• Published 6th Oct 2015
  • 830 Views, 23 Comments

The Best of All Worlds - NerfedFalcon



It's survival of the fittest on a global scale. Humans in costume and ponies in human form are playing a game for an unknown purpose. With their lives as the ante and no way to back out, it’s a race against time to find the answers.

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The Scourge of the Plains (Part 1)

The sun was just starting to set behind us when we arrived in the town that Karin had seen the smoke rising from. There was a sign sitting in front of the first house on the main road passing through the town. “Welcome to Appleloosa, population 342,” Twilight read, despite how messy it seemed to me.

I noticed the aberration in her pronunciation, but then remembered this was a world of ponies. “Don’t know who came up with this name,” I said, “but I guess it’s not my place to judge your naming customs.” I looked down the street, excepting to see at least a few of the three hundred and forty-two residents moving along it.

“Where is everypony?” Twilight asked, affirming the conclusion that I’d come to: everyone was missing. “Are they all inside? But why would they be, on a day like this?”

“Something’s wrong,” I said, noticing the quiet. “And now that I’ve said it, it’s probably only a matter of time before we find out what.” I dismounted Karin, helping Twilight to do the same.

Someone hissed at us from a doorway, and I turned to see a pony leaning out of it, similar to how Twilight had been, only without a horn or wings and with an amber coat. “What are you doing out there? They’re going to get you!” he said.

“Slow down,” I replied, holding up a hand. “Who’s going to get us? What are you hiding from?”

A loud howl suddenly sounded, seeming to come from everywhere at once. “Oh, no! It’s too late! Run!” the pony shrieked, slamming the door closed. I turned back to the main street to see a large black dog, almost like a wolf, standing and snarling about twenty metres away. It raised its head to the air and howled again, before it started charging at us.

“Twilight, get behind me,” I said, drawing my sword.

“You know how to use a weapon?”

“Let’s hope so.”

As the wolf jumped to attack, I raised the sword above my head and brought it down quickly, striking the wolf on the top of the head and throwing off its lunge. Noticing I was under attack, Karin leapt into action, pinning the wolf down with one of her legs and pecking at its neck until it stopped moving. The black beast quickly dissolved into nothingness, but before I could wonder at what had happened, more howls came from all over the town.

Twilight stepped up behind me and said, “I might be able to fight with you.”

“Without a weapon? You can’t just punch those things, they’d bite your hand off!”

“I know magic. Or I used to. If I can just...”

She started to focus on her hand, and I quickly stepped to the side. “In that case, I’m gonna stand over here instead!”

Another wolf started charging down the main street, and a second leapt from a side street to join it, running alongside. As I prepared to attack again, I suddenly felt a burst of heat and wind pass by me, seeing the fireball as it passed by me and hit the wolf square in the chest. Its charge was stopped, and I ran up to meet it, blocking a swipe of its claw with my sword before cutting at its head horizontally. It yelped once and collapsed, disappearing.

Almost too late, I heard Karin squawk behind me, seeing that she had avoided the second wolf’s charge, but not its subsequent attack. It raked her across the chest, and I quickly ran towards her, shouting a battle cry to try and get the wolf’s attention. It turned towards me, only to catch another fireball in the side, which I’d seen had come from Twilight. She was holding a wand with a purple gem that matched her tattoo in her left hand, and her right was still glowing red from the fireball she’d attacked with.

The wolf hit me from the side, knocking me onto the ground, and I shoved my sword in between its jaws to try and stop it from biting me. It snapped the wood in half, and was about to bite at me again when Karin bodily charged into it, taking it off me. I picked up the hilt half of the sword and stabbed at the wolf’s eye, which was enough to take it down. I didn’t have any time to rest, though, as more howling filled the air.

No fewer than five more wolves jumped down from the rooftops, surrounding us in a circle. Their snarls seemed to create a stereo sound that was infinitely worse than listening to just one. All of us stepped back until we were touching, and Karin let out a frightened whimper. “It’ll be okay,” I said. “We’ll get through this... Right, Twilight?” She didn’t say anything. “Twilight?”

Twilight wasn’t saying anything. She didn’t even seem to be looking at the fight, instead staring off into space. Her eyes had turned a flat, glowing purple, and her wand was glowing the same colour. Some flash of instinct told me that she was about to go nuclear, and I threw my hand in front of my face just before she did. The purple light was still blinding as it expanded out from her. From what little I could safely see, she was floating, and two wings and a horn of ethereal energy had appeared on her back and forehead.

She let out a piercing scream, and bolts of energy blasted from her horn, striking the wolves like arcing lightning before passing through a house and a water tower. As the lightning passed through more and more objects, I wondered if I should try and stop Twilight. Karin let out a screech as a bolt passed through her as well, which made the decision for me. “Twilight, stop it!” I shouted, grabbing her arm.

The electrifying energy suddenly shot through me in its entirety, and I screamed as well, overcome by a rush of pain. I tried to let go of Twilight, but I couldn’t. I could barely see some of the objects that were touched by the lightning arcs dissolving, and I heard the wolves’ howls slowly disappearing one by one until my own scream covered it. With all the conscious thought I had left, I prayed that it would end before I was destroyed as well.

Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud noise like an explosion, and the pain stopped all at once. The sudden shift made me feel ill, and I collapsed to my hands and kness, looking over to see that Karin had done something similar. Twilight was still standing herself, but she was panting heavily, and her wand had disappeared. I was about to ask what had happened when one of the doors nearby opened. “Are they gone?” a woman asked, or a mare, I should say.

“I think so,” said the stallion who’d warned us before. “I don’t know what they did, but they’re all gone now...” Slowly, more and more ponies started to leave their houses and return to the streets, as they realised that none of their number was being torn to shreds by giant black wolves. Muted conversations started forming all around us, and I looked around to see we were the centre of attention for what seemed to be literally the entire town.

To my surprise, there wasn’t really any cheering or crowd-surfing involved. Twilight and I stood up, and the crowd gave us a respectful distance. Somehow, they still seemed frightened of something. I remembered what Twilight had said before about strangeness, and thought that ponies who lived in a small town like this one weren’t likely to ever see humans.

“Make way. Comin’ through,” a gruff voice said quickly, and the crowd of ponies stepped aside to reveal a pony wearing a vest and a hat. I groaned as I saw the star-shaped badge on his vest, realising that he was the town’s sheriff. “I’d like t’ thank ya for dealin’ with those fiends,” he said, his accent sounding distinctly Texan. “Normally the mayor would do this, but... circumstances have forced me to step in as deputy mayor.”

When he paused before ‘circumstances’, the entire town collectively held their breath. “Something’s bothering you, isn’t it?” I asked. “All of you. You’re scared of something that’s out there, and that was in here until just now.” I noticed inwardly that I was starting to turn into a generic fantasy hero, but further down than that, I was okay with it, and so I continued, “Well, if you’re wondering whether to impose on us or not, this is the sort of thing that us wandering adventurers do. So tell us all about it, and we’ll make sure your town is spared whatever burden you’re all living under.”

Twilight was giving me strange looks, and something told me that Karin was too. The sheriff was the next one to actually speak, though. “Well, considerin’ ya did just save us all... I suppose I can tell ya. But I’m gonna need a drink, and the way I see it, ya’ve earned one as well.” He started walking towards a large wooden building, and the ponies parted like the Red Sea again. “Ya comin’, stranger?”

I flinched slightly at that, but Twilight stepped up to fill the gap. “Certainly, Mr. Sheriff.” She tried to take Karin’s reins, but a squawk from the Chocobo stopped her. Shrugging, I took over, leading Karin behind Twilight and the sheriff to the saloon. As I hitched the reins over a nearby post, I wondered at whether ponies had mounts, and if they ever needed to use those railings. “Coming, Soren?” Twilight asked from inside, cutting off my navel-gazing once again.

“Uh, sure,” I said. The adrenaline was wearing off, and I was starting to feel the various minor wounds I’d taken during the fight. “What have you got to drink here?” I asked, as a wooden mug was placed in front of me. Slowly, I took a sip from it, discovering that it was apple cider, and really good apple cider at that.

“Cider, and we make it all here,” the sheriff said proudly. “Town was founded by apples, as many towns were before us.” He took a drink from his own mug, and then added, “Though, it’s been difficult t’ grow ‘em lately, what with...” He inhaled, and let his voice drop dramatically. “The Scourge of the Plains.” He looked outside, as though expecting lightning to crash, or for whatever he’d just said to appear like the Devil, but nothing happened.

“So what exactly is this scourge?” Twilight asked.

“All we know is that it’s a great black beast, who falls from the sky and snatches a pony, one almost every day. If it can’t find one, it’ll wait until a pony does come out, and they’ll be taken. Our population has slowly dwindled since it started almost a month ago, as nopony has found where they go, or if they’re even still alive. The last one it took was an out-of-towner, at that, and a member of the Apple Clan. That won’t be good for our image, though it won’t matter a bit if the Scourge isn’t dealt with.” He took another drink and continued, “And I wouldn’t bet on lettin’ it capture ya t’ lead you to its lair, stranger...”

I did a spit-take at ‘stranger’. “I’m sorry, could you not call me that?” I asked. “I’ve got a name, it’s Soren. I’m not a stranger now, am I?”

The sheriff coughed, and shifted his hat back onto the middle of his head. “Well, the Scourge of the Plains ain’t comin’ out tonight. Not until dawn. I suggest you get some sleep, partner. You’ll need it, if you’re goin’ huntin’ tomorrow.” He pointed towards the back of the bar. “There’s rooms upstairs; I’ll pay for both of ya for tonight. Lemme just speak t’ the Lord about it.”

As he walked off towards the bar, I drained the rest of the cider in my mug in one go. “See the world,” I said. “Get attacked by giant wolves and have drinks with interesting Southern ponies. This is not what I was expecting when I signed that contract.”

“Contract?” Twilight asked, tilting her head sideways. “What contract?” As I was about to brush her off, she suddenly added, “That merchant mentioned something about a contract... Is it to do with him?”

I groaned and stood up. “C’mon, let’s go get those rooms, Twilight. I’ll want to sit down somewhere privately to explain this. The sheriff would think I’m insane, and the only reason you won’t is because you’ve seen the merchant too.” The sheriff, overhearing part of the statement, waved us towards the stairs and led us to a pair of rooms above the bar. I unlocked mine and led Twilight in, directing her to sit on the bed while I took the chair.

“Well, it all started about thirteen days ago, in a world rather unlike this one...”

~~

I couldn’t sleep.

Maybe it was something to do with not being a pony anymore. Sleeping as a human would probably take some getting used to. I’d managed to figure out motor control pretty quickly, and even learned a magical spell, which I definitely remembered learning as a pony. But maybe sleeping was different.

Idly, I tried to summon the wand I’d had during the fight, the way I’d instinctively known to at the time, but it wouldn’t come to me. I could feel it was there, but at the same time it wasn’t. The feeling disturbed me and made it even harder to sleep, so I gave up on sleeping and clambered out of my bed. Soren was in the next room over. He’d insisted on not sleeping in the same room as me, even though I hadn’t taken off my clothes. I couldn’t even figure out how I was meant to do it. It seemed like they were bound to me somehow, and though they were comfortable enough, the way Soren reacted to them told me that there was something about humans and clothing that I wasn’t getting, and that made me nervous.

Quietly, I opened the door of Soren’s room to discover that he was still awake as well. He was sitting under the window, trying to read a book in the moonlight. I focused again, trying to remember if I’d learned any spells just for making a light. My focus was broken when I realised that a light had appeared in my palm, which disappeared as soon as I was surprised by it. Soren had already turned towards me, so I focused on the light again as I walked towards him.

“Can’t sleep?” he asked. “Me neither. Thought I’d be able to sleep tonight, since I haven’t had a bed for two weeks, but...” As I approached, he looked back down at his book. “This was empty before, and I don’t have anything to write with,” he explained as he showed it to me. There were detailed portraits of him, me and his yellow bird, the Chocobo. They were all labelled in a strange language, seemingly drawn with ink, but without any mess at all. “And I definitely can’t draw this well. I’m not sure if the merchant gave this to me, or what.”

“You don’t remember getting a book like this?” I asked. “A lot must have happened...”

“You’re telling me, and a lot still is happening. Look at this.” He turned through the book to another page, covered in the same unreadable markings. As I touched the page, I noticed that it seemed much thinner than the parchment I was used to. “The Scourge of the Plains... After rescuing a town under attack by monsters, we were commissioned to help the town again, this time from a beast known only as the Scourge of the Plains.” He drew his finger across the letters as he spoke. “I’m not saying any of that from memory. That’s what’s written there.”

“Really?” I asked, confused. “What language is that written in?”

“English.” He turned towards me again. “That’s what we’re speaking, isn’t it?”

“No, I thought we were speaking Common Equis. What are you talking about? And why is it written like that?”

Soren slapped his forehead emphatically. “Look, I’m not gonna do this comedy routine with you. Maybe English and... what did you call it? Anyway, English and your language grew up independently, but by some cosmic coincidence turned out almost exactly the same.” He slapped himself again. “I should’ve noticed when you read the sign in front of the town and I couldn’t. Anyway, I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it. For what little my word is worth.” He grinned again, and I assumed he was trying with little success to play up his ‘roguish charm’.

“Oh, and that reminds me,” he said, pulling a small bag out of his pocket. “The merchant dropped into my room before. Left me with this. Said it was the bounty we earned today. Haven’t counted it yet, but it feels pretty heavy.” He passed it to me, and I poured some of the coins out into my hand, immediately recognising the Equestrian bit with the sun and moon. “How many wolves did you kill with that thing you did at the end?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But...” I thought about what to say, and he gestured with one hand as if to ask me to clarify. “It was pretty powerful, but that power must have come at some price. Maybe that’s why I can’t summon my wand back.”

I held out my hand to prove it, but he stopped me. “I believe you,” he said, returning to the book. “Ah, here it is. Apparently, that’s something that ponies who’ve entered the Game and turned human can do. A ‘Limit Break’, which is a powerful move that prevents them from summoning their weapon again until the next time they sleep.”

“Pity I can’t sleep, then,” I said ruefully. Something crossed my mind, and I added, “But what does it mean, ‘ponies’? Are there others out there who are like me?”

“Won’t know until I’ve shook hands with every pony on the continent,” Soren chuckled. “Anyway, if that’s the case, you should try and get back to sleep. We’ll solve some mysteries tomorrow, if we have time in between the hunting of the Scourge. Let’s just hope it’s not a boojum.”

“A what?”

“Never mind, I’ll explain some other time. Go back to bed, Twilight. Good night.” He closed the book and placed it near the door, which was the last I saw of him that night.

When I arrived in my own bedroom, there was a book sitting on the bed, with a piece of parchment sitting on top of it. A message was written on it in CE: “I guess it wasn’t right only giving it to the boy. You need one just as much as he does. With my compliments.” Inside the book, printed on parchment, were the same drawings as in Soren’s book, only this time I could read them.

Twilight Sparkle – Level 2 Mage
Soren Cavanagh – Level 2 Freelancer
Karin – Level 2 Chocobo

Turning through the book revealed that many of the pages were blank, with only two more segments marked out: ‘Quest’ and ‘Codex’, containing exactly what Soren had said. The questions started to ring in my head again: who exactly was that merchant? How did he know all the things he did, and how had he gotten into both our rooms?

I lay on my back on the bed and pondered the mystery of the merchant, until I fell into a dreamless sleep and pondered it no more.

~~

Twilight had slept well enough to resummon her wand by the next morning, which was something I was definitely happy for. The sheriff had come to the bar early, so I took the opportunity to ask him when the Scourge usually appeared. “Around the break of dawn, or a little after,” he replied grimly. “Ya want to get started early?”

“I’m more worried about Karin.”

“Who?”

“My Chocobo.” He still looked confused, so I added, “My bird.” The sheriff grunted at that and walked off, waving us goodbye as we stepped out the door. The sun was about half above the horizon and half below. Fearing the worst, as I’d told the sheriff, I stepped outside to see Karin was still hitched to the rail. She was awake and preening herself, seemingly having entirely recovered from the injury she'd taken yesterday. She yanked out and dropped a bright yellow feather, which Twilight quickly picked up. “You like it?” I asked.

“It’s beautiful,” she replied. “I have a friend who’d love this. And she’d love Karin just as much.”

“Really? Who?”

Twilight hummed slightly before shaking her head. “I don’t remember.” I sighed in frustration at her recurring amnesia as Karin sat down to let me saddle her. After a short silence, she said, “Maybe it’ll come back to me, like all the other things.”

I tightened the leather straps and patted Karin’s neck to let her know I was done. “Let’s hope so.” As I walked into the middle of the street, I realised that I hadn’t replaced my wooden sword. I still had the broken half of it, so I swung it a few times like a dagger. “It’ll have to do,” I said to myself. “Now let’s go find this Scourge.”

“Soren, look!” Twilight shouted, pointing towards the horizon to the east, down the main road. There was a dark shape blotting out the sky above, and another one just below. Both of them were getting larger at an ominously fast rate. I started to see the details of the airborne one first; it was slowly beating two large wings, and its talons were hanging down underneath it, making it out to be an extremely large bird of prey. It got lower and closer, and I raised my sword as if it could help in swatting it out of the air.

My nerve broke as it passed over, and I ducked quickly, breathing a sigh of relief when I realised it hadn’t grabbed me. Then I swore as I discovered it had grabbed Twilight instead. Her screaming was already getting further and further away, and I hastily mounted Karin, hoping to chase after it. Before we could start chasing, though, the other dark shape caught up to us, revealing itself to be a large mass of shapes.

Karin squawked as a herd of buffalo stampeded down the main street past us. She was already facing in the direction they were charging, so I spurred her into action, and she quickly accelerated to match the pace of the buffalo. A few of them turned towards me for a moment, but returned to their own charge without trying to attack me or acknowledge me further. All of them were wearing a different number of feathers behind their ears, and when I made eye contact with one, there seemed to be a spark of intelligence in their eyes. Perhaps ponies weren’t the only sentient animal species in this world. Whoever had created this Game had gone to a lot of effort, obviously.

With no sound but the thundering of hooves and the barely audible pitter-patter of a Chocobo’s stride, we continued across the plain, chasing after the Scourge. Whenever it turned, the buffalo turned as well. I wasn’t about to ask why they were chasing after it; I had my own reason. It wasn’t that I cared much about Twilight; I just didn’t feel like losing a party member so early.

Unfortunately, the Scourge was faster than us. It disappeared onto the horizon little by little, and eventually the buffalo slowed down, realising that they couldn’t catch it. As they came to a stop seemingly hours later, they all started to face me, and I began to feel self-conscious. I dismounted Karin, who was looking much more exhausted than any of the buffalo, and looked into the sea of feathered buffalo, wondering what was about to happen.

A murmur seemed to pass through the ranks of the buffalo, and eventually the one that was closest said, “The Chief would speak with you.” As the ponies in Appleloosa had, the buffalo parted ranks, making way for the largest of the group, a dark brown bull with a full feather headdress. Unsure of what to do, I bowed towards him, and he snorted at the gesture of supplication.

“Leave us,” he commanded the rest of the buffalo, who set off behind me. Eventually, it was just me, him and Karin. He turned to me, staring intensely. “You are not one of this land. Yet you were attacked by the Scourge, as both the ponies of Appleloosa and my buffalo have. Who are you? Where did you come from, and why?”

“It’s a long story, chief...”

“Thunderhooves. And you have plenty of time to tell it. Do not make me ask again.”

I sighed and sat down. I couldn’t tell him the proper story, but I could ad-lib a more believable version. “My name is Soren. I come from a faraway land, but an evil magician abducted me and left me stranded here. Well, not here exactly, about a few thousand miles away...”

“I would hear of your journey here in greater detail,” the chief interrupted. “Begin from when you first set foot on the soil of the Great Plains.”

“I know that the magician put me to sleep, and when I woke up, I was alone. Well, actually, I wasn’t quite alone. I was awoken by the cry of a bird...”

Author's Note:

Further Codex entries:

-Freelancer: A warrior who has yet to take up a specific fighting style, or one who does not wish to. Though they have no major strengths, they have no weaknesses either, and their ability to use almost all weapons and magic equally can make them formidable opponents. Very few true Freelancers are known to exist, as most warriors prefer to keep to one fighting style after a while.

-Mage: A warrior who converts mana energy into forms that can be applied in combat, whether to heal or harm. As they use their minds to fight rather than their bodies, they are not as physically strong or durable as other warriors, but their varied and powerful abilities can make up for it. Most mages usually specialise further into a specific aspect of magic; only a true prodigy can master more than one field.

-Chocobo: A large, flightless bird found in many different worlds. Due to their friendly natures, strength and running speed, they are often used as mounts in the worlds which they inhabit. Their beaks and talons can also make for powerful weapons when they're threatened. They come in many different colours, but yellow is the most common.