I gently set the book down on the stone next to me and stared up at the rustling leaves while silently questioning what higher power I had a love-hate relationship with. I had learned a lot from the book, the world I was on was fucking huge for one thing around three times the size of Earth, why that didn't screw with the gravity or amount of hours in the day I had no idea.

The forest I was in was the Everfree, an expanse of canopy that covered almost thirty-eight percent of the continent of Eqas, which itself was about twice the size of Asia. The chaotic forest stretched from the heartland of the pony kingdom, Equestria, to the edges of the northern coast. I was on the northeastern edge near the town of Ponyville which was less than five hundred miles from the Pony capital of Canterlot.

To the southwest was a stretch of lands known as the badlands that were separated from the rest of Eqas by a large Mountain range known as the Frostbacks. There were three other nations on the continent, Ferin a small nation situated within the Frostbacks that was home to the minotaur people, and the Threstral Enclave situated within a massive cave system along the coastal mountains in the north. Technically speaking the griffin kingdoms were also in the north and occupied a rather large peninsula, but they had been annexed by the ponies nearly eighty years ago so I wasn't counting them. Everything else belonged to ponies or was across the sea on another continent.

This meant in summary that I was fucked, from what I read the Everfree got deadlier the further in you go and I was on the edge, so going to the Threstral caverns wasn't applicable, the minotaurs were incredibly isolationist, and seemed to follow some religion that was incredibly strict on social roles and quite frank I wanted nothing to do with that, and it would take years to build a boat strong and sturdy enough to cross the ocean.

This summed up my options to stay and tough it out, and basically become Ponyville's local cryptid, or learn how to brainwash people. A brief glance at the more advanced theory in the magic books told me that brainwashing would be a while on the to-do list, on the bright side music and noise spells seemed a bit simpler so at least I could make with the ambiance while I was creeping about the edges of the woods.

I chuckled to myself a bit at the thought of a spell that played the jaws theme every time someone got near me, though I knew that such a spell would be detrimental to myself sticking around long term. I stretched popping my spine and smoothing out my fur before glaring up at the sun. I should hunt something, it had been a while since I last ate, oddly I wasn't as hungry as should have been. Several hours without food, three near-death experiences, and one spiritual journey and I felt like I had skipped breakfast, surely I should be starving by now.

But first I needed to bathe, it had been days since I had arrived here and I hadn't trusted the river enough to risk bathing in it. I was covered in mud, sap, and dried blood that did and didn't belong to me. glancing at the water in the creek it didn't seem to have any life that would be willing to take a chunk out of me so that was a plus. I shivered slightly as I stepped into the water. It was chilly but bearable and the water soothed my sore paws. I slowly lay down in the stream watching with satisfaction and some disgust as a variable stream of dirt and blood was washed from my body.

The sight brought unpleasant thoughts, was this to be my life? Running amok in the forest like some kind of demented hermit. I suppose the forest itself wasn't that bad. The place had an odd beauty going on, the forbidden kind that screams to enter and explore at your own risk. But I was a sapient creature I needed some social contact, I was an antisocial autistic person, yes, but I had truly enjoyed the few people I had interacted with. was I to be the monster in the woods, never befreinded and always hunted?

The thought made me scrub a little harder at my fur, the one upside to having prehensile tails was that even in a quadrupedal form I could still get my underbelly and hind quarters as I was washing. trying to think of anything else I came to realize that since having this body I had not needed to answer the call of nature, so everything I was eating had to have been used somehow. The realization was enough to snap me out of my funk, quickly I finished washing and leapt out of the creek. Shaking my body side to side like a dog to dry off a bit quicker. I sniffed at my side a few times, I still didn't smell pleasant but it was certainly better than I had before. Now then, it was time to find myself a meal.

A little while later I was staring out into a small patch of ferns where five rabbit-like almaraj were grazing in the undergrowth. With a surge of my powerful muscles, I lept from my hiding spot and slammed my paws down on one crushing its head and neck while simultaneously sending a tail lightly into two more crushing them into the ground. The other two squeaked in fright and bolted into the underbrush, that was fine I only wanted three.

I ate one right then and there, and the other two I put in my bag for later. I kept the horn from the one I ate, almaraj were magical creatures so it was likely that their horns could be used in alchemy or ritual magic somehow. I would skin and gut the other two when I had time to look through my collection of books to see if there was one with instructions on how to do so properly. I had an entire shelf dedicated to self-help and survival books so there should be something I could use.

Honestly, I felt like I should be a bit more bothered than I was by eating raw meat, but the idea of being squeamish after everything just seemed silly, of course, that didn't mean that I wasn't going to learn to cook over a campfire eventually. You would think that the taste or texture of fur would still be an issue, but honestly, it didn't seem to bother me much and when it did it was pretty simple to just stick my muzzle in the water and let it be washed out from in between my teeth.

I decided to take my time heading back to the ruined village. I needed to name the place given that I would be staying there for the foreseeable future, I mean I wasn't really happy with staying in Pony Land, but I wasn't stupid. If the giant willow growing out of the well wasn't a sign then I would eat a book. At the very least the walls seemed to make a decent effort at keeping the creatures of the forest outside, even if they were full of holes, something that I would have to find a way to fix later. the wards seemed to keep out non-sapient fauna but I doubted it would work well against any of the sapient races.

I suppose that I could be in a worse situation, at least I wasn't in a desert or island. The forest was growing on me too. Something had changed about it as well, it was easier to move through the foliage, and scents and noises had become less mingled and easier to differentiate. Prey and palatable plants had become more common, and I had yet to see one of those wooden wolves staring at me through the undergrowth, waiting for me to drop my guard.

The biggest change was the sheer presence of the forest before it had felt overwhelming, the scents, the noise, the dread of oncoming night. Now it felt, perhaps not peaceful, but begrudgingly welcoming. Like how an experienced avid hiker or survivalist might feel about a large mountain or maybe a veteran spelunker might feel about an unexplored cave. That sense of danger and caution was there but weathered in the knowledge that I could survive here if I wanted. It felt like I had passed some kind of test almost. the feeling of achievement when something becomes easier and new things are unlocked for you because you took the time to try and do what was hard instead of easy. Still, I wasn't going to let my guard down too much, I didn't want to get killed because I got too cocky and did something stupid.

I snickered a small and the corners of my muzzle quirked up just a little. Maybe the ponies had done me a small favor. Here in this forest, the only laws laid before me were the laws of nature, here in this twisted and life-filled canopy I was restrained only by my power. No laws or social rules were being forced upon my person here. The thought made me happy in a strange way, here in this strange and magical land I was free.

Soon the old and pierced walls of my home came into view and walked through them with a new and mighty goal. If I was only restrained by my power then I would become more powerful. I was already strong physically, able to send full-grown ponies in armor flying. So I would focus on the arcane, if reality would not allow me a proper home then I would become powerful enough to make reality my bitch and carve one out of spite and magic.

I knew that I would have to start small, I knew nothing of magic or its whims, but I could learn. I had honed my mind for years reading most of the books in my shop at least once, some out of interest others out of boredom. If I could read the entire shelf dedicated to shitty romance novels then I could read a few books on spells and spell theory.

I pulled a few books from the bag, looking over the ones that were theory before selecting one that seemed to be for beginners. An hour later I had a decent idea of what I was supposed to be doing, my brain decided that it was time to try a spell. I learned better while doing the things I was reading, surely a few small spells wouldn't hurt?

Selecting a book at random I read the title. "Magic for the Aspiring Guard, hmm well this seems interesting," I frowned for a second a thought coming to me, "I do hope the librarian wasn't too angry."

Twilight's P.O.V

Twilight stifled a cry of anger as she used a series of repair spells to fix what she could in the library, the balcony door was ruined beyond repair even by magic, and would have to be replaced the old-fashioned way. She had been helping the guards and apple jack with a group of timber wolves that had gotten more aggressive than normal when Coalfeather had nearly crashed into her panting as he warned her of some kind of giant fox monster that had shown up and gone into the library with obvious intent. Her first reaction had been horror, spike had stayed in bed because he had a cold, what if it had gone after him, her second was to demand the guards go help. The resulting fight had made quite a mess of her library, spike as it turned out had slept through the entire thing. Normally she would have teased about it but what if it had entered their room?

Now she was just annoyed and angry, not only were several of her books charred from where the beast had flung blue fire at the guards but it had up and taken several as well. Which supported the fact that it was sentient she supposed. That little tidbit of information made her shutter, most of the continents of the world had been explored and their races cataloged. For this creature to have been a new race it would have had to come to Equestria through a port where its appearance would have gotten it detained by the guard and would've caused a direct visit from the princess to observe its nature.

No, for this creature to have come from the Everfree as it did it would suggest an entirely different scenario, it was most likely a magispawn or a descendent of one. A creature born from the experimentation of a powerful unicorn in an attempt to make a familiar. Twilight remembered her mentor's lecture well, while modern-day familiars were simply magic and will bound to form, the old ways were far more advanced and dangerous.

A unicorn took an animal, generally a newborn or egg, and began a series of ritualistic magics around it, the creature was then exposed to the caster's magic in minute amounts for the first few years until its natural magics were bound to the caster. The process changed the creature, making it bigger, smarter, and in rare cases causing unique mutations and allowing a few unique magical abilities. The size and range of the changes varied greatly, supposedly Clover the Clever had a dog the size of a pony that could teleport and slow time.

The problem arose when the caster failed to bind those familiars properly, allowing them to escape or simply outlive the caster. An unbound familiar could wreak havoc on settlements, causing fires, flooding, blights, and in one recorded case a population boom so large the town collapsed under its own needs. Due to this the princess had declared the process as illegal and banned the books describing how to do the process. It was suspected that over a quarter of the monsters that one could run into on equis, including manticores and hydra were descendants of escaped familiars.

Unfortunately, there were still some out there who passed down the knowledge and taught it to their foals or apprentices. This particular creature was even more worrisome, as it was both a predator and sapient, sapient familiars were capable of learning and often held a great amount of disdain and hatred for the species that created them. They often learned how to mimic voices, noises of distress, and other lures. The last recorded account of a sapient familiar was from monster hunter Silverhoof, he described a hydra-like creature that made ponies forget those it ate.

She shuddered at the thought of something that powerful being near the town, thankfully the fox just seemed to be bored when it came to the town, it had probably been looking for easy prey. She was thankful it seemed so cowardly preferring to run in the face of so many rather than face them all. Fluttershy had wanted to try and reason with the fox since it seemed animalistic enough to her. She had calmly reminded the pegasus that her stare had failed to slow the creature and that it had attacked her. She also informed her of the law, all identified familiars were to be captured and taken to the monster hunter guild for study and then slaughter.

She was happy that the princess was willing to send more guards to help secure the town and a team from the monster hunter guild. The guild ponies were trained in ways foreign to Equis and we're better suited than any in the town to go into the forest. The guild master was a griffin named Snowbeak. Supposedly the ponies he trained were aggressive and unsociable, as long as they killed the creature and got her books back she didn't care. She did make a mental note to keep Spike in his room while they were in town though.

She hoped that the group they sent was experienced, the creature had already proven itself to be dangerous. Its short skirmish that the guards had with it had not gone well for them. IronStep had been given a concussion and a cracked jaw by one of the fox's tails, Swiftwind had a broken wing, and Sundial had her horn cracked and nose broken. Poor Coalfeather had lost an eye and it was unlikely that the scars would ever heal completely. The others had only suffered bruises and other minor injuries.

Twilight frowned for a moment, maybe she could send Pinkie to cheer the Pegasus up, losing an eye was a rather traumatic experience. Her attention was drawn to a particular shelf of books, rather than a shelf that should have had books. A scowl graced the face of the unicorn, why in all of the books in the library had it taken her bucking spellbooks? No magiborn creature had gained the ability to cast and learn proper spells.

She supposed that it may have grabbed them because they were familiar, any unicorn powerful enough to bind a familiar would have similar books in their home. She sighed a bit, she wouldn't fault the creature for coming into the library if that was the case. Everything searched for what was familiar after all. Truly it was a shame that it had to be put down, she had to admit that it had been a remarkable specimen of old and powerful magic, but the law was the law and the creature had proven to be willing to cause harm.

"oh well, at least I can ask the princess to send me the appropriate books to study the theory behind it at least." she shrugged to herself and went back to cleaning the library.

??? P.O.V

Her leaves shuttered lightly as the fox wove the ambient mana around itself, the way it grabbed at her magic and asked it to move was wonderfully different from how most interlopers thought to command it. She had thought it a pest at first, another creature trying to tame her magics and conquer her body. She had sent her children to deal with it and watched as it survived.

It certainly wasn't a clean victory if not for the metal false skin that the fox had donned her children would have feasted, she had waited for the fox to fall to the same arrogance the other interlopers had fallen to, waited for her children to come back as one stronger than the many they were before. Except they didn't, the fox's fire drove them from their body and dissolved her magic. The fox had done what few had before and truly killed one of her creations.

She might have been angry, but she was also intrigued, the fox hadn't done anything that wasn't natural, and sometimes the predators became the prey. The fire it had called hadn't been spell fire called and fueled by natural magics, no the fire the interloper had called had come from within, controlled by sheer willpower and fueled with the fox's life energy. Such magic would incapacitate most spell casters from the shear strain yet the fox seemed to use it so naturally.

The manticore had almost been its end, her brief moment of intrusive satisfaction, yet the fox managed to find an unexpected refuge, the chaos petals had been a fun if brief foray into wild magic that she and Chaos had worked together to make before his imprisonment. They were the bane of all even her children were not safe from its effects, the interlopers had named it a joke, but its effects were often fatal to the denizens of the forest, one could not hunt if their legs were on backward after all.

Despite the flower's nature the fox doesn't seem to care, she watched in interest as the flowers seemed to wiggle in joy at the fox's presence. They soaked in its blood and were stronger for it, the wild magic soaking into the fox's wounds like some kind of twisted healing magic. The fox's own magic seems to intertwine and dance with the flowers. She continued to watch as it woke and made its way to the old den.

The den held a special place in her heart, it had been made by a large group of interlopers, and they had been an oddly diverse group with many different races. Their mage had managed to tap one of her veins and had used it to weave the protections that kept her children outside the walls of the den. They had been stubborn people that she had taken joy in challenging, she had been sad when they were destroyed by more interlopers.

She had thought the fox might stay there and she could challenge it in similar ways, but it had left and headed towards the borders of her influence, she sent more wolves. She had wanted to study her new fox more, she didn't understand why it had wanted to leave, did it not know the dangers that waited for it out of her grasp?

The wolves had failed to stop the fox, and it had left, she felt the creeping edges of loneliness on her conscious as she withdrew into the deep places of her mind and magic again, preparing for yet another long sleep. Almost instinctively she made the seeds of the chaos petals grow where the fox had left its bedding maybe another would show up since that one had survived. She had just calmed to sleep when its presence came back, wounded and confused. She didn't understand, she had thought it left to join the interlopers, why was it wounded in such a way? It tried to make it to the den, she helped it. When it had laid down in the chaos petals again she had thought it dead, its body had not breathed and its presence was gone.

She had felt cheated, surely the stupid interlopers had not killed the fox when the manticore had not. When the fox did not stir she sighed and went to rest, before she could, however, she felt it. The fox wasn't dead. It was there with her, she turned inward and watched in shock as the fox slammed into her with great speed and force. Its energy-filled blood splattering against her skin, wounded from her guardians.

Quickly she grabbed the fox even as it twisted and snapped at her as it struggled against her for a while like how a snake might in the beak of an eagle. But she had felt it in the fox's blood, power. A power she recognized, the fox was an aspect, but of what? She forced her magic inside of the fox and felt for its core, it wasn't hard to find. A swirling firestorm of magic that burnt away the old mixed with the calm flowing of a river bringing new life to the charred land. Renewal? No there was something else something chaotic to the fox's core. Ah, there it was, in the center. Raw and untamed, she liked it.

She reached forward and touched the center of everything the fox was, untamed, chaos, order, knowledge, unrelenting and ever marching, what was this? ah, change, the fox was change. The forever loved yet never wanted rule of life. She shuddered slightly to think of what that little spark could become. Nothing could stand in the face of change, even time would be useless without it, after all, what was time if no one could see it?

She remembered when she had been unnamed, it had been Omen that had named her. And just as he had named her Everfree she would name this one. She had been untamed, the wild animal at your door. The savage and graceful dance between predator and prey. No mortal would tame her and no prison would hold her for long. The fox was different than her of course, all aspects were, they all had been mortal once after all.

He was a storm on the horizon, the unwelcome stranger that brought news to your door, the wind that promised rain, the hope that heralded revolution. He was the product of ever marching time. The fox would bring change, bring it to the world even as it kicked and thrashed and bit and the world would be better for it, or the world would burn. They may bring the change but in the end, it was the choice of the world on what to do with it. The fox was a harbinger and so that was what it would be called, a harbinger.

She flinched slightly as Harbinger scorched the fur off their muzzle with a yelp. Well, they would do all that anyway, if they lived that long. The fox seemed to have a strange knack for jumping head-first into things.

Author's Note

Sorry this one took so long to get out, I accidentally deleted the first draft, wrote the entire thing realized I didn't like it then had to rewrite it again before I was happy with it. Honestly, I'm still not overly happy with it, if you guys see errors point them out, please.