Apples and Diamonds

"Ooohhhh....." the lady unicorn moaned, "what was that I drank last night?" The mare steadily rose from to her hooves, becoming more aware of her surrounding area. "And......what," she started, "what happened to my-...." She shuffled her hooves on the ground and frantically searched, she realized that she was touching grass. As she looked up, she noticed that she wasn't home, or more importantly, not in equestria. Rarity let out a loud shriek and shivered on the ground, without a clue for where she was.

After a short while, rarity got a grip and began her journey. As she trotted forward she whispered to herself, "ohhh, there's got to be at least SOME sort of civilization around here....." When she looked up she noticed the sun was moving unusually fast. "Huh," she noted, "has it been at least an hour or two already?!" Rarity made another note for where she was, adding, "this is odd...everything appears a little...square. Strange..."

As she went on, what she found was a visible border the went from a grassy area to a dry zone with lots of sand. "Ugh.....at least it better then dirt," rarity said, moving along to the hot ground that the sun made.

"This is impossible!" rarity cried, "where is everypony!? There should be at least ONE pony within a couple miles, but there's NOPONY!!" She looked up to find the sun, everything around her appeared orange, which meant one thing. "Oh, no no no! I need to find shelter!"

During that night, rarity was racing to find someplace to be. Anywhere would be nice. Rarity closed her eyes and cried, "Isn't there at least ONE building within my rea-WAAH!!" She slipped and fell into what appears to be a ditch.....with windows at ground level? Rarity went around to check her  surroundings and understood what she found. "Oh praise the princesses, thank you!!" she shouted, and opened the door to find a brightly lit room. She closed the door behind herself. "Hello?" she whispered, half expecting an answer back. No call back however, which meant the place was hers....for now.

It was no more a single room then a special bunker for ponies that went into survival or even war. rarity hoped it was the former. The area a pair of torches parallel to each other, rarity liked that, where most things were symmetrical, even in the most dire moments. She moved to the center of the room to find three different kinds of blocks in front of her. One appeared to be a chest. She opened it to find a pair of apples, three cooked fish, and some blocks of wood. When she picked up the wood to get a better look at it, it vanished in front of her, which made her jump. When she picked up the apples, they too vanished, and then the same for the fish.

Rarity shivered at what just happened, "what kind of twisted place is this!?" She took deep breathes and continued her search for anything that might her her out. She checked the stone block with some holes for some reason. She reached with her hoof to pull out a couple of coal, and she half smiled, until they too disappeared from her.

She moved onto the next one. It was a weird looking block, it had a grid. Three by three to be precise. She touched the block to find what she could do, but before she could figure out next, a low moan from outside made her jump again and shriek, "WAH-HAHA!!"

She turned to find out that something was creeping around. She couldn't get a clear view due to the ditch that surrounded the area.

When the origin of the noise came into view, it was clear to rarity that it was no ordinary pony. She was not curious enough to find out what it was, however, that didn't stop it be as curious or careless. It came around and rarity knew what it was going, but she thought she was safe from it. Her eyes shrinking in fear and hooves ready to bolt when she saw the door start to crack as the monster continued to bare down on her little room.

The monster emerged and she screamed to find a horrible green zombie pony enter. She backed up so  that she touched the wall of the room. Nowhere to run, she then ran forward, rammed past the vial creature, which in turn made a noise as if it was hurt. She didn't bother to look back as she ran forward and continued onward.

She was beat but she had to go onward to find more shelter. However, her body didn't agree very much and caused her to collapse at a nearby river. She huffed, "m-maybe I'll be safe here...I..." She fell to the ground, exhausted.

A young orange mare, wearing a cow pony hat, strolled by and checked the condition of her saplings. Most of them grown. "Hehe," she chuckled, "well better late then never, especially now that I have a bucket!" The young mare went over to a nearby river to fetch herself some water. "There," she said and as she looked up she gasped, "sweet celestia!!" She switch to her gathered dirt and made a makeshift bridge, picked up the fallen white mare and returned back to her cabin within the woods.

The orange mare tried to place rarity in a bed, but she keeps bouncing off of it, as if it rejecting her. "Aww, come on!" she cried. She picked up the white mare above her head, "get into BED!!" and threw her onto it so hard the bed bounced rarity from a nearby wall and back into the orange mare. "Agh!" she groaned, "dan' nabbit!"

"Fine, ah' jus'....set ya here," the orange mare said as she placed rarity on the floor. "Hopefully ya'll forgive me fa' leaving you on something a lil' better then dirt." She gave one last glance at rarity, dropped a few pork chops near her, which disappeared into her. "Heh, ah hope she knows how ta git that stuff from her hooves an' into her belly." The orange mare walked away and out the door, returning to her hunting and farming.

The white mare gave a groan as she rose from the wooden floor. "Oh, my! What a terri-..." she looked around to find that she's in a house, unlike those found in ponyville, made out of blocks, "oh, so it wasn't a dream...hmm." She still felt weak from a short duration of starvation, but she was good enough to slowly pace around.

One thing she realized was that she fainted near a river, did somepony pick her up? Perhaps spike, or twilight or perhaps it was one of those vial monsters that nabbed her? Oh the very thought made her tremble with fear.

"Wait...." rarity whispered to herself, and noticed that there was something on her hooves. It was the apples, fish, and wood she absorbed into herself. "Oh, how did they get here?" she asked herself. Rarity checked to see if it was permanent, but when she touched the item on her hoof it popped right into the hoof. She gasped in aww and began to feast on the two apples she had. "Oh, mmmm," she moaned, "dat...was delicious!" She ignored the fish and moved to the wood.

Rarity touched the icon on her forehoof and found it also appeared in her grasp. "Oh, dear....hmm, could I eat wood?" she asked, but when she moved her hoof, a large block of wood appeared in front of her making her jump away.

The orange mare came back to check on rarity, only to find that she managed to place a wall of wood in the room was was placed in. "What in tarnation!?" she said, pulling out a wooden axe to quickly remove the wood in front of her. When the first block was removed rarity screamed but quickly calmed down and said, "oh.....it's just you, dar- wait....APPLEJACK!?!" the white mare rose from the floor, "you're here too!?"

Applejack gave a soft chuckle, "ya, that's me. Now if you don't mind, can ya'll remove this wood outta mah way?"

Rarity gave a deadpan stare at the orange mare making her add, "please?"

"Oh, darling, I wish I could, but I have no idea how to get rid of it, I mean really."

"Did you try hitting it?"

"No, I don't plan on ruining a good set of hooves against something so...rough, even in these sort of conditions."

"Fine," applejack held out to show the wooden ax, "mind if ah git this here wood then?"

"Pfft, be my guest, I don't plan on carrying anything that's so.....difficult."

Applejack just sighed, quickly removing the wood. Rarity sighed in relief to give her friend a hug. "Oh applejack, I just had the worst day!"

"Did ya'll start out in a large land of jus grass?"

Rarity paused, remembering where she was. "Why yes...how did you-"

"Ah started there before, and for not very long ah understood where I was."

"Oh? Where are we?"

Applejack sighed and gave a block's distance between the two, "we're in ah game."

"Game!?"

"ya, apparently we somehow magically got here by teleportation or something."

"We're in a game- wait....how do you know we're in a game?"

This was when applejack gave her deadpan stare, but with a smile, "pinkie..."

"Ah, I get it, but how do we get out?"

"We jus' have to sit tight an' work together."

"Oh that's not a problem, dear."

"An' we have to beat a dragon."

"Beat?"

"As in...ummm...." applejack gave a silent pause and gave a gesture. Rarity's eyes widened.

"Oh, no no no! I can't do it! I take the life of another."

"Think of a more practical sort of deal. We beat the dragon and we get to go home."

"But...-"

"'sides, this is jus one of many generated lands. Surely, there would be hundreds of dragons out there, but jus' one for this world."

"So you're saying it won't make a difference if we take it out?"

"Darn tootin' besides, ya'll need ta help me get some things going."

"I need a moment..." rarity finished, facing the bed applejack tried to get her on. "Hol' on there...." Applejack then removed the bed and gave it to rarity. "There, now ya can git on it."

"How?"

"Just tap the icon on ya forehoof and place it......like ya'll did with the wood you blocked me from."

Rarity blushed, "oh,  I'm terribly sorry it was just a defensive instinct I did..."

"Ah dun blame you, sugar cube, jus be careful where ya place them when in a building ah made myself."

Rarity nodded and placed the bed in front of her back into place and sat on it. Applejack chuckled lightly and returned to her chores.

"Dan' nabbit!" rarity heard from behind the front door, watching applejack come back inside. "If ya'll need meh, ah'll be watching for hostile mobs. Gotta wait a few minutes...."

"What? It's dark ALREADY!?" rarity gasped, checking a nearby window, seeing the moon for the first time. She turned back to applejack.

"Hehe," the cowpony laughed, "guess ah'll need to tell you more before the sun rises."

Well rested, rarity and applejack continue on there respective jobs. "Ah think the desert would be a better choice, though. That way there won't be any mobs ta jump from high places onto us."

"Has that happened before?"

"Once...ah encountered a spider jockey." She gave a brief pause, "well, ah was going against two until the spider half died from the fall, making it easier to git some bones."

"How long have you been here for?" rarity asked, passing the river to follow applejack into a well lit cave. "About four days," she replied.

"I've been out for FOUR days!?"

"Nah, ah'd think you just got here."

"Oh," rarity said, going deep down into the cave, still behind the orange mare. "By the way," she asked, when they reached a dead end, "what's the name of this.....game?"

Applejack pulled out a stone pick axe, turned to rarity, smiled and added, "Minecraft!"