Welcome to Cubeland

by Zaleros

Cobblestone

“What are you?” a little foal asked.

“Sorry, but I’m not supposed to talk to you,” I said as I led my squad around a family of earth ponies. “The queen says it’s not right to talk to your food. Round them up and prepare to siphon them for their love.” With that, I signaled a small portion of my troops and set off to find another group while the rest gathered what they could from the four ponies. Once we were out of earshot of them I swore and slammed my hoof against the nearest wall.

“Sir, you know we won’t hurt them,” my second in command, Garnet Fury, said to me, putting her hoof on my shoulder.

“I know, but I still don’t like that we have to do this” I let out a sigh, “Why did we have to invade them? Why do we have to always fight?”

“I don’t know Craft, but without their love we will die,” she looked me in the eye, dropping the whole ‘second in command’ thing, “You know that just as well as I do. We can’t just not have it. This is the only way.”

“No it isn’t.”

“Yes it is; you’ve seen what they do to others that they don’t understand. They fight, they banish, they exile. They would never let us in as we are and you know it.”

“That’s not true.”

“Yes it is. Even if you live with them for a time they will come to fear you. They always do.”

“IT ISN’T TRUE!” I yelled, louder than I had intended, “I’ve seen them while I…spied on them. They are kind, they are caring. I’ve seen them when a group of dragons came to the town I always went to. The dragons kept trying to pick fights with everypony but they stood tall and asked them to leave nicely, not once did any of them try anything. The whole incident was solved without having to fight.”

“Not everypony gets off so easily,” she said as she walked past me, making sure that I saw the scar across her chitin, easily a few inches wide and cracked like broken glass, “You should remember this.”

I heard a crackle of lightning and woke up. That’s right, it was raining out. I got out of bed and walked outside only to see rain coming down a clouded sky. The sky always had clouds anyway but these clouds were moving on their own, unlike the ones in Equestria. The thing that was really weird was that even though there were clouds, and it was raining, I was pretty sure that those clouds weren’t the source of the rain.

It looked like it was still somewhat daytime out, at least it wasn’t dark so I assumed it was still day. With the rain came a lack of sun which explained the wandering skeletons and zombies. I asked one of the skeletons where the trio was and they pointed toward the cave so I walked there and saw them huddled together as usual and when I showed up they stopped chatting.

“Good day Craft Hammer,” the Skeleton said, still sounding like bones.

“Yeah, good day guys” I sat down on the ground and took a look around the room, “Hey, why are you always in this small cave anyway?”

“This is the only place not inhabited by them that they have not checked. It is our last hope for safety.”

After a few minutes of silence I asked them a question that had been on my mind since after the attack last night, “What did the Player mean when he said that you would ‘respawn’ when you died?”

The Creeper spoke up, “When one of us in this world dies, another of the same kind will be born again.”

“If that’s the case why would you really care about dying? If you can just be born again then why not just go out and explore? If you die then at least you get to do it again. Am I right?”

“Not exactly, when the Players are reborn they simply come back where they last spent a night. This holds true if they spent a night on a bed, much like your own. Without it they’re reborn where all Players originate in this world.”

“But how does it work for you guys? You make it sound like it’s different.”

“It is Craft. When we are reborn we are like newborns. We know nothing of the world other than primal instinct. Our memories of our previous life are wiped out completely.”

Woah, the Players got to keep their memories but the monsters didn’t? That’s just cruel. What kind of god or goddess would make such a system? Can’t they see that these monsters aren’t at all what the Players keep making them out to be?

“Wait, if you lose your memories then how do you know all of this? How long have you three been around?” My curiosity was getting the better of me and I had a feeling I already knew the answer.

“We have been here since the beginning. That’s how we know.”

Yep, that confirmed it. “Just how long ago was the beginning?” This was something I really wanted to know. If they’ve been here since the beginning then I wanted to know exactly how long this world’s been around.

“1,573 days and nights have passed since we became aware of our own existences. I am sure that that was the beginning.” This world apparently wasn’t a very old one. Seems a little early for life to have occurred but the way this world’s been so far that was probably normal too.

“You’re sure? You don’t actually know?”

“Our...beginning...since...Players.” The Zombie spoke up.

“So you’ve all been here since the Players?”

“Yes, our existences line up with the Players. Why did you ask this anyway?” The Skeleton asked me.

“It just seemed strange since you said before that the villagers used to talk to you but stopped once the Players showed up.”

“It is from our memories before our awareness; our primal selves’ memories, so to speak. I don’t remember much. Most of it is hazy, but there was a time when we communicated with one another.”

“If you gained your consciousness after they showed up, wouldn’t that mean there are others like you out there?”

The Creeper spoke with a tone, devoid of emotion, “There were. They were killed by the Players.”

“And you’re all that’s left?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.” A few minutes of silence occurred before my stomach rumbled, louder than before. I excused myself from the cave and walked back to my house, eating a piece of what looked to be bread on the way back. There wasn’t really any taste I could detect but it filled me up. I mean like it would if I had eaten love from ponies. Like I had said before, normally eating food would be like others drinking water, sure it filled you but it didn’t really sustain you.

This bread, however, seemed to fill me up like it would any other pony. I was getting full off of food. This was fantastic! I was like other ponies. I wasn’t tied down to love anymore! Well, I didn’t think I was anyway. Maybe it was just this world. In fact, it probably was. The moment I returned to my world I would likely need love again. This thought brought me back down to earth and I walked back to my house while eating another piece of bread.

I got back only to see a few zombies wandering around the area, even a few off in the nearby body of water. I went in my house and shut the door and thought to myself that I might as well find out what the stuff the Players put in the house were.

There was what looked like a stone furnace, several somethings that looked like chests, hopefully I would be able to store stuff in them, and several pictures hanging from walls all around the house. Some of the pictures were pretty cool with images of skeletons, martial artists of a race I think was related to the Players, and even a creeper in a boat. There were other ones but they weren’t as cool so I didn’t pay as much attention to them. I was never a big art pony, sue me.

I opened the chests but they were empty inside. If nothing else I could always put stuff in so I went ahead and thought of the stuff I didn’t want to keep carrying with me. In a few moments there were 3 spots of wood with the number ‘64’ floating nearby, weird. I also put the flowers I found along with some seeds, a few saplings, and my apples. Actually I wanted the apples so I took them back out. I sifted through some of the items I got from the Players: an iron sword, a stone sword, a leather helm, leather body armor, iron body armor, two iron leg pieces, two iron boots, an iron helm, and what appeared to be a bluish diamond helm. The helms wouldn’t be a problem to fit to my head but the body and leg pieces were clearly made for somepony of their shape and not mine. This might pose a problem for me if I want to be protected from their attacks. My soldier instincts were telling me I would need to find a way to make my own versions of these if I wanted to wear any armor other than a helm and boots. As far as things that weren’t deadly or protective, there were a few tools made of iron too, I decided to keep those on me though.

The last few things I had from them were some pieces of cooked meat. Curious as to the taste, since it would be hard back in Equestria to find time to eat real meat when you are always hiding out as a pony, which are obviously vegetarians, and back at the hive we mostly just ate emotions we managed to keep in reserve for when we were hungry. I took a bite, which means I ate the whole thing, and it was pretty good. This made me wonder how the fish would taste, but first they would need to be cooked. This seemed as good a time as ever to stop messing with the box and go check out the furnace.

I checked the furnace and felt like it was in need of fuel so I put a piece of wood in there hoping wood would be a good choice since it burned rather well in my world and I saw no reason for it to stop burning in this one. I stood there for a minute after I put it in wondering why it wasn’t burning. There didn’t seem to be anything on it or in it that would indicate some need for me to light them. Shrugging this off, I put the fish I had acquired in the other slot I found and instantly, almost like magic, the wood disappeared and a fire appeared in its place.

“Cool,” I said with a grin. After a minute the wood burned out but only a few of the fish were actually cooked, I put another ten pieces in there and hoped that’d be enough. The way things ran in this world my food would be done without any issues since these things were all apparently built with auto pilot functions.

I snatched the fish after they were done and ate one. Suddenly I felt like I should’ve tried them out back in Equestria, you know...after the other ponies killed, skinned, gutted, and cooked the fish for me so I didn’t have to. The chances they would do that, however, were pretty slim because, I said before, they were vegetarians. I only ate the one though since I knew I wasn’t really hungry and it’d be best to save them for another time when I was actually hungry and not just wanting to taste real food.

I took another look at the stuff in the chests, the ones I didn’t put stuff in anyway. There were bars of the white metal, iron, along with pieces of wool, a few weapons including a bow, a weird black block that looked rather mysterious and I felt almost compelled to look at it. I shook off the feeling and kept looking; I found some of those torches, like the ones outside, a few other things, and some black rocks. They looked like coal, and given my luck they probably were coal. I made sure to add everything I saw to my mental catalogue of items I’ve come across, for future reference, and went back to the cave.

The trio was still there. Seriously, what did they do that would require them to huddle in this small cave all the time? Anyway, I came to the entrance and coughed to let them know I was back. “Hey, I found some stuff from the Players that didn’t look like you could just find them on the surface. Where do they get this stuff? Is there some place you go and just dig this up?” I asked, half-jokingly.

“Yes Craft,” The Skeleton told me, “They often dig the ground and take what they want and expand using these materials. From what you said when they came here, it sounds like that’s what they were going to do with our cave.”

“That’s what they meant? They were going to mine the cave when they’ve probably got places like this closer to them?”

“That’s exactly what they were going to do. They were going to mine our cave and craft what they found. It’s what they do: mine and craft. They do this day in and day out, slaughtering animals for, what did you call it, sustenance. Then they make buildings and farms and trap the animals, waiting to coax them into mating for food that they would otherwise eat themselves. All while keeping us away with those horrid lights.” That last part I could swear he said while looking at my house.

“Really? They just do that all the time? That seems so...boring and empty! Don’t they have anything better to do?” The thought of mining and crafting all the time while hunting down defenseless animals just seemed stupid, and in a way cruel.

“What he says is true” The Creeper confirmed, “They also eliminate our kinds constantly, even when we pose no threat to them. After their advances though I must say that there are times when we feel we must try to stop them so we can live a little longer in peace. If they would leave us alone then maybe we wouldn’t always be fighting them.”

I thought about what they said for a minute and had an idea, “You said they were going to mine your cave and use what it had for themselves. What if I did that?”

“Craft, you want to mine our cave?” The Creeper said, a little anger slipping in his tone.

“Hear me out, okay? If I mine it for you guys then at least I’ll be able to set it up so that it won’t really seem all that appealing to them. There are bound to be things I can use down there to start a fight against them in a way where I actually stand a chance. With you guys I was able to hunt those three Players, but that’s because we caught them off guard. What if they come back and have more of them? What if they have better stuff? I need to be able to fight them off with something, don’t I?”

“He’s right Creeper. If we don’t let him do it then the Players will make their way in and just take over the area anyway. Plus if he does it then we’ll be sure to have more places to hold our brothers in case they decide to return. It is by all means advantageous for us and him.”

“Hmm, it’s true enough. Alright Craft, we’ll trust our cave to you. Just promise to keep those lights to a minimum.”

I grinned at them, happy to see that I could help and gather my own materials for future fights, “Sure thing, I’ll only use them as I feel necessary.”

*~*

A few days in a cave would make most ponies wonder why they hadn’t left yet. It might even make some lose all the bravado they had when entering the cave. That was me; I was lost and it sucked.

I used all my torches on the way down and somehow found a natural cavern underneath my hooves about three hours after I went in. The trio didn’t follow me down, fearing they would likely die from the fall. I assumed that anyway since I left them at the entrance and by no means watched to see if they had followed me or not. It was a good thing I had my food and there were waterfalls scattered around the many areas I ventured into.

Honestly my haul so far was pretty good. Plenty of coal, a stupid amount of stone from the cave obviously, and even some iron ore, which was shaped like a Celestia forsaken cube of all things. I just let that go though since the walls seemed rather generous when I picked at them. Most of my stone pickaxes I made before the venture were broken though and I was starting to have to use my iron ones. What I would’ve given for a map though, and maybe some light...wait, was that light?

Off in the distance I saw light, which seemed odd since this was a subterranean cave and had no business with its own supply of light. It turned out I should just learn that I don’t know what lies below the surface, no matter how much I believe I do, because there it was; it was an area of lava just sitting there like being a lake underground meant actually being thousands of degrees and made of molten rock. I decided it’d be best if I kept my distance from the lava but some of the monsters down in these caves weren’t so bright it seemed. One of the creepers fell from above and into the lava, burning to death and poofing away, leaving no trace of its existence to be found.

“Another one for the recycle,” I said to myself, knowing none of the monsters would be able to understand what I meant.

This was just like when I first woke up in this world. Alone, looking at things that confused me, wandering in places I wished I rather hadn’t, and seeing things I wished had stayed in my mind. Take this blob block for example, it was just bouncing around the area making some splooshy noise whenever it moved. I dubbed it a ‘Slime’ and moved on.

After a few minutes away from the light and I turned back, it was nice having the light around. I looked around the area lit by the lava and saw some dark blue blocks in the walls. I couldn’t really get to it since there was a pool of lava in the way. Since the blocks around it weren’t breaking and melting and doing other things stone should do when lava touches it, I figured maybe I could put down some of my own stone blocks and cross the lava pool. Yep, nailed that one. A few blocks later and I got to the blue block so I mined it out with the iron pickaxe and several pieces popped out, a few landed in the lava though and they burned up like the creeper. I grabbed what I could and got the buck away from the lava, scary stuff that lava. I made a mental note to avoid lava when I could and to deal with the darkness like I had so far.

I wandered for another few minutes then went ahead and broke past a wall of stone that had some iron in it. To my surprise I found an open area that looked like an actual mineshaft, it looked abandoned but still. There were torches set up, frames to keep the ceiling from collapsing, remains of cart tracks placed randomly around yet in a line if you connected them. Then there was...the sound of spiders? What were they doing in a lit up area like this? Whatever, I figured I might as well see if they could point a way out for me. I followed the sound and came across an area filled with webs. I tried to push them out of the way with my hoof but I got stuck or something, it was really tough getting out of the web. In the end I just cut it with my sword and collected the string it dropped. Somehow I felt cutting the webs took a toll on the sword, which seemed weird since it was my iron sword against a spider web, but that’s the way this world worked and I just let it go.

Finally, I found the spiders and found myself questioning what I saw. Their color wasn’t normal, instead of black they were more of a bluish color. They were also slightly smaller than the black ones.

“What the?” I said, rather confused. I shouldn’t have said that. They heard me.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the wait all, Fimfiction is one hell of a drug...you all know what I mean. I've also been busy on a game I play, finally got my clan back up and running and I'm kind of a head member so I've been helping to keep it running. The next chapter is in the works too so hopefully that'll be on it's way soon enough. It will be faster than this one at any rate I promise.

Comments

[Changeling-Drone]

....

ok this is just plain awesome i wish that was a mod that would put a player changeling in the game

also i would so help the changeling on this server also random slime is random

[_Ecocat_]

2964037 Step 1. Get the 'mine little pony' mod

step 2. Create/download/acquire changeling skin

Step 3. Apply said skin.
Congrats! You should now be a changeling!

>Ecocat<