Timecube

21 April, Year 4 After Purple Comet

Cloud Town

Mr. Sky was preparing a dinner for him and his daughter. Calm Sky had finished school for today. It was friday, so she probably was out with her friends. The stallion hoped she wouldn't get into trouble. His daughter was quite a troublemaker in the town.

She always wanted to discover and explore something. He appreciated this. It was a good thing his daughter had interests and tried to help others.

The door to the house opened.

"Hello. How was your day at school?" he greeted his daughter.

"It was terrible!"

"Why?"

"Dad, do you know why everypegasus here is so stupid?"

"What happened?"

"The meteorology professor mocked my project, the Pegasi in the school laughed at me, and then some jerk in the market insulted me and you!"

"You are a smart mare. Don't worry about what other Pegasi say about you."

"But dad, why can't they understand that I found the answers to all of the city's problems! Once I learn how to harness the builder's magic, everything will change."

"Well, they probably still aren't ready for this. You can't expect them to change in a single day."

"Because they are too stupid!" Calm Sky said, and pretended to kick something.

"What would you say for apple pancakes?" her father asked. He knew she loved them, and they would improve her mood.

"I'm not hungry. I'm going into my room, I have work to do," she said, and walked upstairs.

Mr. Sky was worried about his daughter. Others in the town did not share her enthusiasm. He knew first hand how stubborn about changes they could be. Still, he believed in his daughter. She was a smart Pegasus.

Mr. Sky decided to walk upstairs to his daughter. Maybe there was something more he could do? He walked to the door and knocked on it. The hardened cloud dented, but quickly reformed.

"Calm, can I enter?" he asked. There was no response.

He opened the door. Calm Sky was sitting by the wooden machine she dragged from the Builder's Base. Crafting table, he remembered.

Calm Sky's room was quite messy. There were notes scattered around. In the corner, there was a working place, with a crafting table and chest. He remembered how he argued when she tried to put a furnace in the room. In the other corner, there was an unset bed. On the wall, there were drawings. Some technical diagrams Calm Sky drew, a portrait of her and her father he got from the town painter, a drawing of her with Sweet Cloud made by her friend and a portrait of a blue, rainbow maned Pegasus mare that Calm Sky wanted to meet.

"Calm, are you all right?"

"Yes. I'm working," Calm Sky said. Her father noticed she was crying.

"Don't worry about them. You are a very smart mare, and don't let yourself be held down."

"Dad, can I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"Would mom approve of my research?"

He stood in silence for a short while, but finally answered.

"Yes. She would be proud to have such a smart and brave daughter."

He walked towards Calm Sky and hugged her. They stood in silence for a long while. He thought about his wife. How he would give up everything only for her to be here with his daughter.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you too, dad," she replied.

24 September, year 7 After Purple Comet.

SciCraft

After a long journey through the Blockwork, Victor had reached the SciCraft. He logged on, and appeared in the spawn.

The city of SciCraft was the peak of Blocker advancement. It was the headquarters of the Institute, an organization whose goals were to help the Blocker people reach their true potential.

Victor never entered the city before. It was impossible to do so without an invitation from the Directors. The security was even stronger now, because of the war.

"Identify yourself," said a guard. Victor noticed several identical guards in the area. Bots, he thought.

"Victor728, of the 3rd assault company."

"Director Ilmango is waiting for you in the Secret Research Facility nr. 4. Follow me," the bot guard said. Victor followed him.

They reached a railway. The bot clicked a button. The lamps started flickering in a pattern. The bot placed a minecart and sat inside. Victor sat in the back.

The minecart started. Soon, it reached great speed, far faster than Victor even experienced. The minecart drove on bridges above the laboratories and testing grounds.

After a few minutes of travel, the minecart stopped. The passengers got out.

Victor saw a huge bunker made out of bedrock.

"Don't try to use freecam, the anticheat would erase your memories," the bot said. Victor looked at his device and turned off everything. No need to risk disrupting this facility.

"You will follow me. No stopping, no turning around. This is a maximum security area. You take one wrong step, you get banned," the bot said. Victor started to get nervous.

The bot set a path, and walked inside the bunker. Victor followed him.

The bunker was a maze of bedrock and barriers. No way anyblocker would be dumb enough to attack it, Victor thought.

After a very long travel through the maze, Victor and the bot reached a vide corridor made out of iron blocks.

Victor saw some Blockers standing in a group. He recognized some of them. One of them was Director Ilmango.

"Look, our tester has finally came," one of the Blockers said.

"Tester?"

Ilmango walked towards Victor. The soldier crouched and bowed down to the Director.

"Welcome, Victor, to our research facility. We are glad you decided to help us."

"If I may ask, what exactly would I be helping with? I am just a simple PVPer, I don't even know how to craft a repeater without looking up the recipe."

"We need a PVPer for the experiment."

"I am sure there are many guilds that would gladly help you."

"My researchers checked a few thousand Blockers, and you are the perfect candidate."

Victor decided that questioning the Institute would be unwise. "What should I be doing?"

"Come with me," said Ilmango.

Victor walked together with the group. The bunker was very large, and there were many rooms.

Ilmango stopped next to a map art. This map art was a portrait of a green and black Blocker. It's skin wasn't angular like all others, instead being abstract. There were signs below the map art. It was written Administrator KleinBottle, Leader of Blocker Stripminers, Head of Obsidian Council, Owner and Administrator of Blockkonstruct.

"How much do you know about history? Do you know who he was?" asked Ilmango.

"Admin of some realm?" guessed Victor. He never heard of him before.

"Not some realm. The Omnirealm of Blockkonstruct. The single realm of Existence. Don't worry if you didn't know this, the knowledge is long lost. Even I only know scraps of that story."

"You mean, everything was once a single realm?"

"Yes. We built it. We do not remember it. It was taken away from us. But yes, at one point, all of Existence was the Blockkonstruct. Almost all."

"What happened to it?"

"The same thing that is happening to the Containment Zone now."

Ilmango walked a few steps further.

There was a large painting. It showed a battle between black and green cat-like creatures, and winged and horned horses. They fought among the stars, shooting rays of magic from arcane machines.

"This is how we once looked. We only got our current skins later," Ilmango pointed at the blocky cats. "These creatures here," he pointed at the strange-looking horses, "are our eternal enemies. They are called the Starborn."

"They look like modded horses."

"Simple modded horse wouldn't assassinate the usurper King of Blockers and his blaspheming lackey. These two were the strongest arcaneengineers in the entire Blockwork, far stronger than even I am. Yet, a single Starborn managed to destroy them in two weeks. You can see how far our kind has fallen."

"You mean, the Backdoor Horse? There are more of them?"

"Yes. They hate us. Noblocker remembers why or how. The only two Blockers that knew anything were killed."

"Is there any way to stop them?"

"In fact, yes. I have just the thing we need."

Ilmango pointed towards his assistant. She placed an ender chest on the floor, and took out a shulker box. She placed the shulker. Ilmango opened it, and took out a blue string.

"Why do you need a blue string?" asked Victor.

"This is not a string. This is a hair from the mane of the Backdoor Horse. My researchers managed to crack the code that it used to travel to the Containment Zone. We can reverse the process."

"With this, we will find the horse?"

"Exactly. Not only that, but we will be able to stop the war. I shall give you the opportunity to become the key to survival of our kind. But before I do this, I need to inform you about something."

"Yes, Director?"

"This plan is a one-way path. If you follow me, there is no turning back. You will never be able to go back. I can't guarantee if you survive, there's a high chance you won't. If the mission ends in a success, you will save us all."

Victor stood in silence. Suicide mission? Now he understood why they choose him. He was expandable.

"By won't survive, you mean…"

"That you will be severed from the Blockwork. You can die, permanently, with no respawn."

Victor looked around. Dying permanently? It was something hard to comprehend. Normally, when a Blocker died, it just went back to Blockwork to reform, then quickly got back to life with minimal loss. Victor couldn't even begin to imagine not having the Blockwork available. It was a terrific concept.

However, he was a soldier. He was loyal to the cause, and wanted to help his kind. If his life was a price that had to be paid…

"Yes. I accept," Victor said.

"Excellent. Come here, I shall show you the greatest invention I even designed."

Victor followed Ilmango downstraits. There were more barriers and bedrock. Victor wondered why they needed so much security for this project.

Eventually, they reached the bottom. Victor saw a computer. Rows upon rows of wires and contraptions. Looking at the masterpiece of redstone engineering filled Victor with awe.

"This is connected to our Wholesum Alpha supercomputer. It is also connected to all the reactors and computers in SciCraft. Turning this machine on would require all the power we can," said Ilmango. He opened an iron door.

They entered a huge hall. There was a redstone torch monitor, and multiple levers and buttons. On the monitor, the current time was shown. There was also another date. 22 April, three years ago, 11:47 AM.

"What is this?"

"This, my friend, is a time machine."