"Mwahahaha!!" some one cackled as I entered the dream realm.
"Uhh, do I have mods installed or something?" I did a mental check. "Hmm. No just the ponyfied mod that was force installed, and the minor rule change overhaul I did. So then, this is either a new dream, seperate from my normal one, because of my lack of horn, or..." I strapped on my iron sword, and left the safety of my house to investigate.
"Night light? Are you out he-," I turned my head to the left and caught a facefull of the new addition to the landscape. "Well... that wasn't there before." A little ways away, right were Night Strider's house used to be, sat a gigantic castle. The bricks were tinted blue, and a giant silver moon was emblazoned on the gates. Standing on a high balcony, a small winged shape was reared back, swinging their hooves and laughing maniacally. A random lightning bolt struck behind the castle, finishing the look. "Night Light?" I muttered squinting at the laughing form. "Holy crap. When the hell did you build all this?" I shouted up to the dark blue pegasus. The castle was Huge! I counted 7 floors, in the smallest tower.
"Bow before us!" Night shouted in an impossibly loud and carrying voice. She laughed some more, apparently not having heard my question.
I sighed and closed my eyes. "When I open my eyes I will be right next to her." I muttered to the dream. Opening my eyes revealed that I had indeed appeared behind her. I tapped her on the shoulder, startling her.
"AH! How didst thee penetrate our defenses!?" she shouted at me.
"Ow... thank goodness this is a dream, or my hearing would be shot..." I shook off the verbal cannon fire. "Uhh, this is still a dream you know? Appearing wherever I want is a simple as saying presto," I reminded her. Night Strider blushed at the obvious answer. "So, like I asked you before, when did you have the time to build all of this?"
The pegasus filly staightened up. "We hadst little in the form of responsibilities the present day, so we fortified our domicile!" At this point she finally took a good look at me. "Hold on, we remember thee being a unicorn, so what art the strange formations on thy sides?" She inquired, pointing with a hoof.
I answered the question by opening the crystal fans. "Yeah, they do look a bit different from the standard model, but apparently these are my wings."
"Surely thou jest." She smiled at the perceived joke.
"No seriously, right now I'm a pegasus. Apparently, since coming to Ponyville, my tribe has been changing between earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus. I think it has something to do with me being close to a member of one of those tribes." I explained.
Night Strider stared at me. "Truly?"
"I'm not lying," I responded. "This is what I look like in the real world at the moment."
"..." she stared blankly at me.
"...Night Strider?"
"..."
"Are you okay?"
"...Thou art truthfully a pegasus now." She said, low, but surprised.
"Uh, yeah?" I answered, even though it sounded more like a statement than a question. "I know that's unexpected, but, can I ask you something?"
"So thou art the one that our... wast the change painful? Art thou stuck in this form? Canst thou take to the skies?" She asked in rapid fire, poking my crystal additions with a hoof.
This reminds me of someone...
Night Strider pulled open one of the fans and held her spread wing up against it for comparison.
"So tiny, doth these provide sufficient power for flight?" She wondered allowed.
"No, yes? I don't know, last time it happened I had little to no control." It took me a moment to decipher her archaic way of speaking to answer her questions. "No it wasnt particularly painful, although the new muscles are either in a constant cramp or my brain isn't wired to use them properly. No, I'm not stuck like this. Well I am, but it's only temporary."
"But these art so bawbling, they should not be able to lift thee off the earth." She looked closely at the crystal structure that made up the solid part of my left wing.
"Well, that's not my entire wing there." I said, catching her attention. I backed away a step and put the tiniest bit of magic into my wings that I could. The energy feathers suddenly flickered into existence, I adjusted the power output to keep them visible, but not provide much more lift than a helium balloon.
Night Strider stared at my wings with amazement. "Well then, thou art quite the peculiar one." She poked my foremost magic feather with one of hers. My feathers buzzed and faded a bit, but otherwise acted like a solid. She grasped it with a hoof – I still dont know how that works – and pulled lightly on it. It made a squeaking noise, and I felt a shiver go up and down my spine from the stimulation.
"I uhh, that feels... weird." I told her. She immediately let go and took a pace back. We stood there awkwardly for a moment. I let my wings power off. "So, uhh..." my unplanned sentence died right there. I looked around at the castle I was now in. "Uhm, awesome build you've got here."I complimented.
"Thy sentiments art appreciated." She returned. The silence threatened to grow once more. Fortunately, another lightning bolt decded to strike, right in Night Strider's replacement-sheep – white balls of fluff that walk on two legs and have really curly hair – pen . "No! Muffin!" she squeaked, taking off and flying down to assess the damage. I followed her, going down the stairs.
When I got there, Night Strider was holding the ball of wool dramatically in the rain, it was burned and barely breathing. Wow, if this game didn't get alot more emotional after it got realistic... "Is, Muffin? alive?" Night Strider nodded, on the verge of tears. I pulled out two pieces of iron, crafting some shears. "Good, this will only take a second."
She looked up at me like I was a monster. "Nay! we shalt not allow thee harmeth our Muffin" she clutched the dying creature tighter.
I barely managed to keep my expression stoic. If that sentence was uttered at any other time, it would be hilarious. I pulled the fluffball out of her grasp, working my shears into its fur. I then planted it's face into the grass and held it there. Night Strider was crying as I held her back. Moments later, the sound of munching could be heard. Muffin's head bobbed up and down a few times, A perfect square of grass disappeared as all their fluff re-grew in an instant. The storm finally cleared up, as Muffin stood up, looking like nothing happened.
"...wha-?"
"Silk walkers eat, and heal off of, grass." I cut her off. I dropped the singed wool blocks. "What did you think I was doing?" I asked her with a raised brow.
"But! You... the struggling, and face in the ground... sharp!" She babbled.
"I'm sorry? But you are harder to understand than usual right now." I didn't get why she was freaking out. "You make it sound like I was trying to kill them."
"We bethought thee were doing that!" She shouted at me, hovering in the air.
"Why would I kill your pet?" I cocked my head to one side. "Anyway, back to an important point, are you like, an aspiring architect or something? This castle looks amazing." The whole nigh-palace had this almost authentic feel to it. And the level of detail, it was something only someone who, either builds castles, or lives in them could reproduce. And the courtyard alone was at least one hundred blocks in diameter!
"No, we simply..." she began, but stopped short.
I turned to face her. "You what?"
"We, uhh, we spend a lot of time in the Canterlot palace! So we took inspiration from the architecture of yond grand structure!" She explained.
It didn't seem like she was lying. "Okay, so are you like, one of the noblemares' daughters? Perhaps a child of some of the staff?" If I remember correctly, Canterlot is the capital of Equestria, and the palace is where the diarchs live. I had to imagine it wasnt just open to the public to loiter about in.
"Uhh. Ou- our sister, erm works in the palace?"
Why does that sound like a question? "Does she, or does she not?"
"She does!" Night Light said with certainty. I certainly couldn't tell if she was lying, but it sounded like she believed it.
I don't know why I got so journalist there, it's not like Night Light has been Lying, or otherwise hiding the truth from me.
"Anyway, I meant to ask you a question a little while ago." I said, getting the conversation back on track. "We have a few 'hours' of dream time left before the sun sets, mind giving me a flying lesson?"
"Nay! Hold thy wings coequal! Stand ho! Turn! Thy tail!"
Asking Night Light for flying lessons was, decidedly, a bad idea. This was the thought that crossed my mind as I suddenly, and half expectedly, turned over and made the thirteenth furrow in the earth."Ow... good thing this is a dream... I would surely be dead by now otherwise."
"Thee aren't listening at all! We told thee accelerate, but soft! And bank hath left!"
"Yeah... sorry about that, it's a little hard to decipher archaisms at sixty miles an hour!" I shot back.
"This is the traditional Canterlot dialect! We has't not learned thy modern ways of speech."
"Modern?"
"Uhh..."
How is it I'm not the strange one in this situation? "Whatever, let's drop this. How do I keep from shooting off like a cannon ball?"
"As we told thee before, to gain height thee simply send minute amounts of magic to the zephyr field of thy wings. To turn, thee twist this group of feathers here, and tilt in the direction thee desirest. To wend foreward, thee straighten this group here, and shunt charm out these feathers here. But the most important thing to remember, most of thy mobility in flight is a result of actually flapping thy wings, not thy, powered gliding, odd method thou art employing." She explained, pointing to sections of her outstretched wing as she spoke.
Now that I wasn't hurtling through the air, I actually had the time required to decode her instructions. "Wait, that still doesn't make any sense! What's the Zepher field, I am not normally a pegasus you know? And it's not like I took pony biology in school. I don't know these things." I retorted.
"... Oh, our apologies. We didst not know thou were unschooled."
"What? No, I went to school!" I stated.
"Wherefore art we yelling?" Night Strider asked in a half shout.
"I, don't know..." I took a long breath. "Lets just call the lesson here, this is more complex than magic, and that's fricken magic." I closed my eyes, willing my appearance to change while I did so. When next I layed eyes on the dreamscape, the knotted muscles of my wings were gone, and my horn had returned. "Wish it were that easy in real life... Okay, so how about I just switch the game back to normal mode? You can get a taste for combat, and the art of skillfully lighting fire to your undead foes." I giggled like a psychopath.
"Thee... doth not speak of things as a filly shouldst." She said warily.
"Thank you!" I replied cheerfully. "For that matter, neither do you. Part of the time you sound like your new to games, part of the time you're a hustler, more often still you sound like an archaic college professor." I got a good stretch out of my simplified back muscles. "Anyway, you should probably light up anywhere in your castle you don't want things spawning, mobs appear on top of blocks that fall below a certain light level.
"The dungeon!" She zipped off, torches flying out of a nearby chest and into her bags.
"Heh, a peacful builder going into normal mode for the first time, never do have everything mob proof. Wait did she say dungeon?" I trotted after her, curious.
Descending the stairs brought me into a dark floor of Night Light's fortress, the sound of torches and lanterns attaching to blocks echoing off the far wall. I cast a light spell. "Ah, hello again my friend, I did miss your magic." I sighed. I walked over to one of the cells. It too was accurate to one you would see in a medieval castle. Cell after cell, empty. "What does she plan to put down here?" I wondered aloud. It was at that point that I came across a larger wooden door, with one of those eye sliding things, far above either of our heights. "Did she just build this to be accurate? It's starting to seem impractical." I pulled the door open, my eyes went wide at what I saw. The entire room was littered with medieval torture devices, although, most were altered to be pony versions. I laughed. "And she says I don't act like a child." I closed the door and went to help in the brightening of the dark portion of her dungeon.
After we had gone through her entire castle, we made our way to her lavish chambers to relax. "Jeez, exactly how much free time did you have?" I joked, nudging her upper foreleg.
"E-enough." She said sheepishly.
"Hey, I'm not trying to be mean, this place is amazing but to put this level of detail, in every room. Either you're hiding a horn under that mane of yours, or you had quite a lot of time." I said. The first bit was sarcastic, but she seemed to pale at the suggestion. I waved it off. Nah, from what I've seen, no one individual has the traits of multiple tribes at the same time, at least if myself and what I've seen of Ponyville are anything to go by. "So, did you ever get to figuring out armor crafting?" I asked her. This part of the game I hadn't paid much attention to, because it was so simple. But when I tried to make an iron chestplate I realized that the shapes that the crafting table spat out wouldn't quite work with me, due to the difference between bipeds and quadrupeds, as well as, well size.
But then Night Strider said she wanted to make some armor out of all the gold she won at the gaming gazebo, so I decided to let her make the rules for armor crafting.
"We didst, the helm is nearly completed, and the leg guards are developing nicely, although it didst take a time to set up a proper work station." She pulled out an unfitted helmet to show case.
The base material was silver, with cobalt alloy reinforcement. It was created with a pony's shape in mind. The engravings and crystals set into it gave it a very regal feel. "Dang, that looks amazing." I leaned in closer to appreciate the detail.
"Does it not?" Night Strider said, proud of her handiwork.
"Can you show me the ropes? After you're finished with your set, that is."
"Rope? What binding art thee refer- oh! Thee meant how to forge like this, correct?" I nodded. "Ah, then we wouldst happily teach thee."
"Great! It would be good to have a set once I flip the game back over to normal mode. Oh that reminds me, I should probably go make an enchanting table. Do you have any diamonds or obsidian?"
"Volcanic glass? our apologies, but we doth not has't any of yond."
"Oh well, let's go on a quick mining trip then!" I teleported back to my own house. "...darn, now this place doesn't seem as cool." I complained, looking around the structure I built on my first night in Equestria. "Oh well, I have an idea on how to fix that." I said to myself, as I had forgotten to take Night Strider with me. I retrieved the only three diamonds I had found, just as my front door swung open.
"How malapert! thee suggest to us we shalt gather materials together, and then thee depart without us!" She yelled at me.
"I'm not leaving yet, I had to go make a certain tool before we can harvest obsidian." I informed her, placing the diamonds in a row at the top of my crafting table.
"What tool art thee constructing with such precious gems?" She asked, looking over my shoulder.
"Just a pick." I told her, placing the sticks that would act as the tool's handle. The materials melted together into my new digging implement.
"It seems to be such a waste, but tis a might pretty to behold." The dark blue pegasus said.
"Nah, if your talking about a waste of diamonds, I believe the saying goes 'never waste your diamonds on a hoe', but this definitely looks better here than in the source material."
"I am unfamiliar with this phrase, shouldst we ask our sister about it?" She asked innocently.
"Uhh... no. That wouldn't be a good idea. At least not without the context of this game." If that is a term here, and it likely is, then it woudn't be the best idea to have a child ask her older sister what that means..."Anyway, let's get going," I retrieved a few empty buckets from my chest. "We have obsidian to gather!" I declared, hoping to get her attention off of that reference. As the filly went to retrieve her tools, I went around to the tree I had planted opposite my kitchen. "I think I'll call you, weeping wood, or maybe soak oak?" I asked the tree, deciding the name of a brand new species of tree was a little tricky apparently. Regardless I placed one of the buckets under its leaves, allowing it to fill up while I waited.
"Hail! We return." She greeted.
I failed to hold back a laugh. "If you do start using a modern dialect, never change what you just said."
"In what way wast yond humorous?" She demanded.
"You can't expect me to explain my sense of humor, that kinda takes away from what makes it so funny!" I nudged her in the shoulder. "C'mon, let's go." I motioned for her to follow me, as my bucket of water floated alongside.
We soon reached where our cave entrance had been, I say had been, because now a massive quarry had replaced it, about fifty blocks down, and the neighboring mountain. "Uhh, so, that castle wasn't the only thing you built while I was gone, but you also made a realistic stone quarry? Why?"
"W-we did need to obtain all of the stone from somewhere, and we didn't want to cause a sinkhole or landslide, so..." She explained, circling a hoof in the dirt.
"You would win every building competition back home." I sighed. I peered around the hole, looking for any exposed lava. "So, is there any magma around here, or?" Night Strider pointed to a section of her mine. "Ah, good then." I dug in my saddle bags. "Let's just... head on down." I chucked a green, semi-tramsparent orb in a large arc with my magic.
"What wast that?"
"Just a little something I picked up in a dungeon I found. L-ater." The blue green glassy object impacted the stone and I vanished from her sight. I watched from the rim of the lava pool as she looked all around. When she eventually laid eyes on me, I waved her down. "It's called an ender pearl, you throw them, and wherever they land, you are transported to." I explained when she was within earshot.
"Where didst thee obtain such an artifact? And for what reason wouldst thee waste it on such a simple feat?" She was gathering up the shards of the smashed pearl.
"They are actually pretty dang common, in normal mode." I brought up the bucket of water. "Now then, let's make some obsidian." I dumped the bucket's contents onto the edge of the lava, from the initial pour came an unending flow of water that expanded across the molten surface in a semi-blocky fashion. The bubbling lava hardened in an instant, hissing as the molten sources became the purple blocks we came here for. I also dipped my remaining buckets into the lava that was outside the waters touch, giving me around twelve buckets of lava in total. I placed them all haphazardly in my bags.
"Is yond not dangerous?" Night cautioned.
"Nah, it's fine, pretty much anything you put in your bags are unable to change states." I set about tapping the obsidian with my pick. "This uh, could take a while. Obsidian is the second strongest object in the game."
"V-volcanic glass? Is of yond durability? Why?" She looked at the blocks of once-lava disbeliveingly.
"Yeah, I don't actually know, that is a bit odd when you think about it." The first block broke, falling into the lava below it. One thing that's nice about being stuck as a pony, even in my dreams, I can pick up the blocks before they destroy themselves with magic. For the next ten minutes I sat on the edge of the lava pool, gathering the remaining obsidian, I saw no reason to leave any of it behind. Night Strider took the opportunity to gather other materials.
"We has't gathered our metals and gems. did thee obtain yond which thee did seek?"
"Yup, now let's head back and make an enchantment table." I grabbed a pair of ender pearls and handed one to her. "Make sure you're braced for when it lands or it will hurt a little."I warned before chucking mine in the general direction of our houses. Night Strider looked at the pearl I gave her uncertainty, before throwing it as hard as she could in the same direction.
So, how long doest it take for-" was all I heard her say before the scenery changed.
I spun around to see my house. "I did not expect to actually get this far, neat." Before I could do anything else, the sound of something shattering, followed by a pony falling on her face from lack of balance, came from behind me. "Uh, you okay there?"
"Th-that, wast far worse than regular teleportation." She complained, standing on shakey legs.
"I told you to brace for it," I said, helping her up. "Come on, we've got a thing to make. Or rather I do, but I think you should see it."
"Very well." We entered my house, I immedetly made my way to the book shelf.
"Now, I wasn't thinking about any particular books when I put this here so... " I pulled a green covered tome from the shelf. "Yup! Completely blank, perfect." I tossed the book at the crafting table, along with four of the several obsidian I had gathered. "Hmm, outa... Hey Night Light? Did you find any diamonds while we were down there?
"We didst. Why?"
"Can I borrow two? It'll be a worthwhile investment I assure you." I tacked on when she narrowed her eyes at me.
"Fine." She said with a huff, tossing the gems my way.
"Thank you~" I placed the cornerstones on my table, finishing the object. "Now we just need." I pulled all the books off of one of the shelves, scanning through each one to make sure that every single book was blank. "Some of these."the stacked books, and wooden planks I sandwiched them between, melted into bookshelves. "Can worry about fancy structure later..." I muttered as I made my way outside. The table went down, the book on it's face picking itself up and flipping open. "Functional table, check." I placed a two block tall ring of bookshelves around the table, and waited for runic shapes to fly from them to the enchantment table. "Check. Levels, check, all that remains is, lapis." I willed a single piece of the blue stone out of my mining chest. "Ready to go." I floated my diamond pick over the table, crushed the lapis over that, and placed my hoof over the tables edge. Three lines of unreadable text lit up on the pages of the book. I tapped one with my horn – an odd choice looking back, that felt even weirder – and watched as the tool took on an ethereal shine. I held the tool between my hooves. "I got, unbreaking two, fortune one, and efficiency one. Not bad for a first enchant!" I laughed.
"That wast an odd ritual, from what school of charm doest it originate?" The pegasus that I forgot was beside me inquired.
"Hmm? Oh, I dunno, but you wanna give it a go?" I step out of the way and swept a foreleg in the direction of the table.
"Eh, mayhaps another time. Tis near the morning, and thee shalt have to be off."
"Good point, let's head back then." A spell of little conversation passed in the way back to her castle. I found I had little to say till we were just outside a door. "So, what are you going to be doing?"
"Our sister shall likely beest concerned at our staying asleep for an entire day, so we shalt meet and converse with her." She explained, pushing open the door and walking inside.
I followed her. "That makes sen- you have a throne room?" I asked the little pegasus, whom was comically undersized for the chair in which she sat.
"Of couse!" Was her only reply.
I took a good long look at her. Allright, that is the last straw, time for another nickname. I could feel myself being pulled from the dream, so I left Night Strider with one final goodbye. "Later, Princess." I finished with an exaggerated bow. The look of surprise and horror on her face made me wake up crying I was laughing so hard.