Welcome to Cubeland

by Zaleros

Flint and Steel

After a quick nap that took up most of the afternoon, I put all the ores that made the furnace work into bars of metal. I knew iron would be for weapons and armor but I wasn’t really sure what good gold would do for me. I was sure I’d heard something about gold being a good conductor for electricity but so far this world only had lightning for electricity so I guessed that it’d just end up being some really fancy looking stuff in the end.

The blue stuff couldn’t really do much but get turned into a big block of the same color so I just put that back away and looked at some of the other stuff I had obtained in the cave.

Checking out the box, I didn’t see much variety in the stuff I’d brought back from the cave. Most of it was just stone, something I could always use to build something nice. That brought me to thinking of some of my ideas I had come up with back at the hive.

I had at a time dreamt of building large structures with towers and such to help with keeping watch around the badlands, but that idea was always scrapped when I brought it up since it would just draw attention to the hive and would hinder our efforts to go unnoticed by the other, less friendly inhabitants of the badlands. I argued the uses of such towers would outweigh the attention they’d likely receive but Chrysalis’s head carpenter didn’t want to build anything that could give us away. He always said something about pooling our efforts for the hive and not on some silly useless thing or something, I usually would walk away from him at that point since he wouldn’t listen anyway. The last time I brought it up I actually received a demotion in the army for “trying to hinder the hive” as they put it. Took quite a bit of effort to get that rank back.

Snapping out of my daydream, that was causing me just a hint of annoyance, I continued looking at the chest like something was supposed to change in the three minutes I had spent just standing there. Nothing did though, but my eyes wandered back to the black block I had looked at before... exploring the cave below the trio’s hideout.

“If I’m right, this should be what they called obsidian,” I said aloud to myself. I stared at it for a few seconds and then the sound of a sheep “baa”ing in the distance snapped me out of whatever trance I kept having when I saw them. That really needed to stop happening and I didn’t even understand why I kept feeling like I wanted to just look at it.

Taking it from the box, I left the house and headed to the cave where the trio was undoubtedly having one of their famous campfire sessions, though there were no campfires that I knew of in this world.

“Hey guys, I think I have something I should have you...” I just stopped as they were no longer in the cave. This seemed kind of strange since they never really left the cave unless they needed to and I couldn’t think of a reason they would need to right now.

I walked around and found them staring into an ocean of water far enough away that I couldn’t even see the lights from my own house. “Hey guys, what’re you doing this far from the cave? I thought something might’ve happened to you.”

“Something did happen Craft,” Creeper quietly spoke up. In my silence he continued, “They have slain another several dozens of our kind today and again we’ve not been able to stop it.”

“How do you know that? You don’t exactly get out very often,” I said, rather confused by this random bit of information.

“We can feel their deaths, we always have been able to and we’re starting to reach our breaking points. All this death and what have they to show for it? They just attack with no real reason and always have.”

I just stood in silence, horrified at this revelation. They knew when they’re friends died, they could feel them die. I fed on emotions and I could always taste the sadness of a pony but the idea of actually feeling another’s death over and over just shattered me.

I sat down next to them and for a few minutes we said nothing. Finally I broke the silence, “Back in my world, my kind is hated. We have a freaky look and steal from others just so we can live on another day. We do our best to disguise ourselves in societies that don’t know what we really are, or at least we did. Most of my kind think only of what is best for our people and keep to the shadows, fearing that our discovery would lead to our demise.”

They listened to me as I continued.

“We’ve always lived a constant life of fear and have hidden ourselves away in the most barren parts of the world. This made us a rather cold race and we’ve mastered the art of deceit just so we can provide for our swarm. Thinking on an individual level has always been discouraged and our queen keeps us on our toes trained as liars and thieves so we can keep surviving. We don’t really live in the sense that others do, in order for us to actually interact with the other races we have to put on a façade that the others will accept just so we can walk among them. They are wonderful when you get to know them, the other races. Especially the Equestrians, the ponies there are so kind, they live life to the fullest and rarely have to feel regret over their actions. They just give and give and all we do is take from them, all while we pretend to be them.” My voice started to rise in anger, “All I’ve ever wanted to do is just live their lives for even a single day but I can’t. I’m not one of them and they would never accept me as I am! They fear my kind because we are monsters!” I beat the ground with my hoof and sat in silence for a few seconds before quietly resuming, tears starting to fall from my face, “We are monsters and I hate it.”

Skeleton put his arm on my shoulder, “Craft, we know the pain you feel. We can’t live in our world without fear of the Players. From what it sounds like, your world is much like ours, a place where we must always hide to stay alive. You told me before that your kind lives off of love. Is that what you meant when you said you had to steal to survive?”

“Yeah,” I said rather dejectedly.

“How exactly do you do that?”

“We pretend to be one of them and over time we just take it.”

“Skeleton, please take Zombie back to the cave, I wish to have a talk with Craft,” Creeper said.

After a few minutes of silence, it was just the two of us and neither of us seemed like we were going to speak.

“Craft, do you regret your actions thus far?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked back, not completely sure what he meant.

“I am referring to anything you’ve had to do to survive in your world.”

“Yeah, I’ve always hated the way we have to live. We’re always stealing from the others and haven’t done anything to better ourselves in their eyes. I’m no exception to it either; I’ve taken their love and fed the hive so we could live on.”

“If you’ve truly felt regret over your actions, are you really a monster?”

I looked at him, somewhat surprised at his words. Looking back at the water I chuckled, “You know you are such a sage at times Creeper.”

“I am glad to hear you open up to us Craft. It was nice hearing about your world, even if it is a cruel place sometimes. Nothing is perfect after all.”

With this he left to go back toward the cave. The sun was starting to rise but I just continued to sit there and think about what Creeper had said. It was true that I regretted my actions but did it really make me any less of a monster than my comrades from the hive? There were few who ever expressed dislike for the way the hive operated and those who had had been brutally beaten until they were close to death and then thrown to the wastelands we chose to hole up in, left there for the beasts to devour them as though they were nothing more than scraps left by a master to his pet.

Eventually I got up and walked back to my house and saw wolves in the area, several of them and they weren’t alone. With them was a single Player, clad in full armor made of diamond.

‘No,’ I thought to myself, ‘Another one is here.’ I hid myself behind a tree and listened to the sounds of barking and saw him go into my house.

“This place is just sad, made of nothing but wood. Good thing wood burns so easily.” He said, leaving my house, laughing the whole time, “What a perfect place for the one who bled my men.” He pulled out an item I hadn’t seen before and moved his arm. Suddenly a corner of my house was set on fire.

I couldn’t take it anymore and ran out there yelling at the top of my lungs, “NOOOOOO!” which caught his attention and as I was about to stab him with my horn he dodged out of the way and wacked me in the back of my head with the butt of his sword.

The attack was spot on and I was slowly slipping out of consciousness when he spoke, “Interesting, that should’ve been enough to kill someone without armor. Looks like you’re going to be interesting.”

His laughter was the last thing I heard before he wacked me once more with his sword, completing his efforts to knock me out.

Author's Note:

Well this didn't take as long as the last couple, sorry about those. I don't think I'm very good at emotional stuff so much but I do think this one turned out rather well. I hope you all enjoyed it, assuming this is the last thing you read, and let me know what you thought of it. I could use some feedback. Also I'm glad to say that stuff will be picking up from here as far as the pace of stuff. The next chapter will have another flashback and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it. This time it shall be a small feel of his visits to the ponies.

Comments

[Changeling-Drone]

0_o must check tags

[Noble Wings]

dun dun dun

[jjrock7H]

I knew iron would be for weapons and armor but I wasn’t really sure what good gold would do for me.

“If I’m right, this should be what they called obsidian,”

I know what you can do with some gold and a block of obsidian.
"Players! Bow down before me, for I have created the Tower of Pimps!" Demanded Craft as he looked over the Players spawn hub. And then they did.
But only until The Mad King claimed his throne again.