Author's Note

Alright here folks it's even a little early, that being said the next chapter might be a bit as my schedule for the next two weeks is a little full. I apologize for that.

I also apologize for the fact that my grammar and spelling may be a little fucked, as Grammarly had a fucking stroke while I was writing this.

Furthermore, I did try something new in the form of another character's POV as I don't usually do that, I'm also sure some of you will have noticed some changes in the layout of the library this was on purpose and is mainly based on the fact of how it looks from outside and that it has a powerful magic user living in it.

Oh, and I gave the town that's constantly under attack and is directly next to the monster filled forest some guards.

Else than that, while you enjoy please leave a comment if you see an error or just because you want to, I enjoy reading your guy's opinions and jokes.

Confrontations

My foray into town was quiet, I could've sworn that I had seen movement from a distance but up close there didn't seem to be a single soul up and about the surprisingly pastel town. It reminded me of those happy illustrated villages that the protagonist heroes in children's stories hail from, the kind of idyllic perfect home that always gets burnt down in a tragic backstory. Thankfully i wasn't here as a big bad monster or this place would be asking for it.

When I saw the bakery made to look like a gingerbread house I probably looked like a fool, my mouth hung open and I was struck by the sheer ridiculousness of it, it confirmed for me that this world was probably a high fantasy of some kind though, a gingerbread bakery just didn't fit into the atmosphere of something like GoT or LOTR though it could find a great many places in DND if I could keep the players from taking chunks of it as travel rations.

The quiet ambiance of birdcall mixed with utter silence however transformed it to have a ghost town feel, where were all of the people. Had something happened that had caused them to flee? I saw some things that would indicate a hurried escape. An apple stand that was still full of fresh apples, a scooter left in the middle of the street, and a little cafe that had outside tables, some of which still had food on plates. Wait, was that sandwich made of flowers?

It was indeed a flower sandwich, one that I ate without a second thought, technically stealing I know, but it had bread and I was tired of raw meat and fruits. Oddly the flowers didn't taste all that bad, to be honest, the taste was similar to grass if I had to describe it. Maybe I could have someone make me a dandelion salad later. It had been a few years since I had last had one, granted I couldn't remember who it had been that had made it.

A loud clang caught my attention as I entered the area near the town square a resonating sound of metal hitting stone. My ears flicked trying to pinpoint the noise, my new senses had taken some getting used to, but my ability to know where a noise came from with almost pinpoint accuracy still surprised me. Idly I sniffed the air the lingering scents flooding into my nostrils like water through a strainer, individual streams from the same source.

The scent of freshly baked bread, ripe fruit, and an oddly overwhelming smell of, livestock? The scent tickled the back of my mind connecting scents to memories in a way my old self simply couldn't. The smell reminded me of horses somehow, it didn't smell bad, more like that underlying smell you associate with things that have fur, but cleaner like an animal that regularly bathes with soap. Maybe the townsfolk were all beastfolk of some kind. Hmm, when was the last time I had properly bathed? Having solved the mystery of my nose I began moving to where I heard the noise.

There between a pair of houses near a massive-looking oak tree that seemingly had a house carved into it was a metal bucket, a steel pail. There was nothing unique about its appearance but it was simply rocking back and forth on the ground as if someone had dropped it. Sniffing the inconspicuous piece of metal I caught a unique scent off of it. A mixture of that horse smell mixed with feathers and, oil I think.

It trailed off behind me towards the door of a nearby house, a simple two-story building with a small smithy attached to the side that one might find in any stereotypical town or large village, following the trail I looked at the admittedly small, at least compared to me door, and raised my paw to knock. Wait did that sign say library? My paw slowly returned to its place on the ground. My autism getting the better of me I completely forgot about the scent and bucket. The Golden Oak library, it was in a tree? That was kinda ironic, wasn't it?

A library meant books, books meant common knowledge, and common knowledge meant no awkward conversations with the locals trying to give my giant self directions. I quickly strode from the house to the library door. It was a large oak door that was surprisingly big compared to the house door I had just been at. Big enough that I should be able to fit through it as long as I duck. Should I knock? Nah it was a public library after all, who knocked on a public library?

Coalfeather's p.o.v

He had just finished dropping off a bucket of nails to Sweet Apple Acers when he spotted it, some giant fox-like creature wearing bloodstained armor and a mask, oh Celestia its mask. The white bloodstained porcelain overlayed with a snarling leer, a facade of what must lay underneath, its visage sent shivers down his spine some unnatural force telling him that it was aimed at him. A promise of bloody mischief and chaos.

The creature had stalked out of the shadows of the Everfree, its form moving with a predator's grace, gaze locked on the sign next to the path it was traveling. He had had both the misfortune and fortune of being downwind of where the beast had stopped, the heavy metallic stench of blood washing over him from the creature's armor as it stopped to leer at the ponyville's welcome sign a hellish bark of glee erupting from it as it read the words written there.

He had to warn the others, they needed to hide, the creature was obviously not here with any good intentions being both a predator and being dressed in blood-stained armor. He remembered his grandfather's half-crazed warnings from the war with the griffons. He flapped his wings as hard as he could and flew high over the thing's head, hoping the altitude would stop it from spotting him. The edge of the village proper was only three-quarters of a mile away.

Coalfeather sped into the village shouting at the top of his lungs, "monster, a monster from the Everfree, hide quickly."
There was chaos as the ponies quickly fled from what they were doing, most going to the large storm cellar at Sugarcube Corner, others hiding in their homes with window blinds shut. He did a few flybys of the other parts of the village making sure the message was spread before landing In the alley near his house and forge just out of sight of the town square. He put down his bucket and rounded the corner only to jump back with a gasp and a loud bang as he kicked the bucket.

"Buck, it's in the Celestia dammed square." with a flutter of rapid movement on his part he lunged for his door and quickly closed it behind him. Closing the window shutters in a hurry and locking the door hoping the creature wouldn't be smart enough to try breaking the windows.

Quietly he put his ear to the wood to listen. It was silent at first, then he began to hear it, the soft clicking of claws on cobblestone, the sound sent small shivers up his spine. It walked past the door and Coalfeather risked a quick look through the blinds of his window, oh Celestia it was sniffing the air, what was it trying to find? It approached the alley and disappeared from view. He watched apprehensively waiting for something to happen.

Coalfeather barely held back a gasp of horror as the creature rounded the alley corner with a purpose sniffing the air like it was tracking something. He quickly braced himself against the door the creature sniffing now audible through the oak barrier, its tails casting a menacing shadow through the window blinds. He prepared for the worst, closing his eyes ready for the inevitable. The creature had obviously caught his scent. Any moment now it would burst through a window or tear apart the door and rip him to shreds.

He waited and slowly opened his eyes, blinking as the creature suddenly went silent and then sagged in relief as the tale-tale sound of claws on stone quickly advanced away from the door, risking another glance he watched as the monstrous fox approached the library, seemingly lingered at the door for a moment and then entered. In the back of his mind, he noted how grateful he was the librarian, Twilight he thought her name was, wasn't home and instead was with her friends down at the Apple's farm.

He paused at that thought for a second, wait that's right the guards were down there too, something about Timberwolves acting more aggressive than normal, he could slip out and go get the guards and the others who were good in a fight. Surley between them they could deal with such a beast. Coalfeather quietly opened the door praying to Celestia that the strange fox beast didn't look out the window of the library from whatever it was doing in there. He spread his wings and flew towards the apple orchard, they would help him drive the beast away, no good came from predators after all. That was the one lesson his grandfather made sure would stick.

??? Fox pov

It was magnificent, if ironic. An entire massive oak tree hollowed out and turned into a library, the bottom floor was layered with shelves carved from the tree itself while a few tables and a small potted plant decorated the center of the floor, the ceiling was interesting as well. There was a large golden sun painted there that seemed to give off the light that perforated through the building.

There was a staircase that ran up the east side of the circular room, a quick peek showed that it continued up to a third floor as well though that area had a door with a sign that indicated a personal living area. The second floor was another section of the library. However, there appeared to be more personal displays and decorations here rather than at the public tables that we're downstairs. The ceiling was painted with a stylized crescent moon rather than the sun. There was a balcony on this floor with a small stool and table for reading I would guess.

I was a bit baffled that the horse smell perforated even into here though it was accompanied by an odd scent that had my brain screaming, an odd sensation that caused my hackles to raise slightly. It reminded me of fire for some reason, not something I would expect to smell in a wooden library full of paper books. Maybe the librarian had a familiar or something. If the librarian was here then she was on the third floor, though she might have fled from whatever drove the rest of the town into hiding. There was no noise coming from beyond the third-floor door the door seemed to tingle to the touch, but I decided not to go through it in case it was magic. The door was probably locked anyhow, not that I was going to test that theory.

I entertained the thought that maybe the townsfolk had fled from me, but quickly laughed off that notion. Even if I was covered in muck and a little blood I wasn't that intimidating, surly a few guards would be able to deal with creatures my size. Besides I was wearing armor so I was clearly sapient and even then it would have made more sense to form a mob or gather the guard than to flee the town. I certainly wouldn't have left my stuff like this over a giant fox. Though maybe I was a little prejudiced, I liked fluffy things.

No, something else must have driven them off but what? Shaking my head I checked that I was alone before browsing the shelves for the basic history books and other interesting titles. I was happy to find that the language was pretty much English throughout the library, while I did speak both Japanese and German that did not mean I felt like learning an entirely new language.

I did learn a few facts simply based on the titles of some of the books alone, like the fact that this land was called Equestria, its inhabitants were ponies, and that I was quite possibly in some eight-year old's demented dream. I also figured out that magic was common enough for there to be an entire section of the library dedicated to the theory and basic spell books.

Eventually, I did curl up in a corner of the library and crack open a history book, specifically The History of Equestria: volume one, a thick book that hadn't been opened for some time if the dust build-up was anything to go by. It was also handwritten, a rarity that I seldom got to enjoy. A few minutes of reading later revealed a dark undertone to the childish narrative I had started to see.

Yes, the country I was in was ruled by a species of sapient ponies, more accurately four species all lumped together as a singular pronoun. Earth ponies, stronger than the others with a knack for farming and physical labor. Pegasi, capable of sustained flight, weather control, military history, and resistance to high-speed impact. Unicorns, the spell casters of the three, are all born with the ability to control and cast spells. The fourth being alicorns a rare mixture of all three races with all of the benefits. The country seemed to worship these beings as some kind of god-rulers.

What disturbed me was the mention of the other races, however. Griffons, hippogriffs diamond dogs, kirin, naga, and more. They were mentioned in side notes and almost always in negative lights, while zebra, deer, and other herbivores were mentioned in slightly neutral tones. There were references to griffons eating ponies and diamond dogs enslaving ponies, and naga warbands pillaging pony towns, the crimes of these other races just continued on being something equally bad for each race that wasn't pony or near pony.

It all ended the same way too, either a war happened and the bad guy lost and the ponies succeded or they were driven out of their territory by some great hero, occasionally Celestia, the princess would smite them with the power of the sun. Apparently if just based on the amount of endings that had the ponies won, succeeded, or survived was anything to go by they must control most of the world. Oh and apparently most of these races can't use magic or control the weather but we're still a threat, makes sense. The book stunk of prejudice and propaganda I hadn't seen since I read a few of the old journals I had from the world wars.

I took a glance down at myself looking at my blood and muck-stained armor, then running my tongue along one of my fangs. Yeah, I needed to leave before someone came back and decided I was responsible for whatever happened here. I stuffed the history book in my bag before glancing at the other books I had picked up. Why not? No one was going to notice. I quickly shoved those in the bag as well, then basically went gamer-goblin mode on the magic section. As much as I didn't want to steal gut feeling had me grabbing the books for the sheer potential for increased chances of survival they would offer.

Quickly rushing down the stairs I made it about halfway to the front door when said door was kicked off of its hinges, a huge pony in what appeared to be armor stood in the doorway. His fur was a pure white and the armor itself was painted gold, at least I hoped it was painted. I opened my mouth to try and say something but was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass. Another pony in armour crashed through the window and impacted into my side effectively sending me careening into the wall.

I groaned slightly as my ribs throbbed from the impact but recovered quickly enough to stumble back just fast enough to avoid getting kicked in the head by the earth pony. My heart raced in my chest as both ponies quickly drew what appeared to be shortswords and deftly held them in their mouths. I gave up on talking and decided to try my luck with the stairs, there were more guards outside, and I could hear the sounds of their armor moving as they moved.

Quickly I sent a weak wave of sparks at the two guards, I didn't want to kill them so I weakened the amount of mana I pulled into the blast. They covered their faces and yelled something about shields while I booked it up the stairs. The big one tried to run after me but when he got halfway up I used a tail to flick him in the forehead. It was a bit harder than I meant to and his head snapped back as he quickly fell down the stairs. I held my breath and waited for him to get back up, he did, much to my hesitant relief. The look of absolute hatred on his face did not do wonders for my confidence, however.

He looked at me the same way you would imagine a guy might look at you if you had an affair with his wife, shit I think if rather that at least then I couldve cracked a joke or something. The pegasi had quickly moved to get a better angle to intercept me if I tried to charge, his eyes full of grim determination. I had to escape, how was the question of the hour. I could try forcing my way out through the front but that would end with me having to hurt the guards more than I wanted, I could try talking but that had a high chance of me having my stuff all taken as evidence and that was assuming they would listen. I could...
"Fuck".

The expletive slipped out before I could stop it, in my thinking and keeping an eye on the two it hadn't dawned on me to watch the door, the simple curse was all that managed to leave my mouth before the bolt of electricity slammed into my chest plate, the runework flaring as sparks arced across the metal. A loud boom shook the building and I felt a blinding pain arc through my nerves as I was lifted from the ground and thrown into the glass doors leading to the balcony.

The flimsy glass barriers did little to stop my flight, shattering under my weight and tearing outward from their frames. I felt gravity reinsert itself in my life as the ground impacted with my back, I gasped, air driven from my lungs. My mouth opened and closed as they desperately tried to fight my seizing muscles for air. Desperately I pushed myself to my paws, aftershocks of the lightning bolt causing my body to shake, I felt something in my chest shift and crack as I finally managed to deeply and painfully inhale as the muscles around my lungs finally relaxed.

Fucking lightning, they had a goddammed mage and the bitch shot lightning. What the hell? How was I supposed to fight something like that? If they cornered me again I would have to stop her from casting, whether I wanted to avoid hurting them or not. Silently I promised myself that if her head started sparking I was taking a swipe with a tail, another blast like that could very well stop my heart.

Slowly I shook my head and soldiered through the pain, I needed to get my head in the game before that unicorn decided to shoot me again. I quickly noticed as my vision came back to normal that I was not alone. Before me stood nine more ponies, three who were guards based on the armor and six who were not. The three guards consisted of two more pegasi and an earth pony all in golden armor and wielding swords, they were as white as their friends and didn't seem to have any extinguishing marks. The other six seemed to consist of two of each type of pony. One of the pegasi, a civilian who looked like she wanted people to know she was proud of her sexuality based on her rainbow mane, yelled something about a spike. Oh god were they gonna go all Vlad the Impaler on me?

I was interrupted from my thoughts of being impaled in a way I didn't think I was gonna enjoy by an angry pride flag charging me with a speed that barely registered, my body moved before my brain could comprehend and I sidestepped the charging mass of colors before she impacted. I barely had time to breathe before one of the Pegasi guards charged me as well, a sword slashing against my chest plate thankfully not penetrating. I did the first thing that came to mind and with a yell smacked the guard across the head like a misbehaving child.

I decided that I needed to get a hang of my strength later cause my paw slammed into the back of his helm hard enough that he slammed face-first into my armored leg, he kinda just slid down my leg groaning in pain. Having learned my lesson with the lightning I was paying attention when the second guard charged. I quickly whipped a tail down and out, slamming it into his side with an audible ring of metal on metal, he folded around my tail as I flung him into a nearby house. I was turning to face the earth pony guard when I saw a glow from the corner of my vision and felt all of my furs trying to stand on end under my armor.

I dove before I even heard the cackle of electricity, the bolt of lightning passing a mere foot over my head as I hit the ground and rolled sideways back onto my paws. I was not ashamed to say that I immediately turned tail and ran. I had no wish to become a fried fox today. I dodged around, over, and on one occasion through a building. I was leaping from one alley to another when Skittles the pegasus decided to dive bomb me from the sky, her impact hit hard enough to make me miss my leap and impact into the wall instead. Causing my ears to ring with white noise and blood to start leaking from my nose.

By the time I had recovered, I was surrounded again and immediately locked eyes with the golden armored unicorn that seemed to have a fetish for lightning. Her horn was already sparking as she focused on whatever spell she was casting, I decided that enough was enough and lunged. She seemed surprised that I had gone for a preemptive strike, my tail impacted her helmet and flung it to the side just as she finished her casting, and a steady stream of electrical energy carved a gash through the building next to us.

I did not give her time to recover, rising on my hind legs I brought down my full weight into a headbutt, my mask vs her helmet, my mask won. The unicorn crumpled like a sack of potatoes. Her body hit the ground just in time for an earth pony guard to round the corner and swing his sword. The blade hit the chainmail along my foreleg and slid off, the armor thankfully doing its job. I decided that I had played nice for long enough and did the D&D combat tactic known as hitting a bitch with another bitch.

Wrapping a tail around each of the unicorn's hind legs I swung her in a full arc head-first into the stallion hoping the blow would stun him long enough to catch my breath. The guard hit the ground as I slammed the already-unconscious unicorn into him like a floppy battering ram. When the small group of non-armored ponies came around the corner I got ready to throw fire then hesitated, I wanted to try and talk one more time, "alright look, I'm sure this looks bad. But if you'd just let me, aaaghh."

I screamed in pain as something sharp lanced me through the lung, turning my head my vision turned red at the sight of the form of a black pegasus stallion stepping back from where he had just stabbed me, I didn't think, just acted as my claws came down in an arc slashing through the flesh of his face, he went down screaming. I quickly used a tail to fling him at the ponies, hitting the butterscotch-colored one hiding in the back. They all converged on her location yelling what I guessed was her name, Fluttershy. I ran as they were distracted, running for the forest, at least the wolves didn't have swords.

I could hear shouting and screams for a doctor in the background but I honestly didn't care, I was hurt. The sword had definitely pierced a lung and parts of my body were still numb from the shocks. I could see the forest edge, I could hide there. The book mentioned it being unnatural to ponies. They wouldn't enter it with so few guards surely.

By the time I made it past the forest edge I was having serious breathing issues, I slowly reached down and yanked the sword from my side where the pegasi had stabbed me, just behind the chest plate in through the weaker chainmail, god it hurt. I don't know why but I stowed the sword in my bag. I stumbled along the path slowly going delirious from the pain as adrenaline wore off. I was pretty sure the unicorn and multiple pegasi-based impacts had broken my ribs and I could feel the blood pooling in my chest cavity even as it leaked from my mouth.

As delirious as I was from pain and blood loss I didn't notice the weirdness of finding the ruined walls of the forest village so close, nor did I notice the wolves that watched from the shadows of the surrounding undergrowth, I was happy to note in my dying state the pretty blue flowers that smelt of better times, uncaring I laid down in my bed of memories and let them soothe me to sleep. Mentally snickering that I sucked so bad at fighting that I once again was dying from a lung wound.