Welcome to Cubeland

by Zaleros

Saplings

I had a dream that night, thank Celestia too because it was the closest thing I’ve had to normal since I came here. In the dream I was making a house out of wood, which was actually normal for me as I often would daydream about redoing the hive. Those went along the line of getting rid of the hexagon shape in favor of a simple square shape, it seemed ironic now since I was stuck in this world of cubes and box animals and boxish golems, as well as zombies which still scare the crap out of me but I think I’m getting better since the one I encountered didn’t try to kill me or anything.

Well, I woke up soon after I built my house to the sound of a cow nudging me with its face. I got up and pushed it away, actually I tried to but I guess if I try to use my hooves for anything it’s destructive because the cow ran away after jumping and having mooed like it was in pain or something. I wasn’t really sure what to say about this so I just got up. Then I realized my throat was really, really dry. I forgot to get a drink from the well and now I was paying for it.

I sprinted over in the direction that the village was and saw the golem still guarding the area. With that I moved on and within a few minutes I found a small area that looked like a watering hole. There really wasn’t any way to confirm whether it was safe though without testing it myself since none of the animals appeared to need water, again this world piled weird upon weird. It had animals, weird beings called villagers, and metal golems but nothing drank water here? Why was it here then? I gave into my thirst and just drank the water…I dropped my questions I had about the water because it was cool and quenched my thirst just fine. I made another mental note to myself, the water was just fine to drink.

Having filled myself with water, I realized I had another problem. “Oh crap, I’m going to starve here.” All I had seen so far were animals and villagers and a golem, none of them looked like they were feeling the love I needed to feed on to survive. “Wait a minute,” I said to myself, there wasn’t anypony else around to talk to but I liked hearing something every now and then and it just happened that I was the only one around that could actually talk and wouldn’t try to kill me for being around others. “I’m not in my own world so maybe the rules have changed.” And with this, I began to contemplate how I’d be able to bend the rules of being a changeling.

After a few hours I had no clue what I even thought I was supposed to do and just decided to break down some of those trees I found before. While I walked I noticed there was some more stuff on the ground. I saw arrows, bones, some weird looking meat, and even a few more pieces of whatever that sheep dropped from before. I looked around for another wolf and there it was, splashing around in the water but I just ignored it while I grabbed what I could. Not once so far had I figured out where the buck this stuff was going but I just went with the idea that it simply vanished. I really hoped it wasn’t that though since I could probably find a use for some of it.

Finally I got to the trees past the village, had to make sure that golem didn’t see me, and I started breaking them down. I broke down about fifteen trees before I noticed that the leaves, at least that’s what they looked like, were simply vanishing. Sometimes they dropped what looked like an apple and other times they dropped a smaller tree. I took them and started to laugh, partially from the pain of having nothing else to do and partially from the fact that I was chopping down trees and taking apples and saplings when they showed up. “From my destruction I can create anew, and they aren’t cubes,” I said to myself and I closed my eyes, simply thinking about how I could plant these trees and watch them grow until I chopped them down again for more wood, but what good was that going to do for me? I don’t even know where the stuff was going anyway.

I opened my eyes and started walking back toward that open field I woke up in since the village wasn’t doing me any good and it could have some kind of clue for me. A speck of dust got in my eye so I rubbed it…wait, what was in my hoof? The sheep thing was gone now and in its place was that sapling! Something happened to what I was holding and now I had the tree. This was big, I mean the tree sapling looked small but this discovery actually meant I still had those things I’d been picking up. I thought about what I was doing before and after I noticed the change. The last thing I remember before I noticed the tree in my hoof was that I was beating trees up and taking the blocks, and the apples and saplings and in my hoof was the sheep thing. I thought about the, well to be honest it was the same color as the sheep’s coat so I think it’s safe to say this thing was some wool it dropped, wool and looked at my hoof. The wool was back! “Holy mother of Celestia I think I’ve figured something out about this place.”

Over the course of the day I found out how much fun somepony could have watching stuff appear in their hoof simply because they wanted it to be there. I just thought of something I had and it was there, over and over and over. When I noticed it was night again I decided I should find some real shelter for once and wandered around until I found a cave.

The cave seemed empty and dark, although I expected that much, so I crashed out there for the night. When I woke up the next morning I was greeted by the faces of a zombie, some green thing that looked like it was upset at something and covered in camouflage, and a boney thing on two legs, I think it’s safe to say that thing was a skeleton. I promptly freaked out and ran away, then I heard a voice say “Wait”.

That actually caught me off guard and surprisingly I did just that. I looked behind me and they were just standing there. They looked amongst one another and they all nodded, then the green thing with a permanent frown started moving toward me. I managed to get myself together long enough to prepare another combat stance. It took a minute but the green thing finally caught up to me and just stood there. I stood there, it stood there…nothing was happening. Well, nothing was apparently going to happen so I let myself relax and wondered why it was here.

“We want to talk to you” the green thing said.
I just sat there and it said nothing else so I spoke up, “Um, I uh…who or what are you?” I heard what sounded like a chuckle come from it but its face never changed. Another trend I noticed in this weird world, nothing ever changed apparently, including faces.

“I am called a creeper. My kind have been here since the beginning as well as the zombie, the skeleton, and the spider. We have observed the world and tried to keep it as it is but our world has been plagued by beings called Players.”

“Wait a minute, you can talk?” I realized this was probably a really stupid question, but considering I’ve only been talked to by a metal golem that slapped me harder than that love magic the princess and her groom pulled off back at Canterlot, I was finding it hard to believe that there were things capable of speech without trying to murder me. The silence that followed was pretty awkward and was just getting more so as the seconds passed so I spoke up again. “I mean, can you all talk?” The creeper simply nodded in response. “What about those villagers back there? They didn’t seem too chatty from what I could tell.”

The creeper spoke up again, “Yes, or at least they once did, they have all sworn to silence. Since they came in contact with the Players, they have abandoned our company preferring instead to consort with those Players.” The last part I was sure I heard a tone of hate and sadness.

I knew I was going to hate myself but I agreed to go with the creeper and meet with the zombie and skeleton to hear what they had to say. They couldn’t be any worse than that golem after all, it just spoke and hit me. So far with these three I’ve just been spoken to, and with any luck it would stay that way.

When we arrived, the two others were still sitting in the cave. “Why don’t they leave the cave?”

The creeper was silent for a moment “It is because they will burn and die if the light touches them.” Wow, wasn’t expecting that. So light kills them, that explains why I hadn’t seen them during the day and that zombie only during the night.

Something about what the creeper had said before caught my attention when I thought about what it had said so far. It said that the zombie and skeleton would die in the light, what about it? I suppose since it came out to me in the light it was safe to say light didn’t kill it.

“Can we begin our meeting now?” a new voice spoke up. This one sounded like two bones rubbing against each other if that made any sense, I assumed it was the skeleton “My bones aren’t getting any lighter you know.” Yep, it was in fact the skeleton. Mental note, skeletons talk like bones.

“Brains…Start?” the zombie moaned at the two. Figures the first thing the zombie said was brains, I backed out of the cave for a moment to make sure it wouldn’t chase me and bite my head off but from what I’ve seen so far that probably wasn’t going to happen. Either way, I didn’t want to take the chance.

“Yes, we shall begin.” Over the next couple of hours I listened while they explained their role in the world. From what I got out of it the world was fine at first, there were mountains, rivers, animals, and other nature stuff just existing in peace and quiet. Even the villagers existed just fine with no problems. Then, the Players showed up and started tearing the world apart block by block for their own amusement. The creepers were the first to discover the new life form and found out that being near these Players makes them so overjoyed that they actually exploded. Let me say that again, they exploded…like into nothing, destroying the area nearby and hurting any life in the blast area as well. After this incident the Players labeled them all as monsters.

Monsters…now that was something I knew about being. After all, my kind have always been treated as monsters because unlike other creatures we fed on love. Yes we’ve always pretended to be another pony but that’s because nopony ever wanted to willingly be around something that fed on an emotion for sustenance. They’ve always feared that our kind would suck it from them, bleed them dry of love so to speak. Their fear, not going to lie I think it’s pretty reasonable from their point of view, keeps them from hearing us out when we would try to explain to them that we didn’t want to steal it from them, we just wanted to have some of their love. It’s like if you tried to take somepony’s sandwich that somepony special made for them, we don’t want to take it from them but we do want some of it…wow, when I put it that way I guess we really are a selfish species. You know what, forget the metaphor, the point is we wouldn’t force them to give us their love unless we were truly desperate, hence our ill fated attack on Canterlot.

When I realized they were still talking, it sounded like it was something I didn’t need to pay attention to so I zoned out again. I started thinking about the village and the houses they had in it. I wanted to build a house, even if it was going to be a cube shape. Actually, thinking about it that was what I was going for when I thought about the hive anyway so I’d be able to test how well it looked.

I walked out of the cave and saw several of these monsters roaming the area, even some spiders. I found a patch of ground that was pretty wide and not covered in grass or plants or animals or monsters and thought of how I was going to build my house. I thought of the wood I had gathered and it appeared in my hoof, good thing I mastered the art of item swapping with my mind, not that I figured out how to put stuff down yet. I thought about those saplings again and looked at them and back to the ground. “Stupid tree, why don’t you get off my freaking hoof and get back on the ground.” I punched the ground and almost fell back, the only thing that stopped me was my sense that this was not the weirdest thing I’d likely come across since it already wasn’t the weirdest. The weirdest would probably be the apparently legal murders that wolves commit on a regular basis. I got that nopony would try to stop that golem since it’s a freaking golem but that wolf couldn’t have been that hard to take down. I’d be willing to bet a good stampede would get rid of it but the cows were dumber than a sack of carrots around here and none of the animals seemed to understand anything beyond “I like grass”.

Anyway, I punched the ground and the tree popped up where I had punched it. This was a new one since so far all punching stuff did was break stuff. A new found hope sparked in me and I ran back to the three monsters in the cave to tell them about what I could do.

“Hey! Creeper and friends! Guys, I can put stuff back down after I pick them up! I finally did it!” I yelled happily. Seriously, I needed this, after being stuck in this world for three days I finally had something to show that I was starting to figure out this place. My good news must’ve been better than I thought because they stopped talking and all looked at me and started whispering amongst themselves.

“A player…” “He can’t be…” “But not only can he wield the items…” “We still can’t be sure…” finally they stopped and they approached me, I took a step back because I still hadn’t gotten over the zombie being around. “Show us what you can do, we must see it for ourselves,” the creeper said.

So I did, I placed all the tree saplings I had and to my surprise my hoof was empty. They started whispering again but I was tired of it at this point. “Hey, what’re you all talking about? I heard you in the cave say something about the Players. I thought they were bad, so why are you talking about me like I’m one of them?”

This time the skeleton spoke up…well to be fair the zombie’s tried talking first but all I got from it was ‘brains’ so the skeleton took over. “You can wield items like the Players. None of us have had that power over our world. So we have come to a decision,” they all got closer and said in unison, “We will teach you the ways of the Players so you may fight and keep them from destroying our land forever.” A couple times I heard the zombie moan brains but I tuned that out.

They were going to train me like a Player? Did that mean I’d get to build my own house!? The thought of that made me so happy I started doing a victory dance, something that would’ve gotten me kitchen duty back in Chrysalis’ army but since she wasn’t around to tell me that dancing was stupid I totally went for it.

We decided that my training would start in the morning with the creeper and the others would teach me during the night. With that I went to sleep, thinking of all the different designs I could make once I figured out how to build everything and got the tools I would need. My dreams were happy once more and I dreamed of bird baths and houses. Tomorrow was going to be a good day.

Now if only I could solve my hunger problem…

Author's Note:

Anyone want me to keep track of his items? I'll really do it if you want me to.

Comments

[Changeling-Drone]

hmm

will we be fighting minecraft celebrities?

like yogscast or skydoesminecraft?

[brodash]

if you need any minecraft player names to use you can use my ign is logenhankins if you want I don't care

[Zaleros]

2756479 I actually don't know any real big names other than Notch, I figured if anything I'd make him the players' god or something. It seems pretty fitting since he made the game.

[Changeling-Drone]

2756604

go to youtube and search minecraft

those guys are BOSS

yogscast

sky

[brodash]

2756604 if you need any minecraft player names you can use mine if you want its logenhankins minecraft-skin.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/315.png is my skin and im the ender player

[Journeyman]

2756604
I advice against using Notch as a god, because over 50% of Minecraft fanfictions, not just MLP stories, use that name in that exact context in my experience. Herobrine has also been overused in fanfiction. Be very careful when you namedrop those from the game.

[Zaleros]

2757968 Thanks for the warning, if I end up using him I'll try to do so sparingly or as much as I think I need. I don't intend to make him a real big thing though, he's just gonna be something the Players worship.

[Journeyman]

2758040
The real issue is that most instantly roll their eyes and leave the fic. Have them however you feel comfortable, but beware that the Minecraft fandom has exhausted them about as far as they can go. The trick is to not make them boring.