//------------------------------// // Reunited // Story: Twilight? // by Lunafan1k //------------------------------// She had stopped crying some time ago, instead choosing to simply lay still and stare at the wall, her back to the open cave. A small part of her warned that she wouldn’t be able to see any monster heading towards her; the other part of her ignored everything. Her mind was a torrential torrent of emotion, burying her in memories and self-pity. She was so lost in her own troubles that a sudden, unexpected ‘pompf’ sound nearly caused her heart to stop as her body locked up. She stared at the wall in front of her with wide eyes, straining her ears. She knew that sound, the sound made by that horrible shadow. Her chest began to burn, and as much as she wanted to begin gulping down lungful after lungful of air, she resisted and managed to breathe as slowly as possible. She listened as the black monster wandered around behind her, seemingly paying her no mind. Every now and then it made several gurgling sounds; whether or not it was some form of speech she wasn’t sure. The longer she lay there with nothing happening the more she was able to calm down. Her breathing regulated and she more easily tracked its movements. It sounded like it was rummaging around behind her, doing what exactly was beyond her. Soon there was the sound of a familiar ‘pop’ as something was dislodged from its place, followed by another ‘pompf’ as it disappeared to parts unknown. She took a moment to gather her courage before pulling herself to her hooves. She lit her horn and looked around herself. The cave was as she remembered, a dead zombie was still on the ground, while the light of the torches could be seen further down the direction she ran from. The only thing that seemed out of place was the ground now had one block missing. “Did… Did that thing just take a random block of stone?” She asked aloud. She shook her head and returned to her line of torches, lighting the cave up to where she ran headlong into the zombie. As she passed by the hole again she knew she shouldn’t just leave it like that. She reached into her bag and pulled out one of the stone blocks she had gathered from her own tunnel and set it into the hole. There was a ‘pop’ and the hole had been filled, but instead of being as smooth as the stone around it, it was irregular and more cobbled together. She sighed and decided to let it go, now wasn’t the time to let her OCD kick in and fix the tunnel; she had to figure out a way to the surface and hopefully back to Steve. She stepped around the zombie and placed another torch, then stepped bravely into the darkness. The walk for the most part was uneventful, she found several more veins of coal and even a few blocks of what appeared to be iron. Soon the end of the cave seemed to light up as she neared. She grinned and rushed forward, mindful of any obstacles while continuing to place torches behind her. She was forced to slide to a stop, however, as the end of the cave suddenly dropped off in a sheer cliff. She scrambled backwards in a small amount of panic until she backed into one of the raised blocks of stone on the ground. She steadied her nerves and placed several torches around the edge, unfortunately she hadn’t been counting how many torches she had, and now found herself without any left. She groaned in agitation, “One problem at a time, Twilight.” She said to herself. She took a moment to lay on her stomach and slowly crawl closer to the edge. She peered over and her breath was stolen away. The sight below her was beautiful; she must have been over three hundred feet above the bottom of the cliff. The entire floor was flooded with molten lava, lighting up the massive chasm bright enough to see the ceiling so far above her head. Rivers of magma flowed through various openings and joined the ever churning pool far below her. She was so taken in by the sight that she almost didn’t hear the tell-tale sounds of a pickaxe working its way through stone. She squinted her eyes and pivoted her ears in effort to pin point the sounds. Soon she saw the cause; Steve was standing precariously on a narrow outcropping of stone mere feet above the lava as he carefully chipped away at a stone block glinting with a strange blue color. She waited for him to finish collecting the blue gems before calling out, “Steve!” He paused and looked around in confusion. “Steve! Up here!” He followed the sound and his eyes settled upon his furry friend. He smiled and waved, then held up the blue gem triumphantly. Twilight smiled back, while she didn’t find an exit, finding a friend was the next best thing. She levitated several stone blocks from her bag and affixed them to the sides of his narrow path. They popped into place and quickly formed a much larger platform. A moment later she lit her horn and in a flash of pink teleported onto the platform. She looked up to Steve with a smile, but he was staring intently at his feet, sweat forming on his face as he shivered in fear. She was confused for a moment; he was acting as if one of those shadow creatures was nearby. Her confusion turned to horror, her teleporting sounded just like the shadow creature! “Steve, Steve it’s okay. It was just me.” She cautiously reached out a hoof and set it onto his shoulder in a comforting manor. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to startle you.” He looked up at her touch and listened to her kind tones. He soon calmed down and patted her head. He stood and motioned for her to follow. He led her through several winding tunnels, the bodies of several zombies, creeping exploders, spiders, and piles of bones lining the caves. “Wow, guess I was lucky with just my lone zombie.” He looked back at her and motioned for her to remain quiet. She nodded in compliance as they continued walking. Eventually the stone blocks turned into crafted stone stairs that led up into a small shack. Twilight looked around in relief; they were finally out of the caves. Steve led her through the door to a familiar sight; they were actually back in the library. She smiled; the familiar scent of books was rather pleasant on her frayed nerves. Steve poked her to get her attention. She turned and saw him holding out a book, she took it in her magic and opened it to the first page. She saw a series of images aligned in a box pattern followed by an item. The one she looked at had a stick with a piece of coal on one end, somehow that made a torch. She looked at Steve skeptically, but he was already playing with the table in the corner. She rolled her eyes, it was at least worth the try. She pulled out a stick and one of her chunks of coal and jammed them together. There was another pop and suddenly she had four torches floating in her magic. She stared at them and blinked, then repeated the process once more and finding herself plus four more torches. She shook her head in bafflement and returned to the book. This image showed a block of wood turning into planks. She pulled out a block of wood and looked at it. The other steps for the torches seemed pretty straight forward, but she had nothing to piece together with just a single block. She shrugged and swung her hoof at it, hardly unfazed at this point as it was suddenly four blocks of wood planks. She went through the book, page by page and created several more items, one of which was another crafting table. She followed the more advanced pages using the materials she had on hoof and was quickly getting the hang of crafting. Soon she had a furnace of her own with a chest full of materials, a crafting table, and some iron bars. Steve admired her work with an approving nod, and then presented her with a grey item, iron horse armor. Twilight took it into her magic and attempted to equip it, unfortunately it seemed to reject her and burst into particles. “Huh.” She said. She looked at Steve who had the same look on his face. He shook his head then returned to his side of the library. Twilight returned to the book and searched for the armor set she just tried to wear. Looking at the item in more detail she noticed that it wasn’t meant for her smaller stature. She grabbed her iron bars and formed the pattern on her table and hit the button. This time the armor was slightly smaller and seemed like it would cover more of the neck and limbs than the other set of armor, allowing for free movement with the added protection. She held it in her magic for a moment before pressing it to her back. There was a bit of a warping sound as her body was encased in light. She felt the metal stretch and mold to her body, and when the light faded she felt her new armor hugging her body rather comfortably. She lifted a hoof to examine the armor; the leggings were segmented to allow free movement as she thought, as was the portion over her neck that seamlessly joined her helm, ending with a large curved blade in front of her horn. She looked over her back at the weapon and tool holsters attached at her withers while the center of her back was free to allow her saddle bags to be worn. She was even pleasantly surprised that the armor also sported her cutie-mark on her haunches. She smiled and laughed giddily, trotting around the room in her excitement. Steve watched with a smile, mostly glad he didn’t accidently waste any more diamonds with the horse armor. He stood and motioned for her to follow him up a set of stairs. A few moments later they arrived in a greenhouse of sorts. Being underground, the ceiling instead of being glass to allow sunlight to filter through was instead a multitude of glowing rock, or glowstone for the uncreative. There were several rows of various plants that Twilight saw growing in the village she found, mainly wheat, carrots and potatoes. There was even an extra row of what appeared to be sugarcane growing as well. Twilight smiled at the simple elegance of it. The next hour was filled with Steve showing Twilight how to farm. She had never done any farm work other than help buck apples, and this was nothing compared to farming in her world. It was almost too easy, smack the ground with the hoe and it was tilled in an instant. Planting crops was simply placing the seeds on the tilled land, and they instantly spouted. About a half hour later they are fully grown and ready to harvest, which consisted of smacking the plant and exploding it into several piles of seeds and wheat, or multitude of carrots and potatoes which could be planted again right away. Twilight stood and looked over the fields of freshly replanted crops with a small smile on her face. She shifted her bag, it was deceptively light for being packed full of various vegetables. She wandered to one of the windows lining the wall and looked out into the cavern the house was built in, once more marveling at the sheer size of it. She glanced down in thought, ‘This place is really beautiful in its own way, I wonder if I could ever come back and visit from time to time when I make it home?’ She looked back at Steve, ‘For a friend, I would find a way. That’s a promise.’ She looked back out the window; her sight was filled with angry, glaring purple eyes. The skin on its head was black as the deepest night and stretched tightly over the skull. Darkness seemed to roll off of its body in waves as it stared into her soul. The lower half of its face opened impossibly wide, and it screamed.