Author's Note

ok here's the next chapter let me know what you think if you spot any errors let me know. as allways thanks to Jacknife557 for his hard work.

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.