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.

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