The Round World

By the time we finally reached the portal, the sun was directly above our heads.

“Well,” Jones begins, “I’d like to see these creatures…”

“Indeed,” I agree. With that, we both leap into the purple-glowing portal, unaware of the adventure we will find ourselves in once we reach the other side, and beyond that moment…

Inside the portal, believe it or not, there is not much to describe. It felt more like a mine cart ride, where you don’t even get to take note of anything, you just go flying on by.

Suddenly, I find myself in a strange place. I am truly horrified by what I find. The location we landed in was definitely a forest, but what was inside it… rounded trees lay everywhere. Fallen over logs lay crossed over the shaded, deep green grass. The shadow from the tree-filled area removed all sight to the surrounding locations. It also removed any kinds of light that might have been there, although I doubt it.

I look over my cube-shaped shoulder, nodding to Jones when I notice him come through the portal.

“How far are we going to go…? I ask casually. It’s normal for minecraftians such as me and Jones to go out and explore the first things we see.

Jones pauses, drawing out his blue sword, which was made with diamonds by yours truly. “I went to the edge of this forest,” he tells me, “By the northern end I believe…”

“Which way would that be?” I ask, drawing out my own diamond-crafted, pixelated sword.

“This is the first portal in this dimension, which means we are currently facing east, so,” he points his sword to the left, “We head that way.” He then took off running, leaving me in the dust.

“JONES!” I screamed. “GET YOUR BLOODY BUTT BACK HERE!” I continued, chasing after him. Without thinking, I summoned a potion of swiftness from my inventory. I then drank in a swift gulp, and sprinted after him.

From the darkness of the forest and my new incredibly fast speed, I didn’t get to see Jones before I barreled into him, taking both me and him to the ground. It was shortly afterward that I noticed there was a path of light. It was weak, but certainly light… from some sort of creation, not just nature.

I quickly pulled myself off of him, “Sorry,” I mumble.

He nods before making a quick movement with his blocky hand, motioning for us to draw closer to the light-creating object…

Even though the light was enough for us to see, we still could not see outside of a 5 block radius. I looked from side to side, expecting to witness the eyes of him appear in the darkness, coming to vanquish our souls.

But, instead, I saw something less horrifying. A shadow quickly darted passed me. I held up my right hand, signaling for Jones to stop.

“Yea, I saw it to,” He tells me. It is always awkward when he knows exactly what I am about to ask.

“Hey,” I begin, “Whatever made that shadow, it’s okay… we aren’t going to hurt you.” I play my words carefully, hoping the creature would come out, but expecting that it wouldn’t.

I saw a shadow on the edge of the light move for a split second before retreating back into the safety of the bushes.

“Y’all know I ain’t stupid,” a thick southern accent on a high-pitched voice called out. “Y’all got swords; I think I can tell when y’all tryin’ ta hurt me.”

I looked back at Jones to see his silhouette nod. We both then drop our swords. I hear a small, quiet gasp, before a footstep.

“Like I said, we aren’t here to hurt you,” I reply, looking back to Jones to see him nod his blocky silhouette back at me.

The little shadow crept out into the lit-up clearing. It was a small creature, with four little legs, some reddish-pinkish hair, with a red bow in her hair. She was a slightly brighter color than tan, and also had a reddish-pinkish tail.

I ignore Jones bursting out into laughter.

“W-who are you?” I stutter, before instantly insulting myself. You idiot; you’re supposed to be the brave one here…

My question only sent Jones onto the floor, the amount of laughter flooding my ears increasing.

“I’m Applebloom,” The voice replies, the little creature now being a tad bit less shy, and coming out to greet us.

Jones begins to roll all over the floor, laughing.

“What’s wrong with yer friend there?” Applebloom asks, a rather strange look overcoming her rounded face.

“Oh, that’s Jones… He’s a bit of a…” I get interrupted as Jones leaps up, and then falls back down in a loud burst of half-laugh, half-breath gasps. “… sporadic character.”

Applebloom’s brows furrow and I clearly see a confused face. “What’s sporadic mean?”

I chuckle while Jones just laughs even harder. “Sporadic means random.”

Applebloom still has the confused face. “Then can’t ya just say ‘random’ instead of ‘sporadic’?”

I consider this for exactly one tenth of a second. “Naaaah.”

That sends Jones into an all-out laugh-until-you-hit-the-ground-because-you-can’t-breath series of laughing. Honestly, I’m impressed he doesn’t suffer from asthma or something equally dangerous.

I was glad to also see Applebloom crack a smile at my comment. “So, Applebloom, you got a house around here?” I instantly regret asking.

Jones stops laughing and gets serious, “What? You think that lil’ thing has the power to punch down a tree to get wood for a house? You gotta be smokin’, bro!” Jones says, before instantly returning into another laughing spree.

I somehow ignored him, and just asked Applebloom again.

“Yah I got a house. It’s in Sweet Apple Acres, near Ponyville,” She responds. Then she starts to ask a question; “Ya told me yer friend’s name, but what’s…?”

She gets interrupted as I respond; “Murk… My name’s Murk.”

“Murk…?” She responds. She looks like she is about to crack up, almost as much as Jones.

“Murk happens to be a normal name from where I am from… So, yea, do you have any place we could possibly stay…?” I ask, thinking of all the monsters probably out hunting us at this time of night.

“Yah, Zecora’s hut is just up ahead. I was headin’ there bringin’ these here Poison Joke flowers.” Applebloom responds, motioning to the blue-pedaled flowers in her brown, leather side-pouch.

“Why are they called Poison Joke?” Jones asked. I was unaware that he even stopped laughing. Then I understood why.

“Jones, they probably don’t force you to laugh. Just because ‘joke’ is in their name doesn’t mean they actually are a joke,” I respond.

“Damn it.” Jones comments real quickly before Applebloom continues talking.

“It’s called Poison Joke ‘cause it takes what yer best at an’ reverses it. It puts the joke on you.” Applebloom explains to us.

Jones looks at the blue flowers, now seemingly frightened of them. I can understand why. If a minecraftian was no longer able to mine, than what sort of use would they be…?

“Well, okay, do you mind if we get to see this Zecora character while you deliver the flowers?” I ask Applebloom, not only hoping but also expecting her to say yes.

“Yah,” she replies, “I can’t just leave ya here, now can I?”

“I guess not,” I hear Jones mumble under his breath before kicking a small round stone into a bush.

Applebloom then leads us towards the direction the light was coming from. "Where are y'all from, anyways?" She asks us, probably expecting some answer from a place on her own dimension.

"SPAAAAACE!" Jones shouts before returning into a constantly laughing state.

"Jones, could you possibly try to be somewhat serious about something?" I ask, only beginning to get annoyed. "We are from Minecraftia, it's a dimension probably far from this one, although i cannot seem to get a list of the coordinates here."

"Coordinates?" Applebloom asks, furrowing her brow in another state of confusion.

The light suddenly turns off, shrouding us all in darkness.

"HEROBRINE I'M SORRY I'LL GIVE YOU BACK YOUR DIAMONDS!!!!" Jones yelled at the top of his lungs.

I elbowed him, satisfaction crossing through my body when i heard him hit the ground, "Where do you see Herobrine?" I ask, shortly before noticing the two lights looking at us as if they were eyes up ahead...

I stood there for a brief moment. The shock nearly forcing my body to stay put when i heard Jones scream again, "I DONT WANT TO DIEEEEEEE WHY!?!?!?!?!"

As much as that would normally make me laugh if it was just a creeper, it wasn't exactly funny in this situation. Applebloom didn't seem scared though. But from this far of a distance, even through the shadows that lay in the way, i could see the arrow being pulled into the bow.

I dived forward, grasping Applebloom before rolling to the side as the arrow barely missed her head. I found myself holding her beside a tree.

"Woah," She began, "W-W-What was that...?"

I wasn't exactly relieved to see Jones coming up towards us, but nor was i exactly annoyed.

"That," Jones began, still catching his breath, "was Herobrine... And we need to run. Now."

Looking behind him, I saw Jones was right. Still holding onto Applebloom, i took off in the direction opposite the one Herobrine was coming from. I heard two pairs of footsteps behind me, signaling that Jones was following me, and that Herobrine was following him. I sprinted around trees, leaped over logs, and even ducked under a couple branches. How I saw in the pitch-black darkness was beyond me, but I was really grateful for that.

An arrow whizzed passed my head, trapping itself in the bark of a nearby round tree. I couldn't think of my inventory, it seemed, so i was forced to keep on running. I failed to spot the one root beneath my feet.

I fell to the ground, twisting my body in mid-air and landing on my back. I let go of Applebloom, "Run and hide," I said, clear as diamonds. She knew exactly what I meant, and raced over to the shadows.

As i heard Jones run further on from the other side of a nearby tree, I began to think about what was happening...

"Man... Roots are such Catalysts." I muttered, summoning my axe from my inventory before slamming it into the tree root. It made such a loud CRACK that i thought everyone in the forest would be able to hear it. Looking at the root that now entangled my foot, I began to become irate.

Instead of yelling at it, i just slammed my axe into it about 50 times. Each time the axe cut it, it patched itself up again.

"HOW DO I GET THIS THING OFF OF ME?" I screamed out to anyone nearby. I don't think anyone heard me though, because no one came for atleast half an hour.

I was catching up on my lack of sleep when i heard two different voices;

"Applebloom? Appleblooooom? Where are you?" Went one of the voices. It sounded certainly like a younger character, but i couldn't tell what type of accent it had.

"Where could she be?" Peeped up another voice. This one, unlike the other one, was certainly male, but also younger, "Scootaloo, we searched everywhere for her... Face it, she's gone somewhere..."

"B-But we can't give up!" Went the first voice, Scootaloo, who was probably one of Applebloom's friends...

I decided to see if i could get someone to help me... "H-Hey...! C-Can you two help me?" I shout out towards their voices.

"W-Who was that?" Scootaloo's voice asked her companion. Judging from the fact that she was the next one to talk, I think the guy shrugged. "Then come on, we gotta find out who it is."

I still couldn't move, and until this point i hadn't noticed that the root now covers all of my bottom leg rather than just a narrow strip. I brighted up my spirits when i saw two figures coming closer.

"Down here," I said, "And please, don't step on me either..." A small laugh came out of my mouth after i said that.

The male voice was the one to respond to that... or it might have been how i looked, "You look like you're made of blocks... who are you?"

I sighed, "Why does that matter? I was in this forest with my friend and something else and then we were attack by Herobrine and this root started sexually assaulting me."

That made the male voice begin to laugh.

"Pipsqueak! We haven't got time for this!" said Scootaloo, who i now observed as a orange creature with wings, and purplish colored hair and tail.

"Sorry..." Pipsqueak mumbled, who i noticed was a white creature with brown spots, but from the darkness i couldn't see the color of his hair. Either that or i was going colorblind.

"Do any of you two know how to make this root find one of it's own kind...?" I ask, hoping one of them would break the root that kept me down on the ground.

I saw Pipsqueak's white leg come down on the root with pretty fast speed. The root snapped almost instantly, letting go of my leg.

"Ahhhhh," I said, gaining the tremendous feeling of command over my leg, "Now... about your friend..." I began...

Scootaloo instantly jumped up "What? You know her? What happened to her? Where did she go?" She continued to bombard me with questions... most of which i had no answer to.

I only took it all into one response; "I may have said this before, but i came here with my friend, Jones, and we found Applebloom around the forest. Shortly after meeting her, however, Herobrine, Notch curse his name, showed up and chased us nearly everywhere in this place."

"Where did Applebloom go, though?" Scootaloo asked me, her eyes showing a feeling i have never seen before... Not exactly love, but certainly more than just a friend relationship...

"Uhh... Oh Notch," I mumble... Suddenly feeling both embarrassed and useless. "WHY ARE THERE ROOTS HERE? IF THEY DIDN'T TRIP ME EVERYONE WOULD BE HAPPY RIGHT ABOUT NOW!" I yelled this out of frustration and a subtle feeling of embarrassment.

"Hey... Calm down." Pipsqueak soothed, or atleast tried, "We don't want your little Herobrine friend coming back, now do we?"

I only had to agree with him on that part... Having Herobrine come back when I'm too hungry to sprint would be HORRIBLE.

That's when i noticed two white lights from behind the two creatures.

"Why the HELL does it feel like I'm the only one that has to deal with HEROBRINEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!??????????????" I yell, clearly loud enough for the entire world to hear me.

I suddenly shook my head when i saw the two lights flicker, as if they were candles... which they were. I saw Jones holding one in his hand as he came into my range of sight.... the other one was being held by none other than Applebloom, but she was carrying the tray with her mouth, not her arms... if she even calls them arms..

"Oh... Well," I began, the awkward feeling welling up inside of me, "awkwaaard..."

Then it seemed as if everyone started to talk at once, but of course i hear Jones' loud voice over everyone else's, due to the fact that he's namely who i was most worried about in this situation.

"Yo Murk!" He began, placing the candle down next to a tree before running up to me.

"Uhh... Jones... You put the candle next to a tree.." I said, thinking of the candle as a fire started from a flint and steel.

"Applebloom told me it worked like a torch," Jones replied, that defensive stance returning to his pose.

"She might have meant a torch from THIS dimension, not from our dimension," I finish, noticing the tree begin to spark.

"Uhhh," Jones paused before i pointed at the tree, that was now growing ablaze... "OH CRAAAAP!" He shouted, searching through his inventory for something.

"You left the water bucket at home, didn't you?" I ask, annoyance pricking at every part of my body...

"That would be correct," he sighs, "but i stil--"

"YOU FLIPPIN IDIOT!" I shout at him. The noise that i just caused made the other three stop talking. "Why, WHY in the name of Notch would you place FIRE next to WOOD?!?!?"

"I thought it acted like a torch! calm down, it's just one tree..!" Jones told me, unaware that because he said that it would be more than one tree now.

"Jones, if you weren't the one that found this dimension, I would've," I paused, because I actually didn't know what i would have done.

"Can you two stop arguing and just come help us put out the fire?" Pipsqueak's voice called to us. It was clearly in a sort of begging manner.

I nod to Jones, and the two of us come over to the tree, "How in the name of Notch do both of us forget to bring water?" I ask to no-one in particular... To my surprise, it is Scootaloo that answers me.

"It's because you thought you would be going to a more civil place, like Ponyville." She answers flatly, "You didn't think you would be arriving in the middle of a forest."

The answer makes Jones chuckle a bit, but i take it seriously... As i smacked the rest of the fire out, I thought about what she said.

"How did you figure that out?" I ask. It was strange enough that her answer actually made sense, as if she read my mind to receive that answer.

She shrugs casually, "It just seems like what would normally happen," she looks back to Applebloom, "Where were you?" Scootaloo asks her, "You should have been at Zecora's almost 2 hours ago!"

Applebloom frowns as she looks away, "I-I'm sorry, Scootaloo," she mumbles, "I got lost, all the trees look the same."

Glancing around the forest, i saw Applebloom was right. All of the trees looked like they were clones of each other. This thought put another, more disturbing thought into my mind, "Jones... Do you remember where the portal is...?" My thought flows out of my mouth, hope seeming to fall when i notice Jones take the question by surprise.

"No... I guess your forgot where it is too?" He responds, shaking his head while a frown overcomes his normally cheery face.

I nod.

"Greeaaat...." He mumbles angrily. "Lost in the woods! Seems back to the days when we were just noobs, 'ey Murk?"

The memory strikes me. Piercing my skin, the first night rejoins my thoughts...

The two of us, Jones and me, were in a blocky forest. There were trees as far as the eye could see, but they weren't all oak, some were coated in the white color of birch wood. Even though it was the middle of the day, shadows were everywhere. Since neither of us had anything to help in a fight, we both decided to just keep going. It was about 2 hours later when we noticed we were still in the same forest, still without any tools, still without any hope, when we met Skyscreamer. Skyscreamer took us into his Skylands, where we gained at least a diamond a hour. I still remember back to when Herobrine attacked the world. News of the Skylands being destroyed hit our doorstep in the middle of the swamp biome.

"Yea," I comment, realizing it was just a memory... Herobrine didn't destroy this world... but that doesn't mean he won't try to... "So, how far is this Zecora character again?" I ask

"Not too far," replies Applebloom, who was now making sure that she didn't lose any of the Poison Joke flowers. Then she stopped, "Murk," she begins, "when ya grabbed me to get away from Herobrine, did you end up touchin' the Poison Joke...?"

I stopped cold. "Uhh.... I might have, I don't remember though..."

"If ya did," Applebloom started, "ya should have Zecora take a look at it. She can give ya th' remedy if ya need it."

"I'll remember that..." I coughed, pretending to be sick.

My actions sent Jones into his famous laughing routine. I feel like i should just get a pet creeper to ride on my shoulder, who can hiss the alphabet. That should make him laugh rather than me needing to say something. Who knows, maybe he'll catch asthma.

"Shhh!" Pipsqueak's voice hissed at Jones. "I think we're being followed..."

That made Jones silent on the spot, while the rest of us just turned around to find...

Herobrine standing there, holding a smaller white creature with a horn... It looked like a unicorn, just more round. She had two different shades of purple, one dark and one more like a bright lavender. She was struggling to get out of his grasp. She also had a strip of... was that sponge across her mouth?

"Yo, Herobrine, 'sup?" I say casually, before coming closer to him. The two of us were now face to face. "Put the lil' creature down, I know you aren't after her or any of these creatures."

Herobrine kept the creature in his hand, the creature seemed to be calling to the familiar creatures behind me, "Applebloom! Scootaloo!" It cried, Herobrine pulling it closer to himself.

"Look, Herobrine," I continued, "I know you are here for me and Jones, so why are you going after them...?" I ask, pointing to the creature he was holding and to the creatures behind me.

He doesn't respond, instead, he pulls out his black, bedrock-made sword. He aims part of it at the creature he's holding.

"Theres no reason for that," I begin, racing towards him. I slam into him, forcing his grip on the creature to loosen. The little creature then struggled free before rushing over to her friends.

Herobrine stands up, his bedrock sword pointed at my throat. "Move once, any of you, and he gets it," He spoke in an eerily deep tone. No accent was able to be clarified, but he spoke in a very low pitch.

"Does that include my mouth?" I ask cheekily. Yes, that's right. Herobrine is about to kill me and I'll getting all cheeky and cocky. Don't question my logic.

Herobrine sighs before shaking his head. I take this to my advantage.

"HEROBRINEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I shout in my loudest, most high-pitched voice I've ever done. I see Herobrine clutching at his ears. I dive and pick up his bedrock sword, before turning around and seeing that Jones had already gotten the creatures to cover their ears. When I look back to where Herobrine was, he does not seem to be anywhere in sight.

"Oh... Well..." I start, "At least you're outta that situation," I say to the white creature, "What's your name...?"

The little creature looks up at me, a piece of fear from moments ago still remaining on her face, "I'm Sweetie Belle," she begins, "but who are you...?" She asks back to me.

"I'm Murk, and this is my friend Jones," I reply, "we're from a different dimension, but... so was that guy," I conclude, pointing towards where Herobrine stood only moments ago... I then looked back towards Applebloom; "Let's move onward, shall we?"

Applebloom nodded and led the way further into the forest.

After what felt like an hour of travelling, I begin to feel like we weren't really going anywhere, "Applebloom," I say, "Are you sure you know where we are going...?" I ask her, hoping that she indeed does.

"Well, I..." She pauses for a moment due to what seems like embarrassment, "no... Sorry, Murk."

Before i could say anything to comment to that, Jones shouts out; "Guys- THERE'S SOME DEAD THING OVER HERE."

To Be Continued...