So this is heaven?
Sitting down I stare at the horizon in stunned silence taking it all in. The trees, sky, grass… The rectangular sheep grazing idly on a small hill made of blocks.
“Heaven = Minecraft… Well I guess that’s not bad…” I mutter raising one of my arms and noting that I’m a normal human again, not the blocky avatar players usually play as. Standing up I take a moment to pat myself down. Yep, I’m myself again. Giving a grin I take off running, enjoying the feeling of being on two legs again, the wind blowing through my hair. Everything just felt so…. Right. Despite being in a world of cubes I felt perfectly at peace.
Sitting down I ran my hand over a cube of grassy dirt. It felt like the real thing, don’t know why I expected it to be any different. My curiosity piqued I started to punch the block, giving a small laugh as I saw cracks appear before it broke apart, a small floating cube floating in its place similar to how it worked in the game. Despite smashing my fist into the ground it didn’t feel sore, what was more amazing was how easily I managed to replace it like in the game.
“Well… Better start building a house I guess.”
And so it was, after finding a couple trees, and building some wooden tools, I had managed to create a dirt hut, a work bench, and a small furnace. Not once did I ever feel fatigued however; hungry, but not tired. Luckily I managed to get a couple apples from the trees I smashed so I didn’t need to kill any animals. They might be stupid but if I was going to spend eternity in this place I’d like some companionship, at least until I find some wolves to tame.
Actually, make that a cat. I’ve had enough wolves to last me a lifetime. I don’t care if the things are made of blocks, they were likely the reason I’m in this place.
It’s been about an hour since I woke up. Or, it seems like it. Unlike the game the sun seems to be moving about in a realistic fashion, causing me to worry about what night is going to be like. I haven’t seen any hostile mobs but… I was dreading what night was going to be like if the day-night cycle was in real time.
“Nice place…” That voice… Rushing out I stopped in my tracks as I caught sight of the source.
“Sunset?” I stammer in surprise. I had been expecting a pony, the mare whose body I’d been sharing. Instead I’m greeted by a woman wearing a black jacket over a purple shirt and orange skirt. Her hair seems to be a fiery red, devoid of the yellow streaks I saw when I was in her body.
“Yeah,” she replies calmly walking about in a set of ridiculous looking boots. “So, are we dead?” she asks looking over the structure with obvious distaste.
“I don’t know… This all seems to be something only I would know about though. Unless you ponies have MineCraft,” I explain and get to work making a sword out of some stone. What I could really use was some iron but right now I didn’t like the prospect of going cave diving.
“No, I had better things to do,” she replies walking up beside me to watch me work. Glancing over at her I can’t help but notice that she’s actually rather pretty. A shame her personality was rotten.
“How old are you anyway?” I ask, making idle conversation as I arrange a couple stone blocks together in a straight line along with a stick. A moment later the blocks begin to disintegrate until all that remains is a pixelated stone sword. Picking it up I’m surprised by how light it is. For something made out of stone I manage to swing it with little effort before placing it down beside the workbench.
“Old enough. Why?” she asks walking over to examine the sword id just made. I’m guessing she wasn’t lying about being a human before, that or she’s really good at adapting.
“Well you look like a highschool student,” I mutter in reply and get to work on an axe.
“That’s because I am… This body is younger than my pony self, something to do with the mirrors magic. Back home I’m about twenty two,” Sunset replies giving the sword a couple awkward swings before putting it down, a look of obvious distaste on her face. So she’s about my age? That’s rather surprising, then again I suspect being in high school for awhile may have had an impact.
“So, unless Elysium caters to humans, I’m probably still alive… Unless Tartarus decided that having you with me would be a suitable punishment for my ‘misdeeds’,” I just give a grunt in response. I’d come to that conclusion also when she had first shown up. While an eternity building, creating, and exploring sounded rather nice… It was sort of soured by Sunsets presence, never mind that she was taking a human form.
“We probably are,” I add a moment later, emphasizing the ‘we’.
“Whatever,” she says in that oh so cliché teenage tone of voice. As I finish the stone axe I lay it aside and sit down on a block of dirt.
“So then, Sunset. Who are you exactly? All I got to got on is some odd dreams about a child, a filly, struggling to use magic and her father. From what I understand you’re much more than that?” I ask pulling out an apple and taking a bite. Tastes pretty good, like a normal apple, I don’t know why I expected something different. Looking at me for a moment she shrugs and leans back on the workbench.
“Sunset Shimmer, magical prodigy and personal student of Princess Celestia,” she explains with a haughty tone, as if expecting me to be impressed by that. I wasn’t. Titles, names, positions didn’t mean much when you were sharing space in my head. “Now for a question of my own, why were we in the middle of nowhere?” Giving a sigh I look over to a blocky tree id left up as a decoration.
“I don’t really know where to start…” I reply somewhat in thought “In Equestria, is there such thing as a creature made up of different parts? Antlers, alligators, birds…”
“Discord. Although technically it could possibly be any draconequus, but in the end there’s only one with the power… And reason, to do this.” She replies quietly, in thought.
“Discord?”
“He’s the self-proclaimed spirit of chaos. From what I’ve read on him he fought Celestia and Luna for control of Equestria at some point until they used the Elements of Harmony on him. His statue rests in the castle gardens,” She explains, her haughty attitude lessening as she spoke. “I wasn’t aware that he had escaped. But then again, I shouldn’t be surprised that Twilight messed up,” she adds, muttering that last part so I could barely hear it.
“Right… So a spirit of chaos, a god, is the reason we are stranded in the middle of nowhere? What makes us so special? Last I checked the news was saying most ponies woke up in their beds after the change.”
“I don’t know,” Sunset mutters but somehow I don’t believe her. Something about her must have interested Discord. I wanted to believe that maybe she was a threat, after all he had stranded us in the middle of nowhere where we should have died. But the more I thought about it the more it seemed like a petty thing for a god to do. He could have ended my life with a relative ease, so why fling us in the middle of nowhere? Was it all a joke? With a punch line that only a being like Discord could understand?
“So then… What do we do now?” I ask after a few moments silence.
“We wait. Either we are dead or this is just something made by your mind as we lie unconscious. Either way there’s nothing we can do to speed up the process. That fight with the wolves was exhausting for me and my body needs time to recover.” She replies getting up again to look around the dirt house. Sighing I did the same, pausing for a moment to fish a stone pick out of a chest and pass it to Sunset.
“Common, theres a small cave nearby and I think I saw some coal and iron inside,” I explain, getting an ‘are you serious’ look in reply. After a couple moments she gives an exasperated sigh and follows me.
“You humans have weird tastes in what’s fun,” I hear her grumble from behind me, which for some reason makes me smile.
“Oh, it gets much better. Once you manage to get a stable home set up the real building begins.” I reply as we head off towards the cave entrance. With two of us it shouldn’t be so bad. My main fear earlier was having a creeper or zombie sneak up on me but with Sunset helping keep an eye out it should be easier. The main reason I wanted to do this though was to shear the sheep roaming nearby my home and then get a bed for the night.
“So Sun, you don’t mind me calling you that right? Who is this Princess Celestia anyway?” I ask, laying down a couple torches to illuminate the area. Almost immediately I spot a couple coal blocks and start mining away with glee.
“She’s the ruler of our world, the pony who raises the sun, and, the moon after she got rid of her sister,” she explains, a bitter tone of voice. If I were to guess there’s some bad blood between the two.
“I see, so I’m guessing you’re pretty smart if you managed to be her personal student then,” I mutter, already knowing the answer.
“Of course. She may be a hag but Celestia isn’t stupid. I was going to be the next princess, but instead Celestia got jealous and decided to have me thrown out.” I doubted that was the actual truth, more likely Sunset had done something to incredibly stupid that it put someone in danger. At least that’s usually why people got fired, that or just incompetence and after seeing the mare with those wolves I doubted that was the case.
“I’m guessing then combat magic was not your specialty?” I add with a small smile as I finish off the coal, stashing it in my pockets (Seriously… Somehow I was able to fit 10 coal chunks in my pocket, along with a sword, some apples, and so on. It was like they had their own little pocket dimension to store things).
“Besides the basics I never had any interest in that stuff. And Celestia never encouraged me to learn it. Equestria is mostly peaceful and even after leaving Canterlot I was able to find other solutions when I got into a conflict,” Sunset explained, following behind me as we went deeper. “Also, it’s been years since I’ve had to use magic like that. Like any athlete a unicorn’s ability to use magic lessens the longer they go without exercise, if I was in my prime we should have fared better…” It made sense. Although I was already rather impressed by what she had done. A normal human with a gun would not have fared as well as we had in the same situation.
“Uh huh,” I mutter. We travel for the next few minutes in silence before I’m forced to stop. After slapping down a torch at a fork in the cavern I take a moment to listen, smiling as I hear nothing to suggest any mods lie ahead. “Sunset, take these torches and go a couple meters in that way before putting them up. It should keep any hostiles from sneaking up on us when we explore them later alright?” Nothing… No snide comment, or sigh of reluctance. Instead I hear a familiar sound.
*Pomf*
“Sunset?” I call out nervously, turning myself around while I gaze down at the cavern floor. I knew that sound, the sound of an Enderman teleporting in, and I knew enough not to stare at the creatures or else they would attack.“Sunset, whatever you do don’t stare at that thing.” Once again I get no response which sends a shiver up my spine.
~WHO ARE YOU?~
The words hit me like a punch and I stumble back, falling to the ground as my eyes drift over to what can only be the source of the sound earlier. An Enderman, only instead of purple the eyes of the creature seem to blaze with an inner flame. Almost instantly my ears are filled with that familiar drone as the creatures jaw unhinges and it slowly approaches me.
~YOU DO NOT BELONG~
Shoving a hand in my pocket I pull out the stone sword from earlier, swinging out at the creature only to have it teleport away. A moment later I’m sent flying from a blow to my back, the creature had reappeared behind me, rolling over I watch the Enderman kick my sword away and lean in close, its fiery eyes trying to burn into my skull.
~LEAVE~
Flinching I try to look away but its eyes seem to have a hypnotic quality that draw me in.
~LEAVE~
The burning flames seem to consume my entire vision and I feel myself slipping away into unconsciousness once more.
~LEAVE~