A Tale of Crafters and Ponies

Chapters

Chapter 1: Backstory
Chapter 2: A Portal Gone Wrong
Chapter 3: A World of Blocks
Chapter 4: The Children of Shimmering Hope
Chapter 5: Guests in Another World
Chapter 6: The Decision
Chapter 7: Hidden Knowledge
Chapter 8: The Realization
Chapter 9: Serious Training
Chapter 10: A New Set of Rules to Break
Chapter 11: Preparation
Chapter 12: Departure
Chapter 13: Information
Chapter 14: The Long Trek
Chapter 15: Fog
Chapter 16: Cruel Tricks

Chapter 1: Backstory

Twilight sighed as she waited for her friends to show up at the library. She needed to talk to them about Princess Celestia’s latest task for them. There were dimensional distortions happening all around Ponyville, but nopony could actually prove they were happening.

This was going to be a strange day indeed…

------Meanwhile, in another world…------

Year 8, Day 1

I guess I should start off this journal the same way I started my other seven before this one: with my name, just in case someone reads these out of order—if anyone else reads them at all.

I am Dolphy Blue Drake, one of the sixteen original Crafters to suddenly appear in this world exactly eight years ago. A lot has happened since that day, and now, I’m all alone. Well, not entirely alone. The other fifteen Crafters left on a journey to collect more magic essence for our ore garden, but most of them never came back. I have my hands full with the fourteen children I promised to look after for them, though.

We hadn’t managed to create diamond seeds yet, and we’d exhausted most of our mine trying to get enough essence just to make two seeds. Luckily, the local villagers know a lot about crafting, so we knew exactly how much we needed. We were still about one hundred weak essence pieces short of being able to complete the seeds, and we also needed a sapphire (which can only be found by either mining under the ocean, or by finding one in a chest in a dungeon or mineshaft) to craft the staff for the portal to the Promised Land, which had been our goal ever since we’d found out about it from the villagers.

Before I continue my tale, I guess I should start at the beginning, since summarizing the events might help a reader who started with this volume.

On Day 1 of Year 1, sixteen souls were thrust into this world from parts unknown. I have almost no recollection of any life I may have had before entering this world, so I’m not going to touch on that. The sixteen souls were two humans (Steve and Samantha), two elves (Timothy and Danielle), two dwarves (Ivor and Edna), a reaper (Grim), a succubus (Midnight), two orcs (Gorrin and Bethelda), two humanoid rabbits (Powder and Cotton), two humanoid foxes (Yip and Yipe), a humanoid dragoness (Wyvern), and a humanoid dragon-dolphin hybrid (yours truly).

We became fast friends and banded together to survive. We collected supplies and built a makeshift shelter about a hundred blocks from where we entered this world, and spent the night there. We had eight beds, so we let the women have them, and us men slept on the floor for the night (my back hurt for three days after that, but it was worth seeing the smile on Wyvern’s face when I gave her the bed I’d crafted myself).

After we woke up, we left the location due to it not suiting our needs very well. We traveled for half the day before we found a biome I now know is called a “Mystic Grove”. The grass had a bluish tint to it, and blue “Magic Trees” grew there as well as the usual oaks and the occasional jacaranda. We looked for a flat place to settle in, but we couldn’t find a place flat enough for our liking. We didn’t want to leave the enchantingly beautiful place, so we came up with a plan (actually, the plan was mainly Bethelda’s idea, but she never took credit for it). The plan was to terraform the large one-block deep body of water in the grove into a flat place for us to settle in.

We got to work, and we’d converted about half of the offending pool of water into a suitable landscape before night fell. We set up a quick shelter again (this time, we had a bed for everyone) and waited out the night.

The next morning, I volunteered to check to make sure there were no monsters waiting for us. I grasped my stone sword tightly; put on my leather tunic I’d crafted the day before, and stepped outside.

At first, I saw nothing. No monsters at all! I was about to tell my friends the coast was clear, when I heard the sound of a bottle shattering behind me. I turned around and saw a horrible creature: it wore purple robes and a pointed hat, and had an ugly wart on its nose. I was face-to-face with a witch.

I screamed and ran back inside the small shelter, slamming the door behind me. The others asked me what was wrong, and I simply pointed at the creature staring at us through the small window in the door.

Yipe came up with a strategy to beat the creature that worked flawlessly. We broke down part of the wall on the side of the structure, and then swarmed the monster. It stood no chance with us outnumbering it sixteen-to-one, and we made short work of it (I got poisoned by the Notch-forsaken beast, but Wyvern handed me a bucket of milk to fix that).

With the hag taken care of, we got back to work converting the watery landscape into a suitable place for our settlement. By the afternoon, we’d done it, so we got to work building our little town. We were originally going to have a house for every Crafter, but that plan was scrapped very quickly, and we made eight houses instead of sixteen. Every one of us had bonded to one of the opposite gender quite quickly, myself and Wyvern included, so we held a little marriage ceremony for each couple, then returned to work on the houses. Not a single one got finished that day, so we had to spend the night fending off more witches (as it turns out, the only monsters native to Mystic Groves are witches). We swarmed each one just like before, so we were mainly unharmed by sunrise.

The next day, we finished our little town (the houses, anyway), which we named Shimmering Hope, and got to work obtaining resources for our survival. In time, we had an extensive mine, a combustion engine power plant, a farm for every kind of livestock we’d discovered (that took a while, since it also turns out that the only other creatures native to Mystic Groves besides witches are bats), automated farms for every kind of plant (except for ore plants, berries and cotton. Ore plants strangely don’t work with the self-planting and self-harvesting multifarms, and though they can grow the cotton, they can’t harvest it, so the multifarm was useless for cotton. The same applies to the berry bushes) and several bee farms. We’d even conquered seven Nether fortresses, and we were searching for a stronghold (the villagers in the nearby Chaparral biome told us about the strongholds, and we were quite interested).

Halfway though Year 2, Shimmering Hope’s population grew from 16 to 17. Cotton had given birth to the first child in our little town. I still remember the look of pride on Powder’s face when he announced that he’d just become a father. Gorrin had discovered how to brew mead in a distiller about a month before, and he offered to give everyone a drink to celebrate. Wyvern and I politely declined (and with good reason. Ever since Gorrin had discovered how to make liquor from honey, he and Bethelda got drunk at least twice a week, which caused quite a racket every time. Gorrin’s singing voice was far from the best when he was drunk).

Cotton and Powder named their newborn son Hip, and our population just exploded after that. Soon, every family had a child. Gorrin and Bethelda were the next to become parents. They named their daughter Miragg, and the two stopped getting drunk as often after that (thank Notch for that), since we were pretty sure that alcohol was even worse for children than for adults (the villagers confirmed that one for us. Apparently, they’d learned that the hard way. They never expounded on the subject).

The Foxes were next. Yip and Yipe named their son Matthew, and the rest of us soon followed suit. The last two families to have children were the humans and my family. Steve and Samantha had a son they named Huey, and near the very end of the year, Wyvern and I were blessed with our very own little girl: Kryanna. She was pink like her mother, but had my dolphin fin and tail (instead of Wyvern’s draconic wings and tail).

Pretty soon, everyone had a second child. Well, almost everyone. Steve and Samantha struggled to have a second child, and Wyvern and I had the same problem. Every family had both a little boy and a little girl except two. The humans only had a son, and my family only had a daughter. We didn’t mind that much, though. We felt we’d add more to the population eventually.

It was pretty uneventful until Year 6. We felt it was time to educate the older children on how to survive in this world, so we built a school, increasing the number of buildings in our town from 10 to 11 (we already had a power plant and a Town Hall for important business). Steve and Samantha took the role of teachers, and soon the children of our small town were learning the basics of crafting. It seems that the children knew how to store items on themselves well before we started educating them. Something we adults envied a bit. It had taken us nearly until noon of the first day to figure out how to carry more items than our hands can hold, while the children seemed to know how almost instantly after being born.

Near the end of Year 6, Wyvern and I set out to see if we could find another village to trade with (the village nearby was running out of things we didn’t already have). We asked Steve and Samantha to take care of Kryanna for us while we were away (Huey was thrilled to have another child live in his house with him for a while), and then set off. It took us about 30,000 blocks and nearly a month of travel, but we finally found another village. What we found took us by surprise. The villagers had something they called a “station” near the edge of the village. It was a building made out of brick instead of materials that matched the Tropical Rainforest it was in, and there were two strange vehicles out front. We entered and spoke with the Testificate inside. He told us about marvelous vehicles called “trains”, which could pull “cars” along the tracks we’d always used for minecarts before. I offered him 10 emeralds for his incredibly detailed book on the subject, and he agreed. That was probably the only time I thought 10 emeralds was a good deal. That would revolutionize our town forever!

Wyvern and I thanked the man, and then we quickly constructed a Nether Portal and dashed back to Shimmering Hope using the Nether as a shortcut. Once we arrived at Shimmering Hope, I showed the other adults the book I’d obtained. They’d built a library in my absence, so we stored the precious book in the new library (they’d also returned to where we’d entered the world and built a safe house for anyone who ended up dying to the monsters and willed themselves back to life, since every single one of us adults had died at least once by that point, and we were sick of getting slain by the monsters on the way back to town).

As Year 7 began, we were searching for materials to build these “trains” with, as well as a sapphire and more magic essence to create the diamond seeds I mentioned above. Our mine wasn’t turning up much more of the stuff anymore, so we assembled in the Town Hall to discuss our situation. We wanted to visit this “Promised Land” the Testificates were constantly talking about. We were told we’d need endstone, so we were also preparing to go to The End using the stronghold we’d found. Of course, we’d have to slay the legendary Enderdragon to get back out, but we were ready for that.

I volunteered to stay and watch over the children, and the others (my wife included) set out to find what we needed.

After a month of waiting, they hadn’t returned. I waited a few more days, and then Wyvern, Steve and Samantha entered town from the direction of the safe house. They informed me that all fifteen of them had been slain by an incredibly powerful creature. I inquired about the other twelve, but they informed me that they somehow didn’t come back to life like they had. I knew it took willpower to come back, but I just couldn’t believe the others had lost enough of the will to live to prevent them from coming back.

We broke the news to the children as gently as we could, but I was still heartbroken at the sight of all those grieving children. There were now twelve orphans in Shimmering Hope, and only four adults to take care of them. It was horrible.

We held a memorial service for our fallen friends, and life was never the same after that.

But things just got even worse from there.

Wyvern and I managed to defeat the Enderdragon, as well as find the necessary sapphire and start working on our railway (our first goal was to connect it to the nearby village, then connect it to the one that was much farther away).

We opened the portal to the Promised Land with our new “Ancient Staff” (seriously, how can something brand new be ancient?), and discovered that the portal had appeared on a small landmass that popped into existence nearly one hundred blocks above us. We quickly built a railway up to it, and then took one of our new diesel trains to the portal.

When we got to the top, we were greeted by something out of nightmares: a man who looked a lot like Steve was blocking our path, his eyes were glowing pure white, and he smirked at us before punching the real Steve in the gut, sending him flying into Samantha, knocking both of them off the edge of the platform.

Wyvern leaped down from the platform and flew down to catch them and prevent the impact, which she did, but now I was left alone with the horrible man-who-was-not.

I quickly equipped my suit of heavily-enchanted diamond armor, pulled out my also heavily-enchanted diamond sword, and expected the creature to just turn tail and flee at the sight of my equipment. Instead, it smirked, shook its head, equipped itself with a suit of armor made out of some kind of pink gem (which I now know to be Amethyst), and pulled out a sword of the same material. I tried to slash at my foe, but he blocked my attack and countered with a slash of his own, cutting through my heavy protection like melted candle wax. Before he could strike again, I dashed into the waiting train, turned it around, and started back down the spiraling ramp to the surface as fast as I could make it go without derailing it. By the time I reached the bottom, Wyvern and the human couple were taking the children to the obsidian-reinforced schoolhouse to protect them. They got the children inside, but the not-Steve jumped all the way down from the platform in the sky, incredibly taking no damage at all from the fall (I later learned of the enchantment that does that, but I was incredibly surprised at the time. Even Feather Falling isn’t that efficient!), then turned to run us adults through. He quickly cut down the humans, and then made short work of my wife as well. I glared at him, but then I smirked and set off a chain-reaction of TNT, intending to at least send him flying, but he vanished without a trace.

Puzzled, I ordered the children to stay in the school until I returned, and then rode the railway to the safe house, but I was too late. The horrible man-that-was-not was on horseback, dragging my wife and two remaining friends (who were tied up) along the ground after him. I tried to give chase, but I’d never tamed a horse, and he was galloping away from the rails, so I couldn’t chase him by train.

As he vanished over the horizon, I dropped to my knees, dumbfounded. The love of my life was gone. She had been taken to Notch-only-knows-where, and my two remaining friends had been taken along as well. I ended up saddled with the task of caring for fourteen children all by myself, and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

I made my way back to Shimmering Hope and informed the children about what happened. Once again, the children cried for hours, especially Huey and my poor little Kryanna. I took my daughter in my arms and told her this: “Krya, Daddy will never stop trying to find Mommy. We’ll be a family again, that’s a promise.”

My little girl cried for a bit longer after that, but eventually she calmed down, as well as Huey, once I gave him a similar promise about his parents.

It’s been ten months since that day, and Year 8 has just begun. I still intend to make good on the promise, but unless I can get some help from anyone competent (the Testificates aren’t even close to that), I’ll probably have to wait until these children are old enough to fend for themselves. Please Notch… Please send someone to help me.

Author's Note

Well, there's my first chapter! I hope you all liked it, but if there's anything you didn't like, please let me know. Also, I could use an editor or two, so if you'd like to give it a shot, please don't hesitate to ask!

Chapter 2: A Portal Gone Wrong

“All right, everypony, what do we know?”

Twilight Sparkle was addressing the other five Bearers of the Elements of Harmony in her library.

“That there have been a lot of dimensional disturbances lately?” Pinkie blurted out.

“Not exactly,” Twilight responded, sighing in frustration. “We can’t confirm that yet. Every time somepony reports something strange, everything’s perfectly fine once anypony shows up to investigate.”

“Then what do we know about this?” Rainbow Dash asked in irritation.

“Actually, I’m not sure…” Twilight said, trailing off as she heard a sound behind her that she couldn’t quite describe.

Reality seemed to bend and shift in the space right behind her, and when Twilight turned around, there was a doorway of sorts standing in the middle of the room. The frame was exactly a meter thick and made out of some sort of black substance, and inside the doorway was a two-meter wide and three-meter tall swirling mass of something, which was making the strange noise and shifting colors constantly.

All six ponies gasped in unison.

“Ah think we may have found the problem,” Applejack said, breaking the silence. “Or, maybe it found us.”

Before anypony could say anything else, the swirling mass in the doorway started to churn at a much faster rate than before, causing the noise to get louder as well.

Suddenly, the ponies were being dragged into the doorway against their wills by an incredibly strong force.

Before any of them could even scream or come up with a plan, the gateway sucked them in, they vanished, and then the swirling mass in the doorway quieted down and disappeared, leaving behind an empty frame.

------Dolphy------

Year 8, Day 15

Today has been very strange so far. Stranger than anything I’ve seen before. And that’s saying something.

I think I’ll start at the beginning.

After I woke up (actually, Kryanna woke me up), I woke up the children who weren’t already awake (everyone except Kryanna), and prepared breakfast. I’m really getting sick of having to live in the Town Hall with the children just so that I can take care of them all more easily. I sometimes visit my old house, but I probably won’t be able to live there again for a few more years.

After a breakfast of porkchops, bread, apples and milk, I had the children follow me to the Nether Portal on the edge of town. The children may still not be very good at fighting, but I thought that teaching them about portals wouldn’t be a bad idea as long as none of them actually went through the portal.

After we all arrived at the portal, I began my lesson:

“All right, everybody, this,” I said, pointing to the portal, “is a Nether Portal. The Nether is a dangerous location, so I don’t want any of you using this quite yet. Until you can fight off a Creeper all by yourself, the Nether is far too dangerous, even in groups.”

“Awwwww…” the children groaned, disappointed.

I sighed.

“Please don’t be upset, children. The Nether is very dangerous! I—“

I cut off as Miragg pointed at the portal, causing the children to gasp in surprise.

I turned around and saw what she was pointing at: the portal had turned from a gently swirling mass of purple energy to an angrily churning mass of energy that rapidly shifted colors.

“Daddy,” my daughter piped up, “is that supposed to happen?”

“No, Kryanna, it’s not,” I said, worried. “Everyone, run!”

The children screamed and ran back to the Town Hall, where they'd be safe.

I stayed behind, quickly equipped my suit of diamond armor and pulled out my diamond sword (my amethyst equipment was back at the Town Hall). I glared at the portal, daring it to produce a monster.

With a brilliant flash of light, the portal ejected six… things. Each one was a different color, and they resembled horses, but the strange thing was…

They had curves.

As far as I knew, curves were something out of myth. I always thought there was no such thing as non-angular objects, whether animate or not. Almost everything uses right angles, but the occasional thing has slants here and there, but I’d never seen curves before.

And here were six creatures covered in curves!

Fighting the urge to pass out from astonishment, I checked the creatures’ vital signs. They were okay, but out cold from crashing into the nearby fence. Some of them were bruised from the impact, but I knew they’d recover in time. With some help from the children, I carried the strange creatures to the hospital that the children and I had constructed a few months ago as part of a lesson on building structures.

We placed the creatures on beds, and then I asked the children to return to the Town Hall again. They complied.

And now I’m here, writing in my journal as I wait for these creatures to wake up so I can find out more about them.

------Ponies------

“What’re you writing?” Pinkie asked the strange, blocky creature at the desk, causing him to jump in surprise.

“Oh Notch!” the creature screamed as he turned around.

The creature was light blue, had a head similar to an alligator’s but with a smaller snout, two large fangs hanging over his lower lip, large blue eyes that were taller than they were wide, and transparent fin-like ears, as well as extremely messy blue hair on top of his head. He was wearing a plain blue shirt, white pants, brown shoes with talons poking out through the toes, and brown gloves. Finally, he had a dolphin’s dorsal fin on his back, and he also had a dolphin’s tail in place of a normal dragon’s tail.

The most interesting thing about him, however, was that almost all of his body consisted of flat edges and right angles.

The creature put a blocky hand to his chest and tried to catch his breath.

“Don’t scare me like that! You should—“ he blinked in surprise. “Wait. Did you just talk?”

“Of course, silly!” Pinkie replied. “Why wouldn’t I talk?”

“Um…” the creature said, seeming to be searching for a good reply. “I don’t know. Horses don’t talk, but maybe you’re not one after all. You’re not blocky like everything else in this world, for one.”

Pinkie gasped.

“Did you say everything? Everything here is like you?” She was getting more excited by the second.

“Uh… Yeah. It’s always been that way. What’s so special about that?” he replied.

“This is gonna be so fun! This calls for a party!” Pinkie turned and ran off to where her friends were still sleeping.

------Dolphy------

Sorry about the ink blot above this paragraph. One of the strange creatures woke up around that point, and she scared me like nothing else has before! Nitro Creepers are tame in comparison to that! I just hope the others aren’t like that. I swear to Notch, if they’re all like that, I might just break down and cry.

Chapter 3: A World of Blocks

“Twilight, wake up!” Pinkie shouted, shaking the purple unicorn awake.

“Pinkie, where are we?” Twilight asked groggily.

“In a hospital, but that’s not what’s important! I spoke with someone, and he says this whole world is blocky like him!”

“Pinkie, that’s ridiculous,” Twilight began as she got off the bed. “Everypony knows that—“

Twilight blinked in surprise. Everything in the small hospital room was made entirely of right angles and flat edges. Everything.

How is this even possible? Twilight wondered.

Before she could ponder the oddities of this world any further, Pinkie said “I’m gonna throw a party!” and bolted out of the room.

Twilight heard the muffled sounds of Pinkie waking up the other ponies one-by-one as she trotted down the hall of the hospital. Everything was angular. There were no curves whatsoever.

As she rounded a corner, she heard the sound of a quill pen scratching on paper. She followed the sound, and soon ran into a creature she’d never seen before.

The blocky dragon-like creature was seated at a desk, writing in a book.

He turned at the sound of hooves and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good. For a second there, I thought the pink one had come back. Scared me half to death that one did. Please tell me that you’re not all like her. I don’t think I could take that kind of strain.”

Twilight chuckled.

“No, we’re not all like Pinkie. We all have different traits and quirks. She just loves parties and gets excited easily.”

“So, the pink one is Pinkie, huh? I didn’t know that anyone besides Crafters had individual names,” the blue creature said as he picked up the book and stood up.

“Crafters?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“Crafters are people like me,” the blue creature said. “We’re all one race, but we also have eight sub-races: humans, monster-likes, fox-likes, rabbit-likes, dragon-likes, elves, dwarves and orcs.”

“And you’re a dragon-like?” Twilight guessed.

“Correct!” he said. “I am the dragon-like Dolphy Blue Drake, de facto leader of the town of Shimmering Hope, and caretaker of all children in it due to me being the only adult left here.”

“The only adult?” Twilight said in surprise, “what happened to the others?”

“Long story,” Dolphy replied with sadness in his voice. “The quick version is that most of the other adults died and failed to will themselves back to life, and the three who did will themselves back to life got kidnapped later, leaving me alone with fourteen children to take care of. It’s not easy at all.”

“Oh…” Twilight looked away from the dragon-like’s sad face, unable to bear his grief-stricken expression.

“Sorry for getting morbid there,” Dolphy said as a smile returned to his face, “it’s still hard, but I manage.”

“Wait…” Twilight’s eyes widened at the realization of what Dolphy said a little bit earlier. “Did you say ‘will themselves back to life’?”

“Yes, is that odd?” the dragon-like replied, puzzled. At that moment, the other five ponies walked into the room, but they fell silent when they saw Twilight talking to the dragon-like.

“But when somepony dies, that’s it, isn’t it?” Twilight asked, provoking a raised eyebrow from Dolphy when she said “somepony”.

“It may be like that where you come from, but that’s not the case here,” the dragon-like replied. “When somebody dies, as long as their will to live is strong enough, they reappear at the location that the original Crafters entered this world: about five hundred blocks East of here. Of course, that only applies to Crafters. It might apply to you, too, but I’d rather not take that chance if I don’t have to.”

“You can come back to life?” Rainbow Dash said in surprise. “That’s so cool!”

“That may be so,” Dolphy said, grimacing, “but I really don’t like dying. I end up dropping everything I was carrying, including any armor I might’ve been wearing, and I always reappear at the spot where I entered this world the first time. Well, that’s not completely true. If I’ve slept in a bed recently, I’ll reappear in that bed instead. If the bed gets destroyed… Never mind.”

“By the way, for those of you who didn’t hear me introduce myself, I’m Dolphy Blue Drake,” he said, holding out a hand for Twilight to shake.

Twilight met the hand with a hoof and shook it.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” she began, then introduced each of her friends in turn: “These are my friends, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity.”

“It’s very nice to meet all of you. If you want, you can stay here a while until I get this sorted out. You see, the town Nether Portal acted up for a few seconds and deposited you in our little town. I don’t know what world you’re from, but I’m pretty sure you want to go back.”

The ponies nodded, and Rarity raised a hoof.

“Yes, Rarity?” the dragon-like said.

“I have to agree. This world and its blocky shapes just look so garish!”

“Hey!” Dolphy snapped, a little irritated, “I’ve lived here my entire life, and I love this place!” He took a few deep breaths and calmed himself down before continuing. “But if your entire world consists of curves, I can understand how alien my world must seem to you. “

“Anyway, I think the children are starting to worry,” the Crafter said as he turned towards the double doors to leave the hospital. “You can meet them if you want, since the safest place for you at the moment is this town.”

The ponies conversed for about a minute, then Twilight nodded and said, “we’d love to.”

“Great! Follow me,” Dolphy said, motioning for them to follow.

He led them through the incredibly angular town. The streets were a pale blue type of cobblestone, the houses were made from some kind of blue wood, and almost everything was made up of cubic meter blocks.

As they passed a strange structure made up of squarish pipes and strange humming machines, Twilight broke the silence.

“Mr. Drake? What are those?”

Dolphy looked over his shoulder and smiled.

“Please Twilight, call me Dolphy. As for those pipes and engines, that’s our power plant. A lot of our machines can’t run without power. We switched from combustion engines to diesel engines about a year ago. They’re much safer, and they produce even more power than the old combustion engines!”

As they passed a strange set of structures made up of what appeared to be quartz, Twilight’s curiosity got the best of her again.

“Dolphy? What do those do?”

“Oh, those?” the dragon-like replied, “those are multifarms: fully automatic farms that just require power, soil, water, fertilizer and germlings to run. They place the soil and the plants, add the water and fertilizer, and once the plants are ready to harvest, they do the harvesting, too! Best of all, they even replant on their own! It makes growing food a lot easier.”

Applejack was dumbfounded. “A farm that works itself? But sugarcube, isn’t that impossible?”

“Well, back in the early days of this town, we thought so too,” Dolphy said, chuckling. “Then we discovered redstone and pistons. Not a perfect solution, but it worked for a while. Then a villager gave us a “crafting guide”, and we learned a lot about this world that we never thought possible. Engines, computers, refrigerators… The list goes on. But the thing that caught our interest the most at the time was multifarms. The guide didn’t tell us how to construct them, though. We had to figure that out on our own. It did tell us how to build the parts, though, and with all sixteen of us putting our heads together, we figured out the rest.”

“Of course, certain plants don’t work with these farms,” he continued. “Berry bushes and cotton plants don’t grow properly, and the machine doesn’t know how to harvest them, so we grow them the old-fashioned way. But what’s weird is that the machines can’t automate ore farms, either.”

“Ore farms?” Applejack was even more confused now. “How can ya grow somethin’ that’s not organic?”

“You need magic essence first,” the dragon-like replied, seeming to enjoy every minute of this. “A lot of it. Combining magic essence with the ore and a handful of wheat seeds produces two ore seeds. Ore seeds don’t grow the ore itself, though. That’d be weird. Since the seeds are made of essence, they grow essence. The essence of the ore, I mean. Combining the essence with enough of the same essence produces the essence’s respective ore. With that, we can even grow diamonds and emeralds! Sadly, not every ore is compatible with essence, but a lot of them are, so we only have to mine for the ones that can’t be grown.”

“Anyway, here we are!” Dolphy announced, gesturing to the massive building in front of them. “This is Town Hall! The children and I all live here so that I can take care of all of them more easily. Once they’re old enough to take care of themselves, they’ll be able to return to their parents’ old homes, and I’ll be able to return to my house, too.”

He motioned for the ponies to wait there, and stepped inside. The ponies could hear him calling for the children, and also heard cheering in response.

Dolphy stepped back outside.

“Brace yourselves, girls. They can be quite a handful, and they’ll probably be really excited.”

Chapter 4: The Children of Shimmering Hope

The doors to the Town Hall were flung open as fourteen bipedal children ran outside. Their colors varied, but not nearly as much as ponies’ colors did. Every single one was wearing clothes, too, just like Dolphy was.

The final child out turned around and shut the doors behind her. She looked like a smaller, pink version of Dolphy.

The children were all shouting in excitement, causing Pinkie to bounce around excitedly while Fluttershy started to back away slowly.

Dolphy put a finger to his mouth and whistled, causing the children to quiet down.

“Children, these are the…” Dolphy turned to Twilight and said: “wait. I forgot to ask what you are. What are you?”

“We’re ponies,” Twilight said simply.

“Thank you,” the dragon-like adult said, nodding before continuing. “These are the ponies who the portal ejected into our world earlier. You all helped me to get them to the hospital, so you’ve already seen them, but I think it’d be best to have some proper introductions.”

The children lined up by sub-race and faced the ponies.

“Okay, I’ll start with the rabbit-likes, since they’re first in line,” Dolphy said.

“This is Hip and his sister Hop”, the two bipedal rabbits smiled and waved. “They’re rabbit-likes.”

Moving on to the next pair, Dolphy continued: “this is Miragg and her brother Ulf,” the pair of burly green children gave the slightest of smiles. “They’re orcs.”

The adult put his hands on the shoulders of the next pair and continued the introductions: “this is Matthew and his sister Julie. They’re fox-likes.” The two bipedal foxes smiled shyly, and Dolphy moved on to the next pair. “This is Wynn and her brother Vincent. They’re elves.” The two slightly taller children smiled brightly and nodded their heads. “This is Bodwin and his sister Gretta,” he said as he put his hands on the next pair. “They’re dwarves.” The two shorter and stockier children grinned from ear to ear and waved. “This is Ashe and her brother Shade,” a purple-skinned girl with ribbed wings on her back and a skeletal boy with bony wings and a cloak nodded. “They’re monster-likes.”

The final pair of children was standing a bit more apart than the other pairs, and Dolphy just put his hands on the boy’s shoulders without touching the girl. “This is Huey. He’s a human.” The boy smiled weakly and gave a little wave.

Moving to the final child, Dolphy scooped her up and placed her on his shoulder while she smiled at him affectionately. “And finally, this is my daughter, Kryanna. She’s a dragon-like, like me.” Kryanna nuzzled her father’s cheek, then turned to the ponies and waved.

Dolphy slowly put his daughter down and turned to face the children. “And children, these are Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and—” he noticed that Fluttershy wasn’t with the other five, but was sitting a few blocks away from them. He shook his head and walked over to her. “And this is Fluttershy,” he said, motioning to the yellow pegasus.

Shade raised a bony hand.

“Yes, Shade?”

“Why do they look so funny?” the young reaper asked.

A few of the children nodded to confirm that they were thinking the same thing.

“Well, Shade,” Dolphy began, “they’re from another world, and—“

“Which one?” Gretta asked as she interrupted the adult. “They can’t be from the Nether, since they don’t look built for intense heat.”

“They can’t be from The End either,” Hip added before Dolphy could respond. “Only Endermen live there ever since you and Wyvern defeated the Enderdragon, right?”

“Yes, but—“

“And they can’t be from the Promised Land, either,” Vincent cut in. “You said that the only life there is plants!”

“They’re from none of those places,” Dolphy sighed. “They’re from a world made up of curves.”

“But curves aren’t real!” said Ulf, provoking nods from the other children. “Mom and Dad said that curves are just stories!”

“We were wrong,” Dolphy said, provoking gasps from the children. “Apparently, there are other worlds where curves exist, and are even the norm. Worlds where ours looks just as strange to them as theirs would to us.”

Twilight nodded in agreement.

“I say we listen to Daddy!” Kryanna said before any of the other children could come up with another argument. “If those shapes aren’t curves, then what are they?”

The other children just stood there, dumbfounded.

Dolphy watched his daughter with a proud grin on his face, the love for her very easy to see.

“Krya’s got a point…” Huey said timidly, provoking another set of gasps from the children.

“Huey doesn’t talk very much,” Dolphy whispered to Twilight as the children stared at the human boy. “Not since his parents disappeared. He spends most of his time in the library, trying to discover any clues for how we can rescue them.”

Twilight nodded in understanding, then turned to watch the children’s discussion.

The children stopped talking and nodded to each other in agreement.

“If that’s why they look funny,” Shade said to Dolphy, “then we’ll just have to accept that for what it is.”

Dolphy sighed in relief.

“Okay, children, back inside, please,” he said. “I have to talk to our guests in private.”

The children groaned, but they obeyed anyway.

After the last one had gone back inside and the door shut, Dolphy turned to face the ponies.

“Okay, I know you only recently got here, but I could really use your help,” he began. “My wife and Huey’s parents were kidnapped about ten months ago, and I’ve been unable to search for them or rescue them because I have to protect and care for the children. If you could help me to take care of them for a while, I might be able to rescue the other adults who are still alive. Especially my dear wife.”

“We’ll have to think that over, Dolphy,” Twilight replied. “We’re grateful that you’re letting us stay here, but that’s asking quite a lot.”

The adult dragon-like sighed.

“Okay,” he said. “I understand. Please just give it some serious thought. That’s all I ask for now.”

Suddenly, his face lit up.

“Wait… Are any of you hungry? It’s almost dinner time.”

Chapter 5: Guests in Another World

------Dolphy------

I asked the ponies if they were hungry, and they told me that they were, so I led them inside the Town Hall. I asked them to wait at the large table in the dining hall that we used to use for celebrations back when all sixteen of the original Crafters were here.

I still remember the day we learned about furniture from the crafting guide. We’d been using stairs for chairs and full blocks for tables for a long time before we got that book. The first proper furniture we made was the table and chairs in the dining hall.

Anyway, I called the children down and made my way to the Town Hall kitchen, where I found Kryanna and Huey working on dinner in my absence. Those two are the best at crafting here besides me. There were steaks and potatoes cooking in the oven, and they were even using the Extreme Furnace that was my pride and joy to turn flour into bread. When I found out that I could turn a bundle of wheat (or barley) into flour and cook that to make bread, I was surprised. We’d been using three bundles each for loaves of bread before that. Sure, using the flour consumes furnace fuel, but it allows us to make three times the amount of bread for the same amount of grain!

There I go reminiscing again. Anyway, I congratulated the pair on their hard work and helped them to get the food to the table, along with some apples, carrots and fruit juice.

I joined the children and our guests at the table and gave the okay to dig in. I made sure the apples, carrots, potatoes and bread made it to our guests, since I could tell they were herbivores instead of omnivores like the rest of us. The yellow pegasus—Fluttershy (I need to remember that)—seemed taken aback at the sight of us eating steak, so I made a mental note to ask what was wrong later.

Our guests sure were hungry, that’s for sure. I lost count of how much food they ate, but I still remember that each one drank two cans of fruit juice. Don’t they realize that a can of fruit juice is 1000 millibuckets? That’s a whole bucket per can! The orange one—Applejack—couldn’t stop staring at the apples for very long, either. What, are apples not even blocky on their world? Our worlds really are nothing alike, are they?

What’s even more surprising is that they still had room for dessert after that! I brought out four cakes (having guests is a special occasion, of course), and everyone—our guests included—was able to eat an entire slice. With there being 21 of us at the table, there were 3 slices left over, but I saw that pink pony—Pinkie—eying those remaining pieces, so I had to move them to save them for later. I think I’ll let Kryanna and Huey have two of the extra pieces, since they made most of dinner all by themselves. I might take the third extra piece for myself, but I’ll have to wait and see.

After the children washed up and went to bed, I showed the ponies where they’d be staying. There are a lot of rooms in Town Hall that were still unused, so I quickly turned six of them into makeshift bedrooms. I gave each one a bed, a crafting table (I hope they can use those), a rubbish bin, a bedside table with a lamp, some bookshelves, a wall-mounted clock (it’s amazing what one can do with item frames if they just think for a little bit), a multi page chest (it still baffles me how one small chest can hold 585 stacks of items. Do the diamonds really help that much?), an Ender Chest, a writing table with a chair, and a stereo (old habits die hard. My family used to have a stereo for each of us back when Yip and Yipe ran the radio station, and I still don’t think a bedroom can be complete without one).

After our guests had each claimed a room, I asked Fluttershy if I could talk to her, since she still seemed a bit skittish. She gave me permission, but she was so quiet, I almost didn’t hear it.

------Ponies------

The dragon-like named Dolphy smiled gently at Fluttershy as he sat down on the wooden chair in front of the table in the bedroom he’d lent her. Fluttershy herself was sitting on the bed, shifting nervously.

“I noticed that you were… Less than impressed by our choice of food for me and the children,” Dolphy began. “I understand that you and your friends are strictly herbivorous, but is it really such a horrible thing for omnivores such as the children and myself to eat food that we naturally can?”

Fluttershy whispered a response that was something along the lines of cows being sapient.

Dolphy’s eyes grew huge.

“Cows are sapient where you come from?” he asked in surprise. “That’s strange. The cows here—and most animals, for that matter—aren’t very smart at all. They can’t talk, they wander around aimlessly, and they don’t even try to protect their own young when anything threatens them, whether Crafter or monster. The only smart animals out there are horses, donkeys, wolves and ocelots. We refrain from eating them for exactly those reasons. And we don’t always kill the cows, either. We use them for milk, too.”

Fluttershy stared at him for a little bit before responding, still quite softly.

“If that’s the way you are, and that’s the way life is here, I guess I should leave that part of you alone.”

“Thank you, Fluttershy,” Dolphy replied.

Before Fluttershy could respond, however, Kryanna burst into the room, her face painted with pure terror.

“Daddy! Endermen!” she screamed before she jumped into her father’s arms, shaking in terror.

“It’s all right, Krya,” Dolphy said as he stroked her long hair gently. “As long as no one looks them in the eyes, they won’t hurt us.”

“But that’s just it!” the young dragon-like sobbed, “Bodwin looked out his window, and a group of Endermen in the Badlands on the edge of town made eye contact with him! They’re on their way here right now!”

“Sweet mother of Notch!” the adult exclaimed. “This is bad! They can teleport, so the town walls won’t keep them out! I have to hurry!”

He turned to Fluttershy with a pleading look on his face. “Could you and your friends help calm down the children and keep them safe? I know Twilight said you’d have to think about it, but I really need your help.”

Fluttershy nodded, and Dolphy kissed his daughter on the cheek. “Stay here, alright? Our new friends will keep you safe, I promise. Daddy will be right back.”

Kryanna nodded, and Fluttershy held her tight, trying her best to calm her down.

------Dolphy------

I pulled on my emergency amethyst armor and picked up the matching sword before dashing out the door to meet the enemy.

I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw just how many angry Endermen were teleporting towards the Town Hall. There were ten in all. Even with my equipment, this was going to be difficult. But if I couldn’t stop them, I wouldn’t be the only one who’d have to will myself back to life tonight, and I wasn’t sure if the children had the strength of will to do that yet.

I shouted a battle cry and charged the first Enderman, getting its attention so it’d stop approaching the children’s location. The tall and gangly horror locked eyes with me and started walking towards me. I slashed at its feet a few times, but the creature got in a hit before I defeated it, and my armor wasn’t enough to stop the damage.

I ignored the pain and attacked the next one, killing it quickly as well, but not before it got in a couple of hits in the process.

I dispatched three more in about a minute, but now all of them had noticed me and were coming for me.

I knew I couldn’t take on five Endermen at once. That’s just asking the impossible. As far as I knew, no one could.

------Ponies------

The Crafter children were all gathered in a large room that looked as if it had once been used as a council room. All fourteen were either crying, shaking in fear, or both.

The ponies tried to calm them down, but the blocky children were too scared for that to have much of an effect.

Twilight looked out the window to see Dolphy’s progress. What she saw wasn’t good at all: five incredibly tall and thin bipeds were ganging up on the Crafter, who was desperately trying to fend them off with a pinkish sword.

She looked away from the scene, but not before Kryanna saw what the unicorn had been looking at.

The young dragon-like screamed and pointed at the fight.

“Daddy’s losing! The Endermen are gonna kill him!”

The other Crafter children watched in fear as the brave Crafter fell back to eat what appeared to be an apple of pure gold.

However, before he could even sink his teeth into it, an Enderman teleported behind him and punched him in the back, forcing him to switch back to his sword to protect himself.

“NO! DADDY!!!” Kryanna shrieked, tears streaming down her face.

“I can’t just sit here and watch!” Rainbow Dash yelled, leaping towards the window and crashing through it.

------Dolphy------

I was panting heavily, desperate to find a way out of the circle of Endermen long enough to eat my enchanted golden apple. I knew that I was finished unless I could consume it, and I didn’t have enough strength left to survive the damage from the use of an Ender Pearl.

“Wyvern, I’m sorry…” I whispered with tears streaming down my face as an Enderman prepared to finish me off. “I couldn’t keep my promise.”

Suddenly, I heard the sound of shattering glass and looked in the direction of Town Hall. Something was streaking towards me at a speed that would put even the fastest train to shame.

Right as the Enderman threw the punch that would’ve finished me off, the prismatic blur collided with the monster and knocked it back thirty blocks, killing the creature.

I now had an opening, so I took it. I leaped backwards to dodge another punch and wolfed down my golden apple faster than I’d ever eaten anything before.

I felt strength return to my body at an incredible speed, and I also felt like I could withstand anything. The apple had taken effect.

I glared at the Endermen and saw the blur take out another one, leaving only three.

I jumped and slashed an Enderman, taking it down in a few hits, and only two remained.

“Go back to The End and jump into the Void!” I yelled as I took out one more.

I turned to face the last one, but the blur slammed into it, killing it. The Endermen were dead and the town was safe.

“Now what in Notch’s name was that?” I asked the air, referring to the blur that had saved me.

As if on cue, the blur zoomed right past me and stopped. I couldn’t believe my eyes: the blue pegasus from Twilight’s group was grinning at me.

“Rainbow Dash?” I exclaimed in surprise, “that was you? Not even my fastest train can go even close to that speed! That was amazing!"

She puffed out her chest in pride and her smile grew even bigger.

Before I could say anything else, the children started cheering for Rainbow Dash, so I stayed silent. She deserved this. She’d saved my life, after all, as well as all the children.

I walked up to her and extended my hand in gratitude. “Thanks for saving me back there. I would’ve been dead if it weren’t for you.”

She met my hand with her hoof and we shook.

“No problem!” she replied, and then we returned to the Town Hall to get some sleep.

I really hope the ponies agree to help me. I don’t know how much longer I can go without seeing my beloved Wyvern’s face.

Chapter 6: The Decision

Year 8, Day 16

I managed to be the first one out of bed today, so I quietly went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the children and my guests. This time, I made a bit of a variation on breakfast from the usual. I still prepared the usual bread, porkchops and milk; but I decided to mix thing up a bit by replacing the apples with bowls of fruit salad (I had to check the crafting guide for that one. It’d been so long since I last made one, I’d forgotten how! But now I remember: a bowl, an apple, a melon slice and one of those nameless berries that grow on the odd bushes that aren’t exactly cubes (unlike the named berries, which grow on cube bushes)). Sacred ambrosia (the multicolored kind. Not the plain pink kind. That’s just plain ambrosia) would’ve been nice, but I haven’t told the children about the fauna that’s been showing up in the Promised Land lately, and I don’t think they’re ready to learn that I had to kill pixies to get one of the ingredients for the drink (pixie dust).

I prepared a slightly different meal for our guests. I just replaced the meat with berry medley bowls (I hoped that that wasn’t too much fruit for one meal). As I set the food out on the table, I called the children and our guests down for breakfast, but then I heard a noise coming from the kitchen, so I went back to investigate.

------Ponies------

Now where did he put that cake? Pinkie thought as she rummaged through the fridge. She’d seen him put the leftover cake in it the night before, but he apparently hid it quite well.

Her hoof touched something soft, so she pulled it out. She’d found it!

Pinkie took a slice and started to eat it when she heard footsteps coming towards the kitchen.

Before she could react, the adult Crafter had entered the room.

“Oh, for the love of—“ he cut off at the sight of Pinkie eating the slice of cake.

“Well, I guess you can finish that,” he sighed. “Just don’t take another piece. The last two pieces are for Kryanna and Huey, since they made most of last night’s dinner themselves.”

Pinkie finished the slice of cake and closed the fridge. “Sorry.”

“Well, breakfast’s on the table,” Dolphy told her before turning to leave for the dining hall. “I think everyone should be ready by now.”

Pinkie followed Dolphy to the dining hall, where everyone else was already waiting.

------Dolphy------

I apologized for the wait and sat down at the table. After everyone else sat down, I gave the okay to start eating. The children were quite surprised at the change of food. As I said before, I hadn’t made fruit salads in a long time. Breakfast went smoothly, and after everyone had finished eating, I walked over to Twilight and asked her if I could talk to her and her friends in private.

She asked me to wait until they could talk things over with each other, so I agreed to wait, and took the children to my old house to learn about enchanting.

------Ponies------

After the Crafters had all left, the ponies were alone in the large building, so they decided to discuss their situation.

“These Crafters are so cute!” Pinkie said. “I think we should help them! Then we can have a party to welcome Dolphy’s wife and friends back!”

“What could possibly be cute about the denizens of a world of cubes?” Rarity asked.

“Everything!” Pinkie replied. “The children especially, but Dolphy’s kinda cute too!”

“Those kids really are nice, aren’t they?” Rainbow Dash added. “They only knew me for a few hours, and they were already cheering for me like devoted fans!”

“Ah just don’t know…” Applejack said. “This world is pretty strange. Ah just wanna go home, where everything’s normal.”

“Dolphy seemed really nice,” Fluttershy said quietly. “He talked to me last night to explain their choice in food. And his daughter was so scared of those… ‘Endermen’. I felt really sorry for her.”

Rarity opened her mouth to object again, but Twilight cut her off.

“Rarity, Applejack… How would you feel if Sweetie Belle or Applebloom were in constant danger and you couldn’t protect them by yourself? Wouldn’t you want help?”

Applejack blinked in surprise, then nodded. “Ah suppose you’re right, Twi. It’d be rather selfish of me to not help when Ah’d want the same thing.”

“You’ve got a point, Twilight,” Rarity admitted. “This is too much for him to handle by himself.”

“Then are we all in agreement?” Twilight asked the group.

The others nodded in reply.

“Okay then, let’s give our host our decision.”

With that, the six ponies left Town Hall and walked across town to the house where Dolphy was teaching the children.

Twilight used her magic to open the door, and then led the others inside.

The house was made of the same blue wood as all the other houses, and most of the carpeting was wool dyed to a kind of orange color.

“Orange? Really?” Rarity muttered.

They heard muffled voices from upstairs, so Twilight led them up the staircase to the second floor.

There didn’t seem to be a third floor, but the voices still seemed to be coming from above them.

“Now, children,” Dolphy said, “this is an Enchanting Table. You’ll need one for most kinds of magic, and some stronger monsters will be very difficult to defeat without enchanted weapons.”

The ponies looked around for stairs, but couldn’t find any.

“Hey, a ladder!” Pinkie said, drawing the attention of the other five.

Sure enough, there was a blocky ladder leading up to a hole in the ceiling.

“They must be up there! Let’s go!” Pinkie exclaimed and climbed the ladder.

The other ponies followed, and what they saw was quite impressive, to say the least.

The attic wasn’t that big, but there was a square “ring” of bookshelves surrounding a table made out of the same black material as the portal that had taken them to this world. It had a diamond on each of the upper corners, it had a red cloth on top of the table, and there was a book just… floating above it, without any traces of any kind of magic Twilight knew of keeping it hovering.

The children were gathered on either side of the set of bookshelves, watching the adult dragon-like place a blue sword on the table.

He looked up when the ponies entered the room.

“Ah, hello!” he said, smiling warmly. “You caught us near the beginning of class, so please just wait a little bit.”

Various runes were floating through the air from the bookshelves to the table, seemingly made out of nothing but energy.

Dolphy cleared his throat and addressed the children again.

“I’ll be enchanting this diamond sword for this demonstration, children,” he said. “Remember: fifteen bookshelves produces the strongest enchantments that can be gotten from an enchanting table, but you’ll have to give up some of the energy you obtain from slaying monsters—“experience”—to do so. You won’t know what you’ll get until after you cast the spell, but usually your safest bet is to use the most expensive spell the book gives you, since the higher cost usually means better enchantments.”

The children watched intently as the dragon-like studied the page the book had randomly opened to on its own.

“Hmm… Let’s see…” Dolphy muttered. “Okay… Yes. That’s the one that costs the most, so it should work the best.”

He waved his hands over the blade and read the words in the book out loud. They made no sense whatsoever, though.

Suddenly, green balls of energy shot from his hands into the blade, causing it to glow with a purple aura.

“I picked up some of those things from those ‘Endermen’ things last night!” Rainbow Dash whispered to the other ponies. “I wonder if I could do that.”

Dolphy picked up the blade and inspected it.

“Okay, not bad,” he said. “It’s got a level 4 Sharpness, a level 4 Wisdom, a level 2 Penetrate, and a level 3 Looting. That’s actually quite good for a diamond sword. Gold could get an even better set from the table, but gold breaks really easily, so iron, diamond or amethyst are usually your best bet.”

Hop raised her hand.

“Yes, Hop?” Dolphy asked.

“How’d you know the enchantments just by looking at it?” the rabbit-like girl asked.

“Looking at it isn’t actually how I know,” the dragon-like replied. “Looking at it just sends the knowledge straight from the weapon into my head. There are other ways to find out, but I’ve always preferred looking at it.”

Dolphy led the children to the other side of the attic, where an anvil, six dark gray furnaces and two chests with diamond trim were sitting. Most of the ponies followed, but Twilight couldn’t stop staring at the enchanting table.

How does that even work? She wondered. The magic isn’t any kind I can identify! I can sense something coming from it, but that’s not a kind of magic I’ve heard of before!

Before Twilight could inspect the table, Dolphy was standing next to her.

“You came here to talk to me, right?” he said, causing her to jump slightly.

“Oh. That’s right,” Twilight said in slight surprise.

“Did you six come to a decision?” the dragon-like adult asked.

“Yes, we did,” Twilight replied. “We’ve decided to help you, Dolphy. We can see that you’re in need of a lot of help right now.”

Dolphy smiled in gratitude. “Thank you, Twilight,” he said. “That means a lot to me. The children are going to be quite happy, too.”

With that discussion over, Dolphy resumed class and taught the children more about enchanting, which intrigued Twilight just as much as the children.

The class went along smoothly and without incident, and after ten minutes, Dolphy was letting the children attempt to enchant one at a time.

“Dolphy?” Twilight asked as the dragon-like walked by her.

“Yes, Twilight?” he replied.

“How does that enchanting even work?” Twilight inquired. “It doesn’t resemble any magic I’ve seen before.”

“Well, magic is something I don’t fully understand myself,” Dolphy admitted. “I know that the ‘experience’ I told the children about is the source of most magic in this world, but it doesn’t seem to be accessible without the right objects. I don’t know how these objects allow me to tap into my inner well of magic; I only know that they do. It’s quite frustrating at times.”

Twilight nodded, but she was still a bit confused.

“If you want, you could read up on the subject of magic in this world. The library has an extensive collection of books on the subject. None of the Crafters wrote them, though. We found them in a stronghold’s library and brought them back with us. The books are a bit confusing to me, but you might be able to figure them out. You seem like you’re really smart.”

Twilight blushed at the compliment.

“All right children,” Dolphy said to the group of young Crafters, “class is over. Please return to the Town Hall while I clean up here.”

The children complied and climbed down the ladder one at a time.

Once only Dolphy and the ponies were still in the house, the blue dragon-like sighed.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in this house for anything,” he said. “Wyvern, Kryanna and I lived here before the disaster that took the lives of most of our friends.”

He turned and climbed down the ladder and waited for the ponies to follow.

Once all of them were down the ladder, he continued: “Thanks again for promising to help me. I feel that these children need more than just me to take care of them, especially Huey. That boy has no family anymore. Every child but Huey and Kryanna has a sibling to call family, and Kryanna still has me. But Huey has no kin of his own right now. I feel so sorry for that boy.”

Dolphy led the ponies down the stairs and out the door.

“Well,” he said, a smile returning to his face, “I’d like to show you something, Twilight. I think you might enjoy this.”

Chapter 7: Hidden Knowledge

------Dolphy------

I led the ponies to the Shimmering Hope library and proceeded to show them our town’s vast collection of knowledge. I had no hand in building it, but as I’m now in charge of the entire town, I’m proud to say that I’m tasked with protecting such important volumes.

------Ponies------

Twilight was quite impressed by the size of the library. Dolphy said it had seven floors, and Twilight could see that it was over one hundred meters (or “blocks”, as the Crafters termed it) wide. The structure towered over them, with quartz pillars decorating the front.

“Right this way, everyone!” Dolphy said as he opened the front doors and motioned the ponies inside. “I’m sure we have books on subjects that should interest most of you, if not all of you. There’s some knowledge in here that not even I know about, but I’m happy to share all of the knowledge in here with you. The children just aren’t ready for some of it yet.”

Twilight gasped the loudest out of all six ponies. There must have been over one hundred thousand books in this library!

They amassed this much knowledge in seven years? Twilight marveled. This world gets more amazing by the minute!

“Since I’m going to need you to help keep the children educated while I’m out rescuing my wife and friends,” the Crafter said after the initial shock had worn off, “I’ll need at least one of you to study the subjects I had planned to teach the children during that time. Of course, I’ll have to figure out where they were taken to first, and that’ll take some time, so for now, you can read about whatever you want.”

The ponies quickly separated, leaving Dolphy alone with Twilight.

“Um… Dolphy?” Twilight began.

“What’s up?” the dragon-like asked.

“Where are your books on magic?”

“Magic?” The Crafter scratched his head with a blocky hand as he thought for a moment.

“Oh, that’s right,” he said, lowering his hand, “they’re on the fourth floor on the South side. The entire section is devoted to them. It’s one of our largest, but I’d forgotten since it’s been a while since I last looked through them.”

“Thanks!” Twilight replied, and then she started walking up a staircase while Dolphy replied: “You’re welcome! I’ll be back at Town Hall with the children, if you need anything.”

With that, the blue dragon-like exited the library and left the ponies to their own devices.

Twilight climbed the stairs all the way to the fourth floor, then made her way to the South side of the floor. Dolphy was right. There were shelves upon shelves of books on various subjects of magic: The Experience Theory, Redstone Made Simple, Magic Essence and Farming… The shelves were crammed full of books on magic, but none of them were what Twilight was looking for.

However, once Twilight reached a third aisle of shelves, the very first book she saw stood out to her: Experience and Enchanting: A Detailed Analysis of Experience and its Role in Magic. This had to be what she was looking for. She used her magic to levitate the book down from the shelf, opened it, and began to read:

Most animate living things contain a kind of energy commonly referred to as “experience”, or “xp”. Some other things can produce it, such as mining for ores and smelting or cooking certain items, but animals and monsters are usually the best source for this energy.

When the energy manifests itself in physical form, it takes the shape of small, yellow-green “orbs”, which can be absorbed by Crafters to increase their own internal supply of xp, which they can then tap into for certain actions.

This energy is very potent, so attempts have been made to channel it without the need for stationary devices, but every attempt has ended in failure (note: see Chapter Twelve for more details on these attempts).

Twilight’s eyes widened at the mention of such attempts, so she quickly flipped through the book to Chapter Twelve, near the end of the book:

The first attempt to channel xp without need for an external conduit was made by the human Crafter Jason, in the year of 32 CY (Crafter Year). The experiment was based around the theory that because Testificate priests are able to enchant items without the need for an enchanting table or anvil, Crafters might be able to use such magic as well, due to Crafters and Testificates being similar in nature. The results were far from satisfactory, and all Jason managed to do was emit a small amount of energy that was far too weak to enchant anything.

The experiment may have been a failure, but the results, though weak, compelled other Crafters to attempt the same.

The next noteworthy attempt was made by the orc Crafter Marlblood in 134 CY. After consuming a bottle of sacred ambrosia and attempting the exact same experiment as Jason from the year 32, the resulting energy output was incredible, but impossible to control. The facility was utterly destroyed in the resulting explosion, but Marlblood somehow managed to survive.

Later facilities were made out of obsidian to prevent such destruction from happening again, but no matter what combination of chemicals were consumed, the result was either unworthy of note, or incredibly destructive.

However, in the year of 1452 CY, a group of experts in many different fields started working together on Project HB: an attempt to produce a Crafter with abilities on par with those of the Creator, Notch.

Despite extreme controversy, they made steady progress. Sadly, the details of the project and its results are restricted information due to details surrounding the fall of Crafter society being closely guarded by the Testificate government.

The book went on to mention all sorts of theories and information on the subjects of enchanting, but Twilight was still very intrigued by the information she’d just read. Apparently, Dolphy and his fellow Crafters weren’t the first of their kind in this world after all, but the Crafters who existed before them all disappeared.

Twilight closed the book and returned it to the shelf it was on and continued reading the titles of the books.

As she neared the end of the aisle, another book caught her eye: The Disaster of Project HB. She removed the book from the shelf and looked at the cover. In addition to the title, there was additional text stamped onto the cover: “CONFISCATED FOR PUBLISHING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION”.

Now this would be an interesting read!

Twilight opened the book and started reading.

We, the people of Sandy Flats, have decided to make known the events surrounding the Crafter magical facility that used to be in our vicinity. We have collected the journals of the various scientists and have compiled them in this book. Please remember that some of the journal entries are mostly opinion, and shouldn’t be treated as fact. Any recounting of events, however, is mostly true and accurate.

Twilight continued reading.

My fellow researchers and I have managed to isolate the chemical compounds in sacred ambrosia that result in being able to channel xp for using magic without requiring a medium. However, the resulting release of power is still uncontrollable, so we require more research before we can begin tests.

Twilight skimmed the next few pages due to them mainly being uninformative recounts of day-to-day life at the facility.

Right after those pages, the entries began to be interesting again.

It has been three years since we began studying xp and ambrosia, and we have finally managed to create a compound that may allow control. We will test the compound on Test Subject HB000 tomorrow morning.

We tested the compound on Subject HB000, but there hasn’t been much success. The magical energies are still far too difficult for the subject to control, so we had to use a complex procedure to reverse the process. We will attempt to recreate the compound starting this evening.

Twilight skimmed through several more pages, due to the experiments basically being the same again and again.

On page 93, she found more interesting entries.

Test Subject HB382 has shown great promise in trial runs in use of the newly acquired ability to use magic without even needing to absorb xp first! This is a marvel of science and magic we never expected! We have designated the Test Subject: “Herobrine”. We will resume tests tomorrow.

Herobrine has proven too dangerous. Though he has complete control of his abilities, he has lost almost all moral inhibitions and must be disposed of. We are currently hiding in the basement of the facility and have sent a message asking Craftopolis for help. We only hope that the military can defeat him. We’ve decided to abandon the project. All we can do now is wait and hope.

The entries ended with that account. The rest of the book described the destruction of the entire Crafter civilization by the aforementioned “Herobrine”.

Twilight closed the book and stared at it. This “Herobrine” had destroyed an entire civilization by himself! This was more important than learning how magic worked for Crafters.

She had to tell Dolphy.

Chapter 8: The Realization

------Dolphy------

Once I returned to Town Hall, the children and I had lunch. We had veggie salad (a rare dish, since I can’t grow the white wild carrots, unlike the other two ingredients (raw potatoes and orange tame carrots)), mushroom stew and fruit juice. I made sure to save enough for our guests, just in case they got hungry before they returned. I also made sure to give Krya and Huey the remaining slices of cake. Those two worked really hard last night.

After our lunch, I was about to try to train the children on combat again, when Twilight and her friends flung open the front doors and dashed over to me as if something was chasing them.

What she showed me is something that will probably change the way I look at things forever.

------Ponies------

“What’s wrong, Twilight?” the dragon-like asked with concern in his voice. “You look like you’ve seen a Wither!”

Instead of asking what a “Wither” was, Twilight levitated the book she had been carrying into Dolphy’s hands.

The Crafter gave Twilight’s glowing horn a surprised look, but quickly shifted his eyes to the page Twilight had the book open to.

As the Crafter’s eyes darted back and forth over the words on the page, Twilight waited for his reaction.

“Oh my word…” he breathed as he finished reading the page. “There were Crafters here before us? And they were destroyed?”

Twilight nodded.

“And this ‘Herobrine’… They were trying to create an equal to Notch? Why would anyone do something like that?”

“They were trying to understand the magic of this world better,” Twilight replied. “Or, that’s what some of the earlier journal entries mentioned.”

“By the descriptions, this ‘Herobrine’ seems more like a monster than a Crafter…” Dolphy’s eyes grew huge at the realization of what he’d just said.

“That must be who kidnapped my wife and friends! I remember he looked like a Crafter, but he gave off the same feeling of vileness that I get from monsters. If he can do all that,” the Crafter lowered his head sadly. “I’ll probably never be able to rescue them. I couldn’t possibly defeat something that powerful!”

“Daddy, please don’t give up!”

Dolphy spun around when he heard his daughter’s voice.

“But Krya, I—“

“Daddy, you promised that you’d get Mommy back!” the pink dragon-like said, cutting him off. “Doesn’t a promise mean more than just words?”

The dragon-likes’ eyes met, and after about a minute, the adult nodded and knelt down to meet his daughter at eye level.

“You’re right, Krya,” the father said. “I made a promise, and I should keep it. I will get your mother back. And Huey’s parents, too.”

The two hugged for a few minutes, but then separated when Pinkie spoke up.

“This Herobrine sounds like a big meanie mean pants! That bully should be taught a lesson!”

Dolphy and Kryanna smiled at that.

------Dolphy------

Pinkie was right. This ‘Herobrine’ may have killed many Crafters in the past, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t defeat him. At least, I might be able to with some help.

I asked our guests if some of them could come with me to rescue my wife and friends. They agreed, but also said that they’d need some time to get ready. Especially the ones who would stay behind to take care of the children.

I accepted their reasoning, and then brought out the lunch I’d set aside for them.

They finished lunch quickly, then observed as I started to train the children on combat again.

------Ponies------

“Okay, children,” Dolphy said once all the young Crafters had assembled in a large, nearly empty room, “We’re going to practice combat again. I want each of you to grab a stick from the chest and find a partner to square off against. Remember: once your opponent shows signs of fatigue, don’t continue to attack. This is only for practice. I’ll have food and health potions set aside for when training is complete.”

The ponies sat down and watched as the children reached into the open chest, pulled out sticks, and then split up into pairs.

The adult Crafter gave a signal, and the children started smacking each other with sticks.

Fluttershy cringed and looked away, but the other five watched intently.

After several minutes, there were seven children sitting on the floor, and seven more panting from the exertion, but obviously victorious.

“Very good!” Dolphy said, applauding the children. “Even those of you who lost did quite well. This is a definite improvement over last week!”

The blue dragon-like passed out food and bottles of some kind of red fluid to the children. Upon consuming the beverage, the children looked good as new.

“Now, all of you run along,” Dolphy told the children. The children started to leave, but as his daughter reached the door, the Crafter added, “Krya, you stay here. I need to talk to you.”

Confused, the pink dragon-like walked back to her father.

“What is it Daddy?”

“I just wanted to let you know how proud I was of your performance during practice,” the adult dragon-like said as he knelt down to talk to her. “You’ve shown incredible improvement. I think I’ll have to train you in actual swordplay and archery. You’re ready for it now.”

The girl squealed in delight and hugged her father. “Thank you, Daddy! I’ll do my best!”

The rest of the day went along smoothly, but when night fell, one child stayed awake.

------Dolphy------

Once the other children had all gone to bed, I had Kryanna meet me at the front door. I gave her a full suit of diamond armor and a diamond sword, since I was going to let her try to battle a monster for the first time.

Most of our guests had fallen asleep, but Rainbow Dash hadn’t, and she wanted to tag along and watch. I gave her permission, and then the three of us quietly slipped out the door to make our way to the old arena, which hadn’t been used since the tragedy that took most of my friends’ lives.

Upon arriving at the old obsidian stadium, I motioned for our sole spectator to take a seat in the stands while Kryanna and I got ready.

“Are you ready?” I asked my daughter.

“Y-yes!” she stuttered, shivering in anticipation.

“Okay. The first monster I’m bringing out is a Silverfish,” I told her.

“But Daddy! Those are pathetic!” she protested.

“It’s best to start small,” I replied. “We all have to start somewhere. The first monster I ever fought may have been a witch, but I had fifteen friends helping me. I’m only going to step in if anything goes wrong.”

She sighed. “Okay, Daddy.”

I opened the door to the arena, and she entered.

As soon as she took on a battle stance, I pressed a button, and a lone Silverfish entered the arena.

My daughter struck the creature with her sword, and it died in a single stroke.

“I told you those are too easy Daddy!” she exclaimed.

“Hey! Give her something harder!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

“I was just about to do that!” I shouted back.

“Krya!” I called to my little girl, “remember that Silverfish usually appear in strongholds. They usually attack in groups, but we’ll get to that later. Now, I want you to take on a spider!”

She nodded, and I pressed another button, releasing a large, black spider.

The night just got more interesting from there.

Chapter 9: Serious Training

------Ponies------

Rainbow Dash watched as an ugly, blocky creature with eight glowing red eyes charged Dolphy’s daughter. She swung her sword, but the spider struck first, knocking her back.

The little girl shrugged off the pain as if it were nothing, jumped into the air, and brought her sword down on the creature’s head.

The spider shrieked and recoiled from the pain, but just started charging the girl again.

As the spider jumped towards the young dragon-like, the little girl swung her sword again and knocked the spider away again.

Kryanna ran to the spider and slashed a third time, killing it.

Rainbow Dash cheered at the display of strength and skill, and the little girl beamed proudly.

“Very good, Krya!” Dolphy shouted. “Getting struck only once is actually quite remarkable for your first fight with a spider!”

“Come on!” Rainbow Dash shouted, “there’s gotta be something stronger you can give her!”

“Yeah Daddy!” the pink dragon-like agreed, “something tougher!”

“All right then!” her father replied. “Let’s see how you deal with a zombie! Just remember: a zombie might create more zombies when it gets hurt, so be careful!”

Rainbow Dash heard the sound of another button clicking, and the gate to the monster pen opened up again, this time releasing a slow-walking, decaying green bipedal creature about the same size as Dolphy, but about the same shape as the human boy, Huey.

The zombie groaned and approached the young Crafter with arms outstretched.

Kryanna sprinted towards her opponent and struck with her sword before it could touch her, knocking it back.

She dashed and struck it again, causing it to recoil again, but…

Suddenly, there were two of them!

Kryanna finished off the first, and then turned to face the second zombie. The creature managed to get in a hit, but the young dragon-like was unfazed and retaliated with another strike from her sword.

The zombie grunted and resumed its approach.

The pink Crafter swung again, getting in another hit, but as she finished it with her third strike…

A smaller version of the zombie appeared!

“A baby one? Is this some kind of joke?” Rainbow Dash shouted.

That soon proved to not be the case. The smaller zombie was quite fast, and Kryanna had extreme difficulty getting in hits on it.

“Daddy! It’s too fast!” she cried out.

With an incredible burst of speed, the girl’s father dashed into the arena, picked up his daughter with his left hand, and attacked the small zombie with the enchanted sword in his right.

“Get back!” he shouted as he swung his sword at the miniature terror, “you’ve ruined a perfectly good training session! Now back to the Void, where you belong!”

The glowing sword struck the zombie, knocking it back several blocks and causing it to burst into flames.

The baby zombie rushed the adult Crafter, but with one more strike, it fell over dead.

“Are you alright, Krya?” the blue dragon-like asked with concern in his voice.

“I’m fine now, Daddy,” she replied, rubbing her cheek against her father’s arm. “Thank you for saving me. I’m sorry for asking for something so strong.”

“Actually, it’s partially my fault,” the older dragon-like confessed. “I forgot that zombies could summon infant versions of themselves. I should’ve remembered that. I’m sorry I put you in danger like that.”

“It’s okay, Daddy,” she said as he put her down, “what matters is that you saved me.”

“That… was… AWESOME!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she darted towards the pair. “You took out that little creep like it was nothing special!”

Dolphy blushed in embarrassment. “It’s just the skill I built up over the years, really. Anyone can get that good with enough training.”

“Anyway, I think that’s enough training for one night,” he added. “I think we should all get some sleep.”

With that, the trio returned to Town Hall to do just that.

------Dolphy------

After we got inside, I helped Krya to get to her room. She had gotten tired pretty fast.

Once she was in bed, I tucked her in and gave her a good night kiss on the forehead. She smiled at that and whispered, “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you too, my little angel,” I replied, and then I left the room to write the rest of this entry and get some sleep. I didn’t expect to see our guests waiting for me outside my room.

But there they were: all six of them.

------Ponies------

“Wait. I thought you had all gone to bed!” Dolphy exclaimed when he saw the ponies in front of his bedroom door.

“We had,” Rarity replied, “but it was impossible to sleep with all that racket coming from across town! I’m amazed the children here could sleep through all that!”

“According to what Rainbow Dash told us, you were having your daughter fight creatures all by herself,” Twilight added. “Why?”

Before the dragon-like could reply, Applejack spoke up.

“How could ya do somethin’ like that? Ya put yer own little one in danger, just like that? What kinda father are ya?”

“There’s some things I guess I should tell you,” Dolphy sighed. “This world is a very dangerous place. I may not be around forever. There will come a time when I won’t be able to protect my little angel all the time. She’s still little, but she shows promise, and I can’t let that go to waste. The most important rule in this world is this: survive. If something happens to me that would prevent me from being able to protect her, how could I live with myself if she couldn’t protect herself in such a situation?”

The blue dragon-like took a breath, sat on the floor, and continued. “It’s thanks to sheer luck that I didn’t get kidnapped along with my wife and friends. Yes, these children need me, but that fiend could return at any time and take me too. If that happens, how will these children survive? I try to teach them everything I can—including combat—because I know that they’ll have to be able to protect themselves. This town sits in a biome that’s infested with one of the most dangerous monsters in the Overworld: witches. Armor has little effect against witches unless properly enchanted. These children shouldn’t have to spend their entire lives inside these walls, but if they can’t fend off witches, there’s little choice. I don’t want these children to be prisoners in their own hometown. And if that requires teaching them how to fight monsters, then by Notch, I’ll do it.”

The ponies stared at him for a while before any of them replied.

Fluttershy finally broke the silence.

“I understand that you want to keep them safe, I just didn’t realize that you’d have to do it that way. I understand now.”

“I’m sorry, too, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “Yer just tryin’ to make sure she can protect herself.”

The other ponies nodded in agreement.

“Thank you,” Dolphy said as he stood up. “I think we should all go to bed. Thanks for understanding.”

All the ponies left after that, except for Rainbow Dash.

“Sorry about that,” the blue pegasus said, “I didn’t expect them to get so mad at you.”

The dragon-like smiled. “It’s fine, Rainbow Dash. We got this sorted out, and that’s all that matters. I’ll see you in the morning. Good night.”

With that, Rainbow Dash also went to bed, and Dolphy retired to his room for the night.

------Dolphy------

This day’s almost over, so I should be getting some sleep, but I have one final thought.

Hold on, my love. I can feel it: I’ll be coming to rescue you soon.

Author's Note

Special thanks to mrlordowaffles for being my editor! Your help really means a lot to me.

Chapter 10: A New Set of Rules to Break

Year 8, Day 17

I was the first up again this morning (or so I thought), so I went to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. I soon found out I wasn’t the first up after all.

Pinkie was rummaging through the storage chests we use for non-perishable food, and I could see various food items just sitting on the counters.

I cleared my throat to get her attention, and she stopped looking through the chests to look at me.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I want to know how you made those cakes!” she replied.

“You know, you could’ve just asked,” I told her as I started returning the food to their proper places. “I’d be more than happy to show you my crafting recipes. Anyway, I need to make breakfast for everybody.”

“Okie dokie lokie,” she responded, and then left the room.

Once I had everything I didn’t need for making breakfast put back away, I proceeded to prepare the meal: apples, milk and bread for everyone, porkchops for the children and I, and berry medleys for the ponies.

With breakfast ready, I called everyone down, and we began eating shortly afterwards.

After an uneventful breakfast, the children washed up, and then I proceeded to give them a lesson on cooking. Pinkie tagged along, and the other ponies separated. I didn’t pay attention to where they went, though.

I led the children over to a set of crafting tables in the kitchen and began my lesson.

------Ponies------

“Okay children,” Dolphy began, “we’re going to start with preparing food that doesn’t need an oven or furnace. For those of you who have grasped these concepts well already, this will be more of a review, but please still pay attention.”

The dragon-like pulled out a wooden bowl, an apple, a slice of some kind of melon, and a berry that Pinkie couldn’t identify. Not that it mattered that much.

“For a fruit salad, you’ll need these three fruits,” he explained. “Remember to use the generic berries instead of the special, named berries.”

He placed all four items on the table with a grid on it, and they suddenly combined into a bowl of fruit salad just like the ones from breakfast the day before.

He proceeded to show them how to make stew from a red and a brown mushroom, salad from a potato and two different kinds of carrots, a mushroom salad from a portobello, a toadstool and some strange kind of blue mushroom, a glowing version of the mushroom stew from green, purple and blue mushrooms he called “glowshrooms”, a bowl of berries like the ones from the last two breakfasts, and then…

“And now for my three favorites,” Dolphy said. “Cookies, pumpkin pie and cake. We’ll start with the cookies.”

Pinkie watched as he took two bundles of wheat and a small handful of brown beans and showed them to the children.

“I’m sure you’re all familiar with wheat,” he said. “But these,” he held out the beans for everyone to get a good look, “are cocoa beans. We need them for the chocolate in the cookies.”

He then proceeded to place them on the grid, and they then combined to produce eight blocky cookies, ready to be eaten.

He didn’t need to cook them? Pinkie was surprised, but kept watching intently.

“Next up,” the adult Crafter continued, “we have pumpkin pie. For this, you’ll need: a pumpkin, an egg, and some sugar.” He pulled out the three ingredients and placed them on the grid. They then combined to form a blocky pie.

“And now for the cake,” the blue dragon-like announced, “you’ll need three buckets of milk, an egg, two piles of sugar, and some flour.” He pulled out each ingredient and showed them to the children.

“Before we knew about flour, we had to use three bundles of wheat instead of a single pile of flour,” he explained. “Making flour is much more efficient, as it saves grain.”

He then placed the egg in the middle of the grid, the piles of sugar on both sides of it, the three buckets of milk in the squares on the far side of the grid, and the single pile of flour in the center of the near side, leaving only the near corners empty.

With that complete, they combined to form a cake just like the ones from the day the ponies arrived.

The children applauded, and Dolphy picked up all the food he’d left on the counter.

“That looks like fun!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Can I try?”

“I don’t see why not,” Dolphy replied.

With that, Pinkie rummaged through the various chests and fridges to get the same ingredients the Crafter had used for the cake. Pinkie thought for a second, then grabbed two sets of cocoa beans, as well.

Dolphy looked at the ingredients, and did a double take when he saw the beans.

“Uh, Pinkie? What are the cocoa beans for?” he asked in confusion.

“I want to make a chocolate cake!” she announced.

“But the crafting guide never mentioned any kind of cake besides the kind I made,” the Crafter told her. “There’s no other kind.”

“Don’t be silly! There are lots of different kinds of cakes,” Pinkie replied.

Dolphy shook his head, but let her try anyway.

Pinkie placed the ingredients in the same formation the Crafter had, and then placed the two sets of cocoa beans in the empty spaces.

The Crafters watched in amazement as Pinkie picked up a brown cake from the table.

“But that’s…” Dolphy’s mouth struggled to form the word he was looking for. “That’s impossible!”

The Crafter attempted to do the same thing, but nothing happened.

“How’d you do that?” he asked, dumbfounded. “There’s no logical explanation for how you can craft something, but I can’t even though I used the same recipe! This makes no effing sense whatsoever!”

Pinkie wasn’t listening, and just wandered off.

The Crafter started saying something about ovens and furnaces, but Pinkie was soon out of earshot. She didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t care that much at the moment.

Suddenly, she found a room full of those diamond trimmed chests. There had to be about fifty of them! She opened the first one and looked inside. Inside was a collection of stones that looked like some kind of eye. She picked up one and pulled it out, then was about to close the chest, but she bumped a button on the inside of the chest, and suddenly the contents of the chest changed. Now it was full of some kind of yellow and red rods. She pulled one of those out as well, and then hit the button again, just to see what would happen next.

The contents of the chest changed again. This time, it was filled with a bunch of pink gems, so she took one of those, too. Pushing the button again, she saw the contents change to a collection of black cubes resembling the material the portal that had sucked them into this world was made of. She grabbed two, and then hit the button again.

Now the chest was full of some kind of red dust, so she grabbed a hoof-full and hit the button again.

Pinkie was disappointed to see that the contents had returned to the stones that resembled eyes.

Pinkie spied one of those tables with a grid on it, then placed the items on it. They combined to form some kind of large, blocky tube with a handle on each side of one end.

Picking up the strange object, she ran back to the kitchen to ask Dolphy what the item she made was supposed to be.

------Dolphy------

As I was teaching the children how to purify rotten flesh using a freezer and cooling packs, Pinkie burst into the room with some kind of… thing. It looked like nothing I’d ever seen before.

“Hey Dolphy!” she said, “Look at what I made! Do you know what it’s supposed to be? I sure don’t!”

I gaped in astonishment at the strange object and shook my head. How did she even make something like that?

Before I could say anything else, she gasped and said, “I wonder if this button does anything…”

The next sound I heard was the click of a button, and then some kind of deafening noise I can’t describe, combined with a blinding light bursting from the end of the tube!

Luckily, the tube was aimed at a wall at the time, but to my astonishment, there was a gaping hole in the wall! Did she use TNT in the recipe or something? That’s the only weapon I know of that can damage terrain…

After regaining my composure, I asked her to give it to me, and when she did, I promptly put it in the kitchen’s rubbish bin, which would safely destroy it in five minutes.

“I don’t know how you made that,” I said after disposing of it, “but something like that could be really dangerous, especially if you don’t know how to operate it. Look what it did to the wall! I’m going to have to replace those blocks…”

She apologized and left the room. Hopefully, she wasn’t going to cause any more trouble, so I resumed class after rebuilding the destroyed wall. This has been a very strange day so far.

Author's Note

Special thanks to mrlordowaffles for being my editor! Your help really means a lot to me.

Chapter 11: Preparation

------Ponies------

Fluttershy and Rarity were in Dolphy’s room, looking through his lesson plans. They covered an entire month from the current day, and a lot of the lessons were either different, or were additions to previous lessons in the plans.

The ponies had discussed who would stay to look after the children, and who would go with Dolphy to rescue his wife and friends. Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy would stay; while Twilight, Applejack and Dash would go with the Crafter on his journey.

“Here’s an interesting one,” Rarity said as she separated one lesson from the others. “It’s about making a home both practical and appealing! I didn’t think these Crafters had any sense of style.”

Rarity took a closer look at the lesson plan and noticed there was a note jotted down in the margin of the first page: “Need to check library for information on ancient Crafter culture. May give some insights into better design planning and aesthetic appeal.”

It was obvious that Dolphy must’ve added the note after Twilight showed him the book about the downfall of the ancient Crafters. It would make no sense otherwise.

After noting that the lesson was to be taught in two days, Rarity put the lesson back with the others and continued looking through them.

After a few minutes, Fluttershy pulled out one of the lessons to get a better look at it: it was about proper care and treatment for pets.

It had details on taming and caring for wolves and ocelots, and an extremely detailed look into how to tame, care for, ride and breed horses. There was a note added to the margin in the horse section: “Must emphasize the difference between horses and our guests. The two are far from the same: horses are blindly loyal once tamed, while our guests are sapient and are just as intelligent as we are.” Another note was added after that one: “Must also emphasize that horses are to be treated with respect. Though they are blind in their loyalty, taking advantage of that makes one no better than the monsters.”

Fluttershy set down the lesson and picked up another one: this one was about breeding and farming “livestock”. Against her better judgment, she read it anyway.

“Cows, chickens and pigs are a vital source of many essentials in this world. They may not be smart, and we may need to eat them in order to survive, but that doesn’t mean we have to be brutal. There are quick and nearly painless ways to kill animals for food and other materials. (Note: emphasize that livestock should feel the least amount of pain possible while dying. We kill them for resources, not pleasure). Explain the use of splash potions of harming to make the death quick. Two level 2 potions thrown in quick succession should make the death nearly instantaneous, so the suffering will be brief. All life is precious, and if ending it is necessary to survival, measures should be taken to minimize the pain of death, if at all possible. If potions are unavailable, then using a diamond sword is preferable, since it will kill in one strike. However, the pain is greater with this method, so potions should be used if possible…”

The lesson plan went on to explain breeding and care for the three aforementioned animals, as well as for sheep, but Fluttershy barely paid attention to the rest. This was surprising. Though the Crafters ate meat, they tried to respect the animals they had to kill in order to survive. They gave them comfortable living conditions, kept them fed, and when it became time to kill, they made it swift.

A note near the end stood out to her: “Remember to mention ancient Crafters I recently read about. Some were quite brutal, so those ones should be used as examples of what not to do. Especially the one who killed cows for pleasure all because he hated the sounds they made, and the raving madman who thought squids were evil and thought gold was edible. Use the second’s insanity as proof that brutality is wrong.”

Fluttershy returned the lesson plan to the stack of plans and continued looking through the lessons with Rarity.

------Dolphy------

Once I finished teaching the children about food preparation, I let them disperse to wherever they wanted to go (as long as they didn’t leave town, of course).

I went to the storage room and started packing supplies. Somehow, I knew it was almost time to set out to rescue my dear wife and my friends.

I opened the backpack chest and pulled out a few different kinds of woven backpacks: a Trackman’s, a Hunter’s, a Builder’s and an Adventurer’s. There were four other kinds of woven backpacks, but I left them in the chest, since I probably wouldn’t need them. I then opened another chest, pulled out several stacks of electric track, and then changed the page to display all of my trains. I pulled out an Electric Locomotive and stuffed it in the Trackman’s backpack along with the electric track. That electric train was the fastest I had. It could travel a whopping 237,000 blocks in an hour, which I could barely believe when I first got it out of the tier III train crafting bench.

I changed the page again to display all my cars. I grabbed two passenger cars, and then added them to the backpack, too. The engine and cars wouldn’t help much on the way to our destination, but I planned to continuously lay tracks on the way so we could book it back to Shimmering Hope when the rescue was completed. I turned the page back to the track, and then pulled out several more stacks of electric track, which I also added to the backpack. I continued doing this until the Trackman’s pack had only one slot left, and then I turned the page to the chest’s fourth page, which contained all of my train equipment, including a reinforced crowbar. In a real pinch, it could serve as an emergency weapon (only as strong as a stone sword, but it’s better than bare hands), but its main purpose was to link and detach cars from the train.

I grabbed the crowbar and added it to the backpack, and then closed the chest.

I then opened another chest and pulled out several stacks of redstone torches. I added them to the Builder’s backpack, and then I also added a few stacks of redstone dust, just in case (redstone dust can be used as an emergency fuel for electric trains). Next, I added a stack of TNT blocks (you never know when blowing stuff up could save your life), a few stacks of cobblestone, four beds, a few stacks of obsidian, and a few stacks of torches.

I added several weapons, tools, and types of food to the two remaining backpacks, and then I opened the chest labeled “FOR EMERGENCY USE ONLY”. In the chest were my most prized tools: a complete set of ultimate equipment. All of the equipment in there was named, and each was made out of the strongest materials possible. Every named piece of equipment had Level 3 Unbreaking, and was nearly optimized. The only things missing from the armor was AntiVenom and Thorns, but everything else had all the enchantments I wanted.

I pulled out the amethyst armor first. I equipped the Glory Halo, the Angelic Plate, the Sacred Legs and the Paladin Greaves; and then inspected each piece of heavily enchanted armor for any flaws or damage. Finding none, I reached into the chest and pulled out the Executor (my axe), the Stone Crusher (my pickaxe), and the Tunneler (my shovel) next. I inspected each amethyst tool just like I had done for the armor, and found that none of them were damaged either.

Next, I pulled out my steel shears: the Severer. It only had Unbreaking, but that’s all it really needed. It was also free from damage, so I pulled out my bow next. The Failnaught was a bow I’d crafted from bloodwood a few years ago. Bloodwood is the strongest wood to be found in the Nether. It’s entirely fireproof, and a bow made out of it could last even longer than a diamond sword. This bow had been repaired several times, and it was currently as good as new. I pocketed it, and then reached in to grab my most prized weapon of all.

The Liberator was a sword I’d intended for exactly this mission. The amethyst blade had never been used, and it shone brightly because of that. Even the iron hilt looked untarnished. I took a deep breath and sheathed the sword on my back, right next to my fin.

I added three boats to my inventory, as well as a pair of flippers for myself, and then thought for a second before pulling out three sets of diamond horse armor. I didn’t know if they would fit the three ponies who would come with me, but if it was necessary, I’d give it a shot. After all, after some tweaking, I’d managed to get the armor to reshape itself automatically to fit horse foals (I still couldn’t ride them, but it was worth knowing that it could work). I wasn’t sure if our blocky armor could reshape itself to fit curved life forms, but if I had to, I’d try.

I heard the sound of hooves approaching, so I added the horse armor to my inventory, closed the chest I currently had open, and then turned to face the three ponies who had come to talk to me: Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

“We were about to tell you that we were ready to leave,” Twilight told me as she looked me up and down, “but it seems that you already had the same idea.”

“It’s been more than ten months,” I said solemnly, “my dearest is waiting for me. She deserves to see how much our daughter has grown in that time.”

“Ah’m sure she’s waiting for ya,” Applejack replied. “Ya may be different from any father Ah’ve met before, but if she’s anything like ya, Ah know she’ll be happy to see yer face. And yer daughter’s, too.”

The others nodded in agreement, and I opened one more chest to pull out a few potions and four enchanted golden apples. After I added them to my inventory, I closed the chest and turned to the three who’d accompany me on my journey.

“Well, I think we should get going soon,” I said. “I’ll get the children together so I can say goodbye.”

With that, I unequipped the Paladin Greave because the Level 4 Swiftness enchantment would make moving short distances difficult. With that done, I went to each child’s bedroom and asked each of them to all meet me in the entrance hall. I found the other three ponies and gave them the same message, as well.

And now, I’m waiting here in the entrance hall with my three new companions, writing this entry. This is going to be one tough journey.

I’m coming, my love. I’ll be there to rescue you soon.

Author's Note

Special thanks to mrlordowaffles for being my editor! Your help really means a lot to me.

Chapter 12: Departure

We waited for a few minutes until everyone had assembled in the entry hall before I started to speak.

“Now that we’re all together,” I began, “I can tell you what we’ve decided.”

The ponies already knew what I was about to say, but the children gave looks of slight confusion.

I sighed before continuing.

“We’ve decided that it’s time for me to track down the monster who kidnapped my wife and Huey’s parents,” I announced, provoking gasps from the children. “Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash have decided that they will accompany me, while Rarity, Pinkie and Fluttershy will take care of you children in my absence. Behave for them as you would for me, okay?”

The children stared at me for a while in silence before anyone said anything.

Kryanna ran up to me and hugged my leg, tears streaming down her face.

“Daddy, please don’t go!” she sobbed. “I know you said you’d get Mommy back, and I believe you, but I’ll miss you so much!”

I picked my little angel up and hugged her tight.

“I’ll miss you, too, Krya,” I replied as I wiped her tears. “But I’ll bring Mommy back with me. I’ll make a track so we can get back quickly. We’ll be back before you know it.”

“You mean it?” she asked as she stopped crying.

“Yes,” I replied as I pulled Wyvern’s old locket out of my pocket and showed it to her. I had almost forgotten that I had it on me.

“Daddy, that’s…” she said as her eyes grew large.

“It’s your mother’s locket,” I told her. “She dropped it when she was being dragged away by that fiend. I’ve held onto it to remind me of her. Now, I’m giving it to you, to remind you of both of us, and that we’ll be a family again.”

I opened the locket and showed her the photo inside. I’ve looked at it so often; I can recall the picture almost perfectly. Wyvern and I were standing in front of our old house, with a three-year-old Kryanna smiling up at us while standing in front of us.

“That’s us!” she gasped as she took a look at the photo.

I smiled as she hugged me tight, with more tears streaming down her face.

“I’ll look at it every day, Daddy,” she told me as I put her down. “I haven’t seen Mommy’s face for so long, and with this, it’ll be like you and Mommy are still with me. Thank you, Daddy.”

“I love you, my little angel,” I said.

“I love you, too, Daddy,” she replied, smiling.

Huey came up to me, and gave me a determined look.

“I know you’ll get my Mom and Dad back, Dolphy,” the boy said. “If anyone can get them back, it’s you.”

I thanked Huey, and then we said our goodbyes and left, with the others following after us until we reached the city gate. After that, they just stood there and waved, wishing us luck.

“Well,” Twilight said, turning to me, “where do we go?”

“We’ll start at the nearby Testificate village,” I replied. “They should have information. The villages have ways to communicate with each other that even I don’t understand. With the information they’ll have, we can at least set off in the right direction.”

------Ponies (Dolphy’s Group)------

“What are Testificates, anyway?” Dash asked.

“They’re similar to human Crafters,” Dolphy replied. “However, they have taller heads, larger noses, and they have no means to defend themselves. Most monsters leave them alone, but zombies are a different story. Testificates are terrified of zombies, and with good reason: zombies actually attack them. What’s even worse is that when a zombie kills one, the dead villager turns into a zombie, as well. At least they can be cured, but it’s not easy.”

The group walked in silence for a few minutes before they arrived at a small structure that vaguely resembled a train station.

Dolphy walked over to the tracks in front of the structure and pulled what appeared to be a toy of some sort out of his pocket.

“What’s that supposed to be?” Applejack asked, breaking the silence.

“It’s an Electric Locomotive,” the Crafter said. “It’s the fastest train we’ve got.”

“How can a toy train possibly help us?” Twilight asked.

“It’s not a toy,” the Crafter said as he set it down on the track. Suddenly, the tiny train expanded until it was taller than Dolphy, and about four blocks long.

“How did you do that?” Twilight asked in surprise. “How can something get bigger, just like that?”

“You know,” the Crafter replied, “I never gave that any thought. That’s just how things work in this world. Or maybe it’s just how it works for us Crafters. I’m not quite sure.”

Dolphy then pulled out what looked like a toy passenger car, then placed it behind the train. Just like the engine, the passenger car expanded until it was the size of a full-fledged car.

Next, the dragon-like pulled out a crowbar and swung it at the space between the two objects.

“There,” he said as he pocketed the crowbar, “they’re linked now. That should work.”

“This train may not be nearly as fast as our flying friend here,” he added, nodding in Dash’s direction, “but it should be fast enough. It can cover a distance of 237,000 blocks in an hour at max speed, so I hope that’s fast enough for you. The village is about four thousand blocks away, so we should be there in about a minute.”

The ponies were quite astonished at the tremendous speed he mentioned, but they simply climbed inside the passenger car and waited for Dolphy to start the train.

“How can a train go that fast?” Twilight wondered out loud.

“Ah don’t know,” Applejack replied, “but not much in this world makes sense. Maybe it’s just another quirk of this world.”

Dash opened her mouth to reply, but closed it as the train suddenly lurched forward, pinning her to her seat.

The landscape zipped by in a colorful blur, everything passing by too fast to properly see.

The train didn’t turn once during the whole trip, just one straight path.

The train started to slow down, and the ponies could see the landscape they had arrived in: the grass was a dull, yellowish green color, but it didn’t look like it was dying or dried out. There were trees all over the place, but they were rather short: only three blocks tall, counting the leaves.

As the train came to a complete stop, they saw the village Dolphy had mentioned earlier. The houses were considerably smaller than the dwellings in Shimmering Hope, and most of them were made out of what appeared to be oak. The most interesting aspect, however, was the inhabitants: they resembled larger versions of the human boy, Huey, but they had taller heads, large noses, wore robes of varying colors, and they almost always had their arms folded.

Soon after the train stopped, Dolphy was standing outside the passenger car, motioning for the three ponies to follow him. They complied, and once they were all out of the car, Dash spoke up.

“Are those the Testificates you told us about?” she asked.

“Yes they are,” the dragon-like replied. “I’ll be talking to them to glean some information. You can explore the village if you want, but don’t leave its boundaries. We’ll be staying here for the night, which should be in about an hour.”

With that, Dolphy left the ponies and struck up a conversation with the nearest Testificate, who was wearing a white robe.

“Well, you heard him,” Dash said. “Let’s check this place out!”

Twilight and Applejack agreed, and the three set out to explore the village.

Author's Note

Special thanks to mrlordowaffles for being my editor! Your help really means a lot to me. Thanks for putting up with me, too.

Chapter 13: Information

------Dolphy------

After I greeted the Testificate librarian, I got right to the point.

“Do you remember the day the other Crafters got kidnapped?” I asked.

“I still remember it as if it were yesterday,” he replied, shuddering. “That brute killed our village’s iron golem on his way through here. We have another one now, but we were furious at the time. We still are, but we’re too afraid of him to do anything about it.”

I fought the urge to ask him what in the Overworld they could do about it (since Testificates can’t fight), and asked him a more relevant question to our situation, instead.

“I’m trying to find him so I can rescue them,” I said. “Do you know where I can find him?”

The villager stared at me in disbelief.

“He’s too powerful!” he said, shaking his head. “He can do things that defy all explanation! He’s pure evil, and I don’t think you have any chance of defeating him! You’d best go back home and forget about your friends.”

I glared at the Testificate and growled. “My wife was one of the ones he kidnapped,” I said through clenched teeth, “I’m not about to abandon her. Especially not after I promised our daughter that I’d get her back so we can be a family again.”

The villager gulped and backed up a few steps.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said, “I didn’t realize that you had such an attachment to one of them. But to be honest, I don’t know where he is. I may be the scholar in this village, but my expertise doesn’t include that information. I’ve tried to forget about him ever since that day, to be honest. Our priest might know, though. He has connections to the higher powers that the rest of us don’t. He might be able to ask the divine Creators for guidance.”

“That’s alright,” I told him as I relaxed my expression. “Is he in the church at the moment?”

The librarian nodded, so I thanked him before turning to walk in the direction of the village’s church.

------Ponies (Dolphy’s Group)------

The three ponies stopped to stare at what looked like a bulky metal version of the Testificates. It had the same kind of head, but it was smaller in proportion to the rest of its body. It didn’t fold its arms like the Testificates, either. Instead, they swung back and forth as it walked, wobbling from side to side.

“What is that?” Twilight wondered.

“You’ve never seen an iron golem before?” a Testificate child asked as he walked up to them.

“No,” Rainbow Dash replied.

The iron golem walked up to the young villager and held out a red flower to the child.

“This is our protector,” the child explained as he took the flower from the golem. “It protects us because we can’t defend ourselves. The scary zombies are always coming after us at night, so it knocks them flying while we hide in our homes.”

“It looks kinda slow,” Applejack remarked.

“It doesn’t have to be fast,” the child replied. “It’s so strong, it kills zombies in one hit! Sometimes it takes two, though.”

“How does it work?” Twilight asked as the golem wandered off to resume what was most likely a patrol of the village.

“I dunno,” the child said. “Not even the grownups do. It just walks on its own. I don’t think its alive, but the grownups say that doesn’t matter, just as long as it keeps us safe.”

“Do you at least know how it’s made?” Dash asked.

“I think my dad said it takes four iron blocks and a pumpkin,” he replied, causing the ponies to look at him in disbelief. “Anyway, I gotta go! The other kids are calling me to play with them!”

With that, the young Testificate ran off in the direction of some other children who were waving at him.

“Well, that’s weird, to say the least,” Dash remarked.

“Let’s just forget about that,” Applejack said.

The other two ponies nodded in agreement and set off in the direction of a tall cobblestone structure that was at least twice as tall as the other buildings.

When they got there, they saw Dolphy enter, so they followed.

Inside, there was a Testificate in magenta robes.

“Ah, Brother Dolphy,” he said as he noticed the dragon-like. “How may I help you? Do you need me to enchant something?”

“Not today,” the Crafter replied. “I need to know where the creature who kidnapped my wife and friends ran off to ten months ago.”

“Ah, you’ve come to ask me to inquire of the divine trio of Notch, Jeb and Dinnerbone, have you?” the villager asked, raising an eyebrow. “My service as a medium won’t come cheap.”

“I know,” Dolphy said, pulling out a few blocks of some kind of green gem. “I hope four emerald blocks will be enough. You’re the only priest for quite a distance.”

The priest’s jaw dropped at the sight of the blocks.

“Yes,” he said as he regained his composure and took the blocks from the Crafter. “This should be enough for my services.”

Dolphy turned to look at the ponies behind him and winked. The look on his face seemed to say, “that price was nothing.”

After pocketing the blocks, the priest motioned for all of them to sit down, which they did.

After they were all seated, the Testificate started chanting, and his body became enveloped in an unnatural light that seemed to come from nowhere.

Suddenly, the priest stopped chanting, and his eyes took on a glazed look.

“We are the Creators, what do you ask of us?” the priest said, his own voice replaced by what sounded like three male voices speaking at once.

“I thank you for allowing me to speak to you—“ Dolphy began, but was cut off.

“We didn’t come for pleasantries,” one of the voices said. “We came because you wanted to ask us a question.”

“Oh, right.” The dragon-like said, blinking in surprise. “My wife and friends were kidnapped over ten months ago. Where did the kidnapper flee to?”

“He didn’t flee,” another one of the voices said. “He’s been waiting for you to come after him so he can destroy you.”

“Why me?” the dragon-like asked in confusion. “I’m nothing special.”

“Herobrine would disagree with that statement,” the third voice replied. “He saw you as the strongest of the group, and wanted to make you squirm for his own enjoyment. We are the ones who placed all sixteen of you in this world. Herobrine prevented those he killed from coming back to life unless he had special uses for them.”

“We chose to combine our strengths to allow two of each race to be reincarnated in this world,” the first explained. “You have little to no recollection of the life you originally had because you were reincarnated instead of simply being revived.”

The second voice spoke again. “We chose the strongest Crafters we could find, and out of all of them, you were the strongest of all. Herobrine knows this, and that’s why he singled you out. He killed all of your friends, then only allowed three to come back to life, so that you’d feel loss, but not give up yet.”

The third voice took over from there. “Then, he kidnapped your wife and remaining friends so that you’d feel despair and anger. He wants to crush you for his own enjoyment, as well as to make a mockery of us. We knew that you weren’t anywhere near strong enough to defeat him, so we enlisted some help for you.”

The priest turned to the ponies, but the first voice was the one who spoke. “We’re deeply sorry for tearing you out of your world like that. We saw you as the best candidates for the task, and we had no time to ask for your consent.”

“It’s alright, sugarcube,” Applejack replied, causing the other two ponies to look at her in slight confusion.

“The other twelve Crafters are trapped in limbo,” the second voice said. “Slaying Herobrine would allow them to come back to life, but defeating him as you are now would be quite difficult. He has a device in his lair that can break his hold on them, however. The ancient Crafters invented it to try to fight him, but he killed them and stole it before they could use it.”

“You’ll be able to defeat him in combat as you currently are,” the third voice added, “but killing him will prove close to impossible. To maximize your chances, you’ll need all sixteen of you.”

“I thank you for this information,” Dolphy replied, “but where is he?”

“The journey is quite a long one,” the first voice said. “You’ll have to cross several biomes.”

“The location is East of here,” the second voice added. “You’ll find him in the center of an Ominous Woods biome. It’s about 35,000 blocks away.”

“Thank you,” Dolphy replied.

“Good luck,” the third voice said. “The future of all Crafters depends on you.”

The priest blinked and shook his head.

“Did they tell you what you needed to know?” he asked.

“They did,” the dragon-like said as he shook the Testificate’s hand. “Thank you for your help.”

“That was strange,” Twilight said after they left the building. “What kind of magic was that?”

“That was part priest magic, and part the power of the divine trio,” Dolphy told her. “They created this world, and they know all and see all. They’re pretty much gods.”

Rainbow Dash looked up to see the square sun was setting.

“You said we’re going to spend the night here, right?” Dash asked.

“That’s right,” the dragon-like replied. “I’m going to set up a quick shelter, and then we can get some sleep.”

“By the way, who controls the sun and moon in this world?” Twilight asked. “In our world, they’re controlled by Princess Celestia and her sister, Princess Luna.”

“No one does,” the Crafter said. “They just move on their own. They always have. The sun rises while the moon sets, and the moon rises while the sun sets. It’s like clockwork.”

“Interesting,” was all Twilight said in response, and they walked in silence until the group reached the edge of the village.

“Wait for just a minute,” the Crafter told the ponies. “I’ll have a reasonable shelter up in a jiffy.”

The ponies watched in stunned silence as the blue dragon-like rapidly placed down cobblestone blocks to create a shelter. Within less than a minute, the structure was complete: a simple, four block tall, eleven block by seven block house with no windows, but it had a single wooden door in the center of the front.

Dolphy opened the front door and motioned for the ponies to follow him inside. As they did, he attached torches to the walls in regular intervals.

Once he saw that they were all inside, he closed the door and placed four beds down on the grassy floor.

“It’s quite small,” the Crafter said, “but it’ll work. We need to get to sleep quickly, though. We’ll have to get up bright and early tomorrow so I can take down the shelter before we go.”

------Dolphy------

I watched as my three companions got into bed and fell asleep, and then I pulled out my journal to complete this entry. This day has been quite eventful, and I’m sure this journey will be far from boring. I fear for the children somewhat, but I’m sure they're in good hands—I mean hooves—with the three who stayed behind.

Enjoy your life while you can, Herobrine. We’re coming for you.

Author's Note

Special thanks to mrlordowaffles for being my editor! You really helped me to polish this chapter. Without you, this story would probably suck.

Chapter 14: The Long Trek

Year 8, Day 18

We woke up early, just like I had planned. We quickly ate some of the rations I brought along, and then I tore down the shelter. After that, I collected the train engine along with the passenger car.

We set out for the East shortly thereafter, with me laying down tracks along the way. Every few blocks, I’d set down a redstone torch, but now that I knew how far we’d have to go, I knew that the power sources would run out before we got to our destination. I’d likely run out of track, too, but I needed to ensure a quick getaway, just in case we couldn’t destroy Herobrine.

After about an hour of walking, Twilight broke the silence.

“Dolphy?”

“Yeah?” I replied.

“What are those torches for?” she asked.

“They give power to the rails, which in turn powers the train,” I explained. “Electric Locomotives rely on electric energy, and these rails convert redstone energy into electricity, and then feed it to the train as it passes over them. Without these torches, I’d have to burn redstone dust to produce energy. I’ll probably have to do that anyway, since I don’t have enough torches to power the rails all the way to our destination. I might not even have enough rails, either.”

We continued in silence again after that. At around noon, we entered another biome: a Fungi Forest. Trees and giant mushrooms towered over us as we continued walking.

------Ponies (Shimmering Hope)------

Rarity sighed as she tried to teach the children the lesson Dolphy had planned for the day. The children were behaving rather well, but Pinkie kept interrupting the class every few minutes.

The lesson was on dyeing wool and staining clay and glass. The decorative purposes were interesting enough, but Dolphy’s information on design styles was rather shallow. The main purpose he gave for colored wool was for something called “redstone circuits”, which seemed like a bit of a waste according to her, so she decided to improvise and teach the children about the possibilities for interior design.

The class went by rather well, but Pinkie just had to interrupt one more time near the end of class.

After class was over, the children dispersed, and the three ponies who stayed behind got together to talk about the day so far.

“Why couldn’t you leave the class and I alone, Pinkie?” Rarity asked.

“Those Crafters are just so cute!” Pinkie replied, bouncing up and down. “It’s fun to watch them learn!”

Rarity sighed in frustration and was about to ask Fluttershy something when the rabbit-like boy—Hip—burst into the room.

“Pinkie! Could you come with me for a sec?” the boy asked.

“Okie dokie lokie!” the earth pony replied, and then followed the boy out of the room.

Rarity sighed again, now she forgot what she was going to ask.

------Ponies (Dolphy’s Group)------

The three ponies stopped when Dolphy held up a hand.

“I just realized that we’re going to run out of track a long time before we get to our destination,” the Crafter said. “I have a solution, but I’m going to need your consent first.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“There’s multiple dimensions in this reality,” the dragon-like explained. “One of them enables those who traverse it to cover more ground in the Overworld in the same amount of time. One block there is equal to eight blocks here. However, this place is very dangerous.”

“We can take anything this world can throw at us!” Rainbow Dash replied.

“This world is called ‘The Nether’,” Dolphy continued. “It’s a place with no sun, no moon, and no sky whatsoever. There’s lava everywhere, and it’s crawling with monsters that are far more dangerous than the ones here.”

“Ah say we go,” Applejack said. “We need to get there fast, right?”

“Okay,” the blue Crafter said, “I’m going to open a portal. Be prepared to fight at any moment.”

The ponies nodded, then watched as Dolphy pulled out some of the same black cubes that the portal that sucked them into this world was made of.

He constructed a doorway in the same shape as the portal from before, and then struck the base of the inside of the frame with a flint and steel.

The ponies gasped as a gently swirling mass of purple energy filled the doorway.

“This gate leads to the Nether,” the Crafter said. “I’ll wait on the other side for you.”

He walked into the swirling energy, and suddenly vanished.

The ponies exchanged glances, and then they followed, one by one.

Twilight was the first through, and she gasped at the scenery around her. There was some strange kind of pinkish-red rock making up most of the terrain, what resembled giant spines stretching from the floor of the cavern to the ceiling, and a lot of the ground was on fire. There were a few flowers and mushrooms here and there, but the flowers also appeared to be on fire.

“Welcome to the Nether,” Dolphy said once all three had followed him through the portal. “The number of different biomes making up this dimension is a lot smaller than the number of biome types in the Overworld. We are currently in a Boneyard. I’m sure you’ve noticed the massive bones stretching towards the ceiling. We should continue in the direction we were already going.”

Without saying another word, the Crafter resumed walking in the direction he stated, placing tracks along the way.

The ponies followed, staying alert, just as the dragon-like told them to.

After a few minutes, they heard some grunting noises, and Dolphy held up a hand to stop them.

“Look,” he said, pointing to their left.

They did, and what they saw was something unlike anything they’d ever seen. They looked like large bipedal pigs, but they were decaying, with some of their bones exposed. All of them were carrying swords made of gold, as well.

“What are those?” Twilight asked in interest.

“Zombie Pigmen,” the Crafter replied. “They’re usually passive, but if you hurt one—even by accident—they’ll swarm you and attempt to kill you. Be very careful around them.”

The ponies nodded, and the group continued walking.

After a few minutes, they arrived at a large expanse of some kind of dull brownish-gray sand that looked like it had… faces in it.

“This is a Corrupted Sands biome,” Dolphy explained. “It’s covered almost entirely with Soul Sand. It’s also the most likely place to run into phantoms.”

“Phantoms?” Rainbow Dash said.

“They’re quite dangerous for the underprepared,” the Crafter said. “They look like… Actually, there’s one right there.”

He pointed at a mass of black smoke heading towards them. It was making strange noises as it approached.

Dolphy pulled out his sword and rushed the strange creature, slashing madly.

The phantom growled and struck him, but he made short work of it.

After he returned to the group, he sheathed his sword, and they continued walking.

After a few minutes of nothing but Soul Sand and Pigmen, they heard what sounded like some kind of strange groaning, like some kind of cat or baby.

“Shoot,” the Crafter muttered. “Not now!”

“What’s wrong, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“That sound is a Ghast,” he replied. “They’re incredibly dangerous, no matter how well-equipped you are. They—“

He cut off as they heard a shriek from off to their right.

“Run! Now!” Dolphy yelled as he put his boots back on.

He dashed off at an incredible speed, with the ponies trying their best to keep up. They soon heard the sound of an explosion behind them.

After about a minute of running, they stopped to catch their breath.

“I’ll go back and take care of it so it won’t follow us,” the Crafter said. “Stay here.”

With that, he ran back the way they came.

------Dolphy------

I pulled out my sword and looked around for the Ghast. I could hear it, but I couldn’t see it. Those things always creep me out.

I switched to the Failnaught, and then resumed searching.

Soon enough, the monstrosity came into view.

It opened its fearsome red eyes and shot another fireball. I jumped to the side and drew back the bow’s string, and then let loose.

The arrow missed, but I turned to look at where the Ghast had moved to, and the arrow redirected to follow my line of sight, striking the wretched creature. I’ve lost count of how many times that Homing enchantment has saved my life.

The Ghast screamed in pain, and then it shot another fireball at me. Instead of dodging, I switched to the Liberator and knocked the fireball back at it. The creature gave its dying cry, and it dropped a single tear as it died.

I picked up the tear and pocketed it, and then I returned to my companions.

“It won’t bother us anymore,” I informed them. “Let’s go.”

I searched my inventory for another stack of rails, and then realized that I had none left.

“Darn. No more track,” I announced. “The only good thing about that is it means we should be close.”

All of us fell completely silent at the sound of buzzing.

“What’s that supposed to be?” Dash asked.

“A hive,” I replied. “Nether wasps. They produce wild honey that’s similar to the honey our bees produce, but these insects are much larger than bees.”

I pulled out more obsidian and constructed another portal and lit it.

“You don’t want to deal with those things,” I told them. “Trust me.”

We quickly took the portal back to the Overworld, and found that the sun was setting.

We were also on the edge of an Ominous Woods biome. The trees with almost black leaves stretched for what seemed to be hundreds of chunks as far as the eye could see. There was a Bamboo Forest directly behind us, but we weren’t heading in that direction.

I constructed another shelter, and we ate a quick dinner before retiring for the night.

We’re getting close. I can feel it. Say your prayers, Herobrine. You’re going to pay for what you’ve done very soon.

Chapter 15: Fog

Year 8, Day 19

We woke up early again, ate quickly, and then I tore down our shelter again.

We took a few steps into the forbidding forest, and stopped.

The forest suddenly filled with an intense fog, making it hard to see anything more than sixteen blocks away.

I had forgotten that Ominous Woods biomes are constantly shrouded in fog. I was prepared, however. I pulled out a torch, and set it on the ground. It wasn’t much help, but it thinned the fog around it a little.

“Should we wait for the fog to clear?” Twilight asked.

“No,” I replied. “The fog never disappears. We’ll have to proceed as is. Be on the lookout for Endermen and venomous Cave Spiders. They appear here even during the day, and they’re just as hostile here as if it were dark.”

------Ponies (Shimmering Hope)------

Rarity had the Crafter children assemble outdoors for the day’s lesson. It was the lesson about making a home both practical and appealing.

She had studied the books Dolphy had intended to read for the lesson, and she found that the ancient Crafters had a much better sense of style than the modern ones did.

The first part of the lesson was on imbuing wool with obsidian essence to make it virtually indestructible. She showed the children how to accomplish it, and then showed them how to make decorative patterns with it. The children caught on quickly, so she went on to the next part of the lesson: using glowstone essence to turn wool into a light source.

The lesson went smoothly, and the children soon proved to have a much better eye for style than Dolphy had.

After the lesson ended, Pinkie kept the children entertained, and their laughter could be heard every few seconds.

------Ponies (Dolphy’s Group)------

Applejack bucked a cave spider in the face, sending it flying.

“These things don’t quit!” She remarked as three more took its place.

Dolphy opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out was a yelp of pain as one of the spiders bit him.

As the ponies gave him a quick glance, they noticed that he looked sick all of a sudden.

“I’m poisoned,” he told them through clenched teeth, “it should wear off in a little bit. Man, I wish I’d brought some milk buckets.”

As a spider lunged at Twilight, she caught it with her magic and flung it away as hard as she could throw it, causing it to disappear into the fog.

The Crafter groaned in agony as he slashed at another spider, killing it in one strike.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Twilight asked after Rainbow Dash killed the last spider.

“I’ll be fine,” Dolphy replied, his voice wavering slightly, “since poison can’t kill. At least, not in this world, it can’t.”

He pulled out a bottle of red liquid and downed the contents.

“The poison just wore off, and my potion fixed all my injuries,” he announced. “We should keep going.”

The ponies nodded, and they resumed walking through the woods.

“Ah, I was wondering when you’d finally show up,” a voice called out, seeming to come from everywhere at once, “I was starting to get bored, you see.”

“Dolphy?” Twilight said. “Is that—?”

“I’ve never heard his voice,” the dragon-like replied, “but I’m sure it’s him.”

“Herobrine!” Dash shouted. “Why are you hiding like a coward?”

“Hiding?” the voice said, chuckling. “I don’t need to hide. I just want to see if you can find me, that’s all. I can’t very well leave my long-term guests unattended, now can I?”

Dolphy growled, but he took a few deep breaths before speaking.

“If you want us to find you so badly, why don’t you just show us where you are?” the Crafter asked.

“And spoil the fun?” Herobrine’s voice replied. “Why would I do that? I’ve been incredibly bored ever since the Testificate government collapsed. Then you new Crafters came along! Your kind is far more entertaining than those large-nosed imbeciles! You aren’t used to feeling helpless, so the confusion it causes is very satisfactory. Of course, when I’m done with you and those children, I’m going to leave this world. The three buffoons who created this world kindly showed me that there are more worlds than the worlds of Crafters. I think I’ll start with the one your friends are from. I wonder if they can put up much of a fight…”

“You’ll do no such thing!” Dolphy yelled, anger filling his voice. “You’re going to die in this world, and you’ll die by my hand!”

“My, aren’t we brave?” Herobrine’s voice mocked. “Let’s see if you can back that up!”

The voice cackled and faded, and heavily armed and armored zombies and skeletons suddenly surrounded the group.

“Just great,” the dragon-like grumbled. “He can create monsters out of thin air.”

The skeletons started firing on the group, but Twilight created a barrier around them, stopping the arrows in midair. The skeletons stupidly kept firing arrows, but the zombies simply walked right through the barrier and started slashing with their swords.

Applejack tried to buck one of them, but it barely flinched at all due to the enchantments on its armor. It grunted and swung its sword, but it was knocked back five blocks and burst into flames when Dolphy struck it with his enchanted sword, and it failed to get in a hit.

The zombie burned to death, but several more took its place.

“Twilight, can you teleport us out of here?” Dash asked.

Twilight shook her head.

“I can only take us backwards,” she replied. “The fog’s too thick to see much in front of us, so I wouldn’t be able to visualize anything in front of us more than a few blocks.”

“Then I can solve this,” Dolphy announced as he sheathed his sword and pulled out a blocky green pearl. “Grab me and hold on tight!”

The ponies quickly complied, and Dolphy threw the pearl, which disappeared into the fog.

“How’s that going to—“

Twilight cut off as the group suddenly vanished and reappeared deeper into the forest.

All four groaned as pain suddenly shot through their bodies.

“Sorry… about… that…” Dolphy managed as he pulled out another red potion, drank it, and then pulled out three more and tossed one to each pony.

“Drink that,” he told them, which they did. Suddenly, the pain vanished as if it had never existed.

“How’d you do that?” Dash asked.

“The teleporting, or the healing?” Dolphy asked back.

“Both,” the pegasus replied.

“Well,” Dolphy began, “the teleporting was done with an Ender Pearl. Endermen can sometimes be found carrying them, so they’ll occasionally drop them when they die. The pearl can be thrown to induce teleportation, but it also hurts anyone who uses it, which is why I gave each of you a Potion of Instant Health.”

“As for the potion itself,” he added, “I brewed those by combining a bottle of water with some Nether Wart, and then I added a Glistering Melon—a melon slice fused with gold—and finished by adding some glowstone dust.”

“How does that even—“ Twilight began, but then cut off and said, “Never mind. This world already defies a lot of our logic. It’d be too much to ask for potions to work the same way.”

“Well, we better keep going,” Applejack said, and the others nodded in agreement, so they resumed walking.

Author's Note

Thanks again to Mrlordowaffles for helping me with the editing! You're always such a great help!

Chapter 16: Cruel Tricks

------Dolphy------

As we continued through the foggy Ominous Woods, a castle suddenly came into view. It was huge, but the fog must’ve been what kept us from seeing it sooner.

All four of us gasped at the sudden appearance of the imposing building. It was made entirely out of obsidian. It even used obsidian stairs for the roofs of the towers! I marveled at the sheer amount of the black rock that had been used to build the structure in front of us.

“That’s one mighty big castle,” Applejack said, breaking the silence.

“It’s so large, the fog makes it impossible to see all of it,” Twilight added.

I nodded in agreement, still too impressed to speak.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in one of the windows above us. I’d recognize those glowing white eyes anywhere.

“Greetings!” Herobrine called down to us, “I see you’ve finally caught up to me, puny dragon-like! It’s been eleven months, and your annoying little wife still hasn’t stopped telling me that you’d come to rescue her every time I see her! Well, you may be here now, but that means nothing!”

Suddenly, a set of obsidian stairs materialized out of nothing in front of the castle, leading to the massive piston portcullis.

“If you somehow survive and make it to me,” he shouted, doubt very heavy in his voice, “I’ll see you and your curvy little friends in my throne room! I have much to discuss with you!”

Cackling madly, Herobrine turned and started to walk away from the window.

“Get back here!” Dash yelled as she zipped towards the window.

Suddenly, she froze in midair, surrounded by a strange black aura.

“Don’t be so hasty, my curvy friend,” Herobrine said without turning around, “I have to prepare before receiving guests. I hope you’ll understand if I let my servants entertain you while I get ready.”

With the slightest jerk of his head, Herobrine’s magic field threw Dash back at us, and I caught her before she could hit the ground.

“That jerk,” she grumbled as I set her down, “he’s gonna pay!”

No one said anything else while we climbed the stairs. At the gate, I noticed a button and pushed it. The portcullis opened quickly, and we dashed inside before it closed behind us.

“I hope you don’t mind me trying to get to know you a bit early,” Herobrine’s voice said, seeming to come from everywhere at once.

Before we could react, we were all frozen in place by the same black aura from earlier.

“Don’t worry,” the voice chuckled, “this won’t hurt. I’m just examining all of the biological data that make each of you who you are, so I can send some extra-special friends to greet you. You’ll meet them later.”

The voice fell silent, and the aura released us.

“That varmint’s not gonna like what Ah’m gonna do to him when Ah get mah hooves on him,” Applejack muttered.

The room turned completely dark for a second, and then the light returned, revealing a large horde of zombies. But these zombies came in many different shapes and sizes, with two resembling each of the Crafter races, one male, and one female.

“These are the remains of some of the ancient Crafters who I took great delight in torturing to death,” Herobrine’s voice boomed throughout the room, “I took care to break their wills before they died, so that they wouldn’t even try to will themselves back. Without the original owners returning, I was able to reanimate these empty shells to do my bidding. I’m quite the brilliant planner, aren’t I?”

“I’ll tell you what you are!” Dash shouted, “You’re a motherb—“

“Save it,” I said as I put a hand on her shoulder. “We need to defeat these zombies, first.”

The two dragon-like zombies and the two monster-like zombies had taken to the air, and were speeding towards us. Dash nodded and rushed to meet them, knocking the male dragon-like zombie out of the air. It grunted when it hit the ground, but just took to the air again.

Twilight’s horn started glowing, and the two orc zombies were enveloped in a purple aura, pinning them in place. I took advantage of the situation and slashed them with my enchanted amethyst sword, felling both in one stroke each.

Applejack bucked at a dwarf zombie, sending it flying into an elf zombie, which knocked both to the ground. I rushed in and finished them off.

The four zombies with wings were now chasing Rainbow Dash, but she outmaneuvered them easily, causing them to crash into walls repeatedly, killing them one by one.

With the airborne zombies out of the picture, she collided with a rabbit-like zombie, killing it with the force of the impact.

Next, Applejack bucked the other rabbit-like zombie into a fox-like zombie, and they both fell over dead.

Meanwhile, Twilight picked up the other fox-like zombie with her magic and threw it at the other elf zombie, killing them both.

At that point, there was only a dwarf zombie and two human zombies left, so we knew we had this in the bag. They walked towards us, but they were so slow, I was able to pull out a block of TNT, light the fuse with my flint and steel, and then have all four of us run to the other side of the room, where we’d be safe from the blast.

The block exploded, destroying the zombies utterly, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

“Very good!” Herobrine’s voice said as a pair of iron doors at the end of the room opposite the entrance opened up, “You might be stronger than I thought! Proceed to the next room, and see what I’ve prepared for you next!”

We ignored his insane laughter and made our way to the next room.

We saw zombified copies of ourselves waiting for us.

“Zombies?” I asked, disappointed. “Really? Slower versions of us? Did you really think that would—”

I cut off as the zombie copy of me pulled out an amethyst sword and rushed me at a full sprint, aided by the Level 4 Swiftness boots it was wearing.

I jumped out of the way as its sword struck nothing but the obsidian floor where I had been standing an instant before.

“Okay! Equally fast copies of us,” I said as I dodged another swipe. “That’s something I wouldn’t expect from zombies!”

Pretty soon, all of us were fighting exact duplicates of ourselves. Neither side made any progress for a long time, and then the zombies suddenly stopped.

“Huh?” Dash said, expressing the confusion we all felt.

“That was just a test,” Herobrine announced, “while examining you three curvy enigmas, I found quite a few memories of a certain being—actually, two—who are quite powerful, and meld the combined might of all three of your different kinds into one. Others might consider this cheating, or even cliché, but I’ve always wanted to create a zombie chimera! And your memories gave me all of the blueprints I need!”

The three pony zombies merged and grew larger, and in their place was something I’d never seen before. It had the wings of the Rainbow Dash zombie, the horn of the Twilight zombie, and the build of the Applejack zombie, but with all of those features exaggerated severely!

“Twilight,” I asked, “What’s that supposed to be? Have you seen anything like it?”

“I think he just created an Alicorn,” she said in disbelief.

“An Ali-what?” I asked in confusion.

“An Alicorn is a combination of all three pony races,” she explained. “Very few exist, and—“

We were cut off by the zombie copy of me jumping onto the zombie Alicorn’s back as if it were just another horse, pulling its sword back out, and pointing it at us in the command to charge.

Its gruesome steed complied, and we all had to dive out of the way of the attack.

“You really should’ve thought this over more carefully!” Herobrine cackled, “bringing all three kinds of you to the same place? You made this way too easy for me! And just so you know, I’ve amplified my new toy’s magic ten-fold! Still not as strong as mine, but it should pack quite a punch, nonetheless!”

“Wait, I forgot something,” he added. Suddenly, a stream of energy flowed from the zombie copy of me into the twisted zombie chimera-pony, and then the mount’s wings changed from feathery to ribbed, like the Enderdragon’s, but curved instead of blocky.

“That’s better!” the insane voice said as the twisted pair prepared to attack us again, “that should be intimidating enough! Now, I’ll leave you four to play with my new toy while I prepare to receive you. Don’t disappoint me!”

Herobrine’s voice fell silent, and the zombies rushed at us. The pony had its head lowered, intending to gore me with its horn. I moved to dodge, but the horn started glowing in a sickly green color, and I was pinned to the spot, unable to move.

Applejack tackled me, breaking the spell’s hold and knocking me out of the way, causing the twisted creature’s horn to hit nothing but the obsidian wall behind me.

“Thanks,” was all I could manage as I tried to catch my breath. That tackle had knocked the air right out of my lungs.

“Any time, sugarcube,” Applejack replied as I got to my feet.

I gripped my sword tightly and prepared for the pair to charge again.

They stood completely still instead.

I was about to attack, but they suddenly took to the air.

“Really quickly,” Herobrine’s voice said as the horrific pony rose higher into the air, “I didn’t just give it a boost in your curvy friends’ dainty magic, either. I gave it some of my power!”

He laughed manically as the creature’s horn glowed that sickly green color again. Lightning bolts started dropping from the ceiling, striking random locations all over the room.

“Look out!” I yelled as primed TNT also started falling from the ceiling. We all dove out of the way, but the explosions were too large. None of us were killed, but we were all hurt badly.

“Quick! Eat these!” I yelled as I tossed each pony an enchanted golden apple before eating one myself.

They complied, and we were all rapidly healed, and strengthened to boot.

The zombies roared at us, and the zombie copy of me pulled out a glowing Bloodwood bow. It was most likely an exact duplicate of the Failnaught. The damaging enchantments could kill easily, and the Homing enchantment would make dodging nearly impossible, especially since the zombie copied my abilities exactly. I was a really good shot, even without Homing.

My zombie duplicate knocked an arrow, drew back the string, and fired straight at me. I jumped out of the way, but the zombie turned its head to follow my movements, and the arrow followed its line of sight, following me.

I spun around and tried to raise my sword to block the arrow, but I was just barely too slow, and the arrow struck me.

------Ponies------

The Crafter doubled over in agony and screamed as his body burst into flames. He also looked quite sick, which meant he was likely poisoned again as well.

Rainbow Dash sped towards the pair of undeads and bucked the zombie Crafter in the face, knocking it off its mount to send it crashing into the wall on the other end of the room.

“Take that, you rotting carcass!” she said as it hit the ground. The zombie grunted and tried to get to its feet, but Dash slammed into it a second time, sending its bow spinning from its grip and pinning the zombie against the wall.

The zombie Alicorn landed and charged Rainbow Dash, but Twilight caught it with her magic, causing it to freeze in mid-gallop.

Applejack then bucked the zombie pony in the face, causing it to recoil from the impact.

Dolphy had managed to put out the flames by this point, and it looked like the poison had worn off, too. He switched to his bow and shot the pony zombie in the head, and it collapsed.

The zombie Crafter tried to bite Dash, but she let go and rammed into it again, causing it to slam into the wall yet again. This time, it grunted and died.

The group of four all tried to catch their breath after the fast-paced battle.

“Well!” Herobrine’s voice said as the iron doors at the far end of the room swung open, “color me surprised! You four really can fight! But just to let you in on a little secret: I made the two zombies mostly offensively based. They couldn’t take very many hits, anyway. You’ll find that I am no pushover. Anyway, I’ve stalled you long enough. Go through those doors, and we’ll see what you’re really made of.”

The voice fell silent, and the four exchanged glances before walking through those doors.

Author's Note

Once again, thank you mrlordowaffles for serving as my editor. I had some extreme writer's block, but you were patient with me anyway. Without you, this work would be a complete piece of garbage.