//------------------------------// // Chapter 11, Like the Sun, Trouble Rises on the Horizon // Story: Admin Abuse // by blackhotmetal //------------------------------// "I HAD HIM RIGHT HERE," Luna yelled, as she continued reading the packet of parchment Spike's magic fire delivered moments ago. The poor baby dragon nearly suffocated spitting out the gout of flame required for the transmission of info. Twilight had put him down for a nap for all his hard work. "If I had only detained Dante a moment longer, and messaged my sister for advice," the lunar princess scolded herself. "Luna, you made the best judgement you could have. There's no way that you could have predicted... This," Twilight replied sympathetically. "To be really honest, we aren't totally sure if Dante is responsible for all of this," She gestured at the small window to her left. The morning rays pierced the thin lavender drapes. "After what we have been told by Admin Dante, I do not believe he was entirely truthful with us. I sensed nearly no magical signature whilst he was in the room directly across from me," Luna ruminated. "I also didn't feel any magical presence, but I'm so excited by all of the possibilities," Twilight chimed. "Celestia has requested my return to Canterlot. It is detailed here," Luna passed the packet to Twilight. "I see," Twilight skimmed the packet. "Oh my!" Her pupils contracted and her ears flattened. She could feel a panic attack building. She took a deep breath and read aloud to the other occupants of the throne room. "Dearest sister, I do not have the slightest idea why my sun is up, nor how it got there. Help? Come back to Canterlot and give me a hoof with this please. Time is of the essence dearest sister. The tides!" The four other ponies exploded into feverish chatter. "Celestia said, 'I have no idea,'" Applejack asked. Fluttershy stared blank into a corner, quietly mumbling. It sounded something like, "Hippogriffs, not the Hippogriffs. "I-I- I think I'm going to-," Rarity weakly said. She dramatically leaned backward, but she was caught just in time. Luckily there was a fainting sofa nearby. "Thank you Spike," She cooed. The baby dragon wiped a bead of sweat. "What, What does that even mean," Rainbow Dash scoffed. "What about the rest of it," she demanded. "It's all just guard and guard captain information about relief all across Equestria," Twilight answered. "Here is a section about Ponyville," She said shuffling the heap of parchment. "It says, 'Twilight, I included this section for you and your friends to use as a guide to relief in Ponyville. A temporary solution in these unusual circumstances. It will remain in effect until Luna and I resolve the cosmological situation.' It goes on, but it would be easier to let you read for yourselves." She placed the relevant papers on the table. "I will be leaving, I must return at once. Thank you Twilight for the hospitality, I hope we see each other soon in a more favorable series of events," Luna bade farewell. She exited the throne room and quickly departed. "Well girls," Twilight could feel the bags forming under her eyes. "It looks like we have some work to do." Somewhere deep in the Everfree, Dante was extremely excited for his next experiment. As he stared at the ground, he noticed that with the "wand" in his hand, it enabled him to see a faint outline of what would be a cube on a grid. Oh my god, the ground isn't level with the blocks! This is a crime! I will never get over this, He thought as he began to wander around. He spent minutes just ambling around the meadow, examining how the height of the ground varied compared to the static grid. It seemed so perfect and unnatural. He heard a sound from above him. As he looked up, he noticed that his "professional" guard/spy was lightly snoozing, on the job. Shortly after, He tunneled into the ground. He had spiral stair cased down in a four by four pattern. He used his handy wooden axe to bludgeon the topsoil and underlying solid stone away instantly, one cubic meter at a time. Not too far in he realized that there was a problem again, lighting. He decided to stop digging down at an even depth of twenty four meters. When he reached this level he cleared a chamber measuring five meters cubed. Dante could hardly see his hand in front of his face, let alone dig farther from the dimly lit stairs. He had placed a block of glowstone in the ceiling halfway down the staircase. The /fill command facilitated repeating this in each corner of the room; However, Dante felt this becoming tedious quickly. He lifted opened the left side of his cloak and deposited his "wand." His excitement began to boil anew as he removed his right hand from his cloak. I wonder what will happen if I, He thought as he held it out in front of him. It was pointed at a wall of stone about two meters above the floor. In his fist was a grapefruit sized anvil. He stood like this for about a minute, grunting and groaning. Come on man, MIND POWERS ACTIVATE, Dante thought as he strained. He leaned into it a little farther. Dude, I sound like I had too much Chipotle, work already, He thought indignantly. He shook his hand, leaned more, and suddenly, he lost his balance. He swung his arms and reflexively squeezed the item in his hand. A metallic clank sung out, followed closely by the sound of rushing air. A moment later the man felt, what his mind registered should be, way too much force to survive. He remained still, in spite of this. The deafening sound of tonnes of metal crashing amplified inside the bare walled chamber. I can't tell if my ears are ringing, or if its just echoing, he thought. The top of his head felt cold, and heavy, so he looked upward to investigate. As he does so, another, not quite as loud impact sounds behind him. It was accompanied by the sound of small beads scattering across the floor, some of which, he felt hit his back. Instantly, Dante whirled around to see a dark, iron anvil laying on its side. The hunk of iron had sunk into the floor about a centimeter, and the surrounding stone had developed several deep fractures. Small stone fragments littered the floor accompanied by a dense, lingering, haze of dust. Dante put the miniature anvil in his hand away. "Wow, just wow," He guffawed. That is insane! What does that thing weigh*, he asked no one. "If I just," he bent over the askew anvil, "pull!" He grunted in effort. With one smooth motion, the anvil rocked upright. Some small stones were crushed beneath it in a heavy thud when the flat bottom met the floor. With a puff of dust, the silence of the chamber returned. Dante took a step to the side of the anvil and admired the two rectangular pits in the stone floor. Suddenly a sound split the silence. Clip-clop-clip... Thump. It was getting louder, now starting to echo in the room. Uh oh, looks like I woke up the fun police, He thought. Why do I even need an "escort?" Dante's mind lit up. He raised his hands and typed: /give NotDustYet minecraft:barrier_block. He quickly pointed his hand to the door, and tapped enter. He squeezed the invisible cube that appeared in his hand twice, sealing the short tunnel to the stairs. He felt the air stagnate in the room as it sealed with the second barrier. A name tag appeared through the wall. It was exactly who he had expected to see. Around the corner walked Sweet Fang. Dante could see her mouth something through the barrier. When she noticed him in the chamber in front of her she picked up the pace. Her effort was rewarded when she trotted face first into the barrier. The pain of walking straight into a wall made her tear up as she rubbed her snout. Dante watched in silence as she placed a hoof on the invisible barrier, testing it with a few taps. They both made eye contact. Sweet Fang held out her front hooves, tilted her head, and cocked her eyebrow. Dante shrugged in response. He returned to his examination of the anvil. To his surprise, not the fall, nor debris had damaged the anvil. Dust had settled out of the air leaving a thin layer of grey speckling the striking face. He swept the dust off with a hand and leaned forward putting both of his palms flat on the cool metallic object. "Now how do I use this-," He was cut off when a familiar UI appeared, parallel with the surface. "Ain't that something," He chuckled. I should try this thing out, he thought as he retrieved his stick. He held the stick over the first slot on the anvil, and it fell out of his hand, scaling into place on the two dimensional menu. The bar at the top now read stick. Dante tapped the bar with his finger, and the world froze. The console stood open, and the cursor blinked at the end of the line behind "Stick". It was erased and promptly replaced by the word "Whacker." "Yea, that seems appropriate," he stated approvingly and entered it. The world resumed and now there was a copy of his stick in the output box, that if he concentrated on long enough, he could see was now labeled "Whacker." With an enchantment cost of zero displayed underneath, he put his hand out to grasp it. This caused it to pop out of the UI and land directly in his palm. He held it up above his head. "Behold! I dub thee, The Whacker," He boomed. Sweet Fang had sat down on the floor right in the middle of the hallway. Dante, clearly, didn't seem too interested in her or anything she had tried to mime to him through the invisible wall. "What is that," She mumbled to herself. She watched as Dante hold up what appeared to be a glowing stick. He seemed to be shouting something. "Whaa-," Her face was plastered with confusion. "Nothing this guy says, or does, makes any sense," She reasoned. "I mean how in Equestria did he even dig all of this rock out in such short notice. And if I can't hear what he is doing, what was that crazy loud noise?" Her head was spinning with questions, and the subject of all of them stood only a few meters away, yet entirely out of reach. A wild thought caught Dante by surprise as he put his "Whacker" away. With his hands free, he opened the console. Rather than input anything, he examined the board itself. Now to find out where exactly I am, He thought. With a quick motion Dante pressed the F3 key. Color returned to the world. It was especially noticeable in Sweet Fang's large yellow irises and shiny lavender armor. That was not the first thing Dante noticed; however, it was the keyboard that continued to float in the air in front of him. Sweet Fang clearly noticed this as well as she stood up from where she was sitting to attention. She placed a hoof on the barrier again squinting to try and get as much detail as possible. Aside from the keyboard continuing to hover midair, Dante noticed that in the edges of his vision many values were displayed. He focused for a few seconds to find the values he was looking for: his coordinates. This took no time at all as he was very familiar with the debug menu. He mentally noted these and a few other strange variables. One of these was the block observed. When he looked at the floor, the value for block observed read: equestria:stone rather than what would have been minecraft:stone. Odd, he thought to himself, I suppose it has to read something though. Since Dante was clearly not in the console there was no command line. The keyboard was present, nevertheless, and he began to fiddle around with it pressing a few random keys. He started with the directional keys W, A, S, and D. No clear reaction resulted from these keys, so he continued across the board. Next up was the E key. Upon input approximately half a meter from Dante's face appeared the classic Minecraft inventory UI displaying all of the items that he had acquired: An empty bucket, a wooden axe , and the Whacker. He pressed the key again, closing the display. He pressed the R key next. It was about as functional as the directional movement keys. This pattern continued, and he moved to T key next. This opened the command line, or so he thought, as the world paused again. There was one glaring difference. Previous instances of Dante opening the console resulted in a blank box with a blinking cursor. This time there was a message. He knew immediately that it was addressing him when he read it. Yo Dust, you get the server set up yet? "What the f-" He trailed off as he quickly typed a response into the box. When he entered it, his name tag was displayed in the chat, unlike the other party. Do what? Uh, Hello? Who is this? It's Mishtor? Silver keeps goin' on about this Minecraft server. You were supposed to be getting it ready. Oh yeah, Mishtor, the moderator Sarah invited to Natura..., Dante recalled. I love playing with that guy, he's fun, he shook his head. There were more pressing matters at hand. Wait how am I supposed to explain this? There is no way this conversation is going to go smoothly, he worried. He prepared the best response he could, heavily downplaying the urgency he felt. Right, the server, I was working on that last night. Uhh... I think there might be a delay in that due to some variables I didn't account for... Wait, how are you reaching me? Through chat? How else would I? ... Ha, right, of course. Hm... Where are you, you're showing up on the player list but whenever I try to TP to you it just TPs me to spawn. I don't think I'm within the bounds of the server honestly, My current location is stated as 0, 89, -133, but I don't believe that, I would be able to see the spawn castle's south wall from here. Mishtor didn't respond immediately, so Dante followed up with his best, extra concise, summary of the past day's events. I'm grasping at straws here, trying to get a guy on the internet to help me when I don't know how to help myself..., thought. Couldn't hurt to try, He hoped. He crossed If I'm being totally honest, I think I somehow screwed up, and fell into a alternate reality with tiny aggressive horses. They have one spying on me . A couple of minutes ago she fell asleep. I slipped away, long enough to build a safe base, but she's back now. ... Are you high? Dante pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. There it is, he doesn't believe me. For real, I wouldn't believe me either if i told myself that, He thought. He reined it in, and carefully worded his next message. I know I sound crazy but I'm being serious. Do you have any idea what could possibly have happened, or what I could do? Is this a mod? Clearly the message wasn't getting through, so He went for a more blunt approach. I mean I literally woke up here! I wasn't paying attention in science class, but maybe it was an Einstein-Rosen something? IRL? That got him something, it seemed. Pleased, he responded. Yea IRL, that's what I've been trying to say!! So, you believe you got sucked through a wormhole. And are now in a world with tiny. aggressive. horses? Seeing Mishtor report back what he had just said, Dante felt uneasy with the explanation. When you put it like that, it sounds unbelievable. Yeah pretty much... Well, quantum physics says anything is possible... But, if you're in a completely different universe, how are we chatting right now? That's what I said! Say,could you run a quick command for me? A simple: TP me to you. Maybe I can get lucky, he hoped. K, just a sec There. Anything? I'm not seeing you. ERR, target not specified. Correct usage: /tp [player] {x}{y}{z} Yeah, I got a bunch of console Err and Syntax arguments on my chat line. Do you think it would be possible to TP me to you? Let me try to TP you to me. Dante considered this for a moment as he closed the chat and opened the console. He began to type, Wait what if it works, He pondered. He quickly pressed F3 and T. Uh before I do, In case this works, You don't have Equinophobia right? No, I actually kinda like horses. With that response, he returned to the console and input /tp Mishtor NotDustYet You do not have permission to do this. Dante deflated at this output. What do you mean I don't have permission, I'm the operator, He thought dejectedly. Anything on your end? Nothing here. What now, I'm stuck and I honestly don't know where to go. I dug a base to test items and commands, but this whole ordeal has been somewhat disheartening. He could feel his mood sinking as reality faced him. Am I even an operator still, he wondered. Determined to find out he slapped in the command /OP NotDustYet Opped NotDustYet You have been Opped Dante put his hand to his chin, "So I'm still opped, but I'm missing permission? I'm so confused," he mumbled. He shot a glance to Sweet Fang. Her face was pressed up against the barrier, cupping her eyes with her hooves. The sight made Dante open the console to contain his outburst of laughter. With tears in his eyes he closed the console and turned to face the wall instead to reopen it. Theres no way I can concentrate on this conversation with that face staring into my soul, He thought with mirth. He gave her a second glance. Her snout was pointing towards the floor, but she effectively looked up, directly at him. This profile made it appear that her eyes were bugging out of their sockets. He wiped his eyes and took a deep breath. Refocused, he opened the chat. I still seem to have Operator Permissions... Shouldn't that mean you can do anything? That's what I'd think but there are some things that I can't apparently. As far as Minecraft gameplay goes, my authorities are intact, /give, /gamemode, /time and so on. Maybe Silver limited your perms? Is she there? I haven't talked to her since she logged out yesterday. She got off before me while I was troubleshooting. Damn Just checked my perms. Like I said, I'm still opped. I know that it can't be the teleport command specifically, I have already used it successfully. Wait I just realized something. Do you have your computer with you? The more honest I am, the less honest it sounds. If I can't tell the truth, then there's no way he can help, He thought. Having decided on one hundred percent open conversation, he replied. No...? I am literally typing on a floating keyboard. huh Wait, I'm not being sarcastic. It floats, like the chat box and console do. They also appear and disappear with a gesture! As I understand it, you need a computer to do these things. As I understood it, Horses didn't come in purple and shoot lasers! HAHAHAHA I'm sorry I know this situation is serious, but the way you said that was just too funny! It's cool, I have been nervous laughing since I started chatting to keep from having a breakdown. Wait, back up. You said purple horse. Yep, Purple, pink, white, navy blue. Whatever color, there's eight of em somewhere Probably doing horse cult things... I know this sounds like an odd question, but just go with me here. Okay, I'm all ears. What does the purple one look like? Uh, about a meter high, dark purple hair, a horn, and wings. Her name was Sparkle, something. Twilight Sparkle? That's the one, tried to kill me on sight. Wait how'd you know that?! Is this an elaborate prank? I could ask you the same, dude... That's the main character of a TV show. This piqued Dante's interest. A tv show, am I really on tv getting pranked, He thought, anticipating a camera crew to come out of nowhere. Does he know, and isn't telling me because he's in on it? What? A TV show? Yes, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. You trying to tell me you got sucked into a Cartoon for little girls? Listen man, I got work in the morning, I just logged in to see how the server setup was going. When you wanna be for real, hit me up. The messages fired off in quick succession, each one a blow to his ego. He hadn't even had a chance to respond before another message popped up. Mishtor left the game