Cube Land

Chapter 1

Twilight Sparkle was looking forward to a nice relaxing day. After the events of the wedding, she was looking forward to taking it easy and spending some quality time with all her friends. Twilight had proposed the idea of having a picnic where they normally brought their pets to play and her friends had agreed wholeheartedly.

Here they were, eating delicious baked goods courtesy of Pinkie Pie, listening to Applejack play the guitar, and enjoying each others company when a purple flash of light made everypony stop what they were doing. From the center of where the flash had come stood a strange, blackish purple rectangle, amidst scorched and blackened grass.

There appeared to be writhing purple energies that made up a kind of 'skin' in between the top and bottom layers of the...thing.

"What do you girls think this is?" asked Twilight.

All of her friends shook their heads and shrugged. Except for Pinkie Pie.

"I think it looks like a portal!" she exclaimed, bouncing happily.

Twilight walked closer, inspecting the strange object. It appeared to be flawless; it had no discernible cracks or imperfections along the entire structure. Twilight tapped it with her hoof. It gave off a sound similar to rock.

"I have no idea what this is," said Twilight suspiciously. "I wonder why it appeared here out of nowhere."

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed Rainbow Dash slowly creeping towards the...for lack of a better word, she used Pinkie Pie's name for it.

"Dash! What do you think you're doing? The...portal could be dangerous!"

Caught, Rainbow Dash stopped her skulking and said, "But look at it! It looks awesome! We should go see what's on the other side!"

"Are you crazy? What if there are monsters and other bad stuff on the other side?" exclaimed Twilight.

"C'mon Twilight, lighten up! What if I go first and then come back? Will that prove to you that its safe?" asked Rainbow Dash with a glint in her eye.

"Well..." said Twilight, unsure.

Without waiting for an answer, Rainbow Dash unfurled her wings and flew straight into the portal before anypony could stop her.

As soon as Rainbow Dash touched the purple 'skin' she disappeared.

"Gosh darn it, Rainbow! Ya'll are gonna need a stern talkin' to when you get back!" said Applejack, who was not amused by her friend's antics.

All of the remaining ponies were concerned about Dash's well-being. It was with great relief that after only a minute she flew back out of the portal.

Panting from excitement and exhaustion, Dash said, "Girls! You totally need to see this! The place is awesome!"

"Is it safe, Dash? Are there any creatures or monsters there?" asked Twilight.

"I did a fly over and I didn't see any movement," replied Rainbow Dash, panting.

"Well..." said Twilight. "I guess we could at least look around..."

Rainbow Dash face broke into a huge grin. "That's the spirit!"

One by one, all of the ponies cautiously walked up to the portal and touched the purple film. Twilight was the last pony to touch the portal.

Should I tell somepony where were going? she asked herself. Well, we should only be there for a little while...oh what the hay, I want to see this other place too!

And with that, Twilight touched her hoof to the purple portal and felt herself whisked away to another dimension.

*********************************************************

Here I go.

I have decided to start a journal of sorts due to a number of strange occurrences. This is for my own recollection, since I have not found another species capable of communication. Perhaps someone will find this recollection and enjoy it. Who am I kidding? I'm the only one here.

Day 94 (I think)

The day started the same as all the others; me rising at first light. I have ascertained the perfect sleep schedule for some time now. Going to bed as soon as the sun sets and rising as it rises has proven to be the most effective balance between safety and getting stuff done.

I performed my daily routine: gathering eggs from the chickens I have penned up, harvesting the wheat that has fully matured while replacing them with fresh seeds, and then proceeding to head into the Mine.

I brought my usual: a stack of torches, my clock, several loaves of bread, an iron sword, an iron shovel, and my trusty diamond pickaxe. I walked the hundred or so meters to the entrance of the Mine. Even with all the torches I had placed around the entrance and on the inside, the Mine still seemed as foreboding as ever.

Making sure there were no unpleasant surprises awaiting me around the corners, I carefully descended into the Mine. There are many paths in the Mine, and I had traversed through most of them. There was one path, however that I was reluctant to explore. The first time I had attempted to find the secrets that it held, I was overcome with a feeling of dread. Needless to say, I had not tried to go down there again.

Today was different. I looked at the dark and foreboding path with the need to find. Explore. Uncover. I felt no feeling of dread this time, unlike all the other times I attempted to brave the Pit. That's what I called it. The Pit. I had no idea what was down there. More iron? Gold? Some illustrious diamonds? I never knew, and was not particularly interested in finding out.

For some reason, I felt the need to descend into the Pit, to uncover its secrets that have long been kept from me. I did so and found nothing of interest. For many hours I placed torches at regular intervals, descending ever deeper into the Pit. I was about to call of the expedition when the sight of strange stone caught my attention. It wasn't pure stone; I have mined enough to know. It wasn't cobblestone, or even the mossy variety, of which housed monster spawners.

No, this stone was different. It appeared to be crafted by another sentient being. This stone was enough for me to consider the expedition a success. Checking my clock, I noticed that it was later than I thought it was. Sundown was rapidly approaching, so I retreated back to the entrance of the Mine, leaving a staggered path of torches to help me remember the way.

When I stepped out of the pit, I saw a most curious sight. In the sky was a strange blue creature flying rather quickly. I had never seen a creature quite like it, so I raced back to my home and deposited all of the unnecessary objects that I was carrying. I kept my sword on me, in case the creature was hostile. My curiosity had been peeked however, so I grabbed a bushel of wheat in the off chance that I could befriend the creature.

I write this now, right before I go and search for the creature. With any luck, I will find it before nightfall.

Cube Land

Chapter 2

When Twilight touched the glowing portal, she felt her very being disintegrated and reformed in a matter of milliseconds. It was a surreal experience for her.

One moment, she was in Ponyville, and the next, she found herself stumbling out of the portal and onto a patch of grass. Shaking the grass blades from her hair, she started to observe the area around herself. All around her were rolling hills consisting of grass and strangely shaped trees. The most intriguing fact had to be that there seemed to be no sloped or curves.

Everything was made of cubes. Everything. Twilight slowly turned round in a circle to observe the fascinating new world. The hills were rolling, if you considered a meter gap between each block to be rolling. Twilight could see that even the grass beneath her feet was subject to the strange laws that the land was bound by. She could see the borders between each block of grass as a small black line.

This place is fascinating!

Twilight was snapped out of her reverie by her friends calling to her.

"Twilight! Come over here!"

The purple unicorn rushed over to her friends. They were all surrounding whatever it was that so interested them, so Twilight was forced to squeeze her way in to get a look. She braced herself for something magical...

...and realized she was looking at a flower. A very strange flower, but a flower nonetheless.

"It's a flower," stated Twilight.

Her friends looked at her wryly.

"Okay, it's a very strange looking flower, but it's still just a flower."

"Just look at it, Twilight! Have you ever seen anything like it?" asked Rarity.

Twilight frowned at the flower. "Now that you mention it, it kind of looks like a rose. Well, except for the fact that it's made of tiny squares and the fact that it's two dimensional."

"Should we take it back to Ponyville with us?" asked Applejack.

Twilight nodded. "We might as well bring proof to the Princess. Let's grab the flower and go back to Ponyville."

"Aww, come on Twilight! We just got here! Can't we look around for a bit longer?" pleaded Rainbow Dash.

Twilight shook her head. "I'm sorry Dash, but we have to alert the Princess about this portal and the strange world."

Rainbow Dash slumped to the ground, defeated.

"Fluttershy, do you think you could grab the flower for me?" asked Twilight.

"Oh, umm, I can try," said the meek pegasus.

Fluttershy grabbed the rose between her teeth. She pulled the strange rose upwards, which produced a strange popping sound when it unearthed itself from the ground. To Fluttershy's surprise, the flower shrunk to about one tenth of its size which caused her to panic and drop the flower.

None of her friends were looking at her when this happened, so they were startled when they heard Fluttershy let out an "Eeep!"

Twilight was the first to respond.

"What happened Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy was currently hiding behind Applejack.

"T-the flower! It shrunk!" she whispered.

Twilight looked over to where Fluttershy was pointing. Sure enough, the two dimensional rose had shrunk to about one tenth of its previous size. Even stranger, it appeared to be floating just above the ground.

Curious, Twilight bent down and careful grabbed it with her hoof. It seemed to have no weight that was discernable to her and it stuck to her hoof.

"It's okay Fluttershy. I don't think the flower meant to startle you." Twilight stared at the strange flower that she held. "I have no idea why it shrunk, though. Perhaps that's just how this world works."

Forcing herself to look away from the flower, Twilight announced, "Alright girls! Let's head back to Ponyville and report our findings!"

Everypony agreed, even Rainbow Dash, although reluctantly, so they trotted back to where the portal was. There was only one problem however.

The purple membrane that had taken them to the cube land was gone.

Wide-eyed and bushy tailed, Twilight ran ahead of her friends and tried to see why the portal had shut down.

No, no, no! This can't be happening! thought Twilight in a panic.

Twilight checked around the entire portal and could see no discernible reason as to why it had shut down. She even jumped through the structure to double check that it wasn't working.

"WHY THE HAY AREN'T YOU WORKING!" she screamed, her anger directed on the portal.

"What happened?" asked one of her friends.

Seething with anger, Twilight responded, "This stupid portal isn't working anymore! Now we're stuck here, in this weird cube land!"

"You mean...forever?" asked Rarity, who was horrified at the prospect.

Twilight kicked the powered-down portal in another fit of anger. "Until we can find out how to turn this thing back on, yes. "

Rainbow Dash, seeing how angry Twilight was, decided to take charge. "Okay! If we're stuck here, then the first thing we have to do is find shelter!"

The ponies reluctantly nodded. "We better do so mighty quick. That there strange lookin' sun seems to be settin'," said Applejack.

"Alright! I'll do another flyover and see if I can spot somewhere to stay the night." With that, Rainbow Dash opened her wings and took to the air once again.

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And here I thought this day couldn't get any more exciting.

I left my home at a full on sprint, aiming to find this mysterious creature and possibly bring it back before nightfall. It had been flying in a large circle when I had last glimpsed the creature, so I decided to search a wide area for it. I had searched for several minutes when I heard strange chattering noises coming from a relatively flat area, several hundred meters from my house.

I investigated the strange noises, hoping that the creature I had seen earlier was the cause of it.

At that point and time, I figured I had gone mad. Instead of the one blue creature that I was expecting, I saw five, FIVE completely different looking creatures that seemed to share the same basic traits. In nature, I have observed no fundamental differences in any of the species that I have encountered, and yet here were five different creatures with similar characteristics. They were four legged...things. I have no word that seems to fit them properly. They seem similar in basic anatomy to a cow, but they are much, much smaller, similar in size to a pig. They're legs make up about half of their total height, and they all have varying skin, or fur, colours. They also have hair coming from the tops of their heads, similar to me, but unlike my short stubble, theirs is long and free flowing.

The creatures hadn't noticed me yet, so I crept along from tree to tree in an attempt to get a closer look. The next thing I noticed about them was the differences between them. Two of them had a strange, pointed appendage atop their heads. One of them had wings, meaning it was probably related to the one I had witnessed earlier. Finally, there were two of them that had neither. I felt a small amount of pity for them, seeing as they were probably misfits from wherever they came from.

The next thing I noticed was that the purple creature, which was one of the horned types, was stomping around in what I could only assume was anger. Why? What did the creature have to be angry about? I had never seen any creature short of a creeper react in anger, seeing as how it was a wasted emotion, requiring energy that was necessary to survive. My curiosity having been increased even more, I kept inching my way closer while still remaining undetected.

The next thing I noticed gave me quite the shock. The purple creature seemed to be angry at something just out of my vision, so I crept forward even closer. Much to my amazement, there seemed to be a collection of obsidian. It was obviously placed there for a reason, but I could not think of any logical response as to why it was there.

I must explain, even if it is just to myself. Obsidian is ridiculously strong. Even with my pick of diamond, it still takes FOREVER to mine the bloody stuff. It is nigh indestructible, and one day I hope to reinforce my home with it, but short of finding a way to easily and conveniently mine it, I have refrained from dealing with obsidian. I have never seen it in nature short of where underground springs and lava pools flow into one another. Imagine my surprise when I find a four-by-five monument of obsidian with the middle seemingly having been taken out.

It told me several things: it told me that there had to be other sentient creatures out there. It also told me that said sentients were obviously more advanced than me, considering they had managed to obtain fourteen blocks of the extremely tough obsidian. Finally, it told me that they were possibly trying to communicate, using the obsidian as a message.

This realization did not help my current predicament however. I still had to do something about the five creatures that I had discovered. All the while I made these observations, the creatures continued their ambient chatter. It appeared that they had some sort of communication via sound, but I found that they also exhibited many facial and body motions to convey what they intended to each other. These had to be the strangest creatures I had ever laid eyes upon, even more so than the mysterious endermen or the suicidal creepers.

I spotted one of the creatures slightly away from the others, so I decided to reach out towards it first, hoping that the lack of its pack would make any chances of aggression negligible. It was a yellow one that had wings, so I was careful to move slowly so that I would not spook the creature. I carefully approached the creature, my sword safely stowed away and wheat in my hand. When I was about ten meters away, the creature finally noticed my presence. An emotion I could only describe as fear flooded its face and it backed away slowly, not using the wings it possessed.

It made several slightly more audible chirping sounds, which immediately drew the attention of the other creatures, even the purple one that had been stomping around in irritation. They drew together, obviously seeking the protection of the group. Still holding the wheat out in front of me, I continued my slow approach towards the mysterious multicoloured creatures. Every step I took, they mirrored it in reverse.

At the time, I thought that the creatures were simply not as docile as the other species I've come across, so I decided to stand still and wait for them to come to me. No animal that I have encountered can resist wheat for long. Sure enough, as I held my position with the wheat outstretched, one of the creatures, an orange one without an appendage on its head or wings on its body decided to slowly step forward. It seemed that the creature was being intentionally calm and was making no jerky movements...almost like it was trying not to scare ME away. I put this thought aside immediately, thinking it preposterous.

The creature was slowly approaching, five meters, then four, then three. When it came close enough it looked at me, straight in the eyes. Many creatures had done that to me before, but the contact was fleeting and I could not see anything other than dumb intelligence behind their eyes. This creature was different. It looked at me with curiosity and suspicion.

Needless to say, I figured that an intelligent creature such as it would make a fine companion. I reached forward a little farther, holding the hay out tantalizingly. The creature took it, but it did the opposite of what I thought it would do.

As soon as it took the wheat out of my hand with its teeth, it carefully stepped back towards the cluster of creatures behind it, still making an effort to not startle me. As it reached the safety of the herd, the creature placed the wheat on the ground and started to...for lack of a better word, confer with the creatures around it. Instead of meaningless and complete chatter like I expected, the creatures spoke in turn and did not override each other, like any other creature I have witnessed.

It was at this point that I noticed that the time was getting dangerously close to night. The sun was slowly sinking behind the massive trees of the Creeper Forest. I named the forest such for obvious reasons: it was a forest made up of very large trees, some four times the normal size, and it was a perfect hiding spot for creepers. The suicidal creatures were camouflaged perfectly in the forest. I had only ventured in there once, and I nearly died as a result of my curiosity. I am getting sidetracked.

The creatures conferred for much longer than I anticipated, long enough that it became Night. I try to never be outside during the Night, as I have learned from experience that many strange and unnatural things lurk under it's cold embrace. I became anxious, enough so that I pulled out my sword in an attempt to calm my nerves.

I was lucky that I did so, for I heard the tell-tale rustle of a creeper attempting to sneak up behind me. I turned quickly and managed to swing my sword at the suicidal creature before it took my life in a fiery explosion. Stunned and injured, the creeper let out a hiss that made my hair stand up. I quickly closed the gap and finished off the creeper.

I turned back towards the creatures, expecting them to have fled at any instance of violence. Instead they were all staring at me in what I could only discern as awe. I didn't know if the creatures were violent in groups, but I had to at least try to save their lives. I switched my sword from my right hand to my left and tried to convey the motions of follow me. Without turning around to see if they were or not, I ran back to my home, thankfully not encountering any resistance along the way.

As I was about to enter my front door, I glimpsed behind me and saw six of the creatures following me. The sixth one must have gone for a quick flight before I arrived at the group. It had to have seen its fellow herd-mates together and decided to rejoin them. I pushed the combination of buttons that unlocked the door and went in first, wiping my shoes on the floor mat and checking for any uninvited guests as I did so. By the time I was done my check, the creatures had gathered outside of my door, evidently asking permission to enter.

I waved my hand in a motion that I hoped they could interpret as come in. They seemed to understand and proceeded to enter single file into my home. I had to stop the first one before it walked onto my carpet with its muddy...hooves? Yes, I believe that is the correct term. Anyway, I made of demonstration of wiping my feet along the black mat and the creatures all followed my lead after chittering back and forth with each other. I locked the door after, resetting the locking mechanism. There was no question that they were obviously intelligent, but I still don't think, even for a second, that they were the ones to leave that obsidian there.

I lit the fireplace with the flint and steel that was hanging above it, and motioned for the creatures to have a seat on the floor or on one of the many couches I had made. They are made of the same material. After the creatures had situated themselves, I immediately went for my quill, ink, and paper. As I write these words down, the purple coloured one is watching me curiously. Perhaps they are pets or companions of the beings that placed the obsidian? I know not as of now.

Now, I am tired, and I head to bed.

Cube Land

Chapter 3

Day 95

I awoke as soon as the sun's rays graced my skin. As I stretched my limbs, I pondered what to do with the creatures. If they were indeed the pets or companions of another sentient race, I doubted that they would take kindly to me keeping them. I opened the door to my room as quietly as I could, hoping to not startle the creatures if they were still sleeping. It was lucky that I did so, because all but one of the creatures were sleeping. The only one that was awake was the purple coloured one that had watched me write last night's journal entry.

As I silently walked across the carpet into my kitchen, the creature's eyes followed me the whole way. I figured that it might have been hungry, considering the orange creature that took the wheat that I offered neglected to bring the wheat back with it. I went to my fridge, named so for its function; I had collected some snow from a pine forest many kilometres away, and to my surprise, the snow didn't melt. I had kept some out of curiosity, which had the side effect of keeping the food that I had kept on my person for much longer. The snow kept its shape and temperature no matter where I stored it. Realizing that I could use this to my advantage to keep meat and other foodstuffs much longer, I built a small 'cold box' that used the snow as the cold source. I renamed it to fridge, a play on the word 'frigid'. I am rambling again.

I opened the fridge and gathered up some pork chops and milk for my breakfast. I placed the pork chops in the furnace and lit it with a conveniently placed flint and steel. I then gathered some bread from the cupboard along with a glass and placed both on the table. I had some time before the pork chops were done cooking, so I went out my back door to quickly grab some fresh wheat for the creatures. Fresh wheat in hand, I went back to the living room to find all of the creatures up and about. Evidently, the purple one had woken them up after I left.

Upon seeing me, the creatures immediately nestled together for protection. Two of them stepped forward and stared at me, the blue one I had originally spotted flying and the orange one that had braved approaching me before. I thought that these had to be the males: they were being defensive of the three other creatures that huddled behind them. The fourth one, the purple one that had looked at me with curiosity last night, was standing away from both groups, chattering in its curiously melodic voice towards the two males.

Instead of freezing, which was a sure sign of weakness or staring at their eyes, which was a sign of aggression, I instead looked at the ground and offered them the wheat that was in my hand. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw them go back and forth between eyeing me and the wheat. Thinking on how they had responded to my earlier hand signals, I made the motion of bringing the wheat to my mouth and pretending to take a bit out of it. I then offered it to the males again.

The blue male stepped forward, it's wings fluttering in what I could only assume was nervousness. It gingerly reached forward and took the bushel of wheat from my outstretched hand. Similarly to last time, the ponies started to chitter and chatter back and forth to each other, never overriding each other, their large eyes betraying their emotions. I could tell that they were hungry, but it seemed that they didn't trust me. I quickly slipped back into the kitchen while they conferred, grabbing the bread that I had laid out for my breakfast.

Tapping the wall to get their attention, I ate a large bite of the bread, making it very clear that it was tasty and safe to eat. Either the creatures knew that the bread was made of wheat, or they simply recognized the similar colours, they divvied up the wheat into equal amounts and started eating. I would have watched them eat, but I had to take the pork chops out of the furnace before they burnt. Grabbing a wooden plate, I decided to eat in the company of the creatures, something I haven't done since...

Bad memories. I will write them down at a later date.

Bringing my plate full of pig and bread, along with a glass of milk, I left the kitchen and was about to sit in my favourite chair when I almost dropped my breakfast in shock.

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Why did this creature decide to protect and feed us? thought Twilight as she laid on the soft carpet while munching on some hay. He could have easily left us for those...things. Twilight shivered when she remembered the terrifying monster that the creature defeated and the events that followed after.

The monster was tall, almost the same height as their benefactor, but that was where the similarities ended. The monster was a sickly green and seemed to be covered in a series of protective scales that looked strikingly similar to leaves. It had no upper appendages, instead having four stubby legs. The most terrifying part of the monster had been its eyes: they were almost entirely black, with the only colour being the small red dots in the center. The monster's expression was equally terrifying, its mouth being locked in a silent scream.

Twilight had watched the creature anxiously looking around while the rest of her friends discussed what to do, evidently not being comfortable with his surroundings. After she saw it fight off the monster with a sword made of metal, she knew that the creature was fairly advanced: metal working was not a simple task.

Seeing that the creature rapidly motioned for them to follow then sped off into the distance, Twilight had told her friends that she thought the creature was friendly and was trying to save them. Only after much coaxing on her part, the five friends agreed to see where the creature intended to lead them.

Dash had decided to drop in on them almost immediately after they set out to follow the creature. Within a few minutes, the girls found themselves in a large, flat clearing in the middle of rolling hills and trees. They had seen the light before they had seen the house. As the girls approached the house, they saw the creature standing in the doorway, his body a silhouette.

When Twilight thought that they were getting too close, she told her friends to stop. After a look of confusion passed the creatures face, he motioned with his foreleg for them to enter. Volunteering to go first, Twilight cautiously trotted through the door.

The first thing that had struck her was the carpet. Or rather, the fact that there WAS carpet. Twilight was amazed at the interior of the house. It somehow looked roomy, sheltered, and welcoming, all at once. The only thing that confused Twilight was the fact that everything was, to some extent, made up of cubes. Just as she was about to walk deeper into the mysterious house, the creature put one blocky limb in front of her, startling her.

Curiously, the creature made the motions of wiping his feet on the black part of the carpet. Looking down at her hooves, Twilight cleaned them off sheepishly. She hadn't noticed the layer of mud that had accumulated on her hooves.

She turned around and said to Rarity, who was the pony next in line, "You might want to wipe your hooves off as you walk through the door. I don't think the creature wants us to track mud into his house."

Rarity, being Rarity, had responded, "How dare he assume that my hooves are filthy! Look at them, they-" She stopped mid-sentence as she noticed some brown on her always picturesque hooves. Grumbling to herself, she wiped her hooves off as well.

One by one, all of her friends had entered the house with the creature standing off to the side, observing them. When they were all inside, the creature closed the door and fiddled with some mechanism that produced many strange whirring and clanking noises. Apparently satisfied, he walked farther along the torch lit hallway into a much larger room. He procured some sort of item from the wall and leaned down towards the fireplace, which was lit by said item. Looking back at Twilight and her friends, the creature motioned for them to stay in the room while he walked back down the hallway and entered another room.

They all spread out along the furniture, feeling glad for the hospitality of the creature and the warmth of the fire. Shortly after, the creature returned, carrying a quill, some ink, and several sheets of paper. He sat down in one of the many chairs, furiously scribbling on the paper. In curiosity, Twilight had taken a brief glance at some of the words, but they were all foreign to her. The crackling of the fire and the light scribbling from the creature caused her friends to fall asleep. Twilight made sure to stay up as long as the creature did, trying to ascertain anything about him or his culture.

Twilight had tried several times to speak with the creature, but the only response she received was a quick glance. Twilight resorted to simply watching the creature from the couch that she laid upon. Finally, the creature finished writing and stood up from his chair and walked back down the hallway, disappearing from view. He made surprisingly little noise for such a large creature.

Exhausted from the day's ordeals, Twilight closed her eyes and fell asleep immediately. She awoke to the sound of a door opening. She was awake almost instantly, searching for the source of the noise. She relaxed a little when she saw the same creature from before. It was moving quietly, obviously not wanting to wake them up. He walked down the hallway and stopped, observing them from a distance. Shaking his head slightly, the creature's eyes locked onto Twilight's for an instant as it turned around a corner into a different room. In that fleeting instant, Twilight saw the intelligence behind the creature's eyes. She also caught a glimpse of one emotion in particular: curiosity. Almost hopping with joy, Twilight woke her friends up, telling them that the creature was as intrigued by them as they were with him.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash weren't having any of it.

"Twilight, we're all thankful to the creature for lettin' us stay for the night, but it hasn't even tried talkin' to us! How can it be smart if it hasn't tried that?" asked her friend Applejack.

Twilight had tried to defend the creature, saying, "Maybe he thinks the same about us. We haven't exactly tried to talk with him either! He probably thinks that were just some strange creatures that he hasn't seen before!"

Rainbow Dash replied, "Why would he let us stay in his house then? If I were the creature, I wouldn't let some strange new creatures into my house if I didn't know what they were."

Twilight was about to tell Dash that not everypony was like her when the creature returned from the room that he had been in. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had immediately told everypony else to get behind them in case the creature meant harm, but Twilight refrained from doing so. Instead, she stood off to the side and searched the creature's face for his reaction. It was...exasperation?

The creature refrained from making eye contact and merely held out his foreleg, which had a large bushel of hay in its grasp. He didn't attempt to come any closer, nor did he lower the hay when it was not taken immediately.

It took all of Twilight's reasoning skills to get Applejack and Rainbow Dash to accept the hay from their mysterious benefactor.

"Come on girls! He has to be friendly or else he wouldn't even attempt to give us food. Why else would he allow us to stay in his house?"

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were both eyeing the hay that that their host was holding out to them.

"Ah don't like it," said Applejack. "There has to be something funny about this hay."

"Well...I am getting kinda hungry..." said Dash.

"Just take the hay! I don't want the first creature that we encountered here to be angry at us for refusing food!"

Grudgingly, Applejack relented, allowing Rainbow to carefully take the offered hay from the creatures outstretched foreleg. Both her and Applejack backed slowly away from the creature, who made no attempt to approach or leave. He simply stood there, observing as her friends started bickering over whether to eat the hay or not. Twilight swore she heard a sigh from the creature, who then turned around and went back into the room he had came from. Her friends hadn't noticed the creature leave, busy as they were arguing.

Moments later, the creature returned, holding a large piece of bread in his blocky digits. He knocked on the wall once, grabbing everypony's attention immediately. He then slowly and purposefully took a large bite of the bread, chewing and swallowing in an attempt to show that it was safe to eat. He then pointed at the hay, then at the bread he held in his hand. After the demonstration from the creature, her friends that didn't want to eat the hay gave in, quickly divvying up the hay, giving everypony a fair amount. Twilight had thought that the hay must have been fresh; it tasted absolutely delicious.

Nodding to himself, the creature went back once more into the room where he had gotten the bread and hay from. She didn't think that he noticed her watching him.

Twilight sat down on the soft carpet that made up the creature's living room, munching on the hay as she pondered the events from last night. After she thought of everything that had happened, she wondered, Why hasn't the creature tried to communicate with us? He seems intelligent enough and he surely noticed us talking...

Twilight's questions were interrupted when she started to feel a strange feeling inside of her. What's going on? What is this?

Her vision started to become hazy and she felt her every heartbeat, the noise almost deafening her. What the hay is going on?! I feel...

I feel...

Twilight felt herself start to sweat, the beads of it running down her flank. She acutely felt a strange feeling in her lower abdomen.

A/N: Coming up next, the wheat chapter!

Author's Note: After reading many of the comments and reviews, I decided to shed some more light on the story and setting. The miner, crafter, 'Steve', whatever you may call him, is not a human. He is very much reminiscent of how he looks in the game, except he has actual facial expressions, fingers, feet, and so on, roughly based on the music videos 'Cube Land', 'Revenge', and 'Fallen Kingdom'.

As for the wheat/hay, certain passive creatures (pigs, sheep, chickens, and cows) will enter a 'breeding mode' when they are fed wheat. This is not the case in Steve's world, but it affects the ponies in much of the same ways. And no, no shipping will occur. This is for the sake of amusement purposes only.

Cube Land

Chapter 4

I feel strange, thought Twilight Sparkle as she lay on the soft carpet panting.

Strange... but good.

Day 95

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I walked back into my living room. Perhaps to enjoy my breakfast with the silent companionship of the creatures? Regardless, it did not go as I had planned.

The creatures were... for lack of a better word, randy. I could tell from the way they carried themselves, the smell of sweat in the air, and the panting. I still don't know what caused the creatures libido to be turned on so quickly, but I can only assume that it was from the wheat that I gave them. Strange, considering none of the other animals I have fed it to have acted in the same way. Regardless of what caused it, I learned several important facts.

For starters, I learned that the two creatures, the blue one and the orange one, were not males as I had previously thought. In fact, according to their body language, all of the four legged critters that I let into my home were female. I don't know what caused the winged blue one and the orange one to act defensive of the other ones; perhaps out of maternal instinct? The second thing I learned was that the creatures didn't appear to be lucid in any way. They didn't respond when I waved my hand in front of them. Thankfully, they seemed to largely ignore each other.

I had no idea how to deal with the strange creatures that were suddenly in heat. I decided to just let whatever was causing it run its course. Even stranger than the sudden transformation from semi-docile, almost pet like critters to hormone-rampant, incoherent creatures was the fact that it ended in less than five minutes. I have never heard or seen anything even remotely similar that happened to the six female creatures.

I watched them as they regained their mental faculties. During my observations, I noticed several things that had escaped me the previous night. All of the creatures had strange designs on their flanks. They varied wildly, from an elaborate design of what I can only assume was an artistic impression of a star, to a cloud with a multi-coloured bolt of lightning, to one that made me look twice. The orange creature had a design of three apples on its... her flank. Not only did she have a basic foodstuff scrawled on her flank, but she also had some sort of headwear that I had previously missed. I thought that they had to be pets or companions of some kind: the vibrant colours, the strange markings, the accessories.

Having all regained their senses, they started their melodic chirping to each other once again. Feeling a strange sense of relief that they were fully functional and not harmed, I rose from my chair. I went back to the kitchen and the fridge, my breakfast forgotten. Thinking about the designs on the orange creature's flank, I grabbed a basket of cold apples from the fridge. Slipping on my boots, I went out the back door to grab a bucket of water from my well. Water bucket in one hand and a basket of apples in the other, I returned to the living room. I'd be lying if I said what happened next didn't give me chills.

All of the creatures were watching me. Every one. At first, I thought it was because of the apples I held. It was only after several seconds of standing there did I notice that they were all looking at my face, more specifically, my eyes. I was understandably anxious: no creature or monster that I have ever encountered has looked at my eyes for longer than a few seconds. I didn't know what they were looking for in my eyes, but I saw surprised expressions from several of them. I was the first to break eye contact.

Slowly, I approached the orange pony with the apple marks. I carefully placed the bucket of water down and grabbed a single apple with my free hand. I offered it to the creature, meeting its eyes as I did so. The look of shock that was plastered on its face was priceless. Stifling a laugh, I pointed with one of my fingers at its flank and the pictures that were on it, then I pointed at the apple. Blinking away the look of shock, the creature turned to the purple one that had snuck closer without me noticing. She started animatedly chirping and making gestures at the purple creature, who responded in kind.

I had thought that the behaviour was very strange for such creatures. I had never seen any other creature able to convey what it thought so vocally. I figure that now would be a good time write a piece of information about myself, in the very unlikely chance that this journal falls into someone's hands who is capable of reading it.

I cannot speak. Whether it was caused by the same event which placed me here or just a genetic defect of myself, I can't produce sounds other than grunts and other similar noises. I don't know why I was cursed to forever hold my tongue, but it hasn't stopped me from thinking. Far from it. I have had this language firmly grasped in my head from the first instant that I came into being in this cube land. I do not know my origins, my species, or even my name. I am simply an observer and a builder. A survivor, an adapter.

I digress. Back to the recounting.

When I watched the creatures chatting, I felt a pang of loss. Even they had a language. My self-pity was interrupted when the orange creature took the apple from my hand and ate it. Startled at the boldness, it took me a second to realize that the chittering noises I heard from the purple creature were directed at me. Confused, I looked at the purple creature. It was speaking quietly and slowly, putting emphasis on some specific sounds, almost as if it was trying to see if I understood its language.

I had never thought of myself as anything other than thorough. I once spent an entire night up in a tree to determine where the monsters of the Night were coming from; unfortunately, I never have found out. As the creature looked directly at me and spoke, I felt very stupid for never considering the fact that the creatures might be sentient, like me. They probably thought that very same of me, given how they have reacted towards me. After thinking back to when I had first found the creatures, all of their actions had suggested that they were in unfamiliar territory. The safety of the group, the two protective females, the suspicion.

As I thought this, a sneaking suspicion came to me: what if they weren't from here? They are certainly the most varied and detailed creatures I have ever laid eyes upon, what with their vibrant colour scheme, the varying styles of hair, the flank markings. They had more curvatures than any other creature I have seen as well. While most of the passive critters here take after the land in their rough shapes, they are not as symmetrical as say, the carpet beneath my feet. These newcomers did not share in the blocky forms of most of the creatures here: their legs were graceful, elegant even, while their bodies were very gently rounded.

By far, their most interesting feature was their faces. Their eyes betrayed their every emotion, as large as they were. They had small... again, for lack of a better word, cute noses. Their muzzles were small as well. All in all, they were like no other creature in this cube land.

All of this flashed through my mind as I watched the purple creature in front of me try to convey its thoughts and feeling towards myself. After she finished with her proclamation, I pointed to my ears and shook my head, trying to convey I don't understand. Apparently, that was enough of a response for the purple creature. An ecstatic smile spread across her muzzle and she started to happily jump in place.

I think I will call the purple creature 'Daybreak' due to her being the one who seemingly convinced the others that I am sapient. It is also a play on words, considering that yesterday I had no idea that there was other intelligent life out there. It is also ironic considering her colour is similar to the sunset before Night.

I will also refer to the orange one as 'Apple' for obvious reasons. I have not thought of other names as of yet.

A/N: I am having trouble writing the story from Twilight's perspective. 'Steve's' point of view is much easier to write for me, so Twilight's sections will be smaller than Steve's. Sorry if that bothers you.

Cube Land

Chapter 5

Twilight had seen the remorse and confusion in the creature's eyes when she looked at him. For all Twilight knew, the creature didn't know why the 'hay' acted the way it did. Her friends hadn't quite forgiven the creature, Rainbow Dash going as far as calling him a 'Spy'. Whatever that meant.

Twilight was still convinced that both species had just had some trouble in communicating. The creature surprised everypony in the room when he brought a basket of apples, offering one to Applejack after pointing at her cutie mark. Applejack had, by far, been the most shocked out of the offering, but even she could tell that the creature meant to make up for his previous mistake.

When Applejack took the apple from the creature's hand, he looked very surprised.

Maybe he didn't expect to be forgiven so easily.

Twilight cleared her throat and began to speak to the creature. "Hello there. Can you by any chance understand us?"

The creature gave no indication that he heard her. He continued to look at each of the ponies in the room, seemingly out of curiosity.

Clearing her throat again, Twilight began anew. "Hell-o there. Can you un-der-stand me?" said Twilight slowly and deliberately. By this time, Twilight had the creature's complete attention. After she finished her question, the creature raised one of his blocky digits and pointed at his ear while shaking his head. That was more than enough of an answer for Twilight.

Twilight was absolutely giddy with joy. She pranced around like a filly, uncaring about what her friends thought. She was the one that fully understood the creature's intelligence, not her friends.

I'm the first pony to communicate with an intelligent creature from another world!

She stopped her bouncing abruptly, realizing that the creature was looking at her wide-eyed. "I'm sorry about that," she said to nopony in particular. "I haven't done that since I earned my cutie mark."

The creature raised an eyebrow at her. Breaking the awkward silence that followed, Rarity said anxiously, "Twilight, if he is as smart as you think he is, surely he can help us get home. Right?"

"It isn't that simple, Rarity," responded Twilight. "Two completely different species can't communicate perfectly at the first meeting. We have to establish some way to get our thoughts across."

Fluttershy peeked her head out from behind her hair and said quietly, "Wasn't he writing last night? Maybe we can exchange words..."

"That's a great idea, Fluttershy!" exclaimed Twilight. She turned back to the creature who had been eerily silent the entire time. Twilight made the motions of writing with her hooves. The creature seemed surprised, but he nodded and returned to what Twilight presumed as his bedroom. He emerged a couple of seconds later with two pieces of paper, a quill, and some ink.

Twilight reached out with her telekinesis and grabbed the writing ingredients. When she did, the creature startled and stepped several steps back into the hallway. Pleading her case, Twilight tried to say soothingly, "Sorry! I'm sure you haven't seen any magic here."

Twilight was unable to coax the creature back into the living room. Twilight was thinking of how she could get the creature back when Fluttershy approached the creature slowly making calming sounds as she did so. Twilight had no idea how, but it seemed Fluttershy was able to convince even creatures from another world. Sufficiently calmed down but farther away than he was before, the creature offered her a blank piece of paper.

Twilight grabbed the quill and ink and wrote a short message in Equestrian to the creature. It read:

Hello there, creature of another world. We are called 'Ponies' and we are from a land called 'Equestria'. We came here through a strange portal device near where you found us. We are now trapped and we need your help.

After finishing the letter, Twilight levitated the piece of parchment over to the creature. He didn't retreat this time, but he was still wary when the letter floated over to him. Tentatively, he grabbed it and eyed it carefully, his brow furrowed.

The creature shook his head, sadness showing in his eyes. He kept the letter that Twilight had written him, but gave her one of his own, probably the one that he wrote last night. Twilight had no idea what it said. It was all gibberish to her:

నేను క్రింద ఈ పదాలను వ్రాయండి వంటి, ఊదా రంగు ఒక ఆసక్తికరంగా నాకు చూస్తున్నారు. బహుశా వారు పెంపుడు జంతువులు లేదా లావా ఉంచింది జీవులన్నీ సహచర అంశాలు? నేను ఇప్పుడు కాదు తెలుసు.
ఇప్పుడు నేను అలసిన, నేను నా బెడ్ అధిపతి.

Sighing to herself, Twilight realized that they could not communicate via words. She tried to think of any translating spells, but none came to her mind. Twilight hoped that actions and motions would be enough for now.

Twilight looked up and saw the creature watching her reaction. She knew that he knew that she couldn't read his writing either. Giving a sigh of disappointment, the creature gathered up his writing supplies and paper, returning them to his bedroom. He disappeared into the kitchen briefly and returned with a large loaf of bread, heading to the front door as he ate.

The creature was about to touch the buttons on the wall beside the door, but paused before he did. He stopped and seemed to think for a moment before looking at Twilight and beckoning her over. Curious, Twilight cantered over to the metal door.

The creature twisted the handle on the door and pushed. The door didn't budge. Twilight looked up at the creature, wondering what he was trying to show her. The creature, seeing her confusion, proceeded to press the buttons in a specific order. After he did, Twilight heard a whir of machinery and an audible *click*.

The creature reached for the handle once more, twisting it and revealing the door to be unlocked. Twilight nodded, seeing what the creature had done. As Twilight pondered how the creature had made a locking door, he closed the door and pushed a button separate from the rest. Another clink was heard. The creature then pointed at her, then at the buttons. Twilight felt a rush of excitement as she realized what the creature wanted.

He wants me to unlock the door! He's practically giving me the key to his house!

Twilight eagerly stepped forward and, remembering the combination, pushed the 6 digit code in with her hoof, eliciting a *click* from the door once again. Twilight looked up at the creature with a grin on her face. She saw him nod in approval.

**************************************************************

//NOTE://The previous four paragraphs are smudged and faded. I was only able to salvage the writer's copied script, and the paragraphs following//ENDNOTE://

Hello there, creature of another world. We are called 'Ponies' and we are from a land called 'Equestria'. We came here through a strange portal device near where you found us. We are now trapped and we need your help.

This is the script in which Daybreak wrote to me. I copied it down as best I could, but was unable to copy every blocky edge and straight line. My writing is much more cursive.

Day 95

I was glad that Daybreak was able to remember the code after the first try. She has shown nothing but enthusiasm at my attempts at communication. In fact, she is beside me on the couch as I write, possibly trying to compare her own blocky language to my flowing one. It gives me a spark of hope in my chest from her companionship.

But I digress.

After successfully getting Daybreak to remember the door code, I conveyed the motions of me going outside. Daybreak had nodded quickly, running back to the living room to tell her friends. At the time, I thought it was strange that Daybreak accepted so readily.

I was intent on going back into the mine to continue the exploration of the Pit and the secrets that it held by myself. I grabbed my diamond pickaxe, my iron shovel and sword, and a stack of torches. I still had my bread from earlier.

Little did I realize at the time, they had all the intentions of coming outside with me. I tried to tell them that it was dangerous outside, but either my hand signals were unable to convey the appropriate signs or they just didn't want to be without me. Sighing, I relented.

It was twenty meters from my house that I was given the next surprise. I casually glanced back behind me, fully expecting a train of six creatures to be following. Instead, they were all still near the entrance of my house. I headed back to see why they weren't following me. It turned out that Daybreak, Apple, and the others wanted ME to follow THEM. I had no idea where they wanted to take me, but I nodded and followed out of sheer curiosity. As soon as we set off, the blue flying creature took to the air, possibly to scout ahead.

We traversed across the muddy ground for about eighty meters when I heard the tell-tale rustling of a creeper. They were the only monsters that could traverse outside during the Day, aside from spiders. Spiders, at least, had the courtesy to only be aggressive during Night. I quickly drew my sword and growled in my throat, causing the creatures to stop in their tracks. I quickly scanned the area, looking for the green abomination.

I heard a slightly distant hiss from behind me, which scared me more than I'd like to admit. I quickly ran past the ponies towards the source. I had expected to find one of the creatures fleeing from the explosive monsters, but instead...

I have already discussed the fact that Daybreak has some sort of ability to levitate objects off of the ground.

//NOTE://The previous sentence relates to information that does not exist. I can only assume that the missing paragraphs relate to this//ENDNOTE://

I have no idea why or how she can do such a thing. The fact that whatever is in her abilities grasp is outlined in purple only makes it more curious. The endermen leave behind a similar coloured purple when they teleport away. Is Daybreak related to the endermen? I doubt it, but their abilities are similar.

...I am going on a tangent again. Back to the retelling.

I saw the creeper in question being held in Daybreak's ability far above my head, possibly as high as eight meters. Daybreak had an angry stare written on her face. I was glad that I was not the recipient of the glare. The creeper was struggling to break free of her ability, but it was unable to. It was hissing in frustration. Daybreak finally noticed me as I positioned myself underneath the creeper.

My sword at the ready, I motioned for Daybreak to drop the creeper. I intended to cut the creeper clean in half, using its mass and gravity to my advantage. Unfortunately, my plan did not go as...well, planned.

Daybreak's eyes grew at the sight of me preparing to cut the creeper into ribbons. She shook her head violently as I tried again to get her to drop the creeper. After trying and failing to convince her again, she took it upon herself to deal with the creeper herself. She made it fall asleep.

I have never seen a creeper asleep. In fact, I have never seen any monsters asleep. The cows, sheep, and pigs slept standing up with their eyes closed. I couldn't imagine how any monster looked while sleeping. It looked...peaceful.

No, that's the wrong word. It looked...docile. That works better. With the creeper unconscious, Daybreak lowered it the ground. The creeper looked rather humorous, laying on its side with its feet in the air. I had briefly entertained the thought of the creeper struggling in vain to stand back up.

After staring at the sleeping creeper for perhaps a minute, I raised my sword above the creeper's neck, intending to decapitate the foul monster. Sleeping or not, it would be a threat eventually. I did not leave threats alive.

Just before I was about to cleave the despicable monster's head clean off of its torso, one of the creatures that had gathered around chirped out rather loudly at me. I stopped my swing in midair upon hearing the urgency in the tone. The yellow, winged creature had walked over to me. I was surprised at her assertive attitude: on multiple occasions, she had hid behind the other creatures in either fear or shyness.

She prompted to look at me with her large, emotional, tear-filled eyes. I'm not sure why, but I she wanted me to spare the creeper's life. I struggled with the decision for several seconds. From one perspective, I wanted as many threats gone from my domain. From the other, I didn't want the creatures to think of me as a killer. I didn't want to lose their trust.

I made my decision. I am still not sure if it was the correct decision, but I can't take it back now. I lowered my sword and put it back in its sheath. A collective sigh was heard from the assembled creatures.

I took one last look at the disdainful creeper sprawled on the ground and walked away, continuing in the direction that the creatures were originally travelling. I remember my exact thoughts as I did so.

This land doesn't have kindness. I remember looking back at the now-timid creature and smiling as I did so. Perhaps these creatures have brought it with them from wherever they came.

From the yellow creature's kindness, I have decided to call her Benevolence.

Cube Land

Chapter 6

Day 95

With the creeper dealt with, I allowed the creatures to continue guiding me to wherever it was they were intending for me to go. Only after passing a familiar looking lake did I realize where the destination was: they were leading me back to the obsidian, where I had first found them.

I was excited by the prospect. I had no idea what they were going to show me, but I knew that it would be important. I stepped down the steep slopes, avoiding the trees that had previously hid me from the creatures. When the group of us arrived at the small clearing, Daybreak ran ahead of the rest, towards the obsidian.

She beckoned for me to come closer. I did so, wondering what she was trying to show me. When I got close enough, Daybreak started to jump back and forth through the hole in the obsidian structure. I wasn't sure what she was getting at, so I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders, hoping that the message would get across.

It must have, since Daybreak then started to chirp in her language towards the other creatures, calling them over. She talked animatedly with them for almost a minute, some of them replying in kind, and some just nodding.

I cannot deny that I was, and still am, jealous of their ability to communicate so easily. I know that jealousy has no place in this world, but still I am subjected to it. While I may be jealous, I still want to help these poor, lost creatures and no dispensable emotion will stop me from doing so. As I look upon their sleeping faces as they are sprawled out in my living room, I feel a sort of kinship with these creatures. Creatures. I do not like the word, for it does not describe them properly. They are people, like me. But at the same time, they are completely different from everything and anything that I have ever known or seen. I must think of a different word for them. I will not write any further until I do.

.....

Ponies. After sitting in my chair for almost an hour, watching their sleeping forms, the word came to me suddenly. I don't know the word's origins, or why I have only thought about it now, but it seems to fit. Ponies. I will use this word from now on. Back to the recount.

.....

The...ponies... all lined up behind one another, in a line. They then proceeded to walk single file around the back of the obsidian structure. (what I consider to be the back, as it's two meters away from a stone and dirt mesa) The ponies then jumped or flew, it depended if they had wings or not, through the center of the obsidian configuration, one at a time. I watched them do this three times. After they had all finished looping through the formation one last time, they gathered together in front of the obsidian and sat there, watching me. At that point, I knew that they tried to show me something. I just had to put the puzzle together.

I walked over to the obsidian and did what the ponies had done, going in through the 'back' of it and climbing through the front. I wasn't sure what that accomplished. I looked back at Daybreak, shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders once again. After I shrugged, a look of determination flashed onto her face.

Daybreak walked closer to me and pointed at the mass of obsidian with one of her legs. She then made a whooshing motion with said leg, combined with adorable sound effects, starting from the back of the obsidian to the front. I had an inkling on what she was trying to explain, so I walked over to the black stone myself.

I pointed at Daybreak, then at all of the other ponies. Next, I tapped on the inside ring of obsidian with my hand from the back of the obsidian, making the motion of going forwards. Apple, Benevolence, and the rest of the ponies nodded and started to talk amongst themselves, save for Daybreak. Daybreak walked over to me slowly and looked up at me with large, tear-filled eyes. She knew that I understood what happened. All of them just wanted to go home.

Perhaps I shall explain how I knew what happened. During one of my ventures into the Mine, one of the paths I took led down far deeper than any of the others. It led me so far down that the darkness seemed real, tangible. My vision is nigh-perfect, granting me vision of about two hundred and fifty to three hundred meters in any direction. Down in that deep shaft of the mine, however, I could barely see ten meters in any direction. As I stumbled around in the darkness, I noticed wisps of faint purple colours that seemed to leak from the very obsidian and bedrock beneath my feet.

'What is bedrock?' you may ask. In one of my previous entries, I mentioned that obsidian is one of the toughest materials that I have come across. Even with a mighty swing from my diamond pickaxe barely makes a crack. Bedrock is even harder. I cannot even chip it. As far as I know, it is indestructible. When I have dug deep enough to find bedrock, it means only one thing; that's as far as I will be able to go in that direction. The depth that the layer of bedrock resides varies from location to location, but it is always extremely deep.

Anyway, the wisps of purple had led me to believe that obsidian and bedrock had special properties, aside from being ridiculously strong. During one of my deep mine explorations, I had fancied the notion that obsidian could be used for some otherworldly purpose, but put the thought aside later as preposterous and outlandish. Even if there was some yet unknown purpose for obsidian waiting to be discovered, I didn't have the proper tools to test any theories. Therefore, I had discarded the fantasies of building with obsidian.

All of this came back to me in a flash as I looked into Daybreak's teary eyes. Obsidian DID have an otherworldly purpose: it had brought these ponies here. They had somehow been transported by the obsidian structure, that much was obvious. Currently, I do not know the answer to how or why the ponies were trapped here. Some sort of malfunction with the obsidian? Perhaps it created a one-way portal to my world from theirs? I don't know.

I did the only thing that I could do: I petted Daybreak on the head, stroking her dark purple hair, in an attempt to comfort her. I'm not sure if it worked, but her tears stopped and she looked up at me hopefully. I motioned for her and the rest of the ponies to follow me. I was going back to the one place that might possibly provide a solution to the ponies' problem.

The Pit.

Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait! And doubly sorry for the short chapter! I've been very busy on my other stories, especially 'The Quest For Cabbage'. If you like comedy/parody stories about a human in Equestria as a pony, you should check it out. I-If you want to, that is. It's got laughs, clichés, Discord, and best of all, cabbage!

Cube Land

Chapter Seven

Day 95

Thankfully, the ponies all followed me without question. I noticed that they seemed to look to Daybreak for the answer, which leads me to believe that she is the leader, or perhaps the eldest. She has shown more curiosity than the others, which may also indicate that she has a higher intelligence level than the other ponies.

The Mine was roughly a hundred meters away and I arrived there in no time at all. I looked behind me to make sure that all of the ponies were following me: they were, save for the blue winged pony. To my surprise, she had been flying for the majority of the trip. She was hovering in mid-air, her wings flapping constantly to keep her airborne. I wondered how much she weighed: I wasn't entirely sure that something of their size could fly properly. Even stranger, when I approached the entrance to the Mine, which is where she was hovering, the blue pony shot straight up into the air.

The blue pony treated me to...I don't know how to describe it. She performed all sorts of acrobatic manoeuvres, doing flips and swoops in the air. I think that she was either trying to boast about the fact that she had wings and I didn't, or she was just trying to show what she was capable of. I hope it was the latter. Regardless of the cause or reason, I noticed a most peculiar phenomenon when she was zipping around in the sky at high speed: she left a small streak of colours behind her.

I am not sure whether this was caused by the fact that her hair is multi-coloured, but that would certainly explain it better than anything else I have come up with. I know there is a word for the collection of colours...I will ponder it for a while. Of course, if someone is reading this, you will not notice the time lapse.

I thought of the word. Spectrum. The blue ponies hair is made up of a spectrum of colours. She left behind a spectrum streak of colours when she performed her aerial acrobatics. Hmm. I think I have inadvertently thought of a name for the blue pony.

I will call her Spectrum Streak. Chances are, I will shorten it to simply Spectrum.

After Spectrum's aerial display, I descended cautiously into the mine. I was glad that I had taken the time to carve out stairs into the stone at the entrance. They were spaced well enough for me to walk up and down with ease, but they were slightly more problematic for the ponies, as their legs are not as long as mine, not even close. All of the ponies except for one braved my staircase.

The pony who seemingly refused to enter the main cavern of the Mine is one that I have not really touched upon. She seems to have a more feminine personality than the others, as evidenced by her styled hair and her seeming hatred for anything dirty. Her hair colour is a combination of blue and purple and her coat colour is seemingly white, but seems to be more of a very light grey. I tried to coax the stubborn pony down into the cavern, but she firmly planted her feet outside and shook her head. It took Daybreak, Apple, and Spectrum to finally convince her to step into the Mine. By convince I mean that they had to forcibly drag her into the Mine. The look on the ponies faces seemed to indicate that they were used to this sort of behaviour.

With the ponies behind me, I pulled a torch from one of the pockets on my belt. I grabbed my flint and steel from another pocket and lit the tip of the torch as it expanded to fit my hand. Taking comfort from the light of the torch, I placed the flint and steel back in its pocket. I shifted the torch to my left hand and grabbed my diamond pickaxe that was fixed to my belt.

I glanced behind me and motioned for the ponies to stay close.

*************************************************************

Twilight's friends were excited to see where the creature was leading them. Twilight, however, was far more interested in something else.

"Did anypony else see the torch get bigger when he pulled it out of his pocket?" asked Twilight. "I mean, that couldn't have possibly fit in the pouch on his belt. Look at the size of it!"

Applejack was the first to reply. "Yer right, Twilight. Now that Ah think about it, that there torch did seem to get bigger when he pulled it out..."

Twilight thought about that as she and the others followed the creature closely as they walked deeper into the cave, and into a narrow tunnel. Maybe that's how things work here, thought Twilight idly. They shrink when they're not in use. That would explain what happened to the flower that we found.

Twilight nearly ran in to the creature, distracted by her thoughts as she was, stopping mere inches from his hand. The creature had stopped abruptly and stuck out his hand that was holding the torch, making the motion of 'Stop'.

"What's going on?" asked somepony behind her. "Why'd you stop?"

Twilight poked her head around the creature's blocky arm, trying to see what had given the creature indecision. There was a fairly large gap that she certainly didn't want to jump. Twilight looked down the crevasse. Twilight felt queasy when she realized that she couldn't see the bottom.

Just as Twilight was going to say why they were stopped, something whizzed by her head and embedded itself into the stone behind her.

"What the hay was that?!" exclaimed Twilight as she backpedalled. The logical part of her took note of how quickly the creature reacted. He immediately jumped across the gap, his powerful legs launching him across the gap. He hit the other side already running, sprinting towards whatever had shot the object, his massive pickaxe in one hand and a flickering torch in the other.

Twilight watched as the creature swung his pickaxe at the monster that tried to hurt them. From the flickering torchlight, Twilight could only vaguely see the battle play out. She hoped that the friendly creature was winning.

"What's happenin' up there?!" yelled Applejack. "I'm hearin' the sound of fightin'!"

"I don't know! A monster threw something at me and the friendly creature went to fight him!" shouted Twilight in response.

"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Let's go help him!"

"Wait!" cried Twilight. "There's a big crevice that cuts the path in half! There's no way for us to get across!"

Rainbow Dash snorted. "There's no way for you to get across." With those words, she unfurled her wings and flew over everypony, creating a gust of wind that nearly knocked Twilight into the hole.

"Horse apples! You girls stay here. Ah'll go get both of 'em!" exclaimed Applejack as she took several steps backwards to get a running start. Twilight attempted to convince Applejack to wait, but to no avail. She ran to the edge of the abyss and bounded over the gap, barely clearing it.

Twilight turned around to Rarity and Fluttershy. "I hope they're going to be okay," said Fluttershy.

"This is precisely the reason why I didn't want to go down here in the first place," remarked Rarity. "But did anypony listen? No..."

Twilight, however, had a much more pressing concern. "Girls...where's Pinkie Pie?"

********************************************************************

Day 95

I followed my staggered torch guidelines, the ponies right behind me. I kept my eyes peeled for any Night dwellers, but didn't come across any along the first stretch of the Pit. When we descended into the short, skinny tunnel that had given me the chills last time, I had a bad feeling about bringing the ponies along with me. When I think about it now, I realize that they would've tracked me down, even if I locked them in the house, since I showed Daybreak the button combination to my front door.

Taking a deep breath to dispel my worries, I led the way into the cramped tunnel. It was barely tall enough for me to stand up straight. I could have reached up and put my hand flat against the ceiling, if I so chose. We walked for about thirty meters before I nearly fell down a chasm. The abyss had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, if the three meter gap that it spanned was anything to go by. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to signal the ponies behind me to stop, which very possibly saved Daybreak's life.

I was wondering where the fissure had come from, as it wasn't there the last time I had delved down into the depths of the Pit. As I was pondering, I heard the twang of a bow and before I could react, an arrow flew by my hand, nearly hit Daybreak, then burrowed itself into the stone wall.

Time seemed to slow down for me, as it has in the past when I or someone I cared about was threatened. It took me only a few fractions of a second to make a plan: jump the gap, deal with the skeleton, then find some way to get the ponies across. As I have seemingly been unable to learn, my plans haven't exactly gone as I planned.

I cleared the chasm fairly easily, landing on the other side with enough momentum to continue my sprint. A detached part of mind noticed that the ceiling was noticeably higher on the other side. I closed the distance between the me and the skeleton, whose form was flickering from the torchlight that I was still carrying.

Skeletons. I don't know what has caused the bones of deceased bipeds to become reanimated, and, quite frankly, I don't want to know. The bones of the undead are somehow held together, but very loosely, causing them to rattle and shake whenever they move. I don't know what species they once were, nor if they have some sort of leader, but I can say this: they aren't that intelligent. Sneaky, yes. Cunning, maybe. Smart? No.

For yet another reason I can't explain, they use bows and arrows as their main forms of attack. I don't know how they can even grasp the bow, let alone notch an arrow. I am deviating into semantics again. Back to the journal.

I swung my pickaxe at the skeleton's legs, shattering them before it could get loose another arrow at me or the ponies. The skeleton fell to the stone floor, it's empty eye sockets two black voids that stared straight into my soul. I raised my pickaxe above my head and brought it down onto the skeleton's skull, smashing it into bits.

I took no chances with skeletons: their bones may collapse when the skull is removed or crushed, but I still crunched the bones into bone meal. It had two purposes: it prevented the possibility of the skeleton somehow managing to pull itself back together and the bone meal could be used as a sort of super fertilizer for any sort of plant life.

As I finished crushing the bones of the skeleton, I heard the distinctive...clopping sound that I had associated with the ponies hooves stepping across the stone coming from behind me. I turned around and saw that Apple and Spectrum were both rushing towards me, one flying and one running. I thought that the motion was sweet: the ponies wanted to help me combat the monsters. I had thought that I wouldn't need any help fighting. I have since retracted that statement.

I tried to shoo the ponies back, so that I could scout ahead without endangering any of them, but to no avail. As I was thinking on how I could convince the ponies to return to the other side of the fissure, a heard an unnerving moan coming from right behind me. Before I could swing my pickaxe, Spectrum flew past me in a burst of speed and kicked the zombie in its face.

I absolutely abhor zombies. They are the single most vile and nauseating abomination that walks this cube land. They are single minded in their one and only desire: flesh. They are slow, pandering creatures that are easily dealt with, as long as you have a sword or bow. They come towards you, their arms outstretched, their throats gurgling with the sound of decaying tissue. They are walking corpses that have no purpose, none whatsoever. No matter how many of them I slay, more always come. Not right away, but they come. I feel that I am doing the right thing by releasing them from their torment, if they were truly ever alive. Nightmares of zombies have been the cause of many a sleepless night for me.

...

I realize that I let too much of my emotion seep into my words. I apologize to whomever may read this; zombies are, and always will be, a sore subject.

Either Spectrum must have been going quite fast, or she might just pack a strong kick since the zombie fell backwards into the wall, it's arms still reaching upwards, grasping at invisible prey even as it slid further and further down the side of the tunnel. I had managed to put my pickaxe away and draw my sword, but Apple had already dealt with the zombie before I could act. She turned around and kicked the zombie with both of her back legs, balancing on her front legs as she did so, right in the side of its head.

I took no chances this time, like I did with the creeper. I cut the zombie's head off with my sword, its green blood dripping down the sharpened steel edge. I returned to the fine, white powder that was the remains of the skeleton and picked up the bow that it had carried, along with seven stray arrows that the skeleton must have held before I destroyed it. I returned to Apple and Spectrum, who were both staring at the zombie's corpse. They're thoughts and mine were interrupted when a cacophony of groans and hisses came from down the tunnel.

I looked back at Spectrum and Apple, who seemed to be sharing a look of their own. With almost perfect synchronization, they both looked up at me and nodded, their eyes filled with determination. I smiled outwardly, but I was pained internally. I had seen the same look before on my previous companion.

...

Not yet. Maybe next journal entry.

...

I nodded to them in return as I fitted an arrow into my new bow. I turned around and prepared to face the onslaught.

Author's Note: Hopefully this makes up for the shortness of the last chapter!

Cube Land

Chapter 8

Day 95

I loosed several arrows into the oncoming hoard of monsters. All of them found their mark in one Night dweller or another, but anything other than a head shot only slowed them down. I quickly ran out of arrows, so I dropped the empty bow and unsheathed my sword, the blade still covered in zombie blood. The spiders, being quicker than the rest, were the first to reach us.

Spiders are fairly large, eight limbed creatures that can climb on walls and ceilings. They are very sneaky: I have been ambushed by them many times during my time in the Mine. There are two variants that I have seen: regular, and cave spiders. Regular spiders are a dark grey, almost black colour, with the exception of their beady red eyes. The cave spiders are a dark blue and much smaller than the regular spiders, but what they lack in size they make up with a poisonous bite. It's not fatal, but it blurs your vision and reduces your mental cohesion.

Another strange thing about regular spiders is that they are completely docile and non-aggressive during the Day, but only above ground. None of the other creatures of the Night have shown anything even remotely connected to passivity, which leads me to believe that spiders are simply territorial creatures. Still, they are dangerous at Night and underground, and I have no qualms in killing in self-defence.

Three regular spiders were coming towards us, one on each wall and one of the ceiling. The ceiling bound one attempted to get the drop on me, but I had my sword at the ready. The spider's own momentum cut it in half on my sword. I spun around to deal with the other two spiders, but they had already been dealt with by Spectrum and Apple. The former spread her wings and flew into the spider, hooves outstretched, while the latter waited for the spider to jump before twisting around and kicking it with both back legs. Needless to say, I was impressed.

The next wave of attackers was a mix of creepers and zombies. I rushed forward and destroyed the creepers with a few swings of my sword before they could ignite the sulphur within themselves. Thankfully, the monsters were not coordinated, else they would have taken advantage of my precarious forward position. With the creepers gone, the zombies were cut and kicked down in short order. We waited, Apple, Spectrum, and I, for the next mass of monsters to come forth. After a minute of waiting, I finally lowered my sword, thinking the attack over. Stupid.

Thinking that the monsters were no more, I turned away from the lip of the cavern that had spewed forth the monstrosities to check on how the ponies were faring. With the exception of her heavy breathing, Apple appeared to be fine. Spectrum was also breathing heavily, but she seemed to have gotten a small gouge on her right wing, possibly when she tackled the spider. I was so caught up in making sure that they were safe that I didn't hear the skeleton until it was too late.

A brief chirp from Spectrum warned me about the incoming projectile, but I was too slow to avoid it. The arrow hit me in almost the exact same spot as another arrow had previously, in my right arm, just above the elbow. I was hit with the strangest sense of déjà vu as the pain coursed through my arm. Reacting in instinct, I switched my sword to my other hand and rushed towards the skeleton, hoping to close in before it could get another shot off.

Considering how poorly my plans have worked the past two days, I shouldn't have been surprised when the skeleton had an arrow ready and waiting for me before I was closed the gap half way. It loosed the arrow straight at my head, and only dumb luck happened to save me. I managed to bring my sword up in front of me a split second before the arrow impacted into my skull. The arrow bounced harmlessly off of my sword and into the wall. I am going to be honest. I should've died then and there, but I didn't. Only inexplicably perfect timing saved me.

The arrow deflection was just the opportunity I needed. With the skeleton busy trying to load another arrow into its bow, I cut it down and began to mercilessly stomp its bones to dust. After I crunched the bones, I continued further along the passageway, all the way to the cavern entrance. I was not particularly pleased by that time, and I ended up using my pickaxe to cause a miniature cave-in at the entrance to the cavern. I already have a plan on how to get through, more on that later.

Anyway, by the time I returned to the battleground, I noticed that Apple and Spectrum had managed to get themselves across the chasm once again. The ponies had conjugated further up the tunnel, all seemingly intent on whatever it was they were looking at. I took a few steps back to allow myself a running start, then I jumped across the gap. The ponies still hadn't noticed me by that point, so, holding my right arm across my chest to help ease the pain, I gave a few gentle taps on the stone floor with my pickaxe. I saw Daybreak poke her head out of the crowd and wave me over with her hoof.

I trudged my way forward and tried to get a look at what the ponies had acquired. Before I knew what it was, I thought it might have been some coal, or even iron, not the treasure trove that it happened to be.

******************************************************************

"Where's Pinkie Pie?!" asked Twilight frantically, afraid for her party-loving friend.

"I'm over here, silly-fillies!" yelled Pinkie Pie from behind Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy.

Sighing in relief, Twilight called back, "Pinkie! What are you doing back there! We need to stick together!"

"It's fine, Twilight! Besides, I found a new friend!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "He's so adorable! You girls should come and see him!"

The three mares shared a look. "Pinkie found a new friend?" they all asked each other simultaneously.

"Is it dangerous, Pinkie?" asked Rarity.

"He is very nice. He's just so cutesy-wootsy!" replied Pinkie Pie, her voice echoing down the tunnel. A small hissing noise accompanied her statement.

Fluttershy said bashfully, "I-I want to go see what he is. You girls can stay here if you don't want to come..."

"No no, it's fine darling. It would be better if we stuck together anyways," said Rarity as she followed Fluttershy.

Sighing, Twilight reluctantly agreed. There wasn't much she could do to help the bipedal creature, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash anyway, but she still felt bad for letting them go alone. "I'm coming," said Twilight, who followed in Rarity's footsteps.

I hope they're all okay, thought Twilight. I'm sure that-

"AHHHHHHHHHH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! EWWWW!" cried Rarity, disrupting Twilight's concentration.

"What's wrong?!" asked Twilight. "What is it?!"

Before Rarity could respond, Pinkie Pie came bounding down the tunnel. "There you are, Jumpy McJumperson! I wondered where you got off to..." said Pinkie as she scooped something off of Rarity's mane. Whatever Pinkie Pie held gave off a small hiss-like sound. "Aww, did Rarity scare you?"

"What is that...thing?!" asked Rarity, contempt evident in her voice.

"I think it's a spider...or the this world's equivalent of a spider," said Twilight, who was eyeing the small, blocky spider that now resided on Pinkie's head.

"SPIDER?!" screamed Rarity. "Get it away from me!" she said whilst backing up.

"Are you scared of spiders, Rarity?" asked Fluttershy from behind her mane.

"I absolutely HATE spiders! They're dirty, they have far too many legs, and they're scary!" replied Rarity in a shrill tone. In a slightly calmer tone she added, "I'm sorry, but I have arachnophobia. I just can't stand spiders." She shivered at the end of her sentence.

"That's okay Rarity!" piped Pinkie Pie. "I'll just make sure to tell Jumpy McJumperson to not say 'hello' to you." Pinkie looked up at the spider on her head. "Isn't that right, Jumpy?"

The spider cave a small chirp-like hiss that seemed to say 'Yes'.

"Uhh, Pinkie?" asked Twilight. "I'm not sure if the biped will like the fact that you have a pet..."

"It'll be fine, Twilight! Just you wait: I'm going to bake him a super-extra-special cube cake to say 'Thank You'!" replied Pinkie happily.

Twilight didn't even bother asking where she was going to get the supplies needed to make a cake. She knew she wouldn't get a straight or logical answer.

It's just Pinkie being Pinkie, she told herself.

"Alright, well, if that's what you wanted to show us, then we should probably head back down so we don't miss Applejack, Rainbow Dash, or the creature," Twilight reasoned. "We don't want them to think that we've been captured...or worse."

Shivering, they unanimously agreed to return into the depths of the cave. As the sound of their hooves amplified across the smooth stone underfoot, Rarity voiced a question.

"Girls...do you think the...bipedal creature is angry with me?" she asked, sorrow evident in her tone.

"Why would you say that, Rarity?" asked Fluttershy. "Has he been mean to you?"

Rarity shook her head. "No, nothing of that sort. It's just...he seemed to look right through me up until the point that I stubbornly refused to go down into this...deep...dank...cave." She sighed. "I know I have a finer attention to detail, but surely you all noticed the way he looked at Rainbow Dash when she was doing her little acrobatics display?"

All of them nodded. "It seemed to me that he was trying to determine whether or not she was gloating on the fact that she had wings and he didn't or if she was just showing off," added Twilight.

"Well, therein lies what's been bothering me. I think he looked at me the same way when I was refusing to enter the cave, like he was making sure to remember my reaction." Rarity's gaze dropped to her dirty, dusty feet. "I think I may have ruined the one chance I had to make a good impression on him."

"Why don't you just give him a gift?" asked Pinkie Pie, suddenly.

"That's not a half-bad idea, Pinkie," said Twilight. "Since the biped seems to be at least somewhat familiar down underground, maybe he's similar to the Diamond Dogs."

The nervous expressions on her friends make her quickly change that statement. "N-no, not like slavery or anything like that. I mean, that he probably has a want or need for gems or other stones. Maybe you could give him some as a gift."

Rarity perked up immediately upon hearing that. "That's a splendid idea!"

Her horn aglow, Rarity cast the spell that located all gems within a certain radius. To her relief, the spell worked exactly the same as it would in Equestria: the gems gained a brilliant shine and were able to be seen through stone and dirt. Looking around, Rarity tried to find the largest group of gems that she could. Looking down, she realized that there were many gemstones underneath her very hooves, only a few feet down.

She telekinetically grabbed the gemstones and brought them up to the surface. Before she could sort through them to see what she had found, they heard the sound of two sets of hooves clopping up towards them.

"You girls still up there?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"We're all here!" responded Twilight. "Where's the biped?" she asked after she realized that he wasn't behind AJ or RD.

Applejack elaborated. "We fought a whole buncha monsters and we thought we got 'em all, but there was one left and it shot the creature in the arm," she huffed. Briefly pausing to take a few deep breaths, she continued. "After being shot, our creature charged at the monster and...defeated it. He then ran off up towards the entrance that all the monsters came out of and all we heard was the sound of rocks fallin'. We thought it was a cave-in, so we ran back here."

Rainbow Dash picked up where Applejack left off. "Yeah, we figured that the creature knew what it was doing, but we didn't want to take any chances. Although, if it were a cave-in, shouldn't it have happened by now? I mean, he could've just been angry and smashed a wall, right?"

"Look, there he is!" said Twilight excitedly as she waved her hoof at the biped. "Alright, Rarity. Time to see if my assumption was correct."

The creature walked over, one arm crossed over his chest. He looked down at the shining pile of gems...

...and a smile spread across his face.

Cube Land

Chapter 9

Day 95

DIAMONDS!

...

Sorry, but that was exactly what I was thinking at that moment in time. In front of me was the largest collection of diamonds that I have ever had the fortune to come across. I had no idea how the ponies had managed to obtain such a treasure trove, but I didn't really care. I couldn't help myself; I was grinning like a madman. The ponies backed away from me and the diamonds, save for one.

I looked at the faces of the ponies around me, trying to determine why they had distanced themselves from me. Apple and Spectrum appeared to be arguing with Daybreak over something, but a few words were enough to quiet them down. I turned my attention to the off white pony in front of me. A look of anxiety and apprehension was present on her face.

This confused me: I have never considered myself to be intimidating. Creepers, skeletons, zombies, Endermen...their actions have shown me that I am not the highest being on the food chain. Even the passive creatures do not give me a second glance unless I'm carrying wheat. Her expression made me realize that to them, I am a large, powerful, and dangerous creature whose actions may not be wholly pure.

In an attempt to show my good intentions, I crouched down as best I could with the arrow sticking out of my arm. Before I could do anything else however, the purple-maned pony shoved the pile of diamonds closer to me with her hooves. She was looking at me, the anxiety and apprehension replaced with curiosity.

She's giving me a gift, I had thought at the time. That has to be it. She's...thanking me.

I decided then and there to call her Charity, due to her generous nature.

I slowly and carefully reached for one of the diamonds, to determine its authenticity. Needless to say, they were. I had been given copious amounts of the most valuable crafting material in this world, as a gift.

I have never been given a gift before. This was a momentous moment for me. Smiling, I reached into one of my belt pockets. I pulled out the strange, green gem that I had found many weeks ago during one of my ventures. It responded to my touch, expanding to fit my hand. I had never found a use for the gem other than as a decoration: it was neither tough like diamond nor able to dye materials like lapis. I offered the brilliant green jewel to Charity, who was still in front of me.

A look of surprise flashed across her face. I believe that she didn't expect me to give her a gift in return. Charity cautiously took the gem from my hand, somehow grasping it with one of her hooves. This still confuses me greatly: if they're able to use and grasp tools, why don't they actually use them? I can understand Daybreak not using them, as she has the ability to levitate objects, but what about the others? Many questions, no answers.

Damn this language barrier!

...

After looking at the gem for a few seconds, her eyes lit up and a large smile played across her face. I smiled in return, glad that my measly gift was accepted in return for the vast amount of diamonds. I quickly started grabbing the diamonds and shrinking them so that they'd fit in my pockets.

The only thing that annoys me most about diamonds is their rarity: they are extremely difficult to obtain. I have only ever found them while mining deep underground and more often than not, they are found near underground pools of lava. Aside from the problem of their rarity, diamonds are the toughest and most durable material that I can easily work with. I have only ever found enough to make a single pickaxe, but it has lasted me far longer than any of my other tools, not to mention the fact that it still looks and works as if it was brand new.

Bah...straying from the recollection once again.

...

I stood up, my pockets bulging from the recent influx of top notch crafting materials. I motioned for us to turn continue onward, out of the cave. The ponies all nodded, seemingly relieved. I had noticed that they didn't seem to like it very much in the subterranean expanse. I don't mind it; I've become used to the feeling of hundreds of blocks above my head. It used to bother me, but now I barely glance up whilst underground.

We made our way back up towards the entrance of the Mine. After we were roughly half way there, I started to hear short, quiet sounds of hissing, similar to the ones made by a spider. Startled, I tried to pull out my sword, but it wouldn't come out any farther than halfway out of its sheath. Confused, I briefly glanced down and noticed that there was a purple aura surrounding my sword which was causing it to remain immobile. One of the ponies chirping brought me to my senses. I looked up from my sword and saw Daybreak, the horn atop her head glowing in a similarly coloured aura.

She shook her head and pointed to a very vibrant, pink coloured pony. I hadn't given her much attention before; she just seemed to be energetic and everywhere at once. It still amazes me how different all of their personalities are. I looked carefully at where Daybreak was pointing, trying to figure out why she caused my sword to be anchored. It took me a couple of seconds to make out what appeared to be a small, eight-legged creature on top of the pink pony's head.

I was very curious at that point. I slowly walked over, the creature coming into better view with every step. When I was around 2 metres away, I could finally see with clarity what the creature was. It was a spider, but not one that I had ever seen. It was very small, smaller than my hand. It was a light brown colour and it's eyes were blue, not red. And it was looking at me.

I was extremely surprised by this turn of events: a type of spider that I had never seen before was not only docile, but it was looking at me with intelligent eyes. It stared at me, occasionally blinking it's bright blue eyes. I stared back, trying to figure out exactly what I was going to do with the small spider. The spider surprised me by letting out a small, sharp hiss and snuggling it's way deeper into the pink pony's mane. The pink pony-

...

The spider just jumped onto my knee and it's looking at me with a curious expression. I don't know what it wants, as its owner is currently sleeping on one of the couches. Good, it just jumped off and went to bother Daybreak. She's the only one up, besides me.

...

The pink pony spoke in a higher pitch than any of the others, but I could vaguely tell that she was talking to the spider burrowed in her mane. My suspicion was confirmed when I heard the spider hiss a response after a brief null in the energetic pony's speech. My first thought was that the pink pony had somehow found a companion, however unlikely that it seemed. I turned around and looked at Apple and Spectrum, who I noticed had weary expressions. I didn't blame them, considering that they just fought off some of the much larger variety.

Shaking my head, I continued upwards towards the surface. If the spider wasn't aggressive during the Night, I saw no reason why the pink pony couldn't keep it. Every sentient creature should have a friend, no matter what it may be...

...

...

That's it, I have to write it down.

When I first awoke in this cube land, I was confused. Distraught, cold, hungry, and fearful are the best words to describe my first few days here. I had no idea how to survive, no idea what anything was. I didn't even know my own name, nor what I was. I have trouble recalling my exact feelings and thoughts, but they were all most certainly grim. Fortunately, I found someone who was as lost as I was. He was-

//NOTE// The script becomes nigh unreadable after this point. I was only able to salvage a few sentences and phrases from the walls of text that was written in such haste. Possible letter replacements denoted by parenthesis. I'm not sure why it was written in such different style; possibly emotional trauma?//ENDNOTE//

PARAGRAPH ONE: "...Trapped underground, monsters all around-"

"Someone...Something was following us. To this day, I still don't know what-"

PARAGRAPH TWO: "...(N)arrowly escaped with my life. My (com)panion saved me once again from certain death. We-"

"Gone. I failed. The abomination was (de)feated, my companion sacrificing himself to assure th-"

PARAGRAPH THREE: "Failed. Defeated. I failed. Failed. I could've sacrificed myself. Selfish. Greedy. Unjustified. I failed. Fail-"

"...(S)uffering from fits of depression. I had lost the will to live for a while. I had wandered for a long time with no direction, no goal. I-"

"As I lay there, lethargic and dying, I saw the Sun rise for the first time in my life. The purples and oranges, the reds and yellows; it was beautiful. I felt the Sun's light and warmth grace my skin, granting strength to my limbs. I had never felt so...alive. At that point, I promised myself that I would continue living. For both of us. My only qualm is that I never got to say goodbye..."

//NOTE// Script returns to normal, detailed log of events continues.//ENDNOTE//

...

We continued onwards out of the Mine. Our journey was uneventful as we walked to my house. Punching in the button combination, I opened the door and let all of the ponies in. Thankfully, I didn't have to remind them to wipe their hooves on the mat. By this point, my arm was really starting to bother me. As the ponies were grabbing apples from the basket that was still in the living room and making themselves comfortable on my furniture, I removed a painting from the wall and hit the button that was hidden underneath. A section of the hallway opened, revealing the staircase that took me to my lab.

...I realize that all of the security measure that I have in place may make me seem paranoid. I have only one response to that: it's only paranoia if you're wrong.

I heard a chirp of surprise come from one of the ponies as I turned my back to them and started to descend the staircase. Glancing behind me, I saw Benevolence rushing over to me, her eyes wide with concern. It took me a second to realize what she was looking at: she was staring at the arrow that was sticking out of my arm. I tried to wave her away, but she planted her feet, speaking quietly and motioning towards my arm.

I wasn't exactly confident that she could help me, but I had the feeling that it would be easier to accept whatever help she could give then to get her to leave me alone. Sighing, I motioned for her to follow me down the steps.

My lab is where I conduct all of my experiments, from testing new Redstone designs, to healing poultices, to new and edible foodstuffs. It is full of glassware that I had made myself, most of them filled with one concoction or another. Benevolence looked around in curiosity as I reached into one of the drawers and pulled out my medical supplies.

I had pulled out a length of gauze tape, which was made from sugarcane stalks and other ingredients, along with scissors, tweezers, and a scalpel. I placed my hand around the shaft of the arrow and was about to pull it out when Benevolence chirped loudly at me, causing me to stop. She walked over to my right arm and looked at the wound for almost a minute. She made several soft cooing sounds, in what I could only discern as an attempt to calm me down.

I'm not sure how, but she managed to get me to hand over all of my medical supplies to her. Benevolence then proceeded to carefully and methodically dig the arrow out. I wasn't sure how she was able to do such a thing, with her not having hands or Daybreak's levitation abilities. During the entire time that Benevolence was performing surgery on my arm, she was humming a tune that made me relax.

I don't know how long it took, but it was over before I knew it. The arrow was out, my arm was bandaged, and there was hardly any blood. If I had done it, there would have been a lot more. I thanked Benevolence in the only way that I could: by petting her. Strangely enough, she hid behind her mane and retreated back upstairs. She is a strange one: only breaking out of her shell when something is hurt or about to get hurt.

After she left, I checked over my latest healing poultice. It had been fermenting for a while in an attempt to make the effect stronger. I took the lid off and sniffed the red liquid. It smelled terrible, but that was how I knew that it was ready. Bracing myself, I took a swig of the disgusting liquid, nearly gagging as it went down my throat.

It was a worth it, though. I could feel the potion start to work immediately as it numbed the pain in my arm. It took me a while to find the right combination of ingredients, but once I did, getting an injury isn't as life-threatening as it once was, as the potion would start to repair damaged bone and tissue immediately.

I left my lab, seeing as I didn't need anything else from it. I hit the button again, causing the stairwell to disappear under my carpeted floor. I put the painting back over the button, hiding it from view once again. I glanced over and saw that Daybreak was watching me curiously, her eyes wide with interest. Seeing as how I couldn't explain how I built the pistons and Redstone, I broke eye contact and continued down the hall to my workshop.

As I opened the door, I was hit by the scent of sawdust. It's my first and favourite room of my house. It was originally my home, but I soon realized that I needed much more space than I currently had. I ended up building addition after addition, building the house that I currently reside in. Every time I enter the workshop, I am greeted by the feeling of nostalgia; it is not aesthetically pleasing whatsoever, but it is still the first thing I ever built my own two hands.

I put emptied my pockets of the diamonds that were gifted to me, spreading them out on the large, wooden workbench that is scratched and pitted from my use. Smiling to myself, I grabbed some thick sticks that I use as handles for my all of the new tools that I make, along with a hammer and chisel.

I started to craft myself a diamond sword. I am hard pressed to explain the concept of crafting: I visualize what I want to make and it just...happens. More specifically, I concentrated on the diamonds as I hammered and chiselled them into shape. I could feel them slowly starting to morph into the shape that I desired, which was a sharp blade. The sticks were much easier, as I barely had to concentrate on them as they formed the handle for my new sword.

I was startled out of my crafting-induced reverie by a large flash of violet light, along with a startled chirp. Spinning around, my newly finished sword in hand, I stopped dead in when I saw what had caused the flash of light.

Standing there, quivering and startled, was Daybreak, her horn once again aglow in the same purple aura from before. She was staring at the sole block of obsidian that I had been able to obtain over the months, as it was glowing with a vibrant intensity. I took a cautious step towards the obsidian, unsure how or why it was glowing.

As I stepped forward, two white arcs of what seemed like lightning launched towards me. Instinctively, I shielded my face. However, the white lightning didn't hit me: it hit my diamond pickaxe and my newly created diamond sword. Both of my tools were glowing with an inner lustre that they hadn't possessed a few seconds ago. I could feel the newfound power that was coursing through the sword that I held. Intrigued, I sheathed the sword and wielded my pickaxe. I felt the same thing.

I decided to test the strength of the...enchantments. Yes, I believe that is the correct word. I motioned for Daybreak to back up. She did, so I swung my pickaxe at the corner of the obsidian block. To my amazement, the pickaxe took the corner off without so much as a hitch, going through the obsidian as if it were common stone. The block continued to glow with writhing energies.

I grinned like I had never grinned before. I finally had a way to mine obsidian efficiently! Turning to Daybreak, I slung my pickaxe over my shoulder and offered my hand to her. She seemed stunned, but she eventually placed her hoof in my hand. I shook it vigorously, grateful that she had solved a problem that I had no solution to.

Still smiling, I ushered her out of the workshop. I had armour to make.

*****************************************************************

Twilight stared at the biped that was sitting in one of the many chairs scattered around the living room. Tears were freely rolling down his face as he furiously scribbled onto the parchment in front of him.

I feel so bad for him. I wonder what's causing him to be like this, thought Twilight. Even crying, he still doesn't make any noise.

Twilight closed her eyes, feeling guilty for spying on him. She cast her thoughts of pity aside and tried to think about some burning questions that had kept her up this late.

Why did the strange purple rock not open up a portal, like it should have? Twilight was extremely surprised when not only did the purple stone not create a portal, but it somehow made the creature's tools stronger.

What was he doing in there for so long? Long into the night, the biped had been hammering away at something in his workshop. The blows were rhythmic enough that everypony else had fallen asleep, but not Twilight.

Why did he take my measurements? Finally, the hammering had stopped and the creature walked out of his workshop carrying a stick with strange markings on it, his injured arm seemingly not causing him any pain. He stopped at the threshold of the hallway and the living room, looking at everypony in the room. Frowning, he looked at the stick in his hand, seemingly considering something.

Twilight shifted her weight ever so slightly, but that was still enough to get the biped's attention. His frown turning upside down, he waved Twilight over. Twilight did as she was asked, unsure what he needed from her at that time of the night. Strangely enough, he told her to stand still as he seemingly took measurements of her midsection, her legs, even her head.

Seemingly satisfied, he motioned for Twilight to go back to the couch as he walked back to his bedroom, coming back out with a quill, ink, and several pages of parchment paper. He then proceeded to write, only pausing briefly to think about something before going back to writing.

Several hours of monotonous writing followed, only broken by a brief staring contest between the biped and Pinkie's pet spider. Twilight thought that it was funny that the creature continued to write with one hand, even as the other hand was trying to shoo the spider off of his knee. However, Twilight did not find it funny when the spider tried to climb onto her. She ended up having to telekinetically place the spider beside Pinkie Pie.

A few minute after Twilight dealt with Pinkie's new pet, she saw the creature look like it wanted to write, but was caught in some sort of internal struggle. Sighing, the creature started to write, slowly at first, but with increasing intensity. The tears began to flow not long after that.

*****

Twilight opened her eyes a crack. Thankfully, the biped seemed to be back to normal, his writing once again going along at the same, precise speed. Her mind at rest, but her questions unanswered, Twilight finally managed to fall asleep.