Author's Note

Just a head's up, I have problems with switching tense and pacing. If that's cool with you guys, enjoy.

Chapter 1

“What do you mean, permanent post?”

Sergeant Webber looked up at him, eyebrow lifting lazily.

He finished signing his name and rolled up the scroll, setting in between them on the desk and looking up into Timothy’s face.

“I said semi-permanent. You’ll be there when anything attacks the city.” The sergeant leaned back in his chair, never taking his eyes off of Timothy. “You’re kind of their guardian," he said with a slight grin. "We would also like it is you could see your way into clearing some of the monsters from the forest while you’re in there.”

He tapped the scroll, flattening it slightly.

“If you’d read that, you’d know that this is a cake mission. The worst you face will be, well, however you much you want to. Anything too big, you report to us, we send to one of our groups. You’ll either be a watchman at this post, or a fighter. Or whatever.”

The man behind the desk shook his head, as though clearing it.

“And all that’s not very important, anyway. This will mostly be during your free time. The rest of the time you’ll be given work, as per normal. All we’re doing is setting you up a new base of operations…”

“In the middle of the bleeding Everfree,” Timothy pointed out, moving his long hair out of his eyes to look at the map he’d been given. There was a small mark off the middle of the forest, and a few symbols indicating proximity to Ponyville.

“Yes, inside the Everfree itself. But, not without walls.” He traced a small box around the mark telling Timothy where he was stationed. “Right there, are a set of ruins. Some of the walls have fallen down, and a little of the ceiling as well, but after clearing it out, you should be able to live comfortably there. Which is another one of your goals, to clean and rebuild.”

The sergeant chuckled as he looking into Timothy’s eyes. “You’ve basically got a whole castle to yourself, along with any resources requested… Within reason, of course. All you've got to do is take care of the castle.”

Timothy looked once again at the map, then the scroll, then back to the sergeant.

“Why me? Surely there’s someone more qualified, or at least in better position with the ranked officers? Why do I get the cushy mission and the mansion in the Everfree?”

The sergeant shrugged, unrolling the scroll to look over it. “Above my pay grade, kid. I was told you, I got you in here. I was also told to give you as little option as possible. Are you taking this, or are you going to become the object of whoever’s rage and take the job anyway?”

Finally taking the scroll, Timothy looked it over thoroughly and looked back at the map.

“So, this is just changing where I sleep at? I watch over this town,” a finger jabbed at the map, “and I’m off doing my own missions? That I assume come directly from you, instead of the board as per my usual?”

“Pretty much. Again, take out anything dangerous, and tell us if something truly big happens by.”

Timothy nodded absently, rereading the orders one last time before sighing and rolling them back up. Tucking them in his pocket, he looked at the officer now smiling, ever so slightly, smugly at him.

“When do I start?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Sonovah…”

Timothy jumped back as the remains of yet another door chose to collapse, this particular one falling directly for him. Cautiously, he proceeded into the room, holding an open handful of flickering flames. Feeding a little more mana into the runed circle inked into his palm, he looked around the room further.

It seemed to be servant’s quarters, not the first he’d seen but the best kept except for the door. The bed was hardly molded, although it dusted when he kicked at one of the side railings. It was mostly bare besides the heap that was now the bed, and a lone window faced the outside elements, the wood used to board it up mostly rotted away. At least one plank was completely missing, judging from a set of nails across from each other with nothing in the middle.

Looking at the stone walls, floor, and ceiling, Timothy tossed the ball of fire from his palm over to the wreck in the room, catching the bed and decisively setting up his room for the night. He dragged the door into the room and tossed that onto the fire as well, pushing the sides of the bed closer to the middle to minimize the small bonfire.

Unrolling his bedroll after kicking a few small rocks from its intended destination, he sat cross-legged on top of it and gazed into the fire, taking inventory of the bit of castle he’d gotten around to today.

He wasn't going to lie to himself, it was bleak. Besides a lot of rot, some graffiti declaring Bango Skank was number two, and some wildlife, there was stone. Lots and lots of stone, much of it broken. One hallway he had to dig out only to find nothing but an old kitchen, and another he'd left collapsed to keep the thing scratching at the other side in.

He'd tried to go into the basement once, but there had been a whistling of wind and a door slammed in his face. Touching the door, he'd withdrawn his hand quickly as the heat nearly seared his skin. Staring hard at the door, he'd retreated back up the stairs and found the room he was currently in, scratching his thoughts into a weather-worn journal.

Looking out the window, he saw the recently vacated moon had already risen. Closing his journal, he traded it into his pack for some chalk and cloth, and then walked over to the wall beneath the window. Running his hand in a circle around the hole in the wall, he cleared it of dust and the heavier dirt before quickly circling it. Pinning the cloth over the window, he drew a large circle in the middle and started lettering the outside of the circle, circling it again when he was done. Looking over his work, he thumbed away a rune and re-chalked it again.

Nodding to himself, he drew a seven-pointed star in the middle to connect the more important runes and laid his hand in the middle, thinking over the words and nodding to himself, slowly pouring mana into the cloth as he mumbled to himself.

"Saxum durum, mollia lignum, sit modus est autem dixero."

Slowly stiffening, the cloth turned a slate gray as the spell took effect, Timothy feeding mana into the circle until he felt it charged enough to last until he woke up.

Walking over to where the door had been, he drew a much simpler circle in the doorway, pulling out a tape-measure and setting the parameters of the door into the circle. A diamond was drawn into this one, and he pushed his hand into the middle once again.

"Leva," he intoned, quickly pouring his magic into the circle before snatching his hand out of the way as a thin piece of the floor slammed up to close the door, effectively closing himself in the room... and everything else out.

Kicking off his boots, he pulled off his coat and folded it carefully, laying it on top of his boots. Taking off his belts, he carefully set a long knife beside his, sheathe and all. He hid his other weapons inside his coat, as well as he could. Sliding himself into the bag, he set his knife in the space under his neck, arched his back a little to allow it to pop, and then allowed himself to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Timothy groaned, closing his eyes before reopening them and staring at the furry creature currently sitting on his chest. Very fuzzy, brown and grey striped fur puffed and spiked as it groomed itself. Almost rat-like, its body was longer and almost tube-like, with stumpy legs ending in large paws. Its eyes were blacker than charred stone, and just as hard. It seemed to be staring at him, even as it washed its front paws with its tongue.

"I don't suppose you're friendly, are you?"

It stopped bathing itself, looking at Timothy for a few seconds, then a minute. Slowly, it bared its teeth, opening a mouth that went far farther back than it should have, stopping where Timothy could have sworn its shoulders should have been. Hissing lightly, it just as quickly closed its mouth, and then went back to grooming itself.

"Right then," Timothy muttered, glancing to where his pack sat, unmolested. So far.

Slipping a hand slowly towards it, he sat under the mammal's watchful gaze as he passed by his coat, and slowly pulled out a strip of dried beef. Slowly he brought his hand up near his chest, meat sticking straight up, reminiscent of a baton.

Looking it over carefully, the animal stretched its neck, sniffing the offering lightly before wrapping its long tongue around the jerky. Relaxing his grip, Timothy watched as the tongue pulled the food to the tip of its snout, and then held his breath as the creature once again tore its head in half to feed the cutting blades that were its teeth. Closing its mouth, it chewed for a few second, and then swallowed. Blinking thoughtfully, it crawled its way up Timothy's chest, sticking its snout almost to his nose.

Staring him in the eye, it almost seemed to wink. It opened its mouth slightly and its tongue once again emerged, running the length of Timothy's nose as it cleared a line of dust up to his hairline before jumping off him and walking over to his coat to thoroughly sniff it.

Running a hand over his face to clear it of the unnecessarily sticky spit, Timothy slowly sat up and looked down into his lap, wondering where his life had left him. Tossing his sleeping bag open, he reached over to his boots, past the fuzz tube, and pushed his coat to the floor. Ignoring it for the second, he pulled his boots on, after making sure nothing else was hiding inside them.

Turning to the rest of the pile that was his clothes, he watched the creature as it watched him dress, noting it shying away a little as he belted his weapons to his waist, thighs, and back.

Stretching his back, he raised his arms to the ceiling and closed his eyes, silently thanking the goddesses for another restful night, and the fact that he was once again alive this morning. Following this train of thought was the realization that he didn't truly know whether it was actually morning or not. Walking over to the window, he pressed his palm to the cloth and released the spell holding it so stiff.

While it was indeed morning, it was only by technicality and it could have easily been midnight if not for the sky being ever so slightly lighter than the clouds that passed under it.

Stiffening suddenly, he looked down as the fuzzy tube ascended his jeans by way of claws, black hooked things of bone and razor. Hooked tips were the only thing stopping it from digging straight into the meat of Timothy's calf, and he felt the need to thank the goddesses again. Working its way up the sleeve of his shirt, the animal came to rest on Timothy's shoulder, opening its maw and hissing slightly into his ear.

"You're terrifying."

The creature licked his earlobe, and then went to staring out the window, watching the birds swoop back and forth. Carefully, Timothy reached up and scratched the creature's head, between the small pointed ears. It purred lightly and flicked its ears, and Timothy felt its tail twitch on his back. Sighing, he turned from the window and walked over to his pack. He stooped to pick it up, and then stopped, looking at his little companion.

"You're in my way, you know. I don't want to get your tail between a strap and me, and I doubt you do either."

It stared at Timothy for a few seconds, and then scampered down his arm onto the top of his pack, twirling a couple of times and sitting on top of its tail.

Timothy stared at it, then shrugged and slowly shouldered the pack. He heard the thing hiss lightly, and then felt it sniff the back of his head as he fastened the straps in front of his chest. Settling it on his shoulders, he looked to his left to see the bottom half of a furry head, and two stubby legs standing on his shoulder.

Walking over to the door, Timothy crouched and examined a large hole in the bottom of his impromptu door. Looking left again, he found the creature panting happily, staring blankly at the rock ahead. Sighing, he drew a simple rune circle on the door and tapped it in the center, crumbling the stone outward. Looking around both sides of the door, he noted a mass of muddled tracks all around the door, as though something had smelled him through the stone.

Something big, he thought, looking up at the ceiling and noting the line of clean cutting through the dirt. There's a line in the stone itself. Spikes definitely, maybe surrounded by fur or feathers for those softer smudge marks on each side...?

Moving his coat aside, he lifted the two blades from his hips and switched them with the ones on his thighs, checking their runes before he arranged them to his liking.

Fire and water, I wonder if my teachers would call me a genius or an idiot... Ha.

Looking up at the rodent, he noticed it was looking down the hallway, to the right, and twitching its nose.

"You smelling someone, socius meus?"

It jumped a bit when he started talking, and then hissed in the direction it was still facing. Taking that as his cue, Timothy unsheathed his knives and started jogging in the opposite direction, hoping that the thing was actually behind him, and that it couldn't sense him running.

He was only half lucky. Small shudders rattled the stones on the floor, and he increased his pace significantly. Rounding a corner, his coat flapped heavily, the heavy material lifting from his back as he picked up speed.

The animal riding his shoulder stared backwards, claws digging into an unfeeling shoulder. Timothy kicked off of a wall as he cornered, pushing himself away from the oncoming wall as he frantically tried to remember the way to the court hall.

Seeing it ahead, he had enough time to thank the sisters before something crashed behind him, sending chunks of wall in all directions. Mostly down.

Chancing a peek up at his furry friend, he paled when he saw that the teeth were showing once again, tiny sabers bared in a lasting snarl. Snapping his attention back to the front, he leaned forward and poured energy into his pumping arms and legs. A pulsating roar shook the air and stone surrounding him, shocking him at the volume of it. Reaching out a hand, he gripped for the frame of the door...

And caught it with his fingertips, wrenching it and slamming himself into the wall beside it, praying that the thing behind him couldn't match the turn. It couldn't, not on the two paws it was currently running on. Slamming into a pillar, dust and falling stones obscured it from Timothy's eyes.

Jumping onto the top of another decrepit pillar, Timothy drew his knives, Ignis and Aquae, and attached them to two pieces of rubber tubing that lead into his coat.

The creature stood, shaking its scaly head and roaring again, splitting its head sideways and showcasing its own ivory. The teeth seemed to pulse, moving anything closer to the throat of the monster's neck. Closing its mouth allowed Timothy to see its black eyes, clouded with what looked like white veins. All ten seemed to be rolling in their sockets, and the monster had to turn its green and brown head to the side to look up at Timothy, its nose flaring as it caught sight and scent. It currently stood on six legs, the two closest to its back clearly its main set. The muscles strained beneath its skin as it rose to just these hind legs, balancing itself with a long, feathered tail that ended in a long bone spike. Almost a sword, really, seeing as it seemed sharpened on two sides.

Its four arms waved in the air as it once again roared at Timothy, showing him his intended grave.

"I really wish Graves were here," Timothy muttered before jumping from his pillar, to the next one over. Looking up, he looked to the ceiling for salvation in the way of a hole to another floor. Seeing one promising one, he crouched to prepare his jump over to the next pillar in his way, only to find his sight overtaken by teeth and scales as the large creature easily leapt from the floor to the top of the next pillar, teetering dangerously before adjusting to its new perch.

Timothy had time enough to curse once before the tail wiped around to catch his curled arm, swatting him from the top of his pillar and across the room into a wall. Sliding down the wall along with a few loosened pebbles, Timothy hit the floor on his feet and quickly tottered to his knees, sitting on his legs and breathing deeply. Again a shaking announced the terror's descent, and Timothy lifted his head to see it slowly walking over to where he was, on all six legs. It still eyed him, and he finally noticed the five eyes on the front of its snout, three having been apparently scratched out over time.

Well, I need to at least make my mark... Timothy remarked to himself, feeling a slightly hysterical laugh bubbling in his head. Shaking the laughter away, he shakily retook his legs and lifting Ignis and Aquae, siphoning some of his magic into them.

The terror's steps seemed to slow for a second, but then it stood on its hind legs and continued forward, quickly gaining speed as it spread its jaws.

Waiting until the thing was almost to him, Timothy dropped to his knees and swung, near screaming the names of his duel knives as he sliced forward.

Ignis burst into blue flame, crackling madly as he focused magic into its straight edge, turning the thin line into plasma.

Meanwhile, Aquae seemed to turn ice cold, collecting water to the surface of the blade, where it begun to cycle in a loop over the blade, speeding up as time went on, large ice crystals forming and spinning over the blade.

It was lucky that it sped quickly, as both Aquae and Ignis connected with the creature's front four arms, unluckily clustered around the same spot. They passed through with a moderate amount of pressure, the blades both quickly losing power as Timothy stopped concentrating on them and concentrated on keeping his head, which was quickly being enclosed in teeth.

Luckily for his head, but not so much for his ears, the creature noticed immediately when the knives made contact with flesh and loosed a pained screech as it raised its body, now with two holes, away from the marshal.

Looking up, Timothy pushed off with his left leg and rolled away from his current position, which become extremely occupied by the creature's chin smashing into the stone he had been sitting on.

As he rolled he unclipped Ignis, letting it fall as he clipped the knife that occupied the holster below.

Scrapping it along the ground as he rolled, he collected dirt as he rolled, moving as close to a pile of earth as he could. Looking up, he saw the creature once again running to him, head low and mouth wide as it charged.

Grinning, he spoke.

"Terrus, crystal."

Whipping it forward, he let the ground grow rigid as it crystallized along the blade, growing from thirty centimeters to two meters. Letting Aquae fall, he took the large crystal in both hands and held it over this head, slicing it down between the lizard's jaws. The jagged crystal cracked, but it sliced through to the creature’s stomach and a little further, the reeking scent of its bile and bowels hitting Timothy in the face.

He quickly jumped from between the jaws, watching carefully as the muscles in the neck tensed and the legs still tried to scrabble for purchase. Shivering, the creature stopped moving, its eyes still tracking Timothy as he moved over to a pillar to throw up on it. Moving back over to the terror, Timothy wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before taking his knees beside the monstrous head.

They shared a gaze for a minute, than Timothy moved his hand to wipe away a white trickle that could only be tears. Keeping that hand on the thing, he moved down to where its ribs were, finding its heart. Taking a deep breath, he drew his fourth knife, a double sided hollow dagger named Aer, and plunged it between the beast's ribs. Taking a last shuddering breath, the beast breathed out a last flood of ivory colored blood before stopping forever.

Wiping his knife on the thing's hide, he walked over to where he had dropped Ignis, sheathing the other knives he still had connected to his coat on the way. Picking up his knife and glancing over it, he noted a scratch before sheathing it as well. Walking over to a clean pillar, he sat leaned against it and stared at the beast, starting and drawing Terra when he felt something brush against his leg.

He sheathed it when he saw what it was, and beckoned the furry thing to climb up his shoulder.

"Socia," he muttered aloud, naming it on the spot, "There aren't any more of those, are there?"

Socia sneezed and lay it's head on its paws, seeming to go to sleep.

"Okay," Timothy sighed, and then continued with his study of the monstrosity as the day grew older.