Time passes by, minutes spin to hours, hours to days: 2 Weeks since Banishment.

Twilight learned through Misako that the town she had found herself in really didn't have a name, and instead often found drifters or were subject to... less than desirable outcomes. Other than that and the fact that not all the locals were friendly unless there was something in it for them aka Quid Pro Quo. While this bothered her that to receive help you should be able to supply the pony, or person with something in return.

She had also learned that this place was also under "protection" by the local warlord, who Misako didn't name. The only thing she told her was, if she ever came across anybody that worked for him, she should flee as quickly as possible as it turns out the warlord favored to blood eagle victims. Needless to say, Misako didn't need to go into such detail about it, but she did say that it was done often, and in the town's square to remind them of who they were under.

Speaking of the reynard, Misako had given her the option to stay with her since she didn't really have anywhere else to go, and she didn't even know the language, which the reynard had called it the "language of mortalis"; whatever that meant. She had also said there was another language, but she could not teach it as it was only available to those at the main part of the country. Twilight didn't know what that meant, but decided that it would be easier to stay here for now, as to learn more about the place before leaving to go somewhere else. Even though in her heart she wanted to tie Misako up and ask her every question under the sun, she didn't feel like doing so not only in her head, but also in her soul. 'It must be something to do with this accursed brand' she thought as she moved towards the 'living room' area of Misako's home.

While she had been resting, Twilight had been contemplating what she could do to pay Misako back. She didn't have a job, but maybe she could find one by searching for one in the town? That could work. Twilight decided to ask around the town, hoping that she find something that would allow her to repay the reynard for her kindness. She would have to act quickly though, she had taken another leaf this morning, and it's power would soon run out.

According to Misako, that was the power of what this country calls "The Source" or whatever that meant, and Twilight thought to compare it to magic, but instead of it being from one's own being, it draws from the land into the person, and allows them to briefly use that other language that Misako had talked about. Overall, she was excited about learning something new since it kept her mind busy, but she still had the problem with the nightmares. 'Hopefully they have zebras that can make potions too.' Twilight thought after she had been told about the main four species of the nation's populous.

First, there were reynards, who all were similiar to Misako, but all had differentiated tails and whatnot. Next, there were the reynard's wolf-like cousins (yes, wolf-like vs IRL counterpart.) called jackals that have only one tails and were more tribal. She had seen a few from one of the windows in the house, and out of the ones she did see, she could see what looked like runes carved up into their skin. That must have been what Misako meant by tribal. Thirdly, there were the ever elusive mylodons; who she had only seen two from the window. They were bigger than every other creature, not by much, but they all had a muted color palette, the two she had saw were white with a spine of dark black hair running down their backs. Lastly, there were Terrans, which were essentially earth ponies but they didn't seem to have the natural magic that those of Equestria did.

Twilight sat down in front of a particular well dressed terran, the pony wore what looked like a white suit with gold accents, she could also see that he had a thing for stetsons seeing as the whole room had some crudely made ones. The room she was currently in had been inside one of the more well looking buildings in the town, and even had marble. She didn't know how somepony could afford something like this, but she guessed they were a merchant. She had finally concluded walking through town looking for work, and had been made an offer from this pony after he had seen her magic, something about keeping order of shipments? She didn't care much about what it was so long that she could do something. The grey coated stallion began to speak, taking in a long drawl of a cigar before actually speaking words.

"Like I said, all the job is; is keeping track of my shipments and whatnot, and making sure that everybody that is employed under me gets properly paid. That also means taking care of when someone steps out of line, and from what I've seen, you could probably easily correct that. After all, we could use your help, seeing as the previous secretary was unable to keep up." The pony said with a wink.

Twilight was confused by what he meant by "correct them", but chocked it up to making sure that if anypony did something wrong, she needed to just reprimand them and tell them to do it properly next time. She also reminded herself that she had yet to know the name of the pony wanting to employ her, so she wagered it might be easier to ask him now since he had finished talking.

"Wait, you never told me your name sir. If I'm gonna work for you, I need to know what to call you." The pony eyed her for a second, remembering that she wasn't native to these parts. He took in a long drawl again, his eyes fixating on her like a predator waiting to jump a fantastic piece of prey.

"Well, I can't have my secretary not knowin' what my name is now can I? It'll make it easier for the both of us if you call me Gray, with a 'A' instead of an e. Also, that's Mr. Gray not just Gray. Now, how about we get you started?" Mr.Gray said while holding out his hoof.

Twilight reluctantly took his hoof and shook it. It's not like she had any choice, better to get a job so she could repay Misako, or go back to the forest... and she wasn't going back to that place.

Author's Note

A few notes for readers (and myself): Jackals are more wolf-like than their real life counterparts, and are slightly larger. Think that the jackals are all essentially a mix between having the structure of a jackal, but have more wolf features. (Can't explain it exactly.) These "jackals" will be referred to as Ashina in later chapters, based off of the chinese legend of Asena, who is a she-wolf that nurses an injured child back to health, and gives birth to ten half breed children, which establish a clan called Ashina.

Mylodon appearance are based off of FFXIV albeit slightly smaller to fit with the size of all the other species. After all, if they were the same size as their game counterparts, every other species would've been dead by now.

I did have plans to introduce a griffin type creature called the Hieracosphinx and even thought about introducing mini sphinxes like the show's canon sphinx. I ultimately scrapped the Hieracosphinx because of it's similarities to the demigryph, and I scrapped the mini sphinxes because of how less they lined up with the planned story.

Also, get ready to hate me for the time skips. Yes, I hate em too but there are reasons why their used. It's not like I'm gonna fast forward years, just months at first anyway. The next three Interlude chapters that come along will be set two years from each other. You'll figure out why.

"Small communities grow great through harmony, great ones fall to pieces through discord." - Roman Historian, Sallust.

PS. Do you like the name change? I think Cacophony fits better given it's definition.