A World of Cubes

by darkmoon636

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe, Human, Second Person, Adventure
Length: 2337

A new spell takes Spike to another dimension. When the Mane 6 follows him, they realize they can't get back and must rely on a stranger for help.

Chapter 1
“Twilight! Twilight!” cried Spike as he rushed through the door. “I got that book you wanted!”
Twilight Sparkle grabbed it and poked her nose in it. Yep. This was it. She turned around to Spike. “Thanks. Take the rest of the day off. I need to study this.”
Beginning to walk away, Spike stopped and said, “Are you sure? You’ve been working a lot lately. We could go get ice cream, or explore the castle library instead…”
“Maybe later Spike.”
“Oh, well, ok…” He turned away so Twilight wouldn’t see the dejected look on his face. Twilight continued to pour through the book, titled ‘The Worlds of the Cosmos’.
~
Steve plunged his pick into the stone. “Come on, diamonds…” He wiped his brow clean of sweat. Jamming the head again and again into the blocks, carving a path through the earth, he harvested coal, iron, and lapis. No diamonds. Down he dug, straight down. Finally, the ground gave out from beneath him and Steve plummeted into a cave. Lava sizzled, bubbled, and casted a red-gold glow throughout the cave. The roof went up until concealed by darkness with a passage way splitting off the chamber to the left. Across the lava on the opposite side of the cave, Steve could see –gasp- DIAMONDS! Steve shuffled through his pockets for blocks. There was his pickaxe, red, green, and blue dye, wool (“That won’t work,” he thought), a bed, and… there! 48 blocks of dirt. Carefully, he built a bridge across until there they were, beautiful diamonds! The pickaxe seemed to work itself as he harvested 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of the sparkling gems. Enough to make a sword and boots. Steve had a crafting table in his inventory…
~
Spike had watched Twilight for hours as she read, took notes, and muttered to herself. He couldn’t take it anymore. It was midnight, for Celestia’s sake! He boiled water on the stove and made mint tea, which had sedative properties, he had heard. Silently, Spike slipped into the room and placed it onto the table. “Twilight?”
“Mmh?” she grunted. Her eyelids drooped, obscuring her vision. Bags that had formed under her eyes showed how tired she was. “What is it, Spike?”
“Well, seeing how late it was, I thought you should get some rest, so I made you this tea to help you sleep.”
Twilight glanced at the clock. Was that really the time? She sighed, “Ok, Spike.” Sipping it gingerly, she trudged to her room where she collapsed onto her bed. Spike yawned and stretched. He was quite tired himself… but Twilight’s notes caught his eyes. It crinkled under his claws as he picked it up. Words were crossed out here and there, changed sometimes 4 or 5 different times. It looked like an incantation in a strange language he didn’t recognized…
Cautiously, he read it aloud, “Ego vado, et lunam, et stellas vento. Saluta saculum feci . Et qui venturus est.” Light blurred his vision until he could see nothing. His body was ripped away and Spike felt himself plummeting through space.
~
A flash of violet light ripped through the cave with enough force to knock Steve to his feet. “What the heck was that?” His eyes darted around finding no explanations. Maybe it came from the surface…
~
Spike plopped down, stunned. Where (or maybe even when) was he? Everything looked… wrong. The trees, the ground, the clouds, the sun, all where made of cubes. He himself had also changed. Spike found himself to be a lot taller than before, and he appeared to be missing his fingers, his claws fused in a permanent fist. Animals wandered here and there, also made of cubes.
Spike blinked the dust from his eyes and pondered what to do. Surely there must be some intelligent creature in this world? “Hello!” Spike called. “Is anyone here? Please help!”
~
Steve dashed out of the cave. A voice was calling, one he didn’t recognize.
“Hello!” it said. “Is anyone here? Please help!”
“Sheesh. Another noob. I should’ve known not to join a public server. Fine… I’ll help you do what you could’ve done yourself if you had one ounce of brains… OVER HERE!” Jogging over, Steve found someone with a purple and green dragon skin. “Hey. What’s up? Zombie get ’ya or something?”
The player seemed at lost for words before he stammered, “N-no… I don’t even know what those are… (“How big of a noob is this guy?” Steve thought) but I was just transported here by a spell…” Seeing confusion in Steve’s face, Spike stopped. What, did this strange creature not know about magic? Or worse, did magic not exist in this world? This was obviously not Equestria… so it was possible…
~
Steve wondered why a dude would come into a server and know nothing about the game. “Well, dude, this probably isn’t the game you were looking for, so why don’t you just scurry along, and leave the surviving to the pros, ‘kay?”
Spike stared. Where was he supposed to go? This person obviously didn’t want him here, but there were no towns in sight. “What do you mean? I have nowhere else to go! If you don’t want to help me, I don’t know what I’ll do!”
Steve walked over to the nearest tree and crashed his head into it. “Why is it always me?!? Why can’t the noobs pick on someone else? Arrgh… And if I leave you alone, you’ll die… Fine. Come with me. My house is this way,” Steve muttered. He trudged off, not looking to see if Spike was following. As they turned around a corner, Spike gasped. Steve’s house, or mansion he should say, stood overlooking a lagoon among jungle trees, huge wall-to-wall windows, a tower, and it was made of a beautiful dark wood Spike didn’t recognize.
“It’s… amazing!”
Steve chuckled. “Well, I’m planning to add another floor, maybe a basement. It isn’t much yet, but it’s home.”
“It isn’t much? This is spectacular… Hey, wait, you haven’t told me your name.”
“Steve.”
“Nice to meet you, Steve. I’m Spike.” Spike held out his hand (claw? Whatever…), but Steve just stared at it until he put it down. They went inside to be met with a strange noise.
“HSssssss…. HSSssssssss…”
Spike jumped. “What’s that noise? It sounds like a snake!”
Steve chuckled and pointed to a small glass cage in which was trapped a weird, green animal with empty black eyes and frowning mouth. “What’s that?” asked Spike.
Steve stared incredulously. “You really are new, aren’t you? You see, Spike, that’s a creeper. His name’s Bomby. Mobs can’t see through glass, but in the open, he would run up to you and explode. Sometimes it’ll kill you if you don’t have armor. Died to one a few nights ago.”
Spike thought he had misheard. “What do you mean ‘you died’?”
“I mean dead. Lost all my stuff. Had enchanted gear, too.”
“You died? How are you still hear? It’s impossible!” Spike couldn’t believe it. This Steve had risen from the dead…
“Well, here in Minecraft, if you die, you lose all your stuff and respawn at the last place you slept, or spawn point. Annoying if you just found diamonds…” Steve looked up abruptly and walked over to a large chest, from which he pulled some armor. “Here, Spike. You can have this old stuff. I don’t need it anymore.” He handed Spike a leather tunic, iron leggings and boots, and a chainmail helmet. Some of the pieces were worn with age, but would still protect him.
Spike put them on, and he felt almost heroic. He had never worn armor before. Turning around, he saw Steve holding out a shimmering stone sword. “You can have this, too. I found enough diamonds to make a new sword. This one’s got some good enchants. Fire Aspect, Unbreaking IV, and Bane of Arthropods I. Cool, huh?”
Spike nodded and took the sword, waving it around. It had good weight to it, but he could still maneuver the sword easily. “I’ll call it… Dragon’s Breath. Where did you get it?”
“I made it myself. Like everything else I have. Except that helmet you’ve got on. Dropped off a zombie.” Spike didn’t know how to make stuff, but he would probably need to find out, if he was… stuck here. He hadn’t really thought about how he would get back, but Twilight Sparkle would find him. She always had.
“Can you teach me?” Spike asked.
“To what?”
“Make stuff.”
“Ah. It’s called crafting here. This is a crafting table or bench, whatever you want to call it.” Steve placed it on the floor. “You arrange items in a certain pattern on these squares to make new items.” Spike watched as Steve put gems on the square –two on each side- then they suddenly formed together to make a pair of boots… like magic. Maybe there was magic in this world.
“Cool! Can I try?”
~
Twilight Sparkle woke up, slowly opening one eye after the other. The sun poured in the window from high in the sky onto the bed and birds were chirping in the trees, the clock began tolling… By Celestia! Was that the time? She jumped out of bed, scrambling downstairs. She had to finish the spell by Friday. Twilight grabbed her notes from the table and… she could see little claw marks… no… Spike couldn’t have… He would’ve known better…
“Spike! Spike, where are you?” she called. No answer. She teleported through every room, but Spike wasn’t there. “No, no, no! The spell wasn’t ready!” Spike could be anywhere! Or worse, nowhere.
Her frantic search through the rooms with banging and wailing had brought her friends over. “What’s the matter, Twi?” asked Applejack.
Twilight eyes were darting frantically to and fro, still hoping Spike would pop out any second. “Spike is gone! Gone!”
“Well, he can’t have gone far… Why are you so worried?” Rarity was nonchalantly sewing a dress while she talked.
“No! You don’t understand! He’s not here! He’s not even in Equestria anymore! In fact,” Twilight sat down in dismay, “I don’t know where he could be. Not even what world.”
Fluttershy stared. “I’m sorry, Twilight, but I still don’t understand. What do you mean?”
Twilight sighed, “I was working on a trans-dimensional spell for Princess Celestia that would work without the mirror portal. It would have led to any of the worlds, not just the human world. I wasn’t finished with it, so Spike wouldn’t have been able to control where he went. I have no idea where it would have taken him. In a worse case, it would have taken him nowhere and stranded him in space to die.”
“But Spike isn’t a unicorn! How would he be able to use it?” Rarity exclaimed, still not believing what had happened.
“It was a new type of spell that doesn’t require the use of a horn. Only speech. It probably works with anyone who tries it, since all beings in Equestria are creatures of magic.”
Applejack alone comforted Twilight while the others stared. “There, there, Twi, we’ll find him. It’ll be all right.”
Rainbow Dash had a sudden stroke of brilliance, despite no knowledge of magic. “Could you use a spell to bring up the last location? Or could you track Spike?”
Twilight jumped up. “That’s it! Tollite me ad praeteritum.” She said, tapping her horn to the parchment.
It started trembling, then jumping with glowing violet veins of magic splitting it surface. Crackling with magic, it rose off the floor in a much more impressive display than before.
“Uh… Do you think we should step back?” asked Pinky Pie.
Too late. It seemed to expand and envelope them in purple light. They, too, were now hurdling through the depths of space.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2016-05-17 14:10:41 UTC

Chapter 1

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.”