Terra Firma

I was blinded by a flash of light, only to regain my senses in the middle of the strangest forest. It was the concept of the rest of the world come true. Everything had lost it’s familiar restraints of foreground, midground, and background. I readied my sword, prepared for anything, only to see a strange creature. It looked intelligent, as it had facial expressions, something I only knew that I could have. “What kind of NPC are you?” I questioned, hoping it could respond. The thing looked terrified, before flying away on a pair of wings I hadn’t noticed before. I realized that I had found it kind of cute. Gray coat, blonde hair, gold eyes, but the most adorable aspect was how the eyes were facing separate directions, a goofy look implied.

I shrugged at the sudden fleeing of the creature, before hearing growls around me. That was new… There was no ambient music here. And sound came from all directions. It was disorienting, being thrown into a new perspective. I whipped my head from new side to new side, looking for the source of the sounds. I found it, a wolf. But not quite like the ones that came in the Snow biome in Hardmode, there was something… Off, about it. I soon realized what: it was made of sticks, twigs, leaves, and moss.

Hearing more growls, I saw more and more of these wooden monsters, before a large one lunged to me. “This is new. Not like the fighter method, but similar. As if these are communicating.” No sooner did I speak aloud did two more wolves leap, attempting to take me by surprise. Thanks to an unknowable amount of years of fighting hostile mobs, I was almost never caught unawares. Whipping my Adamantite Sword out, I swung it at the first attacker, slicing it in half as the body was set on fire with blue flames, the Frostburn effect from my armor. As the remains dwindled to ash, I equipped my Megashark, blasting dozens of crystal bullets into the remaining wolves, laughing as the shards caused mass “hemorrhaging”, due to them not having blood. As the Frostburn cleaned up the corpses, I switched back to my sword before walking to the bodies. When no cash jumped out, or other items, I was shocked.

Surely in a new place the mobs would drop SOME loot. I shook my head disappointedly, before walking in search of a path.

A half hour later, with a strange lack of nighttime, I had found a well-worn path and left the forest. As I strolled out of the woodland, I saw a cloud up in the sky. Then another, and another, and then many more. “What? HOW COULD THERE BE SO MANY FLOATING ISLANDS?!” I cried to the heavens, unknowingly waking a discordified Rainbow Dash from her nap.

“Hey buddy, keep it down, or I’ll make you!” The pegasus shouted, looking down from the first cloud and catching me by surprise. I was indignant that a creature had yelled at me, and then threatened me. “I would like to see you try, you stupid slime!” I retorted, using a relatively good insult in hopes that it would at least get me even. I wasn’t prepared for the gray bolt that flashed to me, slamming me into the ground and causing me to take a good heart of damage.

I stood up from the site of impact, equipping my pickaxe. I saw the assailant had flown back up to it’s cloud, so I flew with my Frozen Wings and mined the floor out from beneath it. I hadn’t moved an inch from where I had stood when I was hit, thanks to my Ankh Shield, but it didn’t prevent me from going down, and the force hurt. As the creature fell from it’s cloud, I swiftly whacked it in the side of the head with the flat of my blade, to prevent damage.

I then saw more creatures come to me, these ones colorful, so I sat and waited.

-------------------- Twilight Sparkle’s POV --------------------

As Alec, Tohl, and I left to harmonize everypony else, we saw a strange thing fly up and literally mine a cloud, causing the discordified Rainbow Dash to fall. I gasped as it hit her in the side of the head with a massive sword, before gliding down and sitting, apparently having caught sight of us. “Is that another human, Alec?” I asked, not entirely sure myself.

“If it is, it sure as Tartarus isn’t from the UNSC. We don’t have wings, or swords, or armor like that. But it did save us some trouble.”

I nodded in acknowledgement, and we trotted to the being, hoping that it wouldn’t attack us.

-------------------- Terra Firma’s POV --------------------

I saw that these creatures were also four-legged, which seemed to be the main case in this world. I saw an odd thing that looked like a wolf made out of Titanium, with sapphire gemspark eyes, joints, and a mouth, as well as sapphire gemspark spines. I saw the lavender one talk to the cyan one, which responded, and the trio moved to me. I unequipped my sword, selecting a single platinum coin and holding it.

When the creatures arrived, I saw that the lavender one had a horn and no wings, while the cyan one had wings and no horn. I saw a strange expression on the lavender one’s face, and thinking it was threatening, I held my Adamantite Sword once again. They stopped, before the cyan one and the Titanium-gemspark wolf came up to me, and the first one spoke.

“Who are you?”

These things spoke perfect Terrarian! I thought I was the only one, besides the NPCs! Finally, sentient beings that weren’t out for my blood! Oh, thank the dryads, something to commune with!

“What do you mean, NPCs? Look, just come with us, and tell us what the buck you are, why you’re here, and why you hit Rainbow Dash with a sword.”

Apparently I had said my thoughts aloud. Smiling sheepishly, both at the embarrassment of what I said and the tone that spoke of command, I complied, explaining. “I am Terra Firma, a Terrarian. In fact, I’m the only Terrarian, as far as I know. I had gone to Hell to gather resources, when I heard a beautiful singing, that overtook the normal ambient music. I gathered some supplies, looked for the source, and saw a thing that took up the foreground, midground, and background. It was shifting through the spectrum, much like Rainbow Bricks do, but this one was more bright and pastel. I stepped through, even though it was a solid block and shouldn’t have been possible, and found myself here.”

“That still doesn’t explain two things: what do you mean, NPCs, and why did you hit Rainbow Dash?” the cyan being replied to my explanation, exasperation entering it’s voice.

“A NPC is a Non Player Character. I am the only Player that I know of in existence. As a Player I am able to generate and name worlds, and then build shelters in them to house NPCs, which require certain things to spawn. Then I am able to buy and sell with them, or heal for a fee from the Nurse NPC. Do you not have them here?”

“.... What?”

“I will take that as a no. As for this ‘Rainbow Dash’,” I said, making air quotations with my hands, “It certainly does not seem much like a rainbow. I had seen an abundance of floating islands and even some made out of Bubblegum Blocks, and yelled in surprise. The creature here shouted at me to be quiet or it would make me. I called it a slime, and it travelled faster than a Pulse Arrow, and smashed me into the ground. I didn’t take any knockback, but I still lost a heart of health.”

“.... What?”

“*Sigh* And here I thought you were sentient. Me yell, it yell, me yell, it attack, I retaliate. Comprende?”

The lavender thing walked up and pushed the cyan one aside, which was still grumbling. “What do you mean, floating islands? Those are just clouds. And the pink ones are cotton candy, not these “Bubblegum Blocks” you’re talking about. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to harmonize my friend here.” The reality that it had a horn struck me, much like the unicorns of the Hallow. But it didn’t attack me, instead the horn lit up and it touched it to the being I had knocked out, returning color to it.

I stepped back in fear, shaking and terrified that the unicorn would turn on me any second. It noticed this, and stepped closer, “What’s wrong? Haven’t you seen a unicorn before?”

“Yes. But they were… Bad. And you look similar to them. Please… Please don’t hurt me.” I whimpered, cringing back from the impending doom. Suddenly, a rainbow blur hit me like a falling star, and I was knocked out, which had never happened.

“Ugh… What was that? Why is everything so blurry? Why does my head hurt?” I asked, lifting myself up. I suddenly remembered what occurred, and I bolted awake. I was lying down on a couch inside a living tree, which was filled with bookcases. The room was round, which was impossible. But then again, many impossible things had happened to me today, and I had done the impossible many times in the past. The lavender unicorn trotted into the room, causing me to shrink back in fear. “No, don’t… Stay away… Please…”

The unicorn looked confused, before a look of realization dawned on it. “That wasn’t me earlier, that was Rainbow Dash. Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to heal you. You’ve got some broken ribs, and your shin is fractured.”

“That’s it? Really? Please, just stay away, I can take care of it myself.” I stated, pulling out a Greater Healing Potion. Before I could drink it, it was wrapped in a purple glow, and taken away from me. “What’s this? Can I study it? What’s it for?”

I groaned in pain, looking at my heart count. It was at half, enough for the potion to restore me completely. “Look, just give it back. I need it right now. I’m at half health, and if I get hit that hard again I’m literally dead.” The unicorn looked shocked and horrified, before returning the elixir. “Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away… Hehe…”

I glared at it, before uncapping the Greater Healing Potion and drinking the contents. Immediately the pain left my body, my hearts went to full, and I felt rejuvenated. “That’s much better. Seriously though, don’t kill me. When I said bad experiences with unicorns, I mean getting impaled with a horn or getting stampeded over. It’s not fun having to travel all the way back to the Hallow for my money.”

The unicorn looked terrified. “You mean, you’ve been killed?! How are you still alive?!” I looked at it like it was an idiot, which it probably was. “Of course I’ve died. Too many times to count, actually. It’s what happens when you leave a door unblocked during a Blood Moon. I’m alive right now, because I respawn. I’m a Terrarian. We come back. But not here, cause my entrance to here is gone. And I need a bed soon, so I can set my spawnpoint and not have to worry about never getting five platinum coins back.”

“A Blood Moon? Spawnpoints? The Hallow? Just where the buck are you from?”

“Many places, unicorn, many places.”

“My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“And mine is Terra Firma.”

Twilight Sparkle looked bemused, “What kind of a name is that?”

“It is the name I spawned with originally. Back in the world I first made, the world Requiem. The place where I first died, and certainly not the last.”

“Made? What do you mean?”

I chuckled. “Another time, Twilight. Another time.”

The lavender unicorn looked disappointed, before brightening up. “It’s not often that I make new friends, but I was hoping that you would be one…”

“I accept your gracious offer.

“And also, my friend is my enemy’s enemy. You would do well to remember that, for I fear the evils of my world are coming here.”