This Everfree…thou shall be tamed! If my name isn’t Anonymous, you shall be brought down to earth and fall underneath my rule.
“Hey. Twilight?” Celestia hasn’t granted us a grant; it’s been just grand without the grand payment for my hiring, but she did start giving me a stipend once I told Twilight my chronic jobless status. Now, I just got a Royal stipend. Apparently, those are put in place for Ponies with ambiguous cutie marks who cannot get a job.
“Yeah?” Me and Twilight, we're cool now. She gets to keep her name in my mind now. We’re just two mad scientists staring at some parchment when lines go up and down. It's like one of those devices detecting earthquakes, but this just detects magical pressure.
“What’s the story of the forest there? I remember having to circle the thing just to get here.”
“The Everfree? It's a place where nature goes on its own. The trees grow by themselves, the animals do things by themselves, and the weather changes by itself.”
“Huh. Neat. Doesn't sound too dangerous?” Are these ponies such control freaks that once something is out of their control, it's automatically bad?
“No, but there's monsters living in that forest, ti-”
“Hold that thought, Twilight. I’m going in.” Cutting her off, I quickly take some crystals from behind Twilight and head upstairs.
“Wait! Anonymous! You can't! It's too dangerous!” Twilight rushes after me, taking off her nerd glasses as she gives chase.
“Unfortunately, Twilight. I feel a previous life come to me. The spirit of that soul rings deep in my heart.”
“Say what?”
“I am a Monster Hunter! I shall fight the beasts who dare defy nature!” On my way through the library, I looked at the crystals that I had taken. I could fashion a very rudimentary flamethrower with the instruction of the fire magic. It'll be like using a hair spray bottle with a lighter, but it will still get the job done.
“What?!” Twilight clearly had enough of my shit. I, however, haven't given enough.
“Don't stop me, Twilight. Adventure calls!” I sprinted off into the distance, heading straight towards the Everfree Forest.
“Wait! Come back!” Twilight may have wanted to stop her new friend Anonymous, but she knows she can't stop a stallion on a mission. Boys, am I right?
Man, this town feels a lot bigger once you're settling yourself down. It's probably due to perspective, but what do I know?
Stopping myself at the edge of this forest, I can see trees lining the border, with bushes held high to prevent anything from wandering in. Upon closer inspection, the bushes have thorns.
Keeping myself on the edge, following the path, I eventually found myself at some cottage all the way out here. Birdhouses line the trees of the Everfree, housing various birds.
“Natives! I can do this.” Using a small spell on myself, I cast Speak To Animals. I'll have to do this spell again in about 10 minutes if more animals are around.
“Helloooo?” I asked out loud, best to see what was happening.
“Great… Fluttershy has a new guest.” I hear a very disgruntled bird talk as he exits his birdhouse.
“No idea who Fluttershy is, but I'm willing to learn.”
“Yeah. Yeah. Hold you…hold my horses, actually. How are you talking to me?” The bird looks up at me. It's so weird talking to animals. They haven't figured out facial expressions yet.
“Magic.”
“Course horn heads figured that out.”
“Nah, don't worry, only I figured it out so far. I think.”
“Good. Good. I don't need everyone and their families to talk to me. I just want Fluttershy, you hear?”
“Not here to see this Fluttershy. I'm planning on entering the forest.”
“Are you stupid, or do you have a death wish?”
“Yes.”
“…just go down the path that leads into the forest, and for the love of Boreas, talk to the zebra there. She talks funny, but I’d rather not have Fluttershy traumatized at a corpse.”
“Thanks, dude.”
“My name is Mr. Jay, and I’d rather you speak to me that way rather than dude.”
“Alright. Thanks, Mr. Jay.”
With the information gathered, I took off into the forest, following the path into the place.
Mr. Jay has had enough and went back indoors.
“I wonder if I could sing a song…if I had a guitar on me, I could do something catchy.” My path into the forest has been a long one. The place does feel different from everywhere else. I sense no magic in the air, nor do I think of anything nearby. I can't tell if this place automatically shuts down my magic absorption or if there's nothing around me.
With the dark, dank forest around me, I kept my eye out for any danger that could harm me. I had no plans for this place. I wanted to fight a monster and then leave. Possibly strip said monster of the parts, then make something funny. A giant sword made from it will do.
With a new mission sent, I found myself before a wooden hut that was deeply carved into a tree. It must be where that Zebra lives. With a knock on the door, I decided to wait. Then, the door opened to greet me with a Zebra.
“It's nice to meet a new face. What brings you to my place?” Hey, that rhymed. Neat! Plus, she seems like a neat tribe member. I wonder what she's doing in the forest.
“A little birdie told me I should visit you before venturing deeper into the forest.” I wonder if I should copy her. Imitation is the best form of flattery, after all.
“What that bird said is true. I shall give information to you.” Is she doing the limerick again? Odd.
“Yeah. Just looking to see what creatures live in the forest before I go explore.” I'm going to hide my poaching practices. I don’t know the rules of poaching here, but I'll be the reason as to why there's a poaching law now.
“Well, there are Timberwolves, Ursas, and Manticores. However, I recommend you find some tools before you explore.” Is rhyming her gimmick? It's an odd one, but if you live alone out here, then it probably does something to your head.
“Don’t worry about that. I got this.”
“I know stallions are bold and strong, but I never seen one who could be more wrong. You'd sooner hurt yourself in the Everfree. So, for goodness sake, go back and be.” What’s with everyone fearing this place? It doesn't seem that bad.
“Still, don't worry. I got this.” I’ll just solve this whole issue by running away, so I turned tail and ran. My destination was to find one of these monsters and end its miserable existence!
The Zebra didn't stop me, so I kept going deeper and deeper. The forest’s path was a short one, as in it just stopped at some point, and I'm now marching through some grass. It's a decently big forest, probably a large area within the tree line. I wonder if anyone has correctly mapped the place.
Most likely not, but I do hear some rustling nearby. Thanks, predator-adverse evolution. It helps with hunting for some particular reason. Peeking my head through the thistle, I found it. A wolf made out of wood with green eyes of gross color stares down at me. My magic is detecting life with him, and now that I know I can passively absorb magic from him, I can easily work with this.
With a bark, he jumped to lunge at me. I just hopped to the side and watched him use one of his paws to catch himself and swing his upper body in my direction. A seasoned predator, I see. It continues to bark at me, trying to intimidate me. However, due to my stupidity, I won't be deterred!
A light of my horn causes the creature to lunge at me again, no doubt part of its instinct. I assume the animals here are used to magic, so they attack the caster first. Clever, but not smart enough.
I caught the creature in the air with my magic and smashed it against a nearby tree. I can grab other dudes with magic; it just takes a lot of energy to hold constantly, so I just throw them.
The timberwolf’s back snapped open upon contact with the tree. I saw something hidden within. The mana source is the thing that brings the wolf life. It's an object that is shaped like a heart, only instead of pumping blood, it’s raw magic. Suppose I can take that and bring it back to Twilight. Imagine the possibilities!
“Magic Missile,” I mutter. I should take advantage of the creature while it’s down. The three magic blasts form from my horn, launching into the air and crashing down onto the Timberwolf. Blasting off two of the legs and it’s maw. I have to reduce as much of their ability to fight back as possible. Using one of my hooves to hold the wolf by the neck against the tree, I punch a hole in its chest. Using my horn, I tug on the magic source before yanking it out. I don't remember if I heard cries of pain, but since these creatures have evolved to regenerate, they likely don't feel pain.
With the magic source in my hoof, I store it in my pocket. I didn't even use the flame thrower, but to be fair, I didn't have a method of fueling the fire, so it'll just be like using a heater.
“A successful hunt!” I don't know why I said that out loud, but it felt necessary.
With a turn, I went back to leave the forest. It's odd the wolves should be using pack tactics. I wonder why this one was alone. I'll stop thinking about it. It'll only hurt if I think.
“Hey, Mr. Jay.” I wave to the bird as I pass by. It chirps a lot at me. I don't know what he’s saying.
“Cool. Bye.” I just left him.
‘Stupid horn head…’ Mr. Jay thought.
“Twilight, I'm back!” With the door to the basement opening, Twilight seemed to shut a book and hide something under the desk.
“Oh! You're back already?”
“Yep. Was fun in there, the Zebra in there was weird, but fun.”
“Zecora is always like that.”
“Neat. Anyway, I have this magic source, and I was wondering if there have been any studies on it.” I opened up my pocket dimension and began to shift through it.
“Magic source? From what?”
“A timberwolf.” I pulled out what looked like a green heart. It's a little dry now, thanks to the heart being no longer filled with magic. I realized I probably should've cut tubes sticking out of the heart at this point.
“SWEET CELESTIA!”
Turns out, she was not frightened by the heart, but how badly I was treating the heart. She lectured me on properly extracting a magic source from a timber wolf next time. She also didn't chastise me for going in alone and taking the source. So there's that. She's a huge nerd.
With the source now stored in a cooler, I'm now left outside for my transgressions against proper dissection. Also, I'm still homeless! It is time to rectify that problem. I can't have Spike be my mailbox for my royal stipend forever!