A World of Cubes

Spike and Steve jumped in unison when light once again filled their vision. “Was someone else coming?” asked Steve.

“It’s Twilight! She’s come back for me!” Spike was jumping off the walls is excitement. He was going home! “Steve! Come and meet her!”

“Whoa, wait. Who’s Twilight?”

“Twilight Sparkle. She’s my friend.”

“Twilight Sparkle as in My Little Pony? Let me guess, you’re a Brony.”

“What’s a Brony? Oh, never mind. Just come on!”

Bounding through the tall meadow grass and past the birch trees, Spike raced back to the clearing where he had first appeared, with Steve reluctantly trailing behind. Even though he had only been here a short while, Spike was ready to go home.

                                                                                        ~

Crashing to the ground, air flew out of Twilight’s lungs. She looked up at the trees above her and at the sky. They were… made of cubes. Everything she looked at was somehow made of cubes and pixelated.

“Ugh! What a rough landing! Where are we Twilight?” asked Rarity, disgruntled by the experience.

“Hey, Twi! Are we… human?” Applejack was examining her new form, which was square and edged.

It wasn’t exactly the same form Twilight had had in the human world, but it was similar. “Yes… Yes. I think so.”

The rest had never been human before. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy had lost a major part of themselves, but Applejack and Pinkie Pie were rather comfortable in this strange, new world.

“How am I supposed to fly?” Rainbow Dash’s piercing whine rang out.

“You can’t, sugar cube. You just need to deal without your wings for a while.”

A panic-stricken expression accompanied with tears filled Rainbow Dash’s face. Never before had she imagined a life without her wings. Except when Discord took them. And maybe a few other times.

“Alright, girls,” Twilight said. “Let’s go find Spike.”

As if on cue, Spike came barreling into the clearing.

“Hey! You’re here!” One by one, he embraced them all.  “I’m glad you’re here. I was getting worried when you’d come.”

“Ahem. Hi.”

Spike blushed. “Sorry, guys. This is Steve. He helped me out when I first got here.”

“Nice to meet you, Steve. I’m Twilight Sparkle and these are Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.”

Shaking his head slightly, Steve laughed. “A regular Pegasister and Brony convention. Well, here’s Spike. Now you guys can go back where you came from.”

Silence. A sense of realization crept over the group. “Twilight? How are we going to get back?”

A piercing, screaming silence echoed through the clearing, filling everyone’s mind. The thoughts that rushed in after it was overwhelming.

“Twilight?” asked Pinky, who was starting to get worried. “Can you still remember the spell?”

“That’s not how it works, Pinky. The scroll itself is enchanted. And now… We can’t go home without it.” Everyone (Except Steve) internally screamed at the thought of never seeing their world again.

“What do you mean? Can’t you log off?” Steve still thought these were just ordinary people.

Twilight sighed in dismay. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘log off,’ Steve, but we can’t go home; unless we find another way back.”

“Man, this is hurting my brain… All this egghead-stuff doesn’t fit.” Rainbow Dash clutched her temples in pretend agony.

“My guess is you guys don’t have a place to stay. And you have no idea how this place works. And you need me to teach you. Well, girls, if you want to stay with me, you’ll have to earn your keep.” His eyes glanced at the group. “Otherwise, you’ll get no help from me.”

“Well… Okay, Mister Steve. But what will we be doing?” Fluttershy quavered.

An evil grin spread across Steve’s face. “First you’ll need to learn about getting supplies.”

                                                                                               ~

All of the girls were exhausted by dusk. They had, respectively, dug Steve a 20x34 block basement (5 blocks tall), harvested 8 ½ stacks of coal, not to mention iron and lapis, chopped down 29 trees, and slaughtered 22 cows (Fluttershy had had no part in this and cried the whole time). Everyone fell asleep as soon as they went to bed. Except…

“Twilight? What are you doing up?”

“I have to study these books that Steve has about this world, Spike. I have to find a way back home. Equestria needs us.”

“Twilight, you can’t stay up all night! You can do it tomorrow.”

Twilight Sparkle paused in her reading. “Spike, Steve has insisted he ‘train’ us, and it’s been giving him a lot of supplies. I don’t think I’ll have much time tomorrow. Don’t worry; I’ll go to bed in an hour or so.”

Spike turned back to his room. “Okay, Twilight… Make sure you do.”

                                                                                                 ~

At dawn, Twilight Sparkle woke everyone with a victorious yell. “I think I’ve done it!”

“You’ve found a way home?” Spike knew she would.

“Yes! Yes… I think.”

Fluttershy toppled out of bed with a thump. Everyone’s face was stretched in a yawn.

Steve walked in the door with a shovel on his shoulder, looking fresh and awake. “Did you say you found a way home?”

“Ya, but it needs a portal that I can modify. It would be more useful if it was one way, so no pony can accidently come here again.”

Steve thought for a moment. “The portal to the Nether won’t work… (“The Nether? What’s the Nether?” the ponies thought.) But you could try the portal to or from the End. Either way, it would be hard, but the portal from the End would be a lot harder.”

Rainbow Dash leaped at the thought of a challenge. “Why would it be harder?”

“Well, the portal away from the End appears when you kill the Ender Dragon, the most powerful mob in all of Minecraft, except the Wither. Thank Notch we’re not fighting him. To activate the portal to the End, you need a bunch of Eyes of Ender, which are crafted from ender pearls and Blaze rod dust.”

“I-I think we should try sticking to easy.” Fluttershy said.

“Alright, then.  We’ll split into two teams, one to kill Ender men, the other to go to the Nether and harvest Blaze rods. Spike, since you know more about this world than the girls, you will lead the first team, I’ll lead the second. My team will go to the Nether. Spike’s will stay in the Over world. First, everyone go use the furnaces and coal you collected to smelt the iron and make some gear. You’re gonna need it.”

                                                                                                       ~

They were suited up in full iron armor, swords at ready. Steve paced in front of them, with Spike at his side.

“I’ll take you, Rainbow.” Steve said.

“Twilight.” Spike knew he would need her.

“You. Orange girl.”

“Pinky Pie, you’re with me.”

“Blue hair… person.”

“And that leaves me with Fluttershy.”

Steve was quite happy with his team. “To make it fun, whoever comes back second has to bake a cake for the other team.”

“Deal, Steve. But we’re gonna kick your butts. No offense, girls.”

Steve chuckled. With that yellow weakling? Fat chance. But he kept his thoughts to himself. “You can start at any time, Spike. I’ve got a Nether portal in the back. Come on, girls.”

Chapter 4: Spike and Team

Spike turned to Twilight. “So, Ender men. What are we looking for?”

“They are tall, dark, and touchy. If you look them in the eye, they attack. I think we’ll know them when we see them. They also teleport.”

Fluttershy was frightened. She didn’t want to do this at all, even though she wanted to help. “What about the Ender men? Do we have to kill them? Can’t we just ask them for Ender pearls?”

Twilight peered in her book on mobs. “No, no. This book says they are mindless attackers. But, they also die in water, so that’s helpful.”

Spike finally felt like he was an equal. He was leading the others. He was just as tall. He finally knew more about something than Twilight. He liked it here.

“Alright, team! Move out!”

                                                                                              ~

There was the portal, shimmering in the midday sun.

The girls didn’t know what was behind it, but they (although some didn’t want to admit it) didn’t want to find out. “Who wants to go first?” Rarity stepped behind Steve. “Stallions first… heh…”

Rainbow Dash stepped up and in, disappearing into the purple. One by one, they jumped through to the fiery waste beyond.

Fire was blazing all around the group, lava pooled beside them. Groans echoed all around from monstrosities that appeared to be undead pig-men. Castle towers rose up across the lake of fire.

Steve looked around. There were all manner or monstrosities here. He had only come to the Nether once, and, having no other need for the supplies found there, had never came back.

“Get down!” he cried as a projectile exploded feet away from them. Everyone was thrown down, but scrambled to their feet to get away from the next one.

Finally, they found cover under an overhanging ledge, panting. “What happened?” Applejack said.

“Now, that was a ghast and his balls. Wait, that didn’t come out right… A ghast shot some explosives at us. Next time, try to hit them back to it with your swords.”

Rarity gave an experimental swing of her sword while Rainbow Dash sliced some Nether rack into a funny face.

“Where do we find Blazes?” asked Applejack.

“In that Nether fortress over there. I see a bridge across.” Steve said. The group trudged up the slope until they reached the beginning of the overpass and crossed to the menacing towers. The red brick it was made of radiated heat but, when touched, was cold. Fire burned outside the windows, making it so that the group had to edge away when one was near. The corridors wound on and on and on, deeper and deeper into the mountain of blood-red rock.

Rainbow Dash was going particularly fast around a corner attempting to find the first blaze when … she accidently impaled a zombie pig-man on her sword. Its dying squeal echoed through the passage ways again and again. The group stopped as all the pig-men turned to look at them, rage filling their eyes.

“Run!”

For a while, they felt nothing but the ground beneath their feet and heard only the pig-men at their heels. Finally, they ran into a tower and up the stairs with almost no hope of escape. The pig-men would surely catch them in a dead-end. But… the pig-men didn’t follow.

“Why aren’t they coming in here?” Rarity asked.

“That’s why.” Applejack was pointing to a blaze standing (well… floating) in the doorway they had just left.

“Attack!!” All at once, Steve, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity plunged their swords into the smoke without fear or question. The Blaze leaped back, flinging flames that set the walls on fire. Scorching their faces, the flames rose into a wall of fire, hissing and leaping towards them. With a horrendous battle cry, Steve hurdled over and slashed at the blaze. The smoke blinded him, and he stumbled back in surprise.

“Go in for the kill, Applejack!” Steve yelled. “I got some good hits!”

Applejack leaped up and ran her sword through the blaze’s head. It disappeared in a puff of mist. In its place was a golden Blaze rod.

“One down, five to go.”

                                                                  ~

Pinkie Pie scribbled in book they had found in a dungeon on their first day.

Maybe May, unknown day, 2016

We have been on the hunt for approximately 3 days. We are making camp in a jungle! I’ve never been in a jungle before… I haven’t seen any monkeys, but I have seen some doggies. They didn’t want to play, even when I threw maybe a bajillion sticks for them. It’s still raining. Wait… didn’t Twilight say that the Ender-whatsies die in water? Any Ender men would be dead by now, unless they’re in caves or under trees, or living under rocks… Or teacups! Or indoors having a party, like I wish I was. But I’m going to stay happy. I’ll make everyone happy. Like my destiny says.

Pinkie Pie, signing off.

She shut it and looked out at the rain from under her sad little bush. A whole week and not one Ender man. Not one! They would never get home at this rate. The thick jungle canopy blocked any sight of the sun, not that you could see it anyway with all of the rain clouds. Everyone else was sleeping, but Pinkie couldn’t over the sound of the rain. Suddenly at the corner of her vision, she saw it. Why didn’t they spot it before? A cave entrance on the top of a mountain, almost obscured by fog. Any surviving Ender men would be in there.

“Guys wake up!” Pinkie Pie leapt up, dropping her book. She didn’t realize she’d left it behind until much later.

                                                                                                ~

Rainbow Dash decapitated a pig-man with a swish of steel. “17!”

Applejack expertly carved the limbs off another. “22!”

“You’re cheating!” Rainbow Dash plunged her sword into the heart of a third.

“No! I just got dem skills!”

“Aw, for Celestia’s sake!”

Steve smiled at the two competitors. “You guys know that we’re supposed to be hunting blazes, right?”

They laughed and continued decapitating the mobs. After a while in the hostile environment, even Rarity had grown comfortable surviving in the waste. Steve was becoming worried about supplies, though. In a few more days, they would have to start eating rotten flesh, which was quite unappetizing. Already half-way to their goal of 6 blaze rods, everyone was looking forward to getting back home.

But Steve wasn’t sure where that was anymore.

                                                                                                     ~

A figure stepped out of the shadows and picked up a tattered and soaked book. He smiled. Handing it to the man beside him, he whispered, “Give this to Master, … I’ll continue on.”