Lay of the Land
Deep in his bones, Strong Copper had always known that sooner or later he was going to be called to the town of Ponyville; It's location near the Everfree Forest and the history of monstrous creatures making appearances and going on rampages was well documented. Â
The job that the current Mayor of Ponyville had actually sent for him to attend to was strange; Unlike the various other animal attacks in the past, the creature(s?) were being a lot more subtle in their actions. Several ponies had been found dead over a period of time, some clearly having had chunks of their flesh torn off and all having some of their blood drained to various degrees (the bodies being found with little to no blood in their bodies, enough evidence to suggest that they had been found where they were killed but not enough spilled blood in the area to account for it all). All attacks seemed to have happened during the night.
The nature of the wounds suggested some sort of predatory animal (likely from the Everfree), but local authorities hadn’t been able to match the wounds to any known animal on Ponyville’s records. Copper himself had even gone through his own research resources and experience and couldn’t come to a definite answer; He had managed to narrow it down to a number of possibilities (including supernatural horrors and mythical creatures), but he didn’t have enough information to confirm or deny anything further. He needed more intelligence.
So after asking around, he quickly found out about one of the few ponies in the area that might be able to help him. After making himself as presentable as possible and double checking that his worn hooded jumper was clean, Copper had gone for a walk to the outskirts of Ponyville to knock on a wooden cottage door.
