"If I want to avoid them." John wasn't sure he wanted to avoid other ponies. The one he had met seemed nice enough, if agitated by being dragged from home, and who wouldn't be? "Where should I not go?"
"Information ain't cheap." The goblin leader thrust out a hand. "Find a coin in those clothes, maybe we talk."
Did he have coins? He hadn't actually dug out his pockets to see what was in there. A fine time to consider it as he dug fingers into nooks and crannies, locating the pockets half out of that instinct that seemed to come with the new body. John leaned to the side to see what he was pulling free, a shiny gold coin. Gold coins had value, more than silver, way more than copper. It was... like a crisp $100 bill! "If you have info that's worth it." And out came the coin into view.
That got their attention. The noise of the camp had died down at the sight of something shiny and valuable. John realized quickly that he had become a potential target, if they decided mugging him for the coin was easier. "Just need to know where to avoid, and it's all yours," he tempted instead, make it sound easier to give him what he wanted. Fighting, now that's work! Who wants that?
The leader didn't threaten, he chortled darkly. "Knew it! You are a merchant." He flexed his fingers, hand still outstretched. "Ready to buy things." John took the hint, depositing the coin into that hand. "Don't go West." He pointed the same hand, three fingers wrapped tight around that metal coin, two fingers out. "Thunder rail. Go near that, they'll see you."
That was good information! "Any other directions I should be worried about?"
"You're already in it. Welcome to the Pony Empire." He scoffed at the idea of it. "Get packed. We're not saying here!" That got the others back into action. "And you, get lost. Nice doin' business."
John wasn't being mugged, hirrah, he silently cheered. "Have a good day." He saw no reason to pick a fight with the goblins, and he left them. A new noise got his attention though with a pain echoing from his midsection.
Ah, right, food. He needed that, magical fantasy world or not. But that could wait. How to make sure Zecora was safe... He didn't dare walk directly... Actually... He went back to where he started, trying to walk as if that was entirely normal, which it was! He hoped. Sliding under the brambles, he found the den emptied. "She left," he sighed with relief. "But..." Where did she go?!
Looking around in a panic, he spotted something odd. Drawn into the dirt was a spiral with triangles around it. Zecora's cutie mark! A sign. He went off in that direction, climbing free and setting off at a brisk jog. It was, unsurprisingly to him, not in the direction of the goblins. She had set off around them. "Clever girl." At least she wouldn't have been caught if they stormed their little camp.
Still! He had survived his first encounter with goblins. He marked an imaginary check in the air. "Mark that one off." And wolves! He was hitting a lot of fantasy world requirements. Was a dragon next? Would it be an angry sort, or maybe a Spike sort, or a large and benevolent variety? All of those options were kind of exciting, but he was fairly sure he wasn't quite ready to deal with a big angry dragon just yet...
"You look full of hope, what is it you managed to rope?" Zecora stepped out from around an especially wide tree, a saddlebag worn, filled with various herbs and roots. Where had she gotten that?
"Information." He pointed out. "There's a rail line, the 'thunder rail' that the local ponies use. I feel sure that's what the smoke I saw was, but that was headed away from us. But it's a rail line, which means--"
"It will return," Zecora finished with a soft nod. "Things take a positive turn. Supplies this forest has in abundance, but some food would not be redundant." She was looking to him hopefully.
That reminded him that he was still hungry! "I wanted to be sure I found you before I worried about that. We're safer together." That meant it was time to resume the searching of his pockets. He dug out something that felt like paper wrapper. Unfolding it from around the wafer it concealed, he found... something dry and... "Oh shit!" Zecora quirked her head at his curse. "Sorry, but I think this is a ration. Wow, never saw a real ration before."
She leaned in and up, sniffing the potential food. "This will chase away our pain. To fast is something I will abstain." She snapped, wrenching off a piece in her teeth in an uneven tear as she sat up on her haunches and raised her hooves for a platform as she got to chewing.
"Breakfast time," John agreed, tearing off another sizable piece and folding the rest away in its wrapper. What did a ration taste like? Spicy. That hard tack was spicy, which he had not expected. Someone had worked in some kind of spice all through the hard bread to give it a flavor that tingled and burned a little, but it varied as he worked through it, so it wasn't as boring as a solid wedge of tack might have otherwise been.
"Huh." Not the best food he'd ever had, but also not the worst, and he could say he'd eaten a ration. "Not terrible." He'd still be looking forward to some real food, but it would keep him alive. "Doing alright?" He looked to Zecora.
"You have more of that, it will keep us going. I hope our trip is not so long, our ribs start showing." She rose to her hooves. "Thank you for this meal, To approach the rail, a good idea I feel." She pointed in a new direction, a combination of towards the line and the edge of the forest. "They will see us better if we are not behind trees. We will advance to the open and fear not the breeze."
"One thing." He began the hike with Zecora. "The way those goblins were talking, they may not be friendly. I handled the gobs, so if you could take the first step with the ponies?"
"A zebra is not a pony, With my presence they may not agree." She inclined an ear off at a new angle. "But I will try, the least I can do. We are partners, I can at least tell invite them to who." She gestured between herself and John.
"Zebras are way closer to ponies than a human is." He did not have hooves, or a tail, or a fur pelt. "Ponies are nice as a habit though, right?" Zebras were also pretty great, so far he knew.
"Quick to startle and take flight. Our first enemy is that of fright." Zecora pointed ahead. "Your eyes were true, they did not lie. The forest abates, I can see the sky."
The forest was thinning ahead of them, allowing more and more of the sun to shine down on them. Being a cold place, the sun's rays wasn't that hot to the touch, but a welcome bit of warmth against the chill. It was, in the end, still cold, quite cold. John rubbed his gloved hands together as they went. "It should be easier to spot the rail when the trees aren't in the way."
She nodded without words, trotting a bit faster as the things in the way dwindled. Her eyes roamed the frozen tundra they were crossing instead. More habitable, it was not... But they could see so much further... Which also meant they could be seen just as easily. Better or not, she was uncertain. Zecora pointed to where a thin line cut a line across the landscape.
"The rail," agreed John without being told what he was agreeing with. "Let's get to it." She darted ahead of him, blocking his path with her side. "What?"
Zecora pointed to a crevice in the snow, easily missed at first glance.
"Oh... Well, let's get closer." They advanced together, the hole becoming much larger, and more obvious, as they came up on it. It was a gouge in the ground, going some indeterminate depth into the ground. It seemed to go as far as their eyes could easily verify to the north and south, even cutting into the forest. "Going around it might take forever." Across, it wasn't that far! Maybe twenty... thirty feet? That was too far to jump... "We just need to figure out how... to get across."
Zecora craned her neck to the right to look at where it hit the tree line. "The crevice must end, or the rail would not go. As much as it may bother, perhaps back into the forest of snow?" She pointed back at that tree line.
All that walking... "We should keep the rail in sight as best we can, at the very least." When Zecora nodded, he turned and they both began to follow that hole, hoping to run into where it allowed one to get across. "Maybe it narrows further up, and we can just hop over."
"Think twice before you make that hop. It looks deep enough for it to be a painful stop," cautioned Zecora as they went. "To be honest, this isn't so bad. A fearsome beast or greedy bandit would make me more sad."
As if summoned by her call for good cheer, rough calls came from the depths. Strange quadruped creatures, their features equine but also made of frost, roared with anger and spread out to come at the group from several angles.
John drew his sword even as he staggered back away from the edge. "The hell?" Maybe that was literal. They had demonic hints about them, with little horns, jagged lines, and little wagging tails. They were... pony ice demons? He hadn't played enough of the game to hope to identify them, aside from going that far. "Do you know what these are?"
Zecora shook her head swiftly as she began to collect some of her reagents. "They are threats entirely new. Ponies cast from ice shaded blue. If there is anything to be known, is that they see us as foe."
John swiped as they came in, but his sword went right above one and below another, their hooves thudding against his side, patches of frost forming on his clothing. "Oh ow!" So that was what direct cold damage felt like, good to know...
"Against creatures of rime, take out weapons with a dash of thyme." She threw out a fan of materials just in front of one of the little things charging at her. It shrieked in obvious pain, falling just before her, smoldering as if burning. She kicked it with a sudden flick of her hoof, sending it falling into the chasm it came from.
John was not alone, he drew comfort in that. Focusing on one of the little ice demons at a time, he brought his sword up in a cruel jab, lancing the thing in its ribs. It gargled and thrashed in agony, and the cold only grew worse. Two of the others exhaled gusts of freezing chill over him as if in revenge. "You... freakin' started this." With a flick of his sword, he sent the body of the impaled one thudding aside. "I'll end it."
"Buzz off!" John looked around. That hadn't been him, or Zecora. The creatures were scattering, apparently just as startled. Landing just in front of them, somewhat between the two came a pegasus, wings folding tight. "Hey there. You looked like you were in trouble."
Zecora blinked at their sudden pony companion. "Hail and well met. May we know who ended that threat?"