“Are you sure it’s an animal? It doesn’t sound like any animal I’ve seen.”
Fluttershy walked closely behind Rarity.
“I am certain, darling. It was growling and crawling around in the dirt. And it tried to bite me while I was mining gems for my new couture!”
“Maybe it was just scared,” Fluttershy suggested, “most animals don’t attack if they have to.”
Their voices echoed through the darkened empty caverns that ran through the hills and trees just outside Ponyville. The bedrock was rich with common, but spectacular-looking, gemstones, and it had been slowly emptied throughout the years of mining and prospecting.
As they closed in on the bend of the tunnels that Rarity had mentioned, they heard the scritch-scratching of the creature. It was as she had described, a stubby and green thing on two legs, like a malformed monkey, hobbled towards them.
“Oh my, you’re an interesting creature, aren’t you?”
“Graah!”
The creature lept out at Fluttershy, a weapon suddenly appearing in one of its hands. The knife slashed at her, taking hair off her mane as she stumbled back.
“Hey! That’s not--”
Rarity lept for her friend, dragging her out harm’s way and pushing back the creature in a levitating push.
“I don’t think your usual charm is working,” she worried.
“You know,” Fluttershy got to her hooves, “I think you’re right.”
Hm. Goblin Slayer checked himself. Something wasn’t right, his body didn’t feel like it should have.
He tried remembering what had happened. It was a small nest that he was clearing out, five or six goblins based on what he saw. Certainly a threat, but his party did not need to get involved. He was enough, or at least he was supposed to be.
He looked around. “Gate spell?” He wondered how a goblin shaman could have cast something like that. Then he shook the idea out of his head. A portal opened while he was killing goblins, that’s all he knew. He didn’t see the shaman cast the spell.
My master said I didn’t have the mind for magic. I can’t get distracted by those questions. A goblin came through the portal with me. I should kill it before I start figuring out how to go back.
He stood and wiped the dirt off his… hooves? Transformation magic? He had heard about such things, and in the past, he had encountered powerful users of magic who used goblins as cheap foot soldiers.
If there was such magic at play, he had to be careful. Without information, it would be impossible to predict any other spells that could be used against him.
He tried walking. His armour seemed to fit him, it seemed to transform with his body. He lifted each limb, testing its motion. It felt like crawling on all fours, but his motion didn’t feel alien despite the unusual body.
Good. It seems if I move the way I’m used to, my body will still act the way I want it. He felt his face, and immediately noticed something familiar. He had ridden in enough carriages and carts to know a horse when he felt one. He flipped his shield around and inspected his face.
A horse. No, the legs were too short. A pony, then. Wherever he was, whatever that portal spell’s nature, it had altered his body into a pony. But as long as he could move, he would. And as long as he could fight, he would.
“Grrah!” The echo of a scream came from the left, further down the tunnel. He was lucky that his torch hadn’t gone out, because that was the sound of a goblin, so there was only one thing he had to do.
Twilight teleported to her friends as soon as she heard the news. Creatures attacking Ponyville was something she could send the royal guard to handle, but when her friends were involved, she wanted to be sure the job got done.
“Spike got Starlight’s letter,” she said, popping behind Rarity and Fluttershy.
“Gah!” Rarity jumped. “Oh darling, you must give more warning next time.”
“Sorry,” Twilight apologized, though she couldn’t hide her smile. If being shocked was her main worry, then it must be that the creature wasn’t that serious.
She wanted to ask for more details, the letter Starlight had sent only told her that Rarity and Fluttershy were investigating a potentially dangerous creature. But she only had to look ahead to find her answer.
Brightened from the light of her horn, a pile of rocks had collapsed and trapped the creature in question. A short green monstrosity, it looked like a frog that had dried up and stretched out into a suit for a bigger, more disgusting frog.
“Fluttershy, what is that?” Twilight asked.
“I have no idea! But I can’t seem to understand what it’s saying!”
Rarity nodded. “It attacked us without the slightest provocation. It’s a cretin, a beast!”
“It walked upright?” Twilight confirmed with them, and both her friends nodded. There weren’t many upright creatures in Equestria. This certainly wasn’t some young dragon, nor was it a monkey of any kind. She considered asking Stygian, or maybe Celestia. It was possible this was a rare and ancient creature no pony had seen before.
“How did all these rocks fall down?”
“That was my doing,” Rarity declared. “The thing tried to harm Fluttershy, so I leapt into action and did the only thing I knew, I dug out some gems. It seems my instincts were right and the tunnel collapsed when I removed part of the wall.”
“Good thinking,” Twilight said, “I want to study this, maybe figure out a spell that can let us talk to it.”
“Grrahh! Gaaraah!” The creature suddenly began crying out, piercing their ears with its squealing.
“What in Equestria is that horrid noise?” Rarity covered her ears.
Twilight winced and put up a noise barrier around them. “Is it trying to tell us anything?”
Fluttershy shook her head. “If it is, I don’t know what it’s saying. Oh, but I bet the poor thing must be scared, covered in all those heavy rocks.”
“It can’t be helped, it’s dangerous until we can--”
Rarity’s scream cut Twilight off. At her hoof, a bony green hand had reached into the barrier. The field cancelled noise, not anything else, and before Twilight could repel the second creature, Rarity was dragged out into the darker depths of the tunnel.
Without hesitation, Twilight charged out of her the barrier and hounded down the faint light of Rarity’s horn.
“Ahg-gah…”
“That’s one.”
Goblin Slayer let the goblin slide off his sword. The horseshoes that were where his gloves should have been seemed to be magnetized, the lodestones scholars and wizards sometimes used for their projects. It had a strange way of working, more like magic than actual magnetism, and it seemed whatever he wanted to pick up just had a way of sticking.
I will have to ask around the guild about this spell. It could be a useful way to avoid dropping a weapon by accident, either by fatigue or the slippery goblin blood.
He stepped over the one he had just killed, not bothering to lather its guts over himself. He was in a strange place with no sense of direction. Hunting down any other stray goblins in the tunnels would be hard, so he was going to let them come to him.
Goblins have a strong sense of smell, and they know adventurers always carry light. They think they can win just with the element of surprise.
He paused.
But my master once said I wasn’t lucky. I can’t do things without practice, without learning. But I am used to it, having to learn. I am used to observing. And now, after being used to it for so long…
“I can see you.”
The goblin was not quick enough.
The Slayer’s sword was quicker.
It collapsed on the ground, impaled by flying steel.
But one could not be too sure when killing goblins. He moved closer to retrieve his sword, only to drive it through the goblin’s head to ensure it did not get up.
“That’s two.”
He inspected himself again. If this kept up, he guessed he’d eventually end up smelling like goblins anyway. But the nest he was fighting was small, there should not have been many goblins.
Unless this was a trick they had somehow learned to use. Perhaps he was in the heart of an even larger nest, connected by magic to smaller ones, the same way guards and soldiers could be sent to distant outposts but communicate through mail or magic.
I don’t know if that is the case, but I don’t know that it isn’t. Seeing two goblins is already more than I had expected. I believed one had fallen through with me. So, there may be too many to fight by luring them.
He knelt down and began cutting open the goblin, its blood and putrid stomach already staining his plate and mail. Now, even in this transformed body, he was starting to feel familiar.
And just in time, too. Perhaps the sound of their fellow goblin echoed further through the tunnel than expected. He could hear the sound of two more goblins charging his way.
“Get off of her!” Twilight found Rarity surrounded by more of the creatures. They had crude spears in their hands, threatening to stab their new prisoner with them until they were blasted back by bolts of purple-hued magic.
“That’s enough!” She raised her horn and brought the top of the tunnel down, pinning most of the creatures under the rocks.
Those that remained started to run. But Twilight would not let them. She waved her horn and a rush of magic filled the ground, turning stone into quicksand at the feet of the scrambling creatures.
“Where are they coming from?” Twilight cast a few balls of light out into the tunnel, trying to keep the other creatures visible. It was a straight tunnel, with no twists and turns. But these little green monsters appeared out from nowhere.
But then again, they weren’t familiar with the tunnels. “Fluttershy, can you find some moles or gophers, or any animal that might know what we’re dealing with?”
Twilight turned her head when she heard no answer. “Fluttershy?”
“Wasn’t she just behind you?” Rarity pulled herself away from the hand of one of the pinned creatures.
“I ran after you so quickly, we must’ve gotten separated.”
“That’s no good,” Rarity gasped, “she can’t talk to these horrid things, she’s in as much danger as us!”
Twilight turned her attention to her fading lights. The rest of the monsters had already escaped. She wanted to chase them down, make sure they didn’t get into Ponyville, but Fluttershy was her friend.
“There’s no time to do everything,” she told Rarity. “I’ll teleport you back to Ponyville so you can warn every pony not to come this way. And tell Starlight to lock down the school, too.”
“But what about you?”
Twilight looked at all the creatures she had trapped. “I think I can handle this. I’ll find Fluttershy and get her to safety as soon as I can.”
“That’s four.”
Two more panicked goblins stained the ground with blood. They were so afraid of something behind them that they didn’t even fight back. Two easy cuts put both their heads on the ground.
Knowing them, it can be anything. Goblins aren’t completely mindless, they know when to listen to their cowardice. These tunnels are big, it could be a bear or some other large animal. Perhaps even a bigger monster.
If it was, Goblin Slayer started considering his chances of escaping unharmed. This almost seemed like a situation he’d find himself in with his party. Perhaps the Archer would call this an adventure.
He looked at the ground. Then again, it still included goblins.
Ahead, the tunnel was partially collapsed, the goblins underneath the rocks had gone completely limp.
Squish. He looked down. A goblin, through its struggling, had ended up neck-deep in quicksand. The tunnel collapsing he could expect, they were underground after all. But it was impossible for a pit of quicksand to have formed here.
The sand was cold and watery, not any different from normal quicksand. But it must’ve come from some kind of magic. The goblin inside stared at him pleadingly. It had already exhausted itself trying to escape.
Goblins are dumb. This one could have escaped, if it knew it had to calm down.
Goblin Slayer picked up a crude spear lying on the ground. A trapped goblin, however, was still a living goblin.
“That’s ten.” He counted as he went, impaling the goblins with their own weapons. Whatever had trapped them didn’t do so out of kindness. It seemed to be an enemy of the goblins as well.
That’s one chance.
If it was something or someone who could help him, he’d accept it. But if not, he expected it’d be a hard fight.
He moved on. Not much time passed before he heard screaming again from further down the tunnel. There were two voices. And a lot of goblins.
Twilight’s magic brought the earth to life, roots and tendrils of rock wrapping around the green creatures before they could get to Fluttershy. But there were too many to focus on.
Fluttershy was lucky to only have scrapes and bruises on her. The section of tunnel was a little larger than the rest, barely giving the pegasus room enough to fly up and cling to the ceiling. Twilight wished she could do the same, but two of the creatures had grabbed onto her tail, and more were coming with their spears and clubs.
“Twilight, above you!” Fluttershy shouted too late. One of the creatures jumped off the head of its comrade, knife at the ready. Twilight fell on her back, kicking up at the creature to stay away.
“I can’t teleport you!” she called out to Fluttershy. “Get back to town, I’ll hold them back as long as I can.”
“Grrash!” The wall behind them shuddered. Twilight had collapsed it to cut off more creatures from coming, but something on the other side of the rocks started to dig up the stones. A large, heavy hand ripped through the rocks.
It was green, and the face that pushed through looked a lot like the creatures, but it was far larger than the rest. The monster effortlessly reached up and plucked Fluttershy from the air, throwing her to the ground.
In a second, a smaller one drew its spear and went to make the strike.
But the dagger was quicker. And blood spewed out from the creature’s neck.
“That’s eleven.” A blazing torch illuminated the stallion’s helmet. “Which one of you stinkin’ goblins is next?”
Pegasi and alicorns. I heard stories of those from other adventurers.
Goblin Slayer kicked a goblin off the Alicorn and crushed its skull under his hooves. Another tried to jump up behind him, but its dagger could not pierce through his armour. He simply dragged the goblin off by the arm and separated its shoulders from its neck.
“Groahr!” The hobgoblin slammed the walls of the tunnel, a threat display to warn off the Goblin Slayer.
He sheathed his sword, picked up one of the small spears dropped by the goblins, and launched it at the hob’s head. It landed squarely on the forehead, but the hob’s skull was too thick for a flimsy spear to penetrate.
The Alicorn burst up from the ground, a circle of magic throwing back the goblins surrounding her.
So this must be what trapped the other goblins. I must ask if there is a way back home when this is over.
He picked up a club and bashed the heads of the toppled goblins. Killing them seemed to enrage the hob, who picked up one of his smaller comrades and threw it like a rock at the Alicorn.
Goblin Slayer rushed forward, stabbing a spear through it and staking the goblin to a crack in the stone. He took the goblin’s knife and launched it at the hob before it could react with another attack.
This time, the knife found its eye. It roared in pain, swiping its club at the Goblin Slayer. The tunnel took away space to move, so he raised his shield and braced for impact. But the blow never struck. The Alicorn had put up a barrier around him.
He did not waste the gift. While the hob was stunned and surprised, he moved through the crowding goblins and drove his sword into its gut, the wide blade opening a passage for his hooves to drive deeper, even up into the lungs. For good measure, Goblin Slayer tore an ax from a dead goblin’s grasp and buried it in the hob’s head.
“Fluttershy, are you okay?” the Alicorn rushed over to her friend.
“I think so,” she checked herself. Goblin blood had spilled and soaked her coat and mane completely. “I just want to go home.”
“Another world. That’s where you are right now.”
Once he had tallied up the dead and confirmed the goblins were taken care of, Goblin Slayer sat down with the Alicorn Princess. She cast a spell to send her friend to safety, before staying behind in the tunnel to help Goblin Slayer with his problem.
“Is that so?”
She nodded. “I’ve been to one, but it doesn’t sound like the one you’re from.”
“I see.”
“I don’t know why you were transformed but not those goblins, however.”
“Hm,” Goblin Slayer gave the question little thought. “It does not matter. Goblins are goblins, wherever they go.”
“Wow, you’re taking the ‘alternate world’ news surprisingly well.”
“Am I?” He gathered up the weapons on the ground and slotted them into his belt. “I had heard about such things from a scholar, once. She talked about wanting to leave our world and travel to something beyond its boundaries. I do not think this is what she had in mind, however.”
“So, your world has magic like Equestria?” the Alicorn Princess stood up with him. “I guess that makes it easier for us to understand each other.”
Goblin Slayer nodded.
“When I came here, I was clearing a goblin nest. But they had no hobgoblins, and their cave was not big enough to hold this many. These goblins were not with me when I fell through the portal.”
“Meaning there are other portals in your world, sending more of these creatures into mine?”
“Yes.”
“Since the portal has to exist on both sides, it’s possible Equestrian magic could work on it. But I’ll need some time to figure out how to close the portals, and reverse the effect to send you back.”
“That’s fine,” Goblin Slayer nodded again.
“In the meantime, will you come back with me to Ponyville? It’s pretty much the friendliest town in Equestria, so you won’t have any trouble even if you’re from another world.”
He shook his head. “Until you find your solution, there will be more goblins. I am Goblin Slayer, so I will kill all the goblins.”