Summoned... to Die?

I felt incredibly weak, but finally I sort of got laid on something. Shields, I think. And I was carried in utter silence, a little shaking, so I just passed out in the end.

When I slowly woke up from a dream, lines ran before my eyes:

The beginning of a new day. 1 year of life was charged. Current balance: 42.

Oh, well, it wasn't a bad dream. So I had a little less than a month and a half to live. Ironically, considering the fact it was as much as the doctors promised me. But if medicine couldn’t help me, was it possible that I might somehow delay my death here?

Meanwhile, new lines emerged:

Current distribution of fractions:

1. Unknown faction.

2. Unknown faction.

3. Unknown faction.

4. Unknown faction.

5. Unknown faction.

6. Unknown faction.

7. The Steelbeast Dominion.

8. The Equestrians.

And right after this:

Your faction is falling behind! But don’t despair, all your villages get a basic set of resources.

Morning's spam in my head? Hell yeah.

I growled with displeasure and thought about what my senses felt. Light muted enough so that it didn’t break the sleep, pleasant aromas of homemade food, a soft and warm pillow... Wait. Warm? I moved my hands along its sides and, already with a vague guess, threw my head back a little. A confused mare glanced down at me as my head was resting on her lap.

Charcoal-coloured fur. Neat facial features. A long, slightly curved horn. A beautiful mouth with plush lips and a string of regular snow-white teeth. Large, wide-open blue eyes, with thick lashes and delicate eyebrows. A long straight mane, as far as I could judge from lying position, of raven-black colour.

Embarrassed by my gaze, she twitched her ears and sat up straight. Hmm, now I could only see her quite large breast mounds hidden under a tight blue dress. I decided that it wasn’t very polite, so I looked ahead and saw a table with different meals. There was a variety of fruits both familiar to me, such as apples, and outlandish, such as pale-white spiked balls. There were also herbs, flowers and vegetables (well, I recognized carrots and suggested the rest didn’t differ much from it) and baked poultry on silver plates. Next to the plates bottles with something pink perched up, so I assumed it was an alcoholic drink. Although, being in another world and not knowing the local culture and customs, you could expect anything.

At the table sat a stallion of dirty white colour, obviously past his mid-age and with a little overweight. His mane had a noticeable touch of silver grey, as well as his beard, but it was evident that the stranger kept a stiff upper lip and took care of himself as much as he could; he looked pretty smart in his embroidered shirt with a florid collar unbuttoned and an ornate belt emerging under the cloth. He was surrounded by a plethora of books, quietly smoking a pipe, but instead of the usual tobacco smoke a rather pleasant odour similar to incense lingered in the air. With a broad smile on his muzzle, the stallion took another puff of his pipe.

“The Moriturus, you've come to your senses!” he spoke in a cheerful and joyful voice. “That’s great news for our village! My name is Board Script, I’m the local elder, and I’m ready to help you in every way possible. This beautiful girl who has modestly offered you her knees is my daughter Pitch Pearl.”

She was his daughter? But he didn't look like a unicorn. Though I suppose there was no need to ask that when I just met them. Maybe she was adopted, and I'd only air dirty laundry with my stupid questions. However appealing the communication with the village’s leader while lying on his daughter's lap seemed to me, I knew it was fairly rude. I got up, quietly thanked the mare and sat down at the table. I didn’t even wonder why I no longer wore a loincloth, but a pair of expensive pants and shirt.

“Thank you for the warm welcome, Mr Script. I really appreciate it, but unfortunately, I am de-facto a human and came from another world, if you know what I mean, so let's just say I’d want to smoke out what's going on.”

“Smoke out? Want a smoke?” The elder joyfully handed me his pipe.

I politely declined his offer and clarified the meaning of the word. While I understand their language on an intuitive level and they did mine, some words seemed to be translated in a wrong meaning.

Having understood what it was about, Board Script continued. “Well, that's not a hard question. You see, the procedure of summoning is commonplace to us, so you don't seem very strange, Mr Nico. And those who were summoned transform to look similar to our species. Before that, we seldom got humans though.”

Just to ‘look’? So we, in our bodies, were different after all? I looked closely, but couldn’t find any external differences. Nevertheless, I wished that reduced ‘Nico’ hadn’t stuck to me because of that girl…

While I was thinking, Board Script told me more.

“But the point is that you are the first Moriturus in my memory, in the whole history perhaps, who has survived. Ponies consider it a sign from above, that Celestia had finally heard our prayers and we’ll get ahead!”

The elder firmly slammed his fist onto the table and breathed heavily. He seems like he really cared about it.

“Just don't worry, dad!” Pitch Pearl said anxiously and quickly ran up to him to hug lovingly. While she was moving, I managed to notice the pleasant curves of her body under the dress and a long black tail threaded through a special hole in the back.

The elder caught my gaze and smiled. He gave his daughter a barely noticeable nod as if a signal to something, and she blushed as he blurted out in one breath, “Mr Nico, if you wish to lie down with me, my body is completely at your disposal!”

“Oh, you silly filly, who starts with that? Now, the Moriturus will think that you are offering yourself to all our guests.”

The mare blushed to the ends of her hair and covered her face with palms, ears limp.

I hurried to somehow rectify the situation. “Oh, come on, I didn’t ever think of such a thing! You’ve just offered… it so out of sudden…”

He seemed very surprised. “Out of sudden? A young filly, ripe as a fruit, untouched by anyone—isn't that what a hero can expect as his reward? Perhaps she's not your type? We have a lot of mares here in the village, I can find another one!”

However, his last words were spoken with sadness. Pitch Pearl was about to cry. What had I said wrong this time?

“No, your daughter is just wonderful! I just expected to explore the environment first, so to speak, let alone to arrange a personal life.”

“We hurried things up, didn’t we? Excuse me then, we just don't usually delay it, hehe.”

His wandering eyes seemed sort of strange.

I coughed and tried to get the conversation back on track. “So what about the environment?”

“Oh, yes! To put it short, there are eight fractions isolated from each other. Every five days, portals are opened in a random location linking the territories of the factions, which leads to military clashes and redistribution of resources. Although the very position of portals is accidental, the interaction of factions is all on purpose. Every day the positions in the table of power change, on the basis of which enemies are determined: a weak can attack any stronger while defending only from those who are stronger at one position. The eighth position is to attack all the others, but to be attacked only by the seventh. The seventh can assault all the others, but it is only the sixth and eighth which can push back. The sixth can attack anyone but the eighth. It can be attacked by the eighth, seventh and fifth. And so on.”

I tried to figure it out in my head. Basically, I didn’t have to keep all them in mind yet; what’s clear was that the guys with guns would return on the fifth day.

“I'm sorry, I think I'm not a very good storyteller.” The elder looked worried.

“All’s good. Go on.”

“Our faction’s been at the bottom for years. Sure, we are given an incentive bonus, but we are not developing. The prince is too cowardly, he locked himself in his castle in the capital and surrounded himself with elite fighters while people try to snatch at least some piece of the portal zone!”

Board again slammed the table, and his daughter calmed him down. It’s so lovely.

“The weakest are allowed to summon a Moriturus for defence once a month. This alien sacrifices himself, putting his life on the altar of victory!”

Big words. Disgusting.

Seeing that I'd changed in the expression, Board Script hastily to add, “No, I don’t blame you for that you didn’t die, why! Moreover, you brilliantly won the fight and even saved some of our fighters. I am very grateful to you!”

“Yeah, go on. How do you even win with your swords and shields?”

The elder frowned. “I'm not saying we can win. All hope for the magic of charms and expensive metals, but the capital has them all to itself. Our only mage was killed right before your eyes,” he said with bitterness in his voice. Then, after a short pause, he continued. “We, inhabitants of the frontier, are not much different from Morituri, except that we die in vain.”

I knew this feeling. That burden when other people put their hopes on you, but you can’t do anything because of the circumstances. Looks like things are really fucked up.

“But this time we were lucky!” he exclaimed as he jumped up from the table. “We found a Sprout and were able to save it thanks to you!”

“Um, Sprout?”

“Yes, Sprout!”

“What is it?”

Board Script’s face suddenly changed; he slowly sat back. Rubbing his chin, he thoughtfully said, “Honestly, I don't know. But the Steel Beasts always took our Sprouts, so we had no chance to explore it carefully.”

“Let's see it, then.”

“What, right now?” He seemed he couldn’t believe his ears.

“Why not? We always have time for a snack.

The elder jumped up and rushed out, pulling my sleeve. We got out of the tent—it was a tent, and a very large one—so quickly that I blinked from the bright sunlight. The day was in full swing.

There were many tents around, but now I was wondering where the town that I saw had gone.

As if he realized what I was thinking, the elder said in an apologizing tone, “That town was Marelin’s illusion. Really, we just don't have time to build anything in a place like this.”

So his name really was Merlin—or Mare-lin? I should have participated in a lottery if it was for my luck.

Board Script almost ran and dragged me towards the hills. Nature here was gorgeous, the hillside created something like a natural depression with a plain covered with herbs. Nearby there was a small river and a forest to the right. A little further on the forest lay the rocky terrain.

We reached the middle of the plain, and he showed me something like a metal lever.

Without thinking twice, I jerked it, and the ground trembled. The earth began to crumble under our hooves and the blades of grass were torn off, giving place to concrete plates that appeared from below. Or, a single huge concrete plate in the form of a circle, to be precise. After a few minutes, the tremors stopped as the lever lengthened and grew into a touchpad screen.

Touch with a chip of protector/master.

Um, chip? My right index finger blinked with a light. Was this some sort of visual cue?

There was a tattoo in the form of coat of arm on it: a sword on a shield surrounded by flames. I dabbed my finger at the screen and waited.

Scanning: the Equestrians faction. Constructing a base.

In the blink of an eye, the concrete was replaced by cobblestones. Looking with dumbfounded expression at this, I turned again to the screen which was now in the form of an ancient book.

Start building the base? Y/N.

Yeah, what's there to think.

The list of basic buildings is loaded.

New buildings: Moriturus’ manor, village hall, house, logging hut, farming hut, picking hut, stone masonry workshop, quarry, warehouse, food storage, crystalline mine.

New military models: Warrior, Archer.

The Equestrians faction synergy: +20% (20/100).