> Flames of freedom
>  by Dragon lord
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> A brave new world 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

staring at the blue sphere dotted with patches of brown and green was starting to get irritating, it seems getting dry eyes was possible in space or in whatever magical force that was binding me in space. To my right the moon hung gracefully watching over the planet below, the sun on the other side of the world giving a bright outline. Form my position being pulled in-between the two celestial body's, I was stuck in eternal twilight forced to follow them across the stars unable to move. bored out of my skull with nothing to do but reminisces on how i got  here and enjoy the view, it might be an amazing sight that few ever get to experience but if you had been forced to look at the same thing for to long try it for a millennia, and counting the stars only killed a few decades its bad enough being frozen in this stasis iv had an itch on my neck for the last 400 years.

occasionally a comet and shooting star will give some slight change up to the view they are much better up close, leaving blazing trails across space. watching the world below i could see one of my favourite annual events the once in a generation dragon migration its an interesting sight with the drakes of different colours across the sky like a swarming rainbow. 

So far the most interesting thing to happen was about three century's in was a screaming dark blue mass being hurled towards the moon changing the pockmarked surface into the likeness of a unicorn,'join the club' at least they got the entire moon to walk around on then after a thousand years of silence and several stages of near madness. some of which caused by having caramel dansen stuck in my head for two century's... 'no no don't think about it, don't think about it Shit'. 




The blank eyes of the bone white mask staring back at me form its place on the shelf it's face marked with red stripes starting at the forehead angled towards they eye where they shifted to the corners if its chin passing behind a grinning smile of skeletal teeth the took up the entire width of the mask. looking at the mask appraisingly. ‘man this would be a nice add to the collection, if only I didn't already have a mask’ thinking to myself then turned away.  

Looking around the cramped shop filled with various game and anime items they ranged from cos play outfits to simple memorabilia. My friends waited outside we were on the way to a con being held nearby, normally I wouldn't bother with crowds being the recluse type.  At least this event had the added benefit of most people being in costume and would have a lot of common ground to talk about in the event someone attempted socializing, but the whole idea of going out and meeting people whom I'd never likely see again only to share a few hours of pleasantries seemed like an enormous drain.

But I had always been curious to see a convention,  so when one of their original group was suddenly taken ill leaving prepaid ticket I happily accepted promising to bring him back some loot in exchange. Unfortunately I only knew a handful of the people in that group as they were mostly friends of friends. Met through the few true friends that I'd made mostly picked up from my days in college. Most of my time was spent trying to master the skills and techniques of blacksmithing, but one or two of my classmates managed to drag me out of the forge from time to time to meet new friends.

There was only one among the group I could say that I truly knew as a friend's name is Ollie though he seemed more out of place in this crowd than I did as he didn't watch much anime and didn't cos play, he was however an avid gamer and was more interested in coming to meet new friends and  get pissed, An activity I'm sure many will join in with. Surprisingly he is one of the few friends which understood my desire to distance myself from the outside world as much as possible as he shared my realizations on the darkness of the human race. 

Not being one to waste an opportunity to try and disprove my assumptions of the world I accepted the offer. The rest of the group had various anime/game consumes so as not to feel out I quickly donned the only cos play I had at the time an incomplete Natsu Dragneel costume. seeing as I didn't have a spiky pink hair piece to complete the outfit I just grabbed my Kitsune mask off the wall, since I was going to ruin the look of the whole piece it would probably be best to hide my face in the process.

So  it was early evening when I came to be standing in this slightly run-down store, perusing the various artefacts to see if there was anything else to add to this amalgamation of characters. Looking at all the cheaply made anime swords that probably snap soon as somebody swung it, most of the stuff here looked quite cheap and low quality almost as if to reflect the store itself.  glancing at the clerk behind the counter who was eyeing me with a vague interest and a slight smirk at my mottled getup thought I couldn't see any defining features as his face was obscured by shadows “I know that this is short notice but it there any chance that you have the scarf to go with this outfit?”.

A strange ominous smile sped across the section of his face that was visible. a shiver down my spine.
“of course sir” his voice was smooth and emotionless, he briefly rummaged around in the boxes behind him “hurry up man we don’t want to miss the exhibitors” one of my friend’s voices echoed from outside “yeah yeah” I mumbled back.  I caught a low chuckle from the man behind me though it could have been my imagination.

I turned around to see one of the best replicas of Natsu’s scalf that I’d ever seen the black scale pattern was sewn into the fabric unlike most  others I’d seen where it had just been printed on, this looked hand tailored the soft fabric flowing through my fingers like water. It almost seemed to have a slight glow in the dingy light of the shop because of its stark white.

I looked up to the clerk impressed.
“This is quality, how much?” his smile deepened in silent victory slightly unnerved I stood up straighter meeting the gleam form what I assumed to be glasses. 
“That my friend is a meagre ten pounds”. Surprised I handed over the money wrapping the scalf around my neck. I was turning to leave the store and get to my friends. My foot should have hit solid ground instead it fell through the floor, I was hit by a sense of weightlessness and a slight burning sensation as my vision turn White…




Numbing tingling flowing through my limbs, it took a second to register the slight ticking sensation on my chest, ‘strange I don’t remember that store having carpet, what did he wash this scarf in chloroform!’ groaning slightly I opened my eyes. However, the view before me wasn't the expected grimy basement or padded cell, nor even the sight of the stuffy pawn shop instead i was greeted by a blue cloudy sky.

The tickling sensation turned out to grass looking around as some more feeling returned, I was in a clearing of a forest a nearby gurgling alerted me of a stream at the edge of the forest.  In the distance there was hills and a mountain, the sky was streaked with thin wispy clouds. ‘don’t tell me I won a free holiday or something’ thinking to myself.
No that can’t be right everything looks to good, the sky the trees the grass I've never seen colours this clear and bright not I any field or forest I’d seen whether it on TV or in person pulling myself to my feet I felt something brush the back of my head.          

“What the”? tuning around I caught a flicker of moment feeling something brush my other ear, spinning around trying to find what caused it  after completing a few circles craning my neck I caught sight of the red tips of a what looked like large feather dusters flailing behind me, curious I reached back and grabbed one. I don’t know what hit me first the sight of my hand\paw or the tugging felling on the end of one of my apparently new. . . tails.

Suddenly the connection was made like an electric shock I landing on the ground In a tumble of flailing limbs a tangled tails and spending slightly longer than necessary rolling around on the grass, (hay it felt nice against my new fur don’t judge me) after the initial shock I began exploring my new body it was for the most part covered in white fur from what I could tell my head and face had been changed into that of a fox. I could also feel the furred tips of my longer ears.


For the most part I was still biped but i  quickly discovered that i have a quadruped form. when i shift my spine my hands transform into paws. After some practice I began to moved my tails, they started white at the base and had a faint black scale pattern like the one from Natsu’s scalf. About halfway up they turned to a light red. At my count I had nine fluffy new extremity’s, they threw me slightly off balance. on my right shoulder instead of the fairy tail guild crest i was happy to see that I still had my personal emblem where I had had it tattooed as a human. it now seemed permanently part of my skin and fur. 


"At the very lest that is unchanged" raising a brow at my now slightly unfamiliar voice that breached the silence of the clearing, it was slightly deeper than my usual tone and complimented with an almost unnoticeable growling tone underlining it. 'that will take some getting used to' a slight itching began behind me left ear it swivel'd slightly on instinct it was a strange feeling my body reaction with unfamiliar responses, almost like wearing a new type of clothing after wearing the same type for a long time not uncomfortable but strange nonetheless.       


I  walked over to the stream on stumbling slightly on a different set of legs. After a few trips from the tails trailing across the ground and caching on the grass. I lifted them up behind me and found balancing a bit easier if i tilted them in the opposite direction of my nest step.  i moving to the waters edge. where it was calm enough to get a look at my reflection my face now completely alien. My new pointy ears were outlined in the same red on my tails, as were my eyes and eyebrows. There were two red markings across my cheeks that went down my muzzle ending at my nose and corners of my mouth.  I was still wearing the bottom half of Natsu's outfit,  a quick check to confirm that I was still male and that nothing had been tamped with.


After a few minutes the slight numbness had completely dissipated now it was gone I could properly feel the nine new appendages individually.  Giving them a flick and watching them sway in unison like a red -tipped wave. With the numbness now gone my body, it was as if a fog had lifted from my mind I was acutely aware of a new feeling, a Sixth sense. It was definitely different from anything  I had felt before almost like a light mental pressure in the vague direction of the mountains. 


With it there also seemed to be another kind of force in the back of my mind. 
'if wearing a Kitsune mask has transformed my entire body into that of a fox, then did I also have his power'  I thought excitedly. I tweaked at the unknown, with an experimental mental prod. a nearby rock simply shifted slightly. Focusing more on
magic and lifted the pebble up and it floated over my palm.


I could feel the magic holding the rock almost like an extra hand holding it frowning. 
"Well this is a buzz kill. I wanted fire magic dammit, real useful this is, stupid no good magic." suddenly feeling quite parched glanced over at the stream. 'If only I had a bottle or glass or something.' Suddenly the rock I was holding shimmered, like the heat waves bending the air like in a desert. In its place was a clear glass surprised I grabbed it and gave it a flick with a clawed finger. It rang like any other glass. But i could still feel a the possibility of  its original form along with a slight draining of my energy almost unnoticeable.  'Of course the Kitsune's use illusion and transformation magic' after getting myself a drink I tried feel for any other kind of magical energy and found none.  


Moving back to the centre of the clearing a single thought going through my mind.
‘I should have gone for the hollow mask.’ Feeling the pressure in the distance. I noticed a smaller magical signature that had missed under the larger magic power. It was coming from behind me, giving the clearing one last look over, I noticed a white orb sitting in the grass. It was away's off from my original position, it was about the size of a small orange. emanating a slight trace of magical energy however this signature was remarkably similar to the one in the distance, it almost seemed as if it was tied to the land's magic itself while still being remaining different.


Picking it up, my hand suddenly went numb and the skin under my fur burned from the cold i  almost dropped it. 
'this thing isn't just cold it's like it's drawing heat from the air.' It got noticeably colder the closer to the sphere, and was beginning to pull the warmth from my arm. Grasping it in my telekinesis i moved it above my head. If I held it much longer my hand would likely get frostbitten. After checking the clearing for anything else out of the ordinary, I began walking the general direction of the mountain, and the magical signature.


Remaining in my bipedal form due to the familiarity,slowly making my way through the surrounding forest. Admiring the lush trees and trilling birds. My predatory appearance drove away the nearby animals leaving my immediate area unmoving bubble. but my hearing had been changed with along with my physical form and i could clearly  hear the birds and animals that were further away. they still stayed on the lofty branches eyeing me suspiciously protecting their families. 


The mountain neared after about a day of travel. Strangely the  sun moved very little in that time, and settled in the centre of the sky. All sense told me that it should be several time hotter than it was. Almost as if something was protecting the land from the suns heat. then the sun moved at steady pace, setting on the horizon as the moon swiftly rose to take its place in the sky. The cool night settled in bringing its evening chill long with it, the stars adorning  the inky black of the sky. perplexed by the odd celestial activity, a few more hours passed the new eyes bringing a brilliant new night vision. I had reached the Mountain, looking up I recognised none of the constellations. 
'so wherever I am it certainly isn't earth could explain the suns activity.'
The closer i moved  to the mountain, the magical energy had grown stronger. About halfway up the mountain there was the large opening of a cave, seeing no other shelter I began to climb.


By the time I pulled myself up to the edge of the cliff I was only slightly tired, my legs only had the slightest hints of fatigue Staring down at my new body and then to the direction i had come. Had I still been human such trek would leave me barely able to move. 
'At least this body does have its benefits.' Turning I moved into the cave, Around the shadows farther in there appeared to be a slight glittering, moving forward to get a better look it look I saw what appeared to be a large pile of gold coins and gemstones.



"Now whoever would leave such fortune in a place like this." I moved forward frowning stepping into the cave, there was a dull rumbling in the air though I saw nothing strange.  Moving further in, suddenly a nearby pile of gold shifted and the slight tremor raked the ground. 
About four feet in front of me there was a set of large curious if slightly threatening cyan eyes. 
The rest of the gold shifted revealing the head of a glaring black and blue dragon with hints of red on his frame was revealed slowly by the cascading gold. His large head had two sets of horns cyan horns, the bottom set curving outward, the larger top set curving inwards. blue spines went down his neck, the remainder of his body was hidden under the piles of gold and jewels. I stumbled and fell backwards flat on my ass, with my tail flaring around me."For here there be dragons". 






The stars aligned behind the moon,  all of a sudden it felt like the world and surrounding space became darker.  And the dark entity that had been my sharing my imprisonment was free once more. 
'Some people have all the luck' I hung there disturbed by the sudden occurrence, looking at the moon, it had regained its standard pale white face without the likeness of the unicorn. My attention was drawn to the planet below, it appeared as if the sun had dimmed to the point where it only illuminated the moon and the stars leaving the planet below.


'No way that can't happen, all the plants will die without sunlight to nurture them, this will destroy everything.'I flexed against my bonds for the first time in centuries. pushing as hard as i could with all my strength, knowing that there was nothing I could do. Hours past, thankfully the sun regained its former glory,  at the same time  the moon seemed to shine all the brighter. 
Many new constellations that had been hidden from the world took on a new veal,  ones that would be invisible to the planet below suddenly brightened as if renewed with energy.


Suddenly the force that was binding me lessened, And I was rapidly being pulled towards the planet. 
'yes finally this and this torture is up, I care how why but thank you flailing my arms excitedly. . . Wait i was put up here by some form of teleportation magic, if I'm falling back  that means, oh man this is gunna hurt'. 


Meanwhile to young colts lay in a meadow staring up at the stars, the shorter of the two turned looking to his friend. 
"Hey do you think that there is somepony up there looking down here wondering what it's like down here?" His friend turned to answer. when suddenly a bright white/orangey/red light began training across the sky. 
"Oh look a falling star, maybe that's a sign Star gazer." He said smiling, "wait a second. you hear anything strange?" Star turned once again to the sky watching the falling star drift ever closer. 
"No not really what do you mean..."


The rest of his reply was cut short, as the falling star flew closer. He herd what his friend meant, straining his ears he caught the the quiet but steadily growing sound. "FuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucK" 



the Falling star flew past overhead and into the distance, leaving both colts staring each other wide-eyed and confused. 
"I think you just got your answer".
> Skyfall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was quite an amazing sight, watching the ground rush up to meet you at a ridiculous rate of speed. The green fields and forests streamed past in the distance though it was hard to make out, with the wind in my eyes. Thankfully the dark landscape was brightened up by the light of the burning air, the wind roaring in my ears as my dissent slowed slightly. The flames that were caressing my coat felt nothing more than warm summer breeze.


The lake was nearing ‘At least it’ll be a reasonably soft landing this angle should be enough drag from the water slowing my momentum enough for an easy stop at the opposite shore’ I thought to myself. But it seems that old murphy doesn’t seem to care which universe you are in. My face became intimately familiar with the fact that hitting water at any rate equates to landing on concrete.


But hey at least I broke my stone skipping record. The force from my less than graceful landing meant that I was flipped head over tails several times. Each collision feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. And instead of meeting the opposite shore softly like I had hoped made up face first colliding with the soft sand of the beach. Creating a large cloud of dust. 


The impact of my face meeting the beach had caused a respectably sized crater that slowly filled with water. The cool liquid slowly filled up the depression until my face was above the waterline. It was a strangely relaxing sensation feeling the cool water flow over my body, floating in the void of space for 1100 tends to numb the limbs. With the new wealth of sensations surrounding me suddenly the pain of the landing sunk in.


“Definitely not as fun as they make it look in films.” I say laying there letting out a dull groan. I stared upward looking at the stars a rumbling voice flowed into my mind from a distant memory. 
“Remember now, if you ever end up being thrown to the ground, always try to spread yourself out and slow your descent. Save yourself some pain.” 
“Thanks for the advice old man always comes back when you don’t need it.”



Slowly I pulled myself to my feet stretching my stiff muscles for the first time in over a millennium. Believe me it sounded like a tree snapping in half when I stretched my neck. 
“That’s one way to get the blood flowing.” I mumbled to myself while stretching and enjoying the glorious feeling of flexing my tails to make sure they were still in one piece. Then jumping out of the crater causing a miniature tidal wave in the process due to all the water weighing my coat down. I assumed my usual quadruped form. 



Shaking to rid my hair off most of the water with a flick of my tails to disperse the last drops. The remaining water slowly evaporated into steam hardening some silt from the lake bed onto my fur. The lake was surrounded by a light forest around its edges. I could faintly hear the soft breathing of sleeping animals in the brush. 		
’Okay if this was a game the first thing to do would always be to find the nearest town to my bearings, and find out what I missed in the last millennia. So starter quest here we go!’ Smiling to myself I began the trek around the shore of the lake. It had been over 1000 years since I have been able to use my standard form. Walking along the beach bought forth a stirring in my thoughts causing the familiar yet distant voice to bring out. 


“You’re going to need to master both of your forms. It is rare to have the ability to walk on both four and two legs, I’ve only known certain dragons to be able to do it. Now get up and try again.” The Scalding tone faded back into the depths of my thoughts. Shaking my head to rid myself of the pesky thought as I would a fly buzzing in my ear.



In the distance I spotted a gap in the trees signifying the tell-tale signs of a path. Suddenly it started to rain light drizzle which became a relentless downpour. “Well this has to be the crappiest homecoming ever.” Flaring my magic using basic telekinesis to levitate the raindrops around me to form a bubble of water around me. After a point the droplets that landed on it rolled down to the ground leaving me dry as I continued up the muddy path. 



Thick trees surrounding the path shined slightly with the light of the moon shining off the damp trees. The brush slowly thinning out into bushes. The faint image of a signpost could be seen in the darkness pointing vaguely towards the distance. Across a few fields I could see a dull light in the distance signifying town or village nearby. ‘Hopefully they will offer some shelter from this downpour as well as up-to-date information of recent events’. I thought to myself trudging through the slick mud dirtying my white coat in the process.


Thankfully being a fox comes with its fair share of perks, topping the list would be highly increased night vision and an acute sense of hearing. This meant that the light in the distance appears a lot brighter than actually is. Leaving everything else around it illuminated enough to see my surroundings well enough. ‘At least I’m not in danger of walking into anything’.


Wrapping my tails around my body. I created a black hooded cloak with illusions to shroud  my appearance so that I might pass for a large earth pony. ’Best to keep things hidden until I know how these ponies will react.’ Continue onwards I reached the outskirts of the town within the hour, the rain had only increased its ferocity. The medieval timber framed houses came forward to greet me 



‘Seems the ponies haven’t changed the architecture much in the last thousand years. The buildings are bigger and look a lot stronger but still have the same style.’ I thought as I observed the slightly rundown looking houses. There was nopony on the streets. Likely Due to the weather, though they didn’t look too frequently traversed, as there was broken furniture and splintered wood littered about. A fair few of the houses were boarded up only a handful of had light in the Windows.

Continuing forward there was a shabby looking sign that read welcome to broken shield, some of the letters look like they’re about to fall off the badly weathered sign. It was obvious that this town had fallen onto hard times lately. Now that I had officially entered the town properly a lot more of the houses were lit up. Clutter had been shifted to the edges of the streets.


As I passed through the main street of the town looking for a tavern or inn, I spotted the collapsed ruins of what used to be a home there was little more than a pile of wood and rubble with a few shards of broken glass still in the window frame the doors and walls had some slight burn marks, and a lot of the support timbers looked blackened with ash.

Walking past the ruin assuming it to be a local demolition project of some sort. There were More and more decimated houses on the way through the town, and a lot of the statues and decorations had also been demolished giving the town eerie desolate appearance despite its colourful architecture. I noticed a large building a ways down the street that looked to be a local inn. And eagerly began moving towards it to get out of this downpour.




One hour earlier. 

Two teenage colts sprinted through the town eager to escape the rain. Galloping along muddy path, as soon as they reached the outskirts of town Star Gazer gave his friend a quick farewell, as they both dashed to the respective homes. Star past houses quickly they still seem to blur into one from the speed of this movement and the fuzzy vision caused by the rain.

Finally, he reached a small cottage on the opposite side of town the house is flanked by two demolished cottages. Their neighbours had long since fled. He opened their gate but could barely pass for the gate itself was barely hanging on a single hinge. Star Gazer looked at the flourishing neat rows of flowers of various colours and breeds with a happy smile.

Despite the poor condition of the rest of the town and the difficulty of finding work his mother had always managed to take the time to make sure that the garden was always beautiful despite the shabby condition of the rest of the house. His mother owned a small flower stand in the town centre. He could remembered happier times helping her run the stall, laughing and playing whilst she sold her flowers all the while bringing smiles to the town ponies. Unfortunately, with the hard times folks had less money to spend on such things and her business had suffered because of it.


No doubt the downpour would prove beneficial to the plants.’ Might even convince some of the ponies to brighten up this dreary place ’he thought moving quickly towards the door. Noticing that it was slightly open which bought a frown to his muzzle. 
“Mother would never leave the door open especially in weather like this.” mumbling to himself he pushed the door open with a hoof slowly it moved inwards. Star gazer had never considered himself a particularly smart unicorn. No that honour went to his older brother who had scored a spot in Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns at a young age. But even he could sense something wrong the hallway was dark and holding none of its homely warmth.


The dress and hat stands at been overturned, and the wallpaper had deep gouges burning the floral patterns displayed giving the house and eerie feeling in the darkness. “Mum.” called Star with a growing sense of apprehension. Gazer’s voice echoed through the seemingly empty house. Proceeding the hallway and checking every room had been up turned and its contents destroyed.


When he entered the kitchen usually it was accompanied by the warm smell of cooking, now the only thing greeting him was a damp smell of the rain through the broken windows. The only piece of furniture that hadn’t been completely destroyed was the small kitchen table in the centre the room, on the table was a roll of parchment. Removing it from the table he read the crudely scribbled scroll with each sentence stomach fell a lower into the depths of fear.


“Jasmine Blossom is in our custody because she failed to pay the insubstantial monthly sum required for our continued protection. If you do not supply the sum of 1000 bits to our representative tomorrow afternoon, your flowers aren’t the only things you’ll be burying in the ground.” At the bottom of the scroll there was a symbol. A black unicorn horn with the fluting effect created with the negative space of the parchment.


Standing there the shock of his predicament finally reached stargazer there in the cold destroyed kitchen feeling or hope abandon him. ’There is no way I’ll be able to come up with that money.’ He thought desperately to himself the realisation hit home that he may very well lose the only close member of family he has left his life he collapsed crying until sleep took him.








Meanwhile in the dimly lit tavern filled with a dull murmuring of various ponies come to drown hard day’s work and troubles with various degrees of alcohol to forget life's problems. The bartender was a grim looking earth pony with a brown coat and dirty blonde mane with an eyepatch covering his left eye. The Barkeep leaned on the edge of the of his counter polishing a glass with a rag.







The bar was nestled at the back of the room, there was a staircase next with likely leading up to guest rooms. Outward from the bar that many tables and booths most of them occupied by various ponies trying to escape the downpour or meet friends. A large fireplace sat on the right wall of the roughly square room warming the room and giving it a shadowed appearance.  the main entrance on walls opposite the main counter.



Suddenly the cheery atmosphere of the bar was disturbed, when the doors flew open leaving a mysterious hooded figure in the doorway. Rain and wind streamed into the room silencing all conversation as everypony turned to see the newcomer. Pausing for a moment observing the layout of the room I moved forward shutting the doors behind me with a flick of magic.


Using my magic, I gave my slitted eyes a slight ominous glow about them which would barely highlight my features under the hood. A reasonable amount of the patrons looked slightly more intimidated than I was going for, with a couple of them even ducking under the table in a poor attempt to hide. Noting this I stepped forwards towards the counter.


About halfway there a large tough grizzled earth pony from a nearby table impeding my passage he had a fierce look of determination on his worn features, piping my curiosity. “Now listen here, we don’t want any strangers in this here town-.” I cut him off with a wave of my paw, using my illusions to sip his mouth shut silencing the rest of his cliché speech. And setting off some hushed fearful conversations amongst the rest of the patrons.



His eyes bulged out in surprise as he fumbled with zip trying to remove it. Smiling slightly trying to contain my amusement speaking a light tone “Ned would love to stay here and talk with you…. But I’m not going to” is desperate looked to free himself turned into one of slight confusion, as a strolled leisurely past him. As soon as he was behind me the tip of a concealed tail twitched, suddenly a pink frilly dress with a pointed princess hat had appeared on the flailing stallion, while using some illusion to add some insult to injury. The stallion’s expression suddenly turned into one of embarrassment and defeat.


This elected a slight chuckle from some of the guests though most of them looked bewilderd, it wasn’t much but the atmosphere in the bar began to lighten. And most of the ponies began to come out from under the tables now more curious than cautious. Continuing to the bar itself looking to the bartender who seemed unsure of how to act, with this hooded figure was glowing crimson eyes approached him.

Looking him in the eye I thinking to myself ’okay let’s see how brave these ponies are’ using a paw I lowered the hood revealing my head and face. Interestingly the bartender showed no sign of fear over my predatory appearance, continuing to look at me with curiosity. The gasps of surprise and yells of panic that I was expecting never came, though the patrons did break out into hushed conversations about my appearance.

‘These ponies must be used to far worse than me, judging by the general look of the town and the reactions of the locals.’ Realising this I dissipated the entirety of my fabricated cloak, revealing my full appearance and unwound my tails to flare up behind me. Sitting on one of the provided cushions only the red tips are visible behind my head in a fan like shape.

The bartender’s eyes widened slightly at the display, upon seeing that I had no aggression my body language and deciding that I was no threat for the moment. “I’m not sure what manner of creature you are, but I think it’s in everypony’s best interest if I get this question out of the way. But you aren’t in any way affiliated with the Black Horn guild are you?”





Pausing for a moment and concluding my own assumptions I noticed that once again the atmosphere in the room had gone deathly quiet as everypony looked at the two of us intently, I couldn’t even detect the sounds of breathing with my advanced hearing. Leaning forward to one elbow placed loudly on the bar, and resting my head against my paw whilst pulling a fierce expression. 

Which caused a sharp intake of breath from most of the guest’s tension in the room rising. I rose onto my biped form I inhaled loudly looking down at the now terrified pony “Never heard of them why?” I said loudly while changing to my standard form and sitting back on the pillow casually.

Looking over my shoulder I saw that most of the ponies had shocked expressions on the faces and several of them have even fallen out of their chairs surprise. Finally, unable to contain myself I fell backwards laughing, which brought the rest of the ponies to a much happier state once they realised they’d been had. After a moment a few of them joined in with the laughter and boisterous atmosphere resumed.


One I recovered I sat back down the pillow the bartender with a much friendlier expression lean forward “I don’t want to come across as rude but what exactly are you?” He said smiling with a happy expression on my face “I got this all the time whenever I ran into you ponies. I am a Kitsune, or nine tails simply magical fox who enjoyed his pranks. The Names Ro’ord by the way”


The bar pony looked bemused when suddenly with a jolt he remembered his manners 
“Bitter Draught at your service what can I get for you?” Swallowing I realised that I hadn’t had a drink in over 1000 years.  I reached reached to my right flank, the bartender was giving me a strange look while I wrestled around looking for any spare bits. 
“Foxes Have pockets okay.” with that the bartender brush that off as clearly not the strangest thing he’d witnessed today and left at that.



Looking at the contents of my pocket besides removing thousand years of Lint which formed a respectable pile to my side only had about five bits on me. Placing them in the barn rolling them over to Bitter with wan smile. 
“What would this get me?” After a moment of inspection his eyes bulged slightly with a dry matter he started “Ro’ord these are antique sovereign marked bits, each one alone is worth at least 1000 bits” he stated.


Recoiling in surprise and realisation I realised they were effectively antiques, 
“Well at least give me the mug of your strongest cider.” Pausing for a moment to gather all but one of the bits of the bar leaving better with a mouth agape thinking for a moment and scratching my chin while magically increasing the volume of my voice “Oh by the way drinks are on me.” After giving at a moment to sink in many of the patrons sprinted towards the bar to place orders of their own while the others roared with laughter, and came as close to me as they dared.

After many hours of drunken revelry, the inn had been transferred formed from a dreary badly lit room full of ponies trying to drink away their problems, though boisterous Hall where laughter could be heard. It seemed a long time since any of these ponies had been able to relax and enjoy an evening. Leaning on the bar next to a pile of empty cider mugs that almost reached the ceiling, and a very happy looking Bitter Draught at all the increased revenue to his pub was the first time a question had ever seen a drunken shape changing Fox. Hazily watching the proceedings with a slight smile at the change in the pony’s demeanour.


"I'm not sure how it is possible you managed to drink this much hard cider, by rights he shouldn't even be breathing right now." 
Bitter said with an unbelieving expression plastered all over his muzzle. I turned to him "Well this is one of the payoffs of all the years of training I put in." I responded with a slight sway in my seat. Then in a sudden moment of sobriety a question presented itself, and after putting two and two together looking intently at Bitter. "
Not to be downer here but who are that guild you mentioned earlier, Black horn? Are Guilds really so common nowadays. From what I remember hearing about Equestria, Guilds were only for craft groups or trades, or for people to take care of specific jobs."




Bitter looked like he had been expecting this question and lean forwards whispering so as not to destroy the fragile peace that had been attained.
"I don't know told you about equestrian guilds but they were way out of date. The craft and trade guilds which is the start of it. They inspired the concept of putting useful tool or service under the one roof. Now there are many different types of guilds with all different purposes. A couple of years back we had a series of bad manticore attacks. So the town hired the black horn wizards Guild to deal with it. They completed the job and defeated the manticore's losing a few of their members in the process. Their guild master was unhappy with the payment for the job and the black horn Guild has been harassing this town taxing the ponies heavily in what they call recompense." 



Pausing for a moment to let my dulled senses catch up with the information. "Isn't there some kind of laws preventing this or some kind of governing body to watch out for such occurrences."
Bitter looked down at the bar in in despair "aye there's laws banning dark guilds and the princesses try their best to enforce them. But this town is barely on the fringes of Equestria so we are mostly forgotten about, and black horns members have prevented any of us from leaving to go for help."


'It seems the Equestria has changed far more than I expected. From the joyful tales I heard from my friend long ago. For now though let's try and fix this town's problems' Suddenly a bout of dizziness hit me. 
'Maybe I went overboard on the booze' looking blearily at the tower of empty tankards on the counter beside me. The booming din of distant thunder suddenly grew louder as someone new into the tavern. A young unicorn colt with a grey coat and bluish purple mane and tail flecked with spots of white ran into the centre of the once again silent crowd with tears streaming down his face. "Some pony please got to help. Black Horn has taken my mother."


The happy crowd grasped in unison at this all too soon reminder of their daily troubles. I stood up shakily on forelegs four legs. 
"I volunteer. I volunteer as tribute..." The crowd looked both shocked and amazed and I saw just the smallest amount of hope in the young colts’ eyes. Then the vertigo of the sudden movement caught up set in and I fell flat on my face unconscious.

> The hangover
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

All through the night the storm raged over town fiercely raking The streets. And rattling the panes of glass in the windows of the inn. After the commotion of the colt’s entrance, the bar goers moved the passed out predator into a padded corner of the room for those who overdo it. Star gazer slept slumped on a nearby table a half-eaten plate of food nearby, his condition has improved slightly since hear about this stranger, a small hope began to grown in his Hart.

Slowly hours moved by and the revelry of the bar died down as more of the customers either went to their rooms or drank themselves into a stupor. A few hours after midday Star Gazer woke with a start groggily looking over his surroundings. The room was mostly empty with most of the ponies departed from home or their various jobs.  Most of the ponies barely offered more than a sad sympathetic smile or a pat on the shoulder as they passed star, as his situation was a common occurrence to the townsfolk Gave their condolences was the only aid they can offer.

After a few after a few moments the Details of his situation sunk and he remembered his location. Pausing for a moment he sat up and took in the nearly empty room. Then looked over to his would-be savior, the strange Fox creature was sprawled flat on his back, his head and muzzle pointed directly upwards with his tongue out. His front legs and paws hung limply over his soft fluffy chest like a dogs when they are left in that position.  back legs were stretched outward almost rested against the blanket. Looking closer I noticed that his fur was covered in splotches of mud and dirt, likely caused by the rain and the storm the previous night.  

The strangest thing being the creature’s tails. Never before had I seen a creature with so many limbs in one place, it certainly looked like it could be quite aggravating. earlier they lay flat against the floor in a large fan like shape taking up the rest of the sleeping space twitching occasionally. The things almost seemed to have a mind of their own as during the night they had curled upwards towards his head the red tip of the center tail was less than an inch from the sleeping Fox's unsuspecting nose.


Sitting up from the table stretching and hearing the various bones click back into their original positions from sleeping in an unnatural position. As alertness came back so too did the voice of the previous day. In a moment of panicked worry Star rushed over to his sleeping saviour.

“Hey Mr wake up.” His plea had no effect on the sleeping Fox. Star shook him “Come on wake up you said you’d help” not even the slightest response. Bitter shuffled past with a broom in hoof clearing up the mess of the previous evening.” Nice try kid, I’ve been in the bar tending long enough to know that he’s not going to be up before noon no matter how hard you try, best just to let him sleep it off.” The wizened stallion returned to his duties. 




Sinking slightly Star looked back at the fox bringing a hoof to his muzzle in thought. For a moment an evil smile spread across his face leaving earning a confused look from the aged bartender. Shuffling over to the foxes sleeping form he pushed on the back of the middle longest tail causing the tip to brush the foxes nose.

Repeating this action a few times the caused the fox to flick his paws and part his jaws. At the wrong moment he sneezed, snapping his mouth on the tip of his tail in the process. In less than a millisecond the sleeping drunkard was awake and moving across the bar yipping in pain and yelling various curses previously unheard of this this world.

After flailing around for a few minutes waiting for the pain in his failed to alleviate the Fox came over to the barn sat down completely ignoring Star Gazer, "Oh man now I remember why I never drink." bringing a paw to its four head to stop the headache. 


Bitter walked past placing a bowl of salted peanuts in front of him "If anypony else drank as much as you did they'd probably be dead by now." Star sat down next to him which brought a slight frown to the fox’s face. "Hey what's the deal kid not sure my tails will forgive you for that one." No less than a second after Star had sat down one of the fox’s tails whipped along the back of the ear. The action had a surprising amount of sting behind something so deceptively fluffy looking. Turning said to glare at the Fox who shrugged in response with a slight smirk.


"Well hey I warned you, these things have a mind of their own sometimes." He said while looking behind himself with a smirk, obviously not holding the colt’s actions against him. He waved the tails causing a slight wave effect amongst them. Leaning forward he began to decimate the peanuts. Star gave him a once over the predator catching a glance at his sharp Canines as he consumed the peanuts.  He certainly looked much more threatening now it tongue wasn't lolling out and it was no longer slumped across the floor.

"I'm sorry Sir but in the noise and commotion last night with so much happening at once I failed to catch your name." Stargazer mumbled, with the effects of last night still raging through my head the colt’s words were naturally loud and caused slight jolts of pain adding to the already growing headache. The unicorn noticed and assumed the winces and grimace caused by his words to be one of anger and shrank back slightly in his stool.



Seeing the teens reaction and obvious wariness to my presence, I softened my gaze slightly turning to him "The names Ro'ord. Sorry for the ragged appearance, it's been a long time since I've any amount of alcohol and kinda went overboard on it. Don't worry I don't bite, unless you're into that. Once you get to know me I'm just a big huggable ball of fluff. So what was it that you needed help with so urgently Mr…?"

Watching the teenage Colts face go from alarmed to embarrassment in the span of a few seconds was priceless, he almost fell of his stool after realising my joke thinking of how to proceed with his story he looked up and responded. 

“My names Star Gazer. But just Star is fine I’m not sure how much you know about this town or its problems with the Black horn guild, they have been terrorising this village for years now and have started getting rougher with the so called protection money. 
With the town in disarray my mother and I have been hard pressed to sell enough to afford it. Like so many others before he they have taken her to ransom off more bits from any family she may have. The captives that couldn’t be bailed out are never seen from again.” A deathly calm Seemed to settle over Stars face as he related the situation. The acceptance of one without hope to continue. 

“I know there’s not much hope for her but we never get strangers here as the guild prevents anypony from leaving or entering unless they agree to have their speech magically bound to prevent them from speaking of what’s going on here. But you made it in somehow, please Ro’ord if you could just get to one of the proper guild’s and ask them to send help. Otherwise this town will not last much longer and their crimes will go unanswered.”


Feeling old memories rising of the disparity of my world a simmering rage began to build. “I know next to nothing about Equestria I came to this country only once briefly. A friend of mine I met on the plains of a different land came from here, she only mentioned few things about it. Isn’t there some form of governing body the oversees all wizard guild to make sure things like this don’t happen.?” Looking at Star with hope.

He frowned in thought for a moment “The government of this land has rules in place preventing this but they are directly tied to the funding of the country as a whole and the military and local law enforcement are stretched to thinly to properly enforce both domestic issues and the guilds themselves, and this towns police ponies were swiftly dealt with by Black horn’s members. There has been whispers of a magic council forming as a separate entity but that’s still ways off.” He leaned his head on the bar dejectedly. His head faced forward staring at the wall. 


“What with all the random dragon attacks and recent threats to the kingdom it’s no surprise small backwater towns like ours have gone unnoticed for so long with the main forces overburdened. Most of the help is diverted to the major cities. From what I know of Equestria's history we are relatively peaceful country, we haven't had any wars for centuries. Though every once in a while we are raked by some madman intent on the control or destruction of our nation. Guilds were created to give like-minded ponies the chances to form friendships and grow attain their goals and dreams, it seems the scum and villainy have adopted the idea for their own ranks."




Silence enveloped the conversation in the bar. 'From what I heard from Sky Fire and Phyron That Equestria was supposed to be a peaceful place where friendship truly thrived and one is free to do as he wishes and follow his dreams. From the sounds of it this place is no different from old world where only the rich and privileged living protection while the out of the way people are given nothing. 

I won't let this place be somewhere the greedy and the wicked prey on the weak. I might not have been able to make a difference in my world but I'm damn sure not ever gonna let this happen again not in a place like this' 


The air around the Fox became noticeably darker as his features tightened in pure rage, upon seeing this a cold stab of fear entered Star Gazer's heart. Somewhere deep in his soul he felt sorrow for the poor wretch that tried to get in this Demons way. Ro'ord slammed the paw down on the counter top only to wince in pain from his forgotten hangover returning with a vengeance.










Getting up from the seat shakily I stumbled as I made to leave the bar. Flicking the colts shoulder with one of my tails "Come on kid take me to their guild master, Guild hall which ever." Star Gazer got up looking shocked.



"There's an entire guild of them and they have powerful magic. Just what exactly do you intend to do?"  Turning my head to face him just a brief second those pure hatred and rage lingered in my eyes before they transformed back into the usual fun loving playful gaze they usually held, and everything and faded from my stance like a dream. Standing resolutely in a brief moment of stability, a few moments later falling back on my rump, gently rubbing my head with a for paw. Star looked at him thoughtfully.


'This guy is unbelievable, one minute he's a wacky prankster the next he’s like a completely different person. There's no stopping him. Might as well see if he really can help.' Looking at a nearby window Star Gazer saw that it has grown later in the day that he thought, "Oh no, it's way past noon if we don't get there soon then it won't matter what you can do that we no chance of getting my mum back." Balking rushing forwards and grabbing the Fox by the nape of the neck. The Running through the doors of the in leaving Bitter leaning on the bar with a rarely seen hopeful gleam in his eye. "Go get them. . . Maybe this time we'll actually have a chance." he mumbled.


Stargazer dragged his canine friend swiftly through the doors of the inn and into the bright daylight oblivious to his protests. Thankfully the town had endured the onslaught of the storm well and beyond the already destroyed buildings. There was little damage a few trees looked to be blown over, and a handful of them still on the edges of collapsing. Earth pony cruise with their basic knowledge of plant magic were seeing to their restoration.


The news had spread from the previous night while many of the ponies looked on in wonder at the town's guests none of them seemed overly fearful. The town ponies spirit seemed to be slightly higher than usual it had been a long time since they'd seen any fresh faces. One of the hard-working earth pony is turned to them.






"Whoa there youngling and . . .” Obviously not knowing how to address me simply left it there with a wan smile, causing a slight but unnoticeable sad frown on my part. 'You are prepared for this is always bound to be some tension between herbivores and in obvious predator no matter how kind ponies of this world are' Thinking to myself as the stranger continued.  


"As always there is a fine morning following a bad storm, where are you going on this day stargazer with your uhh friend.” fighting through my migraine took a moment to look around at the village in the daylight leaving star to deal with the as of yet unnamed stallion. In the morning light it looked much less depressing, though the buildings painted clearly faded and a lot less time had been put into the appearance of the town as a whole. While the ponies were in the daylight conversed and smiled there was a forced tightness to their motions showing that their hearts weren’t truly in it and were merely trying to hold onto something they all felt to have lost. 


Weeds were growing up through the cobblestones of the street which had also began to adopt a slightly grimy look. Many of the houses walls had cracks through the chipped paint and as a whole the town's appearance was as husk workers the pretend happiness of its occupants. "Oh we're not up to anything special Strong Hammer, we are heading to the town centre. There is some business for Ro'ord here to complete then he'll be on his way out of town" Star Gazer of the said awkwardly scratching his mane with a four hoof.






I looked at the large stallion with a tan brown coat and a black and silver mane, his cutie mark was a hammer striking something with various sparks flying outwards. Obviously the town blacksmith. "I don't suppose after my businesses finished here, would I be able to utilise the services of your forge, there some gear that I would like to make for my journeys that would be sorely missed" Following on which stars lie to prevent unwanted questions.



The Smiths eyes immediately brightened turning his full attention to me. "You’re a brother of the craft! It's been quite a while since we've had any tradesmen pass through here, I miss the days where we used to compare knowledge and techniques. Unfortunately, with the current predicament of the town I'm hard pressed to find new materials. Such is the right steel and proper fuel, lately it's only urgent repairs only due to the lack of material, apologies stranger." The stallion’s eyes look downtrodden.


A slight look of pain entered his features. I could sympathise as a blacksmith being cut off from doing what one loved and being able to explore new techniques, it almost takes the magic out of the job. Seeing the town and the ponies in such a state brought back some of the anger from before except this time it was more contained and directed.


"Well we better be going otherwise will be late, we wouldn't want to miss our appointment" said Star Gazer quickly trying to end the conversation given their lack of time. As we began to depart look of slight panic him across the Smiths face. "What I wanted to warn you of lad, two of black horns crew were seen entering the town earlier. Be on your guard eh there's is no knowing what they could possibly be after." After thanking him and shaking his hoof we left heading towards the centre of the town.




Less and less ponies appeared beside us on the streets as we grew closer to the town centre. Upon arriving I paused to look at the surroundings in the middle of the centre the town which everything had grown outwards from there was a large water fountain it was one of the few things in this town which are cared for and maintained, likely due to it being the public source of water for every pony.


The square itself was mostly empty with Two fillies cowering on a bench, shakily looking at squares other occupants. Only a handful of ponies could be seen peaking fearfully out of the windows of houses. Two rough looking stallions with the only others in the square. there was nothing exceptionally noteworthy about them the larger of the two was an earth pony, he had a dark grey coat with a dark brown mane and tail.





The second was a smaller slimmer but no less idiotic looking pegasus. His coat was a midnight black as mane and tail were a greasy looking blue colour and he was wearing what looked to be an eyepatch though likely only for intimidation purposes.  Around the fountain in the centre of the square were for benches that faced the fountain.


The two mares were leaning to the side of the bench the farthest from the pair. While yes the earth pony had a slightly more serious if bored look about him his pegasus counterpart had a much hungrier look in his eyes. He lay down on the occupied bench near the couple lying flat on his back, almost in a human’s relaxing position. Then using his hind legs, he forcefully bucked the shivering females off the bench, and watched with glee as they hurriedly sprinted away from the area.

Filled with anger at the sight, I picked up a small pebble by my paws, testing's weight even though such an action shouldn't be possible with my appendages, and tossed the rock at the pegasus who now had his eyes closed lazily. Fortunately, his counterpart hadn’t noticed us yet but he certainly heard the pained exclamations of his companion who got up from his seat tenderly rubbing a hoof over his cutie Mark was a grey storm cloud in the rough shape of the laughing Skull.


Immediately his companion cracked a smile at his misfortune. 'It seems there is little sense of, honorary or concern for your members in this group' I thought to myself with a slight sadness. Suddenly I recall that I hadn't had any water to drink this morning and the salted peanuts had only made it worse, my tongue felt like the dusty road we walked here on.  Star was oblivious to my inner pain chuckle lightly from my actions and galloped forward to confront the two.



The pegasus are merely straightened trying to look more professional in front of the higher ranked member while looking around for the culprit. The pair suddenly noticed Star Gazer running towards them they adopted he smiles as he drew near. "Now then boy you'd better had brought the payment that our master is so generously proposed. You don't want to keep Fell Fire or little Jasmine waiting now would you, it could have. . . Fatal consequences." The larger stallion barked in a gruff voice.




He unsheathed a small dagger with a warped wavy blade and a small glowing crystal in the guard, casually scratching his chin with the edge of the blade. His intimidation didn't deter Star as he pushed the stallion backwards which brought an angry scowl across his face " No! No more will I stand back and allow you to terrorise us we've had enough of you and we are doing something about it" Star said with a confident smile whilst looking up at the much larger enraged stallion. Upon seeing the two would likely take his mother his sense of fear inhibition suddenly disappeared behind his grief and anger.






The stallion was positively fuming whilst his pegasus counterpart was saying something about foals caught throwing stones should loose teeth to be taught proper respect. "And exactly are you going to do about us. Your pathetic towns ponies have no chance against our magic. It’s about time you learn just like the rest of your elder’s why you should never refuse us." the large stallion took a step forward brandishing his dagger.


Star took a step back his confident smile faltering slightly. He planted his hoof down on the ground sharply "I bought along a friend and outsider was heard plea and come to help." For a brief moment a look of panic overtook the stallion's face 'Damn, no way an outsider can slip past the perimeter. The boss will have our guts if he hears somepony made it through' the pair looked around. "Nice try kid but I don't see anypony with you looks like you’ve picked the wrong moment to brave up."


Wildly Star confirmed that his companion was indeed no longer behind him. Backpedalling and looking around the square he noticed the fan like shape and sway of Ro'ord's tails, the kitsune had his head submerged in the fountains water taking mouthfuls of the water at a time to quench is thirst. The two cronies saw this and began laughing and shouting about how their opponent was the town drunkard. 





Pulling my head from the fountain after that much-needed refreshing reprieve my headache had lessened slightly though I still felt slower than normal. Shaking to dispel the water droplets from my fur I turned to see Star backing away from a large stallion holding a dagger, standing next to him was a smaller pegasus.  They gave me the once over. The smaller pegasus I noticed seemed much more shocked my predatory appearance.

'Okay then he's the squealer and his big friends clearly the muscle.'  The earth pony shoved past Star roughly sending him sprawling sideways. Seeing this caused my anger to overtake me for a brief moment but was swiftly put back and check. 'Okay this douche bag goes first' I thought to myself as I smiled merrily sauntering toward him.

He strode forward cockily when he was about a foot away he opened his muzzle to speak. But before he got the chance to one of my tails moved at lightning speed and wrapped itself around his head leaving a gap for his eyes so he could see my smiling friendly face. "Nope!" And before he had any time to react, I forcefully whipped my tail downwards pulling the surprised stallion with it as his head impacted the dirt pathway surrounding the fountain with enough force to create a small crater. Said pony was completely buried in the ground looking like a misshapen ostrich.


He immediately began trying to pull his head out of the ground while his companion now completely frozen watched in surprise.  I walked over looming over him adding some red glow to my eyes. "Now then I suggest you tell me where your guild hall is." I said towards the cowering stallion letting all the hatred and anger I’d been building up leak through.



> Awakening
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The smaller pegasus looked upwards as I stood a whole head and half taller than him. From his perspective, all he could see was this large predator looming over him going dies fangs bared in a terrifying grin. 
The kid held for about three seconds only took a few steps backwards lifting his wings in preparation for flight. I noticed that he had two bands attached to the base of each of his wings. They were made out of a plain piece of steel with two small gemstones set into each.  
  
 'Similar gemstones to the one that the other guy had in his dagger' pausing for a moment I felt a slight magical signature that had laid dormant and almost unnoticeable when it suddenly it grew in presence. 
The fearful look on the pegasus’s face disappeared to one of confidence. In a flash of movement, he disappeared from in front of me the now glowing gems leaving streaks in the air.  
  
  Appearing on the other side square with an expected speed I just turn my head slightly time to see him smiling wickedly as he darted forwards. 
Using his momentum kicked me with both of his rear hooves lunging forward like a spear, I moved at the last second but was unable to dodge. 
Just as his back hooves made contact I went from a look of surprise to a slight smile, in the brief instant this all went down the pegasus noticed this looking mildly confused.  
  
  The force of his blow set in sending me flying forwards, for a brief second the pegasus had a look of victory in his eyes and looked at the position I landed on lounging on my back with my paws behind my head as if this was a relaxing day of beach. 
"Thanks for the help, my back has been stiff since I landed." With a relieved sigh as I shifted my spine causing the bones to pop satisfied back into original positions. 
I noticed a slight cringe from all the ponies present.    
  
I flipped back upwards into a standing position flexing my tails playfully. 
"So you guys use charged gems to improve the base qualities of a person or an object eh. Wouldn't be so bad if you bothered to get decent quality magic items but I'd hardly call you guys wizards, you're little more than amplified thugs." By this point, the look of confidence drained from the Pegasus's face at seeing his attack so easily thwarted.  
  
 "What! Nopony should be able to shrug off a direct hit like that. The rumors about wizards must be true after all" he moved backwards towards his companion his eyes turning towards backup while his head remained fixed in my direction.
 "Yeah, a real wizard works hard to master their own magic and improve their skills. All you guys have done is take a cheap shortcut. 
And you forgot to buy the most important augmentation if all you guys wouldn't do is buy cheap relics to try and improve your base abilities. Then you should have got one to give a stronger spine."  
  
  
The Pegasus looked at me with alarming his eyes once again shooting his companion a sideways glance. He backed up a few steps, the earth pony yanked his head free from the ground, a look of pure rage on his face. 
I shot a playful smile waved at him from the other side of the square. The stallion picked up his dagger and once again rushed forwards to attack this time wary of a counterattack. 
The magically charged gem glowing brighter as he moved forwards.   
  
Sitting down lazily, I waited for him to cross the remaining distance, he was noticeably slower than his partner.
 He paused when he was a few feet away keeping my tails in his field of vision, he jumped forward aiming slash at my neck the farthest vulnerable point from the swaying pillars of fluff when I roll to the side, his blade striking empty space. 
The displaced air from his strike was more than I expected and pushed me back a few inches.  
  
‘A strength enhancement eh let see how he handles this’ Using the air from his attack I fanned my tails out to catch the wind and orientate myself horizontally from him, moving forwards and jumping with my front legs at the last second. 
While Flicking the ground with the centre tail and kicking with my hind legs I landed a double back kick to the earth pony sending him sprawling. 
The force from the jump of my front paws sent me in an arc landing upright as the pony was sent in the opposite direction.   
  
The hench pony flew across the square and hit one for the benches, destroying it in the process. 
While he recovers and no doubt planned his next move, I sat down waiting still feeling a little light headed due to the heavy drinking my body still felt a little off.
The second I landed back on four paws nausea overtook me. 
I sat on my rump holding my head in my front paws.  
  
  
 There was a quiet creaking sound as the earth pony removed himself from the wreckage of the bench, his fur had a light green glow to it.
A green faceted jewel fixed into a pendant that hangs around his neck was producing it, suddenly the gem shattered and the glow faded.  
  
  
He hadn't suffered any damage from the impact. 
Pure rage was etched onto his face as he unsheathed a second blade similar to the first the only noticeable difference was that the guard on this one shaped like two talons pointing towards the blade, the jewel in the pommel began to glow brightly matching the original intensity.
The stallion sprinted forward slashing madly with his blades this time not caring for a particular target.
Pushing my dizziness aside for the moment I sidestepped and dodged his attacks. Now that he was using two daggers the strength enhancement was doubled. 
The wind coming from his attacks told me that he wasn't holding anything back.  
  
  
  
  
After I dodged the first few strikes and stepping backwards out of his range he switched the dagger in his right hoof to his mouth so he could move to pursue, Continuing the barrage of strikes.
I  dodged and ducked barely escaping each time with a smile on my muzzle. 
The frustration his face grew causing him to attack less rationally becoming blinded by his anger. "Just like I told your partner buying a cheap enhanced weapon to skip the effort of learning true magic isn't going to work against me," I told the earth pony while carelessly sidestepping his attacks.  
  
  
  
  
After a few seconds, the headache  worsened, Running out of patience for his feeble attacks. "You should really quit while you're ahead" he lunged forward attempting to cut off my head with a scissor strike. 
Instead of dodging this time but my central tail forward, for a split-second he had a look of victory smiling slightly at my perceived stupidity.
It was almost as if time slowed down his blades made contact with the fluffy red tip of my tail.   
  
  
Everything appeared to have stopped for a second but instead of the sight of his blade cutting through my flesh.
It looked as if the two forces had to cancel each other out then the strength enhancement caused the blades to snap unable to stand up to the stress leaving him with two useless hilts.
Returning my tail back to its original position I took a step back smiling.  
  
  The headache and nausea grew worse, lifting a paw to my muzzle uncertainly.
I  vaguely noticed the disbelieving looks from every pony present as I emptied my stomach over a nearby hedge. 
Once I’d recovered I noticed the stunned look on the stallion's face. he was staring down at his broken blade muttering to himself.  
 "Th-there's no way, what are you when the blade made contact it felt like I was trying to cut through solid steel!"    
  
  Smiling wickedly at the stallion I picked up one of the broken blades that he had dropped adding a red glow to my eyes as I loomed evily over the stallion who backed up a few steps.  
 "As if some badly tempered and poor quality steel like this could ever so much as scratch me, I'm surprised they've held together this" I said tossing the dagger at his feet.  
  
 I glanced around noting quite a few of the towns ponies had heard the fray come out to investigate, watching with wide eyes what they thought would never happen. 
The two members of black horn noticed this as well, the now weaponless earth pony sweating nervously.
'We can't appear to look weak in front of these ponies, or we might get others trying to rebel against us.'  
  
  For a second seemed that he might give up, then his eyes turned resentful.
"NO I won't accept this, this is our town there's no way a freak like you is going to stop us" he picked up the broken daggers and tried to draw strength from the dull barely glowing jewels suddenly they fled brighter than ever.  
  
 Seeing what intended to I step forward. "no You don't know how stable the spell is-" he stared me down anger and strain evident on his face "SHUT UP I'M GOING TO WIN THIS NO MATTER WHAT." the gems now glowing blindingly bright obscuring the stallion from view. 
The air surrounding us seemed to become slightly electrified causing my fur to stand slightly on and suddenly there was a small explosion as the jewels fractured. 

After the light dimmed down and the smoke cleared I saw that the damage had already been done, looking at what once resembled a pony.
The guard of the blade centre fused with his right hoof leaving to pointed steel talon-like objects sticking out of his flesh.
Shards of the blade were embedded in the skin up to his neck, down his left foreleg were shards of the jewels fused into his fur and skin underneath.
If he looked large and muscled before, now he looked almost comical.
His eyes glowed purple matching the colour from the gem shards. 

''Crap, a rebound this is bad' Glancing nervously around at the surrounding ponies I saw that his partner also had an equally shocked and disgusted look on his face. 
The creature seemed to have lost all coherent thought. Casting an illusion spell I sent an apparition of myself jogging forward the beast, while I fell back to Star.
"Hey, you need to clear these ponies back this could get dangerous.
" I turned back to see the illusion shaking his rump at the enraged stallion whilst flipping him off. 

"That might not distract him for long, I didn't put much magic into it as soon as you touch it, it will dissipate illusion."
Star stood there shocked-mouth slightly agape "but what happened to him?" Sighing I faced him looking him in the eye "It's called a magical rebound, it happens when you overtax an enchantment and try to bring out more power than the medium it's bound to can handle. Now listen, kid, these ponies need you"  

"I don't think I asked before, do have any kind of magical powers being the usual unicorn levitation." Looking at the teenage colt questioning, he glanced away uneasily.
"My family has passed down the art of heavenly body magic for generations but I've never been a strong magic user." He said scuffing the floor of his front hooves nervously. 
Pausing for a moment the name seemed familiar, but I couldn't recall it. 

"The names seems familiar but can't quite place it, just remember that in most cases the strength of your magic is dependent on your resolve so the only thing holding it back is yourself." His face looked slightly panicked for a second then relaxed at my response. 
"O-ok and try my best to keep the town ponies out of the way." Nodding at him I look back to the battle seeing my fake counterpart still harassing the mindless stallion. 


The illusion was too slow however and as it sidestepped edge of its hoof came into contact with the kind of image causing to fade.
The mutated stallion looked around stupidly trying to find where his enemy had gone, his gaze fell upon me.
He snorted angrily charging towards me with killing intent. Likewise, I ran forwards to prevent getting too close to the crowd, leaping at the last minute and turning into biped form using the force of the jump to my advantage as I landed a solid punch to the right side of his face. 

This brought charged stuttering to a stop, but did not push him back as far as I had expected, standing on two legs I braced forwards.
His body slowly managed to push forwards causing me to lose ground. Angered by the attack but mostly undamaged, he struck with one of his own front hooves, managing to block at the last second I was sent backwards if few feet.
'Damn strength is increased this much!' 


Recovering from his blow used sweeping attack my tails to knock off his hooves, as long as he had a firm stance moving him would be difficult. 
As soon as his hooves left the ground I scored an uppercut under his jaw causing him to fly upwards from the strength of my attack. I also felt something crack at the impact.
The force of the strike caused him to fly in the opposite direction towards some now panicked onlookers.' Crap too much power into that one. Stupid, bad fox. 
The point is to save the ponies not crush them.' Suddenly there was a flash in the corner of my eye and I saw stargazer move a lot quicker than it should be possible he was covered in a whitish aura emanating from his horn. 
He grabbed the onlookers and the stallions path and pulled them out of the way. 


The stallion continued his trajectory until it came into contact with a wall of the other side of the square which broke on impact collapsing over him leaving a pile of rubble in its wake. 
Though the rubble began to shake as the crazed pony tried to free himself. 
Using the moment of distraction, I rushed over to stargazer who now looked noticeably tired from his use of magic.
'Yes that's where it's from, he's using the same magic as Jalal from Fairy Tail embodying himself the power of the stars. Though it's noticeably weaker' stargazers breathing slightly heavier but he looked pleased with himself. 


"Okay we need to finish this quickly, I think I have a way of doing that," I said pulling pink Gem from a pocket that was about the size of an egg. He looked at it curiously.
"A long time ago I imbued this jewel with a space-time warping spell, it can capture and store any object of about a pony size and hold it in a sub-dimension. This guy will likely about its limit"   

"You know space-time magic? I thought all your skills were illusion based" Stargazer questioned. "Well, you see kitsune can learn and master many different kinds of magic and abilities. Beyond learning a basic space-time warping spell.
I didn't go any further down that tree of magic instead devoting more of my time to learn mastery of illusion and other things. The capturing spell is more effective the more the target is weakened" 


I turned around addressing the towns ponies "I have a way to achieve that every pony but it will require all of you to clear out of the way." 
Everypony looked panicked for a second and took a few steps back. "Might want to go a little further," I said turning back to the enemy as he extricated himself from the rubble.   

Now he was fully free from the pile of rocks he had a fair few scrapes and bruises though they didn't seem to slow him down much at all. 
Stepping forward to meet him in the centre of the square I noticed at the corner of my eye that his partner still watching from the sidelines. 
The beast stared me down his glowing eyes focused on mine, there was nothing in them but the desire for destruction. 


I Returned to my normal form. He was about two meters away, he let out an unintelligible roar, then jumped forward to attack. 
Expecting this I made my move, suddenly my body grew massively in size I stood just taller than the buildings of the square while the stallion was still airborne my fist and met him from above instantly slamming him into the ground creating a small crater and sending cracks lancing through the floor. 

The ground around the towns ponies shuddered from the force of the blow.
I returned to my normal size as the dust cleared watching the shocked expressions of everypony present. 
Moving to the edge of the crater I looked down and saw what was once a pony crumpled in a heap.
His front right leg was clearly broken and yet several cuts all over his body that bled profusely even so the stallion still tried to rise once and fell back to the floor. 


"That should tame you a little," I said withdrawing  the crystal once again, by now plenty of towns ponies are gathered around the edge of the hole to see what had happened.
The Hench pony Pegasus looked extremely nervous. I through the crystal down in front of the stallion. 
There was a flash of pink light that encompassed the stallion he was pulled into the jewel, leaving the gem glowing brightly on the floor rocking back and forth then it stopped and the gem faded back to its normal colour. 


For a few seconds there was nothing but silence, within the first cheers rose from the crowd.
This was the first time they had any reason to hope for a long time.
Sighing, slightly tired from the magic my stomach growled suddenly.
It was so loud that some of the towns ponies jump to the side thinking that the fiend had escaped only to laugh louder once they realised it was coming from me.
'I guess it has been over 1000 years since my last meal.' 

In the commotion, the pegasus tried to slip away. Stargazer quickly grabbed one of my front paws pulling me in a direction to pursue.
"Come on Ro'ord we need to follow him to their Guildhall and finish this." The use of magic and vertigo brought on by the sudden change in size wasn't doing much to help me recover from the effects of last night now adding hunger to the list only made things worse. 


On the way out the square, we passed a cart full of freshly made baked goods that had a remarkably survived undamaged. Pulling away from Star I moved towards the cart, "What are you doing we need to go or, or we'll lose him." 
He grabbed onto a few of my back tails pulling me away from the cart. "Hey come on I haven't eaten in a thousand years, and on top of that my fur is covered in mud from when I landed." 

Stargazer rolled his eyes and continued to pull me in the direction of the pegasus went.
"Stop being so overly exaggerating nobody knows where the Guildhall is so if we don't follow him we won't get there in time."
I surrendered staring ahead at the tasty treats gripping the ground with my paws and pouting at the unicorn. He proceeded to drag me until we reach the edge of town.
(I wasn’t going to make it easier on someone who got in the way of my meal.)
I could see the pegasus moving away quickly towards the forest. 

After freeing my tails from the colts grip I shook myself down to dispel any dust that gathered on my belly while I was being dragged along.
“Calm down we aren’t going to lose them, Haven’t you been taught how to sense magical energy yet?” The unicorn froze in place looking sheepish.
“No my older brother was the magical prodigy, he got all the attention from dad and was sent off to Canterlot. We never heard from them, that was seven years ago.”  

Pausing for a moment I pulled him into a hug with my tails. “Hey, you’ve definitely got skills you saved those pony’s back there.”
He looked up at me for a moment the bitterness on his face receding.
“The trick to sensing magic is to calm your mind, you are already half way there by feeling and manipulating the raw magic inside you.” 

He let out a breath and calmed down.
“Good now take the feeling of focusing on your own magic and push it outwards like a sixth sense the more you practice the easier it will become until you don’t even notice that you are doing it.” 
He furrowed his brow extending this feeling away from himself.
Suddenly feeling a presence next to him the magic presence felt cold dark and foreboding, Shivering slightly in response to it. 

“Wh-what is that coming from you.” I looked at him curiosity seeing that he seemed a little disturbed.
“Oh right that, you see kitsune are tricksters specialising in illusion and dark magic. Guess I forgot to turn my swag off.”

His magic diminished until it was almost unnoticeable, but before it faded completely there was a second signal hidden under the first.
It was only for a second but Star felt the intensity of it burning brightly, it was unlike anything he’d felt before. 

With both of the powers gone all that was left was the faint signature from the pegasus’s enhancements moving west.
“So, you know which way to go right.” Ro’ord’s voice shocked me back to reality. 

“Yeah, this way right,” He said as he walked in the direction the Pegasus had taken choosing not to mention the strange occurrence. 
I followed his lead and we walked for a time in silence. Until my stomach growled angrily. 

“So Ro’ord what did you mean by Haven’t eaten in a thousand years? It looks like you’ve been on the road for some time from the dust and mud caked onto your fur, I would have thought that you would take care of your coat.

You seem like the prim and neat type.” Looking at him frowning I laughed “The only thing I’m pristine with is my crafting because I had one hell of a stubborn teacher if it’s no less than perfect it go’s in the scrap.” 

“And I meant what I said it’s been a thousand years since my last meal.
I’ve been bound in a prison for over a thousand years caught between the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon. 
I was unable to move but strangely the magic holding me provided me with air and suspended my need to eat. I was finally released yesterday evening.
I took the express elevator on the way down.” 

Star gazer looked bewildered. 
“Well that confirms it, you must be crazy you would have to be to come up with all that.”
I smiled slightly at him. ‘Can’t blame him I wouldn’t believe it either if it was me.’
Suddenly the energy signature that they were both following disappeared up ahead. Causing both of them to pause. 
"Okay, this likely means that their Guildhall is up ahead. and shielded from magical perception, probably a countermeasure against any guards that may come sniffing around." 

"Now that the Pegasus has headed back into the Guildhall held truly tell the others of what happened. 
We have to storm the place now we are going to rescue my mother" Stargazer sprinted forward in the direction the energy signature had disappeared with the sire followed hot on his tail. 

About five minutes down the path behind some large trees and bushes there was a large stone and wooden building built on the side of a rocky outcrop in the middle of the forest.
This was simply built and decorated but it also looked sturdy.
'That explains what they did with all the ponies that weren't returned' looking to the side of the house if you a few metres away they appeared to be a large mound of freshly disturbed earth, I looked away trying not to think about it. 

Star saw it too and immediately ran towards the large oak doors of the building with renewed vigour.
Relatives against trying to push it open I slowly moved beside him placing a paw on the wood.
There was a slight resistance to it my paw didn't completely meet the surface.
"This door as a protection spell against it is no way you're going to be able to break it, plus you're going to need to conserve your magic." 

Changing to my bipedal form I gently shifted him aside with one of my tails.
"Don't worry about it, I'll just knock."
Raising my right fist and knocked on the door three times, on the third one putting enough force into the blow to splinter the wood and push the doors from their housings to go flying inwards.
'Seems haven't bothered getting any higher-quality protection magic, but the same as the gems in their weapons.' 


On the other side of the door, there was a large group of various different pony races each with equally surprised looks on their faces.
Several of them had been crushed by the falling doors are still about twenty-five in the main hall.
I saw the Pegasus we had been tailing disappearance are one of the back hallways they panicked expression on his face. 
Star gazer looked slightly nervous at the large group of enemies recovering from the initial shock. 

I strolled forwards into the Guildhall like I owned it.
"Hey, guys how health plan?" About fifteen of them charged forward pulling out various weapons.
the ones remained all seemed to have various ranged weapons, bangles, and bracelets that had cheap gems fitted into them. 
shooting weak magical blasts at the enemy. I decked the pony at the front of the charge sending him sprawling backwards taking a few down a tangled pile of limbs. 


"Apparently it's great!" Just before the barrage of magical blasts hit.
I spin around deflecting them with the spin of my tails firing them back into the crowd knocking a few more things down after a moment couple of them covered getting back to their hooves, this time, staring me down the caution thinking about how to proceed.
This time, I charged forwards aiming towards the back hallway that I'd seen the Pegasus disappeared into knocking any pony aside who stood in my way.  

"We don't have time to deal with them." Shouted Star above the sound of the fray. 
I looked back at him as we neared the tunnel.
"Don't worry, will be fine."
Star turned around just in time to see me throwing something of my shoulder. It was the jewel that contained the mutated stallion.
"Hey guys, I think you misplaced this". 

soon as the gem hit the floor it shattered in a flash of blinding light. 
the raging beast freed from its prison. For a second the monster just stood there as if the surroundings brought back some of his memories. 
Then without a second thought, it launched itself at the closest pony and began him to shreds.
While they were fighting their former guildmate we slipped into the tunnel hearing only the screams of combat at our backs. 

The hallway continued past the confines of the guild hall. 
The hallway changed from Wood and cobble to the natural cave structure it was lit by small lanterns lining the walls of the cave. 
It continued for about ten meters, then it opens into a large cavern.
It barely resembled a cave the floor was covered with a plush carpet and there were several fine looking cabinets full of books chests full of treasures likely stolen from the village.
There was a large four-poster bed in the far corner of the room in another corner there were several small looking cages, barely able to hold a pony. 


Most of them were empty except for a few rags. 
Near the bed was a writing desk and a large comfortable looking chair.
On which sat a dark blue unicorn with a white and red mane. In front of him was a small pile of smouldering bones and ash, and tethered to the side of the writing desk was a weary-looking mare with several bruises covering her coat.  

Seeing this brought my earlier and back to the surface.
in my gaze rose to the stallions hatefully meeting his cool empty eyes. He leaned forward to speak "oh yes, one of my subordinates just finished informing me of your actions.
Unfortunately, we don't accept failure here at the black horn Guild" he gestured towards the pile of ashes. 

Star saw the mare tethered to the desk his eyes instantly widening in recognition.
"Mother, you bastard what did you do to her!" The first time since entering the room stallion's eyes left me to look at Star Gazer with contempt.
"Well you see the boys and I go to all the trouble of protecting your little town against dragons and all manner of magical creatures. And when they felt they weren't receiving proper compensation for their actions we decided to make an example of her.
They may have roughed up a little bit" he said smiling cruelly. 

Star took a step forward rage evident across his face.
"And then you went and missed our generous deadline even going so far as to fight back against the ponies here to protect you.
Not to worry her physical injuries are not her biggest problem at the moment the poison will do its work shortly" who spoke again, this time, his muzzle turning into a wide grin. 


Suddenly Star glowed brightly in his whitish aura that he moved forward to rescue his mother tearing the tether from her neck.
I began moving towards them as well seeing the stallion smile turn to the enraged expression. As he reached a strike Star his armoured hooves glowing red hot.
I got there in time to intercept landing a punch to the right side of his muzzle causing him to go flying to the side of the room. 


Once he recovered from the initial surprise of the blow he stood up.
"How dare you, I am Fell Fire master of this guild. 
You just signed your own death warrants" he yelled as a reddish aura gathered around his horn which burst forth into a large pillar flames straight for Star and Jasmine who are trying to get to the entrance. 

Seeing that they had little chance to evade the attack Star tried to protect his mother. Jumping at the last second I managed to intercept the pillar flames before they struck home, causing a large explosion to rip through the room as they hit. 
"Ro'ord NO" Star yelled holding a hoof out helplessly. 
The room was filled with Fell Fire's laughter. . .  



Which died down there was a new sound filling the room.
In the middle of the burning room stood the fox his fur unharmed by the flames.
The fire was all flowing into his mouth until they were all consumed with mighty Swallow and a sigh all evidence of the magical fire vanished. 


I wiped the corner of my muzzle with the back of my hand leaving a trail of sparks.
"Thanks for the meal." I stepped towards Fell Fire who backed away fearfully.
Star once again felt the second magic that had been concealed behind Ro'ords normal magic. Instead of feeling cold this one had a burning warmth to it, but also an untamed savagery.
Walking towards Fell Fire at a slow pace.
"So you're supposed to defend this town against Dragons huh, well let's see how you fare. My name is Ro'ord Flamebringer I'm the Fire Dragonslayer."


> The first step
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seemed as if everything had slowed down, from Stars perception he could feel the new warmth and power surging through ‘Ro'ords magic, it continued growing until all traces of his normal magic had completely faded.  
All too soon time again to reassert itself, Fell Fire who had originally backed away in fear now strode forwards with a confident look on his face. 
"Don't make me laugh, there haven't been any true dragon slayers for centuries. It's a lost magic for a reason, I don't know what kind of fluke that was just now but if you really expect me to believe that you’re a-" he was cut off by the sudden appearance of Ro'ord's foot colliding the side of his face sending him flying into the writing desk shattering it instantly. 

After a moment, everything was still. Then Fell  Fire jump from the remains of the desk all of his former cockiness gone, there was a slight cut above his right eye with a trail of blood leading down his face. This time his expression turned to anger as he drove on the offensive, jumping forward with the front hooves ablaze swinging madly me trying to do as much damage as he could.  
"You know you remind me a hell of a lot of the people from my world, always preying on the weak, only ever respecting their own lives never those of others. What about your friend over there, he was your partner, one of your allies why did you betray him?" I said throwing him back already guessing at his answer. 


He looked at the points where his hooves had made contact seeing me completely unharmed from his flames unnerved him.  
'There's no way it could be true, my minions already mentioned his use of illusion magic that must be it, he's nothing more than a fraud.' Gaining some slight confidence in his thoughts he once again met my gaze. Then looked over to the pile of ashes with a smirk. "What you mean him" he gestured to his former companion. "He failed in his simple task, and then was stupid enough to run away. I always get the stupidest followers. He didn't even think for a second that if he looks weak it makes the guild weak. If any of those towns ponies get it in their heads that they can fight us we can have issues. So I merely dealt with the weakest link in the chain." 


Suddenly the temperature in the room seemed to increase. I looked at the floor in front of me. ' This guy is no different from the scum back on earth. It's beings like him that that made home the crap world that it is, At least here I can actually do something about it'. 
“that’s the wrong answer” I growled stepping my fists was shrouded with bright cyan flames. Fell looked uncertain, jumping forward I pushed him on the defensive. he side-steps the heat from my flames searing the edges of his coat slightly, proving that it’s no illusion.   


Despite his efforts, I managed to catch him on his front right leg when he attempted to block, the effectiveness of the strike was multiplied by the flames. His own use of fire magic had given him resistance to fire magic that gave him more protection than most but my dragon flames cancelled out the majority of it singeing his coat where I hit and leaving a bruise.  
The force of the hit sent him down to the floor where he slowly rose, his injured leg shaking slightly, his eyes hateful.  










“Come on you can do better than that! Is the only way you managed to keep your guild in line through fear?” While I had distracted Fell Star lead his mother to the tunnel and out of the chamber. I smiled now that they are in the clear I won’t have to worry about hurting them. Noticing that he'd been duped, he charged forwards on the offensive. 
“Let them run it doesn’t matter it won’t change her fate. they will never get past my men either way" 


Slowly Fell Fire started to levitate off the ground, his horn glowing brightly. He got to about head height and shrouded his body in a shimmering orange bubble like shield that shimmered and glowed in the light. 
"Doesn't matter how effective your flames are if you can't land a hit." He said as he levitated in his shield smug grin on his muzzle. 
Simultaneously whilst charging the shield he began firing at me with beams of magic foregoing his fire magic. Sidestepping his attacks, I dodged the majority of his magic but a few of his attacks got lucky striking with minimal damage. Glancing at the slightly blackened sections of my coat. 



'All right, enough of this' he ceased his attacks for a moment to recover his magic. I smiled. "Getting serious eh, guess I won't mess around either" the temperature in the cave suddenly skyrocketed, wisps of blue flames flowed around my feet enveloping my body in a burning shroud. The fire scorched nearby furniture and burnt away any reaming dirt and mud in my fur exposing the symbol on my shoulder that had been obscured, leaving it back to its usual pristine white. 


Stalking forwards with an evil grin I met his gaze, Fell backed up in surprise, his Shield hitting the cave wall. “Hey batter swing” my flames gathered around my fists the blazing intensely. Leaping forwards, I punched his Shield with full force, it cracked at the point that of impact the shield was launched backwards the cavern wall exploding. 

Star moved down the tunnel as fast as he could while supporting his mother. The closer they drew to the end of the tunnel the louder the sounds of fighting became. The sight that greeted the pair was anything but comforting, despite his numerous wounds the beast that was once a stallion had mowed through several of his former guildmates. Their broken and bloodied corpses littered the main chamber, several of the wounded had Retreated behind the few still able to fight, had Switched to using ranged magic attacks to try and keep him at bay. 


The handful of black horns guild members still stood looked to be at a dangerously low morale, several of them quivering in fear. The creature noticed us entering the chamber and then decided we were easier prey, moving away from the remaining enemies and hobbled towards us at a steady rate. The pain from his broken leg and numerous injuries barely seem to faze him that he moved noticeably slower than before. 







'I've got to hold him off to protect mom, he won't go down easy, at least is already weakened' Star moved and put his mother in a reasonably sheltered area chamber, then sprinted back into the centre between the monster. He then began infusing magic, his horn and body began to glow faintly with this whitish aura, the desperation this of the situation forced him to summon more magic they ever had before. 



The Black Horn Guild members rushing around to turn to their wounded and taking advantage of the momentary distraction to recover. The beast leered ever closer to Star while he kept pushing his magic harder and harder. 'It may not be as strong as brothers and give me strength and speed equal to that of a falling star. But it’s the only spell that I have practised, hopefully, will be enough to hold off this monster'. 



Stars magical aura grew brighter and brighter beast was only a hoof step away from him now. Lunging forward for the final blow, "Meteor" Star yelled as his aura stabilised, moving far faster than he had before he dashed forwards and landing a hard uppercut to the monster's chin. His physical strength had been amplified along with the speed force of his blow causing the stallion to lift off the ground a few feet. 


Taking advantage of this Star attacked again and again before he could touch the ground and Counter. Hitting as hard and fast as he could from many different angles. He continued this as long as he could until his forehoof’s ached and his horn burned from his excessive use of magic. Pausing to catch his breath the stallion fell back to the ground. He attempted to rise and failed falling back in a heap.  


The remaining Black Horn members looked on in shock as the enemy who had caused such damage to their guild was equalled. Star glared at them standing protectively between his mother and the enemies. The beast rose once again, this time he looked uncertain as he swayed threatening to fall. 


Once again star stepped forward sighing exhaustion threatening to overtake him. He focused his magic once again this time concentrating it in his horn. ‘I don’t have enough magic for much else, but he looks to be weak so hopefully this will be enough to down him’. Using the last dregs of his magic Star fired a beam of compressed starlight at the enemy.  


The beam engulfed the monster, Star felt his magic meet resistance as he struck pushing forward until it disappeared and certified the beam going as long as he could until his magic reserves burnt out and the torrent of energy ran out. In front of him the rough-cut floor way slightly scorched, the stallion had taken the worst of the attack and lay in a heap unconscious his chest rising and falling slowly. 







The remaining members of the black horn Guild stared in shock and relief at the creature. Most of their guild mates were down either unconscious or barely standing. Breathing heavily Star retreated over to his mother collecting her  from the corner of the room and began making his way towards the exit of the Guildhall. 


Some of the Black Horn members noticed this and those that were able to move towards the exit to prevent them from leaving. There was a slight rumbling noise and everybody turned their attention to the back of the room near the tunnel, slowly the rumbling became more intense than a thin web of cracks began to appear on the Stonewall of the cave. 


Suddenly the cave walls exploded outwards showering the room with rubble and strange orange shards that dissipated as they came in contact with the floor. Fell came through next landing amongst the debris, his shield had absorbed the worst of the attack. After a second he shuffled in the pile of debris looking up at the whole in the newly created tunnel from his back . 
A look of fear was etched into his muzzle as he stared into the black depths of the newly created tunnel. At the end of it there was a slight blue light that seems to be getting brighter, then Ro'ord came out of the tunnel his fists ablaze with cyan flames that burn fiercely heating up the whole room. Fell Fire stared at him trembling. 


"N-no it's impossible, how can a member of the Dragon Scale Guild be here.!" I walked towards him with an evil grin and piercing glare.  
"I got no idea what you're talking about pal, I'm just here to stop you from causing any more pain" 
he looked surprised and stood up smiling again "You know; you should really look more into who’s emblems you steal. That one on your shoulders the symbol of an ancient wizard’s guild. Been around since before nightmare moon was sealed." He looked around the room noting the state of the Guildhall and his cronies.  


"You may not be an official Guild wizard but your magic is still impressive. I can't have any pony around here rival me." He stood up glancing at the unconscious monster a few feet away, he lit his horn thinning tendrils of magic towards the stallion. His magic seized the faintly glowing gemstones around the creatures left foreleg pulling the magic out of them. The purplish glow left the shards leaving them dim in the normal state. 

The faint glow also left the stallion's eyes, his chest stopped rising and he lay still. Fell Fire's horn was glowing more brightly the small scuffs and bruises were slowly healing, as his body was enveloped in a light orange aura. The rest of the black horn Guild members looked on quietly for a moment then began cheering, happy that the enemies killed so many of them was now gone. 
The celebration was short lived however as soon he had drained the magic from the stallion he directed the tendrils towards them seizing anypony nearby quickly draining all of the magic from them through the enchanted weapons that they carried. 

The jubilation turned to screaming as those who remained all rush for the exit running from the orange magic tendrils. 
A couple of them using what little magic remained to break through the entrance of the guildhall widening the doorway so that others can escape out the supposed leaders reach. Those that had successfully escaped sat at the edge of the clearing peering in through the damage entrance to see what happened next. 


Those that were lucky enough to escape having their magic stolen lay where they fell, a handful of them barely breathing. Fell Fire stood strong once again most all his injuries were healed. His eyes had a light orange glow to them from the stolen magic. Star had also retreated with his mother had stayed noticeably closer to the entrance. 

"My fire magic may be ineffective against you, but this much raw magic energy-" his speech was cut off, which might have something to do with my flaming fist ploughing into the side of his muzzle. Unlike before he wasn't affected by the force of the blow and stood firm. 
"How dare you they trusted you with their loyalty. Their lives! They may have been petty thugs and criminals leeching off innocent ponies, but you are the worst kind of scum."

He scowled striking back with a magic occurring hoof, catching me by surprise as it hit. I took a step back as his horn charged, he fired a powerful beam of magic that hit directly on my chest. the beam ripped apart Natsu's vest that I was wearing. Tearing and burning the fabric leaving a ragged hole. the fur of my  chest mostly escaped harm only slightly singed. the spot that he struck ached numbly, there will definitely be bruising. 


The Force of the spell pushed me back several feet I looked up to see Fell's evil grinning face " Ha so it looks like my magic can affect you, I guess I’ve just got to amp it up a bit!" He smirked this time charging both his four hooves and horn brightly. Likewise, I fueled the blaze on my fists increasing the intensity and heat of the flames. 



Once again we jumped into action each trying to gain the upper hand over the other. "That was pretty foul smelling magic. The likes of which that should have remained sealed in the books after they were created. " I said whilst pushing forward with a right hook which he sidestepped. Switching tactics I kicked at him shredding my left leg in flames. 


He unexpectedly caught my kick with his left foreleg the orange magic surrounding it dimmed trying to protect his hoof from the flames. My flames burned all the brighter burning away his magic in a split-second he noticed this and struck forward with his right hoof attacking my side whilst trying to gore me with his horn. 

"Oh you like my leech spell do you, it was forbidden away by the princesses long ago but a partner of mine managed to recover it. It's how I made those enchanted weapons. Though it's taken a while to steal all the magic from these pitiful ponies that didn't pay up, they barely had enough strength for a single charge." growling I spun around quickly wrapping my tails together they burned with cyan fire. 

"You shouldn't have said that pal, now I'm going to destroy you. Fire dragon tail strike!" With a yell, all nine of my flaming tails hit him in the centre of his chest like a giant mace. He went flying to the other side of the room hitting the wall loudly causing several cracks. He stood up a large red burn across the centre of his chest while his magic feebly tried to heal the wound. He stared at me his eyes bloodshot panting slightly. He had taken a lot of his magic just cushion the force of the blow. The magic left his hooves and his aura completely disappointed all of his magic was concentrated in his horn. 







His eyes were desperate and crazed as he lowered his said menacingly. "Why won't you just DIE!" A small sphere gathered at the end of his horn, the orange light flowing into it as it slowly grew larger. I stood my ground "Trying to finish this with one attack eh, well then let's see which one of us is left standing." 


Inhaling deeply pulling a disproportionate amount of air into my lungs than should be possible for my size. He leant forward firing the ball of charged energy, a massive beam of magical power came pouring from his horn, headed in my direction. "Fire Dragon Roar!" a massive torrent of flames came pouring from my mouth. Accompanied by the loud roaring bellow of an angerd monster. 
When the two attacks met for moment it seemed that they were equally matched.

Then slowly fell Fire's beam was pushed back from the force of the unrelenting flames. The longer the struggle continued the faster it pushed back until as they hit Fell Fire, he was forced backwards into the hole in the cave for a few seconds there was silence and then a massive explosion of blue light with small wisps of flames leapt out of the entrance. There was a low rumbling sound as cracks Lansing through the stone as the already destabilised stone gave way. 


The room started shaking his bits of timber and stone began to fall from the roof. Towards the whole "Now you won't be able to hurt anybody, enjoy your tomb scum." 
I walked slowly out of the Guildhall as it collapsed. The building was now nothing more than a pile of rubble next to the cliff. 


Turning to the few remaining Black horn Guild members who had managed to get all of their wounded out in time there were many hushed whispers coming from the group. "That's insane-- I didn't think that guild had any strong wizards-- ah- a real Dragonslayer" their murmuring silence that I moved closer. "Okay listen up, now you've seen the way dark guilds operate, your master cared nothing for you other than what you could do for him." 


They will look down at their hooves in shame some with tears in their eyes and looks of anger. One by one they all took off their enhancer items and threw them to the ground in a pile. A swift click of my claws sent the pile up in a blaze causing several of them jump backwards. "Now the way I see it you guys got a couple of choices, you either go your separate ways and either join respectable guilds and learn some real magic to get proper jobs. Or you help this town that you've taken so much from and try to earn their forgiveness and maybe do a little bit of good" 


"Ro'ord come quickly she is in bad shape." Star's voice echoed across clearing looking over I saw that Jasmine was on the floor breathing heavily and covered in a cold sweat. Changing back to my bipedal form then transformed into my giant form. 'Damn I hate using this spell, takes up too much magic and am already tired out, no choice.' 
"All right everybody if you're coming to help the town hop on if not, clear out of here."

Picking up Jasmine and Star with one of my tails dropping on my back. I also grabbed the six or so former Black horn members as well as any wounded that step forward. I gladly notice the majority of the group had decided to repay their sins. Then taking off towards the town at a sprint clearing large portions of trees between each leap. 
"Sorry this is the most comfortable of rides but time is of the essence. And- Ouch hay watch the ear" the assortment of ponies had been haphazardly deposited on my back and clung to my fur to stay 

in place. One of them who had not been securely in position was thrown off on the first leap. He hung off my ear terrified, Much to my annoyance. 

After a few minutes travelled town came at a sight in the distance.