Timecube

22 April, Year 4 After Purple Comet

Cloud Town

Sweet Cloud woke up. She felt great. It was saturday, the weather was sunny, and she was going to spent all the day with her friend.

She hoped Calm Sky felt better today. Yesterday was a bad day. She will make sure today will be better. That's what friends should do, after all.

Sweet Cloud packed her saddlebags. Books, notebooks, some money. They shall try to learn something for the exam. Then maybe they will go to eat apple fries.

Sweet Cloud went to kitchen. Her father was reading a newspaper. She didn't knew why he did so. Nothing happened in this city anyway. She hoped Calm Sky finds a way out soon.

Her mother was also sitting by the table, drinking apple juice.

"Good morning," said Sweet Cloud, and sat down to eat breakfast.

"Good morning, Sweet. I see you are going somewhere?" her mother said.

"I will go to the library. There's a fairly important exam soon."

"I heard that there was trouble at the market yesterday," her mother said. She gave her the look that Sweet Cloud hated. The you're in big trouble, young lady look.

"There was some very impolite stallion that insulted Doctor Sky, and Calm wanted to defend her father."

"Don't lie to me. I heard what happened. She tried to attack somepegasus because he didn't believed in her delusions."

"Mom! Don't talk about Calm Sky like that!" Sweet Cloud said.

"I told you many times you should stay away from that crazy filly."

"Calm Sky is not crazy. I was there, outside of the city, with her. All she told was true."

"Sure, and you meet aliens? You know this is ridiculous." Sweet's mother said, and turned towards her husband. "Do you agree with me?"

"Of course, honey," he said, not taking his eyes off the newspaper.

"Let me guess, you are going to her again?" she asked her daughter.

"We need to study. We will be safe and quiet in the library."

"By studying, you mean to fantasize about aliens as usual? Well, you may go. Don't try to cause trouble."

"Mom, I'm 18. I can take care of myself," Sweet Cloud said, and went out of her house.

She was a bit angry about her mother. She was always overprotective, but since the incident, it got worse.

Sweet Cloud remembered the fear she felt when the alien attempted to slash her with a sword. To think she could be dead, if not for Calm Sky... These thoughts still made her shudder. When she went back to town on that day, the first thing she did was to hug her mother. The next day, mother made a scene when she went to doctor Sky and accused Calm Sky of attempted murder. Luckly, the charges weren't put forward. Mother later forbade her from ever meeting Calm Sky again, but after she sneaked out a few times, mother stopped trying to prevent that.

Sweet Cloud was loyal to her friend. Even if other pegasi turned on her, she would stay on her side.

She walked towards Calm Sky's house. She saw that the white pegasus opened the door and walked away, saddlebag on her side. Sweet Cloud smiled, and walked towards her friend.

She noticed that Calm Sky was walking the wrong way. Did she forgot? She shouldn't blame her. Yesterday was quite hectic.

She smiled and called for Calm Sky.

"Hi, Sky, where are you going?"

Calm Sky turned towards her friend. She seemed to be quite surprised to see her.

"Hi, Cloud. I'm going to run some tests at Builder's Base. Do you want to join?" Calm Sky replied.

Tests? Again? Sweet Cloud stopped smiling. It wasn't the first time Calm Sky decided to go on with her project despite having more important things to do.

"Weren’t you supposed to meet me at the library today?" Sweet Cloud asked.

Calm Sky stopped. She looked around, as if searching for an answer. "Well, would you agree that researching in the field is more interesting?" she replied, and smiled.

So she forgot that we were supposed to learn meteorology today? Does she want to fail the exam? Sweet Cloud thought. She had to get through to her.

"Can I be honest with you? Some days, you seem a bit obsessed with your pet project."

"I’m not obsessed!" Calm Sky shouted. Sweet Cloud saw some Pegasi look towards them.

She decided to go for the hard truth. She knew Calm Sky since fillyhood, and knew she had to rein in her plans sometimes, before they get into trouble again.

"I know how important this is for you, but I think you shouldn’t get your hopes up. No Pegasus saw any builder again. It was almost four years ago. They won’t come back," she said. It was the sad truth. As great as the discovery was, it wasn't of much use for others.

"Did any Pegasus even look for them? I remember the mayor ordered the guards to search Builder's Base only once, and they decided it is not of any worth to the city. Why is every Pegasus ignoring our discovery?" Calm Sky said. She was almost shouting.

"That base is just a bunch of useless material. Why use the blocks when clouds are working just fine?" Sweet Cloud answered. This was the truth. The blocks were too hard and too inflexible to be used as a building material. Clouds could become almost anything. Sweet Cloud knew it first hoof. She didn't get a cloud pyramid for cutie mark for nothing. She already was designing cloud buildings in her spare time. She was on a good road to becoming an architect.

"Maybe for now they are useless, but once I figure out how they work, they will become useful. When I figure out teleportation, I'm going to find other cloud cities. I might even find Dashie!" Calm Sky said, her anger changing into determination. It was clear she was sure of what she said.

Sweet Cloud had to muster a large amount of willpower to prevent herself from facehoofing. Teleportation? Dashie? Come on! she thought to herself. Maybe it was slightly callous, but sometimes she wondered if Calm Sky was indeed delusional. Doing all the research and trials to teleport to some mare from a painting? I mean, it's not the dumbest thing she did when she had her eyes on a pretty mare, she thought. But at least these mares were real.

"That mare from the pixel art? Don't be ridiculous. She's made up," Sweet Cloud said. She was getting a bit angry.

"How do you know? You know what, I'm going to find her myself," Calm Sky said. She started walking away, in the direction of Builder's Base.

"Fine. Have a nice day," Sweet Cloud said. She spread her wings, and flew towards the library. If she wants to chase a mare from a picture instead of studying for an important exam, it's her problem, she thought.

Sweet Cloud flew for few minutes. Initially, she felt angry for Calm Sky. How could she forgot the meeting? How could she just ignore what she was supposed to do? Later, however, she started tp have second thoughts. She might have been a bit too harsh. Calm Sky had some bad days lately. Maybe I shouldn't get so angry at her, Sweet Cloud thought. She hoovered in place for a bit. She needed to study for exam. I need to apoligise to her, she thought. She turned back, and flew towards Builder's Base.

24 September, year 7 After Purple Comet.

SciCraft

Victor looked as the shulker box with the blue hair was placed on top of pillar of hoopers and mechanisms. He checked his inventory again. He was given full netherite gear, and some shulkers of supplies. He wasn't going to have access to enderchest, and wasn't going to be able to sent messages, at least until the Institute figures out how to get him back.

If that is what it needs to be done to end this war… he thought. He knew it needed to be done, and he knew the risk. This sacrifice was the least he could have done.

"Are you nervous?" asked one of researchers.

"It has to be done," he answered.

"I knew the Directors know what they are doing. If they say it will work, then it will work."

Director Ilmango stood still by the machine, possibly transmiting data between him and other directors. Eventually, he started moving again.

"How are you feeling?"

"Good. When will the machine be ready?"

"We only need to…"

Suddenly, Victor's sensors were overloaded by huge number of data. Someblocker was attacking him.

"The Brotherhood! They broke the barrier!" one of directors wrote in large bold letters in general chat.

"There's no time to lose! Start the machine!" Ilmango wrote. Everyblocker started rushing towards their position.

"We need to defend the realm!" Victor said to Ilmango.

"If we get throught with this, this attack will never happen," Ilmango replied.

"And if we fail."

"In case of SciCraft being under the attack, I authorised usage of Wither Storms."

"Wither Storms? They exist?"

"Yes. There is no other choice. Either we win, or everyblocker loses."

Victor looked at the director. "You want to take down the realm with you?"

"No. I shall take down the entire Blockwork with me."

"You can't!" Victor shouted. He could accept his own sacrifice, but if Whiter Storms are as powerful as creepypastas say they are, the causalities would be catastrophic. He's insane, he thought.

"If you go back and eliminate the Backdoor Horse, you will also stop me from unleasing the Wither Storms."

"Would it also prevent you from building the machine and sending me back in time?"

"There's a mechanism that assures it would still happen. Probably. We had to work with half-remembered myths and guesses."

"The machine is ready," said one of assistants.

"Private Victor, as one of Directors of the SciCraft Institute, I order you to stay over at the designated area," Ilmango said, and pointed towards the chamber where the energies will be used.

"Yes, sir," Victor answered. He walked towards the chamber. The thick metal doors opened, and he walked in.

"Redirect all tokens into the main Tower, then sent all energy to the machine," said Ilmango to his assistants.

Victor saw the redstone circuits starting glowing. It was happening. Jeb and Dinnerbone, protect me, he prayed.

"All systems operational. Waiting for order," the assistant said.

"Victor, good luck," Ilmango wrote in private message. Then he wrote on the general chat. "Start the machine."

The light and the energy was blinding. Victor felt overhelmed, as if the wires that connected him were set on fire. He felt strange magic. Never before he could even imagine this. He started spining. The power was so great, it overwrote everything. He was unable to react.

Then, there was a blinding light, and this was all he could register.