//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Mindcracked 
// by mathwiz617 
//------------------------------//

      Rematerializing on the other side of the portal, the first thing Twilight noticed was the heat. It felt like standing close to a dragon's breath, a sensation she had never wished to feel again. The air smelled of sulfur, and the ground below her gave slightly as she stepped forward. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw that everything was a dim red color. There were specks of light in the distance, but between her and them was a multitude of bipedal zombie pigs. Walking to a nearby ledge, Twilight looked down, immediately regretting it. Below was a sixty meter drop into a lake of glowing lava.

"Home's this way!" Paul called to her from around the portal. "This is as far as I could go this way without a pack full of blocks."

Twilight turned around, careful to stay on the ledge. There was no telling what the thermal currents here would do to her flying. As she caught up to Paul, the two resumed their journey.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"This is the Nether," Paul responded. "Some call it Hell. It's not the most friendly place, to say the least."

"I'll say. Why aren't these mobs attacking us?"

"The zombie pigmen? They're relatively docile. They will retaliate to any attack en mass, however. There's also ghasts, which will attack us on sight, as well as blazes and wither skeletons, which are just as deadly. The only real reason to come to the Nether more than once is for quick travel. Every one block here, in the x-z plane, is equal to eight in the overworld. It'll make getting home a lot easier, hopefully."

"It sounds safer to just walk the distance in the overworld," Twilight pointed out.

"Probably," Paul agreed. "However, that would mean crossing a three hundred block wide ocean. I'm not going to subject Ferris to that. He can't swim." Twilight looked at him, somewhat surprised to see the donkey withstanding the environment. Paul was scanning the horizon, bow in hand, while Ferris trudged along. Her look caught Paul's eye, and he explained, "It's for ghasts. They fly and spit explosive fireballs. I don't hear any now, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any around."

"When you say 'explosive,' how bad are you talking about?" Twilight asked.

"Strong enough to destroy a few blocks," Paul answered. "Not as strong as a creeper blast, but it doesn't have to be. A lot of the Nether, it seems, is just a one block thick floor over a lava lake. One bad step, and you can lose all your stuff. I essentially make a living showing others how to not die, so I prefer to not take chances here."

Twilight nodded, thankful to be traveling with someone so level-headed. She watched as her companion pulled out a notepad and map. Glancing at the items, she saw what must have been sets of coordinates, along with labels for each. It was fairly easy to tell which set was what, since the labels were such like, "Home" and "Met purple horse pony here". They were currently headed for "Nether Hub: Spawn".

Not much later, they arrived at a large tunnel, which Twilight reasoned led to the Hub. Paul explained that the tunnel, which was four meters wide by four tall, was just small enough that ghasts wouldn't spawn. The tunnel wasn't very long, and in a short time, the pair arrived in the Hub.

It was much brighter than the rest of the Nether, which Paul explained was due to glowstone hidden in the floor. The floor had a symbol on it, one that looked like a brain split by a lightning bolt. There were tunnels going various directions, and stairs leading to the middle of the Hub. Looking up, Twilight was stricken by the scale that these Crafters built with. The dome was at least as tall as Celestia's throne room, and, according to Paul, this was just one of four. Ascending the stairs, Twilight couldn't help but notice shapes on the wall. They were strangely hypnotic, as if silently begging her to draw some pattern out of the apparent chaos.

In stark contrast to the shapes' silent pleas, the portal in the center of the room made its presence known through ear-splitting, wholly unholy noises. The other portals had made the same noise, but not nearly this loud.

"So, this is the way to Spawn town, right?" Twilight asked over the racket.

"Yep," Paul shouted back. "Ladies first!" With one final look at her guide, Twilight jumped into the swirling purple light.