//------------------------------//
// The Forest 
// Story: Blessed 
// by Sonicbrony66 
//------------------------------//

As soon as we stepped in the forest, I began hearing a strange voice, just on the edge of my hearing, loud enough that I knew it was there, but quiet enough that I couldn't make out what it was saying. I paused. "Anypony else hear that?" I asked. 


"Hear what?" Twilight asked. I just shook my head and kept walking.


As we progressed through the blocky forest, breaking through leaves in our way, the whispers got louder. Loud enough that I could make out a few snips of what it was saying.

Welcome.....Guardian... It said.


I looked around suspiciously. "You're sure you don't hear anything?"


"No, we don't Terra." 


"Rainbow, could ya check please?"


Rainbow huffed flew up and around in the immediate area. She came back down after a few minutes and said, "There's nopony around! You're just hearing things." 


"Damn. Alright lets keep going." We continued for a few minutes before we arrived in a small clearing. We stopped and I decided the girls needed warning. "Alright, so since this is Minecraft, I can warn you of the enemies we'll see. There are quite a few, but i'll just list the ones we'll probably see. Theres the Zombie, the Spider, the Skeleton, the Enderman, and the-"I was cut off by one of the most horrifying sounds man has ever heard. It inspired terror into even the strongest of humanity. 


Hisssssssssssss The low hiss of a fuse, hidden somewhere inside the monstrosity, catching and burning, came from behind me. I turned around and spotted the Creeper standing behind Fluttershy as she stared at it with a small smile. The creature swelled slightly as I reacted the way that several days of youtube and one day of ownership had instilled upon me. 


Scream and swing.

"CREEEEEEPER!" I sprinted towards the creature and switched to my sword. When it was within range I swung, sending it back a few blocks and causing it to stop its detonation. My eye twitched slightly as I stared into its depressed face before I swung two more times, causing it to drop to the ground and vanish. "....I fucking hate those things..." I said. "They sneak up on you then blow up your diamonds!" I turned to Fluttershy. "You ok?" I asked. 


She stared in horror at where the Creeper had vanished before she looked at me, tears in her eyes. Her expression quickly changed to complete and utter rage and she flew into an inch away from my face, staring dead into my eyes. "YOU KILLED IT! IT WAS TRYING TO TALK TO US, IT WANTED A FRIEND! IT WAS SAD AND YOU MURDERED IT!"


I felt a pressure in my head and on the Walls. It was powerful, and I began to feel horrible as I shrank away from Fluttershy's gaze. It was such a sad creature, maybe it had wanted a friend! And then I hurt i- I felt something push back against the pressure, and then I knew what was going on. I was being Stared down. Fluttershy had gotten angry at me, and now she was using the Stare. My knowledge seemed to cause it to slacken a small amount, and I was able to stop backing away. She was powerful, but not as powerful as Twilight was when she broke down the Walls. "No." I said. I pushed my face back into hers, a look of determination on my face. "It did not want a friend. That was a Creeper. They blow up. Their entire goal in life is to make yours worse. They look sad so you trust them, and then they detonate when you get close. That hiss? Wasn't communication. It was it's internal detonation timer. It was going to blow up and kill you. Not make friends with you."


With each sentence I took a step further, and I felt Fluttershy's will begin to crumble. I held her gaze for a few moments more before I broke the gaze, turning away. The whispers were louder now, much louder. This way... They said. 


I was still debating on whether or not to trust voices in my head leading me through a very dark and blocky forest when I heard a quiet sobbing behind me. "Aw hell." I said to myself. I turned and saw Fluttershy lying down with her hooves over her eyes, tears streaming down. Her friends surrounded her, giving small whispers of comfort and consolation. I walked over to her only to have many of them give me menacing glares. I walked past them and up to Fluttershy. "Hey." She looked up at me, tears in her eyes. "You need to realize. Almost everything in here is trying to kill you. Discord put this in here because it is super-hostile if you don't know what you are doing. Those creatures are among the deadliest things here." I looked over her shoulder and spotted another Creeper a fair distance away. "Watch, and I'll show you what would have happened."


I walked over to the Creeper, and it turned its sad face towards me and began walking towards me. I waited until I heard it begin to hiss and braced myself. There was a loud explosion and I felt a flash of searing pain all across my body. I was flung back several blocks back, landing back next to the girls. They were staring at the newly formed crater in horror, and I looked over at Fluttershy and said, "Thats what they do. They have no other purpose other than to detonate all over everything you hold dear." She gulped and nodded. 


We began moving again until we encountered a fairly large river. I looked at it, studying the current. "If this uses Minecraft logic like everything else, than the current should be fairly weak...Well better safe then sorry."I said before I "Snuck" forward. "Oh wait. No blocks...Uh....Shit." I swore. "Well, anyone up for a swim?" I asked, before leaping into the river.


"Absolutely not! I will not go into that filthy water and get my mane dirty!" Rarity said, sticking her nose in the air. 


"Woman this follows logic where water is almost always crystal clear and you can survive near drowning by eating a bit of food and waiting. I'm sure your mane will be fine." 


I prepared to jump in before I heard an exclamation behind me. "Wait!" I turned around to see Pinkie looking at Rarity excitedly. "Rarity!"


"What is it dear?" Rarity asked, staring at her surprisedly. 


"Isn't this Steven's river?"


"Why, that's right darling! Thank you for reminding me!" Rarity moved up a few blocks until she reached the river. "Oh Steven!" She called.


I waited for a few moments before I jumped in. "Steven....Sounds familiar..." My eyes widened as I noticed a large dark figure swim underneath me. I felt myself being lifted out of the water as a large, purple, rather un-blocky, moustachio'd lizard rise surface from the river. I crouched in surprise as I rose several feet above the ground. "Oh right. That Steven." 


He leaned down, bringing me with him and looked at Rarity in delight. "Miss Rarity! Oh it's been too long!" He grabbed her in one claw and kissed the air beside both her cheeks, and she did the same. "It's good to see you all." 


"Yes Steven, it has been to long, but it seems that I need your aid again." She said, smiling.


"Well of course! Anything for the wonderful mare who aided me with my moustache!" He said, setting her down. 


"Yes, and I noticed, it grew back!"


"Ah yes, it took a while, but your lovely tail filled the gap until it had grown back to full. Sadly, your tail wasn't suited to constant water exposure, and has been destroyed."


"Oh, that's alright my dear, my tail is back to normal, as you can see. So how have you been?" 


Steven opened his mouth before Twilight said, "Um, not to interrupt you two and your reunion or anything , but we kind of have to get going!"


"Yeah, you know, Discord bubbling Ponyville half to hell? Entire area blocky? Danger, danger, Chaos sort of thing?" I said.


Steven looked up to see me on top of his head. "Oh hello! I didn't notice you up there. Sorry about that." He raised one hand and grabbed me before gently setting me down on the bank. "And who might you be?" 


"Call me Terra. Now, thanks-for-the-chat-now-we-gotta-go-bye!" I jumped into the water before he slithered back under and raised his tail up beneath me, pushing me out of the waer again. 


"No need to swim, I can bridge you across!" He said, rasing several more segments of his body out of the water, forming a small path. 


I shrugged my shoulders, a rather difficult feat in full armor and being blocky, and began crossing the new path as the girls did the same. We reached the other side and Rarity turned around and said, "Thank you Steven dear, I promise to visit you during brighter circumstances." He smiled and sank below the surface.


"Well that was interesting. Let's keep moving." The whispers kept pointing me in one direction, and before long I noticed that the trees had pixelated faces on them. "Hey Pinkie, isn't this where you had your musical number?" 


Pinkie turned to me and nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! This is where Nightmare Moon made the trees look scary, and I taught the girls and the other viewers to laugh at there fears!"


"Right, and that works on everything but spiders...." 


Twilight stopped, looked at Pinkie in confusion and said, "Wait, viewers? What are you talking about? There was nobody in the forest but us and Nightmare Moon during your song!" 


Pinkie stopped, smiled and said "Silly Twilight. The viewers! The ones like Ter-" 


I cut her off by moving in front of her and saying loudly "That's enough Pinkie. Pretty sure that counts as damage to the Fourth Wall. Don't want to shatter the poor thing, now do we?" 


She smiled and said "Okie Dokie Loki!" Before continuing to bounce along. Twilight stared, before shaking her head and continuing. 


"Well I guess that means that Ol' Discy put the Source of this into the Castle of Ridiculously Long Names. Twenty bits says its a block of Obsidian and he takes my pick." I said.


A voice spoke from behind us, "While it would be entertaining to see you smack one block for five minutes, that's not it." I turned around to see Discord materialize from the shadows. "What I have there is much more....Difficult to destroy."


"It's the Wither, isn't it." I deadpanned. "And why aren't you blocky? At least follow the rules you set!"


Discord's smile grew larger and he shook his head. "Oh but what fun is there in that? And you're wrong about the Wither. But that would have been fun, wouldn't it?"


"Well only if you consider the destruction of the area you are in and all of the surrounding structures fun, then yes. And you seem like the type of pers- I mean pony-.....Chimera thing that would enjoy that Discy."


Discord smiled and said "Not really, no. I'm not one for senseless destruction, although those Creeper things are quite hilarious, especially when you don't expect them." His smile grew larger with each word, and I tilted my head in confusion. My eyes widened as I noticed he was not looking at me, but behind me. I turned around quickly and came face to face with a Creeper. 


I yelped and swung my sword while backing up, only to have the Creeper explode and send me flying into Discord. He caught me with a baseball glove that he pulled out of nowhere. "Oi! Only Pinkie is allowed to materialize shit! Nice catch though." I said. "Hey why are the girls so quie-" I looked down to see all the girls were gone and there where six holes in the ground. "...God damnit Discord."


"What? I just wanted some alone time with you, little Guardian...." He stroked my cheek with one talon and I leaned away in terror. He cackled and dropped me onto the ground. "Hmm, I don't know what would corrupt you yet so.....A simple poke on the head should do!" He reached over and poked me on the nose as my eyes widened. 


I felt the corrupting influence spreading through my body as my coat grew gray. My thoughts were replaced with ones of destruction and mischief as I smiled along side him. "Yes there you go. Now you look nice and corrupted. Now you're going to help me corrupt those pesky Elements, alright?" 


I began nodding my head as the corruption spread through the last few parts on my body, converging on one spot on my chest. Before the last bit of green faded to gray, I felt a surge of energy through my body, and the gray was forced out by a wave of white from my chest.

Discord's eyes widened in surprise at the color returning before he pressed his talon into my cranium harder, almost drawing blood. I felt a new wave of Chaos wash through me as the energy was forced back, almost failing, before it suddenly surged up my body in a flash of light as a voice spoke. He is mine. The voice said. Discord was flung back as a small white flame appeared on his hand. 


He stared at the white flame in shock as it quickly spread up his body. He shook it out and shouted in disbelief "Impossible! You died a long time ago!" 


My body, still out of my control, nodded. But I have returned. And this one....He is mine. Now leave. Discord seethed with anger before he vanished. I stood still for a moment before I was suddenly sapped of energy as my body struggled to do something. Six vines, somehow not blocks, surged from my body and flew towards the holes. I actually felt the vines, as if they were a part of my body, as they dug into the dirt, flying in opposite directions for a short while before each wrapping around an object. The objects struggled, some more violently then others, before they gave up and began moving, but were stopped when the vines went taut. My body suddenly tensed as I felt the vines begin to retract, bringing the objects to me. After a few moments the objects reached were I was and burst through the blocky earth as the strange influence left me. 


I stood still for a minute before I flashed red and felt a sharp pain. I spotted my hunger bar and saw it was completely empty, so I switched over to some food and began munching. I looked around and saw that all the girls had were back, and were staring at me. "Hey you're back! I thought Discord was gonna pull some corrupting shenanigans on you!" 


They all stared before Applejack stepped forward and asked "What in tarnation just happened?"


I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I have no fucking clue. But hey! It got you all back, Discord fucked off, and I feel grea-" I was cut off by a sharp stab of pain throughout my body. "Well scratch that last one. Hunger is down to zero." I switched to an apple and began munching, gradually filling my hunger bar back to full. "Hurray for Minecraft Logic!" I shouted as I watched my hearts, which had been surprisingly low, tick back to full. "To the Castle of the Royal- Oh god I hate saying that name. Let's go..." I turned towards the whispers, which were slowly growing louder, and started walking. 


After a few steps I heard the distinct sound of blocky foot-hoofsteps and then Twilight was standing next to me. "How did you do that?" She asked.


"Do what? The vine thing?" She nodded. "Like I said: I have no fucking clue." 


"What do you mean? You just did it. You have to know how you did it!" She said. "You're not an Ent, you aren't a Geomancer, and in fact you shouldn't be able to use magic at all!" 


"It wasn't magic. I know that much."


She stepped in front of me, blocking my path. "So how did you do it." She growled.


"For the last time, I don't know! All I know is that Discord tried to touch me in a very Chaotic and inappropriate way, and then I took the backseat as a voice in my head scared him away!" 


She stood there for a while before I walked through her, not questioning the action. "God I love Minecraft Logic." 


"Who's this God person you keep talking about? Is he nice? Does he like parties? Can he-"


I silenced Pinkie with a loud "Religion." She seemed to accept the answer. I heard another loud set of hoofsteps and groaned loudly as Applejack trotted next to me

"Now wait-" 


I groaned in frustration and said "Can we please just get this little adventure over before we start playing 20 questions? I feel like I just moved a mountain and I promise i'll try and speak to the voices in my head to figure out what happened. Okay?" 


Applejack looked at me suspiciously before saying, "Alright. But don't you try no funny business, ya hear?" I nodded. 


"Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." I said as I went through the motions, making sure not to poke myself in the eye. "Pinkie Pie, you have this one recorded?" I looked over to the party pony.


"Yuperooni! You do know the binding rights of a Pinkie Pie Promise, right?"


"Uh-huh. Alright enough talk, let's go." I began marching off in the direction of the strange whispers, before stopping. "Actually....I don't know this place well, and I'm pretty sure I'm just getting general directions. Twilight!" I said, turning to the mare. "Please lead us to the castle." We began trotting off, Twilight taking the lead. 


After several minutes of the girls conversing and me keeping a look out for mobs, we arrived at a strange....Ok you know where this is going. Yeah, we made it to the bridge where Rainbow did her loyalty proving rite. Well it seemed to have worn down a lot since the episode. One of the ropes was missing entirely, and the bridge was hanging sideways. "....Well anybody got any rope?" I looked to the girls in turn as, one after another, they checked their inventories with that strange blank look and, one after another, all shook their heads. "Oh come on. Not even you Applejack?" I said. 


"Well ah had mah lasso, but I can't find it in this dang menu!"


I sighed. "Figures. Curse Minecraft and its lack of rope based building materials...Well i'm gonna go ahead and guess there are no alternate routes, so....We're fucked."


I heard Rainbow scoff and looked at her. "Oh come on! Me and Fluttershy could just fly everybody over to the otherside." She said.


"Well there are two reasons why we can't do that. First, you don't trust me, so you're pretty likely to just leave me behind and, chances are, i'm the only one here who knows how to deal with whatever the source is, barring Pinkie. Second, try to pick me up." I said. Rainbow stared at me in suspicion. "Come on then, don't be shy. I won't bite." I said mockingly. She scowled and flew over to me. "Now go ahead and try to move your arms in any way that isn't swinging." She hovered there, a look of irritation crossing her face, which quickly shifted to panic. "Alright you can't do that. How's about you try to touch me. Go ahead." She glared at me before hovering above my head and dropping. She went straight through me and I saw a mirror image of her head as she passed through, before we were parted by some force.


"See? Now how we gonna do this..." I said as I turned back towards the bridge. As I was glaring at it, hoping some sort of answer would spring out at me, one did, but not in a way I expected. 


The elder is worn....We shall aid. 


I blinked in surprise before I felt a small pain in my hoof. I looked down to see a vine attached to it, and gave a noise of surprise. Suddenly my entire body tensed up, and I felt a stabbing pain in my shoulder. The pain increased for several moments before, with a loud ripping sound, it gave. I heard several gasps from behind me and looked at my shoulder. To my surprise, there was a vine coming out of my blocky form.  I gaped at it in awe, wondering what its purpose could be. It slumped against my blocky body, unmoving.  


"Why do you have a vine protruding from your shoulder? HOW do you have a vine protruding from your shoulder? YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE a vine protruding from your shoulder!" Twilight said.


"I don't know, but why are you reacting this violently? I had like six a few minutes ago. Or was this just the last straw?" I said. "Well doesn't matter, because I don't know, all I do know is that i'm going to blame the voice in my head."


"Which one?" Pinkie asked. 


"The new one, the one that gave me directions. Apparently theres an old guy running around here, and the voice giving me a tentacle helps him. Might have something to do with the OTHER voice in my head, who burned Discord. But it said it was gonna help, so why give me this..." I looked at my newfound appendage, trying to figure out how it could be used. "Wait a minute." I looked between it and the bridge. "Could it?" I asked myself. I moved over to the edge of the bridgeto see that many of the support ropes were still intact, and just needed a new main rope to hold it right. "Maybe...." I turned to the tentacle in my shoulder. "Alright now how do I control this thing...." I said before intensely staring at it. "Mooooove....."


After a few moments of this Rarity said "What, exactly, is it you are trying to do?"


"Trying to get this thing to move so I can make it act like a new rope for the bridge." I said. "Seems like it isn't vocal..Maybe thought controlled?" 


"Move....Move! Uh...Please?  I thought. Despite my attempts, the vine did not move. It sat on my shoulder like a wet noodle. "Nope...Not based on thought. Come on! I just want you to be a rope!" I shouted in frustration. 


The effect was immediate. The vine sprang from its position and quickly moved towards the bridge, extending further out of my body. Like the previous vines, I could feel every movement as if it was another limb of mine. I shouted in surprise as I watched and felt the vine wrap around a support rope, knot itself through, and move on to the next. This process continued, with the vine becoming longer and longer before it finally reached the other side and firmly planted itself in the ground. 


I stared at it for a few seconds before saying "Intent based. Cool." I turned to the girls and said "Once again, I have no idea how I did that, please save all questions until the end of the quest. Proceed across the bridge." 


They carried on pass me, one-by-one, with a few inquisitive or surprised glances, and at least one suspecting glare. When they had all reached the other side I looked down at the vine, which was still in my shoulder. "Well you seem to function on intent...Uh...Anchor yourself I guess?" Immediately the vine came out of my shoulder with a quiet 'Pop' and set itself into the ground. I stared at it for a moment before saying "I really need to learn how to do that without the voices in my head." With that last end taken care of, I proceeded across the sort-of repaired bridge to the castle, where Chaos awaited.