up. My first Goal would be to get the hell out of this twilight forest lookalike. Closing my eyes I spun in a circle three times before opening my eyes.

With a few bounds, I was moving with an ease that would make one think that I had always had this shape. The distant sounds of animals going about their lives echo throughout the trees. “Well forest, show me what you’ve got, I’ve always loved a challenge.”
> Wandering adrift
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“Perhaps I should watch my words in the future,” were the first words from my mouth as my chest heaved as I looked down from my perch in one of the taller trees this forest had to offer. A sharp pain radiated from the forming bruise on the ankle of my back left leg.

To think that this day was going well too. I had managed to push my way through the forest without much issue, the thorns from the various bramble bushes scraping over my armor without much cause for worry. My problems started when I got hungry. I hadn’t known the time, but I knew I had been here for at least five hours and that I hadn’t eaten for nearly seven before having been shot. So it had made sense that my mouth began to salivate a little when I saw the rather plump white rabbit nibbling on some kind of flower.

My attempt at hunting left much to be desired, my first attempt had me taking a bite out of a tree rather than the white rabbit I had been aiming for. Now normally I wouldn’t have bothered chasing it, but it ran up while I was stunned and kicked me in the eye. Two more lunges and a mouthful of dirt and sore teeth later and I had begun to get a little annoyed. It was my fourth attempt to catch the obvious reincarnation of the beast of Caerbannog that I spotted salvation.

There sitting in a small grove was a tree, the tree itself was only thirteen feet tall. Normal brown bark ordained its outside and its leaves were a vibrant blue, what caught my attention was the oddly cubic fruit hanging from its branches. I watched from the treeline for a while to see if any of the more mundane critters would eat one. It took an hour but eventually, a squirrel started nibbling on one that was on the ground, seeing as it wasn't acting strange. I  decided to approach and snag one for myself.

Distracted by the thought of fresh fruit finally filling my belly, I hadn’t noticed that I wasn't the only creature in the clearing.  My armor saved me from a rather short-lived life as a pair of jaws bit down with all the force of a beartrap around my right ankle, teeth crunching down on one of chain-reinforced cloth. It was painful and had I not had my armor on for fear of what I would encounter in this forest I would have had a broken ankle.

Upon being nibbled upon I had instinctively kicked back with my other paw, connecting with something hard and heavy, There was a dog-like yelp and a loud thud. Turning to look had revealed the cadaver of a large though strangely textured wolf. I was about to examine my attacker more when a dozen sets of glowing green eyes appeared throughout the underbrush.

One mad dash and a quick though difficult climb later found me in my current predicament. My tree was surrounded by half a dozen of these wolves. They simply sat and waited for their serving of fox butt,  complete with a serving of fluffed-out tails.

Now that I had managed to catch my breath I took a good look at my pursuers. Their coats seemed oddly textured and my eyes widened when it dawned why. “They’re made of wood? Wait that makes them literal timber wolves.”

A grin split across my face, I knew I was probably fucked, and not in a fun way either, but they were a walking pun. The wolves were strangely pretty though, their skin was a rather supple bark covered in a fine layer of moss that acted as some form of mock fur. Their tails seemed to be some kind of intertwined leafy vines and their claws were formed from a set of large curved thorns, however, their image was somewhat ruined by their teeth and eyes. Sharp jagged spikes that dripped with some kind of dark sap. I safely assumed it was some form of venom.

Their eyes are what struck me most though, twin lights of emerald fury that seemed to Peirce right through me looking at something I couldn’t see. Any doubts I had about these creatures being just some other form of fauna were snuffed out like a candle in a storm at their gaze. Anything that could portray that amount of hatred was not a simple anything. These wolves didn’t want to eat me or chase me off their territory, they wanted me dead. I knew by that same logic that running wasn’t an option. They had moved far too fast when I ran, sliding through the underbrush like it wasn’t even there. I would have to fight them or manage to scare them off somehow, I just needed a game plan.

I could just try and get lucky with an all-out attack, see if I land on one from a tree and squish it before going for one with my tails and another with teeth, but from what I felt when the first one bit me they could probably break my limbs if they latched on hard enough. Maybe if there was a friendly town or something I would chance it, but a broken bone in a forest like this one was a death sentence.

There was also the fact that I had no idea what that sap-like substance was. This forest was already dangerous without me tripping balls or bleeding from all my orifices. While I doubted that their teeth would penetrate my armor easily it was still a chance, there was also a likelihood that they were poisonous as well as venomous and that biting into one would be just as bad or even worse than being bit.

Glancing at the gnarled and sharp branches around me I was struck with an idea, slowly as to not alert my wooden hunters I wrapped a couple of tails around one of the heavier-looking branches, and with a grunt of effort I broke the branch at an angle, hoping that it would break off in a sharp point. The loud snap echoed throughout the surrounding forest.

The wolves all simultaneously snapped to attention staring with hate-filled eyes, like how those mannequins do in cheesy horror movies. Honestly speaking having now been the receiving end of that little trick I suddenly felt that those horror characters that turned and ran straight into the big monster weren’t as stupid as I often critiqued them to be. It was honestly far more disturbing than it should have been, thanks in part to their unnatural fury-filled gazes.

“Take this you spooky bastards.” with a heave I used my tails to throw the branch at one of the wolves like a spear hoping to peirce it through the torso and pin it to the ground, the wolf in question simply dodged to the side, staring at the makeshift spear with a head cocked to the side. I just stared mouth slightly agape.

Of course, the bastards could dodge, I sighed not sure what I was expecting. These were wolves, not humans. They were used to dodging things instinctively, unlike humans who would for the most part just stare dumbly at the incoming missile until it hit them in the face.

I tried throwing a few more makeshift spears at the wolves, only managing to graze one along its side, the beast didn’t bleed at least not the same way one would expect, a milky white substance forming along the tear in its bark-like skin. A bit of fire would have been nice at the moment. These things were probably flammable and a good flame could possibly scare them off long enough for me to escape.

Wait, fire, that could work. Kitsune and foxes are often associated with fire. I’d seen some obvious displays of magic, maybe I could spit fire at them. Thinking back to all of my days playing RPGs and D&D I lowered myself down onto the branch and closed my eyes. This couldn’t be too hard right, I mean all the game protagonists seemed to pick it up pretty fast and I certainly got that kind of feel from that note I had read earlier.

As it turns out, trying to find your inner core when you had no idea what you were looking for was a surprisingly hard process, I did find it, however. I had been searching for some kind of metaphysical pool or river, and what I found was the chaotic but calming presence of my tails. The sensation was odd, not quite sight but also not entirely a feeling either. I was my magic, it was a calm maelstrom, a vortex of blue-roiling magic that reminded me of those videos of whirlwinds picking up a fire and forming a spiraling funnel of flame.

The vortex formed my middle-most tail before splitting as my other tails formed from the smallest of flickering streams of fire, with my every breath it pulsed like a magical heartbeat, flickering streams of twirling flame passing through my body like a secondary respiratory system. The way the streams seemed to connect and split off from my heart, lungs, groin, brain, and paws almost reminded me of chakra points, they weren’t the same spots and there were only five instead of seven but it was still comparable.

With a severe mental effort, I attempted to gently pull on the maelstrom in an attempt to produce some kind of effect, trying to mold it in my mind’s eye, slowly the mana began to split off like a tongue of flame slowly forming its own structure separate from my own web of magic, with a gasp I managed to coat a single tail tip in a cyan-blue fire. It danced there in an almost hypnotising way blowing to an unseen wind. I couldn’t help but stare in wonder at the cyan flames, trying to come to terms that, I, the bookish nobody whose greatest accomplishment up to now was getting abducted and turned into a mythical beast, had just used magic.

” Ha ha ha” I honestly startled myself with the sudden and uncontrollable laughter. My odd cackle echoed around the thick canopy and surrounding forest. I tried to stop to catch my breath only to start again at the sight of the happily dancing fire, my fire. I couldn’t help it, I had no idea why I found my magic hilarious. I did notice that I had been finding humor in things that while funny should not have been a priority for my brain to focus on. Perhaps my mental state finally snapped. Whatever magic was suppressing the mental trauma of this whole incident had to have limits so it was possible it was wearing off. I was lucky that it was a fit of humor and maybe a little madness over a depressive episode or rage, both would get me killed right now.

I laughed until my throat hurt, almost falling out of the tree in my mirth. The loud guffawing quieted down until the last few chuckles left my throat. I felt better somehow like a dam had broken inside of me, releasing pent-up stress and negativity the underlying fear and grief I had been holding in washing away in the flood of humor. shit, maybe really was going mad.

I stared down at the wolves, their wooden bodies shifting nervously at the appearance of the flame. I brought up a mental image flamethrower from a World War documentary and thrust my tail forward, I pulled on the little tongue of flame I had formed and pushed it out, imagining the roiling flames lashing out like the flames that consumed a German bunker.

What I got for my efforts was not a flamethrower, the fire sputtered and much like a twelve gauge firing a round of dragon’s breath launched out a cloud of cyan sparks at the wolves. The effect when the sparks hit the two nearest wolves was also remarkably similar, the sparks striking them with a large amount of force tearing burning gashes across their faces and bodies. They dropped to the ground smoldering as they whined and shrieked in pain. When the two suddenly burst into burning pyres of cyan flame the other four turned tail and ran, tails tucked in between their legs.

A relieved sigh forced its way out of my throat, I waited a few minutes to climb down the tree I had run up in a panic, my claws leaving deep wounds in the bark that wept with sap. That could have been much worse. I did not want to imagine what could have happened if I had lit the tree or myself on fire instead. the forest was moist and wet enough in this area that I wasn't overly worried about the burning wolves causing a forest fire. with a glance in the direction that the wolves had run, I began making my way over to where the fruit had been lying.

A noise startled me before I could go rummaging through the underbrush, a low groaning noise. I twisted my head around to look at the source, the two slain and burning timber-wolves began to shake before with a crack their chest began to split in two. Foul green magic seeped from the cracks. The magic seemed to try and float away but a wisp of my blue fire caught one of the green ribbons of magic, my ears folded down against my head as it let out an ear-piercing shriek. The green mana seemed to ignite where my fire touched it, like how the first wave of sparks shutters over steel wool.

Unsure of what magical phenomenon this was supposed to be I decided that caution would be for the best and quickly made my way to the fruit tree, for all I knew it could be that I had summoned some form of fiendfyre. I was decently sure it was just foxfire but still, there was no need to lose caution.

My arrival back at the fruit tree was not celebrated with any form of wild gestures or shouts of victory, the only thing on my mind was food. I silently thanked whatever being that transformed me for making me a fox and not a cat or some other obligate carnivore. While meat would be required at some point I could go a while off of fruits and vegetation. long enough to learn how to use my natural weapons to my advantage hopefully.

Slowly, this time checking the area before getting distracted I reached a tail down and grabbed one of the fruits off the ground, sniffing it I found out the hard way that citrus was a lot stronger of a smell when one has the olfactory sense of a vulpine. When I recovered from the sneezing fit I took a small nibble of the strange fruit. The taste was hard to describe, it reminded me somewhat of cinnamon but with that sour tinge that you expect from a lemon, there was an undercurrent of something I couldn’t identify. Salmon berry maybe? I let the piece settle on my tongue for around ten minutes, I knew ideally it should have been thirty, but I was still wary of the wolves coming back. The fact that it was being eaten by a squirrel also meant that it was unlikely to be majorly poisonous.

With a fervor I generally saved for my sweet tooth, I began to devour some of the fruit, twelve of the Rubix cube-sized fruits went down my gullet before I knew it. In the back of my head, I silently prayed that these wouldn’t have any major effect on my digestive system, while I was sure that violently shitting in the face of the wolf trying to eat my ass would be an effective tactic I liked to think that I had some dignity to spare in this whole bizarre situation.

I took some of the fruit and put it in my bag, who knew when I would find another source of fruit, I knew that animals didn’t get scurvy so at the very least I didn’t have to worry about that, but in a situation like this who knew when another fruit tree would pop up. With that done I picked a direction and began to walk, with no idea of where I was going I could only hope that I wasn't walking into more beasts.

I didn’t know the exact amount of time I had been in the forest at this point, it had been around the five-hour mark when I had been attacked, but I had been too panicked to count time while in the tree, the few rays of light that I occasionally pierced the dense forest canopy were gone. I realized that if I didn't wish to be eaten I would be needing shelter and soon. The forest had darkened significantly as I continued to walk. My vision while still able to see had gone relatively gray-scale in terms of color. The fact that if I had remained human I would be seeing damn near pitch black was not lost on me. The sounds of animals rang out more often now as nocturnal creatures began their hunt.

My ears pricked straining to hear anything that might be approaching, I was going to get snuck up on again if I could help it. The forest had an almost ethereal grace to it when viewed at night. I was broken from my admiration by the sounds of incredibly soft steps, my ears turning to follow the noise as it approached. It sounded too small to be anything overly dangerous but I wasn’t taking chances.

Crouched low and ready to lunge forward I waited, stepping hesitantly from the undergrowth was another fox, albeit normal-sized. It was a silver, its mostly black fur allowing it to blend well in the darkness. It stared at me for a few seconds before it yipped and ran in between my legs and disappeared into the forest behind me. I knew it was silly but the sight of the fox left me with a feeling of melancholy, I had always wanted to see one when I was younger. I’d go hiking through the woods looking for them thinking that I could befriend one somehow. I had never managed to find a wild one despite my best efforts. Now here I was, one of them.

relieved I started back on my path before I froze once again, My ears twitched as a sound echoed across the woods, a low growl that could have only come from something as large as I was behind me. I did not turn to look or listen, whatever it might have been it was large enough that its growl had caused my hackles to raise and ears to instinctively flatten against my head. a snapping sound resounded in the night as it stepped on a branch and I was off.

I just started running, the beast yowled as it gave chase. Heavy paw steps hounded my trail as I ran. I did not run in a straight line, making sharp turns and leaping in diagonal patterns. I ducked as something segmented swung at my head from the side, there was a loud thudding noise and a spray of acrid-smelling liquid as whatever it was Impacted above my head. the droplets hitting the front of my mask and smoking slightly as they tried to burn through the porcelain that was covering my muzzle. I had no interest in what that would do if it hit open flesh.

The chase was still going ten minutes later and I was beginning to feel it. My lungs burned as they tried to keep up with my run and my paws felt like I was running on sandpaper. I was running out of time, the creature's low growls were getting closer and I had not dared to look from where I was running. Spinning around I drooped to the ground as a mass of fur soared over me. Focusing I flung a shotgun blast of manna behind me and was rewarded by a pained roar. With a heavy heart, I turned to face my opponent.

It was a hellish beast, I recognized it as a manticore though missing one of its key features, it didn’t have a humanoid face. Its lion-like muzzle was smoldering where my magic had struck it, its eyes shown with hunger and feline intelligence. Its Scorpion-like tail dripped with an acrid yellow fluid. its claws were longer than mine and its fangs were like daggers, the chainmail portions of my armor were unlikely to save me as it had from the wolves.

I began slowly walking backward waiting for it to attack. I didn’t need to wait long, it lunged forward tail raised high. As it shot that stinger toward my chest a stupid idea crossed my mind. With a silent plea, I launched two of my tails In an attempt to wrap around its own and yanked to the left. The spike impacted against the far side of my chest plate, with a sound akin to bone scraping on metal it slid until it glanced off. a trail of acidic poison steaming from its path.

It reacted before I could, stepping forward and lashing out with its paws, the dagger-like claws slamming against my neck with the force of a car.  The chain-mail tore with the sound of wrenching metal as it carved several gashes into the upper side of my neck. With a scream of pain, I lashed out with my own claws hoping to slash them against its face. there was a ripping sensation and the feeling of liquid splattering against my paw as I stumbled backward.

The manticore roared and stumbled back as my claws slashed its right eye, shaking its head violently. I turned and ran again while it was stunned, hoping to make my escape while it was distracted. I made it to the edge of an odd clearing before it caught up. My vision flashed red for a moment as a set of claws caught me in the side and threw me into the clearing. I stood up slowly knowing that the mythical cat should have been at my throat by now.

I looked up in confusion, the beast had stopped at the edge of the clearing. It paced the edge but never passed the edge of the meadow. It seemed wary of the strange blue flowers that grew in large patches. Their petals almost glowing in the moonlight.  The manticore roared at me from the edge of the clearing, seemingly angry that I had gotten away. With a loud huff, it stalked off into the trees, disappearing with a silent grace only possible to felines. At its disappearance, my body sagged in relief.

The pain in my neck and side dulled a little as my vision began to blur and I began to sway, surely a little sleep wouldn’t hurt. I slowly sank and curled in on myself, tails wrapping around me as I formed a ball on the ground.” At least these flowers smell good, familiar even.”
> Temptations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke with a gasping breath, when had I fallen asleep? I looked around with a frantic gaze, I was easy prey anything could have snuck up on me while I was sleeping. Blue flowers filled my vision and spread across a clearing almost a hundred feet across. They smelt calming with a familiar scent that I couldn’t place in my fractured memories. Their smell brought back the memories of last night with shocking clarity. With a shaky paw, I reached up and removed my mask, my armor fading with a flicker of blue fire. Gently and expecting pain I ran a single tail across the area where the manticore had slashed my neck.

I had been expecting open wounds, instead, there was a set of neat raised lines still sensitive to the touch. Had I healed somehow? They felt like old scars. Quickly I checked my side, where a set of claw marks once pierced my side was also simple scaring. Hell, even my armor seemed unmarred from where it had been torn.

Taking a minute to think I eventually concluded that I either had a regeneration factor of some kind or the blue flowers had healing properties. A general examination of where I was lying told me that the wounds had persisted for a while after I had passed out. The area was seeped with blood and the smell hung heavy in the air. Slightly disturbed I also noted that the flowers that were near it seemed to be healthier and taller than the rest. Had they absorbed the blood somehow and gotten stronger?

Shaking my body in a futile attempt to clean the crimson stains from my fur I walked to the edge of the clearing. I began walking the perimeter examining the moist soil at its edge. I stopped at the sight of several animal prints, while most were wolf prints there were also signs of something reptilian, and a large set of tracks that I assumed belonged to the manticore from last night. Not a single set of tracks moved past the edge of the clearing, it was like the creatures of the forest were scared of it somehow. Was it the flowers? They hadn’t done anything to me, at least not in any way I could detect. I felt fine, hell better even so maybe it was some kind of magic that kept away non-sapient creatures.

Reaching down with a tail I gently plucked one of the petals from a flower and brought it up to my mouth. I let it rest on my tongue. The taste was, interesting to say the least. A sweet honey-like taste mixed with cinnamon that reminded me of a tea that someone used to make for me. I couldn’t remember her name or face, but she was important somehow. My mother or a sister perhaps, I was sure that it was someone I knew when I was young. Tears fell as a deep longing filled me for a moment.

I decided to lay there at the edge of the meadow for what felt like an hour just trying to remember memories of people I no longer knew, a deep pang echoing in my chest. I doubt I could go back and find anyone I left behind. Was there someone out there who mourned my loss, I wondered who would report me dead or missing first, my family that rarely came around, some random stranger?

God I hope it wasn’t going to be those kids who came around for a quiet place to play D&D, the last thing they needed was to see my mangled corpse. Their home lives were already strained and I did not want to be the cause of even more trauma My shop was out of the way and in a downtown back alley, so it was a fifty-fifty chance that someone even bothered to call the police for the gunshot. Silently I wondered if the robber had regretted killing me, had I been his first, or had he killed before.

I was shaken from my thoughts by the sound of growling, I looked around startled only to realize that it had been me, more specifically my stomach. I let a small smile form across my muzzle, leaving it to me to scare myself. I pulled some of the spare fruit from my bag, they would do for now, but I would need to catch something that had meat at some point. I found it somwhat odd that whatever power decided on this new body had given me all the instincts needed to move and run but none of the ones needed to hunt.

The sun had risen just above the tree tops, I knew that if I wanted to escape this forest I would need to get moving but I was hesitant to leave the Meadow. It was the first safe place I had found. What if I couldn’t find something by the time night fell again? There was also something comforting about the flowers, something that drew me to this place and made me want to rest and relax. I did eventually manage the will to leave the clearing, I decided to take some of the flowers with me a large bundle that I kept in my bag. I wanted to see if I could use them to keep predators away. I frowned at the thought of getting in a fight with another manticore, the first one had nearly ripped my throat out.

My walk through the forest was a bit more successful than the last, now that I had time to get a bit more used to my senses and let my mind calm I was finding more than enough edible plants, blackberries, salmonberries, and chicken of the woods all got added to my bag. At the very least I was unlikely to starve. I even managed to find a small river. The freshwater tasted like the finest of ambrosia, if it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t have any idea what might live in said river I probably would have taken the time to see how well this body could swim. It turned out to be a wise choice. A bit further down the river sat a massive turtle, it was bigger than me and had the general profile of an alligator snapper.

I made sure to give the beast a wide birth before continuing to follow the river downstream. I wasn’t going to leave a source of fresh water without good reason, new body or not I would still die if dehydration faster than starvation. Though even starving was unlikely if I could stick to the river. There was a large abundance of cattails and with enough practice, I could probably catch a few fish with my tails.

I followed the river for what I could only guess was a few miles, I was covering ground faster in my new form than I would’ve been as a human, but my progress was still remarkably slow. The sharp thorns that seemed to be attached to every bush in existence scratched at my armor and Now and then I had to remove said armor because one somehow found its way underneath the chainmail.  A part of me wondered why I never got hot or cold. It wasn’t for lack of trying on the world’s part, the forest changed in temperature with a rhythm I couldn’t perceive, being able to use my breath in one part and walking a hundred feet only to realize I could probably cook an egg on a stone was jarring. Likewise, the humidity was strange as well with parts being dryer than Cleopatra’s cunt and others dripping more water than the Congo. The way I figured it, I was probably in fantasy Australia.

It was another hour that I found my first sign of sapience within the forest, though perhaps not the best of signs. Pushing Myself through a bush I spotted the solid stone of an old dilapidated wall. It wasn’t a garden wall or the like, but one of those big walls, the defensive ones you see around fantasy villages and towns. It was around twenty feet tall with a large metal-reinforced gate. I probably would have been worried about finding a way through, if it weren’t full of more holes than the paralysis demon of someone with trypophobia.

The wall was littered with them. Some were bigger than me, others were no bigger than a baseball. When I got closer to one that was more my size I realized the reason that the wall hadn’t collapsed was that the stone inside them had been melted together. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know how much heat would be needed to do something like that. Hot enough that my armor wouldn’t matter much I suppose.

I shudder as I stepped through the wall, the melted stone unnaturally cold and smooth on my paw pads, like frozen marble. The air felt heavy like that feeling one gets just before an electrical storm and my fur felt itchy along my spine, I took another couple of steps and the feeling stopped. I glanced back at the hole, a ward perhaps? The village beyond the wall was gone, for the most part, just some rubble where there were once houses. The only building left was a surprisingly intact well, that sat dead center of the enclosed field.

Surprisingly there were only a couple of trees inside the walls and the grass while almost two feet long was just that, grass. There weren’t any brambles or snapping flowers growing within the wall. The river tapered out into a creek about seven feet wide and maybe four deep, it flowed through a grate next to the gates before turning and making a bending path through the east side of the village and going through an exit grate.

The village wall formed a surprisingly perfect circle, forming what I would estimate to be a kilometer in a radius around the well. Honestly, the village hadn’t given me a haunted vibe beside the wall and it was getting dark, It made sense to rest here, the land was flat beside a few small hills and I still had my flowers. I would lay them out in a circle before I slept.

The way I figured, it would probably be a better idea to take my chance in an area where I could move easily and see my opponent than to get caught in the middle of the forest with my proverbial pants down. As night washed over the sky I took the time to actually look up, this had been one of the first places I could get a decent view. While I couldn’t see the sun I could see the streaks of color that vividly painted the sky in red and purple. I continued to stare, mostly in confusion as the moon traveled to its place in the center of its canvas. It was going faster than any celestial body had the Right to travel before settling dead center of the sky far larger than Earth’s moon. Stars flashed into existence in small explosions of light forming both known and unknown constellations.

It made no sense, my brain rebelled at the sight. How the hell was this planet’s gravity not more fucked than a Bethesda game? Better yet how the hell do the tides work, the waves would be worthy of those cheap B-rated disaster movies. Taking my attention away from the weirdness of this world’s moon I made my makeshift bed. Throwing a decent layer of those strange blue flowers onto the ground and bunching them up into a circular pile. I quickly curled up and laid upon them. My tails rested over my snout as I began to breathe slower. The familiar scent of the flowers relaxed my racing thoughts and caused me to become still. I slowly drifted to sleep wondering if I could make tea out of them. The dammed things worked better than chamomile.





I awoke only to be blinded by sunlight, the scorching rays of that eldritch star piercing my retinas like adamantine spears. Lurching to my feet I swung my head to sweep my gaze over the field that was left in place of the village. No wolves, cats, or other monstrosities in sight. I relaxed and sat still, basking in the sun as I let my mind wake up, the ambient sound of birds and other unknown creatures slowly easing me fully awake. Say what you will about the situation at least it was more pleasant than an alarm clock.

I let a few minutes pass me by, from what I could tell it was probably around eight or nine in the morning, with a sigh I smacked my lips and glanced over at the well. Getting up fully I slowly trotted over to the small circular ring of stone brick that marked the village well, it appeared remarkably preserved, complete with a working winch and a rope and an old but still entirely intact metal bucket. The rope seemed a little frayed near the middle but it seemed strong enough to allow use for its one task.

What were the chances that the well wasn’t dry? The village had been abandoned long enough to allow the wood of the buildings to rot completely away and most of the nails and other such bits rust to the point that they had been ground to dust by time. It made me wonder about the well, why was it not damaged? Magic perhaps, glancing closer revealed small runes carved into the base stones of the well. They were different from any set I knew from my previous life and from the ones that decorated my armor.

Gently as to not accidentally break the ancient gears I used my tails to lower the bucket to the bottom of the well, the wench squeaking as the old mechanism turned. A soft plop echoed up the well and I sighed in relief as the bucket splashed into the water at the bottom. Just as carefully as when I lowered it down, I began raising the bucket back up, when the bucket finished its ascent I examined the water it held. It seemed normal yet there was something off about it.

The water was clean for well water, it smelt slightly earthy but didn’t have any foulness to it. I stared at it hard for a few minutes before noticing that its shimmer was odd, what I had been mistaking for sunlight reflecting off if the surface hadn’t been sunlight. The water produced a distorted band of light on its own. I debated whether to risk the well water or just go drink from the creek before remembering that I technically had another sense I could use to examine the liquid.

Silently I set the bucket on the ground and began to repeat what I had done back in the tree when I had been surrounded by timberwolves, with effort I tried to feel for the water with my magic, stretching it from my body and imagining throwing it the same way a fisherman throws a net. I got more than I bargained for, the entire grounds of the village reeked of magic, the imagery of a giant protective net coming to the forefront of my mind, like a mosquito net.

I reigned in my focus on the well and tasted, smelt, and felt the sensations of its magic. A twisting ribbon of magic that folded in on itself constantly renewing and flowing, a sensation of fresh growth and old secrets filled my mind drowning my thoughts with old hopes and whispered secrets, the scent of iron and smoke filled my nostrils, and blood washed over my taste buds. It was too much I had to stop, “enough, stop, stop.”

With a wailing shriek, I yanked my mind back to my body, stumbling back from the well. My eyes were wide as I took great heaving breaths, it felt like I was drowning, as some primordial force had sucked its claws into my skull and pulled my face into the bucket of water before me. I didn’t know what it was but the well radiated mana, called to something deeper within me. A siren’s song to my magic and soul, it was both dangerous and intoxicating. It scared me more than I wanted to admit. What would happen if I gave in?

My mind raced with ideas of what it could be perhaps it was some kind of mana spring or wishing well. Maybe it was the entrance to the lair of a bound god or some forgotten dungeon, but what I did know was that I wasn’t going to fuck with the newly named whispering well until I had learned more about magic in general. The last thing people needed was a possessed kitsune running around being a horror movie antagonist.

I moved away from the well, the churning power of its waters tempting me to come to look again. I needed to hunt. I was craving meat and I could feel my stomach aching in hunger. The forest felt less chaotic for some reason, the trees and underbrush seemed more welcoming than twisted and a soft wind seemed to blow through the trees ruffling my fur. Maybe the well calmed the nature of the forest around the village, it would certainly explain why the strange wards were still on the wall and why the animals seemed to be avoiding the area in general.

I sniffed the air trying to use my enhanced sense of smell to catch a sent that might belong to an edible animal of some kind, I eventually managed to single one out, a musky scent that reminded me of an unwashed animal though I could identify what kind, I followed it for a while before I saw my prey. It was a wild boar, the pig was digging in the ground trying to unearth some mushrooms, I slowly lowered myself to the ground, back legs bending so I could pounce. I knew I needed to be careful, boar were dangerous and were fully capable of gutting a grown man.

I lunged, and it shot its head up to look at me and squealed. My fangs bit down deep in the base of its neck, it tried to thrash one of its tusks just managing to cut a gash along my left foreleg. In a desperate attempt to kill it, I wrapped my tails around the head and upper neck and squeezed hoping to suffocate it, instead, there was a sickening crack and I gagged in horror as its head exploded like a jar of raspberry preserve. Chunks of bone and brain matter splattered over my face, as I tried to comprehend the sheer amount of eww I had just caused.

I was at a loss for words, had my tails always been that strong? The amount of force needed to crush something like that was staggering. If I had known my tails were so strong I would have been much more confident in my fights before. That had to be an insane amount of psi and quietly wondered just how much muscle was in them.

I shook myself from my thoughts and eyed the now headless boar, it should be fine to eat raw with my current biology right? I mean I suppose I could cook it with fire first, it was kinda dirty. With a now well-practiced flick of a tail, I scorched the boar leaving a fine layer of charred furless flesh.  I brought my muzzle down and gave a reluctant sniff, I blinked in surprise. The smell was relatively pleasant and I leaned in fully and took a bite out of the charred boar. I moaned around the meat in my mouth, it was slightly tough but had an all-around pleasant taste. It wasn’t anything extraordinary but it was meat and that was good enough for me, it was bloody but the taste of it didn’t seem to bother my tastebuds if anything it was adding to the flavor. I ate my fill of the boar ripping at the softer belly flesh and thighs until I was full.

When I stepped back from the carcass there was only the upper half and intestines left, I know most animals would have eaten them but I couldn’t bring myself to try. I tore the heart and more flesh out of the corpse and stored it in the bag, it had preserved the fruit and flowers so maybe it could preserve meat too. It would be a game changer if it could given that it would save me having to hunt every other day.

I began wandering back to the village and it’s well when something odd about the undergrowth caught my eye, a gap in the grass and trees, hard to see in with ought looking for it, a path that led off into the forest away from the walls. I almost bounced in excitement paths go to places people frequent. That meant it might lead to another village or a road, maybe a mine. Even another abandoned settlement would be a great boon to me, another place I could take shelter against the forest.

I made sure to drink an excessive amount of water from the river, I did not want to end up dehydrated in this dammed forest. I set myself down the path. I followed it for almost three hours before it spread out and seemed to disappear into a wider better-maintained path. My excitement grew, it being maintained meant actual people, and while somewhat worried how the locals would react to my form, surely they wouldn’t just straight up try to murder me if I was wearing armor.

I followed it well into the evening the light fading gently into a low darkness, I didn’t care, I was determined to get to its end. Something snapped a few twigs in the underbrush behind me. My ear twitched at the sound of something growling. With a deep inhale I slipped my mask over my muzzle, armor forming around my form, the wolves were back, and they were even more pissed than they had been before.

When the first of the wooden lupines lunged at me I intercepted it with a more controlled and shaped blast of fire. The solid sphere of burning mana punched a softball-sized hole in the wolf’s torso. It didn’t even have time to Yelp before it was burnt in half. The second lunged for my back leg, it made it close enough to start closing its jaw before one of my metal ringed tails came down on its center and reduced it to a broken heap of wood and sap.  When the third and fourth came from the bushes I realized that they were different from the ones I had encountered before.

The others had been smooth and almost natural looking with moss fur and supple bark for skin, these wolves looked like a druid made an inpatient attempt at golemancy. They were made of sticks and logs and vines pieced and held together by that green magic. I was rudely taken from my observation when wolf three tried to take a bite out of my foreleg, its wooden teeth failing to penetrate the armor but biting down hard enough to feel it anyway.

Wolf four decided that my yelp of pain was a good sign and made a lunge for my throat. Panicked I swung my good paw out in an attempt to uppercut the lunging wolf, my claws catching its upper jaw and flinging the top half of its muzzle off into the forest, it continued its lunge slamming into my chest, causing me to stumble as it shrieked in pain. A fifth wolf decided to reveal itself by jumping onto my back and latching onto one of my ears.

I screamed in pain as several needle-sharp wooden teeth pierced the sensitive flesh of my ears, with a pained heave I reared up and slammed myself back first onto the ground crushing it into kindling under my weight. The wolf that had tried to rip my former off had let go and used my new position to latch on to my inner thigh, a bit too close to bits I didn’t want to be crushed by its jaws, with a soft prayer I slammed my back legs together and squeezed. There was a cracking noise and a soft pop as the wolf’s head was squeezed off.

I laid there panting, that had not been pleasant my leg and thigh were most definitely bruised, though these didn’t seem to bite as hard as the more intact ones, still I quickly caught my breath and lit each of the wooden bastards on fire, those sickly green strands if magic igniting under my power though they much like the wolves themselves seemed diminished.

I stayed and watched as they turned to ash taking the time to rest for a couple hours. The blue flames left by my fire turned a normal color after a few minutes of burning. I did see a manticore as I was resting but it simply stared at me and then went its merry way. When I got up I couldn’t help but wince at the mild pain going through my thigh and hip.

With a blink I remembered that I did have something for pain, with a bit of digging I pulled my sake from the bag, now I don’t normally drink and when I did it was generally something light like a Seagrams or cider, so this was something a bit new to me. Sake was supposed to be strong right? I sighed and tilted the bottle back taking several long gulps, it was surprisingly not bitter and slightly hot which took me off guard. I lowered the bottle with a surprised look, I could get used to drinking this.

I waited a bit for it to kick in and to make sure I didn’t drink too much, I never drank to get buzzed so I didn’t know if I was a lightweight or not. When the pain eased and I determined that I didn’t seem too impaired I continued down the path. I walked for hours till what was damm near early evening before anything interesting happened. I hardly noticed when the trees began thinning out, and the sun became much more relevant. I did however notice when It completely disappeared and I began walking on a proper dirt road rather than just a moist path.

I let out an excited bark as I saw the village in the distance, racing down the path until I found a sign thankfully written in English, so enamored in my excitement I never did see the panicked form fly off towards the village over my head. I was too busy reading.

“What kind of name is Ponyville anyway? It sounds like a cartoon.”
> Confrontations
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My foray into town was quiet, I could've sworn that I had seen movement from a distance but up close there didn't seem to be a single soul up and about the surprisingly pastel town. It reminded me of those happy illustrated villages that the protagonist heroes in children's stories hail from, the kind of idyllic perfect home that always gets burnt down in a tragic backstory. Thankfully i wasn't here as a big bad monster or this place would be asking for it.

When I saw the bakery made to look like a gingerbread house I probably looked like a fool, my mouth hung open and I was struck by the sheer ridiculousness of it, it confirmed for me that this world was probably a high fantasy of some kind though, a gingerbread bakery just didn't fit into the atmosphere of something like GoT or LOTR though it could find a great many places in DND if I could keep the players from taking chunks of it as travel rations.

The quiet ambiance of birdcall mixed with utter silence however transformed it to have a ghost town feel, where were all of the people. Had something happened that had caused them to flee? I saw some things that would indicate a hurried escape. An apple stand that was still full of fresh apples, a scooter left in the middle of the street, and a little cafe that had outside tables, some of which still had food on plates. Wait, was that sandwich made of flowers?

It was indeed a flower sandwich, one that I ate without a second thought, technically stealing I know, but it had bread and I was tired of raw meat and fruits. Oddly the flowers didn't taste all that bad, to be honest, the taste was similar to grass if I had to describe it. Maybe I could have someone make me a dandelion salad later. It had been a few years since I had last had one, granted I couldn't remember who it had been that had made it.

A loud clang caught my attention as I entered the area near the town square a resonating sound of metal hitting stone. My ears flicked trying to pinpoint the noise, my new senses had taken some getting used to, but my ability to know where a noise came from with almost pinpoint accuracy still surprised me. Idly I sniffed the air the lingering scents flooding into my nostrils like water through a strainer, individual streams from the same source.

The scent of freshly baked bread, ripe fruit, and an oddly overwhelming smell of, livestock? The scent tickled the back of my mind connecting scents to memories in a way my old self simply couldn't. The smell reminded me of horses somehow, it didn't smell bad, more like that underlying smell you associate with things that have fur, but cleaner like an animal that regularly bathes with soap. Maybe the townsfolk were all beastfolk of some kind. Hmm, when was the last time I had properly bathed? Having solved the mystery of my nose I began moving to where I heard the noise.

There between a pair of houses near a massive-looking oak tree that seemingly had a house carved into it was a metal bucket, a steel pail. There was nothing unique about its appearance simply rocking back and forth on the ground as if someone had dropped it. Sniffing the inconspicuous piece of metal I caught a unique scent off of it. A mixture of that horse smell mixed with feathers and, oil I think.

It trailed off behind me towards the door of a nearby house, a simple two-story building with a small smithy attached to the side that one might find in any stereotypical town or large village, following the trail I looked at the admittedly small, at least compared to me door, and raised my paw to knock. Wait did that sign say library? My paw slowly returned to its place on the ground. My autism getting the better of me I completely forgot about the scent and bucket. The Golden Oak library, it was in a tree? That was kinda ironic, wasn't it?

A library meant books, books meant common knowledge, and common knowledge meant no awkward conversations with the locals trying to give my giant self directions. I quickly strode from the house to the library door. It was a large oak door that was surprisingly big compared to the house door I had just been at. Big enough that I should be able to fit through it as long as I duck. Should I knock? Nah it was a public library after all, who knocked on a public library?




Coalfeather's p.o.v

He had just finished dropping off a bucket of nails to Sweet Apple Acers when he spotted it, some giant fox-like creature wearing bloodstained armor and a mask, oh Celestia its mask. The white bloodstained porcelain overlayed with a snarling leer, a facade of what must lay underneath, its visage sent shivers down his spine some unnatural force telling him that it was aimed at him. A promise of bloody mischief and chaos.

The creature had stalked out of the shadows of the Everfree, its form moving with a predator's grace, gaze locked on the sign next to the path it was traveling. He had had both the misfortune and fortune of being downwind of where the beast had stopped, the heavy metallic stench of blood washing over him from the creature's armor as it stopped to leer at the ponyville's welcome sign a hellish bark of glee erupting from it as it read the words written there.

He had to warn the others, they needed to hide, the creature was obviously not here with any good intentions being both a predator and being dressed in blood-stained armor. He remembered his grandfather's half-crazed warnings from the war with the griffons. He flapped his wings as hard as he could and flew high over the thing's head, hoping the altitude would stop it from spotting him. The edge of the village proper was only three-quarters of a mile away.

Coalfeather sped into the village shouting at the top of his lungs, "monster, a monster from the Everfree, hide quickly."
There was chaos as the ponies quickly fled from what they were doing, most going to the large storm cellar at Sugarcube Corner, others hiding in their homes with window blinds shut. He did a few flybys of the other parts of the village making sure the message was spread before landing In the alley near his house and forge just out of sight of the town square. He put down his bucket and rounded the corner only to jump back with a gasp and a loud bang as he kicked the bucket.

"Buck, it's in the Celestia dammed square." with a flutter of rapid movement on his part he lunged for his door and quickly closed it behind him. Closing the window shutters in a hurry and locking the door hoping the creature wouldn't be smart enough to try breaking the windows.

Quietly he put his ear to the wood to listen. It was silent at first, then he began to hear it, the soft clicking of claws on cobblestone, the sound sent small shivers up his spine. It walked past the door and Coalfeather risked a quick look through the blinds of his window, oh Celestia it was sniffing the air what was it trying to find? It approached the alley and disappeared from view. He watched apprehensively waiting for something to happen.

Coalfeather barely held back a gasp of horror as the creature rounded the alley corner with a purpose sniffing the air like it was tracking something. He quickly braced himself against the door the creature sniffing now audible through the oak barrier, its tails casting a menacing shadow through the window blinds. He prepared for the worst, closing his eyes ready for the inevitable. The creature had obviously caught his scent. Any moment now it would burst through a window or tear apart the door and rip him to shreds.

He waited and slowly opened his eyes, blinking as the creature suddenly went silent and then sagged in relief as the tale-tale sound of claws on stone quickly advanced away from the door, risking another glance he watched as the monstrous fox approached the library, seemingly lingered at the door for a moment and then entered. In the back of his mind, he noted how grateful he was the librarian, Twilight he thought her name was, wasn't home and instead was with her friends down at the Apple's farm.

He paused at that thought for a second, wait that's right the guards were down there too, something about Timberwolves acting more aggressive than normal, he could slip out and go get the guards and the others who were good in a fight. Surley between them they could deal with such a beast. Coalfeather quietly opened the door praying to Celestia that the strange fox beast didn't look out the window of the library from whatever it was doing in there. He spread his wings and flew towards the apple orchard, they would help him drive the beast away, no good came from predators after all. That was the one lesson his grandfather made sure would stick.




??? Fox pov

It was magnificent, if ironic. An entire massive oak tree hollowed out and turned into a library, the bottom floor was layered with shelves carved from the tree itself while a few tables and a small potted plant decorated the center of the floor, the ceiling was interesting as well. There was a large golden sun painted there that seemed to give off the light that perforated through the building.

There was a staircase that ran up the east side of the circular room, a quick peek showed that it continued up to a third floor as well though that area had a door with a sign that indicated a personal living area. The second floor was another section of the library. However, there appeared to be more personal displays and decorations here rather than at the public tables that we're downstairs. The ceiling was painted with a stylized crescent moon rather than the sun. There was a balcony on this floor with a small stool and table for reading I would guess.

I was a bit baffled that the horse smell perforated even into here though it was accompanied by an odd scent that had my brain screaming, an odd sensation that caused my hackles to raise slightly. It reminded me of fire for some reason, not something I would expect to smell in a wooden library full of paper books. Maybe the librarian had a familiar or something. If the librarian was here then she was on the third floor, though she might have fled from whatever drove the rest of the town into hiding. There was no noise coming from beyond the third-floor door the door seemed to tingle to the touch, but I decided not to go through it in case it was magic. The door was probably locked anyhow, not that was going to test that theory.

I entertained the thought that maybe the townsfolk had fled from me, but quickly laughed off that notion. Even if I was covered in muck and a little blood I wasn't that intimidating, surly a few guards would be able to deal with creatures my size. Besides I was wearing armor so I was clearly sapient and even then it would have made more sense to form a mob or gather the guard than to flee the town. I certainly wouldn't have left my stuff like this over a giant fox. Though maybe I was a little prejudiced, I liked fluffy things.

No, something else must have driven them off but what? Shaking my head I checked that I was alone before browsing the shelves for the basic history books and other interesting titles. I was happy to find that the language was pretty much English throughout the library, while I did speak both Japanese and German that did not mean I felt like learning an entirely new language.

I did learn a few facts simply based on the titles of some of the books alone, like the fact that this land was called Equestria, its inhabitants were ponies, and that I was quite possibly in some eight-year old's demented dream. I also figured out that magic was common enough for there to be an entire section of the library dedicated to the theory and basic spell books.

Eventually, I did curl up in a corner of the library and crack open a history book, specifically The History of Equestria: volume one, a thick book that hadn't been opened for some time if the dust build-up was anything to go by. It was also handwritten, a rarity that I seldom got to enjoy. A few minutes of reading later revealed a dark undertone to the childish narrative I had started to see.

Yes, the country I was in was ruled by a species of sapient ponies, more accurately four species all lumped together as a singular pronoun. Earth ponies, stronger than the others with a knack for farming and physical labor. Pegasi, capable of sustained flight, weather control, military history, and resistance to high-speed impact. Unicorns, the spell casters of the three, are all born with the ability to control and cast spells. The fourth being alicorns a rare mixture of all three races with all of the benefits. The country seemed to worship these beings as some kind of god-rulers.

What disturbed me was the mention of the other races, however. Griffons, hippogriffs diamond dogs, kirin, naga, and more. They were mentioned in side notes and almost always in negative lights, while zebra, deer, and other herbivores were mentioned in slightly neutral tones. There were references to griffons eating ponies and diamond dogs enslaving ponies, and naga warbands pillaging pony towns, the crimes of these other races just continued on being something equally bad for each race that wasn't pony or near pony.

It all ended the same way too, either a war happened and the bad guy lost and the ponies succeded or they were driven out of their territory by some great hero, occasionally Celestia, the princess would smite them with the power of the sun. Apparently if just based on the amount of endings that had the ponies won, succeeded, or survived was anything to go by they must control most of the world. Oh and apparently most of these races can't use magic or control the weather but we're still a threat, makes sense. The book stunk of prejudice and propaganda I hadn't seen since I read a few of the old journals I had from the world wars.

I took a glance down at myself looking at my blood and muck-stained armor, then running my tongue along one of my fangs. Yeah, I needed to leave before someone came back and decided I was responsible for whatever happened here. I stuffed the history book in my bag before glancing at the other books I had picked up. Why not? No one was going to notice. I quickly shoved those in the bag as well, then basically went gamer-goblin mode on the magic section. As much as I didn't want to steal gut feeling had me grabbing the books for the sheer potential increase of survival they would offer.

Quickly rushing down the stairs I made it about halfway to the front door when said door was kicked off of its hinges, a huge pony in what appeared to be armor stood in the doorway. His fur was a pure white and the armor itself was painted gold, at least I hoped it was painted. I opened my mouth to try and say something but was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass. Another pony in armour crashed through the window and impacted into my side effectively sending me careening into the wall.

I groaned slightly as my ribs throbbed from the impact but recovered quickly enough to stumble back just fast enough to avoid getting kicked in the head by the earth pony. My heart raced in my chest as both ponies quickly drew what appeared to be shortswords and deftly held them in their mouths. I gave up on talking and decided to try my luck with the stairs, there were more guards outside, and I could hear the sounds of their armor moving as they moved.

Quickly I sent a weak wave of sparks at the two guards, I didn't want to kill them so I weakened the amount of mana I pulled into the blast. They covered their faces and yelled something about shields while I booked it up the stairs. The big one tried to run after me but when he got halfway up I used a tail to flick him in the forehead. It was a bit harder than I meant to and his head snapped back as he quickly fell down the stairs. I held my breath and waited for him to get back up, he did, much to my hesitant relief. The look of absolute hatred on his face did not do wonders for my confidence, however.

He looked at me the same way you would imagine a guy might look at you if you had an affair with his wife, shit I think if rather that at least then I couldve cracked a joke or something. The pegasi had quickly moved to get a better angle to intercept me if I tried to charge, his eyes full of grim determination. I had to escape, how was the question of the hour. I could try forcing my way out through the front but that would end with me having to hurt the guards more than I wanted, I could try talking but that had a high chance of me having my stuff all taken as evidence and that was assuming they would listen. I could...
"Fuck".

The expletive slipped out before I could stop it, in my thinking and keeping an eye on the two it hadn't dawned on me to watch the door, the simple curse was all that managed to leave my mouth before the bolt of electricity slammed into my chest plate, the runework flaring as sparks arced across the metal. A loud boom shook the building and I felt a blinding pain arc through my nerves as I was lifted from the ground and thrown into the glass doors leading to the balcony.

The flimsy glass barriers did little to stop my flight, shattering under my weight and tearing outward from their frames. I felt gravity reinsert itself in my life as the ground impacted with my back, I gasped, air driven from my lungs. My mouth opened and closed as they desperately tried to fight my seizing muscles for air. Desperately I pushed myself to my paws, aftershocks of the lightning bolt causing my body to shake, I felt something in my chest shift and crack as I finally managed to deeply and painfully inhale as the muscles around my lungs finally relaxed.

Fucking lightning, they had a goddammed mage and the bitch shot lightning. What the hell? How was I supposed to fight something like that? If they cornered me again I would have to stop her from casting, whether I wanted to avoid hurting them or not. Silently I promised myself that if her head started sparking I was taking a swipe with a tail, another blast like that could very well stop my heart.

Slowly I shook my head and soldiered through the pain, I needed to get my head in the game before that unicorn decided to shoot me again. I quickly noticed as my vision came back to normal that I was not alone. Before me stood nine more ponies, three who were guards based on the armor and six who were not. The three guards consisted of two more pegasi and an earth pony all in golden armor and wielding swords, they were as white as their friends and didn't seem to have any extinguishing marks. The other six seemed to consist of two of each type of pony. One of the pegasi, a civilian who looked like she wanted people to know she was proud of her sexuality based on her rainbow mane, yelled something about a spike. Oh god were they gonna go all Vlad the Impaler on me?

I was interrupted from my thoughts of being impaled in a way I didn't think I was gonna enjoy by an angry pride flag charging me with a speed that barely registered, my body moved before my brain could comprehend and I sidestepped the charging mass of colors before she impacted. I barely had time to breathe before one of the Pegasi guards charged me as well, a sword slashing against my chest plate thankfully not penetrating. I did the first thing that came to mind and with a yell smacked the guard across the head like a misbehaving child.

I decided that I needed to get a hang of my strength later cause my paw slammed into the back of his helm hard enough that he slammed face-first into my armored leg, he kinda just slid down my leg groaning in pain. Having learned my lesson with the lightning I was paying attention when the second guard charged. I quickly whipped a tail down and out, slamming it into his side with an audible ring of metal on metal, he folded around my tail as I flung him into a nearby house. I was turning to face the earth pony guard when I saw a glow from the corner of my vision and felt all of my furs trying to stand on end under my armor.

I dove before I even heard the cackle of electricity, the bolt of lightning passing a mere foot over my head as I hit the ground and rolled sideways back onto my paws. I was not ashamed to say that I immediately turned tail and ran. I had no wish to become a fried fox today. I dodged around, over, and on one occasion through a building. I was leaping from one alley to another when Skittles the pegasus decided to dive bomb me from the sky, her impact hit hard enough to make me miss my leap and impact into the wall instead. Causing my ears to ring with white noise and blood to start leaking from my nose.

By the time I had recovered, I was surrounded again and immediately locked eyes with the golden armored unicorn that seemed to have a fetish for lightning. Her horn was already sparking as she focused on whatever spell she was casting, I decided that enough was enough and lunged. She seemed surprised that I had gone for a preemptive strike, my tail impacted her helmet and flung it to the side just as she finished her casting, and a steady stream of electrical energy carved a gash through the building next to us.

I did not give her time to recover, rising on my hind legs I brought down my full weight into a headbutt, my mask vs her helmet, my mask won. The unicorn crumpled like a sack of potatoes. Her body hit the ground just in time for an earth pony guard to round the corner and swing his sword. The blade hit the chainmail along my foreleg and slid off, the armor thankfully doing its job. I decided that I had played nice for long enough and did the D&D combat tactic known as hitting a bitch with another bitch.

Wrapping a tail around each of the unicorn's hind legs I swung her in a full arc head-first into the stallion hoping the blow would stun him long enough to catch my breath. The guard hit the ground as I slammed the already-unconscious unicorn into him like a floppy battering ram. When the small group of non-armored ponies came around the corner I got ready to throw fire then hesitated, I wanted to try and talk one more time, "alright look, I'm sure this looks bad. But if you'd just let me, aaaghh."

I screamed in pain as something sharp lanced me through the lung, turning my head my vision turned red at the sight of the form of a black pegasus stallion stepping back from where he had just stabbed me, I didn't think, just acted as my claws came down in an arc slashing through the flesh of his face, he went down screaming. I quickly used a tail to fling him at the ponies, hitting the butterscotch-colored one hiding in the back. They all converged on her location yelling what I guessed was her name, Fluttershy. I ran as they were distracted, running for the forest, at least the wolves didn't have swords.

I could hear shouting and screams for a doctor in the background but I honestly didn't care, I was hurt. The sword had definitely pierced a lung and parts of my body were still numb from the shocks. I could see the forest edge, I could hide there. The book mentioned it being unnatural to ponies. They wouldn't enter it with so few guards surely.

By the time I made it past the forest edge I was having serious breathing issues, I slowly reached down and yanked the sword from my side where the pegasi had stabbed me, just behind the chest plate in through the weaker chainmail, god it hurt. I don't know why but I stowed the sword in my bag. I stumbled along the path slowly going delirious from the pain as adrenaline wore off. I was pretty sure the unicorn and multiple pegasi-based impacts had broken my ribs and I could feel the blood pooling in my chest cavity even as it leaked from my mouth.

As delirious as I was from pain and blood loss I didn't notice the weirdness of finding the ruined walls of the forest village so close, nor did I notice the wolves that watched from the shadows of the surrounding undergrowth, I was happy to note in my dying state the pretty blue flowers that smelt of better times, uncaring I laid down in my bed of memories and let them soothe me to sleep. Mentally snickering that I sucked so bad at fighting that I once again was dying from a lung wound.
> Curiosity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"what in the actual fuck?" the words echoed through the landscape before me, before they were lost to the mutters of swirling fog. I had awoken gasping and curling in on myself in an attempt to stop the throbbing pain that had shot through my chest and lungs only to freeze at the sight of my surroundings. 

I was on a field if you could call it that. The floor was a swirling mass of prismatic fog that flowed across my view like a river of multicolored cloud, tendrils of it flowing and curling around and under me. The fog didn't smell which to me was honestly more off-putting than if it had smelled bad. I had gotten used to being able to smell so much more than before, to be able to gain a variety of information by scent alone. So for something to have no smell at all was, disturbing.

Thankfully the fog river didn't rise above my thighs allowing me to see for what I could only guess to be miles, a swirling mass of moving color as far as I could see, the sky wasn't much better, it was a swirling mess of blues and purples laced with pinpricks of white and yellow. It was like someone had put me on a bridge made from the northern lights that were traveling through a nebula inside a distant galaxy. Don't get me wrong the sight was breathtaking, but it was also incredibly disorientating.

I decided that it would be best to inspect myself and see the damage as it were, I remember having been stabbed so I checked there first. Oddly my armor was missing from my battered form as was my bag, something that worried me, my chest fur was slightly singed and the entirety of my skin there was bruised from the multiple times it had been impacted, I couldn't imagine my back was much better, the area under my rib where I had been stabbed was mostly healed though the tissue was red and swollen like a freshly healed scar.

I tried to figure out what might have happened while I checked myself over, I know that it was unlikely that I was dreaming, I was still in quite a bit of pain, and while possible it was rare to feel proper pain in a dream and I wasn't normally a lucid dreamer, it was certainly possible that I had kicked the bucket again and that this was something like the rainbow bridge in Norse mythology, but this certainly wasn't what it felt like when I died the first time. That had been a sudden and rapid shift from one perspective to another.

That and given I had survived having my throat slashed by a manticore I somehow doubted that a sword to the lung, a somewhat less fatal condition than the throat thing, had managed to kill me. I had a brief memory of managing to find my way back to the village somehow, which was something I would tackle when I found my way back to the said realm of existence.

Hmm, the village. I wonder, the village had that well. Maybe I had gotten too close to the thing and in my weakened state looked in, it had tried to draw me in before, maybe this was some kind of astral realm that it had taken my mind to, it was certainly possible. I wanted to try something, and with a few deep breaths to calm myself I focused inward and attempted to feel the magic around me. I gasped and almost instantly reared my head back in pain. It was like I was standing in the middle of a goddammed sun. The sheer feeling of the massive amount of magic around me caused my head to throb.

I sat there for a while, just pondering how I had gotten into this situation, I had just wanted to have fun with this new life of mine, I had been so happy to exist in a realm where I could be more than the kind but antisocial bookshop owner. I'd never considered that I might be considered a monster by the locals, I wondered if this was what the various sapient monster races in D&D felt like. I had come in peace and curiosity, and in return, I had been hunted, shot with lightning, and fatally stabbed. So much for that plan for a new bookshop.

I eventually had enough of feeling sorry for myself and got up. I shook my paws a little to limber them up and glanced around. "Shit in one hand, wish with the other, see which one fills up faster." 

I don't remember who used to tell me that little saying, but it certainly fits the situation. It was probably my mother, it felt like something a Southern mother would say. As I looked around I decided to tackle the first issue, I had no reliable way of telling direction in this place besides the way the fog was flowing, so observing how the fog was like a massive river I decided to use the age-old survival trick for swimming across rivers. I began walking diagonally upstream of the fog.

I don't know how long I walked as there was no sun or moon to tell time as I traveled, I could only imagine that a few hours had passed based on my own perception of time which had never been very accurate to reality. I did eventually see something that drew my attention, the prismatic river of clouds had started to split seemingly being forced to go around an invisible curved wall extending as far as the eye could see in both directions.

The now visible ground was disturbing to look at it was an invisible barrier that showed a scene much like the one above me. The swirling vortex of color seemingly reached up to grab at something. I was suddenly very glad that I had no fear of heights. The view probably would've given me a panic attack otherwise. As it was I was thankful for the smoke now as solid or not it was incredibly disorientating to not be able to see the ground.

Now I faced a dilemma I could step into the invisible barrier and quite possibly be killed by whatever strange magics governed the place, or I could keep walking and potentially do so till I starved to death or died of dehydration.  That wasn't really a choice was it, sometimes I think I might be too curious for my own good. Slowly I stepped up to the barrier and put a paw across it, it felt like I had stuck my paw through a thin layer of water and the ground felt different somehow, rougher.

With a deep breath, I hauled the rest of my body through and blinked at the sight before me. I was at the foot of a mountain, not a range mind you, but a singular large lone mountain. It stretched up to the sky a massive pillar of solemn black stone. And atop that mountain was a tree an utterly massive oak whose branches seemed to stretch across the sky like bridges disappearing in the clouds. Large roots descended from its trunk wrapping around the mountain and forming an oddly obvious path to climb.

Now I might have been a slightly reclusive person, but I had played enough video games and tormented enough D&D players as a DM to know a world tree when I saw one. The train I could see from here was unique, a massive set of crystals here, a few rivers of glowing blue water there. I didn't put too much thought into it as I walked towards the base where the makeshift root road started its ascent.

My perception of time in this place was incredibly skewed, it had only felt like a few hours had passed when I reached the three-quarters mark of the path, something I knew made no sense given that the mountain was tall enough to be touching the lower hanging clouds, which were themselves somewhat strange given their indigo color against the now crimson sky.  maybe this was some kind of limbo, an area in between?

I was a mere few hundred meters from the tree when I noticed a sound that set my nerves on edge, skittering. the kind that you would expect to hear in a horror movie about giant bugs. Slowing from my speedy trot to a more sedate speed I started rotating my head and ears in an attempt to locate the source of the dreaded noise. It didn't take me long, there sat on the edge of the path was a beetle the size of a bumper car.

The insect stared at me with its four glowing pricks of scarlet light that I assumed to be its eyes. I carefully took a step back as its Mandibles snapped together twice with a sound like a bullwhip. Its carapace was strange its texture looked more like stone than chitin and the spikes along its legs looked more like shards of crystal. I didn't get any time to ponder that as snapped its mandibles once more and strange swirling lines of red light lit up across its shell before charging me. 

With a startled yelp, I jumped backward almost falling off the edge of the path before unleashing a series of fiery bolts at the beetle, which to my horror seemed to absorb the magic into its carapace with an almost mocking chitter. I quickly dug my home claws into the bark of the bath and lunged up and over the beetle before lashing out with my hind legs in an attempt to kick it off the path, a plan that thankfully worked as my hind paws connected with its armored carapace and sent it careening off the side and on to the crystal outcroppings below. it wasn't an easy blow, the thing must have weighed almost half a ton.

I stared over the edge as it hit the side of the mountain and exploded with the sound of shattering stone, red light expanding out from it as broke. I let out a triumphant shout, while I had never had a problem with most bugs I hated beetles. Spiders, no problem, centipedes, meh, worms, fish bait, but beetles no way in hell. I never did figure out why I hated the dammed things as much but I did.

I started to make my way up the mountain when I heard it again, scuttling. Not the singular kind either no. the kind that was the sign of what was possibly one of my biggest nightmares. Slowly I turned my head to look over my shoulder at the path behind me. The now moving path had turned black. The sound that escaped my mouth was not words but a single bone-chilling scream, I turned and ran. I had seen the mummy and I wasn't going to be eaten by giant fucking bugs.

The sound of the scuttling swarm seemed to grow ever louder and louder as I ran, driving me to put even more force behind my bounds, and as the rough bark of the path scrubbed my paws raw and bloody and strained already bruised muscles. I made a mental note that throwing myself off the path and impaling myself on the crystals would be a better fate than being eaten alive. In my panic I did not notice one of the bigger beetles try to blindside me from the right, it crashed into my back leg and bit deeply into my flank tearing fur and meat from it as it did, oddly through my panic I felt it take something else my magic, it drank from my manna even as I used a tail to knock it back.

I could see the trunk of the tree in detail now, its brownish bark seeming to call out to something deep inside, like that friend during hide and seek that sat at the safe area encouraging you to run to him. A hundred meters and something took a chunk out of my thigh, eighty meters and a small set of mandibles bit down on a tail, sixty meters and I screamed as something took a bite out of my nethers causing me to stumble, forty meters and I barely dodged losing an eye, twenty and I pulled ahead of the swarm for a moment. Ten and I ran for the tree knowing somehow that they wouldn't follow me after I made contact. 

I screamed as at five meters something large separated my left hind paw from my body, tears streamed from my eyes as my bleeding body slammed into the great tree with all the grace of a car crash. Blood spattering over ancient bark, I was too busy screaming in pain to notice the black tide of stony chiton splitting like a river around a boulder, nor did I notice the blood I had splattered across the tree begin to glow and smoke. I couldn't even give the bugs a moment of thought.

No, what I noticed was the way my blood felt like it was boiling in my veins even as it escaped my body from the stump that was left of my paw and the various bite marks. I gasped mid-scream as something wrapped a tendril around my magic and yanked. Like a skydiver whose parachute had deployed, I jerked with mouth agape as a deep green color crept into my vision even as it faded to black.

In my final moments of conscience, something greater stared into my soul, a deep ancient thing of immense power and size. that dwarfed any concept of power I had ever truly known. "Harbinger, welcome to thy home," bone-shattering laughter followed me into the void.




Multiple P.O.V's

Thousands of miles away a feathered head rose at the pulse of intent and power rode the leylines of the world, a single chuckle left his throat fluttering his wings. It had been so long since another had been found. He turned to look at the scaled body of his mate trapped in the same prison as he, "Well now did you feel that Omen?

His mate, a massive black dragon wreathed in motes of shadow stirred under the chains of light that bound him, slowly lifting his massive head to stare at the Phoenix. "yes, yes I did ember. Change has come, I do hope this one is ready to play this game."

On a mountain a marble white alicorn stared at the letter from her student pondering the feeling that had rushed across the world, it had felt familiar somehow something that bugged her long memory. no matter, she would have to deal with it later. This creature that had attacked the village of Ponyville had to take precedence right now. New monsters were always a concerning matter and had to be handled quickly less they bred and became an infestation. "Silverscroll send a message to the head of the hunters guild make sure to tell them I have a crown-sanctioned job for them."

A little further a midnight blue alicorn awoke with a gasp, eyes wide. She knew that feeling, she remembered it well even if she had only felt it twice. Both of those times had left behind a legacy that affected the world even now. In the castle courtyard in the midst of a mad ramble, a misshapen mismatched statue stopped mid-rant and started laughing, after all, it had been so long since an aspect had been born. In the back of his mind, Discord wished it good luck. After all the game of immortality was a harsh one, and in the end chaos was but a stepping stone for change.

Far away deep in the badlands of Equis, a single green-slitted eye blinked open from its resting place. A wicked grin spread across its owner's face, a single mental command was given. The sound of thousands of wings echoed throughout the cavern as the command was heard and followed. They would find the aspect and bring it to the hive, they would feed the mother power beyond their meager harvest.




Harbinger's pov

I shot to my paws heaving as I vomited on the grass in front of me, confused I looked around me. I was in the abandoned village its high walls signaling a sense of safety I was happy to bask in. Had it just been a dream? No, a glance at the places I had been bit showed white patches on the skin under my fur and my suddenly attached paw was ashen white, fur and all.

I felt different as well, a soothing tingle that flowed through my body the same way you'd feel when stepping into a hot bath after a long day, my magic I think. it felt smoother like it had been grounded to me better. it simmered under my skin ready to be pulled upon and cast into the world. I hadn't been the only thing to change either. My surroundings were different as well. The once grassy field inside of the walls had been changed to a light bluish color, and there were patches of those blue flowers in a ring on the inner side of the wall. 

Perhaps the biggest change to have happened was the fact that the well had a massive thirty-meter tall willow tree growing out of it. Its bark was an ash grey with a cyan hue and its leaves were a brilliant amber color that reminded me of embers when the sun hit them at certain angles. The branches spread out in a crooked yet somehow symmetrical pattern that caused the long tendril branches to spread out like a wall around a fifteen-meter radius around the well. 

This curtain of shade providing branches and the fact that the blue flowers had grown to cover the ground within the natural curtain made the base look like an incredibly welcoming place to just lay down out of the sun to rest and read, that and the fact that there was a single bloody paw print directly center of the lower part of the trunk, one that looked suspiciously like mine made me incredibly weary to even approach the thing let alone fall asleep under it.

I approached the tree carefully prodding around the base and branches of the tree, after making sure I wasn't going to get grabbed by some whomping Willow knock off I took a closer look at the well, what was left of it anyway. It had been moved somehow to form a small stone wall around the first five feet of the trunk, the base of said trunk was nearly thirteen feet in diameter the stone of the wall had been fused together somehow making it remarkably solid.

I just let out a deep sigh, my brain hurt. These last few days were rough. Slowly I laid down next to the tree, the flowers and scenery already starting to soothe my racing mind. I had books! Reading had always helped when it came to grounding my thoughts and I had stolen a good chunk of new books from the library, with a much more energetic movement than before I reached for my bag, which wasn't there.

Wait where was my bag and armor, I shot up looking around in a panic before spotting them neatly folded and hanging from a little wooden root that was sticking out of the side of the well like a dull hook. "well, that's suspiciously convenient, either I'm going insane or someone or something is helping me."

I walked over to my stuff with a weary pace before checking it, there were no notes or anything of the like, just my stuff which if my nose was anything to by, was freshly washed. At this point I was confused enough that I couldn't bring myself to care, I reached into the bag and grabbed a book at random. The title read as Geography and landmarks of the known world. A surprisingly useful first book. I walked back to my spot not bothering to grab my armor or bag and laid down under the tree, first things first it was time to figure out exactly where I was and hopefully get my mind of the acid trip i had just experienced.
> Answers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I gently set the book down on the stone next to me and stared up at the rustling leaves while silently questioning what higher power I had a love-hate relationship with. I had learned a lot from the book, the world I was on was fucking huge for one thing around three times the size of Earth, why that didn't screw with the gravity or amount of hours in the day I had no idea.

The forest I was in was the Everfree, an expanse of canopy that covered almost thirty-eight percent of the continent of Eqas, which itself was about twice the size of Asia.  The chaotic forest stretched from the heartland of the pony kingdom, Equestria, to the edges of the northern coast. I was on the northeastern edge near the town of Ponyville which was less than five hundred miles from the Pony capital of Canterlot. 

To the southwest was a stretch of lands known as the badlands that were separated from the rest of Eqas by a large Mountain range known as the Frostbacks. There were three other nations on the continent, Ferin a small nation situated within the Frostbacks that was home to the minotaur people, and the Threstral Enclave situated within a massive cave system along the coastal mountains in the north. Technically speaking the griffin kingdoms were also in the north and occupied a rather large peninsula, but they had been annexed by the ponies nearly eighty years ago so I wasn't counting them. Everything else belonged to ponies or was across the sea on another continent.

This meant in summary that I was fucked, from what I read the Everfree got deadlier the further in you go and I was on the edge, so going to the Threstral caverns wasn't applicable, the minotaurs were incredibly isolationist, and seemed to follow some religion that was incredibly strict on social roles and quite frank I wanted nothing to do with that, and it would take years to build a boat strong and sturdy enough to cross the ocean.

This summed up my options to stay and tough it out, and basically become Ponyville's local cryptid, or learn how to brainwash people. A brief glance at the more advanced theory in the magic books told me that brainwashing would be a while on the to-do list, on the bright side music and noise spells seemed a bit simpler so at least I could make with the ambiance while I was creeping about the edges of the woods.

I chuckled to myself a bit at the thought of a spell that played the jaws theme every time someone got near me, though I knew that such a spell would be detrimental to myself sticking around long term. I stretched popping my spine and smoothing out my fur before glaring up at the sun. I should hunt something, it had been a while since I last ate, oddly I wasn't as hungry as should have been. Several hours without food, three near-death experiences, and one spiritual journey and I felt like I had skipped breakfast, surely I should be starving by now. 

But first I needed to bathe, it had been days since I had arrived here and I hadn't trusted the river enough to risk bathing in it. I was covered in mud, sap, and dried blood that did and didn't belong to me. glancing at the water in the creek it didn't seem to have any life that would be willing to take a chunk out of me so that was a plus. I shivered slightly as I stepped into the water. It was chilly but bearable and the water soothed my sore paws. I slowly lay down in the stream watching with satisfaction and some disgust as a variable stream of dirt and blood was washed from my body.

The sight brought unpleasant thoughts, was this to be my life? Running amok in the forest like some kind of demented hermit. I suppose the forest itself wasn't that bad. The place had an odd beauty going on, the forbidden kind that screams to enter and explore at your own risk. But I was a sapient creature I needed some social contact, I was an antisocial autistic person, yes, but I had truly enjoyed the few people I had interacted with. was I to be the monster in the woods, never befreinded and always hunted?

The thought made me scrub a little harder at my fur, the one upside to having prehensile tails was that even in a quadrupedal form I could still get my underbelly and hind quarters as I was washing. trying to think of anything else I came to realize that since having this body I had not needed to answer the call of nature, so everything I was eating had to have been used somehow. The realization was enough to snap me out of my funk, quickly I finished washing and leapt out of the creek. Shaking my body side to side like a dog to dry off a bit quicker. I sniffed at my side a few times, I still didn't smell pleasant but it was certainly better than I had before. Now then, it was time to find myself a meal.

A little while later I was staring out into a small patch of ferns where five rabbit-like almaraj were grazing in the undergrowth. With a surge of my powerful muscles, I lept from my hiding spot and slammed my paws down on one crushing its head and neck while simultaneously sending a tail lightly into two more crushing them into the ground. The other two squeaked in fright and bolted into the underbrush, that was fine I only wanted three. 

I ate one right then and there, and the other two I put in my bag for later. I kept the horn from the one I ate, almaraj were magical creatures so it was likely that their horns could be used in alchemy or ritual magic somehow. I would skin and gut the other two when I had time to look through my collection of books to see if there was one with instructions on how to do so properly. I had an entire shelf dedicated to self-help and survival books so there should be something I could use.

Honestly, I felt like I should be a bit more bothered than I was by eating raw meat, but the idea of being squeamish after everything just seemed silly, of course, that didn't mean that I wasn't going to learn to cook over a campfire eventually. You would think that the taste or texture of fur would still be an issue, but honestly, it didn't seem to bother me much and when it did it was pretty simple to just stick my muzzle in the water and let it be washed out from in between my teeth. 

I decided to take my time heading back to the ruined village. I needed to name the place given that I would be staying there for the foreseeable future, I mean I wasn't really happy with staying in Pony Land, but I wasn't stupid. If the giant willow growing out of the well wasn't a sign then I would eat a book.  At the very least the walls seemed to make a decent effort at keeping the creatures of the forest outside, even if they were full of holes, something that I would have to find a way to fix later. the wards seemed to keep out non-sapient fauna but I doubted it would work well against any of the sapient races.

I suppose that I could be in a worse situation, at least I wasn't in a desert or island. The forest was growing on me too. Something had changed about it as well, it was easier to move through the foliage, and scents and noises had become less mingled and easier to differentiate. Prey and palatable plants had become more common, and I had yet to see one of those wooden wolves staring at me through the undergrowth, waiting for me to drop my guard.

The biggest change was the sheer presence of the forest before it had felt overwhelming, the scents, the noise, the dread of oncoming night. Now it felt, perhaps not peaceful, but begrudgingly welcoming. Like how an experienced avid hiker or survivalist might feel about a large mountain or maybe a veteran spelunker might feel about an unexplored cave. That sense of danger and caution was there but weathered in the knowledge that I could survive here if I wanted. It felt like I had passed some kind of test almost. the feeling of achievement when something becomes easier and new things are unlocked for you because you took the time to try and do what was hard instead of easy. Still, I wasn't going to let my guard down too much, I didn't want to get killed because I got too cocky and did something stupid.

I snickered a small and the corners of my muzzle quirked up just a little. Maybe the ponies had done me a small favor. Here in this forest, the only laws laid before me were the laws of nature, here in this twisted and life-filled canopy I was restrained only by my power. No laws or social rules were being forced upon my person here. The thought made me happy in a strange way, here in this strange and magical land I was free.

Soon the old and pierced walls of my home came into view and walked through them with a new and mighty goal. If I was only restrained by my power then I would become more powerful. I was already strong physically, able to send full-grown ponies in armor flying. So I would focus on the arcane, if reality would not allow me a proper home then I would become powerful enough to make reality my bitch and carve one out of spite and magic.

I knew that I would have to start small, I knew nothing of magic or its whims, but I could learn. I had honed my mind for years reading most of the books in my shop at least once, some out of interest others out of boredom. If I could read the entire shelf dedicated to shitty romance novels then I could read a few books on spells and spell theory.

I pulled a few books from the bag, looking over the ones that were theory before selecting one that seemed to be for beginners. An hour later I had a decent idea of what I was supposed to be doing, my brain decided that it was time to try a spell. I learned better while doing the things I was reading, surely a few small spells wouldn't hurt?

Selecting a book at random I read the title. "Magic for the Aspiring Guard, hmm well this seems interesting," I frowned for a second a thought coming to me, "I do hope the librarian wasn't too angry."



 
Twilight's P.O.V

Twilight stifled a cry of anger as she used a series of repair spells to fix what she could in the library, the balcony door was ruined beyond repair even by magic, and would have to be replaced the old-fashioned way. She had been helping the guards and apple jack with a group of timber wolves that had gotten more aggressive than normal when Coalfeather had nearly crashed into her panting as he warned her of some kind of giant fox monster that had shown up and gone into the library with obvious intent. Her first reaction had been horror, spike had stayed in bed because he had a cold, what if it had gone after him, her second was to demand the guards go help. The resulting fight had made quite a mess of her library, spike as it turned out had slept through the entire thing. Normally she would have teased about it but what if it had entered their room?

Now she was just annoyed and angry, not only were several of her books charred from where the beast had flung blue fire at the guards but it had up and taken several as well. Which supported the fact that it was sentient she supposed. That little tidbit of information made her shutter, most of the continents of the world had been explored and their races cataloged. For this creature to have been a new race it would have had to come to Equestria through a port where its appearance would have gotten it detained by the guard and would've caused a direct visit from the princess to observe its nature.

No, for this creature to have come from the Everfree as it did it would suggest an entirely different scenario, it was most likely a magispawn or a descendent of one. A creature born from the experimentation of a powerful unicorn in an attempt to make a familiar. Twilight remembered her mentor's lecture well, while modern-day familiars were simply magic and will bound to form, the old ways were far more advanced and dangerous.

A unicorn took an animal, generally a newborn or egg, and began a series of ritualistic magics around it, the creature was then exposed to the caster's magic in minute amounts for the first few years until its natural magics were bound to the caster. The process changed the creature, making it bigger, smarter, and in rare cases causing unique mutations and allowing a few unique magical abilities. The size and range of the changes varied greatly, supposedly Clover the Clever had a dog the size of a pony that could teleport and slow time.

The problem arose when the caster failed to bind those familiars properly, allowing them to escape or simply outlive the caster. An unbound familiar could wreak havoc on settlements, causing fires, flooding, blights, and in one recorded case a population boom so large the town collapsed under its own needs. Due to this the princess had declared the process as illegal and banned the books describing how to do the process. It was suspected that over a quarter of the monsters that one could run into on equis, including manticores and hydra were descendants of escaped familiars.

Unfortunately, there were still some out there who passed down the knowledge and taught it to their foals or apprentices. This particular creature was even more worrisome, as it was both a predator and sapient, sapient familiars were capable of learning and often held a great amount of disdain and hatred for the species that created them. They often learned how to mimic voices, noises of distress, and other lures. The last recorded account of a sapient familiar was from monster hunter Silverhoof, he described a hydra-like creature that made ponies forget those it ate.

She shuddered at the thought of something that powerful being near the town, thankfully the fox just seemed to be bored when it came to the town, it had probably been looking for easy prey. She was thankful it seemed so cowardly preferring to run in the face of so many rather than face them all. Fluttershy had wanted to try and reason with the fox since it seemed animalistic enough to her. She had calmly reminded the pegasus that her stare had failed to slow the creature and that it had attacked her. She also informed her of the law, all identified familiars were to be captured and taken to the monster hunter guild for study and then slaughter.

She was happy that the princess was willing to send more guards to help secure the town and a team from the monster hunter guild. The guild ponies were trained in ways foreign to Equis and we're better suited than any in the town to go into the forest. The guild master was a griffin named Snowbeak. Supposedly the ponies he trained were aggressive and unsociable, as long as they killed the creature and got her books back she didn't care. She did make a mental note to keep Spike in his room while they were in town though.

She hoped that the group they sent was experienced, the creature had already proven itself to be dangerous. Its short skirmish that the guards had with it had not gone well for them. IronStep had been given a concussion and a cracked jaw by one of the fox's tails, Swiftwind had a broken wing, and Sundial had her horn cracked and nose broken. Poor Coalfeather had lost an eye and it was unlikely that the scars would ever heal completely. The others had only suffered bruises and other minor injuries.

Twilight frowned for a moment, maybe she could send Pinkie to cheer the Pegasus up, losing an eye was a rather traumatic experience. Her attention was drawn to a particular shelf of books, rather than a shelf that should have had books. A scowl graced the face of the unicorn, why in all of the books in the library had it taken her bucking spellbooks? No magiborn creature had gained the ability to cast and learn proper spells. 

She supposed that it may have grabbed them because they were familiar, any unicorn powerful enough to bind a familiar would have similar books in their home. She sighed a bit, she wouldn't fault the creature for coming into the library if that was the case. Everything searched for what was familiar after all. Truly it was a shame that it had to be put down, she had to admit that it had been a remarkable specimen of old and powerful magic, but the law was the law and the creature had proven to be willing to cause harm.

"oh well, at least I can ask the princess to send me the appropriate books to study the theory behind it at least." she shrugged to herself and went back to cleaning the library.




??? P.O.V

Her leaves shuttered lightly as the fox wove the ambient mana around itself, the way it grabbed at her magic and asked it to move was wonderfully different from how most interlopers thought to command it. She had thought it a pest at first, another creature trying to tame her magics and conquer her body. She had sent her children to deal with it and watched as it survived.

It certainly wasn't a clean victory if not for the metal false skin that the fox had donned her children would have feasted, she had waited for the fox to fall to the same arrogance the other interlopers had fallen to, waited for her children to come back as one stronger than the many they were before. Except they didn't, the fox's fire drove them from their body and dissolved her magic. The fox had done what few had before and truly killed one of her creations.

She might have been angry, but she was also intrigued, the fox hadn't done anything that wasn't natural, and sometimes the predators became the prey.  The fire it had called hadn't been spell fire called and fueled by natural magics, no the fire the interloper had called had come from within, controlled by sheer willpower and fueled with the fox's life energy. Such magic would incapacitate most spell casters from the shear strain yet the fox seemed to use it naturally.

The manticore had almost been its end, her brief moment of intrusive satisfaction, yet the fox managed to find an unexpected refuge, the chaos petals had been a fun if brief foray into wild magic that she and Chaos had worked together to make before his imprisonment. They were the bane of all even her children were not safe from its effects, the interlopers had named it a joke, but its effects were often fatal to the denizens of the forest, one could not hunt if their legs were on backward after all.

Despite the flower's nature the fox doesn't seem to care, she watched in interest as the flowers seemed to wiggle in joy at the fox's presence. They soaked in his blood and were stronger, the wild magic soaking into the fox's wounds like some kind of twisted healing magic. The fox's own magic seems to intertwine and dance with the flowers. She continued to watch as it woke and made its way to the old den.

The den held a special place in her heart, it had been made by a large group of interlopers, and they had been an oddly diverse group with many different races. Their mage had managed to tap one of her veins and use it to weave the protections that kept her children outside the walls of the den.  They had been stubborn people that she had taken joy in challenging, she had been sad when they were destroyed by more interlopers.

She had thought the fox might stay there and she could challenge it in similar ways, but it had left and headed towards the borders of her influence, she sent more wolves. She had wanted to study her new fox more, she didn't understand why it had wanted to leave, did it not know the dangers that waited for it out of her grasp? 

The wolves had failed to stop the fox, and it had left, she felt the creeping edges of loneliness on her conscious as she withdrew into the deep places of her conscience again, preparing for yet another long sleep. Almost instinctively she made the seed of the chaos petals grow where the fox had left its bedding maybe another would show up since that one had survived. She had just calmed to sleep when its presence came back, wounded and confused. She didn't understand, she had thought it left to join the interlopers, why was it wounded in such a way? It tried to make it to the den, she helped it. When it had laid down in the chaos petals again she had thought it dead, its body had not breathed and its presence was gone.

She had felt cheated, surely the stupid interlopers had not killed the fox when the manticore had not. When the fox did not stir she sighed and went to rest, before she could, however, she felt it. The fox wasn't dead. It was there with her, she turned inward and watched in shock as the fox slammed into her with great speed and force. Its energy-filled blood splattering against her skin, wounded from her guardians. 

Quickly she grabbed the fox even as it twisted and snapped at her as it struggled against her for a while like how a snake might in the beak of an eagle. But she had felt it in the fox's blood, power. A power she recognized, the fox was an aspect, but of what? She forced her magic inside of the fox and felt for its core, it wasn't hard to find. A swirling firestorm of magic that burnt away the old mixed with the calm flowing of a river bringing new life to the charred land. Renewal? No there was something else something chaotic to the fox's core. Ah, there it was, in the center. Raw and untamed, she liked it. 

She reached forward and touched the center of everything the fox was, untamed, chaos, order, knowledge, unrelenting and ever marching, what was this? ah, change, the fox was change. The forever loved yet never wanted rule of life. She shuddered slightly to think of what that little spark could become. Nothing could stand in the face of change, even time would be useless without it, after all, what was time if no one could see it? 

She remembered when she had been unnamed, it had been Omen that had named her. And just as he had named her Everfree she would name this one. She had been untamed, the wild animal at your door. The savage and graceful dance between predator and prey. No mortal would tame her and no prison would hold her for long. The fox was different than her of course, all aspects were, they all had been mortal once after all.

He was a storm on the horizon, the unwelcome stranger that brought news to your door, the wind that promised rain, the hope that heralded revolution. He was the product of ever marching time. The fox would bring change, bring it to the world even as it kicked and thrashed and bit and the world would be better for it, or the world would burn. He may bring the change but in the end, it was the choice of the world on what to do with it. The fox was a harbinger and so that was what he would be called, a harbinger.

She flinched slightly as Harbinger scorched the fur off his muzzle with a yelp. Well, he would do all that anyway, if he lived that long. He seemed to have a strange knack for jumping head-first into things.
> Mysticsim
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I perhaps had overestimated my ability to learn magic, or rather I had overestimated how to use pony magic. I had tried to call the ambient mana of the forest and use it to cast a rather common combat spell that was in all appearances a bolt of concentrated mana, a non-tracking magic missile if you like. The problem bloomed from one simple issue, the way ponies formed spells was by forcibly commanding ambient mana to form a spell and then using a mental image and generally a few words to direct the spell into reality. However, the book stated that talented casters could say the words mentally as well. I could not cast like this. Any attempt to command the ambient manna felt like I was trying to grasp the raging torrents of a waterfall. The spell would often fizzle and even backfire when I tried.

I snarled as I shot to my paws, quickly pacing around in anger. Six goddamned hours and I hadn't managed to cast one of the simplest combat spells in the entire book. The books stated that most unicorns could cast this spell by accident and yet here I was failing, surely unicorns didn't have that much of an advantage. I had no problems casting my fire, it was as simple as reaching for it and coaxing it out, and asking it to do what I wanted. "What the hell is the difference? I ask, and my fire comes but this magic ..., oh."

That was it, when I summoned my fire I didn't command it to shape and work, I asked. Hesitantly I reached out for the ambient mana once again caressing it with my own. I did not command it but instead, I coaxed it into the shape I wanted using my own magic and noted that this felt better, more right. The magic followed my own, gleefully following it like a cat followed a toy, and then with simple askance, I launched it. The bolt of arcane energy was tinged with cyan sparks, but it flew straight and impacted against a bit of rubble in a shower of dirt.

I laughed happily, and quickly cast a few more bolts, each one gathered and fired faster than the last. I perhaps arrogantly switched to a fire bolt spell I had seen, surly it wouldn't be any different from casting with my own fire. I gathered the magic then panicked as it quickly rebelled and blew up, scorching fur from my muzzle and blinding me temporarily. I sat there stunned, it had not been nearly as easy as manipulating my foxfire. The ambient magic had resisted, not being as easily coaxed into the fire as it had pure energy.  Perhaps elemental manipulation would have to wait till I got the hang of the manipulation of mana on its own.

Despite the burns, I found myself smiling, a strange thing to do with a muzzle, as my lips pulled pack enough to move upwards but not enough to reveal my fangs in their entirety. I had completed the first step in my goal of survival, even the most basic of spells would be a game changer inside this forest, and given that leaving it was no longer an option, survival had become a priority. I glanced around at the small piles of debris that littered inside my walled sanctuary. People had called this forest home before, the village proved that. It would certainly be hard, and painful, but there was no reason I couldn't call this place home for now. The walls were old and the path that led here was long overgrown, the people who attacked this place were surely dead. The state of what was left of the houses would indicate that at least three to five hundred years had passed, and this place wasn't mentioned in the geography book.

It would be a tedious task to clear out the few piles of rubble, but it was certainly something I could do, filling the holes inside the walls would have to be regulated to a long-term job as the only solution I could think of was to fill them with rocks and hope I could make my fire hot enough to melt them solid in a similar process to how the holes were created in the first place. The ground seemed fertile enough to grow a small farm. It would require me to go back to that town and steal seeds and some tools, but else than that there didn't seem to be anything that would stop me. The creek provided fresh water, the giant willow would act as shelter for now, and the forest supplied ample food for something of my size as long as I was careful.

It seemed the only situation that I would truly have to worry about was if the ponies decided to come looking for me, the forest was by far more dangerous than I was, so that seemed like it would be unlikely. I took a moment to stretch and shake my fur clean of any debris it had picked up while I was reading. I was at a bit of a loss as to what to do, did I return to the village, or explore more of the forest around the walls, I knew that building a garden or shelter would have to wait. It was a comfortable temperature, about sixty-six degrees, but I didn't know what season it was nor how long they lasted on a planet as large as this one.

I decided that practicing my magic would be the best use of my time, at least until I was confident I could survive encountering another unicorn, should I try my luck with gathering supplies and information from the village a second time. Ideally, I needed something that would work as a shield if one started tossing magic at me. Quickly scooping the book from where I had dropped it during my bout of frustration, I flipped through it, searching out the shield spell I remembered seeing near the middle of it. The spell was simply named Ward and was the first of a series of similar spells, the concept was simple enough. One simply manipulated mana into a convex shield around a point and made and forced it to hold shape until the hostile spell slipped around the curve. It was less about stopping a spell and more about redirecting it to your left and right. From there, the next few pages were about how you could shape the spell to catch rather than redirect, and the final page was about modifying the ward to block small projectiles like shards of glass and other debris.

Unfortunately for me, the writer made it clear that spells designed to stop physical blows were far more complicated than ward was, and that it would not stop anything stronger than a lightly thrown knife. I briefly looked at the example given on the last page and balked at the complexity of what was needed, the physical shields had only what I could describe as rune matrixes formed into the spell itself. Distracted from my task, I quickly opened one of the more advanced spell books and found to my horror that most spells labeled beyond intermediate level also had rune matrixes woven into the spells. A panicked glance at the more advanced theory revealed that more advanced spells used the same method as lesser ones but with ancient unicorn runes woven into them to help focus and direct the spells how the caster wanted, and while possible to be done without them, it was incredibly difficult to do so.

Not wanting to focus on that particular issue, I moved back to the task at hand, paw? Forming the magic and getting the ambient mana to accept what I was trying to do was surprisingly easy. It was almost like the ambient magic wanted to do as I asked, forming a plane of energy over the spiderweb I had woven with my own. It was here that I ran into an issue. I could form the shield, yes, but I had no way of telling if it worked. Maybe I could hit it myself? Deciding to ere on the side of caution, I slipped my mask on and shivered slightly as my armor once again formed over my body.

Shifting into a more comfortable stance, I brought the ward into existence a few feet from my right side, double-checking that it looked like I wanted it to, I slowly brought up a tail and began to gather a bolt of energy on the tip, only to frown when my concentration faltered and my shield slipped out of existence. Staring where my shield used to be, I inhaled deeply before sighing. I should have guessed that attempting to cast two spells at once would be difficult, Unfortunately, it was a skill I was going to have to learn before I left the walls as there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to face another mage before I determined if my shield worked.

The best bet would be attempting to cast two mana bolts at the same time, if I could do that then I could move on to trying two shields at the same time before trying to cast both spells at once. I sat there and watched my magic for a while, memorizing the patterns it made when I drew it to guide the bolts to form. The process was surprisingly pretty, a spiral of my cyan flames forming around a teardrop of ambient white mana constantly spiraling inside of mine. With effort, I began forming another spiral on one of my other tails, it was easier with the first and I idly wondered if it was because that one was formed on the middle tail, the one more pronounced with magic. It took me several tries and losing track of time, but eventually, I did manage to form the other bolt. Launching them without one fizzling out took even more practice, but by the time I managed to do so and confirm that it wasn't just a fluke, I could launch one within a second of molding the magic.

The shield was different. Attempting to mold two separate webs for the magic to coat ended with either one being the wrong shape or both webs merging into one, despite what one would think the two shields combining did not make them stronger. No, when two wards collided together they shattered with enough force to knock an eight-hundred-pound kitsune off his paws, who knew? After two hours and three more times being thrown off my paws I figured out the trick to making two shields, or rather how to split one shield into two. I had to make one big shield and then split it along the webbing to form a mirrored copy. While it was good information to know, it did not help me cast it and my bolt spells at the same time.

Night had fallen by the time I managed to make any progress, I was exhausted by the time I managed both spells at once having cast so many times that I now sported a vicious headache and my vision was slightly blurry. My shield did work, redirecting bolts of magic around itself like an umbrella parting rain. I figured that most of my success at casting both at the same time came less from my increased ability to split my focus and more from the fact that I no longer needed to put thought into casting those spells. In reaching my goal I had progressed in both spells so much that I could now cast the arcane bolts three at a time and in rapid succession, they didn't exactly do a lot of damage mind you, only about the same as a heavy punch or thrown rock. The fact that I could cast so many was still an achievement in my mind.

My shields could be split almost immediately now and I figured out that changing the shape of the webbing allowed me to leave intentional holes in the shield. Likewise, I could increase the distance I could form them from myself by roughly twelve feet, meaning I still had some ability to dodge things the shield couldn't stop. The spell was still limited to only two shields at a time but I could cover most of one side of me with it so I was happy with it for now.

With a tired yawn, I sat back on my haunches and stared up at the night sky, the stars were wrong of course but I couldn't help but try and find some that were familiar to me. A few minutes passed before I gave up, the only constellation that was the same was Pegasus and it was in the wrong spot. I didn't know why but the fact that my skill of reading the night sky being made useless disturbed me greatly, I had taken pride in that ability. Something I had learned lovingly from one of those faceless figures of my past, another piece of my old life lost forever. I did not sleep well that night.




Luna's p.o.v

Luna soared threw the swirling abyss that was the dreamscape, the surge of power that had woken her had happened only once before in her lifetime. A similar surge of power had been what birthed the Everfree. Old history books would claim that the castle of the two sisters was destroyed during her battle with Celestia the truth was far more horrifying. A powerful surge of magic similar to the one she had felt the day before had washed over them. The forest burnt and broken in their fight had shuttered and heaved, and then ponies started dying. Vines crawled into homes and strangled them in their beds, wolves of wood seethed with hatred as they ripped apart Threstrals and day guards alike. Behind it all a presence, a dreamscape she managed to glimpse only once before she had been banished.

It had been a sad, rage-filled being, a child then. A wolfkin, a member of one of the more feral diamond dog packs that called the forest home at the time of their rule. Her dream was filled with loss, loss of pack, loss of home, and loss of self. Luna didn't know how she came to be the heart of the dreaded Everfree only that her loss had shifted to rage, a rage that persisted even now a thousand years later. Her maddened counterpart had searched library after library looking for what that surge meant and had only found two accounts of it happening before, once recorded by the dragons during one of the greatest storms to ever form, during the birth of Omen the luck dragon. A being so powerful that Celestia and Luna both had to resort to trickery and underhanded tactics to defeat it.

The surge was supposedly recorded again during the reign of discord not once but twice in the year that she and her sister were born. Luna wasn't stupid, the surge wasn't random, and the only thing it could signify was the birth of a powerful immortal. Once she would have brought the topic up with her sister, but Celestia had changed. She had read the history books, the war with the griffons, the near eradication of the surface-dwelling dog tribes, and the portrayal of dragons as beast and monsters. Celestia had kept her people safe, yes, but she had forsaken the other races in the process. Worse was the fact she could do nothing to reverse it.

Her sister's ponies treated her like a cornered beast, ready to strike at any moment, and they truly were her sisters. She had at most four ponies come to her night court to ask for aid or wisdom, and the nobles held more power than they ever had before. Laws, such as the ones that banned predatory races from setting up shops or entering public spaces without a guard present had to be approved by them before they could be changed. Were they not the twin goddesses of day and night? When she brought it up with her sister she had simply looked at Luna with a scolding gaze and told her that times had changed, that the world no longer needed them to be goddesses but just and kind rulers, the hypocrite. They had once called several griffons friends, they had gambled with dragons and traded with dogs. Where was their justice? Still, Luna's duty was to her people, she would find this new immortal and determine whether or not it was a threat to Equestria.




Harbinger's p.o.v

I awoke with a start, my stomach unhappily reminding me that I hadn't eaten lunch or dinner the day before. Slowly I sat up wiping the crust from my eyes with a tail and ignoring the dampness that I found there. It was time for me to prepare for my second foray into the town, I didn't know exactly what all I needed from Ponyville, but I had a good idea of where to start, pots, pans, and other cooking equipment were one thing. I also wanted to grab some blankets, a bucket or two, and a saw. I rummaged through my bag as I made a mental list of all the things I was going to steal, pulling out a few pieces of thankfully still-preserved boar and one of those cube fruits, they made a surprisingly filling breakfast when combined.

Soon I was bounding my way through the forest with a goal in mind, nothing attacked me on the way to the village, it was honestly kind of peaceful as I ran. I noted that beyond the forest scents the air smelt of water and ozone, a glance through one of the gaps in the canopy showed dark clouds forming. A toothy smile split my lips, it seemed luck was on my side this time. I left the path before I got to the town, surely they would have posted guards on the path I had originally used. It was not long before I reached the edge of the forest, the town was visible but a decent distance away. I could see the golden armor of the guard even from here. Now it was just time to wait for the storm and nightfall.
> Requisition
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crouched low on my paws I skulked out of the forest, my form hidden amongst the darkness cast by the midnight storm. The quiet sound of my paw steps was drowned out by the rain and made sneaking close to the village far easier than I had expected. Waiting silently, I observed the guards as they moved around the borders of the town in small patrols of five. I was thankful they had all taken to bringing lanterns with them as they moved rather than relying on the light from the moon,  it would kill their ability to see further in the dark and made them easier to keep track of to my light-sensitive eyes.

I snuck between the guard's patrols and into the town proper, keeping low and away from windows where I could. The town was almost as quiet as when I first came, and I would have been worried that they knew I was there if not for the fact that I could hear some of the denizens snoring in their beds. The silence was broken by the trotting of hooves and I crept back into the shadows of a house, an earth-pony guard walked down the street humming an unknown song. My size would be to my detriment here, hiding behind fences and ledges would be difficult given I was taller than a large chunk of the ones the ponies of this village had made.

The village was medium-sized maybe four to five hundred ponies would be my guestimate from its size, this was of course working under the assumption that these ponies lived in households similar to people. The fact that they tended to make the houses two-storied could mean there were a decent many more. I was still a bit put off by the fact that Ponyville didn't have a wall, with how close they lived to the Everfree you would think that it would have been a priority to whoever built this place.  Not that I was complaining, this little escapade would be significantly harder if there had been one.

Swiftly dashing across the street, I was thankful that my armor hid the glow from my eyes and fur. Silently, I glanced down the street at what appeared to be the guard barracks, there was a unicorn sitting at the door looking bored.  I decided it would be in my best interest to explore more of the town before I made my attempts at theft, knowing where to run and hide would be just as important as knowing where my targets were. I knew I needed cooking supplies, I had gotten survival in the forest down for the most part, what I mostly needed was some quality-of-life improvements. My main focus was things to help with cooking.

The bakery would be my best bet for cooking utensils, but it was fairly in the open and one of the lights on the second floor was still on, deciding the risk to be a little high I moved on to find somewhere different. My next choice was the restaurant where I found that sandwich when I first came into town. The place had looked like a cafe when I was passing through the first time so I was hoping they would have all of the items I needed, at the very least I hoped to find a few pots and a frying pan. The ability to actually cook my food would improve my mood by a significant degree, raw, and roasted meat may cure hunger, but a good soup cured everything.

There were a few other buildings that drew my eye, one was a stout two-story building that seemed to be a general store of some kind, a glance through the window revealed several things of use to me, including rope and what I hoped to be several empty metal pails. Another I spotted as I was avoiding a patrol of guards, a round building called the Carousel boutique, normally such a thing wouldn't interest me in the slightest but I kept it in mind if I couldn't find any good cloth or blankets in the general store. There had been a carpentry store on the main street but I would save it for last given the guard traffick, the cooking supplies came first though, the frying pan would do more for my survival than an axe at the moment.

I grumbled slightly when I got to the street and found it occupied, two earth-pony guards and one oddly dressed Pegasus stood in the middle of the street seemingly not caring about the rain. They seemed to be arguing in hushed whispers that not even my sensitive ears could make out. I pressed up against the wall, taking special care not to let the lamplight reflect off my armor. The Pegasus's apparel interested me, as it was the first time I had seen a pony wearing clothing that wasn't a guard of some kind. She was wearing a leather coat that was worn and patched in various places. A hood hid most of her features, and I could hear the chainmail shift under her coat as she moved. Oddly, she seemed to be wearing boots that were reinforced with plates for her forelegs, almost like bracers. This was a fantasy realm, perhaps she was a mercenary or wandering adventurer. I took note of the fact that she carried a spear, it was a simple thing that carried the profile of an old English boar spear.

I quickly held my breath and stilled my tails when the mare turned and scanned the area I was hiding with a disturbed look, one of the guards quickly raising his voice in concern at her sudden movement. She said something I couldn't catch over the rain before starting to walk in my direction. She made it maybe twelve feet towards where I was hiding before one of the guards said something that caused the other to snicker loudly, whatever was said was enough for the mare to turn around and snap at them. I quickly slipped behind a building and waited for the sound of hooves to fade away on the cobblestones. I wasn't sure what had aroused the mare's suspicion, but I made a mental note to be careful if I came by her again while sneaking around the town.

When I was confident the area was clear, I approached the door to the restaurant. It was locked of course, but I had guessed it would be, with a glance behind me to ensure I was alone I began shaping my fire slowly I formed a long thin rod of blue fire and jammed it into the lock internals, waiting I hoped that my rather large frame would block out any of the light that was escaping from my actions. Soon I glanced down at the now melting lock and grimaced, drawing back a paw I unsheathed a single large claw before plunging it through the top of the lock and swiping it down. Gritting my teeth both at the relatively loud noise of tearing metal and at the pain of having molten brass on my claw, I quickly plunged my claw into a nearby puddle with a steamy hiss.

My ears flicked atop my head as I listened for anything that might indicate someone had possibly heard my actions before turning to the now-ruined lock and opening the door with a slight limp. The interior reminded me of one of those old diners you saw in classic movies, and while part of me desperately wanted to see how many similarities I could find, the other part demanded that I get a move on. The things I wanted would be in the back. Thankfully, the door to the kitchen was not locked, so I did not need to repeat my lock-melting trick, I quickly began grabbing pots, pans, and various other cooking supplies like vegetable oil, a few dozen eggs, and a whole crate of milk. I silently hoped that the cows of this world weren't sapient, and resolved myself to not find out for as long as possible.

Part of me protested at committing the same crime that got me into this mess in the first place, I recognized that these ponies were going to make me do several actions that I would find morally wrong. I would have to find something to even out my karma at a later date. I would have to steel myself for the future, somehow I knew that these ponies would force me to commit actions worse than stealing a few supplies. How long would I be able to get away with not killing my oppressors I wonder, don't get me wrong, I wasn't one of those people who believed that killing was some great act of evil. There were plenty of reasons to kill in my mind. The simple fact was that I knew my nature had changed with my transformation, and I was scared to find out how.

My escape from the building went unnoticed, though I was nice enough to splash some water on the wood around the lock. These ponies were assholes and may have tried to kill me, but that was no reason to burn some random person's business down. With that taken care of, I made my way towards the convenience store.  I almost got caught when I rounded a corner and nearly collided with another guard, luckily she was looking in the opposite direction and I managed to back up and leap behind another house before she turned to see why her back was suddenly warm. When I finally made it to the store, I was pleasantly surprised to find it unlocked, a quick glance through the door revealed a treasure cove of useful items. Into the bag with several bottles of shampoo, a set of various brushes, a pair of scissors, and several other household items. I was especially happy to find a large journal and several fountain pens.

I was startled when the sound of hoof steps echoed above me. Shit, that was why the door was still unlocked, the owner was still here, I gave a sad glance at all the stuff still there and quickly swiped a shelf full of chocolate into my bag before bolting out the door. I was left with a dilemma then, I could go for the carpenter shop or the boutique. Problem was I needed the saw and other supplies but the store was further back in town, meanwhile, the boutique wasn't likely to have a lot of the more useful items I needed but was near the edge of town even if it was the wrong side. I decided to try my luck with the boutique next.

I doubted I had, long before my actions were noticed. The boutique was, strange. Its circular shape was different from most of the other buildings, as was the color scheme. I mostly put the surprisingly familiar coloration of the building to the back of my mind and went to trying to get inside. The building was too out in the open for me to try my fire, and I didn't want to be exposed for too long, and coating a digit in molten metal hurt a lot. Growling in frustration, I was about to just give up when I noticed the rock.

It was a completely ordinary rock, gray, smooth from years of being in the open weather, unnoticeable in every way but one. It was the only rock in the otherwise pristine flower bed. There was absolutely no way, right? With a hesitant movement, I wrapped a tail around the rock and lifted it. I stared in disbelief at the little brass key that sat there in the rain. "Who the hell keeps their spare key in such an obvious place?"

With a huff of air, I slid the key into the lock and turned. Sure enough, the lock clicked, and slowly I opened the door and peered inside. I stopped, glancing around in confusion before slowly backing out of the shop and glancing at the outside. Walking back in, I confirmed that yes, the building was most certainly bigger on the inside. To be honest, I was now scared to fully enter the building, surely such an enchantment required a powerful mage. The Inside of the building, at least the first large circular room, was decorated with purple silk and mannequins stood in several places around the area. I took slow, silent steps into the center of the building. There was a small stage-like structure in the center, and behind it, there was a door on the left side and a staircase on the right. Quietly I began removing large bolts of cloth and other fabrics from a shelf near one of the mannequins, I tried to hurry, something about this place disturbed me.

A loud meow startled me nearly out a window, spinning on my back paws I raised both my forward paws to pounce on whatever made the noise when I realized what it was. I almost laughed, loudly. This world seemed to be getting in the habit of scaring me with small, mostly harmless animals. First with the Almaraj, second with the fox, and now with this grumpy-ass-looking cat. It was a small thing with clean white fur and with a purple bow holding up a lock of its fur and a droopy-looking face. I was once again startled out of my observations when it meowed a second time, seemingly impatient with whatever it wanted. "Well, shoo cat, shoo. I swear to god if you get me caught, I will eat you."

The cat stared at me with a glare so fierce that I momentarily checked my fur for sparks, then leapt and attached itself to my mask with an angry yowl, whatever they say in the history books I will forever deny having been bested by the feline. Swiftly and as silently as I could, a tail wound around the cat to remove the hissing creature from my mask. Part of me contemplated actually eating the beast but decided that eating someone's pet was probably not the correct response to this situation. I was about to lock in one of the various chests littering the room when a voice to the right decided to speak up. "Opalescence, why are you hissing? Why are you down here anyway, you know that rarity feeds yo..., What are you doing to our cat? Rarity a giant dog is trying to eat opalescence!"

The entrance of the pint-sized filly left me with a rather large myriad of emotions, part of me wanted to address the fact that she had called me a dog, not an overly important thing to focus on I know, but the statement left me unnaturally angry for some reason. Another part of my brain was yelling to throw something to get her to stop yelling, she was loud enough
That my ears had pinned themselves against my skull to avoid being hurt even more. The rest of me decided my most pressing need was to escape. The combination of these three different streams of thought led to me resolving the situation in a less-than-optimal if still effective manner.

" I am a fox, you pastel-colored midget horse!" With my piece said I yeeted the cat claws first at the head of said midget and jumped through one of the windows of the boutique with a loud crash. I could already hear the startled yelling of the various guards throughout the village and quickly submerged myself in the shadows cast between two buildings. I didn't go straight to the forest edge, keeping up a quick pace I followed a path to the west of the town and ended up in what appeared to be a park, a dull lifeless thing compared to the Everfree. Not that such a statement said much given that the Everfree made even Earth's national forest seem dull. Cougars and bears seemed less worrisome when one has faced manticore and was chased by wooden wolves so full of hatred that their gaze caused dread.

The forest was quiet, so quiet that it bothered me in fact, this entire time I had grown used to the constant noise that came with having the enhanced hearing of a fox, the rustling of critters in the undergrowth, the shifting and groaning of wood as timberwolves stalked in the shadows. The lack of scents was just as disorientating, this park was truly dead, kept alive only by the careful application of its keepers, I think had I been human I would still find the lack of naturalness of the park disturbing. I flicked an ear in confusion, interrupted from my thoughts by a feeling that I could not place.

I don't know what strange twist of fate let me hear the gentle quiet noise of wind against feathers nor what ancient instinct filled me with the urge to drop my front legs out from under me and slide in the mud. What I do know is without them my adventure would have ended right there. I stared wide-eyed at the spear buried halfway to the lugs at its base in the tree a few inches in front of my face, side-eying the cold determined face of the leather-clad and amber-eyed pegasus, from this angle, I could see that the mare had a shaggy black and grey mottled coat of fur and a mane that her long and frizzy mane seemed to be a deep black color and was styled in such a way that it reminded of your stereotypical fantasy Norse women.

Perhaps the most notable feature was her muzzle, it was sharper and more narrow than on your average mare, some part of me deep down was reminded uneasily of a wolf. I didn't have much time to think on that before the mare grinned, revealing her own set of fangs before a heave ripped her spear from the tree with the sound of splintering wood. Before I had time to even attempt speech the blade was whipping towards my throat. I managed to yank my head backward, the tip of the spear sparking off of my chainmail with a metallic screech. I barely had time to throw up a tail to redirect the thrust going for my heart before she was already coming back for another attack. Panicked I wrapped a tail around the haft and yanked it towards me angling the spear to go between my armpit and my torso in an attempt to trap the spear, with a loud snarl the mare let go of the spear and spun, bucking out with both back legs she caught me under the chin and my vision went white.

My whole jaw felt like it was made of pain cords of pain wrapped themselves around my muzzle as I shook my head to clear my vision.  I glanced up and rolled just in time to avoid being impaled as she slammed into the position I had just been in.  I quickly whipped out a tail and sent careening for her back legs, the mare simply flapped her wings once and laughed as my tail connected with nothing but air. Groaning in pain I got back to my paws. The mare was watching me with a visage of impatience as I steadied myself.  I took the reprieve in rapid spear blows to focus and with a grunt, I launched a dozen successive bolts of magic at my opponent. The mare scoffed and batted the first three from the air with her spear and simply began dodging the rest as she raced towards me, a mocking gleam in her eye.

Even if I had the time to try and reason with her I realized that I wouldn't be able to. A smile plastered itself across her face, a fanged smirk that gleamed with feral joy and I realized that I wasn't a monster or a bounty to this strange pony, I was prey and she was hunting me. Her first blow was a thrust for my neck that I managed to knock to the side with a bracer, the lifting of one of my legs slowed me down however, and her follow-up swing carved a bloody line across my right foreleg. I screeched in pain jumping back in an attempt to put some distance between me and this predatory mare.

Snarling I waited for her next blow, a swing, and ducked. She was fast, but my leap had been a break from my normal pattern of defense and my jaws bit deeply into her upper shoulder, around where a collarbone would be in a human. I could feel her shudder against my chest as my tails wrapped around her torso. Her blood was both metallic and somewhat sweet on my tongue, in the heat of the moment I couldn't decide if it was my new tastebuds or the battle but I couldn't help but enjoy the taste, part of me wanted to go for her neck, to end this threat here and now, yet I knew that killing one of these ponies would only make them more desperate for my head. With a grunt of pain as my jaw shifted I lifted with my tails and spun keeping the mare firm in my jaws I threw her at a nearby tree.

The mare slammed into the tree with a loud crack. The tree, a small birch, split and splintered as she went through it. I sat there panting and in pain when she did something that made my blood run cold in my veins. She began laughing, a deep belly laugh that showed no signs of pain or exhaustion. She opened her mouth to speak but I didn't give her the chance with a roar of anger I grabbed at my mana and sprayed her prone form with fox fire. The laughing stopped and suddenly she was moving just as fast as before, the butt of her spear impacted the center of my mask with the force of a Warhammer. My head snapped back as my vision filled with red spots and I collapsed into the mud.

I attempted to get up only for a hoof to stomp down on my neck slamming my head against the dirt once again. I choked a bit as blood leaked down my throat. I was decently sure I had bitten the tip of my tongue off with the second slam. From this angle, despite the pain I noticed how much larger she was when compared to the other ponies, about five feet instead of the normal four. The mare snorted before sighing deeply. "I must say I'm kinda disappointed, I was expecting a Magispawn to put up more of a fight. Oh well, at least you were a decent hunt. Not many of the creatures I hunt have managed to get a bite in."

Normally I would tried to come up with a witty comeback but I was decently sure I had a concussion and a broken jaw so such things were beyond me at the moment. She rolled my head so I could look at her, a grim expression on her face as she pulled back her spear to thrust it through my eye. In the back of my mind, I cursed whatever quirk of magic made physical shields so hard to cast before I froze, shields. With a grimace, I focused as best as I could and formed two shields on either side of me and slammed them together. There was a bright flash and a loud sound similar to a window pane shattering before I was crushed into the dirt with extreme force, screaming as several of my ribs broke.

My vision came back to me slowly, black spots filling it and making it hard to determine just where I was. I rolled over on my paws, ribs screaming in pain as they shifted. The clearing had been scorched slightly, steam coming off the crater I was lying inside. I didn't know where the mare was and I honestly didn't care. Gritting my teeth at the pain I ran for the forest, silently I hoped she was as damaged as I was, I had a funny feeling the forest wouldn't stop her otherwise. I somewhat of hoped she did come after me, the fight had been exhilarating and I felt more alive than I had in a long time, a second chance to prove my strength sounded unnaturally exciting in my head. She was kinda pretty too, in a feral, I'm going to rip you apart kind of way.




??? P.o.v

She stared after the giant fox as it bounded out of the clearing, well, limped would be more appropriate. She would have given chase but a glance at the bone sticking from her left foreleg told her she wouldn't get very far. With an annoyed sigh, she turned her gaze toward the town, she had been right when she had felt its presence while she had been arguing with the two guards. Honestly, they lived next to a predator-filled forest, surely good leather should not be so hard to find.

She had given chase when he had burst from the window of the boutique, She had almost lost him when he had used the town as cover instead of bolting for the forest, his foray into the park had been a boon, the trees weren't as thick in the whitetail woods or the Everfree and tracking him had become significantly easier, despite her boss's warnings to kill the beast quickly part of her was happy that it had dodged her killing strike, though a part of her was curious on how he knew she was coming.

She would give the beast credit, it was smart. Lulling her into a false sense of security with its defensive style and then lunging during a time she could not block or deflect. Still, she would have to talk with the librarian and her pet dragon, the reported file in the fox claimed he had the ability to shoot a light fire attack. The magic bolts and level of fire he had used were well beyond what was reported, and that final ability. She didn't know what he had done exactly but it had almost looked like an intentional spell clash, something that even accomplished mages had trouble doing with any real power.

When the first of the guards swarmed into the clearing she snorted at their shocked faces, the clearing was covered in blood from both her and the fox, likewise, her wounds were not minor. A broken leg and shoulder, several lacerations, and a decently deep bite in her upper shoulder. She couldn't help but snicker at that last one, the blow had been masterfully done, if a bit forward. If he proved to be a greater hunt in the future she might even take him up on his unintentional proposal, once she had proven herself superior to him of course. Oh, she was sure it was a him, the fact that he had gone for her shoulder instead of her neck had proven that, an animal would have gone for a killing blow.
> Ameliorate
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ancient wood groaned as the gates of my walled home opened, the rusted metal screeching as I used them for the first time since I had discovered the abandoned town. The trip back from the village had been painful and long, what had been a two-hour long journey at full run had taken me almost seven at the hobbled jog I had managed on the way back. Dawn had broken by the time I made it to my little haven in the forest, and the relief that I felt upon seeing it nearly caused me to collapse with exhaustion. The trip had at the very least proven some theories that I had about my own biology.

Mainly, I did have a regeneration factor, it wasn't exactly superhero level but it was still doing its job. By the time I had reached my home, which I had taken to calling haven in the short term, I had healed a large chunk of my wounds. Wounds to the flesh had been the first to go, the gash on my arm and all of my bruising had healed within the first hour after the fight. My tongue, on the other paw, had taken almost two. The broken and bruised jaw had taken the longest to heal, having rather painfully shifted back into its correct shape almost six hours after the fight. My ribs were still healing by the time I had managed to flop down under my willow and pass the hell out.

I awoke sometime midday, I managed to catch myself before I went to stretch. I took my time, slowly uncurling my body and straightening out. My ribs were still sore, but from what little I could tell they were no longer at risk of puncturing anything and seemed to have mostly mended. My stomach growled in protest as I decided to wait a little before eating, and in part I agreed with it. It felt like I was starving like my stomach was trying to eat itself. Most likely this was because of my regeneration, such a process probably took quite a bit of protein and other nutrients to sustain itself. While I'm sure there's a medical reason for not eating after such an ordeal, my reasoning was pretty simple. I had gotten my ass kicked over a frying pan, and I was sure as hell going to use it.

Thankfully, I had taken to collecting firewood as I roamed about the forest and had a significant pile. I didn't bother with tender or making the pit look pretty, simply tossing three decent-sized deadwood logs against each other and hitting them with a weak blast of foxfire. Without much aplomb, I set to make what in my head was an omelet. Six of my recently acquired eggs, a bit of milk, the last of my boar, and some varying edible vegetation I managed to forage later and I had a workable breakfast. It seems silly, but I think that singular meal did more to heal my mental state than any licensed therapist could have at the time.

I ate slowly, taking time to savor the first proper meal I've had since coming to this world. As I ate I made some mental list in my head, I hadn't managed to find anywhere to get seeds while in the town, meaning I would have to make do with what I could harvest from the plants in the forest. Meat would be easier since I could hunt for now, in the long term I could make a small fenced-in area and try my luck with capturing rabbits or almaraj. I could try to capture some deer as well, but I wasn't sure how I liked the revelation that there was an entire nation of sapient ones. Eating one or two that I managed to catch was one thing, keeping a few and breeding them when one had the possibility of popping a sapient Bambi out was another.

Soon I would also need to start building myself a home, I had thought about building myself a cabin or some other surface dwelling, however I remembered reading about a few spells that could shape stone and manipulate living wood and had gotten it in my head to live up to my new form and build a den. An underground den could be expanded, and in my head at least, significantly cheaper on resources than something I would have to build out of wood or stone. I figured I could place it in between the roots of the giant willow and make a hobbit-styled door or something similar. That was a little ways away however and for now, I would settle with what was within my capabilities, which meant planting things.

Eventually, I finished my omelet with a satisfied hum and washed the pan in the river. Looking at my options the best way to start was to go out and see what I could find and bring back. I started by scavenging along the river, my luck it seems would be on my side today as I found a large batch of currants and a single juniper bush. Taking my time I harvested about half the berries and slowly began the process of digging them up and replanting them within the walls of Haven. A bit more searching netted me several sprigs of wild mint, something I was quite happy about as wild mint is decently easy to grow. I also took the time to start collecting the decent amount of ryegrass that was growing inside the wall. Wild rye might not be the best grain, but I could use it to make bread and porridge.

I couldn't help but smile to myself as I worked, today would mostly be gardening and preparing for later projects. The prospective day of simple hard labor was an honest comfort in my head. I kept a garden on the roof of my bookshop, so the familiar actions of making another within the walls of Haven was a welcome change from the chaos and pain I had been dealing with the last few days. I knew it was only a momentary reprieve as I would soon have to make my way back into the forest proper both to hunt and to gain an understanding of all that was around me.

Dusk had fallen by the time I had completed my self-assigned task, a yawn escaped my maw as I grilled the last bits of almaraj and cube fruit together on a wooden skewer. Today had been a good day, soothing on both my mind and soul. Perhaps it was a bit presumptuous of me, but I like to think that things were getting better. Another yawn escaped me as I curled up in a ball, letting my tails fall over my eyes and muzzle as the crackling of the fire lulled me to sleep.





I woke up cold and wet, another rainstorm had settled over the forest, not as bad as the one that had followed my raid on the village but still a decent downpour. While I did grumble a bit about the rain, I still took the opportunity to bathe, quickly making use of the lavender-scented shampoo I had nicked from the general store. The rain would be annoying but I still needed to hunt today as I was out of meat. I waited for the rain to settle a little before leaving and setting off to the east following the creek. I had gone in that direction before but only a few short miles to forage but no further. Keeping near the water would increase my chances of running into bigger prey and decrease the likelihood of getting lost, something that was still very much a threat despite the time I had spent here.

My hunt was starting off well, barely a hundred paces up the creek and the first of today's prey showed itself, a small herd of deer was drinking at the water's edge.  There were twelve of them, I focused on one of the males I was not an expert at identifying pregnant animals so it was better to avoid the female ones entirely. Rather than lose out on getting anything by trying to sneak up and catch one, I decided to use my magic and fired a series of magic bolts at its back legs. The deer's legs snapped and it fell, I quickly lunged across the terrain.  My teeth sank into its neck and I twisted, snapping its neck between my jaws. It was a medium-sized deer and would last a normal person a while if rationed, unfortunately, I was a fox that weighed by my estimate at least seven hundred pounds, so maybe two days if I mixed in fruits and vegetables.

There was no need to bother skinning it, only to remove its guts, as I would eat everything else, including the hide. I took some time to remove the head entirely and let the blood drain for a bit before stuffing the corpse in my bag. Eventually, I would build a smoker but for now the bag worked to preserve my food well enough. I quickly washed my paws and mouth in the river and began my hunt again. Two more deer and a couple of rabbits would be enough for another week, after a few more hours I found and killed another deer and several almaraj before my bipolar luck flipped again.

I had been stalking a deer through a small clearing, I was so focused on my prey that I had not noticed that the sounds of the forest had stopped. I prepared the bolts of magic and was about to cast them towards the deer when a large scaled head slammed into my side. My world twisted as my paws left the ground and something twisted around my torso with extreme force, causing me to spin in midair. I landed with a crack as I impacted against a tree, the air in my lungs being forced from my body. I decided to roll almost immediately after hitting the ground, the pain causing me to grit my teeth and snarl. I was thankful that I had learned my lesson in never staying where I landed as a gout of acidic vapor melted the underbrush and dirt where I had been lying.

With a groan, I tumbled to my feet as a loud hiss echoed throughout the clearing so loudly that it made my ears flatten to my head. Snapping my head towards the sound, I felt my blood run cold and my eyes open wide in shock. A long fifty-meter serpentine body, two large arms tipped in deadly-looking claws, sharp-looking spikes and scales on a dragon-like head. I loved mythology and often turned several lesser-known myths into DND encounters. The moment I locked eyes with the red-slitted pupils of the lindwyrm I knew I was screwed. More so since it seemed to take more to the fantasy and DND version over its mythological counterparts if the acid breath was anything to go by.

The serpent reared its head back and lunged, I dodged to the side and watched as its head slammed into a tree, shattering it like it had been struck by a cannonball. Two swirling balls of blue fire launched from my tails and slammed into the side of the beast doing little but scorching its scales. The lyndwyrm's tail whipped around and I had the barest forethought to leap in the direction it was going as to lessen the impact. The trees and dirt blurred as I was launched through the air with extreme force, a splatter of blood being spat from my mouth. I hit the ground and rolled, managing to somehow stop on my feet. I didn't bother trying to fight, taking off from my position as a globule of acid splashed against my back. The pain was immense and I screamed as it ate through my armor and flesh, but I kept running. There was no doubt in my head that if it caught me I would die.

A game of cat and mouse commenced then, unfortunately I was the mouse. My lungs burned as I dodged between trees, jumped over multiple blasts of acid, and sharply turned to dodge every lunge. The serpent hounded my paws for almost twelve minutes after the initial encounter. The beast only gave up the chase after I got a lucky strike as it missed a lunge and I managed to tear an eye from its socket with my claws. I managed to put a significant amount of distance between it myself by leaping over a small chasm towards what appeared to be the ruins of a small castle or keep. Keeping my ears perked and with a severe limp I hobbled towards the entrance, staying in the forest right now would likely end badly and the chase had caused me to lose sight of the river.

The ruins were surprisingly intact, the great hall had a bit of rubble here and there but was otherwise as clean as a ruin could get. A strange pedestal that somewhat reminded me of a planetarium sat in the center of the great hall, further behind it a small pair of curved stairs led up to two separate thrones, one was shattered but had bits of gold and marble mixed within its rubble. The second throne was mostly intact seemingly made of silver and obsidian. "Something to do with the two pony rulers then? They would fit the motif, but why is it out in the middle of the forest, the ponies avoid this place like the plague."

I grabbed some of the loser pieces of obsidian and gold from the throne area, I had use for both.  Still keeping alert I moved on to a doorway to the side of the night throne, it stretched out into a large and long hallway with multiple windows that had long since lost the glass that resided inside. The first two rooms had collapsed with time, and the third I came across seemed to belong to a trusted advisor or some other important figure, the remnants of a desk and a rather large bed decorating the mostly empty space. The hallway took a sharp right and seemed to connect to a mirrored hallway that probably exited near the day throne, a staircase led up to a second-floor though there was a door on the opposite side of the spiraling stairs.

Gently nudging the door open I risked a glance inside, the room appeared to be a kitchen space with two connected storerooms, most of the room's tables and shelves were long corroded and destroyed but I managed to pilfer some legitimate silverware and a cauldron.  The storerooms had little that was of notice besides a small metal chest, upon trying to open it I found that it was locked. With a shrug I put the chest in my bag and continued onwards up the stairs, it would have to wait till I found a way to make some rudimentary lockpicks.

The upstairs was in even worse condition, most of the rooms were completely collapsed, and the first intact room I managed to find was a small treasury. It was almost entirely empty besides a few silver coins here and there, and a small gemstone that I think is a garnet. Moving further I found what was probably servant quarters if the small hall filled with individual small rooms was anything to go by. The third room caught my interest, a large intact bed, desk, and several bookshelves with intact books decorated the room, and a small planetarium sat spinning in the center of the ceiling like a chandelier. If this wasn't a mages room then I wasn't a fox.

Despite my curiosity I didn't bother going for the books first, no The first thing I decided to do was curl up on the dusty but still comfortable bed and rest, there had been a steady trickle of blood from my mouth ever since I had taken the lindwyrm's tail to the side. My experience with previous injuries so far has proven that they healed faster when sleeping and when in the presence of the blue flowers. I was thankful that I had taken to carrying some in my bag for emergencies. Spreading a fine layer over the bed I curled up on myself with a grimace before letting the flowers sooth me into sleep.

Blinking, I observed my surroundings with a calm eye. I was dreaming that much I could concur from the way everything was slightly blurred, little wisps of color surrounding the permanence of objects. I was still in the bed, but it was no longer covered in flowers or dust, and the room itself was well-kept. My attention was drawn to the window that looked out over the courtyard, flashes of color and sounds of battle echoing throughout the castle. I stared down at the battle that raged below, blue armored threstrals fought with gold armored pegasi in the skies, while similarly armored ponies fought in the courtyard itself.

What drew my gaze the most however was the battle of Titans happening higher in the sky, two beacons of light were fighting. One was the color of the son, golden and harsh. The other was the moon, blue and soft, they fired beams of energy that often missed and tore swathes of forest and ground apart. Their battle raged even as the two armies below stopped fighting and sought cover for their own safety. I was startled as I noticed the grey unicorn in wizard robes watching the battle beside me, a long flowing beard covered much of his lower face but I could see the sadness in his eyes as he watched the battle at my side. The unicorn seemed to sigh and then with a glance in my direction spoke, "I know not what your nature is fox, but as a fellow aspect, your magic screams to me, restrained by your lack of knowledge. The password to the shelves is Clover, use what you find there wisely, do not repeat the mistakes of those who came before you."

I stared wide-eyed at the apparition and was about to respond when a shockwave rumbled the very air, turning my eyes widened in awe and horror as the moon was eclipsed in a yin-yang of energy fed by two beams from what I now realized were the alicorn sisters Celestia and Luna. A shockwave tore from the event, ripping apart trees and buildings alike, i saw a few of the more unfortunate ponies below vaporize as the window in front of me shattered and I was thrown against the far wall, there was a flash of pain and then I woke gasping. My eyes shot to the window where the unicorn had stood but there was no trace of him.

Lightly stretching on the bed I checked to see how badly my wounds still hurt, my internals were still sore but no longer felt like I had eaten caltrops. My back was missing a swath of fur and the flesh was still raw and covered in blisters but the musculature was no longer exposed to the air. My armor still hadn't mended itself and a large portion of my lower back was still exposed. Still, it was better than being dead and I didn't even want to think of the damage I'd have taken had I not been wearing it. Grimacing slightly I stepped from the bed and approached the window, my mind tracing what I had seen in my dream over the overgrown courtyard. I wonder what did more damage to the small settlement that used to surround the castle, the sisters, or the forest.

Remembering the old unicorn's final words I moved over to the bookshelves, only now noticing the transparent film of energy that covered them like forcefield. Reading the labels proved them to be books I would gladly take an interest in, things like Arcana Theory: Old Tricks for Young Mages , and  Language and Magic: A Comprehensive Guide to Runes . Perhaps one of the most interesting of the titles was Threads of Magic: A Spell Crafters Guide . There were other titles on the shelves but none as interesting as those three. Looking at the wards that were stopping me I stood straighter and with force said the password.

With nary a sound the ward collapsed in a soft shimmer an influx of air causing the ambient dust of the room to spiral between the shelves. A part of me pondered why the password was clover, maybe a favorite snack of the mage after all clover was decently nutritious to grazing animals. With an appropriate amount of reverence and caution I lifted the ancient tomes from their resting place and placed them in my bag. I also couldn't help but ponder what the unicorn had said about being a fellow aspect, and how he had mentioned others that had come before me. Could it be that I wasn't the first to be displaced in the way I was, or did he know something about me that I wasn't privy to? I mean how was I supposed to avoid the mistakes of others if I didn't know what those mistakes were?

I took a little while longer to rest, letting my back heal a little more. Standing with a sigh I began making my way back down to the great hall. Thankfully the second floor had been high enough that combined with the slightly elevated position of the castle I had managed to spot the river and knew its general direction, I had no wish to stay outside the walls of Haven longer than I had to and it was already near afternoon. Some part of me did want to stay in the probably haunted castle to see if I could discover any more secrets, the rest of me acknowledged that lindwryms were supposedly cruel and vindictive and the longer that I stayed outside of Haven's walls the longer it had to track me down for taking its eye.

Finding the river I quickly began following westward toward Haven, I ran so the serpent would have less time to catch my scent. The creatures were supposed to have a decent amount of sapience so it was unlikely this would be our last encounter. I would have to kill the beast if I wanted to be anything resembling safe while staying inside the forest, it was a good thing then that with my recently gathered stores of food, I could simply stay within Haven's walls and study my magic books. My best bet would likely be spells that caused extreme cold, while lindwyrms showed some resemblance to dragons they were closer to serpents in the fact of biology. Lightning spells would also be useful for bypassing the natural toughness of its scales.

The sight of Haven's tall marred walls brought my thoughts to a halt, relief washed through me at the thought of being behind its wards. "Home, sweet sweet home."




Everfree's P.O.V

She frowned as Harbinger rested within his haven, his encounter with the lindwyrm had concerned her. She was glad that he had begun to carve his own little niche in her forest. While she could not speak, at least in a way he would understand, she was still happy to have him around, besides the little forays the outsiders sent into her lands she had little in the way of entertainment. She frowned slightly, when had the fox become welcome. He was an outsider too, wasn't he? No, she supposed he wasn't, he had managed to survive her dangers and had even made himself home within her trees. Part of her wondered if she should test his resolve, no the lindwyrm would be his test for now.

It was clear to her now that he did not call the interlopers friend, both times he had ventured into the lands beyond her control he had returned bloodied, both with the blood of others and with his own. She had felt Magic's touch but for a moment while Harbinger was inside the castle of the two monsters. The aspect hadn't shown himself in almost nine hundred winters and she couldn't help but wonder what he had wanted with her fox. Still, perhaps if Harbinger managed to kill the serpent she would show herself to him, it had been a while since she had interacted with another aspect, the last had been discord, and that had only been for a few minutes at best. So, yes even if she couldn't speak it would be nice to have him around, perhaps she could even entice him, he did owe her seven children after all.
> Esoteric
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I sat down the i book reading with a weary sigh, I had gone back to sleep after I had sequestered myself back behind Haven's walls. Dawn had just broken over the canopy when I awoke again, after a rather careful bath I had made quick work of breakfast and gotten around to studying my new books. Of course, I ended up cross-referencing the more modern ones with the older ones to help my studies and began to understand part of my issue with figuring out magic was a lack of foundational theory, by the time most unicorns read the theory I was reading they had years of practical magics and learned theory under their belt. Thankfully I had adapted to learning things rather quickly so it didn't take long to fix the holes in my spell casting. I had gotten lucky when I had first assessed my magic as apparently the process was a lot more difficult than I thought, doing it without help was supposed to take days of meditation, not the couple of hours it took me,

My tails twitched in agitation at the thought of the second hammer blow to my future plans, the furry tips causing the morning fog to swirl in different directions. Runes, languages that are so ancient that they became something almost mystical in the eyes of modern people. Most fantasy and fictional stories told of runes being magical and imparting effects on that which they are carved, for the most ancient of the languages this was true. Language runes are rather important to things like enchanting and setting wards with specific intentions. That's where their usefulness stops however, I had hoped to replace the runes in the spell arrays with Norse runes in order to make advanced spells easier for myself. The first few opening pages in the rune book I had taken from the castle shattered that plan like a baseball to a pane of glass.

You see the Arcalok or runes of magic as they were more commonly called, were not a language of mortals or even immortals, they were the symbols that magic itself used to represent concepts.  In practice this was a relatively simple idea, one rune meant the very concept of fire the other the concept of ice, the problem comes when you throw mortal minds into the mix. No one person held the exact same idea of any one concept of something. One person could see fire as this all-consuming force, while another might see a source of purification and soothing warmth, this led to people having their own "handwriting" when it came to runes. They would instinctively change bits of a rune to match their idea of a concept.

This handwriting causes people to have vastly different effects when casting spells, an example of this is a healing spell created by someone who sees fire as a warm comfort. A person who sees fire as a destructive force can still use the spell, but what was once a slow gentle closure of a wound would now be quick and cauterizing. A person who cast a spell to bring forth a wave of water to crush and drown an enemy might do less damage in the paws of someone who has never experienced drowning than someone who has. The way around this was to customize spells to one's beliefs, if you did not see fire as an overly destructive force, then you could weave the rune for burning or heat into the rune array to increase the those particular aspects of the spell.

Now, one did not need to be a natural magic user to use Arcalok runes, you didn't even need a teacher to learn them, you could meditate on a particular concept and eventually learn the symbol for it. What you do need to use them was an excessive amount of willpower, or a powerful focus.  The issue with this is that foci were not as simple as putting a gem in a stick and calling it a day, crafting a focus was a personal and spiritual endeavor. You had to gather the resources yourself, carve the runes yourself, and then imbue it with your magic. I was lucky that much like unicorns I had a natural focus, or rather nine of them that worked in sync.

This is in part what led to ponies being such a dominant race, because one-third of all ponies have a natural focus there civilization developed to have a much higher level of magical education. Most races use an apprenticeship system, one mage teaches a new one. Ponies have Hogwarts, okay jokes aside they have specialized schools for unicorns, though particularly talented might still get chosen for a mentor. From what I could understand by reading the books, ponies were also one of the few races to keep proper spell books due to being one of the few races to have standardized spells, the other was some race called changelings.

Now, normally this would not be enough to cause me too many issues, the problem was that knowing the runes wasn't enough to use them. You had to understand them on a personal level, the easiest way to do this was to experience the concept of the rune and use it to understand. Creating spells was a surprisingly easy task when you did understand, easy but dangerous. New spells could often have unintended effects if you weren't careful. By weaving a rune for impact and fire into an arcane bolt I had expected a firebolt, instead it caused them to act like Roman candles that burst like large firecrackers when they hit things. Adding the rune that represented sharpness caused them to take a sickle shape and gouge into targets like an axe striking wood. Coincidently, I didn't need an axe anymore.

While I was reading, I had slowly been piecing together a spell that while relatively simple on paper was not nearly as so in practice. The idea was to make myself invisible while walking around town, the problem was I didn't really have a true understanding of the concept at least not enough of one to risk it in a spell like that. A rune for shadow could work, but it could also just cause shadows to wrap around me like a cocoon, which was not what I wanted. Shaking my head I put the spell out of my mind for now, it was time to make myself some lunch. I was going to try my luck with rabbit stew, hopefully almaraj didn't taste that different from a rabbit.

While the stew cooked, I realized that it was time to gather some more firewood. The pile I had collected from the last couple of days was getting down to the few logs I grabbed the day before. I decided to clear up the path a bit, using my new cutting spell I managed to lop down a few of the trees near their base. A bit of mana later and I even managed to split them into pieces to carry back easier. I was starting back towards the gate when I caught a new and rather unique scent. It smelt a bit like a pony but different, almost like one had rolled in spices or peppers with a hint of vanilla. I knew that I shouldn't go looking, that pushing my luck could see me killed, but I was a fox and the curiosity would drive me insane if I didn't investigate. Worst case scenario, I could lead them off on a wild goose chase away from Haven.

I shuddered slightly at the thought of them finding the place, I had just started working on making the ancient village home and to see it abandoned now would not leave me in a good mental state. Not that it would matter in the long run, if I lost the safety of the wards it would be a constant battle to survive the forest. I was confident that I could fight off a large chunk of the forest denizens but those battles would add up. I would have a few days at most to find a place safe enough to make a den before the forest killed me. Which in hindsight was another good reason to go and see what was passing by close enough for me to smell.

I followed the scent a good half-mile before it got strong enough that I could almost taste the spicy smell in the air, crouching low I stalked through the undergrowth and into a small clearing. The striped form of my confusing my vision for a second before I realized just exactly what I was looking at, "you're a zebra, why is there a zebra in the Everfree?"  the zebra jumped in shock, turning to look at me with surprise and a little fear. She was oddly patterned for one, not really being fully striped for one thing, but she also had something similar to one of the ponies' odd marks. It was sun from what I could tell, done in a spiraling pattern with little triangle markings forming a perimeter around it. She had golden bracelets and bands that when mixed with the somewhat exaggerated slant of her eyes completed an almost stereotypical African appearance.

A slight snarl formed on my muzzle as she slowly reached for a staff that was hung from one side of her saddle bags, I had learned my lesson from Ponyville, I quietly prepared one of my tails to slap the shit out of the mare if she swung that staff. Even from where I was standing, I could see the runes and fetishes that decorated the staff.  "Please do not hit me, I have had quite enough of being hit the last few days, and I will leave you stuck in one of the taller trees."

The zebra mare's hoof lowered from the staff before her eyes narrowed at me in suspicion before finally speaking, "why does a fox speak my native tongue, when I have not heard it since I was young?" the tone of her voice was one of surprise and weariness.

I was weary and a little confused, mainly because to my knowledge I had been speaking English and because of the fact she was rhyming. Still, if she proved to be tolerable in conversation I wouldn't look a gift horse, well zebra, in the mouth. Stepping forward slightly, I relaxed my tails and sat on my haunches, allowing the mild snarl on my face to change to a closed line of indifference. The zebra had brought up a point though, I understood the ponies well enough, and thinking back to my encounter with the apparition in the castle it had not looked like he was speaking English when he was talking, better yet the books I had gotten from the castle hadn't been in English either. Most likely my brain was auto-translating things for me, which meant whatever I said was also likely being translated.

Looking back at the mare, she seemed to take my relaxed stance well, relaxing slightly herself. I noted that her hoof stayed within reach of a gourd that smelled heavily of pepper though, it didn't take a genius to realize that if I got on her bad side I was getting pepper-sprayed somehow. Oh well, time to speak bullshit based on a theory. "My nature causes all who hold sapience to hear me in a way they understand, and for me to do the same for them. If I may ask, what causes you to rhyme?"

The zebra watched me for a few seconds, studying my face for lies before answering. " I rhyme as a tool, to remember the rules, ponies have many in speech, so at a pace I preach. If it bothers you so, I will cease before you become foe." she seemed to eye me searching for confirmation that I would like her to stop with the rhyming.

"I wouldn't force you to stop, but it has been a long time now since I've spoken to another person, I'm afraid that my patience for rhyming is low, though I may enjoy a battle of riddles at a later date." I held out one of my paws to shake her hoof, " my name is Harbinger." I frowned slightly that had not been what I had meant to say my name was…, it wasn't harbinger was it? No, I had another name, my name. Surely they didn't take that too.

I was thankfuly not too entrenched in my own derisive thoughts to not notice the zebra hesitantly shake my outstretched appendage, her hoof disappearing inside my massive paw as I gently shook. The mare stepped back as if to get a better look at me before speaking, this time normally. "My name is Zecora, to answer your first question the forest is home to many a rare ingredient. I am an alchemist by trade, thus it is here that I came. There is many a skill to be learned in the forest."  the mare paused seeming to judge whether she should ask something before continuing. "You are the fox that the ponies are in a frenzy about, yes? Have you attacked them so, or are you prey to exaggeration and fear as I do often bare?"

I smothered the anger that welled inside of my chest at her question before trying to think of an answer, her statement seemed to hint that she too seemed to have issues with the ponies, though given the lack of scars on her person I could only imagine it was a little less aggressive than what they did to me. Finding my answer I spoke. " Both if we're being honest, the first time they overreacted to my presence and I had to defend myself, the second was deliberate as I needed supplies to live in the forest. I do not wish to be their monster in the woods but they have left me little choice." the bitterness and pain in my voice could have rivaled a storybook protagonist and it must have shown for she took a little step back before putting a hoof on my chest.

"The ponies fear me yes, but they do not act with violence. The guard prefers to watch but do not interrupt my walk. If it is a conversation you seek my home is not far from the creek. Perhaps I will ask the ponies about news and share with you, the last I walked the pony town was when smoke was around, and a dragon had nested." the mare pointed a hoof in a direction, "A league in that direction you will find a clearing with my hut unseen, knock twice and I will see to your needs." with that the mare picked up her things and turned to leave.

"Thank you, for not attacking me or running, " I smiled slightly at both the lack of conflict and the seeming difficulty she was having at dropping the rhythm of her words, despite my bad mood it was somewhat amusing. I was interested in this talk of dragons, I knew they existed in this world but it made me wonder how they were viewed on a wider scale. Still, my thoughts moved back to the realization that I couldn't remember my original name and my smile dropped to a heavy frown as I turned and started off towards Haven. Another piece gone, I wondered how many more I would lose before I a stranger to myself.

making sure to collect the wood I had dropped when I had first caught Zecora's scent I piled it up and went pack to my soup, it was decent but I really needed more common vegetables, like carrots or potatoes. as I ate I thought back to what Zecora had said, something about the directions she gave kept bothering me. something about her hut being unseen, "unseen, hmm." my eyes widened as it came to me, surely it couldn't be that simple of a solution. my stew lay forgotten as I quickly began weaving an array.




???

a loud clattering noise echoed throughout the secure room as the door slammed against the wall, the mare winced slightly at the loud noise. her more lupine ears flattening against her head as Stonehoof slammed the door shut behind him. She snarled slightly when he shoved his hoof against her chest aggravating the bruised bones. "how could you be so stupid you mutt, It is bad enough that Snowtalon made me take you on this hunt, but now you've gone and made yourself useless too. , thankfully we brought the other mutt or we'd have to track the beast the hard way." she watched as the earthpony stormed out of the room, the door once again slamming shut.

she glanced down beside her bed and sighed, her spear had broken during her fight with the fox. no doubt that the guild weaponsmith would deny that it was broken on the job and that the guild wouldn't pay for it. she would have to buy a new one out of her own pocket, if she even got paid. she wasn't oblivious to how she was treated by everyone besides Snowbeak, if the guild had their way they would be hunting her. It was him taking her on as a personal apprentice that had saved her from being put down when she had been found as a foal. of course, it hadn't been compassion that had driven him to do so, Snowbeak had taken her as a tool. Few sapient species had a better sense of smell than a wolf and those that did weren't welcome in Equestria. 

it was partly why she found the fox so interesting, after the battle she had taken time to think about his scent and how he felt to the more primal side of herself. a being's scent could say a lot about a person,  what they were, what they ate, and where they lived. beings of magic had things about their scent that could even help determine their nature. so what did that say about a fox that smelt like oncoming rain and the burning petals of poison joke? She eyed the door as it opened, and a nurse stepped into the room. she looked nervous at being in the same room as the hybrid. "miss Blackmoon, it's time to change your bandages and eat lunch."

Blackmoon watched as the nurse began to change her bandages, truly she found her fear annoying more than everything. Snowbeak found the way normal ponies shied away from her annoying, he liked to say it was because they knew their place. she couldn't find the amusement personally, the fear and hate just served to remind her that she was different. She would need to check her stash, the one Snowbeak didn't know about. the idea of running to one of the other continents was sounding better by the year. she grimaced slightly as she took a bite of the eggs the nurse had brought, she didn't hate them just got tired of eating them.

She glanced out the window to her hospital room, the rest of her party would leave to hunt down the fox soon, probably before the storm that the pegasi were making. the weather would be a wash away any scents or tracks that the fox might leave. they would leave her here, of course, they wouldn't want the mutt to ruin their fun after all. She watched the dark trees of the forest sway beneath the wind, it almost seemed like it was beckoning her to enter to continue the hunt. it didn't matter the fox would likely kill them if the forest itself didn't.

she glanced back ears perking as the door opened again, a butterscotch pegasi entering the room, Blackmoon couldn't help but stare in surprise, she had thought the element of kindness to be a coward why on Equis would she be visiting her? the pegasus held up a small bag that smelt like fish of all things. the mare sent a nervous look at the broken bloodstained spear next to the bed before walking forward and holding out the bag, " I-i br-brought you some f-fish." Blackmoon stared at the other pony in shock before her face softened, perhaps she had misjudged this one.