Sunset could feel it, she was teetering on the edge of something far greater than herself... and yet nothing at all. An endless void waiting to consume her. She pushed herself as hard as she could forward, desperation and panic beginning to overtake her as she felt herself flirting with oblivion. She reached out, gasping for something, anything to pull herself back to safety. She reached and reached, stretching herself farther and farther, thinner and thinner like taffy until she could barely recognize herself. From behind, she felt the darkness wrapping all around her, trying to claim her for itself, warping her further and filling her with its strange magics. The world outside warped along with her, stretching and spiraling in on itself until it no longer made sense. She could try to understand it the way she once did, grasp at bits and pieces, but this place on the edge of eternity was now her home, spending forever on the precipice of disaster.
A new power washed over her like an ocean wave, pushing her further into the dark and locking off all that she once knew. She heard leathery wings, felt the violet flames burning her skin to a blackened crisp, saw great purple eyes burning in the dark from within...
Sunset was falling. Those eyes watched her, unflinching as she plunged into the dark. They held no malice, but no kindness, either. Her suffering was irrelevant, it was still the master of its black domain, and none residing there possessed the means to take it back.
The great black dragon roared, making the very stone beneath it grow pale with fear at its overwhelming presence... and no one in this place at The End of the worlds could stop it.
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Sunset gasped and sat bolt-upright as she woke from her nightmare. She scrambled to her feet, blinking away the glare from the early morning light. She focused on trying to take deep breaths, forcing herself back into control of the panic. Slowly, the dream faded away, and her breathing slowed to a normal pace. She took a long breath and looked up at the sky, checking the sun for a sign of how long she'd been unconscious after they'd crossed through the portal.
The sun was square.
Okay.
That might as well happen.
In violation of all known laws of physics and common sense, it might as well happen. Why not, right?
Sunset looked around, her jaw dropping as she realized EVERYTHING was square, or rather cubes. The trees were made up of cubes of wood and cubes of leaves. Hills and valleys were constructed from blocks placed evenly on top of each other. A nearby stream was flowing down a riverbank of hard lines and right angles. She knelt down, looking more closely at the grass beneath her feet. It looked almost more like moss, growing short and low to the ground in mottled shades of green divided into square pixels. She reached out, curious what it felt like-
"No... Nonononononono, this isn't happening..." she whispered, staring at her hand with wide eyes.
Her hand was a flesh-colored block. She couldn't even see any fingers. Her entire arm was one big rectangular block that bent at the elbow, all the way up to her shoulder. She couldn't get a good look at it, but it looked like her torso was another rectangle. She slowly reached up, feeling at her head-
Yup. Cube.
"Okay... Okay, I can handle this..." Sunset screwed her eyes shut, taking several deep breaths to force back down the panic. "This isn't the weirdest thing that's happened to me, right?"
...
"Okay, this is TOTALLY THE WEIRDEST THING THAT'S HAPPENED TO ME!" Sunset yelled, her voice echoing back and forth through the landscape around her. Like releasing a pressure valve, Sunset felt her imminent freak-out relent once she was done screaming. She took multiple deep breaths, somehow clenching her hands and releasing them again several times.
Okay, two arms, two legs, head, torso... I'm all here, if a bit different. I can work with this.
"Sunset? Is that you?"
Sunset perked up, turning towards the familiar voice. "Missy? Man, am I glad to see yoooooooooo... oh my."
Missy seemed to have gone through a similar transformation, if a bit more complex than Sunset's because it seemed to render her tiny hat and wings. To Sunset's surprise, she was also doing something she couldn't ever remember the little duel spirit doing: walking. As in, on the ground. She watched Missy emerge from behind a nearby tree, her eyes wide. With a gleeful cry, Missy ran forward, leaping into Sunset's arms and gripping her in a tight hug.
"I was so worried when I woke up by myself!"
Sunset looked over her shoulder, eyeing how the black and white rectangles only served to drive home how much Missy's wings looked like rows of piano keys. She gave the younger girl a pat on the back, trying to comfort her.
"I'm right here, Missy. I'm not gonna leave you alone. So, uh... where are we? Last thing I remember, we went through that weird portal..." She glanced around to double-check. "And I don't see any portal here."
Missy finally let go, dropping to the ground. She made a show of rubbing her chin as if she were in deep thought. She licked her finger and felt the wind, then checked the angle of the sun. She lowered her ear to the ground for a few seconds, then walked over and rapped her blocky fist against the wood, noting the sound it made.
"Well, according to my calculations..." She pointed upwards with one hand, keeping a growing smirk barely contained. "We appear to be in Minecraft!"
Sunset blinked. "Minecraft?"
"Yeah, the video game! Minecraft is a survival game where you, well, mine and craft to survive!" She raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? It's, like, the highest selling video game of all time!"
"Right..." Sunset looked around, feeling a light jog at the back of her mind. She grinned as a memory came rushing back to her. "Wait, I think I HAVE seen this, before! I didn't want to play it, but Fluttershy did! She made a whole wildlife sanctuary in it and showed everyone!"
Missy tapped her chin and smiled. "Well, that's ONE way to play it. I never got too into it, myself, but Penn likes building big bases and automated machines. He even likes to play on Hardcore mode, where you only get one life!"
Sunset looked around. "So, if there's no portal, and this is a video game... maybe we have to beat it to get back? How do you win?"
Missy cringed at that point, and Sunset knew she was in for bad news.
"Well, there ARE bosses, but... it's a LONG path to get to them."
Sunset thought to herself for a moment. "Okay, then let's find Penn and get started! He can't have gone too far, right? We went through the portal right after he did!"
"But... don't you think he would have come running if he heard you yelling like that?" Missy asked.
Sunset paused, realizing she was right. "Okay... what about Isis's taser? He could still be out of commission, right?"
"Sunset, I woke up, like, an hour ago." Missy rested one hand on her hip and leaned against the tree with her other. "I don't know much about this game, but I can tell you one thing from watching him start and lose at least a dozen hardcore worlds, the first thing he'd do is find a suitable place to set up a base and get himself safe before nightfall."
Sunset almost dreaded to ask her next question. "What... happens at nightfall?"
"Monsters! They all spawn in the dark! And not monsters like ME, I mean skeletons, zombies, witches, creepers!"
"But... Never mind." Sunset considered arguing with Missy, she could think of at least three examples of undead creatures, a witch, and a skeleton among the ranks of the Ghostricks, but it seemed like a bad idea to waste time. "So, we need to get someplace safe before the sun sets, huh? We can't find Penn if we don't survive, ourselves! Which way to safety?"
Missy turned her attention to the tree she was leaning on. Sunset's eyes widened as she started vigorously punching her fist against the wood. Pixelated cracks spread through the block, and a few seconds later it popped and vanished, leaving a smaller version of itself floating on the block below it. She smiled and picked up the miniature log, gesturing to Sunset with her newly acquired block.
"You don't FIND safety, Sunset... You MAKE it!"
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"Aaaaaaand, DONE!"
Missy stepped back, joining Sunset to stare at their creation. The two of them had spent all day punching trees, gathering logs together.
"Missy..."
"Yeah?"
"This is a wooden box."
"It's a log cabin!"
"Once we seal up the hole we're using as a door, it won't even have air holes."
"Air holes don't matter in Minecraft!" Missy began to walk confidently into the two-block tall hole in their box, only to pause and scratch her head. "At least... I don't THINK they do..."
Sunset sighed and shook her head. "Come on, let's just get inside before it gets dark. We'll work it out as we go..."