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!

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