Terra Firma

I woke up, shaking my head. I found that I slept best near a bed, after setting it as my spawn point. It was pointless to lie down in it, as it was only a piece of furniture. Grumbling, I made my way across the wooden planked floor, pushing my door open so I could step onto the platforms that made up my hellevator.

I was in a massive, wood structure I had built over the course of many days, stopping only as night came and with it the monsters that prowled, hungering for the flesh of myself and my friendly NPCs. That is how I knew my neighbors and allies, because it was simply how I thought. I thought of myself as… A player. I could generate entire worlds, building magnificent buildings and meeting requirements so the merchants and nurses and truffles and others would come flocking to my shelter.

I dropped through the platform, heading deeper into the heart of the earth, watching as the wood walls gave way to dirt, then that vanishing completely, showing me the open expanse of the Underground. It was always awe-inspiring, viewing the transition from homely, tight confinement to the endless concept of the sky-wall. My worlds fascinated me to no end, and this one was the most regal of all of them. This one was my first, where I learned through the hard way that the moaning, walking corpses desired my body as sustenance, where the demon eyes would flit around like bats, ricocheting off of blocks and streaking towards me, intent on wiping me out.

But I digress. I reached my last wooden platform, with a rope ladder below. It was seven blocks wide, and lined with wood, so as to prevent the Crimson and Hallow from jumping to either side, infecting the beautiful land. All my platforms were this way, so as to prevent the horrific loss of life that came with those places of death. I fell from the platform, lowering several blocks before I latched onto the ropes with my winch.

It was a surprise to me when I first discovered rope. I had prodded a pot with my copper shortsword, only for it to shatter and a stack of thirty-seven rope had flung away. I walked to it cautiously, afraid it was another hostile like the green slimes I first encountered. A strange sensation was felt, like tugging, and the item drifted to me. As it made contact, the rope appeared in my hand, ready for use. I placed it down, making a length of six blocks, and then stood there.

I was proud of my creation, however small. My great shock came when a slime bounced towards me, and I rushed to my pillar of rope. I thought of going up, to escape the small gelatinous being, and a winch appeared in my hand, shooting me up. I reached the top, and seeing the monster coming to me, I placed more rope onto my tower, climbing to higher and higher heights.

I was jolted from my thoughts when my feet hit the ground. I was on another platform, but this one was made of obsidian. I had taken it upon myself to build a safe room for me, when I ventured to the Underworld, to Hell. I painstakingly had mined the purplish rock, mixing water with lava to produce the material with a hiss. Taking the blocks with me to a crafting table, I made obsidian brick, and from that, the basic essentials out of the new resource. Hammering it carefully into a slope for the roof, linking it with my rope hellevator, I made a shelter to hide from the fire imps and hellbats, from the demons and bone serpents.

I dropped through it once again, landing on the cool floor. I had made the room spacious, with precious cobalt brick walls and demon torches, which faded through the spectrum. A painting sat in the midground, one that I was rather proud of, one that reminded me of the danger that I had gone through to bring about this beauty. Of the horror that I had defeated. The Wall of Flesh.

Whispers echoed around me as I thought of the monstrous creature, signifying that it still held power in this world. I had sacrificed a guide voodoo doll to lava, weeping the entire time, seeing the words in the lower right corner, “Guide was slain…” My expression quickly shifted to terror, as words formed below that, “The Wall of Flesh has awoken!” accompanied with a bone-chilling roar. A tongue had suddenly latched onto my waist, dragging me kicking and screaming to the pile of mutilated tissue, two enormous eyes gazing at my every move, a gigantic mouth between the two eyes, which were situated above and below it. And the Hungry… The jaws that snapped and drooled as they sensed my body, reaching out while leashed to the Wall with umbilical cords. And when I struck them down to half health, they flew to me, much like a demon eye, intent to kill.

And as I injured the otherworldly abomination more and more, it grew faster and faster, it’s eyes shooting blueish lasers more and more often, rushing to devour my poor body and soul. I shuddered at the memories, eagerly wishing that they were not so painful. Those who had not faced it would say it sounded like the stuff of nightmares. They would be wrong. IT IS THE NIGHTMARE. The painting was “Living Gore”, showing a side view of the great destroyer. I looked at it, admiring the detail, listening to the ambient music that came with Hell. It was the same that came with a Blood Moon, but it felt more fitting down here. In my shelter, it felt calming. I learned it was named ‘Eerie’, after recording it with a music box. I had a recording of the Overworld Hallow in my inventory, as I found it the most soothing of them all.

I heard a sudden shift in the sounds, listening to something new… It was not the blood rushing chords of a boss battle, nor was it the calm tone of the Overworld Day. It sounded like many voices singing, all in harmony, all together. Each was a different tone, so much that it would seem to be chaos, but the voices managed perfect symphony. I felt drawn to it, in a way I had never felt before. It spoke of peace.

I shook my head and drank a recall potion, so I could gather items before travelling. I always remained well stocked, whether to a newly generated world or simply a trip to the dungeon. Despite the risk, I took ten platinum coins, because I had more than enough. Equipping my Frost armor, with Adamantine as vanity and bright blue dyes in all slots, I left to the source. As I dropped to the depths again, I took note of my accessories: warding Frozen Wings, menacing Fire Gauntlet, warding Frostspark Boots, warding Celestial Stone, and my pride and joy of my accessories, the one I had worked diligently to, my warding Ankh Shield. With my precious Legendary Adamantite sword in hand, Keen Adamantite pick at the ready, and a valuable Unreal Megashark in my third hotbar slot, I entered my safe room again.

The singing was stronger to the left. I should explain, my world is split into three parts, the foreground, midground, and background. Myself, NPCs, and other mobs reside in the foreground, as well as most blocks. Furniture and decorations reside in the midground. Walls reside in the background, and what is behind that is the “Far Reaches”, or the concept of the rest of the world.

I had travelled maybe a hundred blocks, before I saw something rather amazing. It was a massive portal, residing in all the grounds. It seemed like I could walk through it, yet I knew I couldn’t, for it was a solid object in the foreground. It was composed of a brick similar to the rare Rainbow Bricks, but seeming much more pastel colored. It shifted through many bright hues, with a strange energy emanating from it. The singing was calling to me from it, like a siren, drawing me in. I prepared my sword, and stepped into the anomaly.

As I moved, I saw a strange text in front of me, stating, “Execute Command.”

-------------------- Derpy Hooves’ POV --------------------

“I just don’t know what went wrong,” I groaned, stumbling around the Everfree. I had gone to simply deliver the mail, when a cotton candy cloud hit me, leaving my bags trapped in the sticky object. A very strange set of circumstances later, even by my standards, I was trudging through the Everfree Forest to try and find a shrubbery.

I heard an odd sound, a vwooosh vwooosh, and my coat stood on end from the pure energy. I trotted to the source, only to see a color-changing thing, in the middle of a clearing, that seemed oddly two-dimensional. Suddenly a bright flash appeared, and when my sight returned there was a bipedal thing where the object was. It had some sort of armor or clothing on, deep blue eyes, and a pale face that was oddly flat.

The weirdest thing was not that it stood on two legs, or was holding a massive sword effortlessly in a single hand, but that it spoke, somehow in perfect Equish, “What kind of NPC are you?”

I flew off to Ponyville in terror, leaving the being behind shrugging, not seeing it turn to the sound of growls and snaps. “Twilight will know what to do about this. I gotta find her- Whoops! Sorry!” I thought aloud, narrowly missing an oddly familiar pegasus with a pure gray coat and mane who was sleeping on a cloud.