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.

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"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.

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