Twilight paced back and forth, her expression contorted into one of unease and a pinch of fear. Her saddlebags were packed, double checked, no quadruple checked for all the gear she would need for this harrowing journey. Spike adjusted his own little pack, watching her pace back and forth while munching on a shiny looking emerald gem.

“Spike, have all the students attended to? Substitute teacher Peachy Keen has everything under control right? RIGHT?! Oh Celestia, there is so much I gotta do before setting out, what if everything goes wrong while I’m-I mean we are away? What if the creatures of the Everfree invade and we aren't there to help?! HUH!?” Twilight sat on her flank, her hair fritzing out while taking rapid breaths.

"Eaaaaaasy Twilight! Celestia AND Luna have sent over plenty of guards to protect the town while we are away. With the amount of ponies in armor and spears, I’m pretty sure they could totally knock the teeth out of an Ursa Major if they had to!” Spike finished his gem snack, licking the flakes of green dust from his fingers before getting up off the crystal table..

“Besides, with all of us helping out we should be back to town with whatever it is that's been making the forest all wacky lickity split! I mean, we even got THEE Daring Doo with us to find this thing. The only thing you have to probably worry about is Dash drooling all over her hehe~” Spike snickered, his tail swaying from side to side. Almost as if on cue a rolled up ball of candy wrappers lightly bonked off the back of Spike’s head causing him to flinch.

“I heard that shorty!” RD called out from the main doors to the hall of friendship, with a very huffy look on her face. The pegasus had her own set of saddlebags, packed up to the brim with her personal supplies. Those supplies were not limited to preening oil, some Daring Do novels, junk food, and her P0N3 Pod phone. Landing on all fours the rest of the mane 6 would emerge from behind, with many packed up with varying supplies. Pinkie Pie had fluffy pink bags stuffed with candy, stuffed animals, and party supplies which comically seem to spill half way out.

Applejack snickered, coming in with an extra large set of saddlebags packed with various apple rations, but also tools, lasso rope, clothes, and a few spare hats which dangled from the right side of her saddle. “C’mon RD, we ain’t dumb…we all seen how you tweak like ah doggie in heat when it comes to her books! Reminds me of the time I caught ya with that Darin Doo pillow that one time-”

“Hey! You promised never to speak of that!-” Rainbow blushed, her entire face going from cyan to beat red in mere milliseconds. She shuffled from hoof to hoof, antsy and embarrassed to Canterlot and back.

“Awwwweee its ok to have a crush darling, I find such budding romance to be oh so charming~” Rarity swooned, carrying large trunks of clothes, mane care products, and practically half of her boutique in her magic. Hovering a stack over to Spike who at this point rushed over to help, dropped it into his arms with a soft OMPH coming from the drake. “Thanks for helping me with my bags darling!~” Rarity leaned down, pecking Spike on his cheek causing him to almost faint. He began mustering his dormant dragon strength to effortlessly begin balancing the luggage for the mare he oh so Idolized.

“I-I just hope that the monsters don’t jump out and a-attack us…like the nice guard ponies have been talking about.” Fluttershy whimpered softly, her saddlebags packed neatly with what appeared to be medical supplies and alchemical ingredients for on the road. “I-If so Miss Redheart let m-me borrow some of her first aid kits…!”

“That might be the case Fluttershy, from what princess Luna described, whatever landed from that anomaly has caused the chaotic forest of the Everfree to become more…unstable. From what I've read from the reports from these past few days, the creatures have been…changing with the forest, becoming more angry than usual. The natural barrier protecting Ponyville from the monsters was shattered. We need to find whoever or whatever is causing it-” Twilight was about to finish but was rudely interrupted by Rainbow dash.

“YEA! Then we’ll kick its sorry flank back to whatever smelly eyeball moon they came from! Haha! OOO! Me and Applejack can give it the one, two, wombo, combo! HIYA!” The hot headed Pegasus exclaimed, bouncing up and down excitedly while chopping the air, warranting an eye roll from both Twilight and Applejack.

“NO Rainbow, it isn't ALIENS, It's just some strange temporal, reality magic which messes up the magic flow…it's probably some mad scientist pony who thinks they alter the fabric of spacetime.” Twilight quoted with her hooves causing RD to let out a childish huff, sitting on her flank with her hooves folded.

“Like that makes any more sense egghead...Hmph…I still think it's aliens…” She pouted.

“Anyways, the princess has not only given us a convoy of the best trained guardsponies AND Daring Do to help with this expedition, but also some helpful relics that we will need to find the source of the anomaly. Lieutenant Flare if you’ll please?” The more Twilight spoke, the more at ease her worries were becoming, they got this, they got this all under control. Twilight motioned to the solar soldier just off to the side, allowing an alabaster unicorn in gold plate to come close with a navy blue box in his telekinetic aura. Upon opening the box it revealed 6 identical looking hoof bracelets with a glowing white stone in their center.

“Ooooo shiny!

“Oh my….”

“So beautiful, it even matches my mane!~”

“Ugh, jewelry…?”

“Ah agree, what the hay is this Twi…?”

The five other ponies either crowded around the box or shied away, finding various degrees of interest in the shiny box of relics. Twilight shook her head, levitating the precious relics onto the hooves of her friends which promptly clicked shut. “They are “Mana Aura Detectors”…or M.A.D as the lab ponies over in Canterlot fondly call them. They use Luna’s unique ability to see the flow of magic and project it when she closes her eyes.”

“ With these nifty devices we can find the distinct aura of whatever has changed up the forest so much! It’s such a fascinating magic device, it uses stones pulled directly from the moon, refined flawlessly into these stones! On top of that it was mixed with black pearl metal to harness the intense magic power LUNA herself blessed them with!” Twilight clicked her own bracelet into place, a star struck twinkle having formed in her big eyes.

While Twilight drooled over the bracelet, Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, moving it up from her hoof to wear as a choker, much to the disgust of Rarity due to her oh so keen fashion sense. Meanwhile Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie were testing out the ability that the trinket bestowed upon them, to varying degrees of success.

“Sugarcube, this is mighty strange…ah mean, it's interestin and all, but this thang gives me a headache something fierce y’know?” Applejack muttered, opening her now glowing green eyes. After giving them a rub with her hoof they more or less went back to normal.

“OOoooo! Lots of colors! Hey Dashie! You're all rainbow colored! Hehe! It suits you so well!” Pinkie Pie giggled, bouncing up and down rapidly, flipping forward and backwards while running around the room with her eyes shut. The result of course was her comically bonking herself into a crystal pillar. She fell back, clattering onto the floor like a metal dishpan. After a few seconds she would stick her flat hoof in her mouth, blowing herself up like a balloon, with her tail being the last to inflate with a loud PFFFFFT.

…Pinkie being Pinkie…

“Of course I am, I'm 120% shades of cool!” Now let's get moving and kick some alien flank!” Rainbow Dash darted out of the room with her bags jostling at her sides, leaving behind a rainbow streak in the air.

“RAINBOW WE AREN'T!- Ugh…never mind…Lieutenant, tell the captain to ready his men…we march to the Everfree in 2 hours ....” Twilight sighed, using her magic to slip her saddlebags onto her back. There was a soft jingle of her mobile lab equipment clinking together, test tubes, scanners, and bundles of quill, ink, and parchment. The guard gave a salute, marching out to extend her orders to the expedition guard. This further went up the line to the expedition captain’s unit of whom were waiting patiently near the forest entrance.

Standing with the guards was an arylide yellow mare, with an ashy gray and black mane, her hoof pointing out various places on a large map. Twilight approached from behind with her friends who had all finished their final preparations during the two hours. Clearing her throat caused the guards and the mare to look up from the map placed upon the travel cart they were using as a table. "Greetings Captain Smolder Spear, Miss Daring…” Twilight introduced, giving them a respectable bow of her head. The others did the same before raising their heads to meet Twilight’s serious gaze.

“Afternoon princess, I was just going over with the captain the most safe route to your approximate coordinates of this “Impact Crater”. Hypothetically with rations, camping, and minimal interference, we should reach the meteorite in about 5 days time. Ever since the forest began expanding again, it's been a lot more difficult to map.” Daring Doo motioned with a wing at the red marked route across her well made, topographic map of the Everfree.

“Just to be clear, I get to use any and all details about this expedition in my next book right? Just as long as I make it as obscure and fictional as possible, correct..?” Daring Do inquired with a sly grin.

“Be grateful we are paying you such a large sum of bits for this task Miss. Daring…-” The solar Captain would start only to be shut down by Twilight who spoke over him with an annoyed look.

“What the good Captain was TRYING to say…is that you are allowed to document and publish a fictional tale similar to these events, however in order to prevent any potential outer nations from prodding Equestria, it is advised you refrain from using any real names please.” Twilight said with a kind smile, while the stoic Captain stared hard at Daring Do, like she had spat in his face with her trivial request.

“Aaaaaaall right your highness, this adventure should be easy, peasy, lemon squeezy! I’ve never gone after a fallen space rock before, should be an interesting tale for the books when I’m done with it! Heh, traversing a strange, mysterious, horrifying, magical forest, with dangerous monsters lurking in the shadows? Talk about KILLER content…heh…get it?” Daring lightly nudged the Captain causing him to glare daggers at the mare. If he didn’t like her before, he sure as Celestia didn’t like her now after that comment.

“Onwards to adventure!”

—--------------------------

It had been a couple days since the discovery of the crafting system, and Jonathan had gotten a rather good grip on its mechanics. During his time at the lake he had learned a great deal of survival techniques in order to give himself a leg up within the cruel clutches of the cursed forest. AFTER he made himself another pair of fiber pants, he followed it up with a shirt, a shawl, and even a hood, making him look rather kitted out.

Further more he made his camp behind the waterfall, weaving himself a bedroll out of the largest Everfree palms which were thankfully hidden away from pesky parasites. Fishing poles, recurve bows, stone arrow quivers, and even a few coils of climbing rope.

On top of that he was able to begin improving his tools, starting with his stone knife that he had intricately carved with stone. It took a great trial and error, but each time he either failed or successfully made a knife, he would simply toss it into the growing pile of stone blades. Pwinx watched in boredom, groaning as Jonathan held up and began swinging another stone blade fluidly in the air.

____________________

Makeshift Stone Knife

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This makeshift knife is a beginner's best friend, composed of finely sharpened stone reinforced with finely twisted Everfree Oakwood. The blade itself, while not comparable to metallic knives, still maintains a deadly edge capable of carving most wood. Not ideal for combat, however it would prove a useful backup blade when things get dicey.

Material Requirements: Medium Stone (x4), Everfree Palm (x1) Cackling Tree Branch (3x)

Durability: Medium

Crafter’s Familiarity: 98 / 100

Combat Familiarity: 5 / 100

Mana Requirements: Low

Track Materials: Inactive

Combat Damage: E
Combat Range: E
Combat Speed: C
Enchanting Potential: F
Weapon Grade: F
Enchantments: N/A
Enchantment Scaling: N/A
Special Skills: None

____________________

“Talk about the grindset, mindset dude, what are you even doing? Do you hope to gain something from maxing out your crafter’s familiarity with something as basic as a stone knife? You could be improving SO many things right about now, like a stone sword, or a spear, hell, even maxing out that BOW would be a better idea right about now.” Pwinx groaned, laying back on the small rock beside a busy looking Jonathan who finished wrapping the Everfree palm grip onto his next knife.

The man had gone into a complete zen state, focusing on nothing other than crafting these damn knives. He was relentless, even as Pwinx waved a tiny hand in his face, which momentarily broke him from his crafting frenzy. “Quiet, I’m testing a theory…if I'm right, all this time will be worth it in the long run…” Jonathan tossed the knife back into the pile with the other. He just as quickly began withdrawing the materials for another stone knife from one of the open screens displaying his tome’s inventory.

Pwinx let out a long, bored, drawn out sigh, flopping onto the human’s leafy hood to continue watching his mind numbing work. The daily schedule was more or less cracked down to a muscle memory, with Jonathan doing nothing but eat, drink, work out, craft, eat, drink, sleep, repeat the next morning. It was a miracle that he hadn’t gone mad, then again Pwinx was starting to think that he might have at this rate. “Dude, just give it up already, you aren’t gonna change anything about that stupid starter kni-”

+1 Makeshift Stone Knife Added (98)…

+1 Makeshift Stone Knife Added (99)…

+1 Makeshift Stone Knife Added (100)…

Rare Skill Created: “Item Compression” [Desc..]

Makeshift Stone Knife

Crafter’s Familiarity

100 / 100

…Commencing Schematic Evolution Process…

Compound Makeshift Stone Knife?: Y / N

Warning, Compound Success Rate 25%

Pwinx’s eyes widened in surprise, watching the sudden emergence of the crafting notification box. Jonathan’s frown turned into a cocky grin, dragging his finger over to “Y” and pressed it. When he did, the imp frantically began scanning through his own version of the tome to look over this uncatalogued “Compression Skill”. Pwinx was also frantically trying to identify whatever skill his host was using to evolve the schematic in this particular way. Despite being the manifestation of the tome itself, this method of using his powers hadn't ever been observed, at least not by any of Pwinx’s users in the past.

Jonathan held the knife out, eyes wide as he watched the hundreds of knives from both his inventory and on the ground float into the air. Each one fizzled away, dissolving into gray particles that encircled the knife’s creator like a tornado. He raised the crude blade to the sky to get a good look at it during this strange process. The skill’s effects were beginning their slow toll, siphoning his mana, but something was off. Pwinx looked up from his brief yet efficient scanning to scream out, his smug and taunting tone turned to a look of absolute mortification.

“JONATHAN! DROP THE KNIFE! Your mana reserves can’t handle this yet!”

Arcs of purple energy bounced from his fist into the knife, all of the gray particles sucking into either flat side of the blade, enlarging it gradually. Power, Jonathan felt it surging into and from him in conflicting waves. It was like his very soul was being torn out and back into his body, similar to that of a fierce tug of war game. The pain, the unbelievable pain, it was like when he had first descended into this world, it was unbearable. His veins felt like they were burning beneath his skin while he desperately tried to hold onto his dwindling consciousness.

The heat, it was all going away, cold, everything was so cold.

The purple arcs brightened to an alabaster shade of white before slowly tinting to a fluorescent neon green. The electric arcs coiled around one another to form the outlines of twin serpents, both which bit down on the morphing blade’s hilt.

…Schematic Evolution Phase Complete…

…Compounding…70%

Jonathan fell onto his back, the arm that had been clutching the knife draining of its healthy color to a sickly looking gray. The flesh was withered, veins visible like thick tubes beneath the shriveled layers of skin. His twitching eyes swayed left, right, barely holding focus. The ringing in his ears was loud, muffling Pwinx’s cries of concern and…his words. Jona could barely understand, only vaguely crawling in the direction his guide was motioning to go. Inch by Inch he would crawl further out of camp, each motion more and more draining, with the compounding knife still in his grip.

80%....

It felt like the weapon was sucking him dry, making every thought a slosh in his melting brain. Jonathan’s face smashed into a patch of glowing, pulsating, and rather sweet smelling blue mushrooms. His milky eyes could only blankly stare up at Pwinx who was miming with his hands to EAT. This hunger…hunger…he was so unbelievably hungry, the void was not in his stomach, but his soul, and it's cold, unwavering, merciless hooks dragging him to the source…the source of fresh mana that his body craved.

90%....

Digging his fingers into the patches of mushrooms he began to eat, his teeth gnashing while his free hand sank into the cluster of fungal delights. He took massive indiscriminate mouthfuls of mushrooms and dirt alike in massive gulps. With each mouthful he took, more of the mushrooms seemed to regrow in the patch. Even as the sensation of mana flowed within him, it felt as if the knife sucked it out just as quickly. The gray warped, drained, and sickly flesh crawled up to his neck, a bad sign.

95%....

Jonathan had been shoveling mouthful after mouthful of the mushrooms past his lips, but the knife continued to bleed him of every last drop. This caused him to eat faster than the mushrooms could regrow in the fungal cluster. Pwinx was thinking quickly on his feet, scanning through countless menus in a desperate attempt to find ANYTHING to save his host. His glowing eyes rested on one skill above all the rest, his fingers trembling as he pressed the “accept” button to infuse the skill into the dying human.

Uncommon Skill Acquired: “Mana Vampirism” [Desc..]

UncommonSkill Acquired: “Mana Sense” [Desc..]

Pwinx pointed away from the slow regenerating patch of mushrooms, highlighting a small, trembling fox just in view in a blue outline. The poor creature was just peeking from the faint cover of the leafy bush. Its fearful blue eyes watched the strange biped who was eating both dirt and mushrooms at such a scary rate, shoveling handfuls into his maw. Its fear, its sentient, paralyzing fear…was its undoing, never even getting the chance to react when the humanoid let loose a warped roar.

Jonathan tackled the fox onto the ground with a sudden burst of feral swiftness, mindlessly grappling the smaller creature tight in his arms. The fox would yelp, crying out in pain as Jonathan sank his teeth into the animal’s exposed neck. His milky eyes pulsed a bright shade of purple, his veins glowing bright pink whenever he took DEEP gulps. With each loud, wet, sloppy intake the fox’s cries became softer, and softer, until it was nothing more than inaudible whimpers.

100%....

Compound Result: Success

New Epicitem created: “Fang of the Gorgon”

—-----------------

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Author's Note

Hello everypony! For those curious on what lil ole Pwinx looks like, here is a small picture I sketched up a little while ago! Next chapter will hopefully be a bit longer and more fleshed out, so stay tuned if your still enjoying Jonathan's series of unfortunate events XD

Pwinx!