Author's Note

Here you are, my friends, with a much longer chapter than I normally post.
Harbinger finally encounters his hunters, and in turn, they both find that they are prey to a greater threat. The lady of the forest gets her first true interaction and knows exactly what she wants.
cw: gore, and the everfree comes off as a little rapey.

Like always, please point out any mistakes you see, and leave a comment telling me your opinions, I do enjoy reading them.
Sidenote for those who like to point out mistakes, harbinger being referred to with them/they/their is on purpose and the reason this has not been changed from the male pronouns in Shadepaws POV is because she has not realized that Harbinger is more than male,

Provications

A scowl split my muzzle as a loud blast of thunder caused me to drop the sword I was attempting to levitate for the third time. The storm had started in all of its glory around four hours after I had sat down and began trying to figure out levitation. It was a tremendous downpour of rain, accompanied by lightning bright enough that I had to be careful looking up lest I be blinded for a few seconds. The thunder that came with each lance of brilliant light was so loud that the air felt like it was shaking, and some part of me wondered if the forest was feeding the storm energy somehow.

I glared down at the offending piece of metal that I had been practicing with for the last hour, the simple blade was the same one that Pegasus had stuck through my lung on my first ill experience with the ponies of this land. It was a simple blade though it was not made from a metal I recognized, it almost looked like silver but with a black and red tinge that made the blade look like it had been tainted with my blood. Almost two feet in length with a blade shape that reminded me of a Xiphos, the handle appeared to be slightly curved to be thinner near the middle and was made from some form of horn-like material that had a wrapping made from some kind of cordage. The pommel was cylindrical and simple, but had a pair of wings surrounding a diamond etched into the bottom.

Why I had kept the blade after it had been used to nearly kill me, I don’t know, but the blade was well-balanced and incredibly sharp. I hefted the blade in a telekinetic grip for the fourth time, with a bit of focused will I swung the blade through the air once, then twice before thrusting it forward in a straight line till it was almost fifteen meters away from me. Fifteen meters was where my will slipped off the weapon and my magic stopped being able to support the blade securely.

Figuring out basic telekinesis was literal child’s play, it was as simple as wrapping one’s magic around an object and willing or coaxing it to move. In my case, I imagined braided strings that wrapped around the object in its entirety. Unfortunately, this was not the best way to grab onto liquids, as I quickly found out. It took an incredibly large amount of both concentration and power to gather and form a basketball-sized sphere of water from the rain. If the books were anything to go buy the more I used it the more I could do with it. At the moment, however, I was stuck with one object at a time and a very simple amount of dexterity.

With a huff, I reeled the blade back toward me, its blade shimmering in my magic’s glow. It came to a stop about two feet from my face, I pondered the blade for a minute. My magic had so far worked against everything besides the lyndwyrm, the magical bolts I had thrown at the serpent had brushed over its hide like water. This blade had punched through my armor like it was made of butter, would it be that effective against scales? It would make a good backup against any other creature that might be resistant to the few spells that I could currently throw. I would need to find a scabbard or some other wrapping for it first, but I could keep it on my back leg and draw it with one of my tails in an emergency.

I slipped the sword back into my bag for now, then dropped to my stomach with a sigh, I knew it was a bad idea but in my head, I reasoned that I could probably find something to hold the blade in the ruined castle and frankly, I was bored. The rain was heavy enough that it was starting to drizzle through the willow’s canopy and I wasn’t about to risk my books trying to ease my boredom that way. It wasn’t like the rain was going to hurt me, and with my cloaking spell, the night shouldn’t be too risky for me to traverse as long as I was careful. I pondered the idea for a few more seconds before getting back to my paws.

“Castle it is then, maybe I can find a way to grab that mattress while I’m there” With a bound I leapt into the onslaught of rain and towards the gates of Haven, a tail idly coming around to slip my mask over my muzzle as I ran. The path to the castle was an hour trip at full-run, With the current weather I raised that estimate to almost two. The old and overgrown trail whipped past me at speeds that caused the greenery to blur, and I could only imagine that the rain slamming into my mask would have been painful if I hadn’t put it on before starting my run.

Despite my worries, I ran into no trouble besides almost road-killing a very confused bear, thankfully I had enough presence of mind to leap over the dammed thing. Now and then, a lance of lightning split the sky and would ruin my ability to see in the low light, something that caused me to slow as I entered the beginnings of the ruined city that surrounded the castle. Given my injuries, I hadn’t paid much attention to them last time, but the ruins were not nearly as intact as the castle. There were a few walls here and there, one or two intact buildings, and a large number of crumbling and overgrown foundations.

I grimaced as I reached the chasm and its rope bridge, my snout wrinkled slightly at a scent I had never smelt before hit my nostrils. It was an odd not scent that sent my brain reeling in confusion, a smell that didn’t smell. It was like someone had tried to copy the smells of the forest while erasing their own scent in some way. The scent started some ways behind me having gone unnoticed amongst the overgrowth and had only become noticeable as it crossed the old bridge, I followed it across sniffing and trying to figure out what I was smelling before some deep primal part of my brain began screaming at me that something was wrong.

Some deep dread shot through my body, a cold sickly feeling that caused my claws to sink into the old wood of the bridge with a slight cracking sound. Something rustled behind me and I heard one of the trees groan in distress as a heavy weight was pressed against it. The heavy gaze of seething hatred raked against my back like scything wind. I froze as my hackles began to rise and the fur along my tail puffed out.

Ears flattening against my head, I turned to look over my shoulder and scanned the trees behind me, Nothing. The rain continued to fall and the wind caused the twisted trees to sway somewhat. With the gloom being cast by the storm it was hard to see anything clearly, but as far as I could tell I was alone. Perhaps I was just being paranoid. I turned and started to walk towards the entrance of the castle courtyard before freezing once again. There was a light leaking from between the broken gates, and the sound of hooves on stone filled my ears.

I dove, landing behind one of the larger piles of rubble before I began frantically weaving my cloaking spell, it took me longer than I hoped having fumbled the casting in my panic but soon enough I felt the twisting presence of the magic wrap itself around my body. Peaking over the pile I spotted what I feared I would, a Pegasus mare was watching the bridge from just within the entrance to the castle courtyard. She was wearing a mixture of chain and brigantine armor that seemed to cover most of her body besides her head and wings, and I noted that her left leg had some kind of mounted crossbow, while some kind of long dagger was sheathed on her shoulder. The scent I realized was coming from some kind of paste the pony had rubbed along the front of her armor.

I grimaced, ignoring all the instincts that were screaming to leave as quickly as possible. I couldn’t go, the castle was far too close to Haven for me to ignore the problem. Straining to listen over the pounding rain, I realized I could hear the signs that there were more inside the castle. With a careful gait, I moved along the wall before finding one of the taller trees, with a leap I scrambled to the highest point that would hold my weight, and then I leapt for the battlements. A silent snarl left my lips as my claws dug into the stone, barely catching and sinking into the ancient rock of the castle wall. Heaving, I Pulled myself up and crouched to make myself smaller in profile.

Body completely still, I waited for any indication that I had been spotted or heard, ears twitching desperately trying to find any hint of approaching hooves. I waited a few seconds more before reinforcing my spell and standing to look over the edge of the wall into the courtyard. A silent panic began to stir in my brain, there were five, all similarly armored, sitting under an open cloth pavilion in the center of the courtyard. A number of tents told me there were probably more inside the castle itself, on the far side of the courtyard there was a massive two-headed wolfhound that was tied to a tree. I’ll admit I was scared, these ponies were armored in the same design and colors as the strange wolf-like mare that had nearly killed me in Ponyville and the only thing that stopped me from bolting from this place was the fact that none of them gave off the same predatory feeling that she did.

Still, it did not take me long to realize just what this group was, a hunting party. I wasn’t really surprised that one had been formed, the ponies had a long history of subduing monsters. Even if they had recognized me as sapient from the few words I had managed to eke out during our encounters, I was still a criminal by most laws now, besides stealing from the stores I had technically attacked a child and that alone would have gotten me hunted, even on earth. I was glad my spell worked the way it did, a simple invisibility spell would not have stopped the dog from smelling me and I could only doubt the scraping-scratching noise my claws made on the stone was hard to miss for anything that hearing even remotely as strong as mine.

Slowly and making as little noise as I possibly could, I began moving down the wall so I could get a better look at what I was dealing with. Not counting the Pegasus mare that was at the gate, there were three earth ponies, a unicorn, and two pegasi situated at the pavilion. I was at an honest loss at what to do, they were too close to Haven for me to ignore, but I couldn’t just kill them. Maybe I could drive them away somehow, except that would indicate that the castle was a good area to start hunting me if they spread the word I was there.

I was getting ahead of myself, I needed to figure out how many there were before making any plans. Quietly I moved so that I was at an angle that put me out of site from the rest and dropped into the courtyard. The moment my paws made contact with the cobblestones, I leapt behind a large section of collapsed debris that I thought might have once been an old carriage. I stilled as one of the earth ponies left the pavilion to investigate the thump I had made when I had landed, a frown crossing his face as he scanned the area, his gaze falling on me with an oddly confused expression.

I could actualy feel the spell working differently the other times I had tested it, The pony's gaze was like a constant nagging itch that dragged along my form until his eyes finally moved past my form to look at the ruined carriage itself. I held back a sigh of relief as he walked a little closer to the wall staring up at the battlements with an expression I couldn't quite place. Now I just had to sneak past who knows how many more and figure out what I was going to do about them all.

I had just started to creep forward in an attempt to sneak past him when that primal part of my brain began screaming again. My head snapped around to look back at the pony just in time to see his expression turn to one of horror and surprise right before a coiled mass of scale and muscle crushed him. A spray of blood and viscera splashed against my mask and startled a bark of terror from me. The lindworm’s gaze turned to stare directly at me, locking eyes with the beast filled my mind with a lingering dread that seemed to freeze me in place.

The serpent’s body uncoiled and the poor pony it had crushed nothing more than a pile of gore and bone. We stared at one another for what felt like an eternity seemingly waiting to see who would move first. Then a shout from one of the other ponies broke the moment and the lindworm lunged with the grating sound of scale on stone. I would love to say that my epic reflexes are what saved me, or that I had thrown up a shield, or some other equal deed of battle. In truth, the visceral sight and smell of the crushed earth pony had caught up with my brain and as my legs gave out and I began to vomit the lindworm’s lunge missed me by bare inches.

The sound of the other ponies attacking the thing rang in my ears, but my body would not respond. Whatever dread force the lindworm inspired in me when we had locked eyes refused to let me move from my place on the ground. I was going to die here, there was no point in running. The serpent would finish off the hooved pest and then it would-. A heavy weight slammed into my back and crushed me to the ground, the pain from the impact jarring my brain as rational thought began overtaking the panic the lindworm had implanted. Shaking I stood back to my paws and turned to look at what had hit me and quickly wished that I hadn’t.

It was the pegasus mare that had been watching the gate, or what was left of her. Her right wing was gone, torn off at the joint, acid had melted the left side of her face to the point that I could see her skull. A gaping cut tore at her belly and I could see where her intestines were trying to escape. Her ragged gasp caused me to step back in shock as she reached out with a shattered hoof and through the bloody foam filling her mouth, began to scream. My ears snapped down against my head as I tried to think of how to help her and stayed that way when I realized I couldn’t.

The shocking clarity of that realization scared me more than the serpent itself, I knew no healing spells and mundane healing would save the woman in front of me. maybe she had some kind of healing potion? I whined in distress as I realized that most of the outward parts of her armor were scoured with acid burns and crushed by her impact with the ground. It was an almost sickening sensation when I realized the only thing I could do here was allow her to die faster. With a shaking paw, I reached up and with a gasping sob sank my claws through the back of her neck. the mare shook and then with a shuddering gasp stopped screaming.

I stared down at the corpse resting underneath my now bloody paw, seemingly numb to the sound of battle, I had killed someone. With a feeling of slowness that belied how fast I had actualy done it, I stepped over her corpse and looked up where the others were fighting. Of the original six that had been in the courtyard, only two remained standing, a pegasi who was just barely dodging a blast of acid and a unicorn who had decided to put distance between himself and the lindworm tossing spells all the while. Across the courtyard, I could see several others who were rushing to join the fight with the serpent. Two of the forms never made it to the monster their forms became skeletal as a gout of acidic vapor caused armor to vaporize and flesh to slough from the bone.

I should have run, the lindworm would likely kill them all, I mean problem solved right? Except the mare’s screams echoed in my ears, I had killed someone. It may have been my choice to do so, but it wouldn’t have been one I needed to make if it weren’t for that fucking overgrown snake. This creature had attacked me, had hurt me worse than almost any encounter that I had previously had, and now it had dared make me do an action I had hoped I would never have to experience in either life. the snake needed to die, and if it killed me in the process so fucking be it.

With the thought came an odd sense of calm, my body stopped shivering even as I watched a pegasus get hit by a blast of acid his momentum carrying him over the wall as he screamed. Slowly I began moving toward the fight, picking up momentum with every step as my more logical side began to rationalize my next actions. I could run but that would leave the lindworm alive, sure the ponies may be trying to kill me but the serpent was the bigger threat, this would be my best chance to kill it. First, I needed to stun it, my claws would do little but there was a solid wall behind the beast and I was one heavy-ass fox.

The lindworm raised its head to spit a cloud of acid at one of the charging ponies and I slammed all of my nearly half-ton body into the side of its neck, with a loud crash the serpent’s head impacted with the stonework of the castle’s walls. My shoulder screamed in protest at the impact but I ignored it and began biting at the creature’s scaled neck. My teeth found purchase in the thing’s flesh and warm blood seeped its way into my mouth but its sheer size worked against me, its body convulsed and with a single movement, I was flying through the air. I slammed into the ground and rolled, even as the pain registered red crept into my vision and I threw myself back to my feet just in time to dodge the lindworm’s tail as the spiked appendage slammed through the air where my back legs had just been.

I tried to ignore the scream and messy-sounding squelch of the poor pony that had taken the hit meant for me and instead focused before launching a barrage of sickle-shaped manna bolts at my target. The impacts left gouges in the scales of the lindworm but barely dug deep enough to draw blood, then with a snarl, I launched another set this time focused on runes meant to pierce with greater impact, a series of arrow length darts stabbed through the air and sunk deeply into the lindworms mouth.

the beast screeched in rage before turning to spit acidic vapor in my direction, its attack was foiled when a large ball of compressed roiling air slammed into its head and popped with a loud explosion of sound. The sheer force of the spell shattered a half dozen dinner-plate sized scales along the snake's head, A quick glance showed a unicorn mare, bloodied but alive already preparing her next spell, silver-colored runes for sound and air forming in a matrix around her horn. Her garb was different from the others, with more chain and cloth than the brigadine that the others were wearing.

I paused taking a moment to catch my breath as the lindworm reared back seemingly stunned by whatever the unicorn had done, I could see that several earth ponies were taking the opportunity to attack the body of the monster and that one of the surviving pegasi was trying to take out its good eye. The rain was playing havoc with my ability to focus, it was coming down in sheets of water so thick it was getting hard to see more than a few feet in the dim light of the setting sun. A brilliant flash of lightning lit up the courtyard in time for me to see the lindworm snap at the pegasi harassing its face, only his upper half continued along his flight path trailing strands of melting organs as he went.

The lightning! Maybe I could? The spell circle burst into existence in front of me, runes for movement, impact, and lightning formed interwoven into a ball of manna that I pitched at the serpent with all of the will and hate I could summon. My vision went white as sparks arced over my mask and armor. I convulsed even as the sphere of brilliant arcing electricity fired through the air like a demented plasma globe, arcs of lightning hitting everywhere and traveling between the raindrops. It impacted the lindworm just below its head the entire beast thrashing under the electrical shocks, its screeching deafening me even as my vision darkened,

I heard it hit the ground and I gave a tired mad cackle, and then I heard it hiss in a sound of potent rage and pain. My blood ran cold, how? What did it take to kill this fucking thing? I grunted as my tail began sluggishly rooting through my bag desperately trying to find anything that may save me. Something wrapped around me squeezing and I let out a choked whimper as I looked up into the face of the lindworm. I felt my ribs starting to give as it continued to squeeze and screamed as several spines began to punch through my armor.

A choking gasp left my lips as a bolt of compressed air slammed into both of us and exploded, the lindworm snarled as the already chared and weakened scales along its neck shattered and showered me with blood. I felt its coils loosen as it lashed out with clawed hands at the unicorn that was some still casting spells despite being covered in charred lines of fur and missing an eye. I squeezed my eyes shut as I heard her scream and the sound of tearing flesh. I opened my eyes, “thank you.”

At my words, the lindworm’s gaze snapped back to me, but the damage had already been done. With its grip loosened, I took the opportunity to strike, I slammed two shields behind the serpent's head even as my tail shot out of my bag and shot forward in a piercing strike. The old sword gripped in its fur pierced through the serpent’s good eye like butter until only the hilt was visible. The beast froze, almost like it had been stunned into motionlessness by the blow. A half-strangled yelp left me as its coils loosened and I slipped from its grasp, air being driven from my lungs as I hit the ground. Faintly I heard its massive head slam into the ground before my vision went fully black and I slipped into unconsciousness.

Everfree’s P.O.V

She laughed, a haunting, savage sound that would send any sane mortal running in fear. She had known that the fight between Harbinger and the lindworm would be a savage bloody encounter, but that had been glorious. Such a desperate emotional battle had not been what she had been expecting, she had thought it would be some glorious trap that the fox would lay for the serpent or perhaps a show of mighty magic once they had become adept enough to challenge the beast. The rage and desperation that Harbinger had fought with had been beautiful.

The way the ponies had scattered before two great titans like mice before fighting cats. She hadn’t even meant for them to run into each other, she had allowed the ponies safer passage so that they might be slaughtered by the worm. She had hoped it might take what prey it could and then hide away until winter had passed, she wondered what series of events had led to such an early reunion. A small frown played across her face, why hadn’t the fox run she wondered. Harbinger may not have been the epitome of cleverness but even they should have seen the benefit of leaving the weaklings to distract the beast.

With a huff, she manifested herself near the edge of the courtyard, she took a moment to breathe deeply taking in the scents of battle. She smiled as the rain soaked her fur and marveled at how the water felt amongst her paws. How long she wondered, since she had walked the earth in physical form, with a fluid gait she padded her way to the object of her attention. The fox was large in person, if they were bipedal like she had once been they would have towered over any of the wolves. She leaned down and nosed at their neck fur inhaling deeply, blood, fire, and chaos such a delectable scent.

Harbinger's presence had already changed much, old bindings had begun to weaken with his presence, she had feared she would need to take over one of her children to do this, yet the fox's mere exitance within her confines caused the bindings keeping her bound to the heart of the forest to slip, his blood like acid to the wards that bound her. she continued to sniff even as she moved down thier armored form, a small pout forming at the fact that his armor covered so much of the fox's body. oh well, it was not the end of the forest after all. The fox aspect was still alive and none of the wounds had been overly fatal, for an aspect anyway. There would be plenty of time to explore Harbinger more thoroughly later when she had made sure the fox wasn't going to bleed out in this cursed place.

She ran a paw through their blood-soaked tails and giggled as they instinctively wrapped around her paw and foreleg, she had to wonder why the fox had so many. They were soft sinuous things that held a deceptive strength even in harbinger’s weakened state. With a longing look, she pulled away from the fox and its many tails, it would be so easy she thought, to take the fox now. It was the nature of the forest for the strong and healthy to devour the weak and injured after all. No, she thought, even as her back legs rubbed together to suppress the feeling in her loins. She wanted to experience Harbinger in their full. Healthy and strong, not broken in the ruins that once belonged to the two monsters that destroyed everything she had used to be. She would wait till winter when the fox's instincts were driving them to give in, they would have no reason to refuse then.

She watched as Harbinger shifted in his sleep, the image was certainly an appealing one. A grunt left her muzzle as she used a paw to roll him onto his side so she could observe his wounds better. The long jagged tears in his side and stomach had already stopped bleeding and even from here, she could tell that his slaying of the lindworm had caused him to grow in power. It made sense, the serpent had been the dominant predator in this region of her forest for the last century. The beast’s death would cause all sorts of changes to happen, The larger animals prey and predator alike would move into the region again.

She stepped over the downed fox to move up to the slain serpent, dozens of small insignificant wounds covered the beast from where the ponies had tried to kill it with their meager strength. The monster had claimed the territory from an old dragon that had not bothered to protect itself in its sleep, its arrogance in its size and strength making it believe that nothing would dare attack it in its sleep. She pondered if Harbinger would be lucky enough to stumble over its cave, while the gold would carry little value to the fox if he could not trade it, there were older more ancient treasures in that cave.

A thought hit her and she looked over a ways across the courtyard where the only living pony was choking to death on her own blood. She frowned, that one had survived this long? She pondered a moment as she stared at the mare. She supposed that one had earned her respect. Letting out a short bark she watched as one of her children entered the clearing before it approached the mare. A soft glow enveloped the unicorn for a moment, a brilliant aura of silver magic that cascaded over her form before she shuddered and went still.

She ignored the wolf as it ran from the clearing with a glowing orb of brilliant silver clutched between its jaws, it would bring its package to where she needed it to go without her supervision. She turned her head back to the lindworm searching for the hilt of the blade harbinger had used to kill it. Approaching its head she gripped the handle of the sword between her jaws and ripped it from the serpent’s eye socket. She dropped the blade on the ground and stared in genuine surprise. She couldn’t help it, the great wolf reared her head back and began laughing uproariously. Just where she wondered, had that damned fox managed to get a blade of abyssal silver?

Harbinger P.O.V

I awoke in silence, the only noise being the soft pattering of the now-dying rainstorm, I didn’t really move much just sat there and stared at the breaking dawn. I felt ... Empty, once again I survived something I shouldn’t have. Wincing I got to my feet to look around. The lindworm still lay where it had fallen, though why my sword was sitting propped against its head instead of in its head I don’t know. Of the ponies only corpses and gore remained, it seemed I had been the only survivor of the fight, no; perhaps that wasn’t true the body of the unicorn that had allowed me to make the final blow wasn’t here. With a start, I realized that neither was the dog.

Morbidly I noted that almost all of the standing water in the courtyard was tainted with blood and most of the little trickles of water were interspersed with just as much crimson as running water. I watched the streams of life-giving fluid for what felt like hours but was more likely minutes before the logical side of my numb mind took over. Stumbling over to one of the more intact corpses I began dragging it to the center of the courtyard, then with almost robotic steps I did the same with the next and the one after that.

It took me one and a half hours to find all the pieces and to drag them to the center of the courtyard. The pegasus that had fallen outside the walls had taken me the longest, it had taken me twenty minutes to find his body, then another ten to find the missing leg and wing. I waited a while after that, mainly for the rain to stop. I used the time to begin prying intact scales off of the lindworm, I knew I should have grabbed its teeth as well but I couldn’t bring myself to go near its bloody jaws. When the rain stopped I walked up to the pile of flesh and bone and pondered on what to say.

They had died hunting me but did that exempt them from final words? “I don’t know the death rights for your kind, but you fought well. May whatever afterlife you go to be kind and your next life be fair.” I sat there in silence for a minute before flicking a tail and channeling my fire through a spell circle designed to increase the intensity of the flames. The cyan-blue flames slammed into the pile and lit like kerosene. The smell of burning flesh made me want to vomit but I resisted the urge not willing to disrespect the beings burning on the pyre. As I watched the flames eat away at the bodies I wondered how so many writers got this part wrong. I didn’t feel some great triumph at defeating my enemies, there was no solemn sadness at the felling of the great beast.

I just felt tired.