Album 1: The Greatest Gala Ever
Chapter 2: Almost Cubeland
”Hey guys guess what! It’s meds time! So that means your buddy Knightmare here gets to relive some absolutely fascinating-“
”Oh no, You need to talk some more about the time you first spent in your dream world.”
”What? But Twilight that part is so boring! That’s why I skipped it!”
”You didn’t do it enough justice! People listening to this in the future are going to be really confused!”
”Fine, I guess I can come up with some funny stuff about it... so apparently we’re doing “Listen To Knightmare Talk About Dreams” today! Yay.”
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After Luna left from her first check-in, we went right back to bloody training.
“Since that memory didn’t go particularly well, let’s take a break from memory-hunting. Still have 23 years after all. Get your axe back out. Oh, to have this much time in a single location...” the Doctor sighed in nostalgia, as he went to retrieve his weapon.
Uuugh...” I went and grabbed mine.
* * * * *MONTAGE!* * * * *
THWACK
The Doctor bruises my head.
*CRUNCH*
Firefly cracks my ribs.
BOOOOM
A creeper explodes on a structure I’m building.
-mmmMMMMM-
Star Swirl Heals my wounds.
Repeat ad nauseum.
This pattern continued for the entirety of my stay in my ‘safe’ little chunk of Tel'aran'rhiod.. As such, we’re going to try and not talk about it because it sucked and was mostly me getting beat till my bowels could not hold their contents any longer.
Instead, I’ll tell you about my wonderful rainbow filled adventures in floating island park! Well, those weren’t necessarily that interesting either but at least I won’t have to talk about fighting a bunch.
Where to start?
Well, I suppose with the island. Originally, it was only around 200 feet in diameter and fairly circular at that. Using my trusty Minecraft skills learned from too many hours in front of a computer, I was quickly able to build bridges to the other nearby islands using wooden planks. Finding some lava, I started up a trusty cobblestone generator and used it to expand the island I was on.
This took alot longer than in Minecraft though. Probably because I was doing all the actual moving and couldn’t move as fast as Steve?[yes, that’s how his name is spelled] could. Over the course of the years, in between dying horribly and losing fights with my trainers, the island expanded.
Many of the small, nearby islands contained chests, in each an enchanted item. Each time I found one and took the item, I saw one of my lost memories. Most were fairly innocent, not really worth going into detail about. Almost all of them were from before I turned five...though one I found in a house hanging inches from the void on one of the islands was from when I was six.
In that memory...I was an orphan. I know I had parents in the others, but something happened around when I was five that left me an orphan. That knowledge, well...it drove me to find out more.
Regardless, I opted to take this ‘hanging house’ and make it my new base of operations. simply because it was really cool designed and I rather liked the use of ebony....which kinda tipped me off ‘maybe this isn’t normal Minecraft’.
And cue the crazy ideas!
“OH! I can put the macerator here! And the induction furnace right there! Can’t forget a sorting system! And I think I’ll use liquiducts full of lava for lighting!”
“Wait? Pipes full of molten rock...for lighting?”
“Yep!”
“That....actually sounds pretty cool. Completely insane and moronic...but cool.”
“That’s the important part, right?”
Who knew Firefly, of all ponies, would be interested in interior design? The fact that I was aiming for ‘steampunk tinkering workshop’ theme may have had something to do with it....
With the knowledge that I could, eventually, bring others here. The main island became some strange cross between a motel and a factory, a place where possible allies could relax and prepare themselves and I could make more and more wacky stuff. Seems star Swirl liked the idea, and promptly claimed a room dedicated for his own magical antics. Firefly opted to stick with sleeping under Luna’s night, whilst Doctor Whooves chose to bunk in my little ‘headquarters’ alongside me.
No, nothing sexual happened, get your mind out of the gutter....
No one said anything happened, Knightmare....
“...Shush you”
”Sounds like something else we need to talk about. I’ll add it to the checklist”
I’m now preferring we get back to the story....
Why?
Because I know exactly where that line of discussion’s gonna be going...
”If you insist.”
Where was I? Oh right! Memory vaults! So, as I continued expanding my little isle, I still had to hunt SOME of my memories down. It was pretty fun, adventuring like that. There was one time I had to make an entire system of water elevators just to get down to the proper level, safely.
Do you understand how hard it is to place water over a single floating block 20 blocks down, such that you can barely see it? It’s hard. It was maybe 3 blocks up from the void.
You know what that vault told me?
It told me I knew how to play the guitar.
WHOOP DE DOO, I ALMOST DIED 20 TIMES, STUPID BRAIN!
Towards the end of the dream, the first section at least, I came across my first truly important memory. was exploring one of the many islands when I saw it. Another of those damned vaults! I’m beginning to find a pattern on what memories are locked up where. Broken bridges are memories lost due to old age, while these vaults seem to have been intentionally locked up by the SCP foundation, why I still don’t know...but hey, apparently they didn’t want me to know how to play guitar.
Like seriously, it’s a guitar. Why would they care?
Well you may not have remembered it then but...
You DO realise just how cliche that is? It wasn’t until the NEXT Vault, or rather the one I was getting ready to talk about, that I started piecing things together....
True, very true. Please continue.
This particular vault was locked up underneath a barrow hill in a jungle biome. Somehow, three lava pools had formed above it, putting lava everywhere. I had to swing my axe and diamond sword a lot to get down to the level of the vault; at least ten cave spider spawners impeded my progress. But it ended up being worth it. Because in that vault, I found my first combat spell.
You got the firebolt! It’s made of fire! And lightning! Too bad it’s weaker than even your punches. But hey, now you can light shit on fire!
Crappy as that seems... It was the memory that was unlocked that made it feel so important... I was running through a jungle. I could hear bullets impacting the trees around me.
Voices filtered through the trees ahead of me. Anger and hate welling up within me. One of them was clearly human, a local, probably whoever I was fighting. The other two, however, were alien to this world, and it was their voices that filled me with some form of unyielding rage.
As I entered the clearing, I could hear them speaking, arguing. I didn’t know what they said at first, but I remembered the words.
“Tao nói với mày rồi, tao không biết FaeBane ở đâu! Nó đi đâu mất tiêu rồi!”
“Uln'hyrr! Naut tangis'l' FaeBane shlu'ta simply vanish saph nindel”
“....FaeBane.” I said, striking a small flint and steel against a fuse. “Is that what you lot call me these days?” They didn’t have time to flee before the fuses on my trap ended, igniting enough napalm to send the surrounding jungle up in flames. I hefted my axe and brought it to rest on my shoulder. It was the same guitar-axe I’d had all these years.
“Well boys....it’s time for some payback.” Their heads were rolling in the flaming underbrush before they had time to scream. I turned and left the grizzly scene with a sense of calm, reading a street sign not far away. “Almost to Saigon....”
The memory end abruptly, fading from view and leaving with flint and steel in my hoof. Those blasted Fae. I’d find them...But why? The reason still eluded me. Why in the HELL did I hate them so much? What did they do to me to make me think that way? To make me NEED to kill them? Is this how Shining felt about the changelings? If so, I’m in for a world of hurt if we meet.
...
Yeah, that’s not going to end well. Or begin well. None of it is going to be “well.”
After making my way back to Home Island, I spent more time training. I got a little better. Not a huge amount, but certainly some. I didn’t find any memories of import by the time Luna and Celestia made their final visit - the visit to cement my entrance into Equestria. My teachers and I greeted the rulers as they entered.
“So Knightmare, You’ve been here quite a while. Much has gone on in the rest of Equestria, which I can tell you more about once we’ve returned to it. Are you prepared?”
“As I’ll ever be, your majesty...”
“Would you care to give a demonstration?”
I grinned and nodded towards a stage area I’d built in my spare time. “Follow me, ladies!”
Making sure my guitar was in tune, I stepped onto the stage while my teachers and the princesses sat in front. And I played a rather...unexpected song.
As the song opened up, I set to work, tapping my hoof against a hidden switch, setting the unseen machinery in motion. Progressing through the songs, I prayed silently that my timing was as close to perfect as possible and began prancing on my hind legs across the stage.
Perfectly on cue, hidden fore cannons blew their loads into the air, lobbing fireballs less than an inch behind me as I passed them over.
Fireworks dispensers unleashed as well, blasting their ways upwards and skywards, flying in every direction and littering the sky in glittering sparks of light.
Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, I had either learned or re-learned was put to the test. And after an intense show, I stopped with my feverish dance and looked out to the stands.
My audience was impressed, speechless even. Slowly, they started to clap (clop?...no) and were cheering after a couple of seconds
“It seems you’re doing far better than when we first left you here Knightmare, though I feel you may have much more to uncover” Celestia smiled.
“I had a sinking feeling you’d say that.” I held out a map. “Been mapping the place out and, if this thing’s remotely accurate, I’ve barely scratched the surface. It’d go alot faster with some help, but these three seem to prefer beating me up until I learn things over, y’know, going on adventures and keeping me from an agonizing demise....”
“Meh, it works at least...” Firefly responded, shrugging.
“Considering you’ll come here every night, you’ll have plenty of time.”
“...Say wha?”
“Oh, I guess I forgot to mention. Once we exit the realm and you are living in Equestria, every time you fall asleep, you’ll spend those hours here. Meaning a full eight days every night, here, in the land of memories and monsters. Sounds fun right?”
I swear she was doing the best impression of a troll face I have ever seen. And she’s a pony goddess!
“....could be worse.”
“Kngihtmare...what’s that red thing behind you?” For a second I thought she was pranking me, then, for a split second I heard a hiss.....
“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-”
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
“I hope he doesn’t have this kind of problem when we get to the other side.” Celestia said, her hair smoking and her face coated in changeling guts. Luna’s retort was to gasp out a puff of smoke. Before you ask, I had the ‘honor’ of seeing that because I respawned a few inches away from where the Nitro Creeper blew up.
“Eugh. Now that’s that out of the way, are you ready to go?”
“Well....sure, why not?” At my answer, she conjured an End Portal within the hole in the one-block-thick floor that the creeper blasted out.
“Just hop on in, Knightmare.”
“Sure, but one question....why Knightmare?”
“You’re a knight, and I’m a mare...I felt it sounded cool.”
“...Rule of cool, very nice, I like, I like.” With a grin, I hopped into the portal, phasing through back into reality.