Chapters Banished to a Barren Land
Luna's head zipped back and forth, scanning her surroundings with a panicked look on her face.
"This isn't the moon! There is no way that this is the moon! The moon is supposed to be dusty and barren, not this!" She yelled to herself. "And if this isn't the moon... then... oh no, that means I can never get back to Equestria ever again! Oh no oh no oh no...." If she wasn't near her subjects, why use that annoying way of talking?
Luna stopped and sat down on the grass, calming herself down. She tried to fly up into the sky to get a better view of the land and maybe find a civilization, but to no avail. She tried casting a teleportation spell, and completely failed to even light her horn up enough.
"Oh no, without magic, how will I even survive here?" She asked herself, worried. It didn't make sense in her mind. Even if the Elements banished her here, she should still have her magic. And even then, this place was supposed to be barren! It even looked barren from Equestria,
Luna decided that if she was to survive here, she would need to have hope. She was smart, she knew that to stay alive, she couldn't succumb to depression. Even so, lonely-ness might get her first. The only way to survive was to follow instinct and use intelligence against every animal here, and if that is the only way, it is the way she will take!
First person
'I need to find a place to live, to make my shelter. Wood is a priority, so is water, but I can't have a safe night if I don't have a shelter. Even without my magic, I can still sense living creatures here, and I don't think they would be afraid of me at all...'
With that in mind, I kept trekking on in the same direction I had been, hoping to find a safe place. All I could see were trees, getting less and less dense by the moment. I could hear slaps of muck on the ground, getting louder and quieter as time went on. The grass getting greener but more managed, I kept to my search, not letting anything stop me!
I took this time to look around me, scanning my surroundings with a much calmer expression. I had goals, but I needed to know what exactly I have gotten myself into.
The trees around me were tall, massive columns of wood with almost perfect spheres of leaves at the ends of the branches. Even with the leaves making an obvious blanket, blocking out the sun, the light still found its way down into the forest. My eyes wandered to the terrain, and I noticed small little yellow flowers facing me as I walked through the grass. They looked, for lack of a better word, happy. Instinctively, I grabbed one with my telekinesis and brought it towards my face to taste it.
Before I could, however, I dropped it out of excitement. I could use telekinesis! Even though the spell is the most basic form of magic, at least I could use it! That means that not all my magic is gone! And that means... that means that I won't be without it forever!
With this new hope creating thought in my head, I sped forward, galloping at full speed through the vegetation. In my rush of happiness, I failed to notice the town I ran into until I smacked face first into a wood wall of a house, and blacked out.
"Run for your lives! Another monster has attacked!" Was the noise The Guide heard from outside his wooden house. Looked up from his book and out the window, he could only see The Merchant outside flailing his arms about and running like he just got his head cut off. He sighed, got up from his chair and walked outside.
"JOSEPH!" The Guide called from his front door. "Get over here!" The Merchant ran over to his house as fast as his legs could carry him, and was left panting in front of The Guide.
"Andrew... a unicorn... just hit... the side... of... your house..." At this Andrew, the guide, gave Joseph a disbelieving look.
"Are you sure, Joseph? Unicorns aren't supposed to live here in the purity, and even then, the Hallow doesn't even exist."
Joseph, The Merchant, finally got to his feet, the panic replaced with partial fear. "No, seriously! A big dark blue unicorn just crashed into the side of my house! Didn't you hear it?"
Andrew just sighed and shook his head, "Mind leading me to the creature? I'll prove to you that it isn't a unicorn." Joseph nodded his head extremely fast like a little kid and without another word, he ran to his house, opposite in direction to Andrew's. "Ugh... he always finds a way to annoy me every day... can't even let me find a way off this damn planet." He set off
Approaching Joseph's house, he noticed said merchant fearfully pointing at something to the side of the building. Peaking around the corner, Andrew laughed to himself and looked at Joseph. "Even if this is a unicorn, the thing is knocked out cold. It rammed it's head straight into your wall." The merchant lost all fear in his eyes and, after a few minutes of silence, started laughing.
Shaking his head, Andrew walked over to the beast and hefted it onto his back. He walked off back to his house, ignoring the protests of Joseph, bringing the creature with him. He hefted the unicorn onto his bed and shut the door. As he could see Joseph peaking in through the window, he flipped open his book on The Hallow.
"Okay okay... page 18, unicorns. 'If you ever see one of these beasts, run as fast as you can and try to get onto higher ground...' blah blah blah.... AH! Here we go!" He said to himself as he set the book on the table and looked over to the unicorn. It was still sound asleep and breathing, so that was good. Kind of. The guide looked at the picture and then the best a few times, sensing something off. He noticed that the creature had wings and that it was a different color. Interesting...
Suddenly the creatures eyes opened and it shot straight up, never blinking. The creature looked over at the guide, fear flowing through them both. Then the guide started screaming. If this isn't a unicorn, it's still a creature, and it could still attack him!
Luna was puzzled at this. Yes, she was afraid, but not anymore due to the being in front of her being afraid as well. She knew very well what happened, she slammed face first into a wall and got knocked out. She didn't know what happened next, though, but she knows what to do now.
Getting out of the albeit comfy bed, she slowly walked over to the fearful being who, at this point, gone silent. Luna looked at it with a bit of sadness and a bit of hope, maybe it was intelligent? The being in front of her started to lose its fear rather quickly, and soon started to get up.
Once at eye level, the two looked curiously at each other, before she blinked. "Umm.... Hello?" She tried, trying to entice a response out of it. The being blinked a few times, before speaking as well.
"Huh, didn't know unicorns could talk, but then again... you're not a unicorn. What exactly are you, if you don't mind me asking?" She gasped, completely forgetting about the question she was asked.
"There are other ponies here!? Were! Were are they! I need to see them!" The being in front of here was confused and startled, and responded very slowly.
"I'm not really sure what a pony is, guessing that's what you are," He said, pointing both his fingers at her, "But a unicorn doesn't exist here, or at least I hope they don't. Vicious, blood-thirsty creatures they're supposed to be. The norm around here, I guess."
Luna looked crestfallen. No ponies, no unicorns, no nothing except this thing. "That's.... disappointing, to say the least..." She said, falling down on her haunches. "You're right though, I am a pony... an alicorn to be specific. What are you though?" She asked with a mixture of curiosity and sadness.
"Hey, cheer up, even if you don't have any of your old species here, at least you have someone to talk to, its the only way me and Joseph stay sane anymore. Anyways, I'm The Guide, but you can call me Andrew. And me and Joseph over there," He said, pointing out the window. The person in question went wide eyed and ducked from the window, eliciting a snicker from Luna, "Are terrarians. Nice to meet ya, Luna." He stuck his arm out into the air in front of Luna with a smile.
Luna apprehensively put her hoof in his hand and he shook it firmly, helping her up. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad here after all. "Who's Joseph?"
Andrew looked behind him at her, and casually walked out the door, beckoning Luna to follow. "JOSEPH, STOP COWERING BEHIND YOUR FRONT DOOR AND COME MEET LUNA!" He yelled very loudly, causing the merchant to comically open his door and fall right on his face, his hands on his ears.
"Sheesh, Andrew, its times like these I think you were born with a megaphone in your voice box..." He said while getting up. "And even so, its still to loud!" Joseph walked over to Andrew to see the unicorn next to him. "I'm taking it that you're Luna?"
He said to her.
"That would be a safe bet, yes. And you're Joseph?"
"That's right! Best merchant in town! And just so you know, you have no idea how much the sell dirt for overseas! That means you should by it cheap from me." He said with a smile on his face. Andrew merely face-palmed and laughed at the antics of the shopkeeper. Luna laughed to, glad to see that even here there can be humor had.
Luna took this short amount of time to actually look at the two. The both of them were about the same height as her and wore the same kind of blue pants and black shoes, but each had their own distinguishing features. Andrew had a light brown curtained hairstyle while Joseph's hair was covered up by his brown hat. Andrew wore a fairly plain beige shirt while the merchant wore a brown shirt and a robe that reached to just below his feet. Joseph had a white beard while Andrew had no distinguishing facial features, both of them with brown eyes. They looked pretty similar, to be honest. 'I wonder how long they've been here..' She thought to herself.
Andrew looked up at the sky to see the sun slowly finish setting into the horizon. Luna looked at it to, glad her sister was still doing her job. As the moon crept up from the opposite side, Luna could tell it was Equestria. She noticed some of the lights on it go out before it lit up like up like her own moon at the night.
Suddenly, Andrew and Joseph looked at each other with fear in their eyes. They apprehensively looked around, both of them bringing out some sort of short-sword to fight with. "Umm, guys, why are you-" Then, from out of nowhere, she started to hear growling.
Banished to a Barren Land
"Andrew... Joseph.... w-what is that?" Luna asked fearfully. Her head zipped back and forth trying to find the creator of the noise, only to find that it was coming from everywhere.
Andrew turned to face her, making Luna look at him. "Zombies, Demon eyes, and it sounds like there's tons of them." He said, getting into a defensive stance.
"And just in case, you might want to figure out how to use this, and fast." Joseph said, handing the shortsword over to Luna.
"Well, thank you for the sword at least..." She responded, giving it a few practice swings with levitation. "But I would at least like an ex-"
A zombie shambled into the town from next to Andrews house and cut her off with a growl, alerting the other monsters of their location.
"No time to lose, Luna! Joseph, get your bow and arrow out and help me with these!" Andrew yelled, running over and slicing the head off the zombie in the process. It was quickly replaced by three more zombies, who were dealt with quickly.
At least 15 more zombies shambled out of the treeline and started walking fast at Luna. A few were killed by stray arrows, but that left 11 of them still after Luna. With Andrew busy with more zombies, Luna had to take charge.
She galloped at them with full speed, sword first. Catching three on the same sword, she flung them into an arrow from Joseph, blasting 2 more out of the brawl. She looked up to see Equestria halfway through the sky, and looked back down in time to see a flying eyeball rush out of the forest and speed right at her, only to be shot down with an arrow.
"Luna, don't let yourself get scared by these thing, and just fight! I can't be doing a ton with this bow!" Joseph yelled, shooting another arrow at a stray eyeball, knocking it out of the fight. Stray limbs of zombies and blasted apart eyes were everywhere, covering up the ground outside the houses.
"What are these things anyways!?" Luna yelled over the shrieking of the zombies as the sliced three heads off.
"Zombies and Demon eyes, also known as the easy stuff. Just be glad this is all we get tonight. The zombies are creatures of the night, we don't know and we don't care where they came from, all we know is that they want to kill us just like every other damn thing on this planet, and we don't even know why." Andrew yelled/explained over the chaos of battle.
"But what about the eyes!?"
"The Demon eyes fly in from out of nowhere, only hoping to destroy us every night. They have the same intentions as the zombies, they just fly. We treat them like we treat all others who attack us, with HOSTILITY!" Andrew yelled back, smashing three of them with the blunt of his sword. The moon was three fourths of the way through the sky, so it was almost over at least.
Zombies were closing in on the three of them, Joseph shooting arrows in a panic, taking out a few zombies. Some of them had slimes om their heads, others were pinned with four or five arrows that refused to kill them. Andrew and Luna were swinging their swords to fend off the zombies, killing an insane amount. The zombie leading the group had died, leaving it's shackle to the ground. The others saw this, and noticed the moon creeping below the horizon. The zombies noticed this to, and started retreating, the demon eyes flying away, and the zombies disappearing in the forest.
"Why are they leaving? They could have won!" Luna said, shaken from the encounter. The sun was just above the horizon, signaling a new day.
"We don't know why they leave, where they come from or where they go. All we know is that we were brought here to be killed by these things, and me and Joseph refuse to accept that fate." Andrew said with determination.
"But why are they here! There has to be a reason!"
"They are here to kill us, Luna. There is something on this world that is evil, something that makes these monsters," As Andrew explained this, the blood and limbs sunk into the dirt, "And it doesn't leave any trace after the sun comes up. All we can do is fight to survive.
"The land wants us here, for some reason. Wants us to live, and also wants us to die, like it cant make up its mind. It makes it so we don't need food or water, we don't even need sleep, and we haven't aged a second while we were here. We used to be defended by another terrarian. An adventurer, we didn't know his name. We didn't know much about him, only that we were here to help him save this world. One day, at least fifty cycles of the moon ago, he went on his last adventure. He said, and I quote, 'Guide, Merchant, I've decided that its time to find out whats so evil about this place. I'm going east, to the evil land. Wish me luck, and hope I don't die.'
"He never came back. This land killed him after a year of the three of us being here. We don't know what happened to him, and to this day we haven't been brave enough to follow his path and find out. This land is evil if it killed him for no reason, and strong if it was able to kill him. But now, we have you. Will you help us purify this land, make it good, Luna?" Andrew and Joseph both had tears in their eyes at this point, looking at Luna in desperation.
Luna knew what she had to do, she had to purify this land, destroy the evil within it. But more importantly, she needed to find out who has been bringing things here, and why. "I'll do it, Andrew. I'll continue where he left off, and find a way to make this land good once more!" She said with determination, looking to the sky.
"Then follow me to my house, I have a few things of his that you could use..." Andrew said, bringing Luna to his front door.
Banished to a Barren Land
The second day (Part one)
Luna followed Andrew into his house and shut the door behind her. She was still kind of scared to be here, in this world, but it was better with these two around. Joseph, being the exuberant merchant, and Andrew, being the brave guide. Without them here, she would be dead by now. She thought back to what Andrew said...
'The land wants us here, for some reason. Wants us to live, and also wants us to die, like it cant make up its mind. It makes it so we don't need food or water, we don't even need sleep, and we haven't aged a second while we were here.'
None of it made sense to Luna. How could a planet want something to die, or even want something at all? None of it added up, and since it just confused her more to think about it, she put it to the side.
"Andrew?" She said, coming out of her trance to gain his attention. He was in front of a chest, his head turned back and facing her as he was still digging through the chest slowly with his hands.
"Yeah, Luna?"
"Do you know anything else on why you were brought here? Like, what brought you here, and for what reason then to kill you with something else?" Luna asked inquisitively.
"Well, all I know is that me and Joseph used to be best friends when we were brought here. I remember like it was just yesterday, which for me I guess it was," He said, looking at himself. He was fully facing Luna now, sitting on the closed chest. There was a small pile of things to the left of him, some tools and a pack. "We had just gotten out of a bar. We had a few drinks, but not enough to actually get drunk. According to Joseph, I just outright disappeared out of thing air, leaving a black and blue smoke behind. Kind of like the color of your coat, to be honest.
"It was a different story on my end. It was like something darkened my vision, to where I couldn't even see Joseph, who he himself was at the moment staring at me in shock." Andrew explained, a trademark of his now.
"He's right, I was stunned silent by the damn thing! Scared the crap out of me I ran so fast to my apartment, which honestly was my very own merchant cart in an alley, and wept for so long I couldn't count the hours." Joseph said, walking into Andrews house after eavesdropping from the window. "I tell ya, I was hoping for at least three nights for it to be a nightmare, and wake up with him trying to swipe a few coins form my shop. Its not like I had anyone else, he was my only friend."
"It wasn't much the same on my side, though. I wasn't here alone, the adventurer was already here chopping down trees and making a house, like he knew he had to do it or something. I tried helping the best I could, and he only gave me a grateful smile. After our house was done, he made two more. One for himself, and one for storage. After about five cycles, Joseph here walked out of the forest and hid in one of the chests." Andrew added.
"I had every right to hide in that chest! I had the same experience as Andrew with the thing, only it was laughing in my face, and I couldn't even hear it! Sounded like a she devil, I tell ya. Dropped me off right in front of a zombie, and it chased me all the way to this here town. It ran off when the adventurer started shooting arrows at it, but I crept into the storage area. I was so scared I wouldn't come out until Andrew here literally opened the chest and smacked me upside the head!" The merchant was laughing at his own expense now, making Luna and Andrew join in.
After the laughter calmed down, Andrew had to continue on. "Well, to get back on topic, the only things distinguishable about our experience was that she seemed to have a demon like quality to her, and she based around the colors midnight blue and black. Does any of that ring a bell, Luna?"
Luna went wide eyed, and could only draw one conclusion; The Nightmare. She shook off her fear and pocketed her suspicion for later. "No, sorry Andrew, doesn't ring a bell." With Joseph now gone to his home to check up on storage, Andrew and Luna were alone. "Anyways, what do you have for me?" Luna asked, eyeing the tools down on the floor.
Andrew got up from his chest seat and grabbed the tools from the ground. From there, he lugged them the short distance to the table and spread them out. "I only have a few things, the things he left in case a new adventurer came along to help. I have," He pointed at the two tools. "A copper pickaxe," He pointed at number one, "And a copper axe," He pointed at number two. " Both of them very well made, able to at the very least help you in gathering materials. The axe will let you chop down trees and the pickaxe will help you mine dirt and rock, maybe finding precious metals inside.
"We also have a copper shortsword for you, since your adventuring out. You're gonna need it to fight the slimes. Hold all questions until the end of the explanation, please." He said, looking at Luna's questioning glance. She blushed, and beckoned him to continue on. "Next, we have some torches. For some reason, they only light to the gel from slimes, so you have to kill a few of those to get said gel. Also, we have rope coils. You can throw these and for some reason we can't explain, the will latch onto walls and drop down, letting you climb them with ease.
"Finally we have this map. It will automatically update with your location and show everything at the lightest it ever was. You can set checkpoints with it by just saying out loud 'set checkpoint' and then 'home' or whatever name you want to call it." At this point, a checkpoint appeared on the map at the current location of the town. "It can change angles at your whim, so it will always help you get back home. It will even tell you where we all are if that region is explored by the map." A good deal of the surrounding area had been uncovered on the map, including many deep caverns.
"The torches and rope were supplied by Joseph, but the rest you can buy from him with coins. You can find them being dropped by any kind of monster that is hostile towards you. Now, any questions?" Luna had nodded and Andrew beckoned her to continue.
"What are slimes?" She ignorantly asked.
"A slime is a gelatinous creature composed completely of this gel like substance that seams to burn very easily. Fire can only burn by non-living gel in this world, so you need to defeat weaker slimes in order to obtain the gel. Strength level of slimes go from, I think, Green, Blue, Purple, Yellow, Red. That is all we really know about slimes, but they digest anything that is in their living gel after a long amount of time. Enough attacks with a sword knocks them apart for good though."
"And what materials do I need to even get?"
"My advice would be to get wood and precious metals and some stone. The stone to see if we can make a furnace and the metals to see if we can make more effective tools. I'm sorry Luna," He said, looking out his window to see the sun halfway through the sky, "but you're on your own now." With this, Andrew sat down in his chair and started reading something from one of his spare books.
"But Andrew, where will I even hold all this stuff?" He simply pointed to a backpack in the corner of the house.
"I got here with that, and for some reason I can hold a ridiculous amount of stuff in it, each item taking up the same space and almost no space if I put another of the same kind in there. Good luck, Luna."
Luna nodded, putting her stuff in the backpack, honestly surprised it all fit in their with ease. She hefted it up and attached it to her side like she would a saddlebag and headed out the door.
"Hello? Hello? I seem to have gotten lost in the forest." Luna heard a voice speak out, and she looked around to see a yellow orange flower stuck to her back and another human enter the town. "Ah yes! Someone, even though not the same as me, still something! Hello, I am Hannibal, the Dye Trader!"
Banished to a Barren Land
One thousand years ago, there were two royal pony sisters of the sun and moon. The eldest sister ruled over the sun, while the youngest ruled over the moon. Together, they created harmony throughout the land by bringing day and night to their subjects. All was well and good for the sisters, all was at peace.
That was, until, the youngest got jealous of her older sister. She felt that the eldest's day was being worshiped and loved and that her night was being shunned. She felt this was for a long time, never letting the feelings escalate than simple paranoia. Of course, paranoia can be a dangerous thing...
She felt this for so long that a demon, who only wanted the destruction of all life on Earth, started to notice her. The demon fed lies and untruths to her for years, making her believe that her older sister was doing this on purpose, and that the only way to make her night appreciated was to accept the demon.
The youngest agreed, and let the demon into her heart. This demon twisted the soul of the youngest's soul, turning her into the creature known as Nightmare Moon. She vowed to make the world last in eternal night, blind to the effects it would cause. The eldest didn't notice this until it was to late, and was forced to reluctantly use the elements of harmony on her younger sister, banishing her to the moon for an eternity.
The blast was successful, sadly, and banished the youngest to the moon. The blast had knocked the demon out of her heart, but stuck them both on the barren land. The youngest felt herself rock hard onto the grassy surface of the moon. Luna got up and dusted herself off with a dreary look on her face...
Wait... Grassy?