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.
Some of you may think you know me. I’m just another name in a long list of kidnapping victims, the only pattern of which is that they disappeared from conventions after talking to an unidentified man dressed as the merchant from Resident Evil 4. No matter how many people he’s seemingly abducted, police and security have never caught him, or found any of his victims. I’m just another casualty of a world gone insane, fallen through the cracks.
At first, my only company was a Chocobo whose egg I’d been forced to buy from him. But it turns out I’m not alone in this world after all. This world is inhabited by ponies who can talk and have their own society. Some of them have supposedly been chosen for a game along with myself and the other kidnapped humans, though the details on this game are few and far between.
And we all have superpowers of our own for no adequately explained reason.
I’m starting to wonder if wandering alone for eternity with Karin wouldn’t have been better.
~~
It’s back and better than ever (which isn’t saying a whole lot.) Taking a few old ideas of mine and combining them, this is a Displaced story with (some) humanised ponies and other things that some people might well object to and thumbs-down without even reading it.
Too many copyrighted properties are about to be involved, so I’ll just leave it that all properties whose characters and concepts are used belong to their respective owners, and the only thing I own is this story, which I don’t intend to profit from.
Rated T for occasional swearing and moderately frequent (though not particularly brutal) violence.
I needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of people in the building. I knew that it would be crowded, but since it was my first convention, I’d underestimated just how crowded it would be. People everywhere were rushing to booths or taking photos of characters they recognised. I’d bought a few things that I thought looked cool, but I hadn’t made a specific costume, so I was just another part of the crowd. That made it even worse; nobody would make a space around me to admire the costume.
Seeing an empty conference room, I stepped inside, closing the door and taking a few deep breaths. I could still hear the muted sounds of hustle and bustle outside, but I definitely felt good to be away from anyone else.
“Over here, stranger. Got some rare things on sale...”
“Nope.”
I’d heard the news reports, of course. It was the biggest story of the season. A serial kidnapping case involving people at conventions, and the last person they’d spoken to was the guy who was in the room with me right now, disguised as the merchant from the game Resident Evil 4. Whether it was one man, a group or copycats didn’t concern me. I didn’t want anything to do with him.
I turned to open the door and return to the crowd, but the door was locked. I tried to push it back open, but it wouldn’t budge. A few punches later, I resorted to trying to kick it down. The merchant just chuckled behind me, but I ignored him as best I could. Nobody on the other side seemed to be hearing me no matter how hard I pounded, until eventually the door opened under my continued pounding and I fell through to the other side.
Nobody was there.
An entire convention full of people, two thousand or more, had just disappeared all at once.
“What the fuck...?”
“They’re all still there, stranger. It’s just you and me in here.” I didn’t expect a reply, and I hardly noticed I’d been given one to form my own reply to. I just stared into the deserted building, all four storeys of the luxurious convention centre feeling like a ghost town. “Stranger?”
“You...” I turned around, but the merchant had already gone. Turning again, he was standing inside the main lobby, a few paces away from me. “How are you doing this? What did you do with everyone out there?”
“I already told you, stranger. They’re all still enjoying the convention. I just... borrowed you for a bit. This isn’t the world you know.” I was seriously disturbed by the turn of events. I pinched myself, but nothing changed. “You may have doubts, but I’m sure you’ll come to understand eventually...”
“So what happens now?” I asked, leaning over the railing. The ground was one floor below, but I didn’t feel like jumping just yet. “You put a rag over my face and I wake up three days later in a bathtub full of ice with one less kidney?”
The merchant laughed openly at the statement, and I folded my arms in exasperation. “Nothing so pedantic, stranger. What happens now is you take a look at my wares. I'm sure you'll find something worth buyin'.
“But first...” He looked me over a few times, walking around behind me and taking a very close look at my clothes. I’d worn a red waist-length jacket, open, and a blue scarf that I’d found in the closet at home. I also had a wooden sword I’d picked up from a novelty shop near the convention centre. It was pretty difficult to get inside, but I thought it’d give some sort of impression that I hadn’t thought of at the time. “Is this a costume of your own devising, stranger?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. That a problem?”
“Normally, I would sell you something to... complete the costume. Unfortunately, since you’re not anyone I recognise, I have nothing.”
He murmured a few things to himself, and I almost felt bad. He was still a complete lunatic, and a dangerous one judging by what he’d done before, but I wanted to give him something to work on, if only so he’d stop talking to me sooner. “I guess it’s the kind of a thing you’d see in a Final Fantasy game?”
He seemed to light up behind his mask at that, and chuckled again. “In that case... you can’t be a hero without a steed.” He opened his jacket, revealing large amounts of various objects, and one among them that caught my eye: an egg, sitting in a pocket just exposed enough to make it clear what it was. “And I have just the one for you. I’ll even throw in the riding gear for free.”
“Right... How much do you want for it?”
He chuckled again. “Where you’re going, your paper money won’t do you much good. And a beast like this doesn’t come along every day. I’ll need all the money you have. And one other thing besides.”
I sighed as I pulled out my wallet. “This had better not lead to me losing a kidney.”
“That was the last thing on my mind, stranger. No...” He pulled a clipboard from under his jacket, with a pen and a piece of paper held under the clip. “A contract.” I looked through it, but there was only one piece of paper, and the text on it was large enough to read easily. “Just the usual matters.”
“What’s the catch?” I asked, frowning and squinting as if it would reveal more fine print. It didn’t appear, and I started to wonder just who the merchant was, but he spoke again before I could ask.
“None whatsoever.” I put the pen to the paper at that, but he held up a hand and interrupted me. “But I will expect you to remember it, stranger.” Nodding, I signed it, and he chuckled again, taking the egg out of his pocket with one hand and accepting the clipboard with the other. “Take good care of her. We’ll be seeing each other again shortly, if all goes as planned...”
“What plan?” No response, only more chuckling. I started to feel dizzy all of a sudden, and nearly dropped the egg as I fell to the ground. I carefully put it down before I fell next to it. The world around me took on a red tint, as the now-cackling merchant’s mask disappeared, devoured by a hundred jagged teeth in the mouth behind it—
~~
“Kweh! Kweh, kweh!”
The squawking jerked me awake, and I quickly stood up, already awake from the shock. Karin was panicking, perhaps from my own reaction to the dream turning surreal, and a panicked Chocobo could be dangerous with their talons and beaks. “Easy, girl! Easy,” I coaxed her, moving in closer carefully. I started to rub her neck, knowing that she liked it. She calmed down quickly; she’d bonded with me almost as soon as she saw me.
I still didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious for her to be an adult as soon as I met her, assuming she actually hatched from the egg the merchant gave me. It was just another question that would probably never go answered. It was just Karin and me, travelling across an empty plain that seemed to stretch to eternity in every direction. It was in the hope that eventually I’d come across someone or something else that we travelled.
For the last two days, I’d been following a river upstream, giving me an opportunity to wash myself. I wasn’t too worried about modesty; the only other one around was Karin, and I doubted she had any concept either way of what decency was. Before I started, I drank from the river, and took a look at myself in the rippling reflection. I still couldn’t grow any facial hair, unfortunately, making me look a lot younger than I actually was. I remembered again, though, that that didn’t matter.
Karin was preening herself as she did every morning, usually after waking me up by rolling me around with her beak. She seemed to find it funny, but I didn’t hate her for it. I would probably just lose sight of my goal and sleep forever if it wasn’t for her wanting to move on with me. I watched her methodically run over her wings, pull out and straighten feathers, and even flick out her tail feathers as I bathed.
She finished at about the same time I did, and I pulled a large green herb out of a saddle bag. She ate it as I wondered once again why I didn’t have to eat. It had been twelve days since I arrived here, and despite having not eaten a single thing, I felt completely fine. It was just another mystery that would never be answered by the golden plains surrounding me in every direction.
Karin sat down to let me saddle her, using motions that I never remembered learning but could perform from muscle memory. Before I put the bags back on the saddle, I checked over my meagre list of possessions: a bundle of the herbs Karin liked; an empty leather-bound journal; my clothes, naturally; and the wooden sword. I hadn’t ever had to use it, but I kept it around anyway, just in case it ever came in handy.
A chirp pulled my attention to Karin, who had stood up and was stepping back and forth, eager to get going again. I’d done everything I needed to as well, so I swung myself into her saddle and clutched the reins. Tapping once with them, I felt her jerk forward into motion, taking almost no time to accelerate before settling into a rapid but steady gait up the river to, I presumed, our destiny.
Between the rushing of the air and the river, I quickly settled into the ride, letting Karin’s instincts take over as she ran along the river’s bank. Occasionally, I turned from side to side, watching a mesa pass by on my left side. It must have been miles away for how slowly it was moving, but even from the distance it was, it seemed huge. Karin didn’t turn towards it at all; she was too focused on moving forward, though I couldn’t blame her.
The sun bore down on us as it reached its zenith, and Karin eventually came to a stop. I could see that she was sweating, and felt that I was too. “Alright, girl, I get it,” I said as I dismounted. I looked around for any kind of shade, perhaps a pointless effort in the middle of a flat plain, and quickly spotted a large rock nearby. Taking the reins in one hand, I walked her to the rock, and she gratefully lay down behind it, warbling as I removed the saddle.
I watched her sleep for a few hours, finding a kind of Zen peace in the way her chest moved rhythmically up and down. Sometimes I placed a hand on her neck for a moment, gently so as not to wake her up, but still able to feel her breathing in sync with the movement. I almost fell asleep myself before I spotted something on the horizon. A strange light was coming from a distance away, glowing a strange purple against the blue sky and yellow ground. It might have been a mirage, but anything that was a different colour to the endless plains, I thought, was worth checking out.
As Karin woke up, perhaps noticing my anticipation, she stretched out as best she could without being exposed to the sun’s harsh light. Despite the heat, she willingly let me saddle and mount her, and I pointed her towards the strange light I’d seen before. We set off again, more slowly than before due to the heat. When we came to the river, Karin looked down at it, but splashed through it and kept going without a complaint.
The light grew larger and closer, before it suddenly disappeared, revealing something in its place. I couldn’t make it out clearly, but it seemed to be the same purple as the light, still starkly contrasted against the dirt it lay on. It shifted as I grew closer, and I reined Karin in to a dead stop close enough to make out what the object was.
As it stood up, I saw that it was a unicorn, though much smaller than I’d imagined unicorns to be. She, or I assumed it was a mare, only seemed to be about four and a half feet tall, not counting her horn or her ears. She was also purple all over, with a dark purple mane and tail. She looked up at me with wide purple eyes, before studying my Chocobo and then the ground beneath her. I dismounted, leaving Karin standing behind me. As the unicorn turned, I noticed something else interesting once I had a side view of her: she had wings, and a strange pink tattoo on her flank.
Before I could ask myself what the deal was, she asked, “Why am I in the Great Plains?”
“Kweh?”
“And why is there a strange bird with something growing out of its back?”
“What?”
“Just what is going on?”
“I wish I knew,” I replied, dismounting Karin to prove that I wasn’t just a parasitic growth on her. “But you might want to not call things ‘strange’ at a whim, considering you’re a talking winged unicorn with a tattoo on her ass.”
“I’m a pony! I’m not strange!”
I shook my head dismissively. “Didn’t have ponies like you where I came from, so from where I’m standing, you really are. And if you don’t see my point, then I don’t think we’ll enjoy each other’s company much.”
“Wait!” she cried as I started walking back towards Karin. “I didn’t really mean it... I meant that your bird was strange, not...”
Karin let out an angry ‘kweh’ and took a step towards the pony, her eyes narrowed dangerously, but I reined her in despite her annoyance. “You might want to be a little more careful, ‘pony’. Chocobos are smarter than they look.” Making sure that she was relatively stable, I let go of the reins and walked up to the pony. “Maybe we should start again. You seem nice enough, if a little ignorant.”
“Hey!”
“And I’m a bit of a jerk, but that’s just part of my roguish charm.” I laughed at that, but the pony didn’t, so I decided to try something else. “So what’s a nice young lady like you doing in a place like this?”
The pony looked off to the side slightly, completely missing the pickup line. “I wish I knew. I woke up in the middle of the night in my palace, and then... there was a bright light, and I was here.”
“Do you remember anything else before that? Anything you might be able to tell me?”
She shook her head. “I feel like I should remember a lot of things...” As she said that, she collapsed. I moved in to help her, but she quickly said she was fine. “Just a little tired, is all.” Even so, I offered her my hand to help her up, which she eventually took with her foreleg.
That’s when things got weird.
As soon as my hand touched hers, another bright light started to surround her, except this one was pure white instead of her coat’s purple. She looked as surprised as I was, and even Karin was making surprised noises behind me. My arm started to feel strange, but I couldn’t let go of her, even as the feeling spread through to the rest of my body. All at once, it disappeared again, passing down through my arm into the pony.
When the light faded, she wasn’t a pony anymore. Her tail had disappeared entirely, and most of her body was covered in a skintight purple costume, only exposing her shoulders, though those were covered by a star-patterned cloak; thighs; and face. As I noticed the tattoo had moved to the inside of her right thigh, I quickly averted my gaze, feeling that the costume was going rather too far. There was no denying what had happened, though: somehow, the pony had turned into another human.
As she tried to stand up, she realised that her balance had changed, and she gasped. I respected that she didn’t scream despite her surprise, and helped her to assume a more human posture. As she brushed herself off, she started to take in the details of her new form, studying how I moved and stood to help herself. “Well, at least now we’re both strange,” I said, shrugging.
“Indeed, stranger,” a raspy voice said from behind me, and I turned around as the ex-pony gasped again. “I apologise that I could not meet you sooner. But... there were still a few things left to do, which have now been done.”
I drew my sword and tried to frown as best I could. “What are you talking about?”
“The two of you have been chosen to play the Game.”
The way he said ‘game’ implied a capital letter, and the statement threw me off. As neither of us said anything, and Karin squawked confusedly, he continued, “It is a game created from the best of all worlds that has been played since the dawn of time. The greatest heroes and darkest villains of existence and history have played the Game, and now...” he chuckled again, “you have been chosen to join them.
“I am not the Game’s creator, before you ask,” he added as I opened my mouth. “I am merely an arbiter, one who oversees the Game to ensure that all play by the rules. I have other roles as well, but first...” He waved a hand between the two of us. “I am sure you have many questions. I shall accept one from each of you. Choose wisely.”
The girl spoke first. “Where are we right now?”
He chuckled and swept his hand around. “This land is known as Equestria.” He pointed at her and added, “But it is not the Equestria you know. It is one where ponies have learned to harness magical power, and power their entire society by it. But nothing comes without a cost...”
“You said you had roles besides an arbiter,” I recalled. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
“I am a merchant first and foremost,” he replied, opening his coat again. “There are many beasts that roam this land, and you will doubtless come into conflict with them and with others. Any battles you win will earn you a bounty, which I shall record for you. I can reimburse you in the local currency, of course... but also in things that money can’t buy.”
“Kweh, kweh kweh?” Karin suddenly asked.
The merchant chuckled, before replying in a similar series of chirps, pointing towards the horizon. “Now, I must leave you. But one more thing... That book you have,” he said, pointing towards the saddlebag where it sat. “You may well find it very useful. That is all, for now. I wish you good luck in the Game, for you cannot leave except by two methods. Win... or die. Oh, and stranger. Remember the contract. Bad things will happen if you forget.” He started chuckling as I recalled the single sentence written on the contract:
I understand that I may not have control over every outcome, but nonetheless take responsibility for all actions I undertake, and accept this fate of my own free will.
His chuckling suddenly cut off as he dropped something on the ground and a large amount of smoke exploded everywhere. When it cleared, and the girl and I stopped coughing, he was gone. “Who was he?” the girl asked.
I shook my head. “A merchant. And a few more things besides, but that’s just another question that needs answering.” I looked around, and then continued, “We need to find some other people. Maybe there’s a town somewhere, but...”
“Kweh!” Karin interrupted, pointing with her wing and her beak towards the horizon. I squinted, trying to see what she was talking about, and spotted what looked like rising smoke. “Kweh, kweh?”
“Good girl,” I replied, rubbing her neck again. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and where there’s fire there’s civilisation. We should go check that out.” I mounted Karin, reaching out a hand to pull the girl onto her back as well. “There’s plenty of room, and I’m sure she won’t try to throw you off. Even though you insulted her. Right, girl?” Karin squawked in what I thought was agreement. “Just be sure to hang on tight.”
As the girl climbed into the saddle behind me, I added, “Oh, and I can’t just keep calling you ‘pony’, especially not now. You got a name?”
She thought for a moment, presumably trying to remember. “Twilight Sparkle,” she said at last, grabbing me around my waist.
“Call me Soren. It’s as good a name as any,” I replied. “My Chocobo is Karin. And you might want to hold on tighter than that.” As Twilight asked why, I snapped the reins down, and Karin set off quickly. Yelping, Twilight quickly tightened her grip on me and shifted back into a stable position, and I laughed to myself. At least she hadn’t fallen off completely the way I had.
Leaving nothing behind but a trail of clawed footprints, we set off towards adventure.
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.
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...”
I must have passed out at some point while the Scourge of the Plains was absconding with me, because the next thing I remembered was falling. I fell for hours, or what seemed like hours, towards the ground below. As I got closer, I noticed that I was falling specifically towards a mesa rather than just to the ground. I didn’t manage to think about it much, though, what with the falling making it impossible to hear myself think through the screaming I was also doing.
All of a sudden, I wasn’t falling anymore. I’d hit the ground hard, and my body hurt all over. As I tried to stand up, though, I realised nothing was broken. I’d fallen into a chamber inside the mesa, where some kind of lichen was growing on the ground. How it was enough to break my fall, I wasn’t certain, but I was glad I was still alive, for the time being.
“What in tarnation’s goin’ on out there?” somepony asked from further into the cave. I couldn’t see clearly, as it was dark beyond what little sunlight was still coming through the hole I’d fallen through. Slowly, I cast another light spell, but it wasn’t strong enough to reveal what was back there. It did show myself more clearly, though, as the same pony gasped in surprise.
“I’m a pony, like you,” I said. Realising it sounded wrong, I added, “Well, I’m no less civilised than anypony else, that’s...”
“Monster!” a different pony shouted, and I heard hoofbeats charging towards me quickly. In the dim light, I could see that it wasn’t quite a pony; her thin legs and tail made her out to be something else. She was moving quickly, though, and before I could summon my wand in defence, she had already jumped and knocked me down. “You won’t hurt anyone else under my watch!” She pulled her hooves back into the air, but before she could bring them down on my face, she was knocked off of me by who I presumed was the first speaker.
“Hold up there,” she said, in a distinct but slightly drawled done. “I don’t reckon this is a monster. Whatever it is, it was foalnapped just like us by that big black thing.” She stepped closer to me, and I could see her face upside-down hanging over mine. “An’ if’n it can talk like anypony...” she looked at the other, who snorted, and blushed slightly, “well, any civilised bein’ at any rate, then I reckon we oughta try talkin’ before fightin’.”
“If you insist.” I sat up and turned towards the pair, remembering from somewhere at the back of my mind that the smaller one was a buffalo. Both of them were orange with blond manes, but the pony seemed to have a brighter tone to her coat, and had tied back her mane and tail. She was also wearing a brown hat, whereas the buffalo was wearing a headband with two feathers poking out of the back. “So just what are you, anyway?”
“It’s a long story, but...” I noticed that the buffalo was about to interrupt, and added, “But to make it short, I used to be a pony like you. I was turned into a human by...”
I wondered whether to tell them about Soren, but the pony said, “Who? I’ll knock their lights out for ya until they turn ya back! T’aint right to change a pony into somethin’ else!”
“No, it’s not like that!” I shouted, exasperated. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on either, but this isn’t a curse or anything. And right now, I’m hoping that he was able to follow me back here. I don’t know if there’s a way out...”
“I might have found one before, but it was too dark to see,” the buffalo offered. “But with that trick you did with the light, maybe you could help us get through it? There has to be a way out eventually, and I can find the herd from anywhere.” She tapped the ground twice emphatically.
“It was back this way, right?” the pony asked, turning around to walk off into the darkness. I cast the light spell again and walked behind her, raising my hand to search the walls for anywhere a passage might be. After walking for about a minute in the same direction, I spotted the passage, and so did the pony and the buffalo. “Yep, that’s the one.”
The buffalo jumped across a few outcroppings from the walls to reach the passage. “Hurry,” she said, beckoning us forward with a hoof. The pony made the same series of jumps, but in this form I wasn’t confident in being able to do the same.
“What’s wrong?” the pony asked. As though she read my mind, she added, “Can’t jump too well?”
I looked down at my hands, and then at the uneven walls. Flexing my fingers, I grabbed at the wall and pulled myself up, trying to find a foothold with the surprisingly awkward footwear I’d forgotten I had on. It wasn’t that far to the passage, and the pony actually whistled at the feat. “Those hooves of yers look mighty useful,” she said. “Well, I’m not sure what they’re called, but they’re like hooves ‘cept you don’t walk on ‘em...”
“They’re called hands, Applejack,” I said. I gasped as I realised that the name had attached itself to the pony out of nowhere.
Applejack blushed in response, pulling her hat down over her face. “Shucks, am I that famous? I didn’t think I stood out that much from the rest of the Apple Clan,” she said. “But, if’n ya don’t mind, now ya have me at a disadvantage, as they say...”
“Twilight Sparkle,” I said, offering my hand, which Applejack took with a hoof. I was half expecting her to turn into a human like me, but nothing happened. “And you are?” I asked the buffalo, extending the same gesture.
She raised her own hoof in the air without taking mine. “Little Strongheart, daughter of Chief Thunderhooves of the Navajo buffalo tribe. Come, I’d rather be back outside while it’s still light, if it’s at all possible.” She suddenly stopped and jumped back down into the cave. “Wait up. I’m going to make a signal. The smoke should get through the hole and alert the rest of the tribe...” She arranged a few rocks on the ground before picking up two and slapping them together a few times.
It didn’t seem to be working, so I tried to focus on a fire spell without summoning my wand. It wasn’t as large as the fireballs I’d cast during the fight in Appleloosa, but it definitely felt warmer than the air. Ignoring Applejack’s surprise for the time being, I launched it towards the makeshift firepit that Strongheart had created, lighting the fire. The lichen quickly burned up underneath it, and the smoke started wafting upwards.
“Quite a trick,” Applejack said, whistling. “C’mon, Li’l Strongheart, let’s get movin’.” The buffalo seemed surprised, but nodded and jumped back into the passageway. I led them down it, raising the light above my head to guide the others.
~~
By the time I finished telling Chief Thunderhooves my story, it was nearly sunset. He’d repeatedly stopped me to have me talk about details of journeys that I didn’t think were relevant at all, and as I continued through a twelve-day journey to nowhere, more and more of the buffalo started to gather around me, listening intently. Perhaps it was just buffalo tradition to tell stories in the most long-winded way possible, with no regard for pacing. Still, I could see the appeal of a story going into great detail of a single person’s journey through an empty wasteland, as long as the terrain was more interesting and varied than the one I’d described.
As I reached the present day, the Chief grunted and said, “Quite an outrageous story you have told, Soren.” I tensed up, and he added, “But it bears the ring of truth. Honesty is an undervalued virtue outside of the buffalo tribes. To see it in a stranger such as you was not what I expected.” He said something that sounded like a Native American language, and the buffalo around me dispersed. “It is almost sundown. I would have you dine with us.”
“Alright. Just let me feed my bird first.” He nodded, and I walked towards Karin, who was stepping from one leg to the other as though she was worried. “It’s okay, girl,” I said, stroking her neck. “The buffalo are alright. You don’t have to worry about me.” I waited until she gave an accepting chirp before I reached into her saddlebag and pulled out the bundle of herbs. Taking one from the bundle and giving it to Karin, I returned to the group of buffalo around a budding fire, who shuffled to each side and slightly outward to let me join them.
“So how long has the Scourge been a problem?” I asked. “If it’s been attacking both you and the ponies in Appleloosa, then neither of you should have lost too much, unless...”
“For these past two moons, we have weathered the Scourge almost every day. Though our herd seems large, we have felt the loss of our brethren each time. As I am sure you have, having lost your other human friend.”
“I don’t believe she’s dead,” I replied.
“None who are taken by the Scourge ever return, child.”
“If they’re all taken back to the same place, then it’s not eating them right away, right?” I asked rhetorically. “There’s still probably time before Twilight meets the same fate. Don’t tell me you haven’t been hoping the same thing?”
The Chief fell silent for some time, catching a few sympathetic looks from the other buffalo. “My daughter, Strongheart,” he said, closing his eyes, “was the last one taken, only two days ago. I have prayed to the stars with all my heart that she yet lives.” He opened his eyes and continued, “Scouts have been dispatched to search for the lair of the Scourge. We shall know the truth once they return.” At that, he looked over my shoulder. “Dust approaches. It is the scouts, no doubt.”
I heard their hoofbeats behind me, and turned to see the pair approach the camp, slowing down as the group made room for them yet again. They spoke in the same language that the Chief had used before, and he made several appreciative grunts to the information they gave him. “The scouts have seen smoke rising from a mesa southwest of here,” he said at last. “We believe it is a signal from the lair. Perhaps it is even my daughter who made it.”
Clearing my throat, I stood up and said, “I’ll go on ahead, then.”
The Chief snorted and frowned. “You cannot leave just before a meal!”
“How long do you think your daughter’s going to be alive for, if it’s been two days already?” I countered. “Besides, I don’t know if I can eat the same things you do. It’d have been worse if I tried and failed, I’m sure.” When he didn’t say anything, I continued, “Karin and I will go on ahead. Eat, get your strength up, and come as soon as you’re ready. You’ll probably end up saving my ass in a dramatic entrance anyway.” He tilted his head slightly at that last proclamation, and I ended, “Well, I’m off to rescue a princess.”
Nobody stopped me as I walked back to Karin and mounted her. As we turned to leave, the Chief suddenly boomed, “Wait.” I turned Karin back around to see that he was carrying something. “This is the traditional weapon of our tribe. Bring it to my daughter, and she will know that I have not forgotten her.” He gave me the bow and a quiver of arrows, which I slung over my back. “Make haste, Soren. We shall surely meet again before long.”
“Got it. Stay safe.” Karin scratched at the ground as she turned again, clearly as eager as I was to head off. Without waiting another moment, I snapped the reins and we were off, heading southwest towards the thin pillar of rising smoke, silhouetted against the sunset.
~~
The passage had been single file before, but eventually it opened up into another chamber, with several small passages branching off of it. All of them were gated with iron bars, preventing any passage except straight forward. It almost felt like a prison, I thought. “I wonder what’s behind all those bars,” I said out loud.
As I stepped into a part of the chamber that was lit by a hanging light source, more of them suddenly started turning on, revealing a total of ten blocked-off side chambers. The iron bars stood out starkly against the chamber carved into the rock itself, further increasing the bad feeling that I was getting. Little Strongheart felt the same way, judging by the fact that she was shivering despite the mild temperature. The bars started to slowly retract into the floor, making an ominously loud clanking noise as they did.
The bars crashed to a stop, and a figure came from each of the alcoves. Under the light, I could see they had the basic shapes of ponies and buffalo, but they were much thinner, and lacked any colouration. “Skeletons?” Little Strongheart asked. “But why are they moving?”
All of them were moving toward us. “I don’t think they’re friendly,” Applejack said, straightening her hat with one hoof and spitting on the ground. “Nothin’ for it, then.” As a pony skeleton approached, she quickly turned and bucked at its head, knocking it clean off. The skeleton collapsed, and she turned to another, only to see that the bones were shaking, and so was the disembodied skull. Suddenly, all the bones floated into the air and the skull returned to the rest of the body, reassembling the skeleton. Applejack was stunned enough by it that it was able to strike her with its foreleg.
“We can’t stop them?!” Little Strongheart exclaimed. “What are we gonna do?!”
I summoned my wand and focused a fire spell through it, casting it at the skeleton that Applejack was grappling with. The magical flame seemed to burn the bones away, leaving nothing but dust. Quickly, I cast further spells at five other skeletons that I could reach, and all of them were destroyed in the same fashion. As I tried to focus again, I found myself unable to, being too exhausted from having cast so many spells so quickly. There were still four left, and more were coming from the alcoves.
“Looks like stickin’ around ain’t gonna work,” Applejack said. “Follow me, I’ll clear a path through!” She bucked a buffalo in the chest and another pony in the legs, knocking them off balance and leaving a path open to the far passage. All of us quickly ran through it, and I recast the light spell as best I could. “Which way now?” Applejack asked, as we came to an intersection. “Left or right?”
“Left!” I shouted, and we all turned down that corridor, quickly coming to a large iron door. Grabbing the large, circular handle in her teeth, Applejack tried to pull it open, and Little Strongheart pitched in to help as well, tugging on another part. They were still going quite slowly, and I decided to try and help as well, but not with my body. Instead, I pointed my wand at it and focused through it, almost like extending a third arm towards the handle. The pony and buffalo stepped back in surprise as the handle lit up with a purple glow and the door opened entirely. I panted for breath, having completely drained myself with the action, and dragged myself inside the room behind the pair.
There was no other exit, so I was about to turn and leave when I spotted some pieces of the same thin parchment as Soren’s book on the walls. One of them showed a diagram of a machine whose purposes eluded me entirely, two showed detailed pictures of the skeletons, one had a drawing of the Scourge, and all of them had markings in the same ‘English’ script that Soren read. One of the pages was written entirely in that language. “C’mon, we gotta go back!” Applejack said, about to leave. “What’s the holdup, Twilight?”
I started to tear the papers down. “Soren should be able to translate these. If we meet up with him, we might know what’s going on here...”
“Who’s Soren?” Little Strongheart asked.
“Save it for later! We gotta break through these skeletons first!” Applejack replied, charging back down the corridor, which was slowly filling with skeletons from the chamber we’d come from. She broke one apart, and Strongheart jumped over her, breaking another. Feeling slightly recovered, I used another fireball to destroy one that was sneaking up on Applejack, exhausting myself completely once again. I ran as fast as I could through the gap, and once I was through, the other two formed a wall behind me, keeping the skeletons from catching up.
We continued like this for the rest of the corridor until I finally saw a light coming from outside. “If that’s what I think it is,” I said, “then we’re nearly safe!” I pushed myself further on, feeling the wind across the plains. Little Strongheart breathed in loudly behind me. As I passed through the hole outside of the mesa, I saw a flight of stairs leading up on my left, but didn’t pay them much attention. I wanted to get outside first and foremost.
As I took a few steps away from the mesa, I turned around to see the skeletons still approaching. Applejack and Little Strongheart formed a line beside me, ready to take on the group. As the first one stepped outside and the setting sun’s light touched it, though, it dissolved as it had under my fire spell. Despite its dissolving body, it continued to walk forward until it couldn’t move anymore, only to be pushed out of the way by the rest of the skeletons in turn.
When no more were coming, I let out a breath I wasn’t aware I’d been holding. “Looks like we’re safe for now,” Applejack said. “Now which way did you say the rest of your herd was?”
Little Strongheart turned in a certain direction, but rather than telling us the way, she gasped and jumped back as a large yellow bird skidded to a stop in front of us. “Soren!” I shouted. “Just in time! You missed the evil skeletons that were trying to kill us!”
“Seriously?” he asked. “Man, with a ripoff. I was hoping I’d get to save the day, and you’ve already saved yourselves.” He paused slightly after the last word, turning to Applejack and Little Strongheart. “You must be the chief’s daughter,” he said to the latter. “Chief Thunderhooves asked me to find you. Guess I can scratch off that quest.” He took a bow and quiver from his back and gave it to her, and she slung them over her own body with practiced ease.
As soon as it was free, she raised her hoof towards him as she had for me. “I am Little Strongheart, yes. Who might you be? How do you know my father?”
“I just told you,” he deadpanned. “Oh, right, my name. Call me Soren. This is Karin,” he added as he dismounted the Chocobo. She let out a ‘kweh’ in agreement as he turned to the orange pony. “And who might you be?” Before Applejack could say anything, he spotted her Cutie Mark. “Apple Clan?”
“One apple from the orchard, yeah,” she replied. “Name’s Applejack. Pleasure to meet ya, partner.”
She reached out a hoof to shake with him, but he refused. “I’m sorry, it’s nothing personal. Weird things happen when I touch other ponies.”
“Weird things?” Little Strongheart asked. “Like what?”
Soren didn’t say anything for a few moments. Then he took a deep breath in and said, “Like what happened to Twilight here. She was a pony before she met me. I don’t know why, but as soon as I touched her...” He was suddenly cut off by Applejack bucking him in the chest. As he crumpled over and took a few deep breaths, he said, “What the fuck... was that about?”
“I told Twilight here I’d smack around whoever did that to her. Guess we’re even now.” She took a few steps back as he stood up. “She told me not to, but it didn’t feel right to me to just let it pass. Sorry if I bucked you a little too hard. I’m used to bucking apple trees back at home...”
“As long as it... never happens again,” Soren replied, standing back up. He looked down at my hand, where I was still clutching the sheets of parchment. “What’s that?”
“Oh, these? I found them inside. They’re all written in English, so I was hoping you could translate for me.” I passed him the sheets of paper, and he looked over them, humming to himself.
“English? What’s that?” Little Strongheart asked.
“An uncommon language around these parts,” Soren replied, before I could say what little I knew. “But it’s the lingua franca where I’m from. Good thing I took a few semesters of Common Equis back in school.” He winked at me as he said the last part. I still didn’t quite understand, but I decided it wasn’t important when he started talking again. “Two of these pages were about skeletons, I assume the moving ones you fought. They’re not very smart or fast, and they don’t like natural light. They’re supposedly a test phase, though, and the results were ‘expected’.” He turned to another page. “This one’s a device that allows someone to take over the body of another living being and control them with, and I quote, ‘the power of darkness’. I don’t know who came up with that...”
He turned to the next page, reading it slowly, and suddenly his eyes went wide. “This isn’t good,” he said.
“What’s not good?” all of us asked in unison.
“They’re planning to bring this ‘power of darkness’ all over Equestria... no, they crossed that out. Not just Equestria. The whole world. They even wrote it in great big red letters.” He turned to the last page, and his eyes narrowed back down. “Well. Whoever’s behind this really has this ‘evil’ thing down pat.” He showed us the drawing of the Scourge. “The Scourge of the Plains is an ordinary roc under the control of darkness. It’s not acting of its own free will. It’s kidnapping ponies, buffalo and anything else it can for the sake of the experiments with the skeletons. The only reason none of you are dead yet is because they wanted to do something else specifically with all of you.”
“What kind of ‘something else’?” I asked.
“That, it doesn’t say.”
There was a long silence. Little Strongheart turned towards the western horizon, watching the last rays of the setting sun disappear. “What are we going to do?” I asked. “We can’t just leave this alone.”
“We need to find whoever’s behind this and smack some sense into ‘em!” Applejack shouted.
“Hold on.” Soren held up a hand towards Applejack, and then pointed at Little Strongheart as well. “There’s a question I need to ask the two of you. And I want you to think very carefully before you answer.” His expression was almost completely neutral, his voice giving off a sense of gravitas that he was probably trying to force.
“What is it?” Applejack asked.
“How far are you willing to go to save a world you know next to nothing about?”
Neither Applejack nor Little Strongheart said anything. Soren continued, “It’s all well and good to want to help the people and the homeland you know. But saving the world is more than just that. You might not see your home, your friends or your families for months, or even years. You’ll be spending nearly every day fighting. I’m doing this because I don’t have a home to go back to. I don’t have a home to choose to protect, except this entire world. But you do. You can protect those you care about as best you can, and I would absolutely respect that decision if you chose to make it.”
He paused, and then finished, “Twilight was dragged along on this ride without getting the choice, and I won’t do that to anyone else. This is a choice that you cannot unmake. If you’re not absolutely willing to see this through to the end, no matter what happens, then you have to tell me now before anything happens that we’ll all regret. How far are you willing to go to save the world?”
I only noticed that I was shivering slightly and my hands were clenched after Soren finished speaking. Little Strongheart was the first to respond. “I’ve never been beyond the Great Plains,” she said, “and I don’t really want to. This is my home. This is where I belong. As long as I can fight to keep it, then I will. But I can’t just leave.” Soren nodded slowly, turning to Applejack.
“You said that I oughta protect my home and my family,” she said. “But the Apple Clan has roots laid down all over Equestria. All their homes are my home, and all of them are my family. Protecting my home means protecting the world. There ain’t really a difference, far as I can make it.” She adjusted her hat again. “Besides, I couldn’t live with myself knowing there was somethin’ more I coulda done. As scary as you make it sound, this is what I want to do. And there ain’t no way you can stop me. So let’s shake on it, so there ain’t no confusion.”
“Applejack...” I said quietly. Her speech was reminding me more of her: brave, dependable, and above all, honest. I definitely knew this pony, but from where, I couldn’t say. I watched her spit into her hoof and extend it towards Soren. He waited a few moments, possibly considering if it was the right thing to do, and then mirrored the action.
As his hand touched her hoof, a blinding white light filled the air. I remembered it was the same thing that had happened when Soren transformed me. Little Strongheart gasped loudly in surprise, and I took a step back, but Soren didn’t react at all, except to slowly stand up to his full height. As the light faded, Applejack’s human form was revealed: her golden ponytail mane and green eyes preserved, wearing very short blue pants held by a belt, an orange top under a brown leather jacket, gloves, boots, a red neckerchief and her ever-present hat. Her Cutie Mark had shifted to the outside of her right thigh, but remained the same pattern of three red apples.
She stepped back from Soren, looking at herself. “Well, that was pretty strange,” she said in the same voice that I’d recognise anywhere for certain. She reached into the pockets of her pants and quickly drew a pair of strange weapons that looked like ballistae, except small enough to fire regular arrows and hold one in each hand. A quiver was hanging from the back of her waist. She turned to me and said, “Guess now I’m just like you. This ain’t gonna be easy to explain...”
“We’re not going back to Appleloosa just yet,” Soren said, holding up the paper with the drawing of the Scourge. “This beast is in pain, being used against its will for an evil purpose. We have to stop it, even if that means putting it out of its misery.”
“Can we even fight it?” Little Strongheart asked.
“And where you do expect it to be?” I added.
“I think the four of us together...” Karin squawked behind Soren. “Sorry, five of us together can handle it in a straight fight. Normally it preys on ponies and buffalo who are alone, and unarmed. As for where it’s going to be...” He pointed up at the top of the mesa. “It always comes back here. All we gotta do is get up there and wait.”
“The stairs,” I said quickly. “I saw some stairs going up just inside. Maybe they go to the plateau.”
“Lead the way,” he replied, gesturing towards the entrance.
~~
Just below the plateau of the mesa was an antechamber, where I stopped to take a few deep breaths before heading up. The others had already gone up there except for myself and Karin, and I helped her to preen herself as I tried to catch my breath from climbing the steep stairs. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I admitted. “But I won’t lose you, or anyone else. I promise.”
Karin cooed under my touch and my words, before suddenly letting out a surprised “Kweh!” as she looked over my shoulder. “Kweh!”
“What is it?” I asked as I turned around, jumping backwards as I saw the merchant standing behind me. “Agh! Don’t sneak up on me like that! You almost gave me a heart attack!”
Twilight came rushing down the stairs. “Soren, what’s going on?” When she spotted the merchant, she gasped as well. “How did you get up here?!”
“Just wanted to give you your bounty again,” he said, reaching into his jacket and pulling out another bag of coins. Just before Twilight took it, he said, “Unless...” He replaced it and pulled out a sheathed katana instead. “You’ll need a weapon to battle the Scourge. If you trade in your old one, your bounty comes out to juuust enough cash, stranger. What do you say?”
“Is this one made of wood again?” I asked as I pulled out the broken handle of the wooden sword.
In response, he unsheathed it fully, revealing its metal edge. “The genuine article, stranger, just like all my wares, and a better deal you won’t find in Equestria. Take it or leave it.” I turned to Twilight, who had actually killed all the skeletons, and she nodded. I handed over the handle and took the katana from the merchant, who showed me the bag of coins again before placing it back in a pocket. “A wise purchase, stranger,” he said, walking down the stairs. I looked after him, but he was gone as soon as he was out of my line of sight.
“That guy gives me the creeps,” I admitted.
“Kweh.”
“It’s already moonrise up there,” Twilight said. “If you don’t have anything else you need to do, we’d better join the others again.”
“Be right there.” Twilight headed up the stairs, and I took Karin’s reins again. “You ready?”
“Kweh!”
“Good answer.” I led her up the stairs to the plateau. Applejack was practicing aiming her bowguns, though she wasn’t firing, and Strongheart was keeping a vigil on the skies. I touched my katana’s handle and furrowed my brow. I could sense everyone’s determination to defeat the Scourge, but as well as determined, I was certain we would prevail. It was only the first boss, after all.
Unlike the moon from my own world, this moon seemed to give off its own light, bathing the plateau in an ethereal silver glow. I found myself tracing patterns across it and through the stars, as if I could guess at the constellations that the ponies had named. As Applejack and Strongheart kept a vigil, Twilight stepped up behind me, and I could feel her looking down my hand. “The Tower,” she said, tracing a constellation. “The sixteenth guardian sign, just before the Summer Sun Celebration. Mine was the Magician, the first, in autumn. I wonder...” I was wondering what she was on about, but didn’t say anything. “What sign were you born under?”
“I, uh, don’t think we use the same constellations,” I replied. “Where I come from, we only had twelve, not twenty.”
“Twenty-two, actually. There’s two that only appear on certain days, and they’re considered extremely lucky for anypony born under them.”
She was earnestly trying to teach me about her world, and I respected that enough to think on it a little further. “What’s a sign near the end of summer?” I asked. “I was born a couple of weeks before the end of summer, so.”
“Well, there’s the Moon, number eighteen,” Twilight offered.
“What, like that moon up there?”
“No, the constellation. It’s a little hard to see right now, but it looks just like a crescent moon.” I recognised the symbols from the Tarot readings my mother used to do, but I never listened enough to remember what each one meant. Still, the Magician seemed appropriate enough for Twilight.
I latched onto something Twilight had said before and said, “Back up a little. You mentioned the Summer Sun Celebration just before. Is that midsummer every year?”
“On the night before the longest day of each year, ponies stay up all night to watch the sunrise. The sun is the most important symbol of Equestria. Princess Celestia even controls the sun, bringing life to all of the world.”
“Sounds a bit like a cult,” I replied. “Nobody’s that powerful.” Twilight almost looked like she pitied me for a moment, and I added, “But considering that magic exists here, I can’t just assume that everything works like I’m used to.” I wondered whether to ask the next question, but eventually decided on doing so. “Do you mind if I ask you anything at all about Equestria? It might help to know the lowdown from someone who’s lived there all their life.”
Twilight nodded quickly, smiling. “The merchant said this wasn’t the same Equestria I’m used to, but I’d be happy to teach you anything I can, sure.” Holding up a hand to ask Twilight to give me a minute, I stood up and looked across the sky in a circle. Not seeing anything, I sat back down again. “Looking for the Scourge?” she asked.
“Yeah. But it’s still not here, so we’ve got plenty of time.” As I thought about what to ask next, I looked back at the moon, seeing the large, clear craters forming a strange pattern. “You know, the moon where I come from looked like it had a face living in it. There were all these legends about the man in the moon, though some cultures thought it looked like a rabbit...”
“The mare in the moon?” Twilight asked. She looked up at the moon more closely and gasped. “Why is the mare in the moon back? I thought...”
“Hold on, the mare in the moon?”
“Doesn’t that look just like a unicorn’s head to you?” I shook my head, but looked up again to humour Twilight. It was difficult to see with the rotation, but after squinting a bit, I could see an equine figure’s head in profile marked out on the moon. “That’s the Mare in the Moon. But I thought that it was gone after we...”
As she trailed off, I sighed. “Don’t remember?”
“Yeah... Sorry. I’m sure it’ll come back to me, though.”
“Well, keep me informed. Whatever you’re forgetting is probably important.” I turned back to the moon, seeing the pattern of the unicorn more clearly after Twilight had pointed it out to me. I supposed whoever had come up with this game had phoned in some of the writing to come up with all the bad horse puns. I’d probably get used to them eventually, but it was still amusing for now.
A dark shape suddenly passed across the moon. It moved almost so quickly that I thought it was a mirage, but my instincts told me that it was more than that. “The Scourge is coming!” I shouted. “Over there!” I pointed in the general direction of the moon, and sure enough, the black silhouette of the Scourge was visible once again in the moonlight. It slowed down as it approached the mesa, watching us as we readied for the battle. Strongheart touched her bow with one of her hooves, Applejack raised both of hers, and Twilight summoned her wand to her hand.
I mounted Karin and touched the hilt of the sword the merchant had given me. “I can’t do a lot unless we can bring it down to our level,” I said. “I’ll be relying on you!” Receiving shouts of affirmation from the party, I turned back towards the Scourge. It had landed on the far side of the plateau, its wings folded into its body. All of a sudden, it stretched them out and released an ear-piercing screech, leaving my ears ringing and my hands clutching my head as it launched back into the air over my head. I barely heard myself give an order to attack, and I wasn’t sure if anyone else had heard, but they joined the fight regardless.
Applejack was firing arrows as quickly as possible, barely stopping to aim. The Scourge was large enough that most of them were hitting, but usually they hit the wings instead of the body, and it didn’t seem to do much. More still were simply blown out of their arcs by gusts from its wings, and the assault didn’t seem to do more than annoy it.
Strongheart’s arrows were only marginally more effective for actually being aimed. She had the same problem as Applejack that they were being blown out of the air by the wingbeats. I turned Karin to rush towards her, and as I turned back, I ducked low on her, marginally missing being grabbed in its talons as it turned around. “Don’t shoot while its wings are flapping! Your arrows will just get blown out of the sky! Wait for it to pull back!” I shouted as I passed by Strongheart.
“It’s flapping too often!” she replied.
“Well, wait for it to pull back! Time your shots carefully, and you too, Applejack!”
“I don’t see you doing much to help!”
“If you can bring it down here, then maybe I can change that!”
“Kweh!”
Twilight was trying to use her magic, but she was standing the furthest away from the Scourge, and it was able to move around her attacks too easily. If she had a stronger or faster spell like lightning, then maybe she could do something, but I couldn’t just unlock it for her in the middle of a fight.
Applejack grunted and started focusing, and I realised what she was doing before I could tell her to stop. As an orange light filled her eyes and extended into her hands, she pointed her bowguns towards the sky, firing what looked like a hundred arrows all at once. Many of them passed through the Scourge’s body entirely, but several hit their marks, sticking into its chest. It screamed again and tried to dive at Applejack, who ducked out of the way just in time. As she grabbed her hat, she realised that her bowguns had disappeared, but undeterred, she picked up a rock and readied herself to throw it for what little it would do.
Everyone else was doing something, and all I could do was run around the plateau on Karin, trying to stay ahead of its attacks. There had to be something I could do to help. The Scourge landed for a moment and let out a series of cries that almost sounded like it was laughing at us. I growled to myself and pointed Karin towards it. She charged as fast as she could, but it wasn’t enough to stop it from taking off again. The gust of wind knocked me off of Karin’s back as she fell down. She picked herself up quickly and let me climb back on, but I still felt angry.
The bird had taunted us.
Through the anger, like a bolt of lightning, it struck me that maybe I could taunt the bird back. I shook my head quickly to try and clear it, and then faced the Scourge, shouting so loudly it hurt my throat a little: “Hey, big guy! Your mother was a parrot!” That got the bird’s attention, and with another loud screech, it flapped quickly to gain altitude.
With its beak focused towards me, I urged Karin to sprint as fast as she possibly could, and held myself down tightly to her body as she accelerated. I could hear the Scourge diving towards us, and prayed as though it would help that Karin was fast enough to outrun it, that my plan of trying to taunt it to get a few hits in would work—
A loud crashing sound came from just behind me as the Scourge’s beak slammed through the rock face of the plateau. Karin just barely managed to outrun its falling talons as well, skidding to a stop as she turned around. “Get me closer!” I shouted, hearing the muffled cries of the giant bird as it tried to pull its beak out of the rock. Karin squawked and started running up towards it. I clambered out of the stirrups and jumped onto the Scourge’s back, climbing up as quickly as I could. Twilight, who was standing nearby, had done the same thing on the other side, and we met in the middle near the back of its neck.
There was a small metal object there, octagonal and dark grey, almost black like the feathers it was stuck to. There were eight small bars and a circle in the middle that glowed with a red light, the intensity of each bar’s glow always shifting. Our handholds shook beneath us before we could do anything about the object, though, and I feared that the Scourge had nearly pulled itself free. “Twilight?” I said, using what little time we had.
“Soren?”
“Hang on!”
The Scourge pulled itself free of the mesa’s rock at last, and letting loose a vengeful cry, took to the air all at once. It was all I could do to hold onto anything I could on the back of its neck, and Twilight was giving a pained expression as she did the same. Neither of us was able to say anything. The Scourge steadied out for a moment, and then flew even higher, shaking from side to side slightly to try and throw us off.
My right hand came loose, but I threw it upwards and back towards the bird, trying to climb up towards the object. Slowly, I reached the base of its neck, where the object was. With another movement of my right hand, I tried to grip it and pull it out, but I couldn’t. It was too smooth and too well-embedded, and it was all I could do just to not fall down.
“Twilight!” I shouted. “Can you get up here?!” Slowly, she started to move towards me, using the same technique that I had. The Scourge was shaking more and more underneath us, forcing her to stop climbing to hang on a few times, but eventually she reached the device. “This must be how they’re controlling the Scourge!” I told her. “I can’t get it out, though! Can you give me a hand?!”
She reached towards the device, grimacing from the high altitude and the quick movements of the bird beneath her. At first, she had the same difficulty that I did, unable to pull it out by hand. “Try using your magic!” I said. She looked at me like I was crazy at first, but I repeated, “You must have some spell you can use on it!”
As she closed her eyes, I saw her forehead light up slightly with a purple glow that also appeared on the device. Once it was fully immersed, the device started to go haywire. All the bars were flashing rapidly between black and red, and the Scourge underneath us was flailing wildly, falling back towards the mesa. “Hang on!” I shouted again, doing the same myself, and only keeping my eyes open long enough to ensure Twilight had done the same. It was only a matter of time before we hit the ground, and even with the Scourge between us and it, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
There was a deafening crash as we hit the ground together, and it slid a few metres across the plateau, leaving a wide gash in the rock. As I shook the disorientation of the fall out of my head, I heard Karin squawking wildly, and let myself slide off the Scourge’s neck. I felt Karin’s wing wrap around me as I hit the ground. As it did, I also felt the bruises and the disorientation leaving me.(1)
Behind the Scourge, which wasn’t moving, I could hear Twilight’s groans, and quickly ran over to help her. “I’m fine,” she said as I helped her up. “Just winded, is all, really...” As Applejack and Strongheart came over, she dusted herself off. “In fact, I even feel a little stronger than before.” I looked at the first page in my book, and realised that she wasn’t far off; she, Applejack, Karin and I had all levelled up from the fight, though Strongheart wasn’t listed.
Behind us, a pitiful squeak was heard, and we all turned around to see the black colour draining from the Scourge’s body, revealing its white neck and brown feathers, like a giant eagle. The Scourge... or the roc, I should say, picked itself up and looked around, finally setting its eyes on us. As it did, it stepped back as if in surprise, and focused specifically on Twilight for a few moments. With a final squawk, it flew away, leaving us alone on the plateau under the pale moonlight.
Out of nowhere, I started humming a fanfare that popped into my head. It seemed appropriate, considering that we’d just won a major battle. In the distance, I saw a dust cloud approaching, and pointed it out to the others. “Looks like the cavalry are here,” I said. “And they didn’t get to dramatically save us after all.”
We all walked down the stairs quickly, meeting the buffalo herd at the bottom. Chief Thunderhooves was leading the herd, and he quickly scanned the group of us, stopping when he reached Strongheart. Wordlessly, they embraced each other, and the Chief even cried slightly. I didn’t blame him; they were entirely manly tears. Eventually, as they separated, he turned to us and asked, “What of the others? Were there any others?” None of us said anything. I’d arrived late and wasn’t sure what had happened, but I hadn’t seen anyone else, and Twilight shaking her head confirmed it. “Then let me at least be thankful that my daughter is safe.”
I bowed again at the statement. “The Scourge of the Plains has been defeated. I don’t think it’ll be bothering you or the ponies of Appleloosa any longer.” As the Chief repeated the statement in his language, the buffalo began cheering, lifting us up onto their backs with their heads. Only Karin was fast enough to avoid the crowd surfing. I laughed, remembering how we hadn’t received such a welcome from Appleloosa.
“You have done me a true favour,” the Chief said as we were set back on the ground. “If there is ever anything you require that I can give you, you need only ask.”
“How ‘bout a ride back to Appleloosa?” Applejack asked.
“In the morning,” I said. “And I hope that’s not my request being taken up.”
The Chief laughed at that, a deep and full-bodied laugh that almost made me feel better in the same way as Karin had. “Yes, we shall return you there in the morning. Tonight, you sleep the sleep of heroes.” He said a few things to the buffalo around him, and they began to set up a camp. “We shall prepare our guest tent for you.”
The two girls nodded, but I just smiled and shook my head. “Thanks, but I’d rather sleep with Karin now. The grass as my pillow and the stars as my blanket, as they say.”
“Would that you were born to the Buffalo,” the Chief replied. “You have almost the heart of one. Very well, then.”
I took Karin’s reins and led her to a clear area in the middle of the camp to remove her saddle. She stretched out her wings as I did, opening her beak wide without making any noise as though silently yawning. As soon as I was done, she lay down on the ground and closed her eyes, and I lay back against her and closed mine.
I slept pretty well that night, as I recall.
~~
As the buffalo were about to leave us at Appleloosa the next morning, I remembered that I’d picked up a feather from Karin before. “Hey, Little Strongheart!” I called out as I took the feather out, placing it in her headband. “Something to remember us by.” She smiled and returned to the herd, who charged off away from the town just as ponies were starting to gather and stare. “Which way’s the train station?” I asked.
“That-away,” Applejack replied, pointing with her entire hand towards an elaborate building at the end of the main road. “At least the train oughta be runnin’ on time since we beat the Scourge ‘n all.” She said that last part more loudly, and ponies began to whisper around us as we walked towards the train station. “Now we just gotta get our tickets. But, shoot, I forgot the money...”
“Got it covered,” Soren said, taking a large bag out of a pocket in his jacket. “Excuse me, conductor?”
The conductor looked over lazily, then said, “Where’s your chaperone?”
Soren took a step back, surprised. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Can’t let pets on board the train without a chaperone. Are you lost? Do you have an owner?” As Soren stood there dumbstruck, the pony continued, “That’s the rules. Unattended pets have to be chaperoned.”
“Does... What... You...” Soren spat on the ground and shouted, “Does your wife know you’re this much of a racist?! I’m just as civilised as you! Possibly even more so, since I don’t just automatically assume anyone different from me is a stray animal!”
“You don’t have to shout, sir.”
“If it’s the only way to get the message through your fucking skull, then yes, I do!”
“You need any help with this?” Applejack asked, walking up to Soren. “Sorry about my partner here,” she said to the conductor. “He’s... got a strong sense of right and wrong...”
Leaving them to it, I walked back into the main street, which had strangely emptied just like when we’d arrived a couple of days ago. All the ponies had left, not even peeking out of windows, giving the town a strange and foreign feeling. When I heard dirt crunching, I flinched for a moment, wondering what was about to approach.
The instigator of the sound was another human, dressed in a purple suit and red waistcoat. His black hair was slicked back behind his head, and thick eyebrows slanted permanently downwards, giving him an overcast, angry look. He was staring straight as me as he walked forward, and under his piercing, mismatched gaze, I found myself unable to move.
“You must be Twilight Sparkle,” he said slowly, clearly. “I have been asked to give you a message.”
“By who?” I asked.
“A party interested in you and your friends.” He spat the last word, as though it was disgusting to him, and I felt vaguely offended underneath the fear. “My name is Kazuya Mishima,” he said. “And you are a pest.”
Out of nowhere, he punched me in the face, following it up with a kick to my sternum that immediately came back down on my head. I fell to the ground, and had barely even touched it when Kazuya picked me up again by my hair, holding me slightly off the ground. He punched me again just as he let go, sending me flying and sliding along the dirt road a few paces. As I tried to stand up, coughing from the rising dust, he stepped forward and threw an uppercut, which crackled with lightning just as it struck my jaw and knocked me into the air. He pulled back his right leg in the air and, as I fell past him, thrust it straight out as hard as he could. My flight this time was interrupted by a collision with a wall, and I collapsed onto the ground, unable to stand.
Kazuya walked up to me and picked me up again. “This time, you live,” he said. “But if you interfere again as you did here, then I shall show you no mercy.” He threw me against the wall again and, with a grunt of derision, walked away.
He was gone by the time I finally picked myself up. “Twilight?” I faintly heard Soren calling. “Twilight, where are you? We got everything worked out with the conductor...” He trailed off as he saw me, and I heard rather than saw him run over. “Shit, Twilight, what happened to you? Applejack!” She didn’t come. “Someone! Anyone! Help! I need help...”
“What’s all the ruckus about, Soren?” Applejack asked, just before she saw me. “Oh, empty sky... Twilight, you’re...”
“Don’t just stand there!” Soren shouted as he forced his shoulder underneath mine. “Give me a hand with her!” I faintly heard the sound of a train whistle, and Soren swore again. “Shit, the train’s almost leaving! C’mon, Twilight, stay with me! You can do this...”
~~
We’d managed to get a sleeper car on the train to Ponyville, so we had a place to lay Twilight down until she woke up. I was thankful for that. I’d managed to stop the bleeding with help from Applejack and some improvised bandages; I made a mental note to acquire a new scarf as soon as we got off the train, but that wasn’t important until Twilight recovered.
She’d managed to stay awake long enough to tell us what had happened to her, in slightly vague but clearly understandable terms. “Kazuya attacked me,” she’d said. “Told me not to...” That was all she’d gotten through before she passed out. Neither I nor Applejack had said anything for a few hours afterwards, passing the train ride in silence as the scenery rushed past us.
As the sun set and the moon returned, slightly fuller than it was the night before, I turned to Applejack. “I just remembered something,” I said. “Back where I came from... there was a kidnapping case, and I was a victim of it. If all of them came here, like I did...” I trailed off, trying to make sense of what I myself was saying.
“You’re saying that that Kazuya fellow was from your world?” Applejack said. “Are all humans like that?”
“No,” I replied. “That’s definitely just him, but... I don’t know how many others there are, or who they are. They could be anywhere, anyone, friendly or hostile, weak or powerful...” I sighed. “We’re probably going to have to fight other humans again. And we’ll definitely see Kazuya again; despite what he did to Twilight, I can’t just leave this alone.” With a slight chuckle, I added, “What with Twilight and her convenient amnesia, I never thought my own fractured memory would be important.”
“So what do we do next?” Applejack asked.
“We wait for Twilight to have a breakthrough, and in the meantime take up some mercenary work. I’m sure with monsters about, there’ll be plenty to be had. Something important’s bound to come up once we’ve done enough busywork.” I shrugged. “Well, no point staying up stewing on it all night. Get some rest.” I pulled the blanket over myself as I said that, turning away from Applejack and the window, but then thought better of it. “Actually... There’s something I wanted to ask you. Twilight told me part of a story about the Mare in the Moon last night. Do you know anything about it?”
“The Mare in the Moon?” Applejack asked, and I nodded in the gloom. “I’m sorry, but, no, never heard of it before. Maybe ask Twilight once she’s awake again?”
She’d been bored since she was given the convention kidnapping case in the first place. After the last disappearance had taken place in New York, the NYPD was suddenly part of the nationwide manhunt for “The Merchant”, and she’d been left in charge of it. Silently, she cursed her superiors again. It wasn’t the first time they’d posted her to busywork to keep her from looking too good.
Right now, she was reviewing security footage from the convention to try and find a clue to the kidnapping of the latest victim, Soren Cavanagh. As far as anyone could tell, he hadn’t gone in a specific costume, only something that wouldn’t normally be acceptable in public. The guy had no fashion sense, but that wasn’t a crime that necessitated his unlawful apprehension. After all, Emily thought, it wasn’t like this ‘Merchant’ was any better, judging by the witness descriptions.
His last confirmed location was his arrival at 11:04 at the main entrance; the convention’s security had checked him in then. Silently, she ran through the security camera footage from the main entrance, pausing and searching through the cameras for his blue scarf as soon as he was out of the shot. She caught him moving up the escalators, fast-forwarded as he sat in on a panel, and then watched him travel through the crowds, eventually ducking into another convention hall. When he didn’t come back out for a few minutes of the footage, she fast-forwarded, making sure he hadn’t just gone into another panel.
Rewinding the footage to when he’d gone inside the room, she looked through cameras again, eventually spotting him just entering one of the rooms. It was empty besides him, but as soon as he’d closer the door, he looked at something outside the frame and left the room. The Merchant then walked through the frame, his back towards the camera throughout, and left through the same door. The scene hadn’t taken more than a few seconds. She rewound it to make sure of the time frame, and confirmed that there were only about fifteen seconds between Cavanagh entering the room and leaving it.
She switched back to the camera in the corridor. It showed that the door hadn’t opened again from the inside after Cavanagh closed it. “What the hell...?” She ran the footage simultaneously several times, even attracting attention from some of her colleagues. The evidence was always the same: when Cavanagh and then the Merchant opened the door inside the hall, it didn’t open on the outside.
“What’s the chance that this footage was doctored?” Emily asked. “We should run a forensic test. Maybe all the footage is faked...”
“I’ll get Forensics on it,” the Captain said. “You’re needed in the field again. There’s another con running nearby, and we think the Merchant might be about to strike again. You’re to go there and see if you can catch it occurring, or even the man himself.” She was about to ask if he was serious, but decided against it, as she wasn’t twelve anymore.
“I’ll get this guy for sure, count on it!” she said as she left. As cheerful as she tried to sound, though, she wasn’t that confident. The convention centre was only a few blocks away, so she wasn’t sure that the Merchant would even strike at all. There was no way that anything could be allowed to happen that close to a police station, even with a throng of people in the area that he could hide in.
She looked around slowly as she entered, trying to see where he would set up, only to see the Merchant already being escorted by two other men, one a bulky African-American in an expensive designer suit with sunglasses and a red necktie; the other a lean Caucasian in a blue Hawaiian shirt with jeans and his sunglasses on top of his head. She wasn’t sure what they were doing, but assumed that they were from the FBI, to whom she didn’t want to lose another arrest.
As they left in a car, she hailed a passing taxi and, feeling like a movie heroine, said, “Follow that black car.” The taxi set off in easy pursuit, not noticing that they themselves were being tailed by a man on a motorcycle. They wound through Manhattan, passing through Times Square twice and once almost losing their mark at a traffic light, but the taxi driver persisted and eventually caught up to the black car as it reached the end of its journey. To avoid raising suspicion, the driver drove about a block past the car, though Emily still saw which building the two men and the Merchant entered.
“You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” she asked as she paid the cab driver, including a generous tip.
“Lady, it’s on the exam,” he replied.
“Really?”
He laughed. “No, not really. Go on, catch your husband in the act. I’ll be rooting for you.” She grimaced as the cabbie drove off, but focused on the job, walking into the building as though she had a right to be there.
“Who are you?” asked the concierge behind the desk.
“NYPD,” Emily replied, pulling out her badge. “I’ve got probable cause to believe that there’s a wanted fugitive inside this building.”
“Get lost,” the concierge replied, just before his head was crashed into the desk.
“Obstruction of justice,” Emily said, looking around the empty lobby as she handcuffed the man and pulled a card out of her pocket. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney; if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?” The concierge didn’t move, and she suspected that he may have been unconscious. She pulled a radio out of her pocket and called the precinct. “This is Detective Emily Richards. I believe I’ve found where the Merchant is hiding out,” and she gave the address. “I already have one suspected accomplice in custody; I’ll need backup, though.”
Without waiting for the backup to arrive, she walked towards the stairs, seeing that the elevator was on the penthouse floor. Nobody else had entered as far as she was aware, so clearly that was where the two men and the Merchant had gone. She decided to take the stairs, not wanting to alert the men to her approach. Nobody else passed by her on her way up, and eventually she reached the penthouse floor ten storeys above.
Through the keyhole, she heard what sounded like the tail end of a conversation. A woman said, “...so, Hector, what’s the list look like?”
‘Hector’ cleared his throat and began, “The items that the Merchant was carrying at the time of his apprehension by Agent Solomon are...” He cleared his throat again. “...two double-A batteries, thirteen packets of strawberry-flavour bubble gum, seventy rounds of nine-millimetre ammunition, one Smith and Wesson Model 686 revolver, one male Pomeranian, one claymore sword, five Claymore mines, two hundred and ninety blue paperclips, a rock with a smiley face drawn on it in pink marker, two half-used rolls of duct tape, two Mateba automatic revolvers, a Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle with ‘moist nugget’ written on the stock in magic marker, forty rounds of 7.62 by 54 millimetre ammunition, three cans of alphabet soup, seven grenades, one rusted grenade, a baseball bat with cork in the middle, one ‘Dragon Dagger’ from the show Power Rangers, twenty-three horse masks, seventeen Guy Fawkes masks, one Nikon digital camera, one Nokia 3310 cell phone, four bricks of C4 the exact same size and shape as previously mentioned Nokia 3310 cell phone, two bottles of painkillers, a large yellow egg of unknown origin, and DVDs of Kick-Ass, Sandlot, Look Who’s Talking, Bowling for Columbine, Downfall, Das Boot, Enemy at the Gates, The Deer Hunter, Saving Private Ryan, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Independence Day, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, original theatrical editions of the Star Wars trilogy, Cats and Dogs, Transformers, Lawn Dogs, Spaceballs, RoboCop, Mad Max: The Road Warrior, The Professional, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Death Race, Godzilla, Escape from New York, Rocky, Pacific Rim, Kindergarten Cop, The Expendables, Goldeneye, Metal Gear Solid, Death to Smoochy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, The Stupids, Stuart Little, Rush Hour, Game of Death, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, The Iron Giant, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix but none of the others, Dragonball Evolution, The Room, The Cube, Saw, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Pass the Ammo, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Jumanji, Mrs. Doubtfire, Muppet Treasure Island, Back to the Future, The Big Lebowski, The Matrix, Tokyo Zombie, Hard Target, Magnum Force, Hook, Street Fighter with Raul Julia, The Addams Family, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Dungeons and Dragons, Masters of the Universe, Tremors, Die Hard, Galaxy Quest, Lost in Space, Get Smart, Mission: Impossible, Reno 911: Miami, Black Hawk Down, White House Down, Rampage, The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project, 50 First Dates, Big Daddy, The Pacifier, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Ghost, The Ring, Ghost Dad, Guardians of the Galaxy, Battle Royale, Sanjuro, Machete, Hobo with a Shotgun, Heat, Bad Boys, Prisoners, The Core, Spider-Man 2, the good one, The Wolf of Wall Street, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Superman, Superman II, Superman III, Superman IV, Superman Returns, and Taxi Driver.”
“Why the hell does he have so many DVDs?” a second man asked. “And why’d you have to list them all individually? I don’t think anyone’s ever actually going to read this entire list.”
“It’s a work ethic,” Hector replied. “I get a job, I do it right, no matter what that job is.”
Alex chose that moment to burst in with her gun drawn. “Freeze! NYPD!” She looked around the room, quickly spotting the Merchant sitting in a chair in the middle. “Alias ‘Merchant’, you’re under arrest for the kidnapping of twenty-three people. The rest of you...”
“Are the CIA,” the large man in the suit and red tie said, not moving an inch. “There are four guns currently trained on you, and if you hadn’t identified yourself as being with the New York Police Department when you entered, you would most likely have been shot immediately.” Alex turned slightly to see that this was the case: the Hawaiian shirted man, a man that looked exactly like him but in a red Hawaiian shirt, a Japanese woman and a pale man in glasses were all pointing guns directly at her.
“What you say and do next,” the man in the red Hawaiian shirt started, only to be interrupted by the blue one saying, “will determine how we deal with you disturbing our company picnic.”
“Hey, I wanted to say that!” Red said first.
“I wanted it more!” Blue replied.
“Bullshit!”
The large one cleared his throat, and the two twins meekly turned back towards Emily. “We were not expecting interdepartmental warfare when we undertook this operation. There is still time before any takes place,” he said. “Holster your gun, turn around and leave. Tell your superiors that it was a false alarm, an imitator with a tasteless costume.”
“So you caught the real Merchant Kidnapper?” a voice said from down the stairs. Everyone suddenly turned and pointed their guns at him, including Emily herself. “Whoa, whoa, don’t shoot!” he said quickly. “I’m unarmed, see? Just a journalist in search of a scoop. Matt North. Here’s my card.” The twenty-something man was wearing a soul patch and a baseball cap which, as he handed out business cards despite the guns pointed at him, Alex saw read, ‘I’ve covered wars, y’know!’.
Eventually, he gave one to the Merchant, who was standing up. As she realised that, Emily swivelled to point her gun at the robed figure. “Freeze!”
The CIA agents all moved at once as she said it, turning their guns towards the Merchant. Matt raised his hands again and cowered slightly in the corner, stumbling over the Pomeranian, which barked angrily as he did. “I do not know what you think you are doing,” the large man said, having drawn his own weapon as well. “But you are going to sit back down right now, or there will be trouble.”
The Merchant simply chuckled at that. “Trouble’s comin’ anyway, stranger,” he said. “The question is, who will it be trouble for?” He started laughing more loudly at that, and Emily couldn’t stop herself from firing a single shot. As she did, smoke started to pour from under his clothes, and the CIA agents covered their mouths quickly. Matt, being closer, and Emily, being slower, weren’t so lucky. They were the first to fall unconscious, but eventually, everyone in the room had fallen.
The only one left standing was the Merchant, who said, “Got a party to go to now. And you ain’t invited, but I’ll let you come along all the same...”
In a flash of light, there was nobody in the apartment but a Pomeranian seemingly having an argument with a pet rock, and losing.
~~
Amadeus Rancor had been elected President because of his name. In fact, he’d run for President in the first place on a ten-dollar bet from a friend who’d thought his name would be enough. It was a slightly sad fact when he thought about it, and meant he probably wouldn’t get more than one term, but running the country had actually come naturally to him. It had been pretty easy to keep the country from getting any worse. If he couldn’t make it better, he was unlikely to be re-elected, but he didn’t really want to be re-elected anyway.
He’d had a perfect good day of doing not much of anything except reading over reports when suddenly the director of the CIA entered his office, looking hurried. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “Did North Korea finally press the big red button?”
“It’s not that, Mr President,” the director replied. “It’s... stranger.”
Amadeus listened to the explanation intently, without saying anything at first. When the director came to the end, though, he couldn’t keep himself silent. “So you’re telling me that this Merchant just kidnapped five CIA agents, an NYPD officer, a journalist and three drones from the middle of a safe house in New York?” he asked, slowly raising one eyebrow.
The director simply nodded.
He stood up and punched the table. “Don’t waste my fucking time!”
“We’ve got the surveillance footage, if it’ll prove anything for you—”
Sitting back down, Amadeus just waved a hand towards the director. “Forget it. Do what you think you have to, and keep me updated.” The director stood up and turned to leave, but Amadeus stopped him again. “The NYPD should have a few leads on the case as well; work with them. They’ll want this case solved too; they’ve got a stake in the game.”
“Yes, sir,” the director replied as he closed the door.
Amadeus sighed and fell back in his chair, pressing the intercom button to his secretary. “I’m stressed out. Bring me a taco,” he said, waving his hand slightly.
Things to Do in Ponyville When You’re Dead (Part 1)
Twilight woke up just as the sun rose over the train, which still hadn’t arrived at Ponyville yet. I was starting to wonder just what kind of era these ponies lived in, or how big Equestria was, that a train could run all day without stopping. I was about to ask Applejack, since she’d probably come in on the train to Appleloosa before, but Twilight woke up first, and our attention was drawn to her. “You feel any better?” I asked, pointlessly.
“Don’t go botherin’ folks just as they’re wakin’ up, sugarcube,” Applejack chided me.
“No, it’s alright, Applejack,” Twilight said, yawning. “I feel fine. Perfectly fine, actually. I’m surprised that sleeping helped me recover from the injuries Kazuya gave me...”
“I’m not,” I replied. As the two girls stared at me, I told them, “It’d take too long to explain in terms you’d understand. For now, it’s just worth noting that a good night’s sleep is a cure-all, at least for humans like us.”
“So it’s a human thing?” Twilight asked.
“I think it’s actually to do with this world specifically. Like I said, it’d take too long to explain, and why question something useful?” I brushed my fringe out of my face before continuing. “That reminds me. Do you remember anything new?”
Twilight opened her mouth, but Applejack spoke first. “Actually, it’s the strangest thing... I know I never met Twilight before in my life, but while I was sleepin’, I dreamed that I knew her. I dreamed of adventures we’d gone on together, even though I know I’ve never been into the heart of the Everfree Forest even once. And...” She paused, adjusting her hat and blinking a few times as she thought of how to say it. “The strangest part was, they felt real. And not like a normal dream feels real until ya wake up. It feels real even now.”
There was silence in the cabin. “I don’t believe in reincarnation,” I said finally. “But something’s definitely going on here, something that goes beyond just magic.” Twilight hummed slightly, and I couldn’t tell if it was assent or just thinking. “Well, I suppose we’ll find out eventually. We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing.”
“And just what are we doing?” Applejack asked.
“I figured we’d figure it out once we got to Ponyville.” She raised an eyebrow, and I continued, “Well, if Kazuya reappears, we’ll all have to be a lot stronger, right? If monsters are attacking ponies more often, maybe we can do some mercenary work. Get paid, get experience, learn a few new skills, and maybe even get commissioned on some major quest or another. And I’ve gotta avoid colonising Equestria by accident. To that end, Twilight, you’ll have to keep me updated on anything or anyone else you remember, so I know who’s important enough to bring into the Game.”
She just nodded. Applejack spoke next. “Soren, there's something I gotta do once we get to town. I wanna talk to my family. They’ve got a right to know what’s happened to me, and that I’m not likely to see ‘em again for a while once we’ve moved on.”
“Do you think I should be there?”
“Not likely. You’d probably get an earful from Granny Smith,” I suppressed a smirk, but Applejack didn’t notice, “and more than that from my brother. I’ll explain it to ‘em first, and I’ll make sure that they know you’ve already gotten what you deserve for it from me. Might even be cheaper than trying to find an inn.”
“Alright, you do that,” I replied. “Twilight, you’re with me for the morning, then. We’ll look around the town for information, maybe lodging if it doesn’t work out with your family, though finding a stable for Karin is gonna be a nightmare, considering. There any good taverns around Ponyville?”
“Berry Punch’s place on the main street is pretty popular,” Applejack said. “And she probably won’t even notice you two aren’t ponies.”
“Works for me. Meet us there whenever you’re done dealing with your family. It’s not likely we’re gonna go that far from it, right, Twilight?” Once again, Twilight didn’t respond. “Twilight?” She was staring at a point on the wall behind me, and I suspected that she wasn’t actually seeing the wall, and furthermore that she hadn’t heard a word that Applejack and I had just said.
“What’s up with Twilight?” Applejack asked.
“Probably lost in a memory,” I guessed. “It’d explain why she isn’t paying any attention to us...”
The train let out a loud whistle and began to slow down. A conductor walked past, shouting, “Ponyville Station! Ponyville Station!” Twilight didn’t tune back into reality until the train came to a complete stop. As soon as it had, she stepped out of her bunk and started walking forward quickly, as if in a trance. I tried to hold her back, but she just pushed past me and out the door.
“Twilight!” I called out, running into the corridor after her. She was already stepping off the train, and I had to sprint to catch up to her, pushing past a couple of ponies on the platform to grab her wrist before she got too far away. She finally seemed to snap out of her trance, turning around to face me with a surprised expression. “Twilight, where the hell were you going? You can’t just run off like that!” A few ponies were turning to stare at us, but I didn’t care.
“Soren?” she asked. “...How did I get out here?”
“You walked straight off the train. And you probably missed everything that Applejack and I were saying. How much do you remember?”
“I’ve been to Ponyville before,” she replied. “In fact... I think I used to live here. I remember a large tree, with a door in the front... and I remember that it feels like home. I wanted to go there, to see if it was still there.”
“Well, you can’t just go wandering off without telling anyone,” I replied. “And that’s not what I meant, anyway.”
“Oh, right,” she said, blushing. After a pause, she admitted, “I don’t remember much of what you two said. I know you were talking, but...”
I groaned loudly and walked Twilight over to a bench, waving Applejack over as well. “Applejack’s going to explain to her family what’s happened to her. I was going to take you around the town to gather information. Right, AJ?”
“That’s what he said, sugarcube,” Applejack said.
“But...” Twilight tried to protest, but couldn’t find the words for a few seconds. “What if it’s something important?”
I looked at Applejack for a moment, and she nodded. “Fine,” I said. “We’ll investigate the tree house first. We’re still going to meet AJ at the tavern, though. Around noon, I guess? I’m not good at judging the time just by the sun’s position.”
“Clock tower above Town Hall,” Applejack replied. “Use that. Well, this situation isn’t going to be made any better by waiting around.” She walked off, and I stood up, telling Twilight to stay sitting. The ponies in the guard’s van were more than happy to return Karin to my care, and as soon as I’d retrieved her, fed her and caught up to her satisfaction, I let Twilight know I was ready. Neither of us said any more as she started walking again. I followed a few paces behind, trusting her memory’s sense of direction.
As we left the train station, I saw that one of the ponies who had been staring at us before, a mint-green Unicorn, was walking over towards the bench. Another pony was lying down flat on it, and I assumed that was how ponies normally sat if they could. Strangely, though, the green pony was shifting herself to sit like I had. It wasn’t working very well, as her tail and general body shape kept getting in the way, but I didn’t see if she ever succeeded or not, because Twilight called out to me and I realised I’d fallen behind.
With me leading Karin by the reins, we walked through the main street of the town, heading towards the clock tower above the Town Hall. I made a mental note as we passed a building with a sign hanging out the front with some berries, assuming that it was ‘Berry Punch’s tavern. Seeing it reminded me of something I’d been meaning to ask for a while. “Hey, Twilight?” I asked. She didn’t stop walking, but turned her head back towards me slightly. “What’s up with those tattoos on ponies’...?”
I didn’t want to say ‘asses’, but she seemed to understand. “They’re not tattoos,” she replied. “They’re called Cutie Marks. They’re an expression of who a pony is; their special talent, or their purpose in life. Foals aren’t born with them; they receive them at a certain moment in their lives that shows them what their talent is. And I think the word you want is ‘flank’.”
“So what you’re saying is that ponies don’t have free will? They’re a slave to the tattoos on their flanks for their whole lives after childhood?”
“No, it’s not like that!” She stopped and turned to face me properly. “When a pony finds out what they want to do in their life, that’s when their Cutie Mark appears!”
“So a mark on their flank tells them what they’re going to enjoy for the rest of their life. Point still stands.”
“You’ve got it the wrong way around! A Cutie Mark doesn’t tell a pony what they’re good at or what they want to do; it’s based on what they discover for themselves!”
“So what happens if your perspective changes?”
Twilight didn’t respond for a while, and tilted her head slightly. I decided to elaborate, “What happens if something happens to a pony that leads them to decide that the thing that gave them their Cutie Mark is no longer what they want to do?” Ponies were staring at us again, but I didn’t care. I had a point to make, and nothing would stop me.
“That’s preposterous, Soren!”
“Really? Is it really unthinkable that a pony whose life was dedicated to, let’s say, writing plays would no longer find it fulfilling? That he would give up writing, despite it being his Cutie Mark? What if a pony whose talent was weightlifting suffered an injury that meant he could never lift again? Can you honestly tell me that it’s never happened before?”
Twilight didn’t have an answer to that, and actually looked sad, turning away from me. I stammered for a minute, trying to figure out what to say. “Look, maybe I was being a little harsh,” I offered. “C’mon, we’re losing time. We’ve gotta find out what that tree house is.” She nodded, and started walking again. I noticed a few ponies that had been staring at us were now looking at their own flanks thoughtfully. “Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t happen often to humans either,” I offered, and at least one pony nodded.
Twilight’s tree house was only another minute’s walk away. It didn’t look like I’d thought; I was expecting a house built in the shape of a tree. It was actually a proper, growing oak tree, with leaves blowing in the wind and birds nesting in its branches, with a door at the bottom, some windows and a balcony. “Huh,” was all I could say. “Magic, am I right?”
Twilight didn’t respond. She’d already opened the door and stepped inside, and her gasp led me to fall in behind her. Inside the tree was a large circular room, and around the entire ring, stacked almost entirely haphazardly, were books of all shapes and sizes. Most of them were covered in dust, a thick layer covered the entire floor except for a few prints of hooves and Twilight’s boots, and a statue of a pony’s head in the middle of the room was similarly impossible to make out the true colour of. “The Golden Oaks Library,” Twilight said. “But... it didn’t have a librarian, all this time?”
“What do you mean, all this time? Or, let me guess, you still don’t fully remember?”
“I remember that I used to be the librarian here. It was after I left Canterlot, under Princess Celestia’s orders. I was worried that Nightmare Moon was about to return, but she wasn’t listening, or so I thought at the time...”
I held up both hands. “Slow down. Who’s Nightmare Moon?”
“The Mare in the Moon. Also known as Nightmare Moon. A dark spirit, trapped within the moon, to be released on the thousandth year, when the stars will aid in her escape...” She dropped out of the trance and started looking over the shelves, searching for a book. I was about to offer to help when I realised that I couldn’t read Common Equis script, and by that point she’d already found it anyway. “It’s all right here.”
The book had a picture that spread through both pages, and words underneath it that I couldn’t make out. “Okay, so, I still can’t read this,” I said. “Gonna need a translation...”
And so I heard the tale of Nightmare Moon, her fall from grace, her imprisonment for the crime of resentment, and the power of a set of mysterious artefacts that Twilight called the Elements of Harmony. It wasn’t a long story, but Twilight kept pausing in it, as though there was something more she wanted to add at each turn. Before I could ask, though, she moved on, and gradually I began to pick out symbols in the text.
As far as I could tell, the script of Common Equis was strictly phonetic, each symbol representing the same sound wherever it appeared. None of the swirls resembled any English sound, and the way they connected to each other made them difficult to make out, but I could see that there was method in the madness of their written language. Then again, English wasn’t so different, with a letter or a set of letters meaning any number of sounds depending on context, and rules so easily broken that they might as well not have existed.
“So, the Mare in the Moon...” I started. “That’s really a dark spirit who used to be a princess, then?”
Twilight nodded. “I was there on the day that she was released. By finding the Elements of Harmony again, I and a few other ponies were able to do what Celestia couldn’t, and restore Nightmare Moon to her original form. But... If the Mare in the Moon is still here in this Equestria, then it can only be a matter of time before she is released once again.”
“So what are we waiting for? We’d better find the Elements of Harmony. Do you remember where they were?”
Another nod, but at the same time she shook her head. “Not where. Who.”
“That doesn't make any sense. What are you on about?”
“The physical forms of the Elements of Harmony are merely a focus for their power. Their true power comes from their bearers. I didn’t know that at first, but I remember learning it just before the final battle. There were five other ponies, representing five of the six Elements: honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity and loyalty.”
“And the sixth?”
She placed a hand on her own breast.
I facepalmed. “Should've seen that one coming.”
“The Elements of Harmony chose me as their cornerstone, the bearer of the Element of Magic. Perhaps it’s why I’ve always had a talent for magic as most understand it...” She looked off to the side for a moment. “But once I started to reach out to other ponies, I learned that I was skilled at organising groups and keeping them together, no matter what threatened to split us apart.”
I thought about it for a moment before turning back to Twilight. “Remember anything else about the Elements? They sound pretty important. If the ponies wielding them are the most important part, do you remember who they were?”
“Not at the moment,” she said sadly. “But I’m sure it’ll come back to me. Maybe seeing one of them will remind me of who they were.”
“I don’t like to bank on maybes,” I replied. “Guess we don’t have much choice, though.” I looked through the window towards the town hall, and saw that it was getting close to noon. “We’d better make for the tavern. Maybe you should take AJ back here after we’ve met up.”
“What would you do, then?”
“As much as I enjoy reading, I enjoy it a lot more when I can understand it. I’ll probably see to finding someplace to keep Karin.” At the sound of her name, the Chocobo let out a cry from outside, and I laughed. “Steady on, girl,” I called out. “I’ll be right out. C’mon, Twilight,” I said to the girl, and she nodded and stood up, replacing the book.
The walk to the tavern was entirely uneventful, compared to the walk to the library. Hitching Karin’s reins to a post outside the tavern as I had in Appleloosa, I took Twilight inside. Like the saloon in Appleloosa, the tavern was almost entirely deserted, but I chalked that up more to it being yet early in the day rather than a town gripped with fear. There was a pink mare standing behind the counter, who smiled at us as we entered. “Didn’t expect to see anypony come in so early,” she said, confirming my suspicions and Applejack’s. “What can I do you for?”
I ordered a cider; Twilight didn’t want anything. We sat down at a table together, and my drink arrived just as the door swung open. “Just a minute!” the owner, who I assumed was Berry Punch, called out as she set our drinks down and rushed back behind the bar. The entrant was Applejack, and there were two ponies behind her. One of them was quite small, wearing a bow and lacking a Cutie Mark. The other was the biggest pony I’d seen in all of four days of contact with the species, wearing a yoke and a Cutie Mark of half an apple.
The little one seemed almost worried, and kept glancing between me and Applejack. The large one was wearing a stern expression, and walked straight up to me without changing focus. I took a drink from the mug that had been placed in front of me before turning to face his intense stare. “Uh, hi—
~~
The sound of Macintosh headbutting Soren was loud enough to echo slightly in the bar. Berry Punch let out a startled noise and ducked down behind the bar as I ran forward, hoping to stop a fight from breaking out between the two. If a fight had started, though, it was already over; Soren collapsed to the floor, and I was only just in time to catch him. His drink fell off the table as well as Twilight stood up quickly. “What—?”
“What’s the big idea, Mac?!” I shouted. “I already told you, I already gave Soren as much of a beating as he needed!”
“For her,” he said, nodding to Twilight. He turned to Soren, then to me, adding, “For you.”
“Well, now you’ve avenged me,” I said angrily. “And now you can help me drag him into your bed until he’s recovered!” Mac was still frowning, as he had been after he left the house as soon as I’d told him about Soren. “I get that you’re angry about what happened to me,” I said.
“When you didn’t get off the train, we thought you were dead, and now it turns out that you’re just a... what did you call it?” Apple Bloom said meekly. “But we thought you were dead!”
“C’mon, a little trip to Appleloosa wouldn’t kill me, you silly filly,” I said, ruffling her mane with one hand as I’d done with a hoof many times, back when I still had hooves. “And it’s not like I’m any different in here,” I placed the same hand over my chest, where I assumed my heart was. “I’m still Applejack, I’m just...”
Apple Bloom smiled at that. “Really? Alright, I trust ya, sis.” She looked at Macintosh, widening her eyes as far as she could, and eventually he relented as well, nodding slightly and picking up Soren on his back. “You comin’ too?” she asked Twilight. “If you’re a friend of Applejack’s, you’re a friend of the whole Apple Clan. I’m sure we could at least invite you ‘round for brunch...”
She started using the puppy eyes again, but Twilight didn’t even let it start before she laughed and said, “Of course. That’s...” She trailed off, staring into the distance before quickly snapping out of it. “I’m sorry, I was just remembering the last time I had brunch with the Apple Clan. It was...” she grimaced, “...quite an experience.”
Strangely, I found myself laughing as well, remembering a purple pony from out of town arriving during the Apple Family Reunion. She hadn’t wanted to stay, but after relenting, she could barely walk a few hours later once the meal had ended. Outsiders, all the same. Small stomachs.
...
I paused at the entrance to the bar.
Where had that memory come from?
Things to Do in Ponyville When You're Dead (Part 2)
I noticed that Soren had woken up when I heard him groaning in the bed behind me. I’d been watching the door in case anyone... the word felt all wrong to me, but Twilight had told me it was what Soren said in place of ‘anypony’, and I supposed it was right enough, considering that I myself wasn’t a pony anymore. Anyway, when he woke up, I turned to face him, and was about to say something when he suddenly said, “There, is there something I can do for you?” His voice was slightly slurred, and he immediately groaned and fell out of the bed.
“You okay there, sugarcube?” I asked, reaching out a hand. He was still wearing the same clothes, except that his scarf had fallen to the ground. He picked it up with his free hand as I helped him up. “Quite a fall you took...”
He shrugged. “It’s nothing. What got me here was worse.” He looked around as he threw the scarf loosely around his neck. “Where is here, anyway?”
“My brother’s bedroom. He was the one that knocked you out.”
“Protective of you?”
“Only a little. It takes a lot to worry him, and I’m one of those things that can do it.” I laughed and pushed Soren’s mane out of his face. He flinched a little bit at first, and there was still a nasty lump on his forehead where he’d been hit, but it seemed fine. He was standing up well enough, so I walked over to the door. “I’ll let everypony know you’re up. I’m sure you can apologise to my brother without taking another...”
“Something’s on fire,” he interrupted, sniffing the air twice. I did the same, and noticed there was a smell coming from downstairs. “Definitely. Might wanna get on that.”
I ran down the hall and down the stairs, rushing into the kitchen. I was worried that something was burning in the oven, but it was coming from further outside. As I rushed out the door, worried that the orchard was burning, I followed the smell and the sight of rising smoke to what, on the contrary, was a small campfire not far from the house. My sister and her friends were sitting around it, roasting marshmallows on sticks. “Now, Apple Bloom, I told you not to light campfires so close to the house,” I said, folding my arms for what seemed like a good reason at the time.
“Sorry, sis,” Apple Bloom replied. “I didn’t want to be campin’ too far out in the orchard...”
“You know there’s plenty of open space that you could be usin’.” I looked down at the fire, and saw that it was at least safely contained. “Least it’s safe, but I’m stayin’ here for now in case we need to put it out fast.”
“These kids yours?” Soren suddenly asked from behind me. I was startled by his appearance, since I hadn’t heard him coming. “Oh, foals, I guess is the word, innit. Pretty cute.” The Cutie Mark Crusaders, as they’d come to call themselves since becoming friends, all turned towards him at once. I was expecting them to scream and retreat, but instead, as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at him and turned to me as well, they oohed in unison before charging up to him, almost knocking him over. “Hey, wanna be a little more careful?” he asked. “No, no, wait—hey!”
Before he could pull his hand up, Scootaloo had jumped up to grab on it, pulling him down to the ground with her surprising weight. “It’s so soft...” she cooed, rubbing her hooves all over his hand. I grimaced, expecting the worst, and he tried to pull away, only to stop when he realised, at about the same time as I did, that nothing was happening. “What’s wrong, mister?”
“...Nothing, nothing’s wrong,” he said. “Hey, AJ, do you know where Twilight is?”
“No, I don’t, but she probably hasn’t gone far,” I replied. “And why do you keep calling me that?”
“It’s an English thing. Pay it no mind,” he replied. With a chuckle, he added, “Or I could just start giving everyone nicknames based on English phonetics and call it my roguish charm.” He laughed to himself, but nobody else did. Eventually, Apple Bloom started laughing as well, even though she clearly didn’t understand.
Sighing, I picked up two sticks and gave one to Soren before reaching into the bag of marshmallows. “No thanks,” he said, as I pulled two out. “Don’t care for marshmallows, even toasted.” The fillies let out an ‘aww’ in unison, and he raised his hands. “Hey, everyone’s got preferences. I’m sure all of you have some foods everyone else likes that you hate.” He rubbed his stomach at that and stood up. “Actually, if I’m gonna wait for Twilight, I’d rather have something to eat first. You got anything inside?”
“Besides apples?” I asked, jokingly. With a smile, I continued, “There might still be some apple pie left over from dinner. Follow me.”
“Have fun, ladies,” he said, waving to the fillies, who all waved back before returning to their marshmallows. As we walked off, I heard Sweetie Belle asking what kind of pony doesn’t like marshmallows, and Scootaloo replying that he wasn’t a pony, so maybe his species just didn’t care for them. Apple Bloom then very emphatically proclaimed that that was impossible, using a word that I definitely didn’t teach her. I would have turned around to tell her off for it, but I’d heard Soren use it and others in his sleep and I had no idea how old he was, so I decided to ignore it that time.
Macintosh was waiting in the kitchen when I came in. Soren was sitting on a chair, looking at him. He was avoiding eye contact, and I cleared my throat as I walked through. I turned my back as I picked up the slice of apple pie. It wasn’t that big, but I slowly and carefully placed it on a plate as I waited for one of the two behind me to say something.
Neither said anything as I turned around, placing the plate on the table behind Soren. He picked it up and put it on top of his legs instead, holding the fork in his fingers and eating slowly. Macintosh still wouldn’t look him in the eye, but didn’t walk away either. Slowly, Soren ate and Macintosh stood, until I nudged Soren as he was about to take another bite. I frowned as I looked at him, trying to get my point across. If Macintosh wouldn’t do anything, then I could at least give him a reason to by having Soren start.
“What?” he asked, and I gestured to Macintosh, then to myself. “What’s that meant to mean? What did I do?” He looked between me and my brother, and then sighed. “It wasn’t really my fault...” He trailed off, then shook his head. “No. It was a decision I made. I... I’m sorry about your sister,” he said. “I didn’t intend it to happen, but it happened. So this is me... taking responsibility.” He put the plate with about half the slice left on the floor and knelt down to Mac’s level, bowing his head.
Eventually, Mac spoke as well, slightly below his usual volume. “Sorry I hit you.” It was all he was likely to say, and Soren, recognising that or perhaps not caring, reached out a hand. After a moment of confusion, Mac took it and shook it. Soren tilted his head slightly before he picked up his plate and sat back down at the table, facing me.
“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” I asked Mac, but also Soren as well, slightly. Soren ate the rest of the pie quickly, and I held up a hand. “Whoa, slow down there, sugarcube. Can’t enjoy it, at that speed.”
“I have to find Twilight,” he said quickly, gulping down the last of the pie and standing up. “Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”
“Slow down, what’s this about?”
“Think, Applejack. What happened when I shook your brother’s hoof?”
“You two came to understand one another better. That’s what happens when ponies shake hooves, innit?”
Soren slapped his forehead. “No, you’re thinking too deep. What else happened?”
I put my finger in my mouth, but couldn’t think of anything. “Nothin’ I could see.”
“And what happened when the fillies outside bowled me over and felt up my hands?”
“Nothin’ much, except you gettin’ a little embarrassed.”
“Exactly. Now what happened when I touched your hoof, and Twilight’s?” Before I could answer, he gestured to my head and waved it down towards my feet. “This. It’s not that touching a pony turns them into a human. Only specific ponies. And I have a theory as to who’s on the guest list. Or rather, I know who to ask.
“Twilight was the first pony I met, and you two seem to have a connection, even if you can’t remember it. There should be more ponies out there who Twilight doesn’t remember yet, but if she does remember them, I’ll be able to bring them together. From what Twilight’s already been able to remember, I get the feeling that the rest of her memories are gonna be important. I can’t wait to tell her this. Can you at least guess at where she might be?”
Before I could answer, I heard Soren’s bird squawking outside. “Damn it, where’s Karin?!” Soren shouted. “Gotta find out what’s going on!”
“I took her to the barn for you,” I replied. “She should still be there, unless... don’t tell me.” I ran outside and rushed towards the barn, where the ruckus was still coming from. The doors were wide open, but the bird was still inside, along with three fillies. Apple Bloom had a lasso tied around herself, and Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were barely hanging onto the bird, who was thrashing around wildly. I barely avoided being gored by one of its talons, and had to duck again as the two fillies were thrown off.
“Karin! Karin!” Soren shouted, rushing into the barn. “Oh, fuck me... Karin, calm down,” he said, walking towards the still-frantic bird. “Calm down, it’s me, I’m here.” He slowly walked towards it and started stroking its neck, and gradually it started to calm down. He continued to say encouraging words to the same effect for almost a minute. All I could do was watch; I wouldn’t have even gone near it, even if it was my bird. I didn’t know what had possessed Soren, but the only other pony I would expect to try was...
“We are going to talk about this later,” I said to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, scowling. “Soren, there’s a pony I’d like to introduce you to. She can probably take better care of your bird. She’ll probably be at least awake enough to take her in, it’s not that late yet.” The moon was barely above the horizon, and Fluttershy usually tended to her nocturnal animals before going to sleep herself, or so I’d heard about her.
I paused as I realised I’d never really spoken with Fluttershy, except on one occasion where Winona got sick. But I felt as though she was the perfect choice to look after this animal I’d never seen the like of before, and in all likelihood she hadn’t either. It was as though I did remember occasions where she’d looked after animals and gained their trust, despite never having seen them before. Shrugging, Soren took his bird by the reins and led her outside.
“So what was all that about in there?” he asked, once we were a short way from the farm.
I shrugged. “Foals being foals. Trying everythin’ they can to get their Cutie Marks.”
“What’s so good about having a Cutie Mark?” I was taken aback slightly by the statement, but I decided to hear him out, since I wasn’t sure if humans had them at all. “As long as they can still do new things, and if they enjoy doing it, then that’s better than being stuck doing one thing for the rest of your life.” I didn’t say anything, trying to figure out what he meant. “From what Twilight told me, that’s what your Cutie Marks do, isn’t it? Leave you doing the same thing for the rest of your life. A physical manifestation of an unavoidable destiny...”
“A lot of ponies believe that Cutie Marks are to do with their talents,” I replied. “And for a lot of ponies, that really is all they are. But it doesn’t for one minute mean they can’t do other things that they enjoy doing. And not all Marks are as simple as representing a talent.” I showed him my own Mark, which had moved to the outside of my thigh. “This Mark might just mean apples to you. But to me, it’s more than that. It’s about my family. There’s three apples here, not just one. I’m not just a mare who can kick an apple out of a tree. In fact, I didn’t get this doing anything on the farm.”
“Yeah? So how did you get it?”
“Back when I was a filly, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay on the farm. So I moved to another city, stayed with another branch of the family. The Oranges of Manehattan,” he smirked loudly at that, and I asked, “What’s so funny?”
“It’s nothing, it’s a human thing. We have a city that sounds just like that.”
“Really?”
“It’s not a big deal. So, the Oranges...”
“Right. They became businessponies in Manehattan, and I decided I wanted to try living their life. And they were nice enough, but it was just too different from how I’d grown up, and as many misgivings as I’d had, none of them could compare to what I’d lost. One day, I was wondering whether to stay or go back home, when a rainbow suddenly appeared out of nowhere, pointing straight towards Ponyville. I figured it was a sign and headed back home, where my family accepted me back with open hearts. And that was when I gained my Cutie Mark.”
“So, it’s about your family? And being a farm pony.”
“It’s not just that I’m talented at working on a farm. My heart belongs to Sweet Apple Acres, and the family I have there. So that’s why my Cutie Mark does too.” He didn’t say anything right away, and I continued, “Do you have a Cutie Mark?”
“No. Humans usually don’t. I guess it’s just ponies who’ve been turned into humans that do.”
“What would yours look like, I wonder?”
“Well, I’m twenty-three and still don’t know what I want to do with my life, and I probably would’ve kept on wondering if the decision wasn’t made for me when I was sent here. So I don’t know either, but I doubt it’ll ever come up.” He looked across the horizon and asked, “You wanted to know why I think the way I do about Cutie Marks? That why you asked?” I nodded. “You explained it a lot better than Twilight did.”
“Really? Shucks, I’m not normally the most eloquent pony around...” I blushed slightly. “Well, I’m not a pony anymore, but... Aw, forget it, you know what I mean, right?”
“I certainly do,” he laughed, and I joined in, unable to help myself. “So are we nearly there?”
“Just another ten lengths or so. You can see it from here.” I pointed out the light coming from one of the cottage’s windows, and he nodded. “Looks like she’s still up, too. That’s good. We won’t have to feel bad about waking her up.”
“Let’s hope she didn’t just leave the light on.”
~~
Applejack had said she needed to deal with the Cutie Mark Crusaders back at the farm, so I was left alone to meet this mystery Dr Doolittle mare. It was after dark, so I wasn’t expecting to see too many animals up and about, but there were still quite a few critters running around in the dusk, and an owl at one point swooped over my head, alighting on a branch and, unless I was mistaken, staring directly at Karin. It didn’t move at all until we reached the door except to turn its head to track us, and the larger bird specifically.
It finally flew off when I knocked twice on the door, and it opened slowly. I could barely hear the voice that had come from inside before, and before I could make out what the mare looked like, she squeaked and shut the door. “Well, that went well,” I said. “C’mon, let’s go.”
“Kweh.”
“I’m sorry?” The voice came louder this time, and the door opened slightly. I could see yellow through it, and a greenish-blue eye peeking through the crack. “Oh, you must be...”
She didn’t say anything more, and I knelt down to her eye level. “Hi there,” I said, and she squeaked and closed the door again. “Hey, hey, hey, sorry!” I said quickly. More quietly, but still hopefully loud enough to be heard through the door, I continued, “I’m not going to hurt you. If you’ve heard about me, then you know I haven’t hurt anypony else, right?” The word sounded a bit strange coming from my own mouth, but I figured it’d convince her better than ‘anyone’.
Slowly, she opened the door again. “I’m a human,” I explained. “I’m just like you ponies. I can think, I can talk, I can argue philosophy...” It didn’t seem to be working, so I decided to switch tack. “What’s your Cutie Mark?” I asked. She opened the door a little bit wider and showed me her flank. There were three butterflies printed on it, the same pink and blue as her mane and eyes.
She said something that I couldn’t quite make out. Even with the door open, she was speaking too quietly, and it didn’t help that her butt was facing me. “What was that?”
She turned back towards me and, at a volume that was barely comprehensible, told me, “I’m... Fluttershy.”
“Fluttershy, huh? Nice name.” Neither of us said anything for a few seconds, and she started looking away nervously. “So, should I come back later, or...?”
My question was cut off when she saw Karin and immediately let out a surprisingly cute gasp. “Who’s this?” she asked, at an audible volume. Using wings I hadn’t noticed before, she flew up to Karin’s eye level, and the Chocobo let out a squawk.
“This is Karin,” I told her. “She’s a Chocobo. They’re...”
“From the same land as humans like you?”
I grimaced slightly. “Yeah, let’s go with that. We use them as mounts and beasts of burden, and you can’t walk ten paces without tripping over one where I’m from, but they’re not particularly common anywhere else that I’ve seen.”
“She’s amazing...” Fluttershy smiled, rubbing Karin’s neck with her hooves. Karin cooed appreciatively, and I smiled and shrugged.
“It’s been hell finding someone who can look after her for me, but I’ve heard you’re pretty good with animals. And I can already see that she likes you. She doesn’t like most ponies much.”
“Her feathers are so lovely...” Fluttershy had reached Karin’s tail feathers, and was brushing them down. “How long can she stay here?”
I laughed a little. “Well, I’m planning to stay in town a few days. She can stay here until then. I’ll just get the riding gear off...” As quickly as possible, I stripped Karin of the gear. “You got anywhere I can keep this stuff?”
“Oh, I’m sure I can find somewhere.” She looked at the saddlebags I’d placed on the ground. “What’s in your bags?”
“Nothing much, just some herbs. Take one out and feed it to her in the morning. And only one. She’ll probably beg for more, but I haven’t found any more of them in Equestria so far; I don’t want to waste any.” I remembered the journal just in time and pulled it out. “Also this.” I put it in one of my jacket’s pockets for the time being. “That should be everything. If I want to head out anywhere, I’ll saddle her up myself.”
“I could help you with it...”
“It’s faster to do it myself. Appreciate the offer, though.”
She looked up at the moon for a moment. “It’s late. Do you want to stay here?”
“Nah, I had a long nap this afternoon. I’ll probably head into town again.” I rubbed Karin’s neck one last time as a goodbye. “Stay here, okay? Be nice to Fluttershy.”
“Kweh.”
“I hope I can see you again...?” Fluttershy said.
“Soren. My name’s Soren.”
“That sounds nice. Soren...” She said it a few times to herself before she realised I’d walked off. In the loudest exclamation she’d made that night, she called out, “Goodbye, Soren!” I turned around and waved to her as I walked down the path back into Ponyville.
I stopped in at Berry Punch’s tavern. The place was a little livelier after dark, with ponies sitting and talking at the tables or standing up. A few turned to face me, but it didn’t make the bar fall silent like you’d see in some movies. Berry Punch herself seemed to recognise me as I came in. “Another cider?” she asked.
“No, thanks,” I replied. “I’ll think of something.” I sat down at the bar and looked at the man to my left. He had a mug on the table, and I couldn’t quite identify the smell of what was in it with all the smells wafting around the tavern. “I’ll have whatever he’s having,” I said, pointing to my left.
The man to my left?
“Didn’t expect to see another human here,” he said. “Let me guess. You bought something from a creepy merchant and woke up in the middle of nowhere?”
“Sounds about right.” I turned to face him properly, and saw a familiar-looking green tunic and hat. “You’re Link, right?”
“Well, not really,” he admitted, “but I guess now it’s who I am. Since I can’t really go back to being anyone else.” He looked me up and down before taking another drink from his mug. “Don’t know who you’re trying to be...”
“Nobody in particular. I just threw something together, but I figure it’s like Final Fantasy or something. Soren Cavanagh.”
“Arnold White.” We shook hands just as Berry Punch placed a mug down on my table. The liquid inside was white and frothy, and I took a cautious drink. At first, it tasted like milk, but then a sudden kick came into it, and I almost did a spit-take. “Nice, innit?” he said. “Milk with a shot of whiskey mixed in.”
I took another sip, trying to understand the slightly conflicting tastes of the milk and the whiskey. I’d never really drunk whiskey before, but I decided to at least finish the mug I’d ordered. “It’s certainly a pretty interesting taste,” I said. “So how long have you been in Equestria?”
“A couple of weeks, I guess,” said ‘Link’. “Been travelling from town to town, not eaten much but I’ve been okay, strangely.”
“You, too? Guess we’re all playing ‘The Game’, then.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Wouldn’t want to worry you with it. Big-time hero like you, you’re probably already getting more than enough requests from ponies...” He looked down into his mug and drained the last of it before snatching mine. “Hey, I was still drinking that!”
He looked at it, realising what he’d done, and laughed nervously. “Put his drink on my tab, barkeep,” he said. “What do you want? Another one the same?”
I shrugged, realising that at least I didn’t have to drink the strange concoction anymore. “Nah. Just give me another cider.” I received the new mug not twenty seconds later, and my hand brushed over Berry Punch’s hoof for a moment. Nothing happened. “What’s got you so highly strung? Don’t tell me I hit a nerve there...”
“The last town I came through, I feel like I tried to help every single pony there,” he said. “And it was just... It was just so stressful. I never had any time to myself, to be anyone but Link. I can’t keep it up like this, I’m just glad that nobody’s asked me to find their baby or destroy any ancient evils yet...” He took a deep drink from my previous mug. “I can’t be Arnold anymore. I have to be Link, all the time. At least you’re lucky enough to not have to pretend to be someone you aren’t.”
“I dunno, being a hero sounds pretty good to me,” I admitted. “You have to work for it sometimes, but having the adoration...”
“Even if you can help one pony, everyone else is just asking you for more. And even they forget their gratitude quickly enough as soon as something else happens.” He took another drink. “You don’t get it at all.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But... You know, Link was always fated to be a hero in his games. Maybe that was your fate too. You can be a hero. And even if everyone wants you to be a hero to them, you don’t have to do that. Be a hero in your own way. Just as long as you’re helping people, even if they don’t really appreciate you, to know that you’ve done a good job for someone else...” I sighed and took a drink of my own cider. It wasn’t quite as good as Appleloosa’s, but there wasn’t much in it. “Well, that’d be enough for me. I never really did much back at home, but I’ve already managed to save a town from an evil being. They didn’t react that much, but I know I did it. That’s enough for me.”
“Well, if you want to help another town,” Link said, “there’s a militia in Ponyville keeping it safe from monster attacks. Maybe you could talk to them in the morning. They could use a hero.”
“What about you?”
“They didn’t ask me right away, and I’m happy with that for now,” he replied. “Haven’t you been listening? I don’t want to be a hero right now. I just want to be Arnold. I want to relax, to laugh, to make a few friends. That’s why I’m telling you.” He touched the katana at my waist. “As long as you can kinda sorta handle that thing, I’m sure they’ll accept you for as long as you wanna stick around. As for me... I’ll join up once I’m good and ready.”
“Destiny doesn’t always like to be kept waiting,” I told him. “But, I’m sure in this case it’ll be fine. Thanks for the tip.” I pulled a few bits out of my pocket and left them on the counter with the unfinished mug of cider. “Oh, have you seen anyone around who’s purple? Like, violet purple all over? More purple than Berry Punch there?”
“One near the tree library,” she said. “Tall feller like you, all dressed in purple.”
“Thanks, random pony citizen,” I said.
“Derpy.”
“Thanks, Derpy.”
I left the bar and retracted the short route to the Golden Oaks Library. Twilight was there, like Derpy had said, sitting and reading a book using a magical light she had floating next to her. “What are you reading there?”
“I found this in the library. Would you believe it’s all ordered alphabetically?” she proclaimed. “Honestly, it’s like they’ve never heard of the Dewey Decimal System.”
“Wait, what?”
“Invented by Dewey Decimal, the first chief librarian of the Royal Library in Canterlot. You don’t have that?”
I shook my head, frowning. “No, we do, it’s just I was expecting it to be named something else.” I sighed and continued, “You know what? Never mind. I still can’t read Common Equis. What’s it about?”
She showed me the cover, and I tilted my head, being unable to raise only one eyebrow. “After I remembered about the Elements of Harmony, I decided to see if there was anything else about it. I’ve had hours to search this place by myself. Eventually I found this: ‘The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide.’ It doesn’t say that much useful, though.”
I pointed a finger at her. “Actually, that reminds me. Do you remember who the other Elements of Harmony were yet?”
“No, not quite yet. Why are you asking?”
“I’ve touched a few other ponies, but none of them transformed into humans like you and AJ did. I think I’ve figured out what it is. The only other pony Players are the six Elements of Harmony.”
She thought about it for a moment. “It’s possible... I haven’t remembered all of them yet, but I have a few hazy memories of using the Elements with them. I know that one must have been Applejack, judging by the orange and yellow. I can sort of make out her hat as well.”
“Can you tell me what the other hazy blobs looked like? What colours?”
She closed her eyes, thinking of the memories I wanted her to call up. “Blue... white, with purple...”
“Blue and white with purple?”
“No, it’s two different...” She opened her eyes and threw her hands down in exasperation “I can’t concentrate with you asking questions like that.”
“I’m sorry. So, one pony was blue, another was white and purple, the others?”
She closed her eyes again. “Applejack, probably... pink all over... and the last one was yellow and pink.”
“Yellow and pink? Don’t tell me...”
“What is it, Soren?” Twilight asked, opening her eyes.
“I met a mare like that just today. But I don’t want to wake her up just to turn her into a human. Besides, I’ve got an errand to run tomorrow.” Without warning, I suddenly yawned, realising that my time unconscious hadn’t really given me that much rest. “There anywhere to sleep in here?”
Twilight pointed at a flight of stairs. “There’s a bed upstairs. You can probably sleep there.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll be fine. I have these books to keep me company.” She smiled and pointed at the stairs again. “If you want to sleep, sleep. It’s okay.”
I smiled and removed my scarf. “Well, in that case, good night, Twilight.”
“Sleep tight, Soren.”
Things to Do in Ponyville When You're Dead (Part 3)
When I woke up, I was still wearing Soren’s scarf; the night had gotten unexpectedly cold, and I didn’t want to use any fire spells in a library. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t think of any spells that would create the heat without the fire, either. I knew that magic was supposed to be my talent, but maybe there was something specific preventing me from using it. If that was the case, though, then I couldn’t think of what it was.
I heard Soren walking down the stairs and groaned something that I was intending to sound like ‘good morning’. He laughed it off, thankfully. “Not a morning person, huh?” he asked. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I spotted someone last night who could help. Go back to sleep, I’ll be back in a few.”
As he left, I stood up and tried to move into a better place to sit against the wall. There weren’t any chairs or anything like one in the library, so that was my only option. It was getting warmer, but I still felt comfortable in Soren’s scarf for some reason, so I left it on. I reached out for the book that had fallen when I fell asleep with my magic, pulling it open to the last page I could remember. Daring Do had just patched up her wing, but it wasn’t likely to be healed for a while. Without being able to fly like normal, travelling through the jungle would probably give her quite a bit of trouble...
The door swung open again, and Soren was carrying a small pot and a small box. “Just something from the old country I thought I’d introduce to you,” he said, smiling. “I’ll need you to light a fire for me...” He looked around, and then laughed. “Oh, wait, bad call. Setting a fire in a library, which is a tree.”
“There should be a basement,” I offered. “Plenty of fire safety down there too.”
“Really? Wow, I guess you did live here once. I never would’ve guessed, since there don’t seem to be any stairs down or anything...” I stepped behind a bookcase, and Soren nodded once, helping me to push it aside. Mostly, I used magic on it, and immediately felt exhausted again; I’d only just woken up, after all. Behind the bookcase was a door, and behind the door were stairs leading down into a round pit beneath the tree. “Alright, jackpot.” I slumped over on the bookcase, and he said, “Whoa, you okay there, Twilight? Need help?”
“I’ll be okay,” I replied, leaning on the handrail as I walked down the stairs. At the bottom of the room was a small fireplace with a grille above it. Soren put the teapot down on top of the grille and opened the box, which contained a large number of small leaves. With a bit of effort, I lit a fire underneath. “What happens now?”
“Now we wait for the water to boil. Shouldn’t take long.” He sat down and picked up the end of his scarf in one hand. “You like it?”
“It’s nice...” I replied. “Where did you get it? What’s it made of?”
He looked off into the distance, giving me a profile of his face. “The man who taught me to use a sword left it to me. He always wore it himself, but a year and a day before he was supposed to finish my training, he disappeared. All he left behind was the scarf, and a note, telling me that demons from his past had returned. He didn’t want to expose me to them, he said. He told me to finish the training by myself, and that I would know when it was done. But...” He touched the base of his sword and looked down, eyes closed. “I’ve never seen him since. But I know that this scarf is a promise. A promise that someday, he’ll come back for it, and finish my training... or that someday, I will become a master myself.”
My eyes had gotten wider and wider throughout the monologue, and when I realised he’d stopped, I breathed, “Really?”
“No, not really.”
I fell over on the floor face-first, and he laughed. “I bought it at a charity store, it was cheap and I wanted it to look cool while I was making speeches like that. Roguish charm, y’know?”
“Soren, that wasn’t funny!” I shouted as I pulled myself up.
“You’re only saying that because you couldn’t see the look on your own face,” he replied, still laughing. Before I could hit him, a whistle suddenly sounded, and I flinched away from the source, the pot above the fireplace. I hadn’t noticed before, but there was an elongated opening on the side which steam was coming out from. “Looks like the water’s boiled. Now... two spoons for two cups...” He took a spoon out of a pocket and poured some of the leaves into the boiling water. “There. Now we leave that alone for about three minutes.” He looked at a device on his wrist as he sat down. “Really, though, I did buy it to try and look cool. And,” he looked at a tab I hadn’t noticed, “one hundred percent New Zealand wool.”
“How would you do that?” I asked, having let go of my anger for the prank he’d played on me already.
“I was hoping to get a dramatic gust of wind to blow it around,” he said. I thought for a little while, and focused magic on the air around me, pushing it to one side. Soren felt the gust as well, and seemed startled, but not as much as when he looked at the scarf flapping about around me. “Yeah, something like that. When’d you learn a wind spell?”
“I don’t know, it just kind of came to me...” The scarf suddenly blew up into my face, and I yelped again, losing control of the wind spell. I heard a tearing sound, and noticed a rip on the arm of Soren’s jacket all of a sudden. “Oh, I’m sorry! I wasn’t expecting it to...”
“It’s okay, really,” he replied, covering the cut with his other hand. “Actually, you could probably use that in combat. If you can cut through my sleeve by losing control, maybe you could cut through a monster with a controlled gust. And maybe make me look cool with the scarf a few times?” He grinned and winked at me, and I couldn’t help but laugh as I took the scarf off and returned it to him. He looked at his wrist again and said, “Should be about done.”
As he pulled two cups out of his jacket, I asked, “Where did you get those from?”
“My inventory.”
“What?”
“Long story, I’ll explain later. It’s convenient, okay?” He put the two cups down on top of the fireplace near the pot and put another spoon on top of one of them. He poured the water through it, which had turned brown and gained a pleasant smell, and then did the same in the other cup. He gave me one of the cups and said, “Drink it. It’ll wake you up.” I took a sip of the liquid and burned my tongue slightly on it. “Careful there...”
Slowly, after blowing on it a bit, I took another sip and tasted the strange liquid. It tasted quite sharp, but not bitter, and the liquid seemed to warm me up as it went down my throat. “What is this?” I asked.
“Tea. I’m surprised you guys have it.” He took a sip of his own tea and smiled. “Mmm, I didn’t know you had English breakfast tea here too. Or something like it, I guess, since you don’t have an England.” He took another sip, and I did the same. “I was surprised to find a pony who had any kind of passion for tea, but that’s serendipity for you. Lost in a strange new world, at least you still have really good tea.”
“It’s nice,” I admitted, thinking of the things Soren had said. “What’s an England? And New Zealand?”
“They’re countries, where I’m from. New Zealand has a whole lot of sheep in it, so that’s where they get the wool for scarves like this one.” We finished the rest of our tea quickly, and he continued, “As for England, it’s where I was born. Probably explains my love of tea, though I don’t remember much about the place. My dad’s job moved, and I had to move with him.”
“That’s a pity.”
“It’s not a big deal. Not like I’m ever gonna get to see it again now. Least we have tea.” He took my cup and put it back in his jacket, though I couldn’t see the bulge once it was flush against his chest again. “Oh yeah, inventory. It’s like, a space where you can magically keep items. You’re probably able to use it too, but...”
I remembered the book the Merchant had given me and reached into my cape. As my hand went behind my back, I visualised reaching into the cape to take the book out, and it appeared in my hand. “Huh. So it does work... Inventory.”
“Nice. Guess the tea really did help wake you up.” He placed the pot back in his inventory as well and started walking towards the stairs. “We should probably meet up with AJ again. There’s a lead I gained in the bar that I wanted to follow up on, and I’ll want her around for it too.”
“Are we leaving Ponyville already?”
“No, it’s still here. But it might get us some extra combat experience, and if the Game is going where I think it is, we’ll need it.”
~~
The so-called Ponyville Royal Guard had a small barracks built on the northernmost edge of the town. There were only a few ponies there, and only one of them, a white Pegasus stallion, was actually wearing any armour, or anything at all. He was also leading the others in a variety of drills using spears. As he noticed our presence, he shouted to the others that they were to continue drilling without him, and he would know if they slacked off. “What do you want?” he said to us.
“To help you,” I said. “You look like you could use the extra manpower, or pony-power or...”
“Get out.”
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
“Do I have a speech impediment? Get out!”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise that this militia—”
“We are not a militia! The Ponyville Royal Guard are a trained group of hard-working local ponies seeking to protect their home! We are entirely capable of defending this town, and we do not need or want any outsiders!” The militia ponies had stopped drilling to watch the scene, and one of them fell over, weighed down by the spear she was holding onto. Even for a pony, I could tell her form was way off.
I sighed and shook my head. “Are we looking at two different trained groups of hard-working local ponies, here?” Before any of them could get offended, I added, “Don’t get me wrong, these guys could definitely be worth something someday. But in the meantime, we can handle any problems that come up until they’re ready.”
“I said, we don’t need any help from outsiders!”
“Soren, let me handle this,” Applejack said suddenly. “I’m a Ponyville local too. Sure, it don’t look that way, but I’m sure by now you’ve heard the news.”
The armoured pony didn’t say anything for a few seconds as I backed off, exchanging a look with Twilight. “That voice. You’re Applejack, right?”
“Yep, that’s my name.” She turned to me for a moment and said, “You know, your pride is why I turned down the recruitment offer in the first place. It’s right there in the name you gave this group, even though you’re the only Royal Guard in it, and you ain’t born in Ponyville any more than he is.” She pointed to me at that. “There’s nothin’ to be gained from actin’ as though things are better than they are. ‘Specially when this town’s what’s on the line for it. Why can’t’cha let us help?”
He sighed deeply, waving off the other ponies. “You’re right. But that’s why I can’t give up. I can’t admit that I was wrong that easily. And he said it himself, these ponies do have potential. I was sent here to help them realise it, so I can’t just take help from anyone else now! So stop rubbing it in with your offers and all that, and get out!”
Applejack shrugged and turned away at that. “C’mon, guys, let’s go,” she said. “Clearly we’re not going to get anywhere with this.”
As we were about to leave, a screaming pony suddenly rushed up. He was clearly rattled by something, and as he called out for the commander, I sniffed the air. “Something’s on fire,” I said, turning back towards Ponyville. I didn’t see the smoke for a little while, but when I did, I called out to the others, “Was Ponyville always that on fire?”
“Recruits!” the commander shouted behind us. “We have reports of ponies being abducted and fires being set in the eastern part of the town! Initial reports are sketchy, but it is believed they are being taken into...” He paused for dramatic effect, before saying, “The Everfree Forest.” All six assembled ponies gasped in unison. “Now, this is going to be dangerous, but I know you’re ready for this...”
“No, we’re not!” a light blue Pegasus wearing a pink bow shouted. “We thought we’d just have to patrol the town and keep any monsters out! Now we’re going into the Everfree Forest, just out of the blue?!” The other ponies all started to protest as well, and the commander seemed to be having difficulty keeping them calm.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I muttered to myself, then, “I can’t believe I’m considering this.” I stepped up behind the commander and shouted, “What’s wrong with you?! Do you want to protect this town, or not?!”
The crowd gasped, and the commander stammered for a while. Eventually, he recovered himself and returned, “What gives you the right to ask me that?! You aren’t even from Ponyville!”
“And you just told Applejack that neither are you!” Taking a deep breath to try and calm down before the next statement, I continued, “But if you actually care about this town’s well-being, you won’t send those raw recruits into the Everfree Forest. You can already see they wouldn’t be able to take it.”
He was still fuming, but eventually said, “What exactly are you proposing to do?”
“We’ll be the vanguard. We’ll head into the Everfree, find whoever or whatever took those ponies, bring them back out if they’re still alive. You can make sure nobody else gets into the town who shouldn’t. They might get some experience, but it’ll be a hell of a lot safer than charging into the forest, even with you leading them.” I decided to twist the knife a little harder; even though it was kind of mean, I needed to make this point. “And if you really care about this town, you’ll let us help defend it, even though we’re not from here, any more than you are.”
He grumbled to himself incomprehensibly before stalking off into the main building. “Well, that went well,” I said. “C’mon, guys, we’ve got some ponies to save.”
As I turned, I heard hoofbeats approaching. It was the commander, carrying a spear in one hoof. He threw it to me, and I turned again quickly to catch it. “The weapon of a true guard. I don’t trust that toy on your waist.” He turned to the assembled ponies and started to give them orders along the same general lines as what I’d said, and I shrugged, leading my own party away from the scene.
As we headed for the Everfree under Applejack’s directions, we encountered Link, sitting on a bench in the main street. “Where are you all going in such a hurry?” he asked, waving to us.
“There’s been a foalnapping,” Twilight replied quickly. “In the Everfree Forest. The Royal Guard’s making up the rearguard, but...”
“We could use your help,” I cut her off. “Wanna be a hero? No time to waste, let’s get a move on!” I didn’t even stop running to tell him that, and the two girls had to catch up to me. “Don’t know if he’ll actually come, but we really could use him,” I explained. Other ponies stopped and turned to us as we ran through the town, but I didn’t pay them any mind.
Eventually, we came to the edge of the town, and Fluttershy’s cottage. The place was even quieter than it had been the night before, without a single critter anywhere in sight, not even... “Damn it!” I shouted, running around to the back of the cottage. “Karin! Karin, are you there?!” There was no sign of anything even at the back, except for a set of prints beginning with a golden feather. The prints led directly into...
Applejack confirmed it. “The Everfree Forest.”
The place was different to what I remembered seeing at night. The darkness seemed to stretch outwards from the forest’s boundary, even during the day. It was silent inside, but considering that several ponies had just been dragged into it, that seemed entirely wrong. “I have a bad feeling about this,” I said, involuntarily.
“Scared?” Applejack asked. I shook my head, trying to clear it, and she read it as a ‘no’. “Really? Well, I’m shakin’ in my shoes over here. Any normal folk get that reaction, near the Everfree. Place ain’t natural. The weather moves on its own, strange creatures and plants abound, and...”
“Wait, the weather moving on its own isn’t natural?” I asked.
“I’ll explain later,” Twilight said quickly. “We’ve got some ponies to save!”
“I’m holding you to that.”
A series of shouts approached from behind, quietly at first but growing louder and clearer, and everyone turned quickly to see a cloud of dust rising behind a strange green object. “What’s going on?” Twilight asked.
I shook my head. “That’ll be Link,” I told her. “Rolling. Probably because it’s faster than walking, no matter how ridiculous it looks.”
“Not a bad way to live,” Applejack said as Link stopped at a stand in front of us, panting slightly. “Glad you could make it, partner.”
“Yeah, well, I figured what you said was right,” he said, waving it off with his left hand and pointing to me with his right. “Even if destiny can be kept waiting, I figure this is as good a wake-up call as any.” He chuckled slightly and added, “Besides, I’ve got all of you with me.”
“Well, just don’t flake out on us.” I hefted the spear that the commander had given me. I’d done two sessions of a fitness routine once based on using a ‘pike’, actually a broom handle or something that had had the same weight as the spear I was holding, so I had a basic idea of what to do with it. I touched my katana’s hilt as well, making sure I still had it. “Let’s do this before anyone loses their nerve.”
I counted three nods, and nodded myself as I turned. Ponyville and Fluttershy’s cottage seemed to disappear almost immediately behind the trees, and the eerie lack of sound from inside the forest continued to disturb me, regardless of the bravado Applejack thought I was showing. “Can’t be brave unless you’re afraid, huh,” I murmured to myself. Nobody else heard it, as far as I could tell, and that was fine by me.
~~
As we headed deeper into the Everfree Forest, I started to feel hairs pricking up on the back of my neck. I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be happening, but it didn’t seem like the time to be saying anything about it. Soren was focused intently on the trail leading into the forest, making sure none of us tripped over anything, and Twilight and Link seemed to have their own worries. I didn’t blame any of them; the forest was as treacherous beneath a pony as around them. It wasn’t any easier standing on only two legs; in fact, it was harder.
There was still a lack of any sound going on around us, and Soren was starting to get tenser and tenser in front of us. With a sharp cry, he stumbled forward, almost losing his grip on his spear. The rest of us stopped behind him, seeing the small hole in the ground that he’d stumbled over. The hole was scorched on the bottom, and still smoking. Strangely, though, nothing else seemed to be on fire, or even burnt. “Strange kind of campfire, this,” I mused. “Too small...”
“Who’d go camping here, anyway?” Link asked, rubbing the scorched spot with two fingers and putting them in his mouth. He spit almost immediately. “Don’t know what I just tasted, but this definitely wasn’t a wood fire. Doubt it was magic, either.” He waved at the smoke with a hand and added, “And whoever or whatever did it might still be close by.”
“Great work, Sherlock,” Soren said, frowning. “Got any convenient footprints here to lead us to Professor Moriarty’s latest henchman?”
“Let me have a look,” I offered, not entirely understanding what Soren was getting at, but deciding to look for tracks all the same. It wasn’t easy under the dark canopy, and I was about to give up when I saw what looked like smaller holes dug slightly into the dirt, leading in a fixed pattern away from the smoke. “What could’ve made these tracks, and that burned part?” I wondered.
In the depths of the forest, I heard a strange noise that I couldn’t identify, but Soren and Link seemed to recognise. “I think we’re about to find out,” Soren said, stomping the ground with his foot and placing the butt of the spear into his arch. “It’s getting closer!”
A bright yellow ball of energy burst out of a bush, burning the leaves as it passed, hitting Soren directly in the chest.
He yelled in pain and fell to the ground, clutching at the spot where he was hit, as a strange being stepped out from behind the burned bush. It looked like a crab, but it was large and made of metal, and there were two small objects inside its claws. One of them was still glowing the same yellow as its projectile had. Its eyes, on two long stalks, looked lazily between each of us, and it opened its claws, pointing the objects inside directly at me. They started glowing again, and I tensed up to dodge.
It didn’t turn out to be necessary, as Link drew his sword and sliced through the monster, cutting it in half. A lot of sparks came from the pieces inside as it collapsed. Strangely, a small blue bird flew out from inside the monster, chirping and flying away as quickly as possible.
“What was that thing?” Twilight asked.
Link kicked at the collapsed husk. “A Badnik. Didn’t expect to see any of these here, but I guess I shouldn’t have ruled it out, considering we’re all here...” More sounds came from the same direction as the crab had, and he raised his sword again. “If you can arm yourselves, you’d better do it. There’s more kinds than just that one, and with Soren out of the picture, we’ll need to be ready for anything. We’ll probably have to protect him, too, but the best defence is a good offence. We’ll take them out before anything worse can happen!”
I reached into my belt and pulled my two bowguns out, and Twilight did the same with her wand. I still didn’t understand how it worked, but it was convenient to have them with a giant metal beetle on a single wheel charging at me. I fired blindly towards it, firing about a dozen arrows. I didn’t see exactly how many hit the metal monster, but it was enough to knock it off balance. Link cut it in half as it fell, releasing a grey rabbit, which ran off as quickly as it could.
A loud buzzing noise came next, and a large blue bee-like monster flew in, pointing its stinger at me. It fired another glowing yellow projectile, which I jumped out of the way of. As I took aim, I realised that Twilight was already throwing a spell. A rapid gust of wind started to batter at its thin wings, knocking it to the ground where I filled it with arrows. The combined assault caused it to explode suddenly, releasing another grey rabbit, which like the others started running as soon as it hit the ground.
“Huh. Pretty weak, if a couple of attacks like that can bring ‘em down, but I guess that’s only to be expected,” Link said. “That Motobug should’ve left a trail from wherever it came. We might be able to find who’s behind this, though I can guess already. Not so much Professor Moriarty,” he said to Soren, who didn't respond, “as Doctor Robotnik.”
“Or we might find nothing but a lot more Badniks,” Twilight countered. “Perhaps even too many for us to defeat. And what about Soren?” He was still lying on the ground, groaning. I could see that a hole had been burned in his shirt, which revealed the burns on his skin.
“He’s not bleeding or anything,” Link said. “He’ll probably be fine. Just gotta remember where we left him. And, uh, hope no more Badniks come this way...” He looked from Twilight to me, and I was frowning strongly. “Look, we don’t have the time or the ability to fix him up right now, and we can’t just carry him around with us. We’ll just have to hope that nothing tries to kill him until we can get him back to Ponyville, along with all those ponies who were kidnapped... and hopefully haven’t been stuffed into a Badnik. Yet.”
He was staring back at me just as intensely, and I turned away first. “Okay... you win.” I knelt down and touched Soren’s hand, and he turned towards me. “We’re going to be right back. Just stay here and try not to get killed, okay?” With a groan, he nodded, and I turned towards the track that the strange beetle, the Motobug, had left behind. “The tracks start here,” I said. “Let’s get going, before... how’d you say it, partner? Before anything worse can happen.”
Link and Twilight both nodded, and with a last look back at Soren, we headed deeper into the Everfree Forest.
~~
The burning pain was all I could think about after the others had left. With very little ambient sound and not much to see on the canopy, I didn’t have anything else to try and focus on to get away from it. In search of anything at all, I finally noticed a faint rhythmic pounding on the dirt. Unable to consider that it could be something dangerous, I groaned again, and the pounding stopped before speeding up in my direction.
I heard a woman’s voice, though I couldn’t make out what she was saying, and I faintly felt myself being dragged before I finally passed out.
Things to Do in Ponyville When You're Dead (Part 4)
We’d found a few more ponies since the track from the Motobug ran out, but since it seemed to disappear into thin air, there was no way we could track down Robotnik. “I don’t think there’s any more ponies in here,” I said, as the last one passed the threshold of the Everfree Forest. “We shouldn’t push our luck any harder than we have to. Let’s get out of here.”
“Not all just yet,” Twilight replied. “Fluttershy’s still in here somewhere. And we can’t just leave Soren behind, either.”
“If nuthin’ else got to him first, what with us leavin’ him there on his lonesome and all,” Applejack added. “Why’d you take us both with you? Couldn’t one of us have looked after him?” Before I could think of an answer, a few streams of white light burst through the choking trees, even passing over the canopy. “What was that?”
I shrugged, but Twilight seemed more concerned than anything. “Either Soren’s found somepony who’s another Player... or something really big just teleported in. Either way, we should probably take a look.” The pair of them ran back into the forest, and Twilight turned for a moment, beckoning me to join them with a hand. Sighing, I went back in behind them, ignoring every instinct that was telling me to get out of there.
I guess this is what being a hero means, Soren, I thought ruefully. Pity I don’t actually have a Triforce of Courage of my own.
~~
When I came to some time later, I was under a straw roof, a combination of strange smells floating through the air around me. “Ugh...” I groaned, trying to figure out what was going on. “Am I dead? Or in Detroit? Please tell me I’m not in Detroit.” My father had once told me a story about how he ended up in Detroit after drinking too much one night, and the first thing he’d described was the smell. I wasn’t sure what any of the smells around me were, but I was just delirious enough to think that they could have come from Detroit.
“A city far, yet we are near. You hit your head quite hard, I fear.”
“Oh, good, so I must be dead. Wait, what?” I sat up suddenly, touching my chest where the attack had hit me before. My chest had healed over entirely. If it wasn’t for the burn mark on my shirt, which was hanging over a wooden pole on the other side of the room, I wouldn’t know where it had happened to begin with. “What am I saying?”
I tried to stand up to retrieve the journal from the pocket of my jacket, hanging nearby, but stumbled and fell as I did. A hoof touched my shoulder. “You should not move just yet, my friend, for my salve’s work has yet to end. That hit you took was quite severe, and so—”
“Would you cut it out with the rhyming?” I said, exasperated. “Who are you, anyway?” As I turned, I saw that the pony I was speaking to wasn’t exactly a pony. From the stripes covering her body, I could tell she was actually a zebra, though she had the proportions of a pony, and even Cutie Mark on her flank, though it was far more stylised than any pony’s I’d seen.
The zebra sighed and said, “If my rhyming causes you offense, I apologise. It is traditional among my people that we do not make connections outside our own kind, and the rhyming was my way of appearing more different from the ponies that have surrounded me for some time. But...”
“Oh, shit, sorry. I didn’t know it was a thing...” I shook my head quickly. “...and now we’re both tripping over each other’s apologies and trying to make each other more comfortable. Though I guess I’m even further in offensive debt, since I asked for your name without telling you mine. I’m Soren, by the way.”
“I cannot tell you my name,” the zebra said, “as I have just said. However... You may call me Zecora. It is as good a name as any other.” I nodded and tried to stand up again, only to be pushed back to sitting by Zecora’s surprisingly strong hoof. “I am sorry, but I cannot allow you to leave in the state that you are in. The salve for your burn is still having a clear effect on your body. I was not even sure if it would work on a being such as you...”
“Ponies are in danger out there in the forest,” I replied. “I know you barely even know them, but neither do I, and I’m still trying to save them. My friends are in there as well, helping me, and I don’t know how long I’ve been here, unconscious on your bed. I’m sorry, but even if that salve is affecting me, I can’t spend any longer here.” I forced myself to stand again, and this time Zecora didn’t stop me. I left the shirt behind, since it was ruined by the huge burn mark, and put my jacket on without zipping it up. The spear I’d been lent by the militia’s commander back in Ponyville was gone, but my sword was still at my side.
“Wait.”
“I don’t have time to wait any longer!”
“Those monsters are still out there, and you may well be injured again, or encounter a pony who is. Take these.” She held up several small bags which contained a strange-smelling green liquid. “This salve should allow any injured ponies at least the strength to return to Ponyville. It is what I used for your burns, but it doesn’t have any ill effects on ponies. I do not know quite why, but...”
I took the bags and put them in my pocket one by one, noticing that they were entering my inventory as they did. “Doesn’t matter. Thanks, I suppose.” As I was about to leave, I turned again. “Oh, one last thing. Did you see a yellow pony with a pink mane and tail earlier? Or a group of three people like me, humans?”
“Three humans, no,” she said, tilting her head and thinking for a few seconds before she continued. “But I did see a pony of that colour. She passed by here for a moment, heading east.” She pointed with a hoof in the indicated direction, which I definitely wouldn’t have known myself.
“Even with these detours I’ve taken, she might still be okay... Thanks again,” I said, walking around the hut to where Zecora had said was the eastern side. I turned back once to see that she’d come outside as well, and waved goodbye as I headed further into the forest once again.
I’d barely gotten out of sight of the hut when I noticed some tracks in the dirt below. There were a large number of overlapping tracks, but the two long, thin marks forward and one back were undeniably Karin’s foot. I’d seen the tracks she left on the plains, and these were basically the same. I immediately turned and ran through the denser forest, following the tracks she’d left. Though the silence of the forest was starting to weigh down on me, my own running gait and the sounds that I made crashing through the overgrowth helped me to focus on the task at hand.
The tracks disappeared at the centre of a clearing about a mile further into the forest, strangely surrounded by tracks of kinds I couldn’t even try to identify. They crossed over each other and Karin’s tracks, coming and going in all directions to the point where I couldn’t even tell which ways they’d come in and out. I’d never been much of a tracker in any case, so I gave up and sat down, wondering just what had happened to my companion.
When my eyes fell on an out-of-place pastel pink and yellow shape on the far side, I stood up and rushed over there. “Fluttershy?” I asked, and she opened her eyes with obvious effort. “Oh, no, no, no...” Her hind quarters were stuck beneath a fallen tree, and a lot of her blood had pooled beneath her. I couldn’t make out just how much it was, and I didn’t know how much blood ponies generally had, but it looked bad. “Fuck me...”
“Sss... Soren?” the limp pony asked weakly. “What are you...?”
“Don’t speak, save your breath!” I cut her off quickly, trying to lift the tree off her body, even just a little bit. The tree didn’t budge at all. “Damn it, think!” I thought out loud, breathing deeply a few times to try and get my concentration back. “What skills do I have that could help me?” According to the book, I was a Freelancer, which meant that in theory I was able to do just about anything. The problem was that ‘anything’ was a rather large amount of things, and with my lacking experience, I didn’t know what was available at all.
“What would Twilight do?” I asked myself. “Probably set fire to the tree or pick it up with her magic. I don’t have any magic, unless I can change jobs like the other Freelancers...” Unable to come up with any ideas that made more sense, I focused on Twilight and her magical ability, and I felt my clothes changing around me. My coat got longer until it touched the ground like a robe, my sleeves expanded until my hands were barely visible, and my scarf turned into a hood which hung loose over my shoulders. My fingertips seemed to be tingling with an unknown energy, and I thrust them towards the tree, which immediately burst into flames. The fire burned through the tree, but stopped as soon as it had been entirely burned away.
Returning to my ‘regular’ form, I pushed what was left of the tree off of Fluttershy, who took a deep breath and tried to push herself back up to standing. She barely made it a few feet off the ground before she fell back down with a yelp, and I saw why a second later: her hind legs had been crushed worse than I thought. Even with how magic worked in this world, I doubted she would ever be able to walk properly again. I also didn’t think that Twilight had any healing spells yet that I could call on, even just to ease her pain.
I remembered the bags that Zecora had given me, and I pulled out one of them. The green liquid still burned my fingers as I touched it, but I was able to rub it on Fluttershy’s most injured areas, and she seemed to appreciate it. She smiled weakly as I finished the last of the bag’s contents, but with her legs destroyed, there was still no way she could stand up. “Nothing for it,” I murmured to myself. “Let’s hope you’ve been on a diet lately.”
Taking care not to touch her hooves, I pulled her forelegs over my shoulders, and immediately collapsed to the ground. Ponies were heavier than I’d anticipated, apparently, even the fragile ones like her. “Damn it!” I shouted, as I pulled myself out from under her. She squeaked again, and I immediately felt bad about it. “There’s nothing more I can do here,” I told her more quietly. “I’m sorry, but we’re gonna have to wait for more help...”
“It’s okay,” she replied softly, and I leant in closer in case she had any more to say. “I don’t think I can make it. Go help somepony you can still help.”
“What are you saying? I don’t even know where any of them are!” She gasped again, and I grabbed her face, trying to keep her looking at me. “Don’t go to sleep! Don’t die here! Please... don’t die...”
To be honest, I couldn’t say why I wanted to keep Fluttershy alive so badly. Something came over me that I couldn’t really describe, especially not as high on adrenaline as I was. I couldn’t think, I could barely see, and every instinct of mine was telling me to try and find some way of protecting her, of keeping her alive just a little bit longer. And then, through the haze, something occurred to me.
I immediately shouted down the thought; after the huge speech I’d given to Applejack and Strongheart, it would be wrong of me to force Fluttershy into it, even if she was a latent Player in the first place, which I had no way of knowing besides Twilight’s blurry dream. As I calmed myself back down, though, the thought kept reappearing in my head every time I tried to flush it out, and eventually I gave in. “Do you trust me?” I asked.
“Huh?” Fluttershy’s eyes were barely still open at this point.
“I said, do you trust me?” She nodded slowly as her eyes closed some more. “Then take my hand. Don’t be afraid. I’m here.” I reached out a hand, somehow knowing exactly what was to come. Slowly, painfully, she reached out her hoof in return.
As soon as we touched, the bright white light reappeared, engulfing her body as it had the previous two. Again, I felt the indescribable feeling in my arm that spread through my body, and rushed into that of the pony whose hoof I was holding. The light disappeared, revealing Fluttershy in a new form. She was wearing a short yellow dress, attached around her neck with a clamp shaped like a butterfly, the same pink and green colour as her Cutie Mark. Long white gloves and opaque stockings covered her arms and legs, thankfully no longer destroyed beyond repair, and the butterfly reappeared on her shoes, as well as in her true Mark on her left thigh. “I’m so sorry about this,” I said quietly, and for some reason I hoped I had said it too quietly for her to hear.
When she opened her eyes and looked straight into mine without moving, she gasped in surprise, and again when she saw what had happened. “What did you do?” she asked. “Why are we...?”
“I’ll explain later, I promise,” I replied. “For now, we have to get out of here. This forest is dangerous, and more so than usual with...” A robotic crab about half our height stepped out of the bushes, and as its claw opened, I tackled Fluttershy to the ground. Both of us managed to avoid the yellow ball of energy that passed through where she’d been. “With these things around,” I finished, quickly standing and drawing my sword. “Stay back. I’ll handle this.”
Before it could charge up another attack, I rushed forward and cut it clean in half with a stroke, releasing a small rabbit inside which ran off into the woods. As I turned around, Fluttershy gasped and pointed behind me, and I ducked just in time to avoid another shot. “There’s more of you?!” There were indeed more of them, and they burst out from the treeline, surrounding the two of us. “This is not good...”
“They ate the animals...” Fluttershy muttered behind me.
“I don’t think that’s quite it—”
“They ate my friends.”
“They’re being used as batteries, at least I think so—”
“I won’t let you harm them!” she suddenly shouted, and a weapon that looked like a scythe on the end of one of a pair of nunchaku appeared in her hands as she charged forward. It ripped through one of the crabs easily, the blue bird inside chirping once in confusion before retreating. Without pausing to see to its welfare, she struck at another crab, and then a one-wheeled beetle that attempted to run her over from behind. Caught up in her sudden display of expertise, I was almost run over myself, but I managed to collect myself just in time to parry the charging beetle and strike it down.
More and more animals continued to retreat from the clearing as Fluttershy and I fought off the robots, and I found myself focusing on my footwork to avoid stepping on them as much as to avoid the robots’ attacks. Before I knew it, she’d cleaned most of them out, but three more crabs came then, backed up by as many bees. “Damn it, I can’t hit anything flying like this!” I shouted. For a moment, I considered calling on Applejack’s skills, but I didn’t have a bow of my own, so I shoved that thought aside quickly.
Racking my brain for options, I thought back to the gust of wind that Twilight had summoned accidentally earlier that day, and decided to change back to Mage. My clothes changed their shape again, and I felt the same magical energy from before, but this time I focused it in another direction. The loose robe began flapping in the wind that I summoned, and the bee-shaped robots were blown back by the gale. Two of them crashed into trees right away, but the third fired a shot that I had to stop casting the spell to dodge. To clear it out, I quickly created a fireball and thrust it in the bee’s direction, which sent it spinning to the ground. Like the others, it cracked open as it did.
A sudden yelp behind me caught my attention, and I turned to see that Fluttershy had been hit from behind by the slow-moving shot that I’d dodged before, which burned a hole into her back. One of the crabs grabbed at her left hand with its claw as she stumbled forward, and she actually screamed from the sudden pain. Returning to normal, I drew my sword again and separated the offending claw from its owner, before striking down said owner with two more strokes. Fluttershy struck down another crab, before turning on the third, leaving us alone in a clearing full of broken metal parts. “You okay?” I asked, pointlessly. Her adrenaline had all but run out, leaving her breathing heavily and clutching at her hand.
I pulled out another bag of the salve Zecora had given me. “This’ll probably sting a little, but it’ll hurt a lot less after...” I stopped as I realised something. It seemed as though her clothing hadn’t been destroyed at all by the attack, despite the fact that I’d seen the hole that it burned through, like it had with my own shirt. If I was going to treat it, I’d have to reach up Fluttershy’s dress, and even if she didn’t know it was a human taboo, there was no way I could do it naturally enough that she wouldn’t catch on right away.
“After what?” Fluttershy asked, turning around. The way she looked at me showed her innocence plainly, and I found myself stammering. She looked at the bag in my hand and brightened up immediately. “You want to heal me? If you don’t mind, then...”
I shook myself back into focus. If she wanted me to do it, then I’d just have to avoid getting too close to anything sensitive. “Yeah, yeah, just hold still, okay?” Gingerly, I turned her around and dipped my fingers in the viscous green liquid, the burning in my fingertips dulled by recognition. Using my uncovered fingers to check for the burned patch by Fluttershy’s yelping, not being willing to put my other hand up her dress at the same time, I started to apply the salve. “Too bad we can’t do anything about your hand,” I said, looking over her shoulder for a moment. Just like the dress, her glove had completely healed from the cut, though she still seemed to have trouble moving her fingers on that hand. “Don’t know what’s up with your clothes that they’d just heal better than your body. Another mystery for the Merchant to answer...”
“What merchant?” Fluttershy asked suddenly, shifting slightly to face me.
As I desperately tried to keep my hands in the right position, I only ended up losing it entirely. “Damn it, I told you to stay still! Why...” She seemed frightened by my outburst from the way she turned away and mumbled some sort of apology. I sighed and removed my hand from under her dress. “Well, I guess that’s about all I can do for now. Feel any better?”
“A little,” she said, just barely loud enough to hear. Slightly more loudly, she asked again, “What merchant are you talking about?”
I slapped myself mentally for saying that out loud. “Look, I can’t explain it here,” I said quickly, standing up and motioning for her to do the same. “As soon as we’re safe back in Ponyville, I’ll tell you everything I know about what’s going on, but we can’t just stay here. Besides more of those robots, anything could be out there...”
“Indeed it could,” a voice said suddenly, surprising both of us. I drew my sword as I turned to face it, and somehow Fluttershy’s... weapon reappeared in her hands as well. “Now, now, I have no desire for a battle here. I only wished to congratulate you on your resilience.”
“Well, you’ve done that now,” I said. “So why don’t you go away? We’re a little busy.”
“But it would be rude of me not to introduce myself,” the voice replied, its owner stepping into the clearing. The man was... round, in a word. His torso seemed like a sphere only slightly stretched, his head poking out from the collar of a bright red jacket. A black jumpsuit covered the rest of his body underneath the jacket, and with his eyes covered by thick glasses and a vestigial pair of goggles sitting above his bald scalp, the most notable feature on his face was the impossibly large moustache that seemed twice the width of his face. “My name is Eggman. And you two are...?”
“Does it matter?” I asked again, wanting nothing more than to be left alone to get out of the creepy forest with Fluttershy. “You’re wasting our time. C’mon, let’s go.”
“Oh, it matters,” Eggman shot back. “After all, if you don’t tell me your names... there’ll be nothing to write on your headstones!” I raised my sword at him again, and he backed up a step. “I told you, leave those alone! You could put an eye out.”
“You can’t just make threats like that and not expect a reaction. Do you want to kill us or not?” Either way, if he said another word, I was willing to actually attack him at this point just to make him stop talking.
“Oh, you’re going to die. But I’m not the one who’s going to do it.”
“What?” Fluttershy suddenly asked. “But...”
“She is.”
At that point, I could hear undergrowth being crushed and thumping sounds approaching at a rapid pace. “What the heck...?” I barely had time to ask that under my breath before something burst through the trees, stopping just behind its creator. The surprising charge knocked me off my feet, and the yelp beside me indicated that Fluttershy had fallen as well. It looked like a giant robotic gorilla, though the yellow paint covering it made it all the more surreal. It couldn’t have been less than nine feet tall, either, even slouched over as it was. I quickly stood up, and then helped Fluttershy to stand up as well.
Eggman chuckled to himself. “Well, I’ll leave you to get acquainted. Have fun with my latest toy! Egg Sasquatch, go!” It suddenly stood to its full height and let out a metallic roar as it beat its chest, and Eggman chuckled again as he disappeared into the treeline. I called out for him to stop, but the Sasquatch slammed the ground with its fists again, forcing me to back off and let him go.
“Nothing for it,” I told Fluttershy. “We wouldn’t make it if we tried to run. Looks like we’re in for a boss fight.”
“But... how can we beat it? It’s so... big, and...”
“It should be powered by an animal inside it like the others. All we have to do is cut through to the power source, and it’ll shut down.” I looked over it as it stomped closer. “I’m not sure where that is, but if we start by removing the limbs, we’ll be able to work it out from there. Taking out the limbs would also make it harder for it to attack us...” I gave it another once-over, trying to work out any obvious weak spots. “Try and cut at its joints, if you can. Maybe it’ll leave open something else after it attacks. And speaking of attacking, move!”
At least the Sasquatch was slow enough that when it started raising its arm to swing a punch, Fluttershy and I had plenty of time to get out of the way. I stepped forward to try and attack, but it immediately swung its arm straight back, knocking me out of the way. I fell to the ground and skidded slightly, stopping against a tree. Luckily, it wasn’t chasing after me; it was now more focused on attacking Fluttershy.
As it turned to bear down on her, I stood up and tried to get behind it, suddenly noticing a large red area on its back. Nice of you to show me its weak point, Doctor, I thought to myself as I charged forward. It raised its arm to attack again, and that was when I jumped, clambering up its back. It reached behind itself to try and pick me off, but I was faster, striking at the red area with my katana and slicing through the thin metal more easily than I expected. It let out another roar and stood to its full height, leaning backwards as it did. I wasn’t expecting the move and fell off, landing harder than I meant to, but stepping out of its range quickly.
Noise suddenly filled the air, and I saw several other Badniks appearing in the clearing, perhaps in response to Sasquatch’s cry. “Fluttershy!” I shouted, and she turned to face me through the large robot’s legs. “Keep the little guys off me! I’ve got Sasquatch under control!” Without warning, it spun around 180 degrees, now facing me solely. “Shit, spoke too soon... Forget it! We’ll both have to clear out the little guys!”
Nodding once, Fluttershy turned away from Sasquatch to fight some Badniks on her side of the clearing. Though I didn’t want to take my eyes off the boss for long, I didn’t have much of a choice. Switching to Mage again, I looked around me both ways, spotting a Buzz Bomber incoming from my right side. I blew it out of the air with a wind spell, returning to Freelancer as it crashed to the ground to cut through an approaching Motobug. For some reason, the animals seemed reluctant to retreat immediately, though they scattered with Sasquatch’s fist came crashing straight down on top of where I’d almost been. Afterwards, though, I could see them starting to crowd around Fluttershy. Maybe they were hers from the cottage?
She looked around herself, taking in each of the critters in turn. Despite the Badniks circling her, she seemed surprisingly calm all of a sudden. “Go!” she suddenly shouted, stretching out an arm. The critters all shot off at once, jumping on top of Badniks and beating with their paws, biting with teeth or, in the case of a blue bird, pecking with its beak. I didn’t think it’d be that effective, until suddenly I heard the telltale sound of Badniks falling apart, and more animals gathered back around their ‘leader’.
I was so distracted that Sasquatch had a chance to grab me, clutching my torso with a single hand and keeping my arms pinned to my sides. I even dropped my katana, half out of surprise and half from the pressure being exerted. “Crap, little help?” I called out, and at Fluttershy’s command, the animals immediately sprang into action again. All of them seemed to congregate around the robot’s right shoulder, and since I was held in its right arm, I assumed that they were trying to break the joint as I’d suggested earlier. Meanwhile, Fluttershy herself was climbing its back, at which it roared suddenly and reared up again. Fluttershy seemed to be expecting it, or else she was more coordinated than I was, and she managed to hold on long enough to drive the bladed end of her weapon into its back where I’d struck it before.
Another roar, this one almost sounding pained, followed. It let go of me, and I fell to the ground, immediately backing up and grabbing my katana again. A few seconds after, it crouched on the ground and spun its torso quickly, throwing off Fluttershy and her animals with the sudden force. I ran across to where she’d fallen to help her up, asking if she needed any more of the salve. She shook her head and turned back towards the giant robot, whistling to call her critters back to her as more Badniks filled the clearing again.
“I think I can handle the small ones, with my friends,” she said. “I’ll leave Sasquatch to you. I just hope that whoever’s inside it can be helped in time...” I nodded at that, turning back towards the robots’ boss. Without regard for the small fry, I charged forward, watching as a squirrel charged to intercept a Crabmeat’s claw that had been trying to intercept me with a shot. I ducked under Sasquatch as it swung at me, but it spun as quickly as it had before, making sure it was always facing me. I didn’t expect to need more than one more hit to bring it down, but it certainly wasn’t going to make it easy on me.
I’m not sure where that is, but if we start by removing the limbs, we’ll be able to work it out from there. After the animals had failed, I wasn’t sure it was still possible, but I decided to try anyway, striking at the joint between its torso and one of its legs with my katana as I passed underneath it again. It didn’t do nearly as much as I expected, but then Fluttershy suddenly appeared next to me and struck at the same spot. That worked much better. The leg sparked at the base, and I quickly rushed her out from under Sasquatch as it separated from the torso and fell to the ground, followed by the main body. It roared again before breaking off its own remaining leg, allowing it to sit on the ground, immobile but still capable of turning its torso.
“That looks like a good start,” I said. “We might have some trouble hitting the rest of it, unless we have some way to freeze it.”
“What about the magic you used before?”
“Don’t know any freezing spells.”
“Well...”
Sasquatch roared again, though the effect was somewhat diminished by its legs missing. “Never mind. We can beat it like this. Even with the spinning, it can’t stop all of us at once.” A flash of inspiration came to me suddenly, and I repeated, “The spinning.” Sheathing my sword, I returned to the Mage. “I’m going to use my wind spell to try and keep you stable on top of it. That should allow you to deliver the final blow!”
“Do you really think so?”
“It’s worth a shot, anyway! You ready?”
Fluttershy nodded assent, and I raised my arms as she lunged forward, using the wind to push her towards Sasquatch’s body. It tried to swing at her by rotating, but she managed to grab on just in time. I started changing the wind’s direction to try and stop Sasquatch from moving, but it caught onto that just as Fluttershy moved over its shoulder, and began to spin both ways at once. Several animals started approaching as well, trying to hold down their master, but with a roar, they were all blown away again.
“Well, we tried,” I said ruefully, switching back to Freelancer.
“Not yet...”
“Fluttershy?”
“I won’t let you hurt my friends anymore!”
A now-familiar yellow light shone in her eyes, and extended behind her back into ethereal wings. The scattered animals, even though most of them shouldn’t have been able to, all floated back towards her. Sasquatch turned to face her and let out another scream, this time seeming almost afraid of what was to come. All at once, the animals extended forward in a chain, surrounded by the same yellow light that Fluttershy was emitting. The chain extended towards Sasquatch, arcing over it towards its back. It tried to spin away, but the effort was futile; the chain simply twisted itself to continue towards the exposed weakness. As soon as the first animal touched it, all the others charged forward along the chain, striking with their combined force. Sasquatch screamed again, but this time, it was cut off by an explosion that sent the animals flying back towards their master, who floated down to the ground along with them as the light faded.
Since I was sent flying as well, I barely saw what remained in Sasquatch’s wreckage. The smoke, the light, and my disorientation combined made it nearly impossible to tell. I gave up trying and let myself fall back, when I suddenly heard a familiar squawking sound from the direction of the wreck. I jerked myself back awake, trying to confirm if it was really what I thought. When the sound repeated, I scrambled to my feet and ran towards the wreckage, sparing only a glance towards Fluttershy, who seemed unhurt, if slightly rattled by her own Limit Break.
As I’d thought, I found Karin where Sasquatch used to be, and for a moment I was enraged that Eggman had gotten his hands on her, before relief that she was safe again overtook it. I embraced her, ignoring the smell, and she cooed happily, returning the gesture with her wings as best she could. Slowly, Fluttershy approached us, and Karin looked over at her for a moment before returning her attention to me. Hopefully, that meant that she wouldn’t protest any further to her presence.
“Soren!” a voice suddenly shouted, and I turned away from the Chocobo towards it. “We saw a flash of light, and we thought it was...” Twilight, who had been speaking, trailed off as she looked around at the scrap metal filling the clearing, the animals, and her friend in another world. “Fluttershy?” she asked, after a few seconds of unnatural silence. “Is that you?”
“Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, almost inaudible. “Applejack?” The cowgirl nodded slightly. She turned to Link for a moment, but after not recognising him, ran towards the other two girls, who all embraced together as I had with Karin. Link tilted his head slightly at the display, and I ran up to hug him suddenly. He yelped and pulled away, and the girls all giggled together at the scene. Eventually, Link laughed awkwardly as well.
“Looks like everything’s sorted out,” he said. “We found all the ponies that went missing... if I can assume that you’re part of the Game as well.” He turned towards Fluttershy at this, and she tilted her head slightly. “Ask Soren for the details; he probably knows more than me. But with this quest resolved...”
“Do you feel any more like a hero?” I asked.
He considered the question for a moment. “Would’ve helped if you saved some for the rest of us.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll get a chance later. Even if you don’t go looking for it, I’m sure it’ll find you. Destiny isn’t easy to keep at bay. But, with any luck, this’ll give you some time to yourself.”
“Can we get outta the Everfree Forest now?” Applejack cut in. “I don’t wanna spend any more time here than I gotta. Even with the situation solved, for now...”
“I do have something else I want to ask,” Link said, “but that can wait until we’re back in Ponyville.” He looked around the clearing. “Does anyone remember the way out?”
~~
Almost everypony in Ponyville was gathered at the entrance when the ‘humans’ finally came back out. They cheered for their heroes, and I stamped the ground appreciatively until I felt like I could ditch and go back to my pad. But then I noticed something, and I couldn’t just ignore it.
I’d heard the stories about how Applejack had been turned into a human, only a few hours after the two new ones appeared. The one in the scarf was the most likely culprit, but it was still only rumours. But I definitely remember Fluttershy going into the Everfree to help her animals... and she came out looking just like him.
Something came over me then, and I put everything into forcing it down. It wouldn’t do to attack the town’s heroes at a celebration in their honour. But as soon as the one with the scarf was alone, I’d teach him a lesson he wouldn’t soon forget.
Nobody messes with Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash’s friends and gets away with it.
